“In His Image” Movie Tackles Tough Cultural Topics – The producer of this new movie by American Family Association, “In His Image” is with us today. This movie tackles the issue of gender orientation and sexuality. Tune in to hear more!

Air Date: 10/19/2020

Guest: Kendra White

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

Listen:

Download: Click Here

Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

 

Rick:

Welcome to WallBuilders Live, the intersection of faith and the culture, where we take on the hottest topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Thanks for joining the conversation with us today. We’re with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders, Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

Check us out there at wallbuilderslive.com. If you’d like to know more, just dive into some of those archived programs from the last few weeks that you might have missed, and that’s also a great place to make a contribution. That’s your way of coming alongside us, amplifying our voice, giving us an opportunity to spread this program as far and wide as we can, to get as many citizens to understand their biblical duty in this nation, to be we the people, you know, we’re told to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. And in America, you are Caesar; we, the people are in charge. But we have to know our rights. We have to perceive when those rights are violated, and we have to be willing to defend and assert them in a proper constitutional way.

So you can learn more about all of that at wallbuilderslive.com. We got some videos there where you can learn about the Constitution and quarantines and the COVID crackdowns and all of those things. You can even sign up at constitutioncoach.com and become one of our volunteer Constitution hosts using our materials to teach folks. So constitutioncoach.com if you want to sign up, or learn from some of those videos; and then wallbuilderslive.com, if you want to listen to some of the additional WallBuilders programs, and please make that contribution there. Come alongside us, lock shields with us, and be a part of the team. It can be one-time or a monthly contribution, whatever you can do, it does help amplify our voice.

Okay, David, Tim, later in the program, Kendra White’s going to be with us. She is the producer on this new American Family Association movie. In his image, it’s actually being released tomorrow. So we’ve got her today to talk about the importance of this movie, and they’re tackling a tough cultural issue that most believers have run from, but we have a biblical mandate to speak on this issue. And if we really love people, we’ll speak on this issue.

Tim:

Yeah, it’s the issue of gender and sexual identity, things that most churches aren’t really comfortable talking about, human sexuality, which seems a little ironic, with the fact that God is the one that created human sexuality, and God put it in bounds and confines. And God even identifies that this was part of his order to creation, right, that human sexuality came before the fall, not after the fall. So this was part of the, “It is good.” But the boundaries and parameters he put around was, it was in the confines of this lifelong covenant union, marriage as we know it today, between a man and a woman. And so you have clearly defined boundaries, clearly defined, even in this kind of situation, genders and roles, but we live in a modern culture.

And even we’re seeing this very often politically, where we’re seeing different political leaders saying, hey, we think it’s okay for people who are young to go through a sex change surgery. Or we think in California, where they’re proposing that for a pedophile situation, that as long as the child is 14 years old, and as long as the adult, “is not more than 10 years, the senior, they’re only 24 and it’s a 14 year old and that’s totally fine”, things that are boggling to the mind, if you have a moral conscience, especially one of rooted in Scripture, these are not confusing issues when it comes to moral rights and wrongs.

And yet, as we’re seeing this stuff unfold in culture around us, there are very few pastors and Christians who have stepped up to address this issue. But as in many situations, there are organizations who saw the gap and want to step in to fill an American Family Association. People we’ve been friends with for many, many years, have been part of the process of saying, hey, let’s help bring some education to people and let them know what is actually happening in culture and specifically, what does the Bible say? What guidance is there for us as Christians that we can go and say, here’s what the Bible says? So it really clears up where there might have been confusion. The Bible does give a lot of guidance. And so it’s great that there’s somebody making an effort and attempt to bring clarity to a situation that’s rather confusing for way too many people in culture.

Rick:

Kendra white from American Family Association new movies called “In His Image”, she’ll be with us when we return from the break on WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today wrongly claim our Founding Fathers were largely atheists, agnostics and deist, certainly some founders were less religious than others, but even they were not irreligious. Consider Benjamin Franklin, definitely one of the least religious among them. Yet when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hit an impasse in their deliberations, it was Franklin who called them to prayer, invoking numerous scriptures to make his point.

As he reminded them, “God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that “except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this.”

So even the least religious of America’s founders urged public prayer and dependence on God. For more information about the faith and the Founding Fathers, go to wallbuilders.com

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders live. Thanks for staying with us today. Kendra White is with us, director of a new movie called “In His Image” done in association with American Family Association. Kendra, thanks for some time today.

Kendra:

It is an honor to be on your program. And thank you so much for having the courage to introduce your listeners to the topics we’re talking about today.

