In this special edition of Washington Watch, guest host Jody Heiss brings us a powerful message from bestselling author and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John. Through her address at the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, Heidi calls upon Christians to step off the sidelines and onto the battlefield, emphasizing the urgent need for education reform and the spiritual significance of our political systems. As the nation prepares for 2025, Heidi inspires with stories of personal courage and calls for a renewed commitment to protect future generations.
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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. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
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Good afternoon and welcome to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, Senior Fellow here at the Family Research Council. An honor to be sitting in today for Tony and so glad to have you joining us as well. All right, 2026, it’s almost here folks. So today we want to bring you some special content from our most recent Pray, Vote, Stand Summit that was held in Chino, California this past October. And for those of you who may not be aware of our Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, that’s an annual event that we put on that draws Christians and Christian leaders, voters from all across the country for an incredible time of inspiration and prayer and action points so that we can all get… direction from scripture and a biblical perspective and go out to wherever we live and make a difference absolutely outstanding event and if you missed it in the past we want to encourage you to join us this next year we’ll get to that later on but uh with the new year just a couple of days away we want to encourage you right now to make a resolution to read the word of god and to let it seep into your life and transform your life and we here at family research council do that with our stand on the word it starts brand new on the first just 10 or 15 minutes a day transform your life and you can find out more by going to tonyperkins.com with that or text the word bible to six seven seven four two All right, we’ve got a great show lined up for you today. Again, if you miss any portion of it, tonyperkins.com is where you can get more info and you wanna be sure to bookmark that page as it is an extremely valuable website for you. One more quick housekeeping matter before we jump into the program. With a new year coming, America’s 250th anniversary coming, I want you to remember Family Research Council, pray for us and come on board and support us as we’re being a voice for faith, family, and freedom day in and day out. Every gift you give right now through the end of December 31st is right upon us. Your gift is doubled. It’s doubled. Call right now, 800-225-4008. That’s 800-225-4008 and double your impact right now. Okay, as I mentioned, we had our Pray Vote Stand Summit last October in Chino, California, and Christian voters from all over the country were there, a powerful, powerful event. But among the speakers was best-selling author and podcast host, former congressional candidate, Heidi St. John. In her address, Heidi talked about the need for the church to get off the bench and get onto the battlefield. So here’s how Heidi started her address.
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I have been praying about this event for a long time. It is such an honor to be working with Tony Perkins and to be invited here today because we really are at a crossroads in the United States. I think we’re at a particular moment here in the country which we may never see again. And I’m going to encourage you today with as much energy as the Lord has given me to get off the bench and onto the battlefield, to engage in the fight for the next generation. And one of the major things that are happening in our country right now is is the hostile takeover of our public education system. I’ve been talking about this for a long time. It’s interesting to note, Tony just said that Jay and I have seven children, and it’s interesting to note that we have been, Jay and I just celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago. This incredible human being, it’s no picnic being married to Heidi St. John, I’m not gonna lie. And Jay and I, a long time ago, the Lord put it on our hearts that we should pull our daughter out of the public education system when we lived in Oregon. And as I was watching what was happening with our daughter, it really wasn’t anything in the school that was alarming me. It was the fact that she would come home from school and she would be sort of disengaged from what was happening in the family. Some of you guys will be able to relate to this. The school bus would drop her off and her little sister would be excited to come and see her. And I would notice that Savannah was tired because she had been on a school bus since 7.15 that morning. It was now 4.15 in the afternoon. And here’s my second grade daughter coming home to her little kindergarten age sister who wanted to play with her. But Savannah was tired because I had given the best hours of her day to people that I did not know. And they were the ones who were influencing my daughter. The Bible teaches us that when a student in Luke 6, 40, Jesus talking to the Pharisees said that when a student is fully trained, he’ll be like his teacher. I would venture to guess that most parents who have their children in the public school system do not know who’s teaching their children. They do not know the spiritual language that teachers imparting to the children. They do not understand the political ideologies that these teachers come from. And years ago, it was an unspoken rule that the teachers wouldn’t share these things with children. But now what we’re seeing has happened in the last 25 and 30 years in the United States is that we no longer have teachers as a general rule in our public school system. We have activists who are disguised as teachers. Lenin said, give me just one generation of youth and I’ll transform the world. When Jesus was talking to the Pharisees in Luke 6, 14, he said, when a student is fully trained, he’ll be like his teacher. We all should be leaning into this because the reality is we have generations now of young people who have been trained by people in ideologies that are opposed to God’s word and in many places opposed to the very foundations of the United States of America that are coming out of our public education system, both in the elementary and high school and obviously in our secular state universities. I’m going to encourage you today with everything that’s in me to engage in the fight for education reform in this nation because if we do not change education, I’m here to tell you right now, and I want you to lean in and listen to me because it’s important. It will not matter if we have a wonderful election four years from now or three years from now. It won’t matter if we get J.D. Vance in there for eight more years and we can consider that