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Webcasting around the world from the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. This is the dividing line. The Apostle Peter commanded Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us.
Yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence. Our host is dr. James white director of Alpha Omega ministries and an elder at the Phoenix reformed Baptist Church. This is a live program and we invite your participation.
If you'd like to talk with dr. White call now. It's 602 9 7 3 4 6 0 2 or toll-free across the United States. It's 1 8 7 7 7 5 3 3 3 4 1. And now with today's topic here is James white.
Well, good afternoon evening. Welcome to the dividing line. We are live this this evening 8 7 7 7 5 3 33 41 8 7 7 7 5 3 3 3 4 1 don't have any Debates to be running into at this particular point in time as far as the presidential ones or vice presidential ones.
Wouldn't want to I really wouldn't want to have to debate dick Cheney that would be a hmm, especially when you're really Fluffy trial lawyer be an ugly thing. But anyway. That one again, not really a debate, but you know.
Folks like me sort of goats. Excuse me. Excuse me, sir. You didn't answer the question, sir. Did you hear the question sir? You you did hear the question, but you didn't answer the question. That was that was just what I kept thinking when I listened to that.
It was mmm. It was amazing and did you see the disadvantage that put vice president Cheney at he'd actually answer the question and Then the other guy just sort of wanders off, you know. You know, I didn't get a chance to say this about this thing about 12 minutes ago and I'd like to you know, I mean like What was that one question that that I recall very clearly?
Something about you personally, you know. And so Cheney the answers and then that other guy with the fake hair or the you know.
Well, it's not fake. Oh the one where they weren't supposed to mention. No, no.
No, not where he kept saying the other guy's name because he couldn't get through that one. But no, it was it was they asked For you to like give personal. What was it? You know a personal Story about you know, why you should be vice president and and didn't even come close.
It's like you didn't remember what the question was. Well that happened all the time. But anyway, it was I'll tell you it was it was ugly. But anyhow, I did see a excellent Where was this thing? I think I put it in politics here.
Yeah right here. Here's here's a good here's a good comment. Watching the presidential debates of October 1st and the subsequent reactions to them has let me once again has left me once again With a sad realization that there are many millions of people who prefer a man who says the wrong things.
Well over one who says the right things badly and the case the first debates We are talking about saying very very stupid things. Well and Intelligent things very very badly. Exactly that is exactly right and the second paragraph is now I don't mean stupid in a bad way.
I fully credit John Kerry with the intelligence needed to analyze dissect and evaluate a position and without mechanical aid quickly and accurately use advanced trigonomic functions to determine the most popular position on a wide range of complex issues a Speed requires a very quick mind indeed.
Yep, yep. Yep. Yep. Yep, and you know, I knew that all along and and and Anybody who has listened to post debate discussions in my own debates knows that as well because I'm gonna tell you it's Listening to what people heard and What they didn't hear and How rarely the issue is why that person just couldn't follow an argument and they were not able to substantiate their points.
That's not what they say. They say things like well, his tie was incredible, you know kind of stuff and it's just like It's it's really sad. Anyway, I wasn't gonna start there and in fact I only have like 26 minutes now to respond to this stuff because I've got a special guest I hope we have a special guest half-hour because Someone decided to lay down a few minutes.
I hope the the alarm worked anyway Last time we were together. I did not have the opportunity to do a lot of Discussion of this but I wanted to respond to David Hoff, I believe that's the names David Hoff this I heard this as I was driving to church Sunday morning.
I I happened to click on family radio To see if there might be some nice You know music because that's that's sadly only family radio plays the hymns we sing That's a commentary but Instead I got this stuff and I came right in right at this point.
And as soon as I started hearing this I'm just rolling my eyes and just Just just wanting to drive down the other wrong side of the road and Let's just listen to a little bit of David Hoff give you an idea of what it was I was listening to and then we'll start to providing a response.
Unfortunately, we'll read verse 16. It's a complicated verse.
Knowing that these true believers knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. But by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law.
For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So it's a complicated verse. It starts out with the word knowing. This is something the true believers know that generally is not known in the Christian community.
And here is a important question. Whose faith saves us. Whose faith has saved you if you're a believer? Now remember we read in Ephesians 2 8 you're saved by grace through faith, but God didn't say whose faith there.
Although we kind of did by saying it was not of ourselves. But whose faith is that referring to. Whose faith. Well Galatians 2 16 and a couple of other verses tell us very specifically. A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
So whose faith. Faith of Jesus Christ we understand and the believers can understand this that we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. We have the answer whose faith saves us the faith of Jesus Christ not by our faith.
We're saved by Christ faith by the way, this is the correct translation. I got into a discussion with somebody and and. And you know the new Bible is probably maybe if you have a Bible other than the King James.
It probably says the faith in Christ and the new Bibles have changed it. But the Greek is very simple and I've studied a little bit of Greek and I know it's very simple. It's the faith of Christ that is the correct translation and I got into a discussion with somebody I showed him that the Greek is very simple.
Just like the English is very simple and. But oh, but it's just it's so hard to accept because the church says it's our faith. The church and the Bible say it's our faith, but the Greek is very clear.
