Point of View November 1, 2024 – Hour 2 : Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now, Dr. Merrill Matthews.

[00:00:20] And welcome back to Point of View. I'm Merrill Matthews, sitting in for Kirby Anderson today.

[00:00:24] And we've been talking about the upcoming election, the Christian's role in that, and some of the challenges that Christians have in trying to determine who to vote for,

[00:00:33] the biblical authority over us in how we try to make those decisions, just a range of different issues regarding the election.

[00:00:40] So if you have a comment or have a thought, give us a call at 1-800-351-1212.

[00:00:46] And as we were closing out the last segment, we were highlighting some of the ballot issues that are out there that states are looking at.

[00:00:58] And that can be very important. We talked about the abortion issue.

[00:01:02] I'm talking from, I'm reading from Ballotpedia, which we have a link to that on PointofView.net.

[00:01:07] You can go and you can see a list of the ballot issues out there.

[00:01:10] They're highlighting and the states where they are and a breakdown of each of those.

[00:01:14] But in eight states, legislatures preferred, referred constitutional amendments to the ballot to prohibit the state or local governments from allowing non-citizens to vote.

[00:01:24] So this is an issue. There are several cities out there that allow people to, non-citizens to vote in local elections.

[00:01:32] And that always raises the question, if you were a non-citizen and you voted in a local election, do you think, do you think, well, I vote in that election?

[00:01:39] I guess I can vote in the federal elections.

[00:01:42] And that has been a question as to whether or not non-citizens are able or going out to try to do that.

[00:01:47] But that's that's on the ballot in eight states.

[00:01:50] Voters will decide on a record number of statewide ballot issues, measures related to ranked choice voting.

[00:01:57] And ranked choice voting is where you go and you actually list.

[00:02:01] Here's three or four candidates on the ballot.

[00:02:03] I'm going to put my order.

[00:02:04] I want this one first, second, third and fourth.

[00:02:07] And then they go through the election judges go through.

[00:02:09] And if they try to figure out who they have, if they don't have a majority for number one, then they may go to number two.

[00:02:15] And sometimes you end up with somebody that a large number of people didn't vote for.

[00:02:21] But they ended up with that candidate because that's the one that the majority preferred in some way or the other.

[00:02:26] And one of the reasons why there has been a Democratic member of Congress from Alaska, which is a very red state, is because they have ranked choice voting.

[00:02:35] And you had a couple of Republicans on the top of the ticket.

[00:02:38] And when people got through doing that ranked choice and ended up being a Democrat, which the majority didn't support.

[00:02:45] But that's the way it sometimes worked.

[00:02:47] And then in voters in three states, Arizona, California and Colorado will decide on ballot measures related to criminal justice, law enforcement and police funding.

[00:02:57] So some very important issues on the on the ballots out there.

[00:03:01] You just have to go down ballot to get to some of those issues.

[00:03:04] But they are important because they affect us, especially in the states, in our lives.

[00:03:08] And oftentimes, you know, Danielle, the states, things that happen in the states are more impactful to us as individuals and in our cities than just the federal legislation.

[00:03:19] Absolutely. And, you know, one of the things that we've seen repeatedly on the news is, you know, the border crisis that we have, which, you know, here in Texas, that impacts us just because we're physically located right on the border.

[00:03:32] And what does that mean? And so what are we seeing happen?

[00:03:36] We're seeing that there are states that are looking to enforce the fact that you have to be a legal citizen and you have to identify as such in order to vote.

[00:03:44] So what did we see in Virginia? We see that Governor Youngkin did the appropriate thing.

[00:03:48] He's telling his folks, you know, we have to have appropriate individuals, citizens voting.

[00:03:54] And if they're not, then they can't vote. About sixteen hundred were removed from the rolls.

[00:03:57] DoJ stepped in and thankfully the Supreme Court made the right decision and said, no, you know what Governor Youngkin did is correct.

[00:04:04] And some of these individuals, I believe that the media reported that they were self-identified as non-citizens. Right.

[00:04:09] My understanding is a self-identify. In some cases that may have been a mistake, but they self-identified.

[00:04:16] I mean, it's your responsibility as a citizen to do what you need to do to be able to vote and to be able to vote appropriately.

[00:04:21] And there is going to be an opportunity for people to go and correct that.

[00:04:25] But the fact that we're even having the debate to even call it a debate over that issue is is frankly, in my mind, absolutely ridiculous.

[00:04:32] And it should highlight to people that, you know, if we're going to be allowing non-citizens to vote, then what is what incentive is there to even secure our border?

[00:04:40] People are just going to come across. They're going to vote and then they're going to.

[00:04:43] What does that mean for the rest of us who hold the Constitution near and dear? It's going to be gone.

[00:04:47] Liberty, if my understanding is that Governor Young can follow the rules on this specifically within the 90 day measure of 90 days, 90 days out from the election and other things.

[00:04:58] And so it worked. And yet the Department of Justice sued him.

[00:05:02] And interestingly, when the Supreme Court came up and affirmed him, I saw all kinds of commentary from the media criticizing this thing.

[00:05:11] Oh, just one more way. The Supreme Court is just way off kilter again here.

[00:05:16] I don't understand. And again, you can you can read the reports if people were mistakenly removed.

[00:05:23] They were a citizen and maybe they checked the wrong box when they were getting their driver's license or something like that.

[00:05:28] In Virginia, they can register to vote on the same on voting day.

[00:05:32] So on election day, they can still go and cast a provisional ballot.

[00:05:36] And if they are indeed a citizen, it will be recorded.

