If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a humanistic society

Ed Vitagliano If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic society. Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda and the Disney empire. The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free visit culturewarrior movie. 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. Welcome to today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Today's Tuesday, July 28, 2026. I'm, Tim Wildmon, and you're listening to AFR, American Family Radio. Joining me in studio today is the one, the only, Ed Battagliano.

Ed Vitagliano I like that. The one, the only. I'm gonna see if I can get my wife to start calling me that. I want you to start calling me the one and only Ed.

Tim Wildmon Get your own bologna sandwich. The one and only.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, that's probably what I'd get returned, right, Fred?

Tim Wildmon Jackson. Good morning, Fred.

Fred Jackson Yes. God is good.

Tim Wildmon God is good ain't.

Fred Jackson There's only one end.

Tim Wildmon There's only one. Oh, wow, man, that was a shot. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Why did you take it that way? I think he meant it.

Ed Vitagliano Everybody knows me. That's how I took it. That's why I took it that way.

Tim Wildmon Krish Woodward. Good morning, Krish.

Chris Woodward Thank you very much. I do want to bring everybody's attention. Be sure to listen tonight at 5 where we have a live sit down interview with Ed's wife doing a tell

Fred Jackson all

Tim Wildmon the revenge tour.

Chris Woodward It's only 4 minutes and 29 seconds.

Ed Vitagliano Seconds.

Chris Woodward But it's said to be epic.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I hope you guys have not been recording all the little jokes that I make.

Chris Woodward Steve has a montage.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon It gets home and Dianne goes, you do a radio show.

Ed Vitagliano That's about right. Same thing with my preaching.

Chris Woodward Yeah, I heard it all.

American Family Radio Live has a lot to discuss today

Tim Wildmon Okay, four of us are here in our studio at American Family Radio Live. And Krish, I'm wondering, can you jack your chair up anymore?

Chris Woodward I have to because, when you're

Tim Wildmon built, you look like. For those who can't see and most nobody can. Krish has got his seat elevated. You can adjust our chairs. And you're that well. Well, there you go. You look like dwarf. Oh, it just looked like it was hurting your leg.

Ed Vitagliano I know it looked like it was cutting the. Cutting the circulation off legs.

Tim Wildmon Were pinned in there. maybe you just now. Now Krish is towering above us about 6 inches.

Chris Woodward Steve Goliath Jordal comes in here and somehow sits like above everybody.

Tim Wildmon Steve is a big boy.

Chris Woodward He is.

Tim Wildmon all right, there is a much to talk about. We've got Dr. Frank Turk on in about 40 minutes. He'll be joining us. He hadn't been on in a while. The author of I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist and the radio show heard weekends here on American Family Radio. And then our own Jonathan Coker, who's the GM here. American Family Radio. Jonathan's gonna step in. He just got back from like a 10 day road, trip with his family. And he left, I think he left four of them along the way on the way back because you know how that, that's too much bonding. Right.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon He left one of them in Bristol, Tennessee and I think another one in Richmond, Virginia. But other than that, they all got back, I think. Yeah, no, he, they did a great American, history road trip and I thought it'd be fun just to talk about that.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon For a few minutes because some, folks might want to consider doing something like that. All right, so, much to discuss today. We look forward to that. was there anything else I needed to say before we jump into the news?

Ed Vitagliano No, I think we're good.

Tim Wildmon Go, Chris.

There is a Capitol ceremony honoring the late Senator Lindsey Graham today

Chris Woodward Well, as we speak, there is a Capitol ceremony honoring the late Senator Lindsey Graham. He passed away a couple of weeks ago, at the age of 71. His sister has been appointed to, fill in for him temporarily, although, she has three thrown her, efforts behind running for the seat long term. nonetheless, this is one of those situations where they have the body lying in state there in the Capitol Rotunda. Rotunda. there is a large crowd there. They've had members of Congress speak. I, believe Vice, President J.D. vance, also spoke. And, President Trump was on Fox this morning talking about, Lindsey Graham and sharing memories of how they were good friends and talked, with one another on all kinds of things. But again, the late Senator Lindsey Graham being honored today in Washington.

Ed Vitagliano And we also have some, luminaries from other countries who are coming. Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Ed Vitagliano and then, Zelensky of, Ukraine, both coming because Lindsey Graham was, very helpful to both those countries in terms of the things that he pushed while, in the Senate. And he was in the Senate for so long. He carried a lot of weight, by the way.

Tim Wildmon Did they Figure out what happened to him.

Fred Jackson It was an aortic, sort of heart issue.

Tim Wildmon A heart issue?

Fred Jackson Yes.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Chris Woodward I do have some audio from, President Trump talking about Lynch.

Tim Wildmon Let Fred go ahead and comment first. Go ahead, Fred.

Fred Jackson Yeah, I watched most of the ceremony at the U.S. capitol. his body will now be moved, to the National Cathedral, where there will be a large funeral. This afternoon, you know, when the ceremony at the US Capitol had just about wrapped up, Fox did an interview with Alexander Stubb, who is the president of Finland. He was a very, very good friend of Lindsey Graham. this president of Finland, actually said he went to school in South Carolina on a small golf scholarship. and of course, Lindsey Graham loved to play golf. And they have become very, very good friends. And so it was a fascinating interview, kind of an insight. You know, we talk about senators, we talk about presidents of companies and prime ministers, countries and prime ministers of countries. But these were two guys who really liked each other and they shared a love of golf. And that's what the interview was all about. And their history that went so far back. And, the role that Lindsey Graham played has played in international politics. Of course, he died, shortly after arriving back from a visit to Ukraine. that's the Lindsey Graham people are getting to know. One of the other moving parts of this ceremony that I was watching this morning, they had a choir from the U.S. air Force. You didn't hear much about Lindsey Graham's background as a military person. He was retired, I think, as a colonel, I believe.

