Point of View December 20, 2024 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson.

[00:00:43] We will continue this theme about trust in just a few minutes, maybe in a segment or two when we talk about whether we trust the media.

[00:00:50] No, we don't trust them anymore in the government.

[00:00:52] But I did post an article by Conrad Black, who, by the way, has written an outstanding book on history, which is so thick, I don't know how we could cover it all.

[00:00:59] But this one, Trump Begets a Resurrection of Common Sense.

[00:01:05] And I'd also pair it with one that we posted the other day by Byron York.

[00:01:09] Trump is under attack less, his popularity is rising, and of course, what will the resistance do?

[00:01:15] And Robert Knight has written a good piece on what the resistance might be.

[00:01:19] But one of the things, Penn, I thought we'd just talk about for a minute, since Kelly sort of brought it up,

[00:01:23] is that Donald Trump is enjoying a little more of a honeymoon than he did back in 2018 and on there,

[00:01:32] because there were just a lot of things, 2016 I should say, and then even in 2017.

[00:01:38] And as a result, there is maybe less attack, the least of which may be due to the fact that he won not only the popular vote, but the electoral vote.

[00:01:48] But also, I think there is a different Donald Trump.

[00:01:51] And some of that is maybe due to the assassination.

[00:01:53] Some of it's due to being out of office for years and recognizing what needs to happen in order to move the country forward

[00:02:02] and maybe just turn a blind eye to some of the things that he used to make social media comments about.

[00:02:08] What are your thoughts?

[00:02:08] He doesn't, yeah, he doesn't make social media, well, he still uses social media, but as much as the focus of his communication.

[00:02:19] And he had Russiagate start before he was even in the White House during all the transition and all of that time.

[00:02:28] So the attacks began coming.

[00:02:30] And so his whole presidency, he had that.

[00:02:33] I think if that was happening right now, it wouldn't throw him off as much as it did then.

[00:02:38] But, you know, that would throw anyone off.

[00:02:41] It was hard, and he had to battle against it and still do the job of being president.

[00:02:46] So that was hard.

[00:02:48] The other part was he didn't, he had never been president.

[00:02:50] He had never held political office.

[00:02:53] So there was a lot that he had to learn.

[00:02:55] He is a quick study, so he's learned it.

[00:02:58] He knows how to be president now.

[00:03:00] That's what I feel like.

[00:03:01] He knows how to be president.

[00:03:02] The other part of common sense is there was the whole progressive woke agenda that was beginning to really, really explode when he came into office.

[00:03:14] And I think it threw him for a loop a bit.

[00:03:18] And so now they're very aware of it, and they're going to clean it out.

[00:03:24] They're starting to clean it out already.

[00:03:26] And my commentary this week is about the military.

[00:03:30] Surprisingly enough, there's some really good things in the defense authorization bill about that.

[00:03:36] And so, you know, I just think it's a better place.

[00:03:40] We all grow, and he grew.

[00:03:43] I mean, even in your 70s, you can get more mature.

[00:03:46] He did.

[00:03:48] And he's also got the confidence, and he knows what he wants to do, and he has some time to do it.

[00:03:55] He surrounded himself with people that will be good supports instead of fighting against, and that's another part of it.

[00:04:01] He had a lot of people that were recommended by the RNC in his cabinet.

[00:04:06] This time they're all his people.

[00:04:08] Or they will be.

[00:04:10] But they're already working.

[00:04:11] It seems like they're already working.

[00:04:12] It's, you know, he's, I agree with all that.

[00:04:16] But I also think something's changing him.

[00:04:20] That's why I mentioned the assassination.

[00:04:21] Yeah, and I think the assassination, we've all seen him give statements after the assassination, months after the assassination attempt, where he said he knew God saved his life.

[00:04:36] Yeah.

[00:04:37] And I think that has, again, slightly toned him down.

[00:04:41] I mean, we don't want him totally toned down.

[00:04:43] We want him, the people that elected him, put him in there to shake things up and throw the tables over, right?

[00:04:49] But, I mean, you know, everybody said over the last, what, seven years, he's just going to do that stuff with Twitter.

[00:04:58] And everybody kind of gave up on that, right?

[00:05:00] He's always going to hurt himself.

[00:05:03] And I think the most conservatives felt like he governed really well.

[00:05:08] I mean, what he got done as president was amazing, especially in the middle of everything that was coming at him from all different directions.

[00:05:17] But his political skills and his way he was presented publicly, he was his own worst enemy, everybody was saying.

[00:05:25] And, you know, he's pretty smart at negotiating and at doing all these things.

[00:05:31] Maybe it took him a while, but he's kind of learned that, you know what, he can get a lot more done if he'll stop on that stuff to a point.

[00:05:40] Now, I'm still, he's going to flare out, but it's very different from, I mean, it was almost every day, right?

[00:05:46] I mean, you know, Donald Trump, you know, attacks a disabled person.

[00:05:50] It was like, you know, there was something crazy every day.

[00:05:53] And that usually for most politicians, they would be done, you know, in 24 hours, but he somehow survived it.

[00:06:00] But, boy, that has really changed.

[00:06:03] And I don't really know totally what that was, if somebody had to talk with him, if God had to talk with him after the assassination attempt.

[00:06:14] But it's very different right now.

[00:06:18] You know, the other thing is maybe you don't feel like you have to sort of strike out as much when you have people around you.

[00:06:26] He's got a lot of people around him right now.

[00:06:28] Right.

[00:06:29] You know, and so that might help as well.

