Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey

00:00:00.460 How will the war with Iran affect your wallet?

00:00:03.720 My dad is here to break that down to us,

00:00:05.700 as well as the conveniently timed scandal

00:00:08.000 of Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell.

00:00:10.540 What's really behind that?

00:00:12.080 He'll explain it all to us today.

00:00:13.960 It's a full episode.

00:00:14.840 I will also be talking to Finnish mother,

00:00:17.560 grandmother, and parliamentarian,

00:00:19.740 Pivey Rezanin.

00:00:21.180 She is a Christian who has been convicted

00:00:23.340 by the Finnish Supreme Court of hate speech.

00:00:26.440 And Alliance Defending Freedom is defending her.

00:00:28.840 She is here to tell her testimony of courage and what is ahead for her so we can share

00:00:33.280 the arrows.

00:00:34.260 First, I'll be talking to my friend, Bunny Pounds, and this crazy, incredible, Holy Spirit

00:00:39.440 empowered endeavor that I got to be a part of called America Reads the Bible, where 500

00:00:43.980 people, both in politics and out of politics, even in Hollywood, out of Hollywood, are reading

00:00:49.240 through the Bible for seven days straight.

00:00:51.400 That's happening right now.

00:00:52.940 We've got all of this and more on today's episode of Relatable.

00:00:55.320 It's brought to you by our friends at Olive.

00:00:57.640 Download this app so you can see what is really in your food when you go to the grocery store.

00:01:01.820 There's all kinds of hidden ingredients that you don't want to feed your family.

00:01:05.240 Download the Olive app today.

00:01:16.280 Buddy, thanks so much for joining me.

00:01:18.560 Okay, tell me about America Reached the Bible.

00:01:21.420 Allie, we're having an Ezra moment, just like the Israelites needed to be reminded of who

00:01:27.340 they were and their national identity.

00:01:29.900 Ezra stood up with the scroll and he read the books of Moses and reminded them of the

00:01:35.100 call of God on their life, the law of God.

00:01:37.960 We're doing a similar exercise here in Washington, D.C., as almost 500 of our national leaders

00:01:44.680 from all spheres of influence, all demographics and denominations, humble themselves in front

00:01:49.560 of the American people and remind them that we need the Bible and scripture, specifically

00:01:55.580 for our 250th birthday of America.

00:01:58.280 It is really an epic moment for seven full days, 84 hours from the Museum of the Bible.

00:02:04.840 Wow, it's been amazing.

00:02:07.260 Yeah, so this comes out on Wednesday.

00:02:09.440 So this morning, I got to read from the book of Esther.

00:02:11.720 I got to read chapter two, and then part of chapter three, which was such an honor and

00:02:16.400 so cool for me to go back and just re-study that myself, but then also to get to read it to the

00:02:21.680 country. And President Trump was also a part of this. Yesterday evening, he read from, was it

00:02:26.960 2 Chronicles? Yes, he read 2 Chronicles 7, verses 11 through 22. It's the first time in our history

00:02:35.840 that a president has read an uncensored full length of scripture, two and a half minutes from

00:02:42.500 the Oval Office. Really amazing that he would be willing to read this passage that we all have been

00:02:49.400 praying for like 50 years of National Days of Prayer. Really, it's global prayer. God spoke

00:02:56.520 through to Solomon in a very turbulent time in Israel's history and said,

00:03:01.820 If my people that are called by my name would humble themselves and pray and seek my face,

00:03:06.480 turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sins and heal

00:03:12.420 their land. So for the president, we've been praying for the president to potentially read

00:03:16.880 this for over a year. We've had a little group of prayer warriors praying that he would be willing

00:03:22.660 to do it. And, you know, knowing him and knowing how authentic and real he is, whether we agree

00:03:28.100 with him every minute or not on the things that he does, I've been praying that, you know, he

00:03:33.660 wouldn't read it if it wasn't real to him. And I think it's a real important moment for our country

00:03:40.260 because he's mixed in with normal Americans. My friend Jason Hershey, who's led prayer and

00:03:47.460 worship from David's tent in the National Mall, read right before the president. And then Ben

00:03:54.200 Carson and Candy Carson right after it. And then our friend Heidi St. John from the West Coast. So

00:04:00.320 we're just mixing the president here as a person, a created being. We're all American citizens,

00:04:07.300 whether we're rich, poor, powerful, not powerful, you know, it's just a kind of a beautiful picture

00:04:14.240 of what God does. He's the equalizer and he brings us all into his kingdom.

00:04:20.360 Yeah, gosh, that's absolutely true. What an incredibly audacious goal to get 500 different

00:04:25.720 people, as you said, some of the most powerful people in the world, like President Trump,

00:04:29.880 and then everyday people, if that's how you want to describe them. But of course,

00:04:35.420 same value and same importance to God, which is part of what you're talking about. But

00:04:39.640 how in the world did you reach all of these 500 people and get them to agree to read part of the

00:04:47.400 Bible? Well, we started, Allie, last February. I counted, I did about 200 Zoom meetings with

00:04:53.880 ministry leaders across the country. We strategically reached out to Bible-believing

00:04:58.620 ministries across the country that we felt we wanted to partner with on this, a John

00:05:05.040 17 moment across denominations.

00:05:07.420 We were strategic to reach out to all 50 states.

00:05:09.960 I think we're almost to all 50 states being represented, but we have 122 national ministries

00:05:16.180 signed on to participate.

00:05:17.680 They not only blessed us financially to help us do this event, but also signed marketing

00:05:22.840 agreements to help us push this out.

00:05:25.400 So really a real moment of unity.

00:05:27.560 And then we had about 20 hours of the Bible that we saved for elected officials and celebrities.

00:05:33.020 So we had to start the whole process again, reaching out to agents and managers and staffers

00:05:38.760 to work on getting all of these people signed on.

00:05:41.900 It has been the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.

00:05:44.660 Our team will tell you it's the hardest thing any of us have ever done.

00:05:48.500 But as we're living out this week right now, seeing the presence of God filling our capital,

00:05:53.020 filling the music of the Bible and seeing the response online with hundreds of thousands of

00:05:57.740 people accessing the live stream at any one time just to hear the spoken word. It's all been worth

00:06:03.520 it. It has all been worth it. Yeah. Amen. And tell me how people can watch. We're so thrilled.

00:06:11.680 Great American Pure Flix is streaming this and producing it for free. So just go to

00:06:17.500 americareadsthebible.com. And you can access the live stream at any time, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

00:06:24.640 Eastern Standard Time. We're going all the way through Saturday night at 9 p.m. Franklin Graham

00:06:30.400 will do the gospel presentation at the end of the book of Revelation. And we've got amazing

00:06:36.260 worship leaders that are here throughout the week filling in prayer and worship at the end

00:06:40.860 of each hour. But play it in your living room, play it in your business, play it in your churches,

00:06:46.120 Play it in your universities.

00:06:48.460 I really believe that God is moving a momentum here that we will treasure His word above

00:06:54.700 every other voice.

00:06:56.660 It's a powerful moment, and we're just honored to be a part of it.

00:07:00.360 Thank you.

00:07:00.840 And just so people know for sure, start date and end date.

00:07:04.040 Can they access right now and watch it?

00:07:06.500 Yes.

00:07:06.860 It started April 18 with our opening celebration that you can go back and watch.

00:07:12.140 That was just a powerful night.

00:07:13.720 and it goes all the way through Saturday night,

00:07:15.900 9 p.m. Eastern time as we end the book of Revelation

00:07:19.100 and have Franklin Graham give the gospel.

00:07:23.200 So good.

00:07:24.100 Well, thank you so much, Bunny,

00:07:25.500 and God bless you and this incredible,

00:07:28.260 incredible Holy Spirit empowered endeavor.

00:07:30.600 It was an honor for me to get to be a part of it.

00:07:32.880 So thank you so much.

00:07:33.920 Thank you, Allie.

00:07:34.640 We're so blessed to have you a part.

