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welcome to today's Issues, offering a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Tim Wildmon M. President of the American Family Association.

Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Today's Issues here on the American Family Radio Network for this Monday, June 29, 2026. Joining me in studio this morning is Ed Battagliano. Good morning, Brother Ed.

Ed Vitagliano Good morning, Tim.

Tim Wildmon Krish Woodward. Good morning, Krish.

Chris Woodward Good morning.

Tim Wildmon And Fred Jackson, you may be wondering whatever happened to him.

Ed Vitagliano He is, at the International Space Station. We'd be preparing to file a report. Is he on how things are going up there?

Tim Wildmon I'm glad he's doing something productive.

Ed Vitagliano Yes. Bucket list. You know, he always wanted to do it.

Tim Wildmon all right, so Fred, Fred's. Fred's gonna be back tomorrow. That's the plan.

Ed Vitagliano He's been on a conference.

Chris Woodward Yes, he will be back in the building tomorrow, but I think he's scheduled on the show come Wednesday.

Tim Wildmon Wednesday. So he needs stuck with me, America. He needs to come back to re. Acclimate himself to the Today's Issues, studio. Is that right? Maybe.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon anyway, so we look forward to Fred being back, but if you wonder whatever happened to.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Tim Wildmon He's. He's gonna be back.

Ed Vitagliano And Dr. Ray Pritchard, he's in the middle of a move to Florida.

Tim Wildmon That's what he said.

Ed Vitagliano Well, I have no reason to.

Tim Wildmon No, I don't even. Just, you know, it's been a while. Yeah, I mean, how long can take for a man to move? Good night. Come on. no, he's. Ray will be back, what, a week or so? Couple weeks. Ray Pritchard.

Many people are falling away from Christianity, according to George Barna

So anyway, our other teammates here on the Today's Issues, hour and a half will be back, very soon.

Ed Vitagliano Dr. Alex McFarland will be joining us at the bottom of the hour.

Tim Wildmon What are we going to talk to him about?

Ed Vitagliano I forget.

Chris Woodward I have to tell you, Krish, that's why you're here.

Tim Wildmon Krish.

Chris Woodward So our, our brother in Christ, George Barna, has come out with some more research, that finds, many people are falling away from the faith. And I've got, bullet points that we can run past, Alex. I've also got some sound bites from Dr. George Barna, that we can play during this segment.

Ed Vitagliano He was interviewed by Walker Wildmon.

Chris Woodward Yes. yes, George, was on, at the The Core Friday, around 1:30 or so. I've actually, I can share that audio as well on our, Facebook page.

Tim Wildmon Does George Barner ever deliver any good news? That would be my question.

Chris Woodward oftentimes no, because he's just a pollster and they put the question out there. They ask people what they think. And unfortunately, in this day and age.

Tim Wildmon But if I'm a pollster, okay. And I want to keep people coming back to me for a news, I'm not gonna. I'm gonna come up with some good news somewhere along the way.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon You understand what I'm saying?

Ed Vitagliano I do. Yeah, I do.

Tim Wildmon And, and George probably does. He probably does.

Ed Vitagliano But a lot of his, polls, will. Will reveal trends that are happening in our country regarding the church and religion and Christianity. And you know, what Jesus said about, you know, broad is the way leading to destruction.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano Okay. That is most often what his polls reveal. That, it's. It's not an easy thing to, to be on that narrow road. Most people will drift towards, the way of, the world. The world. So I think the trends are now perhaps, Tim, you and I will live to see the day when America undergoes a great awakening.

Tim Wildmon Amen.

Ed Vitagliano And then those trends will be going in the opposite direction.

Tim Wildmon We're going to do our part. We are here at American Family Radio. Thanks for joining us again.

Chris: We get letters like this all the time from listeners

Hey, before we jump into the news of the day, and there's Aplenty. Yes, I said Aplenty news.

Ed Vitagliano Aplenty news.

Tim Wildmon Aplenty. I want to read this. speaking of positive.

Ed Vitagliano Yes, this is very encouraging.

Tim Wildmon Got this letter. We get letters like this, all the time. Similar letters anyway. But I always like the handwritten notes.

Ed Vitagliano Yes.

Tim Wildmon So this is a handwritten note, and it says, dear folks, I recently discovered AFR and I wish to help with a donation. At, 91 years old, I am practically homebound. Now, every night I can worship with your station, especially the old hymns I have loved since childhood. You really bring me so much joy. She says, I also have written many, songs and have a collection of musical instruments which I play with, not having formal musical training. Thank you so much for your station, American Family Radio. Evelyn. And Evelyn, she says, P.S. i am also a prayer warrior and will often pray for you in your M. Ministry. And, and she is from Lafayette, Louisiana.

Ed Vitagliano So you read that this morning to our, staff at Devotion.

Tim Wildmon It's encouraging.

Ed Vitagliano And it is encouraging. And it's encouraging to us to hear from people. I always say that during Sharathon, we hear the listener testimonies, but we get these letters and we get emails, all year round. And it just, folks, it just helps us.

