Latest / The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show / The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Attacks on Faith Are Rising. Is Religious Freedom Under Threat?

Transcript

The Tudor Dixon Podcast: Attacks on Faith Are Rising. Is Religious Freedom Under Threat? · The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

0:01
Speaker 1: You are listening to the Tudor Dixon podcast. And today
0:03
Speaker 1: we get to hear from the incredible Karen Schneier Dressback.
0:07
Speaker 1: She is the executive vice president of the Appeal of
0:10
Speaker 1: Conscience Foundation. But first, really quick, I'm going to let
0:14
Speaker 1: you in on a guilty pleasure of mine. And I'm
0:18
Speaker 1: actually not proud of this, but there is some drama
0:21
Speaker 1: around it right now. So I thought I'm going to
0:23
Speaker 1: confess this to you today and then we're going to
0:25
Speaker 1: talk about it. So I watch a Netflix show called
0:29
Speaker 1: Nobody Wants This. It's kind of a dirty show. It's
0:32
Speaker 1: based on the life of the writer and producer, Aaron Foster.
0:36
Speaker 1: So I felt like, you know, it's kind of dirty,
0:39
Speaker 1: but it's a true story. It's like watching someone's love story.
0:42
Speaker 1: So I felt like, I don't know, this is how
0:44
Speaker 1: I'm justifying it to you guys that I watch the show.
0:47
Speaker 1: So if you don't watch the show, I'm not going
0:50
Speaker 1: to ruin it for you. I'm just going to like
0:52
Speaker 1: let you in on a little bit about the show.
0:54
Speaker 1: So in the show, there are these two main characters,
0:56
Speaker 1: one's Joanne and the other is Noah. they are in
1:00
Speaker 1: a relationship or they start to become in a relationship
1:02
Speaker 1: in the show. So this is also something I don't,
1:07
Speaker 1: I watched the show, but somehow I missed this until
1:10
Speaker 1: I was like researching for this today. I'm like, okay,
1:13
Speaker 1: what are there? I know that Noah is a rabbi
1:16
Speaker 1: in the show, but I'm like, she's a podcaster. And
1:18
Speaker 1: then I look it up and it's like, she's a
1:19
Speaker 1: sex podcaster. I was like, I don't know how I
1:22
Speaker 1: missed that. I mean, now looking back, kind of obvious,
1:25
Speaker 1: but yeah. They talk about sex a lot. So just
1:28
Speaker 1: thought that was kind of what she talked about on
1:30
Speaker 1: the podcast, but apparently specific. So anyway, Noah, his character
1:35
Speaker 1: is a rabbi. So, you know, you can see where
1:38
Speaker 1: this is going. Oh my gosh, she's this dirty podcaster.
1:41
Speaker 1: He's a rabbi. So also, also, I thought that was
1:46
Speaker 1: part of the true story because of the whole based
1:48
Speaker 1: on a true story thing at the beginning. And I
1:50
Speaker 1: was like, okay, wow, the drama. But so found out
1:55
Speaker 1: also today, that the real guy is apparently a music executive.
1:59
Speaker 1: So the rabbi thing was not, it makes for a
2:04
Speaker 1: good show. Anyway, it's interesting because you get like this
2:08
Speaker 1: Jewish culture and this Jewish history and it's in a
2:11
Speaker 1: really popular show. So I was like, oh my gosh,
2:15
Speaker 1: this is cool. I'm getting to learn this other culture.
2:18
Speaker 1: My sister married a Jewish guy. I get to, it's
2:21
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, she's blonde and like Christian
2:24
Speaker 1: and he's Jewish. Felt like I was fitting right in.
2:28
Speaker 1: So also in my naivete, the first two seasons of
2:33
Speaker 1: the show, I was like, wow, rabbis are like different
2:37
Speaker 1: than pastors because they have a lot of premarital sex,
2:41
Speaker 1: which I thought was, I don't know. Maybe I'm learning,
2:46
Speaker 1: you know, I'm learning about this. And then today, like
2:48
Speaker 1: dawn on me that maybe that's just a Hollywood thing.
2:51
Speaker 1: So I legitimately asked ChatGPT, I was like, in preparation
2:56
Speaker 1: for this podcast, do rabbis just have like loads of
2:59
Speaker 1: premarital sex?
3:00
Speaker 2: No.
3:01
Speaker 3: No.
3:02
Speaker 1: So this is also just for the show. I'm just
3:04
Speaker 1: confessing here.
3:04
Speaker 2: I didn't.
3:05
Speaker 1: I thought it was weird, but I don't know. Felt
3:08
Speaker 1: like maybe it was different.
3:09
Speaker 3: No.
3:10
Speaker 1: Chat GPT says no, this is just for Hollywood. So anyway,
3:13
Speaker 1: here we are. That's the guilty pleasure part. I don't
3:16
Speaker 1: even like saying pleasure now because it feels ucky because
3:18
Speaker 1: I've told you about it. But anyway, the main character
3:21
Speaker 1: of the show is this chick called Joanne. And she's
3:24
Speaker 1: like actually kind of awful. She's selfish and She's embarrassing.
3:28
Speaker 1: She's not great to Noah. I'm not going to lie.
3:30
Speaker 1: I guess this is where like the drama comes in
3:32
Speaker 1: because she's not even really like aware of what it
3:35
Speaker 1: means to be a rabbi. And it doesn't feel like
3:38
Speaker 1: she's really trying to get on board with the whole,
3:40
Speaker 1: he's a rabbi, we should act differently. And Noah is
3:44
Speaker 1: portrayed as this like pretty great guy. Obviously, told you
3:48
Speaker 1: he's a rabbi. He's like a really nice guy. Everybody's
3:54
Speaker 1: looking to him for advice. He's just great. So Anyway,
3:59
Speaker 1: you understand the guilt about the show, but there's drama
4:02
Speaker 1: outside of the show now. So that's the part that
4:04
Speaker 1: I find interesting because you have this show that became
4:07
Speaker 1: really popular and a lot of women are like, oh,
4:09
Speaker 1: this love story and it involves religion and we don't
4:13
Speaker 1: really talk about religion on TV. So it felt interesting.
4:17
Speaker 1: And then the war comes in. So there's this drama
4:20
Speaker 1: outside of the show because the actor who plays Noah, Mr.
4:24
Speaker 1: Perfect Rabbi Dude, is Adam Brody in real life. and
4:28
Speaker 1: he's also Jewish. But in the last month, in GQ magazine,
4:33
Speaker 1: he commented on the war in Israel, and he offended
4:37
Speaker 1: some of the other members of the cast who are
4:39
Speaker 1: also obviously Jewish. And I find it interesting because We
4:43
Speaker 1: are being bombarded with this divide on the war politically.
4:47
Speaker 1: But now you're seeing this dividing Hollywood and even the
4:51
Speaker 1: specific cast, which we really haven't seen Hollywood like openly
4:56
Speaker 1: war on a subject like this. I think historically it's
4:58
Speaker 1: been like if you have an opinion, you either are
5:02
Speaker 1: with the group of Hollywood or you don't say it.
5:05
Speaker 1: I mean, we've heard conservatives say it. they don't talk
5:07
Speaker 1: about their opinions or they're not going to be hired again.
5:09
Speaker 1: So Brody, this is what he said to GQ. He said,
5:13
Speaker 1: put me down as thinking it's a genocide. Put me
5:16
Speaker 1: down as wanting a free Palestine. It's awful that it's
5:21
Speaker 1: taken so much death and misery, but it does feel
5:24
Speaker 1: like it's reaching a breaking point that it should have
5:28
Speaker 1: a while ago. I'm hopeful that another administration can really
5:32
Speaker 1: do some good and correct some of these policies that
5:35
Speaker 1: are helping that situation be as awful as it is.
