Rick Green: 0:11

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders, where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Here with David and Tim Barton, I'm Rick Green, we got a great show for you. You're going to get a little bit down for a few minutes, and then you're going to go, wow, there's hope. There's something I can do about this. It's a tough subject, guys. We're talking about, you know, basically the modern day slavery. And, Tim, as you point out in our biblical citizenship class, there's more people in slavery today than back in the founding era. And in some ways, it's even more horrific. And so we're going to talk about ways people can help and places they can go. You guys are both very involved with the Nazarene fund, and of course, rescuing persecuted Christians all around the world, but also kids in sex trafficking. It's just, it's ugly, it's awful. But it needs to be done. And there's some amazing stories that come out of it.

David Barton: 0:58

Yeah, what we do with Nazarene fund, and we talked a lot about what happened last August, going back to when Afghanistan shut down and getting Christians out of there, away from ISIS and the other 20 terrorist groups. But one of the things that is really significant with Christian persecution is the sexual abuse that goes with it and the trafficking that is part of that Christian persecution, seeing Christians as second class citizens, they make them slaves, they use them very actively in sex trafficking, that makes the money to be able to do their terrorism stuff. So it's very hard to separate Christian persecution and sex trafficking in many areas of the world. That's a money making market for a lot of folks who hate Christians and prefer their own

Tim Barton: 1:39

Well, yeah, and specifically, you have beliefs. individuals that are promoting this evil, and they want to subjugate the people that they disagree with the most, where as you mentioned Dad, second class citizens. So Christians are absolutely targets, in so many of these nations. And you know, it's where there are, there are places known today, where slavery still happens, whether you're looking at China with what they did with the Uighur Muslims, and how they're enslaving them. In North Korea, we know slavery still happens. There's many places in the world where it is known slavery exists. And then there's a lot, of kind of the underbelly areas of the world where there is a lot of dark human trafficking. And certainly, there's a lot of Christian groups that are targeted. And they're targeted because they're Christians in this. And Dad, you mentioned the Nazarene fund. This is something that is part of Glenn Beck's nonprofit that you and I both help with over the years, we've been very involved with the Nazarene fund. Several years ago, actually, you and Glenn went over to Afghanistan with the fall of Afghanistan, trying to help rescue Christians. As Joe Biden did this infamous returning of Afghanistan back over to the Muslims, and just so much of that debacle, we don't need to relive all that necessarily. But we've been very involved in part of this process. There's several nonprofits that we work with, and helping in various capacities. And obviously, some of this conversation is a little sensitive as to how much we say, and to who some of the groups are, because there are still active operations going on in so many places in the world right now, because this is a real thing. I remember when the movie Taken came out, and it made it real for some people, when it was a father and his daughter gets kidnapped, and he's going to go rescue his daughter. And this is what every dad would want to do if they were able. And the reality is, there's just so many situations and so many places where people aren't able to rescue their daughters from these scenarios. But this is very real stuff happening. And so this is something that we have been able to engage in. And again, Mercury One, one of the things they do, part of that nonprofit is the Nazarene fund. And WallBuilders has partnered with Mercury One in many respects. And we, Dad, you and I have both helped do a lot of stuff with a Nazarene fund to try to fight this evil that is still ongoing. When people look at America, and they pretend like America is uniquely evil because of slavery, that has been illegal here for more than 150 years. And there are nations around the world where slavery is legal. And this stuff is openly embraced in many cultures. It's where you see the hypocrisy of a side that pretends like they hate the horrors of slavery while they're not fighting human trafficking nearly as hard as they're trying to condemn America for something that we have outlawed for more than 150 years. And this is definitely something that people need to be aware of. And Rick, as you mentioned, there definitely are things that we can do to help support some of these nonprofits and do things to hopefully help engage on some level and what we can do supporting those who are trying to put a stop to this.

