Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom” pulled off a slick marketing coup this week. Capitalizing on the fact that none of the major studios would be debuting a movie during the July 4 week, it dropped “Sound of Freedom” when most moviegoers were at the lake or the beach. That allowed it to slide into the number one spot for 24 hours, giving it bragging rights that will likely show up in marketing materials during its entire theatrical run.
This sleight-of-hand is a fitting tribute to the subject of the film, Tim Ballard, whose talent for self-promotion has earned him headlines and head-scratching from those who fact-check his claims.
MinistryWatch began reporting on Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), the organization Ballard founded and on which the movie is based, back in 2021. OUR says on its website it has rescued and supported “thousands of survivors in 28 countries and 26 U.S. states,” including 3,000 around the world in 2019 alone. The charity’s annual report said it took in more than $21 million in donations for that year, which was then the last year for which we had data.
Turns out it was just getting started. In 2021 the organization took in more than $42 million. But here’s where it gets interesting. In that same year, 2021, the organization spent only about $31 million on its work of allegedly rescuing sex trafficking victims. The year before, 2020, the numbers are even more strange. OUR took in $45 million but spent only $13.5 million. It had a whopping $33.9 million in profit.
And if you can stand a little more math, the bottom line is this: Operation Underground Railroad has a massive total of more than $80 million in assets, most of that accumulated in the past two years alone.
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That’s enough money to fund operations for OUR for nearly three years even if it doesn’t raise another dime. But don’t count on that. OUR spent $3.5 million on fundraising in 2021, and $1.8 million in 2020.
Money controversies aren’t the only ones that have dogged Ballard and OUR.
Since it was founded in 2013 by Ballard, a former Department of Homeland Security undercover operative, OUR has been known for its “jump” raids to extract sex trafficking victims around the world, allegedly led by highly trained personnel. But Vice News uncovered situations in which training for the missions was lax or nonexistent and where it said the charity seemed to be more focused on gaining promotional footage than rescuing victims.
In one case, the search for a Haitian-American boy near the Haiti/Dominican Republic border was revealed to be guided by a psychic medium from Utah who claimed that children were being held nearby. The mission to find the boy, Vice said, was unsuccessful.
In another investigation, Vice World News found that OUR had exaggerated its domestic rescue work and its role in freeing a survivor named “Liliana,” whom officials said actually escaped on her own. OUR faced an investigation by the Davis County, Utah, attorney general’s office regarding whether OUR made misleading statements in its fundraising appeals.
An anti-human-trafficking charity that professes to use highly skilled operatives to rescue victims instead has relied on untrained, high-dollar donors who paid for the privilege to help with some of its raids, an investigation by Vice World News found.
However, sources told Vice World News that not only was there little semblance of military-type training or planning involved in the jump raids, there was “no meaningful surveillance or identification of targets; no development of assets; no validating that people they sought to rescue had in fact been trafficked, or that people they were targeting were indeed traffickers; and no meaningful follow-up with people who had been rescued on the missions in which they took part.”
The charity’s methodology seemed to actually encourage trafficking behavior in some instances, sources said.
They told of operations that involved flashing money at clubs and bars to encourage pimps to show up with sex workers. When they did, operatives would insist on being shown younger girls, whom the sources felt had been immediately trafficked to meet the operatives’ demands.
OUR representatives would then call the local police to make arrests, they said.
“In my opinion that’s what he was doing: He was creating demand,” an operative who worked with OUR overseas told Vice.
The field of human trafficking has received increased scrutiny in recent years as the methods and claims of success of human trafficking organizations have been called into question. In February, Ministry Watch reported on a situation in which U.S.-based non-profit Christian Solidarity International traded cattle vaccines for slaves in the Sudan. A spokesperson for World Vision International pointed out that doing so might become an incentive for slavers to capture more victims.
In a statement to Vice, OUR said the charity “does all we can to avoid creating demand and informs suspected traffickers that we are not interested in them making efforts to find other victims. We are clear: they either have what we are looking for, or they do not. Additionally, we use a variety of undercover and operational tactics to elicit the information we need from suspects without entrapping or enticing them to commit a crime.”
All that said, “Sound of Freedom” is getting good reviews. And the $20 million it has made at the box office is not bad for a “religious” movie, though it will likely have to make $30 million or more to recoup its production budget and marketing costs.
