Fred Jackson: President Trump blasted NATO allies for not helping against Iran
Wesley Wildmon Today's Issues continues on AFR with your
Tim Wildmon host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues. That's the name of this here show on the American Family Radio Network. We do have podcasts available in case you miss our show. You can go to afr.net and download the podcast daily if you want to. A lot of people do that here at American Family Radio. Fred Jackson is with me. Wesley Wildmon's in studio. And now Steve Paisley Jordal joins us. Good morning, brother Steve.
Steve Jordahl Hey, everybody.
Tim Wildmon What do you got for us, Steve?
Steve Jordahl Well, I've been kind of watching what's been going on in, Turkey. President Trump is sitting down and he did a little, sit down press conference to took questions from the, press that was assembled there. And, he just laid into NATO allies for not coming alongside, him in or the US in its effort against Iran. Listen to cut 13.
Donald Trump We did something in Iran. We don't need anybody's help. I didn't even want their help. But before I asked, they said they wouldn't be there. And we've invested trillions of dollars in NATO. why? To protect European countries and others, Canada, etc. But to protect people, countries from generally speaking, it used to be the Soviet Union, now it's Russia. And I say that's fine. But you would think that they'd be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren't. In the case of the United Kingdomnomics, the Prime minister, I guess he's no longer there. Maybe because of this. It was a very unpopular thing he did. He said, no, we'll help after the war is over. I said, I don't need that kind of help. We didn't need any help at all. And in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there because I've long said that we helped them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us. And Italy turned us down and Germany turned us down and France turned us down. And it's okay. But, you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they're not there for us? We've always been there for them.
Tim Wildmon I'll tell you who was there for us.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Israel.
Steve Jordahl Yes.
Speaker E Huh?
Fred Jackson Huh?
Steve Jordahl Yes. Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Just if you want us to, if Trump wants. Trump should have out there said, you know who was with us? Israel. That's who was with us.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I don't know why he didn't give
Fred Jackson Them credit right there because Erdogan was, six feet away from him.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, what does that matter?
Fred Jackson Turkey does not like Israel and Erdogan does.
Tim Wildmon Trump was intimidated.
Fred Jackson Yeah, he wasn't going to say anything.
Tim Wildmon He was silent. He was silenced by silent.
Fred Jackson Silent about Israel.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so listen, I understand what President Trump is saying, and I think that's a sentiment of a lot of people in America as we talked last hour. So I understand the frustration. I, think the lines get a little blurry for me in all this because NATO, which that's what he's addressing, is designed to be an alliance to. To stop the Soviet Union or Russia, basically. That's basically why it's created from attacking NATO countries. NATO is made up of a lot of smaller countries. with the exception of Germany, France and Great Britain, it's basically a lot of countries that, ah, now Turkey's a large population, Italy large population, relatively speaking. But all those countries joined together post World War II. Correct me if I'm wrong on this history, Fred, to, to, know. Was it Post World War II? Yes, it was to basically say, we're going to all join together to protect the collective against the Soviet Union, which later broke down and became Russia. So I don't know if NATO was designed to support the United States and Israel going to war with Iran. So, I don't know. you see what I'm saying, right? I don't know that it's fair to say to Italy, who is probably elected on Italy, first to say for Trump to say to Italy, hey, you gotta be with us in our war against Iran or you're against us. Does that make sense?
Wesley Wildmon It does, but what about. I, think going to war with them. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but I think that the only time this has become a problem with NATO not helping is the straight Hormuz. And maybe y' all can add to that.
Donald Trump I just.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, no, I agree. If this were the British Channel, I, might could understand it better.
Wesley Wildmon I think he was. His position. They were saying, hey, listen, the strait affects everybody. It affects you, it affects us. Can you help us here?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, go ahead.
Fred Jackson It's also the fact that, the word was from the. I think both Israeli and American intelligence is that, Iran was at the point of having enough power to send a nuclear weapon into Europe.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson So I, think Trump was saying, hey, oil, yes, that's part of the equation. But also, Iran doesn't like you, Italy. Iran doesn't like you, Germany.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but they have Threatened them.
Fred Jackson They hadn't. But the question was, why have you developed missiles now, intercontinental missiles, unless you plan to use them?
Trump went to NATO countries hoping to get three things
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't know. As I say, it's kind of blurry, kind of complicated, in my opinion, knowing exactly where to draw the line. Go ahead, Steve.
Steve Jordahl Well, he went over there hoping to get three things. He wanted to get the NATO countries to, increase their defense spending. So the United States, they weren't so dependent on the United States. He wanted them to buy into the Iran conflict, which they're, not. And, According to Bob McGinnis, I got a story running today. The third goal that they had was to kind of put some sunlight between, Erdogan and Putin in Russia.
Tim Wildmon I don't understand that.
