Sponsor Message and Discussion of Constitutional Obligations and Biblical Worldview
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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.
Concerns Over GLP1 Drugs Causing Vision Loss and Lawsuits Against Manufacturers
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.
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Tuesday, September 29th, and a, lot's going on in the health world that we need to talk about. first, a man says that he's suing a Zempek after an erasure smear, basically a blur over his eyes, randomly appeared over his vision on Christmas Day 2024. Ah, this coming from Colin Alred Rugg, who's a, reporter and co owner of trending Politics, the news outlet on X. he says that hundreds of Americans are now suing GLP1 drug makers, claiming the drug is causing them to lose their vision. this man who is part of this particular lawsuit said it started off as almost any eraser smear because I thought it was a smear on my glasses. So I cleaned my glasses in the afternoon after we opened presents and I took my glasses off and said, well, it didn't come off. And then I realized it was in my. So, there are quite a few people who are suing over vision loss after taking this drug. So what exactly is going on with not, only this, but it seems like more and more of, the FDA approved medications, have been suspect lately. Well, let's welcome in Dr. Mary Talley Boden. She is a Houston medical doctor and previous guest on the program. And Mary, what's going on here?
Medical Perspective on GLP1 Drug Side Effects and Post-Market Drug Issues
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: It looks like. So what's happening is basically a little stroke to the eye. So the blood supply is getting cut off to the eye. It is rare. It's 1 in about 10,000 they think, but about 10% of the population is actually on these drugs. And even more concerning though is children are being put on these drugs now. Now, a few of these are Approved for children 12 and older. personally, as a doctor, I've never prescribed any medication that has a risk of sudden blindness, especially, weight loss. There are some people that, yes, if they don't lose weight, they are going to die. but there are many people that are taking these drugs just because they want to shed five or ten pounds. And I'm sure if they knew that they could suddenly go blind, they might reconsider that.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, and this, the headlines are saying, you know, this has been linked to vision loss and permanent damage. And so, ah, you know, this obviously went through, or I would assume it went through, trials and testing and all of that. I mean, was this not indicated as a risk factor that people taking this should have been aware of?
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, like most drugs that come on the market, things come up as more and more people use them and that don't come up in the trials. And that's why, we give it time. I remember when I was in training, the last piece of advice my attending gave us was don't be the first to prescribe things that just hit the market. Because it is the numbers of drugs that eventually get a black box warning or even get pulled off the market after they've already come on are alarming. I think it's about a third, end up with some sort of problem after they've come to the market.
Patient Advice on Inquiring About New Medications and Advocating for Lifestyle Changes
So, yeah, it doesn't look like this came up during trials, but now here we are.
Jenna Ellis: Wow. And, you know, obviously, Ozempic, WeGovy, and, you know, some of these others, the GLP1s, people have known that these are relatively new. But what should patients actually ask their provider if they go in and, you know, have any type of issue and are provided a prescription to know whether this is something that has been on the market for a long time or whether it's something relatively new and they might want to use caution.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, yeah, I mean, that's a question is, you know, how long has this been on? Have you seen, you know, it's very. The own, clinician's experience with the medication is very valuable, more so oftentimes than what you're hearing in the news. that being said, the blindness thing is pretty rare, so the average doctor is not going to see it. But, you know, if you have some problems with your vision to begin with, then it might be a good idea to have your eyes checked before you get on it or ask your Doctor, you know, is this really smart? I am a big proponent of diet and exercise. I think if people, if you spend an hour a day exercising and you really watched your diet, there's a good chance you wouldn't even need these medications.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, even in my own personal experience, and obviously this is anecdotal, but, it seems like doctors are more and more, ready to prescribe rather than suggest. I mean, and for all kinds of things, not just including weight loss, but, but for all types of things.
Holistic Health Approaches Versus Pharmaceutical Solutions and Questioning Medical Practices
You know, unless you're dealing with some kind of infection or you know, something that actually needs an antibiotic or a prescription, it seems like they're, they're a lot quicker to just give a prescription and something that is a pharmaceutical, type of resolution rather than suggesting either, you know, differences in, lifestyle behaviors or, you know, things that are maybe supplements or more holistic, types of responses. you know, for me personally, I've gotten migraines since I was very little. I mean, the earliest one I can remember, I was five years old. And for a long time, you know, doctors just wanted to give me migraine medication instead of actually looking at the cause of that. And it turned out that I, that I don't have celiac, but basically that like I have to eat gluten free. And that didn't, I didn't know that until later in high school, my parents finally took me to a nutritionist who was more holistic. And it was just in that overall experience, I know that there are, you know, tons of people who have a similar story to that, that now especially post Covid, and everything that we went through with questioning, all of the doctors in that whole scenario are really, considering, you know, a lot of the medical practice really suspect in terms of saying, okay, this is actually treating what's in the patient's best interest instead of just, you know, kind of throwing a big pharma solution at them.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Yeah, well, everybody wants a quick fix. And that goes for the patient and the doctor because, you know, our, our job satisfaction is from seeing patients get better quickly.
The Appeal of Quick Fixes in Healthcare and Navigating the Consequences of Lifestyle Choices
And that's. And the lack of time. And it's hard. I tell people, I really, I literally, I told somebody yesterday, I want you to go and do an hour of cardiac every day. Now, the odds of that patient will actually do that are pretty low. But if I gave him a pill that said, ok, this will solve your problem, that's a lot easier to do than doing an hour of cardio every day. So we all want a quick fix and that. And that's the problem.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and that's such a good point that instead of actually doing the hard work sometimes, especially when it comes to things like like weight loss, it is a lot harder to change, you know, your lifestyle, to, to change what you eat, to have better exercise habits, all of those things. Instead of just kind of this quick fix that the American sort of consumer driven model says, you know, just give me something so that I can continue on the, the unhealthy choices but not have the consequences. And the reality is you're going to have consequences, you know, one way or the other. I saw something on Instagram, this is a while ago, but I actually thought it was great where it says, you know, choose your heart. Because being you know, being on a strict diet, exercise, that's hard, but being overweight is also hard, you know, and the cost and benefit of the difficulties, but you get to the results that you want, or not having the results that you want and actually living then in a in a lifestyle that maybe is more unhealthy or something that you don't want, that's also presents its difficulties. And so it seems like Big Pharma is trying to give those types of solutions without consequences. but overall, I mean there are going to be consequences.
The Future of Lawsuits Against GLP1 Drugs and the Importance of Patient Awareness
So where do you see, potentially this, this series of lawsuits against Ozempic and these other similar drugs headed. I mean is this so rare that it will likely remain on the market?
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: I think it will, yeah, I think it will remain on the market. But you know, the nice thing about lawsuits like this is it brings awareness to issues that wouldn't, you know, unlike with the vaccines where you're not allowed to sue, they're actually bringing awareness to the population because like I said, 10% of Americans are on these medications. And I don't think it will bankrupt them or just bring them off the market, but important awareness for people on them.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And this is why it is still important to pay attention to the headlines and you know, to what's going on and especially ask your doctor all kinds of questions.
Discussion on Food Recalls and Increased FDA Investigations into Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
And I know that you know, especially in recent years, I've asked doctors a lot more questions. I mean I've always been one who's asked questions, but even more so. And you know there's another series of headlines as well. Ah, Dr. Mary. That has, has risen to attention and Prominence, which are a lot of the food recalls. And there have been a whole host of 2026 that the FDA is investigating several, active foodborne illness outbreaks. And it feels like we're constantly hearing about food recalls lately. I mean, I can barely open my phone once, a day without hearing that, you know, everything, is potentially contaminated or recalled. And are these recalls actually becoming more common or are we getting better at detecting contamination and alerting consumers?
The Politicization of Health Issues and Advice on Navigating Medical Decisions Amidst Skepticism
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Yeah, that's a good question. I actually haven't really dug into that. But you are right. It may be just better communication on social media. So we're hearing more of it. I'm not actually sure if there's been a significant rise or if we're just hearing about it more.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, it is all really fascinating how all of this between, you know, medications, food recalls, you know, whatever it is, that deals with the health and Big pharma industry, how politicized it all becomes. Because, you know, of course, Democrats are now, you know, blaming President, Trump's hhs, saying, well, you know, this is because you laid off or fired, you know, a lot of workers that we're now seeing, the foodborne illnesses or you know, Republicans and you know, a lot of conservatives have questioned or are you know, really wary now of big Pharma in light of Cove where do you think as a medical practitioner, kind of the balances between, you know, not overreacting one way or the other, like still having a healthy concern, but also, you know, recognizing that obviously, you know, some pharmaceuticals, they're still part of life and we sometimes do need medications, but, you know, kind of not overreacting one way or the other.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, common sense, you know, when you have an acute illness where you, it's risk, benefit and you have acute illness where you're gonna. You may need some mainstream medicine. if you have something chronic and you have time to research, then that's when you get second opinions. You take things more slowly. I am, I don't know if you've seen posts I've made on, X recently, but in terms of the vaccines, I'm so disheartened by the FDA's disregard of the safety issues with the COVID shot that I'm telling my patients, don't get any more vaccines at this point until we know more. Because I don't feel like they're concerned about safety and that they're not really putting these, Vaccines, through the proper safety channels that they should, I would say, you know, for these new medications, be wary.
