Inside The Insane $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Bill | Guest Host: Justin Barclay | 12/23/22

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It's a new day up time to rise.

What you are about to hear is the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This is the Glen Back Program.

Welcome and a Merry Christmas to you.

It is Justin Barclay in for Glenn today on the Glen Back Program.

We've got a we got a big one lined up for you.

Normally, this time of year, everything just sort of screeches to a halt.

Tis the season, but no, no, they're even working on Capitol Hill today.

That have a vote happening in the House, the $1.7 trillion

pork-filled omnimus package.

We'll talk about that.

The Cary Lake trial, and yes,

SBF in jail, now out of jail, the Crypto Command.

More on all of it coming up this morning.

Justin Barkley in for Beck Beck after this.

Justin Barkley and for Glenn Beck today in the Glenbeck program.

You connect with me at Justin Barkley, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y

dot-com.

Send me a message there.

I'd love to hear from you.

You know, it's kind of Friday going into the Christmas holiday.

I think it'd be good to take a few calls today and hear from you, particularly

among this, uh, the different topics, the $1.7 trillion pork stuff omnimus bill

that they have, uh, that they voted on in the Senate to pass.

That goes to the House today.

They're still working up until the deadline.

They'll get that passed, I'm sure.

And then

all the fun begins.

But here's the number, 888-727-BEC.

That's 888-727-BECK.

If you want to join the program, love to hear from you.

We'll chat

as things as move forward here in the program.

I just wanted to kind of break down for you so you can kind of understand what is in this.

And there's more.

We talked a bit about this yesterday, and we've been talking about it.

Glenn's been talking about it.

I know

it's hard to understand.

I just want to give you a picture, though, when you think of a trillion dollars, because we get into numbers like this.

And we'll talk more about this later in the hour, but you get into numbers like this, and you just kind of lose track of how much

a trillion actually is.

Somebody called the other day and gave me the breakdown.

I said, Look, you know, it's unimaginable.

It's hard to think about, but a trillion dollars, if you're going to count to a trillion, like a trillion seconds,

you just started counting.

A trillion seconds from here on out.

It would take 37,000 years to get there.

A trillion.

So that's how much money, again,

we're just signing off on.

You know,

I'm sure this won't have any effect on inflation.

I'm sure it won't.

No, of course not.

It couldn't possibly have any impact on the cost of everything

as we move forward.

Yes,

that's on the agenda.

We'll talk about that today.

And I don't know if you saw, but SBF was arrested.

He was brought into the country, and now SPF has been let.

Well, he's been freed.

Sam Bankman freed has been freed, and he is out.

And I guess

there's this big story about how much bail $250 million.

And rightfully so, people started questioning.

There's that much money out there.

I thought he lost it all.

Where is he going to get that much money?

Well, the truth behind that whole ordeal and what actually took place is something altogether different.

It turns out he just gets to hang out, probably, in his PJs, very similarly to what Zelensky did when he came in,

when he came into Congress, picking up some money.

Yeah, no, he gets to hang in his PJs at his parents' house, apparently, until the trial takes place.

So that's what we got to look forward to.

Day two of the Kerry Lake trial has wrapped up, and the Kerry Lake trial down in Arizona, some startling things have come out of it.

She gave a statement yesterday outside of the courthouse.

Quick statement.

I am so incredibly proud of our amazing attorneys and staff that put this amazing case together, historic case.

We proved without a shadow of a doubt that there was malicious intent that caused disruption so great it changed the results of the election.

I'm incredibly proud of both Brian Blem and Kurt Olson who led up this legal team.

We provided expert testimony.

We provided experts.

The other side brought in activists to try to save face.

They admitted that they've known about these ballot problems, their ballot problems.

Now they're trying to say that it's been going on for three elections.

Our elections are a mess in this country.

And I am so happy to stand up and say, no longer will we as Americans put up with this.

We demand fair, honest, transparent elections, and we will get them.

And I pray so hard for this judge.

I think that he really took in all of that information.

I think he listened very closely to what happened.

And I am fighting for the people of Arizona, but not just for the people of Arizona.

I'm fighting for the people of this country and for our future.

If we don't have honest elections where we decide who represents us, then we don't have a country anymore.

And you know,

the defendants, their attorney said it in his closing In his closing statement.

He said, we choose our rulers.

Isn't that telling?

This was a selection, not an election.

And we in America choose who represents us.

And we will restore honest elections.

And I will never stop fighting.

I will never stop fighting.

So thank you.

There she is, Carrie Lake.

And boy, I can't imagine.

I can't imagine

what she must be thinking about and going through right now.

There's a lot on the line down in Arizona.

Who knows how that's going to play out?

Waiting, it's all up to judge now waiting.

But some of the headlines: day two now, wrapped the trial wrapped all together.

This was a quick try to get it out, try to get it done

as quickly as possible.

But here's some of the headlines, just to think about this.

What was actually happening down in Arizona?

And well, we kind of lose track of some of these things because we get wrapped up in the day-to-day, but

it could not be by accident.

One of the experts testifying about the key problem: 42% of ballots cause chaos.

And one of the things that I saw, the numbers are right here.

They allowed Kerry Lakes people, the judge allowed, because this is Arizona law, in fact, they allow them to take a look at the ballots.

They might have questions about these things.

They allow them to go in and take a look.

They get 15.

Now, that's not a big sample size, but, you know, folks are saying, wait a minute, 15, that's not enough.

But even in the 15, they found, and this is something, in the ones they looked at, particularly, I believe it's Maricopa County,

the one in question.

But the ones they looked at, they found

14 of the 15,

14 of the 15 had issues.

Now, what were the issues?

Mainly that this ballot,

20-inch paper,

but the image of the ballot projected onto the paper.

That's what happens when you make a copy or something.

You put an image on a piece of paper.

No matter if you're printing something at your house or

wherever this might be.

But

the 19-inch image projected on a 20-inch piece of paper was the issue.

That was the problem.

And apparently

that's what caused all the issues in the printer.

And when they went to go scan the ballots through the system, when the people had voted, they had filled out their bubbles and everything.

They go scan it through.

They kept getting rejected.

This is in Maricopa County, day of voting.

It only happened day of vote.

Didn't happen any other time.

Didn't happen anywhere else.

Maricopa County,

thousands of people disenfranchised.

Thousands of people sent wondering that day whether or not, sent home wondering whether or not their vote is even going to count.

Whether or not it even counted at all.

And they say, oh, no, just go ahead and

put everything in this

drop box here.

You know, they called it

box three or whatever they called it.

Put everything in the box here.

Everything will be fine.

And people walked out wondering, what in the world happened?

Does my vote even count?

Folks disenfranchised.

And in fact,

who knows

the truth on that?

And yet, we learned some startling things in the trial, as you just heard her mention.

This is an issue they've known about.

Now, here's a really particularly sticky, I would think, legal issue for Katie Hobbs

that's been revealed here.

Now, I don't know how much traction this will get.

Abe Homeday, which is the attorney, the man running for Attorney General, he also got to go to trial, waiting for the results of that trial.

But this ought to be looked at.

Maybe even the sitting Attorney General Bernovich could look into this as well because there's a sticky legal situation here.

Let me tell you what it is.

We'll get into all of that coming up in just a moment.

You can join the Glenn Beck program anytime.

888727 Beck, B-E-C-K.

What should happen?

Now that we've got the we've heard from the experts, we've heard the testimony, we found out that there were problems, what should happen?

Do they need a new election?

Just insert her in.

I don't know if there's, if there's, I don't know what the legal process would be.

I don't think that

would be part of it.

But what do you do now that you've got all this information?

Triple 8727 Beck, B-E-C-K,

back after this on the Glenn Beck program.

Sparkly and for back today, Justin Barkley and the Glenbeck program.

Yeah, we're following the storm, the weather, and all of this snow apocalypse.

We'll talk about that, I'm sure,

at some point today.

But I will tell you, it's wild because this global warming.

It's just had the complete opposite effect.

We're under a blizzard warning where I'm broadcasting T Live from in West Michigan.

Grand Rapids, high at top.

And right now, it's wide out outside my windows.

It's completely wide out.

Seven degrees, I think, is the temps.

Even lower in some places to the south of us, which is wild.

But this thing is causing some issues for a lot of folks traveling.

We'll talk about that coming up here in just a little bit.

But boy, the climate change.

What is it now?

Is it climate change?

Is that what it is?

Officially?

It's a global warming.

It can't be global warming anymore.

This certainly isn't warm.

It's not warm here anyway.

I can tell you that much.

And essentially, this is winter.

We have this every year.

Hey, so back down to Arizona.

42% of ballots causing chaos, a key issue.

They said amongst the 113 examined, 48 of them had this problem.

19-inch ballots produced on 20-inch paper.

That was the problem.

Now, here's the big issue, and this may be a legal issue for Katie Hobbs, who was the Secretary of State, oversaw her own election to the governor in Arizona.

Nothing to see here, folks.

