Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E120: Gateway Church Sex Abuse Cover-up + California's Social Media Crackdown

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E120: Gateway Church Sex Abuse Cover-up + California's Social Media Crackdown · The Lila Rose Show

0:00
Louisiana has become the first state to require that the 10
0:03
commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.
0:05
You guys might be surprised by my take on this.
0:07
I don't know. Next story here.
0:09
You probably have seen this story, but I need to give an
0:12
important update for you. Department of Justice has been
0:15
going after pro lifers since Joe Biden took power.
0:18
Surprisingly, Gavin Newsom on this one thing.
0:21
I think he has the right idea. He's saying, yes, I would want
0:25
to severely restrict the use of smartphones during the school
0:28
day and potentially ban them in all California public schools.
0:36
Hey guys, welcome back to the Lila Rose podcast.
0:40
We're also doing this as a YouTube live.
0:42
So if you're on YouTube, I will be checking out the chat
0:44
throughout the episode. Hey, everybody.
0:46
Hey, Nate. Hey, Ninu.
0:48
Hey, John Henry, thanks for joining.
0:50
Guys. If you are listening on podcast
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app, make sure you're also subscribed on the YouTube
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sometimes. That's been a problem with some
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subscribed on podcast app so that you get access to the show
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wherever you're listening. All right, we've got a rundown
1:26
of a lot of things to cover today.
1:28
And I want to start with the breaking news of this week about
1:33
Dallas Mega church, Gateway Church pastor stepping down
1:37
after accusations coming forward that he was abusing a child, a
1:42
12 year old earlier in his ministry.
1:44
We're also going to get into the Los Angeles School district, so
1:47
right in my neck of the woods, which is actively banning
1:51
smartphones in the classroom. And this is in the wake of the
1:53
surgeon general warning that these are actually harmful to
1:58
the mental health of youth. So we're going to talk about
2:00
that, and I'll give my take on that.
2:01
We're also going to talk about the Department of Justice, which
2:04
is still going after pro lifers. This is so important that we
2:06
keep talking about this that it stays in the news.
2:09
Also, Louisiana's mandating the 10 commandments to be put in
2:12
classrooms. I'll give my take on that.
2:13
And finally, Celtic NBA winner, the coach.
2:17
Coach Missoula has some very great things to say in response
2:21
to media and he's been doing this for years.
2:23
By the way, if you follow NBA and Coach Missoula, I, to be
2:27
honest, don't. Not some personal big fan, but I
2:30
do really like this coach and the things that he has been
2:33
saying. He has some great takes and
2:35
you're going to like them too. So we're going to listen to
2:36
that. I'll also keep my eye on the
2:38
chat. So if you have any comments or
2:40
questions, I will be taking a look at the chat throughout the
2:43
episode and would love to hear from you guys.
2:46
So please put your thoughts in there.
2:49
All right, so before we jump into mega church, Gateway Church
2:53
in Dallas, I want to give a huge shout out to our sponsor, We
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that they are donating 10% of their money back to the pro-life
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OK, so I saw this come across on Twitter recently and in my news
4:36
feed. It's really a tragic story on
4:39
multiple levels. But there's a mega church in
4:42
Dallas, some of you may have heard of it called Gateway
4:45
Church, and they have for years. It apparently covered up the
4:49
abuse of one of their lead pastors, Pastor Robert Morris.
4:54
So Pastor Robert Morris, when he was, yeah, much younger in
4:57
ministry, he was abusive sexually of a 12 year old child,
5:02
a 12 year old girl. This was apparently covered up
5:06
for decades. He's now in his 50s, covered up
5:08
for decades by different members and leadership in the church.
5:12
Even the girl's family was aware of this abuse or made aware of
5:15
this abuse. And there was largely speaking
5:17
cover up of the abuse. And he went on to become the
5:20
senior pastor. He would give his sermons to 100
5:23
up to 100,000 people. I mean, this is a mega church,
5:26
right? And now the allegations are
5:28
coming public that this young woman at the time, now an older
5:32
woman, is saying he abused me starting at 12 years old.
5:37
Now, this is a very tragic story on many levels.
5:41
It's tragic on the level fundamentally of abuse that
5:43
there was an older man who was sexually abusing a child.
5:48
This is not a problem that is just systemic or endemic to the
5:53
evangelical world. This is happening in the
5:55
Catholic Church and has happened in the Catholic Church.
5:57
It's happening in our public school system.
6:00
It's happening throughout the country.
6:01
There's some scary statistics that up to one out of every four
6:05
young girls experience some sort of sexual abuse.
6:07
I mean, absolutely horrific. But what's doubly tragic about
6:11
this story is that there was cover up.
6:14
So there wasn't just abuse. There was cover up.
6:16
And you guys know I'm passionate about this from my work
6:18
investigating abortion clinics that cover up sexual abuse.
6:20
And that has happened for decades now.
6:22
It's still happening at groups like Planned Parenthood.
6:25
They cover up the sexual abuse of minors and they give secret
6:28
abortions when this young girl is being abused by sometimes
6:31
even a father or a relative or some older person in this
6:35
situation. It's the church.
6:37
It's a community of people who call themselves Christians.
6:40
And again, this is not just Protestant world.
