Today's Wilberforces

Churches can make sacrifices to help those fighting the world’s slaveries | Marvin Olasky

Last week I wrote about William Wilberforce, the evangelical who led the anti-slavery campaign two centuries ago. Our next issue will contain a review of the movie about him that opens on Feb. 23, the 200th anniversary of Britain's slave-trade ban. But this history suggests questions: Who are the Wilberforces, and what are the slave trades, of today?

First, there's the international sex slave trade, lowlighted by organized-crime syndicates that each year force perhaps 1 million women and girls around the world into prostitution. Congress in 2000 passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, an important tool in fighting the sex slave trade, but more effort is needed: Lisa Thompson of the Salvation Army ("The abolitionist," Nov. 4, 2006) keeps alerting folks to the continuing battle.