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Jenna Ellis: When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound it's divine connection

Jenna Ellis: 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 she can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside her. One ultrasound is just $28 and to donate, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr Jenna 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.

Wolf in Conservative Clothing: Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News three years ago

Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Wednesday, June 24, and we have a Wolf in Conservative Clothing update for you. And unfortunately, we're talking about Tucker Carlsen, remember, you know, back like three years ago when he was fired from Fox News and conservatives were saying, well, finally Tucker is unleashed and he can actually give his real opinions and we're going to get some amazing news and analysis. And Fox was holding him back. Well, maybe that was actually a good thing. The moral of the story is that authority and, production, is actually a good thing. And, that we should all be very thankful for people, in our lives who, actually restrain, some of the more extreme and really just frankly unbiblical, viewpoints. But, it's been a really wild journey watching Tucker over the last three years. And I've commented, of course, on the views that I disagree with because regardless of whether anyone is a personal friend of mine or I know them, through politics or, you know, my former work for President Trump, if you're in the public square, viewpoints and critiques and criticism of content is of course fine, and that's what we should do as discerning Christians. But, but I haven't really commented as much on the personal side because I do know Tucker, personally. I mean, I met him through my work with President Trump, used, to appear frequently on his Fox show. And.

Tucker Carlson recently announced that he has left the Republican Party

And yet it's just, it's just come to the point where I think we need to talk about this overall because Tucker, has recently, as of this week, not only announced that he has left the Republican Party. And, you know, fine we can all criticize the gop, and then we can ask the question, well, where else will you go? and that's an interesting question. But the rationale and reasons for leaving the GOP for him, at least. At least is how he has articulated it is not so much based on conservative principles and saying, well, the GOP has gone the way of embracing some leftist policies and some things that they would have never done, 20 and 30 years ago, like, the, in some parts, the homosexual and LGBTQ agenda. But he's kind of going all in on defending Muslims and defending, all of these positions of false religions that really absolutely make no sense. But when you recognize that Tucker himself does not profess or really claim to be a Christian, and he has not, at least as far as I have known him or for as long as I have known him, then it makes a little more sense why you can start getting off on the wrong trail like Pilgrim's Progress. And when little, Christian decided to step onto the easier road, and eventually it led to the castle despair. Well, eventually Tucker is going to find himself in the castle despair. But listen to what Tucker and, theologian, as some people are calling him, J.D. hall, are talking about trying to actually to defend Muslims. this is, Oh, and actually, I didn't want to play that clip. I wanted to play also what Tucker was saying, why he's out as a Republican. This is cut to. I would not support the Republican Party. There's no chance I would support the Republican Party. Not going to support the Democratic Party. I don't know what I'm going to do. But at this point, you know, how could you support. How could I, or any American voter support a political party that's not loyal to the United States, that puts the interests of a foreign country above those of its own citizens? Like, that's. That's, you know, it's not possible to vote for people like that, and I'm not going to. And I think I voted Republican my entire life. I worked at Fox News, CNN, MSNBC. I've been, a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party. I mean, very consistent defender. But there's no defending this because it's immoral. And it's exactly the opposite of what a political party in a democracy is charged with doing, which is representing its own voters, its own citizens, its own nation. And they're not doing that. So, no, I'm out. And if I'm out, then I think a lot of other people are out.

Steve Dace: Tucker Berry is claiming to be a Christian

Jenna Ellis: All Right. So clearly he's talking about Israel and suggesting that somehow the support for Israel from America and is in this kind of, you know, America only camp. But notice how he doesn't actually articulate any sort of principles that he, that he really disagrees with other than Israel, hatred beyond the support for Muslims, as well, and, and suggesting somehow that there is some kind of immorality. But he's never specific because he can't be because it's not actually true. And so, before I just start ranting the whole time, let's welcome in Steve Dace, who is a radio host over at the Blaze and one of my favorite people to rant with. And Steve, this just boils down to me to someone who has completely lost their way and maybe has always been more to the left perhaps than the caricature or the the host that he played on Fox. Well, he had some really good producers and writers working for him and now we are unfortunately instead of, you know, Tucker's been released and we're all going to have this amazing conservative content, we're now seeing the real wolf in conservative clothing.

