In this pivotal episode, we delve into Thanksgiving week with a heart full of gratitude, sharing updates on the ACLJ’s relentless pursuit of justice. Tune in to hear about the ongoing efforts of our teams across the globe, even during the holiday season. From domestic battles involving redistricting and legal challenges against overreach to international endeavors defending religious freedoms, our freedom drive is crucial for carrying forward this vital work.
SPEAKER 07 :
keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 11 :
Welcome to Sekulow. It is Thanksgiving week. And of course, we are thankful for all of you who listen and support the work of the ACLJ and everyone that watches this show each and every day. We’ve got great content lined up for you today. So don’t worry, we’re still here for you. I hope you enjoyed this broadcast. We got, again, great content from previous days, previous weeks. But we are want to provide you a little bit of an update here at the very beginning of the day here. Because, look, the ACLJ work doesn’t stop. It’s something that we are working at nonstop. And of course, even though it’s Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving week, the ACLJ work continues on. We’ll have teams that are meeting throughout. You try to give them a break during the holiday, you never know what happens. I can tell you many of Thanksgiving’s that we were working, many of Christmas’s that we were working, because again, these aren’t even holidays necessarily. The whole world even covers. So when it’s Thanksgiving here, that doesn’t matter what’s going on in our European Center for Law and Justice. It doesn’t matter what’s going on at Christmas for our ACLJ Jerusalem office necessarily. There are always a lot of other work happening. And Jordan, the ACLJ work is really first and foremost at the forefront right now during this Freedom Drive.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is a really busy season for everybody. I’ve got young kids. I think it’s one of the busiest seasons from when you go from kind of the get past, you start with the Halloween, but especially you get to Thanksgiving and Christmas with school, with family activities, with travel. And again, it can be stressful. And you’ve got all these different things to go to. So I know that you probably have had a tough time tuning in or if you watch the broadcast, catching all the broadcasts. So what we’re going to do over the next three days is play what we definitely didn’t want you to miss. So if you’ve had that busy time list, it’d be tough for me to tune into shows I like every single day these last two weeks just because timing wouldn’t allow it. And because of that, we put together those segments we definitely didn’t want you to miss. So you’re going to be actually probably hearing or seeing, depending on how you take in the show, new content that you haven’t seen before. Yeah. maybe more entertaining than our normal show.
SPEAKER 11 :
You know what? Because you’re getting a best of. But that being said, as Jordan said, we’ve got some great content lined up. But the ACLJ Freedom Drive, you know, it’s wrapping up, but you can be a part of it right now. That’s why go on ACLJ.org. And supporting our legal work as well as our media work, both of them are very expensive endeavors. These aren’t things… If you’re listening on the radio, you hear… a sponsor, you’re an advertiser that doesn’t go to us. That goes to the local station that goes to the, or maybe the national network that does not go to the ACLJ. That does not go to us. Oftentimes it costs us money to be on those stations because we want to make sure we don’t have anyone above us. No corporate overlords to tell us what we can and can’t say. And that only has happened because we essentially own that time that we’re on the air. That only happens because you support the work financially of the ACLJ. So I’m going to encourage you right now to go to ACLJ.org and have your donation doubled because right now it’s during one of our big match months. That is where there’s ACLJ supporters and ACLJ champions that are ready to unlock a pledge. So if you give $100, it becomes $200 immediately.
SPEAKER 1 :
$200.
SPEAKER 11 :
Same thing. If you give $5, it becomes $10. So on up until, by the way, like I said, so much that we have such a good matching fund.
