This Easter season we're offering a special downloadable resource that will inspire you
Jeff Chamblee This Easter season we're offering a special downloadable resource that will inspire you and deepen your faith. He has Risen is a digital booklet featuring powerful articles from the STAND and AFA Journal that explore the life changing truth of the resurrection, the significance of Easter and how to share these foundational truths with others. For a limited time only, it's our gift to you for any donation of $5 or more. Help us continue to share biblical truth, defend Christian values and equip our families. Visit afr.net offers 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.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR on this Tuesday, April 15, 2025. And joining me in studio is Wesley Wildmon. Good morning, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon Very good morning.
Tim Wildmon And Chris Woodward.
Christopher Woodward Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And in Kansas City, chaos is our good friend Ray Pritchard. Good morning, Ray.
Ray Pritchard Good morning, Tim.
Chris and his wife filed their taxes ahead of time this year
How you doing today?
Tim Wildmon I paid my taxes.
Ray Pritchard It's tax day, baby.
Wesley Wildmon Have you done it Behind I way.
Ray Pritchard Ahead of time this year. Filed mine last Friday way.
Wesley Wildmon We're usually on the front end of all this because for many, many years we were getting tax, returns refund. So we were excited to do it.
Tim Wildmon Or not a refund. But what is it?
Wesley Wildmon It's a tax return.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wesley Wildmon But we were excited to do it. But it seems in the last couple of years that's not been the case. So we're hadn't been too eager to be the first.
Tim Wildmon You need to have more children to get more deductibles.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon Have a couple more kids, more deductibles. Is that the way that's the way you family plan, Chris? No. That be a no.
If you don't file your taxes by midnight, you'll get arrested
All right, all right. It is tax day.
Christopher Woodward It is.
Ray Pritchard Yes, it is.
Christopher Woodward You have until midnight.
Tim Wildmon And I, I contributed zero to that. as Alison, my wife, she did all that. I'll leave all that. So I get arrested. One day it'll be because she didn't pay. And I never knew it.
Christopher Woodward Behind every good man is a great woman rolling her eyes.
Ray Pritchard That's exactly so.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you have to get up. Anyway, I just wanted to remind everybody you have if you don't do it by today, you got to file. what are you extension got to.
Ray Pritchard Pay some penalty or something.
Christopher Woodward Libertarians are listening and saying taxation is theft.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, it is.
Ray Pritchard Well, they're right, but we still got to do it right.
Tim Wildmon What's the old saying? the two certainties in life is death and taxes.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon I don't know who said that, but.
Christopher Woodward Probably a guy that was dying because he was being taxed.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, Anyway, it's, April 15, 2020.
Wesley Wildmon Maybe we helped somebody today that forgot.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we sent him into full panic mode. That's what I did.
Ray Pritchard That's right. If you haven't.
American Family Radio has a conference coming up this summer called Activate Summit
Tim Wildmon Hey, Wesley, you want to mention, our conference coming up this summer?
Wesley Wildmon I do. We have a conference coming up this summer. It's a Activate Summit. The name of this year's conference is Biblical Bedrock. Building on the authority of Scripture, we're going to have think ah about it as like an apologetic 101 for the authority of Scripture. We're going to cover that. We're going to have several different speakers, some of which are Frank Turek, evitagliano, Abe Hamilton III and others as well.
Tim Wildmon Todd Herman.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, sir. Todd Herman is going to be there to find out more about this. you can go to activate.afa.net as activate.afa.net is going to complement our curriculum that we have produced, we have created, and we will also be selling that product there for a, discounted price June 12th through the 14th. We're really excited. Look forward to meeting you there. If you've ever wanted to meet some of the staff of AFA at afr, over half or more of our staff will be participating at the Activate Summit in some shape, form or fashion. We also offer a Kids program, ages 6 through 12 that goes simultaneously, with the adult side of the conference.
Tim Wildmon Children's track.
Wesley Wildmon That's right, a children's track. That.
Tim Wildmon So again, this is, When did you say it was?
Wesley Wildmon This is June 12th through the 14th.
Tim Wildmon Thursday through Saturday.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, sir. And the special pricing ends Friday, April 18th. So we've. @ the end of the week of this week.
Tim Wildmon so pay your taxes and then sign up for this.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon For the Activate Conference. If there's anything left. Actually, we got it. It's a.
Wesley Wildmon It's, it's very easy.
Tim Wildmon Very good price, right?
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. 75 for ages 13 and up, ages 6 through 12, which is the kids track. It's $50 for the whole weekend. Let me, let me emphasize that. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Yeah, all weekend. and of course it's free for six and under or five and under.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so, that's going to be here in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Wesley Wildmon It'll replace our Marriage Family Life Conference that we've had in years past. We've, currently got just, we got just over 300, adults signed up, about 8, 75.
Tim Wildmon How do you go read about this?
Wesley Wildmon And you can find out more about this, the topics that we're going to be covering and the speakers that will.
Tim Wildmon Be there, how to register.
Wesley Wildmon And how to register, you can find out at activate.afa.net that's activate.afa.net and Jenna Ellis, who will be on with us at 10:30, will also be a panel, speaker, panelist.
Tim Wildmon So, okay, so that's coming up this summer in June.
Wesley Wildmon And the reason we're talking about is because Friday is the early.
Tim Wildmon The early bird registration is up on Friday.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon But, we would love to have everybody come visit us here in Tupelo, Mississippi for this very special conference. And then while you're here, if you want to schedule a, tour of our American Family Radio studios, you can do that as well. So that's coming up in June.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has proposed the Audit the IRS Act
All right, Chris, what's your first story?
Christopher Woodward Well, because we were talking about tax day, I, wanted to bring this in. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has proposed a bill called the Audit the IRS Act. It would require the IRS to ensure that its workers pay their taxes. that's because of a watchdog report that found current and former employees owed $46 million worth of taxes. And that's about, what about. Yes, IRS employees owe back taxes.
Tim Wildmon And I gotta stop you right there, because you know, the words of that great philosopher Gmer Pyle come to mind. Well, no, not that, but that is appropriate. I would just. Shame, shame, shame.
Christopher Woodward Yes, yes. So, yeah, if you're just tuning in, people, that are collecting your taxes, are paying their own taxes. In fact, about 5% of IRS employees were not fully caught up on paying their own taxes. Fox did a big segment on this. I'll post a link to it here in a second. to go with this story, CPA and tax expert Dan Geltrud said this bill from Ernst is a good idea. Clip 5.
Speaker F It is a good idea. I mean, the optics of this are really terrible when you think there are 4,800 former or, current IRS employees, as well as IRS contractors that owe $46 million of taxes. I mean, come on, you're enforcing laws here for people to pay their taxes, and then you don't do it. So there's three provisions here to pay attention to. Number one, it mandates annual audits Number two, it will terminate anyone that is seriously delinquent with their taxes. And number three, you don't get hired if you have outstanding taxes. So I think this bill is a positive and I can't really see anybody being against this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's, that's proposed legislation.
Christopher Woodward Yes. From Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, we'll see where that goes. right. What do you think about this is not a good look for the irs?
Ray Pritchard Is anybody surprised? It's not that I think that the people the IRS particularly nefarious or more evil than, than anybody else. But no, they forgot they didn't file correctly, they didn't file on time. They overlooked, they gave themselves the benefit of the doubt. So very least you can say it's not a good look if the people who collect our taxes are themselves, behind on their taxes.
Tim Wildmon Look, we gotta have, you gotta have taxation. this is my view, because there are necessary parts of our federal, state and local government that are essential to our way of life. So I don't mind, and I know y'all don't mind paying your quote, fair share of taxes. However, the, when you see the waste, fraud and abuse pointed out like Elon Musk has, you just go, my word, man. Our taxes are being, our tax, payments that we're giving into the government. A lot of it's being wasted. You know what I'm saying? That's, I think that's the general frustration.
Wesley Wildmon And we've known or felt that for years. But it wasn't, but we, we would want to know more about where our money's going, but we wouldn't get any help from politicians in many cases. But now with Doge. Yeah, it's, we're get there exposing it, but it's also adding to I told you so and we're getting, you know, so I just, you know, I don't, I've been curious though. It's exciting to find someone like Elon doing something about it with his team. But what is exactly are we doing after we, after we, with each one that we uncover, discover, are we stopping it right away or.
Tim Wildmon Well, I think what's going to happen is first of all, there's a lot of money. Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon Is quote, I want to know what's, what's the account? What do we count?
Tim Wildmon I think to the extent that President Trump has the authority to show, shut programs down or agencies down, like the Department of Education, for example, and others. He's, he's ah, in this, what was that other one, the first one that came out where we learned so much money was being wasted, spent on leftist ideology, something usa.
Wesley Wildmon USA Aid.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. But, I think so. I think President Trump, again, to the extent that he has the authority to do so, will eliminate these agencies or, you know. But, the other thing is the Congress is going to have to step in and defund a lot of this. The problem, primarily the problem is the Democrats, not all together. There are some Republicans who are part of the swamp, too, and vote for things that, in their own states and districts that may be wasteful. That does happen. I would, I would, However, primarily the problem is the big government, liberals and the Democrat Party, who. They never met a spending bill. They didn't love every bit of it.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, sure.
Tim Wildmon And. And ginormous. And, what do you do? Because it benefits the Democrat. This is my view that it benefits the Democrat Party among the general population. If you promise them stuff.
Wesley Wildmon Mm.
Tim Wildmon If you promise them. Like, like you look at, what's happening in California, for example, reading about this this morning, and it's the lead story on Fox News. they have a program where they pay for free, medical care, but it's not free. They're paying for it.
Christopher Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon For illegal immigrants. Okay. So. And there this program is, is, costing a lot more than they ever thought it would, and it's making them go, busted. Okay. And they're having to take money alone out of the general fund to pay for this free health care for illegal immigrants into California. Well, that's something the Democrats promise and they believe in the name of human compassion. But there's no common sense to it because you can't pay for it. You don't have the money for it.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon So a lot of programs, to answer your question, a lot of programs that liberals and Democrats believe in and want to pay for it, there's just not the money to do it any longer.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, sure. And that's what I'm trying to understand is now that we're uncovering these and we're stopping them.
