Point of View February 26, 2025 – Hour 2 : AI and Family-Friendly Policies

[00:00:05] Live, this is Point of View. And now, your guest host for Point of View.

[00:00:21] Welcome back. I'm Liberty McCarter filling in for Kirby Anderson today. I hope you didn't miss the first hour, but if you did, it's okay because you can catch up at pointofview.net and see what we talked about. We had some great interviews about an amazing gospel ministry in Botswana that I encourage you to support.

[00:00:39] And then we were just talking with Ken Samples, who is a philosopher and an author, and he was talking with us about education versus propaganda and why good education, and he argues a classical liberal education, is so important today. And we're going to actually, like I said before the break, we're going to use our discernment. We're going to actively seek truth together, talking about an issue that is very relevant today, which is AI, artificial intelligence.

[00:01:09] But before we dive into some of those articles that I've picked out for us to look at, I will remind you that I am the host of the Know Why podcast. Know Why podcast helps young adults know why they believe what they believe. So every Wednesday, a new episode comes out where we delve into a topic that matters to young adults. A new one came out today, and we're on YouTube now. So I encourage you to share that with somebody in your life and subscribe to the Know Why podcast.

[00:01:34] And let's talk about AI. Now, from the get go, I will say I'm not going to come down hard against artificial intelligence. I am going to be skeptical, though, like we just heard in the last hour from Ken. We really if we want to be well educated and if we want the best shot at being able to discern what's actually true, then we need to engage with a variety of viewpoints and ideas. And of course, we always want to compare it to what the Bible says. And that's how we find the truth.

[00:02:03] So I want to talk specifically about AI in its capacity to be used potentially in Christian ministry and in churches. How should we think about this? Those of us who are involved in ministry or Christian organizations, how it affects us in relationship. So I have a couple of articles that have to do with AI in relationship. And then just in general, how is it affecting us as humans and our capabilities?

[00:02:32] AI is continuing to get loads of funding. A huge plant is going to be opening up from Apple in Houston, Texas. That just got approved. So they're going to be building that where they're going to be creating chips to support more AI. And here's the part where I'm not really good on all the technological aspect of it. But let's talk about the ideas. OK, AI in ministry. If you go to pointofview.net, then you can look at an article from World Magazine.

[00:02:59] So can AI be used in ministry? I really like the way that the author Emma Waters breaks this down, helping us to distinguish between what is a supplement and what is a substitute. OK, so AI, like any tool or any technology, can be used to supplement human flourishing. OK, so supplements aid the human person to his or her natural functions. That's from the article.

[00:03:29] Whereas substitutes weaken us by creating a dependence on something that lies beyond or at odds with ourselves. So, for instance, during the pandemic, if you were in an area where lockdowns are really tight, especially for a long time, you probably had experienced online church. Now, in that unique time, that really was a supplement.

[00:03:52] That was a lifesaver for a lot of people, because in a time when everyone was isolated, it allowed them to stay connected to the life of the church and in a way continue to gather for worship.

[00:04:03] Obviously, not the same thing as gathering in person, which is why when people didn't return to in-person church even after the pandemic and they continued to only watch online, even, you know, if they are not talking about chronically ill or disabled people maybe who need to watch online, but those who could otherwise come back to meeting in person and they continue to not. That's where technology became a substitute.

[00:04:29] And as we have emphasized yesterday and today, community, flesh and blood community, there is no substitute for that. As humans, we need that. Okay, so there's an example of where the line is there. It can be easily crossed. You can use it as a supplement, but you have to be careful. Now, what are some of the extremes? Well, believe it or not, there are a few places that I think are using AI in ways that are, you know, blatantly a little crazy.

[00:04:58] In church, for instance, in Switzerland, a Catholic church has developed an AI Jesus, according to this article. They use the machine, if I'm saying that right, and this AI persona answers theological questions. I'm real comfortable with that. That's just me. But there are also some Protestant churches in Germany and Texas who have experimented with services entirely written by AI, including the prayers, sermon, and worship music.

