Point of View July 24, 2026 : Weekend Edition

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

[00:00:41] We'll also talk about the war in Iran and a very good piece by Jim Garrity about straight talk because the straight of Hormuz is just one of the straights that could be a choke point and something we can talk about. A good piece by Penadexter, it's not AI. Of course, when we talk about AI, we always talk with Liberty McCarter about that, the host of the Know Why podcast, co-host of Point of View. And Kelly Shackelford, of course, the president and CEO of Liberty Institute, First Liberty Institute.

[00:01:11] And the first thing I thought I might mention, Kelly, is yesterday we got talking about Arkansas for a very good reason. Star Parker had done a very good piece, which also was quoted in the Wall Street Journal about how Sarah Huckabee Sanders, because of some very significant changes over the last two years, students in Arkansas have done very well in terms of education. And at the time I said, well, we're going to be talking about Arkansas tomorrow because it turns out to be the best state in the union in terms of religious status.

[00:01:41] And if people go to the website, they'll see that link. They'll also see a picture of you and Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Mark David Hall, who I might just mention, is one of the individuals that wrote in our July special edition on religious liberty. But Liberty, we're going to be talking about Arkansas and religious liberty for a while, don't you think? That sounds great. Lots of great updates. I'm excited to hear about it. Kelly, tell us about that.

[00:02:04] 50 states and you would normally assume that your red states would be the best and your blue states would be the worst, but not necessarily. There are exceptions, aren't there? Yeah, there are. And I'll just go back. I mean, we've had a lot of success at First Liberty in winning cases. We had like 471 cases last year. We've had 11 cases at the Supreme Court in the last eight years and we're 11-0 by God's favor.

[00:02:34] But we realize litigation isn't enough. We have a lot of success in the past eight years and we're not going to be protected. And so we, a number of years ago, we started a think tank as part of what we do. And the scholars on that came up with an idea. They're doing a lot of great stuff. But one of their ideas, which I thought was brilliant, was why don't we do a real index?

[00:03:00] In other words, a peer-reviewed, academic, highbrow, really, you know, not an objective, not a subjective type index. You just don't see very many of those these days. And they said what we'll do is we'll take all the laws in all the states that are there to protect religious liberty. We'll put those in a pile and go, okay, what are all the possibilities? And then we'll look at each state and see who has the most protections that protect religious freedom.

[00:03:30] And the goal towards the beginning was I thought, you know, if we can get them to compete and start like going, hey, why are we number 40 and they're number 10? And you can we're going to start passing some of these laws. We thought that would be like the ultimate. Right. And the first couple of years, you know, there wasn't a lot of, you know, attention to it.

[00:03:56] But the last two years is sort of taken off in exactly the way we had hoped and prayed. And so last year, Florida jumped into number one. Mm hmm. And and DeSantis enjoyed that. DeSantis was talking about all the things that Florida was number one in. And we had a great press conference and all that. And this year, Arkansas, who just four years ago was twenty seven. Wow. They made it to number one.

[00:04:26] And it's because they passed a number of really good laws protecting religious liberty. And and so I had a press conference with Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And I've known her for years. I've known her dad, Mike Huckabee, for years. Uh, it was really fun. Um, and and, you know, to be honest with you, these governors don't necessarily get a lot of times they're in stories nationally. And man, that thing hit Fox everywhere. It was all over the country.

[00:04:54] And I thought, you know, every governor should want to compete for this. The great thing is you can go to this again because it's academic. It's totally open. Mm hmm. Um, you can go to religious liberty in the states, religious liberties in the states. Plural. Um, is it is it dot com dot com? And and you can I know it's you probably find that at point of view dot net. Right there, too. Good article. And you could click on it. You can look at your state.

[00:05:24] You can find out where you are. You can. And it will show you exactly why you are behind other states. And so the beautiful thing is if you're a legislator, you can go, oh, well, I'll I'm missing this law. Click. You can look at that law from all the other states. You can look at how they wrote the law. You can. You can. This is really everything there you need to compare and to look at.

[00:05:51] And, you know, so every point of view listener can literally do something. They can call their representative. They can say, I'm looking at this. There's there's these laws. Are you going to do something about this? And you can really help cause these protections in your state all over the country. Yeah. I encourage people to look at the website religious liberty in the states dot com. And what I really enjoy and appreciate is there's a tab at the top that says safeguards, because

[00:06:20] if you're thinking, OK, well, I support religious liberty, but how does that practically break down in all these different spheres? You've got a category for government, health care, economic life, religious life, family and education that goes into all these subcategories underneath that.

[00:06:37] And it really helps people understand, OK, in this type of scenario, say in a hospital with, you know, whether it's a nurse or a patient or a doctor, there are all these different scenarios where somebody's religious liberty might be harmed. And so they can go and give something specific if they want to contact their representative or something and say, hey, I want this specifically in my state. It really helps people take action. So, yeah, this this whole website and it's interactive.

[00:07:05] You can click on your state and it'll give you a little article on all these details. So it's just a great resource. Again, religious liberty in the states dot com. Yes. You don't have to remember all that because we do have the links. In fact, our first article is there and it also has a press release. And just as we're coming to a break, since originally you're from Tennessee, we might mention they were number two in both Arkansas and Tennessee got excellent Florida, which we mentioned a minute ago, Montana. And then this, I think, illustrates my point, Illinois. That's right. Then you get to some of the other states.

[00:07:35] There's an explanation in there because people would say Illinois is very liberal and not very pro religious freedom now. And that's that's probably true in the people that are in charge. But a number of legislators, you know, there's a lot of there's a big Catholic contingency. True. In Chicago and Illinois. And they passed a lot of laws before it was too late to protect religious freedom. So they've been beginning to go down the list because other states are passing new laws and they're not.

[00:08:04] They're even trying to repeal some of their own laws for religious freedom. But it's hard to get rid of a good law protecting religious freedom. And so so they are up pretty high because of what they did. And that's the message. The conservative places like West Virginia that had been really low because they didn't think they needed it. You do need it because in the future you don't know who's going to be in charge. Yeah, you're there in the bottom ten, bottom five. So there's just a couple of good illustrations. So we go to a break.

[00:08:32] You might just get to a computer religious liberty in the states dot com or just follow the first article, which is the first liberty link. And you can play around with it just as liberty has done so. We'll take a break. Come back with more right after this.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Advanced quantum computing is still in the future. But what happens when Q day arrives? This is a day when powerful quantum computers can break public key cryptography that protects our digital world. Quantum computers don't work like normal computers. They use what are called quibits and can solve programs and problems dramatically faster than even supercomputers.

[00:09:27] That would mean that they would threaten modern cryptography. Today's digital ciphers use complex mathematical formulas that transform data into encrypted messages that can be stored or transmitted and only can be read by a digital key. People using Bitcoin have been warned about the future quantum computer that could break into the algorithm that secures the private key. But those same computers could break into encrypted bank accounts and even hack into nuclear launch codes.

[00:09:55] The threat is much greater than what it might pose to someone with a Bitcoin wallet. Let's put all these fears about the future in some perspective. The latest advances in quantum computer technology have chips with 100 qubits, which is hard to maintain that amount of processing power without lots of errors. Experts estimate that you would need 1,000 to 4,000 logical qubits to breach current security.

[00:10:18] Also, we need to note that for many years cryptographers have been developing post-quantum algorithms that can be used when it is needed some years from now. The quantum frontier has a potential to reshape our future. We need to be prepared to protect our digital world from criminals or hostile countries that would use this new technology against us. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:49] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again is our weekend edition, and Kelly Schalkeford, Liberty McCarter in studio. And again, we are encouraging you to find some of these articles.

[00:11:15] And one of those, of course, is religious liberty in the states, the RLS Index. But there is something else that I thought maybe liberty would talk about because we just mentioned that Arkansas, right at the top of the heap there, the individuals that probably have more religious liberty. But I just read the other day that there's a district court that actually wants to have them take down the Ten Commandments monument.

