American Family Association offers an in depth worldview training course called Activate

>> Ed Vitagliano: Every day, AFA offers biblical insight on issues that others aren't willing to touch in the hopes that you'll become a world changer. That's why we're offering an in depth worldview training course called Activate. Thirteen different professors teaching 18 sessions, all available online, including a printed workbook to help you apply what you've learned and one year access to AFA streaming content to give you even more resources. Find out more about Acctivate and sign up today at Acctivate.AFA.net 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. That's the name of this show here on the American Family Radio Network. Today is Wednesday, May 13, 2026. It's not quite halfway over, but we're getting close. Ed Battagliano. Good morning, Ed.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Hello, mate.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Hey.

>> Tim Wildmon: From. Where did that come from?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't know. We had a. We had a NewSong Zealander do devotion and I immediately went to. I'm not even sure if that's English or Australian, but it was something different

>> Tim Wildmon: than what you normally. How you normally talk. Are you going to do that the whole show today, like talking that I'd like to listen. I think it'd be entertaining for our listeners.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And that's what we're all about, entertaining.

>> Tim Wildmon: Wesley will do his best impression of a southern redneck. Go ahead, Wesley.

>> Wesley Wildmon: It didn't take much see there.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's good, man. That's awesome.

Tim Wildman: There are some things Canadians say that Americans don't

>> Tim Wildmon: Pretty to bring the Canadian.

>> Fred Jackson: That's m. Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Hey, hey, hey.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is. And I'm Tim Wildmon again. What is it? There's a couple of things that Canadians say. They're known for a. Is one of them right?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. Well, for our mother.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: That Americans, we say mum. Mum, not mom.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And you also say. You've said this before on the show down here in the States we say, you know, he went to the hospital.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But up there they say he went. He went, he, he went hospital. Went to hospital. Went to hospital instead of the hospital.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes.

>> Tim Wildmon: So where's the verb there?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Went, Went, Went.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Okay.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They also, Did you grow up saying hoser?

>> Fred Jackson: No, hey, hoser. No, hey, hoser. We just accept that. Yeah, yeah. You know

>> Tim Wildmon: hoser is. That's an insult, right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I don't think it's. I don't think it's an obscenity, right? I hope not.

>> Fred Jackson: I just said it on national television, you know, Canadians. We make fun of ourselves.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And you don't really insult people.

>> Fred Jackson: No, no. Like, folks from. Now here's the difference. Down here, there is a province on the east coast called Newfoundland.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: Down here they say Newfoundland new found. Oh, no, now it is spelled Newfoundland.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Fred Jackson: And for short we say new fees.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah, but is that where the word newbie comes from? You're new at something? No, different.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think the reason for that is Southerners like to squeeze every syllable.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: We can. Out of every particular word.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay.

>> Tim Wildmon: Notice how I did particular.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Particular.

What's offensive and what isn't to people who are not like us

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so Newfoundland.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Newfoundland, you know, say what now?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, Newfies Newfoundland. Newfin like f I n. Newfoundland.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Newfoundland.

>> Fred Jackson: Okay. Yeah. And we call, you know, French people are called frogs.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, now that I remember growing up, we, we called French people. It wasn't just Canadians who did that.

>> Tim Wildmon: Call, French people what now?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Frogs.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is that an insult?

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah, it's got.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It's like calling an Italian a whop or you know, a polok or okay. An Irishman a Mick.

>> Tim Wildmon: See, I was like 27 before I realized Pollack jokes were offensive.

>> Wesley Wildmon: He kept wonder why people you didn't

>> Ed Vitagliano: grow up around many polo.

>> Wesley Wildmon: They kept wondering why people gave. Gave him the look.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, well, there were no Polish people to defend themselves against Pollack jokes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Tim Wildmon: But the good thing is most people that, you would use Pollack jokes didn't know where pollocks were anyway.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and here I will say this

>> Tim Wildmon: is the word pollock. Is that even that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's a, that's a. That's a. That's a slight. Okay. It's like calling someone a Mick or a spic. You know, it, it. Now I called other Italians waps and dag know, just. But when I was growing up, I knew a lot, a lot of Italians and. And if you're saying it in the right frame of mind, everyone's good. You know, just haha. Uh-huh. You don't want to say it with an edge to it because then it doesn't matter what you're saying it. We get the interpretation.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. So pass the potatoes, you wop. That's not necessarily offensive if you're living in an Italian neighborhood.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No.

>> Tim Wildmon: Or you wouldn't say that to them.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No. yeah, I would. I say you, you know, you greasy wop. You know. Yeah, pass the potatoes. You know, so.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Sounds offensive though.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think, you know, I think this serves as a good politically correct therapeutic session. Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We're diverse. We have some diversity.

>> Tim Wildmon: Diversity. And we're learning how. What's offensive and what isn't to people who are not like us?

