Transcript

Walker Wildman: Religious freedom is about people of faith being able to

>> Walker Wildmon: We inform religious freedom is about people of faith being able to live out their faith, live out their convictions, no matter where they are. We equip sacred honor is the courage.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: To speak truth, to live out your free speech.

>> Walker Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At the Core on American Family Radio.

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome to The Core here on American Family Radio. Walker Wildmon here on this edition of the program. You're listening once again to American Family Radio. You can subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, just type in the name of the program at the core and click the subscribe button. And the latest episode will be queued up in your library each and every day. Let's turn our attention to the scripture, and then we'll jump into our content and our guest for today.

Proverbs chapter 8 talks about wisdom from the beginning of creation

Proverbs, chapter 8 has been where we are or is where we are this week. And looking at verse 23, this entire chapter is about wisdom. And, wisdom is being referred to, as a person, basically, in a feminine sense, using the word she. And when you look at verse 22 and 23, there's a lot of, interesting and fascinating revelation here. But verse 22 of chapter 8 of Proverbs says, the Lord possessed me, talking about wisdom at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. From everlasting, I was established from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. Verse 24. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no springs abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth. So wisdom has been from the beginning of creation. And actually here it says, before creation, wisdom was with God, and God was wisdom. God is wisdom. And so this goes, along well with what I said a couple weeks ago. And that is, man cannot find wisdom, true wisdom, outside of God. We can find things that we think are wisdom, or sometimes man stumbles across wisdom, true wisdom, but they don't attribute it to God. But God is the author of wisdom, and outside of him, there is no wisdom. All right, let's jump to our guests. We have Chelsea Wildmon in with us, associate director of our AFA Foundation. Her and my sister Wriley and, Jessica, they work together in our foundation to do a lot of different things. They've got some events coming up, but before we jump to the events, Chelsea, which is what we want to drive is the registration coming up in the fall.

American Family Association offers a charitable gift annuity package

Tell our audience a little bit about the Charitable gift annuity package, that you guys offer. It's really a way to give to the American Family association, but also receive a benefit in the future, right?

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, absolutely. Thank you for having me on today, Walker. So the way that a charitable gift annuity works is you would gift any amount, $2,000 or above to AFA, and in exchange, you would receive a fixed income for the rest of your life. And that depends on your age and the time that you give the gift. So you're going to receive that gift. excuse me, that income at the time of your choosing. It's unlike a traditional retirement account to where you can only take it in retirement years. You actually get to choose when you start receiving those payments. And then at the start of those pay, part of your income is actually tax free. That's a tax benefit as well as a partial tax free, deduction. A, tax deduction on your taxes. And then, of course, you're going to receive lifetime fixed income. It's not going to go up or down with the market. And then once you pass and go home to be with the Lord, any remaining funds are then gifted to AFA to continue our ministries work for the Lord.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, this has been a very popular offering that the foundation. You guys have been doing this for over 20 years. And, it's one of the strongest, if not the strongest, annuity pools in the country. And I say that, not exaggerating and not saying that, just on the fly, without backing it up. It is one of the strongest annuity pools in the country. because, Lord willing, and because of his blessings and the, frugalness of my grandfather and my dad and all of our leadership here, we're able to operate this annuity pool, this charitable gift annuity pool, without dipping into it, if you will. So we're able to pay all the annuitants from our operating account, and we're still growing the nest egg, if you will, or snowballing the nest egg from the annuity pool without dipping into it for capital projects and operating expenses. So it's just allowing that annuity pool to strengthen and mature and, become really a, blessing for our supporters and those who become annuitants over the years. So there's a charitable gift annuity. And then one thing that our cfo, Walter, loves talking about in the hallways, and he would be sad if we didn't mention it here on the program, is the IRA rollover. So anybody who is out there and they have an IRA that they've been investing in for years and maybe they're getting close to retirement or at least planning for it. You can actually roll an IRA over into a CGA, is that right?

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, that's correct. As long as you are 70 and a half or older. Yes. And you do have to. The stipulation is you have to start receiving that income immediately. So receiving income immediately and being seventy and a half will be, will get you in for that IRA to CGA rollover.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent. I think it's up to $50,000.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, that's correct.

>> Walker Wildmon: Is the limit on that. So there are some stipulations, some regulations, if you will, on who qualifies for that and the amounts. But nonetheless it's a great thing to do because you get tax advantages of doing that and you get to support the culture transforming work of afa. So that's just a couple ways folks, if you are looking at what to do with your money, how to plan for retirement, as you know. And the late Dan Celia, who headed up the foundation for so long and advised the foundation staff for so many years. You know, one thing he talked about was diversifying your income. Ah, heading into retirement years and not just relying on Social Security or just relying on a 401k account, but having a couple different streams of income and a charitable gift annuity is just one of those options to diversify your retirement income. And that's what the AFA foundation can help you with, Chelsea, in the fall, heading into October.

