PJI & Letters From Home

This is Darren Kuhn with the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we search the ancient paths to find ways that God brings light into a dark world and helps set men free from the struggles that we all face on a day to day basis. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits.

Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. I just love Kingdom Pursuits, how I get to have old friends. Like if you've been doing this show a long time like I have, then, you know, sometimes you get a chance to have people back on that you haven't had on for years and years and years. And so today is one of those days where really some of my favorite people. And so just to start off the show, we've got Brad Dacus and Adam Draper with the Pacific Justice Institute. And so, Brad, it's been a while, but I always get to see at the NRB, so it's great to hear from you. Oh, it's great to talk to you too, Robbie.

Appreciate it. And we just love what you guys are doing with Pacific Justice Institute. And of course, you know, all the legal stuff that you guys do for Christians throughout the country.

It's amazing stuff. And so how long have you been doing this, Brad? We've been doing this since 1997. That's when I founded the organization. And we've now just totally blossomed and we now have 27 offices in 20 states.

One of those states is North Carolina, where we have an attorney, I believe, who's going to be joining us, Adam Draper, who heads up our office there in North Carolina. I'm here. Hey, Brad. Hi, Adam. It's good to talk to you.

It's good to see you. This man works. I'm telling you, Brad is tireless. And what Brad doesn't know, but I think you'll find interesting, Brad, and I don't know if you knew this, but actually, Adam and I go way back. And with Stu Epperson, who you know as well, Stu Epperson, of course, for those listening to Truth Network, no, he's the owner of the Truth Network. Well, if you'd have visited us even before Pacific Justice Institute was founded, and then about 1993, 94, Stu Epperson, Robbie Dilmore, and Adam Draper, and Bill Mixon, and a couple other guys got together. And we were the Christian Businessmen's Committee of Winston-Salem. And so long, long, long, long time friends.

And isn't it a small world that you end up with Pacific Justice Institute? How awesome. Yeah, that is totally a Jesus thing. I am telling you. He did it. Yeah, and we get a chance to share today.

So that's beautiful. We're going to get into that as well as we got another old friend, Aaron Dirth and Dan Beckman. They are a group that's called Letters From Home, and they're on an actual 50-state tour right now.

And we've had them on before, just very, very, very talented Christian artists that wait till you get to hear the music. We're going to have it at every bump. But where are you guys at today, Aaron? Hello, actually, we haven't left yet. We're in Booneville, North Carolina, right around the corner from you. We kick off our system state tour on the 24th of this month. Where are you going to be on the 24th? Well, we're going to be doing our kickoff party at Richard Childress Racing over in Welcome, North Carolina.

That's right. It's a free event, so maybe we'll see you there, Robbie. It'll be really fun. I got to meet Richard Childress, I don't know, about three months ago. They had this rodeo here in Winston, and they had Cowboy Church, and they asked me to give the sermon, I guess, because they knew that I had the cowboy hat and all back when I was at West Side, Christ the Pile.

Yeah. And so I got to meet Richard. I was quite the event. So how fun.

I'm kind of jealous that you guys get to do that. Well, for those who are regular Kingdom Pursuits listeners, we know we got to have Robbie's riddles. And so, Brad, you're going to just have to grin and bear it for a minute. And since, you know, it's with Pacific Justice Institute, speaking of Pacific. Now the fun begins.

Because now it's time to play shenanigans. All right. So you're going to love this, Adam.

I'm bracing. I know. I asked my redneck friend what he thought about the Trans-Pacific Partnership. You know what he said? He said, as long as they don't marry, he's okay with it. That sounds like some of you guys. That's a legal thing.

You know, I don't know. So the Pacific Islanders, you know, I don't know if you've noticed this, but there's some of the greediest people I've met. Right. Every time I give them something, they always end up wanting Samoa. And every third grader I ever met knows this joke back in the day, but they don't have it on TV as much as, you know, what do you call an assault by a Pacific Islander? You know this joke, Adam. You do. Do you know what you call an assault by a Pacific Islander there, Christian?

