Next Week | Austin Petersen | Episode 7

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00:44

Thank you to all you guys that are watching right now. Welcome to Next Week with Jeff Durbin. I'm Jeff Durbin.

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Are you guys ready? Yeah! Let's do the news. So, the movie It. You guys heard about It?

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Yes? The movie? Yes? The scary movie, It, about the clown. It made $100 million this weekend.

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That's right. Meanwhile, this past weekend, birthday clowns made $0. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Best Buy sold packs of water bottles for $49,

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Delta Airlines sold tickets out of Florida for $3 ,000, and believe it or not,

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Planned Parenthood is offering free abortions. That's right. So just to be clear, are we punishing these people?

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Planned Parenthood is offering free abortions. When most organizations help, they usually send people, not try to get rid of them.

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Jim Carrey caught some attention this weekend when he said in an interview that everything is meaningless and nothing is real.

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Don't worry though, when he doesn't know an answer to a question, he just reverts back to reading lines from the Truman Show. That's what he did.

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TSA launched new enhanced pat -down procedures on how to pat the groin.

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And a lot of politicians are supporting the new pat -down, but mainly Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner.

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That's right. California has a shortage of interpreters now that they officially have 220 languages spoken in their state.

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220 languages. Now, I know the state itself doesn't claim to be Christian, but now would be a fantastic time to pray for the gift of tongues.

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Hillary Clinton is mad at Bernie Sanders for stealing her votes. Big interview she just did, she said she was upset about that, so apparently socialists like her don't like to share the things that they work so hard for.

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That's it guys. Don't forget to like and share the episode. We will be right back. Exciting show today. Right here on Next Week.

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Stay with us guys. Hey Joy. Oh, what's up?

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Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of tying my apron. I was just thinking we should talk about our new podcast,

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Sheologians. Okay, I'm ready.

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Sheologians is our new podcast where we talk about theology. Yeah, we wanted to make a micro -podcast to help people think through the

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Christian worldview. The reason we wanted it to be a quick podcast is so that it would be accessible for women who are busy doing other important things, like knitting.

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Yeah, you can hear Sheologians every Friday morning by subscribing on iTunes. Or you can go to our website,

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Sheologians .com, where you can learn to actively fight the powers of feminism. And bad theology.

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All while folding your laundry. Can I have a cupcake now? Watching live right now.

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Make sure you guys like and share the episode. Let everybody know what's going on. And don't forget to go to ApologiaStudios .com for more.

04:06

And it is that time of the week. You guys ready? It's time for the blend of the week.

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A delicious blend this week. It is called Transgender Blender. Transgender Blender.

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It's actually just a normal cup of coffee that got rid of its beans. We did.

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All right. Come on over, guys. Let's get started. You guys ready for the desk piece? There's one thing that American people do often, but they don't necessarily do it correctly.

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And no, I'm not talking about voting. Not voting. I'm talking about debates. Our culture is obsessed with arguing.

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And of course, that's why reality TV shows exist. Arguing is so common that statistically, married couples fight seven times a day.

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Hey, seven is God's perfect number, right? I told you that God was in marriage. Now, articles have come out saying that healthy debates actually help to keep a relationship together.

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So there you go, millennials. Proof that all of your arguments in your relationships were not the cause of your relationship.

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Break up. Now, if that statistic is true, then all those fights between the

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KKK and Antifa are the reason we're still together. So keep going, guys. Now, the problem with debates in our country is that we don't seem to do it properly.

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It's like a verbal hit and run, right? Someone makes an insulting comment on Facebook and then blocks you from replying.

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It's just the way of the world today. And it's all under, of course, a cat video. Now, we debate thoroughly over things that don't matter, and then we brush over things that actually are important.

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So, for example, when Obama was running for president, he was asked about the subject of abortion.

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Now, this is what he said. At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?

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Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

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One of the worst answers ever, right? Now, either theologically or scientifically, the answer is the same.

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It's a human being, and you can't kill it. That's a fact. Now, he says that he can't answer it because it's above his pay grade.

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Now, what about school nurses? I mean, everything is above their pay grade, and they still try to answer every question that comes through their door.

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Now, to give you a quick run -through on how a debate works, we thought it'd be best to show you a bad how -to video made by some high schoolers.

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Because, sure, it's done poorly, but these kids aren't politicians, so they actually know how to debate, right?

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Now, let's take a look. First, you've got to take a look at this kid's face.

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I mean, look at his face. Now, he didn't even want to be there at this debate. I mean, this kid is the

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Ben Carson of the video. He's not putting up with anything today. I mean, it's almost like he just watched that new

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Jim Carrey interview. Did you guys see that? It's not our world. None of this is real?

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Nope. So you're just passing through? We don't matter. We don't matter. Oh, wow. There's the good news. Okay. That's the good news.