[00:06:34] But it's different, and I don't see a lot of articles written about how different that is.

[00:06:39] Of course, they don't tend to write things.

[00:06:41] If something improves in Trump, they don't usually like to write on those things.

[00:06:43] I agree with that.

[00:06:44] They like the other direction.

[00:06:46] I think we as a country have changed, too, because we know Trump.

[00:06:50] And you kind of know what is bothersome and what isn't in a sense.

[00:06:54] I'd like to say the media had changed, too, but I can't say that.

[00:06:57] They really haven't.

[00:07:00] But in a sense, they were given a bit of a coming to, though, during this election.

[00:07:09] And they won't ever admit that they were wrong, but maybe in some really rare cases somebody will.

[00:07:19] But I do think there may be just a little bit more fair reporting going on.

[00:07:25] Yes.

[00:07:25] I hope that continues and happens.

[00:07:28] One of the things that also we might put on the table is that he is a lame duck president.

[00:07:33] Now, that usually is a negative.

[00:07:35] You look at sometimes the second part of an eight years, never quite as good.

[00:07:40] Lots of problems, whether you look at the second four years of Ronald Reagan, the second four years of Bill Clinton, second four years of George W. Bush.

[00:07:49] But there's been a gap.

[00:07:51] He's been out of office for four years.

[00:07:54] Now he's in office.

[00:07:55] And in some respects, this might be freeing because he is not running for reelection.

[00:08:00] Everybody knows he's not running for reelection.

[00:08:03] And he knows that I have really only about two years realistically to get anything done that I'm going to get done.

[00:08:10] And so they hit the ground running.

[00:08:12] I remember talking with Pena's husband one time about the fact that they were gearing up.

[00:08:16] He was talking to people saying they were gearing up.

[00:08:18] And I've never seen so many nominees put forward so quickly.

[00:08:21] And so as a result, it was sort of like flooding the zone, as we say in football.

[00:08:26] And so they've been able to maybe pick off Matt Gaetz or trying to pick off maybe Pete Higgs.

[00:08:30] But they're not going to pick most of them off.

[00:08:32] And they're going to hit the ground running.

[00:08:34] And that's going to be different.

[00:08:35] And then having the fact that he's not worried about what people say about him, he's going to just do what he thinks is right.

[00:08:41] And we'll see how that unfolds.

[00:08:42] Let's take a break.

[00:08:43] We've got more to cover.

[00:08:44] We'll do that right after this.

[00:09:04] During this Christmas week, we've been providing a theological perspective on some of the classic Christmas carols.

[00:09:10] But today I thought we might look at a contemporary song associated with the Christmas story.

[00:09:15] Mary, Did You Know? is a Christmas song addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus.

[00:09:19] The lyrics were written by Mark Lowry in 1984.

[00:09:22] The music was written by Buddy Green in 1991.

[00:09:25] It was originally recorded by Michael English in his 1991 solo album.

[00:09:30] The song asks many questions.

[00:09:32] None of the questions are answered in the song.

[00:09:34] Instead, the lyrics poetically invite the listener to contemplate the relationship between Mary and her newborn divine son.

[00:09:42] It implies that she may not have understood what would unfold.

[00:09:46] That is possible since Jesus humbled himself to live as we do.

[00:09:50] The Bible tells us in Philippians 2 that Jesus emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

[00:09:58] The first stanza begins with these questions.

[00:10:01] Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?

[00:10:04] Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

[00:10:09] Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

[00:10:12] This child that you delivered will soon deliver you?

[00:10:15] The last stanza ends with these questions.

[00:10:18] Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

[00:10:22] Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

[00:10:25] Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb?

[00:10:28] This sleeping child you're holding is the great I Am.

[00:10:33] These questions cause us to reflect on the wonder of the incarnation of Jesus.

[00:10:38] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:47] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net.

[00:10:53] That's pointofview.net.

[00:10:57] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:03] Back once again in the studio with us today, Pennedexter and Kelly Shackelford.

[00:11:07] Thought we'd talk about whether or not to trust the media.

[00:11:09] Of course, you know what the answer is on that.

[00:11:11] But then I'm going to have Kelly give us a report on a couple of their cases.

[00:11:14] We did mention, of course, a case that might make its way to the Supreme Court.

[00:11:18] But, you know, given the fact that the temperatures are starting to drop,

[00:11:22] and I keep thinking about what it looks like in the state of Ohio right now.

[00:11:26] We talked about Dad's Place.

[00:11:27] Want to get an update on that.

[00:11:29] Pennedexter's commentary on detransing the military.

[00:11:31] We'll get to that sooner or later.

[00:11:33] But, Penned, one of the articles we've posted here gets into this issue of the media.

[00:11:38] And you sort of already raised the issue because when you begin to say,

[00:11:44] when did at least most of the people in the media know that Joe Biden was not up to the task?

[00:11:51] You know, he gives examples that even go back when he was nominated and other times before he gave speeches.

[00:12:00] And there were times in this article in which he points out that the people in these mainstream media knew this

[00:12:09] because, for example, the New York Times, when he was being possibly going to lose to Pete Buttigieg

[00:12:16] and Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and others, New York Times raised the question about his age.

[00:12:22] A little bit later, when there was the thought that maybe he shouldn't run again,

[00:12:27] the Washington Post saying Biden turning 80 faces renewed age questions.

[00:12:32] But then, all of a sudden, they close ranks and he's at the top of his game.

[00:12:36] And he's, as Kelly said, sharp as a tack.

