Point of View June 9, 2026 – Hour 2 : Moral Principals and America’s Scouting

[00:00:04] Across America Live, this is Point of View and now Liberty McArtor.

[00:00:20] Okay, we're back for the second hour. If you missed the first, please go back, especially the last half hour. Listen to my interview with Casey Luskin from Discovery Institute because he had so much to share on the evidence for intelligent design and God is the creator of the universe. Just so much great, amazing content there, especially if you have anybody in your household that loves learning about science and really wants to dig into the evidence.

[00:00:46] You can find his links at our website, of course, but that's one example of how the culture around us really pulls us away from the truth. But there are so many examples of the culture, secular culture telling kids lies, confusing kids, pulling them away from the anchor of truth. So what is a parent to do when that happens, when we live in that kind of world?

[00:01:10] Well, that is a question that Patti Garibay faced and she actually did something about it. So Patti is with us this hour. Patti, you're the founder and executive director emeritus of American Heritage Girls. You minister in multiple ways, including your Raising Godly Girls broadcast, which is a one minute broadcast heard on over a thousand Christian radio stations. Some of our listeners may actually listen to that. Also, the Raising Godly Girls podcast. And it's just a privilege to have you back on Point of View.

[00:01:40] So thanks for joining us today. It's great to be with you, Liberty. Thanks for having me. So I do want to talk about your story for anybody who may not be familiar with it. You served as a leader in Girl Scouts for a long time and you started noticing that things were going awry. So tell us when you realized something was wrong and how you decided to do something about it. That's such a good question because you're wondering when did the age of discernment occur?

[00:02:10] I had been serving the Girl Scouts for 12 years as a volunteer for my three daughters. I absolutely love the organization because, of course, I grew up in Girl Scouts. It had been a family tradition for our family. My mom was my leader and all those beautiful things. And since 1912, the Girl Scouts was founded by Juliet Gordon Lowe and it stood for wonderful things. American apple pie, you might say.

[00:02:32] But in 1993, the Girl Scouts USA decided to make a major change, philosophical shift, in the Girl Scout promise, which is what every girl recites. And that was no longer were they mandating an oath to God. They put an asterisk by our Lord's name and they said you could put whatever you want in its place or nothing at all. So as a concerned mom, I started to think, why in the world were they doing this?

[00:03:01] I started to investigate a little bit more. And for two years, I tried to pressure and put a little bit of public notice around what was going on in the Girl Scouts, hoping they would reverse their decision to kick God out of the Girl Scouts. And it was to no avail. And so in 1995, myself and a group of moms and a dad around the kitchen table in northern Cincinnati started an organization called American Heritage Girls.

[00:03:29] And here we are 31 years later. The Lord obviously had bigger plans than we had in our minds. I think he always does. And we're really excited to see what has gone on. Over 70,000 girls currently are enrolled. Over a million girls have had the American Heritage Girl experience over these last three decades. And we are blessed to continue to be here to help parents raise up their daughters in the way they should go. I love that.

[00:03:55] And I happen to have several friends with daughters who are involved with AHG. And I'm a boy mom, but my son, my oldest son has been involved with Trail Life USA, which is the brother organization that I think came along a little bit later. But one of the things you wrote for Daily Signal, you had an op-ed back in February that I thought was so interesting. I mean, I think a lot of listeners of Point of View know that, OK, the scouting organizations, like they're not like they used to be.

[00:04:24] But you actually wrote about the founder of scouting a little bit and how he defined it as applied Christianity, which makes it even more of a big deal that they then started to remove God from those organizations. So how was that vision originally started for scouting to be applied Christianity? Well, it was the ideology or the belief of Lord Baden-Powell in England when he started Boy Scouts.

[00:04:52] Of course, then it became Boy Scouts of America later on as it came to North America. He was a Christian man, just like Juliet Gordon Lowe, the founder of GSUSA, Girl Scouts of the United States of America, was a Christian. They were daily Bible readers. They believed that character development had to be built upon something solid, such as a biblical worldview. But then the agenda of man became very relevant. And for the Girl Scouts, it was as early as the 70s.

