"I'm Glad You Said That" - Jim Minnery Talks Faith & Politics

Education seems to always be on the public mind.

School Choice. School Funding. School Politics. School Performance. And on and on it goes.

Today on "I'm Glad You Said That", I'm privileged to chat with Dr. Jessica Parker, the Superintendent of Mountain City Christian Academy about many of these important issues.

Dr. Parker is an educational leader with 25+ years of public school experience. She has a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Communication and Administration from Dallas Baptist University and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership.

Dr. Parker stays actively involved in the ASL teaching field and serves as the National ASL Honor Society Coordinator along with being an executive board member of the American Sign Language Teacher Association (ASLTA).

She and her husband, Jeremy, have 3 children. Hope you can tune in.

Support the show

Congress passed a major piece of legislation on the evening of Wednesday, May 21—the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (HR1) was voted out of the US House of Representatives and moved on to the US Senate.

Eric Teetsel, President of Center for Renewing America, joins AFC President Jim Minnery on today's episode of "I'm Glad You Said That" to unpack what the passage of this bill means for families, faith, and freedom.

Teetsel also served as Vice President of Government Relations at The Heritage Foundation.

He has a long track record of experience in government at the federal, state, and local levels. He was Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri where he also held the roles of Legislative Director and Special Assistant. Teetsel previously served as President of the Family Policy Alliance of Kansas, Director of Faith Outreach for the Marco Rubio presidential campaign, and Executive Director of the Manhattan Declaration for life, marriage, and religious freedom, and more.

Hope you can tune in

Support the show

Can Christians know with certainty if a seminary or Christian college is adhering to fundamental tenets of the faith ?

Have Christians entered into a new role politically where "preserving the moral architecture" is more important than elections ?

Big questions that are related.

I'll converse with Andrew Walker about these and other topics on "I'm Glad You Said That" today.

Dr. Walker serves as Associate Dean in the School of Theology, and Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement and a fellow in Christian Political Thought at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Walker also serves as the Managing Editor of Opinions for WORLD Magazine, one of my all time favorite publications.

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show

John Daniel Davidson has a wonderfully grounded sense of what is most important.

Climbing up the ladder of influence in the literary world on a national stage, he realized that "careerism" isn't what makes us tick as much as finding a place to till and produce and live off the fat of the land with your family.

It was Thomas Jefferson who said "Agriculture is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness."

Davidson took that to heart and moved his family from Austin, Texas back to the family homestead in Wasilla where he was raised. He still writes prolifically as a Senior Editor for The Federalist and speaks around the country but his roots are getting deeper in the soil of the Mat Su Valley.

I am blessed to chat with him on today's show and thrilled to remind readers that he will be our keynote speaker for our 2025 Spring Dinners in Anchorage next Thursday, May 29th at Main Event Grill and on Saturday, May 31st at his mom's horse barn called At the Barn MatSu, a beautiful venue nestled on their homestead.

Please CLICK HERE to get your tickets and join us.

For a taste of John's intellect and passion, I hope you can tune in today.

Support the show

 I love Bob Bird's intellect. I love his feistiness.

I love his passion for his ancestry and his family.

Have we had our disagreements through the years? Yep.

But we're both quick to recognize that we have way more in common than not and we are cut from much the same mold.

Speak up with passion about the things that matter. Place your feet firmly on the rock of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Be quick to forgive.

Today, Alaska's recognized Catholic history expert joins me on the show today to talk about the legacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known across the globe as Pope Francis. 

The Pope chose St Francis of Assisi for his title because of the shared deep connection with the poor, love for peace, and reverence for nature.

But there is a disconnect with quotes St Francis made about our own sin crucifying Jesus and how Pope Francis glossed over certain sins. Bob would agree. 

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show

Republicans yesterday were able to uphold Governor Dunleavy's appropriate veto of HB69, the massive education funding increase passed by Democrat-led majorities in both Legislative chambers that included absolutely no measurable outcomes to ensure that public school students would benefit.

Today, I have the pleasure of chatting with Senator Mike Shower, a MatSu legislator who leads the Alaska Senate Republican Caucus. Shower, a long time friend of AFC and one who emanates common sense, is not falling for the mainstream media line that the veto and subsequent vote by the Legislature to uphold it, pits pro-education policy makers against those who don't want our public schools to succeed. 

And you shouldn't either.

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show

In a fun article in The Imaginative Conservative, that had me admiring C.S. Lewis more than I already did, we learn about how the Mere Christianity author emulated in his life what he wrote and spoke about so eloquently. From that article...

"Lewis relished disagreement and debate. George Watson, who attended Lewis’s lectures at Oxford and later worked alongside him at Cambridge, recalls how “Lewis was a Christian conservative from around the age of thirty, which is to say before I knew him; and since I am neither one nor the other, there was never any question of doctrinal influence. If I was not exactly a friend, still less was I a disciple. That in no way altered my sense of admiration and affection…. We both thrived on dissent…. The best teacher I ever had, and the best colleague, he did not ask or expect me to share his convictions.”

In that vein, I'm happy to have a discussion today with Jeff Landfield with The Alaska Landmine. Although we don't agree on everything, we have been acquaintances, you might even say friends, for a long while. I have called him a unicorn and he took to it. By that, I meant he doesn't fit into a box very neatly. Makes for interesting dialogue.

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show

David Boyle has spent as much time as anyone thinking about and writing on the issue of education in Alaska. As the former Executive Director of the Alaska Policy Forum, he and his wife, Linda, have a total of 45 years in the Air Force and have three children.

We talk education today on the show and he has a lot of insight. 

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show

You know his voice. He's been doing Christian radio forever. Now you get to meet the man behind the voice. Tom Stigelman with Christian Broadcasting Incorporated on the show today. Let's go.

Support the show

I get to chat with Scott Baker on today's show.

Scott is the Chief Strategist for Cojency Strategic, a nationally recognized public relations agency dedicated to helping pro-life advocacy groups win critical campaigns for life.

From their website - Through innovative, data-driven digital strategies, they amplify life-affirming messages, mobilize voters, and increase donor support. With a team of 70 experts, they craft bold, targeted campaigns that outmaneuver the opposition and drive public policy victories, creating lasting cultural change for the pro-life movement.

I hope you can tune in.

Support the show