American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, Preborn
>> 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 quit.
>> Walker Wildmon: 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.
>> Walker Wildmon: welcome to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this brand new edition of today's program. And, let's turn our attention to John chapter 13. And then we will move into some of the content for today's program.
This passage gets at the heart of whether one is regenerated or not
John, chapter 13. Looking at verse 34 and 35, Jesus says a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. This gets at the heart of whether one is regenerated or not. And you know, on this side of eternity, living in the fallen world that we live in, it's sometimes difficult to discern whether someone is a born again believer or not. Because unfortunately there are many, many today and many in history that have professed the name of Christ but have no faith. This shouldn't be surprising. Jesus actually foretells of this. when questioned and when discussing eternity, Jesus said something to the effect, I don't have the passage right in front of me, but this is where the scripture, talks about, the gate is narrow. I might be completely. Botching this entire. That's, why I'm not quoting the scripture, I'm just paraphrasing what it says. But it talks about the gate being narrow, but the gate being narrow to heaven and the path being wide to destruction. In essence is what Jesus was talking about when being questioned by the Pharisees and others about who's going to make it to heaven, who's going to be rewarded, eternal life. So Jesus himself says that the path, the gate is narrow to eternal life and the path is wide to hell, to eternal judgment. And so there have been many people today and throughout history that claim the name of Christ, but yet do not believe, do not have genuine faith, have not been regenerated. And so this passage, though, it really simplifies it all, and it doesn't give us this crystal ball where we can see who's a believer and who's not. Basically, that's not what the Scripture does, but it does give you some kind of tool to use to measure whether people are living up to the faith that they profess. Jesus says in verse 34, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Verse 35, by this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. So this simple commandment that Jesus gives helps the believer discern whether they themselves and others are living up to the teachings of Christ and to the whole counsel of God's Word. And so we ought to be able to look at people's lives and know them by their fruits. That's another thing that Jesus said. You will know them by their fruits. And there are so many people, and this is very tragic, by the way, when people profess Christ, but there is no fruit there. There are so many people that profess the name of Christ, yet when you examine their lives, they have no fruit. And you look at this passage and you go, does this person express love for one another as Jesus has loved them? And so while we can't, possibly examine the heart, as Jesus can examine the heart, and he did it all throughout his ministry on this earth, examining the heart of men, even without a word being spoken, Jesus was able to examine the heart. But what we can do is we can look at people's words and their deeds to at least give us a glimpse as to whether they truly trust and have faith in Jesus or not. And so that's what this passage does, is it gives us a commandment, and it also gives us the ability to examine ourselves and others through this lens, to know how faithful or not we are being to the teachings of Jesus. That's John, chapter 13 and my extended version of John, chapter 13, verses 34 and 35.
Thank you to everyone who donated to Preborn. Over 6,000 ultrasounds provided
Well, thank you to everyone who donated to PreBorn. Over the last two weeks, we extended it an extra week just to make sure we met our goal, and we actually exceeded our goal. Over 6,000. Amen. Over 6,000 ultrasounds provided. closer to 6,500, actually. So thank you to everyone who called in, who donated. it's one of my favorite campaigns that we do because of the tangible impact on the lives of babies and the lives of mothers and even dads that are impacted by preborn. It's amazing to see because every child, this goes without saying, but every child obviously has a mother and a father, otherwise they wouldn't have been conceived. But when you save the life of the child, both physically and spiritually, you're, also impacting the parents as well, both the mother and the father. And so there's a lot to be said about what preborn is doing. So thank you everyone who called in and went online and donated. Very, very, proud of our audience here for participating in that, and I'm thankful we can continue that partnership with preborn.
