Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Brad Dacus: Defending The Cross Of Christ In The Public Square
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
- 0:10defending biblical Christianity.
- 0:13No topic off limits.
- 0:16And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
- 0:20If this was a generic monument to war veterans, it wouldn't be removed.
- 0:26If it was some kind of artistic display, it wouldn't be removed.
- 0:30If there was a giant LGBT flag or something like that, this city would embrace it, no problem.
- 0:39So it's specifically because of the viewpoint and the religious viewpoint and perspective
- 0:45of the cross, that's their agenda, that's what they want removed.
- 0:50It is a vicious, blatant, anti-constitutional discriminatory action by the city of Albany.
- 0:59The growing intolerance towards free speech and freedom of thought and ideas is something
- 1:06that's actually even compelling people to leave states like New York, California, Oregon
- 1:12and Washington.
- 1:14And welcome to World View Matters, friends.
- 1:16This is what we're talking about today.
- 1:17You just heard the words of Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute.
- 1:22And he's our guest today.
- 1:23We're going to be talking a lot about religious freedom.
- 1:25We're talking about some cases that are somewhere in the courts right now.
- 1:29There's been an attack on the biblical world view on the cross of Christ.
- 1:33We'll detail that story that he was just responding to there.
- 1:37The city of Albany removes their cross.
- 1:39There was up for, I don't know how many years, but he'll tell us about that.
- 1:42Civil rights, First Amendment issues will maybe get a little bit to cancel culture and
- 1:47talk about some recent cases over at the Pacific Justice Institute.
- 1:51The website is pacificjustice.org, pacificjustice.org.
- 1:59Brad Dacus, welcome.
- 2:00Good to see you, brother.
- 2:01Oh, thank you.
- 2:02It's great to be on the program, David.
- 2:03I appreciate it.
- 2:04Now, you've done a lot of interviews on that case and many others that you do, where
- 2:08you represent people and then just fight for the cause of Christ and the cross of Christ.
- 2:12In this case, to be publicly displayed, that it was there on this little hill in this
- 2:17little town in Northern California, tell us about that.
- 2:21Yeah.
- 2:22It's in the San Francisco Bay area and it's a nice community.
- 2:29The Lions Club back in 1971, graciously donated a track of land to the city of Albany.
- 2:38The city of Albany was very appreciative.
- 2:40The city council was very gracious, very grateful, excuse me, and the Lions Club had just
- 2:46one requirement.
- 2:47They said, look, we're going to give you this land, but we're going to keep this small
- 2:51little portion of it because we want to maintain a cross on this small portion.
- 2:58So we're going to keep that.
- 2:59That's going to be our land, but we're giving you all this other land all around it, city
- 3:04without charge.
- 3:06It's yours.
- 3:07It was delighted.
- 3:09And then back in, actually, 2016, that's when the ruckus started, atheist organizations
- 3:17and other activists has known that we want to get rid of that cross.
- 3:20We find it offensive.
- 3:22It's an eye sore.
- 3:23We have to get rid of it when they tried a number of tactics.
- 3:26One was to have the power cut off because it lights up at night.
- 3:30There's light bulbs on it to light it up at night.
- 3:32It looks very beautiful, but they got the power cut off.
- 3:35It worked for about four or five months, and then they realized that they were breaking
- 3:40the law.
- 3:41They couldn't do that.
- 3:42So the lights came back on again.
- 3:44And then fairly recently, they decided to go ahead and seize that little part of land
- 3:50that was not given to them that has the cross.
- 3:53The imminent domain, according to the Fifth Amendment taking clause, government can take
- 3:58property if it's for a public purpose, a valid public purpose.
- 4:05Well, courts look at valid public purpose like a highway needs to be expanded, a power
- 4:10line needs to go through there, maybe a hospital or a school needs to be built and they need
- 4:15part of that land.
- 4:16They don't recognize that principle when the government just doesn't like speech.
- 4:23So if the government can use that, the Fifth Amendment taking clause to use imminent domain
- 4:28to take that cross just because they don't like it, they don't like the messaging of it,
- 4:34and there's nothing preventing them on that same principle to use the taking clause
- 4:39to take a church or synagogue that they also may find quote unquote offensive.
- 4:45That's why this case is so, so very important.
- 4:48That's right.
- 4:49And again, at the risk of being redundant, I mean, we use the term slippery slope a lot.
- 4:55Once we give them these victories in this different areas, then they'll continue to take
- 5:00more ground as we've learned.
- 5:01And I think of 1 Corinthians 118, which says the preaching of the cross is to them that
- 5:07perish foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God.
