Point of View June 3, 2026 – Hour 2 : Wednesday’s Top Stories

[00:00:04] Across America, Live, this is Point of View, Kirby Anderson. Second hour today, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212. And again, Liberty in studio and the two of us are going to kind of work our way through some of these very important articles.

[00:00:31] One comes from our good friend Cal Thomas, there's another person I've known for decades literally, but his is entitled Politics and Failure. As you might gather, he's using what was happening last night and what will maybe be happening all the way to November in terms of looking at the mayor's race for Los Angeles. Now again, we can be assured that the incumbent mayor Karen Bass has won.

[00:00:56] It looks like if the trend continues, and last time I looked they still hadn't counted all the ballots, Spencer Pratt will actually go against her. But whether he does or not, I like the opening line, Lindsay was with us now, Liberty, let's talk about politics is the only profession of which I'm aware in which confidence doesn't seem to matter. Well, I sometimes said that about TV weathermen, but that's neither here nor there.

[00:01:22] But politics is one where he says you can fail miserably. One can be corrupt. One can get away with crimes. If committed by someone outside of elective office, arrest, prosecution, and a stint in jail would be the result. So Liberty, one of the things we're dealing with is when you look at the race in Los Angeles, which is of course just one of many taking place. One of the reasons Cal Thomas focused on that is an individual who was basically a reality show performer,

[00:01:52] who has even putting up a sizable challenge to an incumbent mayor in Los Angeles. And I think it illustrates that maybe the American people and even some people in California are saying enough is enough. We want some common sense. Yeah. You know, I think competence may actually lower your chances of staying in office because then if you solve all the problems very efficiently, then you've got nothing else to run on anymore.

[00:02:20] But anyways, yeah, I think it's interesting. We'll definitely talk about this on the round table tomorrow because Richard Lim will be with us. And being in California, he was emailing that he definitely wanted to talk about what was going on. So we'll get his take. But, you know, it's kind of reminds me of the emperor has no clothes story. And so it seems like people in California maybe haven't been able to say, wait a second, this is a problem.

[00:02:46] We're in Los Angeles because, of course, as we talked about yesterday with Spencer Pratt, one of his big issues he's talked about is the Palisade fires, but also homelessness in L.A. and just the overextending of the budget, things that citizens may look at and say, really, are we just going to pretend like this is OK? And he's actually saying, no, it's not. And maybe we can apply some common sense and do something about it, which is, I think, why he may actually be going on to the actual election. We'll see how it turns out.

[00:03:14] Again, number one was the Palisades fire, which took place in January 2025 and at a time when, of course, the mayor had cut $17 million from the fire department budget. That certainly got some people's attention, which, interestingly enough, you know, you had some trying to support those decisions. I think it's a little bit difficult to defend. And then the other one, the homeless population, or as Cal Thomas says, the politically correct term is the unhoused.

[00:03:45] And as I gave you some of the numbers yesterday, if you were to look at the number of homeless people on the streets, that population is larger than more than a dozen plus of counties in the state of California. There are more homeless population in Los Angeles than any city in the United States, perhaps any city in the world.

[00:04:09] And so to then just say, well, this is just kind of what we have to deal with, with the so-called unhoused population of Los Angeles. I think some people said, and this is interesting because even if they didn't vote for Spencer Pratt, they voted for some of the other candidates. So it was a three out of five did not vote for the incumbent mayor in Los Angeles. Yeah, I think there you go. There's indication that people weren't happy with it.

[00:04:33] So I did see, you know, that Mayor Bass had implemented some initiatives. And so the homeless population or the unhoused, I'm sorry, has decreased by maybe 18 percent or so. But I think there's just a lot of people are realizing that there are root issues with the whole approach of not really dealing with it

[00:04:55] when it is affecting the safety of the citizens of L.A. and the city and even the homeless themselves who often are in need of help. There are mental health issues. There are drug addiction issues going on. And so you really do have to address those root issues and not just allow that to pervade on the street. And that's what's been happening. Again, if you're looking for some answers, one of the booklets we put together a while ago was on a biblical point of view on homelessness.

