From the heart of our nation’s capital in Washington, DC., bringing compelling interviews, insightful analysis, taking you beyond the headlines and sound bites into conversations with our nation’s leaders and newsmakers, all from a biblical worldview. Washington Watch with Tony Perkins starts now.
Today, the Senate will hold a simple and pivotal vote on whether or not to take up once again the right to IVF Act. If the Senate votes no today and strikes IVF protections down yet again, it will be further proof that Project 2025 is alive and well.
That, of course, was Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer earlier today setting the stage for another failed vote on a Democrat-led bill that is more like a schematic for Frankenstein than a plan for childless couples. We’ll provide the facts later here on Washington Watch. This is Washington Watch, and I’m your host Tony Perkins, thanks for joining us.
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced this morning that a vote will take place tomorrow on a six-month government funding bill combined with the SAVE Act, which is designed to protect federal elections from fraud. We’ll get more from Texas Congressman Michael Cloud in just a moment. Hezbollah has promised to retaliate for a high-tech use of low technology that killed nine militants and wounded nearly 3,000 in Lebanon.
Pagers, low-tech pagers across Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon exploded simultaneously earlier today. Israeli officials have declined to comment on how those detonations may have occurred or who was responsible. We’ll talk with Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Earlier this afternoon, I joined several members of Congress for a press conference on the World Health Organization’s continued push for global governance.
The Biden-Harris administration is in full agreement with the UN and the WHO on efforts to place us under their authority and require such things as their international health regulations, including the surveillance of US citizens, the censoring of dissenting views and much more.
That was Virginia Congressman Bob Good. Arizona Congressman Eli Crane was also there, and he joins me later. Prior to going to the Hill for the WHO press conference, I hosted a meeting of leaders on how we can address the growing anxiety and mental health challenges that more and more children and teenagers are experiencing.
Joel Penton with LifeWise Academy is here to talk about the how. Well, folks, let me ask you a question. Are you concerned about the future of our nation, your children’s future, your grandchildren?
Regardless of the outcome of the November election, there are challenges ahead, I can assure you. Without question, if the left remains in power, the challenges are going to be monumental. But my point is that an election is not going to solve what ails America.
It may aid us as a nation in finding the help we truly need, which is not more government spending, not another federal program, but an understanding that God needs to be welcomed back into every level of our society. Not just our churches and our homes, but in our government, in education and entertainment. And that, my friends, is going to be the focus of this year’s Pray Vote Stand Summit here in Washington, DC.,
October the 3rd through the 6th. And I need you to join me. I need you to come and be a part of praying for and preparing for our nation’s future.
To find out how, go to prayvotestand.org. That’s prayvotestand.org. With less than two weeks remaining until a possible government shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced this morning that he will move forward with a vote for a six-month continuing resolution, that is a short-term spending bill, with the SAVE Act attached, which strengthens election integrity by preventing non-U.S.
citizens from voting in federal elections. The vote is expected to take place tomorrow, and it comes after the Biden administration has already announced the president will veto any government funding measure that includes the SAVE Act. What is so controversial about non-citizens saying, you can’t vote in our elections?
Joining me now to discuss this is Congressman Michael Cloud. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. He represents the 27th Congressional District of Texas.
Congressman Cloud, welcome back to Washington Watch.
Well, thank you. Good to be with you once again.
So, let me ask you, what’s so controversial about saying if you’re not an American citizen, you can’t vote in a federal election?
That is really the essential question, because for most Americans, this is not a controversial issue. This is like an 85, 90 percent issue among Americans. Of course, American citizens should be the ones selecting our leaders in our country.
The only place that this is divisive is in the halls of Congress and in Washington, DC., in the White House, where people want to do whatever they can to control and to keep power and are willing to do whatever they can to make that happen. And so this should be a pretty easy build to get past.
But unfortunately, with the powers that be right now, wanting to do whatever they can to grasp onto that power, that’s when this becomes controversial.
So Congressman Cloud, the House has passed this once before. So it has passed the House. And I should say in a bipartisan manner, there were actually some Democrats that supported the bill.
But it went over to Chuck Schumer’s graveyard, where every good piece of legislation that comes from the House goes to die. They’re saying that, oh, we don’t need this. It’s not necessary.
It’s already illegal. So if it’s not a problem, as they say, then why not go ahead and make it very clear by passing this legislation?
Well, it’s true it’s illegal to vote in elections. But the problem is, is all that we can do right now is fix it after the fact. You find out that a number of people voted illegally.
They appear on the voter rolls. You can prosecute them after the fact, but you can’t get that vote back. And so legal American citizens who are voting have their votes disenfranchised.
