Transcript

American Family Radio welcomes Walker Wildmon to The Core

>> 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.

>> Jeff Chamblee: We equip...

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

>> Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At The Core on American Family Radio.

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to the The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on this edition of the program. Walker Wildmon here with you, Rick Green and myself. We're your host each week on the program. Once again, it's good to be with you on this brand new edition of @the The Core Our website is afr.net afr.net, there you can listen live to our programming. You can also get past episodes of this show and all shows heard throughout the day on American Family Radio. You can also download our AFR app and have access to the same great content there.

Acts chapter nine is the beginning of Paul's conversion to Christianity

Well, let's turn our attention to the scripture. Acts chapter nine is where we are this week. Acts chapter nine. And this is the long awaited chapter of Paul, formerly known as Saul's conversion to Christianity. It says in verse one. Looking at verses, one through, let's see, nine of Acts, chapter nine. Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus. So that if he found any who were of the way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, lord, what do you want me to do? Then the Lord said to him, arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. Verse 7. And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one. Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened, he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was there three days without sight. And, and neither ate nor drank. And so this is the beginning really of, Paul's conversion and the first interaction between Paul, Saul and Jesus here that intervened and miraculously turned his heart of stone into a heart of flesh. And so, anyone who doubts the power of God or the ability of God to change one's heart and mind should look no farther than Saul becoming, the apostle Paul. That's Acts, chapter nine, verses one through nine.

We have 20 seats left on our trip to Boston coming up in September

Well, we have, let's see, about 15, maybe closer to 20 seats left on our trip to Boston coming up in September. We can take about 110 and we're sitting at about 90 in the ballpark. It changes by the day. So quite close to 20 seats left on our trip to Boston. We're going to visit places like the Freedom Trail, which are multiple places, but we're going to walk the Freedom Trail throughout downtown Boston. We're also going to go to Plymouth Rock and Plymouth, also we're going to go to Lexington, we're going to go to Concord, all of these great places. And Stephen McDowell and Tim Barton will be with us for this tour. We're going to, we'll be looking at America's providential history and God's, plan that he had for early America and how all of that played out. And this is of course, America's 250th anniversary as a nation. So what better time to visit historic Boston than now? So it'll be myself, my brother Wesley, and then Ed Vitagliano is going to be joining us. And as I mentioned, Stephen McDowell and Tim Barton will be our lead historians on this trip. And in September you can go over to tours.aca.net to check out more information on that tours.aca.net we would love to have you join us.

San Francisco Giants required players to wear pro LGBT attire during game

Well, one story I wanted to make sure I get to today and by the way, we'll actually have Stephen on with us in the last segment to talk about his latest documentary and film. But one story I wanted to get to this segment is, what was going on in San Francisco within the last week or two. You know, these, these corporations and these major organizations such as the Major League Baseball association, NFL, all these major multi billion dollar sporting outfits, for years have been participating in what they call pride Month. This is where they flaunt their pro homosexual, pro transgender activism. They, of course, they abuse the rainbow, and flaunt their, sexual deviancy, as it's known. but the appetite for this, my friends, is waning. And the number of corporations that celebrate this, sin is also waning. And the public polling of this is not looking good for the other side. And this example is really an example of not just an organization, such as in this instance, the San Francisco Giants continuing to push sin and push unnatural sexual relations upon the public in some kind of favorable light. but here we actually had San Francisco Giants players say, hey, we've had enough of this as well. We're not doing this. And so what they did is the San Francisco Giants program was requiring all of their players to wear this pro LGBT attire during the game on their jerseys, the rainbow jersey, the rainbow hat, etc. And so these few players that are also born again believers, they said to themselves, look, we don't like this, we don't agree with it. And so we're going to write scripture, on our baseball hats in protest for us having to wear these hideous jerseys that promote a lifestyle and behavior that we fundamentally disagree with according to our faith. And so they did. The, players, including their starting pitcher, Landon Roope, he took the mound during this so called pride night, and he put, Genesis 9, 12, 16 on his hat and a little white marker on his hat right beside the logo. And of course, that's God's promise for the purpose of the rainbow. God's promise not to flood the earth again in response to the flooding of the earth the initial time in the book of Genesis. And so the MLB snaps back a couple days later and says, hey, if you do that again, we'll find you. but folks, this just shows the, number one, the, blatant, in your face, mentality of this wicked agenda. This agenda is not what they told us it was supposed to be. Right? We were told, we were pitched these talking points, over the last 30 to 40 years, that this is, love is love. I'm just going to regurgitate all of their talking points. Love is love. you shouldn't regulate, two consenting adults. this is just about two adults that want to get married. I mean, they went through all of these bullet points, all of these messaging items that all sounded, right, harmless, to someone who doesn't have wisdom and good judgment. But we've been saying, including AFA and my grandfather been working on this had worked on this for decades. But Christians have been warning that public and the church that, hey, this is about more than what we're being led on to believe. Fundamentally, homosexuality on its face is sinful, it's antithetical to scripture, and it's against God's design for human sexuality. So that's cut and dry, very simple, not complicated to explain. But how we handle this from a public policy standpoint and from a legislative standpoint. That is where people really got all in the weeds and people disagreed on should this be illegal, should that be legal? Well, let me just tell you this. first off, my position on this from a high level, once again, I'm not going to get into the in depth policy debates and talk about different statutes. I'm just going to tell you from a high level, here's my sympathy on this, okay? I think my position according to, to scripture and according to where we are in America and our Constitution, the, government's job is to promote righteousness and punish the evildoer. There's nothing in scripture, that that prescribes or permits civil government authored by God himself by the way, to condone or push evil and sin upon the populace. There's nothing in scripture where God says it's okay or it's good or it's righteous for civil government to promote evil. so the government should have nothing to do with unrighteousness and evil. That's a starting position, high level position that is consistent with Christian orthodoxy and teaching. And so now that we're there, we should never have Obergfell where the government says, yeah, sure, y' all try these fake marriages, thumbs up, and the government should have to recognize it. That should have never happened. All right?