Steve Deace: Good morning, Jenna. I'm going to slightly differ with you on a couple points here, but we're going to end up at the same place. And the reason why is because I've also had a lot of personal exposure to Tucker the last few years. And if you'll recall, the very first event that he publicly did after Fox fired him was the leadership summit with the presidential candidates here in Iowa. And I got him that gig. So I've had quite a bit of exposure to him and I've had even private conversations with him just in the last few months. And I think the danger of everything he is doing is because he is couching at his Christianity. He is claiming to be a Christian. He is claiming that he is speaking for Christianity. And after Charlie's funeral, I said to my private staff, my personal staff, Todd and Eryn, I said, mark my words, what's going to happen with Charlie gone is he's going to now put himself in the, he's going to try to put himself in this void as the first bishop of redefining American Protestantism. And that's exactly what has gone on since last October, little by little. And now Tucker Berry clearly believes that Israel is a uniquely evil nation. He's communicated this to me directly. He clearly believes Bibi Netanyahu is a uniquely evil leader in the world. He's communicated this to me Directly. And if you look at what he says when he goes to places like Saudi Arabia and he says instead of an empty room, by the way, he's in an empty room in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, just a few months ago. You know, I'm a serious Christian sitting here in the seat of Islam, he says, and I feel safe, secure and confident in my faith. Now notice the room is empty because it's not full with all the Christians going to public churches in Saudi Arabia, because there aren't any public churches in Saudi Arabia. So the Christians wouldn't be allowed in the room to cheer on their fellow Christian, allegedly in such a place. But when he says things like Qatar has more Christians than Israel, I mean, that's technically true if you count the fact that they bring in hundreds of thousands of migrant and slave labor Christians, from other countries, to work in their oil fields and in their manufacturing plants. None of them are citizens. There are, I think less than 200, Christians who have citizenship in Qatar. Meanwhile, there's something like 180,000 Christians who have citizenship in Israel. Right. This is a. He is clearly, a modern day Marcion. And Marcion is, I would argue, is one of the three great heretics of antiquity. Marcion, Arius and Pelagius. All the various heresies within the church ever since. They're embodied in all three of these. And what Marcion attempted to do was divorce Christianity from Judaism. Say they're two separate religions, two separate things. Not in the ways where Christians argue with Jews about whether Yeshua is Messiah and therefore the fulfillment of God's covenant or not. But fundamentally, like different gods speak here, fundamentally, the Old and NewSong Testaments are not connected, fundamentally, the Jews did not have the oracles of God, as Paul said, that these are completely different. Entirely, different, religions and origins and should have no connection to one another. In fact, Justin Martyr, one of the great church fathers, addressed this in a book that he wrote called Dialogue with Trifo, where he was trying to convince, ah, a fictional Jew, or maybe a real one, we're not sure. But it's written like a conversation, that he needs to follow Jesus, as Messiah, otherwise his soul is damned. But he does so by arguing against what Marcion was saying and saying Jesus is the fulfillment of his Jewish hope. At the exact same time, this is what Tucker has been attempting to do. This is what this entire sect is attempting to do. you'll look at my Twitter feed at Steve Dashiell, you'll see me Responding to a guy who used to. Who's a senior fellow at the Ron Paul Institute and was a senior staffer for Ron Paul as a member of Congress. This idea that we're going to link arms with Islam and that there's really much more in common with Islam. And I find this, the irony of all this, this is classic deconstruction. It doesn't hold up to any form of apologetic reputation, which is why you see Tucker, booking C listers and D listers and G listers and Q listers on a show that nobody knows or cares about. He's handpicking audiences. It's why you see him give interviews to podcasts you've never heard of. We tried for months to get him on our show. He'll never do it. Why?