Rick Green: 4:35

Well, one of the things that's coming, you know, really into the public's eye, is there's a whole movie about these rescue missions now happening. It's called the sound of freedom. Jim Caviezel, from Passion of the Christ is the star of the movie. And he's actually our guest, today. So looking forward to having him. I had a chance to meet him just a week or two ago. One of the FlashPoint Live events, and a very intense guy. I will tell you that. And very serious about saving kids. We'll be back in a moment folks, Jim Caviezel our special guest today, on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 5:15

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. In the early 1700s, the Reverend John Wise preached that all men were created equal, that taxation without representation was tyranny, and that God’s preferred form of government was the consent of the governed: all of which is language recognizable on the Declaration of Independence. Why? Because in 1772, the Sons of Liberty led by founders such as Sam Adams and John Hancock, reprinted and distributed the Reverend Wise’s sermons. So four years later, much of the declaration reflected the language of those sermons by John Wise. In 1926, on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President Calvin Coolidge affirmed “The thoughts in the declaration can very largely be traced back to what John Wise was saying.” Few today know that the Declaration was so strongly influenced by the Reverend John Wise. For more information on this and other stories, go to wallbuilders.com.

Rick Green: 6:12

Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Great to have Jim Caviezel with us, going to talk about his new movie sound of freedom done with Angel studios, our friends over there. Thank you Angel studios for stepping up. Jim, God bless you, man. This is... you're doing the Lord's work here. And I know this had to be a tough project, but thanks for coming on to tell us about it.

Jim Caviezel: 6:28

Thank you very much. Good to be here.

Rick Green: 6:30

Well, I you know, before we get into the movie itself, which is incredible. Thank you for sending me a screener. You know, [I] cried like a baby as I'm watching it. It's just powerful. And I know it's going to move other people like that. Before we get into the movie itself. Can you take us on the journey? I mean, five years to get this movie made. You know, it... all kinds of challenges, all kinds of people that didn't want this to happen. And thank God it's out there July 3, and fourth. Like I'm watching tickets being bought right now, Jim, on the Angel site. It's a cool deal. I mean, I'm looking New York, Virginia, Florida, California, Arizona, Oregon, just every second there's somebody getting tickets, getting them for friends, getting people to know about it. So be encouraged, brother, people are talking about it like crazy.

Jim Caviezel: 7:09

Oh, that's wonderful.

Rick Green: 7:11

What was it like trying to get this made? I mean you've, you know, obviously been in the business a long time, had a lot of success, but this was a huge challenge.

Jim Caviezel: 7:19

I think it's a lot like the Passion of the Christ. That was a film that they really worked this over. Especially the media, trying to control the world narrative. Back then I didn't realize there was a narrative. I thought they were just, you know, miffed at Christians throughout the US. So there's going to be plenty of people to watch this. And also, it was going to be brilliant filmmaking. So I thought, there'd be no problem. But it wasn't like that. And the moment I took the film I was taken off the studio. They weren't offering me anything after that. During it and after. And so on this one, I know that Eduardo Verástegui was, and Alejandro Monteverde, the director and producer, were having a struggle casting it because nobody wanted to do this, because of what the topic was, which is really interesting. I compared it to... I love the film Taken. The way this is stylized. This is beautiful. It's like Taken with a big, big heart, a thriller. I remember watching that film, and I tought if I could ever find something like that, that would be something I want to be part of because, like The Passion is very relevant. And where we're out right now as a country and you see all these grooming going on and trafficking and open borders and 85,000 children disappearing. And so here I'm playing this homeland security guy who goes down and saves this little boy who turns to him and says says, will you save my sister? And he goes and talks to his wife and sells what he has and goes down and tries to find this little girl. It's a simple story, but it's very relevant in this time right now where people are waking up and you know looking at Bud Light, why are they doing what they're doing right now and then Target joining in on it. That doesn't make any sense. One's losing billions the other one's losing billions and the more woke that we get pushed more Americans are saying I'm not going to buy that brand. Well if you're like where I am, come to Sound of Freedom. It's money well spent.

Rick Green: 9:29

Yeah. Yeah, that's... it's a great point because there's so many places right now people are saying, I don't want to give my dollars to people that are literally undermining the country with it. What can I do that will support something that's doing a good cause? Here's a perfect example. And you talk about this at the end of the movie, how people can actually pay it forward. And they can help other people to see the movie as well. I love Angel Studios is doing that. And I want to ask you back to the story of the little boy, the little girl, because like you said, I mean, the numbers are staggering. Of course at the end of them movies y'all show that, how large this is and how big the challenge is, but that there's things we can do about it. But the movie makes it so personal and so real by telling that one story of those two kids. It's just masterfully done, but it makes you want to do something about it. And as you mentioned at the end, you know, it is, I mean, the storyteller is critical. You guys tell the story powerfully in the movie, and thank you for making it personal enough that I guarantee you, we want... we got up and said we got to do something, after we saw it.

