Can the Church Lead When It Comes To Gun Safety?

Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rosenberg and I am so glad that you are with us. This show is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. For those people who are volunteering to put themselves between a vulnerable loved one an even worse disaster. For those people who spend time at the hospital, back and forth to the doctor's office, doing laundry in the middle of the night, going to rehab centers, going to nursing homes, hospice, special needs children, whether they've got a family member who's an addict or an alcoholic. If you have a chronic impairment, you've got a caregiver.

I mean just by definition. And this show is dedicated to that individual. Now there are 68 hours in the week. How many of them are dedicated to the family caregiver?

Well, this one is. And we are glad that you are with us. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840.

If you want to be a part of the show. And by the way, when you do call, I need to just say this real quickly. Sometimes we just can't get to all the calls. I mean we try, but it's just we get a lot of calls here and we're grateful for them. And it's not that we don't take you seriously or your issue seriously or we want to get to you. Sometimes there are people that get on the call and are dealing with something and for the first time in their entire journey as a caregiver, they're talking to someone who speaks their language, which I do.

I speak fluent caregiver. And we want to give as much time as we possibly can to every hurting heart. So if you can't get through this week, maybe do it next week. And then we'll always have stuff out at the website where you can reach out to us and so forth at hopeforthecaregiver.com. That's just the nature of a show this large is that you're just not going to be able to get to all the calls. And I appreciate your patience and indulgence on that because there are people that are really hurting.

And we take that incredibly seriously. And if you're calling just to kind of be tangential and bloviate about something, really try to be judicious and recognize that there are people that are timidly reaching for a phone that they feel like weighs a hundred pounds just to talk to someone who understands where they are. And if I have to spend a lot of time with somebody who just wants to call and hear themselves talk on the radio, it takes away from that.

And so what I'm looking for is those individuals who truly feel that they are just at the end of the rope. They don't know who to talk to. They feel embarrassed to talk to anybody else. They feel guilty if they even say anything.

All those kinds of things. That's who I want to talk to here on this show because I understand how lonely it can be as a caregiver. I really get this. I truly get this. Been doing it now, getting ready to start my 34th year. And a long time through a horrific set of medical challenges, multiple amputations, 80 plus surgeries, 12 different hospitals, seven different insurance companies, a hundred doctors, 150 smaller procedures. Now we're getting close to $11 million. It just keeps growing.

It doesn't end. I understand that. I understand those places where you're just having those late night conversations with the ceiling fan kind of thing.

And so this show, when I set out to structure this show, it was to those individuals who are just staring at the ceiling or driving down the road, just weeping because they don't know what to do or who to talk to. This is the place for you. 888-589-8840.

888-589-8840. And I will get to those calls as soon as I possibly can and try to take as many as I can and we'll do some more. And it's not that I bring answers because I don't. Do not look to me for answers. I just speak fluent caregiver. But what I want to do is help point you to our savior because that's his native tongue. And I want you to understand the gospel as a caregiver. I want you to understand what that means to you as a caregiver right now in the midst of all these things.

And that's what makes this show unique. I'm not going to sit there and try to tell you how to take care of your loved one because I don't know how to take care of your loved one anymore and you know how to take care of mine. But what I do understand is the train wreck that's in your heart. What I do understand is the heartbreak that you're carrying. That I do get. And what that means in the context of scripture. In the context of real life practical stuff that you can do today.

See I believe that as a caregiver we can live a calmer, healthier, and dare I say it a more joyful life. Even while dealing with harsh realities. But we're going to talk about practical things right now today and that's going to bring me to a topic. I want to read a scripture to you today.

May sound a little bit odd but let me give the setup here for it. Proverbs 27 12. The prudent see danger and take refuge but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Now the reason I'm using that scripture is because of something that is happening in our society. Things that are happening right now in our culture that are devastating us and splitting us down the middle as a society. And that would be this whole issue about guns.

And I'm watching everybody race to the microphone. I mean they are truly trying to, they cannot get to the microphone fast enough to just pontificate about what they think is the problem and how to solve it. Okay and you see it on the news and we're either going to deal with self defense or society defense. And you know everybody's got an opinion on this thing but I've noticed that there's a path that very few people want to take. I don't know about you but I'm not comfortable with politicians giving out life advice. I'm just not.

