Point of View October 9, 2026 – Hour 2: Weekend Edition

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. And now, Liberty McCarthy. Thanks for joining us for the second hour of the Weekend Edition. Still lots of news to cover. And if you want to join the conversation, don't forget you can call us at 800-351-1212, 800-351-1212.

[00:00:34] We'd love to get your take on what we're discussing today. But Richard, I know you're going to have to bow out a little bit here in a few minutes. But before you do, I wanted to get your comments on what's happening in France. And not just because you recently wrote a book that's coming out on Tuesday on George Washington and the American Revolution. And there is a revolution of sorts, I guess, happening in France. Violent scenes emerging across the nation. Thousands of people being taken into custody.

[00:01:03] You are seeing clashes between teens, police officers. Things are on fire. Schools are being destroyed by students. It's a disturbing scene. And a lot of people have different theories or reasons or things that they're blaming for it. But I know you sent me kind of this topic. What's your take on what's happening over there? Yeah, I think that there are a few things at work here.

[00:01:28] First, when you hear the student complaints, they sound relatively reasonable. Apparently, they're complaining about broken buildings, crowded classrooms, the lack of teachers, long school days, even some schools having rats. And I think this, to me, exposes the French government's failure to provide a decent education to French students.

[00:01:53] But I think what's alarming is that the reaction has been just violence. I mean, just rampant lawlessness. And I think we know from what we've seen in our own country that the left is willing to use situations to encourage violence. I have some friends that lived in Minneapolis and they were living there during the whole George Floyd situation.

[00:02:18] And they were telling me that there's there are just groups of Antifa followers that are always ready to go. I mean, they're ready to go because they are in perpetual revolution. They are at war fundamentally with order and the rule of law, the concept of ordered liberty, which our country was founded on. And so I think, unfortunately, you can have situations where groups of people might have legitimate grievances.

[00:02:48] I mean, I'm not a student there, so I don't know exactly what the situation is, but it sounds like they do have some legitimate grievances. But unfortunately, the left, as they always do, is willing to take advantage of this and it just causes as much damage as possible. You know, one of the things that we know from John Adams that he said was that our Constitution here in the United States was made only for a moral and religious people.

[00:03:14] But the founders also knew that there would be things that citizens would be unhappy about and there would be problems. And they were under no illusion that they would be perfect representatives or that the government would be perfect. In fact, they knew the opposite, which is why they had checks and balances.

[00:03:29] But if you don't have that kind of moral foundation or common worldview even or understanding of right and wrong, then it seems like that almost makes it impossible to productively or effectively address legitimate grievances. Yes, it's true. And one thing I think people don't realize is that when the founders created, well, they started rebelling against British rule, British oppression.

[00:03:59] Not all of them approved of lawlessness. For instance, the Boston Tea Party, there were a number of founders that felt that this isn't exactly in line with our beliefs. This is this is this is violence. And there's a right way to do revolution. Some people call the American Revolution the evolutionary revolution, because it took over a decade to go from the first taxes to actual outright independence.

[00:04:26] And there was a great deal of petition and remonstrances that were made before the radical step of revolution. So I would say that some some people tried to downplay that and say, oh, well, America was founded in violence. So this is this just an extension of that. That's simply just not the case. Well, I am currently reading your book, Refusing a Crown.

[00:04:48] It's going to be out officially on Tuesday next week. And so before you have to go, tell people a little bit about the book and where they can read more about it and get a copy. Absolutely. Yeah, you can get a copy on Amazon, Refusing a Crown, how George Washington changed the world. I also have my website, Richard M. Lim dot com, where you could look up just the book and different projects I've been working on.

[00:05:13] And yeah, the book is basically about how America transitioned away from monarchy and how George Washington's decisions to give up power were the critical moments in in that change, in that revolution. And I would say also that so much of that had to do with a greater understanding of scripture of Americans debating what they believe scripture described as the best system of government.

