The American Family Association offers a Christian response to the issues of the day

Abraham Hamilton III The American Family Association's mission is to inform, equip, and activate individuals to strengthen the moral foundations of our culture. Our goal is to be a leading organization in biblical worldview training for cultural transformation. We stand on the biblical truth that all human beings, including the unborn, are created in the image of God and are endowed by him with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

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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, president of the American Family Association.

Tim Wildmon Hey, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Today is Thursday, May 21st, 2026, and in studio with me, I have three wise men.

Tim Wildmon Well.

Wesley Wildmon Well, we're not close to Christmas, but it sounded.

Tim Wildmon It sounded right.

Tim Wildmon M. Three wise men or three blind mice?

Tim Wildmon there's all kind of threes out

Tim Wildmon there that we could use to describe

Tim Wildmon three men in this room, but I won't. That would be, That would be inappropriate.

Wesley Wildmon That's right. And you don't have any more you would like to know, although I have

Tim Wildmon heard you call umpires blind mice.

Wesley Wildmon Yeah, I've done that before. Only, a handful of times, right?

Tim Wildmon Only handful of times. That's right. All right. I'm Tim with Wesley Wildmon.

Tim Wildmon You just heard Wesley.

Tim Wildmon Fred Jackson. Good morning, brother Fred.

Fred Jackson Good morning.

Tim Wildmon And Krish Woodward.

Chris Woodward Speaking of blind mice, there is a video, that appears on Facebook and other social media platforms from time to time where at some minor league baseball game, the organ player played three blind mice, after a questionable call, and the, turns around and throws the organ player at the game.

Tim Wildmon You serious?

Chris Woodward Yes.

Wesley Wildmon Is it. Wait, wait, is this, like a travel ball thing?

Tim Wildmon I'm not minor league baseball.

Chris Woodward It's a minor league game. Yeah. I'm gonna look it up and post it.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Tim Wildmon Because it,

Tim Wildmon So they don't fire through the organ player.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon We're playing three blind Mice.

Chris Woodward Yeah. There's probably an SEC fan out there, that would agree with, umps being, blind.

Wesley Wildmon But have you guys challenged those calls now?

Tim Wildmon M. yeah. I want to ask you guys, we got a lot of stuff to talk about here, but I want to bring up some very, very important. And that is umpiring in baseball and which is important to the future of our country, I think.

Wesley Wildmon Fred.

Tim Wildmon Ah, I know Wesley knows about this. Krish probably does.

Tim Wildmon But I'll ask you, since you're more of a hockey. You keep up with hockey more than you do baseball. Do you know, there's a move in amateur baseball, not professional baseball yet to m. Have a computer generated strike zone. Let me rephrase that. It's a strike zone that is accurate that they use for behind, you know, for the batter, which takes out the human element of the umpire really. So that's being tested.

Tim Wildmon Are you aware of this?

Fred Jackson No, I wasn't. I think it's fascinating though.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't know how I feel

Tim Wildmon about it because you like the

Tim Wildmon human element of the, of you know, of an umpire but on the other side you want an accurate call.

Wesley Wildmon That's why I think the hybrid approach right now has been something I can get behind which is you get, you got the umpire, he makes the call and you get three challenges per game and you use them wisely.

Tim Wildmon They're doing this in the SEC baseball tournament.

Wesley Wildmon That's right.

Tim Wildmon Talking about.

Wesley Wildmon And they also do it in minor league.

Tim Wildmon Currently minor league baseball.

Wesley Wildmon Yeah, that's when they, that's where they started it. So they get three challenges and the only, only three players can challenge it. the catcher, the batter or the pitcher. There's only three that can challenge it. And you have to challenge it within two seconds. You have two seconds to make it

Tim Wildmon slow down the game.

Wesley Wildmon That slow the game.

Fred Jackson So something similar is happening in hockey now too. They brought in if a coach of a team is challenging whether a goal was valid.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson because a goal can be made invalid if there was an offside or what the goalie was being interfered with. so here's how it works in hockey. If the coach challenges a goal by the other side, if his challenge is proven to be accurate, then the goal isn't allowed. But if the challenge is proven to be false, that team gets a penalty.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. Yeah.

Fred Jackson But also in hockey, what they've done too is it's almost like government. They have a committee. If there's a questionable call by the referee, there is a committee in Toronto that does the replays from every different angle, the cameras and that sort of thing. And that committee. So the game has stopped. The committee in Toronto looks at all

Tim Wildmon the replays wherever the game is being played.

Fred Jackson They go to this committee in Toronto and the group of officials look at it. They make the final choice, not the referee on the ice.

Tim Wildmon Right. Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon So I think as long as you're. There's a balance approach to it. What we all don't want and what I, what most people don't want and for sure What I don't want is to look up and you have robots

Chris Woodward playing this for probably going to happen.

Chris: I don't think you could replace umpires calling balls and strikes

Wesley Wildmon Or you miss out on the interactions with the officials or the umpires or the referees. The, the interaction they have, the human element is what you said. And one thing that's hard, one thing on that issue, it's hard to articulate exactly. Some people do, some people can do it, but it's hard to articulate what you would be losing until after you've lost it. Talking about the human side of.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, I don't think you could replace

Tim Wildmon umpires calling, safer out at home. Maybe you could, but I'm talking

Tim Wildmon about just calling balls and strikes. It's pretty easy. You would, quite frankly, you don't

Tim Wildmon even need an umpire. You could just do it. I'm talking about behind the plate. Because with this system they have now, it's either a ball or a strike and it'll show you on there and they can do it instantaneously. Go ahead.

