Iran, Discernment, and Fan Mail Friday

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the Heidi St. John podcast. I'm glad you guys are here.

Uh, we're going to take some questions from listeners today because it's Fan Mail Friday. But before I get too far into it, I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about the situation in Iran and why it is so critical that we look at this through both the lens of scripture and through common sense, and maybe just maybe, through the lens of history.

This is the Heidi St. John podcast. I'm glad you're here. Stick around. I think you're going to be encouraged. Thank you guys for being here today.

Today's podcast is being sponsored in part by my friends at the Functional Medical Institute. You can check them out by going to homeschoolhealth.com. That's homeschoolhealth.com.

All right, let's talk about this for a minute because there is a situation unfolding on the world stage right now, obviously happening with Operation Epic Fury in Iran. But what is more important to me, and what is more alarming to me, is what I am increasingly hearing called the "horseshoe right." So, people on the far, far right of the Republican party who are siding with the likes of Nick Fuentes and, uh, the radicals in the left, uh, in the United States right now, who are really rooting to see us fail in Iran.

I never thought I would live to see—I'm old enough to remember, because up until about five minutes ago, we all remember 9/11. Most of us listening to the show right now remember the Iran hostage crisis. We remember the mullers in Iran chanting "Death to America" for absolute decades. Chanting "Death to America," uh, promoting and sponsoring terrorism from Beirut to Buenos Aries. Uh, and now under President Trump, we are finally hitting back hard. We're finally saying, "You can't have a nuclear weapon. We're not going to let you fortify and enrich uranium in your country with the intention of harming US citizens." And actually, guess what, you guys? We're winning. We're winning.

Nobody wants to go to war. Nobody likes war. But in this case, it is a necessary action that the United States has undergone in cooperation with the Israeli government. It really is just for good, and it is essential for freedom-loving people everywhere.

And listen, as Ben Shapiro would say, "Facts don't care about your feelings." And we've got a lot of misrepresentation in the media right now coming from people like Tucker Carlson, who is the leader of the horseshoe right. Megan Kelly, who—I don't know what has happened to these people—like siding with Candace Owens, and people who really are rooting for the mullas in the Ayatollas. It's unbelievable to me to watch.

And I want to give you guys just a couple of reasons why the conflict in Iran is good for the United States. The first thing is, it is a national security crisis, what happens in the Middle East, particularly as it relates to Iran. And we need to end the Iranian threat once and for all. And President Trump, so far, is the only president in the last 50 years who's had the courage and the fortitude to actually do what needs to be done.

Iran has been the world's leading state sponsor of terror now. Uh, and this would include Hezbollah, the Houthis, Hamas. All these people are attacking our allies in our interests. And so, by degrading their missile capabilities and their naval forces—we didn't just degrade their naval forces, by the way—we decimated the entire Iranian navy, which is now sitting at the bottom of the sea. And we are preventing, by doing this, another 9/11 disaster.

I want to play for you guys a clip that is so interesting to me and very, very telling, because under Biden's open border policy—we should just call him "Open Border Biden" because that's who he was and what his legacy will continue to be—but under Biden's open border policy, we have seen hundreds of thousands of undocumented, illegal, and many people with the ill intent for American citizens and the American way of life and our American Constitution pour across the borders into our country.

And just a couple of days ago, there was a protest outside of Gracie Mansion, which, of course, is where the mayor of New York lives with his terrorist loving wife, who has been found now posting, liking, uh, posts about the October 7th attack in Israel. It is disgusting. These people are disgusting. And the fact that we are voting them into some of the highest positions of authority in the land should be very alarming.

But I want to play something that I, I actually just had to laugh about. So, you guys heard by now that there was an attempted terrorist-style attack just outside of this protest. And listen, I don't like the guys that were, that were holding the protest. I mean, there, there's a lot of news out there that says that these guys are white supremacists, and was clearly like, this isn't good. But the counter-protesters were like, you know, "Everybody in New York always, everybody always, and everybody is good for New York, we want you to stay."

