The Musings 23 by Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla
Read: Luke 4: 18-20, John 8: 1-11
Finally the curtains have come down on Super Bowl and fans of Baltimore
Ravens are happy that they are the champions. Last week we saw countless of
fans descending in the city of New Orleans to watch the much-awaited Super Bowl
final. Yesterday it was party time in most of the houses and in most of the
cities especially in New Orleans. However, as preparations for Super Bowl final
was being planned and reviewed, and as people from all corners of this
nation descended in New Orleans, a group named Shared Hope International was
also working along with the organizers of Super Bowl. But they were working on
a different level and had a different objective in mind. More than the game in
mind, their mind was on something different. The issue of Human
Trafficking during the Super Bowl. According to organizers who are
working against human trafficking, major sporting events like Super Bowl,
Olympics and Word Cup are increasingly becoming avenues of sex trafficking and
child prostitution. It is believed that more than 10,000 sex workers were
brought in to Miami for the 2010 super bowl, while in 2011 Super Bowl in
Dallas; there were more than 133 prostitution related arrest. What Shared
Hope International was doing the 2013 super bowl event was an online advocacy
among more than 12 million Super Bowl related post during the game. The
method of advocacy was encouraging fans and other viewers to share their
concern about human trafficking in Facebook or Twitter. The objective of Shared
Hope International is to educate, equip and empower men to fight against human
trafficking and sex industry and protect families. What happens in big sporting
events is that criminal gangs and rings come together and operate the human
trafficking racket. But why does such huge sporting events become a place for
the exploitation and abuse of woman and girls. As millions of people
flock to these sporting events like super bowl, or other events like world cup,
men come with the concept of having some fun. The need to enjoy, party, drink
and have fun. That is why sometimes during major soccer matches in the World
Cup you have the police fighting with the unruly crowds who has gone berserk,
gone berserk not only because of the passion for the game, but taking the
passion for the game and also fun associated to the event to violent
celebrations. In fact it is this concept of fun that the sex trafficking
industry exploits during sporting events, whereby prostitution is encouraged
subtly thus resulting to an increased case of exploitation of woman and girls. What
is tragic about the whole incidence of exploitation of woman and girls is that
they are often clubbed along with alcoholic drinks that needs to be enjoyed as
you watch and enjoy games. It is sickening to note that woman become a
commodity just like a bottle of alcoholic drinks to be enjoyed, an object that
could be manipulated, degraded or could be used only as a tool for the
enjoyment of men. Just as Shared Hope International is bringing about awareness
of human trafficking at big sporting events, what is also needed is that this
awareness also has to be worked out at grass root levels too, like school,
family, and other social institution. The need to respect woman as person,
upholding her dignity, ending all forms of abuse and exploitation and thus working
for community where the identity and individuality of both men and woman is
respected.
One of the focus and the objective of the ministry of Jesus
Christ was not only empowering woman, but also critiquing the existing concepts
that was prevalent in the society, especially with regards to woman, children
and others who were relegated from the main frame of the society. Both the
process of empowerment and critiquing the existing discriminatory concepts and
laws with regards to women is what brought about liberation to woman and the
other exploited class of people. In Like 4: 18, we find Jesus proclaiming in
the synagogue that " The Spirit of the Lord is on me .......He has sent me
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to
release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of Lord's favor. Here is Jesus
Christ affirming that He has come to this world to bring about a society, a
reign of God where no human being will be exploited on the basis of their
gender, their handicaps nor on the basis of their social class. Here is Jesus
Christ strongly bringing in the message that in God's kingdom every human being
will be affirmed, respected and each one will have a rightful place. There is
no hierarchy in this kingdom. It is this understanding that Jesus bring when
Pharisees bring to his presence a woman who was caught in adultery [ John
8:1-11]. Here Jesus deals the issue not only about adultery but also the issues
related to the case of an exploited woman. When Pharisees brought the woman to
the presence of Jesus Christ, they were supposedly standing on high moral
grounds. It was the woman who was a sinner, while they who were teachers
of the law were blameless and they wanted Jesus Christ to punish the woman for
the sins she committed. Here the exploited and abused is to be punished again
while the exploiters and the abusers were roaming free and also still holding
high position in the society. When Jesus refuses to condemn the woman, he was
communicating a message to the Pharisees that He stands for justice for the
exploited and condemnation for the exploiters and abusers. Here is Jesse not
only empowering the woman to live a life free from sin, but he also critiques
the Pharisees with regards to their lopsided understand of the law. A law
interpreted in such a way that woman and other ordinary and common people
were exploited and abused in the name of morality and upholding of the tenets
of law. What is needed today in our society and in our thinking is upholding
both concepts that Jesus preached. Hence we have consciously affirm and respect
every individual so that we become agents of empowerment especially in the life
of woman and girl child. At the same time be a part of the liberating forces
whereby we can participate in bringing the reign of God in this world, where
there is no form of exploitation or abuse because of ones gender or
class. It is when each one of us could grow in this understanding, will our
sporting events become events that encourages only sports and not becoming
venues of human trafficking and exploitation and abuse of woman.