Are Patriotism & Religion Dying in America? Shock Poll Says Yes

Are patriotism and religion dying in America?

A shocking new poll suggests yes. 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. This is Logan Sekulow.

Will Haynes joining us as well, executive producer of Sekulow on today's show. We're going to talk about this new poll that came out from the Wall Street Journal this morning. But before I do that, we are based in the Nashville, Tennessee area. And as we're going live, there is an active school shooting at a Christian school.

One very close to where my kids go to school, thankfully for my family, but not for these families, not where my kids go to school. But this kind of ties into our topic here. This is all happening right now as we speak. So there's not a whole lot of verifiable reporting other than it looks like four people, at least so far, have passed away from this. And this is an ongoing thing that keeps happening in our country. We see it all the time. And when we look back now at this poll that suggests that, compared to how things were in 1998, the importance of patriotism and the importance of faith and religion in society has plummeted.

You can't help. I mean, when we're looking at these numbers, Will, we're talking about... And I'm sorry if I feel a little off balance today, guys. This is happening live and in our area. So it is pretty important. But 1998, when they did this poll, they said about 70% of the country deemed themselves as patriotic and cared about patriotism. That is now at 38%.

And when it comes to faith, that is just at religion. That was at 62% in 1998. It's now down to 39%.

And that's for a wide swath. It's 50-50, they said 50% or so, or 40-60 of Republicans. Yeah, it's about 44% registered as Democrats in this poll, and about 38% said that they were Republicans. And then the middle, which is 18%, said that they were independent.

So it's a pretty... I think the breakdown there is pretty fair across the spectrum of American politics. Yeah, absolutely. So we're gonna be talking about that specifically, and this discussion of where patriotism, where faith lies right now in this country. And I'd love to hear your thoughts at 1-800-684-3110. It doesn't seem like, depending on who is in charge, that it really changes this trajectory. You would think that at least maybe the left would be more on the side of patriotism right now, as Joe Biden and the Biden administration has been in office for a couple of years. Some people see those terms as nationalistic. They see them as conservative, if they say they're patriotic, or if they say they're faith. Now, you can see those numbers are pretty linked close together, faith and patriotism.

What that all means. I'd love to get your thoughts at 1-800-684-3110. There's a lot more details in this poll as well, asking a lot about even things like, should companies be getting... private companies be getting involved in political issues and social issues?

Guess what? 65 or so percent of people polled said no, they shouldn't be. They should be selling their product, not getting involved in politics. That's no shock to me, but maybe it is to the people who are listening. And look, again, we are going to take your phone calls about this. I know this isn't necessarily the most breaking news item that we could talk about, but I think it gets to sort of the moral and social crux that we are at as a society. And as a lot of you are listening on Christian radio and a lot of people here are of faith who listen and watch this show. So when there is news breaking that a Christian school this morning, as we're speaking right now, in our local area, in our market, very close to where my children go to school or a lot of people's kids go to school, has a mass shooting where four people are dead.

What that means for the moral and social decline essentially of our nation. And I'd love to hear from you about it because folks right now, this stuff shows up in your backyard, it starts to become real serious and it starts to become real. And again, if we seem a little out of it, that is why we're all dealing with it.

All of us here, pretty much everyone I'm looking at, almost everybody in our studio, our parents of young kids, we're going to be seeing not only this poll. Polls can move up and down, but there's a spiritual rot happening in our country. And if we don't see it soon, we're going down. We got to find hope in this. We got to find a place to correct this course, not just in faith, not just in patriotism in our lives in general. This stuff just can't keep happening. Give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Secula. We're taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110, talking about this Wall Street Journal poll that came out showing the massive decline in people, a shocking really decline, of people that say that faith and patriotism are even important to their lives and what that means. There's a lot of breakdown on what that means, whether that—they specifically reference things like did conservatives change the way you consider the word patriotism. You're also talking about a lot of people who are under 30. What's interesting is that's people who have not lived yet through a 9-11 or uniting moment that really did change. They've seen political divide and faith divide for their entire lives.

They have seen essentially just—you've got to think about this. If you're 30 years old right now, 37, so if you're 30 years old right now, when you started even paying attention to what was happening in the world, it was the Obama era. You're not talking about before that. You're not even talking about George W. Bush era. You're really talking about, for most things, you're talking about the Obama era, which was filled with both a lot of hope and a lot of vitriol and a lot of—for legitimate reasons.

I'm not saying legitimate reasons. The Tea Party movement, everything that came out of there. Then you had after Obama, obviously, you had the Trump era. Then now, coming out of that, you have Biden, and things don't seem to be getting better.

People under 30 are dealing with core values and what those mean to them and how that suggests. Look, I do want to address, as I brought it up in the first segment, that here in Nashville, in our local area, there's been a shooting, a school shooting at a Christian school. At least we know now that this is no longer an active situation, that the shooter is dead. So, thankfully, it's over. That doesn't mean it's any less real for these families. It looks like multiple people have passed on. There's a lot of people who are currently dealing with the situation.

