American Family Radio encourages you to subscribe to the podcast and the new Word
Walker Wildmon We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
Jeff Chamblee We equip
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don Wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character.
Jeff Chamblee This is at the core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome, to The Core here on American Family Radio, it's Walker Wildmon. Happy to be with you today on this edition of the program. We've got a couple guests lined up in the second segment and then the third and final segment, so you'll want to stick around for the show the entire time so you don't miss those interviews. If for some reason you're unable to stick around for the hour or 55 minutes of the program, we would encourage you to subscribe to the podcast and the new Word. I learned this over the weekend in the Apple realm. The new podcasting word is follow. I always thought you were subscribing, and I guess technically you are, but little did I know as I went to subscribe to a podcast over the weekend. Apple, calls it following the show. there's always something new under the sun. So if you would like to get the podcast in your library each and every day. And if you're on an Apple device, the word is use. Follow. Follow the program on your Apple library, and who knows what it is over on Android or Spotify. They probably got their own terminology. But, nonetheless, we appreciate all of our podcast listeners out there in the Internet world and, jumping into our scripture for today.
There's nothing more sad than seeing parents grieving over a wayward child
We're in Proverbs, chapter 10. Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 1. A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother. Now, I'm, beginning to experience kind of the beginning stages, if you will, of this as a father now of five. But I definitely have seen others, that have more, adult children, experience either, the blessing or the curse that children can bring to their parents. And there's nothing more sad than when you have children that have wandered astray. I mean, you can read in scripture about the story of the prodigal son. Now, that story ends with him coming home. So it ends in victory, if you will, and in reconciliation and in gladness. But, there's nothing more sad than seeing parents, who are grieving over a wayward child, and in this case, a wayward, adult child. But the scripture gives us all kinds of truths and principles for life. And the verse here, verse 1. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother. It's so true. And we can see that with our life experiences. So my challenge for us is to make our parents glad. Don't be a grief to your parents. Proverbs, chapter 10, verse one.
AFA at Home has a new segment on education coming out Thursday
Well, we had a lot going on over the weekend, a lot of breaking news items. We're going to try to cover some of them this segment. But before we do, I've got to highlight a few things that we have going on specifically we've got a brand new episode of AFA at Home coming out this week on Thursday at 6pm Central. We're going to release this online at Stream AFA. But we brought in AFA brought in and I was the emcee if you will. Or I hosted the panel of individuals discussing education in America. We looked at America's past history in education, where we are now and where we're going. And we specifically delved into the Marxist and humanist ideologies that have infected America's education system. And we delved into homeschooling, private charter, the whole 9 yards government run education. Just a ton there that we talked about. And just to give you a little glimpse, let's listen to this clip promoting our recent episode of AFA at Home.
The states have a role to play in terms of setting standards for education
How did we get here?
Speaker D How did we get so far from studying truth, studying history, studying things that.
Walker Wildmon Are actually high value about character development? Certainly the states have a role to play in terms of setting standards and making sure that kids are getting access to a high quality education. But what is important is to think about what are those standards. For me it always falls within parents rights. Psalm um127 says that children are a blessing from God. The Bible, the Lord was talking to parents, he wasn't talking to government. Children belong to their parents, they do not belong to the government.
Speaker C We wanted to have a populace who.
Walker Wildmon Could navigate the word of God.
Speaker C And as George Washington said in his farewell address, that religion and morality were indispensable supports to our constitutional republic. This experiment in individual liberty and self governance.
Walker Wildmon And so that was the reason why education was formalized in the first place.
Walker Wildmon It's time to lead. You are now been given the opportunity we've asked for years give power back to the state. Well, it's coming. Oh, there you have it. We had multiple guests on this episode. Once again, this is episode 7 of our AFA at Home video series where we focus on various topics related to our work here at afa. And in this episode, it's coming out on Thursday, you can go over to stream.afa.net stream.afa.net and create a free account. You'll be able to watch it for one week for free without having to become a great commission partner or donate monthly. So you'll get to watch it for free by simply creating an account. [email protected] we had the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Education, Ryan Walters, on with us. We had Julie Pickren. She is, Julie is one of the state, board members, of education serving District 7 in Texas. Abe Hamilton was on with us and a few others as well. So you'll want to go check that out over at stream.afa.net all you'll need is a free account. And you'll be able to watch that beginning on Thursday evening, 6pm Central, I believe, is when that will go live.
Biden: Congress needs to pass legislation to stop unconstitutional judicial injunctions
Walker Wildmon All right, let's jump into some of our news items. The, judiciary is, out of control or rather lacking self control and self restraint. And this problem of the judiciary and these unconstitutional rulings has been going on for some time now, both under the first Trump administration. We saw this, we saw this under Obama and others where, there was increasingly increasing numbers of unconstitutional rulings. And most notably, at least in modern history, was the 2015 ruling stating that marriage could be between two dudes or two women and completely overriding, state constitutional provisions in this matter, completely disregarding the 10th Amendment, so on and so forth. Well, this, problem of the judiciary just continues. Now we see these nationwide injunctions being issued against President Trump every single week. It seems like we're getting a nationwide injunction. And Senator Josh Hawley actually has a solution here, and it's a very peaceable solution. And this is what Congress is going to have to do. Congress is going to have to get involved here in, order to rein in these rogue judges. And let me just set this up. One of the main problems, we could talk about 10 issues or 10 areas of law where the judiciary is getting it wrong. But let's hone in on one area, and that is nationwide injunctions. All right? These are the rulings that are most, most commonly issued by district court court judges. I guess technically they could be issued by a circuit court panel of judges as well. But most commonly, you're hearing this with district court judges, which is a single judge, right? Not a panel, a single judge that presides over a federal district in the US and they're issuing what they're calling nationwide injunctions, which basically hamstrings whatever party is being sued. It ties them up, and it, applies the ruling not just within the district, but within the entire continental United States. Within the entire United States. Every district, every circuit, every jurisdiction is now bound by what this one judge says in this one district in the United States. And so that's kind of the elementary explanation as to what these nationwide injunctions are. And the basic premise of a nationwide injunction runs counter to how the judiciary is set up, how it is structured. For example, a district court judge. Well, let's just look at that. What is a district court judge? Well, it's a federal judge that has been appointed and approved by the Senate to preside over judicial matters, federal judicial matters for said district. And so, by definition, a district court judge doesn't have jurisdiction over other districts or other jurisdictions outside of their narrowly tailored district that they've been appointed to, but yet they think they do through this tool, this more modern phenomena of nationwide injunctions. These haven't been a thing forever. This is. They've been used more recently over the last 10 to 15 years at a very rapid pace, unlike they had in, an earlier history in America, at least, for, let's say, the last hundred years. And so Senator Josh Hawley actually has a solution where you reign in these district court judges and you tell them, look, your jurisdiction is your jurisdiction. You can't reach over into another judge's jurisdiction and start applying your rulings. That's not how we intended this court system work. Let's listen to Senator, Josh Hawley.
Speaker E Clip 2 no, I'm surprised the Supreme Court's letting this go on, Bill. And here's why. These little district court judges, these judges, are essentially acting as if they're the Supreme Court. I call them little. It's because they've got a narrow jurisdiction, and yet each one of them, so many of them, all 17, you just pointed out, they want to act as if they're the Supreme Court. Really. They want to act as if they're the president. This is why I've introduced legislation, Bill, that would stop nationwide injunctions, ban it. We just shouldn't allow district court judges to try and set policy for the entire nation. I don't think the Constitution allows it. We ought to make that clear in the law.