Tim Wildmon Amen.

Ed Vitagliano Keep going and doing what God has called us to do. And, these kinds of things encourage us to remain faithful.

Tim Wildmon I just thought 91 years old and she, I guess, was just scanning the dial.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon So to speak. And found this American Family Radio.

Ed Vitagliano She's still got beautiful handwriting.

Tim Wildmon I know. Is that great? Yeah, yeah. My handwriting is not going to look like that. It doesn't even look like that today.

Ed Vitagliano No, that's right. You get 30 years or so to go before you get to her age.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, if I write one at 91, they're going to say, what is this chicken scratch? This man wrote us.

Chris Woodward We have it on the wall on display for, like, future visitors to see. And, you know, the tour guide, like, it's anyone's guess what Tim said here. Yes.

Tim Wildmon Anyway, thank you, Evelyn from, Lafayette, Louisiana. you know, there's three. There's, there's Lafayette, Louisiana.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon And there's Lafayette, Mississippi. Lafayette County, Mississippi, which is where Oxford and Ole Miss is. And then there's, in Indiana, there's also a.

Ed Vitagliano Is that Lafayette, too?

Tim Wildmon I think it is. I think it is.

Chris Woodward But I will say it's pronounced Versailles in Kentucky, even though the place in France might be. Yes. We have taken donations from, listeners and Versailles, that's how they pronounce it. Pronounce it Versailles. Just like we say Louisville in Mississippi. But somebody in Kentucky might say Louisville.

Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Well, two different towns. Right, Right. Two different spellings. I mean, well, the same spelling but different pronunciations. all right, all right, Krish, what's, what's, what's leading the news this morning?

Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail in absentee ballots

Chris Woodward All right, so the Supreme Court issued a couple of opinions this morning, and they presumably going to be issuing some more decisions tomorrow. So stick right here for continuing coverage of Supreme Court news. let's begin with this one. In a major 5 to 4 ruling today in a case called Watson v. Republican national committee, the U.S. supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that allows mail in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by election day, but arrive up to five business days later. The decision is viewed as a significant Defeat for the Republican National Committee, as well as the Trump administration, which had argued that federal law requires all ballots to be received by officials on election Day. That's one case there. Anything there before I mention the other one?

Tim Wildmon Go ahead, Ed.

Ed Vitagliano Well, I. This is. This is one that. I'm not sure what the right thing is. I tend to think that, that ballots that are counted after election day, that opens up a window. I'm not a conspiracy nut, but that opens up a window for people intent on cheating to say, well, how many do we need? Okay, here we have votes that have not been counted yet they came in. Now, if you can prove that they came in, they were postmarked before election day or even on election day, then I suppose I understand the, the process there. But I don't like, after Covid, the fact that we have so stretched the normal process. I had to vote absentee one time. this 20 years ago. I was going to be out of town on election day. I had to go down to the courthouse and. And explain my reason for not being a, you know, for getting an absentee ballot. And it seems like that kind of strictness has gone by the. Gone the, by the wayside. But I. I'm not. I don't know how to think about this. I think it does open up the door for cheating. But, I understand states wanting to take their time counting because they can't get it all done on, well, Election day.

Tim Wildmon you have to factor in here, the U.S. mail service or FedEx or UPS. I don't know how people want their absentee votes delivered. It says that it must be the Mississippi law, correct me if I'm wrong, says that, which is what was being challenged. Says that the, ballot must be postmarked by election day, Right?

Chris Woodward Correct.

Tim Wildmon Yes. And the Supreme Court, five to four, said, we're good with that.

Ed Vitagliano They can still be counted.

Tim Wildmon They can still be counted. So. But that brings into question a whole host of things like what if a state says, well, we're going to allow postmarked votes to be counted for a year? I mean, yeah, in California, what's so magical about five days?

Ed Vitagliano Right?

Tim Wildmon I. Okay. I believe that elections ought to be wrapped up completely the night of election day. That is the way we used to always do it. And if you don't do that and it's a close election, then you're right, Ed. People start saying, well, that this is,

Ed Vitagliano you know, okay, you get an absentee ballot dump. We all remember how that happened in Pennsylvania in 2020.

Tim Wildmon Well, they couldn't. What happened, what happened in 2020 in Pennsylvania? I think primarily the thing was they couldn't start counting.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. A lot of states do. Some states do that.

Tim Wildmon You can't start until Election Day.

Ed Vitagliano Absentee ballots until it's over. Yeah. Until Election Day.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. That's what happened in Pennsylvania. That's if you believe everything was on the up and up. You know, In Pennsylvania in 2020, they, Trump was way ahead. And then they started counting the absentee, ballots, which always in that state, I guess favorably favored the Democrats because

Ed Vitagliano they do more early voting.

Tim Wildmon Too lazy to get down and vote. so, they, they counted them and you know, they overcame the count, overcame Trump's, lead in Pennsylvania.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah, you went to bed with Trump ahead.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Ed Vitagliano Woke up and.