[00:05:39] And so much of what Washington did was because of what he felt was his duty to God and country. And so, yeah, feel free to check it out for for listeners. It's Refusing a Crown. You can get on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever you buy your books. Awesome. And you can find the link to Richard's website and all of his book information at point of view dot net as well. Richard, it's always great having you on point of view. So glad you could join us for the weekend edition today.

[00:06:07] Aaron, you know, resources like Richard's book and learning about the founding of our nation in more detail and why the moral foundation matters for how we address things in our nation. And that's the kind of education that we desperately need, because unfortunately, even in America, you're seeing more of a trend of people maybe having legitimate concerns. They want to exercise their right to protest, but it can so quickly turn into not a protest to to riots and violence.

[00:06:36] And you're hearing this more and more, it seems like, from the radical sides on the left and the right. And to be fair of just tear it all down. Right. Right. There's this trend. There's this disturbing trend toward violence is suddenly the answer to our problems like forget this course, forget petitioning the government with our grievances, which is what Richard's exactly right, what the Americans were doing before they were the Americans.

[00:07:03] They were British citizens and they kept asking. And then when they finally come to this, we've reached the point where apparently the Constitution, the British Constitution doesn't really mean anything. We were done like you're not doing your job. We have we believe in this contract with the government where you're supposed to protect us and, you know, we give up some of our rights, but you're just taking and taking and taking and you're not giving us any representation or say.

[00:07:29] So yet being educated is is is super important about about those those sorts of things. So, yeah, and you have to be trained to have the kinds of conversations where you might disagree or have a debate. Right. Well, and Tocqueville came over and studied America. Right. For France. We want to know. Go go tell us what's going on. How are they doing this thing? Right. There's this interest in how did America like why is America working? Right.

[00:07:55] We want to study this for our own purposes. And yeah, maybe maybe France, the French and Americans should sit down with Tocqueville's book once again and say, what was it that was so special about what happened at the beginning? And what do we need to do to get back on track? Democracy in America, people check it out. You can probably find it at your library. I hope. Anyway, get a copy of it and read it because, yes, that's a great advice.

[00:08:21] One of the things that Tocqueville observed about Americans was how literate they were, how Americans couldn't get enough of the written word of newspapers, of of updates. We talked a minute ago about George Washington's circular, which Americans actually read after the Revolutionary War. And are we moving away from a literate society? Let's talk about it when we get back.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Greg Koker was on my radio program recently and has a book coming out next month that will help you better engage nonbelievers in conversations on several different topics. The title of the book is Street Smarts and is a follow-up to his best-selling book, Tactics. His tactics book has been so helpful to Christians, it equips them to be diplomatic by asking questions that not only gather important information,

[00:09:26] but also help point out logical flaws with the ideas expressed by non-Christians. Engaging others in controversial conversations is difficult and challenging. His previous book provides a conversational roadmap for those conversations. In Street Smarts, Greg Koker begins by explaining the difference between a harvest approach of reaping and a gardening approach of sowing. J. Warner Wallace, in his endorsement of the book, uses a baseball metaphor and contrasts trying to hit a home run with hitting singles and doubles.

[00:09:55] This strategy enables you to engage in conversations that you had never thought you might be able to do by asking others to defend their positions and consider a viewpoint they may never have considered. The following chapters provide specific examples from discussions you might have on the street with friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. I found the sample mini-dialogues helpful because they showed how you might ask a question to gain more information,

[00:10:20] or how you might use questions to identify flaws in another's logic or parry their attacks on Christianity. Whether you are an experienced evangelist, an apologist, or merely an inexperienced new Christian, you will benefit from both books. I would encourage you to pre-order Street Smarts. I've already done so and know you will benefit from the years of experience that resulted in this book. 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. All right, this is a super interesting topic for me. So, Erin, I'm excited to talk about this. But it is a little troubling, too. Are we entering a new dark ages?

[00:11:17] This was the question of a podcast that I like to listen to, Interesting Times. It's a podcast put on by the New York Times. It was hosted by the conservative columnist Ross Douthat until recently when he was picked up by Barry Weiss, who just seems to be scooping up all the journalists for the Free Press, CBS. They're revitalizing 60 Minutes. So that's kind of an interesting update in the media to be watching.

