American Family Radio welcomes Walker Wildman to the program
Walker Wildmon We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr. 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. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character. This is at the Core on American Family Radio. welcome to the core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here on this new edition of the show. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green. We're your host here on American Family Radio. This is the at the Core program brought to you each weekday from 1 to 2 Central. Once again, it's good to be with you. Walker Wildmon here with you. let's cover our scripture for the week and then we'll jump to our topics for today's program. And we do have a guest in with us. This segment, Acts chapter 3. Looking at verses 18 and 19 in Acts 3. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he has thus been fulfilled. Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. That's Acts chapter three, verses 18 and 19. Well, in with us is Whitney, Vitagliano. Yes, yes. The spouse of Tony Vitagliano, for those wondering, and the daughter in law of Ed Vitagliano. We are all about the family relationships here at afa. but Whitney is the director of our, annual Activate Summit. She's also my brother's, executive assistant and among many other things. But nonetheless, she's in studio with us to talk about the Activate Summit. Whitney, welcome.
Whitney Vitagliano Thank you for having me.
Walker Wildmon This is not your debut, right? You have done at least one of these before.
Whitney Vitagliano This is my second time here on the live radio.
Walker Wildmon So you've got it, like, totally under control.
Whitney Vitagliano I'm basically a professional.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna hand this over to Whitney and she's gonna host the rest of the segment.
American Family Association's Activate Summit focuses on marriage and family this summer
now, Whitney This Activate Summit, is our annual summer conference for families to come to. But give them a little background or on couple of things they can expect if they join us this summer in July in Tupelo.
Whitney Vitagliano Sure. So this summer we're going to specifically focus in on marriage and family. The name, the theme sort of this year is Roots to Fruit, Grounded in Truth, growing in grace. So we're going to focus primarily on marriage and family. We're going to get into some different nuanced topics within that big realm. so we have a lot of good speakers lined up. We're going to have Bert Harper, which you probably hear from Exploring the word. He's been a very familiar and loved voice here on afr. We're going to have Pastor Jeff Schrieve, you also hear him on AFR. And then we have Dr. Nurse Mama Jessica Peck, another one of our favorites. And then Josh Wood and Katy Foust from them before us. And Laura Petherbridge, her ministry is the smart stepmom. So we're going to cover a variety of topics. Brother Bert is going to, going to focus on a grandparents role and in the marriage and family and how your job's really not over when your children leave the home. You can still pour into your children and grandchildren. We're going to have Jessica, she's going to talk about parenting in this age of technology which is so relevant and so relevant and so important for people our age today with young kids and who are going to be teenagers soon. And how do we teach these children how to be technologically integrable as they leave our house. And she does it in a way that doesn't make you feel overwhelmed. She makes you feel like you really can do this.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, she's a teacher at heart.
Whitney Vitagliano She really is. She's great. And then Laura Petherbridge for example, she's going to speak specifically to divorce recovery, divorce prevention, a blended family which is I feel like a lot of vastly underrepresented topic. Yes.
Walker Wildmon Especially to your point when you look at the rates of not only divorce but then remarriage. So this is, this is a topic that needs to be spoken into.
Whitney Vitagliano Exactly. So, so we're going to have basically something for everybody. Speaking of something for everybody, we have that separate kids track for ages 6 through 12. They're going to be in. In a different area right next to our main session center. But they're going to be separate. They're completely separate tract. So that's for ages 6 through 12, they are divided into age appropriate little Pods. So your 6 year olds and your 12 year olds are not in the same room together. That's going to allow for the content to be taught in an age appropriate way. so for example, the kids in that program won't hear a whole lot about that lgbtq, content. That obviously is the parents primary duty to teach when they feel is appropriate. They're more so going to learn what, what is a God honoring marriage and family look like and what is your role right now where you are in your family? You know, honoring our mother and our father, obeying God's commandment to do that. So, so they're going to have a lot of fun. And then those children that are under the age of six, they're free. They are going to stay with their parents or guardians during the conference. And again, don't let this scare you. This is American Family Association. Babies crying in the back of the room. It's not a big deal. Not a big deal.
Walker Wildmon Actually, I like a little bit of it.
Whitney Vitagliano It's just, it makes us feel at home.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Because that's what we're used to as young parents. So. yes. And you do, Whitney, typically have kind, of a, young, child room for those ages, y', all. Sometimes you'll set aside for mothers.
Whitney Vitagliano We do, we do. We'll have a nursing mother's room. We'll also have m, sort of a family room where if a dad needs to take Todd out for a little break, that's fine. We're happy to meet those needs and make those accommodations and we just want to make you being here as easy as possible.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. And to further kind of expound on that, because obviously we want young families to come. We also want grandparents to come as well. But, we don't want this to be kind of a babysitting exercise or a child care exercise, to use a better word. We want to do biblical worldview training, which is our mission and our vision. And so that's why targeting 6 to 16, on those ages so that we make, make sure on the kids track at least we're getting the most teaching as possible when it comes to teaching the scripture and all of the topics that we're talking about. so the kids track is phenomenal. three, let's see, four, half. three of my five kids will be in the kids track. my two younger ones will be with us. And I know some of your kids participate in the kids track.
Whitney Vitagliano Yes, they do.
Walker Wildmon And so tell us the dates one more time and then how folks can go check out the details and of course, register.
Whitney Vitagliano Sure. So that event is going to be July 16 through 18. So that's toward the middle of July, which I know a lot of moms right now we can't really see past the month of May. We're just trying to get through the end of the school year. but let us help you fill up your calendar this summer. That's July 16 through 18. That's going to be here in Tupelo. And we're going to be at the Cadence Bank Conference Center. And you can, get your tickets. Read [email protected] summit now, we do have a really good discount code.
The discount code is 50 off every ticket. So that's not 50 off your purchase
Walker Wildmon All right, Everybody loves the discount code.
Whitney Vitagliano Everybody. Folks, discount code is 50 off. 50 of.
Walker Wildmon Is that $50 or 50? It's gotta be 50.
Whitney Vitagliano Okay, it's gonna be $50 off every ticket. So that's not 50 off your purchase. That's $50 off every ticket. And speaking of tickets, we do have a, new ticket this year. We're gonna have a separate event on Friday evening of the conference. That's July 17th here at our AFA headquarters. That's going to be a meet and greet reception with all of our speakers here. So you're going to get to come and we're going to have food and you're going to get to speak with, with every conference speaker. It's going to be an intimate and casual headquarters. Yes, you're going to get to see the new headquarters, so. So be sure to do that too, if you're able. Also, that code works on that ticket as well. So that's 50 all 50 off for $50 off every ticket. You can, find out more about [email protected] forward/summit.
Walker Wildmon Excellent.
Whitney Vitagliano gives discount code for Activate Summit until May 22
AFA.net forward slash summit. I just landed there. We got a 72 day countdown for the Activate Summit 2026. The dates are July 16th through the 18th. And Whitney Vitagliano just gave you guys and gals a discount code. 50 off.
Whitney Vitagliano That's right. And that works till the end, till the deadline for registration, which is May 22nd.
Walker Wildmon Okay, that's what I was going to ask. May 22nd. the discount code that right now that's available is 50 off. That's the numerical 50 off. That's right, 50 off. And that gets $50 deducted from every ticket. So if you've got five tickets in your cart, $50 is going to come off each of those five tickets. So take advantage of that now. and you said that discount code, code runs until May 22.
Whitney Vitagliano Until May 22, which is also our registration deadline.
Walker Wildmon Okay, excellent. Wow. So we're giving $50 off until deadline closes. So let's take advantage of that. That's about two and a half to three weeks out and we need to fill this up. And we do have limited capacity because we want to make sure that we have a high quality conference. Everyone has a good experience and especially on that kids track, we try to limit that to, roughly 100 kids on the kids track, just to maintain the quality of it and make sure all the kids are benefiting from it. So there is limited capacity. So if you're interested in coming to our Activate Summit, go ahead, don't procrastinate, don't wait until May 21st. Go ahead and go over to afa.netsummit. take advantage of that and we will see, you in Tupelo July 16th through the 18th. Whitney, thanks so much for coming on and we'll keep pushing this.
Whitney Vitagliano Thank you.