Jim Caviezel: 10:30

How did it affect you?

Rick Green: 10:32

Oh my gosh, It's like how can you ignore what is happening. Once you know... like, some people could deny knowing, right? They could say I didn't know this was going on? And maybe they didn't. Once you see this, you know it's going on. And you are moved to action. It's like you are immediately, no kidding, like talking about get up off the couch. I mean, you stand up at the end of this movie and look around and go, What do I do? How can I help? And thankfully, you do the clip directly to camera at the end to say, here's something you can do. And I urge people, when you go see this, as everybody listening should go do, stay through the credits and listen to Jim's personal message to you. Because it'll give you some action steps that you can do. Yeah, it moved us. My wife and I watched it together. And I'm telling you, man, it makes you not just want to do something, I don't think you can live with yourself if you don't do something. I mean, it's It's that powerful.

Jim Caviezel: 11:21

You know, just to tell the audience... you know, just every year you think of a big event, right? How about the Superbowl? Right, the NFL makes about anywhere between $11 and$15 billion a year. Okay. This is $152 billion a year business. Okay, globally, what that means is football, NFL, NBA, okay, let's throw a major league baseball in this. Take NHL, hockey, let's add all of the World Cup soccer champions leagues and throughout Europe and South America. All of that Real Madrid, okay, Manchester... all that. Still not the numbers. Okay, still not there. That you have to add in every 18 year old in the United States gets a full four year scholarship to Stanford University, then you would be talking about $152 billion.

Rick Green: 12:18

Yeah, it's impossible to even grasp if you don't lay it out like that. And because, you know, it's a little more than I make, so I can't possibly even fathom that amount of money. And then the number of people, organizations, businesses, cartels, all of those that are involved, that have a stake in it now, is what makes it difficult to make the movie, to get out there and tell people about it. But average Joe, and Suze, when they see this, they're moved to say, you know, this could be my kid. I think that's the part that got across. Anybody that's a parent or grandparent, you start going this could happen to my family, and probably has happened to somebody, in your neighborhood, in your church, in your community. I think that's the other thing you bring home, is hey, this is not some just third world country problem. This is in the United States.

Jim Caviezel: 13:07

Over 300,000 kids under the ages of 18 are lured into the sex trade... And we're the biggest consumers of it in the world, in the United States. So what we... what you can do, the audience, you... First of all, this is a phenomenal film. It's the best film I've done since The Passion. So you're going to get highest quality when you see it. We're trying to give these kids their... back there freedom on Independence Day, or Independence week. And by showing up, you're bringing a big light to this. You're bringing a big light to the border, do you understand that? We don't have a south border. And by definition, we're celebrating the Fourth of July, and we have no country. That's right. As sovereign country has to have borders, and we don't have a south border. So by going, you're bringing a lot of attention to this, and they don't want it. They don't want this around. That's why we had such a hard time getting this out. But by going to the film and telling your friends. Now if you love the film, tell your friends. We want to make this the most important film that... this is what all movies were made to be, you know, to either be propaganda like Joseph Goebbels, you know, the head propagandists for the Nazis who helped Hitler make with Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will, where we can make something that exposes what this evil is, and it's in our government. It's in the three letter agencies that are refusing to do anything about this. You see this guy, Mayorkas, Homeland Security, done nothing. Okay. The the Attorney General? nothing. And so that we're running out of theaters right now. We're selling out so fast. And we need more theaters and by you calling in now to preorder these tickets, now, it forces the distributors to give us more theaters. And can you imagine, dwarfing Hollywood? We have a chance to do that right now. This week is so critical. We're growing leaps and bounds. But we're, right now we're, we're dying for more theaters. And what's going to happen is you're going to show up and say, now what? Most people do. They just show up, they don't buy the ticket, they show up, and it says, oh, it's sold out. Okay, well, I'm just gonna get my money to Disney. Okay, that's what's going to happen. You'll go to a movie but you won't go to our film. You got to see this film. And you got to call in. It's just a little simple thing. And we want to make... put such a light on this that they're going to have to recognize, all the politicians are going to have to... And it's got to be people driven. The government's not going to do it. It's got to be us.