So that’s the importance of the SAVE Act that would require us to just check for citizenship for people who are voting. Now, this is very common sense. And again, an 85, 90 percent issue, not controversial.
Of course, this should happen. And so this has passed the House. And as you mentioned, the Senate has not taken it up, which is why we’re looking this week to attach it to to any sort of funding mechanism that moves.
And it’ll be important for the American people to see, do the Democrats in the Senate want to close the government in order to make sure that illegal aliens can vote? Or are they willing to make sure that our elections are secure? That’s an important question to have.
Well, we’re hearing where the Democrats stand on this. You said something that was, I think, key here, common sense. That’s something that evades this city.
In fact, I think he, common sense did not get a passport to come into Washington, DC. But the White House says, you know, they say, well, we’re going to veto anything with the SAVAC, but then they go on to say that a six-month funding patch will prove detrimental to the military, hurting GOP priorities of military readiness goals in an effort to deter China. Since when was the Biden-Harris administration concerned about the strength of our military?
Well, exactly. Right now, virtually almost every branch is having issues with recruiting. We’ve seen a major drop in morale and readiness in our military.
And so much of it because of what’s going on with the Biden-Harris administration, from the withdrawal from Afghanistan that was completely demoralizing, to the woke agenda, where people are, you know, one of the blessings we have is being able to nominate people to the academies. But I have to tell you, when we send young people now, their parents are concerned, veterans who’ve served honorably and now would love to see their kids enlist, or are concerned about sending their kids to these academies or into the military, where they’re going to be force-fed, this kind of woke agenda. This is not helping readiness, it’s not helping us to be the lean, mean fighting machine that we need to be to face the challenges that are on the world stage right now.
And so, for them to pull this out is a reason not to pass this at this point is really disingenuous at best.
So let’s get to the heart of their opposition, because Michael, you’ve been here long enough. They only have a couple of plays in their book, and we see this every time. What they want is a quote-unquote clean CR that would go into the middle of December, which would go beyond the election into a lame duck session of Congress.
And we’ve seen this time and time again. They’ll jam the house with an omnibus filled with all kinds of left, you know, goodies for the left, up against, with the backdrop of Christmas, Congress wanting to get out of here and get home, and it’ll pass, further inflating our nation’s debt. Am I right?
That’s exactly the play. And right now we’re in a season, well, I call it the swamp strikes back. We had some really great reforms about a year and a half ago in Congress.
The swamp wants their status quo agenda back. And so they’re doing everything they can to push us back into that CR, CR, CR, Christmas tree omnibus package that is always passed, trillions of dollars of spending, thousands of pages, no one gets to read the bills. And of course, heading into a Trump administration, it would have a ton of nefarious policies intent on tying the hands of a Trump administration.
He understands reforms that need to happen in this place, and they would do everything they can to make sure they stripped whatever power they could from a Trump administration heading into this. And so, I’m not a big CR fan. I’m really not.
I’ve never voted for one. But I understand right now, we’ve got to do everything we can to avoid the omnibus. And so, anything we could do to not let this set the stage for the first nine months of a Trump presidency when those first few months are going to be so important to getting the momentum to have the changes we need to see in a Trump administration.
So, thus the need to get this funding into the Trump administration so that he can make the reforms that we need and we can work with a Congress that maybe will be able to help.
Congressman Cloud, you make an extremely important point that I want to unpack for our viewers and listeners for just a moment. That is the CR. The CR is not the way to govern.
Right. But we’ve been doing this for, you know, omnibus CRs for nearly two decades. However, let me just say, you know, we’re not quite where we need to be, but as you mentioned, there have been some reforms.
The House actually passed about 72 percent of federal spending in the appropriations bills. But again, they went to the Senate, and the Senate has done nothing. The Senate wants this scenario where they can jam the House.
So we have people trying. You, your colleagues, are trying. And I agree with you, the CR is not the way to go.
However, in this scenario, it’s much better to have a six-month CR, as you pointed out, that would put this past the election, past the lame duck section of Congress, hopefully, into a more conservative administration, that can then deal with the budget.
Exactly, and right. The right way to go is to fund this through appropriations bills for years that had not even been on the table, really. And what we’ve seen this year and last fiscal year or two, this term, we’ve been able to pass appropriation bills on the floor.
We got 75% of the government, roughly 75% of the government funded this way. But again, the Senate’s not taking up the bills. They’re not doing the hard work of appropriating.
And so we come to this point where the choice is that Christmas tree omnibus bill or the attempt to get this into a next term where we could have a better chance of making some conservative reforms that will put us on a fiscal path. We’re in a very precarious position fiscally as a nation, and we’ve got to turn that corner.
