We would like to take a moment to thank our 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.

>> Rick Green: We equip sacred honor is the courage to speak truth, to live out your free speech.

>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character. 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 edition of the program. As a brief reminder, and those of you who listen to the program every single day are tired of me saying this, but in the radio world, you have new listeners every few minutes, quite literally. So, folks are going in and out of, their vehicles and their homes, and so you get new listeners every few minutes. but just a reminder for those of you who don't know, you can subscribe to this show's podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. For those who enjoy the program, who enjoy the content and, appreciate listening to Rick and I and the guests that we have on, you can subscribe to at the core podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, just type in the name of the program and click the subscribe or the follow button. And you'll have unlimited access to our past episodes to listen, at your convenience, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Acts chapter seven is where we have been this week

Acts chapter seven is where we have been this week. Acts, chapter seven. Looking at the teaching of Steven here, the, preaching of Steven before the Jewish leaders, the Sanhedrin, and the fact, towards the end of this chapter where Steven is martyred, where Steven is stoned, and here's how Steven ultimately, passed on to glory and how he composed himself in this very trying situation at the end of his life. Here it says, that in verse 59 of Acts chapter 7, and they stoned Steven as he was calling on God and saying, lord, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, verse 60. Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, lord, do not charge them with this sin. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. and of course, the translation in the Way we understand, fall asleep in this, but basically he passed on into eternity. And, that's how it's described in the original text here. And so, this is, Steven, obviously preaching the truth to, the Jewish leaders and talking about their rejection of God and even goes through the Old Testament and their repeated rejection of God and repeated rejection of the Holy Spirit. And, instead of responding in truth and in repentance and in humility, the Jewish leaders dug in their heels, so to speak, and lashed out and ultimately martyred, Steven. But we can find encouragement on how Steven handled this situation and how he peacefully submitted his life, literally, to the spread of Christianity and the teaching of God's word. Acts, chapter seven. Looking at verses 59 and 60. Well, the, couple things want to get to this segment.

The Southern Baptist Convention is holding its annual convention in Orlando, Florida

