Latest / Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza / Ep.91 - Mother of 7, Heidi St. John Fights Woke Cities With Truth and Homeschool Empire | Christian Political Engagement | Becoming Mom Strong | Traditional Family Values

Transcript

Ep.91 - Mother of 7, Heidi St. John Fights Woke Cities With Truth and Homeschool Empire | Christian Political Engagement | Becoming Mom Strong | Traditional Family Values · Virtuous Leaders with Dr. Johann D'Souza

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I ran for Congress in 2022 here in Southwest Washington to
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represent Congressional District Three.
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I've written 12 books. My podcast is coming up on 30
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million downloads. I speak all over the country on.
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I am very interested in the intersection of faith and
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culture. This is Virtuous Leaders, the
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podcast for based Catholics who will speak truth, do good, or
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die trying. Here's the show.
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My husband and I have opened the nation's first and largest,
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probably now homeschool Resource Center.
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We have about 1200 students right now.
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And so that's where I'm actually coming to you from.
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Today is my office here in Vancouver.
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So anyway, I'm interested in everything, education, politics,
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mothering, the church, the stupidity of the left in
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Portland. Let's go.
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We can talk about all of it. OK, when you say the church,
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what do you mean? I mean, what is the role of the
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church in the culture? What do you mean by the church?
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Like you're not? You don't mean the Catholic
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Church specifically. No, I mean, Oh no, no, I mean
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your girl's probably comes from a Calvary Chapel tradition.
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So actually I'm I'm not Catholic.
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I met my husband at Multnomah School of the Bible back in the
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80s. So we've been in ministry now
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for 38 years. So when I say the church, I mean
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people who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ and
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who are born again. That's who I'm talking about.
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And actually, to be fair, I know some Catholics who I believe to
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be born again. So and I know some people who
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claim to be Christians who I would say maybe are not.
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So I feel like, but when I talk about that, I because that's
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something I talk about on my show a lot.
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I'm talking about if you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ
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and you're born again, God has a job for you to do.
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You're not just here to stay in the four walls of your church
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and hide in the four walls of your house.
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Get out and put feet to your faith.
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That's what I'm talking about. Gossip Lone, yes.
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Yes. Where do you what's your what's
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your tradition? What's your background in
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Galilee? OK, so I was just at an event
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with Lila Rose and I've done yes.
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And so I love her. Andrew Pudawa, a really good
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friend of mine. He's also Catholic.
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I don't know how much you know about Andrew, but he's very well
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known in homeschool circles. He owns the Institute for
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Excellence in Writing. I was just at an event with him.
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But yeah, that's what I say. When I say church, I mean God's
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people. People who say that Jesus is the
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Lord of their life, like, hey, act like it.
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That's what I. Mean I I get, I guess that
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that's what I meant to hear back, but I just want to clear.
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Yeah. OK, so you're you're a mother of
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seven, you've written 12 books, you have 30 million downloads on
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your podcast, and you live in Washington.
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Is there any hope for our woke cities?
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The only hope for our woke cities is if Christians would
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engage in the political process and actually vote here in
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Washington state. In the last election alone, 1.3
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million self identified Christians did not vote in
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Washington State's election. And if they would have voted, I
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mean, if you look at the margins by which Washington lost to an
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absolute stray of communist, like the guy who's the governor
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of Washington right now, Bob Ferguson is a nightmare.
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And we knew he's a nightmare because he used to be the
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attorney general of Washington state in charge of one of the
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worst and most oppressive lockdowns in the nation during
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COVID. And we elected this guy to be
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the governor of Washington. Now we have some of the highest
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taxes and the lowest performing schools, one of the highest
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abortion rates in the nation right here in Washington state.
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And it grieves me to look at how close the margins were to a lot
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of these elections that we lost. And then hear from the Family
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Policy Institute of Washington that 1.3 million people in
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Washington state who call themselves Christians didn't
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vote. And if they would get out there
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and vote, I mean, if they would get on vote and they would vote
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from a biblical worldview, we wouldn't just win.
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We'd win in a landslide. And that's my frustration with
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what happened here. And I think I don't think
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Washington state's alone in that.