So if you’re looking for a good yarn, “Sound of Freedom” may be your cup of tea. But if you’re looking for the truth about Operation Underground Railroad, you should probably look elsewhere.
https://twitter.com/OURrescue/status/1657088208478543872
This article was originally published at Ministry Watch and does not necessarily represent the views of The Roys Report.
Warren Cole Smith is president of MinistryWatch.com, a donor watchdog group. Prior to that, Smith was Vice President-Mission Advancement for the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
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40 Responses
This is why I no longer give any financial support to Any political or religious organisation. The dishonest and the big and little scams are so numerous it is impossible to know where the money goes. I have a detailed accounting of all money that goes into the one church group I support. We are in an era of massive scams of this nature from especially political and religious groups, most especially politicised religious people and the con artists they oft support. This is part ion why Christianity is shrinking so fast in North America. Greed and politics combined with the number of sexual predators among the clergy has cause this fatal bleeding out of our youth. We give God a bad name, with alarming regularity.
I also no longer give to any religious or political 501c3’s. I give to individuals that I know need help. Ever since what they ALL have done to President Trump as well as their “Circuits” that did it for me. But I will say this, OUR has been used to exposed what has been going on with the Human Sex Trafficking of Children. At the time of the film though it’s not mentioned about satanic sacrificing of them or about the Adrinachrome, however, the exposure of it being low ball park 150 billion dollar industry to really trillions is a big deal. What also is a big deal is that now people know through this film that BTW Disney had the opportunity to show it 5 years ago and tabled it. Gee! I wonder why? So I would think that you all would be praising that aspect of it and thankful that the LORD used them to expose it instead of scoffing it because in reality you all were in a position to expose what has been happening to our children and you didn’t. Why? It is a Faith concern. Yes you’re exposing the Sexual Abuse in the Church but where were you guys on the Human Sex Trafficking, Satanic Sacrifices, Organ Harvesting and Adrinachrome on the Children? Because I knew about this through “other” open source News Outlets that really you all would think are not Christian Believers.
Please link to the original investigative work completed by the one source this article gets ALL of it’s information from, Vice World News. No actual sources are cited in this opinion piece, ‘sources say’ is not really a valid source. Also, I don’t see how a movie titled and about Freedom having it’s opening day on Independence Day is anything but a smart marketing move, but you open with trying to make this marketing decision out to be an underhanded slick move to fool the masses! Why not take advantage of the situation to put the movie in first place that week and garner more attention for a world wide issue that needs attention brought to it?
Great observations. July 4th week is very much a movie debut haven much like Thanksgiving; many people having extra time on their hands so they go to the movies. Shame on the author for shading and framing the story negatively based on this very intelligent move by the producers. I’m all for checking on the veracity of the organization; however, this grooming of young kids for the sex slave industry is very real.
Meg Conley wrote an article about her experience with Tim Ballard’s OUR organization in 2021:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/05/sex-trafficking-raid-operation-underground-railroad.html
Axios does a link article about OUR and the movie. Lots and lots of links showing that Ballard is less than professional about what he’s doing.
https://www.axios.com/local/salt-lake-city/2023/07/10/sound-of-freedom-box-office-sales
Interestingly, the movie was completed more than two years ago (per the Conley article), but it took this long to get it to the theatres. I would also note that it is very good marketing to put a movie in theatres in what’s called a “dead” weekend.
Here’s also a link to Operation Underground Railroad’s Form 990 for the 2021 fiscal year:
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/463614979/202202729349301610/full
I would suggest people look at page 7, where they can see the amounts of money being paid to the principals. Tim Ballard pulled down $335,000 that year as president and the next four officers got paid over $200K each. That’s a lot of money for a non-profit.
My own personal opinion about Tim Ballard is that he’s problematic. Human trafficking is a serious problem, but cowboying around isn’t going to help.
“What Tim has done- is nothing short of irreparable damage to the public’s perception of sex trafficking and has given additional cover to pedophiles and actual sex traffickers.”
https://americancrimejournal.com/o-u-r-quietly-exposes-tim-ballards-big-lie/
I couldn’t have said it better!
I agree with you. Focus on the message of the movie. Is it true? Yes it is. It’s happening and we need to acknowledge that fact and do something about it.
Would be interested in the numbers pertaining to Christine Cain’s organization. “ A21 “ I believe is the name.
I would have confidence in any thing Caveziel is involved with.
