DATE REVIEWED: 9/22/23
TITLE: Persecuted
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2014 Millennium Entertainment / One Media, LLC / Number 1 Films /
Indieproductions, LLC
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie began with people protesting in the streets about religious rights and holding signs. Religious leader John Luther was recognized on a TV interview with Diana Lucas as God’s ambassador from countries such as Sudan, North Korea and Iran. Others claimed that Luther’s ministry was intolerant and condescending to people of other faiths, and some in Washington, D.C., believed that Luther’s crusades might threaten the freedom of others. Luther responded that he wasn’t a Republican, he wasn’t a Democrat, he didn’t belong to any particular religious group, he wouldn’t put down anyone’s faith, and his personal history was no better than any of the viewers. Luther went on to say that in his past he was abusive, an alcoholic, gambling drug addict and he deserved nothing less than death until God came into his life. Diana asked about Luther and about the Faith and Fairness Act, and Luther replied that freedom was costly and needed to be defended by work, faith and blood. At Truth Live inside his Truth mega church, Luther read his Bible and prayed and got ready backstage (covering his wrist tattoo with his long-sleeve shirt) as he was being introduced by Pastor Ryan Morris saying that Luther’s past was water under the bridge. Ryan joked that Luther was the only person he ever knew that bought Communion wine in kegs. Ryan added that Luther was a good and loving man and said that Luther was the one to bring them all into a new age and new season in America. A female interrupted Preacher Luther and said Senator Donald Harrison needed to see him immediately. Senator Harrison complimented Luther’s piece of Prime Time and then got down to business and told Luther to get on national television and announce that he fully supported the Faith and Fairness bill because Luther’s ministry reached more people than the Evening News and Harrison was counting on his friend in Luther to get the job done. Luther quoted Jesus’ words about being the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), and the senator replied it wasn’t about Jesus, it was about fairness and equality for all faiths, not just Luther’s. Luther said all he was interested in was teaching the gospel in the Bible and added it wasn’t illegal to do that in the USA…yet. Senator Harrison pointed out how much in the past he helped Luther, and Luther replied that may be so but Harrison didn’t own him and had already been thanked plenty for what he did. Senator Harrison said the bill was going to happen with or without Luther’s help, but he was giving Luther the opportunity to be on the right side of history. Luther replied that he was not going to water down the gospel (nor dilute Jesus) to advance anybody’s political agenda. Before Luther left to go onstage, Harrison told Luther that he wasn’t speaking just for himself, but Congress when he said that they had reached the terminal end of their patience with Luther. Luther gave Senator Harrison a kiss on the cheek and God blessed him and left. High-strung Ryan gave Luther a talk-up about how Luther was going to kill it like he always did and told Luther that the media scrutiny and the talk of persecution was going to die soon because it came and went and John Luther would be left standing and to forget the politics and bring the truth. Luther went on stage and spoke to the audience about a united faith bill by the government attempting to bring world peace. Senator Harrison made a call and told his conspirator that Luther wasn’t onboard and to go ahead as they planned. Luther preached that mankind had a disease because it was either the world and its religions, politicians, pleasures or, it was God. Luther went on to say that only God could bring peace to His people, and Luther added that they could not legislate the power of God. Luther added that you can’t change your past, but surrendering yourself to God can change your future. As Luther spoke, a secret service man, Agent Gray, picked up a young female in his car and the young teen took the pills that the man offered to her and he guaranteed that the ride he had planned for her was unlike any she ever had before. After Luther finished his sermon, SS Agent Gray arrived with the teen and approached Luther and brought the female to Luther and introduced her as his daughter. The Secret Service government man then had the young girl that the agent drugged then hug Luther while the SS Agent Gray took two pictures of them together in the room with people walking about. Luther didn’t speak to either of them in length and the duo left as quickly as they had come. As Luther drove home late that night, he had a flashback of his young daughter and his wife with him having to skip her recital because he had a sermon to give at the same time but promised both of them breakfast in bed when he returned home. Luther then spotted the same young female suspect from earlier in a field alongside the road waving him down in a skimpy outfit, so he pulled over and asked her what she needed help with. She flirted with Luther to distract him from SS Agent Gray sneaking up behind Luther who then grabbed him and jabbed him in the neck with a needle so he was unconscious. They loaded Luther into the back of his own vehicle, where the female was shown being in sexy positions with Luther on camera so as to frame him in the event something happened to the female later on (unknown to the female because she was full of drugs herself). They then drove back to the site where they