We got breaking news. The DOJ sues Gavin Newsom over redistricting. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you.
Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. It's Friday. Phone lines are open for you.
I want to hear from you. You can hit up any of the topics we talked about this week. Again, phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110 as we come to a close on Grandparents Week here during our Freedom Drive. It's been a massive, successful week as we're not only celebrating grandparents, but also paying tribute to our grandparents. It's been a great week for support of the ACLJ, and you can still do it today and have your gifts doubled and celebrate your grandparents and your life, or maybe you're a grandparent.
You want to set up the future of your country, and of course, for your kids, grandkids, even some of you great-grandkids.
So, I encourage you right now to do that by giving, if you can, a donation at aclj.org. And like I said, another ACLJ member or champion is ready to unlock a pledge and double. Your donation. It's a really great time to do it during this freedom drive. And of course, what we've said is you can also opt in and become an ACLJ champion, someone that gives on a monthly basis.
And this month or this week, we're calling you a grand champion because, of course, we are celebrating our grandparents.
So do that today if you can. But, Will, we do have some breaking news. I just want to make sure people had time to get over here. And that is that the Department of Justice. is suing Gavin Newsom, governor of California.
That's right. And this is what a lot of people have been wondering if it would happen because this comes after the voters of California approved that Proposition 50 ballot provision just a few weeks ago. And that was the redistricting plan. That Gavin Newsom was saying that, you know, we're going to take on Texas. We're going to take on these states that are trying to redistrict before the midterms.
And so they actually went to extraordinary lengths to put a ballot provision forward, which would give an exception to the way that California does their congressional districts. Instead of their independent council, which they had enshrined into law in California years ago, this would be a one-off where it goes back to the independent council after they're able to combat Trump in this election and redoes the districts.
Now, The Republican Party of California had already sued. The DOJ has filed a complaint. Citing federal statutes that they will now be fighting in court that says we want to join this lawsuit of the Republican Party, but here is our own complaint.
So they want to be a party to this lawsuit, not just an amicus brief or something like that. And what they are alleging is that. It violates the Constitution, it violates the Voting Rights Act because, and they even said it in their own words. We'll show some of the sound from Pam Bondi when she announced this last night. That they were doing it specifically going to communities and using the racial demographics.
To try and create these new districts that would be more favorable to Democrat seats. You cannot gerrymander or do that based off of race. And that is what they are alleging: that this was racially driven to get them up to five more seats in Congress in California in this midterm election coming up.
So that's where we're at right now. We'll talk about it more and we'll get your phone calls on it at 1-800-684-3110. Also, it's a Friday. If there's any topic we've covered this week, you can call in on that as well. 1-800-684-3110.
That's right. Of course, we want to hear from you and your thoughts. Like as Will said at 1-800-684-3110. But if you're on our YouTube channel or our Rumble page, anywhere you can chat live, put in where you're watching from. I'd like to see that, specifically here at the end of the week.
I'd like to know that we have people watching from all over the country, all over the world that we're representing you. And speaking of representing, we're going to have a big update. You may remember that case. We've been talking about it all week. This has been Grandparents Week, and I believe some prayers were answered about that Jesus Club.
They would say, no, no, no, you can't have Jesus only. You've got to be all world religions. You can have a Jesus club, but it's going to have to be talking about every faith and belief. You can't be restricted to just Christians talking about how Jesus is the one way.
Well, guess what, grandparents? You all spoke out loudly with your prayers and your support, and we're going to have an update on that coming very soon in the next few segments. You're not going to want to miss that. 1-800-68-431-10. You can probably tell by the tone of my voice and the smirk on my face, it's good news.
That's always good news when you have people here at the ACLJ working hard. for kids of this nation, for people of this nation who just want to express their faith.
So I encourage you today, make a donation, have it doubled. Let's do it. Let's end Grandparents' Week strong and continue on our Freedom Drive. Welcome, I'm Sekulow. Like I said, phone lines are open for you.
Nobody called me during the breaks, Will. 1-800-684-30-110. I guess I got no question. I wasn't as compelling enough. When you say call me, you say it with conviction.
Call me. Right. And I'll tell them there's six lines open.
So this is the perfect time to call in. It's a perfect time if you got something to say. Say it nicely. Say it without profanity so you can make it actually on the air. Be kind to our phone screeners.
Sometimes you call in and you're not, you won't make it. They get the look, they're the decision makers in there. The phone screener, so be nice to them. When you call in at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, for those who are just joining us right now, you may have seen the headline on our YouTube channel saying, breaking news, the DOJ files lawsuit against Gavin Newsom.
Of course, the ACLJ, you may remember, also taking Gavin Newsom to court.
So you know what? He's going to be spending a lot of time in court soon. But the Department of Justice will saying you can't do the redistricting like they want. Of course, you have Pam Bondi making these statements going on. Even Sean Hannity last night discussing this at length.
That's right. So, what the DOJ is arguing here is that the plan that they put in through Prop 50 mandates racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, as well as some Voting Rights Act issues as well.
So, they are saying that this plan and this redistricting map cannot be used in 2026 and beyond. They're seeking an injunction early as well, but they're going to have to fight this in court as it goes forward.
