Point of View September 2, 2026 – Hour 1 : Backpack Faith

[00:00:04] Across America, live, this is Point of View. Kirby Anderson. Thank you for joining me. It is the Wednesday edition of Point of View and we're going to cover, as you might imagine, over the next two hours, quite a number of different topics. Going to get into some of the comments that have been made in the past about 9-11.

[00:00:32] Of course, next Friday, a week from this Friday, will of course be the 25th anniversary of the attack on America. I have a commentary coming out on that. We also have a very good piece relating to the issue of whataboutism. I'll get into that in just a minute. Crime statistics is something I also thought we might talk about because every survey I've looked at over the last two years, most Americans think crime is going up. And frankly, crime is going down, as a matter of fact, at the lowest level ever.

[00:01:01] And so there are some reasons for that and there are some very good pieces that we'll bring to the table in that regard. And so we'll cover that. Bottom of the hour, we're going to be talking with an individual, Corey Pennypacker, with Bible to School. We're going to be talking about the book Backpack Faith, but more importantly, just the whole idea of what you can do to prepare your kids or your grandkids for going to the public schools.

[00:01:26] Because, again, some public schools are very friendly towards your Christian faith. Some aren't as much. And how can we prepare our young people? We'll talk about that with her. And then we will, in the next hour, get into all sorts of other topics, one of which is we will have Connie Ritchie, who was originally going to be with us, but I think she's sick, but still willing to do a phone interview with us on just the importance of supporting our food bank.

[00:01:51] She's been kind of an expert on food insecurity and really trying to encourage people to get involved in their local communities and to help those who are marginalized and without resources. I have a very good piece coming out from the Wall Street Journal on data centers, what they call data center panic. And that has become one of the big issues. One of those is, of course, data centers.

[00:02:14] The other one, which we talked about yesterday, is the idea of these various cameras and all of that, flock cameras. So we'll get into some of that. And if we have time, I hope we do, because this whole piece by Victor Davis Hanson is very well done. So as you can imagine, we're going to cover a lot of topics over the next two hours. And if one isn't interesting to you, just hang on, because we're going to be moving on. But let's start with this piece by Dan McLaughlin.

[00:02:40] He calls it September 11th. What about is them about El Syed and Momdani? What we're talking about is two individuals who are Muslim. One is, of course, the mayor of New York City. The other, of course, the Democratic candidate in Michigan for the U.S. Senate, Abdul El Syed. And he reminds us of what they tweeted not so long ago. For example, Abdul El Syed had tweeted,

[00:03:05] Today I mourn the 3,000 lives, 6,000 injuries and infrastructure devastation in New York City perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my faith, because he is Muslim. But then he says, tomorrow I mourn the 1 million lives, millions of injuries and infrastructure devastation in three countries perpetrated ignorantly in the name of my country. So obviously, back to the old, if we hadn't actually been involved in foreign policy in the Middle East,

[00:03:33] if we hadn't tried to remove the threat of terrorism in both Iraq and Afghanistan, we probably would never have been attacked. Of course, we don't believe that. But nevertheless, that's the case. On that same day, Zahra Mamdani tweeted, Nearly 3,000 New Yorkers died at 9-11 20 years later. The death hasn't stopped. We mourn our neighbors who died that day, the hundreds of thousands who died in the wars that followed, the unknown millions injured and displaced. In my memory, we work towards a better world. He repeated that time and time again.

[00:04:03] And what, again, Dan McLaughlin says is, look, the wording may be different in some ways. At least, El-Sayed acknowledged that the deaths on September 11 were perpetrated. Well, Mondami just talked about them in the passive oaths. Something just happened, you know, kind of thread for framing. But the point is, is that they were actually working to, once again, talk about the fact that,

[00:04:31] well, if we had actually acted responsibly in the Middle East, this wouldn't have happened. And what Dan McLaughlin is reminding us of is the term that we've used before on this program, whataboutism. Now, I was unaware that this goes all the way back to the Soviet Union, because I've heard a lot of people say, well, if you're concerned about that, what about on your side? You know, if you're concerned about violence on the part of the left, what about violence on the right or vice versa?

