On the Frontlines of Religious Liberty

On the Frontlines of Religious Liberty

Oct. 16, 2026

Host: Dr. Isaac Crockett

Guest: Ben Sisney

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 10/16/26 To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, thank you so much for tuning in. At least for many of you, you’re tuning in on the radio. Actually, for millions of you, you’re tuning in. I know some of you are streaming this or listening into it later on an archive, a podcast. Maybe you’re using our Stand in the Gap app. I love using the Stand in the Gap app. It has so many features all free, but thank you very much for listening today. And I know that many of you, again, millions of you are listening from America, but we have a growing number of you that are listening in other countries. We have radio signals in Africa, Kenya, and Uganda and other places, as well as people are streaming all around the world. So today, as I talk about what’s going on in America, I think we’re going to be looking at biblical foundations that apply to every country, but we’re looking especially at America.

Here in America, we have the freedom to worship, to share the gospel, to live according to our biblical convictions, but yet it’s something that we sometimes just kind of forget about or take for granted. But protecting those freedoms, it really requires a frontline of people who are being vigilant. And there are decisions made in courtrooms, legislative chambers, and even in voting booths like this upcoming midterm election. And those decisions have consequences for every one of us and for our families and for our churches right now and for the following generations. So today we want to discuss what is at risk. We want to hear about some recent cases on the front lines of freedom and consider why here in America, this upcoming midterm election is very important. With that, I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett, and joining me today is a longtime friend and somebody who’s been a guest for years on this program, Attorney Ben Sisney.

Ben, thanks for taking the time out of your schedule to be with us for this important program.

Ben Sisney:

I’m happy to be here, Isaac. I just love what you all are doing and to get to spend this time with you all and do this together is just a blessing. Thank you.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, I’m looking forward to this, Ben. Ben is the senior counsel for litigation and public policy at the ACLJ, the American Center for Law and Justice. We heard from Jordan Sekulow from the ACLJ a few months ago. We hear from Ben and from Sheharyar Gill and from others on a regular basis. Ben also directs the ACLJ’s Freedom of Information Act practice, which that helps to uncover government records, which can help hold our government officials accountable. So Ben, we’re so glad to have you back on Stand in the Gap Today. And I want to talk about this freedom that is oftentimes forgotten about many Americans. I think we just kind of are used to getting the freedom that we have and we say, “Well, it’s in our constitution. It’s always going to be there.” But from your work at the ACLJ, what do you see is at risk today and why do these freedoms still need active defending?

Ben Sisney:

Yeah, absolutely. And I appreciate you raising this point to discuss Isaac, because just the fact that I have a job is proof that the freedom that you’re talking about needs defending and the fact that it exists in the constitution, so therefore it’s a fixture. That concept is a myth and it’s dangerous is actually a lie. We have to defend it. It takes vigorous defense. Again, I have a job because of that. Constitutional violations are happening continually across the country at all levels. The framers knew that it would take defense because they established the judiciary and the legal system as a place where that defense can happen. And we have to pay attention. You have to engage. If you take that for granted, these are first freedoms. These are first principles, freedom of speech, political activity, political views, values, the things that are protected by the First Amendment, these are massive fundamental society shaping truth.

And I would just point out to our listeners, Isaac, just to emphasize the point, we don’t have these freedoms because the Constitution gave them to us. And that’s part of the myth here. We have these freedoms because God gave them to us and the Constitution was an attempt to protect them, to identify them and to acknowledge them as sort of being above a monarchy. It’s a bold new step and a big new direction for governance. But it acknowledged that the freedoms came from the creator. I mean, it’s not rocket science. It doesn’t come from the constitution or the government. And I hope everybody understands why, because what governments give, they can take away, but that was the whole point. That was what made us different.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, and I want to ask you a real quick question because we’re getting close to our break, but we look at some of the countries, Western countries, I think especially the United Kingdom, places like England and Wales where we got so much of what we know from the common law practices over there. But today, even silent prayer near abortion facilities can fall within the scope of the law, depending on the circumstances over there. And I’m wondering what should we in America learn from these other Western nations? Do we see those kind of pressures building here at home?

