Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - BONUS ｜ Her Bible-Verse Parking Spot Was Banned … Then She Fought Back and Won ｜ Sophia Shumaker & Keisha Russell

00:00:00.000 well thank you all so much for joining me and if you both could just say who you are and what you

00:00:13.840 do my name is sophia shoemaker i'm a senior at rampart high school awesome and i'm keisha

00:00:19.940 russell i'm senior counsel at first liberty institute so let's talk about this case let's

00:00:24.900 talk about this story it involved a senior parking spot at your high school in colorado right yeah so

00:00:32.260 tell me a little bit more about the tradition you're painting or chalking this um this parking

00:00:37.620 spot yeah so each year the seniors get to paint their own parking spot they have to pay for it 0.57

00:00:43.620 and it's kind of just a little tradition they do just to express themselves on their last year

00:00:49.320 okay and what did you choose to paint or to draw i originally wanted to choose the parable from luke

00:00:56.640 15 of the shepherd in the 99 sheep but then i kind of altered it to a backwards fish okay and tell me

00:01:04.200 what does that symbolize um the backwards fish is kind of what people in the bible used to draw in

00:01:10.620 the dirt when they couldn't really talk about religion and they wanted to know if the other

00:01:15.100 people were christians so so an ictus yeah and it was there a bible verse or it was just that symbol

00:01:21.040 no it was just like a group of fish and then there was one fish swimming backwards going the other

00:01:26.480 direction swimming upstream yeah and were you the only one that did any kind of like christian symbolism

00:01:32.080 um well we weren't actually allowed to do christian um imagery on our parking spaces but i kind of

00:01:38.700 snuck that one in there i don't think they realized it but it was against the rules to do christian

00:01:43.380 imagery yeah when she was told she couldn't do the original design which you should talk about a lot

00:01:48.620 but uh then she decided to do the backwards fish shorter than somewhat of a protest of not being 0.93

00:01:54.900 able to do the original design okay so back up um you submitted an original design okay tell me about

00:02:02.120 that process you have to get approval so each of the seniors who want to paint their parking spot

00:02:08.040 gets a little pamphlet of the rules and somewhere where they can draw like their little submission

00:02:14.540 and then they have to take it to the stuco representatives and usually get that signed off

00:02:19.580 and stuff like that and so your parking space has to look the drawing has to look exactly how you want

00:02:25.340 it on the parking space and there's like a list of rules and if you violate one of the rules your

00:02:30.180 parking space gets like painted over or like if it gets denied you have to redo it

00:02:35.300 and so yeah originally i had asked one of the stuco representatives if i could do

00:02:40.960 a shepherd and the 99 sheep with the bible verse and they said just because of the religious imagery

00:02:47.000 and the bible verse it probably wouldn't get approved and stuff like that and so i didn't

00:02:52.120 want to go through all the hassle and so i just changed the design completely to like

00:02:56.900 kind of symbolize my christianity but i don't think they really knew what it was

00:03:01.320 yeah okay let's put up full screen one which is your original design that you had submitted

00:03:06.980 did you draw that yourself yeah i did so are you an artist then my grandparents um and some of my

00:03:13.260 family members are artists but i i think so i mean i feel like i would buy something like that

00:03:19.780 off of etsy so that was beautiful that's what you submitted and they didn't even say you can have that

00:03:25.380 but not the bible verse they said even the sheep and the shepherd you can't have

00:03:29.860 i think it was mostly just because of the bible verse just because people would know it's from

00:03:35.160 the bible or know it's religious and stuff like that but yeah um and then what made you say you

00:03:42.320 know what i'm gonna i'm gonna do another christian theme design because you could have said you know

00:03:48.700 what whatever i'll just do a flower or something but you decided to kind of test the limits a little

00:03:53.500 bit more why is that well i just couldn't think of anything else like i knew i just wanted to

00:03:59.860 you know put my christian christianity on that parking space and other christians would look at

00:04:05.700 that and realize what it meant and stuff like that and if they weren't christians or if they

00:04:10.380 weren't religious like they would look at that and be like oh i wonder what that means and maybe ask

00:04:15.220 me and stuff like that but yeah and what happened after that after we painted the parking spot

00:04:22.240 so did you have to resubmit a design yeah so i resubmitted my design and it was that

00:04:28.380 official one and it got approved and everything went how it was supposed to you know went to the

