The Authorized Version

My guest today is Kathi Macias.  Kathi is known for writing award-winning books that tackle tough subjects.  I'll let Kathi tell you about it in her own words:

People often ask me why I write about such dark subjects, such as the Persecuted Church or human trafficking. I answer, “Because I am a Christian, and I believe I am called to be my brother’s keeper.”

Deliver Me From Evil, the first book in my new Freedom series, depicts the horrors of human trafficking. The three books in the series follow one after the other, taking the readers into the sordid world of young girls kidnapped or purposely sold into slavery. The primary character in the Freedom series is sold by her parents to her uncle, who takes her across the border from Mexico to San Diego, where she is forced to live and “work” in her uncle’s brothel for several years. In the process she suffers horribly and sees other girls do the same, some even dying in the process. Across the ocean, in the series’ subplot set in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, two other girls suffer in a brothel, not realizing in the beginning that they are actually sisters and that they have another sister who has been adopted and lives in the San Diego area. The tragic stories will eventually dovetail, as their sagas continue in books two and three. The international scope of these stories is truly heartbreaking.

Much of the time, when I mention the topic of this new book/series, people say something like, “Oh, yeah. I’ve heard of that happening in third-world countries.” And yes, human trafficking does happen around the world, which is why I have a subplot taking place in Thailand. But the main story? Right here where I live—Southern California. San Diego, to be exact. One of the primary locations for such an atrocious crime, as so many of these victims are brought in across the Mexico/US border.

Before starting this series, I spoke with an investigative reporter for the largest newspaper in the San Diego area, and he told me that even after years of digging into some of the most sordid happenings imaginable, he has seldom been as horrified as he was by investigating the human side of modern-day slavery.

And that’s the point. This isn’t simply a tragedy involving staggering statistics (27 million people estimated to be held in captivity around the world, for various reasons including sexual exploitation, cheap or free labor, and harvesting of body parts/organs); it is a tragedy with names and faces. Children, much like yours and mine, are kidnapped or even sold by family members into a life that is so violent and degrading that few ever make it out alive. If they do, they are often so scarred that they can never lead a normal life.

Are we our “brother’s keeper”? Again, I believe we are. God has called as to BE the Church! We are to pray for the deliverance and healing of these precious people, but also to speak out for the absolute abolition of modern-day slavery. We cannot sit idly by while people created in the image of God are used as chattel and thrown away like refuse. It is a worldwide problem, but the Church spans the globe and crosses the borders of time. May we rise up together and say “No more!” May our battle cry be “Abolition!”

And that’s my answer to why I write about such “dark” subjects—because a world trapped in the kingdom of darkness needs as many people as possible to shine the Light and set them free.

Kathi Macias (www.kathimacias.com) is an award-winning author of 35 books, including the Golden Scrolls 2011 Novel of the Year and Carol Award finalist, Red Ink. She and her husband, Al, live in Southern California, where she is affectionately known by family and friends as “Easy Writer.”

adapted from original article posted at http://www.newhopedigital.com/index.php/2011/09/the-church-must-stand-against-modern-slavery-worldwide/”