Transcript

Help us love God and love people during American Family Radio shareathon

 : In Matthew 22:37, 40, Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. It's share a thon on American Family Radio. Call now 877-661-62396. That's 877-616-2396. Or give online@afr uh.net make your pledge and help us love God and love people during shareathon.

Last day today of Sharathon where you can make your pledge to American family radio

Jenna Ellis: Good morning and happy Thursday. It is the last day of Sharathon, or as Tim Wildmon always calls it, happy procrastinator's day. This is your day has finally arrived. The last day today of Sharathon where you can make your pledge to American family radio by calling 1-877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396. I'm Jenna Ellis here with my co host, Ed Vitagliano. We've had a lot of fun over the last few days and, it's been a great share a Thon, Ed.

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it. It has. I've enjoyed being on with you at 7am However, I will. I have to say it, it is a little bit over a challenge on my voice getting started this early. I'm not sure how you do it every day, but, yeah, it's been a lot of fun, being on the. On your show with you for shareathon. And things are going pretty well for Sharathon. And it is like you said. And like Tim says, it's procrastinators day. And the real procrastinators will wait till this afternoon, but they can break that bad habit by giving now.

Jenna Ellis: Yes, absolutely. This is, and, and my secret for getting up in the morning is being in Florida where it is 8am so that, that actually makes a really big difference because when I go, when I'm out there in, in Mississippi and I have to get up and be in Studio by 7:00am I'm M. Like, man, this is. This is rough. That hour makes the difference.

Ed Vitagliano: It does make a difference. I normally get up pretty early, usually 4, 4:30, something like that, but not to talk, not to speak, not

Jenna Ellis: to actually have to be coherent.

Ed Vitagliano: Yes, it usually takes a while for that to kind of kick in. But you're right, it is our spring share a thon, folks. If you're listening, maybe you're listening for the, first time during a Share a Thon. We do this three days in the spring, three days in the fall. That's it. So as Tim likes to say, you really can't call that begging for money at the same time. I always remember brother Don, brother Don Wildmon, the founder of American Family association and the founder of American Family Radio. He used to always say, we treat our listeners like grownups, okay? They know, they understand that a radio network this size has to have money to function. We get people to pay and you know, insurance for the towers and keep those towers running and all that kind of stuff. Takes money to keep a radio network this size, operating. And he said we just, we treat our listeners as if they're grown ups who understand what it means to budget and have to pay bills. So Tim says we pass the virtual offering plate. That's what we're doing, folks. And today is the last day of our spring Share a Thon. Love God, love people is the theme. So if you want to give, there are folks who are waiting to take your call just down the hall from us here at, at our, flagship, station in Tupelo, Mississippi. The number to call is 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396. If you don't want to get in a conversation with anyone this morning, you can do it online. It's pretty quick. Afr.net afr.net and so we ask you to be as generous as you can and, we're looking forward to a successful day.

Jenna Ellis: We are, yeah. And this is, you know, again, the last day already of Charathon. And I enjoy Sharathon weeks because we get to hear, from listener testimony, we get to, you know, have. I get to have a co host, which actually makes the hour go by a lot quicker. which is it actually goes by really quick when we're talking about headlines, you know, news of the day and things that we normally do. I keep telling Tim, Ed, that he needs to give me another hour because it's really hard to pack in everything that I want to cover in just one hour. So that's my shareathon request. If I can put that little note

Ed Vitagliano: in the virtual but in the, in the suggestion box.

Jenna Ellis: Exactly. There we go. Yes, but, but yes, you can call, right now. 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396.

Jenna Bennett: Is the Iranian ceasefire really a ceasefire

And speaking of the news, and I was watching, you know, some of the, the reports of the ceasefire. Is it really a ceasefire? And some people are saying, you know, well, it is a ceasefire, but there are factions, in Iran that, you know, aren't watching, the news, aren't listening to AFR radio, for example. So they may not know that the ceasefire is in place. So give it a couple of days. And then there's people saying, well, no, you know, Iran is just saying that. But then it lasted, you know, an hour or two. What's kind of your, your view of where we're at right now?