[00:05:21] For the BSA, the Boy Scouts of America, and I'm going to revert to the old title, it came much later. And here's the interesting part, Liberty. You may not know, but the American Heritage Girls were actually partners with the Boy Scouts of America from the years 2009 to 2013. We worked together. We grew our organizations together. We enjoyed the camps and the Philmont and all the trainings, and we did all this together in unison.

[00:05:49] In 2013, May of 2013, the Boy Scouts of America decided to make a very major change, much like the Girl Scouts had decades before, to allow for gay leaders and gay boys to be in the Boy Scouts. Now, in 2001, they had fought a good fight all the way to the Supreme Court in the Dale case, saying that they were going to continue to have and uphold morally straight as a tenant of the Boy Scouts. But then they decided to revert.

[00:06:18] So when the recent news of Pete Hegsteth of the Department of War and the Trump administration saying, we're concerned about the scouting American where they're headed, they better change their ways, that's what prompted this important op-ed. And you were probably thinking, well, hey, they've been going in this direction for a while. But I just love this quote from the op-ed that that's the danger of building a youth program on cultural approval rather than on truth.

[00:06:47] An organization untethered from fixed moral principles will always drift because drift is the natural consequence of abandoning the anchor. I just love that imagery because we talk about that on Point of View as well and how we need to be raising kids to be anchored to objective moral truth. We're about to go to a break. We got about a minute left before that, Patty, so I'd love for you to just respond to that and we can dig in more when we come back. Absolutely.

[00:07:15] We all know that the solid rock of Christ and who he is and who he allows us to be has to be the foundation of any moral or character development that we engage our children in as Christians. This is an important belief that we have and it's important for us as parents to be discerning around it. Yes, absolutely. Well, we are talking with Patty Garibay. She is the founder of American Heritage Girls.

[00:07:42] Many of you listening may be very well acquainted with that organization or maybe you haven't heard of it before and you're thinking, wow, that really piques my interest because I remember Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts back in the day when I was a kid and it was such a great character developing organization, but I'm just not so sure about it anymore. There are alternatives and the reason why is because Patty was able to stand up and do something about it. Patty, of course, has written a book as well and I just love the title.

[00:08:10] Why Curse the Darkness When You Can Light a Candle? That is just such a good encouragement and motivation that when we see culture around us straying from that absolute moral truth, straying from the anchor of what God teaches, we don't have to just complain about it. We can do something about it. And Patty's done that and now so many children have been blessed. So when we come back, let's talk about what that program looks like, how it develops character and stays true to God's word and more.

[00:08:38] We'll be right back after this break. This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:06] If you look at the American economy, you will see a high and a low. The stock market is at a record high while consumer sentiment is at the lowest ever measured. In fact, Americans feel worse about the economy than they did in 2008 during the great financial crisis and worse than they felt when locked in their homes during COVID. The consumer sentiment just hit 44. To put that in perspective, the previous record low was 50, which occurred when the post-pandemic inflation was listed at 9%.

[00:09:34] We smashed you that number in a survey that has been taken since 1952. One part of the American economy is high while the other part is low. This is what we call a K-shaped economy. The upper leg of the K represents a growing economy for people who own tangible assets. The lower leg represents an economy that isn't helping working Americans. Put simply, this is the difference between Wall Street and Main Street. Now here is a troubling fact from history.

[00:10:02] The last time we had such an economic divergence was in the year 1929. You know what came next. I'd like to be optimistic, but let's look at the facts. We're living in a world that already has an inflation rate of 3.8% and are experiencing shortages of oil and other commodities because the Strait of Hormuz has been closed for months. Low-income Americans are maxing out their credit cards.

[00:10:24] One analyst documented that Americans spent more on lottery tickets than they spent on movies, books, concert, and sports tickets combined. The political theme of affordability is certain to resonate with American voters. You will likely see lots of ads and hear lots of politicians talk about it this year. 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. We're back talking with Patti Garibay, founder of American Heritage Girls.