I don't have any idea. Oh, yeah. Yes, you do. It's a Hawaiian punch. Oh, Robbie. Come on. Now that brings you back to third grade, doesn't it? Would you like a Hawaiian punch?

Yeah. So that would get down to the actual riddle, which we have a really cool prize today for you if you can call in and guess this riddle. And I really, this is my favorite part right here. So here is the riddle. So when Moses went into the Red Sea, so naturally he didn't wear a blue robe because, you know, he'd have been marooned. And he didn't want to, you know, part it with diffusion because that would be osmosis. So what did Moses part the Red Sea with? There's your riddle for today. What did Moses part the Red Sea with? If you know that, Christian, tell them what they'll win. They're going to win a fantastic, fabulous prize of four tickets to the Wake Forest Clemson basketball game, men's basketball, on January 17th.

Well, that's a good game. There you go. All you have to do is call in, and this is not a trick question at all. All you have to do is call in and tell us what did Moses part the Red Sea with. 866-348-7884. He didn't do it with osmosis. I gave you a hint already. He wasn't marooned because I know he wasn't wearing blue.

866-348-7884 is the number to call in and win. And so, Brad, wow, you know, I know we went from the beginning. How about at the end? What are some of the things that really have you concerned these days? Well, first is dealing with the obvious corruption that is taking place in federal government, but also corruption dealing with the elections that we've seen take place. The good news, though, on that front is that there's awareness of it. Americans have the resolute conviction that it is not acceptable, and I think it's going to be short lived.

I think we're going to see it corrected in the next election. The other good news is the fact that we have a judicial branch of government that is still based on the Constitution of the United States. We've got a fantastic Supreme Court, the best Supreme Court in my lifetime, and a lot of other federal judges that were appointed by former President Donald Trump. So that I think that we're going to see some great case law. We have more offices, more attorneys, more cases, and active litigation across the country, coast to coast, I believe, than any other comparable organization. We have full throttles forward, and we're taking the hills every month. Well, that's really good to hear.

It sounds like that's all, no doubt, exciting. So, wow, as you might imagine, there's a few people out there who might have an idea how Moses parted the Red Sea. So we've got, is it Stephen? Sharon? Hello, Sharon.

You're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. Oh, hi.

Good morning to you. So what do you think Moses parted the Red Sea with? I think it was the staff. Ah, he did. It was a staff meeting. Not a staff infection.

And I understand, you know, I did hear that the staff didn't have the same action later on in life, but Moses kept it always by his side because he didn't want to part with it. That's so good. I love it. Sharon, thank you for calling in and winning.

We got those Wake Forest tickets for you. Oh, did I win? You won.

You're awesome. And so we're going to be back. Again, listen, here we're going to hear letters from home, amazing music coming out of the break, and then we'll have a chance to talk with Aaron.

Do you have my address? Oh, we're going to get it. We're going to put you back on hold and get it.

Thank you so much, Sharon. We'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com How many roads must a man walk down before they call him man? And how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand? And how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind. How many years must a mountain exist before it is washed to the sea?

And how many years can some people exist before they're allowed to be free? And how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind. How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky? And how many years must one man have before he can hear people cry? And how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

The answer is blowing in the wind. Mm, mm, mm, mm. Aaron Dirth and Dan Beckman with Letters from Home and they're, right, they're uniting the nation, rightly, through USA style performances and they're on their 50 state tour in 2023. And that's just outstanding, Aaron. I love that song anyway. Beautiful. And Bob Dylan, like, what a talent.

One of the great songwriters of all time. Absolutely. And, you know, I've followed you for years and all the cool things that you guys have done, Aaron, and, you know, the harmony that you do and the energy that you bring to a show. So I would imagine that this event's going to be high energy. People are going to be really glad they came.

I sure hope so. So we're actually kicking off on the 24th of this month, like we said earlier, and we're going to be doing a show in each of the 50 states from January 27th all the way through March, I'm sorry, May 31st. And we'll be ending up in Marion, Virginia on May 31st, having performed in all 50 states. World circle. And the group is called Letters from Home. And how do people get up to figure out where you are going to be next?