Ed Vitagliano Really?

Fred Jackson he was high ranking.

Ed Vitagliano I didn't know that.

Fred Jackson high ranking. And, so there's a lot we have learned about Lindsey Graham since his passing. And so he's being remembered, and rightly so, today. And, you know, he's going to be missed by a lot of people, not only here in his home state of South Carolina, but in the nationally speaking, but also the world. World leaders all have shown respect for him.

Ed Vitagliano Wow. You are absolutely right. Not that I doubted you. He was a colonel, rank of colonel, the highest field grade officer rank in the U. He was in the U.S. air Force Reserve, up until 2015. I did. I knew he was in the military. I had no idea that. I guess that explains why he was so pro military.

Fred Jackson Yes.

Ed Vitagliano And, you know, at least one of the, one of the reasons why. So like you said, a lot of things coming out, I guess people who are in politics, you hear their names mentioned so often, you kind of fail to realize they're human beings. And this is, this is. Some of. This is interesting that I'm learning even today.

Tim Wildmon So they'll have a, ceremony this afternoon at the National Cathedral.

Fred Jackson That is correct, yes.

Tim Wildmon Yep. Benjamin Netanyahu and, what is Zelensky's first name? Yeah, he is Also, in it, as you said, also in Washington, D.C. so for those guys to fly over here, especially with the crisis that they're dealing with in their own countries, to honor Lindsey Graham shows how much respect they had for him and what a relationship. And he was a proponent of supporting Ukraine against Russia and supporting Israel against Iran. So, definitely.

The heat wave we're under has caused strain on the power grid

All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio Network. Well, is Jonathan walking in?

Ed Vitagliano He's coming in. do we have, maybe an update while he's coming in on, the weather? Krish? a lot of heat in this country.

Tim Wildmon Over to the weather desk, Krish, heat dome. Can you tell us what's going on, Krish?

Chris Woodward A lot of times when it comes to weather, it's a 50, 50 chance. It is or it isn't. And today it's going to be hot throughout most of the United States, particularly here in the, southeastern United States, where we remain, under an extreme heat advisory. We're not supposed to get any relief, and I say relief, we're talking about a few degrees less, but we're not supposed to get any relief until tomorrow afternoon. And then other parts of the country that are also dealing with extreme temperatures, you're looking at tomorrow or later, back

Tim Wildmon to you out west. It's, well, it's really 115.

Frank Turek Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. But you know what? It did hot every year in Phoenix and Las Vegas and in the summer,

Ed Vitagliano I mean, yes, I, I think it's,

Tim Wildmon I think a little hotter than normal.

Ed Vitagliano I think that's it. It's hotter than normal. There's been a lot of strain, as far as I can understand, on the power grid, because. Your power grid, what's that?

Tim Wildmon You said, as I understand the power grid. I said, no, there's plenty to me. I'm just kidding. No, I'm just picking on you.

Ed Vitagliano I know, and I, I accept the abuse because as a good, good and decent human being, I've come to expect it from you.

Tim Wildmon Take it.

Ed Vitagliano so as, as I understand, the heat wave we're under has caused the power grid, which I don't really understand.

Chris Woodward The one good thing to.

Ed Vitagliano Let me just finish you and your high seat over there, because everyone's air Conditioning is running a lot more. A lot of strain on the power grid, which probably none of us understand if we're all honest. And, So that's one of the consequences of, the weather being even a few degrees hotter over a long period of time, plus concerns over drought and that kind of thing.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, the, you got the, Several states are like, saying, hey, back off the use of the air conditioner because the chances increase greatly. We're going to have a blackout and nobody has air conditioning. So there's, as you say, a lot of stress on the, on the electrical, grid, as they say. But, I'm still using mine.

Ed Vitagliano Somebody else, I mean, this isn't friendly

Tim Wildmon because I ain't got to take care of number one. Isn't that the spirit, Ed?

Ed Vitagliano It is around my house.

Chris Woodward There's an eye in Tim, and I intend to use it.

Tim Wildmon I'm going to use my air conditioner till it goes out, and then I'll get in my car, I guess, and

Ed Vitagliano then you can blame the other people

Tim Wildmon who sleep in the car who wouldn't,

Ed Vitagliano let up a little bit.

Tim Wildmon No, listen, Okay. It's always hot in a lot of America in the summer, but it is a little hotter than normal and it's humid.

Ed Vitagliano That's part of that heat, though, is it traps the humidity and makes the. Feels like temperature even worse.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. I think we had in Tupelo yesterday, we had a heat index of like 112, something like that. So it was 98, 97, but it feels like 112. It was that way across much of the country yesterday, that intense heat. All right, you're listening to today's issues, but you'll never hear me complain about the heat.

Ed Vitagliano No. In fact, we've had discussions here and asking. Because you hate the winter.

Tim Wildmon I do.

Ed Vitagliano You hate cold, and you say, wait for summer. And so people have been asking you, Tim, are you backing off the, No, I love summer.

Tim Wildmon no. Give me a 112 heat index before you give me 22 degrees.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, that's. Well, you've been very consistent on this.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. all right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio. A lot more topics and subjects to talk about.

Jonathan Coker is director of radio for American Family Radio

But first of all, I wanted to have our own Jonathan Coker in director of radio for American Family Radio. That's what it says your title is. Is that still your title?

Jonathan Coker As far as I know.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Ed Vitagliano Well, a lot depends on the show.

