VOTE!

Well, hello everyone, I'm James Dobson, and you're listening to Family Talk, a listener supported ministry. In fact, thank you so much for being part of that support for James Dobson Family Institute.
Well, welcome to Family Talk, the broadcast division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. I'm Roger Marsh. You know, just over 40 days from now, citizens of the United States of America will elect our 47th president.
But the actual battle for the White House began much earlier this election season as more and more Americans are opting to vote early, either by mail or in person. Now, here's the perspective. Whereas 40% of the electorate voted early during the election in 2000, just over 95% of Americans have the option for early voting during this year's campaign.
As a result, many voters will opt for convenience when casting their votes. They can easily be swayed by a compelling television commercial or social media post without really thinking through the true ramifications of how they're going to vote and the consequences thereof. The biblical values that serve as the foundation of our great nation are all on the ballot this November 5th.
And today here on Family Talk, Gary Bauer sits down with the honorable Michele Bachmann for a conversation about the urgency behind motivating every Christian who is eligible to vote to register, pray and vote. And that's why here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, we've created a special website designed to help you get the tools you need to cast your vote most effectively, but then to help inform others as to why voting this year and voting biblically is the only way to save our democracy. For more information, go to drjamesdobson.org/countdown to Decision 2024.
That's drjamesdobson.org/countdowndashtwodashdecision dash 2024. And now here is Gary Bauer to further introduce today's guest, Michele Bachmann, right here on Family Talk.
Hello, friends. I'm Gary Bauer, the Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the James Dobson Family Institute. Dr. Dobson has been a close friend for decades.
I'm honored to serve alongside of him at this important time. I'm also the host of Defending faith, Family and Freedom, the podcast here at the JDFI. If you haven't checked it out yet, I think you would enjoy it, particularly given the headlines we wake up to every morning and all the issues that Christians are trying to be discerning about.
Look, we're getting very close to November 5th, and it's probably going to be one of the most important days in modern American history. This country is in deep trouble. I think all of us know that.
Three quarters of the country say that we're headed in the wrong direction. That is in itself, I think, a real warning that something is wrong. We all know the statistics on the breakdown of the family, but we're also dealing with open borders and a migrant crime wave.
We've got foreign policy challenges and dangers all over the world. There's a real power grab going on in Washington, DC. There's a bunch of people in this city.
They get up every morning trying to figure out how they can get more power and keep that power. There's a lot of people in the country that thinks liberty comes from government, when we all know from our Bible and from our Constitution, that liberty comes from God who made us in His image. So all of these things are issues that are really in one way or another on the ballot this November 5th.
And what we want to do here at the JDFI is help you be discerning, help you be an effective Christian citizen. And there's no better way to do that than talking to our friend today, Michele Bachmann. Michele Bachmann is widely known as being one of the most effective voices for faith, family and freedom in the United States.
She's a long time friend of Dr. Dobson's and of this ministry. She's on the board of directors. She served in Congress for a number of years and was one of the few congressmen that I recall that I didn't have to worry about Michele's vote.
She always voted consistent with the way she has talked and lived her entire career. Let me mention one other one. She is the co-chair of the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast, and that opens up a whole other issue.
Michele, welcome to the broadcast today. Dr. Dobson sends his best and I know you agree with me that this is a moment of great challenge and great risk to our country.
Well Gary, I agree with you completely that this is the most consequential moment in our nation's history. We're a strong nation, a resilient nation, and yet one thing I think our listeners have observed is how quickly it seems our nation has been coming apart at the seams in a relatively short period of time, less than four years. Four years ago, at the conclusion of Donald Trump's term as President of the United States, the United States had never reached greater heights and benchmarks in the natural.
And so if the listener is asking themselves, hey, I think I was better off four years ago under Donald Trump than I am today, that's a big issue. And so we can look at the natural, but I think from Dr. Dobson's perspective and Shirley's perspective, they agree, too, that the economy and all of these issues are important. But the real heart for them, the real heartbeat, is how will candidates bring morality into the public sphere?
How will they govern? Will they be against the church or for the church? Will they protect our speech or not protect our speech?
Will they protect the unborn or not protect the unborn? How do they value children? How do they value marriage?
