Wesley Biblical Seminary trains pastors to lead churches in the future

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: At Wesley Biblical Seminary, we believe God is raising up a movement across our nation and around the world who hold fast to the inerrancy of scripture and the hope of holiness. We do this through bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees, certificate programs, and even training for lay people. So whatever your next step is in being equipped for ministry, we're here for you. And if you believe these are the kind of pastors we need leading churches in the future, we invite you to think about giving to Wesley Biblical Seminary. Learn more about us at WBS Edu.

Today's Issues offers a Christian response to the issues of the day

>>  : Welcome to Today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.

>> Frank Gaffney: Hey.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ah, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR. Today's Thursday, June 25, 2026. And in studio with me today is Tony Vitagliano. Good morning, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Good morning, sir.

>> Tim Wildmon: And Krish Woodward. Hello, Krish. There. That's what, that's what. Get ready, folks. Krish, he's got three Red Bulls in him, and he's ready to go over there.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, the doctor said I cut back, so I only had three.

>> Tim Wildmon: I do like your enthusiasm.

>> Chris Woodward: I try.

>> Tim Wildmon: So lot to talk about on the program today. We've got a very tragic situation in the country of Venezuela. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes because there's been. Last night there were two earthquakes that hit, Venezuela that were dead. Well, we'll inform you, if you haven't heard already, what's going on, in just a few moments and a lot more to talk about.

Dr. Ray Pritchard is leaving Kansas to move to Florida

But first of all, our good friend Dr. Ray Pritchard has been AWOL, from the show for a while. And, we wanted to check in and make sure he's okay. And we got him on the phone.

>>  : Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: From kcks.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Got him.

>> Tim Wildmon: Kcks. Ray, you there?

>> Frank Gaffney: I'm here, Tim. How are you this morning?

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, we're doing great. We just wondered, what was it? What did we do to offend you that you won't be on the show anymore?

>> Frank Gaffney: You know, I showed up in Tupelo in person for that a few weeks ago and haven't been on since then. Well, this morning, Tim, Marlene and I are standing inside an empty house in Shawnee, Kansas. I'm literally standing because the chairs are gone, the tables are gone, the beds are gone, the food is gone, the dry everything is gone. Even the li fi is gone. Completely empty house. Because we are moving full time down to Hudson, Florida. So that's where I been these last few weeks, getting ready to make the big move.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, well, we just wanted to check in on you and make sure everything's okay.

>> Tony Vitagliano: And again, we all feel real sorry for you moving to Florida. Well, you just have our. Well, our thoughts and prayers.

>> Tim Wildmon: I will say this, Florida is wonderful, most of the year, that's true. But you do pay a price in the summertime with the potential, for hurricanes, I would say. But. So you guys are. So the houses as it sold. House sold.

>> Frank Gaffney: The house is sold. The new family moves in tomorrow morning. And, and we start our travels. Little Rock, Arkansas, then to Emlena, Kentucky for a week of Bible conference, then back to Kansas City in a Penske truck. We're going to drive down to Florida. So the next few weeks are just kind of a whirlwind. And by the way, speaking of summer weather in Florida, yesterday in Hudson, Florida, it was 89 degrees at about 11am and the heat index was 109.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. And the mosquito index.

>> Frank Gaffney: I don't even want to think about the mosquito index.

>> Tim Wildmon: That sort of begs the question, why are you doing this?

>> Frank Gaffney: You know, we were snowbirds down there from November through March. And honestly, Tim, we loved it so much that when we came back to Kansas, we said, why do we have two houses? Right. We've got a community down there in Florida, people who know us and love us. I mean, I've been preaching down there for 30 some years, know a lot of people. So.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Frank Gaffney: and in a deep sense, this may be a topic for another day, but in a deep sense, we are turning for home. At some point along life's journey, you need to turn for home. And this move to Florida for us, it's good to do this while we can, while our health is good.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Frank Gaffney: And, while we are reasonably of sound mind. And so. So we're selling our home in Kansas and we are moving to Florida. This is the next step in our. In our adventure with God.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. Well, I just wanted to give,

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Let folks know.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, it's like. It's like, you know, people were asking. We had to have proof that. Yeah, like Dragon Biden out of the basement, you know, to make sure. Make them wave and make sure everybody's okay. Yeah, we had people asking. We want to.

>> Frank Gaffney: We want to hear from somewhere.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. so. All right, brother.

>> Frank Gaffney: We're doing great.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Frank Gaffney: In a few weeks, God willing, I'll, be back on today's issues with the rest of you. Looking forward to that.

Tim: Ray Pritchard coming to Kansas on July 6th

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so when you go from Kansas to, Florida, you gotta go right by our house here, right by our studios, aren't you.

>> Frank Gaffney: Absolutely. We're gonna go. And that's going to be on July. The. The July 6th.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Frank Gaffney: 7th. We're going to go right. You know, we go from here to Springfield, to Jonesboro, to Memphis, right past Tupelo, Birmingham, Montgomery, Dothan, and then down into Florida and down to Hudson.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Park the Penske truck out front. Come visit us, brother.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's the trick. But if you. Yeah, if you can stop and see us, we'd love to see you and have you in studio. All right, brother. Thank you so much. Take care.