[00:05:38] So the people who have a right to vote will still be able to vote.

[00:05:43] And anybody who wasn't supposed to be voting won't be voting.

[00:05:46] And he did it all within Virginia's law.

[00:05:49] So I think, as Danielle was saying earlier in the last hour, sometimes there are things that we think, oh, that is so crazy.

[00:05:56] That's not ever going to become an issue and we don't pay attention to it.

[00:05:59] I'm thinking that the issue of non-citizen voting is one of those things where we need to pay attention now because the fact that this is controversial to me signals that, OK, down the road, if we're not careful,

[00:06:11] we may be finding ourselves in a sticky situation in terms of holding the Constitution and who's able to vote.

[00:06:17] And, you know, Danielle, some of these are just are understandably confusing for people because many states allow non-citizens to get a driver's license.

[00:06:27] And then when they go and register for the driver's license, they are often asked, do you are you a citizen?

[00:06:32] Do you want to vote?

[00:06:33] And we'll enroll you in the voting rolls.

[00:06:37] And yet they may not understand that.

[00:06:40] And here in Texas, we have an issue of a person who was a former felon and was released and did not know she claims.

[00:06:47] And I think I don't doubt this necessarily.

[00:06:50] She didn't know that she wasn't allowed to vote.

[00:06:52] And so she went and vote and she ended up getting caught because she was a former felon.

[00:06:56] And Texas doesn't allow that.

[00:06:58] And so now she's been through a mess.

[00:07:00] And then Tarrant County, they're trying to put her back in jail because of that.

[00:07:04] So it's a it's an issue of citizens and even felons and other people who aren't allowed to vote, who have tried to vote.

[00:07:11] And it becomes an issue.

[00:07:12] And that's the problem that we're having with this is that, you know, at one time it was a bright line issue.

[00:07:19] You cannot be a noncitizen and do all the things that we as citizens do.

[00:07:23] We have a process that you have to follow immigration.

[00:07:27] And because the lines have been blurred so so badly, it leaves even the people at our local levels of government trying to scramble to say, OK, well, what's the right thing to do in this situation?

[00:07:37] And how do I apply this situation? Because how do you have a driver's license?

[00:07:40] But then you can't vote.

[00:07:41] And so let's just get back to there's an immigration process and you have to follow it to become an American citizen.

[00:07:49] And, you know, I'm sure we're going to get into it here.

[00:07:51] But look at all the other issues that it's created for our school systems.

[00:07:55] I mean, my cousin is a school teacher in New Jersey and the local school system.

[00:07:59] The children can barely speak English.

[00:08:02] How are we passing them through to the next grade?

[00:08:04] How are we adequately educating them and how are they going to be eventually functioning members of our society?

[00:08:09] It's not only what is this doing to our broader society and how are we going to be able to support these people?

[00:08:14] But how are these people going to be able to function in a world that they can't even speak our language?

[00:08:18] Mm hmm.

[00:08:19] It's it's a real problem.

[00:08:21] And, of course, from the Supreme Court ruling from many years ago, if somebody here is illegal as a child, they still get a free public education.

[00:08:28] So they're able to go and enroll in public school.

[00:08:31] They get free meals now in many cases, especially most districts.

[00:08:35] So it's it creates a lot of challenges.

[00:08:38] When we come back, we'll talk about the early voting that's been occurring.

[00:08:41] So stay with us on Point of View.

[00:08:58] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson.

[00:09:02] You know, for centuries, marriage was defined as one man and one woman.

[00:09:05] But various states and then the Supreme Court in its controversial five four decision rule that every state must recognize same sex marriage.

[00:09:12] That was not the end of the debate.

[00:09:13] The House of Representatives recently passed the deceptively named Respect for Marriage Act to codify the Supreme Court decision.

[00:09:20] Now, there are many good reasons to reject the concept of same sex marriage, which I recount in our point of view booklet on a biblical point of view on same sex marriage.

[00:09:28] Many of those arguments were cited before the 2015 Supreme Court decision and are now coming to fruition.

[00:09:34] But we don't have to guess how the redefinition of marriage will affect religious liberty.

[00:09:38] We've seen it play out in the courts.

[00:09:40] Nevertheless, a greater percentage of Americans now support same sex marriage.

[00:09:44] When Gallup first began tracking the support for same sex marriage in 1996, a quarter of Americans backed legalization.

[00:09:50] The most recent poll found that seven in ten believe that same sex marriage should be recognized by law as valid.

[00:09:57] This significant shift illustrates three important points.

[00:10:00] First, activists presented same sex marriage as marriage equality, as illustrated by the bumper sticker that merely had an equal sign.

[00:10:07] Second, Americans tend to take their cues from what is legal.

[00:10:11] And third, most pastors need to explain the importance of a biblical definition of marriage.

[00:10:15] One group of Americans that still does oppose legalized same sex marriage are weekly church goers.

[00:10:21] In fact, approval for same sex marriage in this group has fallen a few percentage points over the last few years.

[00:10:27] By contrast, Americans who seldom or never attend church are much more likely to support same sex marriage.

[00:10:33] That is why pastors must remind their congregation of what the Bible says about marriage and why it is still important in the 21st century.

[00:10:40] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free booklet on a biblical view on big data, go to viewpoints.info slash data.

[00:10:53] That's viewpoints.info slash data.

[00:10:58] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:11:03] And we're back.

[00:11:05] Joining me in studio, Libby McCarter, who is the head of the Why Now podcast.

[00:11:11] No Why Podcast.

[00:11:11] No Why Podcast.

[00:11:13] Backwards.

