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Feb. 18, 2024 - Huckabee Today
44:37
The Government is Committing Another Heinous CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY! | Full Episode | Huckabee
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Hey, I'm pretty sure that you might have watched a little ball game this past week.
In a dramatic and thrilling overtime game, the Kansas City Chiefs overcame the stubborn efforts of the San Francisco 49ers to remain the NFL champions.
Now, the many sideshows to the game, from the moment that Taylor Swift's boyfriend almost bumped Chiefs ever stoic coach Andy Reid to the ground in a fit of rage, all the way to the guy who ran onto the field during the game, but who apparently didn't realize that if you're going to streak, You don't wear long pants, okay?
Anyway, they were, at best, distractions in a classic matchup of champions.
No one left that field embarrassed, and either team could know that they left nothing in reserve.
It was football as it should be, with the real focus on the athletes and their play, rather than some ungrateful showboat disrespecting America by taking a knee during the national anthem because his ability to play left the fans wanting to take a nap.
Let's hope that nonsense is behind us and that people again watch sports to get away from the divisive and polarizing politics of today and maybe as a way to just vicariously live out our own dreams of physical greatness through the lives of those who have actually achieved it.
But there was something about the game that did my old heart good.
It was that both superstar quarterbacks The underestimated Brock Purdy of San Francisco and the phenom and force of nature named Patrick Mahomes, both of them boldly, unapologetically, and authentically declared gratitude to God for their being there and gave clear testimony.
They both...
Gave a clear testimony of their faith in Christ.
In a politically correct crazed culture like ours, I gotta tell you, it was refreshing to hear the two most prominent players of the Super Bowl share with humility and honor that as important as football is to them, they knew that their mastery of the game gave them a platform through which they were able to declare that their real master was not the game, but God.
The highlights of that game are going to be played and relived for decades, but the confidence in their Savior will last for eternity.
And in the great scheme of things, it's doubtful that anyone in heaven were wearing hats or jerseys with the Chiefs or 49ers logos, okay?
Or that the inhabitants of the holy city really cared about the outcome of a mere game among mortals, Albeit exceptional ones.
But here on earth, the massive numbers of people who watched this celebrated sporting event were at least subjected to the clarity of a confession of faith that reminded all of us of that which matters more than even the most coveted of earthly treasures are trophies.
Now, because my son-in-law is from Kansas City, Kansas, and he has indoctrinated at least three of my grandchildren to be hardcore Chiefs fans, I will admit that I hoped Kansas City would get the win.
Trey obviously has hoped that.
He's been wearing Kansas City gear every show for the past six years.
But I had and continue to have nothing but respect for the 49ers and especially for their exceptionally competent and cool-headed young quarterback who played like a champion no matter the final score.
But here's my takeaway from Super Bowl number 58. And yes, I am old enough to have seen them all.
My takeaway is that in a moment when Purdy and Mahomes could have told us how great they were, how proud they were of themselves, how deserving they were to be on that field, Instead, they raised their hands, their heads, and their hearts toward heaven, and they told the entire world that what mattered to them even more than football was their faith.
It was a good look, a refreshing reminder of lasting values to live by.
And for the first time in a long time, it actually made watching the Super Bowl a much better use of four hours of my life than I've had watching sports in a long, long time.
Well, my next guest is another victim of Joe Biden's hyper-politicized Justice Department.
His story is going to shock you.
Paul Vaughn is a devout Christian husband, father of 11 children, and he's devoted much of his life to pro-life activism.
He and six other pro-life people were charged with two felony counts.
That's right, felony counts because of a prayerful demonstration outside an abortion clinic nearly three years ago right here in the Nashville area.
What were their crimes?
I'll tell you what they were.
They prayed and they sang.
I bet you didn't realize that that could be a federal felony in today's crazy America.
Since that time, Paul has been dragged away from his home by FBI agents and convicted of those federal charges, praying and singing.
He now faces the possibility of 11 years in prison for this supposed crime.
