The Weekly is a rundown of news by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission highlighting the week’s top news stories from the public square and providing commentary on the big issues of our day.

5 Facts About Sex Trafficking and Backpage.com

ERLC has recently endorsed congressional efforts to hold accountable online sites that profit from sex trafficking. Here is what you should know about Backpage.com and sex trafficking:

1. Backpage.com is the world’s second largest classified ad website. In 2012 the company reported they had about 1 million ads in the “Adult Services Category” which included ads for prostitution and sex with minors. According to internal documents from 2011, the company reported this section alone accounted for 93.4 percent of its weekly paid ad revenue and that adult ads accounted for more than 1 billion pageviews. Under pressure for supporting sex trafficking, Backpage.com shut down the adult ads section earlier this year and replaced it with the headline, “CENSORED: The government has unconstitutionally censored this content. What happened? Find out.”

2. In 2012, the site also admitted to reporting 400 ads a month suspected of advertising a minor to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). According to NCMEC, during the last five years 81 percent of reports to the organization regarding child sex trafficking relate to the online trade of a minor. More than 73 percent of reports by the public to NCMEC in the last five years concerned a Backpage.com ad.

3. State courts have repeatedly protected Backpage.com from the criminal wrongdoing of their customers on the grounds that the Communications Decency Act protects them from prosecution. Denying they are co-conspirators, Backpage.com maintains they merely provide a forum for free speech in the form of advertising. In December 2016, Backpage.com sued the Department of Justice to prevent the enforcement of a new anti-trafficking law, prompting Congress to take action. “For too long, courts around the country have ruled that Backpage.com can continue to facilitate illegal sex trafficking online with no repercussions,” says Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). “The Communications Decency Act is a well-intentioned law, but it was never intended to help protect sex traffickers who prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us.”

4. Last month a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act of 2017. The bill would allow victims of sex trafficking to seek justice against websites that knowingly facilitated the crimes against them; eliminate federal liability protections for websites that assist, support, or facilitate a violation of federal sex trafficking laws; and enable state law enforcement officials, not just the federal Department of Justice, to take action against individuals or businesses that violate federal sex trafficking laws. As Joe Mont notes, the legislation follows a two-year Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations inquiry that culminated in a report alleging that that Backpage.com “knowingly facilitated criminal sex trafficking of vulnerable women and young girls and then covered up evidence of these crimes to increase its own profits.”

5. ERLC strongly endorses congressional efforts to hold accountable Backpage.com and other online sites that profit from sex trafficking. ERLC President Russell Moore joined leaders of other organizations in a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to support the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act. “The internet has become a haven for predators using it to traffic and sexually exploit innocent women and children,” Moore told Baptist Press. “It is well past time to provide a legislative solution that allows victims of online sex trafficking to seek justice and restitution from the websites that facilitate their abuse. This legislation would close loopholes and ensure those complicit in the online sex trade would find no refuge in America’s justice system.” Moore urged Congress “to take the necessary action to get this bill to the president’s desk, and I pray that churches around the country would be known as those that stand for human dignity and protect the vulnerable.”

This week on ERLC podcasts: Daniel Darling talks to Matt Carter, co-author of a new book, Steal Away Home, about the friendship between Charles Spurgeon and Thomas Johnson. And on the ERLC podcast, Glenn Stanton talks about loving our LGBT neighbors.

Other Issues

American Culture

Conflicting rulings on prayer may open door to SCOTUS
Diana Chandler, Baptist Press

Two conflicting 2017 court rulings in cases challenging public prayer at government meetings increase the chance of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the issue, religious liberty advocate Ken Klukowski said today (Sept. 7).

Bioethics

American College of Physicians Opposes Assisted Suicide
Wesley J. Smith, The Corner

The American College of Physicians, after studying the issue, has issued a policy statement against the legalization of assisted suicide.

Christianity and Culture

The Mainliner Who Made Me More Evangelical
Russell Moore, Christianity Today

How Frederick Buechner changed the course of Russell Moore's life.

CP withholding found to be 'lower than anticipated'
David Roach, Baptist Press

A committee established in February to study "the current reality in Southern Baptist life of churches either escrowing or discontinuing Cooperative Program funds" concluded that fewer than two of every 1,000 Southern Baptist churches diverted CP funds during the past year.

Wheaton College football players face felony charges in alleged brutal assault on fellow student
Emily Shapiro, ABC News

Five football players from Wheaton College -- a Christian school in Illinois -- are facing felony charges for allegedly assaulting another student last year.

Protestant unity is new confession's focus
David Roach, Baptist Press

A confession of faith aimed at expressing "interdenominational unity" among Protestants on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation has drawn endorsement from professors at all six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and staff members at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

ERLC's Moore urges persuasion to promote civility
Tom Strode, Baptist Press

Americans, including conservative Christians, should seek to persuade others -- not pigeonhole them by classifications -- to promote civility in a religiously diverse culture, Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore said in a Washington, D.C., panel discussion.

Family Issues

Dads influence teen daughters’ decisions on sex
Mercatornet

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (which sometimes and ironically promotes uncommitted sex and risky birth control to teens) has spoken some truths about teen sex: namely, that fathers have tremendous influence over whether their daughters have it or not.

International Issues

US Senate committee advances bill to aid Christians in Iraq
Matt Hadro, Crux

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Sept. 19 to advance a bill that seeks to ensure U.S. aid reaches Christian genocide victims in Iraq out of the committee, moving it closer to a floor vote.

One of the biggest problems in rescuing people from modern-day slavery is counting them
Hanna Kozlowska, Quartz

More than 40 million people around the world are enslaved, either through forced labor or by forced marriage, a human-rights group estimates. The same organization found there were 45.8 million people enslaved last year, 35.8 million in 2014, and 29.8 million in 2013—making news with these whopping numbers each time.

Christian children face pressure to convert to Islam in refugee camps in Sudan
Ngala Killian Chimtom, Crux

South Sudanese children in refugee camps in Sudan were facing “a terrible situation" by being pressured to become Muslim. There are nearly 2 million refugees fleeing South Sudan's ongoing civil war.

Religious Liberty

DOJ Supports Christian Baker In Amicus Brief Filed With Supreme Court
Howard Friedman , Religion Clause

In an amicus brief filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 7 in Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice sided with the Christian bakery owner who refused to design and create a cake for a same-sex wedding.

Dear Secretary Tillerson: Don’t Downsize Religion in Foreign Affairs
Mae Elise Cannon, Christianity Today

Closing the RGA is much more than a bureaucratic loss; it impacts our Christian brothers and sisters around the globe.

Sexuality Issues

California Legislature Passes Bill To Punish Elder-Care Workers Who Don’t Use Trans Pronouns
Georgi Boorman, The Federalist

The bill aims to promote the rights of transgender individuals by forcing health care employees to use patients' 'preferred name or pronouns.'

This 12-Year-Old Boy ‘Transitioned’ To A Girl, Took Hormones, Then Changed His Mind
Bre Payton, The Federalist

A preview for an upcoming episode of “60 Minutes Australia” features a teenage boy who tried to “transition” to a girl then changed his mind. In the minute-long snippet, the mother of a boy identified as Patrick admits she fed him hormones that were prescribed in an effort to help him become a girl, which she says her son wanted for a time.