I know a lot of people are trying to get their kids and all that. But again, that kind of speaks to everything that's happening. It's not just about this situation or a school shooting.

It's not about a poll. It's about a sort of decay in hope and seeing if there is any future for this country and what that could look like. I was listening to President Trump speak yesterday or Saturday, wherever it was, in Waco, and he kept calling it the last chance or something like that. I forgot the words. And it was a bit alarming that these are sort of the words that we are using right now. And it does feel that way.

I'm not saying it doesn't. I don't want you to think that I'm not saying that this isn't a time of crisis. The final battle is what he kept calling it. This is the final battle.

Obviously, kind of evoking biblical terminology. Folks, if we're going to start talking like that, then we have to do something to start addressing issues and changing people's hearts and changing people's minds. It's not just about politics. It's not just about religion, for that matter. It's about, like I said, a rot that's happening in the soul of this country.

And we're seeing it now on paper, as The Wall Street Journal puts out this article saying, here's the things that people find important or not important. We're going to talk about other topics as well, by the way. We're all a little discombobulated, and I'm just going to be honest with you.

I don't think there's a reason not to be, because there's news that came out literally a minute before we broke on the air. My wife called me. We are going to talk with Rick Grenell coming up in the next segment as well. We may talk about this. We may talk about another topic, but that's going to come. A lot of you are calling as well.

Let's go ahead. I'm going to take a call, just kind of reset for a little bit. Let's go to Dawn, who's calling in Connecticut on line one. Dawn, thanks for calling. Hi, how are you today? Thank you for calling.

Go ahead. Well, as I was expressing, I think that the lack of spiritualism, faith, religion, whatever in this country is directly related to the political divide. I think that there's a lot of people that still have faith in God. They still have faith in this country. They still have patriotism, but they're afraid to express it because of the negative connotation and being labeled conservative, whack job, conspiracy theorist, whatever the case may be. The bottom line is we, myself included, I refrain sometimes from posting things because I'm afraid of the backlash. I think that that really has more to do with these polls and everything else, but I see the decline in our country. I see it going on. I'm afraid to put my seven-year-old in school.

I'm homeschooling her right now and working part-time. It's a scary situation. I think that what we need to do is we need to get on our face before God and ask for forgiveness and ask for protection for this country and to really start seriously getting back to our roots.

Right. Dawn, I couldn't agree with you more. My wife and I were just speaking just minutes ago, and specifically that was the question that came up to make sure when these kind of things happen, not just looking at these polling, but school shootings and everything that's happening, again, sort of this overall heaviness that surrounded the country for the last handful of years. You do start questioning everything. You start questioning your decisions, whether you should be sending your kids to school.

How is it safe? Are you making the right decisions for your family? And are we making the right decisions for our country? And you said that it's tied to the conservative part of this. I think the numbers kind of show that, which is that, was it 39 and 38%? Yeah.

It's there within. I mean, you're only talking about a poll. That's one thing that's polling. They do only poll about...

This one was a little over 1,000 people, but 50-50 of conservatives and liberals. But 39% said, I believe, that they were friendly to religion. 38% said they were friendly to patriotism.

Yeah. And let me read the question that was presented to the poll respondents, because I think that is important when you could hear someone say like, oh, patriotism isn't important. Well, was it phrased as, do you believe America is the greatest country in the world?

Yes, it could be, oh, it's skewed. But the question actually is pretty revealing at the respondents because it says, the heading is values, and it says, now we would like to ask you some questions about the American character, that is about our values and who we are. How important are each of the values to you personally? Would you say it's very important, somewhat important, not that important or not important at all?

So they asked, and we're just given the term, patriotism, how important is that value to you? And that's where very important only responded with 38%. A belief in God only responded with 48% and religion only 39%, which is, as we mentioned before, a drastic turnaround from 1998, which was the first year that the Wall Street Journal conducted this poll. They conducted every year to get kind of a sense of where people are.

And I think it does tell you a lot as well. You mentioned there was no real galvanizing moment for the younger generation. But 1998, when they first put this poll out, that was the Clinton administration. It was a divided time, there was a lot going on. But patriotism, I don't know if people would think back of the late 90s as the most patriotic era. You really think post-9-11 is when there was this... It was a fairly lighthearted era though.

That's fair. It was a very overly commercialized era. I think about 1998, it was a flashy, there are no worries kind of fun era for a lot of people.

Right. 9-11 changed that. Do you think that COVID would have been that unifying time? COVID would have been that time that we got together as a country and as a world.

The difference is that got politicized within 30 days. The first 20 days, you may remember there being all of these big unifying moments, we got to stay together, we got to do all these things, we're going to reach out, we're going to put out sing-alongs, and we're going to get together as a country. Then all of a sudden it started getting politicized and more politicized, more politicized and being probably the most divided political topic of our modern time. I think history will show it as a very pivotal moment in our lives that I don't think any of us have really reckoned with yet. We really haven't. We haven't reckoned with the impact that it had on our kids, impact that it had on adults, that we all went through a lot of emotional and mental strain through all of that. We're all just coming out of it now. Really, you're talking about the fog is just starting to lift now on what happened to us from 2020 to 2020, into 2022 maybe even, maybe even headed into 2023. We're just now getting there, people. You can't help people look at this and go, yeah, I don't really feel that galvanized my country.

