Join us in this episode as we break down the Department of Justice’s newly filed lawsuit against California Governor Gavin Newsom over controversial redistricting plans. We dive into the legal ramifications, the political tactics involved, and what this means for the future of electoral districts both in California and nationwide. Alongside, we celebrate Grandparents Week and talk about how you can contribute to the ongoing Freedom Drive, making a tangible impact on issues that matter.
SPEAKER 07 :
we got breaking news the doj sues gavin newsom over redistricting keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever this is seculo we want to hear from you share and post your comments for call 1-800-684-3110
SPEAKER 04 :
And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. It’s Friday. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you. You can hit up any of the topics we talked about this week. Again, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110 as we come to a close on Grandparents Week here during our Freedom Drive. It’s been a massive, successful week as we’re not only celebrating grandparents, but also paying tribute to our grandparents. It’s been a great week for support of the ACLJ, and you can still do it today and have your gifts doubled today. and celebrate your grandparents and your life, or maybe you’re a grandparent, you want to set up the future of your country. And of course, for your kids, grandkids, even some of you great grandkids. So I encourage you right now to do that by giving, if you can, a donation at ACLJ.org. And like I said, another ACLJ member or champion is ready to unlock a pledge and double. your donation it’s a really great time to do it during this freedom drive and of course what we’ve said is you can also opt in and become an aclj champion someone that gives on a monthly basis and this month or this week we’re calling you a grand champion because of course we are celebrating our grandparents so do that today if you can but will we do have some breaking news i just want to make sure people had time to get over here and that is that the department of justice is suing Gavin Newsom, governor of California.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. And this is what a lot of people have been wondering if it would happen because this comes after the voters of California approved that Proposition 50 ballot provision just a few weeks ago. And that was the redistricting plan that Gavin Newsom was saying that, you know, we’re going to take on Texas. We’re going to take on these states that are trying to redistrict before the midterms. And so they actually went to extraordinary lengths to put a ballot provision forward which would give an exception to the way that california does their congressional districts instead of their independent council which they had enshrined into law in california years ago this would be a one-off where it goes back to the independent council after they’re able to combat trump in this election and redoes the districts now The Republican Party of California had already sued. The DOJ has filed a complaint citing federal statutes that they will now be fighting in court that says we want to join this lawsuit of the Republican Party, but here is our own complaint. So they want to be a party to this lawsuit, not just an amicus brief or something like that. And what they are alleging is that it violates the Constitution. It violates the Voting Rights Act. Because and they even said it in their own words will show some of the sound from Pam Bondi when she announced this last night that they were doing it specifically going to communities and using the racial demographics to try and create these new districts that would be more favorable to Democrat seats. You cannot gerrymander or do that based off of race. And that is what they are alleging, that this was racially driven to get them up to five more seats in Congress in California in this midterm election coming up. So that’s where we’re at right now. We’ll talk about it more and we’ll get your phone calls on it at 1-800-684-3110. Also, it’s a Friday. If there’s any topic we’ve covered this week, you can call in on that as well. 1-800-684-3110. That’s right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Of course, we want to hear from you and your thoughts, as Will said, at 1-800-684-3110. But if you’re on our YouTube channel or our Rumble page, anywhere you can chat live, put in where you’re watching from. I like to see that, specifically here at the end of the week. I’d like to know that we have people watching from all over the country, all over the world, that we’re representing you. And speaking of representing, we’re going to have a big update. You may remember that case. We’ve been talking about it all week. And this has been Grandparents Week. And I believe some prayers were answered about that Jesus club that was said, no, no, no, you can’t have Jesus only. You’ve got to be all world religion. You can have a Jesus club, but it’s going to have to be talking about every faith and belief. You can’t be restricted to just Christians talking about how Jesus is the one way. Well, guess what, grandparents? You all spoke out loudly with your prayers and your support, and we’re going to have an update on that coming very soon in the next few segments. You’re not going to want to miss that. 1-800-684-3110. You can probably tell by the tone of my voice and the smirk on my face. It’s good news. That’s always good news when you have people here at the ACLJ working hard. for kids of this nation, for people of this nation who just want to express their faith. So I encourage you today, make a donation, have it doubled. Let’s do it. Let’s end Grandparents Week strong and continue on our freedom drive. Welcome back to Secular. Like I said, phone lines are open for you. Nobody called me during the breaks, Will. 1-800-684-3110. I guess I got no questions.
SPEAKER 05 :
I wasn’t as compelling enough. When you say call me, you say it with conviction.