00:07:36.280 first sponsor for the day is a fellowship home loans people might not realize right now but now

00:07:46.700 is a really good time to refinance it's also a good time to buy a new home if you bought a home

00:07:51.780 in the last few years and you feel stuck right now higher rate pmi debt piling up then you've

00:07:57.220 got to hear from my friends mike and brian from fellowship home loans they're offering a free

00:08:01.720 mortgage checkup and it might be the most valuable phone call that you can make this year for 20

00:08:06.120 years, Mike and Brian have helped families not just buy homes, but make smarter decisions about

00:08:10.460 the ones they already own. They'll look at your whole picture, your rate, equity, debt, and tell

00:08:15.180 you exactly what your options are with rates lower now than they have been the past few years.

00:08:20.540 Refinancing, home equity loan, these can be a game changer for your finances. Everything is done

00:08:26.360 in-house. You can really trust this team at Fellowship Home Loans. If you go to fellowshiphomeloans.com

00:08:31.780 slash Allie, get $500 back at closing. You have no payments. Also, if you use my link for two

00:08:38.680 months, that's incredible. FellowshipHomeLoans.com slash Allie, Fellowship Home Loans, Mortgage

00:08:43.760 Lending by the book, Nationwide Mortgage Bankers, DBA, Fellowship Home Loans, Equal Housing Lender,

00:08:48.580 NMLS number 81932. Well, good morning or afternoon, whenever you're listening or watching

00:09:00.640 this. Don't usually see me in the middle of the week, but Allie Beth is in Washington, D.C.,

00:09:07.140 and she is part of the 500 people that are reading through the Bible, which is something that our

00:09:14.200 friend Bunny Pounds and her organization is doing, and she'll be doing some reading. So you can

00:09:19.600 probably go back and find that somewhere online if you want to watch that. She asked me to step

00:09:23.000 in for her today, and we're going to have a great show. It's going to be a lot of good. First thing

00:09:27.940 I want to remind you of, though, is don't forget to get your tickets to share the arrows coming up

00:09:31.780 in October. It's going to be another great event. You know, last year she had 7000 women sold out

00:09:37.560 the arena and it was a lot of fun. I was able to listen in on a part of it and just did a great

00:09:43.800 job. And I know they've got some great speakers and great entertainment coming. So hopefully that

00:09:48.220 you already have your tickets. If not, please get your tickets to share the air. Look at some of the

00:09:51.800 speakers. If you're watching this, you can see some of the speakers on the screen right now. I

00:09:55.280 It's just going to be awesome. And the singing people, it's so funny, Allie and I ran into one of the Shane and Shanes at the airport a couple of weeks ago when I was with her flying to go to a speech and just super nice people.

00:10:09.360 You're going to really love them. I'm sure that a lot of you already know who they are. So anyway, make sure you get your tickets to that.

00:10:14.520 We're going to talk about two or three things, and then at the end, there's going to be a video that you're not going to want to miss that Allie did an interview with a Finnish woman that has been persecuted pretty severely, in my opinion, for her faith.

00:10:29.300 And you're not going to want to miss that.

00:10:30.580 But first of all, we want to just a little bit of an update on a few things that are going on.

00:10:34.020 In fact, as we're recording this, the vote in Virginia to redistrict, meaning to redraw the geographical lines on where their congressional districts are, is taking place.

00:10:50.820 As you know, Virginia has a Democrat governor and a Democrat-controlled legislature.

00:10:57.240 So what they've done is they have passed a bill.

00:11:02.060 Now, we're not even sure that bill is going to pass constitutional muster.

00:11:06.060 It'll be challenged in court.

00:11:08.400 But right now, they've passed a bill to redraw the districts.

00:11:13.160 And it would essentially go from, I think they have six Democrats and five Republicans for their congressional delegation.

00:11:20.600 It would go to 10 Democrats, 10 Democrat districts, and one Republican district.

00:11:25.660 So talk about gerrymandering.

00:11:27.840 Remember, I explained to you where the word came from.

00:11:30.700 came from a congressman, I believe it was in Rhode Island, who originally drew a district

00:11:37.100 that looked like a salamander, you know, kind of a squiggly line to get all his right voters

00:11:42.680 in his district. And they ended up calling his last name was Jerry. So they called it gerrymandering.

00:11:47.660 But redistricting happens generally every 10 years after the census taken place. And that's

00:11:53.880 what most states do. And they adhere to this. Now, the challenge with using the census as it

00:11:59.880 works today. And this is why blue states want so many illegal aliens to be in their states, 0.99

00:12:07.620 because when you're looking at the census, it doesn't ask the question, are you a citizen? 0.53

00:12:15.460 And therefore, they just count numbers. So if there's a whole lot of illegal aliens in Southern

00:12:21.880 California and they're doing a census, they'll count those people in the census and the population

00:12:29.300 amounts in the census determines how many congressional seats each state gets, you know,

00:12:34.980 because it's based on population in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, it doesn't

00:12:39.820 matter because every state has two senators. But in the House of Representatives, it's based on

00:12:44.740 population. That's one of the main reasons that Democrats want to have an open border. So don't

00:12:49.540 ever forget that, all right? Please make sure that you're remembering that. We tried to change it.

00:12:54.000 I think the Supreme Court a few years ago did not allow us to include the citizenship question on the census.

00:13:02.660 I could be wrong on that. And some of you listening, if I am wrong on that, you can email email us back to correct me on that.

00:13:08.920 But anyway, Virginia is going through that. They're voting. Today is the last day of voting.

00:13:13.120 So by the time that this comes out, we'll know what happened in Virginia. It's kind of a 50 50 toss up.

00:13:19.420 But there's the yes vote, which means, yeah, we want to redistrict, is a little bit ahead.

00:13:25.380 But the strategy that the Republicans are using are using the same strategy they used for Governor Yonkin to win the governorship.

00:13:32.500 There is a whole lot of the Virginia landmass is actually those people vote Republican in the southern parts of the state.

00:13:40.680 And so they're trying to run up the score, the Republicans are, on the no vote in order to overcome the Washington, D.C. suburbs.

00:13:48.940 We'll see how that works out.

00:13:50.920 But just remember that they are doing this, and it's so funny.

00:13:55.460 We're going to listen to a video here in a few minutes, a few seconds, that their governor's

00:13:59.440 talking about.

00:14:00.320 But they're telling you that it's temporary, all right?

00:14:03.540 Listen to these words when she talks about it in just a second.

00:14:06.300 And then I want to come back and talk about what it really, really means.

00:14:09.940 So we can play SOT 1.

00:14:11.820 First, it's temporary.

00:14:14.240 Second, it's directly in response to what other states decide to do.

00:14:19.380 Third, and most importantly for me, it preserves Virginia's fair redistricting process into the future.

00:14:28.120 Okay, now that lady, she will lie when the truth sounds better.

00:14:32.480 So what they want to do is make it so that 90%, actually 91% of the congressional districts are Democrat and 9%, which would be one, are Republican.

00:14:47.780 Now, think about that, how that works out.

00:14:50.400 Kamala Harris only won Virginia with 52% of the vote, but yet they want to have a 90% congressional delegation. 0.94

00:14:59.800 That just doesn't add up.

00:15:01.260 There's nothing fair about that redistricting.

00:15:03.120 The reason they say it's temporary because they say, well, we're going to just put this in now.

00:15:08.080 And then after the census in 31, we're going to redistrict again as we normally do.

00:15:12.840 So this is only going to this is really going to allow us to cheat for just a couple of terms is what they're saying.

00:15:17.440 If you want to read between the lines on that.

00:15:20.100 And, of course, some of this is they are talking about, well, we do this because what Texas did.

00:15:26.260 However, Texas redistricting was based on voter registration.

00:15:31.260 It wasn't racially discriminatory, like people said, and it was upheld in federal court.

00:15:37.360 So it's already been tested in court and it's been upheld.

00:15:41.040 Now, that's in contrast to Virginia's redistricting, which is taking a 10 to 1 Democrat favoring map.

00:15:48.580 The testing redistricting only does a few districts under the new maps.