Look around you right now. Do you feel like you feel like there's unification? Do you feel proud of your country right now? I think there's a lot of people who, sadly, who are probably very patriotic in terms of military support and they support the American values who even in conservative are looking at it going, yeah, I can't say that I'm getting behind this right now because they're seeing China, they're seeing Russia, they're seeing hate being spewed from both sides and infighting and it isn't healthy. And you see the corruption as well that we have been fighting against and is real. There is real corruption in the government. When you see some of the institutions that are supposed to be working for you, not working for you, but working against your belief systems, then it does give you pause. I would say it could take that very important number down for some people that are deeply patriotic, but maybe not patriotic because of what the government is doing. The word may not mesh in the same way. They still believe in the American values, in the American constitution.

And unfortunately, the institutions that are in place, a lot of these bureaucracies are lessening that faith and confidence in the government. Yeah. Hey, coming up in the next segment, we're going to have Rick Renell. We're going to keep talking about this and we'll also discuss some other things with him, but we'll see what we get into with Rick coming up. If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.

I see a lot of great comments coming in on Rumble and through Facebook and YouTube, but I would appreciate it if you would give me a call because I'd like to have this discussion one-on-one with you, 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. We're also headed towards the end of our matching challenge here at the ACLJ. If you can support the work, we'd appreciate it.

Go to ACLJ.org. All donations are effectively doubled. That means if you give $10, it becomes 20, so on and so on and so on. Again, covering a lot of news, covering what's happening in the world, but also discussing sort of the wrath that may be happening in our country, what we can do. Where's the hope to turn this around? I want to hear from you, 1-800-684-3110. We'll be back with more on Sekulow in just a minute.

If you're watching online, make sure that you are either following or subscribing on whatever platform that you're using right now and tell your friends. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. We have Rick Rinnell joining us. Rick, we're going to move our topic here in a second to what's going on in Russia and get your expert advice on this, but I wanted your thoughts on the topic that we addressed at the top of this show, which is that The Wall Street Journal put out a poll saying essentially historic lows for people who consider themselves patriotic and also people who consider themselves almost linked numbers-wise with people who consider themselves religious or people of faith. As this is happening, we just went on the air.

We're in Nashville. Most people know that, and there was a school shooting at a Christian school that just ended. Sadly, that thankfully it was over, but this is just happening as we're breaking on the air. We're seeing this sort of spiritual and American rut that feels like that we are in as a nation. Clearly, an administration doesn't change that. It's not like all of a sudden people looked at Joe Biden, the liberals, because this was 50-50 split, and said, yes, now I feel engaged. I feel patriotic. Now, it feels like there has been such a decline, and it's shocking.

It's not that shocking when you look around. I think a lot of us feel it right now. We feel this sort of heaviness, but as someone who deals with politics, someone I also know as a faith, I just wanted to get your feeling on this poll and what can we do. That's why I start looking at what can we do to help turn this around, where people don't feel this way.

It's hard. I know we feel a little discombobulated right now. We're dealing with big breaking news here in our local area, and we all have young kids. I just wanted to get your thoughts on that, then we'll move to talking about foreign policy and what's going on.

I love that you start by saying, what can we do? Because I think that's really the first thing, is we do have a responsibility. We can't be surprised that over the last 20 years, our schools have been teaching our kids to hate America and to not concentrate on the basics. I mean, you look at test scores for our kids today, and it's atrocious. We've allowed this to happen in our society.

We've allowed our schools to become terrible. I'm reminded of this conversation that I had with a world leader who once said to me, Rick, I don't know why you guys are so surprised in America that you have a generation of young people that hate your country. You've been teaching them to hate your country.

You can't be surprised that all of a sudden they grow up and a 20-year-old has been indoctrinated for all these years. So I think the solution is we've got to fight back. We've got to have people who don't just sit and listen to our broadcast, but actually do something. Some people listening may have to run for school board. You have to get involved.

You have to not sit back and watch. I'll finish with this, Logan, is that when you look at first and second generation Americans, they love this country. The people who come here from another place who have experienced fascism or totalitarianism, they're at the front of the line saying that this is the great country. Our problem is with sixth, seventh generation white liberals who literally want to teach our kids to think that this place that we call America is a horrible place. It's the greatest country.

And if you don't know that, you should travel more. I think that's a valid point. I want to kind of throw it back when we say we've talked about first and second generation. We're talking about not just like your grandparents.

We're talking about first and second generation people that are coming to this country right now. We're seeing that over and over. We're seeing that growing. That's why we're seeing the Hispanic community really rallying around a lot of conservative values. We're seeing a lot more people who were unexpected to be, maybe by the left, unexpected to be what you consider American patriots.

And you're right. We are seeing that in the schools. I think we all have to really address what that looks like moving forward. I mean, I just got off the phone, like I said, with my wife, and that was the discussion point we had was now we've had, we know what goes on in our schools.