Now, I think you should hear from Pam Bondi because this is Byte Nine. She was on Sean Hannity's broadcast last night talking about this. They just filed this yesterday. It hasn't really made a ton of news yet, but this is what I know even our callers have been wondering: can the federal government step in? Can there be a lawsuit?
We knew that the Republican Party of California had already sued, but is there anything that the national government can do? Because they were blatant about what they were doing. They weren't saying, We think our districts have shifted so drastically, even though maybe they have because so many people are fleeing California, that we need to redistrict early. What they were saying is, no, we are doing this to fight Trump. We are going to redraw our map so we can have more power to fight the President and Republicans.
So hear what Pam Bondi had to say last night, the Attorney General on Sean Hannity's show, Byte Nine. It wasn't even illicit. They are flat out publicizing what they're trying to do and why they're trying to do it. They're trying to create seats based on race and they can't do it and we're going to hold them accountable just like any other state. I mean they've very publicly said, Sean, what they're trying to do and it's illegal gerrymandering.
They cannot do it.
So yeah, we sued them today. We're going to continue suing California until they start complying with the laws of our country. And when you look at also this problem, not just in California, but around the country, it makes you wonder if there's going to be outcry on both sides about the way that these congressional districts are drawn. Other states potentially answering back in some ways, too, for good or bad. I think not necessarily for good, but for a response to this.
We've got to call about that. Maybe that'll help inspire you to call in as well. Dave's calling in Indiana online, too. Dave, go ahead. Yeah, so I'm I'm wondering, should we be calling our Representative.
asking them to Redistrict, Indiana. You're saying locally in your area, should you be saying, hey, if California is doing this, why shouldn't we? Of course, you know, two wrongs don't make a right. But some of the response of this was also coming from some response from Republican states that were presenting similar options, like in Texas and some other places that were considering things like this.
So, Dave, you know, all bets are kind of knocked off when this happens. Unfortunately, it's the way politics works, and I am sure. I'm sure other states are now going, oh, well, two can play at this game.
Well, and to Dave's point, there are already members of the Indiana legislature that are looking to do this. Because they don't know much about Indiana. It has set off a firestorm, as you've said, where Texas redistrict, and they were saying that the entire purpose of their redistricting was saying that the census that took place. Counted too many non-citizens because the way representation and how many seats in Congress you get are based off the population of your state. And then they allocate them that way.
Texas was basically saying that because of the way that the census took place, that there were too many non-citizens. That were counted in certain areas, and that messed up their maps in their previous allocation of congressional seats.
So they were trying to correct what they saw was an improper allocation based off the previous census.
So they were doing it early. And now, different states have different laws about when you can and if you can do that. California had a law saying you cannot. Texas had different laws that were available to redraw the maps. But What did California do?
What did Gavin Newsom do? They decided, okay. We don't like the law that we passed, that we passed actually to try and protect independent districting, even though it's still very lopsided in that state, as everyone knows. And what did they do? They said, we want to go around the Independent Commission.
We want to do it our own way to combat Texas.
Now, it has kind of set off a chain reaction of other states.
Now, Indiana currently has a 7-2 Republican to Democrat rate.
So there is Democrat representation in what is a very red state. It's a very conservative state, the heartland. People don't think of Indiana as being their neighbor, Illinois, that is very blue. It's very blue, but has very red pockets. What their new map would do is make it nine to zero Republican.
So it has turned it from being politicizing everything to everyone is going to be over-gerrymandered into a way that is really controlling yourself out of that. Yeah, your state will be controlled by a political party. And do you really want that? That's a whole nother question. Give me a call.
1-800-684-3110. And we do want to talk about, of course, when you talk about Gavin Newsom, you also got to talk about the work of the ACLJ. And we are out there fighting against Gavin Newsom right now. That's right. It seems like Gavin Newsom is doing all sorts of fun things out in California right now, trying to correct messes or go further into messes.
as he continues, one thing that we are fighting directly. Is they are still trying to enforce this is wild, everyone. You got to hear this because look, okay, it's not 2020 anymore. It's not 2021. It's not 2022.
We are actually quickly approaching 2026. Like it or not, believe it or not, six years since 2020 when everything, the whole world got turned upside down with the COVID pandemic. But six years since the start, and you could easily say a good four years since really the end at this point of like the major restrictions and the things that were going down happened for California lasted about a year and a half, two years that you had there. Of course, different states had different approaches, but they are still, Will, trying to collect on some debt. And that debt's coming from the church.
That's right. They are going after the tithes of the members of Calvary Chapel San Jose. In the tune of $1.2 million for violating the edicts of Gavin Newsom and San Jose when it comes to COVID restrictions. Yeah, whether there was gathering or mask rules or whatever it may be. And look, we understand at the time there was panic, there's everyone's going, there should have been a lot of real concern there.
Lots of people lost, everything lost their lives.
So we're not joking around about that. But the fact that we can't. Look at something six years later. And go, you know what? You know, we were all in a state of shock.
