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Hey, friends. This is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the podcast. Today is Wednesday, January 22. This is episode number 875, and I think I’m getting my voice back, and I’m a little fired up. Stick around. I think you’re going to be encouraged.

So lots going on right now in the culture. You guys know that I’m a huge fan of the March for Life. That activity starts today in Washington, DC, and the rally, the actual march is happening on Friday, January 24, so just two days until that happens. I hope you guys are engaged in that process, praying for them. There have been lots of similar marches happening around the country. People standing in solidarity, saying that, “We will defend until their very last breath the lives of the unborn in this nation.” I saw a really wonderful interview the other day with a young man who has Down syndrome and he was saying he does not want abortion to be illegal. He wants it to be unthinkable, and so I stand with him and I hope you guys are going to pray for the March of Life starting today in Washington, DC with the rally happening this Friday, January 24.

Speaking of January the 24th I am headed to Frisco, Texas in just a couple of days. I’ll be speaking for the Texas Homeschool Coalition Homeschool Moms Winter Summit, and we are going to have a hootin’ hollerin’ good time. I hope you guys are going to come on out and get encouraged. If you need a little bit of a shot in the arm, this is a great place for you to do it. The Texas Homeschool Coalition Homeschool Moms Winter Summit, happening this weekend in Frisco, Texas. I will be there along with my friend Roxanne Parks, and the following weekend, we’re going to do it all over again in Houston, and I hope that if you’re anywhere in the area you’ll come out and get encouraged.

Thing of it is, homeschooling is not for the faint of heart. It really isn’t. I’d love to sit here and tell you guys it’s easy and wow, the birds sing every day, and my kids wake up in the morning and they’re just dying for me to do math with them, but really it doesn’t work that way, and we need to encourage each other that this thing that we’re doing, this homeschool thing that we’re doing really is worth it. You guys can register at wintersummit.thsc.org, and I hope to see you there. Also, right after the Houston summit is over, I am flying to Greenville for the Bob Jones University Press Homeschool Foundations Summit. I’m keynoting that event, and on February 4 it is going to be live streamed on the BJU Facebook page, and so we’ll link back to that in the show notes today.

If you guys have never had a chance to hear me speak, I’m going to be actually talking on something I’m very passionate about, which is faith in culture, and how should our faith impact us? How should it impact the culture? And I believe that God’s word teaches that should have an incredible impact on the culture, and something I’m really excited about is the fact that we are watching more and more Christians getting off the bench and onto the battlefield. This is the theme really for my women’s conference, Faith That Speaks, and I’m really excited about Faith That Speaks. Registration for that is happening right now and you can go to heidistjohn.com/events for more information, but I’m going to be in Lakeland, Florida coming up on the 21st of February.

You guys, this is the one event every year that I would love to see as many of you come to as possible. This year we’re doing something a little different. We’re shaking it up. My friend Elizabeth Johnston, The Activist Mommy, and Kathy Barnette, who is a Fox News contributor, and she just announced she’s running for Congress in her district in Pennsylvania, they will be joining me on the road this year for Faith that Speaks. And you guys are going to be encouraged. We’re going to do a Q&A session. You’re going to get a chance to interact with these women, to talk to them about questions that you might have about how to get involved in the culture, and how our faith can actually motivate us to walk with the Lord and to change the culture everywhere that we are. We are called to be a light, salt and light. And what exactly does that look like?

And so I hope you guys will check it out. If you haven’t already looked for me online, check it out. Heidistjohn.com/events, and if you haven’t noticed that the culture is struggling, all you gotta do is look around you, right? Where are the answers to the difficult questions that we’re facing? Where are God’s people? This is something I’ve been asking myself for several years, and here in our nation and in fact around the world, the need for healing is great, but in the midst of one of the most spiritually challenging times in human history, God’s people seem to have forgotten who they are. We’re living in a world that desperately needs Jesus. It needs Christians to stand in the gap who will speak about their faith instead of shrinking back in timidity. The Bible teaches that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind, and as the church has lost its voice, the world has lost its way.

So you guys, come on out. You’re going to love hearing from Kathy Barnette and Elizabeth Johnston. We’re going to remind you of what we’re here for, of what God says this world was going to be like. He said, “Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication.” And what he’s saying is, “Come to me. Ask me. Make supplication for all of the believers, and also for me that my words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.” That’s the Apostle Paul exhorting us to put on the full armor of God. In Psalm 107 verse two, the Psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, and in faith it speaks.” That’s exactly what we’ll learn to do. We’re going to learn what it looks like to say so. We’re going to learn to boldly declare who we are in Christ, through time in his word, through worship, through conversations, through live Q&A and opportunity for you guys to engage directly with me and with my special guests. So come on out, heidistjohn.com/events.

If you are interested in coming to the Lakeland, Florida event, early bird registration ends this weekend, and if you register now through this weekend, you’re going to get a free gift and we’re going to give you a skip to the head of the line pass, which is really great because you’ll get the best seating, and I’ll be there early to sign books and talk to you guys. So come on out, heidistjohn.com/events.

I wanted to touch on a couple of things that are happening in the news right now, not the least of which was the Women’s March. You guys watch that? No, of course you didn’t. We actually didn’t engage in the Women’s March, but I think it’s really interesting, because the attendance at the Women’s March is rapidly declining. Why? Because they’re anti-Trump, pro-abortion, anti-man, pro-gender neutrality, pro-transgenderism, pro, I don’t know, partial birth abortion. The whole thing. It lacks substance. It really does. “Why do we march? Because we can. Why do we march? We’re angry.”

