In this special edition of Washington Watch, join host Jody Heiss as he presents highlights from the 2024 PrayVoteStand Summit. Featuring key discussions with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the episode dives deep into issues of faith, freedom, and governmental challenges. Bailey shares heartfelt stories of his journey, his views on standing up for children against the likes of Planned Parenthood, and insights into his legal battles that aim to protect free speech and uphold biblical principles in a modern America.
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From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, D.C., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and soundbites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Sitting in for Tony is today’s host, Jody Heiss.
SPEAKER 01 :
Good afternoon. Welcome to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss, Senior Vice President here at the Family Research Council and President of FRC Action. So happy to be filling in today for Tony and thrilled to have you on board with us as well. Well, the New Year’s just around the corner. And what a year 2024 has been. Well, today we want to bring you some special content from our most recent PrayVoteStand Summit. It was absolutely an extraordinary event. Today we’re going to share with you two sessions from that summit. One is a session that featured Tony’s interview with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, frequent on this program. And the second is an encouraging address by the Benham brothers, David and Jason. And like all the speakers did at the summit, Attorney General Bailey and the Benhams hit it out of the park. So we’ve got a lot coming your way today. If you miss any portion of the program, you can go back and catch it at TonyPerkins.com. And before we jump into it, let me just remind you, tonight is your last chance. The clock is counting down. At midnight is your last chance. You can double your giving to FRC. Please do so by texting the word LIGHT, L-I-G-H-T. Text LIGHT to 67742 and help us take the light of Jesus into the new year. All right, among the sessions at the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit was the interview that Tony had with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. More than the news and the issues, the interview dove into the heart of the Attorney General, who shared with Tony how the Lord led him to where he is today. Here’s how Tony got it started.
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So we’re going to have a conversation this morning. And General Bailey, I want to start, I want to go beyond just the policy. And I want to have more of a conversation about your background, because I think it’s important to people to know what motivates you, what drives you, and as a Christian, why you stepped into this arena. You’re a veteran of the Iraq War. You returned to Missouri. Yes. You returned to Missouri for law school, and we just saw actually two of your professors earlier today. The Hollys were professors of Andrews. And you then stepped into a career as a prosecutor. Tell us a little bit about your journey.
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Yeah, look, it’s a humbling privilege to get to serve in these capacities, to be able to lead soldiers in combat in the Nineveh Province, Iraq, and then again on the banks of the Tigris River, locations with such historical and biblical significance. To come home and be able to go to law school and study under two of the finest legal minds in this country, Josh and Aaron Hawley, who I’m just proud to have had them as my law professors. I was trained by the best, so that has empowered me to be able to do this job at a very high level. And then protecting Missourians, protecting children, enforcing the rule of law. These are principles that I hold dear and enjoyed being a prosecutor, working with law enforcement to find justice for victims every day. My wife and I became foster parents, and we adopted three children out of the foster system. Thank you. We’re blessed. We’re blessed beyond measure. We’ve also had a biological child, so it’s a zone defense at the Bailey household now, but… A lot of fun. Being a dad’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I’ll tell you, once we had adopted children, I couldn’t afford to be an assistant prosecuting attorney anymore. And I went to work at Missouri Department of Corrections the same day our governor took office in June of 2018. He saw me working at DOC. pulled me up to be on his staff, and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Clearly, God has a plan for everyone, and was able to, the governor saw fit to appoint me to fill out the unexpired portion of our previous attorney general’s term. And it’s been a privilege to get to do that, and I feel like we’ve been fighting and winning for Missourians and all Americans. I like to tell folks, You may not be a constituent, but I can still represent you. And we see that in the work we do in courtrooms across this nation, and it’s a privilege to get to do it.
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Andrew, you talk about being in the right place at the right time. The Scripture tells us that the Lord directs our steps. The righteous man, his steps are ordered by the Lord. Talk a little bit about the role of your faith in stepping into this arena and how that gives guidance to what you do.
SPEAKER 13 :
It directs and guides everything I do. I pray daily for my heart to be bent to His will. and for people to see his will in the work that I do. The Bible is the inerrant word of God. and the Holy Spirit guides me through the scripture as I study on a daily basis, and that gives me the edification I need to fight back against the enemies of truth, against the enemies of honesty, against the enemies of the rule of law that seek to undermine our system of government. Take the power away from the people. Deny us access to truth. And those fights, you know, Senator Hawley talked about it earlier from this very stage that the battle for the soul of America that wages today. And my battlefield is in the courtroom to fight those fights in the courtroom every day.
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It’s one thing to watch from a distance, but it’s always different when you step into the role and you’re in a public office, you are an elected official. What has been the thing that has surprised you most about stepping directly into that arena?
SPEAKER 13 :
You know, the outpouring of affection and accolades and support from people like those of us gathered in this room today, and to know that there are other believers and patriots who value freedom, safety, prosperity, truth, the way that I do. And to see those groups coming together and to hear from them on a daily basis, again, that just gives me a lot of energy as I approach this task every day. I get up in the mornings, three of my kiddos are in school, two in middle school, one in first grade, and then my two-year-old has obviously not started school yet, but I get up and take three of my kids to the bus stop every morning before I go to the office. And again, that just reminds me, that time I get to spend with them reminds me why I do this and why this is an important work because we’ve got to protect that next generation and protect some of the founding principles that we got to enjoy and be stewards of that and and hand that off to the next generation and that again that that motivates me i want to ask you something you you mentioned this but we we need to speak into government and a lot of times what we see in government’s wrong we need to speak into that but when
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Our leaders do the right thing. Is it encouraging to get a note of appreciation and an encouraging note? Does that help?