Steve Deace: I would destroy him. And he knows this, right? And this is what all great heretics do. They operate in the shadows. They pick and choose their spots. He is attempting to redefine Protestant Christianity and do so affirmatively. And he's attempting to redirect history. He is essentially saying, the covenant did not come through Isaac, but it came through Ishmael. That's essentially what he is saying. And the great irony of all of this, for his claim to be. He goes on in that same clip to say, or a party who wants to do what's in the best interest of corporations. Listen, pal, if you're just now complaining that we're complaining that Republicans are too close to corporations, what the heck? That's why we got Trump. People complained about this for 40 years. The entire time you're on all those networks, and you seem totally fine with it then and now you have a problem. The whole thing's a lie. The whole thing's a scam because it comes from the father of lies. It's easily debunkable with anybody with a modicum of apologetic knowledge. That's why he's finding people who don't, so that he can pick people off. It's classic cult leader ghost, ghost. You, know, gaslighting technique. But what I'm saying is true. But I could be wrong. Okay, well, you know, I really firmly believe this, but, you know, you know, I'm wrong all the time. So who knows? This guy is an absolute wannabe cult leader, no question about it. And he's deconstructing into one of the great heretics of the age. And the great irony of him claiming that we are. We have to. That we're so solidified with Israel that we're putting their interests Ahead of ours is while being the most pro Zionist president we've ever had, Trump has assembled also the most comprehensive list of Arab allies we've ever had. To the point, Jenna, that people like you and me are concerned that Qatar and Saudi Arabia are having too much influence in our pop culture. Too much influence in our sports with Saudi Arabian investment. That's what's so ironic about this. He wants to make this claim. At the same time what he's complaining about actually is not happening. But again, that's always what the great heretics do.

Jenna Ellis: Hm.

Charlie Fleischer: Tucker Carlson is trying to destroy Christianity in America

And this is really fascinating to me because, I have never, in all my conversations with Tucker and I actually, I talked to him, right after the infamous, interview with Ted Cruz and was saying, you need to have, some, Some pastors on who can explain all of this. And of course he doesn't want to because he wants to undermine, the. The actual Christianity in America. Right. But he never claims, at least to me, to be a Christian. And when I was on his show, quite a bit, during, not only when I was representing Trump, but when I was representing, Pastor Jon MacArthur during the COVID shutdown, he would actually distance himself from the, From Christianity and from the truth and say, you know, I things. And of course I'm paraphrasing, but basically, overall, well, you know, I'm Episcopalian, but I don't really, you know, believe much and would definitely couch himself as someone other than, being a part of the church. But where. I think you're totally right and it's fascinating to me to hear your side of your conversations with him, and what he's represented, of course, on his show, where I think this is really interesting is that he is clearly. He is clearly. And this is where we totally are coming to the same point. he is trying to destroy the influence of truthful Christianity in America by embracing Christian nationalism, by embracing antisemitism, by embracing, these false views of Muslims saying, suggesting that there's somehow these peaceful people and trying purposefully to tear down the biblical worldview. And it's of course his points when he has people on, like Ted Cruz and tries to make a mockery and, you know, get them in these situations with these gotcha questions that really aren't in good faith. And so the point, I think here is that people need to be careful who they listen to. And also, how some people can, as time goes on, show more and more who they are. Because I used to listen to Tucker quite a bit when he was on Fox, and I thought he did a great job.

Steve Deace: I would argue. I would argue his body of work at Fox News. Next to Rush Limbaugh, his body of work at Fox News is the most important body of work anybody on the right has assembled in a career,

Jenna Ellis: isn't it? Yeah. And so isn't it tragic?

Steve Deace: Marcion was the son of a bishop. Right. Frankie Schaefer is out there trying to undo his entire. His father's entire legacy, Francis Schaefer, and has for decades. Jon Piper's now out there doing some of the worst atheist videos you could imagine. That even other atheists are like, dude, that's so dumb. Stop doing it. Ron Reagan Jr. Has been out there trying to deconstruct his father's legacy for 40 years. It happens. Yeah.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And so. So where do you think over the last three years? The question is, do you think that Tucker was just playing a role? Kind of like, you know, Steven Colbert when he used to do the Colbert Report? Or, is he. Yeah. Where do you think he got off?

Steve Deace: Classic deconstruction always begins with a sympathetic premise. well, I'm an atheist now because I, was abused in the church and nobody did anything where I'm an atheist now or I'm agnostic now or. Or I'm a heretic now because they. Some televangelist swindle my grandmother out of retirement. Nobody did anything. It always starts with something that people can identify with. Otherwise you wouldn't fall for the deconstruction. Tucker correctly deduced that the last era of neocon foreign policy was a colossal failure. Lie and killed a whole bunch of people, Arab, Israeli, and American alike, for nothing. Accomplished nothing in Iraq, accomplished nothing in Afghanistan, and actually accomplished less than nothing. Now, who are most of the neocons? Jews. So I think it starts with that premise and just start deconstructing from there. What else are these people attached to? What else did they lie to us about? And you just. You just do the Weezer sweater song. Just pull on that thread, and you keep going and going and going. And you said something key earlier, because he has no pastoral accountability, because he doesn't want any. You don't know where he goes to church. We all knew where Charlie went to church. We all knew his pastor. We all knew the other pastors he put in his life for accountability. You don't know any of that with Tucker. He's. He's a. He's a law unto himself. So you just keep going and going and going. You get your own aberrant views of information, your own aberrant ecosystems, alternative histories. And sooner or later you're debating whether or not maybe Hitler was misunderstood and had it was on the right side of history and Churchill was wrong. And you just keep deconstructing over and over and over and over again. And before that, before you know it, without that theological basis to land on, you end up becoming just an absolute agent, a malevolent agent for the spirit of the age. And that's where he is right now, his eternal soul. You're watching someone's eternal soul in peril. That's what you're watching.

