Congress heads home early with only forty six days until the midterms. 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.
Met now your host. Welcome to Sekulow and Happy Friday to you all. I'm Will Haynes, and we're going to be talking about the fact that Congress is out of session. They have been sent home early as they all will be campaigning to keep their jobs in the House of Representatives, as we are only 46 days away from the midterm elections.
Now, this isn't that early. They would be going home soon anyways, but Speaker Johnson decided to adjourn the House a little early because, surprise, surprise, Thomas Massey decided he would try to have one last shot at relevancy before he drifts off into obscurity without a job in the House anymore, where he introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for what he said are waging unconstitutional military operations in Iran and Yemen. But that, as it were, would eat up time that is pointless.
So the Speaker of the House decided, let's just go home early.
Now, there are some that aren't happy about that. There are members of Congress like Representative Ralph Norman from South Carolina saying canceling yet another day of votes is unacceptable. Goes on to how many days they've not been voting and that the founders didn't envision taking this much time off and still getting paid, et cetera, et cetera. This is kind of where the country is around Congress on both sides, though, is that there is so much obstructionism between the opposite party and so many times, even within the own party, that they can't get an agenda through because they can't agree about what an agenda is. And that's what we're seeing here.
And the Republicans in the House have had a little bit harder time coalescing than those on the left, mainly because there are much more broad spectrum of ideas within the Republican Party.
So you end up with people who were Republicans, like Thomas Mass. Who seems to disagree with everything that the Republican Party is trying to get done in Congress, and it becomes obstructionism in its own party. But in 46 days, the country will decide about who controls Congress. And then at the beginning of the year, in January, that will be one. uh the mark of a new Congress and we'll see who is in charge.
But we also will see the second half of the Trump administration. It's half over, folks. That's wild that we have gotten here so quickly with all that has gone on. But today we're going to also talk about a lot of the work of the ACLJ. Because I won't beleaguer you with just talk of Congress, a very polarizing subject.
They always say that people when asked polling questions despise the institution of Congress. They say, ah, it's broken, nothing's getting done. But they tend to really like their own member of Congress.
So when you see opinion polls that Congress isn't working, it's the lowest rated American institution when it comes to favorability. It's not always like they just are going to throw everyone out. Voters tend to vote for their incumbent, who they like. They typically like that person to remain representing them.
So we'll see what happens in November. We'll see what the balance of power shakes out, and we'll see what that agenda looks like for the President of the United States in the second half of his presidency. But today, we also want to show a lot of the work that we have done this week and showcase throughout the week from the ACLJ, whether it be victories for our clients in Colorado, where pastors and churches can continue their ministry. By reaching a good settlement with the city in Colorado. or whether it be victories for clients in Pakistan.
Or whether it be topics like what's going on in pop culture with McIlmore and his cancellation, yet everywhere you see him being more popular than ever. Due to his Support of the Palestinian cause despite his racist trope pasts. But You can support the work of the ACLJ. You can support this broadcast. You can support the legal work that you're going to hear about coming up in the next segment by going to aclj.org and donating today.
Every dollar counts. No gift is too small. ACLJ.org, give today. You just saw a bit of a flashback if you're watching online. By the way, you should be watching online.
It's a great place to interact with the show. There's a great chat feature. If you're on YouTube or on Rumble, you can get involved that way. But also, you get to see us, which is always nice. You see our pretty face as well.
Along with that, during the commercial breaks, you get special video presentations our team put together. We just flashed back to earlier this year with one of our lawyers, Garrett Taylor, who led this. You can actually read what he wrote on our website right now. If you go to aclj.org, you can see the article about this case.
So you can go to that and really get more of a deep dive on the history of this case. Again, it's been a little over a year of working. We've been talking about it for nearly a year. And the ACLJ again stood alongside these pastors and church members to make sure that they were able to still practice not just again having a church service or something like this. This was an outreach to people in need.
That was being shut down. The city's saying you can do a lot of things in the public park, helping people. Nah, that's not one of'em. But The ACLJ was able to work hard and work with them, by the way, too, to get what is really a victory for our clients, to continue again this ministry to people who are in need. And specifically to people.
Who are homeless and that really could use the support of the church? It's what the church is called to do. And now that we were headed towards discovery in the lawsuit phase, we were able to create a settlement, work together, our ACLJ lawyers and this team to really develop a collaborative effort to make sure that sort of this newly proposed language protects everyone. And it's really, again, a big moment. It took months.
It took months of our team working hard on this. And again, what this does is it of course it affects the local community there. In Colorado, but it also starts building precedent for what we can take around the country if needed.
