‘Sound of Freedom’ Creator Faces Battle With Mormon Church
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Tim Ballard, the former Homeland Security special agent who inspired the surprise box office hit Sound of Freedom, has fallen out of favor with a prominent leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to online media outlet Vice News.
Ballard has risen in prominence in recent months, after Jim Caviezel portrayed him in the Eduardo Verástegui-directed movie, which is the 10th highest-grossing film this year with a haul of more than $183 million. The film followed Ballard as he set up Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), an anti-child-trafficking organization.
Vice News is now reporting that Ballard had claimed prominent Mormon President M. Russell Ballard played a central role in OUR’s operations—as well as backing his personal business ventures—as part of a bid to attract Americans to the Mormon faith.
Citing notes from a since-closed criminal inquiry, a transcript of an interview between a former OUR executive and investigators read, per Vice News: “Tim is fully convinced that he is supposed to be the ‘Mormon Messiah and lead people back to the church.'”
However, a spokesperson for the church has told the outlet that while Elder Ballard once had a close relationship with Tim Ballard—to whom he is not related—the OUR founder “betrayed their friendship, through the unauthorized use of President Ballard’s name for Tim Ballard’s personal advantage and activity regarded as morally unacceptable.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.newsweek.com/sound-freedom-creator-tim-ballard-faces-battle-mormon-church-1827745.
