Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex, and Human Trafficking (AAR Academy Series)

Book info: Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex, and Human Trafficking (AAR Academy Series) (Hardcover, 240 pages) – Oxford University Press, 2012. Language: English.

Human trafficking has captured worldwide attention as a crucial moral and political issue, but perhaps nowhere more than in the United States. Since they were signed into law in 2000, U.S. federal laws and policies on human trafficking have been understood as concrete expressions of the civic values of personal and political freedom. Yet these policies have also been characterized by a marked preoccupation with regulation, and especially sexual regulation.Yvonne C. Zimmerman offers a groundbreaking exploration of the relationship between freedom and sexual regulation in American anti-human trafficking law and policies. . She argues that the religious values of American Protestantism have indelibly shaped the federal government's approach to engaging human trafficking, and that the trajectory of the U.S.'s anti-trafficking efforts cannot be fully grasped without understanding the unique ways in which sex, morality, and freedom are connected in Protestant Christian configurations of morality. Zimmerman shows that particularly under the George W. Bush administration, the U.S.'s anti-trafficking project expressed a vision of freedom whose structure and logic is thoroughly Protestant. . Her analysis challenges the assumption that combating human trafficking necessarily entails sexual regulation, and reveals the extent to which the preoccupation with sexual regulation has functioned to discourage alternative understandings and practices of freedom, particularly for women.Other Dreams of Freedom demonstrates that if opposition to human trafficking takes the promotion of freedom as the point of departure, then freedom must not be identified strictly with religiously and culturally Protestant understandings, but ought also permit other understandings of how freedom is constituted, practiced, and maintained. Editorial Reviews Review "A brilliant analysis and critique of how law and policy were crafted and the agenda set on this compelling problem through the unusual linkage of conservative religious values, partisan politics, and select feminist theory. Dr. Zimmerman not only shows us that the separation of Church and State may not be so separate after all, but that theology continues to play an important part in framing legislation."--Claude d'Estrée, Director of the International Human Rights Degree Program, the Center on Rights Development, and the Human Trafficking Clinic, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

"A beautifully written analysis that carefully sketches the theological foundations of contemporary anti-trafficking policies. Zimmerman accomplishes something that no other scholar has yet achieved: the genealogical tracing of these policies in terms of Protestant understandings of slavery and freedom, and the provocation of her readers to reimagine these terms."--Elizabeth Bernstein, author of Temporarily Yours: Intimacy, Authenticity, and the Commerce of Sex

"This challenging and heartening book is a must-read for anyone who is concerned with human trafficking and exploited labor and hungers for better moral imagination and a way forward toward justice. With astute moral analysis, clarity of theological vision, and respect for those who are trafficked, Zimmerman exposes the unholy alliances among national policies, the puritanical Christian culture of the U.S. and its attempts to police sex, and feminists who focus solely on sex trafficking."--The Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., founding Co-Director of the Soul Repair Center

"...[A] thoughtful analysis of a very serious political and moral issue..." --Journal of Church and State

About the Author Yvonne C. Zimmerman holds a B.A. from Goshen College, a Master of Theological Studies from Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies from the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology. She is Assistant Professor of Christian Ethics at Methodist Theological School in Ohio.