Jenna Ellis: And we need to be very careful, as the Bible says, you'll know them by their fruit, not just by their following or how popular they are or the work that they used to do. this is where Christians need to use discernment.

Steve Dase criticizes Tucker Carlson ahead of America's 250th birthday

And it's been fascinating to me, at least in, you know, some of my circles, that most of the people who used to like Tucker, as we did on Fox, are no longer listening to him and are rightly calling him out. And I'm at least encouraged to see that and to see that most of the more prominent, conservatives, at least, you know, like you are not falling for this and are not saying, well, we can't criticize Tucker just because he's Tucker. That would be the wrong way to go.

Steve Deace: Agreed. Now I think, you know, you give someone. I gave him a lot of rope. I told my team internally from the beginning we were going to end up here, but I wanted to be wrong, but. And I gave him a lot of rope because I was still able to communicate with him privately. and I also want to be able to tell my audience when we got, inevitably got to this spot and I was going to have to bring the hammer down, hey, I did everything I could to not get to this point. And to me we all have the tap out point. To me, the tap out point is when he tried to retcon the book of Esther as really a book of Persian genocide and not the the sustaining of the Messianic covenant. And so that is just a complete Islamic tactic. 180 in the Bible, turning it into the upside down, you know, inside out. and it's very Marcion. And there's nothing new under the sun, just new people under the sun who haven't heard it yet. These are all the old demons, all the old heresies of antiquity, all the old gods. All this is now returning in our

Jenna Ellis: Godless age and we have to be very careful. And Steve, just In the last 30 seconds, I also want to mention that you have a great book out called why Independence Day. You can get it from Amazon. America is Great because God is Good. This is a great kids book. So you can, you still have time listeners to get this for your kids, before Independence Day. So it's called why Independence Day? America is Great because God is Good. get that from Amazon, support Steve Dase and have a great book, for your kids. And you know, we have to continue to support conservatives who are grounded in truth and theology like Steve. So Steve, really appreciate it and being willing to criticize even rightly our friends. We'll be right back with more. America's 250th birthday.

Steve Deace: It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that.

Steve Deace: 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.

38% of American adults are estranged from at least one family member

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

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, there is a really sad statistic right now that the Epoch Times has brought to light in their article going no contact. How can we counter the trend of family estrangement? So family estrangement is becoming more common, but it carries long term emotional costs for everyone involved. So according to the article, the research that it Cites suggests that 38% of American adults are estranged from at least one family member. And roughly one in four adult children have gone no contact with a parent. And so we're seeing the intentional family breakdown that's being encouraged by a culture that argues that cutting off family members, is increasingly being viewed as an acceptable solution to conflict. And so social media therapy, language, online communities have made estrangement more visible and according to the article, in some circles more socially acceptable instead of understanding that reconciliation is actually the biblical virtue. So forgiveness, humility, seeking peace, seeking reconciliation, and rightness rather than permanent separation. And so a culture, and I've seen this across, social media as well and even through, you know, friends who we've talked about how, you know, the culture, encourages you that, that if anyone is toxic in your life, just cut them out. To quote, unquote, protect your peace and While obviously you don't want to, allow people to abuse you or consistently, harm you. The, the whole concept of human relationship, necessarily because we are fallen and we are all sinful, we fall short of the glory of God. It necessarily will include conflict, it will include sin that is, perpetuate against each other. And necessarily relationships include some brokenness that we have to restore. And so, it's been interesting to me even throughout my unfortunately, very, very long, dating life over the last, you know, probably 20 years. One of the most common threads that I've seen, across relationships, that I've had is the lack of, of conflict resolution skills. And this has been one of the things that I've asked, you know, people if of men, if I'm considering dating them, you know, what is your conflict resolution style? And the question is geared more toward basically do you understand the biblical view of conflict, resolution? Because conflict will happen and how you resolve it and whether you care more to resolve with friends who you are in conflict with and especially your family will necessarily influence how people approach relationships and how people also view conflict in the context of marriage. And so, I think this is something that we need to talk about because the contrast between modern individualism or protecting your peace at all costs with the biblical view that family ships are covenantal and worth fighting for wherever possible. Even if you completely disagree with the family member, there's still a way generally usually to humble yourself and at least be willing to acknowledge, even with non Christian family members, just understand and accept that they're not going to behave at all times Christianly, they're not necessarily going to agree. But if you are called to love them, you can still show that Christlike love without even expecting anything in return. And so these family relationships are worth fighting for whenever possible. And again, it doesn't mean tolerating abuse. there are definitely biblical circumstances where divorce is biblically appropriate, unfortunately. But it does mean overall valuing reconciliation over separation. And so let's welcome in Rhyen Helfenbein, who is the vice President of Communications and Public engagement at Liberty University and the founding executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.