Well, you can go to our website, which is lettersfromhomesingers.com, and you can find all the information on the group and how you can get involved as well as the tour routes. You can see how far we're going to be from your doorstep at some point during this tour. And the answer is unless you live in Texas or Alaska, not too far.

Okay. So, wow, again. We'll be going to Texas and Alaska, they're just really big states.

Yeah, that would get you a few feet from the door. But anyway, again, we're going to hear more from them in the next break, et cetera. We've got a lot more coming up from them. But getting back to Brad and the Pacific Justice Institute, Brad, you also have a radio show, and you've got your minutes that run, and you've got 30 seconds. So for our listeners that aren't familiar with you, tell us what all you guys are involved in a bunch of stuff.

Oh, yeah. We also have a television-type program on his channel dot com called Brad Dacus Live. And that's Monday through Thursday.

It's an hour-long show, professionally produced. His HIS and then channel dot com, and they just put go Brad Dacus Live. But, yeah, so we've got lots of cases all across the country right now. Just going to bat and defending religious freedom. Of course, we really love having Adam.

He's just doing a great job as a part of our team there in North Carolina, and just a real blessing to have Adam Draper. But as far as the big picture, we're going to bat for pro-life clinics that are being under attack, being sued by blue states like the state of California specifically. We're defending them against the attorney general's office, against the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom. Some of these blue states are a little upset about Roe versus Wade being overturned, and they want to continue to kill as many pre-born as they can. And so now they're trying to shut down the pro-life clinics, and the two largest ones are under attack. We're defending them wholeheartedly. And like I say, we're dealing with the entire apparatus of the state of California.

That's quite a challenge. We also have a very important case dealing with church rights, and the rights of churches to not be booted out of town, literally. In Salinas, California, they decided to not allow a church to move into the downtown area.

Well, the church is already in the downtown, they just wanted to move across the street into another building that they bought. But Salinas said, oh no, churches, you're not fun enough. Literally, fun, that was the word they used. I thought they could use a word with at least more than one syllable.

But they said, no, it's not fun enough. So we went and filed a lawsuit, we didn't prevail in the lower federal court, and that judge was not appointed by a president. I think that was very friendly to religious freedom. So we had to appeal it to the Ninth Circuit, and the Ninth Circuit reversed and said, you can't keep out a church because you don't think they're fun enough. And by the way, just down the street is a post office.

This is one of the post offices. Anyway, so we thought I was over, and yet Salinas, instead of seeing the error of their ways, they decided to file a petition for search of the United States Supreme Court. And lo and behold, the Supreme Court contacted us, the Pacific Justice Institute, and asked us to respond with a brief to their petition. And so the Supreme Court, that means the Supreme Court, they haven't taken it up yet, but they're looking at it very seriously, very closely, because there is some conflicting case law. But if this is taken up, I'd be very happy, because I'm confident that the Supreme Court would use this case to make it very loud and clear across America.

Town, cities, you cannot treat churches like second-class citizens for silly reasons and keep them from going where God's called them to be. Amen. That's wonderful. And Adam, you were talking about that you guys have these meetings that, I guess they're like Zoom or something.

You said it was one of your favorite things of the week is to see what's going on all around the country with this. Yeah, this is an amazing group of lawyers that Brad has put together. This Pacific Justice Institute, Robbie, will blow your mind the talent that he has assembled. And we meet twice a week on these Zoom meetings with Kevin Snyder, who's our leader, who is just, he's amazing. He's just an amazing man of God. All of these people on fire for God, doing the work of God across America, defending religious liberty. And Brad Dacus did this.

This is the Pacific Justice Institute. This is the hand of God in this country. I am telling you, man, this is awesome. And it's so cool that you get to do it.

Yeah, I love it. I haven't even pulled one lawyer joke out. Did you notice I stayed away from that, Brad? I mean, not one lawyer joke. Well, let me just set the record straight when it comes to lawyer jokes, okay? Because we get to hear lawyer jokes all the time.