6:43
This happens, as you know, horrifically has happened in the
6:45
Catholic world. It's one thing to commit abuse.
6:49
It's another thing when the structure around you enables
6:52
that abuse. And that's what's happened here
6:54
because apparently elders and other people in ministry knew
6:58
about the abuse, never reported it, and there was instead
7:03
internal reparations that were done supposedly where, you know,
7:07
a sorry was said, I'm sorry was said.
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And there I think there were two years taken off of ministry.
7:12
So there's like this. I'll step away from ministry
7:14
before I get back into it. But here's the problem.
7:17
First of all, you got to abide by the law.
7:20
And thankfully, our law still penalizes sexual abuse as it
7:23
should. And if someone is abusing a 12
7:28
year old and they're 21, he was 21 at the time, that age gap is
7:32
puts that 21 year old disposition of power that he's
7:35
in and that abuse is unlawful. It's against the law.
7:38
Think thankfully that's a good thing that the law prohibits
7:40
this. So in this case, tragically,
7:43
that cover up happened. There was never accountability
7:47
to the law. There's never accountability
7:49
about allowing, not allowing this person to continue in
7:51
leadership and in ministry. And they gave him kind of a time
7:54
out and then they let Pastor Robert Morris back into
7:58
business. Listen, I believe in second
8:01
chances. I believe in forgiveness.
8:02
And our faith is all about Jesus Christ, mercy and forgiveness.
8:06
But when it comes to our institutions and when it comes
8:09
to protecting children, we should not be given the abusers
8:13
of children second chances and putting them back around
8:16
children. It did it.
8:17
It cannot, cannot work. That's why we have a sex
8:20
offender list, right? That we put people on when they
8:23
abuse children so that they cannot have a job at a daycare
8:25
or they cannot be hanging out around a school yard, right?
8:28
That's a good thing. We do not take child sexual
8:31
abuse seriously enough in this country.
8:33
We do not take adolescent sexual abuse seriously enough in this
8:37
country. And that is why it's
8:39
particularly all the more scandalous and tragic when
8:42
churches, whether it's a Catholic Church or an
8:44
evangelical church in this case, does not take child sexual abuse
8:48
seriously enough. We know what the Christian
8:50
teaching is. It's better that you have a
8:52
millstone put around your neck and you're thrown into the sea,
8:56
then you harm one of these little ones.
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Jesus is all about protecting children.
9:01
It's better that you die basically then you harm a child
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is what Jesus is saying. We need to have that spirit of
9:07
fierce protectiveness infuse the church.
9:10
The church should take child abuse more seriously than than
9:13
the secular world even. But unfortunately in many cases
9:16
it doesn't. Why is that?
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I mean, this could be a whole other episode that I could do
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exploring why we have not, why we've failed to do this.
9:24
Like Gateway Church failed and many Catholic diocese has
9:27
failed, especially in the 90s with in the 80s with the sexual
9:31
abuse scandals in the Catholic Church that rocked that church.
9:34
But I think for today, what I want to say is this is good.
9:37
It's good that this story is coming out.
9:38
It's good that it's blowing up. It's good that the truth is
9:40
being told. And it's good that this pastor
9:42
is going to be stepping down permanently because it's
9:44
unacceptable that we have people in leadership who have a history
9:48
of molesting children. It just cannot be acceptable.
9:52
Do I believe that there's no future for a person who is
9:56
committed sexual abuse? I think that there's a future
10:00
for them in terms of they can change their their life and and
10:03
what they how they live. But there has to be
10:06
accountability and that includes it should include jail time.
10:09
And for abusers, I think they can't be rehabilitated into
10:14
society to then be associating with young children again.
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We have to draw that bright line.
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So that's my take on that. Very tragic news there.
10:21
But we got to take sexual abuse in the church even more
10:25
seriously than the secular world treats sexual abuse because
10:29
children are valuable, they have dignity, and they deserve fierce
10:33
protection from adults. That is our responsibility and a
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sacred responsibility that we have as Christians and
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Catholics. OK, next story here is the Los
10:43
Angeles school district is actually doing something that I
10:46
kind of like. I have some mixed feelings about
10:48
it. I want to get into this.
10:49
So as you may have seen lately, there's a lot of news stories
10:54
coming out about the harm of social media on especially young
10:57
people. There is actually a mental
10:58
health crisis today that is hitting young people.
11:01
They're increasingly anxious, increasingly depressed,
11:03
increasingly prone to suicide. Jonathan Hate just came out with
11:06
a great book called The Anxious Generation about how since
11:10
smartphones and social media have entered the equation, young
11:13
people's health is tanking. Their mental health is tanking.
11:16
So there's other societal factors I think going on too.
11:18
But mental health is definitely connected to social media usage
11:21
for a lot of young people. So there's a new trend among
11:25
especially Gen. Z Ers and millennials to use
11:27
flip phones. I don't know if you've seen
11:29
this, but apparently over the last year, there's been a 15,000
11:34
percent, 15,000% increase among Gen.
11:39
Z and millennials in searching online for flip phones.
11:42
We want flip phones now. We do not want smartphones
11:44
anymore because smartphones are killing our brains.
11:48
I'm on social media for work and for the cause, but I do not
11:52
enjoy social media. It's rare that I meet someone
11:54
who really enjoys it. There's aspects that I enjoy,
11:57
but overall it I think, I think isn't that negative on society.