[00:05:28] Okay, that should be a big red flag for us because if you do use Google at all, you'll see that there's a little AI assistant now. So when you Google, instead of having to click on the headlines of the articles yourself, AI kind of summarizes it. So if you're like, how do I boil eggs? You can look at the AI summary and it kind of takes the conglomerate of the best advice from the few top articles and it'll tell you how to boil eggs. Okay, great. That's a supplement, makes it faster. If you want to say, what does the Bible teach about this?

[00:05:56] Well, the AI assistant may even point out some Bible verses for you to explore. But we cannot stop there because this is where it's becoming a substitute, where we are actually using AI to do something that we should be doing, which is delving into scripture, interpreting it with the Holy Spirit. That's not something a computer can do. We shouldn't be substituting a brain that we gave a computer for the brain that God gave us.

[00:06:24] That should be kind of our, that's our foundation when it comes to interacting with AI. So Emma Waters wraps up the article in World saying, AI in its various forms is a powerful tool, but it must remain just that, a tool. Christians should not be afraid to deploy such technology to spread the gospel. For instance, AI could quickly translate whenever you're on a mission trip and you're working with people who don't speak the same language. There's all kinds of great potential for that there.

[00:06:53] But we need to be careful ensuring AI does not become a new form of idolatry. We're not supposed to substitute it. So that's kind of a perspective on AI and ministry. Another article you can find at pointofview.net is from David Reeves Ministry. And so he focuses a lot on science and scientific discoveries. And so I valued his perspective on AI because he was helping us to think through the fact that AI is actually a product of human ingenuity.

[00:07:22] So AI isn't this, you know, sentient computer robot from a movie thing. It's something that humans created, which actually points to how amazing God is to create our brains to even be able to do something like that. And it points to us also having a creator because we have created something that mimics intelligence. And so in that way, it's very interesting.

[00:07:48] It can be celebrated as, you know, look at these things that humans are able to create because God created us so well. But we, again, have to be careful that it doesn't supplement. Another thing David Reeves points out, and this is relevant for ministry, is that AI doesn't have a moral conscience. It's just a bunch of data. It processes the data really, really fast. So it seems really impressive. But God created us in his image, not computers.

[00:08:15] And so we don't need to be farming out jobs that we should be doing, decisions we should be making, and judgments we should be making as human beings to an artificial intelligence. Nor should we be farming out our relationships to an AI. And that's going to lead to some of the other articles that I want to discuss when we come back after the break. You can follow along with these at pointofview.net. We're going to continue discussing this for a few more minutes before we turn to some family policy discussions. Stay tuned.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Perhaps you've heard the call for leftists to engage in the long march through institutions. The phrase was popularized by the radical German activist Herbert Marcuse, who was quoting another activist. Came up on my radio interview with Stanley Ridgely on his book Brutal Minds. In his book America's Cultural Revolution, Christopher Ruffo not only quotes him, but devotes an entire chapter on Marcuse. The plan was simple.

[00:09:28] Instead of encouraging students to protest the university and government, have them march into institutions and take them over. By taking over faculty lounges, Hollywood studios, and government offices, they could bring about revolutionary change. Rich Lowry writes about Trump's countermarch through the institutions. He says it's a new way of thinking for conservatives. It's such a strange reversal that many on the left and progressives in Congress don't quite know what to do.

[00:09:52] One example he cites was the Trump executive order that decreed that federal funding would be withdrawn from educational institutions that permit males to compete in female sports. The NCAA instantly changed its policy to say that only athletes who were female at birth can compete against females. Now, if this tactic sounds familiar, we saw it used by President Obama. He threatened to cut off federal funds to impose his views on college campus investigations and even school bathroom policies.

