Where does this stuff come from? It comes from sensory deprivation. It comes from turning down all the volume knobs to the one setting—or somewhere between zero and one—on everything, so I can actually hear myself think and I can actually poke around inside myself.

~ Jonathan Franzen in an interview with A.V Club

Recently I’ve been reading ‘A Crime So Monstrous‘ by E. Benjamin Skinner. It’s a captivating look into the nature of the modern slave trade (AKA Human Trafficking) around the world.

Skinner’s research is very practical. He travels to places under cover, arranges to meet with a trafficker, and organizes to buy a person. During the book he also meets with various politicians and NGO staff, as well as parents whose children have been abducted.

Some of the things that Skinner discovers as he travels are shocking, especially where concerned with organizations who are perceived to be doing good. He notes that in southern Sudan, where research has shown there are around 11,000 people missing due to slavery, there is a Christian organization called Christian Solidarity International (CSI) who claim to have freed more than 80,000 slaves. It seems that the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (who are fighting for freedom from the North) have been using CSI’s ‘redemption’ process as a means to fund their troops through the use of fake slaves.

While in Haiti he comments:

Locals say that the main contribution of the peacekeepers to Haiti’s economy comes via the brothels

In other words those we expect to fulfill roles of integrity: keeping peace, dealing with injustice, tackling poverty; are actually propagating the problem.

Reading this convinces me that we have to do something to fight this injustice. There is nothing noble about celebrating the life of abolitionists like William Wilberforce without addressing the fact that today there are more people in slavery than at any other moment in history.

Name: Jonathan Joel Morgan
Date of Birth: 19th December 1982
Height: 5’11½
Dietary requirements: Vegetarian
Myers Briggs type: ENFJ

Favourite things:
Taking photographs. A good book. Moral philosophy. Mountain biking. Fair trade. The Kingdom of God. Music. Friends. Candles. Good food. A nice, full-bodied acoustic guitar with a natural finish and Martin SP strings. Good coffee.

Up to…
Having completed my Law and Politics degree and an internship at Bristol Vineyard I’m living in Malmö, Sweden, designing websites and figuring out what it means to follow Jesus. In January I move to South Africa to learn some more about community development and serving the world poor. If you’re interested in what becomes of me, keep an eye on this blog…

Films (in no particular order)
1. Fight Club
2. Lost in Translation
3. Kill Bill (I and II)
4. Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
5. Crash
6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
7. Garden State
8. Good Will Hunting
9. American Beauty
10. North by Northwest

Albums (in no particular order)
1. Rage Against the Machine – Self Titled
2. Tool – Aenima
3. The Postal Service – Give Up
4. Beastie Boys – Ill Communication
5. Ryan Adams – 29
6. Counting Crows – Recovering the Satellites
7. Fugazi – The Argument
8. Radiohead – Kid A
9. Queens of the Stoneage – Songs for the Deaf
10. Ben Folds Five – Whatever and Amen
11. The Getup Kids – Something to Write Home About
12. Foo Fighters – Self Titled
13. Ben Harper – Welcome to the Cruel World
14. The Dismemberment Plan – Change

Books (in no particular order)
1. Richard Foster – Celebration of Discipline
2. Dallas Willard – The Divine Conspiracy
3. Nick Hornby – About a Boy
4. Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Carol Wimber – The Way It Was
6. George Eldon Ladd – The Gospel of the Kingdom
7. Henri Nouwen – The Way of The Heart
8. NT Wright – The Challenge of Jesus
9. Michel Foucault – Discipline and Punish
10. Douglas Coupland – Hey Nostradamus

Today I’ve been reading some Hayek. Talk of Laissez Faire economies and the state taking a less interventionist approach. The question came into my mind: “would the church be more effective in an environment where the government weren’t expected to provide everything?” I hear so many people say “the homeless are the state’s responsibility…” etc. I can’t find a reference for that anywhere in my Bibe’. Do we spend so much time thinking about politics that we fail to take an active role in real life?

I had a hard few days early last week – I was turning questions over and over in my mind and wasn’t coming across people to whom I could ask such questions…so I posted this blog and made the resolution that if I start getting like that again I will pray first, remember to ask someone and then leave it with them. You know sometimes I feel daunted arriving on the site of a ‘post modern’ blog wondering if what I’m going to say will be something that they’ve discussed long in advance. I guess my initial introduction to the dreaded P word has been through being a 20 year old. Then I chat with 50 year olds who are grappling with it on a far more intellectual level and I worry that I can’t help them because I haven’t had all the years to read all the books…