Sekulow

Narrator (Male): On today's show, we're talking all things Canada as military chaplains there have ordered not to mention God.
Narrator (Male): Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever. This is Sekulow.
Narrator (Male): We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
Narrator (Male): And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
Logan Sekulow: It's Friday, August 28. Here with Will Haynes, it is Logan Sekulow. We got a packed show today. We got Rick Grenell joining us later. We got a lot of ACLJ content to cover, and we're talking all things Great White North. We're talking about our friends in Canada. You probably saw President Trump make his statement saying Lake Ontario, no more. Now, it is Lake America. But that is just one of a few things that has come out in terms of Canada over the last few days and few weeks, and some of them are actually rather shocking.
Logan Sekulow: And look, I think a lot of our viewers, most most of you are Americans, are North Americans or at least probably from the United States of America. But there's actually a good chunk of you that maybe watch from Canada and you see what's happening in your own country. I know there's a lot of you who want to push back on what's happening. There are few topics that have happened here recently that I think we have to address.
Logan Sekulow: So, let's talk about it. President Trump obviously makes this statement. It's a bit of a troll. We know this. This is something he does. What do you think about that? Some people think it's very petty. Some people think it's just funny. Some people are like, yeah, let's do it like the Gulf of America. What do you think? 1-800-684-3110.
Logan Sekulow: On the other hand, there have been some things out of Canada recently that I think we need to address and honestly need to see. You know, we don't have a Canadian center for law and justice. We've discussed it before, and it just doesn't seem to be the right place for us. And some of it is because of some of these sweeping things they have that feel sadly, very anti-God or anti-religious that will happen in this country. And again, this is no criticism of the people of Canada. We love the people of Canada. We it's it's really what happens within their own government.
Logan Sekulow: And this was a statement that was released just last month, under a month ago. This is for military chaplains. As we know, Pete Hegseth and those here in the United States of America have certainly made it a little bit more open to explicitly religious content, especially coming from chaplains, making it more available to speak openly about their faith. This is what's coming out of Canada.
Logan Sekulow: Here's the new public remarks about this is the the new instructions about public remarks made at any type of public or semi-public event. They shall uphold the principles of state, religious, and spiritual neutrality by not using words, actions, or symbols that are specific to a particular spiritual or faith tradition on the part of the government of Canada. And what we've been able to dive into this, this means they cannot even use the word God. It also instructs chaplains not to offer prayer at official events, including military ceremonies or commemorations.
Logan Sekulow: So, you have chaplains, military chaplains, that are being you know, having their their mouths taped right now saying, you can't mention not only your own specific religious beliefs in these things. You can't mention God, you can't pray. Why are they even there, of course? This brings up a whole another point. This is what's happening in other places. I think that's why we have to always keep an eye on what's happening in the United States of America and also be very appreciative of some of the rules that we have in place here, the Constitution that we have that allows definitely a more robust freedom of religion.
Logan Sekulow: So, while we may have the sort of a a public dispute in terms of Lake Ontario versus Lake America, let's not forget what's going. And at the same time, this is another one which is wild, which you're probably not even going to believe. I'll let Will take this one because this one has to do with the September 11th attacks. And of course, we are very closely approaching the 25th anniversary of those September 11th attacks. So, they need to make sure that everything is set in place where they start talking about it.
Will Haynes: Well, and once again, I think this goes to even that discussion about the troll from the president about, you know, Lake America. The the Prime Minister said that naming it Lake Ontario is naming reality. It it's rooted in reality.
Will Haynes: Well, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has an internal memo telling people that as they cover the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, do not describe those attacks as terrorist attacks. So, it really seems that whether it be the chaplains or the CBC, Canada has a reality problem when it comes to words and their meanings.
Logan Sekulow: So, you can't say God and you can't call terrorism terrorism. You can't call the September 11th attacks terrorism. What do you think about that? And of course, any of your responses to President Trump's renaming. 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back.
Narrator (Male): Do you even realize the impact you make? Choosing freedom or oppression, justice or corruption, faith or godlessness, life or death? One factor can make the difference. And what is it? You. As an ACLJ supporter, you have great power. You make a tremendous impact. And this month, you can double that impact. Right now, your most sacred rights as an American, your freedom of speech, your freedom to pray and worship, even our free and fair election process are being threatened. Right now as part of our ACLJ impact match, you can double your support. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible gift doubled. Dollar for dollar, doubling your impact to defend faith, freedom and innocent life. Your impact is powerful, but the time is short. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your gift doubled today.