[00:05:23] And a lot of that came from some very good research and books that have been written on the subject because that is something we should be concerned about. And certainly churches have been involved in reaching out to individuals. But some of those problems are bigger than what a church can address with a food kitchen or something else. And so, again, those are some things to talk about. Just before I take a break, though, we had a question left over from last hour. I thought that's for your game.

[00:05:51] So let's, if we can, go to Jamie in North Carolina. You heard our interview last hour on what if Jesus is right. So, Jamie, thank you for calling today. Thank you so very much for being gracious with my question. I have a next-door neighbor who's a devout Mormon. And oh, how I would love for him to be saved one day. I pray for him.

[00:06:11] But a question stems around, suppose you believe in the qualities of Jesus, but you know how they add on to who he was? If they truly believe in Christ's blood, and even though they take him farther than what the Holy Scriptures say, can a human being still be saved? Or how do you think Christ looks at that?

[00:06:38] If you really truly believe in him, but they believe in, you know, another Jesus, then we do. You know, the Pauline Christian. So I was always wondering that. Well, I think you've asked a very good question. Maybe we'll do a program on it in the future. But let me just simply say, Liberty's looking through it right now, looking through Lindsay's book. And what I thought was interesting is they do have a section in there because, in some respects, many of these cults and other religious movements have a different view of Jesus.

[00:07:08] So, first of all, let's get back to what about those who have not heard? What about those who have an incorrect view? We recognize that God is just, and so we certainly want to start with the idea of God's holiness and justice. But also, we recognize God cannot hold people responsible for information that they do not have or information that they've received that is inadequate or false.

[00:07:35] So, of course, that should give us a motivation to go and share our faith. But, again, if we believe in God's righteousness, justice, and fairness, I think you can begin to answer that question. But there's a whole section in a chapter there, isn't there? Yeah. You know, this is a great resource because in the chapter on fake Jesuses, there is a section on what Latter-day Saints believe. And I've had many Mormon friends in the past myself, and they are wonderful people.

[00:08:02] But I think this would be a great conversation starter to say, here are some disparities in what your tradition believes and what the Bible actually says. And when it comes down to discernment, 1 John does say that whoever denies Christ is a liar. And so that can be a place to start the conversation and say, let's talk about what Jesus says about who he actually is. Well, Jamie, I think you're asking a good question, and that's the first point. Yesterday we talked about asking good questions. Yes.

[00:08:31] I'd be asking somebody, you know, well, how come you have, why do you have that view? Where do you have that view? Do you believe that it's accurate? Why do you think it's accurate? You know, and immediately that would maybe cause them to want to pick up a copy of that book. Let's take a break. We have more to cover. We'll do that right after this.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Freedom in this country depends on three important foundations, morality, limits, and human rights. First, freedom depends on morality. John Adams observed, our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. When the citizens have an internal moral compass, the size and scope of government can be small. There's no need for external laws and regulations from government.

[00:09:27] If people do what is right and demonstrate common sense, the republic will thrive. Second, freedom also depends on limits. Lord Acton famously explained, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is why the framers instituted checks and balances in our constitutional system. They also recognized the rights of citizens to hold government officials accountable. A moral people keep the government in check. A limited government keeps political leaders in check.

[00:09:54] A third foundation of freedom depends on respecting human rights as granted by our Creator. That important principle is found in the Declaration of Independence, which explains the why of American government. And it is also implied in the Constitution, which explains the how of American government. And this country has not always lived up to those ideals, but they provided a worthy goal to achieve.

[00:10:17] Although you may know all these foundational principles, I fear that a whole generation of young people do not know them because they were never taught in their civics classes. And I see each of these foundational principles slipping away. If we don't begin to teach these principles to our children and grandchildren, then morality, limited government, and respect for human rights will soon become relics of our past. That is why we need you to teach them to your family today. 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, let's see if we can get into some other topics as well. Second article we've posted by Catherine Jean Lopez. This comes from National Review. America doesn't want to know about abortion pills.

