Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, good afternoon. I'm so glad you have joined us on the Compass. we are a radio show of iVoterGuide and iVoterGuide.com and as always, my co host is the president of iVoterGuide. Debbie. What now? Say, hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Hey, Rick's. Good to be with you again.
Rick Beggs I thought you were gonna say hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow I know, but other people, the listeners don't get that. They want me to say, hey, Debbie.
Rick Beggs You know what? Sometimes we have to have a little shtick. So you just say, hey, Debbie. I think, hey, Debbie. Debbie thing works. There you go. Okay. Throw a little Brent Austin in there. A little producer language. Hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs Well, we're glad you're, we're glad you're with us today. Debbie, how was your Fourth? We just came through July 4th.
Debbie Wuthnow I had fabulous plans, but I ended up having surgery on my thumb. So, instead of being at parades, I was watching all on tv, watched the show on the, the ship parade and watch fireworks and the concert in D.C. while I took my pain meds. So how was yours?
Rick Beggs it was good. We were in, Utah. Sadly, they've had all these wildfires up there. Oh, no, no fireworks were allowed. I have to say this. Can you imagine that? Everybody, every city, every township, whatever, every country club that does fireworks, they saved all their money for the 250th. They got all fired up until they couldn't fire him up. What do you do?
Debbie Wuthnow They're gonna have to save them some other something.
Rick Beggs Well, talk about a fire hazard.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, true.
Rick Beggs Now they, now they're holding them. I, I don't know what you do with fireworks.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, that in itself is a fire hazard to have a warehouse full of fireworks.
Rick Beggs Well, anyway, I just, I felt bad and you know, I've had drone seen drone shows where they kind of substitute for fireworks. They'll do, you know, the light show. And some of them are really good and some of them are really bad. This one? Oh, no, no. But we had a great time. We were with my wife's family and it was, it was very enjoyable. And I just, I love all the pageantry and all that stuff.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, I, I, my heart, I, I bleed red, white and blue. I love the patriotism and all of that. So I just had to do it on TV this year.
Rick Beggs Well, we thought the, the follow up show to what we did last week on, the 4th of July. And actually our show was on the 4th and if you didn't get a chance to hear it, of course you can always go to afr.net and pick it up there or on the app. You don't have the app, then you get all of the shows. But we were on, on 4th of July and we just got a chance to reminisce and talk about past 4th of July's and of course what, what 4th of July, independence Day, really means in our country. But there was a story that, that you wrote about Debbie just this past week, regarding a pastor, South Florida. He was in.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, he was. Yeah, he was doing baptisms down in Miami, so.
Rick Beggs Okay. And why don't you give us a, thought about that. First of all, tell HM them about the stories that you write, every so often. I think we send an email out every week and a lot of times it's very historical and very, impactful.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, you know, we realized it's probably been a couple of years ago that our goal was to educate voters, you know, not just at election time about the candidates on their ballot, but there's kind of a lack of civic education out there. They don't really teach it in school anymore.
Rick Beggs You mean none. at least in public school.
Debbie Wuthnow You know, when I was in school we did get some, and I remember Schoolhouse Rock and you know, we can sing some songs later, but so I feel like I learned some and it's the years in between, the more recent generations. So we thought, you know what, let's give something, send something out that's educational, short and shareable. And the goal being, you know, some grandma says, I didn't know that. Let me send that to my grandkids or send that to my siblings or you know, something to share to try to propagate more knowledge about, the public square, about America's history, you know, just all of that. So that's really the genesis of iVoterGuide. And honestly, when I learn something new, I feel like I represent, the typical soccer mom voter. I'm like, if I didn't know that, I bet you most of our readers, listeners, subscribers don't know that. So that's the genesis of why we send the emails. And we sent one out around the fourth, and it did tell the story of Pastor Travis Johnson. Is that what you're wanting to hear about?
Rick Beggs Yeah, I do. And before you tell the story, tell people who may not get the email, with all this information. How would you get signed up if you wanted to have, you know, get get all that great information.
Debbie Wuthnow Well it's pretty easy to do. You go to iVoterGuide.com and as you're looking at the website you should get a pop up that asks if you want to subscribe to our list or if you want to scroll all the way down to the footer. There's a sign up link in the footer and that just lets, gives you, gives us your email address so that we can let you know when elections happen in your district we will ask for your your voting address. And the reason for that is we're not going to mail you anything. It tells us what districts you would vote in. So when there's a special election or a school board election, for your area, we send it to just the people that it applies to. So you don't get emails that don't impact you. But so then so sign up there and then we'll put you on our list and send you the emails. I do want to say one last thing which is we have a team who helps write the emails. I, I do participate in it greatly and I do write some of them directly myself but they come from our team, from the iVoterGuide team.
Rick Beggs Oh, a little bit of honesty from Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, transparency is a good thing.
Rick Beggs Well I think, I think that's good. So tell us the story that you just had written about regarding Pastor Travis Johnson.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, so Pastor Travis Johnson, this story takes place back in pre Covid, era. So he was doing baptisms down on a beach in Miami Dade. Now I don't know if his church was down there or if he was just doing beach baptisms for mission trip or whatever it was. But the park officials came up and told them, you can't do this because some people find this offensive. You can come back and do it before 5am because nobody will be here.