A New York jury awarded a transgender woman $2 million in a lawsuit
Well, in the time we have left, I want to cover this breaking story. Breaking as of, let's see, Friday. So maybe not breaking anymore, but, in the last, let's say, 72 hours, news broke that a jury in NewSong York state awarded a young, 22 year old that had tragically fallen victim to this transgender insanity. a NewSong York jury awarded a female who had been, undergone a double mastectomy in the name of transgenderism at the recommendation of a psychologist and a physician, had underwent a double mastectomy. This 22 year old who went through this procedure when she was 16, has since been awarded a $2 million, decision in a landmark lawsuit out of NewSong York. I want to read this NewSong York Post headline and read a couple paragraphs in. Detransitioner wins $2 million against NewSong York doctors who pushed double mastectomy. This was published on the late afternoon of January 31st. A 22 year old woman who identified as a boy in her teens, won a $2 million decision in a landmark lawsuit against NewSong York doctors accused of pushing a double mastectomy on her when she was a minor. Fox Varian had been had, the life. This is the name of the young girl. Fox Varian had the life altering surgery when she was just 16 years old, getting approval from a psychologist and a surgeon, both of whom a jury found liable of medical malpractice on January 30. Varian, now 22 years old, is considered and considered a, quote. Detransitioner was awarded 1.6 million for past and future pain and suffering and an additional 400,000 for future medical expenses. And the first detransition or malpractice lawsuit in the nation to go on trial and win. This is a very, very big deal. And in, My opinion opens the floodgates of future litigation on this very topic. And this is what, this is what we have to do, folks. Obviously we've got to win on the policy front, we've got to win on the public perception front, but we cannot forget the civil liability front. This is how some of the most egregious harms in American society over the last 250 years have been defeated is through the civil liability realm. There is no question that this is legally risky behavior from a civil vantage point. You are permanently altering the biological makeup and the reproductive capacity of countless individuals all around the country through a procedure that is not medically necessary. This is not a life saving procedure. It actually does the opposite and causes some serious suicidal effects of people who go through this. It's tragic what happens here on multiple levels, both physically, psychologically, and otherwise. and so this is a very big deal, what this has the potential to do. And we've got to get these, these lawsuits have to be triggered. And this is coming because you've got trial lawyers involved. So don't worry about not having enough lawsuits on this front. it depends on what day of the week it is, on whether I like trial lawyers or not. But nonetheless, this has to be litigated across the board in all 50 states. And we have to get to a place, and I believe we're at the beginning stages of this. We have to get to a place where doctors and medical facilities, medical practices and insurance companies, might I add, that cover the physicians and the medical systems, et cetera. We have to get to a place where all of them look at each other, regardless of their political makeup, regardless of their ideological makeup, or, even if they buy into this transgender insanity. They all have to get to a point where they look at each other and go, hey man, this isn't worth it. Did you see so and so who lost their license and got millions of dollars in damages claimed against them, successfully secured against them? This isn't worth it. This is not what I went to med school for, to cut up on little kids. These are the conversations that you have to force people to have. And then you have to have insurance companies during renewal time look at their, at their customers, at their clients and go, hey guys, if you want to engage in mutilating little kids in the name of transgenderism, we're not covering you. It's not covered. So if you get sued from a liability vantage point, we are not covering you. You are on your own. And when you do that, it will overnight not literally, but over the course of a few years, it will completely end this practice. It will completely end this practice. Now let me tell you what the left will do with this. I'm going to tell you before it even happens. Because when you look at the way the secular humanists and the God haters respond to news like this, here's what we have to be on the lookout for. It would not shock me the least bit if a state like a California or a NewSong York or Illinois passes a civil liability protection for physicians, medical systems, psychiatrists, etcetera, that are engaged in this abhorrent practice. I, could see this. I can see it right now. I can see Gavin Newsom signing a bill that offers liability protections. You heard me right. Protections for physicians that want to mutilate little kids in the name of transgenderism. I could see it every day of the week. Because this is what they do. They protect their own, they protect each other, and they protect their godless agenda at all cost. And so this is what we need to be on the lookout for. That is the only thing stopping this momentum against this transgender, these transgender procedures. That's the only thing that would blunt the momentum to get this gender mutilation surgeries completely eliminated across the board in all 50 states, all around the country. The only thing that would stop that is if liability protections were passed in some of these radical states, which I could see them doing it. I could see them doing it in the name of protecting, quote, here's their talking point. Gender affirming care in air quotes. We're going to protect, quote, gender affirming care and make sure that doctors can keep doing this nonsense. That's the only thing standing in the way. So we need to fight back against that, ensure that doesn't happen. That's not the case as it stands today. And in the meantime, every physician, every psychiatrist, every medical system that participated in this, this terrible, terrible thing needs to be held accountable. We'll be back in a few.
