Join us as we unveil the ACLJ’s ambitious media initiative, Choice Begins Here, aiming to combat the negative portrayal of pro-life resource centers. We also discuss the legal challenges faced by street preachers in Chicago, highlighting the ongoing struggle for religious freedom. Lastly, we get an insight from ACLJ Jerusalem as we bridge understanding between Israeli officials and American evangelical leaders.
SPEAKER 03 :
Democrats on Capitol Hill plot massive disruption of Trump’s renewal of the American Dream speech.
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Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 03 :
And now your host, Logan Sekula. Welcome to Sekula. We are talking about tonight’s not State of the Union, but essentially a replace of the State of the Union for your first year in term. And that will be tonight, the joint sessions hearing or not hearing. That’s the wrong word. Speech. Speech. which President Trump is calling the renewal of the American dream speech. It’ll be interesting to watch, but there is mass protests planned. Who knows if it will actually happen at this joint sessions of Congress, but here’s the deal. We also wanted to give you a breaking news item that just came out as we were going live, and that is a new update from President Zelensky of Ukraine. President Zelensky, of course, had that heated conversation with President Trump at the White House last week. And it sort of all broke apart, even the potential mineral deal. And we saw this go back and forth and back and forth and the infighting that happened. And now you have an apology essentially coming in from President Zelensky saying it’s time to get a deal done. So the pressure from the United States. At the same time as the United States puts the tariffs on Mexico and on Canada today, I guess they see that President Trump and the administration mean business. And this is where we’re at. And I think we have a statement from Vladimir Zelensky.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. In a lengthy post on X, he wrote, among other things, this. Our meeting in Washington at the White House on Friday did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. it is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it anytime and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step forward toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively. So a reversal from the tone, calling that meeting regrettable that it happened that way. It’s time to make things right. almost pleading to sign the minerals deal saying we will do it any convenient way for you uh and we will see now how the trump administration responds we know the treasury secretary just yesterday was saying that deal was off the table because of the way that things fell apart but we’ll see if this is a step back to negotiating it will be i think this is all part of the plan typically isn’t the negotiation tactic of president trump is always this and it always seems to work
SPEAKER 03 :
So it’s pretty interesting to watch. Of course, you have, again, Zelensky making these big statements saying it was regrettable, wasn’t how we planned on it. Let’s go ahead and get this deal done. So I think that’s a positive movement. We’ll see what President Trump and the administration has to say. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800. 6 8 4 31 10 that’s 1 800 6 8 4 31 10 and we are talking about and previewing tonight’s speech by president trump again this is usually when the state of the union is slotted that doesn’t happen on your first term i just want to make sure our first uh year in term i want to make sure people understand what they’re going to see but it will have similar tone similar feelings and emotions uh that will be coming out of presenting really what a future could look like but at the same time well before we head to break There are plans for disruptions, plans for a little bit of chaos in the Capitol tonight.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right. There are some Democrats that are saying they won’t show up at all, but then there’s other groups within the Democrat Party that are looking at multiple ways to make a disruption. Some are planning walkouts at specific times, kind of forecasting the topics that he may hit, that they will just get up and walk out of the chamber. There are others that have been talking about bringing props Some would just be messages, signs like Rashida Tlaib had when Bibi Netanyahu spoke before the joint session of Congress. But then there are other things like empty egg cartons or even things like noisemakers, kazoos, hand clappers and other things to cause disruption while the president is speaking before this joint session of Congress.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, but that’s coming, obviously, on our day two. of our Life and Liberty Drive here at the ACLJ. And we want you to be a part of it right now. A couple of great ways to do it. If you’re watching online, scan that QR code, go to aclj.org, make that donation. If you’re listening, go to aclj.org. All donations are doubled right now. Someone matches it. Another ACLJ member, ACLJ champion, is ready to unlock their matching donation if you donate today. So I encourage you right now. We had a big day yesterday. Let’s keep it going at aclj.org. Again, phone lines are open. Give me a call. Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We are again discussing the Democrat boycott that may be happening tonight. Again, Will said they may, maybe they won’t boycott. Maybe they’re going to bring, what’s he say, egg cartons, red cards like a soccer game. Right. Where they’re going to say, you know, two yellows get red and you get thrown out of the game.