12:01
If I could click a button and and erase all social media so
12:05
that the the playing field was equaled, right?
12:08
So right now I'm on YouTube because there's other people on
12:10
YouTube, other people on podcast sharing their ideas.
12:12
I want to get our ideas out there, right?
12:14
But if everything the playing field was equal again and we
12:15
didn't have social media anymore, I think that overall,
12:20
would we be healthier? I might venture to say, yeah.
12:23
And so there's a new trend to throw away your smartphone or at
12:26
least to leave it at home and use your flip phone.
12:28
I want to check out this TikTok video that I love that I saw
12:30
recently. So this is a girl.
12:34
This is over 17,000,000 views now on TikTok and it's a young
12:39
woman talking what about what she does with her smartphone?
12:45
Why my friends and I only take our flip phones out.
12:47
We don't take our regular phones out anymore because I was like
12:50
the paparazzi because we realized that every single
12:53
problem that we have on a night out, everything that leads to us
12:55
crying, everything that leads to us having a bad hook up,
12:57
everything that leads to us having a bad time stems from our
13:00
phone while we're out. One of our friends doesn't get
13:02
on her phone at all when she's out and she has a wonderful time
13:05
every single time. She's always in the present
13:06
moment. She always finds people like
13:09
finds friends when she's out, like it's just so much better of
13:12
an experience. So we were like, wait, this
13:14
eliminates accidental drunk post, eliminates drunks text,
13:19
eliminates bad hookups. Like it eliminates all of the
13:22
bad things about college and brings all of the good things
13:25
about a phone, which is like connecting with people and
13:27
taking photos and videos. Like the photos and videos on
13:30
this are fire Fire and I. We can, we can pause.
13:35
OK, so she's got a flip phone. She can still text and call and
13:37
apparently she can still take videos and take photos with it
13:41
and they're fire, she's saying, but she's not using the
13:44
smartphone. Her friends are not using
13:45
smartphones to do the bad stuff. You know, drunk texting or drunk
13:48
posting or hooking up or just not being in the present moment.
13:51
I love that she even used that phrase being in the present
13:54
moment, which is so hard to do with your smartphone.
13:57
So I love this trend that's happening.
13:59
I mean, it's in the response again.
14:00
The surgeon general has been recommending a label on social
14:03
media for teenagers, a warning label like a black label, like
14:07
they put on cigarettes saying this is harmful to your health.
14:09
They want to do that for social media for teens.
14:12
I can understand why. The reality is what we do in our
14:16
culture for teens on so many levels is unhealthy, but I think
14:19
social media is a driving factor.
14:21
OK, What is Los Angeles school district doing about this?
14:23
They're actually doing something pretty radical and aggressive.
14:26
This is the second largest school district in the country.
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All right, so this is in my neck of the woods.
15:45
You guys know, I'm in Southern California and the Los Angeles
15:48
Unified School District has banned cell phones.
15:51
This is pretty dramatic of a move.
15:55
This is the second largest school district in the country
15:57
and they voted to ban cell phones and social media use for
16:00
over 400,000 K through 12 students during the school day.
16:04
Obviously they can't ban it when the kids at home, but this was
16:07
passed by the district board by a vote of five to two.
16:11
So I have a couple of thoughts about this.
16:13
First of all, I think that the idea of less smartphone usage
16:16
around teenagers overall is good.
16:19
The numbers are scary. As I was saying earlier, mental
16:23
health is tanking among youth and many of for many of them
16:25
it's correlated or connected to social media usage.
16:28
But it is crazy how much time young people are even using and
16:32
spending on their phones. Some of them are saying that by
16:35
the average person spending five hours a day on their smartphone,
16:38
for the young person that can be 6-7 plus hours of a day on their
16:43
smartphone. We're no longer interacting in
16:45
real life. We're just interacting on the
16:46
phone. Especially for younger people,
16:47
it's so tempting and addictive and it's also so isolating and
16:51
can be so harmful. So I love this move by the
16:54
school district to say no, the school does.
16:56
This phone does not belong in the classroom.
16:57
We're here to learn. Now, Do I like what these LA
17:01
school schools with these classrooms in Los Angeles are
17:04
teaching public school students? No.
17:06
Do I think the quality of education is so high?
17:08
No. Do I think there's a lot of
17:09
problems there? Yes.
17:11
Am I upset about ideologies being pushed into classrooms?
17:13
Yes. Do I also have a concern that if
17:17
there's no smartphones in the classroom, if there's something
17:20
bad happening on campus or on in the classroom, that the student
17:26
can't film it and report on it, right?
17:28
There's all these videos of students filming things that are
17:32
happening to their friends or to them.
17:34
I mean, these are fights where there's not enough action being
17:37
taken to protect against bullies or agendas that are being pushed
17:40
in the school room. And so there's a video taken.
17:43
I mean, there's a certain level of accountability that's
17:44
comforting there that least the student can document it.
17:47
But do I want to live in a such a low trust society that we need
17:51
a smartphone to just turn it on and capture our neighbor doing
17:53
something bad to be able to prove it happened or to stop it
17:56
from happening in the future? That's not a good society.