Ed Vitagliano: All right, so this is going to be, this is going to be harsh sounding. but I don't, I don't trust communists and I don't trust Muslim radicals. And this, this is, this is a regime that is a bloodthirsty, murderous terrorist fomenting, regime. it has a radical ideology that directs its actions. so this goes beyond the regular kinds of things that come with Islam, the taqiyah and the other things where you're allowed to be deceptive as a Muslim if you're in a, if you're a minority in another country in order to promote Islam. That's on a shelf by itself. This is a, this is a nation being run, by totalitarian regime. I don't trust them, I don't trust anything they say. I think that President Trump and his administration are just in a, honestly, in a pickle because the only solution, the only permanent solution is to get rid of the mullahs is to get rid of the religious fanatics that have a death grip on that nation and its people. And that is going to take, that would take one of two things. It would take a multiple nation invasion and that could ignite World War Three. If other nations take advantage of our preoccupation with that kind of a war scenario. I'm talking about China and Taiwan and other know, maybe hot spots. So we either would have to do that to forcibly change the regime or almost miraculously there would have to be a significantly, well, armed faction within Iran that is, that is willing to take on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core. And my, I've read, what I've read is that is a devoted, military arm of the mullahs, 250,000 to up, up to 500,000 people strong. And that would be a bloody civil war. So I am glad that the President kind of went in to, had this kind of little ceasefire for two weeks to kind of regage what they want to do, but I don't trust anything. You know, the, the demands being made by the Iranian regime, for the continuation of the ceasefire are absurd, Jenna.

Jenna Ellis: They really are. Yeah. Those 10 demands from Iran are really crazy. I mean, to say that to me, personally, the craziest one was allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium. It's like, did we forget why we started this conflict to begin with?

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, they, they, they want the U.S. to, to pay reparations for this war. They want the US out of the Middle East. I mean, none of those things are going to happen. And so I, I, this is like,

Jenna Ellis: it's like AOC is, it's like AOC is handling the negotiations for Iran.

Ed Vitagliano: That's what, it's a good point.

Jenna Ellis: I mean, it's just utterly absurd. So go ahead.

Ed Vitagliano: So, I know I, so I, I, I don't know where this is going to go. My, my gut tells me that the president is going to, I wants, and I don't think he would have much support for a ground invasion. Okay. I think what he's going to have to do is say, we, we really hammered their military, maybe didn't eliminate it completely, but certainly hurt, their military capabilities significantly. We set them back on their goals to have nuclear weapons, Will. And so that's all we're going to do. we're going to hope that the Iranian people and other military factions, can, overthrow the mullahs, but that's all we're going to do for now. And if we think they're getting close again, we'll hit them again. Because I don't think from the outside we can get, regime change, which is the only way to, stop, the terrorists, the terrorism promotion coming from that country.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's going to be really fascinating to see, where the negotiations, end up. And apparently Vice President J.D. vance is, is heading over to the Middle east to lead some of that negotiation. and so, which in my mind is a very interesting choice. Right, to have J.D. vance, rather than, say, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, leading that or, you know, I don't know. I mean, it's someone else. But also, apparently Jared Kushner is also part of that, envoy. And so over the next, ah, few days, I think we're going to learn a lot. And, it's going to be very interesting to see whether, Trump maintains support politically, from America as well, because I think there's kind of a couple of different groups. I mean, the Democrats never like anything that he does, so they're gonna hate him regardless. And so they can almost be discounted because he could literally find a cure for cancer and the Democrats would be like, that's unconstitutional. so really among his base and also even the moderates, like the people who are reasonable there for him when they actually, agree and then they criticize him, when they disagree, I think that when the conflict started, he had a lot more support than he actually does right now. And there are a lot of people on X among the MAGA base that are just pro Trump, regardless, that are suggesting that, you know, people who were for the conflict but now are actually concerned about it. Oh, you're just buying into the propaganda and, you know, you got to just trust Trump and trust the process, 40, chess, all of this. but I think that it's a reasonable position whether or not, you know, you're, you're for the conflict, trust Trump or not. I think it's a reasonable position to, at this juncture, question how long the conflict should continue. But as you said, Ed, I mean, there's no way that the United States can agree to, ah, that, that 10 point peace plan from Iran. So, you know, where they meet in maybe the middle, remains to be seen.

