Point of View October 11, 2024 – Hour 1 : Weekend Edition

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

[00:00:20] And welcome to Point of View. This is our weekend edition on Friday where we look at some of the events happening in the past week and there have been a number of events happening in this past week and so we'll want to cover some of those and give you a chance to call in later if you'd like.

[00:00:35] Joining me in studio is Kelly Shackelford. He is president and CEO of First Liberty Institute and also joining us Jeremy Dice.

[00:00:44] He's senior counsel at First Liberty. So we've got two excellent lawyers and we're going to get to Supreme Court stuff coming up here soon.

[00:00:51] But I first off just want to start out by just saying our prayers go out to all these people who have been affected by Hurricane Helene and then Hurricane Milton.

[00:01:01] It has created some disruptions, a lot of problems, a lot of Texas Baptist men. I was listening to the radio today going after I think they call themselves something different now.

[00:01:11] But they're going out there and working to help clear up some of those areas. And it's just been a mess, Kelly.

[00:01:17] And we've been trying to figure out exactly what's going on, because not only has it been in the news for for its devastating impact.

[00:01:24] And my understanding is Milton did not turn out to be as bad as they thought it might be. And so they dodged a bullet.

[00:01:31] Maybe you want to say dodged a bullet, but maybe not as big a caliber. Right.

[00:01:36] But right than they had. But now we're hearing all kinds of things going on and it's hard to make out what's actually happening.

[00:01:41] Yeah. Well, I mean, number one, I think it's interesting. The two different hurricanes. Right.

[00:01:48] The first one was really not as I mean, you know, the other one was, you know, Milton's category five and it's coming right at them.

[00:01:57] And, you know, the Helene was different. I think it kind of was a little bit of a surprise how how bad the damage was.

[00:02:09] Because of rain so much, a little less on the wind was big, but the rain was so.

[00:02:12] Yeah. And it just kind of hunkered down over, you know, Western North Carolina and some of these areas that really got hit and people really got separated.

[00:02:22] And and but one of the things I think that happened and this is kind of goes to your second issue is I think the first time there was there was a lot of incompetence by, you know, FEMA, which should be which should know how to how to deal with these.

[00:02:38] I mean, you had a president that, you know, again, I think we understand Biden.

[00:02:45] He's there's you know, it was the old basement strategy during the campaign.

[00:02:49] And he's he's not obviously not full capacity.

[00:02:51] And and so he was on the beach, I think, the day after the hurricane, which I think most presidents realize is really bad.

[00:02:59] It's not a good look. Yeah, not a good look. Looks bad.

[00:03:02] And but I think that went with the response.

[00:03:05] Meanwhile, you had Trump, who was president and understood he was down there within, I think, one to two days.

[00:03:13] Yes. And then these people were all saying on TV, nobody's coming to help us.

[00:03:21] No. You know, and you had all these private aircrafts and private citizens help bringing helicopters and planes and trying to get things to people.

[00:03:30] And it was just really different. And then you had people couldn't even talk.

[00:03:37] And you had Elon Musk giving, you know, free satellite ability so people could communicate.

[00:03:44] So it was now again, we all like the idea of American citizens kind of coming to help each other.

[00:03:50] And and that really is the answer, the ultimate answer.

[00:03:53] But FEMA is supposed to be there for a reason.

[00:03:56] And and they clearly fell down on the job.

[00:03:58] And then they made these statements that they were going to run out of money, not not necessarily on these hurricanes, but, you know, very soon.

[00:04:06] And and so it started going to all other places.

[00:04:09] I think by the time you got to Milton, there was obviously the politics had made it to where there was going to be a heavy focus on Milton.

[00:04:16] And then the other thing is Milton was one state.

[00:04:19] It was Florida.

[00:04:21] And if there's anybody that knows how to create a response to a tragedy like a hurricane coming through your state, it's DeSantis.

[00:04:30] I mean, he's had a lot of experience with it.

[00:04:32] He's done a really good job.

[00:04:34] And so this one you had not only DeSantis focusing, but you had FEMA and and the federal government being more focused.

[00:04:41] And I think you had a much better response and preparation and everything for that one than you did for the first one.

[00:04:48] Well, you know, it's interesting because we just got these conflicting signals, as you sort of alluded to, because there is at least two or three days I was reading news headlines saying Biden is thinking about trying to get Congress calling Congress back in to vote for more funding for FEMA.

[00:05:06] And then you had Speaker Mike Johnson come out and said, no, we're it's got money right now.

[00:05:11] We may need to do that by the end of the year.

[00:05:13] So when we come back in November after the election, we'll look at voting for some more money if we need to.

[00:05:19] But Alexander Mayorkas, the head of Homeland Security, was saying we're running out of money.

[00:05:24] And and then you had the issue going around of somebody saying, well, some of this money is going to migrants.

[00:05:31] I saw Kareem Jean-Pierre, this White House spokesperson, saying that.

[00:05:35] And then somebody said, well, is that reason why you don't have money is because we're giving money to migrants?

[00:05:40] And are we giving them more than we're giving others?

[00:05:42] And and now I've seen conflicting statements from her saying, well, I never actually said that.

[00:05:48] And then here's a statement of what looks like you did say this.

[00:05:51] Well, it's just like FEMA, you know, back when the original when when they were giving money, government money to migrants.

[00:05:59] They in the press releases, they said that this is what they were doing and they were doing it in connection with FEMA.

[00:06:04] And then now they say it's oh, no, it's a whole program.

[00:06:08] It's not FEMA.