[00:11:11] Patti, you talked about in the 90s when the Girl Scouts of the USA removed the part about God and the Girl Scouts' promise, and that's when you started to get concerned. But since then, there have been so many problems. And I say since then. Maybe they had started even earlier, too. I don't know the exact timeline.

[00:11:34] But you've seen Girl Scouts of America promote gender identity confusion, partner with organizations like Planned Parenthood. So what are some of the other examples, or if you want to go into those, of how Girl Scouts have really gone away from their original principles? Just check out their Facebook page. Any council that you have in any town, in any city in America,

[00:12:02] so you'll find them celebrating Pride Month and encouraging the girls to earn their Pride patch and to march in Pride parades. So that's another area that they have really strengthened and flexed their muscles around and encouraged their girls through advocacy and being allies and allyship. As a matter of fact, they have a summer camp time right now. They have a summer camp code of conduct that tells the campers that they are not to question

[00:12:29] or belittle anyone's sexual identity and not to ask those that go by the word they what their real names are. This is stuff that most parents have no idea because here's the thing, Liberty. They are trusting the tradition rather than relying on truth of that iconic organization for girls. And make no mistake, Girl Scouts is not the only one that has fallen by the wayside.

[00:12:55] We've seen what the Boy Scouts are doing, but also beware of the YMCA, the YWCA. A lot of kids' organizations are in the center of the bullseye for the adversary because he wants to grab our kids. We need to be cautious. And if your daughter is presently in Girl Scouts because perhaps you did not know all the controversy and all the things they were into, please, I beg of you, do not send them to summer camp. Do not sell their cookies and promote their agenda. Because they are funding organizations that are not aligned with Christianity.

[00:13:26] So let's talk about the counterpoint then or the remedy to that, AHG. What are some of the examples of the values that you promote whenever girls are in your program and organizations that you partner with? Our mission is to build women of integrity through service to God, family, community, and country. And we do that with girls ages 5 to 18. So pretty much all of girlhood, you can engage with American Heritage Girls.

[00:13:55] American Heritage Girls also started to look at the Girl Scouts and saying, how did they have such a mission drift? And what can we do to prevent that from happening 30 years from now, like what had happened to the Girl Scouts? And what we realized was that the church needs to own and operate the troops so that there is a spiritual oversight to each troop. And a matter of fact, the churches that have American Heritage Girl troops are our voting members.

[00:14:23] So therefore, you cannot really have this maybe a progressive arm that comes in, like it happened with the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, that go on to the boards of directors and then influence policy and change traditions over time. So we are feeling very great about that. Our trajectory has not changed. We remain relevant to today's girls. We're addressing today's issues through the prism of a biblical worldview. And that really changes everything.

[00:14:53] You know, we believe that girls have power, but it's not because it's girl power. It's because of the power of the Holy Spirit in the girl. And also we do this through troop meetings. Girls absolutely love belonging. They long to belong. Right now we have an epidemic of loneliness in this country, particularly for girls. We confusion around gender identity, again, particularly with girls.

[00:15:17] And when they're surrounded with like-minded women and girls that can help them build up their faith and help them to feel like they belong and they do belong and see them, that is a beautiful place for a girl to flourish and thrive. And they also earn badges and service projects are bound as well as leadership opportunities in all kinds of activities, one for every type of girl.

[00:15:43] Whether they love the outdoors or maybe not, they can enjoy their American Heritage Girl experience. Wow. I love that. And I love that you addressed the issues of today because, yes, the loneliness and the isolation and the pressures of screens and social media. And it seems like this is just a breath of fresh air for families and parents. And I also love your partnership with churches because, you know, the local church, I think,

[00:16:11] has the potential to be such a force for good in the community and so many are. But we need to be interested as Christians in developing children that are well-rounded members of society. And so it seems like that's just a great way to do that because you are passing on truth and teaching them objective truth and teaching them biblical principles but also helping them develop leadership skills and other experiences that just make them a well-rounded contributing member.