picked Luther up by the field to pick up unmarked SS Agent Gray’s vehicle. Next, the SS Agent Gray moved Luther in the passenger’s seat and then called 911 and reported a one-vehicle accident with two injured people and to send an ambulance. The teen female, Mellita, was not injured yet but was waited around for S.S. Agent Gray to get done with his male victim, Luther. Harrison’s dirty SS Agent Gray then slapped Mellita around to the ground. While this happened, someone on the hilltop in a hoodie took video of what was happening near the American Women tattoo parlor alongside the country road. Mellita lay lifeless on the ground at crooked SS Agent Gray’s feet. A dirty police officer buddy of the SS Agent Gray then arrived, and the SS agent was not happy the rogue officer was late. The police officer helped moved Mellita’s dead body into the front seat of the vehicle and discovered that Luther had run off, and the officer said that was what guilty people did. Luther ran past the two people filming on their phones the crime that was committed, and they kept on videoing Luther as the Federal SS Agent Gray and the lone police officer fled the scene of the crime. The 911 police officers then arrived on scene without a clue as to what happened minutes before regarding the staged drama scene of the crime that included a dirty federal agent and one of their own police officers on the wrong side of the law. The next morning, Luther woke up in the mountain woods with a bloody head. He went into the gas station with a police car parked outside, and he tried to wash himself using water from the soda fountain and the clerk, who didn’t recognize who Luther was, told him it was for paying customers only so he left and started walking down the road. Kathy from Helping Hands stopped her white van (with a SUMAC sticker on the back) and assisted Luther with water, and she told him the arms of God weren’t as far away as he thought and she used to look like him not so long ago. Kathy gave Luther her phone and he called his wife Monica. Monica explained that the police were at their house searching for everything and they believed John was involved in the murder of the girl they found in Luther’s abandoned vehicle. John said he couldn’t remember what happened to him and he woke up in the middle of nowhere and they took all of his belongings. A female reporter on the CNW breaking news at the same time said that the evangelist preacher John Luther was possibly charged with statutory rape, child endangerment, drug possession and leaving the scene of an accident. Monica told Luther not to come home because they were watching him, so he hung up the phone and went back to the SUMAC van. Meanwhile, a mob of reporters waited for Senator Harrison to exit the building and they got his comments on camera that regardless of the friendship between him and Luther. Faker Harrison hoped justice would be served (meaning he wouldn’t get caught in his crimes and Luther gets framed) and his heart went out to the family. Questionable Kathy dropped Luther off at a Catholic church in the city where he met with Father Charles Luther, and dad replied that he knew his son John didn’t do it. They listened to the news reporting that 16-year-old Mellita Evans was a runaway who was tragically found dead, and John Luther, an evangelist and CEO of his Truth Ministry, was the alleged rapist and murderer of the young teen. Father Luther told John that he was just a pawn in their political movement of deceit and John brought himself up out of nothing and had millions of followers believing in God. Those that didn’t believe had to bring John down and destroy him in order to gain what they wanted in their ungodly world. Father Luther told John he had two choices, one being he could turn himself in and hope for the best, which wouldn’t turn out well in his favor since he was being charged with first degree murder. John said he was going to prove the truth even if the second choice wasn’t what he liked, and Father Luther told him to prove the truth. As John showered and washed away the blood, he had random flashbacks of Mellita in the backseat of his vehicle taking pictures of her and Luther on a camera phone. The Catholic Father put a large wad of cash in his pocket and gave John a car to drive. Father Luther smoked his cigar and wished John Godspeed as he watched him from the Catholic Church window. Not long after, Senator Harrison met with Ryan and SS Agent Gray. Harrison told Ryan it was his time to shine and use the mega church large email database within the organization to reach the millions of people looking for hope and step up to fill the shoes of the downtrodden Luther. Harrison went on to say that they needed to rise up and take the ministry in a brave new direction and told Ryan that he was the leader to make that happen (Harrison saying it in order to build up Ryan’s confidence because he no doubt wanted Ryan to use his new position within the ministry to reach out to congregations around the world to support and be in favor of the Faith and Fairness bill). Harrison told Ryan that they were going to help Luther as much as they could. Luther checked into a motel, and the clerk wanted an ID and credit card but he had neither (in the background Luther’s picture on the TV news with an FBI manhunt), so with his sunglasses on handed the clerk a $100 bill and she said that would be fine. The clerk dismissed herself and said she had to check on something before renting the room, and she called the police to report a suspicious person. She went back to the desk and Luther had left because he suspected what the clerk was doing. As Luther drove by his house, Ryan was inside