>> Walker Wildmon: And we really should go back to pre Lawrence v. Texas and there's a litany of other court cases on this, but we should really go back to the place where homosexuality is against the law. And we as Christians, we can debate what should the punishment be. Well, we can debate that. That's fine. civil, criminal, we could hash that out. And people may have varying opinions on that. But from a fundamental standpoint, the government has no business permitting and m, in many cases promoting this unrighteousness and sin that is not only harmful to the individuals involved, but it's harmful to the society at large. Back to the San Francisco Giants. so the MLB snaps back at these Christian players and says, hey, you can't do that. You can't ride on your hats. So the problem here is multifold but the problem for San Francisco Giants is they're picking and choosing what, what ideology they're going to promote that has absolutely nothing to do with baseball. And this position that I'm stating here, everybody should be able to agree to Christian, non christian, whatever, libertarian, etc. The San Francisco Giants baseball program has absolutely zero business promoting homosexuality and transgenderism on the baseball field. And that's the point where I could just stop talking and I could just walk out of the studio. Except for what do we have like 43 minutes left of the program? But, but that's a position. How do you argue with that? And if you're the MLB and if you're the San Francisco Giants, this is the problem is these so called leaders in these organizations that make these stupid decisions, by the way, and not only are they unrighteous and sinful decisions, but they're stupid business decisions, pragmatically speaking. I would love for them to have to go to the podium and explain why this is a good move for a baseball program. Why should a baseball major league, multi million and in some of these instances, multi billion dollar baseball programs be forcing players to wear paraphernalia and gear that promotes two men having sex with one another? Oh, well, I just said the quiet part out loud. I just said the part out loud that we're not all supposed to talk about. What this is really about. See, they talk about, oh, love is love, folks. This is about an unnatural, unhealthy and sinful sexual lifestyle that has been idolized in this country. And so when you frame it like that, which is the true situation here, then you lose a lot of people. And this is the broad reality that the public is beginning to wake up to, both Christian and non Christian, is that we've been told that this is about love and this is about that and this is about this. But in reality, this is about condoning, promoting and applauding very unnatural, unhealthy sexual intercourse by two grown people. And it's abhorrent. And when you, when you posit it like that, which is the true situation that nobody wants to talk about, then, then you ask the San Francisco Giants guys, hey, what are y' all doing? And they have no response. That's the reality on the ground. We'll be back in a.

>> AFR Announcer: 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 topics 250 at the The Core podcast are [email protected] now back to at the The Core on American Family Radio.

