Worldwide Wicked Problems Continued…
My Current Beliefs and Convictions
Slavery
I believe slavery is a dehumanizing evil because it deprives human beings created in the image of God of their basic human and universal legal rights that restrict their freedom of movement, self-determination, and dignity. I know slavery comes in many forms, including sexual, chattel, bonded, and forced labor. Slavery has been a wicked problem for centuries. No religion or region escaped participation in the slave trade, given its history in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Some Christians took action against slavery, while others used their faith to justify it.
My first exposure to slavery was the story of Hagar in the Old Testament. I watched the acclaimed miniseries Roots for a middle school history assignment in 1977, followed by reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and stories of the Underground Railroad. I don’t recall any discussions at home or church about slavery. I was troubled while simultaneously feeling removed from it. I naively considered slavery a thing of the past. That belief changed over time. I came face to face with sexual slavery in 1993 when I moved to Phnom Penh and daily encountered women in my neighborhood who were sold by relatives or kidnapped and forced against their will into the sex trade, often trafficked into foreign countries where escape was nearly impossible. I’m still haunted by what I witnessed and grateful for the dangerous work other NGOs did to support and rescue women, young girls, and their children in Cambodia.
Colonialism
My perceptions of colonialism are mixed. Without colonization, I might never have lived in Southeast Asia or benefited from rich cross-cultural experiences and relationships. However, the colonized were often treated shamefully, their land and resources exploited, and their cultures considered inferior. Every Southeast Asian country I’ve resided in has a colonial history. I notice a mix of appreciation, resentment, and negative and positive cultural impacts. While there were benefits to the colonized nations, I’m not convinced colonization was in their best interests. Indonesia was colonized by the Dutch; Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos by the French; and Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Myanmar by the British. Most of these now-independent countries experience good relationships with their colonizers. Most benefited from increased levels of prosperity, education, stability, and to various degrees, improved human rights and introduction to Christianity. These benefits don’t justify colonization, but they are a positive byproduct. Colonization was meant to prosper the colonizers, not to benefit the colonized. It’s my observation that not all colonized nations benefited in terms of democracy and freedom for their citizens. I continue to be ashamed and ignorant regarding the 14 territories the United States controls and wonder how the people, culture, and economy of these territories are impacted.
Beliefs Affirmed and Challenged
Slavery
Slavery: A New Global History, by Jeremy Black, affirmed my understanding of the history of slavery across the world and time, among different people groups, along well-established trade routes, and that various forms of slavery were dictated based on profitability. The most troubling affirmation is how wage slavery is an acceptable form in our modern day and how slavery, sex trafficking, and the exploitation of women and children continue despite our international laws protecting human rights and the prohibition of slavery in all its forms.[1]
I’m challenged to consider what modern-day slavery looks like in the US. Though common in Asia, reports of wage slavery, along with the abuse of domestic and agricultural workers and the withholding of passports or official documentation, surprise me here in the US. It’s more common than I imagined. I wonder how vulnerable migrant populations, refugees, and asylum seekers and their families are impacted.
Black noted that Western interventions following the abolition of slavery in the 1800s reduced slavery elsewhere.[2] However, I know nothing about current US interventions in combating slavery in its modern forms. I’m curious how the US and other foreign powers, including the UN, contribute to the problem. Greater awareness is necessary to develop wise solutions.
Colonialism
Reading Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, by Nigel Biggar, confirmed that colonization was primarily an enterprise for profit.[3] The book deepened my understanding of the connection between colonization, empire, and slavery. The book confirmed my uncomfortable suspicions that there were benefits to colonialism. European Colonialism has ended, but its impact remains. Might we acknowledge that evil was not always or necessarily intended and that some aspects were judged inaccurately? Colonialism, as with slavery, has been around for centuries and was not just a European idea and practice. Colonialism, understood as empire, has existed for centuries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.[4] I’m challenged to look at colonialism through the lens of realism and hold the tension of a both/and wicked problem.
Another challenge is Nigel Biggar’s conceptualization of dignity, “… that all human beings share the dignity of being accountable for the spending of their lives to a God who looks with compassion upon our limitations and burdens.” [5] I hear God’s merciful call to discern, forgive, and learn from our fallible human history in these words.
