Point of View October 23, 2026 – Hour 2: Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And welcome back to Point of View. Joining me by phone, Jordan Lawrence. He is Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute, based in Washington, D.C.

[00:00:29] And also joining us by phone is Genevieve Collins. She's a consultant now, but she built and led Texas' largest policy and grassroots operation as State Director for Americans for Prosperity Texas. She was also, before she went there, she was there for about five or six years. Before that, she ran for Congress in the Texas 32nd Congressional District as a Republican nominee.

[00:00:53] And she spent over a decade at iStation. That's an education ed tech company. Genevieve, thank you for joining us. My friend, great to be with you. You know, you, it's the, Americans for Prosperity Texas is the largest public sort of policy organization, but it's also the most influential. I mean, it really made a lot of difference in some of the things that Texas was doing. And you took that from a small group to a very large group.

[00:01:21] Well, thank you. I think the real, the real reason it was successful is because we just focused on giving people a platform to tell their story. And we were going to be the advocate for taxpayers to make sure that their money stayed in their wallets, not being swallowed up by big government.

[00:01:39] And it turns out a lot of people were for that. So it was, we got, we got a chance to get a lot done from school choice to better housing policy, property tax reform and making healthcare more affordable and accessible. So it was quite a great journey. Well, you were, of course, head of the Texas branch of Americans for Prosperity, but Americans for Prosperity is a, is a national group with branches in all the states.

[00:02:05] We started out in the last, in the last segment, talking a bit about some of the things that are happening in the country, both regard to the election and the concerns that voters are hearing. So give us a little bit of feedback. I started out by looking at a recent Larry Sabato crystal ball projection of what they're seeing. And they give, they give Democrats the edge in the house, almost an edge in the Senate and a slight edge in the governor's races.

[00:02:35] What's your thinking about how this election is going to turn out?

[00:02:39] Well, I think most people are going to have Larry's same point of view that the Democrats are going to have a slight edge, although we're seeing kind of voter turnout and early voting is kind of, it has not peaked at the same rate that it did in previous, you know, in the first Trump administration in 2018, at least in Texas, it was a huge spike.

[00:03:06] We're just not seeing that yet in Texas. And that's a good thing for Republicans. Um, and more Republicans are voting early. I think the, I think that we lose the house representatives. It was a thin margin to begin with. Um, but it, I think we're going to lose that not by much, but if you know, we're in 220 to 223 Democrat held seats. So very slight majority, I think the Republicans will keep the Senate.

[00:03:36] And, um, at least for the governor's races that I'm watching, which are Texas, Alaska, and Florida, we could get a trifecta of all three Republican races. You know, it, uh, it, it does seem that, uh, governor Abbott has been normally you would think in an election, he's done a good job. It would be sort of a shoe in. It does seem that Gina Hinojosa has been nipping at his tails just a little bit more than you would expect in a red state like Texas.

[00:04:06] That's right. And unfortunately he had to, he spent a lot of his money, his campaign or chest, he had about a hundred million dollars. He spent a lot of his money defining her. So what does that mean? She got free advertising while it was negative. That free advertising did increase her name ID. And candidly, she's been talking about how she voted for the largest property tax increase.

[00:04:30] Well, you know, if you just look at her record, she actually voted for state income tax. She's voted for property tax increases over 40 times. So, you know, everyone's trying to Democrats, at least in Texas are trying to swing to the middle and move away from their very, uh, liberal records, which are actually written in stone.

[00:04:54] They, they voted for these things, but, um, I think the governor has tattooed her, if you will, um, to be pretty progressive, which she is. She's from Austin and candidly, like I said, he gave her a bunch of free name ID and that helped her. And also James Tallarico at the top of the ticket, you know, he's, he's being, he's kind of the darling of the Democrat hopes. And he's gotten a lot of aid from everywhere outside of Texas.