00:15:52.680 The Texas Tribune, which is a pretty liberal newspaper, the Texas Tribune reported that Trump would have won three more districts in 24 out of 38.

00:16:00.580 So not a big change in Texas, like they said, but look at what if you're watching this, look at what it's going to end up being on the proposed map.

00:16:07.600 Basically, everything except the lower southwest corner of Virginia is going to be represented by a Republican and they're there with their being by Democrat.

00:16:16.480 And what they're doing is they're they put suburban Democrats in almost every district.

00:16:21.820 That's how they're allowing it to be so controlled by the Democrats, which is that that's going to be a problem.

00:16:28.440 So this all kind of goes really a little bit is entwined with what we've been talking about, the SAVE Act.

00:16:34.880 You know, the SAVE Act has not yet passed.

00:16:37.660 And Senator Kennedy from Louisiana has been one of the main proponents of, hey, let's get that passed.

00:16:43.420 Let's hear what he has to say.

00:16:44.900 The Democrats are not going to vote for the SAVE Act.

00:16:48.600 We're going to have to do it with Republican votes.

00:16:51.660 The FISA bill is one option, but we also ought to attempt to do it through reconciliation, which we're in the middle of right now.

00:16:59.640 And I agree with that.

00:17:00.960 The FISA Act is where they're just reauthorizing certain types of surveillance procedures and trying to actually hopefully.

00:17:11.500 I know a lot of people are against that, and I understand that because essentially it allows the government, in theory, to spy on U.S. citizens.

00:17:19.540 Now, hopefully they're just doing that on people that are, you know, violating the law or people that are here illegally or things like that, potential terrorists.

00:17:29.060 But back on the SAVE Act, here's the four things it requires, all right?

00:17:33.440 Documented proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration, in-person submission of proof of citizenship, continual voter list maintenance,

00:17:42.000 meaning that when people move from one state to the other, we need to update those voter lists so that people can't vote in two different states.

00:17:50.880 Or if they passed away or their name has changed, maybe they got married or they got divorced, their name changed.

00:17:56.400 And then also when they go to vote, you have to have a photo ID to vote.

00:18:01.120 And again, it's so silly that we're even talking about this.

00:18:04.660 You know, almost every American at one time or another has to go through some security mechanism where they have to have an ID,

00:18:10.920 whether it's on an airplane or in a government building or things like that.

00:18:14.380 So us requiring that does not seem like much to ask.

00:18:18.940 But I agree that we should try to pass that, even if it's through budget reconciliation, where we only need 51 votes.

00:18:26.660 And I know that they'll try to stop that, but I think Kennedy's on the right track there.

00:18:31.960 Now, there were a couple of questions that came in from listeners related to elections.

00:18:36.160 And the first one from Betty Ann says, what needs to change for us to win the midterms?

00:18:41.340 Well, we need to get the Iran thing taken care of, all right, so that gas prices will go back down.

00:18:46.440 And we're going to talk about that in just a minute.

00:18:48.820 And we also make sure that we're messaging properly.

00:18:52.900 Remember, the midterms are not a national vote.

00:18:56.840 They're an individual state and individual congressional district vote.

00:19:01.300 And so we need to make sure that in those particular districts, whatever issue it is, and most of the districts are not actually competitive.

00:19:10.080 Most of them are either pretty far Republican or pretty far Democrat.

00:19:12.760 But those in the middle, that'll make the difference in the majority.

00:19:15.820 We need to make sure we understand what those issues are in that particular district.

00:19:20.160 What might be an issue here in the Dallas area may be different than it is in the Kansas City area or vice versa.

00:19:26.760 So just make sure that the way that we win those is that we get our messaging out.

00:19:32.420 You know, things like, hey, wages are up six percent, which is more than they have been in the last three years.

00:19:38.100 Overall, the economy is doing very, very well.

00:19:40.560 We do have the thing going on with the gas prices now, but overall, the economy is doing well.

00:19:44.560 People that want to work are working and the wages are up from what they have been.

00:19:49.020 So that's the message we have to take.

00:19:50.660 And then someone asked, and I feel bad for who I think is Linda, is that should I just vote for the best Democrat if I live in a blue county in a local election?

00:20:00.740 Well, first of all, if they have the opportunity to vote for a Republican, then you should vote for the conservative, right?

00:20:08.260 The one that boasts fits your views, which I assume you're conservative.

00:20:10.980 If it gets down to two Democrats, you don't want to stay home.

00:20:15.480 I agree that you should vote for the Democrat that has most, if at all, aligned with your views.

00:20:22.540 It's hard to find a conservative Democrat these days, but sometimes because elections are binary, you have to vote for the lesser of two evils.

00:20:31.060 Staying home is not the answer.

00:20:33.800 Staying home is never the answer.

00:20:35.140 second sponsor for the day is seven weeks coffee i love seven weeks coffee not only do we love the

00:20:45.380 way it tastes we love that it's organic that it's completely clean mold free pesticide free all of

00:20:50.740 that good stuff but i love even more the mission they started this company because they care about

00:20:55.480 babies inside the womb and they thought how can we wed our love of coffee of great tasting coffee

00:21:01.300 with our desire to protect babies inside the womb.

00:21:04.520 So they started seven weeks coffee.

00:21:05.940 At seven weeks, that baby inside the womb 0.99

00:21:07.700 is the size of a little coffee bean,

00:21:10.180 yet he or she is fully made in the image of God

00:21:12.120 and worthy of protection.

00:21:13.720 So 10% of every sale of seven weeks coffee 0.96

00:21:15.760 goes to pregnancy centers.

00:21:17.720 They've raised well over a million dollars

00:21:19.500 for these pregnancy centers

00:21:20.800 providing for moms and babies in crisis.

00:21:23.740 So allow your coffee to serve a higher purpose.

00:21:26.340 Subscribe, get that coffee every month, save 15%.

00:21:29.060 Use my code Allie, save an extra 10%.

00:21:31.440 7weekscoffee.com, code Allie.

00:21:39.580 Let's talk a little bit about the Iran war and just kind of give you a quick update on that.

00:21:44.780 As you know, we're still in a ceasefire, although by the end of the day that this is going to come out,

00:21:50.960 the ceasefire, the first 10 days of it will have been over.

00:21:53.940 Now, whether or not they'll extend it, I'm not sure.

00:21:56.280 They might extend it.

00:21:57.340 I hope that they will go ahead and extend it.

00:21:59.760 But the big talk lately has been about the Strait of Hormuz, which is the little area that connects, you know, the Red Sea and the Strait of Oman and all of that through the Indian Ocean and trying to keep that open because that's a huge shipping route.

00:22:15.100 Now, in the past, Iran has used blackmail against companies to be able to go through there and they've charged them and all these types of things.

00:22:24.800 And so recently what we did is we put a naval blockade on all of the Iranian ports so that

00:22:32.360 Iran could not send their ships out of there.

00:22:35.800 And the goal of that was to cut off their money supply.

00:22:39.700 Well, of course, they hadn't liked that either.

00:22:42.160 And so they've tried to say, well, we're going to close the Strait of Hormuz.

00:22:45.820 Well, they don't have the capability to close the Strait of Hormuz.

00:22:48.480 Let me explain this to you real quickly.

00:22:50.940 The Strait of Hormuz does have some mines in it, some mines in the water, and Iran can fly some drones.

00:22:58.780 However, the U.S. Navy has the ability to clean all of those things out.

00:23:03.940 But what we're trying to do is to avoid further casualties, and not just for us, but we really would like to avoid casualties on both sides, and that's why we're trying so hard to negotiate with them.

00:23:16.740 However, a lot of the reason that the traffic has slowed down, for example, there were, you know, 24 ships on Saturday, 30 ships on Sunday.

00:23:25.560 Only three went through yesterday.

00:23:26.880 And the reason for that primarily is because insurance companies that insure these ships, they do not want to insure them going through that strait when there's danger there.

00:23:39.540 And so Iran, I think, took some pot shots at a couple of the ships and what have you.