Personal Health Responsibility and Advocating for Oneself in Medical Choices Post-Covid
You know, the tried and true ones that have been around for a long time, those are probably fine. But the brand new ones, and, you know, it doesn't matter which administration, this goes true for any drug that comes on the market, it is best not to take the brand new medication if you can avoid it.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, you know, that's really good advice. And, you know, we're gonna have to take a break here, but, Dr. Mary, really appreciate your commentary on all this. And I think that, you know, for every individual, it really matters that we take our own, health seriously, that we advocate for ourselves. And while obviously we, take medical practitioners advice and prescriptions and all of that, the whole point and the lesson I think that we learned, after Covid, was that we need to be able to advocate for ourselves and, ultimately determine what is best for ourselves and our family. That's why I love living in Florida where, you know, they've reduced the mandatory vaccines. A lot of people are upset about that, but really it comes down to personal choice, freedom, and personal responsibility. So really good advice there. really appreciate it. Dr. Mary. You can follow Mary Talley Boden on X. She does post a lot of really good information there. And we will be right back with more.
Listener Support and Introduction to Fulton Sheen's Enduring Relevance in Modern Times
Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, long before podcasts, YouTube or social media, remember the good old days like when before we had all of this noise? Well, one of the biggest religious movements, voices in America, was a Catholic bishop standing in front of a chalkboard talking about God, morality, communism even, and the condition of the human heart. So Fulton Sheen became a television sensation in the 1950s, drawing millions of viewers to a show called Life is Worth Living. And now there's renewed attention on Sheen and his legacy. And Daily Wire's Micah Knowles and others, argue that many of the things that Sheen warned about decades ago, from the dangers of communism to the consequences of abandoning objective morality, are still remarkably relevant today. And, Knowles even said that, if Sheen were on, any of the platforms today, he'd be labeled a far right extremist.
Fulton Sheen's Legacy and the Timeless Importance of Morality, Truth, and Christian Living
of course, that's probably true. So let's talk about, this legacy and how, you know, there's nothing new under the sun, you know, as, Ecclesiastes said with, Calvin Robinson, who is a pundit and also a priest. So, you know, this is so fascinating that, you know, we're still dealing with some of these same topics, and obviously morality itself and biblical truth and the way that Christians ought to live our lives. that will fundamentally always be relevant.
Calvin Robinson: Absolutely, Jenna. some things never change. And one of those things is that the church is fighting against modernity, fighting against wickedness in our world. But one thing that has changed is that when Fulton Sheen was on our TV screens, he was a bishop. He was an auxiliary bishop and it was later a titular archbishop. And that's something that we, I would love to see today. You and I are on the radio all the time, which is great, but we are not shepherds of the church. We are not the bishops, the ones supposed to be leading, shepherding the sheep, leading the masses. It was great to see someone who was official, someone who was, in a hierarchy, in a position of authority, doing what we're trying to do today. I pray for a time when we are, ah, restored to that. But I think if he was on air today, he'd be cancelled. I really do think he'd be cancelled, if not by the secular world, then by the church too. Because he would say things like, communism is wicked, Communism is evil. And we all knew that until about five minutes ago. And somehow today there are lots of young people who celebrate the idea of communism because the opposite of capitalism, there are all kinds of evils that we need to fight. Communism is one of those that's pervasive in the church. And so he was talking about marriage, being between one man and one woman. He was talking about family values. He was talking about the fact that we all need to go to church. He had this thing called the Holy Hour, where he'd go to and adore the blessed sacrament. Just spend time listening to Jesus in the silence.
The Power of Prayer, Silence, and Authentic Role Models Over Celebrity Culture
An hour every single day. How many of us do that today? Spend an hour just listening to the voice of God in the silence. If only we could get away from the distractions of our cell phones and our TVs. Just for an hour. One day. Sorry, one hour every single day. Like centering your life around prayer, centering your life around God. But fortune, she reminded us of much of this. I was very blessed and privileged to attend his beatification, this week. I saw your fellow Luke Twombly down there as well. Fantastic. but this was all Catholics and, you know, Christians gathering together to remind ourselves that we can be inspired by a man who tried to live a holy life as we try to live holy lives. That's the whole purpose of a beatification. You know, he's on the step to becoming a saint. And yes, we're all saints, small s. But biggest saint is, is this idea that this is someone we should look up to. Forget celebrity culture, forget reality tv, forget people who've got a lot of money. So you look up to them, or they're good at sports, you look up to them. This is someone who tried to be holy. And so we look up to them for that. And I think that's something we could recenter our lives on in the, in the Western world.
Jenna Ellis: So such a great point. I mean, we, we now hold up, as. As the people that we want to be like and, and adore in celebrity culture. You know, influencers, the Real housewives. I mean, you know, people who literally have zero accomplishment except that they're famous for being famous. And among all of the noise and the distractions of every day, what does the Bible call us? To be still and know. And I think it's so much more difficult to do that in today's culture than it was in generations past. But that doesn't change what the command of the Lord is and how to live out our Christian life and also want to be closer to the Lord.
The Importance of Local Churches and Community Building Over Celebrity Pastors and Online Ministry
And, you know, speaking of authority, what a great point that it used to be in, in Christendom, in society, if you looked at, villages, if you looked at towns, the church was at the center, and everything in the town was built around the church. And you had a pastor who was local who interacted with people in their daily lives. And, you know, we often, too often have celebrity pastors and these celebrity, you know, talkers as the people that we even get our, our biblical truth from, rather than being part of a local church. And there's nothing wrong with, you know, listening to the pastor as long as they have good doctrine. Right. and they're speaking truth. There's a lot of pastors who aren't. But, you know, rather than just looking at, you know, sort of the celebrity pastors, that you can find on YouTube and social media, it's so important to be part of a local church and to build Community, but also, you know, not just community in the sense that, you know, we find people we can go on play dates with, right, with, with our kids or whatever, but actually building a true ecclesia and the fellowship and all of the one anothers in scripture, we've, we've kind of lost that in today's modernity where we have easy access to literally anyone on the globe.
Calvin Robinson: This is so true, Jenna. something I think about quite often.
The Value of Parish Ministry and Real-World Connections Versus Online Presence and Follower Counts
In fact, just this morning someone got in touch with me. So I'm the most followed priest out of England, right? So whether that's Anglican communion or whatever. And that means, you know, I'm not a celebrity, but I'm a well known priest. And so people reach out all the time and ask questions. Just this morning someone was asking a question and my response is, go and speak to your parish priest. Like, we cannot just reach out to people who we think we like, we cannot just speak to the people who we think we know. We've got to be part of a community. We've got to be rooted in a community. And this is why I don't just have my public ministry, but I also have my parish ministry because I, I minister to real people with real problems. You know, just the other night I was sat in a nursing home with an elderly lady who's dying. And it's a real privilege to be with her in our last moments when she says, I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. That's what the church is. The church is us knowing each other, loving each other in a personable, real, tangible way. And we can get all hooked up on this number of followers we have or the number of people that we know online and stuff. And that's not real. None of it is. Of course there are real parts because you can form relationships in, in real life based off Internet relationships. But if it's just online, it's not real. And we've got to remind ourselves of that because we feel like we're more connected than ever. But actually we're more disconnected than ever because of the Internet. We need to get back to the parish, back to the parochial system of being in a real diverse community of old people, young people, black people, white people, men, women, you know, children, adults. Just a mixture of people believing in Jesus Christ. So we're neither Greek nor Jew. We are one in Jesus Christ.
Understanding Catholic Relics and the Protestant Perspective on Veneration and Direct Connection to Christ
And that's what I think is important. And another thing that I'd like to bring up briefly while we're talking about fortressine, if you don't mind is that his relics were preserved. His.
Calvin Robinson: His jawbone was saved. I think the reason I want to bring it up is because for a lot of Christian traditions, that seems a bit strange. It seems a bit odd. Like, why would you save a dead man's jawbone? And so I wanted to point to a few parts of scripture where that might be relevant. You know, in Elisha's bones in, Second Kings, where a dead man's thrown into the grave of prophet Elisha, and when his body touches Elisha's bones, the man comes back to life. And then in Mark's Gospel, the woman with the, hemorrhage who's healed immediately after just touching Jesus tassels, you know, on his cloak. And then in Acts, we've got. We've got both Paul's handkerchief that the miracles are performed through people, you know, touching his handkerchief and his aprons. And also Peter's shadow. Sick people are carried into the streets just to touch his shadow. And we used to have. Christians have always had that belief that being close to a holy person, being close to someone who is in Christ is powerful. It's important. And we don't just want to be praying for each other. We also want to be physically connected to each other. And that's one of the reasons that, Fortune Sheen's bones have been saved as relics and so that we can physically close to him as well as spiritually close to him.
