Trump-endorsed, Latin Mass Catholic seeking to unseat RINO congressman shares faith story
Summary
John Gibbs is a pro-life, pro-family candidate running for Congress in Michigan's 6th congressional district. John has been a long-time member of the pro-choice movement, and is now running against a man who is running for the opposite party. John talks about why he decided to run for Congress, and why he thinks it's important to be honest with the voters.
Transcript
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I've got something quite unusual for you today on the John Henry Weston Show.
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We don't often talk to politicians, but we've got one now.
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His name is John Gibbs. He's running in Michigan for Congress,
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He is not only someone who's willing to stand out, talk pro-life, pro-family,
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and against this ridiculous critical race theory,
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but he's willing to do so and run for Congress at the same time.
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Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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John Henry, thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.
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Most people who want to enter into politics think,
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trying to see where the stats are on where the majority of the population lies,
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Well, you know, I think we've got to tell the truth.
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and I think that when you look at what's happening in our country,
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there's been a growing divide between what regular people want
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And part of the cause of that problem is exactly what you said,
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that the politicians will say one thing on the campaign trail,
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So, I think we've got to go back into the direction of honesty
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My district especially, we've had two betrayals.
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We had Justin Amash, who voted to impeach President Trump, for example.
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my primary opponent, vote to impeach President Trump.
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So, people feel like they've really been betrayed,
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and they feel like when politicians say something to them on the campaign trail,
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you know, they could just backstab them as soon as they get in there.
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And so, I think it's important to have honesty and directness as we communicate.
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Now, of course, we do adjust our communication based on the audience.
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but we do communicate differently so that the people we're talking to understand.
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But I want to always stay consistent in what I believe
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Now, your predecessor in his role, who, as you said, is on his way out,
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is one of those that's popularly called a rhino,
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And this is, I guess, pretty popular among some.
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Your district, though, is quite conservative, if memory serves.
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and then, therefore, your hopes in going forward.
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So, just like all other states around the country,
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and it is a little bit less conservative than it has been in the past.
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Now, when you look at the numbers for the generic ratings for each party right now,
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Republicans are up by quite a bit, by historical amounts.
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So, I think that translates into something like probably an R plus 3 or an R plus 5
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So, it's not necessarily a super huge plus R, but I think it will be.
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And what that means for me, as I go out and I talk to voters, is even independents and some Democrats
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will have to know that I'm going to represent them well.
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When you look at, you know, high gas prices, the price of pork chops or chicken or whatever
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it might have you at the grocery store, when these things are twice as high as normal
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or 40 percent more than they are normally, that hurts everybody.
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So, there's a wide variety of issues we can talk about that affect people on all sides
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of the political spectrum, no matter where you stand, and that's something I can do.
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In addition to talking about my positions that are seen as more partisan, which really are not,
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such as protecting innocent babies from being murdered,
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really, that doesn't matter what party you belong to,
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but it's seen in our society as a partisan issue.
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which are more traditionally associated with my conservative beliefs.
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I can talk to even those Democrats who are open to being open-minded and considering something new.
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So, in a district that's going to be a little bit closer than it has been in the past,
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that'll be a priority for me to be able to speak to the middle as well as my own natural
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You seem very willing to speak on the hard issues, I guess you could say.
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You mentioned you're pro-life, you want to protect the babies.
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How would you go about presenting that to someone you don't know where they're coming from,
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you have a feeling they're not on, you know, they're not voting Republicans before.
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How would you speak to them about the issue of life?
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What I would say is I understand the difficulty of, well, I don't, I'm not a woman,
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but I can imagine the difficulty of facing an unwanted pregnancy.
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So, I don't want to be a little of that at all.
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I know that's a serious thing that can happen in someone's life if it's unexpected.
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But there are options for that precious baby besides an abortion.
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Tons and tons of people out there who want to adopt babies, and that's a great option.
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As well as, you know, going to get an ultrasound and see that precious baby moving around inside
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It doesn't deserve to be taken out of this world about having a say in it, him or herself.
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I think that everybody, no matter where you stand, should be in favor of protecting innocent
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So, I would say, we've got to protect that baby.
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At the same time, I do understand the difficulty involved in an unwanted pregnancy.
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So, we do want to have options available, such as adoption and even help with child care
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I know there's a pregnancy center near here that does that.
