Human Trafficking

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP) -- Earlier this month FBI Director Christopher Wray presented the Baptist Friendship House of New Orleans with its distinguished 2018 Director's Community Leadership Award for its work in fighting human trafficking. Kay Bennett, a Send Relief missionary with the North American Mission Board, accepted the award on behalf of the Baptist Friendship House at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Baptist Friendship House is a ministry of NAMB and New Orleans Baptist Association.

LAKELAND, Fla. (BP) -- From the National Palace in Guatemala to the Oval Office in Washington, leaders of the Florida Baptist Children's Homes have found themselves advocating for child sex trafficking victims on international and national platforms. This year, they have led a conference for Guatemalan government officials on child trafficking and were present at the White House in January when President Trump signed an anti-trafficking bill.

NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- Raleigh Sadler knows what it's like to feel helpless in the face of human trafficking. He's almost certain he's witnessed someone being trafficked right in front of him. Ironically when it happened, Sadler was on the way home from an event where he spoke about how to fight human trafficking.

ATLANTA (BP) -- When Heather Havard was a freshman in high school, she heard the song "27 Million" by worship leader Matt Redman about the number of slaves in the world. She was moved enough to begin doing her own research and taking measures to fight human trafficking. This weekend, she's leading a group of 10 people, most of them students at Sam Houston State University, where Havard is now a sophomore, to Atlanta to raise awareness during the Super Bowl about the problem of human trafficking. "The Super Bowl is the number one event every year where human trafficking rates skyrocket," said Havard, a member of University Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville, Texas. "Traffickers will come from all over the country, and some from places all over the world. They'll rent out whole hotel floors. Sometimes you'll find that entire hotels are rented out by traffickers."

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Amid the gridlock of a partial federal government shutdown, President Trump and lawmakers came together across party lines to enact anti-human trafficking legislation named for the 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Travis Wussow, vice president for public policy with Southern Baptists' Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, voiced gratitude "for the leadership of Congressman Chris Smith [a New Jersey Republican who sponsored the legislation] and all those who worked to see the Fredrick Douglass bill become law." "This Act brings new resources to the tireless fight of seeking freedom for captives and ...

NEW YORK (BP) -- It all started with two granola bars and a challenge, and before the day was over, a group of high school students saw the world's human trafficking problem from a whole different perspective. The concept was simple. The students, from metro Dallas, were spending the day in New York City learning how to combat human trafficking when Raleigh Sadler issued a challenge. "Go buy a box of granola bars, and when you approach someone who seems isolated, have two of them in your hand," said Sadler, executive director of the Let My People Go ministry. "Then offer them one of the bars and eat yours too -- share that simple meal with them."

ATLANTA (BP) -- It's Thursday evening, and a group boards a bus at the Georgia Baptist Convention building for several strip clubs, a few hotels and an apartment complex where human trafficking has been reported. The "Unholy Tour," jointly sponsored by Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols and the Georgia Baptist public affairs office, stretched nearly three hours instead of the scheduled two. Still, it didn't feel like enough time for various speakers tell their stories from the front of the unmarked bus.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Opponents of human trafficking have applauded the federal government's shutdown of Backpage.com, reportedly the leading online facilitator of the sex trade. An April 6 message at Backpage.com announced the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other government entities had seized the website and its affiliates "as part of an enforcement action." The FBI and the Justice Department have made no further announcements about the investigation.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- An 11-year-old rape victim in Florida, a 14-year-old ninth-grader in Texas, a sexually abused 16-year-old in Kentucky. They are among thousands of girls forced to marry adult men in the past 50 years under laws permitting such unions in most U.S. states. "This is not about me. I survived," 55-year-old Sherry Johnson told CBS news when Florida passed a bill March 9 limiting marriage to those 17 and older. Raped at age 9 and a biological mother at age 10, she was 11 when her own birth mother forced her to marry a man in his 20s, simply by getting a judge's approval.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission has strongly endorsed congressional efforts to hold accountable Backpage.com and other online sites that profit from sex trafficking. ERLC President Russell Moore and officials with other organizations wrote Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Sept. 7 in support of their legislative proposals, which Moore and the others said would enable law enforcement "to effectively combat online sex trafficking hubs that provide a safe haven for modern day slave traders." A Senate committee held a hearing on Portman's bill today (Sept. 19).