00:23:44.160 And so it's been kind of halted.

00:23:46.280 But never fear. We've done this before. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Navy has had to clean up shipping lanes before.

00:23:56.240 And we've done that and we've done that in the past. And we can do we will do that again in 1987, 88.

00:24:04.380 They call it Operation Earnest Will. The Navy, they they reflagged the tankers.

00:24:09.840 They escorted themselves. And I think that's what you're going to have.

00:24:12.520 We had to do that for a long time. I think that's what we're going to end up having to do.

00:24:15.820 We do already have mine-sweeping ships in there, and we have the ability to take out their drones.

00:24:21.060 But, again, we're trying to do it in as least of an intrusive way as possible.

00:24:27.240 But it will get done.

00:24:28.760 Iran doesn't control anything.

00:24:30.680 It's in our capabilities to be able to get that open, and we will get that open no matter what it takes, 0.60

00:24:38.880 even if it does take us going back and doing some more bombing of some of their facilities.

00:24:43.840 Now, I noticed they came out yesterday and said, hey, we've got a secret weapon that we are, you know, another idea on how we're going to be able to fight back against America.

00:24:53.820 Don't believe that. That's just that's just that's just rhetoric.

00:24:57.420 OK, it's another red herring where they're simply trying to delay, delay, delay.

00:25:02.860 And so they can build back up their forces or whatever it is they're doing.

00:25:07.640 And that's just not going to happen.

00:25:10.040 So it's going to be OK. Feel good.

00:25:12.240 feel, you know, nobody likes war, but you can feel good that we are going to be able to get

00:25:18.300 that straight open and get traffic running through there. I don't think there's any doubt

00:25:22.020 that that's going to happen. So we did have a few questions on the Iran situation. If you have any 0.63

00:25:27.820 specific more questions you want to email me on, please feel free. You can email me on anything,

00:25:32.420 ron at ronsimmons.com, ron at ronsimmons.com. All right, here's a few questions. Let me answer

00:25:37.800 these. This is about Charlie Kirk. At the end of his life, he said that we underestimate Iran.

00:25:45.960 What are your thoughts? Well, I think that we have in the past. I don't think President Trump 1.00

00:25:50.800 has underestimated them. Now, I do think that President Trump thought that our allies would

00:25:56.840 provide us more help. I do believe that, that them knowing that we were simply trying to remove

00:26:05.700 their nuclear capabilities and them knowing that Iran's nuclear potential had much more risk to 0.96

00:26:16.220 the Europeans than it does to us, I think he probably felt like they would join us, even

00:26:21.840 though we didn't give them a heads up. And the reason we didn't give them a heads up is because 0.58

00:26:25.180 that we didn't think they could keep it a secret and they wouldn't have kept it a secret. So I

00:26:30.900 think that part is we underestimated our allies, not so much Iran. Because I think we have

00:26:36.460 accomplished what we, I think we are accomplishing and have accomplished what we want to do so far

00:26:40.860 in Iran. And there are two things left to do, as we talked about last week, is we have to

00:26:44.880 remove their nuclear materials. A lot of that's going to be under the bunker that we bombed last

00:26:49.740 June, I think it was. And then the other is going to be making sure that strait stays open forever,

00:26:57.720 that we can't let them continue to be able to blackmail countries and businesses around the world.

00:27:04.480 The second, the War Powers Act and comparison between what Obama did and what Trump is doing.

00:27:09.620 Well, the chief, you know, the commander in chief, excuse me,

00:27:16.400 the commander in chief does not have to have the War Powers Act to protect America's interest.

00:27:22.040 And neither did Obama and neither does Trump.

00:27:24.960 He is protecting America's interest.

00:27:26.660 He felt, and I agree with him, and even the United Nations atomic energy affiliate agrees that Iran had 60 percent enriched uranium, which would just take a few weeks to get that to 90 percent to make it available for nuclear warheads.

00:27:44.160 So he believed that there was a threat to America, just like President Obama did in some of the things that he did. 0.61

00:27:49.800 And President Bush, all the presidents have done that.

00:27:51.920 So I don't believe that the War Powers Act has to come into play there.

00:27:58.520 Secondly, war on Iran and the effects on the economy.

00:28:02.240 It's the third question by Kayleigh.

00:28:05.320 The primary effect, I think, has been on gas prices.

00:28:09.620 That's what most of us see because most everybody buys gasoline unless you're driving a Tesla or an electric car.

00:28:15.160 And then in order for those generators to run to produce electricity, guess what it takes?

00:28:19.880 It takes gas and diesel and all that type of stuff.

00:28:22.480 So just so you know that at the end of the day, you're still going back to the petrochemical world primarily.

00:28:27.180 So we're about a dollar a gallon above what we were before the conflict.

00:28:33.020 If you take this, if you follow me for just a second.

00:28:35.640 OK, so if it's a dollar a gallon more expensive, the average American drives their car about 15,000 miles a year.

00:28:43.640 Some of you may do more.

00:28:45.180 Some of you may do less.

00:28:46.100 So if you drive your car 15,000 miles a year and you get about 20 miles to the gallon, which would be average.

00:28:53.160 Some of you get a lot more.

00:28:54.340 If you drive a truck like I do, sometimes you get less.

00:28:57.540 Then that's going to equate to costing you about $2 more per day, about $60 a month.

00:29:06.500 So it costs us now a couple dollars more per day, each family.

00:29:10.960 Now, if you have two cars and you both drive them 15,000, that'd be $4 a day.

00:29:14.760 But that's about what it's costing you. So nobody likes it, but that's not a huge sacrifice to get rid of a nuclear threat, in my opinion.

00:29:24.440 The fourth question is, if Trump were to pull out of Iran, do you believe the U.S. has won like Trump claims? 0.75

00:29:30.240 I think we have damaged them, but unless we get the nuclear materials removed, then we haven't accomplished our goal. 0.75

00:29:37.940 And so I think we need to do that. And unless the Strait of Hormuz is open all the time, then we haven't done that. 0.60

00:29:43.140 So I would probably say no.

00:29:44.780 We have accomplished a lot, okay?

00:29:46.380 We have definitely reduced their ability to transact war.

00:29:50.700 But I don't think we're finished yet. 0.84

00:29:52.460 And I do think that we'll stay till the job is finished.

00:29:54.680 I think we've learned our lesson from that in the past.

00:30:02.480 Next sponsor is Good Ranchers.

00:30:05.240 All right, Mother's Day is coming up.

00:30:06.780 And you might not think of grilling and buying new meat as a Mother's Day gift.

00:30:10.720 But if the mom in your household is the cook for your family, then she will love the gift

00:30:16.220 of Good Ranchers. 0.99

00:30:17.420 She doesn't want to have to worry about going to the grocery store, picking out the right

00:30:21.180 cut of meat, worrying about where it comes from.

00:30:23.520 If that sticker on the steak actually means made in the USA or if it's just packaged in

00:30:28.140 the USA, she wants high quality American meat and she doesn't want to have to think about

00:30:32.100 it. 1.00

00:30:32.640 So order Good Ranchers.

00:30:34.160 Subscribe.

00:30:34.680 You'll get a box of custom meat right to your front door every month.

00:30:38.580 It is all American.

00:30:39.640 It's better than organic chicken.

00:30:41.580 It's pasture raised, no antibiotics, no added hormones.

00:30:45.160 This is really good stuff.

00:30:46.640 We love their ground beef.

00:30:47.760 They're better than organic chicken.

00:30:49.420 They're bacon.

00:30:50.200 We eat this stuff almost every night in the Stucky home.

00:30:52.620 It's made our lives so much easier.

00:30:54.920 So go ahead, subscribe to Good Ranchers.

00:30:57.000 Do it for the related girl, the wife in your life for Mother's Day.

00:31:01.340 Go to GoodRanchers.com. 0.96

00:31:02.680 Use code Allie.

00:31:03.460 You'll get $25 off when you do this.

00:31:05.580 GoodRanchers.com, code Allie.