SPEAKER 04 :
Call me.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I’ll tell them. There’s six lines open. This is the perfect time to call in. It’s the perfect time if you’ve got something to say. Say it nicely. Say it without profanity so you can make it actually on the air. Be kind to our phone screeners. Sometimes you call in and you’re not, you won’t make it. They get the, look, they’re the decision makers in there, the phone screeners. So be nice to them when you call in at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, for those of you who are just joining us right now, you may have seen the headline on our YouTube channel saying, Breaking News, DOJ Files Lawsuit Against Gavin Newsom. Of course, the ACLJ, you may remember, also taking action. That’s right. Gavin Newsom to court. So you know what? He’s going to be spending a lot of time in court soon. But the Department of Justice will say you can’t do the redistricting like they want. Of course, you have Pam Bondi making these statements going on. Even Sean Hannity last night discussing this at length. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
So what the DOJ is arguing here is that the plan that they put in through Prop 50 mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, as well as some Voting Rights Act issues as well. So they are saying that this plan and this redistricting map cannot be used in 2026 and beyond. They’re seeking an injunction early as well, but they’re going to have to fight this in court as it goes forward. Now, I think you should hear from Pam Bondi because… This is Byte 9. She was on Sean Hannity’s broadcast last night talking about this. They just filed this yesterday. It hasn’t really made a ton of news yet, but this is what I know even our callers have been wondering. Can the federal government step in? Can there be a lawsuit? We knew that the Republican Party of California had already sued, but is there anything that the national government can do? Because they were blatant about what they were doing. They weren’t saying… We think our districts have shifted so drastically, even though maybe they have because so many people are fleeing California, that we need to redistrict early. What they were saying is, no, we are doing this to fight Trump. We are going to redraw our map so we can have more power to fight the president and Republicans. So hear what Pam Bondi had to say last night, the attorney general on Sean Hannity’s show, Bite Nine.
SPEAKER 10 :
wasn’t even illicit. They are flat out publicizing what they’re trying to do and why they’re trying to do it. They’re trying to create seats based on race, and they can’t do it. And we’re going to hold them accountable, just like any other state. I mean, they’ve very publicly said, Sean, what they’re trying to do, and it’s illegal gerrymandering. They cannot do it. So yeah, we sued them today. We’re going to continue suing California until they start complying with the laws of our country.
SPEAKER 05 :
And when you look at also this problem, not just in California, but around the country, it makes you wonder if there’s going to be outcry on both sides about the way that these congressional districts are drawn.
SPEAKER 04 :
Other states potentially answering back in some ways, too, for good or bad. I think not necessarily for good, but for a response. There’s got to call about that. Maybe that’ll help inspire you to call in as well. Dave’s calling in Indiana online, too. Dave, go ahead.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, so I’m wondering, should we be calling our representatives, asking them to…
SPEAKER 04 :
redistrict indiana you’re saying locally in your area should you be saying hey if california is doing this why shouldn’t we of course you know two wrongs don’t make a right but some of the response of this was also coming from some response from republican states that were presenting similar options like in texas and other places that were considering things like this so dave you know all bets are kind of knocked off when this happens i unfortunately it’s the way politics works and i am sure i am sure other states are now going oh well you two can play at this game
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and to Dave’s point, there are already members of the Indiana legislature that are looking to do this.
SPEAKER 04 :
I don’t know much about Indiana.
SPEAKER 05 :
It has set off a firestorm, as you’ve said, where Texas redistrict. And they were saying that the entire purpose of their redistricting was saying that the census that took place. counted too many non-citizens because the way representation and how many seats in Congress you get are based off the population of your state, and then they allocate them that way. Texas was basically saying that because of the way that the census took place, that there were too many non-citizens that were counted in certain areas and that messed up their maps in their previous allocation of congressional seats so they were trying to correct what they saw was an improper allocation based off the previous census so they were doing it early and now different states have different laws about when you can and if you can do that California had a law saying you cannot Texas had different laws that were available to redraw the maps But what did California do? What did Gavin Newsom do? They decided, okay, we don’t like the law that we passed, that we passed actually to try and protect independent districting, even though it’s still very lopsided there in that state, as everyone knows. And what did they do? They said, we want to go around the independent commission. We want to do it our own way to combat Texas. Now it is kind of set off a chain reaction of other states. Now, Indiana currently has a seven to two Republican to Democrat, uh, map. So there is Democrat representation in what is a very red state. It’s a very conservative state. The heartland, uh, people don’t think of Indiana as being their neighbor, Illinois. That is very blue.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s very blue, but has very red pockets.
SPEAKER 05 :
But what their new map would do is make it nine to zero Republican. So it has turned it from being supposed to be representative to everyone is going to be over gerrymandered into a way that is really unable to dig yourself out of that hole.
SPEAKER 04 :
Your state will be controlled by a… political party and do you really want that that’s a whole another question give me a call 1-800-684-3110 and we do want to talk about of course when you talk about gavin newsom you also got to talk about the work of the aclj and we are out there fighting against gavin newsom right now that’s right it seems like gavin newsom is uh doing all sorts of fun things out in california right now trying to uh correct messes or or go further into messes as he continues one thing that we are fighting directly
SPEAKER 05 :
is they are still trying to enforce.