Steve Jordahl Russia and Turkey are aligned. Turkey was a Western ally, and it's kind of moving towards its Islamic, neighborhood neighbors. It's an Arab state, a Muslim country. And, it is aligning, itself, with Russia. And Trump wants to draw that, put, sunlight there. He wants to distance the relationship between, Russia and Turkey, thinking that it would be better if Turkey was more aligned with the US Than with Russia. That's just what, According, ah, to Bob McGinnis, that's one of the goals that they had.
Tim Wildmon I got you. Okay.
A Chinese pastor who had been jailed in China has been released
All right, next story.
Steve Jordahl I got more good news.
Tim Wildmon Give me some good news, Steve.
Steve Jordahl A Chinese pastor who had been jailed in China, a pastor of an underground church there, has been released. His name is Pastor Ezra Jin. And, he was arrested back in September. and when President. I know, I'm sorry. He's arrested in October. And when President Trump went to China in November, he brought up his name, specifically Pastor Jin's name, with, Xi, Chairman Xi. He wanted, to say that he wanted him released. And on the 4th of July, China released Pastor Ezra Jin and flew, him to the United States to be with his family, they say, as a token of Goodwill, on July 4th.
Tim Wildmon So good for China and good for President Trump in working that deal.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon you know, I don't know the circumstances, but, Wesley, you've traveled to China. supposedly they have freedom of religion, but only religion that's approved by the government. Controlled by the government.
Wesley Wildmon Right. That's a surprise. That's a great thing. But I am shocked that China agreed to do that.
Tim Wildmon So this was an underground church, which is illegal.
Steve Jordahl A large church. Yes.
Wesley Wildmon Which real quick, in the States would just be another church.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, underground church. That means it's hidden. They're trying to Hide from the government. So he was caught and imprisoned, is that right?
Steve Jordahl He was caught and they arrested about 30 of his church members. they've released, they still have about, I think 13. A number of, let me have that number here. A number of, the staff that are still in prison. They didn't let them all go.
Tim Wildmon what's his name again? And can we post that story on our Today's Issues Facebook page?
Steve Jordahl Pastor Ezra Jinn. And I believe it's at afn. You can go to afn, but we
Tim Wildmon can post our story at American Family News on our Today's Issues Facebook page. That way people can pray for this fellow.
Steve Jordahl If we've put it up yet. I'm not sure if it's posted yet.
Tim Wildmon and his church.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Those are brave people.
Wesley Wildmon Those are brave people.
Tim Wildmon And I wonder in China.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely. I wonder who was the advisor or facilitator to, to encourage or to tell Trump that this would be a person that you would want to ask to be released. Because that is along. That's a, that would not have, most likely not have happened if the other administration was in charge. We could say this every day about a lot of things, but that's a big deal that a Christian was let free in China as a result of President Trump asking for him to be released.
Tim Wildmon Absolutely.
Steve Jordahl The president has a lot of spiritual, advisors. He's got a council of advisors, that meet with him regularly and among them I'm sure are advocates of freedom, religious freedom.
Tim Wildmon I tell you what, Steven Miller.
Wesley Wildmon Yep.
Tim Wildmon He, he's, he's one of big, he's one of President Trump's biggest assets in my opinion in terms of having his ear. So it wouldn't have been surprised to me if, if that's the person who said you need to bring this up with the President of China. But anyway, that's great news. Good news.
Wesley Wildmon Really, really good news.
Tim Wildmon Absolutely. And again, to make sure you appreciate our freedoms here. In the United States, the freedom of religion, because they don't have it in communist China.
Wesley Wildmon Could you imagine just for a minute that the church service you experienced this past Sunday was already turned in the week before and pre approved by the government.
Tim Wildmon That's what they have to do.
Wesley Wildmon That's it. Yep. That's their three self church. That's what they do. They submit it and they get back approval and you have to read it off.
Tim Wildmon That's what China calls freedom of religion.
Wesley Wildmon That's their church. And that the underground church all they're doing is expressing. Listen, we answer to a higher purpose. We answer to God above, not you. And therefore, we're going to take our chances of going underground so that we're free to worship in spirit and truth and not at the expense of what order you want to give us.
Tim Wildmon M. Next story. Steve.
United States lost last night to Belgium four to one in the World Cup
Steve Jordahl All right, the dream is over for American soccer fans. United States lost last night to Belgium four to one.
Tim Wildmon what happened?
Steve Jordahl Well, President Trump intervened and got, the suspended, ah, Florian, battle gun back in the game. And he played, but apparently it wasn't enough as Belgium, ah, scored, their four goals and, beat them to. So the U.S. did you watch this, Steve? I did not, but I heard about it. and, they had a, the fans are looking back fondly on this, though. Let's, listen to some of them. Cut eight.
Speaker G The U.S. what they showed, throughout the entire World Cup. It's been so fun to watch. I've been so united with people that I've never met before in the US
Speaker H for this World cup, we did, what we can. It was very good game, I can say, but sometimes it is what it is. It's just a bad day. We did very good until now.