Rick Beggs So wait a minute. So if you go down there 10:00am too many people are there and could see you, right? And we can't have that. If you're baptizing, your eyes have to look at it. I mean you just can't help it. So it's really, it's not on the person looking, it's on the person who's doing the action.
Debbie Wuthnow Well and God might use that to convict somebody and we don't want that to happen.
Rick Beggs Anyway, back to the story.
Debbie Wuthnow Or at least the park officials didn't want that to happen. So he told them, you guys can't, shouldn't do this. And the pastor was he saw that as an opportunity that God had provided and realized, I do have a right to do this. This is a public beach. they can't stop me from doing this. And he said, you know, I will cooperate with you guys, but my church will be here. And if you come to arrest us, I'm just going to say, okay, church, let's all get in the cop car, way we go. and it gave him the backbone to. To do what was right. And, we use that as a link to talk about, do you know your rights? Right. Do you know what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do? And if a policeman offers, you know, ask you to do something, just to know what your rights are. So that was the whole point.
Rick Beggs And if I remember right, and I do remember right, it also. It also had a survey attached to it, because I know we do that every once in a while. I don't know why I would say, if I remember right, I know what it is because I'm a part of it. So we. We do a survey, and it was a quiz, kind of a quiz. Oh, yeah, that's right, a quiz. I guess I don't.
Debbie Wuthnow We do surveys sometimes, too. But this is a quiz.
Rick Beggs This is a quiz, and it's sort of a fun thing to find out how much you know regarding the founding of our country.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, no, and I find those, you know, sometimes you'll see those quizzes on social media or whatever, and it's fun to take it to kind of say, you know, oh, I knew all of that, or, oh, I didn't know. And our goal is not to make you feel like, I don't know anything. Our goal is to educate. So even if you don't know the right answer, we will, we have, you know, after you give your response, we'll give you some more information about what the right answer is and a little bit of history around it so that you come away learning something, not just, you know, what I did or didn't know. So that's the goal.
Rick Beggs So this was about some, of the documentation of how our country was started. But also, do you know your rights, which is within those documents. Correct.
Debbie Wuthnow Correct. Yep.
Debbie Wuthnow Uh-huh. So the first question was, I did take it well. And, you know, I took it because I, I'm one of those good students want to do get 100 on a test, but I also helped in the writing of it. So it was kind of like I knew the answers before we went in. But it was still good to see. Did I remember them from when we worked on it.
Rick Beggs Okay, so let me ask you this question. This is just, let's get personal. When you do finish it and you get a hundred, don't you just want to turn around and tell somebody,
Debbie Wuthnow oh, I want a sticker. I do.
Rick Beggs Such an achiever. Overachiever, I might add. well, okay, so you got a hundred on this one.
Debbie Wuthnow I did.
Rick Beggs I haven't taken the test, so I,
Debbie Wuthnow I bet, you know, I can give you some questions.
Rick Beggs Do you want to do it?
Debbie Wuthnow Should we do it live, Rick?
Rick Beggs Oh, now you're gonna embarrass me. let me see. no, I know some of them, bearing arms, Religious freedom. Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow And I didn't even ask you a question yet. And you're just like spewing what you know.
Rick Beggs I know, I know. I. Because I want to stop at two, because then I know at least I got the first two right.
Debbie Wuthnow First two.
Rick Beggs So that's right. so, and the quiz really helps people understand. What do I know, what I don't know? And of course all those probably in our age bracket who had civ back when it was required, probably did pretty good.
Debbie Wuthnow Hopefully they did. But you know, laws change and, and honestly, environments have changed. So one of the questions is, you know, relates to, can the government, support a non profit if it's religious or can a, is it, is it, is it constitutional for a town square to put up a nativity scene? You know, some of those things that, maybe some of the Supreme Court has clarified some laws and things are you have a right to do some things that you may not think you do have a right to do. So that is one of the other things we talked about.
Rick Beggs And I think one people group that have a problem with this are pastors or even elders of churches. Because sometimes they get confused that they believe that there's something out there that, you know, culturally has determined that you have to keep church, and state separate. But there are a lot of things pastors can do that they don't have to hide from in the pulpit.
Debbie Wuthnow Right. There's, there's a very much a misunderstanding of what the separation of church and state, that whole phrase, where it comes from, what it means, how it impacts you, your church as a teacher, how does it impact you? and, and we do clarify some of that. If you go through and take the quiz at iVoterGuide.com and you can find it honestly at the website, if you, if you weren't on I Voter Guide's email list. So you didn't receive it then? You can go to the insights and articles at iVoterGuide.com and you can find it there.
Rick Beggs I think we've pushed iVoterGuide.com quite a bit. Everybody's going to be happy with this today. Yeah. so I want to sort of juxtapose this. Freedoms and all these things that we really, truly have in our country that, that probably a lot of other countries, don't have. And, and last week on the 4th of July, we talked about specifically, you, and I were listening to something or watching something on YouTube. A couple, they were from the UK. The UK yeah. And, and they were talking about how he, he did not want to go to America to watch the World cup because he had heard awful things. Violence and you're going to be locked
Debbie Wuthnow up and ice is going to take you away and.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And all these things. Can't walk the streets and spew, you know, you know, just awful things that you on the street. And the wife wanted to go because she didn't want to miss the World cup, but.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, and she'd been to the States before and knew, but.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, but he had a lot
Debbie Wuthnow of fear and he was a big, strong guy. I mean, I would not have pictured him as being somebody that was afraid of anything. Right. He kind of looks like a bouncer. But,
Rick Beggs And then, then what happened?