SPEAKER 04 :
This is wild, everyone. You got to hear this because look, okay, it’s not 2020 anymore. It’s not 2021. It’s not 2022. We are actually quickly approaching 2026. Like it or not, believe it or not, six years since 2020 when everything, the whole world got turned upside down with the COVID pandemic. But six years since the start, and you could easily say a good four years since really the end at this point of like the major restrictions and the things that were going down. California lasted about a year and a half, two years that you had there. Of course, different states had different approaches. But they are still, Will, trying to collect on some debt. And that debt’s coming from the church.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. They are going after the tithes of the members of Calvary Chapel San Jose. In the tune of $1.2 million for violating the edicts of Gavin Newsom and San Jose when it comes to COVID restrictions.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, whether it was gathering or mask rules or whatever it may be. And look, we understand at the time there was panic. Everyone’s going, there should have been a lot of real concern there. Lots of people lost everything, lost their lives. So we’re not joking around about that. But the fact that we can’t look at something six years later and go, you know what? know we were all in a state of shock we were all dealing with very different ways to deal with things maybe that church we could you know let them off a little bit but instead they’re saying no pay up give to your government you know what is owed to them plus and that is over a million dollars and what is also crazy about this too is that the orders that they are alleging they didn’t comply with
SPEAKER 05 :
were later found to be unconstitutional. So they are still fighting, so much so we have to take this to the Supreme Court of the United States, and we’ll be filing that brief very soon. Our lawyers are hard at work on this to defend this church, Calvary Chapel San Jose, because the governor of California and the city of San Jose want to take the tithes and offerings of the members of that church to the tune of 1.2 million dollars think about your church if all of a sudden the government says I know at a time when there’s been snap benefit issues and there’s been a housing crisis that money that normally would go to the work of the church God’s work in the community blessing your neighbors Ah, that’s ours now. That’s going to be the state to go to our budget deficits and all these sorts of things.
SPEAKER 04 :
And we’re able to do that, by the way, and represent that church at no cost, as well as all our clients, including that Jesus Club moment you heard about this week where they said you got to have that kid. We’re going to have a big update on that in the next segment. Again, you’re going to like it. It’s the end of grandparents week. This all happened last night, so I’m excited to share this news with you. But remember, none of that happens. No one gets representation. A lot of them can’t afford it, could never afford it. without organizations like us here at the ACLJ who provide these legal help and lawyers and incredible team. By the way, the best of the best, best young minds, best seasoned minds, people have been around forever and brand new graduates who are just coming out of law school, who we are recruiting all the time, including incredible media team as well, who come from all over. the spectrum in terms of media experience. It’s really amazing the team we’ve been able to put together here at the ACLJ. None of that happens without you. And as we wrap up this segment, I want to give you an opportunity to think about, pray about, and of course, if you feel moved to, support the work of the ACLJ financially. It is our freedom drive. Your gifts are doubled today. And as we wrap up Grandparents Week, as we not only celebrate our grandparents who are listening right now, the grandparents that want to impact future generations, like these students you’re going to hear about in the next segment, or those who just want to do it in tribute to their grandparents and, of course, to the future. With that, make a donation today. Scan the QR card you see on the screen if you’re watching. If you’re listening, go to aclj.org or aclj.org slash freedom. Make your donation today and have your donations doubled. It’s really simple. We have somebody ready to match your gift. They’re ready to unlock their pledge. Do it today. Give me a second. aclj.org Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are now completely jammed up. Thank you for calling. We’re going to do our best to get to a lot of those today. I did want to give a minute here if you’re a supporter of the ACLJ. Of course, this is the end of Grandparents Week this week. Of course, we’ll probably celebrate throughout the weekend online, but of course on air. This is our last day on air until next Monday. But I did want to say… Thank you to all the grand champions. Thank you to all the grandparents. Thank you to all the parents. Thank you to everyone who prayed and prayed specifically for one of our clients who simply wanted to have a Jesus club, a Christian club in her school. Now, this has been a issue the ACLJ has been involved in for a very long time, and it should be very much settled law. It’s gone to the Supreme Court of the United States over 30 years ago at this point. It is settled law. But of course you have people within administrations, within schools who want to do whatever they can to hamper down the rights of Christian students. But the ACLJ team is there. They’re there at no cost to the client because of people like you. And I’m very happy to report that just last night, the district, this was their deadline. They had to, they had to answer yesterday. What was it going to be? And they just decided, hey, you know what? Without any restrictions, without the world religion clauses, without anything, The Jesus Club has now been approved. So after all of that, we have an answer. And that answer is obviously an answer to prayer as it is a big win. Because no wins are small here. When you have a win for a student who simply wanted to talk about their faith with other Christians or kids that wanted to learn more about Christianity, of course now we have this victory. Now it didn’t come without a little pain. Didn’t come without a lot of pushback. Didn’t come without our legal team working hard. Hours and hours and hours spent all night for many days to make sure these students are protected throughout the world. But specifically this one, you got to see her face. You get to hear from her making her plea saying, I just want to simply have a Jesus club. And they’re saying, no, it has to be a world religion club. Seeing all the people who are celebrating in the chat right now on YouTube. Yes, none of this happens. without you, the ACLJ supporter, the ACLJ champion, the grand champion, if you will. It does not happen without you, and I’m really pleased when we’re able to bring some of these to a quick close, because it shows you the work of the ACLJ when they get a letter from the ACLJ. They are going to take care of it and take very quickly. Now, again, they may do it begrudgingly. They may do it not happily. But who do we what do we care? They did it.
SPEAKER 05 :
They proved it. That’s right. So today could have gone one or two ways for the ACLJ, either victory day or lawsuit day.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, they’re fun.