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It does, Tony. I tell you, we hear all the time from the left-wing progressive media about all the things they think we’re doing incorrectly. And so to be able to know that there are individuals whose voices matter to me who are supportive of the work we’re doing, again, that is just so fulfilling and energizing from my perspective. And, you know, again, it’s not I have a great team around me, a dedicated team of professionals who share the commitment to excellence, the commitment to the values that I hold dear. And so to be able to share those words of encouragement with them, again, it’s very energizing for us.
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Proverbs talks about that. A word rightly spoken is like apples of silver in a setting of gold. And I think it’s important that we use our words to encourage those who are doing the right thing. So let’s talk about some of the biggest challenges you’ve seen. I mean, you’ve been taking on Planned Parenthood. I mean, that’s like a behemoth of the left of a huge organization. You’ve been taking them on not only on the abortion issue, but the transgender issue. They have moved into that into a very big way.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, look, those are fights that are absolutely worth making to protect children. I want Missouri to be the safest state in the nation for children. And Planned Parenthood is an institution of evil. Make no mistake about it. They care more about the destruction of human life. the destruction of human life than they do the health and safety of women and children. Now, they will always be protected and concealed by the left-wing media who doesn’t want you to know the truth. But the lawsuits we have are shining the light of truth and exposing this institution of evil and its destructive ways. Thank you. And it starts with abortion, the destruction of a human life. And it moves to transgender, you know, they want to convince you this is healthcare. There’s no healthcare about it. There’s no healthcare about it. This is the mutilation of young, innocent children with no science or medicine to back it up. And Planned Parenthood has been on the forefront of that. Other clinics in Missouri have been on the forefront of that. We had a whistleblower come forward that, and Tony, I know you’re familiar because you’ve extensively reported on this, but has exposed this industry of child mutilation. And I’ve said it before, and I’m proud to say it again. How dare anyone tell those kids God put them in the wrong body? We know he doesn’t make mistakes. And so the lawsuits, the investigations. Thank you. Those are how we fight back and try to put a stop to these institutions of evil, protect women and children, and again, shine the light of truth on these issues.
SPEAKER 07 :
I have to imagine that you’ve thought through this, where you see this transgender agenda, this ideology that’s being hoisted upon our children, threatening their very future. The public doesn’t tolerate tobacco companies selling cigarettes to minors. We don’t tolerate the alcohol industry going after me. In fact, we enforce laws against that. We prohibit kids from getting tattoos. Why is this different?
SPEAKER 13 :
Because the radical left seeks a truly radical redefinition of God’s creation. They want to convince you that gender is a mutable characteristic. I mean, it’s a fashion statement in modern culture, but it’s one with devastating impacts on a generation of children. So just this week, and I’m proud to announce from this stage, this is the first time I’ve talked about this publicly, but just this week, my attorneys were in court and we were vigorously defending our state statute to put an end to this gender mutilation of children. So that is breaking news. You heard it first here at the PrayVoteStand Summit. We knew going into this lawsuit that there were zero, zero FDA approvals for the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, dangerous, powerful chemicals that forever alter children’s lives. There were zero FDA approvals authorizing the use of these dangerous chemicals for the treatment of gender dysphoria. That’s the mental health disorder that kids… come into these clinics with and say, I’m confused about my gender. And these clinicians, the adults that are supposed to be healthcare providers were pushing these dangerous chemicals and forever altering these children’s bodies and getting them addicted to those drugs. And then referring children under 17 years of age for irreversible surgeries to forever alter their bodies. We exposed that, but we went one step further and under vigorous cross-examination, we forced the other side, the ACLU so-called experts to admit that these practices were not based in healthcare science. There were no clinical trials. There were no studies. There were no medical journals. No one on the planet Earth thought that these were medically valid procedures. And we forced them to admit that in open court under oath. And I think we’re going to win that case and continue to fight to protect kids. And I’m proud of the work we did this week defending that stuff.
SPEAKER 01 :
That was Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaking to Tony during the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit. And you’re tuning in to Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony. And today we’re broadcasting special content from the summit that was held in Washington, D.C. this past October. And let me just share with you that if you missed any of that summit or even as you watch some of it today, you would like to revisit, go back and look at more of it, you can do so. But you can only do so if you have our Stand Firm app, which you need to have anyway. So simply go to the App Store or Google Play, wherever in the world it is that you get your apps. Or you can text the word APP, A-P-P, text the word APP to 67742. You will be thrilled to have the Stand Firm app to keep you informed on all sorts of news from a biblical worldview perspective. So be sure to get that. All right, after the break, we’ll share the second half of Tony’s interview with the Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, in which they talk about the Biden administration’s collusion with big tech for the purpose of silencing voices that they didn’t want to hear during the COVID pandemic, something that the World Health Organization wants to do as well. So much more coming your way today on Washington Watch. Stick around. We’ll be back in just a moment.