I listened to a guy on the news the other day saying that the whole march really is motivated by anger. When he was there, he said there really wasn’t a cohesive message, and so instead of addressing issues like sexual assault or domestic violence, issues that actually pertained to women, the Women’s March this past weekend was really just focused on hating Trump, and I think it’s alarming, honestly, you guys, because we’ve got big issues in this nation, and I said this several years ago, that when the Women’s March started, they don’t speak for me. I wish they wouldn’t call themselves the Women’s March. I wish they would call themselves the man-hating, anti-law, abortion loving Women’s March. If they would do that, then I’d be like, “Okay, I’m down with it. Go ahead and March.”

So interestingly, contrast that with the March for Life, which is growing in leaps and bounds. And so I believe that the March for Life is approaching its 50th year this year, and every single year when I watch the reports on that, I would say it’s severely underreported by the media, and about a quarter of the people who attend are young people, which really bodes well for the March for life and for the movement for life as a general rule, saying young people are saying, “No, abortion is not okay. It’s absolutely not okay,” and it is growing and growing and growing. And so we’re excited to see that happening this year.

I heard Pete Hegseth say that the Women’s March is devoted to a grab bag of leftist causes, and contrast that to the March for Life, and they say they’re hoping 100,000 or more are going to gather in the nation’s capital on Friday, and this will be 10 times more than the Women’s March this year. So that’s exciting for me.

Also, on a personal note, you guys know that I am so excited to see people getting off the bench and onto the battlefield, and I’m going to start doing a segment every Wednesday here and introduce you to people who are getting off the bench, and I’m getting letters, and so keep them coming. If you want to tell me what you’re doing to get off the bench and onto the battlefield, I’d love to hear your story and possibly have you on the podcast to share it with the listeners here. How exactly did you decide to get off the bench? How exactly did the Lord speak to you? What was it that really pulled at your heartstrings enough for you to say, “Yes, absolutely. I’m going to do this.”

And one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, my friend Steve Lambert, you guys have heard him on the show with me before. He and his wife Jane, very, very dear friends of ours. Jane is the author of Five in a Row. They are homeschool heroes, as far as I’m concerned. And on Tuesday he filed to run for Lee’s Summit City Council district one. This is my friend, running for city council. Off the bench onto the battlefield. So if you guys live in the Kansas City area, and especially if you’re in Lee’s Summit in district one, check it out. This is my friend Steve Lambert, I’m not even kidding, on the ballot. I was like, “Look at you. You go.” So pray for him, would you guys? Just pray for him as he does this for his family, and I love, love, love, Steve, if you’re listening, Jane, if you’re listening, I love that he used the hashtag #offthebench when he announced that he had filed to run for Lee’s Summit city council. So really exciting times here just to see God’s people say, “You know what? We should get involved,” and it’s exciting. These are exciting days to be a Christian, and exciting days to just get involved and engage in the process around us.

All right. I’m going to answer two questions from listeners today and they sort of have to do with each other, so I sort of put them together. I’m hoping my voice will hang on through the whole podcast. Thank you guys for praying for me. Like I said, I came home from Florida, and just bam, got hit with this flu and lost my voice, and couldn’t walk up the stairs, and the whole thing. So I’m feeling better now, but I appreciate your prayers.

A lady wrote to me and she was talking about wisdom, and she said, “Heidi, you’ve spoken about wisdom out on the road and I’ve heard you talk about this with homeschooling families, but I am really struggling to understand what the Bible says about wisdom versus knowledge. As a homeschool mom, I have really been focused on educating my children in the three Rs, knowing that I could do a better job than the school. Unfortunately, I missed an opportunity with my teenage son who seems now to be walking away from the Lord, and I realized, to my angst and with great regret, that I did not instruct my children in the ways of the Lord. Rather, I focused on academics. Do you have any encouragement for me? And my second question is, if my son was going to walk away from the Lord anyway, why am I praying for him in the first place?”

So she’s asking, “Why should we pray?” And I’m going to tie that into another question from a listener who also asked a similar question. So let’s talk about wisdom for just a minute. Proverbs chapter two verse 12 says, “Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.” And if there was ever a time for parents to be focused on teaching their children wisdom, now is the time. God’s word tells us that wisdom, not knowledge, is what we should be aiming for. Now, am I saying, “Hey, don’t teach your kids academics. Just put down that math book if it’s awful for you, and don’t teach your kids cursive, and don’t teach them to read”? No.

I spent several hours earlier today teaching my last homeschooler, my little nine year old, Sailor, long division, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m tired of long division. I didn’t like long division when I was in the fourth grade, and I don’t like it now, but you know what? She has to learn it. And we actually had a pretty decent time learning today, and then we spent some time reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and then we spent some time talking about some things that are happening in the world around us.

You guys, homeschooling is an incredible opportunity for you to engage with your children on an academic level, absolutely, but it’s even more important that you engage with them on a spiritual level and you teach them discernment. If Solomon is saying that wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted, then it goes without saying that there are evil people in the world who are twisting their words for evil purposes, and our children need to have discernment. They need to know the difference between right and wrong. Spurgeon said discernment was knowing the difference between right and almost right. And if ever there was a time for us to know that, now is the time. I think largely this is why the church has become really impotent in the world today, because we have squandered the opportunity that we have been given to study, as Paul said to Timothy, “to show ourselves approved workman who do not need to be ashamed, who can rightly divide God’s word.”