5:37
Speaker 1: So there's like sudden online backlash. People were like, what?
5:44
Speaker 1: This is crazy. How could he say that? Like, this
5:47
Speaker 1: is lifting up Jewish voices. And the show was finally
5:50
Speaker 1: doing something that was different, talking about religion. And then
5:54
Speaker 1: he waded into this war and the genocide comment. I
5:57
Speaker 1: feel like that's the one that really got people. So
6:00
Speaker 1: there's this guy who's Rabbi Steve Lader, who he served
6:05
Speaker 1: as the technical advisor on the premiere season of Nobody
6:08
Speaker 1: Wants This. So he was like kind of directing him.
6:10
Speaker 1: And he's going to you're going to hear this because
6:12
Speaker 1: he posted this on Instagram, which I find interesting because
6:17
Speaker 1: it's hard to speak up. It's hard to have the conversation.
6:21
Speaker 1: And I wanted to talk about this because look at
6:23
Speaker 1: what we're seeing. We're seeing the conversation in Hollywood. Now, obviously,
6:28
Speaker 1: he's a little angry, but it's bringing things up that
6:31
Speaker 1: you normally wouldn't see because people kind of like button
6:35
Speaker 1: up so they don't get fired. And I've always said
6:37
Speaker 1: I want to see actors for their acting. But that's
6:41
Speaker 1: not to say that we can never have a conversation.
6:43
Speaker 1: So check out what this rabbi had to say on Instagram.
6:48
Speaker 2: Hi Adam, you might not remember me. My name is
6:50
Speaker 2: Rabbi Steve Leder and I was the technical advisor for
6:53
Speaker 2: season one of Nobody Wants This. My job was to
6:56
Speaker 2: make sure your character was authentic and that everything in
6:59
Speaker 2: season one about Judaism was authentic. Your pronouncement the other
7:02
Speaker 2: day about a genocide in Gaza was truly shocking. Not
7:07
Speaker 2: only because of your misuse and mischaracterization of the word genocide.
7:12
Speaker 2: There is no genocide in Gaza. There are genocides in
7:16
Speaker 2: other countries happening, but you fail to mention any of them. You,
7:19
Speaker 2: by your own admission, are a relatively ignorant Jew, and
7:23
Speaker 2: your ignorance really showed the other day. If you're going
7:25
Speaker 2: to use a word like genocide, you ought to know
7:28
Speaker 2: what it means. Hey, put me down for genocide like
7:35
Speaker 2: you're asking for a table for two at Craig's is disgusting.
7:38
Speaker 2: Here's some more technical advice. If you know nothing about something,
7:43
Speaker 2: you should say nothing about it.
7:45
Speaker 1: It's a conversation that we're not comfortable with talking about.
7:49
Speaker 1: What is genocide? Because we hear it. It's a buzzword
7:53
Speaker 1: everybody's using. but he makes a really good point. Look
7:56
Speaker 1: at the situation. Look at the numbers. This is not
7:59
Speaker 1: a wipeout of an entire group of people. This is
8:02
Speaker 1: a war. There has been death on both sides, but
8:05
Speaker 1: to call it a genocide. And then I think it
8:10
Speaker 1: was interesting. I mean, obviously he's mad, but he's right.
8:15
Speaker 1: Just saying pencil me in on this side of the issue.
8:18
Speaker 1: That's something that Hollywood has been doing. But when you
8:21
Speaker 1: have influence, Your words matter. So Hollywood has always wanted
8:26
Speaker 1: their words to matter all these years. They make songs
8:30
Speaker 1: to tell you what should matter. They tell people to vote.
8:36
Speaker 1: They don't truly have accountability for these words. They're not politicians.
8:42
Speaker 1: So there's nobody going out and being like, don't vote
8:45
Speaker 1: for them because they said this. So they feel kind
8:48
Speaker 1: of invincible when it comes to having these conversations. They
8:51
Speaker 1: don't have to have a conversation. It's a one-sided conversation.
8:54
Speaker 1: So this is a unique instance where there's been some
8:57
Speaker 1: blowback within Hollywood. These are not issues that are widely accepted,
9:04
Speaker 1: especially when your show is a big boon to the
9:07
Speaker 1: Jewish community. You can't really come out and say this stuff.
9:12
Speaker 1: So it even got a response from Aaron Foster, who
9:15
Speaker 1: Famously now is Jewish. Of course, we know from the
9:18
Speaker 1: show that she met this guy, maybe not a rabbi,
9:22
Speaker 1: not exactly what we learned in the show, but she
9:24
Speaker 1: met a guy and she was agnostic and he was
9:28
Speaker 1: Jewish and she converted to Judaism. And it's interesting because
9:31
Speaker 1: you can tell this is her faith. This is personal.
9:37
Speaker 1: And she's very careful to not offend. But in an
9:40
Speaker 1: interview on the podcast, Not Skinny But Not Fat, She says,
9:47
Speaker 1: she doesn't share the same beliefs as Adam. She said, well,
9:50
Speaker 1: I love Adam. I also disagree with him, and that's okay.
9:55
Speaker 1: But there's going to be a time that comes when
9:58
Speaker 1: flippant comments like this are not going to happen. okay.
10:00
Speaker 1: And maybe, just maybe, the tide in Hollywood is turning.
10:04
Speaker 1: It used to be that conservative comments, like I said,
10:06
Speaker 1: they got you banned. Great actors couldn't ever talk if
10:09
Speaker 1: they were conservatives. They should not air their political grievances
10:14
Speaker 1: unless it was liberal comments. And then it wasn't a conversation.
10:19
Speaker 1: It was just shut down. So everybody right now is tiptoeing,
10:24
Speaker 1: but there's going to be some real pushback eventually, I think.
10:29
Speaker 1: Even the actress who plays Noah's mom on the show,
10:32
Speaker 1: the actress who plays the character of Adam Brody's mom,
10:37
Speaker 1: she made a strong statement about that. Her name is
10:40
Speaker 1: Tova Feldschuh. She plays Bina Raklov on the show. That's
10:44
Speaker 1: his mother on the show. And she had a rebuttal
10:47
Speaker 1: on the podcast Unscripted. And we have that clip. So
10:50
Speaker 1: I want you to be able to hear what she
10:51
Speaker 1: had to say. Again, kind, but calling him out. So
10:56
Speaker 1: here it is.
10:56
Speaker 4: To accuse the Jewish people of genocide is like wild.
11:00
Speaker 4: It's right out of Hitler's playbook. You take the victim
11:04
Speaker 4: and you make the victim the perpetrator.
11:06
Speaker 2: If a Jewish person describes what's happening in Israel as
11:09
Speaker 2: a genocide, does it make a difference to you if
11:11
Speaker 2: they're Jewish or not Jewish?
11:12
Speaker 1: It makes a difference to the community. That's the problem.
11:16
Speaker 4: There are some people with big followings that have stated this.
11:19
Speaker 4: All I can say is, you know how I stand,
11:21
Speaker 4: and that I believe that the perseverance of the existence
11:27
Speaker 4: of the state of Israel is crucial to the well-being
11:31
Speaker 4: of the democratic world, of the free world, and also
11:36
Speaker 4: to the global Jewish community, but absolutely to the free world.