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I think that's true of California and Oregon and a lot
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of these states that are being run by leftists and people who
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have agendas that can only be, I think seen in many cases as
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evil. Sorry, but it's true, you know,
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pushing the radical abortion agenda, for example, I don't
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know if you're aware if you've been following this lately, but
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I was having this conversation with Lila Rose at an event that
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we spoke at recently together. And the abortion statistics have
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actually gone up since Roe V. Wade because of the abortion
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pill, which providers are handing out like candy and sex
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traffickers are getting it and pimps are getting it.
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And it's very, very sad. And these are issues that
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Christians need to be speaking into.
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And I don't think there's any hope for these woke cities or
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woke states or even our country for that matter, until that
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happens. Do.
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You believe the culture war is a battle between Satan and the
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faithful people of God. 100 percent, 100 percent, 110%.
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If I could agree with that a million times, I would.
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It's a spiritual battle, you know, and we've been taught, and
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I bet you have heard the same kind of talking points when you
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were growing up. We were always told at
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Thanksgiving dinner, we don't. What do you not talk about at
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Thanksgiving? You don't talk about religion
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and you don't talk about politics.
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And what I find fascinating about that is that Thanksgiving
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is literally a holiday that is only about religion and
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politics. That's why the holiday exists.
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And we've been told as Christians that we are to be
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silent when it comes to politics because, you know, politics is
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dirty, right? Except for we were literally
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born for this time in history. And so IA 100% agree.
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These are spiritual battles and spiritual battles require
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spiritual weapons. And I'll, I take it a step
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farther, not that you asked, but I'll take it a step farther.
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I think the reason our country is drowning morally, we were
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literally drowning, is because we continue to send people to
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the front lines of spiritual battles who cannot wield
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spiritual weapons and then we expect a different result.
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These are spiritual battles. Spiritual battles require
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spiritual weapons. And God's people, people who
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believe that there is a Creator and that there is a Son of God
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and that he died for our sins and who've been forgiven.
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We have a an obligation to bring the truth of what we know to be
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true into every sphere of influence, and that includes
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politics. So you wrote 12 books including
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Becoming Mom Strong. I think that internal anxiety is
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one of the biggest problems facing families.
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How does someone become Mom Strong?
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Well, the tagline for that book is how to fight with all that's
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in you for your family and your faith.
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And you probably guessed by now, I'm a little bit of a fighter.
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I'm a little bit of a scrapper. And I think that the very first
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thing, there's a lot of anxiety in motherhood right now.
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And I think one of the one of the premises of that book is
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that this generation of young mothers in particular, Yeah,
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they're, they're dealing with things that my generation, you
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know, growing up in the 70s and the 80s, you know, I came of age
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in the 80s, got married in the 80s.
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This generation of parents is dealing with things that my
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generation didn't even see counting.
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Like I, I was, you know, I'm old and I graduated from high school
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in the 80s and check it out. I had a Commodore 64 computer,
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one of the very first prototypes of a Mac computer, and I was
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required to take typing on a manual typewriter and on an
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electric typewriter. And we were in this sort of
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switch, this move that was happening from one type of
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technology to the next generation, the next Gen. right?
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So like I'm talking to you now on my MacBook Pro and I'm
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sitting here with an iPhone, right?
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And I remember when iPhones came.
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I remember when Facebook was a thing, you know, my daughter
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wanted to get a Facebook account.
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I think she's maybe your age, my oldest daughter.
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And I was like, oh, why would you need, you know, Facebook?
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What a ridiculous, you know, But I thought I'll make myself an
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account just so I can keep track of you.
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We had no idea Facebook going to rule the world, right?
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No idea that our kids are being addicted to iPhones.
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No idea that pornography at the rate of, you know, a billion per
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second was going to be shoved in front of our kids.
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Used to have to go down to the corner store and at least
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embarrass yourself to get ahold of a gross magazine.
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And now you can pipe it into your, into your bedroom in
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relative anonymity. And we didn't know.
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And you don't know what you don't know.
