Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed PJTN’s Laurie Cardoza-Moore in studio to talk about the guest speakers and activities attending Sunday’s Taking Back America’s Children-Tennessee Summit.
Leahy: In studio, our very good friend Laurie Cardoza-Moore, who’s the founder and CEO of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations – pjtn.org. A big event that you can go to pjtn.org and sign up for this Sunday. It’s called Taking Back America’s Children. It’s a summit.
A lot of fantastic speakers, including Laurie. And if you’re a parent and you’re thinking, oh, my goodness, it seems like it’s an endless uphill battle to fix our K12 public schools. At this conference, you’ll learn a couple of strategies and language used by left-leaning education “reformers.”
The power of social media in vocalizing your concerns and ways to motivate other concerned citizens to take action. Sounds like a good agenda. Tell us about the speakers, Laurie.
Moore: Absolutely. Stephanie Meyer is going to be coming to do a speaker training. She’s going to help us lay out our strategy for victory. Now, remember, this summit is solely focused on flipping school boards across the state. We’ve got people coming in from across the state. Robert Arnakis is coming from the Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C.
Leahy: And let’s talk about that for a moment. The Leadership Institute, they’ve been around for about 50 years. Morton Blackwell. That’s a name to remember, you know, Morton.
Moore: Oh, yeah.
Leahy: Morton Blackwell. This is a guy who back in the 60s basically got a lot of young people involved. Now in 2023, although he’s not a young person, he thinks young and he thinks organizationally.
Moore: That’s right.
Leahy: And he is actually he has been a Republican National Committee chair committeeman from Virginia for about 40 years, and he’s been very prominent. The Leadership Institute has done an awful lot of training, and I think Robert Arnakis has been there for a long time, hasn’t he?
Moore: Yes, absolutely. And so he’s coming in to do this training also. I’m going to be speaking about our biblical responsibility to engage in the political process and who we should be electing as leaders.
Leahy: Let me just stop for a moment. And if you talk about whether you’re a Christian or Jewish or whatever your faith is, there is a duty to engage in the political process.
Moore: Absolutely.
Leahy: Some Christians think, well, if you go back historically here in Middle Tennessee, way back, David Lipscomb, his belief back in the late 19th century was that Christians should not be involved in the political process. That has been roundly rejected by most Christians. Although some don’t engage, need to be engaged.
Moore: Yes, absolutely. And some pastors won’t encourage their congregation. If you remember the Black Robe Regiment, the pastors were leading the charge. And it’s very few pastors across the state here in Tennessee. I can count them on one hand that will that are willing to get involved in this battle and encourage their congregants to become part of it.
We have the government we have because we have elected these people. And if we didn’t elect them and we stayed home and didn’t vote, well, guess what? Silence in the face of evil, Deeja Bonhoffer says itself evil not to speak is to speak. And I always add, not to vote is to vote.
Leahy: This is a theme that you’ve had for some time that Eric Metaxas has been talking about. He’s got a letter to the American Church where he says, look, you got to get involved.
Moore: That’s right.
Leahy: You got to get involved. Another very compelling speaker, former Sheriff Richard Mack. Tell us about him.
Moore: Richard Mack is also known as America’s Sheriff. And Sheriff Mac is coming to talk to our guests about the role of the sheriff, the local sheriff. Michael, you know this, but the role of the local sheriff is to uphold the constitutional rights of the citizens within the county that that sheriff exists or is serving.
We know that we’ve got sheriffs across the state who are committed to conservative principles, and the Constitution, but Sheriff Mack is coming in to help train and equip the local citizens to understand who their sheriff is.
And for example, some of the garbage that we have in these school libraries and in the public libraries, Michael, is in violation of state statute. And it’s the citizens who should be bringing this to the attention of the local DA and the local sheriff because this is against the law.
The pornography that we are subjecting our children to under the guise of sex education and these people are getting away with it. Well, you know what? We, parents and tax-paying citizens, have said enough is enough. You are not going to use our tax dollars to continue to indoctrinate our children and subject them to this garbage.
Leahy: During one of the breaks you said, one of the motivating factors you had for putting this event together this Sunday, which is really going to be a full-day event here in Williamson County, and it was interesting the way you phrased it, and I agree with that.