11:39
Speaker 1: It's true. And it's something that more people need to
11:43
Speaker 1: speak up about. There is democracy. That is the one
11:49
Speaker 1: country in the Middle East that is a true democracy.
11:52
Speaker 1: And it does keep other powers in check over there.
11:56
Speaker 1: And it does give the United States the ability to
11:58
Speaker 1: keep the Middle East in check. She says some powerful stuff.
12:04
Speaker 1: And she doesn't call out Adam Brody specifically. But she
12:09
Speaker 1: makes the comment of people who have a large following.
12:11
Speaker 1: And she opens the conversation, which I like. In the past,
12:16
Speaker 1: like I said, the conversation has not been allowed in Hollywood.
12:21
Speaker 1: This subject and Adam's comments, it's kind of cracked something open.
12:25
Speaker 1: It's hard and it's different, but it's the beginnings of
12:27
Speaker 1: a conversation, which is what I think we all want.
12:31
Speaker 1: Conversation that doesn't get shut down. And at a time
12:34
Speaker 1: when anti-Semitism is at some of its highest levels that
12:36
Speaker 1: we've seen in our lifetime, we should stand up against it.
12:41
Speaker 1: So as awkward as it is for me to share
12:43
Speaker 1: with you my guilty pleasure, I wanted you to be
12:46
Speaker 1: able to see this. I wanted you to see that
12:48
Speaker 1: more people are standing for people of faith. And we
12:52
Speaker 1: are going to continue to share what it looks like
12:54
Speaker 1: to stand up for people of faith, whether it's your
12:57
Speaker 1: faith or someone else's. If as a people of faith,
13:01
Speaker 1: we stand up for the right to pray the way
13:04
Speaker 1: we want to, for the right to have our faith,
13:07
Speaker 1: then we're doing the right thing. So we have Karen
13:09
Speaker 1: Schreier-Dressback with us. She's with the Appeal of Conscience Foundation.
13:14
Speaker 1: We're going to talk more about this right after this.
13:17
Speaker 1: So don't go anywhere. We'll be back with Karen. I
13:21
Speaker 1: am so excited about what we are going to talk about.
13:24
Speaker 1: It's a hard subject, but also a subject that we
13:27
Speaker 1: need to talk about. And we are fortunate today to
13:30
Speaker 1: have Karen Schneier-Dreisbach with us. She is the Executive Vice
13:34
Speaker 1: President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. And we're talking
13:39
Speaker 1: about our right to worship how we want to, our
13:43
Speaker 1: right to pray how we want to. And the fact
13:46
Speaker 1: that that has been attacked a lot in the United States,
13:51
Speaker 1: a lot of our houses of worship have been attacked.
13:54
Speaker 1: And we haven't had a great answer to go up
13:58
Speaker 1: against this. But Karen, you guys are working on this,
14:01
Speaker 1: aren't you?
14:02
Speaker 3: Yes, actually, our foundation is 62 years old. And I
14:06
Speaker 3: would say protecting houses of worship is probably one of
14:09
Speaker 3: the areas we focus on overall, including sort of this,
14:14
Speaker 3: the importance of respecting other people's faith. And we are
14:20
Speaker 3: really blessed to be in the United States, a country
14:22
Speaker 3: that guarantees our right to worship freely. That is in
14:26
Speaker 3: the First Amendment. And certainly, you know, this notion that
14:31
Speaker 3: freedom of speech eradicates our right to worship freely is
14:35
Speaker 3: a narrative that is completely inaccurate.
14:38
Speaker 1: It's interesting because it does feel like some of our
14:42
Speaker 1: young people, especially on college campuses, are getting that mixed
14:46
Speaker 1: up and getting confused by that. And I know that
14:49
Speaker 1: I'm in the state of Michigan. I know we've had
14:52
Speaker 1: students on the University of Michigan's campus who say they're
14:55
Speaker 1: afraid to wear their Star of David because they are
14:57
Speaker 1: afraid of getting attacked by other people on campus. It's
15:01
Speaker 1: an interesting situation because we have some students who, we
15:07
Speaker 1: did have students who went after our Jewish students and
15:11
Speaker 1: our attorney general indicted those students. And then that There
15:16
Speaker 1: was quite a bit of a kerfuffle about that. And ultimately,
15:20
Speaker 1: there was nothing that went forward with that indictment. What
15:24
Speaker 1: do you think should happen when these threats are made?
15:28
Speaker 1: And obviously, these students felt that they were in danger.
15:31
Speaker 1: But we've seen even greater attacks. Before we got on,
15:35
Speaker 1: we talked about the attack in Minnesota where there was
15:40
Speaker 1: the shooting at mass on the first day of school.
15:44
Speaker 1: And students actually lost their lives. We have the Temple
15:47
Speaker 1: Israel attack in Michigan, where we had a gentleman, I
15:52
Speaker 1: guess I can't even call him a gentleman, a terrorist,
15:55
Speaker 1: ram his car into the preschool of a temple here
16:01
Speaker 1: in Michigan, based solely on the faith that those people
16:05
Speaker 1: were practicing at Temple Israel. And We've also had some
16:12
Speaker 1: pretty radical statements made from people in positions of power.
16:16
Speaker 1: Even one of the people who is running for office
16:20
Speaker 1: came out and said, hurt people, hurt people. And we're looking,
16:24
Speaker 1: I think that in the United States, we're looking for
16:26
Speaker 1: not just that protection of the First Amendment, but the
16:29
Speaker 1: protection of our right to religious liberty. And not just the,
16:37
Speaker 1: I say the First Amendment from the confusion of the
16:40
Speaker 1: First Amendment only being for speech. You also have the
16:43
Speaker 1: right to worship freely and you should be able to
16:46
Speaker 1: do it safely. So how do we make sure that
16:49
Speaker 1: that safety to worship the way you want is there?
16:54
Speaker 3: So I think, first of all, for those who are misinformed,
16:57
Speaker 3: There is no confusion about our right within the First
17:00
Speaker 3: Amendment to worship freely and our right to freedom of speech.
17:04
Speaker 3: One does not, for lack of other words, one does
17:07
Speaker 3: not trump the other. They are equal. And so I
17:11
Speaker 3: think some people need to really become a bit more
17:15
Speaker 3: educated about what the rights are of the Americans of
17:19
Speaker 3: faith in this country. We absolutely have a right to
17:21
Speaker 3: worship freely. And we're very fortunate that Harmeet Dhillon in
17:28
Speaker 3: the Department of Justice is actively trying to prosecute and
17:32
Speaker 3: bring these people, hold them accountable. And I think what
17:38
Speaker 3: really needs to happen is we need to support those efforts.
17:43
Speaker 3: When you imagine when you are a parent and you
17:47
Speaker 3: send your child to school on the first day of
17:50
Speaker 3: school in their brand new uniform, you expect them to
17:54
Speaker 3: go to mass and be slaughtered. Do you expect your
17:58
Speaker 3: child in preschool to go to a Jewish day school, which,
18:02
Speaker 3: by the way, requires armed guards in front of it
18:04
Speaker 3: to begin with to protect the school on an average day?
18:07
Speaker 3: Do you expect to see these images on TV of
18:11
Speaker 3: your little children being dragged across the street? Not to
18:15
Speaker 3: mention the trauma of those children subsequently. It's not just
18:21
Speaker 3: the day of. It's subsequently how they grow with this fear.
18:26
Speaker 3: how they grow thinking, maybe I shouldn't go to church.