00:31:09.640 Tulsi Gabbard, our Director of National Intelligence, DNI, has looked into some of the impeachment

00:31:22.520 things that were politically motivated against Donald Trump, and some of those dealt with

00:31:28.180 intelligence. So that's how she got involved in it. About a week ago, Gabbard sent criminal

00:31:34.940 referrals to the Department of Justice for two of the central figures in the conspiracy to impeach

00:31:40.000 Donald Trump. Michael Atkinson, who served as the inspector general, the one that's supposed to be

00:31:45.060 inspecting what other people do of the intelligence community, and the unnamed CIA analyst whistleblower

00:31:53.020 who filed a complaint about Trump's 2019 telephone call with Zelensky in Ukraine. You guys remember

00:31:59.420 that. They said they tried to do a quid pro quo on there related to Biden's son and all that type

00:32:05.600 of stuff. But here's what Director Gabbard had to say. This is really such a violation of public

00:32:14.200 trust and the responsibility that we expect all of our inspectors generals to have in that he

00:32:19.440 didn't conduct a full investigation. He didn't even ask to see the transcript of the phone call

00:32:24.920 between President Trump and Zelensky, and he admitted to Congress that he didn't have any

00:32:31.280 firsts. He did not have any evidence that he was relying on. He had made a criminal referral to

00:32:36.540 the Department of Justice based on this so-called whistleblower's complaint. The Department of

00:32:40.820 Justice came back and said, there's nothing here. This inspector general then went to Congress

00:32:45.860 anyway and presented it to them. All of this coming down to the bottom line of which this was

00:32:51.120 a partisan political attempt, once again, to undermine the will of the American people

00:32:56.080 who elected Donald Trump as president of the United States.

00:32:59.260 I'll tell you, whatever you think about President Trump, the witch hunt after him has been the

00:33:05.360 most relentless thing I've ever experienced.

00:33:08.960 And I know what the other side basically are thinking, because I have people in my, not

00:33:13.600 my immediate family, but extended family, that I know what they believe.

00:33:17.160 they believe that the ends justifies the means, and they believe he's such an evil person that

00:33:22.260 no matter what you have to do to get rid of him, then that's okay. You know what? Even if you

00:33:28.640 believe that he's an evil, evil person, which I do not, I think he's done a lot of really good

00:33:34.100 things. It doesn't mean I agree with him on everything, as we've talked about before,

00:33:37.180 but he's done a lot of good things. His policies have been much more in line with what I believe

00:33:41.740 than any other president, maybe since President Reagan, the way that we have attacked him or the

00:33:49.680 way that he has been attacked is absolutely illegal. It's not the way our system works.

00:33:55.460 Our system, for sure, allows us to elect people that are not good people. And if you think he's

00:34:01.900 a bad person, I get it. Don't vote for him. You didn't. But don't do methods like Director

00:34:08.420 Gabbard talks about in here, and don't do all the other things that you tried to do in New York,

00:34:12.700 that you tried to do in Georgia. All of those types of things are that James Comey tried to do,

00:34:17.880 right? I mean, it's just absolutely ridiculous. But look at the graphic that Director Gabbard 0.96

00:34:24.620 put out. I want to talk about that for just a second. All right, so this is a graphic that

00:34:30.180 she put out, which I think is pretty well done. It highlights the weaponized whistleblower process,

00:34:36.040 observing that the inspector, the investigation relied on secondhand evidence and self-declared

00:34:45.020 Democrat whistleblower who lied about speaking with Democrats in Congress. So they were behind

00:34:51.080 the scenes. This whistleblower was talking to Democrats in Congress. It also notes that

00:34:55.940 Russiagate author was a key witness. So remember the whole Russiagate type of thing that they

00:35:01.780 you know, said Russia was helping President Trump, you know, beat Hillary Clinton, which

00:35:06.760 proved not to be the case. Even Mueller couldn't figure that out. The special prosecutor. One of

00:35:12.920 the key sources was co-authors of the 2017 Russia hoax. He was also a close colleague of the

00:35:20.060 discredited and former FBI agent Peter Strzok. You remember Peter and the pictures and the text

00:35:24.960 messages with he and his little girly friend. And then furthermore, Gabbert notes of false

00:35:29.620 narratives was used for impeachment. The inspector general exceeded its statutory authority and

00:35:35.300 ignored DOJ guidance. In fact, when the inspector general, as she said, sent it to the DOJ, they

00:35:40.820 said there's nothing here. But then he went to Congress anyway. And so this matter has now been

00:35:46.780 referred to the Department of Justice with potential charges, including false statements,

00:35:51.220 obstruction and conspiracy. I hope that they're able to put some of the people in jail over this.

00:35:57.220 It's probably doubtful the way this seems to work out, but I sure hope so.

00:36:01.340 We need to send a strong message on the types of taxes that you use against duly elected officials.

00:36:08.240 Now, speaking of duly elected officials, we had a couple of resignations this week in Congress.

00:36:14.580 And one of them, one of them was just awesome.

00:36:19.020 Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat from California, resigned because of that.

00:36:25.480 He's running for governor of California, and he resigned because of all the charges against him for sexual misconduct.

00:36:35.260 And also Representative Tony Gonzalez, a Republican, Swalwell's a Democrat.

00:36:40.480 And Swalwell was probably going to win the nomination for governor, but man, bad guy.

00:36:45.700 Remember, he also had a girlfriend or a wife that was affiliated with Chinese government or something like that.

00:36:52.460 Somehow, there was some link in there.

00:36:54.400 I'm not 100% sure on that, but there was some linkage in there.

00:36:58.600 But they both resigned because there were motions to expel them on the floor.

00:37:05.140 And Gonzalez, if you remember Tony Gonzalez, he had an affair with a staffer, and the staffer ended up committing suicide, burned herself to death, which is—that was a troubled young woman, which is very sad.

00:37:17.680 But we've got a video of their resignations.

00:37:20.540 It has been my privilege to serve the residents of Texas' 23rd Congressional District.

00:37:25.880 Signed sincerely, Tony Gonzalez, Member of Congress.

00:37:29.400 I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I've

00:37:34.380 made in my past.

00:37:35.920 I will fight the serious false allegations made against me.

00:37:39.740 However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.

00:37:44.360 I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members,

00:37:49.520 Expelling anyone in Congress without due process within days of an allegation being made is wrong.

00:37:55.480 But it's also wrong for my constituents to have me distracted from my duties.

00:37:59.300 I will work with my staff in the coming days to ensure they are able, in my absence,

00:38:03.760 to serve the needs of the good people of the 14th Congressional District.

00:38:07.440 Signed sincerely, Eric Swalwell.

00:38:09.980 Wow, Swalwell.

00:38:11.960 I mean, he kind of wants to admit it, but then doesn't really want to admit it, right?

00:38:15.340 The sexual allegations go back to 2018, and I promise you, people like Nancy Pelosi and others had at least heard of this and through their silence had protected him.

00:38:28.800 He reimbursed himself more than $200,000 in campaign funds for child care.

00:38:37.620 I mean, I'm not sure you should be able to use campaign funds for child care.

00:38:42.240 That doesn't seem right.

00:38:44.140 And he had other expenses that were included, alcohol deliveries, hotel rooms, Ubers, paying his live-in nanny, who didn't have authorization to work in the United States.

00:38:55.920 Who was protecting Swalwell?

00:38:57.540 That's really the big question.

00:38:59.160 And when did they decide he needed to drop out of the California governor's race?

00:39:02.280 Well, I think what happened is they were so afraid if we don't get him out of the race now, it's kind of like they did with Joe Biden.

00:39:08.040 If we don't get him out of the race now, then all these allegations are going to come out in the general election and we're going to put a Republican in the governor's mansion, which they might do anyway.

00:39:19.100 Steve Hilston could very well win that.

00:39:21.800 It's not likely because California is such a Democrat state, but that could happen.

00:39:27.600 And Tony Gonzalez, Republican, you know, military veteran, really hate that for him.

00:39:34.480 But he made mistakes and he needs to move on.

