As controversy brews over a prayer service at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands by his decision to host the event despite stark criticism. We take a closer look at historical military traditions of prayer and the new wave of conservative values in military leadership. Also, hear from David Mills of Men’s Alliance as he discusses the significance of strengthening biblical masculinity in today’s culture, offering insights into how prayer and leadership reforms might impact military morale.
SPEAKER 19 :
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. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, good afternoon. Welcome to this Friday edition of Washington Watch and the beginning of a Memorial Day weekend. I am Jody Heiss, a senior fellow here at the Family Research Council. So honored to have you on board with us. We’ve got a lot to bring your way today. Let me give you some of the highlights. As you probably have heard by now, House Republicans handed President Trump a major legislative win when they passed the one big, beautiful bill yesterday. Well, now the ball is all in the Senate’s court.
SPEAKER 01 :
Our team is suiting up for discussions with the Senate side of Capitol Hill. The president, again, said this morning he hopes to see this bill at his desk as soon as possible, and he’ll be engaged in the process to get it through the Senate, just like he was to get it through the House of Representatives.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that was White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt yesterday. So what did it take to get to this point? And I get probably more important, what can we expect moving forward? Well, I’ll be joined here in just a moment by Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith. He happens to be the vice chairman of the House Rules Committee, and we’ll discuss all of that. And then yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court was evenly split on a very important decision involving a religious charter school that was seeking to receive public funding. So what does this all mean for the case? Well, I’ll be speaking about this with Michael Ferris, who’s the general counsel for the National Religious Broadcasters, who also filed an amicus brief in that case. And then, catch this, the left, as we all know, well, they’re perfectly fine with drag shows for a member of our militaries, but they are now up in arms because of prayer service that was offered. That took place at the Pentagon this week.
SPEAKER 15 :
Appealing to heaven, to God, is a long-standing tradition in our military. I’m very proud that we’re starting a monthly voluntary service at the Pentagon. George Washington was on bended knee with the troops, praying for God’s providence and protection in that moment. Chaplains and ministers and Christians and people of faith across generations have prayed because of the business that we’re in.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow. That was U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth responding yesterday to reporters who asked about the criticism that he’s been receiving because of that prayer service. So I’ll be discussing this a little bit later in the program when I’m joined by retired U.S. Air Force Officer David Mills. And then to close out the program and to close out the week, I’ll be joined by David Claussen for our weekly Biblical Worldview segment. We’ve got a lot to discuss, including the deadly, tragic, and chilling shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum Wednesday night.
SPEAKER 12 :
The tragic murder of these two Israeli embassy employees outside of the Capital Jewish Museum last night was both an act of terror and directed violence against the Jewish community. Make no mistake. This attack was targeted anti-Semitic violence and it won’t be tolerated.
SPEAKER 05 :
That was Steve Jensen. He’s the assistant director of the FBI’s Washington field office, speaking yesterday. And we’re going to discuss this and much more with David Claussen as we wrap up the program. So as always, we’ve got a lot coming your way. If you happen to miss any of it, our website, TonyPerkins.com. Lots of resources there available for you, as well as archives of many programs as well well as this one all right let’s jump into the big news for today the big beautiful bill as you probably have heard by now it passed the house of representatives yesterday and now it’s on its way to the senate but there are some senators some conservative members of the senate who have already flagged their intention to vote this current bill down at least in its current state so This suggests that this reconciliation bill is going to experience certainly some more tweaking in the Senate in the coming days. So what does that mean for the bill that the House of Representatives sent and that they spent literally all day and all night? Well, joining me now to discuss this is Congressman Morgan Griffith. He serves on several House committees, including the Rules Committee, where he serves as the vice chairman. He also serves on the important Energy and Commerce Committee. He represents the 9th Congressional District of Virginia. Congressman Griffith, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you, my friend.