Speaker E We're USA like, we. Ride or die, guys. Ride or die.
Wesley Wildmon We're coming back in four years.
Speaker E We're coming back in four years. We're coming back.
Steve Jordahl Yeah, I don't know whether they will or not. Hey, by the way, maybe the game isn't completely decided. I heard first of all that they still have, like, four weeks to count goals in Los Angeles.
Tim Wildmon I think they was in Seattle.
Wesley Wildmon Seattle, yeah.
Steve Jordahl and, President Trump may not be done intervening. someone snuck a microphone into the Oval Office and caught this conversation, between Trump and the, head of FIFA. He's got nine.
Speaker I I actually don't think that was a loss. Four goals. I didn't see four goals. It looked more like a tie to me. Gianni. Or maybe a win if we get rid of all these goals. Can you do something about these goals, Gianni? What if we invade Belgium? I mean, when you think about it, that would make us the winner. I don't even think they have an army, to be honest.
Wesley Wildmon That's funny.
Tim Wildmon Who is that?
Steve Jordahl That was. That's not an impression. That's just an AI version. Someone, asked AI to put a video together of that. And of course, the Johnny's talking about is Gianni Infantino, who is the, head of FIFA. He's the one that Trump Lobbied to get us striker back in the game last night.
Tim Wildmon What if we invade Belgium? Okay, I'm just gonna, express an opinion of basically, Well, it's an informed opinion. I'm not completely ignorant of this subject of soccer in America, but this is one of the. I'm about to rant go about a sport I know very little about. I mean, I do know what soccer is, and our football, as they call it in the rest of the world. But somebody tell me how we can continuously have millions of kids playing soccer. We see them every day in our parks all over America. We got 340 million people or whatever it is. I know not all of them play soccer, but let me tell you, millions of young people play soccer every day here in the United States of America. America, okay? It's America. And we should be, we should be number, one, okay? Or at least top five in the world. And soccer, if you base it on the number of kids that play soccer and come up in our system. And here we are every year going, well, we made it to the round of 16. Boy, we're getting somewhere. Maybe four years from now we'll make it to the round of eight. No, we just got beat by a country that's about 1 25th of our size. Belgium has 12 million people. Guess what? Florida has twice as many people as Belgium have, and they just kicked our rear ends. so, again, four to one we lost again. That is. I'm not saying our guys didn't try as hard as they could, didn't give great effort. I'm just going, how does a country that has so many soccer. Youth soccer players and that we've had. Soccer's been big youth for 30 years now at least. And you go, why don't we ever emerge as a, power in soccer?
Wesley Wildmon This is.
Tim Wildmon Steve has an answer.
Steve Jordahl No, go ahead, Fred.
Fred Jackson No, I think, soccer is big. You're right. I mean, I've been here.
Tim Wildmon Anywhere in our country, you see soccer fields, they're full of kids.
Fred Jackson But it doesn't have the priority of football in these other countries. soccer is it. I mean, it is the premier sport. It's probably the same reason as, to what you're talking about there. Why in the Boston Marathon, it's an Ethiopian that wins all the time. We've got plenty of runners in this country. It's just that certain countries focus on a given sport. And I think in most of the world, if I understand this correctly, soccer is just.
Tim Wildmon Oh, it is. Yeah. It Is. But still you would just think sheer numbers.
Steve Martin: How big a priority is soccer at the university level
We would be able to compete for a championship every time we take the field. Wesley, I don't have a good answer.
Wesley Wildmon I'm seeing it the same way you're seeing it. And you think they would be able to hand select, towards 10
Tim Wildmon players out of millions of kids playing soccer in America? m. Kids and young adults and you can't come up with a team that's top four.
Fred Jackson Let me ask you guys this question. Talking about priorities. How big a priority is soccer at the university level?
Tim Wildmon Well, it's, it's pretty big. It's very big.
Wesley Wildmon It's like similar to hockey and other sports that the more northern you go, yeah, the more the more they prioritize soccer. so.
Tim Wildmon But so every, every, every, almost every college in America has a male and a female socce. I mean it's big, it's big. so I would say I don't know how big it is. And obviously as a fan, as a spectator sport, it doesn't draw the kind of crowds that American football does, for example, but it's still pretty big. Go ahead.
Wesley Wildmon And one other question, I thought about is I wonder if any of our better players are playing for other countries.
Tim Wildmon Right. Well, that, that, that.
Wesley Wildmon We've seen that in the Olympics.
Tim Wildmon I would call that a trader.
Wesley Wildmon Well, yeah, well we've seen it in the Olympics. Yeah, there was, there's.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, go ahead, Steve.