sitting close to Monica. Ryan creepily told Monica that he was going to watch over her as he drank champagne. Monica was skeptical of Ryan being there, and then he told her that her husband was a fugitive but she refused to buy into that and Ryan said all Luther had to do then was show up and prove everyone wrong (Ryan was really there to find out If Luther contacted Monica, but she didn’t say so Ryan believed that Luther didn’t). There was then a meeting held by Truth Ministries officials. Dave Wilson stated that them being all-together without hearing Luther’s perspective first was distasteful and wrong. Ryan stood up and said they had to factor in the millions of people in the ministry and take into consideration their needs and their shared responsibility to lead regardless of what Luther did and John Luther was the reason they were having that meeting. Ryan twisted the situation around and said that the fact John was absent and abandoned the ministry was significant. Ryan added that if they signed a piece of legislation uniting all religions, their church would send a message to Washington that they were in it for the long haul and Ryan was all for it. Written in that legislation was if every single member of the board complied, there would be a very generous tax advantage package for them. Ryan told Dave that they were at their worst-case scenario, which Dave always told them to prepare for, and they were ready to take the next step. One spoke up and said the individual tax benefit alone knocked it out of the park so he was all in with Ryan, and it seemed everyone was then persuaded by Ryan to sign Senator Harrison’s Faith and Fairness bill. With his Bible in hand, Luther parked near the American Woman building where the crime scene took place and wept repeating the words that in God he trusted and prayed for help. After dreaming about his wife Monica, Luther woke up the next morning and went inside the American Woman tattoo parlor. He asked the young female that came out of a room if anyone saw what happened outside their building because he identified himself as John Luther, the preacher on the news being framed. The female, who sounded as if she under the influence of some substance, responded that she knew about the madness that went down because she recorded it. She addressed Luther as her brother and told him he had better believe because it was going to cost him if he wanted the footage (luckily, Luther had a roll of cash from his Catholic Father). Two FBI agents stopped Ryan in his light pink jacket as he headed into an office building for a meeting, and they told Ryan he had to wait because they needed to talk to him. Father Luther and bigwigs attended the meeting concerning the Faith and Fairness act. As Father Luther sat in the high-security meeting, he looked up and standing above was the killer SS Agent Gray staring down at him. In the next scene, John called his dad at the Catholic Church. Father Luther told his son that it wasn’t simple to have the evidence John said he did because he was still in Senator Harrison’s way and the footage may not be enough. John and Charles met up in a wooded area on a bench and Charles showed his son a picture of Harrison with the 16-year-old girl before she was murdered (with a black female also in the picture). John thought that because Senator Harrison had been part of his ministry for years he was one of them. Charles enlightened his son that the teen female killed was adopted by Chanisse Evans two days before report of her death. They were able to bypass the waiting list and other formalities to get the adoption processed with the assistance of John’s so-called friend, Senator Harrison, the majority leader in the United States Senate. Charles said aside from the President, there was no other person who was better equipped to withstand a bullet than Harrison. Charles went on to say that with Senator Harrison, it was about power and money, but most importantly it was what he was part of, the people he was associated with, what SUMAC was trying to do, and the results of the legislation and what they were bound to do. Father Charles said to look at China, Russia and Iran and all those places where we don’t bat an eye when they drag people out of their beds in the middle of the night and imprison them under false charges. Charles went on to say that if you asked people in this country about the persecution of Christians, they would just smile and wave it off as nonexistent and it couldn’t happen there. Father Charles handed John a hotel room key and told him to go get himself cleaned up, and he added that what John needed to understand the most was that the eyes of all Americans were on him now because people were looking for a symbol for truth and freedom who would stand up against the thorny barbs and powerful politicians, meaning somebody who was unbending amidst the lies and scandals that were thrown at him and he would get back up when he was knocked down and keep fighting for the truth and justice of the people. Father Charles told John that was what he was going to do because he may be down at the moment, but he would get back up. Father Charles said God would decide who was found wanting because they cannot silence the truth. John gave a copy of footage on a USB drive to Father Charles for safekeeping, and John said he was going to expose the truth about Senator Harrison. Luther later pretended to be the janitor so he could follow Ryan, who showed up in his sports car, through the parking garage. Luther revealed who he really was, and Ryan told Luther the whole country was hunting him. Luther asked Ryan for anything he had like money and then gave Ryan a