[00:11:17] Now, let me, since I'm sitting across from Liberty, point out that I still think some of the best booklets I've ever seen, and she's actually done two, one on the abortion pill, one on chemical abortion, which are basically the same, and all the legal issues she has written. And I thought, Liberty, here's a good example, that Catherine Jean Lopez points out that some people are starting to say, well, is there anything we can do to stop this? I remember in the old days when I would speak at pregnancy resource centers,

[00:11:46] I would talk about all the different ways in which a pregnancy center can be involved, whether it's various kinds of advertisements, whether it's individuals, and we've had many of them on the program, standing in front of an abortion clinic, praying, even trying to encourage abortion-minded women to give up the idea of getting an abortion, and instead decide to either adopt the child, give the child up for adoption, or keep the child, and all of that.

[00:12:15] But as we well know, now a majority, I think it's fair to say, of abortions in America are happening because of abortion pills, and there's a sense of, in a sense, frustration. Is there anything we can do? Your thoughts? Yeah, I feel this question a lot and talk about it any time I have the opportunity to because it just seems like insurmountable almost.

[00:12:43] Like you're playing a game of whack-a-mole, except you don't even see what you're supposed to be knocking down. And so overturning Roe was a big victory, but that is not the end of the pro-life battle because what's happening, as you mentioned, you know, people, activists, would often pray outside an abortion facility, or maybe they would have a mobile ultrasound van where people,

[00:13:08] and a lot of times women, they actually are looking for an excuse to not go to the appointment. Yes, very true. Maybe nobody has told them, you can do this. Maybe nobody has offered to help or pray for them or even ask them, is this what you want? Because maybe they've been pressured by parents even or partners. And so oftentimes those, you know, physical interactions were an opportunity for women to stop

[00:13:36] and actually have the opportunity to think about it for a minute and say, okay, somebody is giving me a way out. Or they encounter an ultrasound and are able to see their baby's heartbeat and things like that. And so today, though, with the majority of abortions happening with pills, even in states like Texas where we are, where abortion is effectively outlawed thanks to the Dobbs decision, we, people are still able to get abortion pills because they order them online.

[00:14:05] And they are sent in the mail often in disguised packaging. And one of the notes that Lopez makes in this article is that we don't even know exactly how many abortions are happening from abortion pills. And we don't know how many men are ordering them. We hear some of the stories of criminal cases being brought toward men who have forced women to take these. But we really don't know because what about the stories we don't hear about?

[00:14:34] So it just seems like, man, we can't even accurately assess the problem. So how do we tackle it? So one of the things, it kind of boils down to three things, and I think there is hope here. One, educate people like we do on Point of View. Get those booklets. Let's talk to people about the dangers of the abortion pill because they are not safe. They often end up with women in the emergency room. So there are some big harms that we can talk about and try to educate people.

[00:15:02] Obviously, you know, politically, yes, we still want the FDA to revoke the approval of the abortion pill. I know a lot of pro-life groups are working on that and advocating for that and things like that. But I really do appreciate what she says at the end of the article, that this is a culture problem. Because they have made it about as easy as you can make it to end the life of your unborn child by simply going online, ordering a pill that comes to your house in a few days and just doing it at home in the bathroom by yourself.

[00:15:32] And so if we want to stop the inclination that says I need to get rid of my baby when they see a positive pregnancy test, then it's a cultural thing. We have to raise kids to value life starting now when they're young. Well, again, part of the problem is that it's become so kind of routine that you can order an abortion pill the same way you'd order, as she says here, the latest kitchen gadget from Amazon.

[00:16:02] And as a result, it's almost incumbent upon us to talk about it more because in some respects, you aren't even seeing the visible signs like abortion clinics and things of that nature. And what that reminded me of is years ago, I remember listening to an interview Marlon Maddox did of Joseph Soberen. Now, Joseph Soberen is a columnist with the National Review. He's passed on many years ago.

[00:16:28] But he was at the time, and I'm old enough to remember when abortion became legal as well, and Joseph Soberen was even older and said, you know, when the Roe versus Wade decision came down, I didn't think it would be much of a big thing because I figured most women wouldn't want to talk about it. They'd maybe still want to go behind the scenes just as they'd gone to back alleys and things like that.