Rick:

Oh, absolutely. Now, this is so important. You know, you guys don’t shy away from the tough topics of the day. It’s one of the reasons we love American Family Association, and this one is needed desperately. Very few people are willing to speak out for truth on the issue of sexuality and gender today. I mean, it’s almost like the third rail in politics where everybody avoids it, because they don’t want to, “offend anybody”, and that’s when truth is needed the most.

Kendra:

Absolutely. You know, this project, when it first came to me, the film was called “In His Image: Delighting in God’s Plan for Gender and Sexuality.” And to be honest, I didn’t want to make it [inaudible 06:28]. You know, I believe this. I absolutely believe about what the Bible says on homosexuality and transgenderism. But, man, I’m putting a target on myself and my family, but it was neat, because over the course of several months of really praying about this, the Lord really just laid on my heart that this is what the church needs, that this is a very timely message.

And also that there are people that are living in sexual brokenness who are being told that there is no option out, but they’re being put on a path of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, and sex change surgery. And they are being told that there is only one option to happiness, joy, and at the end of the day, it’s not fulfilling for them, and Christ is the only answer. And we as Christians, it is our job to hold up the gospel as the answer to be able to free people that are in bondage.

Rick:

Yeah. Amen. And that’s a shift from the perception most people have of the church’s position on these things. Too often, they think the church is just all about rejection and saying, oh, if that’s you, then we don’t want you in our church. Instead, what you guys are saying, we want to help you have healing, we want to help you have God’s best. We actually love you and we’re trying to bring you the best instead of the lies that you’ve been told that it puts you into these painful bondage situations.

Kendra:

Absolutely. We knew going into this film that like the key to having people really understand God’s heart on this matter was to, sometimes I use the word balance, compassion and truth. But the truth is, in Jesus Christ Himself, he is 100% the truth, “the way, the truth and the life” and he also is a love. So he is completely has the heart of compassion. And it’s really not as difficult as we think as believers to manage those two things. When we really dig into our word, it becomes easy to know, okay, we cannot affirm these actions or this lifestyle, but we can love these people and point them to Christ, and point them to the transformative power of the gospel to change our lives.

Rick:

For something this tough, and a topic this controversial in the culture, at least today, having real people that have actually gone through this is absolutely vital. It’s not enough for someone like me to say, well, this is what the Bible says. That actually doesn’t help that much. It’s so much stronger when you have someone that’s been there and has a testimony on it, and you guys really zeroed in on that.

Kendra:

Yes, absolutely. Now, I mean, of course, as Christians, our foundation should be on the Scripture and not on experience. But in a culture that gets those reversed and puts experience as the ultimate source of truth, it’s really helpful to have these real life examples of stories of people whose lives have been radically transformed. And it was so neat for me interviewing these individuals.

We have Laura Perry, who she was eight years as a transgendered man until God radically transformed her life. She did transition, spent eight hours a day in the Word of God and she is completely a different person, and has found a hope and freedom in Christ and everything that she thought she could find through transitioning left her empty, and here she was left with Christ as the ultimate answer.

We have Walt Heyer, another story of someone who transition. He lived at eight years as a woman and changed his name to Laura Jensen got a divorce and ended up homeless and on the streets and lost his job and was being pushed towards complete change. And I mean, he had all of the sex change surgeries. And what he was left with at the end of the day was depression.

And so we keep finding that there are these parallels in these stories of abuse of identity, of problems in childhood that end up impacting people for the rest of their lives. And so one of the things I think viewers will love when they hear the diversity of the stories that we tell is, yes, there’s people from all different generations, different walks. We have some that deal with same sex attraction, some that deal with transgenderism, some that deal with a family member who came out and transitioned. But some of the unique factors that tie them all together is the redeeming transformation of Christ.

And honestly, in a lot of the hurt and abuse, I found every story, I won’t say this is true of every individual, but every individual I’ve interviewed or spoken with, there has been a link to either physical or sexual abuse somewhere in their life, and that as believers that should stir our hearts to compassion that this is an issue we need to be addressing better.

Rick:

Amen. Amen. And great distinction on your first response to my question and important clarification there. Obviously, the Word of God is the authority and what we should use. What I meant to say is people trapped in this often will not listen initially to someone that’s just bringing that. But when you have someone that’s been through…

Kendra:

Well, and you’re right. It’s brilliant response to say, oh, well, you can’t argue with my experience, because this is who I was, and I’m happy now, and I actually have real true joy. So it’s a great tactic for dealing with some believers.