[00:10:22] The Trump executive order on DEI had a similar effect. Funding was pulled, federal contractors changed their policies, and West Point disbanded its identity-based clubs. You could say that Trump's countermarch is a case of what is good for the liberal goose is also good for the conservative gander. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view of intelligent design, go to viewpoints.info slash intelligent design. Viewpoints.info slash intelligent design. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Let's keep talking about artificial intelligence a little bit. We're talking about how do we think about this from a biblical perspective?

[00:11:11] How do we understand how AI is forming us, is affecting us as human beings? It's not all bad. It's not all good. So we have to figure out how to discern when the use of a very advanced and impressive technology might cross the line. So another article that we've posted at pointofview.net is from the Wall Street Journal. And I have a little – I have mixed feelings on this. So think about it. See what you think. But this is the title of the article.

[00:11:40] When there's no school counselor, there's a bot. Is a human AI texting service the future of mental health care for students? So we're talking about schools here. And you're probably aware that mental health has declined drastically, particularly for young people. So there is a mental health crisis. The American School Counselor Association recommends schools employ at least one counselor for every 250 students.

[00:12:07] Even that seems like, you know, quite a lopsided ratio. But the average is one counselor for every 376 students. And 17% of high schools don't have a counselor. So Sonar Mental Health, which is a company, has developed something called Sunny. Sunny is an AI chatbot that students can text. Now, here's the difference.

[00:12:32] They're not just talking to AI because it actually – this company uses humans with backgrounds in psychology, social work, and crisis line support to kind of monitor the chats between students and AI. So, for instance, a student – the theory goes that, okay, they may be more comfortable texting somebody that –

[00:12:59] somebody being a robot or an AI or a chatbot who is able to communicate with them with all the right teen speak and emojis and relatable ways that they want to talk, not having to go to an in-person counselor. Or maybe they just can't go to an in-person counselor because one isn't available. And this AI will prompt them, will check in with them, encourage them to text back and see how they're doing, encourage them to talk to a counselor or go talk to somebody.

[00:13:26] And then, of course, these are monitored that way if there's any alarming signals, for instance, indications of potential self-harm, things like that. Then parents can be notified. People can get involved. And so it quotes one student, a 17-year-old senior who had gone through some hard times, some deaths of loved ones and depression, who said that she really appreciated being able to use Sunny

[00:13:51] because it's current – it's not everywhere, but it's – I think I read that it's being used by about – yeah, 4,500 public and middle school high school students in nine districts across the country have access to it. So they're kind of testing it out. And she said that she likes it because – but here's one of the reasons. She said, I can become very obsessive about situations, and I know I can annoy my friends

[00:14:19] when I talk about a certain situation over and over again. She says, I don't feel like I'm annoying Sunny, the chatbot. She also said, our school counselors are very busy, but I have someone to talk to one-on-one who's only focusing on me. And so, again, I mean, when you look at some of the schools, for instance, one high school saw a 26 percent drop in student behavior infractions after students began using Sunny.

[00:14:46] Another school noticed that around the time there was testing, a lot more students were using the chatbot, were talking to it, which revealed to school administrators that, okay, this is a season of the school year where students are really stressed out and they need extra support. So in those ways, it seems like, okay, this is maybe a tool that can help an understaffed area really know what's going on with students in terms of their mental health, and that seems like a good thing.

[00:15:16] However, this did make me a little sad because if you feel like you're a burden to your real-life friends and you can't talk to them, then I feel like maybe that's going to encourage people to only talk to these bot counselors because they don't want to bother other people. And then we, as the other people, get used to not having to deal with it because our friends who are struggling with a crisis or they're going through depression

[00:15:44] or they just had a loss where they can talk to their chatbot. So maybe that's not the case. So, again, this seems to me like maybe an example of a mix of where it could be good. But there's maybe a line there as well that we need to be really careful of. So we'll see how that goes in terms of students' mental health and chatbot counselors. Here's another area. And, again, you can find all these articles at pointofview.net because we're barely scratching the surface here.