I've known a lot of politicians and some of them are fine people but I'm just not that comfortable with it. I'm a whole lot more comfortable anchoring all of our things in scripture. I'm a whole lot more comfortable anchoring all our things in the church. And one of the things that you'll hear on this show with me a lot is this constant throwback to the church.

Because I believe that's where the clarity is, it comes from the things of God working through the church into our lives. I go back to when Mike Huckabee was running for president back in 2008. And I don't know if some of you all remember this but he was running for president and on the debate platform the moderator said, hey you know Governor Huckabee, of course he's a two-time governor and they're asking him why he thinks he's qualified to run for president, a two-time governor.

I thought that was a little bit ironic. But they asked him, why do you think you're qualified to do this? And his answer really surprised a lot of people.

It didn't surprise me but it delighted me but it surprised a lot of people. He said as a pastor, because you've got to remember he was a minister, he still is an ordained minister, as a pastor he said I had a front row seat to virtually every type of family dynamic out there from healthcare to unemployment, jobs, death, rehab, addiction, poverty, all of it. He touched it as a pastor. Now you see, politicians talk about things, pastors touch things. They are doing it. Politicians are talking to and from a green screen.

They get out there on the media and on stages and they're on platforms. Pastors are in the hospital rooms. They're in the funeral homes. See my dad's a pastor. My dad's been a pastor now for gosh, I don't want to tell how old he is, he's listening to the show. But dad you've been doing this for a long time.

He's getting close to 60 years as a pastor. And it's who he is. And I've seen how the job is done.

I know how it's done correctly. And what I see is that we are overlooking all these men of God out there and these women of God who are in leadership in churches around the country. There are 300,000 churches in this country and an estimated over 50 million people go to these things.

And those millions and millions of people are connected tangentially or directly to people going through all kinds of stuff in our society. If there's a family out there with a child who is out of control, a son who is out of control, is filled with hate and everything else and is in danger to himself or society, I guarantee you somebody in that kid's orbit goes to church somewhere. And this is what I think about when we look at gun safety and so forth. Can we not appeal and encourage and equip pastors with the vocabulary when you see a family that is in turmoil ask about the guns? Are the firearms secured? If you've got somebody who's dealing with Alzheimer's in their family, are the guns secure? If you've got somebody who's dealing with an addiction, are the guns secure?

If you've got somebody who is dealing with any type of cognitive impairment, are the guns secure? Now, it's not just for that loved one who's suffering from these things. Just yesterday in the news, yesterday, not last week, not last month, not last year, yesterday, a guy down in Florida shot his wife and then took his own life because of healthcare related issues.

They were running out of resources, they got a bad diagnosis. I haven't flushed out all the story yet, but this has happened pretty regularly from one account. I read it was happening once every two weeks down in Florida. And just last year, earlier this year, you had a guy up in Minnesota, the same thing with his wife.

He was one of the minority owners of the Minnesota Vikings. They've been married 60 years and he'd been taking care of her and then he ended up taking her life and then taking his own life. And then you had last year in Oregon, a young mother of a special needs child, killed the child and then tried to take her own life.

She wasn't successful at that, but she tried. Are the guns secure? Is somebody saying to this family, are they looking at them and saying to this family, hey, are the firearms secure? I'm not talking about confiscation. I'm not talking about second amendment. I'm just talking about safety. You know, when people get into dark places, emotionally speaking, or when they get into impaired places, mentally speaking, are we looking to their safety? You know, a lot of people say, well, you know, for caregivers, well, take care of yourself, eat a good meal and get some rest and take some time for you. No, no, no. Check and make sure the guns are safe and secured and properly stowed away.

Make sure the tire pressure is good. I mean, that's where a caregiver lives. And it's a little bit annoying to hear the same kind of people get out there and just, I don't know any better word, but just bloviate about stuff as if they care and they're not giving good counsel. And that's why I started off with, if you want good counsel, go, go spend some time in scripture and go back to Proverbs 27, 12. The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 27, 12, go read it. Now let's be prudent. If you got somebody who is impaired, don't give them the keys to the car. Don't give them access to a firearm.

Don't do it. Make sure that it's properly stowed away and secured and safety. If you get somebody who is dealing with depression, who is getting into some really dark places and isolated and so forth, make sure that the weapons are secured. And if they don't know how to do it, if somebody doesn't know how to do it, there are plenty of people who can. And that's where pastors come in that they can connect people. They have their finger on the pulse of what's going on.