[00:05:23] And that good fortune has fallen upon Gina Hinojosa, as well as a number of Democrat candidates. So when the spigots turn on for Texas, for Democrats, it usually helps all of them because that money flows to everybody. Hmm. Um, we also looked at the Pew Research Center's most recent, um, issue orientation. What, what voters are concerned about? The economy was the first one. No surprise there.

[00:05:49] The future of democracy was number two, healthcare, three, education, immigration, foreign policy was down on the sixth. And then, uh, uh, so what are your, what do you think is, do you think the economy is the biggest issue out there? And then, uh, we talked a bit about this before you came on the future of democracy. I found that interesting that that was number two on the list because Republicans and Democrats both seem to have a different vision of what preserving our democracy means.

[00:06:18] Yeah, well said. Absolutely that the economy is the number one issue. It has been since, what, 2024. It's what Trump ran on, um, and what no one believed Biden or Kamala could actually deliver on. Unfortunately, you know, the stock market keeps going up, but the reality of how people feel about their paychecks going, being stretched further, and having more discretionary spending, that keeps going, keeps becoming smaller.

[00:06:47] And you're, you can see that in surveys, whether it's through, you know, nothing bunch cakes. My brother-in-law works at nothing bunch cakes and he was just telling me last night. I like them. Their survey. Yeah, they're delicious. Uh, but he was telling me that their surveys are showing discretionary spending is way down. And that's what we're seeing across the country is people aren't buying homes. Interest rates are too high. People aren't buying a lot of extra stuff.

[00:07:14] And so the economy really is the main issue and specifically affordability within the economy. You know, I think everyone is ready for the political ads to stop because everyone's talking about affordability, but not offering a lot of solutions to what that means. Um, but, uh, we're seeing that just nationwide.

[00:07:37] And, you know, even in Texas where Texas usually doesn't have a huge, I would say compared to other states, Texas is much more affordable than many other states, but we're still seeing it's the top issue here. And then as for the future of democracy, what you said is exactly right. You know, the Democrats are saying that Trump is a threat to democracy and the Republicans are saying Democrats are actually communists now.

[00:08:02] So will there even be a democracy if we, if we put them in charge? Hmm. It's an interesting question. Uh, my guest for this hour is going to be, uh, Jordan Lawrence. He is first Liberty Institute. He's senior counselor, first Liberty Institute and Genevieve Collins, who took, uh, Americans for prosperity, Texas, and shaped it into a major, uh, organization affecting, uh, impacting our taxes and legislation and other things.

[00:08:28] When we come back, one of the things that have Republicans have sort of had as a benefit is the religious vote and especially ministers. Uh, they've tended to vote Republican. Democrats are picking up on that now. And there are several Democrats who are ministers who are running for office. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kerby Anderson. Decades ago, I was asked to write some short essays for a book addressing technology from a Christian perspective. In the entry on computers, I explained that just because a computer made some action easier didn't make it moral. I concluded one of my essays by predicting that some may eventually argue that a supercomputer had a soul.

[00:09:25] After reading some of the quotes collected by Noah Rothman, I believe that day has arrived. Here are just a few examples. Anthropic CEO Dario Amadei and his subordinates have expressed their belief that these computer models are conscious. Sam Altman of OpenAI has written that humans will be the biological bootloader for digital intelligence that will either merge with technology or fade into an evolutionary tree branch.

[00:09:52] Now, if you don't understand that comment, you might want to read my booklet, A Biblical View on Transhumanism. When I wrote about people believing computers have a soul, I also predicted they would begin talking about rights for computers. One of the religious experts brought into the AI world for discussion warned that these technologists were relating to AI like a conscious being. One group expressed their belief that the AI model Claude had the moral status on par with a person. When an older model of Claude was retired, they held what looked like a funeral.