Tim Wildmon Right. But I just think, you know, that Florida is a model, that I look at because here we have a state of Florida is either the third or fourth largest state in the U.S. california is number one, Texas is number two. I want to say now Florida is the third most populous state and then NewSong York fourth. Check me on that and see if I'm correct. check with Mr. Google AI there.

Ed Vitagliano Ed, I'm doing it.

Tim Wildmon He's popping it up here.

Ed Vitagliano Okay. it goes California, obviously, 39 plus million. Texas at 30 to 32 million. Florida comes in third. So I was correct, 22.6.

Tim Wildmon Now, listen, I'm glad to be correct.

Ed Vitagliano Yes. I don't, it's better than being corrected.

Tim Wildmon I don't, I don't need any accolades for knowing that. And I'm not looking for any, you know, I'm just saying that my point is Florida is the third most populous state in America and they wrap up election results, on election day night.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon At like 10 or 11 o'. Clock. They know what happened.

They.

Tim Wildmon It's. So I just think now, I don't know what their laws are in regard to postmark ballots, but I don't.

Ed Vitagliano They, I think they start counting them as they come in, which is.

Tim Wildmon Why doesn't everybody do that?

Ed Vitagliano I don't, I don't know.

Tim Wildmon Count them as you go.

Supreme Court rules that postmarked ballots can be counted on election day

That way you don't pile them up on election night. So anyway, the bottom line here, the U.S. supreme Court has said that, that five to four, so a close decision, that as long as ballots are postmarked by election day, they can be counted, at least in this decision, which was the state law of our state here, five days after the, after the election. I've never heard of that. Impacting an election.

Ed Vitagliano Probably not in Mississippi, because it's a red state, but, still in battleground states, I think that's where people get nervous.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, that's true.

Ed Vitagliano Because like Pennsylvania. Like Pennsylvania, by the way, the court split, as Tim said, was five to four. Krish made us. Might have said that, too. justice, Amy Coney Barrett wrote the majority opinion, joined by Chief Justice Jon Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Katanji Brown. I don't know what a woman is. Jackson.

Chris Woodward Never heard of her.

Supreme Court rules presidents cannot fire Federal Reserve Board members

Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. Tim, Ed and Krish. Krish. What? You got any more Supreme Court stuff?

Chris Woodward I do, and this one is confusing.

Tim Wildmon Okay, well, that's why Ed and I are here.

Chris Woodward Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's confusing in general. I mean, Fox, Fox, cnn, Mississippi, now, they all have people on debating what exactly the Supreme Court is saying here in this particular case.

Tim Wildmon What, what. What case is that?

Chris Woodward In terms of, like, presidential power, specifically, who can a president fire? the Supreme Court ruled today that a president can fire heads of independent federal agencies, but presidents cannot fire members of the Federal Reserve. And I say it this way, because President Trump wanted to fire two individuals, the head of the Federal Trade Commission and somebody that works for the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve lady has challenged this firing, saying, I can't be fired by the president. The court agreed. Presidents can't fire members of the Federal Reserve. But in that same situation, in that same decision, justices determine that presidents can fire heads of independent federal agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission. If you're confused by that, so am I.

Tim Wildmon So let me ask you a question which you may not know the answer to because you're confused. and that is, if a president cannot fire a Federal Reserve Board member, who can or can they not be fired? Maybe here on this panel know the answer to that.

Chris Woodward Yeah, I don't know. It could be. Congress does have some sort of say because there is, writing that went into the creation and determining the powers, how the Fed operates.

Tim Wildmon But the Supreme Court, The Supreme Court ruling was that he cannot fire Federal Reserve members.

Chris Woodward Is that true? That is correct. I took it. I mean, I took a picture of the. The caption, the graphic that they had on television.

Ed Vitagliano Well, the, The Board of Governors, of which Lisa Cook is one of the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve, is. These are appointed by the President, but confirmed by the Senate. So that may have something to do. I've. This. This is the first I'm hearing of the Decision. I will pour over the ruling. We get off this show and get down to the minutiae. Yeah, yeah.

Tim Wildmon Just throw the whopper in.

Dr. Alex McFarland Yep.

Ed Vitagliano So. So, So I don't know if that's going to enter into it, that since these, governors are confirmed by the Senate, maybe there's some other mechanism by which you can remove someone. Maybe you might have to impeach them. I don't know.

Chris Woodward Good luck with that.

Tim Wildmon You know, you got to ask. But. But they ruled he could fire heads

Chris Woodward of independent federal agencies. And that's the weird thing about it, because the Fed is essentially an independent body.

Tim Wildmon What is an independent. Give me an example of that. besides the Federal Reserve, what's an independent federal agency? I don't see how that's even possible.

Chris Woodward Well, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I know when that was created under the Dodd Frank Act.

Tim Wildmon do you want a little history on that one?

Chris Woodward On the cfpb?

Tim Wildmon Yeah, this. Look at you.

Chris Woodward I'm familiar with that organization. I covered that in its infancy.