00:39:37.420 We don't need to have people like that representing us in Congress, whether they're at the state level or the national level or whatever.

00:39:44.580 We don't need that here in Texas in our Senate races.

00:39:48.380 We don't need it in our House of Representative races, and we don't need it anywhere in our government.

00:39:53.940 Also, one final one is that Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez de Rimmer, which is hard to say, she has resigned.

00:40:04.360 and she was Trump's labor secretary, and she stepped down from her position on Monday

00:40:10.000 amid a probe into her alleged use of government-funded travel to visit friends and family,

00:40:16.060 which again, innocent until proven guilty, but I didn't hear her denying any of these things.

00:40:22.240 The report claims that Chavez de Rimmer had staffers falsify government trips and destinations

00:40:27.920 she wished to visit on her personal time, also accused her of drinking in her office

00:40:32.280 during work hours and having an extramarital affair with a security guard, and also talked

00:40:37.520 about her husband having inappropriate conduct with some of her staffers. So I don't know what's

00:40:42.560 going on in that relationship, but no matter what type of labor secretary she was, it's good that

00:40:48.540 she has moved on, and now Kevin Sunderland will serve as the acting labor secretary.

00:40:53.240 A couple of questions here at the end that relate from listeners, that come back to listeners

00:41:00.840 relating to finances. But before I get into that, you know, here's the challenge. We need good

00:41:09.280 people in our government because remember there's in government and in politics, there's never a

00:41:14.120 vacuum. It's always somebody's going to fill it. And if good people don't run, bad people will

00:41:21.320 every single time. So I hope that some of you that are listening to this, whether you want to do it

00:41:27.160 or your husband wants to do it,

00:41:28.380 you'll think about getting involved

00:41:29.760 in your local political scene

00:41:31.580 and becoming an elected official.

00:41:33.420 And the best place to do it is locally,

00:41:35.180 whether that's your school board

00:41:36.380 or your county boards

00:41:38.760 or your city council,

00:41:40.920 those types of things.

00:41:42.040 Think about that

00:41:42.840 because we need good people

00:41:45.480 to be involved in our government.

00:41:51.600 Next sponsor is Every Life.

00:41:53.880 The sad truth is that

00:41:55.040 many of these major diaper companies

00:41:56.760 are donating your dollars to Democrat politicians to pro-abortion causes. You would think that

00:42:03.020 that's not the case. Unfortunately, it is. You don't want to have to worry about that when you're

00:42:06.640 buying diapers and wipes. You want to trust that the diaper company that you use is pro-baby and

00:42:11.780 pro-family. That's what you're going to get with Every Life. I don't know any other diaper company

00:42:16.460 that can guarantee that, that they're using your dollars to not only give you really good products,

00:42:21.380 but to fight for families and to protect the unborn, to donate to pregnancy centers.

00:42:26.040 they're the real deal we love every life diapers and pull-ups and wipes really good materials they

00:42:32.080 really were i couldn't recommend them enough go to everylife.com use code ally10 get 10%

00:42:37.220 off your first order today that's everylife.com code ally10

00:42:41.020 okay as we finish up before we get into ally's interview that you're going to love

00:42:50.620 talk a little bit it's a couple of financial questions if we've been in our starter home

00:42:55.260 for 10 years, should we move and give up a 2.7 interest rate? I wouldn't do that yet. 2.7%

00:43:01.940 interest rate is probably the lowest that we've seen. There may be a few of you out there that

00:43:05.700 got a little bit lower, but that's pretty hard to beat. So I would stay there for now. Now,

00:43:11.320 if you come across a really good deal, just remember that your interest rate is going to

00:43:15.840 double. Now, maybe you've made enough equity to where when you think about that, you'll not have

00:43:22.800 to have as much of a mortgage this next time. And so the payment may end up being about the same.

00:43:29.040 And so your total interest payments over your mortgage time might be about the same as what

00:43:33.480 you're doing now. But I wouldn't be in a rush to do that. I mean, I think that 2.7% interest rate

00:43:39.240 is pretty hard to beat. Housing is just so disheartening. What do you predict? Well,

00:43:44.400 again, I think it'll get better. And one of the reasons I think it'll get better,

00:43:48.440 Even though we have like a 10 million unit housing shortage in America, I read the other day, because that we've shut off the border, the demand will just naturally go down.

00:44:02.080 And that should lower, at least make more reasonable some prices.

00:44:05.800 And I also believe that we're going to see over the long term, maybe not until we get through this Iran thing, we're going to see interest rates kind of come back a little bit.

00:44:14.640 They won't be go back to like, you won't get any more 2.7% mortgages, I don't think, but they may come down to where it's around 5%, somewhere in that for mortgage.

00:44:22.420 And that would be a good rate, by the way.

00:44:24.040 I know you can get between 5% and 6% now, but I think they could get back down to 5%, but it's expensive.

00:44:31.140 And one of the things I'll tell you, if you live in a very expensive blue or in a blue state, or even some of the red ones in the suburban areas are very expensive,

00:44:40.960 you really may need to consider moving to a less expensive area.

00:44:44.640 I mean, between taxes and everything in the blue states, I would definitely get out of the blue states if I'm you.

00:44:50.220 I would definitely get out of there and try to get to a cost of living state that's much more manageable for your family based on the income that you make.

00:44:59.240 And then how did you show your kids financial stewardship?

00:45:05.040 Yeah, and, you know, we certainly weren't perfect at this as well.

00:45:08.200 But I think what we tried to show them, first of all, that we don't own any of it, that it all comes from God.

00:45:14.060 and that we're really just stewards of it.

00:45:16.540 And we absolutely preach from day one that we give a portion of our first fruits back to the kingdom,

00:45:28.200 whether that's through our local church, which we believe in doing, and through other organizations as well.

00:45:34.040 That's the main thing that we did.

00:45:36.000 And then we also wanted to make sure that they knew that the money that they were given by us was not their money.

00:45:43.560 And it's not something that they earned or had a right to.

00:45:47.260 And that when they wanted something, we wanted them to earn that either through doing things or getting their own job or something like that.

00:45:56.620 But I think they watched us not live at the very top of our ability.

00:46:02.660 We always tried to live under our means.

00:46:05.740 And I think watching that has allowed—I'm proud of the stewardship that our adult kids have shown.

00:46:10.940 They've done a really good job at that.

00:46:12.380 neither one of them that have their own places live above their means. And, uh, you know, they

00:46:17.480 kept a bunch of old cars and things like that. So I'm proud of them for doing that. They've been

00:46:21.560 very, very good about that. But I just think you have to be, you know, no matter, no matter the

00:46:26.480 fact that you want to give your kids a lot. And we wonder that we invested, what we did is we

00:46:31.140 invested in our kids through their Christian education, through their colleges, things like

00:46:35.780 that, as opposed to just giving them stuff. We just, we just weren't into that. And it's been

00:46:40.160 good being with you again i want to remind you that if you haven't had the chance to buy life

00:46:46.440 lessons from the little red wagon i think it's a great book that you'll enjoy we told some real

00:46:50.280 good stories in here and some lessons there are lessons in here on that may help you in your family

00:46:55.500 in your life we've got a lot of requests for these books i'm happy to happy to send you one that is

00:47:00.480 signed by me and i think the cost of the book is 20 bucks you can you can email me to get this or

00:47:05.620 You can just get it off of Allie's Allie's website, merchandise website.

00:47:10.020 And, you know, Allie just did a great episode with David French and Allie of last week.

00:47:15.040 You need to go watch that because he evidently wrote a couple of articles in the New York Times that was trashing Allie's thoughts on empathy.

00:47:23.080 And, you know, New York Times bestseller book, Toxic Empathy, is something that if you haven't got, you need to get.

00:47:28.780 But that episode is incredible because Allie just, you know, she's so much like her mother in that she's kind.

00:47:34.320 but she's also knows what she believes. And she, I thought she did a very, very good job.