American Family Association Activate Summit focuses on marriage and family this summer
Walker Wildmon All right, that's Whitney Vitagliano, the director of our Activate Summit conference that happens each summer. And this summer we're going to be focusing on AFA's core value of marriage and family. Each of these summits each year focuses on a core value of American Family Association. This summer we're going to be focused on marriage and family. So come join us July 16th through the 18th. As Whitney said, this is a family friendly conference. We want the entire family to come. And the kids track is going to be for ages 6 to, to 16. And then, the younger ones below that, the toddlers and the babies of course they can come in the main conference, main session with us. And then we have room set aside for young children for families as well step out if they need to, throughout the day to take a break. And so we want everybody to come. We also want grandparents to come because this, biblical worldview training, this molding of our hearts and our minds to be in tune with God's word and be obedient to God's teachings. This is an all hands on deck approach and all hands on deck effort. So we want everybody involved, all generations involved in this Activate Summit 2026, July 16th through the 18th. And folks, if you want, not just a taste, but if you want something that is, that is AFA centric and focused on our work here that you enjoy on the radio network and through our magazine and other things, this conference is probably one of our best offerings as far as getting kind of this comprehensive biblical worldview training, that we offer in bits and pieces throughout the radio network and the magazine and through our online blogging, etc. All of this kind of comes together in one each year. For our Activate Summit, for example, last year we had Todd Herman. We also had Dr. Alex McFarland. Last year we had Abraham Hamilton III speak. I hosted a panel with several others. I also hosted a Q and A with MD Perkins about the film Culture Warrior. So it's a very good conference. Not just because it's hosted by afa, but the content is just jam packed, high quality content. We hope you join us this summer, July 16th through the 18th. And I was actually surprised. I did not know we were going to have a discount code offered. And we do. We have AFA, we have 50 off discount code. That's $50 off of each ticket. That's the numerical 50 and then off 50 off. And that will take $50 off each ticket until May 22nd. That's when registration closes about two and a half, three weeks out. And we don't need to procrastinate and wait until May 20th, 21st, 22nd to register. Let's go ahead and knock that out if you want to join us this summer.
The Activate Summit 2026 pairs with our Activate curriculum
Roots to fruit, grounded in truth, growing in grace is the theme Activate Summit 2026. Well this Activate Summit pairs with our Activate curriculum which I know you've heard us talk about if you listen to AFR frequently. The Activate, curriculum is also [email protected], but it's a multi course, multi unit, curriculum that goes deep on all things, biblical worldview, training and core values at afa which of course if you read our core values, marriage and family, sanctity of life, religious liberty, stewardship, just to name a few, those are all rooted in the scripture, in God's Word. And so this Activate curriculum which is available at any time for you to purchase and go through on your own or in a small group setting [email protected] the summit and the curriculum go hand in hand. And so we'll have the curriculum available in a physical form at the Summit as well. You can also go get it right now [email protected] well there you have it folks. We hope you see see you this summer in July, mid July here in Tupelo, Mississippi. We've got a couple guests. well at least we got one guest left. Towards the end of the program, Dr. George Barn is going to be with us.
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George Barna back to at the Core on American Family Radio. Go.
American Family Radio has only two spiritual heritage tours left this year
Walker Wildmon Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us here on the program. Well, in the last segment we had on Whitney Vitagliano to talk about the activate Summit coming up this summer, afa.netforward/summit. You can find all that information there at afa.netsummit registration closes May 22nd. So we would love to have you go ahead and sign up right now and join us this summer, July 16th through the 18th in Tupelo, Mississippi. Also, you heard during the break there that our only two tours, spiritual heritage tours that we're doing here, this year, the only two that have seats left are Washington, D.C. and Boston. Both of those take place in September. So both of our June trips are already full and our September Williamsburg is full as well. So the only two that have seats left are Boston and Washington in September. Those are back to back trips in September. What better time to visit these places of early American history than, the 250th anniversary of America. So September we'll be in D.C. and Boston looking at America's spiritual heritage and how God played a hand, played a part in, the providential history that is America. Very, very, beneficial trips that we take with historian Steven McDowell. And if you go with us to Boston, you're going to get Steven McDowell and Tim Barton together. Tim Barton of Wallbuilder, Steven McDowell of the Providence foundation, both, top historians on America's early history and specifically America's, Christian founding and God's hand and fingerprints on the very founding of this nation.
Covid brought about so much harm, so much evil to our country
Well, I came across this story out of New York, and I actually did a Newsmax interview that's unfortunately behind a paywall. That's why I haven't shared it. But I did a new Newsmax interview probably two to three weeks ago. And one of the topics we were talking about with this Newsmax journalist writer was the Mamdami, phenomenon, the mayor, Mamdaami out of New York City, how he won, what his leadership is like, or lack thereof, and the future of New York City. And one of the things I predicted was the insolvency, the financial insolvency of New York City. And I didn't have a crystal ball. I didn't have anything special on the prophetic side other than the fact that when you look at New York City's trajectory financially, they've been in trouble for some time. This isn't breaking news here. New York City and some of these other major deep blue cities were. They were in financial distress leading into Covid. Before COVID these cities were in pretty serious financial condition. And then here's what happened during COVID And the COVID all around was such a bad time in our country. You know, some people want to talk about the things they learned during COVID or, you know, things that were open their eyes during COVID There was way more bad than good that came out of COVID And I hear people talk, oh, I got to spend more time with my family. Well, okay, at what trade off, at what trade off did you get to spend more time with your family? We ought to be spending more time with our family without having to have Covid come. I digress. The, Covid brought about so much harm, so much evil, so much damage to our country. It was very dehumanizing. We locked the elderly up and people died. they were on their deathbed with no family nearby to comfort them. And it was a very, very dark period. And the experts and the quote unquote, medical professionals, totally abandoned the humanities side of their profession. And they went towards these charts and slow the spread and a lot of these theories that were, I'm not going to say untested because they were tested the six feet, social distancing stupidity, the six weeks to slow the spread, the stay at home, all of this was tested, this was tested amongst epidemiologists for decades, if not over a century leading up to Covid. And it all failed. All of the studies that tried all of these dumb approaches to airborne diseases and illnesses, they didn't work. People staying at home who are not sick doesn't work. The six feet, they admitted, Fauci and others in an email thread admitted that there was no science to back that up. They literally pulled that out of their pocket. Six feet to slow the spread. And so there was so much harm done. But back to the financials of this. To make things more infuriating, not only did the public policy and the response, not only did it get completely mangled in a manner that hurt a lot of good people, but the Democrat deep blue municipalities and states that have mismanaged taxpayer money for a long time, they used the crisis to take a lot of our tax dollars from the federal government in the form of a bailout. And we actually covered this on the program. Nancy Pelosi was the speaker. This was during all the impeachment saga. President Trump was still in the White House. And they used a lot of this Covid stimulus money. I'm not sure how much it stimulated. It actually ended up tanking the economy through inflation. But, they used this as a opportunity to be bailed out. And so that happened. A lot of these Democrat states and Democrat cities were bailed out during COVID And we were, you know, blowing everybody's tax dollars like nobody's business, all because of COVID It was so dumb. It was so, so. Doesn't make sense. I mean, I remember here in Mississippi, I heard this firsthand. This isn't hearsay. This isn't. Read it in a news story. There was Covid money to replace the, ventilation and the air conditioner, central heating and cooling systems. There was Covid money earmarked for that. So these, these school districts were just willy nilly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing their central heating and cooling units with, quote, Covid money. Now, now that you'll, if you ask them, what on earth does the air conditioning unit have to do with COVID And they would give you some five minute spiel about, oh, the circulation and the ventilation and it just, you know, we need clean air going into the school buildings and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But let me ask you this. But then if you say, well, how many people get sick? What do the studies show about the number of people that get sick in the school building because of a, quote unquote, poor ventilation. And of course, there's just not a lot of studies out there because that's very, very far removed from an actual transmission of illness. To actually nail that down and put data on it, that's nearly impossible to say that so and so got sick in this classroom, at this building, at this desk because the air conditioning unit wasn't circulating enough air. I mean, you try connecting those dots. We can't even figure out whether the COVID shot's killing people or not. And those are direct correlations. And so all that to say hundreds of billions of federal dollars were spread out all around the country. And, people were spending money like there was no tomorrow. And that includes even Republican states. And, very, very unrelated to Covid, but they did it under the guise of COVID So it was a party, it was a spending party, and everybody participated in it. But back to my point, the Democrats, states and municipalities really took advantage of this to get out of, temporarily out of the distress that they were in financially. So I'm going to relate that to this clip I'm going to play to Mamdame over the last two weeks after my Newsmax interview. This was like three days later, mom dime comes out and says, yeah, basically, we're bankrupt. There's no way to close this deficit. We're in the worst shape we've ever been in New York City. And this guy's. This guy's like, what? let's see, one, two. I mean, like three, four, four to six months into his tenure. I think he was sworn in in January. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was late 2025. But nonetheless, the mayor here is less than a year into his tenure in New York City, and he has a press conference that says, yeah, we're bankrupt. There's no way out of this. We're just going to have to increase taxes, folks. Imagine that. Increase taxes. Let's listen to Mayor Mamdame telling about how great socialism is working and how New York City can't pay its bills. Clip 3.