Wesley Wildmon The female skier who skied for China, who's an American citizen, but her parents are from China, but she was born in America. Yeah, I just, I don't just know,
Steve Jordahl other countries and FIFA has programs for this develop players young and the United States does not. And this is a tweet, this is a post from a guy named Ankachu's, I don't know. I don't know who this, this, this is, this is a post from somebody. I don't, I can't vouch for their, their authority, but what they're saying makes sense here. He wrote, in Germany, a talented 14 year old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year to let him play and travel with the club. That single inversion explains why we will not is the most accurate line ever written about U.S. soccer. FIFA has built a global system. Training, compensation and payments sent out a cut of every pro back to the club that developed it for years. So if you are a local club and you develop somebody that gets to be a pro. Your club gets money back. And this is the way they develop their young players. Starting. They start tracking them around age 12. From age 12 onward, you develop, players and they find the good players and they place them with clubs and they start the payment system of,
Tim Wildmon Bud bore me. Okay.
Steve Jordahl That's why it's a farm system that FIFA has.
Tim Wildmon All right, next story. Thank you, Steve, for that in depth explanation.
Steve Jordahl You're welcome.
Tim Wildmon Why America can't rise to the top in soccer. But you tried your best.
Steve Jordahl I did.
Tim Wildmon And you did good there for about 90 seconds.
Wesley Wildmon But the.
Tim Wildmon Wesley can explain. Go ahead, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon That's right. I understand that these players, they come together just for this month, they play with other club teams.
Tim Wildmon You tell me. Well, that's true all over the world, isn't it? you tell me. The American team.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon Because these players, that are playing.
Wesley Wildmon I want to know who's selecting the players, what I'm getting at.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, they're playing for pro teams. I mean, these are pro athletes, playing for pro teams. but, you know, go ahead, Steve.
Study finds brain does not peak until somewhere between 55 and 60
Next story.
Steve Jordahl All right. When do you think you reach your peak as far as far as, performance of highest, levels of psychological functioning?
Wesley Wildmon 18, right? Gotta be.
Steve Jordahl Yeah. 18 year olds. We all know how.
Tim Wildmon You said psychological functioning. Not athletic.
Steve Jordahl No, not. Yeah, not physical prowess.
Tim Wildmon Okay, gotcha.
Steve Jordahl The way you react with the world, it's between 55 and 60 according to what they're finding. a, study published in the journal Intelligence finds that your brain does not peak until, somewhere between your sharpest, somewhere between 55 and 60 because of all the experience that you've collected.
Tim Wildmon That makes sense.
Steve Jordahl And you're able to apply to life.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And then you go downhill and then.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon So you gain all this knowledge, you peak and then you start trending downwards.
Steve Jordahl Human human achievement in domains such as career success tend to peak between 55 and 60 instead of like when you're
Tim Wildmon so psychologically 55 and between 55 and 60, you, you, you hit your peak. Well, that's.
Wesley Wildmon I would have thought it would have been closer to 40, on the, on the specifics of what they're trying to pull or examine. Obviously not physical. It's mental. So I would think closer to 40. I figured by 40 you could have got all you needed to know, from a wisdom and understanding how the world works standpoint. But 55 to 60, I guess that's peaking it though, right?
Steve Jordahl It's what the study found.
Tim Wildmon Fred's how do you.
Fred Jackson Fred, I do not accept this. I'm 70 plus.
Wesley Wildmon Wait, is that Fred walking out of the studio? That's Fred walking out.
Donald Trump Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Fred. Fred, in the rearview mirror for you is your peak.
Donald Trump Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay, you see the summit back there? you're.
Steve Jordahl You're.
Tim Wildmon You're trending down. Yeah, but. But so am I.
Steve Jordahl Me too.
Tim Wildmon You too? What are you. How old are you?
Steve Jordahl 66.
Wesley Wildmon Okay, so then another way of looking at this. I have a lot of excuses I can make until then, right?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. Between 55 and 60. So, I think your physical peak is.
Wesley Wildmon I think it's 20.
Tim Wildmon 25. 19.
Fred Jackson 19.
Speaker H Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I don't know. So thank you, Steve.
Steve Jordahl My pleasure.
Thank you, everybody, for joining us on the show today
Tim Wildmon Thank you, everybody, for joining us on the show today. Steve, Phone. Is like, Steve and Wesley and Fred and, Krish Woodward and Brent Creeley and Cole Greene, our, producer, and Jenna. our producers, Brent Creeley and Jen Ellis. Jenna joined us. so. And Ash.
Wesley Wildmon Asher. Asher, if you want to say it
Tim Wildmon in the Mississippi, Asher, the red hater. Asher, the redhead is doing some work for us here this morning. He's our. He's new on the staff. We'll see you tomorrow, everybody.
Fred Jackson: President Trump blasted NATO allies for not helping against Iran
Wesley Wildmon Today's Issues continues on AFR with your
Tim Wildmon host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association. Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues. That's the name of this here show on the American Family Radio Network. We do have podcasts available in case you miss our show. You can go to afr.net and download the podcast daily if you want to. A lot of people do that here at American Family Radio. Fred Jackson is with me. Wesley Wildmon's in studio. And now Steve Paisley Jordal joins us. Good morning, brother Steve.
