"Chain Reaction"

This morning I walked up to the Fulton Opera House to see a unique presentation. The Fulton’s Youtheatre program put on a play called “Chain Reaction.”

I went because I wanted to see and encourage a young teen from my church, Kyle Jones, as he performed on stage for the first time. But I also came away with a bit of an education. Each year the students involved in Youtheatre select the topic and theme of their production and work together to write the play and much of the music included in it. Typically the topic/theme is something related to their lives, an issue that they and their peers deal with on a daily basis. This year, the kids looked a bit outside of themselves.

The play is about slavery. Not the slavery of America’s past, but the slavery of today that exists throughout the world, including the USA. I have heard a bit about “human trafficking” and was aware that slavery is still a reality in the world today, but I was not aware of how widespread and how huge the issue really is. According to Free the Slaves, a national advocacy organization, there are currently more than 27 million slaves in the world today (more than at any other time in history). And although there are exactly zero countries where slavery is legal, it has been documented to exist in more than 100 nations world wide (including many western nations and the U.S.)

Interestingly, the play itself (and the research the teens did in preparing it) made it clear that though the issue of slavery seems a bit detached from the life of an American teen, we are all to some degree connected to the modern slave trade (primarily through our consumerism).

I was encouraged this morning by seeing a group of teens, many from our urban neighborhoods standing up and speaking out for those who are hurting and can’t speak out for themselves. (sounds like something Jesus would want us to do, huh?)

Nice job Kyle (and the rest of the Youtheatre crew), and don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone about the blonde wig and purple dress (whoops).

Check out http://www.freetheslaves.net/ for more info on this topic.

-Jack Crowley, Teen Haven