You know, there should never be even an appearance of impropriety in any of these elections, in any of these situations.

There should never even be an appearance of it.

And yet, that appears that's all we have these days.

You know, they got questions.

Anytime you got questions about something you're called crazy, and the FBI now calling people conspiracy theorists when you're looking at the Twitter files and things that are dumped out.

Well,

I digress, but this is what we're seeing in every story we come across these days.

But Katie Hobbs might be in a problem.

She might be in a bit of a pickle.

Here's why.

She certified this election.

Then you say, well,

what's the problem with that?

She certified it.

Well,

the issue isn't just that she certified her own election that she oversaw, but she certified it.

And apparently, what just came out in this trial,

and we know this now

is that she certified it knowing that this issue existed.

And it was still under investigation.

Maricopa County

still investigated.

In fact, I don't know that we were supposed to find that out.

I don't know that anybody was supposed to know what exactly happened with these ballots.

And here's the other thing, folks.

You've got to realize this.

In this Kerry Lake trial down in Arizona, we would have never known.

You would have run around saying, well, that's, you know, that's odd that all these people had their ballots rejected.

All these people they went to go vote, and then

it went through the scanner and it would pop out, and they don't know whether their vote counted.

You said, Well, that's a little, yeah, certainly that's illustrated.

Something must have gone on, but you know, you might have said, It's just a glitch,

it's just a glitch.

That's all that is.

There's nothing, nothing to see here.

There's just a little glitch, or you might have just kind of shrugged it off,

could have anyway,

But turns out,

the only reason we find out what caused that glitch is because this thing went to trial

and they got to inspect the ballots and they actually found out

what was happening behind the scenes.

Now, your question, and the same as mine, I understand that, feel the same way.

So, okay, now we know this.

What happens next?

Well, Katie Hobbs knowingly certified an election

that had issues.

Any legal recourse for that?

What should happen,

not just in this case, but in all the cases when we look at

some of the

some of the problems that we continue to see in New York?

Let's go to, I think it's Mark on the phone, 888727BECK back.

I'm going to try and work as many phone calls as I can in today, just, you know,

tis the season.

Mark in New York.

Mark, how are you?

Good.

How are you doing?

Good.

So election issues.

Whether you want to call it fraud,

whatever you want to call it.

Now we know.

We know for a fact at least one of the problems in Arizona.

What should happen here?

I don't really know, but I know that I live in upstate New York, a very small town, and we had the same thing happening in our very small town.

It was my first time voting, so I was kind of of just getting used to everything.

But walking in, I heard a couple of old timers kind of being like, how many times does your thing try to go through?

And the guy said four times.

And I was like, what are these guys even talking about, you know?

So I stood in line.

I get to the thing.

It's clearly a strong, it's a black box, a very strong black box with a lock on it, Scantron.

The lady goes, all right, put your vote in, you know.

Scantron, she goes in, spits it out.

Try again.

Put it in, spits it out.

She goes, hand me that.

We'll count that by hand later.

It goes behind the desk in a box, and that was it.

That was it.

I mean, this is not something I'm making up.

This is literally in small town, rural, upstate New York.

And I was kind of like, I wanted to ask this lady, like, how do I know what you're doing with this vote?

Like, this machine here is clearly made to make sure my vote goes and does whatever it's supposed to be doing.

It's locked.

It's solid.

And now you want me to just hand it to you?

And I thought it was a joke.

And, you know, it's interesting you bring this up because you're seeing it New York.

So this very similar could happen all over.

But let me ask you this, Mark.

I mean, just personally for you, did that like

restore your confidence in the system?

Did that do anything to make you feel better that your vote was going to be counted?

And that democracy was alive and well.

What did that do for you?

How did that make you feel?

Honestly, because it was also my first time voting, I was,

yeah, I was kind of shocked.

I mean,

if the box, if the machine I was putting in wasn't so clearly made to be like unbreakable, you know what I mean?

To go from this machine that's made to take this ballot and, you know, make sure nobody can tamper with it to handing it to a woman I've never seen before to go behind a desk.

I mean, it was like, I thought it was like a dream show or something.

It was like someone was going to come out and be like, I'm just kidding.

You got punked.

You got punked.

You're on candid camera.

New York was extremely close for the first time in how long.

Yeah.

I mean, if this happened to how many people in upstate New York, just in small towns dotted around upstate New York, I mean, I'm not some voter fraud conspiracy guy, whatever you want to call it.

When things are not right, things are not right.

Mark, I appreciate the phone call.

You're absolutely right.

We've got to get this back on track because if we don't stop this, if we don't solve this issue, what's the point?

I've heard so many people ask, like, what's the point?

Well, I'll give you a little more confidence.

We've got to continue to fight the fight, folks.

We can't give up.

But at the same time, we've got to solve these problems and we've got to solve them for good.

You're absolutely right.

Too many people have died.

Too much blood has been spilled to make sure that this process works safely, securely, and that it works with integrity.

Speaking of integrity,

the Senate voted, I know, it's hard.

I shouldn't laugh, but the Senate voted to pass that $1.7 trillion omnibus.

Congress gets it.

The House gets it.

Later today, we'll talk about that, what's inside of it, and more, all coming up in moments in a Glen Back Program.

The Glen Back Program.

Back on for Beck, it's Justin Barklay now in the Glen Back Program.

You can connect with me anytime you'd like at JustinBarklay, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y.com.

Find out how we can stay in touch there.

And send me a message love to hear from you taking several calls today too because you know it's the last day before christmas i want to make sure we

we end with a bang triple eight seven two seven beck b-e-c-k stand at eight seven two seven b-e-c-k we're talking the uh snow we're talking the snowmageddon snow apocalypse

And it is kind of nasty in some places just looking and hearing some of the temps around here and looking at some of the snow.

Not as bad as what we thought we were going to get here or what they told us that we were going to get.

But of course, keep an eye on that for you.

Today it's causing travel issues all over.

And

I know that it will not be causing travel issues for those in Congress who are voting today in the House.

They're already there.

Congressman Bill Heisinger from Michigan joins us now.

Congressman, the Senate just passed this $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.

It is just a pork-filled,

I just, look at it this year.

It's a very technical term out here, Justin.

We call them turd burgers.

That's a big, giant, massive turd burger.

Yeah.

Well, apparently it's also stuffed with lobster because there's money in here for favorite lobster groups and

such as pork.

It's like a salmon lobster roll.

I don't know.

Salmon's in there like 47 different times and funded the $3 million for a bee-friendly highway system.

I'm all about

pollination, and we've had issues with bees, but how in the world do you make a bee-friendly highway system?

I just,

it's this kind of stuff.

And there's earmarks, chock full of earmarks.

And here's sort of the insult to injury, right?

So constitutionally, all these spending bills have to originate in the House.

We're not even pretending to do appropriations processes anymore.

And we're just sending these big

beginnings of Turdburgers over to the Senate.

They add in their spices and secret sauce and earmarks and all the other good stuff.

And then they drop it back in our lap with no ability to amend it, review it, anything.

So the Senate left.

They're all gone.

Those of us that are here not voting by proxy, by the way, it is almost half of the U.S.

House is voting by proxy.

So they're not here.

I don't believe it's legal or constitutional.

So I am here.

I have not voted proxy once in this entire time that Pelosi has been using this as a tool really for control.

And

here we are.

And

this is the worst parts of how this system is broken, is being shown to the folks.

All right, so I got to ask you, Congressman Bill Heisigan, you guys are going to vote.

What time does this vote happen today?

Good question.

Rules Committee is going to be going in at 10 o'clock.

They're supposedly doing an expedited

rule committee.

And so each bill that comes to the floor has to have a rule.

Can you amend it?

Can you not amend it?

Time for debate, all those things.

So we're going to have our first vote probably somewhere at no earlier than 10:30, probably more like 11.

And then there will be either an hour or maybe two hours of debate on

this omnibus bill, and and then some procedural votes that are going to be happening.

So it'll probably be somewhere between noon and two o'clock today.

And then

I'm trying to get back to Michigan, see my family.

So I rented a Ram

pickup four-wheel drive and I'm driving home because all the flights are getting canceled.

Well, good luck to you and God bless because it's going to be a fun drive, that's for sure.

But, you know, I still think it'd probably be a lot easier than dealing with what you have to deal with in this vote today.

Here's some of the statistics of what we're looking at.

Over $100 million

after this thing gets passed

spend on the Ukraine war once this whole thing goes through.

And, you know, you can talk about whether or not, you know, we should be

fighting this fight and how much money we should be spending.

And, you know,

Zelensky came over in his PJs the other day and spoke to you guys in Congress, which is just crazy to me.

On the floor of the house, the guy is in a sweatshirt.

I mean, I've never seen anything like this.

I don't know if you want to comment on that or not, but.

Yeah.

Well, we're not allowed to go onto the house floor and dress like that.

The rules require us to be in a coat and tie.

And

there was actually a fair amount of, you know, not to get too petty, but it was like, okay, dude, you couldn't put a tie on.