17:58
That's not a high trust society that we we should be living in.
18:01
So on net, I think that it's a good thing to say we're a
18:05
schoolroom. We're not going to permit a
18:06
smartphone in here. You can have a flip phone and if
18:09
you really want your smartphone, you can pick it up after school.
18:11
You can still make an emergency call on your flip phone if you
18:13
really need to. And you could technically get a
18:15
flip phone that can take videos and, you know, take pictures if
18:19
needed. So I think on that, this is a
18:21
good move. And surprisingly, Gavin Newsom,
18:25
who is the governor of California and somebody that
18:28
I've talked about before in the show, and he is radically pro
18:30
abortion, he as he was extremely hypocritical during COVID.
18:34
He was winning and dining while he was shutting down people's
18:36
businesses and shutting down people's churches.
18:38
He let the abortion clinic stay open while he shut down churches
18:40
during COVID. I mean, very corrupt governor,
18:43
very pro abortion, very radical. When he was the mayor of San
18:46
Francisco, he was the one who illegally was performing or or
18:49
permitting to be performed gay weddings in the city.
18:52
He was trying to say this is the place for gay weddings.
18:54
He's very much opposed to the values of life and family.
18:58
But on this one thing, I think he has the right idea.
19:04
By the way, pray for Gavin Newsom's conversion on all
19:06
things. I've heard rumors that his kids
19:08
are more conservative than he is.
19:10
But on this one thing he's saying, yes, I would want to
19:13
severely restrict the use of smartphones during the school
19:16
day and potentially ban them in all California public schools.
19:20
This would not necessarily be a bad thing, guys.
19:23
So really interesting stuff happening on the front of the
19:26
research coming out about smartphones and social media and
19:29
people waking up to the fact that this is harmful to kids and
19:33
adults for that matter, and that we should do something about it.
19:36
And I actually on that think this is a good thing.
19:40
All right, so you guys who those that follow the NBA know that
19:45
this the the coach Missoula of the Celtic, the Celtics, he came
19:50
out recently and had some very viral moments in media.
19:54
I want to take a look at this. Congratulations to coach
19:58
Missoula for winning the NBA championship.
20:00
First of all, this is a very beloved and you know, he's got a
20:03
great personality coach. And let's check out, let's start
20:07
before the latest viral video. Let's just go back in time.
20:10
This is a video just so you get to know who is Coach Missoula.
20:14
This is a little bit of a primer on who this guy is.
20:17
Let's start with that. Did you get a chance to meet
20:22
with the royal family and if not, how was it like having them
20:26
there in the building? Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the
20:31
Prince and Princess of Wales. Oh, no, I did not.
20:35
I'm only familiar with one royal family.
20:37
I don't know too much about that one.
20:40
Thank you. I'm sorry.
20:44
I love that. OK, so this is Coach Missoula.
20:48
Who is Coach Joe Missoula, the the Celtics coach.
20:51
They just won the NBA championship.
20:53
This was from last year, I think.
20:55
Yeah, it was a little over last year.
20:57
Last year. Anyways, he's being asked for a
20:59
reporter. Did you meet the royal champ,
21:00
the royal family when you were in, you know, the United
21:03
Kingdom? And he said Jesus, Mary and
21:05
Joseph and they're like, no Prince, you know, Prince and
21:07
Princess, whatever. And he's like, no, you know,
21:10
like, I don't care. I, I would just want to meet the
21:12
meet the real royal family, which is Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
21:15
I love it. I love it and it and it's true,
21:18
right? Who is the most royal of all the
21:20
families? It's Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
21:22
I love the idea of Jesus, Mary and Joseph having more of a
21:26
cultural presence in American Society and beyond.
21:30
And that's what he did right there.
21:31
He just brought them into the equation and said they are my
21:33
royal family and I'd love to meet them.
21:35
I mean, you can meet them, which is amazing spiritually.
21:38
And I believe as a Catholic, you can meet Jesus in the Eucharist
21:41
physically in this amazing way. But I love it.
21:43
It's so fun. And that's who we're dealing
21:45
with with Joe Missoula. So let's go look at his latest
21:48
clip after he and his team just won the NBA championship.
21:55
Hey Joe Ben School, Yahoo Sports.
21:57
For the first time since 1975, this is the NBA Finals where you
22:00
have two black head coaches. Given the plight sometimes with
22:04
black head coaches in the NBA, do you think this is a
22:06
significant moment? Do you take pride in this?
22:09
How do you view this or do you not see it at all?
22:11
I wonder how many of those are been Christian coaches.
22:21
David Aldridge. OK, so the guy's got some great
22:25
one liners. So they're asking him, OK, you,
22:28
you know, you're black basically.
22:29
So there's not a lot of black coaches or there should be more
22:32
that make it and you made it. And So what do you think about
22:35
that? And he's like, are we Christian?
22:37
Like what's the most important thing about me?
22:39
I think what he's communicating not the color of my skin, but am
22:43
I walking with God? Do I profess faith?
22:46
That's what's most important. And I love that.
22:48
What a great example. What a great example because we
22:51
don't, I think sometimes there's a hesitation to bring our faith
22:54
into the secular space, right? And a lot of people struggle
22:57
with how to do this. But our faith belongs
23:00
everywhere. The faith belongs everywhere.