And over and over in the Bible, God teaches us that wisdom is what we should be striving for. Knowledge puffs up. You’ve been to any secular or even Christian university lately? All these kids coming out into the secular world, and out of high school, and onto college campuses, and they don’t have any wisdom, but they have all this knowledge, and they don’t know how to apply it. Wisdom is the ability to apply what we’ve learned in listening to, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.

And so Mom, I hear the regret in your voice, and a couple of things, I want to address it really quickly, because first of all, your children, all of our children reach an age of accountability. And I’m always telling parents, Jay and I have said to our kids, “Our goal is to get you to adulthood with as little regret as possible.” Sometimes that means that our kids are going to say, “Well, I feel like I had kind of a boring life compared to some of my friends,” but actually Jay and I aren’t after that with our kids. We’re after teaching them wisdom, and we help them to make decisions so that hopefully when they get out of high school, they can navigate the world on their own, and listening to the Holy Spirit, they can hear his voice.

But Mom, even if you miss that opportunity, it’s never too late to pray for your children. It’s never too late to pray for them. Don’t stop praying for your children. Don’t stop loving them. Don’t stop contending for them. We don’t stop contending from weariness. We don’t stop contending because we’re discouraged. Don’t stop contending for your children.

I had another mom write to me and she said, “Heidi, thank you for the work you do on your show. I wonder if you can help me understand something about prayer and the sovereignty of God. Every time I pray, I can’t help but think that no matter what I do, God’s will is always going to be done anyway. I believe in God’s sovereignty and I submit to it, and so many times we hear that God’s answer is sometimes no, and that’s always for our good. And I believe that. But if God’s will is going to be done regardless of what we do, then why pray? I believe he hears our prayers and that he loves us. I just don’t understand how to balance his sovereignty with our prayers.”

This is a great question, and frankly it goes to this lack of understanding about prayer and about our responsibility, really, to engage in the world around us, right? This is my hashtag #offthebench. This is where it just rises up inside of me, because the same person that will say, “Well, God’s sovereign, so just it’s going to play out anyway. So why should we get involved?” Right? So that’s fatalism, and to me it has more to do with cowardice and less to do with God’s sovereignty.

And the Bible teaches us why we should pray. You see, we pray because Jesus told us to pray. So that’s kind of the short answer, right? He does not hope that we’ll pray. He doesn’t ask us to pray. He commands us to pray. Paul also commands that we pray, and in what’s called The Lord’s Prayer, which really is a model for the disciples and for all believers to learn to pray, Jesus says, “Pray in this manner.” Again, Jesus tells believers that they should always pray. In Luke chapter 18, verse one, “Don’t give up. Always pray.” Paul tells us that we should pray in the spirit on all occasions with prayers and requests. That’s Ephesians 6:18. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, he doesn’t say, “Please pray. I hope you’ll pray.” He says, “Pray without ceasing.”

In the Bible, Jesus prayed very often. Now, if Jesus needed to pray, then I for sure do. And Paul prayed, and we should be praying, but then the question comes up, “If God is sovereign, then why?” So the first answer to that question always is, “Because we are commanded to pray.” And then when we start thinking, “Well, God is sovereign, so why does it matter?” Here’s why your prayers matter. Are you ready? Your prayers matter because you are talking to the living God. Who has a friend that they never talk to?

We’ve been teaching our children the New City Catechism this year, just going back to basics, making sure that the three children that are still in our home really understand the basics of the Christian faith. And one of the things, one of the questions that came up the other day was, “What is it that God wants us to do?” Well, the answer was, he wants us to enjoy him. And that seemed to kind of puzzle everybody. “God wants us to enjoy him?” Well, I said to my children I didn’t really understand that either until I began to think about my relationship with my own children. God says that we are his children and that he loves us like a father. And what kind of relationship do I want with my children? I want my children to really look forward to sitting down to dinner with me every night. I want our kids, our grown kids to want to come home, to look forward to a conversation with their mom and dad, to seek our wisdom and our counsel. And God is the same way.

You see, praying is talking to God, and it’s how we can know that our desires in our petitions are going to him is by actually getting on our knees and talking to him, right? Yes, he already knows what we need, but he still wants to talk with us. This is the same thing. If you can put yourselves in the position of seeing the Lord as your Heavenly Father, the way that you see your children as children, this is how God sees you, only with much more intensity. And so when we pray for the lost, we pray for people in need, when we pray for our nation, we want to do so, first of all, because Jesus commanded us to do it, and also because we know that God listens to us.

The Bible says that our prayers move him to action. He listens to our prayers. It’s important to God that we pray. Jesus is praying for us. Did you guys know that? He prays for us. I think that’s amazing. In John 17, Jesus prayed to God the Father and he said, “I’m praying for them. I’m not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word. I have made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.” That’s amazing. That’s John 17:26 by the way. What an awesome thing, to have God praying for you. To have the Son of God praying for you.