The weekend with AFA will be October 2nd through 4th

I can't believe we're already talking about October, but it'll be here before we know it. The foundation is hosting a event here in Tupelo. Tell us about that.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, the weekend with AFA that will be located here in Tupelo, Mississippi where our headquarters, are located. And we're going to be spending some of the time here at the AFA and AFR headquarters. Give you a chance to visit, you know, kind of see where all the behind the scenes action happens at our headquarters. And then we'll also be retreating and relaxing at Kingfisher Lodge just a few miles up the road. it's going to be very, very nice. It's going to be October 2nd through the 4th again of this year. And we would encourage folks to visit afa.net/weekend so afa.net/weekend, to get some more pricing information and a few of the hosts that we're going to have, of course, the vice president panel, with all of the vice presidents here as well as Abraham Hamilton iii, Jenna Ellis, JJ Jasper, Tim Barton of Wall Builders, Jerry Boyer of Bowyer research. so we're going to have a great lineup of speakers. We're going to enjoy music, food, fellowship. It's going to be a great time.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, it is. I'm excited about it just because of the lineup of speakers. And I'm not talking about myself or Wesley or the others in leadership here. That's going to be fun, too. where you'll get to actually fellowship, with us. As Chelsea said, we'll get to visit our headquarters here. If you want to basically get to intimately know AFA and all the people behind afa, this is a great opportunity to do that. But the other speakers we have, Jerry Boyer, those of you who listened. A couple weeks ago, I had Jerry on to talk about our, well, I was getting his opinion on tariffs, but I work with Jerry every week on shareholder engagement. So we're presenting different, proposals, focused on AFA's core values at these shareholder meetings. Tim Barton is son of David Barton, well known historian, expert on our Founding Fathers. He'll be with us.

>> Walker Wildmon:  JJ Jasper, a lot of our folks listen to JJ and John in the morning. JJ is going to bring us some comedy. There's, no J.J. without comedy. And then, as you mentioned, Abe Hamilton and Jenna Ellis will all be there. So that's the weekend with afa. The, AFA foundation is putting it on. They're hosting it. It's going to be here in Tupelo. If you've never visited our headquarters, never met our staff in person, which makes up the majority of you, haven't actually met us in person. That's just a way radio works. We would love for you to come to Tupelo in the fall, October 2nd through 4 or 2nd through the 4th here in Tupelo, Mississippi. Kingfisher Lodge is where we would be spending most of our time. We'll have a little bit of fellowship on an evening here at our headquarters, which is only a couple years old. This building here. So you get to see our new facilities, here in Tupelo, Mississippi.

The conference fee is $450. That includes six meals and all of the conference activities

Chelsea, let me put you on the spot. What is our. What's the registration breakdown as far as the cost? It's pretty, pretty simple setup as far as per person, right?

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, exactly. So the conference fee, total per person is $450. That includes six meals and all of the conference activities. participants are, responsible for their own hotel, reservations if needed, and those cost. But the conference is $450. And we just asked for a $200 per person registration down payment. And that secures your spot, which, by the way, are limited. We try to, at a small, you know, intimate number so that we can really get to know and speak with everyone that is there. So.

>> Walker Wildmon: Excellent.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, well, there you have it. $450 per person. I know that sounds like a lot, but when you look at what you're getting, it's really not. You're getting six meals, and all the conference activities. So you're covering all of the speakers that we're bringing into Tupelo. You're covering all of the resources needed to put it on with the venue and the meals and the staff and everything at our headquarters here. So it's a pretty big weekend. we're going to have a great time, a lot of time together. You'll get to meet all of the speakers, shake their hands, fellowship. You get to ask us questions with our executive, panel or vice president, panel. And it'll be a great time of fellowship. So that's coming up in the fall, October 2nd through the 4th. And as Chelsea mentioned, the registration is limited, so you can go over to afa.net/weekend to register. And if you procrastinate and we head towards July and August, you might just miss the window because, we're already seeing registrations come in for that afa.net/weekend. And last word, Chelsea. On the, weekend with AFA

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes. Well, we look forward to seeing and meeting so many supporters from across from across the country. We have folks from, California, Iowa, Tennessee. There's really registrations pouring in from everywhere. So we look forward to seeing everyone. And if you have questions, questions regarding the weekend with AFA or the charitable gift annuity, feel free to give us a call. 1-800-326-4543, extension 345.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, say that number one more time because we do have people that want to write it down.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yes, 1-800-326-4543, extension 345.  Thursday through Saturday weekend with AFA is coming up in four months

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, excellent. Thanks so much, Chelsea.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Thank you.