[00:10:21] And another author argued that since they have created a sophisticated, intelligent agent, using their labor without pay is tantamount to slavery. I believe some of these technologists have been staring into a computer screen too long. Unfortunately, some of their leaders and co-workers believe they have created life with a soul. I'm Kirby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

[00:10:49] Go deeper on topics like you just heard by visiting pointofview.net. That's pointofview.net. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And welcome back to Point of View with Jordan Lawrence and Genevieve Collins, both joining me by phone. And Jordan, one of the things that Republicans have had going for them for a while is that the Christian vote,

[00:11:19] and especially the evangelical vote, has been very, very loyal to the Republican Party and especially President Trump. And in times past, Democrats even, and I remember one of the conventions that they had, there was a debate over whether or not they could put the word God in their platform, and they got some pushback about putting the word God in their platform.

[00:11:43] But now we're seeing some Democrats who are ministers, are ministers in training, who are running for office. And we've got a link on our website at pointofview.net. This is a NPR interview that they said, the reporter said, this is a small but noteworthy group. On the ballot in November, there will be five Democrats in congressional races who are clergy or clergy for training.

[00:12:08] And they go on to say that of those four of those candidates, four of them are in competitive races that could determine the fate of the House or the Senate. And so it's interesting that we see this, that there are Democrats now who are, and this has been true for a while. Raphael Warnock, senator from Georgia, is a minister at a Baptist church. But it seems that it seems that Democrats are now saying, we need to come back and try to regain what might be called the Christian vote.

[00:12:35] In fact, Kamala Harris had a group, Evangelicals for Harris. And those were evangelicals who claimed to be evangelicals who were supporting Kamala Harris. We're seeing this sort of move here, trying to take, I guess, the Republican advantage with the Christian vote. Yeah, and I'm not so sure how that is going to play out. Because many times these candidates, like Tallarico and Texas and some of the others,

[00:13:05] espouse things that conservative Catholics, evangelicals, Orthodox Jewish people would view as heresy. So I'm not quite sure. It just seems to me to be liberal policy points of view dressed up with religious language. You know, Jesus said, take care of the poor. So that means we should vote for Medicaid for all. Well, you know, that doesn't convince me.

[00:13:34] So I'm not sure. Do they think that there's more moderate religious people who say, oh, I'm persuaded by that? Or is it kind of a vindictive thing like the secular liberals are saying? See, we have religious people that agree with us, too.

[00:13:52] What I think, I would give more credibility to it if there was at least some issue, for example, that James Tallarico was not in total lockstep with the secular liberal agenda. He just has a biblical justification for anything. I can't, I mean, there's things where I think the Republicans are wrong because of, as one who believes in the Bible and believes in Christ.

[00:14:19] I'm not sure Tallarico can find one thing that the Democratic Party is in conflict with the Bible on. It's all straight from the Bible. I guess that's, and so I'm not sure who gets convinced to vote in favor of the Democrats with this kind of reasoning and this kind of a play. Genevieve, James Tallarico here in Texas, James Tallarico and his relationship, he was a Presbyterian, went to a Presbyterian seminary.

[00:14:49] That has played widely in the ads and in the sort of recommendations for him as a person who is a person of faith as well as a person who wants to run for office. Yeah, but we, you know, buddy, we have to realize that people who are followers of Christ aren't always Republican. Right?

[00:15:12] And so to be fair to both sides here, it's important to recognize that Democrats do follow Christ. Now, do I believe that James Tallarico is a silver tongue devil? Well, I do, but that's my personal point of view. I think that he is surreptitious and twists the words of the Bible for his political agenda.

[00:15:34] But I think what is interesting to the broader point is that our nation is waking up to kind of Judeo-Christian values. It could be slowly. It could be a big awakening. But the fact that Democrats are actually realizing that God plays a part in many communities, a lot of African-American communities, Hispanic communities, God is a huge part of that.

[00:16:02] It's an interesting pivot that Democrats are now really starting to lean in to having more faith-based candidates. Whether they will be ultimately successful, because, you know, your other guest is right. They spew a lot of heresy.

[00:16:23] However, it'll be interesting to see if people actually believe that or if we have Christian literacy across the country and people really know their Bible. You've got a good point, Genevieve, because over the years, I mean, the black Baptist churches, the black churches, oftentimes were going to be very pro-democratic, even though you had a lot of people there who were professing Christians in that black church.