Debbie Wuthnow Their eyes were opened and they were just.
Rick Beggs They didn't see violence. They didn't. No.
Debbie Wuthnow And, and this was just one video we were watching. And, it really. You sent me down a rabbit hole of watching these videos of Europeans. And actually not just Europeans, people from South Africa and Australia coming to the States for the World cup. And they expected, you know, the protests that they might see on the news or all the blue hair people and graffiti and just that Americans were mean and not hospitable and not generous.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Nasty. And we were an unsafe place.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. And, and they were like, no, these people are friendly and this is safe and, just great. I, we. You and I watched that one couple that was from the UK that had been traveling around quite a bit as they got ready for the World Cup. But I then watched some, you know, compilation videos. I don't, I don't, I don't know where the original videos were showing up. X or Tick Tock or somewhere that I'm not frequently watching. But he just grabbed some, some excerpts and it was fascinating to see the things we just Take for granted. We take them for granted. And they were like, this is fabulous. America's wonderful, and everybody's kind and hospitable. There was one video of a guy on a boat down in Miami, and he said, some guy just offered to give me a ride in the harbor on his boat, and he's taken me out for dinner. And these people are friendly and generous.
Rick Beggs He said, ah, they don't do this in my country.
Debbie Wuthnow No.
Rick Beggs First of all, they wouldn't look at me, let alone smile, let alone invite me on their boat and buy me dinner.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Beggs Well, I. I do think it's the nature pretty much all. All of the US And I. And I do believe there are some truths to the unsafeness. There's some places you shouldn't go. And we have that here as much as they have that in other countries.
Debbie Wuthnow I don't know if we have it today.
Rick Beggs I saw one, but I know I saw one where this man was literally crying because he was so over. He was filled up with the idea that people would smile and care and. And be loving. And, the reason we're kind of talking about this is because of those freedoms that were given to us.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs you know, by our forefathers who built the Constitution, the Declaration, the Bill of Rights. You name it, we got it. That says we're a free country.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. It's what makes America unique. And, you know, and it comes back to those documents and the Christian foundation of our nation. and that's what led to all the rights we have. And I think that that's what bring. Has such joy. And, you know, it really is American culture of being hospitable and. And having the freedom to. To speak to difficult issues and not be silenced. Or at least that's what, you know, our Constitution guarantees. And for the rule of law.
Rick Beggs Yeah. We should have the freedom to give ideas in it and opinions and not end up in violence. I was. I also went down this rabbit hole that, I sent you down because you just couldn't stop watching these people who were fawning over things that we find common here. Like the woman who was at In N Out Burger, and she just freaked out because there were Bible verses inside the bottom of the cup. She just lost it. She said, oh, my gosh, you can do this. They do that here.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs it's so fun.
Debbie Wuthnow I didn't know they did that in and out. It's not someplace I go very often, but that's so cool.
Rick Beggs That's because you're. You probably are.
Debbie Wuthnow I'm not from California.
Rick Beggs Secondary type hamburger. So, being from born and raised in California, that's the only burger that we really care about. but there were other things, like, a guy from, Team Italy, I think it was, where he couldn't believe, you can go up and get.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, the free refill guy. Oh, you don't have to drink them all. He's like, but they're free. He's like, you paid for it. He goes, just one.
Rick Beggs Wait. I can taste all the flavors. This is incredible. I think. Oh, and then, you know, all the other experiences like Waffle House and Buc EE's and Costco and Walmart and.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs And. And people just, they just couldn't believe
Debbie Wuthnow one of them's like, well, Waffle House, you need to come to Australia.
Rick Beggs you know, I, I think the reason I wanted to bring sort of that World cup flavor into all these things that our country was built on is because it's a great reminder to us that, that our, our country is free. We're free people. Yeah, it's a, it's a,
Debbie Wuthnow And you don't appreciate freedom until you see it side by side with not
Rick Beggs freedom or where you came from, which may be tempered.
Debbie Wuthnow Or where there is no rule of law. Right. There is no justice. There's just corruption and, you know, gangs that run free. and you see that compared to what America has, and it's special.
Rick Beggs Yeah, we're. We're truly a blessed nation and a blessed people. And I don't think, I do think we take of advantage for granted. I know I take it for granted, that we have all these freedoms. And when you do travel, and I get to travel a lot overseas, especially some impoverished countries and some, very strict, even from a religious standpoint, countries, you don't truly understand what we have, until you really see it.
Debbie Wuthnow No. And I think that part of our younger generation has not experienced that or seen that in truth. I mean, they see the social media mask or they see the social. The media just gives the negative stories. But I made a point of trying to take each of my kids on a mission trip to see people that didn't have it as good as Americans did, to help them understand the blessing that we have and really to model and to teach that generosity that is part of American culture. We're a very giving nation.