The Southern Baptist Convention is going on, as we speak in Orlando, Florida. And this is an annual convention that the Southern Baptists have in different locations around the country. Every year it's at a different location. And there were a couple important votes going on at the Southern Baptist Convention. Obviously the election of a new president, to lead the Southern Baptist Convention. And there were some pretty solid, conservative alternatives or options on the ballot. one at least that I'm aware of. although there were no glaring major issues with the candidates, but some a little more strong on the issues of scripture and biblical fidelity than others, nonetheless, the most important, vote, in my opinion, at this year's convention was the Truth and Unity Amendment, so called Truth and Unity amendment that, Dr. Albert Mueller brought before the convention. And just to give a little backgrounder on this amendment, this amendment has been attempted in years past. But the essence of this amendment at the Southern Baptist Convention is aimed at bringing clarity and truth to the office of the pastor. All right? And the reason this is needed, some say, well, you know, you got the Baptist Faith and Messages 2000. you got multiple kind of areas where the Southern Baptist Convention has already addressed this. But here's why the Truth and Unity amendment was needed. Obviously, number one, it brings about clarity on what the proper biblical view of this is, of men being the only ones eligible for the position of pastor according to scripture. But another purpose that this brings about is a mechanism, a mechanism of enforcement for churches that refuse to abide by this fundamental biblical teaching. And I don't want to make this as much about Southern Baptist this and Southern Baptist that, because at the end of the day, this is much bigger than just a denomination. This is about the Fidelity and the truth of God's word and the core precept that is repeated throughout Scripture and is a clear NewSong Testament standard that women are not eligible for lead and for pastor positions. And let's also don't get caught up in nuancing what a pastor is, okay? It's abundantly clear when you look at the term of pastor, elder, teacher, all those words that are used interchangeably, we need to also be careful how we use those terms and not label people, pastors who are not functionally serving as pastors. That's another problem as well. We got a church with seven pastors. No, no, no. There's the pastor position that should functionally be serving as the biblical definition of a pastor, shepherd leader. And then you can have other ministry positions. You can have ministers, you can have directors. For example, you can have a female children's director within the church, but that's not the pastor, and that's not the pastor position, and she should not be teaching over the whole flock. All right? And so, a lot of this stuff is actually pretty simple. When you read the scripture, now we can read the scripture and you and I can argue and debate about, you know, end times, prophecy, and what did this writer mean here and should this be taken literally or not? We can do that, and you can find some places in scripture to do that. But things such as, the makeup, of the church, the, you know, the role of pastor, these are tenets of scripture that were written extensively about and given clearly for the NewSong Testament church. But the reason we are where we are is because there are some people, some of them may be born again believers, some of them may not be. They may be, wolves in sheep's clothing, but nonetheless, regardless of whether they're believers or not, there are some people that are trying to stretch and ultimately undermine the office of pastor. And this dovetails well into the feminism movement and this movement that tries to, in all categories, treat men and women as the same. And so when you undermine the role of male pastor according to scripture, and you're doing it because you have sympathies towards the feminist movement, you're conflating a very worldly, very paganistic movement of feminism, specifically modern feminism, you can find some kind of movements within feminism that may be actually biblically rooted, but nonetheless, modern feminism has morphed into a very pagan, godless movement that rejects the authority of scripture. And if we want to be honest, a lot of the sexual deviancy movement that we have today, where people actually claim that men can become women and women can become men is actually really an element of the modern feminist movement. And it's to treat men as women, as the same. I'm not saying equal before God, because they are. They're created equal as and in the image of God. We're all created by God, both Adam and Eve. I'm talking about the functionality of men and women. Modern feminism teaches that men and women are functionally and in all areas, in essence, the same. And so modern feminism brings about female pastors because they say, well, why can't a woman be a pastor? Right? What makes men special? This is the talking point that you get. And then you get those Christians that don't want to be mean and they actually don't have hard convictions on Scripture. And they say, well, yeah, why can't women be pastors? I think they should be. Or they say, well, we can just call it something else. We don't have to call it a pastor. We'll call it a minister or an elder or we'll just make up some other names to call it. But functionally it's a pastor. All right, so then we're playing a word game and then we're changing definitions. So, all in all, the reason this is needed, not just in the Southern Baptist Convention, but in all denominations and all churches, even non denominational churches, is because the world and some people in the church are confused about this and some are pushing confusion on this very topic. But nonetheless, let's listen to about a three minute clip. well, let's do this after the break. Bobby, I don't want to cram this in. We'll wait on the Abraham Albert Mueller clip after the break. But nonetheless, Albert Mohler brought this Truth and Unity amendment before the Southern Baptist Convention. It ultimately passed with about 70% of the vote, which you can look at that two ways. You can say, well, that's great, 70%. Or you can go, well, who are the 30% that think that women can be pastors? so your glass can be half full or half empty on that. We'll pick that up after the break. but nonetheless, clarity is continually needed. I know some people will say, well, this is clear in the Southern Baptist, Faith and message 2000 or whatever. Okay? I'm not saying it's not, but you can't have churches that are like, the church that. I can't think off the top of my head, but there was one out in California, I think, that was just blatantly disregarding the core amendments. And tenets of the Southern Baptist Convention. And they were trying to act like they were in good standing, and they weren't. And they were just defying, core biblical teachings on this issue. And so, you have to, occasionally, as Christians, occasionally, you have to clarify or reassert biblical truth into the topics that we address each and every day. And the role of pastor is one of those things that you have to continually and occasionally reassert biblical truth. And that's, in essence what this is doing, this truth and unity amendment. It is reasserting biblical truth into the subject matter and the topic of whether or not women can be pastors. And of course, scripturally, they cannot be pastors. There's also history on this with other denominations, whether it's the Methodist, whether it's the Episcopalians. I can go through the laundry list of denominations, and people can get their feelings hurt because they're loyal to denominations, and that's fine. but the reality is there are other denominations, some of which I just mentioned, that have, in a variety of areas, completely rejected the teachings of God's Word. And you have, in the Methodist denomination, the main line. I know, thankfully, we have the Global Methodist break off. that is actually seems, to be doing very well. but you have the mainline Methodists that, straight up have women pastors, and they don't try to rebrand it. They have women pastors, which is unbiblical. So, folks, if we can't, as a Christian community and as a church, stay tethered to fundamental tenets such as women can't be pastors, then what on earth are we doing here? We cannot keep watering down the scripture, only applying parts of the scripture, and expect God to keep blessing us. We either teach and commit ourselves to the whole counsel of God's word and righteousness, or we ought reject the whole thing. You can't be lukewarm. That's what the scripture says. The scripture says, I'd rather you be hot or cold. I suggest we be hot. We'll be back in a few.