Wesley Wildmon Two last things on this one they have already, the reason you say, well, how come they're not already doing this officially? That's because it has been proven to be unsuccessful in many cases that the strike zone had got it wrong with when they first introduced it because they were, they were measuring the strike in the middle of the plate and not at the front of the plate. There were some. My point is they've still got a long ways to go to make this.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Wesley Wildmon Ah, yep. That's one thing. And then the other thing too is that you got to avoid like you said, not slowing down the game.

Tim Wildmon But I also think for the average

Tim Wildmon fan we like to see an occasional shouting match between a umpire and a coach. You know, just more entertaining.

Wesley Wildmon That's right.

Chris Woodward Brian Polk had so many strong relationships with SEC umpires when Ron was the, the coach of Mississippi State baseball. Ron Polk got to know a lot of them, very well face to face over the course of his career based on personal conversations.

Tim Wildmon All right, you're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio.

Tim Wildmon We will revisit, baseball officiating at a later time.

Chris Woodward We're going to bring back the meantime. We have Sports Machine.

Tim Wildmon A few more serious issues to cover

Tim Wildmon here on today's issues and Dr.

Tim Wildmon Alex McFarland will join us at the

Tim Wildmon bottom of the hour. We look forward to visiting with with Alex. This is Memorial Day weekend. Coming up, on tomorrow we'll have Trivia Friday.

Tim Wildmon So we'll be here for that.

Tim Wildmon But then Monday our offices will be closed. What are we doing, Brent, for the show on Monday? Since, since our, we're going to

Jeff Chamblee be out, we're airing the first hour. We are, we are airing the Cultural Institute. George Washington man of Providence. That's for the first hour.

Tim Wildmon The George Washington man of Providence special.

Tim Wildmon That's fascinating. People are gonna love that.

Wesley Wildmon Yes, sir.

Jeff Chamblee And then hour to the 11 to 11:30 central slot, we're gonna have Dr. Ray Pritchard memorial Day Special.

Tim Wildmon Okay, wonderful. So we got some good stuff for you on Monday, despite the fact that we will not be live on the air. All right, what's your first story, Krish?

Minnesota nonprofit leader convicted in 250 million dollar fraud case; sentencing expected today

Chris Woodward Alright. Expect to hear a lot about a lady named Amy Bach in the news today. Amy Bach is the former leader of a Minnesota nonprofit that was convicted back in 2020, 23, for her role at the center of a staggering 250 million dollar fraud case.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Chris Woodward she was convicted and sentencing looks like she's gonna spend the next 50 years in prison. she's going to be formally sentenced today in Minneapolis. I think proceedings are actually already underway. Authorities say that she ran an organization called Feeding Our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the COVID 19 pandemic. And it turns out kids were not being fed.

Tim Wildmon so she just ripped off the taxpayer pretty much.

Chris Woodward Which is one of many examples.

Tim Wildmon She was convicted of this.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Tim Wildmon Where was she?

Chris Woodward Minneapolis.

Tim Wildmon This is not in the water up there in Minnesota.

Tim Wildmon Good night. Every day you turn around, there's massive fraud being covered.

Chris Woodward There sure is.

Fred Jackson Yeah, that's for sure. The story that we have on AFN net right now also mentions that there were a number of Somalis have part of this web of deception. so yeah, they were taking money from taxpayers, you and me, and for kids that didn't exist.

Wesley Wildmon All right, yeah, go ahead.

Fred Jackson This is mind blowing what we're finding out about the level of fraud, not only this program, fraud in Medicare, fraud in Medicaid, fraud in hospice. that's a big California story. how easy apparently it has been for years for someone to sign up and say, I'm going to start a nonprofit that's going to do this for thousands of people. And they just give names. They gave names to the federal government. Phony names, phony names, stolen Social Security numbers, you name it. And people made millions of dollars.

Wesley Wildmon You put yourself in the mind of a criminal trying to take money from the government. 100, 200, maybe 1,000, $2,500. You go. You could probably get away with that. You could find a way. $250 million.

Tim Wildmon That this woman was responsible for stealing.

Chris Woodward Yes.

Tim Wildmon And she was convicted. I just want to make sure this isn't alleged.

Chris Woodward Correct.

Tim Wildmon She's been sentenced to prison.

Tim Wildmon What was her name? And again, real quickly, what was her. What was her. guys.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon What was she doing this. What was her,

Tim Wildmon What would you call it?

Tim Wildmon Okay, charade.

Chris Woodward Yeah. Amy Bach is her name. And she ran an organization called Feeding Our Future, which claimed it helped provide millions of meals to children in need during the COVID pandemic. This is a Minnesota nonprofit or what?

Tim Wildmon You don't think you're going to get called doing that?

Fred Jackson Well, I think what happened, this happened during the COVID pandemic. And the federal government was just signing checks left and right. They weren't checking anything.

Tim Wildmon Handing out money all over the place. Yeah.

Fred Jackson Just throwing that money out there.

Tim Wildmon A lot of people have been now,

Tim Wildmon subnet, there's probably a lot more fraud that was yet to be uncovered or will never be uncovered.

Tim Wildmon But, we've seen these stories in

Tim Wildmon the last year or two how people have been busted for the COVID 19, they applied for money from the federal government. As you're right, Frederick, we all remember, the federal government was handing out a lot of money. And, so a lot of people applied under phony pretenses, as this woman did in, in Minnesota.