[00:11:14] No Why Podcast.

[00:11:16] And also Danielle Runyon with First Liberty Institute.

[00:11:18] And we've got a caller on the line.

[00:11:20] Cheryl from Georgia, you're on the air.

[00:11:24] Yeah.

[00:11:26] My son was in the military and married a young lady from Panama.

[00:11:30] And she just, they paid the legal services of $6,000 to get her to be a U.S. citizen.

[00:11:36] And this is the first year she got the vote.

[00:11:38] Praise the Lord.

[00:11:39] But what disturbs me is this border stuff and they thinking that these people can come over here and vote for them and do all that.

[00:11:47] I find it very appealing and I find it very offensive that my son had to pay for all that, do the right things legally,

[00:11:55] and then you've got these folks to come over here and do what they want.

[00:11:58] And they think it's okay.

[00:12:00] I think she...

[00:12:01] I mean, it's just...

[00:12:03] Go ahead.

[00:12:04] I just feel like it's a call.

[00:12:05] It's disturbing to me that they would allow it.

[00:12:08] Thank you, Cheryl.

[00:12:09] Yeah, I think she makes a good point about you can be pro-immigration, but there are people who are working hard with, you know,

[00:12:18] I think we can admit a broken and messed up immigration system, but still doing, following the process.

[00:12:25] And then, you know, I mean, for instance, in Washington, D.C., you can be in Washington, D.C. for 30 days and vote in a local election.

[00:12:35] And so to me, somebody coming here quickly to cast a vote after somebody else has been waiting years to be able to vote and gone through all that due process,

[00:12:44] then to me that's not fair to the people who are trying to immigrate here legally.

[00:12:49] So I totally think that she makes a good point there.

[00:12:52] Yeah, and one of the things that I think that people aren't talking about enough is what is the point of immigration?

[00:12:58] What is the point of the process?

[00:13:00] People who are just allowed to come over into America because they think it's the land of opportunity,

[00:13:05] they don't even understand or probably even know, perhaps, that we have a Constitution of the United States

[00:13:10] and what the Constitution means, what it says, what protections are afforded to them, what protections are afforded to other citizens.

[00:13:16] So the fact that these people are probably coming over and don't even understand what the United States of America is about,

[00:13:22] that's part of the immigration process that you have to know that and you have to honor it and you have to respect it.

[00:13:27] So if that's lost, I mean, in my opinion, I think that's that's part of the reason why these individuals are just being allowed to come across the border,

[00:13:36] because that's part of the grander, I don't want to say plan, but part of the grander idea that this Constitution doesn't matter.

[00:13:44] Right. So if we have court packing and we have people just coming across the border and we are just allowing people to run free and we're not even prosecuting people for crimes,

[00:13:52] well, we're prosecuting some, but we're not prosecuting others.

[00:13:55] And we're in fact treating migrants more favorably than we are our own American citizens.

[00:14:01] What does that mean? And what is that going to mean for the future?

[00:14:04] It's going to mean that the United States as we knew it is not going to exist.

[00:14:07] There is a been a running narrative out there that that Democrats want to allow people to come into the to the country illegally,

[00:14:16] give them the vote and then they will turn around and vote for Democrats.

[00:14:20] And that's I think it's called replacement conspiracy or something of that nature.

[00:14:24] But I don't necessarily know or think that's going on.

[00:14:28] But you do have the situation where when Democrats come in power, they open the borders and you do have Democrats talking frequently about we need to give these people the right to vote because they're here.

[00:14:40] And you can make that connection. I mean, it may not be a solid connection, but at least a backdoor connection that there's a and a sense of a movement of we want to get people here and give them the right to vote.

[00:14:53] And then they will vote for us. Well, I mean, what other theory?

[00:14:57] What other conclusion can you come to when there's there's really no thought process going into or reasoning, good reasoning given as to why this is happening?

[00:15:08] Again, if we're not adequately educating people and kind of to my earlier point about these children in school systems where they can't even speak the language and these school systems that are being being so overwhelmed by migrants and migrant children, no one is learning.

[00:15:24] Right. And what do we want for children? We want children to thrive, all children.

[00:15:27] We want migrant children, American citizen children.

[00:15:30] We want all children to thrive and to be able to be successful and happy and healthy and to be able to receive the gifts that America gives by way of our Constitution.

[00:15:41] That is not going to be realized if we continue down this path.

[00:15:44] So I know that on the one hand, folks who are in support of all of this would say, well, that's what it means to be caring about others, you know, to allow them to come to our country.

[00:15:54] That is not what it's about. There's there's disciplines that we need to follow and there's a process that we need to follow.

[00:16:00] And, you know, Liberty, the the fact that Joe Biden essentially opened the borders, we need immigration reform.

[00:16:07] We need a serious immigration reform.

[00:16:09] But with the open borders, it has so polarized everyone that I just don't know that we see immigration reform possible in anything other than a unified government where you have a either Republican House, President House, Senate or Democrat House, Senate.

[00:16:24] I'm just not sure you can get that.

[00:16:26] I will. Progress needs to start somewhere.

[00:16:29] And, you know, I know that you have, you know, this conclusion that Danielle mentioned that it seems like Democrats, if it's not some scheme, at least want to sometimes take advantage of the fact that illegal migrants are more likely to vote for them if they're able to vote.

[00:16:46] On the other hand, though, I think that sometimes you have Republicans in Congress who are hesitant to actually make progress on the border because it is an issue that motivates votes from their base.

[00:16:57] And so what you need is people who are actually willing to work together on this, because, as I highlighted when I was guest hosting for Kirby the other day, there are so many problems with the open border, including sex trafficking rings.