And it's a simple question. All you have to do is ask, are the firearm secured? And if, if we're doing this on a regular basis, and if we are just repeating these little things like that, the same thing with the tires, are the tires in good shape? You know, you don't want to be riding around on may pop tires, which may pop at any time. You don't, when's a good time do you think for a special needs mom driving around in her car to break down by the side of the road because she has a flat tire and she's got a special needs child in the car with her? When's a good time for that? It's just regular maintenance of the, of the entire aspect of a caregiver's life.

We keep thinking we're going to bring him in. I remember this, this lady who was taking care of her husband with a five-year brain, something going on with him. It was pretty serious issue. And, and her car broke down and she finally worked up the nerve to go to church and ask somebody, you know, to get some help. And the person looked at him was just incredible sympathy and said, Oh, Oh, I'm going to make you a meal and we're going to pray for you.

And she's like, you know, I appreciate that. I'd like to have the meal, but I really need a mechanic and, and, and, you know, you know, the meals are great, but I can't drive a meal to work. And, and, and this is what I'm trying to help the church understand is that if we do not show leadership in this, if we do not get out engaged in this, then what's going to happen is we're going to relegate people to political leaders and we see the fine job they do. You know, why in the world would you advocate this to the world? Why in the world would you give this over to political leaders who can't agree on breakfast, much less on how to help people. And, and so this is where the church can step in with real leadership. We can do this, but it takes a vocabulary. It takes an understanding and it takes an awareness. And this is what I'm hoping that we, as caregivers can learn to do. And, and we can, we can, um, we can speak with clarity to each other in the midst of these things. We can, we can not just give lip service, but we can actually do something that has value right now, today. You tracking with me?

888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. If you want to be a part of the show and you want to weigh in on this, this is something that I feel incredibly passionate about. And I think we've really missed a great opportunity as believers to be out in front of this. I just wanted to start off with that because I think, I think that that's something that we can do today.

We don't have to wait for legislation. You tracking with me? This is Peter Rosenberg. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show for caregivers about caregivers hosted by caregivers.

This is Peter Rosenberg. I'm glad that you are with us. If you want to be a part of the show, it's very easy. 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840. And you can also follow along at Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook. We stream the show live. We had a little bit of connection problems.

I'm trying to reconnect right now. And it's, but go out to Facebook at Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook. That is our group page there. And then the website is hopeforthecaregiver.com.

And there's all kinds of stuff out there. You can hear that song rejoice that we went out to the break with. It's my wife, Gracie. It's a new song of hers that you can listen to out there and you can get it and download that today. We're going to be just releasing songs periodically of hers as she gets ready for a new CD that comes out this fall. And I've got a very special one coming out next month. In fact, I'm hoping that I will hear some of the mastering of it today from my engineer back in Nashville.

And it's Gracie and Russ Taft singing a wonderful duet. And there's going to be all kinds of stuff coming on that. And you can go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com for that and be a part of what we're doing.

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888-589-8840. How are you feeling as a caregiver? And I'm going to do a check-in with you because I just continually see in the news more and more stuff. I want to go back to what we're talking about in the first segment of this thing with gun safety. You remember that kid down in Florida that shot up the school at Parkland? The cops were called out, according to one news report, multiple news reports, and 39 times to the house. Who called the cops? That's the first question that when I saw that I said, who's calling the cops? Turns out most of them were the calls from the mother of this kid who was at her wit's end of what to do with this boy. And family members and neighbors and all that knew that he was a hot mess.

And so my question is very simple. Did anybody pull this woman aside and say, Hey, look, your son is a train wreck and he may not make it, but you have to. It's important for you to get counseling for yourself.

It's important for you to get help for you physically and emotionally, spiritually. Did church leaders, did a pastor, did somebody intercept this woman and point her to a path to safety? Clearly not. She died. And when she died three months later, this kid shoots up a school.

Sometimes caregivers are the last line of defense between an impaired loved one in society. And I don't know if that was the trigger for this kid. I don't know. I'm not going to speak to that because I don't have any expertise in that. I could just simply ask the question, did anybody get to this woman and offer her a path to safety? And did anybody pull aside, Hey, does this kid have access to weapons?

And if so, how do we stop that? You never know the pain you're saved from. We just see the horror stories like El Paso, like Dayton and all these other things. You don't know the pain that you're saved from. But I go back and look at our scripture today. The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Proverbs 27, 12. Folks, I see danger and I see it increasingly. I think you're going to see more and more of this whole thing with these murder suicides, homicide, suicide.

