Today's Issues continues on AFR with Steve Paisley Jordal
>> Steve Jordahl: Today's Issues continues on AFR with your host, Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.
>> Tim Wildmon: Hey, welcome back, everybody, to Today's Issues on the American Family Radio Network. Thanks for listening to afr, Tim and Ed. And now, Steve Paisley Jordal joins us. Good morning, brother Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Good morning, everybody.
>> Tim Wildmon: You have a good weekend, Steve?
>> Steve Jordahl: I did. we,
>> Tim Wildmon: What'd you do?
>> Steve Jordahl: We went out to dinner last night with my wife's nephew. We haven't seen them in a bit. And so he and his wife went to a place in. In M. What's the place?
>> Speaker C: In.
>> Steve Jordahl: In.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, if you give me the state. Let's start there, and then I can zero in on.
>> Steve Jordahl: It would be Alabama. It would be, the space,
>> Tim Wildmon: Huntsville.
>> Steve Jordahl: Huntsville. Thank you. We went to a place called Melt. This is a sandwich shop. Melt.
>> Tim Wildmon: He drove a long way for a sandwich.
>> Ed Vitagliano: He drove the.
>> Steve Jordahl: That's where he lives.
>> Tim Wildmon: Oh, okay, y'.
>> Steve Jordahl: All.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. That makes sense.
>> Tim Wildmon: You drove the two hours over there, right?
>> Steve Jordahl: We drove the two hours over there to visit with him and his wife.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.
>> Steve Jordahl: And, we went to this place called Melt.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay.
>> Steve Jordahl: In Huntsville. And it was good.
>> Tim Wildmon: What do they serve?
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, they had this honey goat cheese spread that they put on toast, and then they have different sandwiches. I had a Hawaiian, which was ham and pineapple sandwich. So good. Everything was really good.
>> Ed Vitagliano: As long as it doesn't wind up on a pizza.
>> Tim Wildmon: I don't want to be Debbie Downer here, Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: You can be if you want.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I'm just telling you, the Bible specifically forbids honey and goat cheese.
>> Steve Jordahl: Does it really?
>> Speaker C: That combo?
>> Steve Jordahl: I will spend the afternoon repenting.
>> Tim Wildmon: I have to look it up.
>> Ed Vitagliano: But even Jon the Baptist wouldn't eat that.
>> Tim Wildmon: No honey combined with goat cheese.
>> Steve Jordahl: Honey and goat cheese.
>> Tim Wildmon: But anyway.
>> Steve Jordahl: Okay.
>> Tim Wildmon: I don't mean to be judgmental. I'm just saying.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You don't mean to be, Right.
>> Tim Wildmon: I don't mean to be. You can research that yourself.
>> Steve Jordahl: I will. I'll look it up.
>> Speaker C: All right.
>> Tim Wildmon: Anyway, so you had a good.
>> Steve Jordahl: A good visit? Yeah.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah. All right. Good deal. All right. is there anything we need to wrap up with our conversation from last hour before we move on to Steve's news stories?
Southern Baptist membership has dropped 25% in 19 years, Steve says
Okay. I was surprised at Southern Baptist decline in membership.
>> Speaker E: Okay.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Now, it does say when I'm, looking this up. There are some factors to consider. That's still a 25% drop. That's a lot.
>> Tim Wildmon: In. In what, 10 years or 20.
>> Ed Vitagliano: No, 19 years.
>> Tim Wildmon: 19 years.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. That we're talking about going from you know, we're talking.
>> Tim Wildmon: Steve.
>> Steve Jordahl: Excuse me. I hear a little bit of it.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, go ahead.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Southern Baptist line. That's going from 16 million to 12 million in 19 years. But this does say that weekly worship attendance has risen by 4%, baptisms increased by 5%, and that analysts say some of the drop in membership may be due to churches purging inactive names from rolls.
>> Tim Wildmon: That's what I always thought about Southern Baptist people.
>> Ed Vitagliano: A lot of people on the rolls,
>> Steve Jordahl: they did what people would like to do with the federal government voting, but they aren't allowed to.