>> Frank Gaffney: Thank you, Tim. And thanks, guys.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. All right. That's Ray Pritchard. I just wanted people to know he hadn't been on in a while, and

>> Chris Woodward: it still won't satisfy somebody. They still want a picture of him like a newspaper with a date.

>> Tony Vitagliano: That was AI. That was AI, Ray Pritchard. You're not fooling me.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Oh, man. standing in the empty. At least he sold it. Yeah, standing in an empty house. But,

We're about to hit real, real summertime in Mississippi

All right, you're listening to today's issue. You know, the temperatures are. We're about to hit real, real summertime.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. Yeah. We have four summers. Or four. We have four summers. We've got four seasons in Mississippi. You've got cool spring, warm spring, summer and tornado. And right now we're in, summer. So, And to be. Yeah, we're barely in summer. We're like, what, four days in, And it's already brutal, but it's better than winter.

>> Tim Wildmon: yeah, well, yeah, winter is a curse upon mankind. It sure is, as far as I'm concerned.

>> Chris Woodward: Thanks, Adam.

>> Tim Wildmon: I can't be deterred. I don't have a biblical reference for that right now at this point, but I'll find one.

At least 164 dead and 971 injured following earthquake in Venezuela last night

All right. You're listening to today's issue. Listen. On a sad and tragic note, many people may have already heard, but there was an, earthquake or quakes in Venezuela last night. And the fear is that thousands and thousands of people have perished. You want to give us the facts that we know at this time?

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. in a story that we have posted on our website, afn.net, you'll see a story there that says, deadly quakes in Venezuela. at least 164 people are dead. 971 injured after these powerful quakes that rocked Venezuela yesterday. more than a thousand People have been trapped under rubble. Many people are missing, which is why we think it's going to be really bad over the next couple of days because they don't even realize people are missing right now. there might be people that, they haven't seen since Tuesday and they don't realize they're missing. Many people, again, are trapped, and it is a terrible, situation for people that maybe were at church last night and didn't get the, push notifications or news alerts in their phones Wednesday evenings. 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a centuries, and they could be felt throughout the region. There were people in other countries that felt this, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, it's horrible. I mean, I don't think there's any type of preparation. I mean, if they only have these type of, earthquakes, you know, at least at this magnitude once a century, you know, most places aren't gonna do much to prepare for it, and the people aren't gonna be prepared. You know, it's different than like somewhere like I think about Japan. I think Japan actually had one also. maybe. I don't know if it was related to what happened, the one that occurred in Venezuela. but, you know, in Japan, they're, they're kind of accustomed to it. You know, in other countries are accustomed to earthquakes, and they kind of have structures in place to resist that, and they know the procedures for it. But I don't think these people were expecting this at all. So this is.

>> Tim Wildmon: I've never been to Venezuela. Caracas is the, capital city. Right. And the largest city. but, I can't imagine it being up to US Standards, at least in terms of building codes.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: So in California, again, I'm no expert on this, but in California and other places that are subject to a lot of earthquakes, you have at least maybe for the last 30 years, you have to build, to withstand earthquakes. I mean, yeah, I guess there's a certain level where no building can withstand it, but, I mean, you know what I'm saying. but you get to a. I wouldn't call Venezuela. I've never heard it as a third world country, but it is, you know, it's poor and it's, lacking socialist country. Yeah, it's a. What did you say?

>> Tony Vitagliano: A socialist country. Socialist country. you're probably right.

>> Tim Wildmon: I imagine a lot of buildings have collapsed that would not have collapsed in the U.S. right. That's my point.

>> Tony Vitagliano: May have fallen a lot of Them may have fallen into disrepair too, you know.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. So, but let me read you this headline from the NewSong York Post. Now I read the NewSong York Post, as much as I do any news agency, news website, because their news is not just NewSong York centric, they do have that, but they have national and international news from a conservative point of view, as we have, on our site. But here's what the headline readers got my attention. It says Venezuela rocked by 20. Excuse me. Venezuela rocked by strongest earthquake in over a century and fears up to 100,000 people are dead. Trump vows us ready, willing and able to help. President Trump last night did issue a, statement, or at least posted something that said we are going to help as much as we possibly can with our. He called them our friends in Venezuela. Of course, Venezuela has been in the news the last year since we went and got Maduro.

>> Donald Trump: Right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Maduro out, right?

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, yeah, happened to him.

>> Chris Woodward: He's still in custody.

>> Chris Woodward: He's still, he's made some court appearances in recent weeks. He and his wife both.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, go ahead, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, I think we will step in and help, and assist however we can.

>> Tim Wildmon: The US Government because we just got so m much money, that we can, we're just, we're just.

>> Tony Vitagliano: But you know, honestly, these are the, these are the types of endeavors that, you know, if, if our money has to be used for something, I'm

>> Tim Wildmon: more than happy you want to help people in need. Help people, especially Venezuela. We're trying to, as best I can tell with President Trump's efforts about Maduro and we're trying to build a, help build a stable country there. Yes, that's you know, Venezuela at one time was, not too long ago was a very prosperous, industrious, modern type economy. And then they. Socialism took over. Let that be a warning to people who favor socialism. It usually leads to totalitarianism.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It does. yeah, it's not. It's a very strong track record that shows that direction.