>> : The AFR app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains.
>> Walker Wildmon: It won't walk the dog, won't pick. Up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your App store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app.
>> Jeff Chamblee: At the. Core podcast, are available at afr.net now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.
Madeline Malisa says ballot initiatives have been hijacked by the left
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Well, one, tool that has been hijacked in recent years by the left is the ballot initiative, process in states all around the country. This is a tool, that a couple decades ago has actually been used for some pretty good, movements, if you will, or policy items. But as of recent, it has completely gone off the rails and been really used to usurp, legislative authority that the elected representative should be engaging in and taking control of. Nonetheless, to talk about this, Madeline Melissa is with us. Madeline is policy director at the foundation for Government Accountability, otherwise known as fga. Their representatives have been with us on multiple occasions to talk about various policy items around the country. Madeline Melissa is with us now. Hey, Madeline, welcome to the program.
>> Madeline Malisa: Thanks so much for having me today.
Madeline Malisa: Mississippi's ballot initiative process has been sidelined
>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Madeline, to start the conversation, Mississippi's ballot initiative process has been sidelined for a couple years through the Supreme Court, the state supreme Court, because there was a pretty major flaw in the ballot initiative process that unless the legislature fixes it, it's pretty much dead in the water. Meaning you cannot use the ballot initiative process until the legislature addresses some of the major flaws in it. nonetheless, tell us a little bit about what's going on in Mississippi and then we'll talk about how this has impacted other states as well.
>> Madeline Malisa: Well, I'll say this, so I'm talking to you today from Portland, Maine. And Maine is a place where we've become unrecognizable due to the ballot initiative process. At one point we were, purple, state. I served with Governor LePage, who was actually a Republican governor here eight years ago. but the ballot initiative, has been hijacked by the left, used to push really extreme progressive policies. and I think, you know, to your listeners, it's a gift in Mississippi that frankly, that it has been put in this limbo as you referenced, you know, Back in the 90s, Mississippi enacted the process. There were five congressional districts. And then, when you lost the congressional district back in 2000, the signature gathering requirements referenced, five congressional districts. So the court found, you know what, it's impossible to actually meet those. Back with initiative, 65, that's the court invalidated. and honestly, this is a very, very good place for you guys to be. And I'll tell were envious up here in Maine of the situation that you find yourselves in.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it was honestly, Madeline, it was A blessing because, you know, now I can't say I can say for sure. I did not know that there were legal vulnerabilities to the ballot initiative process that you decided until after the fact. I heard about this through the appeal process when we were all trying to figure out, hey, how are we going to defeat basically big marijuana in Mississippi? And then somebody, I don't know, I can't give credit because I'm not sure, but somebody basically was like, hey, have y' all read the ballot initiative statute? And like, looked at what we have today? Because something's not adding up here. And so, fortunately enough, we were able to defeat big marijuana through, appeal because to your point, the statute and the initiative process were not in sync legally. But, other states have, had this work against them, whether it's the marijuana issue or whether it's the abortion issue. the states all around the country, even conservative states, have had this ballot initiative process used against them. So talk about how this is being used to bypass the legislature, which, when you, when you posit it in that, from that vantage point, it really helps people understand the dangers here.