Walker Wildmon Okay, all right. This should be a nonpartisan thing, by the way, because there were a couple, not many. I think there were maybe four to six nationwide injunctions against, Biden. Well, it was. It Was. It was less than a dozen. I can, I can say that pretty, pretty confidently. Very, very few nationwide injunctions against Biden. But there were some. There were, there were some. There were a handful. But when, when I tell you how many district court judges we have, your mind is going to be blown that they have this, this authority, and I put it in air quotes that they've conjured up to issue a nationwide injunction. And by the way, the premise of nationwide injunctions other than at the Supreme Court level runs contrary to how our founding fathers established the government. Every single branch of government is supposed to be limited in power, limited in jurisdiction. There are currently 677 authorized article three district judgeships. Now, of those are 670, that are, that are on the bench. 670 judges. So that means there's obviously some vacancies there. So you're telling me that there are 670 plus judges that on any given day can just say, I'm going to issue a nationwide injunction. What if they all started doing that? What if one said, yeah, that's legal, let's do it? The other one said, no, that's unconstitutional. Nobody can do it in the country. So who, who rules on that? Well, while the Supreme Court rules. Well, eventually, but not immediately. And so how many weeks or months have to go by before the Supreme Court jumps in? And if this starts becoming as frequent as it has been, I mean, President Trump had 64 of these injunctions against him in the first term. At the rate that this is going, the Supreme Court isn't going to be able to keep up, my friends. And so this has to be reined in. This is patently absurd. The only court that should be able to have binding authority over all of the courts in the land is the Supreme Court. That's why they are there. If we're going to have nationwide injunctions, then why have the Supreme Court? And so Democrat or Republican, this is going to have to be reined in. It's just patently absurd to hamstring in the administration, and it's an abuse of power. We'll be back.
Jeff Chamblee At the Core Podcasts are available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio welcomes Representative Kevin Ritter on the show
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Well, in addition to covering the news of the day and bringing a little bit of sanity to the conversation, we also like to interview, folks around the country, whether it's lawmakers, policymakers or otherwise that are making an impact in their state, in their community. And, that's what we're going to do. This segment we have on with us Representative Kevin Ritter from the state of Ohio. He's, representing District 94 in Ohio. Once again, Representative Kevin Ritter's with us. Representative Ritter, welcome to the program.
Representative Kevin Ritter Thank you very much. Walker. Good to be with you.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, glad to have you on the program. Well, I've been keeping up with, this legislation that we're dubbing, the Thrive act, and there's an acronym for that of which I don't have in front of me. But basically, this legislation that you've, introduced in Ohio will, hopefully go a long way should it become law. And teaching children in a school setting basic life skills to succeed. And I'm not just talking about math, reading and other subjects, but I'm talking about moral life lessons like integrity, like hard work, these basic life skills and characteristic traits that help young people succeed in life. So tell us a little bit about this legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter Absolutely. Well, first of all, what you need to know about my background is I've spent many years in the classroom, so I've said, had an opportunity to see this firsthand. And what I recognize is that kids are lacking role models, role models that they can use to develop their own virtue. Today, what we see is kids are looking up to superheroes. They're looking up to sports stars and social media influencers. And I think we all recognize these aren't really role models. Kids need to see really what a good life looks like, what success looks like. And this is just as important as teaching any of the hard subjects like math or science. So the bill that we put together provides kids with important examples of virtue. It shows them what a good life should look like.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, this, this this goes a long way because I want people to understand the, the impact here, one way or the other, positive or negative. So for example, what I'm getting at is if you don't teach these basic, life skills and character traits that are, scientifically, the data shows that if you practice things like honesty, things like hard work, like integrity, like putting others before yourself, these are not only are these Christian precepts, but they're also proven, no matter who bears them out, no matter who lives them out, to lead young people to be more successful in life. And not just successful economically, but relationally and from a parenting perspective when they get older. The alternate effect, if you will, by not doing something like this thrive act that you're talking about is that we continue to have a society, that is morally lacking, that is not necessarily virtuous and that's not good for anyone.
Representative Kevin Ritter Right, Exactly. Well, you asked about the origins of this bill. It goes back to something that's been around in the social sciences a couple decades, known as the success sequence. And what the success sequence says is if young people will do three things, if they'll graduate high school, if they'll get a full time job, and if they'll get married before having children, they have virtually no possibility of living in poverty, they're going to have an economic flourishing, they're going to have a good life. Again, it's about providing those positive role models. But we need to get this message to the kids as well, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's right. And that success sequence you talk about, I've written on this recently and it's a proven formula. I mean it's a proven formula that when people, especially young people, follow this sequence of how to live, what order to do things, these milestones, the statistics are on their side overwhelmingly, when it comes to life, success.
Ohio Representative Kevin Ritter is pushing legislation to teach kids soft skills
Let me ask this. Ah, once again we're talking to Representative Kevin Ritter from the State of Ohio. He represents District 94. I know this hasn't been kind of percolating long, at least in Ohio in the legislature. But what kind of support or pushback are you getting? Are you getting any pushback? This seems like a pretty common sense piece of legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter You know, really what we're talking about is teaching kids what we call now the soft skills. And teaching kids those soft skills isn't something that's controversial. So no, we haven't seen much pushback in Many ways, though, the teaching of those soft skills, is kind of a lost art, a forgotten art. Kids used to read about these in books, in literature. They used to see these things modeled on television. But sadly, that's not happening, in all parts of our country anymore. And the result is that kids aren't learning, for example, that they need to turn their assignments in on time. They need to show up for work on time. And even things as extreme as stealing from your employer is wrong. so they're not learning about the power of kindness and of care and of love. Our bill exposes kids to these very important habits and skills.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, yeah, this is excellent legislation. I think every state needs to pass it and get these critical, as you say, soft skills that oftentimes get overlooked. You know, a lot of these school districts or these states are heavily focused on, hey, what are your math scores? Or what's your reading score? And all of that's good. But if we're not teaching honesty and integrity and hard work and how to care for others and how to put others before yourself, you know, you might have the greatest math score, but you might not be a good citizen, contributing to society because you aren't covering the fundamental soft skills that are needed to succeed. how can. Folks, we've got a lot of coverage in Ohio, by the way. we cover both north and south Columbus, and we cover a lot of Ohio. What can folks do in the state of Ohio to kind of bolster the prospect of this legislation called the Thrive Act?
Representative Kevin Ritter Well, I'm very blessed to have a great joint sponsor on this bill. It's Representative Jonathan Newman from the other side of the state. And Representative Newman's also a pastor, so this is right in his backyard. I would tell folks, the first step is to pray. Pray specifically for the passage of this bill this year. We want to set the tone for the rest of the country, and we have a great opportunity to do that with this piece of legislation. The second thing I would ask listeners to do is contact their own representatives, their state representative, and ask them to join us in co sponsoring and supporting this bill. It's a, common sense approach to showing kids why they're getting an education in the first place. In other words, what success looks like. And really, we're teaching kids how they can be happy in life. That's what education is really all about.
Walker Wildmon That's right. That's right. Skills help bring about fulfillment. And we live in a society with, record levels of anxiety and depression among young people. And they need reason for hope, they need reason for optimism. And that's what these life skills, will bring for the majority of these young people. just to describe, or outline this, acronym we're using called the Thrive act, once again, we're talking to Representative Kevin Ritter from the state of Ohio. Here are the, are the letters and what they mean to. The T stands for teaching. The H stands for honesty. The R stands for respect, I, individual responsibility, V, virtue. And lastly the E stands far excellence. So we want to teach our kids about teaching, honesty, respect, individual responsibility, virtue and excellence. And Representative Ritter, I don't know who you're going to find, but I'm sure you'll find somebody that's against teaching, these critical skills.
Representative Kevin Ritter Yeah, you know, as a former history professor, I like to look back to the origin of things. And it was the Greek philosopher Plato that told us the purpose of education is the acquisition of wisdom and virtue. And those are the two things that we're after with this act.
Walker Wildmon Yep. Yeah. And I'll just say this one more thing once again. I'm a huge fan of this legislation. But you mentioned in your press release, or in one of your statements you guys put out, you were talking about how this is, this is really a workforce development legislation. And the reason I want to kind of connect the dots for people is because this, this type legislation doesn't just teach young people, well, how to be a good student, how to be a good son, how to be a good daughter, how to be a good athlete in high school. But this ends up translating into how to be a good employee. because these folks are, obviously this is targeted towards high, schoolers, seventh, to 12th grade and middle schoolers. And they're getting, before you know it, they're 19, 20, they're getting a degree or they're going straight into the workforce. And this is going to help prepare, more productive and more, contributing workers for the Ohio economy.
Representative Kevin Ritter Absolutely. We hear it over and over from employers. They're having difficulty finding young people that have the sort of soft skills that this legislation would teach. You know, kids that show up on time, kids that have respect for legitimate authority, respect for the law. it is absolutely essential that we equip kids with those skills, as you said, Walker, so they can go into the workplace and be good citizens and be good workers.