SPEAKER 05 :
Which some people may say is anti-American in and of itself, trying to do a soccer reference in a joint session of Congress. I know some people on the control room side may agree with that statement.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love soccer, but I don’t think that that’s a good idea. It just comes off kind of lame. There’s always the jokes that Democrats can’t meme, and I feel like that’s sort of that. The trolling… is really below average. They think it’s very clever to do a red card like they’re the referee, but yet… How San Francisco? I mean, that’s what it feels like. It just feels like old Pelosi. It feels like old San Francisco being like, hmm, we’re going to show a… Yeah, get a red card or even the egg cartons or even just sort of the silliness. that goes on within this whole moment and of course we don’t know what president trump’s speech will be we assume we have a good idea he’ll sure he’ll hit the top topics uh talk about inflation talk about uh the wars the endless wars that are happening and of course this also comes on just a few minutes ago as president zielinski put out a statement saying i’m ready to get back to the negotiating table and i regret the way things went last week i i
SPEAKER 05 :
as pressure is mounting uh you know justin trudeau was just on who again isn’t he on the way out right well he is still in that seat while the uh parliament in canada is suspended until they have re-elections so he’s kind of um it’s still in limbo because he is the prime minister but as soon as they hold these elections which should be towards the end of this month okay then he will no longer be the prime minister he’s like a lame duck president but
SPEAKER 03 :
by his own accord. I don’t know. It’s an odd situation there in Canada, but he’s saying, you know, we’re never going to be the 51st state, which look, I believe that all of that again is classic art of the deal. President Trump negotiating tactics. It’s put pressure on and really ask for somewhat ridiculous things to then actually get to the deal you want. Uh, I think these moments, when you see someone like Trudeau coming out, making these, you know, he is going to regret this. This is a dumb decision. At the same time, those tariffs are in place. Now the tariffs are in place in Mexico. Look, you may agree or disagree. And I’m curious if you think these tariffs are a good idea. Give me a call. Tell me what you think. 1-800-684-3110. But what it shows to the world, including Ukraine, is, hey, we’re willing to do this to our neighbors. We’re willing to put these tariffs on where it’s needed the most for, of course, they’re saying for drug issues that are coming through the border, both sides, fentanyl issues. Um, But then you have Ukraine, who also had all of their funding stopped. And of course, all their funding stopped overnight. And then all of a sudden, they’re back to the negotiating table.
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It’s easy to talk tough until the checks stop coming. You can talk tough, and it was a bad negotiating tactic on his part. But I think he had gotten away with that for so long during the Biden administration, mainly because, which we talked about yesterday, when Biden lost his temper with Vladimir Zelensky, It didn’t really change anything. So I think he got accustomed to being able to be tough with the American president and even having that American president lose their temper on you, but still continue to receive the funding. What was different here and a miscalculation by him is that he tried that same tactic. It didn’t work. He got kicked out. He didn’t get a deal. And President Trump said no more funding. But I also want to talk about these protesters and those that are going to disrupt. You remember back when Obamacare debate was going on, President Obama was talking about Obamacare during his State of the Union speech. And Joe Wilson from South Carolina shouted, you lie from the gallery and everyone in the D.C. class. were so outraged that someone made a single sound, shouted one thing during the president’s State of the Union address. Now they’re openly talking about, almost with glee,
SPEAKER 03 :
about the red cards the cartons some are saying that they could be planning to be holding up pocket-sized constitutions because they think president trump is shredding the constitution never mind what uh president biden did over the last four years well speaking of shredding remember that just a few years ago when president trump made his state of the union speech after he you know gave all of these great tributes to incredible americans and people uh nancy pelosi’s shredded it behind him right making these big statements now look i’m not necessarily opposed to this from a personal point of view. I kind of like the UK Parliament. I like the screaming, fighting side of this. When I watched the Zelensky thing, it was kind of like, all right, now we’re talking here because you’re seeing this in front of the pub. By the way, all of these things, I’ve said this before, all of these things happen behind closed doors. If you’ve ever been in any of the meetings with world leaders, Guess what? Pretty tense. Guess what? There’s a lot of screaming going on. I hate to break it to you. It’s not all, you know, tea time. It is pretty hardcore. You just happen to see it in front of the cameras. And this is something that other countries have seen in front of the cameras for decades. They’ve seen a bit of the showmanship. They’ve seen a bit of the pomp and circumstance. And I like that. I like a little bit of it. Now, do I want us to be in chaos at all times? No. But do I want to see my president being strong? Sure. Do I want to see now? Do I want it to feel like it’s a scripted setup? No, I would like it to feel real. And I do feel in those moments it felt pretty real. So much so that you’re seeing kind of the the back off from Zelensky. I think he knows he took the bait a little bit.
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And when you looked at the past four years when it was just completely dull and there was no excitement or action coming from our leadership, when you see this kind of razzle dazzle, it really starts to bring back the excitement about, wow, our country is strong. When he talks about making America great again, we didn’t feel that way as a nation because of the division, but also because of the leadership. But now you start to see strength again. And that’s contrary to what everyone on the left in Congress and in the media class would have you believe. That is genuinely what people voted for. They wanted strength. They didn’t want our leaders to, out of fear, back down to smaller nations. And so we end up… continually giving them our taxpayer dollars it’s really easy for a politician to sign a check over to a foreign nation because at the end of the day it’s the american people’s money it’s not their money and so the stewardship of the government is something that has lacked for a long time when you grow the bureaucracy when you see how out of control it’s become and i think that’s going to be a large theme of tonight as well bringing in the Doge cuts, the things of that nature. I think we’re going to see these things that the American people voted for that they’ve done in just over a month that the people at home watching will be excited about. But then Democrats in the crowd are going to be holding up pocket constitutions or making noise. That’s not going to play well for them.