>> Ed Vitagliano: And let me say, if we do have Polish listeners. Okay. I want to say this, that when I was growing up, Italians and, waps and Poloks were, basically considered to be on the same level of the IQ scale. And so I heard plenty of Polack jokes, plenty of Italian jokes that I would turn around and use, to my Polish classmates. and I would. Because we were basically considered not the brightest.

>> Wesley Wildmon: What would be equivalent to redneck?

>> Tim Wildmon: what's the equivalent. The term redneck in,

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't. We didn't insult rednecks up there in NewSong England. We insulted each other.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Now, I guess what he's saying. What would be the Italian equivalent? I think it'd be a whop. Of. Of a redneck. A term.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, yeah. That's used commonly among the people. Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

We could all sense that we were about to cross a line

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, so there you go.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That was fascinating discussion, wasn't it?

>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, where else you gonna get that?

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Right there.

>> Wesley Wildmon: We could all sense that we were about to cross a line.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. We're getting close.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And so Fred Creely, our producer, just texted me. no. He said, should I be running the delay with y' all talking? I'm confused. We do have a delay. If we have a guest and they say a bad word.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Then we do have a subscriber delay. So I think Brent was getting pretty nervous.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: About, the direction we were going.

>> Tim Wildmon: Walking right up to that cultural diversity line.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: We didn't cross it, huh?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yep.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right. You're listening to today's issues.

President Trump arrives in Beijing to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping

Speaking of, these kinds of things, President Donald J. Trump got on Air Force One and flew all the way across the world to meet with a Chinaman.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah,

>> Tim Wildmon: m. What?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Brent, it's too late now for the delay.

>> Tim Wildmon: What did I say?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Chinaman is one of those words, just like all the other. I'm not going to even get into the other.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, well, all right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Ethnic slurs.

>> Tim Wildmon: He flew all the way on the other side of the world to Beijing to meet with the leader of, the Chinese country, an oriental. Is that. Is that. Okay? Go ahead.

>> Fred Jackson: Anyway, and it's not true that when he got off the plane, he ordered barbecue. I just want to put an end to that.

>> Tim Wildmon: So he got a McDonald's terrible Big Mac.

>> Fred Jackson: No, he did arrive in Beijing. It was, Wednesday night there. By the time he arrives, that's a long flight. They had to stop in Alaskan refuel.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Wow. Because he coming all the way from D.C. yes.

>> Fred Jackson: but they picked up some passengers there, some fairly well known names. Elon Musk. Tim Cook.

>> Tim Wildmon: I'll meet you in Alaska.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Tim Wildmon: So they on Air Force One?

>> Fred Jackson: They got on board.

>> Tim Wildmon: So Tim Cook, the president, he's retiring, by the way.

>> Fred Jackson: Yes, and several others. Kelly Ortberg, I believe he's with Boeing. And so they're going. These guys are going to try to make some really good deals. The schedule for tomorrow, which actually starts tonight, our time, but the schedule for tomorrow in Beijing is just full of meetings, full of get togethers. So President Trump, very optimistic, getting aboard Air, Force One before he took off yesterday. Very optimistic about this meeting. Cut number one.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I have a great relationship with President Xi, and I think it's going to remain that way. We have a lot of things to discuss. I wouldn't say Iran is one of them, to be honest with you, because we have Iran very much under control. We're either going to make a deal or they're going to be decimated. So one way or the other, we win. But we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking with President Xi about a lot of different things. I would say more than anything else will be trade.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. Was it. Is. Are those people hard of hearing or.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Must have been outside. He was doing the rope.

>> Fred Jackson: He's doing the rope line.

>> Tim Wildmon: M. I thought maybe they had hearing aids.

>> Fred Jackson: No, no, no.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, he's just. He was doing the rope line.

>> Fred Jackson: Doing the rope line.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They're probably early in the morning noise.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's Trump early in the morning. You don't want to hear him late at night then. Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So he seemed very energetic.

>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, yeah, that's as I said. And I mean this in a complimentary way. He's a freak of nature.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: He's almost 80 and he's got the energy of a 22 year old. Yeah, it's. It's amazing. And so he's off to, That was yesterday.

>> Fred Jackson: That was yesterday. So this morning, our time, nighttime there in Beijing. They arrived. Big, big ceremony at the airport. They had about 300 young people there welcoming, President Trump with US flags.

>> Tim Wildmon: Wow.

>> Fred Jackson: They're in Beijing.

>> Tim Wildmon: He picked up. He picked up these businessmen.

>> Fred Jackson: Uh-huh. Some of them in Alaska.

>> Tim Wildmon: In Alaska, yeah. for what purpose now has the White House said they are.

>> Fred Jackson: They are part of the contingent, the U.S. contingent. And you know, President Trump, obviously, he's taking all these people. He does want to talk about trade, like Elon Musk. We're told he wants to be there because he'd like to sell Teslas in China and, and he's looking for deals on solar panels and all of that sort of thing.

>> Tim Wildmon: What about, and Tim Cook, China, China makes a lot of Apple products, right?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. They say there are Apple stores on every corner in Beijing.

>> Tim Wildmon: So I mean they make a lot of the iPhones that we buy, right?