[00:11:41] But anyways, the guest host was Mary Harrington, and they were talking about whether or not we are entering really a post-literate moment in time, moment in history. And what we were just talking about before the break is how exceptionally literate America historically has been. This is something Tocqueville observed. And it's just it's very interesting to see now you are seeing so much decline in the number of people who are reading.

[00:12:10] I mean, even I saw this study just a couple days ago online where, like, the majority of parents are saying they don't read to their babies and their grandchildren because it's boring. Oh, somebody was super helpful. One of these tech bros who was like, oh, I can create an AI app to read to my child in my voice. Problem solved. Problem solved. Yeah. No problem not solved. But, you know, this is there's just not an interest as much. But why? Why?

[00:12:40] And so we've got social media, we've got videos. And what we really are becoming is more of a video dominated society. And so is I mean, it's very interesting. You know, we can we can talk about this, but they kind of in that conversation go through the historical parallels of like the medieval times because you had elite minority that was well educated and literate,

[00:13:04] but you didn't have the printing press and so books weren't able to be mass produced and people didn't necessarily need to know how to read to do their everyday job. And so you had some people who were literate. And so you got some great literature out of that era. But that was totally different from, you know, post Gutenberg press. And then you have a whole society that's literate and everybody's wanting to read and everybody's getting educated and learning how.

[00:13:26] And now we're kind of going back to like, OK, is literacy and the ability to actually read more than 400 words is the average of what college professors are now accepting. Think about that, Erin. Oh, my gosh. Could you have survived law school like crashing out after 90 seconds of sustained attention in reading? No, I mean, I don't think you'd make it. But honestly, I mean, apparently people are. I don't know.

[00:13:53] But I don't I don't think in most, you know, law schools where you're seeing, you know, much numbers of successful students graduating, going on to practice law, pass the bar exam and practice law there. They can do it. They are the elite, the elite readers, the readers. Well, readers are leaders. And that's what I tell my niece every time I see her. Yes, I tell her readers are leaders. She can't read because she's one, but she is going to be a leader. And I will make sure of it.

[00:14:24] But no, I mean, do you think this is something that I was kind of thinking about? Do you think that it has to do with is it the is it the video medium that's kind of leading to this decreased attention span, like desire not to read? Because you think about when the radio, right, when the radio becomes the centerpiece and the focal point of the home.

[00:14:47] Were we seeing the same like was there a decline in reading at the time that people were able to get their news from, you know, the radio, the TV? Like, has this been a steady progression or all of a sudden are we just realizing we've dropped off and now no one's reading anymore? Like, I'm wondering if we've been in this decline for a while or if it's been like ups and downs. I would be curious to see a study, I think, on some of that.

[00:15:13] I think it's been a gradual decline for sure. It's I recently read Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. It's great. I recommend everybody read it. I can't believe I didn't read it sooner. But he does exactly that and basically goes through all these different mediums and looks at how they impacted society.

[00:15:34] And also kind of the panic that happened when they were invented or and it's interesting to even like read about the ancients critiquing the ancients, the medievals, the printing press and society where everybody was reading because they're not memorizing anything. They can just read it. They don't have to store anything in their memory and we're losing the ability to memorize things. So that's interesting.

[00:16:03] But one of the things that Neil Postman writes about and he was writing in the 80s, so really critiquing TV more than anything, is just how much everything, even he even talks about our news and everything from news to education has just become entertainment, really. And that's if it's not entertaining, people aren't going to pay attention to it. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's true. And that's but that's that's exactly what we've seen with with news, too. Right.

[00:16:32] If it's not entertaining, then like we're not going to tell the story on the news. That's not report worthy. And so I think it's been going on for a while. Right. If it's not entertaining, just cut it out and we'll do something different. And if people don't like it, they're not going to watch it. Like we need to continue to keep their attention. We need to continue to keep consumers attention. But I will say one thing that I'm very grateful for. And you talking about the Gutenberg press reminds reminded me of this.