Tim Wildmon What'S going to be done about it? To stop it?
Jim M. says politicians justify pork spending by saying it's small
Wesley Wildmon No, what's going to be done with that money that they just stopped? So let's say $100,000 just throwing out a number is going to sex change in Africa, and we stopped the hundred thousand dollars. Where does that.
Tim Wildmon You against sex changes in Africa? I do worry. Why didn't you say Europe or China? I mean, is this kind of a.
Wesley Wildmon Listen. No, no, distract me.
Tim Wildmon Okay. I'm not gonna distract from the point. no, that. M, we're in debt and we're running a deficit, I mean, by trillions of dollars every year. So is it 1.5 trillion a year or something like that? Right. Or something. Anyway, so no, if you find $100,000 or a million dollars or $10 million, you don't find somewhere else to spend it because that means you just need to cut it out of the budget altogether so that we don't have to borrow as much to pay for our deficit, which is going to cause our country great pain and anguish at some point. At some point if, if we don't stop doing this.
Wesley Wildmon you know, that would be my suggestion. Go ahead, Ray.
Ray Pritchard I think, Jim M. Part of the problem is, to take your example, is if you're talking about 1.5 trillion added to the deficit annually. Annually. Right. Unbelievable. I could imagine a politician saying, well, this, well, this is only $5 million. Right. It's only, that's what they do, you know, it's only $10 million. Just, whether we cut that or not, it's not going to make any difference in the big one and a half trillion. I think it's pretty easy for politicians to justify a lot of this pork because they think if they, if they cut it, it's not going to make any difference to the problem. Anyway. I, guess what I'm saying the problem is less the money. It's the mindset in Washington that it doesn't matter. So let's keep spending money.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I've often said that the federal government's, money is everybody's money and it's nobody's money.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon so by everybody's money, I mean we all pay into it and it's the budget of the United States of America, but it's nobody's money in it. Is that accountability for spending? It is just not there because it's not coming out of your own personal bank account. So these politicians, a lot of them again Republican and Democrat, are just free spenders with everybody's money, with the tax money because there's little or no accountability for it and it makes somebody in their constituency happy.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon So I'm getting a little, I'm starting feel it coming.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. What we need to check.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. You mean so far.
Tim Wildmon Unhealthy anger.
Wesley Wildmon That's been a peaceful morning this sport. 70 degrees.
Tim Wildmon Let's move on. Next story.
Southern California felt a significant earthquake yesterday; no reports of major damage
Christopher Woodward Well, not long after this show ended Yesterday, around 12:00 Central Time yesterday, the folks in the San Diego, California area felt a pretty significant earthquake. there are. The good news is there are no reports of major damage or injuries. but in the initial, minutes and hours after the quake, it was, reported that it was somewhere around 6.7, which is pretty strong. That has since changed to anywhere to from 5.2 to around 6, depending on the news outlet. but, there was an earthquake yesterday across Southern California. It was actually felt as far away as LA in Orange County. But, again, initial estimates indicate minimal impact. I have never been through an earthquake. I have been through an earthquake simulator. that's obviously not the same thing, but, Ray, you were saying you've been through an earthquake before.
Ray Pritchard You know, the first five years out of seminary, I pastored a church in the suburbs of Los Angeles where they have these, you know, quakes and shocks that just come. It's just part of living in Southern California. And I can still remember driving home. I think I was driving home for lunch from the church to my house about a mile away and came to a stoplight and I felt something strange happening. And I looked at the road, Chris, and the road was going up and down like this most terrifying thing I can remember. Because, you know, you always think, if it's a tornado, what, okay, go down low, go into the basement. Right. But what do you do if the ground underneath you begins to give way? Where do you go then? I can't imagine anything more terrifying. To be in one of these great big buildings when a major earthquake hits.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Ray Pritchard Where do you go?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, no, that was. Yeah, thank the Lord nobody was hurt. But I saw videos of that. Yeah, that's it. and with earthquakes, you know, I've only been in one, and that was a small one a long time ago, but you just go, well, how long is this going to last? Five seconds. Feels like two minutes. Right. And, you know, is this building going to fall down? You know, you just wonder what, what those things, now they've got codes out in California now that they've had for decades that, are much safer than what they used to have in terms of absorbing the shock of an earthquake.
Christopher Woodward Later today, we'll have California native Steve Jordal come in and demonstrate for us what to do during a earthquake drill. but I remembered, and I always think about this, back in, you know, you had that earthquake during the 89 World Series, that disrupted the. The game between the Athletics and the Giants, and how that was captured on television. I mean, everybody was watching the game. I think it was game three.
Tim Wildmon yeah. All right, so let's, you know, you play rock, paper, scissors. Let's play earthquake, tornado, hurricane. Y'all ready?
Christopher Woodward On three. Are we putting it down on three or saying three and then put it down?
Tim Wildmon I don't know what.
Christopher Woodward Okay.
Tim Wildmon So anyway, we'll do it later.
Wesley Wildmon If you do do that, you're going to have to. It can't still be rock, as in the fist. Paper is in flats.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Wesley Wildmon Then we're going to have to come up with some symbols.
Ray Pritchard Some symbols.
Tim Wildmon I know that's. That'll take some time.
Wesley Wildmon That would. And then we'd end up losing some of our listeners, I think.
Tim Wildmon So it doesn't work on radio to have a planning meeting for our new.
Christopher Woodward Instead of a March Madness turn, but we should have rock, paper, scissors next time.
Wesley Wildmon And who knows if that's the next trend that gets out there and starts trending.
Tim Wildmon Earthquake, hurricane, tornado.
Wesley Wildmon game.
Tim Wildmon A game. Okay.
Christopher Woodward Yeah. We're going to replace pickleball with rock paper, scissors.
Wesley Wildmon We all, We've, you know, we've all.
Tim Wildmon I'm taking.
Wesley Wildmon We've all said here, at some point you've walked across something or you can't. You pass something said. I wish I would have created that.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Wesley Wildmon You know, that was my idea right.
Tim Wildmon There, that new game.
Wesley Wildmon So who knows? That could be it.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
President Trump withholds federal funding from Harvard University over anti Semitism concerns
Tim Wildmon You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Next story.
Christopher Woodward The president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has pulled, just over about $2 billion in federal funding or grants from Harvard University, saying the school has refused to comply with the administration's demands to take action on things like anti Semitism. Harvard, like Columbia, has been in the news for well over a year now because they haven't done enough to, squash these anti Israel demonstrations, over Israel's response to it being, the victim of a terrorist attack. New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was on Fox to talk about this, and she said Trump made the right decision because taxpayer dollars should not be going to schools that enable hatred. Flip 4.
Amber Brown If you look at what they required for Harvard, it was protection of Jewish students. It is making sure that we are getting rid of dei, which by definition is anti Semitic, and instead, Harvard is acting more entitled than ever.
Tim Wildmon So, so how much money?
Christopher Woodward It's, about $2 billion.
Tim Wildmon That we've.
Christopher Woodward Given Harvard, of course.
Tim Wildmon Harvard has the largest endowment of any school in America. Look, look up Harvard. I got you Harvard endowed. Google, Harvard Endowment, and even so, a.
Ray Pritchard Billion and a half. That's a serious chunk of change right there.
Tim Wildmon They probably included that in their budget for annually without having to take out any money from there. And what is their endowments?
Christopher Woodward according to the AI Assistant on Google, Harvard's endowment has a market value of just over $53 billion.
Tim Wildmon Okay, this is why I argued. This is kind of off subject here, but this is why I argued back during the. Remember when Biden was, saying that, he started just unilaterally forgiving student debt?
Tim Wildmon Student loans, which I know, student loans are, I know people personally affected by this. It's a burden on still paying one who have them. But, it's not the, it's not the response. It's the person who borrowed the money's responsibility to pay it back. That's just life. I'm sorry if you borrowed tens of thousands of dollars, but that debt should not be passed on to the US Taxpayer. What Biden did was he said, hey, I think I can buy some votes among young people in particular, if I just erase their debt, they'll vote for me and I'll give their debt to the taxpayer. That's what Biden did. He tried to do it didn't work for him and Harris, enough to win the election, but that's what they were trying to do. However, what I suggested was, listen, if schools want to forgive that, just take it out of their endowments. My goodness.
Ray Pritchard Huh? I mean, what's stopping you? Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon How many, how much student debt could. How many billion dollars did you say that the Harvard, endowment is worth?
Christopher Woodward 53 billion.
Tim Wildmon Okay. You can pay a few student loans with $53 billion. Yes, you can pay a few if you. So what I'm saying is, if people want. If people who go to Harvard want to apply for student loan forgiveness, let them go directly to the school. Get them, say, yes, we agree, and we'll take the money out of our endowment, not give it to the US Taxpayer to pay. That's ridiculous.
Christopher Woodward It's made clear. When you borrow money in a student loan, it's made clear to you in the paperwork that you are on the hook for this.
Tim Wildmon Right. But. So, but what is, but President Trump is wanting to withhold. He is withholding money, to Harvard for what reason exactly?
Christopher Woodward It hasn't done enough to take, action on things like anti Semitism on the campus. Yes, because there are students at Harvard, much like students at Columbia, Jewish students, who feel unsafe because there's people running up and down the campus grounds shouting death to Israel and all these other hateful things.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, I don't know when the Jews are going to wake up either in this country, by gosh, because, let me tell you what I mean by that. I mean they're voting for people who don't like them, right? Okay. They're voting for the pro Hamas crowd many, many times. so, right. It's like contradictory. now in this last election, right, more of them voted for president, Trump than voted, well, voted Republican than they have in the past historically.
Ray Pritchard Look, we don't have to say vote Republican. We just have to say to our Jewish friends, vote your own interest.
Tim Wildmon Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Ray Pritchard Saying vote for the. Vote for the party that wants to protect you, not the one that wants to see you get killed.