Narrator (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe versus Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed, across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's, it's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ Champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.
Logan Sekulow: Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Talking all things Canada, it seems like, and we are going to be talking a lot more as well because look, it is still back to school week, the last day of back to school week. Look, really, the last day I'm going to be talking to you about our match right now that we have available for you right now, and I want you to do it. It's an impact match for the rest of the month, which again, is only a few more days, but it's back to school week.
Logan Sekulow: And the next segment we're going to actually talk a little bit more about some of the work the ACLJ does to support students' rights. But before we get to there, we're going to keep things rolling on the Canada side of things. As we know, President Trump made his big statement, came out and said, you know, this is what I'm going to do here. We're going to he did it with the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Mexico became the Gulf of America. He feels like kind of doing the same thing. But this time even maybe more targeted as it is Lake Ontario being switched to Lake America said the next thing he needs is an ocean. So, we'll see where this goes.
Logan Sekulow: But it does actually, as ridiculous as it sounds, I think there are important things happening in Canada that we need to bring up. And the two that we talked about in the first segment were number one, that chaplains, military chaplains are being told they can't use the word God, that they can't pray openly, that they can't really express their religious beliefs in any kind of way that would be sectarian in nature, I guess, that would have any sort of guidelines between their faith. It just has to be this very neutral spiritual, you know, generic talk.
Logan Sekulow: And then on the other side, you have the CBC, which is their you know, broadcasting company, Canadian Broadcasting Company, saying, hey, when you are covering our reporters, when you're covering 9/11, and we know that the 9/11 25th anniversary is going to dominate the news here in a couple weeks. Don't say terrorist. You cannot say terrorist attack.
Logan Sekulow: So, you can't say terrorist attack for 9/11. You can't say God if you're a military chaplain. And at the same time, you have the president saying, they're the worst to deal with in terms of trade. We should not be as friendly as we are to them. Of course, Canada has had a very interesting few years in terms of our relationship with the United States and Canada. Maybe the one time, definitely the most time it's been this contentious as far as I can remember.
Will Haynes: Well, and once again, when you're looking at what words and what they mean, the dispute over the name of a lake where you have Prime Minister Carney from Canada saying that, you know, naming it Lake Ontario is rooted in reality. But at the same time, you're seeing the attack on expression in Canada, whether it be through, as you said, putting duct tape on the mouths of their chaplains in their military.
Will Haynes: One, the ACLJ has done a lot of work for chaplains in the military in the United States because you've seen under some other administrations, them try to do similar type of things here in America.
Will Haynes: We fight for it and we push back and and get victories for chaplains here in the United States. But then you also see what's happening with their state media. You know, Canadian broadcasting system is a a crown corporation. It it operates quasi autonomously from the federal government, but it's still state media. We don't really have that in the United States either.
Will Haynes: I think this is a time to also show when we've talked in weeks prior about the DSA wanting to turn us into more of a parliamentary style government. This is one clear example of why we are opposed to that, why the founders were genius in the separation of powers that they put into our Constitution. Because you have a parliamentary system in Canada like you do in England. And what have we seen over these past few years, really since 2020?
Will Haynes: You've seen a crackdown on the freedom of expression, the freedom of speech, the love of your country. And that's what's going on in those parliamentary systems, even though they are Western governments and they have a lot of the rooted ideals that the United States had. Our separation of powers has been able to maintain our our foundations.
Will Haynes: But now we're even seeing attacks on that where they want it to be a more parliamentary system, a House of Representatives that's expanded and has a lot of power and has the executive branch under it. We don't want that. We want to be able to rest on the foundations of the United States.
Will Haynes: And so when you have these disputes over the naming of the lake, it's it's silly on one sense because we know what President Trump is doing. And how offended they are by that. But at the same time, their state media on 9/11 is too concerned about the term terrorist attack that they're going to have to just call it a hijacking. Because it's too politically charged to call it terrorism. Really, really, Canada?
Logan Sekulow: I've never.