[00:05:00] And he points out that actually this was a rhetorical tactic used by Soviet propagandists, which would be sort of like, okay, as soon as you would bring up the different crimes of the Soviet Union and the persecution of individuals and the things that were happening in the communist bloc, the propagandists from the Soviet Union would then say, well, what about Jim Crow?

[00:05:27] Well, as if there's a similarity between the gulags and Jim Crow. Again, you can acknowledge that both are things that deserved to be rectified, and in many cases in this country have, maybe a little bit in the Soviet Union. But the whataboutism topic is one that has been kind of a rhetorical device. And Dan McLaughlin reminded me of a quote from William F. Buckley.

[00:05:57] I had an opportunity years ago to meet him. He got a chance to read some of my columns. Of course, I was reading his for years. And he said, you know, this whole whataboutism, he says, this is like saying that a man who pushes a little old lady into the path of a bus is morally equivalent to a man who pushes her out of its path because they both push a little old lady around. And that's kind of where we're getting with this, to even equate the devastation and the deaths

[00:06:27] and all the actions that were taken by these 19 al-Qaeda terrorists 25 years ago next Friday to anything that was a mistake made in our adventures. That's a nice word. Adventures in the Middle East, I think is something. And again, this is the tactic that he is reminding us of, which we're going to see again during the campaign,

[00:06:54] because he says this is precisely what El-Sayed and Mamdani have been doing. To them, the September 11 attacks, like the October 7th attack of Hamas, like the Holocaust, is an embarrassing fact that needs to be whatabouted away in order to prosecute the argument against the United States, against the West, and against the Zionists. So again, sometimes when we talk about these broader issues, in this case foreign policy,

[00:07:22] there are some applications to kind of your day-to-day conversation. And that is you're going to have individuals every once in a while when you point out that something that has happened will then say, whataboutism. And the fact that there was an individual that killed Charlie Kirk should be taken at face value, not confronted with, well, what about a time when maybe there, and of course they don't have very many examples,

[00:07:51] of where conservatives have shot or killed individuals that were very liberal. And so the whataboutism topic is one to try to deflect what I think is a very important issue in a conversation that needs to be considered and is sometimes just simply deflected by that as well. So that was a good piece because, number one, we're getting close to, of course, the 25th anniversary of 9-11.

[00:08:21] And as a result, I think it's important for us to think about that and talk about it. I think we will probably have a more extended time this Friday. We'll have Dr. Mero Matthews, and I think we have an individual as well from First Liberty Institute joining us. So I think we will spend some time addressing that issue again. But here's, if nothing else, a way to think about the kind of conversation maybe you've had before with some individuals that say, what about? Here's how to respond. We'll be right back.

[00:09:00] This is Viewpoints with Kirby Anderson. Have you noticed that many of the political polls are way off? Jeffrey Blahar warns don't fall for fake polls. The Senate race in Michigan ended up being very close. The governor's race in Wisconsin was completely reversed from the predictions. He provides evidence that many of these primary polls weren't just inaccurate but fraudulent. His article linked to my commentary is there so you could read it.

[00:09:29] Not only should we ignore fraudulent polls, but we should also question many of the polls done by reputable polling organizations. Here is the problem. First, let's look at the statistical issues. A typical three-day poll of 1,000 people, if proportionate among the 3,000 counties, can accurately represent American adults 19 out of 20 times within 3 to 5 percentage points. Statistics isn't the issue. Polling the right people is the issue.

[00:09:56] It is difficult to estimate how many people will vote in a primary, and that is also somewhat difficult to estimate who will vote in the midterm general election. Getting the right percentage of people to answer a poll is difficult because most Americans do not answer a phone call from a number they don't know. Even when they are on the phone, they may be tempted to answer the way they think the pollster wants. Then there is also what is called the Bradley effect.