Christian MLB players protested promotion of sin and unnatural human relations last week

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on the program. We do have a petition up right now [email protected] in support of these Christian MLB M players that were protesting the promotion, of sin and unnatural human relations over at the San Francisco Giants field, just last week. So, anytime people of faith, Christians, born again believers, take a stand for their faith, a stand that likely could cost them their job and their livelihood, that should be applauded and they should be supported. So that's what we're doing with our petition [email protected] and we're letting the public know and the MLB know that there are thousands now at this point, over 30,000 supporters of AFA that stand up with and appreciate the courage and the conviction shown by these Christian MLB players, just last week. So we appreciate their standards. And in this day and age, a lot of hatred, a lot of vitriol, comes for people who have conviction, who have biblical courage. And so check that out [email protected] well, Vice President Vance flew to Switzerland over the weekend for talks with Iran, with Qatar and Pakistan as the mediator. And the jury's still out on how this went. Was it productive, was it not? There's mixed reviews, mixed information, but the talks did happen, so that in and of itself is a milestone, if you will, or a step in the right direction. And there's two factions here within the conservative movement, if you will, on this Iran thing and a lot of this stuff I've said before, so forgive me for those of you loyal listeners that have heard me set this up before, but there's obviously the very pro Israel side of the conservative movement, mostly full of evangelical Christians and of course Orthodox Jews as well, that support the ah, nation of Israel. Obviously there's a biblical and a spiritual dynamic at play and a biblical importance to supporting the Jewish people. that makes up a large portion of the Republican voting bloc. I mean I'm talking 70, 80% at least of conservative evangelical voters that feel that way about the state of Israel. And of course here on AFR we have, folks, or I know, Jan Markell is not doing a program anymore, but we've had people like Jan Markell, and others that give a very strong biblical case for why it's important for the United States to support Israel. And, and, and that's obviously where I fall as well. Here's here's what I want to remind everyone as, as some people are, are kind of fallen prey to this anti Israel narrative out there, some of them innocently falling prey to it. Here's what I want to remind everyone is that Israel doesn't go on, Israel doesn't show military aggression unless they are attacked. And before October 7th in that heinous terror attack by Hamas, funded by Iran, by the way, Israel was relatively quiet. Israel was peaceful. Israel wasn't running military operations in Gaza. Israel wasn't running military operations in southern Lebanon. Israel wasn't bombing Iran. Okay? Israel was simply existing prior to October 7th. And as a matter of fact, Israel actually had let its guard down a little bit. And this is what you won't hear from some of the legacy media outlets, and even you won't hear this from some of the so called conservative media outlets that are persistently pushing this anti Israel narrative. But Israel, you want to know why Israel had a major m. Vulnerability and had let their guard down pre October 7th? Is because they were letting, they were letting workers, temporary workers from Gaza into Israel daily by the thousands, by the way. Why? Because it was good for Israel and it was good for the people of Gaza. So Israel was allowing workers from Gaza with zero Israeli citizenship into Israel to work and earn a living. And that ended up playing a factor because that created a vulnerability at those border access points when Hamas launched their attack. And there's evidence that some of those workers were scoping out the towns and villages near the border so that Hamas had the information they needed so they could slaughter as many Jews as possible. So Israel didn't have to do that. Israel didn't have to play nice. They didn't have to let these Palestinians into Israel to work, to earn a living. But they did. And it came back to not be a good decision. All right, extending an olive branch if you will. But before October 7th, this wasn't an issue. And Israel wasn't running military ops in Gaza in southern Lebanon, or launching fighter jets towards Iran. But all of the sudden Hamas wants to launch a terror attack and kill over a thousand Jews and then Israel responds and the whole world's mad. I mean, how right is that? So if Hamas wants to play hardball Israel says, let's do it. And then, the west, some in the west and other places go, oh, no, Israel, you can't do that. You're being mean. Israel, well, Hamas shouldn't have attacked him on October 7th. Then we wouldn't have this problem to begin with. But Israel is under persistent threat. Israel is under persistent assault by Muslims, the particular segment of Muslims that view Israel as an existential threat and that they shouldn't exist. This is why they chant from the river to the sea, because they want to wipe out and kill the Jews from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea. And so as we're talking about this, and we're saying, well, Netanyahu should do this and Israel should do that, and, and we should withdraw our military support from Israel if they don't want to play nice. Let's remember, that we wouldn't be here even having this discussion or having an Iran war had Hamas, through Iran funding, not attacked Israel on October 7th. Every time Israel plays nice, they get attacked. And so if you're Israel and you don't trust anybody, well, I wonder why. Because every time they turn the corner, they're getting attacked. And they're not that big of a country, by the way. Not just geographically, but from a population standpoint, relatively small nation with enemies not at all sides, but at, at most sides. And between Gaza, between Hezbollah, and then you've got Syria, there's hostilities everywhere. And so that's the setup. Let's not forget that. let's play this clip from. this is going to be, let's do. Clip ah2. This is going to be Vice President Vance on whether or not Hezbollah can, stop the fighting or not and the potential for peace. Clip two.