Logan Sekulow: I mean, I've heard a lot of people have issues with the way I guess 9/11 is described. I've never heard one of them being, you can't say that it was a terrorist attack. I mean, that is like just about as normal that we've been saying for 25 years. So, it's wild we would even have to have this statement. You know, on September 11th later on, I'm putting out a special video and I think we're going to air it on here as well. Um, with John Adrossic, who, you know, from 5 for fighting, had the song Superman. And I think it's a really good reminder of what we all went through on September 11th, what it all felt like because it has been so long that you have people who are completely oblivious to what happened on that day.
Logan Sekulow: Your kids now treat it obviously as history. They probably were not there when it happened or your grandkids. I taught in a university a couple years ago. None of my students were alive. Is what we have to think about. University students, not freshmen, university students were not alive during the September 11th attacks. They had not yet been born. So, you have a whole new group of adults who did not go through what we went through, and I think you can see that in the rewriting of history.
Logan Sekulow: And you can see that through something like the CBC saying that this is not what we're doing here. And look, again, I think our Canadian viewers and Canadian listeners need to stand up and make some noise here because you don't hear that much. It feels like in America about these issues. And I think in the United States of America that is about these issues. You just hear the trivial side. You just hear the sort of back and forth between our leadership that becomes very cartoony. It isn't treated with respect. And the problem is, I don't even know, truthfully, I don't know if the Canadian chaplains are upset about this. This could be something that, uh, you know, is widely accepted. I mean, sure, there are people who are upset about it. But you know, I don't know if the pushback would be like it would be in the States.
Will Haynes: Well, and once again, what you see is statements about about this specifically where one member of parliament did call it unnecessary and regressive. And this directive, it says, if you're asked to pray as a chaplain, you are instead to offer a spiritual reflection without religion specific language. They're policing language. They're saying you cannot be as a chaplain in our armed forces. You cannot be giving these words because that is though you are speaking for the government.
Logan Sekulow: And and once again,
Will Haynes: And remember the backlash that came from people online when Pete Hegseth put out the list of all the different chaplains that were going to be offered and how we're going to have a list of all these different groups and denominations and trying to be even, I'd say that's even more inclusive in many ways by saying, we are going to try to staff essentially everybody. So, if you are a Southern Baptist or you are a Presbyterian or you are a Catholic or you're Jewish or you're Muslim that you are going to be assigned a chaplain who represents and respects your faith, not this generic, you know, whatever.
Logan Sekulow: Spirituality. And I understand and respect the idea of saying, hey, we want to make sure that we are inclusive here. And I think that's what something like Pete Hegseth was actually doing by doing that. The difference between being inclusive and actually spending the dollars on bringing in the right amount of people instead of being, eh, maybe Canada just thinks, hey, we can't afford this many chaplains. But let's just be honest here. By this is the quote here. By avoiding language specific to anyone religion, chaplains respect the dignity of all and help everyone present and engage with comfort, dignity, and a sense of belonging. Nothing wrong with that. But it does is a problem when you say and you can't mention these words. And those words are as generic as they could be, like God. Or you can't pray.
Will Haynes: Well, it also says at public or semi-public event. What's a semi-public event? If there's a person within earshot because that kind of sounds like what we saw in Texas where we're having to fight for a teacher where they said, you can't pray if a student could see you. If you're in your car, if you're on property.
Will Haynes: So, once again, it may seem easy at this point to be like, well, that's Canada, they're a lost cause. We're America, this is different. We're not that far away from it. We're not that far away from people trying these things here. They are constantly trying it. And we're always having to fight back. That's why you'll see in the next segment about a student, just trying to express her faith to her friends at school, shut down over and over and over again by the administration saying, you can't do this. You can't do this. We're taking your literature. You can't mention God. That's what you keep seeing in America. So, it's not just Canada, but in America, we can do something about it.
Logan Sekulow: All right, we get back. We are going to also take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Got a few lines open. Get on the air right now. 1-800-684-3110. As Will said, we have a special video presentation coming up that we will premiere here in the next segment. Again, talking about the work of the ACLJ and how the ACLJ has been representing students' rights for many years. But we've been trying to focus this one. A lot of times we'll throw it back, we'll show you the origins of 40 years ago. These are ones that have just happened in the last few years. So, this is the stuff that's happening in real time, and you need to be a part of it as well.