We were all dealing with very different ways to deal with things. Maybe that church. We could, you know, let them off a little bit, but instead, they're saying, no, pay up, give to your government. you know, what is owed to them plus And that is over a million dollars. And what is also crazy about this, too, is that the orders that they are alleging they didn't comply with.
Were later found to be unconstitutional.
So they are still fighting.
So much so, we have to take this to the Supreme Court of the United States, and we'll be filing that brief very soon. Our lawyers are hard at work on this to defend this church, Calvary Chapel San Jose, because the governor of California. In the city of San Jose, want to take the tithes and offerings of the members of that church to the tune of $1.2 million. Think about your church. If all of a sudden the government says, I know at a time when there's been SNAP benefit issues and there's been a housing crisis, That money that normally would go to the work of the church, God's work in the community, blessing your neighbors.
That's ours now. That's going to be the states to go to our budget deficits and all these sorts of things. We're able to do that, by the way, and represent that church at no cost. As well as all our clients, including that Jesus Club moment you heard about this week where they said you got to have that. We're going to have a big update on that in the next segment.
Again, you're going to like it. It's the end of Grandparents Week. This all happened last night, so I'm excited to share this news with you. But remember, none of that happens. No one gets representation.
Or a lot of them can't afford it, could never afford it. Without organizations like us here at the ACLJ who provide these legal help and lawyers, an incredible team. By the way, the best of the best, best young minds, best seasoned minds, people have been around forever, and brand new graduates who are just coming out of law school, who we're recruiting all the time, including an incredible media team as well, who come from all over. The spectrum in terms of media experience. It's really amazing the team we've been able to put together here at the ACLJ.
None of that happens without you. And as we wrap up this segment, I want to give you an opportunity to think about, pray about, and of course, if you feel moved to support the work of the ACLJ financially. And as our Freedom Drive, your gifts are doubled today. And as we wrap up Grandparents Week, as we not only celebrate our grandparents who are listening right now, the grandparents that want to impact future generations, like these students you're going to hear about in the next segment. Or Those who just want to do it in tribute to their grandparents and of course to the future.
With that. Make a donation today. Scan the QR card you see on the screen for watching. If you're listening, go to aclj.org or aclj.org slash freedom. Make your donation today and have your donations doubled.
It's really simple. We have somebody ready to match. Your gift. They're ready to unlock their pledge. Do it today.
Give me a sec. ACLJ. Mm-hmm. Welcome back to Sekulow Foamines are now completely jammed up. Thank you for calling.
We're going to do our best to get to a lot of those today. I did want to give a minute here if you're a supporter of the ACLJ. Of course, this is the end of Grandparents Week this week. Of course, we'll probably celebrate throughout the weekend online, but of course, on air. This is our last day on air until next Monday.
But I did want to say Thank you to all the grand champions. Thank you to all the grandparents. Thank you to all the parents. Thank you to everyone who prayed and prayed specifically for one of our clients who simply wanted to have a Jesus club. A Christian Club.
In her school.
Now, this has been an issue the ACLJ has been involved in for a very long time, and it should be very much settled law. It's gone to the Supreme Court of the United States over 30 years ago at this point. It is settled law. But of course you have people within administrations, within schools. want to do whatever they can to hamper down The rights of Christian students.
But the ACLJ team is there. They're there at no cost to the client because of people like you. And I'm very happy to report that just last night, The district this was their deadline, they had to. They had to answer yesterday and what was it going to be? And they just decided, hey, you know what?
Without any restrictions. Without the world religion clauses, without anything. The Jesus Club. has now been approved.
So after all of that We have an answer, and that answer is obviously an answer to prayer. As it is a big win, because no wins are small here. When you have a win for a student who simply wanted to talk about their faith with other Christians or kids that wanted to learn more about Christianity, of course, now we have this victory.
Now, it didn't come without a little pain. Didn't come without a lot of pushback. Didn't come without our legal team working hard. Hours and hours and hours spent all night for many days to make sure these students are protected throughout the world. But specifically this one, you got to see her face.
You get to hear from her making her pleas saying, I just want to simply have a Jesus club. And they're saying, no, it has to be a world religion club. Seeing all the people who are celebrating in the chat right now on YouTube. Yes, none of this happens. without you.
the ACLJ supporter, the ACLJ champion, the grand champion, if you will. It does not happen without you. And I'm really pleased when we're able to bring some of these to a quick close, because it shows you the work of the ACLJ where they get a letter from the ACLJ. They are going to take care of it and take very quickly.
Now, again, they may do it begrudgingly, they may do it not happily. But who do we what do we care? They did it, and it improved it. That's right. So today could have gone one or two ways for the ACLJ.
Either Victory Day or Lawsuit Day. Both are fun. Both are fun. Both are fun because we're prepared for both. But what we got today is Victory Day.
Last night, The club, the Jesus Club, at this school in New York was approved by the board to allow it to operate.
Now, the work of the ACLJ attorneys is not quite done because what are we going to do now? Make sure that they weren't just trying to make us go away. We have to watch. We have to make sure that it is treated equally under the law as every other club, as the law requires. But We sent that letter.
We gave them a deadline of yesterday. And sure enough, That happened to be the day. That they went ahead and approved the club for this student to be able to operate.