Tim Wildmon That's what President Trump said too, you know, he said, Well, I don't know, he basically, I'm paraphrasing, he says, I don't get it. Why do these Jewish, voters keep voting with the party that entertains, and promotes anti Semitism in many respects? In the name of pro Palestinian. That's what they would say. In the name of, they wouldn't even say pro Hamas necessarily. They'd say, you know, for the Palestinian people. So there you go. All right, we're going to take a short time out right here. Be back with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Jenna Ellis will be with us after this break. stay with us.
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Jeff Chamblee 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 M. Today's Issues.
Jenna Ellis joins American Family Radio to discuss today's issues
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR on this Tuesday, April 15, Tim, Wesley, Chris and Ray. And now joining us, from the Sunshine State is Jenna Ellis, host of Jenna Ellis in the Morning, right here on American family radio from 7 to 8 o'clock Central Time. Did you ever get your guest back this morning, Jenna? I had to turn the radio off.
Amber Brown We did. finally. So Adam and Evan worked a little bit of magic and we at least got a few minutes of commentary. So that's always fun on live radio, but. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's why you. That's why I have more than one person on here. You know, if we lose our guests, we can all. We can all just,
Wesley Wildmon Oh, well, I thought it was for the fact that if you had a fourth of a brain. I had a four.
Tim Wildmon I know, but Jerry's got to carry the whole thing. She's on by herself. Except for I thought Adam.
Amber Brown Adam and Devin know I love to rant and sometimes I will set aside segments just so I can rant. And I don't even want anybody else's opinion, so I have no problem filling.
Chris: President Trump made a comment about sending US Citizens to El Salvador prisons
Tim Wildmon All right, what are we here to talk about? I forgot.
Wesley Wildmon That's a good question. Well,
Tim Wildmon Oh, okay. I know what I was going to ask you about as a, Okay, so President Trump, made a. I don't know if it was an offhand comment yesterday. He rarely does that, but he did it this.
Ray Pritchard Yes.
Tim Wildmon He was talking about, he was talking about sending US Citizens who were, who were bad guys to El Salvadorian, if that's what you call it. El Salvador prisons, notorious. They're called, quote, hell hoes.
Christopher Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon But, we know that he is sending, in his administration are rounding up gang members and, cartel members and so forth and so on who are not citizens and sending them to this, I call it our new Guantanamo Bay down, there in El Salvador in Central America. But, did you. Do you have the quote from him, Chris?
Christopher Woodward I have one of them.
Tim Wildmon Is this where he says, but we'll have to see what the law says?
Christopher Woodward Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Read the whole quote because I don't want to. I don't want to mischaracterize what he said. Go ahead.
Christopher Woodward He said, we always have to obey laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways that hit elderly ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters. I'd like to include them in the group of people who, the group of people to get them out of the country. But you'll have to be looking at the laws on that.
Tim Wildmon Okay, but you'll have to be looking at the laws on that. That's a very important part of what he said. But, Jenna, I would. My initial reaction to this was you can't do that, to. You can't send US Citizens to foreign, prisons. Am I right?
Amber Brown Well, partially. So there is a difference under the law between a natural born citizen, someone who came into their citizenship by virtue of birth, versus someone who was naturalized a US Citizen later. So at any time after birth. And for naturalized US Citizens, they can be deported, but only in very rare and specific circumstances. And it's a process known as denaturalization. And generally it must occur before deportation. But in some circumstances, like, for example, membership in certain groups, like this was a big deal, with affiliation to the Nazi party post World War II, that if you have that affiliation within five years of naturalization, then, the court could actually strip you of your citizenship. And so we're not talking here. And I don't think that Trump, and also Secretary of State Rubio, who weighed in a little bit, and Pam Bondi at that meeting yesterday, we're talking about, U.S. citizens that are born citizens. They're talking about people with dual citizenship or through the naturalization process that may even have committed fraud in obtaining their U.S. citizenship. So this is still, there still is an opportunity and a process for this. like many other things, Trump kind of says this vaguely and then relies on his, legal experts and other members of its comms team to clarify. But he's not actually wrong in the generalization, in the way that he put it.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, I don't think that'll ever. I will see. I don't think that'll happen. I think it was just what he was, I think basically expressing was frustration that so many of our, liberal American states and cities, let violent criminals off the hook.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Let them walk the streets after, you know, after committing crimes that are.
Wesley Wildmon There and seemingly incentivizing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. But I would say this. Hey, listen, if, if the city of New York or city of Chicago want to continue to let violent criminals run their streets and their citizens don't give a rip. That's their business. I wish it weren't so. But the people of New York, or Chicago, they know, they know that it's a revolving door down at the DA's office and they don't care. They keep voting for the same old people anyway. So if they don't care, what do I care? Is that a cynical view, would you say?
Amber Brown well, I think that, I think we have to take this also in context because in the meeting, this was with the President of El Salvador and context of the media and the Democrats making a really big deal, and it's become known now as the Maryland man hoax, which is this El Salvador, not a US citizen has been in the United States for decades, but was deported and the Supreme Court 90 said that he had to return. And El Salvador is saying, no, we're not going to bring him back. And Trump is basically defying the court. And, Marco Rubio even said that the courts and Article 3 judges as a whole, including the Supreme Court, have no jurisdiction over immigration policy, which is true. And this is a policy matter. And so all of this is coming not because Trump, and I agree with you, he's not just targeting US citizens sort of randomly. this is more about what's going on in El Salvador. This is more about the MS.13 and trend gang violence and saying, listen, even if somebody claims to be a US citizen or they, they're going through the naturalization process, if they are violent criminals or affiliated with these violent gangs, they're still subject to deportation. And I think that was overall Trump's message.
Tim Wildmon You know, what's hidden and can't exactly be known, but I think we can draw, common sense, conclusions on this is if you have a situation that President Trump and his team have initiated by that, I mean, they're rounding up, violent gang members, criminals who aren't citizens. And ICE is going on, they're just going all over the country now. And, and they're, they're sending these folks to this prison in, prisons in El Salvador, which is the purpose of the meeting yesterday with the El Salvadorian president to talk about this. And President Trump wanted to thank him for accepting these criminals. that's going to trickle back down, in reverse, so to speak, from the man on the street, the criminal on the street, to people going, well, I just don't think, if you're a let's say you're a gang member or you're a drug, you're a drug dealer and you're from another country. Okay? And you're not, you're not a U.S. citizen. And you think to yourself, wow, they're serious. They're rounding up. I know these people. They're rounding up and they're sending them to El, Salvador. You know what? I don't want that to happen to me. So I'm either getting out of the US Or I'm getting out of the gang business. You see what I'm saying? I think that, don't you think that's a, gotta be a natural thing as deterrent?
Amber Brown Yeah, it's serving as deterrence. And it's a great thing that we actually have someone in charge and we have a Secretary of state and we have an Attorney General saying we are not going to tolerate this and just allow for all of these Democrats who are in these cities that you just mentioned, Tim, that are saying, oh, we don't care, you know, whatever, because our government is supposed to be protecting law and order and protecting our rights. And so as, as law abiding citizens. And so when they are now signaling it's the same thing, we don't see all these migrant caravans coming across the border anymore.
Tim Wildmon Sure.
Amber Brown Right. Well, it's because they know that now the border is being enforced.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Jenna Ellis' radio show airs Monday through Friday at 7:05
All right, Jenna, what do you got coming up tomorrow morning?
Amber Brown Well, so far we're actually going to be talking a little more about on this topic with another attorney who's a frequent guest and we'll also have Chip Roy, hopefully this week representative on, more on the SAVE act and some other things going on in Congress. So a lot to look forward to this week and then also I'm really excited on Friday for a Good Friday special with my pastor here in Florida. I love how we do our Good Friday and Easter sunrise service. So we're going to be going through a lot of the history in the Bible and just having a really great program for Good Friday.
Tim Wildmon Okay, wonderful. Jenna Ellis in the morning is Monday through Friday at 7:05 Central Time to 8:00. So join Jenna each weekday morning for the an analysis of current events and keeping you posted on what's happening in our country and some international news as well as Christian, news. So Jenna does that every weekday morning. And your own Demand podcast, which doesn't air on the radio but people can download it, that's a weekly podcast. Tell us about that.
Amber Brown Yes. So On Demand is our AFR exclusive podcast where we can do a deeper dive into, issues and topics that our listeners really want to hear from. So if you have a topic and a suggestion, you can email me Jenna fr.net and you can find [email protected] or on our streaming app. And you just go click for podcast. Look for On Demand. And we, drop it every Friday so that you can hear, more about, you know, some of these issues that we only have a few minutes on radio to cover.
Tim Wildmon All right, Jenna, take care. Thank you very much.
Amber Brown Thank you.
Tim Wildmon You too.
Jenna Ellis: 30,032, 809 enforcement arrests under Trump administration
That's Jenna Ellis, joining us from Florida. Yes, Wesley, I was going to make.
Wesley Wildmon A comment on the ice, and the arrest in the last, the first 50 days of Trump. So as of a month ago today, there was a press release from Homeland Security website that shows that 30,032, 809 enforcement arrests have been made under the Trump administration. And the previous. And that was more than the previous 12 months under, Biden. and obviously no, under Biden There were four.
Tim Wildmon Four. They were four.
Christopher Woodward That was by accident.
Wesley Wildmon 1100 of them, were gang members that were arrested and 40, of them were terrorist suspects. So that, that's just in the first 50 days. So that's.
Tim Wildmon That been unbelievable.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. What they've been able to turn that.
Tim Wildmon Tom Holman's like a pit bull out there.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon he just doesn't let go.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon He is just, talking about. He probably sleeps less than Trump when you see, hear him talking.
Christopher Woodward Powered by the Sun.
Tim Wildmon I'm talking about the. He's ice, isn't he?
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Christopher Woodward Yeah. Borders are, which is under.
Tim Wildmon Borders are.
Tim Wonder: Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday
All right. by the way, Jenna mentioned that this is Holy Week. We have failed to mention that so far. what, what do we, what do we mean by that, Ray?