- 5:14And the cross is, I mean, Brad, do you remember, I think it was 1956, I might be, it might
- 5:22have been the 60s, New York City skyline was lit up on Good Friday and they had crosses
- 5:28in three of the major skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, crosses were lit
- 5:34up at nighttime for Good Friday.
- 5:37Today, they'll put rainbow colors, but back then, this is how our nation has changed.
- 5:41And now the attack is on the cross, and we know the view of our founders.
- 5:46And that's why I appreciate the work that you do.
- 5:49And in this case, where's the case at?
- 5:52You said is in litigation right now.
- 5:54That's right.
- 5:55In litigation right now, we at the Pacific Justice Institute, we have filed suit.
- 6:00So it's a full litigation.
- 6:03And make no mistake, we're willing to take this case as far as we need to, even a potentially
- 6:08the United States Supreme Court.
- 6:10This is unprecedented for a governmental entity to seize property simply because they don't
- 6:19like the religious message on that property.
- 6:23This has never been done before and it's a very important case.
- 6:27It's coming out of the intolerant, hate-filled San Francisco Bay area.
- 6:31So to some degree, it's to be expected.
- 6:35But I like to think that the city of Albany would have had better legal counsel to inform
- 6:39them that this is simply not a protected act based on case law or the Constitution.
- 6:46Well, I want to go back to last year and quote the mayor of Albany.
- 6:52Aaron Tideman, I believe his name is, he implied that the cross and what it stands for is
- 6:59against the values of the people.
- 7:02He said the city has actually put its money where its mouth is.
- 7:06And our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with
- 7:11our values, meaning now that the cross is removed.
- 7:14And he said the people that have had the cross up, they've had such privilege for so long.
- 7:20And he says losing it feels like being oppressed.
- 7:23That's going to be an adjustment for folks, but here's what I'm getting to Brad.
- 7:28But I think we will all get used to it and I think it's a real benefit.
- 7:34Now think about taking removing God, prayer from the public schools in the 1960s.
- 7:40Think about the removal of 10 commandments, monuments, or public expressions.
- 7:46We've gotten used to it.
- 7:48That's what he said, the quiet part out loud.
- 7:51He said, you know, we'll do this and they'll just get used to it.
- 7:54But sadly, that's what's happened, your thoughts on that.
- 7:57We should never get used to oppression and state silencing of religious speech or the
- 8:05rights of individuals to use their private property in a way that they feel called by God
- 8:10to use it.
- 8:12This is a very important issue and the fact that the mayor would say something like that
- 8:19is indicative of number one, an ignorance of a constitution.
- 8:23But number two, just a growing hostility and hate, if you will, really towards the cross
- 8:31and towards people who respect the cross and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for
- 8:37that matter, I'm sure there are people in the community that don't like the cross.
- 8:43I'm sure that's probably the case because the cross is convicting.
- 8:48It's convicting in terms of sin.
- 8:51Jesus died on the cross, not just to make friends.
- 8:55He died on the cross because we have a sin problem and many people don't want to address
- 9:01their sin problem.
- 9:02But that's the first phase of the gospel.
- 9:04The second is the fact that Jesus died on the cross to pay for that sin.
- 9:10And all we have to do in humility is to receive his payment for that sin on the cross and
- 9:16the victory through his resurrection to make him our Lord and Savior.
- 9:20So that message is powerful, but it's also protected by the Constitution.
- 9:26So the fact that some people don't like it, you know, that's why we have the free speech
- 9:30clause and the free exercise clause.
- 9:32It's not to protect speech or beliefs that everyone agrees with.
- 9:35It's to protect speech and religious beliefs that some may find repulsive and may disagree
- 9:41with.
- 9:42That's why we have that language in the first amendment in the first place.
- 9:45So when you go to your website pacificjustice.org, one of the first things you'll see is a PJI town hall
- 9:52that you guys had and it's great that you guys are doing this.
- 9:57Liberal rights has been a huge issue, obviously, that's been something that has been under attack.
- 10:03And what I mean by that is rights, particularly in public schools.
- 10:08Brad, I've had parents on this podcast that they were in a battle for their children
- 10:15because they were duped into thinking they were transgender.
- 10:20One in particular, I think of her name is Aaron Lee.
- 10:22She's fighting the fight in Indiana.
- 10:24Her daughter was recruited, you might as well use the word, recruited to an after school
- 10:28club and then she came home after just a couple hours in the club thinking she was transgender.
- 10:33Now Aaron's fighting this battle, but they said those that parents in that school system
- 10:38said, well, once you drop your kids off, they don't belong to you anymore.