It's God's faith. Okay, so we're being tested each one of us is being tested. Do you follow the Bible or do you follow the church? Do you follow the church the Bible translators the Christian community all the tracts out there say it's our faith.
Put your faith in Christ. They even change the Bible. Okay, but the Bible says the King James Bible is correct. It says Christ's faith has saved us and there's a few, you know. Unfortunately, you know, we're so blessed in English because we have an old Bible the King James Bible.
I have some contact with some of the other languages and many of them haven't had a Bible until the last hundred years or a Bible that's a full Bible and a lot of them almost all of them say faith in Christ.
But there's a few of the like the some of the like I know the Old Spanish Bible says faith of Christ and some of the Other languages faith of Christ. I think the Chinese Bible says that but a lot of the languages.
They've already gotten to those languages and they all say faith in Christ.
Okay.
Now next we read in verse 16 even we have believed in Jesus Christ now God is teaching us the effect of salvation now. We can understand the difference between a cause and effect right. The cause of salvation is the faith of Christ.
The effect of salvation is we have faith. See Christ's faith is the one. Christ is the faithful one that gave us salvation. He is faithfully completed our salvation. Christ has done it. The Lord Jesus came into this world as a man.
He faithfully obeyed the Father even to the end and went to the Christ and once the cross excuse me He went to the cross. He faithfully obeyed the Father and during hell rose again. Returned to heaven sent the Holy Spirit to apply the Word of God to the hearts of the elect.
Christ was faithful in all of those things to accomplish our salvation. That's why we're saved by Christ. He's the faithful one. That's the cause of our salvation. Now next part in the verse even we have believed in Jesus Christ is the result of salvation.
Faith in Christ. Appears faith in Christ appears in the life as a result of salvation. Just move over to Galatians 5 if you would. Galatians 5 22. Galatians 5 22 very close by it's not very far away. Galatians 5 22 and of course, we know that this is the fruit of the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit.
Okay, but the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith. Meekness temperance. Against such there is no law. So now the question is is the fruit of the Spirit. Is that what causes to be saved or is that the result of our?
Salvation.
It's a result first God saves us and then he works in our lives and these fruits start showing up. He gives us a new heart, but that isn't sufficient enough. He has to put the Holy Spirit in us and and guide us.
He has to do it all and then a godly love to take the first one shows up in our life. We start to love God, which is it means we want to obey him and we love our fellow man. Which is to bring the gospel and so that's the result of salvation.
Love a true godly love Shows up as a result of salvation. God is working in our life to build that and you notice in the same passage just like love is a result of salvation. Faith is a result now in the perverseness of modern man.
This is the churchmen. These are the Christian community. They've changed that to faithfulness or something else. The word is faith. The word faith appears. Exact spelling about 200 times in the New Testament always translated faith, okay, and it's here.
It's faith too, but of course they don't like that if they can't if they can't have what they want. They just change the Bible to say what they want. That's why if you don't have a King James Bible go out and buy one.
Okay, it's faith.
See, okay.
So if it were our faith that would save us it would be something different the fruit of the Spirit. But faith in Christ Shows up here as a result of salvation. So our faith in Christ begins to develop and that's an evidence of a true believer.
And evidence that God has saved us is that there is faith in Christ but that is the cause. We understand that excuse me the effect. We understand the difference between a cause and effect. The cause of our salvation is Christ faith.
The result of salvation is a faith in God like a love for God begins to develop.
Now having played all of that Well there you go, did you did you notice the all the Church and Bible translators those evil evil men. Who up until just a few years ago? We were supporting and we were putting them on the air and and then of course Harold figured out that 1994 was actually the end of the church age and so and 2011 is going to be the end of the end and and all the rest that fun stuff and so now we're doing things differently.
So you've got These churchmen and Bible translators and since they don't like what we believe then they change the Bible now. Of course the New American Standard Which likewise reads at Galatians 2 16 a way that he would find Improper was translated long before Harold camping had a clue about any of this stuff and so how we could dislike this is Difficult really to understand.
The New American Standard says nevertheless knowing that man is not justified by works the law. This is Galatians 2 16 by the way but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of law since by The works of law no flesh will be justified.
Now.
We have someone here who who indicates that he has studied a little Greek. Well, there are few things in life that I have discovered that are more dangerous Than people who have studied a little Greek.
That's like a taking your taxes to someone who has studied a little tax law. The result can be rather devastating and embarrassing and that's the case here. Mr Hoff doesn't know what he's talking about.
He certainly is not a Greek scholar of any rank whatsoever and His comments demonstrate that he only understands enough about Greek to be able to identify the genitive form. But not to translate the genitive form.
I've taught Greek a number of times both on the beginning level and then Greek exegesis and one of the things I love doing Because I like torturing people a little bit. It says as as the the poor students are Crunching along in in first-year Greek and they're they're just they're learning the nominative and the genitive and and the dative and the accusative and evocative and they're they're struggling with these forms and they're just starting to get into verbs and and You know all the rest that stuff and they're they're starting to feel like they're getting somewhere, you know.
