The Washington Stand’s Casey Harper provides an update on redistricting efforts in Alabama and Tennessee, primary elections in Ohio and Indiana, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s press conference highlighting Project Freedom. John McGuire, U.S.
SPEAKER 08 :
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.
SPEAKER 10 :
Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss. The U.S. military is deploying the necessary assets to extend this defensive umbrella over commercial shipping. But there should be no mistake, and as I said this already, this is a defensive operation. I want to reiterate that point. This is important to understand. If no shots are fired at these ships and no shots are fired at us, we’re not firing shots. But if we’re fired on, we will respond, and we will respond with lethal efficiency.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, that was Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier today addressing the situation with Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Welcome to this Tuesday, May 5th edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host Jody Heitz, an honor to be filling the shoes of Tony Perkins today, and thank you for joining us. All right, coming up today, Virginia Congressman John McGuire will join us in just a little while to break down the latest developments out of Iran as the U.S. now closes the chapter on Epic Fury while embarking on Project Freedom. Plus, just one day after Alabama launched a special redistricting session, Tennessee lawmakers are now moving to redraw their own congressional maps. All this follows last week’s major Supreme Court decision on Louisiana’s redistricting. And David Wasserman will be joining us a little bit later with an analysis on these changes and how they could potentially shape this year’s midterm elections. Also, John Stonestreet will be joining me. He’s from the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. We’ll be discussing issues of transgenderism and happiness. So all this and much, much more coming your way straight ahead. Redistricting fights are heating up in Alabama and Tennessee, coinciding with primary elections in Ohio and Indiana, where voters will be deciding on congressional maps. And joining us now to discuss this and more is Washington Stand reporter Casey Harper. Casey, break down for us. What do we know?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, thanks, Jody. A lot is going on, as you alluded to. First off, Tennessee lawmakers are at the state capitol for a special session where they’re trying to redraw congressional maps to help Republicans get ahead in the midterm elections. But they’re not the only ones. Over in Alabama, lawmakers are considering drawing a map that favors Republicans seven to zero. And down in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis just signed a new congressional map into law that could flip four seats from Democrat to Republican. Meanwhile, primary elections are now underway in Ohio and Indiana, where voters are going to make their voices heard on congressional maps and election rules. There’s actually more states than that, Jody, but I won’t go through all of them.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, it’s amazing what’s going on, and I’m looking forward to diving deeper into this a little bit later in the program with David Wasserman. All right, Casey, let me shift gears with you. In a press conference today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave some updates on the conflict with Iran. What’s the latest developments happening there?
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, Jody, I covered this press conference for the Washington stand, and Secretary Haig said that the ceasefire with Iran is still in place, which is notable given all the activity. He also said that the U.S. has secured a path through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed sort of on and off, but generally closed for weeks now. In fact, hundreds of commercial ships are lining up to pass through now that they can finally get out. Now, the U.S. military says that it sank six Iranian small boats and intercepted Iranian drones and cruise missiles that were sent to really stop them from reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And this whole military naval project is called Project Freedom.
SPEAKER 05 :
to open the strait of hormuz now the u.s navy was sent to escort these stranded tankers through this sea passage which is now just getting underway in fact we have a clip from secretary hegseth at the press conference this morning this is about the straits this is about freedom of navigation this is about international waterways this is about free flow of commerce all the things that happened before uh and only iran is contesting uh so so right now the ceasefire certainly holds but uh we’re going to be watching very very closely
SPEAKER 11 :
Iran is also fired on the United Arab Emirates and is not really making many friends right now. But General Dan Kaine, the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, said the U.S. forces have been attacked by Iran over 10 times since the ceasefire began. But for now, the ceasefire is still in place, Jody.
SPEAKER 12 :
Still a very volatile situation. Casey, thank you so much for these updates. I want to continue this discussion on the U.S. operations in the Middle East. And joining us now by phone to discuss this further is Congressman John McGuire. He’s a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He’s also a Navy SEAL veteran. who did several deployments to countries around the world defending our country. He represents the 5th Congressional District of Virginia. Congressman McGuire, welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you for joining me.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. Yeah, there’s a lot going on in the world, but we’ve got an incredible leader in the White House, Commander-in-Chief President Donald J. Trump, Pete Hegseth, professional diplomat, And we’ve got the Secretary of War, we’ve got General Raisin Cane, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I mean, these guys are the right people in the right place at the right time, and we’re getting results.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, it’s really a very volatile situation, though. I wanted to bring this up and get your thoughts. Joint Chief Chairman Dan Kaine told reporters today that the recent actions of Iran of aggression are below what he said, below the threshold of major combat operations. Now, in my mind, that means that Tehran, at least in the Trump administration’s view, has not violated the ceasefire by their actions. What’s your take on that?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, I think these guys know what they’re doing. They know the bigger picture, but it does seem interesting. I think there’s been 10 attacks. But I’ll leave that to the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of War and, of course, General Kane. They know what they’re doing, and like I said, they are, like you said earlier, they’re starting to get ships lined up to bring them through, and we’ve got to get that going as soon as possible.