Parents, if you are not paying attention to the curriculum in your K12 public school right now, you are in essence, throwing your children to the wolves.
Moore: Yes.
Leahy: Do you want to expand on that a little bit?
Moore: Absolutely. There’s a scripture in the Bible that says, there arose a generation who knew not Israel, knew not the Lord and what he had done for Israel. Well, I would suggest to our audience, there has arisen a generation in the United States who does not know the Lord and what he has done for America.
And it’s so critically important. Our children, if we don’t understand where we came from, our past, and our history, we cannot fulfill our destiny as a nation, as a people, and as an individual.
And it’s critically important that we give our children accurate tools, and accurate information so that they will, when we hand the baton to them of this constitutional Republic, they will be able to take that baton, seize it, and carry it forward to the next generation through their generation.
Leahy: One of the things that I’ve noticed is and this is, I think, going to be part of your training is the dismissiveness that parents get when they deal with local education agency officials. They just don’t pay attention. They kind of say, yes, very nice. Now leave me alone. That’s something people are going to learn how to deal with here.
Moore: That’s exactly right. We cannot take no for an answer. It’s up to us. Our children are our responsibility. We need to remind these elected officials that they’re voted and elected to represent we the people.
It’s not their agenda or their political agenda or the left-leaning education initiative that these different school boards and school districts are forcing our children to learn. It’s up to us to take a stand.
Leahy: And the event this weekend, on Sunday, all day, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Taking Back America’s Children.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Laurie Cardoza-Moore” by Laurie Cardoza-Moore. Background Photo “Tennessee State Capitol” by Reading Tom. CC BY 2.0.
Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed author Os Hillman to the newsmakers line to discuss what motivated him to write his new book, facing adversity and brining Christian values into ones work life.
Leahy: We are joined by Os Hillman who is the author of a book called 31 Decrees of Blessing for Your Work Life. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report Os.
Hillman: Michael good to be with you today.
Leahy: So tell me a little bit about Os Hillman.
Hillman: Well Michael, my background is advertising. I had an ad agency for 12 years in Atlanta back in the 80s. And then God took me through a season of adversity. That seven-year season led me to a whole new area of focus which I help men and women understand the spiritual value of their work life. And that was a calling and help teach and equip them. I ended up going to 26 countries teaching and equipping leaders and 21 books later. (Chuckles)
Leahy: 21 books! That’s something. That’s quite a bit. Are you still the president of Marketplace Leaders?
Hillman: I am.
Leahy: Tell me about Marketplace Leaders.
Hillman: Yeah, we equip leaders to help them understand how to walk with God in their work-life and integrate their faith life. And so we do that through devotionals and seminars and online teaching and books and conferences. And so we are primarily a training organization.
Leahy: Well, I gotta tell you I’m looking at it a little bit from the outside. I don’t think it’s going so well for Christians in the workplace these days.
Hillman: Well, it’s a tough world out there. And I was just thinking how when we look at the cancel culture and the things that we’re facing today it is a tough environment for sure.
Leahy: Now you have some practical suggestions for Christians in the workplace. But also I think you have an element there that says as a consumer, support those businesses that have Christian values. And you mentioned Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A as a starting point. Tell us a little bit more about that as consumers. How do you discern if a business is run on Christian principles consistent with your own?
Hillman: Well, I think that Chick-fil-A is a great example of that. When you go to a Chick-fil-A you recognize that there’s something different about them. And that difference is the values that they place in how they train their employees and how those employees treat the public and the service they give. And that’s not by accident. And that all goes back to the Christian values of Chick-fil-A. And I’ve been to their headquarters several times in South Atlanta and they’re the truth the true deal.
Leahy: That’s interesting. And just says a customer I have never had, never had anything but a fantastic customer service experience with Chick-fil-A. I mean they have one down here. I live in a suburb of Nashville and the nearest one is in Spring Hill and I go by there. When it was like 15 degrees outside there were high school students working for Chick-fil-A.
Wearing the headsets and wearing gloves taking the orders with a smile. It was just incredible there. The customer service at Chick-fil-A, you go through and you think every single employee treats people very very well. And obviously, they do thorough training for everyone that works here.