23:03
Of course, we do it with love, and we don't want to hit people
23:05
over the head with it. But he's doing it, you know,
23:08
very casually here. But he's bringing the faith into
23:11
the narrative that the media is trying to push to say what's
23:13
most important about me is not my skin color, but it is my
23:16
faith and what I care about, my values.
23:18
And I love that he did that so confidently.
23:20
And yeah, they were silent afterwards.
23:22
I mean, the reporter didn't even know what to say in response to
23:25
that because it was. It's such a true point.
23:28
What is most important about a person, where they want to go,
23:31
where they're headed, what they believe?
23:32
This man believes in Christ and faith and he's headed, he wants
23:36
to be headed to heaven. He's setting that example.
23:39
And I think that it's a great one that we can all learn from.
23:41
So, yeah, I mean, all of us, we, many of us, I think maybe
23:45
wrestle with, do I talk about my faith in public?
23:47
How do I share my faith in public?
23:49
But I would encourage, do it naturally.
23:51
You know, again, you don't want to push faith on anyone, but be
23:54
willing to speak about your values and your faith.
23:57
Be willing to share that with other people.
23:59
Do it with joy. Do it with kindness.
24:01
You know, be willing to listen before you speak.
24:03
Of course, all of these things are good, but be like Coach Joe
24:07
here who is proud of his faith and is showing people that the
24:11
most important thing about him is, is what he believes in, who
24:13
he serves, not his skin color or even his talent.
24:17
It's who he loves and serves and that's God.
24:19
Love that. Congratulations again to the
24:22
Celtics for their win. That's very exciting.
24:24
I will admit I'm not something NBA fans, I'm not going to
24:26
pretend like I watch the game, but it's still awesome the clip
24:29
and I think it's very fun that the coach Joe is out there
24:32
giving these zingers and media interviews.
24:35
All right, next story here. This is a tough one, guys.
24:39
The Department of Justice, you probably have seen this story,
24:43
but I need to give an important update for you.
24:46
Department of Justice has been going after pro lifers since Joe
24:50
Biden took power. It's terrible.
24:53
Since President Biden became president, the Department of
24:56
Justice has become weaponized against pro lifers.
25:00
President Biden is the most pro abortion president in American
25:03
history. He's radical.
25:05
He maybe not personally is radical, but he surrounded
25:08
himself by radical people who are rabidly pro abortion like
25:12
his BP, Kamala Harris. And his Department of Justice is
25:15
going after those that are daring to peacefully protest at
25:19
abortion clinics. And so if you actually look at
25:23
what's happening, let's get into the details here, It's very
25:26
apparent that this political persecution, which has been
25:29
happening now since Biden took power, is reaching a new
25:33
intensity. So just a few weeks ago, an
25:37
elderly pro-life activist named Paulette Harlow, who has a
25:40
debilitating medical condition. This woman is is so sweet.
25:44
I haven't met her personally, but I know people that know her.
25:46
She's the sweetest woman. She's full of love.
25:49
She's been doing pro-life work peacefully.
25:52
She was praying the rosary peacefully and quietly in an
25:56
abortion clinic. She had changed herself and
25:58
others rescuers to the clinic to create peaceful disturbance so
26:02
that abortions would be stopped that day.
26:04
But it was completely peaceful, prayerful, and she was there
26:07
practicing her, her, her right to put herself in that position.
26:12
Obviously, there can be penalties for people that put
26:15
themselves in that level of activism.
26:18
But she went there peacefully with love.
26:20
And now she has been sentenced to 24 months in jail.
26:24
Originally, they had permitted her to do house arrest because
26:26
she has this debilitating medical condition.
26:29
But they have now. They're now saying that they're
26:32
going to take her to jail and put her in prison.
26:34
So this is a terribly sad story. She's 75 years old.
26:39
You know, the, the reality is this, there are many different
26:42
causes and activists. Do you think about the Black
26:44
Lives Matter movement as an example?
26:46
And district attorneys, prosecutors, they can choose
26:50
which cases to target, you know, which cases to pick and which
26:54
people to go after. The Department of Justice, you
26:57
know, it's always a question, who are we going to go after?
27:00
Who are we going to? And what are how are we going to
27:02
enforce these laws? What level of penalty are we
27:04
going to bring down on these different people?
27:07
In this case, they have chosen pro lifers, particularly elderly
27:12
pro lifers like Paulette Harlow, to bring the full brunt of the
27:15
law against using the Face Act to throw them in jail.
27:19
And unfortunately, Paulette is not the first person that this
27:22
has happened to. We've talked about others on the
27:23
show. We actually had a friend of
27:26
Lauren Handy, who's a young woman who's been thrown into
27:28
jail for her work. Kristen Turner talk about Lauren
27:32
and her beautiful work to try to save lives and try to protect
27:35
women and try to protect children.
27:37
But there are now several different pro lifers in federal
27:39
prison after being found guilty of committing charges, found
27:44
guilty of committing felonies, violating the FACE act.
27:48
So I talked about this in previous episodes, but what I
27:50
want to say here is this. The reality is there are
27:54
protests American, the American tradition of protest is one that
27:58
has a long history, right? And protest is essential to
28:02
fighting causes and fighting for especially against injustices.
