Join us for a special Memorial Day edition of Washington Watch, hosted by Jody Heiss, where we delve into the heart of faith in America’s leadership. This episode features exclusive interviews from the Profiles in Leadership series with members of Congress, showcasing the personal faith journeys that guide and influence their roles in Washington. Discover how individuals like Congressman Randy Weber, Josh Perkin, and Greg Stubbe have intertwined their faith with their public service, embodying the principles that have long shaped the backbone of American governance.
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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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Well, happy Memorial Day. Hope you’re having a fantastic day and welcome to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss, a senior fellow here at the Family Research Council, and so glad to have you joining us today. Well, it’s Memorial Day. And of course, on that, we want to honor and remember those who gave the last full measure of devotion. And we also, of course, in light of that, remember what Jesus said in John 15, 13, that greater love has no one than this. that he laid down his life for his friends. Well, of course, Jesus there was talking directly about and referencing his own pending death on the cross, where he voluntarily laid down his life because of all of our sins. But he was also challenging his disciples to follow his example and living for others rather than living for themselves. Well, Of course, here in the United States, we have American men and women who for nearly 250 years have given their lives for a cause much greater than themselves, the cause of liberty. And we should never lose sight of what that cause is. So let’s commit ourselves to passing on to the next generation what Memorial Day is really all about. Well, today we have a very special edition of Washington Watch. We’re going to share with you some interviews that Tony had with four different members of Congress. It was part of a Profiles in Leadership series that can be found on FRC’s Stand Firm app. And these interviews go far beyond mere policies and politics and even beyond the news of the day. These interviews dive in the heart of these lawsmakers. It dives into the faith that drives them. So featured today, we’re going to bring your way Congressman Randy Weber from Texas, Oklahoma Congressman Jasper Keene and Kevin Hearn, and Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. And each of them have unique stories, but they’ll be sharing how God guided them to where they are today and be sharing some of their faith story as well. And we’re happy to bring these to you today. We’re going to begin today with an interview that Tony had with Congressman Randy Weber. He serves the 14th Congressional District of Texas. And we begin with a story of how Congressman Weber came to faith in Christ. It’s an amazing story. In fact, he and I used to share a Bible study together while I was in Congress. A fascinating man, a fascinating story. Here’s how Tony got part of that conversation started.
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Let’s talk a little bit about that faith. Now, you and I have interacted quite a bit, and I know that you are a man of deep, abiding faith. I’ve seen it in your prayers. Let’s talk about that encounter that you had with God, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s talk about that.
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Okay. Well, I grew up in the sixties, child of the sixties, flower power, drugs. I was into drugs, very deeply into drugs. i was actually selling drugs i was a small town drug dealer selling marijuana by the lid we’d buy pounds at a time we’d sell lids well now you’d just be in business now i’d be in business i know lsd uppers and downers i mean i was really your basic booger head well i was living with a girl we were selling drugs out of her apartment and a friend of mine named jeff wilson used to come by and buy marijuana from us he came by one night and he knocked on the door he said i got something i want you to try I thought it was some kind of new drug or something. You know, he said, I want you to go to church with me. And I said, Jeff Wilson, you have lost your mind. I grew up in a family. They went to church twice a year, whether we did it or not, you know, you know, right. And, but my girlfriend wanted to go to church. So we went there to a church that was on fire, taking people in off the street and their own homes, get them off of drugs of prior homosexuals, prior drug addicts. So as I said, maybe the marriage in shambles, prior alcoholics down on their luck out of a job. They really loved Jesus and it showed. It really showed. There was a guy there, a second guy named Jeff Cawthorn with a real deep voice that was kind of praying for us and loving on us. Long story short, my girlfriend got saved and kicked me out of her apartment. And so where did that leave you? I started searching. I was going to play search because I knew there was something more powerful here than me, you know. And I was working as a welder’s helper in a construction facility. And so I started playing church. I quit smoking, drinking, cussing, telling bad jokes, although my kids today say, Dad, you still tell some pretty bad jokes. i said i’m talking about dirty not bad yeah yeah yeah and so long story short um my girlfriend was at my mom’s house i moved back in with my parents on july 2nd 1973. i was born the first time july 2nd 1953 reborn july 2nd 1973 but anyway i got home my mom and my girlfriend was there with my mom cooking me a birthday dinner The guys at the chemical plant, when I quit smoking and drinking and cussing and all that, they were merciless on me. Man, they were tough on me. You can just imagine. So they convinced me to go out to the bar. It’s my birthday, Weber. Come on, go to the bar, which I did. Back to smoking, drinking, cussing, telling bad jokes, things I hadn’t done in four months. I was playing church those four months, Tony. So I get home, my mom gives me a living. First Bible, I didn’t even own a Bible. First Bible, gave me a living Bible. I’m walking down the hall from the kitchen to my bedroom, and the Lord says to me, read Ephesians 5. Well, I didn’t know if Ephesians, I didn’t know whether Ephesians was Old Testament or New Testament. So what did I do? Go to the table of contents. It’s in the New Testament. I didn’t know if Ephesians had five chapters. It’s got six. Paul writes in the Living Bible, this has come to our attention, that some of you have fallen, I’m paraphrasing, fallen back into your own ways. And it talks about dirty stories, coarse jokes. These are not for you. And later on in Ephesians, it says, Arise, O sleeper, and Christ will give you life. Man, I got down on my knees and