SPEAKER 16 :
Great to see you as well. And I appreciate you so much and thank you for what you do.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you as well. In fact, I just saw you Monday evening, and you were, I think, could not imagine the week that was ahead of you at that. Well, I think you probably could imagine it, but it had to be an exhausting week for you. Tell us a little bit about the week. How did this go down?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, it was an exhausting week. As you said, I was on Energy and Commerce. So last week we did the 26.5 hour hearing. Then this week, rules went in at one o’clock on Tuesday morning. I guess, excuse me, Wednesday morning, very early in the morning hours. And Democrats kept saying, why? Are you all coming in at 1 o’clock in the morning? And I told him, just straight up, said, because we know that you all want to talk a lot and talk about this bill a lot, and we won’t have time to do it if we don’t start at 1 o’clock in the morning. Well, sure enough… We went for 21, 22 hours, somewhere between 21 and 22 hours, listening to Democrats tell us how bad the bill was and how evil we were. And we got through it. All of us stayed committed and firm, and we listened to the testimony. That’s part of what the legislative process is about. And then we passed the rules so that we could then move forward in the wee hours of Thursday to actually getting the rule passed and then the bill passed on the floor by one vote. And so it was a hard week, a tough week. There were changes being made right up until we got through the rule, but it was worth it. But I do think To my Senate colleagues, I would say, would I prefer the bill be a touch more conservative? Yes. Would a number of my friends in the Freedom Caucus want it to be a lot more conservative? Yes. But I think we must have hit pretty close to the sweet spot when you end up with a one vote margin. There’s not a whole lot more that could have been done, so I welcome the Senate changing some things and sending it back to us, but just keep in touch with the House because we’ve got to have a bill that can pass, and if they send us something over and we lose four or five Republicans, we can’t pass the bill, and none of the Democrats will vote for it. So we are walking a tightrope, but we’re doing the best we can, and I believe this is about the best product that we can actually pass. Could it be a better bill? Sure. But it’s about the best we can do with the circumstances that we have and the votes that we have.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s one thing I’ve always appreciated about you, Morgan, is your common sense wisdom that you bring to the table, and that’s why you’re on so many critical committees as well. So was there anything, I mean, you guys, 20 hours, was there any specific subject or provision within the bill that garnered so much attention, or was it just kind of the whole thing?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, there were a couple of things that were repeating and consistent themes. Most of the complaints were we were going to devastate and destroy Medicaid. And the biggest thing that we did to Medicaid was in the Medicaid expansion program. And they’re technically two different programs. But in the Medicaid expansion program, we say if you’re able-bodied, if you don’t have a young child, a disabled person, an elderly person who needs care in your home, We are going to expect you to be involved in your community. That is most likely work, and we refer to it sometimes as a work requirement, but it can be community service. It can be going back to school to improve your educational ability so that you can get a better job. It can be a drug treatment program. The idea is you get out there and you do something to improve your community’s life and your life. And we think that’s a reasonable request. And mind you, it’s 80 hours a month. It’s not even a full schedule. We’re not saying 40 hours a week. We’re saying 80 hours a month. And as you know, there’s 4.33 weeks in a month. So it works out to 18.47 hours a week on average. And you can do daycare help out with a daycare, particularly if you have a child who needs daycare, you may be able to figure something out. What we have found over time, and most people know this, is if you’re involved in your community in some positive way, you’re going to be more self-aware of what’s going on, and you’re going to feel better about yourself, and you’re likely to become a big-time contributing member of your community. So whether it be work, whether it be community service, whether it be improving your education, we think this is a reasonable requirement for able-bodied people who aren’t taking care of somebody else who needs care. We think it’s a reasonable request. but it brings a lot of people because they get jobs and because they do things, it gets them off of the public Medicaid expansion program and saves over 10 years, hundreds of billions of dollars. I think that’s common sense.
