The prominence of religious groups, religious motifs, and religious and theological claims in the... more The prominence of religious groups, religious motifs, and religious and theological claims in the anti-trafficking movement is useful for exploring how social movements are shaped by religious actors and claims and, in turn, use religion in the process of creating social change. The anti-trafficking movement can be situated in relation to three key previous social movements: the 18th–19th-century abolition movement that sought to abolish chattel slavery, the 19th–20th-century anti-white slavery campaigns of the social purity movement that sought to eliminate prostitution, and the late 20th-century movement that sought to address Christian persecution through promoting religious freedom. By highlighting the way that the anti-trafficking movement draws on and extends the moral claim-making of each of these social movements, these earlier movements are revealed as shaping the social movement ecology out of which the contemporary anti-trafficking movement emerges and in which it functio...
Persistent racial disparities in antitrafficking in the US reflect the antitrafficking movement’s... more Persistent racial disparities in antitrafficking in the US reflect the antitrafficking movement’s reliance on a moral economy of purity and blamelessness that is steeped in White supremacy. I deconstruct two key strands of this moral economy: the middle-class economic values associated with the Protestant ethic, and the patriarchal, Christian values around gender and sexuality associated with purity culture. Both of these strands skew White and fail to work reliably for Black people. Constructively, I argue that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is an important model for the antitrafficking movement as it models the explicit rejection of and divests from the logics and practices of White supremacy. As a Black-centered political movement that is committed to resisting the unjust dehumanization of Black bodies, BLM’s responses to systemic injustice and harms consistently prioritize the well-being of Black lives and the flourishing of Black communities. I elaborate specific ways th...
As human trafficking gained visibility as a human rights issue, Christians have been prominent pl... more As human trafficking gained visibility as a human rights issue, Christians have been prominent players in the global anti-trafficking movement.[i] Yet not everything that religious organizations, faith communities and faith-based groups have done in the name of ‘helping’ victims of trafficking is morally laudable or ethically acceptable. Proselytization of survivors by religious and faith-based service providers as a condition of ‘rescue’ or receiving services is one set such set of unethical rescue-practices. This paper presents a draft five-point Code of Conduct for religious institutions and groups that work with survivors of human trafficking that is modeled after the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct for NGO disaster response work.[ii] The purpose of the Code of Conduct is to prevent religious commitment and identity from being yet another site of coercion and manipulation that trafficking survivors must endure. A set of points of principle to which all religious and faith-based agencies, organizations and programs should adhere in their work with survivors of human trafficking, the Code of Conduct complements recognized best practices of anti-trafficking work by increasing the accountability of service providers through articulating clear standards to which trafficking survivors have the right to expect that those who seek to assist them will adhere. The Code of Conduct affirms religion as a deeply held human value and religious identity as central to how many individuals understand themselves. Precisely because religious identity is both central to individual identity and malleable (and hence susceptible to coercion), religion is among those human goods that deserves protection. [i] See generally, Allan D. Hertzke, Hertzke, Freeing God\u27s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004); Yvonne C. Zimmerman, Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex and Human Trafficking (NY: Oxford University Press, 2013). [ii] d’Estrée, Claude and Yvonne Zimmerman. “Code of Conduct for Religious Institutions, Faith Communities, and Faith Communities for Their Work with Survivors of Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery,” Denver: Human Rights Clinic, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, 2011. http://humantraffickingclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CodeofConduct2.pdf. See, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (Geneva, Switzerland: 1994). http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/idrl/I259EN.pdf
Acknowledgements Introduction: Gender, Sex and Religion in U.S.-- American Anti-Trafficking Activ... more Acknowledgements Introduction: Gender, Sex and Religion in U.S.-- American Anti-Trafficking Activism 1. Trickle Down 2. Standing on the Premises: Theology and Religion in the Bush Administration's Anti-Trafficking Project 3. Theological Foundations of Moral Imagination 4. Cultural Foundations of Moral Imagination 5. Bad Sex Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
This analysis of how the Bush administration brought religious and theological language to bear o... more This analysis of how the Bush administration brought religious and theological language to bear on the issue of human trafficking suggests that while the recourse to theological language appeared to highlight the imperative for decisive anti-trafficking measures, this strategy actually entailed policies that are inimical to ending trafficking violations. Zimmerman analyzes how the Bush administration used religious rhetoric to legitimate introducing to the United States’ anti-trafficking policies a sexual ideology that turns on a delegitimation of all nonmarital sexual activity, and the paradoxical effects that have been wrought on anti-trafficking efforts by this recourse to religious rhetoric. The article concludes by offering a set of recommendations for how the Obama administration can begin to reorient U.S. anti-trafficking policies away from their current preoccupation with moral impropriety toward promoting and protecting human rights.
The Companion to Public Theology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays by an international g... more The Companion to Public Theology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays by an international group of scholars that provides a foundation for public theology as well as engagement with a wide range of public issues in dialogue with other disciplines.