we had 12 years of a Republican in the White House because we are turning out of our public education system by the hundreds of thousands every single year, kids who hate this country. And very, very soon, we will simply be outnumbered. And so though we can win an election, and maybe we’ll win an election in four years, and maybe we’ll win a wonderful election again in seven years, but I’m here to tell you, if we don’t stem the bleeding, if someone doesn’t put a tourniquet on the bleeding of communist and Marxist ideology that is coming out of our public school system and out of our public universities, we will eventually lose the nation to this ideology because these are tomorrow’s leaders. They’re tomorrow’s teachers. They’re tomorrow’s judges. They’re tomorrow’s lawmakers. They’re tomorrow’s mothers and tomorrow’s grandparents. This is a moment in our nation’s history that calls for courage. In Joshua 1.9 we read this, be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you. And I want to remind you today of who you are. Every person sitting in this room, you need to know who you are in Christ. You are sons and daughters of the most high God. You were literally born for this time in human history. Amen. God in his sovereignty determined that you could have been born 100 years ago or 100 years from now. But in his sovereignty and in his great mercy and love for you, he has determined that 2025 is your time to engage. This is your time to get off the bench and onto the battlefield. This is your time to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. One of my favorite people on the planet, Katie Faust, is here this weekend, and she’s also from Washington State. Katie hails from Seattle. I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, two cities which are literally on fire and being absolutely destroyed by leftist ideology, which is why, by the way, the both of us are William Wallace-ing all over the Pacific Northwest to try to wake up God’s people. But Katie will say that we are called to do hard things on behalf of children. We live in a country right now that for many, many years has been hijacked by, frankly, people from pulpits who have said that it is not our job to engage in the political conversation. And so when we retreated from the public square, when God’s people retreated from the public square, and we were told that we were not to engage in politics, evil filled the vacuum. I was blessed to have been very heavily influenced by my grandfather. He took me campaigning for Ronald Reagan when I was about 10 years old. So your girl Heidi’s been wearing Ronald Reagan buttons and I had the cowboy hat and the whole thing. What was interesting about my granddad was he was a pastor. My grandfather was a pastor at a little evangelical church just outside of Portland, Oregon. And when I was very little, I want to say I was seven years old. I’ve watched every presidential debate from the time I could sit down in front of a television because my granddad made sure that I engaged. He was like, Heidi, I don’t care if you’re six years old. That’s good for you. Sit down. My grandfather from the pulpit of his little tiny church outside of Portland, Oregon, over and over and over again engaged his conversation around the arena of politics and whether or not Christians should be involved in it. And yet at the Christian school that I went to, by the way, it was also my grandparents who told me that education wasn’t neutral. They were the ones who paid for my brothers and sisters and I to be in a private Christian school from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. My parents didn’t have the money, and my grandparents were like, you know what? Education’s not neutral. Our grandkids are going to a Christian school because I want them to come out with a Christian worldview. Did you know we are sending our children, you guys? Think about this. It’s mind-blowing. We send our children to Rome to be educated. Nine months out of the year, eight and a half to nine hours every day. With just a few weeks off for summer vacation, we send them to Rome to be educated and then we wonder why they come out as Romans. My grandfather understood this, and so did my grandmother. From the time I was very little, they determined that we would have a Christian education. And I’ll remember my granddad telling the people in our church as I was growing up that Christians belong in the public square. And yet, as I grew into my teenage years, I noticed that the conversation in the church was changing from Christians should be involved in the public square to Christians should really stay out of politics because politics is just dirty. And we don’t belong in politics because it’s just the gospel. Well, if the gospel is not influencing your politics, tell me what are you doing with it? You see, politics determines policy and policy shapes the nation. God’s people should be in the policy shaping business. This is why the work of Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council is critically important in this moment in history. Our public schools have been captured by ideology. Gender ideology, gender confusion, critical race theory. Our kids are being told that they are victims based on the color of their skin. I thought we’d moved past all that, and yet our churches have not been standing in the gap for our young people, and we have watched as our public universities have enforced the lie that took root in the hearts and minds of our children when they were as young as five years old in kindergarten in our public education system. I had the privilege several years ago of speaking at a women’s conference just outside of Portland, and I met a nurse there. She was working for Kaiser Permanente just outside of downtown Portland, Oregon, which, by the way, don’t listen to the governor of Oregon when she tells you everything’s fine in Portland. It’s not. I was just in downtown Portland the other day on my way to speak at a conference, and I can tell you right now that the streets of Portland are literally littered with drugs and people bent over in a fentanyl stupor. And while the governor of Oregon wants to walk around and tell you that everything’s fine, I’m here to tell you if God’s people would stand in the gap, things would begin to turn around again because truth is necessary in the culture right now. We have to tell the truth. Amen. We have to tell the truth. You’ve got to be committed to it, and it takes courage. And I’m speaking at this conference just outside of Portland. I meet this young woman who’s worked for Kaiser Permanente in their gender pathways clinic. And with tears in her eyes after hearing me speak about the necessity of truth in the culture. By the way, the only answer, you guys should write this down, all you bold warriors, note-taking people. The only answer to a bold lie is bold truth. Amen. If you’re going to have an impact in the culture right now, it will require boldness. It will require courage. It will require resolve. And it will require an understanding of the issues that are shaping the culture in which we live.