Walker Wildmon Very, very. I love how you guys have described this legislation. You described it as a workforce development bill. It's a poverty remediation bill, pro Teacher Pro Public school bill and will improve behavior and performance in the classroom. And all these things are so very needed. There's a huge vacuum here and we have to teach kids, ah, right versus wrong and how to follow that success sequence that leads to much, much better outcomes. Representative Ritter, thanks so much for coming on and we appreciate you co sponsoring and presenting this legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter Walker, thank you so much all.
Walker Wildmon Ah, right, appreciate it very much.
Kevin Ritter: We need to get moral instruction back in the classroom
That's Representative Kevin Ritter, from the state of Ohio. He serves District 94. And for those in Ohio, you can call your representative, call your state senator and have them speak in favor of or tell them that you're in favor of what's being called the Thrive Act. And once again that THRIVE stands for teaching honesty, respect, individual responsibility, virtue and excellence. The Thrive act that we've been working on in the state of Ohio. This will cover grades 7 through 12 by the way, so both middle and high school teaching them things like honesty, reliability, punctuality, loyalty, gratitude, charity, courage, all of these life skills that are so very much needed, to really, truly succeed in their future. Well there you have it. The Thrive act in Ohio. We'll be working on this in other states as well. But we have to get moral instruction back in the classroom. And yes, it's important who's teaching that moral instruction. I get it. but to think that, you know, we just need the greatest math scores and the greatest reading scores and you know, the most astute historian, historic, history students to have a good society. Have a productive society. That's missing it folks. That's missing it. Yes, those things are important. Don't get me wrong, we need to excel in academics. But if we're missing the fundamental moral teachings of the Bible on what it means to be a productive citizen, to be a responsible citizen in society, then we've lost our way. We've lost our way. And these are things that we're taught in America's early universities, in America's early schoolhouses. These were non controversial moral teachings that were taught to our children. And and once again the, the, the schoolhouse is just one part of society folks. It's just one facet of society, one aspect of society. We've got to have a whole of society approach to this cultural restoration, let's call it. Because if the parents aren't doing the job, then you know, we're undermining what's going on in the schoolhouse. If we can get the schoolhouse teaching the right things but then they come, the kids come home and we're, we're, you know, abdicating our duty. That's on us as parents. And so the goal here, when we address these key cultural issues and we talk about transforming or restoring American culture, this is an all of society approach. The primary venue is in the household. The primary responsibility is amongst the parents to train their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and to teach them all of his ways, all of God's ways. And then when we look at other venues, if you will, we shouldn't have to be, we shouldn't have to be undermined at every turn. And this is where the frustration comes with our public education system. When they're being taught things in that venue that are run directly contrary to what they're being taught at home. It's completely unnecessary, completely counterproductive. And this is where the activism and the frustration arises with pop culture and media, Hollywood entertainment, is when they're pumping this garbage into our households, they're pumping this garbage onto our devices. So cultural restoration is an all hands on deck approach. Yes, it starts in the household. It also goes over to the church house, it goes to the schoolhouse. It's an all hands on deck approach. And I don't have to predict what will happen if we don't restore the moral teachings of our culture, which are rooted in biblical Christianity. I don't have to say this apocalyptic thing will happen if we don't teach these right things to our children. I can just tell you. Look at where we are today. Look at where we are today. With a seemingly rotting away culture, young people in despair, divorces on the rise, abortion at historic levels. Folks, I don't have to convince you what might happen. We are here. We are experiencing cultural rot and decay. We'll be back.
Jeff Chamblee The Ten Commandments are the foundation of a life that pleases God.
Walker Wildmon God gave us worlds because rules can keep us safe from danger. They help us to know what is right and wrong. They are God's word, they are God's laws. And they show that all humans are sinners.
Jeff Chamblee When we instill them in our children, their lives will be forever changed.
Walker Wildmon They show us the way to live, the way to love our neighbor, the way to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our minds. Soli deo gloria To God alone be the glory.
Jeff Chamblee The Ten Commandments speech challenge is a great way to get our youth, aged 7 to 17, to learn and really focus on the depth of the ten Commandments all they have to do is write and present a, three to five minute speech on why the Ten Commandments are important, with special emphasis on the first Commandment. It's also a great family project because you can help them write and record their speech before June 30th. All the details [email protected] 10 Commandments.
Jeff Chamblee This is At the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
This topic is applicable to many states around the country regarding online gambling
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to this final segment of today's program here on American Family Radio. Speaking of moral rot, moral decay, we're about to transition or move over to a topic that is very much within that category. And this is a problem across the entire US Some states worse than others. But we have on with us Les Bernal. He's a national, director over at Stop Predatory Gambling Organization. Les, welcome back to our. Welcome to the program, rather.
Les Bernal It's great to be on. Thank you.
Walker Wildmon Well, Les, today we're talking about, what's going on in the state of Mississippi, but this topic is applicable to many states around the country, and that is, this online gambling, push. Several states obviously already have this. But before we get into the nuts and bolts of what's going on in Mississippi right now, give us an overview of where does, where does the law stand, generally speaking, on this online gambling push across the country.
Les Bernal So online gambling is an extension of what has been happening in America over the last 40 years when it comes to state governments partnering with powerful gambling corporations. Corporations to promote extreme forms of gambling into people's communities. And now they're bringing it into people's homes, essentially any place in a state that has an Internet connection. So that's what we call predatory gambling. It's when government partners with these powerful corporations, you know, to exploit and defraud citizens in their communities. And so online gambling is the most extreme form of gambling that we've ever seen. And, and it's also the most profitable for, for the gambling industry. So that's why they target like states like Mississippi and countless others to ram this through before the, both legislators and the public has, has, has little public understanding of what is being legalized. So consider this. Everyone's familiar with the fentanyl problem in America. Every state has an issue with it to some degree. Online gambling is gambling, fentanyl, and it's coming into your home seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And it's being done in partnership with state government. So if this was, were to get legalized, for example, in Mississippi, Mississippi state government is a partner in this. They're essentially the drug dealer here in addition to these gambling corporations and all, your listeners who don't gamble, you suffer for this in countless ways. And we'll talk about that going forward.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, so what brought this up folks, is they're trying to push something like this in Mississippi and which is obviously where we're headquartered. But, but this, this topic is very applicable to states around the country because it's a very similar kind of process. And Les knows this better than anybody, as far as how these, these big gambling conglomerates just push their way into the states. And once they get things like this, online gambling legal, there's no turning around. take a lot, a lot of lobbying and effort to get this thing turned around.
Les Bernal: Mississippi is a state that has commercialized sports gambling online
So Les, tell us what's going on in Mississippi.
Les Bernal So in recent months, so Mississippi is a state that has commercialized sports gambling in a brick and mortar location. But you don't. But the state does not have it online. Meaning, it's not, you can't do it online legally in the state of Mississippi. So the reason why that's significant is the Wall Street Journal reported one year ago, or at about this time, that they got internal documents by one of the online gambling operators and it showed that 70% of online gambling profits were coming from one half of 1% of the users of these, of these gambling applications. So like the business model is based on taking everyday, particularly young males, which is the target demographic for this, you know, m. Young men under 35, most of whom are under, frankly under 25, getting them hooked on this and then exploiting them and targeting them relentlessly until they lose everything. And in many instances beyond just losing everything, going to incredible debt, in many instances more than six figures.
Walker Wildmon This is shocking. And when you look at the morality of it because we can't see, we can't assess. And I understand your group is looking at this from maybe a scientific or a data standpoint, but from our organization's vantage point, yes, this is predatory and what makes it most egregious is that this is a non productive activity. Right. This is an activity that doesn't produce things like you and I go to work and hopefully we produce things whether it's content or whether it's physical material or we provide maybe a service to somebody. Gambling is a non producing activity. I mean you're not. We were created to work and to produce and be proud of what we do with our hands. And gambling is a very non productive activity. And to your point it just sucks the life and in this case the money out of folks pockets. But to your point, talk about who this, the type of communities that this targets because my understanding is these are, these are very low income. It's almost like the payday loans or the payday loan scheme, are the, you know, the loans on every corner where you can basically give your life away and get some money, get some cash on the spot. But this is targeting very communities that are already impoverished, are very low income communities. Right.