28:06
Abortion's legal in this country.
28:08
Killing babies is legal in this country.
28:10
It should not be legal. This is the greatest human
28:12
rights abuse we are seeing in any nation in any part of the
28:17
world is killing babies before they're born and they have a
28:20
chance to even protect themselves, right?
28:22
It's happening thousands of times a day, almost a million
28:25
times, or depending on the year, over a million times a year.
28:28
Horrific, right? We should have fierce, of
28:33
course, peaceful but passionate protest against this.
28:36
That's what these people have chosen to do, like Paulette
28:40
Harlow and going into abortion clinics and peacefully saying
28:43
I'm not going to leave until you stop your operations today, Now
28:46
pro Palestine protest, today BLM protest.
28:50
Many of these protesters are very disruptive.
28:53
They're disrupting the normal course of activity of the school
28:56
institution or maybe the Police Department that they're
29:00
protesting and they're disrupting the normal course of
29:02
activity happening. That's the job of the protester
29:06
in order to create change, in order to force a conversation,
29:09
in order to get their cause in front of people's eyes.
29:12
And that's what these pro lifers did.
29:15
What was their problem though? They chose an abortion clinic as
29:17
their, their, their site of protest.
29:19
They didn't chose at a Police Department.
29:21
They didn't choose a, you know, Yale University, they chose an
29:25
abortion clinic. And the Department of Justice is
29:28
not going after, you know, BLM protesters are not going after
29:31
pro Palestine protesters. What they're throwing their
29:34
weight against is pro-life protesters.
29:37
This is not just a misdemeanor. They're calling it a felony.
29:40
This is not just a slap on the wrist or do some community
29:43
service. This is I'm going to throw you
29:44
in federal prison, right? I'm saying all of this because I
29:48
think it's important to make these distinctions, to show
29:50
these distinctions that this is another form of protest.
29:52
Yes, there are laws against going into an abortion clinic
29:56
and blocking access, but there's also laws against setting fire
30:00
around a Police Department or laws against blocking access at
30:03
a university for Jewish students to walk through it on a certain
30:06
part of campus. Are we holding people to the
30:09
same standard and holding them accountable in the same way with
30:12
other causes as we are with the pro-life cause?
30:16
And the brutal truth is this. No, the Department of Justice is
30:19
weaponizing the law against pro lifers because they do not like
30:22
pro lifers and because they want to protect abortionists.
30:26
That is the reality and anyone telling you otherwise is telling
30:31
you something and not telling you the truth.
30:32
The reality is it is weaponized against pro lifers.
30:35
That is the problem here. The biggest problem is abortion
30:38
to begin with, and I want to applaud those that are willing
30:41
to protest and put even their freedom at risk in order to
30:44
escalate this issue in front of other people and get other
30:47
people to pay attention and to save some lives.
30:50
And they do it peacefully, of course, always peacefully.
30:52
And that's what they've done. But this is unjust, the way that
30:56
the Department of Justice has been targeting these pro lifers.
30:58
So what can you do? Spread awareness is one key
31:01
thing that you can do. Make sure that people know what
31:03
is happening. There are different
31:05
organizations that are representing these people in
31:07
court, like the Thomas Moore Society to protect them
31:11
illegally. And so certainly support those
31:13
organizations. We continue to report on it over
31:15
at Live Action. You can continue to partner with
31:17
Live Action, but people need to know about this unjust
31:20
persecution of pro lifers and we need to speak out against it.
31:24
All right, Louisiana Public Schools has done something a
31:28
pretty controversial. It's making headline news right
31:30
now. But before we go into that, I
31:31
want to thank our sponsor, every life, Every life.com.
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but they're also a pro-life company.
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Unfortunately, like Huggies and Pampers are owned by these
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conglomerates that are pro abortion that are supporting
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Planned Parenthood. Isn't that horrific that you and
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you're buying diapers and wipes, you know, you're at the store,
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you're buying diapers and wipes from Huggies or Pampers, You're
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supporting indirectly Planned Parenthood.
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Is there a way to not do that? Of course there's a way to not
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32:32
All right, I'm going to take a quick look at the chat before I
32:33
go over here to the story about Louisiana and the 10
32:37
commandments. Diego is saying NBA is a waste
32:41
of time. Yeah, I mean, I'm again, I'm not
32:45
as I said earlier on the show, I do not personally, I've I've
32:48
been to some basketball games. It's not like I think it's a
32:51
terrible thing. It's fun, right?
32:52
Some people love that and I think sports are can be great.
32:55
But I'm a big fan of Coach Missoula.
32:57
So I will not, I will not stop fangirling Coach Missoula and
33:01
the stuff that he says because it's great.
33:03
Carissa is saying, I hope there's explanation for students
33:06
with medical problems who need their smartphones to monitor
33:08
medical issues. That is my problem.
33:10
Great point, Carissa, and I agree.
33:13
I think that any sort of policy like that, a blanket policy,
33:16
should have exceptions for special cases.
33:19
And if there's some medical reason to have the smartphone,
33:21
then I can definitely see that being an important exception for
33:24
the LA school district to make. All right, Melissa's agreeing
33:29
and saying good point, Carissa. Yes, I think it as with any
33:32
public policy, there needs to be exceptions depending on what's
33:36
happening with the policy, who's affected by it always.