SPEAKER 03 :
that you know if we hit that limit I’ll tell you but it is well up there so if you want to give keep giving it will be matched yes this is a great time to do it too and it’s a way um uh we of course say thank you to all of our donors uh whether you’re able to make a donation this week or not uh but if you can it’s a great way to say uh thanks as well for the work because not just to me and Logan and our team that you see on the broadcast but for all of the ACLJ team hundreds and hundreds of They are here because of you. They’re able to do their jobs because of you. The attorneys, the government affairs, the teams in D.C., the teams around the world, the production teams, the people that you would never see in front of the camera or behind the microphone, they are all able to get all this work done that you see, the emails that you receive, what’s on the web. Because of your financial support. I mean, so it’s a huge thanks from them too. If you could support our work this week. And of course, for those of you who are ACLJ champions who donate monthly, we thank you every single month, but especially during Thanksgiving, you make our work possible. We don’t forget that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Please, of course, we hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving week. We’ll be back with brand new shows also on Monday. So stay tuned. We have some great content coming up, but I’m asking you right now as we head into this break. Think about supporting the ACLJ right now. This is the most important time of the year for during our Freedom Drive. Have your donation doubled right now. That is at ACLJ.org, or you can scan the QR code if you’re watching. The easiest way, just go to ACLJ.org, make your donation today. With that, again, we had a happy Thanksgiving. We’ll talk to you back very soon. Great content coming up, though. Don’t go anywhere. 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 06 :
I wasn’t as compelling enough. When you say call me, you say it with conviction. Call me. Right.
SPEAKER 11 :
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. 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.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. 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 bite nine 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 01 :
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 him today. We’re going to continue suing California until they start complying with the laws of our
SPEAKER 06 :
and when you look at also this problem not just in california but around the country it makes you wonder uh if there’s going to be you know outcry on both sides about the way that these congressional districts are drawn other states potentially answering back in some ways too for good or bad you know i think not necessarily for good but for a response that’s got a call about that maybe that’ll help inspire you to call it as well uh 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 11 :
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 06 :
Well, and to Dave’s point, there are already members of the Indiana legislature that are looking to do this.
SPEAKER 11 :
I don’t know much about it.
SPEAKER 06 :
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’s 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 11 :
It’s very blue, but has very red pockets.
SPEAKER 06 :
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 11 :
Your state will be controlled by a… political party. And do you really want that? That’s a whole nother 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.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. It seems like Gavin Newsom is doing all sorts of fun things out in California right now, trying to correct messes or go further into messes as he continues. One thing that we are fighting directly, is they are still trying to enforce.
SPEAKER 11 :
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.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that debt’s coming from the church. 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 11 :
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 go you know what you 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 06 :
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. 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, that’s ours now. That’s going to be the state to go to our budget deficits and all these sorts of things.
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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, we’re going to have a big update on that in the next segment. Again, you’re going to like it. 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 who’ve 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 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 completely jammed right now, but we will be taking your calls coming up in the next segment, so make sure you stay on hold because we will get to you. We are joined now by Secretary Mike Pompeo, of course, a member of the ACLJ team for a number of years now. Secretary Pompeo, I wanted to get your point of view, obviously, as a military person and someone who has served and obviously has served our country many, many times. A group of Democrat lawmakers, some top names, put out this, if you want to say, this promo ad essentially telling members of our military that it is okay, and not only okay, they are asking them to disobey what they consider to be unlawful orders. Now, what those orders are, of course, they don’t say what those are, but that feels like a very dangerous push to our military. They say in there, hey, we’ll have your back, but what does that even possibly mean when you’re talking about defying the orders of the commander-in-chief?
SPEAKER 05 :
Look, that video was disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst. I was a young soldier, spent 40 years now, I’ll concede that. But I was a young soldier. Well, the first thing you’re taught is the basic rule, is that you have an obligation to follow every lawful order and an equal duty not to follow an unlawful or unconstitutional order, both twins. and every soldier, whether they’re the youngest enlisted soldier in the Marines or Navy or a senior officer in the Army or Space Force, everybody gets that. So they were doing this for a political purpose, and they got the attention they wanted, they got the storyline out there they wanted. It’s a bit of a tempest in the teapot in that way, but it is unexplainable other than to say they are playing political games with a very important American institution, the United States Armed Forces. And for that, they should be ashamed of themselves. And I’m glad that so many have come around the cost saying this is reckless and dangerous for them to have chosen to do that. It’s unexplainable other than as a political stunt or an effort to undermine the current administration.