[00:06:10] So so, yeah, there's there's been a lot of confusion, but mainly because I think I think it's you know, when you look at it overall, it wasn't handled well.

[00:06:20] This first hurricane at the beginning was not handled well at all.

[00:06:24] And private citizens, Samaritan's Purse, thank goodness for Samaritan's Purse and other private groups that came in.

[00:06:31] But by the time you got to the second one, because of the politics, because of the backlash, it was handled very well.

[00:06:38] And and so now you have the back and forth in politics about it.

[00:06:43] And one of the things I did enjoy was, I mean, DeSantis sometimes is a no nonsense kind of guy.

[00:06:50] And yesterday they hit him with some of these political questions.

[00:06:53] And he I think he said at some point, I have no time for that kind of stuff.

[00:06:59] I'm here doing something.

[00:07:00] And I think that's what Americans want to see is people people doing things and not preening for cameras.

[00:07:07] They want to see results.

[00:07:08] They want to see people who are thinking ahead.

[00:07:10] That really is their job.

[00:07:11] That's what they should be doing.

[00:07:13] And again, I think DeSantis has performed really well at this because he's had a lot of experience because Florida is in that situation.

[00:07:20] And and he's learned and and and always seem to have done this very well.

[00:07:25] And he did a good job on Milton, I think, as everybody would agree.

[00:07:30] Maybe paving the way for 2028.

[00:07:33] He's got he's got a campaign even a percentage of well, as he's doing with disaster relief.

[00:07:40] But you're right.

[00:07:40] People want to see just see people, the government come in and act professionally and appropriately in these things.

[00:07:47] And that did not seem to be the case initially, even though, as you said, they were surprised, it seemed like by the devastation that came from them.

[00:07:54] But I do have on our website a response from Representative Chuck Edwards.

[00:08:00] He is a congressman from North Carolina because he feels like some things were said about FEMA that were not true.

[00:08:06] So he went he went and posted a statement saying, here's the things that are actually happening there.

[00:08:11] And he was, I think, fairly generous to FEMA in that response.

[00:08:14] But he's on the ground and sort of seeing what's happening there.

[00:08:17] When we come back, I'll talk a little bit about Hurricane Harvey, because some of the same things happened there where you had a hurricane just circling over an area, putting a lot of water out there.

[00:08:28] And it created a problem for FEMA as well.

[00:08:31] Joining me in studio, Kelly Shackelford, Jeremy Dice.

[00:08:34] We're going to be talking more about this and then moving on to some issues around the election.

[00:08:39] So stay with us.

[00:08:40] We'll be back on Point of View.

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

[00:09:04] You're probably aware that Americans distrust science and science magazines more than in the past.

[00:09:09] But you may not know how much that has evaporated.

[00:09:12] Back in 1975, when I was finishing a graduate degree in science, Gallup documented that most Americans trusted science.

[00:09:19] In fact, Republicans trusted science more than Democrats did, 72% to 67%.

[00:09:25] Republican confidence in science has dropped to 45% by 2021.

[00:09:30] Christian Snyder argues politicized science may make us sicker.

[00:09:33] He reminds us of the tactic used against President George W. Bush when his opponents argued that his common sense regulations of fetal stem cells were hurting and killing people.

[00:09:43] He quoted from colonist Charles Crutchhammer, who said he had never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery and added that hope is good.

[00:09:52] False hope is bad.

[00:09:53] Americans don't even trust science journals, which have become political.

[00:09:58] Scientific American has started endorsing presidential candidates, Kamala Harris this year and Joe Biden four years ago.

[00:10:04] Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute further documents how science has become political in her book, When Race Trumps Merit.

[00:10:11] She explains in a recent lecture that the American Medical Association insists that medicine is characterized by white supremacy.

[00:10:18] The Smithsonian Institution announced that an emphasis on the scientific method and an interest in cause and effect relationships are part of totalitarian whiteness.

[00:10:27] We would all benefit if science and science magazines got back to doing science and medicine and stopped following the woke trends in society.

[00:10:36] This politicized science will make us sicker.

[00:10:39] I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:46] For a free copy of Kirby's booklet, A Biblical View on Antisemitism, go to viewpoints.info slash antisemitism.

[00:10:54] Viewpoints.info slash antisemitism.

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

[00:11:04] And we're back on Point of View.

[00:11:05] Joining me in studio, Kelly Shackelford and Jeremy Dice, both with First Liberty Institute.

[00:11:10] And we were talking a bit about the hurricanes, and I mentioned Hurricane Harvey, which came through, I think, in 2020.

[00:11:17] And I'll bring this up because I'm chairman of the Texas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

[00:11:23] And we did a paper on that that we published in 2021 on what was happening with Hurricane Harvey because, similar to Helene, Harvey was not that – I mean, it was a strong, but it just came over and sat over sort of the Galveston area and just dropped tons of rain there.

[00:11:42] And FEMA got involved, and one of the reports that we released for the Texas legislature and initially for federal government as well was just the problem of FEMA's problem in responding.

[00:11:55] And the questions are raised, well, are these people racist?

[00:11:59] Are they just not concerned or so forth?

[00:12:01] And one of the points we made in the paper is FEMA is a big government organization, and that has some of the problems that big government organizations have.

[00:12:11] They sometimes are slow to respond.

[00:12:13] They don't know where the chain of command is.

[00:12:15] When they try to get out applications and so forth, there was concerns that wealthier people in the Galveston area were getting more funding quicker than lower-income people.