[00:16:55] And they said the shock was that, no, they were out in the streets marching for the right to have an abortion. And in some respects, because of that, it still kept abortion as top of mind. As I read through this article, I got the sense that now we're kind of back to where we were talking about that back in the 1980s. And that is now it's becoming so routine, and there aren't as many visible abortion clinics.

[00:17:23] And as she says, you may start thinking about it because maybe you're in line to get a pharmaceutical, and you see a woman ordering that just the way they'd be ordering maybe blood pressure medicine. And so in some respects, since we can't necessarily now park a pro-life van with ultrasound right in front of an abortion clinic, although there's still opportunities to do that, it brings us back to the point you just made.

[00:17:50] It's a cultural issue, and this is something I think we recognized from the beginning. As much as we wanted to support political groups, as much as we recognized that there were some things that we could do in Washington, D.C., and now with the state legislature, it really comes back to culture, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, it absolutely does. And just like you said, it's really been normalized. I can't remember where this article was, but I know I read it in the last year,

[00:18:17] talking about the abortion pill in Europe, in the U.K., and how actually use of contraception and prescriptions for birth control pills had gone down because people were just considering it a backup form of birth control. If you have access to it and you make it easy and you normalize it, then people are just going to say, well, okay, that's my backup plan.

[00:18:44] And basically using it as contraception, which I'm sorry, I think pro-lifers have been warning about this for a long time. But yeah, it is a cultural thing to value unborn life, but to just really it goes down to what do we think about humans? What do we think about the family? What do we think about what God says about us? So she talks about how you can speak to your children, how you can really nurture in them that value of life,

[00:19:13] and why are we here? So often people think, well, I'm here so that I can work and find meaning in my career and be as happy and comfortable as possible. And even Christians, if they don't really examine those assumptions, they're operating based on those kinds of assumptions. So when something happens that you don't expect or that's difficult, you want to get out of that. So it starts with that biblical worldview of, you know, what is human life? Why are we here? And why is it important that we protect life? Here's a great opportunity for you to take some action.

[00:19:43] And that is I just went to the Point of View website. If you scroll down to the bottom, there's a search engine. Just type in chemical abortion booklet and up pops the booklet by Liberty McCarter. It's 24 pages. It's a PDF. And so you could print that out. Of course, if you'd like to get a printed copy, you can contact us as well. And it goes into all the details, all the medical details, some of the political ones,

[00:20:08] because when you wrote that, we were still kind of with some question marks about what was happening in terms of the various FDA requirements and the rest. And so if you find yourself saying, this is something I would really like to learn more about, or this is a booklet or a PDF I'd like to pass on to my daughter, my granddaughter, maybe even encourage the local pregnancy resource center to get some of those booklets, that is a way in which you can at least get an initial copy.

[00:20:38] Of course, if you want to contact us, you know, pov at pointofview.net is another way to say, hey, I'd like to get some of these booklets because I felt before that when you wrote the first one, that was good enough. But the second one, it covers every aspect of that. This is something that I think every pregnancy resource center in the country should have. So we've made it very easy for you to get a free copy, and you can contact us if you'd like to get some more. Yeah, well, there were definitely a lot of updates that needed to be made to that second edition. So it is thick for a booklet, but it's still an easy read.

[00:21:07] And yes, I would just, I think it's so important for people to educate themselves about this. I've got a feeling we're going to have a part three, aren't we? We're going to have to. Yeah, we have to stay on top of it. Stay on top of it. But again, wanted to make that available to you. As we talked about this issue of the abortion pill, chemical abortion, we will take a break. Come back with more right after this. Where does moral truth come from?

[00:21:36] According to 58% of Americans, individuals determine moral truth. A quarter of Generation Z says society determines moral truth, and morality can even change over time. Only 42% of Americans believe that truth comes from God. I don't know about you, but I find these numbers extremely troubling. It really is a crisis of truth, and that crisis has consequences. Look at society. Evil is called good. Good called evil.