Les Bernal So that is certainly part of it. They are certainly targeting you know, lower income citizens and lower income families are certainly suffering from this. But low income families have been suffering from predatory gambling for 40 years whether it's to local casinos or in many states, state lotteries, where they're concentrated in these low income places. So what's new about this phenomenon right now in 2025 is online gambling, particularly coming in through sports, is affecting not just low income families but also middle M income and upper income families. So in states like New Jersey you have middle class, upper class moms calling gambling addiction hotlines which with their teenage sons on the phone with them like so some predatory gambling. Now we refer to it as America's most neglected major problem because almost every state now has, you know, except for two, has some form of predatory gambling. And this is, this isn't some private entity doing this. This isn't, these are private companies in partnership with state government. So this is essentially an extension of a government program. And the last thought I'll share with you when you talk about, you know, how this is an economic drain. For sure it is, absolutely. But what drives our movement and we pull from people from the political right and the political left is at the core, we're called at a Big picture, we're called to love others, you know, the way God loves us. Like, that's this predatory, gambling is the antithesis of that. And today in America, pretty much no matter where you live, the public voice of American government is what we advertise to the American people more than anything else is commercialized gambling, advertising and marketing. And what we incentivize to the American people, it shapes our national character. So when you use the term in your earlier segment about cultural decay and cultural rotation, this is exhibit A about what's broken about America.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, you're exactly right. And what's, to add insult to injury is that there are a litany of ways to be productive and to bring revenue into a state. We don't have to go into these immoral, predatory, ventures to bring money into the state. And this is one thing. We had the whole lottery debate in Mississippi a couple years ago, and unfortunately they went through with it. And the whole thing was, well, we'll get new roads and bridges, which I don't know about. You know, obviously you're not in Mississippi, but our roads and bridges haven't gotten any better. They've actually gotten worse. There's a lot more potholes. So I don't know where the money's going. It's not. The roads and bridges aren't great. So that was the whole thing, roads and bridges. But that's not the point that's being missed in the, in these kind of low IQ arguments is that there's, there's a hundred ways to bring more revenue into his state other than going this route with, with the whole gambling thing. So the whole, oh, this is going to bring in tons of money into the state. Well, there's a lot of things we can do to bring in money into the state. We don't have to go down this, this route of predatory gambling, that's going on. And then the lottery thing has just been an absolute disaster for the state. And unfortunately, Les, this stuff's been pushed by Republicans. So it's one thing if I were to see this coming from the Democrats, because I wouldn't kind of wouldn't be surprised. They do stuff that's not good oftentimes with their policies and their platform. But this is oftentimes bipartisan. And you got Republicans, in this case in Mississippi pushing this. And are you familiar with the, state representative, the state House speaker in Mississippi, that at least part of his super bowl trip was covered by one of the leading lobbyists in this arena? DraftKings Are you familiar with that story?
Les Bernal Yeah. That made big headlines nationally. How the Mississippi, House speaker and I guess some of his staff and other public officials in the state of Mississippi had access to super bowl tickets and I guess, other events, fueled by the gambling lobbying interests, in Mississippi. And that just kind of underscores that there's no grassroots movement for predatory gambling in America. Citizens aren't demanding this. You mentioned both Republicans and Democrats. So the establishment of both political parties are carrying the water for the gambling industry. And so we call, you know, in the big picture, you know, and I say this with a small d when you say democratic principles. When you grow up, you learn about the principle of no taxation without representation. Today in America, whether you're in Mississippi or pretty much any other state, we have a system of taxation by exploitation. And all of you who don't gamble like you're paying higher taxes for less services because of this, there's been an epic public policy failure over the last 40 years, and it's becoming more extreme. And so if you're someone who's passionate about improving the direction of your community in your country, it runs through taking state governments like Mississippi's out of the predatory gambling business and getting them back on the side of citizens.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's right. And this look on behalf of the Republican House speaker in Mississippi is a terrible look. And it's. This is pretty much Exhibit A of what's wrong with politicians these days. And not all of them, but when you pass this, this gambling bill in Mississippi and then a week or two later you're at the super bowl with the chief lobbyist. Draftkings. you know, that, that is footing at least half your bill to the super bowl and with your family members and your friends and your buddies, this is a terrible look. I mean, this is a terrible look, and it causes people to be conflicted. When you start taking gifts from these lobbyists, you become very, very conflicted. And, that seems to be what's happened here with Representative Jason White in Mississippi. and this is according to some reporting by Mississippi Today. We'll link to this on the show. Notes. Les, if you could give a closing argument, on this and why this legislation. By the way, give us the status of this legislation, and give us kind of a closing argument as to why other states need to be on the lookout for this as well.
Stop Predatory Gambling Organization is fighting to end American predatory gambling
Les Bernal Sure. So today we call predatory gambling America's most neglected major problem is over the next five years in America, if you combine up all the losses, financial losses, to state lotteries, local casinos, and online gambling. American people are going to lose more than $1 trillion of personal wealth to forms of gambling sanctioned by state governments like Mississippi's. That's $300,000 every minute. So we're having this huge national debate around tariffs and, you know, to break. We want to make America wealthy again. This is.
Walker Wildmon This is.
Les Bernal You want to make America wealthy again. It's if we cut the gambling losses over the next five years in half that the American people are suffering to predatory gambling, that'd be 500 billion you put back into the daily lives of the American people. There's no policy reform from either party that comes within a thousand miles of making more of a difference in everyday people's lives, especially low income, especially low income families, than getting state government out of the gambling business.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's it. I mean, if you had to summarize this in two minutes, that is it. And we thought, and this is so easy, so easy to fix, and you just mentioned the immediate results is Americans having a trillion dollars in their pockets.
Les Bernal there's been a failed public policy, man, this is one of the biggest public policy failures of the last 50 years. And it keeps spreading not because of its merits, it's because it's driven by greed of public officials of both parties and these powerful gambling corporations.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Hey, Les, tell our folks where they can check out your work.
Les Bernal Sure. Our national organization, Stop Predatory Gambling, and name of Our website is stoppredatorygambling.org Please become a member and get involved in your local community and state to get America on the right track again. This is exhibit A, getting us back on track in this country.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Thanks, Les. Appreciate you coming on the program.
Les Bernal It's been an honor. Thank you.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Les Bernal, he's a national director over at Stop Predatory Gambling Organization. And, you can check out their work. And folks, this is, this is, this is a major problem. You just heard how much money Americans are spending, or losing ready, rather, in this whole gambling arena. I mean, absolutely stunning. And stoppredatorygambling.org is that URL. Stoppredatorygambling.orgis that URL. This is. You talk about. This is why, folks, the. When you stray away from the biblical model of growth, of human flourishing, of production and of work, this is what it gets you. It gets you a corrupted, polluted, very perverse, means of operating, and you, you, you get sold these bill of goods that, that bringing in gambling, it's gonna be the latest and the greatest. Everybody's gonna be better off. And in Mississippi, they said roads and bridges. Roads and bridges. I've never seen so many potholes in my life than I have in the last two years. I can't even get them to patch the potholes. But if we bring in the lottery system, we'll have the best roads and bridges you've ever seen. No, that's not true. This is sucking money from the tax base. It is so counterproductive. It's so counterproductive. The data is on our side and, it's immoral, it's wrong. So we need to stop this predatory gambling now. If we learned anything from this election, it's how important it is for us to fight, fight, fight. We also learned how desperately the left wants to fight to take babies lives. Which is why everyday preborn Ministries fights for the bab babies. PreBorn's network of clinics are positioned in the highest abortion areas, fighting for mothers deciding between life and death of their child. Preborn welcomes these women with God's love and offers them a ah, free ultrasound to introduce their precious baby and hear the beautiful heartbeat. This amazing encounter gives her baby a fighting chance and the majority of the time she will choose life. Would you join PreBorn in the fight for life? One ultrasound is just $28 and $140 will sponsor five ultrasounds. Babies are worth fighting for. To donate, dial pound 250 on your cell phone and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating. Fight, fight. Fight for the babies.
Jeff Chamblee The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
American Family Radio encourages you to subscribe to the podcast and the new Word
Walker Wildmon We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are.
Jeff Chamblee We equip
Rick Green Sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.