Steve Jordahl Hey, everybody.
Tim Wildmon What do you got for us, Steve?
Steve Jordahl Well, I've been kind of watching what's been going on in, Turkey. President Trump is sitting down and he did a little, sit down press conference to took questions from the, press that was assembled there. And, he just laid into NATO allies for not coming alongside, him in or the US in its effort against Iran. Listen to cut 13.
Donald Trump We did something in Iran. We don't need anybody's help. I didn't even want their help. But before I asked, they said they wouldn't be there. And we've invested trillions of dollars in NATO. why? To protect European countries and others, Canada, etc. But to protect people, countries from generally speaking, it used to be the Soviet Union, now it's Russia. And I say that's fine. But you would think that they'd be very willing to do something to help us, and they really weren't. In the case of the United Kingdomnomics, the Prime minister, I guess he's no longer there. Maybe because of this. It was a very unpopular thing he did. He said, no, we'll help after the war is over. I said, I don't need that kind of help. We didn't need any help at all. And in a way, I was testing people, I was testing to see whether or not they'd be there because I've long said that we helped them, but I'm not sure that they'd be there for us. And Italy turned us down and Germany turned us down and France turned us down. And it's okay. But, you know, why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they're not there for us? We've always been there for them.
Tim Wildmon I'll tell you who was there for us.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Israel.
Steve Jordahl Yes.
Speaker E Huh?
Fred Jackson Huh?
Steve Jordahl Yes. Absolutely.
Tim Wildmon Just if you want us to, if Trump wants. Trump should have out there said, you know who was with us? Israel. That's who was with us.
Fred Jackson Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I don't know why he didn't give
Fred Jackson Them credit right there because Erdogan was, six feet away from him.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, what does that matter?
Fred Jackson Turkey does not like Israel and Erdogan does.
Tim Wildmon Trump was intimidated.
Fred Jackson Yeah, he wasn't going to say anything.
Tim Wildmon He was silent. He was silenced by silent.
Fred Jackson Silent about Israel.
Tim Wildmon Okay, so listen, I understand what President Trump is saying, and I think that's a sentiment of a lot of people in America as we talked last hour. So I understand the frustration. I, think the lines get a little blurry for me in all this because NATO, which that's what he's addressing, is designed to be an alliance to. To stop the Soviet Union or Russia, basically. That's basically why it's created from attacking NATO countries. NATO is made up of a lot of smaller countries. with the exception of Germany, France and Great Britain, it's basically a lot of countries that, ah, now Turkey's a large population, Italy large population, relatively speaking. But all those countries joined together post World War II. Correct me if I'm wrong on this history, Fred, to, to, know. Was it Post World War II? Yes, it was to basically say, we're going to all join together to protect the collective against the Soviet Union, which later broke down and became Russia. So I don't know if NATO was designed to support the United States and Israel going to war with Iran. So, I don't know. you see what I'm saying, right? I don't know that it's fair to say to Italy, who is probably elected on Italy, first to say for Trump to say to Italy, hey, you gotta be with us in our war against Iran or you're against us. Does that make sense?
Wesley Wildmon It does, but what about. I, think going to war with them. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but I think that the only time this has become a problem with NATO not helping is the straight Hormuz. And maybe y' all can add to that.
Donald Trump I just.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, no, I agree. If this were the British Channel, I, might could understand it better.
Wesley Wildmon I think he was. His position. They were saying, hey, listen, the strait affects everybody. It affects you, it affects us. Can you help us here?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, go ahead.
Fred Jackson It's also the fact that, the word was from the. I think both Israeli and American intelligence is that, Iran was at the point of having enough power to send a nuclear weapon into Europe.
Tim Wildmon Right.
Fred Jackson So I, think Trump was saying, hey, oil, yes, that's part of the equation. But also, Iran doesn't like you, Italy. Iran doesn't like you, Germany.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, but they have Threatened them.
Fred Jackson They hadn't. But the question was, why have you developed missiles now, intercontinental missiles, unless you plan to use them?
Trump went to NATO countries hoping to get three things
Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't know. As I say, it's kind of blurry, kind of complicated, in my opinion, knowing exactly where to draw the line. Go ahead, Steve.
Steve Jordahl Well, he went over there hoping to get three things. He wanted to get the NATO countries to, increase their defense spending. So the United States, they weren't so dependent on the United States. He wanted them to buy into the Iran conflict, which they're, not. And, According to Bob McGinnis, I got a story running today. The third goal that they had was to kind of put some sunlight between, Erdogan and Putin in Russia.
Tim Wildmon I don't understand that.