And it goes to the same point, I was talking with my friend Elizabeth a couple of months ago, remember, my friend Elizabeth is coming on the road with me for my women’s conference Faith That Speaks, and she and I were talking about the sort of fatalistic attitude that’s in the church that says, “Prayer isn’t that important.” And prayer is so important, and it’s so important that we get up and act. And so when we say, “Oh, we don’t need to be involved,” what we’re really saying is, “God just wants me to sit here and watch it all happen.” And yet that is not what Jesus did with his life. That’s not what the disciples did, and that’s not what we are to do either.

So Mom and Dad, your prayers are important to God. He’s listening. He wants to engage in prayer with you and it absolutely matters. And so I hope that that encourages you to just take your petitions to the Lord. He says, “Bring your petitions to me.” And when God says, “Bring your petitions,” he said he is listening and he cares. And so when we open up that opportunity with the Lord, to me it’s just an amazing, amazing gift that God has given us, to be able to approach his throne with confidence, knowing that he’s listening and that he cares. All right? So I hope that that encourages you.

I want to thank you guys for listening to the podcast. Thank you so much for leaving reviews for my book Becoming Mom Strong, and the other books that I’ve written over at Goodreads and Amazon. A lot of you guys ask what you can do to support the ministry here. That is a huge help to us, just to keep those reviews coming in, both for the books and for the podcast, and also we are greatly blessed by your financial support of this ministry. If you are interested in supporting Firmly Planted Family, we would love that financial support, and also obviously your prayers for this ministry. You can reach us at 11100 Northeast 34th Circle, Vancouver, Washington, 98682.

I hope you guys are having a great Wednesday. I’m going to come on on Friday with my friend, one of my favorite friends, actually, and one of my favorite guests on the show, Dr. Kathy Cook, and we’re going to be talking all things parents and their children, so come on back on Friday. I know you’re going to be encouraged. Have a great day, everybody, and I’ll see you back here with Kathy on Friday.

Write to Heidi:
Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

Support this ministry by donating through E-giving. You can also send donations to: 1100 NE34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

Submit your questions to MailBox Monday.

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TRANSCRIPTION:

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Welcome to the podcast. Today is Friday, January 17th. This is episode number 873. It is also one of my favorite days at the podcast. This is meet my friend Friday. And today, I’ve got former Hollywood actress and pop culture expert Tina Griffin on the show with me today and we’re going to talk about all things faith and culture. Stick around. I think you’re going to be encouraged.

So thanks to everybody who came out to the FPEA marriage cruise with my husband and myself. We are always thrilled when we get to spend time with people who want to nurture their marriage. And you guys know how we feel about this. Marriage is under attack in the culture right now. Family is under attack and we’ve got to give back to what God says is right and good. And so thanks to everybody who came out. Also want to say thank you to everyone who’s been leaving reviews for the podcast over at iTunes. I can’t thank you for doing that enough. And the same is true for the books that I’ve written. So if you’ve never left a review for Becoming Mom Strong or Prayers for the Battlefield or any of those books, we would love it. My husband and I, if you would get on over there and just leave a review, talk about what the books have meant to you.

And the same thing is true of the podcast. It really helps us to get the word out to other people. You guys know that I’m going to be flying into DFW for the THC winter summit. I’ll be in Frisco, Texas, the 24th and 25th and in Houston on the 31st and the 1st of February, come on out and see me. Also want to encourage you, if you’ve not joined me at MomStrong International, January is the best time of the year to really make a commitment to studying God’s word. And so you can do that with me. Hop on over to momstronginternational.com. I do live teaching every Wednesday on the Facebook group. And so as soon as you join, you’ll get a notification about that. And then you can come and join us and we’re talking about all things, faith and culture as it relates to God’s word over at the podcast.

I want to just take a minute and introduce my guest to you. I met Tina Griffin a couple of years ago out on the road. We’ve sort of crossed paths speaking at homeschool conferences. And this girl is on fire. She knows pretty much everything there is to know about Hollywood. She moved from a Wisconsin dairy farm to Hollywood, and then earned her BA in film and television broadcasting from California State University, Los Angeles. And she’s traveled globally for the past 15 years delivering what can only be described as an eye opening message about Hollywood. And she’s really just exposing the lies and explaining the real agenda behind the entertainment industry. And we’ve got so much to get to today. So my friend, Tina, welcome to the podcast.

[Tina] Hey, welcome. It’s an honor to be on the battlefield with you, Heidi. I appreciate all the work that you’re pumping into our culture to get America back on track, world back on track, and focused on Christ. And whenever I think about the days I want to wave the white flag, your name pops up. Nope, she’s in it. I’m in it. I’m staying in it.

[Heidi] Thank you.

[Tina] Thank you for being you.

[Heidi] Well, thank you. And I love hanging out with men and women who are thought leaders, but they’re not just thinking, they’re actually getting out there and getting off the bench. You have really raised this to a whole new level because it’s not easy to stand up against the lies of Hollywood and particularly the movies and television shows that are being pumped to our kids. And I thought it’d be fun. There’s so many things. I’ve got a list of things I want to talk to you about, but I like to just start, since you haven’t been on the show with me, I’d love to just introduce you to my audience and let them know a little bit about sort of what makes you so passionate about what you’re doing. So why did you start exposing the lies that are coming at our families and our children in particular through the entertainment industry?