>> Madeline Malisa: Yeah, it's an incredible threat, I think really to, red states in particular. It is the left's new playbook. I think most Americans would agree democracy shouldn't be for sale. But, as conservatives continue to win really strong majorities, in state legislatures, the left has found this new strategy to push its agenda. If they can't get it done through the legislature, well, they've got the ballot initiative process to usurp it all together. So what we see across the country in states like, states like Maine, where I live out of state, billionaires just, they flood conservative states with cash and they support their ballot initiatives with top liberal priorities. Right. These are priorities that harm families and businesses and, you know, elections, in American society, it's the progressive agenda. And if they can't get lawmakers to pass it, through the traditional constitutional republic that our founders set up, they use the ballot process. And I got to say, like you referenced, even in rock solid conservative states, places like Missouri or Oklahoma, it's money from California and NewSong York, D.C. they buy just enough misleading, TV ads or campaign organizers, to push their progressive policies, and it ends up, of course, hurting the people in the state when, of course the campaigns are over, it's the taxpayers and, the legislatures that are left picking up the dust.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this process, when you really look into it, there's a lot of Flaws here. Now, obviously at times it has been used for good things, for good amendments, but generally speaking, there's a lot of vulnerabilities here. Number one being the limited ability to explain what exactly people are voting on. All right, now, from the, from the PR and the media perspective, obviously you can do as much as you want to educate on what's being voted on, but as far as when, when voters go into the, into the booth, into vote and they have their ballot, it's very limited. Like we're talking maybe a couple sentences at most to describe what exactly you're voting on. So there's not this, you know, seven page white paper with citations where you can study what you're voting on. It's like a couple sentences at best, sometimes not even that. And then the name of the ballot amendment is oftentimes inaccurate. Right. And so, and all of that has to be litigated through the state, and through various, you know, committees and stuff and courts before it actually makes it on the ballot. But that's the first problem. The second problem that you alluded to is the amount of outside money that can come into these states and totally miseducate the public on what's actually being voted over. Folks go into the ballot booth and they think they're voting on one thing, but really they're voting on another because they were misled in the media and there's no accountability for being misled there.
>> Madeline Malisa: That's exactly right. And I got to tell you, if you actually read some of these questions, voters have no idea what it is they're actually voting on. You know, it doesn't have the normal checks and balances, the deliberative process. it's just straight to the voters, 30 seconds. They don't understand what they're voting on. They may have seen an ad or someone knock on their door and they don't understand the real either implications fiscally, or on society. And I got to tell you, here in Maine, we have had things like ranked choice voting, Medicaid expansion, minimum wage, ah, just a whole host of things. We just had a red flag law that passed here, on the Second Amendment issue on this last election. But again, it doesn't go through the process and the actual people who we vote to represent us on these very important policy issues.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, and to your point, this is actually what our founding fathers, I'm not going to say they didn't intend it to be this way. They obviously instituted a constitutional amendment process, very specifically spelled out the number of votes required in both chambers and in the states to get an amendment added to the Constitution. But it's two thirds. and so the, but in some of these states it's 51%. And so it's not as if the idea of a ballot amendment or a constitutional amendment process entirely is unconstitutional or against our founders intent. But in many of these cases, when you just need 51% to get a ballot amendment, on the ballot and approved, that does explicitly go against what our founding fathers intended.
>> Madeline Malisa: Exactly. And the left is exploiting that. Right. They know they only need you know, to spend enough money to get those votes in the big urban districts. Oftentimes to get something across the finish line. Right. They try at the legislature, it doesn't work. They flood it with cash, confuse voters and then a few thousand votes have actually profound implications. which is again as you were mentioning, a two thirds majority in a state legislature. That's a pretty high bar, right? It's a very high bar. And it's a high bar for a reason to make sure that something, if you're amending the Constitution, the most important, important document in your state, most important law in your state, it really should have legislative buy in at a very high level.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. Melissa, or Melinda Melissa. Tell us folks, Madeline, where your folks can read more about your work and some of the content and information you guys put out on this subject. The ballot initiative process and other items as well.
>> Madeline Malisa: Yes, you can find out about us@the fga.org we have a lot of information on all sorts of different topics. Things like welfare reform and elections and really things that drive the American dream in this country. That's what we're all about. Free society, accountable government. please visit our website to learn more about the work that we do both on elections and initiative, integrity.