Ben Sisney:

Yeah, absolutely. And I’m afraid we do. The absence of something like a First Amendment free speech protection in Europe, that was one big difference that we had here as we deviated from just sort of traditional common law principles of England. But with our First Amendment, that’s very unique. And see, they don’t have that there. And that concept is actually talk to some folks that operate over there. And see, that’s foreign to me. How could a Western society, a Western civilization not embrace that concept? But here’s the warning, you are seeing that happening here at home. You’re seeing an alarming growth of the disregard for freedom of speech and expression and the opposing views. It’s all about silencing. It’s all about censorship and debanking you and de-platforming you and be this and be that and de-legitimizing you. And instead of just trusting that in a free marketplace of ideas, let the best idea win.

Let the most persuasive idea prevail. But if you don’t trust the strength of your ideas, you have to play dirty and try to change the rules of the game. And that’s happening here. During the last administration, it was actually happening to people praying outside of abortion clinics. I mean, not that far factually from what was happening in Europe. Here, the new administration came in and fixed some things, but it’s happening here and that there are thought police and it’s like people don’t understand why the first amendment matters. And that’s why I’m so glad we’re talking about it today.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, it’s what we want to look at. And again, we’re looking at this the same way you are from a biblical worldview. And the point that you just made, what our constitution does, it doesn’t give us these freedoms. It identifies these God-given freedoms and this is worth defending, worth protecting. And I’m so thankful for you and your colleagues at the ACLJ that are doing that. And we’re going to look at cases where these are actual legal cases going on, but many of us face things that may not seem legal. It might be just pressure to self-censor ourselves. I’ve worked in public schools where students were afraid to speak up because afraid of what peers or teachers might do to them. And so there’s the self-censorship going on, but there are actual, factual, literal cases of people having their first amendment and their religious freedoms and things encroached upon even in our own country.

So Ben, thank you for being on this program. We’re going to take a quick break to hear from some of our partners. When we come back, I want to talk to you about some of the recent ACLJ cases going on the front lines. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap today.

All right. Well, welcome back again. Thank you for listening. And I’m Isaac Crockett. Our guest is a good friend and a longtime guest of this program, attorney Ben Sisney with the American Center for Law and Justice. And we’ve had a good partnership with the ACLJ over the years, getting the information from them as they’re kind of the frontline fighters for freedom and defending our freedoms that we have enshrined in the Constitution. And Ben, I’m so glad you described what the Constitution was doing was recognizing what our creator has already bestowed. And I want to look at some of the cases you’re going through. I know you have a whole lot of different cases you could talk about. I want to go to whatever ones you want to talk about, but I am curious as a homeschool father, and I think most of our listeners are very connected to the homeschool community.

I think most of you either have friends or maybe folks at church that homeschool, maybe your family homeschools like my family does. There’s one that I read about that you’re involved with Ben. It has to do with a homeschool graduate. My son is a senior, a homeschool senior, and I live in a state where they don’t give them a regular diploma, even though we followed all the different rules, even though our test scores are much higher than not only the national ones, but then our state ones. And I’ve also been a volunteer fireman. And so I would love to get you to tell us a little bit about this one of this young man who is a volunteer fireman, but because he’s homeschooled, he’s not being allowed a fair chance at becoming a paid professional fireman. Could you explain what’s going on there?

Ben Sisney:

Yeah, happy to. And I would just say, I get it. This is a story that resonates with you and your family, as you mentioned, probably does quite a bit of our listeners today. It does with me. I have homeschooling in my background. And so basically what happens is this town in Nebraska, so again, just to park on the point that things like this don’t just happen. It’s easy for us to think, “Oh, brush it off. Well, that’s a blue state or they’re leftists out there, so what do you expect?” But we find cases really, really all the time from across the country, any state, because anywhere you have government, you have human nature and you have inclinations for everything from intentional misuse of power to just even negligent misuse of power. And so even in Nebraska, we’ve got a town and some folks there in the city government that clearly have hostility against homeschoolers, have made it relatively clear.