[00:16:09] But the use of AI in romantic relationships, if you think having a robot girlfriend or robot boyfriend is like crazy talk, something from a movie, well, it's actually more prevalent than you think, okay? This is from the Institute for Family Studies. In a survey they did found, a study they did found that almost one in five of adults in the U.S. report having chatted with an AI system meant to stimulate a romantic partner, simulate a romantic partner.

[00:16:39] And then 42% of users agree that AI programs are easier to talk to than real people. The use of AI companion apps and AI pornography are significantly linked to higher risk of depression and higher reports of loneliness. Well, this shouldn't surprise us. Again, AI personalities are not meant to replace real relationships. We need that.

[00:17:04] But when we are already having a loneliness epidemic, AI a lot of times seems easier. And in this article, which really details the studies and what they've been finding, users of different apps and websites where you can kind of generate this AI companion, talk about how they like it because they can create this companion just the way they want,

[00:17:29] to act the way they want, to appear and look on the screen the exact way they want, to say the things that they want to hear. And so you're really having people who maybe for a minute feel better, feel like they're not alone, but you're losing the skill or the ability to actually interact with real human beings. And guess what? They're not perfect. They don't come in a custom-made box for you in a relationship.

[00:17:57] It's sometimes messy, but it's so necessary because whenever we don't have it, we just see, again, people falling into more depression, more loneliness. These technologies, according to this article that we posted, they pose for increasing unrealistic relationship expectations and deprioritizing real-life human relationships.

[00:18:23] And they fuel existing trends of loneliness, declines in dating, and decreased family formation. We're going to talk about family formation here in a few minutes. This is one of the issues we have to think about now is how is technology, when being used incorrectly, getting in the way of families, which we need desperately in the United States right now, healthy families.

[00:18:47] If you think the idea of a kind of custom-made romantic companion is a new issue, well, actually it's one that we've been dealing with for thousands of years. And since we just talked about classical education with Ken Samples in the last hour, I'll mention this. You may be familiar, if you like Greek mythology, with the story of Galatea and Pygmalion. Pygmalion created a statue of the perfect woman because the women in his city were just not good enough.

[00:19:16] And so he had to create this perfect form. And the goddess Aphrodite decided to bless his devotion to the statue by bringing her to life. It doesn't happen that way in real life, does it? You can't bring a fake person to life. You can't make somebody in your own image or exactly the way you want them and have them be a real companion for you. You need real human beings. One more thing that I'll mention on this topic, when it comes to not only relationships,

[00:19:45] but some of the other things humans do, like work and create and get creative. We can actually apply the thoughts of Adam Smith, who was a Scottish economist and philosopher in the 18th century, to the advent of AI because he was talking about the advancement of machines back in the 18th century and how the Industrial Revolution was impacting humanity.

[00:20:12] And so this is from a white paper that I saw online. And it's from somebody that I know from my alma mater, Patrick Henry College, Philip Bunn. And it was really good. And so one of the terms that Smith used was mental mutilation. Excuse me. So this is where, if we aren't careful, machines, technology can cause us to lose the things that we need to function as human beings,

[00:20:40] the gifts that God gave us to function, to work, to tend the garden, to be creative. So, again, it all comes back to what we talked about at first, a supplement or a substitute. Are we using tools, whatever they are, whatever technology it is, including AI, to substitute something that we as humans were made to do? Or are we using it to supplement our work and using our human ingenuity that God gave us to become even more productive for his kingdom?

[00:21:09] So this is something Christians should think about. I think Christians should be involved in AI because we need people with a biblical perspective influencing this new frontier of artificial intelligence. But let's go back to the family and talk about maybe some things we can do in the United States to encourage families, which the Trump administration, to their credit, is trying to do. We'll be right back after this. Are you confused about changes happening in Washington, D.C.? Well, you're not alone.