>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. Madeline, Melissa, thanks so much for coming on the program. We appreciate your work there.
>> Madeline Malisa: Thank you very much for having me.
The ballot initiative process has been hijacked by the left
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's Madeline Melissa over at the foundation for Government Accountability. As she mentioned, their URL is thefga.org thefga.org They've got some great research papers there on some of the topics we've been discussing. And the ballot initiative process has been hijacked by the left. And what I'll give them credit for, a pretty brilliant move because in these states where you just need 51% of the popular vote to get these amendments through, you pour in enough money, enough ad money and enough Public influence money to tell the public how to vote on this basically. then you can get a lot of things done through that, through, those means. But what you're doing in effect is you're bypassing the deliberative legislative body, which as I mentioned, the amendment process in general can, be used for good. Obviously the founding fathers put it in place for the Constitution and for amendments to the Constitution, but it was always through 2/3. All right. It wasn't through 51% and it was through 2/3 of Congress and the states as well. So you got to get double buy in there. But with this, it's just 51% of the popular vote. And so it can be a very dangerous process that can be used by the left and has been used by them. So Mississippi needs to leave their ballot amendment process, not active, not live. We don't need to breathe life back into this process again because the only person that's going to use it in the near future is going to be the left in Mississippi and other states. By the way, we've been working to get to amend the ballot initiative process in other states to increase the threshold to 2/3, and put some more guardrails on it in other states. So we've been working on that. It's a must in order to prevent it from being abused.
The Trump administration and the Department of Justice have dramatically reduced violent crime
again, I wanted to talk about, before we wrap up this segment, the continued, success of the Trump administration and the Department of Justice to drastically reduce violent crime in our country. The FBI just released their latest, numbers from 2025. And we're seeing violent crime drop off a cliff. Drop off a cliff. And the reason this is taking place is because the FBI, instead of half of the agency being used for political purposes to go after Biden's political opponents, the FBI is actually being used to go after true criminals and not just political opponents. And so that's what's happening over at the doj, that's what's happening at the FBI. Agents and resources are being directed in a manner that actually goes after people that are the problem and goes after violent crime. And so that's what's going on over at the FBI. And we're seeing, violent crime drop off of a cliff. And I saw stats in our nation's capital, just Washington D.C. alone, violent crime and homicides dropping 80% year over year, dropping 80%. Part of that's due because President Trump declared a months long, executive order to deploy extra resources, including the National Guard to assist local law enforcement in Washington D.C. to clamp down on crime. Also, you've got us, attorneys that are taking this stuff seriously and they're pursuing maximum sentences and maximum penalties for the criminals instead of going soft on crime. So this just shows it can be done just like the border. You know, we were told under President Biden. And unfortunately, people like James Lankford out of Oklahoma, they fell for this nonsense. And what I'm talking about is this, this lie that we need to change America's immigration laws in order to clamp down on illegal border crossings. That was a flat out lie. And I cannot believe. Well, maybe I can. It's just a shame that Senator James Lankford led the charge with Chuck Schumer on that fake border bill under Biden that they said, oh, we need more money at the border in order to, in order to stop the illegal border crossings. Well, guess what happens. President Trump gets sworn in. No laws have changed. No laws have changed with the exception of the one big beautiful bill did surge more resources. But President Trump had had cut off the spigot of illegal immigration even before the one big beautiful bill. That was in July. President Trump had been in office for six months at least before, that bill passed. And so, and he had cut off zero releases, into the country. Zero releases. And the illegal crossings plummeted and have flatlined since then with no new laws on the books. And so the same thing with the, with the clamp down on violent crime in our country, with the FBI, this notion that we got to have more money and we got to have more legislation and we got to have more of this and more of that and go into more debt. To fix America's problems is just fundamentally not true. The federal government has a insane amount of resources at their disposal to do what they have to do, to get done what they have to get done. We don't need 10 billion, 50 billion, 100 billion more dollars to, quote, fix America's problems. We've got ample resources at the federal level to get the job done, not only at the border, but also in America's cities to cut down and clamp down on crime in America, make America safer, more prosperous for all of us. That's what President Trump's doing from a law enforcement perspective. All right, folks, we got one more segment left. We're going to have on with us Oklahoma State Senator Jerry Albord from District 14 talking about some great legislation up in Oklahoma. We'll be back in a few minutes.