So we're gonna watch it. They're well into the school year now. We're mid-November, but we are thankful that this is an answer to prayer. For I know a lot of you, and many of you, I'm sure, have gone to aclj.org/slash pray and gotten that prayer guide that is special just for this grandparent celebration, the grandparent prayer guide. You don't have to be a grandparent.
If to pray, obviously, but even to use this prayer guide, our team does such a great job, puts such thought and hard work into it that it's really valuable for our team to know that people are praying alongside with us as we fight these battles. As this is breaking, I see some people saying, Well, I want to share this information, this news. I've been following it and sharing it with all my friends. We will have something up on the ACLJ social media channels probably right after this show is over, specifically, very quickly after to explain all of it. Of course, this just is happening, so we got to make sure our legal team is on board.
And I know that I have the draft of the announcement that will be posted that's going through, making sure there's no typos and issues with that before we post it because we want you to share it. Yeah, we want to make sure we shared it with you first. When this stuff happens, I don't want to wait. Especially now it's a Friday. I want to make sure this video gets to you, that you know that you made such an impact here on this family's life.
And I will tell you. You know, in this space that we work in, you know, obviously we have to do special things: grandparents' week, freedom drive, fundraising drives. You know what they tell me always? Because I always talk about, I want to talk about the amazing work the ACLJ does. Because these victories again would not happen without people like you and it would not happen without our credible legal team But sometimes the R team will say, you know what?
Our audience doesn't respond to victories. They respond to when there is an issue. And I understand that from a mental point of view, going... Look. I really care about this, but I care about it right now that you're in the middle of it.
Then once you have a success You want. What do you need me for?
Well, obviously, this is one in many. many challenges that we are fighting currently.
So I want you to take this victory. As a moment to celebrate, but hopefully a moment to motivate you that your work and your support of the ACLJ. Doesn't go to nothing. It doesn't go unnoticed. We're not taking cases and you're not hearing about them.
We are telling you right now, this was a win. Because we made an outcry to the media. Through our show, through other outlets. And of course, we threatened to take him to court, and we were ready. But it didn't have to get there.
And that is because we have incredible legal minds, incredible media teams. And we get these victories all the time. And I would love to share with you all the victories.
So, what I would encourage you to do, if you like the victories, if you like the fact that we are winning for you. and for the church and for Christians all over the world. I want you to support when there are also times of victory.
So right now, make your donation today. Have your gift doubled. I'm going to take some phone calls from people that give and already are supporting. And I'm going to kick it off with Deborah. Deborah is an ACLJ grand champion.
That's right. Grandparent and a champion. Double down. I love it. Deborah in Florida, you're on the air.
Hey, good afternoon. I am thrilled to speak to you. I've been a supporter for decades, and I am a grandparent now, and I didn't start as a grandparent, but I believe in what you're doing, and congratulations on all your successes. Thank you, Deborah. I would love for President Trump declare that we're going to have a nationwide A new one now.
without any You know Involvement of people that should not be included in the census so that the redistricting is absolutely accurate. I'm not sure when the next census is scheduled. It should be 2030.
So it should be, you know, we're halfway through. That's why this is a mid-decade redistrict.
So, Deborah, but honestly, the Labor and Statistics Bureau is probably already working on what that would look like. There's several presidencies that will have passed from the first one to the next one.
So a lot will depend on the administration that's in place. But. I don't know, and I'm not a census historian. Yeah, look, the census is a history.
So I can't say if anyone's ever called a special census. Other than maybe like King Herod in the Bible. Yeah. I remember that one. We're about to tell that story soon, I feel like.
Yeah. But if you look at. If you look at also, there's a lot of controversy around censusing. Right. So then there's those issues, so people have that as well.
So, you know what, Deborah? I do think there are probably ways for this. If the idea is people shouldn't be voting or engaged in ways because they are not here legally, in theory, that should be happening already. And that is the concern. The concern, though, of many censuses in the past have been.
The question is not: Are you an American citizen? It is, how many people are in your household?
So you write down five, you turn it in. And you don't know whether or not that, so then the representative is based off a population. Of it opens up an interesting door, Deborah. And I appreciate you calling. Number one, I really appreciate becoming a champion and being a grand champion.
I love also, you said you didn't even start necessarily even as a parent and supported them because you've been with us for a long time, probably at least 20 years, probably 25, 30 years. You went from not even a parent to a grand champion. It's the first half hour of the show. We're wrapping up. We have a second half hour coming up.
Some of you on local terrestrial radio don't get your second half hour, you should. Join us live each and every day, aclj.org. Do it right now, of course, on YouTube and Rumble Live and archived however you get your podcasts. We'll be back with Second F-Hour in less than a minute. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever.
This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Second half hour of Sekulow. Here we are, of course, the breaking news of the day is the Department of Justice, Pam Bondi's Department of Justice. has filed a lawsuit, starting to sue.
Gavin Newsome in the state of California over there redistricting. We got a lot of questions coming in about that. Let's clear, make sure Peter is good to go. If he's good to go, I want to go ahead and take his call. I want to kick this off a call.