And it's usually a couple where a husband has reached the breaking point and he takes his wife's life who he's taken care of and then takes his own life. Is anybody speaking to these people with words of life and pointing them to safety and intercepting before it gets to that place? I'm trying to give the vocabulary so that we can do that collectively. And if we can do that, we give them a fighting chance.

We can't ensure that they do the right thing, but we give them a fighting chance. 888-589-8840. It's Peter Rosberg. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the show for caregivers about caregivers, hosted by a caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger and we're glad you're with us because he lives. We can face tomorrow.

That is my wife, Gracie and her dear friend, Johnny Erickson-Tada. And if you want to hear that, you can go out to hopeforthecaregiver.com and listen to all the music that we have out there. And while you're there, you can look at also the books that we have. We've got a new book, Seven Caregiver Landmines and How You Can Avoid Them.

And one of those landmines is isolation and which leads to the conversation we're having today because in isolation, dark thoughts take over. And if you want to be a part of this ministry, you can do that. I'll send you a copy of that book. It's just a little pocket-sized book you can carry with you everywhere else.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to go out there and participate, you just see the button right on the front page. It'll take you to Standing With Hope. You can sponsor this radio show and I'll send you a copy of that book. It's something I wrote just almost like a field manual for caregivers. And it's not complicated, but it's very specific. And it's written in a way that caregivers understand, which I get that because a lot of times people spoke to me throughout all these years I've been doing this and they would give me platitudes and they would give me, you know, I guess platitudes is just the best word for it, but it was superficial stuff. It really wasn't anything that was helpful really at the time. Well, at any time, it just wasn't helpful.

It was a nice sentiment, you know, but nothing I couldn't read off of a Hallmark card. And on this show, we're committed to giving you great clarity in specific things that you can incorporate in your life right now. They're going to help you push away on this. And Seven Caregiver Landmines and How You Could Avoid Them, this little book, is one of those things that we just wanted to have something you put in your pocket, you take it in your purse, take it to the hospital, whatever. You don't have to worry about putting it down, picking it up, putting it down, pick it up because that's the life of a caregiver. You're not going to lose your place. There's something on every page for you.

Just like in my book, Hope for the Caregiver. There's something there for you, every page, every chapter. And it's all real small. I mean, I didn't write a lot of, I don't even know a lot of big words, so I don't use a lot of them. I tell people it's so easy, you can read it in the bathroom.

I know because that's where I wrote it. So it's, I know that's funny and y'all can laugh at that. The whole point of this is to speak clarity to a caregiver so that we're not floundering around wondering, you know, where do we go next? What do we do? What's going on? And I go back to this whole thing with gun safety. And this is a real, this is a real bur in my saddle. And I'm doing this show from out here in Montana. So I, and I was out riding this week. I did go out and clear my head a little bit on Monday and saddle up with a couple local cowboys of some 50, 50 cows got away from the herd way up in the national forest where they were grazing. And so we went out to find them and we evidently went to the wrong place because we were looking for cows at all the wrong places. And y'all can laugh at that. That's, that's actually very funny.

And, and I, but that was a, that was a lot of fun just getting out there trail riding a little bit and trying to find these cows. And we're not, we're not in nice areas. I mean, it's steep and it's, but it's beautiful area, but that's a bur in my saddle is this thing with guns, because I think a lot of people rush to push their political ideology. And very few people are rushing to, to push this in a ministry capacity. And if you, you think about this, that, that all of our clergy combined, even those from different faith, we can still ask the same question, are the firearms secured?

You know, think about praying with a mother in despair over her addicted child. You don't have to wait for legislation. You can go ahead and ask the question now, Hey, does this kid have access to guns?

And, you know, you're not going to stop it. I mean, somebody just went on a rampage with a knife. I mean, we can't exactly go out there and pass legislation that gets knives. We can, but legislation doesn't do anything.

Y'all know that. And even if it does, it's still not gonna do anything until they pass it. And I'm talking about something today, right now that you could do. Think about, think about if this, this man yesterday who shot and killed his wife and then killed himself over healthcare issues down in Florida.

And if somebody was speaking life to this man, what a different outcome it would be. You can't ensure it. You can't make it happen that way, but you give them a fighting chance and you know, results are in God's department, but we have a responsibility to be stewards of this message. You know, are we just glad we got our salvation and we're glad we got our knowledge and then everybody else is just on their own? I mean, don't we have to be responsible with the information that God has entrusted us with?

