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TOM LAMPRECHT:  Harry, on this Wednesday, I’d like to do a lightning round with you.

First story up, Kentucky governor calls for any elected official who has settled a sexual harassment claim to resign. Kentucky governor, Matt Bevin, called for elected officials and state employees who have settled sexual harassment claims to resign, saying, “Such behavior falls below the moral standard expected of them.”

DR. REEDER: When I heard that, I was just so overwhelmed with the moral clarity that this governor has brought. He could have as easily just dodged this and said, “Well, we don’t know why they settled this and why they settled that. Maybe it was expedient.”

He said, “Nope, if you handled this with an out-of-court settlement and, certainly, if it went through the court case and you were convicted, that is unacceptable behavior in the lives of our leaders and of our state. We are saying you ought to resign. It is your ethical responsibility.”

Of course, the occasion is a Republican Speaker of the House in Kentucky had a sexual harassment case that was settled out of court, it’s now become clear. He said he wasn’t going to resign. He did resign as the Speaker of the House, but he is continuing to be a representative from his district. When the governor was asked about it, that was his response.

There are some people that, perhaps, it was questionable as to whether what they did was truly a matter of sexual harassment, but there are insurance companies that will say, “Look, let’s just settle, anyway, and just move on.”

Now, people are going to say, “No, no. If I’m not guilty, I’m not guilty. I’m not going to settle to move on. I don’t care what it costs, I’ve got to protect my name and my reputation.”

And I think one of the things that would greatly help us in public policy, though, is to legislate a law that, if you bring a case, and lose it, and the judge affirms it as a frivolous case then the people who brought the case have to pay the lawyers’ fees and the court expenses.

That would cut down on some of these because there are some people that bring law cases, knowing that they wouldn’t have a case if it got to court, but also knowing that insurance companies figure, “It’ll cost us less to settle,” and so they go ahead and settle. That is happening constantly and that needs to stop.

TOM LAMPRECHT: Speaking of harassment, Harry, the LGBTQ students at Azusa Pacific University, a Christian private school in southern California, are now demanding that the school end its support of traditional marriage and its disapproval of same-sex relationships on campus.

Basically, they’re saying, “End your support of Biblical morality.” This all stems from a case where a line cook at the university is suing for harassment because he says that he faced verbal abuse by students and employees because he would not take the same Biblical stance.

DR. REEDER: He was challenged by the students in their discussions so, again, now we’ve got a situation where, “Someone disagrees with me and I bring a lawsuit because I have a so-called right to go through life without being challenged intellectually, morally or socially. If I’m challenged, that’s tantamount to harassment.”

It goes on to say that these students say, “We must give up the Biblical view of marriage and sexuality and move beyond its,” quote, “‘bigotry.’”

What we have embraced as the high standards of ethical behavior in what is marriage and sexuality within a marriage defined by one man and one woman for one life, that has stood the test of time of morality and of ethical virtue is now being called bigotry.

Well, my goodness, it seems as if Jesus was right. What will happen if they call evil good and good evil? What will happen if the light is darkness and the darkness is light? How great is that darkness? When you call the darkness light and lightness darkness?

For Christians, when that time comes – and even in this time – we just simply need to say, “Jesus Christ is my Lord and the Word of God is the final authority of my faith and practice. You may call sexuality within marriage and the marriage of one man and one woman bigotry but I call it faithfulness to the Word of God.”

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, let me take you to Story No. 3: The Washington Examiner and The New York Times both did a detailed story on this a few days ago. Back on October the 24^th, the DC Circuit Court said that an illegal youth by the name of Jane Doe must be released in order to have an abortion. That was on October the 24^th.

Attorneys from the Department of Justice went to the ACLU attorneys who were representing the young lady and asked when would the abortion take place. They assured them it would not happen for two days. However, those attorneys apparently rushed the girl in the very next morning and had the abortion.

Now, the Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to review the case and bring disciplinary action to the ACLU attorneys who lied.

DR. REEDER: Yes, this is very interesting. The Department of Justice is now, on a case verdict that’s already been made that said that the 17-year-old girl had the right to the abortion and the government would need to pay for this, and they rejected a governmental solution to turn it over to a private company.

The court said she has the right to the abortion and the right to taxpayer funds to fund it. And then, immediately, the next day, she went and got the abortion, even though the lawyers had said, on record, that it would not take place for two days.

The Justice Department has gone to the court to vacate the ruling. Why? They’ve stated two reasons. No. 1 is they want to wipe out the precedent that the taxpayers have to affirm a person’s right to kill their child by paying for it. That is a violation of the laws governing the, quote/unquote, “right to abortion” in our nation.

Secondly, they have done it to bring to bear the misconduct of the ACLU lawyers because they misrepresented and they lied and, therefore, they are seeking for them to be either disciplined or dismissed from their credentials, that is, to be disbarred.

The precedent does need to be confronted because we must not get into a situation in which there’s a precedent of taxpayer money funding the death industry of abortion. And then, secondly, we need to hold the ACLU lawyers to their ethical obligations.

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, our final story is out of Town Hall. We all know that Bernie Sanders is pushing hard for single-payer healthcare, although he has a hard time proving how it is going to be paid for. Even The Washington Post said that the high costs cannot be overcome. It’s a trainwreck for the working poor, they said.

I want to point out, in this one story, though, an Ontario doctor has now found out that, for one of her patients in Canada to see a specialist, a neurologist, the wait time is four and a half years.

DR. REEDER: Accessibility in a socialist system is a walking joke. They can’t get into see a neurologist in Canada for four years. Tell me how that’s going to help you when you’ve got a brain tumor.

It is demonstrable that the care that is delivered, the technology that’s developed and the progress in research is totally undermined when you go to a socialist system and you lose out on competition and entrepreneurial dynamics built into the medical enterprise.

And then, No. 3, the cost factor goes out of the roof. It is beyond any expectations of what begins to happen, yet, we continually move toward the socialist offer, thinking, “Oh, it’s free.” Nope, wait until you see what happens to your taxes.

TOM LAMPRECHT: Harry, our theme today is promises made and promises broken. How does the Christian react to these stories?

DR. REEDER: You do not depend upon man and you do not depend even upon man’s goodwill. We have to function with each other and we have to treat each other with dignity and respect but there is only one who has made a covenant with promises and vows and has kept the vows – and the promises are “Yes” and “Amen” because He has kept those vows – and that’s the God of Glory and the covenant is the covenant of grace, whereby Jesus Christ fulfilled the holiness of God and kept the oath of God, “I will save my people.”

And, on the cross, He paid for all the sins of all of His people so you can have everlasting life. And, with that security that God has delivered on His promises and His Son, in whom all of the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen,” that’s what allows you to live in a world where men and women constantly renege on their promises for self-absorption, self-advancement and self-gratification.

And you also live in the world where Christians imperfectly, but purposefully, try to imitate their Savior and, when we promise something, we say what we mean, mean what we say and never be mean when we say it.

Dr. Harry L. Reeder III is the Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

This podcast was transcribed by Jessica Havin. Jessica is editorial assistant for Yellowhammer News. Jessica has transcribed some of the top podcasts in the country and her work has been featured in a New York Times Bestseller.

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