18:30
Speaker 3: Maybe I shouldn't go and worship because maybe something's going
18:34
Speaker 3: to happen. We're going to get attacked. And that is
18:37
Speaker 3: what terrorists do. What's going on, sadly, in the United
18:40
Speaker 3: States is becoming slightly epidemic, where it is certainly acceptable
18:45
Speaker 3: to attack people of faith, whether it's on the streets
18:48
Speaker 3: or whether it's in their house of worship. Like two
18:51
Speaker 3: weeks ago, In Chicago, a Hindu shrine, during their celebration
18:57
Speaker 3: of Navratri, which is a very big celebration for them,
19:00
Speaker 3: a young man pulled up with a shotgun and an
19:06
Speaker 3: armored vest with the intent to murder as many people
19:09
Speaker 3: as he could. Now, there must have been some divine
19:12
Speaker 3: intervention because his gun jammed. But what if it hadn't?
19:16
Speaker 3: And why do people have to say, you know, I'm
19:18
Speaker 3: really not comfortable going to a house of worship? Because
19:22
Speaker 3: it is a form of terrorism. The intent of a
19:25
Speaker 3: terrorist is to terrorize people. And attacking houses of worship
19:29
Speaker 3: in the United States is nothing short of being a terrorist.
19:33
Speaker 3: They're not crazy. And people say, oh, it's just a
19:36
Speaker 3: crazy person. Honestly, Tudor, if they were crazy, they'd go
19:40
Speaker 3: out in the street and shoot a gun. If they
19:42
Speaker 3: were crazy, they'd go to a mall. They'd go to
19:44
Speaker 3: a movie theater. But when somebody specifically targets people as
19:48
Speaker 3: they're praying... there's something really, really evil about that person.
19:55
Speaker 3: And it is, you know, there is definitely intent to kill.
19:59
Speaker 3: It is not a crazy person. So I think just
20:02
Speaker 3: as we know in the U.S., if you make an
20:06
Speaker 3: attempt to kill a police officer, if you kill a
20:09
Speaker 3: police officer... if you attack the President of the United States,
20:12
Speaker 3: there are consequences. And I think we have gotten to
20:15
Speaker 3: the point where people need to understand if you attack
20:18
Speaker 3: a person of faith, there are very serious consequences. Will
20:22
Speaker 3: that stop it? I'm not sure that it will, but
20:26
Speaker 3: we have to be that aggressive and make a lot
20:28
Speaker 3: of noise. And I think one of the things that
20:31
Speaker 3: we do is we We believe in these alliances and
20:35
Speaker 3: coalitions of people of faith. And I think if all
20:37
Speaker 3: people of faith come together and say, you know, hey,
20:40
Speaker 3: enough is enough. The United States is a country built
20:44
Speaker 3: on faith. If we all stand up as faith-based people,
20:48
Speaker 3: we can make the noise that this topic deserves.
20:51
Speaker 1: Do you think that we don't know enough about these
20:55
Speaker 1: attacks that are happening? I mean, you made the point
20:57
Speaker 1: that people say, oh, well, they were crazy and that's
21:00
Speaker 1: why they did it. And that is.
21:03
Speaker 1: To your point, that is letting them off the hook.
21:05
Speaker 1: If you are just saying that the person is crazy,
21:09
Speaker 1: we are not seeing the underlying problem here. And there
21:12
Speaker 1: have been attacks on Christianity. We've had more and more discussion,
21:16
Speaker 1: even politically, there has been discussion about Christian nationalists and
21:22
Speaker 1: making that sound like, anybody who worships Jesus Christ is
21:27
Speaker 1: a danger to society. And it has been picked up.
21:31
Speaker 1: I mean, the same with antisemitism. I mean, you're talking
21:34
Speaker 1: about the Hindu shrine. We all remember when the temple
21:40
Speaker 1: in Pittsburgh was attacked and there was discussion then as
21:44
Speaker 1: antisemitism on the rise. Now, I think since October 7th,
21:50
Speaker 1: we've seen antisemitism on both sides. Unfortunately, it's not discriminating politically.
21:57
Speaker 1: I would say we've seen it on both sides and
21:59
Speaker 1: we've seen it across the country. And it feels very
22:03
Speaker 1: much like we had been naively safe from attacks on
22:08
Speaker 1: religion for many years, but now it is stronger than
22:13
Speaker 1: we've ever seen. How does when you work with a
22:17
Speaker 1: Harmeet Dhillon in the DOJ, when you're protecting civil rights,
22:24
Speaker 1: How does she see this changing from her standpoint? And
22:28
Speaker 1: can we keep that if an administration changes?
22:34
Speaker 3: Well, I think she is in the forefront. This is
22:37
Speaker 3: passion for her. First of all, Harmeet grew up as
22:41
Speaker 3: a Sikh in the South, in North Carolina, and she
22:44
Speaker 3: was very much discriminated against. Her father wore a turban.
22:48
Speaker 3: Her brother wore a turban. Harmeet, as most Sikhs, did
22:52
Speaker 3: not cut her hair. And so she suffered her own
22:57
Speaker 3: form of discrimination and racism and the way she and
23:00
Speaker 3: her family chose to worship very educated people. Her father
23:04
Speaker 3: is a physician. And so I think it really, it's
23:07
Speaker 3: a passion of hers. And thank goodness we have her
23:11
Speaker 3: in that position. So I think she vehemently is pursuing
23:16
Speaker 3: legislation about this issue. I think, listen, people respond to constituents.
23:23
Speaker 3: And again, there are 250 million people of faith in
23:27
Speaker 3: the United States, affiliated or non-affiliated. They declare themselves as
23:32
Speaker 3: a person of faith. Look at the percentages. How many
23:36
Speaker 3: millions of Americans are in the country? 250 million people
23:39
Speaker 3: of faith. If we all stand up and make this
23:42
Speaker 3: an issue, it will be an issue. If we all
23:46
Speaker 3: continue to say, well, you know, it's a crazy person
23:51
Speaker 3: or you know, it's happening to the Jewish community because
23:54
Speaker 3: of Israel. That's just an excuse, like you said, Tudor.
23:58
Speaker 3: These are just excuses. Sadly, of the hate crimes in
24:03
Speaker 3: the United States, 70% of them are directed at the
24:07
Speaker 3: Jewish community.
24:07
Speaker 4: 70%.
24:08
Speaker 3: But the Jewish community is only 2% of the population
24:13
Speaker 3: of the United States. So it's incredibly disproportionate. And I
24:17
Speaker 3: say that also with a bit of caution because We
24:20
Speaker 3: know 500 Catholic churches have been attacked since 2020. We
24:25
Speaker 3: know what's going on in the Hindu community. We know
24:27
Speaker 3: what's going on in the Christian community.
24:28
Speaker 1: We know. We've seen it.
24:31
Speaker 3: So it's not to say that the Jewish community is
24:34
Speaker 3: the only community that's suffering because any person of faith
24:37
Speaker 3: who's attacked is suffering. And, you know, no one has
24:40
Speaker 3: a right to say their suffering is more significant than
24:44
Speaker 3: another person's suffering. It's just sadly the Jewish community is
24:47
Speaker 3: clearly more of a target But I think if we
24:50
Speaker 3: recognize as people of faith we all have pain and
24:53
Speaker 3: we stand together, that's going to be the difference. And
24:57
Speaker 3: we need to let our legislators know. I think Ted Cruz,
25:00
Speaker 3: there's a bipartisan bill called the Sacred Act to protect
25:05
Speaker 3: houses of worship. And it's incredible in this country we
25:09
Speaker 3: have to actually speak this way. This is not Europe.