Rick Beggs We are in the most giving nation, actually. but I go back to the Old Testament. when you think about remembering what we have and not taking it for Granted, God was very, ah, specific about setting up, sort of monuments, if you will, to remember. Remember the stacking of stones.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes. He was intentional about passing on the stories and the history. And like when they pass through the Jordan, you know, grab one stone from each nation and build an altar, you know, m. Stack the stones. And when your kids ask why are those there? You can tell them the story. And that's how history was passed down. And part of why we have an issue right now is the history has not been passed down, the stories have not been told. in large part there are, you know, obviously groups who, and individuals who are doing that. But through our public school system, through, through many areas, the stories have been distorted. Honestly, like Project 1619 just they've trying to change the history of America. And we need to get back to the real true, story of America.
Rick Beggs Yeah. when we talk about a spiritual heritage of all these freedoms that we have, I, I also think of how we have now freedom in Christ from a spiritual perspective. We've sort of talked about government, we talked about the freedoms people understand when they come visit us here. And then there's the spiritual freedoms that we have and the spiritual freedom, to be able to say no to sin. That freedom doesn't mean just go do what you want it. Truly there, there are some governances that we hold ourselves to because we model towards our Savior.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's a self governance of controlling yourself. Yeah.
Rick Beggs And, and those freedoms are specific that we, that we have the freedom to say no to things.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, and honestly at the Christian responsibility to say no to some things.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Well, I, you know, as we, have talked about M. The 4th of July and our independence and all those sweet things that we love about our country. I, do want for people to kind of, you know, draw the line between all these things.
Debbie Wuthnow Connect the dots.
Rick Beggs Say that. Yeah. Connect the dots. That's a better way to say it. Debbie, thank you.
Debbie Wuthnow You're welcome.
Rick Beggs I love connecting the dots. When I understand from my spiritual perspective, then I understand what our country and why it was formed and then actually to see the play out of our lives as we get to be out there, to speak freely even about our personal faith and, and then to watch other people see our freedoms when they come here. I had a lot of conversations. we, I was in Dallas when the World cup first started and we were, downtown staying and actually we were at the hotel where the team from Netherlands was. Oh. And it was very fun to be around all that pageantry. Yeah. But he's dressed in their bright orange because that's their color. And we would go outside and there was a big screen and all. It was like the nations came around to watch soccer in the middle of Dallas.
Debbie Wuthnow They called this like a slumber party.
Rick Beggs Ah. well, the freedom not only to get to know somebody, what country, where they're from, but really to begin to share our faith, who we were, and to ask them questions about what they do and what they believe. It. I don't know. It just seemed like it was much more available to be able to talk about things.
Debbie Wuthnow It's a special time. Yeah. I'm glad. And I know you did a good job of sharing truth and faith, because you're good at doing that.
Rick Beggs Well, I appreciate that. I. I just know that. I just love the opportunity, not only to live in this country, but to have the freedom in Christ to be able to share faith. And I know you do too. But you know what that sound means, Debbie?
Debbie Wuthnow That sound means it's time for election Update. So quickly, before I dive into election update, learn about American history, Go watch some patriotic movies, go read some patriotic books. because right now we've got a lull in election. So take that time to. To make sure that you are aware of the American story. So I hope to go see the young Washington movie when it comes. It's out. So that. Good idea last weekend. But. So this coming Tuesday, July 14, there are no elections. We are in the eye of the hurricane, as you would call the primary elections this year. But there are multiple states where early voting is taking place. So in Arizona, early voting is underway for your primary. That will be, it's coming up soon. July 21st. Georgia, early voting begins on the 6th. So, actually began on the 6th. For your special election in CD 13. Virginia, you have early voting underway. Your election will be on August 4th. Kansas, you have early voting beginning this coming Wednesday. So Wednesday the 15th, and your election will be on August 4th. Tennessee, early voting for you starts next Friday the 17th. so get ready for your election. That will be on August 6th. And then in Vermont, early voting is underway and your primary will be on August 11th. So enjoy this summertime. Get ready for the upcoming primaries and general elections. And that's your election update because it
Rick Beggs does get busy again, doesn't it, after this.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, my goodness, yeah. August, September, and then all the way to November. It's crazy.
Rick Beggs And we'll keep you informed on the show as we go forward with that. As we sort of close this thing up. Debbie, we have talked about the 250 year celebration. I hope the Lord comes back soon. I truly do. And maybe that's an age and stage thing now.
Debbie Wuthnow Because you're ready.
Rick Beggs I don't. Yeah, because I'm ready. And but I hope we if we go another 250, I just hope people this continually is a reminder to them about the wonder of what God did in the forming of this country. So as we sign off, Debbie, tell them where they can write to us here at the Compass.
Debbie Wuthnow We would love if you have any questions or just encouragement for Rick and I, email compassvoterguide.com let us know what you want us to address, in future episodes.
Rick Beggs And we want to thank our producer, Brent Austin, always wonderful to be with him. And we do want to say that we are grounded in God and rooted in Research. That's iVoterGuide. Go see us at ivoterguide.com and remember this one thing. Our true north at the Compass. It will always be Jesus. And we hope that you hear that in our program.
Rick Beggs Welcome to the Compass. Navigating the public square together with faith, truth and conviction. Well, good afternoon. I'm so glad you have joined us on the Compass. we are a radio show of iVoterGuide and iVoterGuide.com and as always, my co host is the president of iVoterGuide. Debbie. What now? Say, hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Hey, Rick's. Good to be with you again.