Walker: I think the vice president is doing a good job

>> Fox Host: You know, I know you're a Christian man, J.D. and in the process of this conflict, we know that things opened up in Lebanon, a conflict opened up in Lebanon between Israel and the terrorists in Hezbollah. And so many Christians, have been displaced, tens of thousands of them and thousands have lost their lives as well. Do you have a message to the Christians in Lebanon?

>> JD Vance: Well, I would just say that to those Christians in Lebanon, keep your faith in Jesus Christ and know that you have a lot of good friends in the United States government who are trying to promote peace in the region. You know, the fundamental problem for those Christians or the reason that those Christians face such violence is because you have Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has effectively taken up shop in Lebanon. Sometimes they're firing at the Israelis, of course. Course, that means The Israelis are going to respond in self defense. And so there's this constant slow burn of conflict. It's actually gotten a lot better, Raechel, over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the work of the president, of Secretary Rubio, and of a whole lot of others in the administration. But sometimes peace takes a little bit of time to really take root, and that's what we're working towards. And that's really what we're working towards in the entire region, is just to change the way that we've done business. It's such a beautiful region of the world. There are so many Christians, Jews, Muslims who live there. Most of them are, of course, peaceful people. There's great economic potential. If you talk to our friends in Israel and the Gulf coast, what they're saying is that if this deal really takes root, this could transform the Middle east in a positive direction. Obviously, we have skeptics of the deal, but I think we got to give more voice also to the people who think that Donald Trump is on the verge of accomplishing something that has never been accomplished before. Yeah.

>> Walker Wildmon: So, one thing I want to point out there, and the reason I played that clip is because some people are trying to position the vice president as being anti Israel or hostile to Israel. And I don't think that's true at this moment. could it be in the future? Who knows? Anything can happen in the future. But at this moment, I think the vice President is doing a pretty good job, and he's balancing what needs to be balanced in order to see if there's something that can be worked out with Iran. Once again, I don't think there's going to be an Iran deal, but this is one of those things. what will it hurt to give it a try? And I'll caveat that here in a minute. Nonetheless, Vice President Vance said in that clip, quote, the. The reason that those Christians in Lebanon face such violence is because you have Hezbollah, a terrorist organization that has effectively taken up shop in Lebanon. All right, so the vice President is acknowledging the terrorist organization Hezbollah in Lebanon. The problem that the administration is running into is the same problem that every administration has run into for the last nearly 50 years, and that is that Iran doesn't want a deal like we want a deal. And I don't know how many times I can say this, and eventually I think I'm going to be right, and of course, I'll let you know it, but there will be no good deal with Iran. There will be no signing on the dotted line. Of a deal that's good for the US and good for Israel. But because Iran is neck deep in their Islamic Jihad and their apocalyptic ideology that chants death to America and death to the Jews. And when you have a country that is populated for decades with those type leaders, there is no deal to be made. And of course, I'm not the only one saying this. People that have been studying this and on this for decades before I was even alive, they understand what's at stake here and what's at play. And I'm an optimistic person. I want things to work out. I want the economy to go back to normal. I want energy prices to drop. I want to be able to focus on domestic issues. I get all that. Trust me, I want that to happen. But now that we're in this, folks, we're in it. We're in it.

President Trump is trying to reach a deal with Iran over its nuclear program

Let's play this clip that gives this more, less optimistic view of this Iran situation and their behavior. This is Senator Sheehy from Montana, about the fact that Iran's just not wanting a deal. They're just so off the rails, they're hard to cut a deal with.