[00:16:59] You know, I am so thankful that I grew up in a home where my parents, you know, and especially my dad was very clear when we were learning to read. Why are you learning to read? We are teaching you to read so that you can read the Bible for yourself and not have to rely on someone else to tell you what it says. Wow. And so there's a level of reading has a purpose. Right. There is a level of you.

[00:17:24] You need to be able to go read truth, go read facts, go read books, you know, read the great works of literature. Don't rely on someone else to show you a movie of that book and it not be an accurate portrayal of that great work of art. And there's there's joy in reading beautiful language. Right. God gave us the ability to speak and to, you know, form beautiful sentences and write and inspire imagination and high thinking.

[00:17:53] So there's a like you can read for pleasure, too. Like it's it can be fun and it can be entertaining. I just think that we have such short attention spans now and people want like quick, easy five seconds, 30 second videos. I don't have to think or use my brain. I'm just going to turn it off. Yeah. But I hope that, you know, sometime soon or right now, I think we're seeing more people reading. Now what they're reading might be kind of garbage, garbage beach reads.

[00:18:22] But, hey, I am not going to, you know, come after anyone that's choosing to pick up a book and read at this point because I value that on its own. Yeah, that's a good point. You know, anecdotally, I have run across a lot of people who will get into reading. And it does start maybe kind of, I don't know, with not classic literature. Let's just say that. Start small, though. Yeah. Keep going. And then they've been inspired after that to say, oh, I actually really like reading.

[00:18:52] I want to read some of these classics. I want to challenge myself. And so, I mean, hey, yes, start start somewhere for sure. But it does concern me that it seems like the default position in a post-literate society where the majority of people get their news from social media. And social media has largely become short form videos.

[00:19:15] I mean, if you're getting on an app, you likely will end up scrolling like on these little videos that are 30 seconds or less. Right. And there are studies now showing that the impact of watching a lot of short form videos on your brain is like the loss of gray matter and the decline of your attention span. So that's that's troubling and concerning.

[00:19:37] And it really makes you more of a passive recipient of information rather than somebody who is like actively seeking out information, seeking to educate yourself. Even if you click on like a newspaper website, like even, you know, the New York Times or take your take your pick. A lot of them. It's not so much articles as reels. Right. Reels of news. Right. It's short news.

[00:20:04] Push the play, you know, push the play button on the video at the top of the screen. Right. You don't really need to read the article. We're going to tell you what the article is about the video. Yeah. Agree. And my concern with this is, you know, we were talking earlier in the show about like the legacy of Western civilization and Marco Rubio's speech in Greece. And then, you know, we're talking we talked about the American Revolution and the French Revolution multiple.

[00:20:32] And what you know, can you have a constitutional republic or free society of self-determining citizens if people aren't reading? Like if they don't have the attention span? I don't I don't know. I don't know. It's really hard to, you know, think about how do you make an informed decision if you're not, you know, understanding and comprehending everything that's going on or reading history. History repeats itself. We've seen that.

[00:20:56] And maybe if we were reading more, maybe we would be aware of, oh, this is what it looked like the last time that, you know, socialism tried to creep in and take over this particular country. So I think it would be helpful. I if anything, reading is cool. I love to read. But I am a lawyer. But I'm I'm telling you, if you're listening, reading's cool. And if you're going to do it for any other reason, do it because it's different and maybe it's vintage. Yeah. It's elite now. It's elite.

[00:21:26] Reading's elite. All right. We'll be right back. 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 and legendary Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon.

[00:21:51] 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. Where do you find men with that kind of wisdom to stand against darkness today?

[00:22:18] 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. Pointofview.net slash signup.

[00:22:50] 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. And now here again is Liberty McCarter. Feel free to join the conversation today.

[00:23:19] 800-351-1212. We'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts. You know, before we move on from kind of this reading topic that we were discussing, Erin, I really am wondering where this leads us as a nation. Because one of the things that, you know, we know about the founders and even just American colonists. You know, this is in Richard's book that we were talking about earlier that's coming out next week.

