Issues And Ideas: News Commentary & Analysis With Chris DeBello April 26 2026

Join us for expert honest analysis, news commentary and current events discussion about politics, healthcare, the environment, veterans and the Bible.
 
(00:00) Recent actions and comments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HHS about healthcare and vaccines are examined.

(05:53) Dr. Robert Steinbrook, Health Research Group Director with Public Citizen, shares his analysis of the changes by HHS to children vaccine schedules along with the reasons behind them and the concerns they create.

(18:27) Kevin J. Mooney, Investigative Journalist with Restoration News and The Daily Caller, reveals how and why political activism has taken over environmentalism as well as what the impact of that activism has been.

(31:21) Actress and author Jennifer O'Neill discusses the alarming suicide rate among military veterans from PTSD and how the work at Hope & Healing At Hillenglade is helping our veterans cope and heal.

(44:40) Chris DeBello tells what the Bible teaches about the importance and need of reading God's Word.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hello, welcome to Issues and Ideas. I'm Chris Tobello. A report has found the COVID nineteen vaccines cut in half the chances that an adult here in the U.S. would have to go to the ER or be hospitalized with the infection last fall and winter. Small problem, you're not going to uh find this report to be able to read this report. At least not from the agency that led the research, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the head of the CDC, Dr. J. Bodicharya, who is also, by the way, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health NIH, blocked the publication of those findings in the CDC's journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Now we have the authors of the study who got the official rejection letter from the journal this past Tuesday, even though the study had cleared what are called internal reviews and had been scheduled for publication. Yes, this is unusual because the study followed the normal methods that the agency uses to estimate the effectiveness of vaccines against seasonal respiratory viruses like COVID and flu. List goes on from there. According to sources from within, Bontacharya took issue with the study's test negative design. HHS didn't answer any questions about what exactly the concerns are, but that's been at least the expressed reason for killing the report. What's additionally odd about this is the process used to arrive at the conclusions is the standard way of measuring vaccine effectiveness for COVID, RSV, other seasonal respiratory viruses. Now it's no secret. The COVID nineteen vaccines have been a a particular target of RFK Jr., the the head of HHS. Back in June, he announced the COVID 19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for pregnant women and kids. Last September, the agency's new vaccine advisors removed the CDC's blanket recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines for everyone six months and older, and instead recommending that the vaccine be given after shared clinical decision making, meaning with a recommendation or prescription from a doctor or pharmacist. March meeting of the vaccine advisors was due to report on injuries related to COVID-19 vaccines, but that was postponed because of a legal ruling. And just this past Tuesday in a congressional hearing, R. F. K. Jr. actually denied his vaccine views, played a role in declining vaccination rates, and disputed that he has been anti-vaccine. Oh, really? Then who was it who has been leading the charge against vaccines claiming that they are linked to autism? RFK Jr. Who's been the loudest voice claiming that the COVID vaccine is, quote, the deadliest vaccine ever made. That would be RFK Jr. The same RFK Jr. who in the past has argued that children's gender identity can be impacted by water and that 5G high-speed wireless networks are being used to control our behavior. This past week got a little bit more heavy for RFK Jr. as he attempted in front of a Senate committee hearing in exchange with Senator Elizabeth Warren, he tried to explain Trump math. Check this out.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

He claims that Trump Rx has reduced prices by as much as 600%. 600%, which I think means companies should be paying you to take those drugs. But let's do some real math here. Take one drug protonic. A 30-day supply of this heartburn medication cost$200 on Trump RX. But there is an identical generic version of this pill called hand pill resolve.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Oh but I would say that's a drug. There's two ways of calculating percent of the drug and you would do that.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Do you know what the drug costs at Costco?

SPEAKER_02 5:02

I do not.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

The drug is$16 at Costco. Crop RX charges$200 for protonics, and Costco charges$16. Is the treatment for heart arrhythmia costs$336 on Trump RX? Or you can get the generic at cost plus drug for$12. So you tell me, Mr. Secretary, are patients better off paying$336 on top RX or$12 at Crop plus drugs?

