Welcome to Empower You. I'm Amy Stevens. You may have heard Pastor Steve's podcast
where we had a conversation about public policy engagement or civic engagement.
You know, COVID changed a lot of things in our community and this is where the
road really exploded in membership and where people began to get engaged. And so
Pastor Steve came to me and said, hey, would you consider volunteering to help
lead this effort? We have all kinds of views in our church, diverse views. And
really, how do we make sense of that? How do we move forward? People are exhausted,
a lot of people angry, some just trying to raise their kids. How do we stay
engaged? And I'm convinced it's through big, important little things, things that
you and I can do every day. And that's what you're going to hear on these
podcasts. You're gonna hear from people in the community, school board members,
you're going to hear from people that work in the life, pro-life space, you're
going to hear from legislators, people that are going to talk to us about what
their lives are really like, what their jobs are really like, and actually how we
can make a difference and or support them. And so that is the hope for Pastor
Steve, that's the hope that I have, and we look forward to engaging with you.
Hi, and welcome to Empower You. I'm so excited about this policy engagement
that Pastor Steve talked about in our last podcast, and I really want to
highlight some of the things that we're doing and some of the incredible people
at church who are doing incredible things. And one of them is my dear friend
Debbie Chavez, and we've known each other for quite a few years. I'm not even
going to give you a bio because I will mess it up, so I want you to give it,
Debbie. Okay, how many children? Seven children. Okay, see, I already would have
messed that up. I was going for six, but tell everybody what you do. Tell us your
bio because you have done some incredible work. Well, God has been good.
I've been able to be placed in this realm that we sometimes call politics,
and right now I'm with My Faith Votes, which is a national organization. We
work across the nation in every state in the nation to help people that love
the Lord walk their values outside the walls of the church. That means that
we're helping them understand what does it mean to pray biblically, to think
about these issues that are going on in our everyday lives, to think from a
biblical perspective, and to take some action and do something about it. What we
saw is that one in three Christians were not regularly voting in elections in
every election when it came up, and that's one in three. That's a large
number. That's over 25 million Christians that aren't voting, and when
we look at the pillars of power in America, that culture is where we carry
all of our values, virtues, shape the norms of society, public policy where our
laws are made and regulations where the rules for laws are made, and elections
where the big public decision makers control regulation and public policy. We
realized we've got to do something about it. Christians have to get out there, and
that's why MyFaithVotes exists because when we vote our biblical values and we
walk out those biblical values in our local communities, we start seeing
transformation all over this nation, state by state, community by community,
and next thing you know we've got a nation that knows what it means to have
religious freedom and exercise that in public, to have parental rights and walk
them out in our families, and to have schools and institutions across this
nation that include God in the equation of what is this life situation we walk
out. Wow. But we don't see that right now, do we? No, I was gonna say, can someone tell
me what that looks like? Right? Well, actually, and we're what it looks like.
Yes. The more of us that we get out there, the more it looks like that. At
MyFaithVotes, we have this group of people that we call action partners.
These are people that have raised their hand in their own state, and they've said,
I want to do something. I want to make a difference, and my faith matters so much.
I can't keep it inside my church. I've got to get out there, and so we have over
11,000 that have already raised their hands. They're in all of the 50 states in
the nation, and they just said, I want to join with somebody else in my own state
and make a difference in my state so that we have a national collective
difference. So we work with them on a weekly basis, not just once in a while,
and keep them engaged, help them understand what's going on, and what do
they do about it, and what are the action steps to take. This is something, I think,
for our listeners, that as we started this outreach, we looked at the issue of
voter integrity, and we were saying, because, again, let's just be clear. We
had COVID. We had our 2020 elections where we've, I know in this county, a lot
of people questioned the validity of, you know, the elections, what was going
on, and we've had laws pass. Even when I was in the legislature, the moment we
lost the majority, there was a set of five very detrimental, I felt, voting
rights legislation that I think really didn't serve Colorado voters well. So
let's talk about this voter engagement.
Talk about the integrity, that's a tough word because I think we have to visualize what
does that look like.
But given that you'll be doing this within our church, tell us what that looks like.
Voter integrity has oversight.