So while he awaits sentencing in July, his legal team is working overtime to appeal this conviction and fight the administration's virulent persecution of Christians who are defending life.
I want you to give a warm welcome to Personhood Tennessee President Paul Vaughn and his attorney Steve Crampton, Senior Counsel at the Thomas Moore Society.
Please welcome them.
Only ever once in a while does a case just shock me.
But this one does.
And Paul, I want to start with you.
You've been a longtime peaceful protester at abortion clinics because you believe every human life matters.
I mean, it's kind of that simple, isn't it?
Pretty straightforward.
God says children are a blessing.
Well, you must think so.
You got 11 of them.
That's right.
When I heard about your case, I wasn't just stunned.
I was shocked to my toes because I said, people don't get really arrested and charged with a felony.
They may get charged with a misdemeanor.
They may be charged with disrupting the peace, but you were charged under a federal law called the FACE Act.
And it's basically to say that you can't disrupt anything other than an abortion clinic.
Do you have any idea that this was about to turn into the absolute nightmare that it has become?
No, I didn't at all.
As a matter of fact, we were expecting our 11th child during, like the due date was like five days after this event.
And having grown up in the pro-life movement and my wife and family working, like you said, out on the front lines for a lot of years, you know, FACE was passed back in 94. We knew about FACE and we knew the rules and the requirements and what we could do and couldn't do.
So I was very careful that day to stay within the lines and not get myself in trouble with my wife and not be there for the 11th child.
So did you hit anybody?
Never hit anyone.
Did you scream at anyone?
Never screamed at anyone.
So what exactly were you doing at that clinic entrance?
Well, I knelt very peacefully and prayed.
I read my Bible.
And when the police came down the hall and I realized they didn't understand what was going on, I went back to them and talked with them.
And I spent the better part of the day, probably 45 minutes to an hour and 15, something like that, talking and ministering to police officers, talking about civil magistrates and Romans 13 and what the police officers' duties were.
Were you arrested right then and there?
Did not get arrested that day.
Didn't get charged.
Had, you know, nothing, no foul that day.
Matter of fact, I helped the police detectives find the youth that were there and get them back to their parents after some were arrested.
So, interacted.
Had a great relationship with the police officers.
They even testified on the evening news what a peaceful group we were.
Well, you were so peaceful that the federal agents came after you at your home early one morning.
What time of day did they show up?
They were less peaceful.
It was 7.15 in the morning.
And they came with a full SWAT team, fully armed.
Full SWAT team, fully armed, armored vest, you know, side-armed, long guns, the whole deal.
And they were just after you.
So how many police officers came to your home at 7.15 in the morning?
So they had two cars, four officers.
And, you know, banging on the door, open up, FBI, had children outside in the yard, getting ready to take them to school.
It's one of those discontinent moments in your life where you're going, I thought he said FBI, but that doesn't compute.
Somebody leave the TV on from the bad drama the night before or something.
So the FBI, they come to your house early in the morning.
They arrest you in front of your children.
They put handcuffs on you and stuff you into a police car, and they will not answer the questions that your wife is posing.
Why are you taking my husband away?
That's correct.
And they say, we don't have to answer.
I've seen it.
I asked under whose authority, as I turned around to surrender myself to keep my children safe, the young guy with the attitude puffs his chest out and taps on his FBI Velcro badge and says, this is all the identification you get.
And so for six hours, I was taken away, my children didn't know, my wife didn't know, my church friends and family, pastor, not my mayor, not my representative, not my governor, nobody in the state of Tennessee, not my sheriff, knew where I was for six hours.
That's insane.
We're going to take a break.
When we come back, I want to talk again to you and to Steve Crampton, your attorney.
This is a shocking something that should never happen in the United States of America.
We have a lot more to cover on this issue.
Do not go away.
You're going to want to hear how this is progressing and what you can do to be helpful to Paul during a time when if we don't help him, we're next.
And I just want everyone to understand that we're going to be right back.
Keith, what else we got going on this evening?
Well, later on, author Brad Wilcox from the National Marriage Project is here to talk about building strong families through marriage.