Hey, by the way, phone lines are completely open after Peter.
So give me a call right now, 1-800-684-3110. I want to hear from you about this or any of the topics we've talked about this week or anything that's on your mind. If it's a little bit within our scope, we'll do our best to get to it today. 1-800-684-3110. And we are going to be joined by Jeff Balabon, head of ACLJ Jerusalem, ACLJ in Israel.
We have our office there. He's going to be joining us in the next segment to talk about, is he there now? He's back in New York currently.
Okay, but he was over in Poland.
So we're going to talk about that coming up in the next segment. But until then, I want to hear from you. And of course, we're going to wrap up the show. Always taking your calls and comments. Let's go to Peter in Virginia, who is an ACLJ champion, which I really appreciate.
Peter, go ahead. I appreciate what you guys do. Details between California and Texas. When Texas first talked about redistricting, My understanding is it was a fight about well the fourteenth, fifteenth Amendment, voters' right, all that. Is you can't make zones according to race.
So they said, and it used to be.
So we're just going to break it up. Then California seemingly comes along and says, we're going to make it about race. Do I have that correct? Do you know the details? Yeah, Peter, I'm going to kick this over to Will Haynes because Will knows all about redistricting.
You know all the details. You get deep diving in the minutia of the maps.
So the map that was drawn by Texas after the last Senate, census rather, and then adopted by their legislature was challenged in court. By people saying we think that these districts are illegal based off of the provisions that you mentioned, Peter. And it actually had a trial that it was going to fight over these districts in May of this year.
So it's been a court battle that's lasted for a while. As well as Harmeet Dillon, who is the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice lead, she sent a letter. She's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights to Texas saying. There's four districts that the DOJ has concerned may run afoul of the 14th Amendment as well as the Voting Rights Act because of race-based gerrymandering.
So what did they do? They called for a mid decade redistrict, and that's what the result is of this.
Now obviously, we know what happened with that. We know that the Democrats all fled the state. They tried to stop them from getting a quorum. Then they finally got it passed. California Peter, it sounds like, according to the allegations by the DOJ, not only were they going to say we're going to fight Texas by redistricting.
But the methodology they used indeed is what so many people would criticize Texas for doing. They found districts and did it based off of racial voting blocks that would favor The Democrats, which is illegal.
So that is what the DOJ is arguing. I have a feeling, especially with all these other states you're talking about, Maryland's talking about it. Indiana's talking about it. Florida has thrown it out there. You are going to see these cases be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court if they indeed all have these lawsuits.
There's going to have to be some sort of figuring this out, but also the details may be so different. It could be a really messy legal fight ahead. Hey, we only got a minute left in this segment. In our next segment, we're going to head to ACLJ Jerusalem, head of the ACLJ Jerusalem, Jeff Balabon, who will be joining us. I want to know in the chat if you're watching right now, of course, you can call in.
You know, things have been fairly quiet in terms of coverage. Of what's going on in Israel and Gaza. Of course, there was a ceasefire that kind of failed. It went back and forth. It's still going.
But you don't hear near as much about it in the news anymore. The topic seems to have quieted down here. But we know that's not the case necessarily around the world. Where are you right now? Because of course what we hear a lot more.
is about Americans and American conservatives and their lack of support. Of Israel and the Jewish people. Where do you stand right now? I want to hear from you. Put it in the chat if you're brave enough.
Put in the chat where you stand. And give me a call also at 1-800-684-3110. Again, We're going to have Jeff Balabon, ACLJ Jerusalem. We believe we need to be there, and there's our calling to be there as well. And thank you when you support the work of the ACLJ.
You also help support the ECLJ in Europe. and the ACLJ in Jerusalem. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. As we head into the final segment of the show after this, we want to take as many calls as we can at 1-800-684-30110.
We got four lines open for you right now. This is a perfect time to try to get on the air, and we will do our best to get to as many of you as you can. Of course, if you're an ACLJ champion, I'll make sure to tell our phone screeners because I get to bump you up to the front, which I always like to do that when I can. It's a nice little perk we can offer for those who call in and support on a monthly basis. Of course, if you decide to become a champion today, you can do that too.
And your first donation will be doubled during our Freedom Drive. And as we are wrapping up Grandparents Week, as we celebrate not only our grandparents, if you're a grandparent who is a supporter, we celebrate you. And hopefully, if you're a grandparent, you are wanting to support the future of our country. And you do that by supporting the work of the ACLJ. Jeff Balabon's joining us from ACLJ Jerusalem.
Jeff, you know, I just did a little informal poll on our social media page just saying, hey, now that Israel Israel is not really the number one story that's in the news. Sadly, a lot of the anti-Semitic rhetoric coming from the right is what's in the news when it comes to talking about these topics. Is it still something that you care about? Do you still something you support? I'm always a little nervous.
You're getting a little trepidatious when you start hearing some of these voices start talking negatively about the Jewish people and then conversely about Israel as well.
Well, what I can say is I'm very thankful to see the members of our chat are very brave and they are stepping up and still speaking out in their support for Israel. I don't even see anyone on the other way saying it. Of course, I get some of those in my private messages, maybe more so than ever, unfortunately. But here we are. We still have people who are definitely willing to stand up and speak out.