Yeah, I mean, essentially, the choice that your colleagues have in the House is to make this attempt with a six-month CR with the SAVE Act attached to it, or kick this over and let Chuck Schumer actually write the funding bills for the federal government.
That’s exactly the choice right now. I wish the choices were better, but that is the choice we’re at right now. And when you consider the fact that we’re attaching the SAVE Act to it, which again is an 85, 90 percent issue, this should sail through the House and should sail through the Senate and be headed to the president’s desk, which he should have no concerns about it.
Of course, the US citizen should be selecting the next president of the United States, as well as the representation in Congress. That’s what should happen. We’ll see how far we get along that process.
All right, Congressman Michael Cloud, thanks so much for joining us today. Always great to see you.
Yeah, good to see you. God bless you.
All right, folks, you need to weigh in on this. You need to let your members of Congress know that this is the way to go forward in order to prevent Chuck Schumer from inflating the nation’s debt with goodies for the left. All right, don’t go away.
We’re coming back with more after this.
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Thank you so much and God bless you.
All of us are born with the desire to find truth and meaning. Where did I come from? What happens when I die?
While our answers to these questions may divide us, we are united in our need for the freedom to answer life’s biggest questions and make life’s biggest decisions for ourselves. That’s why religious freedom matters for everyone. Religious freedom matters because the powerful have long wanted to control those who are less powerful.
Religious freedom matters because the freedom of those who are different is often threatened by those who believe different is dangerous. At the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, we promote religious freedom for everyone because the only alternative is religious freedom for no one. We encourage Americans and the American government to engage and advocate for the persecuted and they do.
We work every day to bring good news to the afflicted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners. We do it because that’s what Jesus does. We work to give freedom to others because we ourselves have been set free.
Welcome back to Washington Watch. I’m Tony Perkins, your host. Okay, here’s the capital switchboard number to call your member of Congress regarding the six-month continuing resolution and the SAVE Act.
202-224-3121, that’s 202-224-3121. That is the capital switchboard number, and you can speak to your member of Congress. If you don’t happen to know who your member of Congress is, just have your zip code, and they will connect you with their office.
That’s 202-224-3121. Earlier today, Senate Democrats failed to advance the misleading named Right to IVF Act for the second time this year. Despite its name, this legislation is not really about IVF, as it would open a Pandora’s box to measures that include human cloning, gene editing, the creation of three-parent embryos, the creation of human-animal chimeras and other forms of human embryo experimentation with no pro-life protections.
While this failed legislation can be viewed as a messaging bill meant to distract voters with elections approaching, that does not detract from the dangerous policies embedded in this legislation and the misleading messaging that is coming from our nation’s leaders, like Chuck Schumer. Joining me now to discuss this is Senator James Lankford from Oklahoma. He serves on four Senate committees, including the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Senator Lankford, welcome back to Washington Watch. Great to see you.
Good to see you again as well.
All right. The Democrats introduced this legislation, the quote right to IVF Act. Why was this deceptive?
Well, it’s deceptive for a million reasons, and some of them you outlined there as well. Well, let me give you a couple of others. This bill also takes over any state policy on IVF.
You’ve got states like your home state of Louisiana, that they have limitations on IVF to be able to make sure that it’s well managed, that embryos aren’t just being tossed and are protected. It would remove all of those state restrictions. It would also take away all conscience protections for anyone across the country dealing with this issue, no matter how it’s done or what is done.
This is truly a really bad bill that they’re going to just throw out there and to be able to say, okay, Trump is saying one thing about IVF, but all the Republicans are voting against it. They’re secretly against IVF and every kind of procedure on that, which is absurd for them to be able to do. But this goes back to the Americans aren’t paying attention and they don’t read the details of what these bills actually say.
Then they’ll just miss it based on the headline.
So Schumer in his comments, and let me just play his clip one again.
Today, the Senate will hold a simple and pivotal vote on whether or not to take up once again the right to IVF Act. If the Senate votes no today and strikes IVF protections down yet again, it will be further proof that Project 2025 is alive and well.
Okay, so first off, name one state in which IVF is not legal.
Not one, not one state, not one territory. That’s, and again, this is the perception that the Democrats are trying to create across the nation, and it is very, very deceptive in what they’re doing, and flat out just a lie. It’s just not true in what’s actually happening.
The other aspect of this is every single Democrat voted today for human cloning, for three-parent families, for all this bizarre different methods of actually combining families together. They absolutely just voted for it today, just oblivious either to what was actually included, or they actually agree with all that’s included in this bill. Either one of them is a really bad foretaste of what they would plan to do for the future.
Some of which, as you just described, has actually been made illegal by Congress because of the experimentation and the destructive nature of it. I mean, this is a type of stuff that maybe the Nazis did, and they’re used, just because you have the technology, does not mean you have the moral authority to do it.