Don Wildmon We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character.
Jeff Chamblee This is at the core on American Family Radio.
Walker Wildmon Welcome, to The Core here on American Family Radio, it's Walker Wildmon. Happy to be with you today on this edition of the program. We've got a couple guests lined up in the second segment and then the third and final segment, so you'll want to stick around for the show the entire time so you don't miss those interviews. If for some reason you're unable to stick around for the hour or 55 minutes of the program, we would encourage you to subscribe to the podcast and the new Word. I learned this over the weekend in the Apple realm. The new podcasting word is follow. I always thought you were subscribing, and I guess technically you are, but little did I know as I went to subscribe to a podcast over the weekend. Apple, calls it following the show. there's always something new under the sun. So if you would like to get the podcast in your library each and every day. And if you're on an Apple device, the word is use. Follow. Follow the program on your Apple library, and who knows what it is over on Android or Spotify. They probably got their own terminology. But, nonetheless, we appreciate all of our podcast listeners out there in the Internet world and, jumping into our scripture for today.
There's nothing more sad than seeing parents grieving over a wayward child
We're in Proverbs, chapter 10. Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 1. A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother. Now, I'm, beginning to experience kind of the beginning stages, if you will, of this as a father now of five. But I definitely have seen others, that have more, adult children, experience either, the blessing or the curse that children can bring to their parents. And there's nothing more sad than when you have children that have wandered astray. I mean, you can read in scripture about the story of the prodigal son. Now, that story ends with him coming home. So it ends in victory, if you will, and in reconciliation and in gladness. But, there's nothing more sad than seeing parents, who are grieving over a wayward child, and in this case, a wayward, adult child. But the scripture gives us all kinds of truths and principles for life. And the verse here, verse 1. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a grief to his mother. It's so true. And we can see that with our life experiences. So my challenge for us is to make our parents glad. Don't be a grief to your parents. Proverbs, chapter 10, verse one.
AFA at Home has a new segment on education coming out Thursday
Well, we had a lot going on over the weekend, a lot of breaking news items. We're going to try to cover some of them this segment. But before we do, I've got to highlight a few things that we have going on specifically we've got a brand new episode of AFA at Home coming out this week on Thursday at 6pm Central. We're going to release this online at Stream AFA. But we brought in AFA brought in and I was the emcee if you will. Or I hosted the panel of individuals discussing education in America. We looked at America's past history in education, where we are now and where we're going. And we specifically delved into the Marxist and humanist ideologies that have infected America's education system. And we delved into homeschooling, private charter, the whole 9 yards government run education. Just a ton there that we talked about. And just to give you a little glimpse, let's listen to this clip promoting our recent episode of AFA at Home.
The states have a role to play in terms of setting standards for education
How did we get here?
Speaker D How did we get so far from studying truth, studying history, studying things that.
Walker Wildmon Are actually high value about character development? Certainly the states have a role to play in terms of setting standards and making sure that kids are getting access to a high quality education. But what is important is to think about what are those standards. For me it always falls within parents rights. Psalm um127 says that children are a blessing from God. The Bible, the Lord was talking to parents, he wasn't talking to government. Children belong to their parents, they do not belong to the government.
Speaker C We wanted to have a populace who.
Walker Wildmon Could navigate the word of God.
Speaker C And as George Washington said in his farewell address, that religion and morality were indispensable supports to our constitutional republic. This experiment in individual liberty and self governance.
Walker Wildmon And so that was the reason why education was formalized in the first place.
Walker Wildmon It's time to lead. You are now been given the opportunity we've asked for years give power back to the state. Well, it's coming. Oh, there you have it. We had multiple guests on this episode. Once again, this is episode 7 of our AFA at Home video series where we focus on various topics related to our work here at afa. And in this episode, it's coming out on Thursday, you can go over to stream.afa.net stream.afa.net and create a free account. You'll be able to watch it for one week for free without having to become a great commission partner or donate monthly. So you'll get to watch it for free by simply creating an account. [email protected] we had the Oklahoma State Superintendent of Education, Ryan Walters, on with us. We had Julie Pickren. She is, Julie is one of the state, board members, of education serving District 7 in Texas. Abe Hamilton was on with us and a few others as well. So you'll want to go check that out over at stream.afa.net all you'll need is a free account. And you'll be able to watch that beginning on Thursday evening, 6pm Central, I believe, is when that will go live.
Biden: Congress needs to pass legislation to stop unconstitutional judicial injunctions
Walker Wildmon All right, let's jump into some of our news items. The, judiciary is, out of control or rather lacking self control and self restraint. And this problem of the judiciary and these unconstitutional rulings has been going on for some time now, both under the first Trump administration. We saw this, we saw this under Obama and others where, there was increasingly increasing numbers of unconstitutional rulings. And most notably, at least in modern history, was the 2015 ruling stating that marriage could be between two dudes or two women and completely overriding, state constitutional provisions in this matter, completely disregarding the 10th Amendment, so on and so forth. Well, this, problem of the judiciary just continues. Now we see these nationwide injunctions being issued against President Trump every single week. It seems like we're getting a nationwide injunction. And Senator Josh Hawley actually has a solution here, and it's a very peaceable solution. And this is what Congress is going to have to do. Congress is going to have to get involved here in, order to rein in these rogue judges. And let me just set this up. One of the main problems, we could talk about 10 issues or 10 areas of law where the judiciary is getting it wrong. But let's hone in on one area, and that is nationwide injunctions. All right? These are the rulings that are most, most commonly issued by district court court judges. I guess technically they could be issued by a circuit court panel of judges as well. But most commonly, you're hearing this with district court judges, which is a single judge, right? Not a panel, a single judge that presides over a federal district in the US and they're issuing what they're calling nationwide injunctions, which basically hamstrings whatever party is being sued. It ties them up, and it, applies the ruling not just within the district, but within the entire continental United States. Within the entire United States. Every district, every circuit, every jurisdiction is now bound by what this one judge says in this one district in the United States. And so that's kind of the elementary explanation as to what these nationwide injunctions are. And the basic premise of a nationwide injunction runs counter to how the judiciary is set up, how it is structured. For example, a district court judge. Well, let's just look at that. What is a district court judge? Well, it's a federal judge that has been appointed and approved by the Senate to preside over judicial matters, federal judicial matters for said district. And so, by definition, a district court judge doesn't have jurisdiction over other districts or other jurisdictions outside of their narrowly tailored district that they've been appointed to, but yet they think they do through this tool, this more modern phenomena of nationwide injunctions. These haven't been a thing forever. This is. They've been used more recently over the last 10 to 15 years at a very rapid pace, unlike they had in, an earlier history in America, at least, for, let's say, the last hundred years. And so Senator Josh Hawley actually has a solution where you reign in these district court judges and you tell them, look, your jurisdiction is your jurisdiction. You can't reach over into another judge's jurisdiction and start applying your rulings. That's not how we intended this court system work. Let's listen to Senator, Josh Hawley.
Speaker E Clip 2 no, I'm surprised the Supreme Court's letting this go on, Bill. And here's why. These little district court judges, these judges, are essentially acting as if they're the Supreme Court. I call them little. It's because they've got a narrow jurisdiction, and yet each one of them, so many of them, all 17, you just pointed out, they want to act as if they're the Supreme Court. Really. They want to act as if they're the president. This is why I've introduced legislation, Bill, that would stop nationwide injunctions, ban it. We just shouldn't allow district court judges to try and set policy for the entire nation. I don't think the Constitution allows it. We ought to make that clear in the law.