SPEAKER_02 5:42

You're comparing apples to oranges because you're uh comparing the brand drug to the generic drug.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, to the exact same drug.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

Throughout our history, vaccines were always seen as a reliable, essential pretty much for our health and well-being. Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of misinformation conspiracies, they were able to reach many more people during those times of solitude. What had been a small anti-vax movement grew and it grew significantly. Now, as we all know, we have someone who has long been an opponent of vaccines, heading up the federal government agency, which is responsible for issuing health care guidance. The reality has resulted in changes by HHS and the CDC regarding children and vaccine schedules. With us now to explain what these changes are, what their impact just might be is Health Research Group Director at Public Citizen, Dr. Robert Steinberg. How are you today, Doctor?

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Doing okay. Uh thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

And find out more about Public Citizen, the points of focus they have, the information education they provide. It is citizen.org, and we do have that link at our homepage. Let us start with the basics, Doctor, then we'll get into the uh concerns or the potential impacts of these decisions. What had been the vaccine schedule initially before these changes?

SPEAKER_03 7:12

Well, the the childhood and vaccine immunization schedule is complex uh because uh before the changes involved uh vaccinating children and adolescents against sex 17 different diseases, and uh each disease and the vaccines are are different uh in terms of the timing of the vaccines, the specifical medical reasons to um vary things between individuals and so forth. The overall picture is uh recommending from the federal government, the CDC, that all children now be vaccinated against only 11 diseases. By comparison, the previous recommendation was 17 diseases. So six have been removed from the CDC recommendations. Uh another aspect of this is that the CD has the CDC has said that all immunizations recommended as of December 31st of last year, 2025, will be continue to be covered by the Affordable Care Act Insurance Plans and Federal Health Insurance Programs. So, from a practical standpoint, all of the vaccines against all 17 diseases will continue to be available and will continue to be um uh reimbursable by insurance uh with no changes. Uh the difference is moving things from being recommended to in some categories uh the change is to shared decision making with the clinician, and in some categories it's to um high risk groups. Um some of the noteworthy uh vaccines uh which are affected are those against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and rotavirus. Uh it's worth recommend uh remembering that with hepatitis B, we are starting from a point where this was recommended a birth dose for all newborns, and now it's being moved to a category of shared decision making, which is a quite significant change.

SPEAKER_05 9:12

Aaron Powell And what you described too, that's the reason why there's now basically three tiers for the specific vaccines for the degrees and the availability like you referenced.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Yes, there are three tiers, and uh when one gets down into the details about each uh uh immunization, it gets more complicated. But the big picture is a step backwards uh for public health. Uh with the possibility going forward uh that many uh preventable hospitalizations will happen and many people will die prematurely now. Do we know exactly how this is going to play out? No. Um there are a couple of potential positive factors to countervail this. Uh states issue guidance, public health guidance for their states about recommendations how to do this in the state, and many states are pushing back and not accepting this and saying that children should be vaccinated exactly as they were under the uh previous schedule. Uh and also health insurers uh outside of the federal government programs have committed already to covering the recommended uh vaccines as of September of uh last year. Finally, professional societies such as the American Academy of Pediatrics have also been quite clear uh in uh their view that uh these changes are not the way to go and that the uh prior um uh childhood immunization schedule was just fine.

SPEAKER_05 10:40

Dr. Robert Steinberg, who is health research group director of Public Citizens, citizen.org, their website, and you are listening to issues and ideas. What was the basis that the CDC used for for these decisions? What were I mean, when when you say science, you always think of study and exploration to come to a finite conclusion. Was that the case here?

SPEAKER_03 11:05

No. Uh uh this was a top-down politically driven directive to unilaterally change the childhood vaccination schedule. Uh couple aspects of how this uh uh went down are uh noteworthy to discuss. One is that uh the Health Um and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., uh had uh fired everybody on the advisory committee on immunization practices, which usually uh uh reviews um all the immunization recommendations from the CDC and any changes uh to the uh childhood vaccine schedule. Um so this was a hand-picked uh committee, which had also started to make uh some recommended changes, such as with the hepatitis B vaccine at their December meeting. That committee was entirely bypassed. Uh this came directly from the acting uh director of the CDC, uh Jim O'Neill, who is not a physician, um uh with input from some of the other political employees, uh such as those at the FDA, uh, the NIH and CMS, and of course people in the central HHS uh office. Um so uh this was not um something which involved any attempt to have discussion, any involvement of the career experts at the CDC on immunizations, any detailed public review of data and discussion. Uh it was something that uh Secretary Kennedy Secretary Kennedy apparently wanted to get done and wanted to get done yesterday.