And while this crazy leftist is chanting about how he wants all the people in New York to stay in New York, a literal Pennsylvania, uh, rich kid, by the way—as it turns out, this kid lives in a $2 million home with his parents in Pennsylvania—travels from Pennsylvania to New York City and lobs a bomb, a homemade bomb, into the crowd. Thank god it didn't detonate, but he wanted it to. The guy's chanting "Alahbu Akbar," right? Ali, and, and, and he wants these people to die. And this kid who's chanting for him to be here looks over just in time to see him lob himself into the crowd. He has since been arrested and is awaiting, uh, in the indictments to come down against him.

But we shouldn't be kidding ourselves about who these people are in Iran. The Mullas and the Ayatollas are training up generations of young Iranians to hate the United States and to inspire ISIS-style attacks right here on our shores. And we're kidding ourselves if we are saying that that's not going to happen. It's absolutely—we're just, we're sitting ducks for it, thanks to Open Border Biden. We're absolutely sitting ducks for it.

And President Trump has said once and for all, "No, we're not going to let you do that. We're going to end the Iranian threat." And he said what he wants from them is unconditional surrender. And Tucker Carlson's response to that is that no way should the Iranians surrender, uh, their, their to the United States. The unconditional surrender, according to Tucker Carlson, means that the United States military will then go into Iran and rape women and their daughters. What? What? What? What are you even—what are you even talking about?

Here is Tucker Carlson on Megan Kelly's show talking about how what's happening in the United States right now is just incantations. If we say it enough, it's going to actually come to pass. These are how what, what used to be trusted voices in conservatism, are now portraying the United States government, uh, along the media centers here in the United States. And these are being actually promoted by, uh, our enemies abroad. Tucker Carlson is being promoted by our enemies. Let that sink in.

Listen to what he said just the other day on Megan Kelly's show.

>> People like Levin, whom I'm not attacking, I feel sorry for because he's clearly living in hell. But what they're trying to do is a species of witchcraft. And it's really simple. You repeat something until it becomes true. Kamini must die. We're going into war. We're going to knock off the government. This is good for us. Anyone who's against it is an anti-semit, a Nazi, should be expelled. Benedict Arnold not allowed in the White House. You keep repeating things that are untrue until they become true. You speak—you create truth by speaking in the beginning.

Now, now keep in mind, I stop the video for just a second because I want you guys to keep in mind Tucker Carlson prop purports to be a Christian and in many cases a theologian, right? We saw him try to take Governor Mike Huckabe, the ambassador to Israel, to task over his theology. He's a terrible theologian. His doctrine is absolute garbage. Listen to how he applies what he's trying to—the point he's trying to make—and then tries to, uh, say, "Here's how it relates to the Bible." Check it out.

>> Was the word right? There is a, there's a holy power. There's a supernatural power in words. Describing things is different from simply doing them. And if you, you can talk reality into being. This is what an incantation is. This is what a spell is. It's not like spooky, like crazy stuff. It's the lived reality of every person. Say it and it becomes true. And that's exactly what they're trying to do. And nobody—

So this is crazy. So, "In the beginning was the word," Tucker says, "You know, I know the Bible. Listen to me. In the beginning was the word." And so that's why what's happening in the United States under President Trump and these people that are trying to, uh, move for us to put the terror regime out of business permanently. This is how he sees it. This is garbage.

Uh, we are toppling tyrants and empowering the Iranian people through this process of eliminating the mullas and the ayatollas over in Iran right now. We're building up forces in the Middle East that will side with Israel and our allies in the Middle East against the existential threat. Iran vowed to wipe Israel off the map, by the way, don't forget. And so Iran's not the victim here. Iran is the aggressor. And the fact that Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson are too blind to see this, it's, it's beyond description. These guys have a platform that millions and millions and millions of people are listening to every single day.

By the way, this is going to end up being, I think, an economic win for the United States because we're going to be crushing the sponsors of global chaos. Don't forget, Iran's oil revenues are funding terror networks worldwide. It's true. And so we're targeting their infrastructure and in so doing, starving the beast. And it's amazing that they're not going to, that they're not going to, uh, surrender. I mean, if I was them, I'd be like, "Okay, uncle." Right? You've decimated our navy. You've taken out an entire, it sounds like now, two leadership style deep, right? So, not just the Ayatollah. Of course, now his son is the, uh, the successor. If I was his son, I'd be like, "No thanks." But it turns out reports are widely circulating. His son has already been massively and gravely injured. He's in a coma. I don't know what they're doing over there.