Tim Wildmon I could go into the long history of that because I wrote a term paper back a few years ago, but it would bore people to tears. it's interesting to me.

Chris Woodward The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or cfpb.

Dr. Alex McFarland Ed.

Ah.

Tim Wildmon Do you remember us talking about this the other day?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. over an all beef hot dog. That was.

Tim Wildmon Well, you got. We exhausted hockey.

Ed Vitagliano We did.

Supreme Court ruled that president couldn't fire Federal Reserve President

Tim Wildmon And we brought up the, cfpb.

Ah.

Tim Wildmon So anyway, that's an example of an independent agency.

Chris Woodward It is. Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Well, it's not it. But anyway, I don't know how that works, obviously, because if you. Every federal agency has to have a boss somewhere, you know, somebody has to be able to hire and fire. Right. So, but anyway, the Supreme Court ruled that he couldn't fire Federal Reserve President. Couldn't. the Federal Reserve Board. That's. Remember, he wanted to fire Chairman Powell.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Tim Wildmon Trump did, but he never did.

Chris Woodward And there were, There were stories and speculations and people talking about it on television as to whether or not a president could fire a Fed chair.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Chris Woodward So it falls into that category.

Two cases before the Supreme Court on birthright citizenship and sports segregation

Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issues. So there's a couple of big decisions that the Supreme Court will announce either probably tomorrow or sometime this week.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Tim Wildmon Keep in mind, folks, I do know this much. These, court cases, which are big, the Supreme Court wouldn't take them in the first place because the Supreme Court only takes like 2% of cases that, are appeal to them. But they, you know, in this Situation, these. These cases would have been heard back in the winter, like January, February. But they don't release their decisions, until the summer now because their term is over. Right. That's why we're getting, the release of cerebral. Each day, some of them get more attention than others, like the election. But what's another couple we're waiting on?

Chris Woodward There's two more that we're really watching for birthright citizenship, as well as the issue of males and female sports.

Tim Wildmon They're going to rule in favor of, that being, allowed. I miss my prediction. They're going to rule in favor of, being able to m. states being able to segregate males and females in athletics. I think they're going to leave it

Ed Vitagliano up to states to do that.

Tim Wildmon Yes, I think so. I think so. Now, the second one was. What was the second one?

Chris Woodward Birthright citizenship.

Tim Wildmon What is that, Ed?

Ed Vitagliano Well, that is, when you have the, qu. It is the question arising from the situation where you have parents who arrive in this country, or a parent, the parents arriving in this country illegally. The, the mom, the woman is pregnant, which is the only one of the pair that can be. That's our story, and we are sticking with that no matter what the Supreme Court might rule. and then they have the baby here in the United States. And, according to. I think it may be the 14th amendment, but the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments of the Constitution were centered along the issues related to the end of slavery. And it states that a child born in the United States is a citizen. And so how this is then used by people here illegally is. Our child was born in the United States, is a citizen. And you can't deport us because we, You can't deport the child because you can't just deport an American citizen. And you can't deport us because you would deprive the child of his or her parents. That becomes what they call an anchor baby. Okay. And so this court case is before the Supreme Court to, I guess, decide whether the Constitution, through the Amendment, applied only to the issue of slavery, or does it apply to people who are here either illegally or who are visiting? If you have people who are visiting and they have a baby, that is that baby an American citizen, and parents have some kind of claim.

Tim Wildmon What do you think, by the way? What's the history of this? That involves slavery?

Ed Vitagliano Yes. I'd have to look up. I think it may be the 14th amendment. And there is language in there which talks about the rights. Because after the Civil War with Reconstruction in full swing, there were efforts to completely disenfranchise, former slaves in the 13th, 14th, 15th amendments were meant to preserve the rights of people who were slaves and thus had no constitutional rights. They had to be granted constitutional rights. And are they citizens? So, so I'd have to look up the exact wording. but I, my personal opinion is I think the Supreme Court should rule that that amendment applied to the issue of slavery. And therefore if you want to expand that right to include the situation involving children born to illegal parents, you have to amend the Constitution. That's what I think they should do. I, I am not confident they'll do that. I think they may very well say that a baby born in the United States is automatically a citizen.

Tim Wildmon And you know what? I remember, I remember, I remember this topic in, you know, I don't know, sixth, seventh, eighth grade, this coming up, as it relates to the Constitution. And I always understood it to mean that if a child is born in the United States or one of its territories, that it is automatically granted citizenship just by virtue of being on American soil. But that's what I always understood it to mean. But I guess that's what they're deciding.

Ed Vitagliano It is the 14th amendment.

Tim Wildmon Okay, but, but, but, but to say that, someone comes here, either a mother or a, or either a couple, and has a baby and they're here illegally and therefore the baby is, they are allowed to stay in the US Thus the anchor baby term, that's exploiting the that's a loophole. The system. Yeah, that's that's beating the system. I don't think that should be allowed. we'll be back momentarily. Stay with us.

