Transcript

The God who speaks hits the doubt head on with evidence that God is real

>> Ed Vitagliano: As we watch world events unfold and fulfill Scripture, it's hard to believe anyone could doubt God and his Word are real. And yet there are so many who either question or completely refuse to believe it. The God who speaks is a 90 minute documentary that hits the doubt head on with evidence that proves God is real and His Word is the ultimate authority. Watch it anytime and invite others to watch with you. Just visit stream.afa.net that's stream.aca.net welcome to today's Issues. Join us for the next hour as we offer a Christian response to the issues of the day. Here's your host, Ed Vitagliano. And welcome everybody, to Today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week. I am joined in studio by Tony Vitagliano. Good morning, Tony.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Good morning.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Chris Woodward, news reporter extraordinaire, is joining us in studio.

>> Chris Woodward: Good morning. I see you got my check.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, that's right. You're doing some good work there. and Alex McFarland joins us from South Carolina. You still in South Carolina, Alex?

>> Alex McFarland: Still in South Carolina.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right.

>> Alex McFarland: Speaking tonight at a TP USA event.

>> Ed Vitagliano: No kidding. Wow. Where's that gonna. Well, I don't know. Should we, should we say any more? Okay, where are you gonna be?

>> Alex McFarland: do you know? it's on my website, alexmcfarland.com.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay.

>> Alex McFarland: To be honest, it's somewhere in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I will know before the show is out. How about that?

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. All right.

>> Alex McFarland: Yeah.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So folks who are in the area may check that out. Alex McFarland, always great. And being at a TP USA event is, under the circumstances, extra poignant. So.

American Family Radio is gathering stories to play during shareathon in October

Hey, folks, before I forget, I forgot yesterday. I need to remind our listeners that we have shareathon coming up in October, and we are gathering, gathering stories now to play during our fall Share a thon. And we would like to hear from you. So if the Lord has used American Family Radio in your life, has this show or that show been there and given the right thought at just the right time, we want you to share your story. So this is the way you could do that, because you could be a blessing and an encouragement to others. Tell us how Christ used AFR in your life. Here's the number to call. This is our Listener storyline. 877-876-8893. That's 877-876-7893. I'll give that number here again in just a second. So we're asking you to call and share that story and just take a minute or two. don't mean for this to sound the mean, but we don't need the whole life story, all those kinds of things because we won't be able to play it. So the shorter the better. A minute or two and you might hear yourself. During Sheriathon, we play these, some in the lead up to it, but especially during shareathon itself. It is an, it really is an encouragement to our listeners, but also it's an encouragement to those of us on this side of the microphone because we find out that God is using American family radio to touch lives. That's why we do this. So, we'd like to hear your AFR story, call and share for a minute or two. The listener storyline is 877-876-8893 and you might hear yourself during Sheraton. All right, Chris, let's start. Oh, by the way, folks do want to let you know Jenna Ellis will be joining us at the bottom of the hour, host of Jenna Ellis in the Morning. And we've got a couple of things we want to talk to her about. So that'll be coming up here in just about 25 minutes.

FBI believes Tyler Robinson is the gunman in Charlie Kirk shooting death

All right, Chris, go.

>> Chris Woodward: Happening today, 22 year old Tyler Robinson of Utah is set to face formal charges in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. And if FBI Cash Patel has any say over this, it's that we have, we have the goods on Tyler Robinson. Here he is the one that we believe is the gunman in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk. Clip 1.

>> Ed Vitagliano: In terms of information, a text message exchange where he, the suspect specifically stated that he had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do that. And when he was asked why, he said some hatred cannot be negotiated with.

>> Chris Woodward: Now in addition to that sound bite, we just played again from FBI director Cash Patel, in the break before the show began, Rusty Pugh had a sound bite from somebody in a newscast talking about how Tyler Robinson had discussed, that he was the one that took Kirk's life, in a Discord app exchange with some gamer buddies. So the FBI, the federal government does say that Tyler Robinson is the gunman here in the shooting death and trolley.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I feel like they've got a lot of evidence to indicate that, that, that is, they feel confident, let's say, with the arrests of Tyler Robinson. Now just briefly explain, what Discord is.

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, it's, it's an app similar to what people might know and use, as WhatsApp. but Discord is used heavily by people that are gamers, people that play video games. There is a community out there of people that play video games, adults, children and whatnot. And they commun with one another about the game, about life, about all kinds of things through things like the Discord app. So that's primarily like if you're. If you're big into video games, or maybe you have a teenager that, is. You're probably familiar with Discord.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, it's like, it's like social media without the. The, you know, the social aspect. Like, this is what I'm doing. It's basically a way for you to communicate, join a group of people, communicate with them, video voice.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And that's like a private group.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, you make it private or public. It just, It's.