Rick Beggs I thought you were gonna say hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow I know, but other people, the listeners don't get that. They want me to say, hey, Debbie.
Rick Beggs You know what? Sometimes we have to have a little shtick. So you just say, hey, Debbie. I think, hey, Debbie. Debbie thing works. There you go. Okay. Throw a little Brent Austin in there. A little producer language. Hey, Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs Well, we're glad you're, we're glad you're with us today. Debbie, how was your Fourth? We just came through July 4th.
Debbie Wuthnow I had fabulous plans, but I ended up having surgery on my thumb. So, instead of being at parades, I was watching all on tv, watched the show on the, the ship parade and watch fireworks and the concert in D.C. while I took my pain meds. So how was yours?
Rick Beggs it was good. We were in, Utah. Sadly, they've had all these wildfires up there. Oh, no, no fireworks were allowed. I have to say this. Can you imagine that? Everybody, every city, every township, whatever, every country club that does fireworks, they saved all their money for the 250th. They got all fired up until they couldn't fire him up. What do you do?
Debbie Wuthnow They're gonna have to save them some other something.
Rick Beggs Well, talk about a fire hazard.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, true.
Rick Beggs Now they, now they're holding them. I, I don't know what you do with fireworks.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, that in itself is a fire hazard to have a warehouse full of fireworks.
Rick Beggs Well, anyway, I just, I felt bad and you know, I've had drone seen drone shows where they kind of substitute for fireworks. They'll do, you know, the light show. And some of them are really good and some of them are really bad. This one? Oh, no, no. But we had a great time. We were with my wife's family and it was, it was very enjoyable. And I just, I love all the pageantry and all that stuff.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, I, I, my heart, I, I bleed red, white and blue. I love the patriotism and all of that. So I just had to do it on TV this year.
Rick Beggs Well, we thought the, the follow up show to what we did last week on, the 4th of July. And actually our show was on the 4th and if you didn't get a chance to hear it, of course you can always go to afr.net and pick it up there or on the app. You don't have the app, then you get all of the shows. But we were on, on 4th of July and we just got a chance to reminisce and talk about past 4th of July's and of course what, what 4th of July, independence Day, really means in our country. But there was a story that, that you wrote about Debbie just this past week, regarding a pastor, South Florida. He was in.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, he was. Yeah, he was doing baptisms down in Miami, so.
Rick Beggs Okay. And why don't you give us a, thought about that. First of all, tell HM them about the stories that you write, every so often. I think we send an email out every week and a lot of times it's very historical and very, impactful.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, you know, we realized it's probably been a couple of years ago that our goal was to educate voters, you know, not just at election time about the candidates on their ballot, but there's kind of a lack of civic education out there. They don't really teach it in school anymore.
Rick Beggs You mean none. at least in public school.
Debbie Wuthnow You know, when I was in school we did get some, and I remember Schoolhouse Rock and you know, we can sing some songs later, but so I feel like I learned some and it's the years in between, the more recent generations. So we thought, you know what, let's give something, send something out that's educational, short and shareable. And the goal being, you know, some grandma says, I didn't know that. Let me send that to my grandkids or send that to my siblings or you know, something to share to try to propagate more knowledge about, the public square, about America's history, you know, just all of that. So that's really the genesis of iVoterGuide. And honestly, when I learn something new, I feel like I represent, the typical soccer mom voter. I'm like, if I didn't know that, I bet you most of our readers, listeners, subscribers don't know that. So that's the genesis of why we send the emails. And we sent one out around the fourth, and it did tell the story of Pastor Travis Johnson. Is that what you're wanting to hear about?
Rick Beggs Yeah, I do. And before you tell the story, tell people who may not get the email, with all this information. How would you get signed up if you wanted to have, you know, get get all that great information.
Debbie Wuthnow Well it's pretty easy to do. You go to iVoterGuide.com and as you're looking at the website you should get a pop up that asks if you want to subscribe to our list or if you want to scroll all the way down to the footer. There's a sign up link in the footer and that just lets, gives you, gives us your email address so that we can let you know when elections happen in your district we will ask for your your voting address. And the reason for that is we're not going to mail you anything. It tells us what districts you would vote in. So when there's a special election or a school board election, for your area, we send it to just the people that it applies to. So you don't get emails that don't impact you. But so then so sign up there and then we'll put you on our list and send you the emails. I do want to say one last thing which is we have a team who helps write the emails. I, I do participate in it greatly and I do write some of them directly myself but they come from our team, from the iVoterGuide team.
Rick Beggs Oh, a little bit of honesty from Debbie.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, transparency is a good thing.
Rick Beggs Well I think, I think that's good. So tell us the story that you just had written about regarding Pastor Travis Johnson.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, so Pastor Travis Johnson, this story takes place back in pre Covid, era. So he was doing baptisms down on a beach in Miami Dade. Now I don't know if his church was down there or if he was just doing beach baptisms for mission trip or whatever it was. But the park officials came up and told them, you can't do this because some people find this offensive. You can come back and do it before 5am because nobody will be here.
Rick Beggs So wait a minute. So if you go down there 10:00am too many people are there and could see you, right? And we can't have that. If you're baptizing, your eyes have to look at it. I mean you just can't help it. So it's really, it's not on the person looking, it's on the person who's doing the action.
Debbie Wuthnow Well and God might use that to convict somebody and we don't want that to happen.