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Now, you've got to look at both their faces. Look at both their faces. Now, they are on two different levels right now.

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Incidentally enough, these were the only two faces that you would see the first three months after Trump became president.

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Speaking of the election, Hillary Clinton was on CBS Sunday morning. And she blamed her losing one of the debates on Donald Trump because he was standing behind her, she says.

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After we heard him admitting and laughing about sexually assaulting women and being able to get away with it because if you're a star, you can do anything.

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So in my debate prep, we practiced this. The young man playing Trump would stalk me.

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And I practiced keeping my composure. I practiced not getting rattled. Well, it's one thing to practice it.

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It's another thing to be in front of, you know, 50, 60, 70 million people and having him scowling and leering and moving up on me.

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And it was so discombobulating. And so while I'm answering questions, my mind is going, okay, do

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I keep my composure? Do I act like a president? Do you act like a president?

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I don't know. Well, if you don't know if you should act like a president, maybe you shouldn't be president. Now, you can't just blame somebody standing five feet behind you for the debate loss.

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Now, what would she have done if Kim Jong -un was there? I mean, he's basically the Donald Trump of North Korea, right?

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And I practiced not getting rattled, but I didn't expect him to be stalking me. He would. You can't win a debate by calling another person's argument stupid.

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Did you hear that? A 20 -something on Twitter, right? You don't win a debate by saying you're stupid.

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However, you do win a fight at the playground that way. This is true. And that's right, Billy. I won yesterday.

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Now, insulting is a very easy thing to do, but you really want to take the high road, just like CNN always does.

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Just kidding. No, no, not really. Watch. I honestly don't understand why you would rather have people be victims of a crime than be able to defend themselves.

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It's incomprehensible. You're an unbelievably stupid man, aren't you? I love the way that he just turned that into a question, as if he might want to actually answer that.

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Are you stupid? That's on a list of questions that you don't say yes to, including, can you help me move?

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And did you practice not getting rattled? Now, let's look at some things that you're not supposed to do in a debate.

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Don't dress inappropriately. That makes sense because nobody thinks you're winning when you have something like this.

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Here's the next thing that you shouldn't do in a debate. Don't throw stuff. Excellent advice, right?

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And why would you throw a pen at a kid who doesn't want to be there? Now, I know you're just giving an example, but you're giving this guy all kinds of reasons not to finish the project and to never talk to you again.

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Now, even though not throwing stuff seems like an obvious rule that we can all get behind, every once in a while it actually does happen, just like when a man threw his shoe at George W.

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Bush. Remember that? I guess not. Or like the TV debate in Egypt.

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I like that I actually don't know what they're talking about. I almost hope it was about who had, like, the better chair.

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And did you see how disappointed the camera guy was there at the end? Watch it again. That's the moment, the exact moment, when you realize you don't even want to be at this job anymore.

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Now, I guarantee you, he just went on LinkedIn that night. Debates can get pretty feisty in America, too, though, just like this one.

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That's one of my favorite videos ever. Now, okay, she shouldn't have poked him, but in her defense, it was raining.

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Another really important thing to not do in a debate is interrupt the other person. We've got to try not to do that in a formal debate, right?

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You have to let the other side express their argument. That's why there's rules. Now, if you want to see discussions done right, just look at this show,

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The View. Not really. Okay, now, I just love how classy they are to one another, especially

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Whoopi. Where does

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Whoopi go after she walks off the show? Maybe she just watches The Color Purple to remember something good she's done in a film.

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Or maybe she joins these people. I mean, that's right.

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Vice President Mike Pence stood up to speak with dozens and dozens of, well, hundreds of people, and dozens of the students walked out.

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I mean, they didn't even listen. Look, if you don't let the other side express their views, you know better than a homeless person rattling off government conspiracies and not letting us say, actually,

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Martin Sheen's not really the president. And I'm a little concerned with how real you think the

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West Wing is. Now, allowing the other person to share their argument is not actually a form of weakness.

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It's a sign of strength. Except when parents let their kids scream at the store for an hour about wanting a candy bar.

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That's a sign of weakness. Now, it gets tempting as a Christian to shy away from debates.

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But Christians shouldn't be absent from them. We should be in them. Jude verse 3 says to earnestly contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Not engaging in an argument about abortion, for example, because you're afraid that people will get offended, is in essence hiding your faith because you know what the

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Word of God says about murdering innocent people. Christians follow Jesus who is the embodiment of truth.

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Therefore, we are supposed to cling on to truth and to argue with the truth. And that's what makes a good debate.

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In fact, historically, debate is a Christian thing. You even have previously

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Christian schools like Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge. They brought up great

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Christian thinkers who knew how to debate. But the problem with arguments nowadays is that both sides debate with their opinion being the very basis of the reason.