SPEAKER 03 :
And the media will slam it. The media will say that it’s horrible, that it’s everything that we were fearing that it was going to be from President Trump. You know the talking points already. You’ll have Van Jones crying. You’ll have those things happen because that’s what happens after any speech from President Trump, even though he was elected in pretty much a landslide, a 2025 landslide, 2024 landslide. What that would be is a few percentage points at this point. But look, I hope President Trump plays to the whole crowd too. I hope he won over a lot of people with people like Tulsi Gabbard and RFK. I hope he talks about that. Hope he shows that he’s willing to work and willing to work with people who have different points of view. He’s shown it. The proof is already there. But now, reach out to the American people. Don’t care about who’s sitting there in that room because they’re not going to cheer for you. They’re not going to change their mind. It’s sort of the old nomenclature of that. It’s like, go for the audience that cares. Don’t go for the audience that is going to boo you regardless, that is going to… get up and walk out. You’re not going to win them over. All they’re doing is playing politics for their own constituents. All they’re doing is trying to make it look like, you know, they want to, they want to be the show. They want to be the ones who make the noise. They want to be the ones that show up on television. Uh, again, I would put Zelinsky in the very similar situation where I’ve said this and I know people like it or don’t like it. Uh, I don’t care what you think about his politics. I don’t care what you think about the war. I mean, I do care, but you know what I mean? It doesn’t matter. The guy sells a Ukrainian first agenda pretty darn well. He’s able to go to the White House, make a stink three years into it, get all of Hollywood back on his side, get everyone talking about Ukraine when everyone pretty much had forgotten. And all of a sudden he gets fully all of Europe to join back together and the UK to say we’re going to send boots on the ground if we need to. That is a master salesman. And look, I don’t put that past him. So don’t treat people like they’re dumb or like they’re stupid and they’re going to do this. All of this is well thought out. Now, the difference is you have a wild card. That wild card is President Trump. You don’t know what he’s going to do because any other politician would not do what he’s doing. He would not slap the tariffs on. He would not cut the aid. There’s usually a lot of big talking and not a lot of doing. We’re seeing a very different world right now. Whether you agree with it or not, you can at least all agree that things are changing. And I want to hear from you. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. Yesterday, we launched our new campaign, Choice Begins Here, our pro-life campaign that we hope to take across the country. It’s launching right now in Massachusetts, where pro-life pregnancy centers are under attack by their own state. We decided we couldn’t just do that. We couldn’t just take that. As we saw 30% decline in people going to pro-life resource centers and a 30% rise in abortions in that area. That means their ad campaign was working. So we decided to take it on ourselves and rallied with you all. And we’re going to continue to rally to build it stronger and stronger. In the next segment, we’re going to premiere our second ad that is running right now. We have already seen hundreds of people go to this website. to find out where to go to go to a pro-life pregnancy resource center. Imagine the lives that have already potentially been saved because of you. Donations are doubled right now. Do it. ACLJ.org. We’re back in just a minute. Perfect time to go make that donation. Welcome back to Seculo. Senior Attorney CeCe Hiles joining us in studio. I want to give a big ACLJ update. You may remember just last week we were talking about Britt Rao, who was a street preacher in Chicago that was unlawfully arrested, detained, and our lawyer, our legal team, was able to go into court. We had him on here live saying, you know, we brought in, we showed their evidence, didn’t even make it to trial. They threw it out and said, he’s free to go. Now, It’s only been about a week, week and a half maybe since that. But we have an update because clearly some police forces have not been informed. They don’t know enough about this. Even when we make sure they know other things happen and there’s another street preacher or two street preachers in Chicago, same spot, same situation. Give us update.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, it’s unfortunate because it’s the same exact spot, it’s the same exact situation. Street preachers just exercising their constitutionally protected right to be able to stand in a public place and preach the gospel they can you know that’s what the first amendment protects whether it’s religious speech whether it’s political speech you have the right to be there and you have the right to speak so again it was a great win when we you know got um not pastor but mr rayo off because he was preaching and obviously when the prosecutor saw it when we were able to give them the evidence drop the charges because there was nothing there but it’s unfortunate that these police officers in chicago continued their pattern and practice to target anyone preaching the gospel on the streets they will arrest and now these two new clients they arrested them and they actually were in jail for six hours yeah for most of the day that’s right so we now are defending two new clients. We will defend them in these cases. But we are also bringing a case against Chicago because they cannot continue this pattern and practice of, you know, discriminating and going against our clients’ constitutional rights. And it does seem to be a pattern in practice. I think we actually had another attorney reach out to us and say, He’s had clients that have been arrested for the same thing. So clearly there are Chicago policemen that are enforcing a law wrongfully and they need to be educated and this needs to stop.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Cece, this is the importance of the work of the great legal team of the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 05 :