SPEAKER_05 12:47

I looked at the s the reports that and the the guidance that they issued, and the the the the assessment reviewed, reading from one of the reports here, twenty peer developed nations finding that the U.S. is a global outlier among developed nations about the number of diseases addressed in routine childhood vaccination schedules and told them of recommended doses. It almost sounds to me like all they care about the numbers of the va the vaccine count. I didn't see any information about the the level of health.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

The concept at some level is that children are getting too many shots, and they should get fewer shots, and they should get shots against fewer diseases. Uh now the motivation to avoid um shots for children or from anybody else, that's that's okay. But there's a reason why people are getting the immunizations. You have to look at the science, you have to weigh the benefits and the risks. And when you simply say, let's have less shots and let's do that and forget about the reasons why the vaccines are given in the first place, uh, that's the wrong way to do it. Um the um immunization schedule is a dynamic document. There science, there's always new information about um vaccines and their safety and their effectiveness. The effectiveness can change over time as uh the particular strains of various infectious diseases change. So what one wants is a process which allows for prudent changes as the effectiveness of vaccines and or the safety change over time, uh, but it's thoughtful public deliberation. It's not a unilateral declaration that we just have to have fewer shots.

SPEAKER_05 14:35

Or basically saying, well, they do that few there, we're gonna do that few over here now.

SPEAKER_03 14:40

Right. And then the other point, speaking generally, is that that's not the way to approach public health in the United States, nor is it the approach to public health in another nation. One has to take into account the population, uh the diseases which are circulating, the health care system, um, and uh what is best for one country may uh appropriately not be the best for another country. But to say uh the United States is in a different place than other countries, therefore we must change, it's it's just not the way to approach this.

SPEAKER_05 15:12

And from what I was able to get a hold of and look and study for the background for this segment, they're comparing vaccine numbers versus versus vaccine numbers, and not comparing health of children in those twenty other countries versus the health of the children here in America. But with the uh another common thread I saw in the rationalization for all this was that this is to re-establish trust of the American people for the medical profession. And I'm reading this thinking there's only really basically two sizable groups who don't trust the medical profession. One group are people who just fail prey to bad doctors, the other are anti-vax people.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

It seems to be a a bit of um political sloganeering. Um in many people's view, what's being done undermines trust. It leads to confusion. Um and um this can be argued both ways. Uh our view is that these sorts of changes, particularly unilateral with no attempt to uh build professional consensus, uh are likely to undermine trust, decrease the immunization rates, and over time increase the uh um number of preventable diseases, uh preventable uh uh illness from many different uh diseases.

SPEAKER_05 16:32

We're seeing that with measles.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

There's really no data either way. There's a lot of people making uh political statements, and uh that's just not the way to do public health.

SPEAKER_05 16:40

Aaron Ross Powell, but what you just said isn't a theory. You can look at the the outbreak and the surge of measle cases as as proof of the fact that a lower vaccine rate in those in that instance is causing a spread of a disease that all all intents and purposes, by medical definition, we had eradicated.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Well, there's no question that lower vaccination and the frequency of vaccine preventable diseases. Uh unfortunately, the only way to know is to see what happens in the future. And we've seen instances with with measles right now. Uh we may well see instances with other diseases uh several years out. On the other hand, if the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the states which have pushed back are successful, then vaccination rates in many parts of the country will remain strong, and the negative effects of uh these changes to the federal recommendations will be less.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

So for a parent right now, the best thing they can do, the best step they can make for the children, don't read a CDC report, talk with your doctor.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Yes, and uh doctors uh informed by the state uh health department recommendations in many states, but there's variation, and also by their professional societies, such as the American Academy Pediatrics, uh the American College of Physicians for Adults, and the American Medical Association more generally.

SPEAKER_05 18:05

Thank you for the realistic view of the situation, and a lot of confusion happens when messages messages get crossed, but science is established in the known and the fact, and you help remind us of that. Thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

Okay, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_05 18:21

If you're listening to your favorite podcast platform, make sure you subscribe and follow. The division comes about when how to achieve and maintain all that is discussed and debated. As my next guest points out with his new book, rather than being driven by true science, so-called environmental policies and programs are have have been increasingly driven by things like agendas, and of course, money. He examines the pseudoscience which drives it, how it's being responded to in climate porn, how and why antipopulation zealots fabricate science while targeting American capitalism, freedom, and independence. He is an investigative journalist with Restoration News. His work is also featured at the Daily Signal and the Commonwealth Foundation. Kevin J. Mooney, thanks for being here today, Kevin.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

Oh, thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_05 19:23

Glad to be here for sure.com and for Kevin's site, Kevin Mooney.info. We do, of course, have those links at our homepage as well. Set the foundation based on your title, Kevin. Why climate porn? What what's the origin of that phrase and why is it an effective description as you feature and explain in your book?