SPEAKER 05 :
Both are fun. Both are fun because we’re prepared for both. But what we got today is victory day. Last night, the club, the Jesus Club at this school in New York was approved by the board to allow it to operate. Now, the work of the ACLJ attorneys is not quite done because what are we going to do now? Make sure that they weren’t just trying to make us go away. Follow up. We have to watch. We have to make sure that it is treated equally under the law as every other club, as the law requires. But we sent that letter. We gave them a deadline of yesterday. And sure enough, that happened to be the day that they went ahead and approved the club for this student to be able to operate. So we’re going to watch it. They’re well into the school year now. We’re mid-November. But we are thankful that this is an answer to prayer for I know a lot of you and many of you, I’m sure, have gone to ACLJ.org slash pray and gotten that prayer guide that is special just for this grandparent celebration, the grandparent prayer guide. You don’t have to be a grandparent. to pray obviously but even to use this prayer guide our team does such a great job put such thought and hard work into it that it’s really valuable for our team to know that people are praying alongside with us as we fight these battles this is just breaking i see some people saying well i want to share this information this news i’ve been following and sharing it with all my friends we will have something up on the aclj social media channels probably right after this show is over specifically
SPEAKER 04 :
very quickly after to explain all of it of course this just is happening so we got to make sure our legal team is on board and i know that i have the draft of the announcement that will be posted it’s going through making sure there’s no typos and issues with that before we post it because we want you to share it as well we want to make sure we shared it with you first when this stuff happens i don’t want to wait especially now it’s a friday i want to make sure this you know gets to you that you know that you made such an impact here on this family’s life and i will tell you in this space that we work in, obviously we have to do special things, Grandparents Week, Freedom Drive, fundraising drives. You know what they tell me always? Because I always talk about, I want to talk about the amazing work the ACLJ does. Because these victories, again, would not happen without people like you and it would not happen without our incredible legal team. But sometimes our team will say, you know what? Our audience doesn’t respond to victories. They respond to when there is an issue. And I understand that from a mental point of view going, look, I really care about this, but I care about it right now that you’re in the middle of it. Then once you have a success, you won. What do you need me for? Well, obviously this is one in many. many challenges that we are fighting currently. So I want you to take this victory as a moment to celebrate, but hopefully a moment to motivate you that your work and your support of the ACLJ doesn’t go to nothing. It doesn’t go unnoticed. We’re not taking cases and you’re not hearing about them. We are telling you right now, this was a win because we made an outcry to the media, through our show, through other outlets, and of course, we threatened to take them to court and we were ready. it didn’t have to get there and that is because we have incredible legal minds incredible media teams and we get these victories all the time and i would love to share with you all the victories so what i would encourage you to do if you like the victories if you like the fact that we are winning for you and for the church and for christians all over the world i want you to support when there are also times of victory So right now, make your donation today. Have your gift doubled. I’m going to take some phone calls from people that give and already are supporting. And I’m going to kick it off with Debra. Debra is an ACLJ Grand Champion. That’s right. Grandparent and a champion. Double down. I love it. Debra in Florida, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey, good afternoon. I am thrilled to speak to you. I’ve been a supporter for decades and I am a grandparent now and I didn’t start as a grandparent, but I believe in what you’re doing and congratulations and all your successes. I just have a, I just have a comment and that is I would love for president Trump to declare that we’re going to have a nationwide census, a new one now without any, you know, involvement of people that should not be included in the census so that the redistricting is absolutely accurate.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m not sure when the next census is scheduled.
SPEAKER 05 :
It should be 2030. We’re halfway through. That’s why this is a mid-decade redistrict. I understand what you’re saying. Honestly, the Labor and Statistics Bureau is probably already working on what that would look like. There’s several presidencies that will have passed from the first one to the next one. A lot will depend on the administration that’s in place, but I don’t know, and I’m not a census historian. So I can’t say if anyone’s ever called a special census other than maybe like King Herod in the Bible.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I remember that one. We’re about to tell that story soon, I feel like. But if you look at… If you look at also, there’s a lot of controversy around censusing.
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So then there’s those issues that people have that as well. So, you know what, Deborah, I do think there are probably ways for this. If the idea is people shouldn’t be voting or engaged in ways because they are not here legally. In theory, that should be happening already.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that is the concern, though, of many census in the past have been. The question is not, are you an American citizen? It is, how many people are in your household? So you write down five, you turn it in, and you don’t know whether or not that… So then the representative is based off a population of… It opens up an interesting door, Debra.
SPEAKER 04 :
And I appreciate you calling. Number one, I really appreciate becoming a champion and being a grand champion. I love also, you said you didn’t even start necessarily even as a parent and a supporter. That means you’ve been with us for a long time. Probably at least 20 years. Probably 25, 30 years. that you went from not even a parent to a grand champion. This is the first half hour of the show. Wrapping up. We have a second half hour coming up. Some of you on local terrestrial radio don’t get your second half hour. You should. Join us live each and every day, aclj.org. Do it right now, of course, on YouTube and Rumble Live and archived, however you get your podcasts. We’ll be back with the second half hour in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 04 :
Second half hour of Sekulow. Here we are. Of course, the breaking news of the day is the Department of Justice, Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice, has filed a lawsuit, started to sue Gavin Newsom in the state of California over their redistricting. We got a lot of questions coming in about that. Let’s clear and make sure Peter is good to go. If he’s good to go, I want to go ahead and take his call. I want to kick this off with a call. Hey, by the way, Phone lines are completely open after Peter, so give me a call right now, 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you about this or any of the topics we’ve talked about this week or anything that’s on your mind. If it’s a little bit within our scope, we’ll do our best to get to it today. 1-800-684-3110. And we are going to be joined by Jeff Balaban, head of ACLJ. Jerusalem ACLJ in Israel we have our office there he’s gonna be joining us in the next segment to talk about is he was he there now or is he back in New York currently okay but he was over in Poland so we’re gonna talk about that coming up in the next segment but until then I want to hear from you and of course we’re gonna wrap up the show always taking your calls and comments let’s go to Peter in Virginia who is an ACLJ champion which I really appreciate Peter go ahead I appreciate what you guys do.