I said, Lord, you’re talking directly to me. Please come into my life and be my personal savior. I went down on my knees on the way to hell, died in the wool center, got up a child of the king. I walked down the hallway into where my girlfriend, my mother was, and she said, you’ve been crying. I said, I just got saved. She goes, wow. The phone rings in the kitchen. Now, that was House of Milton in 72, so it was orange for my countertops. It was the phone like this. Oh, absolutely. And it was Jeff Cawthorn, deep voice. He said, Randy? I said, yeah, Jeff. Just calling to tell you how glad I am you just got saved. I spun around to my girlfriend. I said… This is Jeff on the phone. He knows I just got saved. Did you call him? And she said, Jeff, Jeff, who was Jeff, Jeff Cawthon or Jeff Wilson? I said, no, this is Jeff Cawthon. He knows it just got saved. She said, well, praise the Lord. Tony, God put a stamp on my life. You’ll never doubt. You’ll never forget. That’s how I came to be a child of the King, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
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When that’s part of the foundation that you bring to this place, the nation’s capital, I have to say this from my observation of you, Randy, is that that sensitivity and that tenderness from that moment back in 1973 is still there.
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Yeah, it is. He who is forgiven much, loves much. And to whom much is given, much is required. I’ll never forget that.
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There was a radical transformation of your life? man was it out of a life of drugs well quite frankly being a child of the world and the devil if you will to being a child of the king the most high god so how does that influence you today as a member of congress as you said only 288 from texas have served in this capacity if i have the numbers right yeah so how does that influence you today
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Well, I think our nation, as I said earlier, was ordained by God. We should be a nation of Christian values and principles, and we should walk by those ordinances and principles, and quite frankly, the Ten Commandments in the only one true holy book, and that’s the Bible. That’s how we should walk, that’s how we should govern, and that’s how we should actually treat each other, too.
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You have a sense of confidence because you’ve seen the work of God in your own life, so you know this is real. Oh, yeah. So when there’s this great attack that we see on faith, this effort to try to suppress Christianity in the public space, I mean, what we’ve been talking about here, people would say, well, that’s Christian nationalism, that you would bring your faith to this place. How do you respond to that?
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Well, actually, it’s Christian rationalism. The only way I can rational this is that if I had not gotten Jesus Christ as my savior, I would still be, I might not even be here quite frankly, because two of my friends died of drug overdoses. One died in prison, another one died after he got out of prison. So I would say it’s Christian rationalism. That is, this is a God-ordained country. And the reason it is, what was it, Alexander de Tocqueville said, the reason America is great is because America is good. And it’s because we’re based on God’s holy word. It’s just that simple. Christian rationalism, we’ll coin a new phrase.
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I like that. Because if you think about it, it is the only rational explanation for a life transformed, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. You’re not alone up here. There are other Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians that it’s kind of the untold story of Washington, D.C. Not a lot of people see that. We need to be more vocal about our faith.
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Jesus said, anyone who’s ashamed of me before men, of him will I be ashamed of my Father who is in heaven. Jesus Christ paid much way to have a price for me, for me to ever be ashamed of him.
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But when they see, when people, people watching this program hear your testimony, they see you, you’ve been at our annual gathering for the day of repentance, prayer and repentance that we’ve done the last two years at the Museum of the Bible. You’ve prayed openly as a member of Congress. People see that and they take hope in that because if a leader can be bold in their faith, they can as well.
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I would hope that they take great hope in that, and that they would stand up for Jesus Christ, stand up for God Almighty, and say, you know what? There’s a right way and a wrong way to do things, and we need to get back on the path of the right way. And what did you just quote, John 14, 6? I’m the way, the truth, and the life. And I’m being a paraphrase, and no country can make this happen without me.
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Well, that was Texas Congressman Randy Weber. That took place during an exclusive sit-down interview that’s part of our Profiles in Leadership series. Again, this series can only be found at FRC’s Stand Firm app. And once you get there, it’s part of our Faith in Freedom edition. Now, listen, I want to encourage you, if you don’t have the Stand Firm app, you want to be sure to get this. This is an incredible app that has tons of information there for you. News from the day, week after week after week from a biblical worldview perspective, tons of articles, tons of resources, so much there. And also, what you just saw, this interview with Randy Weber and so many more. All this is available to you on the Stand Firm app. So, How can you get that? I’m glad you asked. You want to get it, and here’s how you can do so. You can go to the App Store. Of course, you can also go to Google Play, or if you just want to keep it simple, simply text the word APP, A-P-P. Again, text the word APP to 67742, and you’ll be able to get this interview with Congressman Weber and so much more. An amazing man. As I mentioned, Congressman Weber and I used to share a Bible study together, in fact, in my office. on Capitol Hill. I love him dearly, and what a powerful, powerful testimony he has. Okay, we’ve got much more coming your way here on Washington Watch coming up after this next break. We’re going to bring you an interview that Tony had with Oklahoma Congressman Josh Perkin. Also, an amazing, amazing man with a powerful, powerful story of how he came to Christ and how he ended up in Congress. You don’t want to miss it. It’s all coming your way right after the break. So stay tuned. We’ll be back in just a moment.