Okay, Trey, do your thing!
You're watching Huckabee.
Go to MikeHuckabee.com and sign up for his free newsletter and follow at gov Mike Huckabee on X.
And welcome back.
We're talking with Paul Vaughn and Steve Crampton.
Steve is the attorney for Paul.
We've been discussing the fact you were hauled off six hours before you were able to make any contact with anyone.
The local police could have contacted you if the FBI wanted you.
Heck, they could have contacted you and said, come down to our office at the federal building at 9 o'clock Monday morning.
We want to chat with you.
They didn't do that.
They did not.
No announcement.
They just came to your home unannounced and unexpectedly and hauled you off.
That's correct.
Business owner in a small town.
Been there for 15 years.
Owned a business there for 11 years.
There's no reason for the aggressive interaction with them.
They could have easily called, like you said, but they chose not to.
By the way, Mike, this was a year and a half after the event.
A year and a half.
So Paul couldn't really connect the dots as to why they were there.
Yeah, I mean, I would think after a year and a half, you think, well, whatever that was, it's over.
So who instigated this level?
Steve, I mean, there's got to be something.
How does it last that long and then suddenly you get a SWAT team at your door?
Here's the dirty little secret, Mike.
This event occurred in March of 2021. Okay.
Little Supreme Court case, Dobbs against Jackson Women's Health Organization, occurred.
June 2022, right?
Reverses Roe against Wade.
Basically, the Biden administration declared war on pro-lifers at that point.
And so all of these, this is one of several face cases, criminal face cases brought during that timeframe.
And the first time in the history of face that they threw in the criminal conspiracy charge Tagging on that felony 10-year penalty, too.
So it's really a conspiracy to engage in peaceful civil disobedience, which has never been done in this country before.
People burned buildings down, burned federal buildings, torched police cars in Minneapolis, in Portland, in cities across America, and nobody to this day has been arrested for some of that.
Hope Clinic right here in Nashville also.
And here's the dirty little secret about that.
The FACE Act protects not only abortion clinics, but crisis pregnancy centers, churches, etc.
And so it's open season on the churches and the conservative Christians on both sides and no one being prosecuted for committing those violent crimes against the churches.
If it weren't for organizations like Thomas More Society and other Legal aid groups that come to the defense of people like Paul, Paul's case would probably have been buried and he would already be in the slammer.
I mean, were they trying to go after him for 11 years?
11 years!
Because he sang and prayed.
It sounds like, yeah, there's gotta be more to this, but that honestly is what's going on.
One thing about that, there's gotta be more of this.
I would have thought the same thing.
In your position, you hear about this and you go, surely there's something they're not telling us.
Actually, this event was live-streamed on Facebook Live by three different individuals participating.
Number one, what criminal live-streams his felony crime?
Number two, the government wouldn't allow us to play that whole video at the trial.
They didn't want that thing to be seen.
How can they keep that from being played?
It's part of your defense.
Technical rules of evidence, you know.
Paul, have you ever committed crimes before?
No.
You ever beaten up anybody ever?
No.
Have you ever stolen anything from?
You ever done any tax evasion or any bad stuff?
No.
You should have done those things because you wouldn't have served any time.
You see, you really messed up, Paul.
If you had just been violent beating up a cop on the streets of New York, you'd be out in three hours.
You served longer just waiting to talk to an attorney than those thugs did beating up a cop on the streets of New York with a camera rolling.
I'm just stunned by this.
But see, here's what I hope our audience will understand.
This is not about Paul Vaughn.
It is about him.
This is about the rest of us.
If they can do this to him, who's not?
Possibly gonna have this kind of problem.
I think that's exactly right, Mike.
It seems to me America's founded, A, on peaceful civil disobedience, B, the equal protection under law.
That's inscribed over the US Supreme Court entrance, right?
And what we have today is a two-tiered system of justice.
Everybody knows it.
If you've got a D after your name, if you're not affiliated with President Trump, and you're not a, quote, election denier, and if you're not pro-life, you get one set of rules.