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Yeah, that's a great question. Uh part of it comes into the investigations I did to uh into education curriculum and how it was being taught going back to the COVID-19 shutdowns when parents first became aware of how radicalized and how pornographic some of the material was that their children were seeing. In tandem with that, I noticed that climate propaganda was also making its way into the classroom, sort of attacking the scientific method, telling young people that you know you coerce the outcome uh for to suit your political agenda and then just uh manipulate the process any old which way. Well, of course, the scientific method is just the reverse. You have a hypothesis, you uh subject it to rigorous testing, and then you let the ships fall where they may. Uh so uh I decided uh correctly, I think, that the uh that approach to climate science was every bit as pornographic as the conventional version and every bit as destructive too. So it was a way to sort of weave in together several themes.

SPEAKER_05 20:40

Now, as you reveal in your book, too, you can go literally around the world to find examples of the activists failing to prove what they call to be science, but you really don't have to go far, at least for you, or not your uh your concerns and my concerns, we're both based here in New Jersey, and we just have to look at recent actions over the past, well, let's say a couple of years regarding the Jersey Shore and the attempts for wind energy to be literally planted off the coast of New Jersey, which I I guess approv it brings back the question: how can something which has failed so much in the past be looked at as a success today like these projects were?

SPEAKER_04 21:19

Well, follow the money. Um you know, a lot of the groups and organizations that support w offshore wind are benefiting benefiting from it financially, uh, but I there's a little bit of good news here in terms of how they've been exposed. There was a uh pretty hard-fought battle uh by a group called Save LBI as in Long Beach I on a group of citizen activists opposed to offshore wind. How would it impact their property values? How would it impact the tourist industry? How would it impact their beach communities? What they found is they were squaring off against these well healed, well funded climate activists who would acknowledge that there's some short term environmental damage with offshore wind, but everything for them is in the name of climate. Their argument is that we need to sort of take a uh uh a step back in terms of our environment for long-term gain, uh sort of these theoretical, hypothetical uh uh climate damages that will uh they forecast decades on out. Well, of course, this is all phony. If you go into the environmental impact statements for these offshore projects, they acknowledge that it's not going to have any impact on climate. It's all about a political agenda. But I think what's happened is that you've seen a re-emergence of genuine conservation and preservation that I think goes back to the uh before the command and control approach of the 1970s. Um and that's beginning to re-emerge and starting to take on these well-heeled climate activists that do not advocate initiatives that are good for the environment, quite the opposite.

SPEAKER_05 22:40

I mean you think of it too like just a couple of weeks ago I know Clean Action New Jersey just did ocean sweeps to pick up garbage as they do every year, several times a year I think actually it's just an example of how if you have people power versus the will and the whims of conglomerates which is going to be the winning side for the environment I kind of think it's the power of the people.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Yeah it is and what I'm seeing is a broad cross section of citizens across political lines, party lines who were genuinely concerned about their local ecology. And like I say in the book, this offshore wind I think took the blinders off a bit because I think they really saw for the first time that there's an awful lot of money in organization, also foreign money by the way tied up in these offshore wind schemes and it does take a concerted organized effort to face them down. I would say the good news too is you're on the one hand you're never going to outspend and outfundraise these well-heeled groups. They get donations and grants from big foundations and from outside of state you need to raise enough money to get your message out and that is what happened at the Jersey Shore. They were able to detail and demonstrate uh how how damaging these offshore projects were and were able to push back against the political class and put a stop to this.

SPEAKER_05 23:48

And of course having Trump come in was helpful too because there's been some changes at the federal level Kevin Mooney about his book Climate porn how and why antipopulation zealots fabricate science while targeting American capitalism, freedom and independence. His work is featured at Restoration News, Restoration News dot com and his personal website for all that is Kevin Mooney Kevin Mooney dot info and you are listening to issues and ideas. You include antipopulation as part of the the secondary title in your in your book Kevin these aren't eugenists are they?