Automakers are taking a strong stand against importing Chinese made vehicles

>> Fred Jackson: That's right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: In China.

>> Tim Wildmon: In China.

>> Fred Jackson: And Boeing is there for obvious reasons. Was really interesting, has the car carrying President Trump, they call it the beast. As it was driving away from the Beijing airport, you could see Boeing aircraft everywhere. China is a big, A, big buyer for Boeing aircraft. But there were some interesting interviews this morning about from people, who are advising the President not to give up on and that is automakers in this country are taking a very strong stand against importing Chinese made vehicles. They are becoming very popular in various places of the world. China is building them, selling them very cheap to countries like Canada and to Mexico.

>> Tim Wildmon: What is, excuse me for interrupting, but what is a, what is the Chinese automobile, automotive brand name?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I will look it up. There may be more than one, but continue, I'll jump back in.

>> Fred Jackson: But this morning on Fox, Ohio Senator Bernie Marino warned about these Chinese. He's Republican. Yes, he warned about these Chinese cars coming in. Are you ready for this? Through Mexico? Cut number two. So what the Chinese have decided to do is create this massive auto industrial complex not for domestic consumption, but to be predators in the Western world. So if they came into the US they would wipe out our automakers completely, devastate our steel industry, our rubber industry, our electronics industry. It's about 10% of our entire economy

>> Ed Vitagliano: is the auto industry.

>> Fred Jackson: And worse, these are roving surveillance devices. These things could be accessed remotely. They could be, manipulated from Beijing. Imagine allowing these kinds of things all over our roads. Now what Senator Moreno is referring to there is the belief that China, in building these cars is putting devices inside those cars that for instance, when that car would drive by U.S. air Force Base, they could pick up information, dialogue, et cetera, et cetera. but the other thing that Marino said in this interview this morning was is that some of these cars are already on US soil and they're coming in from Mexico. There are people in Mexico that are, exchanging the, license tags on these cars and they're coming into Texas. So apparently there's already some of these on U.S. soil. But, Senator Moreno, and he's not the first to say this, they're concerned about, being used as spy vehicles. that's, that's a big concern anyway. But there's, there's a warning from the auto industry there.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I do, I did look up, I don't have no idea whether I'm pronouncing some of these correctly.

>> Tim Wildmon: Ask Wesley.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah, I'm looking at the same worst.

>> Tim Wildmon: No, Wesley. He's good at this.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So some of these have, have names in Chinese, but I guess transliterated or translated it's Shanghai Automotive Industry, First Automotive Works. East Wind. They manufacture Voya. Alice Forthing. Beijing Automotive Industry, Yangzhou. I have no idea if I'm pronouncing these.

>> Tim Wildmon: So far.

>> Wesley Wildmon: You're doing great.

>> Tim Wildmon: No, he traveled to China. I'm not kidding.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, I should, I'm sorry. I should have deferred.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's what all I remember. Which means thank you. Yeah. Other than that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, she, she for, for helping. For helping me with that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: You're welcome.

There's concern in this country about competing with Chinese companies

>> Ed Vitagliano: So now here, here. But here's the big difference I think that the U.S. automakers and even the Japanese automakers are facing with China. So you don't remember this, Wesley, like most of the stuff we talk about because the old guys talk about here. I remember Nissan used to be Datsun. Okay. And Toyota's been around for a long time. These, the Japanese cars, when they first started being sold in America were considered to be cheap, sometimes unreliable. those companies got better and better. Now Toyota is probably the number one seller in the US but those were all private companies. These companies are state owned for the most part by China, in China. So the Chinese government is subsidizing the production of these cars. And this is why there's great concern in this country about competing with these Chinese companies. Because, companies that have to pay a good wage, for example, to workers are not going to be able to compete if the cars in China are being made by slave labor. And you mentioned, ah, Elon Musk talking about solar panels. The Chinese devastated the solar panel industry in this country. I think there may be one company remaining, US owned company that produces solar panels because again, the Chinese government subsidized whatever number of companies were making solar panels in China, selling it here, and they wiped out the competition. And there's a fear that they'll do this without the automobile, automotive industry.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Well, I can tell you right now, if they came tomorrow, they wouldn't sell well because they don't even have a truck.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They don't have a pickup truck.