[00:16:41] But is that something that you see that families appreciate? Absolutely. And, Liberty, you hit it out of the park with that because what we have created is a framework for adulting and parents everywhere, Christian parents particularly, are looking for something, almost like turnkey opportunity because it is difficult as parents to remember all the things, you know, that we should be teaching our daughters. And American Heritage Girls has dedicated, you know, their entire staff, their volunteer corps, et cetera,

[00:17:08] to focus on that and do that for you so that you can then be part of it. And what's really great is when you experience your daughter's girlhood alongside her by volunteering in your AHD troop or if you're a grandma or even if your own granddaughter isn't in a troop but you want to mentor young women, there is space for you and churches that are listening. There is never enough troops for the girls on the waiting list.

[00:17:34] If you are interested in ministering to girls, to growing your membership within your troop for families, American Heritage Girls, and we helped us start Trail Life USA, which you mentioned before, as a result of our diminished relationship with the Boy Scouts, Trail Life and American Heritage Girls are wonderful bookends to bring family ministry into your church. Yeah, I love that. I didn't know about that opportunity to be a mentor, but it seems like there's just such a need for that,

[00:18:02] and that's so biblical too of older women teaching young women, and this is just an awesome way to facilitate that. But we've talked about AHG, your story, the moral drift of those traditional scouting organizations that people have trusted, and now these wonderful alternative options. But you have some other ministry opportunities or things that you do that I mentioned a minute ago, including your podcast. So just maybe talk about some of those other resources where it seems like you really are equipping parents.

[00:18:32] Absolutely. The Lord gave us this message as we went into prayer during the time of COVID. You know, it was such a difficult time for everybody, but those that were really seeking him, I think it was also a reflecting time and a time for him to really peel back the onion. And for us, it was he wanted us to educate parents on how to raise up their girls, Christian parents, because there just weren't enough tools in the tool belt.

[00:18:59] And so during that time where all of our troops were shut down, it was a scary time, Liberty. I wasn't sure about the future of the ministry, but the Lord knew. And so during that quiet time, we began developing a podcast, which airs three days a week, and it is specifically about issues and resources for girls, for parents raising girls. And frankly, it's really for parents or grandparents raising kids.

[00:19:24] We don't just do feminine projects and topics, but also just what it's like raising kiddos today. So you can find that on any of your major podcast platforms or online. It's Raising Godly Girls, and that is our three-day-a-week podcast. Wow, that's an amazing resource. And, I mean, yeah, just so important today because there are so many issues. I know as a mom, you know, I've mentioned a few of them just on the broadcast today,

[00:19:51] but raising young kids and wanting them to get involved in exciting things or pursue their natural interests, and we just can't rely on support from the culture anymore to really reinforce biblical values. And so I'm so thankful for organizations like American Heritage Girls, like Trail Life, and the opportunity for churches to partner. So, Patty, it's just been wonderful having you with us today on Point of View. Any last words or encouragement or things that you'd like to recommend for people?

[00:20:22] I pray that your listeners are not discouraged in their parenting journey. We need to come together as a church and as a community to help one another lift each other's arms up, much like Aaron did with Moses during this battle that we're in, which is a cultural battle. But visit us at AmericanHeritageGirls.org. Learn more. You'll find our Raising Godly Girl free e-books as well that deal with topics from body image to gender dysphoria to environmental stewardship.

[00:20:52] I mean, you name the issue, we've got it covered. So check us out. And remember, have a wonderful place for your daughter to be able to grow and thrive through her girlhood, American Heritage Girls. Thanks so much, Liberty. Wow. Thank you so much, Patty. And you can check out all of those links if you don't remember. You can just Google American Heritage Girls or go to AmericanHeritageGirls.com. But, of course, Point of View's website, pointofview.net, has the links as well.