Jenna Ellis: M. And, you know, obviously, we're. I'm a Protestant and we're an evangelical network. And so, you know, we. We don't have some of those same traditions, as Catholics. And I appreciate, you know, you describing, ah, why Catholics will often point toward, those types of passages like in Second Kings and touching, Elisha's bones. And you know, from our perspective, those passages describe extraordinary miracles that God sovereignly performed, but, never establish a command or a normative Christian practice of preserving, venerating, touching or praying in connection with, the remains of departed saints. And so, you know, the NewSong Testament consistently directs believers to Christ, not to the physical remains or possessions of departed Christians. So we don't, venerate, those types of relics. But I. But again, I appreciate you, describing why, the Catholic tradition, you know, what.
Maintaining Christian Authenticity in Society and Boldly Teaching on Sensitive Moral Issues
What that means, because it does seem a little odd to those of us, you know, who have a different perspective, you know, but I want to also go back to, what Fulton Sheen didn't think that Christianity needed in. In some of his teaching. Because obviously we need more of Christianity in society. But he didn't seem to believe that Christianity had to become less Christian to reach secular people. And I think, particularly, since I'm differentiating between, you know, evangelicals and Catholics, there's a of lot. There's a wide concern, among I think, theologically grounded evangelicals that we've lost, you know, some of that veneration, of the Lord and of his Word. And we're watering down Christianity into these, you know, kind of little TED Talks, that really shouldn't even be on air if they are, in order to reach a, secular people. And that's still enormously relevant today.
Calvin Robinson: Absolutely. There is this almost a separation of what's true and what's polite and what's. What's nice. And we, don't want to rock the boat, so we don't want to cause any offense. And so we kind of hide a lot of the truth. Whereas people like Bishop Fulton Sheen would just get on TV and speak or on radio and speak the truth. That's why it was so fundamentally important during the 1950s, because people were thirsty for the truth, and people are thirsty for the truth today. So we must never. I know you never hold back and I never hold back. But in general, the church does hold back on many of these issues. People don't know what church teaches on things such as IVF because it's such a sensitive topic. People don't always know what the church teaches on abortion because it's such a divisive topic. And that's what makes these topics all the more important. You know, the sanctity of human life never changes. It's an age. It's true. And so we need to get back to teaching it boldly and publicly.
The Decline of Morality in Public Discourse and the Need for Moral Leadership and Clarity
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we've become softer about sin. We've stopped talking about morality in. In culture. And it's really fascinating to me even to look at just a sampling of some of these conversations with regular people on social media. You know, social media has really amplified the public square discussion, in a way that we've never seen in. In human history before. And just looking at some of the sampling of how people engage, so many people just say, well, that's. You're getting into morality. We're talking about, you know, laws in the legislature and what choices people have. And somehow in this post truth reality, we have decoupled what we ought to do in civil society and our law with basic m. Moral parameters. And that becomes incredibly dangerous when we talk about, you know, anything from ah, abortion to IVF to, you know, the end of life concerns and even to things like we were talking about in the last segment with, you know, medical decision making. if we, if we have doctors in a society that, that don't actually believe that their first obligation is to do no harm, then what are we really doing here? You know, I mean, this touches and concerns every aspect of, of human life. And somehow, we don't have the authority figures overall generally, in society that are telling us the things that someone like a Fulton Sheen did.
Decoupling Law and Morality: The Role of the Church in Providing a Moral Compass for Society
Do you think that it's problematic where we're at in our political space right now that we don't have largely, politicians that are refusing to decouple, law and morality?
Calvin Robinson: Yeah, absolutely. I've said it a few times that I think the idea of separation of church and state has become problematic because people seem to think these days that the church should stay entirely after the state's way, whereas it was supposed to be the other way around. The state stays out the church's way. But we definitely need the church to provide moral compass for legislators. We need the laws of the land to be, well, Christian laws based on natural law, divine law, God's law, rather than making up our own law, which is just abstract and arbitrary. And to do that we have to return to the scriptures. We have to turn to the truth that has been revealed to us, truth by God himself of what is good and what's not good. otherwise we're clutching at straws. And I think part of this is our politicians need to be more Christian and we need to expect them to be more Christian. I think evangelicals from your tradition are generally better at going out and evangelizing, to coin a phrase. But, all Christians need to be out there in the public square speaking the truth to everyone at all times. And that means that more Christians need to be running for office. So, the Christians have Christians to vote for so that we can expect Christian legislators, that we can't just expect people to govern based on our moral compass if they don't share our moral compass. So if there's no one there to elect, we have to be the people that get elected and go back to the whole idea of sainthood.
The Need for Christian Role Models and Re-evaluating Our Cultural Aspirations Beyond Influencers
We need to look at better people. We need to have better role models. Fortune Sheen may or may not become the first male, US born saint, but there are other Christians, there are other saints, from this, this land. You know, Saint Elisabeth Seton, she was the first heritage American saint. She was born in 1774 and she was canonized in 1975. She did some great work on the American parochial school system, making sure that there are Christian schools for people to go to. There's St. Catherine Drexel. She was the second one of the three. Born in 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, canonized in 2000. And she was particularly, well known for helping American Indians and Black people in 1858, at a time when that would have been unfashionable, but just reaching out the church's hand to all people around her. So we have these people we can look up to and examples we can follow in our public lives. And again, if there is no one we can't follow, then we just step up and be that person.
Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And you know, what happened to looking at history and looking at, the people, you know, even during, the Renaissance and the Reformation and you know, all of these. I, mean, that's why the Bible says we have a great cloud of witnesses that have come before, you know, people, and the saints of the Lord who have come before, who have modeled the Christian life and ministry and have actually dedicated their lives, to, to service and to ministry rather than having as our role models, like we were talking about, you know, influencers and people who've literally done nothing with their lives except purely being selfish. Honestly, I mean, I look at, you know, some of these reality shows and I why are these people being held up as any sort of role model or somebody that you want to emulate? But you know, data has shown that for a lot of young people, the main job now that they want to have is being an influencer even more at times than they even want an education. And you know, education has been watered down. If you're, majoring in gender studies, well, you know, obviously I don't think that really qualifies as an education at all.
Engaging in Politics with a Moral Compass and Countering Ideologies Detrimental to Human Flourishing
But, but for the people who are actually doing, the work of society and they have, you know, professions that we can look up to, especially in ministry, you know, those are being downplayed a lot by our culture. And so then once we get kind of downstream from that, and we're talking right now like we are ahead of the midterms about morality, about communism, about suffering, about, you know, what it means to, to be able to own private property, to provide for a family. I mean, all of these are very, implicit parts of God's design for human flourishing. And we're talking about the fundamentals. And if we don't have a society that is, is attenuated toward those goals, it becomes so much harder to argue, especially to young voters, against things like communism and to even, you know, make them consider why that's so relevant to human flourishing. And so how do you think, overall? I mean, you know, we're going to get past the midterms, however that goes. I don't think it'll go that well for the GOP, you know, in, in about 33, 34 days. how should the Christian conservatives engage this political space more so that we can pave the way to have better conversations based on morality ahead of 2028?
Calvin Robinson: Yeah, that's a good question.
Navigating Political Disillusionment and the Need for True Christian Candidates
I'm, I'm not fussed which way the midterms go, and that's not good. I've always been very political. I've always been, you know, this side is the least worst option or this side is the best option. At the moment, I would find it very difficult to support either side. You know, one side wants to tear down, the west, and the other side is supporting, or at least protecting elite, ah, pedophiles. And so we have no good to support. And so I think a lot of people are feeling that, feeling lost with that. So we need to replace one side or both sides with good. We need to replace a side with Christians, true Christians. And that can only happen if we all step up. You know, you were talking about, a lot of people want to become influencers now. Ten years ago, a lot of people wanted to become YouTubers. You know, when I was a child, most young men wanted to become soccer players. In my country, in Britain, there's always been an aim, there's always been a goal that, people aspire to. But for a long time it hasn't been Jesus.
Making Jesus the Center of Aspiration and the Importance of Christians Engaging in Politics
So somehow we need to make Jesus the thing or the person that everyone wants to become again. And that's by teaching his truth loudly, boldly. That's by doing all the things we've just been talking about. It's by, by putting forward the moral good, the moral message, whether it's fashionable or not. It's about letting people hear the truth, whether it's offensive or not. And it's about us, becoming candidates ourselves. If every, if every single parish church ran a candidate for an election, we'd be laughing. The country would be so Christian, everyone would be amazed. It would be almost bliss. Of course, we won't have bliss the side of heaven, but it would be fantastic if every Church put forward a candidate. That's the message I want to spread at the moment, is that people not only need to speak the truth and spread the truth, but also stand for the truth. And let's get Christians into politics again and that's the only way we could drain the swamp.
Jenna Ellis: So well said. And that's where Christians do need to engage politics. And then going back to something that you said a little bit earlier, Calvin Robinson, how you know, you and I you know, talk on on massive platforms and that's all you know, great and we speak truth and I'm very, very thankful for that.