>> Tim Wildmon: Get a pickup truck.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Start with A pickup truck. Yeah. when I was in China, they did have a lot. I'm recognizing in a lot of the vehicles that I saw there. I'm seeing them on the online under the brands that you mentioned.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Wesley Wildmon: And they're all, all the ones that I'm looking at now are smaller vehicles, Mostly cars, some SUVs, even those are very small. here in America we like the larger, when we get, for families, we travel a lot, we have like larger vehicles. So they're going to have to make some adjustments if that, if this were to be the case. Now that's not to mention the security side of things. And that's the security side of things. But.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. Well, here's the other thing. Excuse me. But this does challenge the, this does challenge the traditional Republican, Democrat, view of the economy. Okay. And of trade, because Republicans have always been, President Trump's a different animal. Okay. He's, he's not a traditional Republican in, in those areas in the economy and in trade. so basically Republicans would promote free trade and that's good. And it brings prices down for the American people, consumer instead of what Democrats have favored more. And I'm speaking broadly and generally, and that is protectionism, protecting the American markets, protecting the American workers. I, think that's been the appeal at least the unions and so forth over the decades, of the Democrat Party with unions. So in this case, I don't know, because, you know, for a widget, we would say, well, widget made in China, we can't make them in America for, for less than they can in China. So it helps the American consumer who goes to Walmart or Costco or Sam's or wherever and buys our Dollar General and buys a widget and that way. But now you talking about, are we going to supply the same principle to automobiles? It doesn't appear so. so because it will gut the devastation that it could do to the American economy is much higher than a, widget.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and let me give you some prices on the Chinese cars if they're sold. Well, I do have, I do have that in US Dollars. Now these initially I'm going to give you are in China. So I'm not sure these are prices in China in dollars. So that doesn't affect the automobile industry here in terms of selling to Americans, but it would impact whether US Companies can their cars in China. But I'm just, I'm not going to try to name these brands. Entry level sedans, $5,500 or to $6,700.

>> Tim Wildmon: They have an engine.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, I'm sure.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: electric vehicles range in price from 5,600 to 11,800. Now, people in your minds, they're going, okay, that you can't buy cars here. So export prices though, to the U.S. for new gasoline, SUVs and sedans often range from 6,100 to $10,000. That's in U.S. prices, a third of the cost. Now that's wholesale. So a dealer would add something to

>> Wesley Wildmon: that, three or 4,000.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And that does not include tariffs. But compared to what you pay here for brand new cars, that would obliterate.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Ah, so then I can do without a truck.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, yeah.

>> Wesley Wildmon: I'm just saying, you start calculating, you go, well, maybe I get a wagon to pull behind it or a trailer,

>> Tim Wildmon: because how do you feel about that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Oh, I, I, I absolutely think you can't allow that because it's government subsidized. These are not companies that are competing with Toyota or Chevy. Okay. They're not competing on the same level. You make your car, we'll make our car, we'll see which one is better, you know, has better engineering. And then we may under, you know, we may have a sale and try to draw people in. This is for example. I'm just tossing this out. If the government in China is subsidizing the production of these cars, half, half, half price. They can sell it for a little bit more than that and make a profit. But cars can't be made in this country at half price. Toyota can't make a half priced four runner.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: In order to compete with the price of these.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, that's true. You know, it's an interesting relationship that we have. You know, when you, when you listen to President Trump, he, he refers to Xi as his friend. We get along great, but everybody knows there's so much going on in the background. I mean, we had the story earlier this week of this mayor of Arcadia, California, who's been a Chinese spy as a mayor of a city. And apparently, some people, a lot of people knew about this, because of her online conversations, but this has been going on for some time. And then you had Todd Lyons yesterday, the ICE acting director, Todd Lyons. He's worried about. Our universities are filled with Chinese student spies. Cut 4.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We are announcing that we have identified over 10,000 foreign students who claim to be working for highly suspect employers. And that's just among the top 25 OPT employers.

US And China are joined at the hip, and that's not going away

This is only the tip of the iceberg.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah. So that's been going on for some time.

>> Ed Vitagliano: These are, by the way, these aren't just political spies. Oh, no, The Chinese have been stealing our intellectual property.

>> Ed Vitagliano: For decades.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep. So it's an interesting relationship. You know, President Trump is going there, you got all these company CEOs going there, et cetera, et cetera, it seems. I don't think it's an overstatement. Both countries depend on each other so much for trade, they can't afford to cut them off the other country off completely. Can't do it.

>> Tim Wildmon: Now we're joined at the hip. Yes, the US And China are joined at the hip, and that's not going away. so I don't know, it'll be interesting to see what President Trump, And all these folks talk what they say, they've talked about what they've agreed to.

China imports 12% of its oil from Iran, according to research

And I wonder how much the Iran war will come into play here. Which side is China on? Are they on Iran's side or our side or, or do they care?

>> Wesley Wildmon: Neutral right now, I guess.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, they get, they get oil.

>> Tim Wildmon: They.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We are, Monday, you know, I looked it up. They get 12%. China has to import basically all its oil. They do not produce any oil on their own. They import 12% of their oil from Iran. I guess they get oil from other, other providers as well. But From Iran's perspective, 90% of their oil goes to China.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So they're, they've lost a huge customer because of this war and blockades and all that.

>> Tim Wildmon: But I wonder if China, if they'll say anything if they. Does China say, no, we don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon? Have they said that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't think they can. I don't think China controls that. They, may try to influence Iran, but the irgc, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Core, they, they're, they want a nuke and they're not going to listen to anybody.

>> Tim Wildmon: I think President Trump may lean on China on this one because he gets very upset if you don't say, if you're another country and you don't say you agree with what the United States is doing.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I guess China could say that we'll get our oil from someone else if you keep this.

