Oct. 5, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
06:20
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here with the general counsel of one of my favorite groups in America, the Alliance Defending Freedom, known as ADF. She is Kristen Wagner. | |
| Why are they one of my favorite groups, and I don't have many favorite groups? | |
| Because they fight for liberty, the great value, and especially religious liberty, the great value that is the basis of a good society. | |
| They do it for free. | |
| They go to the Supreme Court over and over, and they often prevail. | |
| So is that a fair introduction to ADF, Kristen? | |
| Well, I think so, yes. | |
| We have been privileged to be able to go before the court 11 times in just the last several years, and we've had 60 different victories in various roles before the Supreme Court. | |
| How did this organization start? | |
| I don't know your beginnings. | |
| We started over 25 years ago, and a group of religious leaders came together and said, we need to do something to protect religious freedom and free speech for all Americans. | |
| And so that's our purpose. | |
| We exist to help people of faith, and those rights extend to all people as well, to be able to live out their convictions in the public square. | |
| And you do this and you started at the beginning doing this for free? | |
| From the very beginning, yes. | |
| All of our services are free of charge. | |
| We love to help people to be able to exercise their rights of free speech and religious freedom to protect the sanctity of life as well as parental rights. | |
| What about you? | |
| How did you get involved? | |
| Well, I became a part of Alliance Defending Freedom as what we call an Allied Attorney. | |
| After a clerkship before the Washington Supreme Court, I went into private practice and was there for about 16 years in Seattle at a firm, and the Allied Attorney Program allowed me to work with ADF on cases of constitutional import, and that's how I got to know ADF. I joined ADF officially as an employee about seven years ago when a case came before Washington State in Right. | |
| As I pointed out to my listeners at the time, he had gay customers. | |
| The issue was not discriminating against customers. | |
| It's discriminating against events. | |
| That's freedom. | |
| You're spot on. | |
| Baronelle served this customer for nearly 10 years and designed all kinds of arrangements for him. | |
| She also has employees that identify as lesbian and gay and bisexual. | |
| It's not about that. | |
| It's not about who requests the custom floral arrangement. | |
| It's about the event. | |
| It's about what she's expressing through that event and celebrating. | |
| And we all want the right to be able to live and work consistent with our convictions. | |
| Yes. | |
| By the way, didn't Washington, even after the Supreme, did you win that Supreme Court decision? | |
| I'm still duking it out, Dennis. | |
| We're before the U.S. Supreme Court right now asking the court to again take up her case. | |
| So is it taking it up? | |
| We don't know yet. | |
| She's already went up to the U.S. Supreme Court once, and I had the privilege of arguing the Jack Phillips case involving Masterpiece Cake Shop. | |
| When we won that case, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the bad ruling against Barronell, and it sent it back to the Washington Supreme Court. | |
| And then they just cut and pasted their original decision, ruled against her again, and so now that decision is back before the high court, and we're asking the court to again step in and give her justice. | |
| It's like they just push for what they want, irrespective of the law. | |
| They thumbed their nose at the U.S. Supreme Court, and we're hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court responds appropriately to that. | |
| Well, let me just say this, because of the limited time we have. | |
| You've heard me say this, my listeners know this, because it's heartfelt. | |
| There are three types of good people. | |
| Those who fight, those who help the fighters, and those who do nothing. | |
| The largest group is the third. | |
| Which is why the good often lose. | |
| But helping fighters is as important as fighting. | |
| I'm a fighter, and without the help of people, I can't do a thing. | |
| Same with ADF. So what would you like people to do? | |
| Well, we would love for them to pray for the work, to be able to be engaged in the work financially, to give so that we can help even more clients, and to speak out on these issues. | |
| We can defend the right to speak truth. | |
| We can defend the right to be able to participate in the public square. | |
| But if we don't actually speak that truth in the marketplace and do some of the things you're doing through public education, talking to our neighbors and our kids and training up the next generation, then those rights are hollow. | |
| But first and foremost, we need the help of all Americans to be able to protect our First Amendment rights, especially in this critical time that we're in right now. | |
| God, is that ever true. | |
| So what do they do? | |
| Just abf.org, or what's the website? | |
| They can certainly contact our organization through our website, adflegal.org, but also I believe that there's a banner on your website as well, on dennisprager.com, where they can give through that. | |
| That's probably the easiest. | |
| Just go to my website and click on the ADF banner and help them. | |
| And as much as I love prayer, prayer without help. | |
| I'm a little skeptical. | |
| I'm a religious guy. | |
| I am a religious guy, but I'm a little skeptical. | |
| Well, I'm with you. | |
| I'm sorry? | |
| I said, I'm with you on that. | |
| It takes faith, but it also takes other actions, too. | |
| Exactly right. | |
| Because if you pray, then God will say, well, what are you doing? | |
| Very much so. | |
| All right. | |
| God bless you for your work. |
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