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

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

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

Tim Wildmon: We are going to Italy in March of 2027

Tim Wildmon Tim Wildmon M President of American Family association and American Family Radio. We are going to Italy in March of 2027. We're also going to Greece in March of 2027. And we're doing those tours back to back. If you want to do both of them in Italy, we'll be going to Venice by the gondola and see all the sights there. And we'll go to Pisa and walk on the Leaning tower of if you fall off, we're not responsible. Also, we're going to Rome and see the Sistine Chapel and the Coliseum and all the catacombs. We'll see all the sites of Rome and then Greece. It's the Footsteps of Paul trip. So the places where Paul went in the Bible mentioned in Greece. If you want information on any of these tours, go to tours.afa.net tours.afa.net tours.aca.net you, Lord, are my lamp. The Lord turns my darkness into light. Psalm, 1828.

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

Tim Ferriss made fun of a Southern accent in a meeting this morning

Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to afr. Tim, Ed and Krish here. So we're having a meeting. You were in a meeting with me this morning with several other people.

Ed Vitagliano Correctamundo.

Tim Wildmon I feel bad about something I did, at the meeting.

Ed Vitagliano Okay. you sure this is the. Probably not for you to confess this or.

Tim Wildmon Well, I don't know. We'll see after the fact. Okay, so, we had one of our team members. There's about 12 of us around the table, and he was talking, about a subject, and he began to speak and then, I, shouldn't have done this. I made fun of his Southern accent.

Ed Vitagliano Yes, I do.

Tim Wildmon You were there for that, weren't you?

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon And I did this in front of everybody. That's what I'm feeling bad about for a, little bit. So I'm asking you. So I was mocking his. He said, you're. He realized what I was doing. He was from Arkansas.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon You know.

Ed Vitagliano Right.

Tim Wildmon So, I mean, that's. Isn't that understandable that a man from Arkansas would have a thick Southern accent

Ed Vitagliano and that A man from Mississippi would make fun of it.

Tim Wildmon Is that the irony?

Ed Vitagliano I don't know if it's irony. It may just be plain old nerve.

Tim Wildmon I went up to him afterwards and apologized.

Ed Vitagliano Did you?

Tim Wildmon Yeah, I did put my hand on his shoulder.

Ed Vitagliano Because it's a very rare, Tim, to, mock anyone, frankly.

Tim Wildmon I told him, I said, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Ed Vitagliano I'm sorry.

Tim Wildmon Anyway, he was okay.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon I mean, there was a couple tears in his eyes, because

Ed Vitagliano it was hard.

Tim Wildmon I'd done that in front of everybody. But yeah. To be a man from Mississippi.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. Making fun of, Making fun of a

Tim Wildmon Southern accent from Arkansas. From Arkansas was really, that's quite the picture right there.

Ed Vitagliano Yes, it is.

Chris Woodward For a moment there, I thought you were talking about me until you said he was from Arkansas. Because I was trying to think like, did I? Like we had a meeting this morning

Ed Vitagliano as well, so we, don't make fun of.

Chris Woodward I was going to tell you I was not offended by whatever you were.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Ed Vitagliano We don't make fun of you to your face.

Tim Wildmon Right.

Chris Woodward I knew it. This is why I go to HR

Tim Wildmon every day after this show and complain

Chris Woodward and I have a state. You know, I've got HR on retainer.

Ed Vitagliano And clearly Krish is off his medication again because he's just going to Monday and he's going through the roof.

Tim Wildmon He's been waiting three days to, to deliver the news. All right, so, it is funny.

Chris Woodward You really.

Ed Vitagliano That really was, that did happen this morning.

Tim Wildmon Just like that.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah. I immediately had regrets and it was over the word. you know, we were talking about the reconciliation bill.

Tim Wildmon We were.

Ed Vitagliano And this, this person, he drew it out. He said reconciliation.

Tim Wildmon That's what got me, that's what I thought deserved a little commentary

Ed Vitagliano at their reconcil. Reconciliation.

Tim Wildmon Well, he turned what, what is normally probably a four syllable word into an eight syllable word. That's what I noticed. And so hopefully that'll help him down life's highway. You think?

Ed Vitagliano I, I, I'm sure he'll be thinking long and hard on the lessons that he learned.

Tim Wildmon He brought the Arkansas accent to the

Ed Vitagliano four to the table.

Alex McFarland says frequently people comment that he has a Southern accent

Tim Wildmon All right, we have a guest with us. Do we have anything to mention before we get to our guest here? Okay. our guest is our good friend and colleague, Dr. Alex McFarland, from Exploring the Word each afternoon here on American Family Radio, Monday through Friday, 3 to 4 o' clock Central time. And, Alex, Alex joins us. Good morning, Alex.

Dr. Alex McFarland Good morning, everybody.

Tim Wildmon How you Doing, my friend, I am blessed.