[00:11:40] Yeah, I would think that the number one state for religious liberty in the United States would be able to display the Ten Commandments. But apparently a district court in Arkansas said that at the state capitol it was unconstitutional. And I love how in the press release here, ignoring Supreme Court precedent. So what was the deal with that? Well, you can tell the judge wasn't elected by the people of Arkansas. This is a federal judge.

[00:12:09] I'm not mistaken. I'm pretty sure it's an Obama federal judge appointed for life. And just really undaunted by the law, including, you know, the recent Kennedy decision, which made very clear what the law is in these kinds of situations, you know, said that you can't have a Ten Commandments monument. Now, of course, the Supreme Court's got Ten Commandments in the courtroom and all around the outside of the building. And we have it everywhere.

[00:12:38] But it was just it's just a lawless decision that I am highly confident will be overturned on the federal court of appeals. And the attorney general of Arkansas. It's an unusual deal because what happened is the state of Arkansas, when they they passed a law to put the Ten Commandments up and in the law. And they said, if we're ever sued for this, because we don't know who's going to be in charge of the AG's office.

[00:13:07] We want we're going to put in the law that First Liberty Institute, along with the AG, will defend the Ten Commandments. And and so that's what happened. The Church of Satan, I kid you not. Oh, my God. And the ACLU, you know, filed against this Ten Commandments monument, which is out front. And it's kind of a no brainer at this point that it's fine.

[00:13:35] I mean, you know, if people don't understand this, there's we have an establishment clause. We don't want to the government to establish a church for us. And and so in this case, they're like, well, you can't put anything religious out there. Well, yeah, you can. I mean, you know, it's part of our history and our and our and the Ten Commandments goes back to help people understand, you know,

[00:13:58] the basis of law of some of the moral beliefs of the people, the country, the religious background, that Judeo Christian sort of heritage. I mean, you really don't understand America if you don't understand some of these historical things that are put up. And the Ten Commandments is probably as ubiquitous as anything around the country to represent those things. I mean, it's literally everywhere.

[00:14:25] And so the idea that you have to is sort of a religious cleansing is supposed to occur and you're supposed to wipe off, you know, you know, Martin Luther. I mean, Martin Luther King's letter from a Birmingham jail shouldn't be shown publicly either. And I mean, there's all kinds of religious things that are part of our history and our culture. And so the idea that you can't have that on the lawn is ridiculous. Now, there's been a Supreme Court case, by the way, this one. Yes.

[00:14:52] Involving the Ten Commandments outside of the Texas Capitol. And the Supreme Court said it's OK. And that was even before the Coach Kennedy decision came down, which makes it not even a question. But this shows you that, unfortunately, some judges have a hard time following the law. And but the great thing about this is, again, the Eighth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals has good judges. They'll they'll get there'll be a three judge panel.

[00:15:22] And and so it's the attorney general of Arkansas and us together appealing that decision. And we know what will come down. Now, meanwhile, while while this crazy judge did this all over the country, Ten Commandments are going up. They are going up. And it's because of the Kennedy decision. And Kentucky put theirs back up on the lawn.

[00:15:48] I've seen I know Indiana is in the process of putting theirs back up. I've seen numerous counties, Tarrant County, Rockwell County, et cetera. I mean, they're going up everywhere around the country because it's fine. And it is does teach you a little bit of the part of where are these values? Where do these laws and things that we see that we take for granted? Where does it come from? What kind of thinking? What kind of history?

[00:16:17] You know, if you want to change it away from the jail Christian moorings, you're free to try to do so. But to to to try to like close your eyes to how this country was founded and by whom and what sort of thinking and what sort of laws and moral principles and religious principles were behind what they were doing. You really need things like this to teach people. So it's it's it's you know, the battle is still on.

[00:16:44] There's some people, you know, this this same battle is going to come. I can tell you right now over nativity scenes. Oh, yeah. And menorahs and Hanukkah and all that, because those are going to go back up, too. And when that happens, we're going to see the same kind of attack to try to purge, you know, the public arena of any religious concepts or images. You know, Liberty, the other day I was introducing a state representative, which I think some of you know, Candy Noble.

[00:17:11] And I was talking about the fact that when we've had so many people from Europe coming over here, they've been amazed at Bucky's and barbecue. But they were also amazed at our freedom. And some of them actually got to see that Ten Commandments monument that's up there in Tarrant County. And then here that you could actually go into the schools and see the Ten Commandments there as well, which was one of the bills that went through Texas.

[00:17:36] So if nothing else, one of the things that has been a shocker to most of the Europeans is how much freedom we have. And I think it's going to be a shock to this particular judge there in the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit, don't you think? Maybe so. Guess what? Christianity is a part of our history and there is a thing called the First Amendment. So, yeah, I think it's great. And again, people are realizing, oh, we can acknowledge this.

[00:18:04] Nobody is saying everybody that walks by the state capitol has to sit there and read the Ten Commandments. There's no form that you must sign to say I affirm, you know, all of these. But again, it's just it's crazy. Number one, just from a factual standpoint to act like religious influence was not a huge part of our founding fathers and our national history and particularly biblical influence. And you don't have to agree with that.

[00:18:34] You don't have to be a Christian. But if you want to accurately understand our history as a nation, that's a big part of it. Same thing with just Western civilization. I mean, I don't make sacrifices to Zeus slash Jupiter, but I also understand and acknowledge, you know, the Greek and Roman influence on Western civilization. And I studied that and appreciate it as I think people should. So the majority of Americans are religious. The majority of the world population is religious.

[00:19:03] So it's just ridiculous to say that those kinds of expressions can't be displayed publicly. Like we've got to pretend like no one's religious. If I see somebody else's expression of religion, then that's like an infringement on my personal rights. I think that would just common sense. And I'll tell you, I was in the Oval Office with the president three weeks ago today with the Religious Liberty Commission to hand over our first draft of the report and recommendations regarding religious freedom in the United States.

[00:19:32] And the first thing the president did before we said anything, and I thought it was really wise, he said, you know, communism and socialism is coming at us within our own country. And he said the one thing that communism can never allow is God and because they're God. And he said that's why this religious liberty commission and why religious freedom is so important. I thought that was a great comment. So true. And it is the battle.

[00:20:01] If you want the naked public square, you want to wipe out religion. What's replacing it is like a Marxism, communism, you know, government control because they are the value makers and they are the ones that are really God. And so that's the battle. The more religious freedom you have, the more freedom you will have, period. Might hold up the August issue of Outlook, which is now arriving in your mailbox and it's on the rise of socialism. And of course, it makes the case that we've just talked about. We come back.

[00:20:29] I do want to talk about this National Religious Liberty Commission because, of course, now we have some new guidance that was given through the Justice Department. And if you go to the website, you also see this incredible podcast is called the Lieutenant Dan podcast. Now, Lieutenant Dan, not out of Forrest Gump. This is Dan Patrick, who's the lieutenant governor. But anyway, Kelly was on and it has been the most popular podcast in their history.

[00:20:55] And so that is a way in which you if you haven't watched all the programs and you can go to First Liberty and watch them all. They do a good job of kind of summarizing some of that. But many of you wonder, OK, we have a commission. What happens? It's written is put on the desk and that's that. Nope. We already have some things that are guidelines that are coming out. So we're going to talk about that. And Kelly did talk about I used to live in Connecticut.

[00:21:19] What might be happening right now is to whether or not we can even have the nativity scene in Connecticut, Hartford, Connecticut. We'll talk about that right after this. Who can you trust? Years ago, many of us could probably have provided a fairly long list. But today, well, today, it seems we almost can't trust anyone.

[00:21:46] Educators don't even know what a woman is anymore. Many so-called public servants have shown all they care about is themselves. The FBI has been accused of bias, law breaking, betrayal and journalism. It's largely corrupt with no Clark Kent standing up for truth, justice in the American way. All of this is why point of view radio is more important than ever.

[00:22:13] And your part in supporting us is more needed than ever. Do your part today in supporting trustworthy truth. Stand with us and help push back the lies and the darkness. Visit pointofview.net. Don't put it off. Take a moment right now and click on that big blue button that says donate now. Or call to invest at 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net.

