Abstract
This article examines the intersection of religious faith and the ‘fight against modern slavery’ in the UK, as yet unexplored in sociological literature. Analysis of faith-based organisations’ activities in this area challenges understandings of a postsecular rapprochement between faith and secular actors – where postsecular is used by some scholars to refer to the re-emergence of faith in the public sphere, and where we understand rapprochement to mean the placing of equal value on faith-based and secular worldviews. Our research reveals that faith-based organisations in the anti-trafficking/modern slavery third sector operate on a ‘dual register’, secularising as they professionalise their public face, while retaining religious distinctiveness when engaging with co-religionists. We argue that, rather than evidence of a genuine two-way postsecular rapprochement, it seems that faith-based organisations in this sector are prioritising secular modalities, meaning the learning process is one-sided rather than complementary.
Highlights
On 2 December 2014, representatives of major global faith traditions convened at the Vatican to sign the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders Against Modern Slavery, which pledged to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking by 2020 (Global Freedom Network, 2016: 4).1 This event was organised by the Global Freedom Network, which had been set up earlier in 2014 by Australian Christian philanthropist and mining magnate Andrew Forrest, on the premise that ‘religious faith can be a powerful motivating force inspiring individual and community action both spiritually and practically’.2 While global multi-faith initiatives for social action are not unprecedented, the emergence of a global faith alliance on modern slavery and human trafficking is a newer phenomenon and resonates with faith-inspired abolitionist movements to eradicate transatlantic slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries
Through the first mapping exercise of this type in the UK, that faith-based organisations (FBOs) are a significant part of the anti-TFLS sector; especially in the provision of services to trafficked persons, and that more single-issue organisations that offer services are FBOs. The corollary to this is that fewer FBOs are prioritising campaigning or advocacy, and that faith-based action is more likely to be specialised; ‘hiving off’ anti-TFLS as a focused concern, not one necessarily embedded in broader anti-poverty or rights-based social action
We have shown that FBOs and individual faith actors play visible roles in anti-TFLS service provision and campaigning, we question whether this is really evidence of a postsecular rapprochement
Summary
On 2 December 2014, representatives of major global faith traditions convened at the Vatican to sign the Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders Against Modern Slavery, which pledged to eradicate modern slavery and human trafficking by 2020 (Global Freedom Network, 2016: 4).1 This event was organised by the Global Freedom Network, which had been set up earlier in 2014 by Australian Christian philanthropist and mining magnate Andrew Forrest, on the premise that ‘religious faith can be a powerful motivating force inspiring individual and community action both spiritually and practically’.2 While global multi-faith initiatives for social action are not unprecedented, the emergence of a global faith alliance on modern slavery and human trafficking is a newer phenomenon and resonates with faith-inspired abolitionist movements to eradicate transatlantic slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. The role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in responses to human trafficking, forced labour and modern slavery in the UK has received little sociological attention compared to faith engagement with other social issues (but see Pemberton, 2006, who promotes the possibilities for churches to mobilise social action around ‘sex trafficking’).
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