Today's Issues features Steve Paisley on college football
>> Ed Vitagliano: Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to afr. I'm, Tim with Ed and Wesley. And joining us now is Steve Paisley. Jordo.
>> Steve Jordahl: Good morning, everybody.
>> Tim Wildmon: How you doing, brother Steve?
>> Steve Jordahl: Am well, thank you. Doing well.
>> Tim Wildmon: So, before we get back into the, Political and, international and all kind of other news this half hour, the most important news right now to a lot of Americans is college football.
>> Steve Jordahl: Very, very much so.
>> Tim Wildmon: Especially coming up.
>> Steve Jordahl: They are.
>> Tim Wildmon: And. But this weekend, before we get to the playoffs, we got the, a lot of big conference championship games. And you know which one I'm looking forward to watching?
>> Steve Jordahl: well, let's see. The Lord had the Egg bowl.
>> Tim Wildmon: So, okay, I live in. I live in SEC country.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: And I follow SEC football, but I don't really care about Georgia and Alabama because they play every year.
>> Steve Jordahl: Okay, true.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Right.
>> Steve Jordahl: Kansas.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Sometimes more than once.
>> Tim Wildmon: And I just say, good for them. Good for them. That's excellent. Good for Alabama. Good for Georgia. I want to watch Indiana and Ohio State, the Big Ten A championship game. And I was telling, brother Cole, who runs our video out here, he's an Ohio State guy. He and. He and his dad, Ken, and their family, they came down from Ohio to work here in Mississippi. Not newly converted.
>> Wesley Wildmon: He's always been on.
>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, no. Buckeye. They're all the way through. Yeah, they're Buckeyes. Who wouldn't be? Hey, you win every game. Who wouldn't want to be a part of that? No, but they came here, from Ohio. But, I want to watch Indiana. And, But I told him this. I said, you know what? It's. It's the Ohio State Buckeyes versus the world. Because unless you're an Ohio State Buckeye fan. everybody else is rooting for Indiana because. Why? Because Indiana is that great American underdog story.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Same thing with Alabama when they were winning national championships. Everybody except for Alabama fans roll tight.
>> Tim Wildmon: Against whoever was playing them.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. That's just the way human nature is. And so, we want to see the king of the hill pull down. That's right. Unless you're the king of the hill, which we could.
>> Ed Vitagliano: We say we want. We root for excellence in America, but not when it comes to sports.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right. So anyway, Ohio State's number one, Indiana's number two. Indiana, as Ed said, has never won anything since Hoosiers.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Since the movie.
>> Tim Wildmon: The movie Hoosier. Indiana. We didn't even know Indiana played football.
>> Steve Jordahl: They were pretty good at. Not football, but at basketball.
>> Tim Wildmon: Basketball, yeah.
>> Steve Jordahl: Larry Bird did football.
>> Tim Wildmon: No, Indiana has never done squat in football. And I say that as a Mississippi State fan. I know what squat. I know what squat is.
>> Steve Jordahl: You're a squat expert.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And when somebody does it.
>> Tim Wildmon: So, in our state, the Ole Miss fans are really getting pumped up because they're going to make the, playoffs, too. That's coming up. Playoffs started. They start two weeks, three weeks when they start. Wesley, do you know college football playoffs this weekend is all the conference championship games and then the, playoffs start sometime.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yeah, they start December 19th.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, the 19th. And they'll.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So it'll basically after the conference championships this weekend, it's like two weeks.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Is that right?
Steve Dahl: Ed and I were looking at two college football lists
>> Wesley Wildmon: One weekend off, two weeks of.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. And then they start playing every weekend till they get to the championship game in January. So anyway, what you looking at?
>> Steve Jordahl: I'm looking at the difference. there was a dispute, not a really. If we didn't. It didn't land. We didn't land blows. But Ed and I were looking at two different lists of college football lists, and, he is looking at the AP top 25, which is what most people look at. I have in front of me the CFP rankings, which are the College Football playoff rankings, which determines the seating in the playoffs.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, the committee that announced them last night.