SPEAKER 06 :
So details between California and Texas. When Texas first talked about redistricting, my understanding is it was a fight about, well, the 14th, 15th Amendment, voters’ right, all that, is you can’t make zones according to race. So they said, and it used to be, so we’re just going to break it up. Then California seemingly comes along and says, we’re going to make it about race. Do I have that correct? Do you know the detail?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Peter, I’m going to kick this over to Will Haynes because Will knows all about redistricting. You know all the details. You get deep diving in the minutia of the maps.
SPEAKER 05 :
So the map that was drawn by Texas after the last census and then adopted by their legislature was challenged in court. by people saying we think that these districts are illegal based off of the provisions that you mentioned, Peter. And it actually had a trial that it was going to to fight over these districts in May of this year. So it’s been a court battle that’s lasted for a while, as well as Harmeet Dhillon, who is the civil rights division of the Department of Justice lead. She sent a letter. She’s assistant attorney general for civil rights to Texas, saying there’s four districts that the DOJ has concern may run afoul of the 14th Amendment as well as the Voting Rights Act because of race based gerrymandering. So what did they do? They called for a mid decade redistrict. And that’s what the result is of this. Now, obviously, we know what happened with that. We know that the Democrats all fled the state. They tried to stop them from getting a quorum. Then they finally got it passed. California, Peter, it sounds like, according to the allegations by the DOJ, not only were they going to say, we’re going to fight Texas by redistricting, but the methodology they used indeed is what so many people would criticize Texas for doing. They found districts and did it based off of racial voting blocks that would favor the The Democrats, which is illegal. So that is what the DOJ is arguing. I have a feeling, especially with all these other states you’re talking about. Maryland’s talking about it. Indiana’s talking about it. Florida has thrown it out there. You’re going to see these cases be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court if they indeed all have these lawsuits. There’s going to have to be some sort of figuring this out, but also the details may be so different, it could be a really messy legal fight ahead.
SPEAKER 04 :
Hey, we only got a minute left in this segment. Our next segment, we’re going to head to ACLJ Jerusalem, head of the ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balaban, who will be joining us. I want to know in the chat, if you’re watching right now, of course you can call in. You know, things have been fairly quiet in terms of coverage. of what’s going on in Israel and Gaza. Of course, there was a ceasefire that kind of failed. It went back and forth, it’s still going, but you don’t hear as near as much about it in the news anymore. The topic seems to have quieted down here, but we know that’s not the case necessarily around the world. Where are you right now? Because of course, what we hear a lot more is about Americans and American conservatives and their lack of support of Israel and the Jewish people. Where do you stand right now? I want to hear from you. Put it in the chat if you’re brave enough. Put it in the chat where you stand. And give me a call also at 1-800-684-3110. Again, we’re going to have Jeff Balaban, ACLJ Jerusalem. We believe we need to be there, and it is our calling to be there as well. And thank you when you support the work of the ACLJ. You also help support the ACLJ in Europe and the ACLJ in Jerusalem. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulo. As we head into the final segment of the show after this, we want to take as many calls as we can at 1-800-684-3110. We’ve got four lines open for you right now. This is the perfect time to try to get on the air and we will do our best to get to as many of you as you can. Of course, if you’re an ACLJ champion, I’ll make sure to tell our phone screeners because I get to bump you up to the front, which I always like to do that when I can. It’s a nice little perk we can offer for those who call in and support on a monthly basis. Of course, if you decide to become a champion today, you can do that too. And your first donation will be doubled during our Freedom Drive. And as we are wrapping up, Grandparents Week, as we celebrate not only our grandparents, if you’re a grandparent who is a supporter, we celebrate you. And hopefully if you’re a grandparent, you are wanting to support the future of our country. And you do that by supporting the work of the ACLJ. Jeff Balaban is joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem. I just did a little informal poll on our social media page just saying, hey, now that Israel is not really the number one story that’s in the news, sadly, a lot of the anti-Semitic rhetoric coming from the right is what’s in the news when it comes to talking about these topics. Is it still something that you care about? Do you still support? I’m always a little nervous. You get a little trepidatious when you start hearing some of these voices start talking negatively about the Jewish people and then conversely about Israel as well. Well, what I can say is I’m very thankful to see the members of our chat are very brave and they are stepping up and still speaking out in their support for Israel. I don’t even see anyone on the other way saying it. Of course, I get some of those in my private messages, maybe more so than ever, unfortunately. But here we are. We still have people who are definitely willing to stand up and speak out. And I know you’re just at an event all about that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, actually I’m here in New York where I had some meetings at the UN, but before that I was in Poland, gone there from Israel, where there’s a group of Jews from around Europe and legislators from around Europe. Some were Jewish, most were not, but they represented Jewish constituencies. And some were just concerned because, you know, European Jews really still in living memory. They’re still Holocaust survivors. They remember when their cultures, which were Western, Christian, modern, civilized cultures, seemed like overnight they turned into this barbarism. And literally they put their Jews into gas chambers and ovens. And then those cultures themselves really changed. never fully recovered. And so their concern, and what’s fascinating is Jews in Israel have always been concerned about Jews in Europe. Jews in America have always been concerned about Jews in Europe and Israel. Now Jews everywhere are concerned about Jews everywhere. Jews in Israel and in Europe are deeply concerned about American Jews. Because, you know, American, and thank God for the support of ACLJ supporters, thank God for the work ACLJ does, not just in terms of the political work and diplomatic work and legal work, but this work of bringing this information to so many Americans so that they understand. Listen, in Washington, D.C. itself, where, God willing, I’ll be next week, and there are emergency meetings about this, what I notice is even people who are not bad people, they’re good people, but they’re distracted by other things, and they’re getting sort of annoyed and frustrated that this is even an issue. But it is a real issue.