25:13
Speaker 3: It's not the Middle East. This is the United States
25:15
Speaker 3: of America, and it is shocking. And I know this
25:18
Speaker 3: administration is very adamant about making sure that people of
25:24
Speaker 3: faith are protected.
25:26
Speaker 1: You pointed out that the Appeal of Conscience Foundation has
25:29
Speaker 1: been around for more than 60 years. So from your perspective,
25:33
Speaker 1: from the foundation's perspective, is this a steady problem? Has
25:38
Speaker 1: this increased? Are we suddenly seeing more of this?
25:41
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. The Appeal of Conscience Foundation was started
25:45
Speaker 3: by my father 62 years ago. And he was a
25:48
Speaker 3: Holocaust survivor as a child in Vienna. Beautiful childhood, kind
25:52
Speaker 3: of just wiped out. Family met their demise in Auschwitz.
25:57
Speaker 3: He had to run. And he always says, you know,
26:01
Speaker 3: he's not an avid sports fan. He said, look, I
26:04
Speaker 3: was too busy running from the Nazis. I couldn't play
26:06
Speaker 3: soccer or any, you know. So he really, in essence,
26:10
Speaker 3: didn't have a child. But he decided as a teenager
26:14
Speaker 3: after the war was over that he would do his
26:16
Speaker 3: part to change the world and make it a better,
26:20
Speaker 3: kinder place so that people of any faith would not
26:26
Speaker 3: suffer what he suffered as a child. And initially, we
26:30
Speaker 3: were an international organization only, a focus on protecting houses
26:35
Speaker 3: of worship all over the world, whether it was– churches
26:39
Speaker 3: in former Yugoslavia or mosques in Bosnia, or whether it
26:45
Speaker 3: was going on in Ireland between the Catholics and the Protestants.
26:49
Speaker 3: We were very, our former Soviet Union where religion was foreboding.
26:54
Speaker 3: You know, we were very active in all of these areas.
26:56
Speaker 3: And sadly, over the past four or five years, we
27:00
Speaker 3: have also shifted our focus to what's going on in
27:03
Speaker 3: the United States. And imagine for a man who's turning
27:07
Speaker 3: 97 what it must look like as a child to
27:10
Speaker 3: see his synagogue burned to the ground. And this past year,
27:14
Speaker 3: his synagogue was attacked twice in New York City. Imagine
27:17
Speaker 3: what that must feel like.
27:19
Speaker 1: He's a rabbi.
27:20
Speaker 3: He's a rabbi. Very familiar.
27:22
Speaker 1: It's a stunning... It's a stunning... return of history. I mean,
27:36
Speaker 1: I do think that we say history repeats itself. And
27:41
Speaker 1: we have said, never forget. We say that about the Holocaust.
27:46
Speaker 1: We say that about 9-11. And I think that many
27:51
Speaker 1: of us.
27:51
Speaker 3: Feel like.
27:54
Speaker 1: It has been. And I'll tell you, in 2018, I
27:57
Speaker 1: interviewed Holocaust survivors in Florida. And we had a program
28:03
Speaker 1: for middle and high school students, and we had this
28:05
Speaker 1: great opportunity where, and, you know, obviously you just said
28:10
Speaker 1: your father's 96, right? So Holocaust survivors were at the
28:15
Speaker 1: end of their life cycle, and they were, so we
28:18
Speaker 1: had this beautiful chance to sit down with some of
28:20
Speaker 1: these people. And I sat down with one couple, and
28:23
Speaker 1: the man, the husband spoke most of the time. And
28:27
Speaker 1: he was in Dachau in Auschwitz. His wife was in Auschwitz,
28:30
Speaker 1: I think. And she didn't talk. He told me all
28:36
Speaker 1: about what his experience was like. And I think in 2018,
28:42
Speaker 1: I felt like we had licked this naively. You know,
28:49
Speaker 1: I was kind of, I guess, a... had a positive attitude, like,
28:56
Speaker 1: you know, America was great. We didn't have any of
28:59
Speaker 1: these issues. They were safe. They were in Florida. And
29:03
Speaker 1: he was telling me all about this. And it was
29:05
Speaker 1: a great educational story. And then we packed everything up
29:09
Speaker 1: and we went to leave. And to be honest, I
29:12
Speaker 1: thought his wife wasn't speaking because they were so much
29:15
Speaker 1: older and she was tired. And, you know, maybe she
29:18
Speaker 1: just didn't have the memories that he had. And he
29:21
Speaker 1: was the spokesperson. And as we walked out, she stopped
29:25
Speaker 1: and grabbed my wrist. And I turned. It was shocking.
29:30
Speaker 1: She had really not said anything. She grabbed my wrist
29:33
Speaker 1: and she looked at me and she said, they hate
29:36
Speaker 1: the Jews and they'll do it again. And again, naively
29:41
Speaker 1: at the time, I thought, oh, no, we're different now.
29:45
Speaker 1: We're different people. And that was so stark to me
29:52
Speaker 1: on October 7th when I went, it was the first
29:56
Speaker 1: thing I thought of. And the aftermath of that, the
30:01
Speaker 1: fact that instead of it being like 9-11, where we
30:04
Speaker 1: all kind of said, okay, we're going to come together.
30:07
Speaker 1: This could never happen again. We'll stand with our people
30:09
Speaker 1: of faith. There was this divide. And I can see
30:15
Speaker 1: her face clearly.
30:16
Speaker 3: And I think I was the naive person who went, no, no,
30:19
Speaker 3: we're good now.
30:21
Speaker 1: And she knew. And your father, I imagine the same
30:24
Speaker 1: as he's seen this happen going, oh, no, this cannot
30:27
Speaker 1: happen again. So you say stand up. And we do
30:32
Speaker 1: need to stand up and standing up is hard. And
30:34
Speaker 1: as you talk about 250 million people of faith, I think,
30:37
Speaker 1: but many of us are afraid. You know, I think
30:41
Speaker 1: about the people of my church and how many of
30:45
Speaker 1: them would stand up and risk their families and risk.
30:51
Speaker 1: I mean, I ran for office. I know what you're doing.
30:53
Speaker 1: You put your family in the fire, in the line
30:57
Speaker 1: of fire. You know, it's hard. But you have a
30:59
Speaker 1: movement called Stand Up Sunday. And this was just a
31:03
Speaker 1: couple weekends ago. And you had a good turnout. Tell
31:06
Speaker 1: us about that.
31:08
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, I do believe in speaking
31:11
Speaker 3: up and standing up. I think we all have a mission.
31:15
Speaker 3: Your mission, clearly, you have an audience. You can spread
31:19
Speaker 3: so many wonderful messages. For me, my mission is to
31:24
Speaker 3: ensure that my children and my grandchildren don't have to
31:28
Speaker 3: live in a world where they are afraid to wear
31:30
Speaker 3: a Jewish star, where they are afraid to go to services,
31:33
Speaker 3: where they can speak freely, worship freely, or any other
31:36
Speaker 3: person of faith. And so I think I'm unabashed in
31:42
Speaker 3: defending people of faith because... That's my mission. And that's
31:47
Speaker 3: the legacy I want to continue that my father started.