>> Tim Wildmon: But I'm talking about the moral question at hand. Do they have a nuclear weapon or not? We'll be back momentarily.

American Family Radio thanks its sponsor, preborn. org for supporting pro life efforts

>> 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 pound250 and say the keyword baby or or visit preborn.com afr the afr app is a powerful tool, but it does have limitations. You can't use it to change the oil in your vehicle or get rid of carpet stains. It won't walk the dog, won't pick up the dry cleaning or take the kids to practice. But while you're doing those things, you can listen to your favorite AFR content through the app on your phone, smart device, or Roku. Just go to your app store or visit afr.net Listen to AFR wherever you go with the AFR app.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is real love.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Not that we loved God, but that

>> Tim Wildmon: he loved us and sent his son

>> Fred Jackson: as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

>> Ed Vitagliano: 1 Jon 4:10American Family Radio

>> Tim Wildmon: this is Today's Issues.

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

Today's Issues features the Ten Commandments Speech Challenge

>> Tim Wildmon: Welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. I'm Tim with Ed, Wesley and Fred. We thank you for listening to today's Issues each weekday morning here on American Family Radio. joining us in studio now is our colleague and our friend, Joseph Parker, otherwise known as Pastor Joseph. Good morning, Brother Joe.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Good morning, Tim. Good to be with you all today.

>> Tim Wildmon: do you mean that?

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: I do. I do.

>> Tim Wildmon: Because some people just say that, you know, just throw it out there. And I like to know that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: On the record. On the record.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: I appreciate the opportunity to share about this because to me, this is an exciting project and I'm grateful that we here at afa.

>> Tim Wildmon: Is it working okay? Is it spotty? Because I'm getting spotty, but we're working on it.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Okay, keep trying. Keep talking.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, we're changing. We're doing musical chairs here.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yep, that's what we're doing.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, you gotta switch out with the Canadian over here.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Hey, while we're swapping that out, let's swap that out.

>> Tim Wildmon: We got an announcement.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Why don't we,

>> Tim Wildmon: Let's make it from the bullet bulletin.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Oh, well. Well, while we're swapping it out, I'll mention afr.net 10commandments and it's/10 T, E, N commandments with an S Because it's more than one.

>> Tim Wildmon: We're going to slash the Ten Commandments down to what?

>> Wesley Wildmon: down to. We're going to pick and choose.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.

>> Ed Vitagliano: There are entire denominations in this country that are doing that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: But that's the website that you can go to to participate in the Ten Commandments. Now Pastor Joseph's here to give us more details. But that's the website that we're asking people to go to is afr.net ten commandments.

>> Tim Wildmon: Like, like the word T E, N. That's right. Okay, what are we talking about? We don't even know what are we talking about here, Joseph?

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: It's a, it's a discipleship program we've been doing here at AFA for probably right about 10 years now. And basically it's three different parts. One part is very simply, if a young person memorizes the Ten Commandments and is able to recite them by memory to their par, the parent can call and give us a call, give us their size and their mailing address and we'll mail them a Ten Commandments T shirt. Second part is similar to vacation Bible school encouragement, outreach, encouraging people to adopt their community and to teach the children in their community the Ten Commandments. And the third part is what we want to specially kind of deal with today is the Ten Commandments Speech Challenge. And this part we do each year. This year are the commandment is the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself any graven images. And during the month of June, starting June 1st through the 30th, we invite young people ages 7 to 17 to call in and share well to put together a speech based on that commandment. We suggested to be three to five minutes in length. But we, we really do take any length. Pretty much use your cell phone or whatever other, recording means that you may have to record the speech and send it to faqfa.net or to my email jparkerfa.net with on the subject line 10 Commandments Project Speech Challenge 2026. And if you need help, you know, the child can write it, their parent can help them, a friend can help them. We'll help them if they call and need us to help. But we're grateful to have them to participate in the project and, and they are to submit it during the time between June 1st and June 30th. And each participant will receive a Ten Commandments T shirt as well as they'll receive a bookmark and an item where they'll be able to get a free item from our bookstore as well.

>> Wesley Wildmon: It's a really good, organized, effort that we give people to do with their kids during the summertime. obviously, you know, summertime is a break from school, but not necessarily a break from, learning things of the scripture and so being able to learn. but it's very organized, too. Like I said, it gives you a step by step. Go to afr.net tencommandments and there it explains what it is. As you mentioned, what were the awards that they get? A, shirt, and again, they get

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: a Ten Commandments T shirt. They get a Ten Commandments bookmark as well as they get a coupon to be able to get a free item from our resource department.

>> Tim Wildmon: And you qualify for the free drawing for the Chinese car.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Oh, yeah, from earlier.

>> Tim Wildmon: We're going to give a Chinese car.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Well, I think we may be able to do that at the cost of 30.

>> Tim Wildmon: That's what I'm saying. No, that's what I'm saying. Very affordable for us to buy one and give it away as part of the deal.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.