Dr. Alex McFarland You know, I have to tell you, I was listening to the conversation. And whenever I travel the country and do some interviews, you know, frequently they will comment that I have a Southern accent. And I say, well, I'm from the South. What can I say? You know, city. I'm serious. This is about 15 years ago. The first time I got to go to the Fox News building, and I was up there with Todd Storns and Lauren Greene and the makeup lady. She said, whoa, you have a Southern accent. guilty. And, I said, now, don't be cracking on Southerners. She said, I have a joke about Southerners. And I said, well, now I'm from the South. Before you make fun of Southerners. She said, don't worry, I'll tell it real, real slow. And I said, well, I'm not going to hold it against you all that the rest of y' all can't talk.

Tim Wildmon Like, you know, what's, what's interesting is, I, I've been around so many people from around the country, for so long and talked to so many people and done tours with people from around the U.S. i could. You could take their name and their town with their town and state off of their. Of their, you know, their name tag, and I could do pretty good with guessing numbers.

Ed Vitagliano Good at that.

Tim Wildmon Now, I could guess almost

Tim Wildmon where you

Tim Wildmon are from, even within, let's say, the South. Because people in North Carolina speak a little different than people in Texas. You know what I'm saying? Native Texas. But they still have what you'd call quota Southern accent.

Ed Vitagliano Yeah.

Tim Wildmon And I can sort of. They from. I can pick regional.

Ed Vitagliano You can get the regional.

Tim Wildmon Regional, yeah, yeah. people in East Tennessee have a real distinct, accent. They may not realize it, but it's a Southern accent. But it's really distinct. People in Lower Alabama, people in, the Mississippi Delta, for example. I can sort of pick those out. But anyway, that's not why we're here.

No.

Tim Wildmon we can do that later. But, it is interesting. I can also pick out Midwestern. I just said, let's stop this. And I kept going, didn't I? I kept going. I guess you do that when you're the host, right? So I can pick Northern Illinois, usually, and Southern, Wisconsin. They have their own Rockford area.

Ed Vitagliano We really are going to keep going.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, I need to stop, because people don't care about this.

Chris: Southern women speak in a very beautiful cadence. The most beautiful phrasing

Dr. Alex McFarland All right, I got to say this, like, down in Georgia and maybe, like Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Dr. Alex McFarland Some of the older ladies.

Tim Wildmon The low country.

Dr. Alex McFarland It is the m. Low country. The most beautiful phrasing, especially the way like, old, older Southern women talk. It really is a very beautiful, cadence.

Tim Wildmon Yes.

Ed Vitagliano Their voice very much, the same for those of us from the Boston area. A lot of people around the country think beautiful language. They think it's just beautiful the way we, you know, Paknika.

Dr. Alex McFarland Yeah.

Ed Vitagliano They just say, there's just something so beautiful about hearing somebody from Boston.

Dr. Alex McFarland Listen to this. Yesterday I was driving. We're in eastern North Carolina at a camp. And I was driving, near Greenville, North Carolina. And I, I think it was 91.7, but I heard AFR. And I'm driving in a rental car and a commercial came on with Edagliano. And you did a thing about park the car in the yard by Harvard.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, yeah. We were advertising the Boston trip.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Ed Vitagliano And it was Tim's idea. He said, throw some Boston in there. And I said, I'll do it.

Dr. Alex McFarland Literally. I ran onto the shoulder of the road. I was laughing so hard. That commercial is awesome.

Tim Wildmon Well, the Boston trip, by the way, Ed's gonna travel with Walker and Wesley and the gang up there for that historical, trip that's coming up in September, right?

Ed Vitagliano Yes.

Tim Wildmon It's almost full. It's almost full. So people, people want information on that. The Boston, the Greater Boston Area Historical Tour coming up in September, which Ed's going on, but going back to his old stomping ground there. You can go to tours.afa.net and you can read about it, but it is about full tours, uh.aca.net so get on it.

Ed Vitagliano Get on it, folks. You want to go?

Dr. Alex McFarland The commercial is priceless.

Tim Wildmon Yes. All right. Krish, we have a topic, we wanted to bring up no better person than Alex to delve into church and ah, state of the Christian faith, here in the U.S. go ahead.

New research finds most adults beliefs about humanity stray from biblical teaching

What are we talking about here?

Chris Woodward OK, so, there is some new research that finds most adults beliefs about humanity and the supernatural stray from biblical teaching. The research comes from Dr. George Barna and the Cultural Research center at Arizona Christian University. Only 57% of adults now believe humans are God's creation.

Tim Wildmon These are Americans. Mm. Okay. Yeah, I'm writing this down. Go ahead. What's the main bullet points?

Chris Woodward I've got three.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Chris Woodward Only 57% of adults believe humans are God's creation, made in his image, fallen and in need of redemption. That's despite 70% of them identifying as Christian. just 30% of adults hold the biblical view that people are born into sin and can only be saved by Jesus Christ.

Tim Wildmon Is this a survey of the general public? M. Okay, so I'm surprised. 30%. That's pretty high. So 30% would believe what now?

Chris Woodward They hold the biblical view that people are born into sin and can only be saved by Jesus.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Chris Woodward Meanwhile, one in four adults strongly agree that Jesus sinned while on earth. Now, somebody that was on AFR to talk about this was none other than Dr. George Barna himself.