[00:10:22] Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley was an African American who lost a 1982 election despite being ahead in the polls. Many voters say they were undecided or would vote for Bradley because they didn't want to say they weren't voting for a black candidate. The only poll that matters takes place in November. 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. Beck, once again, let's see if we can talk about the crime rate for just a little bit. I do that for a couple reasons. First of all, there are very significant posts that have come out.

[00:11:15] The one I chose was one from Chuck Grassley, Senator Chuck Grassley, because he is, of course, an individual that is at the Senate Judiciary Committee and really was talking about that. There's a little bit of a patting himself on the back, but that's okay if indeed you have seen some very significant issues in the issue of crime. But I did a commentary about two years ago, and I looked it up, in which at the time I asked, is crime on the rise?

[00:11:42] And the Gallup poll at that show, nearly all Republicans, 92%, and virtually most of Democrats, more than 58%, all thought that the crime was on the rise when it was on the decline. Now, of course, that was two years ago. Joe Biden was in office, and so, again, maybe that shows a little bit of partisanship. Some of the Democrats thought maybe we were dealing with crime. Republicans didn't. But then even last year at this time, we talked about and even did an interview with John Lott

[00:12:11] about the fact that the murder rate in the country has been dropping so significantly that we were on track and now have hit the fact that we have the lowest murder rate in the history of keeping statistics. Now, you, again, wouldn't know that watching the mainstream press for a couple of reasons. That is, if you watch local news, if it bleeds, it leads. You've heard the phrase before. And that is that any kind of crime is attention-getting.

[00:12:40] And so you hear about the crimes in your neighborhood, and it gives you the sense that crime is on the increase. But let me, if I can, as I go through this piece, have Derek put up a slide of the historic drops in crime. Those of you watching online will be able to see those. The rest of you could come back later and take a picture of it. Of course, I think with my commentary we even have that diagram

[00:13:07] because it shows that violent crime is down, murder is down, robbery is down, rape is down, aggravated assault is down, and property crime is down. Okay, that gives you a pretty good idea of what we're talking about. And if I can, let me read from Chuck Grassley for just a minute and give you some of the facts. He says the 119th Congress will be remembered as a decisive turning point for American safety and security. He says by electing Republicans to the majority in 2024,

[00:13:34] voters rejected the leftist ideas defunding the police, abolishing prisons, and supporting violent criminals over victims. I'd like to have his optimism that it will be known as the Congress that actually addressed those issues. I think the mainstream press will ignore that. But he goes on to say Republicans have led in the resurgence of common sense, crime-fighting legislation supported by historic confirmation pace of judges and executive nominees

[00:14:03] who interpret and enforce the law. All of that is true. And he points out that national security is the number one responsibility of the federal government, and of course the responsibility as well of various states. So murder and robbery have declined rather dramatically. He uses the percentage 20%, murder 18%, and robbery 18% on the slide that we just showed you. But again, in round numbers, that's where we are there.

[00:14:32] And again, we are seeing a remarkable decrease in crime. And as a result, he points out that in Congress, the Senate Judiciary Committee, he says, has been in the epicenter of Republicans' crime-fighting agenda. As the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has ushered in various kinds of public safety legislation through the committee.

[00:14:57] And this has included things like Halt Fentanyl Act, one on the Secure America Act, and a number of others. Also, of course, the confirmation of a number of people into the Department of Justice, as well as, of course, the Attorney General is serving right now, and a number of others. And he says, I'm also pushing a landmark nationwide crime package to protect children from online exploitation,

[00:15:22] crackdown on organized crime, as well as to combat the spread of illicit magazine and other kinds of issues and all sorts of other particular. One of these is a drug I've never even seen before. And so, again, you've got to appreciate some people that are working in the area of criminal justice. And I just thought if almost every survey that I've ever seen simply goes out

[00:15:50] and documents the fact that the crime rate has been dropping dramatically. Now, interestingly enough, just a year ago I pointed out that the crime rate in terms of murder was already dropping, and there were some reasons in our conversation with John Lott why that was taking place. First, it was the decision by the FBI Director, Kash Patel, to allow many of the FBI agents to leave Washington, D.C.