00:04:34.640 painting day it was so much fun i got to spend time with all the seniors and spend time with my best

00:04:39.520 friend she painted her parking spot right next to mine and you know we kind of heard about first

00:04:44.800 liberty and the sabrina case like on fox news and stuff like that and it just really inspired me and

00:04:51.360 you know my mom had said something about first liberty and we reached out to them

00:04:56.160 yeah tell me about the sabrina case so sabrina steffens is a senior in new york and she had a 0.99

00:05:02.340 very similar situation where she wanted to paint um about her christianity on her parking spot she was

00:05:09.840 told no so she actually submitted a couple different designs um and many of them had scripture or

00:05:15.880 scripture references so she submitted three different designs and the last one was approved because

00:05:21.020 the only symbol that she could think to add was a cross um and she hit it in a t basically so they

00:05:29.920 didn't um ban that because it was a hidden cross and so we wrote a letter to that school district in

00:05:37.100 new york telling them that what they were doing was unconstitutional we did a lot of media which you'd be

00:05:43.300 surprised how sobering it can be for a school district to be on national news to have to explain

00:05:48.180 why they're violating a student's constitutional rights and so once that happened the school

00:05:53.140 district relented it probably took a couple weeks for that to happen um but i told sabrina just like

00:05:59.140 i told tell sophia when you do that other students see it and they want to stand up for themselves as

00:06:05.200 well and that's what happened with sophia so tell me after you started you know you heard about that

00:06:10.880 case the sabrina case you heard about first liberty what did you do um well my mom reached out to them

00:06:17.320 and it just kind of landslide from there like they said they would take our case and then

00:06:24.500 the news got involved and they sent the letter to my school and within a couple days like

00:06:29.460 the case was over and you know it got approved and i got to repaint it and everything and

00:06:36.020 yeah so you got to repaint it with your original design and the bible verse yeah okay keisha tell me

00:06:42.140 about that whole process so once sophia and her mom contacted us we look at what they have the

00:06:49.920 evidence they have the emails they've sent and in this situation it was a little different than new

00:06:54.680 york because the school actually had the guidelines posted on their website which banned any religious

00:07:01.020 imagery at all the other different thing about this case was that throughout the district other

00:07:06.540 seniors were allowed to put religious things on their parking spaces so now you have this sort of

00:07:12.200 inconsistent policy being applied differently um which makes the case very difficult for the school

00:07:17.440 district um because it's harder for them to say oh we're controlling this this is just government

00:07:22.020 speech um when clearly they're not uh and so when we wrote the letter we included all of that and we

00:07:29.000 just said look we'd like to resolve this amicably um with a letter but we are willing to sue

00:07:34.960 if you continue to violate her rights and so we're asking you to change your policy and let sophia 1.00

00:07:40.560 paint what she wanted to paint um and then the news gets involved and that is also um helps with the

00:07:46.960 pressure and helps to sort of reveal what the school district is doing and it makes it much harder for

00:07:53.380 them to continue it so that was kind of how things got going and then eventually after a couple weeks

00:07:59.860 uh the school district relented and not only did they let sophia repaint her spot but they changed

00:08:05.560 their entire policy removing the religious restrictions and open up the program again

00:08:10.540 for students who had painted their spot but wanted to repaint it with something religious so

00:08:14.420 really really great um outcome in this case yeah so why are we seeing schools do this why are they

00:08:23.740 coming up with this policy that doesn't allow bible verses even references to christianity or a

00:08:29.500 painting of a parable like what is their thinking behind that well it's hard to say because i think

00:08:35.940 different officials have different thinking on it a lot of people ask me do i think it's because the

00:08:40.800 districts just don't know any better are they trying to um you know figure out the law and i think

00:08:47.580 sometimes that's the case but i actually do think that some some of the school districts know that they

00:08:52.120 really shouldn't be doing it but they don't expect the students to fight back they don't expect the

00:08:57.020 students to get a lawyer certainly right so for every say one sophia there are probably hundreds of

00:09:02.460 students who back down and never fight back and paint the backwards fish or the smiley face of the

00:09:08.320 flower instead so you know i think there's a combination of things going on but i also think

00:09:13.840 sort of the anti-christian bias in schools is pretty strong um particularly in public schools

00:09:21.460 obviously because you know it's just christianity is often targeted in the culture and it begins in