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During these challenging times for our nation, Family Research Council continues to serve as a watchman on the wall for faith, family, and freedom. And together, thanks to your support, we’re making an eternal impact. 2024 has been another year of shining the light for biblical truth in Washington, D.C. This fall, over 1,000 spiritually active, governance-engaged conservatives gathered for the Pray Vote Stand Summit. to pray for our nation and ensure that the issues impacting sage cons were understood and advanced. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins marked a major milestone this year, its 900th episode, and added the Washington Watch News Desk, a new production that presents the top news each day from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand published 2,000 articles of news, commentary, and podcasts in 2024, garnering over 5 million views. FRC’s outlet for news and commentary continues to pursue the truth on the issues that matter most to you and your family. And with the launch of the Stand Firm app, you can listen to, watch, and read our content in one simple place. Pray for current issues, stay rooted in the scriptures, and engage the political sphere with a community of believers on our new platform. In 2024, FRC shaped public policy and culture, organizing the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance, where members of Congress and Christian leaders came together to seek God’s intervention in America. In May, FRC called upon believers to pray for and stand with Israel by dedicating a portion of their worship services to pray for Israel’s peace, prosperity, and protection. With Pray, Vote, Stand Decision 2024, FRC and Real Life Network led a powerful evening of election night coverage to analyze the election results and pray that our nation would turn back to God. We also filmed a transformative educational course, God and Government, Launching in January 2025, this series will explore the biblical and historical foundations of our government, empowering you to stand confidently in your role as a citizen of heaven and earth. Family Research Council thanks you for partnering with us for another year of standing for faith, family, and freedom.
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Looking to grow closer to God in the new year? FRC’s Stand on the Word spiral-bound journal is here to help. Dive deeper into scripture with thought-provoking questions, note-taking space, and context for each book and author. This second edition, covering Isaiah 2 Revelation, will guide you in tracking your journey through God’s word while deepening your faith in Christ. Order now at frc.org slash store or text journal to 67742. Perfect for you and your loved ones.
SPEAKER 01 :
GOOD AFTERNOON. WELCOME BACK TO WASHINGTON WATCH. SO GLAD TO HAVE YOU. I’M JODY HEISS. HONORED TO BE SITTING IN TODAY FOR TONY. TODAY WE’RE BROADCASTING SOME SPECIAL CONTENT FROM OUR 2024 PRAY VOTE STAND SUMMIT. IT WAS PUT TOGETHER BY FRC AND FRC ACTION. IT WAS OUR ANNUAL GATHERING OF and if you miss the summit again i want to remind you you can go back and watch it if you get the stand firm app which you need to have anyways go to your app store google play or simply text the word app app to six seven seven four two and while you’re in the mode of texting Let me also just remind you that time is running out. Family Research Council’s year-end challenge match is almost over. And you, right now, can double your tax-deductible gift to FRC. You can do so before midnight tonight. So while you’re in a texting mode, text the word LIGHT, L-I-G-H-T, to 67742 and make your gift before it’s too late. All right. In this segment, we’re going to share with you the rest of Tony’s interview with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. It was all during the PrayVoteStand Summit. And we’ll start with this question from Tony.
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Let me ask you, General Bailey, another topic, a case that you teamed up with Louisiana, my home state. went all the way to the Supreme Court, and this was the Biden administration, big tech, in collusion to silence voices that they did not like during COVID and even in the election in 2020. Speak to that issue and what you found in your discovery. Now, I know the court didn’t rule the way we had hoped they would, but what did you discover in that process? Tell the folks a little bit about that.
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Well, we exposed government censorship in violation of the First Amendment. I believe that the rights in the Constitution come from God, not man, that the Constitution exists to protect us from the government. It’s the role of government to protect our rights. And yet here, what we’ve exposed, this relationship of coercion and collusion between the federal government at the very top levels of the Biden-Harris White House across a spectrum of federal bureaucratic agencies, coercing big tech social media platforms into silencing your voices. driving you from public discourse. Well, the founding fathers understood that there was supposed to be a free, fair, and open marketplace of ideas where the competition of ideas would allow us, we the people, to determine what is and isn’t true. But the Biden-Harris administration has rejected that and said, anyone we disagree with, we get to silence them in the name of misinformation. Who empowered the government to tell us what is and isn’t true? The remedy for disfavored speech has always been counter speech, not government censorship. Numerous depositions, 20,000 pages of documents. We exposed it. We took it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Look, all is not lost. The fight for the First Amendment goes on with renewed vigor. The court said that the state of Missouri and the state of Louisiana had demonstrated that the federal government had violated our First Amendment right to free speech by censoring American voices on Big Tech. They merely found that the evidence only showed that censorship occurred in 2020 and 2021. Well, that’s because the case had been pending at the United States Supreme Court and on hold. So the court remanded us back down to the trial court level, and just within the last two weeks, we have commenced merits discovery, where we will use the tools of federal discovery to root out the vast censorship enterprise to restore our right to free speech and free, fair, and open debate. Tony, I want to go back to one other point I made. For folks, look, this is not limited to COVID. COVID was the Trojan horse that got the enemy behind the gates. Anyone that says, oh, well, that was just a once in time because of a pandemic. If we allow a perceived emergency to justify a violation of our constitutional rights, there’s no limiting principle and the government will just conjure up a new emergency. So let me submit this to you for consideration. The Bible is the inerrant word of God. It is objective truth. Well, I guarantee you there are big tech oligarchs in Silicon Valley who disagree with me on that point. I guarantee you there are people in the Biden-Harris administration who disagree with me on that point. If they can silence our voices in opposition to failed COVID policies and tyranny, how long until they de-emphasize, de-platform Christian voices who are preaching the gospel? We can’t let that happen. That’s why this fight is so important.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right. Absolutely. And I would just add that a lot of what they were saying was proven false by the critics they silenced, and we now know that to be the case. And we’re going to talk more about that this afternoon on a panel on global governance, because the WHO is wanting to do exactly what the Biden administration did during COVID. Final question for you, General Bailey. How can we here and those watching across America be praying for you and your family?