Aren't we to be the light of the world? And if we're not going to speak light into these situations, who are they going to listen to? You know, when you've got States passing medically assisted death and they're all just gung ho to pass that so that, you know, physicians can provide drugs to go ahead and take a patient out. How big a leap is it for a caregiver to go ahead and just take matters in their own head and say, okay, let's just be done with this. When you got a governor of Virginia, who is a doctor himself saying that if a child with special needs is born and it's severely deformed, we're going to put the child aside and make it comfortable. And then we'll let the mother make the decision on whether or not we'll execute the child.

How big a leap is it for a family with a special needs child that is pushing them to the breaking point to go ahead and just in that child's life. And don't tell me it doesn't happen. It just happened in Oregon a year ago this month with a 28 year old girl who took a gun and shot her child and then turned the gun on herself. Madison County, Tennessee, or maybe Dixon County's over in Dixon, Tennessee, a father of a special needs boy, a nonverbal autistic boy beat him to death. And the mother watched. And then he told the community, the child ran off, which happens with autism.

There's a lot of problems with elopement. These are dark thoughts that get into these people's minds. To all of us, our minds is scary. In fact, period, it gets into all of our minds. And if we're not hearing words of life on a regular basis, who are we listening to?

What are we listening to? Because the world is increasingly throwing death as a solution to us. Think about it. Look at all the headlines.

Don't just take my word for it. Look at it yourself. The world is throwing death as a solution. Medically assisted death, abortion. When Roe versus Wade was passed and set up as the law of the land, and I was watching Bill de Blasio this week argue about it. And he was asked point blank by Sean Hannity, do you believe that a woman can have an abortion all the way to the moment of birth?

And he wouldn't answer the question. He would just simply say, I believe in Roe versus Wade. Well, I don't believe in Roe versus Wade.

I believe that our savior bore the penalty of death and we don't need to use death as a solution. But these people are not going to be content until they can eliminate by killing anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or in any way unpleasant. Don't take my word for it. Look at the media every single day. People say, well, I wouldn't want to live with this and this and this.

Well, you don't know what you want to live with. My wife lives with more pain than anybody I know. Her body is so broken and yet she has value with what she does and she trusts God with her pain and he speaks to her in it.

C.S. Lewis said that, you know, suffering is God's megaphone to us. And the world is going to continue to reinforce this over and over and over until we get rid of people with disabilities, people who are aging, who have outlived their usefulness according to the world, children that we do not want.

You look at Barack Obama, he said some years ago that if his daughter makes a mistake, he doesn't want to be punished with a baby. These were his words. They're not my words, they're his words. And anything that is undesirable, we need to get rid of. It's what the world says. But scripture tells us something far different that we trust God with these things that come along in our lives that are challenging, that are painful, that we hang on to him in this, not just look for some way to just go ahead and pull the trigger and be done with it.

But our natural inclination is to want to be free of all this pain and sorrow and suffering and unpleasantness or fear or whatever it is we've got to deal with so let's just kill it. If we don't have any more money for, you know, health care or whatever, let's just go ahead and take our own lives and be done with it. This is happening now. It happened yesterday in Florida. Go look at the news. So what are we doing about it?

What are we doing about it? This show is dedicated to speaking to those people who are watching this unfold, who are so discouraged as they watch someone else suffer. And to go into that heartbreaking place and point them to a path of safety. I get it.

I truly get it. But God has not abandoned you. God has not forsaken you. This is not some kind of goofy punishment. He's not arbitrary. He is not reckless. He is not whimsical. He is God all by himself and He alone is working in ways that we cannot possibly fathom.

And so we learn to trust Him. I had a lady that wrote to me last week on our Facebook page and her husband has seizures all the time. And they're nine year old boys said, you know, why would God do this to us?

I remember our nine year old asked when his mother just kept going through surgery after surgery, losing legs and everything else. He said, how can I trust God with my hurt when I see what He allows mom to go through? And I answered him with wisdom that I didn't know. It wasn't my wisdom.

And I said, you know what? I don't understand all these things, but I know that He stretched out His arms and gave His life for us. If He loves us that much, I'm going to trust Him with these things too. This is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. Have you ever helped somebody walk for the first time? I've had that privilege many times through our organization Standing with Hope. When my wife Gracie gave up both of her legs following this horrible wreck that she had as a teenager, and she tried to save them for years, and it just wouldn't work out. And finally she relinquished them and thought, wow, this is it. I mean, I don't have any legs anymore.