This is what the Communist China does in their experimentation even today. And so this is not who we are as Americans, nor should we be as Americans. We should speak out on this to say human life is precious, and we’re going to respect the dignity of all human life.
All right, I want to switch gears here. The current situation in Israel, in the Middle East, very tenuous. We’re coming up on one year of war.
This week marked the fourth anniversary of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. You are the co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Abraham Accords Caucus. We were moving in a good direction when it came to stability and peace in the Middle East, but that’s all been blown up.
Yeah, it’s all been sidetracked. By the way, I remember distinctly that day of the signing of the Abraham Accords. I happened to be a guest at the White House.
It was on the White House lawn that day as a redhead. It was a hot afternoon. I remember.
I remember. In September, and my redhead self was getting out there getting sunburned, but it was such a historic day to know that no treaties had happened for so long, and then for the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to sit down with Israel and to be able to sign documents of normalization. What began after that was airline flights and trade and exchange of technology and all kinds of things began immediately on that.
It had continued. In fact, if it wasn’t for the Abraham Accords and what happened during that time period, I’m convinced that there would be much wider bloodshed happening in the Middle East now. But because of those friends and those relationships that were starting early, it’s been tamped down somewhat in the Middle East.
And many people know that when Israel launched, or when Iran launched missiles at Israel several months ago, it was some of those nations that were actually stepping out and helping shoot down some of those rockets coming at Israel that would have been unheard of five or ten years ago. So yes, we were in a good spot moving towards it. We added Morocco later to that agreement.
We’re continuing to be able to add, as we continue to be able to focus on who else could be added for normalization. But that all seems to be all shot up with just the weakness. It’s been in this administration, their foreign policy.
Final question before you just have about 45 seconds left. What do we know about this mysterious activity in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah, many of their militants, nine have been killed, thousands wounded by their old low tech pagers simultaneously blowing up?
Well, we don’t know a lot yet on it. Israel is not speaking on this, but it seems to be the communication method that they had to be able to function and to be able to cooperate with these low tech pagers that were there, and all of them seemed to have simultaneously blown up, which caused a lot of injuries to a lot of these Hezbollah operatives. These were key people that were actually helping lead and instruct the people that were under them.
So for these key leaders across Hezbollah, many of them just were seriously injured today and some of them lost their life.
Very interesting and of course, that’s usually the way the Israelis never talk about how or who. They just stand by and watch. Senator James Lankford, always great to see you.
Thanks so much for stopping by today.
Good to see you again. Thanks for continuing to be able to speak out for values in the country.
Absolutely. We will continue to do so. Folks, that’s a good reminder just to be praying for Israel as well as that remains a very volatile situation and no end in sight.
All right, after the break, we talk WHO, the World Health Organization and their global power grab. That’s next. Don’t go away.
Everything we do begins as an idea. Before there can be acts of courage, there must be the belief that some things are worth sacrificing for. Before there can be marriage, there is the idea that man should not be alone.
Before there was freedom, there was the idea that individuals are created equal. It’s true that all ideas have consequences, but we are less aware that all consequences are the fruit of ideas. Before there was murder, there was hate.
Before there was a Holocaust, there was the belief by some people that other people are undesirable. Our beliefs determine our behavior, and our beliefs about life’s biggest questions determine our world view. Where did I come from?
Who decides what is right and wrong? What happens when I die? Our answers to these questions explain why people see the world so differently.
Debates about abortion are really disagreements about where life gets its value. Debates over sexuality and gender and marriage are really disagreements about whether the rules are made by us or for us. What we think of as political debates are often much more than that.
They are disagreements about the purpose of our lives and the source of truth. As Christians, our goal must be to think biblically about everything. Our goal is to help you see beyond red and blue, left and right, to see the battle of ideas at the root of it all.
Our goal is to equip Christians with a biblical worldview and help them advance and defend the faith in their families, communities and the public square. Cultural renewal doesn’t begin with campaigns and elections. It begins with individuals turning from lies to truth.
But that won’t happen if people can’t recognize a lie and don’t believe truth exists. We want to help you see the spiritual war behind the political war, the truth claims behind the press release in the forest and the trees.
This is Washington Watch, I’m Tony Perkins. The Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121, 202-224-3121, time to weigh in. Okay, at the World Health Assembly last June, the World Health Organization was unable to pass their Worldwide Pandemic Accord agreement, really a treaty, as planned.
In large part because of the opposition that began to percolate up, because of programs like this that were focusing on it, and we had members of Congress that were willing to step out and draw attention to it. But just like the left on so many things, they don’t go away. It’s just kind of like COVID, it’s still there.