And so much so that they did not want to let this young man who, as you indicated, graduated, a homeschool degree consistent with state law and any rule that anybody’s come up with to point to, he’s been consistent with that rule, but he was already a volunteer fireman. He had actually, you could even say been award winning. I mean, he knows what he’s doing. This isn’t just some kid that’s like, “Oh, I think I want to be a fireman.” This guy is who you want on your team. Anybody objectively would look at this kid and be like, “Hey, I want him on this team.” But not there. Why? Because he’s homeschooled and you know those homeschoolers, those homeschoolers, that attitude, it permeates what the city’s doing. And so they didn’t even let him apply. It’s a need not apply. So it wasn’t like, “Oh, you can apply and oh, your credentials weren’t good enough or this or that.” You don’t even apply.

You don’t even meet the standard because you didn’t have… Well, first they just told him you need not apply because you’re homeschooled. So then the family kind of, well, wait a second. Well, then the city goes, they changed the rule. Well, because it requires an accredited degree. Well, no, it didn’t. That wasn’t on the requirements. And these are government jobs and you can’t just kind of change the terms like that. And so they add that on after the fact, which is legally is like textbook evidence of pretext, they call it. I mean, this idea of the moving the goalpost is pretty good evidence that there’s some funny business going on. And so they do that, kind of a classic move. And so anyway, it gets some attention, understandably. And fortunately we were able to get connected with them and what an impressive family. This family is really sharp.

And so getting to know them, you hate to get to know people into these bad situations, but it is a blessing to get to know families like this and to be reminded that they’re out there and that what we’re doing matters. And so the family, we get involved, very kind of a long story. There’s been a lot of work going on, a lot of preparation for legal action. And we get some attention that the city decides they want to change that rule. They’re taking some heat. They passed unanimous. We had a lawyer out there that night. They fixed the rule, I think it was 8-0, and I think that, well, we fixed the rule so everybody will leave us alone now. We’ll stop getting the black eye and the media. Well, gets even more attention. And I think suffice it to say that they know that that wasn’t enough, that there still is past harm that happened and that he was wrongfully denied an employment opportunity and that’s against the law in several respects.

And so it’s not over and there’s a way to get through this that works for everybody. Great. We’re all ears, but what happened is not okay. And this family has stood firm and they’re not just standing for themselves and for Andrew, they’re standing for a bigger principle because people are seeing this, they’re hearing this and the result of this will impact other families and other government decision makers and other municipalities. And so we’re just so proud that this family is standing like this. And it’s interesting that the town opened up a new vacancy for firefighters, but they changed the rules this time to make it easier for other people to apply from other, I guess, districts or fire departments. And so we’re working with the city because it’s not the same thing and it’s the classic bait and switch. Oh, well here, we’ll put the vacancy back up and Andrew can apply again.

Oh, well he’s competing against people who have already had paid firefighter positions for years. So they changed the rules. We’re working with them. We can figure out a way to get through this for everybody involved that doesn’t involve a federal lawsuit. Great. But that’s kind of what we do for a living and we’ll do whatever it takes to protect this family, to protect the principles that this family is standing for. We will stand with them.

Isaac Crockett:

And again, as a homeschool parent, it’s just like, oh wow. And it’s scary to see this happening in a state like Nebraska, but it will set precedent for other municipalities to feel like, oh, they could bully somebody from a private Christian school background if it’s not accredited or homeschool diploma background. What are some other things that maybe we could get, we probably have time for another case to look at maybe how your team has intervened and maybe a case that maybe has been settled recently. And I know some of these cases go on for years because this is a really big deal when you’re looking at federal courts and things, but maybe another case that we could talk about in this segment.

