David Batstone

David Batstone

David Batstone (right) speaking at a Not for Sale event with fellow abolitionist Cecilia Flores-Oebanda (left)
Nationality American
Occupation Ethics professor
Notable work Not for Sale, Saving the Corporate Soul

Theological work

Tradition or movement Abolitionism, liberation theology
Main interests Human trafficking, slavery

David Batstone is an ethics professor at the University of San Francisco and is the founder and president of Not for Sale, an abolitionist organization.[1] He is also a journalist and the president and founder of Right Reality, an international business that engages in social ventures.[2] He is a leader in Central American Mission Partners, a human rights group. As a representative of this group, he met with Bono through Glide Memorial Church during A Conspiracy of Hope, a concert tour in support of Amnesty International.[3] When Mark Juergensmeyer was doing research for his book The New Cold War?: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, Batstone assisted him in finding primary sources with respect to the Nicaraguan Revolution's Christian supporters.[4]

Batstone wrote the book Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade - and How We Can Fight It, in which he wrote about human trafficking and how social inequality and poverty make it easy for traffickers to find girls to traffick.[5] Julie Clawson wrote positively of this book, writing that she appreciated Batstone's "audacity in telling story after story of modern-day slavery."[6] While still a student, Batstone studied under William R. Herzog, who taught Batstone about the parables of Jesus.[7] Batstone is an advocate of workplace spirituality, about which he wrote in his 2003 book Saving the Corporate Soul.[8] He is also a liberation theologian who considers postmodernity an era in which "we wallow in private affluence while squatting in public squalor."[9] At the 2012 Freedom and Honor Conference in Korea, a conference about slavery and human trafficking, Batstone was one of the two keynote speakers, the other being Tara Teng, who was Miss Canada at the time.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Ryan Dobson; Christian Buckley (2010). Humanitarian Jesus: Social Justice and the Cross. Moody Publishers. p. 95. ISBN 1575674912.
  2. ↑ "First Hour: Human Trafficking". ABC Online. June 4, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  3. ↑ David Kootnikoff (2009). U2: A Musical Biography. ABC-CLIO. p. 57. ISBN 0313365237.
  4. ↑ Mark Juergensmeyer (1994). The New Cold War?: Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State. University of California Press. p. x. ISBN 0520915011.
  5. ↑ Barrie Levy (2008). Women and Violence: Seal Studies. Perseus Books Group. p. 50. ISBN 0786726725.
  6. ↑ Julie Clawson (2009). Everyday Justice: The Global Impact of Our Daily Choices. InterVarsity Press. p. 66. ISBN 0830878521.
  7. ↑ William R. Herzog (1994). Parables As Subversive Speech: Jesus As Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Westminster John Knox. p. ix. ISBN 0664253555.
  8. ↑ Lake Lambert (2009). Spirituality, Inc: Religion in the American Workplace. New York University Press. p. 110. ISBN 0814752535.
  9. ↑ Paul Rasor (2005). Faith Without Certainty: Liberal Theology In The 21st Century. Unitarian Universalist Association. pp. 61–62. ISBN 1558965998.
  10. ↑ Dylan Goldby; Daniel Sanchez; Matthew Lamers (March 20, 2012). "'Girls Are Not For Sale'". Groove Korea. Retrieved April 13, 2013.