The global organization did adopt amendments to the international health regulations, which are riddled with elements that challenge American freedoms and sovereignty. Well, earlier today, leaders on Capitol Hill held a press conference to call attention to the problems inherent in this treaty and to recommend action items in response. Joining me now to discuss this, Congressman Eli Crane.
He serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, the House Committee on Veteran Affairs, and the House Small Business Committee. He represents the second congressional district of Arizona. Congressman Crane, welcome back to Washington Watch.
Thanks for having me on, Tony. I appreciate it.
Let’s talk about some of the issues that were brought up today about the WHO, what they’re trying to accomplish through this agreement that they’re pushing forward, and why we have to stop it.
Yeah, Tony, I think you alluded to it in your opening comments. The deal with these guys, it’s always the same deal. They want authority, they want global governance, and they’ll do whatever they can to achieve that.
This agreement that we’re trying to stop would give them global authority in multiple categories of catastrophic events that might happen around the world, from another pandemic to crises, you know, immigration, food shortages around the world, cybersecurity attacks, attacks in space, black swan events. I mean, there’s so many different environmental crises, and we know how the left and globalists love to use, you know, the environment as a tool to strip away rights and just, you know, take control over, more control over American people’s lives. And so that’s what this is about.
Once again, it’s going to continue to be the same fight. They might try and change the definition or the agreement, but that’s what it’s always going to be about. And I’m glad to be on your side of the football on this one and trying to preserve our sovereignty because I think that, you know, unfortunately, a lot of these folks that are globalists, like the World Health Organization and others, quite frankly, really don’t care what’s best for the American people.
And one of the most scary things about it, Tony, is we can’t vote them out of office if they’re doing a poor job. And so, we must do everything we can to continue to block this.
Well, the point you made just a few moments ago and at the press conference earlier today, when you went through the litany of examples that they use that could trigger their authority, I mean, if you think about it, that’s any day of the week, when you look at the headlines of a newspaper, it would have triggered the WHO being able to use their power and their authority on a global basis, if you look at how wide open they leave those definitions.
Bingo, Tony, and that’s exactly what they want. Sadly, this Biden administration, they’re in complete support of this. It’s one more reason why this next election is so important.
But my message to your viewers out there, regardless of whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent, how wise do you think it is to give a global body governance over your lives during any of those events that I just listed off and more that you didn’t elect and that don’t represent you and you can’t call and petition. Tony, you gave a number to the Congressional Switchboard in your opening. You’re not going to be able to call the WHO and these folks and list your grievances and your complaints with them.
And quite frankly, they wouldn’t care anyway. And so that’s why it’s so important that we keep our sovereignty and the ability to make decisions for how we handle these situations right here within the federal government.
Well, it’s even worse than that. You just mentioned, I gave out the phone number. By the way, folks, if you’d like to sign the petition to the Senate to pass the measure that the House passed last week that would require the Senate to approve this treaty, text the word WHO to 67742.
That’s WHO to 67742. All right, if I wouldn’t be able to give out the switchboard number to call, under the provisions of the treaty, it obliges member states to quote unquote address misinformation and disinformation. So let’s say the Biden administration was going to shut down everything again because of some kind of pandemic.
If I give out a number to challenge that and call Congress and say, hey, weigh in on this because this shouldn’t be happening, dah, dah, dah, dah, this violates our First Amendment, they would be obligated under this treaty to declare what I’m saying as disinformation. This is the type of stuff we saw during COVID-19, which has now been proven to have been false and have silenced free speech and led us down a very destructive path.
No, you’re 100 percent right, Tony, to bring up that perfect example of how this will be used in the future. We had the organizations like the social media, the tech giants in Silicon Valley, and social media censoring the American people for what they were calling, misinformation, disinformation, and many of us knew that we were being gaslit. But even just recently, Mark Zuckerberg, even Mark Zuckerberg came out and talked about the pressure that he was receiving from this administration to censor the American people.
We’re going to continue to see more of the same unless we wake up and block this continued effort for global government.
All right, Eli, we got to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us. Folks, stick around, we’re back with more after this.
Join us October 3rd through the 6th as we gather with spiritually active governance engaged conservatives from across America at the Pray Vote Stand Summit in Washington DC. We’ll pray for our nation, engage in government and culture, and stand for biblical truth alongside Christian leaders, worldview experts, and government officials. We’ll discuss important issues like the sanctity of life, religious freedom, protecting students, strengthening families, praying for our nation, and how you can impact America’s future from a biblical worldview.
Our nation stands at a critical juncture, and we must ensure that the issues impacting faith, family, and freedom are understood and advanced. Register now at prayvotestand.org. That’s prayvotestand.org.