SPEAKER 06 :
And Mr. Secretary, the fact that, one, the left is always trying to say, President Trump’s putting us in a constitutional crisis. When you look at something like this, where they’re vague, they’re not pointing to a specific order. So it seems as though they’re just trying to either, one, just do a political stunt or to sow discord, to bring down the trust almost in American institutions. At the same time… When they’re saying they have the backs of these people as if they are the stopgap in some way against someone being taken through the military system of justice. But you think about the framework of the military is enshrined in the Constitution with the commander in chief, the chain of command, it being something that our founders put thought into. When they’re saying that President Trump, by doing this or doing that, even though the checks and balances, as far as I’ve seen, have worked out thus far, isn’t it a real constitutional crisis when you start trying to sow doubt in the very system which is enshrined in the Constitution?
SPEAKER 05 :
You know, I think that’s… The case that all of us need to make sure that these institutions that matter so much, whether it’s our United States military or our court system or, you know, these young folks who are serving in our FBI who don’t want to do politics, who just want to go take bad guys, take criminals off the streets, police forces. I think the left has tried to undermine these things in the very way you described for an awfully long time. And sadly, you see the election in New York City. You see what happened with the defund the police movement. You see this connectivity that you’re describing, right, which is to undermine so discord and to undermine these central institutions that our founders created and have served America for 250 years. And so I don’t think there’s any doubt that this was part and parcel of a broad radical left campaign to do just what you described. And they certainly accelerate that when President Trump is making decisions, decisions that you’ve seen, right? Sometimes the courts have rejected and said, nope, you can’t do that. And sometimes they said, no, that’s completely within the lines of the Constitution or the law. Those checks and balances have served us incredibly well. And when you try to go around them, when you try to undermine the commander in chief, that when the founders laid the Constitution out, they didn’t give Congress the power to be the commander in chief. They gave it to a singular individual. When you try to undermine that, you do impose a real risk that the next generation won’t understand that very important concept.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and I think that this entire conversation is very timely because you have a new piece up at ACLJ.org that’s titled American Conservatives Must Embrace First Principles. And I think it’s a lesson, one, for conservatives, but also for maybe people on the left. I know they probably won’t be perusing ACLJ.org on a Friday afternoon, but they should because you bring up the point that real conservatives need to remember what we stand for. and actually know what we believe and not just be in in the tribal politics that we see so easily but to really get back to that and when you contrast what you’re calling for with what we’re seeing so often from the left i just want to give you an opportunity to speak about that and why this piece you think is important for people to read especially at a time like this
SPEAKER 05 :
So it would be especially important for some who probably aren’t in the normal ACLG audience, but perhaps some of this we can all take to America broadly, because I don’t view this as political. But for those of us who believe in the conservative idea of America, the very founding ideas, you know, every now and again, we get caught up in the moment in a particular thing that’s happening or catches the news or is on X. We just, we should all remind ourselves that the reason this nation is so exceptional is because of these very core ideas about property rights, about individual liberty, not group polls, right? The idea of freedom and freedom of speech, don’t cancel, just let a thousand voices be heard. When we go back to those core ideas of liberty and freedom, then it serves the conservative movement well, but more importantly, it serves American ways to give us a good shot at the next 250 years. And that’s why I took this week, just as we’re all moving into Thanksgiving, to remind ourselves how blessed we are to be Americans and how important it is to remember these core ideas that have made this country so great.