[00:16:18] and to be placed around the country, which I think certainly then said, we don't need you focusing on what's happening on Capitol Hill. We need you focusing on what's happening out on the ground. The other reason, and John Lott went into that in some detail, and I'm going to talk about some of that tomorrow in more detail, is when you deport criminal illegal aliens, guess what? But the crime rate goes down because, indeed, first of all,

[00:16:48] many of those who were being deported, and I'll give you some of the numbers tomorrow because we're going to talk about what has actually been taking place in terms of the actual deportations. But nevertheless, many of those individuals that were being deported had criminal backgrounds, but nevertheless were released into the society. But there is something else. We didn't catch all of those individuals, but just think about this.

[00:17:17] When you start deporting individuals with a criminal background, other individuals who maybe had a criminal background or were considering getting involved in crime, probably were going to stay a little closer to home. You're going to fear an ICE Roundup if, indeed, you go out into the public. So the crime rate went down not only from those who were deported,

[00:17:44] but, if you will, from the message that essentially was sent to those who weren't deported that they would necessarily be next. And so it has resulted in this as well. Just before we take a break, though, I do want to point out one issue. You will hear individuals citing different crime statistics, and there is a reason for that. And, again, our good friend John Lott explained that a while back, but I thought it would be worth mentioning again.

[00:18:14] This country has two different ways to measure crime. The first, and that's the one we look at most often, the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program. What that does is it reports the crimes reported to the police. There's another one, and that's the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which produces a national crime victimization survey

[00:18:40] and asks Americans whether they have been victims of a crime. There is a difference. You can realize that right away there are certain police departments, I'm thinking Los Angeles in particular, also New York, that don't necessarily always and many times do not report crime data to the FBI. But there's another issue that's even more important. We have noticed that sometimes the number of arrest rates have dropped.

[00:19:10] And so there is a difference between being asked, have you been involved in a crime, and then asking police, has a crime been reported? Do you see the disconnect? Why report a crime to the police if you don't believe the criminal will be caught and punished? And so there are real significant differences between those two statistics, and I think a wise and discerning individual will pay attention to that. Well, that may be more than you want to know about crime,

[00:19:39] but again, we'll probably produce another booklet on the criminal justice system in the future because these new numbers are very significant. But just before we take a break and we'll get into a different topic, let me just mention that yesterday I sent out an email. I'm holding it up right now. You've probably seen it as well, reminding you that if you indeed were interested in having on your phone a point-of-view radio talk show mobile app, it is now available.

[00:20:08] This is a way that you can watch or listen to the daily broadcast. It is a way in which you can find all of our other podcasts, which makes it so much easier. I just talked about the other day just even trying to get on Spotify for a minute just to check something. It's easier to just do it through our app. Number three, of course, my Viewpoints Commentaries. My one today, of course, is one that I think you're going to find very interesting because it talks about fake polls.

[00:20:35] And, of course, all these action alerts that we've talked about are there as well. So because those of you in the past have been willing to give a small amount or we've had a couple of people that have given larger amounts, we've been able to update our website so that it connects very well with this app. And so if you have always said, I'd like to have it all in one place, believe me, I wanted to have it all in one place. Now the good news is that that is the case.

[00:21:05] This email went out August 31st. We might put out another one in the future to help you find what you need, but most of you probably know by now how to go to your App Store or go to Google Play to find it. And I want to encourage you to get it and to use it and take advantage of it. Let's take a break. We'll be back with more right after this.

[00:21:33] Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Those are the words of President Ronald Reagan, a staunch defender against socialism. Sadly, too many Americans have failed to educate this generation about the dangers and failures of socialism. Surveys show that a majority of young Americans hold favorable views of socialism. And here's what's really surprising.