SPEAKER 04 :
It’s absolutely a real issue. And it’s one that I feel like we’re seeing even more and more so in this country. And I’m glad to hear in some ways that there is that sort of universal support. Because, look, for the Jewish people in America right now, especially if you’re on social media and that, if you’re willing to take the risk and say anything. I mean, my inbox will fill up if I have the most benign post. You know, if I share a story from an October 7th survivor, if I share something that’s just, again, very generically bad. even just a pro-Jewish post. I posted that story from Dave Portnoy where someone just yelled at him at Mississippi State. He was out there doing a pizza review and someone came up to him and started screaming anti-Semitic rhetoric at him and he talked just about, hey, this didn’t used to be how it was. I got a lot of people who hated me, but I didn’t get a lot of people who were hating me because I was Jewish. I shared that. The amount of messages I got from seemingly good people
SPEAKER 02 :
saying well yeah but that’s your fault kind of or that’s the that’s israel’s fault that’s not you know you shouldn’t be blaming the kid who was screaming i mean it’s gotten to the point of this is the absurdity and like you said from seemingly decent normal people look there’s a saying that’s been saying for i don’t know how many centuries the jews are the canary in the coal mine what does it mean it means coal miners to to know if there are gases that might kill them used to bring little caged canaries because they were very small they died very quickly from the from the gases so The idea is that the first, when a culture starts going after its Jews, it’s a sign that the whole culture is about to collapse. And we’ve seen this, literally, those who know Bible, those who know history, this has been going on for thousands of years. And for many, many decades, or for many years, rather, Christians have been saying, what are you worried about? Don’t you know that every culture that attacks the Jews or destroys the Jews, they get destroyed? And the answer is, first of all, I’m worried about those cultures, but second of all, I’m also worried about the millions of Jews who get killed in between. So if you listen to what’s going on now, all these groups on the left, on the right, wherever they’re from, they’re all saying one thing. They’re saying Judeo-Christian, the idea which was literally the founding brilliance and beauty of the United States of America. The founding fathers quoted the Bible more than any other document. And they quoted the entire Bible. They didn’t say we’re jettisoning half the Bible. And they consciously modeled themselves, this nation, after the Jewish people. And now they’re saying, oh, Judeo-Christianity is a lie. It’s a blasphemy, satanic. And that’s what we’re hearing. So it’s important to understand the war on the Jews now is a war on everything America was founded to be. And there are a lot of good people who call themselves Christian nationalists, but there are a lot of people, just like they say they’re liberals and not really liberal, They say they’re Christian, they’re really pagan. They say they’re nationalists, and they’re really talking about, they’re trying to divide us into tribes. And the greatness that we should learn from Jewish history, from American history, from world history, is that the only way through this is to be united with respect and love for each other, even if we disagree, not to fight each other with hate, which I’m terrified I’m seeing more and more in America.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, and Jeff, one of the other concerns that we’re seeing as it’s normalized, as it’s platformed in the United States and on the right in a way that we’ve not seen before, the right used to be very good about shutting down. people that may agree with them ideology-wise on a lot of issues, but not on that of being able to say, you are not a part of us. This is not a part of our movement. Now it’s being platformed and normalized. And I think I want to point back to what you said about the Judeo-Christian values and the way that they are deciding to ignore half of scripture, the ordained word of God, and to fit their narrative which is a Christian nationalistic type narrative instead of a Christian faith in Christ narrative. And even this comment this week where being able to push back at people that were considered heroes, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, where Tucker Carlson said this week that he abandoned Christianity. It wasn’t enough.