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That was bestselling author and podcast host and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John took place. She was speaking at our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. And you’re tuned in to Washington Watch in this very special edition. All right. Stay tuned. After the break, we’re going to continue more with Heidi’s address. So stick with us.
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Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, and I want to invite you to join me for Stand on the Word, a daily journey through the Bible, 10 to 15 minutes a day. That’s all it takes. And in no time, you’ll have finished the entire Bible. And along the way, we’ll learn how to apply God’s truths to the world in which we live. As we’re about to start a new year and as our nation is about to celebrate 250 years, there’s never been a better time for a fresh start in the Word of God. To join us, text BIBLE to 67742. That’s BIBLE to 67742.
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At Family Research Council, we believe religious freedom is a fundamental human right that all governments must protect. For years, Islamist militants in Nigeria have targeted Christians and other religious minority groups with brutal violence. Since 2009, 52,000 Christians have been slaughtered. A staggering 89% of Christian martyrs in the world today are from Nigeria. The first Trump administration declared Nigeria a country of particular concern, a designation reserved for countries whose governments engage in or tolerate religious freedom violations. However, this designation of Nigeria was quickly reversed by the Biden administration. Following consistent calls from FRC President Tony Perkins and other religious leaders across the U.S., President Donald Trump has responded.
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DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States of America, Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands and thousands of Christians are being killed. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern.
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This is a huge step forward for the protection of Christians in Nigeria, as well as religious freedom across the world. While this opens the door for the US government to pressure Nigerian leaders to protect vulnerable Christians, it is only the beginning. We must continue to pray diligently, work strategically, and stand firm for the protection of religious liberty across the globe.
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What is God’s role in government? What does the separation of church and state really mean? And how does morality shape a nation? President John Adams said our Constitution was made only for moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. Join Family Research Council for God and Government, a powerful series that explores the connection between biblical principles and the American government, equipping you with truth to engage in today’s most pressing debates. We’ll uncover the foundations of our nation’s history and why it’s relevant for today. Join us to defend God’s plan for government because faith and freedom were never meant to be separate. You can view the course at prayvotestand.org slash godandgovernment or on the Stand Firm app.
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Good afternoon and welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony and thank you for joining us as well. All right, today we’re broadcasting special content from our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. And at the conclusion of the last segment, best-selling author and podcast host and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John was working her way toward a story about a nurse that she met at a women’s conference that she was speaking out just outside of Portland, Oregon. Well, in this next part, Heidi recalls that encounter, and here’s what she shared.
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This young woman came up to me, tears streaming down her eyes, and she said, Heidi, I have to tell you something. I’ve never said this out loud to anyone outside of my clinic. At a Kaiser Permanente in the Gender Pathways Clinic, every single week we’re watching young girls come in, and we are giving them radical mastectomies. As young as 14 years old. The worst case that she told me about is she continued just to sit down. She finally couldn’t stand anymore, and she sat down and continued to sob, and she said one of the worst cases that she saw was an autistic girl who came in for a mastectomy. Men and women, this is evil. This is spiritual. The battle that we are facing in our nation right now, the battle for truth is a spiritual battle. And spiritual battles require spiritual weapons. And yet over and over and over again, we send people to the highest positions of authority in this land, to the front lines of spiritual battles who cannot wield spiritual weapons. And then we wonder, what are we going to do? Well, I’m here to tell you right now, it matters who’s running for your city council. It matters who sits on your school board. It matters who’s in charge of Parks and Rec. I used to think it didn’t matter until the director of Parks and Rec in Vancouver, Washington, brought a drag queen to a family festival at our local park who proceeded to practically strip in front of little three-year-old children who were there for the face painting exhibit. It matters who’s in charge of parks and rec, and we should know who it is. We should engage. I’ve had the opportunity for many years now to follow the career of this young nurse who worked for Kaiser, the very first thing she did shortly after that, just a few weeks after that. At the risk of her own financial future and her financial security, she left that job. And she said, I’m not going to participate in evil anymore. She stood for righteousness in her workplace. And my response as an employer myself was to remove our organization from Kaiser Permanente and never give them my money again. When people masquerade around as healthcare providers and they are willing to remove the breasts of healthy young girls, something is terribly wrong and God’s people need to stand in the gap. And at the very least, we can stop giving our money to these wicked organizations. At the very least, that’s what we should be doing. Amen. The consequences of what’s happening in our nation right now are generational. They’re legacy stealing. The things that we are dealing with right now in our culture have resulted in children that are confused. Proverbs 22.6 says this, if we don’t train our children in God’s ways, the world is going to do it for us. A generation who is confused about morality, confused about God, confused about the issues of male and female. I never thought. Ten and a half years ago, I started speaking out