Have to agree with Miss O’Shea’s statement. Caviezel, as far as I’m aware and what I’ve read about him is a man of high ethical integrity. And certainly his relationship to the Lord is fully genuine and is to be believed. I can’t see how, if what this post is suggesting, Jim Caviezel would knowingly participate. And what broke my heart when I saw this movie was the the statement at the end that said the United States is the world’s largest consumer of child sex trafficking. This is the first time I have ever disagreed with a story on Julie Roys site and for me anyway, it’s a very hard thing to do.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released on June 30th. That was stiff competition and Sound of Freedom beat the movie in box office receipts.
I wish you were wrong but I have been doing some deep diving and have way more questions than answers and none were answered by OUR…….however, Trump’s executive order against human trafficking and corruption will most likely arrest many who we think are doing good so just witnessing right now and watching how things unfold…looks more like deception and money laundering and I hate to say that because the children is what brings us together. the whole truth will do that. It’s coming and nothing can stop it.
Years ago, there was a ministry for taking surplus food and giving it to the hungry. What a great idea! The people in charge, turned out to be taking in extremely large salaries. The idea was godly. The leadership was not. Maybe there’s a parallel? Maybe not. I don’t trust the sources of criticism cited here, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no issues to address, or better way to do it. The problem deserves a Christian response. Tim Tebow is involved in similar work I believe. If someone is doing a job poorly, it should be improved upon.
The teenage and child sex traffic is such an evil trade that throwing the spotlight on it can do little harm and will probably do much good. And remember, success is not a sin. Let Tim Ballard have his brief burst of glory and financial success…the battle against child sex slavery will never stop since child abuse will never end and is a hundred times more powerful than he is!
This isn’t doing “little harm”. People who work with trafficking victims are publicly shouting about how much harm OAR and this movie are doing by spreading false narratives, and how much harder it’s making their work to actually get people out of trafficking and help them. Ballard is grifting off of actual victims, making more than $300,000 in his “non-profit”, and exploiting the people he’s “saving”. It’s super gross.
Vice is a far leftist pro (re)- gressive site that went bankrupt, but was always morally so. One of the major backers was Fortress Media, a Soros front group. It would be nice to look to credible sources before bashing a good work where courageous people have sacrificed so much to do the Lord’s work. Jim Caviezel has adopted 3 Chinese children who were trafficked and rescued. Tim Ballard and his wife, in addition to their own 6 children, adopted several of the rescued kids. I think that says more about their commitment than a bunch of dishonest leftists with an agenda to stop the rescuing of children and discredit anything good and decent in the culture they are determined to destroy. What is the motivation of the left to encourage and enable child traffickers by opening the border and paying NGOs massive $$$ to keep the pipeline flowing?
well said Maria. I don’t understand why people are bashing the production of this movie. A lot of people are in darkness about this subject. It needs to be brought to light!.
Exactly. It’s actually sickening that anyone would be against this movie.
I have not seen the movie yet but plan to very soon. Anything Jim does is truth and why should it matter when it went to number 1 at the box office. It did and that’s all that matters. The content of what is happening to these children is “sexual exploitation” and sickening. Our country needs to wake up to these horrific acts that is making more money than the drug trade. BTW, it takes raising funds to make things happen. May the Lord be the judge of the people trying to do something about it.
The Roys Report states 2 things on their site: “Reporting the Truth – Restoring the Church”, and to foster “thoughtful and respectful dialogue”. This opinion piece definitely has the opposite tone. It would seem to me that the whole point of the movie was missed here. WE ARE LOSING CHILDREN EVERY DAY TO TRAFFICKERS!!! The goal? To bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of children who go missing every year – year after year after year. Why would you not offer at minimum, one good word for the children and those trying to recover them? And gathering your information from Vice? Really? Roys Report, why would you publish this very disrespectful piece?
Don’t think that a movie based on a true story or person is the same thing as a documentary. This is a movie! Many people don’t know that human trafficking is rampant . Shouldn’t we be encouraging exposure on the subject matter? Where is the moral outrage of such sinful behavior?
Laurel H,
“Shouldn’t we be encouraging exposure on the subject matter? Where is the moral outrage of such sinful behavior?”
On point. There is more outrage from those that are angry (and appear protective of this truly evil/demonic corruption of innocence) because a film has thrown light onto the darkness of this subject. Than from the Christian groups that claim to follow a path of service under God’s terms, including protecting children from evil. Jesus directly calls out anyone that harms children and what awaits them during judgement. This speaks more to the fallen nature of Christianity, the lack of responsibility to God’s commands we have been taught by these churches, than what evil has always been up to, but the full reach of those protecting Satan is being exposed.