Rick Beggs Anyway, back to the story.
Debbie Wuthnow Or at least the park officials didn't want that to happen. So he told them, you guys can't, shouldn't do this. And the pastor was he saw that as an opportunity that God had provided and realized, I do have a right to do this. This is a public beach. they can't stop me from doing this. And he said, you know, I will cooperate with you guys, but my church will be here. And if you come to arrest us, I'm just going to say, okay, church, let's all get in the cop car, way we go. and it gave him the backbone to. To do what was right. And, we use that as a link to talk about, do you know your rights? Right. Do you know what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do? And if a policeman offers, you know, ask you to do something, just to know what your rights are. So that was the whole point.
Rick Beggs And if I remember right, and I do remember right, it also. It also had a survey attached to it, because I know we do that every once in a while. I don't know why I would say, if I remember right, I know what it is because I'm a part of it. So we. We do a survey, and it was a quiz, kind of a quiz. Oh, yeah, that's right, a quiz. I guess I don't.
Debbie Wuthnow We do surveys sometimes, too. But this is a quiz.
Rick Beggs This is a quiz, and it's sort of a fun thing to find out how much you know regarding the founding of our country.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah, no, and I find those, you know, sometimes you'll see those quizzes on social media or whatever, and it's fun to take it to kind of say, you know, oh, I knew all of that, or, oh, I didn't know. And our goal is not to make you feel like, I don't know anything. Our goal is to educate. So even if you don't know the right answer, we will, we have, you know, after you give your response, we'll give you some more information about what the right answer is and a little bit of history around it so that you come away learning something, not just, you know, what I did or didn't know. So that's the goal.
Rick Beggs So this was about some, of the documentation of how our country was started. But also, do you know your rights, which is within those documents. Correct.
Debbie Wuthnow Correct. Yep.
Debbie Wuthnow Uh-huh. So the first question was, I did take it well. And, you know, I took it because I, I'm one of those good students want to do get 100 on a test, but I also helped in the writing of it. So it was kind of like I knew the answers before we went in. But it was still good to see. Did I remember them from when we worked on it.
Rick Beggs Okay, so let me ask you this question. This is just, let's get personal. When you do finish it and you get a hundred, don't you just want to turn around and tell somebody,
Debbie Wuthnow oh, I want a sticker. I do.
Rick Beggs Such an achiever. Overachiever, I might add. well, okay, so you got a hundred on this one.
Debbie Wuthnow I did.
Rick Beggs I haven't taken the test, so I,
Debbie Wuthnow I bet, you know, I can give you some questions.
Rick Beggs Do you want to do it?
Debbie Wuthnow Should we do it live, Rick?
Rick Beggs Oh, now you're gonna embarrass me. let me see. no, I know some of them, bearing arms, Religious freedom. Yeah.
Debbie Wuthnow And I didn't even ask you a question yet. And you're just like spewing what you know.
Rick Beggs I know, I know. I. Because I want to stop at two, because then I know at least I got the first two right.
Debbie Wuthnow First two.
Rick Beggs So that's right. so, and the quiz really helps people understand. What do I know, what I don't know? And of course all those probably in our age bracket who had civ back when it was required, probably did pretty good.
Debbie Wuthnow Hopefully they did. But you know, laws change and, and honestly, environments have changed. So one of the questions is, you know, relates to, can the government, support a non profit if it's religious or can a, is it, is it, is it constitutional for a town square to put up a nativity scene? You know, some of those things that, maybe some of the Supreme Court has clarified some laws and things are you have a right to do some things that you may not think you do have a right to do. So that is one of the other things we talked about.
Rick Beggs And I think one people group that have a problem with this are pastors or even elders of churches. Because sometimes they get confused that they believe that there's something out there that, you know, culturally has determined that you have to keep church, and state separate. But there are a lot of things pastors can do that they don't have to hide from in the pulpit.
Debbie Wuthnow Right. There's, there's a very much a misunderstanding of what the separation of church and state, that whole phrase, where it comes from, what it means, how it impacts you, your church as a teacher, how does it impact you? and, and we do clarify some of that. If you go through and take the quiz at iVoterGuide.com and you can find it honestly at the website, if you, if you weren't on I Voter Guide's email list. So you didn't receive it then? You can go to the insights and articles at iVoterGuide.com and you can find it there.
Rick Beggs I think we've pushed iVoterGuide.com quite a bit. Everybody's going to be happy with this today. Yeah. so I want to sort of juxtapose this. Freedoms and all these things that we really, truly have in our country that, that probably a lot of other countries, don't have. And, and last week on the 4th of July, we talked about specifically, you, and I were listening to something or watching something on YouTube. A couple, they were from the UK. The UK yeah. And, and they were talking about how he, he did not want to go to America to watch the World cup because he had heard awful things. Violence and you're going to be locked
Debbie Wuthnow up and ice is going to take you away and.
Rick Beggs Yeah. And all these things. Can't walk the streets and spew, you know, you know, just awful things that you on the street. And the wife wanted to go because she didn't want to miss the World cup, but.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, and she'd been to the States before and knew, but.
Rick Beggs Yeah, yeah, but he had a lot
Debbie Wuthnow of fear and he was a big, strong guy. I mean, I would not have pictured him as being somebody that was afraid of anything. Right. He kind of looks like a bouncer. But,
Rick Beggs And then, then what happened?