Right then I I like to point out to them now you all may be thinking that You are getting along because now you can recognize a a genitive form. The problem is there are many ways of translating the genitive in fact if you use the 5k system and I was I've learned on the 8k system and that is you split the ablative off from the genitive and You had lock of instrumental and dative in the Greek language.
You have those five forms. But in the 8k system you identify different uses if you put the ablative together with the genitive in the 5k system. There are at least at least.
24.
Major translational categories for that particular form. And when I'm talking about this I'm talking about you can have a possessive genitive. You can have in this case what we'll be talking about is the subjective and objective genitive and you have genitives with prepositions and you throw all the ablative stuff in and.
Now you've got separation and origin and source and all this stuff. Okay, and so I like throwing that out to first-year students so they realize you need to do second year as well and Unfortunately, mr. Hoff didn't do second year.
Maybe he didn't finish first year either. I don't know because when he sits there and says well. This is very simple. It's very easy to see he obviously is clueless as to what he's talking about. He has no idea what he's talking about.
The reason being that if you pick up any meaningful commentary on Galatians chapter 2 You will discover that either there or in the same commentary series on on Romans or wherever it might be this Phrase faith of Jesus Christ now Jesus Christ.
Yes, who Chris do is in the genitive? All right, and so the the faith for example in Galatians 2 16 faith is in the genitive as well. But that's primarily because it's being used the preposition use genitive here do so the question is when you look at this phrase faith of Jesus Christ.
What is that communicating? What is that telling us? Now if you would like to have a nice discussion of the differences these things you can pick up the basics of New Testament Syntax by Dan Wallace and intermediate Greek grammar.
You'll see discussion of this on pages 57 and following.
And.
I'm not gonna go through all that right now because I already see people in channel who are saying they're falling asleep and and They're falling off their chairs and you can tell the folks who you know.
Want to get deep and the folks that just want to be entertained and and that's just sort of how that works. But what. The easiest way to remember the the distinction is Is when you encounter?
I.
How you doing? Coughing a lot, huh. Poor thing. I'm sorry. It's okay. You. Well, we'll. We'll get you a glass of water something like that.
In.
When you hear the phrase The love of Christ compels us when you hear someone talking along those lines. What is that the love of Christ is? That the love that we have for Christ. Or is that a love that comes from Christ is?
He the object of the love or the subject of love those are two kinds of genitives and they're called the objective or subjective genitive and As a result of that You will see differences in translations.
There are translations that render Galatians 2 in such a way as to is to Communicate the idea That it is the and these people would not see it as the faith of Christ but as the faithfulness of Christ and.
So there are those who would argue that. You should take this and you should translate it. So that that Christ is the subject the subjective genitive. He's this is his faith or Faithfulness. Now by the way, this doesn't Completely address the fact.
That there are still passages where it is clearly faith that has Christ as the as its object. We are put to believe in Christ. There's no question about that. And so it really doesn't substantiate the point that the camping nights are making anyways.
But be as it may in regards to what mr. Hoff said. It is not true that just looking at this genitive you see genitive and go of. The the question is this is a subjective or objective genitive and I took the time and the God who justifies to go through and And quote different sides on this.
This is I think primarily in the exegesis of Romans, but it comes over here to Galatians and you can present This this entire thing. I'm just watching the channel here and there's this web user and you can always tell when web user comes in during the dividing line.
It's somebody who wants to throw something out in the program. I guess Armstrong has written an open letter or something like that. No, I don't read Dave's Dave site. Last I just noticed he's got pictures on it.
That's all I see. I just it's just there's no reason to do so. Anyway, so I go back to this. I've addressed this and the whole reason I wanted to bring this up is What we're seeing in the development of family radio is the beginning of a cult.
It's the beginning of a cult now, I don't know if this Hoff guy or any of these other people are going to have the The ability to hold this cult together when camping dies you always have to have a charismatic second-generation leader and I don't see one on the on the horizon.
And so I would imagine it's going to fracture and and go lots of different ways. But you this is the beginning of a cult and if you want to see cultic thinking here it is. Here's here's oh, he's willing to come on to the DL.
Yeah, right now he is sure Here is the beginning of a cultic of cultic thinking it is the certainty of ignorance. The certainty of ignorance. What do I mean by that?
Well.
Here's the guy who claims he knows some stuff. Plainly doesn't but he claims he knows some stuff and what he does is he offers to his followers? Certainty. But it's a certainty based upon ignorance. It's a certainty based upon ignorance.
And so what he offers is well, the Greek is plain and The the church wants to hide this and the church wants you to not know this and We're the only ones are going to tell you this and that makes us special and therefore you should trust us with all the other things that.
Well, you really can't verify and that's how they get their foot in the door. That's when the you know when the Jehovah's Witnesses Come knocking on your door. They need to get a foot in the door. How do they do that?
They do that by raising issues or they can give you the certain the certainty based upon ignorance. If They see a cross around your house, then they'll start talking about how they know That Jesus was not crucified on a cross.
He was Impaled on a stake. Or if they come by during the holiday season, then they will they will give you their their nice.
Simple.