When you support the ACLJ, this is the type of work that you’re supporting each and every day. and when we have attorneys that go they get the facts of the case they educate the client on their constitutional protections and then they go and advocate for them in court and get the charges thrown out that’s a great win but our work doesn’t stop there because a lot of times in these cases it showcases not just an individual violation of someone’s rights but a pattern and practice of violation of constitutional rights that we can fight back on. An individual may, in the first case, receive a fine or some sort of sentence and doesn’t even necessarily have the means to fight that. But we provide our legal services here at the ACLJ at no cost to the client. But then these other two individuals that were arrested were friends of our first client. and our attorneys were able to educate them before they went out on their constitutional rights, how to be within the law so that they could go out and then said, if anything happens to you, come back and we’ll defend you. Sure enough, they were arrested, spent time in jail, And now we have seen that this pattern is something that the ACLJ needs to take on at a bigger level. We need to fight back to protect everyone in Chicago’s constitutional rights. And when you support the ACLJ in this life and liberty drive, you are a part of that protection. You are helping fight for these individuals and to make sure that their constitutional rights and yours are protected.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right. And that is something that is very important to point out, that when the ACLJ takes on these cases and whether that’s a nurse whose conscious rights have been violated for being forced to perform an abortion, when we get these policies overturned, We are not just winning a win for our client, but we are winning a win for every person who is in that same position. And as we see over and over again, it’s usually not just one person, just like we’ve seen in this case. It’s not just one street preacher. That has been targeted. It is multiple ones. And so the fact that we’re able to come in and at an administrative hearing, come in and write this wrong, we’ve uncovered a bigger wrong and we’ll write that and it will take on and cover a myriad of people, not just one.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep. That’s what the ACLJ is doing. Also what we’re doing right now, you heard me talk about the last segment is we are rolling out our new campaign. Choice begins here is our pro-life campaign, our campaign specifically for the support of pro-life pregnancy resource centers, starting in the state and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where those resource centers usually run by incredibly sweet volunteers are being brutally supported. brutally attacked in the media and in the press and in this marketing campaign that the state is funding and I saw it firsthand and said we had to do something so we’ve come up with this new campaign and we’re going to roll out the second ad today and then after that I’m going to tell you how you can support it because if they’re coming to Massachusetts it’s going to be rolling out around the country we need your support so here’s our second ad and the choice begins here campaign I was on a path
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The first in my family to go to college. A dream, right? I worked so hard to get there, pursue a career. Then I got pregnant. I was devastated. I thought I only had one choice. That’s all I ever heard around campus. That’s all my friends ever told me. But that just didn’t feel right. I went to a pregnancy resource center. Everything I heard about those places were wrong. They gave me options. They gave me resources. And I thought, maybe there’s a path forward for the both of us. It turns out, you can have it all.
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Right, honey? Right, mommy. To find a pregnancy resource center near you, go to choicebeginshere.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
And these ads are running all through the state of Massachusetts, but they’re also very targeted, very specifically to areas where not only the other campaign is running, but to where abortion clinics are, to where major universities are, where it is the hot spots, if you will, that really need our support for life. These organizations, I know this is different for us. You usually hear about us taking it to the law, and we’re doing that too. And I want CeCe to chime in on that. But this is rolled out, this is happening right now. You are seeing these throughout the state. And what we’ve seen, the rollout started last weekend, just two, three days ago. We have seen hundreds and hundreds of people go to the website already to find out where to find a pregnancy resource center. And again, this is targeted to one state. So imagine the lives that already have been saved and will be saved because of your support and because we were able to build a base. Now we raised $500,000. That may sound like a lot, but it wasn’t. They have millions of dollars already committed from the state and from other pro-choice, pro-abortion organizations to fund this ad campaign for the next year. This only takes us for a few months. So we need your support right now. I’m going to encourage you to do it. It’s the life and liberty drive. I know you’re going to hear me talk about it a lot, but this is incredibly important to me. This is incredibly important to the future of the ACLJ. Again, that’s at ACLJ.org slash life and liberty. CC, I’ll actually stay on through the next segment here, and we’ll discuss a bit of how we’re also taking this issue, this situation, and also taking it to the courts. Because I know that you may go, Logan, what’s the difference? Why do we care about the media? Well, the media is how you change hearts and minds. The law is how we change actually how things get done. We got to have both. You can’t have this show. You would never know about anything we do if it wasn’t for shows like this or for our incredible media team. And again, none of this is free. So go to ACLJ.org and support the work. We know when it comes in during the show, it’s because you care about this very important issue. Second half hour of the show coming up. Don’t miss it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. I would love to hear from you. We’ve got a lot of lines open, I’ll be honest. We’ve got a lot of people watching online. We’ve got a lot of people watching on Salem News Channel or across all of our platforms. But no calls. Maybe because you’re just listening. You’re hearing our impassioned thoughts here. You’re learning about things. But I want to hear from you. How do you feel about this new pro-life campaign we’re rolling out? How do you feel about the potential boycott tonight of President Trump’s speech from members of Congress? Join us right now. 1-800-684-3110. You just saw our Choice Begins Here ad for our second ad. We’ll have new ads all week. We’re going to keep talking about it because I believe it’s incredibly important to be involved in media and to be involved in advocacy at all levels. But of course, the ACLJ, we also do that in the courts. And CeCe, I want to make sure people know that in Massachusetts, in this area, and again, they said they’re starting there and want to take this to all pro-choice states, really. And we’re going to be there, hopefully, to fight back if you guys will allow us. And you allow us by making your donation. But we are involved in a court battle.