Jesus said in John 15, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. In 2024, in these divided and uncertain times, how can this be possible? By abiding in him through his word.
At Family Research Council, we want to help you do that, which is the reason for the stand on the Word Bible reading plan. In just 10 to 15 minutes each day, you will have read the entire Bible in just two years. But more importantly, you will be abiding in him daily.
Find our Bible reading plan at frc.org/bible. And join Tony Perkins each weekday for a 10-minute devotional, inspired by the daily reading and designed to encourage you on this journey through the Bible. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
And remember, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Research has found that there are 59 million American adults who are a lot like you. There are millions of people around the country who are born again, deeply committed to practicing their faith and believe the Bible is the reliable word of God. But that’s not all.
They’re also engaged in our government. They’re voters. They’re more likely to be involved in their community, and they’re making a difference in elections.
The problem is that a lot of them feel alone too. We want to change that. FRC wants to connect these 59 million Americans to speak the truth together, no matter the cost.
If you want to learn more about this group and what it means to be a spiritually active, governance-engaged conservative, or if you want to find out if you are one of these sage-cons yourself, join us. Go to frc.org/s-a-g-e-c-o-n, sage-con, to learn more. That’s S-A-G-E-C-O-N.
S-A-G-E-C-O-N. To learn more.
Welcome back to Washington Watch. Good to have you with us. The website, tonyperkins.com.
Be sure and make plans now to join us October 3rd through the 6th for the Pray, Vote, Stand Summit. I think it’s going to be a powerful time as we pray, as we seek the Lord. I think our nation stands at a very critical moment, and this is the time God’s people need, they need to gather, and we need to pray, we need to seek God and prepare for what is ahead.
So we’re going to be doing that October 3rd through the 6th, right here in the nation’s capital, to find out more, go to prayvotestand.org. Our word for today comes from Proverbs chapter 30, verse 5. Every word of God is pure.
He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. The word pure here means refined, and tested. It’s pure, it’s solid.
You can count on it. You can count on the word of God. It will not change, it will not falter.
There is a great pressure today on Christians to surrender their allegiance to biblical truth or at least be silent about it when it comes to the issues of our day that have been deemed political. But here’s what happens if we lay down the word of God. We will have surrendered the source of our protection and our strength.
As Christians today, we need to be fortifying our stand upon the word of God. Yes, you will face some opposition. But when the world collapses around those doing what seems right in their own eyes, you’ll be standing safely and securely on the proven word of God and able to point them at their moment of desperation to a source of hope, help and healing.
To find out more about our journey through the Bible, text BIBLE to 67742. Well yesterday on the program I had Dr. John Plake from the American Bible Society discussing how Gen Z and the upcoming generations are dealing with anxiety and fear fueled by trauma. I mean, so much stuff is happening out there.
Well, at the same time, there has been and continues to be a decline in the engagement with the Bible by the younger generations. In other words, fewer and fewer children are being exposed to the truth of God’s Word. But here was the good story, the good news from yesterday’s conversation with Dr. Plake.
When they are exposed to scripture, when they begin to read it and they begin to live it, well, they begin to score high on what’s called the human flourishing scale, the anxieties begin to melt away, purpose begins to come into their lives. They’re not aimlessly wondering, but they realize they’re there for a purpose and life has meaning. So when we look at the cultural challenges as a society that we face today and the needs of children, what if, I mean, what if they were exposed to the Bible in those worldview developing years between the ages of 15 months to 13 years?
What if, collectively, we had an opportunity to do that, to help these children before the trauma sets in, before the anxiety takes over their lives, expose them to that proven, tried Word of God? Well, you might remember earlier this year, I discussed a ministry, an organization called LifeWise Academy. It’s a Christian ministry that brings weekly Bible lessons to public school children.
You heard that, public school children. Dearing School Hours. Now, the ministry has experienced phenomenal success with plans to reach more than 50,000 students across 29 states this year.
Well, join me now in studio to talk about this is Joel Penton. He is the CEO of LifeWise Academy and the author of Dearing School Hours, which shares his story and the story of this program. Joel, welcome to Washington Watch.
Thanks for having me. It’s great to be with you in person.
Yeah, great to be here in the studio. Give us a little bit about your background before we jump into LifeWise. You’re from Ohio.
That’s right.
We share that in common. I was born outside of Cincinnati.
Very good.
And you played football for Ohio State, right?
I did. Back in 2002-2006, I was part of a national championship team and I played under Jim Tressel.
So talk about why this matters to you, of young people, of children finding the Word of God.
Yeah. Well, I think that’s, I know it’s because my life has been transformed by the Word of God. I came to faith when I was in high school as a freshman in high school, and it was through a simple Bible study led by a youth pastor.