[Tina] Well, I love taking Satan down. So my biggest thing is as a teenager I hated being lied to and I always was striving towards sharing truth. And so when I went to Hollywood at the age of 20 from a dairy farm in Wisconsin, milking cows, picking rocks, bailing hay, I wanted to be the next big Julia Roberts. So the only way to do that, going two years to University of Wisconsin Green Bay for Broadcast Communications was not to stay there and report on hockey games and Green Bay Packers. Even though I love green and gold, don’t get me wrong. Super bowl ball by the way. Super bowl is in two weeks, we’re going to take them out.

But it’s to get out to Hollywood and what is the biggest influence that was causing me to think that I had to be stick thin and date somebody and have sex in order to fit in. And buy things that I really don’t need, but was marketed towards my generation. I had five of my friends that were killed when one of our classmates overdosed on medication and drugs. He was on drugs. And five of my classmates had died in seventh grade, Heidi. so small town, 2200 people, seeing all that happen, becoming a Christian at 16. I said, you know what? I can’t be a benchwarmer. I was willing to die for the cause. Take a bullet and I still am today. And so what made me passionate about pop culture is what was causing my friends to choose, make unwise decisions, myself to feel like I have to do these things in order to fit in.

And it was coming from pop culture. And when I became a Christian, I would take 90210 and compare it to scripture. I would take Melrose Place and look at the behaviors they were encouraging people to do. And then look at scripture. I’m like, man, we’ve got Satan and God. And so what can I do to help change the wrong identity influencers shaping my generation? And that was when God placed on my heart, get out to LA. Take your Bible, work on set, wear your abstinence t-shirts on set. And start helping to change the culture in a big way through changing the main influencers that then could change the masses way of thinking and worldview.

And so that’s what caused me to say, “Parents, I’m gone.” And at age of 20, headed out to Hollywood and learned a ton for a decade that built the platform I’ve been now doing for 18 years, which is doing Hollywood Exposed and sharing the lies that Satan is pumping into young people’s minds today and sharing God’s truth. And when kids get it, their jaws dropped because I have video footage to prove it, my personal testimony, and they get what I’m saying, which is “don’t base your identity on what Hollywood is trying to sell you on a daily basis.”

[Heidi] So you talked about 90210 and Melrose Place, which I haven’t heard about or thought about those names in a really long time. But as you’re saying them, I’m thinking, oh my goodness. There was an entire generation that was literally shaped by the characters on Beverly Hills 90210. And entertainment has an incredibly powerful role in the lives of our kids and I’m wondering when you think about the role that you see is being pushed on kids today, how do you see it different even from the days when 90210 was popular?

[Tina] It’s such a great question you brought up because 20 years ago when parents today grew up, we were primarily watching those programs and it did shape what we thought, behaviors we thought we had to do. No consequences back then were revealed for premarital sex, the parties with the drinking, binge drinking, all of that. It pales in comparison with what today’s teens are currently ingesting at an all time high, which does to me correlate with suicide for example, being the number two killer among our teens today.

We’ve got beheadings om video games galore, premarital sex, oral sex in video games. I mean, it’s really graphic stuff. My counterculture mom app, I send out pop culture alerts to parents who have that app and it’s been a really good growth for the platform, but it helps parents see just where pop culture has gone. There’s group orgy scenes on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. There’s baby sacrifice that is happening in a Riverdale season three. Baby sacrifice compared to a guy and a girl at a school dance on 90210, which by the way was my first scene that I did. I was at a school dance for 90210 and there was kissing in there, which was a big deal back then.

Pales in comparison to baby sacrifice now on Riverdale season three and we can see that it’s having a detrimental effect on our teens today with the lack of life, low self esteem, abortion not being a big deal because there’s no value for life if they’re being promoted that you can throw babies in a fire at a party. And this is what our kids are seeing, and so parents don’t even primarily know what these kids are watching. And then when I share at the different events that I travel every year and speak up, parents realize, wow, my kids watch a show. That’s in that?

And then the conversation starts with them and their kids on helping them make better media choices to have a better diet so that their kids, they’ve come back to me and said, “My kids have a higher self esteem, better grades, eating better. They know what they want to do after they get out of high school.” So a lot of great things have happened as a result of kids ingesting positive entertainment. And I give them lots of options.

[Heidi] It’s amazing to me that we idolize celebrities like we do. And we still do. I mean, we idolized Christian celebrities, let’s be honest. We have this need in us to go, “oh, I want what that guy has”. It’s like this vacuum inside of us. And you and I have had conversations, which I would love for my audience to hear just a snippet because you learned a lot when you worked in Hollywood. And we’re on a lot of these shows. You are rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and you learn something about how celebrities are raising their children that’s kind of shocking. So let people in on that a little bit because I think it’s fascinating.

[Tina] Absolutely. Thank you, girl. We’ve got people like Madonna. I show a clip in my live show. She was on Ellen about three, four years ago with her son, Rocco. This was just one of hundreds of stories I could literally share where she told Ellen, my son Rocco comes on tour with me. And then Ellen asks, Rocco, hey, what do you think about your mom basically stripping naked on stage and barely clothed and singing the graphic lyrics? He goes, “Oh, I don’t hear or see any of that. I’m under the stage protected doing things. I’m not even aware of what my mom does on stage.”

When I heard that interview, my number one thought was “great mom”. Number two thought was “very hypocritical” because the masses of young kids are watching her do the very actions that she knows is wrong for her own son to see. Third was “I better find this dirt on the net” and I did. And so I’ve been playing that for the last couple of years along with many other clips just so people can see, especially the teens, wow, celebrities shelter their own kids from the entertainment that I’m watching. Why? And it’s because the celebs don’t want their kids to be harmed, hurt in any kind of matter. Get the wrong messages in their brain.