Ben Sisney:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And just I want to make a point as we kind of go into the next case too, is we get to help and be involved and come stand with families like the Coates family because of our donors. I mean, we represent family pro bono, right? When we take a case, it’s pro bono. Our clients don’t get legal bills from us. Now that’s not normal. And I think a lot of people out there, government actors, people that we end up having to sue, sort of start to think that people, because going and hiring a lawyer is hard and it’s expensive. And I think sometimes they take for granted that they’re a group will represent a family at no charge to the family and that removes a burden from a family trying to decide if they’re being called to stand and fight a particular fight.

It’s such a blessing to be able to tell them, “No, you’re not going to get a bill from me.” And that’s thanks to our donors and I’m very grateful for that. And I know these families are that we get to help. They’re grateful as well. So there’s this other case that’s an interesting one. We just wrapped up here recently out of Colorado.

A couple churches were basically in the aftermath of COVID season and all of that. A city out there had sort of moved all the homeless people to a certain area. And it happened in different cities across the country and it happened there. And so these pastors are feeling called and led, and I’m making a long story short, but to serve the community there, to take food and to minister to the folks that were gathering in this park. And so the ministry kind of develops and God was blessing it and people were coming and the constituents were supportive and it was just a really neat ministry. I know some of the stories and testimonies of things that have happened there from getting to know these pastors and what they experienced and seeing God work there through this ministry. And it’s the quintessential. I mean, it is true religion, right?

I mean, this is not overlooking the weak and feeding the weak and the poor and the homeless and the disregarded.

Isaac Crockett:

I’m going to step in here real quick. We’re almost to our break. We’re going to come back. We’re going to listen to some of our partners and I want to come back and hear what Ben’s going to say about this group of churches helping those amongst us who are the most helpless in many ways and having to overcome many obstacles. We’ll be right back on Stand in the Gap Today. Well, welcome back to the program. I’m Isaac Crockett and I want to go to our friend, our guest for today, attorney Ben Sisney from the ACLJ, American Center for Law and Justice. And Ben is telling us a story of a case that they’ve intervened in. It has been years in the works in Colorado where churches were trying to do what Jesus says we are to do and that is to minister to the least of these.

And in this case, it was folks who found themselves without homes and have a lot of different issues and difficulties that they’re dealing with. And these churches who are trying to deal with that had to overcome not only all the many obstacles that come with that type of ministry, but they also had the government, the local government interfering. And so Ben, I want you to finish this story because I think this is so important. As we look at the midterm elections, sometimes people think, “Oh, midterms aren’t a big deal. That’s not the president.” And yet it’s every level of government, every election, especially in midterms like this that are up for grab, so to speak, and that determine how our freedoms will be interpreted. So if you could take us back to that city in Colorado and what was going on and what your team was able to do, step in and do to help intervene in this case with freedom for these churches.

Ben Sisney:

Absolutely. Yeah. So this ministry develops, it starts to evolve and grow and God is clearly blessing it and working, but the city did not care for it. And there were different versions of the story about what kind of complaints they were actually getting and who really didn’t care for it and why. But there’s a little bit of that not in my backyard attitude that comes up when churches try to do ministries like this. And people like to think, “Oh yeah, that’s a good ministry, but I don’t want that near my neighborhood.” And that kind of a thing. And I think there was a little bit of that was going on that the unseemliness of the homeless community, unfortunately. And the irony was too that the city had gathered them all up and moved them to that area, not too many months before. And the church is like, “I mean, they’re there.

That’s why we take our food there because that’s where they are. They’re not going there because that’s where we’re going.” And that was kind of one of the arguments that come up. But anyway, the short of it is the pastors got together and decided that they needed to hire us to retain us to come in and protect to try to help vindicate their rights to serve in that way. And again, fortunately we can offer that representation free of charge. So we came in and figured out that it’s going to take a federal lawsuit. So we sued them in federal court there in Denver and start the process. And it was a complicated case and a lot of complicated legal issues that were some procedural issues and as a lawyer fascinating to me, but they can scare people away. I mean, suing a city in federal court is a hard thing, right?