[00:23:46] But he talks about the transition from really colonists being upset with Parliament to being upset with the king. And when you have the Declaration of Independence, it's addressed to King George III. But before that, many colonists who were unhappy with England, they were okay. They were calling themselves loyal subjects of the king, but they were upset at Parliament.

[00:24:12] And so what he, you know, he mentioned that his book really documents how America decided to switch from a monarchy. And a big part of that was Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, in which he makes a biblically based argument against monarchy and for what really became a constitutional republic.

[00:24:34] He goes to the Old Testament, which is interesting because he wasn't a Christian, but even just as a deist, I believe, going through and making these arguments from scripture. Now, how could a little pamphlet, a little, you know, booklet have enough of an impact to really turn the tide in public opinion about the war and lead America to ultimately reject a monarchy, when many colonists weren't even ready to do that at the time, if people weren't reading it?

[00:25:04] But it was widely circulated, widely read. That actually motivated many of the pastors of the time to then preach about the cause of independence from a biblical perspective. So it really turned the tide in the American Revolution. And I just think like, okay, what's the equivalent of that today? Is there anything? Because even when it comes to visual media, nobody's even watching the same thing.

[00:25:29] So like nobody can be like, here, I'm going to give this speech or write this book or release this TikTok video. And it's going to it's going to change public opinion on something. I don't even think that we have that ability anymore. Yeah, I don't know if it's if it would require, you know, if the modern equivalent is a viral video. I have no idea if that, you know, what what constitutes a viral video?

[00:25:54] Is it something that's shared, you know, between friends and maybe society has just gotten so large and so diverse that it's not being you know, we don't live in these common relationships where, you know, if you're looking during the Revolutionary War period, people are living in, you know, these they're living in groups. They're all going to like the same church. They're congregating together. They are, you know, sharing.

[00:26:23] They're selling goods to each other. They're going, you know, they're seeing each other and they're they're talking. They're interacting with people. But when we're on our phones or we're at home or behind a TV screen or computer screen, we're not interacting, you know, with people in the same way that they were where they were like, hey, have you read Hold Up? Have you read this that you should read this? I'm going to give you my copy. You know, it's it's a it's a text message.

[00:26:51] It's a DM on Instagram that says, have you seen this? Right. And maybe that's the equivalent. I don't know. I don't know that a message of revolution. I mean, maybe a message of revolution would go viral and it could be, you know, maybe Thomas Paine's common sense viral video. I don't I don't know. Like if that's if that's the the modern day equivalent, but it's the only thing I can think of. Yeah. That would have the same potential for widespread reach.

[00:27:19] I mean, there are videos we can all quote because we've heard them because we've seen them at some point. Maybe that maybe it's the same. Yeah. You can't. I don't know that you can't make like a sustained argument. I mean, and to be fair, Thomas Paine is probably an A.I. cat in this illustration. Right. Right. But because he couldn't hold people's attention otherwise. Right. You can't have a white male. No, no, no.

[00:27:45] So, you know, but you do have like back to kind of political candidates. I mean, Mayor Mom Donnie is actually a great example of somebody with a lot of social media prowess, I guess, who's using short form video using reels on TikTok and Instagram.

[00:28:04] And when I'm like sitting around, you know, with my family at a family dinner or holiday gathering or whatever and talking to kind of like, you know, younger members and Gen Zers, they're like, oh, yeah, I saw, you know, this reel of him. And whether they agree or not, it's like everybody's seen it. Even even down here in Texas, they know about Mom Donnie because of the video. But it's very short. You can't you can't have this like logical argument. OK, the Bible says this and we all held these things in common. And now how about this?

[00:28:33] And look at like there's a progression there that you can have in the written word. That's just it's not the same in video format. So, you know, it's interesting. A lot of people, you know, there's kind of two maybe literary examples that people might relate to 1984 and Brave New World. And in one, you've got this example of a totalitarian government with that is very harsh.

[00:28:59] In the other in Brave New World, I believe, if I'm getting them right in my head, it's more of a soft totalitarianism because everyone's just so comfortable. And you're right. You're right about that. This reminds me actually of Rubio talking about we preoccupy ourselves more with the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best. And he was talking about like the Greeks of antiquity and their constant pursuit of excellence and how that actually sounds cruel to modern ears.