No competition either. You’ve got intelligent kids growing up in mansions in the Hollywood Hills protected from things that could harm them. There’s going to be no competition in the workforce and job force in a mentality state when you have millions of other kids that did hear these lyrics, that are engaging in sexual activity, that are into drugs or suicide or cutting. And so to me it’s just really wrong.

Eminem’s another prime example for 20 years. He’s a very well known and very talented rapper, which a lot of parents can’t even spell his name, let alone know what kind of lyrics he sings, where I get emails from people that completely spell his name, M&M. So parents are very disconnected with knowing that Marshall Mathers is one of the top rappers still today, two decades later, that sheltered his own daughter, Haley, from his lyrics. He rewrote the lyrics for Haley to listen to. And one case in point that drove this home for me is I was on a cruise for Focus on the Family speaking to a mother daughter crowd, a couple of hundred people, about a decade ago. And a girl comes running up to me after she heard my message and said, “Oh man, I was Haley’s best friend in middle school, Tina. She’d have guys coming up to her, rapping her dad’s lyrics, and she said, ‘That’s not what he’s saying, it’s this.'”

Clean lyrics versus the vulgar sex saturated stuff that the kids were telling her on the playground. So these are the things that I’ve heard firsthand, witnessed firsthand, work with these celebrities face to face over a decade where to me, our kids are getting ripped off. And the second I show them truth, they are on fire because they get it, because they have the evidence they need to make different choices.

[Heidi] Well and no, motherhood changes us, right? You’ve got four kids, they range in age from six to 11. You’ve been married for 12 years. Motherhood definitely changes how we see the culture and how we see entertainment and what we’re allowing ourselves to look at. Because monkey see monkey do, our children are watching and they’re imitating us. But talk to the parents right now who are listening to this and they’re checked out. They don’t know what their kids are listening to on their iPhones. They’ve been like, here you go. I gave you the parental controls on Netflix and so I gave it, you know, whatever, 13+ on down you can watch. But you and I both know that that’s not good enough. So how do you talk to the parent who has sort of checked out and get them to check back in so that they can begin to protect the minds of their children and how do they talk to their kids about the changes that they’re making?

[Tina] Oh, great questions. And it’s not an easy answer and it is time consuming, but the biggest thing we can do is invest in our most precious asset, which is our children. And that’s our job. And I just want to tell the parents tuning in right now, we have, I believe, the hardest time ever in the history of being parents on being a parent. Why? Because of technology. Yes, before people had to walk 70 miles with no shoes in the middle of winter to get water and food. I get that. It’s a different kind of hard. Today we’ve got attack coming from all sides because of the easy accessibility of pornography and drugs and all of this stuff, especially through a simple little tech gadget like a cell phone. So it is imperative that we get into the battle and know what’s happening.

Are kids always going to steer clear from every negative movie and every TV show that might pop up? Absolutely not. They’re going to sometimes see scenes that we wish they didn’t see, but my oldest son, now 11, would come up to and say, “Mom, I was at my friend’s house down the street. This TV show came on, there was this commercial. We got to talk about it.” I wish you wouldn’t have seen it. I wish my daughter wouldn’t have seen a thing on the iPad in the past, but when they know they can come to me as a parent, share what they saw, we can then have a conversation about it. And I think that is key because we will never be able to keep our kid in a bubble and we shouldn’t. But it’s imperative we know what is going on.

And so with the counterculture mom ministry, that’s why we created an app, which you’re on that app. I’m on that app. There’s about six other amazing writers, authors, vloggers, bloggers, speakers that are on this app, pumping out content to help parents keep up with a lot of this. And so parents have a full time job already homeschooling their kids or they’re out in the workforce. Both of the parents are out in the workforce and so my main job is to help your job be easier so you know what’s coming up with pop culture, what shows and TV shows are great to get your hands on, what are ones you need to run from, what apps are coming out that should be on the phone to help protect your kids, what video games shouldn’t be played or purchased. And so I help make your job easier. It’s a quick update through the app. You get the alerts. That will be a great way to see what’s going on. Feel like you’re on the front of the lines on the knowledge.

And then I give tips on how to have those conversations with your kids so you feel like you’re more in it, instead of finding out about the disastrous thing that took place because your kids knew more than you do about the pop culture. Then of course, I have the website and I have video galleries on my website, counterculturemom.com. That’s key and I’m not the only answer. Counter Culture Mom, this pop culture stuff is not the only way to get your hands on stuff. I have a resources page with probably over 200 helpful links depending on what needs you are looking for. Is it eating disorders? Do you just want to know what pop culture, how it’s rated through Focus on the Family? We have a plugged in link through that. Is it you have a teenager now that has a computer in the room?

How can you make sure they’re protected from pornography? We have covenant eyes link there, so there’s 200 links at least you can click on, totally separated with categories to make it easy to find, that pertains to your particular needs in your house so you can safeguard your home from any onslaught that the enemy wants to attack.