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In a time when Washington seems clouded by compromise, a bold group of lawmakers are standing firm in defense of the values which our nation was built upon. At FRC Actions 100% Awards, 171 members of Congress were honored for voting 100% in line with policies that promote faith, family, and freedom.
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Faith and family made our country, it’s the foundation that made our country not only great, but good.
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The values that make America, faith, family, hard work, personal responsibility. I mean, that to me is the heart of FRC and grateful for everything that they do.
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It’s very important for us to have organizations such as FRC. First of all, I think it keeps us grounded, in addition to which the issues that you champion are issues that we should all be championing.
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FRC is very, very good at honing in on those things that really affect Christians’ lives. Also, working with members of Congress, too, to make sure that those values are instilled in the legislation that we create.
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Having the Family Research Council to guide us is critically important to being able to do the right thing consistently.
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Jennifer, it’s so exciting to be here with you today talking about our new book, Embracing God’s Design. Who is actually going to benefit from reading this book in your view?
SPEAKER 03 :
There are so many different audiences that can benefit. The first one are counselors themselves, because we have some material in there where we really address the gender dysphoria diagnosis and what is wrong with it. We have information for people who are wanting to go back to embracing God’s design for their life.
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This is really magical to have the therapist and the individual who suffered come together and write about why this is happening and why we’re seeing this.
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And we brought all of that experience to the table. We want to see people walking in the fullness of who God has called them to be and not a false identity.
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The Family Research Council is celebrating one year of trusted news and community from a biblical perspective, all in one place. Over the past year, the Stand Firm app has become a go-to source for Christians seeking clarity, truth, and ways to make an impact in today’s world. With over 46,000 downloads and 1.2 million page views, we thank you for standing firm with us. Download the Stand Firm app today. Text APP to 67742. That’s APP to 67742.
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Well, happy Memorial Day to you. Hope you’re having a great day, and welcome to this very special edition of Washington Watch. I’m your host today, Jody Heiss, and today we’re doing something very special. We’re bringing a series of excerpts from various members of Congress. This is something that you can find on FRC’s StandFirm app, and it’s called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. This series features exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation’s leaders. And these interviews go far beyond policies. They go far beyond politics. It’s something that you’ll want to definitely be a part of. If you don’t have the Stand Firm app again, let me encourage you, as I did before the break, you can get it by simply texting APP to 67742. All right. Now, this next segment features an interview, of course, that Tony had, but this time with Oklahoma Congressman Josh Perkin. Now, in this segment, you’re going to see how he talked about why Christians should have a role in the government and how he himself went from a path of a lawyer to that of now being a lawmaker. And all of that transition in his life started by a chance conversation, if you will, that he had while he was working on his family’s ranch. He was waiting to get into law school at the time, and God had a way of totally transforming his life. Here’s what Congressman Josh Perkin shared with Tony.
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Let’s talk about what led Josh to want to run for Congress and come up here where, I mean, there’s a lot of weighty issues, but there’s a lot of political division and bickering that’s going on.
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Well, a lot of decisions I was starting to make as a young man had come to a real depth in my faith. I was in prayer in college, Oklahoma State University, and really trying to figure out those next steps, typical of most freshman, sophomore, who’ve got most of those basics knocked out, but you’ve got to start figuring out what the major is going to be. And, man, the word law would just illuminate off the pages when I read my Bible. And so much so that I just was really convinced that, you know, that I was supposed to be a lawyer. And so I applied at the height of when 9-11 occurred. I had the LSAT score, the GPA, et cetera, to get me into OU. I had a scholarship that was going to transfer. But they put me on a waiting list because it was a historic year for OU. And so then… I was put on this waiting list. It never occurred. My family had started a faith-based ranching program. My father trained cutting horses professionally. My mother and father were very active in ministry, and they had started kind of converting the ranch into a ministry for young men who had alcohol, drug addictions. And so I prayerfully felt led to, in this limbo season, stay there until I got a reply, basically, from what was going to happen on law school. Long story short, I remained doing that for a couple of years. My flesh was screaming, but I knew I wasn’t supposed to be doing anything else. And I was, in addition to the cutting horse program, started a heavy equipment business with my father. I was unloading a dozer. A guy jumps on the dozer. I had had a member of Congress reach out to me. And I was telling him about this. It just happened to be a Democrat member of Congress. And he said, man, there’s a guy by the name of Tom Coburn that’s going to come to this particular meeting in a few weeks. I want you to come with me. And so I met Tom Coburn running for the United States Senate. And it wasn’t long before I was working for Tom Coburn. I helped him get elected along with many others that were part of his staff and then became full-time staff with him. And really cut my teeth on a good man who was biblically accurate, constitutionally sound. And then a few years later, I found myself making law. So it’s amazing what we know in part and in part. Yeah.