[00:17:11] These are affecting minors.

[00:17:13] So, again, the compassionate thing is to say how not just say anybody who wants to come here can come here with no laws because then you're, you know, opening the door for criminals.

[00:17:23] You're opening the door for abuse, for people who are at the border trying to cross the border for legitimate reasons to be hurt and abused.

[00:17:31] As Danielle mentioned, the children who do come over, there are not enough resources in place to be able to care for them properly.

[00:17:38] And so the compassionate thing is reform.

[00:17:41] And I think that Christians need to be a voice of clarity on that.

[00:17:44] You know, Danielle, Kamala Harris has said we we put together a bipartisan piece of legislation that was going to be a very tough border issue.

[00:17:53] And Republicans voted against it.

[00:17:55] And she pointed out that Donald Trump apparently called.

[00:17:58] And I think that was true and encouraged them not to do that.

[00:18:01] I wish if he had done that, I wish he had done it behind the scenes and not publicly, because it's not there's no it's it's not clear that Donald Trump would win the election.

[00:18:11] And so you might not be able to get that border bill.

[00:18:14] But the other thing is they waited three and a half years to do that bill.

[00:18:18] It was it wasn't like it was top of mind.

[00:18:21] And the first thing they were getting at.

[00:18:22] And I think if I recall the conversation around that correctly, when you know, these these issues don't just come in one tiny package of like, OK, we're just deciding on this one small issue.

[00:18:36] There's appropriations being negotiated for other things.

[00:18:39] Right.

[00:18:40] Right. So my understanding is that and I could be wrong on this, but if I'm if my memory serves me correctly, that there were other appropriations that that were not the the Republicans did not want to budge on.

[00:18:53] And perhaps.

[00:18:54] Right.

[00:18:54] Perhaps the Democrats knew that so that they could have this narrative that, look, we came to the table and the other side didn't.

[00:19:01] And as you pointed out, three years too late.

[00:19:04] I mean, how many millions of people are here illegally now and how many issues do we have on our hands?

[00:19:09] So I don't really think that the bill that was put forward was quite as viable as they want everyone to believe that it is.

[00:19:16] And it makes no sense either because the Republicans want change on this.

[00:19:21] This isn't something that we're willing to budge on and protect particularly in light of the election coming up.

[00:19:26] And who is most at risk for migrants voting against them?

[00:19:30] Historically, it's going to be Republicans.

[00:19:32] So why would Republicans vote against this if they know that these are the individuals that likely they're not going to get votes from?

[00:19:38] So let's just try and make it make sense.

[00:19:40] And let's look into it a little bit deeper.

[00:19:41] Just to highlight what you said, there are frequently times people, members of Congress will come up with legislation and they'll put in there what's called a poison pill.

[00:19:50] And that poison pill means we know the other side is not going to vote for this because of this one provision we put in there.

[00:19:56] But it allows us to put it forward and say we have proposed this legislation and you opposed it.

[00:20:03] And the media oftentimes don't highlight the poison pill, the thing that the one thing that they couldn't get, which may not even be related to the legislation.

[00:20:10] It may be something completely different.

[00:20:12] But they'll put that poison pill in in order to kill the legislation.

[00:20:16] I remember a senator who had legislation.

[00:20:20] He wanted to he went around, he got a number of Democrats as a Republican senator to sign on to a bill.

[00:20:26] And they kept saying, what do you want here?

[00:20:28] What do you want here?

[00:20:29] And they got the bill so stuffed with stuff.

[00:20:32] Then he turned around and said, we can't pass this bill.

[00:20:34] It's stuffed with all kinds of stuff.

[00:20:36] So it was done as a way to say we're trying to do something.

[00:20:39] But then by the time he got everybody's wants and needs in there, he said, there's this stuff with everything.

[00:20:45] It's packed.

[00:20:46] We can't pass this thing.

[00:20:47] And it used as a way to kill the bill.

[00:20:49] So just so our listeners understand, politics go on in ways that we oftentimes don't know about unless you're there on the scene and you have sort of background knowledge of it or intimate knowledge of what's happened.

[00:21:03] So it's interesting that that happened.

[00:21:04] 1-800-351-1212.

[00:21:07] When we come back, we will talk a little bit about what's happening with the early vote.

[00:21:11] We've got a very good turnout so far.

[00:21:13] And we want to talk a little bit about education.

[00:21:16] Something has come up in Texas that I think you'll be very interested in.

[00:21:20] So stay with us.

[00:21:21] We'll be back on Point of View.

[00:21:30] In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas.

[00:21:40] London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism, and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon.

[00:21:48] London was in many ways the center of the world economically, militarily, and intellectually.

[00:21:55] Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports.

[00:22:00] Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers.

[00:22:04] Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth.

[00:22:08] It is truth for all of life.

[00:22:11] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[00:22:15] 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 signup.

[00:22:27] Every weekday in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time.

[00:22:35] It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now.

[00:22:41] Pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:48] Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:58] You are listening to Point of View.

[00:23:02] The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:10] And now, here again, Dr. Merrill Matthews.

[00:23:14] And welcome back to Point of View.

[00:23:15] We've been talking about Christians and the vote that's coming up on Tuesday.

[00:23:19] And the question is, have you voted yet?

[00:23:23] Have you gone out?

[00:23:24] I think virtually every state has some form of early voting.

[00:23:27] I have gone and already cast my ballot, so I'm done.

[00:23:30] But we have a link to an article in there that also goes to the University of Florida's election lab, which highlights some of the early vote out there.