[00:22:01] More than a third of churchgoers prefer socialism to capitalism. How can we prevent freedom's extinction? It's up to patriotic Americans like you, those who believe in the existence of truth, to band together and defend freedom's legacy. Thankfully, there is a team dedicated to doing just that, the truth team. And we have a spot for you. Join us in defending freedom's legacy.

[00:22:31] Learn more by visiting pointofview.net or call 1-800-347-5151. That's pointofview.net and 800-347-5151. Point of View will continue after this.

[00:22:53] 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 Kirby Anderson. Well, of course, it is back to school, and I'll hold up our September issue of Outlook Magazine

[00:23:21] in terms of where we talk about not making the grade, exposing the miseducation crisis in America's public education system for some of your children or grandchildren. They just now have made it to school. Some of you, since we broadcast all over the country, have had your kids or grandkids in school for a couple weeks. But we're all in school now, and it seemed like a good opportunity once again to say, what can we do as we send our kids off to the public school system?

[00:23:48] And that's why I wanted you to know about this organization, Bible to School. Also, to know about this new book, Backpack Faith, helping your child live confidently for Jesus in the public schools. And to give us some perspective on that, we're going to spend some time now talking with Cori Pennypacker. She is the CEO of Bible to School, educational, religious freedom expert, individual that has had a quarter of a century of experience in children's ministry and leadership,

[00:24:18] featured in all sorts of different interviews, which perhaps you've heard her on before. Of course, the book itself, Backpack Faith, which we have information about, filled with stories about Christian kids, how they've thrived in public school, some very important truths, but most importantly, ideas for equipping your child and how to graciously respond when, as we talk about so often on our Friday weekend edition with our friends at First Liberty Institute,

[00:24:46] or even as we're going to talk about tomorrow with Latham Watts of Alliance Defending Freedom, when their religious freedoms are violated. So, first of all, welcome to the microphone, Cori. Oh, so glad to be here, Kirby. Thanks for having me. I want people, first of all, to know about your organization. And as they go there, it's BibleThenTheNumberToSchool.com. But, of course, they don't have to remember all that. They just click on next to your picture.

[00:25:12] We have a link to the website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, all of the rest. Of course, you've been on so many different other Christian shows, but for some, this might be the first time they've actually heard of your organization. So, can you give us some background? Yes, BibleToSchool, we are a nonprofit that teaches communities how to bring the Bible to public school kids during their school day,

[00:25:40] not before school, not after school, but actually during their public school day. And it's legal, and people don't realize that. But we've been doing it for 45 years or more. And it is something we use called the release time court rulings, the federal release time court rulings. And that says you can teach the Bible or any religion to kids in public school. But you have to have three things. You have to take them off-site.

[00:26:08] You have to have parental permission, so it's voluntary. And it can't cost taxpayer any money. So, those are the three things federally, Kirby, that we follow. Each state has a little caveat, possibly in their school code or their state law. And so, different states have different things in that. But all in all, all 50 states can do this, and we're in several states.

[00:26:32] But we love teaching parents and communities how to do this in public school because kids need to know the Bible, and it's very, very important. I might just mention we've done other interviews on release time. And if you go to our website, pointofview.net, and type in release time, you can see some of those other interviews because in some cases we even talk about something happening in a particular state or location. But let's say, before we get to your book, talk about the fact that as people go,

[00:26:59] and I'm hoping during the break they could do so, Bible2School.com, there's a section, Bible Classes for Children During Their Public School. You talk about how it is legal. But there's a place where they can find a program or start a program. And I know there is a real hesitancy, especially as illustrated by our latest Outlook magazine, for when we send Johnny or Susie off to school, we wonder what the impact is going to be on their faith.

[00:27:27] And when you realize that they can, through release time, actually learn about the Bible while they're going to the public school system, this is, I think, a real encouragement for many parents, isn't it? Yeah, we have story after story, Kirby, of children coming in the middle of the week, in the middle of a school day, and learning about the Bible, and deepening their faith. But I had a story about a group of girls that I have.

