Join us for this special Christmas edition of Washington Watch, where we delve into compelling interviews with Congressmen motivated by their faith. Hosted by Jody Heiss, we hear from Texas Congressman Randy Weber about his dramatic personal transformation from a life of drugs to becoming a devoted follower of Christ. Learn how his faith guides his work in Congress daily, and how his journey inspires others to bring their beliefs into the public sphere.
SPEAKER 02 :
from the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Thank you so much for joining this very, very special edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss, a senior vice president here at the Family Research Council and president of FRC Action. We are so thrilled to have you join us. And let me just say, all of us here at FRC are deeply, deeply thankful for each and every single one of you, our viewers and our listeners. We hope that today has been for you. A HOPEFUL DAY FILLED WITH HOPE, JOY, PEACE, AND LOVE AS WE ALL CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST. AND WE ARE REMINDED THAT THE WORD TELLS US THAT UNTO US A CHILD IS BORN, A SON IS GIVEN, AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDERS AND HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, MIGHTY GOD, EVERLASTING FATHER, PRINCE OF PEACE. ISAIAH 9-6. HOW AWESOME THAT IS. AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU. AND FOR THIS SPECIAL EDITION, WE’RE GOING TO SHARE WITH YOU SOME INTERVIEWS THAT TONY HAD WITH FOUR DIFFERENT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. THIS IS ALL PART OF OUR PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP SERIES THAT YOU CAN FIND, BY THE WAY, AT FRC’S STAND FIRM APP. If you don’t have the app, we encourage you to get it, and I’ll share with you how you can do that a little bit later in the program. But these interviews go beyond the policies and politics and all the news of the day. They dive into the hearts of these different lawmakers and the faith that drives them. Featured today will be Texas Congressman Randy Weber. Oklahoma Congressman Jasper Keene and Kevin Hearn and Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. And each of them have a unique story to share on how God guided them to where they are today. And we’re happy to bring them to you today as maybe a little gift from us to you. But if you miss any portion of today, again, you can catch this program, this edition at TonyPerkins.com. WE’RE NOT ONLY THIS, BUT ALL. MANY, MANY PAST EDITIONS AND TONS OF RESOURCES, SO AGAIN, BE SURE TO BOOKMARK THAT WEBPAGE, TONYPERKINS.COM. ALSO, AS WE CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST HERE AT FRC, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN US AS WE CONTINUE SHINING THE LIGHT OF BIBLICAL TRUTH RIGHT HERE IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND ACROSS THE NATION. AND THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON, EVERY DOLLAR YOU GIVE IS DOUBLED THROUGH A GENEROUS, LIMITED TIME CHALLENGE MATCH THAT WE HAVE. ALL OF THIS HELPING US TO DEFEND FAITH, FAMILY, AND FREEDOM IN THE COMING YEAR. AND TOGETHER, WE CAN ALL STAND FOR THESE BIBLICAL VALUES AND PROCLAIM THE ONLY TRUE SOURCE OF HOPE FOR AMERICA. If you’d like to give and join us, you can do so by texting the word LIGHT to 67742. And let’s do it. Let’s shine the light of Christmas, the light of Christ together as we enter a new year. All right, let’s jump into our first interview today. This is when Tony sat down with Congressman Randy Weber, who serves the 14th Congressional District of Texas.
SPEAKER 09 :
we begin with the story of how congressman weber came to faith in christ and it is an awesome awesome story here’s how tony got that part of the conversation started let’s talk a little bit about that faith now you you and i have interacted quite a bit and and i know that you are a man of deep abiding faith i’ve seen it in your prayers Let’s talk about that encounter that you had with God, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s talk about that.