SPEAKER 01 :
Absolutely. And I’m going to just reiterate what you said, because we’ve been fighting Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion platform for a long, long time, for decades. And what we have seen, they literally have handbooks on how to attack. You know, PRCs, pregnancy resource centers, and they literally do start in a place where they think they can win. But the plan is to go then across the United States. And so you’re exactly right. People, if they’re thinking this is just in Massachusetts, why do I care about that? It’s because this is their testing ground. And you’re exactly right. If they win in Massachusetts, we will see this targeting of pregnancy resource centers across the United States, really just defaming them, slandering them, painting them in bad light. So not only have we done a media campaign, which is, I think, amazing, amazing that we’re hitting them head on and telling the truth about PRCs, but we also have filed in court. And so we are taking them on in the court system right now that the response was they filed a motion to dismiss and we’re waiting on the judge to rule on that. And, you know, if we have to, we’ll appeal. But hopefully the judge will do the right thing and hopefully we’ll go forward and outline how Massachusetts cannot do this.
SPEAKER 05 :
The argument that we’re making before the court, Cece, is that the government of Massachusetts is discriminating against our client and silencing them by this ad campaign trying to stop their free speech rights, their constitutional rights, and through that helping others. And we know that that is working. We have seen data. Abortions are up in the state, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nearly 30%. And conversely, the visits are dropping to pregnancy resource centers. That shows that the concept of an ad campaign isn’t just abstract, that the government is funding it because they know it’s working. So we are going to, one, try and get the government to knock it off. But we also are doing this ad campaign to utilize our free speech and these pregnancy resource centers’ free speech to tell people the truth so that we can actually help them save lives.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and they’re very thankful that we’re doing this. I mean, we’re getting incredible responses from the pregnancy resource centers, also from the people of Massachusetts who are emotionally devastated by seeing their tax dollars go to this funding. Even the ones that are Democrats, we’re looking at it and going, this is not what we stand for here. And we’re able to fight back. We’re able to do this because of you. There’s a lot of calls and comments coming in. I know I said call, and you did. Someone said, all the lines are busy, Logan. Is something wrong? No, it’s because you all called. There is one line open at 1-800-684-3110. Before we go to break, though, Will, I do want to encourage people to not only stay in touch with the ACLJ, but we do have the news item we were discussing. And of course, why don’t you take it just for a brief 30 seconds for those that are just joining us.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. Democrats are planning disruptions in tonight’s joint session of Congress speech from President Trump. Many are protesting by not showing up. Others are planning to protest during the speech, whether it be causing a ruckus, walking out, making noise, holding up signs. We’re going to see their true colors tonight as they try and disrupt a speech whose theme is renewal of the American dream. And we will bring you updates on that tomorrow to see how it did play out.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we’ll be back in just a moment. Jeff Balaban’s going to be joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem with a really important update on how the ACLJ team is responding in Israel and helping connect those dots where necessary to make sure American values are presented in our friend Israel. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your voices later on in the show. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110. We’re now joined by Jeff Balaban in ACLJ Jerusalem, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. We’ve heard him on the show many times. But Jeff, what I want to talk about today, there’s been a lot of talk in the world, whether it’s dealing with Ukraine, dealing with other situations. We’ve got to make sure we don’t lose sight of what’s happening in Israel. But you have actually been doing a pretty important part of what ACLJ Jerusalem, the reason why ACLJ Jerusalem exists. And that’s been sort of being that bridge from the Israeli officials, the Israeli world, to a lot of the Christian evangelical world, even in America, to make sure things don’t get lost in translation. And it’s a big part of what the ACLJ does. And I want to make sure that you have an opportunity to kind of explain what that role is and what you’ve been doing the last few days.