SPEAKER_04 24:23

They're not looking to thin out the population and work on thinning out the people to presumably protect the environment well there's a long history with this ideology it's called Malthusian named after a British economist Thomas Malthusius who had this idea that we were running out of supplies and that the population was becoming detriment to the planet and that we needed to curr curb and curtail the growth of human populations. That metastasized over time into what I'll call an anti-population movement. And I go in the book about the common denominator and funding between the abortion industry and modern environmental activists. They essentially have the same goals to constrain human population, constrain human creativity. They operate with a view that humanity is a blight to the planet um and uh that that movement has folded itself into the the modern climate movement just follow the money and it all starts to make sense.

SPEAKER_05 25:19

And you also as you feature in in your book Climble porn too is follow how conclusions are arrived at maybe the most glaring I think for the maybe non-scientific mind is how so-called scientists use computer models versus old school scientific observation with the understanding being that you can tell a computer get a computer much like with any statistics to get to the point you want to get to where observation what you're observing has control not you.

SPEAKER_04 25:49

Well exactly I mean a certain level of modeling is fine it's all based on supposition um but the problem with it is it can also be used to manipulate public policy. You can pump in any old assumptions that you want to get a desired result and outcome. And the track record of the climate modeling of course is way off they've greatly overestimated the amount of warming that has taken place for one thing. And they they've been used to lend themselves to very expensive regulatory policies that are not rooted in sound science. I will say the other bit of good news there, I I do think the re-emergence of a vigorous American space program I think you know shows us the direction we're going in. If the Apollo program and the current moon program had relied on modeling rather than rigorous testing, we would have dead astronauts on successful missions. So I think what we're seeing is a real pushback against this anti-science climate activism that had made some and considerable headway over the past few decades. So my great hope is that it's reached its high water mark and it's starting to recede.

SPEAKER_05 26:51

That's the thing too the more people are interested in science all aspects of science and more aware of science then the less likely any kind of climate panic will go unchallenged. But that also brings up to another point in your book too because by and large climate policies are dictated rather than placed before legislative bodies or certainly the the people I mean it's it's rare it does happen but if w if and when that ever rarely happens most of those policies fail when left uh population votes is that one of the aspects that has to be changed to why are why are why are these bodies recognized to be able to dictate rather than a democratic system of allowing people to have the save through a through a vote.

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Well right remember what uh President Trump said in 2016 he said I represent Pittsburgh not Paris meaning no taxation without representation that whole Paris climate treaty was uh forced onto us through the United Nations it essentially involves energy taxes and energy costs. And if you're gonna do that uh you need a straight up and down vote uh in the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Senate you don't let unelected unaccountable international bureaucrats uh coerce those kind of policies onto us it's anti-constitutional um and uh it makes an end run around our democratic institutions I think there's been an awakening to that too as you know Trump did get out of the Paris Climate Agreement uh and also out of the UN framework agreement that made those treaties possible. That's an enduring lasting change because if a future president wants to try to get us back into those UN agreements it means a two-thirds vote in the Senate. Only the Senate can approve treaties with a two-thirds vote and I think Trump's done us all a favor by getting us out of these unaccountable very expensive so-called climate agreements aimed at constraining American energy and also attacking our democratic system.

SPEAKER_05 28:39

And this whole idea isn't limited to just a a larger stage you can look at the state's California to be sure and here in New Jersey we have what's affectionately called the Highlands Act but for farmers and homeowners it has been called torture for many decades since it's implemented. I I get the purpose of it of protecting what is a large supplier of water for the majority of the state but it's such a fine toothed comb that there was a radio station here in the northwest part of the state they had a transmitter facility which was a metal trailer that was literally rusting away and the equipment was going to drop out from the floor. And the state said no you can't build a brick building up there. Well then how is the station going to communicate necessary information to the population supposed to serve if you won't let a transmitter or so it that just was a demonstration just how fine-toothed comb a a good idea can become and turn it into a negative just to wrap up here looking ahead because you you're right in climate porn too how organizations and groups are fighting back for a rational, honest science. How important is it to get true science to the kids in schools versus preaching, you know, teaching instead of preaching?

