To seek and save the lost: human trafficking and salvation schemas among American evangelicals

Abstract

American evangelicals have a history of engagement in social issues in general and anti-slavery activism in particular. The last 10 years have seen an increase in both scholarly attention to evangelicalism and evangelical focus on contemporary forms of slavery. Extant literature on this engagement often lacks the voices of evangelicals themselves. This study begins to fill this gap through a qualitative exploration of how evangelical and mainline churchgoers conceptualize both the issue of human trafficking and possible solutions. I extend Michael Young's recent work on the confessional schema motivating evangelical abolitionists in the 1830s.Through analysis of open-ended responses to vignettes in a survey administered in six congregations I find some early support for a contemporary salvation schema. It is this schema, I argue, that underpins evangelicals' framing of this issue, motivates their involvement in antislavery work, and specifies the scope of their critique. Whereas antebellum abolitionists thought of their work in national and structural terms contemporary advocates see individuals in need of rescue. The article provides an empirical sketch of the cultural underpinnings of contemporary evangelical social advocacy and a call for additional research.

Modern slavery and the supply chain: the limits of corporate social responsibility?

“…For example, Bernstein (2014) describes the way in which some -perhaps well-meaning -campaigns about sex-trafficking tend to focus more on the melodrama of victimhood than rectifying the economic conditions which deprive women of choices; furthermore, concerns about slaves and trafficking can be a convenient mask for other agendas such as border control, the application of particular kinds of sexual morality and "policing the domestic underclass". Similar thoughts arise in relation to the "rescue rhetoric" which appears to play a role in some religiously motivated anti-trafficking activity (Choi-Fitzpatrick, 2014), and in the way in which public concern about the issue leads to a "heroic" position: because slavery is such an evil, my highly publicised stand against it is assurance of my moral value (Haynes, 2014;Steele and Shores, 2014). On the other hand, my public concern about these people might be inconsistent with my disdain for those same people, if they happen not to fit neatly with my model of "victim".…”

Missionary, citizen, and consumer: Evangelical American child sponsorship and humanitarian marketing in the 1950s and 1960s

“…Enduring cultural schemas identified in other studies of evangelical and American social engagement, such as responding to human trafficking (Choi‐Fitzpatrick, 2014) and advocating for global adoptions (Choy, 2013, 77; Perry, 2017), emphasize individual change through rescue and saving. Choi‐Fitzpatrick (2014) argues that the salvation schema has a long history in evangelical social movements and theologies in America, including during the abolitionist movement.…”

The God School: Informal Christian Education and Emerging Aspirations Among De Facto Stateless Children Living in Cambodia

“…After the time of the Khmer Rouge (1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979) many international NGOs came to Cambodia intending to assist its people and help rebuild a country in ruins (Brinkley 2011), bringing mixed results. Included in the list of 'helpers' were Christian missionaries (Choi-Fitzpatrick 2014). The God School is one of many evangelical Christian NGOs that I encountered in Cambodia, but significantly, it focuses on serving excluded Vietnamese populations.…”