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They provide a wide array of services for women facing unwanted pregnancies that are alternatives
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to abortion that can make that transition into motherhood as easy as possible.
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So, I think we should support those options as fully as we can, including adoption, while
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still saying at the end and still sticking firm to, we want that baby to be alive.
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We don't want an innocent human being, an innocent baby to be killed.
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So, I think it's a matter of showing we understand the difficulty of the situation, and we want
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Unapologetically pro-life, and yet still able to appeal to a wide audience.
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And I think that's really a good cue for those aspiring to politics, a good way forward,
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where you don't compromise on your principles, but you learn the talk that enables you to
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talk to people on both sides of the aisle, as it were.
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Because with the life issue, the advent of ultrasound came in after Roe v. Wade, and now
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We're looking at perhaps the overturning of Roe v. Wade right now, very soon in the United
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But there's another issue that is really fraught with division in society, and that revolves
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And you could go on with a few more letters of the alphabet after that, if you will.
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But nonetheless, that's an issue that is quite divisive.
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A lot of people wonder how to speak to that issue.
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As a politician, how do you speak to that issue?
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Well, you know, I kind of look at the way things are now, and I say that people think
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of this race, or every political race, as Democrat versus Republican.
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I actually think the way things are going now, by November, it's going to be crazy versus
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Because you can't literally even say there's male and female anymore.
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Just saying that there is male and female is now considered controversial.
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There's 37 or 57 or however many they believe there are nowadays genders.
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Whereas when I was in school, we literally learned there's XX chromosome and XY chromosome.
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That was taught to us as science when I was a child at school.
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So if they want to get mad, don't get mad at me.
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Get mad at my teachers when I was growing up in school.
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Ken Downey-Brown might call you a biologist, by the way.
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So, really, it's quite mind-boggling what's happening.
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We, of course, saw the Olympics with the swimmer who was a male who believed that he had transitioned
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So, it's really difficult to wrap one's head around.
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I can't imagine what Martin Luther King and George Washington and people that came before
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us would think if they saw that we're having these issues in our society and people are
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getting threatened with being fired from their work for the basic belief that there is male
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So, I think that most voters are not going to get all of them.
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There are some who are way out there on the planet Jupiter.
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But the vast majority of people, even independents and many Democrats, I think will concede that
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And everything that we do as a country and government policy should be based on that.
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So, that's the only thing I can say there is I think that's normal.
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So, another issue that's cropped up, especially of late in the United States, has been critical
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And, you know, as someone of color yourself, you can speak to that issue probably better
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What is your tack on that in speaking to it and also with dealing with the flack that you'd
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Well, you know, this is another issue that I think is just crazy versus normal.
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Whatever happened to the idea that we judge a person based on their character, the way
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they love others, the way they treat others, where it seems like they're trying to push
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that aside and define someone based on their racial identity.
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So, if you're black, that means you're automatically a victim.
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If you're white, that means you're automatically guilty.
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And everything else is based on these premises.
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It is a total insult to the legacy of civil rights, which said judge a person by their character,
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I believe that race is being used as a tool to divide people.
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And I think that certain political actors out there see certain benefits from doing
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And so, they can say, all the problems you're facing are because of that guy over there.
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It makes it much easier to take the scrutiny off them and keep people divided and fighting
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So, this critical race theory stuff is very treacherous.
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It is totally unfair because it judges someone based on what they actually did, how they
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love, and how they speak to others, but just based on a race alone, something which they
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And I'm very willing to stand up and speak on it.
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And I know, as you said, John Henry, there are many people who can't do that as much as
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So, I'm very willing to take up the slack there and stand on this issue because we've got to
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combat this or else it's going to cause so much division in our society.
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They are indoctrinated with a lot of these same beliefs we're talking about regarding
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life, regarding family issues, and regarding race issues.
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What is your sort of take on that, your proposal for it?
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Yeah, there's so much indoctrination happening in the schools right now on every level.
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One of the beautiful things that's happened, despite the pain of seeing what the schools
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are doing, is the increased parental involvement.
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It is wonderful seeing those mama bears out there at the school board meetings who are
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standing up, speaking out, and having the radical idea, but not really radical, that
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we want to have a say in what our kids are learning.