Samaritan's purse asks people to pray for victims of Venezuela earthquakes

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, go ahead, Chris.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, I just noticed this too. Samaritan's purse this morning put out statements saying they too are responding to the Venezuela quakes. they've asked people to pray for the people of Venezuela, especially around the hard hit areas. they're adding, pray for our response team and for their boldness while serving as the hands and feet of Jesus. Amen.

>> Tim Wildmon: so a 7.2. I tell you, Steve Paisley, Gerald would be able to tell us more, but he lived through some earthquakes. But a 7.2, that's. That's massive, right?

>> Chris Woodward: Oh, yeah, that's big. To put that in perspective, California, actually Northern California, had an earthquake yesterday as well. It was a 5.6. there was some damage, some injuries, many people lost power. But, that pales in comparison to what the, poor folks there in Venezuela endured or went through.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, next story. Krish.

Oil tankers are sailing through the Strait of Hormuz today

>> Chris Woodward: All right, let's mention, this particular thing. President Trump, was out yesterday at a pro American rally. He talked about a number of things and gave some updates on things like the situation in Iran, which, by the way, oil tankers are sailing through the Strait of Hormuz today, which is good news for everybody that buys things because those things got the stores.

>> Tim Wildmon: The Strait of what?

>> Chris Woodward: The Strait of Hormuz.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where is, the Strait of Hormuz

>> Chris Woodward: is in the Iran, area of the world. Yeah. Ah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, the Iran area of the world.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. I was hoping. I've been gone for a few days. I was hoping this would all just be wrapped up. I never. You would be both. I went on for two weeks and

>> Chris Woodward: thought, this is going to be over by the time I come back.

>> Tim Wildmon: And it was not with the strain of Hormuz. It's Groundhog Day.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Every day starts with the state of Hormuz story once again.

>> Speaker H: Sure.

>> Chris Woodward: And this may change. so stick with AFN for more continuing coverage of this.

President Donald Trump says Iran has no navy, no air force

For now, let's hear from President Donald Trump himself, speaking last night in D.C. about things like Operation Epic Fury. Clip three.

>> Donald Trump: And thanks to the power and skill of the United States Armed forces today, Iran has no navy, no air force, no anti aircraft capacity, no missile launchers, no manufacturing. And their leadership has been obliterated. And for the first time in 3,000 years, we are finally going to have peace in the Middle East. We're going to have peace in the Middle East.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I didn't get to hear all that. Play that again. I'm sorry. I need to hear that again.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

>> Donald Trump: And thanks to the power and skill of the United States Armed forces today, Iran has no navy, no air force, no anti aircraft capacity, no missile launchers, no manufacturing. And their leadership has been obliterated. And for the first time in 3,000 years, we are finally going to have peace in the Middle East. We're going to have peace in the Middle East.

>> Chris Woodward: That was last night.

>> Tim Wildmon: There's a, hyperbole and then there's

>> Tony Vitagliano: maybe there's a little bit in there.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, well, I appreciate his Optimism, but for the first time in 3,000 years. So we're gonna make like millennial history here just from this peace agreement that Vance has yet to finish working out. Tony, is, am I reading this right?

>> Tony Vitagliano: yeah, it's, that's, well, that's, that's the claim.

>>  : Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: there probably have been other moments of peace, other 15 minute.

>> Tim Wildmon: But nothing like this.

>> Tony Vitagliano: 15 minutes. Nobody's ever seen anything like peace in the Middle East. yeah, you know, I, I, he's, he's making, making some claims, a lot of them. You know, the Navy's obviously, their Navy's gone.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, he was actually right about,

>> Tony Vitagliano: about what we, how we decimated.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yes, that's right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: you know, the, the, and it's, it's, it's a, it's a speech to get everybody pumped up.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where was he given this speech?

>> Chris Woodward: It was at a rally there. Well, a rally, an America Fest, type event there in the Washington D.C. area. Lee Greenwood, they, played the song for him as he, walked out onto the stage. Big, turnout. So I'll post the link to the entire event for anybody.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway, so we all hope that it's peace, right? Middle East. I'm not. Anyway, we'll see, we'll see what happens there. The straight of her moods.

Chris Vance: I get emails from White House press pool updating people

So let me get this right. Vice President Vance, you guys know this. Is he still in Switzerland working on the, you know, because we mentioned this, but his wife is eight months pregnant. I mean, she, you know, she's gonna have, I think.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Is he, is he back home now?

>> Chris Woodward: He is, yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, he's back home now.

>> Chris Woodward: Double check because he did bounce around. I get emails from the White House press pool like every, so often throughout the day, and they will update people on the whereabouts of things. So I had to look it up. Apparently, he's back in the U.S.

>> Tony Vitagliano: look, this what you're going to find out and what we're going to see for the next, you know, three months at least, in my opinion is this back and forth of conflicting information. So, you know, the people that we've been negotiating with and talking with that supposedly represent Iranian leadership, and we make these deals with, you know, they will come to an agreement with them, but you'll still have these, I'll just call them rogue, IRGC warlords who come out and they'll post their own thing to say, well, you know, no, actually the, the strait's going to be closed or actually, you know, we're, we're going to. We're going to hit any ships that don't, you know, pay the fee or whatever.