[00:21:38] Are you frustrated that you can't get the full picture of what's happening from the mainstream media? You are not alone in that either. And that is why Americans need a voice they can trust, a voice that provides accurate news, trustworthy information, and most importantly, a voice that is anchored to God's Word. Point of View is that voice. But we need you.

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[00:22:31] Or you can call us toll-free to join at 1-800-347-5151. That's 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station. And now, here again, your guest host for Point of View. Hey, welcome back. It's Liberty McCarter sitting in for Kirby Anderson today. And let me just remind you again, I'm the host of the Know I Podcast. We had an episode come out today where I'm talking about whether America is in a spiritual crisis.

[00:23:27] This is something that RFK Jr. mentioned when he was in the midst of his confirmation process to lead the Health and Human Services Department. And so we dig into some research regarding that. And as you know, yeah, of course, America is in a spiritual crisis. People are leaving religion, and it doesn't result in happier populations or healthier families.

[00:23:52] Communities and cultures and nations that have higher rates of religiosity have more marriage rates, and they have more children. And so why is this relevant? Well, it's all interconnected, but America is in a big fertility crisis. We are not reproducing at the rate of replacement. So this is something that Vice President J.D. Vance has highlighted.

[00:24:19] And I'm glad that he's brought it up because I do think part of being pro-life is not only fighting to protect life in the womb and supporting mothers and supporting single mothers, but it's also working to create a culture of life. And if your nation, if your community doesn't value children and if your government doesn't value family practically and encourage them to encourage people to have families,

[00:24:49] then your nation is going to be in trouble. And that's not a very pro-life nation. So we know that J.D. Vance spoke at the March for Life in January. That was great. But one thing that he's doing is really leading by example, not just in talking about pro-life policies or even pro-natal policies, where he's looking at ways we can encourage and incentivize people to get married and have children,

[00:25:18] but even just in the way that he is leading his own life. So this is another article from the Institute for Family Studies. A hands-on father, the vice president, is leading by example. Okay. So if you watch the inauguration, you saw then that J.D. and Usha Vance, they've got three young kids all under the age of seven, I believe, and they were there for all of the events, all of the televised events that day. And you know what?

[00:25:45] They acted like a seven-year-old, a four-year-old, and a three-year-old. And I think a lot of parents of young kids related to that because they saw them getting kind of tired. They saw bluey Band-Aids covering the little three-year-old girl's fingers while her dad was taking the vice presidential oath of office. And so it was very sweet. But that wasn't just a one-time thing, seeing their family out on a big day.

[00:26:09] When the vice president went on his first overseas trip in his new role, he brought his entire family along. So you saw them disembark from the plane in Paris. You saw them carrying their children. He was carrying his three-year-old girl while he greeted the dignitaries. And she's in her pajamas. And so if you're a skeptic, you could say, well, okay, this is a stunt.

[00:26:38] This is just, you know, for political points or for the cameras. But I think that this article hits on something that it's a very powerful image. And so the author says, it's become obvious that Vance doesn't view his children as something to be stuffed away. Rather, he greeted dignitaries without even setting his daughter down. And the fact that he did that suggests that he doesn't have plans to change what he's doing in the spotlight.

[00:27:08] Okay? So there is plenty to disagree about these days, the author continues. But the need for more role model fathers is not. Approximately one in four children or somewhere near 18 million kids live without a father in the home. Okay, so and we know that fatherlessness leads to so many problems. Like we were talking about with Ashley Taba in the first hour. She has a ministry in Botswana where they are seeing two extreme effects.

[00:27:38] The effects that happen in a society where fathers are not present. And when they encourage marriage and they encourage families, they see families thrive. Another thing the article points out, it's highly unusual to have someone so prominently featured in the national eye who has several young children. So even if he is just kind of doing it to show that he's doing it, so to speak, it's powerful and it's important.