SPEAKER 12 :
So tell me your thoughts on Project Freedom. We seem to be transitioning now away from Epic Fury to what’s now being referred to as Project Freedom. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who I played a clip of just a little while ago, but he reiterated today that the U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait is not an offensive operation. I thought he did a good job bringing clarification to that. Can you go deeper and explain what the difference between an offensive and defensive operation might look like?
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, by the way, I mean, I’m sure we all know, I mean, what is it that Marco Rubio can’t handle? I think he’s got more job titles than anyone else in this administration. It’s true. But he’s very professional. He’s doing a great job. And it’s more of a defensive operation to defend the maritime fleet, the ships that are going in from multiple, many different countries to get them through. And they’ve got Apache helicopters, they’ve got counter-drone, and, of course, our destroyers and everything else. But basically it’s a defensive mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and get these ships and get these goods and services, this energy where it needs to get in the world. And I feel confident they’re going to get this done. Now, Iran, we’ve taken out their Navy, we’ve taken out their Air Force, but they’re still a threat. I mean, they’ve got missiles hidden in garages and in caves, and they’re hard to detect. Once they fire them, we identify the launchers and we destroy them. But I think we’ve knocked out 90% of their forces. So we’ve got to be vigilant. We’ve got to keep an eye on each other. We’ve got a layered system of short-term, mid-term, long-term counter-drone systems all through the area. But we’ve got the best military in the world.
SPEAKER 12 :
I don’t want to just throw a hypothetical out there. And quite frankly, I don’t think this is a hypothetical. I think it is, even based on what you just said, a very real possibility. But let’s suppose Iran does fire on U.S. vessels who are escorting commercial ships. Does that mean that Iran has started a new conflict there?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, again, I would leave that to the commander-in-chief, but I know one thing. If they launch at a ship, they need to destroy their ability to do that again. So like I said, they’re hunting the missile launchers down. They’re going after those fast attack boats that they have, and they’re taking them out. And we’ve got overwhelming force in the area. So I’m confident that our incredible men and women in our military are going to be up to the task to stop these threats.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I agree with you. And I think, quite frankly, Iran is just a lot of bark right now. As you mentioned, 90 percent of their power has been destroyed. So it’s kind of hard to have a whole lot of bite with that. But what are you hearing, Congressman, in regard to the war powers clock? And I know there’s a lot of different opinions on this, so what are you kind of hearing? If an attack comes, let’s just say, like we were just talking about, Iran makes some sort of attack, an aggressive move, and President Trump responds defensively, does that mean that a new wars power clock starts because Iran initiated hostilities with the U.S.? What are you hearing? Well, I think that if we’re—
SPEAKER 13 :
So I’m not a lawyer. Obviously, they have incredible lawyers that know this stuff. I mean, we have a right to defend American forces at home and abroad. But I would tell you, I was in a committee meeting a week ago with Pete Hegseth, and I said that the Iranians said during negotiations they have enough uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs. Is that true? He said yes. And I said, could these bombs, if they were to be used, because obviously Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror, and they say if they get a bomb, they’re going to use it. And I said, are we talking 100 dead people, 1,000 dead people, or a million dead people? And he said, closer to a million dead people. So I said, well, thank God we have a commander-in-chief, President Trump, a secretary of war, and a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and an incredible military that has the fortitude to step up and stop that ability. I mean, the danger was too great to wait. And, you know, President Trump, he doesn’t want to be at war. He solved eight conflicts in eight months. But the intelligence said that the danger was too great to wait, and he stepped up and he did the right thing. And I hope everybody will support our men and women in harm’s way right now. I’m not a lawyer, but my opinion is that defending yourself should not enact the War Powers Act. But by the way, many Democrat presidents and Republican presidents believe that the War Powers Act is unconstitutional.
SPEAKER 12 :
Interesting. Well, that’s why I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Listen, while I have you, and our clock’s ticking away, but I wanted to get your take on what’s happening with your state as it relates to redistricting, the amendment there. Certification of the results of the vote on that referendum have been delayed at the State Board of Elections meeting. So what’s the latest on what’s happening in Virginia on the redistricting effort?