[00:12:40] And then, of course, Matt Vespa talks about the fact that now we have,

[00:12:44] and you've got in front of you there, this whole report and the links to which,

[00:12:49] even inside the Oval Office and even inside the Executive Office Building within the Executive Branch,

[00:12:57] attempts to protect anybody from discovering how really significantly affected

[00:13:05] and, in many cases, diminished you had in terms of Joe Biden.

[00:13:10] So what do we know?

[00:13:11] It seems like we knew a lot more, and the media wanted to cover up all of it.

[00:13:15] Well, it was, Jeffrey Blahar starts this article asking readers, you know, when did they know?

[00:13:23] And I'm answering the question as a reader.

[00:13:25] I'm like, I knew when he was deciding to run.

[00:13:29] I just, I didn't think he was up to it then.

[00:13:32] And, you know, so some people, I guess, were like that, but then there were other people that believed it.

[00:13:38] So Jeffrey Blahar doesn't think the media missed it at all.

[00:13:41] He thinks they were just part of the cover-up.

[00:13:45] Before the 2016 campaign, the media was fine with reporting about his age.

[00:13:50] You remember that?

[00:13:52] I mean, he did.

[00:13:53] They did.

[00:13:54] And that's why, that's where I got it.

[00:13:56] That's where I thought, really?

[00:13:58] He's going to run for president?

[00:13:59] It's a very stressful job.

[00:14:01] It's very responsible.

[00:14:02] There's a lot at stake.

[00:14:04] But he went ahead and ran.

[00:14:05] He went ahead and won.

[00:14:06] And then 2022, when he turned 80, people thought he wouldn't run again.

[00:14:11] And they started talking kind of about his age again.

[00:14:15] But then he decided to, and the media changed its treatment a little bit.

[00:14:21] But then when they started talking about it, of course, they got right on board.

[00:14:24] The mainstream media did and started covering it up again.

[00:14:28] And little Miss Corrine Jean-Pierre, oh, she was just leading the charge there, wasn't she?

[00:14:39] Yes.

[00:14:39] Covering things up.

[00:14:40] Once it became impossible to conceal his diminished state after the debate, they flooded.

[00:14:48] They really did flood the coverage with his problems.

[00:14:52] And you could tell the Democrats were worried.

[00:14:54] And the media echoed that.

[00:14:57] And it was out there.

[00:14:58] And so, you know, to hear, and I think it really hurt Kamala.

[00:15:05] I think it was one.

[00:15:05] They say the trans issue was the reason.

[00:15:07] I think a big reason was the fact that how can you trust her?

[00:15:11] We trust, we've been talking about it on this program today.

[00:15:14] How can you trust somebody to be president when they covered and facilitated that hoax on the American people?

[00:15:23] And she really did.

[00:15:24] And so many other people did.

[00:15:26] I mentioned that Wall Street Journal spread today.

[00:15:30] And, I mean, I just read it before I came to the studio.

[00:15:33] So we didn't post that today.

[00:15:34] But you could go and maybe try to find that.

[00:15:37] I think it's paywalled.

[00:15:38] But if you can get it from anyone that's a subscriber, get it.

[00:15:42] Because it goes deeply into what people did to really either make him be able to do his job, speak for him, shield him.

[00:15:54] Jill Biden did so much of his campaigning during the campaign.

[00:15:58] One of her press guys even said it to the audience that she's put in more campaign hours than he has.

[00:16:05] And he got in big trouble for doing that because that was, you know, diminishing Joe Biden.

[00:16:10] So there was so much that they did to cover it.

[00:16:13] And it really was, I think it was, I would call it a hoax.

[00:16:18] And they really, they put one over on a lot of people.

[00:16:21] Let me have a little bit of that.

[00:16:23] And just in case people can't get into the paywall, there's one by Matt Vespa.

[00:16:27] It's called When Biden White House aides Noticed That He Was Mentally Cooked.

[00:16:30] And they said, you know, first of all, he had advanced age, cognitive decline.

[00:16:35] They revealed a tightly managed operation to restrict access to him and meticulously manage his public appearances and interactions.

[00:16:43] The staff designed a highly insulated system to limit his exposure to outsiders, including members of Congress and the media.

[00:16:50] His senior advisors act as intermediaries and gatekeepers, ensuring that meetings were short and focused so the president would not lose track.

[00:16:59] Then they talk about all the people that would step forward, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, National Economic Council, Lael Brainard and others, because that was the case.

[00:17:09] And so if the president was having an off day, meetings could be scrapped altogether.

[00:17:15] In other words, you know, you've heard of some people when they're dying of cancer, they said he had good days or bad days.

[00:17:20] Well, if he had just a bad day cognitive, they would just cancel every single one of the meetings.

[00:17:24] And yet the press, seeing that those meetings were originally on the schedule and were canceled, didn't even ask questions about that.

[00:17:32] Yeah.

[00:17:32] I mean, you know, I guess people believe what they want to believe.

[00:17:36] But I mean, I thought you had to be really dumb to not know that he had a problem from day one.

[00:17:43] And this article says he had problems from day one.

[00:17:46] Yeah.

[00:17:47] My wife was furious at Jill Biden.

[00:17:50] Yes.

[00:17:50] Because my wife's mom had dementia and saw that.

[00:17:54] And so why would you what a horrible thing to do to put somebody in their in their latter years when they're suffering in this way, in this situation.

[00:18:05] Just really.

[00:18:06] She was furious.

[00:18:08] And but I mean, we knew.