SPEAKER 04 :
He had to kill Hitler instead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Why not? That completely forgets everything in the Old Testament about just wars and fighting those that wanted to kill God’s people. But if you lay that aside that… Trying to adopt this model that if you are against Hitler, you can also not be living out your Christian faith is the absurd world we’re living in now. And I reject that wholeheartedly. I know a lot of our audience does, but I think it’s why a lot of people that aren’t in the weeds on this or follow this closely and are afraid to… listen to it, the content, to consume this content, or to even speak out about it. Because now people are starting to question your Christian faith. And you go back to the canary in the coal mine, they’re redefining what your faith is in real time over this issue.
SPEAKER 02 :
Listen, America is the most blessed, really the most blessed nation ever created by humans coming together. I think it’s because they modeled it after the Jewish people, which God – I’m not talking about the state of Israel. I’m talking about the Jewish people for thousands of years, which God said, Abraham, in our teaching, in the Jewish teaching, is I love that you’re spreading the word of my existence through love. We don’t believe he necessarily was the first monotheist. Something he was is that he taught about loving. If God is our father, and Jews believe this, and Christians believe this, and others believe this, if God is our father, here’s what I know as a father. It’s even less important how we treat God than how we treat our siblings. Because parents want children to love each other. And America was that. America was about uniting. And we have to go back to that. And a positive message of love and unity is the only way to fight this. Not anger, not hate. Because what you’re talking about, well, you’re right. This is the end if it doesn’t turn around. And it can’t turn around by hating each other and fighting each other. So we need prayer. We need unity. And yes, we do have to work through all the other instrumentalities that ACLJ works through. The law, policy, diplomacy, but obviously also faith.
SPEAKER 04 :
And then obviously getting the message out there. I know it’s one thing that’s very important. There’s very few media organizations, media outlets that are willing to take this step. And look, I’ve been happy to see some of them have stepped up or at least some have not stepped in the way of censoring. some of their commentators, which has been nice. I mean, heck, I saw some great clips, weirdly, from Van Jones. I saw great clips from our friend Jared Moskowitz and Bill Maher and people who, maybe a few years ago, you never expect to be the people you’re sitting there nodding your head to, agreeing to. But at least on this one issue, they don’t forget where all of this stemmed from, as you said. With that, Jeff and I appreciate you chiming in today and getting really everyone an update because It is very important as we head into this last segment that you understand the global work of the ACLJ and why it’s important. We have Jeff Malabon. We have the ACLJ Jerusalem. That is an incredibly important team that I’m excited that hopefully we’ll see even expand further in the coming years. And with your support, we will. Of course, you heard earlier this week from Greg Gore at our European Center for Law and Justice. And you may be going, why is that important? Again, All of this is our brothers and sisters, whether you’re Christian, whether you’re Jewish, whoever it may be, people that just want to see basic freedoms, religious freedoms, freedom of speech, all of that be available around the world. And we have an incredible team ready to do that. And it doesn’t happen without your support at ACLJ.org. So do it today. Make your donation. Have it doubled today at ACLJ.org. Of course, this is the last day of our grandparents’ drive, our grandparents’ week. So celebrate your grandparents in your life. Do it today. I’m sure they were supportive of Israel. A lot of great Jewish grandparents out there, Will. Go to ACLJ.org. All right. Last segment of the day. We do have four lines that have been opened up. 1-800-684-3110. You can call in right now to have your voice heard. If you ever wanted to be on the radio, this is the chance to do it. You know what? That’s a safe thing to tell people. It’s Friday. It’s Friday. Let’s see what happens. We have a dump button ready just in case. So you know what? Let’s go ahead and take one of these calls. Let’s go to Karen. It’s in Pennsylvania listening on the radio. Karen, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
Hey, hi. You guys are great. Watch and listen to you all the time. It’s I am a Trump supporting federal employee. I’m going to get a paycheck.
SPEAKER 04 :
Congratulations.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. Question is, do you think that there is any hope? Hopefully I’m hope I’m hopeful that they will end the filibuster.