[00:28:03] Because one of the things that we are seeing, I believe, in American culture, not everywhere, not in every community or tradition, but in a lot of spaces, we're seeing a very anti-kids society. You see more and more complaints about kids being in public places like airplanes. Okay, nobody wants to, you know, hear a baby cry for hours and hours when you can't go anywhere. But guess what? It happens. Babies are humans. They have to go places with their parents.

[00:28:29] And so a lot of people are constantly stressed out because if they are parents, then they feel in a lot of places, a lot of communities in America that their kids aren't welcome or they're explicitly told that their kids aren't welcome. Or they don't want to have kids because they think that it will be too stressful.

[00:28:50] And so if the vice president can take his whole family and carry his toddler daughter while he's meeting foreign dignitaries and be a dad and do his job at the same time, anybody can do it. And here's another point. If the president of the United States can permit his vice president to still attend to his family while he's on the job, then I think other employers in America can be more family friendly as well and more understanding of parents.

[00:29:20] Now, this is key. This isn't just like, oh, yeah, that's a nice thing to have. No, if we want a pro-life society, if we want a culture of life, we have to see examples of this. We have to be more welcoming and accepting of kids in life. And so another article, you can find this also at the Institute for Family Studies. I didn't post this one, but it's from Erica Komazar. So she writes a lot about parenting and she makes a really good point.

[00:29:50] We see the stress of parenting emphasized a lot these days. And look, I've got a six-year-old and a three-year-old, so I get it. It's really stressful sometimes. But something I think we lose sight of today is that it's okay for it to be stressful. And so this is a quote from her. While much is said about the stress of parenting, the reality is that it has always been challenging.

[00:30:14] It has always required sacrifice, sleepless nights, and the delicate balance of a parent's needs with those of their children. The difference today is that many parents feel unequipped to handle these demands. And I think a lot of this has to do with, again, unrealistic expectations on parents, unrealistic expectations from employers or from society on how parents should be dealing with their kids, unrealistic expectations on kids themselves.

[00:30:43] But if they're not brought out into society, then they're never going to learn how to act in society. But I also think that there is a reason legitimately that stress among parents is increasing. I don't think it's just people are stressed out about being stressed out, so to speak. I do think that we need more support because, as we've talked about in regards to other topics on this show today, including a lot on point of view. Okay. People are lonely.

[00:31:12] They're disconnected from institutions like church. You have, for the first time in history, fewer people being a member at a house of worship than actually belonging to a house of worship. Even just the way our cities are built. I mean, you're seeing more and more urbanization. This means more and more high-rise apartments. Those aren't conducive to families.

[00:31:37] And we're seeing, this is something that we've talked about before on the Know Why podcast, kind of the trend towards the back patio versus the front porch. So even the way we think about our neighborhoods, we are so disconnected from the people around us. And you do need support when you are raising kids. You need a community around you. And traditionally, people found that with extended family. They found that in their neighborhoods. They found that in their churches.

[00:32:06] But now you have so many broken families where a lot of times the father isn't even present, let alone outside help. So this is, again, why, regardless of what you think of all of the vice president's policies, this is something I think the Trump administration is right on in terms of encouraging family and seeing how can we encourage more people to have children. Our society needs it.

[00:32:35] But also encouraging more people to have families and to be a part of communities, multi-generational communities. That's just good for us as human beings. And so when we come back, we're about to go to a break. But when we come back, I do want to look at some potential policies that I won't necessarily be endorsing any, but that we might consider as we look forward to the next four years and what the Trump administration might do, because a lot of this is cultural.