And if you fall into any of those discreet categories, all of a sudden, Katie bar the door.
I'm stunned, but I think the next question, what can we do now?
How can we help?
Because I think there's, I can't imagine anyone in our viewing audience that is not outraged by this, but that also says, here am I Lord, what can I do?
What can I do?
First thing you got to do is pray, right?
The jury, the judge, the prosecutors, everybody's made up of Americans, and our cultural character is amiss.
We need to examine our own selves, our own heart, and we need to examine our churches, and we need to be praying and seeking God for this nation.
Those that are called by my name, they'll humble themselves, seek God and pray, then He will heal our land.
This is under appeal.
Steve, what's the steps of that?
When it happens this summer?
Yeah, we actually can't commence our briefing and so forth until after the sentencing, which, as you mentioned, is early July.
We'll go up to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, and if need be to the U.S. Supreme Court, we believe.
FACE is unconstitutional.
There is a move on.
And one other thing that folks can do is contact their congressional delegations.
Both houses of Congress have introduced bills to repeal FACE. It ought to be killed on its tracks right now.
And if not, we think we can get it declared unconstitutional.
But there's a lot of work to be done ahead.
But it's got to go all the way to the Supreme Court for that to happen.
Gentlemen, make a promise to me.
Please come back.
Give us an update on the case, because we want to share with America what's happening to you.
And I want to ask all of our audience, don't let these guys stand by themselves.
For more information on the Personhood Alliance and the work they're doing around the country, which is not criminal, please go to our website, Huckabee.tv.
We will connect you to them.
Also, the Thomas More Society.
Thank God for them.
Without them, Paul would just be out there dangling in the wind and there would be no legal representation that he would likely be able to afford for a case of this magnitude.
So it's important for us to help organizations like the Thomas More Society.
You can become affiliate of Personhood Alliance as well.
Help restore legal protections for every human being.
We've got all the information, Huckabee.tv.
And don't forget, pray for Paul Vaughn and his family.
As they fight this incredible injustice to the legal system.
Keith Bilbrey is standing by.
He will share with us what we have coming up next.
Well, coming up, screenwriter and author Roger L. Simon talks about the mass migration from blue states to red states.
And later, Brent Loper has a patriotic song you're gonna love.
Don't go away.
Well, our friends at Samaritan's Purse are ready to respond in a moment's notice to disasters our friends at Samaritan's Purse are ready to respond in a moment's notice to disasters and tragedies Their mission is to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the forgotten, the suffering, and the broken.
You have an opportunity to be part of that mission.
You can pray for Samaritan's Purse, also help to support their work through your financial gifts.
If God has placed it on your heart to give, I hope you'll call them today or visit their website by scanning the qrcode That is on your screen right now.
Thanks and God bless.
Roger L. Simon is well known for his writings for PJ Media, the Epoch Times and other outlets.
He's also a bestselling author of 13 books and happens to be an Oscar nominated screenwriter of seven feature films, including Enemies, A Love Story.
So how did someone with a successful Hollywood career end up moving to Nashville?
Well, I'll tell you, the answer is in his new book.
It's called American Refugees.
A look at the mass exodus from blue states to red states.
Please give a warm welcome to Roger L. Simon.
Roger, great to have you here.
Every week in our studio audience, we have three or four couples who are from California, and they're here, they either just moved, or they're looking for a place to move to in Tennessee, and I call them the refugees.
You stole this and wrote a book about it.
I must have heard it on your show.
No, I didn't, but...
Nevertheless, you know, it fascinated me.
I was a refugee for five years now.
And I lived most of my life in Los Angeles trying to be a hit in Hollywood.
And I'll tell you something.
There are a lot of reasons.
And, you know, watching your show is interesting in that regard.
I think the big reason I left is spiritual.
Really?
But it's in the book.
It's in the last chapters of the book called Steeples.
Now, I'm a Jewish guy.
Yeah.
But when I arrived here, I looked around and I thought, what are all these steeples doing here?