It's the 99% out there that give us 1% of bad representation. That's my lawyer joke. That was good. I liked it.

Yeah, that was cool. So, Aaron, you're bound to have a lawyer joke. You know, I got to bring you guys in the conversation. You know, we usually actively try to avoid lawyers, but you guys sound pretty nice.

Yeah. We don't make any lawyer jokes because we're under litigation for our last one. You guys might need some religious – who knows when they might ban you guys from something that you say in one of your songs or something as you guys go across the country. What venue are you guys looking forward to the most, Aaron?

Oh, man, that's a great question. One of the venues that I'm excited about is when we go to Hawaii, we're going to be performing at a really nice theater in the evening. But during the day, we're going to be going to Pearl Harbor and singing there. And I've never been to Hawaii, which is kind of exciting.

It's one of the two states I haven't been to. And I think it's going to be really cool to be at that epic memorial and sing there and then go to a theater at night. I've been most excited to be on this show. So, for me, it's all done.

All right. Well, I got to know, Aaron, are you going to do Boogie Woogie View, little boy, there? That's what I would wonder if you're right there at Pearl Harbor. Funny you should say that. We actually – we just rewrote the show, and that's our opening number now.

It ought to be. I mean, you guys do that absolutely spectacularly. And when I think of that era, Pearl Harbor led to this country coming together in so many different ways, right?

World War II was a watershed moment historically. Wouldn't you say, Brad? Well, we've got to go to a break, so we come back. We're going to hear more from – again, letters from home and a whole lot more from Brad and Adam and what God's doing around through Pacific Justice Institute. Like, you want to see a website on religious freedom?

Go to PacificJusticeInstitute.com. Like, man, oh, my goodness, they've got so much stuff going on. I didn't even know they had Brad Dacus live.

How awesome would that be? I was on his TV. Were you really?

Yeah. All right. We'll be right back.

You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. You've got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative and latch on to the affirmative. Don't mess with Mr. In-Between. You've got to spread joy up to the maximum and bring loom down to the minimum and have faith. The pandemonium is liable to walk upon the scene to illustrate my last remark.

Jonah and the whale, Noah and his harp. What did they do? What did they do just when everything seemed so dark? Ma'am, they said you've got to accentuate the positive and eliminate. I said the negative and latch on to the affirmative. Don't mess with Mr. In-Between.

No, do not mess with Mr. In-Between. So, Erin, you know, that was a pre-COVID song, right? Because, you know, accentuating the positive and... Hey, you know what?

I'm glad you mentioned that, Robbie. So, you know, our cover is something that we've really tried to kind of define that politics and patriotism are not the same thing, and that's something we believe with all our whole hearts. And so one of the things that we really try to do is uplift people, obviously, in singing and tap dancing and audience interaction, which is what we do. But we have really kind of tried to put an emphasis on relaxing and enjoying just being an American, no matter what political affiliation you're with.

And I think we all have the ability to choose positive and to choose happy in our everyday life. Oh, I've always loved that song, but it's different times. Well, you know, we're just talking about, you know, the test, you know, I guess the joke was a little lame.

It's okay. No, I like it. I think it's a more important song than ever because it's when it's challenging to accentuate the positive that you really need to work hard to do it. You know, times are easy when they're easy, but to make times good when they're hard is the real challenge, right? You're exactly right. You could not be more right. And I think that that is the beautiful idea that you guys have with these USO-style performances, right? That you guys were out there, the USO was, you know, pumping up the troops, which really had a battle to fight.

Well, really have a battle to fight right now, don't we, Adam? Like right here in North Carolina, you're telling me you guys got something going on with specific justice right here? Yeah, actually Pacific Justice Institute has a 501c4 called the Center for Public Policy, the PJI, Center for Public Policy. And people in North Carolina need to be aware that our own Republican legislature was trying this fall to sneak in Medicaid expansion funds.