33:39
That's the key. Melissa's also says low trust.
33:40
That's the problem. Absolutely, yes.
33:43
Our society is increasingly low trust when we fail to have
33:47
shared values that we live together around, that we that we
33:51
live these values. And so what's the solution to a
33:53
low trust society is by building communities that are high trust,
33:57
that share values that are generous, that are law abiding,
34:01
that are focused on raising children in truth and with love
34:06
and focused on fidelity and and high commitment.
34:09
That is always going to be the solution.
34:11
That's why I'm really hopeful, by the way, with all the chaos
34:14
in our society, with all of the confusion, I think the long game
34:18
that a lot of us are playing about building high trust
34:21
societies, raising our children, building strong marriages.
34:25
I mean, that's the long game, right?
34:26
And that's going to be the future of this country a decade
34:29
or two from now. OK, Louisiana and the, and the
34:33
10 commandments in public schools.
34:35
You guys might be surprised by my take on this.
34:36
I don't know. But well, here's a here's a
34:39
story. First of all, for those who
34:40
haven't seen this, Louisiana has become the 1st state to require
34:44
that the 10 commandments be displayed in every public school
34:46
classroom. This is the latest move from a
34:48
GOP dominated legislature that's pushing a conservative gender
34:51
and an agenda under a new governor.
34:53
So that's the Associated Press's take on what's happening in
34:56
Louisiana. Of course, it's a GOP dominated
34:58
legislator pushing a conservative agenda.
35:00
OK, what are they requiring? They're requiring a poster sized
35:03
image of the display of the 10 commandments in large, easily
35:08
readable font to be posted in every public school classroom.
35:11
And the justification for this, they're saying, is that this was
35:13
a prominent part of American public education for almost 3
35:16
centuries to know the 10 commandments.
35:18
OK. Another important point here is
35:21
that the Supreme Court actually ruled against this in the past.
35:23
So in 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in
35:26
Kentucky was unconstitutional because Congress can make no law
35:30
respecting an establishment of religion.
35:33
So you guys are probably familiar with that phrase.
35:35
You cannot have any law that is respecting an establishment of
35:40
religion. You can't have a state
35:42
established religion in the United States.
35:44
We are not a theocracy. the United States is not a
35:46
theocracy. The majority of our population
35:48
is Christian. We share many Christian values,
35:51
as we should. And our Constitution has
35:53
principles of truth that are found in our faith and that I
35:56
think originate from God, who's the ultimate lawgiver.
35:58
But our Constitution is not a biblical document.
36:00
It is a secular document. These are all facts.
36:03
My take on this is, is the is this, first of all, the whole
36:07
idea of public education is challenging, right?
36:10
Because it entrusts children to the state to educate them.
36:14
And children need formation. They need formation that
36:18
includes a moral formation. And if the state cannot include
36:24
any faith, then how can they do a full moral formation?
36:28
Now the reality is the school can do faith teach faith
36:34
teachers are allowed to bring their faith to some degree into
36:36
the classroom. It's not like it's banned.
36:39
It would be unconstitutional to ban the 10 commandments from the
36:42
classroom. It would be unconstitutional to
36:43
ban the Bible or the faith of the teacher for them to share.
36:47
You know, not maybe not say you have to have my faith, but you
36:50
know, to pray, for example, to pray in the in the classroom.
36:53
But the reality is, is it constitutional to be forcing the
36:58
10 commandments to be put on the wall?
37:00
Do I want the 10 commandments on the wall of every classroom in
37:03
America? Why not?
37:04
I think they're great. I mean, yes, you shall not kill.
37:08
You shall not commit adultery. You shall have no idols before
37:11
God. I think these are wonderful
37:13
principles. But the reality is we live in a
37:14
society. We're not.
37:15
Everyone is a Christian and we've chosen to live in a
37:17
society that is not a theocracy, but that is a constitutional
37:20
Republic. And so I, I can understand the
37:23
Supreme Court's ruling on this, quite frankly.
37:26
And I also would just look at Louisiana and, and say, what are
37:29
they going for here? Are they going for really great
37:31
moral and philosophical formation of their students?
37:33
If that's the case, fantastic. But is the way to achieve that
37:36
by mandating a poster on the wall?
37:38
What's the best way to achieve a strong moral and philosophical
37:41
foundation for your students? And that what's the best thing
37:43
that the public school can do for that?
37:45
Maybe a course on ethics that is grounded in objective truth as
37:49
opposed to craziness and relativism.
37:53
I mean, that that I'd get behind mandated in course like that
37:56
where you don't have to believe the Bible to necessarily say,
37:59
yeah, this is true. I mean, the divine revelation,
38:01
you don't have to ascribe to divine revelation to say that
38:04
this is true. You see, the 10 commandments is
38:06
divine revelation, right? God gave it to Moses to give to
38:10
his people. But you can reason your way to
38:14
the 10 commandments without the 10 commandments, if you have a
38:17
good foundation in philosophy and ethics to know that it's
38:19
wrong to kill, it's wrong to rape, to know it's wrong to have
38:22
an idol, to know that it's wrong to steal.
38:25
You can do that without divine revelation.
38:29
So I know we're getting a little philosophical here on the show.