SPEAKER 11 :
Secretary Pompeo, we always appreciate your guidance and your advice here. It’s always appreciated, especially when we have such an interesting topic here in terms of the military. It’s always good to have your point of view. But thank you and happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have a great week with you and your family. With that, I just want to again say thank you, but also thank you to all the people who support the work of the ACLJ. We have one line open at 1-800-684-3110. You can call in while we’re in break. Because in about two minutes, we’re going to take a break. When we get back, we’re going to start taking phone calls because so many of you have been on hold. I know a lot of you have a lot to say. A lot of vets who’ve called in. Make sure that you guys all get your voices heard in ACLJ Champions. And if you want to be an ACLJ Champion, that is someone that gives on a monthly basis, automatically, like a membership. You can do that right now. And your first donation will be part of our Freedom Drive, so it will be doubled. you will have an unlocked donation there. So if you decide you want to give at a $20 level for the first month, that will be essentially $40 to the organization because we have unlocked that pledge. The ACLJ is hard at it. I just want to say we have big months ahead. And Jordan, I know we got a minute and a half here. I’ll just run through it real quick.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’re filing a major amicus brief, our sixth this year, to defund the abortion industry the day after Thanksgiving. So our team continues to work. We’re filing a major appeal to the Supreme Court to defend a church from outrageous fines leveled by Gavin Newsom. And we’ll be announcing another new Supreme Court case next month, which isn’t that far away anymore when we’re already talking about Thanksgiving. We’re making significant progress on the global advocacy. I think you’ve seen that in the news if you’ve been looking at it. on the persecuted Christians in Nigeria. Over the last year, we’ve engaged in 218 pro-life cases, 102 international cases, 263 school matters, 188 government corruption cases, 36 cases battling anti-Semitism, 129 religious liberty cases, and we’re just getting started. I mean, this is still November. That’s right. That’s what we’ve done so far this year.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s just this year. And ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 03 :
With your financial support, we can do it.
SPEAKER 11 :
You can actually break down a lot of that. If you want to get more in the weeds on all the work the ACLJ does, go to ACLJ.org. Nothing’s behind a paywall. You can go there, learn more, read more, get educated, watch all the incredible YouTube videos our team puts up on our YouTube channel that over half a million people are a part of. Do that today. Of course, support the work of the ACLJ as you can. We only have a one-minute break coming up. So in that minute, I encourage you to think about supporting the work of the ACLJ. If you don’t get us on your local radio station or wherever you get it, get the second half hour at ACLJ.org or all social media platforms.
SPEAKER 07 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 11 :
Welcome to Sekulow. It is Thanksgiving week. And of course, we are thankful for all of you who listen and support the work of the ACLJ and everyone that watches this show each and every day. We’ve got great content lined up for you today. So don’t worry, we’re still here for you. I hope you enjoyed this broadcast. We got, again, great content from previous days, previous weeks. But we are want to provide you a little bit of an update here at the very beginning of the day here. Because, look, the ACLJ work doesn’t stop. It’s something that we are working at nonstop. And of course, even though it’s Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving week, the ACLJ work continues on. We’ll have teams that are meeting throughout. You try to give them a break during the holiday, you never know what happens. I can tell you many of Thanksgivings that we were working, many of Christmases that we were working, because again, these aren’t even holidays necessarily. The whole world even covers holidays. So when it’s Thanksgiving here, that doesn’t matter what’s going on in our European Center for Law and Justice. It doesn’t matter what’s going on at Christmas for our ACLJ Jerusalem office necessarily. There are always a lot of other work happening. And Jordan, the ACLJ work is really first and foremost at the forefront right now during this Freedom Drive.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is a really busy season for everybody. I’ve got young kids. I think it’s one of the busiest seasons from when you go from kind of the get past, you start with the Halloween, but especially you get to Thanksgiving and Christmas with school, with family activities, with travel. And again, it can be stressful. And you’ve got all these different things to go to. So I know that you probably have had a tough time tuning in or if you watch the broadcast, catching all the broadcasts. So what we’re going to do over the next three days is play what we definitely didn’t want you to miss. So if you’ve had that busy time list, it’d be tough for me to tune into shows I like every single day these last two weeks just because timing wouldn’t allow it. And because of that, we put together those segments we definitely didn’t want you to miss. So you’re going to be actually probably hearing or seeing, depending on how you take in the show, new content that you haven’t seen before. maybe more entertaining than our normal show, you know what?
SPEAKER 11 :
Because you’re getting a best of. But that being said, as Jordan said, we got some great content lined up, but the ACLJ Freedom Drive, you know, it’s wrapping up, but you can be a part of it right now. That’s why go on ACLJ.org and supporting our legal work as well as our media work. Both of them are very expensive endeavors. These aren’t things, if you listen, like if you’re listening on the radio, you hear a sponsor, you hear an advertiser, that doesn’t go to us. That goes to the local station. That goes to the, or maybe the national network. That does not go to the ACLJ. That does not go to us. Oftentimes, it costs us money to be on those stations because we want to make sure we don’t have anyone above us, no corporate overlords to tell us what we can and can’t say. And that only happens because we essentially own that time that we’re on the air. That only happens because you support the work financially of the ACLJ. So I’m going to encourage you right now to go to ACLJ.org and have your donation doubled because right now it’s during one of our big match months. That is where there’s ACLJ supporters and ACLJ champions that are ready to unlock a pledge. So if you give $100, it becomes $200 immediately.
