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 : Ellis in the morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: I love talking about the things of God. Because of truth and the biblical worldview, the U.S. constitution obligates our government to preserve and protect the rights that our founders recognize come from God our creator, not our government. I believe that scripture in the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raised up each of you. And God has allowed us to be brought here to this specific moment in time.

 : This is Jenna Ellis in the morning.

Patrick Hedger: Forbes has 10 AI predictions for 2026

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Wednesday, January 7, and a lot going on in the year ahead for 2026 and a lot of predictions, including what should we expect when it comes to artificial intelligence? The Trump administration and particularly Vice President J.D. vance have been very focused on artificial intelligence and ensuring that the United States stays ahead. And Forbes even has 10 I AI predictions for 2026 and we'll go through a couple of them. But, really they're predicting that China will close the gap with the United States on chips and that companies outside the AI space will look to make AI acquisitions. So, what do we make of all of these predictions and more? Let's welcome in Patrick Hedger, who is the NetChoice director of policy. So, where do you forecast artificial intelligence to go for 2026?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, those are some really, I think those are the two most accurate predictions on that Forbes list that you listed there. But overall, I think folks need to understand that what we're looking at is a really important general purpose technology, something that will, as ubiquitous as perhaps even electricity itself in our economy. that we will have machines powered both by AI and electricity, powered by data. So, this is not just the chatbots that you interact with at Ah, ChatGPT or Gemini. This is a technology that can enhance manufacturing, can enhance medicine. basically every industry will be touched by AI.

Jenna Ellis: Wow, that's, it's really fascinating to see how sharp the curve has been, since we even began the AI discussion. And you know, in terms of policy, this is something where I think there's also a very wide gap between what the Trump administration and what a lot of their tech policy experts are, focused on, versus what Congress is actually looking at. how do you see the legislative piece and the regulation oversight in Maybe some good and bad ways, that Congress is and is not looking at.

Patrick Hedger: Yeah. So I mean in terms of giving out scores or report card grades, the Trump administration is getting an A on this. the administration officials are doing great in terms of setting the course and laying down what is necessary for America to succeed on AI. In terms of talking about that, we need a federal standard, that this is ultimately an interstate technology, an interstate service that needs to be regulated at the federal level and that we ought to take an innovation first approach, not a regulation first approach. unfortunately Congress is a little bit behind here. This is an area where Congress should be passing ultimately a national standard. The Trump administration can only do so much. This is something that Congress needs to do, and they're behind, they're behind on putting forward a national data privacy standard, for example. that's something that would have been applicable to previous technologies, and is also important in the AI context as well. but ultimately, yeah, Congress has got to put forward a regulatory framework that is both, that matches what the Trump administration is calling for.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And that's so interesting, to me to see that Congress just doesn't seem to be moving, really on anything that they should. And AI is one of those, those issues, they always seem to be a lot more focused on, you know, inter party, bickering and you know, some other things, but not really a lot of legislation that they should. So do you, what do you attribute this, this lack of, of putting in place and these things that we're talking about, what do you attribute that to in Congress? I mean, I'm sure that, you know, organizations like NAT Choice and then the Trump administration as well, you know, and other policy experts are asking for this. So why are they so behind?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, you know, I think it's because there's really narrow margins in Congress right now. and so it's very easy for folks that are, anti AI or anti innovation or you know, pro government, in terms of government being in control of these technologies and getting to say, what, controlling innovators, if you will, have an outsized influence to be able to kind of gum up the works. And I think that's sort of the big issue that we have now. But that's why we emphasize that unfortunately, you know, we're in a race in AI with China. There's no other real option here. The Europeans have essentially regulated themselves out of the technology race. and so we either have A future where this technology, as I said, that will influence basically every industry is either controlled by American companies, developed by Americans, or is going to be developed and controlled by Chinese companies. And so, that we cannot afford to have American AI move at the speed of American government. as we know, whether we're looking at the National Environmental Policy act or what, what have you, the FDA or any other regulatory body, drug development and energy development and all these other things that are regulated in the United States have crawled to a snail's pace, in terms of innovation and development. We really cannot afford that with AI.