American Family Association announces two tours coming up in 2027

>> Tim Wildmon: Hello, everyone. I'm Tim Weilman, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. Hey. We are announcing two tours coming up in 2027. March of 2027, we're going to Greece, and we're going to Italy. The Greece tour we call the Footsteps of Paul. And you're going to follow the footsteps of St. Paul in the, country of Greece. And then the Italian, tour. The tour of Italy. Venice, Florence, Pisa, Rome. We're calling the Make Lasagna Great again tour. And these are coming up in March of 2027. And if you want to read all about them, the itinerary, the cost, everything you need to know about these tours coming up in March of Greece in Italy, go to tours.afa.net that's t o u r s.afa.net we're going to have a lot of fun, a lot of good fellowship and see some of the most historic and iconic sites in the world.

The ministry of Preborn helps rescue babies from abortion through ultrasound

>> Walker Wildmon: In many ways, abortion was on the ballot this past election and there's reason for concern. There are many counties, cities and states who have radicalized abortion. And thousands of tiny babies will continue to lose their lives every day. Which is why the ministry of PreBorn is on the front lines for at risk babies and mothers with unplanned pregnancies. Preborn sponsors clinics positioned in the highest abortion areas in the country. By providing them with resources that they need to rescue babies, PreBorn continues to expand their life affirming care. Their end of year goal is to equip 10 more clinics with ultrasound machines. These life Saving machines cost $15,000 each, but more than most clinics can afford. When a woman meets her baby on ultrasound, she is twice as likely to choose life. And when she comes to a preborn clinic, she will also be embraced with God's love. $28 sponsors one ultrasound. And now through a, match, your gift is doubled. How many babies can you save? Please donate. Just dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250 and say the keyword baby. Or you can go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com afr all gifts are tax deductible and PreBorn has a four star charity rating.

>>  : At the Core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the Core on American Family Radio.

Dr. Albert Mohler warns against questioning of scripture in Southern Baptist debate over women pastors

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, continuing our discussion for the next few minutes on this truth and unity amendment that has successfully passed at the Southern Baptist Convention. I, am going to play a clip of Dr. Al Mohler here shortly. but I want to generally caution those, and even I think even believers can do this. We're all prone to sin. But I want to caution people against this, questioning of scripture. It's okay to question, God with pure motives. we see where David and others kind of pose questions at God and sometimes in life we ask God why this, why, why that? And I think with the right heart and with the right motives, when you're in right standing with God, that's okay if you're looking for clarity or you're looking for comfort from the Holy Spirit. But what I'm cautioning against is a skepticism and a lack of faith and trust in the clear teachings of scripture to just because your flesh doesn't like it. And I think this debate about the role of pastor and whether women can be pastors is purely driven from this man made notion that we can question God's authority and teachings on anything and everything and we can apply our man made version of justice and equity to the conversation. Not all things are so called equal and not all things are the same. And this is what sometimes man has trouble grasping. For example, this notion that, well, men want to become women. Well, okay, but you're not. And so that just is what it is. So a man can say, I want to be a woman, but you're not. So that just is what it is. You were created in the image of God as a man biologically. And there's no changing that. It just is what it is. And so we need to conform to the image in which God created us. We don't need to try to subvert that. It doesn't go, well, God didn't make a mistake. And then you have women who want to be man, okay, but you're not. And so it doesn't matter what reality you want to be. we have to embrace and accept things as God designed and intended them. All right? So applying that to this topic, you'll have people. And this will really, by the way, this will really stump a lot of Christians. I mean, they'll just hit a dead end street. They don't know what to say. Well, why wouldn't God allow women to be pastors? Well, we could get into a deep theological discussion and we could have people on way smarter than me to get into the genesis created order. God made Adam first. God himself is masculine, referred to in the scripture as masculine. Now you can get into the Holy Spirit and some, masculine or feminine nouns and pronouns used when referring to the Holy Spirit and Eve. And we can get into all that. And I'm honestly not an expert on that and I don't even know enough to talk for seven minutes on it. Okay? But this questioning of God and basically God's creation and decision making is what you're doing. it leads to a place of pride, lack of humility, and ultimately subversion of scripture. And that's what we see in this debate over whether or not women can be pastors. All right? And it also has this false premise that, well, if they can't be pastors, then are you saying they can't do anything in the church? Absolutely not. And I don't know anyone in good conscience and good faith that has a proper understanding of Scripture that is suggesting that women have no role in the church. Completely not true. That's a false premise. It's a straw man and it's completely meant to distract. There are a litany of things and positions within the church that women can serve in without serving in the role of pastor, functionally or otherwise. And so this is God's created order. This is his clear teachings in the Scripture. And something as fundamentally clear as this, the fact that we have to debate it just shows simply that Satan and man's sinful flesh and desires to undermine the teachings of scripture and his church, his bride, is very much alive and well. And we have to continually combat it, combat it, continually reassert the clear teachings of Scripture. And that's what the Imola, amendment does here at the Southern Baptist Convention.