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Now, truth and facts have nothing to do with the common arguments. In 2016,

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Oxford Dictionary selected the word post -truth as its word of the year.

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And they defined it basically as when emotional and personal beliefs overrule the truth in an argument.

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Basically, it's like when a couple tries to break up and one would try to stay together because of their emotions like,

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I love you. And the other would try to break up with logic like, you tried to stab me last week with a shank because you thought

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I was flirting with somebody. Now, when you fight with the truth, it makes you a dangerous person to debate.

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The only downside to that is that people don't want to debate you. For example, we approached, through some friends of ours in a group,

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Dr. Willie Parker about a public debate. Dr. Parker is probably the most famous abortionist on the planet today.

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He's written a popular book. He is hooked up with people from Planned Parenthood. He says that he is doing

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God's work in abortion. He sees himself as a modern -day Apostle Paul spreading the good news of abortion.

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And it's even stated that he has seen up to even 50 women a day. And then on Twitter, somebody challenged him to a debate.

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And he replied, I'll accept an offer to debate in Alabama soon. I was approached in the appropriate way privately.

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Yeah, that was me. That was us. And you might be thinking, well, he could really have been talking about somebody else.

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Well, then explain this voicemail. That's right.

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We were hooked up with a group of people who were trying to organize a debate with this doctor who gives abortions.

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But then, like our president, he disappointed us on Twitter. He says, I'd be happy to have a structured debate with a doctor.

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Exposing myself to fanatics seeking to control women, I'll pass.

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Also me. That was me. And by the way, that's another debate rule. You're not supposed to insult your opponent before the debate.

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That would be like me saying that I'm about to debate one of the most prolific serial killers of our time.

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Except what I just said was true. So he agreed to a debate and then he changed his mind.

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Dr. Willie Parker, you did the same as the boyfriends who are sending girls to you for abortions.

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You didn't have enough integrity to follow through with your commitments. Now look, people are afraid to debate hot button topics.

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And that's why if you want to debate them, they call you crazy and they avoid you. Much like our own

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Summer White who went to ASU to debate with people about hot topic issues. Take a look at this. I'm Summer White and I'm here at ASU today to find out if anyone in the millennial generation knows what they believe.

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Hey, does anybody want to talk to me about Donald Trump and racism? Do you want to talk to me about Donald Trump and racism? Have a good day.

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I don't think anybody representing a group today is going to talk to us. Would you guys be interested in talking to me about Donald Trump?

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No? You can state whatever opinion you have. Free speech?

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No? Okay. Have a good one. Do you guys have a minute to talk to me about racism in America?

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Anything. You can say anything you think. Racism? No. Okay. Have a good one.

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Would you guys be willing to talk to me about racism in America? Do you have a minute to talk to me about racism in America?

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Okay. Have a good one. Do you be willing to talk to me about Donald Trump? No. You can say anything you want.

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Negative, positive, no. Okay. Have a good one. So what I've discovered today is that people at ASU or at college in general, maybe, they haven't really formed their opinions yet.

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But they're here paying 60 grand to have their opinions formed for them.

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Thanks, Summer. Now, nobody wanted to talk. But here at Next Week, we're not afraid to discuss and debate issues that others want to avoid.

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So if you agree and you want to see me debate Dr. Willie Parker, the active abortionist, tweet at Dr.

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Willie Parker with the hashtag debate Jeff Durbin. We'd love to do it. Now, if you want a preview of what a debate should look like, let's go to Moscow.

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Not Russia. Don't worry, CNN. I'm talking about Moscow, Idaho. This actually was a town hall debate discussion the last week that was led by our friends with a

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Christian podcast called CrossPolitik. Now, in which they were discussing actual issues with governor candidates.

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Now, politicians never want to answer the tough questions. And this is what it looks like when you make them.

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Take a look. It took them 12 seconds to answer.

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Usain Bolt broke the 100 meter world record in less than 10 seconds. And they couldn't even break their clammy hands open to pick up the microphone.

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Now, I'm sure that they would have rather have tried to break the 100 meter record right there.

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That would have been a better choice. There's legal executions taking place. And I want to know, what are you going to do to stop it?

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And you're going to say, well, if the bill looks good and I read it? How are you going to lead the way in it?

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We're talking about the murder of babies. We've done this before.

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I'll take debates not monitored by Rick Warren for $100, Trebek. Now, just so you know, we didn't put the

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Jeopardy music in there. They did that right in front of them. See, when

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Christians get involved in political debate, the winner is not the one who has the wittiest answer. I guess it's the one who answers at all.

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Now, this is important. We live in a time in evangelicalism in the

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West where if you argue with somebody, if there is friction and tension, that's seen as an ungodly thing.

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It's seen as a form of bad piety or bad practice to actually engage in argument.