>> Ssen Sheehy, MT: Clip 5 well, of course, we hope this can be successful. I hope that Vice President Vance and Kushner and Witkoff are successful in convincing Iran to be a normal country and to open their minds and stop trying to, murder their neighbors and destroy the world. But the reality is this is a murderous regime that doesn't want deal. They don't want $6 gasoline. They don't want the straits to be open. They want you and your family and all of us to be killed. They want to wipe our civilization off the map. That's their national motto. Nothing's changed. And I don't think we've been successful in communicating that to the American people, that this isn't a regime that wants to negotiate. They want to buy time. They want to buy as much time as they can, because President Trump's the only president president who's ever actually gone after them head to head, who's shown them that if you kill Americans, if you come after our country, we're going to hit you back. And from Soleimani to Midnight Hammer to the most recent campaign, he's the first president ever to actually go after this regime. So what we're seeing now is what the rope a dope they usually perform, which is buy time, try to lead us along till hopefully President Trump and this team's out of office and they can re up their campaign. So hopefully, hopefully this is successful, but we have to remind ourselves we are dealing with a regime that will not negotiate in good faith. They want you and I dead and all of us to be gone. And they don't want that to happen, with the snap of a finger. They want to happen, like, October 7th times a million. They want us to be wiped off the map from NewSong York to San Diego in a savage manner.

>> Walker Wildmon: So I completely agree with Senator Sheehy and others that have been saying, look, Iran, they just want destruction. You can't trust them. You can't trust them. And, when I look at the facts on the ground, I agree with that. I do sympathize with that viewpoint. The ultimate question that no one has been able to solve, no political leader, no Secretary of State has been able to solve this matter, is when you ask the question. When you ask the question. So what do you do about it, President Trump? What do you do about it, President Obama or whoever's the commander in chief. That's, I don't disagree that that's Iran's viewpoint. This is how they operate. They're not interested in playing nice in the region or the world. They'll, you know, they'll forever, as long as the regime exists, they'll forever, put on terror, in the world. Then the question is, what do you do about it? And that's where there's a lot of disagreement. There's a lot of disagreement on what you do about it and how much do you intervene? And you've got some people saying, let's just bring the regime down, let's just bring it down. And then you ask that crowd, well, so what? Then you bring the regime down, and then you've still got these radical lower level commanders firing drones and missiles in the Strait of Hormuz. The regime's fallen, but the terror continues. And then you've got the extreme other side that says, you know, let's appease them like President Obama did. Let's send them pallets of cash. That'll make them play nice. No, it won't. So President Trump and Vice President Vance are trying to bridge the divide here and try a strategy that hasn't been tried either in a long time and in some instances that just haven't been tried before. And so we should wish them the best. We should hope that the United States, in our interest, along with the interest of Israel, succeeds. What that looks like is totally to be determined. The jury is still out on it. But we should want, desire and pray for the interest of America and for Israel, importantly, to succeed. In this matter,

>>  : As we watch world events unfold and fulfill Scripture, it's hard to believe anyone could doubt God and His Word are real. And yet there are so many who either question or completely refuse to believe it. The God who speaks is a 90 minute documentary that hits the doubt head on with evidence that proves God is real and His Word is the ultimate authority. Watch it anytime and invite others to watch with you. Just visit stream.afa.net that's stream.aca.net this is the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.

American Family Radio welcomes Stephen McDowell on today's program

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to The Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us on today's program. Well, a, good friend of the ministry and a frequent voice here on American Family radio is Stephen McDowell. And I actually mentioned Stephen at the beginning of the show as I was talking about our Boston trip coming up in September. Steven's with us. He's president, co founder of the Providence foundation and also host a weekend show, podcast here on a AFR app and afr.net Stephen, welcome, to the program.

>> Stephen McDowell: Well, hello, Walker. Good to see you and good to be with you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. I was just with you last week and before we know it, we'll be together again in September. I'm glad that we get along because we spend a lot of time together. Hey, well, go ahead.

>> Stephen McDowell: Oh, I was just saying those tours are a lot of fun. So, we look forward to seeing all the people that sign up and come.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely.

Home centered biblical education produced the free and flourishing nation of America

Hey, Stephen, over the last probably two years at this point, you have been working on a documentary called Educated for Liberty that the Providence foundation, produced and put together and made sure you've interviewed all the right people. but give our folks kind of your vision behind this film and then of course, we'll get into some of the key things that you discuss in the film.