[00:23:41] And so this would have been probably from yesterday.

[00:23:43] But so far, about 33.3 million people have voted.

[00:23:48] That would be a little bit.

[00:23:50] The Democrats have a little lead in this.

[00:23:52] That's 12.8 million, and that's 38.6 percent of the early vote.

[00:23:58] Republicans are just about 12 million.

[00:24:00] That's 36.6 percent of the early vote.

[00:24:04] And then there's others that they don't have a listing of that they don't know which party, and that was about 25 percent.

[00:24:11] So to the extent that they can tell, Democrats are in a slight lead, but that's typical.

[00:24:17] Typically, Democrats like to vote early.

[00:24:19] Republicans tend to wait until election day.

[00:24:23] I made a mistake last week because I mentioned that Donald Trump said he had voted early.

[00:24:28] He said he was going to vote early, but he has not voted early, and I found out today he's going to wait and vote on election day.

[00:24:35] So he did not vote early, but he said he would, and he encouraged people to go ahead and vote early.

[00:24:39] Something he hasn't been doing much in the past, but voting early, you know, to me, if you have a – in Texas here, we have two weeks early voting.

[00:24:49] That works out for me so well because you don't have to go and stand in line.

[00:24:53] So why some people push back against early in-person voting, I don't know, but I think it works very, very well for me anyway to be able to go in, get it done.

[00:25:02] I'm out in 10 or 15 minutes.

[00:25:04] I voted early – as soon as early voting opened, and I had no wait.

[00:25:10] I voted on election day for the primaries, and I had to wait two hours.

[00:25:14] So, hey, don't be discouraged.

[00:25:16] If you haven't voted, still get out on election day.

[00:25:19] It's worth it even if you have to wait in line.

[00:25:22] But I have to say personally, I'm a fan of early voting in person as well.

[00:25:27] Well, look, you know, I know – I was just listening to Vivek Ramaswamy on – I believe it was on CNN the other day talking about this issue and how, you know, the conservative viewpoint is that – and I think he was highlighting how Puerto Rico has been conducting their elections, which is paper ballots and doing it on election day.

[00:25:47] You know, if they're having success there and if that's something that proves to be something that we should be doing now, great, although I will say personally – and, you know, particularly for individuals who are working, maybe they can't get to the polls and then the polls close at a certain time and they don't stay open in the long lines.

[00:26:05] You know, if this is something that's going to benefit our election system, I'm certainly not opposed to it, and I also did vote early.

[00:26:12] You know, if you were in – excuse me, North Carolina, when – if that – if Helene came through, Hurricane Helene came through right before election day and you had been waiting to go there on election day, you wouldn't have been able to do it.

[00:26:26] So I am a big fan of the early voting, and I encourage you to go ahead and vote early if you have the chance.

[00:26:34] We also have an issue in Texas on education.

[00:26:37] Yes, so I – Dr. Matthews was very surprised when you sent this article out, but in – there is apparently a cheating ring that authorities have discovered in Texas and Harris County, which is around Houston, where hundreds and potentially more of teachers have obtained licenses to teach in Texas illegally.

[00:27:04] And so you – there's a story that's posted on pointofview.net.

[00:27:08] It's from the Texas Tribune.

[00:27:09] You can go and read it.

[00:27:10] But apparently you had a few people in Harris County organizing this ring where applicants who had previously failed certain certification tests that you have to take to become a teacher in Texas would drive to Harris County to retake the test.

[00:27:27] They would pay $2,000 or more to have somebody else actually take the test for them.

[00:27:34] And so we know that they've – from what they've discovered, about 400 teachers in Texas have obtained licenses this way.

[00:27:44] And so you have unqualified teachers in the public school system.

[00:27:47] My question is – look, I know friends who are teachers and public school teachers.

[00:27:52] I've taught myself not in public schools but even in a smaller setting.

[00:27:55] It is not an easy job, and it's usually not well-paying.

[00:27:58] There's not a whole lot of perks.

[00:28:00] It's usually people who are in it because they really believe in it and they want to help children.

[00:28:05] So why would you pay thousands of dollars to cheat on a test or have somebody else take a test for you in order to become a teacher?

[00:28:12] I just don't get the motivation behind it.

[00:28:14] But it's one of those things that really surprises me.

[00:28:16] And, Danielle, in Texas it's a big issue because we've had such a tussle going on with the teachers unions here in Texas.

[00:28:23] As the state legislature has wanted to pass school choice legislation.

[00:28:29] And most Republicans are support.

[00:28:32] A few Republicans oppose it.

[00:28:34] All Democrats – generally, I think all the Democrats in the State House oppose it.

[00:28:37] And the Texas education unions, the unions have been fighting this thing.

[00:28:42] If you really want to have – this is where the good education comes is in the public schools.

[00:28:47] And I know there's several public schools.

[00:28:49] My kids went to public school, got a great education.

[00:28:52] I have no criticism of that at all.

[00:28:54] But on the other hand, if you're fighting this legislation and you're – at the same time,

[00:28:58] you've got all these teachers coming in who did not actually – who couldn't pass the test,

[00:29:03] and yet they're in their teaching now.

[00:29:06] Yes.

[00:29:06] This fact certainly does not help the position that school choice should not be a thing,

[00:29:12] should not be something that parents should be allowed to take advantage of

[00:29:16] and should be able to teach their children in the manner in which they want them to be educated.

[00:29:22] As Liberty said, it's kind of – it's puzzling to wonder what the motivation is for these individuals

[00:29:31] to want to get certified and spend so much money on doing that and having an illegal certification.