Walker Wildmon Okay, all right. This should be a nonpartisan thing, by the way, because there were a couple, not many. I think there were maybe four to six nationwide injunctions against, Biden. Well, it was. It Was. It was less than a dozen. I can, I can say that pretty, pretty confidently. Very, very few nationwide injunctions against Biden. But there were some. There were, there were some. There were a handful. But when, when I tell you how many district court judges we have, your mind is going to be blown that they have this, this authority, and I put it in air quotes that they've conjured up to issue a nationwide injunction. And by the way, the premise of nationwide injunctions other than at the Supreme Court level runs contrary to how our founding fathers established the government. Every single branch of government is supposed to be limited in power, limited in jurisdiction. There are currently 677 authorized article three district judgeships. Now, of those are 670, that are, that are on the bench. 670 judges. So that means there's obviously some vacancies there. So you're telling me that there are 670 plus judges that on any given day can just say, I'm going to issue a nationwide injunction. What if they all started doing that? What if one said, yeah, that's legal, let's do it? The other one said, no, that's unconstitutional. Nobody can do it in the country. So who, who rules on that? Well, while the Supreme Court rules. Well, eventually, but not immediately. And so how many weeks or months have to go by before the Supreme Court jumps in? And if this starts becoming as frequent as it has been, I mean, President Trump had 64 of these injunctions against him in the first term. At the rate that this is going, the Supreme Court isn't going to be able to keep up, my friends. And so this has to be reined in. This is patently absurd. The only court that should be able to have binding authority over all of the courts in the land is the Supreme Court. That's why they are there. If we're going to have nationwide injunctions, then why have the Supreme Court? And so Democrat or Republican, this is going to have to be reined in. It's just patently absurd to hamstring in the administration, and it's an abuse of power. We'll be back.
Jeff Chamblee At the Core Podcasts are available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
American Family Radio welcomes Representative Kevin Ritter on the show
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Well, in addition to covering the news of the day and bringing a little bit of sanity to the conversation, we also like to interview, folks around the country, whether it's lawmakers, policymakers or otherwise that are making an impact in their state, in their community. And, that's what we're going to do. This segment we have on with us Representative Kevin Ritter from the state of Ohio. He's, representing District 94 in Ohio. Once again, Representative Kevin Ritter's with us. Representative Ritter, welcome to the program.
Representative Kevin Ritter Thank you very much. Walker. Good to be with you.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, glad to have you on the program. Well, I've been keeping up with, this legislation that we're dubbing, the Thrive act, and there's an acronym for that of which I don't have in front of me. But basically, this legislation that you've, introduced in Ohio will, hopefully go a long way should it become law. And teaching children in a school setting basic life skills to succeed. And I'm not just talking about math, reading and other subjects, but I'm talking about moral life lessons like integrity, like hard work, these basic life skills and characteristic traits that help young people succeed in life. So tell us a little bit about this legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter Absolutely. Well, first of all, what you need to know about my background is I've spent many years in the classroom, so I've said, had an opportunity to see this firsthand. And what I recognize is that kids are lacking role models, role models that they can use to develop their own virtue. Today, what we see is kids are looking up to superheroes. They're looking up to sports stars and social media influencers. And I think we all recognize these aren't really role models. Kids need to see really what a good life looks like, what success looks like. And this is just as important as teaching any of the hard subjects like math or science. So the bill that we put together provides kids with important examples of virtue. It shows them what a good life should look like.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, this, this this goes a long way because I want people to understand the, the impact here, one way or the other, positive or negative. So for example, what I'm getting at is if you don't teach these basic, life skills and character traits that are, scientifically, the data shows that if you practice things like honesty, things like hard work, like integrity, like putting others before yourself, these are not only are these Christian precepts, but they're also proven, no matter who bears them out, no matter who lives them out, to lead young people to be more successful in life. And not just successful economically, but relationally and from a parenting perspective when they get older. The alternate effect, if you will, by not doing something like this thrive act that you're talking about is that we continue to have a society, that is morally lacking, that is not necessarily virtuous and that's not good for anyone.
Representative Kevin Ritter Right, Exactly. Well, you asked about the origins of this bill. It goes back to something that's been around in the social sciences a couple decades, known as the success sequence. And what the success sequence says is if young people will do three things, if they'll graduate high school, if they'll get a full time job, and if they'll get married before having children, they have virtually no possibility of living in poverty, they're going to have an economic flourishing, they're going to have a good life. Again, it's about providing those positive role models. But we need to get this message to the kids as well, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's right. And that success sequence you talk about, I've written on this recently and it's a proven formula. I mean it's a proven formula that when people, especially young people, follow this sequence of how to live, what order to do things, these milestones, the statistics are on their side overwhelmingly, when it comes to life, success.
Ohio Representative Kevin Ritter is pushing legislation to teach kids soft skills
Let me ask this. Ah, once again we're talking to Representative Kevin Ritter from the State of Ohio. He represents District 94. I know this hasn't been kind of percolating long, at least in Ohio in the legislature. But what kind of support or pushback are you getting? Are you getting any pushback? This seems like a pretty common sense piece of legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter You know, really what we're talking about is teaching kids what we call now the soft skills. And teaching kids those soft skills isn't something that's controversial. So no, we haven't seen much pushback in Many ways, though, the teaching of those soft skills, is kind of a lost art, a forgotten art. Kids used to read about these in books, in literature. They used to see these things modeled on television. But sadly, that's not happening, in all parts of our country anymore. And the result is that kids aren't learning, for example, that they need to turn their assignments in on time. They need to show up for work on time. And even things as extreme as stealing from your employer is wrong. so they're not learning about the power of kindness and of care and of love. Our bill exposes kids to these very important habits and skills.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, yeah, this is excellent legislation. I think every state needs to pass it and get these critical, as you say, soft skills that oftentimes get overlooked. You know, a lot of these school districts or these states are heavily focused on, hey, what are your math scores? Or what's your reading score? And all of that's good. But if we're not teaching honesty and integrity and hard work and how to care for others and how to put others before yourself, you know, you might have the greatest math score, but you might not be a good citizen, contributing to society because you aren't covering the fundamental soft skills that are needed to succeed. how can. Folks, we've got a lot of coverage in Ohio, by the way. we cover both north and south Columbus, and we cover a lot of Ohio. What can folks do in the state of Ohio to kind of bolster the prospect of this legislation called the Thrive Act?
Representative Kevin Ritter Well, I'm very blessed to have a great joint sponsor on this bill. It's Representative Jonathan Newman from the other side of the state. And Representative Newman's also a pastor, so this is right in his backyard. I would tell folks, the first step is to pray. Pray specifically for the passage of this bill this year. We want to set the tone for the rest of the country, and we have a great opportunity to do that with this piece of legislation. The second thing I would ask listeners to do is contact their own representatives, their state representative, and ask them to join us in co sponsoring and supporting this bill. It's a, common sense approach to showing kids why they're getting an education in the first place. In other words, what success looks like. And really, we're teaching kids how they can be happy in life. That's what education is really all about.
Walker Wildmon That's right. That's right. Skills help bring about fulfillment. And we live in a society with, record levels of anxiety and depression among young people. And they need reason for hope, they need reason for optimism. And that's what these life skills, will bring for the majority of these young people. just to describe, or outline this, acronym we're using called the Thrive act, once again, we're talking to Representative Kevin Ritter from the state of Ohio. Here are the, are the letters and what they mean to. The T stands for teaching. The H stands for honesty. The R stands for respect, I, individual responsibility, V, virtue. And lastly the E stands far excellence. So we want to teach our kids about teaching, honesty, respect, individual responsibility, virtue and excellence. And Representative Ritter, I don't know who you're going to find, but I'm sure you'll find somebody that's against teaching, these critical skills.
Representative Kevin Ritter Yeah, you know, as a former history professor, I like to look back to the origin of things. And it was the Greek philosopher Plato that told us the purpose of education is the acquisition of wisdom and virtue. And those are the two things that we're after with this act.
Walker Wildmon Yep. Yeah. And I'll just say this one more thing once again. I'm a huge fan of this legislation. But you mentioned in your press release, or in one of your statements you guys put out, you were talking about how this is, this is really a workforce development legislation. And the reason I want to kind of connect the dots for people is because this, this type legislation doesn't just teach young people, well, how to be a good student, how to be a good son, how to be a good daughter, how to be a good athlete in high school. But this ends up translating into how to be a good employee. because these folks are, obviously this is targeted towards high, schoolers, seventh, to 12th grade and middle schoolers. And they're getting, before you know it, they're 19, 20, they're getting a degree or they're going straight into the workforce. And this is going to help prepare, more productive and more, contributing workers for the Ohio economy.
Representative Kevin Ritter Absolutely. We hear it over and over from employers. They're having difficulty finding young people that have the sort of soft skills that this legislation would teach. You know, kids that show up on time, kids that have respect for legitimate authority, respect for the law. it is absolutely essential that we equip kids with those skills, as you said, Walker, so they can go into the workplace and be good citizens and be good workers.