And the Lord really captured my heart. And I knew that my life was going to be all about sharing the Word of God with others, sharing the gospel with others. And so, that meant getting involved in ministry of all sorts.
But then when I discovered that this type of ministry we’re talking about right now, which would ultimately become life-wise, was possible, I thought, well, the Lord has prepared me for this exact moment. And what else could I be doing with my life but investing it in seeing children receive the Word of God?
And the table was set before you were born for this.
Oh, yes.
Because if you actually look at this program, this program takes—uses an opportunity that was actually given to us— prepare yourself for this, folks. This came as a result of a Supreme Court decision— That’s right. —back in 1952.
That’s right. Zorats v. Claussen.
In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can in fact be released from public school during school hours to receive religious instruction if the program is off-school property, privately funded and students have parental permission. And so, when we tell people we provide Bible education for public school students during school hours, they usually look at us like we’re insane— Right. —or like it’s not possible.
But, yeah, the Supreme Court has ruled.
Well, because in 1962 and 1963, you had two successive Supreme Court decisions taking Bible and the prayer out of the school. So, I assume people really thought, well, that just knocks that case, that case law, out of whack. But, in fact, it didn’t.
It’s still good case law. In fact, states across the nation have allowed this release time, based upon that 1952 decision, for decades. In fact, the Family Research Council, I know, going back 30 years, was involved in this in some states.
But now that we are at a crisis point— Yes. —in our society, people are realizing, wow, did we make a mistake by kicking God and prayer and Bible out of the schools? What can we do to help out these children?
That’s right. There is certainly an angst. You can feel it.
It was accelerated or accentuated by COVID a few years ago. But there is a—it’s at a fever pitch now—of concern about what’s happening in schools, about what’s happening with public school students. And there has simply, sadly, been just— people haven’t known that this is possible, this thing of release time.
And as you said, yes, in the 60s, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bible was taken out of school, prayer was taken out of school, but it did not overturn that the students could be taken out of school for an hour at a time to be taught the Bible.
So I want to get to the mechanics of how this actually works, so people see that it’s different. But I’m going to go back for something you just said a moment, that there’s a recognition. Now, this recognition is not just from parents.
Educators are actually, once they see this in place, are, number one, they’re looking for answers because there are behavioral issues, there’s attendance issues. Talk about that and talk about what happens when Lifewise comes into a school.
Yes, well, educators know there’s a crisis of character, specifically attendance. There’s a, it’s been chronic absenteeism has been a major thing since COVID. And so we did a third party study to say, hey, when we introduce the Lifewise Academy to a school and we begin providing Bible education, is there an impact?
And the numbers are in and they’re pretty big. When Lifewise is introduced, attendance numbers go up to the point that students actually spend more time in school because they’re simply showing up for school that much more. Even though we’re pulling them out of school for a portion of the time, they’re coming to school so much more that they’re getting a net increase in class time.
There’s also a decrease in in school and out of school suspensions.
That’s what the Bible says. Right. So, let’s talk now about mechanics because this is the difference here, is that this is off-site instruction.
So, this is not happening on school property, but according to the Supreme Court decision in 1952, the students can be released to go off-site and have Bible instruction a couple of hours a week. So, talk about that.
Right. So, the three criteria are off-school property, privately funded and with parental permission. And so, what we do is we simply provide a plug-and-play program any community can implement.
This follows a 10-step process, first by collecting signatures, then forming a steering committee, then identifying a local team. But ultimately, after coordinating with the school, each student has an opportunity to attend one time per week. And so, in the same way that a child might receive art class once a week, music class once a week, gym class a couple times a week, every student has one opportunity to usually jump on the big red LifeWise bus and take a trip down the road to the local church and have a Bible study.
So, we usually get one or two classrooms at a time on a rotation, and some of our schools will see 70, 80, 90 percent of the entire school enroll, and we get those kids in waves of a couple classes at a time.
How many states is LifeWise currently operating in?
Last year, we operated in 13 states, just over 300 schools. We’re now confirmed this year in over 600 schools across 30 states.
Now, there is a provision, one of the things that we’ve been discussing offline is the state actually has to have implementing legislation to allow this to occur. So, you’re in the states that actually have laws on the books that allow this. The court says it can happen, but the state has to pass legislation to give direction to the local school board.
Well, it certainly helps. It’s theoretically possible to have a program in a state without legislation, but the legislation clarifies how is this going to work in this state. And the legislation varies from state to state, and so we are certainly advocating for the most robust and the strongest legislation in all states.
So, let’s talk about those that would be interested. You’re in 30 states. You’ve got a website.
Talk about where people can go to find out more. Maybe they want to expand it in a state, to bring it to their community. They’d like to see it in their school.