Preborn Network helps women choose life through a free ultrasound
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Many Christians become enamored with this present world that they no longer look to heaven
This is John MacArthur with more portraits of grace. The old spiritual was right. This world is not my home. I'm, just a passing through. Yet so many Christians become enamored with this present world that they no longer look forward to heaven. That's sad. We need to remember that our citizenship is in heaven and continually set our mind on heavenly things. Our deepest affections and highest aspirations should be centered there, not here. Even though we live in a sin stained world, God extends to us all the rights and privileges of our heavenly citizenship. Let that assurance encourage you to live each day to his glory and focus on heavenly priorities and tap heavenly blessings rather than earthly indulgences. This is John MacArthur praying. You are continuing to be portraits of grace.
>> : This is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.
Oklahoma State Senator Jerry Alvord introduces Open to Religion Act
>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, back to the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you back with us on today's episode. As a reminder, we would greatly appreciate it for any of you that decide to subscribe to the podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, whether it's Android, Apple device, Spotify, etc. All those major podcast platforms, we upload the show and you can simply go there, find the show, click the subscribe button, and the latest episode, including today's episode, will be queued up right there in your library. And, it's free. No gimmicks, no tricks. It's free. Just click the subscribe button. Want to welcome to the show Oklahoma State Senator Jerry Alvord. He's serving District 14 there in the state of Oklahoma as state senator and he's on to talk about a critical piece of legislation that he's been working on called the Open to Religion Act. State Senator, welcome to the program.
>> OK State Sen Jerry Alvord: Thank you sir. Thank you for having me.
>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Glad to have you on. We love having lawmakers on to talk about, important legislation that their state and their constituents should hear about and should benefit from. this Open to Religion act, is essentially going against what we've been told in recent decades, well really over the last 50 plus years, that religion shouldn't be in school. That's what we've been told. Religion shouldn't be in school. Don't bring your Bible to school. We shouldn't pray in school. Basically, our public schools have been, you know, have created this anti God environment if you will. And we're trying to counteract that, because that's not really legal or constitutional, to quote, ban religion from schools. And so tell us about this Senate Bill, 1422 in Oklahoma called the Open to Religion Act. Tell us a little bit about it. A little bit of backgrounder here.
>> OK State Sen Jerry Alvord: Well, I'm glad you brought that up. You know, I'm getting text messages and calls from concerns constituents now that are not real happy about it. They do not want religion in schools. And like you said, for many, many years we have been told, you know, that the separation of church and state, which has been so mischaracterized, and so misunderstood, a lot of our constituent, based people, you know, in our communities have actually bought into that. So we're already getting some calls that are really. People are really struggling with this bill. You know, this, this Open to Religion act, is basically strengthening and modernizing our existing laws to allow students and school employees who wish to engage in voluntary prayer. That ability, it's based on, A lot of it is based on the really large court case win that we've had with the Coach Kennedy case. Bringing this back to our schools for voluntary. And I really want to push that word, voluntary. you know, we are in a country that is supposed to protect, religious beliefs and the freedom of religion. And this is just one of those things. We talk about educating our young people. How can we not better educate them than this?