Debbie Wuthnow Their eyes were opened and they were just.
Rick Beggs They didn't see violence. They didn't. No.
Debbie Wuthnow And, and this was just one video we were watching. And, it really. You sent me down a rabbit hole of watching these videos of Europeans. And actually not just Europeans, people from South Africa and Australia coming to the States for the World cup. And they expected, you know, the protests that they might see on the news or all the blue hair people and graffiti and just that Americans were mean and not hospitable and not generous.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Nasty. And we were an unsafe place.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. And, and they were like, no, these people are friendly and this is safe and, just great. I, we. You and I watched that one couple that was from the UK that had been traveling around quite a bit as they got ready for the World Cup. But I then watched some, you know, compilation videos. I don't, I don't, I don't know where the original videos were showing up. X or Tick Tock or somewhere that I'm not frequently watching. But he just grabbed some, some excerpts and it was fascinating to see the things we just Take for granted. We take them for granted. And they were like, this is fabulous. America's wonderful, and everybody's kind and hospitable. There was one video of a guy on a boat down in Miami, and he said, some guy just offered to give me a ride in the harbor on his boat, and he's taken me out for dinner. And these people are friendly and generous.
Rick Beggs He said, ah, they don't do this in my country.
Debbie Wuthnow No.
Rick Beggs First of all, they wouldn't look at me, let alone smile, let alone invite me on their boat and buy me dinner.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Beggs Well, I. I do think it's the nature pretty much all. All of the US And I. And I do believe there are some truths to the unsafeness. There's some places you shouldn't go. And we have that here as much as they have that in other countries.
Debbie Wuthnow I don't know if we have it today.
Rick Beggs I saw one, but I know I saw one where this man was literally crying because he was so over. He was filled up with the idea that people would smile and care and. And be loving. And, the reason we're kind of talking about this is because of those freedoms that were given to us.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs you know, by our forefathers who built the Constitution, the Declaration, the Bill of Rights. You name it, we got it. That says we're a free country.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah. It's what makes America unique. And, you know, and it comes back to those documents and the Christian foundation of our nation. and that's what led to all the rights we have. And I think that that's what bring. Has such joy. And, you know, it really is American culture of being hospitable and. And having the freedom to. To speak to difficult issues and not be silenced. Or at least that's what, you know, our Constitution guarantees. And for the rule of law.
Rick Beggs Yeah. We should have the freedom to give ideas in it and opinions and not end up in violence. I was. I also went down this rabbit hole that, I sent you down because you just couldn't stop watching these people who were fawning over things that we find common here. Like the woman who was at In N Out Burger, and she just freaked out because there were Bible verses inside the bottom of the cup. She just lost it. She said, oh, my gosh, you can do this. They do that here.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs it's so fun.
Debbie Wuthnow I didn't know they did that in and out. It's not someplace I go very often, but that's so cool.
Rick Beggs That's because you're. You probably are.
Debbie Wuthnow I'm not from California.
Rick Beggs Secondary type hamburger. So, being from born and raised in California, that's the only burger that we really care about. but there were other things, like, a guy from, Team Italy, I think it was, where he couldn't believe, you can go up and get.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, the free refill guy. Oh, you don't have to drink them all. He's like, but they're free. He's like, you paid for it. He goes, just one.
Rick Beggs Wait. I can taste all the flavors. This is incredible. I think. Oh, and then, you know, all the other experiences like Waffle House and Buc EE's and Costco and Walmart and.
Debbie Wuthnow Yeah.
Rick Beggs And. And people just, they just couldn't believe
Debbie Wuthnow one of them's like, well, Waffle House, you need to come to Australia.
Rick Beggs you know, I, I think the reason I wanted to bring sort of that World cup flavor into all these things that our country was built on is because it's a great reminder to us that, that our, our country is free. We're free people. Yeah, it's a, it's a,
Debbie Wuthnow And you don't appreciate freedom until you see it side by side with not
Rick Beggs freedom or where you came from, which may be tempered.
Debbie Wuthnow Or where there is no rule of law. Right. There is no justice. There's just corruption and, you know, gangs that run free. and you see that compared to what America has, and it's special.
Rick Beggs Yeah, we're. We're truly a blessed nation and a blessed people. And I don't think, I do think we take of advantage for granted. I know I take it for granted, that we have all these freedoms. And when you do travel, and I get to travel a lot overseas, especially some impoverished countries and some, very strict, even from a religious standpoint, countries, you don't truly understand what we have, until you really see it.
Debbie Wuthnow No. And I think that part of our younger generation has not experienced that or seen that in truth. I mean, they see the social media mask or they see the social. The media just gives the negative stories. But I made a point of trying to take each of my kids on a mission trip to see people that didn't have it as good as Americans did, to help them understand the blessing that we have and really to model and to teach that generosity that is part of American culture. We're a very giving nation.
Rick Beggs We are in the most giving nation, actually. but I go back to the Old Testament. when you think about remembering what we have and not taking it for Granted, God was very, ah, specific about setting up, sort of monuments, if you will, to remember. Remember the stacking of stones.