00:47:41.900 But if you have a chance to get that book, and then I think you're going to really like this

00:47:46.160 interview coming up right now with Allie and a lady from Finland. Thanks a lot. And we'll see

00:47:52.240 you next time. Last sponsor for the day is Patriot Mobile. And I have some really fun news. If you

00:48:02.000 live in the DFW area, if you are in or around Dallas, Texas, Patriot Mobile has a really cool

00:48:08.740 thing going on on April 30th. They are going to have an America first freedom to 50 rodeo and

00:48:15.000 concert. There will be a professional rodeo, incredible speakers, the Josh Abbott band and

00:48:19.360 more courtesy Patriot Mobile, who is the exclusive concert sponsor. You can register

00:48:23.740 at freedom to 50 rodeo.com. There's going to be so many celebrations of America's birthday this

00:48:30.220 year. Make sure that you are celebrating with people who share the same values that you do.

00:48:34.940 That's what I love about Patriot Mobile. They're not just a wireless provider. They're a wireless

00:48:39.520 provider that supports the causes that I believe in. Again, most cell phone providers, they just

00:48:44.460 don't do that. They support left-wing causes that I don't want to send my money to. So the service

00:48:49.640 with Patriot Mobile is great. The values are even better. Go to patriotmobile.com slash Allie. Use

00:48:54.700 code Allie for one free month of service when you make the switch. Patriotmobile.com slash Allie code

00:48:59.720 Alley. Pavey, Jeremy, thank you both so much for joining us. Pavey, just a couple of weeks ago,

00:49:11.180 the Supreme Court in Finland found that you are guilty of what they called hate speech. Can you

00:49:16.660 just remind us of the substance of this conviction? What did you say that was apparently so hateful?

00:49:23.280 At first, this has been a very long process. It started almost seven years ago from a Bible tweet that I published in regard of human sexuality.

00:49:41.360 It was a Twitter update that was against the Evangelical Lutheran Church that had announced its support to the Pride event.

00:49:55.680 So when this process started, there became more and more criminal complaints and charges against my views about, I would say, classical Christianity,

00:50:08.700 what the Bible teaches about sexuality and homosexuality.

00:50:15.400 And there was a pamphlet that I had written already 20 years ago,

00:50:22.520 which was titled as Male and Female He Created Them.

00:50:29.700 And the Supreme Court found me guilty for authoring this booklet.

00:50:36.700 The ruling was mixed. I was happy that it acquitted unanimously me for publishing the Bible tweet where I took a photo from the book of Romans, its first chapter.

00:50:57.420 Right. So it was it was a mixed ruling. But of course, I was disappointed for for conviction for my pamphlet, for the church booklet that I had.

00:51:11.840 Yeah, I mean, people, I think, really need to understand that what's going on here is Christian views about human sexuality held by millions of people across the world have been declared hate speech under Finnish law.

00:51:29.360 And so that's a startling outcome in the case.

00:51:33.160 Another thing that's so strange about the case is how hard the court had to work to convict Pivey for a 2004 pamphlet.

00:51:40.160 But they convicted her under a law that didn't even exist at the time she published that pamphlet.

00:51:46.180 So they had to retroactively apply the law to something she wrote years and years ago.

00:51:51.100 It's like being punished for something you tweeted in 2020 or 2010, 2004, and suddenly you're held responsible for it because some law came on the books 10 years after your tweet came out.

00:52:05.520 It's pretty audacious and very concerning for free speech.

00:52:09.700 And Jeremy, can you explain why Pyvee was acquitted for the tweet?

00:52:15.420 Romans 1, very clear, as you said, millions of Christians around the world for 2,000 years

00:52:20.680 have held to the Bible, including what Romans 1 says about male and female and sexuality.

00:52:26.420 She tweeted that Bible verse.

00:52:28.200 She was acquitted for that, but it was the pamphlet that the Supreme Court found made

00:52:33.980 her guilty of hate speech.

00:52:35.860 Like, what exactly does that mean?

00:52:37.660 Why did they go that direction?

00:52:38.960 Well, this is exactly the problem with hate speech laws. They're completely inscrutable. Nobody knows what they mean. People who are subject to them, like Harvey, don't know what they mean. They don't know what they can and can't say. But the government officials applying it don't know what they mean either. And they're just like subjectively coming up with whatever they think they want to do and using the law, which is completely vague and gives no direction to the enforcement officers or to the people who are governed by it, what they can do or what they can say.

00:53:05.760 And so I think, you know, I can't answer your question except to say, I think, you know, what we had here was three separate prosecutions of Pivey for her religious expression about human sexuality.

00:53:22.440 And they were determined somehow to get a conviction against her.

00:53:26.440 And unfortunately, they finally were at the Finnish Supreme Court.

00:53:29.540 And the Finnish Supreme Court, as I described, had to do some pretty amazing legal gymnastics to even reach back and punish her for something that the law didn't even apply to.

00:53:39.940 It didn't even exist at the time she wrote the pamphlet.

00:53:42.500 So, I mean, it's a story of why we don't have hate speech laws in the U.S.

00:53:46.880 And it's because they are just enforced at the whim of the government officials who are wielding them.

00:53:53.680 And that's not a place where free speech can thrive.

00:53:56.800 Right. And before we go back to Pivey, Jeremy, can you tell me what is the consequence of this conviction?

00:54:03.320 Well, Pivey has been fined and it's a criminal. So this is under the war crimes code of Finnish law.

00:54:11.320 So it's a criminal conviction under war crimes for ultimately hate speech.

00:54:16.400 And essentially the conviction is essentially something like you've offended a protected group of people.

00:54:22.700 And so, you know, that's like you can't even criticize people or express a view that people might find offensive.

00:54:28.860 And that's essentially what's going on here.

00:54:30.760 If somebody thinks that your expression is offensive to any person, any group of people that's protected under finished law, then you could be subject to free speech prosecution, prosecutions for your freedom of speech as well.

00:54:46.760 And have we seen others deal with this same kind of prosecutorial punishment? Does it seem to be Christians who are singled out? Have Muslims also dealt with this kind of targeting from the Finnish government?

00:55:01.560 it? Well, I think you have to broaden the scope and maybe probably have something to say here too,

00:55:06.540 but across Europe, this is a huge problem. You know, in the UK, 12,000 arrests over the last

00:55:14.440 couple of years each year for what people are posting online. And that's led to thousands of

00:55:21.120 convictions each year for people's expression online, whether they're opposing, you know,

00:55:25.240 immigration policies in the UK or, you know, some other aspect of what the UK is doing. What we've

00:55:29.900 seen across Europe is European officials don't want to be criticized. They don't want views that

00:55:36.760 they find to be unpopular or that they disfavor to be able to be expressed online or even on the

00:55:46.460 public square of the streets and sidewalks of the cities of Europe. And so we're at the beginning,

00:55:52.460 I think, edge of an existential free speech crisis in Europe. Pivey's case is one very

00:55:58.940 extreme example of that. Paivi, do you have anything to add to that?

00:56:04.200 Yes, I think that the main target of these processes, they have been really the Christian

00:56:10.840 view of man. For example, we have had in Finland a case where a Muslim imam said in TV that

00:56:20.720 homosexual people should be stoned if they have found. And they didn't prosecute or file up

00:56:30.160 charges against him. But what I have said in pamphlet has not been anything cruel against

00:56:38.660 homosexual people. I have said only that God has created all people as his own image and we all

00:56:47.560 are equal, but it is the God's creation and intention that the human sexuality is between

00:56:58.180 male and female, and the marriage is just intended between man and woman. And the Supreme

00:57:08.840 Court has stated that if you say that the homosexuality is some kind of deviation from

00:57:17.580 normal sexuality, then you think that these people are inferior to other people and it is hate speech.

00:57:25.000 So this was the core of the ruling of the Supreme Court. And I think that it is against

00:57:32.780 a Christian view of man. And that's why it is also a matter of not only freedom of speech,

00:57:42.560 but also freedom of faith. Definitely. And here you are again saying the very things that have

00:57:50.280 been convicted in Finland of hate speech. And so tell me why you have decided to push back against

00:57:56.240 this, why you've decided to fight, why you've decided to keep declaring these things that God

00:58:01.420 says are true when you could easily just say, you know what, I'm going to go quiet. I'm going to

00:58:06.320 back down. I'll pay my fine and this will all be over. Yes, I have to tell that in the beginning

00:58:13.760 when the police started the interrogations, they gave me two weeks time to take away these writings.