>> Tim Wildmon: So just, maybe have a website where they post the hours, business hours, the straight of our Moots, you know, Monday through Friday, you know, 8 to 5. Saturday we go home at noon. Yes. Sunday, you know, Sunday, closed.

>> Donald Trump: Closed.

>> Tim Wildmon: If you have an emergency tanker.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: That needs to go through, you need

>> Chris Woodward: to call, call this number.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Call Saman Close on Mondays.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Don't you think maybe some post some hours on the Internet? I think that would be helpful.

>> Chris Woodward: And then on the back of the ship, you could put. How's my sailing? Call 1-888-whatever.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, that was a good one, Krish. That was a good one.

Tony Witkoff: If timing had worked out for Iranian demonstrations,

Well, listen, so I didn't know that Vice President Vance was back in the States. So he's back here. So maybe that left Jared Kushner and, somebody else.

>> Chris Woodward: Witkoff has been the one that's been kind of a mainstay there. Rubio has popped in and out.

>> Tim Wildmon: okay.

>> Tony Vitagliano: To the Gulf states more. Kushner's working out deals with the gold states.

>> Tim Wildmon: I guess I'm asking this, and if you don't know the answer, that's fine, because maybe nobody does this just to set where we are. This memorandum of understanding that was signed between the United States Iran is in effect, which calls for a, no military conflict between the two. And then it calls for negotiations to go on, I guess, for the next 60 days, trying to iron out exactly what it is the memorandum of understanding is going to, require. Right. Of both parties. Is that where we are here?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So we're making claims, that I hope are true, that President, Trump keeps repeating that Iran has agreed that they will not have a nuclear weapon. Is it. But then, Tony says sometimes you read things like, who's really speaking for Iran now? I do, I do put more credence into what Vice President Vance says, because he's dealing directly with. With the representatives of Iran who are on the ground in Switzerland.

>> Chris Woodward: Correct.

>> Tim Wildmon: And he's meeting face to face with.

>> Chris Woodward: Same with Rubio.

>> Tim Wildmon: M. So, anyway, do we. So that's kind of a lot yet to be determined, I guess. See if the peace holds.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, they're going to take.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is this, the blockades off?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. 60 days to work through, the details probably on more of the nuclear side, what Iran will and won't be allowed to do with,

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, what they got to do. Listen, this. This is what they have to do. And by we, I mean what, what the United States has to. Has to insist on to comply with President Trump's, order right there. What he keeps saying is that you have to get UN Inspectors to be able to have unfettered access, unfettered, access to, Iran, and so that we can, trust, would verify and make sure they're not building nuclear weapons. That's the main thing. That's that really, that. That's 80% of everything, maybe 90.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: we're not going to be able to help set the, Iranian people on a path to freedom, sadly, and we never were. I'm not sure that was ever a reasonable idea. And President Trump, made a big mistake when he said help is on the way and you need to fight for your freedom and those kinds of things. Because I think he led the Iranian, people who want freedom and are resisting the regime, and thousands of them have been murdered and killed over the last year or two. I think he led them to believe that, like, the Marines were on the way to help. And that was, He shouldn't have done that, I don't think.

>> Tony Vitagliano: And I'm not, you know, to use this terminology, I'm not trying to take anything away from what happened to the people of Iran, but the timing, to me just didn't work out. I think we gave the Iranian people, we gave them hope, maybe a little too soon. I feel like if the timing had worked out for the demonstrations that happened, the mass demonstrations that we saw occur, the timing's kind of fuzzy to me. Maybe a month or two before we actually went in, with Israel and used military intervention, if the timing had worked out where those demonstrations could have happened, maybe right after the military intervention or as it's going on, that, you know, that may have given a little more momentum. But Iran, the irgc, that's a brutal regime. So they had more than enough time from when the demonstrations kind of started and fizzled out to, you know, use their brutal tactics, murdering people, shooting people, use, those tactics to kind of put that, Put that unrest down first. And then we came in and there just wasn't, you know, just didn't seem to be.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, in order to have. In order to. For those who want freedom and get out from under the boot of the, Iranian Islamic regime, they're going to have to have guns, okay. And they're going to have fighting in the street. Well, you have to have organization, you have to have a resistance, and you have to have weapons. They don't have any of that because what's happened is like with so many totalitarian regimes over the history, they have thugs, they have their own people on the ground, even physically patrolling the streets. So the people you read stories of people basically go, you know, they don't want to. If they get caught in any kind of agreement with, America or speak out, then they get arrested, they get killed, their family members get taken away. We all remember what happened to the, the, was it. What was the athletes that were in Australia competing.

>> Chris Woodward: Soccer players.

>> Tim Wildmon: Soccer players. And they won. And they, they, they were asked about what do you think about the crackdown on your, the regime back home? And they wouldn't say anything or they, or some of them wanted to like defect, defect. But they, then they said, well, if you defect that they're going to kill your family back home. See the situation they were put in. So anyway, we're not going to be able to help. At least I know, I don't think so. Those people, at least right now at this time. We'll be back momentarily with more of today's issues.