SPEAKER 05 :
It is common sense, and that’s why the vast majority of Americans support you on this. I mean, we’re talking about work-capable people, and they don’t need to be sitting at home taking funds from those who are out working. If they’re capable of working, they need to be able to do so. I think it’s very much common sense. So real quickly, after all the negotiations, all the markups, all the meetings, hour after hour after hour, what were some of the definitive victories in this bill that you and your colleagues in the Freedom Caucus and beyond that you feel good about? What are the victories? Lay them out for us.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, one of the things we came through Energy and Commerce, we were hearing from some of the bureaucrats. I’m not going to say it was the top people. I don’t know who it was, but they contacted our chairman, Brett Guthrie, and basically indicated that we couldn’t start these community engagement or work requirements until like 2029. The conservative wing, particularly the Freedom Caucus, said, that’s ridiculous. We can start this sooner. So we’re actually going to start it December 31st, 2026. That’s a win. That’s a win. And it saves even more money. And then there’s things that don’t save that much money but are wins. We don’t think that Medicaid and Medicaid expansion should pay, that’s the taxpayers, for transgender surgery. That seems reasonable. The number’s not huge on the savings on that. It is billions, but it’s not hundreds of billions. It’s a few billion. But if that’s a decision that you make, There’s lots of private organizations that will help you with it. But the taxpayer shouldn’t have to pay for the transgender surgery. Now, the affirming care, if you’ve already had the surgery, you’ve got to have care the rest of your life if you have that kind of surgery. And so we’re not saying that we wouldn’t pay for helping out somebody who suddenly is on hard times that paid for their own surgery previously or has had the surgery previously and now needs the hormonal treatment, et cetera, that those folks need. But we’re not paying for the surgery to start you down that pathway. And I think that was a win. There were other wins. There were some really big wins in energy. We got rid of most of the Green New Deal. And what we kept was nuclear subsidies or nuclear incentives to help us move our energy process forward. There were some real wins also in… making it easier to get through the bureaucratic morass in Washington if you’re trying to build a new energy project. We created an insurance program. We’ll see how that works. It’s a pilot project so that you can create a new power plant based on nuclear wind, excuse me, not wind, but nuclear, coal, natural gas, so that that would help you move that energy sector forward and we were listening to elon musk yesterday unrelated uh that he was saying that we need to uh build a whole lot more energy if we’re going to keep up with the chinese on ai he’s absolutely right so we cut some of the red tape on that congressman morgan griffith of virginia vice chairman of the house rules committee and many other areas of leadership thank you for joining us on washington watch and i appreciate your insight so much have a great weekend
SPEAKER 05 :
You too. God bless you. God bless. All right, friends. By the way, speaking of this big, beautiful bill, we have an explainer of that bill on the Stand Firm app. You can get it by texting APP to 67742. All right. A big decision from the Supreme Court yesterday. A big one. We’ll break it down for you right after the break.
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SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your Friday host Jody Heiss and so glad to have you with us today. All right. Yesterday we had an extremely important decision. The U.S. Supreme Court was evenly split on a decision involving a religious charter school that was seeking to receive public funding. The decision was a 4-4 ruling, and therefore the Oklahoma State Supreme Court decision was upheld. So what does all this mean? What does it indicate for not only this case, but maybe other similar cases? What can we expect from the whole charter school, religious school movement going forward? We’re here to discuss this is Aaron Smith. Aaron is the associate counsel at First Liberty Institute. which represents Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, State Board of Education, and State Department of Education in this case. Erin, welcome to Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 21 :
Thank you, Jody. I’m glad to be here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Wow, this is a huge case, and I think a lot of us are scratching our heads as to what does this all mean at this point. So let’s kind of begin. What are the overall arguments for and against public funding of charter schools, and why is this particular case so divisive?
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, so I think just to start, the argument for religious charter schools really is that parents deserve to choose what kind of school they want to send their children to. And that includes religious schools. And so the state of Oklahoma opened up public funding for charter schools and anyone could apply. But then the attorney general decided that religious schools should not be applying and would not be qualified to receive these state funds, which goes against what the Supreme Court has said about the United States Constitution and it allowing things like religious charter schools or allowing religious institutions to receive public funding when it’s made available to all. The state of Oklahoma, in opposition to Saint Isidore, argues that Saint Isidore, the charter school, is a state actor and so it would be in violation of the Establishment Clause. which is an incorrect interpretation of the Establishment Clause. But we don’t know how the Supreme Court would have ruled because they released that procuring opinion four to four. And so we don’t even know who was on which side.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. So what does this mean? Is this, I would think, and I’m hearing people say that a four to four decision means more than likely this is going to come back to the Supreme Court at some point. Is that an accurate assessment, you think?