>> Chris Woodward: It's just.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It's just a way to communicate with each other.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Okay. And by the way, folks, we. We are, we have some new technology, so if our voices sound a little different, our crack team is working on that and.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Well, I have no idea what you're talking about.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: hey, Alex.

The arrest of Tyler Robinson for the assassination of Charlie Kirk has sparked speculation

now, the arrest of Tyler Robinson for the assassination of Charlie Kirk, has also brought in, so when, the alleged assassin, we're going to still call him alleged here on this show because he has not been found guilty in a court of law. but from what we're hearing this, some of this information comes, for example, from Utah governor, the Utah governor, Spencer Cox, who said that Robinson was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate. And so when Robinson allegedly said that, you know, this, there's some hate that cannot be tolerated. There are a lot of people putting two and two together and saying, well, maybe if Robinson is the killer, that he did this. Ah, in response to Charlie Kirk's, speaking and debating, against the transgender ideology. This was a frequent thing when he was on college campuses. He talked a lot about guns because a lot of students talked about the second Amendment, talked about abortion, talked about, you know, the biblical foundations, the Christian found, Judeo Christian foundations of our nation. But he also talked about the transgender movement. This seems to be a part of the radical left's deep and abiding hatred for the church and for any Christian, and frankly, any conservative, but certainly any Christian that dares stand up for two genders being the reality.

>> Alex McFarland: You know, psychologists have long pondered what makes, a Muslim become a jihadist. Right, right. And, one of the things is, a grievance and an identity crisis, whereby someone thinks it is their personal obligation to lash out and kill, not only to defend their worldview, but even to defend themselves. and they've come to start using the term jihadi mindset for things beyond Islam, like the LGBTQ trans ideology. Now, here's my point point, guys. it's so sad that, okay, homosexuality is a behavior, transgenderism is a behavior. But American academia and the leftist media and certainly celebrities that really, in my opinion, are not always terribly deep thinkers, they. They have come to view homosexual activity and transgender activity as an ethnicity. So when Charlie was on the road, very respectfully, very calmly, very factually critiquing transgender behavior and homosexual behavior, the left says, oh, that's racism. You're attacking an ethnicity. And so the jihadi mindset that apparently Tyler Robinson, digressed into was a grievance, an attack on his person. And the only, in his very tragically line of reasoning, the only response was murder, sadly. But, we've got to remember, look, we're America. We can discuss, we can have a dialogue, we can have the free exchange of ideas, and there should not be bloodshed over that.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And by the way, folks, Steve, Jordal, who we will have on, at 1105, brought up in our story meeting this morning, and we're going to discuss this tomorrow during his segment in a little more detail. But, he. He listened to a long. It might have been a podcast on the part of Ben Shapiro. I don't think it was, on someone else's podcast or speech. But we'll find out more from Steve. But we will be talking about what kind of. What Alex is discussing. Very interesting stuff that we'll be talking that Ben Shapiro said, about this, like, what Alex is talking about here, this kind of jihadi mindset.

Tony Frum says hyper individualism is becoming the new American norm

Tony, one of the things we've noted on this show many times, is that hyper individualism is becoming and has become kind of the new American, ah, vision of what it means to be an American that you get to. In other words, there's individual rights taken to the max, very little consideration for responsibilities to the community. but this idea of I get to do whatever I want certainly has been evident in Hollywood for decades and decades. But. And this transgender ideology is taking that almost to, formally unknown lengths to say that I get to not only do what I want, I get to declare myself something that is not even possible biologically. you know, we get these stories thankfully, they're still kind of rare of young people who believe themselves to be animals. Yeah, this. I don't. The Founding Fathers and the Enlightenment, they all championed the sanctity of individual rights. But this way of taking individual rights to even circumvent biological reality is a new thing. And. And it's sad. And potentially mentally evidence of mental illness, which may very well be leading to more and more violence. We've had a couple of transgender shooters. One in Nashville, one just recently in Minneapolis at the Catholic Church.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right.

>> Alex McFarland: And now one in Utah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yes, exactly. Yeah. So I think, one of the missing piece, you know, the Founding Fathers did value the individual liberty, of a person, but that was understood to be, you are an individual, and you have individual rights granted to you by God, and you were created, in the image of God. So that piece has been removed. So now you are an individual. Your rights supersede as an individual. Your rights supersede whatever, God says about you, whatever society says about you. And society needs to bend to whatever you identify, yourself as. I, was just looking up, I was looking up something else, but I saw on. On Gallup, this is from February 20th of, this year, that LGBTQ identification among US adults has increased to 9.3%. That's. That's even higher amongst young, people.