- 10:44There are school, the school's children.
- 10:47So you have a case, I believe you said it was in New Jersey on parental rights.
- 10:52How much about that?
- 10:53Why this is important?
- 10:54Yeah.
- 10:55And the Supreme Court for about a hundred years ago, and Pierce was a side of sisters,
- 10:59Maya, me, Nebraska, Wisconsin, the odor, recognized that parents have a fundamental right
- 11:05over the education, moral instruction, religious instruction, upbringing, health, welfare of
- 11:10their children, always, that's their right.
- 11:14So the teachers unions, the public schools, overall, they have a problem with this, they
- 11:20don't really get it.
- 11:21So we have this happening in New Jersey right now, the attorney general of New Jersey,
- 11:25in fact, has the audacity to order every public school and every public school teacher
- 11:32in the state of New Jersey to light up parents if they see a child is struggling with gender
- 11:38confusion and not only light up parents, but actually violate their own conscience as
- 11:44teachers and force the teachers to affirm and encourage the confusion.
- 11:51That loving, compassionate teacher who truly cares about kids are going to want to encourage
- 11:58any kind of confusion, much less confusion, their results in permanent sterilization and
- 12:04statistically mental issues, physical issues, and a shorter lifespan.
- 12:10There's nothing compassionate and loving about that, but that's what the attorney general
- 12:14of New Jersey is requiring.
- 12:16We at Pacific Justice Institute, we don't get angry at these things, we file lawsuits.
- 12:20That's what we've done, and we're taking on the attorney general, we're going to take
- 12:24this case as far as we need to.
- 12:25Wow.
- 12:26I guess it's not surprising because the left will keep taking ground as much ground as
- 12:31Christians and conservatives and concerned citizens give them, whether it be the rights
- 12:36over their children, public square, how did you get connected, you know, you're based
- 12:41in California, but you have offices in many different places, how did you get connected
- 12:46with that particular case in New Jersey?
- 12:49Well, we have an office in New Jersey, Trent, New Jersey, also in New York, who are also
- 12:54licensed to practice in New Jersey.
- 12:56So we're very much alive on the East Coast, we have an office in Boston, several in New
- 13:02York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Maryland, also in North Carolina, Georgia, Miami.
- 13:09So we've got the whole East Coast covered to take on these and other kinds of cases,
- 13:16as well as, of course, offices in the industrial rest belts, the South, the Midwest, the West,
- 13:22and of course, the West Coast.
- 13:24So Brad, what kind of case or what kind of person would come to you or would find you and
- 13:31ask you if you would be able to represent them and how does that work?
- 13:36Yeah.
- 13:37Well, first it's really easy for people to request for help.
- 13:39They just go to our website, pji.org or pacificjustice.org.
- 13:45And there they can request for help and they give a description of what they're going
- 13:49through, what their issues are, what the problem is.
- 13:52And then we'll take a look at it and see if it falls on our area of expertise, a religious
- 13:55freedom, parents rights against the government or the safety of human life.
- 13:59And then we'll get back to them.
- 14:01But we take on all kinds of cases, so like on religious freedom, for example, we took
- 14:05on cases defending churches throughout the state of California when they were told and
- 14:11ordered by a governor Gavin Newsom, you have to be shut down, even though we're letting
- 14:16restaurants open up and strip clubs open up, churches have to be shut down.
- 14:21It was a big bully tactic by governor Gavin Newsom, clear hostility and bigotry against
- 14:28institutions of faith, synagogues as well, we're shut down.
- 14:32So we had pacific justice, we filed a lawsuit, we took it all this Supreme Court and the
- 14:36Supreme Court ordered with a six three vote, thanks to the appointments by former president
- 14:41Donald Trump.
- 14:42Want to give some credit here.
- 14:45Because of that, the Supreme Court ordered six to three to the governor Gavin Newsom
- 14:50open those churches and synagogues now, and he did that ripples across the country.
- 14:55That was a very dramatic case, but we take on other cases involving churches where it's
- 15:00just a land use zoning issue and they're not allowed to expand or to build a church somewhere.
- 15:05We do all our work, of course, without charge.
- 15:08So on the religious freedom side, we do a lot of case work, people in the workplace were
- 15:13fired because of their faith and convictions.
- 15:16We've told thousands and thousands across the nation were wrongfully fired, not because
- 15:21they were doing a bad job, but simply because they had sincere religious convictions against
- 15:27either taking a controversial COVID-19 quote unquote vaccine or because they're refusing
- 15:33to use pronouns that clearly violate their conscience and their commitment to be a follower
- 15:39of the Lord Jesus Christ.