about transgenderism. This will blow your mind. I was in Indianapolis speaking for a pretty large convention about what was happening in the public square. And I put a picture up on the screen of Time Magazine. And the image was of a black man dressed as a woman who said he was a woman. And the headline of Newsweek magazine that year said, transgender tipping point. This was 10 years ago, you guys. And I remember reading the headline and looking at my husband and saying, nobody’s going to believe this. Everybody knows that’s a dude in a dress. Oh, no, I was wrong. Because we have been literally hijacked in this nation by the spirit of the age. And we believe that up is down and down is up and right is wrong. And as I began to talk about transgenderism and the lie of transgenderism, a woman who was about three quarters of the way back in a room filled with about maybe 4,000 people stood up and began barreling toward me. I watched the police come in on this side of the room. I watched the board of directors from the organization I was there to speak for. And I was sitting there, look, everyone’s standing up to watch me get executed. I really thought I was going to die that day. It takes courage to speak the truth. This woman began to barrel toward the front. I was on a very high platform. She walked right up to my feet and she said, give me your microphone. I speak all over the country. I’ve never had this happen before. I was very aware in that moment that what I was dealing with was a spirit. It was a spirit. And the Bible teaches us over and over again that we must be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul in talking to young Timothy as he was getting ready to take his place out on the battlefield. By the way, Timothy had very real reasons to be afraid. The Roman emperors were killing Christians for sport. And I would imagine that his knees were knocking and he was starting to really question, maybe I shouldn’t get into this line of work. It’s not going very good for the Apostle Paul. You look a little beat up. And I imagine he’s starting to feel a little bit nervous, a little bit anxious. I wonder if I’m also going to be killed for my faith. And I could just imagine the tone in the Apostle Paul’s voice as he leaned into young Timothy and he said to him, with all of the power of heaven’s armies, Timothy, God didn’t give you this spirit. God didn’t give you the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. You see, men and women, fear is not an emotion. It’s a spirit. It’s a spirit. Amen. And we watched the spirit of fear, didn’t we, descend on this nation like a cold, wet blanket at the beginning of COVID. You guys remember, there’s two weeks to flatten the curve. It’s just two. You guys stay home for two weeks. Well, after two weeks, Heidi St. John and Jay St. John had had enough. I knew something was wrong from the very beginning. And at the end of the two weeks, we opened up our nonprofit organization and we never closed the doors again. And we saw our organization grow in leaps and bounds as we rescued children out of the public school. Thank you. You see, when God’s people submit to the spirit of fear, three things happen. They’re the same things that happened that the apostle Paul told Timothy would happen. You lose your love, you lose your power, and you lose your soundness of mind. This is why you saw people standing on dots in the middle of Walmart, bang, like sheep. We were told, stand six feet apart. We didn’t know why. We just did it. We’re just a bunch of sheep. Listen to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit tells you something is wrong, then you have an opportunity and in fact an obligation to speak the truth into that void.
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What a powerful, powerful story. That was best-selling author and podcast host and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John. She was speaking at our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. You’re tuned in today to Washington Watch, and we’re broadcasting this special content from that summit that was held back in October in the Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California. All right, if you’d like to watch it all or if you’d like to see more of that conference and a whole lot more information available there for you, you need to have our Stand Firm app. You can get it at the App Store, Google Play, or wherever, or simply text the word APP to 67742. All right, after the break, we’ll share the conclusion of Heidi’s address, so stay with us.
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For over 4,000 years, the Jewish people have had legal, historical, and biblical ties to the land of Israel, especially the heartland of Israel, Judea and Samaria, which much of the world still calls the West Bank. To Israelis, Judea and Samaria is far more than a name. It’s the center of their ancestral homeland where nearly 80% of the Bible’s events took place. Abraham purchased property in Hebron, Jacob in Shechem, Joshua made an altar on Mount Ebal and led the Israelites into a covenant before God. On Mount Gerizim, overlooking Shechem, Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman at the well about worshiping neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and in truth. Judea and Samaria is nearly a quarter of Israel’s current land mass, not a small strip of land on the Jordan River, but a vital and strategic part of the nation’s identity. The October 7th massacre, launched from Gaza, shattered the illusion that giving away territory brings peace. Gaza, which was once seen as the cornerstone of a two-state solution, became a launchpad for terror. Today, only 21% of Israelis support a Palestinian state. Trust in a two-state solution has all but collapsed. The Middle East is changing. Iran’s grip is weakening. New alliances are forming. But Western countries and some U.S. officials still chase the mirage of a two-state solution. History speaks clearly. The 2005 Gaza withdrawal, backed by the U.S., led not to peace, but to a terrorist regime. Judea and Samaria are 24 times larger than Gaza, deeply woven into Israel’s geographic and spiritual fabric. To surrender them would not bring peace. It would invite conflict and existential danger. Family Research Council stands with Israel’s rightful claim to sovereignty. It’s time for America to do the same for history, for justice, and for lasting security in the Middle East.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you for joining us today. I’m Jody Heiss filling in for Tony. Glad to have you on board with us. All right, today we’re broadcasting some content from back in our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. And in this next segment, we go to the conclusion of the address that was delivered by best-selling author and podcast host and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John. So let’s continue with that. Here’s more of Heidi.