>> Alex McFarland: So.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Young people. It's up in the 20s.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, it's up in the 20s. So to me, that shows more of a. A, social contagion so that people flock to, It's always easy to be the victim. Right, right. You know, and there's this mentality of I don't want to be. I don't want to be left out. I'm not saying that's. That's behind all of this, increase, but it is.

>> Ed Vitagliano: It.

>> Tony Vitagliano: It factors into it. I don't want to be left out of this victim group. I don't want to be on the other end, opposing this. And, you know, the rise of loneliness and antisocial behavior and the rise of. I've talked about this before, and there's, I think, more evidence that's going to come out. The rise in, over procurement of SSRIs, you know, antidepressants, these type of medications that are just prescribed without actually trying to treat, you know, treat what's going on with these young people or even adults. it's just. It's just culminating into a, a situation where you're going to have more of, this type of unhinged behavior. Because you have these, these individuals who are already not well, you know, there is something going on mentally. They need help. and, and now to Alex's point, you're telling them that, now society is out to get you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yeah.

>> Tony Vitagliano: The Charlie Kirk's of the world are advocating for, for your death.

>> Ed Vitagliano: and they're calling race violence.

>> Tony Vitagliano: They're calling that violence. Yeah. Words are being identified as violence. And so in their minds there is a logical, a logical point to draw from A to B. Well, I'm just, I'm going to get them before they get me. Yeah, that, that type of mentality.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Alex, go ahead and jump in and then we'll move on.

Charlie Kirk was known for sharing many of these same views that you guys have shared

This is, I'm guessing when you go on college campuses, you see a lot of this. To Tony's point, you have mental illness, emotional illness, that there's, Listen, we, this is not a, this is complex. I understand that you have young people growing up in broken homes. Tony, mentioned the loneliness that's there. You have a lot of, you know, callousness, callous treatment on social media where people are bullied. And then you toss in this ideology that is born out of the victimhood movement and you do have a recipe for disaster. Then you toss drugs in.

>> Alex McFarland: Yeah, well, yeah. And do you know what? I know this probably sounds kind of crazy to have to say, like, duh, we have to tell this generation what a human being is, that humanness is an objective. It's not anybody's preference. It's not anybody's. Just subjective guess. No, there is an objective nature, about what it means to be a human being. the word of God tells us that we're spirit, soul and body, but just human biology, science, you know, let's follow the science. There are males and females. In fact, I've said this in college campus debates. you know, when Bruce Jenner was front page news and he was transitioning to be Caitlyn Jenner, I said, I will give my checkbook, I will bet every penny in this checkbook that Bruce, Caitlyn Jenner will never, ever get ovarian cancer. a female that identifies as male. I will bet everything I've ever had or ever will have that a female who transitions will never get, say, testicular cancer. And I'm not being, scatological here. I'm simply saying there's an objective nature to what it means to be a human being. And the thing about America is the, the secret sauce that held this thing together was morality.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right.

>> Alex McFarland: And I've said. In fact, I was this morning I was on the phone with a TPUSA chapter in Tennessee that wants me to speak, which I'm happy to do. And by the way, lovingly, prayerfully, but very, decisively, courageously, we have got the 120 million born again Americans have got to speak truth to those around us. Amen, pastors. We've got to preach Christians, citizens, patriots. We've got to tell this culture truth. But, I don't think the founders ever envisioned. Ed and Tony, to your point, I don't think the founders envisioned that a subset of the culture would call themselves furbies or kitty cats or gender, fluid and further, I don't think the founders envisioned that, that, psychosis would be not only tolerated, but encouraged.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Right, right.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Go ahead, Chris.

>> Chris Woodward: Charlie Kirk was known for sharing many of these same views that you guys have, correctly shared here this morning. And he was also, he's also being remembered as somebody that encouraged people to take a stand, to remain in the fight. And I say that based on three sound bites I'm going to play here in a montage. Yesterday, Vice President J.D. vance was the guest host of the Charlie Kirk Show. He hosted it from the White House and had various members of the Trump administration come on and talk about, share their memories of Charlie Kirk. So in this montage, you're going to hear Vice President Vance, White House policy advisor Stephen Miller, as well as Press Secretary Caroline Levitt, all sharing a few thoughts about Charlie.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Clip 4 He was a joyful warrior for our country. He loved America. He devoted himself tirelessly to making our.

>> Alex McFarland: Country a better place.

>> Ed Vitagliano: He was a critical part of getting Donald Trump elected as president, getting me.

>> Alex McFarland: Elected as Vice president.