Everybody loves oversight accountability.
That's how we know that things are being checked and that they're working properly.
There are many ways that are set up, even in a state that might not feel like it respects
Christian values, we still have mechanisms within our state to make sure that we have
free and fair elections and that's a good thing.
And the way that we do that is take part in it.
We can be poll watchers, that means you're actually someone who's watching those that
are receiving ballots and you're making sure that there's integrity in that process.
You can be an election judge, that means you're inside the election office actually watching
those votes be counted to make sure that the checks and balances are there for fairness.
And these are things that volunteers can do, they can sign up to do that.
And in our county it's very easy to do that, across the state it's very easy.
People should be familiar with things like the Secretary of State's website and their
county clerk and recorder's website.
That's where voter integrity starts, is being involved and knowing what those processes
are that take part in it.
Now we heard things all over the place during the last election about ballot harvesting,
which basically means trafficking the vote.
It means that there were people out there that were paid to go collect ballots in areas
where they thought they might get people to vote one certain way for a certain candidate
and then collect those ballots together and turn them in.
Now when you do something like that, traffic the vote and get paid to do that, that's just
not an honest behavior that looks like it has ethics involved with it.
So what we would encourage is if you live in a state, especially in our state where
you can do this, you can do gathering of ballots of those that don't have time to go turn it
in.
We're an all-male ballot state where every voter that's registered gets a ballot.
We also are in a state that has same-day voter registration.
That means you can register to vote up until 7 p.m. on election day and vote in the election
that day.
Now those that pass those laws for that, they might have had some ill intent, but we're
believers.
We transform everything.
So we take those processes that might have been meant for evil and we turn them for good.
We say, hey Christian, remember, if you're not registered to vote, we can get that taken
care of today before the election is over and you can vote your ballot that day.
And for those of you that are concerned about the integrity of the vote, maybe you can help
someone who can't get their ballot turned in and deliver it for them, offer to drop
it off in one of those ballot boxes or at the clerk and recorder's office.
Or if you don't know who to vote for, bring your ballot to church and talk to your friends.
You know, we can do that in our state and we can encourage each other and give them
good information about these candidates that are on the ballot.
So everybody is voting with wisdom and discernment, not just randomly checking a box.
Right.
Now you and I know, I mean, I get it at every election time.
The phone calls, who to vote for?
You know, I think we, our former boss, there was always Tom and Deb's picks, right?
We always had some of those and people will call and say, you know, ask, ask what you're
doing.
But I can tell you, I had a very, very tight primary when I was in the legislature in 2012.
And this concept of going after, in other words, looking at precincts and being able
to go, Hey, they're not performing.
And they got a lot of voters over there and actually going door to door saying, have you
voted?
Have you turned your ballot in?
No.
You know, we, you can do that.
You can do that.
Now there's ill ways to do it, right?
We have found like, for example, in Georgia, you know, they're, they're going to senior
citizen homes and wholesaling, working with some people to have a questionable, right?
Some of that.
We have a lot of people that do that in our own state.
We do.
Another thing that I think has been contentious, not only in our church, but some other churches
as well in our County, is this issue of course, the machines, right?
Do we want to go to a one person, one paper ballot, which I know a number of people who
want to go back to that versus quote the machines, which a lot of people say, well, those can
be manipulated.
I, where do you fall on that?
You know, Pastor Steve and I talk about that and he doesn't like to really get in into
some of that.
But I, I think we've had some people really that turn up then to our County commissioners,
you know, you get a lot of hostility, screaming and yelling.
And I want to know where, where are you on all that?
Okay.
So we live in a sinful fallen world.
We know that.
But once again, God gave us access.
America is like no other nation in the world where we have freedom to take part in all
of these processes.
What a blessing that God chose us to live here.
So if we want something to be accurate and handled well, we need to have people in those
positions, those elected positions.
that will accurately and authentically and truthfully handle all of the systems
that are involved with processing the vote. That means we've got to be out
there voting him into office and if we're not, if we don't have that person
be a part of the poll watcher, be a part of the election judge. Now let's talk
ballots and machines. You know right now we have machines in Colorado.