Tim Wildmon None other than.

Chris Woodward None other than. Yeah, he was on AFA or AFRs at the core program Friday afternoon. And I can play this sound bite and then we can get Alex's thoughts on it.

Tim Wildmon This is on Walker's show. He scooped us.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Chris Woodward so here is George Barna explaining why polls are showing. What polls are showing here. Clip 9.

Tim Wildmon We're essentially narcissistic in our culture, so everything revolves around us. And one of the implications of that is if and when somebody actually opens up the Bible and begins to read it, they read it through their lens. They interpret it through the way that they view the world. That's why worldview is so critical.

Chris Woodward So that's George explaining again why so many people are seemingly falling away from the faith or holding views people wouldn't have held decades ago.

Tim Wildmon Okay, give the percentage bullet points again, then Alex can comment.

Chris Woodward Okay. Only 57% of adults believe humans are God's creation, made in his image, fallen and in need of redemption. Just.

Tim Wildmon Hey, let's stop right there. Let's talk about that right there. So, Alex, 57, this is George Barna's research. And this is of the American general public. Right? Not just of the church.

Chris Woodward Correct.

Tim Wildmon And he found that 57% believe what?

Chris Woodward that humans are God's creation, made in his image, fallen and in need of redemption.

Tim Wildmon Okay, Alex.

Dr. Alex McFarland Well, George Barna is fantastic. And I would encourage all people to, avail yourself to his great research. He, he really, he's a devout Christian, a, meticulous scholar. And so whenever George Barna, ah, puts out research, I really try to take note of it. basically he's saying that, you know, only about one out of seven adults that profess to be Christian really have a Christian worldview. And in this study he says that, Americans have this, I'm reading, on page 11, quote, a broad assortment of vague religious beliefs and religious behaviors. and the dominant WorldView, he says nine out of 10 adults is syncretism, not biblical Christianity. And that's why you've got like in one of the charts it shows, now get this, people are born into sin, can only be saved from the consequences of sin by Jesus. only 60% of those who identify as a born again Christian say that. I mean, so only 6 out of 10 professed Christians really say, okay, people are sinners who need to be saved by Jesus. He has another term called notional Christians. Sometimes this term is used interchangeably with nominal Christians. Those that would profess Christianity, say they're a Christian, but not necessarily have a born again relationship. Only about 20% believe that salvation is only through Jesus. And we could go on, but guys, here is what is imperative, urgent, critical, top drawer, need to get back to what the Bible says. And that's what my, message last night to the youth at this camp were doing this week. and this will define everything not only about an individual on a personal level, but really the future of the church in our nation is the word of God, the authority that it needs to be in our life. And when we deviate from what scripture says, very quickly, we're on sinking sand.

Only 60% of those who claim to be born again are going to church

Ed Vitagliano And so Alex, let me ask you this now. There have been some trends over the last five years, maybe a little longer, about people, identifying as nuns. N O N E S. Okay, so some of this result that we're talking about from George Barna's research, may be the result of people not going to church. Okay, but then you just read about only 60% of those who claim to be born again believe the truth about us being, you know, created in the image of God, so on and so forth. So if those people are, who claim to be born again are going to church, and that's a big if, then what is being taught in church? How could people who claim to be born again and are going to church, how can they be so far afield of what the Bible actually teaches? They're obviously going to church and hearing someone preach about something. So what's being preached and taught if not these basic doctrines of the scripture?

Dr. Alex McFarland Well, you know, praise God there, there are, pastors and churches that are valiantly holding forth the word of life. And thank God for, you know, all day long on afr, you can hear people like Jeff Schrieve or David, Jeremiah, people like that. And so, you know, I don't want to be overly critical, but, but I want to be clear. And guys, I'm on the road like 50 weekends a year and a lot of churches where I'll Go to speak and I'll slip in and listen to Sunday school because I want to go to Sunday school too. And not all, but many of Sunday school is, you know, 45 minutes of kind of socializing and then, well, it's so late, we can't do much now. Let's head on to the sanctuary. And then, you know, I think many, many a pastor probably has an exegetical tiger inside of them and they want to get out and preach, but they give a B grade motivational speech because they're afraid of who they might offend. And look, I love the church, and I love this nation, but it would solve a thousand ills if we would get back to proclaiming and living the word of God. And I just want to challenge my pastor friends out there. The fear of man brings a snare. And let's preach the Bible that guys. I think that's why Exploring the Word is so popular.

Ed Vitagliano Amen.