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But if you look at the Scriptures, the Bible actually commands us to be ready with a reasoned defense for everyone who asks of us, a reason for the hope that's within us, to do it with gentleness and reverence.

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In 1 Peter 3 .15, Christians are commanded to be ready with a reasoned defense. We're commanded in Jude 1 .3

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to earnestly contend for the faith. And some of the premier examples of how to live life in a godly way and in an effective way are seen in, say,

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Acts 9. The Apostle Paul, as soon as he turns to Christ in faith, he takes a beeline for Damascus and it says that he immediately goes to the synagogues.

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And he does what? He argues with the Hellenistic Jews there, proving that Jesus is the

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Messiah. And the result of his arguing, it says that people came to Christ, the church was built up, and it says that some people wanted him dead.

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That's a godly way to live. Or you can look at another hero of the faith like Apollos in the book of Acts. It says that he vigorously refuted the

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Jews publicly, proving that Jesus is the Messiah. You see, debate and argument, reason, rationality, that is foundationally from the biblical worldview.

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And we're all called to it. We're called to be bold. We're called to be loving. We're called to be kind.

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But we're called to engage the world. And I want to say this as a final word. If we want to truly see how we ought to be doing this as believers in our day, read the book of Acts.

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You see the Christians in conflict with the world, arguing with the truth of God, heralding the gospel, and providing a defense of the faith.

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We should all be arguing for the truth of the gospel. Just don't do it as a comment under a cat video.

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That's all for now, guys. We'll be right back. Stay with us right here on Next Week. Don't forget to like and share.

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Thank you for staying with us. We'll see you on the other side. Thank you. Welcome back, everybody.

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Thank you for joining us again right here on Next Week. Very excited about this next guest. We've actually had him on before on Apologia TV.

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He was the candidate for president for the Libertarian Party, one of the candidates running for president of the

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Libertarian Party. His name is Austin Peterson. He's up to all kinds of new stuff. Let's welcome to the show Austin Peterson.

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Thank you. Welcome back, Austin. That's right, yes.

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And there are like 1 ,000 of them. No, not really. So, Austin, hey, what are you up to right now?

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What's going on? You've got some new things right now you're doing. Right now I'm currently seeking to become the next U .S.

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senator from the state of Missouri, challenging the Democrat Claire McCaskill, trying to spread limited government, cut spending, cut taxes, get government out of our lives.

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Yes. See, that's why we love Austin. Get government out of our lives, small government, self -government, all those things.

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I really appreciate those things about you, Austin, a bunch. But aren't you running for a Republican seat? I am running as a

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Republican. And I'll tell you, I spent two entire months on the phone, so I made over 4 ,000 phone calls to all my supporters, and I asked them all two questions.

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Should I run? 100 % said yes. And then I said, which party should I run under? And 98 % or more said run as a

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Republican. This is registered Libertarians, Republicans, and even a few Democrats.

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They want to beat Claire McCaskill as badly as I do. And frankly, they think that people like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul and Mike Lee need some support up there.

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So I agreed with them. And since they're the people who spend all their time, money, and energy on these campaigns,

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I figured I should listen to the people who support me the most. Right, right. And you haven't turned to the dark side.

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You haven't let go of your principles and those sorts of things. And I think we're all behind the idea that we should be about principles and not party.

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That's the important factor here. So I can appreciate that move. So you're running for U .S. Senator in the state of Missouri.

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Just let everyone get to know you if they don't know about you, Austin. Tell us, and you sort of illustrated a little bit of it a second ago, but tell us about what are the main things of your platform, the main things that you care about.

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Basically, from a philosophical perspective, I believe in liberty. I believe in individualism. I believe in the core tenets of the philosophy that the founding fathers had when they created this great country.

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The idea that, like what Ronald Reagan said, man is not free unless government is limited.

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So I consider myself a constitutionalist, someone who believes in fiscal conservatism, and I believe that we ought to have a government small enough to fit inside the

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Constitution. I think government has gotten way too big. It legislates too much. It taxes too much.

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And it gets too involved in our personal lives and in our religion. It tries to dictate to us what we can or can't do.

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And because I think progressivism has infected both major parties for the last hundred years, we now have the philosophy that everyone seems to believe in, which is that everything that we like should be subsidized, and everything we don't like should be banned.

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You're speaking, Austin, pretty much in alien language to most of our culture today and talking about liberty, talking about limited government and the things that you are, and it resonates with me, and I love you,

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Austin. I enjoy talking with you, and I love so many of the things that you say. And one of the things that I appreciated about the last time that you and I got to speak together on ApologiaTV was the fact that you recognize, and we come from two different worldviews, you and I.