SPEAKER_04 29:50

You know I think this intersects with a growing school choice movement. You know unfortunately in the public school system we do we still see that propaganda being burrowed in there. There's all these different state directives about climate which attack the scientific method but you do see a a growing movement of homeschoolers of private schools alternative institutions where real science is being taught um I I think it's up to parents to continue to get organized, to monitor what their kids are being taught. And I think the great hope to get actual science in the classroom is is through the school choice movement. There's legions of problems with a lot of our public schools not just on the climate question but across the board but I think that the whole COVID episode gave a shot in the arm to the school choice movement. I think that intersects with the teaching of sound science. So again there are some hopeful trend lines where it goes from here we'll see but uh at least there's some been some incremental movement back in a good direction.

SPEAKER_05 30:44

Well to put it my change comes through understanding and with Kevin's book Climate Poor and How and Why Antipopulation Zellets Fabricate Science while targeting American capitalism, freedom and independence, you will gain a better understanding and the role you could play in bringing the understanding, giving a greater volume to that understanding. Find out more about Kevin's work at Kevamooney.info he is also a contributor to Restoration News, Restoration News dot com. Kevamooney thank you for the clarity of science that helps people understand its importance and value to be true science and thank you for being here today. Oh likewise any time thank you so much we see the members of our military as strong, courageous brave people we too often forget that they're also human. When they face challenges they could break within in ways that we don't see and even they find difficult to admit when their service is done and they come home. We need to recognize and acknowledge that an increasing number of our veterans are committing suicide. Depending on the study anywhere between 24 to 40 veterans each day are ending their lives. In fact suicide is now listed as one of the leading causes of death among our veterans our next guest through her efforts seeks to prevent those tragic numbers from growing by helping our veterans overcome the emotional weight that's pressing down on them that's known as PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder. She herself is a successful actress, author, advocate and voice for the unborn and founder as well as leader of Hope and healing at Hillinglade and I'm proud to call her a very special friend Jennifer O'Neill how are you my dear?

SPEAKER_01 32:26

I'm my dear is doing fine my dear and uh so good to talk to you Chris we got to chat for a second before but I just want to lift you up in the work that you do on a daily basis and you said I just tell the truth and the truth is a foreign object flying around these days. So I just want to sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart and yes we are good friends because we have the same values and uh same motives.

SPEAKER_05 32:53

You want to find out more about where we are what we are going to explore with Jennifer Hill and Glade.org we have that link at our homepage and if you scroll down as well forever and ever there is a graphic icon link to the work of uh Jennifer's Hope and healing at Hill and Glade organization. This all revolves around it's called equine assisted therapy. Help us understand what that's all about.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Well very briefly my dad was a war hero literally read about him in books uh in World War II and he was I have to remember he was only 23 and shot down over Germany was in a German prison camp that the movie The Great Escape was made out of. All that said I grew up with uh the notion and the truth of honoring our incredible veterans and people who are willing to lay their lives down and I I think that that that escapes most people the brevity of what what these heroes do. And heroes aren't from the long past they're every day every every individual that is in our service uh units for the America um is is is taking care of our freedoms and our safeties and we have to especially in the private sector stand up give back give notice and anything that we need to do so that they're coming home and and your numbers are more correct on the 40 40 a day suicides from our service members um because a lot of people don't report them it is tragic as we've lost more uh to suicides our heroes than than in war itself and uh it's about uh coming back and and and and being able to function through uh what they've seen, what they had to do uh what they they have done to protect us. And equine therapy is not new it's been around since the 1980s in Israel especially uh horses are very unique God was in a good mood when he made them and they can't they're they're incredibly intuitive and when you build a relationship with a horse it's 1500 pounds and we do at liberty work which means no halters, no anything um you're developing the individual is developing communication they're releasing their triggers they're relaxing they're uh looking into a mirror when they look at the horse so if they come in in the storm which they don't they're not even aware of and I do have to mention I don't mean to be like a gatling gun here but our our heroes' families are right there next to them. We have served over 4,000 since 2010 of our heroes and their families because the trickle down effect of post-traumatic stress uh goes through the whole family and it's not just a war issue it's a life issue. We found that out at COVID it's a shock and awe issue of life and all our um uh rights and wrongs and and heroism and what we believe in is falling down the drain. So if you can imagine what these people who are willing to put their lives on the line for us and come home and are not appreciated, not taken care of and not assimilated back into um the community, uh it's tragic. And we're gonna do and we're gonna keep doing everything we can to be of service.