Tim Wildmon I called you general manager. Are you not general Manager.

Jonathan Coker It's basically the same thing.

Tim Wildmon Oh, it's the same thing.

Jonathan Coker Yes, sir.

Tim Wildmon Who's your boss?

Jonathan Coker You.

Speaker G Okay,

Ed Vitagliano like Tim didn't know that.

Tim Wildmon I should know your title, shouldn't I, Jonathan?

Ed Vitagliano I mean, I was surprised he didn't say, who's your dad?

Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah. Okay.

You and your family just returned from a two-week Great American Road Trip

So, Hey, you and your family.

Jonathan Coker Yes, sir.

Tim Wildmon Y' all been planning this trip, which you just got back from how long? this. I call it a Great American Road Trip. maybe Volume one, because y' all may do a volume two. Or maybe not after you got back. Maybe not. Okay, so tell us who all. Tell us who all was in the band. And when did y' all start planning this trip?

Jonathan Coker well, shout out to my wife, Amanda, for planning this trip. She planned it for probably a month. but it just worked out that she was off of work, and then she wanted me to take off work, so. And then it was 250th anniversary of America, so we were like, you know what? Let's do it if we're going to do it. So.

Tim Wildmon Okay. How many days were the trip?

Jonathan Coker It was two weeks. We left the 10th, I think it was, of July.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Jonathan Coker We got back. Sorry, I didn't. I don't have those dates.

Ed Vitagliano You weren't prepared?

Jonathan Coker Yeah, I wasn't. We got back on the 24th. I'm sorry.

Tim Wildmon So two full weeks?

Jonathan Coker Yeah, two full weeks of traveling.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Left, yeah. You left Tupelo. And how many people were in the van?

Jonathan Coker It was me, my wife, and my youngest son, Evan.

Tim Wildmon How many did you come back with?

Jonathan Coker I made it back with all three. There was a couple of close times there where it almost didn't happen, but we made it back with all three.

Tim Wildmon Okay, go ahead. Where all did you go?

Jonathan Coker We went. I counted 16 different places that we went to. We traveled, 3,000, 494 miles from Tupelo to Boston, Massachusetts, and back.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Ed Vitagliano To Boston.

Jonathan Coker What?

Tim Wildmon No, no, don't fall for that, Jon.

Jonathan Coker Oh, I did. I did talk to some of those Boston people up there.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, and I want to get to that. Go ahead. Let's get to the other stuff.

Jonathan Coker So anyway, 16 places, 3,000 almost. Basically 3,500 miles. We averaged six miles of walking a day. Of all the places that we went.

Ed Vitagliano Wow.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Jonathan Coker You want me to go through the.

Tim Wildmon No commentary needed. Just go through where all you stop.

Jonathan Coker All right, so we went to Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown. All those are in Virginia. We went to Appomattox Courthouse. Monticello.

Tim Wildmon I want to say Monticello That's Thomas Jefferson's home.

Jonathan Coker Monticello. Arlington House. That's at the Arlington Cemetery. Of course, we went to Arlington Cemetery, visited, the National Mall in D.C. went to Fort McHenry in Maryland, Antietam Battle site, which is a Civil War battle site. Gettysburg battle site, Civil War battle site, Valley Forge, Philadelphia, Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, and Boston, Massachusetts. And then on the way back through, my wife wanted to go to Shenandoah national park, and we drove through that.

Tim Wildmon So you go to the Freedom Hall. And I, mean, did you see the Liberty Bell?

Jonathan Coker Yes, sir, Liberty Bell. And it's all in Philadelphia.

Ed Vitagliano Very proud to see that. You also saw the statue of Rocky Balboa. Did you do the.

Jonathan Coker I didn't have my picture made.

Tim Wildmon M. Statue. Downtown Philadelphia.

Jonathan Coker Of the Rocky Balboa.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Jonathan Coker Yeah.

What was your favorite stop during the Civil War

Tim Wildmon What was your favorite stop?

Jonathan Coker I don't know. I've had several people ask me that, and it's really hard to say which one was my actual favorite. I will say, at Independence hall in Philadelphia.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Jonathan Coker I mean, it was hot, like y', all, but I literally had chills in that room because I just thought, this is the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed by everybody. And it was just that. And, Appomattox Courthouse was. I don't know what happened.

Tim Wildmon What happened there, for those who don't know.

Jonathan Coker Yeah. So that's.

Tim Wildmon That's where Virginia.

Jonathan Coker Yes. That's where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant for the Civil War.

Ed Vitagliano But the.

Jonathan Coker The actual courthouse had burnt down. That was not the original one that they have. They just built it back, like, what pictures showed. However, there is a house that's maybe a hundred yards from the courthouse. It's the McLean House. This is the original house where before they went to the courthouse to sign those agreements of surrender, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant met in that house to discuss their terms of surrender. And that was another thing that just kind of gave me a chill because I thought, wow, like, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant was in the same room. So the building.

Ed Vitagliano Still the house.

Jonathan Coker Still the original building. The original house. They. I, don't remember. They have. They have it set up the way they think that it would have been set up back then. I don't think it's the original furniture, because the park ranger there did tell us that most of the Union soldiers that were there when that happened, like, they knew how big of a moment this was in history, that they actually took stuff out of the room as they were building yeah. So I think they only had, like, two or three things that was original to the room, but they had the desk that Robert E. Lee was sitting at and Ulysses S. Grant was sitting at when they.

Tim Wildmon Where is, I've been to Virginia many times, but I haven't been there where you're talking about. I'd like to go there. But where is, Appomattox? Appomattox. Where is that? Is that near Richmond or more toward Fredericksburg in D.C. or think it's more towards Fredericksburg.