Jenna Ellis: I think the president handled this very well

But the best meme, and this last thing I'll say on this, the best meme that I saw yesterday was President, Obama on the phone. And then the next cell is of course talking to one of those crazy, Muslim terrorists and all that. And Obama is saying, I want to negotiate, and the terrorist is saying, I want to bomb you. a little more, strong than that. And then it goes to another scene of Biden saying, I want to negotiate. The terrorists going, I want to bomb you. Then it goes to Trump in the White House going, I'm going to bomb you. And then the terrorist goes, let's negotiate. That's actually accurate.

Ed Vitagliano: That's beautiful. You know, that's. I think the president was hoping that what we have done militarily would cause the regime to collapse. And listen, I don't blame him for trying that, you have no other cards to play, really, when they were as close as they appeared to be to actually getting a nuclear weapon. We're just talking about what they said, all right? And I'm trusting, Israeli intelligence on this, but. No, but even the critics of President Trump and the critics of Israel, they don't know either. None of us on the outside know exactly how close they were to getting nuclear weapons. Okay. So we have to kind of have to rely on some of the things that were said by Steven Wyckoff and others. Yeah, they told us they were, you know, weeks away, and you can't stop us. We can create 16 nuclear weapons. Okay, maybe they were bluffing. I don't know. But you can't. You can't not pay attention to that. because if they were telling the truth, that is a horrifying consequence of doing nothing, letting them do that. So, anyway, we are going to find out a lot. I think the president has handled this very well. I'm glad he didn't land the Marines on Karga Island. I'm not sure where he can go from here. And for people who criticize the president about that, they say, well, what's the end game? What's the plan? I read a good article about, that question, I don't know, a couple of weeks ago that said, when we were attacked at Pearl harbor, we didn't know what the end game was either. We just knew we had to fight back. And you adjust your plans, according to how a war goes. It's no fault of the commander in chief if you don't know where you're going to wind up when the thing is concluded. You have to make adjustments on the fly. And so I don't criticize the president for that either.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. Well said. And, you know, and this is the kind of discussion and commentary that generally, we have during this hour, which is normally Jenna Ellis in the morning, but for, the last three days, including today, we are, taking time for Sharathon, which is the opportunity that you have to support this ministry. Keep us on the air, support, all of the things, the great things that we do here at the American Family Association. And, I'm just so grateful for our entire AFR family for, your support and for your donations because, a little bit actually goes a long way. And so for how, many people call in and donate during shareathon. It really makes a big difference.

Shareathon continues on American Family Radio with listener testimonies

And, let's listen, Adam, to, one of our listener testimonies.

Caroline: Hi, this is John in the NewSong Orleans area. About 2004, I was helping, out at my young daughter's softball game, and I got struck in the head with the softball. It knocked me out for a little while. I was having a, seizure like, episode. They rushed me to one hospital and they said, no, take them to another one. So I was there for A couple days before I woke up, I think. But what I remember clearly was somebody put the radio on in the room and it was American Family Radio. And I, listened to talk, but there was a lot of music, I think, on another portion of your show. And when I came two days later, I talked about it to no end. And I remember so much of what was said. That was my introduction to American Family Radio. Thank you and God bless you all very richly.

Jenna Ellis: Amazing.

Ed Vitagliano: What a great testimony that was. John, I think he said from, the NewSong Orleans area. Look, folks, we're just saying you don't have to be hit in the head with a softball to be a part of the American family radio. Family it is. Share a Thon. I, just get. I love Sharathon, Jenna, because of these kinds of testimonies. I like meeting some of our volunteers who come in as well. I love hearing from the people that have been touched by the Lord using American Family Radio. Folks, this is our Share a Thon. This is. I frequently say you're listening to American family radio because six months ago during the fall 2025 Sharathon people gave to keep AFR on the line on. On the air. We're asking you to do the same thing for the next six months. Here's the number to call if you want to give. And we do ask that you be as generous as possible. The number to call is 877-61623. That's 877-616-2396. Or you can give [email protected] amazing.