- 15:40So these are the kinds of religious freedom kinds of cases we're taking on right now.
- 15:45Wow, fantastic.
- 15:46We so appreciate you Brad and what you do.
- 15:49By the way, friends, they've got a YouTube channel as well, Pacific Justice Institute
- 15:52on YouTube.
- 15:53Got some other things to discuss with Brad Dacus, president of PJ, I will write back
- 15:57on World View Matters.
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- 17:10So Brad, back to Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute, Brad, over on your website there's
- 17:17a section of things that you discuss when you go and speak on these or interview on these.
- 17:23And the first two are very important to caught my eye and one is new laws impacting churches
- 17:30and the next one is church and politics.
- 17:34So talk a little bit about those topics.
- 17:38Yeah, so when laws are passed that impact churches and or and in some religious institutions
- 17:46we like to call them out and you know the one of the big questions one of the big issues
- 17:51we're dealing with right now is the redefinition of the E by the EOC of Title 9 dealing with
- 18:01allowing boys, mandating the boys can go into girls locker rooms or showers also that dealing
- 18:08with Title 7 applying it to religious institutions saying that they can't discriminate based on
- 18:14sexual orientation or gender identity when it comes to dealing with staff and employees.
- 18:22These are serious concerns we have Pacific Justice love to make churches aware of these
- 18:28and to go to bat for them when we see this kind of outrageous intolerance.
- 18:33As far as church and politics go we have a fantastic division it's called a church engagement
- 18:39division and what we do is we serve churches in so many ways but one of ways we do is we empower
- 18:46them to have their voice heard one of the greatest problems we have is the churches is all too silent.
- 18:53In fact a large contingency of Christians don't even register to vote much less vote so we
- 18:59enable and empower churches very easily to have voter registration Sundays last election we
- 19:04got over 500 churches to put on voter registration Sundays resulting in more than 15,000
- 19:10new registered voters having a real impact this year we're shooting for over a thousand churches
- 19:17down voter registration Sundays we also have churches recruit poll workers and poll watchers
- 19:22on a grassroots basis to fight this fraud which has become such an issue with elections these days
- 19:29as well as helping pastors identify people who might be good candidates to run for school
- 19:34council last go around we got church work with churches and they recruited 44 people to run for
- 19:40school boards 23 of them won and defeated existing incumbents who are beholden to the teachers union
- 19:47and the LGBTQ and that kind of material instead now they're they're being replaced with someone who
- 19:54is sensitive for the rights of parents and the true quality of the education of kids so we're
- 20:00seeing great things done on that level and we can help any church anywhere if they just go to our
- 20:05website p j i dot o r g i want to talk a little bit more about that Brad because you brought up
- 20:12something that there's a lot of confusion among the church but especially among pastors and it
- 20:17might have to do with the johnson amendment you said voter registration drives in churches wait a
- 20:24minute separation of church in state which i call the second biggest lion america evolution number one
- 20:31separation of church in state because now when people hear that what it what that means to our
- 20:35generation is the separation of Christianity and state or the biblical worldview keep your
- 20:41influence behind church walls so what else can churches do what else can a pastor say from the
- 20:48pulpit yeah so you know there's a johnson amendment but there's been so many pastors have sent
- 20:58you know DVDs of their sermon to the irs and then the sermon their point blanks
- 21:04calling out a politician or talking positive about another politician running for office
- 21:10and the irs has not done anything with that that's right not in any way attacked over 300 churches
- 21:16did this and the reason is because the iris knows that if they did under the quote johnson amendment
- 21:22that this supreme court would declare that unconstitutional the government can't use purse strings
- 21:28to silence the free exercise of religion that is what the supreme court would rule on those kinds
- 21:34of issues so but pastors have tremendously way not just to express their personal convictions
- 21:41behind the pulpit and we encourage them to qualify and say this is my personal belief in conviction
- 21:46and then to to qualify in that regard just makes a little bit of a of a need or case but churches
- 21:52can do all kinds of things we have a booklet on our website talking about all the things that churches
- 21:57can do to make sure their voice is heard and it's called church and politics they can download it
- 22:02for free you know david when i talked to groups of pastors and i do a lot of guest preaching at churches
- 22:08across the country but sometimes i get to talk to groups of pastors in one location and when i do
- 22:13i talk to them i and i say you know the issue of of elections and church involvement it's it's not
- 22:18about you know you know someone getting elected or not getting elected really i mean god raises up
- 22:23god brings down it's really about obedience to god's word in Romans chapter 13 to be good citizens
- 22:30and also to preserve our testimony yes if a church in my opinion david if a church is truly