[00:27:57] It was a small group because we do large groups, small group, and kids really have hands-on with our lessons that we do. We have science experiments, and they act out the Bible. It's very interactive because we're usually over their lunch and their recess. And, you know, you've got to be good if you're going to be over their lunch and their recess. But the Word of God just comes through. But these little girls, they had watched a video on Jesus' life. It was around Easter time.

[00:28:26] And I said, you know, have you guys have any questions? Because we did it in segments. And they said, the one little girl said, well, what was Jesus doing with that girl that was sleeping? And I said, honey, she wasn't sleeping. She was dead, and he raised her to life. And their eyes got really big around the table. And I said, you know, they said, well, it gets better than that. In a couple weeks, you're going to see Jesus raised himself from the dead so that you could be in heaven with him someday. And literally in the middle of the week, in the middle of a school day,

[00:28:57] all four of the five did not know who Jesus was, and they accepted Christ as their Savior. So big things can happen in the middle of the week, in the middle of a school day, at a Bible to school program. And if you want this in your community, we'd love to talk to you about it. Well, again, if you want to know more about the organization, first of all, BibleToSchool.com. Of course, you as you go there, you'll also find out about the book, which we're going to spend some time talking about. And, of course, if you would want to contact certainly what Connie or Corey is doing

[00:29:26] and all the other individuals associated with her, that is a possibility. There's a place where you can find a program. There's one where you can start a program. There's an online newsroom. There's some of the resources. You can donate to the organization. Just a lot of things. And so I would encourage you to begin to search around on the website, and then you might want to know a little bit more about what you can start in your community. But let's talk about your new book because that was what kind of got our attention.

[00:29:55] First of all, I wanted our listeners to know about the organization. But Backpack Faith, and you can, again, find some information here. If you're really looking to help your child thrive in the public school system, the really big question, and there's a little video that goes along with it, is really the question, how can my child confidently live their faith in the public school? And so that's really why you put the book together in the first place, isn't it? It is.

[00:30:25] I have a heart for public school parents. I was one myself. My kids are older now. But I was a columnist. I was writing a column for the Washington Times. And a reader, I would answer questions for parents. And one question really caught my eye. And it was, how do I protect my child from harmful cultural elements in the public school system? And I'm like, that's a really good question.

[00:30:53] And I really prayed through that. And I thought, you know, the book answers this question. It's more of instead of asking how you can protect your child from harmful cultural elements, we shift the paradigm to how do we protect, how do we prepare our children? Because preparation is protection. So we prepare them with the word of God. We prepare them by knowing what the law is.

[00:31:19] You just mentioned First Liberty, and we work with Alliance Defending Freedom. And, yeah, the book is full. The second chapter is all about what kids can and can't do about bringing their faith respectfully into the public school. I mean, kids are mind, body, and soul. And you don't just want to have their faith at home. You want them to live it all the way through the week. And that includes public school and the public square. It's not compartmentalized.

[00:31:49] Well, again, one of the things I might just recommend as we're going to a break here is to get a copy of the book. And there's a way in which you can order it because you will learn your rights, not only the rights that you as a parent have but also what your students have. Also, you probably know some Christian teachers that are in the public schools, and they're sometimes unaware of the rights that they have. And how many times have we had Kelly Shackelford with First Liberty Institute

[00:32:13] or Lathan Watts with ADF or any other particular group talk about how these young people were told that they couldn't write an essay about Jesus or they couldn't bring a cross or something to their classroom and those kinds of things. So I think this book is going to be very helpful. And when we come back, I want to get into that in some detail because, Corey, one of the things I find is as a speaker, when I'm speaking to parents who are oftentimes really concerned,