But the bottom line is, this is a moment for moral clarity. And Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens and Megan Kelly have no moral clarity in the moment. This isn't some gray area conflict. All right? It's a civilization versus a barbaric culture. And the barbarism of the Iranians is widely known. They hang gays. They stone women. They build nukes in secret. And our short-term excursion, which is what President Trump called it, under President Trump, is decisively defeating them. And that's good for America and good for the world.

So, the pacifists on CNN and the crybab at MSNBC can virtue signal all they want to. Uh, but winning is going to save lives and uphold human rights. Period. End of story.

Uh, it's amazing to me. Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly, they're in their vocal opposition to the United States and our presence in Iran. It's amazing to me, and I hope you guys are, uh, paying attention because it's bad for America. It's bad for America to have these voices out there when you oppose these strikes, and you sort of, in so doing, you're basically rooting for the Ayatollahs, which is shocking to me. You're undermining the United States and the key interests that we have around the world, and you're aiming at a conflict that's already yielding tangible results that are good for the United States.

Degrading Iran's military is good for the United States. Toppling the tyrannical leadership of Iran, good for the United States. Sinking the, the Iranian Navy, uh, to the bottom of the ocean, good for the United States. And these guys are ignoring real threats to American security. We just saw it play out in New York City just the other day, and unfortunately, I think we're going to see more. Uh, they are weakening our key alliances and even more sadly, dividing the homeront.

This has been my grave concern now for several months as we head into the midterms. The very fragile unity that the Republican party enjoyed when President Trump was elected, sweepingly elected, the president of the United States, is being threatened right now, uh, by these, uh, these talking heads, unfortunately, and their propaganda on conservative, uh, news outlets all across the United States right now.

Also, it's echoing the propaganda that the enemy has been promoting now for generations and really risks moral relativism because Carlson's making these claims about Jewish groups stoking the war for esoteric and religious reasons is ridiculous. And of course, it's drawing widespread spread condemnation, and people are calling it out as being anti-semitic. Well, you just heard Tucker Carlson say, "You know, you can't call me anti-Semitic." Well, then if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. And Tucker Carlson acting wildly anti-semitic. Candace Owens is obviously anti-Semitic. And so to say that they're not, or they're not acting that way, is just ridiculous.

And finally, they're undermining the long-term stability and economic interests of the United States. A weakened Iran means fewer proxy wars in the future. You don't get rid of a bully by pacifying him. You get rid of a bully by dealing a knockout blow to the bully. That's really the only way to do it. And I think the ultimate goal for President Trump, and he has said this many times, is safer shipping lanes, which will result in reduced oil volatility, which is a direct win for the United States and for our allies around the world. This is only going to be a good thing.

Hang in there. We're going to feel a little bit of short-term pain. That's how it goes. I was just thinking about this the other day. I was cleaning out my, uh, one of the rooms in my house that's been sitting there forever. And in order for me to clean it out, everything had to come out. And so it got a whole lot worse before it got better. And that's the way it goes when you're trying to fix something that's been let go too long. And Obama made it worse. Uh, Biden didn't help at all. And Bush didn't help at all. And we got into this mess, you could largely because of the weak leadership of Jimmy Carter. President Trump is doing what needs to be done, and he needs your prayers and he needs our support. He does not need this, you know, Megan Kelly, Tucker Carlson position where they, they're, they're saying that they're skeptics of the America First movement.

President Trump rightly came out the other day and said, "Tucker Carlson is not MAGA, and he hasn't been for a really long time." I don't know what's going on. These guys have been co-opted by, I don't know who. But be careful who you're getting your news from. Someone asked me the other day where I get my news. Uh, I get my news from a lots of different sources. I frankly like to see what CNN is saying. I like to hold it up to the light, you know, of the truth and just, uh, you know, you can, you can really, you can tell a lot about a news organization by what they allow out into the front pages of the news.