Now, you know, if you live in Los Angeles, as I did, you know, obviously there are big synagogues and churches in Los Angeles, but you don't notice them because what you notice is Warner Brothers, every other thing, the fancy stores.
It's a wholly different thing.
Yeah.
But when you come to this area, all of a sudden, and I've become more religious for it.
And I thank all my evangelical friends.
In the book, there's a considerable part where I talk about all these evangelical guys I play tennis with.
And all of them are always saying to me, Roger, what's with these Jews that don't like Israel?
Yeah.
Because they've all been there.
I was going to say, and most of them, the evangelicals are the most supportive American people for Israel, period.
Oh, no question.
Well, there are a few of us Jews who are that way.
Well, okay.
But nevertheless.
What you're saying is generally true.
But what was the turning point for you?
You're an Oscar-nominated Hollywood guy.
You've got a successful career.
You've been there forever.
I mean, there has to be a breaking point at which you just say, that's it.
Well, part of it was, after 9-11, my wife and I, we had a bit of a political conversion.
We had our, you know, Road to Damascus moment called 9-11.
All of a sudden, none of my friends talked to me anymore because, you know, Muslims aren't the only ones who don't like apostates.
Apostasy is something people don't generally like.
And I started to feel unwelcome.
Not only that, there was a note in my mailbox that read, we know where you live.
Whoa.
That's unsettling.
Not a happy experience.
You have written in the book, and it's very revealing to me because it's not what I thought.
You said that when people leave these blue states and come to the red states, the fear of the people in the red states is, oh, they're going to bring their crazy politics with them.
You say that what you've discovered is those people are getting out of it for a conviction of conscience and they're not the problem.
The problem exists in some of these red states where people don't realize what these folks have left.
You have exactly spoken the theme of my book and I'm very pleased with it because most times when I'm interviewing I have to do that myself because the interviewer hasn't read it.
Anyway, no, that's what the strange thing that occurred because When we first moved here and before then, there was a lot of stuff on the internet.
It was all around.
Don't bring your California values with you, quote, unquote.
But what turned out that most of us who came here, yeah, we didn't want to pay a lot of taxes.
Who does, right?
On the other hand, the real reason we decided to come 2,000 miles or people came from New York or Chicago was we were looking for the America of our dreams for, you know, what the America of the founders enjoyed.
And what we discovered was there were problems in the places that we went through that we weren't expecting.
And there was a kind of a culture clash that has gone on.
I don't know if people in the audience...
The ones who've come from California have experienced it.
I think it's a good thing.
I think I try to express that in the book because eventually there is a dialogue going on between these people and including, I mean, some of the politicians in these states, not the governors senior and junior of Arkansas, but others that disappointed us.
And interestingly, I got to meet a lot of them because I had worked for the Epoch Times and I realized that we were having an influence on them.
Everything was not what was expected, but that's life.
Well, I think it's an extraordinary book.
And what I loved about it, you're very specific.
I love the story of going to John Rich's house.
John's been on our show many times, a wonderful voice.
He's not afraid to speak, but it's a book that reveals Why people are moving and what they're experiencing.
And it really is, quite frankly, a book about reclaiming the heart and soul of the America that most of us grew up in.
I hope you will get a copy of Roger L. Simon's book.
It's called American Refugees.
And if you wanna find all the great books and columns by Roger L. Simon, and there are a lot of them, if you go to Huckabee.tv, we are gonna connect you to Roger.
Right now, we're gonna connect you to Keith Bilbrey.
We're gonna escape to someplace very funny.
We need it right now.
And Keith is the guy who would tell us all about it.
Well, that's right, Governor.
Up next, funny man Bob Stromberg is here to entertain us.
Later, we're talking love and marriage with Brad Wilcox.
You're watching Huckabee.
Be a part of our live studio audience.
Just go to Huckabee.tv and click on free tickets to register.
Welcome back, everyone.
From his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bob Stromberg travels all over the world performing his unique blend of story, stand-up, and schtick.
He is the co-author and one of the original stars of the mega-hit theatrical comedy called Triple Espresso.