Jenna Ellis: Well, Ed and I will be right back. We'll take a quick break here on day three of shareathon. And during the break again, you can call, and then you have to miss any of the excellent commentary from me, M. And Ed. You can call during the break. This is, your big chance to not even miss any of the show. 8776-1623-9687-7616, 2396 or go to afr.net.

Ed Vitagliano: Love God and love people. We're living a world that keeps breaking but if we want to find a way to change all comes down to this Love God and love people.

 : Shareathon continues on American Family Radio. Call and pledge your support at 877-616-2396. That's 8776. Or give [email protected] and help us love God and love people on American Family Radio.

Ed Schultz: In the American justice system, we are far too quick to blame mental health issues

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back to day three of, Share a Thon. And our theme is love God and love people. And you know, Ed, I was thinking about that, this morning in light of some other headlines as well, a couple of different, cases that are making their way through the criminal justice system and thinking about justice and what that actually means in terms of loving people and protecting people. Because, the latest out of the case of that just, you know, horrific, train attack of the murder of that young woman, who was here as a refugee from Ukraine. And, she was murdered on public transportation, I think it was in North Carolina. that man has now been, at least on the state level, the feds have come out and said, you know, totally different. We have him in federal custody. That's a good thing. and, you know, this. This doesn't apply to the federal side, but on the state level, there has been a finding by the court that he is incompetent to stand trial because of quote, unquote, mental health issues. Now, you know, I realize, and I absolutely, you know, understand that there are, mental defects there, problems, that people genuinely, have with, you know, with their brain, sometimes. And that can cause them to not appreciate, the world around them. They don't understand things. But when we're talking about the legal standard of incompetency to stand trial, it means that the person can't appreciate the consequences of their actions, so therefore shouldn't be held accountable for them. I mean, it would be like a child who is so little, you know, they. They run into the wall because, you know, they're. They're just barely a toddler and they don't understand what's going on yet, and they fall down. Right. Well, you know, even if they've knock over, a lamp and they break it, they're not intending to do that. They're not appreciating the consequences of their actions. And so, you know, you can't say that they intended to do that. but here I think that now in. In the American justice system, we are far too quick to simply put this label of mental health issues. And, you know, someone who has committed that type of atrocity because it's so incomprehensible to a rational person who understands that human beings are made in the image of God. Then it's almost like by default they say, well, then there's. There must be something mentally wrong with them. And I think that is a perverse, a justification to not hold someone accountable for their actions.

Ed Vitagliano: No, I absolutely agree. And I think once. Once you decouple a Culture from God and scripture, from a biblical way of understanding exactly what you're saying. Not only the image of God, but, what biblical justice means and what righteousness is and what evil is. Once you decouple yourself from that, then you. Then you can't go back to a simple description. This was an evil act. You have to come up with alternative explanations for that. Now, I am not a criminal attorney, so I'm not going to pretend to lecture, the folks who are allowing this guy to, avoid criminal prosecution, at least at this point. However, and maybe you can explain this to me. You're a constitutional lawyer, and so I don't know what your experience is with.

Jenna Ellis: I used to be a prosecutor and a defense attorney.

Ed Vitagliano: Okay. All right, sorry. So you're the right person.

Jenna Ellis: That's okay.

Jimmy Carter: I think the concept of incompetence has gone too far

Ed Vitagliano: So here's. Here's what I don't get. Like, you had. You described this perfectly. A person who is incompetent does not understand what, in this case, he, is doing. This is DeCarlo, Dwan Brown. but he understood that a knife can kill someone. He didn't. He didn't bring an orange. If he brought an orange to assault, Was her name Irina Zarutska? I think. He didn't. He didn't bring a plushie and hit her over the head with it. He brought a knife, knowing that a knife was lethal. He, didn't attack the other people on the train. It appears he waited for someone who was white to come on the train and sit down. He didn't attack from the front. He attacked from behind so that, this poor young lady could not at least try to defend herself. To me, all of that indicates absolute premeditation and the ability to understand what he was doing. And so I just don't know, how they are coming to this conclusion that he's incompetent. All those things seem to be something that a person who is calculating and therefore competent, it seems like this person should be held, should be tried in a criminal court.