[00:29:38] But, you know, again, just now looking at the totality of the circumstances,

[00:29:42] we have a number of agendas that are being pushed on children in schools.

[00:29:46] And the problem is, you know, everybody – we have our religious liberty rights.

[00:29:53] People can have faith or no faith at all, right?

[00:29:56] And that's what we're to respect in our society.

[00:30:00] However, the problem becomes when parents have no rights, and that's what we're seeing.

[00:30:06] Really, that's the biggest issue for me personally as a parent.

[00:30:09] If I'm going to send my kids to public school – and I will tell you, I'm all for public education.

[00:30:14] I would send my children to public school if I knew that they were going to be in a safe environment,

[00:30:18] that I was able to collaborate on and be involved in with other parents and with teachers.

[00:30:25] But that's just not the case.

[00:30:26] And I will tell you that my children did go to public school for two years.

[00:30:30] And how difficult it was for me to be able to just connect with a teacher and say,

[00:30:35] hey, all I'm asking – I understand you have 28 other children in your class,

[00:30:39] but all I want is just to understand what's your curriculum for the year so that I can follow along

[00:30:44] and understand and be a part of the collaborative teaching process.

[00:30:47] And for both of those two years, I got no response to that question.

[00:30:51] Not only are we dealing with overwhelmed teachers,

[00:30:55] we're dealing with special education programs that cannot sustain the levels,

[00:31:00] the number of special education children per student.

[00:31:03] So those children are being – the overflow is going into the regular classroom.

[00:31:10] Those teachers then can't manage those students.

[00:31:13] And then on top of it, you have ideologies that are being pushed on children,

[00:31:16] and parents will just never know about it.

[00:31:19] So, frankly, what rational person is going to sign up for that,

[00:31:22] and why is school choice not a thing?

[00:31:25] It's amazing to me.

[00:31:27] And, you know, it's because the teachers unions have given such a pushback to this,

[00:31:31] and in other areas – I mean, we've talked several times about during the COVID pandemic

[00:31:35] how teachers unions said we don't want to come back and teach yet until it's safe.

[00:31:40] And in Chicago and other places, the Chicago – the school board resigned en masse

[00:31:45] because the mayor of Chicago was going along with the teachers union there

[00:31:49] and giving a big raise to the teachers.

[00:31:52] And the school board said we just simply don't have the money,

[00:31:55] and we can't go into debt to do that.

[00:31:57] And the mayor, Brandon Johnson, pushed him aside, let him go,

[00:32:00] and is going to appoint new people just because he's going to go along

[00:32:03] and give them the big raise they need.

[00:32:05] And yet they wouldn't even come back into class during the COVID pandemic.

[00:32:10] Yeah.

[00:32:11] I'll tell you that when the pandemic hit and my children, you know, we all had to go remote.

[00:32:17] So, obviously, there was some give and take with that.

[00:32:21] It didn't work out so great in the very early days.

[00:32:23] Understandably so.

[00:32:24] We give everybody grace.

[00:32:26] But my son's teacher, all of a sudden, she was at her lake house.

[00:32:30] And it's like, well, I understand everybody wants to work remotely from where they want to go,

[00:32:34] but you had people getting a little bit too comfortable.

[00:32:37] And, you know, it just wasn't beneficial to the children.

[00:32:41] And getting these teachers back into the classroom, the teachers unions,

[00:32:46] I don't know what their focus is, but it just seems to be since then,

[00:32:50] and perhaps even before COVID, not necessarily on what is correct and proper and appropriate for the children,

[00:32:57] what they should be learning.

[00:32:58] It was more on making sure that teachers are accommodated in a way that they are not overburdened.

[00:33:04] And they're, frankly, getting accommodated more greatly than the children are.

[00:33:08] We have a link to that Texas Tribune article on Point of View,

[00:33:12] so I'd encourage you to go to pointofview.net and you can see that.

[00:33:14] And just take that in because it may be an expanding scandal.

[00:33:20] We know about 400 so far.

[00:33:22] There may be more.

[00:33:24] And then the other question that arises is where are they?

[00:33:26] Is this happening in other states?

[00:33:28] If it's happening in Texas, has it been exported to other states?

[00:33:32] We've got Tracy from South Carolina on the line.

[00:33:34] Tracy, stay on.

[00:33:35] We'll be back with you in just a minute.

[00:33:55] A false abortion narrative lives in our presidential politics.

[00:33:59] The narrative is that state restrictions on abortion,

[00:34:01] passed since the Dobbs decision in 2022,

[00:34:04] are placing women in serious danger.

[00:34:07] Supposedly, hospitals fearing they'll run afoul of state law

[00:34:10] are refusing to treat women for miscarriages or abortion complications.

[00:34:13] Abortion advocates, including our vice president,

[00:34:16] blamed the Supreme Court for the death of Amber Thurman,

[00:34:19] aged 28, following a medication abortion.

[00:34:22] She was nine weeks pregnant with twins.

[00:34:24] Medication abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions in 2023.

[00:34:29] The sustained growth in the use of the abortion pill

[00:34:32] since it was approved in 2000

[00:34:33] is due in large part to the FDA's progressive easing of restrictions on its use.

[00:34:38] Many medical experts contend the FDA did not adequately study its safety.

[00:34:43] The FDA approved the two-drug regimen to be used during the first seven weeks of pregnancy

[00:34:48] and in 2016 extended the requirement to 10 weeks gestation

[00:34:52] and allowed non-physicians to prescribe the drugs.