[00:21:17] And I definitely encourage you to check out those resources, whether you are a parent or a member of a church, or like she said, somebody who just wants to get involved as a mentor for the next generation. And we're going to continue talking about how we can pass the torch of faith when we get back from this short break. Have you ever met a child you knew would do great things? They displayed remarkable imagination, understanding, and a zest for learning.

[00:21:42] 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,

[00:22:05] to the barrage of misinformation from the mainstream media 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.

[00:22:33] Give today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:04] 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 Liberty McCartney. For the last half hour, if you'd like to call in and comment on anything that we have discussed today or that I discussed going forward, please feel free to do so. 1-800-351-1212. 1-800-351-1212. Would love to hear your comments.

[00:23:33] We've had some great conversations. Just wrapped up a talk with Patty Garibay, founder of American Heritage Girls. So if you didn't hear that, then please go back and listen to it and check out the links under her name at pointofview.net. Because she was talking about how when she saw that an organization that she was involved with as a mom, trusted organization founded on Christian principles, Girl Scouts.

[00:23:58] And it was starting to shift from those principles and go in a direction that she knew was not godly. She did something about it. I have often heard Kirby say, instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle. And the title of her book, which we barely even talked about, was similar to that. And she did that. So, one, that's just an encouragement for you when you are looking around and like, oh, my goodness, what's wrong with my community? What's wrong with this country? You can do something about it.

[00:24:27] She said it was her and a group of parents around a kitchen table back in 1995 saying, okay, we don't feel like we can in good conscience be a part of Girl Scouts anymore, but we still want this kind of character developing organization and tradition for our own daughters. Well, now it's a national organization that has thousands of girls involved all over the nation. And now there's Trail Life, which is for the boys as well. So, again, just a great example of how you can make a difference.

[00:24:56] So, let's keep talking just a little bit about how we can pass that faith on. You can go to pointofview.net and look at this new study that has come out from the Institute for Family Studies. If you're not following them, I reference them all the time. You really should go follow their work because just almost every single day they are releasing wonderful research, analysis, articles,

[00:25:24] having to do with family and building strong families, both from a policy perspective, but also a cultural perspective as well. Any evidence that we talk about regarding the benefits of marriage and of children, so many of the things we talk about on the roundtable quite often are coming from the Institute for Family Studies. So, you've got to follow them. But this is one of their most recent studies. And it's called Passing the Torch, How Faith Moves Across Generations.

[00:25:53] It was done with the Institute for Family Studies, of course, in conjunction with Communio. And they used data on American adults ages 25 and over who were raised in a Christian faith. And they examined how parents effectively transmitted their faith onto children. And I know that if you're listening and you've got kids or grandkids, that's probably a big concern for you, too.

[00:26:17] Or if you're in ministry, because we, despite what we talk about, the signs of hope with Gen Z, which is very encouraging overall, the trend has been for young adults to leave religion, to not be religious or involved in faith anymore, even if they were raised in a Christian faith. And so, how are we going to pass on the torch? How do we pass on those beliefs?

[00:26:42] Well, taking Patty's advice and maybe extricating yourself from influences that are intentionally teaching them values opposite of biblical truth is a starting point. But what this study really emphasizes is that, this is what research consistently shows, okay? Families are the single most important factor in whether children adopt and maintain faith into adulthood.

[00:27:08] So, other organizations, peer groups, organizations that they get involved with, like American Heritage Girls or youth groups and things like that, those are important. They matter. However, if you're a parent and you are relying on those external factors, maybe even your kid goes to a Christian school and you're like, well, they're surrounded by Christian influences all the time. That still is not the most important thing.

[00:27:36] The most important thing is what you do as a parent. So, I'm going to kind of go through their executive summary here and then get into some of the other more detailed points. But it's a long report. I would recommend, though. It's about a 45-minute read. When you have time, go to the website, download it, look at that PDF, and go through it, especially if you're raising kids right now or somebody in your life is, and share it with them.