SPEAKER 14 :
Okay. Well, I grew up in the sixties, child of the sixties, flower power, drugs. I was into drugs, very, I was deeply into drugs. I was actually selling drugs. I was a small town drug dealer selling marijuana by the lid. We’d buy pounds at a time. We’d sell lids. Well, now you’d just be in business. Now I’d be in business, I know. LSD, uppers and downers. I mean, I was really your basic booger head. Well, I was living with a girl. We were selling drugs out of her apartment. And a friend of mine named Jeff Wilson used to come by and buy marijuana from us. He came by one night and he knocked on the door and he said, Randy, I got something I want you to try. I thought it was some kind of new drug or something. He said, I want you to go to church with me. And I said, Jeff Wilson, you have lost your mind. I grew up in a family. They went to church twice a year, whether we did it or not, you know, you know, right. And, but my girlfriend wanted to go to church. So we went there to a church that was on fire, taking people in off the street and their own homes, get them off of drugs of prior homosexuals, prior drug addicts. So as I said, maybe the marriage in shambles, prior alcoholics down on their luck out of a job. They really loved Jesus and it showed. It really showed. There was a guy there, a second guy named Jeff Cawthorn with a real deep voice that was kind of praying for us and loving on us. Long story short, my girlfriend got saved and kicked me out of her apartment. And so where’d that leave you? I started searching. I was going to play search because I knew there was something more powerful here than me. And I was working as a welder’s helper in a construction facility. And so I started playing church. I quit smoking, drinking, cussing, telling bad jokes. Although my kids today say, dad, you still tell some pretty bad jokes. I said, I’m talking about dirty, not the bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so long story short, my girlfriend was at my mom’s house. I moved back in with my parents on July 2nd, 1973. I was born the first time, July 2nd, 1953. Reborn July 2nd, 1973. But anyway, I got home. My girlfriend was there with my mom cooking me a birthday dinner. The guys at the chemical plant, when I quit smoking and drinking and cussing and all that, they were merciless on me. Man, they were tough on me. You can just imagine. So they convinced me to go out to the bar. It’s my birthday, Weber. Come on, go to the bar, which I did. back to smoking drinking cussing telling bad jokes things i hadn’t done in four months i was playing church those four months tony so i get on my mom gives me a living first i didn’t even own a bible first bible gave me a living bible i’m walking down the hall from the kitchen to my bedroom and the lord says to me read ephesians 5. I didn’t know if Ephesians, I didn’t know where Ephesians was, Old Testament or New Testament. So what did I do? Go to the table of contents. It’s in the Old, New Testament. I didn’t know if Ephesians had five chapters. It’s got six. Paul writes a living Bible that’s come to our attention that some of you have fallen, I’m paraphrasing, but fallen back into your own ways. And it talks about dirty stories, coarse jokes. These are not for you. And later on in Ephesians it says, Arise, O sleeper, and Christ will give you life. Man, I got down on my knees and I said, Lord, you’re talking directly to me. Please come into my life and be my personal savior. I went down on my knees on the way to hell, died in the wool center, got up a child of the king. I walked down the hallway into where my girlfriend, my mother was, and she said, you’ve been crying. I said, I just got saved. She goes, wow, the phone rings in the kitchen. Now, that was the house was built in 72, so it was orange for my countertops. It was the phone like this. Oh, absolutely. And it was Jeff Cawthorn, deep voice. He said, Randy? I said, yeah, Jeff. Just calling to tell you how glad I am you just got saved. I spun around to my girlfriend, I said, This is Jeff on the phone. He knows I just got saved. Did you call him? And she said, Jeff, Jeff, who was Jeff, Jeff Cawthon or Jeff Wilson? I said, no, this is Jeff Cawthon. He knows he just got saved. She said, well, praise the Lord. Tony, God put a stamp on my life. You’ll never doubt. You’ll never forget. That’s how I came to be a child of the King and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER 09 :
When that’s part of the foundation that you bring to this place, the nation’s capital, I have to say this from my observation of you, Randy, is that that sensitivity and that tenderness from that moment back in 1973 is still there.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, it is. He who is forgiven much, loves much. And to whom much is given, much is required. I never forget that.
SPEAKER 09 :
There’s a radical transformation of your life.
SPEAKER 14 :
man was it out of a life of drugs well quite frankly being a child of the world and the devil if you will to being a child of the king the most high god so how does that influence you today as a member of congress as you said only 288 from texas have served in this capacity if i have the numbers right yeah so how does that influence you today Well, I think our nation, as I said earlier, was ordained by God. We should be a nation of Christian values and principles, and we should walk by those ordinances and principles and, quite frankly, the Ten Commandments in the only one true holy book, and that’s the Bible. And that’s how we should walk, that’s how we should govern, and that’s how we should actually treat each other, too.
SPEAKER 09 :
You have a sense of confidence because you’ve seen the work of God in your own life, so you know this is real. Oh, yeah. So when there’s this great attack that we see on faith, this effort to try to suppress Christianity in the public space, I mean, what we’ve been talking about here, people would say, well, that’s Christian nationalism, that you would bring your faith to this place. How do you respond to that?
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, actually, it’s Christian rationalism. the only way i can rational this is that if i had not gotten jesus christ as my savior i would still be i might not even be here quite frankly because two of my friends died of drug overdoses one died in prison another one died after he got out of prison So I would say it’s Christian rationalism. That is, this is a God-ordained country. And the reason it is, what was it, Alexander de Tocqueville said, the reason America is great is because America is good. And it’s because we’re based on God’s holy word. It’s just that simple. Christian rationalism, we’ll coin a new phrase.
SPEAKER 09 :
I like that. Because if you think about it, it is the only rational explanation for a life transformed, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. You’re not alone up here. There are other Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians that it’s kind of the untold story of Washington, D.C. Not a lot of people see that. We need to be more vocal about our faith.
SPEAKER 14 :
Jesus said, anyone who’s ashamed of me before men, of him will I be ashamed of my Father who is in heaven. Jesus Christ paid much way to have a price for me, for me to ever be ashamed of him.
SPEAKER 09 :
But when they see, when people, people watching this program hear your testimony, they see you, you’ve been at our annual gathering for the day of repentance, prayer and repentance that we’ve done the last two years at the Museum of the Bible. You’ve prayed openly as a member of Congress. People see that and they take hope in that because if a leader can be bold in their faith, they can as well.
SPEAKER 14 :
I would hope that they take great hope in that, and that they would stand up for Jesus Christ, stand up for God Almighty, and say, you know what? There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things, and we need to get back on the path of the right way. And what did you just quote, John 14, 6? I’m the way, the truth, and the life. And I’m going to paraphrase, and no country can make this happen without me.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, that was Texas Congressman Randy Weber during an exclusive sit-down interview that’s part of our Profiles in Leadership series that you can find on FRC’s Stand Firm app. This is a special Christmas Day edition of Washington Watch, and we are going to encourage you, if you’ve not already done so, you want to be sure to have our Stand Firm app as we enter into a new year. You will find so much valuable information there from News of the Day from a biblical perspective to Washington Watch, a host of different things that you will be able to find to help your walk with the Lord and how to look at our world from a biblical perspective. If you don’t yet have it, you can go to your favorite Apple Store, Google Play, or wherever, or you can simply text the word APP, A-P-P, to 67742. You’ll definitely want to… DO SO. NOW, WE’VE GOT MORE INTERVIEWS COMING YOUR WAY. NOT ONLY CONGRESSMAN WEBBER, BUT MORE COMING YOUR WAY RIGHT AFTER THE BREAK. WE’RE GOING TO HAVE JOSH PERKINE. SO STAY TUNED. MUCH MORE OF WASHINGTON WATCH ON THIS SPECIAL CHRISTMAS DAY EDITION COMING YOUR WAY RIGHT AFTER THE BREAK.
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During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we’re making an eternal impact. 2024 has been another year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C. This fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC’s outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with a community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God’s intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel’s peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government, Launching in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us for another year of standing for faith, family, and freedom.
SPEAKER 05 :
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SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Welcome back to this special Christmas Day edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss. So glad to have you joining us today. Today, as you have probably already seen, we’re sharing some excerpts from some exclusive interviews that Tony had with some members of Congress. You can find these interviews on FRC’s Stand Firm app. THE WHOLE THING IS CALLED DEFENDING THE FAITH, PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP. AND AS I SAID, IT FEATURES SOME SIT-DOWN INTERVIEWS WITH SOME OF OUR NATION’S LEADERS. AND ALL OF THESE GO BEYOND POLICIES AND POLITICS. IT GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THESE INDIVIDUALS’ FAITH. IF, AGAIN, YOU DO NOT HAVE OUR STAND FIRM APP, THIS IS SOMETHING YOU DEFINITELY WANT TO HAVE. YOU CAN GO TO THE APPLE STORE, GOOGLE PLAY, OR YOU CAN SIMPLY THAT’S RIGHT. THAT’S RIGHT. APP TO 67742. ALL RIGHT. THIS NEXT SEGMENT IS GOING TO FEATURE TONY’S INTERVIEW WITH OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN JOSH PERKINE WHO TALKED ABOUT WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD HAVE A ROLE IN GOVERNMENT AND HOW HE WENT FROM THE PATH OF A LAWYER TO THAT OF BEING A AND IT ALL STARTED WITH A CHANCE CONVERSATION THAT HE HAD WHILE WORKING AT HIS FAMILY’S RANCH WAITING TO GET INTO LAW SCHOOL. HERE’S HOW CONGRESSMAN
SPEAKER 09 :
Let’s talk about what led Josh to want to run for Congress and come up here where, I mean, there’s a lot of weighty issues, but there’s a lot of political division and bickering that’s going on.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, a lot of decisions I was starting to make as a young man had come to a real depth in my faith. I was in prayer in college, Oklahoma State University, and really trying to figure out those next steps, typical of most freshman, sophomore, who’ve got most of those basics knocked out, but you’ve got to start figuring out what the major’s going to be. And man, the word law would just illuminate off the pages when I read my Bible. And so much so that I just was really convinced that I was supposed to be a lawyer. And so I applied at the height of when 9-11 occurred. I had the LSAT score, the GPA, etc. to get me into OU. I had a scholarship that I was going to transfer. But they put me on a waiting list because it was a historic year for OU. I was put on this waiting list. It never occurred. My family had started a faith-based ranching program. My father trained cutting horses professionally. My mother and father were very active in ministry, and they had started kind of converting the ranch into a ministry for young men who had alcohol, drug addictions. And so I prayerfully felt led to, in this limbo season, stay there until I got a reply, basically, from what was going to happen on law school. Long story short, I remained doing that for a couple of years. My flesh was screaming, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be doing anything else. And I was, in addition to the cutting horse program, started a heavy equipment business with my father. I was unloading a dozer. A guy jumps on the dozer. I had had a member of Congress reach out to me. And I was telling him about this. It just happened to be a Democrat member of Congress. And he said, man, there’s a guy by the name of Tom Coburn that’s going to come to this particular meeting in a few weeks. I want you to come with me. And so I met Tom Coburn running for the United States Senate. And it wasn’t long before I was working for Tom Coburn. I helped him get elected along with many others that were part of the staff and then became full-time staff with him. And really cut my teeth on a good man who was biblically accurate, constitutionally sound. And then a few years later I found myself making law. So it’s amazing what we know in part and know in part.
SPEAKER 09 :
In a small world, because Tom Coburn, when I came to the Family Research Council 21 years ago, he was on the board. And of course, we also share in common, I grew up in Oklahoma, of course, the other side of the state, I’m up in the northern part of the state, you’re in the southern part of the state. Let’s go back a little bit to that encounter, your first encounter with the Lord that brought you into a relationship. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Look, I was young. You know, I grew up in a Baptist Methodist combo churching, you know, mother and father, one of each. And depending on what year we were in, what type of church. But I grew up with good parents who, you know, taught me to get in the Bible, picture Bibles. If any parents watching and not doing a good job of getting your kids early in life in a picture Bible and then not only Bible studies, man, our culture’s losing out because that’s a lost practice. But I remember just having an encounter at a young age and I had my share of sin, but I’ve walked with the Lord. There was a hunger for the word that developed early in my life.
SPEAKER 09 :
So Josh, a lot of people would say, as a Christian, You’re talking about politics. That’s a dirty business. I mean, things are said about you. You have to get involved in issues that just are not consistent with what they would say would be our faith. How do you respond to that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Our founders, you know, there’s a great quote that’s used a lot. I think Charlie Kirk has probably made it famous, John Adams’ quote that says that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It’s wholly inadequate to the government of any other. I encourage people to go look further. That writing was to the Massachusetts militia by the second president. And he actually starts it off by saying, we have no government armed with power capable of continuing with human passions unbridled by religion and morality. And being somebody who grew up in the cutting horse industry, I like any time the word our founders used, bridle. And then he goes on to say that avarice, which means extreme greed, ambition, and revenge, will break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Then he finishes with that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. So, you know, it clicks with me that if you want to maintain liberty, then you have to have self-governance. And self-governance is the only way our founders saw true liberty being maintained, a limited government. What we see now is that what was started by limited 18 enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8, the vacuum of government is starting to fill and we’re becoming a lawless society because we’re not self-governing like we used to.
SPEAKER 09 :
And government cannot be big enough.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
to restrain what individuals will not keep themselves from doing. The government was created to get the outliers, not to constrain the entire population.
SPEAKER 16 :
That was Oklahoma Congressman Josh Perkin during an exclusive Sit Down interview that’s part of the new Profiles in Leadership series that you can find on our Stand Firm app. And you’re tuning in to this very special edition of Washington Watch. Also, as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I want to again encourage you to join Family Research Council in shining the light of biblical truth across our country, as well as right here in Washington, D.C. And if you give to FRC between now and December 31st, your gift will be doubled. WHAT A BLESSING THAT IS. YOU CAN JOIN US AND DOUBLE YOUR GIVING EFFORTS BY SIMPLY TEXTING THE WORD LIGHT TO 67742. THAT’S LIGHT TO 67742. ALL RIGHT. AFTER THE BREAK, WE’LL SHARE TONY’S INTERVIEW WITH THE CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE. THAT’S OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN KEVIN HEARN. SO MUCH MORE COMING YOUR WAY HERE ON WASHINGTON WATCH IN THIS SPECIAL EDITION.
SPEAKER 04 :
So if you like to think and you like to pray, FRC is the place for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it is the best program out there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I’ve absolutely loved my experience interning at FRC.
SPEAKER 04 :
They really are making waves out in the political world and doing it from the light of the Lord. It’s really humbling for me as a college student who has been involved in the life movement for only a couple of years to be able to witness it alongside of some of the people who have spent their entire lives fighting. A huge thing that sets FRC’s internship apart from others is they’re looking for what they can pour into you instead of what they can get out of you.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have talked to so many of my friends who have interned other places and they’re responding to emails or taking phone calls and doing things like that, but here we get real hands-on experience and get to talk to important people and do important things that we get to see the impact of.
SPEAKER 07 :
The throne of Jesus Christ is unchallenged. His name was never on the ballot to begin with, and it’s never gonna be on the ballot. He’s the King of Kings, and He’s the Lord of Lords, and nothing’s gonna change that. And so our mission stays the same, preach the gospel, make disciples, get ready for heaven. In the meantime, that we’re to advance the concerns of the kingdom of God here on earth.
SPEAKER 09 :
America has entered a critical and vulnerable period from now until January the 20th. Join Family Research Council for Operation Prayer Shield, a 10-week prayer initiative for our nation. From now until January 20th, our country faces global challenges, a transition of leadership, and a lame duck session of Congress. This season calls for heightened spiritual vigilance, discernment, and prayer. Text the word SHIELD to 67742 to join us. You’ll have access to prayer points, scripture, prayer calls. Text SHIELD to 67742. Unite with us and pray for our nation.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas and welcome back to this very special edition of Washington Watch. I am your host today, Jody Heiss. Glad to have you with us. And if you’re just tuning in now, today we’ve been sharing some excerpts from an exclusive series on FRC’s Stand Firm app. It’s called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. The series features some exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation’s leaders. And all these interviews go far, far beyond simply policies and politics. So you’ll want to be sure to view all of these in full. And the only way to do so is by having our Stand Firm app. We encourage you to take that and utilize it, not only for this series, but much, much more. This is a platform that serves as a state-of-the-art digital community. It’s a place where followers of Christ can connect, grow, receive encouragement, stay up to date on news from a biblical worldview, and just simply be empowered to defend the faith. So again, you can get the Stand Firm app by going to your app store or Google Play or wherever, but you can also simply text the word app TO 67742, AND WE CERTAINLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO DO THAT AND JOIN US ALL IN 2025. WELL, THIS NEXT SEGMENT FEATURES TONY’S INTERVIEW WITH OKLAHOMA CONGRESSMAN KEVIN HEARN. KEVIN CHAIRS THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE IN THE HALLS OF CONGRESS, AND IN THIS PARTICULAR CLIP, CONGRESSMAN HERN SHARED WHY HE CAME TO WASHINGTON AFTER A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAREER AS A BUSINESSMAN. HE ALSO SHARED HIS FAITH JOURNEY.
SPEAKER 09 :
So let’s talk about business. Very successful businessman. Not to trump a competitor, but I started in Oklahoma. You actually represent the area that I grew up in, the Tulsa area. I grew up in Cleveland. I worked at Sonic. You ended up two dozen chains, two dozen stores of McDonald’s. Very successful businessman. You left that to come here. Why?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, you know, I look at America being a place that, you know, I grew up very poor. You and I were talking about before we started this about my dad being in the military. I was a product of a military life, a broken family from that. My dad went to Vietnam for three times. My mother, who had myself and my younger brother, 18 months younger than I. I had a sister that passed away about a year and a half before I was born from spina bifida. And my mother was young and she said, you know, I need to go back to work. your dad and I were from, which was Arkansas. She went back, married a guy that didn’t really like to work much, first generation welfare, and we lived in extraordinary poverty. I didn’t have any running water, no indoor plumbing until I was in the eighth grade. My mother went on to have three more children with him, one of which, the first, my older sister, still to this day, still alive, has spina bifida. Her daughter has spina bifida in a wheelchair. So we’ve lived this, you know, very difficult life. But I think, you know, life’s about a binary choice. You can either continue to live like that or you can get out and start the grind of life where you’re going out and you’re facing the adversities of everyday life. And we didn’t have any money. I would actually skip school to go work at a sawmill so I could make gas money. I made $12 a day. A whole lot of money. Bought a lot of gas then. I did. Yeah. But, you know, that’s really why I ran it. and ultimately was to really protect this opportunity we have. No guarantees, but protect the opportunity.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that’s a part of who you are. I mean, I spent my summers in Oklahoma working in the oil field as a roustabout. You couldn’t do that today at 16 or 17 years old. Are we depriving our kids of those difficult experiences that actually build the character and drive them forward?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, I believe so. I’ve been criticized a lot by several members up here because I do think hard work is good for you. Working at the sawmill, getting hot, working at 115.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oklahoma gets pretty hot. Well, Arkansas gets hot.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yeah, a lot of hay, and we picked a lot of cherries in California. We’d leave school a week early to go pick cherries up and down the coast of California. And I do think it makes you appreciate other things when you see that kind of hard work when you’re young.
SPEAKER 09 :
But there’s more to Kevin Hearn than hard work and growing up in poverty. You discovered an element of richness that is intangible in terms of dollars and cents, your faith journey. Let’s talk about that.
SPEAKER 15 :
You know, I think a lot of people, you know, coming from the Midwest, the Bible bell, if you will, will say, I grew up in church and, you know, I, uh, you know, my parents took me to church and I went to Sunday school and all that being, you know, a product, uh, Protestant Baptist, uh, believer. But I think, you know, when you look at my life, uh, as I mentioned, uh, the very impoverished life, we didn’t go to church. We didn’t, we didn’t talk about use God in a way that you would talk about it as a Christian and. You know, I went through a divorce. I thought that I could do anything that was invincible. And at 31 years old, I realized that I wasn’t invincible. God led a special person to me who’s sitting here with us today in this room, but led me to Christ at 31 years old. And I always tell people this story. She asked me, she says, do you know God? And she says, I’m not going to go out with you until you can answer these three questions. This was a 31-year-old guy. I was a guy who knew everything. I’d been through all kinds of adversity in life. And she said, do you know God? I said, no, it’s God. She was thinking big G. I was thinking little g. And she said, well, are you a Christian? I said, man, I’m getting a little uncomfortable here. And then she asked me if I was saved. And I said, I have to get back with you. So that’s how it started out. And, you know, about three months later at Antioch Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, you know, by myself, you know, I felt like Pastor Horton was talking directly to me and, you know, I was led to Christ. And that changed my life forever. I was at rock bottom. And everything we have today is from that moment.
SPEAKER 16 :
That was Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hearn during an exclusive sit-down interview that’s part of the Profiles in Leadership series. You can find that series on our Stand Firm app. You’re tuning in today to a very special edition of Washington Watch. Again, if you don’t have the Stand Firm app, you can go to your favorite app store, Google Play, or simply text the word APP to 67742. All right. After the break, more coming your way. And this time, an interview that Tony had with Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. That includes an amazing story that you don’t want to miss. So don’t go away. We’ll be back.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But do you know the Bible talks about four institutions of government? Do you know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this thing, separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn’t be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
SPEAKER 10 :
Let’s not be discouraged. Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let’s stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 13 :
The American Republic has a freedom like no other. It has roots in the scriptures far more than any other heritage. And if we as followers of Jesus and conservatives don’t defend it, who will?
SPEAKER 01 :
Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don’t say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You’re naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 08 :
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we’ve relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we’ve relied too little on the power of God and God’s ability to open doors that we can’t open and do things that we couldn’t even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 06 :
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that His Spirit empowers us and protects us. and that he could do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have it.
SPEAKER 09 :
Father, we thank you. You have entrusted us with this moment in history, and I pray that we would be found faithful, and that as a result of our faithfulness to you, that thousands, millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER 16 :
Merry Christmas. Welcome back to this special Christmas edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss. Glad to have you with us today. Today, we’ve been sharing some excerpts from an exclusive interview series on FRC’s Stand Firm app. It’s the only place you can find this series. It’s called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. This series features exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation’s leaders. You want to see all of these in their full. And the only way you can do that is by watching it on our Stand Firm app. If you don’t have it, go to the App Store or Google Play, wherever you get your apps. You can also simply text the word APP to 67742. All right, this final segment features Tony’s interview with Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. He shares his faith journey and how it’s shaped, really, by a miraculous recovery from a life-threatening accident. Incredible story. Here’s a preview of that interview.
SPEAKER 17 :
let’s start with your faith journey because that plays a role in why you are here yeah um and it plays a role as to the steps it took to get here we were very prayerful when the seat was opened i was in the state senate at the time we were in the middle of session and tom rooney announced that he wasn’t going to run for re-election And my wife and I started praying about what we should do. Because, you know, a congressional seat, once it’s open, because there’s no term limits, you never know when it’s going to be open again. You have to kind of seize that opportunity if you’re going to do it. And we got many confirmation through Scripture. My wife was just doing her daily verse, and we got confirmation after confirmation. That’s the direction the Lord wanted us to go. So within a week, we made a decision announced. I had like two or three months before qualifying. And that certainly charted the path for us. And throughout the campaign, I wasn’t the Washington DC establishment pick. We were out-fundraised. We were outgunned by the different people in Washington that were supporting my opponent. And every time it was we needed something, checks showed up at the door. There was an outside group that that got involved for me and helped tremendously. And so God made the resources available that I needed to put in place and had set it all up. I had such a hard Senate primary. And the majority of the Senate district was in the new congressional district. So I had knocked on 20,000 doors just two years before I ran for Congress, which again, we didn’t know that it was setting the stage for us to run for Congress and it worked out.
SPEAKER 09 :
You had to develop that ability to walk by faith and to be able to sense the voice of the Lord leading the Holy Spirit. Talk about your experience of coming to know the Lord.
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I grew up in a Methodist religious household. My grandfather on my mom’s side was a Methodist minister. So I grew up in the church. But obviously growing up in the church is different than our faith walk. And I’d say about five years ago, my wife and I went through some challenges in our marriage, which has really strengthened our spiritual walk. We had found a church actually through Senator Rick Scott because he was in an event in my district. We went to a Southern Baptist church before we were at the church we were at now, which gave us a biblical foundation for where we were and what we were doing. And everything was kind of charted before we got there. My wife will tell you the same thing that. Like we didn’t realize the steps that we were taking that was building our faith. I would say I’ve always I would always probably identify myself as a Christian, even in high school and college. But I wouldn’t say that my spirituality and faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit hasn’t gotten as strong as it has in the last five or six years. And that was through what we went through politically and then what we went through personally. So I would say I’ve been a Christian growing up. I would say I received my salvation probably as I started my political steps and being involved in a Baptist church. And then I would say made Jesus my Lord and Savior like the last five or six years.