New York City faces a budget crisis of an historic magnitude
Mamdani New York City faces a budget crisis of a historic magnitude. We inherited a deficit larger than any since the Great Recession. Years of mismanagement and chronic under budgeting alongside a structural imbalance between what New York City sends to the state and what we receive in return have taken a toll. We cannot close this deficit with savings alone. We need new revenue, and we need a structural reset, in our relationship with the state. That is the only way to meet our legal obligation to pass a balanced budget and to do so without imposing a financial burden onto the backs of working people. I'm glad to partner with Speaker Menon as we call upon Albany and deliver a balanced budget. Together, we are extending the executive budget deadline from this coming Friday until May 12th.
Walker Wildmon Kick that can.
Mamdani Crisis at the scale cannot be solved without state action. I want to be clear. We are not simply asking others to act. New York City is doing our part. We are committed to governing with the fiscal responsibility this moment demands. Speaker Menon and I have already identified meaningful savings, and we will continue that work carefully, deliberately, and without cutting the services that New Yorkers rely on. But we cannot do it alone. That is why we are standing together this morning to underscore what is at stake and to call on Albany to deliver additional revenue.
Walker Wildmon Is this April 1st. Mamdame just used the word fiscal responsibility. I've never heard that word come out of his mouth. I've actually never heard that word come out of a Democrat's mouth nonetheless, but Mom Dummy uses it, folks, New York City's bankrupt. New York City's bankruptcy. And here's how this works. So obviously, municipalities, they can't print money. States can't even print money. The only one that can print money is the federal government. And so this is the importance of having control of the levers of Washington, D.C. because President Trump, I'll guarantee you, is not going to bail out Mom Dummy, not going to bail out Albany, which is state capital. So they need to go upside down. This is the only way this works, folks, is the hard way. And that is either you do things the right way and you balance your budget, or you go upside down. This is how business works. All right? And so we need to apply the same principles of economics to the government. And if you can't pay the bills, the government goes upside down. What does that mean? No, they don't literally go upside down like a business, but they have to figure out what their priorities are. And this is as Mom Dummy comes in, and you notice how he's acting like he inherited this. Well, in some way he did. But he's making matters worse, Bobby, because Mom Dummy comes in and talks about all the free stuff, all the free bus rides. Free, free, free. And now a couple months later, he's wondering where all the money's gone now.
Bobby Roza How come he didn't look at those numbers before he took office? And if he did, look at how he bamboozled all these New York City voters. Yeah, you know, this is no secret. It's been out for a long time. Hochul has been screaming for money.
Walker Wildmon Yes.
Bobby Roza Once. All the people, all the billionaires who went to New York to send her a check, quote, unquote. And, this is a surprise to him.
Walker Wildmon Yeah.
Bobby Roza Now, he, in essence, flat out lied to his current constituency during the election, saying, free this, free that, to your point, when in fact, fiscal responsibility now requires that.
Walker Wildmon Not so fast.
Bobby Roza Yeah, there won't be anything free.
Walker Wildmon Right.
George Barna Get ready for that.
Walker Wildmon New York, because service cuts, remember, your
Bobby Roza bus fares have already gone up. They didn't go away. They've gone up.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. And this is. This is called being hoodwinked. Or, or if you want to be more simple, it's called being lied to. but, but, but the voters. Folks, guess how much sympathy I have to the folks who voted for Mom Dummy. If we're being honest, effectively zero sympathy. Now, do I have sympathy for the people that didn't vote for Mom Dummy voted for somebody else, and. And have been decrying this from day one? Sure, I do have some sympathy there. But people wonder, and the media speculates, why the millionaires and the billionaires are leaving New York City in droves to where they're all broadcasting their shows from. I'm talking about the TV anchors like Hannity and Gutfield and others. They're starting to broadcast their shows from Florida. And why would you pay the exorbitant taxes in New York State and then on top of that, the exorbitant taxes in the city proper? Why would you. It just doesn't make sense. in this economy of convenient travel and remote work, et cetera. So they're driving out their tax base, and yet they're increasing taxes more to drive more people out. Folks, this just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. And this is not. Not only obviously, is there biblical teachings here that are applicable on less government, more free market, but just looking purely historically, in America over the last 250 years, when you create a more repressive, or rather a more oppressive tax environment, a more aggressive tax environment, it causes the people with the money, the most money to leave. They go somewhere else, and they. And they park their money somewhere else. And in this instance, it's Florida, it's Georgia, it's Texas, it's Tennessee, etc. And so those tax bases are increasing. The tax base in New York City is shrinking, and New York City can't print money, and neither can Albany. So they're in a predicament here.
Jeff Chamblee Every day. AFA offers biblical insight on issues that others aren't willing to touch in the hopes that you'll become a world changer. That's why we're offering an in depth worldview training course called Activate. Thirteen different professors teaching 18 sessions, all available online, including a printed workbook to help you apply what you've learned and one year access to AFA streaming content to give you even more resources. Find out more about Acctivate and sign up today at activate.afa.net this is the Core on American Family Radio with
George Barna your host, Walker Wildmon.
If you want to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so wherever
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with with you on this, episode of today's program. As a brief, reminder and refresher, if you want to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so wherever you listen to podcasts. In order to find the podcast, just type in the name of the program at the core and you can find it there. Find the podcast page and click the subscribe or the follow button, depending on which platform you're on. And each day's episode will be ready to go, queued up in your library for listening and downloading in your podcast library. So go subscribe to the podcast and have the show ready to go. Each episode in your podcast library Welcoming, back to the program, frequent guest and friend of the ministry, Dr. George Barna. Dr. Barna is director at the Cultural Research center over at Arizona Christian University and we have him on every few months to talk about some of their latest findings here on the program. George, welcome back to the program.
George Barna Thanks Walker. Good to be with you again.
People have been speculating that there's a spiritual revival going on
Walker Wildmon Well, this report that you put out towards the end of April, was one of the most recent, research reports and surveys that your, organization, that your outfit has done in the last few months, especially post Charlie Kirk assassination and over the last, let's say year or two, maybe going back a little bit farther back to the Asbury story and others on these college campuses, people have been speculating, rightfully so, that there's some sort of spiritual renewal, some sort of spiritual revival going on around the country. just more of a vibe assessment and not necessarily a data assessment, but nonetheless, this latest report you put out actually delves into that a little bit. So tell us, some of the findings in this latest report out of the, Cultural Research.