[00:27:59] Because when I read it, I talked to my husband and I was like, man, this is a great gut check because I believe all this stuff. And obviously, we want to be intentional about passing our faith on to our kids. But here's some research that shows, like statistically, how is that actually going to work? And so, it's great to just look and say, wow, am I doing these things? And if not, where else can I be more intentional? So, obviously, they note that fewer Americans are attending worship services regularly.

[00:28:25] There are fewer Americans are identifying with any faith tradition or describing religion as central to their lives. And so, belief has not disappeared entirely. We know that a lot of people still describe themselves as spiritual, but belief is a lot more individualized and less connected to church life. So, churches are also, that's part of the reason why churches are seeing a decline in membership and things like that.

[00:28:50] So, again, the highlights here, faith transmission from parents to children is, if that's going to remain viable, then churches have to focus on equipping both families and their children with practical tools in order to pass that on. So, that's a ministry opportunity. We have, you know, very common to have women's Bible studies or men's Bible studies and youth ministries,

[00:29:14] but ministries specifically equipping parents to minister to their kids in the home, that's a great opportunity. So, here are some of the highlights. Religious practice in childhood is highly predictive of religious practice in adulthood. A little bit common sense there. Higher parent-child relationship quality in childhood is associated with stronger retention of religious belief and practice in adulthood. Again, I think we know that.

[00:29:42] Higher parental marital quality is associated with greater faith transmission. So, prioritizing your marriage and making sure that you're setting a good example for your kids. And then, congregational involvement on the part of both parents and adolescents is linked with higher levels of faith commitment when children reach adulthood. So, this is one of the points that the research makes is that when mom and dad are a team,

[00:30:09] then, and they are in agreement with their religious beliefs and practices and attending church together, that is actually going to have a way bigger impact on the likelihood of their children remaining in the faith when they reach adulthood. Because if there is fighting, if there is uncertainty or disagreement or difference in belief, then it is more likely, again, just statistically, that children will see religious practice as just optional.

[00:30:39] Now, I do want to quickly add that God is bigger than any problem you may face. So, if you are married and your spouse does not share your faith or you are a single parent right now and you're doing the best you can, God's grace is sufficient. So, this is not saying that you are not able to pass your faith on to your kids, but it is important for us to know and for churches to know what the best factors are to make that transmission possible also

[00:31:08] so that we can really emphasize those areas where maybe we need to come alongside and support families who don't have that support system at home. So, recommendations for parents from the study. Be your child's role model for faith. Again, prioritize strong marriages and parent-child relationships. Build that bond. Make faith formation a joint effort. And build religion into everyday life. Make faith a regular topic of family conversation.

[00:31:36] They actually notice the difference between just kind of doing what we might consider to be the basics of practicing faith, like praying before dinner. Actually, that was also a predictor of whether or not someone was more likely to retain their religion. But even if you do those things, praying before you eat, reading the Bible together as a family, praying before you go to bed, going to church, maybe going to Sunday school or a midweek youth group, things like that,

[00:32:01] that still was not as likely to predict sustained faith into adulthood for the children as when faith was a part of all conversations every day. So, really what that comes down to is walking the walk. Don't just talk the talk, but really show and demonstrate to your children that faith is an integral, inseparable part of your life.

[00:32:27] You should be talking about God and the Bible and how your faith applies to every single issue every day, not keep it contained to just certain parts of the day where now we read our devotion, now we say our prayer, this day of the week we go to church, and I'm talking to myself here and reminding myself of this. What is so interesting, and there's more and more that we could go into, and maybe I will again in a moment, but what is so interesting here to me, though not surprising, is that this study,

[00:32:53] when you look at research, and this is nothing new, it confirms a lot of research that has been done before, looking at what helps kids to maintain their faith when they become adults, it's exactly what we see in Scripture.

[00:33:23] God already told us that faith, His commandments, they have to be a part of everyday life in conversation. It's amazing to see that research confirms that and says, don't just go to church or just have your prayer time and then move on with the rest of life. Integrate faith into everything. That's what helps your kids take it with them into adulthood. We'll be right back.