Preborn needs your help to celebrate America's 250th birthday

>> Ed Vitagliano: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial 250 and say the keyword baby or visit preborn.com afr America's 250th birthday.

>>  : It's a great excuse to have some extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that. Show your patriotism with America. 250 apparel that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is a Christian nation and help you find God in the constitution. Find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics250 hello everyone.

Tim Wildman: We are going to Italy and Greece in 2027

>> Tim Wildmon: Tim Wildmon m President of American Family association and American Family Radio. We are going to Italy in March of 2027. We're also going to Greece in March of 2027. And we're doing those tours back to back. If you want to do both of them in Italy, we'll be going to Venice by the gondola and see all the sights there. And we'll go to Pisa and walk on the leaning tower of if you fall off, we're not responsible. Also, we're going to Rome and see the Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum and all the catacombs or see all the sites of Rome. and in Greece, it's the Footsteps of Paul trip. So the places where Paul went in the Bible mentioned in Greece. If you want information on any of these tours, go to tours.aca.net tours.afa.net tours.afa.net

>> Caroline: your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

>> Tim Wildmon: Psalm 37.

>>  : This is Today's Issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of Today's issues.

Today's Issues comes from the American Family Radio Network

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back everybody to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Tony and Krish here. that's just it, just three of us here. Listen, I wanted to, we had enough. We've talked about earthquakes and the Strait of Hormuz.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. And look, FOX is listening because they're now doing a segment on the Strait of Hormuz. So when AFN speaks, Fox listens.

>> Tony Vitagliano: They're watching.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway, I think we've all heard, we all heard more about the Strait of Hormuz than we ever thought we would in our life. time. So we're gonna break from the hard news. We'll get back to that. A friend of mine sent me a clip last night that I wanted to play. I thought it was funny. And it was from Dennis, Swanberg.

>> Chris Woodward: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Many people know Dennis, Swanberg. He's comedian, and he's a little older than me. I'm 63. He's probably 70 or something like that. But anyway, he lives in Louisiana and back in the 90s and 2000s and about in there he was, he was probably the most popular Christian comedian out there and traveled the country. I was on his TV show, with him once when, back in the 90s, late 90s I guess it was. Anyway, so this is a clip we're about to play from him and I'll set it up this way. He's he's he's talking about his dad who's passed away, but he's talking about a story of him talking to his dad Leon, that he's going to refer to him and his mom, who were trying to come to grips with modern day praise music as many people have had to try to do, who were raised on hymns. Okay. So that's what makes this funny to me, because we've all had that discussion, right? And you certainly hear old timers, you know, say, well, we did one back in my day. But anyway, so I thought this was very funny. It's about two or three minutes, and, it's Dennis Swanberg. Go ahead.

>> Speaker H: My daddy. He's old timey, old Floyd. I'll call Daddy. Daddy.

>> Frank Gaffney: How are you?

>> Chris Woodward: How you doing?

>> Speaker H: He said, well, they slipped another one in on his Sunday. Hey, what, Daddy? They slipped another one in on a Sunday. They slipped one in on you. What are you talking about? One of them praise songs. They're trying to make us contemporary.

>> Tim Wildmon: Contemporary, Daddy.

>> Speaker H: Well, you know what I'm talking about. Whether it reaches the young people. It reaches the young people people, but it, it's. I know what they're doing. I know what they're doing. I saw especially on it on television, I said, well, you don't say anything

>> Tim Wildmon: negative, do you, Daddy?

>> Speaker H: No, no, it reaches the young people. Mama chimes in it.

>> Tim Wildmon: It reaches the young people. And we're never saying anything negative.

>> Speaker H: You know, what we do is we listen to our Bill Gaither tapes on the way to church, and then on the way home, we listen to our Bill Gaither. Well, that.

>> Tim Wildmon: See, everybody's happy then, Daddy.

>> Speaker H: Everybody's happy. That's what we do.

>> Tim Wildmon: I said, well, I'm proud of you.

>> Speaker H: Now, my. My friend Bill, his farm is just south of Mama's daddy's farm. I know, Bill, Daddy. I remember Bill M. He called me the other day and said, floyd, could you explain to me this praise music? He's a Lutheran. They don't know much about this yet. I said. I told him, well, Bill, it'd be like if I went out in the pasture, came back and told Paul Laine, pauline, the cows are in the corn. That would be a hymn. But if I came back and said, the cows, the cows, the cows are in the corn the cows, the cows, the cows are in the corn. The brown cows, the black cows, the cows, the cows, the cows, the cows. That would be a praise song.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Oh, that's good.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, man, that's a classic.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I did not see that coming. That was.

>> Tim Wildmon: If you want to know who that was and you know that's Dennis Swanberg. You can look him up on there. He probably has a lot of videos out there.