Ray Pritchard this is the week. It's the great week. It's the week that we remember what happened when our Lord came to Jerusalem. Starts with Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry presenting himself, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Monday cleanses the temple and in Tuesday there's controversy. On Wednesday, Judas makes his evil, his evil arrangement, with the Pharisees to betray the Lord Jesus. Thursday, of course, the upper room. Then late, late Thursday night, Jesus is betrayed by Judas. He's arrested for about six hours. Basically, our Lord was, He underwent, it looks like Tim, about six hours of trials. Early, late Thursday night. Early Into Friday morning, bouncing between the Sanhedrin and Herod and Pilate, and back to, I guess it's Pilot and then Herod and then back to Pilot again. And finally he is scourged. And, Barabbas. Who do you want? Release Barabbas. Release the terrorist. Jesus is sent off to be crucified. And on Friday morning, 9:00am Jesus is nailed to the cross. He's on the cross for three hours. Noon on Friday. Suddenly, the great darkness descends. Darkness on the face of the earth for three hours. When Jesus is bearing the sins of the world. And Jesus cries out at the end, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then he says, it's finished. And then he says, father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He bows his head and he dies. He's buried on Friday, just before sundown. And Saturday he's in the grave. And then, Tim, the great climax of, of Holy Week. Early. It's interesting. Both Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe. It's early. It's early in the morning. It's before sunrise. The stone is rolled away. The sealed is sealed, is broken, and Jesus comes back to life. A man who was dead. Crucifixion, remember, wasn't just, a form of death. It was a form of torture. It was intended to be a horrendous way for a man to die. when Jesus was buried, he was as completely dead as any man could be. And on Sunday morning, before sunrise, up from the grave he arose. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. And, as has been said many times, when Jesus walked out of the grave, all of his people walked out with him. So it's a great week, Tim Wonder. This is Tuesday, Holy Week. And we are walking with Jesus toward the cross and toward the empty tomb.
Tim Wildmon Amen. Amen.
Ray: Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week
Well, Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week. And, as Ray mentioned, he just outlined the whole week and everything that happened on every particular day. I had one question, and it's kind of a sideline issue, I guess, but I've always been curious about this, Ray. The people that greeted Jesus on Palm Sunday with the palms and him riding in on a donkey into Jerusalem. Right. That's what happened.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Why were they, Why were they there? Yeah. Why were they commemorating, or celebrating Jesus coming into. What was the purpose of that?
Ray Pritchard Well, a great many of them were his followers from Galilee who knew who he was, who had heard him speak, who had seen his miracles. And many of them had Come to believe in him. It's just. To me, that's a fascinating question, because, when the gospel writers talk about the triumphal entry, they talk about exactly what you said. That the great multitudes came out and blessed. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And the children. The children, were singing and they were cheering. It was a fantastic event. And that made the Pharisees mad, the religious leaders. Things were getting out of control. And, they said to Jesus and to his disciples, tell these kids to be quiet and remember what Jesus said back. If I tell them to be quiet, the stones will cry out. it was a moment. It was one of the greatest moments in all history when our Lord was presenting himself. By the way, go back and read. Go back and read Zechariah, chapter 9. What Jesus did on Palm Sunday was in fulfillment of Zechariah, chapter 9. And the wise people among the Jews understood he was presenting himself as the king of the Jews. It was the religious leaders who wanted him dead. And by the end of the week, they would have their way. It just didn't work out.
Ray Pritchard It just didn't work out by Sunday morning the way they expected.
Christopher Woodward The title of my pastor's sermon on Sunday night was, don't make the rocks do your job. And it was all the places in scripture where we're told to praise God, or the rocks would cry out.
Tim Ferriss: The crowd that welcomed Jesus three days later wanted him condemned
Tim Wildmon One other question related to that. That was the first half of my question. There was another crowd, Right. A few days later.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon The crowd that you mentioned who wanted Barnabas to be released. Be released. Who is a surefire criminal. Yeah.
Ray Pritchard Stone cold killer.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, this crowd saying, release Barabbas, I should say, right? I say Barnabas. What does that say?
Christopher Woodward He's the one that sang now. That was Silas.
Wesley Wildmon I didn't catch that.
Tim Wildmon I meant to say Barabbas. Okay. So, And sometimes people say in the same crowd who welcomed him three days later wanted him to be condemned. And I'm thinking. I don't think that's right.
Ray Pritchard I don't think that's right.
Tim Wildmon Are they all bipolar? I mean, come on. Or, you know, have, problems mentally? I don't think so. Go ahead.
Ray Pritchard Our pastor on Sunday made the point that, remember Passover was one of the three times when the Jewish men were told to come to Jerusalem. So you come to Jerusalem, you bring your wife, you bring your kids. Scholars, estimate at a low end, at least a half a million people were in Jerusalem that day, but could be up to that week. Up to a million people were there. So yes, some of them knew who Jesus was and they were so glad to see him on Sunday. But there were others who hated him and who wanted him dead. The people who understood who he was or at least were sympathetic to him. They were saying hosanna. Hosanna. But by Friday morning, it was the chief priests, the scribes and their friends who wanted, they wanted this troublemaker dead.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so it wasn't the same crowd. No, of, people. It was a crowd, but two different groups.
Ray Pritchard And think, Tim, think how sick you have to be in your mind to say, we got a murderer. We've got a, we would say today a serial killer. We've got a mass murderer terrorist. We'd rather set him free than let Jesus go free. We want Jesus dead so bad, let's let the terrorists go. How sick do you have to be?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, those people were buying into what the, religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders were saying about Jesus, that he was a blasphemer.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon And worthy of death. I got you. All right, you're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. We encourage you to read the Bible for yourself. Read the whole story about Jesus, and holy, week, as we call it in the scriptures. Chris, what's your next story there?
Walmart may introduce self checkout between today and Easter of 2026
Christopher Woodward Well, I want to, mention this because a lot of people are buying items for Easter or Resurrection Sunday and many people shop at places like Walmart. So between today and really Easter of 2026, many people going into a, Walmart may notice some changes involving those self checkout lanes. Now when you walk into a, Walmart, they've got the little section there where people basically work for Walmart and check their own stuff out. and then they go about their day. Walmart is changing how they're doing that. And, it's similar to how Sam's does this. Walmart's, scan and go technology, it allows shoppers to scan items with their mobile app as they shop and then they can check out with the app itself, checkout stations. The idea here is that it's going to reduce checkout time and waiting in lines because who wants to do that? Right? so, this is going to be some changes at Walmart. Again, it's something similar to Sam's, if you've ever been in there. And because Walmart is doing this, I have no doubt other retailers will follow suit.
Tim Wildmon All right, do you know about this, Wesley?
Wesley Wildmon I've heard of it.
Christopher Woodward I'll share the link for.
Wesley Wildmon I've heard of this over the last couple of years in other parts of the country. So this is not a new thing.
Tim Wildmon But maybe like everything else in Mississippi, we're getting it last.
Wesley Wildmon Is that what you're telling me now?
Christopher Woodward We're going to tell us if it eventually.
Wesley Wildmon Most likely on. On the west coast. They've been doing, things like this for a while, but I'm looking it up now. There's also one that goes further than this that I've read about. I read this. I read about this two years ago. And that's where you would walk in stores. I think it was Costco. That was the first one. You walk in. You walk in Costco and then you walk out, but you never even scan anything.
Christopher Woodward Amazon has done that, too, some of those stores.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. So they have cameras that see you and they see what you. I know, I know.
Christopher Woodward Maybe.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. And they see you pick it up and they put it in your cart, and then you walk out.
Tim Wildmon Somebody has to scan it somewhere. No.
Wesley Wildmon the camera. Scan it.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, yes, they do. But it's not you scanning it. They're watching you, dad.
Tim Wildmon Like, like Sting.
Ray Pritchard Okay.
Tim Wildmon I'll be watching.
Ray Pritchard Explain how this works. Some. Explain.
Christopher Woodward Well, I know.
Tim Wildmon All right, all right, listen, listen. Hold on. You talking about m. What Wesley describes. Subscribe to what? What? Walmart? But the story, the news story was what Walmart is going to start. Is that what you're talking about? Right.
Ray Pritchard Explain both.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so as I understand it, you guys jump in here in a minute. What they're doing or going to do soon. Walmart is this, instead of going to your checkout line or your self checkout line? Self checkout.
What they're talking about here is, uh, you use your cell phone
I'm. I'm going up to the cashier. I do that. I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm just old school, but I'm going to the cat. Unless there's a line of 20, then I'll brave the do it yourself scanning machine. But what they're talking about here is, you use your cell phone. What I understand. And you scan as you shop. So you pick up an item and I guess you scan the barcode or whatever on there and it goes to your wallet, so to speak. your virtual wallet or your credit card that's already in there with. And then so you get through shop and you got $100 worth of product in your buggy. And, there's, either some place in the store you can go or you walk straight out the door. I don't know. But it. It charges you based on the products you have in your. We, call them a buggy here. I don't know. What do you call them? In part.
Christopher Woodward What do you call them Yankees? Call them cars? We call them bugs.
Tim Wildmon So you're shopping buggy. Did I describe it right?
Wesley Wildmon You could describe that. Right. And I got more on what I'm talking about right here. Okay, let me get back.
Tim Wildmon When we get back, more of this riveting radio conversation. Ladies and gentlemen. Shopping at Walmart. and. And, how to scan yourself. But that if they can do that successfully, what we just described, that will change everything because the check. A lot of people take advantage of that.
Christopher Woodward Oh, yeah.
Tim Wildmon All right. We will be back momentarily with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Stay with us. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
This Easter season we're offering a special downloadable resource that will inspire you
Jeff Chamblee This Easter season we're offering a special downloadable resource that will inspire you and deepen your faith. He has Risen is a digital booklet featuring powerful articles from the STAND and AFA Journal that explore the life changing truth of the resurrection, the significance of Easter and how to share these foundational truths with others. For a limited time only, it's our gift to you for any donation of $5 or more. Help us continue to share biblical truth, defend Christian values and equip our families. Visit afr.net offers 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.
Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning everybody and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR on this Tuesday, April 15, 2025. And joining me in studio is Wesley Wildmon. Good morning, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon Very good morning.