>> Stephen McDowell: Okay. Educated for Liberty explores how home centered biblical education produced the free and flourishing nation of America. It's the reason we've existed 250 years, because the people were equipped and educated in the character and worldview necessary to live free. Hence, educated for Liberty. But we also explore how secular education, government controlled, mandated, compelled education, which has become fully secularized, has led to a great moral and academic decline. And so restoring biblical education is the solution to, preserve this nation, to see that it advances and flourishes and that in 250 years, we're still here.

Stephen McDowell: Education in early America was largely privatized

>> Walker Wildmon: Stephen, one thing I do want to get your, your opinion on, or your view on rather, is the, the the, the alternatives here, I mean obviously the the, the government, so to speak, through various individuals and various ideas, have, have basically have effectively like institutionalized education or like turn it into basically like a business model. Like we do. This is what we do. The government funds it, top down approach from the state level and the federal level as far as regulations and curriculum, et cetera. and so with that being the case, which is not what America started as as far as education, tell our audience what things look like pre the K through 12 environment as we know it today. Because what we see today with school districts and basically government having a full run on the education, model from a government perspective, what were things like before this current model existed?

>> Stephen McDowell: Well, education in early America was, we today say, privatized. It's the right and responsibility for parents to govern the education of their children. And in early America, parents did govern now. So education was centered in the home. Everybody learned the Bible and the principles of the Christian faith and not just theological ideas, but worldview, how to build a free society. That was very important. but they would delegate aspects of that to others. And so they would set up schools. There's a great variety of the models of schools. You know, some were school rooms we think about, some would be just families meeting in a home. And so they would supplement the home centered education to provide deeper education that some parents might not be able to give. Interestingly enough, most of the early tutors in America were ministers. They were the most educated people in the colony. And so they educated men like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Noah Webster. And then some, few would go to higher education college. Only a third of the signers of the Declaration and Constitution actually had went to college. so some, few would go to college and others would apprentice. They would learn a skill that made them productive to be able to contribute to the flourishing of the nation. So again, it was privatized, centered in the home, supplemented with tutors and higher education for some. But everyone was equipped to fulfill their calling. It's interesting. The model of early American education looks much like the model of education that the children of Israel had. It was centered in the home. Then they had the Levites were the educators and, and some were, you know, the Levites were more highly educated in God's law. That was the, you know, when they did it right, you know, they could advance and America, you know, embraced that because I think that's biblical. It's not the role of civil government to get involved in the education of our youth. Because if they do, it will end up turning into what we have today. It's really. It's more than a business. It's a monopoly they have. In America, unlike most other nations, we still have some freedom to, as parents, to choose other options. But since they take all our money to support those government schools, it limits us. Many people are limited, in other options and might be forced to use these government schools. But in our film, we explore, you know, these main ideas. Parents have the right and responsibility to govern the education of children. Churches and pastors should support them in this. So this is a great role for churches to come. Okay, parent, you might not be able to educate your child. Widowed, orphaned, or not enough money. We'll help, do that. And so we explore that, and then we explore the title of the film that if we as a nation want to live in liberty, it's essential that we have this biblical model of education. Because, you know, if you leave people to themselves, they're not going to live free. Leave people a sinful man, you leave him to himself, he's not going to flourish. He's not going to progress. He's going to spiral downward into more bondage. Our founders knew this, so they recognized we must educate people in the principles of liberty, which are rooted in the Bible, but for all of life if we want to ever build a free nation. that's what gave birth to the United States 250 years ago. That's what's enabled us to exist 250 years. Unfortunately, in the last few generations, especially as we've adopted secular education, we haven't been educated to live in liberty. We've been educated to live in socialism. And so, you know, a lot of our youth, as you know, are, becoming more socialistic in their thinking because they're educated to live in socialism.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Folks, we're Talking with Stephen McDowell, co founder and president of the Providence Foundation. And this film that they have out, just out in the last few months, is called educated for liberty. EducatedforLiberty.com is that URL. Stephen also hosts a podcast each week on AFR on the AFR app and AFR.net called America's Providential History. And, Stephen, just give our folks a little glimpse on some of the subjects you cover, in your weekly podcast.