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, absolutely. The fight really is far from over. The silver lining of the four to four ruling is that this limits the ruling to just being in Oklahoma. It doesn’t speak to whether or not religious charter schools be valid in other states. And so we expect to see this exact same thing be right before the court very soon.
SPEAKER 05 :
So during that oral argument, I remember when all that was taking place and we reported on it at that point, but what were the justices’ main concerns at that point? What did they need to hear to make them go one way or the other?
SPEAKER 21 :
Well, really, it seemed that their main focus really was are you treating this school differently because they’re religious? And so we heard argument, and yes, that St. Isidore was being treated differently by the state of Oklahoma because it was religious. Now, our client understands the law and wanted to follow the Constitution in the way that the Supreme Court has interpreted it, but was stopped from doing so by the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the Attorney General.
SPEAKER 05 :
So doesn’t this really, because that’s my recollection too, and all the oral arguments were taking place. That’s why I was kind of surprised at the 4-4 decision yesterday. Were you at all surprised by that, by the way? We were very surprised, yes. Yeah, I think most people were, and particularly when you look at it from the backdrop of the oral arguments and what seemed to be the biggest concern for the justices. Where does the whole discrimination argument come into this? I mean, like you mentioned, anyone could apply to be a charter school. This is something that provides an opportunity for parents to have yet another choice in education. And yet it seems as though only… religious schools are disallowed. Is that not discrimination?
SPEAKER 21 :
It is. And that’s a very that’s exactly right. It is discrimination simply because the charter school is religious. And so there’s really there is no other explanation. St. Isidore is ready to give high quality education to students who don’t have access to high quality education like the Catholic Church offers. And so they wanted to make that free to students across Oklahoma using an online school. character.
SPEAKER 05 :
So does this pull the plug on St. Isidore or just the public funding aspect of it?
SPEAKER 21 :
So St. Isidore would be allowed to operate as a private school should they choose to, should they have private donors lined up to fund them. But you’re correct in that the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision does limit their ability to receive the charter school funding.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. On a broader perspective, why is this such an important case? What’s the significance here?
SPEAKER 21 :
I think it’s important because parents want to be able to send their kids to really good schools. And part of having really good schools is the opportunity to have choice. Choice between sending your kid to a public school, to a private school, to a charter school that uses these innovative teaching methods like St. Isidore wanted to do. And so ultimately, it really does come down to choice. Don’t we want to live in a freer society? Don’t we want to live somewhere where we can make those kinds of decisions and value our faith? And so that’s really the bottom line is let’s give people more access to education and more freedom to exercise their religious liberty.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I couldn’t agree more. When you talk about, and we’ve only got about a minute or so left, but when you talk about probably this is going to come back to the Supreme Court, any way to anticipate what kind of timeframe, what would need to happen for the Supreme Court to revisit this?
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, I mean, it just, it depends as far as, you know, if there’s a case already going on, if there’s something in the works, you know, you would need a charter school, a religious charter school, and you would need the charter school to be told no or to get sued in some capacity. And so there’s really no telling how long. It could be very quick and it could be a few years.
SPEAKER 05 :
Aaron Smith, I want to thank you so much. You’re the associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, whom we love a great deal. And thank you so much for your incredible work. We are grateful for you coming on Washington Watch and breaking this extremely important case down for us. Happy Memorial Day weekend to you.