SPEAKER 1 :
$200.
SPEAKER 11 :
Same thing. If you give $5, it becomes $10. So on up until, by the way, like I said, so much that we have such a good matching fund that, you know, if we hit that limit, I’ll tell you, but it is well up there. So if you want to give, keep giving. It will be matched.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, this is exciting. great time to do it too and it’s a way we of course say thank you to all of our donors whether you’re able to make a donation this week or not but if you can it’s a great way to say thanks as well for the work because not just to me and Logan and our team that you see on the broadcast but for all of the ACLJ team hundreds and They are here because of you. They’re able to do their jobs because of you. The attorneys, the government affairs, the teams in D.C., the teams around the world, the production teams, the people that you would never see in front of the camera or behind the microphone, they are all able to get all this work done that you see, the emails that you receive, what’s on the web.
SPEAKER 01 :
Because of your financial support.
SPEAKER 03 :
I mean, so it’s a huge thanks from them, too, if you can support our work this week. And, of course, for those of you who are ACLJ champions who donate monthly, we thank you every single month, but especially during Thanksgiving. You make our work possible. We don’t forget that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Please, of course. We hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving week. We’ll be back with brand new shows also on Monday. So stay tuned. We’ve got some great content coming up. But I’m asking right now as we head into this break. Think about supporting the ACLJ right now. This is the most important time of the year for during our Freedom Drive. Have your donation doubled right now. That is at ACLJ.org, or you can scan the QR code if you’re watching. The easiest way, just go to ACLJ.org, make your donation today. With that, again, we had a happy Thanksgiving. We’ll talk to you back very soon. Great content coming up, though. Don’t go anywhere.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Haynes joined in studio by Jordan Sekulow as well as Greg Gore, who you saw on the broadcast yesterday in C.C. Heil, Senior Counsel with the ACLJ. Jordan, I think we should lead this off by playing a bite from Ted Cruz that we didn’t get to.
SPEAKER 03 :
This morning, actually, Senator Cruz, who’s on Eastern Time, Central Time here when our studio’s in Nashville. And he texted to me directly, and it was a clip out of remarks he’d made just late last week at the Federalist Society Convention in Washington, D.C. while I was at the CPAC at Mar-a-Lago talking about these issues as well of persecution. And he brought up directly, which I think was great, the rise in – anti-Semitism on not just the left but on the right and he spoke to it directly and he quoted even you know our founding fathers and maybe the most key founding father in pushing back on these ideas of anti-Semitism back this is going back now to you know 1700s
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and Jordan, I think as well, when we play this, that’s why we’re in this freedom drive at ACLJ. It’s not just freedom here as well. It’s freedom in Europe. It’s freedom across the world because we believe in these ideals that you have the right to freedom of faith, to worship,
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s going to be the Western world and much of Europe. This idea is that the government is not going to tell you what you have to believe or not believe. You can choose what faith or no faith at all. You can change your faiths. And that should not make you at all some kind of target of the government or insecure in your own community. That the police will protect you and your decisions and the freedom that you have.
SPEAKER 06 :
Jordan, I think that’s why the ACLJ is so well positioned to fight this here in America, as we see the Democrat Party adopt what some liberal societies in Europe have been doing, the secularist movements for a long time.
SPEAKER 03 :
In the Western world, it just wasn’t in the United States of America.
SPEAKER 06 :
As it comes here, we are ready to fight it because of the work of Gregor and ACLJ. So let’s play Ted Cruz bite one.
SPEAKER 08 :
Washington assured the Hebrew congregation that our young and yet principled nation, quote, gives to bigotry, no sanction. To persecution, no assistance. And he promised, quote, that the children of the stock of Abraham shall sit in safety under their own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid.