But I also have info on how to protect your kids when they’re outside of your perimeter and your visual. You can’t see them, they’re on the school bus or at school. I have a lot of things that help. Give you tips and tools on being involved. And I also want to mention with the app, if you see dirt that you know more parents need to be aware of, instead of sending it just a social media platform where most of our conservative views today are censored major. If you send it through the app, I blast that information out to everybody who’s got the app and that also helps. And I get a lot every single week of people texting in. Did you see this on Netflix or this just came out as an app that’s dangerous on the phone. That’s a way to report the dirt that you’re seeing to help thousands of parents that want that information.

[Heidi] I hear the criticism from people saying, “You live in the world, so get over it,” you know? But the truth is we are responsible as parents to protect our children. And it’s alarming to me when parents don’t see that. One of the great examples was you and I were just talking about this before we went on the show. My husband finally wrote to Netflix and he canceled our account. And this came after they went ahead and produced a show that basically shows a drunk gay Jesus. And it was so offensive, openly mocking the Lord Jesus and it was heartbreaking and it shouldn’t be tolerated. And so I just said, “Hey, we might not have a choice in what Netflix produces, but we absolutely have a choice when it comes to where we spend our money.”

[Tina] Absolutely.

[Heidi] Then the question arises, as I put it on Facebook and I tell everybody, “Hey, we actually canceled our Netflix account,” which was sort of painful because we’ve been doing Netflix since they were sending DVDs in the mail.

[Tina] Yes.

[Heidi] So for a long time. But there came a point when we were like, this is over the top. Like we know that there are going to be gay shows on there and we don’t look at any of that stuff. But when they promoted this, it was like something just snapped inside of my husband. I was sort of there a while ago, but I needed him to be there. Right. We don’t watch a lot of Netflix, but it’s nice when you want it. But we finally just decided, wait, this is a bridge too far. It was just way too far.

And then people said, well, what are you going to do? You’re going to stop eating Cheerios? You’re going to stop buying stuff from Nordstrom? All these people are supporting a gay agenda and they’re right. Like we’re saturated with it in the culture. And so every family has to determine what is that line. And for me, with Netflix, the line was them producing a show that depicts Jesus that way. And so I’m wondering, what do you say to parents who say, “Well, you can’t help it. Just don’t a watch it”. Well, it wasn’t as simple as that.

[Tina] No, I agree. And the thing is where our dollar goes is also showing what we want to support. And if we no longer want to support a company that bashes Jesus in that manner, the group orgies I was talking about, the beheadings and video and TV shows, they’ve got series with the baby sacrifice. Whenever I share that, Heidi, I’m not kidding you, I have parents that are running up to me when I get done and I’m just getting off the stage saying, “Guess who I’m on the phone with right now?” I said, “Who?” And we had this on video too. “We’re canceling our Netflix right now.” And I even had people say they canceled during my talk. It was that like offensive or shocking that they’re like, “What? I had no idea. I’m done.” Because if you put our money where our mouth is, we would be supporting other companies like Pure Flix, Cross Flix.

I also talk about VidAngel just came out with the Chosen. It’s an awesome binge worthy show about the life of Jesus. First largest crowd funding source girl where they raised a $16 million to make this happen. Dallas Jenkins was a producer on it. I know the guy, he’s very talented. This is what we need to put our money towards. The truth about who Christ is. It saving souls around the world to be a part of this project and purchase it and watch it or even be a part of it to help fund it is where we should be putting our dollars. And if Christians, a majority of people in our world today, country today, are Christians, which I still believe, Heidi, that it is. The last election to me and my gut tells me it is, and it tells me that we’re starting to speak up.

The media being very censored and one sided makes it hard for our voices to be heard. But I really believe if Christians stood up and said, enough is enough, we’re going to watch whatever comes in our home, who we support, what we support, we would have the right companies closing their doors and the Christian companies skyrocketing with business and production and blasting truth to the masses. And I think it takes people like you and myself and many other people that we know about on the front of the lines, that say enough is enough and why? And then parents saying we have the power to join forces and say we’re no longer going to support companies that are killing our kids, emotionally or spiritually. And then the other part is we as parents have to stop watching the programs. I’ve had so many teens saying, “I stopped watching that, but my parents still watch it.” So I challenged my parents..

[Heidi] You’re so right. That just makes me crazy.

[Tina] It’s huge.

[Heidi] Well, and we can’t give our kids what we don’t have. And so many of these… I talk to parents all the time out on the road and I hear from parents who say, well, I don’t want my kids to watch it, but I know that that stuff’s wrong, except for God’s Word says whatever’s good, whatever’s right, whatever’s honorable, think about these things. And we cannot give our children what we don’t have. And so much of it is just an unwillingness to address the sin in our own lives and stop allowing ourselves to make excuses for what God said, “Hey, don’t do that.”

[Tina] I couldn’t agree more. And the neat thing is when we make that switch, and it might take a little while because if we’re ingrained… I’ve had I don’t want to say arguments… I thought friends that would be in a major debate if I would post something godly on Facebook or expose some stuff about a show, like the Walking Dead.

I had a very close friend of mine that said, “I will never talk to you again for your horrendous exposure of Walking Dead. It’s a fantastic show.” And I had my concern over it and it wasn’t like even that detailed, but it caused a friendship to go nuts through some really vulgar text messages I received. But that’s just one case in point. Like if we try to do the right thing and share, if we as parents started saying notice certain shows even though it might be ingrained in them for a number of years. There’s been a couple of series we had to stop watching because it got graphic by season number three, God totally heals our heart. We feel a higher self esteem. We gravitate towards stuff that is pure and Holy and exciting, that we don’t miss that stuff once we start going in the right direction and it’s so much more exciting to live a God fulfilled life, even with the entertainment we choose, because it gets us on track and we’re closer to Christ. We have a vision and purpose when we start being ingrained in stuff that’s positive versus the negative.

