A couple days ago 32 people were arrested in my current hometown of Knoxville for soliciting prostitution and trafficking. Two of them were pastors.

As a Christian who's heart has been set on fire for the plight of the enslaved, I'm sickened at this perversion of Jesus' coming and ministry on earth.

But even for those who don't actively participate in this evil of slavery, there's still a cultural culpability that we all partake in. We're all guilty for our silence, our willful blindness and ignorance, and our inaction.

Listen friends, slavery still exits... and it's not just far dark corners of the world where people don't look or speak like us so we can forget about them. This latest bust happened in Knoxville, a quiet, clean, safe city in the heart of the Bible belt. My college town, Virginia Beach, is another notorious trafficking in-port. This is in the US; this is in the "land of the free."

And yet our nation was, and still is, built on the backs of slaves. Slavery today isn't just prostitution; it's also the same sort of forced labor that we subjected the Africans to in days gone by.

And I'm not telling you it also happens in America because America is more important than India or Uganda or Sri-Lanka or the Philippines or China or Guatemala... it's just that maybe FINALLY people will start actually paying attention and speaking up, and giving of their money, and giving of their time, and giving of their lives to GO and DO something about all this filth that enables us lucky few to live in comfort.

There are at least 27 million slaves in the world today, and that includes many thousands in America. Do you know how many of them work for you?

Several months ago I took a heart-breaking and eye-opening quiz, and found out that over 30 slaves were likely involved in producing many of the things I take for granted: We're all culpable

So please, get involved. Somehow. IJM is an incredible organization that has done SO much good in fighting this continuing evil, so please, donate to them. Or find some way to get involved, internship, buying fairtrade, or life-calling or praying and raising awareness... T

here's so much we can do, and this evil of modern slavery, in our hometowns and abroad alike, does NOT have to continue.