Steve Jordahl Russia and Turkey are aligned. Turkey was a Western ally, and it's kind of moving towards its Islamic, neighborhood neighbors. It's an Arab state, a Muslim country. And, it is aligning, itself, with Russia. And Trump wants to draw that, put, sunlight there. He wants to distance the relationship between, Russia and Turkey, thinking that it would be better if Turkey was more aligned with the US Than with Russia. That's just what, According, ah, to Bob McGinnis, that's one of the goals that they had.
Tim Wildmon I got you. Okay.
A Chinese pastor who had been jailed in China has been released
All right, next story.
Steve Jordahl I got more good news.
Tim Wildmon Give me some good news, Steve.
Steve Jordahl A Chinese pastor who had been jailed in China, a pastor of an underground church there, has been released. His name is Pastor Ezra Jin. And, he was arrested back in September. and when President. I know, I'm sorry. He's arrested in October. And when President Trump went to China in November, he brought up his name, specifically Pastor Jin's name, with, Xi, Chairman Xi. He wanted, to say that he wanted him released. And on the 4th of July, China released Pastor Ezra Jin and flew, him to the United States to be with his family, they say, as a token of Goodwill, on July 4th.
Tim Wildmon So good for China and good for President Trump in working that deal.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon you know, I don't know the circumstances, but, Wesley, you've traveled to China. supposedly they have freedom of religion, but only religion that's approved by the government. Controlled by the government.
Wesley Wildmon Right. That's a surprise. That's a great thing. But I am shocked that China agreed to do that.
Tim Wildmon So this was an underground church, which is illegal.
Steve Jordahl A large church. Yes.
Wesley Wildmon Which real quick, in the States would just be another church.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, underground church. That means it's hidden. They're trying to Hide from the government. So he was caught and imprisoned, is that right?
Steve Jordahl He was caught and they arrested about 30 of his church members. they've released, they still have about, I think 13. A number of, let me have that number here. A number of, the staff that are still in prison. They didn't let them all go.
Tim Wildmon what's his name again? And can we post that story on our Today's Issues Facebook page?
Steve Jordahl Pastor Ezra Jinn. And I believe it's at afn. You can go to afn, but we
Tim Wildmon can post our story at American Family News on our Today's Issues Facebook page. That way people can pray for this fellow.
Steve Jordahl If we've put it up yet. I'm not sure if it's posted yet.
Tim Wildmon and his church.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Those are brave people.
Wesley Wildmon Those are brave people.
Tim Wildmon And I wonder in China.
Wesley Wildmon Absolutely. I wonder who was the advisor or facilitator to, to encourage or to tell Trump that this would be a person that you would want to ask to be released. Because that is along. That's a, that would not have, most likely not have happened if the other administration was in charge. We could say this every day about a lot of things, but that's a big deal that a Christian was let free in China as a result of President Trump asking for him to be released.
Tim Wildmon Absolutely.
Steve Jordahl The president has a lot of spiritual, advisors. He's got a council of advisors, that meet with him regularly and among them I'm sure are advocates of freedom, religious freedom.
Tim Wildmon I tell you what, Steven Miller.
Wesley Wildmon Yep.
Tim Wildmon He, he's, he's one of big, he's one of President Trump's biggest assets in my opinion in terms of having his ear. So it wouldn't have been surprised to me if, if that's the person who said you need to bring this up with the President of China. But anyway, that's great news. Good news.
Wesley Wildmon Really, really good news.
Tim Wildmon Absolutely. And again, to make sure you appreciate our freedoms here. In the United States, the freedom of religion, because they don't have it in communist China.
Wesley Wildmon Could you imagine just for a minute that the church service you experienced this past Sunday was already turned in the week before and pre approved by the government.
Tim Wildmon That's what they have to do.
Wesley Wildmon That's it. Yep. That's their three self church. That's what they do. They submit it and they get back approval and you have to read it off.
Tim Wildmon That's what China calls freedom of religion.
Wesley Wildmon That's their church. And that the underground church all they're doing is expressing. Listen, we answer to a higher purpose. We answer to God above, not you. And therefore, we're going to take our chances of going underground so that we're free to worship in spirit and truth and not at the expense of what order you want to give us.
Tim Wildmon M. Next story. Steve.
United States lost last night to Belgium four to one in the World Cup
Steve Jordahl All right, the dream is over for American soccer fans. United States lost last night to Belgium four to one.
Tim Wildmon what happened?
Steve Jordahl Well, President Trump intervened and got, the suspended, ah, Florian, battle gun back in the game. And he played, but apparently it wasn't enough as Belgium, ah, scored, their four goals and, beat them to. So the U.S. did you watch this, Steve? I did not, but I heard about it. and, they had a, the fans are looking back fondly on this, though. Let's, listen to some of them. Cut eight.
Speaker G The U.S. what they showed, throughout the entire World Cup. It's been so fun to watch. I've been so united with people that I've never met before in the US
Speaker H for this World cup, we did, what we can. It was very good game, I can say, but sometimes it is what it is. It's just a bad day. We did very good until now.