[00:33:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Okay, I wanted to highlight just a few more things from this study, from the Institute for Family Studies on passing the torch. What factors are more likely to predict that a child raised in a Christian home is actually going to retain their faith when they become an adult? So we talked about the recommendations for parents. We talked about how really it echoes what we see in Deuteronomy 6,

[00:34:25] which is talking about faith all the time, integrating it into every single part of life. But they have recommendations for pastors as well. And again, I have this linked at pointofview.net. You can look there or look at Institute for Family Studies and look up their website, and you can download this whole report. And for Christian parents and churches, I would highly recommend it. Here's the recommendations for pastors. Guide parents, not just children, as part of religious education. I think that is so important.

[00:34:54] Of course, we want to equip children because oftentimes you do have children who are coming into church, maybe not from a great background or very stable home life, but often you are having whole families come to church together, and you can really equip the parents as well with how to keep talking about faith at home and keep educating their kids at home with regard to the Christian faith. Support strong marriages and co-parenting relationships, because again, we see that bond between parents is so important for kids

[00:35:24] and whether or not they're going to retain their faith. Actively engage fathers. We already know this from past research, but this study confirms it as well, that a father's involvement in his kid's life and faith life and church attendance is very important in encouraging that child to maintain their faith. So engage fathers, create space for communities, and of course invest in youth ministry. I'll say it again. We just talked with Patty Garibay a few minutes ago, and so she talked about how they partner with churches

[00:35:53] and how that's actually a great organization, American Heritage Girls, for a church to open up or the brother option, Trail Life, because kids can get involved, parents can get involved. It's all rooted in biblical principles. Other members of the church can get involved as mentors and volunteers. So it's a great opportunity to engage all members of the family and community. So really, they sum up their recommendations for parents this way.

[00:36:23] Really, you have to preach what you practice. So for passing along your faith to your children, model religion. Show your child what it should look like. And here's a gut check, like I said, for me too, of saying, am I doing this? Would I want my kid to emulate my actions right now? If the answer is no, then, well, all right, Lord, we have some work to do. So make religion a family activity. So bring your kids into the practice.

[00:36:50] Just let them see and be a part of what you're doing. Talk about faith at home. Resources like American Heritage Girls or those other organizations you may be involved with or even shows you listen to, like Point of View, those can be great conversation starters. They shouldn't replace the conversations in your home, but they can be a jumping off point for you to discuss faith in your home and how biblical values apply to every part of our lives. So check that out.

[00:37:17] I wanted to spend the last few minutes, though, following up on something that I talked about last week and also giving you a little bit of a preview of what has been on the Know Why podcast, because as you know, the Know Why podcast is another media resource that Point of View offers. It's a podcast that I host that is really geared toward young adults. Of course, everybody's welcome to listen. But those millennials and Gen Zers who are leaving home, they're entering adulthood.

[00:37:45] Maybe they're like me in early 30s and you're trying to figure out, OK, I really want to know the why behind everything I believe. I want to stand on firm footing in my beliefs about faith and culture and everything else. So we really try to do that and look at the evidence. And one of the questions that I tried to answer recently last week, actually, in the episode is, why aren't people talking to their neighbors anymore? And this was somewhat inspired by a conversation I had with one of our callers, Barbara from Georgia on Point of View called in last week.

[00:38:13] So shout out to Barbara if you're listening. But I was talking about why parents don't let their kids do free range play as much. And she brought up the fact that people don't really trust their neighbors because of the moral decline. And I thought that was really interesting. And then I saw some statistics because another study came out from the American Enterprise Institute. And they were actually looking at this. And I hadn't seen it at the time that I did the show last week.

[00:38:37] But they were looking at statistics for why people aren't talking to their neighbors anymore. So I just you can go to know why podcast dot com or find know I podcast on YouTube or anywhere you listen to podcasts and get the whole episode. But I'm just going to summarize it here for you today in our last little segment here. So from the AEI, American Enterprise Institute, 40 percent of Americans talk to their neighbors a few times per week. That's not very much.