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In the last two months, we have lost some giants of the faith. We’ve lost some incredible human beings. My friend K. Arthur went home to be with the Lord. John MacArthur is now standing in the presence of his Savior. One of these days, you guys, every single person in this room is going to stand before the Lord. We have one opportunity to do what God asks us to do. One opportunity to stand up and show up and speak up. One chance. And I’m going to encourage you today to do it. Think about the brevity of life. As Jay and I were getting away for a couple of days for our anniversary, we spent quite a bit of time talking about our children and our grandchildren. We have eight grandchildren now. It’s unbelievable. We finally have been seven children. Now we’ve been outnumbered by our children. Now we have more grandchildren than children. And we were kind of laughing about it because there’s a 20-year span between our oldest daughter and our youngest daughter. So our oldest daughter is 35. Our youngest daughter is 15. I’ve homeschooled those kids. That makes me wait for it. You guys are doing the math. I’ll help you. That makes me 236 years old in homeschooling. It’s kind of like, you know, dog years only with a headache and a lot of just exhaustion and you just hate math facts after a while. But the thing that my husband said to me over dinner one night, is that the thing that we love the most about our life is the fact that all seven of our children are walking with the Lord. And they are training their children in righteousness. Men and women, I want to encourage you today. Speak into the lives of the young people that God has placed in your life. The very first place that God tells you to speak is into the lives of your children. That is your first responsibility. Don’t offshore it to the local school district. I don’t even care if it’s a Christian school. This is the problem I see even in Christian education. Parents just think, well, there’s a Bible teacher at that school, and they’re going to teach my kids the Bible, and they’re going to disciple our children, except for God’s mandate towards you as parents is to teach your children. It is not Pastor Jack’s job to suit you up for war. It is your job. When you get up in the morning, you put on the full armor of God. You suit up. You read your Bible. And then you teach your children. This is how we fasten the breastplate of righteousness. This is how we put the gospel of peace on our feet every day. This is how we wear the helmet of salvation. And we show our children and we model it for our children and we model it for our grandchildren. You see, I think that God would have incredible things happen in this country. I don’t think he’s near done with the United States yet. I think that God has more for us to do. We are called to love the place that we live and to pray for it. The prophet Jeremiah reminding the nation of Israel heading into a Babylonian captivity, pray for the peace and the prosperity of the cities in which you live because if it prospers, you also will prosper. You should love this city enough to stand for righteousness. You should love your children enough to stand for righteousness. This is a moment that God would have us stand with courage and conviction and speak the truth of the gospel with clarity into a nation that desperately needs to hear that there’s hope in Jesus Christ. And in the absence of Christian pastors, I would encourage you, speak. If you’re in a church, you guys, if you’re at this church, boy, I’ll tell you, I told Pastor Jack and Lisa last time I was with them, very few things could get me to move here except for Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. You guys have such a beautiful thing going on here. I would encourage you, though, pray, pray, pray, pray for the pastors in this country. That God would fill them with the moral clarity and the courage to speak with conviction the things that they already know are true and lack the courage to say out loud. If we would see God’s people speak the truth from the pulpits again, I think we’d see an amazing thing happen. I want to encourage you to have political courage. In 2022, I ran for Congress in the state of Washington to represent Congressional District 3. In fact, I think I was here during that time and Pastor Jack prayed for me from the pulpit. I learned something really important when I was running for Congress. We often think that the problem is just with the Democrats. I’m here to tell you guys, I’m not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings. There is evil on both sides of the political aisle. And what I saw happen when I was running for Congress is that Republicans are really good at circling around each other and then shooting each other across the circle. And then when you get done with the primary, everybody’s so mad at each other that they won’t come out and vote. Last year in Washington State, 1.5 million people who self-identified as Christians didn’t even bother to vote. If we would get out there and vote in Washington State, in Oregon, in California, we wouldn’t just win, you guys. We would win in a land side. It wouldn’t even be close. If your pastor is not speaking out about politics, he needs to be because these issues, the issues that are facing our nation, they’re not just political issues, they’re biblical. 99.9% of the things that your congressmen and women are gonna deal with and your school boards are gonna deal with and your mayor and your city council and the guy who’s running Parks and Rec, They’re spiritual at their root. And spiritual battles require spiritual weapons. And spiritual questions require spiritual answers. Your pastors, your leaders, the men and women in your church, the Christians who call themselves ambassadors of the living God need to step up to the front lines of the battle with boldness and clarity. Pray for your pastors to do that again. We need it desperately in the United States. We’re at a crossroads. And the question is going to be, will we compromise or will we have courage? Will we speak the truth to the next generation boldly and without apology? Because the only answer to a bold lie is bold truth. I’m gonna ask you again, what is the answer, men and women, to a bold lie? It’s bold truth. God calls you to boldness. Parents, stand up. Pastors need to speak out. Christians need to get involved. We need to change the way we see education in this nation so that we don’t lose the nation to a political ideology that’s opposed to God’s word. And when we do that, I think we’re going to see extraordinary things happen. Thank you, guys. I’ve loved being here today.