[00:12:26] But as you look at it, well, lower-income people have trouble accessing this.

[00:12:30] They oftentimes are not native English speakers.

[00:12:33] And there are just a number of things that come up that are just inherent with big government projects.

[00:12:39] It wasn't – you know, you might say they're trying to do well, but you just – you get bureaucracies in the way on these things.

[00:12:45] Yeah, I mean, look, and what is government supposed to do but to provide for the infrastructure and provide for the safety of individuals going through natural disasters like this and some other things?

[00:12:56] But this is like a core government function, and if FEMA can't get that right, then we've got significant problems, as we have already demonstrated.

[00:13:04] The guy who's doing it all right, as we've also talked about, seems to be the guy who's changed the standard for how you prepare for and respond to a natural disaster, which is Governor DeSantis.

[00:13:12] At least those natural disasters that are slow-moving, that have a lot of technology to tell you where they're going to go and where they're going to hit and how to be ready for those things.

[00:13:20] It's not like a hurricane is a novel experience, especially if you live in the tropics.

[00:13:25] You've seen them, hundreds of them over the years, dozens during your lifetime.

[00:13:29] You know how they affect the land.

[00:13:32] You know how they're going to impact your home, your business, your trailer, whatever it might be.

[00:13:37] You know how it's going to happen.

[00:13:38] You can make preparations.

[00:13:39] You can have guys like they do right now lined up in bucket trucks ready to go attack the downed power lines that are going to be a problem after a hurricane in the state of Florida where all the power lines are above ground,

[00:13:53] where you can prepare for water intrusion.

[00:13:57] You can prepare for National Guardsmen going there to make sure they are staged in the right spots where they're going to likely be needed immediately,

[00:14:03] kept off in a safe place but be able to get inserted very quickly so they can get roads back up.

[00:14:08] So speaking of roads, you can have construction of vehicles that are ready to go.

[00:14:12] What has been sort of encouraging in my mind in watching this, where we have a natural and appropriate fear of big government

[00:14:19] and it's a lack of ability to actually respond nimbly and effectively in these situations,

[00:14:24] has been Governor DeSantis saying, I don't need FEMA.

[00:14:27] We're taking care of our people.

[00:14:29] And in fact, he's even said, send them over to North Carolina where they actually need help.

[00:14:33] We've got it covered over here.

[00:14:35] Now that's something very significant.

[00:14:37] You don't hear the state of North Carolina and its governor saying, no, no, no, we're good.

[00:14:41] Send them over down to Florida.

[00:14:43] That's a tragic situation up there and an entirely different type of response that is needed, of course,

[00:14:47] and one that doesn't happen in the way it happened this way in the hills of North Carolina.

[00:14:52] But still, the fallout there has been from a lack of leadership.

[00:14:56] Who's in charge here?

[00:14:57] And there's nobody that was able to stand up and say, that's me.

[00:15:01] I'll get things coordinated.

[00:15:03] You know, it's interesting because, as you mentioned, Ron DeSantis' stock rose during this,

[00:15:08] and Biden's decreased can't go much smaller, much lower.

[00:15:12] But Kamala Harris has did as well.

[00:15:14] Oh, yeah.

[00:15:15] Yeah.

[00:15:16] Again, if you're just a bright candidate, you know, you think of the significance of these disasters,

[00:15:23] even during a campaign, Obama was helped greatly by the, you know, disaster relief situation.

[00:15:32] I think everybody remembers he and Chris Christie, you know, like the hug or whatever, whatever you call it.

[00:15:39] That really helped Obama, and that really got Christie in trouble in the Republican Party.

[00:15:43] But so, number one, Kamala Harris should have known better than to be in a fundraiser in California, you know,

[00:15:52] days after this horrible situation is going on, even though technically she's not really in charge.

[00:15:59] I mean, the president's really the one in charge.

[00:16:02] And then you had her kind of trying to make up for this by, you know, trying to insert herself into it in ways that looked –

[00:16:12] that were just kind of obvious.

[00:16:13] You know, the big press conference they had yesterday or a few days ago or whatever where, you know,

[00:16:19] she's heard over the speaker to say, I'm on camera, as they're feeding her questions to ask like the meteorologist.

[00:16:25] Like she doesn't even know what to ask.

[00:16:27] The statement of her kind of saying she's trying to reach out to DeSantis, and DeSantis, you know, it was all a big political deal.

[00:16:37] And DeSantis' response is pretty priceless, basically saying she has nothing to do with this.

[00:16:44] You know, I don't have time for politics.

[00:16:46] I'm dealing with a situation, and Biden has done great because they had kind of woken up.

[00:16:51] So I thought it made her look, you know, kind of fake in what she was trying to do and also not being smart enough to be ready.

[00:16:59] Now, in reality, there's not much she can do as a vice president.

[00:17:02] Right.

[00:17:02] But I think the politics kind of definitely got her in a little trouble.

[00:17:05] But, you know, Trump isn't president, yet he still was able to go and put on a –

[00:17:09] That's true.

[00:17:11] He was there involved in the thing in a way that looked reasonable and that people appreciated.

[00:17:16] Yes.

[00:17:16] And she did not do that.

[00:17:17] And to be honest, that's relevant.

[00:17:20] I mean, think back to – I mean, part of Trump being a billionaire and having a lot of business experience, it really did come into play.

[00:17:28] Think of when he was president and when COVID came and when they were trying to come up with some sort of vaccine.

[00:17:35] If you remember, he created a private industry kind of –

[00:17:40] Operation Warp Speed.