[00:18:10] I mean, again, I understand how if you're for if you're a fan of Joe Biden in earlier ages or you're a fan of just the party and you want it to be a certain way.

[00:18:18] Sometimes you can convince yourself.

[00:18:20] But, man, that couldn't last very long if you're watching at all.

[00:18:23] Him walk the wrong ways away from the podium.

[00:18:26] The look on his face, just total confusion, not knowing which.

[00:18:30] I mean, there were so many of these.

[00:18:32] There were there were literally hundreds and hundreds of these.

[00:18:36] And I mean, for some I think I mean, what's this is so weird.

[00:18:39] For some reason, people had to see it in a debate to realize what everybody else saw for the last three years.

[00:18:47] But all of a sudden they realized, oh, my gosh, what they were saying on those other channels is true.

[00:18:53] They never bothered to look for themselves and really be neutral with it.

[00:18:58] But it's it's really well, this should never happen in in America.

[00:19:04] This should not happen.

[00:19:05] And I'll tell you, one of the problems that the Democrats have that for the sake of the country, they have to correct is this Democratic,

[00:19:14] this non-Democratic process they go through where they force somebody on the rest of the party.

[00:19:21] Joe Biden was not allowed to have anybody run against him.

[00:19:24] Right.

[00:19:25] You know, before that, it was the superdelegates.

[00:19:28] And I mean, they keep they keep gin in the game so that the people in the Democratic Party do not pick their leader.

[00:19:35] And this is how you get somebody that's totally incompetent, because whoever the pickers are,

[00:19:41] the American people are not going to allow this type of a pick when you know who it is.

[00:19:46] And they forced it on them and they forced Kamala on them.

[00:19:49] Well, they might have had a different candidate instead of Kamala.

[00:19:52] If they'd had a democratic process for when he did step down,

[00:19:55] they probably would have had somebody better and things might have been different.

[00:19:59] And competition.

[00:20:00] Look, our whole system, our legal system, our free market system is all about.

[00:20:06] We believe that if there's freedom and if people get to see and get to check and get to push and get to argue different sides,

[00:20:15] we come to the truth more often.

[00:20:16] We find out what the truth is.

[00:20:18] If one side is like, you know, jello, it doesn't help.

[00:20:22] I mean, you've got one side coming with their arguments and nobody's on the other side.

[00:20:26] That sharp back and forth is what our country is all about.

[00:20:31] But when, you know, I'm just thankful.

[00:20:33] I mean, this could easily happen on the Republican side, but it hasn't.

[00:20:37] They've actually let, you know, them pick their own party leader.

[00:20:41] But the Democrats have not been doing that.

[00:20:43] And it's damn, this, I blame what's happened here in part on that.

[00:20:50] But they forced him on the country.

[00:20:52] They decide who they think will be best.

[00:20:54] And then, you know, they tell their party, well, we're not going to allow you to pick anybody else.

[00:20:59] And nobody's allowed to run against him in a primary.

[00:21:01] And that's really, really unhealthy for the country.

[00:21:03] Starting to see a number of Democrats talking about that.

[00:21:06] Both I've seen them on YouTube and my kids sometimes show me some of the TikTok stuff in which they're just simply saying,

[00:21:11] You know, they did it to Hillary Clinton and then they did it again to Kamala Harris.

[00:21:16] And I thought we had a democracy here.

[00:21:19] And it's the party leaders that are actually making the choices.

[00:21:22] Let's take a break.

[00:21:23] We have a lot more to cover.

[00:21:24] We'll do that right after this.

[00:21:30] If you have ever wondered what kind of impact you have when you give to Point of View, let me introduce you to Bill.

[00:21:39] His story is a perfect illustration.

[00:21:42] Well, I've been a supporter at Point of View since the 70s.

[00:21:47] And I appreciate the fact that truth and love are discussed equally and that God's word never changes.

[00:21:53] We have four generations in my family who have been taught these things, these truths.

[00:21:58] And the fifth generation we've just been blessed with, who I'm sure will be blessed by this ministry also.

[00:22:05] So I just appreciate the fact that it's solid, it's truthful, it's honest, and there's no changing God's word.

[00:22:12] And that is the kind of multi-generational impact you have when you support Point of View.

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[00:22:47] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:50] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:01] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:09] And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson.

[00:23:13] Final half hour today.

[00:23:14] And again, I would encourage you to find some of the articles we've posted.

[00:23:18] Karen came in here just a minute ago and said she's going to post the Wall Street Journal article that Penna was talking about.

[00:23:24] So you can read it for yourself.

[00:23:25] You probably have noticed that we've posted a fair number of articles because it's a wide-ranging conversation.

[00:23:31] But one of the other ones I thought about posting, and we did talk about it the other day,

[00:23:35] is what is happening at Dad's Place, which is in Bryan, Ohio.

[00:23:41] And again, it's almost, Kelly, hard to explain because we're talking about a pastor concerned about the homeless people.

[00:23:48] We even have a booklet on homelessness.

[00:23:51] And yet, because he has been willing to have the church open 24-7, very cold nights in Ohio,

[00:24:00] and going to be even colder over the next week or two,

[00:24:04] they, at the state, and I guess at the city, I should say the city level,

[00:24:08] have said, no, we're going to find criminal charges against you.

[00:24:12] And then you thought, well, certainly when we appeal that, common sense will break out.

[00:24:16] But that's not happened at all.

[00:24:18] No, he's in, Pastor Revell is in three different courts right now.

[00:24:23] Yes.

[00:24:23] He had a criminal trial.

[00:24:25] Again, I want you to think about this.