SPEAKER 13 :
Pray for strength. Pray for continued conviction on these points. Pray for all of our leaders and that our hearts would be bent to God’s will for us and that we would return to being one nation under God. Foundational principles. And, you know, we can have… have that resurgence of faith and belief in our leaders, and we can restore this country to a level of greatness that previous generations have protected and handed down to us. Can I pray for you? Please.
SPEAKER 07 :
Join me as we pray for General Bailey. Father, I thank you for Andrew. I thank you for the courage that he has. I thank you for raising him up. for such a time as this. And we pray a blessing upon him. Lord, I pray that he would be yielded completely and totally to the Holy Spirit, protect his wife and his children, give him strength, give him courage, encouragement. And Lord, I pray you would surround him with those that will help hold up his arms as he fights for truth and righteousness protect him physically spiritually politically and that lord continue to bless him give him joy in his heart lord that will be his strength in jesus name amen amen
SPEAKER 01 :
That was FRC President Tony Perkins on stage with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey during the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit that we had here in Washington, D.C., and you’re tuned in to a special edition of Washington Watch. Again, if you missed any portion of that PrayVote Stand Summit, friends, I’m telling you, it’s worth going back and watching, and you can do so. If you have the Stand Firm app, you can do so easily. If you don’t have the Stand Firm app, you can easily get it. Go to your Apple Store or Google Play or text the word APP to 67742. And again, one more reminder, you have only until midnight tonight. to support FRC and our efforts to bring faith, family, and freedom from a biblical perspective into the new year right here in Washington and beyond. You can give your tax-deductible gift right now before midnight tonight by texting LIGHT to 67742. All right, after the break, we’ll share another session from the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. This one featuring the Benham brothers. Yes, David and Jason were with us. They challenged Christians in America to stand boldly in dark times. And trust me, they themselves have experienced those dark times and those challenges when it’s difficult to stand up for Christ and swim upstream when everyone else is going downstream like a dead fish. You don’t want to miss what’s coming your way next, so stick around.
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So if you like to think and you like to pray, FRC is the place for you.
SPEAKER 14 :
I think it is the best program out there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, I absolutely love my experience interning at FRC.
SPEAKER 14 :
They really are making waves out in the political world and doing it from the light of the Lord.
SPEAKER 15 :
It’s really humbling for me as a college student who has been involved in the life movement for only a couple of years to be able to witness it alongside of some of the people who have spent their entire lives fighting. A huge thing that sets FRC’s internship apart from others is they’re looking for what they can pour into you instead of what they can get out of you.
SPEAKER 14 :
I have talked to so many of my friends who have interned other places and they’re responding to emails or taking phone calls and doing things like that. But here we get real hands-on experience and get to talk to important people and do important things that we get to see the impact of.
SPEAKER 06 :
The throne of Jesus Christ is unchallenged. His name was never on the ballot to begin with, and it’s never gonna be on the ballot. He’s the King of Kings, and He’s the Lord of Lords, and nothing’s gonna change that. And so our mission stays the same, preach the gospel, make disciples, get ready for heaven. In the meantime, that we’re to advance the concerns of the kingdom of God here on earth.
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America has entered a critical and vulnerable period from now until January the 20th. Join Family Research Council for Operation Prayer Shield, a 10 week prayer initiative for our nation. From now until January 20th, our country faces global challenges, a transition of leadership, and a lame duck session of Congress. This season calls for heightened spiritual vigilance, discernment, and prayer. Text the word SHIELD to 67742 to join us. You’ll have access to prayer points, scripture, prayer calls. Text SHIELD to 67742. Unite with us and pray for our nation.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your host Jody Heiss filling in today for Tony and so glad to have you joining us. Today we’re broadcasting content from the 2024 PrayVoteStand Summit, FRC and FRC Actions annual gathering of Christian voters from all across America. We’ve actually been doing this in the days following Christmas. So if you missed any of those, you can go to TonyPerkins.com to see what other sessions were shared. Well, in this coming segment, We’re sharing the remarks delivered by the Benham brothers, David and Jason. They drew a lot of attention back in 2014 when their reality TV show on HGTV was abruptly canceled because of their commitment to biblical values. Well, in their remarks, the Benham shared how now, now is the time for Christians to stand boldly in Jesus’ name, whatever the cost. Here’s David and Jason.