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And so these moms are dealing with problems.
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They are being asked to answer questions that my generation
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never even saw coming. And these are the questions
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that, praise the Lord have already been answered for us,
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because the answers to these questions are in the word of
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God. And so I, I, I tell moms, the
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very first thing you have to do is be very open and honest about
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what's happening to our culture, what's happening to our
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children. I've never seen a generation of
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kids so targeted by the enemy as I am this generation starting
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from the time they're five years old in our public school system.
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And I think we've seen an entire generation become spiritually
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hostage because we just kind of weren't ready for the attacks
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that came. And so I think that this
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generation of young parents, God's calling them to do
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extraordinary things and to stand for righteousness in the
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public square, not just privately, but publicly, where
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my generation and generations before me really fell on our
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faces. And we were just like, ah, you
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know, it doesn't matter. And and you know, we just won't
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engage this young generation. These kids are being assaulted
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in their libraries for goodness sake, right?
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You can't go down to a city festival in my neck of the woods
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in Portland, OR you can't go like we used to think.
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It didn't matter, for example, who was running the Parks and
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Rec division. We didn't care.
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We didn't vote for him. Who cares?
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These guys are bringing drag Queens to basically strip down
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in front of little kids. We didn't see that coming.
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So becoming Mom Strong is kind of an apologetic for motherhood
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and why I think mothers have maybe one of the most important
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roles in the culture, mothers and fathers, why marriage is so
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important, why healthy marriages matter so much.
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White children are a sacred gift and blessing from the Lord.
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So you understand this apologetic of the family as God
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created it, then you have an obligation to defend it.
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And so that's really what it's about.
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I, I started off by talking about where I came from.
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I grew up as one of seven children myself in a Christian
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home. And I kind of put it in air
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quotes. You know, I feel like my parents
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were Christians and but my father was raised by an
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alcoholic and he raised me the only way he knew how to raise
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children, which was to physically injure me my entire
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life. So I grew up with this just this
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really unhappy home. My parents divorced when I was
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18 and I wrote about that and the impact that that had on me
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and would have had on my children and their children.
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I now have 8 grandchildren, right?
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So it would have had that impact on those generations too.
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But God in his mercy, and I think largely through the love
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and and care and tenderness of the man that I've been married
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to now for 36 years, set me on a new path to, to change the
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generational legacy that has been in my family for literally
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generations. That's who God is, right?
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He's the healer. He's the trajectory changer.
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And so a lot of becoming Mom strong is first.
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It's like my history of feeling like I'm never going to be a
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good mother. I wasn't.
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I didn't really see it modeled well for me.
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I don't know much about raising children.
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I didn't see it feel like I didn't see it done well.
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And the Lord said, hey, you give it to me.
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You ask me for help, you invite me in, you make me Lord of your
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life. And we're going to change the
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trajectory of generations of your family.
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And he's doing that. And I think he wants to do it
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for every mother that will call out to him.
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Men have lost their place in society and women have
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unnaturally filled that place, which hasn't made them happier
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and makes them less happy. How do we address that?
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Well, I think we reject the lie of feminism.
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Maybe we start there. I think I would say, and this
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has not been real popular, especially not in my neck of the
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woods, but I would say that feminism has probably done more
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to injure women than any movement ever.
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The original feminists, by the way, we're pro-life.
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The original feminists would have not recognized, you know,
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the pink hat wearing man haters that are part of the feminist
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movement today. You know, God has made us in his
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image, male and female, and he's made us different and he did it
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on purpose. And so women have an incredible
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role in the culture and it's different from men.
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And that's OK. And so I want women to see their
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role in the culture is beautiful, this beautiful.
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We get to reflect this feminine side of our creator, right?
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Women have the amazing ability to carry life inside of them.
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Women are nurturers. They're born reflectors.
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And the feminist movement has said, no, you're, you could be a
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man if you want to be, you know, you should be fighting on the
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front lines out there and in in the infantry, you know, you
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should, you know, imagine the deception.