Thought it was really interesting that there was a near takedown on a United flight the other day, a man screaming, you know, about, uh, his allegiance to ISIS while threatening to blow up the plane. Did you see that on the mainstream media? No, you didn't. Uh, these people are anti-American propagandists, and it's a shameful, shameful thing to be seeing that here in the United States. True patriotism means that you confront evil headon. And the current campaign is doing that, trying to seek a safer world for Americans. If they're truly these people concerned about foreign entanglements, then they should focus on the facts. This isn't an endless war. It's a decisive action against a clear enemy. Iran has been an enemy of the United States for decades, and President Trump is taking him out. Good on President Trump.

Do you ever feel exhausted from feeling like everything in the world is against you? Well, if you feel that way, you're not alone. And here's the thing: The Bible says that you are actually at war. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 said that we're fighting spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. And that means we need to be equipped for the battle.

Well, if you followed me for any length of time, then you know one of the passions of mine is to equip you to get off the bench and onto the battlefield. And one of the ways I've done that is by writing this book that I absolutely love called *Prayers for the Battlefield*. I wrote this book when my nephew Bobby was in the hospital after having his neck broken in a car accident. And the Lord showed me so many things during that season of my life. Uh, there are prayers in here for moms with little ones, prayers and hearers for moms of prodigals. If you're struggling with health issues, if you're struggling in your life, wondering where God is, and you don't feel his presence out on the battlefield, this is the book for you. *Prayers for the Battlefield: Staying MomStrong in the Fight for Your Faith and Your Family*.

All right, you guys. I've got lots of questions sitting in the hopper from you today. Thank you guys for writing in. I love to hear from you. Uh, you can write out to, you can write to me directly by just going to heidiesjohn.com/fanmailfriday. Also, we love to hear from you. Uh, I want to hear your opinion. How is this affecting you? What do you see playing out in the news? How do you see it affecting your communities? What are people talking about in your churches? Uh, write to me, heidys.com/fanmailfriday, and I will put your comments on the air.

Um, an anonymous listener in Indiana asks if I can speak to the mom who feels fearful and angry and disgusted by what's coming out in the Epstein files. She writes, "The more connections that people are piecing together, the heavier it feels. What could an everyday homeschool mom do to protect not only my kids, but everyone's kids? And can I do a deep dive into connections, uh, with the schools?"

Well, first of all, it's, I think it's good to say out loud what a lot of moms are feeling at what we hear about the Epstein files. And if you're not angry about it, you're not paying attention. We should be disgusted. We should be grieved. We should be angry. And I think even to feel a deep sense of betrayal. But I don't share the opinion that the redacted files that we see in the public are there to protect the guilty. I actually think a lot of those redactions are there to protect the innocent because you can ruin someone's life by connecting them falsely to a narrative that they weren't connected with. It's not true that everyone who had dealings with Epstein is guilty by association. Uh, how many times have we read stories of men in particular, young boys, who've been accused of rape and they didn't, uh, they didn't commit that heinous crime, and yet even when they were exonerated in the courts, it stayed with them for the rest of their lives.

And most of us don't know the first thing about what's going on in the Epstein files or what's happening pro in in the prosecution to pursue justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein. We don't actually know, you guys. Really, what we are is just a bunch of armchair warriors. And I frankly am tired of it. It's what I was talking about with my friend Frank Turk the other day when we were saying, "Listen, all these conspiracy theories are not helping anyone, right? This idea that the Earth is flat, that we never landed on the moon, that NASA is a giant conspiracy organization." Uh, and, and it's true, and I'm going to keep saying it. It's absolutely true that the government has shown us that they cannot be trusted. We should have known this for a long time, but that doesn't mean that everything that you see and everything that you hear and everything that you're told from the government is a lie. You have to use discernment.

And I pointed out to a friend of mine the other day that when I was in Australia recently, part of the team that was there included, uh, Captain Barry Wilmore, who is an incredibly gifted astronaut who has logged lots and lots of hours in space. And the pictures from his iPhone show that the Earth is not flat. And, and what do we get? We get, "Well, he's a liar." Man, you guys, uh, what in the world is going on?

So, yeah, we should be grieved about what's happening with Epstein, but also to, to think that we have the ability to do something about it as just Heidi St. John sitting at her kitchen table, making a fresh loaf of sourdough bread, is ridiculous. I don't have that ability, and frankly, neither do you. And so, pray about it. Yes. And then leave it with the Lord. Satan would love for you to feel overwhelmed and powerless and frozen and, you know, every, every night of your life when your kids are in bed, getting on YouTube and, and researching the Epstein files. But God calls you to discernment and courage. That's what God calls you to.