[00:22:42] And 800-347-5151. Point of view will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:12] And now here again is Kirby Anderson. Back once again talking still about religious liberty. Just a lot to cover here today. And we are privileged to have in studio with us Kelly Shackelford and Liberty McCarter. And let me just mention one of the things I said in passing, which I would recommend if you're not familiar with some of the conversations that took place at the National Religious Liberty Commission. Of course, you can go to firstliberty.org and watch those if you want.

[00:23:38] But I thought a great summary of that came when Dan Patrick, who was one of the chairs, along with Ben Carson. And, of course, Kelly Shackelford was on there and Dr. Phil and Eric Metaxas. I mean, it's kind of a who's who of all sorts of people that were on the commission. They just kind of sat back for at least one of the podcasts and just kind of reminisced about all of the various testimony, much of which was provided by many of your clients. I thought it was just really good.

[00:24:06] So if you haven't gone to the Lieutenant Dan podcast, he's your member because it sounds like Forrest Gump. But he is, of course, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. That was very popular. And, of course, the one that I posted before that also had one with David Barton. So you could learn David Barton, Kelly Shackelford. Those would be very easy things to listen to or to watch. And you go out on YouTube and find them. Of course, you can find them on your podcast.

[00:24:33] But let me come back to this, Liberty, because that commission has now proposed some things that can change. And it looks like now the Department of Justice actually posted some guidelines. Yeah, I'm looking at the guidelines right now, which I'm so thankful that they responded to the commission in this way.

[00:24:51] And yet it's just a reminder reading through several of these that it's a shame that we have to be so explicit, for instance, that the free exercise of religion includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one's religious beliefs. But you have had so many cases, as listeners will remember, where people were told by government officials that they had to do things that violated their conscience or their religious beliefs.

[00:25:20] So there are so many guidelines in here that it's like, one, it's sad to even have to say it because it kind of was already said in the Constitution. But two, I'm really glad that they are saying it. Yeah, there's in fact, before I get to that, let me respond to the Lieutenant Dan. We have one of the episodes is on the Religious Liberty Commission and what happened and what's coming forward and all that. The other one, if people are interested, I mean, Dan just we just started talking and he's like, oh, I want to do this.

[00:25:48] And it made a whole separate episode. And it was about how the Supreme Court works. Right. What about all these recent decisions, birthright citizens and all that? Explain this to me. And and so we talked through all that because a lot of people tend to look at Supreme Court decisions and it's like a public policy deal for them. It's like, do they like the results on a public policy matter? And I said, you know, that's really not the court's job. They're not a legislature.

[00:26:15] They're supposed to simply take the words in the statute or the Constitution and faithfully apply those. And it might be that the policy is bad in the statute or whatever. But Justice Thomas will still say, but this is what it says. And we talked about a number of the decisions and overall how the court has moved. Right.

[00:26:38] Even though people on the more conservative side don't like some of the decisions, they can focus on one or two and not realize there's been a pretty significant shift in in moving back to some principles and some of the words of the Constitution. So I just mentioned that for people who are interested in that and the Lieutenant Dan podcast.

[00:27:00] But, yeah, I mean, the the Religious Liberty Commission, you know, one of the things that we this really goes to what Liberty was saying. One of the things that we saw over and over again with the testimony is some government official was persecuting someone because they were either fearful or just totally misinformed about the law. And the most common thing was separation of church and state.

[00:27:30] Well, those words are nowhere in the Constitution. And so they don't understand what the words are. And so that's why what the attorney general did. This attorney general's guidance letter is so important. It went out to every federal agency department. And think about a lot of these federal bureaucrats think, well, we're the government. And there's separation of church and state.

[00:27:56] So whenever religion touches anything we do, we have to stop it. And so that really that leads to discrimination, to violations. So, you know, when there's a program to get people off of drugs and they have money that's available and they say, well, we'll give it to you secular people. But Teen Challenge doesn't get any money. You can't do that. That's discrimination.

[00:28:22] And they need to be told that because you can imagine the mindset of a lot of people is they don't want to get in trouble. They don't, you know. And so the attorney general's guidance, and this is something common that presidents, administrations, attorney generals have done in the past.

[00:28:39] But this one is especially neat as far as I'm concerned because it's stronger than we've had before because we've had a bunch of wins in the last five to six years. And what was so fun to me was going, yeah, Kennedy is a key case. That was our case. Groff on religious freedom in the workplace, really significant win.

[00:29:04] So they're citing as the big cases that really do set the law now a number of cases that we had at First Liberty. And so it's fun to see. I love telling the supporters, look at what you're causing, right? You might just look at one decision. But that decision is really having waves of impact and opening up freedom for lots of people. And the attorney general of the United States is now citing these to give guidance to all the federal agencies and departments.

[00:29:33] So it's fun to watch that roll out. But it's a great thing. And so what's fun is we're going to have that, which is already in place. And then we're going to do our – we have to vote one more time on the Religious Liberty Commission on the final report and recommendations. And those recommendations, which I think if you go through the whole report, it's like 105 recommendations.

[00:29:59] Well, the president agreed to extend our commission for an extra year so that we can make sure they get implemented. So we're going to vote on that sometime within the next month. We should pass that through onto the president. He will say, I want to get these recommendations done, and then we're going to follow up on that. And so if people haven't read the report, that's out in public too, the draft report about what we're saying should be done to improve things.

[00:30:27] We saw so much testimony and so many violations that you start to see a lot of trends. But one of the main things was people didn't understand. They would just throw around terms like separation of church and state. And in doing so, they would violate the Constitution. And so education is a key component of letting people know what the real law is and what the Constitution really says. Real quickly, just before we take a break, I thought since I mentioned Connecticut real quickly,

[00:30:55] this is a case where the Family Institute of Connecticut requested to display a small nativity scene. That can't be a problem in the state of Connecticut, do you think? Well, apparently it is. And First Liberty and, of course, the international law firm Jones Day sent a letter asking Connecticut to reconsider some of their comments. Well, they have literally a policy, a law that says you can display things here unless it's religious.

[00:31:24] Well, I mean, thank you. You know, I always love it when the discrimination is in writing. It's a little easier. You know, sometimes you get it on video like we did with LifeWise out in Washington when the school board members said, I have animus against religious groups like LifeWise. You know, you're like, oh, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. But this is clearly unconstitutional.

[00:31:50] You can't say we're going to allow people to display things here, by the way, free speech. But anybody who says anything or is religious, we're going to ban them. That is just a clear religious discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. So we'll see if they decide to follow the law voluntarily or if they need the help of a federal judge to help them, you know, come to the conclusion that they should really follow the Constitution.

[00:32:17] We're going to take a break, but when we come back, we'll stay on it for a little bit longer because, Liberty, you've done a very good podcast, a Know Why podcast, and why is Texas requiring students to read the Bible, which I think relates very much. But just before we take a break, Kelly, some people might be saying, how is it you know all this? Well, there's a thing called this First Liberty Insider, and that's, as a matter of fact, what I'm holding up right now. And so if you haven't subscribed, there's a way in which we have a link to First Liberty.

[00:32:43] Scroll down to the bottom, and you'll find a place where it says First Liberty Insider, and they can sign up. It's free, right? Yeah, we have people – we only send it to people who ask for it. You'll get it every Friday. It'll list four or five of the biggest things we see happening in the week on religious freedom. And I think we have about 850,000 people that get that every Friday, and it's just a great source of information. I would say as a point of view, listener, number one, you can pray for some of these situations, right?

[00:33:11] You're going to see, well, Coach Kennedy's at the Supreme Court tomorrow, right? You can pray for Coach Kennedy. Yes. Number two, you can take some of these stories, and you can send some of these to your friends. Because what it will do is it will let them know that we are winning, okay? We're winning – over 90% of these cases, we're winning. Because the Constitution protects religious freedom, that will embolden people to live out their faith more directly and not be intimidated.

[00:33:36] You know, Liberty, I've been traveling around quite a bit meeting donors, and they many times say, I would not know of any of these successes if I hadn't listened to Point of View, because I'm just not talking about that even in the Christian media. But we are here. Let's talk about whether or not Texas can require students to read the Bible right after this.