31:51
Speaker 3: And so about two years ago, we were meeting with,
31:57
Speaker 3: I had a lunch meeting with somebody from the Blue
32:01
Speaker 3: Square Alliance from Robert Kraft's team. And we had worked
32:04
Speaker 3: together on some other things. And I said, you know,
32:06
Speaker 3: I have an idea. What if we get houses of
32:12
Speaker 3: worship all across the United States? all denominations to stand
32:16
Speaker 3: up on one day and denounce hatred of people of
32:20
Speaker 3: faith and antisemitism. And the initial response is, that's an
32:24
Speaker 3: interesting idea. How are you going to do that? And
32:27
Speaker 3: I said, we can do it. We can do it.
32:29
Speaker 3: And so last year we started a very, what I
32:34
Speaker 3: thought would be a small project. All-consuming. And we ended
32:40
Speaker 3: up impacting 1.5 million people of faith last year and
32:43
Speaker 3: in the first year.
32:44
Speaker 1: Wow.
32:45
Speaker 3: And we, because the Appeal of Conscience Foundation is a faith-based,
32:49
Speaker 3: you know, a diverse faith-based organization of religious leaders, business leaders,
32:54
Speaker 3: and civic leaders, we called upon, you know, people we've
32:58
Speaker 3: had a relationship for years. So the Greek Orthodox Archbishop,
33:02
Speaker 3: Archbishop Elpidophorus, the head of the Armenian Church, Bishop Parsamian.
33:07
Speaker 3: And we just went down the list, the National Council
33:10
Speaker 3: of Churches of Christ. We just went down the list
33:14
Speaker 3: and said, we want to do this. And everybody said yes.
33:18
Speaker 3: There were some exceptions, you know, oh, you know, October 7th.
33:23
Speaker 3: But overall, we have the Hindu community behind it. We
33:27
Speaker 3: have the Christians, the non-denominal Christians, the evangelicals, and on
33:31
Speaker 3: and on and on. The event was on October 18th.
33:35
Speaker 3: in hundreds of houses of worship across the United States,
33:39
Speaker 3: reaching millions of people. Press across something like 700 hits
33:45
Speaker 3: on the wire, television, Instagram hits. I mean, it was amazing.
33:51
Speaker 3: And basically what we said is, the religious litters are great.
33:55
Speaker 3: They all talk to each other. They get along. But
33:58
Speaker 3: that message has to get down into the parishes, into
34:01
Speaker 3: the congregation, so that they stand up. And if we
34:05
Speaker 3: can change in each church 20, 30 people at a
34:08
Speaker 3: time or in any temple 20, 30 people at a time,
34:11
Speaker 3: we're creating a movement. And then those people can change people.
34:13
Speaker 3: And we see this seismic change from last year's event
34:18
Speaker 3: to this year's event. And we are really proud of
34:22
Speaker 3: what we've done and where we're going. And we're not
34:24
Speaker 3: going to stop until we can get 250 million people
34:28
Speaker 3: in the United States standing up on one day. And
34:30
Speaker 3: that's what it's going to take. It's going to take
34:33
Speaker 3: all of us standing up and saying there are fewer
34:37
Speaker 3: things that divide us than unite us. And we have
34:42
Speaker 3: to be united in faith, united against hate.
34:48
Speaker 1: You're so right. And yet I have to say, I
34:51
Speaker 1: feel like social media is based on the things that
34:54
Speaker 1: divide us. And I'll say that because social media, the
34:58
Speaker 1: things that divide you, the angry posts, They do the best.
35:06
Speaker 1: And there's a desire for influencers to hit those numbers.
35:11
Speaker 1: You know, you're going to if you hit certain numbers,
35:13
Speaker 1: you're going to get your revenue. You're going to get fame.
35:17
Speaker 1: You're going to go viral. And and generally it's those
35:21
Speaker 1: messages of division. And I think we live in a
35:23
Speaker 1: social media world these days. I mean, the Daily Wire
35:27
Speaker 1: just did a, they just released the results of a poll.
35:30
Speaker 1: And they said, in this poll, it said, American voters
35:33
Speaker 1: who rely on TikTok for news were less likely to
35:36
Speaker 1: support Israel's continued existence than other voters. And they're saying
35:41
Speaker 1: just 36% of voters who named TikTok as one of
35:46
Speaker 1: their primary news sources support Israel. And then People who
35:50
Speaker 1: say that they rely solely on TikTok say that the
35:55
Speaker 1: number of people who don't believe Israel has a right
35:59
Speaker 1: to exist climbs to 70%. So I just think, like,
36:03
Speaker 1: those numbers show me that we live in a world
36:08
Speaker 1: of constantly being polled. And I say that because there
36:11
Speaker 1: is very few— there are— despite the fact that we say, oh,
36:15
Speaker 1: we're going to keep kids off of social media— We
36:18
Speaker 1: say that while we know we're going home and scrolling
36:21
Speaker 1: before we fall asleep. You know, adults are still doing
36:24
Speaker 1: it and we still are some of those people spreading
36:27
Speaker 1: those messages. And certainly I live in the news world
36:29
Speaker 1: and I live in the influencer world. So I see
36:32
Speaker 1: these messages and I will tell you that it does
36:36
Speaker 1: affect your mind. I just got back from Israel. It
36:39
Speaker 1: was an amazing trip. We went to Magdala. We sat
36:42
Speaker 1: down with Father Kelly in Magdala. And when we walked in,
36:48
Speaker 1: you know, he was kind of interesting as we were
36:52
Speaker 1: walking through and he's showing us everything. His message was
36:56
Speaker 1: the same as yours. And I was not probably in
37:01
Speaker 1: the right headspace to hear it because I knew just
37:04
Speaker 1: going to Israel was going to be a real conflict
37:09
Speaker 1: for a lot of people and that I was going
37:11
Speaker 1: to be viciously attacked. And I even, you know, I
37:14
Speaker 1: talked to the folks at iHeart and I said, you
37:18
Speaker 1: would just wait to see what the reaction will be.
37:21
Speaker 1: It's going to be strong. And I felt like I
37:24
Speaker 1: had to defend it. You feel like I have to
37:27
Speaker 1: defend it and I have to be mad and defend it.
37:30
Speaker 1: And I walked into Magdala and Father Kelly was like,
37:33
Speaker 1: we need to love everyone. And I'm like, ah, it's
37:36
Speaker 1: in my head already. And I hate admitting this, but
37:39
Speaker 1: in my head already, I'm like, there's people that hate us,
37:42
Speaker 1: you know? And by the end of that meeting, I'm
37:47
Speaker 1: sitting there saying to myself, how am I not in
37:52
Speaker 1: the mindset of all of us together do this in
37:55
Speaker 1: a much better way? Because here is a man who
37:58
Speaker 1: lives in the middle of a country that is in
38:02
Speaker 1: constant turmoil, and he is not the majority faith. He
38:07
Speaker 1: is a priest in a country that is majority Jewish,
38:11
Speaker 1: but you've got It's really a split between Muslim and
38:15
Speaker 1: Jewish and not as much Christian. And he's looking at
38:18
Speaker 1: me and going, stand with everyone. It was a very
38:22
Speaker 1: powerful statement. It has hit me so hard. And I
38:26
Speaker 1: think of what you're doing. And I'm like, why aren't
38:28
Speaker 1: we saying that more often? And how do we get
38:31
Speaker 1: that message out to people?
38:33
Speaker 3: It's interesting. We were all over the country, Tudor. I mean,
38:37
Speaker 3: it was wild. We were in Texas. I mean, I
38:39
Speaker 3: cut myself in 42 pieces. I was in Texas. And
38:43
Speaker 3: then I was at St. Patrick's and I was at St. Nicholas.