[00:16:49] And that's been one of the supports for the black church has been one of the supports for Democrats over the years. Right. Right. And, you know, James Tallarico has said really troublesome things about the Virgin Mary. And, you know, the fact that Kim Paxton isn't hitting, isn't running ads just in Hispanic communities talking about what, just using James Tallarico's own language, talking about the Virgin Mary.

[00:17:15] I mean, grandmothers, abuelos and abuelas would roll over if they heard that. And I think that Democrats are really trying to put a nice moderate bow on the fact that they have a candidate that actually can espouse the Bible, espouse scripture, excuse me. But it doesn't I'm not sure it comes across as very sincere. And that will be what's interesting to see in election results, how Christians vote.

[00:17:41] Along that same line, Jordan, you have on the First Liberty Institute, you have an article there highlighting that Secretary of Defense Pete Hex, has created an office for ministers there. And it's interesting because as you look at the article, he says he wants this to be a well-functioning office, one that sort of stresses the religious freedom and the religious needs of people who are in the military.

[00:18:06] He says they not only need to be people of strength, they need to be people of spiritual background and so forth. And it's an interesting change there. I don't know that I would have ever thought there was or wasn't an office there. But he does seem to be trying to reach out. And this is with Trump and his religious liberty that Kelly Shackelford, who was going to be able to hear today, couldn't make it, was on that religious liberty committee. The president does seem to be trying to reach out and make connections to religious people,

[00:18:36] especially Christians and Jews, in ways that previous presidents have not. Yeah, I think that in the past, under some of the Democratic presidencies, that the chaplaincy was just sort of devolving down to this sort of a group of counselors, secular counselors, that didn't really give a spiritual benefit.

[00:19:00] That was one of the things I know Kelly Shackelford was telling me from his work on the Religious Liberty Commission when they were hearing testimony about that. And when people are faced, especially if they're in combat and facing death, possibly, that where they're going to spend eternity becomes very, very important. What's going to happen to their families? Is what they're doing evil or good?

[00:19:30] That kind of thing. And they need more than just some secular psychology. They need truths, eternal truths from the Bible to help them. And so what Pete Hegseth is doing is I think he's saying we want the chaplaincy core to be a robust ministry to people. Now, you've got to minister to whether you're a Catholic priest or a Jewish rabbi or a Baptist preacher.

[00:19:59] You have to minister to everybody. So there is a level of where you have to be tolerant of things or beliefs that you might not necessarily agree with. But there needs to be some, I think, people that believe that there is ultimate truth out there about God, good, evil, the end of life, what happens, you know, that sort of thing, that now this office is going to be emphasizing

[00:20:23] and allow that to be more robustly practiced and not repressed as it has been in past decades. Do you think that might change if a Democrat comes in as president, say, in 2029? Well, possibly. I think that what we definitely saw under, I would say, under the Biden administration and the Obama administration was just sort of this devaluing. This is the way I understand this.

[00:20:52] I don't work directly on this issue, but this is what I've heard from others, is that this was, it was kind of turning into this secular psychology group or something like that, as opposed to really ministering to the spiritual needs of the people there. Because, you know, come on, let's, you know, realize, you know, religion is kind of for weak people and what we really need is psychology or something like that. And that's what this was coming down to.

[00:21:18] And I think that now what's happened is that he's rooted out a lot of that and pushing it back in the right direction. Stay with us. We'll be right back on Point of View. In 19th century London, two towering historical figures did battle, not with guns and bombs, but words and ideas. London was home to Karl Marx, the father of communism,

[00:21:46] and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon. London was in many ways the center of the world, economically, militarily, and intellectually. Marx sought to destroy religion, the family, and everything the Bible supports. Spurgeon stood against him, warning of socialism's dangers. Spurgeon understood Christianity is not just religious truth. It is truth for all of life.

