Tim Ballard E5: The Church

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0:36Listener discretion is advised. As a note, we reached out to Tim Ballard's attorney to request an interview. Our request went unanswered. And one last thing. After Tim Ballard left the anti-trafficking organization OUR in 2023, it was renamed OUR Rescue. Its new leaders say they do not condone Tim Ballard's alleged actions while part of the old organization.

1:05Picture a young male member of the LDS Church. He's in a white shirt, black slacks, and he's got a black and white name tag on his chest. He's smiling. He's embarking on his Mormon mission. It's the culmination of years of preparation. This is a common portrait of teenage LDS boys when they are sent out across the world on their two-year missions. After about six weeks of preparation, they venture into new cities to proselytize, convert, baptize, and serve people of their assigned community. Tim Ballard was 19 years old when he traveled to Chile for his inaugural mission. Like many boys on these trips, he spent a lot of time roaming the city looking for people to teach and trying to connect with them in broken Spanish.

1:51It's likely that Ballard felt like he was a part of this community, which makes his mission more personal. He likely felt he had to save the people around him by converting them to his church. Ballard, and boys like him, are taught all their lives that people outside his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are in need of saving, and that they are the ones who should save them. Mormon men learn that they are the protagonist of every story.

2:32This is The Opportunist, an original podcast from Podcast One. You're listening to a 10-part series on Tem Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad. I'm Sarah James McLaughlin.

3:01In past episodes, we've talked about Tim Ballard's actions. Today, we're going to unpack the root of the issue. It's the very thing he says drove him to his life's purpose, his faith. One quick look at Ballard's social media, and you'll find countless videos of him talking about his faith. You know, faith is action. It's an action word. If you take the action away, it's pretty much useless, it seems to me. and the Lord is with me and my team. We all talk about, we feel that. Once we feel our calling, faith is the thing you're now going to use to realize that goal. It's the action. It's the belief that you're going to get to that place that you feel you're supposed to go.

3:45And it's about moving there. That's the faith.

3:57nonprofit that doesn't seem to have any official relationship with Tim Ballard other than interviewing him for this video. They used images of children for her sentimental montage. In one, a teenage girl and her mom look solemn during a TV interview. Another is just a young girl's smiling face. I got curious about those images, so I did a reverse image search on some of them and none seemed to come directly from OUR or Tim Ballard. One of them was from Getty Images, a large picture database full of stock pictures often used by news organizations. This doesn't do anything for Ballard's credibility.

4:37But I'm starting to understand that Ballard likely never really cared about credibility in the same sense that I might. There's only one opinion he cares about. How can you face your maker and say, and say, no, I did nothing. God is everything to Tim Ballard. So I get asked a lot about my faith. My experience has been one of a building of my faith. The closer I get to that, though it's in the darkness, the closer I'm getting to that light. The other thing is my belief in God's grace helps me to know that all of these children in the end will be healed. When you know you're on God's errand and that he's really, he's got it.

5:28And in the end, he's going to make sure it's all good. All you have to do is be a good soldier and just keep fighting and keep moving and keep pushing, knowing that he's got it in the end. That's what makes it doable. To be honest, this kind of all-consuming dedication to a higher power, the kind that compels you to throw caution to the wind is something I can't quite personally grasp. There's a part of me that's a little envious of people who feel absolute certainty about their purpose, even the nature of the universe itself. But I also know there's an entire system in place designed to breed this kind of certainty.

6:09That system in Tim Ballard's life has long been the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as LDS or Mormon. One of our producers, Abby Newhouse, is joining now. Abby has a strong history with the LDS Church. I'm Abby Newhouse. I'm one of the producers for The Opportunist. I was raised in the Mormon Church. Grew up in Farmington, Utah. It's about 20 minutes north of Salt Lake City. About 90 % of Davis County, the county I was raised in, is Mormon. And Davis County is part of this story. Yeah. Who are really in touch with this story? Yeah. I've kept track of it as it's been going on.