>> Chris Woodward: He made you believe more in yourself. If I was working on a hard project, an important executive order, a major new initiative, he would give me the strength and the focus to get it done.

>> Ed Vitagliano: That's right.

>> Chris Woodward: He was everybody's supporter, enthusiast, cheerleader, promoter. he made all of us better every single day.

>> Jenna Ellis: My political education was not just through the rise of President Trump, but also the rise of Charlie Kirk and watching him and listening to him. And I inquired about starting a Turning Point USA chapter on my college, St. Ansom College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where I went and where my political ambition and love of media and politics really began.

>> Chris Woodward: For anybody that missed that show yesterday, it's still available. I'll share a link on our Today's Issues Facebook page. But I mean, there were a ton of people that worked for the Trump administration that you would recognize seeing on television.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, who was the second voice I know is J.D. vance.

>> Chris Woodward: Stephen Miller.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Stephen Miller. Okay. Yeah, I like him a lot.

>> Tony Vitagliano: I think that was part of the reason why. Another reason why Charlie Kirk was targeted so much is because of, of the role he played in getting President Trump and, and Vice President Vance elected. I mean he was on the ground, he was pounding the pavement.

>> Chris Woodward: Yes.

>> Tony Vitagliano: Getting people out to vote, young people especially. so I think that's another reason why that he was there's such animosity towards him.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and, expert, I'm in the process of writing a feature story for the November, issue of the Stand magazine. Folks. I recommend that you get a subscription to the Stand magazine. Go to afa.net and you look, there's a drop down menu for the Stand. But I'm writing about Charlie Kirk and what's happened and some of the, some of the reasons for that, for the environment in which it happened and doing some research on it. A lot of experts do say there would be no second term for Donald Trump if it had not been for Charlie Kirk. Turning around the youth vote. now I think Kamala Harris still barely won the youth vote, but Trump jumped. I forget how many points, in in terms of the youth vote, but a lot of experts are attributing that to Charlie Kirk. Yeah. So that, that's kind of the milieu in which you have someone who is almost ubiquitous. You saw Charlie Kirk everywhere, on podcasts, speaking up. You know, he, you know, he's on this TV show. This, this, he was everywhere. Not just, not just speaking yet his own radio show, he wrote books, but he was everywhere. And I forget which one of the people here, Maybe it was J.D. vance calling him, calling him a cheerful warrior. I think that was the Vice President. But he was so affable. I mean the day he was shot, he was and which he liked to do, throwing those hats out into the crowd. He was always, cheerful. He could be very blunt and sarcastic, which, anytime there's political discourse, you're going to have that on both sides. You're going to have, you know, firm statement of your beliefs. But there's going to be a lot of sometimes, acidic back and forth. I have no problem with that. but he was always charitable.

People cheering for Charlie Kirk's murder demonstrated on social media after his death

You know, he was always telling people after they had their back and forth, you know, you're welcome. Or you know, he would invite them knowing that they were going to be someone who is antagonistic. So yeah. Hey, but then you throw in the fact that he helped Donald Trump, right, and he spoke about these hot button issues and you do have a recipe for hatred which was demonstrated on social media in the aftermath of his death, people cheering for him being murdered. Alex, you got something you can say in about, well, this is like.

>> Alex McFarland: CS Lewis and the Socratic Club or like Eric and Chuck Colson, Socrates in the City. I mean, to have discussion. This is in the great tradition of Western thought, right?

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, folks, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, Jenna Ellis will be joining us. We will get her take on what happened, to Charlie Kirk. And then also we have time bring up another issue, maybe two. We'll see. Short break and we'll be right back.

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>> Ed Vitagliano: Close, encounter of the best kind.

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>> Ed Vitagliano: Preborn's networks of clinics provide hope, love, free ultrasounds and the gospel in action across America. This is Ed Vitagliano. Will you join PreBorn and AFR as we rescue 70,000 babies lives this year? For $28, you can sponsor an ultrasound and help save a baby's life. To donate, dial 250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250 baby. Or donate [email protected] afr that's preborn.com afr this is today's issues. Email your comments to commentsfr.net Past broadcasts of today's Issues are available for listening and viewing in the [email protected] now back to more of, Today's Issues. And welcome back to today's Issues. Ed Vitagliano sitting in for Tim Wildmon this week, joined in studio by Tony Vitagliano and Chris Woodward and remotely by Dr. Alex McFarland.

Jenna Ellis hosts AFR in the Morning, heard weekdays

And now we want to welcome to the program Jenna Ellis, host of Jenna Ellis in the Morning, heard weekdays at 7am Central Time on AFR. She's also the host of the On Demand podcast that you can [email protected] you can also find all kinds of other great podcasts [email protected] but certainly Jenna's on Demand podcast you'll find right there. Jenna welcome back to today's issues.