>> Walker Wildmon: Appreciate you coming in. That's Chelsea Wildmon. Yes. My sister in law and associate director over at the AFA Foundation. And those who listen to Wesley when he comes in, my brother, that's his wife. And looking at the schedule on the weekend with afa, it's going to be a very, we're making the most use of our time. Let me just put it that way because you're going to come into Tupelo on the second, it's a Thursday and we're trying to get people in towards the end of the week and get them home before Sunday. So here's pretty much the overview. You're going to come in on a Thursday and we're going to have check in pretty much all morning and then in the evening we're going to have a fellowship here, with appetizers and dessert and coffee here at our headquarters. So you'll get to actually visit our headquarters here. And then all day Friday we'll have breakfast together, worship, we'll have multiple sessions together at our venue. Then we'll have a dinner together. J.J. jasper will be bringing us some good comedy. And then Saturday we're going to have a half day basically and we'll be done by the afternoon. So we'll be done by about 2pm on Saturday. So those folks that are driving in from a couple hours away, three, four, maybe more hours away, we'll try to get done so you can be home on Saturday evening, for those who want to get back home before Sunday. So that's the structure. Thursday through Saturday weekend with AFA is coming up in four or five months from now. October will be here before you know it. We're already nearly at the, we're at the doorstep of May tomorrow coming up May of 2025. I can't believe it. And that's one event. We've got many others. All of these are available over@aca.net forward SL events. If you want a one stop shop for all AFA events, just go over to afa.net events and you can check them out, register, get all the pricing, get the dates, everything you need to know over at afa.net forward/events. All right folks, we got guests coming up again in the second and the third, third. Stick with us. A lot of interesting news stories to talk about. We'll be back in a few.

>> Jeff Chamblee: If you wanted to take your family to Kentucky to visit the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, but just never took the time, don't put it off any longer. Let 2025 be the year. You checked that off the list. In fact, you can make it an even more memorable trip when you join AFA at the Ark October 30th and 31st. On Thursday you'll get transportation for a tour of the Creation Museum and Friday we'll take you for a tour of the Ark Encounter. But that's just the beginning. Expand your knowledge of creation with a special dinner presentation on Thursday by Answers in Genesis astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner. Friday, Dr. Georgia Purdom, answers in Genesis Vice President of Educational Content, will help you dig deeper into the Bible. And Friday evening, enjoy dinner and a panel discussion with Tony Vitagliano, Walker Wildmon, and Wesley Wildmon, vice Presidents of American family association. Visit afa.net/events today and click on AFA at the Ark. Afa.net/events and click on AFA at the ark.   At the Core podcasts are available @ afr.net now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.

American Family Radio broadcasts live from 170 stations across the country

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome back to At the Core here on American Family Radio. Glad to have you with us in studio. Live broadcasting from American Family Radio all around the country. 170 signals in over 30 states and online on the AFR app and AFR. And for those listening who, a lot of folks, you'd be surprised how many people listen to AFR and think that we're one station in their community. And, that's it. Even in our headquarters town, I'll run into people and say, I didn't know you had more than one station. And, the answer to that is, I guess we need to do more education with our audience. But we do. We have nearly 170signals all around the country, 30 states, and counting. And so we're glad to have you joining us all around the country. And we, are heading in, the fall. We've got a lot of events coming up, but we are heading up to the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum. This will be our third year. Going, to do AFA at the Ark. And on to speak with us about that is Dr. Georgia Purdom. And, Dr. Purdom is the Vice President of Educational Content and the Director of Research over at Answers in Genesis. She'll be one of our speakers. Dr. Purdom, welcome to the program.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Oh, thanks for having me.

