On this episode of Bringing America Back to Life, Pastor Paul Vaughn joins me to talk about his experience with the FBI raid of his home in 2011, and how God protected him and his family. He also talks about the recent raid of a pro-life home by the FBI, and the response to it.
00:06:04.540And they had the pistols and sidearms.
00:06:06.620And so just a fully armed attack force, you know, four people and one holding my children's side yard, one, three on the porch with guns pointed at me as I opened the door to come out.
00:06:19.420A couple others in the house at various places, most of them upstairs.
00:06:22.700I think my 16-year-old at the time saw everything and came across the back and, you know, told my wife, Mom, the FBI is here.
00:08:03.000And under certain circumstances, there's still this shock if it's early in the morning and the neighbors come by to offer farm eggs or something like neighbors in the country do.
00:08:11.860What should be a nice, wonderful, loving act of neighborly kindness, you know, sets off triggers, you know, in some ways.
00:08:19.380But I say that that's the natural piece of it.
00:08:22.360And in Christ, though, we have the hope of his spirit working in us and the children learning that there is a battle going on, seeing it firsthand, understanding and discerning that in our culture.
00:08:32.440Which, you know, if I want anything for my children, it's to be able to stand where God places them in this life that he's given them and to fulfill their part in this eternal narrative that's playing out.
00:08:43.660And so from that perspective, I'm thankful for it.
00:08:47.760I'm thankful for the grace that God has exhibited in our family and the growth and the maturity.
00:08:52.880Of course, theologically, you really dig in deep when you're in stress and you're in a battle.
00:08:58.280And so it's been a wonderful thing from that perspective for all of us involved.
00:09:03.980And with the younger children, it's kind of hard to discern where they are sometimes.
00:09:07.080But we know God ultimately works all things for good.
00:09:09.520And so we rest in that and are excited to see what comes of it.
00:09:13.560In terms of forgiveness, I presume you would have had to go through that with your kids as well and not harboring hatred or ill will toward these folks who were involved and even the powers that be.
00:09:27.100Yeah, I think that's an ongoing thing.
00:09:31.140And it's probably as a father, you know, that's one of the things you try to lead your family, try to figure out where they are.
00:09:40.720So discerning, you know, are they hanging on to some bitterness or is there things going on in their life makes it difficult.
00:09:47.280But of course, we're constantly examining, re-examining those things, praying, you know, obviously with our children and ultimately trusting God, you know, for that.
00:09:58.120It's, you can really tell in your circumstance, God works all things for good for those who love him, even the bad things.
00:10:06.900Because, I mean, this could have been taken so awfully and horribly, you know, people in circumstances similar have their lives have broken apart, you know, because of the trauma to the children, the parents divorce and it gets worse and worse and worse.
00:10:20.280But in your case, and through the grace of God, this has worked out too good for, even for you, even at this point, which is so, is still so fresh.
00:10:30.020And we have, when I talked earlier about pressing in, in the midst of the trials, one of the things God used, he prepares you where he, where he's taking you.
00:10:38.960And usually with someone like me, even when I'm not, he's faithful enough to beat me over the head.
00:10:43.220And, and so my nightstand, the reading list of the things leading up to this event, the pro-life event and the trial was just full of church fathers and, and early church martyrs.
00:10:54.040And, you know, we were, I was talking with someone downstairs at the event here today about the, the bishops and the people in the first, the council, the Nicene council and stuff.
00:11:04.020These folks that were maimed, they had missing limbs and eyes gouged out and, and, and physical infirmities they bore in their body when they came to these councils for the sake of the gospel.
00:11:15.840So we look at, Hey, we didn't get anything cut off.
00:11:18.780We had, we weren't, you know, nothing when we weren't maimed and we, the joke in our household, these, these light momentary afflictions, right.
00:11:25.220And we haven't yet resisted unto blood.
00:11:27.320And so there's that reality that we have in the church that we see that, yeah, it's challenging.
00:11:38.980They didn't lose their dad to prison that our co-defendants did and people from the DC rescue did.
00:11:45.320And there were people, you know, the department meant a whole lot more to as they got out of jail when they were facing another four years in prison, like Lauren Andy and others as well.
00:11:54.440Um, and so I'm, uh, I try to put everything in perspective and try to remember, yeah, yeah, there's some persecution.
00:12:01.460There's some challenges, but God does work all things for good, even horribly atrocious things.
00:12:30.300And so if we can just, God just grants us the grace to live here in the present, in the material world, as we're looking to eternity in our, in our, our actual home.
00:12:39.740So I want to talk to you also about the FACE Act, because this was the, what precipitated your arrest, freedom of access to clinic entrances acts.
00:12:50.260It was created during the Clinton era.
00:12:51.720And Trump suspended all the prosecutions, uh, on this.
00:12:58.240He released the pro-life, uh, prisoners, the, the DC-9 or who were, um, incarcerated and treated horribly.
00:13:07.280I've had many of them on my show to go through what happened to them.
00:13:10.420Um, but we hear there's some hope or questioning anyway, the, the overturning of the FACE Act itself.
00:13:18.240What President Trump did, which is, is great, is he reined in using FACE, said only, his DOJ is only going to prosecute under extreme circumstances of violence or actual need, uh, which is, you know, has always been the lie and the false narrative of FACE that it was actually needed.
00:13:34.120I mean, if somebody shoots an abortionist, you know what, there are laws in every state against murder.
00:13:39.080If somebody's stalking and intimidating clinic workers, there are laws in every state against stalking and intimidating in that fashion.
00:13:45.500So the FACE Act didn't do anything other than create a political means for the government to put its weight, its hand on the scale of justice, and not just in, in the, the sense of justice in prosecuting, you know, federal actions.
00:14:00.000But think about the narrative, think about the waterfall effect of our cultural discussion, and when we actually talk about abortion as a narrative, when you have those people that are willing to sit at the door, kind of the, the tip of the spear folks that are risking going to jail and going to federal prison because of this FACE Act, we went from having thousands of people doing that activity down to five or 10 or 12, and so greatly curtail their ability and their willingness to lay down their life and identifying with the unborn.
00:14:28.420But think about the sidewalk counselors, the prayer warriors that are on the streets, the political organization, even the media, those writing the narrative and the story.
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