Well, and once again, I want to point this out because of the hard work of our team. The criminal citations that were issued to pastors and church members that were using the park for their ministry. They were issued on September 18th of 2025. We were able to Uh receive the client. Fight back, get the criminal charges dropped, as well as file a federal lawsuit and get a settlement.
In less than a year. That for the work of the speed of things is remarkable because going through the court system, as you all know, if you watch this broadcast, takes a long time sometimes.
So, just even that, three days shy of a year, and we're talking about the repealing of the ordinance that happened last night and replacement with something new. That is remarkably quick. Because also, we mentioned we were able to come to this settlement. There was positive outreach from the city as we neared this discovery phase. And we had multiple Potential resolutions in conferences, and then developed this collaborative effort among the parties that crafted this new proposed ordinance that would replace the old one.
This, going into the discovery phase, takes a lot of man hours. It takes a lot of interviews, depositions, as well as documents going through all of that. That was about to be a big chunk of even our attorney's time moving forward towards the end of this year as this lawsuit progressed.
So, not only are we able to get this for our clients, and everyone is happy in Colorado as they are able to continue their ministry as well as the city is able to still have restrictions that they deem to be safety for the parties. But we pointed out in our lawsuit, Logan, that it wasn't just the old ordinance, it was not. Broad for the safety of everyone, it was specifically targeting those that, in the way it was being applied, were religious groups. Ministry work. That's right.
That was what was being targeted. And remember, I need to clarify: you know, we're here celebrating this, but look, this may be happening in your hometown, it may be happening to you. Remember that the ACLJ team is there for you. at no cost. Remember, no bill was ever sent to these pastors.
Or to this church. That's not how this works here. Thankfully, people like you support the work of the ACLJ. And because you do that, we're able to represent all of these amazing clients that need our help for absolutely no cost. And by the way, those clients one day may be you, and maybe it could be you right now.
And you may be watching this going, I think this is happening to me. Maybe you thought you were helpless or hopeless and you didn't think it was worthwhile.
Well, you know what? There's a real easy way. You should go to aclj.org/slash help, fill out a simple, like just survey, a couple quick questions. If it's within the scope of the work here at the ACLJ, Religious freedom matters. Of course, constitutional crises that may be occurring.
We'll jump into action. We get a team of lawyers on it immediately. You get attached to a lawyer. Pretty much immediately, and told whether or not this is something the ACLJ can do. And if it is, we jump into action.
The legal system moves slow. This is one of the faster ones, and it was nearly a year.
So you got to remember that.
So if you feel like this is happening to you, don't wait. Jump in now, call ACLJ or get involved aclj. You can go on aclj.org/slash help and be a part of this big movement that is happening because we can get things done. We can get things done that again, you may go, This is small potatoes. This is looking at what's happening here in Colorado.
This is a public park in Colorado in this one community. Who cares? Who cares? Obviously, the people of this community. Who they're ministering to.
People that need food. People that need supplies. People that are struggling. People that need Jesus. Who does it also affect?
Obviously, the pastors, the churches, the people who run the ministry. And inevitably, the wake goes beyond them and it gets to you.
Somewhere in this country, this is happening somewhere else, and we need to know about it. That's why the ACLJ team is continually fighting for this. It means nearly a year of fighting for these Colorado churches, again, cited for so many different things, including just worshiping in the park. But we have new language. The ACLJ team was able to work.
That's also the truth here, too. Guilla would be a lot better. For a lot of organizations like ours, say, we're not going to settle. We're going to take this thing all the way. We're going to battle it out in the court system.
We're going to make sure that we squeeze every second out of this. But that is not what our team does here. We go for the win. We go for what's the victory for the client. And that may take two days, it may take two years, it may take 20 years.
But we're not going to do this. Because the organization decides, oh, we think it's better for us in fundraising to stretch this out over years and years and years. There are cases that go years and years. Trust me, I would much rather have our team be able to move on. And thankfully, we're able to find some common sense with some people here in Colorado, work with them, rework this language to make sure that our clients are represented fairly.
That's right. And that's exactly what you see here. When you look at the lawsuit, and I encourage everyone to go read on aclj.org. Garrett Taylor, who really did a great job on this, was able to work with the city and able to come to this agreement. But as we said, it's up that ACLJ.org has a lot of other information, which actually can help, as you were talking about, other people that may be in situations like this.
That when they read the things about, you know, this ordinance was, we challenged it in the lawsuit on vagueness and overbreadth, not narrowly tailored, religious targeting, viewpoint discrimination. When you read the descriptions of that, you may think, oh, that's exactly what I've seen happening in my own town with this ordinance or with my church group. Because this isn't. A novel thing that happened here in Colorado. This is something that city councils and local governments do across the country, and you have to challenge it when it is discriminating against one group.