The Significance of Local Ministry and Active Engagement in Community and Christian Service
But you also have a local ministry where it's person and that's so incredibly important. I have the same ministry as well. You know, with my church. I try to be as involved and engaged in events at my local church and ministry there. I have a ladies Bible study in my home and invite women actually in my, in my community and we go through the fundamentals of scripture. I've taught a class, in my church about the biblical worldview of government. And those are, you know, real people that you're engaging with and you can answer questions in real time and also be part of, you know, their daily lives. And I actually know the people that I'm interacting with. You know, not. I love emails from listeners. You know, don't get me wrong, I love everyone in our afr family. But there also is a difference between hearing you know, from someone of just a topical question versus engaging with someone and being part of their daily lives, being able to, you know, go out to lunch with them, invite them in. in my home, you know, I had my pastor and his wife over for dinner a couple of weeks ago ago. I mean those are things that living locally provide and yeah, and I want to just underscore that for the people who are listening who maybe don't have the platform that you and I do to speak truth more to the masses. that's okay. And the ministry that you do locally matter significantly if every church can put up a candidate like you said. But every member of the church do ministry locally in their community, their neighborhood, their town. How different would our country look? And we need to get back to some of those basics. Instead of just being recipients and listeners of the YouTube channels, we need to be actively engaged in doing Christian ministry.
Local Politics, Community Engagement, and the Importance of Pointing Everything Toward Christ
Calvin Robinson: Oh man to that 100%. Because as we're talking about politics, people's minds often goes to big politics. Thinking about state level federal level. But politics affects the parish level, affects the local community too. The amount of no data center signs I see as I drive around the Midwest, for example, people are making it known what they want, but they're making it known to the wrong people. It's like we can take, we can take over all the small towns, all the small townships, all the large cities that are suddenly going blue. We can stop that from happening. Representatives of the place that we love and that we work and that we minister to and is a full of ministry if we step forward in these local areas.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we've got to take a break here. but I so appreciate you coming on again, Calvin Robinson, and you know, always having the view that, the, and the correct view that everything needs to point to Christ, to the truth and every, part of our Christian life, both in our homes and in our churches, but then also in the public square and in politics, we need to gear toward Christ. And you know, like Fulton Sheen, we should not water down Christianity just to make it more palatable or acceptable in society. We need to stand for the truth. And ultimately, the truth can be controversial. You will likely lose friends, and that's okay, because ultimately teaching truth and winning as many people as we can to the gospel and to eternal salvation is what life is all about. Well, we will be right back with more.
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Absurdity of Politicizing Manicures: Examining the BBC's 'Racist Bare Nails' Article
welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, ladies, this headline is for you. the BBC, is under fire for suggesting that bare fingernails are racist now. So apparently we have politicized the manicure. As I'm sitting here, with my, you know, light brown and, polka dot nails for fall, I actually love my manicures, but, you know, let. And pedicures definitely have to remember those. But, you know, this is just absolutely absurd that we have officially reached the point where apparently you can make a racial statement by either painting or not painting your fingernails. This is just so, like, hilariously absurd. But I actually want to get to some of the deeper, issues that are raised by this. So here's what happened. the BBC published a lifestyle piece examining the growing bare nail or minimalist manicure trend. Okay, fine. But the article discusses quiet luxury, class, beauty standards, and cultural identity. Then comes the line that turned the story viral. someone argued that the BBC interviewed that terms such as elegant and tasteful can operate as euphemisms that perpetuate, quote, white supremacist standards of beauty. Well, what is this lady, inferring then about, apparently if you're non white, you're not elegant or tasteful. I mean, this just is so ridiculous. But how did we get from I don't feel like wearing nail polish, or I'd like to do more minimalist to a discussion about white supremacy. Fashion trends change, and certain styles can become associated with wealth or status or even brands, especially, or particular communities.
Critique of Leftist Worldview: Interpreting Life Through Power, Privilege, and Oppression
And beauty standards certainly can be influenced by history and culture. you know, the American fashion, for example, is very different than what we see right now in France, what we see in, you know, other parts of the country, and, you know, sometimes American fashion culture, if you go to, you know, a local Walmart, you've seen people of Walmart, by the way. or if you just go to any airport, especially in the morning, where people are literally wearing their pajamas and slippers. Maybe we need to have a conversation about American, fashion culture. But this doesn't establish that adopting a minimalist aesthetic aesthetic perpetuates white supremacy. Like, there is an enormous logical leap between saying a specific beauty trend that is going viral on Instagram somehow has deeper cultural associations and saying that participating in that trend reinforces racial supremacy. I have never been at a beauty salon and have ever had the lady, regardless of, you know, age, status, skin color, anything, you know, look and ask the manicurist across the table. so what color or what type of manicure, what shape of my nails do you think would reinforce racial supremacy? I mean it's just, it's utterly nonsensical. And so the broader phenomenon though is a worldview that increasingly interprets ordinary life through categories like power, privilege, oppression, race and identity.
The Unwinnable Framework of Oppressor vs. Oppressed in Leftist Ideology and Cultural Appropriation
And and this, you know, where we've been talking about the Democrats versus the Republicans having two completely opposite views of reality. This is a leftist, absolutely insane view of reality. Always interpreting ordinary life and every ordinary decision making through these categories of, you know, their, their power and oppression and cultural Marxism and you know, all of these other false views of reality versus, you know, the people who view reality saying, hey, we're different and you know, I'm different than I go with my friend Heather to, to get pedicures all the time. And you know, we have a very different color choice palette. You know, often I'll get, you know, my nails really bright pink and she'll do hers blue and we both appreciate each other and nobody's sitting here thinking about, you know, hey, are we now either the perpetuators and the the oppressors or are we the victims in the choice of our nail color polish? I mean once that framework becomes the default lens, almost anything then can acquire political meaning. And this is where the left wants to take you. They want to make you so obsessed with your everyday decision making that regardless of what you choose, your clothes aren't simply clothes, your food isn't simply your diet, your home aesthetic isn't simply just what you prefer, your manicure isn't just the color or not color that you choose to paint or not paint your nails. Everything becomes, not just what did you choose but what social power structure does your choice supposedly reinforce? And this is a no win hypothetical, right? Because any choice that a white person makes is on, automatically and fundamentally presumed to be a white supremacist choice. And anything that a person of color chooses is automatically, ah, presumed to be acceptable because it is signaling that they have been a victim of oppression. And so we're pushing back against Powers, right? And this, this is all the way from things as ridiculous as a manicure, all the way up to things that we've been talking about lately like the Lindsey Clancy trial and the the Austin Metcalf, trial at Carmelo Anthony, who, you know, the the, the the Texas teenager who was black and he stabbed a white athlete. And so many people came out and said, well that's okay.
Inconsistency of Leftist Worldview: Victimhood Categories and the Denial of Individual Moral Agency
And they justified it because of the color of the skin of the. Of the perpetrator and the victim. Because oppressor and oppressed are always the categories. So if a white woman adopts elaborate nail art associated with another culture, well, that's cultural appropriation. You know, if we have long nails with a lot of sequins and, you know, things that you would see on, you know, maybe the Olympic, you know, runner athletes that, you know, that tend, to be black women, then that's cultural appropriation. But if we don't adopt it and a white woman wears bare nails, well, that's cultural erasure, you know, so we can't win. So what exactly are we supposed to do with everything from our nails all the way down to how we determine justice in America? I mean, this is so explicitly fundamental to how the left views the world and how the right views the world. Because in a biblical worldview, we not only have freedom to choose our nail color and all that, but we don't have freedom to have, the elimination of consequences for our action. And justice is blind. And it doesn't matter the skin color or the gender or the age or any other immutable characteristic of a perpetrator of murder. If you have an unjustified intentional killing, that's murder. That's homicide, and you should, pay the penalty for it. It doesn't matter if you, If you claim psychosis like Lindsay Clancy, and you claim, you know, that you are just a victim of the patriarchal system, even as. As a white woman, right? And see how all of this is never consistent in their worldview. Because whoever is the victim and the oppressed, you can always fit someone, any person, into the category of oppressor versus oppressed. Because if Lindsey Clancy, as a white woman, apparently, if she had painted, or not painted her nails and she went with bare nails, that would have been a worse offense to the left than the fact that she murdered her three children. I mean, this.
Breaking Free from Leftist Systems and Focusing on Truth, Justice, and Individual Moral Responsibility
This is literally what their worldview is teaching. And it's remarkably and utterly absurd. And so every single person can fit into the categories of oppressed versus oppressor, depending on who the victim is and what system, and, you know, power structure they're being fit into other than the white male, right? That's the only person in their hierarchy and their structure that can't possibly be a victim. So this strips people not only of individual motives, but the biblical worldview that human beings are individual moral agents. So it's fallen humanity that needs reconciliation with God. And we've got to break out of these ridiculous systems that the left is putting on us. And we need to realize have bare nails or not. But at the same time, justice requires that we look at the actor. We look at the actor and we look at what the biblical worldview of truth is, not just these systems that the left perpetuates.
Contact Information for Jenna Ellis and Her Team
We're already out of time. But as always, you can reach me and my team. Jennafr.net.
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Sponsor Message and Discussion of Constitutional Obligations and Biblical Worldview
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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.
Concerns Over GLP1 Drugs Causing Vision Loss and Lawsuits Against Manufacturers
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.