00:09:28.520 the schools and i always tell people you know our schools are supposed to be teaching our students

00:09:33.240 what the constitution it means and how it applies to them it's their first interaction

00:09:37.360 with the constitution with government um if the school teaches students that the constitution doesn't

00:09:44.420 apply to them or religion is something to be ashamed of or to ban then that's what the students are

00:09:49.020 going to think as they grow up have you seen the policies like this are being unevenly applied you

00:09:54.920 seem to reference that earlier that it's not just a general rule that applies to everyone equally

00:10:00.240 right yeah so um yes that that's absolutely the case there are several school districts and

00:10:06.780 including this one actually that we when you look into the history you see that they've banned

00:10:12.420 christian clubs or they censor christian clubs but they allow other clubs to advertise and promote

00:10:18.180 what they're doing and share what they want to share and have posters but then the christian club wants

00:10:22.920 to do the same and all of a sudden it becomes oh no you can't post a put a poster up with with you

00:10:28.940 know scripture on it or you can't talk about the fact that you have a christian club because it's

00:10:33.420 religious and you shouldn't be able to share it so i've seen a lot of inconsistence uh inconsistency and

00:10:39.500 and and applying policies like this um and it's not just with parking spaces like religious clubs it

00:10:45.440 happens a lot um and with speech in general i'm representing a a teacher right now in connecticut

00:10:53.740 whose name is marisol castro she keeps a crucifix by her desk um you know next door wall calendar all 1.00

00:11:00.060 the other teachers are allowed to decide what they want to put in their personal spaces but she was 0.50

00:11:05.060 removed from the classroom because she chooses to have a crucifix there instead of a new england patriots

00:11:09.960 flag or something like that um and so we're fighting that case in federal court right now

00:11:14.640 and is that a trend that you're seeing across the board not just in our education system

00:11:19.400 but specifically christian beliefs on display seem to get unfair discrimination and scrutiny

00:11:27.820 absolutely all the time absolutely 100 uh the case and that's why first liberty is so busy we have

00:11:36.660 right we have more requests than we can ever take because christians are constantly being censored

00:11:41.920 they're constantly being banned when everyone around them is allowed to say what they want

00:11:46.160 but then the christian wants to say something spiritual or they want to quote a scripture and

00:11:51.300 they're not allowed to do that so marisol's case is pretty indicative of what's going on you know all

00:11:56.780 the other teachers are allowed to say what they want they're allowed to have a baby yoda or they're

00:12:00.820 allowed to represent whatever football team or anything like that but because she chooses to have

00:12:07.040 a religious symbol next to her desk she's the one who gets out ousted out of the classroom so it's um

00:12:14.580 i i don't like that it's the trend but it absolutely is and it's the reason why you know our firm is in

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00:13:37.200 sophia tell me a little bit more just about your upbringing and about your faith obviously this is

00:13:48.000 a huge part of your life or you could have very easily said this is not that important to me but

00:13:53.580 you chose to fight which means it is very important to you so just tell me more about your background

00:13:58.160 yeah so i grew up in a christian household always going to church on sunday and you know my parents did

00:14:03.960 a really good job of even though we were moving every two years because my dad's job we were always

00:14:09.700 finding a home in the church and my grandparents are really religious and you know i always grew up like

00:14:16.840 very christian and loving god and you know freshman year was very hard for me i went through something and

00:14:25.800 you know it changed a lot and i stopped believing in god for a bit because you know you question

00:14:31.940 your faith you question how much he actually loves you and if he's really real and you know i he found

00:14:39.780 me again you know that's why i relate to the parable so much because jesus found me i was that lost sheep

00:14:46.160 and you know ever since then i've been fully devoted in being a steward of god and being a child of god

00:14:53.760 and that's who i am and that's i want to walk in every room and everybody be able to see

00:14:59.200 like jesus's love like radiating radiating off of me you know yeah that's why you know just

00:15:08.400 i wanted to pursue it so bad because i just want to live every day to the fullest and resembling god

00:15:15.180 yeah have there been other times you go to public school in colorado have there been other times

00:15:21.080 where you felt like you were that fish swimming upstream or it's been hard to be a christian at your

00:15:25.700 high school i just feel like every day like schools are getting so worth like worldly you

00:15:31.660 know this world and i feel like for christians it's so hard to like see everybody who don't like