[00:34:28] A Washington Post article received lots of attention last week. According to Stephanie Aliaga, global market strategist for J.P. Morgan, this mismatch has been building. Hiring, she writes, has narrowed meaningfully in recent years and shifted away from the jobs graduates typically aim for. More workers are needed in the care economy, especially for lower-wage jobs in home and personal care. Many open jobs require medical expertise.

[00:34:57] According to the Post John Marcus, far fewer students are majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand. Economists predict shortages in jobs AI simply cannot replace. John Marcus says we'll be short tens or even hundreds of thousands of nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mental health counselors, construction workers, and airplane mechanics. He quotes Ron Hetrick, chief economist for Lightcast, a labor market data company, who says,

[00:35:23] We have pumped so many young people into business and finance, it's like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society is saying we really don't need them. Give the Washington Post credit for articulating the primary reason for current and increasing workforce shortages. It's our protracted decline in birth rates, which now coincides with a record wave of retirements. If we cannot meaningfully address these demographic shifts, we risk losing the ability to build, compete, and even to keep society functioning. May God grant us the wisdom to solve this.

[00:35:52] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Once again, one of the things we feature so often is the Know Why podcast. And since we've been talking about religious liberty, I thought we'd finish off this hour by talking about why is Texas requiring students to read the Bible? And Liberty, you do, I think it's about 48 minutes of interviews.

[00:36:22] So people can click on that button there, click on the one that says Know More, and actually listen to all of it or see some of the summary. But in some respects, it gets back to some of the conversation we've had with First Liberty, but also the desire that if you're going to teach English, and you're not even going to have people that have any biblical literacy, they're going to be reading these phrases and not even know they come from the Bible.

[00:36:47] Yeah, so this is a really fun one because, of course, I think we talked about it on the Weekend Edition a few weeks ago, but it went viral. I was reading headlines even from the BBC, so it went viral internationally that Texas is going to require students to read the Bible. And, you know, when I looked at the actual updates from the State Department of Education in Texas,

[00:37:12] actually what I saw was a really great revamped English language program that was great for a lot of reasons, which I go into in the podcast. For one, they're requiring students to read whole books again, which if you haven't been in the education system in a while, they haven't been doing that in a lot of school districts around the nation. Like students have gone from reading whole books in English class to reading a paragraph on a screen. And it's just like that's not literature.

[00:37:41] So one, you can go and see every book that Texas students will be required to read from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. They were encouraged to read them in print form instead of on screens, which, again, is a great update. Right. They guess what? Local school districts actually have the freedom to add to the reading list. So if they don't like what's on the reading list, it says this is minimum requirement.

[00:38:09] But local school districts can add if they want to, which I think is a great local freedom. There's maybe one or two, but mostly just one Bible story or passage per grade level. So when you take into like the whole revamp that they've done, which I think overall is just great for education, period, a very small portion of that includes the Bible.

[00:38:34] So what I do in the episode is actually go through at every grade level and list what parts of the Bible students are going to be reading. And it's stuff that, you know, Psalm 23, you have some Matthew 5 in there, the Beatitudes, Ecclesiastes 3 to everything. There is a season. You have the parable of the prodigal son. And what's also interesting is if you look at what other books they're reading at that grade level, there's a clear theme.

[00:39:01] So, for instance, in high school, they have they're reading Julius Caesar. They're reading some other tragedies and things like that from literature, from all these different traditions. And then they read a few chapters from the book of Job as well, which is quite tragic in many in many parts. So it really makes sense when you dig into it. And then, Kelly, I'm sure you can comment on this, too, because I wasn't aware of this before I started doing research.

[00:39:23] But there's this case, District of Abington Township v. Shemp, where you actually had some concurring opinions where they said they were basically saying that I think a school district couldn't force students to say the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of the school day or something. But they said this does not foreclose teaching about the Holy Scriptures in literature or history. And then another concurring opinion said, like, basically, you can't teach history and not teach religion as well.

[00:39:52] And I thought people are just kind of skipping over that and jumping to the, you know, what you were talking about, being scared of this separation of church and state. Yeah, it's, you know, one of the first thoughts I have when I hear all, you know, the headline is, you know, requiring children to read the Bible. And, you know, which is, I mean, like we're giving kids, like they're giving kids Bibles and saying you need to read the whole Bible. It's the opposite.

[00:40:20] Listen, you know, when you think of how we started as a country, what was the first school book everybody had? It was the New England Primer. Yes. Which taught them the ABCs all based upon Scripture. Adam Falls. I mean, yeah, that's what everybody used. So we've gone from where the whole thing was Scripture using to teach to now you put one Bible story in an entire year and there's a panic.

[00:40:49] It's a five alarm fire. Right. And it's ridiculous. And, you know, this is exactly right. The cases have always said that, you know, it's fine to teach the Bible as literature. I mean, a number of states have an elective or required class on the Bible. Yes. Now, it doesn't mean you have to. It's not like done in a religious way.

[00:41:16] But you do read the Bible because, you know, take Shakespeare. I think I heard last there's over 1,200 references to the Bible. Sometimes it's a phrase, you know. But if you don't know that, then you're not going to even understand what he's saying. And so it's a part of education to include all of these aspects. And people say, well, why aren't you reading from the Koran?

[00:41:42] There's not a lot of that in our history and tradition that comes into the other things you're reading. But, you know, like Liberty said, I mean, if you're reading tragedies, to read some of Job is – I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. Which, again, you know, there's parts of that that are the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Like these are things that are kind of common vernacular. But you don't know that if you don't read the source material.

[00:42:08] And people, you know, kind of to that point of what if they were being forced to read something else. I've seen a lot of tweets and things like that as kind of that gotcha. And my response is, well, if it was, you know, academically relevant, like you're taking a world religions class or something like that, then sure. I think, you know, educate yourself about what – 75 percent of the world's population is religious.

[00:42:33] Whether you like it or not, Christianity and the Bible had a big influence on our country in particular. But I think the more you can educate yourself about other people's beliefs, the better. Again, one of the things that you quote is from the Wall Street Journal where they have the old joke that Shakespeare is full of cliches. And it's funny because he invented them all. And they said the same could be said about the Bible because most people are unaware of how many times they're quoting phrases from the Bible. And so I think that is very significant.

[00:43:00] So if you go to the website, the knowwhypodcast.com, you'll find some material. But one of the things I thought I'd also highlight is you have a link to the imprimis that Daniel Dreisbach did on the whole issue of the origins and danger of the wall of separation between church and state. But I've been looking for my upcoming issue because, Kelly, I understand that you're going to be in one of these imprimis from Hillsdale. Well, let's see. There's a big backlog there.

[00:43:24] But I gave a speech at Hillsdale on religious freedom, and they certainly have all the words. They might decide that they need something at a higher level than what I was going through. But Hillsdale is a great place. It is. They do a great job of getting information out there. And obviously there's a lot of people in line to get their imprimis out there because it goes to millions of people free of charge. Well, be watching for it.

[00:43:52] I've been watching for it to see if he shows up and everything. But, again, Know Why Podcast. And, again, people can watch that video. You have all sorts of links and articles and resources there. So, again, that's one of the things that we encourage people to know about. And, again, they can subscribe. So they can automatically have that show up on their podcast, can't they? Yes. So anywhere you like to listen to podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, you can find the Know Why Podcast there.

[00:44:20] And so typically episodes come out every Wednesday. And just like I did with this case, I really do want to drill down into the why, get beyond the headline and why is this happening, help us understand it a little better. And hopefully you don't have to agree or disagree with me, but we can all be talking about the same thing because maybe we understand it a little better. Let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll get into some other issues, including the Democratic Socialists of America. I might just mention that we still have the Action Alert on Support the SAVE Act.

[00:44:50] We've been talking about it this week. I talked about it. Liberty did. On Monday, we have John Lott on because we posted his article. He's going to come on and talk about that as well. But we certainly, if you have not encouraged your two senators to vote for that, let me encourage you to do that. But we're going to focus more time and attention on that on Monday. When we come back, though, we're going to talk about the Democratic Socialists of America right after this. The Bible tells us not to worry.

[00:45:19] And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry. God gives us a next step. He says we need to pray. But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult. And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement, a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation.