Tim Wildmon And Chris Woodward.
Christopher Woodward Good morning.
Tim Wildmon And in Kansas City, chaos is our good friend Ray Pritchard. Good morning, Ray.
Ray Pritchard Good morning, Tim.
Chris and his wife filed their taxes ahead of time this year
How you doing today?
Tim Wildmon I paid my taxes.
Ray Pritchard It's tax day, baby.
Wesley Wildmon Have you done it Behind I way.
Ray Pritchard Ahead of time this year. Filed mine last Friday way.
Wesley Wildmon We're usually on the front end of all this because for many, many years we were getting tax, returns refund. So we were excited to do it.
Tim Wildmon Or not a refund. But what is it?
Wesley Wildmon It's a tax return.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wesley Wildmon But we were excited to do it. But it seems in the last couple of years that's not been the case. So we're hadn't been too eager to be the first.
Tim Wildmon You need to have more children to get more deductibles.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon Have a couple more kids, more deductibles. Is that the way that's the way you family plan, Chris? No. That be a no.
If you don't file your taxes by midnight, you'll get arrested
All right, all right. It is tax day.
Christopher Woodward It is.
Ray Pritchard Yes, it is.
Christopher Woodward You have until midnight.
Tim Wildmon And I, I contributed zero to that. as Alison, my wife, she did all that. I'll leave all that. So I get arrested. One day it'll be because she didn't pay. And I never knew it.
Christopher Woodward Behind every good man is a great woman rolling her eyes.
Ray Pritchard That's exactly so.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, you have to get up. Anyway, I just wanted to remind everybody you have if you don't do it by today, you got to file. what are you extension got to.
Ray Pritchard Pay some penalty or something.
Christopher Woodward Libertarians are listening and saying taxation is theft.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, it is.
Ray Pritchard Well, they're right, but we still got to do it right.
Tim Wildmon What's the old saying? the two certainties in life is death and taxes.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon I don't know who said that, but.
Christopher Woodward Probably a guy that was dying because he was being taxed.
Ray Pritchard That's right.
Tim Wildmon All right, well, Anyway, it's, April 15, 2020.
Wesley Wildmon Maybe we helped somebody today that forgot.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, we sent him into full panic mode. That's what I did.
Ray Pritchard That's right. If you haven't.
American Family Radio has a conference coming up this summer called Activate Summit
Tim Wildmon Hey, Wesley, you want to mention, our conference coming up this summer?
Wesley Wildmon I do. We have a conference coming up this summer. It's a Activate Summit. The name of this year's conference is Biblical Bedrock. Building on the authority of Scripture, we're going to have think ah about it as like an apologetic 101 for the authority of Scripture. We're going to cover that. We're going to have several different speakers, some of which are Frank Turek, evitagliano, Abe Hamilton III and others as well.
Tim Wildmon Todd Herman.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, sir. Todd Herman is going to be there to find out more about this. you can go to activate.afa.net as activate.afa.net is going to complement our curriculum that we have produced, we have created, and we will also be selling that product there for a, discounted price June 12th through the 14th. We're really excited. Look forward to meeting you there. If you've ever wanted to meet some of the staff of AFA at afr, over half or more of our staff will be participating at the Activate Summit in some shape, form or fashion. We also offer a Kids program, ages 6 through 12 that goes simultaneously, with the adult side of the conference.
Tim Wildmon Children's track.
Wesley Wildmon That's right, a children's track. That.
Tim Wildmon So again, this is, When did you say it was?
Wesley Wildmon This is June 12th through the 14th.
Tim Wildmon Thursday through Saturday.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, sir. And the special pricing ends Friday, April 18th. So we've. @ the end of the week of this week.
Tim Wildmon so pay your taxes and then sign up for this.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon For the Activate Conference. If there's anything left. Actually, we got it. It's a.
Wesley Wildmon It's, it's very easy.
Tim Wildmon Very good price, right?
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. 75 for ages 13 and up, ages 6 through 12, which is the kids track. It's $50 for the whole weekend. Let me, let me emphasize that. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Yeah, all weekend. and of course it's free for six and under or five and under.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so, that's going to be here in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Wesley Wildmon It'll replace our Marriage Family Life Conference that we've had in years past. We've, currently got just, we got just over 300, adults signed up, about 8, 75.
Tim Wildmon How do you go read about this?
Wesley Wildmon And you can find out more about this, the topics that we're going to be covering and the speakers that will.
Tim Wildmon Be there, how to register.
Wesley Wildmon And how to register, you can find out at activate.afa.net that's activate.afa.net and Jenna Ellis, who will be on with us at 10:30, will also be a panel, speaker, panelist.
Tim Wildmon So, okay, so that's coming up this summer in June.
Wesley Wildmon And the reason we're talking about is because Friday is the early.
Tim Wildmon The early bird registration is up on Friday.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon But, we would love to have everybody come visit us here in Tupelo, Mississippi for this very special conference. And then while you're here, if you want to schedule a, tour of our American Family Radio studios, you can do that as well. So that's coming up in June.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has proposed the Audit the IRS Act
All right, Chris, what's your first story?
Christopher Woodward Well, because we were talking about tax day, I, wanted to bring this in. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has proposed a bill called the Audit the IRS Act. It would require the IRS to ensure that its workers pay their taxes. that's because of a watchdog report that found current and former employees owed $46 million worth of taxes. And that's about, what about. Yes, IRS employees owe back taxes.
Tim Wildmon And I gotta stop you right there, because you know, the words of that great philosopher Gmer Pyle come to mind. Well, no, not that, but that is appropriate. I would just. Shame, shame, shame.
Christopher Woodward Yes, yes. So, yeah, if you're just tuning in, people, that are collecting your taxes, are paying their own taxes. In fact, about 5% of IRS employees were not fully caught up on paying their own taxes. Fox did a big segment on this. I'll post a link to it here in a second. to go with this story, CPA and tax expert Dan Geltrud said this bill from Ernst is a good idea. Clip 5.
Speaker F It is a good idea. I mean, the optics of this are really terrible when you think there are 4,800 former or, current IRS employees, as well as IRS contractors that owe $46 million of taxes. I mean, come on, you're enforcing laws here for people to pay their taxes, and then you don't do it. So there's three provisions here to pay attention to. Number one, it mandates annual audits Number two, it will terminate anyone that is seriously delinquent with their taxes. And number three, you don't get hired if you have outstanding taxes. So I think this bill is a positive and I can't really see anybody being against this.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's, that's proposed legislation.
Christopher Woodward Yes. From Republican Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, we'll see where that goes. right. What do you think about this is not a good look for the irs?
Ray Pritchard Is anybody surprised? It's not that I think that the people the IRS particularly nefarious or more evil than, than anybody else. But no, they forgot they didn't file correctly, they didn't file on time. They overlooked, they gave themselves the benefit of the doubt. So very least you can say it's not a good look if the people who collect our taxes are themselves, behind on their taxes.
Tim Wildmon Look, we gotta have, you gotta have taxation. this is my view, because there are necessary parts of our federal, state and local government that are essential to our way of life. So I don't mind, and I know y'all don't mind paying your quote, fair share of taxes. However, the, when you see the waste, fraud and abuse pointed out like Elon Musk has, you just go, my word, man. Our taxes are being, our tax, payments that we're giving into the government. A lot of it's being wasted. You know what I'm saying? That's, I think that's the general frustration.
Wesley Wildmon And we've known or felt that for years. But it wasn't, but we, we would want to know more about where our money's going, but we wouldn't get any help from politicians in many cases. But now with Doge. Yeah, it's, we're get there exposing it, but it's also adding to I told you so and we're getting, you know, so I just, you know, I don't, I've been curious though. It's exciting to find someone like Elon doing something about it with his team. But what is exactly are we doing after we, after we, with each one that we uncover, discover, are we stopping it right away or.
Tim Wildmon Well, I think what's going to happen is first of all, there's a lot of money. Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon Is quote, I want to know what's, what's the account? What do we count?
Tim Wildmon I think to the extent that President Trump has the authority to show, shut programs down or agencies down, like the Department of Education, for example, and others. He's, he's ah, in this, what was that other one, the first one that came out where we learned so much money was being wasted, spent on leftist ideology, something usa.
Wesley Wildmon USA Aid.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. But, I think so. I think President Trump, again, to the extent that he has the authority to do so, will eliminate these agencies or, you know. But, the other thing is the Congress is going to have to step in and defund a lot of this. The problem, primarily the problem is the Democrats, not all together. There are some Republicans who are part of the swamp, too, and vote for things that, in their own states and districts that may be wasteful. That does happen. I would, I would, However, primarily the problem is the big government, liberals and the Democrat Party, who. They never met a spending bill. They didn't love every bit of it.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, sure.
Tim Wildmon And. And ginormous. And, what do you do? Because it benefits the Democrat. This is my view that it benefits the Democrat Party among the general population. If you promise them stuff.
Wesley Wildmon Mm.
Tim Wildmon If you promise them. Like, like you look at, what's happening in California, for example, reading about this this morning, and it's the lead story on Fox News. they have a program where they pay for free, medical care, but it's not free. They're paying for it.
Christopher Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon For illegal immigrants. Okay. So. And there this program is, is, costing a lot more than they ever thought it would, and it's making them go, busted. Okay. And they're having to take money alone out of the general fund to pay for this free health care for illegal immigrants into California. Well, that's something the Democrats promise and they believe in the name of human compassion. But there's no common sense to it because you can't pay for it. You don't have the money for it.
Wesley Wildmon Right.
Tim Wildmon So a lot of programs, to answer your question, a lot of programs that liberals and Democrats believe in and want to pay for it, there's just not the money to do it any longer.
Wesley Wildmon Oh, sure. And that's what I'm trying to understand is now that we're uncovering these and we're stopping them.
Tim Wildmon What'S going to be done about it? To stop it?
Jim M. says politicians justify pork spending by saying it's small
Wesley Wildmon No, what's going to be done with that money that they just stopped? So let's say $100,000 just throwing out a number is going to sex change in Africa, and we stopped the hundred thousand dollars. Where does that.