And how do they value Israel? All of these issues are ones that Dr. Dobson and Shirley Dobson have spent over 50 years of their lives teaching the American church and teaching people across this nation. And I know both Jim and Shirley are prayer warriors on this issue.
Yes, there's no question about it. And you have experienced this yourself over the years. I can't tell you the number of times when I've been with Dr. Dobson and he would have come into Washington to talk to members of Congress or maybe for a meeting at the White House.
And then we would go on the radio and do a broadcast about some of the issues. And we would get this feedback and we still get it today of our fellow believers who will say, yeah, but what's that got to do with being a Christian? Why are you guys getting involved in politics?
I know great Christians who will say to me, Gary, haven't you heard of the separation of church and state? It's in the Constitution. Well, my friends, it isn't in the Constitution.
In fact, it's the exact opposite. The Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. But Michele, share a little bit with us about why Christians need to be Christian citizens.
Almost every issue facing the country, there's a Biblical answer to those issues.
There is a Biblical answer for our good because God loves us. And I'm not meaning to condemn anyone when I say this, but it really belies a shallow view of scripture to say that the only thing that the church should talk about is the gospel and salvation. That is the central point of the church.
But when you read the Bible, the Bible has something to say about absolutely every area of life. There is no area in life where the Bible doesn't have some measure of application. So wouldn't it be foolish not to apply the Bible to going into the voting booth and to know if a candidate lines up more in line with what the Bible says or if they're actually opposed to what the Bible says?
That's ignorance and that's irresponsible. And that's why it's important for us as believers to be wise, to be wise about our vote, wise about the moment, because the way our vote works in the United States, we're unique. Not all nations in all times in history have given people the right to choose their leaders and to choose the issues that they believe in.
We're unique. America's very unique. Sometimes there were kings.
Sometimes there were dictators. There were various forms of government like oligarchies, like Russia today. But we're blessed because we get to choose.
So America is the way it is, Gary, because Christians either stayed home or they failed to apprise themselves of the candidates and the issues. And so we need to be encouraged and inspired to recognize that we can completely change our nation. We can apply Christian leadership to change America if our churches and if those who are listening right now would only register to vote and go vote and vote for the candidate.
Not necessarily that you like, you may not like their personality, but vote for the candidate whose positions are most in line with the Bible. Because the Bible says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And if we are implementing through our policies, Godly principles, then the people will be happier and more prosperous and will be at peace.
Michele, we're going to start in our time together, going through these issues and talking to our listeners about the biblical basis of everything from the sanctity of life, obviously, but even an issue like how we deal with our borders and who should be allowed in and who should not be allowed in and those sorts of things that are very complicated. But I want to touch again, and I know there are a lot of pastors that always listen to family talk and pastors in the colonial era would give what was called election sermons and they would talk to their congregation about the great issues facing colonial America. A lot of those sermons were about liberty and were sermons against the tyranny of the king.
They were a big deal because there wasn't any TV, radio, or internet. So not only did people hear those sermons, but those sermons were printed and they were spread all throughout the colonies. They were even noticed, particularly perhaps in Great britain itself, and they were not happy.
In fact, the British thought these sermons were dangerous and they began to refer to the pastors that were making these sermons as the Black Regiment, referring to the robe that the pastor wore when he gave the sermon. So there's wonderful historical examples of this. In fact, there was a pastor in Virginia who ripped off his garb and led his congregation out to form a unit of the Colonial Army, not far from where I'm sitting right now.
And that unit of the Colonial Army, which I believe is the 8th Virginia Brigade, is still part of the United States Army. And all of that led to America's Revolution and Freedom. Today, a lot of pastors do not give those sermons.
You mentioned before we started talking this morning that you and I both heard one recently by Gary Hamrick, who's the pastor of Cornerstone Chapel in Leesburg, Virginia. And tell me why you thought that that was such a powerful message. Because I wish every pastor would do the same thing today.
Well, you're right. It's a powerful message. Anyone can find it.
Just Google pastor Gary Hamrick, Leesburg, Virginia, election sermon. And you can hear it too. And share that sermon with your pastor, with other congregants, with your friends on your contact list.
It was powerful because Gary went straight to the scripture. He went through the scripture that said that we are charged with being watchmen on the wall. All of us, not just pastors.
