By Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick

SLAVERY STILL EXISTS. If YOU'VE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION OVER THE LAST FEW years, you'll have noticed this theme cropping up again and again. It started like a low rumble coming from human rights advocates, humanitarian workers, and missionaries the world over. A resurgence of a very, very old sort of exploitation was taking place among those least able to defend themselves. People at the margins of the economy, whether the global economy or their own village economy, were forced to do work with little or no pay and unable to leave because of violence and fear. That's what slavery is: forced work, no pay, and violence.

If you've been paying attention you've noticed that this issue takes an astounding number of forms: human trafficking, forced prostitution, bonded labor, forced marriage, forced conscription into armies ... the list goes on, checked only by the limits of human imagination. These horrible things are happening to children, men, women--anyone caught in the fissures and gaps of an economy with nobody looking after them. And then there are the numbers: 27 million held in slavery worldwide, tens of thousands right here in the United States.

I've been working on this issue for years now and will be the first to admit that this steady stream of statistics and stories is bleak. But I've got to tell you about what else I've been seeing--something beyond slavery. Flashes of hope. Glimpses of freedom. I work for an organization called Free the Slaves. The more we learn the more we're convinced that complex problems require ambitious solutions. And these solutions must get us all thinking about slavery in terms of freedom.

We recently released a book (Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves), written by sociologist and Free the Slaves president, Kevin Bales, that sketches this ambitious solution. We believe it's going to take a mass movement of people standing up against slavery. People like you and me. It's also going to take governments enforcing their laws against slavery. And it will take corporations that have the courage to take a hard look at their supply chains, removing slavery wherever they find it. International groups like the UN and non-governmental organizations have a role too, building infrastructure for large-scale anti-slavery work. We think that together we can end slavery in twenty-five years. The book's most important contribution is that it opens a window into a world in which each of us has a role to play.

So lately, I've been asking myself: What's the role of faith communities in all of this? My search for answers has broadened my horizons and gladdened my spirit. In thinking about slavery and abolition, Christianity comes immediately to mind. The relationship isn't a clean one. Many a theological battle was waged before the notion of freedom for the enslaved took root in Christian consciousness. In fact, broader ideas of freedom were slow to catch on, as lauded abolitionist William Wilberforce painfully displayed when he said that "taught by Christianity, [freed slaves] will sustain with patience the sufferings of their actual lot... [and] will soon be regarded as a grateful peasantry" (Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains).

And yet, there they were, Christians leading the last anti-slavery movement (and a few rebellions) some 200 years ago. In retrospect it may seem natural that the church would get involved in this effort. But it's important to remember what else the church was doing at the time. The church was also busy using the Scripture to defend slavery. The sociologist Christian Smith has pointed out that the "worldviews, moral systems, theodicies, and organizations of religion can serve not only to legitimate and preserve, but also to challenge and overturn social, political, and economic systems."

So who was doing the challenging and overturning? Who had the gumption to stand up against slavery when it was at its zenith? We must remember that the slave trade was one of the most significant industries in the global economy. It was backed by religious leaders and economic elites. And who stood up to say, "let's do away with a principle engine of the world economy because it's the right thing to do"?

It was people of faith. A handful with the courage to draw on the very best of their prophetic tradition and articulate a vision of freedom.

Sounds great! So who all's got this vision of freedom? Just Christians? The Buddhist tradition forbids the trading of weapons and people. Within Islam the Prophet Mohammed was fierce in his denunciation of slavery. His statement that "There are three categories of people against whom I shall myself be a plaintiff on the Day of Judgment. Of these three, one is he who enslaves a free man, then sells him and eats this money" echoes into the present. Within Hinduism a vibrant freedom movement is challenging the caste system and the slavery it supports. The Jewish faith has brought us one of the most significant narratives of emancipation: the Exodus of Jews out of enslavement.

In fact, abolitionist movements have been happening within religious movements for thousands of years. Wang Mang, the Buddhist Chinese Emperor, may have been the first powerful abolitionist. He outlawed the slave trade in 9 CE, some 2000 years ago. Beginning in the eleventh century the Ismaili Muslim Druzes sect began criticizing slavery. They were also a leading voice in the call for abolition in the middle of the twentieth century. The nineteenth century reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan has been called "the Islamic William Wilberforce." Hindu social workers, journalists, and doctors were at the forefront of the effort to end the practice of devadasi, or temple prostitution. In 2000 the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism signed a statement which reads: "Human trafficking destroys someone's spirit, displaces them from their community, and creates wounds that will never heal." The Free Methodists recently issued a declaration against slavery, their ninth since 1797. The Church of the Brethren's 2007 resolution states: "We confess our complicity in the global network of slavery through consumption of goods and services that have been produced by slave labor."

It is with these prophetic voices in mind that we can begin to ask ourselves: What would a radically interfaith movement against modern slavery look like? What tools, traits, and traditions do each of the world's religions bring to the table when it comes to this historic work? Think about it: for thousands of years individuals and small groups of reformers have been asking themselves these questions about their own faith. Can you imagine the courage it took them to blend faith in action for the purpose of cultural transformation?

I'm firmly convinced that this is exactly what we need--faith in action--an interfaith abolitionist movement linking people of all faiths together as they take action against slavery and for freedom. Sound unlikely? In fact, the struggle to end slavery has already resulted in unlikely alliances. Secular feminists have joined with stalwart evangelicals to pass landmark legislation on this issue. Both communities regularly contribute to the growing awareness that trafficking for sexual exploitation simply shouldn't exist.

What's needed now is unprecedented: an even broader movement of believers from all walks of life and from all faiths. These are historic times, and a world free from slavery is within reach. This effort will only be successful when we work together from the best of our respective traditions, from the highest expressions of our faith. Together we can ensure that our children live in a world free from slavery. So let's get started. Against slavery, for freedom. Today.

Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick is the National Outreach Coordinator at Free the Slaves where he directs Faith in Action, an interfaith initiative against slavery and trafficking. Learn more at www.freetheslaves.net or by emailing faith@freetheslaves.net.