Tim Wildmon You against sex changes in Africa? I do worry. Why didn't you say Europe or China? I mean, is this kind of a.
Wesley Wildmon Listen. No, no, distract me.
Tim Wildmon Okay. I'm not gonna distract from the point. no, that. M, we're in debt and we're running a deficit, I mean, by trillions of dollars every year. So is it 1.5 trillion a year or something like that? Right. Or something. Anyway, so no, if you find $100,000 or a million dollars or $10 million, you don't find somewhere else to spend it because that means you just need to cut it out of the budget altogether so that we don't have to borrow as much to pay for our deficit, which is going to cause our country great pain and anguish at some point. At some point if, if we don't stop doing this.
Wesley Wildmon you know, that would be my suggestion. Go ahead, Ray.
Ray Pritchard I think, Jim M. Part of the problem is, to take your example, is if you're talking about 1.5 trillion added to the deficit annually. Annually. Right. Unbelievable. I could imagine a politician saying, well, this, well, this is only $5 million. Right. It's only, that's what they do, you know, it's only $10 million. Just, whether we cut that or not, it's not going to make any difference in the big one and a half trillion. I think it's pretty easy for politicians to justify a lot of this pork because they think if they, if they cut it, it's not going to make any difference to the problem. Anyway. I, guess what I'm saying the problem is less the money. It's the mindset in Washington that it doesn't matter. So let's keep spending money.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I've often said that the federal government's, money is everybody's money and it's nobody's money.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon so by everybody's money, I mean we all pay into it and it's the budget of the United States of America, but it's nobody's money in it. Is that accountability for spending? It is just not there because it's not coming out of your own personal bank account. So these politicians, a lot of them again Republican and Democrat, are just free spenders with everybody's money, with the tax money because there's little or no accountability for it and it makes somebody in their constituency happy.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Wesley Wildmon So I'm getting a little, I'm starting feel it coming.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. What we need to check.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. You mean so far.
Tim Wildmon Unhealthy anger.
Wesley Wildmon That's been a peaceful morning this sport. 70 degrees.
Tim Wildmon Let's move on. Next story.
Southern California felt a significant earthquake yesterday; no reports of major damage
Christopher Woodward Well, not long after this show ended Yesterday, around 12:00 Central Time yesterday, the folks in the San Diego, California area felt a pretty significant earthquake. there are. The good news is there are no reports of major damage or injuries. but in the initial, minutes and hours after the quake, it was, reported that it was somewhere around 6.7, which is pretty strong. That has since changed to anywhere to from 5.2 to around 6, depending on the news outlet. but, there was an earthquake yesterday across Southern California. It was actually felt as far away as LA in Orange County. But, again, initial estimates indicate minimal impact. I have never been through an earthquake. I have been through an earthquake simulator. that's obviously not the same thing, but, Ray, you were saying you've been through an earthquake before.
Ray Pritchard You know, the first five years out of seminary, I pastored a church in the suburbs of Los Angeles where they have these, you know, quakes and shocks that just come. It's just part of living in Southern California. And I can still remember driving home. I think I was driving home for lunch from the church to my house about a mile away and came to a stoplight and I felt something strange happening. And I looked at the road, Chris, and the road was going up and down like this most terrifying thing I can remember. Because, you know, you always think, if it's a tornado, what, okay, go down low, go into the basement. Right. But what do you do if the ground underneath you begins to give way? Where do you go then? I can't imagine anything more terrifying. To be in one of these great big buildings when a major earthquake hits.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Ray Pritchard Where do you go?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, no, that was. Yeah, thank the Lord nobody was hurt. But I saw videos of that. Yeah, that's it. and with earthquakes, you know, I've only been in one, and that was a small one a long time ago, but you just go, well, how long is this going to last? Five seconds. Feels like two minutes. Right. And, you know, is this building going to fall down? You know, you just wonder what, what those things, now they've got codes out in California now that they've had for decades that, are much safer than what they used to have in terms of absorbing the shock of an earthquake.
Christopher Woodward Later today, we'll have California native Steve Jordal come in and demonstrate for us what to do during a earthquake drill. but I remembered, and I always think about this, back in, you know, you had that earthquake during the 89 World Series, that disrupted the. The game between the Athletics and the Giants, and how that was captured on television. I mean, everybody was watching the game. I think it was game three.
Tim Wildmon yeah. All right, so let's, you know, you play rock, paper, scissors. Let's play earthquake, tornado, hurricane. Y'all ready?
Christopher Woodward On three. Are we putting it down on three or saying three and then put it down?
Tim Wildmon I don't know what.
Christopher Woodward Okay.
Tim Wildmon So anyway, we'll do it later.
Wesley Wildmon If you do do that, you're going to have to. It can't still be rock, as in the fist. Paper is in flats.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Wesley Wildmon Then we're going to have to come up with some symbols.
Ray Pritchard Some symbols.
Tim Wildmon I know that's. That'll take some time.
Wesley Wildmon That would. And then we'd end up losing some of our listeners, I think.
Tim Wildmon So it doesn't work on radio to have a planning meeting for our new.
Christopher Woodward Instead of a March Madness turn, but we should have rock, paper, scissors next time.
Wesley Wildmon And who knows if that's the next trend that gets out there and starts trending.
Tim Wildmon Earthquake, hurricane, tornado.
Wesley Wildmon game.
Tim Wildmon A game. Okay.
Christopher Woodward Yeah. We're going to replace pickleball with rock paper, scissors.
Wesley Wildmon We all, We've, you know, we've all.
Tim Wildmon I'm taking.
Wesley Wildmon We've all said here, at some point you've walked across something or you can't. You pass something said. I wish I would have created that.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Wesley Wildmon You know, that was my idea right.
Tim Wildmon There, that new game.
Wesley Wildmon So who knows? That could be it.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
President Trump withholds federal funding from Harvard University over anti Semitism concerns
Tim Wildmon You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Next story.
Christopher Woodward The president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has pulled, just over about $2 billion in federal funding or grants from Harvard University, saying the school has refused to comply with the administration's demands to take action on things like anti Semitism. Harvard, like Columbia, has been in the news for well over a year now because they haven't done enough to, squash these anti Israel demonstrations, over Israel's response to it being, the victim of a terrorist attack. New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was on Fox to talk about this, and she said Trump made the right decision because taxpayer dollars should not be going to schools that enable hatred. Flip 4.
Amber Brown If you look at what they required for Harvard, it was protection of Jewish students. It is making sure that we are getting rid of dei, which by definition is anti Semitic, and instead, Harvard is acting more entitled than ever.
Tim Wildmon So, so how much money?
Christopher Woodward It's, about $2 billion.
Tim Wildmon That we've.
Christopher Woodward Given Harvard, of course.
Tim Wildmon Harvard has the largest endowment of any school in America. Look, look up Harvard. I got you Harvard endowed. Google, Harvard Endowment, and even so, a.
Ray Pritchard Billion and a half. That's a serious chunk of change right there.
Tim Wildmon They probably included that in their budget for annually without having to take out any money from there. And what is their endowments?
Christopher Woodward according to the AI Assistant on Google, Harvard's endowment has a market value of just over $53 billion.
Tim Wildmon Okay, this is why I argued. This is kind of off subject here, but this is why I argued back during the. Remember when Biden was, saying that, he started just unilaterally forgiving student debt?
Tim Wildmon Student loans, which I know, student loans are, I know people personally affected by this. It's a burden on still paying one who have them. But, it's not the, it's not the response. It's the person who borrowed the money's responsibility to pay it back. That's just life. I'm sorry if you borrowed tens of thousands of dollars, but that debt should not be passed on to the US Taxpayer. What Biden did was he said, hey, I think I can buy some votes among young people in particular, if I just erase their debt, they'll vote for me and I'll give their debt to the taxpayer. That's what Biden did. He tried to do it didn't work for him and Harris, enough to win the election, but that's what they were trying to do. However, what I suggested was, listen, if schools want to forgive that, just take it out of their endowments. My goodness.
Ray Pritchard Huh? I mean, what's stopping you? Go ahead.
Tim Wildmon How many, how much student debt could. How many billion dollars did you say that the Harvard, endowment is worth?
Christopher Woodward 53 billion.
Tim Wildmon Okay. You can pay a few student loans with $53 billion. Yes, you can pay a few if you. So what I'm saying is, if people want. If people who go to Harvard want to apply for student loan forgiveness, let them go directly to the school. Get them, say, yes, we agree, and we'll take the money out of our endowment, not give it to the US Taxpayer to pay. That's ridiculous.
Christopher Woodward It's made clear. When you borrow money in a student loan, it's made clear to you in the paperwork that you are on the hook for this.
Tim Wildmon Right. But. So, but what is, but President Trump is wanting to withhold. He is withholding money, to Harvard for what reason exactly?
Christopher Woodward It hasn't done enough to take, action on things like anti Semitism on the campus. Yes, because there are students at Harvard, much like students at Columbia, Jewish students, who feel unsafe because there's people running up and down the campus grounds shouting death to Israel and all these other hateful things.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, I don't know when the Jews are going to wake up either in this country, by gosh, because, let me tell you what I mean by that. I mean they're voting for people who don't like them, right? Okay. They're voting for the pro Hamas crowd many, many times. so, right. It's like contradictory. now in this last election, right, more of them voted for president, Trump than voted, well, voted Republican than they have in the past historically.
Ray Pritchard Look, we don't have to say vote Republican. We just have to say to our Jewish friends, vote your own interest.
Tim Wildmon Yes, that's what I'm saying.
Ray Pritchard Saying vote for the. Vote for the party that wants to protect you, not the one that wants to see you get killed.
Tim Wildmon That's what President Trump said too, you know, he said, Well, I don't know, he basically, I'm paraphrasing, he says, I don't get it. Why do these Jewish, voters keep voting with the party that entertains, and promotes anti Semitism in many respects? In the name of pro Palestinian. That's what they would say. In the name of, they wouldn't even say pro Hamas necessarily. They'd say, you know, for the Palestinian people. So there you go. All right, we're going to take a short time out right here. Be back with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Jenna Ellis will be with us after this break. stay with us.
