This is the article that appeared in the September 2023 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.
The biggest box office surprise of the summer was “Sound of Freedom,” starring Jim Caviezel. In this movie, he portrays a real life Department of Homeland Security agent who quit his job hunting pedophiles to rescue children from sex traffickers in Colombia. The movie has won the applause of Christians, in particular, both for its content and its inspiring message.
Every time a film appears that is welcomed by traditional people of faith, the secular militants on the other side seek to find fault with it. This time was no different, though it turns out that some of the loudest critics were seriously compromised individuals.
Noah Berlatsky is a left-wing activist and former spokesman for Prostasia, a radical foundation. The goal of this entity is to lessen the stigma attached to pedophiles. He hates the movie.
Berlatsky believes we should not call a pedophile a child abuser; he prefers the sanitized term “minor-attracted person,” known as M.A.P.
He objects that by stigmatizing these men, we are casting them as deviants, which, of course, is true.
This champion of “minor-attracted persons” also wrote an article about the autonomy of child sex workers. That’s right. He argues that most children who are forced into being sex slaves are not really coerced into it. Most of them, he says, become prostitutes to survive, which, even if true, does not make those who exploit them any less guilty.
It makes sense that those who want to legalize child prostitution and lessen the stigma attached to it would recoil at a Christian-inspired movie that shines a bright light on this despicable practice. We just didn’t think they would be so bold as to say so publicly.