Ryan: The modern therapeutic culture is truly narcissistic

And Rhyen, you know, this, this kind of hyper individualism that we're seeing in our culture and especially the therapy that that is a kind of prolific mantra right now that you know, anyone toxic, just cut them out of your life. This is encouraging not only loneliness, but continued brokenness and not actually valuing the biblical view of restoration.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, no. 100%, Jenna. And it just, it reflects. The modern therapeutic culture is truly narcissistic because it does focus on the individual at the expense of all others. And of course, as Christians, we understand that God not only designed us for him, and to be in right relationship with him, but also to be in right relationship with others. And our first community is, course, family. so going all the way back to Genesis, you know, God designed us and patterned us in such a way that we would seek relationships with one another. It is not good for man to be alone. And in our modern therapeutic, moralistic, therapeutic culture, the most. The most basic understanding is the self. it is all about, rewarding the self. It is all about, self care. it is all about self preservation. but what we quickly understand is that when these relationships are broken and they're not restored, when there is no healing. Ah, when, when ultimately, there's enmity between one another, a root of bitterness can take hold and it can. It can fester for a long time and never fully heal. I'm reminded of what Paul writes to the Corinthian Church when he talks about making our appeal, to this world and before God to be reconciled. He says, all this is from God, who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself, gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And I think so for Christians, there's all kinds of estrangement that can happen. There's broken relationships, there's broken trust. There's, certainly people who have been harmed and maybe even abused by a close family member. As much as it is up to us, as much as it is on us, there is a responsibility as a Christian to try and reconcile that relationship. Sometimes we can't. Sometimes that's not our choice. Sometimes it's a situation where someone just refuses either to repent or to offer up forgiveness, and they just won't do it. And Jenna, I've walked through a season of life that was kind of like that. I had, an estrangement from a parent, for a period of time. And I had to reconcile that by the grace of God that was reconciled. but it is not. When we went through that period of not talking and not speaking, no, it was not good. It wasn't good for my Heart for my soul. and it wasn't good for my parents. And so, I, you know, it's one of those things that I think the therapeutic, again, moralistic culture is, is removing God from this equation. So we have no responsibility for God. We only have this responsibility to self. And it is a deeply narcissistic pattern to try to cut other people out of your life. That is, that is not the way ultimately, actually that leads to your healing and your own spiritual freedom. And, so I think that's why reconciliation is so important. And it's a design of the gospel. It's a feature of what has happened as a result of Christ giving us forgiveness through the cross.