And that's what we challenged here. And as you mentioned, he was able to then work with the city council, not only to repeal that ordinance that was bad law that was affecting our client, but also to make something stronger for everyone. And so that's where they've passed a new ordinance that is able to govern the city parks, the usage of city parks.
So it doesn't completely hamstring the city to be able to protect its citizens, but it also isn't targeting the church members that are using the public facilities that anyone has access to to conduct their ministry. And so it's a very important balance that you see around the country. But when the government decides. We're sending police officers. We're going to criminally cite people for their involvement in ministry.
That's when it goes too far. And sometimes it may even be that the ordinance never had that intended effect, that it wasn't like you had members of city council sitting around thinking, we're really going to get those church groups. But then that's how, in practicality, it plays out with the police and the way it's enforced. We can work together sometimes. And that's what you saw here in Colorado.
I do think it is important, once again. We talk about it. This was done in under a year. We really started the representation back in February. It also takes people that realize my rights are being violated to contact a group like the ACLJ.
Sometimes, as you say, it's easier for a church to be like, just go to a different place. Yeah, it's not worth it.
Sometimes we need a wake-up call. And hopefully this show can be one of those for you today. I encourage you, if you feel like you're so moved to support the work of the ACLJ, it's a great time to do it. Go to aclj.org right now. And if you can make a donation, I'll just earmark today as those of you who are reaching out specifically because.
of people like this when these you know victories for our clients can happen. And you, you know, a lot of times they tell me the fundraising groups, you know, that we work with, our team here that does a lot of that, they go, you know, Logan, sometimes victories, sometimes successes. They don't always, you know, move the needle, if you will. And I always say, I got it, we got to celebrate. We gotta celebrate when the ACLJ team does incredible work.
So Celebrate with us today. If you can support support financially, if you just want to call in. Say a thanks or a prayer to our team. To these churches. I see former members of these churches in the chat.
Give me a call at 1-800-68-431-10. 1-800-684-3110. I'll take calls in the next segment. We're also going to give you a little bit of the news of the day of what's going on around the world. But I had to start off.
With this great news. We'll be right back. Before we get to some of the news of the day that we want to hit you with, there's also another. Victory, the ACLJ team was able to secure, and this is one that happens worldwide. You know, I wanted to hit domestic front first because I think that those who connect with you on a personal level, maybe you've been involved in one of these ministries to these communities that are in need in your local area.
You can feel it, you can connect with it.
Sometimes we take things overseas, and I'll be honest, that I feel like some of it gets, if you want to say, you know, quote-unquote, lost in translation, because it's hard to imagine what the world is like for Christians in different nations that don't respect. your religious beliefs or religious freedom like we do here in America. But now I want the ACLJ world to go a little bit beyond. What we do here in this country. Because, well, we have another success to report.
That's right. And when you look at these cases, sometimes it seems almost hopeless, but we fight very hard and we get results in places even like Pakistan. This is the case of a now 19-year-old Christian in Pakistan, Zubayem Masih. And when Zubayim was arrested, he was 17 years old. He and four other Christians around his age were arrested in September of 2024.
And they use these blasphemy laws that Pakistan has on the books still. And they use them to persecute Christians, local places especially. And their crime was publicly sharing their faith in Pakistan. According to the police complaint, one bystander filed with the police that they were offended because a young woman in the group, so not even our client, used a loudspeaker to preach that salvation comes only through Christ.
So the core tenet of the gospel. And that was an offensive message to the individual that reported it. And they also said it hurt the religious feelings of other Muslims nearby. We represented this individual and are pleased to announce today, and I got this very early in the morning, that our client, Zubayim Masi, and the other four co-defendants. We're all acquitted.
In that blasphemy charge today, at the hearing, our team briefed the new judge. There was a new judge on this case. And this judge acquitted everyone, including the defendants that weren't our clients.
So our team was able to get victory, not just for our client that we weren't representing. But all the others as well, because at the end of the day, we will fight for religious liberty. all around the world. And we know that in places like Pakistan, it can be hard. But if we are there and we are on the ground and we are fighting, we can get victories like this.
The judge, Mohammad Nasrallah, I don't believe was siding with the individuals because he's a Christian himself. Right. It is because our team was able to present the facts and the law and get them acquitted of these laws that shouldn't exist. Blasphemy laws should not exist. We still have other clients that we are fighting hard for as well.
Some are on death row for very similar type charges. These were not facing the death penalty, fortunately, but we were able to get them acquitted completely. And that is such a wonderful victory to share today. These are the real issues that are happening around the world. And this is why our team is so important.