Jenna Ellis: And I'm speaking with Patrick Hedger, who is the NetChoice Director of Policy. And this Forbes article also, forecasts details of research and technology that will leak and influence the broader AI ecosystem. You know, from a policy standpoint, you know, how should we then balance national security, innovation, secrecy and public safety, with AI? And what are the real practical, implications of getting behind China?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, so, something that the Trump administration is doing that's really great in terms of ensuring that we have AI that's advancing advanced sciences, by utilizing this information, is the genesis mission. And that's something I would encourage everybody to look into. This is an announcement that the Trump administration made late last year about, allowing for public and private sector collaboration to utilize some of the classified information that the US Government has to make. Major advancements in areas like fusion technology, nuclear, and then also in medical areas and material sciences. So that's a really exciting thing that they're doing. And they're putting in place really good parameters to enable that kind of public private partnership while, ensuring that that information remains secure. so that's something that I would encourage folks to. That's really exciting. But you know, the practical application here is, if we fall behind the Chinese, I mean, what we saw really in the last several decades is that the Internet itself was built and developed by predominantly American companies. What that's resulted in is trillions of dollars in wealth, flowing into Americans, 401ks, and a major cultural influence of the United States spread across the world. And the, the Internet itself is a domain for free expression and free enterprise. but if we don't do the same, we don't have that same position with AI. Something that White House AI, czar, David Sachs has said, all future software will be AI. And so, if we're not in that same position, you have trillions of dollars of wealth and major cultural influence being concentrated in Beijing, not here in the United States.

Jenna Ellis: And by major cultural influence, do you mean the programming bias of AI or, or what exactly do you mean by that?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, absolutely. I mean we've already seen that Chinese AI, systems, they provide a version of their truth, that excludes topics that are sensitive to the Chinese government. So that's just one small example. But we ultimately, you know, you don't want to. Our major adversary to be hoovering up all the world's data.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, I mean that could have a lot of other implications and certainly for national security. But you know, the, the use of AI and you know, I mean I've, I've used CHAT GPT and you know, some of these tools more and seeing the bias and sometimes even just in the phrasing of the prompt, if, if ChatGPT comes back and says well you know, no, I can't, I can't fulfill that task or answer that question because it's too politically biased or you know, some of these things. It tends to already it tends to be a little bit biased against a more conservative position, which I think is interesting. even though there are a lot of even reports that, that conservatives and pastors even are getting sermon notes from ChatGPT, which I think is personally is a little bit lazy. But at the same time, you know, it can be a tool functionally just to aggregate a lot of data quickly. But the problem is that I think a lot of people are trusting in the, in their prompts and then chatgpt to not have a bias back and to say oh this is just an aggregate of the, of what I need to know based on that. And it seems like this, this analysis or this skepticism of ChatGPT is the same failure of skepticism that we've had previously for like Google search results. And, and we all saw, you know, when that was being manipulated to put things for example favorable for the Democrats in the early search results. And so how, how should that be ultimately regulated or at least maintained, especially assuming the United States gets to do this, not China, but to have that kind of information, to ensure that it's a lot more factual but then it's biased when the user actually wants it to be.

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, what's tricky here is that you don't want to create a regime where you have the government going in and essentially regulating speech, and regulating information, that tends to start to run into the First Amendment there. While I understand the bias concerns, the ultimate answer there is to make sure that we have a dynamic economy and a dynamic AI sector where consumers are able to choose between lots of different competing services. And thankfully right now in the air sphere, we do have a number of competing chat bots. You don't just have Gemini and ChatGPT, but you also have Grok as well. that's run by X elon Musk's X AI. So there's there and there are a number of other options as well. You have Anthropic with Claude, and a bunch of others that are coming online. But we want to make sure that there is still space for smaller entrepreneurs and smaller companies to innovate and produce competing chatbots as well. And that's why I think it's really important that we be cautious in terms of a knee jerk regulatory approach where you essentially lock in the existing players who have the resources to comply with any sort of new regulatory regime. But you, but you box out a potential upstart or an AI system that is working to compete by challenging some of the biases and model weights that you see in the existing models.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and this is also fascinating. I mean it's, it seems like it's so quickly outpacing what some of the projections were maybe not to you know, some of the tech experts, here. But you know, all of these concerns, also raise, as you mentioned, you know, there can be some First Amendment concerns. And what about privacy as well? Because especially with tools like OpenAI suggesting that the prompts and the conversations can be public, does that raise privacy concerns that other types of Internet usage in the past didn't?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, I think the privacy concerns are really similar, with AI to previous technologies.