And I understand it's about the optics and he's wanting to look like he's in the middle of a siege and all that.

Yeah, but that's the problem.

That's the problem that this is all optics.

And the American people are seeing through this stuff, spending $100 billion in Ukraine and won't spend a penny to secure our border.

I mean,

folks have had it.

Yeah, well, and that's, you know, again, going back to this Omni, that's exactly right.

You know, we are spending money in the Middle East for border security.

We're spending it around the world, but we will not allow those resources to be used on our own southern border.

And it's a crisis.

I mean, there is no other word that you can use other than absolute crisis and disaster with what's happening.

And it's going to get worse if the courts don't keep Title 42 in place.

I mean, and we know that there's a record number of

crossings that have happened at the southern border.

Interestingly enough, CBP has not released the November numbers yet.

We're 23 days into December.

They won't release the November numbers.

And it's not because they don't have them.

It's because they're political and they don't want this to look worse than what it is.

And

if we don't have the border integrity, all right, knowing who and what is coming across our border,

that is a recipe for disaster.

And this administration is standing by

just encouraging it.

Justin Barkley and for Glenn Back today on the Glen Back program, we're talking with Congressman Bill Heisinger out of West Michigan, and he'll be there voting on the floor today.

And I didn't get your answer.

You're a no on this, omnibus?

I'm a hell no.

I just thought, I thought I wanted to make that clear.

I thought that's that's what the answer is.

Let's be clear.

The underlying double exclamation mark, no.

So, and one of the things that I think a lot of us have frustration is, why didn't they just let this slide so that when Republicans take over here

in January, we could work it out and have a little more leverage to do some of the things that need to be done,

particularly when it comes to the border, et cetera.

One of the things I know folks want to see is oversight on a lot of these issues.

Hey, the FBI, man, and what we're hearing now, what's happening with Twitter and the statement the FBI put out the other day about conspiracy theorists.

We have the emails.

Their own people are saying this.

Congressman Oscar, man, this, I don't know, how do we come back from this?

Yeah.

Well, you know, look, this is J.

Edgar Hoover type stuff, right?

I mean, this, you have to be scratching your head if you're

a regular American

looking at this and just even sort of casually paying attention to

what is going on.

And you have to wonder

how these governmental agencies have gotten so out of control and

have really put our own constitutional rights and privileges under attack.

And it's not acceptable.

Now,

one of the perverse elements of passing this omnibus this way, by the way, it should have been done.

I mean,

this is continuing funding for this current fiscal year, which started October 1st.

So we should have had this all wrapped up in September.

But nonetheless,

here's what funding all these governmental agencies through the remainder of this fiscal year through September means.

They don't have to come to Congress for our oversight requests, right?

They've got their funding for the year.

There's not going to be any pressure on that.

So we're going to have to figure out how we apply that pressure properly and constitutionally as we are supposed to.

to make sure that we've got those answers.

And so whether it's the FBI or a lot of the work that I do is with the Securities and Exchange Commission and their ESG agenda, that environmental, social, and governance

garbage that they're trying to force not only onto publicly traded companies, but to privately held companies as well.

And what things like that mean for our economy moving forward.

So there's a lot of very, very serious issues that we have to tackle.

The power of the purse is one of the main tools that Congress has.

We have abdicated and given that up for decades, frankly, now, and it's just gotten worse.

And we've got to restore that.

Congressman Bill Heisinger, let me ask you before you go, you're also going to be overseeing some of this.

This SBF FTX thing.

Sam Bankman Freed has been freed.

Basically, they said $250 million bail.

They got this guy back in the U.S.

But that's not really the story.

The truth is he's going to go hang out at his mom and dad's $4 million

home, and they put some of the equity of that thing up, and that's how he got.

He didn't have to pay $250 million.

This guy's going to be hanging out in his flip-flops, probably got his Zelensky sweatshirt on.

I don't know what he's doing, but he's going to be in his PJs, you know, just having a good time.

This is wild.

Yeah,

it is.

And, you know, look, this is

the worst parts of Enron's business practices, along with Bernie Madoff.

And this is just outright fraud.

And the notion that these really kids had any business running these multi-billion dollar and multinational companies is ridiculous.

QuickBooks for their

QuickBooks to keep track of everything.

Yeah.

Which is like, it's a decent program.

They just don't want to use it for billion-dollar companies, you know?

Exactly.

And multinational

international trades going on.

And

at the end of the day,

the institutional investors who supposedly are very savvy investors,

got sucked into this.

They found a politically progressive, very smart entrepreneur who was going to, quote unquote, reimagine capitalism

and all while making them gobs of money.

Yeah, well, and they also sent half of it back to Maxine Waters and the rest of them.

I mean, they all took the money too, didn't they?

Yeah, and

that was that was that was a huge part of it is his growing influence that was here in Washington.

So whether they were on Wall Street or whether they were in Silicon Valley or whether they were here in Washington, D.C.,

people were just fawning over this guy.

And

obviously it unraveled, and I'm glad it did.

It's unthinkable.

I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.

I appreciate you giving us the answer on your hell no vote.

We appreciate that as well.

Congressman Bill Heisiger, thank you very much for taking the time today.

Hey, Merry Christmas to everybody and safe travels for those that are out traveling.

And

just please know this.

We're going to keep fighting for the American taxpayer.

And

you've got a group of us out here in Washington.

We're very eager to get back in the majority, but we have to use that majority for the right things.

And

we're hopeful that we're going to be able to do that.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

Thank you, my friend.

A Merry Christmas to you.

See the craziest part about this Sam Bankman-Fried thing?

He's out,

$4 million home.

I guess that's on the line, or part of it at least.

He's just hanging out, mom and dad's house.

It's like Christmas vacation for him.

It's Jeffy Chase, Christmas vacation.

He's going to do some sledding later on or whatnot.

I don't know, but that's

this guy's out.

I mean, you're just talking about the crypto comment and how many people lost it all, right?

Because of this guy.

And yet people that just took like a tour, like took a walk.

The grandmas that took a walk through the Capitol, they're still locked up

in jail cells in Washington, D.C., in dungeons.

It's just nuts, but it's all part of what we're seeing as sort of double,

well, the double standards that we continue to deal with.

Barkley and for Beck today on the Glenn Back program.

Quick break, we'll talk to you coming up too.

A 888727BECK Beck.

It's 888727 Beck back after this on the Glenn Back program.

Sign up.

This is the Glenn Back Program.

Keeping an eye on the weather.

4,000 flights, at least already canceled.

Lots of snow, high winds, freezing rain throughout the country.

Sub-zero temperatures, power outages.

Fox News has got this bug that tells you how many people are without power throughout the country in different places.

You know, watching all of this, but I think it's interesting to note, this,

of course, they'll say it's climate change.

It's not global warming anymore.

Can't say that because this is not

very warm.

In fact, where I'm at right now, I'm looking at a balmy seven.

And I think even folks like south of me are even

are even colder.

So we can't say

we can't say it's global warm anymore, but they've gone throughout the entirely, you know, back in the 70s, they called this

the coming global ice age.

Just this thing about the weather, it just changes.

Now, whether you want to say that the climate is always changing,

in fact, it looks like it might be that that's the case.

Many would say, of course, we're supposed to trust the science, right?

The experts and all that.

But only the certain, we know the story, only certain ones.

Some would say the sun is kind of the big driver of all of this.

The sun, believe it or not.

But we're told it's your SUV.

So don't forget that if you're out and about trying to get your Christmas presents and get everything

picked up today.

Don't get your SUV.

Don't drive that.

You're just going to make things worse.

You're going to make it worse.

Lots to discuss.

And of course, always a pleasure in the Glenn Beck program inside.

Whether you're warm and cozy, snuggled up by the fire, you're outside working in this thing, keeping everybody on track.

We appreciate you and everything you do.

Thank you for being here with us today.

Let's stay in touch.

Go to justinbarclay.com, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y.com, and reach out.

We can connect.

And check theblaze.com for all of the latest updates because you know, the news never stops.

We're wishing you the best,

whether you're sticking with us or

that's it for you.

Back next down, the Glen Back Program.

This is the Glenn Back Program.

Got no room to compromise.

We gotta stand together, it's the corner survived.

Stand up straight and hold the light.

It's a new day of time to rise.

What you are about to hear is the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This is the Glenback Program.

Welcome in, and a Merry Christmas to you.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glen Back today on the Glen Back program as we are

full-blown in the season.

We're watching the storm throughout the country making its way mostly to the East Coast right now.

I got to tell you, we're hearing a lot about the impact of this storm.

I've got some things I want to share about it as well, but a story out of my own backyard that I just have been hearing a lot about.

Christians under fire.

And it's not just Christians, it's folks of all faith.

Faith under fire itself.

I want you to hear about this couple that's going through it right now, how they're facing it.

I think there's a lesson in it.

Share their story and more coming up after this on the Glenn Beck program.

So they're saying today thousands of flights canceled already, and I'm sure this is going to be an issue for travel.