SPEAKER_05 36:41

Yeah it's really filling the blanks of something I think too many people fail to understand because they think well there's someone who did these heroics over in some foreign land or or even some domestic land in some cases. Or you can think of you know things that happen where military are called into confront our our own and they think well okay that's their duty that's what they think needing to be done and they come back to a quote unquote normal everyday life but there's a disconnect. They've they've gone so deep into that that getting back into this is is there's a canyon in front of them.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

And and when we work with we work with Fort Campbell we work with um various hospitals etc the VA and and um we can do in an hour with a horse what might take they've said this six months over a desk conversation. It's not a conversation it's a relationship and the only the only person that I know is my Lord and Savior who was willing to put his life down on the line and did for for me and for my freedoms and for my my um salvation and right there Jesus said Remember me and that's why I love Memorial Day. Do this in remembrance of me Jesus said about communion and I say have a wonderful hamburger but don't forget our heroes.

SPEAKER_05 38:05

Absolutely we're talking with Jennifer O'Neill founder and leader of hope and healing at Hill and Glade legendary actress author voice for the unborn Hill and glade.org learn more about what we are talking about here and you are listening to Wiki's an idea 40% from making rollcall.org I did a survey 53% of the government hasn't effectively addressed respected veterans with suicide prevention programs. 60% of people responded by saying they believe veterans deal with ESD a lot more than civilian people do.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

And 40% say suicide is a lot more common enough among veterans that point that out of the and divorce and divorce by the way it's the whole family unit can be destructive.

SPEAKER_05 38:51

Substance abuse and that's what that's what leads to the rise in veteran homelessness that we see it just has uh tentacles that your work is getting ahead of and I think that's the important part.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Absolutely we have to be a a safe and private place. We're we're 15 minutes from downtown Nashville so that's the area we uh are in and I came from the show world horses breeding all of that and I just implore any of your listeners that if you have horses and you want to help we have program that we can put you through that you can do it in your local area and you can invite these veterans that are local to you to come there is a way to do it. Don't just sit on your hands. If you have a horse and they are appropriate for this kind of work um then then you can make a difference. So don't feel helpless feel inspired and plugged into the wall socket about the fact that you can make a difference because they've made a difference in your lives you're just sitting in in this country and as eroded as it is right now we have to come together on all level playing fields and pray and make a difference and get off our hands.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

Something another element too of Jennifer's work you know you don't just only rescue our two legged heroes, you rescue the four-legged heroes among us too the horses and other animals that you bring into and incorporate into your program and your work.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Absolutely you can give a horse a home and ho uh and then you can have a farm and that can be a place where a safe place for these guys to come together and ladies we have many women in service now that come and uh they have their own language and they need to feel that they aren't defeated. Uh if they want to be deployed again they don't go and and talk about the uh problems that they're wrestling with because they want to be deployed again. They've got to deal with those issues or it ends up in tragedy. And equine therapy works. Prayer works but equine therapy works. Everyone is invited here no matter how they feel about anything other than we're here to help embrace lift them up and I have a friend of mine that has an organization that I love this saying they don't want to hand out they want to hand up and we give a hoof up. And we also deal I just want to tell you Chris with our other heroes that are just essential and that's our first responders. Oh yes so we've been dealing with with their them and their families and um they're recognizing their triggers they're being more functional the families are thriving it works. There's a variety of ways that you can support Jennifer's work too if you go to hilling lay.org you can make a donation of any amount via PayPal you see that button on the top of each page as you study the information and hear, watch, read the testimonials, you become a sponsor you become a supporter in a variety of ways at a variety of levels you can make this work so we are a 501c3 so just uh if that makes a difference we're a tax write-off but what'll make a difference is that if you can't personally do this work, you can help us do this work and others like our organization and and again I want to repeat that we just have our own curriculum now where we can train others across the country and expand the territory so the help can be we can't be everywhere but we can help everyone everywhere to help those who sacrifice so much for us. I get very emotional about this because it it's it can't be ignored anymore. We're all having problems in a lot of different areas but we wouldn't even be having those problems if we didn't have these heroes laying their lives down for us.

SPEAKER_05 42:59

Amen to that you might be one of these people too who How you perceive someone and who they are internally can be two vastly different pictures. You see someone in the uniform out of the uniform with courage and self-confidence it might still be not to be worked out with open feeling.org that's anyway at the website.org we have a couple page for the third best and we can

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Please also go to Hill and Glade Farm. Because we're trying to create a for-profit side so we can keep going and serve more people. So we have weddings and venues and stays 15 minutes outside of uh Nashville. So please know that as well.