Dr. Alex McFarland And Bert Harper and I, I mean it's the simple, most basic show you've ever seen. And yet Bert and I, we get so much correspondence from people who say that they've learned a lot and exploring the Word has helped them get into the Bible. But the nuns you mentioned, people are like quote unquote spiritual, but they just don't know the Bible. And it's imperative. Barna's stats are I think, very revealing, but we got to get back to this thing called discipleship.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, absolutely. And I think too that if you. I don't have the numbers in front of me here, but that churches that are hold to the, that the Bible is inerrant and is the holy word of God given to man. And they preach that and they teach that those churches are growing again. I don't have the stats in front of me here, but whether they are denominational churches or in a lot of cases independent churches that, but churches that start waning on the authority of the Bible that is God's breath and given to us by the Lord God himself for instruction on theology, those churches are going to die out. Now many of those churches have historical roots in inauthentic, biblical, What would you call it? Orthodox Christianity? I'm just going to call some names here. The Presbyterian Church USA denomination, the United Methodist Church denomination, the Episcopal Church. there are others, Alex, maybe you can think of them that have a long history of being true to the word of God. And then in the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years, they started Abandoning that. And now they're almost gone.

Ed Vitagliano Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, that was another one.

Tim Wildmon So all those denominations started. Listen, the United Methodists had the circuit riders. Now, they weren't called United Methodist Church at that time. They were just called the Methodist Church because, not to bore people with too much history here, but the, Methodist Church merged with the United Brethren church in the 60s, I think it was, to form what became the United Methodist Church. But, today. And I was just thinking about, you know, I was saved. I, gave my life to the Lord at methodist camp in 1976. I mean, so, I mean, a lot of people listening to me right now either grew up in the Presbyterian Church or the Methodist Church or the Episcopalian Church or whatever, and they came to know Christ through that. but now it's insidious the way that, well, if you believe what Jesus said, the devil has infiltrated, seminaries and universities and other training grounds for pastors, podcasts. And it's led to a complete watering down the gospel message that conforms to. With, the general, populace believing, you know, the idea of, what do you call it, where people don't want to judge somebody, right? So you don't want to judge anything. You know, they don't judge anything. So you don't want to say, well, my way is correct. then somebody will say, well, really, why do you think everybody's correct and everybody else is wrong? So, that's a case where you need to be prepared to defend your faith, as Alex does, training these young people around America how to answer the critics and the skeptics and to be engaged in apologetics, Christian apologetics and things like that. But I'm just saying that, I think this is a scriptural truism. If you teach the word of God and as inerrant and the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will see growth and maturity. If you don't, if you start watering that down and you start saying all roads lead to God, Sort of the Oprah Winfrey view of religion. Listen, people aren't going to go to hear that. Why do you want to go to a church and put money in the offering plate and volunteer for things? If there's not a if, what you are supporting is no different than Hinduism, right? Or, atheism or anything like that. There's no passion to that. You see what I'm saying? Does that make sense?

Ed Vitagliano Sure.

Tim Wildmon Okay. Anyway, you want to comment on anything else I missed there?

Ed Vitagliano No, I thought that was fine. Alex, you Got any? We'll let you have the last word.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, last word.

12 of 42 state Baptist conventions have sold their headquarters within the last decade

Dr. Alex McFarland The Southern Baptist have sold. All right. 12 of the 42 state Baptist conventions have sold their headquarters within the last decade. The Episcopal Church is selling its building in NewSong York.

Tim Wildmon The Southern Baptists. I thought the Southern Baptists were holding true.

Dr. Alex McFarland Well, they are now. There is an element of wokeness in some Southern Baptist circles, and I would say certainly in some of their colleges. Now, the Southern Baptist, by and large, and I am one, I, mean, they are by and large, pretty true blue to the book, but they are not growing like they were.

Tim Wildmon Okay?

Dr. Alex McFarland And I realized at the recent convention there were many clarion voices about how we've got to get to the Bible and evangelism. Praise God. Southern Baptists are trying to sell their headquarters in Nashville that they've had for decades.

Tim Wildmon You mean because of, the decline in giving?

Dr. Alex McFarland Yes, decline in giving. And, here's my point, what you're saying. Almost go. Woke. Go broke.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Dr. Alex McFarland Really? The churches that are growing are the churches that are giving out the meat of the word. And about the Barna study. Look, the purpose of life is to become righteous in Christ. and Barna said that, you know, for many that he surveyed, many of whom professed to be Christians, they were like, well, the purpose of life is to be fulfilled or be happy. But Second Corinthians 5, 21, says, Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us. Now listen to this. That we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. And the purpose of life, there is happiness, there is joy, there is fulfillment, of course. But really, the purpose of a human being is to know Christ and to become righteous and to be his ambassadors in this world. That's our purpose, and that's worth dying for.

Ed Vitagliano Hey, I just looked it up. the Southern Baptist Convention has experienced a significant and continuous decline in membership for 19 consecutive years. as of 2025, membership flow fell to approximately 12 million, the lowest since 4 million. drop of nearly 4 million members. and that's 1973, and that's the

Tim Wildmon largest, Protestant denomination, denomination in America experiencing a decline.

Ed Vitagliano Its peak in 2006 was 16 million.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, Alex, thanks so much, my friend. Appreciate you being on with us. Take care.

Dr. Alex McFarland God bless you.

Tim Wildmon That's, Alex Mc Farland joining us from North Carolina, where they speak Southern. We'll be back momentarily. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.