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Imagine what it took to convince generations of women that
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holding a newborn baby in your arms and nurturing new life and
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teaching our children and loving our husbands was somehow slavery
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was somehow bad. It took a pretty hefty lie to be
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able to do that. And so the first thing I think
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we do is we just reject feminism.
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We don't reject what started the feminist movement, which was
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basically the women's suffrage movement, right?
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Who were just saying, hey, how about we get to vote too, You
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know, how about we have a say in the cultural conversation?
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Very important, right? Very important.
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So I'm not here to say women shouldn't be voting or anything
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like that. I'm saying that this hatred of
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men and the rejection of the beauty of femininity and the
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beauty of motherhood and the beauty of marriage and the
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complementary nature of men and women, the, the feminist
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movement says reject all that. And we've, we've really gone
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sideways. And so I speak to young women
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all over the country. I do it all the time.
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And, and I think we're seeing as it's a spiritual revival,
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honestly, right? Because once you recognize how
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God made us as male and female, and you embrace it, turns out
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God's ways are better. Do you think we're going through
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a Christian renaissance? I think I, I think maybe, I
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think maybe, I think maybe it's AI think for sure this is an
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awakening. I'm not entirely sure I want to
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say it's a revival. I think it's going to take a few
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months to see if what we're seeing happen across the country
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is revival. I would hesitate to say that you
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don't get revivals without repentance.
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You can get awakenings, but you don't get revivals.
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Revivals come with repentance. And so that means that is
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Christians, as people who love the Lord with all our heart,
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soul, mind and strength, we first look in the mirror and we
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say, Lord, is there anything like what David did right?
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Search me, try me. Is there anything in my life
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that is keeping me from being the person that you want me to
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be? And that's where that's where we
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start. So yes, the, I guess the answer
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to your question is, I do think we're in the middle of an
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awakening for sure. We're starting to see a sharp
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decline in the transgender identification of, you know,
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people who identify as transgender.
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We're starting to see an awakening like, oh, hey, that's
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not right, right. But I don't know that we're in a
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revival period. I pray that we will be, that God
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will awaken the hearts of his people and that they'll be moved
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to repentance. Then I see we're going to, I
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think if that happens, boy, you know, a floodgates will open it.
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I think that would be extraordinary.
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I'm really interested in Christian participation in
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public life. And you lit it out.
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You ran for Congress. Yes.
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So I, I believe, and I know that you do too, that God's people
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should be in every sphere of influence that we belong in
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medicine, we belong in entertainment, we belong in the
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media and we also belong in politics.
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And the reason I say that is because I think I'd say, you
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know, 99% of the issues that we deal with in public policy are
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moral at their root. And if that's true, then we're
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talking about moral issues. They're not just, they're not
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just political. They're not simply political,
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They're biblical. And I've been telling audiences
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this and I think we're starting to see it.
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People are starting to understand and wake up to this
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reality. Politics determines policy and
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policy shapes nations. Why would God's people not want
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to be in the policy shaping business if at the very least it
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would be the protection of our religious liberty right?
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The protection of our right to worship the Lord freely, to go
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to church without fear, to share our faith publicly without
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apology at the very least. And so absolutely, yes, I, I
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just think God's people belong in the public.
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And look what happened when we removed ourselves, right?
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So when we, when we bought the lie that, oh, you know,
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Christians don't belong in the public square, when we bought
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the lie and we removed ourselves, evil filled the
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vacuum and we started seeing unspeakable things coming out of
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the White House, out of our public policy from the highest
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positions of authority in the land.
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And again, it goes back to what I said a few minutes ago.
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We're sending people to make these very important decisions
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for us, the front lines of spiritual battles who cannot
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wield spiritual weapons. And so, yes, in 2022, I did
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something I've never done before.
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I ran for office. And I didn't just run for, you
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know, City Council. I ran for Congress.
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And doing that really taught me a lot.
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And I, some of your audience won't like this, but it's true.
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And it's my lived experience. And I will tell you that there
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is evil on both sides of the political aisle.
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You, you cannot look at a Republican and say, well, that
20:05
person's that's a good person, you know, because he's a
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Republican. Or conversely, I would say you
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can't look at a person who's a Democrat and go, well, that's an
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evil person because they're, you know, a Democrat.