00:15:37.920 believe or don't know jesus's love and you know it's it's so important to find those god-filled

00:15:43.980 communities within your school yeah what advice would you give other teenagers who might be in a

00:15:51.100 similar position and they're trying to find the boldness to represent their faith when they're

00:15:56.300 trying to go against the grain what would you tell them i just feel like at the end of the day we're

00:16:00.960 all stewards of god's love and we're all here to represent him like it's not our world it's his world

00:16:07.460 it's all for him and he loves us so much and i just feel like we just need to like resemble him and

00:16:14.600 represent him as best as we can yeah keisha what advice would you give parents like what what rights

00:16:22.120 do they have when it comes to these situations and maybe other situations when it comes to our

00:16:26.340 education system some parents feel like they've like lost their kids to the public school and they

00:16:31.880 may not realize they actually have some tools to stand up yeah i mean i think you you have to really

00:16:37.640 be intentional about knowing what's going on um because the schools are not going to you know be very

00:16:42.860 transparent in some cases and so you really have to to want to know what's happening and to be very

00:16:49.620 engaged and just to know that you have rights as a parent i mean the supreme court has just ruled in

00:16:55.780 in a very monumental decision in mamood versus taylor yeah that schools are not allowed to indoctrinate

00:17:02.380 your children uh without your consent and your ability to opt out of you know controversial sexual

00:17:09.520 content in many in many cases and parents need to exercise those rights they need to make it clear

00:17:15.440 to the schools what they believe and what they will tolerate and not tolerate the other thing is i think

00:17:21.280 we should really be looking to expand school choice obviously because you know competition is going to

00:17:27.620 increase the quality of what's going on i think in public schools and if public schools see a mass exodus

00:17:34.200 of parents going to private schools and they're going to have to change what they're doing if they want to

00:17:38.520 continue to operate and and have funding and so you know parents have have a lot of power um that

00:17:45.880 oftentimes they don't exercise um but i also wanted to say that you know teaching your children to stand up

00:17:53.320 for themselves is a really important thing because you're not always going to be there to walk them

00:17:57.840 through their christianity and walk them through the trials and the inevitable difficulties that come

00:18:03.480 in life and so if you raise someone like sophia to stand up for themselves and encourage them to you

00:18:10.040 know watch people who are gonna you know um motivate them inspire them and um i know you were friends

00:18:17.880 with charlie kirk and i know that she was very much inspired by his life and she's part of the fruit

00:18:24.200 the good fruit that has come from charlie you know expressing his faith and sticking up for his faith and

00:18:29.960 so you know that fruit continues to spread when she when sabrina does what she does you do what you do

00:18:36.360 uh you decide to stick up for yourself and so many other people will see her and and be inspired and

00:18:42.040 motivated so anyway we're so proud of you and um anyway i wanted you to know that about her being

00:18:48.400 inspired by charlie because i think his legacy is just continuing yeah um and the good fruit that has

00:18:54.040 come from his life is just really really obvious so can you talk more about that about how you found

00:19:00.220 charlie and his content and how it maybe impacted you yeah so i think i first found him on instagram

00:19:07.380 i was just scrolling on reels and i was like i like this guy yeah you know like he's such a relatable guy

00:19:14.400 i love his content i love how he fights for what's right whether it be republican views or christian

00:19:20.740 views and i just really agreed with a lot of things he was saying and yeah i'd watched him like every

00:19:27.140 single day like i'd wanted to go to the college things to go meet him and you know it it was really

00:19:34.720 heartbreaking what happened you know to see this person that i looked up to and you know wanted to

00:19:41.500 be like and express my views just like him for that to happen and yeah yeah we've seen a lot of young

00:19:48.460 people colleges high schools be impacted not only by his life and his words but also his death like i

00:19:54.260 can think of some young people in my lives who yeah they might have been christian conservative but then

00:20:00.040 after that happened to charlie it just i don't know it emboldened them in some way how would you say

00:20:06.860 the past couple of months have affected you i just feel like really looking at the views like

00:20:14.100 oh if you believe something then you can die for it you know and that's what jesus did jesus believed

00:20:20.880 in something so strongly that he died for it you know and part of that is so unfair but i feel like

00:20:27.020 that's all how we should all live like we should stand for something so boldly and so strongly that

00:20:34.080 we should be able to put our life on the line and be like i am willing to die for this and that's what