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It is the people's taxpayer dollars that fund these schools.
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So, the people have a right to have a say in that.
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And then the parents, of course, it's their own kids.
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So, I think the real way forward here is letting the parents have more involvement in what's
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And does that mean that the parents are micromanaging every aspect?
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But the parents do have a right to say, you're not going to teach pornography.
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You're not going to teach critical race theory.
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We find these things highly objectionable and offensive.
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I think it's absolutely appropriate and fair and right for parents to stand up and say that.
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So, I hope that this whole movement of the mama bearers and the parents getting involved
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and being called domestic terrorists, by the way, by our attorney general, the absolute
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madness of such ridiculousness, you know, it's crazy.
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But I hope that the parental involvement stays strong.
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You shed some sunlight on these wacky theories that these folks in the ivory towers come up
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with, disseminate it through different activist groups out there and get into the schools.
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I think we're seeing, God willing, the beginnings of that process of disrupting these sinister
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In fact, I'm going to have you respond directly to the president.
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Did you see the clip of the President Biden telling teachers that when their students are
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in the classroom, it's not their parents who are in charge, it's the teachers?
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But if I can get you to comment on it now, that'd be great.
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Have our students gain confidence enough to know what they can do, to reach in.
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We have an obligation to help them teach and reach their potential.
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You've heard me say it many times about our children.
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And the reason you're the teachers of the year is because you recognize that.
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They're like yours when they're in the classroom.
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I would say, President Biden, you need to have some humility.
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It is a parent's taxpayer money that pays those teachers' salaries.
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And while we, the taxpayers, have delegated to the teachers the job of teaching their children,
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that doesn't mean that it's 100% full Joseph Stalin-style rule.
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The parents have a right to intervene when things are going awry.
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When things are going off, we have a right to have a say.
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I'm not a parent myself, but the parents do have a right to have a say.
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So, President Biden, respectfully, have some humility and have some more respect for parents.
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But, you know, my faith is where my convictions come from.
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As I, over the years, have really learned and gotten deeper in my faith
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more about what the Bible says and what it means to walk with Christ,
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that has really informed my convictions and given me strength to stick to it.
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Even when getting attacked by CNN, for example,
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they've been doing that since 2018, which I consider a badge of honor.
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And as it grows, it helps me to really stand strong even more with the challenges that come up.
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What enticed you to move toward the Catholic Church?
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I kind of became a general purpose evangelical after college.
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And I was actually an evangelical missionary in Japan.
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Because I, even though my major at Stanford was computer science,
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I did study Japanese on the side and I studied abroad in Japan.
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And at the church I was going to at the time, there was a class about missions.
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And so, I said, I want to do missions in Japan.
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So, I applied and raised my money and went over there and did mission work,
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You don't see a lot of baptism and conversions over there.
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But then, as I came back to America, I did my master's at Harvard Kennedy School
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because I realized the government was making things worse a bit faster
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So, I needed to learn something about government.
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And so, I graduated from that and went into the Trump administration.
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And I started to think deeply about several things.
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The concept of the rapture does not exist in traditional historic Christianity,
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but it does in a lot of American forms of Christianity.
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And it was basically invented by a British guy named John Nelson Darby
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and popularized in America by a guy named Cyrus Schofield.
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And so, that was the first epiphany I had that some of what I believe
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is not actually the historic faith, which was created by Christ
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So, I kept digging deeper and deeper and deeper and began a journey.
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One of my friends got baptized at a big Episcopal church in New York City.
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That was my first liturgical service I ever went to.
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So, I came back to D.C. and still continue to go to a high Anglican service.
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and how he declared himself to be the head of the church
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And I realized what the Catholic church had done to build up England
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And I came to this realization of being kind of a history geek
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that, you know, being someone who attends the Latin Mass,
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if I took a time machine back 1,000 years and went to a church,
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it would be very, very similar to what I attend every Sunday.
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And that historical reality really means a lot to me.
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You know, when you look back at Europe in the beginning,
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there's all these tribes, the Visigoths, the Saxons, the Celts, the Picts,
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And the church really came in there over time and unified them
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and one universal language for the church, which was Latin.
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And that unified people to a huge degree and reduced the fighting
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And I want to be part of that same movement that's been going on for 2,000 years.