Talk about how people can partner with you to make that happen.
Yeah, the best way is through our website, lifewise.org, L-I-F-E-W-I-S-E dot org. And there’s all sorts of resources. You can find that study I mentioned about increased attendance, improved behavior.
You can see case studies. You can have your questions answered. But what’s really important is you can look up any school district in the nation, and you can find out where the district stands.
Every district has a page on our website, so you can find out, is there already a program? Is there already a movement? The way it gets started is through a signature campaign.
So if there’s not one started, you can add your name to the signature list. You can share that list with others, and you can begin the process, the grassroots process of getting a local program started.
I want to talk, Joel, just a moment about a contrast between something else that I’ve dealt with, we’ve talked about in this program before, is the Bible in school curriculum. This is much different, because the Bible in schools, and there’s a number of schools now that have the Bible, but it’s being taught as literature. And that’s a good first step, because even to be, I think, culturally literate, you need to know the Bible, because it’s so intergrained in our culture.
Sure. But this is not that. This is actually exposing young people, sharing with them the good news.
Yeah, that’s correct. This is a distinctive, that whereas many of those curriculums, right, Bible is literature, Bible is history, we’re able to teach the Bible as the Word of God.
Because it’s off-site.
That’s right, off-site, and it’s the Word of God. We can teach the Gospel, and we do. We talk about being Gospel-centered, and so every lesson, we do take students through the entire Bible over five years.
Every lesson, we teach the Bible story, we connect it to the Gospel. How does this story fit into the bigger picture story of the Gospel message? How does it transform our lives?
And so we’re able to share that Gospel message as the truth and tell students, this is the truth, believe it, trust in Jesus, turn to Jesus. It’s a matter of faith, not simply academics.
And when you say we, when you’re saying we, Joel is not in 30 states teaching this every week. You are partnering with local churches and others who have a passion to reach children that are, you know, you look at the challenges that kids are facing today and the hopelessness, and you’ve been working in inner cities and in some places that are really, really troubled. Yes.
And so this is an opportunity. The stage is being set for people in the local community to come in and share the gospel and come alongside and help these kids.
Yeah, I’d say what we’ve been convinced of is that there is a great need that most kids don’t know the Bible has two testaments. They’re unfamiliar with the Word of God. We have kids that will put a Bible in their hand and then they’ll comment on how thin the pages are because they’ve never held a Bible in their hands.
The need is so great and I have now become convinced that in every single community across the country, God has his people who are willing to do this, who will step up and give the time and give the money and they just need to know that they can. And so, there are 13,000 school districts, 90,000 school buildings, 50 million public school students across this nation and it’s going to take a lot to get to all of them, but what would the cost be if we don’t do this is really our question.
I think we’re seeing that cost in terms of the human impact and the societal impact. I think we’ve seen 50 years, really 60 years of experimentation of what a society without God looks like. We have an opportunity now and the Lord’s given you this vision and this is basically a program in a box.
So those in local community, this is turnkey. They have the interest, the passion, they put together the people and you provide the program.
That’s right. Yeah. And that was our assessment of the situation, this amazing opportunity that this door opened up 70 years ago, but the tools weren’t there.
And so our teams are working hard to build the tools and they are there for the taking for communities across the country.
All right, Joel Penton, give the website once again how people can find out more about joining with LifeWise, whether they want to start a group or fund, help fund this initiative in other states.
Yep. It’s lifewise.org, L-I-F-E-W-I-S-E. Go to the page, see the resources before you leave, find your local school district and get connected.
Joel, this is exciting. Just appreciate your passion and your work on this and look forward to partnering with you.
Thanks for having me on.
Well, folks, this is one of those opportunities that we have. We can either curse the darkness or we can shine a light. This is an opportunity to shine a light where it matters most.
I cannot say this enough. The worldview of a child is formulated between the ages of 15 months and 13 years. That’s the very time we’re talking about here.
You can make a difference. Check it out. I think you go to tonyperkins.com as well if you didn’t catch that website.
Well, folks, that’s all that we have time for today. But I want to thank you for joining us. And again, I want to invite you to come to our nation’s capital October 3rd through the 6th for the Pray Vote Stand Summit.
I’ll talk more in the days ahead about that. Until next time, I leave you once again with the encouraging words the Apostle Paul found in Ephesians 6 where he says, when you’ve done everything you can do, when you’ve prayed, prepared and taken your stand, by all means, keep standing.
Washington Watch with Tony Perkins is brought to you by Family Research Council and is entirely listener supported. Portions of the show discussing candidates are brought to you by Family Research Council Action. For more information on anything you heard today or to find out how you can partner with us in our ongoing efforts to promote faith, family and freedom, visit tonyperkins.com.