Southern Baptists pass Truth and Unity Amendment 70% to 30%

All that being said, let's play a couple minute clip of Dr. Imola presenting this amendment and why he chose to present it this year.

>> Dr. Mohler: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is an opportunity for Southern Baptists to speak in truth, in unity, in conviction, consistent with our confession. There's a great line that divides liberal and biblical evangelicalism. And you can see it on this very issue. The trajectory of liberal denominations is clear. The Southern Baptist Convention, in adopting the Baptist faith message in the year 2000, stated confessionally that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture. Subsequent years, 26 subsequent years have demonstrated that we need constitutional clarity on this issue. This will allow Southern Baptists to move forward in unity and in truth. And I believe the Lord has brought us together in Orlando, Florida to do just that. This motion to amend the section of our Constitution defining a church in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention. This motion makes very clear that we affirm the, historic Baptist understanding of the pastor, elder, overseer. The structure of the language I have brought goes all the way back to the 1689 Baptist confession where the office and function of the pastor are clearly delineated. This amendment makes very clear that a church in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention doesn't have anyone other than a man as pastor in the office of pastor and specifies on the functions of, the pastor that the key central functions of preaching the word of God to the gathered assembly is limited to men by scripture. Now this means that this amendment speaks directly, and we know what we're talking about. We're talking about the pastor of churches, and we're talking about the preaching of the word of God when it comes to the office Comprehensive, when it comes to the function specified. I have carefully crafted this language. I want, want us to say, I think we want to say truths consistent with what Baptists have believed going all the way back to the 17th century. But it's because we believe those Baptists got it right according to scripture. This is one of those moments when the Southern Baptist Convention can get it right. State it clearly. We adopt this amendment, we come back next year and happily, cooperatively do it together. And we stand upon the authority of God's word. We stand for truth. Yes. And that truth produces the unity of our convention. The words are simple. They are straightforward. I believe this is where Southern Baptists stand. And we have come to Orlando by the providence of God to stand here. Please don't amend the wording. Southern Baptists, let's stand. God bless you all.

>> Walker Wildmon: There you have it. That's Al Mohler's opening presentation of the Truth and Unity Amendment once again, that passed 70% basically to 30%. And so that's encouraging. And you do have basically seven out of ten, churches represented. There are individuals from those churches that agree, that the role of pastor is reserved, to men according to scripture. And, that's just a fundamental truth. Once again, you can debate it till you're blue in the face, but that's just what the scripture says. And there's reasons for that. And we could talk about that as well. And maybe we'll do that on another day and spend a little more time on this. but nonetheless, that's what's going on on the Southern Baptist Convention. And so some encouraging news on that front.