Last year Preborn helped to rescue over 67,000 babies from abortion
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Jeff Chamblee 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 M. Today's Issues.
Jenna Ellis joins American Family Radio to discuss today's issues
Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to AFR on this Tuesday, April 15, Tim, Wesley, Chris and Ray. And now joining us, from the Sunshine State is Jenna Ellis, host of Jenna Ellis in the Morning, right here on American family radio from 7 to 8 o'clock Central Time. Did you ever get your guest back this morning, Jenna? I had to turn the radio off.
Amber Brown We did. finally. So Adam and Evan worked a little bit of magic and we at least got a few minutes of commentary. So that's always fun on live radio, but. Yes.
Tim Wildmon Well, that's why you. That's why I have more than one person on here. You know, if we lose our guests, we can all. We can all just,
Wesley Wildmon Oh, well, I thought it was for the fact that if you had a fourth of a brain. I had a four.
Tim Wildmon I know, but Jerry's got to carry the whole thing. She's on by herself. Except for I thought Adam.
Amber Brown Adam and Devin know I love to rant and sometimes I will set aside segments just so I can rant. And I don't even want anybody else's opinion, so I have no problem filling.
Chris: President Trump made a comment about sending US Citizens to El Salvador prisons
Tim Wildmon All right, what are we here to talk about? I forgot.
Wesley Wildmon That's a good question. Well,
Tim Wildmon Oh, okay. I know what I was going to ask you about as a, Okay, so President Trump, made a. I don't know if it was an offhand comment yesterday. He rarely does that, but he did it this.
Ray Pritchard Yes.
Tim Wildmon He was talking about, he was talking about sending US Citizens who were, who were bad guys to El Salvadorian, if that's what you call it. El Salvador prisons, notorious. They're called, quote, hell hoes.
Christopher Woodward Right.
Tim Wildmon But, we know that he is sending, in his administration are rounding up gang members and, cartel members and so forth and so on who are not citizens and sending them to this, I call it our new Guantanamo Bay down, there in El Salvador in Central America. But, did you. Do you have the quote from him, Chris?
Christopher Woodward I have one of them.
Tim Wildmon Is this where he says, but we'll have to see what the law says?
Christopher Woodward Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Read the whole quote because I don't want to. I don't want to mischaracterize what he said. Go ahead.
Christopher Woodward He said, we always have to obey laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways that hit elderly ladies in the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters. I'd like to include them in the group of people who, the group of people to get them out of the country. But you'll have to be looking at the laws on that.
Tim Wildmon Okay, but you'll have to be looking at the laws on that. That's a very important part of what he said. But, Jenna, I would. My initial reaction to this was you can't do that, to. You can't send US Citizens to foreign, prisons. Am I right?
Amber Brown Well, partially. So there is a difference under the law between a natural born citizen, someone who came into their citizenship by virtue of birth, versus someone who was naturalized a US Citizen later. So at any time after birth. And for naturalized US Citizens, they can be deported, but only in very rare and specific circumstances. And it's a process known as denaturalization. And generally it must occur before deportation. But in some circumstances, like, for example, membership in certain groups, like this was a big deal, with affiliation to the Nazi party post World War II, that if you have that affiliation within five years of naturalization, then, the court could actually strip you of your citizenship. And so we're not talking here. And I don't think that Trump, and also Secretary of State Rubio, who weighed in a little bit, and Pam Bondi at that meeting yesterday, we're talking about, U.S. citizens that are born citizens. They're talking about people with dual citizenship or through the naturalization process that may even have committed fraud in obtaining their U.S. citizenship. So this is still, there still is an opportunity and a process for this. like many other things, Trump kind of says this vaguely and then relies on his, legal experts and other members of its comms team to clarify. But he's not actually wrong in the generalization, in the way that he put it.
Tim Wildmon Okay, well, I don't think that'll ever. I will see. I don't think that'll happen. I think it was just what he was, I think basically expressing was frustration that so many of our, liberal American states and cities, let violent criminals off the hook.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Let them walk the streets after, you know, after committing crimes that are.
Wesley Wildmon There and seemingly incentivizing.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. But I would say this. Hey, listen, if, if the city of New York or city of Chicago want to continue to let violent criminals run their streets and their citizens don't give a rip. That's their business. I wish it weren't so. But the people of New York, or Chicago, they know, they know that it's a revolving door down at the DA's office and they don't care. They keep voting for the same old people anyway. So if they don't care, what do I care? Is that a cynical view, would you say?
Amber Brown well, I think that, I think we have to take this also in context because in the meeting, this was with the President of El Salvador and context of the media and the Democrats making a really big deal, and it's become known now as the Maryland man hoax, which is this El Salvador, not a US citizen has been in the United States for decades, but was deported and the Supreme Court 90 said that he had to return. And El Salvador is saying, no, we're not going to bring him back. And Trump is basically defying the court. And, Marco Rubio even said that the courts and Article 3 judges as a whole, including the Supreme Court, have no jurisdiction over immigration policy, which is true. And this is a policy matter. And so all of this is coming not because Trump, and I agree with you, he's not just targeting US citizens sort of randomly. this is more about what's going on in El Salvador. This is more about the MS.13 and trend gang violence and saying, listen, even if somebody claims to be a US citizen or they, they're going through the naturalization process, if they are violent criminals or affiliated with these violent gangs, they're still subject to deportation. And I think that was overall Trump's message.
Tim Wildmon You know, what's hidden and can't exactly be known, but I think we can draw, common sense, conclusions on this is if you have a situation that President Trump and his team have initiated by that, I mean, they're rounding up, violent gang members, criminals who aren't citizens. And ICE is going on, they're just going all over the country now. And, and they're, they're sending these folks to this prison in, prisons in El Salvador, which is the purpose of the meeting yesterday with the El Salvadorian president to talk about this. And President Trump wanted to thank him for accepting these criminals. that's going to trickle back down, in reverse, so to speak, from the man on the street, the criminal on the street, to people going, well, I just don't think, if you're a let's say you're a gang member or you're a drug, you're a drug dealer and you're from another country. Okay? And you're not, you're not a U.S. citizen. And you think to yourself, wow, they're serious. They're rounding up. I know these people. They're rounding up and they're sending them to El, Salvador. You know what? I don't want that to happen to me. So I'm either getting out of the US Or I'm getting out of the gang business. You see what I'm saying? I think that, don't you think that's a, gotta be a natural thing as deterrent?
Amber Brown Yeah, it's serving as deterrence. And it's a great thing that we actually have someone in charge and we have a Secretary of state and we have an Attorney General saying we are not going to tolerate this and just allow for all of these Democrats who are in these cities that you just mentioned, Tim, that are saying, oh, we don't care, you know, whatever, because our government is supposed to be protecting law and order and protecting our rights. And so as, as law abiding citizens. And so when they are now signaling it's the same thing, we don't see all these migrant caravans coming across the border anymore.
Tim Wildmon Sure.
Amber Brown Right. Well, it's because they know that now the border is being enforced.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Jenna Ellis' radio show airs Monday through Friday at 7:05
All right, Jenna, what do you got coming up tomorrow morning?
Amber Brown Well, so far we're actually going to be talking a little more about on this topic with another attorney who's a frequent guest and we'll also have Chip Roy, hopefully this week representative on, more on the SAVE act and some other things going on in Congress. So a lot to look forward to this week and then also I'm really excited on Friday for a Good Friday special with my pastor here in Florida. I love how we do our Good Friday and Easter sunrise service. So we're going to be going through a lot of the history in the Bible and just having a really great program for Good Friday.
Tim Wildmon Okay, wonderful. Jenna Ellis in the morning is Monday through Friday at 7:05 Central Time to 8:00. So join Jenna each weekday morning for the an analysis of current events and keeping you posted on what's happening in our country and some international news as well as Christian, news. So Jenna does that every weekday morning. And your own Demand podcast, which doesn't air on the radio but people can download it, that's a weekly podcast. Tell us about that.
Amber Brown Yes. So On Demand is our AFR exclusive podcast where we can do a deeper dive into, issues and topics that our listeners really want to hear from. So if you have a topic and a suggestion, you can email me Jenna fr.net and you can find [email protected] or on our streaming app. And you just go click for podcast. Look for On Demand. And we, drop it every Friday so that you can hear, more about, you know, some of these issues that we only have a few minutes on radio to cover.
Tim Wildmon All right, Jenna, take care. Thank you very much.
Amber Brown Thank you.
Tim Wildmon You too.
Jenna Ellis: 30,032, 809 enforcement arrests under Trump administration
That's Jenna Ellis, joining us from Florida. Yes, Wesley, I was going to make.
Wesley Wildmon A comment on the ice, and the arrest in the last, the first 50 days of Trump. So as of a month ago today, there was a press release from Homeland Security website that shows that 30,032, 809 enforcement arrests have been made under the Trump administration. And the previous. And that was more than the previous 12 months under, Biden. and obviously no, under Biden There were four.
Tim Wildmon Four. They were four.
Christopher Woodward That was by accident.
Wesley Wildmon 1100 of them, were gang members that were arrested and 40, of them were terrorist suspects. So that, that's just in the first 50 days. So that's.
Tim Wildmon That been unbelievable.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. What they've been able to turn that.
Tim Wildmon Tom Holman's like a pit bull out there.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah.
Tim Wildmon he just doesn't let go.
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Tim Wildmon He is just, talking about. He probably sleeps less than Trump when you see, hear him talking.
Christopher Woodward Powered by the Sun.
Tim Wildmon I'm talking about the. He's ice, isn't he?
Wesley Wildmon That's right.
Christopher Woodward Yeah. Borders are, which is under.
Tim Wildmon Borders are.
Tim Wonder: Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday and ends with Easter Sunday
All right. by the way, Jenna mentioned that this is Holy Week. We have failed to mention that so far. what, what do we, what do we mean by that, Ray?