Oh yes. In all of the election offices. And did for many, many years. We did.
So rather than look back, let's look forward at where we are right now and
where we're going. So with the machines that we have, if we wanted an all-paper
ballot program, first off we have to be willing to put skin in the game to get
that. That means money. Because it's going to cost a lot of money to get rid of the
machines and have the paper ballots. So that's the first question I would ask
people is, how much money are you willing to be a part of spending? Be a part of
spending as a taxpayer. Right. To pay for this change in system. Yes. And if you're
not willing to, well the conversation's probably over. Right. If we're not willing
to make that transition with our own money in an investment. And then we'd
have to put skin in the game because there's going to be a time frame for
transition if we do that too. I don't know what that would actually look like for
the time frame of transition, but that means a lot of manpower. Yes. And a lot
of extra expense there too just to convert. Right. And manpower that also
can miscount or be wrong. I mean. Exactly. Right. And so there are
pros and cons. Now are there any states that are contemplating that? Going back
to paper ballots? You know, I'm sure there are. I don't know off the top of my head which ones
those would be. Okay. But this is where I always put the burden on the Christian. As
a Christian, we have a higher standard. And I always say we need to show up a
hundred percent ready to put our efforts where they need to go. And if something
is wrong, help make it right. Yes. And so if we do believe something is wrong here,
we've got to show up and figure out what is our responsibility to make it right.
And if we're working within the system that we currently have in place, that
means we are volunteering in the clerk and recorder's office. We always ask, how
can I be a part of the solution? Not how can I make the problem yours. Right. Or
the, oh, I'm watching you, which, you know, thank you. But does precious little.
Right. In terms of we have a great clerk and record. He's a lovely man and would
welcome, welcomes the transparency, would welcome people. I get, I want to, I'm
going to switch gears just a bit because I'm going to talk about when we go to
visit. Let's just say our county commissioners are over the clerk and
recorder's office. So, you know, they had a lot of people, uh, upset, uh, get
rid of the machines, do all this. And I want to talk about, because I also hear
it from some of our city council members or people that I have relationships with
a right and a wrong way to approach our elected officials. We've had some people,
you know, waiting scriptures, Adam telling them, you know, uh, I heard one
just, you know, the fiery gates of hell are going to meet them or something. And
I, I don't, I don't, a, I don't think that's terribly effective. Uh, and B, you
know, I think some of those could be videos of what not to do. So I want to
hear from you. Well, and I'm so glad you asked, you know, I actually wrote a
little resource one time on how to speak at a public meeting and how to give your
own personal testimony at a public meeting, because I think it is real
important, real, very important. I think what we need to understand is that moral
outrage does not carry the day. And when you enter a conversation or, or a public
meeting where you're making a point and you lead with moral outrage, you rarely
hold the attention of the person that you're speaking with, but you can enter
into, I'm concerned. And my concerns are these, and this is the outcome I think
we should have had. And these are the steps that validate why that outcome
would be better. And if we lay out exactly how we'd like to talk, and I
always say, when you're going to talk in a public meeting, practice at home
first, look in the mirror when you practice, record yourself on your phone
and play it back to you. If you're either boring yourself or irritating
yourself or thinking that you're kind of funny, you probably aren't saying it the
right way. So we can practice ahead of time. And, you know, we give
communication classes on this, on how to get your message across. And we'll do
that here. We are going to do that here, by the way, Pastor Steve wants an
apologetics of sorts. I think, I believe it's critical. And I think that having
sat through so many committee hearings, right, and hearing people who actually
succinctly make a case, and then allow for the Q&A part, I think is incredibly
important.