Being a plaintiff is difficult, stressful, even when you’re not paying an attorney. This is not a small thing for these people who are standing up in these kinds of cases and taking these steps and these risks. We get it. It’s hard, but that’s what I want to encourage everybody that’s listening is to recognize that. And it’s not for every family and you need to follow God’s calling. I completely believe that. But some of us need to think twice about this. Maybe we do need to be willing to stand up and say, “I’ll stand in the gap.” And we’re not the only show in town. I hope you’ll call us if you have some trouble, but there are other groups out there. You don’t have to just take it. There is a lawful way to interact with our legal system. Here in America, we are our own Caesar, so we give to Caesar what Caesars.

Well, in America, we are our Caesar. We elect ourselves into our government, right? And so we have special responsibilities that come with that. Well, these pastors stood up. They brought us in. We filed the lawsuit to change the nature of the game. We were able to work it out. It was difficult, but with some very good help from the court there, able to work out a settlement where the churches were able to continue ministering in a way that they were called a minister. And everybody gave up something, that’s what settlements are. They gave up a little bit and the city gave up as well. City wasn’t there at all. And now the churches are back ministering in the park.

But they could have just said, “Okay, well, I guess we can’t do this. Well, there’s an obstacle. The city’s saying no, so I guess we can’t serve in this.” So they could have. I mean, I get it, but they didn’t. They stood up. They called us and the result is good. It’s a good one. Religious liberty is protected. People that need to be ministered to are being ministered to. And honestly, as the pastors pointed out, a lot of the blessing involved here was actually to the church. They felt like they were the blessed ones by getting the opportunity to get to know these folks and to serve in that way. And they could have just walked away from it all, but they didn’t. They stood up. And that’s what I hope that our listeners will get from this. And also to your point, this is city government.

So this isn’t the big federal government of Washington DC that’s really far away. This is local stuff, municipal city councils, county commissioners, school boards. I mean, when we’re getting calls from across the country constantly, it’s city and state officials that are violating constitutional law. So does it matter who was elected, down ballot as they call it, in the midterm, there’s not a president on the ballot and the school board and all these other positions and things. And it’s just like, oh, is it worth going to vote? Yes, it’s worth. Go vote. You’ve got to. At a minimum, you’ve got to vote. We’ve got to do more than vote, but at a minimum, we’ve got to vote. On your way home Tuesday after work, just go vote. It’s worth it. And that’s the floor. And then when you talk about at some point doing better after that by staying engaged with our officials so they’re making good decisions because we don’t elect their decisions.

We elect a decision maker and then they’re going to make decisions while they’re in office, that’s what we elect them to do. But something’s influencing their decision making, right? Something is.

Why should it not be people that have and share our values? We don’t like politics because it’s yucky. Yeah, I get it. But guess what? Politicians make the law. That’s the secret, right? That’s the dirty little secret. We don’t like politics, but we like to throw a bit about bad laws. Well, how engaged were you with the person that’s in office there making that law? We have some responsibility here and I just really want to encourage our folks out there to really take this seriously because it truly… I can vouch for local government matter because that’s where so much of the violation of constitutional law, not just religious liberty, but that’s kind of where we focus a bit to speech and expression and religious liberty is happening sometimes even accidentally by local officials. Sometimes it’s not a nefarious conspiracy. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes it’s just sloppy.

Sometimes it’s just old policy that never got fixed. But sometimes it’s a lot more. Sometimes it’s actually like, “I don’t like homeschoolers because they’re religious and they’re homeschoolers and I don’t like them.” And sometimes it’s actually motivated by animus like that. And sometimes it’s not hard to find, but it takes people willing to stand up. It takes pressure going to city council meetings, going to school board meetings. I mean, that’s the last thing somebody wants to do on a Thursday night after a long day at work is go to a school board meeting. I get it. Why aren’t we?

Isaac Crockett:

Ben, this is very good. This has been a great section here. We’re almost out of time on this segment. So that responsibility that you talked about, we just have about a minute for response here, but what is that responsibility? What is that stewardship that we as Christians have in this nation where we can vote and where we can contact those who we vote into office?