Dr. Purdom focuses on science education from a biblical worldview

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, Dr. Purdom, before we get into, some of the details about you coming to speak with our group when we're up there in the Cincinnati area visiting the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, tell our folks a little bit of background about your history at Answers in Genesis and some of the work that you focus on.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Well, I've been at Answers in Genesis for almost 19 years now, so I've spent most of my professional life here. and one of my passions is really, education, and science education from a biblical worldview. So that is a, that encompasses a large part, I always say, a lot Wear a lot of different hats. But that encompasses a large part of what I do. Not, only for adults, but even for children and teens to really just equip that next generation with the truths of God's word.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, on that front, the, I can't, I can't talk about this event without getting into a little bit of apologetics. because it's, it's, I love the topic, what you guys do over at AIG is very eye opening and there's no telling how many lives have been impacted through your work. And the reason I want to take this approach in highlighting this is because the realm of science, in the church sometimes, it gets a bad rap because a lot of your atheists and your agnostics try to hang their hat on science. That, and they claim to be able to disprove a lot of historical facts in scripture. But you guys actually use science, which is a gift from God and the ability for humans to reason, to actually show that, hey, God does exist. And all of this, historical, accounts in Genesis are actually true. And here's why. Based on science, I just love it because a lot of Christians and even myself, sometimes when you're going through, whether it's grade school or higher ed, sometimes you kind of shy away from science because you think if I kind of dabble in that too much, I'm going to find out that my faith isn't legit. But that's actually not the case. When you're studying true science and you're using Genesis as the baseline, your faith really comes to life. So give us a little bit more about that and how you guys have been able to impact lives over the years through using the Bible and science.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Yeah, Christians definitely have nothing to fear when it comes to science. In fact, we should be embracing it. And the reason for that is because, you know, really, when we look at this, a lot of people like you were talking about atheists and people like that, they'll say, well, this is really about science versus the Bible. And I'm like, no, it's not about science versus the Bible. It's about who is our faith in when we look at the world that we're in. Right? Is our faith in God, Is our faith in man? Because if our faith is in man, then we believe man's ideas about the past. Right? And interpret the science that has happened in the past. We call that historical science, then we going to interpret it very, very differently than if we have faith in God and we Start out with His Word and what he has told us about the past. Because man's ideas about the past, they don't know they weren't there. Right? we're talking like ancient past, right? They believe in millions of years. And so they would say no person was around to even record that history or know that. So these are just ideas that they have about the path. Whereas when we start with God's word, right, we have he God, he does not lie. And he was there, he was an eyewitness to creation because he's the one that did it. And he wrote that down for us. And so, so we have that so we can know the truth about the past. And what I love about being a creation scientist is that when we start with that foundation in God's word, the things that we observe in our world today confirm and support what God's word says, about the past, you know, what has happened and it's so consistent. Right. I love that about having a biblical worldview. There's so much consistency there with what we read about the Bible, what we read about in the Bible and what we see about in the world. we truly Christians have a reasoned faith. We don't have a blind faith. That's what we're often accused of. But we don't, we truly have a reason to faith.

>> Walker Wildmon: That's so true. And I find it quite humorous when I, when I read these, you know, some of these studies on whether it's health tips or whatever, they'll, they'll come up with these studies and even, even some of the studies on historical events and where they happened and the timeframe in which they happened, you get these absolutely polar opposite results from different groups of scientists. One study will say, you need to get X amount of sun per day. And then a year later another study will come out and say, the sun is terrible. You're gonna die if you get too much sun. And I'm like, how are we in 2025? And these groups of scientists can't believe on what amount of sun is healthy for you and what is not. And it's. And the reason I mention that is because then these other scientists want to claim that they know something that happened supposedly 3 million years ago. And they want to tell you like during that 24 hour window, exactly how it all went down a million years ago. And I'm like, y'all can't even agree on how many vitamins we should take, but you knew what happened a million years ago. Supposedly, it's Just so it's so ironic and laughable that some people, act like they know everything and we don't know anything is their claim.

Dr. Georgia Purdom will give a presentation on Biblical truth in October

Dr. Purdom, you're going to be with us on a Friday with a, presentation, which is basically day number two of our event in October. So give us a little sneak peek on some of the stuff you're going to talk about.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Well, the presentation I'm going to give this year is called can the Bible Be Answering Challenges to the Truth? And so I did. I love this presentation because it really helps people understand that God's word is truth by looking at the internal evidence and looking at external evidence. So internal evidence obviously starts with God's word, right? It's what does God's word say about itself? And how do we know those things to be true? And, and, understanding that looking at God exists. His words compose the Bible. It's inerrant, it's infallible. How, do we get the 66 books of the Bible? it's. I pack a lot, I always say, in a very short period of time. But, things like fulfilled prophecy, honesty about people and events, and just so much helps us know that internal evidence that God's word is true. But then we'll also look at some external evidence, things like science and archeology that we do talk about a lot here at the Creation Museum and the Ark encounter and answers in Genesis and then how people's lives are changed. You know, those are great external evidences that all amount to helping people know that the Bible can be trusted. Because that is really the crux of the matter. You know, it's really not creation, evolution, right? That's just one outpouring of this. It's who do we trust, right? When it comes to not only knowing the past, but knowing what's happening now and what's going to happen in the future. And so, for the Bible, as Christians, that should be our foundation, right? That is what our worldview is based on. And so that's what atheists and people that are not believers really want to strike at and hit at. And. Because they know if they can, they can wipe that out and get us not to believe that, then our whole faith is going to fall, right? And so it's going to be a problem. So I think it's just so important to help, especially in a culture that we live in today and young people and the lies that they're getting fed by the culture that we really help them know that again, they have a reasoned faith and that we can believe what God has said in his word.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. Well, there you have it, folks. That's a little sneak peek into what, Dr. Purdom is going to be talking about in October at our AFA at the Ark event. We'll do the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter and hear from Dr. Purdom and Dr. Danny Faulkner as well. the day before we hear from Dr. Purdom, Dr. Georgia Purdom. Thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Oh, great. Well, thanks for having me. I look forward to seeing you all here.