>> Jenna Ellis: Thanks so much for having me. It's always a great privilege to join all of you.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well thank you. That's. And we feel privileged having you be privileged joining us.

>> Jenna Ellis: The privilege extends to everyone.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Yes, everyone. Everyone is privileged here.

Jenna Fischer was deeply affected by Charlie Kirk's death

well Jenna, I heard your show. I don't remember it was the day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk or two days after. But you were clearly very hurt by it and you knew Charlie well. why don't you tell us a little bit about your relationship with Charlie. You had mentioned something about being one of the co founders of a fellowship. Was it at Liberty?

>> Jenna Ellis: Yes, Liberty University. And yeah, the one that I just couldn't stop crying was the day after Charlie's assassination. And if, if listeners haven't listened to that. That was probably honestly that was the hardest program I've ever had to do. I mean even. There have been a lot of hard things over the last few years in my life. But you know this was one to, to have to remember a friend who was just so brutally taken from us. I mean obviously so unexpected and and even now over the last week that it's been going back and seeing all of these reels that pop up and seeing how bold he was for his faith. I mean I, I feel so Again privileged and honored that, that I was able to know him even to the extent that I did. And I can't imagine for the people he worked with on a daily basis. But you know we had we had a great friendship and did get to know each other more on a personal level. With the founding of what's now the standing for Freedom center at Liberty University. And the mission of that of course was what Charlie had already been doing. Taking the truth of the gospel of Christ to college students. And Liberty University was such a great vehicle for that because unlike all of these ridiculous woke state funded institutions, Liberty existed missionally. And so there was a group of you know, maybe five of us including Charlie, that that started this fellowship. And and just through that and seeing his heart for the Lord and his desire to reach students, that grew into a friendship where we talked about and debated, you know, everything from policy to you know, Trump versus DeSantis to you know, all kinds of things. And, and I'm sincerely going to miss especially the group chat that he and I and his producer Andrew Colvett that probably a lot of you have seen on Fox and other programs. And, I've known Andrew for even longer, than Charlie. He actually used to represent me on media when I worked for Dr. Dobson. but we had a group chat, and anytime there was something going on, we'd all talk about it. And, yesterday it just struck me like I was watching some of these, these clips, and for a moment I was like, man, that was so good. I got to text Charlie. And then I thought, yeah, I can't believe that he's gone. And yet I see how much the truth of the gospel is impacting the world right now and how much. I had the director of TPUSA Faith on my ah, show this morning, and he was saying that probably the most number of people across the world went to church this past Sunday than possibly ever before. That is incredible. And so God does, bring beauty from ashes.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, Jenna, let us, play a clip from your show, this morning and then get, your take. We can discuss it, after you hear this.

Lucas Miles says pastors need to preach truth now more than ever

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah, this is, Lucas Miles of TP USA Faith. Lucas is also a pastor, and he was telling Jenna about the importance of pastors preaching truth. Not just one Sunday, but all Sundays. Clip 11.

>> Dave Williams: You know, I've been a pastor for 20 plus years of the same church, and I continue to pastor that church while I'm also the senior director of TPSA Faith. I commute back and forth between the Midwest and Phoenix. And, I never want to be somebody that's telling a pastor, you have to talk about this. But in this moment, I just felt so strongly that Charlie's legacy in life and the fact that we have a Christian martyr before our, eyes. Charlie did not die as a conservative thought leader. He died as a believer testifying to Jesus. it's the canary in the cage. And there's been people that have been going to churches for way too long saying, oh, I just love the children's program. I know the preaching's watered down, but I just really want my kid to be in this youth group or something like that. There are more important things than entertaining your children so that they can have some great experience on Sunday morning. There's a thing called truth, and we need to raise up, people and children, especially in the truth. Charlie believed in that. And if pastors are just glossing over this, they're not willing to talk about it. It says something about their character.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Jenna, we're going to get your take, on that, and then, Alex and Tony may have a question for you. But listen, Lucas hit the nail right on the head. If there was ever a time when we needed pastors to be on fire for God and unafraid to preach the full truth of God's word. And it's now, right?

>> Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. And listen, you know, Charlie and I and others involved in the standing for Freedom center say, and used to say with Charlie so often that, we're almost stepping into the role of teaching truth because pastors in America, so many of them won't. And that is an indictment on the church. Not all pastors, of course. I'm, I'm very blessed to be in an excellent Bible believing church, Florida that I attended this Sunday. Pastor Jack Hibbs across the country, I mean, and many in between. But there are so many that are failing to stand up for truth because they would rather have the numbers, they'd rather run it like a business. They're scared of offending people, they're scared of getting hate or all kinds of reasons, but none of that is more important than fulfilling their calling. And I was listening to a clip of Charlie as well, where he was saying that pastors and anyone in ministry, if you are in ministry, and I would include all of us at AFA in this, but especially pastors, if you are in ministry and your job, your vocation is to teach the truth, then you are called to an even higher standard before the Lord. And I absolutely agree with Lucas Miles that the church in America needs to have a revival in this moment and pastors need to be convicted to stand up and boldly proclaim the truth, come what may.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Alex.

>> Alex McFarland: Right on. absolutely. I m mean, that's just one of the occupational hazards. And let me just say to the fellow ministers, clergy, pastors, look, study after study, 80% plus of your parishioners want you to teach moral, social, political issues from what saith the Lord. I mean, the Bible says the fear of man brings a snare. So, all of my fellow pastors out there, do not be afraid to use your pulpit to speak truth. moral, marriage, gender, you know, what the Bible says. Because, look, not only are we commanded to, we're accountable to God, but, the vast majority of your people want you to say what God's word says. And for the one or two that, you know, get bitten out of shape, well, that's just an occupational hazard. You know, sometimes people that are fighting truth get angry if you preach it. But yet we must preach it.

>> Jenna Ellis: Amen.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Well, and Jenna, I will, I will say this too. And then you feel Free to respond to what Alex has said. people, he's absolutely right. People do want church. People want to hear how the Bible applies and what the Bible says about the issues that they're wrestling with. Right. These are people who are sitting at Thanksgiving meal. We have Thanksgiving coming up just down the road, other family gatherings, or they're at the water cooler at work, or they're talking over the fence with their neighbor, or, you're trying to talk to their children about these issues. They want to know what the Bible says about these things. And when pastors withhold that instruction, they are disarming their own parishioners because they are. They are hungry for a biblical way of explaining what they believe. And pastors cannot abdicate that responsibility. Right.

>> Jenna Ellis: Amen. And absolutely. And I so appreciated, like I said, my, pastor in Florida, because not only did they speak to the problem of evil and address directly the question, why would God have allowed this to happen? And how evil in the world turns us back to a knowledge of knowing there is a God, then, therefore, the next question is, who is he? And then for Christians who have answered that question, have turned our lives to the Lord and acknowledge him as Lord and Savior, have repented, are born again. The next question is, now, what does he require of us? And then my pastor spent the entire message talking about our lifespan, our opportunity, the parable of the talents, and then what happens when we die? Because I think for so many of us in America, in this current age, death is something that's kind of removed from our everyday awareness. And we never think that in just that moment. I mean, I saw the video, that the Charlie's chief of staff posted of him driving up to that event venue, seeing the tent, having no idea that he was driving to the place of his death. And that moment, for me, was thinking, that can happen to any of us under any circumstances. God called him home. And we have to live in the truth of that reality that we will one day be before our Lord. And so Savior. And for the Christian, he will say, your name is in the book of life, but then he will open up our life before us and reward us according to what we have done in this life. And it really convicted and challenged me. Am I taking advantage of literally every opportunity, spending my time and talents for the promotion and furtherance of the gospel and everything else that I've been worried about or stressed out, it doesn't matter. In light of eternity, amen.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Jenna, I know we don't have you forever here, so I'm gonna give you a little bit of whiplash. Okay. We're gonna change topics and we're gonna take a sharp turn. because before we let you go.

>> Jenna Ellis: You better be a right turn, not a left.

>> Ed Vitagliano: Right turn. It's a right turn.

Chris: What constitutional authority does President Trump have on deploying National Guard troops

>> Jenna Ellis: All right. All right, then we're good.

>> Ed Vitagliano: We have a constitutional question for you. Okay. On, the subject of President Trump, National Guard troops in Memphis. go ahead. Chris?

>> Chris Woodward: Yeah. I've got a 18 second sound bite here of the president yesterday in the Oval Office saying again, the federal government is going to do something about crime in Memphis and possibly some other places. Clip five.

>> Ed Vitagliano: I'm signing a presidential memorandum to establish the Memphis SAFE Task Force. And it's very important because of the crime that's going on, not only in Memphis, in many cities. And we're going to take care of all of them step by step, just like we did in D.C. we're going to be doing Chicago probably next. All right, so Jenna, what, we all want to know. I'm sure that our listeners are maybe divided on this issue just because we need to have a clear understanding of what the president, who heads the executive branch on the federal level, what constitutional authority does he have in a situation like Memphis where this is, this isn't, chaos resulting from a flood or riots in the streets. This is a crime issue. What is the constitutional authority of the president here?