Folks without power in states all across the country, we'll talk about some of that coming up and what the storm actually looks like.

And

my view of it from where I sit in Michigan, which is very cold and very snowy nevertheless, but we'll talk about it all coming up, the impact.

And what you may not be hearing or seeing behind the scenes of everything that's breathlessly reported on television right now because everything's a big emergency, everything's a crisis.

And believe it or not, yes, everything we do have a lot of crises

going on, one after the other.

Justin Barkley in for Glenn Beck.

We'll try and make sense of it all this morning.

You want to stay in contact with me, justinbarklay.com, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y.com.

But I'd love to hear from you, so send me a message there on my website, or you can call triple-8-727-B-E-C-K, triple-8-727-BEC.

Like to put a couple of more

phone calls on here today, just as we get a little closer to the holiday season and wrap things up with a bang.

But first, I want to tell you about a couple couple who have been through it.

They

are folks who, entrepreneurs, decided they were going to start their own business, a couple of faith, and that business just happened to be a wedding venue.

Nick and Hannah Natalie on the phone with us right now.

How are you guys?

You're very good.

How are you?

Merry Christmas to you.

Your story is really fascinating.

You both worked in the industry.

I guess, Nick, you were in the food kind of as a chef.

And then, Hannah, you were a photographer.

Is that right?

That's right.

Yep.

So you guys did these things before.

And

I guess you get married and you decide somewhere down the line that you've got a dream, which is opening up a

venue.

And you happen upon a church, a beautiful church that needed a ton of work.

What year was it that you guys decide to make this leap and get into that church and start the process of

really renovating this thing and cleaning it up.

Yeah, so we found this space in 2018, the beginning of 18,

and

it took us only just, I think, about three or four months to get in the building, see it with a realtor, purchase it.

It was fast.

We just knew when we saw it and we got in it, it was the one that we wanted,

despite the state that it was in.

And yeah, from there, it was a four-year journey to get open just this summer in June of 22.

You had COVID, you had all kinds of stuff that you guys went through, but you persevered and you said we're going to get open.

But, you know,

most folks, when they get open, they're probably feeling some sort of relief.

And oh, my goodness, here we go.

You're probably hoping to feel that way too until, I mean, it really hit the fan and your faith has come under fire

because you, you sort of mentioned that it was going to be how you do business.

Now,

I understand that sort of the way the world works now, the way culture is.

They don't mind you have your faith, they'll tell you, but just as long as you keep that private, you're not allowed to talk about it.

You're not allowed to practice it in public, apparently.

And that's what you guys found because

you've been under attack by a mob of the cancel culture folks.

Tell us a little bit about what happened to you and

when it all started.

Yeah, well, going into the first year of business, we were hoping to get open in February.

Because of construction and everything, we didn't get open until June, late June.

And we had 30 weddings booked for, you know, within a five-month span.

So we were really excited about that.

Off to a great start.

And then 13 days after we opened, we had someone reach out,

ask us if we

host LG TBQ weddings.

And with Nick and I and our faith,

it was just something that we felt so strongly about to hold to our values as we opened this business.

And, you know, we're here to serve the Lord.

We're here to serve Jesus.

We're not here to serve the people.

And so

it was just, you know, we couldn't, we just couldn't do that like our hearts would not be able to

you know continue with that kind of business and teach our kids one way at home and then run our business a different way like this is just we're all in for Jesus and and that's no matter what we do in life that's how we're gonna run it and so we responded honestly that way and that was on June 30 and

that person that asked screenshotted that conversation that I had with her and shared it all over her Instagram.

And by the morning, it had just spread like wildfire, and it was, I mean, it was everywhere.

The hate,

just, I mean, and from there on out, like,

it's been just hate.

They just think we hate people, and that is not the case at all.

They're just painting this picture that we are the most evil, hateful people.

And,

you know,

yeah, like I said, that's not the case.

We want to celebrate love and the way God intended love to be celebrated and

just this covenant between a man and a woman and God.

And so that's kind of where we're at today.

We haven't booked

really much

since we came out with our stamps.

Nick, I want to ask you a little bit about what has happened and the attacks that have come.

You guys aren't looking to discriminate against anyone.

You're just looking to conduct business the way you're faith in accordance with your faith.

And

you've been attacked.

It seems like this made the news.

You've been attacked online, and that's caused people to decide they're not going to come to your venue.

They're not going to

have weddings or events there.

But it really also has, I think, showed you quite a bit about who you are and who God is throughout the whole process.

Yeah.

You know, I think one of the hardest walks that you can have is,

you know, being humble and submitting to God's plan.

And

that can be very difficult for everybody.

It's been extremely difficult for me.

As a man, we tend to think that we can just fix it ourselves and put it in our control and we'll just take care of it type mentality.

That's been a lot of our prayers lately

has been, you know, God, what do you want with the space?

What are you trying to teach us through this?

Why are we going through this?

Despite the outcome, I mean, we have to be very realistic in our financial state that

this might not be happening and we might be having to close our doors at some point.

And that's maybe what God wants.

And he wants to teach us that standing for him and fighting for him was more of what he wanted us to go through and for people to see.

You know, we've got a great support group through church, through my men's group, through friends, through family.

And I think people keep telling us that is we don't know what the purpose of this is

probably until it's all over and maybe years down the road, we won't know what his intentions were.

And that's difficult because,

like you said, we're entrepreneurs.

We opened a business.

We have all these

projections and

grandiose visions of what our business is going to be.

And then this has really halted that and made us stop and say, okay, Lord, what do you want with us and with this space?

Well, let me ask you, because I know you guys have a lot online.

Anytime you have to open a business or you put a lot on the line,

what do you stand to lose if this doesn't work?

Well,

we can say, you know, it's a multi-million dollar project.

It's over seven figures.

And it's through an SBA loan.

And,

you know, that's it's a lot of money for us that would really put us

well, obviously put us out of business, closing the doors and

entire livelihood.

Yeah.

So like

so gone.

that's it.

Yeah, pretty much.

You know,

I understand that you have, you've kind of faced this reality.

Um, there's a gifts and go set up to help these folks out, by the way.

Um, I want to talk about the attacks that, that, that have been made and how you've handled them because I think that more than anything, that has given you, in fact, Nick, you told me last night we were talking about this, that

you have been able to have some really good conversations with people one-on-one.

I think there's a difference.

When we get into groups of people, we get this mob mentality

that can take place.

But one-on-one, we've kind of lost that.

Whether it's social media or some of the things that we see nowadays, this mob mentality takes over.

What are some of the attacks that have happened that have come your way, some of the things that you've heard, and then how have you countered them and been able to have good conversations with people and maybe

be a shining example of

your faith in that process?

Yeah.

You know,

most of what we've received has been on social media.

And it's, you know, it's anywhere from

threats to your business, threats to your livelihood.

People have made comments about

comments on pictures of me with my children calling me a groomer.

Hannah has received phone calls that are just,

I can't say it on live radio, I assume, just some nasty stuff,

you know, wishing she'd be barren for the rest of her life.

People were making false inquiries for events at our space online.

Some of them would put, you know, the event type, child sacrifice, guest count, 666.

The person who's hosting the event is Satan

comments about things that Jesus could do with his male appendages to himself.

Just crazy, like

you read it and you're like,

how do we go from we believe marriage to be a man and a woman to death threats, pedophilia,

you know, child sacrifices?

Someone called my mom.

Somehow they got her number, left a voicemail on her phone berating her for raising me.

How have you countered this?

I don't want to say fought back because I think you've not fought in the ways that you probably want to at some time, the ways that some might think about it.

But how have you countered some of this?

Honestly, through community, our church, our pastor,

my men's group group has been great.

I think what I said to you last night was:

I'm a rather large, bald, white man with a beard, which is basically the Antichrist in this society.

And,

you know, I think there would be a stereotype to

how I would respond based on how I look.

And

everybody's just told me, wouldn't it be amazing for you to just shine God's light and not respond with hate and

you know try to speak love into the situation and I think that's what I've tried to do anytime we've had media approach us or

you know I have had conversations with people with the opposing view once a couple at a wedding that we were hosting and it was Those are the best conversations you could have because you're not out to change someone's opinion or belief.

You're just voicing the depth of your belief versus a tagline on social media or the news, right?

Homophobic couple opens wedding venue.

No, that's not us.

And when you actually get to have a conversation with people and say, this is what we believe, and this is why we're running our business this way, it doesn't have to result in all of this that's going on.

I want to ask you about legal issues.

We've got to take a quick break, though, because you've come across some of those as well.

You're under fire there.

This couple is in Michigan, this Grand Rapids couple.

You can help them.

We'll tell you how, and maybe

they can help you when it comes to fighting back and finding out where that line is.

Because, folks, this is not the only incidence.

You're going to have to figure out where your line is and whether or not you intend to stand in the future.

We're seeing faith under fire in a lot of different ways.

We'll continue this conversation right after this.

Justin Barkley in for Glenn today on the the Glenback program.