Tim Wildmon And about every few days, you'll see somebody, they got a number for you in the news.

Wesley Wildmon 65 out of the 79 that were indicted have been found guilty. Yeah, 65 in Minnesota or just in Minnesota alone.

Tim Wildmon Minnesota. Yeah.

Wesley Wildmon So before we get to the point where we go, okay, I'm glad they got caught. Let's just stay here for a minute. They still were able that easily to steal that amount of money with very

Tim Wildmon little oversight, I guess.

Fred Jackson well, thank God for that young man.

Wesley Wildmon That's right.

Fred Jackson What's his name?

Chris Woodward Nick Shirley.

Fred Jackson Nick Shirley. I mean, my story, I've mentioned it before. this is one of the most amazing ones. people in Minneapolis applying for daycare subsidies from the federal government. In one case, you had a Somali woman who set up a daycare to take care of her friend's three kids. And her friend set up a separate daycare to take care of her other friends. Three kids.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Fred Jackson And they were subsidized thousands of dollars every month. So it was two moms, Somali moms, taking care of each other's kids. And they were paid thousands of dollars.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson Every month.

Tim Wildmon Well, there are some kids that you're

Tim Wildmon gonna have to pay me thousands. Watch. I mean, I don't, you know, I

Tim Wildmon don't, I don't think that's wrong.

Chris Woodward I think everybody has that kid in their family.

There's a lot of fraud out there that is never caught

Tim Wildmon Being fair, that's all that is. Right.

Chris Woodward Tell you, mama.

Wesley Wildmon Well, again, glad on one hand you're glad they're being caught and there's consequences for the action, so that's good. But you. But, but the irony that all this is taking place in these deep blue states.

Tim Wildmon Yeah, well, I will say this too. And there's, you know, this is one of the things you say, and there's not a lot you can do about it except just be frustrated and hope people get caught when they steal money from the government. But there's so much fraud and because

Tim Wildmon the, federal government is such a

Tim Wildmon behemoth and there's so many millions and billions and trillions of dollars just flowing left and right, there's a lot of fraud out there that is never caught. you know, and so,

Tim Wildmon anyway, moving on to the next story.

Federal prosecutors say Raul Castro called for downing of civilian planes

Chris Woodward All right, well, this was, I mean, the lead story yesterday from 2:00 clock onward. really, noon onward. the U.S. came out in a surprise to many Americans, I think, announcing that the US Government is formally indicting former Cuban president Raul Castro for murder. federal government prosecutors yesterday announced, that former Cuban president Raul Castro, called for the 1996 downing of civilian planes operated by Miami based exiles.

Tim Wildmon Is that a baseball team?

Chris Woodward No, that's the Marlins.

Tim Wildmon The Miami exiles. Okay, hold on.

Chris Woodward Just people that fled Cuba to live

Tim Wildmon in my m. Lot of people don't

Tim Wildmon know the history of Cuba, especially guys, in Krish, you and Wesley's generation. But that Cuba, of course, 90 miles south of Miami, as was a. Is a communist country, really no threat to the US and hasn't been since. For a long, long time. But, yeah, it's hard to think of the communist country just 90 miles from our shores. But, this Castro is a name everybody's familiar with.

Chris Woodward The brother of Fidel.

Tim Wildmon Fidel Castro ruled with an iron fist over the country of Cuba for a long time. Well, when he died, his brother took over and his brother now is 94.

Tim Wildmon But his brother is accused of, You mean shooting down us I mean aircraft that had people trying to flee his country on or how does that.

Chris Woodward Well, people that had fled, the country. Yeah, he called for the, the. He called for basically the murder of

Fred Jackson civilians what was happening was there was a civilian group that was flying from the United States to Cuba to, to get people, to bring them to freedom.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Fred Jackson And we're talking, you know, the planes we're talking about, the US Planes we're talking about were like Cessnas and they.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Fred Jackson And they pick these people up, private planes. Yes. And when, in this particular case, when they got over international waters, Cuba sent up fighter jets and shot these planes out of the air.

Tim Wildmon Okay, Route that, the, that's what, that's

Fred Jackson what he's, that's what, what he's being charged with.

Tim Wildmon Charged with. Guy's 94 years old.

Chris Woodward Right.

Tim Wildmon So what are you gonna, are you gonna go over there and extradite him like they did, Maduro?

Fred Jackson That was kind of discounted yesterday because of his age. but I'll tell you what, I watched the live news conference yesterday with the, acting Attorney General, Blanche down in Miami. There were Cubans there who were crying.

Fred Jackson They said, we have been waiting, we've been waiting for 60 years for some degree of justice here.

Tim Wildmon Okay, I got you.

Fred Jackson You know, Cuba, it's an absolute, it's an incredible country. I had the opportunity to go there a few years ago with Trans World Radio. we traveled the whole distance of that island. It's absolutely beautiful. The potential there is incredible mountains and I tell you, beaches. It's absolutely gorgeous.

Tim Wildmon It could be a tourist haven.

Fred Jackson Oh, it could be, no question. But it's also an example, and I wish some of our left wing socialist kids that are being indoctrinated in this country could be taken down there because it is third world, the economy, people as poor as dirt.

Fred Jackson You know, these socialist communists that took over. And here's the thing with communism, the only people who do well with that are the leaders. Everybody else is subjected, but they promote

Tim Wildmon communism in the name of, economic fairness for everybody and. Yeah, and helping the poor. Yeah, but actually it causes more poverty.