Jenna Ellis: Amen. And the Bible says, as much as lies within you, be at peace with all men. And so it's putting the responsibility on us to, to do as much as we can to ensure that, we pursue reconciliation, forgiveness and relationship as much as we can. And if every Christian took that seriously, then both parties hopefully would be pursuing reconciliation together, except where the other party, perhaps does not know Christ. And in some of those situations, like you mentioned, Rhyen, you're doing as much as you can, but the other person is, is saying, no, I don't want to resolve. And there's nothing we can do at that point, but at least we are trying. And we have a spirit of forgiveness, of humility and reconciliation instead of what the culture is telling us. And you're right, it's so selfish. It's so narcissistic. And isn't it incredible that the therapy of the day focuses so much on how, how much every individual is the victim of their childhood, of their circumstances, of the harms that other people have foisted on them. And we're told to be completely selfish and we give ourselves an abundance of excuses, and yet we hold everyone else then to absolutely no excuses. No, no. Modern therapy is saying, why don't you look at the other person and ask, you know, what about their childhood, what about their trauma? You know that that's never part of that equation, right? It's always just about you. And the driving point of it is to try intentionally to damage especially the family. Because, the devil knows that if he can damage, especially the Christian families, then we won't be as effective for Christ. And the Bible shows something completely different. It says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as Christ forgave you because of what Christ has done. If we really understand the gospel and we understand how sinful we are and how much Christ has forgiven us, then can't we too forgive those who have sinned against us? Because we have sinned to such a far greater extent against Christ, yet he forgave us and showed us love. The, the compassion that is not present in the culture is something that we need to be very counterculture and intentionally love other. Other people and say they are fellow human beings made in the image of God. They are dealing with sin and fallen humanity. I can extend to them grace, and I want on purpose to reconcile so that things don't continue to fester. And, and these relationships continue to even, you know, with little things, sometimes. Sometimes it's not even one big thing. It's just little things over the years. And that's how then people say, well, you know, we just grew apart. Well, maybe because they weren't intentionally daily forgiving, making sure, as the Bible also says, you know, do not let the sun go down on your wrath. I mean, it is always important in the moment to seek, forgiveness, reconciliation. And also when we're the perpetrators of sin against others and we do things that are wrong or make mistakes, we need to also approach reconciliation in those circumstances as well. And the modern culture tells us, don't take responsibility for anything. Don't ever admit you're wrong. And you know, especially in, in politics and in, I mean, in, practically anywhere that you go, it's always your opinion is right, everyone else is wrong, and stand your ground, protect your peace. But the interesting thing, Rhyen, is that as much as the modern culture is so focused on protecting their peace, they're actually genuinely unhappy because we were made to show Christ's love toward others as much as, he has forgiven us. And we are called to be in relationships with other human beings and especially with our families in this life.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, no, that's so well said. And so much of what the gospel doing, obviously it's not just forgiveness. It's transforming, shaping our mind, our thoughts. Not after the pattern of this world, but ultimately, after the pattern, which is Christ. And we look at these first relationships that were given. Everyone has a mother and a father, whether or not they have a close relationship with that mother and father, whether we get married or we stay single, our first relationship is to our family. we're given the Commandments and the Ten Commandments to honor thy father and mother. And it's one of those commandments that comes with a promise that it will go well with you in the land, your days will be prolonged. Obviously, the Lord wants, us to contend for our families. the language that we even see in the gospel as Christians is that, there is an adoption, a spiritual adoption, that when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are entering into the family of God that we can call God Abba Father. we are co heirs with Christ as though Jesus is our brother, spiritually, speaking, that we inherit, the same portion that he's received, we get the glory, not that we earned it, but, that we received it by grace through faith in Christ and what he has done. Forgiveness is the key hallmark of a Christian. That's both forgiveness received and then forgiveness that is given.

Ryan: Deism is the idea that you're better off alone

And so clearly, as you look at what's happening in the world today, clearly when you see sort of this rise of this moral, therapeutic sort of deism, people have very little belief in God, but they are trying to find their way to kind of limp along in life and nurse their own wounds. And, everybody, this is clearly a lie from the devil. But the idea is you're better off alone. You are better off, going with silence. You're better off being estranged, because no good can come from contact and from talking with one another. And that clearly is a design to keep people wrecked in life, to never really heal. And the gospel is for our healing. And that's what we need more than anything. just as you pointed to live at peace with all men and to pursue holiness without which none shall seek out God.

Jenna Ellis: And Rhyen, is going to stay with us through the break. We've got to take a break here, but, more in just a moment.

Preborn Network offers free ultrasounds to women facing unplanned pregnancies

It's m been four years since the overturning of Roe vs Wade, but tragically, abortions have continued to rise. Today, the abortion pill accounts for more than 60% of all abortions. And last year alone, over 1.1 million babies lost their lives. That's why the work of PreBorn Network clinics is, more urgent than ever. Every day, mothers facing unplanned pregnancies walk through preborn's doors, searching for hope. Instead of pressure and fear, they're met with love. Through a free ultrasound, mothers meet their baby for the very first time. It was like the beginning of my healing journey. They do an ultrasound. And that's when everything changed.