Straightforward stuff. About how all holidays are pagan and and you're worshiping a tree and and all the rest of this stuff and and so they'll give you That that certainty of ignorance and now in here we see it in the same thing in regards to Harold camping and the campingites and his whole movement and his the second generation coming up these people that Certainly to be able to be to be Given the opportunity to teach within the camping movement right now.
You need to have campings approval. It's small enough anyway, and So you've got this this incipient King James only ism. If you don't have the King James go out and buy a King James, you know. These modern Bibles have changed it these people's want to change the Bible.
You know, we're used to hearing that from King James only folks and honestly after a while you you watch all this King James only stuff you read their stuff you listen to them and eventually it just becomes so old.
It's repeated so often and it never has a foundation to it. You just stop really paying a whole lot of attention to it. But now here you see it in amongst the campingites and You need to have the King James Bible because the King James Bible will give you this.
You know this certainty in this viewpoint and all the rest that stuff and so there you there you have Taking something that that anyone who reads the language knows there is an issue. Regarding the translation of the objective and subjective genitive and what does that mean and There are people on both sides of that, you know, Dan Wallace argues for one thing Murray argues for another thing and and I like I said, I address those in the God who justifies you can take a look at.
That it does get a little bit beyond what you can do real well on a on a broadcast like this. But it you can look at it you can examine it and you can make your decisions. But this is the misuse of the original language that you see in cults.
It's like it reminds me very much of Joseph Smith. In fact Harold camping reminds me of Joseph Smith only in the sense. I heard I'm sure Joseph Smith was a significantly significantly more Interesting speaker to listen to then herald camping is but as far as the as the Mannerisms of creating this this group.
Every first generation leader has to claim for himself Some sort of authority now that camping is very careful. I haven't had any visions. I haven't had any dreams. So what he does is he creates the the impression of Biblical knowledge and he certainly knows.
You know the the Bible he certainly read the Bible many times over but he does not know the original language of the Bible does not seem to to be concerned about anything like that at all and What he does is he he crushes dissent?
Through the use of that little little button that he's got. Because when you try to call in when you if you try to debate with him at all. He's just simply going to let you go to a certain point and then you're gone.
No more does anybody hear you and he can just rattle on for the next, you know, 15 minutes and by the time if you are even put back on and remember that sort of mini debate that Chris Arnson did with him where he Just kept putting Chris back on over and over and over again and Chris got to say a lot of important things.
That was extremely unusual that generally does not happen at all. But still you only get it's not much of a debate when you get 10 seconds and the other person gets 10 minutes. You know, that's not real fair.
And so that's how he creates the the persona of A Bible teacher who cannot be challenged and so then he can say we're just we're just talking about what the Bible says. And we simply are willing to be corrected by the Bible and we draw everything that we believe from the Bible and if I were to say that I was Receiving dreams and visions then you would realize that I am a false teacher.
But I am NOT. I am just looking at what the Bible says and so that's. That's what they want. Hey, look Summer there. They're saying we want summer in the channel. So they they don't they're not I Guess they don't want me anymore.
And so if you'd like to you know, just take over here in a second after the break Debbie. That'd be fine. Trying to help people. How do I get treated anyway? That's what he's doing. And and that's that's how it's functioning and and that's how he's creating the persona that he's creating and all all the rest that need.
Fun wonderful stuff. Anyway, I've seen all sorts of stuff going by. On the on the thing here my proposal you all say how you want to be on divine line webcasts. Let me talk. I heard a great example that last night.
I think it's possible to do this even in our case. So I'm posing this how about if I come on and we talked for the whole hour in a similar manner To your almost half hour long discussion yesterday with Jonathan.
Oh. They've heard our nice little discussion with Jonathan and Yeah, okay. Anyway, well, I guess we have to go read that and just go. Hmm. Anyway, we're gonna take our break and then I'm going to be joined the average age of the program is going to decrease by 50 or more actually it's more than 50 because I was.
That's my math isn't so good. But then again, I'm not cast somewhere figured.
So.
We're gonna take our break and then I'm going to be joined by my daughter's summer and we're going to chat and Who knows maybe even take a phone call or something, but we're gonna take our break. Eight seven seven seven five three three.
Three four one. We'll be right back.
Today.
So many stuff strong and true fall away.
Convictions once held and died for among Bible-believing Protestants are now being reconsidered with the advent of the recent Auburn Avenue movement. Is there currently a common basis for dialogue between Roman Catholics and Protestants?
Were the signers of ECT correct in their ecumenical efforts and all of the reformed scholars who opposed them in error? Does Trinitarian baptism make one a member of the new covenant our Roman Catholics our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Join us in Los Angeles, California on November 5th 2004 for a full three hours of moderated debate between dr James White of Alpha and Omega ministries and Douglas Wilson of the Auburn Avenue movement and new st Andrews College as these topics are debated between two of the most respected representatives of the opposing viewpoints.
Additional information and tickets can be ordered at a omen org. That's www .a o m i n dot o r g. This portion of the dividing line has been made possible by the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church. The Apostle Paul spoke of the importance of solemnly testifying of the gospel of the grace of God.
The proclamation of God's truth is the most important element of his worship in his church. The elders and people of the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church invite you to worship with them this coming Lord's Day.