Jenna Ellis: Good morning. It is Tuesday, September 29th, and a, lot's going on in the health world that we need to talk about. first, a man says that he's suing a Zempek after an erasure smear, basically a blur over his eyes, randomly appeared over his vision on Christmas Day 2024. Ah, this coming from Colin Alred Rugg, who's a, reporter and co owner of trending Politics, the news outlet on X. he says that hundreds of Americans are now suing GLP1 drug makers, claiming the drug is causing them to lose their vision. this man who is part of this particular lawsuit said it started off as almost any eraser smear because I thought it was a smear on my glasses. So I cleaned my glasses in the afternoon after we opened presents and I took my glasses off and said, well, it didn't come off. And then I realized it was in my. So, there are quite a few people who are suing over vision loss after taking this drug. So what exactly is going on with not, only this, but it seems like more and more of, the FDA approved medications, have been suspect lately. Well, let's welcome in Dr. Mary Talley Boden. She is a Houston medical doctor and previous guest on the program. And Mary, what's going on here?
Medical Perspective on GLP1 Drug Side Effects and Post-Market Drug Issues
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: It looks like. So what's happening is basically a little stroke to the eye. So the blood supply is getting cut off to the eye. It is rare. It's 1 in about 10,000 they think, but about 10% of the population is actually on these drugs. And even more concerning though is children are being put on these drugs now. Now, a few of these are Approved for children 12 and older. personally, as a doctor, I've never prescribed any medication that has a risk of sudden blindness, especially, weight loss. There are some people that, yes, if they don't lose weight, they are going to die. but there are many people that are taking these drugs just because they want to shed five or ten pounds. And I'm sure if they knew that they could suddenly go blind, they might reconsider that.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, and this, the headlines are saying, you know, this has been linked to vision loss and permanent damage. And so, ah, you know, this obviously went through, or I would assume it went through, trials and testing and all of that. I mean, was this not indicated as a risk factor that people taking this should have been aware of?
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, like most drugs that come on the market, things come up as more and more people use them and that don't come up in the trials. And that's why, we give it time. I remember when I was in training, the last piece of advice my attending gave us was don't be the first to prescribe things that just hit the market. Because it is the numbers of drugs that eventually get a black box warning or even get pulled off the market after they've already come on are alarming. I think it's about a third, end up with some sort of problem after they've come to the market.
Patient Advice on Inquiring About New Medications and Advocating for Lifestyle Changes
So, yeah, it doesn't look like this came up during trials, but now here we are.
Jenna Ellis: Wow. And, you know, obviously, Ozempic, WeGovy, and, you know, some of these others, the GLP1s, people have known that these are relatively new. But what should patients actually ask their provider if they go in and, you know, have any type of issue and are provided a prescription to know whether this is something that has been on the market for a long time or whether it's something relatively new and they might want to use caution.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, yeah, I mean, that's a question is, you know, how long has this been on? Have you seen, you know, it's very. The own, clinician's experience with the medication is very valuable, more so oftentimes than what you're hearing in the news. that being said, the blindness thing is pretty rare, so the average doctor is not going to see it. But, you know, if you have some problems with your vision to begin with, then it might be a good idea to have your eyes checked before you get on it or ask your Doctor, you know, is this really smart? I am a big proponent of diet and exercise. I think if people, if you spend an hour a day exercising and you really watched your diet, there's a good chance you wouldn't even need these medications.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, even in my own personal experience, and obviously this is anecdotal, but, it seems like doctors are more and more, ready to prescribe rather than suggest. I mean, and for all kinds of things, not just including weight loss, but, but for all types of things.
Holistic Health Approaches Versus Pharmaceutical Solutions and Questioning Medical Practices
You know, unless you're dealing with some kind of infection or you know, something that actually needs an antibiotic or a prescription, it seems like they're, they're a lot quicker to just give a prescription and something that is a pharmaceutical, type of resolution rather than suggesting either, you know, differences in, lifestyle behaviors or, you know, things that are maybe supplements or more holistic, types of responses. you know, for me personally, I've gotten migraines since I was very little. I mean, the earliest one I can remember, I was five years old. And for a long time, you know, doctors just wanted to give me migraine medication instead of actually looking at the cause of that. And it turned out that I, that I don't have celiac, but basically that like I have to eat gluten free. And that didn't, I didn't know that until later in high school, my parents finally took me to a nutritionist who was more holistic. And it was just in that overall experience, I know that there are, you know, tons of people who have a similar story to that, that now especially post Covid, and everything that we went through with questioning, all of the doctors in that whole scenario are really, considering, you know, a lot of the medical practice really suspect in terms of saying, okay, this is actually treating what's in the patient's best interest instead of just, you know, kind of throwing a big pharma solution at them.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Yeah, well, everybody wants a quick fix. And that goes for the patient and the doctor because, you know, our, our job satisfaction is from seeing patients get better quickly.
The Appeal of Quick Fixes in Healthcare and Navigating the Consequences of Lifestyle Choices
And that's. And the lack of time. And it's hard. I tell people, I really, I literally, I told somebody yesterday, I want you to go and do an hour of cardiac every day. Now, the odds of that patient will actually do that are pretty low. But if I gave him a pill that said, ok, this will solve your problem, that's a lot easier to do than doing an hour of cardio every day. So we all want a quick fix and that. And that's the problem.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, and that's such a good point that instead of actually doing the hard work sometimes, especially when it comes to things like like weight loss, it is a lot harder to change, you know, your lifestyle, to, to change what you eat, to have better exercise habits, all of those things. Instead of just kind of this quick fix that the American sort of consumer driven model says, you know, just give me something so that I can continue on the, the unhealthy choices but not have the consequences. And the reality is you're going to have consequences, you know, one way or the other. I saw something on Instagram, this is a while ago, but I actually thought it was great where it says, you know, choose your heart. Because being you know, being on a strict diet, exercise, that's hard, but being overweight is also hard, you know, and the cost and benefit of the difficulties, but you get to the results that you want, or not having the results that you want and actually living then in a in a lifestyle that maybe is more unhealthy or something that you don't want, that's also presents its difficulties. And so it seems like Big Pharma is trying to give those types of solutions without consequences. but overall, I mean there are going to be consequences.
The Future of Lawsuits Against GLP1 Drugs and the Importance of Patient Awareness
So where do you see, potentially this, this series of lawsuits against Ozempic and these other similar drugs headed. I mean is this so rare that it will likely remain on the market?
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: I think it will, yeah, I think it will remain on the market. But you know, the nice thing about lawsuits like this is it brings awareness to issues that wouldn't, you know, unlike with the vaccines where you're not allowed to sue, they're actually bringing awareness to the population because like I said, 10% of Americans are on these medications. And I don't think it will bankrupt them or just bring them off the market, but important awareness for people on them.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And this is why it is still important to pay attention to the headlines and you know, to what's going on and especially ask your doctor all kinds of questions.
Discussion on Food Recalls and Increased FDA Investigations into Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
And I know that you know, especially in recent years, I've asked doctors a lot more questions. I mean I've always been one who's asked questions, but even more so. And you know there's another series of headlines as well. Ah, Dr. Mary. That has, has risen to attention and Prominence, which are a lot of the food recalls. And there have been a whole host of 2026 that the FDA is investigating several, active foodborne illness outbreaks. And it feels like we're constantly hearing about food recalls lately. I mean, I can barely open my phone once, a day without hearing that, you know, everything, is potentially contaminated or recalled. And are these recalls actually becoming more common or are we getting better at detecting contamination and alerting consumers?
The Politicization of Health Issues and Advice on Navigating Medical Decisions Amidst Skepticism
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Yeah, that's a good question. I actually haven't really dug into that. But you are right. It may be just better communication on social media. So we're hearing more of it. I'm not actually sure if there's been a significant rise or if we're just hearing about it more.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, it is all really fascinating how all of this between, you know, medications, food recalls, you know, whatever it is, that deals with the health and Big pharma industry, how politicized it all becomes. Because, you know, of course, Democrats are now, you know, blaming President, Trump's hhs, saying, well, you know, this is because you laid off or fired, you know, a lot of workers that we're now seeing, the foodborne illnesses or you know, Republicans and you know, a lot of conservatives have questioned or are you know, really wary now of big Pharma in light of Cove where do you think as a medical practitioner, kind of the balances between, you know, not overreacting one way or the other, like still having a healthy concern, but also, you know, recognizing that obviously, you know, some pharmaceuticals, they're still part of life and we sometimes do need medications, but, you know, kind of not overreacting one way or the other.
Dr. Mary Talley Bowden: Well, common sense, you know, when you have an acute illness where you, it's risk, benefit and you have acute illness where you're gonna. You may need some mainstream medicine. if you have something chronic and you have time to research, then that's when you get second opinions. You take things more slowly. I am, I don't know if you've seen posts I've made on, X recently, but in terms of the vaccines, I'm so disheartened by the FDA's disregard of the safety issues with the COVID shot that I'm telling my patients, don't get any more vaccines at this point until we know more. Because I don't feel like they're concerned about safety and that they're not really putting these, Vaccines, through the proper safety channels that they should, I would say, you know, for these new medications, be wary.