George Barna Well, Walker, I think we all want revival to break out, but we've got to be realistic about what's going on. And that's why we do the research is so that it's not just a bunch of individual stories or anecdotes, but we can actually show data that indicate, yes, something real is taking place. And so we took two different approaches. We said, all right, let's go back to when this group of young adults were teenagers, because we have data that we collected from them then. And then let's look at what we just collected from them a couple months ago. Same measures over a four year period of time with the same people. And then let's also take a different slice of it. Let's look just before Charlie Kirk was murdered and just after he was murdered. And looking at those two things through those two lenses, if you will, we should have a pretty good handle on, yeah, is revival actually taking place or not? And when we do that, what we find is that, well, there is some shifting that's taken place in terms of some of the spiritual beliefs and some of the spiritual behaviors of young people, but it's not all moving in the same positive direction. We have some positive movement, but we also have some counterbalancing negative movement. And one of the things that I wanted to point out to people is that we know a lot about how people work now because we've been doing research, not just us, but hundreds of researchers have been trying to figure out how do human beings work? And we know that you do what you believe. And so if you want to see revival, it's not enough just to see a couple changes in things like attending church services or reading the Bible, or being open to reading the Bible, that's good. But if you don't have accompanying worldview or philosophical shifts that serve as the foundation for those behavioral changes. What we've also seen happen over the last 60, 70, 80 years that people have been doing this kind of research is that we'll change our behaviors. But if we don't have that faith foundational shift in beliefs that explain why we would do those behaviors, those behaviors become empty routines. And then we tend to shift back to more comfortable behaviors that we were engaging in previously. And I think that's what we're seeing here in America, where we've seen a small positive shift in Bible reading among young adults. Haven't really seen seen a lasting behavioral shift in terms of church attendance. There was a quick one that happened after Charlie's murder, very similar to what we saw after the nine, 11 tragedies where people filled churches across the country for four to six weeks. And then, because they didn't have that foundational thinking Behind. But why would I go to a church? Why is it important to worship God? What does worship look like, all of those kinds of things? What kind of a relationship do I really want to have with God? The church itself didn't do a good job at pouring that strong foundation during that little period of opportunity that we had. When that window was open, we were just so happy that they were coming back that we didn't really say, oh, my goodness. Okay, now we've got to explain to them why we come here every week, what we believe about God, what we believe about worshiping him, how we worship him, what difference it makes in our lives. What does the Bible have to say about all this? What does the Bible have to say about everything? All of those kinds of things. Now, we just wanted them to feel comfortable, and that's not the way to approach revival.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, the million dollar question that the jury's still out on is will the trends, the positive trends, although small in some categories, will they continue? Which obviously over time, the trends, if they continue, then the numbers become more pronounced over time, or do they flatline and stall or even start to go back to where they were? A couple of these highlights, just two pages into this report, highlights seven behaviors, that showed statistically significant movement toward biblical activity. So this was kind of the positive side of the report. And then you get into some of the negatives, a few more pages in. But this first one talks about, it says the most substantial increases, as far as from a positive standpoint, were in regard to claiming people who claim to be deeply committed to practicing their religious faith, which was up 17 percentage points. and it says that there was also a nine point increase in those who said they were most likely to rely upon the Bible when deciding if something is right or wrong. But then in the next sentence it says this is basically 28% of the people responding, which is, you know, if it was 70 or 80, it's like, wow. But best case scenario in this category of people that basically look to the scripture for answers in life was about 28% in the best case scenario. And then the next paragraph says, but there's an equal amount of people, 28%, that look to their feelings for determining basically what is right and wrong. That's just crazy to me that you've got people, nearly 30% of respondents on some of these surveys that will admit that all they look to is how they feel about something, not any kind of concrete moral teachings, but how they feel about it. To determine what their position should be. But when we look in culture and society, the feelings do seem to dominate the discussion.
George Barna Well, it's true, increasingly, as we look at the macro trends in our culture, that movement toward feelings guide. Every decision I make is becoming more and more pronounced. And with each succeeding generation, they're becoming more and more comfortable with that approach. And so that's a challenge. The other thing is that we've got to think about, all right, we had a 17 point rise in people, young people saying that I'm deeply committed to my religious faith, but we've got to pay attention to the language there, which is they're committed to their religious faith, not necessarily to biblical Christianity. And so when we look at, well, what is your religious faith? For a lot of them it's, well, being a good person, you know, believing that the universe will take care of me, all of those kinds of, beliefs that are held more commonly by young people than by older people and that are redefining the nation's faith. So yeah, there's a thing where we've got to be careful even when we look at these increases. Why are we asking the question that way? Because it's a tracking question. We've been asking it for 40 years. And so it gives us an opportunity to see, okay, what that has been solid in the past is shifting now as opposed to coming up with completely new questions and not having any idea. Well, is that more or less than it was before? Because it had never been asked.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. And what's abundantly clear, Dr. Barna, once again we're talking with Dr. George Barna, from the Cultural Research center at Arizona Christian University, about his latest, report put out towards the end of April, what's becoming increasingly clear over the years, and this has been clear for you for some time as much as you do this. But even in the instance of a spiritual awakening or renewal or a period of repentance and coming to Jesus within a culture and a generation, even in those scenarios, we're not always talking majority of people here. We're talking remnants, which is what our biblical examples are, is a small remnant of people that, are committed to the teachings of scripture. And so I want to highlight that as we look at these numbers, I know some people look at these and they're like, it's almost depressing. You're like, that many people don't believe in the Bible or don't even look to the scripture. And some of your other studies on people who are true, disciples, people who have true, genuine, biblical worldview. According to the scriptures, those numbers are down into the single digits in some scenarios. but all it takes is a remnant to really spur something longer and deeper when it comes to spiritual renewal.
George Barna Right, yeah, absolutely true. And that's a great point, Walker. And one of the things that I point out at the end of the report is that we've got to be really careful. A report like this might be premature because when we're talking about genuine spiritual revival in a person's life, that's all about transformation. Transformation doesn't happen overnight. You know, a person's worldview doesn't develop overnight as we look at children, which is when our worldview develops, it takes about a decade for that worldview to be fully formed. And so if now we're talking about taking a non biblical worldview and reforming it, reformation, if you will, that doesn't happen, you know, in a week, in a month. Often it doesn't happen in a year. It's going to take years of concerted effort. And that's an encouragement, I hope, to those of us who want to make disciples, that we can't get discouraged quickly or easily in this process. It's going to be where we build a relationship. We invest a lot of time and we do this consistently week after week, month after month, with individuals who have shown an interest and to recognize that the context for spiritual revival is warfare. Satan's going to be incredibly upset that somebody's showing interest in the things of God and that we're doing everything we can to, fan the flames of that interest. And so it's going to be an uphill battle and we've got to be prepared for that and recognize that you want to be part of the disciple making process. Think of yourself as a spiritual warrior. You're in it for the long haul.
Walker: There are some negative trends that need to be addressed in Pew survey
Walker Wildmon When I move on to the negative side, which needs to be addressed, needs to be looked into, which you provide roughly on page four here. And I love the visual charts. It's very simple to understand. When you're taking your research, Dr. George Barna and Arizona Christian's research over the last four to five years and compiling it and looking at trends, there are some negative trends that were highlighted. The most prominent one was basically the view of male, female and the marital relationship. The baseline question or statement that you're gauging is whether or not male, female, marriage is neither God's only permissible option nor morally superior choice. So you're basically gauging Whether people look to God's word or their own opinion on the marital union. And that's trended in the wrong direction. Up 18 points of people who basically don't look to God's design for marriage and family. And then the second one which ties in well with what I covered last segment about New York City and Mamdani, up 17 points, the individuals that prefer socialism over capitalism. So Dr. Barno, some of these categories, when you look at it, I can see that translating into culture and government in some of these parts of the country.
George Barna Yeah, we've got to remember that this is a survey just with the adult portion of generation zone, Gen Z. So that means These were the 18 to 23 year olds in our country. So this doesn't necessarily characterize the way that baby boomers would be thinking. But when we look at them, you know, they tend to be our grandchildren or whatever. I mean this is the direction that they're moving in. Why does this matter? Because if we're going to have conversations with them, we need to know where they're coming from and to try to find think through ahead of time. Okay. They're not looking for our advice, they're not interested in our advice. But this is critical stuff. And so we've got to, you know, be ready to have these conversations. And the best approach that we found is what we call Socratic conversations, which isn't where we come in the room and point a finger at them, say, you idiots, how could you go with a guy like Mugami? But ask them questions about wow, I wasn't expecting that outcome in the election. Were you? Oh, you were. Why were you? What do you think about this guy? You know, when you get into a conversation where they get to put their goods on the table rather than accusing them of stuff right off the bat. So it's going to take longer to get to the conclusion. Yes. But it's going to be done in that relational context where we're able to trade on the trust factor that over hopefully we've built with them and that enables them eventually to be asking them some questions about. But how do you think this is going to play out in the long run? You know, can you see yourself really living in this kind of environment where if you look at England when they tried to implement these same policies, you know, everybody left who had the money.
Walker Wildmon Yeah.
George Barna As 80 to 90% was going in taxes. Is that what you're looking forward to? That's a of them.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. Hey, Dr. George Barna. Thanks so much for coming on. We appreciate your work.