Fred Jackson Absolutely.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Tim Wildmon So did you see it? Do they have a lot of 1950s cars?

Fred Jackson Oh, that's the first thing. We landed in Havana.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson And the first thing you see is the old Chevy's, you know, late 50s, early 60s, vintage Chevys with diesel engines.

Tim Wildmon Because, because it was after that that we stopped trading, with them.

Tim Wildmon Right. So they started, they, they no longer got, get new US Cars.

Fred Jackson Yeah, well, what happened was the engines go right. And they're getting diesel engines from Russia.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Fred Jackson And so they're sticking diesel engines in the Chevy Bel Air. And it's horrible. They stink to high heavies.

Fred Day: President Trump has spoken out on Cuba several times

Tim Wildmon All right, next story.

Chris Woodward Well, let's play some audio here from President Trump on Cuba. many people have been wondering whether or not we're going to get involved. Are we going to take it over, are we going to help them, go back to being, an actual democracy here, that kind of thing. And President Trump has from time to time answered questions on what he sees, for the future of Cuba. Here's the latest example of President, Trump on Cuba.

Jeff Chamblee Clip 4 what's coming next for Cuba?

Donald Trump Well, we're going to see it's a failing nation. You see that it's falling apart. We're there to help the families, the people. And again, a lot of those people are related to me in the sense that I have had such a great relationship with Cuban Americans on a humanitarian basis. We're there to help.

Chris Woodward Marco Rubio also has been, giving out messages to the Cuban people, trying to encourage.

Tim Wildmon He's of Cuban descent.

Chris Woodward He sure is.

Tim Wildmon so I think Marco Rubio's parents are his.

Tim Wildmon Both of his parents, fled Cuba. I don't know how they got here.

Tim Wildmon Am I right about that? It was at his grandparents.

Chris Woodward Well, both of his parents are Cuban. I'll double check that for you while you share this.

Tim Wildmon His parents or his grandparents escaped and

Tim Wildmon you know, a lot of people escaped on rafts.

Fred Jackson Yes.

Tim Wildmon And they went out in the shark infested waters of the Gulf of, Is it America or Mexico? I don't know.

Fred Jackson Gulf of America.

Tim Wildmon That might not even be the Gulf of America.

Tim Wildmon That may be the strait.

Tim Wildmon Anyway, it's the water. But they went out in the water between.

Tim Wildmon It's Caribbean.

Tim Wildmon The water between Cuba, it's 90 miles. And they went out on built floats and rafts. A lot of people over the decades have tried to escape. That's how bad they wanted to get

Tim Wildmon to the U.S. and escape the communism and the brutality of it and the poverty of it. They wanted to come to the US and then the history there in South Florida of Cuban Americans, those who escaped, and then the life they built for themselves when they had an opportunity is just amazing. they've got their restaurants and businesses and they're thriving, under a free enterprise system in the U.S. go ahead, Fred.

Fred Jackson Yeah, no, you know, and that's why this news conference yesterday had, I think there was a couple of hundred there Cubans. Southern Florida has a huge Cuban population, Miami area.

Tim Wildmon And they're very conservative too.

Fred Jackson Very conservative. Mostly Roman Catholic, very Very strict Roman Catholic. And. And they are, they have been, as I said they were yesterday, they were saying they've been waiting years for this, success of Democrat and Republican presidents have done nothing. And finally, President Trump deserves credit for trying to do something about this.

Tim Wildmon You mean to liberate?

Fred Jackson To liberate. I think there is. There are talks going on in the background. Marco Rubio. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is holding talks with people that he believes can help bring about regime change there.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Tim Wildmon You just wonder when, Castro dies.

Tim Wildmon Not Fidel. He's already dead. His brother. What's his dad?

Tim Wildmon Raul.

Chris Woodward Raul. That's the one.

Tim Wildmon 94 years old.

Tim Wildmon You just wonder when he dies if that will be the opportunity for Cuba to completely change over.

Chris Woodward Right. The current leader is named Miguel Diaz Canal. he's the current leader of Cuba,

Tim Wildmon but he's much middle name Root.

Chris Woodward What's that?

Wesley Wildmon Root Canal.

Chris Woodward Yeah. Yeah, he's the current leader. He's very Castro like. by the way, I did look it up. The timeline is under dispute, but Marco Rubio's parents are the ones that came to the U.S. i say it's in.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Chris Woodward Because the Florida Democratic Party and CBS perhaps, in an effort to side with the Democratic Party, they say that, his parents might have actually come here a couple of years before the Castros took over. But either way, they did come here for a better life.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. All right.

Tim Wildmon You are listening to today's issues on

Tim Wildmon the American Family Radio Network.

Tim Wildmon Tim, Wesley, Fred and Krish, we're going to take a short time out right here, and when we return, Dr. Alex

Tim Wildmon McFarland is going to be joining us.

Tim Wildmon You know, this is Memorial Day weekend,

Tim Wildmon and I just wanted to talk some about the history of sacrifice that made America what it became. so many families down through our history, particularly in the military, have,

Tim Wildmon well,

Tim Wildmon given their lives to defend our country and our way of life and our freedom and give us, give people an opportunity to live in the greatest country in the world. And, so freedom's not free, as they say.

Tim Wildmon We'll be talking more about that with

Tim Wildmon Dr. Alex McFarlane coming up.