>> Steve Jordahl: Right, right.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Yes.
>> Steve Jordahl: And they're a little different. They're a lot the same, actually. Mostly the same. Ohio State and Indiana are the same. Georgia is number three. Texas Tech is number four. They grin that. Oregon number five. Ole Miss number six. Seven. They're. They're the same eight.
>> Tim Wildmon: Texas A&M is seven.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. let me get the top 25. There it is.
>> Tim Wildmon: Oklahoma.
>> Steve Jordahl: Then there's the coaches poll. seven, eight. Oh, yeah. So Oklahoma. So it's the same at the top. So. Yeah, you got it. Oregon is number four. Yeah. There's a little moderate differences, but not.
>> Tim Wildmon: What'll be interesting to see is if Alabama loses to Georgia, if they get booted out of the playoffs because you're not supposed to lose your position if, you are playing in a championship game. But. But who. But who knows?
>> Steve Jordahl: Because that would be number nine in the CPF rankings.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Steve Jordahl: CFP rankings, I should say.
>> Tim Wildmon: All right, so we'll see what happens there. Yeah. And, you're listening to Today's Issues. What's your first story, Steve?
Texas Tech University has new restrictions on how professors can teach sexual orientation
>> Steve Jordahl: Speaking of colleges, we have, the latest college out of Many to decide that they're going to take seriously President Trump's mandate that they get rid of all their gender nonsense and the pronouns and the DEI stuff. Texas Tech campuses have announced that, their chancellor, Brandon Creighton has announced that there are new restrictions on how college professors may teach dei, or the differences on sexual orientation in classrooms. They may not promote, according to, Brandon Creighton at the Texas Tech University system, the idea that one sex or race is inherently superior to another. They may not promote an individual by virtue of their race or sex inherently racist or sexist. and on, all the DEI stuff, they cannot promote it. They can teach it as one of many beliefs or this is what's out there. But they can't say now that because you're white, you're automatically racist.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Right? We're seeing a, ah, trend since the, since day one of Trump and his team entering the White House for his second term, a trend in the removal of dei, practice amongst corporate, corporate world and also college campuses. Because I saw this morning there's roughly 400 college campuses across the country who have either eliminated DEI, from their, from their, program program or they've rebranded it to be more, More inclusive for everyone. And so, the reason I thought this was a good story is because, when you think that a lot of the times when the enemy takes ground. You may neutralize it, but it's hard to gain it back.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right?
>> Wesley Wildmon: And when we see, the idea of elections having consequences and because of the leadership of the Trump administration on this issue, by forcing the hands, in some cases forcing the hands of these college campuses to remove dei, I, wanted to make sure that we recognize that there are good things happening now. Trump's not the only one. there are. Now this is a little bit of a leap, but there are a lot of people across this. A little bit of a leap as far as the direct results of why this happened. However, there are been a lot of Christians and a lot of conservatives obviously concerned and fighting back on this issue. And they spent a lot of time trying to make the case that this is the opposite of its definition by it's the opposite of diverse diversity, inclusion and diversity, equity inclusion. And so we've spent many years fighting against this problem. And when we start making this much effort, I wanted to, you know, say, hey, if you, if you ever felt like you were fighting and you weren't making any ground, remember Galatians chapter six? It says, don't grow weary in Doing good. Because if you continue on, and you'll reap if you don't give up. And that's here. We are covering some ground.
Dei, equity and inclusion is gaining popularity on college campuses
>> Tim Wildmon: Let me ask you this, Ed. Related to this, when we say dei, what we mean is it's called diversity, equity and inclusion. This started gaining popularity really big, five, ten years ago on college campuses. In the corporate world, What exactly is our objection to what dei, promotes? Because it sounds wonderful. Who's against diversity, equity, inclusion?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, well, it really. Wesley's point is, The main one I'm going to make is that it's not actually diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, a lot of people, and I think rightly so, object to the word equity, which is, equality of outcome. Okay? That's different from. We've always talked about equality of opportunity, where we've said everyone, should have the same opportunity to succeed.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right?