Talking with Nick and Hannah Natalie right now on the Glenback program.

They're a couple who started a wedding venue.

And as they started to get going, somebody inquired about a same-sex marriage.

They said, because of their faith,

They just can't participate in that.

They're not homophobic, but they say they have Christian business values and their faith now is under fire.

You guys actually, Nick and Hannah,

you've had some legal issues.

The city has an ordinance

that apparently has come up into the discussion here.

You guys have gone to court on this, but actually, the news on this looks to be pretty good so far.

You guys have yet to have your actual court date play out, but what you're hearing is pretty encouraging.

But this is something I think a lot of folks are facing when it comes to the Christian businesses, especially with this new law that's been passed, whether it's going to stand or not.

So

why don't I ask you this?

How did you make that decision?

And what would you say to others?

Because I think we're moving into a time where we're going to have to make tough decisions.

Where is our red line?

Where do we draw that line in the sand?

What is it that the point that we decide we're going to stand at, whether it's in our faith or whatever it might be, in our our families and our work, whatever it might be, how did you guys figure that out?

Yeah.

So

I guess

I would start with the answer now and go back to when it happened.

Once you make the stand and you go through the fire, It literally is like gas on a fire.

There's a huge ignition of,

you know, again, again, social media, hatred, just slander, all these things, and you're like, oh my gosh, why did we just make this decision?

Like, this is terrible.

And then it goes away enough with words and slander and that petty stuff.

And then you start to realize why you made a stand.

I would rather, and we have said this to each other, we'd rather look back and let's say our business has to close, and that's unfortunate.

We'd rather look back, show our family, show our children that

we made a stand

for exactly what we believe in,

no matter the outcome, because we made the decision for God, not for us, not for our flesh, not for anything about our culture, our society.

It was, you know what, we believe that marriage is between a man and a woman,

and we're going to stand on that.

And so what I would just tell people is there is that moment where you're like, oh, I could, I could just, it doesn't really bother me right now, or it's not, it doesn't affect my life.

Man, the longer you go saying that,

the harder it is to stand once you get to a point where you realize it is something that's going to affect you.

Got to take a break here, Nick and Hannah.

I appreciate you joining us, the owners of the Broadway Avenue.

We'd like to help them out.

I put the link to the gives, and go at Mr.Justin Barkley over on Twitter.

We'll talk more about this.

Your faith is under fire, folks.

You're going to be testing the Glen Back program.

On the cusp of Christmas, our faith is under fire.

It's Justin Barkley in for Glenda Day and the Glenbeck program.

And listen, I like David.

I will discuss good news, of course, and more in moments.

But I think

it's important

that we're realistic as well, and that we talk about some of the things that aren't fun to face.

But particularly as these folks, this couple here in Michigan,

on this wedding venue, then the tallies.

They face a fight.

They've made a decision.

They decided where the line is in the Sanford.

And of course, the reason I bring this up is because we're all going to have to do that.

At some point, we all are going to have to make that decision.

We're all going to face a time.

Something's going to be called into question.

And it's best if we decide now.

Have those conversations with our families, in fact,

where we're going to be

and why.

Now, I just gave out they have a give, send, go.

What I really like about this is the Christian company.

I think that it's like the alternative GoFundMe.

They have a give, send, go set up to help with any legal or any business expenses that may come up

as they fight this fight.

On

my Twitter, I put it up at Mr.Justin Barkley.

So you can go on over and you can help these folks.

But one of the things I just realized is, yes, you can give, and and folks are coming in to donate here and there and i know that they'll appreciate that but one of the things i thought was the most interesting on this gift single they have a they have a prayer button you can click for prayer requests you can tell let the the the folks know that you're praying for them

how great is that

i put the link to that of it mr justin barclay over on twitter

it's no surprise but i i just saw this again along with the uh this marriage act that just passed.

This is not going to be the only time you see this.

In fact, there's a story out of

the UK that's really concerning.

A woman arrested what she was doing outside of an abortion clinic.

And you would think when you hear this story,

it's right out of a dystopian horror novel.

Phil's on the line.

Let me grab a quick phone call.

You can join us at 888-727-BEC.

That's 888-727-B-E-C-K.

Phil is up.

Phil, you're on the Glenn Beck program.

Appreciate you joining us.

Good morning, Justin.

Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah.

Merry Christmas.

Happy Hanukkah.

One question.

One question.

Do these despicable people ever target a mosque and ask them to have an LGBTQ wedding or do they go to a halal

bakery or

and have have them bake a cake?

Is this ever brought up?

Do they ever target them?

Like, why don't they just let them run their business?

You know, it's a good question.

Christians seem to be, for the most part, the ones under attack and the targets.

And thank you for your call, Phil.

But I will tell you this.

It's not only Christians.

This new marriage act will

target all of these folks.

In fact, we have seen people of all different faiths come come together, including Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Muslims to fight against, in particular, here in Michigan, in Dearborn, against some of these crazy pornographic books that were set in the school libraries.

So I think folks of all walks of life, different faiths, this is an opportunity for us to come together and know that our faith is, because it's not just, it is predominantly Christian, but it's not just Christian.

You see, the way things work for Marxists is that the government and whoever's control of it, see,

they have to be the

only source of

everything.

And Christians particular, but anyone of any faith, you have a higher power you believe in.

Just like me.

The day after the election, a lot of folks were upset and folks on the left said, I'm going to turn him on, see what he does.

And if he's crying, I'm sure he's going to be blathering into the microphone.

And now he wasn't.

I know this surprised a lot of people, but you know, it's because my hope, my joy, my peace, it doesn't come from any man,

especially not one in office.

No politician, nobody serving in D.C.

or anywhere else.

My hope, my faith, my joy.

It didn't come from any of that.

It comes from a much bigger place.

This is why faith is going to continue to be under attack.

And this is why we've got to decide right here and now

how it is

that we are going to

stand

or fall.

Over in the UK, a woman was arrested

for silently praying.

police officer asks, are you praying?

Okay, thank you.

If I'm not any questions about what's going on today, I have to caution you, which is just your rights, which is you do not have to say anything.

It may harm your defense if you do not mention one question.

Something that you later are in court, anything you do send me to give you more.

What are you here for today?

Physically, I'm just standing here.

What are you here for today?

He says.

She says, well, you know, physically,

I'm just standing here.

oh that's not good enough something you should that's not good enough

you'll continue to ask her questions here what are you here for today uh physically i'm just standing here okay why here of all places i know you don't live nearby this is an abortion something

okay that's why you're still

is you standing be part of the protest no just one woman out on a sidewalk

One woman out on a sidewalk looks like it's a it's it's a it's in any random neighborhood, but she just happens to be outside of

an abortion center.

She's standing there, peacefully, quietly, silently praying.

Praying for those innocent lives.

What happens next?

Police officer

continues to question her.

Are you praying?

I might be praying in my head, but not out loud.

She says, I might be praying in my head, but not out loud.

Why does that matter?

Well, I'll ask you once more, will you voluntarily come with us now to the police station for me to ask you some questions about that?

They want to ask her some questions because she's praying.

Today and other days where there are allegations that you've broken public spaces protection order.

See, there's allegations that she's broken some sort of order order over there the public uh protected spaces protected spaces apparently you're not but you're not allowed to stand somewhere and pray if i've got a choice then no

okay well then you're under arrest on suspicion of failing to comply with public spaces protection order

under arrest

praying outside of an abortion clinic you're

this is this actually happened i'm not this isn't a

so over in the uk

anti-social behavior common casing out 2014 the the anti-social behaviour act of whatever he says caution you again you don't have to say anything it may harm your defence if you do not mention one question something which you later on in court when you do say maybe to the end do you understand the caution i don't

um your arrest is necessary in order to prompt an effective investigation into the offence what that means is so that i can ask you some questions which

also to protect uh vulnerable people mainly service users in the public okay so so she's being arrested mainly to protect vulnerable people.

I guess people going

inside the abortion center there in the UK.

Not to mention the vulnerable lives that will be murdered

as they're inside.

I know this isn't

necessarily the

jolly.

The jolly information that you may wanted to hear today, but folks, I do believe it's a wake-up call, and it's one that we all need to hear.

I know Glenn's talked about this quite extensively: what it might look like to stand,

how your faith might be tested.

It's best to make these decisions now because we don't know necessarily what's coming, although we do know that inevitably we will have to make some tough decisions.

It's best to make them now

so that in the future,

and those times do get tough,

you can lean into

at peace.

Have the courage to walk out

what you've already predetermined.

Merry Christmas.

Back with more after this on the Glenbeck program.

Stay informed.

Sign up for the free newsletter today at Glenbeck.com.

Bit of a raw Rona report here, folks.

We have a bit of an update.

A couple of things, actually.

Some good news and some strange news in the Rona report.

First of all, you know, Anthony Fauci is still...

I thought this guy had retired.

But the high priest of health.

Saint Anthony of Wuhan, Mr.

Booster, he's still out there saying it's nice.