SPEAKER 03 :
So this is George, quoting George Washington, this idea that, so it’s always been a discussion, but they knew they were creating a country that was initially, the people who came here were fleeing religious persecution. And it didn’t matter what kind of Christian persecution they were facing as kind of offshoots of other Christian faiths, that this has always been a place where people came seeking refuge A lot of times because of their religious convictions. And I want to go to Gregor because Gregor, we talked about how we’ve seen a rise in this in Europe, more so that we’re now kind of experiencing inside the United States. Talk to people about the rise in anti-Semitism inside European countries where I think France has the largest Jewish population in Western Europe. And you see, again, a lot of these communities living in fear.
SPEAKER 02 :
Indeed, I mean, we couldn’t believe it would come back. In fact, anti-Semitism is now back in Europe with an ugly face from mainly from the left, you know, and the conflict in Israel is just increasing it. And so we see now, I mean, I’m living in the Jewish quarter in Strasbourg and we have down to my own apartment, Often there is the army, army protecting the neighborhood. So, I mean, we live with the army protecting us. When I go to church for Christmas, for example, we have as well as the army protecting us during the big celebration, which means that the Jews are attacked and the Christians as well. So we are both attacked under danger. We are both unfortunately attacked We must be under protection. You have in France every day churches being attacked, destroyed, burned. We know about Notre Dame who was burned. But there are plenty of churches attacked, desecrated, and this is just a hatred against God. And it goes against the Jews, it goes against Christians, because it goes against God. and this is the reason we are facing that. It’s really something we want, and this is one of the actions of the ECJ, is to have the governments at the national level and also at the EU level much more aware, because we are always speaking about Islamophobia. But I mean, nothing is done, you know, to protect enough the churches and to protect enough also the Christians. So we want, I mean, we need to protect freedom, not only of religion, but even our own safety in Europe.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, it’s interesting to me because I live in a country, and I don’t think this is a bad thing if we get this right, that seven years after 9-11, attacked by radical Islam, this loss of life, that the country would elect someone named Barack Hussein Obama, who did spend some of his life… growing up being you know going to schools at Islamic madrasas because we’re a country that says you know we’re not going to look to your we’re not going to identify you with how you might have been raised or your faith background is as everything you believe you’re still an individual person and okay so we did that and then you see what’s happened though in New York In New York, they’ve elected a mayor who’s taking it a step further. It’s not just background. He’s literally been an activist against Jews. He’s an enemy. He wants to defund the boycott, divestment, sanction movement. He’s part of those groups. He started those groups on his college campus. And so that takes a step further when you’re actively electing someone who is saying, yes, this is what I believe. and so if you can get to New York City from what happened in 9-11 in 2001 to 2025 and electing someone who is spreading the same kind of message maybe a little more toned down than those who carried out the attacks on 9-11, but the same kind of rhetoric against Jews and against also American institutions and Western institutions. Maybe America, we see how we’re very, we’re able to kind of like forget and move on because we see that as like our toughness. That might also be a weakness in the sense that we don’t really think about what, we have the decision here to choose our leaders. and you can choose really bad leaders and that puts you on a path that is very dangerous and what do we see around the world you know we talk about christian persecution That’s the next level. It’s not just burning down the place of worship or defacing the place of worship or maybe punching someone in the street.