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right. And to your point, the Coach Kennedy case was, was monumental because it helped undo years of bad Decisions. We've had so many, really decades worth of bad court decisions going back to the 60s and 70s, and some before that probably. But m. Let's just say since the 60s and 70s, we began to have these, rulings that basically cast a shadow, if you will, over religion in government. Meaning, basically disincentivizing, in some instances, outright banning Christianity and religion in public schools. Which is definitely not what our founding fathers intended. Because if anybody just reads up a little bit on history, they'll understand that the Bible was the central textbook and the, required mandatory textbook of America's first universities and first public schools. And so the founding fathers and the drafters of the Constitution, including the First Amendment, never intended us to ban God from government buildings, specifically public schools. And there's so much good that comes from, children being able to learn, moral instruction that comes from the Bible. And so we've got so many young people that are struggling with anxiety, with depression, coming from broken homes, getting tied up in alcohol and substance abuse, pornography. There's just so much that young people are struggling with. It's really heartless, in my opinion, to take the one thing like the Bible or Christianity away from them just because they go to a public school. It's just so sad, when these people need hope. so I'm glad that we're challenging, you know, these years of bad court decisions. And this Coach Kennedy case has really opened the door, to help, things like this. This opened a religion act to pass. Tell us, Senator, just some practical things that this would allow maybe a teacher or student to do that right now, maybe they're not allowed to do, or they think they're not allowed to do.
>> OK State Sen Jerry Alvord: Well, backing up just a little bit. You know, people have, Our education system does not really push the history as it well should be. Our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence, these were derived from precepts of the Bible. M. Our law enforcement system basically works off of the, precepts from the Bible. Our country was, founded and created around that. So you're absolutely right, to take this away from our education system and to, disallow them, to understand that history through Christianity, is a disservice. And I think we've seen this since the early 60s when, for example, the Ten Commandments were taken out. we saw real degradation from that point on. So this bill here, it protects voluntary religious expression. It allows that a school district, for the respect of the students, the educators, a fundamental right, to adopting a policy so that they can gather on campus for voluntary prayer, and the reading of the Bible or other religious texts. But keep in mind, it's not mandated. This is voluntary. It does not take away from educational time. it very much so respects parental authority. there needs to be in this bill written parental consent that ensures families, not bureaucracies, that they can make the decision for themselves, for what's right for their children. it safeguards non participants, those that choose to not be a part of it. This will not be broadcast over these systems, their announcement systems. those that do not want to take place in this, do not have to and are not required. and something that was very impressive, when this bill was put together was it preserves the constitutional boundaries, the open to Religious act, very much so prohibits state sponsorships of religion and aligns, this bill aligns with current federal and state constitutional law. And also going back to the Coach Kennedy case, that's where this is aligned from.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. This is honestly a, must, because to your point, it creates some very simple framework, that is not really controversial when you actually read the text of the bill. but there are so many school and district attorneys, there are so many rather school attorneys that are maybe attorneys that cover an entire school district that represent the administrative staff in the district that they're not really read up at all on America's history. When they went to law school, they actually weren't taught the 10, the bill of Rights. and so their first reaction is to avoid litigation at all costs, even if that means depriving students of their constitutional rights. Now they wouldn't put it that way, but in fact that's what they're doing because they'll have, you know, parents or administrators come up to them and say, hey, you know, can a student read the Bible in school? And they'll go, well no, they just shouldn't do that. We might get sued by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. But in reality, students can read their Bible in school during non instructional time. I used to do it almost every day of the week when I was in high school, finished my schoolwork, my classwork, we got free time for 15 minutes. I pull out my Bible and read it. It's completely legal. but oftentimes you need legislative framework, which is what you're aiming to do here, to really build up the barriers and the guidelines and give administrators, attorneys and everyone clear framework for bringing religion back into our schools. So, Senator, I'll Give you last word here.
>> OK State Sen Jerry Alvord: Well, thank you very much. I'm proud to bring this forth. I'm seeing here at the Capitol that there are even groups up here that, ah, are fearful to bring this to the table to even have the conversation. And it's really mind boggling to me. If we lived in a society who understood and lived by the Ten Commandments alone, wow, what a different society or group we would have. And we're talking educated young people. And here, again, it's voluntary. This is not something that's forced upon them. This is not a forced situation. So the fear of litigation and the fear of having rocks thrown at you for bringing this forward, is really hampering the system. So we're hoping to get it heard, we're hoping to get it in committee. I had an appointment this morning with the, the head of the Education Committee, and that didn't happen. But we're going to keep working at it and see how far we get. But at least we can start the conversation and hopefully we can start to get a crack in the barrier.