The prominence of religious groups, religious motifs, and religious and theological claims in the... more The prominence of religious groups, religious motifs, and religious and theological claims in the anti-trafficking movement is useful for exploring how social movements are shaped by religious actors and claims and, in turn, use religion in the process of creating social change. The anti-trafficking movement can be situated in relation to three key previous social movements: the 18th–19th-century abolition movement that sought to abolish chattel slavery, the 19th–20th-century anti-white slavery campaigns of the social purity movement that sought to eliminate prostitution, and the late 20th-century movement that sought to address Christian persecution through promoting religious freedom. By highlighting the way that the anti-trafficking movement draws on and extends the moral claim-making of each of these social movements, these earlier movements are revealed as shaping the social movement ecology out of which the contemporary anti-trafficking movement emerges and in which it functio...
Persistent racial disparities in antitrafficking in the US reflect the antitrafficking movement’s... more Persistent racial disparities in antitrafficking in the US reflect the antitrafficking movement’s reliance on a moral economy of purity and blamelessness that is steeped in White supremacy. I deconstruct two key strands of this moral economy: the middle-class economic values associated with the Protestant ethic, and the patriarchal, Christian values around gender and sexuality associated with purity culture. Both of these strands skew White and fail to work reliably for Black people. Constructively, I argue that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is an important model for the antitrafficking movement as it models the explicit rejection of and divests from the logics and practices of White supremacy. As a Black-centered political movement that is committed to resisting the unjust dehumanization of Black bodies, BLM’s responses to systemic injustice and harms consistently prioritize the well-being of Black lives and the flourishing of Black communities. I elaborate specific ways th...
As human trafficking gained visibility as a human rights issue, Christians have been prominent pl... more As human trafficking gained visibility as a human rights issue, Christians have been prominent players in the global anti-trafficking movement.[i] Yet not everything that religious organizations, faith communities and faith-based groups have done in the name of ‘helping’ victims of trafficking is morally laudable or ethically acceptable. Proselytization of survivors by religious and faith-based service providers as a condition of ‘rescue’ or receiving services is one set such set of unethical rescue-practices. This paper presents a draft five-point Code of Conduct for religious institutions and groups that work with survivors of human trafficking that is modeled after the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct for NGO disaster response work.[ii] The purpose of the Code of Conduct is to prevent religious commitment and identity from being yet another site of coercion and manipulation that trafficking survivors must endure. A set of points of principle to which all religious and faith-based agencies, organizations and programs should adhere in their work with survivors of human trafficking, the Code of Conduct complements recognized best practices of anti-trafficking work by increasing the accountability of service providers through articulating clear standards to which trafficking survivors have the right to expect that those who seek to assist them will adhere. The Code of Conduct affirms religion as a deeply held human value and religious identity as central to how many individuals understand themselves. Precisely because religious identity is both central to individual identity and malleable (and hence susceptible to coercion), religion is among those human goods that deserves protection. [i] See generally, Allan D. Hertzke, Hertzke, Freeing God\u27s Children: The Unlikely Alliance for Global Human Rights (NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004); Yvonne C. Zimmerman, Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex and Human Trafficking (NY: Oxford University Press, 2013). [ii] d’Estrée, Claude and Yvonne Zimmerman. “Code of Conduct for Religious Institutions, Faith Communities, and Faith Communities for Their Work with Survivors of Forced Labour, Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery,” Denver: Human Rights Clinic, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, 2011. http://humantraffickingclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CodeofConduct2.pdf. See, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), The Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief (Geneva, Switzerland: 1994). http://www.ifrc.org/Docs/idrl/I259EN.pdf
Acknowledgements Introduction: Gender, Sex and Religion in U.S.-- American Anti-Trafficking Activ... more Acknowledgements Introduction: Gender, Sex and Religion in U.S.-- American Anti-Trafficking Activism 1. Trickle Down 2. Standing on the Premises: Theology and Religion in the Bush Administration's Anti-Trafficking Project 3. Theological Foundations of Moral Imagination 4. Cultural Foundations of Moral Imagination 5. Bad Sex Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
This analysis of how the Bush administration brought religious and theological language to bear o... more This analysis of how the Bush administration brought religious and theological language to bear on the issue of human trafficking suggests that while the recourse to theological language appeared to highlight the imperative for decisive anti-trafficking measures, this strategy actually entailed policies that are inimical to ending trafficking violations. Zimmerman analyzes how the Bush administration used religious rhetoric to legitimate introducing to the United States’ anti-trafficking policies a sexual ideology that turns on a delegitimation of all nonmarital sexual activity, and the paradoxical effects that have been wrought on anti-trafficking efforts by this recourse to religious rhetoric. The article concludes by offering a set of recommendations for how the Obama administration can begin to reorient U.S. anti-trafficking policies away from their current preoccupation with moral impropriety toward promoting and protecting human rights.
The Companion to Public Theology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays by an international g... more The Companion to Public Theology offers a collection of cutting-edge essays by an international group of scholars that provides a foundation for public theology as well as engagement with a wide range of public issues in dialogue with other disciplines.
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Papers by Yvonne Zimmerman