Later in the show, we explore the contentious legal battles surrounding President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs with guest Spencer Morrison. As court decisions sway, what could this mean for the economy and global trade? Finally, gain a deeper understanding of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire proposal with expert analysis from Ruthie Bloom, as we address its ramifications for Middle Eastern diplomacy. Stay informed and engaged with our rich discussions backed by a Biblical worldview perspective, featuring regular guest David Claussen.
SPEAKER 12 :
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 20 :
Good afternoon. Welcome to this Friday edition of Washington Watch. I am Jody Heiss, a senior fellow here at the Family Research Council, and so glad to have you joining us today for this edition. We’ve got a lot coming your way today, and we’ll begin with this story. It has to do with Doge. Specifically, Elon Musk officially concluded his time as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency today. Yet Republicans and the Trump administration have made it very clear that the efforts of Doge will continue and hopefully the cuts that they’ve made will be codified.
SPEAKER 17 :
We are totally committed to making the doge cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste in the months to come. We want to get our great, big, beautiful bill finished and done. After that, we’re going to be — we put some of this into the bill, but most of it’s going to come later. We’re going to have it cauterized by Congress, affirmed by Congress.
SPEAKER 20 :
That, of course, was President Trump. He was speaking to reporters earlier today. So what will it take for the work of DOGE to continue having an impact in the years to come? Well, I’ll be discussing this here in just a couple of moments when I’m joined by Alabama Congressman Robert Adderhold, who’s a member of the House Appropriations Committee. And then, after a federal court ruled Wednesday against President Trump’s use of tariffs, an appeals court yesterday put a temporary pause on that decision so the administration can continue, at least for now, applying pressure on other countries as they negotiate fair trade deals.
SPEAKER 15 :
We received an almost immediate stay from the Federal Court of Appeals, and the terrorists are fully in effect. So nations all around the world understand that they are required to continue these negotiations with the United States in order to avoid terrorists.
SPEAKER 20 :
That was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaking to reporters earlier today. But when you have whiplash rulings from the courts like this one, one can only imagine the impact that it could potentially have on consumers and the economies as all this legal battle continues to play out. Well, we’ll get insights about all of that later when I’m joined by Spencer Morrison, who is the editor-in-chief of the National Economics Editorial. And then a new ceasefire and hostage deal has been submitted to Hamas. It was submitted on Wednesday, and there are many conflicting reports as to where it stands, but some are suggesting that Hamas is actually reviewing the Israel-backed U.S. proposal and considering their response. You don’t know if Hamas has accepted it yet?
SPEAKER 06 :
Not to my knowledge, but certainly if that becomes case and this ceasefire goes into effect, you’ll hear it directly from myself, the president, or Special Envoy Wyckoff.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, that was an exchange between White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt and a reporter yesterday, and we’ll be discussing the latest a little bit later in the program when I’m joined by Ruthie Bloom. She’s a senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. And then to close out the program, as we always do on Fridays, I’ll be joined by David Claussen for our weekly Biblical Worldview segment to discuss some of the headlines of the week, including… a recently revealed, and I might add very encouraging, report that indicates a 14% drop in Republican support for same-sex marriage over the past few years. Pretty stunning, and we’ll bring that your way as well as other things with David from a biblical perspective. So A lot on tap for you today. If you happen to miss any portion of the program, the website is TonyPerkins.com. You can always catch archives of many programs as well as this and a lot of resources there at TonyPerkins.com. All right, let’s jump into our first item for the day. The Department of Government Efficiency. The head of that organization, Elon Musk. made his official departure from this temporary government position today. And in a joint press conference, President Trump thanked Musk and also highlighted some of the bloated government spending that Doge has uncovered. Musk also remarked that his departure is not the end of Doge, but only the beginning. So… What’s next for Doge? That’s a big question. And what can Congress do to make the most of the findings that Musk and the Doge community have found out? Well, here to discuss all of this and more is Congressman Robert Adderhold. He serves as a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, and he represents the 4th Congressional District of the great state of Alabama. Congressman Adderhold, always great to see you, my friend. Welcome back to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, Jody, good to see you, and it’s always good to be on with a fellow colleague that I had the privilege to serve with for many years in the House. So good to see you again, and I’m glad you’re doing well.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, thank you so much, and likewise. All right, let’s look at this doge in the last day for Musk as he departs. How would you characterize, just from your perspective, his time in government?