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It isn't. It's, it's more important that
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we pay attention to the platforms.
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The platform of the Democrat Party is generally evil.
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It generally is, this is the platform that would RIP an
20:30
unborn baby for his mother's womb up to nine months.
20:33
This is the platform that says it's OK to insert a needle
20:36
filled with digoxin into the heart of an unborn baby and kill
20:39
it in his mother's womb. This is the party that says that
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marriage can be anything you want it to be.
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This is the party that has called for open borders and I
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mean all kinds of things. And you can transgenderism for
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goodness sake, you know, the defunding of our police, our
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cities are less safe. So you can say that I, I think
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we can say unquestionably that much of what the Democrat
21:05
platform is, is evil. Conversely, Republicans have
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historically stood for the unborn marriage between a man
21:13
and a woman, things that God stands for.
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And so we, we look at the platform, there are lots of
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Republicans right now who are trying to water down that
21:19
platform. I think we need to be very, very
21:21
careful. I mean, like I said, I
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encountered many Republicans is running for office that I would
21:29
say, oh, hey, I don't know if you're in the right, you know.
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So I, I think we need to check the platform.
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People need to pay attention to what the issues are and
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recognize that there is, there are evil people on both sides of
21:48
the political aisle. And I think it causes, or it
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should cause us to even be more engaged and more aware and more
21:57
informed. He's a hot take free.
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I believe that the divide is not between Democrats and
22:03
Republicans, but between devil worshipping pedophiles and
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everyone else. 100% that's absolutely right.
22:12
Yes, I vote for you. Run for office.
22:17
So can you can you share this your homeschool gig and all your
22:20
free time you started this homeschool initiative?
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Yeah, so Jay and I have homeschooled all seven of our
22:26
children. We didn't start out that way.
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Our oldest daughter, Savannah, was in a public school up until
22:31
the 2nd grade. And really, God just got a hold
22:35
of my heart. And He showed me that education
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is not neutral. There's nothing about education
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that's neutral. Education is discipleship.
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It's the impartation of what I believe is good and true and
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beautiful to my children. And I would venture to guess
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that a lot of your listeners who have their kids, this is my
22:55
question for everyone who's listening.
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For those of you who have your kids in school, be it private or
22:59
public, do you know who is teaching your children?
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Really know them? Do you know their political
23:08
ideology? Do you know what they think
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about God in His word? Do you know what they think
23:15
about the role of parents in the family?
23:19
Jesus in talking to his disciples, he was referring to
23:22
the Pharisees. But in the book of Luke, I think
23:25
it's chapter 6, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he says to
23:32
them when a student is fully trained, warning them about
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being educated by the Pharisees, says when a student is fully
23:39
trained, he'll be like his teacher.
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And I always ask parents who, who is teaching your children?
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If you don't know who's teaching your children, you're making a
23:48
grave mistake. And I think parents with the
23:51
schools are like giant babysitters for us, right?
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We drop them off 9, you know, five days a week, nine months
23:58
out of every year for 8 to 9 hours a day.
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And we send our kids to Rome to be educated.
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And then we wonder why they come out as Romans.
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Well, that's why. That's why.
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And so when the homeschool bug sort of bit us and I never
24:14
wanted to do it, I think it's fair to say I couldn't
24:17
understand why a woman in her right mind wouldn't be locked up
24:20
with her kids all day when a yellow bus would come and take
24:22
him away for free. But when God got a hold of my,
24:25
my heart, I just, my husband and I, we just couldn't leave her in
24:28
the public school anymore. And actually, when we had the
24:32
opportunity to send her to a private Christian School, we
24:34
rejected that opportunity as well because we recognize that
24:38
the responsibility route belongs to us.