>> Ed Vitagliano: And you can't. You can't discriminate against black people, for example, and say, well, you're just black person. You're just as qualified as this white person. But you know what? We don't hire black people, okay? That is a denial of equality. That is antithetical to the ideas of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Equity says, everybody must have the same outcome, and we're going to guarantee that, regardless of how hard you work or regardless of what your grades are, et cetera, et cetera. so equity and equality are kind of at loggerheads. But the point that Wesley made is that when people say we're for diversity, what they really mean is we are against white people. White people are racist. So we are going to remove white people and give minorities the opportunities that white people used to have.
>> Tim Wildmon: You mean like what happened in commercials?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, I mean, that was. That was kind of part of it. You're talking about advertisements, TV commercials.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: They ban white people. And straight people.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Well, so it's, It's, DEI operates on the assumption that white people have privilege. And because of that privilege, that's why they're successful. And therefore, in order for minorities to be successful, we've got to remove the privileges that white people have and give those privileges to minorities.
>> Tim Wildmon: It's actually reverse racism.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Exactly. Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: Is what it is.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes.
>> Tim Wildmon: Because they're classifying. These people on the left look at, the white race and say it's. It's by definition racist itself. It's fascist. It's. It's colonialism. It's.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, all those things.
>> Tim Wildmon: All those things. All those bad Things which. Some of it is true in history, but guess what? White people didn't invent slavery.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right?
>> Tim Wildmon: you know what? The, in Africa, they're still doing it today. One tribe enslaves another. In Arab countries, they don't. The. They don't care. You know, they're at war. This. The Sunnis and the Shia, the Persians and the. So, I mean, white people did not invent slavery, okay?
>> Ed Vitagliano: And they didn't invent. They didn't invest privilege either.
>> Tim Wildmon: No. And guess what? Guess what? Before the Europeans came to the United States of. Well, what was in the new NewSong World.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: Wasn't called the United States of America then. It was British and, set up colonies and. And began to move into the. Not what we call North America. Guess what? The Indians. The Indians, the Native Americans, they didn't live in peace, right? They killed each other. Over what land? Over land over land. And they ward. And they were. So people on the planet Earth have been killing each other and warring over land and property and riches since the dawn of time. All right? And, sometimes it's racial, sometimes it's ethnic. A lot of times, like in Africa, I mentioned, it's. And Native Americans, it's just tribal. It's the Sioux versus the Cherokee. You know what I'm saying? And so I'm just saying that, guess what?
America did not invent slavery, it did end slavery
That all goes back to the heart of a man, right? Or a woman, which God says in the Bible is sinful. How do you overcome that? How do you learn to love people and treat people fairly and with respect who aren't like you? well, you follow the model of Jesus Christ. That's what you do. And the words are first and foremost. So does that make sense?
>> Wesley Wildmon: You do need to point out this, though.
>> Ed Vitagliano: While.
>> Wesley Wildmon: While it is true that America did not invent slavery, it did end slavery.
>> Tim Wildmon: That's a good point. yeah. And, you know, the people who fought to end slavery in America, were, a lot of white, mostly white Northerners, soldiers, in the Union Army. Now, I don't want to get too much into this. A lot of the Southerners who fought in the Civil War, they didn't know, too much about. They weren't necessarily in favor of slavery. They just knew they were being invaded by. People from another part of the country. Anyway, I don't want to get into too much of that. Steve, next story.
There are two immigration stories that touch Christians and evangelicals right now
>> Steve Jordahl: All right, There are two immigration stories that are in the news right now, and they're coming closer to home for Christians and evangelicals. this is I'm talking about the, the stuff that's going on in Minnesota, the Somali community, and all of the fraud that's going on there. And then there's the issue of the National Guard, shooting and how did we vet the Afghan, people we brought over from Afghanistan after the war. And, let me start with the Afghan issue, because Megan Basham is out there and she is saying that World Relief, which is the national association of Evangelicals immigration arm, may be complicit in some of this. Listen to cut 14.