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I'm a Christian. You're an agnostic technically, so two different worldviews. But one of the things

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I really appreciated, and many of the people that heard the episode really appreciated, was how you recognize how the biblical worldview and Christianity had such a foundational part of the creation of the

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West and a lot of the things that you champion today, and you do it really well, Austin, by the way, just the way you articulate it.

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And so I think a lot of people really appreciate that. And one of the things you just said resonates with me deeply, Austin, and that is something

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I think that creates an injustice in our society when we don't do it in the way you just said. Even from a biblical perspective, when we talk about the law of God and justice and government, not everything in the

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Bible that's a sin is a crime. And some things are seen as sin, but not crimes, and they're not punishable under the law of God.

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So, for example, I think you and I would be on the same page in many respects in terms of the drug war, prison sentences for drug possession, those sorts of things.

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So I really appreciate that. Can you talk just a bit about that, because I think that's a key issue in terms of personal liberty. And you and I both aren't saying go out and get drunk, go out and get high, but in terms of what's a moral failing and what's actually something punishable by law, there should be some differences.

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So can you extrapolate on that? Right, that's a really great way to put that. I had a conversation with Ben Shapiro last week where he talked about how conservatives need to accept the libertarian view on government, and libertarians need to accept the conservative view on society, that if we don't have a government that is taking care of us from cradle to grave, we will need social institutions like families, friends, neighbors, and churches to solve the problems of drug addiction or alcohol addiction or many of the vices right now that are crimes.

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I mean, if you think about it, Jesus dined with the prostitutes, right? He went out and he ate dinner with the sinners.

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He even ate dinner with the most horrible, evil, terrible, awful sinners there ever were, which were tax collectors.

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So if Jesus can sit down and dine with people such as tax collectors, then why can't we as Americans do the same thing?

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We should be more like Jesus. And of course the New Testament was an important foundation for the moral philosophical foundations of Western society.

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The golden rule. That's what I believe in. And I think that if we had a more

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Christ -like society, we would have a more moral, virtuous, and prosperous society. So you don't have to believe in the divinity of Christ to believe that his teachings were moral or morally correct.

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So actually a lot of people, sometimes Christians will attack me over that. They'll say, well, if you don't believe in his divinity, then you're saying that you're learning teachings from a charlatan.

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But I mean, again, I believe that all men are flawed in some way or another. I mean, I believe in Ron Paul, but I don't believe that he's 100 percent correct on everything.

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And just because he's incorrect about one thing doesn't mean that he doesn't have a lot of truths to offer us. I mean, even

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Muslims and many Jews believe in the teachings of Christ. So I think that it's a little bit wrong -headed there, too.

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And again, with atheists and agnostics, too, they tend to reject Christ entirely, which I think is a big mistake.

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And that's from a civilizational view and from a philosophical view. And so that to me, that's where I learned my first—that was my first contact with morality.

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And my church was all about love. My church was all about community. And I think libertarians sometimes can make a mistake because they can tend to be atomistic, right, that they think that man is an island and can operate independently.

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And we can't all go out and live in the woods and grow big, beautiful beards like yourself and just be lumberjacks and not need anyone else.

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We have society. We live with one another. We're social creatures. So we need some foundations for our morality.

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But as to how government should be involved, government should be limited to protecting us from having our individual rights violated.

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The role of government is to protect our liberty. It's not—some people think that the role of government is to protect our security.

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But that's not true. It's actually not true at all because government cannot—if government's role was to protect us from security mainly, then there would be no need for a

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Second Amendment. We have the Second Amendment because it's understood that it is incumbent on individuals to defend themselves and to defend one another.

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That's why we had militias. And so I think it's important for us to get back to the philosophical foundations of Western civilization.

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I wish more people would read the Bible. I've read it six times. And there's quite a lot that you can learn from it, especially the teachings of Christ.

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And so I think this is probably why you guys like me so much is because of those foundations.

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But I think that, you know, what I'm really trying to do, Jeff, is to try and build a conservative libertarian alliance because I think that the progressives who have replaced the concept of God with the concept of government are more dangerous than any

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Bible -beating theocrat who wants to put any Ten Commandments on any front yard of any courthouse.

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Because the progressives, at their heart, their philosophy is violent.

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That's why we see in Charlottesville and Antifa these leftists showing up at Berkeley and they're looting and they're rioting because fundamentally their collectivist philosophy must be enforced through violence.

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And that's why conservatives and libertarians need to stop fighting over things like drugs and prostitution and start fighting back against the forced collectivism of our society.

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If we really want to be free, then we've got to work together. Very good. So obviously, you know,

33:51

Austin, I was so hopeful. When they told me that we had booked you to come on again, I was so hoping you were coming out live so we could spend time together, have a meal together and just share because I really appreciate it.