[00:33:03] How can we support the parents that we know and how can we be an encourager of families? But also a lot of it does come down to policy. How family friendly is our nation really when you look at our federal and state and local policies? So we'll be talking about that a little bit. But I encourage you to go to pointofview.net and check out the article about the vice president. You can also see links. You can see some videos and pictures of him carrying his kids around on his trip to France

[00:33:32] and just see that I think he's setting a good example of a working dad who's heavily involved with his family. And that's a good thing. We'll be right back on Point of View. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:34:01] We're talking about family policy in the United States, and I was just talking about how Vice President J.D. Vance is setting a good example, even while he is busy with his vice president duties, of being a very involved father and making sure the nation sees that. I think that's a good thing because I think more young people today need to see a leader who is busy, who has a very important job not pushing his kids to the side, but actually making them a part of his life. So I hope that that continues.

[00:34:29] But it's not good enough to just have role models. We also can look at some policy changes. So before I get into an article or a study compiled by the American Enterprise Institute, that it really is just a compilation of different suggestions for some policies that the Trump administration might consider. I do want to talk about one policy that President Trump has pushed,

[00:34:57] I think with good intentions, but we need to be careful. So this is an article that's also on the website from National Review. It's called The Problem with Trump's IVF Push. So I know this is a really sensitive topic. I know people who have used IVF to have their babies, and it is something that has allowed a lot of people who have struggled with fertility to be able to give birth.

[00:35:24] And so I think, according to my understanding, it can be done ethically, but there's a lot of ways that it can be done unethically as well. And so if we push for this as kind of like the way that we're going to grow families, there could be some problems. So let me just quote a little bit from the article. Okay, so one of the biggest concerns for a lot of pro-lifers is that the destruction of innocent life is almost inevitable.

[00:35:52] Again, I say almost inevitable because for every baby produced through IVF, there are typically many more that are destroyed, discarded, or turned into lab material for scientists. This is from the National Review. Others wait in the freezer. So there are somewhere between 600,000 and a million embryos today who are waiting in freezer. So a lot of times, not always, a lot of times what happens is additional embryos are stored.

[00:36:21] If they're not destroyed, they are stored and potentially to be implanted later on. And so this is an ethical problem if you believe that life begins at fertilization because you believe that those are tiny human beings made in God's image. And so, but another concern is the lack of regulation. So the National Review calls it the wild, wild west, where men get away from with fathering hundreds of children anonymously,

[00:36:48] where half siblings are unknowingly marrying each other. These are all things that have happened, crazily enough. And where embryos are being accidentally swapped and implanted in the wrong uteruses. There is basically no oversight or research about the long-term health effects on the woman who has to go through these treatments, which are, you know, there's a lot of hormones, a lot. It's a very long process. And the industry places no limitations on eugenic practices, such as sex selection,

[00:37:17] which is offered in nearly three-fourths of clinics. This is another big concern that I have personally because you have, again, not everybody, not everybody does it. A lot of people try to do this very ethically. But there have been cases where you kind of have this eugenicist kind of flavor of IVF going on where you're creating a bunch of embryos and you're picking the best one. And even some cases where people are, you know,

[00:37:45] looking at potentially what the different embryos are going to look like because all of that DNA is there in the embryo when it's at fertilization. So it's there. And then you start to say, okay, well, kids aren't a commodity and we shouldn't be creating them like they are. And so this is quoting pro-life activist Lila Rose. IVF doesn't address the root causes of the infertility health crisis in America. It's a big pharma Band-Aid with major ethical issues. So, again, it can help.

[00:38:12] I think it can be done carefully and ethically, but we have to be careful with it and make sure that we are doing it carefully and ethically. So what are some other things, though, that the Trump administration could do over the next four years to encourage families and that the nation could do going forward? The American Enterprise Institute, AEI, has a compilation of contributions from some different thinkers, okay,

[00:38:39] and they kind of put forward some policy options. And so here's what they say. Congress should not engage in social engineering to try to set the birth rate. Most of the work to be done on this front is cultural or even spiritual. That goes back to what we've been talking about, the cultural effect of encouraging families and addressing the spiritual crisis in our nation. But they go on. Congress could enact, amend, or repeal plenty of policies to make America more family friendly.