[00:32:40] whether it's at a Christian camp or whether it's a PDF or whatever, they say, can you give me some resources that I can help educate and prepare, as you said, not only protect but prepare our kids. And if they're older, I say, well, of course, there are books like Understanding the Times and material from Probe Ministries and Summit Ministries and even our point-of-view booklets for the older. But they say if they're younger, what can we do? And I say, well, sometimes I mention Lael Arrington's book, World Proofing Your Kids,

[00:33:09] or maybe the Mama Bear Apologetics, Hilary Ferrer. But now I'm going to hold up your book and say, here's another resource that could be very, very helpful for you. So let's take a break. When we come back, I want to get into that in some detail, go through some of the other aspects of the book. And if you find yourself saying, this sounds really interesting, let me encourage you to go to the website, pointofview.net, or you can go directly to bible2school.com. During the break, that's a great time to kind of check some of that out.

[00:33:38] And we'll come back and continue our conversation with Corey Pennypacker right after this. You're listening to Point of View, your listener-supported source for truth. Continuing our conversation today with Corey Pennypacker.

[00:34:06] Again, she is the CEO of Bible to School, educational religious freedom expert, author, of course, of this book, Backpack Faith, helping your child live confidently for Jesus in public school. And, Corey, I think what we're dealing with are two issues. One, of course, you address the issue of separation of church and state, which, of course, is not in the Constitution, and all the, well, can my child or my grandchild even write about Jesus or about their Christian faith? But the other is what's coming from the other side,

[00:34:34] a heavy dose of LGBTQ, maybe even now a heavy dose of socialism or progressivism. It does seem to me that we, as parents, are going to have to spend even more time evaluating what is happening in our children's public school system, don't you think? Yeah. Being a very involved parent, I talk about that in the book, get involved in your school boards, know what's going on in the classroom.

[00:35:03] But one thing I do want to say is that, you know, kids recognize counterfeit when they are given lots of truth. So that's really something that I really put a lot in on this book, is that the parents need to make sure they are giving the kids the word of God, because that's the way they, I mean, people who look at counterfeit dollar bills, they study the truth. So that is really what we want kids to recognize mostly.

[00:35:33] We as parents obviously need to guide and direct, you know, what's happening. But a lot of parents, I tell you, Kirby, are afraid to do that. And I really hit this in the book. And I give guidelines. I give conversation guides. But one of the things I talk about is kindly educating educators. Because we have found this, like I said, Bible to School, I love public schools teachers. They have a heart for their kids.

[00:36:03] Nine times out of ten, they just don't know the rules. They don't know the law. And I had this happen with my son, Matthew. He was in second or third grade. And he came home from school. And I highly recommend talking to your kids when they come home from school or talking about it at the dinner table. How was your week? And really diving in. But he said to me, hey, how was your week? Good. Always says good. And I said, well, what was good about it? I said that every day too.

[00:36:32] And he said, well, the teacher said I was wrong, but I wasn't. I said, what do you mean? And he said, well, it was Christmas time. And the teacher said, well, name something about Christmas that describes Christmas. And, of course, people were raising their hands at Santa and reindeer. And he raised his hand and said it's Jesus' birthday. And she said, well, you can't say Jesus in public school. And it confused him. You know, I mean, we talk about Jesus' birthday all the time at home.

[00:37:01] Why wouldn't it be the same in his school, right? It's confusing. So I went in to talk to his teacher who was a Christian. She just didn't know the rules. And so I always assume in my book I talk about the ABCs of kindly educating educators. Assume the best. Be curious. I mean, how do you know that's true? What do you mean by that?

[00:37:24] And then clarify your concerns that you have a right to say, you know what, this is really not true. And then defend that truth confidently because you want to kindly talk about the law. And engage in collaboration so that, you know, the other kids, this is their religious freedom as well. It's not just my son. You know, it was everybody in the whole class heard that. And then once you engage in that, you know, follow-up, that F part, ABCDEFG.