We go to a great school, so nothing against them. But then we know there's this active shooter that's a few miles from their school. It makes you rethink everything. It makes you rethink, when you see these polls, it makes you rethink how you're raising your kids.

And that's a very good point because like we said, a lot of this is for people who are under 30. So we're talking about people who did not live through that big unified kind of 9-11 type moment. And then COVID was not that either. COVID became highly politicized pretty much immediately when it felt like it could have been that united moment. But let's pivot a little. We got a few minutes. Let's give people a little break from maybe my breakdown here and discuss what's going on, Will, internationally.

That's right, Rick. So over the weekend, Putin announced that he was going to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, which happens to border a NATO member, Poland. And this comes off the heels of his summit with President Xi from China. What message is Putin sending here? We've watched the political crisis in Belarus for a while, and it shouldn't surprise anyone who's really been watching that Putin is really pushing hard for as many allies as he can. And he's, you know, look, he's got energy issues over on people, which was why we were very concerned about having the Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany and to Europe, because once the Russians, once somebody like Putin gets leverage over you on energy, they can then say things like, hey, we're going to put our nukes in your country. And Belarus doesn't feel like they have much of a choice.

And this is, you know, a terrible sign. We've certainly, you know, we need NATO members to pay their fair share. We need NATO members to be good NATO members before we start expanding this umbrella. I'm very concerned that the first reaction we have from so many European countries that are not paying their fair share is to say, oh, let's extend the NATO umbrella. Let's include other countries.

And that just means the US taxpayer has to pay more and more and more. And I think we've got to put an end to this and say, look, we didn't envision there would be a war in Europe, but there certainly was under Barack Obama and there was now under Joe Biden. And you've got to ask yourself, why did it skip Donald Trump? Why wasn't there a war? Why didn't Putin go on the offense during the Donald Trump years? And it's silly to think, oh, because he was getting everything he wanted, which is some people on the left.

It means that he knows exactly what he can do to get away with this and a sweetness. You did bring up there was that time where it jumped between the administrations and you talked about the members of NATO not paying their fair share. But just quickly here, as we kind of started talking about hope for the future in the beginning of this segment, I did want to ask you, how can we hold the administration's feet to the fire on this and try to stem some of this while we have, we know, at least a couple of years left with this administration? So, again, I think people have got to get involved. You can't just expect somebody else to do something and then expect our country to be saved. I mean, we're watching it really dissolve and it's heartbreaking. So I would say, get involved, figure out a way to support organizations or people who are tough, who are pushing back. I mean, clearly the weakness from the Biden administration has to be outed. We need transparency to show the American public just how weak they are.

That means aggressive organizations and people support politicians who are holding them to account, send them some money, say some prayers for them, support them where you can, but also for organizations like ACLJ, where we're demanding transparency and we're using the power of the courts and the legal process to do it. Rick, appreciate you coming on today and discussing this and also just that poll and everything that's happening across our nation. We appreciate it always when you come in and discuss these important topics that I think a lot of people need to hear. And, hey, a ton of you called. I'm going to take a lot of these calls coming up in the next segment or two. So if you're on hold, please stay on hold. If you haven't called in, we have one line open, 1-800-684-3110. If for some reason you're in one of those unfortunate stations that doesn't get us for the full hour, one, tell the station that you want us for the full hour. Number two, you can find us broadcasting live or if you're hearing this later, you can check the archived episode at ACLJ.org, broadcasting live right now in Rumble.

Just search for ACLJ. You'll see probably on the home page right now. So go find us on Rumble and on YouTube as well. We're going to be taking a lot of your calls. I want to hear from you about this sort of nationwide rot that seems to be happening and what we can do to turn this around. I don't want to only be doom and gloom here. We're going to talk about some paths to hope. We'll hopefully have that for you coming up here in the next segment. We'll 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. We are talking about this poll that came out from the Wall Street Journal saying that religion and patriotism almost in lockstep are on a nationwide decline at a massive scale. There is a moral and social rot that's happening in our country. We need to talk about it. We need to address it. We need to start figuring out our ways out of it. At this time, is it happening?

It's just now over. There was a school shooting that happened in our local market. So again, if we feel a little out of it, no, that's why. Because all of us here, pretty much everyone I'm looking at, almost everybody here has kids, young kids in this area.

Kids are in school systems. We're dealing with that right now as well. And that all ties together to me.

This is one and the same. So we're going to take some calls in this segment. In the next segment, a lot of you have called in with your thoughts, and I really want to hear from you. And let's go to it. Let's go to... Jerry, you've been on hold for like 27 minutes. So Jerry, I appreciate you holding. You're on the air.

Well, first of all, prayers for the people in that local shooting. And I can understand being parents. I'm of your dad's demographic. So when I saw them, I was literally reading the poll five minutes before you came on the air. And right off the bat, I would never take a poll from WSJ. My demographic doesn't really take polls because we know how polls have been accurate in the last, say, two cycles. But when we grow up, as we've grown up, and two times in service, I grew up in the 70s. I remember November 22nd, 63.