Getting a national data privacy and security standard would be extremely helpful

And again as I said earlier, this is somewhere where Congress has dropped the ball. Even in the previous era of information technology, in the previous Internet era, we have been asking and asking and asking for a national privacy standard to avoid a lot of the problems I just talked about with regulatory capture and regulatory barriers. by having 50 different state privacy standards instead of having one national privacy standard that applies both online and offline. your grocery store knows a lot about you through your customer card, for example, what's being done with that data? How is that data being secured and stored? those are questions that are still out there, and those have important ramifications for AI as well. So if Congress really wants to spur AI Innovation, but also innovation in a lot of other sectors. Getting a national data privacy and security standard on the books would be extremely helpful.

Patrick Hedger: Public perception of privacy has shifted dramatically in tech age

Jenna Ellis: And I'm sitting with Patrick Hedger, who is the NetChoice director of policy on, the impact of AI and some of these predictions for 2026 and beyond, when it comes to privacy. I mean, this is always, to me a very interesting legal question. And to see how even the public perception of privacy has shifted so much, in the more booming tech age. And what we would have considered, privacy back even in the early 1990s, which I can remember being born in 1984, compared to now. And just to see how the younger generation, I mean, they're just so willing to share their location with friends and to, you know, turn on all of these, these technological advances that really eliminate a lot of privacy. And obviously they're choosing who they share it with. But at the same time, as you mentioned, that's going, to various, companies and it can be curated as far as data points. Where is that being secured? What's, being done with it? All of those questions. But the ultimate question of privacy, do you think, from a legal standpoint, and even more broadly a constitutional standpoint, the definitions and the expectations of privacy have shifted, in the modern era?

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, absolutely. And there's something I like to say, which is that one person's privacy is another person's inconvenience. Right. The way that the modern Internet works right now is that you get targeted advertising, right? It's based on, you know, the services learn about you and try to match you with advertisers based on what they know about you. And that's generally very good for the advertisers. It's also very good for consumers as well. They see products and services that they make that are very relevant to them may be useful to them, but they wouldn't otherwise maybe just watching tv, for example.

Jenna Ellis: Scrolling Instagram is my downfall, man. Yeah, scrolling Instagram is my downfall. But I love it because I see so many products in the way you're mentioning. Yes.

Patrick Hedger: Yeah. So, you know, we don't want to eliminate that. but it's about enabling choice, transparency. and also we don't want to try and regulate too much in the subjective side of privacy. Again, some people's definition of privacy varies significantly. What we want to do is try and regulate as much as possible, on the objective side, which is, related to how data is actually stored and secured. I think the number one thing that people are really concerned about, is when their information is leaked. Right. Nobody's upset when they give their credit card to Target, but when Target leaks that breached and that credit card information goes out, that's the problem. So how do we put in place, encouragement, perhaps safe harbor protections for companies that are meeting the basic cybersecurity and data security standards, to be able to protect consumer data?

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And you know, and just in the last few minutes here and I could talk about this all day, it's just such a fascinating topic and I appreciate your expertise and coming on this morning.

Patrick Hedger: Public education around AI should be paramount

but so given the complexity and the impact of all of these predictions and privacy issues and everything we've talked about m. What role should public education and civic AI literacy play, in just having the public more aware of some of these dangers that, you know, they may not even think about privacy and just assume that it's implicit when they're using a tool on their phone, but they're not necessarily considering what Congress should be addressing.