Logan Sekulow: Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. But while you're doing that, and while you're going to be, you know, presented with what the ACLJ work is, I'm going to ask you to think about, pray about, supporting the work financially of the ACLJ. When you do that during back to school week, it's these amazing cases that you're going to hear about that this team works on every day. And I want you to be a part of it as well. And all donations are doubled till the end of the month. Then you got months until we could even offer anything like this again. So, I'm going to ask you to do it today. It's the last day you're going to hear me on air talk about it.
Logan Sekulow: Scan that QR code to go to ACLJ.org. Again, go to ACLJ.org and have your donation doubled. We'll be right back.
Narrator (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe versus Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed, across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's, it's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ Champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.
Narrator (Male): Do you even realize the impact you make? Choosing freedom or oppression, justice or corruption, faith or godlessness, life or death? One factor can make the difference. And what is it? You. As an ACLJ supporter, you have great power. You make a tremendous impact. And this month, you can double that impact. Right now, your most sacred rights as an American, your freedom of speech, your freedom to pray and worship, even our free and fair election process are being threatened. Right now as part of our ACLJ impact match, you can double your support. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible gift doubled. Dollar for dollar, doubling your impact to defend faith, freedom and innocent life. Your impact is powerful, but the time is short. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your gift doubled today.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are still open for you at 1-800-684-3110. As I said, it is back to school week. And we need to make sure before this week wraps up today that we tell you about all the incredible work the ACLJ has been doing. And look, you've seen a couple different videos we've put together. And what I like about these is we're not talking about videos or cases that happened 30 years ago, 20 years ago. We are talking about active cases, cases that have just recently been resolved or are still currently in the fight.
Logan Sekulow: And the ACLJ team, our young group of lawyers are really on the front lines of all of this, and I want to make sure that they get some air time as well to tell you about the work the ACLJ is doing. So, we come on here, we'll talk about the news, we'll give you some coverage here. We'll tell you everything that's happening. We think you need to hear, you should hear all of our different points of view. And of course, we always say we tell you the truth whether you like it or not here at the ACLJ and here on Sekulow.
Logan Sekulow: But that being said, when you donate to the ACLJ, you're also donating to, of course, not only this show to make sure that the broadcast stays on, but you're you're representing so many ACLJ clients because they don't have to get a bill at the end. No legal fees are coming to them because thankfully, that's absorbed by you, the ACLJ supporter, who decided that this is worth your while. Of course, it's tax deductible and donations are doubled right now through back to school week and through our impact match, which is just about to end. So, you want to do it today. Just go ahead and do it and be a part of the team.
Logan Sekulow: With that, I do want to kick it over to this special video presentation that we put together for you here at the ACLJ. Again, another case that you're not going to believe.
Narrator (Male): It's back to school week, backpacks, first day photos, that nervous excitement every family knows. But for one Christian family in Washington State, this past year ended with a fight for something much more basic. Their child's right to hold on to their faith inside a public school.
Narrator (Male): At the ACLJ, we've spent decades defending the First Amendment rights of students, the right to pray, to speak, and to live out their faith without leaving it at the schoolhouse door. Our client's story is one of the clearest examples we've seen of what happens when a school forgets that.
Guest (Female): I usually just pass out these gospel tracks. It's kind of like these little booklets that share about Jesus.
Guest (Female): Several years ago, I represented a little girl who was simply trying to share the gospel with her classmates. And those school administrators decided it was appropriate to open her backpack and pull out her Christian tracks, confiscating them. Fast forward five years later, she's now a sixth grader at the middle school. And she was sitting in her math class like everyone else when she gets pulled out by the vice principal and told that she has to stop talking about Christianity with her classmates and that she cannot pass out her Christian tracks anymore.
Guest (Female): They just pulled me out and said, you can't pass out gospel tracks. And I'm like, why? Because in school, you're allowed to share like any kind of belief, like any kind of religious, political beliefs. But for Christianity, you just have to be quiet about it. And I'm like, that's not really that fair.
Guest (Female): She came home from school and the first thing she told her parents is that we need to call the ACLJ because I need to talk to Christie. So, we sent a demand letter, and yet again, this district gave us exactly what we asked for in a total apology that this will never happen again. But that's not the end of this story. We got a call again from that very student that she just got out of an assembly where she had to sit crying the entire time on something that was violating her religious beliefs.
Guest (Female): And I sat in the bleachers crying for the rest of the assembly and then after the assembly I went to my BFF and I hugged her and cried.