I remember 9-11. These other generations, which you guys actually point, they don't have that, and they don't travel to see it. So all polls, they may not be reflective of all the demographics. Older demographics like mine listen to the radio like you guys. Yeah.

Jerry, I'm sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, I agree with Jerry that many people, you know, polls aren't to be trusted, especially when it comes to your favorite candidate, maybe. We're still talking about 1,000, 1,200 people, even if that could be representative of a country. But when getting a representative poll and asking about things about how important these issues are to people, this one doesn't feel off with the climate.

I don't think that it is definitive. It's not saying that 39% of the country doesn't feel that religion and patriotism are very important. It's still a big chunk of the country. But I think that, to Jerry's point, while polls may be worthless when it comes to picking your President or maybe worthless when it comes to any number of things, there is something here that I think you can't deny. And you're seeing this over and over again with the trust in the institutions, with the way that people treat each other in just the marketplace of ideas, even, just when you're trying to have a discussion about something. The numbers seem to be reflective of a moment in American history. It feels that way.

It does. This doesn't feel that inaccurate, if I'm being honest with you. Jerry, it doesn't feel like I look around and feel like everything is sunshine and roses right now. In fact, I feel like we have to find a pathway to that. And I think that we're all actively working towards that.

I heard from Rick. I think a lot of it is our kids are educated in what they're being taught in school and how America has been defined in the last decade. It really has affected... Remember, a 20-year-old was 10 years old 10 years ago, which is not all that long ago, the Obama era, the end of the Obama era.

That was a 10-year-old. So, imagine when you actually start paying attention to politics, news, not usually at 10. That's usually not coming, maybe until you're a social activist in your teens.

Maybe you've had that moment where you've decided that you care about things, you care about the country. We only have a minute left in this segment, but the next one, I'm going to take all these calls at 1-800-684-3110. If you're on hold right now, I will get to you. 1-800-684-3110 to be on the air to talk about this. This was not our plan to stay on this for the whole hour.

Obviously, you heard Rick Renell. We talked about Russia and Putin and all this stuff. We were going to talk about AOC and her getting on TikTok. We're going to save all that, talk about that maybe in a day where we don't have such sort of a crisis happening in our nation and in our local hometown. So, give me a call and I'd love your ideas. I'd love your thoughts.

And I think Rick had a good, valuable one, which is we need to really adjust the way that we teach and the way that we talk to kids and talk to your own kids. Think about that. Think about the political, even if you're, presumably, you're probably more conservative leaning. So, the way you're talking about your political opponents, that could even affect what a kid thinks about patriotism moving forward. So, it's not all on liberals, okay?

It could also be on you because, look, I've done it too. We've all had our own frustrations and maybe talked about it in front of our kids and maybe with the list tactical, tactical way. Give me a call. I love your thoughts. We'll be right back.

Be right back. Let's talk about what's happening right now. Look, we had an update on that Tennessee shooting. Sadly, three children have died. And this is, by the way, a school that only goes to sixth grade. So, you're not talking about kids who are, you know, heights, not that it would make it any better. But you're talking about little kids, okay?

And that's what I have. I have elementary school children who go to school very close to this. And it's really hard to deal with. And it's really hard to do a broadcast as this is happening right now in our local community. But it does tie into the topic, which is we are in a spiritual and moral decay in this country right now. We are dealing with the fact that we need to have a major referendum on the way that we're talking, the way that we are moving, the way that we are discussing these topics, and the way that we are treating issues at home, as well as security in our schools, and so much more. And that's something that we can have, you know, when the clouds have cleared a little bit. We can have a little more discussion about how we can move forward. But when this starts happening, it starts happening in your local community, becomes a lot more real.

It's happening in real time for us here, folks. So, we're discussing it as we are. I'm going to take all your calls. I told you I would.

And I have my thoughts. Let's go to Bruce in Colorado on Line 1. Bruce, you're on the air. Well, hi.

Thanks for taking my call. You know, we've been hearing about there's been younger shooters being involved in a lot of these incidents, and people are talking about gun control as, you know, the solution. But I'm wondering about, you know, these video games where they have the active shooter role-playing stuff going on, and these younger children and growing up learning to play these, if that's not training them as a way to act out, you know, in things.

And so, I'm just wondering if there shouldn't be more restrictions on access to things like that, because they're basically getting trained. Yeah, Bruce, I think this is a discussion point that can happen, but I think a lot of that should happen in your home. Know your kid. Play what your kid's playing. Look at what your kid's watching on YouTube or on television. You'll find out more about your child. Actually learn about what affects them.

As I'll tell you, I have sons and daughters, and what affects my son is different than what affects my daughters and the way they react. So, also, the video game discussion is interesting, and we can talk about that ad nauseam, and I can have that discussion with you for an hour, because it is very different from when we were kids in the sense of Super Nintendo and what that looked like. Now, it's very realistic, but also sometimes trivial, and I think we need to have real discussions, but I think a lot of that happens in the home.