Personal Health Responsibility and Advocating for Oneself in Medical Choices Post-Covid
You know, the tried and true ones that have been around for a long time, those are probably fine. But the brand new ones, and, you know, it doesn't matter which administration, this goes true for any drug that comes on the market, it is best not to take the brand new medication if you can avoid it.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah. And, you know, that's really good advice. And, you know, we're gonna have to take a break here, but, Dr. Mary, really appreciate your commentary on all this. And I think that, you know, for every individual, it really matters that we take our own, health seriously, that we advocate for ourselves. And while obviously we, take medical practitioners advice and prescriptions and all of that, the whole point and the lesson I think that we learned, after Covid, was that we need to be able to advocate for ourselves and, ultimately determine what is best for ourselves and our family. That's why I love living in Florida where, you know, they've reduced the mandatory vaccines. A lot of people are upset about that, but really it comes down to personal choice, freedom, and personal responsibility. So really good advice there. really appreciate it. Dr. Mary. You can follow Mary Talley Boden on X. She does post a lot of really good information there. And we will be right back with more.
Listener Support and Introduction to Fulton Sheen's Enduring Relevance in Modern Times
Hi, I'm Jenna Ellis. Did you know that this content is listener supported? Without people like you, this podcast would not exist. And that's why we need you. A generous monthly gift of any amount will help sustain American Family Radio and specifically this podcast. Please consider becoming a monthly financial partner today by visiting afr.netforward/give. That's afr.net give welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, long before podcasts, YouTube or social media, remember the good old days like when before we had all of this noise? Well, one of the biggest religious movements, voices in America, was a Catholic bishop standing in front of a chalkboard talking about God, morality, communism even, and the condition of the human heart. So Fulton Sheen became a television sensation in the 1950s, drawing millions of viewers to a show called Life is Worth Living. And now there's renewed attention on Sheen and his legacy. And Daily Wire's Micah Knowles and others, argue that many of the things that Sheen warned about decades ago, from the dangers of communism to the consequences of abandoning objective morality, are still remarkably relevant today. And, Knowles even said that, if Sheen were on, any of the platforms today, he'd be labeled a far right extremist.
Fulton Sheen's Legacy and the Timeless Importance of Morality, Truth, and Christian Living
of course, that's probably true. So let's talk about, this legacy and how, you know, there's nothing new under the sun, you know, as, Ecclesiastes said with, Calvin Robinson, who is a pundit and also a priest. So, you know, this is so fascinating that, you know, we're still dealing with some of these same topics, and obviously morality itself and biblical truth and the way that Christians ought to live our lives. that will fundamentally always be relevant.
Calvin Robinson: Absolutely, Jenna. some things never change. And one of those things is that the church is fighting against modernity, fighting against wickedness in our world. But one thing that has changed is that when Fulton Sheen was on our TV screens, he was a bishop. He was an auxiliary bishop and it was later a titular archbishop. And that's something that we, I would love to see today. You and I are on the radio all the time, which is great, but we are not shepherds of the church. We are not the bishops, the ones supposed to be leading, shepherding the sheep, leading the masses. It was great to see someone who was official, someone who was, in a hierarchy, in a position of authority, doing what we're trying to do today. I pray for a time when we are, ah, restored to that. But I think if he was on air today, he'd be cancelled. I really do think he'd be cancelled, if not by the secular world, then by the church too. Because he would say things like, communism is wicked, Communism is evil. And we all knew that until about five minutes ago. And somehow today there are lots of young people who celebrate the idea of communism because the opposite of capitalism, there are all kinds of evils that we need to fight. Communism is one of those that's pervasive in the church. And so he was talking about marriage, being between one man and one woman. He was talking about family values. He was talking about the fact that we all need to go to church. He had this thing called the Holy Hour, where he'd go to and adore the blessed sacrament. Just spend time listening to Jesus in the silence.
The Power of Prayer, Silence, and Authentic Role Models Over Celebrity Culture
An hour every single day. How many of us do that today? Spend an hour just listening to the voice of God in the silence. If only we could get away from the distractions of our cell phones and our TVs. Just for an hour. One day. Sorry, one hour every single day. Like centering your life around prayer, centering your life around God. But fortune, she reminded us of much of this. I was very blessed and privileged to attend his beatification, this week. I saw your fellow Luke Twombly down there as well. Fantastic. but this was all Catholics and, you know, Christians gathering together to remind ourselves that we can be inspired by a man who tried to live a holy life as we try to live holy lives. That's the whole purpose of a beatification. You know, he's on the step to becoming a saint. And yes, we're all saints, small s. But biggest saint is, is this idea that this is someone we should look up to. Forget celebrity culture, forget reality tv, forget people who've got a lot of money. So you look up to them, or they're good at sports, you look up to them. This is someone who tried to be holy. And so we look up to them for that. And I think that's something we could recenter our lives on in the, in the Western world.
Jenna Ellis: So such a great point. I mean, we, we now hold up, as. As the people that we want to be like and, and adore in celebrity culture. You know, influencers, the Real housewives. I mean, you know, people who literally have zero accomplishment except that they're famous for being famous. And among all of the noise and the distractions of every day, what does the Bible call us? To be still and know. And I think it's so much more difficult to do that in today's culture than it was in generations past. But that doesn't change what the command of the Lord is and how to live out our Christian life and also want to be closer to the Lord.
The Importance of Local Churches and Community Building Over Celebrity Pastors and Online Ministry
And, you know, speaking of authority, what a great point that it used to be in, in Christendom, in society, if you looked at, villages, if you looked at towns, the church was at the center, and everything in the town was built around the church. And you had a pastor who was local who interacted with people in their daily lives. And, you know, we often, too often have celebrity pastors and these celebrity, you know, talkers as the people that we even get our, our biblical truth from, rather than being part of a local church. And there's nothing wrong with, you know, listening to the pastor as long as they have good doctrine. Right. and they're speaking truth. There's a lot of pastors who aren't. But, you know, rather than just looking at, you know, sort of the celebrity pastors, that you can find on YouTube and social media, it's so important to be part of a local church and to build Community, but also, you know, not just community in the sense that, you know, we find people we can go on play dates with, right, with, with our kids or whatever, but actually building a true ecclesia and the fellowship and all of the one anothers in scripture, we've, we've kind of lost that in today's modernity where we have easy access to literally anyone on the globe.
Calvin Robinson: This is so true, Jenna. something I think about quite often.
The Value of Parish Ministry and Real-World Connections Versus Online Presence and Follower Counts
In fact, just this morning someone got in touch with me. So I'm the most followed priest out of England, right? So whether that's Anglican communion or whatever. And that means, you know, I'm not a celebrity, but I'm a well known priest. And so people reach out all the time and ask questions. Just this morning someone was asking a question and my response is, go and speak to your parish priest. Like, we cannot just reach out to people who we think we like, we cannot just speak to the people who we think we know. We've got to be part of a community. We've got to be rooted in a community. And this is why I don't just have my public ministry, but I also have my parish ministry because I, I minister to real people with real problems. You know, just the other night I was sat in a nursing home with an elderly lady who's dying. And it's a real privilege to be with her in our last moments when she says, I love Jesus and Jesus loves me. That's what the church is. The church is us knowing each other, loving each other in a personable, real, tangible way. And we can get all hooked up on this number of followers we have or the number of people that we know online and stuff. And that's not real. None of it is. Of course there are real parts because you can form relationships in, in real life based off Internet relationships. But if it's just online, it's not real. And we've got to remind ourselves of that because we feel like we're more connected than ever. But actually we're more disconnected than ever because of the Internet. We need to get back to the parish, back to the parochial system of being in a real diverse community of old people, young people, black people, white people, men, women, you know, children, adults. Just a mixture of people believing in Jesus Christ. So we're neither Greek nor Jew. We are one in Jesus Christ.
Understanding Catholic Relics and the Protestant Perspective on Veneration and Direct Connection to Christ
And that's what I think is important. And another thing that I'd like to bring up briefly while we're talking about fortressine, if you don't mind is that his relics were preserved. His.
Calvin Robinson: His jawbone was saved. I think the reason I want to bring it up is because for a lot of Christian traditions, that seems a bit strange. It seems a bit odd. Like, why would you save a dead man's jawbone? And so I wanted to point to a few parts of scripture where that might be relevant. You know, in Elisha's bones in, Second Kings, where a dead man's thrown into the grave of prophet Elisha, and when his body touches Elisha's bones, the man comes back to life. And then in Mark's Gospel, the woman with the, hemorrhage who's healed immediately after just touching Jesus tassels, you know, on his cloak. And then in Acts, we've got. We've got both Paul's handkerchief that the miracles are performed through people, you know, touching his handkerchief and his aprons. And also Peter's shadow. Sick people are carried into the streets just to touch his shadow. And we used to have. Christians have always had that belief that being close to a holy person, being close to someone who is in Christ is powerful. It's important. And we don't just want to be praying for each other. We also want to be physically connected to each other. And that's one of the reasons that, Fortune Sheen's bones have been saved as relics and so that we can physically close to him as well as spiritually close to him.