Well, it is important. And we need to know how to get our message across
without getting defensive or backed into a corner. Because oftentimes, when we
lead with our moral outrage, we do get backed into a corner, people will throw
accusations at us and what happens then is we start validating accusations
thrown at us rather than getting our message out because we spend so much
time in an argumentative format rather than relaying the message that's really
important that needs to be relayed. Okay so we're gonna have this conversation
quite a bit actually because I think there's some unfinished business. Pastor
Steve and I talked about the hard, not just the hard questions, but the hard
conversations. You and I have talked about hard conversations and we've
engaged in some of those. So I want to take us to perhaps a school board
meeting, right, where there actually I think is cause for moral
outrage in terms of some of the resources and sexualization of
young kids or the attempt to and I would have moral outrage. I mean I
looked at the parents when I was in DC in Loudoun County who they had a
transsexual or boy actually I would just say cross-dressing but was put to a
different school, had a daughter raped. Understandably father's upset. So you
have moral, you've got some community moral outrage. So how do we address this
actually because we're having some of that around here. How do we address that
then when we show up in the public square? Well I'm glad you asked. I just
finished writing a resource. It will actually be released probably in July
because we want to release this resource before kids are going back to school.
Right. So parents are engaged. Right. Parents need to do a little bit of
homework and understand what are the policies that are actually impacting
their school. In Colorado we have some pretty egregious policies that are state
law that have impacted education. I'm gonna rattle off just a few because I
think it's important that people know. If sex ed is taught in school in Colorado
it must be comprehensive. Comprehensive sex ed requires that you teach sexual
practices outside of traditional sexual relationships and sexual roles and sexual
behavior. That means that we're teaching some subjects that I won't mention on
the video but they're they're pretty offensive. Right. We also lowered the age
of consent to seek psychotherapy for children outside their parents knowledge
or consent to age 12. That just got signed actually. Well actually that one
was in 2019. Yes and the follow-up was just this past session. Yes. The follow-up
this past session said that they would like to psychoanalyze every sixth through
twelfth grader. Right. So they have a baseline of where they are in the
psychological spectrum. But let me tell you something. Twelve-year-olds don't
drive. That means somebody is taking a twelve-year-old to a counselor outside
their parents knowledge or consent and they have a record of this counseling. We
don't know what's being discussed. All of this is under the guise of stopping
suicidality. But what we know to be true is that the number one way to stop
suicidality is to strengthen the relationship between child and parent.
Yes. Not to teach a child to deceive their parents. Exactly. Because that breaks
down relationship between them. So we've got to start being aware of what's going
on in these statutes and regulations. It's now required to graduate in
Colorado from a public education system. You must learn the social constructs of
the LGBTQIA community in your social government class or civic government
class to graduate. Now do parents know this? Do they know that that's not an opt
in or opt out? The other thing Colorado has that we need to be aware of is
something called a queer endeavor. A queer endeavor is actually something
that two lesbians at CU Boulder decided they would start in the teaching
department. So you can look it up on CU Boulder's website. And these two lesbians
developed this program to teach teachers how to queer every subject in the
classroom starting in preschool so there is no parental notification or no opt
out. Now this is very concerning and we have to pay attention to that social and
emotional learning factor in there too. Yes. Because social and emotional
learning is not a curriculum. It's an ideology that is woven into the learning
experience. Yes. Where they're teaching morality, truth, intersectionality, what
is integrity, what are relationships, how do you function in those, but they are
not defining where do they get the definition of truth, where do they get
the definition of morality, who is in control of telling what a relationship
is. And they are creating these so-called good allies. Yes. And what that
means is you're standing down on things that Christians might call sinful or
would call sinful and they're saying you're an ally to them because you want
to love people no matter what they're doing whether that's right or wrong it's
their truth and their expression and we want to show them love. Right. And that will
make you a good kind adult if you learn this social and emotional learning. So we
all want good kind adults but what we know to be true is that love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control come from God not from a
social and emotional learning program with a humanistic worldview that pulls
you
away from biblical truth and put you into a human truth only.
You and I talked about the kind of pressures
that our children are under.
So for example, I had a friend the other evening
who had participated in, I think it was Reading Day
or National Reading Day, and she is a creator
of some wonderful books called Simple Gifts.
And she was saying that she had read this book
and it really shocked her because it was zero to five,
but it really talked about your own empowerment
and you have the right to protest.
And she was thinking, okay, brain development-wise,
what would that mean to a five-year-old?
So when a three, four, five, five, six, seven-year-old
is listening to their parent, their parent is,
let's just say, highly engaged in their life
or raising them, it puts a child right in the middle
of a stressful relationship because if my teacher
is Miss Sue, and I'm believing Miss Sue,
and Miss Sue is teaching something entirely contrary,
the ability to speak up, the ability to understand,
the stress on a child, I think, right now
in this environment is very difficult, very hard.