SPEAKER 19 :
Oh, it has resonated like probably no other thing that I’ve seen in recent history when it comes to cutting government spending. Matter of fact, I was just meeting with a constituent just before I got on the call here with you, and he was discussing the Doge issue and how that is resonating. He is looking at possibly running for statewide office in Alabama. He says he’s going around to different organizations and Republican clubs across the state. And every time he talks about the Doge issue and trying to apply that on the state level, that he gets terrific response. So this is something that really resonates. I think a lot of people feel like there’s a lot of government waste. And Congress, when we allocate the money, we intend the money to be spent in a prudent and wise way, but it not always is. Doge is coming in there and looking at it and saying, this money is going to waste. We need to get this money back. And that’s exactly what is gonna happen probably next week. when we see a rescission package that the White House is going to send to Congress. And at that point, we will be taking a look at it. And there could be as much as nine, my understanding between nine and $10 trillion that could be clawed back that Congress has appropriated that is really just government waste. This Congress will have about 45 days to deal with this. But the unique thing about this is that it will be able to be passed by majority vote not only in the House, which is always the case, but it will be able to be passed in the Senate by majority vote as well and does not have to go through the 60-vote threshold. So I think this is very promising to get a lot, if not all of the cuts, a sizable amount of this almost $10 billion that the Doge organization or the Doge office has found on the leadership of Elon Musk.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, it really is amazing. And it’s encouraging what you said, even about the individual you spoke to moments ago. We are seeing this reflected in states all over the place now are saying if there’s that much waste in the federal government, there’s probably a ton of waste in the state governments as well. And I’m encouraged to hear that conversation that you just described. All right. So this rescission package that you just mentioned is coming from the White House. And because it’s coming from the White House, it will not require the 60 vote threshold in the Senate. I think that’s an excellent point you bring out. But what do we know about the vote next week on the House floor and the Senate? I suppose it goes from there. Do you expect there to be problems with this or is this going to fly through pretty easily?
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, of course, the Democrats will oppose it. I mean, they have a disdain for Elon Musk. They have got a disdain for Doge in general. And so there will be obstacles. But as you know, from serving in the House, when you’re in the majority, you have the The prerogative to move forward on legislation, the Speaker can bring that up. And so I don’t know the timeline. I know that the package, my understanding, will be sent to Congress next week. And I don’t know the timeline as to when the vote will be. And I doubt if it will be next week because I think we’ll have to have a chance to look at the package. And obviously we need to do that because you want to make sure that – everything is appropriate and make sure that something was not overlooked. And, you know, Elon Musk himself, he said that, and he readily admitted that, you know, there would be mistakes made because when you’re dealing with $10 billion in cuts, you know, that’s a lot of money and you want to make sure that some legitimate individuals are not going to be their Social Security taken away or some kind of program that they wouldn’t be entitled to. But this is going to be mainly involving discretionary. This is not going to be entitlement funding. This will be discretionary funding. But there’s any legitimate program out there that should be funded, Congress needs to look at it and correct that. But at the same time, it seems to me that the examples that I’ve seen coming from Elon Musk and from the Doge office, that they’re very legitimate and they’re very real wasteful spending that needs to be dealt with. And that’s why I think over the next two or three weeks, that we will have a vote in the House. And again, 45 days is, I think, the last to understand will be the amount of time that we have to deal with this. So we’ve got to act fast.
SPEAKER 20 :
So I want to get to the tariff. But real quickly, one last question on this. $9 or $10 billion is a lot of money to begin this rescission package. But I’m hearing some talk that there could be future additional rescissions. Are you hearing anything about that? Could that take place?
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, I think there absolutely will be as this Doge office is not closing to my understanding. Elon Musk is stepping down in his role, but Doge will continue on. They’ll continue looking for this. So there’ll be other opportunities after this. So this won’t be a one and done thing.
SPEAKER 20 :
Excellent. All right, real quickly, we’ve just got a couple of minutes left, Congressman Adderhall, but the legal battles over Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariffs, this tariff battle just continues to make news. He and the White House have labeled these legal efforts against his tariffs as blockades and political stunts. What’s your thoughts on all of this? Do you agree with that characterization at all?
SPEAKER 19 :
Now, obviously, the president wants to rebalance, and I’ve always been one that have not readily supported past presidents when they’ve pulled these trade agreements out of a hat and give us a bad deal. I’ve always been in favor of a fair trade deal. And thankfully, President Trump is wanting to be someone that deals with fair trade, free trade, but fair trade. And it’s not fair when our goods that we send abroad have a tremendous amount of tariff, and then others can bring things into this country and try to sell it, and there’s no tariff. The president’s simply trying to rebalance. And of course, obviously, a lot of these trade deals were made under past presidents. But here the president is looking at a 1977 law that allows him, under certain circumstances, to do away with the trade. the agreement as they were made and to put tariffs on certain countries. And that’s exactly what he’s doing. So I’m very encouraged that at the end of the day, the Supreme Court will side with him because it says in a national emergency that he can do this. Now, obviously, when you have fentanyl coming across the borders like you have, it is a national emergency.
SPEAKER 20 :
Absolutely. Congressman Robert Adderhold of Alabama, always great to see you, my friend. Thanks for all the great work you’re doing. And thanks for joining us today on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 19 :
Thanks, Jody. Good to be with you.
SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you. All right, friends, coming up next, the court battle over President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs as we were just beginning the conversation. How is that causing concern for consumers, investors? Well, Spencer Morrison will join me after the break to discuss that. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, and we’re here in Jerusalem, the city of King David. And I’m excited to announce the launch of our Family Bible Challenge to read through the Gospel of Matthew. Now, this 21-day challenge begins on June the 11th, and it’s a part of our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. It’s in bite-sized readings. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes a day, and we provide a toolbox full of resources to help you along the journey, including a study guide titled, Matthew, the King and His Kingdom. We also provide downloadable resources such as age appropriate questions to engage children. And we have a variety of family friendly projects as well as this, listen, a coloring book, coloring pages about the life of Jesus for the younger kids and your grandkids. Think about it. What could be a better summer activity than to go on a journey through the life of Jesus as a family? Just think what God could do in the lives of your loved ones as they read Matthew. Unforgettable stories about the greater son of David, Jesus the Messiah. I hope you’ll join us for our family Bible challenge beginning June the 11th. Text the word Matthew to 67742. I hope you’ll join us. Thank you.
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SPEAKER 20 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I am your Friday host Jody Heist. So glad to have you with us today. Well, we had two federal court decisions this week that put President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs in a suspended state. And there was, I’ll give this, there was somewhat of a victory yesterday in an appeals court, at least for one of those two rulings. But the whiplash from court decisions like this has certainly caused some potential problems economic ramifications. And what will that be long term? Will this upset the economy? Will a stock market suffer? We’ve got a lot of questions to discuss this. And here to go down this path with me is economist Spencer Morrison. He’s the editor-in-chief of the National Economics Editorial. And he’s also author of Reshore, how tariffs will bring our jobs home and revive the American dream. Spencer, welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you.
SPEAKER 18 :
Thanks a lot. I love coming on the program.
SPEAKER 20 :
It’s always a pleasure. Well, we love having him. All right, let’s go through this, the rulings from this past week. What were the core arguments in all this? What in the bottom line do these things say?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, I mean, ultimately, the dispute is whether or not the executive branch, that is President Trump, has the authority to regulate commerce and international trade. Can he impose the tariffs? And this all stems from the Constitution, right? Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1 of the Constitution pretty clearly says that Congress has the power. to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, excises, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Nobody’s actually disputing that. President Trump’s executive orders were all grounded in what’s called delegated authority. So Congress has the authority to delegate certain powers to the executive branch when they believe that the executive branch is in a better position. to deal with those issues. Because of course, the executive branch is the one that carries out the laws, and they’re a lot more nimble. It takes a long time for Congress to actually get together and deal with these situations. And the executive branch can deal with them on the ground on a rapid basis. So this is really just lawfare trying to upset the President Trump administration, right? We see it consistently with illegal immigration. The courts are protecting people who are in America illegally. And now what the courts are doing is they’re protecting foreign companies and foreign governments that apparently have a right to dump their products and to destroy American businesses through unfair competition. That’s essentially what the court is saying.
SPEAKER 20 :
Yeah, while you were actually going down that with the Constitution, I was thinking to myself, I was saying, but Congress has delegated this authority to the executive branch. And of course, you brought that up. So that’s a huge part of this whole thing. You actually had a post, a Substack post, where you argued what you were just now saying. And I’d like for you to go a little bit further, that these tariffs by the president are in fact legal. So go a little bit further into that, if you would, as to why is that? Why is this legal? Let me put this in two phrases. Why is this legal? And then secondly, if it’s legal, why is he facing so much resistance?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, to begin with, they fall squarely within the letter of the law. Congress has delegated powers. So, for example, under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the president has broad powers to regulate commerce and impose tariffs in cases of national emergency. This is why President Trump declared the fentanyl national emergency for instituting this 20% tariff on China and Canada and Mexico, right? Fentanyl is clearly a national emergency. Over 50,000 Americans die every year from opioid overdoses, in addition to another 20 or so thousand, 30,000 that come in through other drugs that are smuggled into the country. You’ve got to remember, Hurricane Katrina was clearly a national emergency. It killed 1,392 people. We’re talking about 70,000, 80,000 people dying every year from drugs that are being smuggled in on packages that are coming in through the de minimis exemption and all sorts of stuff. And I don’t really see how you can deal with this unless you’re investigating these packages, the providence of where they’re coming from, and you’re taxing and regulating them. So I think the president is well within his scope to deal with tariffs on that basis. And perhaps more importantly, the Trade Act of 1974, Trade Act of 1930. The president has the power to deal with countries that are discriminating against American products. And the reality is that every country on earth is discriminating against American products because they’re imposing tariffs of their own. They’re imposing non-monetary barriers to entry. And that is de facto discrimination against American goods, right? Every country does it to protect their own goods. But apparently when America does it, it’s illegal. That’s what the court is saying. And this brings me to answer the second portion of your question, where you asked, why is this happening? Well, the reason why it’s happening is because there’s a lot of money to be made in perpetuating the trade deficit. So Wall Street, these investors, BlackRock, all these guys are making money in two ways. They’re making money by offshoring the production to foreign countries where they take advantage of cheap labor. And then number two, they take advantage of the fact that this creates – so when you offshore products and you have a trade deficit, this creates enormous demand for American currency because of something called the balance of payments. So when Americans are buying products, that money – You know, we have to exchange currency. The only way we can exchange a currency is by selling assets and debts. So if we’re running a $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods, we pay for it by selling $1.2 trillion worth of assets. So real estate, stocks, and then debt. And that benefits Wall Street. So they’re getting paid $1.2 trillion a year to sell us out. That’s what’s happening. And that’s why they’re fighting so hard against this. Wow.
SPEAKER 20 :
All right, so we’ve only got about a minute left. We have these whiplash decisions, as I’ve described it here today, from the court. How is this going to impact consumers, investors, the stock market? Sorry, we’ve only got about a minute, but how would you reply to that?
SPEAKER 18 :
Well, it’s utterly terrible. It’s terrible for everybody. And this is part of the problem with the way this is all being implemented. This is President Trump standing against the judiciary, standing against Congress, standing against Wall Street, standing against all of these special interests. What we need is a comprehensive tariff policy where the tariffs are instituted so that they’re high enough to promote the reshoring of economic production and they’re stable enough to promote business. What the court is doing is they’re destabilizing the market, which is undermining President Trump’s ability to reindustrialize America. So this is not helpful. And I talk about this all about in my book. This is all about reshoring and bringing the factories of the jobs back home. We need stable tariffs and we need high tariffs. The court’s undermining that.
SPEAKER 20 :
Re-sure how tariffs will bring our jobs home and revive the American dream. Thank you so much, Spencer Morrison, editor-in-chief of the National Economics Editorial. We appreciate it very much. All right, friends, coming up next, the Hamas-Israel ceasefire slash hostage proposal. All sorts of conflicting reports. Stay tuned. We’ll cover it right after this break.
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SPEAKER 20 :
Thank you so much for joining us today on Washington Watch. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heiss. So glad to have you with us. All right, the latest ceasefire proposal that the U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitcall submitted to Hamas is getting all sorts of reactions. And as you can imagine, not all of them are positive. The White House said yesterday that Israel has agreed to the framework And of course, that would mean that Hamas is the only question mark in all of this. And so far, there’s all kinds of conflicting reports about where Hamas is. But from my understanding, at least the most recent reports, which suggest that the Hamas terror group may reject the proposal, and they’re consulting other terror groups in the region on what to do. So what do we make of all of this? Well, here now to discuss this is Ruthie Bloom. She’s a columnist and a senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. She’s also a former advisor at the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and she joins us live from Tel Aviv. Ruthie, welcome to Washington Watch. It’s an honor to have you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thank you so much for having me, Jody.
SPEAKER 20 :
So what are the details of this ceasefire proposal as far as you understand it at this point?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, as far as I understand it, the details are that Hamas will agree to release 10 living hostages, 18 dead bodies over the course of a couple of weeks or whatever it is, but in two trenches. I hate to use that word when you’re talking about human beings. It’s really horrifying. But in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire, And after which time there’ll be negotiations about a more permanent deal, but also the release of something like 250 or 150, I can’t remember the exact number, of Palestinian terrorists serving life in Israeli jails and a thousand Palestinian terrorists who have been apprehended since the October 7th massacres. Now, this deal, I was hoping that Israel wouldn’t agree to it. I have to give you full disclosure there. I was very concerned because it’s a terrible deal. However, Hamas, Israel did accept it, yes, and President Trump acknowledged that as well. First said they’re reviewing it, then they said they’ll maybe accept it, then they said they’ll reject it. It’s not clear, as you pointed out. And one of the reasons they rejected it is that their condition for any hostage release is that Israel withdraw troops from Gaza completely, basically leaving Hamas in power. And that is something Israel cannot accept.
SPEAKER 20 :
Yeah, of course they cannot accept that, and they never will accept that. And Hamas knows that Israel won’t accept that, and they have already been taking such a pounding that will continue to take place if they reject this. So what are we to make of all these conflicting reports? It’s kind of like she loves me, she loves me not kind of a thing. What are we to make of all of this?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think part of the problem is that Israel has eliminated all of the Hamas leadership in Gaza. And then there are the Hamas leaders outside living in Qatar and other places. There are also other terrorist groups. And so it’s not clear who’s in charge and who’s making the decisions. But there is one other clause in that agreement that I forgot to mention that’s very critical and relevant to why Hamas is dithering. And that is that one of the demands that Hamas is making is that the food distribution, the aid, humanitarian aid distribution, be returned to the UN and other international bodies. Of course, the UN is in bed with Hamas, but never mind that for a moment. One of the key reasons Hamas is demanding that is that the new mechanism, it’s a joint US-Israel mechanism to separate the civilians of Gaza from the Hamas terrorists by taking charge of the aid distribution and doing it in such a way that the army is vetting who comes to get the aid, the aid packages, and checking each head of household and giving that person a box full of food and other items, and that’s it for the week. Hamas doesn’t like that because it is now, that is their last, other than the hostages, the food is their last stranglehold on the population in Gaza.
SPEAKER 20 :
Wow. So in addition to that, I’m also hearing that the 60-day ceasefire itself is an issue. There’s so much going on here, Ruthie, and it’s hard to stay on top of it all. So what is the latest? We’ve only got about a minute or so left, but what’s the latest on the Israeli ground operation in Gaza? What have they accomplished there?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, a lot. First of all, separating, again, the biggest issue is separating civilians from terrorists, which is hard to do, especially since so many of the civilians in Gaza also participated in the October 7th massacre. Just so you should know. So it’s really not clear. It’s very difficult to do that. But to move the civilian population to separate areas, separate them in order for the IDF to destroy all the infrastructure as much as possible. There are still hundreds of miles of tunnels, for example, terror tunnels in Gaza. But what it’s accomplished now, we haven’t gone full force yet, okay, because in dealing with the United States, we’re holding off on the, let’s say, the use of extreme power in order to give hostage negotiations a chance.
SPEAKER 20 :
Ruthie Bloom, thank you so much. Former advisor in the office of Benjamin Netanyahu and senior contributing editor at the Jewish News Syndicate. Thank you so much. We appreciate you keeping us up to speed.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER 20 :
All right, friends, coming up next, David Claussen in our weekly Biblical Worldview segment. Much to talk about, so stay tuned.
SPEAKER 13 :
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How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture. and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes.
SPEAKER 20 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I am Jody Heiss, your Friday host, and glad to be with you. Before we go into this final segment, I just want to bring something to your attention. You know, we here at FRC and FRC Action only bring to you for your action things that we believe are important, things that we believe actually can move the needle and make a difference. And one of those that I want to ask you to be involved with right now is a petition that we have urging the U.S. Department of Justice to take action against the discredited and, frankly, the morally bankrupt Southern Poverty Law Center, the SPLC. We’re calling for there to be a cutting of all ties with the SPLC. In fact, there needs to be an investigation into their role of influencing federal agencies under previous administrations, and this would obviously include their attempts to silence political opponents. You may have heard this week the SPLC added Turning Point USA to their hate list, and it just goes on and on and on. So we have a petition. calling on this to be dealt with. And you can sign the petition by simply texting SPLC, SPLC to 67742. And we encourage you to do just that. All right. Well, even as Congress is out of session this week, there is obviously no shortage in the news, as we’ve been talking about all week on this program and today as well. We have everything from Democrat strategists who are considering some $20 million in a study to explain why men don’t support their party anymore. to an encouraging, actually, encouraging report that shows a 14 drop in Republican support for same-sex marriage over the past three years. So we’ve got a lot to discuss, including big news items. And as we conclude this week, we try to look at the news, the headlines from a biblical worldview perspective. And joining me to do that today, as always on Fridays, is Director of the Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council, David Claussen. He’s also the author of the recently published book, Life After Roe, equipping Christians in the fight for life today. David, as always, welcome to another Friday. We appreciate you coming on.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, great to be with you. Thanks again for having me, Jody.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, it’s always our privilege, and I know, in fact, you’re just coming into the studio by the seat of your pants from an event across town that you’ve been involved with. Kind of before we jump into everything else, tell us what you’ve been up to.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, today’s actually been an exciting and busy day, as many of our days are here. at Family Research Council, Jodi. Earlier, I spoke at an event with the Leadership Institute, so one of our allied organizations. They brought 50 college students in, actually, from all over the nation for an intense week of training, learning about government and politics, and specifically how Christians should engage. And they asked me to spend about an hour with the group talking about my new book, and thinking about the life issue from a biblical and theological and really worldview perspective. And so that was really fun. I’ll spend tomorrow with the same group at the Museum of the Bible, just helping them understand the impact of God’s Word on things like public policy and politics. And actually just also I found out that, and you and I talked about this last week, but the Southern Baptist Convention’s Resolution Committee has officially accepted the resolution I wrote that will be introduced at the Southern Baptist Convention on chemical abortion. So Southern Baptists that meet in Dallas in two weeks will have an opportunity to officially kind of weigh in on the dangers, the medical dangers and the moral evils of chemical abortion. So as always, a busy day, but I feel like the Lord is definitely at work and grateful for that.
SPEAKER 20 :
Well, we are grateful for it as well, David. And I am so glad you’ve been able to speak to these students. I know I’ve had you in with groups that I’ve been teaching. And I love the way you present and the way you bring across information and worldview issues to the groups that you speak with. So we’re proud of you for that. And that segue coming off the Southern Baptist Convention and congratulations on getting that resolution accepted. We’ll certainly be following that news as well. But a great segue into other news. I’m sure you saw the Gallup poll that shows that Republican support for same-sex marriage has dropped 14 points in the last three years. That’s pretty huge. And it just widens, frankly, the gap between Republicans and Democrats on this issue. Any thoughts as to what is driving this? What’s behind this?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Jody, I knew we were going to talk about it, so I actually printed this article. Let me just take through what kind of the synopsis of this study, because this is so interesting. It showed that 88% of Democrats support same-sex marriage, and that’s at an all-time high. Really no surprise there. Independence, it’s 76% of independents support same-sex marriage. When it comes to Republicans, and you can see the chart if you’re viewing the program, it drops precipitously over just the last couple of years. The number is 41% of Republicans officially support same-sex marriage. Like you said, that is down 14 points. It was 55% in 2022. It’s remarkable, Jody. That’s a 47-point gap. between Republicans and Democrats. But you ask why. And I think if I had to kind of put it in a phrase, it’s really the overreach of the LGBT revolution. You know, for years, Jody, the kind of conversation around same-sex marriage was often framed with those Buds words of, you know, equality and love. And you remember the phrases, love is love. And kind of that’s how this was written. presented to the American people. But what’s clear is that that movement has expanded to include much more radical ideologies and ideas, which I think is for most Americans raise really profound questions about human nature, about biological reality, about moral order. Because again, the conversation quickly shifted from same sex marriage to preferred pronouns. allowing minor children to get irreversible surgeries, allowing men to play in women’s sports leagues. And I think a lot of folks, especially Republicans, have woken up and realized, you know, that whole push for same-sex marriage, that was really never the end point. It was really part of a larger agenda to really kind of undermine really the whole biblical view on sexual ethics and marriage. And I think a lot of Republicans who maybe supported same-sex marriage are waking up and realizing, I didn’t sign up to support drag queen story hour. And so again, I think some of these recent developments in our culture have caused a lot of people to re-examine their convictions and realize, you know what, same-sex marriage really was that slippery slope that a lot of people warned us about.
SPEAKER 20 :
Yeah, it really is, David, and it’s hard to fathom, it’s hard to imagine, but that slippery slope does not end with where we are now. I mean, go back to what you were referencing when, in essence, at least here in America, we redefined marriage. When marriage was redefined, that opened up a slippery slope, and we’ve been going down that ever since, and it can get worse than where we are now. if we don’t rein this thing in. And I don’t think people can fathom that. I can’t imagine where do we go from here, how does it get worse, but it does. I mean, the depravity of man is never ending. And on a related note, Fuller Seminary has announced that its board of trustees has reconfirmed the institution’s commitment to the historical theological understanding of marriage and human sexuality, but… But at the same time, they said that they acknowledge that there are faithful Christians who have come to affirm other forms of marriage. So it sounds like they’re trying to have you cake and eat it, too. What’s your take on this?
SPEAKER 11 :
I do think they’re trying to kind of have it both ways there, Jody. Like you said, on one hand, they’re saying that they’re reaffirming the historic biblical understanding of marriage and sexuality, but then going out of their way to say, well, we acknowledge that many of our faculty and students are part of Christian denominations that are LGBT affirming. And that’s the thing about Fuller Theological Seminary. They’re an interdenominational seminary. You have faculty members, you have students and staff from all over kind of the spectrum of Protestantism, so to speak. And Dr. Albert Moeller, a program of this program, he actually, on Tuesday, really did a deep dive on this. I’d encourage folks to listen to that. One thing Dr. Moeller even pointed out in his commentary that I think was helpful, he pointed out that on this issue, the Fuller Seminary president, a gentleman named David Goatley, in his comments on this, he said, well, you know, Fuller has been on a journey on this issue, and And they mentioned that, you know, after years of study, that they’ve decided to reaffirm their position on this. And, you know, my question on this, Jody, is what do you need to study? God’s Word is really, really clear. They talked about this journey that they’re on. What journey do you need to go on other than opening your Bible and reading Romans chapter 1 or 1 Corinthians 6, 9 or 1 Timothy 1, 10? That journey that you’re, you know, purportedly on doesn’t need to be a long journey. And so, you know… And Dr. Moeller pointed this point out, even the idea that you’re on a journey right now kind of assumes that you might end up somewhere different than you are right now. And so, again, I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is kind of the trajectory of the institution, that we’ll be seeing a headline in the coming years that might show that Fuller changes their mind on this. I hope they don’t. I pray they don’t. But this is kind of problematic, and I think it’s helpful for us to identify that.