note to give to Monica. Ryan read Luther’s hotel address, which was the Hotel Blue on 717 Central Avenue and Ryan said he would get it to Monica. Luther left and said he would be in touch as he saw a police officer drive through the parking garage. Senator Harrison received a call from the President in the middle of the night, and the President (who sounded and looked like Clinton) addressed him as Donald and said he had a feeling something wasn’t quite right. The President went on to explain that it was like when the President was under ten years old and he heard a rattling sound on the porch and it turned out to be an eight-foot rattlesnake curled up in the corner with fangs dripping. The President said he handled the situation by wrapping his little nubs around the snake and squeezed until he didn’t have any breath left, and because if he didn’t, the safety of his entire family was in jeopardy (in his southern voice). The President didn’t think Harrison understood his meaning, and Harrison responded the polls were good and the President had nothing to worry about because the President would get his second term in office. The President told the senator that John Luther was Harrison’s misfortune and the President washed his hands of it and then hung up. In the next scene, Father Luther listened to classical music as he reviewed the USB on his computer that John gave him. He heard a noise (after two people were seen sneaking around his remote cabin house in the dark woods) but dismissed it and went back to watching the murder video, and when he tried to call John there was no answer because John was alone swimming in his hotel pool. Father Luther left a message for John to call him because no doubt Father recognized the SS Agent Gray murderer in the video as the same one on the top balcony at the senator’s meeting he attended earlier. Right after Father Luther hung up the phone, Father Luther was shot point-blank in the head by a government rogue hired thug. The Father’s computer and USB evidence was taken away by the two suspects doing the killer dirty work at the federal level using and abusing their all access passes. John drove to Kings Mountain to see his dad and found him dead in his chair. John went outside the very secluded cabin with a gun to look around, and he saw nothing in the surrounding woods. John shouted angrily at God why wasn’t He true to His name. Meanwhile at the Hotel Blue, two FBI agents wired Ryan in a room and discussed Senator Harrison and John. Obviously, Ryan went to the Feds with the note John gave him versus giving the information to John’s wife. Ryan asked the agents what they got paid for because John had prostitution, drug addiction and gambling written all over him so it was an open and shut case against him for the murder. Because they thought John changed, it caused Ryan to doubt his faith a little bit and that was the lesson. The agent said it must have been difficult for Ryan to step up to such a high position to fill John’s shoes, and Ryan replied that a mega church ministry like theirs was run like a Fortune 500 company and Ryan was running it so it was no sleigh ride. John got back to the Hotel Blue and noticed the government-plated vehicle outside, so he drove on to his dad’s church and took Communion. John then told priest William that Father Luther, John’s dad, was executed and was dead. The priest said his name was William, and John asked William for help. Senator Harrison spoke at a SUMAC meeting and said they had never had Christians, Jews and Muslims all standing together in solidarity and they were dead wrong for not being united before. Harrison went on to explain that it was the future of their evolution in that nation because America was no longer a Christian nation and never was. Harrison said a government couldn’t survive prosperously without the steadfast unity of the diverse religious communities. He brought up Martin Luther King, Jr. facing violent opposition when he birthed his beliefs uniting people of all colors. The senator said he had a dream too, which was of a tradition that included faith as diverse as their skins walking hand in hand toward the light. John was in the back of the room listening to Senator Harrison’s speech, and when he walked out an agent spotted him and spoke into his wrist radio device. John sped away with William’ driving his Volvo to a parking garage where a couple of agents and Senator Harrison got into a government vehicle. John and William followed them. It turned out to be a spa they went to, where Senator Harrison wearing a robe came into the room where John was waiting. John said he wanted to know the truth and no more lies after Harrison (acting dumb) said he would make some calls and find out what he could. John held a gun in his hand and asked Harrison why the senator did that to him and ruined his life and shot his father. John added that the senator knew the Faith and Fairness act would not get passed without John’s approval, and Harrison said it was the most crucial document since the Bill of Rights. The senator explained this was heaven on earth to someone like John because he could preach to every synagogue, temple and mosque known to man and there were no secrets when they had the keys and all faiths were on bended knee before the throne. Luther questioned whose throne. Harrison evaded the question and said he wasn’t John’s enemy and the real enemy was some terrorist guy with a nuclear weapon in a suitcase hiding in a mosque or a temple somewhere and Harrison couldn’t get to him because he didn’t have the oversight. John got up and walked slowly toward the senator not happy that he had an innocent teen girl murdered and