And so that you understand, well, what's wrong with that? Yeah, what does it fund? They were going to take about $9 billion, ultimately, from the federal government. And what they would use that for is to implement this Title IX agenda for trans stuff in the schools, which is what they did in California, which is how I knew about it, among other things. Diana Lightfoot with North Carolina Physicians for Freedom was in the Trump White House, she was his health policy advisor, and she told me about all this. Pacific Justice has been fighting this hand-to-hand combat, you know, in California. So to prevent that, so that it's all in the schools, you got all these advisors in there advising kids to trans and everything else, because you've got to stop it before it gets there. Once it happens, you've got these horrible situations, which Brad has been fighting out there, where parents will object, and then CPS, Child Protective Services, will come take the child. So these funds are what animates that beast, and we've been fighting it in North Carolina, and Pacific Justice has been sending me around to go do speeches around here, and we stopped them. They put off the vote, and they put it off indefinitely. So this is a PJI victory in North Carolina, and I would say North Carolina Physicians for Freedom was instrumental in helping us in that.

How awesome is that? So you've got those cases, Brad, in California, where parents are losing their children because they object to what they're teaching in school? Yes, and also, if a child tells a teacher that they think they might be transgender, or they may be attracted to the same gender, then that is a switch that will then notify the counselor or social worker. And we've seen children taken from families who, Christian families, say, look, no, we're going to get our kid counseling. We're not going to placate this and encourage our kid to, quote, change their gender. And so the kids have been taken from families. We've gone into court. We've halted it. We've prevented the injections and the body parts from being cut off. There was a case involving a 16-year-old girl in Northern California. We took on that.

Here's some good news, though, for all the people in the audience. We have, on our website, for free, all our resources are with House Charge, we have an article, 12 Steps to Protect Your Children from Social Workers, or CPS. Every parent, every family needs to have that printed out.

It's very clear. So when a social worker comes to their house, for whatever reason, investigating their family, they need to have that so they know exactly what to do. If they follow what we say, the odds are 99% that they will not lose their children. If they do not follow it, the odds are much, much higher that their child will be taken from there permanently.

We also have, real quick, I want to mention this, too, we have customized opt-out forms for parents who have kids in public schools, customized for each of the 50 states, including North Carolina, that can be utilized. And they can download that for free on our website as well, which is simply pji.org, P for Pacific, J for Justice, I for Institute,.org, pji.org. Great resources, every family should have them. Wow. So just, you know, I had no idea.

It shows what I'm just totally ignorant. But what, on that form, you know, what are, you know, if you got an example of what you should not do when you have or what you should do with a social worker comes to your house? Yeah, you should not let them into your house. Just come in and talk to your children.

What they'll do is they'll say, okay, we need to talk to kids in private in the back room. Can I do that? And, of course, you're a law-abiding person. You have nothing to hide. You're not a criminal. So you say, okay, sure, go ahead in the back room in our bedroom there and talk to the children.

No problem. Ask them whatever you want. You know, we're not abusive. Nothing to hide.

That's the danger. Because social workers, many of them were abused themselves, actually, and that's why they're social workers. And they look for abuse, and they read it into what a child's saying, and then they false report it. I've been in a juvenile court, and I've seen them do a false report, and I've called them out on it, and the attorney on the other side says, yeah, you're right, Your Honor. Actually, that's really what the child really said.

They really didn't say what we originally reported. So parents need to understand. Do not let them in. Say, you know what?

Now's not a good time. Can you come back next Tuesday at 1.30, and we can come in. That'd be great.

And then parents need to follow the criteria we tell them to do. Right. It's pji.org is what Brad was sharing, and we've got to go to a break, Brad. I'm sorry, but we come back. We've got one more song, and they're going to accentuate the positive one more time from Letters from Home, and we've got a little bit more with Brad and Adam, so stay tuned. Thank you.

