Human rights talk draws crowd

When a student at the Veritas Forum asked how to change the mindset of a crack addict begging for money on the Drag, Vinoth Ramachandra responded by asking why people always question the poor, not the rich, when it comes to change.

Ramachandra, author of several theological books and member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, spoke Wednesday night at Hogg Memorial Auditorium to address the relationship between Christianity and justice, the way humans value each other and how overindulgence perpetuates injustice.

Various campus organizations, including the Texas chapter of the International Justice Mission, sponsored the two-night forum, which focused on human trafficking and human rights. More than 100 students filled the auditorium Wednesday night to hear Ramachandra speak.

Ramachandra criticized American society’s bias toward those with wealth and social power, describing the rich as “perverse often in the face of suffering not [their] own.” He also accused the media of having an obsession with rich people and celebrities, which he believes encourages people to obsess about their statuses and ignore injustice.

In one example, he explained that it is theft for a family with an overabundance of food to refuse to share their food with a starving neighbor. If the neighbor must resort to stealing the food, however, it should not be considered theft.

“The right to life trumps the right to private property,” Ramachandra said.

Ramachandra advocated that people follow the teachings of Jesus to bring about social change. The Bible heavily emphasizes themes of social justice and equality between people of all backgrounds, he said. People who complain to God about the lack of justice must realize justice requires lifting up those at the bottom, he added.

Georgiann Dealey, an advertising and Plan II senior, and finance senior Eric Robinson emceed and helped coordinate the forum.

Robinson suggested those who do not consider themselves to be Christian but hold the same values of equality and justice might be more Christian than they think.

Dealey and Robinson also emceed the first night of the event, which featured guest speaker Blair Burns, a member of the International Justice Mission. The mission is a human rights agency that secures rights for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of oppression.

The U.S. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 defines human trafficking as the obtaining of a person for labor or services through use of coercion. The act listed slavery, forced commercial sex acts and debt bondage as different purposes for trafficking.

Reports estimate 17,000 to 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year, but definite numbers are hard to determine, said Kate Rocke, the chair of the Central Texas Coalition Against Human Trafficking. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 25 percent of trafficking incidents occur in Texas.

Dealey said it has been eight to 10 years since the Veritas Forum has last occurred on campus, but she and Robinson hope to turn it into a yearly event with a new social justice topic each year.

Comments

1 comments

suantak

Sun Nov 8 2009 14:56

Vinoth's talks are always sobering and hard hitting. It's not for the fainthearted, the lazy and the self indulgent. He has a way of pricking self-absorbed Christians into seriously considering what it means to follow Christ in a world torn apart by greed, cruelty, injustice, war...

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