God's Children are Not for Sale

 

Dear Parishioners,

Chances are you may be familiar with the actor Jim Caviezel. He most notably played Jesus in the movie The Passion of the Christ.

However, you may be less familiar with Tim Ballard. Tim formerly worked as a special agent for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but then quit his job there to pursue the rescue of children who are being trafficked in the sex trade worldwide. The organization that he formed is called Operation Underground Railroad about which the movie Sound of Freedom was written.

I saw the movie a few weeks ago and I highly recommend it. The plot surrounds an actual rescue of children that took place in Colombia, South America. The movie respectfully handles a most difficult subject and attempts to make people aware of the extent of human trafficking worldwide and, in particular, the sex trafficking of minors.

I have listened extensively to the interviews of both Jim and Tim on many varying platforms. To hear their personal stories and the background information of the film makes one aware of the evil and the dark forces that do not want this film to be successful or their message about human trafficking to get out to the general public. Just shut up!

The film did not get the backing of any of the normal Hollywood channels and was produced independently by Angel Studios, the same studio that has successfully produced the Netflix series, The Chosen. When I began to notice how much the mainstream media and the Hollywood elites continually try to portray the film, the actors, the subject matter, etc. in the most negative of terms, attached to all sorts of conspiracy theories, I suspect that the makers of the film have touched upon a much-hidden and carefully-protected sore spot among societal elites and various potential predators. Does anyone happen to remember Harvey, Cosby, Spacey, the Me Too movement, Ghislaine, Jeffery and his notorious island, etc. etc.? Or are our collective memories that bad?

When the filmmakers contend that America is the number one consumer of child pornography and that the money generated annually by the sex trafficking of minors and adults is a 150 billion dollar industry, does that bother us?

Remember we live in a culture where the destruction of preborn children is routine, where the sexualization of young children and adolescents is ever more commonplace, where the family unit has disintegrated, where sexual perversion and taboos are advocated and glorified, where pornography is rampant and where the moral compass of the godless does not exist. To quote the line from the Louis Armstrong song: What a wonderful world!

I have stated many times that God is in charge and that nothing happens without His knowing it or permitting it.  However, biblical history has shown that things will only spiral out of control for so long without God's intervention.  Remember Noah?  How about Sodom and Gomorrah? What about the ten plagues of Egypt?

Then there was the great Roman Empire.  I suspect that no one at the time would have predicted its demise.

I am thankful that there are people in the world who are willing to stand up for what is right and good despite the personal cost. I personally think that Jim Caviezel and Tim Ballard fit into this category. While none of us is perfect and without our own sin, we all need to take some responsibility for the sins of our society.  And we need to stand up for and protect our most vulnerable members including the preborn, children, the handicapped, the infirm and the elderly.

I especially echo the theme of Sound of Freedom:  God's Children are Not for sale!

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor