In this special edition of Family Talk, we explore the intersection between faith, geopolitics, and global security with Gary Bauer and Michelle Bachman. As tensions rise in the Middle East, the United States’ decisive military intervention to dismantle Iran’s nuclear sites takes center stage. Our experts break down the implications of these actions, highlighting the miraculous alignment of efforts necessary to avert a potential World War III. Tune in to understand the weight of religious convictions on international policies and the enduring role of faith in guiding political decisions.
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Roger Marsh, and on today’s edition of the broadcast, a very special edition of Family Talk, as Gary Bauer, our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the JDFI’s Policy Center, and the Honorable Michelle Bachman are going to get into a powerful and insightful conversation about what’s going on in the Middle East. Why did the United States bomb Iranian nuclear sites? And what do we make of Iran’s response and the so-called ceasefire that has since been declared and violated? Let’s get into this fascinating conversation right now with our guest host for today’s edition of Family Talk, Gary Bauer.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast ministry of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I’m Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President for Public Policy here at JDFI. I’m also the host of the Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast. This is a special edition of Family Talk, and it’s a special edition because we are living in extraordinary times. Events are unfolding so quickly. People are disoriented. They don’t know how to react to all the things that are in the headlines. There are things happening all over the world that could affect American families, our children and grandchildren, but specifically in the Middle East, in the Holy Land, where our Savior’s ministry was and that our Bible talks about and we read about all the time. Out of the Middle East, out of the Holy Land, There are headlines that are almost impossible to imagine. I ran into a neighbor this morning that said, Gary, I don’t even want to turn on my computer or the TV set. My head’s just going around in a circle. Things change by the hour. Well, we wanted to talk about all those things today, and joining me on the broadcast is a woman who knows the Middle East and geopolitics and, quite frankly, the Scripture better than almost anybody I know. She’s my colleague here at JDFI, the Honorable Michelle Bachman. Michelle has an incredible record. I could probably take the whole show giving you her bio. I’ll just mention a couple of things. She started out as a Minnesota state senator and then after that ran for the United States House of Representatives. She served a number of terms in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District from 2007 to 2015. And by the way, folks, when she was in Congress – She was a reliable vote for the sanctity of life, for faith, family, and freedom. Nobody on our side ever had to worry about how Michelle Bachman was going to vote. She currently serves as the dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University. She’s an expert on the Middle East, Middle East politics, as well as the biblical significance of current events. Michelle’s the co-chair of the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast. And along with all the other activities she’s involved in, I don’t know how she does it. She serves as a member of the board of directors here at the James Dobson Family Institute. Michelle and her husband, Marcus, have been married over 45 years. They’re the parents of five adult children and a growing number of grandchildren. And sometime I want to talk to her in more depth about this. They’ve also helped raise 23 foster children. I don’t know how anybody does that, but they did it. Michelle, welcome to Family Talk. Of course, Dr. James Dobson and his wife Shirley send you their love. I want to turn the on switch on with you, Michelle, because I know you’ve got so much to say about this. You know and I know God is not surprised by anything that’s going on. God is outside of time. He knows all the past. He knows our present. And he knows what’s going to happen. So we might be filled with anxiety. He’s not filled with anxiety. It’s all part of his plan for mankind. So I’d like to start by… asking where you were when the first dramatic event happened this past week. And that was that unbelievable military strike by the brave men and women of the U.S. military on Iran’s nuclear program. I think it was miraculous. But why don’t you tell us when you first heard about it and what you were thinking about?
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure. Thanks, Gary, for having me on. It was actually Saturday afternoon. Many people remember I was in the Midwest in Minnesota, Central Standard Time. I was in my backyard. I just had a very strong sense from the Holy Spirit to go into the house and look up some news sites on my phone. And I’ve just had some very strong sense from the Holy Spirit in the last three weeks. And so I went inside and I turned on a live broadcast. And it was a broadcast of the Steve Bannon show. And he never has a live broadcast on Saturday afternoon. It’s just unusual. And so they were on and they were taking a particular perspective. And then all of a sudden they announced the truth social tweet that President Trump. put out that said that the United States had accomplished something that had never happened before in 5,000 years of human history. A military strike so phenomenal, there has never been a recording of any military strike like the one that happened and that God gave the United States the ability to do. And it was this, the United States undetected with not one leak of the operation managed to leave central Missouri, fly to Iran, and totally annihilate and take out the three most significant nuclear sites in Iran dealing with the preparation of nuclear bombs in Iran. It’s significant. And I hope we can talk a little bit about the lead up to this, because people need to understand how the clock was ticking on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes. Well, why don’t you get into that, Michelle, because there’s still a lot of argument about it. And I noticed in recent days a lot of the fake news is trying to get at various members of the Trump-Vance administration to admit that we really didn’t have any evidence that there was danger. Why now? What were they worried about? Wasn’t this just grandstanding? But, of course, there was a lot of information. And share with our listeners what we knew and what we all were worried about could happen at a moment’s notice.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, anybody could know this information because for 46 years, the leader of Iran has been a radical Islamic jihadist with the stated intention of annihilating every Jew on earth, the state of Israel entirely. and the United States of America, meaning Americans, not just buildings, it’s human life. Iran was that crazy. It’s their nation of about 80 million people, but they wanted to take out America and Israel. They believed that their God, Allah, would give them the power to do it. So that was 46 years ago when they stated this intention actually people need to have the backstory Iran was a very western country Iran loved Israel they loved the United States the women had short stylish haircuts there were many skirts makeup they drove cars they went to college this was Iran And at that time, the Shah of Iran was in trouble politically. He reached out to our U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, and he asked Jimmy Carter for help because, again, Iran loved America. Iran loved Israel. It’s hard for us to imagine now, but they did. When he reached out to Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter instead closed the door on the request for help. He sat on his hands and he saw the Shah of Iran, the leader of the government, collapse. And instead, this radical jihadist terrorist, Ayatollah Khomeini, left Paris, France and went to Tehran, Iran. And he brought about the rise of modern terrorism in the world. I’m old enough, you’re old enough to remember what the world was like before 1979. There wasn’t terrorism in the world, Islamic terrorism, the way we understand it now. That was the entree of Islamic jihadist terrorism in the world. And so the goal has been clear. It’s been stated for 46 years by the Ayatollahs. Their goal is to get a nuclear bomb and take out Israel and take out America and take out the West. And the truth be told, take out Muslims, take out Sunni Muslims that they don’t agree with. Because the bottom line, Gary, the motivation is this is a religious war on the part of the Ayatollahs. It’s a religious-based war. They believe, according to what they read in the Quran, that if they bring about a violent destruction, that the 12th Imam, their Messiah figure, the 12th And that all of the world will become Shia Islam and Shia Islam will dominate the world. So this sounds crazy to our listeners, but this is what their motivation is. This is what they believe. And that’s what they intended to do. Well, What we know is that Iran has been violating every order that there is not to have nuclear weapons. The whole world has told them you’re not allowed to have nuclear weapons, Iran, because a lot of nations have nuclear weapons. But no one is crazy enough to use them. Iran and the leadership in Iran is the one nation that will use these weapons. They say it over and over. In fact, they had a big clock in the middle of, it was called Palestinian Square in Tehran. And the clock had a countdown to when they were going to annihilate Israel. And then after that, annihilate the United States. So this was a real plan. Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, Michelle, what you’re raising is extremely important because a lot of people that think they’re very smart here in Washington will say when we discuss these kinds of issues that, well, you know, they would never use those nuclear weapons because they know if they did, they would be wiped off the face of the earth. So it’s a secular analysis. Yeah. Of what was called mutual assured destruction, that nobody that’s a nuclear power would use it against another nuclear power. They completely ignore that this is a religious mandate for them, a religious requirement. This is how they think, as you put it, that their Messiah will come and will show the world who he is by the mass murder of Christians and Jews. Yes.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, that’s right. And especially, Gary, after the events of September 11th, 2001, when the Twin Tower buildings were taken down, when the Pentagon was fired upon, when another plane went down in Pennsylvania, this was, again, an Islamic jihadist motivation. But what happened was a PR campaign, a public relations campaign right after September 11th. And we were all told, even by our Republican president, this was both Republican and Democrat, they kept spouting this absolute lie, not based in fact, that Islam is a religion of peace. Go back to 700 AD to when Muhammad came and began the religion of Islam. The entire history of Islam is replete not with peace, but acts of violence, acts of conquering. And if all you have to do is listen to the Ayatollahs, listen to the jihadists themselves, what do they say their motivation is? They’re very clear. It’s just like Hitler when he wrote his Mein Kampf book. He was very clear what he intended to do to kill all Jews. He intended a genocide against the Jews. Ayatollahs were the same way. They’ve been very clear. I mean, do we suggest that the Ayatollah was insincere in what he’s saying? That’s what the Washington establishment would have us believe, that they’re just making bellicose, loud statements. Hardly. This is true. So why would they build nuclear facilities? As Secretary of State Marco Rubio just said last Sunday on the news, why would Iran build 300 feet underground a nuclear facility that only has one facility purpose to make nuclear bombs that can be launched underground? against anyone they seek in the world. That’s in fact what Iran did. And the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report about two weeks ago. And that report was shocking. And it said Iran has violated every code of international law They have violated every code regarding the production and the making of a nuclear program. And they are literally less than one month away from having nuclear bombs. So here’s the dilemma. We have political power that has the will to use nuclear weapons. They violated and lied, and they put together a nuclear program where they literally wouldn’t have one nuclear bomb. They’d have well over a dozen nuclear bombs, and they would use them. So what is Israel to do? What is the United States to do? Have a false, phony belief that the Ayatollahs will deny 46 years of statements, 46 years of a program? They’ve literally spent trillions. Listen, trillions of dollars building up their nuclear and their ballistic missile program so they could achieve their objectives. They have political objectives that are really religious objectives because they hate Jews. They hate Christians. They hate anyone who doesn’t believe the same way that they believe. And the world came together. to literally the hour where the second hand was sweeping up until midnight and we were looking at a nuclear holocaust. So the incredible decision that President Trump made last Saturday afternoon was one of the most brave, courageous decisions that could ever be made. President Trump literally prevented World War III. He literally prevented a nuclear holocaust that would have been the most powerful jihadist attack on the world that the world had ever seen. And we owe him a great debt of thanks, as well as Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel. President Trump couldn’t have done what he did if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu hadn’t done what he did with the brave Israel Defense Forces in setting up and teeing up the ground in Iran For this brilliant military strike that our brave military in America pulled off. And it was completely flawless and miraculous.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, Michelle, it’s so important for people to understand that the religious philosophies here that are clashing – and again, a lot of people at the Pentagon, the State Department – They’re very secular people. It’s hard for them to put themselves in the shoes of a nation that would think the way you’re so accurately describing it. I was excited and heartened and deeply moved on the night of that attack. When President Trump and his leadership addressed the nation and President Trump said something that I have – I am not – I’ve been looking. I have not found one American president that has ever said this. A lot of American presidents will say, God bless America. It’s almost been – wrote. It’s almost been habitual. And sometimes I wonder like, well, wait a minute, are you ordering God to bless us? Maybe we ought to do a little better about things like protecting innocent human life, and then we would get God’s blessings more often. But Donald Trump did something else. He looked into the camera, his voice caught just a little bit, and he did say, God bless America, but he said, We love God. And he was referring to the God of the Bible, the God that said, I set before you life and death, so choose life that you and your children may live. I thought that was a wonderful moment, given the religious philosophy of the mullahs of Iran, for our president to remind the world and us of what our basic religious beliefs are that our country was founded on.
SPEAKER 02 :
Gary, you’re so right. I watched that live as well. The president spoke to the nation at 10 p.m. Eastern time last Sunday evening. And as he came out of the Oval Office and stood in the hallway in front of the East Room, that he was thanking our military and our soldiers. And then you could tell from his voice, I encourage people, go on YouTube, watch this. It’s unbelievable, completely heartfelt coming out of the president’s mouth. He said he wanted to thank the soldiers. And then he just said, God. And he said it in a way that you knew that he knew how miraculous this military effort was. And that it was God who had given this victory. And he said, we love you, God. And I agree with you, Gary. I’d never heard anything like it. And then the next morning, our Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, whom I’ve known Pete since he was in high school. He graduated from Forest Lake, Minnesota High School. And I knew his mom and dad. We all went to church together. We were in Bible study together. And Pete’s had some rough patches in his life. Yeah. He’s the next morning at the Pentagon. He too gave glory to God and not just God bless America, but it was the mercy and grace of God that he saw happen. And why does he say this? Why would President Trump say that? Because again. I think Jennifer Griffin of Fox News, I’ve known her for a long time. She covered the beat for Fox at the Pentagon for 18 years. And you can see on the look on her face that night, she said, I’ve never in 18 years seen anything like this. There’s never been an operation like this where there weren’t leaks. There was no leak, not one leak. The first person to announce this successful mission was Donald Trump on True Social. No one knew. So just think of how remarkable this is. We took the biggest, worst bombs in the world, short of a nuclear bomb, and they went undetected from Missouri over 4,000, 5,000 miles into Iran. area in Iran they dropped 30,000 pound bombs 14 of them on a target no bigger than a wheelbarrow and so they dropped these bombs down shafts Shafts in Fordow and also in Natanz and then also in Isfahan. It’s incredible. These planes never stopped. They were refueled in air. And what’s amazing is the coordination. There’s never been more sophisticated coordination between submarines that were 400 miles away from Iran that fired 30 Tomahawk missiles from submarines to Isfahan and then also on Fordow and then also on Natanz. The coordination no one has ever seen. So the military was flawless. And when you think every single person in this chain, there were 125 planes, every single person in this operation had to perform perfectly. This is beyond human capability. Sure. supernatural. Oh, supernatural. That’s right. So we praise God for this. But what’s the bottom line in all of this? It is the God of Israel who said he neither slumbers nor sleeps in protecting Israel. It’s his strong, powerful right arm that protects Israel. And so what we have seen evidence of over and over again, Gary, is the supernatural protection. And the Bible says nations are judged only on one criteria, and it’s how nations treat Israel. Donald Trump rightly chose to have the United States bless Israel and protect Israel. I believe, Gary, the United States will be blessed because of the decision that President Trump chose to help protect Israel by taking out and turning back 46 years and trillions of dollars of planning for nuclear weapons that were less than one month away from being used against Israel and the United States. We saw the prevention of World War III. And so we need to be in a posture of gratefulness and praise and worship to our God that he intervened in this moment. He used political figures, military figures, He used intercessors and he used pastors to preach and speak to their congregations so that we would have the knowledge to know that we need to pray and we need to align ourselves with the word of God, that we need to be Bible first. Not just America first, Bible first. And what we saw is that America was Bible first in standing and protecting Israel when the clock was about to strike midnight on World War III and it was prevented. And we had the blessing of preventing World War III and standing with Israel.
SPEAKER 03 :
Michelle, you have done today exactly what we at JDFI knew you would do. You just gave us in a half hour a college-level course of what’s happening in the Middle East and why it’s significant and what’s going on in the Holy Land and why it’s all important. not only for our security, but for our ultimate salvation. This is the kind of course that you would pay big money to get and it would be a leftist professor teaching it and they would be teaching it wrong. You gave us the truth as you always do. God bless you and thank you for being with us today on Family Talk.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you, Gary. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Powerful insights from Gary Bauer, our Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the James Dobson Family Institute, and the Honorable Michelle Bachman, who’s a member of our JDFI Board of Directors, discussing why it’s important for Christians, American Christians in particular, to understand what’s happening. in the conflict between Israel and Iran and why the United States actually stepped into that conflict last Saturday evening. Now, by the way, Gary Bauer is the host of the Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast. It releases every other week. In this week’s edition, he expands even further on what happened in Iran over the past weekend. I encourage you to go to drjamesdobson.org and search for the Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom podcast. You can also find it at oneplace.com or wherever you get your podcasts. And speaking of America and our Constitution and the biblical heritage that we enjoy, next Friday, July 4th, we celebrate Independence Day. It’s a perfect time to deepen your understanding of the faith that shaped our nation’s beginnings. And in that spirit, I encourage you to sign up for the free Faith of Our Founders email series. You can do so when you go to drjamesdobson.org. That’s drjamesdobson.org. And coming up this coming Monday, the final day for you to participate in our June matching grant that ends on June 30th. Every dollar you donate to the James Dobson Family Institute now through Monday will be doubled dollar for dollar. You can make your donation over the phone when you call 877-732-6825 or write to us at P.O. Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and on behalf of Dr. James Dobson and all of us here at the JDFI, thanks so much for listening. Be sure to join us again next time right here for another edition of Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love. This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