24:41
And so we started a homeschool cooperative in northern
24:43
Washington and then we moved to southwest Washington, started
24:48
another one here, and eventually started over 100 of them around
24:52
the United States, up in Canada, one at the Rammstein Air Base in
24:55
Germany. Did you know for the last, over
24:57
the last 25 years, we've been trying to help churches minister
25:01
to homeschoolers. Well, in 2017, and you might
25:05
remember this, when Barack Obama issued his bathroom mandate,
25:08
remember this. And he said, well, the bathrooms
25:11
and public schools now are open to whatever gender you identify
25:14
as. I I remember I was in
25:16
Chattanooga, TN at the time speaking and I told my husband
25:20
homeschool co-ops aren't going to cut it, we need more.
25:24
So we began to pray about it, ask the Lord to help us, And God
25:28
in his mercy and in his Providence provided a building
25:32
for us and we opened the nation's first full time
25:35
homeschool Resource Center right outside of Portland, OR in
25:38
Vancouver, WA. And it is open five days a week.
25:44
We had classes, lots and lots of classes there.
25:46
COVID came and we stayed open. We closed, you know, two weeks
25:51
to flatten the curve and then we're like, Yep, we're done.
25:54
This is wrong. So we opened up the homeschool
25:56
Research Center under really great threat from this, from the
25:59
government of Washington state because like I told you, our
26:01
state's being run by communists. There was a woman not too far
26:05
down from us who tried to open her pet washing business and
26:08
they arrested her, like straight up arrested her.
26:12
And so when that happened, we realized, OK, this is spiritual.
26:17
We began to see can we move the homeschool Resource Center?
26:21
So we moved to another building, which is where I am right now.
26:24
We now have about 1700 students. Over 300 classes are here.
26:29
So if a mom comes to me and she says I want to homeschool my
26:34
kids, I want to pull them out of the public school here because
26:36
they're teaching the kids. There's 400 genders and I just
26:39
don't want to do it anymore. Great, we can put you into a
26:44
class at the homeschool resource.
26:45
So she says, well, I just don't want to teach chemistry.
26:47
That's fine. We can put you into, we have a
26:50
chemistry tutor for you. So it's not a school, it's a
26:53
Resource Center. We're connecting parents with
26:56
tutors and resources. We're teaching everything from
27:00
auto mechanics to crafting to ceramics to the constitution.
27:05
Every math class you could possibly imagine, every English
27:08
class. We have a thriving dance program
27:11
here, about 400 students in dance.
27:13
We've got, oh for goodness sake, English theater, you name it,
27:19
choir, you name it. And so the idea is, and these
27:22
are all individual teachers that come in and a lot of the classes
27:26
here are taught by parents who are just really good at the
27:28
subject they teach and just love it.
27:30
And So what we do at the center is we connect these parents and
27:34
their children with classes that they need.
27:37
And so you can't drop your kids off here.
27:38
It's not a drop off. I'm not interested in
27:40
babysitting your kids for you. And so parents stay on campus
27:44
while their kids are taking these these classes.
27:46
And so to that end, we have a bookstore here, a coffee shop.
27:51
You'll see hundreds of kids coming in and out all day long
27:55
with their parents, and that happens five days a week.
27:57
It's an extraordinary, extraordinary place.
27:59
And it's really just the gift of the Lord to this community.
28:05
And we'd like to see it actually replicated all over the country.
28:08
So something that we're still praying about.
28:11
I think the transition now to your role as influencer, as
28:14
strange as that word sounds, but you don't need a lot of
28:17
popularity. So what?
28:19
What's your secret or what are the tips to someone who wants to
28:22
have a greater influence on public life as you do through
28:26
public speaking and through Internet presence?
28:29
Yeah, that is a really, really good question.
28:32
So if you don't mind, I'll give you what I think is an
28:35
apologetic before I tell you like a tip.
28:39
I think if you are a Christian, especially, I mean, even if
28:42
you're not God in his word gives us priorities, right?
28:48
So in in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy, right, love the
28:51
Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your mind
28:54
and your strength. So that's where we start.
28:57
You want to be, you know, Mother Teresa said, I think said it
29:00
best, if you want to change the world, go home and love your
29:03
family. That's really where it starts.