It's been seen by almost two million people.
His dry bar comedy special is called I'm a Pretty Big Deal.
The London Times called him a genuinely funny man.
And so he is.
Would you please welcome back to the show, Bob Stromberg.
No, no, no.
Could I just ask how many of you, by a show of hands, no idea who I am, never heard of me, no idea what I might do for you.
Just raise your hand in the air.
Hold them right up.
Hold them up.
Good.
Yep.
Hold them up.
No, no, no.
That's good.
Hold them up.
Yep.
Okay.
Six.
Well, for those of you who raised your hands, I just want to assure you that I am a pretty big deal.
Didn't used to be, even six months ago, no kidding, I was nothing special.
And then one day I'm online and this little Facebook message box popped up from a Facebook friend of mine, who was actually a real friend, and it said, congratulations, so proud.
So...
I said, thank you.
Why?
He said, check out the link, and I did.
I clicked on the link.
It took me to americomics.com.
Top comics not to be missed in the new year.
There's my picture, my bio, the whole thing right there.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There were 3,500 of us.
I was in a smaller category called clean slash older.
Three of us in there.
The other two guys had walkers.
But here's the amazing thing about the internet, don't you know?
Oh my goodness, what a marketing tool.
To think I could have a career like this for almost 50 years, and then this happens on the internet, right here.
The graph's like, and it just, as an example, I went back to that website three weeks ago.
Now there are only two.
So God is doing some wonderful things for me.
Yes.
Judging from that last guy's picture.
Oh, I'm getting old.
I am.
I am.
I was getting on an airplane back when we all wore masks.
Remember this?
Yeah, of course.
This is what we showed each other of our faces for two years.
I'm walking down the jetway.
The flight attendant is waiting at the end of the jetway, passing out packages of Purell.
She looked at me and I saw her eyes go wide and I could tell, even through her mask, I could see her jaw drop down.
And she looked right at me, she said, "Oh my goodness, has anybody ever told you how much you look like President Bush?" It is a remarkable resemblance, don't you think?
I said, no.
No one has ever told me that I look like President Bush, like George W. Bush.
She said, no, I don't mean him.
I mean the old guy.
I'll tell you something.
You want to feel old, folks?
Not that you want to, but if you wanted to feel old for any reason, here's a suggestion.
Go on a Disney cruise.
I just performed...
On my first and my last Disney Cruise.
I will never perform on a Disney Cruise again.
Listen, I don't do political humor.
I mean, why would I divide half my audience in lots of places?
So I don't do that.
I just want to let you know that I am through with Disney.
I will never perform on another Disney Cruise.
I will never perform in any Disney venue.
Bob Stromberg and Disney are finished.
And I know this, people, because after my performance, they told me.
Thanks everybody, God bless you.
Oh, that's great.
I wondered where that was going, Bob.
It's great having you here.
Thank you very, very much.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
Hey, be sure to go to Huckabee.tv, get links to more comedy from Bob Stromberg, including his dry bar special that I think you're going to want to watch now called I'm a Pretty Big Deal.
Also, you can book him for your venue, corporate event, maybe something in your community, and you can learn more about his work with impoverished children through the organization Compassion International.
Right now...
Our pretty big deal announcer, Keith Bilbrey, is about to tell us what's coming up next.
Okay.
After the break, Brad Wilcox babbles the toxic anti-marriage culture with his new book.
And stick around for a special performance from Brent Loper.
Don't go away.
Go to Huckabee.tv and get your very own
Made in the USA Huckabee mugs, t-shirts and more. *music* Welcome back, everybody.
You know, we enjoy a lot of things that you have to be in the theater to really get the full taste of the show.
Part of that is you hear little snippets of our music that's live here in the theater.
If you get tickets and come, you'll hear a lot more from the finest band in America, Trey Corley and the Music City Connection.
Big hand for that.
Well, my next guest has been studying the subject of marriage and families for decades.
He's one of the foremost experts on why getting hitched will really be the best decision you ever make.
As long as you make it carefully.