[00:22:05] People with biblical beliefs are called bigots. Or worse, they're canceled. But there is hope. The Bible promises the truth will set us free. And that's why Point of View is relentless in our commitment to the ultimate source of moral truth, God's Word. At Point of View, we know that God's truth is eternal. And if we stand together, we can help more Americans apply His truth in their daily life.

[00:22:31] Help Americans find truth again by giving at pointofview.net. Or call 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net. And 800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:54] 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. And now, here again, is Kirby Anderson. Back once again, if you'd like to join the conversation, 1-800-351-1212.

[00:23:20] Lynn, one of the things I found, Liberty, that we could really get into here was the whole issue of education. Because yesterday, we did talk about this. But this piece by Erin Withkett and Tina Snyder really talked about the fact that the president of the American Federation of Teachers, and that's Randy Weingarten, blames screens not herself for failing test scores.

[00:23:43] And I thought it would be good to revisit that for just a minute, because just as Jill Biden is out with her book, Benedextra has a commentary coming out, and we'll talk about that on Friday. So also, the head of the American Federation of Teachers has been talking about this, and I think even promoting a new book, but certainly all sorts of articles,

[00:24:06] basically saying, yes, we have problems in public education, but it's not the fault of the teachers' union. This is a good piece to remind us, first of all, that we went through the pandemic and the lockdown, and the two authors remind us that during those two years, and we covered this quite a bit, and we're going to talk about liberty here on Point of View, the AFT, the American Federation of Teachers and Other Unions,

[00:24:36] fought against opening the schools up. And so now you're getting the attempt to rewrite history and say, we fought to actually come up with the procedure by which we could open the schools, and yet we now have, in some respects, internal e-mails, the draft guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and others that were actually crafted in part by the American Federation of Teachers.

[00:25:03] Yeah, I thought this was interesting to observe that when you did have that push in July of 2020 from the Trump administration to have schools reopen, that she was the one who called that move reckless, callous, and cruel, and threatened strikes from teachers. So, I mean, I talk about the screen time problem in ed tech all the time, so that's a valid conversation.

[00:25:30] But I think the point here, too, is to say, well, hey, don't try to just erase history and pretend like you weren't a part of this other big problem, which was the school closures during the pandemic. I mean, they are still learning about the damaging effects and harms to children during that time who for some were on, speaking of screens, on a screen at home, doing their school that way for like two years.

[00:25:58] And just the academic gaps in that, I mean, you were already seeing test score declining in public schools, but that really accelerated a lot of those trends. And then socially, I remember taking my little one to the pediatrician during the pandemic, and he was home with us. So this didn't really apply, but the pediatrician didn't necessarily know that. But she was saying, you know, we're seeing a lot of kids that age have language delays

[00:26:23] because they aren't around, they're not socializing, or they are out and about, everybody has a mask on. And so they were warning about that at the time. And so we just, I mean, the incredible detrimental effects that it had for kids to be away from socialization for that long. Sure. And I'm not trying to beat up on the teachers' unions, although it is interesting how many teachers now are saying, you know, I'm not sure there's any value. And more and more of them are leaving,

[00:26:50] in part because the teacher pay hasn't really increased at all when, actually, if you connect it to the issue of inflation. But I thought just to look at the issue you're talking about, when we looked at what happened, the kids stayed home, they got on computer screens, stayed there for two years, cut off from teachers' friends, anything resembling a normal childhood. And the consequences, as the article points out, were very well known. And we've talked about this. The National Assessment of Educational Progress,

[00:27:19] which is oftentimes referred to as the nation's report card, not the kind of report card I wanted to get when I was a kid, showed the largest declines in math and reading scores in its history. Reading results dropped to levels not seen since the early 1990s. And so as a result, then the flip side of that, and that goes back to some of the material from Jonathan Haidt, who we've had on the program. His latest book is The Anxious Generation,

[00:27:47] Increase and Surge in Anxiety, Depression, Social Development. He talked about language skills. So if nothing else, I just thought it was a reminder that right now, as they say near the end here, the test scores didn't fall because of TikTok. They fell because millions of kids spent two years at home on screens, isolated from teachers and classrooms. And that is unfortunately the long-term legacy. And I've noticed it as well.