Anytime people seek to organize and govern themselves, sin and injustice abound, as do good intentions, actions, and concern for humanity. Evil and good reside together; otherwise, all would be evil. God commands us to love our neighbor. Failure to do so is recorded throughout history. Without these histories and moral assessments, we cannot learn from the past or change our ways. Without pausing to reflect and consider, we will repeat the sins of the past. Remembering that good people were always present to create change and take action against the injustices they encountered gives me hope. Whether we like it or not, the long history of colonization and slavery binds us together and presents an opportunity to move us forward to a better future for all.
[1] Jeremy Black, Slavery: A New Global History (London, UK: Constable & Robinson, 2011), 229.
[2] Jeremy Black, Slavery, 227.
[3] Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (Dublin, Ireland: William Collins, 2023), 5.
[4] Nigel Biggar, Colonialism, 4.
[5] Ibid., 10-11.
About the Author
Jenny Dooley
Jenny served as a missionary in Southeast Asia for 28 years. She currently resides in Gig Harbor, Washington, where she works as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Spiritual Director in private practice with her husband, Eric. Jenny loves to listen and behold the image of God in others. She enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family which include 5 amazing adult children, 3 awesome sons-in-law, a beautiful daughter-in-law, and 8 delightful grandchildren.11 responses to “Worldwide Wicked Problems Continued…”
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Jenny,
I appreciate your straightforward response to this incredibly sensitive and wicked problem. As I read your post, I became very curious about your time in Asia as you became aware of women and children who were sold and trafficked against their will. Were you every put in a position to protect someone? Was that against the law?
Your challenge to hold colonization with the tension of a both/wicked problem is well said. Reading your post reminded me that we can get some things wrong as we look back and judge history.
Hi Pam,
When we first arrived in Cambodia the country had only been open for a few months following the Paris Peace Accords in 1992. We arrived in early 1993 to start an NGO while UNTAC was still present. Based on the needs presented we made agreements with the Kingdom of Cambodia to bring aid and expertise to six areas approved by the government but none were to support or serve those trafficked. That was not considered necessary and from what I understand was largely controlled by those close to officials. Other agencies came in but were frequently harassed. A good friend set up a training and half way house during our time that was quite successful.
We moved to the outskirts of the city near the university not realizing we were in between two areas housing sex workers to locals and UN personnel. Many of the children in the neighborhood were those of the sex workers. My encounters were providing a few organized activities, for example a dental clinic, to the children in the area. One day the women in the UN “hotel” came out during the day (which was rare) and saw our gate open and indicated they wanted to come in. They rested for a bit in our yard but we could not communicate with them. They did not speak Khmer or English. I suspect they were from Laos, Myanmar, or Thailand. There were two occasions when the local area was torched so we had to stay up in case of evacuation. I’m grateful that several agencies now work in Cambodia.
My main intervention was prayer. From what I understand our church in Phnom Penh now provides assistance as well.
Hi Jenny,
You wrote, “Colonization was meant to prosper the colonizers, not to benefit the colonized.”
Hawaii, the “Aloha State,” was colonized by the U.S.! In 1993, the U.S. Congress passed the Apology Resolution (Public Law 103-150), acknowledging that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii was illegal and that the Native Hawaiian people never relinquished their claims to sovereignty. While it didn’t change Hawaii’s status, this resolution formally acknowledged the wrongful actions taken.
Sigh…what is done is done, but I wouldn’t be here in this cohort had Hawaii NOT been colonized.
Shalom.
Russell,
Thank you for mentioning Hawaii. That situation is also a sad realization for me. I have only been to Hawaii twice. Once as 19-year old college student wanting to get a little closer to Asia. I spent most of my time taking in the cultural sites rather than the beach. But I was a tourist only seeing half the story. My second trip was about 20-years ago when my husband ministered at a church somewhere on central Oahu. It was a church that ministered to largely the unhoused, low-income, and addicted. It broke my heart. I would love to hear more of how statehood negatively impacted Hawaiians and your thoughts about what the church can do and why.