You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Shoves into the tide It's oh so peaceful On the other side Pack up your troubles, come on, get happy We're gonna chase all your cares away Shout hallelujah, come on, get happy Get ready for the Judgment Day It might seem crazy what I'm about to say Sunshine she's here, you can take a break I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space With the air like I don't care, baby, by the way Because I'm happy Let alone if you feel like a room without a roof Because I'm happy Let alone if you feel like happiness is the truth Because I'm happy Let alone if you know what happiness is to you Because I'm happy Let alone if you feel like that's what you wanna do Hallelujah, hallelujah Come on, gilderoy Hallelujah, hallelujah Come on, I have found Here come bad news, talk and listen back Pack up your troubles, come on, get happy We're gonna chase all your cares away Well, I should probably warn you I'll be just fine Get ready for the Judgment Day I'm gonna be just fine because I'm happy That is Letters From Home. One more time, they're heading out on their 50th state tour. One more time, Erin, tell them how they can find out where you guys are doing and connect with you. LettersFromHomeSingers.com, and don't just put in Letters From Home because if you do that John Michael Montgomery song will come up, which is a great song. But not ours. It's LettersFromHomeSingers.com, right?

Dot com. There you go. And it's a lot of singing and tap dancing too, so we hope that everyone will come out to the show no matter where they are in the whole country. And we do World War II music through the Vietnam era, so something for everybody.

Who doesn't like that kind of stuff? Yeah, we can see it. It helps us get happy, which is, you know, I like the idea of accentuating the positive, right? And that's absolutely wonderful.

So, Brad, to kind of round things up as we only got a couple more minutes left in the show, unfortunately, what did you want to make sure you got said that you didn't have a chance to say today? Well, we are also involved in a lot of other areas of law, dealing with religious freedom, parental rights, the safety of life. We're helping people trying to get vital organ transplants around medical death row, and they're being denied because of their objection to being backed.

So we're succeeding. We already saved the life of one person at the University of Michigan Medical Center. We've helped Christian Afghan refugees who are not allowed into the United States, unlike their Muslim counterparts. We were contacted by a Baptist mission organization. We stepped up. Our office in Cincinnati took it on.

And we've got them, about 100 people in the United States, they're setting up churches and Muslim refugee camps now. So we're involved in a lot of different areas. If people need assistance, they should never hesitate to contact us.

We do all our work without charge. And we're very unique. We don't just cherry pick the high profile cases. You know, Robbie, we work hard to make sure that everyone gets help, that no one's left on the side of the road. And we're very blessed to have Adam Draper, a very seasoned, skilled attorney, to be a part of our team at PGI to serve the people in your audience right now. Now, I'm blessed personally because I've known Adam for a long time, Brad. And when he mentions you guys, you can see his heart come alive, like God gave him this to take part in what you guys are doing.

And it's so clearly, you know, the idea of Kingdom Pursuits is how does God take your passion and use it to build the kingdom, right? And you guys have a passion for law. And it's so cool that he's given you the gifts that he has and the connections that you have, Brad.

I mean, it's just, it blows my mind, actually. And again, I'm really, really grateful for, and to think it comes out of California, just Pacific, just, so it just goes to show you, you know? Yeah, we are all over the country now from Miami, Atlanta, North Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, all over the country. And, you know, we're here to serve even business owners. We've helped them. We have a training video of faith in the workplace, how they can live their faith through their business and know how to do it legally. And so this is so much the way of opportunity and for people to understand that they can live their faith boldly and follow the calling of God, just like people like the attorney Adam Draper, just like you're doing here on this wonderful radio broadcast right now.

Yeah, again, it's pji.org, pji.org. And again, lettersfromhomesingers.com. So you got those, too, if you want to get connected with what you heard today. We're so grateful, really so grateful for these guys, but also grateful for you listening, right?

You're the reason that we do this. And so I'm so grateful that you're listening to us today on The Truth Network. And oh, you're going to be glad you're staying tuned because I'm going to tell you an encouraging prayer with James Banks coming up next. Oh, it's just awesome. Followed by The Masculine Journey starts here now at 12 o'clock. And then it's time to man up when Nikita Koloff comes on at 1230. So much truth coming at you on The Truth Network. Thanks for listening. This is The Truth Network.