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That was best-selling author, podcast host, and former congressional candidate Heidi St. John during our 2025 PrayVote Stand Summit. You’re tuned in to this special edition of Washington Watch. After the break, we’ll close with FRC’s president, Tony Perkins. So stay with us.
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Should a Christian support Israel? That question has become one of the most emotionally charged issues of our time, both in the world and within the church. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins offers a clear biblical and prophetic answer. In his latest book, he examines Israel’s past, present, and future through the lens of scripture, revealing why support for Israel is not rooted in politics, partisanship, or cultural sentiment, but in the unchanging promises of God. Drawing from Genesis to Revelation, Tony Perkins demonstrates that the ultimate rationale for a Christian’s support for Israel is spiritual. Should a Christian support Israel invites believers to see beyond headlines and ideologies, returning to the foundation of God’s Word to understand His heart for His chosen people and the blessings that flow when we stand with what He has established forever. Text the word Israel to 67742 for more information.
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The Family Research Council internship program educates and inspires students who are passionate about public service and who believe that a biblical worldview is fundamental to the reformation of government and culture.
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I really wanted to do policy work in Washington, D.C., and I saw Family Research Council as a Christian organization that had very conservative values, values that I supported and that I really wanted to do work on.
SPEAKER 12 :
I really love my department. I love working with this stand. I love writing. I love talking to all the different writers and all the great advice they’ve given me about how to improve my writing and what I already am doing well and how to harness those skills to do a better job.
SPEAKER 13 :
This internship really helped clarify my career goals. I would love to go into higher education and help our culture think more critically about the issues that we’re active about. And so this internship has given me more clarity on how to pursue that goal.
SPEAKER 12 :
To come here and to really see my work matter and to see people value it and to value me and what I do and what I can bring to the table has been a great opportunity.
SPEAKER 13 :
To a future intern, I would say take advantage of the moment. There are so many opportunities that FRC provides that can grow you personally and professionally and spiritually. I would 100% recommend this internship to any peer or classmate.
SPEAKER 03 :
This internship has definitely helped me grow spiritually. The fellowship and the discipleship here just sets FRC apart from any other place I’ve worked at before.
SPEAKER 05 :
To apply, visit frc.org.
SPEAKER 10 :
In times like these, we need something solid to stand on. That’s why I’m inviting you to join me on January the 1st for Stand on the Word, a daily journey through the entire Bible. Each day, we’ll read God’s Word together, discuss how to apply His truths to our lives, 15 minutes that can transform your year. Join me and thousands of others as we stand strong by standing on the Word of God. Text BIBLE to 67742. That’s BIBLE to 67742. Welcome back to this special Friday edition of Washington Watch as we talk about Stand on the Word. So I made reference to this with Pastor Paul many years ago when our children were young, and I’ve got a kind of a… We have a wide age spread. Typically, it’s relatively speaking, 16 or so years between the oldest and the youngest. Anyway, I was looking for a devotional that we could do together as a family and hosting a national program. I got a lot of people send me books. I can get devotionals. And so I went through a few of them. And, you know, it’s just not that they weren’t good. It’s just they were fine for an individual, but not so much so for a family, especially with children. And I guess, I don’t know if it was in my quiet time one day, I think the Holy Spirit said, why don’t you just try the Bible? And, you know, pretty novel idea, Bible devotional, use the Bible. So I took and began kind of breaking the Bible into chunks. And so as a family, we started doing this. And then as a church, when I was pastoring, I did it with my church. We first took books of the New Testament and did those and breaking them into daily reading plans. Then we took the entire Bible and took it into a two-year reading plan, six days a week, Monday through Saturday. And then on Sunday… Actually, I was in Israel one time and had Shabbat dinner with a family, and I said, you know, this is so fascinating, just sitting around as a family, having a conversation about, you know, they were talking about the Torah, they were talking about the Old Testament. And so… incorporated in this plan on Sundays, no reading. It’s just a discussion. We have discussion questions where you can sit and talk with your family. And so I just started pastoring my family, my own children. And then I worked in the church. And then, I don’t know, probably seven years ago, we brought it here to the Family Research Council. And then we’ve been going through it. And then probably four years ago, we had partners. And then For the last two years, we’ve had probably almost 24,000 people that have joined us on this journey. And it’s very easy to do. You heard from Dr. Curitan earlier some of the comments that we’ve gotten from those who have been on the journey. It’s just very doable. It’s not a speed reading course. It is designed for us to abide in Christ, in His Word. And we’re gonna start again. We just finished Revelation, and we’re gonna start with Genesis. Now, it’s a chronological plan, so it helps to actually have the reading plan in front of you. And you can get that reading plan. All you need to do is text Bible to 67742, Bible to 67742. And I want to invite you to join us starting January the 1st for the Stand on the Word Bible reading plan. And be thinking about, maybe you’ve been on it already. you can invite someone else to join you. In fact, about 70% of the people who were on this journey with us in the last two years said that they had invited someone. They wanted to share it with other people. So you can do that as well. And I’ve got a special digital invite a e-card that you can send to your friends to invite them to join you on this journey. Text the word invite, I-N-V-I-T-E, invite to 67742. And then I’ll send you a link and you can send that to family and friends. Well, to go further into this, I want to bring in two guests who are no strangers to Washington Watch. If you’ve been following FRC for any length of time, you’ve seen them, heard them or read some of their articles. With me now are Washington Stand senior writer Joshua Arnold and Washington Stand reporter Sarah Holliday. Joshua, Sarah, thanks for joining me.