One example of why socialized medicine doesn't work is wait times

another topic I wanted to get to was, socialized healthcare, socialized medicine, which the Democrats have long been attempting here in the US Starting really with Obamacare. That was kind of the first launch at this socialized medicine, which, sounds great on paper. You know, healthcare for everybody. It's free. Well, no, nothing's free. It's getting paid for by somebody. Someone. And there's this horror story or this, this horrible statistic out of the UK on their wait times. And by the way, the UK has, let's look here. The uk, has universal, coverage. All right, so uk, residents are entitled to nhs, that's their National Health Service care, regardless of pay, citizenship, employment status, et cetera. And, the, funding for this system is primarily through taxation, through government funding, through taxing revenue, and then funding, the program. And so if you want a, by the way, only about 10 to 12% of residents or citizens in the United Kingdomnomics are on private options. So that's a staggering statistic. but if you want to see just one example of why this doesn't work, let's look at the wait times. The wait times. Listen to this story. This is out of The Washington Times NHS Once again, this is from the UK NHS Emergency rooms in England, otherwise known as the UK linked to 300 deaths per week as weights surge to record high. All right, if you told me that emergency room weights, wait times in emergency rooms was linked to 300 deaths per year, I would say that. Scandalous. I would say that's a serious problem. But this article and this report says that about 300 people per week die from extended wait times in emergency rooms. these numbers, according to this report, is 15,000 plus excess deaths per year just last year associated with prolonged waits in English emergency departments, the equivalent of 300 per week. The figure represents a nearly tenfold rise from approximately 1600 associated excess deaths in 2015. So this is over the last decade, progressively worsening or getting worse year after year after year. And I understand that health care and health insurance, which are two distinctly different things, although related, I understand that one's health, one's life is quite different than other type, like consumer goods and services. All right? So I'm not into this false notion that the free market will fix everything when it comes to health care and health insurance. But there are some fundamental lessons that we can learn looking out at the goods and services market, whether it's buying vehicles, buying homes, going to eat dinner, whatever you want to talk about on the economy, on the economic level, as far as goods and services goes, there's a lot of lessons that can be learned here. And one of the core lessons that can be learned from a capitalist society, a society of consumers and goods and services and economic activity and a plethora of options on the market for a variety of things. Competition is good, competition is healthy. Competition drives companies to offer better goods and services at a more affordable rate. That's undeniable. And to keep things simple. And we could go into the weeds and cite the studies and interview doctors, but to keep things simple, when you lean into as a country, something like socialized medicine, or even if you don't want to call it full socialized medicine, but More government control of the medical industry and the health insurance industry. When more government gets in, more government regulations come about in the name of doing good, you are strangling the competitive nature that can bring about more quality healthcare and more affordable health care. More government does not fix this. And that's been proven since the launch of Obamacare. It has been an unmitigated disaster. And health insurance premiums have been going up and up and up even under this, quote, marketplace that's otherwise known as Obamacare. And what you really have going on here, which people don't want to admit, those that are, that are in this with vested interest, they don't want to admit that over regulation and lack of competition at a fundamental level is the problem. This is not that we don't have enough regulations or there isn't enough oversight or we need Congress to pass more legislation on this. That's absolutely not the case. All right? What you need is more competition. And what's happening now is the government has made this healthcare and health insurance industry so challenging to be in that all the little guys are getting swallowed up by the big guys and all the major systems are buying up the little systems and all the mom and pop clinics are being bought up by the big dogs. And when you do that, you consolidate. And it's great for them, but it's bad for us. We need more options and we need to apply capitalist tendencies to our health care and health insurance industry. And that will bring about more competition, better care and lower prices. It's proven. It's worked before and it will work again. And if you keep down this path of socialized medicine, we'll be like the United Kingdomnomics's with 300 deaths per year. I mean per week. On wait times

>>  : America's 250th birthday. It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America. 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the Constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 this is at the Core on American Family Radio with your host Walker Wildmon.

Judge Jay Mitchell is a former Alabama Supreme Court justice running for attorney general

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to the program. Glad to have you on for this last segment of at the Core here on American Family Radio. As a reminder, you can, jump over to afr.net and listen live to the program and all AFR programs throughout the day. And you can also get past episodes [email protected] and the AFR app as well. Well, I do want to introduce a, Judge Jay Mitchell. He, he is a former Alabama Supreme Court justice for several years, for about six or seven years, and also is now running for the Attorney General position, within the state of Alabama. That election's ongoing right now. Judge Mitchell, welcome to the program.