SPEAKER 21 :
Happy Memorial Day. Thank you.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. All right, friends. Up next, the U.S. military is seeing a welcome return to humility before God. I’ll be talking with Dave Mills of Men’s Alliance regarding this in just a moment. So stay tuned. Much more coming your way.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Happy Memorial Day weekend to you. I’m your Friday host, Jody Heiss, and so honored to have you with us today. All right, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, he’s been receiving an enormous amount of criticism for hosting a voluntary prayer service in the Pentagon this week. And, friends, just think of this. After all the social experimenting that we’ve been watching take place in the military in recent years, prayer is what’s concerning those on the left? It just shows the enormous conflict of reality that these people are living in. Look, as we enter into Memorial Day weekend, I think it’s important for us to remember and honor the memory of those who gave their lives for our freedom. Obviously, that’s what Memorial Day is all about. But we would do well also to remind the critics out there that encouraging prayer in our military and encouraging prayer for our military is not something to be frowned on. And I would well imagine that my next guest is going to agree with me. Joining me now is David Mills. He’s the founder and director of Men’s Alliance after an enormous career in the Air Force. He punched out of the military. He has now become a missionary to men, if you will. His ministry is growing exponentially all across the country. as they literally come alongside churches and build up biblical masculinity. So, Dave, welcome to Washington Watch. It’s an honor to have you.
SPEAKER 23 :
Thank you so much, Mr. Heiss. It’s a pleasure to be here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you’ve got a world of experience in the military, retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, and I’m sure during your illustrious career that you saw a lot of changes in the military, in the leadership and so forth, and how those changes impact those in various ranks all along. But as we look within that context, is it encouraging to you now to see how Secretary Hegseth is not only welcoming military those with Christian faith but is literally embracing it.
SPEAKER 23 :
Absolutely. It makes me makes me wish I were still in. I wish that that I had the opportunity to serve under Secretary Hegseth. This is the exact kind of leadership that our country needs and that our military needs. And like you said, there’s nothing at all controversial about this. We come from an entire historical lineage in this country of our commanders. bowing a knee to pray back to George Washington, of course. So I can’t think of a better thing for the secretary of defense to do than to than to pause and to pray.
SPEAKER 05 :
I can’t either. So what do you make of all the criticism that he’s getting right now?
SPEAKER 23 :
Well, I think that a part of it is we’ve seen the pendulum swing so far, so absurdly far to the left over the past many years that now, even if it moves back an inch into the correct position. It’s very alarming to people. I have people that I’ve talked to who are atheists. They are legitimately concerned about us as Christians mandating some sort of a national Christian religion. And that’s, of course, so absurd, so far from anything that’s happening in reality. But that’s their concern. And we have to remind them, hey, listen. You live in a country founded. The last time I checked, our national motto was in God we trust. So hold on. Calm down. It’s not anything to get upset about. This is just simply a man praying for wisdom. If you read if you read what the prayer was, right, it was praying for, you know, stability, right? for guidance, for protection and blessing. I think everyone is for these type of things. And it’s absolutely great. It’s encouraging to see our Secretary of Defense doing this. I hope he keeps it up.
SPEAKER 05 :
I do as well. So how is this impacting the morale? I mean, you have not only this with prayer, but he, Secretary and President Trump, they’ve drawn a clear line on the reality that men are men, women are women. If you want to serve in the military, you will do so according to your biological sex and so forth. How do all these things, common sense approaches, if you will, affect morale?
SPEAKER 23 :
Well, from from my perspective, from my position, this is a huge breath of fresh air. It’s a return to common sense. It’s like we’ve all been given permission to stop playing an absurd game that nobody wanted to play in the first place. And so many of the rank and file soldiers, sailors, sailors, airmen, Marines were going along with simply because, hey, I don’t want to stand out. I want to, you know, do well in my job. But as soon as, you know, someone reveals at the top that that was absurd and we’re going away from it, we’re done with that, as he said. There’s a huge collective sigh of relief as a nation and as a military that, honestly, thank God we are returning to some common sense morality.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. Absolutely. Here we’ve got less than a minute. Tell us real quickly about the Men’s Alliance and where people can find more info about it.
