Saturday, July 15, 2023

The Sound of Freedom and a serious problem with truth

 

picture by Melissa Tregilgas
by Viola Larson

I’m writing about “The Sound of Freedom” and first I want to put down some facts about the movie which I admit I have not seen. And then I intend to point to one particular serious problem with the whole enterprise. It is a problem that is so serious that it is possible to lead many Christians away from the seriousness of child sexual abuse and send them toward a damnable ideology.

The first fact is that this movie is about a horrendous and grievous subject, human trafficking and in particular the trafficking of children. A subject we should all care about, seeking God’s mercy and help.

Secondly most writers who disparage the movie at least admit that it does not draw on conspiracy theories to fill out the plot. Rather it is somewhat of an action movie portraying the work of Tim Ballard and his organization Operation Underground Railroad as they rescue children in South America.

Third fact Tim Ballard is a devout Latter Day Saint (Mormon) who speaks of his faith. On a LDS video he quotes from the Book of Mormon a verse he says has helped him in a time of fear, Alma chapter 58, verse eleven. [1]

The fourth fact, the actor who plays Tim Ballard, Jim Caviezel, is a devout Christian, a Roman Catholic. In many interviews he speaks of loving Jesus and even of Jesus’ return. But here lies the problem possibly tied to an extreme naivety.

Caviezel has promoted the movie on many far right and even QAnon platforms including Steve Bannon’s War Room, and he promotes many awful conspiracy theories in the process.

 Caviezel believes the conspiracy theory that many elites torture and kill children to drain their blood to obtain what is called adrenochrome which supposedly (but not really) gives youth to those who use it.[2] He states that such officials as the CIA and FBI are the main perpetrators of child trafficking. He insists that barrels of children’s body parts and blood are going to bio-labs in Ukraine thus implicating Ukrainian officials in the crime.[3]  Accusations of child stealing to obtain their blood is an ancient conspiracy theory used against the Jews.  And that old anti-Semite ruse, the use of bankers, mainly the Rothschild’s, Caviezel names as those who are involved in child trafficking.

Many Christians and others who consider themselves patriots seeing the actor who played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ and now plays a heroic man rescuing children in the jungles of South America will without thinking believe such horrid lies. This is what happened to too many Germans during the Nazi years. They excused and followed monsters because they believed the stories that the Jews were destroying their nation, their families and their culture. Today people are being asked to believe that many in Hollywood, the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and Democrats are stealing children, raping, torturing, and killing them for their blood.

This is not to say that there isn’t a terrible plague of human trafficking, there is, and there are people and organizations working against this crime. They understand that human greed and lust are the motivating factors in such sins. Some of the organizations are Child Rescue Coalition, The Tim Tebow Foundation Lantern Rescue  Hug Project, and National Child Protection Force.

The person who follows the conspiracies touted by Caviezel may finally attempt to solve these problems, which are based on lies, by political means and/or violence. That is what happened with the incident called Pizza/gate. Some conspiracy advocates kept insisting that there was a pizza parlor in Washington D.C. where elite democrats (The Clintons for one) were holding children, torturing and killing them for their blood. One man hearing this was so incensed he went there with a rifle meaning to rescue children. As it turned out there were no kidnaped children and although shots were fired no one was hurt. The man was sentenced to prison.

In a recent blog posting entitled We cannot promote conspiracies and still be prepared to speak of the one who is Truth.I wrote, “We cannot promote conspiracies and still be prepared to speak of the one who is Truth. We cannot major in our own particular ideology over the truth of the triune God of the Bible. Our urgency, if we are faithful, whether apologist or simply follower of Jesus, must be to clear away the rubbish of false doctrine which includes conspiracies. It is to make the path clear so that others can freely rejoice in Truth as they submit to the Lordship of Christ.” Our children are in trouble—they need us to major in truth and in their safety.

1 comment:

Jodie said...

Good post, Viola.

I used to be annoyed by the repetitive use of the word "Truth" and all it's derivatives in the Gospel of John. But in the last few years I have come to appreciate that John must have been struggling with the same issues of Truth and Lies we are facing today.

I have come to see the Gospel of John in a whole different Light.

Jodie