SPEAKER_05 44:16

And when you see the layout of the photos at Hill and Glade Farm, it's it's going to be a part of your wedding plan, your graduation party plan, your birthday plan, all type of plans, all type of parties, because not only will you have a fantastic time, you'll be again supporting the work of Hope and Healing at Hill and Glade. Jennifer, you are a blessing, and I'm proud to call you a friend.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

So good to talk to you again, Chris. God bless you.

SPEAKER_05 44:39

Yesterday was the conclusion of the week-long event, America Reads the Bible. I remember we had the creator of that event here on the show last time. And hope you were motivated and spent some time watching the event as it streamed live, and more importantly, hope you read along with what was going on. By the way, if you missed it, the entire event is archived over at pureflicks.com. That's F L I X, pureflicks.com. According to the American Bible Society, only eleven percent of Americans read the Bible daily. Well, thirty-four percent read it, it's at least once a week. Lifeway research found that 17% of Americans have read the entire Bible, at least once. So that creates uh, I think a rather important question. If you want to live according to God's word and know his will, how is that possible if you don't read the instructions? It's kind of like putting a gas grill together without reading the instructions you wind up with the pieces you forgot to do something with. When you go delight it, either nothing happens or it blows up in your face. It is absolutely positively impossible to be a faithful child of God without knowing the word of God. Yeah, his word is that valuable and that vital. That's why we read this in Isaiah chapter forty, verse eight. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Psalm chapter nineteen verses seven through eleven brings even greater understanding of the word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, and making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. When the Word of God is absent, how will you battle the temptations of Satan that you will be facing? And you will be facing temptations. Being tempted isn't a sin, by the way. Giving in to temptation, that's the sin. Let's go to the way this truth is, I think, best proven. We find that in the fourth chapter of Luke, whereas Satan tries to tempt Jesus, Satan says this to Jesus in verse three, and the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. Jesus replies with this in verse four, but Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Verses six and seven have Satan saying this to Jesus, and the devil said to him, All this authority I will give you and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. He meant every kingdom in the world. Jesus responds with this in verse eight, and Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. Verses nine through eleven, Satan actually tries to corrupt God's word in order to tempt Jesus. Chuck this out. Then he brought him to Jerusalem, sat on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. In that instance, Satan's actually quoting from Psalm 91. But Jesus turns to the truth of God's word in verse twelve declaring, and Jesus answered and said to him, It has been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Jesus in all three of those instances was quoting, by the way, from the book of Deuteronomy, specifically chapter eight, verse three, chapter six, verse sixteen, and chapter six, verse thirteen. That brings up another very important truth. No part of God's word features an expiration date. The Old Testament, for numerous reasons, is needed for a full understanding of the New Testament. This is why Paul writes this in Romans chapter fifteen, verse four, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. When we read the latest book by a favorite author and get to that last page, what do we do? We either write put the book on the shelf or if it's an ebook in a folder for saving and wait for their next book. God's word has, for now and forever, only one book that you need to read. Of course, the Bible. The actor Hugh O'Brien told me one time the story about how we went to Africa to spend time with the great humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, spent a few weeks watching up close the work Schweitzer was doing, helped out, spent time talking with this great man. When it was time for Hugh to leave, come back to the States, as Schweitzer walked into the plane, he said to Hugh, So Hugh, what are you going to do with all this? Meaning, how are you going to take what you've experienced and turn it into good works? When he came back to America, Hugh launched the Hugh O'Brien Youth Foundation, which helps teens develop a path for their lives. That organization continues his work today as part of Hugh's legacy. So my question to you after you read the Bible is, what are you going to do with all this? James chapter one verse twenty two addresses the doing requirement. Reading here, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. As you would expect, I hope, the Bible provides you with the answers. Second Timothy chapter three, verse sixteen gives us this All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. We get this guidance from Joshua chapter one verse eight. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Colossians chapter three verse sixteen gives us these instructions Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Now you might think you can fake it, try to fool people, take shortcuts, do more deeds in the darkness and in the light. If that's you, let me be the one to tell you that God has already spotted and tagged you. Your truth is exposed in first John chapter two, verses three and four. Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Thanks as always for coming along for the ride today. Appreciate your attention and your time. Look forward to being with you right here this time next week for our next edition of Issues and Ideas.