[00:29:26] I mean, are we entering an era where it's like we don't need totalitarianism because nobody cares anyway, because they're all just placated by their comfy scroll that is preventing them from actually doing anything more productive with their life or standing up for freedom and democracy? Or I don't know. Yeah, I don't I don't know.

[00:29:48] Um, yeah, people seem to be pretty content to just be comfortable and exist as long as nothing bothering them. They don't really care. But but and yet people get upset about, you know, I don't just things that I don't understand why we're spending so much time when there are other there are other issues. You know, I.

[00:30:14] We get in these fights and I think that that human beings are just naturally bent toward right if there was a some sort of world diplomat that basically said, if you don't have something to fight about, you're going to fight about the shape of the table you're sitting at. Right. Like it's going to be wrong because it's a round table and now we can't talk anymore because we're not going to communicate. Right.

[00:30:33] And so I don't I just this isolation that's occurring between the comfort of hiding behind technology and abdicating responsibility and ambition to other people. Other people are going to handle it. Other people can take care of it. I want to sit here and draw, you know, my global income welfare check thing that's going to win the United States. Yeah.

[00:31:01] The universal income whenever we are all getting paid to sit at home by super intelligence. Right. According to Trump. Right. Then we will you know, it doesn't matter. Like someone else will get us there because they're working on it like someone else. It's their job to be ambitious and do those things. But I don't want to do that one because it's scary. It's hard. You take risks. It could be painful. I could lose. I could fail.

[00:31:27] And that's what Secretary Rubio was talking about, too, was you could fail. Yeah. And that's a good thing. That's part of being human. You got to take the risk. I mean, Western civilization was built on risk taking largely. And so. Right. Was it a safe choice to rebel against the British government at the time? No. No. The answer is no. No. No.

[00:31:52] That was a hard decision that a lot of a lot of the patriots wrestled with, which is why the pastors took to the pulpits and explained, here's the biblical grounding for why this is important that we do this. And that's what led a lot of people to say, OK, this is going to this is going to be horrible, but it's worth it. And it is the right thing to do. It is, in fact, our duty to rebel.

[00:32:15] You know, concepts of duty, of risk taking, of, you know, friction, being uncomfortable, but a greater good to strive for. These are all things that have made America what it is. And yet these are values that unfortunately we can't necessarily say that we all hold in common anymore. But, you know, back to, you know, what we were originally talking about reading, you know,

[00:32:41] can can all of this really come out of people not reading as much or are we making too big of a deal of it? I think the big concern is fundamentally are people thinking? Are they being trained to think logically, to think critically, to think for themselves? And a lot of people might think that they're thinking for themselves because they've been served conspiracy theory videos by their algorithm on social media. But that's not the same.

[00:33:08] So if anything, I mean, somebody is going to have to do the thinking. And if people are comfortable saying, well, someone else can take care of it. But as Christians, are we going to say that? Or are we going to say, wait, we need to use the minds and the reason that God gave us and continue to, you know, sharpen our intellect and be ready to defend what's right and stand up for what's good. And we can't do that if we're not learning about it. So that's right. Yeah, it's important. It's really important. So check that out.

[00:33:34] You can see that podcast episode if you want to listen to it at pointofview.net. But when we get back, we'll talk about another evolution in entertainment that might be concerning. We'll be right back.

[00:34:01] It's been four years since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. And yet the U.S. has more abortions, 21 percent more today than we did when abortion on demand was the law of the land. Surgical abortions are down in states that ban them. Chemical abortions are way up, accounting for about two-thirds of abortions in this country. The drug mifepristone is used to cause the abortion and can be obtained by mail without a medical exam. This allows abortions to take place even in states where it's outlawed.