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, number one, we need prayers from your audience and the whole world on this. It’s spiritual warfare in our country, and thank God President Trump and everybody’s turning it around. But basically, Virginia has 100% score for the most fair math in the country. But the Democrats, using deception, ignored our Constitution, and they put language on a ballot that said vote for fair elections, and it tricked a lot of Republicans into voting yes. They spent about $100 million. The Democrats spent $100 million. We spent about $22 million, and they barely beat us. They stopped us. A lower court judge said, don’t certify the election. The radical Democrat attorney general said, keep certifying the election while we figure this out. And last week, the Supreme Court said no, which is a good sign for us. But a final decision hasn’t been made. We’ve won a battle. We haven’t won the war. So please pray that they’ll do the right thing. They won’t ignore our Constitution. and we’ll be able to keep the four Republican seats they’re trying to get rid of in Virginia.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, I think that is the call to action that is a top priority at this point. We’ve got to be praying about this. If we lose election integrity in this country, we lose the voice of the people to dictate, really, to have oversight over the type of government that we have. So I agree. We are going to be praying. Thank you so much for joining us, Virginia Congressman John McGuire. We appreciate it a great deal. All right, coming up, we’re going to discuss more of this whole redistricting issue. It’s a big one, and we’ll try to break it all down in an understandable way for you. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 11 :
I think all people really need to have this type of education. Well, I can tell you that it’s been an amazing course, period.
SPEAKER 16 :
I think this course is a reminder that a biblical worldview should really impact everything. It impacts our government from the federal to the state to the local. It should impact what we’re doing with our families and with our work.
SPEAKER 07 :
God and Government is a video-driven, Bible-based training course from Family Research Council that explores the connection between biblical principles and American government. In this six-session video series, FRC President Tony Perkins equips participants with a practical understanding of civil government from a biblical worldview.
SPEAKER 04 :
I would encourage all people to take it. I almost wish I would have took it earlier that I could have taught my kids this. I wish I had known these things when we were homeschooling because I think children and my adults now would just greatly be influenced by that information.
SPEAKER 01 :
So I’m an attorney, and for me, it gives me some direct practical knowledge of what I can do to try to impact my legal community, to make better legislation, to try to encourage legislators to make choices that have a biblical worldview, which is what we really want.
SPEAKER 06 :
Any pastor would benefit from taking this course because we are dual citizens, right? We are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we’re also citizens of this great land, and that comes with responsibility.
SPEAKER 16 :
Even as someone who has been involved in these types of issues for a while, you’re learning little bits and pieces of new stuff all the time. But it’s also approachable enough that newer people, younger people, high school, college students, they can really glean something from this. So… I would encourage everybody to take this course, whether it’s the videos, whether it’s doing it in person, bring your Bible study group through it, bring your homeschool group through it and equip yourself for these challenging days ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
View the course at frc.org slash God and government or on the Stand Firm app.
SPEAKER 06 :
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal. That they’re endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Happy 250th. Happy 250th. Happy 250th. Happy 250th birthday, America.
SPEAKER 10 :
May God bless America.
SPEAKER 12 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, an honor to be filling in today for Tony, and thank you so much for tuning in. All right, one day after Alabama’s legislature convened to have a special session on redistricting, Tennessee lawmakers commenced their own special session today in an attempt to redraw their state’s congressional maps. So we’ve got a flurry of activity following last week’s Supreme Court decision that ruled against the racial gerrymandering in Louisiana. So I guess the question for everyone is how might all these latest developments impact the upcoming midterm elections? Well, joining me now to discuss this is David Wasserman. He’s senior editor and elections analyst for the Cook Political Report. David, welcome to Washington Watch. It’s great to talk with you again.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s an honor to be here.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, so no doubt the left has been decrying last week’s Supreme Court decision. In fact, Senator Chuck Schumer called it something along the lines of another step towards resurrecting the Jim Crow South. So let’s try to set the record first. Can you give us a quick recap of the decision so that we’re all clear on what was actually decided?
SPEAKER 03 :
Sure. Well, the majority in this case didn’t strike down the Voting Rights Act entirely. What it did was it narrowed the scope of it so that the only way that a district map can be overturned is if plaintiffs prove that it was drawn with racially discriminatory intent. And And what makes that so difficult for plaintiffs who are trying to challenge congressional maps and other maps drawn by these legislatures across the South is that they have to prove that rather than partisan motivation. And of course, every state that’s redrawing its map is going to claim that it’s pressing partisan advantage to counter what blue states are doing, which in turn was countering what states like Texas and Missouri and North Carolina passed last year. This is an ultimate race to the bottom and every every state is seeking to maximize its part. Every party is trying to maximize its advantage where it can. Ultimately, with this decision, I believe there will be around three seats that are Wiped out across the South by Republicans, and the ultimate net gain out of this remap war for 2026 is likely to be a modest Republican gain, probably not enough to save their House majority, though.