[00:24:26] This is a pastor with 19 criminal charges because he refused to lock the doors of his church at night

[00:24:34] when it's negative five windchill.

[00:24:38] And, I mean, a criminal charge.

[00:24:40] And by the way, people think, well, this is just a weird.

[00:24:42] No, I'm telling you, I don't understand it all yet.

[00:24:45] We have a whole bunch of these.

[00:24:48] They're breaking out so much that I'm watching them pop up, and they're not even our cases.

[00:24:54] They're just kind of happening everywhere, and there's other people bringing these cases because of what's happening.

[00:24:59] You mean there's attacks on the church?

[00:25:01] Yes.

[00:25:01] For even feeding people.

[00:25:03] For feeding people.

[00:25:04] Yes.

[00:25:04] That's another one of your cases.

[00:25:06] I've been doing this for 35 years, 35 and a half years.

[00:25:09] This is hard to believe.

[00:25:10] Never seen this.

[00:25:11] Yeah.

[00:25:11] And it gets worse because another judge in a civil trial against him ordered him to lock the doors and throw these people out on the streets.

[00:25:21] Now, I love God's timing because we had reached out to the attorney general of the state of Ohio.

[00:25:31] And, I mean, of all coincidences, the day he ended up coming, he said, come look at the facility.

[00:25:38] He came and he looked and saw what they were doing and saw the lives of the people and how they'd been changed with tears in his eyes.

[00:25:45] He said, I'm with you on this.

[00:25:48] I'll do everything in my power to make sure this doesn't happen.

[00:25:51] And later that day, the judge issued this order.

[00:25:56] What he actually said is you can only do worship in there.

[00:26:00] You can only do your services.

[00:26:02] Well, so guess what they did so that they wouldn't have to throw anybody out.

[00:26:06] They had a 24-hour service for as long as they could go.

[00:26:10] And then we tried to get a stay.

[00:26:12] But now when we asked for the stay, we also had a brief being filed by the attorney general of Ohio.

[00:26:19] And they issued a stay.

[00:26:22] But, you know, it's not a permanent stay.

[00:26:24] It's just temporary.

[00:26:25] So, I mean, we could find out tomorrow they're trying to throw him out again.

[00:26:28] Here we go.

[00:26:29] So I would encourage people, really pray for Pastor Ravel.

[00:26:34] You know, and people might say, why do you do this?

[00:26:37] You know, well, let's a couple things.

[00:26:39] They say, what is their argument?

[00:26:40] Well, their argument is – let me tell you the why first.

[00:26:43] Why people do this is some places don't want homeless people in their community.

[00:26:47] And either there's a homeless shelter.

[00:26:50] Gosh, if these people who are on the street would actually go into a church, maybe they'll stick around.

[00:26:56] And, you know, they would literally, you know, rather these people go off and die somewhere or leave.

[00:27:01] And so – because there's no explanation because you'd say, well, what do they say?

[00:27:06] Well, you're not really zoned to be a homeless shelter.

[00:27:08] Your sprinkler systems aren't up to date.

[00:27:12] Well, hold on a second.

[00:27:14] The hotel across the street, it doesn't have the sprinkler systems you're talking about either.

[00:27:18] Oh, by the way, the apartments where people sleep every night, they don't have that system either.

[00:27:24] So it doesn't make sense what they're doing to them, which shows the discriminatory purpose and why the law is on the side of the church.

[00:27:33] The church has a right to be the church.

[00:27:36] And, you know, if you want to require something of everybody, you can require it, you know, of everybody.

[00:27:42] But you can't say that it's okay to sleep in the hotel.

[00:27:45] But if somebody comes in for some food and falls asleep in a chair in the church, that you're now a criminal.

[00:27:51] And so I would just encourage people to pray.

[00:27:54] This case isn't over.

[00:27:55] It's not going to be over for a while.

[00:27:56] I'm really thankful for the Attorney General of Ohio.

[00:27:59] That's going to be an extra really powerful force on our side.

[00:28:03] And if they don't, if they haven't seen any of the videos of this, I would encourage them to go.

[00:28:09] I mean, I know they can go to pointofview.net and click on my deal and go to go to firstliberty.org.

[00:28:14] But there's a deal at firstliberty.org called The Insider.

[00:28:17] And every Friday we'll send you out, you know, the biggest things that are happening that week.

[00:28:22] And when something happens with Pastor Ravel, we'll let you know.

[00:28:25] So, in fact, I was told that he sent us a really powerful thank you video to everybody who's been behind him and stuck with him because it's been tough on him.

[00:28:35] And I think they're going to send that out maybe early next week once they get it, you know, in the right format and everything.

[00:28:41] So be praying for Pastor Chris Ravel and his wife, Lisa, and that whole situation in Bryan, Ohio.

[00:28:47] I might just mention, too, you can go to firstliberty.org slash pastor dash Chris, and that'll get you there.

[00:28:54] We've already posted the one we mentioned just a few minutes ago from The Wall Street Journal.

[00:28:59] Karen just did that, a diminished Biden in charge, in case you would like to read that one.

[00:29:04] And we can certainly post that link.

[00:29:06] But, of course, it is easy to find at First Liberty.

[00:29:09] And, Penna, as we just talked about a minute ago, this isn't just Bryan, Ohio,

[00:29:13] because you can go to Arizona and talk about a pastor who's just trying to feed people.

[00:29:19] And there are all sorts of other cases that are not First Liberty cases, which I've started to see, ADF and Beckett and people like that.