[00:17:41] Yes.

[00:17:41] And most people wouldn't do that, right?

[00:17:44] And so – and I think there's something about this that Jeremy just talked about that's really interesting.

[00:17:50] Our whole system is built with federalism and the states having – and the – you know, their own authority.

[00:17:58] And the idea was that those would be the laboratories to try things, to do things, to – and what we will do is people will try – states will try different things.

[00:18:07] And some will do better than others and will go, hey, that's the best way to do that.

[00:18:11] And then other states do that.

[00:18:13] Right.

[00:18:13] And we're seeing that – just like watching FEMA and watching what they're doing in Florida, I mean, they're going to be able to learn things.

[00:18:21] And other states will be able to learn things from what DeSantis is doing.

[00:18:24] And we can improve.

[00:18:25] We get better everywhere.

[00:18:26] We're supposed to.

[00:18:27] But big, lumbering federal government is not the answer that our founders wanted.

[00:18:33] They wanted them to kind of have less power because they wanted them to follow what all the states were doing and let the states figure out the best way.

[00:18:41] And then when they do, everybody else would follow those approaches.

[00:18:44] And, you know, Jeremy, if you're – if the biggest concern about you as a presidential candidate is your competency to be able to handle major projects,

[00:18:52] you would think that if this happened, Kamala Harris and her people would have said,

[00:18:56] we need to get you in there and show how you're able to do a really good job and look like you're competent doing this.

[00:19:03] And that's not what happened.

[00:19:04] Well, that's true.

[00:19:05] And there's a reason for that.

[00:19:07] And it's not the one you might be thinking.

[00:19:08] The reason that they were not able to do that is that she has, in her current position, no role when it comes to natural disasters.

[00:19:16] I mean, what is the old line about being the vice president?

[00:19:19] It's one heartbeat away from being the presidency, but there's really nothing else for them to do.

[00:19:25] They're there to support the president and do the projects he gives them.

[00:19:29] But as some vice presidents of the past have lamented, it's a rather boring and sometimes meaningless-ish job.

[00:19:36] I don't want to demean the office.

[00:19:37] It's an important role.

[00:19:38] It's necessary, et cetera.

[00:19:39] But, again, we don't talk about a lot of vice – you don't even know half the vice presidents that have been vice president of the United States for a reason.

[00:19:45] So they don't have this specific role.

[00:19:48] So now to come in and sort of claim her – there's no place for them to put her.

[00:19:52] There's no place for them to say, here's the stage for you to be on, and it looks legitimate.

[00:19:56] And their attempt to do so backfired immensely in their face because, again, she was trying to insert herself in a way that was obviously and openly partisan.

[00:20:04] And the person who was literally with his arms sleeves rolled up, ready to have people positioned in the right spots, taking care of things, telling the federal government, we don't need you, we got it covered.

[00:20:15] Well, you go after that guy and you'll look really petty.

[00:20:19] Well, as I mentioned, we have Congressman Chuck Edwards' response to what was happening in North Carolina.

[00:20:26] So that's available on Point of View website at pointofview.net if you want to see what he has to say about that.

[00:20:33] But also as you're looking at these various things, you see this sort of problem going on.

[00:20:38] And another issue that has come up is will this affect the election?

[00:20:42] Now, we're talking about the election in terms of leadership.

[00:20:45] But if you have some states where areas have been destroyed, are people going to be able to get out and vote because we're coming up fairly soon?

[00:20:55] And are the states going to – those various states going to be able to get – we're talking about Georgia, Florida, North Carolina.

[00:21:00] Are they going to be able to get polling places up for people to vote in areas that have been really struggling?

[00:21:07] And are people going to be able to get to those, get it over the road and so forth?

[00:21:11] So we've still got some time, but it's going to be a factor here.

[00:21:14] It could be a factor.

[00:21:15] And it's been mentioned in some of the areas that North Carolina was hit in one of its more Republican areas,

[00:21:21] which could be a problem in a state that is a swing state, very close vote.

[00:21:27] Stay with us.

[00:21:27] We'll be right back.

[00:21:31] The Bible tells us not to worry.

[00:21:34] And yet there is a lot of worrying stuff in our world today.

[00:21:39] Thankfully, the Bible doesn't stop at telling us not to worry.

[00:21:43] God gives us a next step.

[00:21:46] He says we need to pray.

[00:21:48] But sometimes even knowing what to pray can be difficult.

[00:21:53] And that is why Point of View has relaunched our Pray for America movement,

[00:21:58] a series of weekly emails to guide you in prayer for our nation.

[00:22:03] Each week, you'll receive a brief update about a current issue affecting Americans,

[00:22:09] along with a written prayer that you can easily share with others.

[00:22:14] We'll also include a short free resource for you in each email so you can learn more about the issue at hand.

[00:22:21] Will you commit to pray for America?

[00:22:25] Go to pointofview.net.

[00:22:29] Click on the Pray for America banner at the top of the page to subscribe.

[00:22:34] Again, that's pointofview.net.

[00:22:38] Click on the Pray for America banner.

[00:22:41] Let's pray together for God to make a difference in America.

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

[00:22:57] 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.

[00:23:13] 1-800-351-1212 if you'd like to call.

[00:23:17] If you have a thought about what's happening in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and this hurricane situation,

[00:23:24] we'd love to hear from you.

[00:23:25] 1-800-351-1212.

[00:23:28] And while we're still talking about these states, gentlemen,

[00:23:31] the question has been will this ultimately end up hurting voter turnout?

[00:23:38] Georgia has been struggling with some issues apart from the hurricane.

[00:23:42] North Carolina, I believe they said they're going to enhance their mail-in voting aspect so that people can do that.

[00:23:49] I believe that was North Carolina.

[00:23:51] I haven't heard much about Florida yet, but if you have some areas that are really – that had widespread destruction

[00:23:59] and you're not going to be able to get your polling areas in those areas, what do you do?

[00:24:04] And that's – I haven't heard much coming out yet of how they're going to try to do this other than perhaps expanding mail-in voting.

[00:24:11] Yeah, you know, this – I think the first one to comment publicly on this, there's a lot of backlash because it was right during when it was bad,

[00:24:17] but you had David Axelrod was actually on a program, which is Obama's, you know, chief of staff or chief political guy.

[00:24:25] And he said, how is this going to affect the elections?

[00:24:28] And everybody was like, you know, really jumping on him because, you know, people were suffering.

[00:24:33] But it is a question that is a political question.

[00:24:37] And what so far has been done in North Carolina, they said we're going to allow a lot – and it was a unanimous vote there at their – I forget who was in charge of their elections.

[00:24:49] It's kind of like a secretary of state.

[00:24:51] The election committee, though.

[00:24:52] Yeah, exactly.

[00:24:52] And they voted unanimously that they needed to allow – I mean, you have to prove who you are with ID, but you can do sort of absentee balancing because the polling places are gone in a number of these places.

[00:25:08] So they can't go to the polling place.

[00:25:09] So they've done something there.

[00:25:12] And then I also saw that DeSantis sent out something saying that they needed to look at this for them and offer opportunities so everybody gets a chance to vote who wants to vote, although they're very specific.

[00:25:25] You know, they're going to make sure they know who they are, not like, you know, in general, like Oregon where, you know, vote by mail.

[00:25:34] And, you know, there's – I mean, of course, those are notoriously open to fraud when you do something like that.

[00:25:40] But if you have sort of like an absentee ballot process like many states do where you check the ID, you have signatures, you do things like that, you can make sure, just like in the military, that people do have the ability to vote.

[00:25:54] And that seems to be what they're doing.

[00:25:56] But, you know, you ask this question because North Carolina and Georgia are two of the key swing states.

[00:26:02] Yes, they are.

[00:26:03] Right?

[00:26:03] I mean, and, you know, we're looking at polls that are saying neck and neck.

[00:26:08] Now, Trump has moved – it has moved in his direction a little bit just recently.

[00:26:13] But still, you're talking about one or two percentage points, something like this that affects who can vote.

[00:26:18] And especially in North Carolina, most of this is the rural areas.

[00:26:22] And this is what Axelrod was talking about.

[00:26:23] These are rural areas where there's going to be more Trump voters, more conservative voters.

[00:26:29] And, again, he was criticized for that.

[00:26:30] But, I mean, his timing was probably wrong.

[00:26:33] But he's right to talk about, you know, does this affect things?

[00:26:36] And, Jeremy, because these states could be so close and there's already concern of – and I would say if either Democrats lose by a little bit or Republicans lose by a little bit, there's going to be a lot of pushback.

[00:26:49] And so if you have a situation where Republicans win by a very little bit in Georgia or North Carolina, and that might swing the vote towards Trump, or if they lose by a very little bit and Democrats win by just a little bit, you could end up having this contested election that goes on for some time.

[00:27:06] Well, let's not do that.

[00:27:09] All right.

[00:27:09] I'm with you.

[00:27:10] Let's just avoid that entirely.

[00:27:12] I'm not entirely sure why this is a close election whatsoever.

[00:27:15] I mean, I keep hearing on the news or on Twitter and other places, X, that there are people that don't have their mind made up.

[00:27:24] What is it going to take for you to get your mind made up at this point?

[00:27:27] I mean, it's not like there's a close call here.

[00:27:31] You either like one of the candidates or you don't.

[00:27:33] Just cast the vote and move on.

[00:27:36] Well, I think the downside is, right, is the – I know we're going to talk about this, I think, at the top of the next hour and more in depth, but it's the George Barna extensive polling that just came out that 51 percent of people of faith are not even planning to vote, or 50 percent, I think.

[00:27:52] And then it's even – you think, well, that can't people of faith.

[00:27:55] It can't be, you know, like born-again Christians or evangelical Christians.

[00:27:59] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:59] Yeah.

[00:28:01] So that kind of thing throws – where you don't know who – I mean, it's a matter of who turns out, who votes.

[00:28:07] And the amazing thing to me was the fact that those people who answered that poll and said they were planning not to vote or because they didn't like either of the candidates or because they didn't think their vote was in matter or whatever,

[00:28:22] a large percentage, maybe up to 20 percent, was saying that if their pastor said they should vote, that they would go vote.

[00:28:31] And, you know, it's kind of a biblical thing to go vote and to be a good steward of the freedoms you've been given, but that's going to affect things.

[00:28:38] So, you know, we'll have to wait and see.

[00:28:42] This is such an unusual election.

[00:28:44] I mean, we've got a candidate who was president, who – a lot of people that would like his policies don't like the personal way things go.

[00:28:53] We've got somebody else who really was never elected to anything, was kind of pushed in, and he pushed the other guy out.

[00:28:58] And so this is such an odd election.

[00:29:01] And so I do think there needs to be some basic teaching in the church.

[00:29:07] Not that pastors should get up and tell people who to vote for, but the idea of your Christian duty to vote and your stewardship responsibility, that's something that's really being lost, I think.

[00:29:17] We've got Ruth in South Carolina, and she brings up an important point that's a growing issue nationwide.

[00:29:23] Ruth, you're on.

[00:29:25] Hey there.

[00:29:26] Yep, we're in South Carolina, and it became quite apparent through the storm that our power grid here in South Carolina is not stable.

[00:29:38] We purchase our electricity from a co-op, so we naturally are on the board.

[00:29:43] And we attend those meetings, and we were there this summer in July when they had their meeting.

[00:29:48] We have a meeting coming up October the 22nd, and I'm sure there are going to be a lot of questions raised, but it was discussed in July how the current electrical grid cannot handle all the demands put on it.

[00:30:04] And that became quite apparent through the storm.

[00:30:07] We were without electricity for 11 days.

[00:30:11] 11 days.

[00:30:13] We've lived where we are for 38 years, and we've never been without electricity 11 days.

[00:30:20] And, you know, that's becoming such an issue nationwide as more states push us to move to renewable energy, which tends to be intermittent, and sometimes the wind blows and sometimes it doesn't.

[00:30:31] Sometimes it's untined.

[00:30:32] Sometimes it doesn't.

[00:30:33] And as more and more of the grid is relying on that renewable energy, then you have real problems there, and it has become a national issue.

[00:30:44] Definitely.

[00:30:44] I mean, it was a huge issue in Texas during the unusual freeze a few years ago.

[00:30:49] You know, all of a sudden, none of those things worked.

[00:30:52] I mean, one of the most odd pictures to me was the helicopter flying and using oil to squirt on the windmills to unfreeze them.

[00:31:01] There was just something odd about that whole thing.

[00:31:04] Very ironic.

[00:31:04] We had the issue here in Texas, in Houston, just quite a month or two ago of a hurricane that came through, and the power system went down, and they were not prepared to get that back up and running.

[00:31:14] And this is a big issue, too.

[00:31:16] In the New York Times today, the major story was about the difference between the two candidates, talking about Kamala Harris and Trump, on energy and on climate change.

[00:31:28] Very connected, that Trump was going to have a lot of oil and gas production, open up a lot of things.

[00:31:35] And they were more praiseworthy of Kamala Harris because she wasn't going to allow those things because of climate change.

[00:31:42] And, you know, what they perceive is, you know, if you have more in oil and gas and coal and all these things, which are going to create, you know, better energy and better ability for all these things we're talking about, they think it's also going to have a negative impact on the environment.

[00:31:56] And so that's part of really the national campaign as well.

[00:32:01] Certainly that's why you had the no fracking and all these things being talked about was because of that issue.

[00:32:06] And so many of the power grid issues end up ultimately being state problems that they didn't upgrade their power grid.

[00:32:13] California's had a lot of problems with that.

[00:32:15] Fires come through or, in some cases, lightning comes in or wind blows and it knocks down the power lines.

[00:32:21] And so California has been trying its best to go to renewable energy.

[00:32:26] But then you have these wildfires or other things that end up knocking out the power grid.

[00:32:31] And it just looks like the state is incompetent on so many areas.

[00:32:35] Yes.

[00:32:36] And including trying to force everybody to buy an electric vehicle and then they didn't have the electricity, even if they had it, to take care of the electric vehicles.

[00:32:45] And if you haven't charged up your electric vehicle, if the wildfire is coming through, you're not able to go get in that truck car.

[00:32:51] And if you've got electrical vehicles that are stuck in saltwater, you're going to now be a fire risk, an explosion risk, quite frankly, which is even worse.

[00:33:01] Yes, I remember that from one of the past hurricanes.

[00:33:04] That saltwater came in and it destroyed the batteries and they ended up exploding.

[00:33:08] They were explosive, yeah, at that point, yeah.

[00:33:09] It's terrible.

[00:33:10] It's a real thing.

[00:33:11] I know an organization I sit on the board for in Florida, they move the electrical vehicles out of the buildings for that specific reason.

[00:33:19] Sometimes you need to move them out.

[00:33:20] There have been warnings that you need to keep them outside of the garages anyway because sometimes they just catch on fire spontaneously.

[00:33:26] So a lot of people have them, but there are problems with them.

[00:33:31] When we come back, we're going to turn to the issue of the Supreme Court, which just started this week, facing a number of new issues.

[00:33:38] Stay with us.

[00:33:39] We'll be right back.

[00:33:55] The New York Times recently reported on an emerging truth among Christians.

[00:34:00] Correspondent Ruth Graham writes,

[00:34:02] For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers.

[00:34:07] They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.

[00:34:11] This dynamic applies only to Christians who are part of Generation Z.

[00:34:15] Gen Z currently encompasses ages 12 to 27.

[00:34:18] A survey of over 5,000 Americans done last year by the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute found that in every other demographic, men were more likely than women to describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated.

[00:34:32] But, the study shows, within Gen Z, the opposite is the case.

[00:34:36] As the Times Ruth Graham puts it,

[00:34:38] the men are staying in church while the women are leaving at a remarkable clip.

[00:34:42] A recent Wall Street Journal article outlined the metrics in which young men keep falling behind their female peers.

[00:34:48] Fewer are attending college.

[00:34:50] Fewer are employed.

[00:34:51] Fewer are looking for work or obtaining workforce training.

[00:34:54] Fewer feel needed.

[00:34:55] More report being lonely.

[00:34:57] More commit suicide.

[00:34:58] One reason more young men are in church may be that many churches are intentionally speaking to these trends.

[00:35:04] New York Times columnist Russ Douthat writes,

[00:35:06] It may be, then, that churches that seem like home to young men are particularly well-positioned to do that kind of work.

[00:35:13] Stabilizing and elevating men who are currently adrift and making them more appealing as potential spouses than any currently available force in either normie or very online culture.

[00:35:24] The AEI survey shows 61% of Gen Z women identify as feminist.

[00:35:29] Perhaps they're not as on board with this macho Christianity.

[00:35:33] Mary Harrington, author of Feminism Against Progress, coined the term and says young men are attracted to a Christianity that is prepared to fight, to struggle, to refuse therapeutic winsomeness.

[00:35:45] Hopefully, these guys will invite the girls back to church.

[00:35:48] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter.

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

[00:36:00] And welcome back to Point of View.

[00:36:02] And since we're at the weekend and you may be looking for something to do this evening or this weekend, we've got a suggestion, Kelly.

[00:36:10] Absolutely.

[00:36:11] I think everybody on Point of View knows about the Coach Kennedy case.

[00:36:16] We've been discussed for years here.

[00:36:18] Absolutely.

[00:36:18] I guess about nine years ago is when we started talking about that, when this coach was fired for going to a knee to say a prayer after the game, a former Marine.

[00:36:27] I guess there was never a former Marine.

[00:36:29] A Marine.

[00:36:30] And a great story, you know.

[00:36:32] I mean, fought all his way to the Supreme Court.

[00:36:35] Huge victory.

[00:36:36] Well, they actually now are releasing – they just released a movie.

[00:36:41] It's in 2,000 theaters today, you know, on Friday.

[00:36:45] Obviously, this is the opening weekend across the country.

[00:36:48] I really encourage people to go.

[00:36:51] You can go to pointofview.net.

[00:36:54] There's a link there where you can actually go and it'll show you – you know, you can get tickets right there.

[00:36:59] You can go – it shows you the theaters near you.

[00:37:02] Again, 2,000 theaters, a lot of theaters.

[00:37:04] So it's going to be playing near you.

[00:37:06] This opening weekend is the key weekend for how movies do.

[00:37:11] Whether this thing continues and grows around the – or whether they start closing theaters, right?

[00:37:18] How far it goes overseas depends upon the first five days.

[00:37:22] So this is a real key time.

[00:37:24] And what I would say about this is it's different than people would expect.

[00:37:28] It's fun to watch the reviews and everything is – they think it's going to be some legal movie or something, right?

[00:37:34] Or, you know, like a boring documentary or something like that.

[00:37:39] It's not that at all.

[00:37:40] It really is about the story of Joe Kennedy and his wife, a really difficult upbringing.

[00:37:48] I mean, when I say difficult, I mean dark.

[00:37:51] Abuse, all kinds of things.

[00:37:53] A love story starting when they were kids and what they went through, his time in the military.

[00:38:00] It really sort of develops the character so that you help understand why would God pick this man to be in this huge battle.

[00:38:12] And, you know, as usual, it seems like a lot of times it's not because he knows a lot of scripture.

[00:38:18] It's not because, you know, he's a great theologian.

[00:38:21] But you see why.

[00:38:24] And it's really powerful to see what's going on in their relationship.

[00:38:28] A lot of people don't know this.

[00:38:30] But Coach Kennedy's wife, love of his life, she was the head of HR where he was fired at the school district.

[00:38:39] Can you imagine what that creates, right?

[00:38:41] But it's a great film, really good acting, and it's fun, too, and it's uplifting because it teaches a really important lesson.

[00:38:53] And everybody, you know, we had a special opening last night that we got to attend.

[00:38:58] And there were a lot of people that came out that I knew that were in this theater, and they, you know, I asked them, you know, what did you think?

[00:39:07] And a number of them were like, you know, a lot of times these Christian movies are not necessarily that well done.

[00:39:14] Maybe they're cheesy or whatever they said.

[00:39:16] So I was a little concerned because I know what a great case this was, and I wondered if they would do a good job with the film.

[00:39:22] They said this was excellent.

[00:39:24] Yeah, Jeremy, you've seen it, and you thought the production value was very good.

[00:39:28] But does Coach Kennedy play a – does he get a spot in the film at all?

[00:39:32] He does have a cameo.

[00:39:34] He and Denise are both in the movie.

[00:39:36] You've got to watch for it kind of closely.

[00:39:37] But if you know what to look for, you'll see them.

[00:39:39] And, you know, I'll point out that – and Kelly is, I think, at the beginning trying to take some credit – at the beginning of the movie, I mean, taking some credit for the – you know, the lawyer.

[00:39:47] There are like 60 lawyers that touch Coach Kennedy's case.

[00:39:50] But I'll just point out that they kind of amalgamated all those attorneys down to one person.

[00:39:54] That's true.

[00:39:57] It's true.

[00:39:57] It's true.

[00:39:58] He does – you know, I said to them – I said, I want Matthew McConaughey to play me.

[00:40:04] And –

[00:40:04] They went with Jason Statham instead, which is what I was suggesting.

[00:40:07] Instead, they went with a bald guy.

[00:40:08] So it wasn't me.

[00:40:10] He was a tall, bald guy.

[00:40:11] So you look at – you know, they took about seven attorneys, and they made it into one.

[00:40:17] Which is typical.

[00:40:18] I mean, yeah.

[00:40:18] Yeah.

[00:40:19] They have to do that to sort of –

[00:40:20] But they did a really good job.