Tim: Why are the Ten Commandments relevant today in the 21st century

>> Tim Wildmon: so, you know, in all seriousness, the, what would you say, Joe, who say, you know, the Ten Commandments, that's. That's for the Jews in the Old Testament. How does that. What. Why is that applicable to Christians today in the, 21st century?

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: You know, Tim, that's actually a very helpful and a productive question to ask because sadly, you have people that think, well, that's the Old Testament and we're in the NewSong Testament. Well, the reality is the Ten Commandments are the moral law of God, which doesn't change. They apply to all people in all cultures. And the reality is, some of the biggest problems and news stories in our culture are people violating the wisdom or the principles behind each of the Ten Commandments. So they're very relevant up to this very moment in our culture, in our world as well.

>> Tim Wildmon: I've always said it this way, Ed, to answer my own question, which Pastor Joseph just answered very well himself, and that is, if something is found in the Old Testament and it's reaffirmed in the NewSong Testament, it's still valid for us even today. So that in, the old testament, Exodus 20, we find. Right.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 both got it right.

>> Tim Wildmon: That have been bad because I wouldn't even go back to school to learn what the Ten Commandments are.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, so the, Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God for the Children of Israel. But, the, the. But those ten commandments are reaffirmed in the NewSong Testament m. By Jesus Christ. So, Jesus didn't say ditch the ten Commandments. In fact, he made it harder.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. He said in Matthew chapter five that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, he came to fulfill the law. And so to your point, he did make it harder because he said, you have read or it was written, thou shalt not commit adultery, for example.

>> Tim Wildmon: Right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: but he said, I say to you that you can't even look at a woman lustfully.

>> Tim Wildmon: or you committed adultery in your

>> Ed Vitagliano: heart, or you've committed adultery in your heart. you have read or it is written that you shall not commit murder. I say to you, you can't even be angry with your brother. Okay?

>> Tim Wildmon: That's murder in your heart. You're committing murder in your heart.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes. he's driving deeper into the heart and fulfilling the purpose of the law and at the same time making it clear to people hearing him or reading those words, well, how do I do that? How does a proud man, for example, change himself so that he's humble? How does a person control their anger? Well, they need a savior. They need someone, they need God's help in doing that. So, unfortunately there have been some ministers, pastors in the last five years or so who have said, for example, Andy Stanley famously said, well known pastor in the Atlanta area, we need to decouple ourselves from the Old Testament. Well, that's just wrong because Jesus carries that moral law into the NewSong Testament age.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: And you know, to your point too, and the fact is, the ten Commandments summarize the wisdom and the counsel of God for all of the word of God, Old and NewSong Testament. And it's helpful to understand it's just as they're just as relevant today as they ever have been.

>> Tim Wildmon: I tell you what, if everybody would obey the Ten Commandments, we wouldn't need any police officers.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: That's true.

>> Fred Jackson: That's true.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's true.

>> Tim Wildmon: Am I right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

Joseph Wesley: The Ten Commandments project is ongoing for our listeners

>> Tim Wildmon: all right, so what's the project again?

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Ten Commandments project again. all three, all three parts are ongoing except the speech for our listeners.

>> Tim Wildmon: This is for our listeners. What's the project again? Go ahead.

>> Pastor Joseph Parker: Very specifically, the speech challenge is going on between June 1, June 30. That's when the speeches are to be submitted to us here at afa. And again, each participant will receive, prizes for their participation. And also just would mention too, that when we're able to arrange it. We try to have the young people and their parents to come on a broadcast the Hour of Intercession, and they share their speech and talk about it, too. And that ends up being both a fun thing, but at the same time a very learning experience because it's powerful to hear how children learn to share truth that our culture very much needs to hear. And it's also powerful to consider this. Like, for example, when we did the, you should not murder a few years ago. It just happened to be the same year Roe v. Wade was overturned. Well, again, the fact is, people still struggle with keeping the word of God. Lots of people that say they love Jesus sadly think it's okay to murder babies. It's important for us to understand God's word is just as powerfully relevant today as it ever has been.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Amen.

>> Tim Wildmon: All right, thank you, Joseph Wesley. What's the, What's the website again? People can read about this project now

>> Wesley Wildmon: that I'm on here. It would be better. It'd be easiest just to go to afr.net because afr.net they have a tab or they have a, you can't miss it.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It's a banner.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's what I'm looking for.

>> Tim Wildmon: So go to afr.net right now and you can read about it. Thank you, Joseph. Appreciate it. All right. You're listening to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Tim, that was Pastor Joseph Parker you were hearing from right there. and you're listening to the radio program Today's Issues here on American Family Radio. Tim, Ed, Wesley, and Fred, again, our top story.

President Donald Trump is meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping tomorrow on nuclear issues

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is in China now meeting with the, leader of the communist Chinese nation. well, China, a communist nation, should know that by now. But, that is meeting, is about to go on between these, two gentlemen and their respective parties. You know, the. The entourages that are with them and on the, docket, for discussion, obviously, is Iran. And so it'll be very interesting to see what the China Chinese have to say about our war with Iran. I'm curious about that. Which side are they on? Are they on a side, you know, the Chinese?