Walker Wildmon Very, very. I love how you guys have described this legislation. You described it as a workforce development bill. It's a poverty remediation bill, pro Teacher Pro Public school bill and will improve behavior and performance in the classroom. And all these things are so very needed. There's a huge vacuum here and we have to teach kids, ah, right versus wrong and how to follow that success sequence that leads to much, much better outcomes. Representative Ritter, thanks so much for coming on and we appreciate you co sponsoring and presenting this legislation.
Representative Kevin Ritter Walker, thank you so much all.
Walker Wildmon Ah, right, appreciate it very much.
Kevin Ritter: We need to get moral instruction back in the classroom
That's Representative Kevin Ritter, from the state of Ohio. He serves District 94. And for those in Ohio, you can call your representative, call your state senator and have them speak in favor of or tell them that you're in favor of what's being called the Thrive Act. And once again that THRIVE stands for teaching honesty, respect, individual responsibility, virtue and excellence. The Thrive act that we've been working on in the state of Ohio. This will cover grades 7 through 12 by the way, so both middle and high school teaching them things like honesty, reliability, punctuality, loyalty, gratitude, charity, courage, all of these life skills that are so very much needed, to really, truly succeed in their future. Well there you have it. The Thrive act in Ohio. We'll be working on this in other states as well. But we have to get moral instruction back in the classroom. And yes, it's important who's teaching that moral instruction. I get it. but to think that, you know, we just need the greatest math scores and the greatest reading scores and you know, the most astute historian, historic, history students to have a good society. Have a productive society. That's missing it folks. That's missing it. Yes, those things are important. Don't get me wrong, we need to excel in academics. But if we're missing the fundamental moral teachings of the Bible on what it means to be a productive citizen, to be a responsible citizen in society, then we've lost our way. We've lost our way. And these are things that we're taught in America's early universities, in America's early schoolhouses. These were non controversial moral teachings that were taught to our children. And and once again the, the, the schoolhouse is just one part of society folks. It's just one facet of society, one aspect of society. We've got to have a whole of society approach to this cultural restoration, let's call it. Because if the parents aren't doing the job, then you know, we're undermining what's going on in the schoolhouse. If we can get the schoolhouse teaching the right things but then they come, the kids come home and we're, we're, you know, abdicating our duty. That's on us as parents. And so the goal here, when we address these key cultural issues and we talk about transforming or restoring American culture, this is an all of society approach. The primary venue is in the household. The primary responsibility is amongst the parents to train their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord and to teach them all of his ways, all of God's ways. And then when we look at other venues, if you will, we shouldn't have to be, we shouldn't have to be undermined at every turn. And this is where the frustration comes with our public education system. When they're being taught things in that venue that are run directly contrary to what they're being taught at home. It's completely unnecessary, completely counterproductive. And this is where the activism and the frustration arises with pop culture and media, Hollywood entertainment, is when they're pumping this garbage into our households, they're pumping this garbage onto our devices. So cultural restoration is an all hands on deck approach. Yes, it starts in the household. It also goes over to the church house, it goes to the schoolhouse. It's an all hands on deck approach. And I don't have to predict what will happen if we don't restore the moral teachings of our culture, which are rooted in biblical Christianity. I don't have to say this apocalyptic thing will happen if we don't teach these right things to our children. I can just tell you. Look at where we are today. Look at where we are today. With a seemingly rotting away culture, young people in despair, divorces on the rise, abortion at historic levels. Folks, I don't have to convince you what might happen. We are here. We are experiencing cultural rot and decay. We'll be back.
Jeff Chamblee The Ten Commandments are the foundation of a life that pleases God.
Walker Wildmon God gave us worlds because rules can keep us safe from danger. They help us to know what is right and wrong. They are God's word, they are God's laws. And they show that all humans are sinners.
Jeff Chamblee When we instill them in our children, their lives will be forever changed.
Walker Wildmon They show us the way to live, the way to love our neighbor, the way to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our minds. Soli deo gloria To God alone be the glory.
Jeff Chamblee The Ten Commandments speech challenge is a great way to get our youth, aged 7 to 17, to learn and really focus on the depth of the ten Commandments all they have to do is write and present a, three to five minute speech on why the Ten Commandments are important, with special emphasis on the first Commandment. It's also a great family project because you can help them write and record their speech before June 30th. All the details [email protected] 10 Commandments.
Jeff Chamblee This is At the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
This topic is applicable to many states around the country regarding online gambling
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to this final segment of today's program here on American Family Radio. Speaking of moral rot, moral decay, we're about to transition or move over to a topic that is very much within that category. And this is a problem across the entire US Some states worse than others. But we have on with us Les Bernal. He's a national, director over at Stop Predatory Gambling Organization. Les, welcome back to our. Welcome to the program, rather.
Les Bernal It's great to be on. Thank you.
Walker Wildmon Well, Les, today we're talking about, what's going on in the state of Mississippi, but this topic is applicable to many states around the country, and that is, this online gambling, push. Several states obviously already have this. But before we get into the nuts and bolts of what's going on in Mississippi right now, give us an overview of where does, where does the law stand, generally speaking, on this online gambling push across the country.
Les Bernal So online gambling is an extension of what has been happening in America over the last 40 years when it comes to state governments partnering with powerful gambling corporations. Corporations to promote extreme forms of gambling into people's communities. And now they're bringing it into people's homes, essentially any place in a state that has an Internet connection. So that's what we call predatory gambling. It's when government partners with these powerful corporations, you know, to exploit and defraud citizens in their communities. And so online gambling is the most extreme form of gambling that we've ever seen. And, and it's also the most profitable for, for the gambling industry. So that's why they target like states like Mississippi and countless others to ram this through before the, both legislators and the public has, has, has little public understanding of what is being legalized. So consider this. Everyone's familiar with the fentanyl problem in America. Every state has an issue with it to some degree. Online gambling is gambling, fentanyl, and it's coming into your home seven days a week, 24 hours a day. And it's being done in partnership with state government. So if this was, were to get legalized, for example, in Mississippi, Mississippi state government is a partner in this. They're essentially the drug dealer here in addition to these gambling corporations and all, your listeners who don't gamble, you suffer for this in countless ways. And we'll talk about that going forward.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, so what brought this up folks, is they're trying to push something like this in Mississippi and which is obviously where we're headquartered. But, but this, this topic is very applicable to states around the country because it's a very similar kind of process. And Les knows this better than anybody, as far as how these, these big gambling conglomerates just push their way into the states. And once they get things like this, online gambling legal, there's no turning around. take a lot, a lot of lobbying and effort to get this thing turned around.
Les Bernal: Mississippi is a state that has commercialized sports gambling online
So Les, tell us what's going on in Mississippi.
Les Bernal So in recent months, so Mississippi is a state that has commercialized sports gambling in a brick and mortar location. But you don't. But the state does not have it online. Meaning, it's not, you can't do it online legally in the state of Mississippi. So the reason why that's significant is the Wall Street Journal reported one year ago, or at about this time, that they got internal documents by one of the online gambling operators and it showed that 70% of online gambling profits were coming from one half of 1% of the users of these, of these gambling applications. So like the business model is based on taking everyday, particularly young males, which is the target demographic for this, you know, m. Young men under 35, most of whom are under, frankly under 25, getting them hooked on this and then exploiting them and targeting them relentlessly until they lose everything. And in many instances beyond just losing everything, going to incredible debt, in many instances more than six figures.
Walker Wildmon This is shocking. And when you look at the morality of it because we can't see, we can't assess. And I understand your group is looking at this from maybe a scientific or a data standpoint, but from our organization's vantage point, yes, this is predatory and what makes it most egregious is that this is a non productive activity. Right. This is an activity that doesn't produce things like you and I go to work and hopefully we produce things whether it's content or whether it's physical material or we provide maybe a service to somebody. Gambling is a non producing activity. I mean you're not. We were created to work and to produce and be proud of what we do with our hands. And gambling is a very non productive activity. And to your point it just sucks the life and in this case the money out of folks pockets. But to your point, talk about who this, the type of communities that this targets because my understanding is these are, these are very low income. It's almost like the payday loans or the payday loan scheme, are the, you know, the loans on every corner where you can basically give your life away and get some money, get some cash on the spot. But this is targeting very communities that are already impoverished, are very low income communities. Right.