SPEAKER 06 :
It’s taking out the entire village. That’s right. And I actually want to take this call real quick because it ties into that and to why we have to fight in other countries as well, not just in Europe and the United States. But Warren is calling on line three from Idaho. Warren, you’re on Sekulow. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thanks, guys. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys and wish I had more to give monthly and encourage everybody else. But getting to the anti-Semitism, it’s proving that the Bible is true, that the world would turn against the Jewish people and Israel, and they’re going to come against the Christians, and we’re already seeing it in Nigeria. And then just looking at, see what just happened with the riots at Berkeley, where it’s And we need to, like you’re saying, we have to push back because it’s easy. But we’re watching it happen across the world, like the Bible says.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I think we have a unique responsibility. As Americans, if we’re involved in the conservative or Republican movements in the United States, that if we see our activist base, especially younger activist base, it’s wonderful to bring young people on. It’s not wonderful to bring young people on who are bringing… hate with them that they think is okay in kind of a groupthink mentality. And so, you know, if we’re going to be leaders inside those movements, we have to say, we have to confront that early so that we don’t end up how Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat congressman, a friend of mine said on Bill Maher, he said, you know, you guys still have the opportunity to get this kind of figured out. On the left, inside the Democrat party, we’re already electing these people. So we’re at the point now where it’s the staffer level. Let’s make sure they get them educated. We’ve got to explain to them why this anti-Semitism leads to, again, it’s not just about anti-Semitism. It leads to violence. It leads to people being killed. And ultimately, the Christians come next. And I bet most of those staffer kids… identify with the christian faith that’s right and i think what we will do in the next segment is we’ll continue this discussion about the persecution and why yes we know about this our european office we talk a lot about christian persecution here for you but the eclj office has some true experts. They’re, of course, better suited regionally as well to go in and work with people on a daily basis in some of the hardest places in the world. And I want Gregor to be able to tell you about that and the team. It’s not just about those of us you see on these broadcasts or if you go to the ECLJ’s website and people you see there. It’s also the teams that we have built to combat persecution abroad.
SPEAKER 06 :
That’s right. And that’s why we have this Freedom Drive. And that’s why we’re showing you all this and why we have Gregor here. And it’s a wonderful opportunity to have him in our studio in the United States because he’s normally hard at work in France and around Europe and around the world. But we can show you why those experts that know what’s going on in places like Nigeria and other countries that we have to point out and call out and try to get it to stop there. We also know where the rhetoric and the hate that starts to bubble up in Europe, in the United States. We know where it goes and we won’t stop fighting at home and abroad. Give today to the ACLJ during our ACLJ Freedom Drive and have your donation doubled. ACLJ.org slash freedom. Welcome to Sekulow, final segment of the broadcast. And I’m going to pitch it right to you, Jordan, because we were just talking about how the ECLJ fights not just in Europe to affect policy and change and law there, but also around the world through our work at the UN and direct intervention in many places. So I want to pitch to you on that so we can hear from Gregor.
SPEAKER 03 :
I wanted you to explain. We have experts on your team in the Arabic-speaking world who speak the language who understand the issues on the ground have the contacts so that again when we talk about Christian persecution happening internationally this is not all coming from the ACLJ but the European Center for Law and Justice you’ve built a team that can go into places and find and get the truth get the information to know how we can help people and and you and And it’s a great thing that we’ve been able to build that team that has those kind of resources. And it’s because of the supporters out there who donate to the ACLJ so that we can fund the ACLJ, who can then go and get these experts working with us to speak to the people directly.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, Jordan, we have true experts on, you know, on the persecution of Christians on the, what we call the MENA region, which is Middle East, Northern Africa region. So here, I would say as European Centre, we are really at the forefront of the, you know, African, Northern African, Syria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, So we for us, they are our direct neighbors. You know, so we go on the ground. We just done a mission in Morocco to meet with all Christians, sub-Saharan Christians, Moroccan Christians. expats Christians. For example, in Morocco, you cannot be recognized as a Christian in Morocco. There are only foreign Christians officially. So all Moroccans who converted to Christianity are illegal and they must behave as Muslims. So we are working with them, we push the issue, we make it known, we push it as UN Parliament. We want to use our situation, our place, to work and to defend the Christians in all those countries, especially in the MENA region, which is our direct neighbors, Turkey, Morocco, Algeria. They closed all churches in Algeria. Nobody cares about it. So we want the persecution of Christians. At our borders in Europe, to be known in Brussels, to be known in our main cities and capital, we want our governments in Europe, we want the EU, the Commission, to wait strongly, to use our diplomatic force, strength, our economy, to impose respect for the minorities in those countries. And so this is really our strategy, to have this matter becoming a real important political issue in Europe, in Brussels. And so we are working in all those countries. We have great colleagues. I’m thinking of one of them. He spent five years of his life in Egypt. He married a Coptic lady, so he knows perfectly the country. We only work with persons who know the ground. We go on the ground, we go in the countries, and we do this legal work and political work and mediatic work.