Jonathan Coker Best I remember.

Tim Wildmon Okay, we'll look it up. I'm just curious.

Ed Vitagliano I was going to say, while he's looking, that it's not unusual for, soldiers to take memorabilia. I remember watching Band of Brothers, which was, ah, from World War II, and, I think that's 101st Airborne. and when they went to what's called the Eagle's Nest, which was where Hitler had a kind of palatial. They. They are all shown taking. Taking stuff, including silverware and all that. And. And so it's not unusual.

Tim Wildmon It's on ebay today,

Ed Vitagliano that kind of thing. and sometimes those things get lost to history.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Jonathan Coker You.

Chris Woodward You.

Ed Vitagliano You read about or see on television some story about somebody who, you know, went to some garage sale and wound up buying something that nobody knew the value of.

Jonathan Coker Yeah, well, we talked about that with somebody. I talked with somebody about that the other day.

Fred Jackson That.

Jonathan Coker The sad thing is, is some. Some of the people that took that, you know, may have handed that down to generation. And then you get three or four generations, and they're like, no, but nobody knows what it is.

Tim Wildmon And they're in some hoard.

Ed Vitagliano Yes.

Tim Wildmon Garbage or something.

Jonathan Coker Yeah. Appomattox is west of Richmond, is where that is.

Tim Wildmon It's the West Richmond. Okay. Yeah, Appomattox.

Ed Vitagliano I bet that would be chilling. I mean, just to be in the room in a kind of awe.

Jonathan Coker And the way my son described this trip, I think he described it the best that it can be described. So every place that we went to, we went to Revolutionary War museums. And, you know, some of the places that we went to was involved with the Revolutionary War. So the Revolutionary War sites that we went to, we were all like, yeah, you know, America's independence. Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Jonathan Coker It's great. It's awesome.

Tim Wildmon 250.

Jonathan Coker Yeah. And then. But the Civil War stuff was just like. You had a totally different attitude.

Tim Wildmon It's really. The Civil War was saddest chapter in American history.

Jonathan Coker and that's the way we Felt like every place we went to with

Tim Wildmon the Civil War, it didn't have to happen.

Jonathan Coker That's right.

Tim Wildmon You know, that's right.

Ed Vitagliano And if you've ever seen the movie Gettysburg, which is phenomenal from 19, you've never seen that.

Jonathan Coker I've never seen that.

Ed Vitagliano Oh, you ought to see it. The thing that struck me I took, when I was teaching high school history in Arkansas, I took, the senior class to that movie when it came out, is the friendship between the generals on both sides, where they're actually shown weeping over the news that someone on the other side that they went to West Point with or something was killed in battle.

The friendship on both sides highlights the sadness of that civil, uh, war

I mean, the friendship on both sides just highlights the sadness of that civil, war.

Tim Wildmon While you're talking about Civil War movies, I have recorded and I haven't watched. I have recorded at home, Alison. I are going to watch it sometime.

Ed Vitagliano Glory is one of my favorite movies.

Tim Wildmon Okay. You recommend it?

Ed Vitagliano Absolutely. M. And if you don't cry at the end of it, I would be shocked. I just watched it again recently over July 4th, and I get choked up every time I see it. It is. It's a phenomenal movie. And. But the Civil War is a sad moment. That's all I'll say about that. But Gettysburg also is spectacular. The movie, Gettysburg, it's a long movie, but it's powerful.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, you know, Robert E. Lee was asked by, Abraham Lincoln to be in charge of the Union, forces.

Jonathan Coker That's right. Yeah, that's right. He was a statesman, but he could reason he didn't because he wanted to fight against Virginia.

Tim Wildmon He said, yeah, you're right. Statesman. By that, you mean he didn't want to be fighting against his own.

Jonathan Coker That's right.

Tim Wildmon People, so to speak. The Virginians.

Ed Vitagliano The Virginians.

Tim Wildmon Because at that time. Steven McDowell can wax eloquent on this. At that time in American history, people were known, identified more with their states than they did with the nation. Really. It was United States is or are instead of is. it's how people would describe the country. But, yeah, so much in that Civil War story.

Allison says she was surprised that people were friendly in Boston

Ed Vitagliano Can I ask one? we're almost out of time. You told me that you went to Boston and you were surprised that the people were friendly.

Jonathan Coker Yeah, well, in Philadelphia, in Boston, I didn't know what to expect. I'm a country boy that's never been to those biggest cities before. But I would, without a minute hesitation, I would go back to Boston. I would go back to Philadelphia. Great, beautiful cities. Everybody that we encountered, my wife Said, well, you don't know if everybody's nice like that. I said, well, everybody that we encountered were super nice.

Tim Wildmon Right. Which you bought stuff from. They were really nice.

Jonathan Coker No, no, we got lost on the train in Boston. Like, we went the wrong way, got off and the guy was like, hey, if you're going to such and such, like, he just, he helped us, like complete stranger.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Allison, My wife and I, we went to Boston for our 40th anniversary two years ago. But by the way, shout out to my wife, today's our 42nd.

Ed Vitagliano Oh, congratulations.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. The love of my life. Yeah, we went two years ago to, Boston for our. And loved it. Yeah, we took a ride. And a lot of people don't do this, but if you go to Boston and you can't do this in the winter, you'll freeze to death. But then you go in the summer, you take a ride on a boat out in the Boston harbor. It is the city lights at night and everything. The history is just amazing. All right, we'll be back momentarily with more of today's issues on American Family Radio. Stay with us.