With me now is Brad Wilcox.
He's the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, author of a new book that is absolutely fantastic.
And I love the title, it's pretty simple, Get Married.
The subtitle, Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization.
Please welcome Brad Wilcox.
Brad, good to have you here.
The message of this book is one that we don't hear very much anymore because we're dealing with all kinds of alternatives to marriage.
Your message is simple.
If you finish high school, get married, stay married, you probably will never spend any of your life in poverty and you'll have a much more fulfilling life.
Yeah, that's right, Governor.
Basically, we see that Americans who are married, you know, they're much more meaningful lives, they're much happier lives, and they're much more prosperous lives.
There's really no group of Americans that are doing as well, both financially and emotionally, as married Americans are today.
You make a point in the book, and I thought this was very revealing, taking the case study of a single, unmarried, you know, just enjoy life to the fullest, single female, And compared her to a married person, same age, who has husband, children, all the things.
It was shocking that you reveal how much more financial security the married woman has than this single woman does.
More money, but more fulfillment.
And not as lonely.
Correct.
That's right.
That's not what we would think would happen.
So it's interesting.
In the last couple of years, I've seen so many articles in places like the New York Times and in other venues as well, like Bloomberg.
And the basic argument they've been making is that marriage is kind of a path to immiseration and misery.
Immiseration and misery.
And what they don't realize, they don't recognize, is that for at least ordinary women across the United States, it's the path to prosperity and happiness.
We see, for instance, come just to assets for women in their 50s and getting closer to retirement.
They've got about 10 times the assets if they're married, stayably married, Compared to their never married female peers.
When it comes to happiness, they're almost twice as I can say that they're very happy with their lives compared to their single peers.
And there's no group of women who are happier than married moms, particularly kind of in the, I look kind of at the 18 to 55 bracket in that midlife stage, you know, 35 to 55. So a lot of the kind of press around marriage, both for women, but also now increasingly men, it hasn't been great.
And my book is designed to kind of remedy that problem.
I think it's important to realize this is not just what you think, what you feel, or what you believe.
It's not anecdotal.
You've done academic research.
You have analyzed the numbers and taken surveys to see where people are.
So, I mean, this is an objective view that marriage is really not a horrible institution and that it would be better if we I mean, for the most part, got married, stuck to our families, and lived a life of responsibility.
That's correct, yep.
Now, I think what's interesting is we're now seeing, and this is kind of surprising, I think, to many of us, there are voices on the right, you know, the online right, like Andrew Tate and Pearl Davis.
These are big online influencers, got very large followings on, you know, TikTok and Twitter and other platforms, YouTube, and they're kind of hitting marriage from the right.
And they're saying basically that today marriage is a bad deal for men.
So the left has been kind of arguing for many, many years, oftentimes, that marriage is bad for women.
Now we've got these figures saying it's bad for men.
And one of their big concerns is divorce.
And they say that basically most marriages end in divorce.
And that men should kind of steer clear of it's a trap.
Marriage is a trap.
So I'm now kind of having to battle folks on the left and the right.
And what I would say to these guys on the right is basically they have to recognize that divorce actually has come down since 1980. And what that means is that Fewer than one in two Americans who are getting married are gonna get divorced.
And so for most Americans, marriage is a path to a stable family life and also for their kids.
So that's kind of some good news and some, you know, some otherwise bad news the book is covering.
But you know, the no-fault divorces that started in the 1960s kind of opened the doors.
That's correct.
And it made it where people did not feel that it was necessary to stay married.
I think it's been a disastrous consequence of those laws.
But you're working with students, which I find this fascinating.
First of all, that you're at the University of Virginia, and they let you teach this stuff there, and they let you study this stuff there.
Maybe we don't tell them what you're doing.
They know what I'm doing.
Okay.
But when you're talking to students, these are 18 to 23-year-old undergrads, what is their view of marriage?
Are you shocked by what they tell you?
Well, one of the things that I talk, I had a piece in The Atlantic this week, and I was kind of talking about how a lot of our elites talk left and walk right.
