Christianity In The Courtroom

Real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. I'm hoping and praying that in California we we'd shake it up enough to where we have to call you. I'm hoping Kelly we need help. You got to you got to come and help us. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Hey everybody welcome to the national religious broadcasters gathering right here in Dallas, Texas. We've had a great time bringing some remarkable guests to all of you here at the Real Life Network and today we have with us a man who I have to tell you I get to be bold and I get to be strong on the issues because I know I've got a good brother that's got my back and that's Kelly Shackleford and Kelly Shackleford welcome brother. Love you in a moment I'm going to get out of the way and let you share with the people about the good news that's been going on regarding religious liberty but first liberty is a organization of attorneys that defend your constitutional rights to exercise your freedom your religious freedom and if I remember right you guys have been I think the most most successful law group of its kind at the Supreme Court and so with that Kelly can you just impress the people with hope? Yeah I mean what's happened the last gosh I was just looking you know you probably do this too I have a a time with the Lord every year or two where I just sit down and I go dreams what are my dreams Lord where should I go what and I did this for for first liberty years ago years ago and I went back and looked at those a couple of weeks ago and one of the things that said is get a case to the US Supreme Court get a case as in solo singular now in the last six years we've had nine and we're nine and zero nine and zero yeah and and what happened I just got a people don't understand there's about 7,000 requests a year for the Supreme Court to take your two here a case they took 58 last year a 7,000 59 the year before okay out of 7,000 so if if our goal had been for them to take one of our cases that would be a really heavy goal right I mean you're pretty bold they didn't take one they didn't take two they didn't take three we won four religious liberty cases at the Supreme Court in 13 months that is impossible only God oh my God and I'm telling you there is a move of God happening right now I've been doing this for 36 years I'm telling you what is happening now I thought impossible every step of it I'm watching we we just overturned a 50 year precedent that was used to attack religious freedom our whole lives most people don't understand this it was in the coach Kennedy case of course coach the lemon the lemon law or the lemon test and and we just overturned a 47 year old precedent regarding religious freedom in the workplace that had been used to crush religious freedom gone I mean it's unbelievable what God is doing and it's just the beginning it's just the beginning I mean one of the reasons this happened is we we're role-involved in judge vetting we have the most extensive judge vetting in the country so key please make I know you'll make it clear friends listen listen to what Kelly's about to say because this is the answer for so many so much of our nation's woes with with what he's about to say pay close attention to this well it started eight years ago we do religious freedom and we were preparing for a Hillary Clinton presidency that's right and Trump won and we were like okay well expect in that we had a meeting lay everything on the table that we can do for religious freedom under this administration and we immediately saw 132 judicial seats lifetime appointments huge that's normally that is not what happens and we just felt God pushing us you need to you need to research you need to vet you need to get data you need to help yes and we thought you know okay let's do it we don't know we've never done this before well here we are eight years later we have the most extensive vetting division in the country we have more data on federal judge choices than anybody because we've got to know if somebody's going in there for life for life are they going to defend religious liberty are they going to defend the constitution yep and if they're 50 years old which is about the average if you really do the research you can know who they are and what they will buy the church and so in the past what's happened is people haven't done the work and and we're committed to it because God called us to this and as I mentioned those victories we just had that was after the last Trump when he put those people in four or five years later boom boom boom you win we've got two more big cases this year they're sitting not ours other people's on these issues too I mean if you watch what's happening God is doing something dramatic in the area religious freedom and we're just at the beginning of this we're just starting and I couldn't help but notice Jack I woke up I was I was looking you know I always look at what the the enemy says so of course I looked at the New York Times that's right number one story in the New York Times was how religion is growing across the United States really 22 percent Bible increase sales over the last year that's right right following that right for the first time in the history of our country more young males going to church than females and if you start watching what's going on God is doing something he's not just doing it in the religious liberty arena he's doing that yes so that it can break out yeah and but we've we've got to do our part I mean take the Kennedy case right coach Kennedy wins the lemon test which has been in place for 50 years cited over over 7000 times by courts to crush religious freedom in public it's why our whole lives we've been told you can't have an activity seen on the government long you can't have a menorah at Hanukkah you can't have a tin commandments you can't oh there's prayer at school we got to stop that why because any of those things are in the constitution no because the lemon test well we just reversed it in Kennedy 7000 citations over everywhere across went down it can come back up everywhere a tin commandments in the closet you can pull it back out you can have an activity seen on your government long all those things are legal now it's up to us on whether we say we're put one up exactly we need to exit it's the muscle it's the muscle of the republic to move upon our freedoms and to use them and we always complain because we're on defense yes so true okay we've won here that's right this is totally we're on offense we can just take a god said I'm gonna give you this land if you'll take it I love it so people are who've been tuning in they probably tired of me saying this right now but I have to say it again you just described what Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 6 he said that your obedience in obedience to Christ will be spoken of listen to this when your obedient god will punish all disobedience so in other words show up to the fight yes just show up god will god