>> Ed Vitagliano: So any be something for. I'm sure George Barna does have.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, you're gonna have to get the dead people off the rose people in the Southern Baptist churches. That's not fair.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.
>> Steve Jordahl: So anyway, I spoke very recently with Richard Land, who is the President emeritus at Southern Evangelical Seminary. And he gave me a report from the latest annual convention, annual meeting, which was in Orlando here, oh earlier this month. And he said it was the first, it was a great annual meeting and it was the first year in several that there haven't been a whole lot of contentious issues. They were dealing with women pastors in the past. They were dealing with the sex abuse scandal which was overblown in my opinion in the past. but this year there was a great unanimity and mainline denominations all over the country are declining. And the Southern Baptist leased evangelical non denominational churches are growing at this point.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, when you factor in the numbers among the churches in America, it's hard to know exactly how many people you have an official denomination like the Southern Baptist Convention, they're going to track their numbers like we've been talking about here. But it's hard to say how many people belong to independent evangelical churches. I know Bible churches are very popular out West. Right. so it's hard to exactly know, you know, those numbers.
>> Steve Jordahl: Most of your mega churches anymore are in, are kind of non denominational.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Steve Jordahl: A lot of non denominational.
Ed Martin: Can you give us a brief update on the situation with Iran
>> Tim Wildmon: All right, we, we haven't talked to you. Can you give us a brief update on the situation with Iran? most people heard over the weekend that we exchanged they, they shot at a merchant ship, they being the Iranian forces. And then the US retaliated with some military hits. this is going into the weekend.
>> Steve Jordahl: There was a ceasefire in place and as you say, Iran challenged it and the United States hit back and did some bombing. So now how Is it going? It depends on who you ask. As usual, if you ask Iran, they are saying we are in control of the Strait of Hormuz. we need a nuclear weapon in order to maintain, peace in the world.
>> Tim Wildmon: They said that out loud. That was kind of stunning. Did you see this then?
>> Steve Jordahl: But I did, but. But President Trump is saying that he's going back for negotiations. They're reopening the negotiations again. So it depends on who you talk to and who knows what's going to happen. I don't think anybody knows. And there's questions now about how much even, the president knows.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I think, you know, we've always mentioned that President Trump is an expert at trolling the mainstream media, trolling the Democrats. I think Iran is trolling us. I'm talking about the administration and our country. I don't think they have any intent of coming to the table. I think this is going to be a problem for a while.
>> Tim Wildmon: Go ahead.
>> Steve Jordahl: I was going to say the president does a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm not saying he's stupid.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, I mean, he's got to be. He can't be the only person in the world that knows that Iran is not going to hold its word and can't be trusted. I mean, he just can't be. I don't understand.
>> Tim Wildmon: But what about him?
>> Steve Jordahl: That he.
>> Tim Wildmon: What, he's threatened, 25 times to do things that he's never done.
>> Steve Jordahl: again, don't you think they figured that out? Yeah, I. Okay, then from looking from the outside, I don't know. I don't have access to the, inside information that he would have or that.
>> Tim Wildmon: It's not inside information. It's a true social post.
>> Steve Jordahl: Well, there might be other things going on inside that they're not talking about. About. I just am saying I don't. It is. It is curious and puzzling what's going on there, because we're getting mixed signals from everybody.
>> Tim Wildmon: Why do you say. Why do you say we're being played, Ed? Why do you say that?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, because I don't. My personal opinion is if the mullahs are in charge, and I don't think that that's going to change. And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard The Core, the irgc, is going to remain in charge. They're going to want to continue their revolution. This is an, Islamic revolution that they're promoting. It's like expecting communists to say, you know what? We're not going to spread communism around the world. We're just going to, you know, sign an agreement. I don't think there's any way those people can, in their own minds, stop doing what they believe God has called them to do.
>> Tim Wildmon: God being Allah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, they're God.
>> Steve Jordahl: Here's the difference though, is finished.
>> Tim Wildmon: Go ahead.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, I just don't. I think that they, there's no way they're going to stop feeding funds to, their revolutionary proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas, I don't know, they may have been devastated beyond repair. But, I think they're going to continue to fund that and they're going to continue to foment revolution and they are going to use every, every, negotiation tactic they can to get the money to keep that going. And as soon as they get that money, they're going to build up their military and continue funding Hezbollah, et cetera. I just think that that is their quote, unquote, calling in life and expecting them not to do it. I think is being, is what I mean by being played.
>> Steve Jordahl: I agree 100% with everything you just said. The difference between the communist thing and them is that with the communists, we, ramped up our, nuclear arsenal and we had this mutually assured destruction and it seemed to have worked. The Cold War was both sides saying we can blow each other up and that would be stupid. Iran, these Molas, they want to die.
>> Ed Vitagliano: They want to blow the world
>> Steve Jordahl: than to blow up the world and them die in the process. I don't know how you negotiate, how you deal. People like that appeal like that.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It just.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, well.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And we said we weren't going to talk.
>> Tim Wildmon: Well, I know, but, but you know it. Every day something changes that denies what was supposed to happen in agreement the previous day. Yeah, so that's what you get cynical after a while.
>> Ed Vitagliano: If they wanted to come to the, I'm talking about Iran. If they wanted to come to the negotiation, table, they wouldn't have attacked a commercial oil tanker. They wouldn't have attacked over the weekend, Bahrain and where else? Kuwait.
>> Ed Vitagliano: It seems like they are continuing to let it be known. Nah, ah, we're not really going to do it. I don't know what, I don't know what else to say about it.
Do you think President Trump and the administration should quit commenting on Iran negotiations
Well, here at the negotiation table, you don't say we are going to have a nuclear weapon.
>> Tim Wildmon: Okay, but do you think it's time for President Trump and the administration itself just to quit commenting on this?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Because, well, nobody's listening. I don't listen anymore. When the administration says, we got it, we got a deal in place, we got this is going to happen. This. I don't listen. So if the purpose of, of, of, making comments is to keep updating everyone on the progress, it's failing. I don't think any. I think the only one's listening to what the president says or to what Iran says is the media, because they're covering it. I don't think the American people believe anything's going to happen, is nothing is happening and nobody's going to believe it. I won't believe it until not only it's signed, the agreement is signed, but then we have six months or a year where we can check to see if Iran's going to, uphold their end of the bargain. Even if they sign something, I don't trust them for the reason Steve's saying. They want the world to burn because they think that's the way Islam becomes triumphant.
>> Steve Jordahl: All right, you ready to move on or do.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, go.
Steve Martin shares two things from his Twitter feed that are revealing
>> Steve Jordahl: All right, I want to bring you some, I wish we called this segment Steve's Twitter feed because. Because every day I run across things that I think are interesting and kind of revealing from my Twitter feed. I've got two things from my Twitter feed I wanted to share with you. One is, I love it when the left decides to say the quiet part out loud, but they don't realize that they're saying the quiet part out loud. this is a candidate, for the land Commissioner in Texas. His name is Ben Flores, and he is defending James Talarico. And so, he's saying, well, when the. We're going to go ahead and identify with James Tallarico, if they call him a homosexual, we're going to all be homosexuals. Just listen to the cut because I think it's really revealing. This is cut. 15.
>> Speaker E: Next time they say that James is trans, we're all trans. When they say James is a gay tofu eating vegan, we're all gay tofu eating vegans. And when they say James is going to hell, We'll say we're all going to hell.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Who's that?
>> Steve Jordahl: That was the, candidate for Texas land manager. His name is Ben Flores. He's a candidate on the November ballot. And he said the quiet part out loud. Although I don't think he realized it.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's. That is foolish. Listen, that's coming from a man who doesn't believe there is a hell. Are people saying Talarico's trans or he's
>> Steve Jordahl: good, he's just saying that whenever they. We're going to identify and back Talarico, no matter what they say. I don't haven't heard anybody say that.
Vance Vance says it's inappropriate to compare illegal immigrants to wild coyotes
All right, the second item for my, my Twitter feed. This is. I thought this was interesting. This is a guy named Joshua Garrison hat, tip to Josh Garrison. He writes this. I bring home a trapped coyote and let it loose in the kitchen. Hackles up, teeth bared, not housebroken. My wife says, get it out. I tell her it's very unwelcoming and unchristian way to speak about a future house pet. The children back in the hallway. I tell them it's a rescue. I tell them fences are fear, cages are barbaric, rules are cruel, and it will domesticate in time. I grab my lunch box and leave with my principals. When I get home, there's blood on the floor. And the experts who sold me on compassion are already explaining why nobody could have seen this coming. Anyway, that's Western migration policy.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Listen, first, I want to say it may not be appropriate to compare, all illegal immigrants, to a wild coyote. however, it's, it's a pretty good word picture when you take into account that whatever the percentage is, a lot, especially in Europe. Good grief. The amount of crime, violent, crime against women and against, just other people. That's, that's not, that's not a bad way, of comparing it. You know, I mean, human beings wouldn't do the first thing. The coyote.
>> Steve Jordahl: No, they wouldn't bring one in.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You wouldn't bring one in. And, and so.
>> Steve Jordahl: But you shouldn't be bringing hordes of people who, you know, are not going to assimilate. Yeah. and speaking specifically, I think mostly of the Muslim immigration policy, of these people are coming in. They're not coming in with the purpose of trying.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Coming in to conquer.
>> Steve Jordahl: That's what they're doing.
>> Ed Vitagliano: That's what I think.
>> Steve Jordahl: That's what they're doing. we've been talking over and over about how the Democrat Party is, is sprinting to the left. There is a section of the Democrat Party who is kind of done with this. And they're saying maybe we're, these are moderate, what we think are liberals or Democrats. And I've got two examples. I've got, Remember James Carville? He was saying how much he has Trump derangement syndrome and he doesn't care. Well, apparently something is a bridge too far for James Carville because this is what he's saying now. Cut 13.
>> Speaker C: She has attacked Interracial relationships in the American flag. Lady, I ain't in the same party as you. I'm sorry. I guess not. And I actually do think it's time for Democrats to talk the S word. Schism. I really do. everybody's always said, no, no, we're coalition. We're big tent. And there's some. There's just some that I can't be in the same camp with. Let's negotiate the terms of a schism here. Maybe we can. We can part under some kind of advantageous terms for both of us. But I'm done. I'm not in that political party. I am totally comfortable in a political party that spends time questioning the policies of the government of Israel. in fact, I'm enthusiastic about that. I don't want to be in a political party that denies the right of the state of Israel to exist. That's just not. I just can't do that. I'm sorry. It's just not doable.
>> Steve Jordahl: The Sheehy was talking about at the beginning one of the three candidates that, won in NewSong York last week. Also, Bill Maher is having second thoughts about being a Democrat. Let's listen to what he has to say. Cut 12.
>> Speaker F: If this is where the Democratic Party is going, where this Democratic Socialist. This obsession with Israel with the Jew hating with. They don't believe in capitalism. No prisons. If this is where they're going, my vote is in play. Okay, I'd like to hear that. It actually always has been. I just. Every year, I don't make my decision by who has an R or D. I actually always came to the conclusion that the Democrat was probably better.
>> Steve Jordahl: Sure.
>> Speaker F: And voted for them.
>> Steve Jordahl: Okay.
>> Speaker F: And Trump can't run again, and he'd be a little too exciting for me anyway. So it's either gonna be you or Rubio.
>> Steve Jordahl: He's talking to Vance.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah, that was Vice President J.D.
>> Tim Wildmon: vance. Listen, the Republicans, you know, we've talked about this before, historically. Okay. I'm just talking about the midterms, all right? I'm talking about the midterms coming up in November. Historically, the, whoever has the presidency, what party, they lose in the midterms. That's how it's always. It's been.
>> Ed Vitagliano: They lose seats, their party loses seats.
>> Tim Wildmon: It's rare that they don't.
James Carville says Democrats are in midst of a civil war over Israel
>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.