Ryan Helfenbein: Because when I saw my baby and when I heard her heartbeat, that was it.

Jenna Ellis: Just $28 sponsors one ultrasound. $140 helps rescue five babies. To donate, dial 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby or visit preborn.comm afr that's preborn.com afr welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.

American culture increasingly emphasizes individual happiness over family obligations, says Ryan Helfenbein

Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. And I'm here with my special guest Rhyen Helfenbein, who is the Vice President of Communications and Public engagement at Liberty University. And we're talking about this whole concept of family estrangement that has become a major shift in American culture that emphasizes individual happiness and fulfillment over family obligations and the biblical view of relationships and the necessity of forgiveness and conflict resolution. And you know Rhyen, there's so much that the culture is suggesting about how if something breaks it's not worth trying to fix. And we see that even with just an over consumer driven society that we have, you know, just an abundance of the quick kind of easy things that we over consume and we just you know, easily use them, throw them away. We're doing that with relationships as well that if, you know, if this isn't working for me or you're not giving me what I need, then this isn't this isn't going to work and it's worth throwing away. And it's this complete focus on self instead of recognizing that because of what Christ has done for us and our relationship being fulfilled in him that frees us and actually obliges us to go and seek to add and contribute and enrich the lives of those around us, especially our families. And it's amazing to see, to me to see especially I think among you know, the perhaps like the end of Gen X, but especially you know, the millennial, a generation which I'm a part of, and down to see this sort of myopic focus on self and self happiness. And what does this do for me, even as adults over above focusing on investing in marriage and especially children, I mean this goes into this whole incredibly anti, biblical perspective that children are supposed to fill the desires of adults rather than adults being responsible for the discipleship, the, and the caretaking of children who are vested in our care to train up in the way that they should go. I mean it's all completely backwards according to culture.

Ryan Helfenbein: Yeah, you, you hit the nail on the head when you, when you consider where things are going today, with for example all the kinds of fertility treatments that are available, ivf, surrogacy and other things, it's kind of like, I hate to put it this way in these terms but the commodification of children has Kind of become, in a way like picking a puppy, you know, that this is the kind I want to cavapoo. You know, you know, I want a golden doodle, or, you know, I want my child to have blue eyes. You know, I want to. You know, there's. There are all kinds of people that are looking for self fulfillment in all of this. And it really, at the end of the day, is going back to that sort of narcissistic tendency of our culture. You think about the hundreds of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars that Americans spend every year on, things that would be, considered self care, you know, how much we spend on coffee every day, how much we spend on, you know, all kinds of other things that are comfort, creature comforts. Right? And, look, if you have it in your stewardship and you're doing other things with your money, okay, fine, you know, go buy the $6 coffee. There's a lot of Americans who do that, who simply can't afford it. and so you go back to the relationships, how we treat those things that God has given to us. The person in our life who's going to be with us for our whole life, whether it be a brother or sister or an aunt or an uncle or a mother or a father. Those are the longest relationships you'll ever have. And, I am. I, like so many people, Jenna, have the issue where I've got believers in my family, got non believers in my family, and it's difficult when it's non believers. It is, you know, Thanksgiving, you have awkward conversations. Christmas, you know, it feels strange sometimes. And I'm not just talking politics, I'm talking faith and religion and, you know, all of those kinds of conversations that can be deeply intimate. It can feel forced. But as a Christian, I do bear a responsibility before the Lord as perhaps the first witness of, the Gospel itself to my family. They're not going to go hear a preacher. And so in Romans 10, you know, how are they going to call upon him if they've not heard? And how are they going to hear? Lest, of course, the Lord sends someone. Well, who might he be sending? It's the family member. And so, you know, we bear that responsibility as Christians. And yes, first reconciliation is to God and then, of course, to our family. that. That's really, really important. I love what G.K. chesterton once said. What's problem? What's the problem with the world? I am. And I would say the same thing when it comes to these relationships, you know, as Far as it is up to us, be at peace with all men. That's. That's our responsibility before the Lord. Absolutely.