[00:39:09] And so they have several ideas here. I'm not going to get into all the implications of all the ideas, and they even acknowledge, like, a lot of these ideas would actually clash with each other. So this isn't saying we need to do all of these. These are just some options that, you know, what would it look like if we considered these? One is don't subsidize child care. So a lot of that child care is expensive. It's something parents think about or that people think about before they have kids. How are they going to afford it?

[00:39:38] So the answer that a lot of other governments have tried around the world is subsidizing full-time child care. Basically, you can have free daycare. But that's not always the best solution. And it doesn't really affect very much as positively as a lot of people would like, because a lot of moms don't want to send their kids to full-time daycare. Now, I'm not saying that moms want to leave the workforce entirely or forever,

[00:40:04] but many want to seek options where they could stay home while their kids are young, maybe from ages zero to three, or where there could be some sort of arrangement with a family member or somebody in the home. And a lot of people, and maybe they work part-time, so they only need child care part-time, but they're still able to be home with their baby. And more flexible arrangements like that are actually a lot more popular with moms, understandably so.

[00:40:30] And so subsidized child care doesn't really support more flexible options like that. If you want to get the benefit, then you have to send your kid to full-time daycare. So another one is require a family formation review of new federal actions. So this means that any time there is a new federal action or development or law, Congress needs to require a review to say how is this going to impact family. So I think that's really interesting because they do this already.

[00:40:59] For instance, if there's a new law, Congress has to review how is this going to affect the paperwork burden on Americans. Okay, well, we should review how is this going to affect families? How is this going to either decentivize or incentivize people to get married and have kids? Okay, this is kind of a later down the line suggestion. But helping schools craft better cell phone policies. Education problems in education, those are a big problem.

[00:41:26] And you are seeing schools who are removing technology from the classrooms, maybe not all technology, but definitely cell phone use. And they're seeing big improvements. And so that would be encouraging to people thinking about having kids. Here's one. I bet you're probably not going to agree with it, or maybe you will. Make birth free. I think we're trying to trim the federal budget. That's what Doge is trying to do. But look, birth is expensive. And if you've been there, you know.

[00:41:56] And so that is a concern that a lot of people talk about when they are thinking about having kids. Don't know how realistic that is. But if there was a way to make birth more affordable, then, you know, that sure would be helpful. But that might not be so realistic. And then there are some other ones, expanding the child tax credit. A lot of policies, a lot of welfare policies in the United States actually penalize marriage.

[00:42:22] And so we don't want to discourage people from getting married. Those are just some of the suggestions. You can look at pointofview.net and click on the link to see more of these for yourself. But we need to think about these things and think about, as Christians, how can we advocate for policies that encourage a culture of life in our nation? And how can we interact with our local communities in such a way that we are being that encourager and that supporter of life? That's all the time we have for today on Point of View. I'm Liberty McCarter. It's been great to be with you.

[00:42:52] Thank you to Karen for producing today and Megan for engineering the show. And thank you for listening to Point of View. Kirby will be back. But thank you for listening and being with me these last two days. It's been an honor to be with you. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Many years ago, they began saying that we live in the information age. Well, today there is so much information coming at us from every direction.

[00:43:20] The hardest thing is to discern which issues are really important and how can I make a positive impact without wasting my time trying to figure out accurate information. Let me give you a suggestion to help with that. Visit pointofview.net. Look at the tabs across the top. Find the one named Viewpoints. Kirby Anderson and others on our team are constantly watching for news to identify those issues that you really need to know about.

[00:43:50] They boil things down in a brief summary. And then you can decide if it's something on which you want to learn more and get involved. Again, when you go to pointofview.net, click on Viewpoints, you'll see exactly what I mean. You'll see the issues that we are covering right now. And when you like what you see, I honestly think you will, you can slide on over, enter your email, and get them automatically sent to your inbox each day. That's it. Take a minute now. Be informed.

[00:44:21] Pointofview.net. Click on Viewpoints. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.