Allow me to jump on the Sound of Freedom bandwagon with great fervor. The team that created this movie is hoping that it will be the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of our times, and it could be if we all promote the movie and open conversations about human trafficking.
If you are asking, “What bandwagon?” “What movie?” then you have been kept in the dark purposely by major media. The fact that the movie was made by a studio that is best known for Christian movies would, I thought, show that outside-Hollywood studios could produce quality movies about issues of importance to the general public.
Instead, since the movie was made by Angel Studios and stars Jim Caviezel, a vocal Catholic, caused mainstream media to write off, but not write about, what they deem to be another preachy, saccharine Christian movie.
Jim Caviezel is best known for playing Christ in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. He is dismissed by some Hollywood types as a Christian crusader despite his long success in many other TV and film productions such as the movie The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and the TV series Person of Interest (2011-2015).
Overcoming Barriers, Becoming a Blockbuster
Sound of Freedom was actually made five years ago. The movie rights were owned by 20th Century Fox, but that studio was sold to Disney, and Disney shelved the movie, refusing to distribute it. So, Angel Studios bought it back. Amazon and Netflix both turned it down saying that audiences wouldn’t be interested in the topic.
The producers then did a crowd-funding campaign to raise the money to distribute the movie to theaters, which of course created a ready-made audience that was asked to spread the word and pay forward so that others could get a ticket too. As a result, all attendance goals have been exceeded, and the movie is now projected to earn over $200 million.
Sound of Freedom has been a blockbuster, stunning Hollywood’s naysayers. Nonetheless, despite all the record-breaking success, the movie is getting no attention from mainstream media except for some really twisted criticism.
To the bigots in the media who stoop to guilt by association, the movie is accused of being right-wing conservative propaganda. Even though the statistics about human trafficking presented in the movie can be verified with a simple Google search, the press claims that Sound of Freedom promotes conspiracy theories about a problem that doesn’t really exist.
Human Trafficking Statistics
The facts are that approximately 27.6 million people are in forced labor. Of these, “17.3 million are exploited in the private sector, 6.3 million in forced commercial sexual exploitation, and 3.9 million in forced labor imposed by state.” (U.S. Department of State) The actual numbers could be as much as double those estimates.
This movie is based on a true story about Tim Ballard, who says: “God’s children are not for sale.” However, the number of children under the age of 18 in slavery is estimated at “10.1 million (25%), 37% of victims of trafficking in forced marriage are children, and 21% of victims of sexual exploitation are children.” https://www.stopthetraffik.org/
Twenty years ago, I heard a lecture at the World Affairs Council in Houston about the alarming extent, and secrecy, of the problem. An international journalist talked about interviews she had conducted around the globe with traffickers and law enforcement.
The situation was horrifying then, and now there are more enslaved people than ever before in history—even when slavery was legal. Between 2008 and 2019 the number of human trafficking victims identified worldwide more than quadrupled. Most alarmingly, the slave industry is growing at 5% each year!
Common Cause or Exploitation by the Greedy?
The subject of human trafficking is one that I thought would be a common cause for all Americans. Surely, abolishing slavery would be championed by the social justice-, individual-freedom left, and the right would condemn human trafficking since it involves prostitution and border violations.
Why on earth would anyone want to try to sweep this problem under the rug? Well, as in the case of the movie, if there is any sniff of religion about it, then it must be rejected. (However, Sound of Freedom has so few religious references in it that it would not set off any anti-Christian alarms if the press hadn’t jumped to conclusions.)
Those who favor legalizing prostitution don’t want human trafficking stopped because that’s a supply chain for them. Pornographers need sex slaves to star in their videos and fill the demand they create.
Those who are involved in the abortion industry definitely don’t want human trafficking stopped because they have a sizeable clientele among the traffickers who come in to get their “product” cleaned out and serviceable again.
Sound of Freedom is the sound of an alarm. Human trafficking is putting a lot of money and power into the hands of ruthless, violent people. So, the abolition of modern-day slavery is not just another cause among many do-gooder causes. It is the difference between a civilized society and utter chaos.
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