>> Chris Woodward: There is a thing that pops up on social media every once in a while that falls into this category, and it says things like, I'm sick and tired of these newfangled praise and worship songs with repetitive lyrics. I'd rather see things like when the roll is called up yonder when the roll is called up yonder when the rollers caught up yonder I'll be there.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, listen, I know I want to be Switzerland on this deal here, so I'm going to be neutral. You know, I enjoy a worship service where they play a couple of hymns and have a couple new.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You know, I think it's just a part of life as, as I, I've noticed, as I get right to be. Have, more years.

>> Tim Wildmon: You're saying you're seeing 40 ahead of you?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah. It's. I'm knocking on the door. yeah, I, I. Same way. There's some of the newer songs. I'm like, you know, this.

>> Tim Wildmon: I could do without that one.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, right.

Chris: I still don't know why Michael rode the boat ashore

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, listen, I, I tell people who are against new song, you know.

>> Speaker H: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Guess what? Rock of Ages was. Was new at one was. It was. That's one time when Rock of Ages are, you know, Lily of the Valley.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Was played for the first time.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: And somebody went, I don't like this new music. I really don't.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I'm over here. I'm like, y' all need to listen to Days of Elijah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know what? I'm old enough to remember growing up in, the hymns. You know, I grew up in the Methodist church and people.

>> Chris Woodward: Cokesbury hymnal is from way back.

>> Tim Wildmon: The Baptist had their hymnal Presbyterians. So people grew up. Now, you did have praise music, but it was mostly reserved for summer youth camp.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, with a guitar.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: And, somebody sitting around a campfire playing, you know.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Now, ah, my wife grew up in a Baptist church. and so anytime I would. Or we go to visit, you know, a family church or something, and, she.

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: It's.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It's incredible to me. It's. It's like a, She can remember. She knows, like, she knows all the hymns. Oh, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, yeah. I mean, you grew up with them. You don't forget.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, she didn't even have to have the book.

>> Tim Wildmon: Now none of us know the third verses.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: She's also sad to say these songwriters just blood, sweat and tears spin over verse three, and it's not even.

>> Tony Vitagliano: They're going to be like, that's the best one.

>> Tim Wildmon: Leader goes, well, we're going to sing verses 1, 2, and 4.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes. The only time in my church that I can remember singing the third ver. I go To a Baptist church. And the only time I can remember singing a third verse is like, when, when we're going to have some baptisms at the end of the service, and we're just like, filling time until they. They come out. And then we sing the third verse

>> Tim Wildmon: when you have to have some. I still don't know, though, why, looking back in my youth in summer camps and church camps and youth groups, I don't know why Micah rowed the boat ashore. But he did. But do you know the next line to that song? Why Micah rowed the boat to shore. Anybody know this?

>> Tony Vitagliano: I'm asking.

>> Tim Wildmon: Look at. Ask it. Ask it. Because I can't remember why I'm still

>> Chris Woodward: trying to figure out who robbed Peter to pay Paul.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, well, that's not in the Bible, I don't think, Chris, but we can look it up. But we used to sing that. Micah, roll the boat ashore. Hallelujah. so do you know why Micah rode the boat ashore?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Let's see if I'm right.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is. Who are you looking at? Who are you getting this from?

>> Tony Vitagliano: This is AI, okay, consulting the,

>> Tim Wildmon: AI knows why Micah rode the boat ashore. I'm gonna applaud Micah boat.

>> Tony Vitagliano: a gospel boat.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway, it's kind of. We really don't have time. I kind of put you guys on the spot.

>> Tony Vitagliano: The name of this article is who is Micah and why should he row his boat? That was the question they posed.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's my question. All right, well, maybe we can learn this, during the top of the

>> Chris Woodward: hour when Ray comes back. That'll be Ray's assignment.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. you're listening to today's issues. Anyway, that's very funny stuff there from. From brother Dennis Swanberg.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, that was great. I never heard that before.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. okay, what do you got next, Chris?

Millions of honeybees escaped into Texas neighborhood after semi trailer crashes

>> Chris Woodward: Well, I can't go to a, doom and gloom story coming out of that, so let's segue perhaps to, another human interest story. This was on our website. I'm going to share the link. And it's still out there getting attention from other news outlets in recent days. Millions, millions of honeybees. Millions of honeybees escaped into a remote Texas neighborhood after a semi trailer crashed. Many people are wondering, what is a semi trailer doing with millions of bees on board? Apparently, it's not that uncommon for people that grow, or farm or harvest bees, make honey. they transport these things around to different parts of the country, to try to help with, honey efforts and bee populations. And unfortunately, the Semi trailer, had an accident. it was carrying 400 hives and it tipped over. Emergency officials in Orange County, Texas shut down roads in the area Sunday and warned residents to stay in their homes while crews work to unload the trailer and salvage as many hives as possible. The, county is located east of Houston and borders, Louisiana. So if you're in those two areas today and you see some bees, it might be from this truck.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, yeah, this is a, that's the first. So you have a, like an 18 wheeler carrying, That's a fascinating. That's one of the. Maybe that's a Discovery Channel special, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Because I'm sure there's a reason.

>> Chris Woodward: Right?

>> Tony Vitagliano: There's a reason.