>> Jay Mitchell: Hey, Walker. Great to be with you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Well, look, I know you're. This is the first time to have you on the program, and, I know you're a humble guy. And the reason I know you're a humble guy is because in the break when you and I were chatting, I asked a question about, hey, are you still a judge, or did you step down, et cetera. And then you go on to tell me that you were on the State Supreme Court in Alabama. so I felt quite humbled, that I did not know that because I was doing a little bit of my background. but you responded very gracefully instead of being like, yeah, I was on the Supreme Court, and you should know that. So, you seem like a humble guy, and I'm glad to have you on the program.

>> Jay Mitchell: Well, it's great to be with you. Appreciate what AFA does and AFA Action does. you've been doing big, big things in our country for many years, so it's an honor to be with you today.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. And, when I realized I was talking to you, you've done some excellent things on the State Supreme Court in Alabama as well, for several years. Multiple rulings, obviously, on the State Supreme Court there, some very heavy rulings that did some very good constitutional things there during your. Your tenure. but tell us, and we'll talk about some of your rulings and how you view the issues, because that'll affect your, carrying out of Attorney General in the state of Alabama, should you be elected. But nonetheless, give us a little background on your thinking behind going from m. The Alabama State Supreme Court and then, moving over, to this run for Attorney General.

>> Jay Mitchell: Yeah, so I spent six and a half years on the court handling the biggest, toughest, most complex cases that we have in our legal system in Alabama, both the criminal and the civil side. I tell you, I really got stirred up, about a year and a half ago, a little over a year and a half ago, watching President Trump go back into office. my wife Elizabeth and I are big fans of the president. Big, fans of his vision and really sense the shift, in the moment in America, you know, as Christians, as conservatives, really, for our whole lives. I'll be 50 in August. Really, for our whole lives, we've been on defense in this country. We've been on defense against D.C. against the media, the culture, against a lot of the junk coming out of colleges and universities. And with President Trump going back into office and with the mandate that he has been carrying from the American people, we're not on defense, we're on offense. And as Elizabeth and I really prayed about that and reflected on that, what we came to realize was that we have a unique opportunity in our country to get generational conservative victories. Not just wins for the next four years or the next eight years, but Lord willing, victories that our kids and our grandkids and our great grandkids will be able to live into. And as we reflected on that further, you know, what we came to realize is what I'm sure you recognize, Walker, and your listeners recognize, which is that if we're going to have true, lasting conservative change in America, it can't just happen in D.C. it's gotta happen in the states. And if you really wanna boil it down, it's gotta happen in the red states. Which is why it's so critically important that we elect leaders in Alabama this year who don't just have the right party label, who don't just say the right things, but who really understand what time it is in America. And so, after a lot of prayer and reflection and seeking counsel from our pastors, Elizabeth and I determined. We feel called, we feel called to this movement. We feel called to this moment. And I, made a decision to leave the Alabama Supreme Court to jump into this race, and run for it. And, it's going great so far. we've got less than one week to go until a runoff election. And, Lord willing, I'll be the next Attorney General of Alabama.

Judge Jay Mitchell is running for the Alabama Attorney General position

>> Walker Wildmon: Once again, we're talking to Judge Jay Mitchell, former Alabama Supreme Court justice and now running for the AG position in the state of Alabama, the Attorney General position during this election cycle. Judge Mitchell, tell us a little bit about. Well, tell us the importance of the AG position, because you and I know this. We do this every day as far as keeping up with the legal world and the rulings and, whether an AG's office is going to defend a case with the state or not. but for example, in Mississippi, and then I'll get your response in Mississippi before Lyn Fitch, who's our current ag. We had Jim Hood, longtime Democrat incumbent, just repeatedly got elected. He was almost like invincible. he could just keep getting reelected even though he was a Democrat in Mississippi. And and he would blatantly refuse to defend and enforce laws of the state of Mississippi, that not just AG policies, but these were laws, like our religious freedom law or some of our pro life laws. And his office just threw their hands up and they wouldn't even go to court and defend. And the governor had to basically hire outside counsel to defend the state statutes. very problematic and very, politicizing, if you will, of the AG position. so talk about the role of AG and the importance of having an attorney general that is willing to defend not only the laws of the state, but, also the constitution as well.

