I went to see "Sound of Freedom". Many people say they cannot go see it because of the emotional toll it would take on them. I ask, (emphasis on ask, not tell) "What about the emotional toll on the children who are sold into such slavery?"
No compassionate person who sees the movie should ever be emotionally impervious to that truth. It was made to force your face into seeing just how SICK this world is. Hiding our heads in the sand will not make it go away. Ignoring it will only prolong it. "Trafficking" is too nice of a word for it and America is guilty yet again of slavery.
Eric Metaxas wrote "Letter to the American Church", saying the American Church is WORSE than the churches in Germany in 1933 who put their heads in the sand. Why? Because the Germans had no idea what evil would come as a result of their silence.
We need only look back a mere 90 years into the past to see our future, our future if we are silent.
We saw what happened when the church refused to act when there was time to stop the millions who would later perish as a result of their inactivity. Yet again, on their hands, doth the church sit!
The solution of the German church was to sing hymns louder so they would not hear the wails of the Jews on the boxcars going to gas chambers, to their deaths. Is your solution of not seeing this movie because of the emotional toll it would take on you any different? Sing louder, Americans. Watch Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was meant to expose the evils of slavery in 1851. To provoke emotions. If you were living in the 1850s, would you have simply ignored her book and hope the atrocities of slavery would just go away.
I ask you who say you cannot see it because it would evoke emotions, "Do you think we who have seen it are devoid of emotions?" It sickened me and so should it sicken every decent person. It should make us weep and wail. Perhaps seeing "Sound of Freedom" will provoke you pray, to act, to pull your head out of ignore-ance and to open your eyes to ghastly things against which these children cannot shut their eyes tightly enough.
Explain to me Harriet Beecher Stowe's line, “Scenes of blood and cruelty are shocking to our ear and heart. What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear.”
Men (and women as the movie depicts) have the nerve to do these atrocities to children. Should we have the nerve to hear and see it, even though those portraying these things are mere actors. And yet their stories are true.
Tim Ballard saw these things not with actors but in real life. It moved him to action, to give liberty to the captives. What if seeing this movie would move you to action? Please wait until the very end when Jim Caviezel speaks. You will be moved to action.
Jesus sees every act but He also sees every inaction. “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,” (Luke 4:18). Can we not be like Christ?
Someone prayed to God, "Why do you let these things happen?" Would it not be appropriate for God to reply, "I was just about to ask you the same thing!"
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
Jesus sees every act...and every inactivity...
My goal is to join the hearts of people with the heart of the Father. For three decades now, I served in full-time vocational ministry, currently serving as senior pastor at GracePointe Church in Springtown, Texas. I continue to write, having published my first book, The Gospel of John, One Day at a Time. I am now working on my second book. As a Journalism graduate of Texas Tech University (Bachelor of Arts), I worked as a journalist and editor for several Texas newspapers for more than a decade. Prior to serving as pastor, I served at my alma mater, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Master of Arts in Religious Education) as associate director for news and information. I continue to work as a free-lance writer for various Christian outlets.