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How many followers of Jesus do we have in this place? i love it we’re right at home how many of you want to see god move in the united states of america lord knows we need it you know it’s not a political problem ultimately it’s not an economic problem it’s a spiritual problem now is not a time for followers of jesus to shrink back in fear now is the time for us to stand firm by faith in the powerful name of jesus christ by the way we are identical twins this is my little guy that’s my little brother I’ve been, I’m two minutes older. I’ve been carrying him like an anchor for 48 long years. You know what? He’s the older brother, but he’s the only mistake God ever made. When he was born, God looked down and said, whoops, I got to fix that. Cut that out. Hey, no clapping over here. I came along. I’m the do-over. None of that stuff. You know, it’s crazy that a lot of that footage, that was 10 years ago. 10 years ago. I mean, this is insane where we’ve come as a country. And you know, Jason and I, just after we got the axe by HGTV, Glenn Beck called us and he said, guys, I want to have you on my show. So we rolled into Dallas, Fort Worth. We were walking through the airport and we were on all of the CNN show, because multiple CNN shows wanted us. So we were on all the CNN. So these people are trapped in the airport watching the Communist News Network. It’s the only people that ever watched CNN. And so here they are watching and looking at Jason and I like, okay, we see him on the news. And now we see him here. And there was this dude standing across the way. He had his arms crossed and he’s just looking at us. And Jason’s so intimidated. The guy finally walks over to us and he leans in and he looks over his left shoulder and his right shoulder and he whispers, are you guys the Benham brothers? Yeah? And then he whispers, thanks for your stand and took off. I mean, 10 years ago, Home Slice did not wanna be seen with guys like us. And how many of you know that that is happening to people of faith today? You know, the radical left, at first, they wanna marginalize our faith, but then they target, targetedly demonize our faith. But I’m telling you, if the Democrats have their way, they will criminalize our faith. And the question is, are we gonna stand? Or are we gonna run? I say we’re gonna stand. What do you guys say? You know, the problem today is not the presence of darkness. It’s the absence of light. I don’t have a dark switch in my house. When he goes to bed at night, he doesn’t ask his wife to turn the darkness on. Or whenever you open the closet door, all the darkness from the closet does not come and fill the room. It’s not the nature of darkness. You know, darkness cannot overcome the light. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. You know, when God, when he tells us that we are to shine our light, you know what it does? It does two things. On the one hand, it reveals your good deeds. That’s Matthew 5, 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works. That’s right. That’s what we do as believers. We do good works. We’re out there loving our families and running our businesses and leading our communities, and we’re stepping in in Asheville. We’re in Charlotte. We’re doing what we can because that’s what we do. We’re believers, but at the same time, it doesn’t just reveal your good deeds. Guess what else it does? It exposes the world’s evil deeds. Jesus said in John chapter three, darkness hated the light because it exposed that its deeds were evil. And today is so easy for us to just dim the light so that everybody can get along and we can be cool. And our income, our image, and our influence as celebrity preachers matter more to us than standing for truth. And God is now calling the remnant of believers stand on the Word of God, like Jack Hibbs and Votie Bauckham and Andrew Brunson just did. But you know what? In the church today, we’ve got the wrong idea of light. How many of you grew up singing the song, This Little Light of Mine? Right? There’s a verse in there that says, don’t let Satan… I heard somebody over here go, pfft, it out. But you gotta be careful, because if you’re Baptist, that could lead to dancing. And we know Baptists don’t shake that leg. Sinners. No, they don’t. But when we sing that song, the image of the type of light that we need to be, the image that comes to mind is the image of a candle, right? Don’t let Satan blow it out. That’s the kind of light we’re supposed to be. Well, that’s not gonna work in today’s cancel culture, because what happens to the light of a candle when the wind comes along and blows on it? It goes out. We need to replace the image of a candle with the image of a coal, like the burning ember inside of a fire pit. What happens when the wind comes along and blows on that? You see the difference? The candle’s light, the same wind that would blow the candle’s light out actually ignites the coal’s light. The candle is lit from the outside, the coal burns from the inside. The great prophet Jeremiah said, your word is like a fire shut up in my bones and I am weary of holding it in. Do you know how God gets the light that’s in you out into the world? Do you know how he does it oftentimes? He puts you in situations and around people where they try to extinguish the light that’s in you. And if you’ve been stoking the fires and the coals of the Holy Spirit inside, alone in prayer, alone in studying the scripture, and you’ve been doing those things, then guess what? The very act of them trying to extinguish the light is the very thing that will ignite it. And the beauty is you don’t even have to try to shine your light. You just have to buckle up and watch yourself burn.
SPEAKER 01 :
That was David and Jason Benham speaking at the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit back in October. And you’re tuned into a special edition of Washington Watch. Again, if you missed the summit or you want to revisit it, you can get our Stand Firm app. If you don’t already have it, simply text the word APP to 67742. All right. After the break, we’ll share the conclusion of the Benham Brothers session. It’s powerful. Don’t go away. We’ll be back.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hello, I’m Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council here in Washington, D.C. Behind me is one of the most recognizable buildings in all the world, the U.S. Capitol. What does it stand for? Well, most people say government. But do you know the Bible talks about four institutions of government? Do you know what they are? And do we have a republic or a democracy? Well, what do you say? Also, what about this thing, separation of church and state? Does that mean Christians shouldn’t be involved in government? Guess what? We address those issues and more in our new God and Government course. I invite you to join us to see what the historical record and the Bible has to say about government. Join us for God and Government.