Anytime there is the inversion of attacking the truth of a message by addressing everything (from the characters, actors, their motives, how much money they have, etc …), but the subject matter is ignored, evil is circling the wagons, and looking for a shadow to keep the truth under. If the people behind this film are using the subject matter as a fundraising commercial, then the fruits will bear out this truth, but that does not change that fact that child trafficking is occurring, and there appear to be many who do not want this information public.
I’m not a fan of Christian movies. It seems to me that Christianity is so tied to the written word of the Bible, and thereby tied by complex human psychological dynamics involved in reading, that what is involved in the movie medium poses fundamental challenges regards authenticity. These challenges not being insurmountable, but being profound.
I’ve tracked reaction to this film on the Christian Post forum, and there reaction has been overwhelmingly approving. And ferociously condemning of negative commentary on the film.
The reasoning in this TRR piece on the film, then chimed well with my own thinking about Christian movies. I’m wary of anything to do with celebrity. The thinking about raised versus spent funds, appears very pertinent. The commentary on “jump” raids likewise seems pertinent. Much is being made of the film as a box office smash, when it is not yet clear as to whether it really is; and self promotion seems evident there. All in all the opinion piece draws together a reasonable critique.
It was then a huge surprise to find the TRR comments running against the opinion piece. Which is thought provoking.
It’s likely because well-known Christian nationalist Sean Feucht went after TRR on social media for publishing the piece, drawing his followers. I have asked him for evidence that anything Warren Cole Smith cited in the article was false, but he has not produced it. He did, however, call TRR “pathetic” and a “brood of vipers.”
Is the movie well written, production values decent, and do the characters hold our attention? Movies always take some liberties, but it is a visual and visceral medium.
And here is an alternate review – unfortunately behind paywall, but might be able to open it with the free samples that are given – https://wng.org/opinions/a-good-movie-gets-smeared-1689160413 – it is from World Magazine
The author of this article clearly didn’t do her homework. Her claim that OUR provides kids with years of after-care doesn’t square with first-hand accounts. Here’s an excerpt from someone who participated in one of OUR’s raids:
“The research, I learned, tells us our 2014 raid was most likely just another childhood trauma for those 26 kids. We made their lives worse. . . . I was told two of the children had been trafficked for the first time that day. It didn’t seem to occur to anyone that OUR may have created a demand. After the sting, I asked people on the jump team where the 26 kids were taken. I was given only vague answers. Aftercare wasn’t really their focus, I was told, but they partnered with people who did it well.
“I found out what really happened from a Foreign Policy report:
“In 2014, after OUR’s first operation in the Dominican Republic, a local organization called the National Council for Children and Adolescents quickly discovered it didn’t have the capacity to handle the 26 girls rescued. They were released in less than a week.
“Some testified, the article reported. The local organization lost track of others. All those kids in 2014 got from us was a soda and a swim—and Ballard came out ahead in the deal.” (See: https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/05/sex-trafficking-raid-operation-underground-railroad.html)
And WORLD author Bethel McGrew’s claim that this is an attack on conservatives is absurd. Warren Cole Smith is as conservative as they come. He used to be assoc publisher for WORLD.
I have read multiple reviews of the movie and of Ballard and this the only place where I have read anything negative.
Have you read Christianity Today’s article on the movie? CT’s article also sheds light on what makes the movie problematic.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2023/july/anti-trafficking-ministries-nonprofits-sound-of-freedom.html
Ms. King —
It’s a movie. Go watch an episode of Chicago PD, then follow an actual police officer around for a day or two. There are guys kicking in doors and canoeing through the jungle in the movie because nobody is going to pay $14 to watch two hours of a Federal agent sitting in front of a computer for two hours.
The part that no one (even on this blog) wants to talk about is why so many people find this movie “problematic” in the first place.
But that’s exactly why a ‘Christian’ mission / aid org. SHOULD NOT then be making a movie! If ‘movies’ are truth-bending, marketing gimmicks that all audiences just take with your grain of salt and carry on with life as usual, then why would any church, pastor, mission org, denomination, ‘christian’ institution of any kind etc etc participate in something that doesn’t clearly give the onlooking world / audience a public witness of Jesus teaching “let your yeah be yeah and your nay nay…” (I’m quick to point out that some faith based or faith infused movies actually do well, but this doesn’t seem to be one of them.) But instead today’s worldly ‘christians’ want to emulate the world and all its prevaricating, hedging, hem-hawing, bait & switching entertaining flim flam… for what? Money, Attention? some greater End? God help us when will the american church understand that the end doesn’t justify the means!