You know, we're able to get lost sometimes in the news of the day here in the United States of America, and sometimes it feels trivial. But again. I come to you with these victories. That our team is able to produce because of one, the hand of God, and because of people like you. And again, I'll be honest, and I'm not just saying this, by the way.
I could probably show you an endless supply of calls and emails and meetings where. You know, the fundraising groups that the fundraising committee kind of we work here with and that we work on, they'll tell you that these, we're putting out an email, whatever it is. Our audience doesn't seem to respond when we tell you about these victories. I want you today to prove them wrong. I encourage you to go to aclj.org and make a donation of any kind.
That could be $5. I don't care. I want to see the number of donations skyrocket today. Because of this victory.
So maybe you already gave your $75, whatever it may be. Maybe you're already an ACLJ champion who gives. It could be five bucks. Just so I can go back and say, listen. R Viewers Our supporters care about these victories.
They want to know about them. They want to be updated with them because I. Love sharing them with you. It's the fun part of the job, if you will. We can get caught up in the deep and the dark and the disturbing.
And look, plenty of days for that. It's not like we're living in a world where that doesn't happen every day. But there are some times where we can Take a moment. Praise God and say thank you for what we've been able to accomplish here at the ACLJ. And that's what we've done in the last 25 minutes of this show.
That's it. The only last 25 minutes. And we've got other news to cover. Rick Rinnell's going to be joining us. We've got a lot more, but we've just given you two senses of what could be quote-unquote victories.
And really, it's funny to kind of even say that because it's. things that never should have happened in the first place. A Christian Mission essentially. being shut down from helping people in need in their community, feeding People are homeless. All of these kind of things.
And then in Pakistan, someone who's just talking about their faith witnessing. Because again, we have to put in perspective what religious persecution is worldwide and how it is different than what is in America. In America, you may have a ministry shut down and we're able to actually come up with a settlement, work with the city to figure this out, work with a county to figure this out, or a state or a government. There's some rationale here. In these situations in Pakistan or over the world, you may not be able to get there.
But thankfully, this time we were. And once again, why is it important also when you give to the ACLJ to continue these fights? Because the fights aren't over in Pakistan. This is a great victory to celebrate, but we have many other clients that still are on some on death row. because of the very same charges, the very same laws that are on the books there.
And we have to take that lawfare fight because that's what they're using. They're using the law to persecute Christians in Pakistan. We have to take the fight there. To make sure that it doesn't keep Coming and encroaching here at home. We fight for those at home, which there is.
These are both equally great victories for people, but the persecution that we see in the United States. Thankfully. is not at the level of putting you in prison or on death row for sharing your faith. Yet But when you start to see what's happening in Europe Where they're not calling it blasphemy laws because there's not a state religion there that's saying you're offending our religion. But they are going after free speech in the UK, in France, in many of these places.
That are Western that that believe in the freedom of speech and religion on paper. But if you don't fight where it's happening, where it's so blatant. Blasphemy laws. When they start targeting your speech or your beliefs in Western countries, Countries, friendly countries, it creeps. Over the ocean back home.
So we can't just let a city ordinance stand. If it violates the Constitution and the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, just like we can't let a blasphemy law in Pakistan stand because it is unjust and violates humanity.
So we are going to go, whether it's Pakistan or here, and continue that fight. Yeah, around the world, the ACLJ continues on.
Now, listen, in the next half hour, we do have a show, by the way, that continues on for the next half hour. Hey, do we have phone lines open? And they've been listening very closely, been watching very intently. But I want to hear from you. I know we haven't really given you an option to call in today very much because I haven't really posed this, but we are going to address.
The Supreme Court of the United States. has made their decision on the mainland balloting situation.
Some of you may not be too thrilled. We're going to continue that conversation in the next half hour. Give me a call. You want to talk about it, 1-800-684-3110. Rick Rinnell's going to be joining us.
But again, we have a second half hour of the show. I want you to be a part of that second half hour. Find us broadcasting live on aclj.org, Facebook, YouTube, Rumble. We're there live, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time, each and every day.
Of course, archived on however you get your podcast immediately following the show. And we'll be right back. Second half hour coming up. And this is our shortest break.
So give me a call. Less than a minute. be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged.
Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Second half hour coming up.
Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us in just a few minutes. Will Haynes is in the studio. I had someone who sent me a post on X yesterday and said, Hey, I love your show, but I love it. More when Rick is on.
So, you know what? I'll make sure we tell Rick that. But phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. We have spent the last half hour talking about two big celebrations here at the ACLJ. But now I think we need to adjust a little bit.
I know Will's going to break it down coming up a little bit longer, but there has been some movement. from the United States Supreme Court.