will do it just show up you can't win a battle unless you show up to the fight amen amen it's so it's amazing what's happening well and here's the thing and I I know last time I was with you at that big conference I gave this imagery but I think I really think it's appropriate imagery if anybody's watched Lord of the Rings yeah love it they they there's a there's a time when everything looks dead and dark and the the vegetation is decaying and black and it a drone goes up and it starts moving across the earth and it's it looks hopeless and it just seems to move forever and eventually you see in a distance you see a light and when you get closer you see it's it's calvary galloping at full speed at the head horse it's Gandalf the Christ figure right he's all in white and white horse white white ride with a light right on the end of it and everywhere it hits the vegetation it turns to green and I just I and I saw that the last time I said this is where we are Christ is on the lead horse yes he's leading the light is gonna overtake the darkness and all we're asking to be done is mount up amen we don't even have to lead exactly just mount up exactly joint I mean and that's what I'm saying if you look at what's happening my whole life I've been doing religious freedom the things we're overturning I would have told you ten years ago it's impossible to overturn those in my lifetime wow and I'm watching God just come off and so he's opening things up for us but we've got to be obedient now that the other side is still hostile they're still packing and they're regrouping we we've got I've never had cases like we have we I've got a whole bunch of cases that are only pastors and churches being criminally charged for doing what Jesus would want them to do that's right feeding people helping a homeless person I've got to go right now a pastor in Ohio he's been just been sentenced to 60 days in jail because in Ohio when it's negative 20 windshield he opened the doors of his church to people who are freezing on the streets and the problem is he's not licensed to be a homeless center he's not licensed to be a homeless center that's right and civil charges against him criminal charges against him this has now been going on for for over a year what an embarrassment and we we had to go to the court of appeals and get a stay to keep him out of jail and the great news again God is always at work in this we feel like we're going to win eventually we get out of this little town and get up we went to the to the attorney general of the state who we heard was a believer we said would you want to come look at the church and what's going on he came down after a visit tears in his eyes he said I'm with you he's now filing briefs on our side against this city so we have the attorney general of the state of Ohio with us but I'm just telling you I've got pastors who are being criminally charged for feeding people for homeless for all of this never seen this before in my life so the the enemy is still coming it's amazing you're reminding me of Isaiah chapter 10 verse one it says well well unto those who write misfortune for the people and issue ill for laws and that's exactly what happened my goodness I thought with that kind of a ridiculous story that you're you you're going to say this was in Fresno or this was in Sacramento you're talking Ohio Ohio Brian Ohio and we've been in shock I mean at the very beginning before any of this started the pastor went to the mayor and said hey how does can we talk about this refuse to talk to him this is how he's been treated the whole time I think what's really going on is if this they think if this church leaves the downtown that there'll be nobody to care for these people and they'll either die or leave and so they're persecuting this guy because they think it'll make their city prettier wow when if you look at what's happening in the lives of these people their lives are all being changed they're coming to the Lord they're there there's a glow in their face I mean it's incredible see what this guy's doing Killy you're just making me I mean I gotta say something about this but I have to be careful what I say we're working hard in California you know that there's a there's a governor's race that's coming up soon and I've been blessed by the last seven to eight months to be involved in the policy making of a man that's going to run for governor and in that we have put together a Christ honoring outreach the governor's office Lord willing if he wins this governor's office is going to call upon the houses of worship in the state of California to assist the state in alleviating the homeless problem he's going to say those that are hooked on drugs and crazy a need institutionalization the state will take that that's what you pay taxes for we'll do that but we're calling upon the how we have to say houses of worship yeah we know that the sadly the synagogues won't show up and the mosques are not going to show up but the church will show up to take in those who just want to get a new start want to learn a career want to get out of the cold and learn how to weld our her our computer science we are so excited yes but are you telling me that it's possible that we could violate some some perception of the law that what we're doing is illegal well these low cows want to control their city yeah and they think they have power over the church and what we're informing them is you do not have power over the church that's right okay number one you don't in a spiritual room you also don't legally we have a first amendment we have a constitution which they don't like yeah and you mess with the assembly of God's people you're messing with the first amendment and you're violating numerous rights you're violating free speech free exercise of religion freedom assembly freedom of worship free I mean just you know you're you're hitting a lot of different things and you're running up against a buzzsaw yeah so so you know this is a battle but it's a new battle there's no precedent on because we didn't used to do this to pastors right we're criminalizing compassion in these cities and so anyway and that's just one area of course you know we've got all kinds of stuff breaking out but I want people to see the big picture overall though we're moving in the right direction God is doing dramatic things with courts and we're going to be working on these next set of 150 160 judges that the administration will put on we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that they're the best possible people to to represent the constitution religious freedom I mean that's what the president would want but he doesn't always get good information that's right we're going to make sure that they have all the information to make the best decisions and if we do that I want you to think about what this will mean four years from now that'll be about 400 judges he will put on the court that's half of all the federal judges and that's for life that's a game change we will