George Barna Thank you, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely Glad to have you on azcu.edu. that's Arizona Christian University. You'll see the Culture Research center tab there on the top right hand corner. You can read more about their research. We'll see you next time. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com afr 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 welcomes Walker Wildman to the program
Walker Wildmon We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without your help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr. 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. We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech. We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character. This is at the Core on American Family Radio. welcome to the core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here on this new edition of the show. The show is hosted each week by myself and Rick Green. We're your host here on American Family Radio. This is the at the Core program brought to you each weekday from 1 to 2 Central. Once again, it's good to be with you. Walker Wildmon here with you. let's cover our scripture for the week and then we'll jump to our topics for today's program. And we do have a guest in with us. This segment, Acts chapter 3. Looking at verses 18 and 19 in Acts 3. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he has thus been fulfilled. Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. That's Acts chapter three, verses 18 and 19. Well, in with us is Whitney, Vitagliano. Yes, yes. The spouse of Tony Vitagliano, for those wondering, and the daughter in law of Ed Vitagliano. We are all about the family relationships here at afa. but Whitney is the director of our, annual Activate Summit. She's also my brother's, executive assistant and among many other things. But nonetheless, she's in studio with us to talk about the Activate Summit. Whitney, welcome.
Whitney Vitagliano Thank you for having me.
Walker Wildmon This is not your debut, right? You have done at least one of these before.
Whitney Vitagliano This is my second time here on the live radio.
Walker Wildmon So you've got it, like, totally under control.
Whitney Vitagliano I'm basically a professional.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna hand this over to Whitney and she's gonna host the rest of the segment.
American Family Association's Activate Summit focuses on marriage and family this summer
now, Whitney This Activate Summit, is our annual summer conference for families to come to. But give them a little background or on couple of things they can expect if they join us this summer in July in Tupelo.
Whitney Vitagliano Sure. So this summer we're going to specifically focus in on marriage and family. The name, the theme sort of this year is Roots to Fruit, Grounded in Truth, growing in grace. So we're going to focus primarily on marriage and family. We're going to get into some different nuanced topics within that big realm. so we have a lot of good speakers lined up. We're going to have Bert Harper, which you probably hear from Exploring the word. He's been a very familiar and loved voice here on afr. We're going to have Pastor Jeff Schrieve, you also hear him on AFR. And then we have Dr. Nurse Mama Jessica Peck, another one of our favorites. And then Josh Wood and Katy Foust from them before us. And Laura Petherbridge, her ministry is the smart stepmom. So we're going to cover a variety of topics. Brother Bert is going to, going to focus on a grandparents role and in the marriage and family and how your job's really not over when your children leave the home. You can still pour into your children and grandchildren. We're going to have Jessica, she's going to talk about parenting in this age of technology which is so relevant and so relevant and so important for people our age today with young kids and who are going to be teenagers soon. And how do we teach these children how to be technologically integrable as they leave our house. And she does it in a way that doesn't make you feel overwhelmed. She makes you feel like you really can do this.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, she's a teacher at heart.
Whitney Vitagliano She really is. She's great. And then Laura Petherbridge for example, she's going to speak specifically to divorce recovery, divorce prevention, a blended family which is I feel like a lot of vastly underrepresented topic. Yes.
Walker Wildmon Especially to your point when you look at the rates of not only divorce but then remarriage. So this is, this is a topic that needs to be spoken into.
Whitney Vitagliano Exactly. So, so we're going to have basically something for everybody. Speaking of something for everybody, we have that separate kids track for ages 6 through 12. They're going to be in. In a different area right next to our main session center. But they're going to be separate. They're completely separate tract. So that's for ages 6 through 12, they are divided into age appropriate little Pods. So your 6 year olds and your 12 year olds are not in the same room together. That's going to allow for the content to be taught in an age appropriate way. so for example, the kids in that program won't hear a whole lot about that lgbtq, content. That obviously is the parents primary duty to teach when they feel is appropriate. They're more so going to learn what, what is a God honoring marriage and family look like and what is your role right now where you are in your family? You know, honoring our mother and our father, obeying God's commandment to do that. So, so they're going to have a lot of fun. And then those children that are under the age of six, they're free. They are going to stay with their parents or guardians during the conference. And again, don't let this scare you. This is American Family Association. Babies crying in the back of the room. It's not a big deal. Not a big deal.
Walker Wildmon Actually, I like a little bit of it.
Whitney Vitagliano It's just, it makes us feel at home.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Because that's what we're used to as young parents. So. yes. And you do, Whitney, typically have kind, of a, young, child room for those ages, y', all. Sometimes you'll set aside for mothers.
Whitney Vitagliano We do, we do. We'll have a nursing mother's room. We'll also have m, sort of a family room where if a dad needs to take Todd out for a little break, that's fine. We're happy to meet those needs and make those accommodations and we just want to make you being here as easy as possible.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. And to further kind of expound on that, because obviously we want young families to come. We also want grandparents to come as well. But, we don't want this to be kind of a babysitting exercise or a child care exercise, to use a better word. We want to do biblical worldview training, which is our mission and our vision. And so that's why targeting 6 to 16, on those ages so that we make, make sure on the kids track at least we're getting the most teaching as possible when it comes to teaching the scripture and all of the topics that we're talking about. so the kids track is phenomenal. three, let's see, four, half. three of my five kids will be in the kids track. my two younger ones will be with us. And I know some of your kids participate in the kids track.
Whitney Vitagliano Yes, they do.
Walker Wildmon And so tell us the dates one more time and then how folks can go check out the details and of course, register.
Whitney Vitagliano Sure. So that event is going to be July 16 through 18. So that's toward the middle of July, which I know a lot of moms right now we can't really see past the month of May. We're just trying to get through the end of the school year. but let us help you fill up your calendar this summer. That's July 16 through 18. That's going to be here in Tupelo. And we're going to be at the Cadence Bank Conference Center. And you can, get your tickets. Read [email protected] summit now, we do have a really good discount code.
The discount code is 50 off every ticket. So that's not 50 off your purchase
Walker Wildmon All right, Everybody loves the discount code.
Whitney Vitagliano Everybody. Folks, discount code is 50 off. 50 of.
Walker Wildmon Is that $50 or 50? It's gotta be 50.
Whitney Vitagliano Okay, it's gonna be $50 off every ticket. So that's not 50 off your purchase. That's $50 off every ticket. And speaking of tickets, we do have a, new ticket this year. We're gonna have a separate event on Friday evening of the conference. That's July 17th here at our AFA headquarters. That's going to be a meet and greet reception with all of our speakers here. So you're going to get to come and we're going to have food and you're going to get to speak with, with every conference speaker. It's going to be an intimate and casual headquarters. Yes, you're going to get to see the new headquarters, so. So be sure to do that too, if you're able. Also, that code works on that ticket as well. So that's 50 all 50 off for $50 off every ticket. You can, find out more about [email protected] forward/summit.
Walker Wildmon Excellent.
Whitney Vitagliano gives discount code for Activate Summit until May 22
AFA.net forward slash summit. I just landed there. We got a 72 day countdown for the Activate Summit 2026. The dates are July 16th through the 18th. And Whitney Vitagliano just gave you guys and gals a discount code. 50 off.
Whitney Vitagliano That's right. And that works till the end, till the deadline for registration, which is May 22nd.
Walker Wildmon Okay, that's what I was going to ask. May 22nd. the discount code that right now that's available is 50 off. That's the numerical 50 off. That's right, 50 off. And that gets $50 deducted from every ticket. So if you've got five tickets in your cart, $50 is going to come off each of those five tickets. So take advantage of that now. and you said that discount code, code runs until May 22.
Whitney Vitagliano Until May 22, which is also our registration deadline.
Walker Wildmon Okay, excellent. Wow. So we're giving $50 off until deadline closes. So let's take advantage of that. That's about two and a half to three weeks out and we need to fill this up. And we do have limited capacity because we want to make sure that we have a high quality conference. Everyone has a good experience and especially on that kids track, we try to limit that to, roughly 100 kids on the kids track, just to maintain the quality of it and make sure all the kids are benefiting from it. So there is limited capacity. So if you're interested in coming to our Activate Summit, go ahead, don't procrastinate, don't wait until May 21st. Go ahead and go over to afa.netsummit. take advantage of that and we will see, you in Tupelo July 16th through the 18th. Whitney, thanks so much for coming on and we'll keep pushing this.
Whitney Vitagliano Thank you.