Hillsman: That’s right. And they’re the number one customer service in the fast-food industry. They’ve been recognized professionally by that. And so that is something that’s built into them. But it all goes back to their Christian worldview and their value system that gets presented and instilled in their whole team.
Leahy: I will put a little asterisk on Chick-fil-A. Not for you to address but just for our listeners there. They apparently have in some regards become a little bit ‘woke’ with some of their charitable a givings. But that’s a story for another day. (Chuckles) If we can shift gears a little bit to the decrees of blessing. 31 Decrees of Blessing for Your Work Life. That’s your new book. What do you mean by a decree of blessing?
Hillman: Well in the Bible, there is an Old Testament verse that says so shall my word go forth. I’m looking for the right scripture verse there. It’s actually out of the Old Testament in Deuteronomy where it talks about giving a decree. I will make a decree and it shall come to pass. And so what we see in the Bible is the spoken word as used so much in Genesis one you see a whole series of verses that said and God said.
And God said. And God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered etc. But in the New Testament, we see examples of decrees where God or someone speaks out the word. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and the fig tree died. He spoke to Lazarus to come forth and he came forth. And you know, so there’s a principle here that there’s power in the spoken word of God.
So the devotional helps us come to understand the value of speaking out words and in situations. And understanding where the word of God encourages us to speak it out. And so there are 31 devotional messages and then there are 10 decrees based on a Bible verse to help you make a decree that day.
Leahy: When you make a decree, what exactly are you doing? What’s the definition of a decree?
Hillman: A decree is let me just give you an example. For instance, one decree and blessing would be I will treat my employees based on values and love today. That’s a decree. It’s making a statement if you will about a particular situation.
Leahy: I’m looking at dictionary.com. It says a decree is a formal and authoritative order. Especially one having the force of law. Theology it is one of the eternal purposes of God by which events are foreordained. Do any of those definitions fit?
Hillman: Sure, you know in another example was Ezekiel in the Old Testament was speak to the dry bones.
Leahy: Oh, yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that old classic song based on that.
Hillsman: That’s right. And Joshua was told to speak to the walls after walking around seven times and you know to shout to the walls. And Jesus spoke to Lazarus to come out of the out tomb. And Peter told to the crippled man said, you know be healed in the name of Jesus. So these are examples of actually speaking out situations in overcoming problems. There’s another verse in Mark that says speak to your mountain. And so we have other examples of marketplace situations that happened when people spoke to their issue. (Chuckles)
Leahy: Now you do a daily email devotional called TGIF. Today God Is First. For people that sign up for that? What do you get in that daily email devotional?
Hillsman: Well, I started writing that back in the late 90s and it was really in response to my own adversity at that time. And I just started writing devotionals about life and work and adversity. And little did I know how it would touch people all over the world and it now goes to 105 countries. So every day a message goes out is about.
It’s a four-minute devotional designed to encourage you in your workplace and how you walk with God at work. And many people are just encouraged by that every day. We actually have four devotionals that go out every day. Each one has a little different theme but they can find that at todaygodisfirst.com.
Leahy: You talked about your adversities. You have a very interesting story. You had your own ad agency for a time?
Hillsman: That’s right. For 12 years.
Leahy: For 12 years and then you ran into adversities. Tell us a little bit about those adversities.
Hillsman: Well, I was doing really well in our business and then one day my financial advisor called me and said that the half-million dollars that I had tied up with them were gone.
Leahy: You tied it up where?
Hillsman: It was an investment. And my advisor said it’s no longer in existence. It has been stolen by a Bernie Madoff type of guy that we had invested with. And then I had 80 percent of my business tied up with one client who fired us and refused to pay $140,000 he owed.
Leahy: So you had a one-two punch there.
Hillsman: Well, I had two-three punch. My wife and I were having problems and she ended up leaving me. And all that happened in three months.
Leahy: In three months. We have to hear the rest of the story. Hang with us through the break.
Listen to the full first hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Os Hillman” by Os Hillman. Photo “31 Decrees of Blessing for Your Work Life” by Amazon.