>> Fred Jackson: so a couple of other things expected, to be discussed is Taiwan, because we've just signed, a deal with Taiwan for a lot of weaponry, and the Chinese are very concerned about that. But also, President Trump says he intends to raise the idea of the US China and Russia signing a pact that would set limits on the nuclear weapons each nation keeps in its arsenal. The start treaty, that we've heard through the years between Russia and the United States expired in February. Russia wanted to renew, that. But President Trump said no, I want a new agreement that includes China. And that kind of signals that China is every much a threat nuclear wise as Russia is to us. So that apparently is on the agenda as well. So they've got a lot to discuss tomorrow for properly a meeting that's going to last about 12 hours or so.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And AI is also tariffs also going to be on the topic on the table for discussion. China is I think trying to be the leader with the development of AI which is I think we talked about this a little bit on Monday. Of great concern to the US and other places because AI we're not even sure how we say fully developed artificial intelligence, what that would mean. But there are the fears that you could develop AI programs that could break into U. S banks, talk about cyber attacks and basically drain the wealth of Americans or break into you know, the the defense industry and also the defense institutions in the United States. So yeah, I'm not sure you can put the, the toothpaste back in the tube on this. But I think they're hoping this is why you have. I think people like Tim Cook with Apple.

>> Tim Wildmon: But others, you know what they're. Excuse me for interrupting. I was just watching the Fox News report. There is a There's probably 25 or 30 or more business leaders and IT leaders in China with the Trump team, as part of meetings. This is, this is a big deal. Yep. this is the reason I say that is. I thought, well, you know, Elon Musk is hopping on Air Force One cause he's you know, buds with the President, on again, off again. But anyway they're friends for now. And then you got Tim Cook with Apple, but you got others, you got a whole list.

>> Fred Jackson: I got the list here. Kind of interesting. the CEOs of MasterCard and Visa are part of this. Not sure why they would be there, but anyway they're there.

>> Tim Wildmon: There's a lot of people in China who use those, use those cards.

>> Fred Jackson: I would guess it's the Goldman, Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon is

>> Ed Vitagliano: by the way that with those credit card companies and banks, it may be a discussion of digital currency. There's all kinds of things that could be going on there.

>> Fred Jackson: That's scary.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it is scary.

>> Fred Jackson: It is scary.

>> Tim Wildmon: Why are you all scared?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't want digital currency. I want us to be a cash based society. Digital currency would be very easy, as we saw in Canada, although it wasn't just because it was digital currency. You don't want the government to be able to shut off your, economic access because you wouldn't be able to use cash. You wouldn't be able to go to the store and say, okay, here's you know, my three bags of groceries. Here's my hundred bucks. If it's all digital currency and there's no access and no availability to use cash, you can be cut off easily.

>> Tim Wildmon: I agree with you, by the way. I was just asking why you are scared.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, it's, it's a tool. It's the pot. It's the, the, A tool that could potentially be used in a totalitarian.

>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Way to shut, off liberty.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, and also to monitor what you're buying.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Fred Jackson: So you're buying bibles. Oh, you're one of those.

>> Ed Vitagliano: You're buying a gun.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, guess what? We're shutting off your bank account.

>> Fred Jackson: Uh-huh.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We're not letting you.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Tim Wildmon: So anyway, there's a bunch of business leaders going over there to China.

>> Fred Jackson: Yep.

>> Tim Wildmon: Or in China. What are you gonna say?

>> Wesley Wildmon: I was just add to the conversation. In February, we all remember this, but this. I was gonna Read this. In February 2022, the Canadian Federal government invoked an emergencies act which allowed authorities to temporarily freeze the bank accounts of individuals, including truck drivers and those that were involved in the anti mandate freedom convoy. Which is the protest.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. So if you don't have cash, you know, around your house because there is no more cash, then you're out of luck. The government just. The government just hit you with a two by four and said, we don't appreciate your protest.

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And we're gonna, we're gonna make you come crawling.

>> Fred Jackson: And the incident in Canada proved to people who said, you know, you guys are crazy.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Fred Jackson: The government would never. But it's kind of interesting that Trudeau, who was the prime minister at the time, chose that protest. There are all kinds of protests in Canada, you know, all kinds of issues. But he chose that one, that

>> Ed Vitagliano: was the one connected with COVID Right.

A Senate hearing on COVID Covid is scheduled for today

>> Tim Wildmon: Next story.

>> Fred Jackson: Speaking of COVID Covid, just before coming into the studio, there is a Senate hearing today. Now, normally during a Senate hearing, you have representatives of both parties. It's kind of weird looking at this Hearing this morning. It's a Covid whistleblower the Democrats decided to boycott. Only Republicans are there at this. And this is a whistleblower. He works for the CIA. James Erdman is his name and basically his allegation is Dr. Fauci. with the help of the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, basically, to put it very succinctly, lied to the American public about where Covid came from and the damage that it did to thousands of Americans. that's his testimony today. Amongst the Republican senator there is Josh Hawley. He had this to say about what they're talking about today. Cut number six. I understand that this CIA whistleblower is going to testify to, among other things,

>> Ed Vitagliano: that the CIA and the government deliberately ignored the law that Congress passed. It was my bill that ordered the Biden administration to declassify everything, all the intelligence around the origins of COVID 19.