Some people idolize.

He likes to be idolized and put up on a pedestal, apparently.

It's nice that some people, you know, idolize me and put me up on a pedestal, but I don't get impressed by that.

Sure, sure, you don't.

Never have.

Yeah, but you know what he likes?

He likes that funding for the gain of function research that he gets to do.

There's a lot of that, actually, I think, in the omnibus.

They're still funding that stuff.

Big news out of Florida.

The Florida Supreme Court has approved Ron DeSantis' request of a grand jury on COVID-19 jabs

on the Fauci ouchy.

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ruling a grand jury requested by Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis to investigate the manufacturers of the jabs.

This is after all the sudden and unexpected,

you know, the sudden and unexpected side effects.

There are no side effects.

What are you talking about?

Everything's safe and effective.

We don't have any issues with anything.

No, please don't ask questions.

That would be.

Whatever you you do, don't ask questions.

That would be too

much.

Hey, it turns out that exercise, get a load of this.

Exercise lowers your risk

of death and severe illness.

Now, isn't that something when it comes to the Rona?

Who would have thought?

Who would have begun to even

to believe that this was a possibility?

Who would have known?

I would have funk it.

So much for closing gyms.

You remember there's a guy in,

I think his name's Ian.

Is it New Jersey?

The guy under fire, and they came after his bank account, came out to try to throw the guy in jail, all this, for keeping his gym open.

You know, through this all, we never heard a couple of very common sense and very simple solutions like, hey, you might want to move a little bit more, get some sunshine, take some vitamins, eat a little bit better.

No, we never heard that.

We have just over and over again been beat the drum, you know, over our head.

This, well, there's only one solution.

You must be mandated

to take this one solution.

You can't ask questions.

You can't talk about it.

You can't.

None of that.

But it turns out this story is legit.

Regular exercise

protects against fatal COVID.

According to this new study, men and women who worked out at least 30 minutes most days were about four times more likely to survive than inactive people.

According to an eye-opening study, they called an eye-opening study in the post.

An eye-opening study.

Exercise and coronavirus outcomes among almost 200,000 adults in Southern California.

Study found that exercise in almost any amount, really, reduced people's risk for a severe coronavirus infection, even people who worked out for as little as 11 minutes a week.

Yes, 11 minutes a week.

Now, I don't necessarily know what that counts, like 11 minutes a week.

How, what would that be?

Some sort of, you do some crunches, some push-ups, an 11-minute walk.

I think most folks could get 11 minutes a week.

And I don't know if it's heart rate up a certain amount or what that looks like exactly.

But can you imagine?

Can you imagine?

So

finally, we've, you know, this is unthinkable.

We've had some studies that show us.

Mass mandates are not coming back, even though COVID is.

That's the headline.

A triple threat, they call it a triple threat of COVID flu and RSV

pushing hospitals to the brink.

Several state health officials asking people to mask up, but not

requiring it.

It's a triple demic.

It's a triple demic, folks.

Be afraid.

Be very,

very

afraid.

And U.S.

life expectancy continued to fall last year.

I wonder what's causing that.

Any ideas?

Americans born in 2021 could expect to live just 76.4 years, according to government data released yesterday, drop from 77

in 2020.

I wonder what could possibly be

causing some of that.

It's just strange, some of these stories, isn't it?

But Governor DeSantis down in Florida said, hey, you know what?

We're going to get down to bottom of some of this stuff.

And there's Supreme Court allowing him to do that.

Some good news.

Don't lose hope, folks.

The fight continues.

Matter of fact, we continue.

If you stick with us to the next hour, we'll be here.

If not, always great to podcast Glenn Beck.com: The Glenn Back Program.

Got no room to compromise.

We gotta stand together, it's the chorus of life.

Stand up straight and hold the line.

It's a new day, I'm tired to rise.

What you are about to hear is the fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.

This is the Glenback program.

Well, it is the season anyway.

We are on the cusp of Christmas.

We're just, you know, just days away, celebrating the birth of Jesus.

And faith is a major part of our lives here in America, a major part of the founding of this country.

No matter what anyone tries to tell you, we're going to share some things about Christmas, and particularly the Christmas story

that may just strengthen your faith coming up in moments.

Justin Barkley in for Glenn today.

This is the Glenn Glenn Beck program.

It's the reason for the season.

And we can't deny it.

Hey, listen, if

you're just

going through the motions this Christmas, you may, I think, use a little jolt in your faith and maybe a reminder of

why we celebrate.

And hopefully that'll come into play here.

Justin Barkley in for Glenn today on the Glenn Beck program.

You can connect with me everywhere that I'm at.

Go to justinbarklay.com, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y, JustinBarklay.com.

Send me a message there as well.

Father Dwight Longenecker joins us right now.

He's a priest and the author of The Secret of the Bethlehem Shepherds and the Mystery of the Magi, a couple of great books for this time of year.

In fact, I'm reading The Secret of the Bethlehem Shepherds right now.

Father, thank you so much for joining us.

Appreciate you doing this.

Thanks for the invitation.

Merry Christmas.

So, you know, we hear the word, the term fake news quite a bit when it comes to things that we hear in the news.

And, of course, politics and everything else these days.

But

turns out, it may not necessarily be intentional in some ways, but there are some things that may not necessarily be as true as maybe we heard traditionally through the years in Christmas stories.

And you did a little research project a few years back when you were able to kind of step away on a sabbatical and look into some of the stories that we hear in the Bible, particularly around Jesus' birth in the gospels.

And I wanted to give you a chance to talk a little bit about that

and share what you found, in fact.

So, thank you for joining us and thank you for writing about it.

I'm enjoying the book.

It really is,

well, it's interesting to see some of

the true story behind the birth of Christ.

Now, we're told a lot of things that I think folks even sometimes look at some of these stories like they're fairy tales, but you've got some actual evidence that points to not just Christ, but his divine birth.

Yeah, we have to remember that these stories come to us from

through 2,000 years of tradition.

And through those 2,000 years, it's not only 2,000 years of tradition, but it comes to us through its own little pilgrimage or journey from the ancient Middle East

through

the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages of Europe, and then Northern Europe and England and eventually to the New World,

our culture today.

And so

here in the 21st century, we're dealing with very ancient stories which have a long history of their own.

And as it came along on that journey to us, it accumulated lots of extra baggage.

extra traditions, beautiful traditions, and beautiful interpretations of the story, which we now accept as part of the story and part of the whole thing.

So I try to go back and

sort of trim away all those extra accretions and all that extra stuff to see what the gospels actually say and how that fits with the geography and the archaeology and the politics of the time.

So what would be some of the things that you found to be the most interesting

along your journey in the research and in writing the book, The Secret of the Bethlehem Shepherds?

Well, one of the things to remember also is that in our age, we are really lucky because we

live in an age when, through archaeology and forensics and textual evidence, we know more about the ancient Middle East and the time of the New Testament than

our parents and grandparents and great-grandparents ever did.

So this is an exciting time to be alive,

to experience all of these discoveries.

But

to answer your question, one of the things, for instance, is there was no room for them in the inn.

And of course, when we hear that, most of us in our mind will conjure up the idea of some kind of a medieval European tavern with a grumpy innkeeper out on the doorstep with his, you know, drying his hands on a tea towel and saying, I'm sorry, there's no room for you here.

You'll have to go to the stable over there across the hillside.

Well, actually,

the word that's translated as inn in our English translations is the Greek word cataluma, which basically means guest room.

And I discovered that the houses in Bethlehem at the time

would have been very simple one or two room homes with a guest room built on either on the roof or off to the side.

Because the Middle Easterners have a very strong tradition of hospitality and also especially hospitality for family members.

So the idea that Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus were homeless on Christmas night is something something which we've sort of appropriated over the centuries and added in our own age because we have a natural compassion for homeless people and a good compassion for immigrants and so forth.

But most certainly, Joseph, the holy family, would have gone to Bethlehem, Joseph's hometown, and gone to a relative's home and found that there was no room in their guest room, so therefore they were ushered to the stable.

Now these guests, these little simple homes, would have been built in front of a cave.

And if you go to the Holy Land today, you can still see these cave homes.

And the cave was reserved for storage.

It was like the back room.

It was reserved for storage and stabling the animals.

So

Jesus would not have been born in a drafty stable somewhere, but in a cave that was used as a stable, which was kind of like the back room of the family home.

Now, what about

the manger and the story about being put in the manger?

Obviously,

the sheep playing a role here, and we see the animals in the Nativity scene, the wise men, and all that.

Any of that?

Well, yeah, again, the visions we have, the images we have of the Nativity, which have come to us over these 2,000 years, are beautiful.

They come to us from Renaissance paintings and Victorian paintings and modern-day paintings and stories and so forth.

But these are imaginative works about what would have happened based on the simple historic tale.

There's archaeological evidence that there was

in between the two-roomed house and the stable behind it, there would have been a kind of half wall which had a carved out

place where the animals were fed.

And this manger bed would have been where the baby Jesus would have been laid.