Jenna Ellis: M. And, you know, obviously, we're. I'm a Protestant and we're an evangelical network. And so, you know, we. We don't have some of those same traditions, as Catholics. And I appreciate, you know, you describing, ah, why Catholics will often point toward, those types of passages like in Second Kings and touching, Elisha's bones. And you know, from our perspective, those passages describe extraordinary miracles that God sovereignly performed, but, never establish a command or a normative Christian practice of preserving, venerating, touching or praying in connection with, the remains of departed saints. And so, you know, the NewSong Testament consistently directs believers to Christ, not to the physical remains or possessions of departed Christians. So we don't, venerate, those types of relics. But I. But again, I appreciate you, describing why, the Catholic tradition, you know, what.
Maintaining Christian Authenticity in Society and Boldly Teaching on Sensitive Moral Issues
What that means, because it does seem a little odd to those of us, you know, who have a different perspective, you know, but I want to also go back to, what Fulton Sheen didn't think that Christianity needed in. In some of his teaching. Because obviously we need more of Christianity in society. But he didn't seem to believe that Christianity had to become less Christian to reach secular people. And I think, particularly, since I'm differentiating between, you know, evangelicals and Catholics, there's a of lot. There's a wide concern, among I think, theologically grounded evangelicals that we've lost, you know, some of that veneration, of the Lord and of his Word. And we're watering down Christianity into these, you know, kind of little TED Talks, that really shouldn't even be on air if they are, in order to reach a, secular people. And that's still enormously relevant today.
Calvin Robinson: Absolutely. There is this almost a separation of what's true and what's polite and what's. What's nice. And we, don't want to rock the boat, so we don't want to cause any offense. And so we kind of hide a lot of the truth. Whereas people like Bishop Fulton Sheen would just get on TV and speak or on radio and speak the truth. That's why it was so fundamentally important during the 1950s, because people were thirsty for the truth, and people are thirsty for the truth today. So we must never. I know you never hold back and I never hold back. But in general, the church does hold back on many of these issues. People don't know what church teaches on things such as IVF because it's such a sensitive topic. People don't always know what the church teaches on abortion because it's such a divisive topic. And that's what makes these topics all the more important. You know, the sanctity of human life never changes. It's an age. It's true. And so we need to get back to teaching it boldly and publicly.
The Decline of Morality in Public Discourse and the Need for Moral Leadership and Clarity
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we've become softer about sin. We've stopped talking about morality in. In culture. And it's really fascinating to me even to look at just a sampling of some of these conversations with regular people on social media. You know, social media has really amplified the public square discussion, in a way that we've never seen in. In human history before. And just looking at some of the sampling of how people engage, so many people just say, well, that's. You're getting into morality. We're talking about, you know, laws in the legislature and what choices people have. And somehow in this post truth reality, we have decoupled what we ought to do in civil society and our law with basic m. Moral parameters. And that becomes incredibly dangerous when we talk about, you know, anything from ah, abortion to IVF to, you know, the end of life concerns and even to things like we were talking about in the last segment with, you know, medical decision making. if we, if we have doctors in a society that, that don't actually believe that their first obligation is to do no harm, then what are we really doing here? You know, I mean, this touches and concerns every aspect of, of human life. And somehow, we don't have the authority figures overall generally, in society that are telling us the things that someone like a Fulton Sheen did.
Decoupling Law and Morality: The Role of the Church in Providing a Moral Compass for Society
Do you think that it's problematic where we're at in our political space right now that we don't have largely, politicians that are refusing to decouple, law and morality?
Calvin Robinson: Yeah, absolutely. I've said it a few times that I think the idea of separation of church and state has become problematic because people seem to think these days that the church should stay entirely after the state's way, whereas it was supposed to be the other way around. The state stays out the church's way. But we definitely need the church to provide moral compass for legislators. We need the laws of the land to be, well, Christian laws based on natural law, divine law, God's law, rather than making up our own law, which is just abstract and arbitrary. And to do that we have to return to the scriptures. We have to turn to the truth that has been revealed to us, truth by God himself of what is good and what's not good. otherwise we're clutching at straws. And I think part of this is our politicians need to be more Christian and we need to expect them to be more Christian. I think evangelicals from your tradition are generally better at going out and evangelizing, to coin a phrase. But, all Christians need to be out there in the public square speaking the truth to everyone at all times. And that means that more Christians need to be running for office. So, the Christians have Christians to vote for so that we can expect Christian legislators, that we can't just expect people to govern based on our moral compass if they don't share our moral compass. So if there's no one there to elect, we have to be the people that get elected and go back to the whole idea of sainthood.
The Need for Christian Role Models and Re-evaluating Our Cultural Aspirations Beyond Influencers
We need to look at better people. We need to have better role models. Fortune Sheen may or may not become the first male, US born saint, but there are other Christians, there are other saints, from this, this land. You know, Saint Elisabeth Seton, she was the first heritage American saint. She was born in 1774 and she was canonized in 1975. She did some great work on the American parochial school system, making sure that there are Christian schools for people to go to. There's St. Catherine Drexel. She was the second one of the three. Born in 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, canonized in 2000. And she was particularly, well known for helping American Indians and Black people in 1858, at a time when that would have been unfashionable, but just reaching out the church's hand to all people around her. So we have these people we can look up to and examples we can follow in our public lives. And again, if there is no one we can't follow, then we just step up and be that person.
Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And you know, what happened to looking at history and looking at, the people, you know, even during, the Renaissance and the Reformation and you know, all of these. I, mean, that's why the Bible says we have a great cloud of witnesses that have come before, you know, people, and the saints of the Lord who have come before, who have modeled the Christian life and ministry and have actually dedicated their lives, to, to service and to ministry rather than having as our role models, like we were talking about, you know, influencers and people who've literally done nothing with their lives except purely being selfish. Honestly, I mean, I look at, you know, some of these reality shows and I why are these people being held up as any sort of role model or somebody that you want to emulate? But you know, data has shown that for a lot of young people, the main job now that they want to have is being an influencer even more at times than they even want an education. And you know, education has been watered down. If you're, majoring in gender studies, well, you know, obviously I don't think that really qualifies as an education at all.
Engaging in Politics with a Moral Compass and Countering Ideologies Detrimental to Human Flourishing
But, but for the people who are actually doing, the work of society and they have, you know, professions that we can look up to, especially in ministry, you know, those are being downplayed a lot by our culture. And so then once we get kind of downstream from that, and we're talking right now like we are ahead of the midterms about morality, about communism, about suffering, about, you know, what it means to, to be able to own private property, to provide for a family. I mean, all of these are very, implicit parts of God's design for human flourishing. And we're talking about the fundamentals. And if we don't have a society that is, is attenuated toward those goals, it becomes so much harder to argue, especially to young voters, against things like communism and to even, you know, make them consider why that's so relevant to human flourishing. And so how do you think, overall? I mean, you know, we're going to get past the midterms, however that goes. I don't think it'll go that well for the GOP, you know, in, in about 33, 34 days. how should the Christian conservatives engage this political space more so that we can pave the way to have better conversations based on morality ahead of 2028?
Calvin Robinson: Yeah, that's a good question.
Navigating Political Disillusionment and the Need for True Christian Candidates
I'm, I'm not fussed which way the midterms go, and that's not good. I've always been very political. I've always been, you know, this side is the least worst option or this side is the best option. At the moment, I would find it very difficult to support either side. You know, one side wants to tear down, the west, and the other side is supporting, or at least protecting elite, ah, pedophiles. And so we have no good to support. And so I think a lot of people are feeling that, feeling lost with that. So we need to replace one side or both sides with good. We need to replace a side with Christians, true Christians. And that can only happen if we all step up. You know, you were talking about, a lot of people want to become influencers now. Ten years ago, a lot of people wanted to become YouTubers. You know, when I was a child, most young men wanted to become soccer players. In my country, in Britain, there's always been an aim, there's always been a goal that, people aspire to. But for a long time it hasn't been Jesus.
Making Jesus the Center of Aspiration and the Importance of Christians Engaging in Politics
So somehow we need to make Jesus the thing or the person that everyone wants to become again. And that's by teaching his truth loudly, boldly. That's by doing all the things we've just been talking about. It's by, by putting forward the moral good, the moral message, whether it's fashionable or not. It's about letting people hear the truth, whether it's offensive or not. And it's about us, becoming candidates ourselves. If every, if every single parish church ran a candidate for an election, we'd be laughing. The country would be so Christian, everyone would be amazed. It would be almost bliss. Of course, we won't have bliss the side of heaven, but it would be fantastic if every Church put forward a candidate. That's the message I want to spread at the moment, is that people not only need to speak the truth and spread the truth, but also stand for the truth. And let's get Christians into politics again and that's the only way we could drain the swamp.
Jenna Ellis: So well said. And that's where Christians do need to engage politics. And then going back to something that you said a little bit earlier, Calvin Robinson, how you know, you and I you know, talk on on massive platforms and that's all you know, great and we speak truth and I'm very, very thankful for that.