34:00

And Austin, I appreciate the fact that you have so much integrity and you've been able to say, yeah,

34:06

I love this about the Bible and I take this from Jesus and I say keep taking more but you know that I want you to know

34:11

Jesus personally and come to Him. Well, here's the thing. I mean, not to, you know, just play my get -out -of -jail -free card, but I was saved in my church when

34:22

I was a young man and at least in my faith, the one that I was raised in, the Southern Baptist tradition was that there's no backsliding.

34:28

So if there is a heaven after this, I'll see you there. Well, that would be what we would call a different gospel.

34:35

But no, this is, I think, a key issue here. I think that so much of what

34:42

I appreciate about people who champion liberty, like myself, like you, is one of the things people say is there's no objective moral basis for morality in society.

34:53

And I think that's why you need Jesus and, of course, you need salvation and you need to come to Him for life and those things.

35:00

But this is what's interesting here, Austin. When I said you're speaking a foreign language, like an alien language to today,

35:07

I think it's a moral issue. We have government schools that are propagating a particular worldview and with that a particular view of government that is so foreign.

35:15

And you know this, Austin. I mean, you're intellectual. You're brilliant in this area. It's so foreign to our founding and to what the people thought who created our constitutional documents and formed this system of government.

35:27

I mean, here's the thing. Their perspective they had, they saw government as an institution that establishes justice, that protects liberties, as you said, organizes for national defense.

35:41

But they did not see this behemoth and this beast that we have today that it violates people, it creates these systems of injustice.

35:50

I mean, it's this overblown thing that's out of control. And by the way, one of the things I so appreciated,

35:55

Austin, and I mean this with my whole heart, is what you used to talk about when you were running for president is you used to talk about how financially responsible your campaign was.

36:06

You weren't just blowing money and being frivolous and those sorts of things. And you were trying to do it as a testimony to the kind of president that you would have been, fiscally conservative, responsible with other people's money.

36:18

And so I truly appreciate that about you. But it does speak to your view of government. You said, Austin, and you say often, that you need a government that's small enough to fit inside the

36:29

Constitution. And you talk about the Constitution being a foundation for our system in these

36:36

United States. And let me ask you this, because this gets to sort of issues of personal liberty and how you would feel as a senator in Missouri.

36:46

Talk to me about the marijuana issue. Colorado, Washington, you've got these states that have defied the federal government and they've opted for their state's rights to be able to say to the federal government, you don't really have a say here.

37:04

We're going to govern ourselves and organize ourselves on this issue. And so they say to the federal law, no to you.

37:12

And we're going to uphold that. Tell us how you feel about that. Well, borrowing from your philosophies,

37:18

I believe some famous person said that resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. But for me,

37:24

I think that the question of the, this is an economic question in many ways.

37:31

It's also a moral question. But from the economic perspective, decentralization breeds prosperity.

37:36

When people are able to make decisions locally for themselves and to set prices for goods and services, then we can have the most effective distribution of these goods and services.

37:48

But when there is a black market that is created by government because of the prohibitionist attitude, then that black market inherently breeds corruption.

37:58

It breeds violence. And it breeds a degradation of morality even worse than the act that it's seeking to prohibit.

38:04

We all remember what happened during the prohibition era for alcohol. And I just love, once again,

38:11

Austin, this is the last time you haven't been able to shake your Christianity loose. And so I love that about you. But this is an important thing because I agree with you.

38:19

I think the issue of drug and alcohol abuse is a moral issue. It's an issue of the heart. And I think ultimately only God can do that.

38:26

But it's an issue of the communities around people. And by the way, Austin, I'm not sure if you know this. I was a chaplain at one of the oldest drug and alcohol rehabs in Phoenix for four years full time.

38:36

And I can tell you right now, prison sentences and all the punishments that were dealt out in the court never solved the problem of the heart.

38:43

It was when these people came into a relationship with Jesus, their heart was changed. And when their families,

38:48

Austin, came around together, around them as a community that they actually experienced the healing.

38:54

It wasn't throwing them into a cage like an animal for ten years that solved the problem of the heart.

39:00

So last point here, Austin, connected to all this, and I appreciate so much of what you said. A lot of people don't know this about you.

39:08

You have a pro -life stance. Yes. Well, I am a Republican after all.

39:15

One of the things that I appreciate about you is that you do take that position.

39:21

And we see it, of course, across the broad spectrum in the Republican Party and movement.

39:26

And I appreciate your position on the Constitution and states' rights and personal liberties and defying the federal government in certain areas.

39:34

Let me ask you this. You have a state like Idaho right now. A state like Idaho today on the books, it says in the books,

39:44

Austin, it's never been changed, never been altered. It defines a human being as from conception.

39:49

That would be consistent with what Scripture says and with what biology says. So we can appreciate that.