Rick Green: 16:00

And Jim, just to... you know, the the easiest way, tell me if I'm doing this, right. You know, when I go to angel.com , there's an easy box right there for Sound of Freedom. Click on that. So angel.com , folks. That's easy to remember Angel Studios. It's where we got The Chosen and all these other great things they've done. Angel.com and then right there, you can click on buy tickets for Sound of Freedom. And you can pre purchase your tickets for next week, which is... it'll be, you know, July 4th, I guess, the official opening, but some theaters have it that night before on the 3rd. You can get it for throughout the week. And you're saying if we do what, you know, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions are going to do before next week, then that... when we fill up those theaters ahead of time, they get it, they're watching it, they see that and they go okay, it's you know, we got to spill over. Now we need this theater down the road. And that means more people watch it. More people see the story. More people take action.

Jim Caviezel: 16:47

We're on the verge of being a major blockbuster right now. And it can happen, if people just say, you know, I never pre ordered... if you could, it'll open those theaters up. And the... it will just... this is exactly what they don't want. You know, I know a lot of you're probably thinking, man, I don't want to see a movie about trafficking. Let me explain something. This is an inspirational film. You know on Christmas, I'm going to pick a dark film. When you hear the words, It's a Wonderful Life. You know, you think, oh, yeah, it's a happy... Well, it's actually not. This guy's going to commit suicide. Jimmy Stewart. And he gets saved by an angel. He doesn't see the good he's done in his life. And this angel has shown him without him, without him, these people don't live. You know, when you watch this movie without Tim Ballard, this hero, he became a hero because he did the right thing. He risked... He's basically... it's like the Bible. You know, the story, you know, Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a Pearl. You'd sell everything to gain that one pearl. That's what Tim Ballard did. And without him these little kids die. So I know some of you say, well, I can't do it, Tim did... well, but what is your purpose in this life? What is my purpose? And I weaponized by a whole culture by, you know, showing a Jesus that we had never seen before. And what really happened to him, and really changed a lot of lives. Yes, it was worth the pain and suffering it took to do this film. But I felt like, if we all take part in this, we can really do a number to this world's devil, which is in this trafficking. And it's far bigger than that. But this is the beginning of it. And we start to... and the line that we use over and over in the film, that God's children are no longer for sale. And when God tells you to do something, you don't hesitate.

Rick Green: 18:58

Amen. Well, I'm so glad you addressed that about because my wife said the exact same thing at first. She's like, so many people need to see this that I think will be afraid to go see it because they're afraid of the emotional drain in the in the difficulty of dealing with this topic. And they have no idea that it's an inspirational movie. And so you use the right exactly the right word. It's actually an inspirational movie that shows you that lives can be saved and what a difference it makes when, when we're willing to do that

Jim Caviezel: 19:23

the public has to be awakened to the fifth generation where we are at war. This is the war that has to be fought and must be won. We cannot lose our republic. And we certainly cannot hand over our children.

Rick Green: 19:36

Amen. Amen. Jim, God bless you, man. Thank you for taking on the tough fights.

Jim Caviezel: 19:40

God bless you, too. Thank you.

Rick Green: 19:41

Yeah, we really appreciate it. And we want as many people as possible to see it. Angel.com is the website and we'll of course have links at WallBuilders today and make it easy for you to get over there. We're encouraging everybody. And you can buy tickets for other people. You can actually pay it forward. Cool tool on there. Jim, God bless you, man. Thank you so much for coming on.

Jim Caviezel: 19:58

It was wonderful. Thank you.

Rick Green: 19:59

Stay with us folks, We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Tim Barton: 20:09

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today. And we would say very providentially in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out of statement, Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America. Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story. Starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America, not as the story of a perfect nation or a perfect people, but the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out WallBuilders.com , The American Story.