SPEAKER 12 :
Very interesting. So let’s go back to the states. And I want to come back to what you just said and get down to specifically to the midterm elections and how they may be impacted. But let’s go back to the states and how they are responding to the Supreme Court decision. Am I hearing you correctly that they’re walking through the door that perhaps the Supreme Court opened? but they’re walking through it for partisan purposes. Is that what we’re seeing, both on blue and red states?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, that’s correct. And Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, they’re going to be drawing their maps, in some cases delaying primaries, to install new maps that expand the Republican advantage in those delegations. Keep in mind that by 2029, we could see states across the Deep South sending zero Democrats or black representatives to Congress from from states that have some of the highest black populations in the country. And so this is going to have the effect of eradicating Democrats from red states and blue states are eradicating Republicans from their delegations. We could see In Illinois, for example, Democrats in advance of 2028 passed a map with 17 Democrats and zero Republicans by drawing a series of strings from Chicago downstate Illinois. Same thing in California. Democrats could draw a 52 to nothing map. And so this is further polarizing Congress. What it means is that the battle for control of the House is going to come down to a small group of states with neutral maps that were installed by courts or commissions. And that’s why the bulk of the toss-ups in our chart right now are in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, states where neither party dominates this process.
SPEAKER 12 :
OK, so with that, let’s jump in then to the midterm elections. You said that probably it’s going to what’s happening now is going to favor Republicans, but probably not enough to win and to keep the the House majority. Break that down for us.
SPEAKER 03 :
sure so when the white house launched this strategy of mid-decade redistricting last summer they started with texas and texas republicans drew a new map to target five democratic seats there are only two issues with that strategy the first is that They drew a number of seats that have Hispanic majorities that President Trump would have won by around 10 points in 2024. But with the reversion to Democrats we’re seeing among Hispanic voters, some of those districts might not perform as Republican as intended. The other problem was that it provoked Governor Gavin Newsom to pass a constitutional amendment to permit Democrats to gerrymander California and target five Republican seats. And now, of course, you’ve had Virginia, where Democrats are seeking to pulverize four Republican seats, confine them to just one seat out of 11 there. Florida, where Governor DeSantis has passed a map targeting four Democrats. And so these largely offset. Now with Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee, you might get an extra three Republican seats, but we believe there are at least 15 Republican seats in the House that are at high risk of flipping, considering that the president’s approval rating is in the low 40s. So Democrats still have the advantage for control of the House this time. That may not be the case in 2028.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right, less than a minute to go. What kind of timeline are we looking about? I mean, some states are already, voting’s taking place. How can this impact midterms?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, over 40,000 votes have already been cast for Louisiana’s primary, and the governor there, Jeff Landry, is seeking to delay the congressional primaries and essentially issue new ballots at a later date. But we are headed for primaries in a number of states that are still in redistricting limbo. In some cases, the lines are going to be revisited, not this cycle, but in 2028. And the clock is ticking on Republicans to turn this around. They are at an enthusiasm deficit relative to Democrats, which is part of what’s driving this outlook.
SPEAKER 12 :
All right. Thank you so much for joining us and breaking this down. David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst for the Cook Political Report. Fascinating discussion. All right. Coming up, another Supreme Court decision on how some schools are dealing with and ignoring a major decision.
SPEAKER 17 :
For I know that my Redeemer lives. Job 19, 25. God raised Jesus from the dead because it was impossible for death to take hold on Him. Acts 2, 24.
SPEAKER 07 :
Join Family Research Council in standing on the Word. Visit frc.org slash Bible for free resources to help your family follow the way. Jesus, the risen Savior of the world.
SPEAKER 09 :
One Nation Under God, America’s undeniable foundation of faith.
SPEAKER 04 :
The United States Capitol, an iconic symbol of the American Republic. But few know that this building at the heart of our nation’s government was once something more, the largest church building in America. Since its inception and for decades following, several rooms throughout the Capitol, including the House and Senate chambers, were used to host church services weekly. These services were filled with individuals from all levels of government. The attendance was so pervasive that often it was standing room only. Quote, going to the Capitol on Sundays was then one of the most common things in Washington. Margaret Bayard Smith. This practice was not merely accepted, but encouraged. quote, I consider it as one of my public duties as a representative of the people to give my attendance every Sunday morning when divine service is performed in the hall. President John Quincy Adams. Housing worship at the center of our capital was a living representation of the role that biblical principles played as a cornerstone of our nation’s foundation of faith.