And I just got to a point over the years where it’s actually very hard for me Heidi to sometimes watch clips for the sole purpose of educating people and why they should steer clear from it. It sometimes gives me nightmares, anxiety just to ingest a three minute video clip of a new violent video game that I have to warn parents about. Just because I’m so trying to guard my heart and mind from the stuff that’s out there for our kids today. It’s a tough job to actually analyze and do what I do.

[Heidi] Yeah. And I think people need to realize that what we’re dealing with is actually wickedness and it’s actually Satanic on so many different levels. And the entertainment industry is at the forefront of this. And we also have opportunities to support people who are making good films, who are doing… because it’s no joke to… and I’ve had lots of conversations with Sam and Kevin Sorbo about their desire to make films that are edifying. And we’re seeing good movies come out. Well, when those good movies come out and those good shows come out, people need to go out and watch them.

[Tina] Absolutely. And the other frustrating thing is you’ve got 48 hours to go watch them, people, because the theaters play it for two days and it’s out or one night and it’s out. And I actually went to Israel with Kevin and Sam Sorbo this last summer. And in the process, my husband got to meet Kevin and they’re all talking now about my husband’s is starting a company with two other guys in Nashville here to help produce movies for Kevin and Sam Sorbo.

So it’s a really exciting time because people want positive, there’s just a lack of it. And then we have to support platforms that produce and share this positive content. It really comes down to exactly what you said earlier, you nailed it. Where are we going to spend our time and our money and how are we going to be the example for our kids so they know how to live life carefully by choosing and making wise decisions?

[Heidi] Yeah, that’s exactly right. And I want to just end on this because I think what you said, the most important thing you’ve said for the whole show is that parents have to set the example. And if we can’t stop watching this garbage, if we can’t get it off our phones, if we can’t get it off of our television sets, then our kids are not going to be able to do it.

And we’ve got to look really deep into our own hearts and say, Lord, you’ve asked me to live a set apart life. We are called to be a set apart people and we don’t need Netflix. We really don’t.

[Tina] I couldn’t agree more, girl. And I just want to tell the parents. Sometimes I would get a lot of parents to tell me, hey, what’s left? I mean, Little House on the Prairie got stripped, the original MacGyver series is gone. PAC Man, you can hardly find it. What’s going on? How can we get positive entertainment? And I tell them, I put together an awesome guide with thousands of options that are actually out there, but the secular market will never promote it because there’s no sex, no drugs, there’s no way they can connect and make cash on the other side of things. So if your amazing group of parents can text the word guide, G-U-I-D-E, to the number 444999, it’ll then ask you for your email address.

You text back your email and you’ll get a four page PDF entertainment guide filled with thousands of positive entertainment options. Then you can then replace the stuff you might currently be watching, but you don’t know that these even exist. And they’re great. They’re not the cheesy business from 30 years ago. We’re talking really good TV shows, cooking shows for the kids, devotionals, Bible studies, a lot of stuff that’s out there for a lot of people to get their hands on. There’s something for everything, especially with Cross Flix, Pure Flix. And then we have the Vid Angel now coming out with their own TV series, that parents, if they download that guide, will be pleasantly surprised at how many options are actually out there. So they have a wide variety of choices for their kids and for themselves for entertainment.

[Heidi] I love that. So they text the word guide, G-U-I-D-E, to you at 444999. They’ll put in their email address and then they’ll get a PDF with the guide right in their inbox.

[Tina] You got it, within a minute.

[Heidi] I love it. I love it. So where else can we find you online, at counterculture mom? How do they find the app?

[Tina] Yes, the app. Just go to the iTunes store or the Google Play store and type in counterculture mom. And that’s it. You’ll totally download it and have all the content there. There’s tons of blogs. We even have the alerts are now being written by 19 teens that I just hired on our team. So you have teens writing about the dangers of pop culture or the positive options of pop culture for parents to read where they’ll understand even more because coming from a teen, their own kids’ age, which is very exciting.

And then also of course, counterculturemom.com is the website. And then if they want to get our four brand newly launched Hollywood Exposed four CD series, I have a code that’s right there on the website they can punch in and they’ll be able to get 15% off. So that series that can download immediately or I can send it to them in the mail, but it’s a Hollywood Exposed four hours CD series that really was recorded live at one of these homeschool events here recently. So a lot of this stuff that we talked about today. I go into major detail, there’s no fluff in those four hours and their teens will be on fire when they tune in and listen to it.

[Heidi] I love it. Tina Griffin, you are a fire-starter women. I love it. You are off the bench and onto the battlefield. Thank you so much for the example that you’re setting in the work that you’re doing. I really appreciate you coming on the show.

[Tina] Well, thank you very much doing. Keep doing what you’re doing and I can’t wait to join forces in 2020, girl. 

[Heidi] It’s going to be good. For more information about Tina Griffin and her ministry to parents, go to Heidistjohn.com/podcast. I will link that and all things Tina Griffin in the show notes today. Thanks for listening, everybody. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

Write to Heidi:
Heidi St. John
c/o Firmly Planted Family
11100 NE 34th Cir, Vancouver, WA 98682

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