Speaker E We're USA like, we. Ride or die, guys. Ride or die.
Wesley Wildmon We're coming back in four years.
Speaker E We're coming back in four years. We're coming back.
Steve Jordahl Yeah, I don't know whether they will or not. Hey, by the way, maybe the game isn't completely decided. I heard first of all that they still have, like, four weeks to count goals in Los Angeles.
Tim Wildmon I think they was in Seattle.
Wesley Wildmon Seattle, yeah.
Steve Jordahl and, President Trump may not be done intervening. someone snuck a microphone into the Oval Office and caught this conversation, between Trump and the, head of FIFA. He's got nine.
Speaker I I actually don't think that was a loss. Four goals. I didn't see four goals. It looked more like a tie to me. Gianni. Or maybe a win if we get rid of all these goals. Can you do something about these goals, Gianni? What if we invade Belgium? I mean, when you think about it, that would make us the winner. I don't even think they have an army, to be honest.
Wesley Wildmon That's funny.
Tim Wildmon Who is that?
Steve Jordahl That was. That's not an impression. That's just an AI version. Someone, asked AI to put a video together of that. And of course, the Johnny's talking about is Gianni Infantino, who is the, head of FIFA. He's the one that Trump Lobbied to get us striker back in the game last night.
Tim Wildmon What if we invade Belgium? Okay, I'm just gonna, express an opinion of basically, Well, it's an informed opinion. I'm not completely ignorant of this subject of soccer in America, but this is one of the. I'm about to rant go about a sport I know very little about. I mean, I do know what soccer is, and our football, as they call it in the rest of the world. But somebody tell me how we can continuously have millions of kids playing soccer. We see them every day in our parks all over America. We got 340 million people or whatever it is. I know not all of them play soccer, but let me tell you, millions of young people play soccer every day here in the United States of America. America, okay? It's America. And we should be, we should be number, one, okay? Or at least top five in the world. And soccer, if you base it on the number of kids that play soccer and come up in our system. And here we are every year going, well, we made it to the round of 16. Boy, we're getting somewhere. Maybe four years from now we'll make it to the round of eight. No, we just got beat by a country that's about 1 25th of our size. Belgium has 12 million people. Guess what? Florida has twice as many people as Belgium have, and they just kicked our rear ends. so, again, four to one we lost again. That is. I'm not saying our guys didn't try as hard as they could, didn't give great effort. I'm just going, how does a country that has so many soccer. Youth soccer players and that we've had. Soccer's been big youth for 30 years now at least. And you go, why don't we ever emerge as a, power in soccer?
Wesley Wildmon This is.
Tim Wildmon Steve has an answer.
Steve Jordahl No, go ahead, Fred.
Fred Jackson No, I think, soccer is big. You're right. I mean, I've been here.
Tim Wildmon Anywhere in our country, you see soccer fields, they're full of kids.
Fred Jackson But it doesn't have the priority of football in these other countries. soccer is it. I mean, it is the premier sport. It's probably the same reason as, to what you're talking about there. Why in the Boston Marathon, it's an Ethiopian that wins all the time. We've got plenty of runners in this country. It's just that certain countries focus on a given sport. And I think in most of the world, if I understand this correctly, soccer is just.
Tim Wildmon Oh, it is. Yeah. It Is. But still you would just think sheer numbers.
Steve Martin: How big a priority is soccer at the university level
We would be able to compete for a championship every time we take the field. Wesley, I don't have a good answer.
Wesley Wildmon I'm seeing it the same way you're seeing it. And you think they would be able to hand select, towards 10
Tim Wildmon players out of millions of kids playing soccer in America? m. Kids and young adults and you can't come up with a team that's top four.
Fred Jackson Let me ask you guys this question. Talking about priorities. How big a priority is soccer at the university level?
Tim Wildmon Well, it's, it's pretty big. It's very big.
Wesley Wildmon It's like similar to hockey and other sports that the more northern you go, yeah, the more the more they prioritize soccer. so.
Tim Wildmon But so every, every, every, almost every college in America has a male and a female socce. I mean it's big, it's big. so I would say I don't know how big it is. And obviously as a fan, as a spectator sport, it doesn't draw the kind of crowds that American football does, for example, but it's still pretty big. Go ahead.
Wesley Wildmon And one other question, I thought about is I wonder if any of our better players are playing for other countries.
Tim Wildmon Right. Well, that, that, that.
Wesley Wildmon We've seen that in the Olympics.
Tim Wildmon I would call that a trader.
Wesley Wildmon Well, yeah, well we've seen it in the Olympics. Yeah, there was, there's.
Tim Wildmon Anyway, go ahead, Steve.