[00:45:48] Each week, you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans, along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others. We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand. Will you commit to Pray for America? Go to pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe.

[00:46:18] Again, that's pointofview.net. Click on the Pray for America banner. Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America. Point of View will continue after this. Across America, live.

[00:46:48] This is Point of View. And now, Kirby Anderson. Second hour today. Of course, we spent a lot of time in the first hour talking about a lot of positive developments, especially as it relates to religious liberty. But now we focus on some of the real challenges. A couple of articles here. One by Karl Rove, which we'll focus on first and a little bit later get into some others.

[00:47:17] But this one has to do with the whole platform of the democratic socialist of America. Kelly Shackelford in studio and Liberty McCarter. And Liberty, as we go through the list, I think he's done a very good job of summarizing the democratic socialist of America's platform. Because ultimately, if you want to summarize it, everything is going to be free. Boy, you think medicine is, health care is expensive now. Imagine how expensive it's going to be when it's free.

[00:47:46] And as well as the fact that then we want to make sure we have no borders. We want to disband the police. We want to disband the Department of War. We want to make sure that there are no prisons, no borders, and just a few other things. And then, of course, we'll get Kelly's comments about putting the Constitution on the chopping block. But in a couple of pages, I think Karl Rove has done a good job of helping people understand

[00:48:14] what would happen if these individuals were in power. Your thoughts? Well, yeah. Yeah, he did a great job. And I went to the platform website. And it's just a joke. I mean, you read through and it's got this big print. Imagine taking a day off of work in the future without capitalism. Speaking of bills, you don't really have them anymore. They say your retirement is publicly funded.

[00:48:41] Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren't for-profit businesses. They are common goods and utilities. This is literally painting a picture. And they've got cute little cartoons all the way down of some supposed utopia. So it's like, oh, here we go again. And it just doesn't work like that. This is interesting. I like to read the Free Press. And they have kind of their comedy column every Friday. But it's got some news in it, too.

[00:49:07] It included a quote from the co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America. And he was actually asked by a reporter, like, how would the local bodega owners in New York City feel over having government grocery stores that might put them out of business because they don't have to pay property taxes or rent? And he said maybe they shouldn't have been in that business in the first place. So now you're talking to, you know, your small business owners. We can quickly see how this is going to go. Yeah.

[00:49:37] It's, I mean, this is just a huge example of bad education, a lack of education. Anybody who's, you know, either older and they learned about communism when they were in school or younger and has, you know, gone to effort to find the things that they're not being taught would know that it's a total failure, that communism and socialism are a horrible idea.

[00:50:06] They lead to usually immense suffering and death and a lot of murder. And so, but these people are just gleefully, you know, going along and they're just unbelievably ignorant. I mean, it really is hard to watch. But here's the scary thing. They had this poll just in the last, just this week.

[00:50:31] And while a majority of Americans, I think it was 60-something percent or, I don't know, are against communism, when they split it out amongst Democrats and Republicans, it was a majority of the Democrats were in favor. It was like 53 percent. So this is a real problem for the Democratic Party because this is a lunatic fringe, and yet the fringe is taking a significant portion of the party.

[00:50:58] And, I mean, when they go into elections with this stuff, you know, most Americans understand that you actually, you know, have to work to get money, that, you know, everything's not free. I mean, they understand all these things. And that's why the polling, the analysis that's been done has shown that these people,

[00:51:25] the Democratic Socialists, are high percentage white, well-educated. In other words, they've been to the colleges and all this. They haven't got a good education, but they've been to these places. And they're not the normal person, the worker, the person who understands how it really works. They've been coddled. They get money. And they don't have to work. And they don't have to. So this is a small percentage of the country.

[00:51:54] And they're going to get a real wake-up call when they hit the general. They might find a little district here and there where they can get one of their, you know, socialist persons in, but they're disconnected with reality. And it's going to come to, you know, they're going to have to deal with that when they get to these elections and they get with regular voters. You know, one of the things we talked about yesterday is Nate Silver, who's basically left to center.

[00:52:21] But nevertheless, he went and did a very significant analysis. And as you say, they are highly educated in terms of graduate degrees sometimes. But they're also downwardly mobile. In other words, they sort of in many cases think, I did everything right. I went to college. I amassed huge student loans. And now I'm working as a barista. Or I'm working at maybe some kind of delivery because I can't find a job.

[00:52:50] And so the argument being made is, well, you weren't a failure. Your parents aren't a failure. Even the government is. It's the system. And so we need to overturn the system. Well, the system they're talking about, Liberty, is a constitutional republic and a free market economy, right? Yeah. So, you know, I can sit here and make fun of the DSA, and I will.

[00:53:14] But, you know, I don't want to underplay some of the economic struggles that young adults face. We talked about this recently on the Next Generation Roundtable. You know, student debt is a huge problem. I think, you know, universities and government loans have really exploited young people in that way.

[00:53:33] But there is a big difference between overthrowing the system, revolution, and saying maybe there are some things we can fix or reform without overthrowing the whole system, which has provided one of the most just prolific and well-off societies in history, not to mention the way that capitalism as an economic system has transformed the lives of people around the world.

[00:54:01] So I think, you know, there is economic hurt. There are maybe some expectations that have been dashed. But then to go this extreme, you know, what really, again, to know why, really drill down into it, I think it's a worldview issue. And this is one of the things we talk about, like you said, in this month's issue of Outlook magazine. But when you look back at Marxism, it all started from an atheistic standpoint.

[00:54:27] And so if you eradicate the biblical worldview, you've got to come up with new reasons why people hurt sometimes, why there's injustice. And so instead of sin and sin nature, private property is now the bad guy. And that's what people have to fight against. That's just the same thing that we're seeing. Well, we're going to take a break. Rick, let me just mention again that certainly the August issue, for those of you watching online, is, of course, the one on the rise of socialism. Of course, we have a booklet on socialism.

[00:54:57] And that one is a summary of Donesta Souza, our good friend, who said to her, let me just give you a list of all the different countries over the years that have engaged in socialism. And every single one of them, more than two dozen of them, are failures. And then we even had one on the road to serfdom, which was one of the warnings from Friedrich Hayek and others. But when we come back, some of the questions about, well, what is going on with the younger generation? Alan Joseph Bauer has an interesting perspective on that. We'll talk about that right after this.

[00:55:42] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Advanced quantum computing is still in the future, but what happens when Q Day arrives? This is a day when powerful quantum computers can break public key cryptography that protects our digital world. Quantum computers don't work like normal computers. They use what are called quibits and can solve programs and problems dramatically faster than even supercomputers. That would mean that they would threaten modern cryptography.

[00:56:12] Today's digital ciphers use complex mathematical formulas that transform data into encrypted messages that can be stored or transmitted and only can be read by a digital key. People using Bitcoin have been warned about the future quantum computer that could break into the algorithm that secures the private key. But those same computers could break into encrypted bank accounts and even hack into nuclear launch codes. The threat is much greater than what it might pose to someone with a Bitcoin wallet.

[00:56:41] Let's put all these fears about the future in some perspective. The latest advances in quantum computer technology have chips with 100 qubits, which is hard to maintain that amount of processing power without lots of errors. Experts estimate that you would need 1,000 to 4,000 logical qubits to breach current security. Also, we need to note that for many years cryptographers have been developing post-quantum algorithms that can be used when it is needed some years from now.

[00:57:10] The quantum frontier has a potential to reshape our future. We need to be prepared to protect our digital world from criminals or hostile countries that would use this new technology against us. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view. Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net.

[00:57:42] You're listening to Point of View. Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Back once again, Kelly Shackelford, Liberty McCarter with us. And as I was mentioning the August issue of The Rise of Socialism, of course, Liberty's written an article, I've written an article, Pentextra's written an article, but Gary Bauer's written one on socialism and anti-Semitism. And we got talking about that the other day because not only has Secretary of State Marco Rubio talked about the left-wing violence,

[00:58:11] gave a very good speech about that, but Representative Adam Smith, who's a Democrat, said that because he wasn't sure he could go along with all the condemnation of Israel, he says that then he was exposed to tactics that were used by the far left, including a menacing intimidation campaign against him. They vandalized his home. They set fire to something in the driveway.