Maybe you could talk about the restrictions. I think most people have that in the sense of there's a rating system. It's not treated, though, like a lot of rating systems are for some reason. Games that are made for teens or for adults or for mature audiences. I'm not a big censorship guy, so I don't really feel like the owner should be on the video game company or something like that, but maybe we need to have more of a discussion of what that looks like inside your house.

Sure, why not? Why not have that discussion? I'm a gamer, so I play all sorts of video games, so I know that it can have an effect on you.

I don't play certain games at certain times of the night, because I know that I won't be able to sleep because of the way that it affects my brain. So, I think that that is something we can have a discussion on. And that is something that we've had Professor Harry Hutcheson has been on the show before, talking about the lack of emphasis on the family involvement with their children, and a lot of that where the teachers unions in the school then believes that they need to pick up the mantle of the parenting. And that's where you've seen a lot of these things, even such as the Parents' Bill of Rights that was in the news last week, where it's really trying to give parents the ability to see what's being taught in their schools, but also it can't be lost that the parents do need to be involved.

The Parents' Bill of Rights, they should have rights in their child's life, but we also need an emphasis where parents are actively involved in their kids' lives. And I know a lot of people, because we see it in the chat, a lot of the people listening to this broadcast are. Many of them homeschool their children, because they believe that they need to have that supervision and guidance in their children's lives. But that isn't the option for everyone.

Not everyone can just homeschool their kids, but there is something about people that need to be awakened to what is going on in this world and make sure that they are involved in those kids' lives. And like I said, not to put that many of our listeners I know are in that camp as well. Yeah, for sure. I'm gonna try to give as many calls as we can. I told you I'd get to you. I'm gonna do my best. We only got six minutes in this segment, but I'm gonna do my best. Let's go in order as I came in. Let's go.

That's the first Mary in Texas. I'm sorry to be able to for half an hour. We'll just try to get to you as quick as possible. Go ahead, Mary. Oh, hi.

Thanks for taking my call. This goes right in line with what you were just talking about, what I was thinking. This is really not a political thing. This is an erosion of our society and of accepting pop culture. And I think of, you know, people want a small town, safe feeling, fun city, but what does the average day look like for young people?

What are they saturated in? Where and when is God promoted? It's not in there. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I mean, to cut you off, we are running low on time. But yes, I think you're right that there is this sort of overall de-infestation on faith, even in terms of our sort of Christian society. Or look, we're in a very red state here.

I still think that there could be more and I take some of that on as a parent. Just going to continue on in the calls. Let's go to Sharon in Kansas. You're on the airline six.

Hi there. I'm sending hugs and prayers for everybody there with what's happened, because I know that's got to be hard. I think a lot of it has to do with our media. You watch the news. I finally found a local TV station that they report the news without a tilt.

And they always try to have good news stories also. And we're just saturated with social. And social media, I think, has been great for some things, but people just get saturated with this stuff. Sharon, I agree with you. I think a hundred percent. I think you're right.

I think that we're overloaded with negativity and it's hard not to when you look at the world, but the world will affect, will have effect based on how we take in and have content. Again, it's kind of like, what do you watch on television before you go to bed? And you should probably have a referendum on yourself of what that is.

What's the last thing your kids see or talk about before they go to bed? That's a big discussion to have. And I like that we're having this discussion. I like that we're having this moment, because this is a horrifying moment for our local community. If it starts to open up this discussion, I think it needs to happen now. Let's go quickly to Whitney in Texas. Whitney, go ahead.

Thanks so much. I'm a Christian and a patriot in that order. My Republican women's group opens every session with a prayer and they invoke the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The two things that complicate my patriotism right now are that I love my country, but I don't feel like my country loves me. Whether it's being called a domestic terrorist because you go to a school board meeting or a racist because you believe in meritocracy. And then at the same time, I increasingly feel like I'm not recognizing the country that I love because of those things. I think you make a very valid point, which is why I said this discussion on this poll is 50-50 conservatives. And I would bet that a large portion of those conservatives that said, yeah, I don't feel very patriotic right now because of what you said. You've been demonized. You've become the enemy. It is hard to wake up every day and feel like that your entire that your entire country that you love and definitely love more than a lot of other people is labeling you as the enemy. But we figure a way to get past that.

We do. And it's not going to be just politics. It can't be just politics.

It's got to be changing people's hearts and minds beyond just the voter. I mean, yes, we need to have better representation for sure, but we got to be real careful on who we put in office. We got to be really careful on who we put up on a pedestal.

Lord knows I don't feel like any of us should be, but if we have an audience, I'm willing to talk to you. Let's move on to Roger, who is calling in Oregon on line two. Roger, you're on the air.

Yes, thank you. My comment has to I agree with everything that's been said so far, but it actually reminded me of something that Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave at a Harvard commencement speech in, I believe, 1978. Basically, it was titled Warning to the West, where the West is failing as a model to the world. So many of the things he's talked about then are actually unfolding today. But at the foundation of this, all of this is summed up in a little conversation that he had with his father, because at a young age, Solzhenitsyn asked his father, why is all this stuff happening?