[00:34:55] In 2021, the Biden administration eliminated the requirement

[00:34:59] that women seeking a medical abortion be evaluated in person by a medical professional.

[00:35:04] A Wall Street Journal editorial states the obvious.

[00:35:07] Thurman's death affirms what anti-abortion activists have argued,

[00:35:10] that the two-pill abortion regimen is far more dangerous than its advocates claim.

[00:35:15] Since Georgia's abortion law bans abortions after six weeks gestation,

[00:35:19] Amber Thurman made an appointment at a North Carolina clinic for a surgical abortion.

[00:35:24] She arrived too late for the appointment.

[00:35:26] Rather than reschedule the surgical abortion,

[00:35:28] Amber opted to begin a medical abortion.

[00:35:30] She took the first pill and drove back to Georgia.

[00:35:33] At home, days later, she vomited and passed out.

[00:35:35] She was taken to a Stockbridge, Georgia hospital.

[00:35:38] The babies had no heartbeat.

[00:35:39] Standard treatment involves an antibiotic and a DNC,

[00:35:43] but it was hours before Amber received either.

[00:35:45] She died of sepsis.

[00:35:46] No court decision or law prevented her timely treatment.

[00:35:50] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

[00:35:55] You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth.

[00:36:01] And we're back with our final segment on Weekend Edition for Point of View,

[00:36:04] and we've got Tracy on the line in South Carolina.

[00:36:07] Tracy, you're on the air.

[00:36:10] Yes, I'm here.

[00:36:12] Yes, go ahead.

[00:36:14] Yes, I was calling in because we wanted to talk about the fact that, you know,

[00:36:20] we're thinking about not voting because we just feel a little conflicted with both parties.

[00:36:26] And we were listening to the radio earlier, and we heard them say, you know,

[00:36:30] that we could call in and talk about it and we could speak to people who could give us, like,

[00:36:36] a Christian point of view to help us make a decision to vote for the right party

[00:36:43] because we understand how important this election is.

[00:36:46] However, you know, we want to make sure that we are supporting the right agendas.

[00:36:53] Right.

[00:36:54] And so you feel like there's some conflict going on there about among the media reports?

[00:37:00] Yes, because the media is, you know, they do a good job at making both parties look bad.

[00:37:07] So it's like, you know, it just kind of puts you in a position of, okay, well, who do I vote for?

[00:37:13] Because, again, as a Christian, we always want to do what the Father wants us to do

[00:37:17] and what's going to be best for the, you know, for the American people.

[00:37:20] So, you know, we wanted to do the responsible thing to vote because we know that our vote counts

[00:37:27] and we want to vote, but we will choose Jesus and not vote if we have to.

[00:37:31] It's a good point.

[00:37:32] Yeah, I really, you know, respect the callers struggle with this because we do want to do the right thing

[00:37:39] and it's not something to take lightly.

[00:37:41] So I know that Danielle has mentioned and she's probably ready to pull out some information again,

[00:37:47] just looking at different candidates' records, but I would say even if you are conflicted

[00:37:53] about the presidential candidate, something I've been really emphasizing a lot is still go to the polls

[00:37:59] because there are so many races for state and local offices that are going to have a very real,

[00:38:07] tangible impact on you and your neighbors.

[00:38:10] And so pointofview.net has an election central where there are free links.

[00:38:15] You can go to places like iVoterGuide where they will actually pull up a sample ballot for your area

[00:38:23] and you can look at the candidates, you can look at what issues they support

[00:38:27] and make an informed decision for several different races.

[00:38:32] And again, it goes back to looking at the records of what the candidates support.

[00:38:37] Yes, and just to expand upon what Liberty was just saying,

[00:38:42] So if you go to firstliberty.org slash elections,

[00:38:47] we have a tremendous amount of election resources for this election.

[00:38:52] There's pastor's guides, churches and elections legal guide,

[00:38:57] the Trump-Harrison record comparison, which at the beginning of the program,

[00:38:59] I had read some of the topics that we cover just comparing their past track records on those issues.

[00:39:07] We have videos that accompany these documents that you can download and read.

[00:39:14] So I would really encourage people to go there because we've spent a lot of time at First Liberty.

[00:39:18] You know, we're a 501c3.

[00:39:19] So our mission is not just related to, you know, lawsuits and lawyers.

[00:39:26] We also have a number of folks who are dedicated to making sure that there's educational materials

[00:39:32] that are put out into the world for people to truly understand at a very ground level

[00:39:38] what our religious liberty rights are, why they're important,

[00:39:41] and why it's important to vote on those issues in this election.

[00:39:44] So hopefully firstliberty.org slash elections will help people get those resources

[00:39:49] so that they can read them for themselves.

[00:39:51] And I'm sympathetic with what Tracy says because the media come between us and the candidate in so many cases

[00:39:59] because you're looking at the news, you're looking at reports and so forth,

[00:40:03] and in many cases the media has been stepping in and trying to help out Kamala Harris in her area somewhere.

[00:40:09] So it's just hard sometimes to know what's true and what isn't true,

[00:40:13] and sometimes you'll have the media saying this about Donald Trump,

[00:40:16] and you come back and you see the context or other things,

[00:40:18] you find out, well, it's not really what they're saying it is.

[00:40:22] Maybe I disagree with it, but it may not be as bad.

[00:40:25] So it really is a challenge in our current media environment.

[00:40:30] So I understand your perplexity, Tracy,

[00:40:33] and I hope we're all trying to do what the Lord wants us to do on that.

[00:40:37] But we also find, Liberty, that you highlighted a piece here where red states,

[00:40:43] the fertility rates are higher.