Some of you are going to like this or not going to like this. Let's just be honest. We know somewhere where our audience stands on this, but of course, this has to do with the mail-in ballot. Situation.
So maybe we just hit them with the, you know, do you want the good news, the bad news first kind of situation? And it kind of depends on your point of view.
Well, what happened yesterday is after an earlier attempt to block this was overturned, a stay was granted by the Supreme Court a few weeks ago, and we talked about that.
Now an application for stay has been denied by the Supreme Court.
So what happened here is a group of states sued the administration for the new rule that after an executive order, the Postal Service created a new rule. It went through the rulemaking process, which takes a while sometimes. And then they published the final rule. Which would have all these new Regulations, if it were, about how to conduct mail-in balloting. It has to be have a barcode on it.
It has to be able to check citizenship from states. There's several different things to try and strengthen the mail-in ballot process. Not to get rid of it, but to make sure that it is less vulnerable to cheating, as that was the goal of the President. What happened here is that the Supreme Court. Was asked to stay the injunction of the lower court by the government.
And the. That was denied by the Supreme Court. At the end of the day, it was presented to Justice Jackson as these stays are: emergency stays. And it was denied by her and to the court. She referred it to the broader court, which means they had to get five justices to agree.
To either Grant the stay or to reject it. We see here that Justice Kavanaugh is on record concurring with the court's opinion that there will not be a stay granted here to the government to allow this rule to move forward for the midterm. And Justice Kavanaugh's rationale was that he believes The rule, at least based off the briefing, is within the Scope of what the Postal Service can do.
However, the timing, because of the Administrative Procedures Act, for this upcoming midterms election, is not viable.
So, therefore, he denied the application for stay with the majority. There were only two that dissented on record that we know of, and that is Justice Alito joined by Justice Thomas, who would have granted the stay, allowing this rule to go forward in the midterm.
So, as it stands right now, this rule will not be implemented in the midterms. This has nothing to do with the merits of the case on whether this rule will last. Let's just be honest: this is a loss for President Trump. He's not thrilled about this. He is not.
He went after the three justices that he put on the court saying, These are not the people I interviewed.
Now, I think that's a bit much. When you see what Justice Kavanaugh's rationale was. There are many people. It was a long post. They just put up the post.
Yeah, there's no character shortage there, ladies and gentlemen. I'll let you guys read that. I'm not reading that to you. That's way too long. When we get back, though, you're going to hear from Rick Crinnell.
I'm sure he's got a lot to say about this. And.
Some other things, Will. Take this thing back over to the mayor. Care best situations there and continue this discussion Phone lines are open for you. Ask Will a question. Any question?
1-800-684-3110. Be kind to your phone screener. And you'll probably make it on the air today. 1-800-684-3110 and continue to support the work of the ACLJ when you can. And do it today again.
Do it in the Celebrations of Victories at aclj.org. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are continuing the AI discussion, but we also wanted to talk about a decision that I think we can all actually say is maybe a win for the People who are pro-Israel or people who are in support of the Jewish people, not something you get to say a lot. I feel like in 2026.
Typically, it's the other way around. Typically, it's the other way around. But you have rapper McLemore. Who you may remember from Thrift Shop a number of years ago now? He had been opening only a few dates so far on the Ed Sheeran tour.
This is a stadium-size tour. And of course, most of the crowd there, as much as I think McLaughlin made some cool music back in the day, were not there to see McLemore. They were there to see Ed Sheeran. He went out, and look, this is nothing new for him. He has been one of the loudest voices for, I guess you'd say, the Palestinian cause, if you want to put it in a positive sense.
But he's done it in a way of even historically, 10 years ago or so, you know, appeared in a very racially insensitive outfit, including a prosthetic nose and beard. This is not someone who is new to his anti-Semitism. But went out there, made a big statement at MetLife Stadium in New York City, you know, outside New York City. You can imagine the crowd there. You'd think maybe this is on their side now because, you know, this is New York.
But I think what you had, for the first time in a long time, an outcry From a lot of people saying, I did not sign up to come to this show. I came to see Ed Sheeran, who is a. Particularly a political artist doesn't really take sides in this. And now I'm being forced to hear what I don't want to hear, which is not only someone's political point of view, but is leading a crowd in a free Palestine chant, is making people feel unsafe that are there, who are in the Jewish community, who are outwardly Jewish, which I'm sure in New York there are plenty. who were in that crowd.
And then you had an artist like Pink, who again, historically, doesn't really stand up for causes that would be labeled quote-unquote conservative. In fact, has been quite the opposite. She Responded by posting a video condemning it and then later on said, No, no, no. When it seemed like she was going to apologize, said, No, I was born Jewish. I didn't ask for this.