One of the most interesting pieces of your work and the research that you did, I think, was talking about the story about how the shepherds were out in the field.

And of course,

maybe the story of why that was so important, the Lamb of God,

all of that.

And you found something to be

a little bit interesting about the truth, about what was really happening in those fields.

And I think the truth kind of confirms some of that story.

Yeah, there is a kind of

preaching point which has been which circulates at this time of year in which preachers like to say, you know, the shepherds were sacred shepherds and they were raising the lambs for sacrifice in the temple.

And when the baby lamb would be born, it would be wrapped up in strips of cloths and laid in a feeding trough to be protected until the priest could come and investigate the lamb to see if it was worthy for sacrifice.

Therefore, when the angel said, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger, and this shall be a sign unto you, that the shepherds would have known they were going to find the true lamb of God.

Well,

that is a beautiful preaching point, but I researched this very very much in depth over the last over the two months I was in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, and I could not find any evidence for that story.

However, there was a tiny scrap of evidence which points in that direction, and that is that in the Mishnah, which is a Jewish collection of rubrics and rules for worship and life, there is a reference that the animals that were raised between Jerusalem and the hills between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and Bethlehem is just six miles from Jerusalem, were to be used for temple sacrifice.

So a lot of scholars do believe that the shepherds of Bethlehem were

actually sacred shepherds, and that they were raising the thousands and thousands of lambs and sheep and goats which would have been used for sacrifice in the temple.

So

these really

were in an area that

really would have had some major significance there.

Yeah, and I think that significance is there, especially when you look at the the history of the Jews in the Old Testament of shepherds and lambs for sacrifice.

Father Abraham was a shepherd.

Moses was a shepherd.

King David was a shepherd boy in the same hills of Bethlehem.

And this area of the Hebron Valley

was where those patriarchs eventually settled and where David was brought up and where he served, he looked after the flocks.

So the whole symbolism and the history of shepherds and a close connection with

God himself, who who in the Old Testament is reckoned to be the good shepherd.

All of this sort of plays a part in the story of the shepherds in Bethlehem.

Father Dwight Longenecker is with us right now.

He's reading the book, The Secret of the Bethlehem Shepherds.

I'm really enjoying your book, Father.

You actually, you went there,

you dove in, and I think there's a lot that comes to mind when we...

the people of faith that maybe you go to church or maybe you read about or hear about these stories and it just becomes part of your tradition whatever it is when you see the Christmas story

but to actually go to where this all took place it becomes a lot more real you start to get your hands in the dirt so to speak you start to really see some of the stories come to life in a lot of ways what has that done for your faith

well I think one of the problems with Christianity in the modern world today is that for about a century now, scholars have been debunking the historical aspect of the gospels and basically saying, you know, it's all a tissue of fairy tales and imaginations of the early church.

These things didn't happen, especially the supernatural things didn't happen.

And I like to go back and say, well, let's read the text exactly for what it is and try to strip away

a lot of our own imaginations of what that looked like or what that was like and try to imagine what it was really like at the time, at the place, in order to understand more deeply and more fully the reality of the historical aspects of the gospels.

If folks want to get your books and maybe lean into a little bit more, I'm enjoying it this time of year.

I think it's something we all ought to do.

Particularly the secret of the Bethlehem Shepherds and the book about the Magi as well.

Where can they go?

Where can they find out more?

Well, I have a blog.

It's called dwightlongenecker.com.

And just today, I blogged on the question, how do we know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

So people might like to go and pick up some of those extra readings there.

The blog is free.

There's other content which is behind a paywall, but they're welcome to come and look there at my books as well.

DwightLongenecker.com.

All right, so don't give it away, but how do we know?

Well, very quickly, I don't know how much time we have, but basically

the shepherds we know from Luke's Gospel passed on the story of what happened and what they experienced that night.

The locals there in Bethlehem remembered the actual location of Jesus' birth, and in the year 135, really just about 100 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Emperor Hadrian

built a temple on the site of where the birth of Jesus was already being venerated by the early Christian church.

So this is very early, the year 135.

He built a temple to Adonis on that location.

And then 200 years later, when the Empress Helena,

the mother of the Emperor Constantine, who became a Christian, comes to the Holy Land to find the sacred sites, that location of the the Temple of Adonis built by the Emperor Hadrian was still there.

And the locals said, yes, that emperor 200 years ago built the pagan temple on the site of Jesus' birth.

So in trying to wipe out Christianity, he actually preserved the site for posterity.

And the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem today is built on that same site.

Fascinating stuff.

And definitely a little something different for this time of year.

Father, thank you so much for joining us today.

Wish you a Merry Christmas.

Thanks for the invitation.

God bless.

Father Dwight Longenecker and of course more at dwightlongenecker.com.

Justin Barkley, like I said, a little something different because it is the season, just days away here as we celebrate Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you.

Back right after this on the Glenn Beck program.

Still waiting on that vote in the House today.

You haven't seen anything moving just yet for that $1.7 trillion, and that's just kind of like the estimate.

Omnibus bill.

We'll keep you up to date on that should we see something

come to life on it.

We'll give you the answer.

Looks like that's a done deal.

But we'll give you the scoop, the details when that does happen.

888-727-BECK is the number.

That's 888-727-BEC.

You can also send me a message if you like, justinbarklay.com.

Click on that link there at the

website, justinbarklay.com.

Love to chat with you.

Hear from you.

I'd like to fit a few more in before we're done today.

Just phone calls, talking to you, give you a chance to sound off.

And of course, as you get a little bit closer to

Christmas and the holidays, the news doesn't stop.

Used to be years ago,

you would have a little bit of a break and things would be kind of really slowing down.

But this year, the last couple of years, really, what I've noticed, there is no stop.

Never a dull moment.

It's always like drinking from a fire hose.

We do our best to stay on top of it.

Of course, you're getting it at 24-7 at theblaze.com.

And of course,

you know, we fill in paying attention to things for you.

And we're going to have those conversations about some of the issues that

aren't taking a rest.

But I got to warn you, there's a bit of a

bit of an issue with that, too.

You're constantly paying attention to everything.

You're constantly trying to stay up to date with it all.

You just never do it.

You never can.

It's never enough.

And let me tell you, I've experienced this in my own life.

You really can't.

You can't keep up with it all.

It's something that you will chase and you will never be able to actually catch up with.

So

I'm going to give you some tips, just out of my own toolbox,

for making sure that you're able to kind of

turn it off every now and then.

I'm not telling you to stick your head in the sand necessarily.

That's not what I mean.

Ignore it all.

I think it's important that we do stay on top of the things that are going on in our world.

Of course, that is important.

I do believe that there are things that deserve more of our attention,

deserve a greater

focus.

And I'll talk about that coming up here in just a little bit, too, but I want to give you some ideas, some things that you may

actually

come in handy over the next

few days at the very least.

888 727

BECK is the number.

Yeah,

we never get an escape from it.

Part of it by design,

if you look at the crisis, one after the other,

it's designed to keep you in a constant and perpetual state of

reaction.

What's next?

Well, look at the border.

Well, look at what they're doing in Arizona.

Oh, my gosh, the election.

Now they're going to sign this omnibus.

You see, it's one thing after another.

And the reason why this can be so damaging is that you're constantly going from one thing to the other, and you're distracted.

You're pulled in a million different places.

And the things that matter most never get the full attention that they deserve.

When you're pulled in so many different directions, you can't focus on the things that matter most.

You can't really get anything done.

So you end up with a lot of activity, but

not enough accomplishment.

At least, not really any meaningful meaningful or effective accomplishment.

And this is something that I think the Republican Party, but not just that, the American people are feeling, experiencing, seeing on a daily basis.

How do you find the calm in the chaos?

How do you clear your head so that you can focus on the things that matter most?

Because I'll tell you, it's going to be in the coming days more and more important.

If we really do want to take our country country back,

we got to learn a couple of things.

I'll share how it's done as we put the wraps on this edition coming up in moments of the Glenn Beck Program.

The Glenn Back Program

back in for Glenn, Justin Barkley on the Glen Back Program.

You can connect connect with me at JustinBarklay, B-A-R-C-L-A-Y dot com,

all over the place.

Don't forget to check out theblaze.com.

They're still running news, still going 24-7.

Of course, they keep up with all of it at theblaze.com.

And if you miss any of this program or any this week, there's been some stellar programs this week.

You can always catch up with the podcast at Glennbeck.com.

Wanted to take a couple of quick phone calls and get those in because, you know, it is the season.

We're almost there for Christmas and I'm going to get you in if I can.

Triple-8-727-BEC, B-E-C-K,

888-727-BEC.

We'll deal with Porter in South Carolina.

Porter, you're up first on the Glenn Beck program.

How are you?

Good morning.

How are you?

Loving the program.

Missing Glenn.

Best part of the day, actually.

Yeah.

Hey, for all those people that had to go through that big deal out in Texas where they had the power outages and everything's freezing and all, you know it's coming.

A little bit of common sense.