38:46
Speaker 3: I was at the Akshardham, which is huge Hindu temple
38:49
Speaker 3: in Robbinsville, New Jersey. We were in Chicago. We were
38:52
Speaker 3: in Boston.
38:52
Speaker 1: We were in New Hampshire.
38:53
Speaker 3: We were in Nashville. We were just everywhere. You know,
38:56
Speaker 3: it's kind of easy to do an event in one
38:58
Speaker 3: or two places, but try spreading out all over the
39:01
Speaker 3: country in one day is a little challenging. But there
39:05
Speaker 3: was an incredible message from one of the priests in
39:09
Speaker 3: Boston who And he said, Father, Father Dobny from the
39:15
Speaker 3: Mission Church in Boston. And he said, what's exciting me
39:20
Speaker 3: about this is he said, this movement of Stand Up
39:24
Speaker 3: Sunday is the first national movement of our coming together since.
39:30
Speaker 3: celebrating the 250th anniversary. Somehow on July 4th, on the
39:35
Speaker 3: 250th anniversary, a lot of people were able to leave
39:38
Speaker 3: their narratives aside and be proud Americans. And what he
39:43
Speaker 3: was saying is, this is what we need. We need
39:46
Speaker 3: to stand up together. And we give each other strength.
39:50
Speaker 3: You know, your point about, I don't know if I
39:52
Speaker 3: want to go out there or people of my church
39:54
Speaker 3: want to stick their neck out. Well, when people do
39:57
Speaker 3: it together, there's strength in numbers. And I think that
40:01
Speaker 3: really does make a tremendous difference.
40:05
Speaker 1: It's interesting because as I, having come back from Israel
40:08
Speaker 1: at such a time of turmoil, I've had people ask
40:12
Speaker 1: me like, you know, why would you go and how
40:14
Speaker 1: did it change you? And Obviously, as a Christian, it
40:19
Speaker 1: changes you. You go there as a Christian, and I'm
40:21
Speaker 1: sure you have the same experience as a Jewish person.
40:25
Speaker 1: You go there and you see your history. You see
40:27
Speaker 1: the book that you've read your whole life. You see
40:29
Speaker 1: it come to life. But it was bigger than that.
40:33
Speaker 1: It really was communities of faith living right on top
40:37
Speaker 1: of each other in constant danger. but standing up for
40:47
Speaker 1: each other. That was what hit me so hard. And
40:51
Speaker 1: I have come back and said, how do we be
40:56
Speaker 1: a uniting voice instead of a dividing voice? And when
40:59
Speaker 1: you work in the world that I work in, in politics,
41:02
Speaker 1: you're a dividing voice. I mean, that's, your goal is
41:05
Speaker 1: to pull people away from the other side, right? It's
41:07
Speaker 1: a numbers game and you want the numbers. So you,
41:10
Speaker 1: and to get the numbers, you pull them away, which
41:13
Speaker 1: is meaning you're subtracting them from the other side and
41:16
Speaker 1: ultimately dividing, right? So it has been, that has been
41:21
Speaker 1: probably the message that has weighed on my heart the
41:23
Speaker 1: most is, how to unite. And so it's been such
41:27
Speaker 1: a pleasure to talk about Stand Up Sunday, to talk
41:30
Speaker 1: about the Appeal of Conscience Foundation today. And just your
41:34
Speaker 1: message is such a message of hope, which is what
41:37
Speaker 1: we need in a time when we don't feel a
41:39
Speaker 1: lot of that. We do.
41:40
Speaker 3: I mean, we're so thrilled that we are partnering with
41:43
Speaker 3: the Blue Square Alliance, Robert Kraft's alliance on this issue.
41:47
Speaker 3: And the two organizations have come together to say, we're
41:52
Speaker 3: just going to keep doing this and doing this until
41:55
Speaker 3: we get more and more people to stand up. And,
41:57
Speaker 3: you know, we're working a lot with some of the
42:00
Speaker 3: evangelical churches now. And just to, you know, borrow messages.
42:04
Speaker 3: It's great to borrow messages, by the way, from religious leaders.
42:07
Speaker 3: They have the best messaging. But really, we're here to
42:11
Speaker 3: spread the light over the darkness. And you're correct. If
42:15
Speaker 3: you go on social media and you You see these messages.
42:19
Speaker 3: It's discouraging. It's demoralizing. Sadly, it's almost like the minority
42:26
Speaker 3: has the loudest voice because they're utilizing their voice in
42:30
Speaker 3: social media. I personally prefer to look at those AI
42:34
Speaker 3: babies laughing at night. We have dachshunds in our family
42:38
Speaker 3: and I love, you know, all the little dachshund videos
42:41
Speaker 3: for Halloween.
42:43
Speaker 1: My mom sends the Shih Tzu videos to us constantly.
42:47
Speaker 1: She's like, this one has a cute little voice. We're like, okay,
42:50
Speaker 1: but it doesn't actually talk, mom.
42:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I do the same thing because you know what?
42:54
Speaker 3: It's light and it's funny and my kids think it's hysterical.
42:58
Speaker 3: And I try, I'm aware of it. I'm not digging
43:04
Speaker 3: my head in the sand and saying it doesn't exist.
43:07
Speaker 3: It very much does exist. And we do have to
43:10
Speaker 3: do something about educating kids Those younger folks or those
43:14
Speaker 3: folks who are not, let's just say, I don't want
43:17
Speaker 3: to say not educated, but they're not informed. They're not
43:19
Speaker 3: properly informed. And so as we're trying to inform people,
43:23
Speaker 3: we also need to build a coalition of people who
43:26
Speaker 3: have empathy towards other people of faith.
43:30
Speaker 1: I mean, it is a fascinating thing because we have
43:32
Speaker 1: youth group. I mean, my kids go to youth group
43:34
Speaker 1: on Wednesday nights and Sunday nights and we have small groups.
43:39
Speaker 1: And I mean, I talked about this in my small
43:40
Speaker 1: group last week. I'm like, I have, I have to
43:45
Speaker 1: reconcile my day with my faith. You know, like I,
43:49
Speaker 1: my job is politics. As I said, how do I
43:54
Speaker 1: do that? How do I still fight for the values
43:58
Speaker 1: that I think are important and not be a dividing voice,
44:01
Speaker 1: not be an angry voice, not be a negative voice.
44:04
Speaker 1: So it is one of those things that I feel
44:06
Speaker 1: like I'm going back and forth. There's like an internal war,
44:10
Speaker 1: but it's a discussion that we're having at church, you know?
44:13
Speaker 1: So how do we have that with our kids too? Like,
44:17
Speaker 1: why don't we expand that? If we're talking about Stand
44:19
Speaker 1: Up Sunday, then yeah, I see so many opportunities to...
44:24
Speaker 1: And I think that we kind of naively don't think
44:27
Speaker 1: about this. Even when I was running, the big issue
44:30
Speaker 1: was abortion and nobody wanted to talk about it. You know,
44:33
Speaker 1: nobody wants to have that discussion. And you don't have
44:36
Speaker 1: to have a discussion about abortion, but you could have
44:39
Speaker 1: a discussion about the joy of family, you know. And
44:42
Speaker 1: those are and you can change the conversation. Through the church,
44:47
Speaker 1: through the temple, through the synagogue, you know, like all these,
44:52
Speaker 1: there is so much opportunity to have these discussions. So
44:55
Speaker 1: how do people talk to you guys? How do they
44:58
Speaker 1: find out how to spread this word? How do they
45:01
Speaker 1: work with the Appeal of Conscience Foundation?