>> Walker Wildmon: All right, we'll see you in October. Thank you very much.

Georgia Purdom: AFA at the Ark is coming up in 2025

That was, Dr. Georgia Purdom with Answers in Genesis. She's a vice president there over educational content, and she'll be speaking with us on Friday, at our event, AFA at the Ark. So just to give you a little more details on that, the dates are October 30th and. And 31st. So that's coming up in the fall. October 30th and 31st, 2025, we'll be at the Ark Encounter, the Creation Museum, and then some of our sessions will be back at the Marriott Hotel. So if you want to find out more about that, just go over to afa.net/events, which is the URL I mentioned earlier. And, that link is there for you to register afa.net forward/events. And, here is the pricing breakdown. And this pricing does include a lot of different things. So check out what's included there on the ticket page if you're curious about what's included in this pricing. But adults 18 and older. Our prices for the tickets there are 295 for 18 and older for adults, 295 for children, which here, is three to 17. Three years old to 17. The pricing, is 125. And children two and under are free. All right, children two and under are free. you are responsible for your own hotel reservation. We have a block of rooms at the Marriott Cincinnati Airport there. But that ticket pricing, includes just a couple things here that I'll mention. It includes, the transportation. So we're using a charter bus service from, the hotel to the Creation Museum and to the Ark Encounter on the two days, to and from. And we have, let's see, the ticket pricing includes both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter entrance fees. It includes. It, covers your Thursday dinner and where we're going to have. Dr. Danny Faulkner with answers in Genesis speaking. So it'll cover your dinner Thursday, breakfast on Friday, and then, another meal. The third meal is dinner on Friday with our panel discussion. So that's a pretty good package there. When you look at the pricing versus what you're getting. And we're taking care of all of the logistics for you, so all you have to do is show up. Once you book your hotel room and get your tickets, all you have to do is show up, and then we'll take care of everything else for you. And transportation's covered. We got the whole agenda. You, just have to show up and have a good time and enjoy yourself and learn. that's our AFA at the Ark event coming up in the fall. AFA.net events to check that out.

James Blair: I think between trade deals and the tax bill, the economy will look good

Well, a few minutes we have left here. I want to, talk about the, tax cuts coming up in the next, few months that the Congress is working on now. let's go ahead, Bobby. This is a White House representative talking about the tax cut package going through Congress now. Let's Listen to clip 1.

>> Dr. Georgia Purdom: Thanks for having me back, Trey. I really appreciate it. Look, the President has been engaged with this process deeply every step of the way between, different groups in the House. As you mentioned, it's not a monolith in between the House and the Senate. And the White House will be very involved in the process going forward. The next few weeks is really going to be about working out those differences that you alluded to. And I don't think as, you reference, you ask, you know, will good sort of be the enemy of great? I don't think so. I think that we are going to have the biggest tax cut package in history, not only renewing the, President's 2017 tax cuts, but also adding some additional tax cuts on top of that that the President campaigned on that are really great for middle and working class individuals. These are things like no tax on tips. Right. No tax on Social Security. So that's what we're really working towards. We also have wide agreement on securing the border, make sure it gets funded for the long term to ensure that the great work we've done so far, extends past the next few months. And we've also all got wide agreement pretty much on a strong national defense number and making sure that the military has what it needs. We know the President is trying to bring peace in several corners of the globe, and that's backed up by the strength that the US Military provides and the strength that The President leads with. So there's really a whole lot of agreement and just a few areas that we'll have to work out and I think we'll be able to do that.