>> Tim Wildmon: So that's historical backdrop here. and then you wonder, well, how much. And I'm talking about Congress. Okay. Primarily, I don't know about gubernatorial races. I don't think they have. So Much to do with national international issues. It's more about their own state, but congressional and Senate seats. You know, you wonder, well, how much is the war effort going to hurt? How much is the price of gasoline even though it's down now? Some, how much is, inflation? How much of these things going to hurt the power, the party in power, which is the Republicans? That remains to be seen. Also the redistricting, you got to factor that in. so, you know, that's a, That's a big question mark out there in November. We don't really know polling. If you believe polling, you know, it shows that Democrats have made slight gains because of the reasons I just mentioned. Because. But if you have if the Republicans are able to bring up these issues and it nationally about how far left these wacko the squad type thinking is dominating the Democrat party. Now what James Carville said right there, and you know, he's a lifelong Democrat strategist, he said, I'm out, with. With the Bill Maher, same type thing. Now, is Bill Maher Jew?
>> Steve Jordahl: no, I don't believe he is.
>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't think. I don't know. I'll check while you.
>> Tim Wildmon: Is that last name typically a Jewish, name anyway?
>> Ed Vitagliano: I don't know.
>> Tim Wildmon: I think he's an atheist.
>> Steve Jordahl: He is. That.
>> Ed Vitagliano: He isn't. He is an.
>> Tim Wildmon: A Jewish by heritage. I'm asking Bill Maher. I'm talking about with Seagun, because you've got a schism. James Carvel mentioned schism. Go ahead.
>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. Bill Maher is Jewish according to Jewish law because his mother was Jewish, making him ethnically half Jewish, half Irish. However, he was raised Catholic by his father. so he's half Jewish, according
>> Tim Wildmon: to Jewish, not by faith, but by ethnicity. So here's my point there, and I've mentioned this before. There is a, divide which is it falls under the category of irreconcilable differences here within the Democrat Party. And that's what James Carwell was talking about. That's what Bill Maher is talking about. The people in these far left, Socialist, squad types, they hate the state of Israel and therefore they hate Jews in America who support Israel. You, you want. I, saw a story this weekend out in San Francisco. There is a man, I forgot his name. He's running for Congress to replace Nancy Pelosi's seat. He is a gay man who is Jewish, and he's always been. He's a far lefty. But because he doesn't condemn Israel. Every day, all day, these hard lefters, hard lefties are going after him as not being liberal enough. You see what I'm saying?
>> Steve Jordahl: I think Scott Wiener.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, that's his name. That's his name. So I'm just saying, you, there you go. He's as far left as you can get politically. But because he doesn't hate Jews, then he's unacceptable himself. Being a Jew, obviously he wouldn't be a self hater, even though he has also issued condemnation statements against the government of Israel. But this is a dominant issue within the Democrat Party now and this schism, the Republicans may benefit from it. you know, sometimes you benefit from achievements of your own and sometimes you benefit from failures of your opponent. And that the Democrats are they're in the midst of a civil war themselves here because these far lefties, they hate Israel and they hate Jews, that support Israel. Go ahead.
>> Steve Jordahl: And the Republican Party has its own detractors, Tucker Carlsons and Ankel. but the Republican Party and mainstream Republicans are disassociating themselves. Democrats are running as quickly away from this issue as they can. And the Democrat Socialists are indeed getting control of that party.
>> Ed Vitagliano: And it's interesting that the Democratic Socialists of America, that's an organization, a party as well. they keep talking as if they're the ones in charge. And I'll tell you, this is something that James Carville was talking about. You're going to have to have an official break with that group if you're going to. If you're a traditional liberal like Bill Maher or James Carville, you're going to have to decide. The Democratic Party rejects the platform of the DSA and we are not going to go along with it. And you are not welcome in our party. And I don't think the Democratic Party establishment has the guts to do that.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah, this is going to be very interesting to watch and see how this plays out in the next few months leading up to the November midterms. Because this is. I, mentioned the expressionable differences. That's where the Democrat Party is on,
>> Ed Vitagliano: on Israel and that's their future. That's their young people.
>> Tim Wildmon: Yeah.
>> Ed Vitagliano: You say we don't have room for the dsa, you're going to lose a chunk of your.
>> Tim Wildmon: And the irony, one of the ironies here is that the Jews overwhelmingly vote for Democrats.
>> Speaker F: Right.
>> Tim Wildmon: in elections. Will that change now?
>> Ed Vitagliano: Yep.
>> Tim Wildmon: We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening.