Wesley Wildmon The female skier who skied for China, who's an American citizen, but her parents are from China, but she was born in America. Yeah, I just, I don't just know,
Steve Jordahl other countries and FIFA has programs for this develop players young and the United States does not. And this is a tweet, this is a post from a guy named Ankachu's, I don't know. I don't know who this, this, this is, this is a post from somebody. I don't, I can't vouch for their, their authority, but what they're saying makes sense here. He wrote, in Germany, a talented 14 year old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year to let him play and travel with the club. That single inversion explains why we will not is the most accurate line ever written about U.S. soccer. FIFA has built a global system. Training, compensation and payments sent out a cut of every pro back to the club that developed it for years. So if you are a local club and you develop somebody that gets to be a pro. Your club gets money back. And this is the way they develop their young players. Starting. They start tracking them around age 12. From age 12 onward, you develop, players and they find the good players and they place them with clubs and they start the payment system of,
Tim Wildmon Bud bore me. Okay.
Steve Jordahl That's why it's a farm system that FIFA has.
Tim Wildmon All right, next story. Thank you, Steve, for that in depth explanation.
Steve Jordahl You're welcome.
Tim Wildmon Why America can't rise to the top in soccer. But you tried your best.
Steve Jordahl I did.
Tim Wildmon And you did good there for about 90 seconds.
Wesley Wildmon But the.
Tim Wildmon Wesley can explain. Go ahead, Wesley.
Wesley Wildmon That's right. I understand that these players, they come together just for this month, they play with other club teams.
Tim Wildmon You tell me. Well, that's true all over the world, isn't it? you tell me. The American team.
Wesley Wildmon Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Wildmon Because these players, that are playing.
Wesley Wildmon I want to know who's selecting the players, what I'm getting at.
Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, they're playing for pro teams. I mean, these are pro athletes, playing for pro teams. but, you know, go ahead, Steve.
Study finds brain does not peak until somewhere between 55 and 60
Next story.
Steve Jordahl All right. When do you think you reach your peak as far as far as, performance of highest, levels of psychological functioning?
Wesley Wildmon 18, right? Gotta be.
Steve Jordahl Yeah. 18 year olds. We all know how.
Tim Wildmon You said psychological functioning. Not athletic.
Steve Jordahl No, not. Yeah, not physical prowess.
Tim Wildmon Okay, gotcha.
Steve Jordahl The way you react with the world, it's between 55 and 60 according to what they're finding. a, study published in the journal Intelligence finds that your brain does not peak until, somewhere between your sharpest, somewhere between 55 and 60 because of all the experience that you've collected.
Tim Wildmon That makes sense.
Steve Jordahl And you're able to apply to life.
Tim Wildmon Yeah. And then you go downhill and then.
Steve Jordahl Yeah.
Tim Wildmon So you gain all this knowledge, you peak and then you start trending downwards.
Steve Jordahl Human human achievement in domains such as career success tend to peak between 55 and 60 instead of like when you're
Tim Wildmon so psychologically 55 and between 55 and 60, you, you, you hit your peak. Well, that's.
Wesley Wildmon I would have thought it would have been closer to 40, on the, on the specifics of what they're trying to pull or examine. Obviously not physical. It's mental. So I would think closer to 40. I figured by 40 you could have got all you needed to know, from a wisdom and understanding how the world works standpoint. But 55 to 60, I guess that's peaking it though, right?
Steve Jordahl It's what the study found.
Tim Wildmon Fred's how do you.
Fred Jackson Fred, I do not accept this. I'm 70 plus.
Wesley Wildmon Wait, is that Fred walking out of the studio? That's Fred walking out.
Donald Trump Yeah.
Tim Wildmon Fred. Fred, in the rearview mirror for you is your peak.
Donald Trump Yes.
Tim Wildmon Okay, you see the summit back there? you're.
Steve Jordahl You're.
Tim Wildmon You're trending down. Yeah, but. But so am I.
Steve Jordahl Me too.
Tim Wildmon You too? What are you. How old are you?
Steve Jordahl 66.
Wesley Wildmon Okay, so then another way of looking at this. I have a lot of excuses I can make until then, right?
Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. Between 55 and 60. So, I think your physical peak is.
Wesley Wildmon I think it's 20.
Tim Wildmon 25. 19.
Fred Jackson 19.
Speaker H Yeah.
Tim Wildmon I don't know. So thank you, Steve.
Steve Jordahl My pleasure.
Thank you, everybody, for joining us on the show today
Tim Wildmon Thank you, everybody, for joining us on the show today. Steve, Phone. Is like, Steve and Wesley and Fred and, Krish Woodward and Brent Creeley and Cole Greene, our, producer, and Jenna. our producers, Brent Creeley and Jen Ellis. Jenna joined us. so. And Ash.
Wesley Wildmon Asher. Asher, if you want to say it
Tim Wildmon in the Mississippi, Asher, the red hater. Asher, the redhead is doing some work for us here this morning. He's our. He's new on the staff. We'll see you tomorrow, everybody.
Tim, Wesley and Fred talk with Steve on top news headlines of the day including President Trump at NATO.
Live
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