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Tim Wildmon Hello everyone, I'm Tim Wildmon, president of American Family association and American Family Radio. Hey, we've got some great tours lined up for March of 2027. We've got one tour we call the Footsteps of, Paul Tour that's mainly in Greece or only in Greece, including Athens and Corinth and Thessalonica. And then we've got a separate tour to Italy where we're going to Venice and Florence and Pisa and Rome and all the sites of Italy. So, you can do both of these tours if you want to. We've arranged that as well. Also, this tour of Italy, it's not like the Olive Garden tour of Italy, you know, this is. We're really going there to Italy to see Italy and to eat Italian food too as well. So for information on any of the tours I've mentioned here, go to tours.afa.net tours.afa.net tours.aca.net

Ed Vitagliano work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15American Family Radio

Tim Wildmon this is Today's Issues.

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

Today's Issues comes from the Travel Channel on the American Family Radio Network

Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. we're the Travel Channel here. Recently, we were just talking to Jonathan Coker about his two week trip of early American history. And he got back and had a great time, but went from Tupelo, Mississippi all the way up to Boston. I'm Tim with Ed and Fred and Krish and we thank you for listening. I was talking about Boston and I've been twice now, I've been three times in my life. But, now y' all are going trips sold out. But that, that, Boston area just. We went up to, one day we drove up to, Gloucester. Yeah, that's one of your favorite places, isn't it, Fred?

Fred Jackson I went to school in Wenham, which is not far from Gloucester.

Tim Wildmon It's a fishing village. Oh, beautiful. It's just, it's. I don't know if this is the right word, but just vintage NewSong England. Yeah, I mean, we saw the boats coming in, you know, it's just so. And we're eating lobster rolls on the bay. I mean, it was so cool when

Ed Vitagliano we used, to go. I don't know how many years in a row we would go. My family, my dad, mom, my sisters and I, we would go down to Gloucester in August. There was some special festival they had. And what I remember about it is you pay five bucks, you go inside. They had tents up everywhere.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Kind of like to have festivals here.

Tim Wildmon Sure. Food festivals.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, yeah, food festivals. And for five bucks you could get all the steamed clams and corn and potatoes.

Tim Wildmon Oh, wow.

Ed Vitagliano If you wanted.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano And I just remember going with other members of my dad's side of the family, and we would just go in August and sit in the heat, you know.

Tim Wildmon We also did that same day we drove out to a lighthouse.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Now, that's something I've never done.

Jonathan Coker Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. We drove. We said, we're going to go up. We're going to go. No, we didn't get to go inside. I tried to trick the guy. I said, look over there. And I was trying to get him to look out at a boat, you know, so I could.

Ed Vitagliano Pretty savvy, though, huh?

Tim Wildmon We could dart in, but he wouldn't fall for it. I, know it wasn't a, It wasn't a lighthouse open to the public. Yeah, it was. I don't,

Ed Vitagliano So some of them aren't even operational.

Tim Wildmon We walked all the way around it and it was the. Then, the. Everything you read about the rocky shores of the. Of NewSong England, you know, all around there. So it was pretty fascinating. But we enjoyed our trip.

Fred Jackson They don't like people, going into lighthouses because people tend to turn the light off when they leave the room.

Ed Vitagliano I wonder what happened.

Tim Wildmon Tombo dat.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Well, and I will say this for folks in the south who often go to the Caribbean, the Gulf of America, for vacation. Beach m. You go to the beach. The NewSong England coast is not like that.

Tim Wildmon It's.

Ed Vitagliano It's very rocky.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Ed Vitagliano The sand where you have the beaches is very coarse. The water's usually cold for a long time.

Tim Wildmon You don't see a lot of tourists laying out on the NewSong England beaches.

Ed Vitagliano Well, not tourists except Joe Biden. There are people. The beaches are crowded and people will lay out. But it's a different kind of beach than the white sands.

Fred Jackson The water is freezing even in August.

Ed Vitagliano It is. When I mentioned this before, when I would go. When I was in high school and we would go down to.

Tim Wildmon To the.

Ed Vitagliano The beach. You.

Tim Wildmon You mean here in this. Here in.

Ed Vitagliano No, I'm talking about up in NewSong England.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Ed Vitagliano You. We would. You run and dive into the water. You don't walk gradually because it's very cold.

Tim Wildmon You want to go in. If you do it gradually, get the

Ed Vitagliano shock over with, and then your body acclimates.

Fred Jackson Mommy, I can't feel my legs.

Chris Woodward Well, you're going to need.

I have a question about lobster rolls. I have not, to my knowledge had a lobster roll

I have a question about lobster rolls. I've had lobster. I have not, to my knowledge had a lobster roll. Is it a sandwich with lobster?

Tim Wildmon Oh, it's. It's a sandwich. It's. Well, there's one here in Tupelo. I'll tell you where you can get one here in Tupelo.

Chris Woodward Okay.

Tim Wildmon But it's good. But, you can't. You, can't be. It's not as NewSong England. NewSong England lobster rolls, but Lobster roll. Yes. Lobster roll is a. Is a sandwich. There's a special kind of roll. What is that kind of roll you use?

Ed Vitagliano I've never had a lobster roll. I know.

Tim Wildmon Really?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Well, what is the kind of roll you use, Fred? it's a kind of bread.

Fred Jackson It's a kind of a soft bread.

Tim Wildmon It's soft bread.

Fred Jackson It's.

Tim Wildmon It's.

Fred Jackson It's a little bit larger than a hot dog roll.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson And you split it open, you put some mayonnaise in.

Tim Wildmon Oh, yeah. Maybe, Oh, man, it's delicious.