SPEAKER 20 :
It’s helpful to identify it, and it’s helpful to shine a light on it, to let them know that the eyes of millions of people are on them to hold true to biblical reality and biblical truth. If I can go from there to another report that came out of the New York Times, evidently, David, some Democratic leaders and funders are considering at least spending some $20 million to try and reverse what they did what they refer to as the erosion of Democratic support among young men. Tell us your thoughts on this. What’s going on in the Democratic Party and young men?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, Jody, I wish I could tell you maybe what was happening in the Democratic Party. Actually, I almost afraid to know it’s actually everything happening in the DNC these days. But what is clear is that they are doing an autopsy on the 2024 election. They assume that a twice impeached, you know, all these trials with Donald Trump, that there would be no chance that he’d ever sniff 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue again. And they clearly underestimated him. And what they also underestimated is American voters, and particularly young men. Jodi, you and I have talked about kind of the vibe shift that is kind of happening in our culture right now. Even in our churches, young men are now attending church at higher rates than women, which has not happened in generations. But what is interesting, and why the Democrats are considering doing this, is if you look at exit polling, it was about 55 percent of men voted for Donald Trump compared to 43% of men who voted for Kamala Harris. And with young men, the young demographic, 18 to 29 year olds, the demographic that pollsters have just assumed is always going to vote liberal, young men narrowly voted for Trump over Harris. And Jody, I’m not surprised by this at all, because think about it, the DNC has become the party of intersectionality, of feminism, shout your abortion, the future is female. And again, men, but young men in particular, they’re not interested in any of that. They don’t see a home in the DNC for them. They feel pushed out. And the converse of that is Republicans have been actually embracing things like masculinity, ambition, competitiveness, toughness. Just think of the last night of the RNC. You had, who are some of the major speakers? Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock, Donald Trump, Dana White. Now, You know, I’m not saying that these men represent a version of masculinity that Christians ought to embrace in every respect. But men are looking for toughness. They’re looking for purpose. They’re looking for meaning. And Democrats have basically told them to shut up. And so I think we shouldn’t at all be surprised that this is happening in politics and in culture. And let me just say good luck to the Democrats. to get men to vote for your party and your candidates if you just continue to double down on identity politics.
SPEAKER 20 :
I think they’re going to continue to double down for sure. You mentioned in that answer how young men are now attending church in record numbers. What do you think is driving that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I think in short, young men are realizing that the promises of kind of a secular culture are not delivering for them. You know, the message that our culture has been feeding young men and women for that matter, but, you know, especially men, this idea that truth is relative, gender doesn’t matter, that there really is no coherent moral framework. I think that’s left a lot of young men in particular unmoored and hungry for truth. And I think when the biblical picture of masculinity, Jody, what is that? That is servant leadership, sacrificial love, moral responsibility. I think that is a compelling picture of life for a lot of young men. You know, young men, they’re fascinated by figures like Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan that speaks again to the vibe shift. And again, what a tremendous opportunity I think that is for the church. You know, just being conservative, that doesn’t save anybody, but it puts you closer and closer, I think, to a worldview that values truth and objective moral rights and wrong. So again, what an opportunity for the church.
SPEAKER 20 :
It really is. It’s one of the more encouraging developments that I’ve seen in quite a while. And, you know, we talk about in church world awakening and revival, and they’re two different things. I mean, an awakening has to do with a prompting of faith. of reality and of truth and right and wrong. That doesn’t necessarily lead to conversion, but it’s an awakening of right and wrong, whereas revival is reviving of the heart spiritually to the things of God. But would you consider what we’re seeing through some of this is like an awakening of truth, be it with the trans community, what we’re seeing with the 14-point drop with Republicans, with same-sex marriage? Is an awakening taking place?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, I think so. And again, the fact that young men in particular are showing up to our churches, there’s a hunger for truth. There’s a hunger for understanding what is right and wrong. And again, my hope is that pastors, Sunday school teachers, those with preaching, teaching, discipleship opportunities, seize this opportunity. You know, we’re never promised awakenings or revivals, but the revival seems to be in the air. What an opportunity for Christ Church.
SPEAKER 20 :
What an opportunity and what a great place to leave this discussion. David Claussen, Director of the Center for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council. As always, thank you for joining us. Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
SPEAKER 11 :
Thank you, Jody. God bless.
SPEAKER 20 :
All right, friends, have a great weekend. Pray for more awakening. Pray for revival. God can do it. Hope you have a great weekend. We’ll see you next week here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 12 :
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.