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Let’s not be discouraged. Don’t lose heart. Don’t lose the faith. Stand now strong because the Lord has given us the great privilege of living in a time when our choices matter, when our lives matter, when our courage matters. So let’s stand together and save this great country. God bless the United States of America.
SPEAKER 02 :
The American Republic has a freedom like no other. It has roots in the scriptures. far more than any other heritage. And if we as followers of Jesus and conservatives don’t defend it, who will?
SPEAKER 05 :
Neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, if we just don’t say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You’re naive if you think that, because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission.
SPEAKER 08 :
Part of the dilemma of Christianity in our generation is that we’ve relied a little too much on human wisdom and human reasoning, human strength, human resource, and we’ve relied too little on the power of God and God’s ability to open doors that we can’t open and do things that we couldn’t even hope to begin to do.
SPEAKER 04 :
This may not be an easy task, But we are living in a moment of challenge, but also a great opportunity. And we know always that we are not alone, that His Spirit empowers us and protects us. and that he could do the unimaginable. Dobbs, after all, was never supposed to have.
SPEAKER 07 :
Father, we thank you. You have entrusted us with this moment in history, and I pray that we would be found faithful, and that as a result of our faithfulness to you, that thousands, millions would come into the kingdom as they would experience the forgiveness of sin and the new life that is found only in Jesus Christ. Amen.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, good afternoon. Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m your host, Jody Heiss, filling in today for Tony. And thanks so much for tuning in to this special edition. We’ve been playing some highlights from the 2024 PrayVote Stand Summit that was held in Washington, D.C. Sure hope you’ve been enjoying these. And to close out today’s special edition, we’re going to finish up with a session at the 2024 Prevost Stand Summit featuring the Benham brothers, David and Jason. In this last part, they’re going to recall what happened to them a decade ago and what they learned from the HGTV controversy. It’s powerful. Here’s how they got started.
SPEAKER 11 :
Jason and I want to tell you a little bit about our story and the context and some very important stuff that we learned in the middle of that whole HGTV story. You know, we graduated high school. We went to Liberty University. We played baseball out of Liberty. We got drafted. I was drafted by the Red Sox. He was drafted by a lesser organization. You’ve probably never even heard the Baltimore Orioles. Oh, yeah. See, they like the Orioles. David’s the only player in Red Sox history, actually Major League history, to play tailback in baseball. He’d run on the field, and coach said, get your tail back on the bench. Stop that. Why are you clapping? Man in the purple shirt, clapping. You know, we never made it to the big leagues. We were minor league guys, and we learned that when God gives you something, you got to hold it with an open hand. You don’t wanna grip it with white knuckle tenacity, because when he wants to remove it and put something better there, he’s gonna have to pry your fingers back. Now that’s a spiritual way of saying we couldn’t hit a curve ball, but either way, it works. We did not get that platform that we thought we were gonna get. I just knew I would hit the game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth of the World Series. Jason would come off the bench, greet me at the plate, and it was gonna be amazing. But it never worked out that way. We had to hold that with an open hand. Well, we got out of baseball. We had young families. We moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. We were raised by a pastor dad in Dallas, Texas. So we had no business training, but we said, Lord, We want to apply the principles of the Bible to our business. And we built our first real estate company to 100 offices across 35 states. And at the height of our company, in 2012, a production company comes to us and says, do you guys want a reality show? We said, yeah, sure, let’s give it a shot. So in 2013, they put a commercial together, took it to LA. Five networks wanted us. The first offer we got was from TLC. They wanted us to do a show called Twinning. I still have no idea what that show was all about, because in the middle of negotiating with them, We got a call from the general manager of HGTV in 2013, and she said, we just signed this family out of Waco by the name of Chip and Joanna Gaines. We’re gonna give them a one-hour pilot for a show called Fixer Upper. We wanna give you guys six one-hour episodes for a show called Flip It Forward. And we wanna take Fixer Upper and Flip It Forward and raise it to the top of the network. And so we said, okay, we’re gonna sign with HGTV. But how many of you know that faith that isn’t tested can’t be trusted? Oh, I’m in good hands. I’m in with good people here because you guys understand that. You see, before HGTV ever found us, David and I were very vocal about God’s ways are best in business. God’s ways are best, you know, whenever you’re out there building a business. But at the same time, we saw some of the craziness that was going on in culture. specifically back when Obama switched his position on marriage back in 2012. And David and I were very vocal about these things, specifically on marriage and life. When it came to marriage, we said, hey, listen, God defined marriage. Man, if you remove the man-woman ingredient, like one man, one woman, if you remove one of those two ingredients from marriage, you’re not left with marriage. That would be like removing chocolate from brownies. You’re left with blondies, and real men don’t eat those. No. They don’t. No way. And then when it comes to pro-life, we were raised by Pastor Dad, like what you heard the panel up here talking. It’s not just another issue. It’s the issue. Because any time that God plans for deliverance, Satan counteracts that with destruction. And we see that in the Scripture. Remember, the children of Israel, they’re enslaved in Egypt. They cried out for a deliverer, and God sent them a baby. Right? His name started with an M and ends with Osis. Right? Moses, he sent him in