[00:22:13] Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today? Get the light you need on today's most pressing issues delivered to your inbox when you sign up for the Viewpoints commentary at pointofview.net slash signup. Every weekday, in less than two minutes, you'll learn how to be a person of light to stand against darkness in our time. It's free, so visit pointofview.net slash signup right now.

[00:22:43] Pointofview.net slash signup. Point of View will continue after this. You are listening to Point of View. The opinions expressed on Point of View do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of this station.

[00:23:12] And now, here again, Dr. Merrill Matthews. And we're back with our final half hour on Point of View and our weekend edition. Joining me by phone, Jordan Lawrence. He is senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, and he's based in Washington. And also joining me by phone is Genevieve Collins. She's a consultant, but she, for several years, led Americans for Prosperity Texas and turned that into a major functioning organization.

[00:23:37] And, you know, folks, one of the items I included this week is we've heard stories this week of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank. And when I hear these stories, you know, we've heard a lot of them in Gaza about, well, Hamas or those media in Gaza will say Israelis are attacking, hurting, genocide, killing people, and so forth. And then you'll hear another story from the other side saying, well, that's not really the case.

[00:24:05] Here's what you need to understand about it. It's hard to know what's really happening if you're not there. But in this case, in the West Bank, Ambassador Huckabee, our ambassador to Israel, came out with a statement condemning the attacks of the Israeli settlers, settlers on the Palestinians. And I believe they have arrested now 10 of the settlers who engaged in these attacks, and they included some journalists who they roughed up and so forth.

[00:24:33] And the concern I have about this, Jordan, is if you feel like Israeli has been overstepping and doing some terrible things, when you see what's happening, something happens in the West Bank, it sort of adds to that scenario. So from my standpoint, I feel like if the Israelis settlers are indeed engaging in something they shouldn't be doing,

[00:24:56] and I tend to trust Ambassador Huckabee in being engaged in this and sending out a statement on X, condemning the actions, that I feel I trust Ambassador Huckabee to tell us what's actually happening there. But it also, it could, I don't know, it spreads a narrative that the Israelis are being way aggressive in both Gaza and the West Bank. What are your thoughts?

[00:25:22] Well, I do agree with you that I think that Ambassador Huckabee, I trust him. And if he's calling out the settlers, then that means the settlers are doing something wrong. And you have to have a rule of law where people who do wrong things, evil things, get prosecuted. And you don't give a pass to one side and overly punish the other side.

[00:25:51] And I think that there also needs to be a distinction made between the settlers and the government. The government, Israeli government, led by Netanyahu, is going after Jewish settlers for attacking journalists, for attacking the Arabs who live there. I think that that is a good sign of a robust rule of law. So I think this is good.

[00:26:19] And I think it helps break the narrative that Israel is somehow oppressive because they're using their governmental authority to go after wrongdoers. And that's the right thing that what a government should be doing. You know, Jennifer, we've seen for the past several years, we've seen some very dramatic anti-Semitic actions that have taken place in colleges, in towns, in other places.

[00:26:44] And the people who are the anti-Semitic activists are claiming Israel is doing terrible things to people in Gaza. And this seems to, if you have Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank, it seems to feed that narrative and may make it even harder to sort of dispel that. That may be true.

[00:27:10] However, I think what Jordan pointed out is whether it's Huckabee or Netanyahu, they're calling the balls and strikes. And I always appreciated that about Ambassador Huckabee. He's incredibly authentic 100% of the time. You know, if he's going to call these people terrorists and that this is, you know, this is an act of terror, he's going to be sincere about it.

[00:27:38] And I think that he's an honest broker on calling balls and strikes and says, you know, we understand that there's a conflict in the West Bank and throughout Gaza. We understand that, but that does not condone or condemn Israeli settlers from attacking Westerners or Americans trying to just do the job of reporting what's really happening.

[00:27:59] So I think that for Huckabee to take a really strong stance is actually a very good shot in the arm for truth and for actually showcasing the governments have to shine light on when things are bad and have to be in front of it and say that we're not going to tolerate this kind of behavior. And I think I don't think that that helps college students. They're going to believe whatever the heck they want to.