It is very hard, and we see these young, innocent minds
that enter this system, this institution,
that basically is saying your loyalty is first here,
and we will tell you what that looks like
outside of this institution.
That's very difficult because we know to be true
that if you honor your father and mother,
it will go well with you as you live in the land.
We know that, and so this is contrary to that.
It takes the parents and puts them on a lower stool
than everybody else, and that means
that their parental rights are secondary
to the rights of the teacher,
the rights of the system of education,
and that's not the way that this was set up.
It is the way it's being manipulated right now,
and that's where we stand up together.
We unite as one force, as the body of Christ
that stands up and says,
we know what God said is best for children,
and when you get those steps out of order,
there's a detrimental effect on a child's heart,
mind, body, and soul, and their relationships,
so we stand in the gap to make sure
that that order is put back in place.
You and I were talking about how, really,
it's so hard for parents, particularly when you're working,
you send your child to public education.
Both of you are working, trying to get by, right?
You're trying to raise your kids.
You're going to a church.
You're trying to do these things.
You sign, they got all these papers
at the beginning of the school year, right?
And I think this actually begs the question, again,
about empowering parents as to what to look for.
You and I were just talking about a curriculum
that touts itself as an anti-bullying,
really, though, says it's emotional social learning.
We know, then, that theory is detrimental,
in many cases, for children, right?
Not age-appropriate, you don't know, has sexualization.
It's a tough thing, so I'm a parent,
and I take the time to go to a school board meeting.
What, how do I approach my school?
What do I say?
Because I knew what to do for my own son.
I've had a moment or two where I've had to go,
but in general, right, what do we do?
Well, and there's a point of entry for everyone.
Not everybody has the same point of entry.
One of the things that we do when we do
our message training on how to get your message across,
we have everybody take a quick little personality test
because everybody has some sort of strength or weakness,
and some people, honestly, would not be the ones
that should really be out there speaking
in public to a school board,
but they might be able to empower someone else
because they can create the message to carry.
So it's always good when we unite together.
God loves fellowship, and so do I,
and we all have strengths, we all have some weaknesses,
and we complement each other,
and that's where the body of Christ
doesn't do all the same thing all the time.
We complement each other, so get prepared.
Know what your strengths and weaknesses are,
and understand the system that you're speaking into.
A lot of times, we show up because something
hit our radar and we're angry,
and we show up to speak before we have
all of our ducks in a row.
I would encourage people to get your ducks in a row first.
Do a little bit of research.
Pull up the school's website or the district's website.
Look for whatever's upset you.
Search for that term or those words or that sentence.
Search for it and see what you're finding
so that you're accurate when you relay information
because here's what we want to empower
is for Christians to be truth-tellers
in the public at all times.
Don't exaggerate, and that's why I say
don't lead with your moral outrage
because you'll be more tempted to exaggerate,
and make sure that you know
what you're relaying information to,
but when we sound an alarm, we need to have a solution,
and God is so good at giving us solutions.
There's nothing new.
to the Son, we know that.
So if we're in the Word,
He's gonna give us the discernment that we need
to pull that solution out,
to know what it looks like to have order and structure,
and what's best for children's, families,
parents, and relationship.
So I would encourage you to be in the Word,
and if you don't know right off the bat, come and ask us.
That's why we're here, and ask anybody else at church.
Bounce your ideas off of other sound believers
that can give you good advice,
and make sure that you're leading with wisdom,
knowledge, and discernment,
so that you've got the right guidance that you need
to apply that, because a lot of times,
we throw knowledge out there with no wisdom applied.
That means that the understanding is not going to follow.
There's just a lot of confusion and upsetness
that's going to pull people apart from each other,
rather than come together for a solution.
Yes, yes, and I think how we choose our words on that
in terms of empowering words, right?
I have, you and I know a woman
who's been in relationship education.
She's always, you know, the left are masters
at changing the dialogue.
Every five years, there's a new term,
a new proper term, a new this,
and she has stayed ahead of the game.