This is inappropriate. We don't need to be doing it at these shows. And now, come a few days later, we have made the decision that now Ed Sheeran has made the decision that no longer will Mac Lamore be appearing on this tour.
Now, again, I'm for freedom of speech. I'm for the right to say what you want to say, but I'm also for the right to take a win when we get a win. And at this moment, I'm happy to say that Mac Lamore will be returning back to the theaters that he's performing in or, you know, currently performing at the Masquerade in Atlanta, I see, you know, coming up in a few months here. You know, that's probably back to where he needs to be, not playing at massive stadium events. If you want to say what you want to say and your audience wants to come for it, God bless you.
I don't care. But the fact that this happened, I think this is a big win for this side. And he made a statement. He just put out a statement talking about it. And he said, Ed Sheeran and his team made the decision to remove me from this tour and said that Robert Kras.
Again, fun. This is what Robert Kraft called him and said that pretty much they could not play at Gillette Stadium, and that he got a bunch of other owners together to do it. That Edge said, you know what you said was offensive. A lot of people found a lot of offense to it. And of course, he backed up, said he's a good friend, yada, yada, yada.
But I think this is something we need to take. Look, as a moment of going, maybe. We haven't lost Hope completely. That the audience of the United States of America, the audience, by the way. And I'm not talking about the media.
I'm not talking about Hollywood or whatever may come from it. I'm talking about the ticket buyer. Is saying, I'm not putting up with this.
Well, and once again, this is someone who is the opener. It's not like it's his tour. You don't get to make the decisions about what kind of publicity and attention you draw to it. And your actions have consequences when it comes to your payday, when it comes to this. I think it's interesting also because for years, the way that Palestinian activists have tried to almost create inorganically movements is through the boycott, divest, and sanctions movement, where they tried to force institutions to divest of any sort of even fringe connection to the state of Israel, whether it be.
You know, having stock in tech companies that may be traced back to Israel or any sort of that. And then they wanted government sanctions. They've tried to force this movement for so long. And in many ways, that has worked because the very small voice makes the political statement of people that aren't being political. They just may have an association somewhere with Israel.
That has been what we've pushed back at. Here, you're seeing an actual concert, someone that was making Very, very incendiary and pushing a message that wasn't his own tour to be pushing that on, gets a consequence from that. But you know what it isn't? It isn't this dark money funded organization going everywhere trying to find any person who supports the Palestinian cause and say you are kicked out of society. That's what BDS is doing.
This is the market actually just showing up and doing its job, saying, hey, I'm Ed Sheeran, this is my tour. You know what? We're not a political group. I'm not a political artist.
So, maybe I don't want that as my opener. I don't want that to be the first taste of what people get and what's going to be a great night of entertainment. Yeah. And I think, like you said, context is king here and the fact that people weren't buying a ticket. If you bought a ticket to see McLemore, I assume you know what you're getting yourself into.
It's like if I bought a ticket to see Five for Fighting right now, my friend John Adrasic, I have a feeling I'm going to go in there for a pretty patriotic, likely a pro-Israel experience here. Because you probably have a little bit of an idea of the artist that you're getting yourself in front of. This is a bold move, I'll be honest, and I'm proud of somewhat of Ed Sheeran and his team for doing this because I don't think it's it. Look, I think it's gonna bring more McLemore into the news because let's just be honest, he should. I mean, again, this is no shade to McLemore.
He should have been thrilled that he was on this stadium tour at this point in his career. You know, and again, anyone should be thrilled that they are opening for one of the biggest artists in the world. And most, by the way, If you've been on any of those tours, a lot of times there are rules and restrictions. of what you should or should not be talking about. Or, what songs you're going to be playing, or what decibel you play at.
There's all these things that you probably are unaware of that go into being a supporting act on one of these tours. But I am thankful for a moment. And look, I am thankful it happened where? Probably in New York City, because it happened in MetLife Stadium, just across the river. that likely there's enough outcry there.
in front of a hundred thousand people, to say this has gone too far. And you were then able to rally thousands and thousands of people around the country. And again, it's no diss to McLemore. I believe you should be able to say whatever he wants to say. But that doesn't mean.
that the audience doesn't speak louder.
Well, we have a comment on Rumble that says, who is McElmore? I think to some degree, that's sometimes why artists do these big things that when they are has been to some degree. His big hit was 15 years ago. He signed his statement. I didn't need the whole tour.
I only needed two shows to make all this.