And I know you're just at an event all about that. Yeah, actually, I'm here in New York where I had some meetings at the UN, but before that I was in Poland, gone there from Israel, where there's a group of Jews from around Europe and legislators from around Europe.
Some were Jewish, most were not, but they represented Jewish constituencies. And some were just concerned because, you know, European Jews really still in living memory. They're still Holocaust survivors. They remember when their cultures, which were Western, Christian, modern, civilized cultures, It seemed like overnight they turned into this barbarism and literally they put their Jews into gas chambers and ovens. And then those cultures themselves really.
Never fully recovered. And so their concern and what's fascinating is Jews in Israel have always been concerned about Jews in Europe. Jews in America have always been concerned about Jews in Europe and Israel.
Now Jews everywhere are concerned about Jews everywhere. Jews in Israel and in Europe are deeply concerned about American Jews. Because American and Thank God for the support of ACLJ supporters. Thank God for the work ACLJ does, not just in terms of the political work and diplomatic work and legal work, but this work of bringing this information to so many Americans so that they understand. Listen, in Washington, D.C.
itself, where God willing I'll be next week, and there are emergency meetings about this. What I notice is even people. who are not bad people. They're good people, but they're distracted by other things and they're getting sort of annoyed and frustrated that this is even an issue. But it is a real issue.
It's absolutely a real issue, and it's one that I feel like we're seeing even more and more so in this country. And I'm glad to hear in some ways that there is that sort of universal support. Because, look, for the Jewish people in America right now, especially if you're on social media on that, if you're willing to take the risk and say anything, I mean, my inbox will fill up if I have the most benign post. You know, if I share a story from an October 7th survivor, if I share something that's just, again, very generically, you know, pro-even just a pro-Jewish post. I've posted that story from Dave Portnoy, where someone just yelled at him at Mississippi State.
He was out there doing a pizza review, and someone came up to him and started screaming anti-Semitic rhetoric at him and talking. And he talked just about, hey, this didn't used to be how it was. I got a lot of people who hated me, but I didn't get a lot of people who were hating me because I was Jewish. I shared that. The amount of messages I got from seemingly good people.
Saying, well, yeah, but that's your fault, kind of, or that's Israel's fault. That's not, you know, you shouldn't be blaming the kid who is screaming. I mean, it's gotten to the point of this is the absurdity, and like you said, from seemingly decent, normal people. What can it do? There's a saying that's been saying for I don't know how many centuries that Jews are the canary in the coal mine.
What does it mean? It means coal miners to know if there are gases that might kill them used to bring little caged canaries because they were very small and they died very quickly from the gases.
So the idea is that the first, when a culture starts going after its Jews, it's a sign that the whole culture is about to collapse. And we've seen this literally those who know Bible, those who know history, this has been going on for thousands of years. And for many, many decades, you know, or for many years rather, Christians have been saying, what are you worried about? Don't you know that every culture that attacks the Jews or destroys the Jews, they get destroyed? And the answer is, I, first of all, I'm worried about those cultures, but second of all, I'm also worried about the millions of Jews get killed in between.
So if you listen to what's going on now, all these groups on the left, on the right, wherever they're from, they're all saying one thing. They're saying Judeo-Christian, the idea which was literally the founding brilliance and beauty of the United States of America. The founding fathers quoted the Bible more than any other document. And they quoted the entire Bible. They didn't say we're jettisoning half the Bible.
And they consciously modeled themselves this nation. After the Jewish people. And now they're saying, oh, Judeo-Christianity is a lie. It's a blasphemy, it's satanic. And that's what we're hearing.
So it's important to understand the war on the Jews now. is a war on everything America was founded to be. And there are a lot of good people who call themselves Christian nationalists, but there are a lot of people, just like they say they're liberals and not really liberal. They say they're Christian, they're really pagan. They say they're nationalists and they're really talking about they're trying to divide us into tribes.
And the greatness that we should learn from Jewish history, from American history, from world history, is that the only way through this is to be united with respect and love for each other, even if we disagree, not to fight each other with hate, which is I'm terrified I'm seeing more and more in America.
Well, and Jeff, one of the other concerns that we're seeing as it's normalized, as it's platformed in the United States and on the right in a way that we've not seen before, the right used to be very good about shutting down People that may agree with them ideology-wise on a lot of issues, but not on that, of being able to say, you are not a part of us. This is not a part of our movement.
Now it's being platformed and normalized. And I think I want to point back to what you said about the Judeo-Christian values and the way that they are deciding to. ignore half of of scripture. Uh the ordained word of God, and to fit their narrative. Which is a Christian nationalistic type narrative instead of a Christian faith in Christ narrative.
And even this comment this week, where being able to push back at People that were considered heroes, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, where Tucker Carlson said this week that he abandoned Christianity, it wasn't enough he had to kill Hitler instead. Why not? That completely forgets everything in the Old Testament about just wars and fighting those that wanted to kill God's people. But if you lay that aside, that trying to adopt this model that if you are against Hitler, you can also not be living out your Christian faith. Is the absurd world we're living in now.