Rick Green: 21:12

We're back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Jim Caviezel for joining us today as well. I couldn't help but think guys, you know, as he's talking about this, and even as I watched the movie, there's so much pain in this arena, and so many sad stories that don't end well, but you guys get to hear a lot of the reports of rescue missions and things like that, where despite all the ugly and despite all the bad, you do get to hear, as Jim said, you know, it's an inspirational story, because when they are saved, and when you do see... not that it's an easy road after that when you get them out, but still that there are some good endings to

David Barton: 21:42

Well there are good endings, but the stories some of the stories. are really kind of worse than what you can show in a film. And as Jim mentioned, in playing Tim Ballard, what started off was rescuing a boy from sex trafficking. And he said, can you get my sister? And I think a lot of people tend to see sex trafficking more as young girls, but it's young girls, it's young boys. I mean, once you're perverted and twisted, you get more perverted and more twisted, looking for more twisted things to do. And this is the kind of thing where that a lot of time for Christians, this is one of those things the Bible talks about it's shameful to be talking about. Yeah, it is. It is shameful. But the Bible also says in Proverbs 8:13, that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And what happens when you hate something? You talk against it, you act against it, you work against it, you stir people up to get against it. I mean, if you hate somebody politically, think of all the things they do when they hate somebody... This is what Christians ought to be doing with the sex trafficking. We ought to have a hatred for it, that causes us to engage, that motivates us to get others engaged that causes us to talk against this. I mean, this is a serious thing.

Tim Barton: 22:44

And this is something too as we are on a normal foundation of freedom Thursday, kind of episode day, normally, we'd be talking more about the Constitution. Well, this was something that actually, there's some constitutional relevance, because even as Jim pointed out in the interview, there's a lot of corruption in the American government that is allowing some of this to happen, including he mentioned the southern border, and as we are getting close to the Fourth of July, it's hard to celebrate a nation... when you don't have borders because that's part of what makes a nation a nation. All that's true. What's worth noting is we know for a fact that human trafficking is happening across our southern border right now. That some of the sex slavery, there's... this is coming into America, and just so much evil, and there is a blatant disregard for rules of law, blatant disregard for basic standard of decency, and morality, for human rights and values. When we hear at times individuals advocating a certain political party, right... Well, the Democrats, they're the ones that care about the poor people and they're the ones that care about the people in need, and the hurting. Well, they sure don't seem to be very caring about those coming across the southern border right now based on how they are being treated. And some of the reports from individuals who have come across the southern border, some of the reports from some of those law enforcement who have had to help intervene and rescue in situations and what they have found and just depravity. But this is also where it's worth noting, we talk about often that elections have consequences. And if we want to see some of this evil stopped, we have to begin electing people that have a standard that says this kind of stuff is wrong, when we're still waiting to see the list of all the people that were on Jeffrey Epstein's list that were child sex predators, and that list has not been released. It's because so many of those, arguably, are different political leaders from America and those around the world. And they're working to keep that list hidden. This is why we have to have a different kind of leader. We have to get involved in the process, elect different leaders. And in the midst of that, it's also why we need a restoration of biblical principles and values in America. We need to once again restore the basic understanding of what is right and what is wrong. What is moral or not moral. As we're seeing some of these different drag shows that are happening around the nation. In fact, I saw something just this week where Bud Light funded a transgender drag show up in Canada and there was nudists walking in this drag show and there's children all around as these nudists are walking through them and bug Light is again helping sponsor these things that are happening. At some point we have to restore some level of morals, which the best foundation is the Bible. We have to get the morals back to say that's wrong. We shouldn't be doing that, and Dad even the verse you mentioned proverbs 8:13, that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. We as Christians have so much heard that we're not supposed to hate. We're supposed to be loving, be loving, be loving, I would encourage people, look up the word hate in the Bible and see how much God hates. There's a lot of stuff God hates because God hates sin. God hates what sin does to people. God hates the death and destruction that comes on them from sin. God doesn't want that to be around. And we have to finally start standing up against sin and restoring those morals in America.

David Barton: 25:39

And I'll also point out that not only does God hate, but He has a special place, he says, for those who offend one of his little ones. But I'll point out that when you look up what God hates, you'll also find out that he says that if you offend any one of these little ones, these little children, it'd be better if a millstone were hanged around your neck and you were thrown in the ocean. So there's a lot of stuff he hates, not the least of which is in when you turn your back or you help violate a young child an innocent child, that really goes up on his hate list.

Rick Green: 26:08

It's good to know that there's so many people out there working so hard to rescue these kids and to do these things. Really encourage people. We'll have a link today to the Nazarene Fund because I know what you're thinking, I can't go, you know, go to some foreign country and rescue a kid. No, but you can donate. You can help cover some of these missions out there to rescue persecuted Christians, all of these things. Go to TheNazareneFund.org today. We'll have a link today for you at WallBuilders.com and make that contribution. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to WallBuilders.