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In a small world, because Tom Coburn, when I came to the Family Research Council 21 years ago, he was on the board. And of course, we also share in common, I grew up in Oklahoma, of course, the other side of the state. I’m up in the northern part of the state, you’re in the southern part of the state. Let’s go back a little bit to that encounter, your first encounter with the Lord that brought you into a relationship. Tell us about that.
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Look, I was young. You know, I grew up in a Baptist, Methodist, combo churching, you know, mother and father of one of each. And depending on what year we were in, what type of church. But I grew up with good parents who, you know, taught me to get in the Bible, picture Bibles. If any parents watching and not doing a good job of getting your kids early in life in a picture Bible and then, you know, nightly Bible studies, man, our culture is losing out because that’s a lost… But I remember just having an encounter at a young age and I had my share of sin, but I’ve walked with the Lord. There was a hunger for the word that developed early in my life.
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So Josh, a lot of people would say, as a Christian, You’re talking about politics. That’s a dirty business. I mean, things are said about you. You have to get involved in issues that just are not consistent with what they would say would be our faith. How do you respond to that?
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Our founders, there’s a great quote that’s used a lot. I think Charlie Kirk has probably made it famous, John Adams’ quote that says that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It’s wholly inadequate to the government of any other. I encourage people to go look further. That writing was to the Massachusetts militia by the second president. And he actually starts it off by saying, we have no government armed with power capable of continuing with human passions unbridled by religion and morality. And being somebody who grew up in the cutting horse industry, I like any time the word our founders used, bridle. And then he goes on to say that avarice, which means extreme greed, ambition, and revenge, will break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Then he finishes with that our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. So, you know, it clicks with me that if you want to maintain liberty, then you have to have self-governance. And self-governance is the only way our founders saw true liberty being maintained, a limited government. What we see now is that what was started by limited 18 enumerated powers in Article I, Section 8, the vacuum of government is starting to fill and we’re becoming a lawless society because we’re not self-governing like we used to.
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And government cannot be big enough. Yeah. to restrain what individuals will not keep themselves from doing. The government was created to get the outliers, not to constrain the entire population.
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All right, that was Oklahoma Congressman Jasper Keene during an exclusive sit-down interview. All that is part of our Profiles in Leadership series that you can find on our StandFirm app. And we’ll be bringing more of that series to you here in just a few moments. Again, I want to go back to what I was sharing earlier about FRC’s 21-Day Family Bible Challenge. We’re going through the book of Matthew. It all starts on June the 11th. It’s part of our Stand on the Word Bible reading plan for you and your family. You can walk through the scriptures together. It’ll include a study guide, kids activities, questions, a whole lot of things. You can find out more about that by texting the word MATTHEW to 67742. All right, after the break, we’ll have more interviews with Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hearn. So stay tuned, we’ll be back.
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The Center for Biblical Worldview’s all-day workshops delves into the formation of a worldview, what it is, how it’s formed, when it’s formed, what that means to them personally and their churches and communities.
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My hope for people when they come to these worldview workshops is that they will come away better equipped to engage the people and the ideas that they’re living with and around. And our goal is to give people more confidence in the gospel and the fact that what God said to us actually is true, actually is the path to happiness and human flourishing for all of us, but also more confidence in their ability to have these conversations and help lead other people to the truth.
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for Bible-believing Christians to know what God’s Word says on these issues and to learn how they can apply it to their lives. And we believe that the more Christians that we equip, that’s how we’ll change the nation.
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Hey, fam, listen, Pastor Sammy here at Lighthouse Church, and I cannot tell you how equipping, how empowering, how… incredibly educating this conference has been. And so I just want to encourage anybody that either has not been part of or is thinking about hosting this event, certainly to pastors, leaders, even CEOs for that matter. This conference is lights out. Stand behind it myself. I can’t commend it enough. We’re going to be talking about this for some time to come.
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The culture is kind of squeezing in on us as God’s people, forcing those of us with biblical views to change those views or to suppress those views. It’s forcing us to engage with issues that we’ve never had to engage with. And so what this teaches us is what those issues are, what the Bible says about those issues, and then how we can critically engage our culture on these things in a way that is committed to biblical principles.
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Visit frc.org slash worldview for more information.