00:20:38.840 i'm i'm hoping to be like one day like i'm i want to die for jesus well i don't want to die for jesus

00:20:46.620 but i would die for jesus i'd stand on the hill if people are coming at me i'd you know i just want

00:20:53.620 to stand strong for that yeah would you say that among the people that you know your friends that

00:21:00.260 they have this kind of like new vigor for their faith in the past couple of months is this a trend

00:21:06.440 that you've seen in your own life oh definitely i feel like people who weren't religious and

00:21:12.140 didn't see things you know the same way are coming to me and my friends and being like how are

00:21:18.760 how are you feeling about this how do you see this like what is some advice and i feel like so many

00:21:24.040 people are you know coming to christ and i think that's such a good thing like the things like charlie

00:21:29.080 did and what he died for was so monumental that i think it's just a big revival of the newer

00:21:34.900 generation and stuff like that yeah praise god i hope that that's true keisha if you're looking at

00:21:42.460 the landscape from your legal perspective i know i know i'm holding back tears myself um and you know

00:21:50.760 even just as a christian like and you're like gosh i wish that the average person knew this that's what's

00:21:57.520 going on or what they could do what what would that be i wish you know christians knew and felt

00:22:05.840 that god calls us to be bold as a lion and that we're not supposed to cower that we're not supposed

00:22:11.460 to give in and we're not supposed to just get run over like that is not true kindness that is not true

00:22:16.780 empathy that you know standing in truth is really what god wants from us he wants us to be bold and

00:22:22.380 courageous and stand up for him and i think so many people in the bible sort of display that that kind

00:22:29.200 of courage and boldness where they're willing to to risk everything yeah for the truth and for the

00:22:33.840 gospel and i see a lot of like just weak need christians and and i understand you know i i in some

00:22:42.300 ways i'm in a very sort of powerful position being a lawyer religious liberty lawyer a constitutional lawyer

00:22:48.640 and so i know how to stand up for myself and for my clients um but god is there all the time and you

00:22:56.040 don't need me or first liberty to do that like you god is always going to be with you to stand with you

00:23:01.360 boldly and firmly and give you what you need in order to to stand up for him and so i wish christians

00:23:09.860 really understood the power of boldness and they really understood that that is what god wants from us

00:23:15.660 you know he wants us to be the proclaimers of truth and shout from the rooftops what god has done

00:23:20.920 for us um and i don't think he wants anything less from us than that that's such a good point that it's

00:23:27.320 not christian just to be a doormat that doesn't mean that we use violence or retaliation or vengeance

00:23:34.620 but standing up not just for our own rights but on behalf of others who come after sophia and who come

00:23:42.020 after those who are willing to say hang on this is not right it's not just about me but it's also

00:23:47.680 about all of these other people who maybe don't have the ability to speak up for themselves and i

00:23:53.280 just think as you're speaking just the unique ability that we have as americans to be able to

00:24:00.200 use the constitution to our advantage to be able to exercise those rights for most of christian history

00:24:06.400 there has not been a legal means by which they can say i have a right to practice this and government

00:24:14.100 you cannot stop me i think people don't realize how special that is i'm sure that means a lot to you

00:24:20.220 absolutely and you're 100 right it's such a unique thing that we have in in america it's not

00:24:27.240 it's not everywhere and it's not guaranteed either you know i tell people china has promised its citizens

00:24:33.920 you know the right to free speech the right to freedom of religion but we know that they don't 0.99

00:24:40.220 get that because the courts don't enforce it the government gets to do what it what it wants and so

00:24:44.760 if we are in a position where we continue to cower and bow down and let the government do whatever it

00:24:51.000 wants whenever it wants we won't have any rights left and so we constantly do have to fight for that

00:24:56.000 like the constitution is a promise between the government and the american people and it's up to

00:25:01.100 the american people to hold the government to that promise

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00:25:58.040 keisha can you talk a little bit more about your background how did you start doing what you do

00:26:07.060 yeah so i um i did not grow up as a christian at all didn't go to church my parents are not christians

00:26:13.760 uh but i went on a college tour when i was 17 with the salvation army and i didn't know they were a church

00:26:18.900 because i was unchurched obviously i just thought they were humanitarian

00:26:22.060 um and during that college tour they would have these uh dinners where they were obviously in

00:26:28.540 or voluntary and i got saved during one of those dinners they preached the gospel