American Family Association Activate Summit focuses on marriage and family this summer
Walker Wildmon All right, that's Whitney Vitagliano, the director of our Activate Summit conference that happens each summer. And this summer we're going to be focusing on AFA's core value of marriage and family. Each of these summits each year focuses on a core value of American Family Association. This summer we're going to be focused on marriage and family. So come join us July 16th through the 18th. As Whitney said, this is a family friendly conference. We want the entire family to come. And the kids track is going to be for ages 6 to, to 16. And then, the younger ones below that, the toddlers and the babies of course they can come in the main conference, main session with us. And then we have room set aside for young children for families as well step out if they need to, throughout the day to take a break. And so we want everybody to come. We also want grandparents to come because this, biblical worldview training, this molding of our hearts and our minds to be in tune with God's word and be obedient to God's teachings. This is an all hands on deck approach and all hands on deck effort. So we want everybody involved, all generations involved in this Activate Summit 2026, July 16th through the 18th. And folks, if you want, not just a taste, but if you want something that is, that is AFA centric and focused on our work here that you enjoy on the radio network and through our magazine and other things, this conference is probably one of our best offerings as far as getting kind of this comprehensive biblical worldview training, that we offer in bits and pieces throughout the radio network and the magazine and through our online blogging, etc. All of this kind of comes together in one each year. For our Activate Summit, for example, last year we had Todd Herman. We also had Dr. Alex McFarland. Last year we had Abraham Hamilton III speak. I hosted a panel with several others. I also hosted a Q and A with MD Perkins about the film Culture Warrior. So it's a very good conference. Not just because it's hosted by afa, but the content is just jam packed, high quality content. We hope you join us this summer, July 16th through the 18th. And I was actually surprised. I did not know we were going to have a discount code offered. And we do. We have AFA, we have 50 off discount code. That's $50 off of each ticket. That's the numerical 50 and then off 50 off. And that will take $50 off each ticket until May 22nd. That's when registration closes about two and a half, three weeks out. And we don't need to procrastinate and wait until May 20th, 21st, 22nd to register. Let's go ahead and knock that out if you want to join us this summer.
The Activate Summit 2026 pairs with our Activate curriculum
Roots to fruit, grounded in truth, growing in grace is the theme Activate Summit 2026. Well this Activate Summit pairs with our Activate curriculum which I know you've heard us talk about if you listen to AFR frequently. The Activate, curriculum is also [email protected], but it's a multi course, multi unit, curriculum that goes deep on all things, biblical worldview, training and core values at afa which of course if you read our core values, marriage and family, sanctity of life, religious liberty, stewardship, just to name a few, those are all rooted in the scripture, in God's Word. And so this Activate curriculum which is available at any time for you to purchase and go through on your own or in a small group setting [email protected] the summit and the curriculum go hand in hand. And so we'll have the curriculum available in a physical form at the Summit as well. You can also go get it right now [email protected] well there you have it folks. We hope you see see you this summer in July, mid July here in Tupelo, Mississippi. We've got a couple guests. well at least we got one guest left. Towards the end of the program, Dr. George Barn is going to be with us.
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George Barna back to at the Core on American Family Radio. Go.
American Family Radio has only two spiritual heritage tours left this year
Walker Wildmon Welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us here on the program. Well, in the last segment we had on Whitney Vitagliano to talk about the activate Summit coming up this summer, afa.netforward/summit. You can find all that information there at afa.netsummit registration closes May 22nd. So we would love to have you go ahead and sign up right now and join us this summer, July 16th through the 18th in Tupelo, Mississippi. Also, you heard during the break there that our only two tours, spiritual heritage tours that we're doing here, this year, the only two that have seats left are Washington, D.C. and Boston. Both of those take place in September. So both of our June trips are already full and our September Williamsburg is full as well. So the only two that have seats left are Boston and Washington in September. Those are back to back trips in September. What better time to visit these places of early American history than, the 250th anniversary of America. So September we'll be in D.C. and Boston looking at America's spiritual heritage and how God played a hand, played a part in, the providential history that is America. Very, very, beneficial trips that we take with historian Steven McDowell. And if you go with us to Boston, you're going to get Steven McDowell and Tim Barton together. Tim Barton of Wallbuilder, Steven McDowell of the Providence foundation, both, top historians on America's early history and specifically America's, Christian founding and God's hand and fingerprints on the very founding of this nation.
Covid brought about so much harm, so much evil to our country
Well, I came across this story out of New York, and I actually did a Newsmax interview that's unfortunately behind a paywall. That's why I haven't shared it. But I did a new Newsmax interview probably two to three weeks ago. And one of the topics we were talking about with this Newsmax journalist writer was the Mamdami, phenomenon, the mayor, Mamdaami out of New York City, how he won, what his leadership is like, or lack thereof, and the future of New York City. And one of the things I predicted was the insolvency, the financial insolvency of New York City. And I didn't have a crystal ball. I didn't have anything special on the prophetic side other than the fact that when you look at New York City's trajectory financially, they've been in trouble for some time. This isn't breaking news here. New York City and some of these other major deep blue cities were. They were in financial distress leading into Covid. Before COVID these cities were in pretty serious financial condition. And then here's what happened during COVID And the COVID all around was such a bad time in our country. You know, some people want to talk about the things they learned during COVID or, you know, things that were open their eyes during COVID There was way more bad than good that came out of COVID And I hear people talk, oh, I got to spend more time with my family. Well, okay, at what trade off, at what trade off did you get to spend more time with your family? We ought to be spending more time with our family without having to have Covid come. I digress. The, Covid brought about so much harm, so much evil, so much damage to our country. It was very dehumanizing. We locked the elderly up and people died. they were on their deathbed with no family nearby to comfort them. And it was a very, very dark period. And the experts and the quote unquote, medical professionals, totally abandoned the humanities side of their profession. And they went towards these charts and slow the spread and a lot of these theories that were, I'm not going to say untested because they were tested the six feet, social distancing stupidity, the six weeks to slow the spread, the stay at home, all of this was tested, this was tested amongst epidemiologists for decades, if not over a century leading up to Covid. And it all failed. All of the studies that tried all of these dumb approaches to airborne diseases and illnesses, they didn't work. People staying at home who are not sick doesn't work. The six feet, they admitted, Fauci and others in an email thread admitted that there was no science to back that up. They literally pulled that out of their pocket. Six feet to slow the spread. And so there was so much harm done. But back to the financials of this. To make things more infuriating, not only did the public policy and the response, not only did it get completely mangled in a manner that hurt a lot of good people, but the Democrat deep blue municipalities and states that have mismanaged taxpayer money for a long time, they used the crisis to take a lot of our tax dollars from the federal government in the form of a bailout. And we actually covered this on the program. Nancy Pelosi was the speaker. This was during all the impeachment saga. President Trump was still in the White House. And they used a lot of this Covid stimulus money. I'm not sure how much it stimulated. It actually ended up tanking the economy through inflation. But, they used this as a opportunity to be bailed out. And so that happened. A lot of these Democrat states and Democrat cities were bailed out during COVID And we were, you know, blowing everybody's tax dollars like nobody's business, all because of COVID It was so dumb. It was so, so. Doesn't make sense. I mean, I remember here in Mississippi, I heard this firsthand. This isn't hearsay. This isn't. Read it in a news story. There was Covid money to replace the, ventilation and the air conditioner, central heating and cooling systems. There was Covid money earmarked for that. So these, these school districts were just willy nilly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing their central heating and cooling units with, quote, Covid money. Now, now that you'll, if you ask them, what on earth does the air conditioning unit have to do with COVID And they would give you some five minute spiel about, oh, the circulation and the ventilation and it just, you know, we need clean air going into the school buildings and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But let me ask you this. But then if you say, well, how many people get sick? What do the studies show about the number of people that get sick in the school building because of a, quote unquote, poor ventilation. And of course, there's just not a lot of studies out there because that's very, very far removed from an actual transmission of illness. To actually nail that down and put data on it, that's nearly impossible to say that so and so got sick in this classroom, at this building, at this desk because the air conditioning unit wasn't circulating enough air. I mean, you try connecting those dots. We can't even figure out whether the COVID shot's killing people or not. And those are direct correlations. And so all that to say hundreds of billions of federal dollars were spread out all around the country. And, people were spending money like there was no tomorrow. And that includes even Republican states. And, very, very unrelated to Covid, but they did it under the guise of COVID So it was a party, it was a spending party, and everybody participated in it. But back to my point, the Democrats, states and municipalities really took advantage of this to get out of, temporarily out of the distress that they were in financially. So I'm going to relate that to this clip I'm going to play to Mamdame over the last two weeks after my Newsmax interview. This was like three days later, mom dime comes out and says, yeah, basically, we're bankrupt. There's no way to close this deficit. We're in the worst shape we've ever been in New York City. And this guy's. This guy's like, what? let's see, one, two. I mean, like three, four, four to six months into his tenure. I think he was sworn in in January. Maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was late 2025. But nonetheless, the mayor here is less than a year into his tenure in New York City, and he has a press conference that says, yeah, we're bankrupt. There's no way out of this. We're just going to have to increase taxes, folks. Imagine that. Increase taxes. Let's listen to Mayor Mamdame telling about how great socialism is working and how New York City can't pay its bills. Clip 3.