>> Walker Wildmon: So that's James Blair, he's White House Deputy Chief of Staff for President Trump. And that clip was actually from a week ago. And there's been further developments on this front. But the tax bill is basically moving along pretty quickly. we're looking at a, Memorial Day or early July passage, through Congress, through the House and the Senate, and on President Trump's desk some new developments that we weren't sure whether they would make it in the bill, but President Trump's very adamant about no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security. And the no tax on Social Security is like a no brainer. I don't even know why we're doing that to begin with. We're basically double taxing the money that comes through Social Security and that's going to be taken away according to President Trump, as of today, he's been talking about that. So this is a big deal. There's also some business tax, incentives and some itemization or some some basically tax breaks for businesses built into this legislation as well. And so as I predicted, here's, I'll say it again, here's what I think is going to happen. I think the trade uncertainty, and the tariff uncertainty is going to come to pass probably in the next few months. And we're going to get this tax bill around the same time. And between trade deals and the tax bill, the economy is going to look really, really good and the markets actually are going to like it. So I think, by summer, by July, August, the Trump economy is going to be going full steam ahead for two reasons. The tariff stuff and the trade negotiations will be behind us and the tax bill will be cemented into law permanently, for the foreseeable future. And so I think because of those two reasons, and then you have the deregulate regime, the shrinking of government regime out there. I think all of this is a recipe for economic success. We're already seeing very good numbers, all the way around, despite, the GDP report from today, which, on its surface doesn't look good, but when you look underneath the hood, it's actually a pretty good report, based on the domestic investment coming into America, the consumer, some of the consumer numbers are pretty good and inflation is either steady depending on what category you're talking about either steady or dropping, which is something President Trump has been working on. So I think at the end of the day, and in this case at the end of the year, the, naysayers and, doomsday predictors will be proven wrong and, the economy will hold up and will actually do very, very well under President Trump over the next four years. So that's my prediction. I reserve the right to be wrong, but we'll see in due time.

Preborn Network offers counseling, prayer and a free ultrasound to pregnant women

Hi, folks. Thanks for joining at the core. We've got a segment left, and we have a special guest coming up. You're going to want to hear it. I'll be back in a few. When a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy, she often feels alone and afraid. So many times her first response is to seek out an abortion. But because of the generosity of listeners like you, that search may lead her to a Preborn Network clinic. Preborn offers God's love and compassion to hurting women and then provides a free ultrasound to introduce them to the life growing inside of them. This combination brings the ultimate miracle of life to life and doubles a baby's chance at life, which is why preborn saw over 67,000 babies rescued last year alone. Meet Maddie. Maddie was in a tough situation, and she wasn't sure who the father was. But after receiving counseling, prayer, and a free ultrasound at a Preborn Network clinic, everything changed. Maddie discovered she had twins and found the strength she needed to choose life.

>> Maddie: After my first visit here, and I ended up finding out that I was pregnant with twins. And I was a little unsure in the beginning because I just had a very rough situation going on, not knowing, you know, just between two different fathers. I ended up, deciding that I was going to have my twins because my, sister and her husband, you know, just prayed for me and pretty much told me that I can do this. I am strong. I was prayed for over these ladies here, and it was just overall an amazing experience that helped me decide that I was willing and I was able to go through this by the grace of God. I ended up having them when I was seven months.

>> Jeff Chamblee: Yeah.

>> Maddie: So this is Analia and this is Alicia and Aliyah. Means by the grace of God, and Alicia means gift of God. I, you know, I'm super grateful that I came here because I would not have probably had them. And, yeah, I'm super grateful for this facility.

>> Walker Wildmon: your tax deductible donation of $28 sponsors one ultrasound. How many babies can you save? Please donate your Best gift today, just dial £250 and say the keyword baby. That's £250, baby. Or go to preborn.com afr that's preborn.com/AFR.

>> Jeff Chamblee: This is At the Core on American Family Radio with your host, Walker Wildmon.

American Family Radio is launching an initiative to combat anti Christian bias in government

>> Walker Wildmon: Welcome, to the Corps here on American Family Radio. Glad to be with you today. Walker Wildmon here with you. And we've, got an email coming out on this topic that'll be sent, out on Friday morning. We've just got. We're, trying to send out a National Day of Prayer email today for our audience to be aware of. That's tomorrow the National Day of Prayer. But on Friday, we're going to send out an email highlighting the presidents and the Attorney General's, task force to eradicate anti Christian bias in government. And if you think that that problem doesn't exist, you've had your head in the sand. Christians have been demoralized and penalized on multiple fronts through government efforts at the federal level. And, President Trump is doing something to stop it. On with us now is vice, president of Legal Services and Senior Counsel over at First Liberty. David Hacker is with us. Hey, David. Welcome to the program.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Tell us a little bit about your work at First Liberty

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, David, tell us, first, I haven't had you on the program. I've had, some of your colleagues on. But tell us a little bit about your work and your, your purview over at First Liberty, and then we'll jump into this task force.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yeah. So, it's. It's a great privilege to work at First Liberty. I get to supervise all of our litigation, our communication teams, our external relations, which works with folks in government, affairs and whatnot, and all of our client support services. So, it's a great operation we've got. And as you probably know, I mean, we've got cases from, from Hawaii to Maine and Florida to Seattle. So we are, covering the country and trying to defend and protect and advance, religious liberty for all Americans.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, the work you guys do is critical, and we've loved partnering with you guys over the years, and we've, been in a few cases together, and I think we've won all of them, specifically, at least one or so, against the Biden administration over the years, over the last four years.