[00:28:26] You know, but to have someone like Ambassador Huckabee be very resolute from the jump about it, I think should give us a lot of confidence in what is actually being done. I agree with you. Let's change to another topic that is popping up here. The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, which passed in 2010.

[00:28:51] The open enrollment season is going to start on November 1st so people can begin to join. They're seeing in the Affordable Care Act, they're seeing significantly higher premiums. The estimate among the various insurers that are going to be providing this across the country is going to be roughly a median increase of about 18 percent, I believe.

[00:29:13] No, excuse me, 15 percent this year, though some of the insurers are saying they're going to be having to raise their premiums 20 to 25 or 30 percent. And that's on top of a 20 percent increase that they imposed last year. You're looking at something like a 40 percent increase in premiums over a couple of years. Now, many people don't pay the full premium because taxpayers, the rest of us, are subsidizing those premiums. But that's a huge increase.

[00:29:41] And part of it is that Obamacare was just created in a way that you knew and some of us predicted. These premiums are going to go up and that's going to affect people. Genevieve, have you got some thoughts about that? Oh, I have a lot of thoughts. Buckle up, buttercup.

[00:29:59] I love this issue because everyone saw this coming, you know, that when Obamacare was created, you know, what Obamacare did was put insurers in the driver's seat. This has nothing to do with health care. This is all about health insurance. And people are when Bernie Sanders is telling people in 2015 the premiums on Obamacare are going up.

[00:30:27] And he has been saying that for a decade. You'd think that his side of the aisle would listen to him. The way that this whole product, for lack of a better term, has been set up has been to not only do worse for the actual people on Obamacare, but put them last in line to actually getting real care and having to pay a heck of a lot more for it. So this is this we could have seen this. We've seen coming.

[00:30:57] And candidly, you know, Democrats are always pointing the finger to Republicans and well, you guys didn't, you know, pass on even approve further subsidies. Well. We didn't extend the subs, the covid era subsidies. And as you mentioned, Obamacare is already a tax subsidy and people are not getting good, good care and they're not even being able to afford it.

[00:31:23] So I think that what we're just seeing is the beginning, I hope, the beginning of the end of Obamacare, because when you put insurance companies in charge of their own costs, in addition to what the public has to pay for, the whole thing is jacked up and it's not going to make sense. And who's stuck with the bill? The taxpayer and the and the person on insurance themselves.

[00:31:50] You know, Jordan, one of the things that happens when when you when the premiums go up, younger, healthy people look at this and say, well, I've got it's going to cost me that much. Well, I haven't been to the doctor all year. I just don't want to pay that much. And you see young, healthy people begin to drop out of the pool. That makes the pool smaller and sicker. And that means the premiums go up even more and you get what we call a death spiral in insurance. And so you see the number of uninsured actually rising.

[00:32:18] No, that's exactly right. And, you know, I am not sure what the the answer is to all of this, because economics is basically how do you distribute scarce resources when there is unlimited demand?

[00:32:36] And I heard Ben Shapiro once say that if you're if we're talking about universal care, high quality care and inexpensive care, medical care, you can pick two of the three. But it's basically impossible to have all three. Now, I don't know exactly how you resolve this. I know some of the other countries who have had, you know, universal coverage. They fund it different ways.

[00:33:04] But the way we have it now is too expensive. And Obamacare definitely is not working because of this death spiral concept that's happening, a dynamic that's unfolding. One of the things that Democrats have used in the past is to say health insurance premiums are going up. We need to provide more subsidies. They've hit Republicans with it. Hasn't I don't think it's resonated so much this year so far, even though the premiums are going up.

[00:33:29] We seem to maybe we're getting past that a little bit, but we're likely to see some more people being uninsured and they will be convert. The Democrats will be worried about health insurance. Stay with us. We'll be back for our last segment on point of view in just a minute.