SPEAKER 23 :
Absolutely. Men’s Alliance is a Christian men’s movement of tribes of men across the country that meet weekly. Every tribe does a 30-minute outdoor workout, rain, shine, sleet or snow, followed by a real-world devotion around a fire. It’s resonating with men because this is what we need. We need to be challenged to get off the sideline, back into the game. If you want to learn more, our listeners can go to mensalliancetribe.com. Find a tribe near you.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Dave Mills, founder and director.
SPEAKER 23 :
Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER 05 :
Founder and director of Men’s Alliance. Great job. Appreciate you joining us. All right, coming up next, I’ll be joined by another David. This time, David Claussen will be joining me to recap this week’s news from our Biblical Worldview segment. It’s coming your way on the other side of the break. Stay tuned.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
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 welcome back to washington watch great to have you joining us today i am jody heiss your friday host glad to have you with us
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, no doubt there is no shortage in the news. We’ve got a lot to talk about, everything from President Trump’s big, beautiful bill that passed the House this week to the tragedy in the nation’s capital. There have been so many stories this week that need reflection from a biblical perspective. And speaking of the big, beautiful bill, let me just say this. I mentioned it earlier, but I want to come back to this. If you want to know more about what’s in this, it’s a budget reconciliation bill, which is kind of complicated. But if you want to know more of what’s in it, we have an explainer. It’s available for you exclusively on FRC’s StandFirm app. And if you don’t have the app, that’s the only place you can get this explainer. Simply text APP to 67742, and you’ll be able to get just a great explainer to go through what this big, beautiful bill is all about. And look, I’ve had people texting me all week saying, what’s in this thing? What’s in it? In fact, I was in the meeting with the Freedom Caucus Monday of this week, and I feel like I have a pretty good handle on this. But then after the meeting on Monday, there were meetings all night long, night after night. And when all was said and done, there was so much more involved than I even am aware of. Thus, the importance of having something to explain it to you is important. So get the app and find out for yourself. Again, text APP, A-P-P. to 677-42. All right, as we conclude the program, as we conclude the week, it’s always good, and I love to look back on the headlines of the week and try to consider at least as much as we can from a biblical worldview perspective. And joining me now to do that again is David Claussen. He’s the director here at the Center for Biblical Worldview. at the family research council he’s also author of the recently released book life after row equipping christians in the fight for life today david thank you again for joining us a lot to cover that’s right happy friday great to be with you again jody Well, thank you so much. Okay, let me start with this because FRC has been so heavily involved in this. Our Government Affairs Division and so many others, recent weeks, have been so heavily involved. in trying to help gain momentum to defund Planned Parenthood in the big, beautiful bill, which passed the House. It’s amazing how this got through. So tell us, David, let’s start with this issue. How should Christians think about this news, and what do you think is next for it as this bill moves forward now to the Senate?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jody, I think Christians across the country should be actually very encouraged. This big, beautiful bill, as the president likes to put it, does a lot of what the president campaigned on, making those 2017 tax cuts permanent, no taxes on tips or overtime pay, funding the border wall. So these are all things that the president and congressional Republicans campaigned on. And that just… Take that by itself. That’s encouraging that folks are trying to do what they campaigned on. But specifically for Christians, defunding big abortion, defunding Planned Parenthood, this is something, again, that Republicans have run on campaign cycle after campaign cycle. And for whatever reason, it hasn’t been done. But you and I have talked about this is the best chance in the last 10 years for this to happen. And as of now, this bill that passed the House did indeed remove that funding. It’s just remarkable, Jody, that Planned Parenthood received almost $800 million. And of course, Planned Parenthood is going to be quick to say that none of that money is used to do abortion. But of course, we all know that money is fungible. And so, again, I think as Christians, we should be really excited. By the way, Planned Parenthood’s annual report just came out, and in the last year, they did 402,000 abortions. Again, as Christians, we are the people that believe all people, born and unborn, are made in God’s image, have inherent value and dignity. And so, again, I think as Christians, we should be thrilled and be praying that when this bill is taken up by the Senate, that these hard-fought provisions in the House version are going to be seen in the final text of the bill.