>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, that's right. It takes things like this that some people may view as impossible or this won't pass. to your point, we got to start the conversation, and that's how you educate lawmakers and educate the public on the fact that what you're trying to do is just take us back to a place, that we were 60 years ago, where God was not banned from schools. it's not a novel concept, but we appreciate your boldness. I know that it is, quote, unquote, controversial for people who are not read up on the Constitution and American history. but this is good. We've got to have the conversation. We've got to educate folks and move the ball in the right direction.
Senator Jerry Alvord from Oklahoma is working on an Open to Religion bill
So, Senator Jerry Alvord from Oklahoma, we appreciate you doing this and appreciate you coming on the program.
>> OK State Sen Jerry Alvord: Thank you for having me and God bless you for what you do.
>> Walker Wildmon: Amen. Thank you so much. Senator, Jerry Alvord serves District 14 out of the state of Oklahoma. We appreciate him coming on the program. The legislation he and I were talking about is the Open to Religion act that he is introducing there, in the legislature, trying to get it in committee, obviously make it to the full floor of the state Senate, and then obviously it will have to make it to the House and then to the, the governor's desk. But if we're going to get this done, Oklahoma is the place to get it done. I mean, Oklahoma is one of the Most conservative states in the union. And bill is Senate Bill 1422. So we'll be activating the AFA, AFR audience there in Oklahoma to help get this bill through the finish line. But that's the backgrounder on it. Senate Bill 1422 in the state of Oklahoma. Open to Religion act is the name of the bill. And we'll be emailing in to the folks in Oklahoma on that piece of legislation. And to the Senator's point, this is simply restoring the rights of students and teachers, to study religious text within the confines of the government school, which used to be 100% permissible before these judges thought they knew better than the founding fathers. And so this Open to Religion act creates a voluntary framework system where students and teachers can for example read the Bible on public school grounds and have prayer groups and other Bible studies during non instructional time. It's really not controversial. To give an example, if a handful of students and teachers want to read the Bible and have a Bible study, during part of their lunch break, they can do that. They can use government grounds, they can use a classroom to have a Bible study, during school hours. And the parents have to consent to it, have to be aware of it. and so this isn't bypassing parental rights, this is fully respecting that, fully respecting the constitutional rights of teachers and students. And so very well written by the way. Actually interested to see what the counter arguments are against this. Unless people don't know what the bill actually does and they haven't read up on it. In that case I could see some pretty blind opposition, against this Open to Religion act that we're working on in the state of Oklahoma. Senate Bill 1422.
President Trump is expected to nominate Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell
Well, before we wrap up the show, I want to get to one more story that is currently ongoing and that is the the President Trump's Federal Reserve pick. When I recorded Friday's episode with Chris, we didn't have a Federal Reserve pick, but now we do. Kevan Warsh is his name and President Trump is soon to be appointing him formally to replace Jerome Powell at the Federal Reserve as Chairman. And Powell's term ends in May, which means that Kevan Warsh will be hopefully approved by the Senate in June, late May to early June, to assume his position there. So this is going to be interesting to follow. Kevan Warsh got rave reviews by virtually everyone on the conservative side of the spectrum, including actually people who you would maybe classify as non conservatives. They were raving over Kevan Warsh. So he's got a very very lengthy credible track record and has actually worked at the Fed, worked at the Federal Reserve and a lot out there on Kevan Warsh so we'll keep tracking that. But President Trump's been clear all along that he wants rates down and some of the data that's being released by some of these private firms shows inflation across the board. There are some outliers including beef but but across the board in the vast majority of categories especially commodity prices inflation is just hitting rock bottom. Some of these surveys are showing inflation below 1 point percent and if that's the case then the Federal Reserve is way late cutting rates. President Trump very well could be exonerated in that the Federal Reserve is about six months late cutting rates. We'll find out sooner or later.
>> 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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