[00:34:00] Islamic populations are growing in several states. I live in one of them, Texas. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region, we're seeing land purchases by Muslim organizations, along with well-developed plans for Islamic communities and massive educational and youth centers. We're concerned about the incursion of Islamic Sharia law. According to Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch, Sharia is not benign religious law. It is a political system that Muslims apply to every aspect of life, for non-Muslims as well as Muslims.

[00:34:29] Robert Spencer told a Family Research Council audience, under Sharia, there is no concept of the equality of rights of all people under the law. Non-Muslims are denied basic rights. Islamic educational nonprofit Authentic Ill Mission, AIM, recently hosted a fundraiser for a 40,000-square-foot facility on a four-acre campus near Plano, Texas. It will feature a community center, an Islamic K-12 school, and a seminary, all to be used for training in dawah, which is Islamic proselytization.

[00:34:58] This facility will sit about 20 minutes southwest of another huge, 10,000-member mosque, East Plano Islamic Center. EPIC is adjacent to a planned complex of over 450 housing plots and is currently in a high-profile battle to establish a Muslim city. At the AIM fundraiser, the keynote speaker told potential donors, we want good for this country, and that's why we want Islam for this country, because we think that's the best thing and we're not going to be ashamed of that.

[00:35:24] In last March's Texas primary, a ballot measure asked if Texas should prohibit Sharia law. Ninety-five percent of voters said yes. Texas lawmakers will seek to ban Sharia law in the upcoming legislative session. Two Texas congressmen, Chip Roy and Keith Sill, have launched a federal Sharia-Free America caucus. Dan Codule, the attorney representing Epic City, says, Anyone is welcome to buy and live there. Anyone, that is, who wants to lose their constitutional freedoms.

[00:35:53] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. And we're back on Point of View, our final segment for this weekend edition. I wanted to get our listeners, I wanted to highlight an article to our listeners that ran in the Wall Street Journal recently. The title of it is, The Inmates Run the Asylum at the Psychological Association.

[00:36:20] And it's talking about the American Psychological Association. So there are psychologists and psychiatrists. Psychiatrists have medical degrees. Psychologists have PhDs. But they both work on people with mental health issues. And the American Psychological Association recently had its convention.

[00:36:39] But it apparently is in, it may end up losing its ability to accredit other psychology courses and classes at universities because of some of the things that are happening there. And primarily because of the woke elements that are pervasive in the American Psychological Association. So it has been, as they've looked at this, they feel like it's been very critical of both Israel and Jewish members.

[00:37:06] And in just some of the sessions that they had at a workshop for the American Psychological Association, I'm going to read some of these. It's hysteria, a psychoanalysis against anti-trans panics. Another one is doctoral students' narratives of stress, resilience, and identity in the Trump area. And a third one, white analysis, race, institution, and the limits of psychoanalysis.

[00:37:37] It just seems like this American Psychological Association and in their conferences have just gone off the deep end. Let's just say the woke deep end. Genevieve, you've been involved in education. I was just surprised at just how bad some of these courses are, sessions in the American Psychological Association's meeting. Reading this article was actually tough. I'm not going to lie. Like, as listeners, y'all should read it.

[00:38:05] It's not because it's happening. It was really tough to see that, you know, our psychologists are, the association has been completely overrun and overtaken by the woke agenda. I want to, you know, when the agenda for these psychiatrists is really focused on victimhood mentality and identity mentality and only wanting to have homogenous conversations,

[00:38:35] we are lacking any context of mental health because we're just spinning. Our psychologists are being trained to spin into those storylines. And that's really hard and disappointing as an American that this is happening to good people who are really needing help. I want to quote, buddy, there was a piece in the article, a line that said, you know,

[00:39:00] our view is isn't that psychologists should avoid discussions of racism, sexuality, politics or social interaction or social institutions. But serious problems arise when professional organizations become so ideologically homogenous that they are unable to separate their activist goals from their scientific mission. And that's where we are. And it's sad.