What can God do with that? And then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel to put legs on her fellow amputees. And that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with Standing with Hope. We work in the West African country of Ghana, and you can be a part of that through supplies, through supporting team members, through supporting the work that we're doing over there.

You could designate a limb. There's all kinds of ways that you could be a part of giving the gift that keeps on walking at standingwithhope.com. Would you take a moment to go out to standingwithhope.com and see how you can give.

They go walking and leaping and praising God. You can be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to the show for Caregivers About Caregivers hosted by caregiver, I am Peter Rosenberger. If you want more information, hopeforthecaregiver.com. Hopeforthecaregiver.com. If you want to be a part of the show, 888-589-8840, 888-589-8840.

John, thanks for playing that. Saddle up your horses. I did get to go saddle up. I've been doing this once a week or so and there's a range rider that's staying in the national forest up behind us and spending the whole summer out there and I get to go out there and saddle up and go out and push a few cows out of the bush and so forth and it's a lot of fun. That's the way I clear my head and that's not for everybody but I enjoy doing it and as Will Rogers used to say, there's nothing wrong with the inside of a man the outside of a horse can't fix and I thought, I don't know how theologically sound that is but it's a nice saying. Listen, there's all kinds of stuff at hopeforthecaregiver.com.

Would you take advantage of it? Look at it. We've got our blog post out there. Our podcast is free.

We'll put the show out and then we also put various special clips and things out there, music. The book is Seven Caregiver Landmines and How You Can Avoid Them and Hope for the Caregiver. Gracie's book is out there which I think you would just absolutely love that book. It is a spectacular book. It's a gift to someone who is struggling with some harsh realities.

Gracie's story is a powerful one and I think you'd like it and then while you're there, if you like what you're hearing on this show, if you feel like it has value to you and to others, sponsor it. Give a tax deductible gift. There's a button right there at Hope for the Caregiver. You can just click. Just do it. Today, I'll send you a signed copy of the book and you can put it in the hands after you read it, give it to someone else who's struggling and hurting. We're putting this information out there and take advantage of it. Don't just passively listen by. Let's do it.

Otherwise, you know what? They got a really loud megaphone and they're on slot 24-7 with their message. This station and this show is on for one hour at a time. Help us do more.

Sponsor it today. All right, let's go to Brooke in West Virginia. Brooke, good morning. How are you feeling? Good morning, Peter. How are you feeling? I'm doing okay.

What you got on your mind? Well, the reason I was calling first off was I've been listening to your program this morning and I've been a caregiver since May of 2015. This is for a gentleman who I lived with from 1978 until 2009 when he moved next door to take care of his mother who had Alzheimer's. Now, she passed away on October of 2012 and he chose to stay up there. But because there's always been a deep commitment there and everything, and I have no Social Security or Medicare even though I'm 65 due to not enough work credits, he has always cared for me even though we live on less than $1,000 a month Social Security. Now then, the reason I was calling, I was very interested in your firearm discussion today.

Now, I'm from originally Tulsa, Oklahoma, but I've lived in West Virginia since 1982. And I agree that the legislation for expanded background checks and red flag laws are a disaster. They don't really do anything and quite frankly, what worries me about red flag laws is that I'm afraid that we'll be considered a threat by maybe another administration more than this one.

Let me jump in real quick. Red flag laws, legislation, all that kind of stuff, I'm going to put that over to the side. I'm looking at red flag ministry. Oh, I totally agree.

You follow me? Because I would much rather have our pastors see the red flags than our politicians. Oh, I totally agree. I totally agree. That's what I'm looking for because we can do that today.

Whatever they're going to pass in Congress, it's not going to pass today anyway. And today, today there is a family in crisis somewhere and there is a pastor listening to this show right now who could start using the language I'm talking about. If you've got somebody with Alzheimer's or somebody that's got an alcoholic or drug addict in their family or mental illness in their family and they're coming to your church and you know about it, ask them where the guns are and are they secure?

Let the pastors have red flag ministry. Although I will say this, Peter, that a hundred years ago there were a lot more guns in this country and a lot less security for guns and we did not have these problems back then. Now, in West Virginia, we have a lot of guns and we have respect for our guns and our children know that.