You know, communism has just taken hold of the Bolshevik revolution. So he asked his father, why is this all happening? And his father just clearly said, because we have forgotten God. And that is what's happening today. We have forgotten God. And until we recognize that fact and return to him, this isn't going to get any better.

Absolutely, Roger, I think that that's a valid point. So what a lot of people have said, hey, I want to apologize to most Scott and James weren't able to get to you today. I tried to get as many calls as we can. And we just simply ran out of time. But I appreciate that call.

And I appreciate that pretty much everyone has this same sentiment, has the same feeling that are calling in right now. It feels like we are in a spiritual rut. And we need some sort of way to rekindle that in America. I don't know what it's like overseas. I don't know what it's like in other countries. I spent a lot of time internationally. I saw great people of faith and then I obviously saw not. So I don't know what it's like now.

So I can't say this is worldwide, but it feels that way, doesn't it? Coming up in the next segment, on Friday, Sean Spicer stopped by the office and came and sat in with us. He was a little late and didn't make it on the main show. So unfortunately he did secular brothers, which had crazy numbers. Thanks for watching that.

But he did, we did record a segment with him. So that's going to be coming up next. So if you're listening, this is the sort of live portion. And I appreciate it. Thank you for supporting the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Thanks for dealing with sort of a very different show today. I know it was strange, but we were dealing with real stuff that's happening in our community. And I'm glad that all of you guys called in too. I really appreciate all the callers helped us get through it. Thanks to Rick Grenell.

Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Again, coming up in the next segment. So stay tuned. Sean Spicer, always a fun guy to have in studio.

It's a great new children's book out. Take a listen. We'll be right back with more. And with Sean Spicer. Welcome back to SecYoga special guests in the studio.

A good friend of ours. You know, Sean Spicer is joining us on the set here in Nashville with us on Secula. I was just laughing when Sean walked in because it's weird that it came up and I was like going through my text messages, you know, going through this one's been around too long and it was one from you during the day. I'm sure it was a nonchalant low key manner that we were handling in our normal course of crisis. There was something legal. I think it was Sean Spicer from the podium saying, talk to Jay Secula, the President's private lawyer. That was the go-to throw it to.

And then I would throw it back. I think you should check with Sean Spicer, the communications writer for the White House. Anyways, we're glad you're here. Thank you. It's always good to be here. It's funny.

By the way, it's hysterical. I got up this morning. My mother-in-law landed last night. We got up this morning and she said, where are you going? My wife goes, you tell her.

And I go, I'm going to Nashville. She landed from Nashville last night. She lives here. My wife's from here. And she's like, you're joking, right? She literally got it. She's been there like an hour and a half and I'm flying to Nashville. She flew here. We changed.

We exchanged. This hits right at my demographic also with grandparents too, because you've got a book out through the Freedom Island series published by Brave Books for Kids. The parent we got on the screen, the parents go bananas. Now they're doing like a book club for kids, which is awesome. But this is your first kid's book. You've got children. You've written books before.

We've all done that. I haven't done a kid's book before. Tell people about the parents go bananas. So look, Freedom Brave Books does books, as you said, they're patriotic. They've got great themes that just that you can read to your kids, not worry about a woke agenda.

Right? So they came to me and said, Hey, we've partnered with, you know, everybody from Kirk Cameron to Brittany Hamilton, the surfer to Jack Paciebeck. And they said, you know, what, what would be something that you'd be interested in? I said, well, I know the media and politics. And so we brainstorm.

I said, you know, what do you think? Like kids would want to learn about fake news. And they were like, that's it.

So it's not, we don't talk about fake news or the media, but we write about, and I sat with my kids and I said, what's it like to be, you know, accused, how many kids get accused of something that they're not guilty of. Right. And it happens on the playground or a teacher says, did you do this? But then also what happens, and we saw this in the case of Nick Salmon, in the case of Covington Catholic where everybody piles on.

So in the book, I'm handling one of those pilot cases right now. You're right. And so it was accused of, the teacher said, you can't afford that cross. You stole that cross.

It was given to him by an afterschool program from the school. Okay. So, and in this, and in, in this, we teach the kids, you know, everybody in the, in mushroom village piles on to these two upstanding, mushroom village, of course, on freedom Island. They pile on and, and so we teach kids, Hey, Hey, you know what it's like to be accused of something and B don't pile on, don't jump to conclusions.

Don't jump on that bandway. So if your kids are young, you can read to them. If they're older, like mine, mine are 12. Then they can read it on their own, but there's, there's exercises in the back you can do, but here's the point. I think I've written three serious books that were meant for adults. This was fun. It's great illustrations. It's a way that we can start to get at that demographic because this is where the left is playing right now.

They're going at kids, they're indoctrinating them. So, you know, this was my little attempt at saying, you know, I, I deal with this every day with my kids where I have to have conversations with them. So I was like, Hey, this is fun. You know, we, your kids lived it. My daughter is, is my oldest of three is starting to learn to read herself. And, but also, you know, we're still reading books with her on a nightly basis, a daily basis. And she gets a lot of, she started to figure out what we do here. You know, she, she sees the picture of her when she was like a one-year-old with President Trump in the Oval Office. She, she talks about the ACLJ and kind of like, what does it mean to go to law? You know, why do people need lawyers and things like that. And, you know, there's, it's, I'd rather not turn on just the news, which you're on as well, because I'm not sure what's happening next.