>> Jay Mitchell: Yeah, well, in electing an attorney general, you're electing the chief law enforcement officer of the state and you're electing the chief courtroom lawyer of the state. This is the person who's going to be responsible for representing, the state of Alabama in my case, vindicating the interest of the state and making sure that those who might do harm to our state or to our people, are dealt with appropriately in the legal system. So it's a really, really important position. we've got to make sure, in my estimation, that we've got an attorney general who's got his eyes trained on the right things in this next season of state government. First and foremost, that's going to be dealing. This is going to be my number one priority. It's going to be dealing with the problem of violent crime. You know, just probably very similar to Mississippi. You know, we've got a lot of, great areas, very safe areas, but we also have some real hotspots. And if you had to sum it up, it's our blue cities, it's blue city mayors who are soft on crime, who do not back up law enforcement when the going gets tough. And I'll just tell you, we've had some, some repeated instances of that here in Alabama. And it's, it's high time, I believe, for state government through the governor. Tommy Tuberville is going to be our next governor here in Alabama. And again, Lord willing, I'm the next ag I, think it's time that state government needs to flex on some of these blue cities. And if they're not getting the job done, we're going to have to do more. And I'll give you an example. Coach tuberville has talked about potentially sending in the National Guard to Montgomery into Birmingham, which have been two of our hotspots in recent years. And I support that. I think we can do that in a strategic and a precise way that will move the needle and tamping down on violent crime. But beyond that we got to make sure we have an Attorney General who is aligned and on offense with President Trump and soon to be Governor Tuberville to go and get these big generational conservative victories. for example, I have proudly stood for the unborn. I was known as a strong pro life justice when I was on the Alabama Supreme Court. I publicly called for the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade at the earliest opportunity, well before the Dobbs, the Dobbs decision came out. And I took a lot of flak from the left for doing that. I upheld the Sanctity of Human Life amendment in our state constitution. Again, took a lot of flack from the national abortion lobby in the left for doing that. But when I'm ag, I'm going to get on offense to make sure that we're protecting the unborn, especially when it comes to the growing problem of chemical abortion. We have a tough pro life law here in Alabama, but we got to make sure as the, as the game has shifted over to chemical abortion to pills, we got to make sure we have an ag getting on that problem. And then beyond that I really, I'm going to make a big priority is really tackling the problem of child predators preying on our kids both in real life and online. I've got four kids of my own. I've raised a teenager and I'm raising teenagers right now. And I tell you it's really difficult to be a parent these days. And we got to make sure we have an Attorney general who is going to be in that fight, taking on child predators and those who enable them either actively or passively. And I will just tell you I am getting in that fight and I'm coming to that fight with the heart of a dad.

>> Walker Wildmon: You know, you're mentioned earlier of holding these blue cities accountable, these Democrat stronghold urban areas accountable for the failure to enforce their laws and their municipal laws and the state laws on whether it be crime or loitering or homelessness, whatever issue the cities are dealing with, mostly crime and failing education districts as well, and misuse of taxpayer dollars. The Republicans for years have pondered this question and I don't want to over politicize this but there are political ramifications to what you're talking about. But Republicans have been pondering, you know, how do we reach America's inner city? How do we get inner city voters to stop voting 80, 90% Democrat every year or every cycle? Well, one way you do that is doing what you're talking about and is doing the right thing by telling these mayors and city councils and these police chiefs, hey, you got to get it together. You have a. You have an obligation, an oath of office, to protect and serve the citizens of your municipality. And if there's evidence that you're blatantly disregarding that and putting people's lives, lives and livelihoods in harm's way, that's a problem. And we're going to use every tool at our disposal to hold you accountable. number one, if you send that memo out, there's a lot of them that are just going to straighten up because they don't want to have to deal with the AG's office. but secondly, you're going to send a memo to voters in that area, in that city that, hey, look, I'm a Republican, and I care about your city being safe. I care about your school districts being run properly, and I care about waste, fraud, and abuse being rooted out. and to me, that sends a very encouraging message to, these inner city voters, that we care, about their issues as well, or from your position as a state official, that you care about their issues as well. And so I think there's just a lot of ramifications, all positive, towards doing what you're talking about.