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and I think that that shows the reach as well. When we talk about the ECLJ here to our audience, it is important to show it isn’t just several lawyers, several French lawyers in one office that are writing briefs or things of that nature, that it’s a robust operation. that has experts and knows not just the ways to communicate, but also the customs and the traditions and ways to affect change that we are sometimes isolated from here in the United States and don’t have to think about as often. But as you mentioned, they’re your neighbors. Most people don’t think about Morocco being right beneath France, just a very narrow strip of sea that separates you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, they are right here. So we know the communities, and we work with all Dimitrian Christians. So we work with the evangelicals, converts. We work with the Catholics, with the various Orthodox. So we have access, we know them, we have built trust with them, and we want to serve them. We want to serve them, and we want, as I said, European governments to wait in. Because it’s not possible, you know, that nobody says anything about Algeria closing 50 churches. Nobody cares the fact that there are over 300 Christians, foreign Christians expelled from Turkey in the last three years, including American citizens. only because they are evangelicals, because they may be doing some Christian advocacy or proselytization. And so nobody cares. So we want to have those issues very known. And so we act in the European Court of Human Rights to defend the Christians. Christian churches in Turkey are expropriated. We see the government trying to take the properties of the communities. We see the collapse of the number of Christians in countries like Turkey. So we have many cases at the European Court of Human Rights. We support many cases at the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey in support of the Christians. So this is all the work We are doing. We are also doing work in other countries. In Algeria, it has been said, Pakistan and so forth. So it’s really also through our UN status. So as an NGO recognized as the United Nations, we can also work worldwide.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, so it’s worldwide. I just want to explain that it’s worldwide at the UN. Then you’ve got the regional institutions, the European institutions that are based in Strasbourg and Brussels. You’ve got what’s happening then domestically in these countries. And, of course, then what’s happening domestically in European countries with the rise of the immigration that’s shifted a lot of this… This kind of taught about should these Islamic communities be able to run their own courts and legal systems inside Western Europe at the same time dealing with what is happening to the Christians in those countries who aren’t getting… the same status that the Muslims are in Europe, that they are not prioritized. It’s something actually we’re working on, Greg, or next with this coalition we built with CPAC. So after the CPC designation of Nigeria, the next thing the U.S. is looking at pushing the U.S. to do on the South African farmers model is saying we need to prioritize agriculture. refugee status for christians who are being persecuted cc we’ve been talking about that there’s a couple ways there’s something called refugee status there’s a parole as well legal processes the president can issue an executive order and say you know what we need to focus on bringing 5,000 or 10,000 of people who we know are not going to survive because of their Christian faith and prioritize them in the refugee process in the United States. That’s the next kind of step we’re working on. And I have great faith that when this gets to President Trump’s desk and the language that’s been created, we know he will take action to protect the most vulnerable inside the United States and around the world.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, so it’s not just advocacy. We do advocacy and we do it very, very well. And that brings change. But we also say, here are some action items that we can do. And just like you said, if it’s humanitarian parole, here you have these Christians that are literally being slaughtered. What can we do in the United States to help them? We can offer asylum options. And so that’s a practical step and that’s what we do. Again, not just advocacy, we do that so well through the ECLJ and around the world. But we take practical steps to actually effectuate change.
SPEAKER 06 :
Folks, thank you so much for watching today. We had a lot of information, whether it be from Washington, D.C., with our government affairs department showing what the timeline is and to get relief to Americans that are really struggling as a result of the Democrat led shutdown, as well as our fight against anti-Semitism both here And as you heard around the world through our European Center for Law and Justice, thank you, Gregor, for joining us in studio today. And thank you, CeCe. But folks, now is the time to support the ACLJ through our ACLJ Freedom Drive. Your gift is doubled. Go to aclj.org slash freedom.
SPEAKER 03 :
Support the work of the ACLJ. This is a time to make that donation, that monthly donation, the amount you’re comfortable with. Do that at aclj.org right now. Become a champion. Thank you.