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Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us and absolutely happy Memorial Day to you. I’m Jody Heiss and an honor to be with you today. All right, just in case you’re just now tuning in, today’s a special day as we’re sharing excerpts from an exclusive series titled that can only be found on FRC’s Stand Firm app. The series is called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. And it features some exclusive sit-down interviews that Tony has had with some of our nation’s leaders. These interviews, what I love about them, it goes far, far, far beyond mere policies and politics. It gets to the very heart of who these individuals are and how their faith drives them. By the way, if you don’t yet have the Stand Firm app, I want to encourage you to get it. This is something that you will use over and over and over again. It’s a platform that serves as a state-of-the-art digital community for followers of Christ. It allows you to connect and grow, to receive news and encouragement off from a biblical worldview perspective. So you want to be sure to get the Stand Firm app. You can do so by going to the App Store or Google Play or simply text the word APP to 67742. You want to be sure to get that. Okay. Let’s go to this next segment. This is part of an interview Tony had with Congressman Kevin Hearn. Kevin Hearn shares how he came to Congress, to Washington, D.C., after being a very successful businessman. And it also shares his faith journey. Powerful, powerful story. So here’s how Tony got that conversation going.
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So let’s talk about business. Very successful businessman. Not to trump a competitor, but I started in Oklahoma. You actually represent the area that I grew up in, the Tulsa area. I grew up in Cleveland. I worked at Sonic. You ended up two dozen chains, two dozen stores of McDonald’s, very successful businessman. You left that to come here. Why?
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Well, you know, I look at America being a place that, you know, I grew up very poor. You and I were talking about before we started this about my dad being in the military. I was a product of a military life, a broken family from that. My dad went to Vietnam for three times. My brother, who had myself and my younger brother, 18 months younger than I. I had a sister that passed away about a year and a half before I was born from spina bifida. My mother was young and she said, I need to go back to where your dad and I were from, which was Arkansas. She went back, married a guy that didn’t really like to work much, first generation welfare, and we lived in extraordinary poverty. I didn’t have any running water, no indoor plumbing until I was in the eighth grade. My mother went on to have three more children with him, one of which, the first, my older sister at that’s still to this day, still alive, has spina bifida. Her daughter has spina bifida in a wheelchair. So we’ve lived this very difficult life. But I think life’s about a binary choice. You can either continue to live like that, or you can get out and start the grind of life where you’re going out and you’re facing the adversities of everyday life. And we didn’t have any money. I would actually skip school to go work at a sawmill so I could make gas money. I made $12 a day. Whole lot of money. Bought a lot of gas then. I did. Yeah. But, you know, that’s really why I ran it. and ultimately was to really protect this opportunity we have. No guarantees, but protect the opportunity.
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But that’s a part of who you are. I spent my summers in Oklahoma working the oil field as a roustabout. You couldn’t do that today at 16 or 17 years old. Are we depriving our kids of those difficult experiences that actually build the character and drive them forward?
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, I believe so. I’ve been criticized a lot by several members up here because I do think hard work is good for you. Working at the sawmill, getting hot, working at 115.
SPEAKER 12 :
Oklahoma gets pretty hot while Arkansas gets hot.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, a lot of hay, and we picked a lot of cherries in California. We’d leave school a week early to go pick cherries up and down the coast of California. And I do think it makes you appreciate other things when you see that kind of hard work when you’re young.
SPEAKER 12 :
But there’s more to Kevin Hearn than hard work and growing up in poverty. You discovered an element of richness that is intangible in terms of dollars and cents, your faith journey. Let’s talk about that.
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, I think a lot of people, you know, coming from the Midwest, the Bible bell, if you will, will say that I grew up in church and, you know, I, you know, my parents took me to church and I went to Sunday school and all that being, you know, a product, uh, Protestant Baptist, uh, believer. But I think, you know, when you look at my life, uh, as I mentioned, uh, the very impoverished life, we didn’t go to church. We didn’t, we didn’t talk about use God in a way that you would talk about it as a Christian and. You know, I went through a divorce. I thought that I could do anything that was invincible. And at 31 years old, I realized that I wasn’t invincible. God led a special person to me who’s sitting here with us today in this room, but led me to Christ at 31 years old. And I always tell people this story. She asked me, she says, do you know God? And she says, I’m not going to go out with you until you can answer these three questions. This was a 31-year-old guy. I was a guy who knew everything. I’d been through all kinds of adversity in life. And she said, do you know God? I said, no, it’s God. She was thinking big G. I was thinking little g. And she said, well, are you a Christian? I said, man, I’m getting a little uncomfortable here. And then she asked me if I was saved. And I said, I have to get back with you. So that’s how it started out. And, you know, about three months later at Antioch Baptist Church in Conway, Arkansas, you know, by myself, you know, I felt like Pastor Horton was talking directly to me and, you know, I was led to Christ. And that changed my life forever. I was at rock bottom. And everything we have today is from that moment.