And so what can you do? Build strong relationships with your own children. Pay attention to what's happening in your own community. Make sure that your kids know that you are a safe place. Talk to your children about their, the preciousness of their body, what a godly boundary looks like, what sexual integrity means. Uh, talk to them about the difference between secrecy and privacy, which, by the way, the public schools promoting secrecy over privacy, right? These public schools that would transition your child without you know known about it. It's amazing.

Know what your kids are reading. There's something you can do. Know what they're watching. Know what they're scrolling on on social media for. Know who's influencing. Don't outsource moral information to people that you don't know, aka in the public school system or sometimes even in a private school. Don't outsource that formation. It's your job.

And then you get to widen your circle, right? Once you've taken care of what's going on at home and you're like, "I'm already doing that." Great. That's what God calls you to do. Once you take care of what's going on at home, then you can widen the circle. Then you can widen the circle. Get involved locally. Know who the school board members are in your local school. Know who's on your library board, who's in your youth organizations, what are the church policies that are impacting young people at your churches, and then you can ask hard questions. Read the curriculum that your kids are being given at school.

The only way that you protect future victims of somebody like a future Jeffrey Epstein is to inoculate your children by teaching them the truth about what God says about human sexuality and what God says are appropriate boundaries. Really, that's what we do. So, parents, follow the ideology wherever it leads you into the public schools, wherever it leads you into your local libraries. Pay attention. Follow the gatekeepers. I think we've learned really now the hard way that many institutions do not automatically protect children. And that's just the reality of it. And Christians have to be willing to expose darkness and defend the innocent.

I was just teaching on Monday over at Faith That Speaks, which, by the way, if you guys aren't joining me, I hope that you will. We're going to be doing the MomStrong study starting in May, and you can join me by going to faiththatspeaks.com. But I was teaching over there last Monday, and one of the, actually two of the ladies that were on the Zoom call are from Canada. And Canada has horrifying legislation in front of it right now that would make parts of the Bible illegal to, uh, to say in public. Free speech is basically dead in the UK right now, and it's mostly dead in Canada. And I will tell you that the reason that that is happening is because Christians have been silent.

You guys, your faith should be a faith that speaks. Your faith should speak. It should speak at school board meetings. It should speak in your state legislatures. It should speak in the public square. It should speak everywhere. If your faith found its voice, men and women, what would God have you say? He has not called you to a position of weakness, but of strength by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has given you his spirit. And so, we need to be teaching our children what that looks like. And you can't pass on what you don't possess. And we will lose our freedom here in the United States in the same way that they're losing it in the UK and Canada if Christians stay silent or if we allow Christians to be co-opted by voices like Tucker Carlson's pseudo Christianity. Whatever it is he's pedalling, it's not discernment. We should be speaking out about this.

Teach your children that they'll never be in trouble from you by telling the truth. Teach your children to value the truth. Uh, I would encourage you also, you know, as much as you can, build a network of parents that you trust. So I think it's going to get more and more important. But this obsessing over—and I'm upset about Jeffrey Epstein. Listen, the guy was obviously demonically inspired, horrific human being who I believe is probably burning in hell right now. But I personally can't do anything about what's happening with the Epstein files. I'm not upset, as I said before, that they've redacted some names. I think that those, a lot of those names are probably being redacted to protect people from having their lives ruined by being associated with this creep of a human being.

And it's the same with the trial of Charlie Kirk. So many people talking about Charlie Kirk, not the least of which is the idiot, otherwise known as Candace Owens, who is trying to ruin Charlie's widow and ruin his legacy simultaneously. She's no friend of Charlie's. That I can tell you. And for all of the people that are saying, "Well, uh, you know, it's the Utah police that are, that are, uh, poisoning the investig—" How do you guys know this stuff? Do you have some sort of special knowledge? You think Candace Owens is an actual legitimate journalist? I don't think so. Maybe it's time for us to kind of get back to being busy at home, which is kind of what the Bible says.