[00:39:25] Jordan, First Liberty Institute has been fighting because in the sense because the woke movement became also a religious persecution movement in many ways that you've had to stand against in the First Liberty Institute. Yeah, I would just say generally, I mean, like one way where this has come up is with these laws that ban conversion therapy.

[00:39:49] And what people think is they're outlawing, you know, using, you know, electrodes to shock people or something like that to change their sexual orientation. But you cannot, under these laws until the Supreme Court struck them down and other ones that you could not, a counselor could lose his or her license by saying to someone,

[00:40:15] you don't need to change your gender or giving them ways that they could cope with same sex attraction. Things like that were forbidden. And that's how, and we saw in the transgender area where groups like WPATH, which sets the surgical or medical terms for treatment for transgender treatment,

[00:40:40] that they had no evidence or they would suppress evidence that went against what they were saying. So this has ceased to become science and it's become an ideology. It's been hijacked by ideologues who are trying to dress their ideology in the robes of science and to make it more legitimate and to cut off all debate on anything alternative.

[00:41:07] You know, Jordan, if you were a parent and you had a child who was having gender identity problems and concerns, and you said, okay, we need to take you to a mental health professional in order to be able to get some counseling. If you happen to pick one of the people who had attended this conference, and I think it said about 600 people that attended the conference, maybe not all of them were on board with everything, but you would be picking somebody who would be essentially out of pattern to send you to say, yes, your child is right in this concern,

[00:41:37] move forward with this and get medical professional help because you may need to get your child transgender surgery. I think that that's exactly right and that now parents have to be on guard and to basically explore before they allow their child to be subject to this counselor or treatment or whatever where this person is coming from. And I think you can see this even – I know we're talking about psychology,

[00:42:06] but my daughters, sometimes when they've gone to OBGYNs, I've just been shocked when I've heard back on what has been said to them because of the pro-abortion mindset that so permeates so much of the medical profession. And I think it's the same type of thing that's going on. And that it's – I was brought up thinking, oh, science is neutral, morally neutral, and everybody comes to the same conclusions.

[00:42:32] And so you can – you know, it doesn't matter what doctor you go to, they all come to the same conclusions. That is not right. And so the person making the final decision when it's you, you've got to make sure you're getting the best advice and not slanted ideologue advice on these medical issues. Genevieve, one of the things I've sort of felt like is in the Trump era, we've kind of moved past the woke movement to some extent. And then I run across this and I think, well, maybe I'm just too optimistic.

[00:43:02] Well, that's what I thought. You know, here we are being, you know, warriors trying to do good for people and getting on the other side of CRT and DEI and ESG and – I mean, it's the alphabet soup at this point. And then you've come across this article and you see how deeply woven into the fabric of associations and institutions this is.

[00:43:26] So this is like – this is a true black tar cancer that has really come into so much of people's everyday lives that either we're not aware of it, we choose not to be aware of it, or it's so deeply hidden that it's hard to become aware of it. And I'll just reference there's another article by the Wall Street Journal, why are so many adult children cutting off their parents?

[00:43:54] This was an article that came out a couple weeks ago, and it also talked about how psychologists and psychiatrists are advocating that children who don't see eye-to-eye, they're politically, ideologically, sexually, whatever, with their parents and how they're raised, are being counseled to cut their parents and their family out of their lives.

[00:44:19] And so there is a whole lot more to the APA and their insidiousness that needs to be investigated because what's happening to people is not okay. And we're creating – they are helping continue this fanning aflames of the oppressors and the oppressed, this mentality, and that's not the American way. Well, Jordan Lawrence, Genevieve Collins, I want to thank you.

[00:44:46] We're coming to the end of the show, so thank you so much for joining us on Point of View today. Our pleasure. Thank you for having me. Good to have you. And I want to thank Engineer Megan in there for doing the engineering, Derek for manning the phones and producing the thing, and I want to thank you for listening to Point of View. You can go to pointofview.net, find out more, hit the donate button while you're there. Thank you for joining us.

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