SPEAKER 12 :
thank you for joining us today on washington watch i’m jody heist filling in today for tony and thank you for joining us all right earlier this year the u.s supreme court issued a 63 decision that essentially blocks schools from hiding a student’s alleged transgender status from their parents The court majority found that secret, I’m gonna use that word, secret so-called gender transition policies, infringe on parents’ rights to manage their children’s upbringing and education and mental health. But despite that ruling, some schools continue to maintain the policies. This includes public schools in Virginia’s Fairfax County, which the organization of our next guest has confronted over all of this. And joining me now to tell us more is Ian Pryor, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. Ian, welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us.
SPEAKER 15 :
Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, last week you sent a letter to the superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools on behalf of a parent. So let’s begin there. Can you break down for us what’s been going on in that particular school district?
SPEAKER 15 :
Sure, well, Fairfax County Public Schools, which is the largest school district in Virginia, has policies and practices in place where number one they will allow you know John to become Jane at school without parental consent without parental notification. And in fact, if the parent objects to John going by Jane in school. Fairfax County Public Schools will respect the child’s wishes, not the parents wishes. At the same time, what they do is they do not put these requested changes of a student in their official records to avoid a situation where a parent requests the official records. and they don’t receive what should be in there as covered by FERPA. So when you’re looking at Fairfax County Public Schools, you’re seeing a violation of the Supreme Court’s edict in Mirabelli versus Bonta would say you cannot transition a student at school without the consent and knowledge of parents, but also it violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, let’s go further into that and unpack just what the Supreme Court decision actually did. Go a little bit further into detail as to what the decision concluded.
SPEAKER 15 :
Sure, well, the decision concluded two things really that that I think were monumental. It built upon the Mahmoud versus Taylor decision of last term, which involved Montgomery County Public Schools, and it said that parents have a 14th Amendment substantive due process right to guide the upbringing of their child, right? Which includes the education of their child, medical treatment of their child. And that policies that allow schools to essentially socially transition a child without the consent of parents and without providing them notification of this so that they can deny consent violates their 14th Amendment rights. It also, the secondary or however you want to list them, said that it violates parents’ free exercise rights to be able to raise their children according to the tenets of their faith. So there were these two reasons why the court overturned the law in California. One, First Amendment free exercise. Two, 14th Amendment substantive due process.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, so what are you demanding that the Fairfax County Public School system do? What needs to happen here?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, Fairfax County Public Schools needs to change its rules. It needs to respect the law of the land that came down from the United States Supreme Court and require that any request by a student to go by a different pronoun or use a different name at school needs to be done with the full consent of parents. And I would expand that, and we do expand that to say, look, if you’re gonna force a student to share a bathroom with a member of the opposite sex because they claim a different gender identity, you’ve got to give parents the notification that that’s going to happen so that the parents can take appropriate action based on their free exercise rights and their substantive due process rights. And if they don’t do this, if Fairfax County Public Schools refuses to do this, then we will take them to court.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s just… Still never ceases to astound me that we’re even having this discussion. This is so one of those issues that just a few short years ago, no one would have dreamed that we would be dealing with this kind of thing. And yet here we are. And so parents need to be on top of it. And organizations like you, I thank God for you for what you’re doing, standing gap for all of us. You mentioned FERPA. a while ago, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Tell us just real quickly a little bit more about that and how that plays into this particular case.
SPEAKER 15 :
Sure. Well, FERPA is a federal statute that guarantees parents the right to review their children’s official records. It also prevents schools from disclosing those records to third parties without certain protections in place, such as parental consent or a lawful subpoena. Ferber doesn’t provide a private right of action, meaning that you can’t sue under FERPA. But if your FERPA rights are violated, i.e. you’re a parent and you’re not given your students records or they’re hiding records from you as a parent, you can make a complaint to the United States Department of Education and they can do an investigation. And if it’s found that they were violating FERPA, then they can lose federal funding.
SPEAKER 12 :
And I think that is a huge issue. And that’s why I wanted to come back and make sure people understand it. All right, less than a minute that we have. What do you encourage parents in other school districts to do if they have similar issues?
SPEAKER 15 :
Well, they should go to aflegal.org and download our letter, which can be tailored to your school district, stating that I do not consent to my child going by different pronouns, going by a different gender identity, and I want to be informed of anything that could possibly be within that realm. And actually, just last week, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and we had sent a letter, a similar letter, to the Department of Justice regarding Montgomery County Public Schools. They changed their policy in response.
SPEAKER 12 :
Ian Pryor, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. All right, coming up, we’re going to have a biblical worldview discussion with John Stonestreet from Colson Center. Stay with us.
SPEAKER 14 :
This is Mission Control Houston here in the Artemis flight control room. Splashdown confirmed at 7.07 p.m. Central Time. A new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete. Integrity’s astronauts, back on Earth.
SPEAKER 17 :
When I got back on the ship, I’m not really a religious person, but there was just no other avenue for me to explain anything or to experience anything. So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship to just come visit us for a minute. And when that man walked in, I’d never met him before in my life, but I saw the cross on his collar and I just, I broke down in tears. It’s very hard to fully grasp what we just went through. And when the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I think all four of us, I turned to Victor and I said, I don’t think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we are looking at right now, because it was otherworldly and it was amazing.
SPEAKER 07 :
That was Commander Reid Wiseman of the Artemis II mission, reflecting on their journey around the moon. So here’s a question. Does that sound like a man that just entered space, an empty, cold vacuum of nothingness? Or did he encounter something so profound, so full, so warm and bursting with life, it’s almost as if someone was breathing on it? Perhaps it was so meaningful that the word space doesn’t do the journey justice. Well, it sounds like he didn’t encounter space, but something else, what the Bible calls the heavens. As the Psalmist says, the heavens declare the glory of God and continually pours out speech. And that speech just might leave you speechless if you’re seeking it. It seems like Commander Wiseman discovered the truth of Psalm 139 in reality. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven and orbit the moon, you are there. So here’s the glorious news for Commander Wiseman and all of humanity. The heavens aren’t far from any one of us. In fact, the Christian story proclaims that the one who sits in the heavens didn’t stay there. He came down into our broken world, forsaking heaven’s treasure to make you his treasure. And something truly incomprehensible happened the day he died, when the one who stretched out the heavens like a curtain stretched out his hands for us on the cross. But it was impossible for death to keep its hold on life itself. He rose from the grave, he lives, and every sunrise since reminds us that the darkness of night will never eclipse the light behind all light, Jesus, the light of the world. Family Research Council prays that families across America would look up and join the song of the heavens. Praise God in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
SPEAKER 12 :
Hope you’re having a great afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony and thank you for joining us as well. All right, before I go to our last segment and bring on our guests, I want to encourage you to join us this coming fall for our annual PrayVote Stand Summit. It’s going to be held on September the 24th through the 26th, taking place at Cornerstone Chapel in Leedsburg, Virginia, which, of course, is just right outside our nation’s capital. An incredible place to have this event. And this is a special time as we enter our 250th anniversary. So this gathering is going to be significant. It’ll bring together tons of Christian leaders and various experts on different topics, believers from all across the country. We’ll be experiencing times of prayer, times of encouragement, lots of opportunity for actions and what to do at this point in our nation’s history. And listen, we’ve got an incredible early bird special for you. Just $69. $69 for one of the most powerful events you’ll ever attend. That’s a $50 savings, and it’s a savings that’s only good from now to June the 15th. So learn more or register right now. Go to PrayVoteStand.org. PrayVoteStand.org, and don’t miss this upcoming summit. All right. As we enter into our last segment, we discussed previously about how schools, some schools, are maintaining so-called gender transition policies that hide the alleged transgender status of a child from their parents. And, of course, all this, as we just discussed, has been established by the Supreme Court. It’s federal law, and yet some school districts are continuing to ignore all of it. So while certainly we have groups like America First Legal that are confronting schools on this, this is a battle that has many fronts. It’s a battle that we all need to be equipped for, a battle that we need to be engaged in. So joining us now to discuss this and more is John Stonestreet. He’s the president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, which is an incredible organization. They exist to equip Christians with the clarity, with the confidence, with the courage that they need to live like Christians in this world. current, confused cultural moment in which we’re living. Well, John, welcome back to Washington Watch. Always great to see you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Hey, thanks, Jody. Great to be on with you.
SPEAKER 12 :
Okay, in the last segment, I don’t know if you heard, but we talked about how the Supreme Court determined that secret so-called gender transition policies infringe on parents’ rights, their rights to manage their children’s upbringing, education, mental health, and so forth. But it’s not only a right. This is really the duty of of parents, isn’t it? I mean, whether your child is wrestling with gender dysphoria or not, let’s start here. What do parents need to say to their children on this issue?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, the most important thing parents need to help their children understand is who they truly are. They need to have that down cold. And I think if we went from church to church to church today and we said, hey, everybody, fill in the blank. Humans are and everyone would say made in the image of God. But if you say, well, what does that mean and how significant is that? I think you’d get a lot less clarity on that issue. So I think theologically, in terms of our education, discipleship, formation, we’ve got to make image of God a priority. As Chuck Colson would often say, the idea of the image of God is one of the most consequential ideas in all of human history. There’s so many things. that we take for granted today, like freedom and dignity, hospitals, all kinds of things that you can source historically, at least on a cultural level, to this idea of the image of God when this Christian idea started to leak out into the world. The second thing, and I think this is huge because almost all the conflicts of the sexual revolution, and of course this is a defining thing about our cultural moment, almost all of those conflicts have proceeded at the expense of children. So many of the conversations we’re having now about sexuality also are conversations about who do kids belong to? Do they belong to the state or do they belong to their parents? Who has the primary responsibility? Should the state serve the parents or should the parents serve the whims and wishes of the states? And there’s so many places. Look, I live in Colorado. We’ve got that one just dead backwards here in Colorado. And children are the ones who are the victims of those terrible ideas. Missing that framing is really, really important. So part of that is even for parents to understand that their children are primarily their responsibility. It’s not to be outsourced to the state.
SPEAKER 12 :
Well, I think it’s an excellent point. And all of us know people like this. Let me give you a scenario. We all probably have friends or family, someone in our lives. We’ll just call it the left, whomever. But basically, the individual who had claimed that a parent’s refusal to affirm a child’s desire to transition is somehow equivalent to child abuse, that we should support our children. Give us your response to that.
SPEAKER 02 :
You know, I’ve got four kids. And I remember one time my oldest child, when she was just a little one, was in a program and they asked what they wanted to be when they grew up. And one of the little girls that was dancing on the stage with her said a horse. And you think about that and you think, you know, that would be a real tragedy if parents would then say, hey, whatever my kid says, then I have to go along with. And my job is to basically allow them to realize whatever they want in terms of who they are and how they’re going to. I mean, listen, it’s absurd when we when someone a child would, you know, to suggest that we should support a child’s fantasy to become a horse. because it’s against biology, it’s against the divided classification of living things and so on. Why is it any different in this category? A parent always has the job to help kids walk into reality and stay away from deception, to do things that will let them become who they truly are and not go down paths that actually are lies. And listen, that should be obvious to us all. It should have been obvious to us all for the last decade or so when we were going through this kind of culture-wide moment of madness where we were doubting what was observably biologically true. But now we have all the data. We know that following that fantasy, according to, for example, reports commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, from the CAST review, from this recent study in Finland, that there’s not greener grass on the other side of this fantasy, especially for young people, and that if young people basically are encouraged to accept who they are, puberty tends to fix the dysmorphia. I mean, all of this stuff now is so overwhelmingly true then to say, parent, your job is to go along with your child’s misunderstanding of who they are. I mean, in every other scenario, in every other case, we’d call that child abuse. We would call that, you know, depriving a child of the help and the nurturing. that they need. And listen, a lot of parents did go along with this fantasy. And the reason that they did in many cases was they were lied to. They were scared to death by the suicide myth. Remember the question, Chloe Cole says this in her story in a film that we just produced with Focus on the Family called Truth Rising. that her parents were threatened with this. Do you want a dead daughter or a live son? And so parents were manipulated into going along with this. So we have the coercion side of this. We have the data side of this. And then we have the just, well, this is how parents know they have to behave we don’t let our kid play in the street if they really want to we don’t let them cross the street you know boldly uh you know without looking both ways just because they say you know i’m in charge of my own destiny i mean it’s a ridiculous notion in every other scenario it’s still a ridiculous notion in this scenario our job is to help them be who they truly are
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, our job is to navigate them, as you said, into truth and to avoid confusion. Yeah, so that being the case, what is at the heart of this ideology, the trans ideology? What is it behind the scenes that’s pushing this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, listen, at the end of the day, you keep going back and going back and say, what caused this? What caused this? And you end up in a snake or in a garden with a snake. You know, I mean, that’s that’s where all this comes from. But I don’t want to say that tritely. Like, I believe what the Bible describes is the true history and story of the world and the best description that we have of the human race. So let me point you to what the Psalmist says in Psalm 135, that the idols of the nation are silver and gold made by the hands of men. They have mouths but can’t speak, eyes but can’t see, ears but can’t hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. And those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” In other words, at the heart of the transgender deception is the abandonment of God. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that this was at the heart of all the problems that the West faced, that we have forgotten God. Men have forgotten God. And what the Psalmist says in Psalm 135 is that when you forget God or you reject God or you neglect God, then it’s not just that you reject Him, it’s that you forget who you are. And of course that makes sense, because the Bible says that we’re made in the image of God, which means we know who we truly are based on our… by orienting ourselves to our Creator. But if we reject God, then we’ve got to orient ourselves to something else. And I think really we’re living downstream from a culture that rejected God long ago. And we basically have our, as one of my friends put it in the title of his book, our feet are firmly planted in midair. Like we don’t have a reference point. We don’t have an orientation point for right and wrong or for meaning. And we’re now living in the era where we’ve lost the reference point for identity, what it means to be human. And I think that that is both certainly a tragedy because there are incredible victims of those ideas, but it’s an incredible opportunity opportunity for the church to be the church. Because who else? Who else has the answer for what it means to be human? The Christian answer has been the most consequential in human history. The Christian answer has brought more freedom, more dignity, education, hospitals, has freed the slaves, has lifted the oppressed, more than any other answer that’s ever been given to that question, what does it mean to be human? And so I think it’s an incredible opportunity for the church at the same time. But it’s really, to go back to your original question when we started this interview, it’s a really hard time for parents.