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, I think it’s going to be extremely hard to pass in the House if the Senate brings it back without that. But we’ll see. And it’s not just Planned Parenthood. It’s abortion providers from that perspective. But then there’s more than the abortion side of defunding. There’s the transgender surgeries as well. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, this is encouraging, Jody. And so there is a provision that prohibits kind of Affordable Care Act. So think Obamacare health plans from covering not just abortion, but the so-called gender affirming care. So think surgeries, think hormone treatments, specifically through Medicaid. And I think I read somewhere earlier, it was a White House official said that it’s upwards of 25 percent of so-called gender-affirming care comes through Medicaid. And again, as Christians, we want to think primarily as biblically-minded Christians, we know that That it’s important to stand for truth. We know that God created humanity, male and female. This created order is not arbitrary. It’s a reflection of God’s good design. And we want our laws to be in coherence with the truth. And, you know, just thinking on a practical level, we know that folks who undergo these treatments, many of them later experience deep regret or The promises of these surgeries and treatments are often overstated. They’re often contradicted, honestly, by long-term studies. And so I think it’s just very good to see the bill drawing a line that government should not be in the business of subsidizing treatments that are physically damaging and spiritually misleading.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. You know, it’s interesting to me, David, too, that these two major subjects are also subjects right here within the roof of FRC. We have people who have written books that have been recently released, yours being one on abortion, life after Roe. And then we have Dr. Jennifer Bowens and Walt Heyer who just released their book this week dealing with the transgender issue. And all these things make a difference. It is a voice going out, a voice of truth, of biblical truth going into the public square. And again, I just say thank you. And if they were on with us, I would thank them as well for incredible work. that’s leading the way on so many fronts here coming out of FRC and right into the public square. And we’re deeply grateful. If I can, David, let’s stay within the neighborhood, if I can put it that way, D.C. Well, I think we were all rocked just a couple of days ago as a tragedy struck right here in D.C., the murder of two Israeli embassy workers. It appears that the attack was motivated by an anti-Semitic radical. We’ve had these discussions before, David, but let’s jump on it again. How do Christians need to be thinking about anti-Semitism?
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, we need to be, as Christians, we need to be the clearest voice in the room to say that anti-Semitism is pure evil, full stop. This is absolutely wicked. And you’re right, Jody, this kind of hatred runs deep. whether it is Pharaoh ordering the killing of Jewish boys, whether it’s Haman plotting a genocide, whether it’s Hitler and the Holocaust, the Jewish people have been targeted again and again And this is an alarming trend. You go back to October the 7th with the Hamas terrorist attack. You know, it’s not just this incident here in D.C., though. You know, I’m thinking when Benjamin Netanyahu came last summer, July 24th, to give a speech to Congress to kind of bring the United States up to date on what they were doing to push back against Hamas. If you remember this, Jody, Twenty one Democrat senators boycotted that speech. Seventy one Democrat congressmen and women boycotted that speech. And you had thousands of protesters. The American flag was torn down at Union Station. Jody, I actually left the building here at FRC and went down to observe some of those protests. And it was some of the most heinous incidents. evil I think I can ever recall seeing, hearing those people’s cheer, you know, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free. And evidently, the witnesses of the attack we’re talking about, this alleged gunman, that’s exactly what he was cheering and chanting. And so this is evil. This is wicked. Christians ought to be the first people to stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters and to affirm their dignity and to say that anti-Semitism has no room and no home. It shouldn’t in this country.