[00:28:15] I've spoken a year ago to two different groups, and one group, which was at an institute, the students were quite willing to talk about their problems, but never ask a question. And then I went to another group that was younger, which was at a Bible school, and the kids were asking questions all the time. And I tried to sort that out, and the person in the institute said,

[00:28:43] well, these are the kids that when they really needed to flower and begin to flourish and begin to develop their brains, got locked down for two years. And so now these are kids that are college age, who are not asking questions, full of anxiety, struggling with all sorts of things. And then the group beneath them that were young enough, they weren't really affected, they're asking every kind of question,

[00:29:12] the kind of questions you get every day from your kids. Yeah. What color is rain? Yes. That's such an important observation. It reminds me of, you know, I love classical education. I talk about that. So the trivium is grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric. And that dialectic stage, it really does often line up with that adolescent development. But that's when you are taking the facts that you've learned and you're really wrestling with them. And you're learning, you're asking a lot of questions,

[00:29:42] you're debating. So that's a great time for kids to have that opportunity, whether it's in a classroom or a homeschool group or things like that, to wrestle with that and build that skill. And that is just such an important part of building a strong education. So that's just fascinating to think about, you know, at that time when their brains are naturally wanting to do that, getting robbed of that opportunity and not having that and it affecting their ability to think in question today. And I'm just even thinking of the rhetoric stage

[00:30:11] because that's when they want to debate and interact and really search out ideas. And so we have deprived a whole generation not only by closing down the schools, but by then even in the schools, and this will get you on one of your hobby horses as well, handing out computers in the schools. And kids spend entirely too much time on screens anyway because they probably have a cell phone to give them more screens in the public schools or even at home.

[00:30:42] It just makes no sense to me at all. Yeah. You know, one of the stories that I've heard from many, many school districts and states that are instituting bell-to-bell cell phone bans is that kids are talking at lunch again. They're at the cafeteria and they're interacting. And I just think that that's so great. Now, of course, we still need to work on ed tech and things like that and whether or not we're passing out laptops. And then they can text each other through Google documents, which I've heard some stories from that

[00:31:10] from some of my friends who are teachers. But yes, just you have to foster that interaction. So I think you do see a difference during that lockdown period between kids who maybe were actually just pulled out of the public school system and said, okay, we're going to homeschool or go to a Christian school or do something like this where you can actually have an interactive education versus those stuck on screens for two years. Again, I mentioned yesterday and I'll mention again that we were talking about this issue of education yesterday and then again on this article

[00:31:38] because in some respects, decisions that our parents are making usually being made right now. First of all, if you're wanting to be in a Christian school, you maybe already missed the deadline, but there's still opportunities sometimes to get into a Christian school. If you're going to make a decision about homeschooling, you can speak to that issue. You might want to get some of the material now and not have it all come in on August and go, what have I done to myself? And it does seem to me that this is the time to be thinking about education

[00:32:06] and as much as we appreciate the teachers that are in the public schools, we still recognize that it is interesting in this article how many individuals, how many teachers are leaving of the NEA membership and that's different than the AFT membership, the American Federation of Teachers is the one we were talking about, but the NEA membership is fallen by 400,000

[00:32:33] and that is in part because a lot of teachers are saying, you know, if I look at teacher pay and I then correlate it to inflation, it has barely moved in almost 50 years according to this article and so there are some really significant questions that parents are going to have to ask about the public school system, if they are going to look at an alternative, what are available, private schools, classical Christian education,

[00:33:03] various Christian education, homeschool and the rest. So if nothing else, I wanted to bring that up again because decision time is right now. Don't wait till August and say, now what are we going to do with the kids? You know, this is not good and if you maybe say, well, I'm a grandparent now, you should be maybe encouraging your kids to think about what you're going to do with your grandkids right now because those are kind of very important decision ideas as well. We'll take a phone call when we come back from the break,

[00:33:32] but also Victor Davis Hanson reminds us that we still have a war in Iran and what's the end game? We'll talk about that right after this. You're listening to Point of View,

[00:34:02] your listener-supported source for truth. Let's go to the phones, 1-800-351-1212. And Benjamin, thank you for joining us today here from the state of Georgia. Hello, how you doing, Kirby? Long time listener, since I've been living for the Lord over the last 20 years. I really appreciate your program. Thank you. Education. I love it that you all talk about education much and I really love your mantra that teaching us how to think, not what to think,

[00:34:32] unfortunately our education system, which I've been, had not been a fan of coming out of high school myself. I went into the military and did a couple of years in the military, well, a whole career in the military. But when I got out, my last couple of years in the military, working with officers in the U.S. military really showed me something different. So I went to college when I came out and thank goodness I went to a pretty decent local college

[00:35:00] that helped me to think much better than what I've already was thinking, not just on the primary, secondary, but also the tertiary. Unfortunately, we have a lot of groupthink, as I see with my children. My kids age from 35 to 17 and the younger ones are more groupthink, where the older ones are very independent thinkers, even though my younger ones are, just by the grace of God, very smart intellectual kids. But they don't ask enough questions

[00:35:28] and take items for face value depending upon the source that it comes from, even if it is errorlessly incorrect. And so it's kind of scary. That's such a great point. Thanks so much for calling in because that, I think, is so much of our problem is teaching kids what to think instead of how to think. And it reminds me of something that I read recently in a book by Nancy Piercy, one of your friends, Kirby.

[00:35:58] And she wrote a book that she wrote a long time ago called Total Truth. But she talked about how often, even as Christians, we do the Lord's work the world's way. And so the reality is that the modern education system was really built not to produce deep thinkers or people who are actually pursuing truth, but to produce people who could go work in a factory or just fill a spot, fill a job spot. So knowledge in that sense

[00:36:28] is viewed just as a commodity. I just need to get this knowledge so I can get a diploma and check the box and go make money. And that's not calling students up to our full potential of reflecting our creator and the mind that he gave us. So anywhere that Christians are involved, whether with their own kids or if we have, say, in the school setting, we need to make sure that we are really educating the whole person there and helping the mind to flourish, not just treating knowledge

[00:36:57] as a commodity because I think that's what just leads to checking the box and kids getting taught what to think instead of how to think. That was a great call. And Benjamin talks about the idea that we're in many cases just telling them what to think, not how to think. And we've done some programs on critical thinking and Steve has certainly helped us with that. And of course, he's actually taught in a Christian school and we'll be doing that again. I might just mention when that time rolls around. And it does seem to me

[00:37:26] that just as you were pointed out a minute ago, you might really evaluate, even if your kids are going to a private school or a Christian school, if they're really thinking about how they are going to develop those skills because as we found by talking to Lindsay last hour, one whole chapter in that book is the need for discernment. And if indeed you don't know how to think critically and you don't understand how to follow logic and you don't see

[00:37:56] logical fallacies and of course, you have the false view of Jesus, there are real consequences to not thinking biblically and critically about these issues. And so even, unfortunately, we even in the Christian school movement sometimes just tell them what to believe, but we don't teach them how to defend what they believe. And so then they get out in the world and they kind of flounder a little bit. So I think you should be really careful about the kind of education you give to your kids. Oh yeah, absolutely.

[00:38:26] You know, if you are going to a Christian school and it's the same basic curriculum and set up as the public school just with some Bible verses slapped on, then that's not going to really be a true education. So yes, the book that we highlighted today and also the book we highlighted yesterday by J.R. Briggs, The Art of Asking Good Questions, get that and then use that as you're talking with your kids or grandkids. And one of those ways to really talk about just not,

[00:38:56] hey, here's what the Bible says you have to believe it, but helping the kids to know it for themselves. I loved that practice that he talked about of reading a passage of scripture together and then listing out as many questions about that passage as you can think of. What a great, kids are naturally question askers, what a great exercise to do with your kids to read a chapter of the Bible out loud and have them either tell you or write down all the questions about it that they have and that's training them in the habit to really ask and think deeply so they can know

[00:39:26] what they believe. It's a really good technique to develop your biblical exegesis, how to interpret scripture. And just to make the point one more time for Benjamin, since the call was so good it covered an entire segment, we'll cover some of these other issues in our Friday weekend edition. We have a while back done, as we always do every year, encouraging people to find out about Summit Ministries, Probe Ministries, Mind Games Camp and one of the things they do at the Mind Games Camp and we had Dr. Ray Bolin here

[00:39:55] a couple weeks ago is that he gets on as a professor. He pretends to be, and they sort of know that he's not the real professor, but he pretends to be a secular professor asking questions of the students. Wow. Now, you know as well as I do, Liberty, that we have some kids that are really confident. Nothing smarter than a high school senior, right? And so they walk in there going, okay. And so, okay, interview you Christians. Yeah, okay. Why are you a Christian? And so they give some kind of flimsy answer and then he starts

[00:40:25] asking them a few more questions and immediately the students won't even make eye contact with him. They start looking at their shoes and then people start laughing. So, oh, you're laughing. Okay, let me ask you this question. And you begin, I think, the whole week of camp by helping them understand that even if they went to a Christian school, even if they had Christian parents, even if they were one of the leaders in the youth group, sometimes they are inadequately prepared for what they're going to encounter.

[00:40:54] And we've done that over the years at the Hope Center. We've done it in camps and others. And I've run into a handful of kids that are able to really hold their own. But sadly, even those that have had good Christian education come from a good Christian home, go to good churches, have some difficulty. So if you wonder why we had Lindsay on today to talk about apologetics, that's exactly why. Oh, yeah, that's such a good practice. I mean, honestly, even as adults, you should get together with your friends

[00:41:24] or your spouse and do the same thing and challenge each other and say, what if our neighbor asked you this question? And one of the things I've loved is Lee Strobel's books, The Case for Christ. There's a whole series for kids, The Case for Christ for Kids, The Case for a Creator for Kids, which are kind of at a lower level that they can understand but help them think through some of those same questions. And I did miss the opportunity with Lindsay. She used to be with Mama Bear Apologetics. We should mention that. That is a great resource. And if you type in

[00:41:53] Mama Bear Apologetics, up will pop her name as well as many others that we've interviewed because we really do believe that the preparing young people for the world, first for what they're going to encounter even in high school now, certainly what they're going to encounter in college, what they're going to encounter later in the workforce happens in the home. So that's certainly the case. Well, you're going to be sitting here tomorrow because you have a whole roundtable of discussion, don't you? Oh, yeah, we do. We've got multiple topics

[00:42:22] lined up about culture and politics and religion and everything in between. So it's going to be a great roundtable looking forward to it. Friday, of course, I'll be taking it with, of course, a couple of our guests and Jeff Mateer will be with us and Dr. Merrill Matthews. Some of these articles that we posted here, I figured they would be better to cover on Friday, especially one I didn't post on Obamacare fraud. We did talk about fraud the other day and the numbers are in and we need to do

[00:42:51] some things differently than what we've been doing for at this time. So if nothing else, I want to again thank Megan for help engineering the program. Steve, thank you for producing the program. Liberty, thank you for being here. We'll see you back here tomorrow right here on Point of View. Have you ever met a child you knew would do great things? They displayed remarkable imagination, understanding,

[00:43:20] and a zest for learning. Now imagine someone takes that child and instead of fostering their potential with a real education, they feed them nothing but lies. You know, that scenario isn't so far from reality. From a young age, Americans are fed a consistent stream of distorted facts from the secular indoctrination they receive in many public schools to the biases presented as fact in many colleges and universities to the barrage of misinformation from the mainstream media

[00:43:50] and the lack of moral grounding in our society. It's not that Americans aren't capable of understanding the truth, it's that they aren't exposed to it enough. You can expose more Americans to the truth when you give to Point of View where listeners receive facts, perspective, and biblical truth they don't get from society. As long as we have truth, we have hope. Give today at pointofview.net or call

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