Jenna Ellis: Amen. And, you know, and it's not to say that it's easy. And, and I really appreciate, Rhyen, you sharing, you know, about your own family. And, I'm so thankful that, you know, my immediate family and even, my extended family are Christians. And it makes it a lot easier when we get together, you know, for family reunions and all of that, that, we can all come together in Christ. But there are so many, families that you have the kind of, the blend of Christians and non Christians. And of course, you know, just having Christians in your family doesn't mean that there's no conflict. But, it is incumbent upon us to be the instigators of relationships if we are the Christians and to model Christ like love. And for the people who are listening, going, well, you just don't know my family. It's. There is no way that peace is ever going to work. You know, all of that. Where would you suggest biblically that, that people start to say, okay, we want to unwind these years and years of quote, unquote toxicity.

Ryan Helfenbein: You know, I would always go to the throne of the Lord first. I would. The first question I ask anyone, and even of myself, have I prayed about this? And I mean really, really prayed. I mean, going. Going to the Lord's throne of grace and begging and pleading the Lord, hey, change me first, Lord. You know, what, you know, identify what. What's the sin in my own life? What is the sin in my own life that is keeping me from reconciling with this family member and, and then also praying for that family member. It could absolutely be no fault of your own, and it could be that someone else, honestly, they need to have their, Their moment, their God moment. they need to meet, with Jesus and maybe for the first time. And so you're praying that God would soften their hearts. And I, so I began with prayer. The other thing is, I would go back to the thing. You know, there. Some, Some families, it could be holidays, it could be, you know, it could be certain times of the year. Maybe the Fourth of July is the time of year where your family gets together and has reunions. Growing up, it was usually in the summer. You know, I would encourage you not to skip out on those moments. It's those seasons in life where sometimes there's the opportunity to get together. Don't skip that. there's A lot of times where, you know, people begrudgingly, they don't want to do it. They're like, ah, I've got better things to do. And honestly I, get frustrated when I get into these conversations. But I would encourage people to step into those moments, those awkward moments, and even if it causes a little pain and have that conversation. But don't do it if you haven't had that conversation with the Lord first. And I think that's part of it. we know that when it comes to reconciliation between two people, God is always there in the mix. And no one could ultimately have true forgiveness without the Lord and his presence. And so that's what's necessary. And then of course, I would just encourage anyone too. If you're estranged, if you're listening right now and you're estranged from your family, but you're also, you feel distant from m. The Lord, begin there first.

You can't reconcile with others if you haven't reconciled with God first

I would encourage you to read your Bible, but also go to a strong Bible believing church. Just show up on Sunday, and get there, get, there first. I think that's the most important thing. You can't reconcile with others if you haven't reconciled with the Lord first. And so I think that requires confession, ah, confession of sin, repentance, and you know, get with somebody who can pray with you and pray over you. I think that's so important. A prayer of a righteous man or woman availeth much. And so, there's healing, there's restoration, there's forgiveness that comes with that, there's freedom, that you're not carrying this burden and this weight, you won't feel sick all the time. I think that's really important. So don't miss the opportunities to be with those relationships that are going to stick with you for the rest of your life. You're going to have seasons where you have friends. They come and they go. My friends that I have in college, I don't talk to anymore. You know, I had a wedding party many years ago, Jenna. I don't talk to those guys anymore. You know, and seasons come and go. You always have friends, but your family sticks with you for a lifetime. Don't be estranged from them. I think that's, that's my encouragement to anyone who might be listening this morning.

Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and what a great encouragement because, you know, yeah, people do come and go and maybe, you know, you just naturally, you move and so you're not spending as much time together. You know, some of those things about friends, but relationships shouldn't go by the wayside because of unreconciled issues. And you know, this, this, the whole thing about being reconciled to God first of course requires denial of self and recognizing that we are sinful and confession of sin, repentance and then when we are right with the Lord. For the Christians listening today, I mean, Jesus teaches in Matthew 5 that if you're presenting an offering to him at the altar and remember that someone has something against you, you're told and instructed, leave your gift there, go make peace with that person first, then come back to, to your gift. and so the Lord requires that restoration and at least the effort. And again, if the other person doesn't want to, then that's on them and up to them. But we are instructed, go, go to that person. And so if you're listening today and you have a friend or especially a family member that you know there is something that is not reconciled before this Sunday, before you go and give your gifts of worship to the Lord, go and be reconciled to that family member so that we do not perpetuate and buy into this cultural myth and just disaster of a worldview that somehow family isn't important.Thanks Ryan and as always, reach me and my team. Jennaafr.net