Joseph La Rue serves as legal counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which describes itself as “an alliance-building legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.” He is based in the organization’s Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters. The alliance supported the measure approved in February 2014 by the Arizona Legislature to […]

Read a Feb. 21, 2014, New York Times story about Arizona legislation that would let business owners use religious objections as justification for refusing service to gay couples.

Read a Jan. 16, 2014, statement on human trafficking that’s signed by the Catholic bishops of New Jersey and posted by the Catholic Star Herald.

View an Aug. 16, 2013, segment from Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly about how a trend of aborting female fetuses has led to a shortage of young women in India. Some observers say the situation has resulted in human trafficking to meet men’s desire for brides.

Lisa Williams overcame years of childhood sexual abuse and other trauma and is now executive director of Living Water for Girls, a residential haven she founded in 2007 that provides education and therapeutic assistance to girls escaping prostitution and the street life. She lives in Georgia.  

Read an April 10, 2013, Religion News Service story about a report on trafficking released by the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

NightLight International works to prevent commercial sexual exploitation and help its victims escape from it by providing alternative employment and other assistance. CEO Annie Dieselberg founded the organization in 2005 after years of missionary work in Thailand with her husband, an evangelical pastor. In Bangkok, NightLight operates as a business and as a nonprofit; in the […]

Read a Jan. 3, 2014, Religion News Service story about efforts to end the sex trade in Thailand and how American evangelicals in particular are working to help women break free of it.

Nancy K. Kaufman is chief executive officer of the National Council of Jewish Women. She has written about the group’s work, with others, in combating human trafficking in the U.S. since the early 1900s. Contact through the council’s New York headquarters.