[00:29:27] This seems to be an ongoing issue that these secular institutions, primarily cities but sometimes counties,

[00:29:36] are saying, you know, we don't really like the churches anyway, and they're bringing in the wrong kind of people,

[00:29:40] and we just think we need to close them down.

[00:29:43] Because, first of all, we don't like the fact that their tax is down because we're not getting any tax revenue.

[00:29:46] And, second of all, they're bringing in the wrong kind of people because they're reaching out to the underbelly of our society.

[00:29:53] And so these issues aren't just located in one place or the other.

[00:29:58] It seems to be happening all over the country.

[00:30:00] So you're fighting a good fight, Kelly, because it's really the church being the church.

[00:30:04] And there's much in the Word of God about, you know, feeding someone who is hungry and caring for those who need that care right now

[00:30:14] and who aren't able to care for themselves.

[00:30:16] And, you know, I would just love to see the church and the city cooperating somehow,

[00:30:22] but that doesn't seem to be what's happening right now in Bryan, Ohio.

[00:30:25] Yeah.

[00:30:25] And, you know, look, at the very beginning, Pastor Avelle went to the mayor, said, hey, let's sit down and talk.

[00:30:31] She refused to talk to him.

[00:30:33] She refused to meet with him.

[00:30:34] So this wasn't about working anything out, unfortunately.

[00:30:37] They want this church shut down.

[00:30:40] And, again, as you mentioned, we've got cases in Colorado and Arizona and Ohio.

[00:30:46] And I'm seeing even cases pop up now that the attorneys on the case are secular groups.

[00:30:53] They're not even religious liberty groups.

[00:30:56] They just see it as government abuse.

[00:30:59] So it's kind of the new thing, I guess.

[00:31:02] You know, if you're a pastor and you really want to reach out and do something to make a difference,

[00:31:07] there are people who want to criminalize.

[00:31:09] What we're calling it is criminalizing compassion.

[00:31:13] Prayer targets real quickly.

[00:31:14] Then we'll get into the fact that Penedicture has a commentary we want to talk about.

[00:31:18] One prayer target, obviously, is Pastor Avelle.

[00:31:20] We also talked about this particular case out of California that might go to the Supreme Court.

[00:31:26] We also have listeners that are in Stockton, California, and they might remember the story of the fire chief.

[00:31:32] That's a case that might go to the Supreme Court.

[00:31:34] Can you speak to that?

[00:31:35] Ron Hiddle.

[00:31:36] Yeah, this is a guy who was fired because he was a Christian.

[00:31:41] I mean, it's pretty clear.

[00:31:42] But because of a really messed up Supreme Court decision that people misuse off the time in the lower courts,

[00:31:51] they would not even allow him to present his evidence before a jury.

[00:31:55] And so, you know, of course, he's in a hostile place.

[00:31:58] I mean, he's in, you know, California in the Ninth Circuit and all that.

[00:32:01] So you don't expect a lot of friendly.

[00:32:03] But we see it as a real opportunity to correct this whole problem.

[00:32:08] And so we've asked the Supreme Court to take it.

[00:32:10] We had a lot of outside groups come in and say this has to be corrected.

[00:32:14] If they do this, if the Supreme Court does take it and do it, this will affect every person of faith, their ability to be able to bring their lawsuit if there's religious discrimination in the workplace.

[00:32:26] And so it will affect, I mean, you know, hundreds of millions of people across the country.

[00:32:31] So be praying for that because obviously it's always uphill to get the Supreme Court to take your case.

[00:32:36] There's, you know, 7,000, sometimes 8,000 requests, and they only take about 60 cases.

[00:32:42] So odds are against you, but these are much higher odds.

[00:32:46] The Bethesda case we filed and the Ron Hiddle case because there's so many outside groups weighing in that they're probably more like a 20, 25 percent chance.

[00:32:57] Yeah.

[00:32:57] Well, the Supreme Court takes both of those.

[00:32:59] Pray for Kelly Shuckford instead.

[00:33:00] Two cases for the Supreme Court at the same time.

[00:33:03] You've done that before, but not recommended for most individuals.

[00:33:07] So let's take a break.

[00:33:09] Pennexer's commentary, you can listen to it right now if you'd like, if you're on the computer.

[00:33:13] If not, we have posted it.

[00:33:15] It's talking about detransing the military, and that has to do with this particular section to the National Defense Authorization Act that did pass the House of Representatives.

[00:33:27] That is a three cheers for Mike Johnson there in that particular case, but we'll talk about that with her right after these important messages.

[00:33:54] The massive National Defense Authorization Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

[00:34:00] The Washington Stand reports that the bill takes a sincere stab at some of the worst forms of military wokeness.

[00:34:06] The bill was a compromise, but the election results spoke volumes to senators who previously insisted on expanding the draft to women and on rolling back Biden transgender policies.

[00:34:17] The Washington Stand calls this a Christmas miracle.

[00:34:20] The legislation strips out Senate language that would have required women to register for the draft.

[00:34:24] Representative Chip Roy and Senator Josh Hawley led against this effort to draft our daughters, which Representative Roy says is just nonsense in a country of 330 million people.

[00:34:35] Speaker Mike Johnson included a provision that blocks minor children of members of the military from receiving puberty blockers, hormones, and gender mutilation surgeries through military health insurer TRICARE.

[00:34:47] The speaker said taxpayer dollars should never be used to support procedures and treatments that could permanently harm and sterilize young people.

[00:34:55] Stats from the National Library of Medicine reveal that the hormones and drugs required by a transgender person cost upwards of $3,700 per person per year.