Fred Jackson And then put hot butter poured over.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, there's what I'm talking about.

Ed Vitagliano Now, when we go, if I have an opportunity, I'm going to go with the lobster roll.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah. Hey, right across the street from the hotel y' all staying at. We stay. They got one of the best.

Two tours coming up in March 2027; one is Greece, one is Italy

So, we're talking about the, Boston trip, which is full, by the way, coming up in September that. That, Wesley and Walker and Ed are going on, that we're taking folks around the Steve McDowell and Steve McDowell and the Tim Barton.

Ed Vitagliano And Tim Barton. Oh, good, good.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. But we'll be going, They'll be taking that trip again September of 2027. So, M. We'll be making announcements about it. That's a Boston history tour that people, have gone with us to D.C. and to Williamsburg and a lot of history, Israel and other places. All right. You're listening to today's issues on the American Family Radio. By the way, you've been hearing our announcements. We've got, We're off to a great start in terms of registrations for our, two tours coming up in March 2027. One is Greece. We call that the Footsteps of Paul tour, which, Wesley and Walker are going to be leading. And it follows, the Book of Acts. A lot of the Book of Acts covered there as they see, the Bible in, you know, what happened in Greece. And then we're going to Italy, too. Alice and I are taking a group to Italy.

Ed Vitagliano And what is it that you call that tour?

Tim Wildmon The Italian.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. No. Make Lasagna Great Again.

Tim Wildmon Make Lasagna Great Again tour is coming up March 2027. And, we're going to Venice and Florence and Pisa and Rome. We're gonna hit all those sites. so much to see in Italy. But those are some of the top sites that we'll be going to. So, if that's something that interests you, Italy or Greece or both. We have some folks going on both with us in March of 2027. You just need to go to the tour site, tours.afa.net t o u r s.afa.net and you can read the itinerary. Sorry, to say we do have to charge money. Yeah, I wish we didn't. Wish we could be, you know, welfare state, but we're not. Cause it's good old dollars. You have to pay to go on this tour. Tours.aca.net tours.afa.net you're listening to today's issues on the American Family radio network. Well, Dr. Frank Turek joins us now, from. I guess Frank's at home in North Carolina.

Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream interviewed Megan Romer about Democratic socialists

Good morning, Frank.

Frank Turek I am in North Carolina.

Tim Wildmon You grew up NewSong Jersey, right?

Frank Turek I did. I wish I had grown up in North Carolina because then I could have the Billy Graham accent. I told Franklin to come over.

Tim Wildmon That's not bad. That's not bad.

Frank Turek Everybody would be saved if that was the case.

Tim Wildmon Told Franklin to come over.

Frank Turek I told Franklin to come over.

Tim Wildmon How did you end up in North Carolina, by the way, where the seminary is?

Frank Turek Southern Evangelical Seminary. SES Edu. Still a great place to learn apologetics, philosophy, theology.

Ed Vitagliano So they're holding the line in terms of, a biblical worldview and the, their views on scripture. And they hadn't gone woke or liberal.

Speaker G Huh?

Frank Turek They are not democratic socialists. No, not at all.

Tim Wildmon Well, okay, so we're gonna play a clip here. We wanted Frank to comment on this. set this up for you. This is, over the weekend. Yes, yes, Krish, set it up for us. And then we'll hear. Yeah, hear it. And Frank can come back and comment on this.

Chris Woodward So over the weekend, Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream had, one of the co chairs of the Democratic Socialist of America on. Her name is Megan Romer. And Shannon Bream went through the reported platform of all these, goals that the Democratic socialists had. And she had Megan confirm all these things that have been reported out there. you'll hear the audio now. Clip 13.

Speaker G So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. And I want to ask you, just give me sort of a True or false on these? abolish the Senate.

Jonathan Coker True.

Speaker G Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them. Yep. Abolish ice? Absolutely. Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the US Illegally. As a long term plan. Yep. Defund the Pentagon. Absolutely. Abolish prisons, at least in large part. Yeah. Again, as part of a long term program. Yeah. Okay, so no prisons, government or public ownership of most large corporations. Yeah, absolutely. The Senate is, an anachronistic institution. It comes from the British House of Lords. it is made to protect power for. You know, the Senate was part of the, system that was made to make sure that the people didn't have too much of a say. So we want to expand Congress significantly, but make it a unicameral legislature. If we can get to the place where the US Is not destabilizing countries, in order to mine them for resources, there will be significantly less migration.

Tim Wildmon Okay. That was Megan Romer. That's her name. Okay, let me be clear. That's. She's not a spokesman for the Democrat Party. Okay. So I don't want to. She's a spokesman. Well, she's one of their leads in the leadership.

Chris Woodward Co.

Frank Turek Chair.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Frank Turek Woman.

Tim Wildmon What now?

Ed Vitagliano She's a woman.

Chris Woodward She's the coach.

Tim Wildmon Oh, my bad. Okay, sure. Use me. Spokeswoman. assuming she identifies as one. So Megan there, she. Megan there, she. She's not a spokesperson for the Democratic Party. However, the Democrat Socialists of America, they are, they have, become merged with the Democrat Party, and so they are a wing of it, but their numbers seem to be growing. But the ideas and concepts that she mentioned that they propose are just crazy.

Ed Vitagliano by the way, in a. In a longer version of that interview, she explained that the Democratic Socialists of America are planning to take over the Democratic Party.

Frank Turek Right.

Ed Vitagliano Because there. There is no real possibility of a third party gaining much traction. And so.

Tim Wildmon Okay, for these people, Bernie Sanders is a right winger. Okay.

