Remember "Sound of Freedom" and how it fundraised a whole bunch of money and the right were buying everyone screenings to boost the film?
It turns out they have been scamming their freedom fighters
It turns out they have been scamming their freedom fighters
Quote:
Then Ballard’s reputation began to unravel, when news broke that he’d been forced out of Operation Underground Railroad, the Utah anti-trafficking organization he founded, before the July 4 premiere of Sound of Freedom. In September, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which Ballard is a member, publicly condemned him for allegedly misrepresenting his relationship with a prominent church elder to further his own business interests. The same week, an internal OUR investigation into sexual misconduct complaints against him came to light; by October, five women had filed a lawsuit alleging he had sexually assaulted and emotionally abused them while they took part in OUR operations. Soon after, Ballard became the subject of a criminal investigation when a former assistant made a sexual assault report to police in Utah. (In a statement, he maintained that the “sexual allegations are false.”)
Bragança thinks Angel Studios is more likely to hear from the FTC, regarding their widely publicized Pay It Forward model, which was a sensational success: the studio set a target of 2 million viewers for Sound of Freedom, but estimates the film sold 30,645,695 tickets in all. While the site counts both Pay It Forward sales and regular theatrical ticket sales, and it’s not clear how the two categories break down, the campaign generated significant buzz, and Angel credits donations with “propelling Sound of Freedom to the #1 movie in America on its July 4th release.”
Only a handful of donors noticed the fine print, which clarified that they were not buying tickets at all. In July, several self-identified religious conservatives contacted American Crime Journal about what they saw as suspicious details of the promotion. On the PayPal checkout page, for example, the word “ticket” is replaced with the word “reach” (that is, instead of guaranteeing that a $15 donation covers a ticket, it pays for the “reach” to “one person”). A disclaimer reads, “Angel Studios will make reasonable efforts to use Pay It Forward ticket sales for the audience growth of the intended film or series.
However, Angel Studios becomes the owner of all funds upon receipt and may use them at its sole discretion to further the Angel Studios’ mission of amplifying light through impactful stories.” This language left open an obvious possibility — that Angel could use some of this money to meet demand for free tickets while pocketing the rest. (On its Pay It Forward explainer page, Angel even indicates that it uses leftover money for “marketing,” “credit card fees” and studio “overhead.”) One source who spoke to ACJ said he thought that in trying to donate two tickets, he and his wife had been “robbed.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/cul...234928374/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