00:26:33.100 wow and i got saved and um and then from there was just kind of a whirlwind i

00:26:38.380 had you ever heard the gospel before was it totally new to you

00:26:42.620 it was i'd been to church yeah before like with my grandmother and like a friend or two

00:26:47.820 but i never heard the gospel like i did that night um and then i it's like something opened

00:26:54.240 in me and i knew i understood what was being said and what was being offered yeah and i definitely

00:26:59.060 wanted it i i always wanted truth and i wanted god and i always knew there was a god um but i didn't

00:27:05.380 know what that meant in terms of who you accept who you don't right and so once i accepted christ i

00:27:11.360 you know went to college and um it wasn't until after college i was discipled and found a good

00:27:18.460 church community this was in atlanta at that point um and i started teaching uh fourth and fifth grade

00:27:25.460 special education students and i felt god used me in that role because they were emotional behavioral

00:27:31.480 students they were kids who weren't allowed to be in the classroom like the normal classroom anymore

00:27:36.260 and they really needed love and patience and dedication and commitment and god really just

00:27:43.000 i felt god used me every single day to change those students and to show them that they were

00:27:47.720 worth more than um what they saw in their neighborhood that they could do more they could be more

00:27:53.880 um and so i saw them change and transform before my eyes and so i was i call it being ruined for the

00:28:01.020 ordinary like i knew i was never going to be able to do anything ordinary again like everything i did

00:28:06.200 was going to have to be an expression of god and so i did the teaching and then i felt really

00:28:12.980 strongly called to go to law school which i did not want to do like at all really wow i did not

00:28:19.360 um and so it kind of chased me for a while and finally said okay i'll apply but i'm never going

00:28:25.300 to get in you know i but if god wants me to do it i will but i was not expecting to get in so

00:28:30.580 eventually i ended up at emory law in atlanta where there's a center for the study of law and

00:28:35.860 religion and um that's where i was introduced to this amazing practice area called religious

00:28:41.960 liberty and so i studied under a rabbi whose name was mark goldfutter he worked for aclj that's j

00:28:48.060 sakula's organization and so i did a lot of work for the jewish community in the united states and at

00:28:55.020 the time the um israel was uh running the legal committee the united nations so we did some work

00:29:01.560 there too um so really robust work i was doing a lot of great things as a law school student those

00:29:08.300 last two years and from there i was introduced to first liberty and became an intern um worked full

00:29:16.480 time there as an intern and studied for the bar exam which i don't recommend anyone ever do

00:29:20.980 passed and then they hired me and so i've been there since 2017

00:29:26.200 wow yeah so you know your journey is so unique and i know that's not the primary reason that we

00:29:33.880 came on today but i just love hearing about it it's interesting too okay so you became a christian

00:29:38.700 after being raised totally secular and you taught in atlanta and you went to law school in atlanta and

00:29:44.800 somehow you're also a conservative yeah like that is also very unique were you raised kind of with the

00:29:51.800 principles of the constitution and things like that or no no no none of that um no i i actually

00:29:59.460 was surrounded by people who i didn't think like at all yeah um and so and i really never connected

00:30:06.280 a lot of my thinking to being a christian until later i i just didn't make the connection but

00:30:12.000 a lot of it a lot of the the sort of disagreements i had with people especially in atlanta would be

00:30:17.820 about race and you know i was just so maybe overconfident in god you know and i would just say

00:30:24.120 nobody's gonna take anything from me that god wants for me i don't care how i look and you'd be

00:30:30.880 surprised how many people wanted to push back on that but i think that's why i'm here is because i was

00:30:35.200 just god can do anything you know and it was very much like you know throw your your water on the altar

00:30:42.620 and god will still light the fire you know so that's kind of where i was i was just very like

00:30:47.940 bold and didn't want anyone to stand in my way and i wasn't willing to sort of succumb to the

00:30:53.860 conversations that say because you're black or because you're a woman or because you're young or

00:30:57.940 whatever there are things you can't do and i know that because i'm on god's side i can do anything

00:31:04.060 and so that it did cause a lot of friction because i wasn't really around a lot of people who thought

00:31:10.500 like me um and i can tell you even in church sometimes i was um criticized for my thinking

00:31:17.300 or my beliefs and it just never stopped me and it still hasn't i mean i have people now who say oh