ruined John’s life to protect the nation from what the deranged Harrison believed to be terrorism. Harrison replied that in war sometimes there was collateral damage for the greater good. When John said Harrison was like a tree that bore no fruit and would be swiftly cut down, Harrison had a hissy fit and screamed at John to silence his Christian platitudes. John said Senator Harrison used to call himself a Christian, and Harrison warned John that if John exposed his personal history in public it would come back and bite him and it did. Criminal Senator Harrison told John he wasn’t bigger than the system and John thought he could wash himself in the blood of Jesus and his sins would be removed but they weren’t and the public did not take kindly to a sexual predator on the loose. John spoke of David and Saul and that set Harrison off to scream, “stop with the Lord.” At the same time, they both noticed the blinking security camera in the room so John used his gun to knock Senator Harrison in the head and told him to deal with it as he wished. John grabbed the security camera off the wall on his way out. Luther then showed up at his daughter’s school where the kids were playing outside and he said a prayer for his wife and child. Later on at another board meeting in the Truth Ministries Worldwide Headquarters building, Ryan discussed he was all in with uniting the faiths and led everyone in prayer. John went to interrupt the meeting and saw a worker replacing John’s framed pictures on the wall with pictures of Ryan. John walked in to the conference room and closed the door, and when Ryan tried to stop John from saying anything John held his gun up. John walked over and took a look at what the meeting was about with the paperwork on the table, and then he looked at the projection screen and saw the pie charts for 2011, 2012 and 2013 for the ministry donations by age demographic. John said the portfolios must have skyrocketed after partnering with the Senator and told Ryan to hit the button to see the next slide because they signed the deal. It wasn’t bad for tax money and blood money and John asked them all if it was worth it, and then John had the next slide shown and Dave the numbers guy confirmed it was like a 200% increase in salary. Dave said John’s uncompromising approach was admirable but it was not always a practical one. John said he built the place with his bare hands and now the board men were in bed with the government and they were taking tax dollars and believing that the government wouldn’t silence them. As John spoke, Ryan sent a text message to Agent Clark (as Ryan wore his federal wire for the feds to listen). John said the government had a hook in their backs and they didn’t realize it because they were too blinded by ambition, greed and lust. Dave said it was unthinkable what happened to John, but as far as the organization was concerned they were just there picking up the pieces and on damage control. Dave asked John what good it could possibly do to blow their entire credibility on one piece of legislation because then they would spend the rest of their lives wandering the wilderness with no creditably and not able to approach anybody that way. The FBI agents were inside their unmarked white van nearby listening in on the conversation. John reminded them of the man in the wilderness who reached a lot of people, and then John took the wad of money he had on him and flung it in the air on the conference table. Six FBI agents then stormed the building, and John gave his gun to Ryan and walked out. Luther ran down the stairs but saw the agents coming up them, so he hurried out another exit but an agent on the roof spotted John heading towards the parking lot so the agent called it out to his team. John left with William driving his car. As William drove on a nearby road, a car sideswiped them from a side street. The other driver causing the accident happened to be the killer SS agent Gray who then got out of his unmarked car with his gun. The first bullet SS Agent Gray fired at John through the windshield missed. William must have recovered from his injuries and was able to speed away, so Secret Service Agent Gray pointed the gun at the back windshield and the bullet hit John in the back and he was instantly bloody. They stopped at a location, and Willam got out and took the camera that John gave him with Luther’s and Harrison’s conversation in the spa, and John said he needed William to do this. William went into the building and uploaded the video to CNW’s website on a computer and was successful in doing so. John drove away in the car somehow with his bullet wound and car accident injuries. A CNW employee took the footage that he received on email straight to anchorwoman Diana Lucas for her to watch on his phone. Once she saw the video, she had a breaking news report and addressed the nation with new evidence proving John was innocent. Diana said she hadn’t confirmed anything was connected to the charges of John Luther but could verify that the footage they were about to see was raw, unedited video. The President (with alcohol in the background) got a call and confirmed that he was watching the CNW news and told the party on the other end that it was absolutely unforgivable. The president announced that he didn’t want the CIA involved and to give them no access because he wanted his personal Secret Service Agent Gray hitman to get his people out there and do it quietly. Harrison was on the phone at his home trying to track down Luther and told his people to do whatever it took to get them out of the situation. Harrison then went to answer the ringing doorbell. Secret Service Agent Gray was there and