Ray Pritchard this is the week. It's the great week. It's the week that we remember what happened when our Lord came to Jerusalem. Starts with Palm Sunday, the triumphal entry presenting himself, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Monday cleanses the temple and in Tuesday there's controversy. On Wednesday, Judas makes his evil, his evil arrangement, with the Pharisees to betray the Lord Jesus. Thursday, of course, the upper room. Then late, late Thursday night, Jesus is betrayed by Judas. He's arrested for about six hours. Basically, our Lord was, He underwent, it looks like Tim, about six hours of trials. Early, late Thursday night. Early Into Friday morning, bouncing between the Sanhedrin and Herod and Pilate, and back to, I guess it's Pilot and then Herod and then back to Pilot again. And finally he is scourged. And, Barabbas. Who do you want? Release Barabbas. Release the terrorist. Jesus is sent off to be crucified. And on Friday morning, 9:00am Jesus is nailed to the cross. He's on the cross for three hours. Noon on Friday. Suddenly, the great darkness descends. Darkness on the face of the earth for three hours. When Jesus is bearing the sins of the world. And Jesus cries out at the end, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Then he says, it's finished. And then he says, father, into your hands I commend my spirit. He bows his head and he dies. He's buried on Friday, just before sundown. And Saturday he's in the grave. And then, Tim, the great climax of, of Holy Week. Early. It's interesting. Both Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe. It's early. It's early in the morning. It's before sunrise. The stone is rolled away. The sealed is sealed, is broken, and Jesus comes back to life. A man who was dead. Crucifixion, remember, wasn't just, a form of death. It was a form of torture. It was intended to be a horrendous way for a man to die. when Jesus was buried, he was as completely dead as any man could be. And on Sunday morning, before sunrise, up from the grave he arose. Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. And, as has been said many times, when Jesus walked out of the grave, all of his people walked out with him. So it's a great week, Tim Wonder. This is Tuesday, Holy Week. And we are walking with Jesus toward the cross and toward the empty tomb.
Tim Wildmon Amen. Amen.
Ray: Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week
Well, Christians around the world are celebrating Holy Week. And, as Ray mentioned, he just outlined the whole week and everything that happened on every particular day. I had one question, and it's kind of a sideline issue, I guess, but I've always been curious about this, Ray. The people that greeted Jesus on Palm Sunday with the palms and him riding in on a donkey into Jerusalem. Right. That's what happened.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon Okay. Why were they, Why were they there? Yeah. Why were they commemorating, or celebrating Jesus coming into. What was the purpose of that?
Ray Pritchard Well, a great many of them were his followers from Galilee who knew who he was, who had heard him speak, who had seen his miracles. And many of them had Come to believe in him. It's just. To me, that's a fascinating question, because, when the gospel writers talk about the triumphal entry, they talk about exactly what you said. That the great multitudes came out and blessed. Hosanna. Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And the children. The children, were singing and they were cheering. It was a fantastic event. And that made the Pharisees mad, the religious leaders. Things were getting out of control. And, they said to Jesus and to his disciples, tell these kids to be quiet and remember what Jesus said back. If I tell them to be quiet, the stones will cry out. it was a moment. It was one of the greatest moments in all history when our Lord was presenting himself. By the way, go back and read. Go back and read Zechariah, chapter 9. What Jesus did on Palm Sunday was in fulfillment of Zechariah, chapter 9. And the wise people among the Jews understood he was presenting himself as the king of the Jews. It was the religious leaders who wanted him dead. And by the end of the week, they would have their way. It just didn't work out.
Ray Pritchard It just didn't work out by Sunday morning the way they expected.
Christopher Woodward The title of my pastor's sermon on Sunday night was, don't make the rocks do your job. And it was all the places in scripture where we're told to praise God, or the rocks would cry out.
Tim Ferriss: The crowd that welcomed Jesus three days later wanted him condemned
Tim Wildmon One other question related to that. That was the first half of my question. There was another crowd, Right. A few days later.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon The crowd that you mentioned who wanted Barnabas to be released. Be released. Who is a surefire criminal. Yeah.
Ray Pritchard Stone cold killer.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yes. Okay. So, this crowd saying, release Barabbas, I should say, right? I say Barnabas. What does that say?
Christopher Woodward He's the one that sang now. That was Silas.
Wesley Wildmon I didn't catch that.
Tim Wildmon I meant to say Barabbas. Okay. So, And sometimes people say in the same crowd who welcomed him three days later wanted him to be condemned. And I'm thinking. I don't think that's right.
Ray Pritchard I don't think that's right.
Tim Wildmon Are they all bipolar? I mean, come on. Or, you know, have, problems mentally? I don't think so. Go ahead.
Ray Pritchard Our pastor on Sunday made the point that, remember Passover was one of the three times when the Jewish men were told to come to Jerusalem. So you come to Jerusalem, you bring your wife, you bring your kids. Scholars, estimate at a low end, at least a half a million people were in Jerusalem that day, but could be up to that week. Up to a million people were there. So yes, some of them knew who Jesus was and they were so glad to see him on Sunday. But there were others who hated him and who wanted him dead. The people who understood who he was or at least were sympathetic to him. They were saying hosanna. Hosanna. But by Friday morning, it was the chief priests, the scribes and their friends who wanted, they wanted this troublemaker dead.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so it wasn't the same crowd. No, of, people. It was a crowd, but two different groups.
Ray Pritchard And think, Tim, think how sick you have to be in your mind to say, we got a murderer. We've got a, we would say today a serial killer. We've got a mass murderer terrorist. We'd rather set him free than let Jesus go free. We want Jesus dead so bad, let's let the terrorists go. How sick do you have to be?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, those people were buying into what the, religious leaders, the Jewish religious leaders were saying about Jesus, that he was a blasphemer.
Ray Pritchard Right.
Tim Wildmon And worthy of death. I got you. All right, you're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. We encourage you to read the Bible for yourself. Read the whole story about Jesus, and holy, week, as we call it in the scriptures. Chris, what's your next story there?
Walmart may introduce self checkout between today and Easter of 2026
Christopher Woodward Well, I want to, mention this because a lot of people are buying items for Easter or Resurrection Sunday and many people shop at places like Walmart. So between today and really Easter of 2026, many people going into a, Walmart may notice some changes involving those self checkout lanes. Now when you walk into a, Walmart, they've got the little section there where people basically work for Walmart and check their own stuff out. and then they go about their day. Walmart is changing how they're doing that. And, it's similar to how Sam's does this. Walmart's, scan and go technology, it allows shoppers to scan items with their mobile app as they shop and then they can check out with the app itself, checkout stations. The idea here is that it's going to reduce checkout time and waiting in lines because who wants to do that? Right? so, this is going to be some changes at Walmart. Again, it's something similar to Sam's, if you've ever been in there. And because Walmart is doing this, I have no doubt other retailers will follow suit.
Tim Wildmon All right, do you know about this, Wesley?
Wesley Wildmon I've heard of it.
Christopher Woodward I'll share the link for.
Wesley Wildmon I've heard of this over the last couple of years in other parts of the country. So this is not a new thing.
Tim Wildmon But maybe like everything else in Mississippi, we're getting it last.
Wesley Wildmon Is that what you're telling me now?
Christopher Woodward We're going to tell us if it eventually.
Wesley Wildmon Most likely on. On the west coast. They've been doing, things like this for a while, but I'm looking it up now. There's also one that goes further than this that I've read about. I read this. I read about this two years ago. And that's where you would walk in stores. I think it was Costco. That was the first one. You walk in. You walk in Costco and then you walk out, but you never even scan anything.
Christopher Woodward Amazon has done that, too, some of those stores.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. So they have cameras that see you and they see what you. I know, I know.
Christopher Woodward Maybe.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah. And they see you pick it up and they put it in your cart, and then you walk out.
Tim Wildmon Somebody has to scan it somewhere. No.
Wesley Wildmon the camera. Scan it.
Christopher Woodward Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Okay.
Wesley Wildmon Yes, yes, they do. But it's not you scanning it. They're watching you, dad.
Tim Wildmon Like, like Sting.
Ray Pritchard Okay.
Tim Wildmon I'll be watching.
Ray Pritchard Explain how this works. Some. Explain.
Christopher Woodward Well, I know.
Tim Wildmon All right, all right, listen, listen. Hold on. You talking about m. What Wesley describes. Subscribe to what? What? Walmart? But the story, the news story was what Walmart is going to start. Is that what you're talking about? Right.
Ray Pritchard Explain both.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so as I understand it, you guys jump in here in a minute. What they're doing or going to do soon. Walmart is this, instead of going to your checkout line or your self checkout line? Self checkout.
What they're talking about here is, uh, you use your cell phone
I'm. I'm going up to the cashier. I do that. I'm just, I'm sorry, I'm just old school, but I'm going to the cat. Unless there's a line of 20, then I'll brave the do it yourself scanning machine. But what they're talking about here is, you use your cell phone. What I understand. And you scan as you shop. So you pick up an item and I guess you scan the barcode or whatever on there and it goes to your wallet, so to speak. your virtual wallet or your credit card that's already in there with. And then so you get through shop and you got $100 worth of product in your buggy. And, there's, either some place in the store you can go or you walk straight out the door. I don't know. But it. It charges you based on the products you have in your. We, call them a buggy here. I don't know. What do you call them? In part.
Christopher Woodward What do you call them Yankees? Call them cars? We call them bugs.
Tim Wildmon So you're shopping buggy. Did I describe it right?
Wesley Wildmon You could describe that. Right. And I got more on what I'm talking about right here. Okay, let me get back.
Tim Wildmon When we get back, more of this riveting radio conversation. Ladies and gentlemen. Shopping at Walmart. and. And, how to scan yourself. But that if they can do that successfully, what we just described, that will change everything because the check. A lot of people take advantage of that.
Christopher Woodward Oh, yeah.
Tim Wildmon All right. We will be back momentarily with more of today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Stay with us. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
Tim, Wesley and Ray talk with Chris on top news headlines of the day including a discussion on an earthquake in California. Also, Jenna Ellis joins the program to discuss more information from the meeting between President Trump and the President of El Salvador.
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