00:31:23.520 you're such an accomplished lawyer why do you take cases about a parking space or about a teacher in a

00:31:28.960 crucifix like you could go be a corporate lawyer make millions of dollars like why are you wasting your

00:31:32.900 time i thought but this is where the value is this is where this is what god wants is for us to

00:31:38.980 conquer territory for his kingdom and that's what we do every single day and so i i think

00:31:44.340 it's an amazing thing it's that god wants me to do this that god has asked me to be a lawyer and the

00:31:51.440 least i could do is dedicate my you know my law license to do what god has asked me to do as opposed

00:31:57.520 to whatever the world thinks is more important or whatever so this is i think this is the most important

00:32:05.020 thing you know for me to do right now um that doesn't mean god will always have me here but

00:32:09.600 i'm willing to do what he wants with this license with this opportunity not everyone gets this this

00:32:16.320 opportunity so i just feel very blessed and very grateful yeah wow i'm just tearing up because i'm

00:32:22.520 just thinking about even just the three of us here we're representative of three different realms

00:32:27.760 you know we're probably close to the same age but maybe like three different ages three different

00:32:33.220 spheres you know three different sets of gifts and it just goes to show that god uses all of his

00:32:39.280 people and their different talents to all work together to advance his kingdom i love what she said

00:32:45.580 about conquering territory for the kingdom that is a mentality that more christians need to have

00:32:50.800 and by the way like that is for the stay-at-home mom too that territory may be your home like it may be

00:32:56.940 your neighborhood it may be your next door neighbor and sharing the gospel it doesn't necessarily mean

00:33:01.980 being a lawyer being a podcaster it's being a faithful student maybe that territory is a parking

00:33:07.340 spot yeah like you just it's it's doing the next thing in in faith in an obedience to god and god

00:33:15.960 uses all of this unseen and unsung work and acts of obedience to tell this incredible story right

00:33:23.720 and we won't even know the fullness of the story until we get to the other side of glory but like what a

00:33:28.420 privilege it is for us to be a part of it like it's it's very exciting it's such a magical thing

00:33:34.420 to experience you know and i mean that and sort of it's just like divinely inspired because before i

00:33:40.120 decided to go be a teacher and i felt led to do that i wanted to be in media i wanted to be a reporter

00:33:45.900 on tv and i just think it's such a blessing that god even allows me to talk about my cases on media it's

00:33:52.000 sort of like just like this kiss of i know this is what you wanted you know and i'm just going to give

00:33:57.600 you a little bit of that too it's just it's such a beautiful thing what god has done in my life and

00:34:02.280 what i see him do every day in the lives of my clients so yeah it's an amazing thing yes praise god

00:34:08.640 sophia are there any just last words of encouragement you'd want to give the people who are watching and

00:34:14.140 listening yeah just go through every single day like being a steward of god you know like we should

00:34:21.720 live every single day to the fullest to represent him and you know live gracefully and yeah nothing's

00:34:30.880 unstoppable without god and yeah you should know that he loves you always yeah amen um anywhere that

00:34:38.400 they can go to find out more of what you're doing and first liberty is doing yeah so first liberty.org

00:34:43.920 um is where you can go to find out more about our cases um you can also sign up for an amazing

00:34:48.880 newsletter um where we talk about our cases we talk about what's going on in the world of religious

00:34:54.100 liberty we also talk about judges which is really really important um because the constitution doesn't

00:34:59.820 matter if you have judges who are not willing to uphold it and so um you can find all that there

00:35:05.220 it's uh fli insiders the newsletter you can get it every couple days every week or something like that

00:35:10.440 and they will update you and and ask you to pray for our clients who go through a lot

00:35:15.340 um when they stand up to the government it's not easy to do it um and a lot of them face a lot of

00:35:20.560 backlash in their respective communities so you can go there um and find that out i also wrote a book

00:35:27.760 this year called uncommon courage defending truth and freedom while there's still time and i talk a lot

00:35:33.520 about what i do and how christians can be more bold like yeah what are the practical steps you can

00:35:38.780 take so yeah that's awesome well thank you all both so much god bless you both and i'm so thankful

00:35:43.700 thankful for both of your courage thank you for having us

00:35:46.320 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - December 06, 2025

BONUS ｜ Her Bible-Verse Parking Spot Was Banned … Then She Fought Back and Won ｜ Sophia Shumaker & Keisha Russell

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