Ben Sisney:

Yeah. So again, voting as a floor, minimum, we must vote. And then also staying in contact with our elected officials after they take office. I worked for a senator in Washington DC. I can vouch for personally that they pay attention to constituents calling to express their view on a particular issue or a bill that’s being considered or something like that. It literally matters that views expressed are considered and tallied up. They’re listened. When people And talk to express a view to an official, it matters. I can’t overstate. So why don’t we do that more respectfully and in a way that we can be proud of? But my goodness, again, other people are, why aren’t we? And then showing up at their meetings when they come, when our politicians are going to town halls and conferences and things and express support. It’s like in the business world, everybody likes to complain when something’s bad.

When service is bad, there’s a mess up, but fewer people will take the time to compliment. We point out the bad thing, but we don’t ever want to take the time to actually compliment when things go the way they should. Well, we need to do better at that. We need to encourage our leaders when they’re doing good. Let them hear from us. They’re hearing from our opponents constantly. Are they hearing from us constantly even when they’re doing something good or we just say, oh, well good, they’re doing something good. So no, they need to know it. They need to hear from us and they need to know that we’re there and that we’re paying attention. There’s accountability in that. That’s kind of the whole point with that process is accountability.

Isaac Crockett:

This process of accountability, and I really like that. We’re going to take another break here from our partners and come back for our last segment to wrap things up. But when we return, I want to dig into this accountability, dig into this being aware of what’s going on. I think so many times we just feel so small, so overwhelmed. We’re tempered just to censor ourselves, but we need to stand in the gap. Stand in the gap for truth, stand up for Jesus Christ, walking as children of light, even if that puts a target on our backs. We want to talk more about this when we come back on Stand in the Gap today.

Welcome back to the program. I’m Pastor Isaac Crockett. I’m talking with a good friend, attorney Ben Sisney from the ACLJ. And Ben, I think in the last segment, you sounded more like the pastor, more like the preacher with your passion about our nation and about Bible believing Christians being a part of the culture that we are put into. Really, truly redeeming the time by walking as children of light and letting our elected officials know not only that we’re voting, but that we are holding them accountable. And Ben, that was very helpful what you had to say. As we’re wrapping this program up, as we come to this last segment, I think there’s a lot of caution with this upcoming midterm election. It’s very important. Every election is very important. As you pointed out, every level is very important, not just on a federal level or a state level.

And historically, midterms often go for the opposite group of people than who’s in the White House. And often right now there are a lot of cases on state levels and lower that to have people who seem to be these democratic socialists and people who are very seemingly opposed to a true biblical worldview who are running. And so there is a lot of understanding that this could be very bad for many of us within the Christian realm with biblical worldview. But as we look at this election, as we look at our nation in general, the work that you’re doing at the ACLJ, Ben, as we close, what are some of the specific requests, but also what are some of the things that still give you hope for what the Lord is doing and will do with our nation even in 2026?

Ben Sisney:

Right on. Yeah. So I mean, just to underscore the point, Isaac, here in Virginia at the midterm election, it’d be lower turnout, people are less interested, yet Virginia will decide basically the constitutional amendment will decide abortion on demand with no question basically and no limitation in Virginia, not some Northeastern states that you can write off as being too far left or whatever. And that’s happening here in Virginia in a couple of weeks. Abortion on demand, no question. So yeah, these races matter. And we could spend hours probably going down a list of those kinds of issues being decided in races across the country. And those are ballot questions or they’re called different things in different states, but referenda or whatever, it’s sort of law by vote.

I’m not even getting into the races for the actual candidates, like the state house, state Senate, Congress, US Senate. All those races are on the ballot too. But there are lots of these ballot questions, substantive questions being decided across the country with some really big implications. And yet we’ve got believers sitting around, they’re discouraged because of this or that and we’re busy and we’re tired and hey, well Washington DC is a long ways away and I don’t really like politics and all these things are being decided right under our noses and we’re just sitting here. We’ve got to engage. You have to. And you don’t have to run for office yourself. There’s so many other ways to engage and pay attention and be involved and support and encourage and be an active, be the body politic that our framers envisioned where citizens cared about their government.

