After it became clear that the state of Texas was not going to provide adequate consequences for the assailant or adequate protections for the victims, I did three things—
I wrote a book so there would be a record of what had happened to us.
I asked to move and tried to expect less of law enforcement (a person cannot change who they are without losses).
I became involved in extreme sports. I became an adrenaline junkie.
Facing my fear and pouring myself into physical challenges with the risk of pain helped me to ease the grief, anger, and helplessness of what had happened to people I loved.
Like all addiction, this was not a long term solution, but it did help me.
Routinely facing fear of physical harm helped me to be more courageous when there was only the fear of human ostracism.
I still seek the adrenaline rush and lately it has been through swimming in challenging conditions.
The mother looks almost beatific patting her baby bump. She is going to great lengths and expense to end the baby’s life through dismemberment in utero.
Another picture from the case shows a supporter holding a sign asserting that abortion—the medical murder of babies-“saves lives.”
This is a statement which should be scrutinized with the same carefulness as injunctions over the gates of Auschwitz.
A lie is a lie is a lie, but covering human carnage with a bait and switch slogan is both Orwellian and apocalyptic.
The woman with her hand lovingly placed over her tummy is bent on killing her child prematurely.
It is hard to see such tragedy celebrated. Endorsed. Maybe even promoted by the journalists and photographers focused on elevating the rights of one human above another.
The video started out unedited, presumably because it was filmed by her abusers—
The young woman is dragged by her hair from the trunk of an SUV.
Her arms are abraded and bloody
Her face is bloody
And her clothes show other signs of violent assault.
She has a look on her face which is haunting and she is pushed into the vehicle by men shouting and pushing in on her.
After the initial few hours of seeing her clearly, news organizations blurred her out. I know they had their own reasons for doing so, but they should not have.
If the aim is to find her among millions of people, we need to see her face.
If we are to face what happened to her. We need to reckon with all the horror together.
The wind is strong and I am compelled to go down to the river. It is dusk, when the blue light left by a departing sun is the most like the color of heaven and the girls come with me.
Em imitates Elijah, repeating his litany of praise to the God who rescues us.
She is a survivor, improbable survivor, traveling across from river to river
We saw Sound of Freedom yesterday and it sparked a day-long conversation.
My adopted daughter was “trafficked” by her own biological mother, who gave her drugs and sold her for sex.
She died of a drug overdose in 2021 at the hands of her abusive boyfriend who bought her for sex.
We are now raising her daughters who were also exposed to abuse.
Child pornography is real and devastating. Trafficking is real and devastating. The movie is worth seeing for that reason, but I have profound questions about this narrative and this organization—which seems to have claims which are hard to verify or even possibly not helpful in terms of de-incentivizing human trafficking.
I began to question the OUR narrative when I read Katherine Ballard’s gloss on their adopted children. I have fostered and adopted a number of trafficked children and none of them have showed me “pure love” (nor do they need to). They have had deep wounds and have needed structure, love, and constancy from my family.
Do I “adore” any of them? I don’t think I should adore anyone but Jesus. But I have stayed in the trenches with them and I have learned that real love is just doing the best and wanting the best for someone, especially when their behavior reflects their trauma.
Christians may be willing to accept any Christian-adjacent narrative when we need to ask the hard questions even as we acknowledge that many of the stories of the predations of children happen inside the economy of poverty and addiction and maybe Ballard’s methods and efficacy need to be questioned by all of us.
OUR promises that they can, do and will go into the darkest corners of the world to rescue children. I hope they do. But we all need to be rescuers and often that is less flak vests and cameras and more quotidian commitments and truth-telling.
Jesus leaves the 99 for us. He expects all of us to be the hands and feet of his love.
All of the below round up is just for others to have more information about a flawed but ultimately valuable movie.
Carrying Light 