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So, looking back at the continuity of history, I said,
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As a Catholic, we have a commitment to lifelong learning.
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But, yes, it's been a great experience of, you know,
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engaging the sacraments, engaging the sacrament of penance,
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something I had not been used to in my previous life.
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That is just a beautiful thing to really have a heart-to-heart check
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I'm loving the divine office or liturgy of the hours.
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So, that is beautiful to be able to open up every day
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and have a specific set of prayers for that day,
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just to open that up in the morning and go through it.
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You know, one of my little pet peeves previously was these worship bands
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And, you know, they get up there and the focus often becomes on the band
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But one thing I love about the Catholic Mass is that if you have the scola,
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singing Gregorian chants, you know, it's pretty much similar chants everywhere.
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And the priests are all wearing the same kind of clothing,
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So, there's no competition in trying to, you know,
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see who has the coolest hairstyle and who has the coolest hip leather jacket
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or what kind of jeans and shoes you're wearing.
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To have the hippest appeal with your stuff, it's just, it's uniform and it's traditional.
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And you remove that selfish element of people wanting to be, you know,
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And I expect, you know, it's like, you know, peeling back layers of an onion
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There's always more of the saints to be reading.
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There's always more, you know, issues that the church has done a great job
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of dealing with in the past that we can learn from today.
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St. Augustine said, the church is to the state what the soul is to the body.
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And there's a whole lot to unpack there, especially as someone who worked
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in the Trump administration for four years in the government
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and who, God willing, will be returning to government.
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There's just so much richness in how the church has dealt with that issue
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over the past 2,000 years that I look forward to learning and unpacking.
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Being able to look yourself in the mirror with Christ and say,
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you know, help me to deal with this issue and let's keep going forward.
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I wanted to ask you a little bit about your time with President Trump
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because it's an interesting part of your background.
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I noticed with regard to President Trump, there's a lot of Catholic things going on.
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We had the first, I think the first ever, Ave Maria come from the White House.
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We had all sorts of Catholic folks around Trump.
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Quite a few of my friends were involved with the Trump administration.
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How did that go on and what did you feel when you were there?
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You know, I think that President Trump is someone who is loyal to the Christian community
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and very much so as well to the Catholic community.
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And I think when he looks at an issue like pro-life,
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what you see there when you look out at the landscape is
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it happens to be the Catholic groups that are the very aggressive and successful fighters there.
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And because President Trump is someone who recognizes results, he sees those results.
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And I think that's why he has been enthusiastic about having involvement
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from the Catholic side and his efforts he's doing.
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And, you know, I would even say in my own personal experience being in the administration,
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one of the reasons I chose to become Catholic in my journey is that my colleagues who were Catholic
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were excellent in their ability to understand policy, to modify policy, and get things through
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the process so much so that it really caught my attention.
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And so I would have these conversations at lunch with my Catholic colleagues at length
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asking about, you know, the ecumenical councils, infallibility, and extraordinary magisterium
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versus ordinary magisterium, and all those things trying to get a grip on how they are
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tend to be very good at analyzing policy and coming up with policy a little bit more than
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So my sponsor, for example, was one of my colleagues, in fact, who I had those conversations
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So yes, I think what you're saying is exactly true.
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There really is something there to a strong Catholic presence in our administration that
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was effective at policy because the Catholic Church, like I said, has a history of dealing
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with government that I think trickles up, if you will, to Catholics who go into the legal
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And so you see those excellent results produced there.
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So yeah, I think that that was definitely true in our administration.
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You know, John, I would love to conclude with you giving us a verse of scripture or something
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like that in Japanese, because if you still have that with you and can still command over
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John, where can people get in touch with you with your campaign and how can they support
00:23:02.540
We need the Lord's protection and guidance over every aspect in order to prevail here.
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The polls show that I'm up by 20 points when voters know that I'm endorsed by President
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But I do need to get my name out there to all those voters.
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So the financial part is important, as well as volunteering for those who can knock doors
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You can go ahead and do that on our website as well.
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But yeah, first and foremost, prayers and then financial partnership, if you can, at
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And I've been told that if I win by someone who is relatively in the know on these things,
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I might be the only member of Congress that attends a traditional Latin mass.
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So that in of itself, I think, was worthy of excitement.
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John Gibbs, thank you for being with us on this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.