set the courts for 20 to 25 years and our kids and our grandkids will be blast and protected let me ask you this why didn't the previous administration do that 400 they well they he did as many as he could do he he did 235 he tried to do as many as trump did but two things about what the Biden administration did number one that it was lower court they didn't have three supreme court justice they had one they didn't have as many a pellet it was mainly district court but the other thing is the way they picked them was really different they the trump judicial nominees were the highest qualified just academics and everything else that we had ever seen so very bright in addition to being originalist the committee of the constitution and that approach the Biden administration was picking based upon identity they were picking not on talent but their first priority was you know their color their sexual orientation all these things DEI DEI and so the result is while they had as many total number they were lower courts and they weren't as talented as the trump people and the time the best arguments win yeah yeah legal reason and so so I think they they missed on their opportunity but trump's gonna have this opportunity to have four years separate about four years and then another four years and we add all those together that's how you get to the 400 if Kelly if the senate holds if the people show up in the midterms that's right and that's why you've got two years think of the trump the first time people can complain I wish you to pick the little stronger justices or judges or whatever you had a 51 49 senate okay all the while being impeached yes and that included rickowski collins flake etc so he he had a limitation well it's now a 53 47 senate so can he put another justice Thomas on the court yes he can right now and so he's got a two-year window and then want to see what happens in the election but you know we feel like our job God put us in this job in addition to all the cases it is our job is to stand at the gate and say no entry if you're not pro religious freedom if you're not going to defend the first amendment and religious liberty then you might run over us somebody might run over us but we're going to stand at the gate and and I think this administration wants to do that there are lots of people with good intentions they want to push their buddies they want to push their friends there's a lot of DC stuff that goes on but you know data is true and the data is the data and that's what we're providing we don't have an agenda yeah our agenda is the constitution and religious freedom not a person and the good information will help them make the best decisions well Kelly I tell you I I'm hoping and praying that in California we we shake it up enough to where we have to call you I'm hoping Kelly we need help you got you got to you got to come and help us because we're very excited to see in these last several elections if you've looked at that map California is growing redder in redder we just want 10 new counties for conservative and religious freedoms and that's expanding I often have the joy on Saturdays there's about five of us that get together in a Zoom call with the House Speaker Mike and we pray do you like used to be an attorney at first liberty now that you say that now that you say that yes I do now thank you yeah so what's what is great is that I get to remind him from time to time that he actually has his job because we fired Nancy Pelosi but the pathology goes like this Nancy Pelosi lost her job in that election cycle because California sent more conservative Republicans to Congress in the near the state so McCarthy got the nod right he got the job and then Mike got that of course from McCarthy so that's my that's my California card that I get to pull on him which is a lot of fun I have everyone of those seats right now yes yes he knows how valuable California yes so we want to send him some more but Kelly and rep in this up real quick where do people go to support you to help out to get into this fight to show up as you said earlier if it just spell out the words first liberty dot orgy first liberty dot org and I would encourage them they can look at the cases and there's all these things on what your rights are if they need information but the number one thing I'd ask them to do is there's a deal it says be an insider where they can get an email every friday nice and they will take the five top religious liberty battles in the country that week and you know if coach Kennedy's at the Supreme Court he needs prayer that's right they need to well they're not going to know if they don't know he's at the Supreme Court and then number two I want them to be the Paul Revere I want them to see the victories because we're winning over 90% of our cases every year if they see those victories and they share those with their friends then they're going to know hey I don't have to be scared okay I can be bold yeah I mean this is not something to be scared of God is winning and winning the cases yeah and so that's the thing I would love for people to do is go to first liberty dot org get that email every week so you'll be emboldened yeah and informed and be the leader in your community on this yeah and if you ever need help anybody can call us we're free well I I want to go out with this just I want to encourage all of you so it's been about a year and a half or so ago I I don't remember exactly when but we hosted a pastor's gathering in Huntington Beach California and we had various guest speakers and one of them was Kelly and I have to tell you the reason why what he gave was so memorable to everyone was that we felt like we're up against the ropes and that there's no hope and then Kelly comes on to the stage and gives us these incredible decisions that they were they were able to win in court and of course including the Supreme Court and you could almost see these pastors they were 250 pastors and their wives 500 people total where they you could you could feel the blood getting back into the head and lungs filling up with hope and he continues to do that so please do all that you can to pray and to find out more and maybe play your part your role and help and support them fight these battles it's not it's not easy and it's not cheap and I know he's not going to ask so I'm going to ask for him so please this is a great cause I love it because it's a forward cause it's an advancing it's not just defense it's going forward and we need that more than ever if we don't exercise this wonderful republic that we have by exercise in our freedoms we're going to lose them oh we almost lost them but God has given us every brief so Kelly it's great great always to have you so appreciate you brother for all that you do thank you thank you this jack hips podcast as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities are listener supported will you consider partnering with us through a special gift go to jackhibs.com to learn more and stay connected