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Two tours planned in 2027 that you might be interested in

Tim Wildmon Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, Wesley, Fred, Krish, hey, real quickly, we have got two tours planned in

Tim Wildmon 2027 that, you might be interested in. one of them in there, and the tours are back to back, and they're in March. One of them is the Footsteps of Paul trip, which Wesley and Walker Wildmon are going to lead. And they, they follow the. They just did your first one in March, right? That's right. It's in Greece.

Wesley Wildmon That's right.

Tim Wildmon And so, that you're going to do another one because that one was

Tim Wildmon very popular with folks.

Wesley Wildmon Yep.

Tim Wildmon That's coming up March of 2027. Give me a couple highlights of places

Tim Wildmon you'll visit on the Footsteps of Paul trip.

Wesley Wildmon Yes. Do you remember before I do that, I do want to mention the, the irony here. I didn't know we were gonna, you were gonna mention that. And I just got a text right before you walked in from a supporter that was with us in Greece.

Tim Wildmon Oh, really?

Wesley Wildmon Yeah. And they said, good, morning, Wesley. Praying that all goes well. praying m that all's going well since we got back home from Greece and I'm looking forward to going to Italy with y' all next year. Now, he said a couple other kind words, but so we've already got several people coming up and that just got that text as we walked in from a listener. but as far as the highlights from,

Tim Wildmon give us a couple things that

Tim Wildmon you'll be seeing on the Footsteps of Paul Tor to Greece that you and

Wesley Wildmon Walker are leading anything and more. And I'll give exact names in a minute. But if you, if you were to go read Acts chapter 15 through 18, everything in there, we go see, plus more and some of the. Some of those names would be. We go to Lydia's Baptistry. We spend an entire day in Philippi. We go see, like in Philippians,

Tim Wildmon the book of Philippians.

Wesley Wildmon That's right, yep. Philippians, Thessalonica. We go to Corinth. We go to Athens.

Tim Wildmon Wow.

Wesley Wildmon We go to, Mount Olympus. We go to St. Paul's bema. We go to the burials. The. Not the burial, sorry. We go to the, site, where Paul was imprisoned.

Tim Wildmon Mars Hill.

Wesley Wildmon We, go to Mars Hill. We go to. We go to the Olympic. We pass by the Olympic stadium that they built for the Olympics.

Tim Wildmon You can run in there if you want. You can if you want to do

Tim Wildmon a little marathon group.

Wesley Wildmon Nobody's there, though. It's an empty stadium.

Tim Wildmon But anyway, it's. Yeah, it's a fascinating trip.

Tim Wildmon And, that's. That's called the Footsteps of Paul tour. In March of 2027 now,

Tim Wildmon your mom

Tim Wildmon and I are going to lead a tour of Italy. And so, we're going to do. And that's also in March, and it's back to back with the Greece trip, the Footsteps of Paul trip. So that's going to be in March as well. So that there are some people who want to do both. They want to go in the Footsteps of Paul Greece tour and then come with us on the Italy tour. So we've arranged for a flight. It's, a. Probably an hour. I don't know how long that would be.

Tim Wildmon Hour and a half, maybe something like that.

Tim Wildmon From Athens to Venice. Because we're starting our Italy tour in Venice. And so we're going to go to Venice, Florence, we'll see David, the Michelangelo sculpture, the world famous, among other things there in Florence. and then we're going to go to Pisa. What's famous there, Fred?

Fred Jackson Leaning tower.

Tim Wildmon Got a leaning tower. They never intended it to be leaning

Tim Wildmon when they built it, but they.

Tim Wildmon What they did was create a tourist

Tim Wildmon destination that would last for centuries by making a big mistake architecturally.

Tim Wildmon See how that works out, what happens when you.

Chris Woodward When you go to the wrong engineering school.

Tim Wildmon So they.

Tim Wildmon So we're going to Pisa and then we're going to, Rome, the, as they call it, the Eternal City. All going to the catacombs where the Christians were imprisoned. and we're going to see Sistine Chapel, Coliseum, Treby Fountain. Just so much to see just in Rome alone. So anyway, if those, either one

Tim Wildmon of those tours, the Greece of the

Tim Wildmon Italy tour interest you or you want to go on one of Them. The, website is

Tim Wildmon tours.afa.net that's right.

Tim Wildmon So tours.afa.net tours.afa.net I posted this for

Chris Woodward you on the Facebook.

Tim Wildmon Okay, great.

Tim Wildmon So we also link to it on our Today's issue.

Chris Woodward You can pay me slices of lasagna.

Wesley Wildmon That's it. Lasagna.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. We are calling the Italy tour Make

Tim Wildmon Lasagna Great Again Tour. And, we're looking forward to that. So we're definitely going to eat some.

Tim Wildmon Some real Italian food.

Tim Wildmon Make it proud.

Fred Jackson Yeah.

Good spaghetti with good meat sauce is good, too

Tim Wildmon Ed Vitagliano there. That's where his fam.

Tim Wildmon Actually, Ed's mom was Greek.

Tim Wildmon M. And his dad was Italian.

Fred Jackson Yep.

Tim Wildmon So they, he's got the best

Tim Wildmon of both food worlds right there.

Tim Wildmon He can eat a gyro for.

Tim Wildmon For lunch and have lasagna for dinner.

Fred Jackson Uh-huh.

Tim Wildmon Doesn't get any better than that on Earth. I'm telling you right there.

Chris Woodward I'm eating spaghetti today.

Tim Wildmon Leftover spaghetti.

Tim Wildmon Good spaghetti with good meat sauce is good, too. I know that sometimes you get

Tim Wildmon asked for spaghetti and they say, do you want meat sauce? Or, what's the red stuff they put on?