the form of a baby at the same time. See, God sent a baby to be a deliverer at the same time. What was the plan that Satan hatched in Pharaoh’s mind to do with the babies? Kill the babies. A couple thousand years later, it was time for God to send the ultimate deliverer, the one that everybody had cried out for, and he sent his own son. In what form did he send him? Amen. A baby, what was the plan hatched in Herod’s mind at the exact same time? Kill the babies. So it’s always about life. And both sides are missing it now. I hate that, but both sides are missing it. So David and I were vocal about these things. And it changed the narrative about us online. This is back in 2010, 11, 12. We became bigots, haters, right wing, everything-a-phobic. Because you know that that’s what happens when you stand for truth, is that you’re smeared online. So when HGTV signed us to our letters of intent, I remember the attorneys at HGTV discovered this online narrative and started pushing back a little bit. And I felt fear. I remember getting a phone call from our production company and she said, hey, the attorneys are pushing back a little bit, guys. We’re gonna have to work through this. And I felt fear when she was talking to me because I didn’t want to lose this platform. HG said they’re gonna put us in millions of homes. And we were excited to shine the light of Christ into millions of homes. And now that was threatened. But I remember saying a quick little snap prayer and God gave me just the right thing. I said, you know, we’re not anti-anything regardless of what some of these labels may say. We’re pro-Jesus and that makes us pro-Bible. We believe that God’s blessings are found inside of God’s boundaries. And if we really love people, we don’t just talk about the blessed life. We gotta talk about the boundaries you need to stay inside of in order to get those blessings. Because that’s what we do with our kids, don’t we? If you remove the boundaries, blessings are replaced with burdens. You wanna know what her response was? She said, oh, that’s good, because almost all of us at the production company, everybody that I know at HGTV, and even your agents, who were the Kardashians agents. We did not know that when we hired them. Yes. But listen, she said, even your agents out of Beverly Hills believe just like you guys do, but none of us are willing to talk about it. You see, because that’s the stronghold. When our greatest communicators, so many pastors today, would be enslaved by their congregations and they would not speak the truth. And I praise God for the pastors that do. We just saw some of them. Right? So, yes, that deserves an applause. We try to tell them, listen, your platform is not just a stage for you to stand on. It’s an altar for you to burn on. You’ve got to lay down and burn like a living sacrifice. Well, I’m all big talk because whenever I had that time where that production company called, I felt fear. Like I knew what it felt like in that moment to maybe just back up just a little bit. Well, I spoke that to her and she said, we believe just like you guys do, but none of us are willing to talk about it. And I remember hanging up the phone, and it was a great conversation. I thought, whew, dodged a bullet there. Two weeks went by. Didn’t get a phone call, email, text, nothing from HGTV, our agents, or the production company. And I honestly thought we were getting dumped. And I had never been dumped before. I had to go to him for advice. I’m like… How’s this work, man? I mean, this is new territory for me. We’re all 14 years old living in Dallas, and I walk in the bedroom, he’s bawling his eyes out, listening to REO Speedwagon. I can’t fight this feeling any longer, man. If you’re under 40, you don’t even know who REO Speedwagon is. Yeah, you should Google him. Thank me later. I remember telling David, I said, I think we’re gonna lose the show. And he said, I feel the same way. So we got down on our knees and said this prayer. Something sounded like this. God, would you please give us a show? Do you have any idea what we’re gonna do for you if you give us a show? Right, in the middle of that prayer, God gave me an idea. Let’s write HGTV an email. At least I thought God gave me this idea. Let’s write this email to HGTV and try to save our show. So he wrote it, I read it, and I was like, oh, this is gonna work. Here’s what it basically said. HG, these are our beliefs, and we’re never gonna back off of those. Oh, don’t get too excited yet. However, when we represent your network in public, we’ll be quiet about them. Now, don’t you judge me. He wrote it. Oh, come on. You told me to write it. He wrote it and I approved it. And here’s the scariest part. Follow me. We both felt a peace about it. But that was a false peace because in that moment we were operating out of a fear of man rather than a fear of God. Why? Because we were focusing on that platform we didn’t want to lose rather than the person who put it there in the first place. And anytime you focus on that thing that God has given to you and he wants you to have it, anytime you focus on that thing and you wrap your fingers around it, you’re now enslaved by that thing. There’s your new master. That’s your idol. You’re deaf, blind, and dumb, and you don’t even know it. David and I started operating strategically in the mind, no longer spiritually in the heart, because we were working for God, no longer with God. Now, we had enough spiritual upbringing to know don’t send it to HG right away. Let’s send it to a spiritual mentor of ours and see if he could agree with us. So we kinda went through the list. We picked a pastor friend that we thought would agree with us. We knew not to send it to our dad. We knew what he would say. We sure as heck weren’t gonna send it to Tony Perkins. So we sent it to this pastor friend of ours, and you know what? Within three minutes, he sent an email back. He said, how dare you boys write an email like this? This isn’t who you are. How do you know that God isn’t raising you both up for a time just like this? Not to have a reality show, but to tear down a stronghold that’s keeping Christians silent about things that matter. He said, you don’t need to click send. You need to get on your knees and repent. And that’s exactly what we did. And we knew what Peter must have felt when he promised Jesus to his very face, I’ll never deny you. And that night he did it three times. You see, boldness apart from brokenness makes a bully. God had to break us of our man-pleasing spirit, of our fear