And I reject that wholeheartedly. I know a lot of our audience does, but I think it's why a lot of people that aren't in the weeds on this or follow this closely and are afraid to. To listen to it, the content, to consume this content, or to even speak out about it, because now people are starting to question your Christian faith. And you go back to the canary in the coal mine. They're redefining what your faith is in real time over this issue.
Listen, I America is the most blessed, really the most blessed nation ever created by humans coming together. I think it's because they modeled it after the Jewish people, which God, I'm not talking about the state of Israel, I'm talking about the Jewish people for thousands of years, which God said, Abraham, in our teaching, in the Jewish teaching, is: I love that you're spreading the word of my existence through love. We don't believe he necessarily was the first monotheist, something he was, he said he taught about love him. If God is our father, and Jews believe this, and Christians believe this, and others believe this, if God is our father, here's what I know as a father. It's even less important how we treat God than how we treat our siblings because parents want our children to love each other.
And America was that. America was about uniting. And we have to go back to that. And a positive message of love and unity is the only way to fight this, not anger, not hate, because what you're talking about, well, you're right. This is the end if it doesn't turn around.
And it can't turn around by hating each other and fighting each other.
So we need prayer. We need unity. And yes, we do have to work through all the other instrumentalities that ACLJ works through. The law, policy, diplomacy, but obviously also faith. And then obviously getting the message out there.
It's one thing that's very important. There's very few media organizations, media outlets that are willing to take this step. And look, I've been happy to see some of them have stepped up, or at least some have not stepped in the way of censoring some of their commentators, which has been nice. I mean, heck, I saw some great clips weirdly from Van Jones. I saw great clips from our friend Jared Moskowitz and Bill Maher and people who maybe a few years ago, you never expect to be the people you're sitting there nodding your head to agreeing to.
But at least on this one issue, they don't forget where all of this stemmed from, as you said. With that, Jeff, and I appreciate you chiming in today and getting really everyone an update because it is very important as we head into this last segment that you understand the global work of the ACLJ and why it's important. We have Jeff Balabon. We have the ACLJ. Jerusalem.
That is an incredibly important team that I'm excited that hopefully we'll see even expand further. in the coming years. And with your support, we will. Of course, you heard earlier this week from Greg Gore at our European Center for Law and Justice, and you may be going, why is that important again? All of this is our brothers and sisters, whether you're Christian, whether you're Jewish, whoever it may be, people that just want to see basic freedoms, religious freedoms, freedom of speech, all of that be available.
Around the world and we have an incredible team ready to do that. and it doesn't happen without your support at ACLJ.
So do it today. Make your donation. Have it doubled today at ACLJ. Of course, this is the last day of our grandparents' drive, our grandparents' week.
So celebrate your grandparents in your life. Do it today. I'm sure they are supportive of Israel. A lot of great Jewish grandparents out there will. Go to aclj.org.
All right, last segment of the day. We do have four lines that have been opened up: 1-800-684-3110. You can call in right now to have your voice heard. If you ever wanted to be on the radio, this is the chance to do it. You know, that's a safe thing to tell people.
It's Friday. It's Friday. Let's see what happens. We have a dump button ready just in case.
So, you know what? Let's go ahead and take one of these calls. Let's go to Karen. It's in Pennsylvania, listening on the radio. Karen, go ahead.
Hey, hi, you guys are great. Watch listen to you all the time. I am a Trump supporting federal employee. Finally, going to get a paycheck. Thanks guys.
Congratulations. Yeah, question is. Do you think that there is any hope? hopefully and hope and hopeful. that they will end the filibuster.
Oh.
So, Karen, it's a very complicated issue. And here's the with consequences. The consequences. I personally am not in favor of ending the filibuster, and I'll tell you why. Because they push Republicans into a corner.
So if Republicans had ended the filibuster. to reopen the government. That would have been the most moderate reason to end it, right? They will use it. to force every Far left radical bill through and get it signed when they have control of both houses and the presidency.
Which the Republicans would have to use it. Only to get the government reopened.
So we would then be setting the precedent for them to go as far left as they want and just completely burn through it. And they will do it.
So personally, I think of the consequences.
Now, The consequences in real time of why it wasn't ended were people like you, Karen, not getting a paycheck, looking at the havoc it was having on people that rely on things like snap benefits. That is a real consequence of still having the filibuster.
So it's a tough one. But I think long term. I think it would be bad to end it. Short term, I see the benefit of, yeah, if they aren't going to come to the table and they're going to hold the American people and the American government hostage over a health care subsidy that was meant to be temporary. That was only put in place to cover the COVID era.
And then you're seeing not conservative reporting by sources like Bloomberg about how much fraud went into that extension because of how many people were never even aware that they were signed up for that extra subsidy. That yeah, it was time for it to go.
So it wasn't even like Republicans were gutting healthcare in America. It did nothing to the original ACA.
So they twist it and they spin it. To make it seem like Republicans are bad when all they were trying to do is make sure Karen gets a paycheck, the flights are safe in land. And that people that rely on government assistance get it, that the FDA can approve food to keep your food safe. That is what the Democrats were doing by holding the government hostage for the longest government shutdown in our history. I hope they never do it again, but I bet they will.