Wesley Wildmon Marinara.

Tim Wildmon Marinara. And I. I'm just offended. I just tell the people, how do you want. You know, how do you want spaghetti and not want meat sauce?

Wesley Wildmon Right.

Tim Wildmon Or let me. Some people want meatballs, but just to put marinara. That's only half of what you need. That's right.

Wesley Wildmon On real spaghetti, which is why it's not real spaghetti, but go ahead.

Tim Wildmon That's right.

Tim Wildmon No, that's. That's a good point. So I just wanted to point that out.

Tim Wildmon you're listening to Today's issues on AFR again, that website, for more information on the 2027 tours.

Tim Wildmon And they do cost money and they ain't cheap.

Wesley Wildmon Neither is gas.

Tim Wildmon So I'll, just warn you there. I just warn you there, if you want sticker shock, you're going to go

Tim Wildmon there and you're going to go, good night. some people are going to say, the other people know, hey, things are going up and the cost of travel is going up.

Tim Wildmon But as they say, you only live once. And if you got a bucket list and you got the money to go, I would go see the world.

Tim Wildmon Some of the world, anyway, because there's a lot of fascinating things to, experience. And our tours are, best. We stress Christian heritage and Christian history, although we do see some. A lot of things that are just cultural.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon The Leon Tower of Pisa has very little spiritual significance. But it's fun to go to, right?

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon And let's be honest, food is spiritual for a lot of people.

Chris Woodward Amen.

Tim Wildmon It's a spiritual experience.

Chris Woodward So say it louder for the Baptist.

Tim Wildmon All right. I don't know we're gonna have casseroles over there like you Baptist people do,

Tim Wildmon but we'll have something similar that's a

Chris Woodward Baptist baby's first solid food is a casserole.

Tim Wildmon Casserole.

Tim Wildmon Some kind of casserole.

Alex MacFarlane hosts American Family Radio Bible study each afternoon

All right, tours afa.net joining us now is our good friend Dr. Alex MacFarlane, co host of Exploring the

Tim Wildmon Word each afternoon here on American Family radio from 3 o' clock to 4 o' clock Central Time when he and brother Bert Harper dive into the Holy Bible and they, they explain it, to you. For those who looking for a live on air Bible study, Exploring the Word is excellent. Good, morning to you, Alex.

Alex McFarland Good morning everybody.

Tim Wildmon You've been to, have you been to Greece or Italy before?

Alex McFarland No. And I really want to go because I want to go to Mars Hill.

Tim Wildmon But, why do you want to

Tim Wildmon go to Mars Hill?

Alex McFarland Well, in Acts 17, the apostle Paul went up there and he did some apologetics based evangelism, didn't he?

Wesley Wildmon He did. And we got to go, we got to go there. I remember that.

Tim Wildmon That's on the Acropolis, right?

Wesley Wildmon That's right there. That Morris Hill is right below it, about 100 yards. You can see it from the top. and, and at night it's even more. We, we, we went to see it at night and in daylight. So during our free time to see

Tim Wildmon it from your hotel or.

Wesley Wildmon Good.

Tim Wildmon It's beautiful. The Acropolis. The Parthenon is built on top of the Acropolis. Acropolis is the, is the quote mountain or the hills, right?

Wesley Wildmon Yep.

Tim Wildmon And then Mars Hill is a part of that. I got you. I have been there. Do remember that.

Wesley Wildmon Like I said, Acts chapter 15 through 18 weeks. Yep. And we do it that, we do it in pretty much that order.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. So Corinthians, Thessalonians, Thessalonians, Philippi, Philip, Philippians, Athens.

Fred: Memorial Day kicks off summer for a lot of people

Tim Wildmon All right. so Alex, wanted to talk

Tim Wildmon to you for just a minute. I know you're a student of history too, in American history. we will be celebrating in our country Memorial Day on Monday. And for a lot of people, they won't even think about what they're, what the nature, of the holiday is about. But you know, it just kicks off summer for a lot of people and barbecue and swimming pools and beach time and vacations and schools out and all that. And that's all wonderful. It's part of Americana. But the main reason we have Monday as a federal holiday is because we want to remember. And, Fred, I'm sure you guys have something similar like that in Canada.

Wesley Wildmon Right.

Fred Jackson Last Monday, Monday of this week.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Fred Jackson Victoria Day.

Tim Wildmon Victoria Day. But it's the same idea, honoring those who've fallen, in service of the homeland.

Fred Jackson Yeah. Actually, in Canada, it's done. Remembrance Day, November 11th.

Tim Wildmon Okay, that's all right.

In our history, 647,000 service members have died for freedom

Tim Wildmon So what do you want to say,

Tim Wildmon Alex, about Memorial Day?

Alex McFarland Oh, wow. Well, for one thing, Tim, I want to commend you for bringing this up. This is most appropriate. And, y' all know I love America. I'm very patriotic. And Memorial Day, I just want to challenge everybody to, reflect and think and. And pray for the people that have given their lives to bequeath us freedom. the Memorial Day has been going on, I think, since about 1868. But, Tim, I read that in. In our history, from, you know, the revolutionary period up through the present day, 647,000 service members have. Have died, in combat and some in non combat.

Tim Wildmon But does that include the Civil War or not?

Alex McFarland I believe it's every war and conflict since the American Revolution.

Tim Wildmon Okay.

Alex McFarland I mean, 647,000 people that have given their lives for freedom for the United States of America.