New York City faces a budget crisis of an historic magnitude
Mamdani New York City faces a budget crisis of a historic magnitude. We inherited a deficit larger than any since the Great Recession. Years of mismanagement and chronic under budgeting alongside a structural imbalance between what New York City sends to the state and what we receive in return have taken a toll. We cannot close this deficit with savings alone. We need new revenue, and we need a structural reset, in our relationship with the state. That is the only way to meet our legal obligation to pass a balanced budget and to do so without imposing a financial burden onto the backs of working people. I'm glad to partner with Speaker Menon as we call upon Albany and deliver a balanced budget. Together, we are extending the executive budget deadline from this coming Friday until May 12th.
Walker Wildmon Kick that can.
Mamdani Crisis at the scale cannot be solved without state action. I want to be clear. We are not simply asking others to act. New York City is doing our part. We are committed to governing with the fiscal responsibility this moment demands. Speaker Menon and I have already identified meaningful savings, and we will continue that work carefully, deliberately, and without cutting the services that New Yorkers rely on. But we cannot do it alone. That is why we are standing together this morning to underscore what is at stake and to call on Albany to deliver additional revenue.
Walker Wildmon Is this April 1st. Mamdame just used the word fiscal responsibility. I've never heard that word come out of his mouth. I've actually never heard that word come out of a Democrat's mouth nonetheless, but Mom Dummy uses it, folks, New York City's bankrupt. New York City's bankruptcy. And here's how this works. So obviously, municipalities, they can't print money. States can't even print money. The only one that can print money is the federal government. And so this is the importance of having control of the levers of Washington, D.C. because President Trump, I'll guarantee you, is not going to bail out Mom Dummy, not going to bail out Albany, which is state capital. So they need to go upside down. This is the only way this works, folks, is the hard way. And that is either you do things the right way and you balance your budget, or you go upside down. This is how business works. All right? And so we need to apply the same principles of economics to the government. And if you can't pay the bills, the government goes upside down. What does that mean? No, they don't literally go upside down like a business, but they have to figure out what their priorities are. And this is as Mom Dummy comes in, and you notice how he's acting like he inherited this. Well, in some way he did. But he's making matters worse, Bobby, because Mom Dummy comes in and talks about all the free stuff, all the free bus rides. Free, free, free. And now a couple months later, he's wondering where all the money's gone now.
Bobby Roza How come he didn't look at those numbers before he took office? And if he did, look at how he bamboozled all these New York City voters. Yeah, you know, this is no secret. It's been out for a long time. Hochul has been screaming for money.
Walker Wildmon Yes.
Bobby Roza Once. All the people, all the billionaires who went to New York to send her a check, quote, unquote. And, this is a surprise to him.
Walker Wildmon Yeah.
Bobby Roza Now, he, in essence, flat out lied to his current constituency during the election, saying, free this, free that, to your point, when in fact, fiscal responsibility now requires that.
Walker Wildmon Not so fast.
Bobby Roza Yeah, there won't be anything free.
Walker Wildmon Right.
George Barna Get ready for that.
Walker Wildmon New York, because service cuts, remember, your
Bobby Roza bus fares have already gone up. They didn't go away. They've gone up.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. And this is. This is called being hoodwinked. Or, or if you want to be more simple, it's called being lied to. but, but, but the voters. Folks, guess how much sympathy I have to the folks who voted for Mom Dummy. If we're being honest, effectively zero sympathy. Now, do I have sympathy for the people that didn't vote for Mom Dummy voted for somebody else, and. And have been decrying this from day one? Sure, I do have some sympathy there. But people wonder, and the media speculates, why the millionaires and the billionaires are leaving New York City in droves to where they're all broadcasting their shows from. I'm talking about the TV anchors like Hannity and Gutfield and others. They're starting to broadcast their shows from Florida. And why would you pay the exorbitant taxes in New York State and then on top of that, the exorbitant taxes in the city proper? Why would you. It just doesn't make sense. in this economy of convenient travel and remote work, et cetera. So they're driving out their tax base, and yet they're increasing taxes more to drive more people out. Folks, this just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. And this is not. Not only obviously, is there biblical teachings here that are applicable on less government, more free market, but just looking purely historically, in America over the last 250 years, when you create a more repressive, or rather a more oppressive tax environment, a more aggressive tax environment, it causes the people with the money, the most money to leave. They go somewhere else, and they. And they park their money somewhere else. And in this instance, it's Florida, it's Georgia, it's Texas, it's Tennessee, etc. And so those tax bases are increasing. The tax base in New York City is shrinking, and New York City can't print money, and neither can Albany. So they're in a predicament here.
Jeff Chamblee Every day. AFA offers biblical insight on issues that others aren't willing to touch in the hopes that you'll become a world changer. That's why we're offering an in depth worldview training course called Activate. Thirteen different professors teaching 18 sessions, all available online, including a printed workbook to help you apply what you've learned and one year access to AFA streaming content to give you even more resources. Find out more about Acctivate and sign up today at activate.afa.net this is the Core on American Family Radio with
George Barna your host, Walker Wildmon.
If you want to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so wherever
Walker Wildmon Welcome back to the program here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here with with you on this, episode of today's program. As a brief, reminder and refresher, if you want to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so wherever you listen to podcasts. In order to find the podcast, just type in the name of the program at the core and you can find it there. Find the podcast page and click the subscribe or the follow button, depending on which platform you're on. And each day's episode will be ready to go, queued up in your library for listening and downloading in your podcast library. So go subscribe to the podcast and have the show ready to go. Each episode in your podcast library Welcoming, back to the program, frequent guest and friend of the ministry, Dr. George Barna. Dr. Barna is director at the Cultural Research center over at Arizona Christian University and we have him on every few months to talk about some of their latest findings here on the program. George, welcome back to the program.
George Barna Thanks Walker. Good to be with you again.
People have been speculating that there's a spiritual revival going on
Walker Wildmon Well, this report that you put out towards the end of April, was one of the most recent, research reports and surveys that your, organization, that your outfit has done in the last few months, especially post Charlie Kirk assassination and over the last, let's say year or two, maybe going back a little bit farther back to the Asbury story and others on these college campuses, people have been speculating, rightfully so, that there's some sort of spiritual renewal, some sort of spiritual revival going on around the country. just more of a vibe assessment and not necessarily a data assessment, but nonetheless, this latest report you put out actually delves into that a little bit. So tell us, some of the findings in this latest report out of the, Cultural Research.
