Porn expo’s ban ‘a win for Dallas,’ says Texas church member

The Dallas City Council’s 8-7 vote Wednesday to ban a porn expo known as Exxxotica from a city-owned downtown convention center won praise from a Texas church member who fights sex trafficking.

Katie Pedigo, a member of the Preston Road Church of Christ in Dallas, serves as executive director of the faith-based nonprofit New Friends New Life.

Pedigo is quoted on the front page of today’s Dallas Morning News:

“It’s a win for Dallas,” said the executive director of New Friends New Life, a nonprofit that works with women and girls who have been trafficked. “I admire our mayor’s leadership and support the council people I knew would have courage to make this decision.”

Supporters of New Friends New Life point to the abuse endured by many who work in the sex industry. (PHOTO PROVIDED BY NEW FRIENDS NEW LIFE) The Christian Chronicle highlighted Pedigo’s ministry as part of a 2014 package on faith fighting human trafficking:

DALLAS — Think of Katie Pedigo as a modern-day abolitionist.
A Church of Christ preacher’s daughter who grew up to become an attorney, Pedigo wages a daily battle against sex slavery — in the heart of the Bible Belt.
It’s a fight that surprises some Christians.
“A lot of people think that if it’s sex trafficking, then it’s happening overseas, it’s happening in India or Thailand or somewhere else,” said Pedigo, executive director of New Friends New Life, a faith-based nonprofit that works to restore and empower victims. “So it’s important for us to realize that it’s happening right here, in every city in our country.”
Once known as Amy’s Friends, New Friends New Life grew out of a grassroots ministry that started 16 years ago when a woman in the sex industry became involved in a women’s Bible study at the Preston Road Church of Christ.