By the way, Isaiah 41:10, one of my favorite verses, says, "Fear not, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Cry out to God and maybe get off YouTube. Ephesians 5:11 says, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." And we need to pray for the people that are exposing them. And we really need to pray that we don't turn against each other because we, what little unity we had, is being threatened right now.

And I loved what Frank Turk said the other day. If you guys haven't heard his podcast, go back and listen. He said that we know we have an enemy because the Bible boldly declares that the enemy comes to kill and steal and destroy. Well, we had a killing. We had a murder. That happened with obviously with Charlie Kirk, to kill and steal. And now here's the enemy trying to steal his legacy, steal the peace from his family, steal the, the movement that Charlie Kirk was so dedicated to, and finally destroy, destroy any sense of unity inside the conservative movement. Any sense of unity with the Christians. We need to recognize the spirit for what it is. Come against it in the name of Jesus and focus on what God would have us focus on, starting at home with our own families.

Uh, Amy, Tucson, Arizona, says she went to Penzy Spices for a gift and didn't realize how openly political the store was. Woo, boy. I'll tell you what, Amy. I quit going to Penzy's a long time ago when the owner of Pensz said that if we were voters of President Trump, we voted for Trump in the 2016 election, he didn't want our business anymore. It, it was really sad because I, Pensy Spices are amazing. I won't go there anymore. I mean, it really, I think Pens is probably one of the biggest examples of disgusting, um, political warfare from a business to its customers. It's crazy.

So, she says, "Since then, I've received extremely political marketing emails." Oh, I know. I got them. How common is it for businesses to push political agendas? And as consumers, how do we know which companies to avoid? The constant research bill is exhausting.

Amy, it is exhausting. But I will tell you, it's very, very, very common now. I think it is. Uh, businesses are no longer content just to sell products. They want to disciple consumers. And we see this at Penzies. We've seen this with Nike. We see this in the ads that are coming out during the Super Bowl. A lot of companies pushing ideology through branding and advertising, even through their employee policies. By the way, if you've not seen the latest videos of the CEO of United Airlines dressed in drag and dragging himself across the stage in front of people at an outdoor event, you really should look. You really, you really should look. Uh, and this, I think, is because the marketplace has just become another battleground for culture.

This is the reason why I told you guys I switched a long time ago now. It's been quite a while to my Freedom Cart. You guys can find out more by going to myfreedomcart.com/hidy. Put your money where your values are if it's at all possible. Shop places where your money is at least, at the very least, not going to go to support people that hate your values and hate your, hate what you stand for. Uh, I hope you guys will check it out. myfreedomcart.com/hidy, myfreedomcart.com/hidy.

Uh, a little bit of good news on this front. You don't have to become exhausted as a full-time researcher to live wisely because not every purchase needs to be a 10-hour investigation. When you find some place like I did, I've just basically switched almost everything. Shampoo. Uh, even my Neosporin, this company makes it. They have their own ibuprofen. They make it. Almost everything that I can switch, makeup for goodness sake. That was my favorite thing. Uh, I don't go to, to, uh, makeup stores anymore. Sephora, super woke. Ulta. Ew, gross. Men in dresses and full beards will sell you lipstick at Ulta. It's true. And I was just like, "I'm, I'm super done." And so the goal is not perfection when I'm shopping. The goal is stewardship. So, how can we be stewards of our money? We're never going to find flawless companies because sinners run all of them. But we can be thoughtful. We can be careful. I haven't been to Target in a hundred years. You know, I hardly ever go there. Although, I did, I did tell you, I think last July, I was impressed. Uh, and it's going to be interesting. We're coming up on June, right? It's, it's March now, but we're coming up on June. What are these companies going to do in, uh, Pride Month? Remains to be seen. Pride Month, the idea that we even have a month for the sin of pride. Shocking.

Uh, but I would say support businesses that support life. So find businesses, local businesses especially, if they support family and freedom and just basic sanity, you know, like they don't believe that men should be in women's locker rooms and, you know, little things like that that up until 10 minutes ago, you know, normal people agreed on. And when you find out that a company like Pensy Spices is aggressively hostile to the things that you hold dear, unsubscribe, opt out, move on, and let them know you moved. Let them know. Uh, but honestly, you know, I would, you know, do a screening, but don't be obsessive about it. This goes back to the Epstein files. We, we got to stop with this obsess, obsessive, I can't even talk, obsessive compulsive disorder, this OCD, uh, when it comes to these companies because you're, you're just going to get sucked down a rabbit hole. You guys have sourdough bread to make. All right? You got kids to homeschool. You got things to do. Check out my Freedom Cart. Myfreedomcart.com/hidy. I think, I think you guys are, you're going to be stoked.