So that we can use, right?
We, too, speak the language when we get to the microphone,
let's just say.
You know, I, when I look at this lack,
I want to turn that, because engagement is engagement.
Whether you show up at the school board,
whether you write who's today's, you know,
we've got Target today, right?
Or the Bud Light, or whether you write them and say,
hey, not spending money here, or whatever.
Engagement is engagement, but I am shocked at why,
what is it, why are 25 million Christians
not showing up to vote?
People of faith who know, right?
They do know.
They do know better.
So what, in your polling and the things you've done,
why is that?
Well, there's lots of different reasons.
Apathy is the number one reason
that people don't show up to vote.
But I want to give them the benefit of the doubt
and hope that we can educate them enough,
because here's what is true.
America is like no other nation in the entire world.
We did one thing different that nobody's ever done.
We enshrined religious freedom in our Constitution
in such a way that it is a platform
from which every single individual in this nation
can carry their virtues and values out into public
and exercise, express them.
We have the free exercise of religion, not worship.
Worship is locked in a church.
We have the free exercise of religion.
Now, we don't use that as a platform
to take our virtues and values out there,
so it's been manipulated and adjudicated in the courts.
And that's where people have said,
oh, it's just an issue that we can put parameters around.
It's not, but we've allowed them to treat it as such.
So we have to take that back
and start exercising our religious freedom in public.
That means we take the tape off of our mouth,
the handcuffs off of our hands,
we show up in public in love, in grace, in truth,
and we tell the truth in public,
but we invite people to the truth.
When you throw the truth at someone,
it often bounces off and comes right back at you.
We need to invite them, because I can tell you this,
we could change every policy in the United States
that we want to, but if people are still burning in hell,
we've lost.
We've got to walk like we know there's an eternity,
not just this temporal world.
And we forget that oftentimes when we show up in public.
So together, I think we can do this.
That's why I encourage people to come out of the woodwork,
stand together.
In the last, goodness, maybe six years,
I've had more calls from parents that have woken up.
COVID, I think, was the best gift we ever had,
because parents became aware.
The night before COVID actually shut down the world,
I was literally crying out to the Lord,
physically crying out to the Lord.
And I just said, Lord, what are we going to do?
Our opposition moves faster than we do,
and they never stop, and they work 24-7,
and I'm tired, and we can't hold them back.
What are we going to do?
And COVID hit, and they shut down the entire world,
and every kid in the entire world
was homeschooled overnight.
Every single kid.
It's true.
I mean, God always does something amazing.
It's so true.
And we get so wrapped up in things,
we forget He doesn't leave His throne.
Right, right.
Yeah.
Sometimes we want to sit on it ourselves, right?
I think, seriously, though,
parents did have to wake up,
because suddenly they're working at home, too,
and they're actually really seeing.
I mean, it's how this church exploded, right?
This church took a stand.
And my phone rang off the hook with parents that said,
I didn't know my kids were saying Muslim prayers in school.
I didn't know my kids were reading these certain books.
I didn't know we had these books in the library.
I didn't know that my kids in their class
had these kind of conversations.
It was crazy.
But it was also awesome.
Because guess what?
The hearts of the parents turned toward their kids.
And they started paying attention.
And they knew something was at stake.
And they had a responsibility.
It's awesome.
And now more and more are becoming aware.
And we have the privilege of walking alongside of them
and helping them take right steps in the public square
to do something about it.
If people want to get a hold of My Faith Votes,
how do they get a hold of you and My Faith Votes?
You know, they can simply go to myfaithvotes.org.
And you can contact us through the website there.
So please feel free to go to myfaithvotes.org.
And if you'd like to be an action partner
and connect with the other, I think
we have 375 action partners so far in Colorado.
But if you want to get connected with them,
just sign up to be an action partner.
And you can do that at myfaithvotes.org
on the front page.
That's awesome.
And just for our listeners, we are
going to be having a lot more of empowering of parents,
apologetics, all under the umbrella of Empower You,
because that's what it's all about.
Debbie, I want to thank you for being here.
Wow.
My honor.
Thank you.
Awesome.
Really.
We'll have you back again.
Take care.