The JAMMED

They were able to recover some of the stuff from my hard drive so as promised....

So we went to go watch a movie today, The Jammed, about sex trafficking in Melbourne. Wow. This entry is going to be interesting as I try to explain my thoughts that are laced with emotions ranging from sad to angry, blessed, frustrated, overwhelmed, ashamed, and guilty. There are so many theological questions rattling through my mind on top of that as well.

The essential premise of the movie is that three girls from foreign countries are told that by coming to Australia they can earn a new life for their family. Only when they get here they become prostitutes and are told that they owe $50,000 each to the man who brought them over and they have to pay him back by pleasuring men. As the story unfolds your heart aches, wrenching inside of your body. These women are raped, beaten, emotionally belittled, caged, and degraded. One of the woman was even sold into this life by her mother and father because they have a huge debt to pay off.

Ironically, in PoMo the night before we had talked about Foucout and “Power is Knowledge” and displays of power in society. As I watched the movie all I could think about was the power that we give the government, willingly and submissively as we don’t care about the struggles of our brothers and sisters. We don’t hold the government accountable or even really care about their actions feeling that they will handle the “terrible people” of this world (which as a side note I sort of went off on the Prof about placing claims on who is terrible and who isn’t). At the end of the movie, one of the girls is locked up in detention and isolation, overpowered by the “civil servants agents” trying to rape her off her last ounce of dignity, and caged up like a criminal. In fact, all they could talk about was how she was an illegal immigrant and needed to go away. Go away to what? What life does she even have left? What hope?

Who gets to deem what is considered to be political asylum? It seems that only if the public at large is aware of the plight of your country (which better be a civil war or genocide type of situation) the government considers your tale to be worth staying. Thus we are determining who is Worthy of our “generosity” of opening up our country. Since when do we actually own a county? What if we reclaimed the view that everything and everyone is God’s? Seriously. Take a minute to think about that. This is part of the reason why I am so strictly opposed to the building of the wall. Ownership by people and countries is just a mere illusion.

It also frustrates me that all too often we as the church pick and choose who we will help. We turn away the addicts and the prostitutes and say that they CHOOSE their lifestyle so they really shouldn’t need our help while making plenty of room in our pews and hearts for the arrogant and prideful. Maybe it’s because they have larger checkbooks. Opppss….did I really just say that?

And where is the church at in this situation? I mean I guess World Hope is trying to deal with the issue, but on a whole we are blissfully and deliberately ignorant. Does God forgive us when we choose to be ignorant because it isn’t worth our time to know about situations that don’t immediately impact us like I don’t know – human trafficking, ONE, Fair Trade, Homelessness, Child Labor Violations, No Sweat, and Foreign Policy decisions that effect other countries just to name a few. Or is God angrier at those who are informed and just don’t care – like the people who pretty much cheerily left the theater tonight to get coffee while Shane and I were so impacted that we literally could not move. Where is the compassion? Where is the LOVE? And at what point did we decide that church was all about teaching Jesus instead of acting like Jesus? Why did we stop looking towards the things that Jesus cared about – people, and meeting them in their holistic needs, not just spiritual. I was watching a movie with Shannon the other day about NZ women preacher pioneers and they ALL preached and had special ministries that touch their hearts. Where has this gone? We are so concerned with the ABCs and Business Model of church that we stopped BEING the church. Yes, Jesus saves but he also touches, interactions with, and humanizes (instead of missionalizing).

Shane made a great point after the film that it made everything else in our life and day seem so trivial. I think God delights in the trivial. He has given us the little things in our life for enjoyment. But that doesn’t absolve me of being aware of something bigger then myself. To reach out towards something bigger. To touch the lives of my brothers and sisters with the message that they are LOVED and WORTHY. I sometimes wonder why I am here, in Australia, with 23 professing Christians who are complaining about such stupid things. Where is our heart at? Is it selfishly pointed inward all of the time, or does it look out? Where are you looking?

“Girl America’s crying when she’s lying on her bed tonight. And I can see that’s screaming when she’s dreaming for freedom. Girl America’s dying while she’s trying just to stop this fight. Don’t stop trying. Girl America.” – Mat Kearney