Patrick Hedger: Yeah, this is somewhere where again the government is a little bit behind. forget the AI age. Even in the Internet age, we should have been having a much more robust curriculum around online safety. because we know kids are going to be online whether, whenever they get online, they're going to be online for the rest of their lives. All of us use the Internet every single day. And this is an integral part of our economy. and much like we have driver's ed, we ought to be having online safety education as well because we acknowledge that this is a reality of modern life. and this is something that needs to. Is even more imperative as we move into the AI age. And it's also important that as AI moves into more and more parts of our economy, that kids are understanding what it is and know how to utilize it to be able to enhance their own careers. be able to utilize it as a tool, because it's going to be in the workplaces. So, that's somewhere where I think the states can take a strong lead. we've seen in states like Florida, for example, I push legislation, and now a law requiring online safety training and in the schools. and that's something that can be expanded to all 50 states should be and that's something where parents should be brought in as well. There's no reason we can't have public education campaigns around this.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. Well, Patrick Hedger, thank you so much again on your expertise and the article, if anyone else is interested in, reading all of those 10 different predictions. It's in Forbes, it's titled the year ahead in AI. 10 AI predictions for 2026. All of this is so fascinating. It has a lot of implications, for you, your family and, especially for the country moving forward. So we'll be right back, with more here on Jenna Ellis in the morning.

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 : welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

National Religious Broadcasters CEO Troy Miller talks about Christian broadcasting heading into 2026

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, heading into 2026, there are a lot of implications for the First Amendment and, well, as well and the National Religious Broadcasters, organization has been on the forefront of ensuring, that we maintain those, implicit God given rights, especially for Christian broadcasters. And so NRB, is also celebrating America's 250th anniversary. And so let's welcome in their CEO and President, Troy Miller. So, Troy, happy NewSong Year and you know, give us an overview of kind of where we're headed in the broadcast world and especially as it relates to Christian Broadcasting for 2026.

Troy Miller: Good morning, Jenna, and thanks for having me. Happy NewSong Year to you as well. Look, I think for Christian broadcasting, you know, on one sense, I think we have a lot of momentum in our sales right now. We did a study last year that found that 66% of Americans, found that Christian broadcasting was both valuable and trustworthy. That is almost 100 times higher than the mainstream media has out there. And so you know we have a big responsibility here, but we have a lot of headwinds to go against too. we still have an industry that I think looks at us as a thorn in their side. They don't like public interest programming. they especially don't like Christian broadcasting and mainstream media would love to see us go away because we cover all of the subjects and topics they, they won't.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. Which is so incredibly true. I mean when I've been a contributor to other broadcast channels that are not explicitly Christian, it was very interesting to see some of the, for me to see some of the behind the scenes discussions on the production of topics and stories. like for example when you know, Congress was trying to determine the issue of of their quote unquote Protection of Marriage act, but which we all knew was really a disrespect, for Marriage act and you know, pushing forward some of the same sex marriage issues and how even some conservative channels were still not explicitly Christian and not wanting to carry that view. Which is why Christian broadcasting is, it's so important to protect that so that we ensure that we protect the biblical worldview and getting that out there for not just people who want to hear that but for people who may otherwise not even come across that.

NRB sees growing bias in corporate America against Christian message heading into 2026

And so so what are the, some of the the issues that, that you foresee heading into 2026, whether it's you know, legal or constitutional on you know, the First Amendment side. But you know, some of the areas that we as Christians need to be aware of.