SPEAKER 02 :
Sure. Well, alongside all the work we do simultaneously on combating anti-Semitism all over the world, including America, including the universities, which is ongoing, here in Jerusalem, we have a unique role. And this week, something happened that’s a perfect example. This week, a series of an envoy, a group of envoys from the United States, major pastors, Christian leaders, very close to President Trump, and names that are very well known, although I’m not going to share them here, are here in Israel visiting, and there have been a series of meetings, and among them, meetings with some very senior generals and members of the security forces here, like the Mossad. And I was there, and I was asked to be there, really, actually on the Israeli side, to help each side understand the other. It’s starting off at a place of tremendous friendship and affection and respect and warmth. And yet, you know, Israel is a tiny country living in a terrible region, surrounded by terrible people, and is always concerned about its own survival. And Jews ourselves are a very small minority in the world and have never really lost that sense. And here come American Christian leaders who represent the global superpower and are themselves part of major religion, which, you know, with many, many followers, dwarfs the number of Jews in the world. And so there’s naturally going to be difference in understanding of how the world works, of even what’s possible. And the truth is, I think the Americans come to the table with a greater idea of what’s possible under Donald Trump, with President Trump, working with him, than Israel is even able to conceive of. And so Israel is living with its concerns and fears about how the world is going to respond and react. Just being able to bridge that gap and brought in to effectively explain to the American Christian leaders what it is that Israel is feeling and thinking and to the Israeli security leaders what it is when the Americans are talking, what’s possible in the world with this administration was really a remarkable meeting and one of the series that we’re having here now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Jeff, I want to also bring up one we’ve talked about on this show, that there needs to be more work done within the evangelical community in the United States. One, to shore up more support for Israel, to remind the evangelical community of the history and the necessity of the state of Israel in today’s world. And unfortunately to some degree is, and not just to some degree, Israel is used to having nations not like them. The United Nations is not a friendly body towards the state of Israel. So having one, you there to be able to bridge that gap to a group of evangelical leaders that are eager to help the state of Israel and to take that back to the United States is, With a group of Israelis that are welcoming, but probably have a healthy dose of skepticism of anyone because of the history that we know, unfortunately, is reality of so many non-allies that in even the United States over the last four years that have not been fully behind the state of Israel. And also the cultural differences, knowing that the way that evangelicals in America talk is different than the way people in Israel talk. And having you who is fluent in both to be able to bridge that gap is just an enormous testament to the work and the impact ACLJ Jerusalem can make.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, I think the fact that they invited me to participate specifically for that reason, to help really bridge that gap. And again, it’s a gap among friends. It’s a gap among true, deep friends. And there was no negativity. There was just, I think, surprise that the Israelis didn’t understand how much was possible now and surprise that the Americans didn’t understand just how concerned Israel is because it’s not all about Donald Trump. There’s also Europe. But you just raised, William, a really important point. And this was beneficial to me because afterwards- There was a long meeting just between me and the evangelical leaders, and I was discussing something we always talk about, the concern about where younger evangelicals are over the last couple of decades on Israel. And the good news I’m hearing is that there is a gap now. There’s sort of an 18 to 30-year-old problem that we have. But the next generation down, Generation Z, one of the pastors there mentioned, he calls them Generation Zion, which I love. Generation Z is coming back to this, coming back to the support of Israel and the Jewish people because they’re watching what’s happening in the world and they’re glomming on to where Donald Trump is taking America. And so hopefully that entire narrative shifts, you know, the rising tide that will lift everything. And obviously we’re very hopeful and praying that that’s true. But yes, we are keeping an eye on that. And that’s why we work with other groups as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think there is that moment happening. The concern is that the media and the people that are in control of the media will be the people who can control the media. If anyone’s worked in it, a lot of these guys hang around 20, 30, 40, 50 years. I mean, if you actually look at the ages of some of the people that… If you think sometimes in… In Congress and the Senate, these are older people. A lot of times you go to media, these are guys who’ve been in it their whole lives and maybe they have a specific perspective. It’s hard to break through that. You almost have to have a generational change. And that’s exciting because there is a generational change happening. I can see it just among my friends and their children because my age are now having kids that are old enough to get involved in these situations where maybe the kids of the generation before mine were then taught a very liberal point of view. where the universities they were going to were warping their opinions. I can actually say that I’ve seen within colleges, the student body, some of the new student body reject what the faculty is doing because the faculty is giving them the wrong. We talk a lot about student protests and it’s happening. We also have to remember who the teachers are. And a lot of times, as we’ve uncovered many times, it is the teachers that are putting this bug in their ear.