SPEAKER 05 :
So, Karen, it’s a very complicated issue. And here’s the consequences. The consequences. I personally am not in favor of ending the filibuster. And I’ll tell you why. Because they they push Republicans into a corner. So if Republicans had have ended the filibuster to reopen the government. That would have been the most moderate reason to end it, right? They will use it to force every far left radical bill through and get it signed when they have control of both houses and the presidency. The Republicans would have to use it only to get the government reopened. So we would then be setting the precedent for them to go as far left as they want and just completely burn through it. And they will do it. So personally, I think of the consequences. Now, the consequences in real time of why it wasn’t ended were people like you, Karen, not getting a paycheck, looking at the havoc it was having on people that rely on things like SNAP benefits. That is a real consequence of still having the filibuster. So it’s a tough one. But I think long term, I think it would be bad to end it. Short term, I see the benefit of, yeah, if they aren’t going to come to the table and they’re going to hold the American people and the American government hostage over a health care subsidy that was meant to be temporary. that was only put in place to cover the COVID era and then you’re seeing not conservative reporting by sources like Bloomberg about how much fraud went into that extension because of how many people were never even aware that they were signed up for that extra subsidy that yeah it was time for it to go. So it wasn’t even like Republicans were gutting healthcare in America. It did nothing to the original ACA. So they twist it and they spin it to make it seem like Republicans are bad when all they were trying to do is make sure Karen gets a paycheck, the flights are safe in land, and that people that rely on government assistance get it that the fda can approve food to keep your food safe that is what the democrats were doing by holding the government hostage for the longest government shutdown in our history i hope they never do it again but i bet they will very sneaky sis let’s go to john who’s calling on in maryland on line one uh hey
SPEAKER 04 :
Let’s try to get phone screeners. Let’s try to get some of these calls screened a little bit faster here so we can try to get to a couple more today. John, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I just wanted to say that I recently heard on Mark Levin’s show, he interviewed a guy who wrote a book called Hostage. He was a Jewish hostess. And he said the scariest part for him was actually the civilians in Palestine. And the Palestinians, of course, at first my heart went out to them. I felt bad that all the children that were dying and all. But But he said they were, even the terrorists were worried about, they kept moving them around because they wanted to lynch them. They wanted to go into the mosque and just grab them and take them out. He said the worst part was the starvation. 500 and some days he was held hostage.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, John, of course, when you have indoctrination to an extreme extent, that’s what happens. And sadly, a lot of Palestinian people who’ve been raised in the last 20 or 30 years, 40 years, maybe more so, have been raised not only to dislike their neighbors, but to wish them dead. And it’s unfortunate, but it’s just the truth. And you’re right. The news may not want to cover that. They may not want to say that. And I hate that that is actually the argument. Of course, your heart goes out to anyone who’s suffering, including, of course, the children in Gaza and everything they have. And no one wanted to see that footage. No one wanted to see that kind of mass destruction. But I will tell you that it’s not everyone. So I don’t want to say blanketly. There’s definitely Christians in those regions and all of that. But there is an undercurrent. that is within the society in the Palestinian areas, which is to hate their neighbors and to see them dead. And it’s just a sad reality. And it’s something that in the Western world, it’s kind of hard for us to get our head wrapped around because it’s so un-American. It’s not even European in its basis. It is a strictly kind of Middle Eastern issue. That’s right.
SPEAKER 05 :
And also, he mentioned about, you know, the mainstream media, the compassion for the hostages. Remember Christine Amanpour when she said something to the effect of, well, you know, the hostages are treated better than the normal Gazan citizens. Like that was the mindset of the mainstream media, as well as you mentioned the Americans can’t really get our heads around it. There are children that are indoctrinated that when security forces before the Israelis even left the first time and Hamas took over, they would go through towns patrolling, looking for terrorists with IEDs, suicide vests, et cetera. And 12-year-old children would jump out with an AK-47 and be shooting at them. So it is something that we cannot understand as Americans what goes on over there. And you can hate war.
SPEAKER 04 :
without becoming an anti-semite and I think that is what is lost on Americans right now you can hate the idea of war but also understand that they are fighting for their very survival disagree with the decisions of the Netanyahu regime there are ways to do that without also bringing in your hatred for a people group let’s go to Brenda in New York online for Brenda you’re on the air
SPEAKER 08 :
yes hi um uh first of all it’s great what you’re doing and i pray for you all the time thank you so much um i just wanted to say that um there’s a video going around on youtube it’s called are the jews the chosen people and it’s very disturbing and it’s turning a lot of even christians against the jews i’m telling you that’s i’m only cutting you off because we only got two minutes left uh it is what my inbox is filled with right now
SPEAKER 04 :
And here’s what I’ll tell you. You can have a debate about the religious nature of the Jewish people and the Christian people and how we interact and who gets grafted in and how that all works. But I will tell you, it’s pretty simple to understand that, I don’t know, that first half of that book, God spoke through a very specific group of people. Right. uh that’s undeniable so if you are to believe in the bible you can at least say god chose a people to talk through to get his message through and to bring his savior to the world and that is the jewish people so you know what it is most ridiculous thing ever you can talk about what it looks like in a post-jesus world and what that means theologically of course we’re going to probably have different things on that But if you want to look from a historical standpoint, which is why I’ve said you’ve got to visit Israel, you’ve got to see this, you’ve got to be there in person and feel it, because you don’t really get it until you’ve walked in the land. Now, it’s not an easy time, I understand, to do that. But I am hopeful and I am prayerful that one day we’ll be able to take a whole other group of you guys with us and you’ll be able to see it for yourselves. And I’m hoping that’s sooner than later. And with that, look, unfortunately, Lori and James, I want to thank you for both calling. We’re not going to be able to get to you today. Call me back next week and we’ll do our best to get to you. But thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it. With that, we got one minute left. It is the last day on air for our Grandparents Week. Celebrate the grandparents in your life, whether they’re still with us or whether they’ve gone on. Or if you’re a grandparent, a future grandparent, a great grandparent, You want to make sure your country is still here and still ready. And there’s people who are there to support your beliefs and your values. And the ACLJ, we’re not going anywhere. We’ve been here for 35 years. It’s going to keep going strong as long as people like you keep supporting the work of the ACLJ. Grandparents are a big part of our organization’s donations. We know that’s when people really feel like they have the financial resources to do it. A lot of times it’s when they’re older and they’re able to do it. We know that. So if you can, we want to celebrate you. Go to ACLJ.org. Thank you for the big wins that came out this week. Without your generosity, we can’t take on those kind of cases. And we want to make sure we have many, many more victories in the future for you, your grandkids, and beyond.