Hi Jenny,
Hawaii has been called the most beautiful ghetto by the director of the Department of Health. People worldwide started coming to Hawaii and stayed for the beautiful weather (white people or Haoles). Many decided not to work and just lived on the beach (fishing for food and living in tents). Which was possible in the ’60s and ’70s (lots of families did for the summer).
The hippies loved the lifestyle, and marijuana growing became the norm.
Sigh.
Then you had immigrants who were desiring a better life and they worked hard, forced their children to go to school, take self defense classes (of their homeland) and take their language schools. (yup me – the product of an entire culture of helicopter parents).
Spiritually, the Hawaiians still have a pantheon of gods and the word syncretism comes to mind when I think of some missionaries/church planters who came to save the “Hawaiian savages.”
There is a strong resentment toward the children of the missionaries who came to Hawaii. The Spirit of the Lord converted the monarchy, and much land was given as a gift. The second generation of missionaries became business men and started to exploit immigrants on the plantations.
Christianity and the temptation of money. Changed Hawaii.
I have mixed feelings about our colonization.
If President McKinley had not annexed Hawaii in 1897, my identity would be quite different.
Rather than a U.S. Army Officer, missionary, and now doctoral candidate, I would be the subject of the Kingdom of Queen Liliuokalani. (No thanks, by the way.)
Things like colonialism cannot be undone. It happened, and we, the “colonized,” have to push through assimilation/prejudice and victimization.
I, for one, am content to pursue the “American Dream.” My daughter is in the US Air Force Academy, and my son is in the US Army.
As a former colonist, I am content.
Shalom
Jenny, your statement (“Anytime people seek to organize and govern themselves, sin and injustice abound, as do good intentions, actions, and concern for humanity”) made me think of today’s comments in our cohort’s zoom chat regarding Institutions. I believe Jason quoted Alasdair McEntyre (sp?): “Institutions get in the way of good practice,” and yet many significant, culture-shifting good endeavors require institutions. Because humans are both made in the image of God but also full of sin because of the fall, the fruit of their (our) best labors will always be beautiful and broken at the same time. In your work in Southeast Asia, what have you observed to be some of the best attempts / endeavors to organize toward the common good…and yet those same attempts consisting of sin and brokenness?
Hi Travis, I noted that quote as well. I have been thinking about your question since you posted it. My honest answer revolves around missions and I include myself within my comments. Missionaries and the missions agencies and churches that send them are not perfect. We are all human, sinful, and can have both right and wrong motives at the same time. We are also in unfamiliar territory so cultural mistakes are easily made. Good intentions and good institutions do not get it everything right. While the big sins get easily broadcast the little things such as isolation and a western mindset can create some unwanted effects.
In terms of best attempts the big one that comes to mind is in providing aid, both monetary and physical. Money while necessary can create dependency which can become a huge burden to nationals, especially when the money stops. Great things have been financed and are having an impact but it is very complicated and can create challenges down the road. Even bringing in, for example, medical aid is a challenge as governments control that sector and may use it to profit themselves. Never-the-less, whatever aid gets to the people is aid.
Hi Jenny- It can be discouraging to think about humanity’s long history of exploitation, So, I found this particular quote comforting: “Remembering that good people were always present to create change and take action against the injustices they encountered gives me hope. Whether we like it or not, the long history of colonization and slavery binds us together and presents an opportunity to move us forward to a better future for all.” This is a good counter-tension to what can feel depressing. We are, after all – in this wicked problem together- flawed though we may be.
Hi Jennifer, Thank you for the response. It is a strange tension to hold living in a world full of wicked problems knowing that we are both part of the problem and/or impacted by them but also part of the solution. There is redemption and healing available to us all in that. God’s command to love seems so simple and yet so hard. But the solution is found within that command. I’m grateful that God knows first hand the price of living it out, understands the tension and vicious cycle of it all, and that one day all strife will cease.
Jenny,
Thank you for your honest and thoughtful post. I appreciate the reminder of Hagar. I preached on her last year, and I hold her story as a reminder that we are all seen and loved by God.