SPEAKER 09 :
When you’ve integrated that quite well, I’ve watched you and you went through a situation a year, two years ago. I lose track of time. You had an accident. And that seems to have strengthened your faith even more.
SPEAKER 17 :
I could spend an hour, 30 minutes talking about the miracles that were involved in me getting knocked off a ladder. A very high ladder. Yeah, I was 25, 30 feet up with a 20-inch bar chainsaw in my hand, cutting a limb on our property. And the limb snatched free, hit the ladder. I went up into the air, fell straight to the ground. God had an Amazon driver at the very exact moment in time that that happened in our front driveway. That Amazon driver had been fasting for a week. The Holy Spirit told him to fast. He didn’t know why. So fast forward a week later, he’s standing in front of my property, hadn’t had anything to eat in a week. and is there at the exact moment in time that he has to be there to witness it. He choreographs getting me in an ambulance on the way to the ER before my wife even knows what’s going on. It’s being reported in mainstream media because the local news was monitoring the 911 calls. It was being reported in the national media that Congressman Stubbe was in the ICU and my wife had no idea what was going on. And so the Lord’s hand was all over that from miracle upon miracle. There was even a gentleman who prayed over his name’s Woody, prayed over Woody before he came to our house, which set the time up perfectly for him to be there. So there was… I mean, these were very serious injuries. Yeah, I had a significant concussion. I still don’t remember probably about 48 hours worth of time. I don’t remember being on that part of the property. I don’t remember the ER. I don’t remember the ICU. I remember going into surgery on my pelvis. So I had a significant concussion. I tore the ligaments in my neck. I punctured my lung pretty significantly and I broke my pelvis. And then the healing power after that of the wraparound of prayer from people all across the country. I was getting little letters from… from people in a church in, I think it was in New York, from people in Iowa who had heard about the accident and were praying for me. And four months later, after having all of those injuries, I was pitching for the Republicans on the baseball field in the congressional baseball game. So not just the miracles of being there.
SPEAKER 09 :
I think you had a home run too, didn’t you?
SPEAKER 17 :
That was a couple of years ago. Oh, okay, all right. I almost hit one out again this year, but I was like a foot short. And you’re 100%? Yep, 100%. Jen, my wife will tell you that I’m stronger now than I was before the fall. that has to be the hand of god 100 yeah there’s and if you look at medical statistics it’s kind of interesting a fall from 11 feet or higher results in death or paralysis like 90 of the time it’s like a medical statistic in the medical insurance world and i was easily over 25 feet straight to the ground with a chainsaw in my hand so there’s there’s no other reason why i’m here today
SPEAKER 09 :
Let’s talk about how that new spiritual strength has met a greater political challenge. Even at the beginning of this last year when the Republicans gained the majority and there was a You know, a long process of trying to determine who the speaker was going to be. There came a moment where members went to the House floor, just a small group, you were among them, to pray. Your prayer life has taken on a new depth.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, and there was some prophecy going on that day that none of us really knew because if you look at the picture, and we didn’t even know that there was press on the floor because we weren’t in session at that time. The prayer caucus just said, hey, anybody that wants to come and pray for what’s going on, let’s meet on the House floor. And ironically, there were seven of us, which is the number of perfection in the Bible and completion. And as I’m praying, my hand is outstretched and I’m praying over the speakership, over the house chamber and over the leader of the house. And my hand is facing Mike Johnson, which is kind of interesting, given less than a year later, he’s the speaker of the house who joined us that day. But yeah. very intentional and deliberate about prayer life. And we know that we’re in a spiritual battle and we have to wage war in the spirit realm up here. Just as important as praying at home. I think it’s probably more important. um to be involved in prayer life and asking god to intervene in what’s going on in our country because everybody can see the darkness around what’s happening from transgender stuff to 66 million children have been aborted in our country to the complete loss of biblical values and the teaching of god in our schools And I believe we’re in a pivotal spiritual place in our country where we need leaders who are willing to put selfish ambitions aside and focus on what God wants them to do.
SPEAKER 09 :
prayer is essential i mean that’s the lord taught his followers how to pray we’re challenged to pray pray without ceasing paul says but there’s more than just prayer i mean james says faith without works is dead you have also displayed an element of of courage and boldness i recall this has been a few years back you went to the house floor quoted scripture. You mentioned the transgender issue. That issue has continued to stay at the forefront. You led out on the women’s sports bill to protect women’s sports. But on the House floor, you quoted scripture regarding what the Bible has to say about men wearing women’s clothing. And you got a very interesting response from the Democratic congressman from New York, Jerry Nadler.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, again, that’s why our prayer life is important and being in the Word is important. I had read the day before that exact passage in Tony Evans’ Commentary Bible, because that’s just what I was reading that year. And I thought, okay, this is definitely something I need to say on the floor. And I elicited some… interesting response from the Democrats, which tells you a lot about where they are.
SPEAKER 09 :
I don’t have the quote verbatim, but Jerry Nadler, after you left the floor, said, Mr. Stubbe, God has nothing to do with what this Congress does.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right. And I wish, the way that the rules work on the floor, I couldn’t respond to him, but I wish I could have, because all I would have said is, right above us, above the rostrum, says in God we trust. So to say that we should not infuse our biblical values, I mean, our country was founded upon Christian Judeo values. And to move away from that, I think that’s why you’re seeing the darkness and the challenges and the things that we’re seeing in our country.
SPEAKER 09 :
So you served in the army. I mentioned that earlier. You were in Iraq. You were a JAG officer, but you also helped kind of track down some of the bad guys there. There’s this effort to drive Christians away from the source of their strength. And you mentioned this is a spiritual battle. We’re in a spiritual battle. But this whole issue of what you just described, if MSNBC, one of their commentators were to be sitting in here, would be saying, well, that’s Christian nationalism, all designed to suppress our engagement.
SPEAKER 17 :
yeah the mainstream media and it’s really the enemy is is trying i mean jesus foretold about these things um the word the bible says that christians will be persecuted that jesus’s followers will be persecuted and we’re seeing that play out in real time in our lifetime right here in the united states and they’re using these terminologies to try to pigeonhole you as, oh, you’re just a Christian nationalist and making it a derogatory term, which is like their attempt to make MAGA a derogatory term, like making America great again is suddenly a bad thing for our country. And it’s kind of interesting to see that, and it does, I don’t, it doesn’t bother me. We just had a hearing not too long ago in Ways and Means, and I quoted Isaiah where I feel like we’re living in the times foretold in Isaiah where evil is good and good is evil. And we were discussing pregnancy centers and this attack and the demonization of pregnancy centers that are just trying to help women to have babies and not go to abortion clinics. And it’s just fascinating how the mainstream media uses these terms to try to pigeonhole certain people. And it’s just, again, we’re not fighting against flesh and blood.
SPEAKER 09 :
How do we respond to that? Because, you know, it’s one thing people say, well, you’re a member of Congress. You’re a leader. You know how to handle this. But The instruction of Scripture is not just for leaders. It’s for followers of Christ. How should Christians across this country respond to this effort that would suppress their public display of their faith and their engagement in being salt and light?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, we’re told that the sword of our spirit is the word of God. And I believe wholeheartedly that you combat, especially in the spiritual realm, with the word of God. And it’s irrebukable. It’s God’s word. it can fight the battles for you. And I think just encouraging people not to lose sight of that and to not be scared of what people will say about you. I mean, just look at my Facebook page or my Twitter page, and you can see horrible things that people say about me all the time.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I tell the kids, don’t Google me.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, don’t look at the comments on posts. It’s fascinating. I lead a men’s group in my church, and they’ll be like, how do you deal with that? I’m like, I don’t read it. I don’t pay attention to it. Those things don’t matter. And I focus on what I feel like God has put me up here to do and what I want to work on.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that means you have to be listening to him, which means you have to be in his word. So it goes back to what you said. As Christians, we need to be in the word of God.
SPEAKER 17 :
I read a Bible a year. This year I’m reading the New King James Version, which I really like that translation. And I think this year I have five devotionals. So every day I spend, I don’t know, 20 or 30 minutes, usually in the morning, especially I need to do that up here and giving myself time up here to do that.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s a source of encouragement, strength, but it also helps put things into perspective, which let me ask you this question with that in mind. What gives you hope about, I mean, when you look at all of these issues, I mean, you talked about the transgender issue. We’ve had the redefinition of marriage, 66 million unborn children that have been murdered. And we have an administration that wants to do even more of that. How do you find hope in the midst of that?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, God, the Holy Spirit, the word of God gives me hope that our country was founded on Christian and Judeo principles. And the majority of Americans believe that. And the majority of Americans support that. And I think the majority is going to speak up in November and hopefully redirect our country back to the direction that God wants our country to go and not the direction that has been going.
SPEAKER 16 :
THAT WAS FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN GREG STUBEY DURING AN EXCLUSIVE SIT-DOWN INTERVIEW THAT HE HAD WITH TONY PRIOR TO ELECTION DAY. AND YOU’RE TUNING IN TO A VERY SPECIAL EDITION OF WASHINGTON WATCH. OF COURSE, WE ALL KNOW NOW THAT VOTERS DID INDEED SPEAK UP IN NOVEMBER. AND WHILE WE’RE THANKFUL FOR THAT, WE ARE MINDFUL THAT OUR ULTIMATE HOPE IS NOT IN WASHINGTON, D.C., BUT IN JESUS CHRIST, WHOSE BIRTH WE CELEBRATE TODAY. He indeed is our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, and it’s in Him that we trust. Well, that’s all the time we have for today. Hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas. And tune again tomorrow for Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 02 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