I get all of that. We don't have a gun problem. We have a sin problem.

Absolutely. There's a place in the Bible where it says evil will be viewed as good and good as you will be viewed as evil and we are there. But the guns right now become a convenient way for people who are in bondage to sin or broken by sin to wreak havoc on themselves and society. And so, you know, the halls of Congress and our state legislatures and so forth, I don't have any, I don't even sway over that.

But what I can do is appeal to church leaders. If you keep waiting for the world to step in with authority, they're going to get it wrong. If you step in right now with biblical authority, like I said, what's that scripture this morning?

Proverbs 27, 12, the prudency danger, right? Yeah. Good.

Write that down. They're broke with the prudency danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. And our society has functioned like the simple.

And this is what we're on this show all about. Our young people have been indoctrinated into the simple. Well, our old people have been indoctrinated into it as well. We've all been indoctrinated because the world is blasting this out 24 seven. And so if we, as believers don't stand up and start acting like we got some sense because we are supposed to be the arbiter, I mean, the bearers of light in this world, our eyes have been opened by the reality of the gospel.

What are we doing with it? And this is what's frustrating to me is that we are advocating this because we're timid, we're afraid, or we're going to step on people's toes. You know, when you're in a situation like that, toe stepping is over.

We don't have to worry about that anymore. I would much rather step on somebody's toes than to see where this is going. I totally agree. And I think personally, I think we could walk into this Brooke. I think we could walk into this with compassion, but authority. And I think this is what I'm on a mission to do here on this show is to help equip people with that vocabulary, that understanding so that they go in. And I promise you right now, there's a pastor listening to this show, but there's more than one pastor. There's a deacon, there's an elder, there's a church leader, head of the women's ministry who are looking out at a women's group that they're a Bible study that they're leading. And somebody in that Bible study is dealing with somebody with Alzheimer's and they can ask, are the firearms secured?

It's not a hard question. You can't ensure results, but you can, you can give them a fighting chance. And Brooke, you've just reinforced that this morning. And thank you very much for calling. Are you, are you doing all right there in West Virginia? Well, I mean, I've been the sole caregiver since May of 2015. And have you seen your doctor lately?

No, I have not. I don't even have a doctor. I haven't been to a doctor probably, Peter, in 25 years. I have nobody prescription medicine. I am in pretty good shape physically because I danced in the ballet till I was 36 years of age, a minimum of three and a half, four hours a day, six days a week.

Brooke, I'm gonna ask you something. Would you try to get to see a doctor anyway, just to check your blood pressure, cholesterol, sugars, all that kind of stuff? Well, I, I really have no money. You know, I, I, my caregiving and stuff, like I said, Carrie and I are living on less than a thousand dollars a month and I'm setting aside a month.

Look around and see if there's some, some family clinics that, that offer it reduced rates. Okay. Oh, I'm familiar with all of that and everything.

I don't have insurance. I have assurance, Peter. Well, I understand that, but it can't hurt to go to your doctor too. Right. And, uh, but listen, I appreciate you calling. I appreciate you listening. It means a lot that you took the time here, Brooke, and I want you to behave yourself today.

All right. Thank you so much, Peter. And thank you for all you do and for all the good advice you give to all the caregivers out there.

Well, you're quite welcome and visit HopeForTheCaregiver.com for more information. But Brooke, I appreciate the call. Listen, this is what we're talking about here. You know, they're going to try to pass red flag laws. I, I don't have the power to stand in the way of some of these things, but today, today, right now, today, you can do red flag ministry. Okay.

And that trumps everything. Red flag ministry. If you see someone who is hurting, say something to them, point them to safety. Ask them if the firearms are secured in their homes. Go through the checklist of things that can hurt these people who are in despair, who are in isolation, who are struggling.

Go through the checklist. The prudent see danger. The prudent see danger and take refuge.

But the simple, and that's a nice way of saying the stupid, keep going and pay the penalty. Proverbs 27, 12. HopeForTheCaregiver.com. Go out there.

The books are out there. The music's out there and be a part of the show. Sponsor it. If you like what we're saying, if you think we're saying something has value to this country and to individuals and to pastors and churches, then get your church involved. And if you like what we're saying, get your church involved with this. You can sponsor it today. We're putting the message out there. Help us get it out better. I'm Peter Rosenberger, healthy caregivers make better caregivers. And today's a great day to start. Red Flag Ministry, that is your word for today. We'll see you next time.