GAIL DRAKE: Children for sale

“Whoever offends one of these little ones, it were better that a millstone were hanged around his neck.”

— Matthew 18:6-7

Years ago my parents were houseparents at the Rio Grande Children’s Home in Mission, Texas (on the Mexican border), serving as “Mom” and “Dad” to 10-16 boys in our cottage. Our youngest boy was 5 years old and the oldest was 20. (“M” kept flunking school so he could keep playing high school football. And he had nowhere to go.)

One day a little dark-eyed boy with straight hair named “Javier” arrived at our door and settled into his bunkbed. He spoke only Spanish and had been brought to the U.S. from Guatemala by missionaries. We learned that his family members were crushed when their house collapsed during an earthquake. Climbing out of the rubble (he hid under a table and survived), he wandered the streets begging until an American man claiming to be a missionary picked him up. Back then the Texas border was almost as porous as it became in 2021, and they traversed Mexico and crossed into the U.S.

Providentially, Javier landed at our children’s home where he grew up, was educated, and joined the U.S. Army. Today he still calls me “Sis” and sends me pictures of his beautiful family. I couldn’t feel more honored and thankful for him.

Later I learned the rest of his story. The “missionary” used Javier as his boy-toy to gratify his own deviant desires. My “hermano” was a statistic for international child exploitation/trafficking.

Child sex trafficking is the recruitment, transportation and sale of children as young as age 2 — for sex and commercial gain. From IJM, DOJ, Polaris Project, UNICEF, Save the Children, Missing Children, and Thorn, a composite of statistics:

♦ 2 million children are victims of sex trafficking today

♦ They are sold 5-10 times a day

♦ $100 billion dollar business

♦ Children are sometimes lured from poverty with promises of money, food, shelter and improved life. More often they are groomed through an online romantic relationship.

♦ 70-90% of victims have a history of child sexual abuse. Of those that run away from an abusive home, 1 out of 3 teens on the streets will be lured into prostitution within 48 hours.

♦ After the initial contact, these children are subjected to beatings, involuntary drug use, tattooed (branded) by their pimp, and then sold.

♦ Exploitation continues for about 10 years, followed by death from disease, drugs or crime.

Theater showings this week include a surprise hit: “Sound of Freedom.” The movie shines a spotlight on the insidious trade of child sex slavery, based on the real-life story of Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard. Assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children unit, Ballard infiltrated several trafficking rings. He left his job to privately rescue enslaved children. The film depicts the intimidation and brutal rapes these children experience and some of his rescue operations. Ballard is played by veteran actor Jim Caviezel, best known for his lead portrayal in “The Passion of the Christ.”

“Sound of Freedom” currently ranks No. 2 at the box office — behind the latest “Mission Impossible” movie. Its production history is fascinating. Freedom was filmed five years ago in Cartegena, Columbia, by Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde, and produced by Mexican businessman Eduardo Verastegui, who sold distribution rights to 20th Century Fox. When Disney bought Fox, they shelved the film. The filmmakers bought the distribution rights back from Disney, then approached Angel Studios, which used equity crowdfunding to finance the distribution and marketing of the film.

Despite the vital message of rescuing children from sex slavery, the film has been inflicted with unexpected hits. Critics have alleged vast right-wing conspiracies and denigrated the movie audience as “fomenting extremism.” They complain that the film is too religious. (There is no preaching in the film and one reverent reference to the word “God.”) Film critic Vox criticized the movie’s “patriotism,” “rugged individualism” and “masculine heroism.”

Wow. And no similar complaints about “Top Gun?” Marvel superheroes? Why is that?

One wonders why the hatred for a movie that highlights the horrors suffered by 2 million children and one man’s journey to rescue “the least of these.” All children are created by God and are precious. Like my beloved “Javier,” they should be rescued, loved, and know a true home and family.