shot Harrison dead with hired help inside the Senator’s house. John drove to Kings Mountain as SS Agent Gray followed Luther. However, William’s car then broke down so John pulled over to the side of the road. John got out and ran through the woods, and Federal SS Agent Gray went into the woods to find John, along with another dirty federal Secret Service agent who just arrived in his car. There was a “Caution: Pool Under Repair,” sign where they entered the wooded area. John paused to catch his breath. SS Agent Gray shot at John again, so he kept running. Agent Clark and many other heavily armed FBI agents showed up on scene and went into the woods to find the rogue agents and John. As John ran, he had flashbacks of the senator deceiving John and calling him his friend and saying he needed to be on the right side of history, as well as John’s friend Ryan saying the talk of persecution would die and John would come out on top. John remembered the teen girl in the back of his car, throwing money on the board table, and his dad telling him to get back up when he got knocked down. John did just that and kept running after he collapsed to the ground because he had already lost so much blood. John came around the corner of a wooded building, and SS Agent Gray grabbed Luther while the other dirty SS agent took his coat off and came up behind John and pointed his gun at John’s back. An FBI agent came around the corner and pulled a gun on the crooked agent telling him to put the gun down. The two bad guys United States Secret Service agents then flashed their badges to the FBI agent. SS Agent Gray told the FBI lead man that they were all on the same team as he put his weapon down as they noticed the heavily armed agents in the woods surrounding them. The Secret Service men made eye contact to each other, and one started shooting at the FBI so the Secret Service agent was shot multiple times by the FBI. SS Agent Gray held up his badge in one hand and used the other to pull out his second gun and shoot the female FBI agent, and Agent Gray ran away into the woods with the FBI agents chasing after him. John jumped into the drained pool to get away from the gunfire because he didn’t need to take another bullet for his country that day. He remembered his daughter Jodi asking him if there was any way he could reschedule his sermon and his wife telling him she was sorry, but John did it to himself. Luther took out his phone and called his house, where Jodi answered the phone and said she drew a picture in Sunday School. Monica took the phone and told John that they were dropping the charges and it was all over the news and the President got involved. John apologized to Monica for shutting her out and told her she was the love of his life and if he didn’t make it out of that he wanted her to be free. Monica told John it was time to come home, but the call was interrupted when the wounded female FBI agent was on her feet looking around close by John for the missing killer SS Agent Gray. SS Agent Gray grabbed the wounded female FBI agent and held her hostage as the other agents surrounded them. John climbed up the side of the pool. Luther grabbed the gun that fell out of the agent’s hand, and he used it to shoot Agent Gray from behind. John then collapsed and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance. Back at Truth ministry headquarters later on, John’s pictures were being put back up on the wall and he walked into the building to applause by the board members. He was told they were being flooded with donations and they were going to have the best quarter yet. They said they prayed over what to do and couldn’t believe that John was back so soon and wasn’t in the hospital for weeks. Dave said that now John had been cleared, they could reconvene as soon as possible to get John reinstated so everything could go back to normal like nothing ever happened. They also had some exciting ideas for the next quarters and incredible outreach opportunities, and they went on to say that John had cards and letters from all over the place because the whole world was standing behind them. Dave added that it was unprecedented and God Himself was going to take what happened to John and use it as testimony to reach millions more around the globe and it would open doors for the church. John excused himself from the sellouts and retrieved his Bible from his desk. In the next scene, Diana was interviewing John again and asking him if he would fall on his own sword over all of that. John said if you take away a man’s right to speak his mind in a country founded on that very principle (freedom of speech) then you didn’t really have a country and there was really no sword left to fall upon. John then walked out of the building with his Bible without speaking to the board. After that, John was invited to the White House, where the President introduced his long-time friend John Luther to the audience. Before the President let John talk, the President walked over to John and gave him a hug and told him that he was the American that fought his government and survived and everybody was there to hear what John had to say and advised John to be real nice because the President expected to get reelected out of all of that mess and it was basically a warning. John took the podium and didn’t say a word and that is how the movie ended. The following was listed on the movie cover art: Newsmax “A Christian film that takes a modern-day turn to fight for religious liberty in America.” / Ted Baehr, Movieguide “A provocative, suspenseful political thriller.” / The Dove Foundation “[Persecuted is] a compelling story that shows what one man with faith can accomplish.”