Tim Wildmon Well, 404. Excuse me for interrupting you, but 400,000

Tim Wildmon is the World War II alone.

Alex McFarland Yeah.

Tim Wildmon You know.

Alex McFarland Oh, it's just unbelievable. And, you know, I got to say this. A, few years ago, I got to preach in Hawaii. And while we were there, Angie and I, of course, went to see Pearl Harbor. And, that's very solemn, but we went to the National Memorial, the Cemetery of the Pacific. And, many listeners probably have been there. And, I was walking along, you know, looking at all the hundreds and hundreds of graves of servicemen and women. And then there's this monument, and it says, in memory of those known only to God. And, you know, there have been many people that died, and if you've ever gone to, you know, Arlington Cemetery, that's very, you know, meaningful. But then there are those that have died in, you know, battles, and God knows their names. But we really need to be grateful because what we have in America, and of course this year is our nation's 250th birthday since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Honestly, what we have, the freedom, the stability relative, although, certainly in recent Decades, different philosophies have jeopardize that stability. But we are so blessed. And, with great blessing comes great responsibility. And so this Memorial Day, let's pray and thank God and then ask, lord, what can I do for God and country?

Tim Wildmon Absolutely. And we need to remind our children

Tim Wildmon and our grandchildren sometime this weekend. Monday, would be the day why we have the holiday, you know, because they need to understand the sacrifices that were made for our freedom, our liberty and our way of life.

Wesley Wildmon And if you're a youth pastor or a coach or a history teacher, now's a good time for you to mention that as well.

Tim Wildmon Absolutely. Any influence you have. Because we need to, you know, the further you get away from history, the less people think about it. I mean, it's just the way we are as human beings. And I will say this. I was talking to my uncle the other day. He's 78, soon to be 79. And he, he was sharing a story that I didn't know about, about his, uncle. And his uncle was in World War II. And a lot of our listeners have. They're old enough to have their. Remember their parents or their parents. Parents going through World War II.

Tim Wildmon And he was saying that he was 18 years old, his uncle, when he was shipped over to Europe, the European theater. And he served about two months and then he was blown up. And, it's buried over there. Buried over there in Europe. Because, we've all seen the movies about. Well, when you see that opening, opening scene from Saving Private Rhyen.

Alex McFarland Yeah.

Tim Wildmon I don't know if you've ever seen it. You'll never forget it. That's probably as close to reality.

Chris Woodward Yeah.

Tim Wildmon As you can get.

Chris Woodward And I've been to Normandy too, let me tell you.

Tim Wildmon Oh, you have been.

Chris Woodward When you're standing at that cemetery and you're seeing all those white crosses.

Tim Wildmon Yeah. most of them are Americans.

Chris Woodward Yes. I mean, that's American soil, where the cemetery is. If that doesn't bring you to tears, I don't know what will.

Tim Wildmon I'm just, I stress, stress that because,

Tim Wildmon here was a young man just starting his life, just graduated from high school. Boom.

Alex McFarland Yeah.

Tim Wildmon Dead, you know, and, and he did it in service of our country. And so you look at, that's why war is such a serious thing. Extremely serious thing. because. And serving in the military, because you could be called on to give your life. Now, you don't sign up and say, hey, I want to die. But, but I'm telling that people are in you Go into the military and you're going to serve your country, Fred. You're going to be put in harm's way sometimes. Look at that. Look at our guys right now with the Iran war. and, you know, there some have died.

Fred Jackson Yes.

Tim Wildmon And so I'm just saying that the old expression, it's cliche now, but still it's true. And that is freedom is not free. Look at.

Tim Wildmon We are the greatest free country in all the world.

Alex McFarland Amen.

Tim Wildmon Okay, there's most of the world lives under tyranny. Let's face it, China, Communist China is tyrannical dictatorship. Brutal.

Tim: The Trump administration has restored some pride in our military

you have the Middle East. So much of the Middle east is Russian, Islamic. North Korea, Russia, North Korea. Islamic theocracy rules much of the Muslim world in the Middle East. you go to Russia. Russia is ruled by Putin, I mean, his henchmen. I mean, yes, the Iron Curtain fell, but it was really replaced with still a dictatorship. Putin's been there forever. So I'm just saying so much of the world is controlled, doesn't have the freedom that we enjoy. Go ahead, Fred. And then Alex, you comment.

Fred Jackson I tell you too, I am delighted that the Trump administration came in and brought back some, instilling some pride again in our military. What happened during the Biden years in our military and the Obama years and Obama is criminal. Especially with Biden going at what they made our military people do during COVID You don't take the shot. You don't have a job anymore. You're out of here. Shaming them. And then of course, the Biden administration saying, hey, there are elements of terrorism inside our military. It was awful. It was horrible.

Tim Wildmon I remember that.

Fred Jackson And it was horrible the way the standards dropped for recruits. We were sending people to pre boot camp. Boot camp because they didn't care about that. It was horrible. But the Trump administration, I thank God for Pete Hegseth. Pete Hegseth.

Tim Wildmon They brought back patriotism.

Fred Jackson Yes.

Tim Wildmon And pride in country.

Fred Jackson And pride in country.

Tim Wildmon And pride in the military.

Fred Jackson I love what Pete Hexseth has been doing. He's joined the troops for morning exercises. He's out there doing push ups with it.

Tim Wildmon Well, he's also said the woke stuff

Tim Wildmon is just not going to tolerate.

Fred Jackson It is gone.

Tim Wildmon Yeah.