[00:40:22] And there are a lot of factual things that they nailed.

[00:40:26] Yeah, we did.

[00:40:26] And some really powerful moments.

[00:40:30] And I think – you know, I would encourage everybody to go see this this weekend and to take other people to see this.

[00:40:38] Everybody – there wasn't a person who walked out of the movie who wasn't smiling and didn't really enjoy this movie, although it's intense at times.

[00:40:47] I say the whole movie overall is clever.

[00:40:50] I mean, it's a true story.

[00:40:52] They've done a good job with the facts.

[00:40:54] And the reason I know this, I lived most of the facts that are in that case, right?

[00:40:57] Aside from his childhood, once the legal argument starts, I was there for all of it.

[00:41:01] So, like, it's there, right?

[00:41:05] But the cleverness of it is the way that they tell the story as well.

[00:41:08] It's not just like this linear storyline that goes as an acting and kids grow.

[00:41:13] That does happen.

[00:41:14] But they tell it in almost this docudrama sort of way where Coach and Denise are – the actors are looking back over their life and how they got to this point and seeing the providential hand of God during the whole thing.

[00:41:25] Now, I'm not so sure in the midst of it all, again, having lived it with Coach, I don't know that he was fully appreciating the divine hand of God during the entire time.

[00:41:33] But neither were we.

[00:41:34] We were upset when we lost the cases at the district court and the Ninth Circuit and had to go back to the district court and the Ninth Circuit all over again.

[00:41:40] We were upset when the left tried to cast the facts that were not true in a way that kind of undermined the whole thing.

[00:41:48] So it was fun to watch it and go, oh, yeah, I remember that.

[00:41:51] That's how that happened.

[00:41:52] That was cool.

[00:41:55] For the instance at the end of it all, this is no surprise because this is real life, right?

[00:41:58] The attorneys are sitting around the table in the wrong place, but they're sitting around the table waiting for the decision to come down on their computers.

[00:42:05] And the tension and the annoyance and the quiet is all 100% accurate.

[00:42:12] There are a couple little liberties they took there, but I'll forgive that.

[00:42:15] But it was accurate.

[00:42:16] The attorneys are sitting there trying not to make a kind of coach.

[00:42:19] It was COVID.

[00:42:19] So you couldn't go into the court as they're reading the opinions.

[00:42:23] So we're all sitting around a table with computers with coach.

[00:42:28] And so they captured a lot of these moments really well.

[00:42:33] And one of the things I appreciated this morning was there were a number of reviews.

[00:42:38] The reviews have been – I mean, regular people, it's like fives.

[00:42:42] I'm just seeing all fives, what I was looking at.

[00:42:44] But when it was the more professional reviewers, they still – like one of the people was talking about he wasn't a person of faith, but he appreciated the movie.

[00:42:54] He appreciated that they weren't trying to cram faith down people's throat because it was more Coach Kennedy's life and helping to watch his life.

[00:43:03] And in the process, you see the real move towards God, not this thing where usually you just kind of jump in and you kind of assume all these things.

[00:43:10] You see a hard life that God started to move.

[00:43:15] And it's not a preachy kind of a movie.

[00:43:18] It's more of a regular everyday life that I think anybody could go to like this reviewer and appreciate completely.

[00:43:25] Was it Coach Kennedy's idea to do this or did somebody come to him and say, we want to do this?

[00:43:31] Now, there was some people immediately who recognized as this thing was getting national attention that this should be a movie.

[00:43:39] And they reached out and started talking to Coach.

[00:43:42] And he had to figure out, pray about, who should I license my rights to, the book, the movie, and all that.

[00:43:49] And the people who did God's Not Dead, who did The Blind, who have done a number of good movies, those people came together and got behind the Coach Kennedy movie.

[00:44:01] And we're really excited about it.

[00:44:02] Of all the cases we've had at First Liberty, and we have 350 or so a year legal matters that we open up, I'd say this one for sure had the most connection with people.

[00:44:16] Because almost everybody has had a coach, has had somebody at the school they looked up to.

[00:44:22] They understand this whole context.

[00:44:24] And then the personal battle that he was having to go through.

[00:44:28] I think people, you know, what would they do if God told them, if they made a promise to God about something, and then somebody told them, if you do what you've promised to God to do, you're going to be fired.

[00:44:45] There's just something where everybody gets that.

[00:44:47] And they don't want that to happen to them, so they feel blessed that Coach Kennedy took the bullet for them so that they now have freedom.

[00:44:55] And we have a link to that so people can find out where the movie is and buy tickets, you say, on the Point of View website, pointofview.net.

[00:45:02] When we come back, we'll continue our discussion, and then we'll move on to the Supreme Court issues that are now coming down.

[00:45:08] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority.

[00:45:16] They say men can be women, and women men.

[00:45:19] People are prosecuted differently, or not at all, depending on their politics.

[00:45:24] Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law-abiding citizens.

[00:45:29] It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing.

[00:45:32] You feel like giving up.

[00:45:34] But we can't.

[00:45:35] We shouldn't.

[00:45:36] We must not.

[00:45:37] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II,

[00:45:42] Never give in.

[00:45:43] Never give in.

[00:45:45] Never, never, never.

[00:45:46] Never yield to force.

[00:45:48] Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

[00:45:52] And that's what we say to you today.

[00:45:55] This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos.

[00:46:02] We can't do it alone, but together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness.

[00:46:09] Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151.

[00:46:18] Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151.

[00:46:24] Point of View will continue after this.