Btw, these kinds of practices and justifications saturate the american evangelical church from neck to toe… A multitude of things from its media/entertainments to its ‘worship’ sets, down to its silly VBS themed crap it feeds kids – runs on the corruption I list above. All of it and it’s always justified… as we see commentators doing here…
I agree with Lori Scholz, and others like her here.
Here are two additional reflections consistent with this view, for good measure:
PETER MCCULLOUGH, MD: DOJ Removes Sex Trafficking Info From Website
https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/doj-removes-sex-trafficking-info?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1119676&post_id=134938961&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
DR. STEVE TURLEY: Panicked Elites Try to SABOTAGE Sound of Freedom! BACKFIRES Bigtime!!!
I read the linked post. I watched the YouTube video.
Here is my takeaway:
YouTube video:
Basically some people on Tik Tok are claiming that their tickets were refunded because AC was down in the theaters or some other reason.
…..First of all theaters want money. They don’t want to give refunds.
…..Why single out this movie as one the theater owners don’t want to be seen?
…..In spite of these claims the movie is number #1 the weekend it was released.
The posted link:
The claim is that the DOJ has removed paragraphs that were added by Donald Trump administration. …..The description of what was in the paragraphs looks very similar to what is currently on the website. Likely they updated as previous content was 3 years old
….. Where does this idea come from that the Biden administration doesn’t want the truth about sex trafficking to be known? Sorry I just don’t follow that line of thinking.
Here is the link to the DOJ site on sex trafficking read for yourself and let me know what is being withheld?
https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/child-sex-trafficking
Tricia: I think your statement of “where does this idea come from that the Biden administration doesn’t want the truth about sex trafficking to be known” is a bit off-center. Knowing what I know about the Biden administration, it’s not so much that they don’t want the truth about sex trafficking to be known, but it seems to me, they really aren’t doing much if anything about it. I believe if my sources are correct, the United States is the biggest consumer and staging area of child sex trafficking in the world. But I guess the Biden administration has more important things to do, like covering up every criminal activity they have ever done prior to and gaining the White House. God help us! I think the Lord is getting very close to saying two words to this country and to this world we live in – E-NOUGH!!!
Experience dictates very slim chance would I trust an ex CIA or HLS agent with my money. Ballard has a shady portfolio of people currently supporting him (billionaires), and is on the board of directors with extremely high-level corrupt people (https://afghanistanworldfoundation.org/awf-board/).
So many many foundations are just fronts for money laundering and human trafficking. I hope not, but wouldn’t surprise me if OUR is one of them.
Looks like national chain hotels are possibly in on it too.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/courts/2023/04/26/over-1000-sex-trafficking-victims-from-across-us-to-wage-legal-fight-against-hotels-in-columbus/70151661007/
Far too many people in high and low places are in on it and need to be exposed, especially those in government and law enforcement.
This movie truly draws a line in the sand. You either want to hide your sexual sin or you want to expose it. You either want to excuse sin or want to free children from slavery. Which side of the line are you on?
My second attempt at a comment. Hopefully Julie and team don’t refuse to post my comments. What is surprising is that the tone and language in my comments were far milder and less critical than any of these posted above. So, here goes.
I hope the body doesn’t attack what is or could be perceived as positive that brings attention where needed because of, in my view, a fairly critical and personal attack on the character portrayed by Jim C. What this movie is achieving for eternal good, in my view, likely far outweighs the back stories present raised by the author. Just in terms of public visibility to the issue.
Julie, I never claimed that OUR was ‘in on it’ as one of your other posters suggested.
Are there any other organizations like Ballard’s that ENDANGER THEIR OWN LIVES to rescue people out of the living hell of human trafficking? I don’t care how much he and others make. If they are saving children and others they deserve kudos not needless scrutiny. He and other brave men and women like him will live the rest of their lives under the threat of being killed by traffickers. Did the writer consider that ?
I absolutely LOVE it when this site posts stuff on MacArthur, but this article is a complete let down for me. I believe in freedom of the press, but this should have never been posted.
Sorry this apology is so late. I take back what I have said above that is critical of the writer and of this site. I’m sorry.