That can be a little tough for a six-year-old, but having a book like this to kind of walk her through, well, this is the, this is kind of what we're in the business of doing. And that's the point is that, again, I don't use words like fake news or even talk about the media, but we talk about a scenario where these guys are out playing the equivalent of baseball, like, you know, and, and what it's like to be accused of something that you didn't do. And Jay, you just referenced this. It happens all the time, whether it's on the playground or in the classroom, you know, did you steal that? Did you cheat?

Did you do this? And the kids are saying, no, I didn't like, I didn't do this. And then every other kid piles on. And so it's a great lesson that the kids are probably either going to deal with themselves or witness themselves. And so it was, and then obviously not to give too much away but, you know, obviously they are exonerated towards the end. And so if your kid is 40.

How does this whole work? I mean, so it's a book club basically. Right. No, well, you can go on Amazon right now. I wish you don't. I hope you go to bravebooks.com because it's a better way to support it, but you can go on Amazon and buy it just as a one-off. But bravebooks.com is where we'd rather people go. Right now you can go and you get it for $1 in the month of March, and then you can subscribe and get one a month. If you want to buy it as a one-off, God bless you. And you can do that too. But the idea is that if you're a parent, a grandparent, a godparent, or just a good uncle or friend or whatever, and you want to subscribe, you know, for your kids or for someone else's, you can go do that. You get one a month from a different author every month. That's great. And if you just want to buy it as a... All patriotic themes, pretty much.

All patriotic or just good. I mean, Kirk Cameron writes about families. Right.

Bethany, Dan Crenshaw wrote one about bravery. Right. And so it's not... That's great.

But there's, again, there's no themes that you're going to go, oh gosh, you're going to have to explain this. And you, I mean, you guys know this, that kids now are going to watch something and they're going to come to you and say, can you explain this to me? You're, you know, you're asking why do people need lawyers, right?

How many times now are they watching something on YouTube? Do people still need lawyers? More than ever, believe me.

They need cheaper lawyers is what they need. And so I think part of this is to have something that I don't have to worry about as a parent, them coming to me and saying, gosh, explain, you know, this anatomy, you know, that if you think about the books... Can you believe that we're in a point... I'm going to get a daily question because I have the news on the background, I keep it low in the card, but it's just that, you know, there's still a war in Ukraine. What is war?

Why do people do that to you? Why, you know, just, and that is a, that is figuring out how to get into that, like you said, it's so many questions. Knowing that you can have a book that, again, answers questions, that is not going to lead to more confusion, but instead it gives them answers. But it's not trying to indoctrinate them either. We're not trying to push an agenda. It's just saying, be, be smart, be a good person. That's not an agenda. Being a good person is not, shouldn't be something that's controversial.

Like there's no one on the left. If you read this, no matter how far left you are, you read this book and you shouldn't say to yourself, gosh, there's a right-wing agenda here. This is just be a good person agenda. Again, I want to encourage people to subscribe is really the best way we like people to do it, to join the club. So where's the best place for them to go for that? If you go to bravebooks.com and then again, you can subscribe for one buck during the month of March, you get my book and then you, you get one a month.

Or you can just go to seanspicer.com and there's all the information there as well. Can we ask a political question? What's your sense of where things are? I mean, this is going to be some campaign season coming. Oh, I think buckle up. I mean, if I were a documentary company, I would start getting extra film crews.

And I mean, this is, this is like made for television. What, what's about to happen both in terms of the primary Trump versus DeSantis. And then I think Do you think that's what's going to come down to right now? I don't, I don't think there's any question. I mean, one of the things that that I've been telling people is, you know, you've got to understand the game, right?

And it's like whether or not it's baseball, football, soccer, or whatever, candy land, understanding the game. And so what's going to happen is, is that there are thresholds for each of these states, the primaries and caucuses, and the only two candidates right now that qualify for delegates in any state, meaning because the minimum that every state has is 10%. The only two candidates to qualify for delegates in any state are Trump and DeSantis. Yeah. It's gonna be an interesting season. I mean, it's interesting historically too, when this is all done to see what happens. Yeah. And we know our listeners are supporters on this issue. That's why primaries are great. You got a former President running against a, you know, sitting governor in the primary. And then you've got, you know, likely, I mean, I think that Trump is right now, but by all accounts, the front runner, right?

You can, no matter where you are. And so the likelihood of having two Presidents face off in your general, like, I mean, again, it's, it's historic. Yeah. No, that alone would be historic. Yeah.

I mean, it'd be unreal. All right. Let's give the, let's again, the book is the parents go bananas. You go to brave books.com or Sean Spicer.com, whichever is easier for you to remember. You can sign up and be part of that book club. I'm gonna do it today because I think it's awesome. And I get it for, and for grandparents out there too. All right. Thank you, Sean. We appreciate you being on.