President Trump created task force to identify anti Christian bias in federal government

let me ask you this, about this task force. So one of your clients, US Navy SEAL Phil Mendez, actually participated in this first meeting of this anti Christian bias Task force. So tell us a little bit about this task force and a little bit about your client.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yeah, so President Trump, created this task force really to provide a mechanism for the Cabinet secretaries to identify anti Christian bias, throughout the federal government. And so Attorney, General Bondi is leading the task force along with a bunch of the other secretaries. And we were approached about providing one of our clients, who could speak on the issue of experiencing kind of religious discrimination as a federal employee. And so we thought there's nobody better really to talk about that than a United States Navy SEAL who you know, served our country with honor and was in harm's way of defending our freedoms, and yet was told he couldn't honor his own religious beliefs, in the workplace.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, this task force is, is very important because this tendency of discriminating against Christians in government has been prevalent going back to the Obama days and probably there's instances before that, but that's when it really got ramped up. And when you have the government partnering with groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom From Religion foundation and the ACLU in some ah, aspects as far as being the ACLU has gone way off track from their original founding. But basically when you have the Biden administration and others partnering with these very anti Christian, anti faith groups, not only is it a bad look, but the consequences are real. And you have for example, you mentioned the Navy SEAL that you guys have represented in court, but also other, whether it be branches of government or other agencies that were affected. But you had a lot of employees, federal government employees, whether in the military or otherwise, that had their vaccine, exemption, religious exemptions, across the board, denied. With no reason, no reasonable explanation, these religious exemptions, just across the board, denied. So what do you, what are you guys looking for out of this task force? Because it's one thing to have a task force, but we've actually got to begin to root out this, this anti Christian bias in the bureaucracy. So what are maybe a couple things that you guys are looking for, specifics that can make some of these changes permanent and long lasting.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yeah, I mean that's a great question. I think a lot of good could be done because like you said, for the better part of a decade or more now, there's been pretty severe hostility, to religion, coming out of the federal government. Except during the first Trump administration and except right now, and you know, first Liberty has been, battling, in some of those, ways to stop the federal government from whether it's issuing federal regulations that impact Christian businesses, whether it's, you know, stifling the speech and religious expression of federal employees. And so I think what the task force could do is once it collects, the information that it needs in terms of what has been going on, I could see, it, providing opportunity for Congress right now especially, ah, and the President to get together and maybe enhance some of the statutory, protections for federal employees and the ways in which the federal government interacts with the private sector to ensure that there is no religious discrimination. at minimum, I would hope that the Cabinet secretaries would go back to their departments, and work with those departments and agencies to at least create, rules or regulations and internal policies to make sure that we are welcoming people of all faith, and we're not excluding people of faith simply because they have a view that, some people dislike. You know, that's not. That's not part of the American, experience, nor part of our First Amendment. And we really need to be tolerant of all those, different types of faith practices in the workplace. So there's just. I mean, there's really just tremendous opportunity. and that's why we're so thankful that President Trump created this task force. Because I think what they're going to find is not only the story and, stories like Navy, SEAL Phil Mendez, but, you know, we had another client whose story was mentioned in the room that same day, not by, any of our people, but Secretary, Collins from, the Veterans Administration mentioned, our chaplain client, Chaplain Rusty Truby.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Who was literally told that he could not preach a sermon from the Book of Romans because that was too offensive and, and hostile and, and was censored, for the better part of six months, until Secretary Collins came in and rectified that.

>> Walker Wildmon: So, yeah, they're just.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: I think what they're going to find is that there's rampant discrimination against religion inside the federal government. And it's almost going to be like they're going to be overwhelmed with what they could potentially do to fix all this.

>> Walker Wildmon: Yeah, absolutely. You know, looking, at this meeting, I want to command President Trump because when his team goes in on something, they go all in. there's no halfway doing anything with these. With these guys and ladies. And the reason I say that is because at this meeting was the multiple Cabinet secretaries. I mean, literally half the cabinets there. you have RFK Jr. You have Kristi Noem, you have, the Secretary of State Rubio, the Secretary of Defense Hegseth, as you mentioned, Doug Collins from the VA you have the FBI Director, you have the Deputy Attorney General, you have the Attorney General. I mean, this is, you have Hermeet Dillon, which is the now over the Civil Rights Division, which the Civil Rights Division was, as you know, very intimately, was, actually a weapon of the left to go after Christians and people of faith, through the Biden, Department of Justice. That whole, office has been overturned, thankfully, and the media called it a bloodbath. And I think that's a beautiful description because they, like, fired everybody. Everybody's gone at the Civil Rights Division, and they're bringing in new people that are actually going to focus on civil rights. So I, just got to commend President Trump for the type of people he's putting in charge. Last, word, before I let you go.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Yeah, I just, I'm really hopeful, President Trump has not only created this task force, but issued, you know, multiple executive orders protecting free speech and religious liberty. He's created the, the faith office that's inside the White House with great people working to ensure that, you know, faith is not put under a bushel and that people can freely practice their faith and exercise their religious beliefs, whether they work for the federal government or in the private sector. So, yeah, it's just a really important task force, and I really appreciate you all covering it and, giving me the chance to talk about a little bit of our role that we had there.