Debbie Wuthnow Yes. He was intentional about passing on the stories and the history. And like when they pass through the Jordan, you know, grab one stone from each nation and build an altar, you know, m. Stack the stones. And when your kids ask why are those there? You can tell them the story. And that's how history was passed down. And part of why we have an issue right now is the history has not been passed down, the stories have not been told. in large part there are, you know, obviously groups who, and individuals who are doing that. But through our public school system, through, through many areas, the stories have been distorted. Honestly, like Project 1619 just they've trying to change the history of America. And we need to get back to the real true, story of America.
Rick Beggs Yeah. when we talk about a spiritual heritage of all these freedoms that we have, I, I also think of how we have now freedom in Christ from a spiritual perspective. We've sort of talked about government, we talked about the freedoms people understand when they come visit us here. And then there's the spiritual freedoms that we have and the spiritual freedom, to be able to say no to sin. That freedom doesn't mean just go do what you want it. Truly there, there are some governances that we hold ourselves to because we model towards our Savior.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, there's a self governance of controlling yourself. Yeah.
Rick Beggs And, and those freedoms are specific that we, that we have the freedom to say no to things.
Debbie Wuthnow Well, and honestly at the Christian responsibility to say no to some things.
Rick Beggs Yeah. Well, I, you know, as we, have talked about M. The 4th of July and our independence and all those sweet things that we love about our country. I, do want for people to kind of, you know, draw the line between all these things.
Debbie Wuthnow Connect the dots.
Rick Beggs Say that. Yeah. Connect the dots. That's a better way to say it. Debbie, thank you.
Debbie Wuthnow You're welcome.
Rick Beggs I love connecting the dots. When I understand from my spiritual perspective, then I understand what our country and why it was formed and then actually to see the play out of our lives as we get to be out there, to speak freely even about our personal faith and, and then to watch other people see our freedoms when they come here. I had a lot of conversations. we, I was in Dallas when the World cup first started and we were, downtown staying and actually we were at the hotel where the team from Netherlands was. Oh. And it was very fun to be around all that pageantry. Yeah. But he's dressed in their bright orange because that's their color. And we would go outside and there was a big screen and all. It was like the nations came around to watch soccer in the middle of Dallas.
Debbie Wuthnow They called this like a slumber party.
Rick Beggs Ah. well, the freedom not only to get to know somebody, what country, where they're from, but really to begin to share our faith, who we were, and to ask them questions about what they do and what they believe. It. I don't know. It just seemed like it was much more available to be able to talk about things.
Debbie Wuthnow It's a special time. Yeah. I'm glad. And I know you did a good job of sharing truth and faith, because you're good at doing that.
Rick Beggs Well, I appreciate that. I. I just know that. I just love the opportunity, not only to live in this country, but to have the freedom in Christ to be able to share faith. And I know you do too. But you know what that sound means, Debbie?
Debbie Wuthnow That sound means it's time for election Update. So quickly, before I dive into election update, learn about American history, Go watch some patriotic movies, go read some patriotic books. because right now we've got a lull in election. So take that time to. To make sure that you are aware of the American story. So I hope to go see the young Washington movie when it comes. It's out. So that. Good idea last weekend. But. So this coming Tuesday, July 14, there are no elections. We are in the eye of the hurricane, as you would call the primary elections this year. But there are multiple states where early voting is taking place. So in Arizona, early voting is underway for your primary. That will be, it's coming up soon. July 21st. Georgia, early voting begins on the 6th. So, actually began on the 6th. For your special election in CD 13. Virginia, you have early voting underway. Your election will be on August 4th. Kansas, you have early voting beginning this coming Wednesday. So Wednesday the 15th, and your election will be on August 4th. Tennessee, early voting for you starts next Friday the 17th. so get ready for your election. That will be on August 6th. And then in Vermont, early voting is underway and your primary will be on August 11th. So enjoy this summertime. Get ready for the upcoming primaries and general elections. And that's your election update because it
Rick Beggs does get busy again, doesn't it, after this.
Debbie Wuthnow Oh, my goodness, yeah. August, September, and then all the way to November. It's crazy.
Rick Beggs And we'll keep you informed on the show as we go forward with that. As we sort of close this thing up. Debbie, we have talked about the 250 year celebration. I hope the Lord comes back soon. I truly do. And maybe that's an age and stage thing now.
Debbie Wuthnow Because you're ready.
Rick Beggs I don't. Yeah, because I'm ready. And but I hope we if we go another 250, I just hope people this continually is a reminder to them about the wonder of what God did in the forming of this country. So as we sign off, Debbie, tell them where they can write to us here at the Compass.
Debbie Wuthnow We would love if you have any questions or just encouragement for Rick and I, email compassvoterguide.com let us know what you want us to address, in future episodes.
Rick Beggs And we want to thank our producer, Brent Austin, always wonderful to be with him. And we do want to say that we are grounded in God and rooted in Research. That's iVoterGuide. Go see us at ivoterguide.com and remember this one thing. Our true north at the Compass. It will always be Jesus. And we hope that you hear that in our program.
(00:00) Introduction
(01:00) Fourth of July Reflections
(10:00) Pastor Travis Johnson's Story
(20:00) Importance of Civic Education
(30:00) Understanding Your Rights
(40:00) Election Update
✍️ Episode References
iVoterGuide
https://ivoterguide.com
Project 1619
https://pulitzercenter.org/projects/1619-project
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