>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I have, we have talked about. There are bee farmers. I know that's probably not what you call them, but they carry some bees. They'll carry bees around to help pollinate m, various farms or vegetation or something.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You know where bees are the, the unsung hero of our ecosystem from, for what I understand, they, they. I mean from flowers in your, you know, in your flower garden to crops. if we didn't have honeybees, we'd be in trouble.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, Life would disappear as we know it, probably.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, ICE showed up also and was looking for illegal, honeybees in the trailer.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know. Is that what started all this? Then they just fled?

>> Tony Vitagliano: I mean, how do they collect? That's my thing is I, that's what.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. How do you get, how do you rope them back?

>> Tony Vitagliano: The recovery process, if, if at all. Maybe they don't just flee immediately. Maybe kind of stick.

>> Tim Wildmon: Where did this happen?

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it happened in Orange County, Texas, which is located east of Houston and it borders Louisiana. And interestingly enough guys, in April, a crash involving a truck full of bees slowed interstate traffic near Knoxville, Tennessee. So it's the second bee incident in a few months.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. anyway, that's crazy. By the way, back to Micah Rowe, the Boat Ashore. It's a black spiritual from the time of slavery. So it has, it's basically talking about Jesus coming and Gabriel blowing the horn. So that's to answer the question that's, that's the origins of that particular song. I wanted to inject that while I had it here before me. But so anyway, next story.

Two flight attendants were fired by Alaska Airlines for posting comments expressing religious beliefs

>> Chris Woodward: Alright. One of the things that I have the privilege, of covering here at AFN and have done so for about 16 years now. I cover a lot of the First Amendment religious freedom stories, the legal cases. And there's a big one that's been playing out for a few years now involving a couple of flight attendants that worked for Alaska Airlines. Alaska Airlines a few years ago decided, it was going to put its support out there vocally, publicly, in favor of the, Equality act, which for people that maybe have not paid attention to that, the Equality act would ignore the Religious Freedom Restoration act that Bill Clinton signed into law back in the 90s. And it allows for people of faith to live and work and operate a business according to their principles. Well, the Equality act seeks to undo and erase and ignore all of that stuff. And for some reason, Alaska Airlines, decided to throw its support behind this far left proposal that Democrats have been pushing. Well, Alaska Airlines opened up their, like, internal, communication software to allow employees of Alaska Airlines to share their thoughts about the company's support for something like the Equality Act. Two ladies that worked as flight attendants told the airline, don't do this. It's a bad idea. It's going to hurt people of faith, including us. It's going to make things difficult for Americans nationwide. Those two ladies were fired even though the airline allowed them to share their personal opinions about this. The two ladies lawyered up with First Liberty Institute out of Dallas. And yesterday the 9th Circuit ruled in favor of these, flight attendants and they are going to allow this case to go to a jury. Somebody who explains all this better than I did is attorney Stephanie Talbot, First Liberty, who had this to say in clip nine.

>> Caroline: The ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just issued an opinion in favor of the flight attendants who were fired by Alaska Airlines for posting comments that expressed their religious beliefs. So this is a great news, great news for Marlee and Lacey, our clients who were exceptional flight attendants. At Alaska Airlines, the airline had a employee only commenting board. They posted their support for the Equality act and invited diverse perspectives, welcomed, said they welcomed people to comment. And then when our clients posted from their religious perspectives, they were immediately investigated, taken off their flights and fired. So we are grateful that the ninth Circuit has found that there is evidence of religious discrimination here and it is allowing the case to go to a jury.

>> Chris Woodward: Now, for anybody that might be wondering, well, what did they say? Were they ugly? I went to First Liberty for this information. In early 2021, Alaska Airlines announced its support for this Equality Act. Flight attendant Lacey Smith posted a question asking, as a company, do you think it's possible to regulate morality? In the same forum, the other flight attendant, Marley Brown, asked, quote, does Alaska support endangering the church, encouraging suppression of religious freedom, obliterating women rights and parental rights. Her post continued to explain her religious concerns about the dangers to women safe spaces posed by the Equality Act. So it wasn't the this is a terrible thing and you're ruining America. And they weren't ugly. They were polite and respectful in their dissent and they got fired for that even though the company allowed them to voice their opinions.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Here's the thing as I notice a pattern, and I'm not the only one who's seen it. I'm sure many of you listening have seen this pattern, anytime. And I'm just going to say that these corporations are heavily entrenched with leftist, whether it's the HR departments or you know, marketing, public relations, they're, they're, they're all entrenched with you know, oftentimes younger people who have come out, have just come out of college, which are, you know, Marxist and Dr. Indoctrination, camps pretty much at this point. So they're entrenched with these leftists and oftentimes when they present themselves they say they're open for diverse opinions. You know, we, we welcome, we welcome feedback. We welcome, you know, our employees opinions and feedback. And they're never really open to it. All right? And what they actually mean is as long as you go along the same lines as us and don't stray too far to the left or the right outside of this narrative, then you're, you're okay. But they don't really mean that they, they value diverse opinions. And this is just another example of that. Nothing that these two ladies posted was it's tame in comparison to, let's say if Alaska Airlines, had voiced support for legislation that, you know, limited let's say they had voiced support for the DOS decision. You know, let us give us your feedback. I mean the, the level of vitriol you would have gotten from you know, employees who voice their opinions against that, is that, I'm just saying that pales in comparison. And it's just another example of this inherent bias that a lot of these corporations have against really just Christians.