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yeah. Look, I mean, first of all, there’s going to be a gap, meaning even if the younger generation is coming back in the right direction, there’s a gap there of a couple of decades worth of problem who are going to be the leaders and the voters. So we still we need to win hearts and minds, as you were talking about before. No question. And let’s talk about the schools, because, you know, schools are back in session now and we’re seeing anti-Semitism through the roof at the exact same elite universities in America that are producing also leaders. And just one gruesome example, I saw there is a at the University of Michigan for the Bebas family, for the babies and the mother that were slaughtered. And of course it was defaced with threats against Jews and pro-Palestine messages. And that very same university, the president was overheard on a phone line, it was somehow leaked, where he was complaining about the federal government wanting to fight anti-Semitism. He says, yeah, what about Islamophobia? And, you know, and he complains about, you know, like the powerful people, meaning, i.e., you know, the powerful people with money, the Jews are really behind it. You know, every possible anti-Semitic trope still from the top down at these universities. And at Harvard, apparently, there’s a video they claim was a Harvard employee ripping down postages of the hostages just yesterday. So this is an ongoing battle and we have to be on the front in every way, culturally, legally, and politically.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Jeff, we only have about a minute and a half left here, but I was going to bring that up, that the University of Michigan, the president, on a phone call leaked, was using the same tired, disgusting, anti-Semitic tropes, saying that you can see there’s a very powerful group uh that is controlling this narrative that only wants to focus on anti-semitism it’s gross it’s disgusting but that’s why we are seeing positive moves like the trump administration saying that hey columbia if you don’t address this which was the hotbed of it uh 51 million dollars in grants and contracts are gone
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. And there may be up to $5 billion or more contracts that they’re looking at, again, just with Columbia. I mean, these universities have colossal sums of money. They have gargantuan endowments. They’re like mini governments. They’re gargantuan endowments, and they have huge government contracts. And so some funding comes from the federal government, and we were very deeply involved. With the first Trump administration, with the Domestic Policy Council, and with the president when he first issued his order, executive order in December of 2019, to really reinforce the idea that civil rights in education also apply to Jews. Because until that point, there was a whole argument, well, maybe Jews aren’t because we’re a religion and not a people. It’s like, no, this is an identity and no one is anti-Semitic because they care about what Jews believe or don’t believe. They just hate Jews. And so, and it’s about national origin also. And this is very, very important because again, across the board, we’re working on this and it remains a problem, a deep problem at these universities.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely, Jeff. And that is why the ACLJ exists and why the ACLJ Jerusalem specifically exists. And when you support the work of the ACLJ during our life in Liberty Drive, that is part of it. You are going to fund the ACLJ Jerusalem. These are not independent necessarily entities in that same way. All of it helps fund the ACLJ, the ECLJ, the Jerusalem office, all of the connections that bring the ACLJ message around the world. So right now, do it. Your donations are doubled. And while you’re there, you can become an ACLJ champion. Your first donation of that will be doubled. Again, that is matched by somebody who is ready to unlock their donation. You’re not going to be charged double. But when you give $10, effectively that becomes $20. If you give $1,000, effectively that becomes $2,000. If you gave $10,000, it becomes $20,000. Do it right now. We’re going to take your calls coming up. 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got some lines open. Perfect time to call. welcome back to secular we are going to take your calls and look a few lines opened up 1-800-684-3110 so this is a great time to call you can get in line right now and still make it on the air steve is calling though on line one from california steve you’re on the air uh thank you uh god bless you guys and all that you do around the world not just here um
SPEAKER 06 :
So I live up in Northern California, and it’s serviced by a crisis pregnancy center that our church has supported for years. In fact, we do it all year long, not just during the holidays. And I was troubled because a local radio station had been advertising for abortions for well over a year now. And, you know, you just get tired of hearing it. And the drumbeat for abortions is like going over our county via both AM and FM radio. And I approached the local clinic and saying, why don’t you folks advertise on the radio? And the reason I was given was because they didn’t think that there was return for the dollar spent in radio advertising.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t believe in that, Steve. What I believe is that it’s very expensive. And that is incredibly expensive to run this ad campaign. Understand we are in the state of Massachusetts. We are right now partnered in essentially the Boston area for just a few months of similar campaign. You’re talking about a budget that you helped us raise a $500,000 that will be gone in three months. but we’ve already seen hundreds and hundreds of people go to the website, which means hundreds and hundreds of people are searching and are looking for other options. And that means babies are being saved in real time because of you. So Steve, when you say, can the ACLJ go to other blue States? Can we do this? We are going to, if you allow us, if those ACLJ supporters and you ACLJ donors really react to this. And I’ll be honest, We’re having this conversation. I was like, man, this feels like right, exactly what our supporters should love. And I think there’s a disconnect. And there may be a disconnect because you hear Massachusetts and you go, that doesn’t affect me. Well, it affects the United States of America. It affects the unborn to as much as you