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. We've been talking to David Hacker. He's the Vice President of Legal Services and a senior counsel over at First Liberty Institute, good friend of the ministry. David, thanks so much for coming on the program.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Hey, thank you so much.

President Trump created task force to eradicate anti Christian bias

>> Walker Wildmon: Absolutely. That's, David Hacker with First Liberty Institute talking about President Trump's task force to eradicate anti Christian bias. And you can look, on the DOJ's website on this press release. We'll link to it over on the show notes. But the, press release actually lists people who have been affected by the anti Christian bias, and they had in attendance Dr. Scott Hicks. He's provost and Chief Academic Officer at Liberty University. Well, why did they have Dr. Hicks there? Because Liberty University and others, including Grand Canyon University, were targeted by Biden with these ridiculous fines. And it was partly due to the university's, Christian worldview. They were, targeting multiple, Christian universities with these absurd claims. And Fines, through the federal agencies, through the federal bureaucracy. So they weaponized it against Christian universities. And, the client, of course, that, David just mentioned was the Navy, seal, Phil Mendez, and others were there as well. And so kudos to President Trump on this and Attorney General Pam Bondi. And, good for them working on this.

J.B. Pritzker says Democrat Party has become radicalized

All right. A couple other subjects I want to talk about. speaking of the left and targeting people of faith and targeting ideological and political opponents, the Illinois governor, spared, no words or parsed no words when it comes to how he feels about the Trump administration and those who support him. let's listen to J.B. Pritzker, the Illinois governor, about what he thinks of Republicans and people who support President Trump.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.

>> Walker Wildmon: They have to understand that we will.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: Fight their cruelty with every member, megaphone.

>> Walker Wildmon: And microphone that we have.

>> Chelsea Wildmon: We must castigate them on the soapbox and then punish them at the ballot box.

>> Walker Wildmon: Well, there you have it. There you have it. That's, the Illinois governor. I guess he's vying for maybe the Democrat ticket. But if you're looking to win over voters, my friends, that ain't the way to do it. To use, Mississippi slang, that's not the way to do it, because, that's riling up the AOC and the Bernie Sanders crowd. But the Middle America voters, which is. Who just elected President Trump overwhelmingly with both Electoral College and popular vote, that's not their cup of tea. That's not their cup of tea. But when you look at the Democrat Party, as I've said multiple times, and I'll continue to repeat this, they've been radicalized. The Democrat Party has been radicalized, and it's going to be very difficult to turn it around now when you hand over the party, which this is what Biden did. This was the, the deal with the devil, if you will, that Biden did to get in the White House in 2020, despite the voter irregularities, the cheating, the fraud, et cetera, this is the deal that was cut. All right, Remember the primary. Let's put on our thinking caps, as the teachers used to say, and let's go back a couple years and actually regurgitate some of our history here. And this is not far out history, so this shouldn't be hard to do. But Biden struck a deal with Kamala Harris. Biden struck a deal with Bernie Sanders. Biden struck a deal with the radical wing of the party. All right? And up until this Moment, talking about 2020, this was Obama's party, all right? This was Obama's party. And Biden wouldn't have gotten to where he did without the blessing of Obama. So let's not miss that. But the party had its problems. And I'm not saying the Democrats were moderate or centrist under any circumstance with Obama and Clinton, but they at least knew how to lie enough, right? And I'll Never forget the 2008, David Axelrod. 0809. Obama, wants to come out in favor of same, sex, quote, unquote, marriage, homosexual marriage, in air quotes, because two men can't really get married, not according to biblical standards. and basically Obama wanted to just be honest with the voters. He wanted to kind of go full left, lean into this, this, this homosexuality thing. And, Axelrod told Obama, hey, man, basically, you can't do that. If you want to believe that behind the scenes, you can, but you can't say that publicly. Wait until after you get elected, and then you can come out and do the whole rainbow flag thing, which he did. And, but now, folks, the, the, the, the, the, the Democrats have shifted now. So instead of hiding their, their radical viewpoints, they're out and proud about it. They are out and proud, marching on the street corners about their radical viewpoints. And this is what the Illinois governor is doing, all right? This is, he's radicalizing the party, saying that the Republicans can have no peace. They should know no peace. We should castigate them in the public square. And, this is Bernie Sanders party now. This is AOC's party now. There's no getting it back. Obama, there is no getting it back. Hillary Clinton, the party is gone.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.