29:06
So my day starts with me talking to the one who made me like
29:10
search my heart, try me. And man, the Lord likes to do
29:14
heart surgery on me at like 6:00 in the morning, you know, every
29:16
morning, a little heart surgery and he makes me aware of things
29:20
in my life that I need to correcting or maybe I need to
29:22
love my husband better or maybe I need to be more intentional
29:26
with my remaining daughter at home.
29:28
We have one child, one child, one child still left at home.
29:31
She's 15. And I start there and out of an
29:35
overflow of what happens between me and the one who made me, I
29:38
pour into my husband into my into my spouse.
29:41
That's my first relationship that I pour into and out of an
29:44
overflow of what happens between me and my husband in this one
29:48
flesh relationship that the Lord gave us.
29:51
I pour into my children and out of an overflow of that I pour
29:55
into our home. This is my primary
29:59
responsibility. If we don't get those building
30:02
blocks right, then the rest of it is for nothing.
30:07
Because if you and I, and I'm telling you I've been in this
30:10
whatever world for a long time, I could sit here for two hours
30:15
probably and tell you story after story after story of
30:19
influencers, right? And I use the word in ear quotes
30:22
because you're right, such a cringe word.
30:24
Now who have given up what really matters?
30:30
They've sacrificed, they've sacrificed the best thing on the
30:35
altar of a good thing. And so I, I get this question
30:39
all the time. Yeah.
30:42
Especially when I'm out on the road.
30:43
People will come up to my, you know, come up to meet me after
30:45
an engagement and I'll say, how did you get to do what you do?
30:48
How do I do what you're doing? I will go back to Mother Teresa.
30:53
If you, if you want to change the world, go home and love your
30:55
family, make sure that those relationships are in order.
31:00
Because if they're not and you lose your family in your pursuit
31:04
of platform, I will tell you that's a very hollow life.
31:08
You know, having, you know, 800,000 people follow you on
31:11
Instagram. Who cares?
31:14
Honestly, like who, who cares? Most of those people are there
31:16
to see you fail. By the way, Is that true?
31:18
They're they're there because it, it, it's true.
31:21
They're there because it's, it's a good headline.
31:24
They don't know you. They're not going to bring you a
31:26
casserole when you're sick. They're not going to come to the
31:28
funeral when your dad passes away.
31:30
They're not. These are not people in your
31:32
life. These are, I mean, I'm not
31:34
saying that I don't appreciate the people that follow me
31:36
online. I certainly do and I and I love
31:38
to interact with them. I actually love speaking in
31:40
person is my one of my favorite things to do.
31:43
But I'm not under any illusion that that's my inner circle.
31:50
My inner circle is in my home and in my family and in my
31:54
church and in my community, people that I actually do life
31:57
with. And I, I had a very serious
32:02
health crisis this last year. People that listen to my podcast
32:05
will will know this. I was diagnosed with a tumor in
32:09
February of last year, ended up having major surgery, and I'm so
32:14
thankful for the broader community of people that pray
32:17
for me. Thousands and thousands and
32:20
thousands of people praying for me.
32:22
And it was amazing, the prayer support.
32:27
It was my daughter and my sister and one of my best friends from
32:33
my my community here that came and literally washed my hair for
32:37
me when I could not do it myself.
32:40
That brought meals to my family that cried with me when my
32:46
recovery wasn't going like we hoped that it would.
32:51
Nurture those relationships in person.
32:55
Those are the most important relationships in your life.
32:58
And then after that, I think what the Lord has blessed in my
33:03
public platform, if you want to call it that, is I, I'm just
33:09
sort of a truth teller. I, I don't really care what you
33:14
think about me. I'm going to tell you what I
33:16
think is right and true. And sometimes I'd make mistakes.
33:20
Sometimes I get things wrong and I have to come back and go,
33:22
well, I got that wrong. And when I make a pop up an
33:25
apology, it's usually has to be a public 1.
33:27
You know, they'll all be like, well, I shared about this and I
33:30
was wrong. I had a wrong perspective.
33:32
Or I wish I would have waited for the news cycle to go a
33:34
little bit longer and then I would had better perspective or
33:37
whatever. But I just started talking very
33:41
early on in the home school movement about things that other
33:44
people wouldn't talk about. Like for example, there were,
33:48
there was abuse happening in the home school movement.