6:54I knew some friends that volunteered for OUR. I see posts about it all the time, people celebrating Tim Ballard and his ventures. And then I've also seen the opposite side of it. You're no longer a Mormon, right? I left mentally a really long time ago, but I didn't fully leave and tell people I was done until like 2020. Abby helped me understand more about the formative experience gained during missions and how Tim Ballard's own mission likely impacted his future decisions. That would have been his first big rite of passage. And that would have had an immense influence on his feelings towards the world and what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

7:41Yeah. And it's funny because as we were researching his sting operations and stuff, I was like, it's interesting that they're in Central and South America usually. And it was like a light bulb went off where I was like, he probably went on his mission somewhere in that area. And I looked it up and he had gone to Chile. I'm not sure what exact mission, but he was in Chile. And that just made so much sense to me. Connor, our other producer who is a former war correspondent, likened this to people who go to Afghanistan and come home but can't let it go. They can't let the culture go. They can't let go what they think they meant to the people there.

8:21That's kind of what happens with a lot of missionaries when they come home. Not everyone, but a lot of them. I wouldn't be surprised if Tim almost feels like it was a calling from God that he went, learned Spanish, learned somewhat of this culture, then later say that his work needed to be done in these areas because he can't let go. This is speculation, but since I've seen it, it feels like he can't let go of who he was, what he meant, and this calling that was so important to him from God. Tim Ballard's mission in Chile may have made him feel like he was destined to do the Lord's work in that region.

9:01On your mission, you're often spending time in like low-income areas where people need the most help because as part of a religion with a lot of money, you have help to give them. So it can be kind of this manipulative thing to get people to join your church under the premise of help. It's kind of this white saviorism thing. I actually did go on a mission, but I went to Houston, Texas. So it was completely different. I didn't learn a language, but I remember the kind of lore on the mission was that everybody wished that they were going to Central or South America because, you know, quote unquote, that was the gold mine for baptisms.

9:44I didn't think too hard about it back then, but as I've processed after leaving the church, it's because you're able to manipulate these people. You can easily get them to join a place that you promised will give them help and guidance, whether that's spiritual help, monetary help. It mirrors, again, what's happening with OUR, this like moment of help. and then afterwards we're not sure what happens to these victims. Abby's referencing aftercare here because it's unclear what happens to trafficking victims after OUR rescues them. OUR's website says that since its founding in 2013, they've supported over 1 ,000 operations, arrested over 4 ,000 predators, and supported over 6 ,000 survivors.

10:32I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the vague terminology. Also, a predator and a trafficker are two different things. But even if you're not finicky about phrasing, there's something problematic with these claims. Here's Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gerke. They make these claims that they've rescued 7 ,000 plus children now. And they give the impression that these are children who are rescued from dungeons in third world countries by, you know, these heroic figures. A lot of those rescues that they're taking credit for are because a law enforcement agency that received money from OUR went in and rescued these kids.

11:17And then OUR takes credit for those numbers. This type of bad bookkeeping was intentional. Ballard likely wanted to juice the number to make OUR look more effective for fundraising. He also employed more insidious power plays. He cultivated a heavily gendered power dynamic in order to achieve his goals. I dug into this with someone who understands the issue better than most. The founder of a group pushing for the ordination of women in the LDS church. That woman now faces disciplinary action from the church. My name is Kate Kelly. I am an attorney and gender justice advocate, and I am the founder of a group called Ordain Women to advocate for Mormon women to achieve gender equality and get the priesthood.

12:10Kate Kelly, a human rights attorney and feminist, was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2014 due to her activism for women's rights within the Church. She founded the Ordain Women movement in 2013 to advocate for gender equality, particularly by seeking the ordination of women to the LDS priesthood, which traditionally has been limited to men. Keats' push for change aimed to address structural inequalities in the church, as only male members in leadership roles could perform essential religious rites and ceremonies. I want to talk about how the Mormon church has quite a bit of male dominance over the female members.

12:55That's the understatement of the century. I think it is one of the most radical patriarchies in the world and one of the most gender segregated cultures that exists surely in the modern United States. The Mormon church is operated by what is literally called the patriarchal order. So it's an explicit patriarchy. And you were talking about ordaining women. Does that fly at all with Mormonism? No. And in fact, that's the case in many mainstream religions, like Catholics don't ordain women. You know, a lot of different groups don't ordain women. But Mormonism is slightly more extreme in that all males over the age of 12 are ordained and zero women are.