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah, and there's still a lot of stuff that has not been declassified.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I think when this is, then I'm going to turn this over to Wesley because he's the, has no opinion on, on what we went through.

>> Tim Wildmon: He's sympathetic to Dr. Fouch.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Wesley, listen, I will give it to Wesley. In fact, here's a fist bump. He was, he was more right than myself, most people early on, about what was happening with COVID But I, I think over the next five years, if we remain a free country and have access to the information, the truth about what happened under, in this country and around the world, under the Covid restrictions and so on and so forth, we are going to find out that, that liberty, freedom was hanging in the balance in this country and the, and the federal government used all of its power to crush, try to crush dissent and to try to I think bring this country into a more globalist mindset. And I'll give a shout out to Elon Musk if he's listening. He's not. But, Elon Musk buying Twitter may very well have saved this country simply because that was one of the social media platforms where people were able then to discuss this issue and other issues in a way that did an end run around the government and the mainstream media. But I think we're going to find out, just horrifying, disappointing things about what happened in this country.

>> Wesley Wildmon: To your, to your point that it was YouTube, it was Facebook, all of the other, Instagram, if you said anything, they would pull it, they would pull the information you put and then they would replace it with the tab that said, here's the correct information on Covid. And they would link to, at the time, their cd cdc.

Fred Cannon: Will Anthony Fauci ever be held accountable over Covid controversy

Hey, Fred, I got a question. Okay, so we all remember and we played the clips of Senator Rand Paul just, taking, Fauci and all those that at the time were involved, just taking them to task on the. We've seen the videos. What now is different in this hearing than has been already proven in the past.

>> Fred Jackson: Well, you have this whistleblower who still works for the CIA, and he is confirming, basically what a lot of conservatives feared that this was going on. Now, will Anthony Fauci ever be held accountable? And of course, we know. What did Joe Biden do before he left office?

>> Wesley Wildmon: That's right. He preemptively pardoned him before he did anything wrong officially.

>> Fred Jackson: And as somebody at this hearing said today is Anthony Fauci sitting in a chair down in the Bahamas somewhere, just laughing at all of this, that you can't touch me. It's kind of scary what went on. And we talk about it, but there are people still suffering. There are families who lost loved ones.

>> Fred Jackson: There are people who lost their jobs, who lost their retirement because of the restrictions that were put in place and the mandates that were put in place by former President Joe Biden, who, I don't know for sure whether he knew Anthony Fauci was spinning it, but Anthony Fauci got out of this, at least so far. We know God will hold people accountable, but right now, Anthony Fauci should be held accountable. But will he ever will? To your point, Wesley, I'm not sure if anybody will be. But what's scary is it went so far. It wasn't just Anthony Fauci and his department. It was also the CIA.

>> Fred Jackson: The people who were allegedly investigating this on behalf of the American people. According to this whistleblower blower, they basically turn their heads and said, you know, Foushee basically is our boss. We're going to stick with him.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I'll say something else. I do not think the CIA is supposed to be operating in this country. All right? They're supposed to be a foreign intelligence service, not part of a disinformation campaign going on against American citizens. you know, I don't want to rehash all the, Covid stuff. We spent a lot of time talking about that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: He's tempting me.

>> Ed Vitagliano: But, but my, my. I believe, because this is what Senator Rand Paul said. And like Wesley, he was right from the beginning. Senator Rand Paul. But I remember the clashes with Anthony Fauci before the Senate where he asked Fauci point blank, did your department, or as far as you know, the federal government, did it use government money through a third party to conduct gain of function research in China to go around the law passed under Barack Obama making that illegal?

>> Fred Jackson: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And, Fauci kept saying, no, absolutely not. I think we're going to find out that that in fact was going on. And I think Fauci knew about it, may have benefited from it personally, but, the frustration for a lot of Americans is nobody goes to prison over these things.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes. What's frustrating now remember, just last week, a long time advisor for Fauci, David Morins, who served as a top advisor, was indicted by the DOJ last month because he was accused of using his personal email to cover up some of the information on Covid.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I. I hope people go to prison if they break the law. They need to go to go to prison. Just like the little people in this country.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Yep.

>> Tim Wildmon: Are you all done?

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm done. I've had it.

>> Tim Wildmon: I was always taught to think the best of people. You guys have destroyed that.

>> Wesley Wildmon: Living in a fallen world.

>> Tim Wildmon: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.

Tim, Ed and Wesley talk with Fred on top news headlines of the day. Also, Pastor Joseph Parker joins the program to discuss the Ten Commandments Speech Challenge.