Next year, 25 March (which is also our wedding anniversary), is planned to be a day when we mark the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery. The act of parliament abolishing slavery became law at noon on March 25th 1806.

March 25th 2007 will be Freedom Day.

I remember becoming infuriated as a teenager when I learned of some of the atrocities that had been committed to other human beings. I also remember crying during Roots which was run on TV, to the disdain and laughter of my parents who were fairly racist in their opinions. I clearly remember at the time that I was glad I lived in a country that had wiped out this vile and inhuman business.

But that is no longer true. Whether this is a new phenomena or not I am unsure but, in reality, I don’t care. The fact is in the UK, in our country, we are seeing slavery again. We are again a country which turns a blind eye to enforced labour. Sometimes it hits the news as with the drowning if the Chinese cockle farmers, but usually it carries on un-noticed, or we try to pretend.

What is our main response? If we go back to the cockle farmers, then one could believe our Great British response is to joke. The jokes about the death of these people were quick and sick! Does that mean as a nation we de-value lives, deny the humanity of others because they are ‘illegals’, or tell ourselves they are not human?

As christians, do we try to pretend that they are not part of the image of God?

If we pretend these people, many of whom have been tricked or dragged here, are in someway sub-human then we do not have to do anything.

But we now know the truth, we know what is going on, and we need to shout about it. This is a rare occasion where we could be proud of our evangelical heritage and join with the great past examples like Wilberforce.

There are new banners on the right of this blog. Stop the Traffick has been there a while, The Truth is not Sexy was added yesterday and Protest 4 I have blogged about before.

None of these sites make nice reading. None of these sites is here to entertain or make us feel good.

Ellen was abducted from Albania and sold to a brothel in London’s west end where she was forced to have sex with up to forty men a day. She was beaten, raped and threatened with death if she tried to refuse. Ellen was 15.
The truth isn’t sexy.

These sites tell the sickening truth, so that we are more aware, so that we can join together, so that we can shout, so that we can not only make a difference … but bring this to an end again.

Ellen is someone’s daughter.
There are countless other sons and daughters enslaved in our country.

Go to the sites, and do what we know we need to do: read, write, campaign, tell others … do something!