The morning Bible study begins at 930 a .m. And the worship service is at 1045. Evening services are at 630 p .m. On Sunday and the Wednesday night prayer meeting is at 7. The Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church is located at 3805 North 12th Street in Phoenix.
You can call for further information at 602 to 6 grace. If you're unable to attend you can still participate with your computer and real audio at Prbc .org. Where the ministry extends around the world through the archives of sermons and Bible study lessons available 24 hours a day.
At the heart of the controversy between Roman Catholic and Reformation theology is the nature of justification itself. It is a debate not merely about how or when or by what means a person is justified.
But about the very meaning of justification and the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's a debate reserved for Roman Catholics and the Reformers. The doctrine of justification is now being challenged from within the walls of reformed evangelicalism itself.
Join Alpha and Omega ministries as we embark on our first national conference and confront this very issue. Justification the heart of the gospel with pastor and co-author of Holy Scripture the ground and pillar of our faith David King the president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Founders Conference Tom Askell New Testament Research Ministries founder and author of evangelical answers Eric Svensson.
The founder of the Spurgeon Archive and executive director of grace to you Philip Johnson Nationally renowned Reformed Christian artist Steve camp and the founder of Alpha Omega ministries and author. Dr. James White.
Join us at the Los Angeles, California LAX Sheraton ballroom on November 6 2004 beginning at 845 a .m. Seating is limited. So order your tickets now at a omen org. That's www .aomin .org. I looked over and both summer and I were.
What do you call that? Is that karaoke when you're. Well, no karaoke is when you actually sing we were laying. What was it? Lip-syncing that didn't sound good. Try that again Lip-syncing, okay. Well, alright, that's what it was.
Hey, this is really weird. Right as I went into the break, I noticed a little mail thing. You know how little thing shows up in your system tray when you've got mail and Somebody had asked at church last night.
So, how is it that summer is going to be interviewed on KFAX in San Francisco, and I hadn't asked them. I hadn't actually taken the time to say by the way, how did you know that about what happened my daughter?
And so I get this email and the email is from re and Now we know why we're gonna be on KFX in a while for those of you who haven't read the blog Summers with me now. We're gonna make sure that the phones are working and the microphones working and the headphones are working and we're gonna chat for a while, but Also at 630 this evening so two hours from right now.
We are going to be on KFAX for about half an hour. To also talk about the same situation and we are going to webcast that so if when you're done listening then we're gonna go bye-bye for about an hour and 20 minutes and then we'll probably put pre feed music on or something like that and Then you can listen to the interview if you would like.
You know at 630 Pacific Time which would be 930 Eastern Time if you're listening. Anyway, we get an email right during the program. It says hi, dr White. I was glad to read in your blog today that your daughter will be interviewed on KFAX.
Earlier in the week I saw her Reflections and her original failed assignment on the blog and I was amazed by her courage and maturity as well as the other foolishness Of her teacher and the administrators who apparently support the teacher.
I prayed both out and showed them to my own 15 year old public school student daughter as an example of both the absurdity of Postmodernism and as someone her age taking such a firm stand against the subversion of truth.
Incidentally my daughter and I met your daughter a couple of years ago when she and I were in Phoenix for a gymnastics meet. You were traveling at the time. But I was the case with me, isn't it? But we met your wife and kids at the Sunday morning service at PR BC.
And so it says anyway, I emailed KFAX the link to your blog and the suggestion that they discussed this incident on their lifeline broadcast. I got a quick response that day from the producer PJ Oliver that she was trying to contact you and that was last I heard Of it until I read your update today.
I definitely plan to be listening. So there's there's the connection. That's how it happened is. That blog I tell you that blog gets gets us into so much trouble. That's and that's a that's a good thing.
That's that's okay. So I'm gonna swing back here because you know, it's really hard to talk to people when you can't see them. And so now I can see you. Hi summer. How are you?
You've got a cold, don't you? Yes. I'm sorry. Because you're gonna be like going and you don't have a little cough button see that thing up here. This is my cough button. Oh, yeah, so if watch it watch what happens.
And then I can put back on them and then things like then that cool. Okay, well, you know the last time you were on You were considerably Smaller than you are now. Do you remember that? I remember being nervous.
Nervous do you remember where it was? It was in a really large building at 24th Street in Camelback. He was and we were still on on the radio station and you and Josh were on and Warren was there. That's right.
That's right. He was he was in the control room and that would have been man I don't have any idea how long ago that was but Anyway, it was a while back. So it's been a while and now your brother's off.
You know, he goes to college and works and all that kind of stuff and y 'all are growing up and lo and behold until this year. You were at Phoenix Christian High School, right? Correct, and This wouldn't have happened if you were still at Phoenix Christian High School.
I don't think no. But this year you are at a let's just call it a public school and it's the local high school and It let's face it. It wasn't the first one. We got wanted to go to was it? We had another another thing in mind, but I Would have to say that after about two two and a half weeks I started noticing when I was picking you up that some you really like it there.
I like it a lot better than my Christian school. Let's just say that why?
The people are a lot cooler limited and when I say cooler, I mean They're not rich snobby people.
