President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has released its recommendations to the president on Building Partnership to Eradicate Modern-Day Slavery. Here are some things you need to know.
- The Council recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services oversee the Administration’s work against human trafficking. This is the same agency that brought you the HHS Mandate.
- They would like to use religious organizations to raise awareness regarding human trafficking, support survivors and curb demand for products produced by slave labor. This comes after the Obama Administration cut over $5 million dollars from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ efforts to help human trafficking victims.
- The Council includes Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori. Also serving is Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, president of the Leadership Conference of Catholic Women. The Council’s make-up leans heavily towards liberal religious leaders whose ideas regarding morality run afoul of traditional Biblical values.
- It is estimated that human traffickers make a profit of at least $32 billion annually.
- Those who are trafficked can be from any nation or ethnicity. Women and children are most at risk. The greatest indicator that one will be trafficked: living in poverty.