Walker: One of the most courageous rulings on frozen embryos came out recently

and then one thing I wanted to get your feedback on. You mentioned some of the rulings that you've had over your tenure at the state Supreme Court. one of the most courageous. Just from the outside looking in, you may disagree with my assessment here. One of the most courageous rulings, from my vantage point, was the one on the frozen embryos, the one on essentially the IVF technology and the ramifications thereof. That really sparked a national debate on the sanctity of life and the fact that these babies, that these embryos are created in God's image and ought to be protected as such. that was just a huge ruling, very monumental, and sparked the national conversation that we're having today. Your thoughts?

>> Jay Mitchell: Yeah, Well, I did. I wrote the majority decision, the majority opinion in that decision, that upheld the Sanctity of Human Life amendment under our state constitution. very briefly, Walker, I think a lot of people didn't know what that case was about, and I'll just briefly tell you. These were parents, who had gone to a fertility clinic in Mobile in the southern part of our state, to go through ivf. And, they had had embryos created. They were interested in growing their families in that way. And through a weird chain of events, somebody broke into the clinic, got back into the frozen storage area, got a hold of their embryos, threw them on the floor and smashed them. And the parents, as you can imagine, were just grieved by that. And so they sued, under Alabama's wrongful death of a minor act, to recover, for what they, alleged was the death of their children. And so that case, was dismissed at the trial court. But it came to our court when I was a justice there, and what we essentially ruled was, look, yes, these parents have a claim under Alabama law, and their claim rests on the notion that's well enshrined in our law, that these embryos are human beings. They're children. they're not something else. They're children. And of course, in doing that, we were upholding the sanctity of life as well. the left went crazy, as you may recall. a lot of folks in the national abortion lobby also attacked that decision because we called the embryos, human beings. But, you know, our law was very clear that, the parents had a right to pursue a recovery. we said, look, you. You may move forward on your claim. Whether you prevail on that claim ultimately is a different story. you'll have to go before a jury and try the case. And the cases were eventually settled. but that. That. That's what the case was about. And, you know, it was really, you know, what the. What the media didn't report was that nobody in the case even contested whether the human. The human embryo was a human being under our law. Our law is maximally protective of the unborn. that being said, look, I'm not against ivf. I support ivf. I, have friends and family members who have gone through that process. and I know it was President Trump and Senator Brett from our state, I thought, had, some really strong things to say in those conversations. there are a lot of complex dimensions to these issues. But in the cases before us at the Alabama Supreme Court, we weren't passing on the theological implications of the philosophical implications or bioethical or anything. We were just simply answering a question of law, a question of Alabama law. And, that legal. The answer to that legal question, in our view, was clear.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, yeah. And you ruled correctly, legally and constitutionally and otherwise, and according to state statute, not just. Obviously, we can talk about the Christian vantage point. We can talk about the theology of it, but, the fact of the matter was you and the other justices in the majority ruled correctly and didn't succumb to the pro abortion lobby pressure, which unfortunately, that level of courage and honesty and truth is just hard to come by in politics, and in the judicial system today. So, I applaud you and appreciate you and the other majority justices, ruling on that. Very, very big deal and the right thing to do ultimately.

Six days from today, vote for Jay Mitchell for Alabama Attorney General

Judge Mitchell, we got about 30 seconds left. Tell our folks where they can read more about your campaign and your work.

>> Jay Mitchell: Yeah, absolutely. I'd love for you to go to our campaign website. It's jayforalabama.com that's j a y f o r alabama.com. love for you to come along. On our Facebook site, we're on all the different social media platforms. We'd love for you to come along and follow along. And I would just respectfully ask your Alabama listeners, six days from today on June 16th, please show up in the Republican primary, vote, runoff, and vote for Jay Mitchell for Alabama Attorney general.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, there you have it. Appreciate it, Judge Mitchell, glad to have you on.

>> Jay Mitchell: Thank you, Walker.

Alabama has a statewide primary election coming up in about six days

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, folks, there you have it. Alabama statewide a, primary election coming up here in about six days. Make sure you're registered to vote. And of course, check out I voter guide dot com.

>>  : 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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