Stephen McDowell's America's Providential History is free on Educated for Liberty

>> Stephen McDowell: All right, first, let me just mention you can see the film for free. Go to Educated for Liberty dot com. It's free. The whole film we've divided up into six segments because we think this is so important. So Please visit that. We have DVDs for a nominal fee, but go to educated for liberty.com see it free and in our my podcast America's Providential History I look at God's hand in the founding of America. From the colonization period up till the present. We've examined all kinds of important subjects on the founding Fathers. Where the Christians, what are the principles they embraced? How did they give birth to this free nation? You know, what miracles did God do in the founding of our nation? what are the faith of some of our leaders? all kinds of subjects. We look at not just providential history, but also principles of liberty as we're talking about needed to live in liberty. We'll cover those as well. We put out a new podcast every week and you can go back and listen to every one we've done before and you can get a thorough education. And you know, I've been teaching 45 years on this subject and I'm using this time to, to present an easy to understood fashion all those ideas that I've taught and written about for many, decades. So I'll keep doing it as long as I can and as long as AFA and AFR graciously host the podcast.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, hey, it's excellent. you got a fan in Wesley and I, I'll be riding with Wesley and he'll be listening to your podcast pretty frequently. So I like them because they're relatively brief, 20, 30 minutes and it's just jam packed full of practical history on God's role in America's founding and what's needed to preserve it. So Stephen, we appreciate you coming on.

Stephen McDowell: There is a surge in enrollment in private education

Let me mention this URL one more time. Educated for liberty.com educatedforliberty.com you can, can watch the trailer and the full film and of course as Stephen mentioned, order a DVD as well about this latest documentary out by the Providence Foundation. Stephen, thanks so much for coming on.

>> Stephen McDowell: Thank you Walker. Joy being with you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's ah, educatedforliberty.com go there, check it out, share it with family and friends, post it on social media. Very, very good film. And ah, a couple AFA folks are participating in that. Myself, Abe Hamilton's in that as well and then very familiar faces and voices, that you know, from AFR and other ministries are in that film as well. EducatedforLiberty.com well as Stephen puts it rightly, the early America model of education that started in the home, was the best model. And then we've since hijacked that model and turned it into this government run, government sanctioned model. And then of course, over time you had the secularization of the model, to where God became, and the Bible became less and less taught, to where it eventually became completely excluded from the public education model that we see today. And the good thing on this front, because not all stories have a good, good angle, if you will, but the good, the good thing about what we're talking about here on the education front is that there is a variety and a surge in alternative education modes, alternative models to education in America, ever since COVID That really, I would say, awakened a lot of parents to what was going on in the classroom of our government schools and has led churches, Christians, ministries and many others and parents to explore and really found some alternative, means of education. Whether it be a full Christian school, five days a week, whether it's more of a hybrid model or what they call a cottage school, just a couple days a week, the rest of the work's done at home, or just a full homeschool model. There's a lot of different models out there that are offered and all of them have a lot of benefits, a lot of pros included with them. But this popularity in private education and church led education just continues to surge. And that is a very, very positive trend. I mean, there is just a surge in enrollment in private education. And the beautiful thing is that, look, parents, parents, many of these parents are just doing whatever they have to do, to ensure that what's in the best interest of their children is being done. And so this film highlights it. Stephen and his team actually interview people that started different forms of private education. And they go through it and talk about the benefits of the different models of private education. And I think the more and more popular this becomes, the better it is for the country because the more and more children that can receive a proper biblical education, the better. And the fundamental problem with this secularization of education in America, and by the way, this notion that education can be secular, that you can be educated and be godless, is just an oxymoron. It just doesn't go together. Because who is the source of all knowledge? God himself is the source of all knowledge and all truth. And so this notion, that we can have education and have God X' ed out of it is just a fundamental falsehood. It just can't exist. And so in order to have a proper, true and beneficial education, you have to first and foremost acknowledge our Creator, who is the author of all things. And so that at a very basic level, from the onset, is where, education as we know it went wrong in America is when we thought as a country that we could have a good education model, a good education system, and we can exclude the source of all knowledge. And that's God, our creator himself. Another thing that a lot of people don't know is that many of America's early universities were started out as seminaries. Some of these Ivy League schools, if not all of them, were started out as seminaries to train pastors and, and you go to places like Harvard and they've got Bible verses inscribed in stone at the, at the buildings from when they started. Now, it's since been neglected, but, this notion that all of America's universities have always been secular, they've always been God hating, they've always excluded God, is just fundamentally not true. What happened with higher education in America is it was completely hijacked and seminaries were turned into, pagan institutions. And that must be changed. Thanks for joining us. 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

>> Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.