38:31
Sometimes we do that. But I think it's important to
38:33
look here. Yes, The the, the, the reaction,
38:36
I think of many people who are Christians or Catholics
38:38
listening to be like, yeah, 10 commandments, of course.
38:41
And I would say, yes, 10 commandments are great.
38:43
But should, is it right for the government to mandate it to be
38:46
on the wall of every classroom? And what is the most important
38:49
thing that we're going for here, more than a symbol of the 10
38:52
commandments on the wall? We want good moral and
38:54
philosophical foundation for our students.
38:57
And there are things that are absolutely constitutional that
39:00
we can do and we should be fighting for in the public
39:03
school system. And we should want in the
39:04
private, among private schools and home schools for kids to
39:07
have a good moral and philosophical foundation.
39:10
That of course includes the 10 commandments, 10 commandments,
39:13
which can be many of these moral principles which you can come to
39:17
see whether you're Christian or not, whether you've come to have
39:21
the gift of faith or not. So that's my take on it a
39:24
little, a little nuanced here. I get what Louisiana's trying to
39:27
do. I will say Louisiana has been
39:30
disappointing in recent past because of some of their other
39:34
actions like banning the right of parents, even sue IVF clinics
39:40
for the mistreatment of their babies and and ultimately
39:43
neglecting to protect their embryos and killing their
39:46
embryos. You guys heard me talk about
39:48
this in the show before. But I mean, this has been an
39:51
ongoing problem with IVF just being a complete, having no
39:56
regulations, no standards in the United States, being this Wild
40:00
West of the IVF industry. And unfortunately that's
40:02
happening in places like Louisiana.
40:04
And so you have this, this move where it's not, there's no basis
40:08
for that. To not protect a, a child, I
40:10
mean, there's no basis in natural law.
40:12
Our Constitution has the 14th Amendment that says equal
40:15
protection should be given to all people and that should
40:18
include preborn humans as much as a born human.
40:21
So I think that there's good and bad happening here.
40:25
I think that the heart behind this I, I can respect it, I can
40:28
understand it, but I think the end game should be moral and
40:31
philosophical foundation of students putting the 10
40:35
commandments on the wall. It's a bit of a lightning rod to
40:39
do that, right? What would be the long game that
40:42
Louisiana should try to play here for their students?
40:44
And I would encourage landing on a formation, a class of some
40:49
kind for their students to really teach them moral lessons,
40:54
to really teach them right from wrong and truth so that they can
40:57
ascertain that regardless of their faith background,
40:59
regardless of whether or not they believe that the Bible is
41:01
the inspired word of God. I think that would be a much
41:04
better long game to play to improve education for students.
41:08
Does that include the 10 commandments?
41:09
They absolutely can and should, but there's a little more nuance
41:12
there. Then as I as I've said, then
41:14
maybe maybe is the immediate response that you may have when
41:17
you hear the news. Remember, we are a
41:20
constitutional Republic and the Bible is incredibly important,
41:23
but our constitution is not divine revelation, right?
41:27
Our Constitution is the reasoned best shot of a lot of very smart
41:32
men back in the day to figure out a a form of government that
41:35
was going to serve the human person and serve a society that
41:39
was built on on justice. And that's what the American
41:41
project is. All right guys, I'm going to
41:44
check the chat out here one more time.
41:45
I also need to thank our sponsor, 7 Weeks Coffee, which
41:49
is our last sponsor to think in this episode and they are what I
41:52
drink every morning. I love seven Weeks Coffee until
41:56
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I love sevenweekscoffee.com because they donate 10% of all
42:10
of their proceeds, not just their profits back to the
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pro-life movement. So they're passionately pro-life
42:15
company. Why buy coffee from anywhere
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else when you could buy from a pro-life company that has the
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best in class product that's also donating 10% of their
42:23
profits back to the pro-life movement.
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I think they've donated now over $300,000 to pro-life pregnancy
42:29
resource centers. So check out Seven Weeks
42:31
coffee.com today. You can use the code Lilac check
42:33
out to get up to 25% off your first order.
42:36
If you join their Heartbeat club where you get subscribed to
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Heart 7 Seven Weeks coffee and you get the coffee in every
42:43
single month, that's seven weeks coffee.com and use the code Lila
42:47
at checkout. All right, guys, we are going to
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go over to locals in a minute, which is at the link in the bio.
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I think you guys should be able to see that.
42:55
And we're going to do a special session where I'm going to talk
42:58
about back to social media, some tips that I have for social
43:01
media uses, usage and phone usage.
43:04
I'm going to check out the chat here one more time.
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Thank you guys for joining over on YouTube.
43:08
It's great to have you guys on here.
43:11
Hello, Sips with Sarah, I love your names.
43:14
Sips with Sarah Uniparous. Sarah is one of my favorite
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Saints here in Southern California.
43:19
He was very instrumental in creating the missions up and
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down the state, these beautiful historic missions that we have.
43:25
Thanks for joining. Sips with Sarah.
43:26
Thanks for joining. You gave thanks for joining
43:28
everybody over at YouTube. We will see you next week.
43:31
We're going to be doing it live next week and I hope to see some
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of you guys over at locals, so check out the link in the bio.
43:37
Thanks so much for joining and we'll see you guys next time.