[00:58:37] Demonstrators harassed him and his neighbors all night long and had a staff member that was physically assaulted. And, Kelly, we're starting to find now that if in any kind of conversation, if a Democrat refuses to say that Israel is committing genocide, and if they would disagree with, of course, the mayor of New York City wanting to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, they are done in the Democratic Party.

[00:59:06] So this issue of anti-Semitism, which you've been watching for years in First Liberty, has really gotten out of hand, hasn't it? Yeah, and I think it's really connected to what we were just talking about with the whole, you know, this Democratic Socialist group and how, you know, people would look at it and go, why is, like, being, you know, anti-Israel-like one of the requirements? That seems odd to people, right?

[00:59:35] And I know a lot of listeners, because I thought this, I was on the Religious Liberty Commission, we had a hearing on anti-Semitism, and I started to realize there's some really dark things going on in the country. Anti-Semitism is rising both on the left and the right, but obviously on the left, at much bigger numbers, we saw some of the recent votes, things that we'd never seen before, and this is becoming a requirement for the candidates that are way left,

[01:00:05] the socialists. And the reason, you know, we just, we had, I just had a conference where Rod Dreher was one of our speakers, and he talked a little bit about this, but, you know, what I've learned through all this is, as Liberty was describing, there are young people who came out of school being told, you know, just work hard, study hard, and, you know, all this will pay off. And Charlie, Kirk used to talk about this too.

[01:00:35] And then they get out, and they've got these huge debts, and they're working at a coffee shop or whatever, right? And it's very disillusioning. And all of, you know, I mean, how many people, young people can afford a house now? When I was young, you could afford a house. Even in your 20s, you could buy a house. It's very difficult for younger people now. It's like all the things, all the dreams,

[01:01:04] all the things they were told kind of feel like they're lies. And everybody's been lying to them, and the system's lying to them, and the institutions aren't trustworthy. And so, now, Charlie talked against that. He said, get married, have a family, and we saw a lot of that, the truth in that, of course, which ultimately comes from Scripture. But these people who are angry, who feel they've been done wrong,

[01:01:33] they need something to blame. And this is what leads to the anti-Semitism. It's a lot easier to point to a conspiracy theory, which is always what they point to. And Dreher went through how this happened in other countries when there was sort of this kind of collapse with the youth that's always where they're led. And so you will see, he was actually going through his book, Live Not by Lies,

[01:02:02] and he said he took the major points from an earlier work about this kind of an upheaval. And I forget the author's name, but I think it was a woman if I'm not mistaken, but he went through each of the elements to see and was pointing out how we were seeing it in the United States. But he said, in my book, I left out the last one because I didn't see it being culturally at play right now, and it was anti-Semitism. Wow.

[01:02:29] And so it's the natural progression of what you see in this. And so that is what is going on ultimately when you look at this nonsensical anti-Semitism. And they're covering it a lot. I mean, look, you can disagree on public policy with regard to Israel and all this, but a lot of what you see, the anti-Israel stuff, is not really about it. Behind it is anti-Semitism. And so you're seeing this break out

[01:02:58] because of this disillusioned youth. Now, the hopeful thing is at the same time, we're seeing them flood into the churches. Again, they're looking for answers. They're looking for meaning. But as a number of, and as Rod said, as a number of pastors have said, they've been told a lot of things that needs to be unwound. They need to understand the truth, the Bible. So this is a real opportunity, I think, for the churches if they'll reach out.

[01:03:27] And don't slap these people. I mean, love them. And let's begin to dig into the word and let's see what God says about all these things. So it's both a danger and it's what we see with the socialism and the communism that looks like total nonsense. That's tied in always with the anti-Semitism. But there's hope on the other side if the church will do what it's supposed to do. Yeah, I love when you said it's so much easier to blame a conspiracy theory.

[01:03:56] And I think that is so true because things don't work out. Like that's the world we live in. Sometimes you were given a false promise or a false expectation. Sometimes there is injustice. And if we have a framework of truth with eternal hope as well to understand all of that in, then that can ground people. And they can still work for reform or point out things in their government or whatever that aren't right. But when there's no hope

[01:04:24] to ground yourself in, then you just want to tear everything down and then have a scapegoat to blame. So I just want to mention, I actually talked about anti-Semitism this week on the Know Why podcast because one of the sources that is kind of pushing this propaganda on young people and feeding into this disillusionment is, of course, social media. So I think, you know, if you're not spending a lot of time on TikTok and Instagram, you may not be aware of just how pervasive it is and how algorithms, of course,

[01:04:54] target that kind of content toward young people. So it's very important to be aware of. And so that's something that we're trying to educate people about. Well, again, I think that's just the illustration of why to encourage young people that you know to get on the Know Why podcast and the rest. And just before we take a break, I thought I'd just mention this piece by Alan Joseph Bauer, who, of course, oftentimes looks at it from a Jewish point of view. But he talks about the fact that our younger generation is bored and their bored might actually destroy Western civilization.

[01:05:23] Because if you think about this, some of these young people that are complaining about the world are the same age as those people that hit the beaches in Normandy were fighting in World War II or then later on fighting in Vietnam or, in some respects, enduring some pretty significant hardships. So on the one hand, I do want to agree that we have not done well with the younger generation in large part because the value of the dollar has dropped. And because it has, it takes more dollars to buy a house.

[01:05:53] And so people that have assets, whether it's houses or stocks or gold, silver, whatever it might be, they're doing better than everyone else. And this whole generation is saying, I just can't even afford a house. But there's another part of it as well. And that is, as he points out, people are only as serious as the times require of them. And we're not in the midst of a Great Depression right now. We're not in the midst of World War II. We're not even in the midst of a Cold War. We might be headed towards one of those.

[01:06:22] But I think that whole issue of what is happening with that generation is something I know you've addressed, Liberty, many times on your podcast. Yeah, yeah. This is so important because, like you said, there are problems, you know, with inflation and everything that are legitimate concerns for the younger generation. And yet, at the same time, we live in a more privileged society and time with more wealth than people in the past

[01:06:51] or from around the world were even able to imagine. And so that perspective is so important to, again, not to say, oh, just ignore, you know, problems or economic concerns, but to ground yourself in reality and in history and have perspective at the same time, too, and realize we do have so much to be grateful for. I mean, people are posting these complaints and everything on their iPhones. And so, you know, there is perspective to be had, but having a nuanced conversation

[01:07:20] is a lot more difficult than just, again, blaming a conspiracy theory or wanting to tear everything down. Yeah, first world problems we call it sometimes than all the rest. Well, when we come back, just briefly, I thought we might just talk a little bit about the war in Iran and its particular piece by Jim Garrity, Straight Talk, reminds us that we talk about the Strait of Hormuz, but there are some other ones as well. And it illustrates, again, that we need to make sure

[01:07:49] that when we are spending money at the Department of War, used to be called the Department of Defense, that we're preparing for the next war, not actually using the technology of the past war. And drones and choke points are becoming an issue. So I thought we'd talk about that briefly right after these important messages. America's founding was shaped

[01:08:17] by a biblical worldview, but you will rarely hear that truth today. Think about this. If your child or grandchild was asked to articulate how Christian values shaped America's founding based on the education they received in school and for popular media, could they do it? Well, you can be part of restoring an appreciation for America's godly heritage, and we need you. Truth Team Week is right around the corner,

[01:08:47] kicking off September 22nd, and you're invited to participate in Point of View's mission to restore America's godly heritage and a Christian worldview in this nation by joining the Truth Team. But you don't have to wait to make a difference. You can make a donation right now and learn more about the Truth Team by visiting us online at pointofview.net or by calling

[01:09:16] 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View.

[01:09:47] 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, is Kirby Anderson. Once again, let me just mention that as a program note that we, as I said before, we'll have John Lott on with us on Monday, one of our guests. We actually have two guests, but he's one that will be talking about the Save America Act. Luis Marcos will be with us on Tuesday, and we'll be talking about his wonderful and very creative idea,

[01:10:17] an apologetics dinner party, which is very interesting. Philip Geraghi will be with us because we are concerned about the threats to the Supreme Court. We've had a number of Supreme Court justices you might have noticed the other day when we talked about this in which Amy Coney Barrett and others talked about the kinds of threats that they are facing and certainly talking about the need to pray for them. Since we've been talking about Israel, we are going to be talking about what we can do to help our friends in Israel on Wednesday. Thursday, of course, I know you have your Next Generation

[01:10:46] roundtable, and then Kelly will be back with us with Dr. Merrill Matthews. So lots of things covered next week, but one of the pieces I also posted here, it's called Straight Talk, the threats to the world's waterways, and I hadn't really thought about this, but there are actually six. We always think about the Strait of Hormuz. Sometimes we hear about the Strait of Malacca, which is between Malaysia and Indonesia, but you add to that the Suez Canal, the Straits of Gibraltar, even the Panama Canal. Liberty, I'm thinking

[01:11:15] we need to rethink how we have some of these choke points out there in the world, and given the fact that it's relatively inexpensive to produce drones, that could disrupt the world very quickly, couldn't it? Yeah, I had not thought about this either. This is another argument for studying geography. You never know when you might need to understand what the world actually looks like, because you have some very real geographical realities combined with modern technology

[01:11:45] like drones. You could have enemies to the United States, people that want to have terror attacks and disrupt the world economy to have the ability even with a much smaller budget and fewer resources to cause a lot of disruption through drone attacks and things like that in these very narrow confined spaces that are very, very important for economies all around the world.

[01:12:15] So this is an important consideration. I don't have any answers, but I'm at least glad to know about this consideration because it's just not something that was in the top of my mind. Well, maybe we need to start working on anti-drone technologies, jammers, and a number of other things, and that gets us back to some of the tech issues here as well. But, Kelly, this is the bigger issue, and that is, I think most people are saying, when is the Iran war going to end? And it seems to me that there are some

[01:12:43] very definite action steps that the president's been taking, but still the incredible resistance from the leadership there in Iran. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's always hard when, I mean, what do we know, right? We know what we see and what the media says, but you know that, you know, our Department of War and the president have a whole lot more intel than we do. Of course. Because we look at this and we're like, well, why can't they, why can't they clear

[01:13:13] this up, right? Why can't they just totally dominate the strait, right? You would think, I mean, you know, we put all their, all their navy into the bottom of the ocean, so it's like, why can't we do that? And things like Carg Island, which is where almost all their oil comes through. I mean, that would seem to be really easy, just take it over. You don't even have to go there, just blockade it. But there's some reason

[01:13:42] why we're not doing that and I don't, I don't know. Maybe the suffering that would occur amongst the population would be great and that would look bad for the, I don't know, but it's hard to understand why, I mean, we could go and blow out all their bridges and their water would be gone. You know, I mean, there's all kinds of things we could do and we're not, we're not doing them. Now, supposedly we're going to do more, but we just, you know, we're outsiders without the intel and we're just like going,

[01:14:12] this seems to be taking a lot longer than it seems like it should and I don't know why that is. I don't know why some of these more strategic things haven't been done. People have been talking about them from day one, but they haven't been done yet. Let's see if we can't talk about what this might mean for the midterm elections because after all, we are in the midst of the midterms here and we are, as Americans, very impatient people and there are a lot of people that are going to be saying all I'm going to be concerned about is the price

[01:14:41] of gasoline or the price of food and right now, of course, an oil shock which is starting to hit the world, hitting China much more than it's hitting us. I mean, I was rattling off the numbers the other day on how effective China has been affected by this shock because what we are dealing with is just an incredible amount of threats to them. For example, three-fourths of China's oil consumption

[01:15:10] is, of course, imported, and half of their natural gas is imported, and a third of their daily food is imported. Well, a lot of this comes from the Strait of Hormuz or some of these other choke points. That does not bode well for China. So if you think we're having a problem, just imagine what China's going through right now. Yeah. It will be. Yeah. I mean, there was a meme going around on social media shortly after the Iran war began, and it was

[01:15:40] basically, you know, somebody at the gas pump, and they're like, oh, you know, why is gas getting more expensive? We're in a war, and it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, and then all of a sudden you care about it. And so, yeah, you're right. You know, Americans, we are so used to being comfortable, and we, I think, sometimes forget to appreciate that we don't have to encounter warfare like the rest of the world often has to encounter on their home turf,

[01:16:08] but that's not really what drives people to the polls. I, for one, don't want the United States to be nuked by Iran, so if we can prevent that, then I'm all for that, but I know people, we don't always have long memories or very much forethought into the future, and so I think it is going to be a big concern in the midterms. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's obviously affecting things because people are, you know, they went through the Biden administration where there was a really

[01:16:38] hit to the middle and lower class. There were people that literally can't fill up their gas tank right now, and they hadn't back then, and if it wasn't for the war, I think we've seen a lot of turning in the economic numbers, right? But the war is keeping that up, and people are feeling, still feeling, you're supposed to fix this, and so definitely they tend, you tend in a midterm to vote

[01:17:07] against the party in office. It's what happened, I think, every time but two in the last, I don't know, hundred years or whatever, it swings back. The only thing that's different, number one, this war could end in a month, and that would be off the table by the time they get to the election, right? But the other thing is there's some other factors that are going to be at play in this election that we haven't seen.

[01:17:38] There's the redistricting, which went more positively for the Republicans. There's the Supreme Court case. All those districts that were written based upon race, which is now unconstitutional, have to be redone. Supposedly, that's going to shift, I don't know, maybe as many as 18 in favor of the Republicans in the House. So there are these things, and then you add to that what we talked about earlier. Socialism. The socialism.

[01:18:08] And that's going to, you know, you got James Carville just going crazy against this because he realizes the suicide that this is for the Democratic Party. So that throws a whole bunch of other elements where usually the Republicans could expect to lose a number of seats, probably in the Senate, but definitely in the House. And now I don't think anybody really knows. But the Iran war is the one thing that the

[01:18:37] president would probably like to get off the table, but they hadn't figured out a way to do it yet. Well, again, just one of those very interesting kind of conversations that we've had before, because if you want to look at the foreign policy issues, we've talked about those before, just imagine where we were in October 2023. There's no real Hamas threat anymore. Houthis are mentioned a little bit in this article. Hezbollah, Iran, like I said, the Navy's at the bottom of the Gulf of Oman,

[01:19:07] and the Air Force does not exist, and all the kinds of threats. Israel lately has been even providing military intelligence to some of the Gulf states. It looked like we had a deal with Saudi Arabia, and then we backed off, but I think we're going to maybe see Saudi Arabia eventually join the Abraham Accords. But Liberty, as we pointed out, most people don't vote on foreign policy when the government has been a lot of change there.

[01:19:37] And up until recently, I think we've seen some very significant positive economic signs. If it weren't for the war, or in the past, even for the pandemic, Donald Trump was doing pretty well before the pandemic broke out, right? Yeah, you know, I think you had seen a lot of common sense deregulation and things like that that are putting the country in the right direction, of course. And then you have the war that complicates things, but we can't

[01:20:06] ignore what's going on in the rest of the world. And so that's the balance that the president has to strike. Which I think says something about the fact that we've gone about an hour and a half before we even talked about the war, and yet it is still going on, so it's something to mention. When we come back, though, one of the things we always like to do is kind of focus on the commentary by Penna Dexter, and there's enough there to talk about in that whole segment, so we'll be back right after this.

[01:20:41] A Washington Post article received lots of attention last week. It addresses the mismatch created when recruiters can't find workers to fill jobs and recent college graduates can't find entry-level jobs. Graduates frequently blame AI for their difficulties, but it's not AI, at least not yet. As the Post's education writer John Marcus explains, the United States is facing what's projected to become the largest labor shortage in its history. Tech recruiter Matt Walsh told the Post that in areas like semiconductor production, there just

[01:21:11] aren't enough people. The jobs graduates want are not the jobs where the economy lacks workers. According to Stephanie Aliaga, global market strategist for J.P. Morgan, this mismatch has been building. Hiring, she writes, has narrowed meaningfully in recent years and shifted away from the jobs graduates typically aim for. More workers are needed in the care economy, especially for lower wage jobs than home and personal care. Many open jobs require medical expertise. According to the Post's John Marcus, far fewer students are

[01:21:41] majoring in health care fields than are needed to meet demand. Economists predict shortages and jobs and jobs AI simply cannot replace. John Marcus says we'll be short tens or even hundreds of thousands of nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mental health counselors, construction workers, and airplane mechanics. He quotes Ron Hetrick, chief economist for Lightcast, a labor market data company, who says, we have pumped so many young people into business and finance, it's like a factory producing these workers like widgets, even though society

[01:22:11] is saying we really don't need them. Give the Washington Post credit for articulating the primary reason for current and increasing workforce shortages. It's our protracted decline in birth rates, which now coincides with a record wave of retirements. If we cannot meaningfully address these demographic shifts, we risk losing the ability to build, compete, and even to keep society functioning. May God grant us the wisdom to solve this. For Point of View, I'm Pena Dexter.

[01:22:42] You're listening to Point of View, your listener supported source for truth. But once again, let me just mention that you can find a lot of the information that we've been talking about today on our website. You can go to show materials and you'll see of course Pena Dexter's commentary, my viewpoint's commentary is there as well, the one I did today on quantum computing, which we won't even get into. But one of the things that I thought might be good was to focus on Pena's commentary. Liberty, this again is talking about a Washington Post

[01:23:11] article which addresses the mismatch because you have recruiters can't find workers to fill certain jobs and you have recent college graduates can't find entry-level jobs. And the argument usually is, well, that's due to AI. Well, AI has not been developed that much in many of these markets. Some of it has to do with trends. The oldest generation, the baby boom generation, are retiring. The oldest baby boomers are now turning 80. Even the ones

[01:23:41] that are younger, some of them are already in retirement. And so, there are many people leaving jobs, but then the jobs that need to be filled, oftentimes, are not being filled. And we're talking about nurses, physicians, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, and those kinds of things. Not to mention construction workers. The other day I quoted Mike Rowe, who said that the kind of electricians working right now in these data centers, some of them are making up to a quarter of a million dollars as an electrician. Almost all of them are making

[01:24:11] six-figure incomes. So, there's a mismatch between the kind of jobs that are out there and the kind of degrees or non-degrees that people have right now. And that, I think, gets back to the conversation we just had, isn't it? Yeah. You know, one of the things that I thought was so fascinating here is that this is a quote from the article saying, we've pumped so many young people into business and finance. And it's like the factory is producing these workers, even though society is saying, we don't need,

[01:24:41] you know, these anymore. And then I know for a long time it was, you got to go into computer programming. And now they're saying we're predicting AI is going to be able to do all that, even though, again, that's not to blame for kind of the mismatch right now. But what it makes me think of is, I know people are really concerned about, well, what do I study in college? Or how do I direct my kid? Because there is so much upheaval now, and you can never go wrong,

[01:25:11] what Pena calls the care economy, but just the need for humanity when you are in healthcare, yes, maybe there are some technical things that AI or robots might be able to take over, but the care that a nurse gives, or I know, I just did a segment on this the other day, how there's a robot in a classroom in New York school district right now, but really you're not going to be able to get good results if you replace teachers with robots, like you

[01:25:41] need to have that connection, you know, end of life care, all these different things where you really do need a human. And so there are a lot of opportunities I think for young people, and I think focusing on our humanity, what do humans do that can't be replicated by a computer, and I think that's where you need to focus, and so the kind of education that helps us understand what makes us the most human, that's going

[01:26:10] to be super important. So there are a lot of opportunities and need for certain fields and certain kinds of jobs. You know, I feel like there's something that every university and maybe an addition or besides it, but a federal agency, but there should be something that's saying, here are the job openings in the United States as far as areas, and to

[01:26:40] communicate to these people who are going to school, because right now it's just always kind of word of mouth and what you think, and they're teaching them all this stuff in school, maybe some of which is totally irrelevant to where they're going, and they're all going the wrong direction. It's like, why would you waste everybody's time and all the resources and all the lives, a lot of the frustration we're talking about is because people study lesbian basket weaving

[01:27:10] in Africa or something as their major. And it's like, now anybody should know that there's not a lot of jobs for that, okay? But the point is, that really is true, that people are told, well, do this, and it's an area where there are no jobs available, and so they're going to build up all this debt, and then they're going to get out and be disappointed. Why shouldn't, if you really want to help people with their education and their future, why wouldn't you include

[01:27:39] that data? And it seems like the Department of Labor or something like that could do it on a big level. with AI grabbing all the job postings, or you've got some of these groups, Monster or whatever, different ones that are out there for job applications, you know they know a lot of this data too. Why is this not being provided in a regular way to people who are thinking about their future? Because then you can train,

[01:28:09] you can know whether you should go to school at all, and I just think, you know, and maybe if there needs to be, with AI especially, if there needs to be that people need to learn some things that they didn't know, you know, there ought to be some availability for that, for people to go, well gosh, I studied to be in this, but there are really no jobs here. So, there ought to be, the government could assist because it's, that taxpayer is going to get another job and pay into the, you know, the tax role for a long time in the future

[01:28:39] if you can just get them on the right track. So, I don't know, that's just one of the elements that I think is really missing. I remember when I went, I knew I was going to law school and some people said they weren't so sure, you know, there was a kind of lot of lawyers at the side and I got advice from older, wiser people to, you know, get your CPA on the way to law school so you have the business side and I did that and it diversified me but it was all a guess. It wasn't like I was looking

[01:29:08] at figures and knowing how many jobs were available in each of these industries and I think everybody's guessing and why should they be guessing at a time right now with AI? That should not be happening but it is happening. Well, again, if Charlie Kirk were still alive he'd also say I told you so. I mean, because he's written books on that subject and all the rest because in some respects there and Mike Rowe and some others have been for years talking about the fact that there are very good jobs that require you to

[01:29:38] not go to college and to actually learn a skill and a trade and it does, as you look down this list, some obviously do require a college degree but many do not and there's been an attempt even the administration to remove the requirement for college degrees for a few of these jobs because there's no need for everybody to go to get a college degree and run up all those debts. So anyway, I think Penn has got a very good piece and if you want to know more about that,

[01:30:08] it's certainly on the website at pointofview.net. And Liberty, I just thought for a minute, I might mention that again, we're going to have John Lott and Luis Marcos and a variety of others on this week, but I know you're going to be doing the Next Generation Roundtable on Thursday. Is that right? Yeah, we are. And so, you know, probably talk about this because we have some millennials like me and so we're kind of in the phase of life of like we're raising young families now, but we do have more and more Gen Z contributors and some people who are still in college or law school and things like that. And I really like to get their

[01:30:38] perspective too on a lot of these issues because there's even a big difference from, you know, a decade or so of age in terms of, okay, what are the issues that are affecting me right now versus somebody who's still working through college and looking for that job. So it's always great and very enlightening for me. Well, again, we're going to take a break and encourage you to find some of these articles here as well. As I mentioned, you might want to get the newsletter from First Liberty and that will give you some prayer targets and I know that you're going to have

[01:31:08] some final votes, so eventually we're going to get to see all those recommendations finalized and the guidelines and the rest. And if nothing else, the first whole hour we focused on religious liberty. If you happen to miss it, I would encourage you to go back and listen to it again. During the weekend, of course, we also rebroadcast it and you can find the podcast and find it for Point of View, also for the highlights of Point of View and of course the Know Why podcast. So all of those are available.

[01:31:38] You can find those at the website at pointofview.net. As always, I want to thank Megan for her help engineering the program. Derek, thank you for a good full first week as producer. Look forward to seeing you back here on Monday, right here from Point of View. In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas. London was

[01:32:08] home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world, economically, militarily, and intellectually. Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports. Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers. Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth, it is truth for all of life.

[01:32:38] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today? Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints commentary at pointofview.net slash sign up. Every weekday in less than two minutes you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time. It's free so visit pointofview.net slash sign up right now.

[01:33:08] pointofview.net slash sign pointofview.net Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.