[00:34:29] Ten percent of women who take mifepristone end up in the emergency room. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is calling on Congress to ban the drug. Pro-life leaders are insisting if Congress cannot ban it, restore safeguards that used to exist regarding the use of the abortion pill. In 2000, the Clinton FDA approved a two-drug abortion regimen to be used during the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Over time, pro-abortion administrations have eased restrictions on its use.

[00:34:56] In 2016, the Obama FDA extended the requirement to 10 weeks gestation and allowed non-physicians to prescribe the drugs. The Biden administration eliminated the requirement that women seeking a medical abortion be evaluated in person by a medical professional. Now, these medication abortions are prescribed via telemedicine. That means there's no physical exam, no ultrasound study. Prompt ultrasound evaluation is key in diagnosing ectopic pregnancy, which can prove deadly to the

[00:35:25] mother if not caught early enough. Senator Hawley recently told a pro-life audience, the primary maker of the abortion pill is a company called Danko. Danko is based in the Cayman Islands and shuns FDA oversight. According to the senator, they make only one product, the abortion drug. The senator says their entire business, their entire industry is based on killing American babies. Senator Hawley has seven co-sponsors for his bill to ban mifepristone. What about your senators?

[00:35:53] For Point of View, I'm Penna Dexter. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. All right, a few more minutes in the weekend edition today. So again, reminder, you may want to call in and comment on this one, 800-351-1212, 800-351-1212.

[00:36:19] An announcement from the Pentagon that has caused a lot of stir and controversy and opinions. So we'll try to see what we think about it here. This was an announcement. This is an article from the AP that the Fort Hood shooter, if you remember in 2009, Nidal Malik Hassan was in the army but attacked the military base that he was stationed at, Fort Hood.

[00:36:48] And he has been convicted of killing 13 people, injuring 32 others. And he is set to be executed on December 3rd for that terrorist attack. And it was announced that he would be executed by firing squad. But here's the thing that is really causing a lot of controversy. Pete Hegseth said that we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public.

[00:37:12] So not only is the execution going to be public, it is going to be, as of right now, live streamed so that anybody can watch it online. Okay, I'll stop there. There's a few more details we can get into. But Erin, initial reactions to this announcement? Yeah, it's bizarre. I mean, listen, Secretary Hegseth can say stuff like, it will be public, right?

[00:37:41] People could be allowed to attend. People attend executions in states. That is something that is permitted, is having witnesses to the execution. But I just, the thought of making it a spectacle is a little bit, I don't know. I think it's unsettling for a lot of Americans. I am not, you know, I'm not personally anti-death penalty.

[00:38:12] I think that the Bible supports the death penalty. But ultimately, right, that's a call that states, you know, the voters need to make that decision. But this is the military, and so it's a little bit different. They have different rules, different regulations, different parts of the law that apply to what the military is allowed to do. But death is not something that should ever, you know, I don't think be celebrated.

[00:38:37] We should not have, you know, I don't think we should have jubilee over, you know, celebrating some kind of death. We should celebrate justice. Absolutely. We should celebrate justice. And then that's the case here, right? The Obama administration wanted to call this workplace violence. This is a terrorist attack. I mean, he yelled ala Akbar when he's killing these soldiers and shooting them in the backs as they ran away. So it's horrible. We should celebrate justice.

[00:39:07] But I don't know about celebrating the execution of someone. It can be a solemn moment of seeing justice carried out. But the temptation, I think, to make it a spectacle or to celebrate it, I don't know. It's unsettling. I agree. My initial reaction was, no, this is wrong. And I will note, this was interesting.

[00:39:32] So Jim Garrity, who writes for the National Review, actually says that the U.S. Army has regulations regarding executions. They specify who may be in attendance as witnesses, including a minimum of two media representatives selected under the direction of the CPA from a pool of media representatives who are requesting it.

[00:39:57] And also, the regulations stipulate no person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution, which you cannot enforce if it is live streamed online. So that's an interesting legal note that the Pentagon would either be in violation of that regulation or have to rescind it before this if they do end up live streaming it. So just kind of an interesting legal note there.