Les Bernal So that is certainly part of it. They are certainly targeting you know, lower income citizens and lower income families are certainly suffering from this. But low income families have been suffering from predatory gambling for 40 years whether it's to local casinos or in many states, state lotteries, where they're concentrated in these low income places. So what's new about this phenomenon right now in 2025 is online gambling, particularly coming in through sports, is affecting not just low income families but also middle M income and upper income families. So in states like New Jersey you have middle class, upper class moms calling gambling addiction hotlines which with their teenage sons on the phone with them like so some predatory gambling. Now we refer to it as America's most neglected major problem because almost every state now has, you know, except for two, has some form of predatory gambling. And this is, this isn't some private entity doing this. This isn't, these are private companies in partnership with state government. So this is essentially an extension of a government program. And the last thought I'll share with you when you talk about, you know, how this is an economic drain. For sure it is, absolutely. But what drives our movement and we pull from people from the political right and the political left is at the core, we're called at a Big picture, we're called to love others, you know, the way God loves us. Like, that's this predatory, gambling is the antithesis of that. And today in America, pretty much no matter where you live, the public voice of American government is what we advertise to the American people more than anything else is commercialized gambling, advertising and marketing. And what we incentivize to the American people, it shapes our national character. So when you use the term in your earlier segment about cultural decay and cultural rotation, this is exhibit A about what's broken about America.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, you're exactly right. And what's, to add insult to injury is that there are a litany of ways to be productive and to bring revenue into a state. We don't have to go into these immoral, predatory, ventures to bring money into the state. And this is one thing. We had the whole lottery debate in Mississippi a couple years ago, and unfortunately they went through with it. And the whole thing was, well, we'll get new roads and bridges, which I don't know about. You know, obviously you're not in Mississippi, but our roads and bridges haven't gotten any better. They've actually gotten worse. There's a lot more potholes. So I don't know where the money's going. It's not. The roads and bridges aren't great. So that was the whole thing, roads and bridges. But that's not the point that's being missed in the, in these kind of low IQ arguments is that there's, there's a hundred ways to bring more revenue into his state other than going this route with, with the whole gambling thing. So the whole, oh, this is going to bring in tons of money into the state. Well, there's a lot of things we can do to bring in money into the state. We don't have to go down this, this route of predatory gambling, that's going on. And then the lottery thing has just been an absolute disaster for the state. And unfortunately, Les, this stuff's been pushed by Republicans. So it's one thing if I were to see this coming from the Democrats, because I wouldn't kind of wouldn't be surprised. They do stuff that's not good oftentimes with their policies and their platform. But this is oftentimes bipartisan. And you got Republicans, in this case in Mississippi pushing this. And are you familiar with the, state representative, the state House speaker in Mississippi, that at least part of his super bowl trip was covered by one of the leading lobbyists in this arena? DraftKings Are you familiar with that story?
Les Bernal Yeah. That made big headlines nationally. How the Mississippi, House speaker and I guess some of his staff and other public officials in the state of Mississippi had access to super bowl tickets and I guess, other events, fueled by the gambling lobbying interests, in Mississippi. And that just kind of underscores that there's no grassroots movement for predatory gambling in America. Citizens aren't demanding this. You mentioned both Republicans and Democrats. So the establishment of both political parties are carrying the water for the gambling industry. And so we call, you know, in the big picture, you know, and I say this with a small d when you say democratic principles. When you grow up, you learn about the principle of no taxation without representation. Today in America, whether you're in Mississippi or pretty much any other state, we have a system of taxation by exploitation. And all of you who don't gamble like you're paying higher taxes for less services because of this, there's been an epic public policy failure over the last 40 years, and it's becoming more extreme. And so if you're someone who's passionate about improving the direction of your community in your country, it runs through taking state governments like Mississippi's out of the predatory gambling business and getting them back on the side of citizens.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's right. And this look on behalf of the Republican House speaker in Mississippi is a terrible look. And it's. This is pretty much Exhibit A of what's wrong with politicians these days. And not all of them, but when you pass this, this gambling bill in Mississippi and then a week or two later you're at the super bowl with the chief lobbyist. Draftkings. you know, that, that is footing at least half your bill to the super bowl and with your family members and your friends and your buddies, this is a terrible look. I mean, this is a terrible look, and it causes people to be conflicted. When you start taking gifts from these lobbyists, you become very, very conflicted. And, that seems to be what's happened here with Representative Jason White in Mississippi. and this is according to some reporting by Mississippi Today. We'll link to this on the show. Notes. Les, if you could give a closing argument, on this and why this legislation. By the way, give us the status of this legislation, and give us kind of a closing argument as to why other states need to be on the lookout for this as well.
Stop Predatory Gambling Organization is fighting to end American predatory gambling
Les Bernal Sure. So today we call predatory gambling America's most neglected major problem is over the next five years in America, if you combine up all the losses, financial losses, to state lotteries, local casinos, and online gambling. American people are going to lose more than $1 trillion of personal wealth to forms of gambling sanctioned by state governments like Mississippi's. That's $300,000 every minute. So we're having this huge national debate around tariffs and, you know, to break. We want to make America wealthy again. This is.
Walker Wildmon This is.
Les Bernal You want to make America wealthy again. It's if we cut the gambling losses over the next five years in half that the American people are suffering to predatory gambling, that'd be 500 billion you put back into the daily lives of the American people. There's no policy reform from either party that comes within a thousand miles of making more of a difference in everyday people's lives, especially low income, especially low income families, than getting state government out of the gambling business.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, that's it. I mean, if you had to summarize this in two minutes, that is it. And we thought, and this is so easy, so easy to fix, and you just mentioned the immediate results is Americans having a trillion dollars in their pockets.
Les Bernal there's been a failed public policy, man, this is one of the biggest public policy failures of the last 50 years. And it keeps spreading not because of its merits, it's because it's driven by greed of public officials of both parties and these powerful gambling corporations.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Hey, Les, tell our folks where they can check out your work.
Les Bernal Sure. Our national organization, Stop Predatory Gambling, and name of Our website is stoppredatorygambling.org Please become a member and get involved in your local community and state to get America on the right track again. This is exhibit A, getting us back on track in this country.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Thanks, Les. Appreciate you coming on the program.
Les Bernal It's been an honor. Thank you.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely. Les Bernal, he's a national director over at Stop Predatory Gambling Organization. And, you can check out their work. And folks, this is, this is, this is a major problem. You just heard how much money Americans are spending, or losing ready, rather, in this whole gambling arena. I mean, absolutely stunning. And stoppredatorygambling.org is that URL. Stoppredatorygambling.orgis that URL. This is. You talk about. This is why, folks, the. When you stray away from the biblical model of growth, of human flourishing, of production and of work, this is what it gets you. It gets you a corrupted, polluted, very perverse, means of operating, and you, you, you get sold these bill of goods that, that bringing in gambling, it's gonna be the latest and the greatest. Everybody's gonna be better off. And in Mississippi, they said roads and bridges. Roads and bridges. I've never seen so many potholes in my life than I have in the last two years. I can't even get them to patch the potholes. But if we bring in the lottery system, we'll have the best roads and bridges you've ever seen. No, that's not true. This is sucking money from the tax base. It is so counterproductive. It's so counterproductive. The data is on our side and, it's immoral, it's wrong. So we need to stop this predatory gambling now. If we learned anything from this election, it's how important it is for us to fight, fight, fight. We also learned how desperately the left wants to fight to take babies lives. Which is why everyday preborn Ministries fights for the bab babies. PreBorn's network of clinics are positioned in the highest abortion areas, fighting for mothers deciding between life and death of their child. Preborn welcomes these women with God's love and offers them a ah, free ultrasound to introduce their precious baby and hear the beautiful heartbeat. This amazing encounter gives her baby a fighting chance and the majority of the time she will choose life. Would you join PreBorn in the fight for life? One ultrasound is just $28 and $140 will sponsor five ultrasounds. Babies are worth fighting for. To donate, dial pound 250 on your cell phone and say the keyword baby. That's £250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can visit preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating. Fight, fight. Fight for the babies.
Jeff Chamblee The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.
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