can. And it affects these people whose livelihoods are also built on these businesses of these pro-life resource centers that are a lot of times funded by donations. A lot of times are even volunteer driven. You’re talking about children’s places where they get free food. you know, free diapers, clothes, not just prenatal, but of course all the prenatal things. Some have buses that go around and offer ultrasounds. Medical needs are covered. And that’s why we launched Choice Begins here because you’re able to find all those resources in one place. When you mentioned that they said, well, we don’t see the bang for our buck, if you will, in a weird way. I think number one is because it’s too expensive for them to do it themselves. So we have stepped up as the ACLJ a big organization with a worldwide reach, and said, we are going to take this on. But we only can take it on if you support us. We can only take it on if you say, this is something I care about. That’s the beauty of the ACLJ. It is not run by big corporate sponsors. It is not run by big donors. The bread and butter, what keeps everything going is individual donations and ACLJ champions. And you could do that today. And during this month, it is doubled. So if you give $10, it becomes $20 because another ACLJ champion says, this is important to me. I will unlock a new gift. So here’s what I’m going to do in this. I want to play that ad once again. Do we have both ads? Maybe we’ll play, but let’s actually play the one we ran yesterday. So it’s not something new. So we, do we, let me know when we have it. We got it. So this is an ad that’s targeted specifically to the option of adoption. Okay. Again, because we are trying to win over hearts and minds here. This is not just about showing, you know, gruesome pictures of aborted babies or anything like that. It’s not the 80s anymore. How are we going to win people over? How are we going to change hearts and minds? Because the idea that it’s not a human life, that’s kind of gone. People have just accepted killing. But maybe we can present a different option. And here’s one of those. And as we’re running this, I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org right now and make that donation. It’s a great time to do it. This will take about a minute. Perfect time to do it. Here’s the piece.
SPEAKER 09 :
I didn’t know what to do. We had tried and tried.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I think we were just considering giving up on having a family. I wanted to give up. There was no way I was ready to start a family.
SPEAKER 09 :
Then we thought, wait, maybe there’s more than one way to have a family.
SPEAKER 10 :
But then I went to a pregnancy resource center and they gave me an option I never even thought of. They asked me, have I ever considered adoption?
SPEAKER 09 :
When the adoption agency called, I was so happy.
SPEAKER 10 :
I knew I wasn’t ready, but I could help a family that was. I mean, she gave us our miracle.
SPEAKER 09 :
She gave us our family.
SPEAKER 07 :
To find a pregnancy resource center near you, go to choicebeginshere.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I hope you spent time and look, you can go to the website as well. And I mean, yes, it’s targeted right now, specifically to the people we are marketing this to. And again, we’re not marketing for financial gain. We are marketing it, spending the money that you have so generously donated. So we can help save babies lives in the area where they are currently under attack the most in our country. in a beautiful city, one of our nation’s oldest, the original in Boston, Massachusetts. You can’t walk around there and not feel American history. American history cannot be designed for death and for murder. And sadly, that is where the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decided to put their money. They decided to put their money in an ad campaign to try to get people to avoid abortion centers. I’m sorry, avoid anti-abortion centers, what they call them, which are pro-life pregnancy resource centers. And they have these stories that are just absurd. I’m going to take this next two minutes and just tell you it’s time. It is time. Yesterday we kicked off the Life and Liberty Drive and it was amazing. You all reacted in a great positive way. Reacted more to that day than I have seen on this campaign because I’ll be honest, we were in meetings after it and I said, you know guys, I don’t know if this crowd is connecting. I don’t know if they really understand how important this is. What are we doing wrong? How are we not communicating this? But then we saw an outpouring of support. And I encourage you today to do that. I’m sure the pro-life cause is something that’s on your heart. You may, though, have seen the Dobbs decision, the overturning of Roe versus Wade and said, all right, we won. Moving on. That can’t be where it ends because the states are at it. And some of these pro-choice states are being more hardcore than ever before. And we have to respond. But you respond with love. You respond with kindness, with respect, not with shame. And we do that. The choice begins here. You know why you support this. There’s one end goal. And that goal is life. So do it right now. Go to aclj.org. Scan the QR code that’s on your screen. This abortion industry has created these smear campaigns and they’re gonna come to your state next. They may come to even the pro-life states. I was driving here in Tennessee and passed the old Planned Parenthood. Saw it, boarded up, and guess what? It made me smile. Because babies’ lives are being saved here in Tennessee, but not in Massachusetts. Not in some of these incredibly liberal states where they spend more time talking about and spending money on death than anywhere else. Be a part of the response. Let’s beat them together. Go to ACLJ.org. Have your gifts doubled during this life and liberty drive. Of course, we’re going to be monitoring tonight President Trump’s speech to Congress. I hope life comes up and his respect for life. We shall see. I’ll be watching very closely. But again, I appreciate everyone who supported the work yesterday. That was yesterday. Now it’s today. Now it’s Tuesday. Do it right now. Make your donation right now. Become an ACLJ champion if you can. Someone that gives on a monthly recurring basis. If you do it during this show, we know it. We know you’re reacting to this topic. We’ll be back tomorrow with more on Sekulow.
