God’s children are not for sale

Some people discount America as founded because of slavery. However, the founders created the framework by which it could be uprooted one day; and it was, at a cost of about 700,000 men who died in the Civil War.

Meanwhile, slavery was not unique to America, as the late Dr. Walter Williams of George Mason University once observed. In fact, what is unique were the considerable resources spent to uproot it in the Western world.

It is estimated that there are more human slaves today than there were back then, partly because of the increase in population.

Perhaps about 2 million of today’s slaves are kidnapped children that are being sex-trafficked. Just in time for July Fourth comes a powerful new movie exposing this particular problem called “Sound of Freedom.” It stars Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”

Caviezel says that by watching the movie, you are sending a statement that you are willing to fight this horrible practice of child-sex trafficking. Part of the goal of the film is to create awareness of the problem in the first place. He also said, “It’s got to stop. We have the power to do it.”

I got to speak with Dr. Ted Baehr, the founder and publisher of Movieguide.org, which helps provide a biblical perspective on the movies, about this new movie.

Ted told me, “It’s a wonderful movie. It’s a 4-star movie. ... These are great filmmakers. They did ‘Bella,’ which is a beautiful film.”

“Sound of Freedom” is based on the true life story of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent, Tim Ballard, who doggedly works to rescue children that are victims of sex trafficking. But after a while, in dangerous parts of Latin America, he is beyond the agency’s jurisdiction. So he loses his job and his pension so that he might gain the freedom of these poor kids he is striving to rescue while also risking his life. 

In particular, Ballard arrested an American pedophile and in the process rescued an 8-year-old boy from this miserable servitude. When Ballard found out the boy had an 11-year-old sister, he could not rest until he rescued her.

"But Homeland Security was not about to fund all that. … So the next thing that happens is he starts his own organization to go out and start dealing with some of these problems," Baehr notes. "It is an exciting and thrilling movie … It is a heavy topic. It’s not for younger children.” Ted adds it's not for viewers under 17.

Stanley Goldenberg of South Florida has a ministry that promotes faith-based movies. In a radio segment, Stan told me, “These are little kids being used as sex slaves, sometimes multiple times a day. And then when they’re worn out, they sell their organs. This is a horrendous crime, and the thought of the filmmakers is to put this in front of people in a very well-done film. This is a top-notch film, incredible to watch in every way.”

I saw “Sound of Freedom” at a premiere in Miami and highly recommend it — to age-appropriate audiences. The filmmakers and Tim Ballard himself appeared afterward. They said they want the movie to be like today’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which pricked the conscience of the nation, helping to spark the war that ended American slavery.

Of course, “Sound of Freedom” deals with a most disgusting subject, but it does so in a tasteful way. It’s like a crime drama that keeps you glued to your seat.

Here’s the trailer for “Sound of Freedom.”

Historically, the Church of Jesus Christ has been at the forefront of setting prisoners free of rescuing those in danger. The least we could do is to support the efforts promoted in this movie — to work toward ending this terrible scourge of our time.

In a forward to the new book, Stealing Freedom, Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., asseverates, “As Christ’s ambassadors, we are called to be at the heart of every good movement of social and political concern.”

William Wilberforce was the great Christian abolitionist who got slavery ended in the entire British Empire, which took him 50 years to accomplish. He once said, “Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.”

One of the lines in the movie is, “God’s children are not for sale.” “Sound of Freedom” aims to pressure authorities to more aggressively arrest and convict both the buyers and the sellers. And thus destroy this illegal market that ruins the lives of these poor children and the souls of the perpetrators.