>> Jenna Ellis: And that's a great question. And the, the Posse Comitatus act, weighs into this. It was an 18, 78 federal law that basically prohibits the military, from. And of course that would include the Space Force. Now, you know, any of the branches of the military from acting as local police, law enforcement for state level, local level issues. Now, that does not address the National Guard, interestingly, because those. The National Guard status is unique and it can operate under state or federal control. when it's federalized, though, its use in law enforcement can potentially be blocked depending on what it's doing. If it's for, example in D.C. protecting federal jurisdiction, that's constitutional, that's appropriate. if it's ICE coming in, they have federal authority because the subject of immigration, naturalization, protecting the border, all of that is given to the federal government. What the National Guard, what the military can't do is act as local policing because, the Congress, in their wisdom with this, rightly recognized that we have local police, law enforcement to do that. Now there are other statutes, like the Insurrection act, for example, that if there is a riot if there is some other, like we remember the Chaz. Remember that out of Seattle, that claimed, to be sovereign and that was a breach of national security, then federalizing a response to that, can happen with or without local law enforcement or the governor of that state's assent. So the question constitutionally becomes, for what purpose is the military, the National Guard acting? Is it under federal jurisdiction like in D.C. or is it stepping into the role of local law enforcement? And that likely would be unconstitutional. So I think, you know, where President Trump is just saying, we're going to go in. I mean, it's vague how he always likes to say that, how exactly they go in. For what purpose. If that is constitutionally defensible, then a court would likely allow that. If it's not, then a court would likely say, no, you went too far. So I think we need to be very careful to understand as much as I totally say, you know, go in, I think that's great that, you know, Chicago's not doing their job, obviously, figure out a way that it is constitutional and then do it from that level so that we don't want to violate the principles of law in the Constitution in getting to the outcome we prefer.

There are people in Memphis that want some federal assistance to help combat crime

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, Alex or Tony, you guys have questions for Jenna on this?

>> Alex McFarland: Well, you know, the enumerated powers, I don't think the Constitution enumerates, the federal federalization of law enforcement. Jenna, wouldn't that just by default be delegated to the states, unless.

>> Jenna Ellis: There is a congressional act otherwise? So, for example, the Insurrection act, does allow the, federal government to assist the states or come in, even over and above, the states, because of the Insurrection Act. So it's not just about looking at the limited separate powers of the Constitution. It's also about recognizing what federal statutes, have been able to assist. Some of these other questions.

>> Chris Woodward: I have a question here. so every time Trump says he's going to do this, Fox and other news outlets go out and do kind of a Man on the street. And oftentimes they find to people in that city that say, yes, please help. We need help. There's a lot of crime here. I can't go to the grocery store. These kinds of things. There are people in Memphis that want some sort of federal assistance to help combat crime. But the mayor and other people are like, we don't want this. Do citizens have any kind of legal recourse to force, a mayor or some local authority to, do this? even if the president can't do it exactly how he or she might want it.

>> Jenna Ellis: Well, there's always the remedy of the ballot box. I mean, this is why they should not be electing these mostly, frankly, Democrat leaders. I mean, Democrats by definition want sanctuary states. They don't want, closed borders. They don't want ICE to come in. They, they aren't for law and order. They are pro all of these crazy riots. I mean, that, that is the best and most effective remedy, is don't elect bad people who won't actually follow the law. And, and the first and primary responsibility of government as an institution ordained by God is to protect its citizens, protect the rights of its citizens. And then absent that, depending on the state, a lot of states allow for ballot initiatives. A lot of states allow for recall of elected officials if they're not doing their job. So if, if you're listening and you live in one of these states, you don't have to wait for President Trump. You can look at the law in your state and, change what's happening through elections, through recalls, through citizens initiative petitions, and through perhaps other mechanisms specific to your jurisdiction.

Could it be argued that Democrat mayors' enabling of crime amounts to treason

>> Alex McFarland: Jenna, let me ask you this, Alex here. could it be argued that the Democrat mayors, these blue cities, their enabling of crime ultimately amounts to treason? I mean, it destabilizes America. It, raises the level of crime, and it ultimately jeopardizes, well, yes, the rule of law, but ultimately the Constitution. I mean, could the argument be made that, you know, the Democrats enablement of crime and criminals is treasonous?