SPEAKER 14 :
Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER 10 :
Happy to be here. All right, so let’s start this way. With a new year just around the corner, we’re about to start another journey through the Bible. And I know this is true for you, Sarah, but you have been going through the study for as long as you’ve been on staff. Joshua, you frequently chime in in the morning conversations on our morning call, as I talked about earlier in the program. Every morning, we start as a team in the Word of God. What would you say, Joshua, is a significant takeaway for you in this systematic reading of the Word?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think now that FRC has done it three whole times through the whole Bible—six years, so slightly after I started here—one thing that I’ve been surprised by is how I think it’s fostered unity among our staff. We’ve got a diverse group—Catholics, Reformed, Charismatics, Baptists. But when you sit down and you look at God’s Word, you’re all looking at the same Bible. And when you’re asking what God is saying through these words that he has inspired on the page, you know, you end up a lot closer, at least on any particular passage, than you would have thought. You end up saying, you know, this passage is clearly about God’s sovereignty over the nations or about humility or the endurance of the saints. And so that’s been really encouraging to see that unity fostered among people from different theological positions.
SPEAKER 10 :
And I’ve had a little longer period of time to view the team here in over 20 years, and I would agree with that assessment, but it shouldn’t surprise us because we’re challenged to be one with Christ, to abide in Christ, and when we’re in unity with Him, we’re in unity with others, and so by abiding in the Word, which is Christ, it would foster that environment, and it certainly has, and it’s been encouraged. It doesn’t mean we don’t have disagreements, we do, but we’re just, we’re on the same page, literally the same page. We start every morning. Now, Sarah, you and I have talked about this recently. You were on the program talking about this. There are many people tuning in today who may not have heard what you shared then. Why should someone consider this one? Especially, all right, I’m going to say this, young people. You know, why, you know, busy, you got all these things going on. Why prioritize being in the Word of God every day?
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, well, whether you’re young or old, you need wisdom, you need truth, you need encouragement, you need a guide to life. And that is what we have in the Word of God. And so one thing I love about, well, there’s a few things I love about our Stand on the Word program. It’s that you go through the whole Bible, but I love that it’s not speeding through it, as you’ve mentioned. It’s a two-year program. bite size, you have so much time to intentionally slow down because the riches of scripture are unsearchable. We’ll never reach the depths of what the word of God has to offer. And so we really are doing ourselves a disservice by just blazing through it. So, I love that this devotional, this reading plan, it has you go through it slowly, intentionally, and it’s also very interactive. And I know, especially for young people, myself being one of them, it’s a lot easier to remember something or write it on your heart or live it out in your day-to-day when you don’t just read it passively, but you actively engage in it. And so, I love that this—especially if you go to the webpage, you have these questions that it asks you. And what better way to force yourself to think than to have to answer a question? And we have prayer, and we have videos that we can go to where people are giving insight. We go through it as an organization, as we’ve already talked about. And you learn so much from hearing the way the Lord may be working through that passage with someone that might have a different background than you, as Joshua mentioned. And so this Bible reading plan, I think, is great in general because it has some of these more unique aspects that, you know, some… plan somewhere else probably maybe does two years, maybe they do more. But ours, for sure, does the two years. It does the questions. It’s interactive. And more than anything else, we’re going through the Word of God. And every single person in the world, I would say, needs to go through the Word of God, but Christians especially. It is the lamp to our feet and the light to our path.
SPEAKER 10 :
So both of you write for The Washington Stand. And we are not in any form or fashion hiding the fact that The Washington Stand is news and commentary from a biblical perspective. I mean, that’s how we look at the world, through the lenses of Scripture. And we’re trying to help other Christians develop that biblical worldview. With that said, I’m going to ask both of you this question. I’ll start with you, Joshua. How has or has this Bible reading plan impacted the way you view events and write about them?
SPEAKER 01 :
I was actually looking that up this morning, some of the times where I’ve referenced the stand-on-the-word Bible reading for the day or the week in articles that I wrote. So, a couple of examples. In September, there was a murder in Charlotte of someone on public transit, a tragic murder. But the mayor of Charlotte tried to deflect from the city’s policing policies and say, well, we need to get to the root of the problem. Well, that very week we had read in James where it says, what causes fights and quarrels among you? Are they not the passions that war within you? Right there, the Bible tells you what the root of the problem is. It speaks directly to the issues going on in our world today. or all the things that are happening with Israel. You know, there was a time when the ceasefire was violated in Gaza, and that very week we had read Romans 9 through 11, which talk about how Paul agonizes over his kinsmen according to the flesh and desires to see them won over to become part of the new covenant people of God as well.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, Sarah, one of the responses, or many of the responses we’ve gotten back in the survey, people were saying, you know, this helps me understand a little bit better what’s happening in the world and takes away some of the anxiety because I have a better understanding of it. Has that been the case as you’ve worked through the news issues and the things happening globally, domestically, by having that context of the word?