00:58:21.480 But I said that these are not only my opinions. This is what the word of God says. It is what

00:58:29.140 apostle paul has said so it is not only my opinion and i think that we are now living in

00:58:36.060 that kind of time that we have to be open about our faith also in these contradictory issues and

00:58:43.420 what has given a big joy to me is that this has given a lot of possibilities and chances

00:58:52.440 to tell about what Bible teaches about these things,

00:58:58.020 but also to tell about gospel,

00:59:00.600 that what is the solution to the problem of sin in the Bible.

00:59:04.700 So I have had chances to testify about Jesus and about gospel.

00:59:09.340 And I have got also many messages from people,

00:59:13.560 also from gay people who have told that when they have followed this case,

00:59:18.320 They have started to read the Bible and they have found Jesus and salvation in their lives.

00:59:26.360 So I think that there has been a purpose in this fight.

00:59:31.720 And I think that this has been all the time in God's hands.

00:59:36.320 And I trust that also in the future this is, if I'm going to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

00:59:47.900 So I pray that it would also be in God's hands.

00:59:53.340 Yes. Gosh, it just reminds me of some of the final words that Jesus told his disciples of

00:59:57.920 what it's going to be like when we go into towns and we share the gospel that will present the

01:00:02.780 truth before courts, before kings, before all different kinds of people who may reject it.

01:00:07.860 But then, of course, God uses these acts of boldness through the Holy Spirit to grab onto

01:00:12.600 the hearts of some people. And your testimony certainly has encouraged me. I'm wondering what

01:00:18.580 it's been like personally for your family, for your friends to watch this. What has that support

01:00:24.400 been like for you? I have been so, so delighted and blessed that my family, my husband and my

01:00:36.000 five adult children and 12 grandchildren they have all supported me during this process and they

01:00:44.320 are praying for me and they have said that uh stand strong behind these teachings so

01:00:52.720 so this is this is a very very big big uh issue and big thing for me and of course i i have also

01:01:02.960 got a lot of messages of people who tell that they are praying for me and my family. And I

01:01:10.000 believe that when God raises people to pray, he has some good idea and purpose. So I believe that

01:01:21.900 God uses this process. There is a purpose for this fight. Amen. And if people in this audience

01:01:29.820 want to reach out to you, tell you that they're praying for you, encourage you? How can they do

01:01:34.900 that? Oh, I'm so happy to hear the messages of praying. And I have got a lot of messages

01:01:45.640 to my, for example, to my email from people. But I'm also very thankful for ADF International,

01:01:55.600 who has been supporting during this process.

01:01:59.520 So I'm happy if people also support ADF International.

01:02:04.960 It has had very, very big important role in this case.

01:02:13.160 Okay.

01:02:13.800 And Jeremy, if maybe you can give us a way for people to reach out words of encouragement,

01:02:18.660 we can put it in the description of the episode and people can find it and reach out.

01:02:23.000 I know that my audience just is a very prayerful audience, and they love to encourage fellow

01:02:27.920 Christians, so I know that they'll want to just, like, reach out and give a fortifying

01:02:31.900 word.

01:02:33.120 Jeremy, what should we, here in America, while we're so thankful for the First Amendment,

01:02:38.020 what should we be cautious of as we're looking to what's happening in Europe, and what can

01:02:43.360 we do here to make sure that something like what's happening in Finland doesn't happen

01:02:47.940 here?

01:02:48.820 Well, this is a really important question, because I think Americans think, well, I'm

01:02:52.680 glad that's not happening here. But here's the problem. This ruling immediately threatens

01:02:58.680 American speech, and here's why. Finland's part of the European Union. The European Union's

01:03:04.480 mechanism for exporting the hate speech laws of member states like Finland is called the Digital

01:03:10.760 Services Act. And what that does is make it illegal now, because Peavy's Christian speech 0.91

01:03:17.280 about sexual ethics is illegal in Finland, it's also illegal on every U.S. platform,

01:03:23.880 Meta, Facebook, Google, and YouTube, all of it, because of the DSA. The DSA, the Digital Services

01:03:31.800 Act, exports those policies to the American companies by directly regulating them and telling

01:03:37.320 them, you have to take down illegal content, content that we deem illegal in the EU. And so

01:03:43.820 So the companies are under extraordinary pressure and coercive threat of coercive fines, 6% of their global revenue.

01:03:52.220 You're talking billions and billions of dollars in fines hanging over their heads if they don't do the European Union's censorship bidding.

01:04:01.540 And so I think it's hard for Americans.

01:04:03.400 Sometimes they look at this like this is a terrible situation, but I'm really grateful it's not happening here.

01:04:08.140 The DSA brings this ruling immediately to U.S. shores, to U.S. speech on U.S. platforms.

01:04:14.620 And the EU thinks it doesn't matter where you live or who you are.

01:04:17.980 If your speech reaches into the EU and somebody in the EU is offended by it, then they will tell the platforms to take that speech down.

01:04:28.460 So this is, you know, the world is now governed and people speak, right, on a handful of platforms across the world.

01:04:37.280 Our digital public square is controlled by a handful of companies, and the European Commission is trying to make sure that those companies abide by European standards of free speech.

01:04:46.860 Those are not the First Amendment standards by any stretch, as this case clearly shows.

01:04:52.380 The EU wants to shut down speech they disagree with, whether it's Christian speech or speech opposing immigration or, you know, they have speech that says you can't insult politicians in Germany.

01:05:02.540 And so all of those laws in the EU can be enforced against American platforms and American speech.

01:05:11.480 And I think really critically important here, Christian speech affirming centuries-long ethics related to the sexual morality issues is now illegal in Finland.

01:05:23.220 And so that gives the EU all the authority they need to go to the platforms and say, you need to ratchet this speech down on your platforms or we're going to fine you 6% of your global revenue.

01:05:35.180 Wow, that is insane.

01:05:36.680 So can we advocate that our lawmakers help us out?

01:05:40.340 I mean, are we completely powerless to do anything?

01:05:43.700 No, we're not powerless, but it's going to take a partisan move.

01:05:46.500 I think it's really at Congress to pass a law that says, look, these companies do not need to comply with EU censorship demands.

01:05:54.580 The Trump administration is actually doing a lot of really good work here.

01:05:57.740 They're trying to leverage trade negotiations and other things with the EU to make sure that some of the excesses of the Digital Services Act don't spill over and harm American platforms and speech.

01:06:09.300 But the reality is the law on its face was written to govern U.S. platforms and to force them to bend the knee to European censorship demands.

01:06:18.700 And we need laws in place in the U.S. that say our companies don't have to comply with that.

01:06:23.500 We want U.S. companies to comply with U.S. law, and that includes U.S. First Amendment standards.

01:06:29.020 Yes, and amen.

01:06:29.800 It's made me think as we're talking.

01:06:32.180 I'm thankful for an administration right now that does care about religious liberty, does care about the First Amendment.

01:06:36.360 very thankful for a Supreme Court and the makeup that it has. But to your point, we need a law that

01:06:41.960 transcends the current Supreme Court makeup. We don't know how long that's going to last. And also

01:06:46.900 the current administration, it's not enough for us just to say, whew, I'm thankful that that's

01:06:51.500 not happening here. Clearly, Europe is, it's a canary in the coal mine. So thank you, Pivy, for

01:06:58.440 your bravery, for your courage. Thank you so much to Alliance Defending Freedom. Y'all are both on

01:07:03.500 the front lines, taking a lot of risks on behalf of the rest of us, especially us Christians.

01:07:08.360 So God bless you both. And thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Ep 1336 ｜ Trump Headlines Bible Event, Swalwell Resigns, and a Christian Grandmother Is Found Guilty of Hate Speech

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript