In this special edition of Washington Watch, Jody Heiss hosts an insightful recap from the recent 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit held in Chino, California. Addressing a range of critical topics, the summit brought together Christian leaders from across the country. Highlights include talks on religious freedom, cultural engagement, and moral responsibilities, underpinned by a biblical worldview. One of the key addresses was by children’s rights advocate Katie Faust, who passionately argued for the restoration of natural marriage principles to better serve children’s needs.
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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. Welcome to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, senior fellow here at the Family Research Council and happy to be filling in today for Tony. So glad to have you joining us as well. Alright, the end of 2025 is rapidly approaching. hard to believe but it’s right upon us and today we want to bring you some very special content that took place at our most recent pray vote stand summit that was held in chino california if and if you’re not aware by the way our pray vote stand summit is our annual event that draws christian voters and leaders from all across the country for a very special and powerful time of prayer and inspiration, and of course, a lot of action items. And there’s tons of very pertinent issues that are discussed, everything from religious freedom to the church’s call to engage our culture. Things like parental rights and standing with Israel and chemical abortion, just a host of issues that are dealt with at these summits is an outstanding event. And we’re happy today to be able to share some of the content of that event event with you here in just a few moments. Before we get there, though, I just want to say that as we approach a new year, I know many of you are looking at New Year’s resolutions as we all do, but there is no greater resolution you can have than to make a commitment to read the Bible. And we want to encourage you to join us for our two-year Bible reading plan. Stand on the Word. It’s an incredible opportunity for you to take 10 or 15 minutes a day and just learn more about the Bible as Tony unpacks so much in a little video that he does each day. And we want you to come along and join us with this. It’ll transform your life. To find out more information, just text the word BIBLE. to six seven seven four two as bible to six seven seven four two join us as we get in god’s word together and you can also send that to other people that you want to invite into this as well by texting the word invite to six seven seven four two and you can just send that message to someone else but we’ve got a great lined up a program lined up for you today you don’t want to miss any of it If you do, of course, our website is TonyPerkins.com. One more quick housekeeping matter. Next year is our 250th anniversary in the country. Family Research Council is going to be right in the middle of standing for faith, freedom, and justice. Our founding principals were the voice on so many of these issues, and you can help us with that right now through the end of the year, December 31st, right upon us. Every gift you give will be doubled to Family Research Council. So right here’s a number for you, 800-225-4008. That’s 800-225-4008. Okay. As I mentioned, we had our Pray Vote Stand Summit that took place in Chino, California at Calvary Chapel there. A powerful, powerful event. And among the speakers at the summit was Katie Faust. She’s the founder and president of Them Before Us. That’s a global movement that strives to put children before adults in every conversation as it relates to marriage and family. And in her address, Katie talked about three characteristics of marriage that set it apart from all other adult relationships and how those characteristics have a very direct impact and benefit to children. So here’s how Katie got started on that powerful address.
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Children are being victimized on so many different levels in so many different ways. It’s actually hard to think about an area where children are not being put last, whether it’s protecting their life, their bodies, their innocence, their ability to participate in sports, have safety in bathrooms and locker rooms. We are putting kids last. One area where we’ve been putting them last, especially for the last 10 years, is in the matter of marriage. Ten years ago, a great injustice was done to our children when the Supreme Court decided by judicial fiat that they would mandate same-sex marriage all across the nation. Now, this had a particularly detrimental effect on children. Leading up to that decision, I, along with several others, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court saying, there’s a problem with this, beyond just religious liberty, beyond just talking about this as a sacred institution. When you make husbands and wives optional in marriage, you will make mothers and fathers optional in parenthood. The problem with that is, for children, their mother or father is never optional. Children need their mother and father every day, all day, all their life. But our warning was not heeded. And now, 10 years later, we have the receipts. We have seen how, state by state, the laws that govern parenthood have been undone. Here’s just a couple examples. We have seen in the name of gender equality the words mothers and fathers stripped from parenthood statutes. We have seen mothers and fathers removed from birth certificates, and two women put on those birth certificates instead, legally erasing the child’s father on the day that they are born. We have redefined the word infertility, so it’s no longer 12 months of unprotected heterosexual sex that doesn’t result in a live birth. Now, in some jurisdictions, infertility can be applied to single adults or same-sex couples so that their creation of a motherless and fatherless child can be subsidized by insurance. we have actually seen new pathways for parenthood created. There’s two legitimate pathways to take a vulnerable infant home from the hospital. One of them is when you gave birth to that baby. That baby is yours. You have a pre-political right to take that child home from the hospital. The other legitimate pathway is not based on biology, it’s based on justice. And that is recognizing that the child has lost their mother or father through tragedy, and that another set, another couple, has done all the screening and background checks and vetting and home studies to ensure that they would be a safe placement for that child. Biology and adoption. Those are the two child-centric ways to determine parentage. But unfortunately, in the post-gay marriage world, both of those are deemed discriminatory. Because same-sex couples can never both be biologically related. And it seemed kind of oppressive for them to have to go through an adoption process. So they created a new pathway for parenthood. intent-based parenthood, where if they can assemble sperm, egg, and womb, and intend to parent the baby, and they have a valid contract, they can go home with the newborn from the hospital, even if they’re unrelated, even if they’re foreign nationals, even if they are sexual predators, even if they have a criminal record, all in the name of adult equality. So that’s a problem. It’s a problem because there are fundamental needs of children that do not change depending on what five Supreme Court justices decide. And you know where we find those fundamental needs? In the word of God. Let’s just take a little look at how Jesus defines marriage. And I bet you can help me with this. In Mark chapter 10, it says, for this reason, a man shall leave his what? And be joined to his? And the two will become one. And what God has joined together, let no man. Okay, so what we see there is three criteria, three characteristics of this one relationship that sets it apart from any other adult relationship. Different from the relationship you have to your children. Different from the relationship you have with your business partner. Different from the relationship you have with your good friend. There’s three things that make this a marriage according to God. The first one is complementarity. A man shall leave his mother and father, different but equal, that’s what complementarity is, and he will be joined to his wife. This is not a marriage of two sames. This is a marriage of two opposites that perfectly complement one another. Complementarity is critical for the marital union. Now, what I want you to see is that all of these different aspects of marriage God just didn’t pull them out of a hat and decide, this is what we’re going to call marriage. Every single aspect, these three characteristics of what makes a biblical marriage actually have a very direct benefit to children. So let’s talk about complementarity, this idea that it should be a man and a woman within this union. I hate to burst your bubble, but gender is not a social construct. I know you might have heard that, that the only differences between men and women are these socially conditioned roles that the patriarchy has imposed on us, but that’s not the case. Men and women are different. Those differences are important in a variety of different institutions, but they are critical in the institution of the family. So let me just do a little survey here, and we’ll just see exactly how different men and women are. I want you to raise your hand and raise it high. If you’ve ever seen a baby thrown up in the air, put your hands up and look around. Look at how many people have seen a baby thrown up in the air. Keep your hands up. Now, I want you to keep your hand up if the person throwing the baby was a woman. Okay, we have six female baby throwers. in this room. So the truth is, women don’t throw babies. Women wear babies. And all you need to do is go to a park or a church, and you are going to see babies tossed in the air, and it will not be the mom. She will be walking around bouncing, soothing, cuddling, wearing, wrapping the baby with these 20-yard swaths of fabric all day long, okay? And that actually is probably the best way to distill the distinctions between men and women. Mothers promote attachment. They give the child security. They create a chemical and emotional bond in utero and for the first especially three years of the child’s life by being hyper-responsive to the infant needs and therefore setting the baseline for future healthy trust and attachment. Dads promote separation. And you can see that, not just in the fact that they are tossing the kid and twirling the kid, right, and swinging the kid, but you see them at the playground when the kid falls down and the dad says, get up and try again. You’re okay. Where the mom goes, oh, baby, are you okay? Mommy’s going to kiss it. It’s okay. You’re going to be fine. Okay? Men and women are different. And those differences are critical for child development. If you do not have a male parent, it is very hard for that child to develop fully emotionally, physically, and psychologically. If you do not have a female parent, it is very hard for that child to properly form attachments in the future. Men and women are not optional in the project of parenting. Children need both of them. So a man will leave his father and mother be joined to his wife. Complementarity. And the two will become one flesh. One flesh. That’s monogamy. Monogamy. Married to one. One flesh. Monogamy is critical for children. for two reasons, let me explain. First of all, if it’s only the child’s own mother or father in the relationship, if they exclude all others, if they forsake all others, that means there will never be an unrelated adult in the home. Now, that’s really important because statistically, a child’s own mother and father are the most connected to, invested in, and protective of them. That’s why we have a right to our own children. We have a more vested interest in their future than any doctor or school counselor or teacher or governor or any of these politicians that have never even met them and do not know their name. They belong to us. They belong to us partially because nobody loves them the way that we do.
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That was children’s right advocate Katie Faust. It took place during our 2025 Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. And you are tuned in to Washington Watch, a very special edition of Washington Watch today. Going back to October, Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, California, where our Pray, Vote, Stand Summit takes place. You may want to catch more of that summit. You can certainly do so if you have the Stand Firm app. If you don’t have the Stand Firm app, no better time to get it than right now. Simply go to the App Store, Google Play, wherever it is that you get your apps, or easy way, just text the word APP to 67742. We’ll be back with more of Katie right after this.
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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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Thank you for joining us today on Washington Watch. Good afternoon and welcome back. I’m Jody Heiss, an honor to be filling in today for Tony, and thanks for jumping on board with us yourselves. All right, today we’re broadcasting some very special content from the 2025 PrayVoteStand Summit, and at the conclusion of the last segment, children’s rights advocate Katie Faust talked about how a child’s parents have a more vested interest in their future than anyone else. That ought to be obvious, but nobody else loves children the way their parents do. Well, in this next part, Katie will talk about what we know when children are raised by unrelated adults and not by their mother and their father. So here’s more of Katie Faust.
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This project of the family, where we are now remaking it in the image of a same-sex family, which requires unrelated adults to share living spaces with kids, is a detriment to kids. And that goes against a lot of the mantras that we have about family these days. Things like, kids don’t need a mom and dad, they just need to be safe and loved. Have you heard that? And maybe you’ve heard biology doesn’t matter, love makes a family. Have you heard that? Maybe you’ve heard kids just need two parents. Maybe you’ve heard if the adults are happy, the kids will be happy. Any of that sound familiar? Let’s do a little test. I want you to get your phones out, and I want you to open up one of your browsers, and I want you to Google the words mother’s boyfriend. Google mother’s boyfriend. And if all those things are true, if kids just need a two-parent home, if the adults are happy, the kids will be happy, if biology doesn’t matter, then kids that are living with their mother and her cohabiting boyfriend would be thriving. The adults are happy, they have two parents, they even have a father figure. So how are they doing? Okay, what did you read? Decapitation, what else? Difficult relationship, what else? Murder, abuse, what else? Toddler what? Toddler abuse? Anxiety? Life or death? So what you’re going to see is unending returns of the most horrific cases of child abuse, neglect, and filicide. That is child death. Because statistically, the most dangerous place a child can find themselves in America today is in the home of an unrelated man left to care for the child himself. Now, there are heroic step-parents, incredible men and women who step into the gap and fill the role of a negligent biological parent. And those step-parents need our recognition and encouragement. Right? And I agree. I know some of those stepmothers and fathers. But you cannot swap out a child’s own mom and dad on a population level and expect the kids to be okay. Any time an unrelated adult is sharing living spaces, whether it’s a man or a woman, a throuple, a live-in boyfriend, a live-in girlfriend, Those kids, statistically, do not fare as well. That monogamy is one of the ways that we can ensure that children genuinely are safe and loved. There’s another reason why that monogamy matters. If the child is raised by the two adults responsible for their existence, they also have access to something that children crave, and that is their biological identity. It is very hard for a child to answer the question, who am I? If they cannot answer the question, whose am I? If you want to know one of the reasons why we are seeing so many children plummeting into identity crises and latching their identity onto any kind of scrap that they can find, whether it’s a gender confusion or a disability status or a sexual identity, it’s because we have cut off this next generation from so many of the stable, transcendent pathways through which humans have discovered their identity all throughout history. they’re having to form their identities on their own. Now, this is really important, and I’ll do another little thought experiment here. I want you to think of a movie that you’ve seen where the child goes on a search for their long-lost mother’s boyfriend. Anything? Raise your hand if you’ve seen that movie. No? Weird. Well, let’s try this. Raise your hand if you can think of a movie where the child goes on a search for their long-lost father. What is it? What? Give me a movie. What? Lion? Great. Obviously things I’ve never heard of. What else? You’re going to have to speak up. Boys in the Boat? Good. What else? What a Girl Wants, Mamma Mia, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Elf, Wrinkle in Time, Pericles, American Tail, Land Before Time. The truth is we tell these stories all the time. Everybody knows them, everybody gets them, everybody cries along with it when the father is actually found. Because all of us understand that that person, that man and woman, tell us something about ourselves that we can’t discover on our own. It’s one of the reasons why adoption best practice has shifted so drastically over the last 50 years. In the 60s and 70s, almost all adoption was closed adoption. The child had no identifying information or contact with their first family. Today, in the United States, 95% of adoptions are open adoptions. Because social workers recognize that children benefit from as many connections as possible with their first family, even if they can’t be raised by them. So that monogamy is very important for a child’s protection, safety, and identity. And then finally, what God has joined together, let no man separate. That third characteristic of marriage is permanence. Because children do not need just their biological identity or the development or the safety for two months. or two years, or 12 years. They need it all their life. And when there’s an unnecessary separation, and I know that there’s reasons for divorce, we’ve generally recognized them in civic law and even religious law as being cases of abuse, adultery, addiction, or abandonment, sometimes a divorce might be necessary. But the vast majority of divorces today, thank you, no fault divorce, are not because of those faults. It’s because the adults chose not to do the hard work.
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That was children’s right advocate Katie Faust during the 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit. And you’re tuned in to Washington Watch. Today we’re broadcasting some very special content that took place from that summit that was held back in October at the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California. If you missed any of it or you want to get it, you can simply text the word APP to 677-426-7742 and you’ll get the Stand Firm app. Alright, after the break we’ll have the conclusion of Katie’s address.
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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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Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Good afternoon and welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. Thank you for being with us. All right, today’s a special day. We’re broadcasting some content from back in our 2025 Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. And in the last segment, we heard from children’s rights advocate Katie Faust, who is just going into the third and final characteristic of marriage that directly benefits children. So for those who are just joining us right now, perhaps, we’re going to go back a little to where she begins discussing the third characteristic. So here’s Katie.
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What God has joined together, let no man separate. That third characteristic of marriage is permanence. Because children do not need just their biological identity or the development or the safety for two months or two years or 12 years. They need it all their life. and when there’s an unnecessary separation. And I know that there’s reasons for divorce. We’ve generally recognized them in civic law and even religious law as being cases of abuse, adultery, addiction, or abandonment. Sometimes a divorce might be necessary. But the vast majority of divorces today, thank you, no-fault divorce, are not because of those faults. It’s because the adults chose not to do the hard work. And there was just a massive study that came out a couple months ago, 5 million samples out of a CDC survey that showed the causation, not correlation, causation between divorce and a 63% increase in teen pregnancies, a 43% increase in incarceration, and a 35% to 55% increased likelihood that if a child’s parents divorced, they would suffer an early death. All of these things, complementarity, monogamy and permanence matters to children. It’s as if God designed an institution perfect for child protection and development. Now, children will need these things whether we recognize that they need them or not. They will always need them, even if our civil laws don’t recognize marriage as having these three characteristics. So we’ve got two options. Either we can allow this fake definition of marriage that removes complementarity, built on the no-fault divorce that removed permanence, moving towards a polyamorous understanding of marriage that will remove the expectation of monogamy, or we can retake this institution on behalf of children. Yes, that is what we’re doing. So my nonprofit, Them Before Us, has decided that 10 years is long enough. child victimization in the legal space where we have rendered them as functional accessories to be assigned to whatever adult has the money and means to acquire them needs to end. So we are spearheading a national coalition of major pro-family Christian and conservative organizations to do exactly that. have three different areas of focus. The first one is we are working with the lawyers that have both a constitutional background and understand family law and who have spine, and there’s like seven that have all of those. But we’re gonna create a genuine judicial strategy that can win. The second thing we’re going to do is we’re gonna change public opinion. We’re not gonna have this be a conversation that is focused on adults and their sadness or identity or feelings or longings or losses or backstory. We are going to convince the American public that marriage is a matter of justice for children and we have to restore natural marriage to what it was before because we will not tolerate children being victimized any longer. And then we’re going to turn the church into a child-centric fighting force. We have Protestant leaders and Catholic thinkers who are going to help us develop a curriculum that communicates, yes, the basics of marriage, what I’ve just told you, why complementarity, permanence, and monogamy is so critical to child protection, development, and identity. But then we’re also going to tell the Christians, do you know what? This is your job. This is your job. Everywhere the church has gone, in every century that it has existed, it has consistently confronted threats to children. The threats have changed. Missionaries in China in the early 1900s confronted the horror of foot binding and helped to put an end to it. Missionaries across Africa have treated the victims of female genital mutilation. Christians everywhere in every country have refused to go along with practices of abortion and infanticide. The cultural threats to children changed. But the Christian understanding of child protection did not. So what we need to do today, church, is understand that we’re not dealing with foot binding or infanticide in the conventional sense. We’re not dealing with female genital mutilation in the name of Islam. We are dealing with it in the name of transgender ideology. But the greatest threat to children today has to do with separating them from their mother or father through these legal regimes and technological processes that make them commodities to be acquired to any and every adult. And we need to stand against it. So, be on the lookout, because we are going to need you. This is not a job that many politicians are going to take up, but it is the job of every Christian. This is the great cloud of witnesses that we need to step into. We need to take on the mantle of child protection because we Christians, we are the people who defend the fatherless. We don’t manufacture them. Thank you.
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That was children’s right advocate Katie Faust during our 2025 Pray Vote Stand Summit. And you’re tuned into this special edition of Washington Watch. If you’d like to catch more of this, the best way you can do so is by having our Stand Firm app. which is readily available for you to get right now. Go to the Google Store or wherever you get your apps or simply text APP to 826774267742. All right, after the break, Tony Perkins will be here with us. So stay tuned. Much more straight ahead.
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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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To apply, visit frc.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
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 sending 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 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 11 :
Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER 03 :
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 07 :
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 03 :
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 11 :
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. 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 03 :
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 07 :
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 03 :
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 11 :
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 03 :
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 07 :
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.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good point. 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.