SPEAKER 12 :
because parents are facing incredible headwinds by a culture that is just lying to kids over and over and over about who they are yeah absolutely i mean it’s it’s beyond we we are beyond a post-christian era we are we are in a post-truth a post-truth era really is where we opposed reality yeah Yeah, post-reality is very difficult to navigate through all that. So what you are bringing our way is fantastic. Let me shift gears a little bit, because besides the gender issue, there are so many issues that are facing people in our society today. People are just dissatisfied about so many things. And when you look at America, we are certainly a blessed nation. And yet in this year’s World Happiness Report, the U.S. ranked 23rd among the world’s happiest countries. I know you’ve dealt with this on your podcast, Breakpoint, so forth. Break this down for us. What do you make of all this?
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I mean, listen, you got to take these happiness studies with a grain of salt because at some level, what does it mean to be happy? So that’s the first thing. And your worldview will determine your answer to that. I mean, listen, we are in an era of coming out of where Disney. Every Disney movie told us that the answer to our happiness is inside, like look inside, look inside, look inside. But that’s kind of like giving someone a compass to find their way out of the wilderness. But the compass always points at them. You know, the reason a compass is helpful is because it points to something outside of the situation. But we’ve told everybody to look inside. And when you look inside and you don’t find anything, well, then you’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. So I think that that’s really a part of it. I think our overall definition of happiness is a problem. I also think, though, that we have been told as Americans that we can’t be happy. We’ve been told as Americans that we can’t be happy with our past. We can’t be happy with our founding. We can’t be happy with being so moral. We shouldn’t be happy with the stuff that we enjoy. We shouldn’t be happy with each other. We shouldn’t be happy with our family. In fact, we should cut them off if they’re not sufficiently woke or advanced or whatever. I think Americans have a constant barrage of don’t be happy kind of going on in their minds. I tell you that the best definition of happiness that I have heard on a sociological level that I think speaks to some of this, because it’s interesting to me when you look at the not only where America is on the world happiness scale, report but where some other nations are you know israel’s been being has been bombed for the last you know year and and lives under constant threat and they’re in the top 10 right so what what’s happening there it’s not just about material safety and comfort either um arthur brooks says that happiness is about earned success and in other words When you put your mind to something, use your God-given talents and giftedness to try something and you succeed at it, that is the greatest source of happiness. And that, of course, is often done in service to others so there’s a fundamental orientation here that is away from the look inside follow your own heart sort of orientation that we’re supposed to believe to actually do something meaningful and you know what that points to or what that reminds me of is exactly what God describes as the purpose of human beings in Genesis chapter one and two. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Take care of this beautiful place that God has given us. Now, of course, we live after the fall. We live after sin entered the world and a lot of brokenness and frustration are here. But our purpose is still there. We are a world, we’re a country that has been told that our purpose lies elsewhere, that our happiness lies elsewhere. So I think we’ve been sent on a wild goose chase away from the only source of our happiness. And I think we’re constantly told that we shouldn’t be happy with the kind of nation that God has blessed us in. And so I guess it doesn’t really surprise me that we rank where we do.
SPEAKER 12 :
Thank you so much, John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center. Always, always an honor speaking with you. All right, friends, hope you have a wonderful evening. And Tony will join us tomorrow again right here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 08 :
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.