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Well, that was Oklahoma Congressman Kevin Hearn. This was an exclusive sit-down interview that he had with Tony. And the series for you is called Profiles in Leadership. Powerfully, and you can find this on our Stand Firm app. And again, if you don’t yet have that app, you can get it by simply texting the word APP to 67742. And you can get that and much more. All right, we’ve got a ton yet coming your way that you don’t want to miss. Specifically, we’re going to wrap up today’s program with an interview that Tony had with Congressman Greg Stube. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard his story, but it is one amazing, amazing story. In fact, a miraculous story. We’ll be sharing more with you about that right after the break. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be back in just a moment.
SPEAKER 02 :
Family Research Council is committed to advancing faith, family, and freedom from the East Coast to the West. So FRC is going to Southern California for this year’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit, October 17th and 18th at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills. Join us for this powerful gathering of Christians desiring cultural renewal and spiritual revival. The Pray, Vote, Stand Summit brings together Christian leaders, issue experts, and government officials for a time of prayer, inspiration, and action. Together, we will seek God’s guidance for our nation and engage in meaningful discussions on the intersection of faith, government, and culture. If the spiritual foundations and the cultural walls of our nation are to be rebuilt, we all have a role to play. May we each find our place on the wall as we build for biblical truth. Register now at PrayVoteStand.org. That’s PrayVoteStand.org.
SPEAKER 24 :
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 13-part series that equips you with biblical truth to engage in today’s most pressing debates. From the Ten Commandments in Classrooms to the Immigration Crisis of America, we’ll uncover the foundations of our nation’s history and why it’s relevant for today. Defend God’s plan for government because faith and freedom were never meant to be separate. To view the series on the Stand Firm app, text COURSE to 67742.
SPEAKER 22 :
How should Christians think about the thorny issues shaping our culture? How should Christians address deceitful ideas like transgenderism, critical theory, or assisted suicide? How can Christians navigate raising children in a broken culture, the war on gender roles, or rebuilding our once great nation? Outstanding is a podcast from The Washington Stand dedicated to these critical conversations. Outstanding seeks to tear down what our corrupt culture lifts up with an aim to take every thought and every idea captive to the obedience of Christ. Whether policies or partisan politics, whether conflict in America or conflict abroad, join us and our guests as we examine the headlines through the lens of Scripture and explore how Christians can faithfully exalt Christ in all of life. Follow Outstanding on your favorite podcast app and look for new episodes each week.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Thank you so much for joining us today. I’m Jody Heiss, an honor to be your host on this special Memorial Day edition of Washington Watch. Today we’ve been sharing some excerpts from an exclusive series that you can find on FRC’s Stand Firm app. This series is called Defending the Faith, Profiles in Leadership. It involves some special interviews that Tony had with some leading members of Congress, And it’s just an absolutely incredible series. You want to get it again. You can find it at our stand firm app. You can get that by going to APP app. Text the word app to six, seven, seven, four, two. All right. This final segment of Tony’s interview is going to be with Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe. In this, he shares his personal faith journey, but specifically how it all was shaped by a miraculous recovery following a life-threatening accident. A powerful, powerful story. Here’s a preview of that interview.
SPEAKER 12 :
Let’s start with your faith journey, because that plays a role in why you are here. Yeah.
SPEAKER 11 :
And it plays a role as to the steps it took to get here. We were very prayerful when the seat was opened. I was in the state Senate at the time. We were in the middle of session, and Tom Rooney announced that he wasn’t going to run for reelection. And my wife and I started praying about what we should do, because a congressional seat Once it’s open, because there’s no term limits, you never know when it’s going to be open again. You have to kind of seize that opportunity if you’re going to do it. And we got many confirmation through Scripture. My wife was just doing her daily verse, and we got confirmation after confirmation. That’s the direction the Lord wanted us to go. So within a week, we made a decision announced. I had like two or three months before qualifying. And that certainly… charted the path for us. And throughout the campaign, I wasn’t the Washington DC establishment pick. We were out-fundraised. We were out-gunned by the different people in Washington that were supporting my opponent. And every time it was we needed something, checks showed up at the door. There was an outside group that got involved for me and helped tremendously. And so God made the resources available that I needed to put in place and had set it all up. I had such a hard Senate primary. And the majority of the Senate district was in the new congressional district. So I had knocked on 20,000 doors just two years before I ran for Congress, which again, we didn’t know that it was setting the stage for us to run for Congress. And it worked out. And we were successful.
SPEAKER 12 :
You had to develop that ability to walk by faith and to be able to sense the voice of the Lord leading the Holy Spirit. Talk about your experience of coming to know the Lord.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I grew up in a Methodist religious household. My grandfather on my mom’s side was a Methodist minister. So I grew up in the church. But obviously growing up in the church is different than our faith walk. And I’d say about five years ago, my wife and I went through some challenges in our marriage, which has really strengthened our spiritual walk. um we had found a church actually through senator rick scott because he was an event in my district we went to a southern baptist church before we were at the church we were at now which gave us a biblical foundation for where we were and what we were doing and everything was kind of charted before we got there my wife will tell you the same thing that Like, we didn’t realize the steps that we were taking that was building our faith. I would say I would always probably identify myself as a Christian, even in high school and college. But I wouldn’t say that my spirituality and faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit hasn’t gotten as strong as it has in the last five or six years. And that was through what we went through politically and then what we went through personally. So I would say I’ve been a Christian growing up. I would say I received my salvation probably as I started my political steps and being involved in a Baptist church. And then I would say made Jesus my Lord and Savior like the last five or six years.