Okay, so they talk left, walk right.
So when you talk to elites, you know, in terms of in journalism, or now in the business world, or, you know, professors, they often will kind of espouse what I call kind of the family diversity theory, that all families are just, you know, as equal, they're just the same, they're all kind of great, that what matters for kids is love and money, not marriage.
And so a lot of my students would kind of take that view of things.
And what I find is that typically about 80% of my students have been raised by essentially a traditional family.
And yet when you ask them their views, they're very progressive.
So this is kind of both among my students and among many elites, kind of this weird kind of pattern where you're talking left because that's the right thing to do in these circles.
It's the progressive thing to do.
You want to be tolerant and affirming.
Uh-huh.
But at the same time, they're benefiting from oftentimes stable, strong, married families.
And I think the challenge that faces us in part is to get our elites to, as you've heard before, preach in this domain what they practice.
You know, I tell you, this book would be a terrific book for every pastor in America to get.
And you might want to get one for your pastor and give it to him and ask him to look at it.
I'll tell you why.
It's a treasure trove of factual information that Brad Wilcox has researched And it will be a clarion call to the value of, I'll call it, biblical marriage.
And it's something we're not hearing much anymore.
It's sort of like we're trying to help everybody know what to do as an alternative or if their marriage falls apart.
Why not just kind of learn that the process is really good?
Get married.
That's the name of the book.
And it really is a phenomenal study.
Brad, you've done a great service to the people of this country.
I hope that you will follow Professor Brad Wilcox.
If you go to Huckabee.tv, You can find out how to get this book, one for yourself, one for your pastor, and learn more about the National Marriage Project.
Keith Bilbrey, he's always wanted to learn something because then he can tell us.
And right now, he's been learning what we have left on the show, and he's about to tell us right now.
I do, I do, Governor.
Next up, an inspiring song from Brent Loper that you do not want to miss.
Don't go anywhere.
We're in this love together.
Thank you.
Join us next week for TV legend Ricky Schroeder and rock and roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason is in the house.
Thank you.
Welcome back, everybody.
As a kid from Mobile, Alabama, Brent Loper was more interested in sports than music, but somehow he ended up touring the world as the drummer for the contemporary Christian band Truth, a band I've been listening to for forever, at least 40, 45, 50 years.
And he will, he worked for the country duo Joey and Rory.
He's since become a prolific Nashville songwriter and country singer in his own right.
And about 10 years ago, he quietly released a song that just keeps growing in popularity called Let Freedom Ring.
We asked him to share that song and its story with us.
Please welcome Brent Loper.
Brent, great having you here.
Thank you for having me, Governor.
I appreciate it.
I'm excited about us performing this song because it has such a powerful message.
Where did it originate in your heart, this song?
Well, this happened probably about 10 years ago.
And I say this a lot when I do songwriting clinics and seminars, if you will.
But 10 years ago, I was going through a rough time.
And I remember getting in my vehicle.
And these words just came out of nowhere.
It's okay to hurt.
It's okay to cry.
It's okay to wonder and ask God why.
And I had no...
I didn't know where it was going to go from there.
And it turned into this anthem, if you will.
And it's just kind of grown.
You know, the response to the song, even when we were rehearsing it, it's got a wonderful tempo.
It's listenable.
But I think it's the message that really rings true with people when they hear this song.
People react to it in what ways?
Well, I think it speaks to what we all love about the greatest country that we live in, America, is it's about our freedom.
We all live for that.
We are protected by that every day, by armed forces, people who have gone on before us.
It's all about our freedom here.
If we don't have the freedom we have, we couldn't be standing here today.
But we want to keep it, too.
Well, we're going to be getting ready to play, so Keith, I need you to tell the viewers how they can keep up with Brent Loper and get this song and many others of his, because I think you're going to want to hear it again and again, and he'll tell you how you can do that.
Go to Huckabee.tv to follow Brent on social media, to stream or download Let Freedom Ring, and to watch an exclusive digital performance of his song, Front Porch Preacher.
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