But we are watchmen on the wall for our families, for our nations. And so when we see things happening in our midst that aren't right, that in fact are evil, then we have an obligation to speak that out and tell people because we don't want evil in our society. We want good in our society.
And Gary Hamrick was very straightforward in his message telling the people that he was being a watchman and he was going through, as Gary said, before America was even a nation, during the colonial days, how the pastors really were the leaders of society. And they spoke what the Word of God was. And then they spoke into the issues of the day.
And that is how the colonialists in America were actually inspired to stand up for their rights because they saw that the British were encroaching unlawfully, unbibically against their rights. As we understand as believers what these issues are today, and pastors don't need to be afraid, there's a lot of material out there that they can share, then we are being salt and light. That's what God calls us to do.
Whether we're pastors or just individuals, to be salt and light in our nation, that's how we're bringing godliness into our nation, by applying the Bible to relevant things in people's lives.
Folks, if you are a pastor, if you have a church and you're leading that church, or if you have a Sunday school class, or if you're doing a Bible study at home, there's still time to do the equivalent of an election sermon. And I want to be really clear about this. I know Michele agrees.
Nobody's telling you that you have to say from the pulpit, vote for so-and-so. But what I think we are called to do, if you're a Christian leader, is to explain the biblical basis of how issues should be resolved. And then you have to look at the candidates as a member of the congregation and make your own judgment about who's closest to those biblical teachings.
Gary, you're making such an excellent point. I'm sorry to break in. Gary Hamrick clarified that.
He clarified to his audience, I am not here at this pulpit to speak about politics. I'm not speaking about politics. I'm speaking about theology because I am laying out for you what the Bible says about issues and what the Bible says about a nation.
He couldn't have been more clear. He wasn't being political. He was being biblical.
And after all, isn't that what every pastor should be? This is the most relevant, consequential issue happening in America right now. This will impact every person in the United States who is elected this fall and all of the various officers who is elected.
This will impact the wars across the world. This will impact the future of the world with our children. So there is no more relevant document to apply than the Bible.
They will see that their congregants are grateful that the pastor is giving them biblical information and knowledge about how to vote.
You know, one of the things that was brought up in that sermon, Michele, was this charge that is made, this accusation that is made, not only by the radical secularists, but even among some of our fellow believers that, oh, look, we are not called to establish a theocracy in America. No one is trying to establish a theocracy in America. Nobody is trying to use the law to make Americans worship in any particular way.
And I think that the pastor brought up that there will be a theocracy someday, but it won't be because somebody was elected president. It will be because Jesus has returned, and when he returns, there will be a theocracy. Every knee will bow, even the knees at the IRS and in the deep state.
That's right, because there's been a political movement to really castigate Christians for being involved in politics. And it's this scam called Christian nationalism. It's not a real thing, and one of our professors has written a book on that, Mark David Hall, and it's imperative that we not be intimidated to vote, or register to vote, or urge others to vote, and we shouldn't be intimidated to have our pastors speak at the pulpit and ourselves speak out on these important issues.
Michele, let's get to those issues. And a lot of our fellow believers don't like one candidate or another, not based on the issues or the program of the candidate, but on the personality of the candidate. Or they don't like the way somebody talks, or they're not happy that, for example, Donald Trump doesn't regularly cite a Bible verse when he's speaking.
But when we look at the Bible, God used flawed people all the time.
That's all he had to work with for flawed people. And you and I are among them.
Well, you can sure say that again. It's nice to have righteous leaders, but righteous leaders are not required to have righteous policies. And David's a good example.
Remind people with the Biblical history there. I mean, David had a few rough edges. I think it's safe to say.
And yet he loved the Lord with all of his heart, soul and mind. And he was a very good king. He didn't do everything right as king.
certainly later, his parenting lacked, left something to be desired. And he made mistakes along the way. But he had the most important ingredient.
He did love the Lord, his God, with all his heart, mind and strength. And he was a king. It was a very different form of government.
Here, what we're seeing is there are a lot of people who don't like the personality. As you mentioned, of Donald Trump, they think he's snarky. They just don't like how he tweets.
They don't like things about him. And that is understandable. We don't have to like the individual.
But we do need to go behind the curtain and see what are the policies that that person is going to stand for. We also have something that we've never had before. We have two candidates that have a proven record.