Guest (Female): No other school would have a child saying, I'm not comfortable with this and tell her, I'm sorry, you don't have any other options. You have to stay there and you're going to stay there crying.
Narrator (Male): What this child went through wasn't a one-time misunderstanding. This was the third time her school crossed the line of her faith. That's why the ACLJ stepped in. We already sent this district three demand letters, three chances to correct the course. They took none of the chances.
Guest (Female): So, we took them to federal court. We are ready and gearing up for one of the biggest fights of the ACLJ's life because this is not just about what happened at this assembly. This is a long-standing precedent this school has set that her as a Christian will be targeted because of her faith.
Guest (Male): For them to push our daughter into something that, and she was already in tears. So, and and to tell her, you don't have a choice. We we felt that that was very disrespectful and and it was very armful to our daughter.
Guest (Female): Schools cannot force children to sit through material that is in violation of their religious beliefs. In fact, in Mamud, the court held that the school is required to give advance notice to parents and allow them to opt out if there is any material that the parent has said would in some way violate their religious beliefs.
Narrator (Male): She shouldn't have had to fight this hard just to hold on to her faith in a public school. And unfortunately, she's not the only one. This back to school week, the ACLJ is standing with students and families across the country who have been told the same thing a teacher told our client, that they have no choice. That's not true. And we're making sure school boards and administrators know that. And for this student and for every other student like her, the ACLJ is here.
Guest (Female): I know that Jesus loves everybody in my school, even though the even the people who bullied me, even the people who tried to stop me from learning from telling people about Jesus, he loves everybody.
Guest (Female): By her standing up and being willing to send these demand letters and fight with a lawsuit, she's standing up for all children across this country because there will be precedents set after this case.
Narrator (Male): The ACLJ isn't backing down because if this can happen to our client, it can happen to any student in any classroom in any state, including your child or grandchild. That's exactly why we fight these cases. And at no cost to the families we represent. Help us defend the religious freedoms of this student and countless others like her at ACLJ.org/school.
Will Haynes: And Logan, I I love showing these videos to our audience because you can really understand. A lot of times we can talk about it, we can describe, you know, she's an elementary school and this is repeatedly happening. But seeing, putting, you know, the the story together with that video and really understanding what's going on. These are real people. And when you stand with the ACLJ as we fight diligently for her rights and for every other student's rights in that school system, uh to uphold what the Constitution and what the Supreme Court has ruled over and over and over again. Now you know, these these are real people. These are real students that are just trying to express their faith. Just trying to talk to people, their friends, their peers. And they are she used the word bully in there. Like just imagine that not just from peers, but from an administration bullying you. Not for, uh, you know, contraband on campus. What was the contraband? Bible tracks. What was the offensive speech that she was saying? Telling her friends about God. When you can talk about politics in school. You can talk about offensive things that people may be offended about. But you bring up God and the heavy hand of the administration comes down. And yet the courage she has to still live in her faith and and to even talk about it. When knowing that the administration has it out for her.
Logan Sekulow: I mean, even for the parents. I mean, that is not easy. It's not easy to go up against your school board. It's not easy to go up against the administration because look a lot of times, I don't know what the rules are in their state if that's the only school they can go to in their area, public school system. I don't know how that all works locally. But you're probably pretty limited. So, you know, the word's going to get out there that you are a quote unquote troublemaker. But that's why the ACLJ is going to get involved.
Logan Sekulow: That's why we've been involved in this case and we'll continue to get involved. If you think by the way there's a chance this is happening to your kid, your grandkid, you can go to ACLJ.org/help and get in touch with somebody today.
Logan Sekulow: But it is back to school week. That's why we wanted to show you that video presentation. So, I'm going to encourage you right now. Look at 30 seconds left in this first half hour. We got a second half hour coming up. Watch us live on YouTube, Rumble, ACLJ.org.
Logan Sekulow: 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We do this show each and every day. But come on. Support the work today. Scan that QR code or just go to ACLJ.org/school and have your donation doubled today during our Impact Match. Again, just go to ACLJ.org. We'll be back in less than a minute on Sekulow.
Narrator (Male): As an ACLJ supporter, you have great power. You make a tremendous impact. And this month, you can double that impact. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible gift doubled. Dollar for dollar, doubling your impact to defend faith, freedom, and innocent life. Your impact is powerful, but the time is short. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your gift doubled today.