Speaker G Basically.

Frank: Are these people a threat to reality right now

Ed Vitagliano Basically part of the establishment.

Tim Wildmon Of the establishment. Go ahead, Frank. Are these people a threat?

Frank Turek Well, if, reality is a threat, yeah. Because these people have a war on reality going on right now. In fact, that's the title of a new book we have coming out next month called the War on Reality. it's ridiculous to say. Let's.

Frank says socialism misunderstands human nature and misapplies human nature

Let's just. Well, let me just ask you guys a question. How many people do you know are loading themselves on rickety boats in Florida to get to Cuba?

Ed Vitagliano I only know two.

Speaker G Who.

Ed Vitagliano I'm. Who are doing that no, no, I know. Zero.

Frank Turek Why is that?

Ed Vitagliano Everybody knows Cuba is a failed state.

Tim Wildmon Communist.

Ed Vitagliano Because it's communist.

Frank Turek But now, Frank, it's not fully communist. Because communism is the idea that you're going to get rid of all government and you're all going to live commonly and all property will be held commonly. No state has ever achieved that. They are socialist communists trying to go that way. But none of this works because human nature doesn't work that way. Human nature is, is such that if you don't incentivize people to work, they won't. If you don't give people the ability to keep a good portion of their own, the fruits of their own labor, you're not going to have productivity, which means you're not going to have prosperity. And what we're going to have is poverty. Because poverty is the norm. Prosperity is not the norm. Poverty is the norm. People think, oh, we can just will prosperity. We can just tell the government to have everybody be prosperous. That's not the way this works. And it's never worked that way. There are no caravans going to Venezuela. They're all coming here. There are no rickety boats going to Cuba. They're all coming here. Why? Because socialism misunderstands, misdiagnoses, and misapplies human nature. No prisons. Are you out of your mind? Yeah, they are. I mean, it's, it's, it's hardly worth talking about how stupid this is.

Fred Kaplan: I'm concerned about how vulnerable young people are to socialist ideas

Ed Vitagliano All right, let me, let me play, Let me play commie Ed for a second. Okay? So as a, as a communist, Frank, as a lifelong commie, my opinion is that it, Cuba and China, the Soviet Union, Venezuela, it hasn't worked because it hasn't been tried. Right. the real ideas haven't been tried, and we need to give it a shot here in America. What would you say? That is a common response.

Speaker G Yeah.

Frank Turek How are they, what. What should they have done differently in Cuba that would make it work?

Ed Vitagliano Oh, you just got to eat more of the rich people, Frank.

Frank Turek Just eat more of the rich people?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Frank Turek What do rich people do?

Ed Vitagliano Listen, I'm asking you the question.

Frank Turek No, I'm asking you the question.

Tim Wildmon You're saying that for you?

Jonathan Coker Yeah.

Frank Turek You're saying that somehow if we tried it differently. Okay. Modify it. What. What should they have done differently in Cuba that they haven't done that would make it work in Cuba?

Ed Vitagliano No, there's, there's, there's nothing different to try. But I, But my fear is that a lot of young people hear that and they Say, well, then we need to give it a shot here in America. I don't think these young people are paying attention to the details like you're asking about.

Frank Turek Well, that's why you got to ask a lot of questions.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Frank Turek You got some. When was the last time you washed your rental car?

Ed Vitagliano No, that's. That's a good. That's. I hear that.

Frank Turek Ever.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Frank Turek It's not yours.

Ed Vitagliano Not yours. So, do you think this is going to be a successful. First of all, I think if this. If this organization, the Democratic Socialists of America, actually took over the Democratic Party and Fred, I'll give you and Krish a chance here, too. and they started implementing this, I think that would cause a second civil war. I think there are too many Americans that do not. Who will refuse to surrender the Constitution to these nut cases. But I am concerned with how vulnerable young people are who have not been taught properly in school. What do you see as you go to college campuses?

Frank Turek Are you asking me?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Are these young people vulnerable to this?

Frank Turek Oh, sure. Young people are. Young people are vulnerable to everything because they don't have the experience. And we don't have a education system that teaches them the truth. We have an education system that teaches them to hate their country, to think that their country is somehow uniquely evil. In fact, we just did two shows with Tim Barton on this, that you can. You heard it last week on the American Family Radio Network. And then the I Don't have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist podcast comes out tonight with the second part of Tim Barton's interview. We teach people to hate this country, to tear it down, by the way. That's what evil is. Evil. Evil is anti creation. Evil tears down what is good. That's all evil can do. Evil can't build up anything good. Evil can only exist as a privation or a destruction of a good thing. And notice that so many people in our culture want to completely tear down America, including the Democrat Socialists of America. They want to abolish, basically the Constitution. They want to tear it down. Yet this country is the most successful, prosperous and benevolent country in the history of the world. Doesn't mean we're perfect. Doesn't mean we haven't had past sins or current sins. We do. But all countries have that, because m. We're all fallen people. No matter where we go.

Tim Wildmon We're all fallen.

Frank Turek We all do wrong things. But to say that our system is wrong is completely against the facts. The facts show this is the most prosperous, benevolent, free country in the history of the world, and people want to tear it down.

Fred Jackson Frank, it's Fred here, connected to what Ed, was talking about.

We've gone from good empathy to suicidal or toxic empathy

And you've mentioned our campuses and the way our kids are being educated. I've noticed when these DSA candidates, go to a rally, they speak predominantly. The people behind them are young white women, which I'm curious as to. Why do you think that is?