SPEAKER 05 :
And I’m glad you went back to some of the history of it. I mean, this goes way back. Ancient hatred goes back, as you just referenced, a couple of different biblical examples. And it’s been ever since then all the way up to the present. And we’ve got to take a stand on this. David, if I can, I know our clock is ticking away, but another big issue happened this week here in D.C. at the Supreme Court and the decision on the case that originated out of Kansas. It was a four to four tie. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself, and as a result, the lower court decision stands, and this is involving a Catholic church charter school. So this would have been the first religious, as I understand it, charter school in the country, but the court’s decision now says the lower court decision stands, which says they cannot receive public funding. Talk to us about this.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jody, I think you summarized it very well. This would have been – so again, they’re in the state of Kansas – a proposed Catholic virtual charter school. It would have been the first publicly funded religious charter school in the nation. My understanding is that Justice Barrett had some connections with some of the lawyers representing the school. So that’s why she recused herself. But what that means is that the state Supreme Court, their decision stands. And so I think it’s worth noting that the court did not rule on the merits. It’s very likely that this question will present itself again. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett would be that deciding fifth vote in favor because it’s I think it’s worth noting this decision did not set a national precedent, but I think it does highlight these unresolved tensions that we see between religious liberty and the public university system and how education is funded. There’s been several cases in recent years, and I think we’ve all actually been pretty encouraged that most of these cases have gone on this, the justices, the majority of them at least, have sided with with conservative religious parents or folks that kind of have that perspective. The court has other opportunities this term to weigh in on some really important religious liberty issues. Think about the issue related from Tennessee, the religious parents in Montgomery County. Those are, of course, different issues. But I do think it’ll be only a matter of time, Jody, before this particular question, because, again, this really is about viewpoint discrimination, in my view. Why can religious institutions be the only group that can’t charter a public school? That doesn’t seem like it’s fair. And so my expectation is that the court will revisit this sometime in the near future.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you’re not the only one who feels that way, but very, very interesting. David, we’ve only got a couple of minutes, and as we close, I’ve just learned something that I was not aware of previously, but you have actually introduced a resolution for the Southern Baptist Convention on chemical abortion. Can you tell us about your resolution and what you’re hoping to do with it? I understand that Convention of Southern Baptists is going to be taking place here in just a couple of weeks. So tell us about this.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, Jody, I’m really excited. I submitted a resolution titled On the Medical Dangers and Moral Evils of Chemical Abortion. We know that over 60 percent of abortions that take place in this country are these chemical abortion pills. This two pill regimen that was initially approved 25 years ago in the outgoing months of the Clinton administration. And I think it’s important for us to say that even though Roe has been overturned, and we’re all so grateful for this, these pills are being shipped all over the country. Even states that have strong pro-life laws, because, frankly, the Comstock Act isn’t being enforced. You can have liberal abortion doctors in California or Illinois and New York and mail these pills across state lines here. even into states that have pro-life bills. And so, yeah, every year the Southern Baptist Convention meets for its annual meeting, and it’ll pass anywhere from six to ten resolutions. And a resolution is simply kind of an official statement that expresses kind of the collective opinion or conviction of the messengers. That’s what If you go representing your church, you’re called a messenger. So most of them are pastors, but lay people as well. And these resolutions speak to issues of theological, moral, cultural, or political concern. They’re non-binding, but they are important. They do guide the Southern Baptist Convention’s public engagement. They inform denominational leaders. They’re pedagogical in the sense that they help pastors and leaders think through these issues. And so my hope is that When you submit a resolution, it goes to the resolutions committee and they decide what the committee will actually vote on. So again, the Southern Baptist Convention has voted on a lot of pro-life resolutions over the years, but the largest Protestant denomination has never voted specifically on a resolution that deals solely with chemical abortion. And this is in the news, Jody. We know that RFK Jr. has indicated that the FDA is going to kind of go back and review the original approval of this. And so my hope is that we’ll have an opportunity in a couple weeks in Dallas to speak very clearly and, Lord willing, be even an encouragement to the administration that this is the right thing to do.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s fantastic. Are you going to be a messenger, by the way? Will you be there? I will be there representing my church. Good. Outstanding. Thank you so much, David Claussen. Always, always an honor to have you here to give us a biblical worldview perspective. And of course, David Claussen is the director of our Center for Biblical Worldview here at the Family Research Council. Hope you have a fantastic weekend. All right, friends, that wraps up another week. Hope you also have a tremendous Memorial Day weekend. God bless you. Keep the torch ablaze. We’ll see you next week here on Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 19 :
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