And government was most felt at the local level. It governs closest to the people. They meant the local government to be the government that we interacted with the most. And the big national government was something far away only for international matters of state and certain national things. So the local government was where it was at. And that’s the one ironically that we seem to care about the least today. And I think that’s upside down and I hope people will think about that and not take for granted what we get to do here. And I think what gives me hope is I know there are people, the folks listening to your show, I know the Coates family and so many others of our clients, I could go down the list, are out there across the country, people of values and faith and principles. And that’s an encouragement.

You asked if there’s something that encourages me. Well, other than just a reminder generally that there’s nothing new under the sun, from the Ecclesiastes principle that no matter how discouraged you could be, there’s nothing new under the sun. Remember the second generation, we had murder, one brother murdered another. It took the second generation before we got to that kind of evil. So there’s nothing new under the sun. So don’t use that as an excuse to disengage.

We’re called to do this. This is a part of being salt and light. And I just urge our people to not sit this one out and to not be passive and blow it off and think it doesn’t matter because you’ll think it matters when in the following legislative terms you start to hear about new laws that make you sick at your stomach and you think, how could this be? Well, it can be because we don’t go and vote or we don’t support our folks that share our values. We don’t have their back. And it’s time for that to change and I think it will. It can. It’s got to. The cost is too high.

Isaac Crockett:

Well, I like what you’re saying here, Ben, because you’ve given us so much to go on. So this idea of voting is just the floor, that’s the beginning. But then this follow up of knowing what’s going on in our communities and then following up with it. And that means whether it’s somebody you wanted to see in office, if they are elected, then keep up with them and congratulate them when they do what’s right because it gets very discouraging to do the right thing in office. But also, if it’s somebody you wanted to see elected and they get elected and he or she is maybe waffling and maybe making some bad decisions, keep them accountable. Let them know. But maybe it’s somebody you didn’t vote for, maybe you didn’t want to see them in office. You can still pray for them. You can still contact them.

Ben, you’ve just given us so much to go on and we do have a nation that’s been set up on laws that come from God. We have only about a minute left here, Ben, but what about the person that says, “I’m just one person. I’m discouraged. Things are hard. Finances are difficult. I’m just one person. And what can one person do to make a difference?” What would you say to that person if you had one minute to talk to him directly?

Ben Sisney:

Yeah. Thank you for that. And yeah, so I mean several, three races are coming to my mind in recent years that I know about, and I think there’s more. It’s just three that I know about. State legislative races that came to a tie. So like an actual tie. We’re talking about something more person, how can I matter? I’m just one person in a bigger sense that I know what we’re really getting at here. But just starting at the ground level, it actually just matters numerically. I mean, it could be the tie-breaking vote. It really could. And from time to time, it is. Or if one other person had gone to vote, then it wouldn’t have been a tie. And so there’s just the math. It matters with just math because all the vote total is just a compilation of everybody that voted.

But bigger than that, I mean, movements, one person speaking and acting from a foundation of principle can and has started movements. And it matters between you and God, even if it doesn’t become apparent to you that it mattered in this world in an earthly sense. It also matters, are you being obedient? You investing the talent God gave you that here, the talent of liberty and the ability to choose our government and be involved with it. Are you investing it? Are you wasting it? So it matters that way, but it also matters because all we are, are a bunch of one person, one singular people. That’s what my neighborhood is. That’s what my county, my district, it’s that. So we could sit back and I mean, like in a football game, well, what’s one more point? Well –

Isaac Crockett:

It matters. It matters. It’s so important. Well, Ben Sisney from the ACLJ, thank you so much. Pray for Ben, pray for the ACLJ. Go to ACLJ.org. And in the meantime, until next time, I pray that you will stand in the gap for truth wherever you are today.