Donald Trump has a proven record of in my lifetime, and I'm getting older now, so in my lifetime, I have never seen policies better. Donald Trump actually accomplished more through his policies in four years than Ronald Reagan, probably everyone's favorite president, accomplished in eight. That's no slam against Ronald Reagan.
But what Donald Trump accomplished in four years is nothing short of miraculous. We could go through that. He blessed Israel in every possible way.
He recognized Jerusalem as the capital. He moved the US. Embassy there.
He recognized the Golan Heights as a part of Israel's land. He changed the passports so that someone could say that they were born in Jerusalem, Israel. They couldn't do that before.
And he recognized that every Jew anywhere in the world is a part of the Jewish nation and has the ability to have the protections of the Jewish nation. What he did was amazing for Israel. What he did for our economy was incredible.
I spoke about it at the top of this show, how Donald Trump had changed the economy so quick, so fast, that we had manufacturers moving back into the United States, starting new companies. And we saw complete growth. We also saw him appoint the three justices to the Supreme Court that allowed Roe vs.
Wade, the abortion decision, to be overturned.
I'm sorry to interrupt, but let's stop right there because judges, the appointment of judges, that ought to be a game changer right there. If you are a Christian trying to decide how to vote, and you don't have a perfect candidate on the ballot, Jesus is not on the ballot. If you looked at nothing other than the judges that President Trump nominated for the Supreme Court and all the lower federal courts, and then you look at the kind of judges that President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have put on the court, the difference could not be more stark.
Because one thing people need to know, because again the media didn't talk about the good things President Trump did. I'm shocked by the people who don't know the great life that we had during the four years of President Trump, but it's because the media didn't want to talk about the great things that he did. But when it came to the life issue and judges, President Trump promised and delivered, he said, every federal judge that I appoint, I'm going to appoint judges that are pro-life judges.
Now nobody ever said that before. No Republican as a candidate for president ever was willing to say that before. He not only said it, he also did it.
And so we have some great decisions now through our courts because of the work of President Trump. He was very specific about filling judgeships and to fill them with people who wanted to vote based upon the law and the Constitution, not based on political correctness and woke ideology.
Michele, this has been a fantastic conversation. The problem is, I got about ten more things I want to discuss with you. I know how busy you are, but it would mean a lot to Dr. Dobson and me and to Family Talk and our audience all over America.
If you could spare another day with us to discuss some of these additional issues, you think you could come back tomorrow and spend some time with us?
Absolutely. Thank you.
Gary Bauer and Michele Bachmann today here on Family Talk, discussing the most effective way to preserve biblical values in America, and that is to vote biblically. Now keep in mind, this is part one of a two-part conversation, so be sure to join us again tomorrow to hear the conclusion of this discussion. And by the way, if you'd like to hear this program in its entirety once again, or share it with a friend, it's easy to do so using the JDFI app, or by going to drjamesdobson.org/familytalk.
Also, you'll find more compelling election conversation featuring the Honorable Michele Bachmann when you visit our Countdown to Decision 2024 website. There you'll find a collection of videos, reels, voter guides and more, all available without cost and easy to share with your friends and family members who are looking for helpful voting resources. Go to drjamesdobson.org/countdown to Decision 2024.
again, that's drjamesdobson.org/countdowndash to dash Decision dash 2024. Now, one of the experts who is a part of our Countdown to Decision 2024 podcast series, is bestselling author Eric Metaxas. And this Thursday night, two days from today, September 26th, the James Dobson Family Institute invites you to a special live online event for a screening of the documentary based on Eric Metaxas book called Letter to the American Church.
You'll be able to watch the film in its entirety as part of an exclusive online community. You'll also hear commentary from the producers of the film, along with powerful words of exhortation from Michele Bachmann at the close of the presentation. Now, this is a free event, but you must be registered in advance to take part.
We have created a special web link you can go to right now to sign up. It's drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch.
That's drjamesdobson.org/americanchurch.
Be part of the celebration, a fascinating film presentation, an online screening event coming up this Thursday at 630 p.m. mountain time. And be sure to join us again tomorrow when Gary Bauer continues his conversation with Michele Bachmann about the importance of each member of the Body of Christ who is eligible to do so taking part in this year's election. Till then, I'm Roger Marsh.
Thanks for listening to Family Talk. The voice you trust for the family you love.
This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.