People As Property

In Job 31, the main character is wrestling with his view of his fellow human beings; it's an internal conversation that we all need to have.  In this passage, he upholds the Biblical view of the sanctity of
life:
13 "If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant When they complained against me,
14 What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?
15 Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?

If we are to love others in the proper way, we have to look at the way God loves us.  He is our Creator, and we recognize that because of that, our lives have meaning and great potential, including the potential to believe in Christ, to follow God, and to be with Him for eternity.  We know that God's love is unconditional; there is nothing any of us can do to make Him stop loving us.  And, we realize that He always knows what's best for us and is pursuing that end.  We can be challenged as Christians to extend a deep, undying compassion for all with whom we interact.

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The way that we regard others will determine the level of compassion we show toward them; it's
important that Christians demonstrate that we believe that there is value to life. Psalm 139 says:
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

It's certainly a harrowing incident; consider perhaps as many as 200 people, lured by the promise of a better life, crammed into a tractor-trailer with no air-conditioning by human smugglers who saw the humans on board the 18-wheeler as cargo.  Now, 10 are dead and others were found to be in need of medical attention.

KENS Television in San Antonio described the incident as the work of a Mexican crime syndicate. One man has been arrested; a man who claimed to have not known what he was transporting.

The U.S. Attorney's office has released information, including interviews with some on board.  One of them, known as JMM-J, "told investigators that he left his home in Aguascalientes, Mexico, traveled to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and met with smugglers who offered to transport him to the U.S. for $5,500."  The story continues:

JMM-J said he was waiting with a group of 28 when a smuggler associated with the Zetas told him he would charge 11,000 Mexican pesos for protection and 1,500 Mexican pesos to cross by raft into the U.S. JMM-J said he paid the amount and the group was ferried over in three trips.

The next day JMM-J said he and the others were picked up and taken to board the tractor trailer. He estimated that about 70 people were inside when they took off.

JMM-J said the door was closed and it became pitch black inside. He said it was already hot and they were left with no food or water before the journey began. He said they began to make noise and try to get help, but nobody ever came.

After an hour, the immigrant said, people began to pass out and started banging on the walls. They found a hole through which they could get air.  Finally, the truck stopped and people went to six black SUV's that were waiting.

Another individual had told investigators that he had come over with a group of relatives.  After waiting in Laredo for 11 days, they boarded the tractor-trailer - he said 70 people were already there. Another person told authorities that he thought there were 180 to 200 people on board.

The transport of people - described as "human cargo," according to the television station, is a growing problem in South Texas. Another story quoted Laredo police investigator Joe Baeza: "Laredo has thousands of tractor trailers that basically transport goods from the border to northern cities every day, every hour,” adding, “So a lot of the immigrants do hitch a ride unsuspectingly to those truck drivers." The article stated, "Investigator Baeza said this is an ongoing trend."

The idea of people as property can be seen in several instances of our society, and it stems from a devaluation of human life in the minds of many.  This concept of human smuggling or "human cargo" is one of them.  This incident has been described as "human trafficking," but we would commonly think about that activity as being more in the area of sex trafficking and prostitution. Again, in these instances, people are treated as commodities to be bought and sold.

This also can be seen in the arena concerning the sanctity of life.  The practice of abortion is predicated on the concept that a human life in the womb does not have value.  Those who are Christian and pro-life believe the Bible teaches otherwise.  The offensive Planned Parenthood videos that were taken by the Center for Medical Progress show officials in the abortion industry who are dealing in the trafficking - the buying and selling - of the body parts of unborn babies.  To them, these are not lives that they are talking about, but merely commodities.

Now, I want to go back to a conversation aired just last Friday on The Meeting House.  Stuart Shepard of Family Policy Alliance and I were discussing the case of 11-month-old Charlie Gard, who has a debilitating disease.  The hospital, in tandem with the courts, had blocked Charlie's parents from being able to take him elsewhere for treatment.  We discussed the court-appointed guardian for Charlie - not his parents - who is tied to an organization that embraces assisted suicide.  And, our conversation included socialized medicine, or government-run health care.  I contended then, as I do now, that mentality could lead to patients being regarded as property, not people.  It could lead to decisions being made based on economic factors, rather than what is best for the patient.  And, vulnerable people - like Charlie Gard - become the victims.  Now, Charlie's parents have given up the fight, and apparently they had been told that nothing more could be done - the result of the long delay in getting experimental treatment that could save his life.  Tragic, indeed.

As believers, we have been confronted with these sobering headlines.  And, we have to make sure that we are not desensitized by these harmful messages concerning the worth of an individual.  All life is sacred, and we have to make sure that we are operating in our capacity to love others; not regarding others as less than ourselves, but making sure that the way we interact demonstrates that we believe they have value.