39:55

And it says that if you take the life of a human being in the womb, it's murder. So state law in Idaho today, and in many other states, it would declare abortion and the act of abortion as murder.

40:05

But because of Roe, because of the Supreme Court's opinion, these states have sort of, like, bent towards saying, well, our law says that we can't do it, but we'll go ahead and submit to what the

40:16

Supreme Court says, even knowing that our constitutional documents say that the

40:22

Supreme Court doesn't make law. Congress creates law. And so I guess this would be a good opportunity,

40:28

Austin, because of your pro -life position. Would you be willing, as a U .S. senator in Missouri, to advocate for, use the bully pulpit for defying the federal government and the issue of abortion?

40:43

I would stand with the states on that one. I do think it should be a state issue. I don't agree with Roe versus Wade. I think that the bigger the problem is, the closer to home it should be solved, ideally with the individuals and their family, but definitely with the states and not with the federal government.

40:57

There really just isn't a one -size -fits -all solution to the problem, especially when it comes to abortion. But, Jeff, can we have an honest discussion about something that I've struggled with?

41:06

And I would love to hear your thoughts, and maybe we could talk this out, related to abortion. One of the things that I really do struggle with is the question of in vitro fertilization.

41:14

So in vitro fertilization is the kind of thing where it seems to me that it's a pro -life thing, in that it allows parents to have the ability to have a child, because in order for them to have a child, they have to determine which embryos will be the most viable in order for the mother to conceive, or, well, for the mother to actually have a child.

41:33

So I think in vitro is the kind of thing where if you say, oh, it's pro -life at the beginning of conception, then necessarily you'd have to ban in vitro.

41:42

Do you think in vitro fertilization is the kind of thing that should be banned? And I struggle with that.

41:47

I don't know what the answer to that is. I tend to be on the side of in vitro, but what are your thoughts on that? I appreciate the question, Austin.

41:53

Yeah, so if we take this from a perspective of, say, just a biological perspective, and we look at what's there biologically, and this is the unique thing about your position and mine,

42:02

Austin, on this, is that we have the science on our side on this. Now, I think that biblically speaking, that provides the primary foundation to make sense of any ethical decisions, human value and dignity and worth.

42:14

However, if we just look at the biological aspect, there is just no question. There just isn't a question. What's in the womb at conception is human by nature.

42:21

It has all the biological components of a human being. And so if we look at IVF, I do think that IVF could be done in a way that is ethical, where there is not the creation of human life and then the destruction of human life.

42:34

Austin, I think this is powerful. In the last year, I have two people that I know very personally that have adopted what are called snowflake babies, and these are babies, human beings that have been put on ice after being created through IVF that are then implanted into the womb, and now these kids are running around,

42:52

Austin, in the world, future champions of liberty, hopefully. Yeah, I'll tell you one thing very briefly before we go.

43:00

This is even the most controversial thing, of course, was that when I was running for president as a libertarian, I had the children who were the, not children but adults, but they were the products of rape, contacted me and said, and they were like,

43:15

Austin, thank you for being pro -life. Please don't ever back down because no matter the circumstances that we were born with,

43:21

I'm so happy to be alive. And it was shocking to me because I hadn't been posed the question about whether or not rape would be an exception, and I had to sit down and start to come together to ask myself, well, what about this situation?

43:34

But, I mean, there are so many ethical and moral and scientific questions at play here, and you know what, one of the biggest things that came out recently was that now it looks as if it may be possible to raise someone outside of the womb with some of the new technologies coming out.

43:50

I honestly think that technology is going to solve the problems of abortion, just like you just said, the snowflake babies.

43:55

I think that science one day will help find a way so that we don't have to deal with this problem, or it will be so limited as to be completely inconsequential to the question of law.

44:06

I think science is going to solve the problem. It already is, I mean, in many ways, with birth control, for example. I mean, prophylactics have come a long way in the last just 200, 300 years, and I think that science is going to solve these problems,

44:18

Jeff, I really do. Well, I think this is where we would have a departure between the two of us. I think that this is ultimately a moral issue, and I think that the decision to kill a child in the womb is malice aforethought.

44:29

It's murdering a child. Many states agree with that, even currently today. But just to finally wrap up the answer on IVF, I think that when we create human life and then we just simply destroy it,

44:41

I think that that's a moral issue, and I think with an objective basis, like you get from Jesus in Scripture, you have a basis to complain about it and speak against it.

44:50

Here's two things I want to say to you, Austin. Number one, same as last time,

44:55

I mean, I want you to know Jesus and to come to him and experience life in him. And actually, two,

45:00

I want you to come out next time so we can spend time together and actually hang out together, have a meal together, and I'd love to follow you and see how you're doing as you work your way to becoming

45:11

U .S. Senator in Missouri. The final thing is this. Austin, I want to encourage you with great passion and with so much respect that I have for you.