SPEAKER 12 :
When you’ve integrated that quite well, I’ve watched you and you went through a situation a year, two years ago. I lose track of time. You had an accident. And that seems to have strengthened your faith even more.
SPEAKER 11 :
I could spend an hour, 30 minutes talking about the miracles that were involved in me getting knocked off a ladder. A very high ladder. Yeah, I was 25, 30 feet up with a 20-inch bar chainsaw in my hand, cutting a limb on our property. And the limb snatched free, hit the ladder. I went up into the air, fell straight to the ground. God had an Amazon driver at the very exact moment in time that that happened in our front driveway. That Amazon driver had been fasting for a week. The Holy Spirit told him to fast. He didn’t know why. So fast forward a week later, he’s standing in front of my property, hadn’t had anything to eat in a week. and is there at the exact moment in time that he has to be there to witness it. He choreographs getting me in an ambulance on the way to the ER before my wife even knows what’s going on. It’s being reported in mainstream media because the local news was monitoring the 911 calls. It was being reported in the national media that Congressman Stubbe was in the ICU and my wife had no idea what was going on. And so the Lord’s hand was all over that from miracle upon miracle. There was even a gentleman who prayed over, his name’s Woody, prayed over Woody before he came to our house, which set the time up perfectly for him to be there. So there was… I mean, these were very serious injuries. Yeah, I had a significant concussion. I still don’t remember probably about 48 hours worth of time. I don’t remember being on that part of the property. I don’t remember the ER. I don’t remember the ICU. I remember going into surgery on my pelvis. So I had a significant concussion. I tore the ligaments in my neck. I punctured my lung pretty significantly and I broke my pelvis. And then the healing power after that of the wraparound of prayer from people all across the country. I mean, I was getting little letters from… from people in a church in, I think it was in New York, from people in Iowa who had heard about the accident and were praying for me. And four months later, after having all of those injuries, I was pitching for the Republicans on the baseball field in the congressional baseball game. So not just the miracles of being there.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think you had a home run too, didn’t you?
SPEAKER 11 :
That was a couple years ago. Oh, okay. I almost hit one out again this year, but I was like a foot short. And you’re 100%? Yep, 100%. Jen, my wife will tell you that I’m stronger now than I was before the fall. that has to be the hand of god 100 yeah there’s and if you look at medical statistics it’s kind of interesting a fall from 11 feet or higher results in death or paralysis like 90 of the time it’s like a medical statistic in the medical insurance world and i was easily over 25 feet straight to the ground with a chainsaw in my hand so there’s there’s no other reason why i’m here today
SPEAKER 12 :
Let’s talk about how that new spiritual strength has met a greater political challenge when the Republicans gained the majority and there was a long process of trying to determine who the speaker was going to be. There came a moment where members went to the House floor, just a small group, you were among them, to pray. Your prayer life has taken on a new depth.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and there was some prophecy going on that day that none of us really knew because if you look at the picture, and we didn’t even know that there was press on the floor because we weren’t in session at that time. The prayer caucus just said, hey, anybody that wants to come and pray for what’s going on, let’s meet on the House floor. And ironically, there were seven of us, which is the number of perfection in the Bible and completion. And as I’m praying, my hand is outstretched and I’m praying over the speakership, over the house chamber and over the leader of the house. And my hand is facing Mike Johnson, which is kind of interesting, given less than a year later, he’s the speaker of the house who joined us that day. But… very intentional and deliberate about prayer life. And we know that we’re in a spiritual battle and we have to wage war in the spirit realm up here. Just as important as praying at home. I think it’s probably more important. to be involved in prayer life and asking God to intervene in what’s going on in our country because everybody can see the darkness around what’s happening from transgender stuff to 66 million children have been aborted in our country to the complete loss of biblical values and the teaching of God in our schools. And I believe we’re in a pivotal spiritual place in our country where we need leaders who are willing to put selfish ambitions aside and focus on what God wants them to do.
SPEAKER 12 :
Prayer is essential. The Lord taught his followers how to pray. We’re challenged to pray. Pray without ceasing, Paul says. But there’s more than just prayer. James says, faith without works is dead. You have also displayed an element of courage and boldness. I recall, this has been a few years back, you went to the House floor quoted scripture. You mentioned the transgender issue. That issue has continued to stay at the forefront. You led out on the women’s sports bill to protect women’s sports. But on the House floor, you quoted scripture regarding what the Bible has to say about men wearing women’s clothing. And you got a very interesting response from the Democratic congressman from New York, Jerry Nadler.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, again, that’s why our prayer life is important and being in the Word is important. I had read the day before that exact passage in Tony Evans’ Commentary Bible, because that’s just what I was reading that year. And I thought, okay, this is definitely something I need to say on the floor. And I elicited some… interesting response from the Democrats, which tells you a lot about where they are.