Frank Turek Well, Allie Bestucky wrote a book called Toxic Empathy. And Sad Gad wrote another book called Suicidal Empathy. And the beauty of women is that they are empathetic and compassionate. But like any strength, if it's pushed too far, it becomes a weakness. And if you have such empathy that you think approving of something that has been proven to be harmful is a good thing, you've crossed from good empathy to toxic empathy or suicidal empathy. And so many people have passed from good empathy to suicidal empathy, where we are actually approving of things that hurt people, like socialism, communism, like no prisons, like defund the police, like gender affirming care where we're mutilating children, like abortion, where we're tearing children apart in the womb. We've gone from good empathy to suicidal or toxic empathy. And so many, women are, susceptible to that, especially when they're not. They're fed this, this algorithm online that shows them all these things that cause their empathy to rise. Without the facts, they can easily be persuaded to approve of things that are actually hurting people. And that's not good empathy. That's toxic empathy.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Shannon Bream interviewed about why people should get rid of Senate

Chris Woodward I just wanted to say that I think our listeners and, a whole bunch of people, in addition to studying the word of God, they should also look into the, the early years of, our. Of our country and what the founders intended. because this lady, with all due respect, that Shannon Bream interviewed, she was talking about the reasons why they need to get rid of the Senate. And she made the comment that, quote, the people don't have much of a say when it comes to their senator. Yes, they do. Because since the early 1900s, the people have picked their senators prior to the 17th Amendment being ratified. The states picked the senator, the people picked their representative. That's the way the founders wanted, and in my opinion, it never should have changed. But these democratic socialist type people managed to convince enough Americans in the early 1900s to have the people pick their senator. And for her to say the people don't have much of a say over their senator is factually inaccurate.

Ed Vitagliano Right, and it's factually, Go ahead, Frank.

Frank Turek No, I was going to say, not only that, Krish, but the only reason we have a union is because the smaller states agreed to join the union and have more of a representation. Because the Senate, every, every state had two senators, whereas the House of Representatives, if you have more populous state, you obviously have more representatives. So it was a way to keep the union together.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Frank Turek So these, these smaller states could say, okay, at least we have equal representation in the Senate even though we don't in the House.

Ed Vitagliano but, but to Krish's point, this and to your point, Frank, this is part of the problem is that people are ignorant. This was a younger woman. This person, that Shannon Bream

Tim Wildmon was, she was an ignoramus.

Ed Vitagliano She was, she, that she was very ignorant.

Tim Wildmon She was ignorant of the reason that proper name would be an ignoramus.

Ed Vitagliano Yes. Of the reason why we have a Senate and the reason that the states picked the senators was because they wanted to make sure that states not only had the equal representation despite their size, but that the state interests could be preserved because the states were the ones who had to sign on to the Constitution.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

If you pre order your new book, it helps get it into bookstores

All right, we're out of time here for this segment. Frank, what's coming up on your show this weekend right here on American Family Radio.

Frank Turek This weekend we're going to be talking about a couple of big issues. We're going to be talking about Israel and immigration and When's your book coming out?

Ed Vitagliano You got a new book?

Frank Turek It's coming out early September. It's called the War on Reality. But people can pre order it now and if you would pre order it, it helps get it into bookstores. Why? Because if there's a lot of pre orders, even non Christian bookstores will say, hey, this book has a lot of interest, we better get it. So non Christians then will see the book in their bookstore if it's pre ordered because the bookstores will then order it. So if you don't mind going to Amazon or wherever you get books and pre ordering the book, the War on Reality. The subtitle is Recovering Truth in a World that Celebrates Lies. We cover so many topics in this book, including the topic we're talking about today. Socialism or cultural Marxism.

Ed Vitagliano Who's we?

Frank Turek Me and my co author, Phoenix Hayes. And she's really witty. So there's a lot of fun stuff in this book as well.

Ed Vitagliano Well, good, because Frank, I gotta tell you, when it comes to being witty, we're all in with Phoenix.

Frank Turek Yeah, absolutely.

Ed Vitagliano That's a great name too, for a writer.

Frank Turek Yep, she's good. Phoenix Hayes.

The War on Reality gives biblical solution to all of those wars

Tim Wildmon So what, what's in. What's the name of the book?

Frank Turek The War on Reality. And there's a war on truth. There's a war on God. There's a war on economics. There's a war on identity. There's a war on sex. There's a war on biology. There's a war on humanity. There's a war on human nature. There's all sorts of wars going on.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Frank Turek Right before our eyes. And this gives the biblical solution to all of those wars.

Frank Turek taking a break from campus appearances for the summer

Tim Wildmon All right. All right, Brother Frank, you got any more campus appearances in the next week or so? You taking a break from that for the summer? No, no, no.

Frank Turek We're going to the UK doing some work over there. But, the campuses start up again end of August.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Okay. UK you enjoy yourself over there.

Frank Turek Don't tell me what to do.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano War on.

Chris Woodward Frank Turek.

Tim Wildmon These NewSong Jersey people are just NewSong Jersey people. They're just known for their friendliness.

Frank Turek One of those socialists just telling me what to do.

Tim Wildmon All just. Just warm and friendly people there.

Ed Vitagliano From NewSong Jersey. NewSong Jersey. Don't tell me.

Frank Turek I told Franklin to come over.

Tim Wildmon All right. Take care, Frank. See ya.

Speaker G See ya.

Dr. Frank Turek speaks on today's featured news stories

Tim Wildmon All right. That's Dr. Frank Turek. T U R E K We're gonna take a short time out, right here. We'll be back with more of today's issues. Stay with us. The views and opinions expressed in this

Frank Turek broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of

Tim Wildmon the American Family association or American Family Radio.