Were there rich snobby people at a Christian school? Well, but now the teachers that the Christian school were cool. Uh.
Yes, the teachers were great the teachers. Actually, no, I like my teachers here better. Really why?
They're smarter. So you're more challenged right now. Yes much more challenging. I'm noticing you're having to spend a lot of time on homework and in the whole nine yards. Yeah, that's good. That's a good thing.
And I guess the main thing you had said was I'll go ahead and use terminology. You said that the kids weren't stuck up exactly and let's face it. You know, I had to notice it when I'd pick you up from the Christian school that.
Most of the kids had cars that were nicer in mind. Mm-hmm, and I don't think they had earned them.
We we have we Paul folks didn't fit in all that all that well in that in that situation but we also knew that you were gonna be facing some other kinds of challenges within the context of a public school and.
We've talked about this kind of stuff for years.
I mean.
I think there's probably a time when you were Much younger that you didn't find some of the things that dad talked about while we drove around town overly fascinating especially. You were always fascinated weren't you.
Especially when I talked about things like worldviews and stuff like that taking notes. Yeah, and but you knew that was coming and. You're you're sort of you don't mind a little controversy. Do you know?
No, I don't but so you you you were in an English you're in an accelerated English class and Second writing assignment of the year I.
Believe so. Yes, I think is the second. Okay, and.
Don't tell us a little bit about what the assignment was.
Well, we had to. First we had to come up with a topic that we wanted to speak to the president about something.
We felt strongly about speak to the president. So you mean a letter? Yes in a letter.
Well, it was first she just gave us a topic. She wants to have us.
Write a lot of essays to have practice for the Ames and to explain what Ames is here in Arizona. There is a test you have to pass to graduate called the Ames test. And so that's now the big thing that you're always prepping for in each of the classes, right?
You take it your sophomore year. You can't pass without it blah blah blah.
She wants us to write a lot of essays but to make it easier on us She was gonna put it in a letter form make it more interesting yada yada.
So we had to write a letter to the president and these are gonna be sent, correct?
Yes, we first actually we we'd already written a letter to a local magazine, which she had sent there's on our public which is a newspaper whatever and.
This letter that's a nice way of putting it. It's called other things locally here, but we won't mention what they are.
Yeah, anyway. So this letter, you know, it had a certain amount of rules. I had to follow. You had to put vocab words and from unit two and you had to start off certain paragraphs with certain things.
Yada, yada, and that was basically the only rules that we had for it.
Now when the teacher began to assign this She started throwing out some subjects or did this student start throwing out subjects?
She likes it if the students come up with the subjects so she gave us one I don't remember what but then she just kind of sat back and wanted us to throw them out.
So that's when students started giving their suggestions. And what were some of the suggestions? Oh.
Job losses need for more jobs gun control oil crisis and that's when and then people started getting in issues like gay marriage abortion stem cell research.
Yeah, and so you had. You'd actually initially thought about doing a different subject. What were you gonna? I was gonna write about gay marriage. Okay, and.
Why in the world would you ever think of that? I don't know. Actually, I just popped in my head. Yes. Actually, I don't know that one. I just heard a lot about it lately and it gets under my skin when people are like, oh, I'm Christian.
But I think gay people rock or whatever. So I was gonna go in there and tear it up and put my own views on that. And you've also.
Attended like a certain debate on Long Island a few years ago.
Featuring.
Barry Lynn and. That one dude actually. Yes. Yes the bald dude. So you've you've actually had a little exposure to that kind of stuff and. But you didn't end up writing on that. What. So what happened?
No, I did not.
There's a kid in my class who gave out the topic of stem cell research and. That one definitely caught my attention.
Why?
Well, honestly, I I Don't know that. I didn't know at that time that much about it. I knew I didn't like it. But then I got to thinking about it and I was like, well, um, do I really know anything about this?
Not really. Plus the whole abortion issue just Makes me mad. So I was really I've always been heated about that. No matter what, you know.
That's pulled a book down off my shelf that I know you have stolen from me in the past on subject abortion.
Yes, so that one really pricked my ears.
So you. So someone else wrote a letter May at least one was it more than one in support just one person in support of stem cell research. Okay. Now I remember that you had mentioned to me that one of the things this teacher had said is it not only do you? Write these assignments, but you also have to read them before the class, right?
Yes, and that you need to do so with Passion and in fact, I remember while we were eating at our favorite Mexican restaurant Olivas that you had said We get free advertising that's at 28th Avenue in Cactus in Phoenix and That you had to hit the podium three times or you'd fail now.
She didn't repeat that for this one. You only had to hit it once right? Yeah one time but you had to pound the pot. You really had to put yourself into it. Is that the idea? Okay, so You came home and you you had asked me more than once for some some links To look at and I only gave you one and so you probably just googled out there into the internet looking for other stuff And started reading on the subject of stem cell research.
Yep, and What you found What did you think?
By the time I was done. I pretty much I. First I researched it before I wrote because they didn't want to just you know, go off on a tangent.
Why not isn't that how you're supposed to do things today? Well, I mean Cameron Diaz can go on Oprah and do that. Hello.
I'm a rebel.