Very sneaky, sis. Let's go to John, who's calling in Maryland on line one. Hey. Let's try to get phone screeners. Let's try to get some of these calls screened a little bit faster here so we can try to get to a couple more today.
John, go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I recently heard on Mark Levin's show, he interviewed a guy who wrote a book called Hostage. He was a Jewish hostage. And he said the scariest part for him was actually the civilians in Palestine. And the Palestinians, you know, that of course at first my heart went out to them.
I felt bad that all the children that were dying and all. But he said they were even the terrorists. Worried about. They kept moving him around because they wanted to lynch them. They wanted to go into the mosque and just grab him and take them out.
He said the worst part was the starvation. 500 and some days he was held hostage. Yeah, John, of course. You know, when you have indoctrination to an extreme extent, that's what happens, and sadly. Uh a lot of Palestinian people.
Who were not who've been raised in the last 20 or 30 years, 40 years, maybe more so. have been raised not only to dislike their neighbors, uh but to wish them dead. And it's unfortunate, but it's just the truth. And you're right. The news may not want to cover that.
They may not want to say that. I hate that that is actually the argument. Of course, your heart goes out to anyone who's suffering, including, of course, the children and Gaza and everything they have. And no one wanted to see that footage. No one wanted to see that kind of mass destruction.
But I will tell you that it's not everyone.
So I don't want to say blanketly, there's definitely Christians in those regions and all of that, but there is an undercurrent. That is within the society in the Palestinian areas, which is to hate their neighbors. and just see them dead. And it's um it's just a sad reality. And it's something that in the Western world, it's kind of hard for us to get our head wrapped around because it's so un-American.
It's so you know, it's not even European in its basis. It is a strictly kind of Middle Eastern issue. That's right. And also the Middle East, but he mentioned about the mainstream media, the compassion for the hostages. Remember, Christine Amanpour, when she said something to the effect of, well, the hostages are treated better than the normal Gazan citizens.
That was the mindset of the mainstream media, as well as you mentioned the Americans can't really get our heads around it. The There are children that are indoctrinated. that when security forces before the Israelis even left the first time and Hamas took over, they would go through towns patrolling, looking for terrorists with IEDs, suicide vests, et cetera, and 12-year-old children would jump out with an AK-47 and be shooting at them.
So it is something that we cannot understand as Americans, what goes on over there. And you can hate war. without becoming an anti-Semite. And I think that is what is lost on Americans right now. You can hate the idea of war, but also understand that they are fighting for their very survival.
Disagree with the decisions of the Netanyahu regime. There are ways to do that without also bringing in your hatred for a people group. Let's go to Brenda in New York online for Brenda. You're on the air. Yes, hi.
First of all, it's great what you're doing, and I pray for you all the time. Thank you so much. I just wanted to say that there's a video going around on YouTube. It's called Are the Jews the Chosen People? And it's very disturbing, and it's turning a lot of even Christians against the Jews.
Brenda, I'm telling you, I'm only cutting you off because we only got two minutes left. It is what my inbox is filled with right now. And here's what I'll tell you. You can have a debate about the religious nature of the Jewish people and the Christian people and how we interact and who gets grafted in and how that all works. But I will tell you, it's pretty simple to understand that I don't know, that first half of that book, God spoke through a very specific group of people.
Right. Uh that's undeniable.
So if you are to believe in the Bible, you can at least say God chose a people to believe. to talk through, to get his message through. And to bring his savior to the world. And to bring saving the world. And that is the Jewish people.
So you know what? It is the most ridiculous thing ever. You can talk about what it looks like in a post-Jesus world and what that means theologically. And of course, we're going to all probably have different things on that. But if you want to look from a historical standpoint, which why I've said you got to visit Israel.
You got to see this. You got to be there in person and feel it because you don't really get it until you've walked in the land.
Now, it's not an easy time, I understand, to do that. But I am hopeful and I am prayerful that one day we'll be able to take a whole other group of you guys with us and you'll be able to see it for yourselves. And I'm hoping that's sooner than later. And with that, look, unfortunately, Lori and James, I want to thank you for both calling. We're not going to be able to get to you today.
Call me back next week and we'll do our best to get to you. But thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it. With that, we got one minute left. It is the last day on air for our Grandparents Week.
Celebrate the grandparents in your life, whether they're still with us or whether they've gone on. Or if you're a grandparent, a future grandparent, a great-grandparent. You want to make sure your country Is still here and still ready, and there's people who are there to support your beliefs and your values. And the ACLJ, we're not going anywhere. We've been here for 35 years, it's gonna keep going strong as long as people like you Keep supporting the work of the ACLJ.
Grandparents are a big part of our organization's donations. We know that's when people really feel like they have the financial resources to do it. A lot of times, it's when they're older. They're able to do it. We know that.
So if you can... We want to celebrate you. Go to ACLJ. .org, thank you for the big wins that came out this week. Without your generosity, we can't take on those kind of cases.
And we want to make sure we have many, many more victories in the future for you, your grandkids, and beyond.