45:20

If you take this position as U .S. Senator in Missouri, I want to encourage you to do everything you can to stand on those principles and convictions and defy the federal government in the area of abortion.

45:33

And let me just say this to you. I don't know if anybody's ever suggested this to you, Austin, but I believe that if you took a bold stand, not which that is typical for Republicans that are pro -life across the board, not just saying pro -life and I stand for pro -life issues, but if you actually took a position to actually end abortion immediately and threw yourself out there with courage on these convictions and defied the federal government in this area and did what you can to end it immediately in Missouri, I don't have any question that you would win that seat because you would probably get every

46:06

Christian vote if you committed to be the one who actually ends the tyranny of abortion in Missouri.

46:12

I will do my best. I'll do my best. I'll do my best to you and your viewers to do the one thing that I know that you cannot refuse.

46:20

Please pray for me. Yes, that's right. All right, guys. Austin Peterson. Thank you, Austin. Very, very much.

46:27

We appreciate you. All right, guys. Stay with us. We'll be right back after this break right here on Next Week. Thank you. Enjoying the show?

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46:55

There's no way that script is right. Who buys coffee for $9 .99? Who's buying a $10 cup of coffee?

47:02

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47:37

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47:42

Sign up. Buy coffee a little better. Wrapping up now on our last segment, and we wanted to talk to you about something.

47:59

It's about everything that's been happening in the government, right? Government overreach. You've got sort of Big Brother bearing down on us, and government controlling us.

48:09

And so we wanted to have a little bit of a discussion about it. And so something that Marcus Pittman, our executive producer, is really passionate about is this issue of Big Brother.

48:18

And overreach and these sorts of things. So please welcome the executive producer at Apologia Studios, and of next week,

48:25

Marcus Pittman. What's up,

48:30

King Ginger? I am so glad you had me on to talk about this issue of Big Brother. Let's do it.

48:36

I'm obsessed with it. I know. You talk about it, you get stopped at the airport. Cameras everywhere just following 16 contestants around 24 hours a day for 90 days straight.

48:47

Imagine that. 16 contestants and they're competing to win $500 ,000. Chris. Have you ever seen this show?

48:53

This is not. Have you ever seen this show? No, this is what we're talking about. I was told to come on and talk about Big Brother. This is not what

48:58

I agreed to. Here's what happened. There's three competitions. There's a head of household competition. There's a power of veto competition.

49:04

Joy? Yeah. And then they have the eviction where they kick people out. But here's the great thing about the show.

49:10

There's so many strategies and social games you can play.

49:18

It's incredible. No, no, no. Everybody thought that Cameron was going to win because he looked like Ian from last season. But what they did was he was actually kicked out first because Paul was actually a contestant

49:27

Did you do this on purpose? And they surprised him and they brought him in. And he is lying to everybody. Wait, wait, wait.

49:34

Calm, calm, calm, calm. Marcus, Big Brother. We're talking Big Brother. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obama.

49:39

That's what I'm talking about. No, no, no, no, no. Nobody cares. Illuminati. Nobody cares about it. They're not afraid. They're lying. So Paul, he's lying to everybody.

49:47

He's manipulating everybody. I've never even seen the show. You have to watch it,

49:52

Jeff. You have to watch it. I am not going to watch Big Brother. I'm going to go ahead and set. I have standards. I'm going to go ahead and set it up on Tivo for you.

49:58

This is right. I'm sorry. For Marcus Pitman, everybody. That was amazing.

50:05

So we wanted of course to end the show today talking to you guys about the heart of this show in our ministry and that is endabortionnow .com.

50:16

We just got word again this morning that we had some more saves in Flint, Michigan. So praise

50:21

God for that. Right now we have over 230 churches across the

50:28

United States that are linked up under the banner of End Abortion Now bringing the gospel to their local abortion mills.

50:35

Loving and caring for the mothers and fathers that are going in and partnering with us on a national level to bring the message of the scriptures, the truth of God, to make the gospel the core of this into every area.

50:49

Whether it means going to the abortion mills and bringing the gospel and the truth of God there. Whether it means speaking prophetically to our legislators in our local areas.

50:58

It's happening and you guys can participate too. All you do is just go to endabortionnow .com.

51:03

You get linked up, you get free training, you get free resources and you connect with churches across the country that are joined together around a core message about the gospel dedicated to saving lives and dedicated to ending abortion immediately in our nation.

51:20

You guys can partner with us. Go to endabortionnow .com to do it. Be sure to like and share the episode. Make sure you let everybody know.

51:26

We'll catch you guys next week right here on Next Week with Jeff Durbin. Thank you guys so much for being with us today.

51:31

Thank you very, very much. Thanks for being a part of this movement. We'll see you guys next week. Thank you.