Like I was saying, isn't that sad. That it to be a rebel today means you actually hold solid views. What a concept.
So I read up a lot on it. In fact, I think a lot of my information came from like Catholic sites. Religious sites actually on stem cell research. Yeah, there were a lot of quotes from like James Dobson and stuff.
First he's not actually yeah, I know but you know religious. Yes along those lines. I know and First I researched it. I read up on it before I started writing and I Before I started writing I really didn't know what I was gonna say because I didn't know that much about it.
I didn't feel like I knew enough about it to write a good paper, which is why I wanted to do the research first. So I did that and then once I had my idea of where I stood on it.
Then I started writing and you indicate you spent about three hours or so in between instant messages and phone calls. I wouldn't. Yeah, I wouldn't want to. I really. Know exactly when you're doing your homework.
What percentage of your time is going into the actual homework and and what's going? So you spend some time on the letter and. You you presented it while I was up in Canada. Yes on a Friday Friday afternoon Friday afternoon actually before lunch, isn't it?
It was right before lunch before lunch. And you weren't the first one to go. No, I wish I was that would have been interesting. But in fact hadn't had the person supporting stem cell research already gone before you.
Yes.
He went on Thursday and I was about to cry. I wanted to go after him.
Couple days to do this. Yeah, it took more than one day for everybody to read. There's something I didn't know. So on Friday you get up there and You present your letter and how'd it go? Oh, I had fun with that.
Actually. I was enjoying that reading that up there.
I was really excited. I was looking forward to it. So I read it and then when I was done.
Everybody stood up in class and so you got standing ovation. I did say ovation from your class. In fact, didn't you say that that the guy who wrote the opposite position also gave you stood up? I don't know if it was peer pressure or what because everyone was standing but you don't like sitting if you're no.
But before you left the podium now now what was happening is that you were? When you got once you got done. Reading your letter you were to fold it. Mm-hmm. And put it in an envelope. That was addressed to the president right.
That we addressed ourselves. You addressed yourselves to the president and then you were to lick it. Lick it and stick it lick it and stick it. Yeah, and so there is a pile of letters. Mm-hmm. They're folded up.
They're good now. So that means that the teacher has not yet read These letters at this point. She's only heard them how you've presented them, right? And Before you even leave the podium what happens?
Well, she let everybody do their thing, you know, she's looking at me and she goes who is Charlie Reese.
Yeah, a Carol was was who the first guy was that you quoted. No, it's not who it was. Yeah, there's some Republican do listen for life for something. No, Charlie Reese I don't know. It wasn't Charlie Reese's Colin Farrow.
Yes, Colin Farrow was the name parrow Pierre, okay. All right, and. So you had you had? Cited somewhere along the lines a Source. Now, let's talk just just briefly for a second. She had indicated that you should Back up your opinions, right?
Yes. It's Colin parrow. Yes spokesperson of the Republican National Coalition for life. Mm-hmm. All righty. And so you quoted this I'm reading from the letter. It says it's Colin peril the spokesperson for the Republican National Coalition for life stated We do not believe that human beings should ever be sacrificed to the benefit of another.
We thought we left that at Nuremberg 50 years ago and quote and. So she before you leave she goes who is Charlie Reese. Who is someone else that I quoted? Oh, I thought was Colin perro. Okay. All right.
And what did you say?
Well, I looked at her and I was like, um, he's someone I quoted the dude.
Guy yes. Yes, and.
She was like, yes, I thought so.
Yes Charlie Reese states it is ridiculous for people to have already decided that is moral to kill babies and willing to show some squeamishness about Destroying human embryos in a Petri dish, etc, etc.
Okay, and Had she done this anybody else? No. Okay, and then what happened took me off guard.
I kind of stood there for a second like I freeze but I don't know what to say. So it's kind of looking at her like.
She said Yes, I didn't think you knew who that was and Ouch. Yeah, and then I went to. I was in the process of folding my letter and putting it in the envelope and she says No, don't do that. And she just took it for me and She said please come see me after class.
Okay, I'm like, okay.
What's the rest of class doing at this point. Watching.
Just watching.
So at the end of class. What happens at the end of class. I went up to the desk and.
Everybody was shuffling out. It's right before lunch. So it's like BAM right out the door. So I'm standing at her desk. She's shuffling around with papers gathering all the envelopes and I said miss, you know you wanted to talk to me and She said yes I would like it if you could print out all of the resources that you used on your paper.
And I said, okay, you know, that's fine. It's gonna be really long though. And she said oh, no. No, don't don't worry about that. And I was about to leave and I was like, well, can I ask why and She said yes to make sure that those were your words.
So that sounds you like an accusation of plagiarism. I don't know what else it could have sounded like. Yeah, so.
Pretty much and I didn't. I just didn't know what to say. So I just kind of nodded walked out the door. I'm not very good at confrontation. So I was like, all right.
So sort of ruined your day, hey yeah, sort of bummed you out the rest of the day and So I came home we you print out ten pages Yes of stuff from the internet and even took time to highlight the sections that you Had looked at and so on so forth.
Now I took the time to look at your letter and not only did I I check it against the internet to make sure that It hadn't been plagiarized. I took the unique phrases and it did not appear anywhere on the internet.
It certainly would now by the way, but it'll be your letter but I also took time to do a word count and discovered that the total number of citations which included definitions was less than 17 of the letter by word count and If you take these citations the definitions of what we're talking about embryonic stem cell research you had to find these things.
You're down around 10 so it's a very small amount and.
Next week and we're running out of time here the next week.
You.
Ask and you're basically told I'll get to it this coming weekend. As far as reading all the documentation stuff went, right?
When you asked if you're gonna get credit. You were told you would. If as I recall correctly you would get credit for however much of it was my work. How many am I now. That to me sounded very much like plagiarism and so I recognized.
Look. The fact the matter is your letter. People have read it then. A lot of folks have said I'd have a hard time believing a 15 year old wrote that. And. You've written a second article since then. And people read that.
And when I posted it in channel people are going. Is that Ann Coulter? You know, who is that? And so you write on a little different level than a lot of your friends do. And so I thought I would help the teacher Out.
So I write a letter to her in which I explain some of your background. The fact the matter is you come from a home where you have a mother and a father and they both happen to be. Your mother and father.
And that's. And and it's crazy, but it's also. Would you would not agree? That's probably the minority by a long shot in your school. Definitely. And your parents have been married for 22 years and. Then I gave some of my background.
That I've written many many books. I and you know speaking and professor and all the rest of stuff. And you gave her that letter at the end of fourth hour on Wednesday. And.
What happened you for that letter. At the end of fourth hour. Lunch is a half an hour. Which is fifth hour. I walk into sixth hour and about Five minutes into class a student walks in and she has an envelope and she says I'm looking for summer.
Raise my hand. I have this envelope it's addressed to me and you and my mom and I open it up and there's my letter and It has blue marker written all over it and then another really short letter written on stationery for you.
Right. And.
That was upsetting and it said no credit. No credit awarded because I didn't follow directions. Right apparently. Make a long story short. We ended up getting together with the teacher principal a secretary who was taking notes you and I and And Make a long story short.
It was we were told that plagiarism was never the issue And that the whole thing was the assignment was that this was to be a personal letter that expressed your opinion and That you would over relied on sources.
Now you have been told to do research. You've been told you get stats you could back yourself up but there had never been any discussion about the maximum amount of material that could be used or anything like that nothing like that all and.
We kept pointing this out that that when you read the instructions, which I've posted with your letter on the web You can see that you follow the instructions that you you did the assignment exactly, right?
And so what was eventually offered to you was you could redo the letter for three quarters? Credit right. And What did you say that? No?
No.
No, no, and but why. Summer. Why. Aren't you just being obstinate. Aren't you just I am. This is total obstination. That's the word. Um well it is now.
Totally. Yeah, I know. I wasn't gonna rewrite my letter. I didn't feel that there was anything that needed to be rewritten to write lesser of a letter for less credit. Definitely not working for me. Well.
And and I think people need to understand why I mean you're sending a letter to the president. And she did not send your letter to the president. No. She did not she does not even own a copy of that's right.
That's right, because she didn't she didn't collect your second copy of it, so she's actually Did all that without reading the letter initially which is very very interesting, but anyway She wouldn't wouldn't send the letter which has we know been hand-delivered to the White House this past Saturday.
Thank you very much to those out there in blog land who made that happen.
But.
Fundamentally eventually after our first meeting We hear back. Well you can redo it for full credit right. And You still wouldn't do it. No and the reason you still wouldn't do it was not because you were Angry or mad, but why?
Well, I don't think that a letter especially something written to the president. Especially something on the issue that I was writing on that simply my Opinion carries any weight whatsoever. I mean I could have a far-out their opinion, and she would give me credit.
But that's not what I want. I don't think it's okay to have an opinion, but not be able to back it up.
Just say this is what I believe here. Take it so you're you're not a post-modernist. You don't think that truth is just what you experienced it. You actually think you have to back up what you believe.
Yeah, well, that's your problem young lady there you go in fact haven't you. Haven't you? Heard in this class. Don't worry about what your opinion is. Your opinion is Truth. Oh yes your opinion is truth.
There you go, and you just wanted to use yours to express that the president well you know since then and we're running out of time here, and if people want to hear the rest of the rest of story or this story again.
Remember we'll be back on about an hour and 20 minutes from now. We're doing the kayfax interview, and you can listen at the same link you're listening at now. I believe but. Since then now you still don't have any credit for that.
No. I do not. But you know that that letter has been hand-delivered to the president United States. We have received dozens of emails from people. Especially talking about young people in your same situation in high schools who have been encouraged by you're taking a stand and by what you said in the letter and.
So even if you never do get that that credit. It's probably worth Worth the 50 points given that that letter has had more impact that ever would have had had it. Been treated properly, let's put that way definitely worth 50 points.
50 points all right. Well. Thank you, honey for coming in and we're gonna be doing this again in an hour and 20 minutes or so in a different context. Thanks you all for listening to the dividing line today.
We'll be back on Tuesday. Day morning 11 a .m.. My time 2 p .m.. Eastern Daylight Time. We'll see you then. God bless.
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