Religion and Modern Slavery: Moral Blindness, Religious Responsibility, and the Psychology of Power / Kevin Bales and Michael Rota
For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & CultureShow Notes
Slavery did not end in the nineteenth century—it persists today, hidden in global supply chains, religious justifications, and systems of power. Kevin Bales and Michael Rota join Evan Rosa to explore modern slavery through history, psychology, and theology, asking why it remains so difficult to see and confront.
“It’s time some person should see these calamities to their end.” (Thomas Clarkson, 1785)
“There are millions of slaves in the world today.” (Kevin Bales, 2025)
In this episode, they consider how conscience, power, and religious belief can either sustain enslavement or become forces for abolition. Together they discuss the psychology of slaveholding, faith’s complicity and resistance, Quaker abolitionism, modern debt bondage, ISIS and Yazidi slavery, and what meaningful action looks like today.
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Episode Highlights
“There are millions of slaves in the world today.”
“Statistics isn’t gonna do it. I need to actually show people things.”
“They have sexual control. They can do what they like.”
“Slavery is flowing into our lives hidden in the things we buy.”
“We have to widen our sphere of concern.”
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About Kevin Bales
Kevin Bales is a leading scholar and activist in the global fight against modern slavery. He is Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham and co-founder of Free the Slaves, an international NGO dedicated to ending slavery worldwide. Bales has spent more than three decades researching forced labor, debt bondage, and human trafficking, combining academic rigor with on-the-ground investigation. His work has shaped international policy, influenced anti-slavery legislation, and brought global attention to forms of enslavement often dismissed as historical. He is the author of several influential books, including Disposable People and Friends of God, Slaves of Men, which examines the complex relationship between religion and slavery across history and into the present. Learn more and follow at [https://www.kevinbales.org](https://www.kevinbales.org/) and [https://www.freetheslaves.net](https://www.freetheslaves.net/)
About Michael Rota
Michael Rota is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where he teaches and researches in the philosophy of religion, moral psychology, and the history of slavery and religion. His work spans scholarly articles on the definition of slavery, the moral psychology underlying social change and abolition, and the relevance of theological concepts to ethical life. Rota is co-author with Kevin Bales of *Friends of God, Slaves of Men: Religion and Slavery, Past and Present*, a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of how religions have both justified and resisted systems of enslaving human beings from antiquity to the present day. He is also the author of *Taking Pascal’s Wager: Faith, Evidence, and the Abundant Life*, an extended argument for the reasonableness and desirability of Christian commitment. In addition to his academic writing, he co-leads projects in philosophy and education and is co-founder of Personify, a platform exploring AI and student learning. Learn more and follow at his faculty profile and personal website [https://mikerota.wordpress.com](https://mikerota.wordpress.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) and on X/Twitter @mikerota.
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Helpful Links And Resources
Disposable People by Kevin Bales
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520281820/disposable-people
Friends of God, Slaves of Men by Kevin Bales and Michael Rota
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383265/friends-of-god-slaves-of-men
Free the Slaves
[https://www.freetheslaves.net](https://www.freetheslaves.net/)
Voices for Freedom
[https://voicesforfreedom.org](https://voicesforfreedom.org/)
International Justice Mission
[https://www.ijm.org](https://www.ijm.org/)
Talitha Kum
[https://www.talithakum.info](https://www.talithakum.info/)
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Show Notes
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