[00:40:22] But another kind of argument from Andrew Walker, he's editor of World Magazine, who actually says that he is in favor of public executions. He he notes the legitimate concerns about, you know, bloodlust spectacle, but says that a soldier sworn to defend the nation who turns against it by murdering those likewise called to its

[00:40:48] defense has committed an offense of such horrific kind that I am not troubled by giving its punishment greater symbolic weight in the public mind. We do have a historical precedent of public executions in the United States. But again, back to kind of the question of media, does the medium of Internet and live stream like some in some way intrinsically change what what public means in that regard? I don't know.

[00:41:13] I think that we are having an interesting debate right now, very publicly on the Internet, other places, news media, you know, all sorts of things about. Is it different because it is exactly the reason that you said, is it different because of social media, because the Internet, because we might live stream it? You don't have to you know, it's not like a public execution where you would, you know,

[00:41:40] back in the olden days have, you know, a public execution where people would attend. And it was very much a local enforcement reminder. Hey, if you kill somebody else, there are consequences. And it's a, you know, a method of trying to deter people from committing heinous crimes against another human being.

[00:42:05] The role of the government is to, you know, reward good and punish evil. And that that being the basis of, you know, this is just the government doing what it what we asked it to do as American citizens. And a lot of American citizens have decided we don't want the government to do that thing. There are a lot of states that don't carry out executions anymore. But again, this is the military. Totally different rules.

[00:42:30] And so if you know, if you wanted to outlaw the death penalty in the military, well, that's something that Congress is going to have to do to tell them, you know, right, it's not a valid punishment for you to carry out because there's laws that say, you know, you can do these sorts of things. So I don't know if they'll drag it out and it'll be a new administration or new secretary of war. And all of a sudden this won't happen. But I don't know.

[00:42:59] I think he is deserving of punishment. I just don't know if it needs to be live streamed. Right. That's that's where I'm landing, too. And many people who are speaking out against this are saying I am OK with capital punishment. I, you know, I agree with that. And many people and many, many Christians and many people that I respect are not OK with that. And I respect that position as well. Based on my understanding, I do think there is a biblical basis for it.

[00:43:27] But I think, again, we we just need to be really careful about making a spectacle of this and making it entertainment, making it vindictive. I think there's a difference between kind of having a vindictive attitude versus like a desire for justice. Like you said, and sometimes that line like the difference there is, you know, biblical

[00:43:52] ethics and a sense of morality that's rooted in God's desire for justice and not a personal desire for revenge. So this is something to be aware of and to, you know, potentially many, many representatives, many senators have spoken out in an opposition of this. So this might be something where if this is something that you're concerned about, the direction that this is heading, that you would want to contact your representative or contact, you

[00:44:20] know, the government and say, I don't like it. But anyways, we're out of time for today. What a note to end on, Erin. No, no, it's you know, I will say one encouraging thing that that we're talking about, you know, people that maybe we're seeing a loss in reading and all sorts of things. But I just I want to say, you know, for the listeners, go to FirstCelebrity.org, read about our clients, read about them with standing up for their rights. You can stand up for yours, too.

[00:44:47] There are plenty of really, really good people who just want to be, you know, proud Americans that exercise their faith. Absolutely. Yes. You can find the link and do that at pointofview.net as well. If you want to be encouraged about Americans of courage standing up for their rights, then yes, read about the clients at First Liberty. But thank you for being with us on the weekend edition. Thanks, Megan and Derek, for putting the show together. Have a good weekend. We'll see you on Monday.

[00:45:16] It almost seems like we live in a different world from many people in positions of authority. They say men can be women and women men. People are prosecuted differently or not at all, depending on their politics. Criminals are more valued and rewarded than law abiding citizens. It's so overwhelming, so demoralizing. You feel like giving up. But we can't. We shouldn't. We must not.

[00:45:44] As Winston Churchill said to Britain in the darkest days of World War II, never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. And that's what we say to you today. This is not a time to give in, but to step up and join Point of View in providing clarity in the chaos. We can't do it alone.

[00:46:10] But together, with God's help, we will overcome the darkness. Invest in biblical clarity today at pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. Pointofview.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View is produced by Point of View Ministries.