13:49So you're saying like a 12-year-old could tell a woman what to do? Yeah. A 12-year-old boy has more authority and institutional power than any woman in his life, including his mother, his grandmother, anyone. What are some of the consequences of having that kind of power at such a young age? Mormon men learn that they are the protagonist of every story. They are the center of every situation. They are the authority in every room. And that is how they're raised and that is how they're treated. It sounds like you're kind of describing the main character syndrome kind of mentality? Yeah. I mean, it's funny because Mormon men also treat Mormon women differently.

14:50Like there is a Mormon feminist. Her name is Judy Dushku and she described interacting with Mitt Romney when he was running. The way that he treated non-Mormon women and the way that he treated Mormon women was very different because he knew that Mormon women knew their place. So he could get away with a lot more. Yes. No women are leaders. No women have authority over finances. No women have the last say on anything. Mormons love to say that their women's organization, which is called the Relief Society, is the largest women and oldest women's organization in the country. But I like to say it is the largest women's organization in the country run by men.

15:45Abby elaborated on this some. Men have the priesthood and women don't. We're taught that we need to believe and trust everything a prophet and apostle says. You're supposed to trust your ward bishop, the congregation leader. You have these male leaders at every point of your life telling you what is correct, what you should be doing. And you're taught that what they say to you is like revelatory for you specifically. God is telling them how to help you. So it's very, very hard to trust yourself when somebody is like literally speaking from God to tell you what to do. Going back to my conversation with Kate.

16:28From a very young age, like just molding them the way that they should be obedient, this seems like this makes them really vulnerable, outside of the religion even. Arguably, our entire society is a grooming institution, because when I left Mormonism, I was like, oh, now I'm going to be in this like patriarchy free world. And then I'm like, oh, wait, no, it's everywhere. sometimes secular women actually can't see it because they look at Mormon women and Muslim women and other women religious and they think oh that those poor women like they're so oppressed they're so socialized to be subservient and I'm like girl you should be looking in the mirror when you say that because that's how we're all socialized Mormonism is a very extreme and insular group, but it's a reflection of how every woman is treated in our society.

17:27Maybe a magnification of it. If you are a man, you are a spiritual leader in the Mormon church. And so it is very easy for men in this system to manipulate and control women. coupled with the fact that it is very difficult for women to say no to assert themselves to be impolite to not comply with something they committed to do that would be very very difficult to say no to so I could see it's like a perfect storm of getting someone in a situation where They've committed to doing something and they think they're helping people. And then also a man in a position of authority is telling them to do it.

18:21So how could you say no? And I'm seeing when we're talking to these women who've come forward, the torment that they're going through, because this is going against every fiber of what they've been brought up to believe. And they're really struggling with, was it really that bad? You know, like that mentality of, is there some way I can blame myself for this? within Mormonism, it's very, very difficult in a man-worshipping society when not only the deities, but also the everyday men in your lives are deified and made to be religious leaders to blame them. How can they be blamed? They have the priesthood.

19:15How can they be blamed? blamed? They're next to God. How can they be blamed? It's a very, very difficult hurdle to get over. And obviously that is by design. A lot of people that are on Tim Ballard's side are seeing this play out and they just, oh, well, they're after his money. There's a lot easier ways to go after a man's money. Proving sexual assault is probably one of the hardest things you can do, but there's just this cognitive dissonance. It goes back to the missionary aspect. To be a Mormon is to be a salesperson. You understand how to dig for pain. That's a sales term that you use to find somebody's pain point and tell them how your product can solve it.

20:15And that's what you do as a missionary. You know, the church can answer your deepest question. Missionaries, LDS and otherwise, are great at making people feel like joining a church will solve all of their problems. Then there's a slew of tactics used to make sure they never want to leave. After the break, we'll pull back the curtain on some of that master manipulation and how Tim Ballard put it to use with his victims.

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22:41That's feelthebreze.com slash drink5 and use the code drink5 for a$5 credit plus free shipping on your first order. Now, back to the episode. By now, it's clear to me, and I hope you too, how Tim Ballard capitalized on LDS methods of disempowering women. We know that this aspect of Mormon culture goes way back, and much of it is deeply embedded in doctrine. But some of it is just good old-fashioned manipulation, the kind that exists in a lot of religious sects. The more everyday tactics tend to hide in plain sight. So to shed light, I grabbed some examples from a really great book called Cultish, The Language of Fanaticism, written by linguist, journalist, and podcaster Amanda Montel.

23:37Montel spotlights linguistic techniques used to keep people in organizations. I am not suggesting that OUR was a cult or that Tim Ballard was a cult leader. but I do think it's important to understand how leaders can control and manipulate their supporters. Number one, thought terminating cliches. People use these cliches when you ask a question about something you're uncomfortable with. For example, they tell you to have faith or trust in God instead of actually analyzing and problem solving. Because the less you analyze and problem solve, the easier it is for someone to tell you what to do. Remember Sasha Hightower and Kira Lynch, who we spoke with in episode four?

24:25Here they are again. Everything, everything that I wondered or had a question about, he had an answer for in some way that would speak to my, my logic that would defy like my intuitive wonders. wonders. Because then he follows it up with anytime you say you're uncomfortable. Like when we save these kids, it's all worth it. Number two, love bombing. This is when you're told things like, you're the only person who can fulfill this mission because you're so amazing and God chose you. Or you've done this better than all the other female operatives. Ballard used this tactic to make women feel special, chosen, in the right place at the right divine time.

25:15He learned from the institution that raised him, and he used this language to keep a tight hold on the women he hired. He's telling me that thousands of people are trying to get this job, but only God could bring the ones for him for this position. As he would say, I have to rely on God to bring them to me. You're amazing. You have no idea how many like kids were going to save from this. You got so many phone numbers like, oh my gosh, you're so good at this and just was raving. Number three, in-group and out-group thinking. This is the us against the world mentality that makes you feel elite and chosen.

25:56In-group out-group thinking is a psychological concept term for how people tend to divide the world into groups, those they identify with, the in-group, and those they view as different, the out-group. This mindset influences behavior and perceptions, often leading people to favor, support, or even excuse the actions of their in - group while viewing out-group members with suspicion, distrust, or even hostility. Anyone outside your group is lying to you or manipulating you. And so you constantly have to prove that you're down for the cause and you can easily observe if everyone else is being faithful and sticking to the set rules.

26:38It breeds a culture of surveillance. At the time it was like, well, everything I'm being shown, everything I'm being told is telling me that this man is trustworthy, like that this organization is trustworthy, that they know what they're doing. He kept telling me how he had to fire people because everybody had turned against him. He kept telling me how they had to have new female operators because they all fell in love with him. Now, here's where things get especially interesting. Tim Ballard might not even view the act of lying the same way you or I would. He may have been raised to believe that whatever he says literally goes.

27:23Abby and I talked about why. There's some scripture that Mormons took really far. It says something like, as God is, you will someday be. Mormons took that to believe that when you die after Jesus comes back, there's the whole resurrection and everything, men are able to create their own world and be their own gods, basically. When I was younger, I was taught and I believed that women were able to do that as well. But as I've looked more into it, it's just the man. That sounds like an excellent premise for a horror movie. And I would give cash to that. I would love to see that. Yeah, it just doesn't surprise me that Tim Ballard would literally like create this world.

28:14He's made up so much of it. You know what I mean? So this influences his decisions. He's got this sort of divine push behind him. And not just Ballard. Most LDS men speak this language. Robert Gerke elaborated on the boys club that exists in the LDS church and the power that comes with being part of that club, not just within the church, but outside of it. Tim Ballard and Sean Reyes and a group of people had gone down to Columbia on this mission that became the premise for The Sound of Freedom, the movie that they made. For those who don't know, Sean Reyes has been the Attorney General of Utah since 2013, though he has said he is stepping down at the end of his current term in January of 2025.

29:08This was his first highly publicized sting operation that they said rescued about 50 kids and became sort of a springboard for Tim and his future stardom. According to Sean, he played the role of a bodyguard for one of the wealthy donors. The idea was that they were going to build a hotel for sex tourism, basically. It was mostly interesting to us that the state's attorney general had gone on this expedition. And there was no indication at the time that there was anything suspect about it. When we wrote that story, Sean had just become attorney general. Around about the time that Sean took office, Tim Ballard was working for Homeland Security on a strike force.