[00:37:54] There you have. Follow-up fantastically. And really, you know, say thank you for talking to me. Thank you for making this a safe place for my son's religious freedom and everybody in the room. I know you didn't mean to do that. But just having those. And I know that in America today, we just don't have those kind conversations. But they can happen. And I'm watching them happen as we train parents to do it this way. And again, I agree with you.

[00:38:21] Be very gracious towards the teacher or in some cases, the administrators don't know that as well. And to use your illustration, Kelly Shacklewood tells the story about this young man that was in a class in California. And he's a fifth grader. And he's supposed to read a book to their kindergarten buddies. And the book was My Shadow is Pink, which, of course, you can figure out what that is about, whether you're boy or girl, transgender and everything. And fortunately, the fifth grader said, wait a minute, I couldn't do that.

[00:38:50] And raises the issue to the teacher. And then, of course, the parent raises the issue with the administration and all of that. And that, again, is back to what you're talking about, Corey. If we're equipping our children and our grandchildren, then we're not just trying to protect them. We're really preparing them. And they can actually be a very dynamic and significant witness in the classroom, can't they? Yes, they can. And that's really what it's about.

[00:39:19] It's about them growing in their faith. My older son had a class where he had to defend a point of view. They got really hot topics, cultural hot topics, and they had to defend it. And we would come home. He would come home, and we'd be at the dinner table. That's the word, dinner table. And we'd talk about it. And he would pick the biblical point of view, the worldview, and we'd talk about that.

[00:39:44] He was many times the only one who defended that worldview in the entire class. But he told me, he's 30 years old now, and he said, Mom, I own my faith that year because I had to defend it and respectfully. And he had other students come later. And even the teacher who didn't have his point of view, of course, respect him because he did that. And he did it kindly, and he did it with respect. So teaching our children that really goes a long way.

[00:40:14] And I think you have to teach it very young, grade school and up. And that's kind of what I talk about in the book. And I give email templates. I have conversation guides. I mean, this is really a tool belt for public school parents. Yes. It's just plug and play the way it is. Let me also, since we're mentioning the resources, of course, the book is top of the list. You have this CBA cross. You have a blog. You have at-home resources. Of course, you have a religious liberty guide.

[00:40:44] Let's see if we can just talk through that because I think people might think, oh, we're just talking about a book. And, of course, I do recommend the book. But there are so many other great resources that people can find at BibleToSchool.com. Can you talk about those? Yes. We have at-home resources so that you can do things around the kitchen table, like we said. We have the Bill of Rights for students so you can tell, you know, your child knows exactly what they can do and can't do.

[00:41:12] They can pray and they can read their Bible in school at appropriate times. We even talk about, like, how they can leave school during school hours with our program and teach people that that is allowed. And the other thing is some people don't realize you can include your faith perspective in classroom assignments. And people say, oh, you can't do that either, obviously.

[00:41:35] So you can pass out religious applications or registrations. If they're doing Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, they can do our program too. So there's a lot to share with there. We also have teacher Bill of Rights as well that they can share their faith.

[00:41:54] And, you know, the right situation that they're when they're not acting in – I already had a principal reach out to me this week asking, hey, my teachers are getting together to pray. They're doing it way before their contract time, which is really the right thing to do because you want to be in your legal lane. Like, we all want to be in our legal lane. Right. And she was asking, can I do that too? And I said, well, check your contract, you know, but you can pray before your time.

[00:42:24] You can read your Bible too when you're not in an official capacity. And if students ask you about your religion, you can't answer them. Like, you actually can because they asked you a question. But you can't encourage or discourage any student's participation in any religious club or class. Well, let me again encourage you to go to BibleToSchool.com. You can find – if there is a Bible to School program there, there's a place where you can start it. And, Corey, thank you for being with us.

[00:42:51] And thank you for helping us educate people as we get back to school. Thank you for having me. Going to take a break. And when we come back, we have a lot more to cover. Stay tuned. All that coming up right after this. There are so many big stories happening literally everywhere. So much information. Documents released.

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