George Barna Well, Walker, I think we all want revival to break out, but we've got to be realistic about what's going on. And that's why we do the research is so that it's not just a bunch of individual stories or anecdotes, but we can actually show data that indicate, yes, something real is taking place. And so we took two different approaches. We said, all right, let's go back to when this group of young adults were teenagers, because we have data that we collected from them then. And then let's look at what we just collected from them a couple months ago. Same measures over a four year period of time with the same people. And then let's also take a different slice of it. Let's look just before Charlie Kirk was murdered and just after he was murdered. And looking at those two things through those two lenses, if you will, we should have a pretty good handle on, yeah, is revival actually taking place or not? And when we do that, what we find is that, well, there is some shifting that's taken place in terms of some of the spiritual beliefs and some of the spiritual behaviors of young people, but it's not all moving in the same positive direction. We have some positive movement, but we also have some counterbalancing negative movement. And one of the things that I wanted to point out to people is that we know a lot about how people work now because we've been doing research, not just us, but hundreds of researchers have been trying to figure out how do human beings work? And we know that you do what you believe. And so if you want to see revival, it's not enough just to see a couple changes in things like attending church services or reading the Bible, or being open to reading the Bible, that's good. But if you don't have accompanying worldview or philosophical shifts that serve as the foundation for those behavioral changes. What we've also seen happen over the last 60, 70, 80 years that people have been doing this kind of research is that we'll change our behaviors. But if we don't have that faith foundational shift in beliefs that explain why we would do those behaviors, those behaviors become empty routines. And then we tend to shift back to more comfortable behaviors that we were engaging in previously. And I think that's what we're seeing here in America, where we've seen a small positive shift in Bible reading among young adults. Haven't really seen seen a lasting behavioral shift in terms of church attendance. There was a quick one that happened after Charlie's murder, very similar to what we saw after the nine, 11 tragedies where people filled churches across the country for four to six weeks. And then, because they didn't have that foundational thinking Behind. But why would I go to a church? Why is it important to worship God? What does worship look like, all of those kinds of things? What kind of a relationship do I really want to have with God? The church itself didn't do a good job at pouring that strong foundation during that little period of opportunity that we had. When that window was open, we were just so happy that they were coming back that we didn't really say, oh, my goodness. Okay, now we've got to explain to them why we come here every week, what we believe about God, what we believe about worshiping him, how we worship him, what difference it makes in our lives. What does the Bible have to say about all this? What does the Bible have to say about everything? All of those kinds of things. Now, we just wanted them to feel comfortable, and that's not the way to approach revival.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, the million dollar question that the jury's still out on is will the trends, the positive trends, although small in some categories, will they continue? Which obviously over time, the trends, if they continue, then the numbers become more pronounced over time, or do they flatline and stall or even start to go back to where they were? A couple of these highlights, just two pages into this report, highlights seven behaviors, that showed statistically significant movement toward biblical activity. So this was kind of the positive side of the report. And then you get into some of the negatives, a few more pages in. But this first one talks about, it says the most substantial increases, as far as from a positive standpoint, were in regard to claiming people who claim to be deeply committed to practicing their religious faith, which was up 17 percentage points. and it says that there was also a nine point increase in those who said they were most likely to rely upon the Bible when deciding if something is right or wrong. But then in the next sentence it says this is basically 28% of the people responding, which is, you know, if it was 70 or 80, it's like, wow. But best case scenario in this category of people that basically look to the scripture for answers in life was about 28% in the best case scenario. And then the next paragraph says, but there's an equal amount of people, 28%, that look to their feelings for determining basically what is right and wrong. That's just crazy to me that you've got people, nearly 30% of respondents on some of these surveys that will admit that all they look to is how they feel about something, not any kind of concrete moral teachings, but how they feel about it. To determine what their position should be. But when we look in culture and society, the feelings do seem to dominate the discussion.
George Barna Well, it's true, increasingly, as we look at the macro trends in our culture, that movement toward feelings guide. Every decision I make is becoming more and more pronounced. And with each succeeding generation, they're becoming more and more comfortable with that approach. And so that's a challenge. The other thing is that we've got to think about, all right, we had a 17 point rise in people, young people saying that I'm deeply committed to my religious faith, but we've got to pay attention to the language there, which is they're committed to their religious faith, not necessarily to biblical Christianity. And so when we look at, well, what is your religious faith? For a lot of them it's, well, being a good person, you know, believing that the universe will take care of me, all of those kinds of, beliefs that are held more commonly by young people than by older people and that are redefining the nation's faith. So yeah, there's a thing where we've got to be careful even when we look at these increases. Why are we asking the question that way? Because it's a tracking question. We've been asking it for 40 years. And so it gives us an opportunity to see, okay, what that has been solid in the past is shifting now as opposed to coming up with completely new questions and not having any idea. Well, is that more or less than it was before? Because it had never been asked.
Walker Wildmon Yeah. And what's abundantly clear, Dr. Barna, once again we're talking with Dr. George Barna, from the Cultural Research center at Arizona Christian University, about his latest, report put out towards the end of April, what's becoming increasingly clear over the years, and this has been clear for you for some time as much as you do this. But even in the instance of a spiritual awakening or renewal or a period of repentance and coming to Jesus within a culture and a generation, even in those scenarios, we're not always talking majority of people here. We're talking remnants, which is what our biblical examples are, is a small remnant of people that, are committed to the teachings of scripture. And so I want to highlight that as we look at these numbers, I know some people look at these and they're like, it's almost depressing. You're like, that many people don't believe in the Bible or don't even look to the scripture. And some of your other studies on people who are true, disciples, people who have true, genuine, biblical worldview. According to the scriptures, those numbers are down into the single digits in some scenarios. but all it takes is a remnant to really spur something longer and deeper when it comes to spiritual renewal.
George Barna Right, yeah, absolutely true. And that's a great point, Walker. And one of the things that I point out at the end of the report is that we've got to be really careful. A report like this might be premature because when we're talking about genuine spiritual revival in a person's life, that's all about transformation. Transformation doesn't happen overnight. You know, a person's worldview doesn't develop overnight as we look at children, which is when our worldview develops, it takes about a decade for that worldview to be fully formed. And so if now we're talking about taking a non biblical worldview and reforming it, reformation, if you will, that doesn't happen, you know, in a week, in a month. Often it doesn't happen in a year. It's going to take years of concerted effort. And that's an encouragement, I hope, to those of us who want to make disciples, that we can't get discouraged quickly or easily in this process. It's going to be where we build a relationship. We invest a lot of time and we do this consistently week after week, month after month, with individuals who have shown an interest and to recognize that the context for spiritual revival is warfare. Satan's going to be incredibly upset that somebody's showing interest in the things of God and that we're doing everything we can to, fan the flames of that interest. And so it's going to be an uphill battle and we've got to be prepared for that and recognize that you want to be part of the disciple making process. Think of yourself as a spiritual warrior. You're in it for the long haul.
Walker: There are some negative trends that need to be addressed in Pew survey
Walker Wildmon When I move on to the negative side, which needs to be addressed, needs to be looked into, which you provide roughly on page four here. And I love the visual charts. It's very simple to understand. When you're taking your research, Dr. George Barna and Arizona Christian's research over the last four to five years and compiling it and looking at trends, there are some negative trends that were highlighted. The most prominent one was basically the view of male, female and the marital relationship. The baseline question or statement that you're gauging is whether or not male, female, marriage is neither God's only permissible option nor morally superior choice. So you're basically gauging Whether people look to God's word or their own opinion on the marital union. And that's trended in the wrong direction. Up 18 points of people who basically don't look to God's design for marriage and family. And then the second one which ties in well with what I covered last segment about New York City and Mamdani, up 17 points, the individuals that prefer socialism over capitalism. So Dr. Barno, some of these categories, when you look at it, I can see that translating into culture and government in some of these parts of the country.
George Barna Yeah, we've got to remember that this is a survey just with the adult portion of generation zone, Gen Z. So that means These were the 18 to 23 year olds in our country. So this doesn't necessarily characterize the way that baby boomers would be thinking. But when we look at them, you know, they tend to be our grandchildren or whatever. I mean this is the direction that they're moving in. Why does this matter? Because if we're going to have conversations with them, we need to know where they're coming from and to try to find think through ahead of time. Okay. They're not looking for our advice, they're not interested in our advice. But this is critical stuff. And so we've got to, you know, be ready to have these conversations. And the best approach that we found is what we call Socratic conversations, which isn't where we come in the room and point a finger at them, say, you idiots, how could you go with a guy like Mugami? But ask them questions about wow, I wasn't expecting that outcome in the election. Were you? Oh, you were. Why were you? What do you think about this guy? You know, when you get into a conversation where they get to put their goods on the table rather than accusing them of stuff right off the bat. So it's going to take longer to get to the conclusion. Yes. But it's going to be done in that relational context where we're able to trade on the trust factor that over hopefully we've built with them and that enables them eventually to be asking them some questions about. But how do you think this is going to play out in the long run? You know, can you see yourself really living in this kind of environment where if you look at England when they tried to implement these same policies, you know, everybody left who had the money.
Walker Wildmon Yeah.
George Barna As 80 to 90% was going in taxes. Is that what you're looking forward to? That's a of them.
Walker Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. Hey, Dr. George Barna. Thanks so much for coming on. We appreciate your work.
George Barna Thank you, Walker.
Walker Wildmon Absolutely Glad to have you on azcu.edu. that's Arizona Christian University. You'll see the Culture Research center tab there on the top right hand corner. You can read more about their research. We'll see you next time. We'd like to thank our sponsors, including PreBorn. PreBorn has rescued over 400,000 babies from abortion and every day their network clinics rescue 200 babies lives. Will you join PreBorn in loving and supporting young moms in crisis? Save a life today. Go to preborn.com afr 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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