So he got a payday and got a pop of publicity because he did this stunt. Yeah, maybe that is what he was in it for because he hasn't been relevant for 14 years, 15 years. I mean, I think it was 2012 when Thrift Shop was topping the charts. I mean, that's someone that, as an opener, there's a reason he's an opener. As you said, it should have been great for him to be able to ride the coattails on this stadium tour because really no one was paying even a portion of their ticket because he was on the car.
I mean, honestly, you looked at some of the videos, and it's not like the crowd has filled in quite a bit when he was performing, but I understand that, look. and ruffled feathers, people didn't like it. And look, this has happened on the other side. A lot. And that's why I'm taking this win, because it's happened a lot aside.
for those that go in and speak openly about their faith or go out and speak openly about Israel. And have been the openers and they've been dropped. And though I don't agree with the messaging here, I do understand the whose name is on the marquee. And that person's name is now represented. Because if McLamore was allowed to continue.
every show for the rest of this tour. That is Ed Sheeran. putting his stamp of approval on it.
Okay, I mean again I think the the big picture of this Is this a win and one that we should be happy as people who support the Jewish people? Like I said, you don't have to be supportive of the current political regime in Israel. There's an election that's going to be happening in a few weeks. It's a highly contested election. Do I think Netanyahu probably pulls it out?
Probably, but it's not like it's a guarantee by any means.
Okay, again, people like to, this is where it does become anti-Semitism because you paint every Israeli. As these, you know. Almost Conservative, like they do with, like, it'd be like if you painted the entire United States of America as either hard left or MAGA. But you've decided that because you don't like the Jewish people, that everyone in Israel must be genocidal maniacs. And what you're gonna find is there's a lot of people in Israel who don't like what's going on right now either.
What do you do with those people? What do you do with the fact That uh oh the Ben and Jerry's got the care honors award this year, like two days ago. I mean, that's wild.
Okay, th they're boycotting Israel. They're Jewish people. But of course, we want to paint with broad brushes. When we get back, we're going to continue this conversation. And we're going to wrap up this show with your calls and comments.
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So many things that we didn't feel it was appropriate. We got to get back on it, though, folks. We got to keep this going because we got to keep us in all these fights and we got to keep this broadcast going. All goes, of course, at aclj.org. Do it right now.
Make a donation if you can. We appreciate it when you get back. I want to hear from you, the most important voice in the room. Welcome back to Sekulow. We do still have a few lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110, 1-8006-84-3110.
You may have heard about us talk about this a little bit, but I want to give a full reset here. Cece Hiles joining us right now. It's our relationship with the newly launching Nehemiah Alliance, again, calling for 52 days of prayer. And again, if you hear the first few segments of this show, you may be like, well, man, you guys are kind of painting a grim picture for the way society is and the way that the political system is.
Well, we, you know, live in very, two, very different worlds here at the ACLJ. Of course, we're going to talk about what's going on in the news, what's going on in politics, but we also are going to talk about your spiritual life. We're going to talk about what's happening maybe in another realm of your existence. And with that, of course, there are moments that are important. And this one we felt was really important to team up with earlier this year, but now it's getting very close to the launch later this week.
Cece, I know you've been really running kind of points. For this entire event and everything that's happening in our relationship with it.
So, let's give a background of what this is, and of course, then how people can get involved. Sure. Just like you said, you know, what we were even talking about earlier, I think everyone would agree that our spiritual walls have been crumbling, you know, around our families, around our communities, around our state, around our nation. We've just seen walls crumble. And so, the Nehemiah Alliance basically takes their cue from Nehemiah and how he rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem in 52 days with the blessings of the government.
But everyone took part and they did their part standing right in front of the wall right in front of them. That's what they were fixing. And so, this is 52 days of prayer, and it launches September 10th and goes through November 1st, right before the critical midterm elections. And all it is is signing up to pray, which is so great. But if we have Christians all over the United States, and actually this is going all over the world as well, they'll be praying for us as well.
If we have Christians praying for 52 days together, I think things will change. Prayer changes things. And so the ACLJ has put together, with the Nehemiah Alliance, we've put together 52 days worth of prayers. And each week, each day has a theme.
So you'll be praying for home life, community, your state, your nation, pro-life issues, world issues, and repentance. And then the final three days will be Christ Return in Readiness, Next Generation, and Prayer for the Midterm Elections. And so if you go to na52.org, all you have to do is just sign up to pray. Not asking for money or anything else. It's just literally, I want to sign up.
I want to pray. I want to pray with the rest of the United States, you know, for my family, for my community, for my state. For this nation, and the Lord hears us, and I believe that He will answer our prayers and heal our nation.
Well, and I think you'll show up in your inbox. Yes, you'll be guided through this experience. It's not just like, hey, pray, you know, 52, great, everyone's praying. This is a guided joint effort. And on top of that as well, a lot of the prayers have been crafted and written by ACLJ staff members.