SPEAKER 14 :
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is I, when I was younger growing up, leading even all the way up to my employment here, I wanted nothing to do with politics, specifically, because that realm, from my understanding, was just too much. It was too dark, too chaotic, too dreary. I mean, the news is almost predominantly bad, it feels, because otherwise it wouldn’t be news, right? It was actually coming here, despite my disinterest in politics—so, the Lord orchestrated all of that—that I saw not just FRC and everybody who works here, but everybody in, let’s just say, you know, the conservative Christian movement in the political sphere. It was seeing them in action and being a part of that that made me realize the Bible has something to say about practically everything, either directly or indirectly. And when that hit me, I realized that, yes, the political sphere is chaotic. It is messy, but just like any other aspect of this fallen world, and just like any other aspect of this fallen world, we need to be a part of it, shining light, spreading truth, standing firm in what is good, true, and beautiful according to Christ and God’s Word. And so the Bible has actually been a pivotal aspect of not just bringing me here and wanting me to be a part of this fight, but navigating some of these really tough issues. There are times where I’ll be writing an article, and it takes energy almost out of me to write it because it’s just so awful. I’ll never forget, early on, I was writing—it was somewhat of a news article, somewhat commentary, but I was kind of dissecting, do Democrats draw the line on abortion? Is there actually a limit for them? We know that they, in general, support, you know, giving women any access to abortion, but they’ll often deny that, you know— They won’t do it up to birth, or they won’t do it post-birth, but when you really dig into it, it’s so disheartening to see how so many of them will speak about it so flippantly. And we’re talking about human life, precious human life, not to mention the mothers and the fathers and everybody else who is affected by such a terrible act of evil. And all of that to say, there are definitely articles that are hard to write, but you turn to the Word of God, and not only does it give you guidance to write about it from a biblical angle, but it gives you hope. and it gives you something to lean on when everything else seems to be crumbling around you. And so I need the word of God as a journalist. I need it as a human being. I need it to get through this life because it’s the only source that will continually point you to the fact that sin doesn’t have the final say. Death doesn’t have the final say. Hostility doesn’t have the final say. God, his word, his truth, his gospel has the final say. And that is a truth that became a reality far before the foundation of the world because, you know, God and His omnipotence and everything, but we saw it reach its fulfillment on the cross. And that truth is still just as alive and active and beautiful today.
SPEAKER 10 :
And folks, you can join us on this journey by texting the word Bible to 67742. That’s Bible to 67742. Sign up. We’ll send you a link to all of the resources that you can be a part of this journey. Sarah, you mentioned the word hope. There are four really defining characteristics that we have here at Family Research Council. Truth, we want to tell the truth. Courage, we want to do it with courage, even when no one else is willing to speak the truth. And we want to do it with excellence, everything we do with excellence. But we want everything shaped by hope. And, you know, as you were pointing out, you know, we deal here in our nation’s capital with some disappointing, discouraging, dark things. But we have hope. And we find that hope in the word of God. What would you say, Joshua, to those that maybe say, I don’t have time for that. I just, you know, that’s fine. I’m a believer. I’m a Christian, but I still have time for the word of God.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s that’s a good question. There’s. The flat answer is that you do have time, somewhere in your schedule. If you don’t have time, make time, because nothing will be more rewarding than reading God’s Word. You know, there’s a lot of quick fix programs in this world, and reading the Bible is not one of those. You know, the kingdom of God grows like planting a seed in the ground that then takes time to sprout and then slowly grows and grows and grows. Reading the Word of God is like that. It starts small, but over the years, as you continue to read and reread, it will change and shape your lives in profound ways that you never expected, that you never thought possible. There’s no time better than now to start. You’ve got to start now or, you know, 50 years from now, you’ll have missed 50 years of reading God’s Word. Good point.
SPEAKER 10 :
We just have about a minute left, but Sarah, we had one of the recipients of the, or one of the One of those on our journey, she wrote this, she said, I’ve never read the Bible through. I’m 69 years old, and I’ve now read the Bible through. Praise God. But all that time missed. I mean, we need the Word of God each and every day, especially the times in which we’re living that are becoming more intense, more challenging. more, you know, more and more people are desperate. I mean, we see this crisis of drugs. You know, the Word of God is the solution for that vacuum that’s in the heart of man. Sarah and Joshua, I want to thank you for joining me today. And thank you for the work you do in the Washington stand. And thanks for being on this journey. Thank you, Tony. And folks, again, I do want to invite you to join us on this journey. Don’t wait. Don’t wait to read the Word of God. Do it now. Make that commitment. Text the word Bible to 67742 and join me and thousands of others as we journey through the Word of God together. Until next time, keep standing on the Word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council. To support our efforts to advance faith, family, and freedom, please text GIVE to 67742. That’s GIVE to 67742. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information, please visit TonyPerkins.com.