>> Speaker E: So we talked also last time about the national association of Evangelicals. It's the largest association of evangelical churches in the world. Their immigration arm is World Relief. They have taken something like $330 million from the federal government since 2021 to resettle, quote, unquote, refugees. In 2021, they took 56 million to resettle refugees, including those from Afghanistan, including the shooter of those two National Guards people. So the day before that shooting, President Trump announced that there would be additional vetting. So he announced a while ago there would be additional vetting of the Afghani refugees. The day before that, World Relief issued a statement condemning that decision. And in fact, their vp, Matthew Sorens, who is heavily active in evangelical churches, you will see him often on the weekends giving presentations. They send materials out to churches saying, you must welcome the stranger. He called it a needless re. Traumatizing of the Afghani refugees. The very next day, the Afghan terrorists killed two National Guardsmen. So that's how this empathy debate is working within the church.
>> Tim Wildmon: You know, it's interesting. I know I'm getting inside baseball here when I'm talking about the topic of the history of churches, but in the U.S. But, you know, a hundred years ago, there was something like. I don't m. I may not have my years. Right. So don't hold me to this. There was something called the National Council of Churches.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yep.
>> Tim Wildmon: All right. That was really, I think that's what it was called. That was really an association of mainstream, at that time, large denominations in America that came together for unified purposes. They became so liberal that an organization was founded as an alternative called the national association of Evangelicals. We here at American Family association, my dad, we've been in existence almost 50 years, but we used to work really close with the national association of Evangelicals. And they were, an organization that was conservative and true to the Bible, and. A lot of great denominations and pastors and people were part of the national association of Evangelicals. Do you Remember this?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah. Oh, yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: So what she's talking about right there. Who was who we listening to?
>> Steve Jordahl: Megan Basham.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. Megan is talking about how the national association of Evangelicals has shifted more to the left.
>> Steve Jordahl: They have.
>> Tim Wildmon: So I don't know what we're going to form now to combat that as a new alternative. but that's interesting and ironic that she would be mentioning that the National Evangelicals, she said that they'd taken in how much money, like $300 million or something like that, to resettle Afghan or Somali or not.
>> Steve Jordahl: Just that the Somali is a whole Somali is a different. If I could just let me do this, and then I'll let you guys go for whichever one.
Homeland Secretary says half of Somalian visas are fraudulent
You know, there's this whole allegation of fraud within Somal community. In fact, we can play. Christy, Noem, the, Homeland Security.
>> Tim Wildmon: I think these are charges. These aren't. These are more than just. They are.
>> Steve Jordahl: Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem says that half. She calls Tim Waltz an idiot and that half of the Smalley visas are fraudulent. Well, those fraudulent visas may have had a hand from Lutheran Social Services. And this is a young, influencer conservative guy named Jeff Baugh who's done the research. Cut 15.
>> Tim Wildmon: Why are Somalians in America, especially North Dakota and Minnesota? So I looked into it. The main group bringing in Somalians is Lutheran Social Services. And turns out they get $2375 for every Somalian they bring over from the federal government. Probably.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yes.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So this, this is, this is a very good story. Steve, we. So the United States, since 2020, the election of Joe Biden, the United States was not only being inundated by illegal immigrants, okay. Coming across basically an open border on the south, but we were also being inundated by, quote, unquote, legal immigrants who had visas and who, under the auspices of the Biden administration's encouragement, groups like the ones you're mentioning being paid to bring as many people as they could.
>> Steve Jordahl: Yeah. over.
>> Tim Wildmon: So incentivize financially. Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: If you're, You're. If you're an organization, you're being paid by the Biden administration. Biden administration. $2,000 plus per Somalian. Yeah. you're going to make sure you get as many Somalians into this country as possible because you make money.