[00:35:06] Transition surgeries cost from $20,000 to $150,000 depending upon their complexity.

[00:35:12] Also, according to the Washington Stand, sources from inside the Trump camp say priority number one is weeding out the thousands of gender-confused troops this administration welcomed into the ranks under the guise of inclusion.

[00:35:25] The necessity for constant care of a transgender soldier curtails the ability for that person to deploy overseas.

[00:35:32] Family Research Council's Senior Fellow for National Defense, Lieutenant Colonel Robert McGinnis, says that's an extravagance the Pentagon cannot afford.

[00:35:40] The woke regime in the military must be rooted out.

[00:35:43] The sooner we get rid of the distractions and financial drain resulting from the current transgender policy, the better.

[00:35:49] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:54] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:36:00] Back for a few more minutes, let me just mention that tomorrow, not tomorrow, Monday, we will actually have an opportunity to continue still doing a live broadcast.

[00:36:08] Neil Shenvey will be with us as we talk about his book, Critical Dilemma.

[00:36:12] It was kind of funny because we had Paul Baraka here, and he said, you know, you really need to do an interview with Neil Shenvey and his book, Critical Dilemma.

[00:36:19] And that's when my producer, Steve, said, we just booked him for the Monday.

[00:36:23] So, of course, we're going to have him on.

[00:36:25] We will also have Ray Comfort on.

[00:36:26] Maybe he can talk about what it's like to be on campus and have to stay within the free speech zone.

[00:36:32] And then we will be running a number of tapes.

[00:36:34] We'll have an interview I've done with Cal Thomas, one with Cindy Brinker Simmons, a variety of other individuals.

[00:36:40] But then we will be back live on, of course, the day after Christmas.

[00:36:43] And that will be a great opportunity to continue to focus on, of course, year-end giving.

[00:36:48] If you go to our website right now, you'll see Penna Dexter's piece on detransing the military.

[00:36:53] This week I've done some on various Christmas carols.

[00:36:57] Oh, little town of Bethlehem and hark the herod angel sings.

[00:37:00] Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel.

[00:37:02] I heard the bells.

[00:37:03] And in Mary, did you know, which I thought at least would be one more contemporary.

[00:37:07] But, Penna, yours is about the National Defense Authorization Act.

[00:37:11] And this is a victory which you probably wouldn't know about unless you listen to Point of View.

[00:37:16] Yeah, it was not a big front page headline or anything.

[00:37:20] But, you know, for one thing, looking at the military and what's been done to the military as far as the transgender issue,

[00:37:28] remember back when we were talking about the emperor has no clothes,

[00:37:31] and we were supposed to look at all these things being done in the military,

[00:37:35] the funding of transgender, you know, gender changes for people that are serving in the military and their children.

[00:37:47] We were supposed to look at that and say, don't say anything.

[00:37:51] That's, you know.

[00:37:54] Transphobic.

[00:37:54] That's transphobic.

[00:37:56] And, you know, that's okay.

[00:37:58] And, you know, the people in the military brass were, I don't know if they go along with it really,

[00:38:06] truly in their deep in their heart, but they certainly were going along with it and funding it and making it happen.

[00:38:10] So that's for years that's been happening in the military, and we're seeing now a change.

[00:38:16] It's going to change.

[00:38:17] It already did change because Mike Johnson made it change.

[00:38:20] He insisted that the Defense Authorization Act, which is a must-pass legislation,

[00:38:26] but he made sure that some things were in there.

[00:38:29] And Elaine Donnelly of Center for Military Readiness was very happy about all of it.

[00:38:33] And I'm going to take, because it's a little more specific than my commentary, some of the things.

[00:38:39] One of them was, the big one, prohibit TRICARE, which is the military insurance coverage of certain medical procedures

[00:38:47] that could result in the sterilization of children.

[00:38:50] TRICARE had to cover these transgender puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries for the kids and members of the military.

[00:38:58] And there's a lot of kids wanting this.

[00:39:00] I mean, the members, there are enough of them, and that's bad enough.

[00:39:04] But then the kids, you know, they're in the generation now where they're seeing online

[00:39:07] that this is going to fix all their problems.

[00:39:09] It certainly doesn't.

[00:39:11] Also, limit the establishment of new diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

[00:39:17] The military has become very woke.

[00:39:20] Anytime you have a progressive agenda, they target the military to get it implemented

[00:39:25] because it's a top-down organization.

[00:39:28] And so that's been going on for years and percolating through the military,

[00:39:33] and now they have to limit the establishment of new ones.

[00:39:36] Of course, they have to start cleaning out the old ones, too.

[00:39:39] They'll be working on that.

[00:39:40] Defeat, here's the third one.

[00:39:42] Defeat draft our daughters by dropping legislation that would have made selective service registration

[00:39:49] automatic for both young men and women.

[00:39:50] I've talked about this two or three times recently with Elaine Donnelly.

[00:39:55] And this was, you know, to really basically draft women, to make them register for the draft.

[00:40:03] And if we ever have a draft, they would have to be drafted on a par,

[00:40:06] which means they have to be able to go into combat.

[00:40:09] And, you know, there have been protections that have been sort of weakening against women being in combat,

[00:40:17] and some are.

[00:40:19] And then also there's just several others.

[00:40:22] But, oh, there's a good one, Kelly, you'll love.

[00:40:25] Prohibit funding for the misguided DOD countering extremism working group.