[00:40:45] Well, I think everybody knows at this point that not only the U.S.,

[00:40:50] but many countries around the world are suffering a fertility crisis

[00:40:53] where just the citizens or populations are not reproducing.

[00:40:58] Especially China where they limited that one-child policy for so many decades.

[00:41:02] That's right.

[00:41:02] And there are so many far-reaching implications of that.

[00:41:06] But one of the misconceptions among a lot of people is that the reason that we are having this problem

[00:41:13] is because there are a lack of family-friendly policies.

[00:41:16] And by family-friendly policies, that always means government policies,

[00:41:21] where we need to have the government pay for parental leave,

[00:41:26] for daycare, universal daycare.

[00:41:30] And so I don't really necessarily want to get into the weeds of all that.

[00:41:33] I know that we've had those conversations and we will again.

[00:41:37] But if that was the case,

[00:41:39] then you would see states that had those policies having more babies.

[00:41:44] But the reality is, according to a study from the Institute for Family Studies,

[00:41:50] red states are actually having more babies.

[00:41:52] So still not at the replacement rate.

[00:41:54] There's still a fertility problem.

[00:41:56] But states where people are more likely to be conservative or identify as Republican,

[00:42:01] families have more kids.

[00:42:03] And so I think what I wanted to highlight from this is that whenever you have families

[00:42:09] or people who are more likely to identify as Christian,

[00:42:12] then they're more likely to value family.

[00:42:15] And so if the underlying value of family being important and kids being important isn't there,

[00:42:21] it doesn't matter how many government policies you throw at a problem.

[00:42:23] It's not going to make people start having kids.

[00:42:27] And so this is just something that I think would be interesting for people to check out.

[00:42:31] It really does come down to among individuals, what do they value?

[00:42:35] Do they see getting married and having children as a positive,

[00:42:39] as something that they want to be part of their life's purpose?

[00:42:41] If not, a government policy isn't going to make them do that.

[00:42:44] Do you think that maybe red states tend to have a lower cost of living than, say, New York, California,

[00:42:50] some of those?

[00:42:50] Could that play in there, too, you think?

[00:42:52] I definitely think so because I'm just in my small circle of people that I know.

[00:42:56] I know many people who have kids, and I think once they have kids,

[00:42:59] they're more likely to move to a red state because they are seeing the progressive ideology

[00:43:03] in the public school system that they don't want to affect their kids.

[00:43:07] They're seeing the high cost of living.

[00:43:08] And so maybe not in policies directly related to families and kids, but just life in general,

[00:43:15] it's more family-friendly in many of these red states because it's easier for families to actually,

[00:43:21] for parents to raise kids and to raise a family.

[00:43:24] They have more economic freedom there.

[00:43:25] Well, Danielle Runyon, tell us a little bit about First Liberty.

[00:43:29] So we do so much at First Liberty.

[00:43:31] Just if you go to firstliberty.org, it is just a wealth of materials.

[00:43:36] We have First Liberty Live where you can watch either our attorneys or guests talk about various issues

[00:43:44] that are impacting our society today from a religious liberty perspective, talking about our cases.

[00:43:49] We've had a tremendous amount of success.

[00:43:51] We have an over 90% success rate on our cases at First Liberty.

[00:43:56] And then our election materials, as we've been talking about today,

[00:43:59] which I think I'm going to say people should focus on that most here in the upcoming days to November 5th.

[00:44:06] FirstLiberty.org slash elections, tremendous amount of materials,

[00:44:09] things that really will open your eyes and perhaps help people, you know,

[00:44:13] listening to some of the callers today who are struggling with understanding, you know,

[00:44:17] who they should vote for, what issues they should vote for, and should they vote at all?

[00:44:22] And the resounding answer on that last question is yes.

[00:44:24] And Liberty McCarter, if I want to find out about the Know Why podcast, how do I find out about that?

[00:44:29] You can go to KnowWhyPodcast.com or find the Know Why podcast on any podcast platform.

[00:44:34] Good. And as I mentioned, we have links to many of these articles that we discussed today,

[00:44:39] so I'd encourage you to go to pointofview.net where you can find information on those articles

[00:44:44] and pray about this election that's coming up because it's going to be very, very important for us.

[00:44:50] It may determine the direction that the country goes in.

[00:44:54] So it's an important election.

[00:44:55] Be an informed Christian voter.

[00:44:57] I want to thank Megan for doing the engineering today and Steve as our producer.

[00:45:02] And thank you for all of you who called in.

[00:45:04] We appreciate that.

[00:45:05] And we'll be back on Monday on Point of View.

[00:45:11] At Point of View, we believe there is power in prayer.

[00:45:15] And that is why we have relaunched our Pray for America campaign,

[00:45:20] a series of weekly emails to unite Americans in prayer for our nation.

[00:45:26] Imagine if hundreds of thousands of Americans started praying intentionally together on a weekly basis.

[00:45:35] You can help make that a reality by subscribing to our Pray for America emails.

[00:45:41] Just go to pointofview.net and click on the Pray for America banner that's right there on the homepage.

[00:45:49] Each week you'll receive a brief news update,

[00:45:52] a specific prayer guide,

[00:45:55] and a free resource to equip you in further action.

[00:45:59] We encourage you to not only pray with us each week,

[00:46:03] but to share these prayers and the resources with others in your life.

[00:46:08] Join the movement today.

[00:46:10] Visit pointofview.net

[00:46:12] and click on the banner Pray for America right there at the top.

[00:46:17] That's pointofview.net.

[00:46:20] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in our land.

[00:46:27] Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.