- 22:36filled with the love of Jesus truly they're going to care about people outside their church walls
- 22:41including the preborn amen amen and if they and if they truly care then they're going to vote voting
- 22:50is a manifestation of whether our love is real or whether it's fake and we're really actually
- 22:56just self centered not wanting to to offend anyone and thinking what others think of us and if
- 23:02if Christians don't think that that's true if they don't think that it's a matter of their
- 23:07testimony don't worry the secular world out there they watch who goes to the polls and it's a
- 23:13loud and clear to the non-believers of this country and non-believing us to whether or not
- 23:19Christians truly care and whether or not we're really different with the love of Christ so
- 23:25it's people they need to vote and they also need to vote biblically with a biblical worldview
- 23:31on issues whether that are not negotiable whether it's saving the lives of preborn from the new
- 23:37modern holocaust or standing beside Israel they who bless Israel will be blessed those who curse
- 23:43Israel will be cursed our nation just recently has made a terrible decision to betray Israel
- 23:50against their war with terrorism and it's it's it's clearly unbiblical and then we also have issues
- 23:57dealing with the family God's word is clear cut on that there's no negotiation on that and
- 24:02and what he did and in Deuteronomy chapter 22 what he how he deals with the issue of the transgender
- 24:08issue with love and compassion we cannot forsake the truth of God's word we need to be loving and
- 24:14praying for those people who have been deceived against God's word and we need to vote for candidates
- 24:20they're in alignment with God's word to not do so brings condemnation on ourselves for being
- 24:26disobedient by supporting that which is evil versus that which is biblical and accordance with
- 24:32God's word oh my goodness friends if you're watching this rewind that last minute or two and
- 24:38just watch that again and listen to what Brad was sharing preach it brother by the way speaking
- 24:43of the transgender issue we only have three minutes left I believe it was 2018 to but don't
- 24:48quote me on that we worked with you in Wisconsin Pacific Justice Institute we had a case that in the
- 24:56city of Depeer was going to pass a non-discrimination this transgender ordinance and we won you
- 25:03helped us at the Pacific Justice Institute I think Kevin is that his name who's one of these
- 25:08Kevin Snyder but we now have an office in Wisconsin yep and she's just absolutely fantastic
- 25:15doing a great job at yeah there's all kinds of issues like this we're dealing with we've got
- 25:19school board members in Michigan being investigated by the FBI simply because they wanted a separate
- 25:25restroom for transgender kids so boys aren't going into girls locker rooms at the same time with
- 25:30girls and in in restrooms they're being cruelly prosecuted basically up to 20 years behind bars
- 25:36we're defending them through our our Michigan office and I also just want to say there's a lot of
- 25:40kids being taken by social workers now across the country one thing that every parent and family
- 25:45should have David they should download from our website an article called 12 steps to protect
- 25:52your children from CPS or social workers it is critical because so many children now being taken
- 25:58by Christian families who are not willing to to encourage their children into same sex sex acts
- 26:05or gender confusion this is very very important and every family should download it's it's free
- 26:12on our website pji.org and we help anyone without charge from coast to coast by God's grace
- 26:20so over at the website there's a resources tab all kinds of for parental rights for churches
- 26:26for business leaders on religious freedom bread I just I'mma just amazed that we haven't talked
- 26:32in probably a year and a half I've got to have you on more regularly because I really admire
- 26:37your work I love your heart and your boldness and I just want to ask Lord that he will bless you
- 26:43and enlarge your territory even more and protect you from the enemy because I know you're taking
- 26:47the hits I know you get the flack and and but you know what that's a badge of honor in this day
- 26:53and age because we seek the approval of God audience of one right right right absolutely we're to
- 26:59seek the the approval of God not the approval of men and how many pastors in our country will not
- 27:06speak up on the issues of the day as applied to God's word simply because they choose to be
- 27:11pleasers of men and not offend people in their congregation those churches that are strong or those
- 27:17that are faithful to the word of God and we'd love to to work with and serve those churches and David
- 27:22I want to thank you so much for what you're doing on this broadcast getting out information that
- 27:27is not covered by mainstream media so it's a joy and privilege to be on your program I look
- 27:34forward to being on in the future thank you very much we've got you on record saying that brother
- 27:40thank you Brad that's at pacificjustice.org or pji.org will to be continued thank you so
- 27:46much thank you all right friends and again we appreciate all the guests we have on just great
- 27:53perspectives and the work that they do we ask that you at least go to their websites consider
- 27:58supporting the people that just help edify and inform and equip us God bless you and as always
- 28:04keep speaking the truth about things that matter