[00:39:06] So only 40 percent, less than half. Oh, I see that we actually are getting a call again. So maybe we can get that on the line here. But we have 56 percent of older Americans talk to their neighbors a few times a week. So older Americans are doing a better job. Americans 18 to 29, only 25 percent talk to their neighbors. We're not saying every day, a few times a week. OK, so since 2012, here's the difference.

[00:39:34] In 2012, you had about 60 percent of Americans talk to their neighbors a few times a week. Sixty three percent of older Americans and 51 percent of younger Americans. So some of those, especially for the younger Americans, are like a drop by half in terms of how many people are talking to their neighbors. OK, we do have to mention here. Part of that is a class divide. College educated Americans are more likely to talk to their neighbors and then those without a college degree.

[00:40:04] So a lot of that may have to do with the kind of neighborhoods they're living in or those third spaces that are readily available to them, meaning coffee shops, parks, places where people feel comfortable congregating and hanging out. So accessibility to those things is a factor and does play a part. But what's really interesting to me is that when you talk about what is a good neighbor, 65 percent of Americans believe that being a good neighbor means not getting involved in your neighbor's personal affairs.

[00:40:33] That goes up to 70 percent of the definition of good neighborliness among young adults who think that. But there is another definition of what it means to be a good neighbor, which means being proactively helpful, even when help isn't asked for. So when you look at religious identity, religious Americans, close to 45 percent, so that's 45 percent, close to half, actually.

[00:41:02] I'm sorry, over half of Americans who attend weekly religious services say that being a good neighbor actually involves being proactively helpful. And so from Americans 18 to 29, 20, only 20 percent of young adults in America believe that being a good neighbor means being proactively helpful. But when you look at young adults who are religious, that number jumps up to 40 percent.

[00:41:30] So it's interesting to me that religious Americans are more likely to have a completely different definition of neighborliness than those who do not are not involved in religion are not attending church. I think maybe that's because we see stories in the Bible like the Good Samaritan. We have a theological foundation for what it means to be a good neighbor because Jesus happened to talk about that a lot, talked about loving our neighbor. And of course, there was the question, well, who is my neighbor?

[00:41:59] But your neighbor is definitely your neighbor. OK, the neighbor next door across the street in your neighborhood. I don't think even the Pharisees would have argued that that wasn't your neighbor. And so I think it makes sense that religious Americans want to be a good neighbor to those people living around them. So here's something else. There was also another story in The Wall Street Journal last week that said a lot of people falsely assume that if they talk to a stranger, strike up a conversation, it's going to go poorly.

[00:42:27] And yet studies show that when they did, they actually had a really pleasant interaction and that people are open to conversation. They're open to being to being having a conversation and being engaged that way. So that's an encouragement for you. Again, you can get the whole episode where I really break down all of the statistics from that study and give some encouragement on starting those conversations with your neighbors.

[00:42:51] Because, hey, if we want to make a difference in our communities, you have to start by talking to people. So that's it for Point of View today. Thanks so much for being here. You can catch up on anything you might have missed from today's show at pointofview.net. And, of course, join us tomorrow. Thank you, Megan. Thank you, Steve, for producing the show. And as always, thank you for listening to Point of View. Will the American experiment endure?

[00:43:16] Or, as we approach the 250th anniversary for our nation, we must recognize the answer to that question largely depends on us. In 1789, President George Washington said something important. He said, America is an experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. That means that our actions, our values determine the course of our nation.

[00:43:44] Washington also argued that we can't expect blessings if we ignore God's moral order. If you want to help the American experiment endure, if you want to restore the moral foundation that made this nation strong, partner with Point of View. Your support equips listeners to live according to God's moral order and defend freedom for the future. Give this month and your gift will be doubled.

[00:44:12] Call or click today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net and 1-800-347-5151. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.