of man, before he put us on the stage to stand bold. And we discovered from that that the secret to courage is first recognizing your inner coward, but then allowing the Holy Spirit to unleash your inner lion. So let me wrap this story up. After that two-week period of time, we get a random phone call from the executive producer and he said, are we gonna start filming or what? This is in the spring of 2014. We were like, absolutely. They brought the crew from Waco. They start filming. We get into a 10-week film shoot. We get five weeks in and at the end of the fifth week, the general manager calls us and says, guys, I’ve got great news. This was at 9 p.m. at night. She said, I have great news. All the endorsements, all the advertisers are calling in. Disney World wants to be featured on one of the episodes. We’ve got automotive manufacturers all want you in their vehicles. This is going to be great. But there’s an activist group out of California that called us. And then she went through this whole litany of things. They do not want you to have a show. But don’t worry, she said to us, we believe the two of you and your families, you’re going to be stars on this network. Okay, that felt great. Well, the next morning we wake up and we’re getting texts from friends across the country. Hey, what’s up with your show? I don’t know, we’re gonna be stars. That’s really all we know. They said, have you seen HGTV’s Facebook page? No. So we went to the Facebook page. There were about four or five million people on that page, and it said right at the very top, one sentence, we are reviewing the Benham Brothers show. And underneath it, hundreds of comments, the most disgusting comments about us and our families, our wives and kids. It was crazy. We were like, what on earth happened? Well, that activist group didn’t like the fact that HG was gonna stick with us, so they tapped their good friend, right wing watch on the shoulder. They said, write a new article about the brothers. And by this point, we were public figures, so they can smear us all they want. You see that in today’s mainstream media. And they just wrote a whole bunch of nonsense about us and then started to mobilize their network. And this was 10 years ago. They started mobilizing and then just bombarding HGTV and all their social media handles right through the night that by 6 a.m. that next morning, HG had posted that one sentence. Well, we didn’t know what was gonna happen that day. We had a 10 a.m. call time for the set. So we went to the set and we’re getting mic’d up and I got a text from the GM and said, hey, can you and your brother hop on a quick conference call with me and two executives out of Scripps, New York? So Jason and I went and found a quiet place and we put it on speakerphone right out of the gate. Guys, we’re canceling the show. Well, after I got Jason out of the fetal position, knocked the thumb out of his mouth, the first word that came to my mouth was thank you for believing in us. And I said, you just got bullied into this, and we are not about to back down now. And I remember, the next two weeks, we were on 200 one-on-one interviews. All the CNNs and the Foxes, O’Reilly’s producer and Hannity’s producer were fighting over which one was gonna come on, and then Good Morning America was in the living room. The next thing you know, we’re on TMZ, Nightline, and then Bill Maher wanted us on HBO. So we were on HBO with Bill Maher. He said we were the nitwit twin brothers that believe the same dumb book that millions of Americans believe. You know what an honor it is to be called a nitwit for Jesus? You know, here’s what we learned in the middle of all of that. We don’t fight for victory, we fight from it. The battle’s already been won, but God wants us to stand. Just like Jack Hibbs says, whether our heart ruptures or we get raptured, either way, we’re gonna stand. And when Jesus says, do not prepare beforehand what to speak, when you are drugged before magistrates and kings, then I will fill you with my Holy Spirit. We can rest assured, guys, and be filled with hope that the Holy Spirit, when we choose to stand, the Holy Spirit is gonna be right there with us. So right now let’s stoke the fires of God’s word in our heart. Let’s stoke the fires of biblical community because cold separated soon die out. Let’s tie in, let’s lock in, let’s begin discipling. Let’s love our spouses even when it’s hard. Let’s raise our children, let’s tip our servers. Let’s be God’s people and shine God’s light. Now is not a time for us to shrink back in fear. Now is a time for us to stand firm by faith. You know, this moment that we’re in is not new to the church. I wanna give you a quote before I even read this scripture. Dr. Elton Trueblood, who was the former chaplain for both Harvard and Stanford universities in the early 1900s, he was asked later in his life, in the 50s, what’s it gonna be like for the church in America in the last part of the 20th century? Listen to what he, in the later part of this century, he said, by the year 2000, he said this, this was like 50 years ago, by the year 2000, Christians in America will be a conscious minority surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. And that’s exactly where we are today. So what are we supposed to do? Well, let’s look at Acts 4.29. They were surrounded by an arrogant, militant paganism. Look at how the disciples prayed. And now, Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your servants may continue to speak your word with great boldness. Now is the time to be bold and take a stand in Jesus’ name. God bless you guys.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, thank you so, so much for tuning in to this special edition of Washington Watch. I’m Jody Heiss. And what you’ve just heard was the Benham brothers. They were at our 2024 Pray Vote Stand Summit. Hope you enjoyed the program today. If you missed any portion of it or if you’d like to go back and visit, revisit and see what else was on there or. encourage others to do the same you can do so by going to our stand firm app if you don’t already have it you can get it and it’s easy to get go to the app store or google play wherever you get your apps or simply text the word app to six seven seven four two that’s app to 67742. All right, unfortunately, that’s all the time we have. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hope you’ll come back tomorrow for more of Washington Watch.
SPEAKER 10 :
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit TonyPerkins.com.