Uh, James 1:5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God." God will give you according to his word wisdom liberally without holding back. He says he'll give it to you. In Matthew 10, Jesus said, "I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." In other words, be careful how you live your life. And, uh, God will give you the wisdom that you need. And also, don't shop at Pennies anymore. That's, that's a good one, too.

Anonymous in Wisconsin, "How can I help my autistic daughter make friends while we homeschool? She hated the homeschool co-op that we tried. Also, how can I make sure that my girls follow God when they grow up? I'm a pastor's daughter, but two of my siblings walked away from the faith."

Well, first of all, not every child thrives in a co-op environment, and that doesn't mean that something is wrong. I mean, I think some kids, especially on the spectrum, large, large groups, can really feel chaotic and overwhelming and exhausting and socially confusing. So, I think the first thing you do is just remove the pressure to make friendships look one particular way. So you, your job, right, is to be in touch with the needs of your child and put them in environments that are going to be helpful to them. So maybe instead of forcing a co-op, think of a smaller setting for your child. Maybe one friend is enough. So starting with a low-pressure environment of just, maybe it's a friend date, maybe it's we meet at the park or we meet at McDonald's for a milkshake or something like that. A Lego club, music lessons, uh, little things like that. And, uh, I think many autistic kids, and this is what I'm told, do better with predictable routines and clear expectations. And it can feel chaotic when there are lots of people around doing lots of different things. And I think sometimes homeschool co-ops feel very much that way, and especially the bigger ones.

And so as for your second question, I think a lot of moms carry a silent fear about this, and I want you to lean in and listen because it's really important. You can't save your children. You cannot, uh, your children are not going to come to Christ because you are a Christian. Your children are going to get to choose. And so what I'm always telling parents, and I think it's really important for you in this season of your life, is what you don't want is to get to the end of your child raising years and look back with regret that you didn't do the thing that you should have done. You don't want to, to come to the end of the road, so to speak, and realize, "Oh, I didn't disciple my child or I wasn't in the word with my child." You can't, you know, you've heard, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink." I always tell parents, give your kids a cool drink of water from God's word every day. And let them see that it's real in your life. Let them see that you believe what you're teaching them. If they see a life that is filled with hypocrisy, or if they see that you say one thing to them, but you are something completely different in your own private life, or they see you having too much alcohol every night with your dinner, or they see you talking disrespectfully to their dad, or they see you gossiping constantly in your own home, then they're going to question whether or not you really believe what you said you believe. But the next time there's a crisis, did they see you on the phone or did they see you on your knees? All of these things really matter. Your job is not to produce a perfect outcome because you're not going to be able to do it. Your job is simply to be faithful. So that at the end of the day, if your children choose to walk away from the Lord, you are not going to look back with the sting of regret saying, "I didn't do everything that I could."

And then just pray for your kids. Read the Bible with them. Talk about the Lord as the, as we're instructed in Deuteronomy 6, when you rise up and when you lie down and when you walk along the road. So God is infused into your everyday life. And then let your kids see that this is authentic to you. It's not just a performance. There are a lot of kids that were really led astray, I think, by the performative Christianity that we saw in the homeschool movement, particularly in the '80s and the '90s. And it has produced rotten fruit. Uh, your kids are not doomed to repeat somebody else's story, but you have a responsibility to shepherd them and steward the, uh, the years that you have with them. So, um, you know, I think prepare your kids for what is ahead of them by just modeling a faith that is real and genuine. Show them what repentance looks like. When you screw up, tell your kids, "You know what, guys? I am sorry. Please forgive me." And they need to see that that's real in you, and then trust that, uh, God's going to do what only God can do. The, the Bible teaches us that, uh, when we train up our kids, in fact, this is Proverbs 22, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he won't depart from it." Not a promise, but a proverb, meaning it's generally true. And so, train up your kids in the way they should go and then pray for them like crazy. Pray for him like crazy. Uh, really, really important.

