It Shouldn’t Happen Here

Hartford, Connecticut, is an unlikely setting for a sex-trafficking ring. If asked, most Americans would probably name some far away third-world country as a more likely place where adults and juveniles could be forced into prostitution through fraud and coercion. Reality check. The U.S. Department of Justice announced last week that nine of the 10 people linked to human trafficking thugs operating out of New England have pleaded guilty for their roles in the crimes.

International sex trafficking is a well-known problem, but tragically, it happens here, too. As a nation of Christians, it is inconceivable that American citizens are being victimized in such a fashion. The United States isn’t a developing country plagued by lawlessness and corruption. There is no excuse for those who turn a blind eye, allowing the despicable crimes associated with modern day slavery to occur.

Worldwide, the selling of women and children is the third most valuable black-market commodity, after weapons and drugs. Sex trafficking is a $12-billion-a-year business. Most of the victims are women and children, including some boys, who are often sold multiple times, while their “owner” takes in tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. To control them, traffickers brutalize, rape, torture and threaten to kill family members of unwilling sex-workers.

The Center for Moral Clarity commends the Department of Justice for making human trafficking prosecutions a top priority. In the last six years, the Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with U.S. attorneys’ offices, has increased by six-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court. It’s worth noting that DOJ obtained a record high number of defendants charged and convicted in human trafficking prosecutions in 2006.

Plenty of organizations have committed to bringing public awareness to the ongoing need for justice across the world. Americans who advocate Christian principles of justice for the oppressed must also look closer to home. Ending human trafficking within the U.S. borders should be a priority for Bible-believing Christians as well as the federal government.

“If we don’t stop playing church, get outside the four walls of the sanctuary and begin modeling the compassion of Christ toward those who are hurting, we’re going to lose this nation,” Pastor Rod Parsley said. “Too much is at stake. Too many innocent lives hang in the balance. Too many freedoms are in jeopardy.”

This means, people have to care about what’s going on at the house down the block. Children of God have a responsibility to be their brother’s keeper. Rather than distancing themselves from neighbors, as has become commonplace in communities across the nation, Christians ought to be looking out for each other.

Source:  www.centerformoralclarity.net

Making Mockery of Christianity

They called it a “drill,” but police in Burlington, N. J., accomplished little more than inciting fear and divisiveness recently when they portrayed “Christian terrorists” during a school-safety exercise. The activity purportedly was designed to prepare students, faculty and administrators for reacting to emergency situations on school property.

So, here’s the scenario they concocted: two angry Christians storm a school and gun down several students. The reason for their rage? The gunmen came to get justice because one of their daughters had been expelled for praying before class. Yeah, right. Can anyone even imagine the fallout if the police had pretended to be gays angry about being denied the privilege of going to the homecoming dance?

Everyone knows that practice makes perfect, which is why emergency exercises should be based on realistic situations. The purpose is to allow those in authority to evaluate plans and procedures. Does anyone believe this is a realistic scenario? Burlington residents should be quivering in their boots right about now, if there is a plan or procedure for taking out Christians in public school hallways.

The characterization of Christians as gun-toting extremists is particularly disturbing. Yes, evangelical students have sought the right to pray, distribute faith-based literature and even sing a song of praise on school campuses. There is no record, however, of Christians taking a public school under seige as a means of securing their constitutional rights.

Youth raised on a steady diet of popular culture instead of the Bible can’t make such a claim. Think back to 1999, when the worst school massacre in U.S. history left 15 dead and 23 wounded at Columbine High School. The first to lose her life was a young lady who proclaimed her faith in God. This is reality.

Those who talk of tolerance are quick to create programs that make homosexuals comfortable and welcome in America’s public classrooms. Apparently, the secular world believes Christians don’t warrant the same compassion or courtesy.

Source:  www.centerformoralclarity.net

Justice Must Be Colorblind

Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a wise and compassionate “conditional pardon” in March, freeing a man sentenced to life imprisonment in 1990 for possession of a marijuana cigarette while he was on probation. No thoughtful person would disregard the seriousness of probation violations, but this case was about much more than a convicted felon’s lapse of judgment.

The governor’s pardon balanced the scales of justice and cast a much-needed spotlight on racial inequities that sometimes result in disparate treatment for people convicted of similar crimes. In this instance, a pardon simply was the only just result.

Last November, the ABC News program “20/20″ documented the case of Tyrone Brown, a black man described as poor and lacking “connections.” As a teenager he was arrested for an armed robbery that netted a $2-booty; a judge sentenced him to probation. When he later violated that second chance by getting caught smoking a joint, the judge tossed him in prison and effectively threw away the key.

The amount of money taken during the robbery is irrelevant. Drawing a weapon on someone and taking their possessions can’t go unpunished in a civilized society. Likewise, a man on probation has no businesses toking weed or using any other controlled substance. The problem is that this particular judge, Keith Dean, did not dole out the same degree of harshness in sentencing all defendants who appeared before him.

During the 17 years that Brown spent in prison before his release March 16, another man with a more dangerous criminal history went on with his life, spared from incarceration. Consider how Alex Wood, a wealthy white man related to an eight-term congressman, was treated in Dean’s courtroom.

In 1995, Wood pleaded guilty to shooting an unarmed man in the back, killing him. Under the terms of a plea bargain, Wood was given 10 years of probation and served no time behind bars. A short while later, he tested positive for using cocaine. Prosecutors wanted the judge to revoke Wood’s probation, but he did not.

Twice more, urine tests exposed the convict’s crack cocaine use. Eventually, one of his high-profile lawyers persuaded the judge to convert Wood’s probation to “postcard” terms, meaning all he had to do was write the court once a year. Meanwhile, Tyrone Brown languished in a state penitentiary.

After news media criticized the disparity – and obvious racial inequity – voters responded by removing Dean from the bench.

“Despite the fact that slavery was ended a century and a half ago, and the battles for civil rights were decided 50 years ago, there is still a horrible disparity between blacks and whites in America,” said Pastor Rod Parsley.

Gov. Perry’s pardon established justice, not only in the Texas courts but also in God’s eyes. Christians are morally obligated to obliterate racism in society. It’s been said that laundry ought to be the only thing separated by color. If the 82 percent of the American population who proclaim belief in God seriously espoused the biblical distain for racism, it would transform the nation.

Source:  www.centerformoralclarity.net