{"id":39004,"date":"2024-11-04T09:30:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T17:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=39004"},"modified":"2024-11-29T10:48:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T18:48:31","slug":"understanding-wicked-problems-continued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/understanding-wicked-problems-continued\/","title":{"rendered":"Worldwide Wicked Problems Continued\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

My Current Beliefs and Convictions <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Slavery<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

My first exposure to slavery was the story of Hagar in the Old Testament. I watched the acclaimed miniseries Roots<\/em> for a middle school history assignment in 1977, followed by reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Colonialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Beliefs Affirmed and Challenged<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Slavery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slavery: A New Global History<\/em>, 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]<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Black noted that Western interventions following the abolition of slavery in the 1800s reduced slavery elsewhere.[2]<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Colonialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reading Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning<\/em>, by Nigel Biggar, confirmed that colonization was primarily an enterprise for profit.[3]<\/a> 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]<\/a> I’m challenged to look at colonialism through the lens of realism and hold the tension of a both\/and wicked problem.<\/p>\n

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]<\/a> I hear God’s merciful call to discern, forgive, and learn from our fallible human history in these words.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Jeremy Black, Slavery: A New Global History <\/em>(London, UK: Constable & Robinson, 2011), 229.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jeremy Black, Slavery, <\/em>227.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Nigel Biggar, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning <\/em>(Dublin, Ireland: William Collins, 2023), 5.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Nigel Biggar, Colonialism, <\/em>4.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 10-11.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2489,3120,2012],"class_list":["post-39004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-biggar","tag-black","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39004"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39687,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39004\/revisions\/39687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}