>> Tim Wildmon: This is. And this is what the common theme here is. People who go under the banner of Christianity are subverting our country in many ways. That's what, that's what M mentioned back. Back on the Basham, if indeed you've got. He mentioned that fellow right there mentioned.
>> Steve Jordahl: Lutheran, Lutheran Social Services.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay. And then I know the. Another group that's notorious for this kind of left wing, aiding and abetting people coming here illegally is the Catholic Charities.
>> Steve Jordahl: Charities also get my.
>> Tim Wildmon: You see, so what you're saying is these, these, these, these charities, what you're saying, Steve, these charities are being financially incentivized to bring people to the United States and for everyone they can get over here and quote, settled and they make money off of it. Right. Or, they, they get a donation.
>> Steve Jordahl: From some federal government black donation of millions of dollars. As in the work relief. Well, world relief. They didn't break it down per person. They were paid a bunch of money to bring to help people get over and then they spent whatever they spent.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Now you're not saying, and Megan Basham's not saying, I don't think that the fraudulent visas, half of these for the Somalians is someone saying this is. Those were provided by these Christian organizations. Nobody knows how they got their fraudulent visas. Well, how is this working?
>> Steve Jordahl: Let me, let me see. According to our, Kristi Noem, who. I gotta make sure I get her, correct. Homeland, Security. Homeland Secretary Barbie. Homeland Secretary Christine Ulm. Listen to what this was during a cabinet meeting yesterday, with President Trump. Cutthroat.
>> Speaker E: You know, you told me to look into Minnesota and their fraud on visas and their programs. 50% of them are fraudulent. Which means that that wacko Governor Walz either is an idiot or he did it on purpose. And I think he's both. Sir. He brought people in there illegally that never should have been in this country. Said they were somebody that they're not. They said they were married to somebody who was their brother or somebody else. Fraudulent visa applications signed up for government programs took hundreds of billions.
>> Tim Wildmon: by the way, just let me say before we get calls and emails, I was not calling her Barbie. Christy Noem, the, Secretary of Homeland Security. I was merely saying that's what the left wing media refers her to her all the time. You're being sarcastic, but I didn't get a chance to finish my sarcasm. Yes, which will lead people to believe that I'm calling her Barbie, which is disrespectful, which we get emails and phone calls for. Yeah. So I'm saving us a lot of trouble here.
>> Steve Jordahl: Thank you.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Thank you.
>> Ed Vitagliano: By going on, you're saving yourself because.
>> Wesley Wildmon: We were going to forward you the.
>> Tim Wildmon: Emails. And I don't need them because Then I have to type them back and say I didn't. I mean, I wasn't calling her Barbie. I was saying other people.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You know what? can I just say one quick thing about the Barbie?
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And then we can. Whatever we can cram in here. We can. The left is always saying, you shouldn't objectify women.
Steve: The very people who say we shouldn't objectify women are hypocrites
>> Tim Wildmon: Yes, they are.
>> Ed Vitagliano: They're not just. Women aren't just another pretty face. They're intelligent. Whatever. And. And they completely show themselves to be hypocrites by calling Kristi Gnome, who by any, you know, average. she's a very pretty lady.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. So they call her Barbie.
>> Tim Wildmon: Right.
>> Ed Vitagliano: They objectify her and treat her as if she doesn't have a.
>> Tim Wildmon: The very people who say we shouldn't objectify women. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: My pleasure.
>> Tim Wildmon: My thanks to Wesley. Wesley, thank you for your contributions.
>> Wesley Wildmon: You're welcome.
>> Tim Wildmon: Your contributions, really? You blew it out of the water. I, I don't know what else. I agree. Don't you agree he blew it?
>> Steve Jordahl: I don't think he quite blew it all out of the water. He was sending in a second strike just to make sure he gets it all, man.
>> Wesley Wildmon: Listen, I kept my word. I'll let y' all have the last word on that issue.
>> Tim Wildmon: Our thanks to Ed, Steve, and Fred Jackson, Frank Turek, Brent Creeley, Cole Greene, and, Let's go. And whoever made the popcorn.