SPEAKER 12 :
I don’t have the quote verbatim, but Jerry Nadler, after you left the floor, said, Mr. Stubbe, God has nothing to do with what this Congress does.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. And I wish, the way that the rules work on the floor, I couldn’t respond to him, but I wish I could have, because all I would have said is, right above us, above the rostrum, says in God we trust. So to say that we should not infuse our biblical values, I mean, our country was founded upon Christian Judeo values. And to move away from that, I think that’s why you’re seeing the darkness and the challenges and the things that we’re seeing in our country today.
SPEAKER 12 :
So you served in the army. I mentioned that earlier. You were in Iraq. You were a JAG officer, but you also helped kind of track down some of the bad guys there. There’s this effort to drive Christians away from the source of their strength. And you mentioned this is a spiritual battle. We’re in a spiritual battle. But this whole issue of what you just described, if MSNBC, you know, one of their commentators were to be sitting in here would be saying, well, that’s Christian nationalism, all designed to suppress our engagement.
SPEAKER 11 :
yeah the mainstream media and it’s really the enemy is is trying i mean jesus foretold about these things um the word the bible says that christians will be persecuted that jesus’s followers will be persecuted and we’re seeing that play out in real time in our lifetime right here in the united states and they’re using these terminologies to try to pigeonhole you as, oh, you’re just a Christian nationalist and making it a derogatory term, which is like their attempt to make MAGA a derogatory term, like making America great again is suddenly a bad thing for our country. And it’s kind of interesting to see that, and it does, I don’t, it doesn’t bother me. We just had a hearing not too long ago in Ways and Means, and I quoted Isaiah where I feel like we’re living in the times foretold in Isaiah where evil is good and good is evil. And we were discussing pregnancy centers and this attack and the demonization of pregnancy centers that are just trying to help women to have babies and not go to abortion clinics. And it’s just fascinating how the mainstream media uses these terms to try to pigeonhole certain people. And it’s just, again, we’re not fighting against flesh and blood.
SPEAKER 12 :
How do we respond to that? Because, you know, it’s one thing people say, well, you’re a member of Congress. You’re a leader. You know how to handle this. But the instruction of scripture is not just for leaders it’s for followers of christ how should christians across this country respond to this effort that would suppress their public display of their faith and their engagement in being salt and light
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, we’re told that the sword of our spirit is the word of God. And I believe wholeheartedly that you combat, especially in the spiritual realm, with the word of God. And it’s irrebukable. It’s God’s word. And it… it can fight the battles for you. And I think just encouraging people not to lose sight of that and to not be scared of what people will say about you. I mean, just look at my Facebook page or my Twitter page, and you can see horrible things that people say about me all the time.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I tell the kids, don’t Google me.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, don’t look at the comments on posts. It’s fascinating. I lead a men’s group in my church, and they’ll be like, how do you deal with that? I’m like, I don’t read it. I don’t pay attention to it. Those things don’t matter. And I focus on what I feel like God has put me up here to do and what I want to work on.
SPEAKER 12 :
But that means you have to be listening to him, which means you have to be in his word. So it goes back to what you said. As Christians, we need to be in the word of God.
SPEAKER 11 :
I read a Bible a year. This year I’m reading the New King James Version, which I really like that translation. And I think this year I have five devotionals. So every day I spend, I don’t know, 20 or 30 minutes, usually in the morning, Especially I need to do that up here and giving myself time up here to do that.
SPEAKER 12 :
It’s a source of encouragement, strength, but it also helps put things into perspective, which let me ask you this question with that in mind. What gives you hope about, I mean, when you look at all of these issues, I mean, you talked about the transgender issue. We’ve had the redefinition of marriage, 66 million unborn children that have been murdered. And we have an administration that wants to do even more of that. How do you find hope in the midst of that?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, God, the Holy Spirit, the word of God gives me hope that our country was founded on Christian and Judeo principles and the majority of Americans believe that and the majority of Americans support that and hopefully redirect our country back to the direction that God wants our country to go and not the direction that has been going.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, that was Florida Congressman Greg Stubbe during an exclusive sit down interview that he had with Tony prior to Election Day last year. And you’ve been tuning in today to a special edition of Washington Watch. And of course, we all know by now that the voters did indeed speak up last November. And while we’re all so thankful for that, friends, we want to remember right now that ultimately our hope is not lost. on Capitol Hill. Our hope is in Calvary’s Hill. That, my friends, is what we celebrate. Well, that’s all the time we have today. Hope you have a fantastic Memorial Day. God bless you. Thank you for joining us today on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 01 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