33:52
There was bad things happening. And I, I just started talking
33:57
about it and calling it out and saying what it is.
34:01
And I still, I still kind of do that.
34:05
And so I think, you know, people want to build a platform.
34:08
If you're in it for platform, I'm not trying to hurt your
34:10
feelings. Don't do it.
34:14
Don't do it. If, if you, if you're talking
34:18
about things that matter because it's important to you and it
34:20
quickens your heart and the Lord put something on your heart and
34:23
you just think, and I, I'm just compelled to say it.
34:27
Then just steward that with through prayer.
34:30
You know, Jay and I have been the leaders of our nonprofit
34:32
organization now from the planted family for over 25
34:36
years, you know, starting ministries, training leaders,
34:40
doing all kinds of things. And the reason I, I give the
34:42
apologetic for it is because if you don't get that foundation
34:46
right, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters.
34:48
Eventually the platform crumbles.
34:50
And unfortunately, when the platform crumbles, if you built
34:52
your life on that platform, that hollow thing, when that
34:56
crumbles, your life crumbles with it.
34:58
And I've seen it happen over and over and over again.
35:00
So in terms of writing books and, you know, my public
35:04
platform, I didn't start a lot of what I'm doing now.
35:08
I mean, I'm your girl's 55 now. OK.
35:10
So I didn't start a lot of what I'm doing now until our oldest
35:16
daughter was almost in high school because I was so busy
35:20
raising children, you know, and, and it was an accident.
35:24
I didn't even like, I started speaking because the lady at a
35:27
conference that my husband and I were running didn't show up for
35:29
the ladies luncheon. And they were like, we need a
35:31
speaker, You should do it. And I was like, oh, no, no, no,
35:34
I'm the name tag girl. I don't want to do that, you
35:37
know? And my husband encouraged me to
35:40
do it. And somebody from Idaho heard me
35:42
speak and then someone invited me to speak in Arizona and sort
35:45
of the rest is history. And after that I'd been blogging
35:48
online and somebody noticed my blog and this is long before
35:53
podcast, right? And so I was kind of at the kind
35:56
of the, the, I guess the I rode the wave of vlogging and then I
36:00
sort of rode the wave of, of podcasting, got into it early
36:04
and somebody noticed it. And I ended up signing A7 book
36:07
deal with Tyndale. And so I've been writing books.
36:11
I've self published several books.
36:14
I'm a new one I'm actually working on right now about
36:17
shepherding adult children that I'm very, very excited about
36:20
because six of our seven children are grown now.
36:23
And yeah, I love that the Lord's letting me do this.
36:27
Honestly, it is a thrill and joy and I, I love it.
36:32
And so I don't mean to sound, I don't know, do I sound down on
36:34
it? I don't mean to sound down on
36:35
it. I just, I just want people to
36:38
know how serious it is if you, if you put yourself, especially
36:41
as a woman of faith, as a man of faith, if you, you put yourself
36:46
out in the public space and you're willing to speak for what
36:48
God says is true and right and good.
36:51
You literally have a target on your back.
36:53
You have made yourself a target. So strengthen your walk with the
36:57
Lord, strengthen your marriage, strengthen your family, fortify
37:02
your home, and then build a platform.
37:06
Same As for raising my share with us, Heidi.
37:11
Oh, I just, I, I'm encouraged for I think that I think that
37:17
there is a generation right now that God is going to use to do
37:23
extraordinary things. And as that happens, I think
37:27
that the spiritual battle around you, around me, around all of us
37:31
is going to intensify. And so I still, I tell people,
37:35
stay close to the Lord, stay close to his word, stay close to
37:39
your family, and then listen, listen because God wants to give
37:42
you instructions so that you know what's the next step to
37:45
take. And boy, I think if, if, if this
37:50
generation of people who follow Jesus would simply walk in
37:55
obedience and do what he asks us to do, then I actually think we
38:00
might live to see revival. Thanks for listening.
38:03
Please like, subscribe and share with your friends.
38:05
See you next time.