Jenna Ellis: I agree. And I think that the nature of incompetence is really supposed to be, and the reason that it's part of our justice system is because obviously, if someone literally is so mentally, handicapped that they can't appreciate, what's going on around them, they can't participate in their own defense, they can't communicate with their counsel, they don't understand the proceedings in front of them, then that fundamentally is unfair and unjust to due process, because we do in this country require that before you can be convicted of a criminal offense, you have to go through due process. And that is a protection of, defendants and of the citizenry against the resources and the overbearing nature of the state. So that's a good thing. But I think that the. The concept of incompetence has gone and been extended far too much to. To people who genuinely don't deserve that. And obviously, you know, I haven't evaluated this person. I'm only going based on what, you know, I'm reading in the headlines. But from everything that's been reported, it doesn't seem that. That this person who, you know, and he had. He had many. I mean, multiple. Dozens of other arrests for crime. So it's not like he's a stranger to this, or a stranger to the criminal proceedings. And to not hold him accountable for this type of murder and. And to possibly. I mean, thankfully, the feds have him, but to possibly let him back out on the street, I mean, that would be an absolute miscarriage of justice, and that would be a danger to society. And so, you know, the. The best case scenario would be even if there's a finding of incompetence to say, okay, but that requires that he be in a mental institution or under some kind of protective supervision so that he doesn't hurt anyone else. And I don't particularly think the taxpayers should have to pay for that. Right, but, you know, if he's. If he's in prison, they're paying for that anyways. but it just goes to show the mindset, Ed, and this is. This is the reason I bring bring this up completely, is that when we're talking about loving God and loving people in a civil society that upholds justice, upholds righteousness, has the measurable difference between right and wrong, good and evil, you can't have more compassion for aggressors and for violent offenders than you do for the victims. And I think that's where we're at in this country. And it's wrong.

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I mean, this is an individual we're talking about, DeCarlo Brown, the, alleged perpetrator. Okay. I mean, he's on video, so maybe you don't even have to say alleged. But you mentioned he's a repeat offender. I think he had 14 prior arrests. Nobody put him in an insane asylum. Then why is it that. Why are they suddenly, coming to the conclusion that he's incompetent? Okay, so to me, this looks exactly. This is before your time. You probably have Read about the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan era, okay? But I remember in the 70s, even in the late 60s, this was a, problem for the Democratic Party. Even back then they seem to kind of go this, this route every once in a while because of all the the problems, the riots, the war, protests, the civil rights movement. There was a lot of violence in our country and the Democratic Party sided with the criminals. All the stuff we're hearing now, I heard when I was in high school, okay. And nobody on the Democratic Party side seemed to care about the victims. This was a huge distinction between the Republican and Democratic parties. And when Richard Nixon won in 1968 and then won in 1972, it was primarily because. Well, I say primarily one of the major factors was the soft on crime approach on the part of the Democratic Party. And I think it comes from their worldview where they, because they have for a long time rejected a Christian worldview. Ah, they have to come up with some explanation for why people commit crimes. And it has always been because they had a, because they grew up in poverty, for example. Same thing with the terrorists. I remember after the London, the London, subway killings, there were people here in America saying those terrorists, they just needed jobs. Okay. The explanation is always from a, even back then, a semi Marxist view of the world where you explain our, our cultural issues and even personal, personally, committed crimes as a, an outgrowth of economic inequality. And so this seems to be, raising its ugly head again for Democrats. And they're going to, they're going to lose this with a lot of voters. Even minorities are, you know, I'm not saying for the midterms. I'm just saying this is not a winning issue going forward to say we've got to, we've got to stand up for the perpetrators, and we don't care, you know, if you're going to make an omelette, you got to break a few eggs. We're going to get a just society. And so we're going to let illegal immigrants in. And if they kill a few Americans so they can have a place to raise their families, that's worth it. I don't think that's going to sell with a lot of voters.

Jenna Ellis: I agree. Because, you know, fundamentally, even if people don't articulate it in terms of a biblical worldview versus a false one, you know, there are many other alternatives to the biblical worldview. People, instinctively know the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness, fairness, unfairness, just and unjust, because the law of God is written on our hearts. I mean, we're made in the image of God. We understand his nature and character because he has impressed that upon us. And it's part of the moral law in the observable reality to which we're presented. And so, but this is why it's so important to actually articulate it in biblical terms. Because that's how to make sense of the headlines and the goings on, in the world and to fight for what's right and for justice and for truth. Because there are so many other networks that people could listen to Ed and do that, you know, maybe are saying that something like this, for example, is unjust and they're saying, you know, these rogue judges or they're blaming it on, you know, all kinds of other things. But if you're not talking about it in specifically biblical terms, you're missing the foundation and really missing the overall analysis. And that's what I love about American Family Radio Network is that we always bring it back to the foundation of truth, the biblical worldview. And why we have to have a biblical worldview, for example, of criminal justice, why and how, you know, things have gotten off in our society when, you know, people have started blaming all kinds of other things and they want to go for, you know, rehabilitative, justice or social justice or all of these other things that, you know, people are blaming, conduct and evil on, except for sin and man's sin, nature and personal accountability and all of the, the principles in Scripture. And so if you really, for listeners, if you really want to, to understand and make sense of a world that is increasingly nonsensical. That's why we exist on American Family Radio Network and that's why your donations keeping us on the air is so important.

Ed: Today is the last day of Sharathon, but definitely not the last

And I love Ed when I get, emails from listeners saying, you know, thank you for explaining this concept or thank you for having this guest on, you know, that explained it this way because, you know, I haven't heard this perspective, from anyone else. And you're not going to necessarily hear, that perspective from the pulpit, unfortunately. some churches like, like mine, I love my church here in Florida that, you know, when there's something in the news, we, we actually cover it from a biblical worldview. And I love that. And then there's also teaching and discipleship, all of that. But we need a comprehensive understanding and view through the lens of truth. So we appreciate so much your support. You can call 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396 or make your donation online safely and [email protected] today is the last day of Sharathon, but definitely not the last day, that you can support our ministry. continue to listen. starting tomorrow we'll be back to regular programming and it's going to be really amazing. Are you guys doing Trivia Friday tomorrow?

Ed Vitagliano: Oh yeah, we always do Trivia Friday after shareathon. You know a lot of our listeners probably don't know this but our folks here who ah, who are on staff, even if they're not in the radio department, they, they participate in Shareathon and we have folks who are here from 6:00am all the way to 6:00pm they work very hard. And so when we have the day after Sherithon concludes we have a little bit of cutting up. So we certainly will have Trivia Friday, tomorrow. and we also have some, you know, some benefits for the, for the people on staff here who have worked very hard. I do want to mention also to our listeners, Jenna, ah, that for our share a thons we always have a premium, couple of premium options. These, you know, we're not giving away a brand new car. We understand. These are, these are kind of small.

Jenna Ellis: We're not Oprah.

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, we're not Oprah.

Jenna Ellis: Maybe that's a good thing.

Ed Vitagliano: Small tokens of our appreciation.

You will receive a five pack of AFA's 250th anniversary pocket constit

So let me, I just want to let our listeners know that for a one time gift of $150 or more, I always say you can give as much as you want. you will receive a five pack of AFA's 250th anniversary pocket constit. Very cool. Slick little, little pamphlet. it has not only the Constitution but the Declaration of Independence, a Forward by Steven McDowell of the Providence Foundation. And so when you're sitting somewhere, you keep this handy, you can keep yourself up and or learn for the first time what what are what is in the Constitution. And it's a five pack because we encourage people to give it away to others. You know, family, friends, co workers, neighbors, what have you. now if you become a Great Commission partner with a monthly gift of $30 or more. And by Great Commission partner we mean this is a repeating gift, via credit card, debit card, bank draft. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to remember to write a check. It's just an ongoing, repeated gift. So if you become a Great Commission Partner with a monthly gift of $30 or more. You'll not only get the five pack of the Pocket Constitution, you will also get a five pack of our special 250th anniversary in God We Trust wristbands. a lot of our listeners, they love wristbands. We have them for Christmas and Easter. This Simply says Celebrating 250 years in God we trust. It is also a five pack, so you can give them away. And so we just encourage you during shareathon here, as Jenna said, it's our last day. Time for the procrastinators to come home. the number to call if you would like to give. We ask you to be as generous as possible is 877-616-2396-6776-162396.

American Family Radio is holding a Shareathon to support its mission

Jenna Ellis: All right, well, procrastinators, this is your time in this break. Call right now. If you've been thinking over the last couple days, I really want to donate. I, feel called to do this. I know I want to support AFR and you haven't done it yet. Now is your time. 8776-1623-9687-7616, 2396. Ed and I will be right back.

Ed Vitagliano: M.

 : Jesus told us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It shareth on on American Family Radio. Call 877-616-2396 or give [email protected] make your pledge and help us love God and love people during Shareathon.

American Family Radio's Share a Thon runs through Thursday

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back to just the last about 13 minutes here of at least our hour. Our last hour today, Thursday, of day three of Share a Thon. I'm Jenna Ellis here with Ed Vitagliano, and it's been a great Share a Thon, and we've so appreciated, how many of our listeners have called in to make pledges to continue to support afr and, for all of those during the break who called in, good job. You are no longer procrastinators. You've, you've done that, during the morning time. You didn't wait till, you know, ABE show tonight, the very last moment. So, that's a good thing, Ed.

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it is. you've done your family proud, and, you've come through. You've broken that bad habit. And listen, for those of you who are procrastinators still, you still have now 12 minutes during this show to break that bad habit and, to do now what you planned to put off till later. It is our spring Share A Thon. The theme is love God, love people. Doesn't get any easier than that or simpler than that. And that, I've been telling our, our listeners during shareathon that we, we have a team of people who, who in the run, up to a Share A Thon really start months ahead of time. They pray and, and, and discuss and search the scriptures to find a theme. And so that is the theme. And it comes from Matthew 22, verses 37 through 40. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is, like it, love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and prophets hang on these two commandments. So it is Share a Thon. We're asking you to, we are laying our needs before you and asking you to help provide for another six months of American Family Radio being on air. there are folks waiting to take your call. And if you want to make a pledge, here's the number to call. It is 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396. Or you can give [email protected] afr.net you know, Jen, I was just thinking as I was reading that scripture, it says to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your mind. All right. You know, sometimes the mind for Christians gets, I don't want to over exaggerate this, but gets short shrift because we know our heart needs to be pure before the Lord. We know love, comes from the heart, but the mind is also an important faculty, an ability to, you know, to think and to reason. And it is important for Christians to reason through some of these, critical issues that we face in our culture to try to figure out what a biblical perspective is. And I like to think we help them do that here on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And, you know, this is, a requirement actually in scripture that not only, do we grow in our love for God, but also in our knowledge of the Lord. And that's. That requires an understanding of who God is. And think about that, Ed, you know, as. Even as I've gotten to know you and your wife, you know, over the last four years that I've been with afa, you know, and how, and have developed, you know, great friendship with you guys and with, you know, my producer Adam, who's there, and with, with Tim and Walker and Wesley and, you know, everybody there. It's, that those relationships and those friendships grow. The more that I have knowledge of who you guys are, how, how you think, what you like to do, all of those things and then those relationships, the more that you know people, you know their character, you know their nature. I. I know, for example, that, you know, my producer Devin, you, is a little bit grumpy in the morning. It's probably because he hasn't had his caffeine. You know, it's like. And I know him well, right? So he gets on high, and I'm like, hey, have you not had your. Did you not stop by Duncan, you know, this morning? But, But it's great because, you know, we have that relationship, and then we have that camaraderie. But, But the point is, we need to know God and his nature and character in the same way so that when life happens to us, we don't question God. Like, Savannah Guthrie, who, you know, her mom, is. Has not been found. And it's been this, you know, national crazy story. She went on, on some interview, right before going back to the Today show. And she, in that interview, questioned God. And she said, you know, I don't think that, you know, Jesus could have ever understood what I'm going through. And, And I understand the. The emotion and the. The rawness of it. But at the same time, what that revealed to me is she doesn't know God. She doesn't know his nature and his character. Because when we go through things in this life or when we look at the headlines and all that, if we truly know the loving nature, the consistent character of God, who he is, and we've seen how he operates through the span of world history, how he's revealed himself in Scripture. There is story after story, account after account of God's movements throughout history, how he treats his people, those who call upon his name and who are his children. And we then don't need to be surprised. And that's part of what it means to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. It's not just about having an academic understanding of, you know, eschatology and the, you know, 11 substantive categories of theology. I mean, the great definitely do that. But it's not just an intellectual knowledge. It's an understanding. A knowledge of God is a relationship with him and understanding his character.

Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, that's. That's well said.

Ed: Christians need to pursue God and deepen their understanding of him

And listen, it's. I have no idea what. Where Savannah, Guthrie is in terms of, her relationship or not, or lack of it with, with God. But I do know this. It's hard enough, even as one of God's people, to sometimes get through those kinds of. You, you said it very well about those kind of raw moments where you're. You're kind of laid bare inside because of difficult circumstances. I think about Job famously. even he was having a hard time, you know, kind of working his way through it. But so it's hard enough even when you're a Christian sometimes to get through that. But if you don't know God, then you are separated. And this was the way the language of the Bible, you were cut off from the life of God and you're separated from a relationship with God where the grace of God and the comfort of God, ah, are a promise to you. Now, God can comfort anyone, even people who aren't his children. but it is incumbent upon Christians, like you're saying, to pursue God and to go deeper in our understanding of not only the knowledge of his will, but our understanding of Him. And, at the end of the book of Job, Job learns something about God and it causes him to say, I'm going to shut my mouth. I shouldn't have said what I said because now I see you a little more clearly. And that is our purpose for being on earth. Our purpose for being on earth is to come to know God. Jesus said in, in, John chapter 17, verse 3, I think he says, this is eternal life, that they, that they know God and that they know God the Father through me. And that is our purpose for being here and everything else. Those circumstances are, the scaffolding around the building. That's my favorite kind, of metaphor. But what's being built is a person who knows God, who loves God, is growing in, both of those and is learning to love people. That's kind of the theme of our share a thon.

Jenna Ellis: Exactly. And, you know, if we know God and love him, which is, our purpose for being here is to love God and worship Him. Worship him and come into a saving knowledge of him, then we can be the best ambassadors for him and to testify to what he has done and to share the truth of God. I mean, it's like defending your friend. If somebody says, you know, wow, this person, you know, did this, and you go, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know them. That's not what they intended, you know, or whatever you can express from your personal knowledge, of, of the nature and character of that individual. Well, the same thing for Christians, we can testify to the nature and character of God because we've experienced it. We've. We know him personally and we have that relationship. And so we can invite others to know him personally. And that's what it means to testify to his truth. It's not just intellectual, but it is a knowledge. And with knowledge comes relationship. And that's where the love piece of it, we do too much, you know, kind of fracture, and diversify between. You have to either just have a love and all of these feelings or a head knowledge of God. No, it has to be both. And that's what we always, want to advance here on American Family Radio. And we're in the last few minutes here of Sharathan, at least in this hour. And so if you want to help us continue to love God, love people, talk about the nature and character and truth of God every day, in the morning, through the evening, 24 hours a day on this radio network. Call 877-616-2396. That's 877-616-2396. Or you can go [email protected] thoughts, Ed, and thanks so much for being my co host. This has been a lot of fun.

Ed Vitagliano: It has been a lot of fun. And Jenna, you are a gift not only to the body of Christ, but your gift to American Family Radio and to AFA and our listeners and supporters. We are very grateful that, and Tim always brags, he says, well, I want you to know this is my idea to bring Jenna on board. So this has been wonderful. And, folks, we love our listeners. we know you love us as well. And if you're able to give generously, we encourage you to do that here, here during shareathon.

Jenna Ellis: Amen. And you are a gift to you and your wife Ed, are a blessing to me. you know, Tim and everybody here, I just, I love being in American Family Radio. This has been like coming home for me. And just to be surrounded by Christians and encouragement is just a wonderful, amazing blessing in my life. So I'm so thankful to everyone who donates to keep, us in ministry because this is pursuing our calling. So thank you so much. 877-616-239-687-76162396 and see you tomorrow morning.