This is your daddy talking to you.

If you have access to a pair of

dice grip pliers or even a street key, go out to your water meter, pull the lid off of it, turn it off at the street.

Go out to your lowest water spigot in the house, crack it open,

let it drain out.

You might also want to pull out the, you know, open the spigots in your house.

Drain the water out of your pipes.

If your house is going to get, you know, below 32 degrees inside, you don't have heat, you don't have

a lot of open insulation or any way to keep it, you know, warm.

Just get the water out of the pipes as much as you can.

Porter, I appreciate that.

You're right.

That stuff will freeze over.

And then they're not built for that in some place,

especially Texas.

Appreciate that.

This old house brought to you by Porter.

Jeff in Georgia.

Jeff, how are you?

I appreciate it.

I love talking to you guys.

Triple-8727, back is the number.

How are you, Jeff?

Hey, I am fine.

How are you doing?

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Good, good.

Yeah, I was telling the screener there that I heard at the top of the hour some kind of bill got passed.

It wasn't the omnibus bill, some other bill.

But in it was a provision that Republicans had pushed for was that the military COVID mandate was dropped.

And I just want to know all the folks that were pushed out of the military, are they going to reinstate them?

Because I work with a lady and her son had 12 years in, straight out of high school,

and they just pushed him out last month.

That's the Defense Authorization Act.

They put that through.

McCarthy was able to get that done.

And

it looks like some of the good news there.

Jeff, amen.

They ought to get those guys back in, reinstate them.

And here's what I'll add with backpack.

Jeff and Georgie, appreciate you calling in.

That is some good news.

And in Michigan, up next on the Glenn Beck program with some good news on your end.

Ann, how are you?

I'm great.

Thank you.

Listening to the program, loving it in this storm.

Wow, a bright light.

Yeah, I've got good news for everybody.

If you're wondering what to do about your faith, we can do something.

Holland, Michigan's Mayor Nathan Bach, with pressure from the Ottawa County Patriots, emails and calls, has decided to declare April faith, F-A-I-T-H month.

He has declared June as Pride Month, and now we have this on our calendar.

Now, we're going to have to rise up and meet and do things for that month.

But on the other hand, I want you out there to know, get a hold of your municipality government, tell them this is what you want, you're the people, and do it politely, kindly, but with pressure.

And here we go.

2023, Holland, Michigan is going to experience, express, and exercise their faith right here in their city.

I'm going to see it.

That's great news, and thank you for the call.

You know,

this is a good point.

You get people that think a lot of times, and part of this is, is we're meant to feel this way, folks.

They want you to feel like there's nothing you can do.

They want you to feel hopeless.

They want you to feel helpless.

They want you to feel like it just doesn't matter.

Don't try and fight

City Hall.

You're never going to get it.

That's the point of all this.

And, you know, and let's be honest, I get it.

some of this i feel pretty you know down sometimes too but we've always got to remember

that no matter what

we've got to continue to fight you got to keep it up

those

people that uh that that made that happen that put the pressure on to get that done i mean i know it seems like a small thing you might think well you we've got big problems here

but all the politics is local

All of these things that we face on a daily basis, and there's a storm of chaos.

I mean, crises after crises, one after the other, all of it.

What's happening down at the border to this inflation, the omnibus they're going to pass, they're going to make things even worse.

And of course, the election issues, all of it, every single bit.

I mean, we could name piece after piece, and we still wouldn't have enough time.

Go through an entire three-hour show.

It still couldn't get done.

Your faith is under attack.

All these different things,

but it's designed to make you feel like

you're overwhelmed on all sides.

It's designed to make you feel like there's absolutely nothing that you can do.

This is part of the

problem.

But I'm here to tell you that there's just another example there of people standing up, deciding where they're going to stand firm, how they're going to fight back, and doing it, I think, in a way

in which not only gets results, you know, it's effective, but it gives you a little glimmer of what's possible.

So, congratulations to those folks who continue to fight back.

Don't lose hope.

I'll give you a little bit of how I think we need to learn to fight back.

And

it might be counterintuitive, in fact.

It might go a little bit against the grain.

In fact, it might

challenge

some of the conventional wisdom

of how we fight,

you know,

how you're supposed to fight.

And we come back.

Quick break, back with you, and some tips after this on the Glen Back Program.

The Glen Back Program.

Merry Christmas

from the William Black Program.

It's Justin Barkley and for back today.

You know, I want to give you some tips, some things of how we can stay fresh in the fight because, you know, there is a, I mean, the truth is, when we face

the fight that we face every day in this country for our kids, for the soul of this nation,

you know, it can become overwhelming.

There is quite a bit, and I hear it, you know,

I do a show here in West Michigan and Grand Rapids, WOOD

WOULD RADION, NES RADIO WOUD 1300 1069 FM.

And I will tell you, this has been a very

tough year for a lot of folks with a very contentious election, specifically here in Michigan, but all throughout the country, the midterms were really

tough.

There were some glimmers of hope.

There were some good pieces of news, but I think a lot of folks still finding, you know, where was that red wave, the red tsunami we heard about, things like that, finding some challenging times in a lot of it.

And let's be honest,

you got to be realistic.

We got problems, folks.

And I believe we ought to face those problems.

I believe we ought to go right through them.

But I also want to tell you

that one of the ways I think we often overlook

in battle

is

going to be completely, I think,

antithetical to the way some folks might be thinking, but is to make sure that you're well rested,

to make sure that you don't lose hope.

Over these next coming days, you might have an opportunity here or there

to take a bit of a break.

And we ought to.

And like I said earlier, the news never stops nowadays.

It's like drinking from a fire hose.

And in some days, a hydrant.

And many times people have told me when I bring that up, it says, No, it's more like a sewage pipe.

You know,

now that you mention it, yeah,

especially some of these stories,

It can be.

But the news never stops.

The cycle just continues.

And I believe a lot of it, most of it, is really meant to overwhelm us.

To

really keep us from being able to focus.

It's meant to distract us.

The fog of war,

what they call that.

Well, what happens if you get bogged down?

You get demoralized.

You're no good.

You can't fight.

You can't see the target.

You don't know what you're facing.

And

if it's coming from all angles,

you can feel like there's no hope.

So what I suggest is taking some time.

I wrote a book a couple of years back.

It's called Good News, Hope and Encouragement for Trying Times.

And in the book,

well, part of it for me was

writing about

my first daughter and her story.

And she was born

around this time.

In fact, December 6th, 2020.

She was born at 27 weeks.

She was born early.

The doctor said, oh my gosh, we don't know what's going to happen.

Your daughter is coming.

My wife's water broke.

And we didn't know what to expect.

The doctor said they came in and told us all kinds of number of different things that could possibly happen and go wrong.

And

of course,

even in the middle of all that, I had a bit of a peace to know that everything was going to work out.

I don't know

if I can really explain all of that.

I do know now

where it came from.

It's the peace that follows me to this day, even in

these times.

But it's a piece that I

like to share with others if I can.

I'd like to give it to you,

but I can't just hand it over.

You have to go looking for it yourself.

I share in that book part of my process.

One of the things that I do, and

I won't bore you with everything, but one of the things that I try to do is make sure that I clear a little bit of time

on my calendar to clear my head.

And you may be saying, but I don't have time for that.

You just don't understand.

I'm overwhelmed.

I got so much going on.

I just don't have time to sit down and

clear my calendar and

do nothing.

Well, you need it more than me then.

But every morning, just a little bit of time to set your day

your GPS, right?

So that you know where you're going and

you're rooted in a solid foundation.

I read a devotion.

I spend time reading my Bible.

I pray.

I talk to God.

I try to listen.

I give him

a little bit of time

the first of my day.

Now, I'm always perfect with this, and some days are better than others.

In fact, I got a little time off next week.

I'm going to spend some time

doing more of that.

I think we overlook how important rest is.

You know, God

commanded it.

The seventh day, even he rested when he made all of this.

And he didn't have to.

I mean, he's God.

So

there must be

more to that.

Maybe a set of instructions for us.

You know, we're human after all.

We're frail.

We're fragile.

As much as we like to think we're strong,

we can't do it all alone.

The good news is, you don't have to.

Take some time and think about what matters most.

Over the next couple of days, maybe

you start to think about

some of the things that are going well already.

I like to make a list in the morning, three things that

are great.

Three things that are

really,

you know, I'm grateful for.

Something I've been blessed with, my health, my children, whatever it might be.

That'll be enough to set you up, I think, on the right path to making a difference.

We need you in the fight.

We need you well rested so that you continue.

Folks, I don't ever want to see you give up.

I don't ever want to give up.

We need

each other.

and we need to recognize where our strength and our hope comes from.

It is always an honor and a pleasure filling in for Glenn.

Thanks to the folks back in Dallas who do such an amazing job.

I got to tell you, they make this look and sound so easy.

You're fantastic.

Wishing you the best no matter where you are.

More at JustinBarkley.com this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas to all.

God bless.

This is the Glenn Back Program.