Fred Jackson So thank God for, what the Trump administration has done.

Tim Wildmon It did save the military.

Fred Jackson The election did save the pride again. Recruitment has gone up. Remember what happened? Recruitment even amongst military families. Military families used to encourage daughters and sons to get in the military.

Tim Wildmon That kicking them out of the military because they Wouldn't type the COVID shot. The COVID experimental shot, which is unforgivable.

Tim Wildmon Go ahead, Alex.

Alex McFarland Well, you know, let me just say this, that what the left has done in recent decades is treason. I mean, just, framing, America as a failure. The rhetoric that America is structurally racist, framing, this. This endless mantra that is anti free market economy, eroding, you know, English as the national language and really normalizing political violence. And we need to cherish America. So many young people that, you know, I'm very privileged to be in front of thousands of young people every year and for 25, 30 years. And obviously my number one message is the gospel. But, I talk about America and patriotism, and I love. And all the speakers that I book, you know, we. We challenge these young people to find your niche. And whether it's business or education or ministry or medicine or. Or government, you know. But as a Christian, go into the realms of American society and make a difference for God and country. And Tim, I gotta tell you, I'm a Christian first, but I'm a patriot second. I love the usa I've traveled much of the world, and this is the greatest country, in history. And God has made us so. So that we could contribute to the Great Commission. But, Tim, it makes my blood boil to hear the way that the. The left denigrates America. And I'm, thinking, why are you committing suicide for our country? I mean, this is our homeland. This is America. Let's build it up and affirm it. Not verbally and politically. Tear it down.

Tim Wildmon Absolutely.

Stephen McDowell: I do read. I don't read like I used to

Let me mention one.

Tim Wildmon One book. there's anything by David Barton or Amen M. Or by Steven McDowell, I commend to you. And we'll have Steven on to talk about, George Washington, because he's an expert on the life of George Washington. Steven McDowell, our friend from the Providence Foundation. But there's also a book I read. I don't read like I used to, but I, do read. I do read. I don't know, a book a year, two books a year. I do read a lot, but it's mostly in magazine form or news items or things like that. I don't. But, there was a book I read that. But this is about 10 years ago, which is called 1776. That's the name of it. And it's by David McCullough. He passed away, I think. But he was a very well known, prolific writer. but it's the story about the year 1776, thus the title of the book. And, General George Washington, and the leading the American, troops against the mighty, army, and navy. That was Great Britain. And it's just. I don't know if David McCullough was a Christian, but, but he does acknowledge the providential aspects, the undeniable hand of God. But the sacrifices that these people made. Our forefathers are early to birth. This country was just the harsh winters they went. I mean. Oh yeah, they went through. I mean to, I mean, not.

Tim Wildmon They were doing it for posterity.

Tim Wildmon Okay. They were doing it for what, what, what America might, might become for their children and their grandchildren and their great grandchildren and generations to follow. I mean, who does that anymore? You know what I'm saying? So, obviously they wanted to win the war for their own freedom then and there against Great Britain. But really they were fighting for and got to remember what people average lifespan was probably 50 years old back in those days. Talking about in 1776.

Tim Wildmon Anyway, it's a fascinating book.

Tim Wildmon So if you want to read a book this year that commemorates, and captures our, you know, 1776, the year that our country was birthed officially, then, read that book by David McCullough.

David Barton has a great book on the lives of the founders

All right.

Tim Wildmon You're listening to today's issues on American Family Radio. We got about a minute left, Alex, anything else you want to say?

Alex McFarland Well, yeah, David Barton has a great book on the lives of the founders. And you know, probably the oldest guy during the revolution was Benjamin Franklin. at the time of the signing of the Declaration, Benjamin Franklin was 70. He went on a trip through the winter. He went to Canada with several men to try to get Canada to help us and they wouldn't. And it was so severe. one of the men, 20 years younger than Benjamin Franklin, died on the trip through the snow to Canada. And I mean just, I mean this, like you said, the sacrifices and the physical pain and rigor they went through to win our freedom. And then we could talk about some of the other seasons of our nation's history as well. But I love this country. We all should. And we should be good stewards of it.

Tim Wildmon Absolutely. The other book, I would recommend

Tim Wildmon there's is called George Washington the Apostle, the World's Apostle of Liberty by our good friend Steven McDowell. And we'll have Steven on to talk about that.

Tim Wildmon Now Stevens used Brent, you say Steven, special on George Washington's Monday.

Tim Wildmon Okay, so Monday, as in memorial day

Tim Wildmon from 10 to 11 o' clock, we'll

Tim Wildmon have Steven McDowell and he.

Jeff Chamblee What's the special George Washington, man of Providence.

Tim Wildmon Man of Providence. So you will be. You will love that. I'm sure you will. on Monday listen to David to Steven McDowell's expose on and radio, documentary if you will, about the life of George Washington.

Thursday Thunder is a study of the word of God in Ephesians

Tim Wildmon All right, Alex, so what are you and Bert covering this afternoon?

Alex McFarland We are in Ephesians Chapter two. but we're going to do questions today. It's going to be Thursday Thunder, so we'll take questions for all of the shows.

Tim Wildmon Thursday Thunder.

Alex McFarland Yes, that's right.

Tim Wildmon Like a wrestling match down at the Coliseum or. Yeah, big trucks, but, it's a

Tim Wildmon study of the word of God.

Tim Wildmon This afternoon, 3 to 4 o' clock central time. We'll be back in a minute, everybody.

Jeff Chamblee The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.