Those that have, if you've gotten a prayer guide before from the ACLJ, you know one that's very important to us. But these 52 days of prayer will also be directed and guided by staff members that have worked and crafted these prayers that you will be receiving. And you said NA52, just four characters, na52.org is how you can go to sign up for that. Yeah, and then on October 31st, which is right before the end date, it goes through November 1st. And of course, the elections are November 3rd.
But on October 20, October 31st, Americans will gather on the National Mall and there will be a big event there. And again, they'll be praying and worshiping. And, you know, again, just praying for the Lord to rebuild our walls, restore our homes, renew our hearts. That's what this is all about. And there'll also be, which will be helpful, there'll be voter information.
Each day, each of the 52 days, there'll be a link where you can go and you can find out: hey, in my state, Where can I, if I'm not registered to vote, where can I go get registered to vote? Where do I vote? What's on my ballot? All those, there'll be a link there to help you with all of that as well.
Well, we've also seen endorsement of this by people like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. A lot of names that you're familiar with in the Christian music industry have put their names behind this as well. But there's also a call for the President to sign off on this effort, the 52 Days of Prayer as well. Tell us a little bit about that and what we're doing this week. Yeah, so we've made a request to President Trump to do a proclamation basically proclaiming that these 52 days from September 10th to November 1st will be a time of prayer for our nation and restoring liberty and justice for all really in the United States, rebuilding our walls.
And that will go out this week. And maybe he'll also do a video doing the United Prayer because, again, there are United Prayers. That we'll all be praying, and then for the 52 days, each day you'll get an actual prayer that everybody will pray together. I think this is great. I think it's something that um Kind of makes our show And what we do here at the ACLJ is a little bit different.
A lot of you tune in. I know I see the comments saying, you know, this is where I get my news. This is where I see what's going on in the world and I get to stay informed about what's happening worldwide. CC obviously is evolved heavily with our international efforts here at the ACLJ. Because remember, when you have supported the ACLJ, you're also supporting our European Center.
You're also supporting our work we do at the UN, our Jerusalem office. But At its core, I mean, the ACLJ was founded as a religious freedom law firm, one that supports Christian values, and something that we have been talking about for years. And I think sometimes we can all. Get a little blurry and neglect this part of our spiritual life. And how it impacts and how it changes even the physical world that we live in right now, including someplace like Washington, D.C., which you go to.
I'm sure there's a lot of great people there. We have our headquarters there, but there's a heaviness. Honestly, depending, it doesn't even matter who's in office. There's a heaviness that follows around Washington, D.C. And you've heard Rick on our show here before, Grinnell saying, like, you know, he leaves pretty much as fast as he can because you can feel sort of the darkness that kind of surrounds that city.
And it's not due to the fact there aren't great people working there. You just know that there are deeper spiritual efforts and forces that are at play because of how powerful things are happening in that city that. Lives are being altered at every second. I mean, as much as it can become silly in politics, we know really what at the core, it affects everyone. It affects everyone worldwide.
As I said, you go to Europe, you flip on the television, you're going to see the President of the United States. You know, you're not why does everyone know the name of the President of the United States? But we can probably only maybe name a handful of leaders outside of our own country. Because the impact and the influence that's coming out of this country is nothing to be laughed at. It has always been.
The last 250 years has been really That beacon, whether it was a good or bad beacon, if you will, not always the beacon of hope. But in this moment, Cece, I'll let us. We only got a minute left. We might as well plug in again, though. How people can get involved in this.
Again, 52 days of prayer with the Nehemiah. That's right. Just go to na52.org. That's all you have to do. You just put in your name, your email address, your state.
That's all you have to do. And you will start getting emails, and you will get emails every single one of the 52 days. We know prayer changes things, and we are expecting everybody to come together and to lift that spiritual kind of heaviness off of the United States. Yeah, I love that. Of course.
This is an official partnership here with the ACLJ. This is something we're doing with the Nehemiah Alliance Group. You go to the website, you'll see our logos, you'll see your picture. This is our group as well involved in this.
So, you know, when you're signing up for that, you are getting involved with an organization that we have partnered with.
So, That being said, we have 30 more minutes left in this show. I want you to be a part of it. We've got a couple lines still open at 1-800-684-30110. If you're just listening to us on terrestrial radio, you may lose this here. Easy way to fix that, go to aclj.org or find us broadcasting live: YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, however, you get your podcasts.
We're available immediately after the show ends being live, and we do the show live every day. From 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. Again, easiest way, just go to aclj.org and find your source for live broadcasts. And of course, you can find his archive.
We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.