The Significance of Local Ministry and Active Engagement in Community and Christian Service
But you also have a local ministry where it's person and that's so incredibly important. I have the same ministry as well. You know, with my church. I try to be as involved and engaged in events at my local church and ministry there. I have a ladies Bible study in my home and invite women actually in my, in my community and we go through the fundamentals of scripture. I've taught a class, in my church about the biblical worldview of government. And those are, you know, real people that you're engaging with and you can answer questions in real time and also be part of, you know, their daily lives. And I actually know the people that I'm interacting with. You know, not. I love emails from listeners. You know, don't get me wrong, I love everyone in our afr family. But there also is a difference between hearing you know, from someone of just a topical question versus engaging with someone and being part of their daily lives, being able to, you know, go out to lunch with them, invite them in. in my home, you know, I had my pastor and his wife over for dinner a couple of weeks ago ago. I mean those are things that living locally provide and yeah, and I want to just underscore that for the people who are listening who maybe don't have the platform that you and I do to speak truth more to the masses. that's okay. And the ministry that you do locally matter significantly if every church can put up a candidate like you said. But every member of the church do ministry locally in their community, their neighborhood, their town. How different would our country look? And we need to get back to some of those basics. Instead of just being recipients and listeners of the YouTube channels, we need to be actively engaged in doing Christian ministry.
Local Politics, Community Engagement, and the Importance of Pointing Everything Toward Christ
Calvin Robinson: Oh man to that 100%. Because as we're talking about politics, people's minds often goes to big politics. Thinking about state level federal level. But politics affects the parish level, affects the local community too. The amount of no data center signs I see as I drive around the Midwest, for example, people are making it known what they want, but they're making it known to the wrong people. It's like we can take, we can take over all the small towns, all the small townships, all the large cities that are suddenly going blue. We can stop that from happening. Representatives of the place that we love and that we work and that we minister to and is a full of ministry if we step forward in these local areas.
Jenna Ellis: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we've got to take a break here. but I so appreciate you coming on again, Calvin Robinson, and you know, always having the view that, the, and the correct view that everything needs to point to Christ, to the truth and every, part of our Christian life, both in our homes and in our churches, but then also in the public square and in politics, we need to gear toward Christ. And you know, like Fulton Sheen, we should not water down Christianity just to make it more palatable or acceptable in society. We need to stand for the truth. And ultimately, the truth can be controversial. You will likely lose friends, and that's okay, because ultimately teaching truth and winning as many people as we can to the gospel and to eternal salvation is what life is all about. Well, we will be right back with more.
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Absurdity of Politicizing Manicures: Examining the BBC's 'Racist Bare Nails' Article
welcome back to Jenna Ellis in the Morning on American Family Radio.
Jenna Ellis: Welcome back. Well, ladies, this headline is for you. the BBC, is under fire for suggesting that bare fingernails are racist now. So apparently we have politicized the manicure. As I'm sitting here, with my, you know, light brown and, polka dot nails for fall, I actually love my manicures, but, you know, let. And pedicures definitely have to remember those. But, you know, this is just absolutely absurd that we have officially reached the point where apparently you can make a racial statement by either painting or not painting your fingernails. This is just so, like, hilariously absurd. But I actually want to get to some of the deeper, issues that are raised by this. So here's what happened. the BBC published a lifestyle piece examining the growing bare nail or minimalist manicure trend. Okay, fine. But the article discusses quiet luxury, class, beauty standards, and cultural identity. Then comes the line that turned the story viral. someone argued that the BBC interviewed that terms such as elegant and tasteful can operate as euphemisms that perpetuate, quote, white supremacist standards of beauty. Well, what is this lady, inferring then about, apparently if you're non white, you're not elegant or tasteful. I mean, this just is so ridiculous. But how did we get from I don't feel like wearing nail polish, or I'd like to do more minimalist to a discussion about white supremacy. Fashion trends change, and certain styles can become associated with wealth or status or even brands, especially, or particular communities.
Critique of Leftist Worldview: Interpreting Life Through Power, Privilege, and Oppression
And beauty standards certainly can be influenced by history and culture. you know, the American fashion, for example, is very different than what we see right now in France, what we see in, you know, other parts of the country, and, you know, sometimes American fashion culture, if you go to, you know, a local Walmart, you've seen people of Walmart, by the way. or if you just go to any airport, especially in the morning, where people are literally wearing their pajamas and slippers. Maybe we need to have a conversation about American, fashion culture. But this doesn't establish that adopting a minimalist aesthetic aesthetic perpetuates white supremacy. Like, there is an enormous logical leap between saying a specific beauty trend that is going viral on Instagram somehow has deeper cultural associations and saying that participating in that trend reinforces racial supremacy. I have never been at a beauty salon and have ever had the lady, regardless of, you know, age, status, skin color, anything, you know, look and ask the manicurist across the table. so what color or what type of manicure, what shape of my nails do you think would reinforce racial supremacy? I mean it's just, it's utterly nonsensical. And so the broader phenomenon though is a worldview that increasingly interprets ordinary life through categories like power, privilege, oppression, race and identity.
The Unwinnable Framework of Oppressor vs. Oppressed in Leftist Ideology and Cultural Appropriation
And and this, you know, where we've been talking about the Democrats versus the Republicans having two completely opposite views of reality. This is a leftist, absolutely insane view of reality. Always interpreting ordinary life and every ordinary decision making through these categories of, you know, their, their power and oppression and cultural Marxism and you know, all of these other false views of reality versus, you know, the people who view reality saying, hey, we're different and you know, I'm different than I go with my friend Heather to, to get pedicures all the time. And you know, we have a very different color choice palette. You know, often I'll get, you know, my nails really bright pink and she'll do hers blue and we both appreciate each other and nobody's sitting here thinking about, you know, hey, are we now either the perpetuators and the the oppressors or are we the victims in the choice of our nail color polish? I mean once that framework becomes the default lens, almost anything then can acquire political meaning. And this is where the left wants to take you. They want to make you so obsessed with your everyday decision making that regardless of what you choose, your clothes aren't simply clothes, your food isn't simply your diet, your home aesthetic isn't simply just what you prefer, your manicure isn't just the color or not color that you choose to paint or not paint your nails. Everything becomes, not just what did you choose but what social power structure does your choice supposedly reinforce? And this is a no win hypothetical, right? Because any choice that a white person makes is on, automatically and fundamentally presumed to be a white supremacist choice. And anything that a person of color chooses is automatically, ah, presumed to be acceptable because it is signaling that they have been a victim of oppression. And so we're pushing back against Powers, right? And this, this is all the way from things as ridiculous as a manicure, all the way up to things that we've been talking about lately like the Lindsey Clancy trial and the the Austin Metcalf, trial at Carmelo Anthony, who, you know, the the, the the Texas teenager who was black and he stabbed a white athlete. And so many people came out and said, well that's okay.
Inconsistency of Leftist Worldview: Victimhood Categories and the Denial of Individual Moral Agency
And they justified it because of the color of the skin of the. Of the perpetrator and the victim. Because oppressor and oppressed are always the categories. So if a white woman adopts elaborate nail art associated with another culture, well, that's cultural appropriation. You know, if we have long nails with a lot of sequins and, you know, things that you would see on, you know, maybe the Olympic, you know, runner athletes that, you know, that tend, to be black women, then that's cultural appropriation. But if we don't adopt it and a white woman wears bare nails, well, that's cultural erasure, you know, so we can't win. So what exactly are we supposed to do with everything from our nails all the way down to how we determine justice in America? I mean, this is so explicitly fundamental to how the left views the world and how the right views the world. Because in a biblical worldview, we not only have freedom to choose our nail color and all that, but we don't have freedom to have, the elimination of consequences for our action. And justice is blind. And it doesn't matter the skin color or the gender or the age or any other immutable characteristic of a perpetrator of murder. If you have an unjustified intentional killing, that's murder. That's homicide, and you should, pay the penalty for it. It doesn't matter if you, If you claim psychosis like Lindsay Clancy, and you claim, you know, that you are just a victim of the patriarchal system, even as. As a white woman, right? And see how all of this is never consistent in their worldview. Because whoever is the victim and the oppressed, you can always fit someone, any person, into the category of oppressor versus oppressed. Because if Lindsey Clancy, as a white woman, apparently, if she had painted, or not painted her nails and she went with bare nails, that would have been a worse offense to the left than the fact that she murdered her three children. I mean, this.
Breaking Free from Leftist Systems and Focusing on Truth, Justice, and Individual Moral Responsibility
This is literally what their worldview is teaching. And it's remarkably and utterly absurd. And so every single person can fit into the categories of oppressed versus oppressor, depending on who the victim is and what system, and, you know, power structure they're being fit into other than the white male, right? That's the only person in their hierarchy and their structure that can't possibly be a victim. So this strips people not only of individual motives, but the biblical worldview that human beings are individual moral agents. So it's fallen humanity that needs reconciliation with God. And we've got to break out of these ridiculous systems that the left is putting on us. And we need to realize have bare nails or not. But at the same time, justice requires that we look at the actor. We look at the actor and we look at what the biblical worldview of truth is, not just these systems that the left perpetuates.
Contact Information for Jenna Ellis and Her Team
We're already out of time. But as always, you can reach me and my team. Jennafr.net.
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Jenna Ellis discusses the recent surge of lawsuits against GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, which some claim are causing vision loss. With expert Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, they delve into the implications of these drugs, the importance of patient awareness, and the need for a cautious approach to new medications.
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