>> Jenna Ellis: Well, I think, I see where the wisdom in that, and I agree with you in a principled sense, sense, in a legal sense, constitutionally, treason is defined very, very narrowly in the United States because we didn't want to have the power of the state going after, our leaders just because we disagree with how they, execute their duties of office. And we saw that, with President Trump and a lot of the lawfare against him, right? And even to the extent of trying to, you know, kick him off the ballot because they said, well, we don't like, you know, what, what his policies might be. Well, that's elections. That's politics. And so, it's. I believe in Article 3, treason only consists of levying war against the United States, adhering to enemies, and giving them aid and comfort. So those are the only two ways that legally, from a legal standard, someone can commit treason in the United States, like actively participate in organizing armed conflict against the government, or materially supporting a declared enemy of the US during wartime. And there's a very, very high evidentiary standard for that. So I don't think that treason in this, in the legal sense, but I totally agree with you in just a principled sense that this goes. This violates their oath of office. This is not what we elected leaders to do is to completely disregard their duty in favor of politics.

>> Ed Vitagliano: So is your explanation that you just gave there about treason? Is this why members of the Communist Party, for example, are not arrested? They're allowed to. That maybe they're a professor and they're a communist and they're preaching, you know, the Communist Manifesto in their class. Is this because I always thought, well, they are, they are advocating an ideology that would call for the overthrow of our republic. But you're saying, you seem to be saying that that's not the same as actually siding with enemies in a wartime, that they are allowed the freedom to promote ideas, even if those ideas, were they to be acted upon, would result in the end of the Constitution.

>> Jenna Ellis: Yes, there is a difference between speech, ideas versus action. And there can be some inciting speech. So, for example, if my speech directly incites violence, which is the allegation against President Trump for January 6, for example, that, he was cleared of, if speech directly incites violence, that can be criminally punished, because that's promoting the action. But ideas and even things that are so fundamentally opposed to, to America, I can say, or anyone can say, they disagree with the Constitution. They disagree. And we can have those public debates. We do not criminalize or use state authority, government authority to silence or censor that speech. but the problem, and that's a good thing, but the problem that we have in our country right now is that we are a nation founded on Christian principles. A Christian nation that recognizes our rights come from God, our Creator. Our whole system of government is designed from Blackstone and Locke and all of the. This tradition of Western principles of due process and free speech and free exercise of religion and all of these things.

>> Alex McFarland: And, objective morality.

>> Jenna Ellis: And objective morality. And the people in our country are no longer Christian. So we have. That's the clash. And so we need to, as Charlie Kirk was doing, we need to be so persuasive to say, you may be out there preaching the Communist Manifesto, but nobody's going to buy into it because they see how empty that ideology is. Instead of using the force of the state to compel them to silence, we need to use the force of persuasion of truth to bring them into a saving knowledge of Christ. And that's how we become a Christian nation again.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And I'm asking, this is not exactly a rhetorical question. I think I know what you're going to say.

Tony Perkins: Charlie Kirk changed hearts and minds of young people

But we talked about in the first segment, I think, Tony, you brought this up, the hatred and animosity towards Charlie Kirk, maybe even his assassination. Would you attribute a lot of that callousness and anger and hostility to the fact that he was so effective in changing hearts and minds of young people who are going to run the country, when the US old people are gone?

>> Tony Vitagliano: Yeah, they are going to vote.

>> Ed Vitagliano: They are going to vote.

>> Jenna Ellis: Absolutely. This is the demographic that the left is going after with all of their trans nonsense, their gender binary ridiculousness, saying, don't get married, don't have kids, live however you want, buy into these ridiculous ideologies. He was going to the front lines and telling young people, get married, have kids, have a family, turn to the Lord. And I truly believe that's why the, the enemy, and I'm talking specifically about the demonic enemy, targeted him and used that, that, that alleged assassin, to kill him. Because that is what the enemy doesn't want. And that's the most fertile ground right now that we need to look at. Change hearts and minds. And there is a difference. Real quick, I addressed this yesterday on my program with Mike Ferris, the general counsel for Natural Religious Broadcasters Association. the difference between cancel culture, censorship of ideas versus the glorification of violence and calling for more violence that absolutely can contain punishment even from the government. You can lose your job for that, but not for simply promoting differences of ideas.

>> Ed Vitagliano: And there were, seems to be a backlash in terms of people losing their employment where they posted on social media very, clear statements advocating violence and celebrating an assassination nation. And there were consequences. That's just in the workplace, so.

>> Jenna Ellis: And by the state. To the state of Florida. Yes, and, and the state can do that. Absolutely.

>> Ed Vitagliano: All right, Jenna, thank you so much for being on. You always bring such, incisive, insights to our program. And, folks, pray for Jenna because this is a big loss for her with a friend, Charlie Kirk. and we will be back, a five minute break for news and we will return with more of today's issues.

>> Jenna Ellis: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.