45:03
Speaker 3: I think we have another program that we're very excited about.
45:05
Speaker 3: It's a bit longer than Stand Up Sunday. It's about,
45:08
Speaker 3: we started during COVID, actually. It's a program called Respect
45:13
Speaker 3: the Other. And Respect the Other is actually a trademark
45:19
Speaker 3: program of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. Even the words
45:22
Speaker 3: are trademarked. It's not called Respect for the Other. It's
45:26
Speaker 3: specifically called Respect the Other because each one of us
45:30
Speaker 3: is the other to the other person.
45:33
Speaker 1: Yes, that's true.
45:35
Speaker 3: Even within your own faith, you're tall, you're short, you're skinny,
45:39
Speaker 3: you have freckles, you don't have freckles, you have dark hair,
45:40
Speaker 3: blonde hair, whatever. You're a Yankee fan, you're a Red
45:42
Speaker 3: Sox fan. you know, you're a Twins fan, like what,
45:46
Speaker 3: you know, we all have our differences, but it comes
45:50
Speaker 3: down to the point where you need to learn to
45:52
Speaker 3: respect yourself, respect your faith. And if you have respect
45:57
Speaker 3: for yourself and your faith, you can have empathy for
46:00
Speaker 3: somebody else who maybe worships slightly differently than you do.
46:04
Speaker 3: And it's okay, because at the end of the day,
46:07
Speaker 3: we're all God's children. And if that simple message can
46:11
Speaker 3: just be imparted somehow, especially in our kids. This program
46:16
Speaker 3: is directed at youth, like pre-K to eighth grade. And
46:21
Speaker 3: if we can change that next young generation to believing that,
46:25
Speaker 3: absorbing that, then we have a lot of hope and
46:29
Speaker 3: we have a lot of light. And I think the
46:31
Speaker 3: message is don't give up. Don't give up on your faith.
46:34
Speaker 3: Don't give up on your beliefs, Tudor. That's who you are.
46:37
Speaker 3: That's who makes you who you are. And we all
46:39
Speaker 3: wrestle with our internal faith when we're in the general
46:44
Speaker 3: day of living, when we're exposed to other people. But
46:48
Speaker 3: you have to have your own convictions. And with your children,
46:52
Speaker 3: teach them to be proud. Teach them to be proud
46:54
Speaker 3: of who they are, what their faith is, and their
46:57
Speaker 3: moral convictions. And it's a thing. You change one person
47:02
Speaker 3: at a time. And I think that's what Stand Up
47:05
Speaker 3: Sunday is doing. The movement is to change people. however
47:08
Speaker 3: many people at a time. And the Appeal of Conscience
47:10
Speaker 3: Foundation will continue to work on behalf of protecting houses
47:15
Speaker 3: of worship, people of faith, and really to try to
47:18
Speaker 3: create an environment where people respect the other, where people
47:21
Speaker 3: get along, where different faiths can come together and recognize, wow,
47:25
Speaker 3: we really actually have more in common than our differences.
47:29
Speaker 3: And during, you know, the time in the U.S. where
47:31
Speaker 3: everything is so divisive, maybe faith can play that.
47:35
Speaker 2: Role for us.
47:36
Speaker 1: Hmm.
47:38
Speaker 3: I will.
47:38
Speaker 1: I've kept you a little longer than I said I would.
47:40
Speaker 1: I'll just end on this. You made me think about
47:45
Speaker 1: something that happened recently at our school. My girls go
47:48
Speaker 1: to Christian school. And the public school here, we just
47:52
Speaker 1: had a student that transferred over. And her mom was
47:56
Speaker 1: saying to me, the confidence was so low among the
48:03
Speaker 1: students at the public school. And the girls were just
48:07
Speaker 1: really mean to each other. She said, man, we've been
48:09
Speaker 1: here for a semester now. And she said, my daughter
48:13
Speaker 1: came home and said, it's just different when I think
48:17
Speaker 1: when you have the Bible and you're talking about the
48:19
Speaker 1: Bible in school, it makes you want to be kinder
48:22
Speaker 1: to others. And I do think that when you are
48:25
Speaker 1: focused on your faith, no matter what your faith is,
48:28
Speaker 1: It does make you want to be kinder to one another.
48:31
Speaker 1: And I think that is something that we need to
48:33
Speaker 1: remind people of that the public school, the Bible doesn't
48:39
Speaker 1: get left at the door. You're allowed to bring it in.
48:41
Speaker 1: You're allowed to.
48:43
Speaker 3: You can bring your faith in. I mean, I'll leave
48:45
Speaker 3: you with one of my dad's favorite quotes. He's great
48:48
Speaker 3: with his saying. And this one is in Hebrew, I
48:52
Speaker 3: deny leave a low era, which means God is with
48:56
Speaker 3: me and I shall not fear. And if you think
49:00
Speaker 3: of the course of his life, growing up as a
49:02
Speaker 3: child in the war, and he constantly said, God is
49:05
Speaker 3: with me and I shall not fear. You know, even
49:08
Speaker 3: when you're a child in school, when you feel that love,
49:11
Speaker 3: when you feel the love of your community and you
49:12
Speaker 3: feel the love of your faith, you have strength and
49:18
Speaker 3: you have confidence and so I think, I do think
49:23
Speaker 3: faith can play a major role in bringing that light
49:27
Speaker 3: to this country during these times.
49:30
Speaker 1: I agree. I agree. Well, Karen Schneier Dressback, thank you
49:34
Speaker 1: so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it.
49:37
Speaker 1: It's been a great conversation. anything that we can do
49:40
Speaker 1: to help. And we'll make sure our listeners check out
49:44
Speaker 1: the Appeal of Conscience Foundation and Blue Square Alliance.
49:48
Speaker 3: Thank you.
49:49
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you so much.
49:50
Speaker 3: Thank you, Tudor. Thank you so much.
49:51
Speaker 1: Stick around. We'll be back with more after this. Thank
49:55
Speaker 1: you for listening to my guilty pleasure confession and to Karen,
49:59
Speaker 1: who I think is truly inspirational. Make sure you come
50:03
Speaker 1: back here on Friday because we are going to learn
50:05
Speaker 1: more about what we maybe don't know about Ilhan Omar.
50:10
Speaker 1: She was just out with Hasan Piker. So we know
50:13
Speaker 1: she's really in your face. Considering she's being investigated, she
50:17
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be shying away from the spotlight. But
50:20
Speaker 1: we're going to have former congressional candidate A.J. Kern on
50:23
Speaker 1: the program. to give us the behind the scenes on
50:25
Speaker 1: that birth date scandal, the brother scandal, all the Ilhan
50:29
Speaker 1: Omar scandals. If, I mean, I don't know, is Ilhan
50:32
Speaker 1: Omar even her real name? We actually don't think it is.
50:36
Speaker 1: It's truly never ending with her. So I will see
50:39
Speaker 1: you back here on Friday to spill the Ilhan tea.
50:42
Speaker 1: And I'm so grateful that you tuned in today. You know,
50:45
Speaker 1: you guys, the more you share, the more you subscribe,
50:47
Speaker 1: the more you ask other people to come to the podcast.
50:50
Speaker 1: You help us grow and you help us do more
50:52
Speaker 1: of what we do So share the podcast. You can
50:55
Speaker 1: find it at TudorDixonPodcast.com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever
51:00
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. You can watch it on Rumble
51:03
Speaker 1: or YouTube at Tudor Dixon, but just join us next time,
51:06
Speaker 1: share it, and have a blessed day.