Troy Miller: Well I think one of them we have to watch is still the growing bias in corporate America, against any kind of, you know, Christian message we've seen. The Trump administration has thankfully cleaned up a lot of the weaponization that was going on in the various government agencies and institutions across the executive branch. But we're still seeing this growing bias in corporate America, especially on the social media companies. You know, we still have a lot of, of our members that are reporting that their content is either getting you know, pushed down in the algorithms or they're getting outright banned, off of platforms for certain topics and conversations that they say. So that's going to be a big one going into 2026. Plus we're looking at where the Federal Communications Commission is going to go on media ownership. there's been a big push to expand the media ownership levels across the country. Currently, corporations are restricted to only own about 39% of a market, and they can't own more than four stations. There's a whole bunch of rules there. We really watching this one. We're getting ready to file on this. We see this expansion of ownership as a real issue because I think we've all seen, Jenna, over the last, decade that large media organizations are not necessarily good for the population and certainly not good for independent voices.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And. And in tandem with that, we've also seen, I think, the rise of a demand for more, biblically centered and Christian content. I mean, especially with, the assassination of Charlie Kirk in, September and seeing, the genuine spark of revival across the world, in the wake of that, it's. It was a really good thing that there are so many Christian broadcasters that were available to meet that need and, you know, pastors who could, who could use some of these platforms to answer some of these questions that people were openly asking. You know, all of those things are so important. And what has NRB observed about, that trend upward, especially since September of last year, in terms of the demand for Christian broadcasting?

Troy Miller: Yeah, I mean, from what we're hearing from ministries across the country is just a, ah, pretty good significant increase in, you know, viewership, listenership, church attendance, attendance to Christian conferences, especially Bible, centered conferences or theological conferences. We've seen those conferences have seen, I think I heard anywhere from 20 to 30% growth in the attendance, across the board. I think we see record numbers of attendance when they come out here during this Christmas, holiday season. And you're exactly right. I think it's a real counter, you know, Charlie Kirk's assassination, his murder, you know, woke up a lot of the younger, folks who found out that the left and the progressives were really lying to them about, you know, their whole, nonviolent movement and also a lot of other issues. So we've seen a lot of people turning to Christian media to get the truth again, even before Charlie Kirk's assassination. Back with our survey last year, you know, the number one reason, number one and two reasons why, people tuned into Christian media was to, first of all, to find encouragement and hope in a society that's constantly feeding them, you know, conflict and, other things, but also to find the truth and how it was going to make their lives better. And so that's so important for us to continue, to build on that trust and to build on that kind of content that people, that these younger Americans particularly are looking for yeah, absolutely.

NRB is advocating for AM radio for every vehicle act on Capitol Hill

Jenna Ellis: And with that, the NRB is also advocating for the AM radio for every vehicle act on the Hill this, month. And, that is important as well to protect, not only free speech and conservative voices, but particularly biblical content. And so, you know, it may seem like, you know, I think the counter to that as well. People can stream, you know, anything on demand. And it seems like, you know, AM radio, there's not a lot of the younger people that are necessarily tuning into that. But, But at the same time, there's a reason that you're still advocating, for that position.

Troy Miller: Yeah, exactly. You know, there's a couple of reasons out there. First of all, you know, AM radio still has 80 million, strong and listeners, across this country. It still serves the number one outlet for the emergency broadcast system for during times of natural dis and other emergencies across the country. But it's also, it's free. It's free. You don't have to have an app. You don't have to download an app in your car. You don't need Internet access in your vehicle. you have your radio. You just simply tune your dial and you can listen to what you want to listen to without anybody controlling that access to the car. So that's one of the main reasons we're advocating for this, so that the listeners in their vehicle, they have the choices available to them. Free choice. If the car manufacturers get their way, you'll have to get a subscription in order to get Internet service in your car. So there's one fee you have to pay. But the bigger thing, Jenna, is they now have control with that subscription of what you can and can't listen to. They could decide what apps show up on that app store in your car and what apps don't. And I'll give you an example of that. Just recently, General Motors has announced that it will no longer in its vehicles, include connectivity for Apple CarPlay or for Android Auto. And that's again, because they want to be able to control the access to that information. And like I said before, we've had way too much control by corporate America to information to what should be free, available information to every American.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, I'm speaking with national religious broadcaster CEO and president Troy Miller. And, that one issue, control of access to information, I think is the. Is the critical point and hopefully what, members in Congress will recognize as the critical point. I mean, there was, you know, very, very famously, you know, there have been a few different, you know, lawsuits against other curators of content. And you know, even when you look at apps and things like like Spotify for example, where a lot of people go for their music, they have their different. If Spotify chooses to say, well, we're not going to have this song available, well, you know, even if you have downloaded it, it's just not available through the app yet. I mean I was you know, on Netflix the other day and it was saying, you know, leaving soon, you know, this show, in this show. And so it's like you're not going to have access through that platform, to certain content. And so I think we've become a little bit too conditioned in 2026 to say, well, I just have these subscriptions and whatever they provide instead of actual ownership or ability to choose what I want to listen to or watch or any of that content, I'm just going to choose from whatever the provider curates and is pushing to me that is available. And there is a real bias there.

Troy Miller: Oh absolutely, Real bias. I mean we have experience with this coming out of COVID you know, look at how corporate America, corporate social media, and corporate mainstream media wanted to control all the COVID messaging. And of course post that now we're finding out that all of the messaging they tried to control was really propaganda and indoctrination for their agenda on this. And we, you know, we just looked at the January 6th events, that happened yesterday. We had the same thing there. The narrative was controlled by a certain group of people. And we see it, like I said, we're still experiencing that bias and that discrimination today. So adding the auto manufacturers is one more now gatekeeper into that is look that's very, very harmful to the American public.

Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And if you. And I will just say as, as an Apple user, if they took away CarPlay, that would completely discourage me from choosing that car. Even when I go to rent a car I always ask, you know, you need, I need CarPlay just simply for GPS and functionality and just And because I'm so used to it, then it's easier for me as a driver to use the tools that I'm familiar with. But it just shows how so many different corporate interests are ahead of the actual experience for the user and wanting to foreclose some of my options and your options instead of making it more user friendly and, and it, it seems like that the focus on the consumer, if there ever really was the focus on the consumer instead of Kind of what drives the bottom line. But it seems like there's less and less, with the advancements of some of this technology on the consumer and choice and availability versus this kind of curated push toward bias. I mean, is that a trend that you're seeing, with, you know, some of these issues?

Troy Miller: Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, having come out of corporate America myself, you know, I think there was a time where corporate America, you know, you looked at your consumer, you looked at your, the folks who bought your products as a partnership. You know, you were providing a service, you were providing a product. You wanted that to be the best experience for them. But in our technology world today, I think so many corporations just look at their customers, as another data point. and again behind what's in the car manufacturers here is if you control that access point to those consumers, then you can control all the data about that consumer. And while the subscriptions may be worth millions of dollars, the data tracking us, and all of our habits, what we do, where we drive, what kind of businesses we pass on our way to work or our way to church, that data is worth billions of dollars. And that has really changed the corporate mindset of how they relate to consumers out there. It's not so much about a partnership anymore is that you, the consumer, are also a product for them to sell at some point to someone else.

Trey Miller: Privacy issues in big tech have biblical implications

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, which just gets into what we're talking about in the first segment with privacy issues and, and data curation and where that is stored and how that gets to other people. and we have a real issue with privacy in, in the big tech, you know, industry, that is, is being shaped, I think, and determined for the future, especially with artificial intelligence. And then, you know, some of these other issues with car manufacturers removing, removing these traditional, radio hardware from their cars and just, I mean so many other examples. And so I think Christians need to be paying attention to these issues because it may not seem on its face like it's you know, an issue like, you know, pro life that we're ardently advocating for. And we all see those connections to the biblical worldview. But this really does have biblical worldview, implications when we're talking about things, like privacy, what our kids have access to, our data, how it's stored. I mean, all of these things, ah, really come back to founding principles which are predicated on a biblical worldview. So, how Troy Miller can, can people who are listening get involved in helping NRB advocate, for this legislation and you know, for, for Christian broadcasting overall in 2026.

Troy Miller: Yeah, so you can go to nrb.org that's our main, ah, webpage out there. We have sections that will cover all of the issues that we're addressing, all of these issues with corporate America bias as well. You can also, find out the different webinars and things that we do throughout the year, to help educate people on these issues. And of course we hold the largest, conference of Christian media professionals, the NRBs international, conference for Christian Media. It's going to be in Nashville, Tennessee, in February 17th through the 20th at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. And it's a place for anybody who wants to really increase the way you do your communications even on your own social media platforms. Because really Jenna, today everybody is a communicator, out there. And so you'll find out that you might meet your favorite, radio host, podcast host or personalities there, walk in the halls, and you'll really get a lot of information about what's going on in the culture today in the area of communications.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, looking forward to seeing you there. And we're going to take a break here. Troy Miller, and he's going to stay on, to join me in the next segment because I have a few other topics as well to discuss with him. But yeah, the National Religious Broadcasters event is always really great. And as you mentioned, I mean almost everyone today, if you have any questions, kind of social media is a broadcaster, you're a publisher. And to optimize that to your own personal ministry, you know, there's some really great tools available, @nrb.org so make sure that you check that out. And we will be right back with Trey Miller right after this.

Jenna Ellis: How has the Trump administration been helpful to Christian broadcasters

Troy Miller: welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And we are still here with national religious broadcaster, CEO and president Troy Miller. And before the break he was talking about how nrb, is having this annual, convention in Nashville next month, February 17th through 20th. And they're also celebrating America's 250th anniversary, hosting a celebration in partnership with the White House, which I think Troy is fantastic that that shows how much the Trump administration in this current White House is supportive of Christian broadcasters, the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy that are protected by the First Amendment, that are God given rights, but protected by the First Amendment. And so how has the Trump administration and this partnership with the White House, really been helpful to Christians broadcasters. And do we still have Troy? All right, so we're going to be checking on, Troy Miller and seeing what about that connection? Because I think he's still here. But our great producers Devin and Adam are, or looking at that, but, and they're going to try to recall him. So, while we're doing that though, you know, I can just tell you from personal experience that I'm so grateful that the Trump administration has this perspective on, Christian broadcasting, on protecting the freedoms and liberties that are God given and protected by the First Amendment. and can you imagine if Kamala Harris had been elected? And, the differences that we would see between this administration versus what we saw in the Biden administration, the targeting of Christians for, merely exercising our rights to advocate for and even protest, things like, abortion and you know, other issues in policy. it's really incredibly important that we are thankful and grateful for what the Trump administration is doing. And I'm told that we have a Troy Miller back and so is asking. I'm not sure if you heard the question, but about NRB hosting a celebration in partnership with the White House to commemorate America's, 250th anniversary and how the Trump administration, has been helpful in protecting the rights of Christian broadcasters.

Troy Miller: Yeah. Thank you. And they have. Boy, the Trump administration, again, this administration has probably been one of the friendliest administration certainly in recent history, if not going back a long time to Christians in general, but, particularly Christian broadcasters, with a number of issues. The White House supports the AM radio and every DASH Act. They support the local Radio Freedom Act. They support, just a number of things, that are helping Christian broadcasters move forward, plus the deregulation. And we started working with them all the way back in March of last year about the America 250 celebration. And right, Jenna, right from the beginning, the White House said, we want to make sure we have a major component of this that talks about the Christian foundation behind the independence of our country. And so that's what we have been working with the White House on. we worked with them on the America Praise initiative that was just launched. and we're asking churches and individuals to be praying for our country, between now and the Fourth of July celebration. But our celebration is going to focus on that at the NRB convention. The rich heritage, the rich foundation of this country, that the fathers really built it upon. The Christian Principles, you get it everywhere from the Mayflower Compact all the way into the charters for the first states. and then of course, into the Declaration itself, where it tells our rights, our inelable rights come from our Creator. They don't come from government. They certainly don't come from a king or a monarchy. And, so that's what we're going to be celebrating and working, as I said, hand in hand with the White House's, America 250 and now Freedom 250 teams.

Jenna Ellis: That's amazing and incredible, and I'll look forward to, seeing everything that is in store at the NRB convention and, in the last units that we have here as well.

NRB is helping to combat Christian persecution worldwide

I also want to talk about, how the NRB is helping to combat Christian persecution worldwide. so you recently participated in a Christian persecution awareness event at the Museum of the Bible. you know, one of the best spots in D.C. for anyone who may be going to D.C. in the forthcoming year. you don't want to miss the Museum of the Bible. It's just amazing. but also released a joint statement, with across Nigeria on President Trump's, ISIS airstrikes, thanking Trump for acting decisively to protect persecuted Christians in Nigeria and for honoring his commitments on this issue.

Troy Miller: Yeah, absolutely, Jenna. You know, right now, around the world, nearly 320 million Christians live under some sort of an oppressive government, that doesn't. That really persecutes them for their faith. right now, the, Voice of the Martyrs has said the most dangerous, religion to hold, the most dangerous belief to hold is that of Christianity, around the world. And Nigeria has been a hotspot for several years now. but this year in particular, the isis, the radical Islamic groups of the northern part of the country, they basically decided they were going to purge, Nigeria of all Christianity. And so they would come into villages and tell people, either you have 24 hours to leave, or sometimes they didn't give them notice. They just came in and slaughtered everyone. And so we have been working hard on this with a number of folks up in Congress. We were happy that the president, first of all, this, last fall, once again designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern. that hits a whole bunch of policy issues in the State Department. But then finally, you know, when Nigeria and when the rebels didn't, you know, heed to his warning, we know that we have a president of action. And I know this has been a controversial issue within the Christian community. Like, when is it right for, you know, Christians to engage in this. But the government, this is the government's role. The government has a role in protection. And we have to remember that it is just as sinful for us to not do things, the sin of omission as it is the sin of commission. And so we have been supportive of the President in this area. He's also in Syria, and other areas around the country. And we're going to keep this issue right at the forefront.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And it is so important and I think it's it's really interesting to see how you, for as much as we are advocates and we should be in the United States to continue to protect and preserve the freedoms and liberties that are God given, that our Constitution, including our First Amendment preserve and protect and we are advocates for that. We can't forget as Christians that those very same rights that God endows to us here in America are endowed to every human being, who is made in his image. And across the world there are so many that don't even have the ability to exercise their God given freedoms in the same ways that we do. And it's such a blessing and privilege to live in America because we can still advocate for these issues, we can exercise our first freedoms but we can't forget about those people around the world that need so much more help. And I think it's incredible that nrb, is helping with this and you know, and it reminds me of the first Trump administration with the ministerial on religious freedom and how much the focus was on maintaining and advocating for religious freedom in you know, some of these countries. And I was actually just talking to Trey Miller, I was talking to President Trump's ambassador for religious freedom that his nominee, that who hasn't yet been confirmed. I was speaking with him last night and you know, hopeful that the Senate will push that forward really soon. And I think you know they're getting a lot of traction on that which is great, be praying for that. but it's it's just yet another conflict between a, an administration I think that is promoting religious freedom, is partnering with organizations like the nrb, you know, and other to do that versus a Congress that just doesn't seem to have those same priorities.

Troy Miller: Yeah, you know Congress is, we have some great congressmen who do have, who pushed this issue and made it to the forefront. But you know Congress is locked in so much of a, of a bipartisan, right now it's just, it's really sad that they can't get things done. Even within our own party, we've had problems, within the Republican Party has had problems trying to get things done. So that's an issue. But look, the president has stepped up to the plate. He's not waiting for Congress, to do it. He has two commissions now that are going on religious freedom, one looking at it from a broad spectrum. And then the attorney general is looking at the weaponization of government that went on, against Christians and against religion. And so, so both of those are great moves by the administration and we applaud them. we're a part of those. And we just want to keep this issue going because as you said, with all that, God has blessed our country with the freedoms that we have, with the abilities we have, with the resources we have. I think with that comes great responsibility and we can't simply abandon the world for, for this isolationist kind of view.

Jenna Ellis: So well said. And Troy Miller, I really appreciate the work that you and NRB are doing and look forward to speaking with you soon. Follow him on X. And as always, you can reach me m and my team. Jennaafr.net PreBorn's whole mission is to rescue babies from abortion and lead their families to Christ. Last year PreBorn's network of clinics saw 8,900 mothers come to Christ. Christ, please join us in this life saving mission. To donate, go to preborn.com afr.