>> Tony Vitagliano: In m. The Christian faith.

>> Tim Wildmon: By the way, we did report this and it's good news. The baseball, players, the professional baseball players.

>> Chris Woodward: Right, Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: especially the ones for the San Francisco Giants. there were four of them, right?

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, there were four major league baseball players, we talked about this story who refused to wear the rainbow colors and the whatever they were doing for gay Pride Day in San Francisco, which I think in San Francisco every day is Gay Pride day. Right. But I digress. at this particular game, so the San Francisco Giants, organization told their players, hey, here are your uniforms for tomorrow or for today's game. These four guys said, you know what, we can't do this, we can't. It goes against our religious convictions to promote something that we believe the Bible calls sinful. And so, the players were punished. well, ultimately they were not kind

>> Chris Woodward: of bad mouthed and reprimanded.

>> Tim Wildmon: But what happens, surprisingly, a little bit surprisingly to me is Major League Baseball stepped in and told the San Francisco Giants, you can't punish these guys.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because you did not inform them properly that they had a right to sit out or to not wear the uniform, the Gay pride uniforms. They could abstain and, and just wear their normal San, Francisco Giants uniforms instead. so I think they didn't. They have some kind of a Christian, message. Okay.

>> Chris Woodward: They wrote a verse from Genesis where it talks about how the. Right. The rainbow is God's promise or reminder to us that he's not going to.

>> Tim Wildmon: They put that on their uniform or

>> Chris Woodward: they wrote it in like white ink on their hat. I'll show you the picture here. Not that it's going to impact the radio audience.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. So they, they wrote a Bible. They wrote the Bible reference on their caps. which. That also is against, Major League Baseball rules.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because Major League Baseball says no player who plays under our you know, organization, our Major League Baseball can tamper with the or put messages on the uniforms. And that's perfectly understandable. I mean they're a company and they have a right to their uniforms for their employees.

>> Chris Woodward: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: And if, imagine how chaotic it would be if every player started doing like golf, does. Or NASCAR does where, you know.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: Each leg has its own sponsor.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: You know, or something like that. So they, they don't allow that Major League Baseball for understandable reasons. So, so the Christian players can't do that.

Christian players said, listen, if you're gonna make, uh,

But the Christian players said, listen, if you're gonna make, you can allow the Gay Pride to make. Force us to put emblems, our messages on our uniforms. Which again goes against the rules of Major League Baseball. Then you're gonna have to treat this fairly here. Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: So anyway, again that proves the point that it really. The diversity.

>> Frank Gaffney: Right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Only goes one goes one way.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Because no, no Major League Baseball team is, hey, we have a special Easter Sunday uniform. We're gonn you know, celebrating the resurrection. The resurrection, you know, in the Christian holiday, they would never do that.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: So of course they're gonna with. With gay pride and it being San Francisco.

>> Tim Wildmon: The bottom line here is in 1,000,000 M moms, no, American Family association put out a petition in support of these players. And it's good for them. They stood up, they did so in a Christ like manner.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Tim Wildmon: nobody got ugly or anything like that, but they just said. But in Major League Baseball did the right thing by saying, hey, the Giants, you, you if you want to do this. They probably got a special exemption from Major League Basketball to put the rainbow and all that on their uniforms. But they did not inform the four, their players that they had a right to wear their normal uniform if they wanted to. So anyway, it wasn't a perfect situation, but ultimately it was good for Major League Baseball to do the right thing here with regard to these Christian players. I will say this too. I think the climate has changed somewhat in the. Tony, you referencing this? there's been a backlash to the DEI movement. There's been a backlash to, the blm, movement. These left, wing who want to, you know, shame everybody who doesn't do as they say. People are tired of that. most Americans don't care who you have a relationship with. Okay, that's your business. but when you force people to applaud it or either you're a bigot or a hater or you get fired, that's where people are saying, no, no, no, we're not, we're not taking that anymore.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Takes it to the next level. Yeah, I think everybody would be on board with corporations just staying, whether it's mlb.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Tony Vitagliano: You know, specific teams within, you know, sports leagues or just in corporate America. Everybody, I think, is like you mentioned the climate, the, the average American's view now at this point is just, just stay apolitical. Don't, don't get involved. We're not saying you have to support our side. We're not saying you have to have, you know, a maga, A maga night at your, you know, stadium. We're not just. If you just stay apolitical and don't step into one camp or the other, you will save yourself a lot of heat. Which is.

>> Tim Wildmon: But far left, he say silence is violence.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Exactly.

>> Tim Wildmon: So if you don't take up their position, you're in favor of fascism.

>>  : Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So it's an unfair, accusation. But that's what they go with. But but I think a lot of Americans are seeing through that now, and even corporations are saying a lot of. Are getting rid of their dei.

>> Speaker H: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: departments. So. All right, we're going to take a short time out right here. We'll be back for more of today's issues on the American Family Radio after this break. The views and opinions expressed in this

>> Caroline: broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tim and Tony talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day including a discussion on President Trump's remarks on Operation Epic Fury.