Bets in New Hampshire says, "She found the book *Flamer* in my son's school library." Excellent. Um, she wants to know, "Is there a way to prevent him from being exposed to the sexual content?" So, she asked if there was a way to prevent her son from being harmed by this. And instead of the library helping him, they banned him from the library. Naturally, he was in eighth grade at the time. Now he's about to graduate. He's never been allowed back in the library. What? Okay.

Obviously, this should never have happened. So, a parent raises concern about sexually explicit material in the school library, and instead of addressing the concern, the institution punishes the child. This is so rich. It's just so good. And obviously the priorities of that particular school are out of line, but also they're completely in line with the National Educators Association and with almost every public school in the country right now because across the country, parents are discovering that these books are in their libraries. And when parents ask questions about sexually explicit materials, the response is often defensive and not transparent, which shows you, listen, if I come to my kid and I highlight something that they're doing that's wrong and they're defensive with me rather than transparent, it tells me that they know what they're doing is wrong. And these schools know what they're doing is wrong. They just, they just don't care. And that's kind of, that's kind of the point because obviously a school should never punish a child because a parent asked a question about protecting that child from sexually explicit material and other things that might harm the child. So that kind of retaliation is super lame. But unfortunately it's happening more and more as schools are doubling down on the controversial materials that they're carrying for children rather than reconsidering.

And I've told you guys this a hundred times. I'm going to keep saying it. Get your kids out of public school. Why are our kids still in the public school? Uh, it's for money usually. I'm just going to let that it, uh, wow. Matthew 18:6, "Whoever causes anyone, even one of these little ones, who believe in me, to sin or to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Get your kids out of public school.

Jesus said, "You're either for me or against me." So, let me ask you a question as we wrap up today's show. Is your public school for God? Is your public school, is your child's public school, is the government school for God? Well, the obvious answer is no. Jesus said, "If you're not for me, you're against me." So, if the public school is not for God, then according to God's word, by default, it is then against God. My friend Ken Ham calls the government schools the anti-God schools because they are against God. And many hundreds of thousands of Christian kids are in these government schools. And they're being told that they're nothing more than a hairless ape. They're not being told they were made in the image of God. They're being told that their gender is subjective and they could be a girl or they could be a boy or they could be, you know, both or they could be a furry if they want to be. They're being told that we live on stolen land. They're being told that communism is better than capitalism. They're not being told the right history of our country. We're injuring our children in the public schools. And yet we persist in this injury, guys. We got to do better than that. We got to do better than that. If the schools are not for God, then they're against him.

And so my warning to you, and listen, I, I get it. Like homeschooling, I get it. It can go wrong and kids can still walk away from the Lord. But at least I'm going to be able to look back and go, "I did everything I could to protect my children from ideologies that would steal their body, soul, mind, and spirit and co-opt them into darkness." And that's the truth. That's the truth. And so you first thing you got to do is just get your kids out of public school.

Secondly, parents should be paying attention to what's being taught in the schools. Even if your kids aren't in the public schools, you should be involved. You should be sounding the alarm because these kids are tomorrow's teachers, tomorrow's doctors, tomorrow's voters, tomorrow's parents. And they're being educated in the most horrific way possible right now. And the education system, I continue to say, is a five-alarm fire. Get your kids out of public school.

Uh, that's all I've got time for today. I've got several more questions I didn't get a chance to get to, but I would love to hear from you. We'll, we'll answer these questions next time at Fan Mail Friday. If you'd like to have a question addressed by me, please go to heidiesjohn.com/fanmailfriday. HeidiSaintJohn.com/fanmailfriday. Check out if you want to put your money where your values are, check out my Freedom Cart, myfreedomcart.com/hidy. Uh, I'd love to have you join me in my pursuit of buying American-made products that support an American-made company that supports the values that I hold dear like faith and family and freedom and also just really, really great makeup. Did I mention they had great makeup? They do. You guys are going to love it as much as I do. Myfreedomcart.com/hidy. Have a great day, you guys. Thanks for listening. I'll see you back here again at the intersection of faith and culture.