[00:40:30] You had a representative that had to go there and be, like, accused of being an extremist

[00:40:37] when all he was doing was standing against DEI type stuff.

[00:40:41] Yeah, this is where, you know, the liberals play politics with the military.

[00:40:45] It's really sad.

[00:40:47] And, I mean, thank goodness.

[00:40:49] I mean, yeah, the first thing that the Secretary of Defense said was the greatest threat to the military

[00:40:55] when he came in was extremism in the military.

[00:40:59] And so they created this panel of these woke, left-wing, crazy people,

[00:41:03] and they put one person on there who wasn't.

[00:41:05] It was Mike Berry who worked for us in charge of our military division.

[00:41:10] And he just kept asking every meeting, we've got to define this extremism.

[00:41:15] If you're just going to talk that people are conservative or whatever,

[00:41:18] that's going to violate the First Amendment.

[00:41:20] So I'm assuming you're talking about some sort of violence or something.

[00:41:23] They refused to ever answer the question, and then they kicked him off the panel.

[00:41:28] So, and then this is the same military that we actually had to win this Navy.

[00:41:33] This year is when it finished out the Navy SEALs case.

[00:41:35] We would have lost 50,000 of our best military families.

[00:41:40] So thank goodness we're about to come to an end to this Department of Defense.

[00:41:45] And this is a great move in the right direction in this legislation.

[00:41:51] Yes.

[00:41:51] So Mike Johnson sits strong there.

[00:41:53] And I just want to add that another person standing strong about this is actually President-elect Trump.

[00:42:01] And he has said that he could actually basically throw a lot of transgender soldiers out of the military.

[00:42:11] And that, you know, some people will say that's so mean.

[00:42:14] You know, how can you do that?

[00:42:16] And, you know, that's because the emperor has no clothes.

[00:42:18] But they need to be gone.

[00:42:21] They don't deploy most of the time because they have to have so much medical care.

[00:42:26] And their medical care costs the American taxpayers so much.

[00:42:31] Yeah, you got that.

[00:42:32] Yeah.

[00:42:32] So this Trump could do apparently via executive order.

[00:42:37] And he said that.

[00:42:38] I don't, you know, I don't know what the timeline is on that.

[00:42:41] But the idea is to turn us into a lethal fighting force.

[00:42:45] That's what the military is supposed to be, not a laboratory for social experimentation.

[00:42:50] I just mentioned again, if you'd like to see Pennedexter's commentary, it's there with all that facts and figures and some of that information.

[00:42:57] But she can certainly give you more if you need to.

[00:42:59] If you would want to sign up, there's a little button that says never miss a viewpoints commentary.

[00:43:03] And, of course, hers would arrive in your inbox tomorrow.

[00:43:07] Mine will arrive today.

[00:43:09] But let me just, before I run out of time, Kelly, we're talking about the possibility of two Supreme Court cases, all sorts of other issues.

[00:43:16] And, of course, you have been very much involved in all the fights for religious liberty.

[00:43:21] If people want to support you, how can they do so?

[00:43:24] It's real easy.

[00:43:25] Just go to First Liberty, you spell it out, firstliberty.org.

[00:43:29] And there's a donate button.

[00:43:30] We're a 501c3 nonprofit, so tax deductible.

[00:43:34] And in addition to all the suits, the things that we're really going to be doing a lot of, in addition to that, next year is working on all these judges who the new administration, probably 150, will get on the court for life.

[00:43:46] So if you want to affect the future, that's really going to affect the future.

[00:43:49] Every issue we care about, but certainly religious freedom.

[00:43:52] When you go to firstliberty.org, the first thing that pops up is a place where it says, Hope Through Courage.

[00:43:58] Click on the Give Now.

[00:44:00] First of all, you've got a picture of some of the people we've talked about, the fire chief and a variety of other cases that you're dealing with right now.

[00:44:07] You scroll down, and at the moment, you've got $500,000 for a matching fund.

[00:44:12] You can give once or give monthly.

[00:44:14] Also, scroll to the bottom there.

[00:44:16] There's a place where you can also get the FIL.

[00:44:19] What does that stand for?

[00:44:20] Or First Liberty Insider, F-L-I, I should say.

[00:44:24] Got it right this time.

[00:44:25] And all that's available on the website at pointofview.net or at First Liberty.

[00:44:30] For us, same thing.

[00:44:31] I might just mention that we have a banner that says, Give the Gift of Truth.

[00:44:35] We also have a matching fund.

[00:44:37] You don't have to wait until the last day.

[00:44:39] You can give right now, and that's a dollar-for-dollar match.

[00:44:41] But this has been an interesting week because our producer is actually shooting a science fiction film.

[00:44:47] So that has put a lot of weight on Megan.

[00:44:49] So, Megan, thank you for being both the producer and the engineer.

[00:44:54] Karen, you've been here for a number of days.

[00:44:55] I want to thank you for helping produce as well.

[00:44:57] I want to thank Kelly and Penna.

[00:44:59] Enjoy the weekend.

[00:45:01] I've got a few games I'm going to be watching.

[00:45:02] We'll see you back here on Monday right here on Point of View.

[00:45:04] Our nation is experiencing a major realignment right now.

[00:45:14] Political and cultural frameworks are shifting.

[00:45:18] Perhaps for the first time in a long time, some things are starting to shift in a positive direction.

[00:45:25] But as this political and cultural realignment takes place, another realignment is desperately needed.

[00:45:32] A realignment to God's Word.

[00:45:34] Data shows that few Americans' worldview is aligned with biblical truth.

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