Rick:

Well, and I wanted to ask you about that in terms of strategy and tactics, right? Is the film designed for just a person that’s struggling with this or is this for the church to be equipped to be able to respond to people that are struggling with this? Does that make sense in terms of what I’m asking there?

Kendra:

Yeah, absolutely. We spent a lot of time talking about this before we made the film and because both groups need wonderful content on this. And while we do hope that individuals who personally struggle with these issues will watch the film, and if they do watch the film, we think they’re going to find truth in the Word of God that will be helpful, we really felt that where the battle was raging, the strongest is in our churches today. And we’re seeing gay affirming theology, just like a tsunami crashing on the church today, every church is facing this in some capacity. And if you think that your church isn’t facing it, you might not know some of the conversations that pastors are dealing with behind the scenes.

Everybody has a cousin or a friend or a family member that is dealing with this. And I mean, they’ve just released an album of LGBT affirming hymns, where they just completely changed the lyrics to be affirming and accepting. And they’re twisting scripture to say that Ruth and Naomi were a lesbian couple or that, you know…

Rick:

Oh, I’ve heard the whole Jonathan and David were just… Oh, it’s unbelievable.

Kendra:

It’s twisted. It’s so twisted. And we just kind of felt like as believers, if you will invest a little bit of time in developing your apologetics on this area, you will be able to confront these lies head on. And I started this project, I was not an expert in this at all. But I saw several of my friends who have been raised in church that has been deceived in this area and it’s a progression. It starts as I’m just going to accept this, I’m going to change the scriptures a little bit and twist it to make it feel with what fits right because I don’t want to be mean, or I want to be viewed as accepting. But eventually, you can only twist Scriptures for so long before. I’ve seen some of my friends just walking away from the space altogether. And so the church absolutely needs to know what the word of God says. Your children need to know. And we hope and pray that this film will be a resource that will do that.

Rick:

I really think the reason we’re so far down that path and so much of Christendom, so much of the Evangelical Church going off the cliff on this thing is because we avoided the topic, because we didn’t talk about it and especially our young people, they were getting bombarded with this. You’re a bigot. You’re this. You’re that. And you don’t love people and just getting destroyed on social media and all those things, that they finally were just like, well, I don’t want to be that person… I want to be a nice person. I want to love people. And it got framed in such a way that you can only love people if you affirm, if you actually celebrated their sin.

And so just talking about it is huge, but then to do it in a way that communicates this and empowers people in the church to be able to communicate this is huge. And you’ve got some of my favorite people in this. I mean, you got Dr. Everett Piper, Ryan Anderson, Michael Brown, Sean McDowell, you get some, that’s going to be really, really good. I’m excited about what you all are doing here.

Kendra:

Well, it’s some really brilliant minds and we feel like it covers a wide variety of topics. So we have one section that specifically on what does the Bible say on this? And it kind of builds a framework of going through Genesis 1, 2 and 3, with a more careful lens than you’ve probably ever done before to understand what is the difference between being a man and being a woman biblically. And is it gender stereotypes? Do guys have to like, or do I have to wear high heels? Is that what it means to be a woman? I think not. And so what is it from scripture?

So we start there, and we kind of build that foundation, then we talk about the gay affirming church, and some of the pressure that is on the church right now and how to stand strong against that. Then we move into the scientific aspect of this. Because the amazing thing is that people are saying that we as Christians are on the wrong side of science on this issue. And what I have found is that the science absolutely supports the biblical worldview, and it’s almost hysterical the way that the medical community, the trans-affirming medical community is twisting science and twisting facts that I mean, the…

Rick:

Ignoring some of the most basic biological facts that we were taught in elementary school.

Kendra:

Right. And I didn’t realize that a lot of the hormone blockers and the cross-sex hormones that they’re not actually FDA approved for use in children. They’re FDA approved for use in adults with testicular cancer or endometriosis. And so it’s never been tested on children to see what are these lasting results and as the tests that they have done…

Rick:

So these boards are okay with that being done but don’t give hydroxychloroquine to someone with COVID? My goodness, yes! Oh, my goodness! You’re kidding me.

Kendra:

And there’s no awful side effects for children, obesity, and it causes different kinds of cancers, bone loss, heart disease. Like these aren’t just little like, oh, you might get a rash, like these are severe symptoms. So we want to equip Christians to know some of the science that’s behind this, that maybe they haven’t been told.

Rick:

I love that. Oh, that’s so it’s such an important approach to and again, information that we just don’t know, so you really are equipping. I mean, you’re giving people answers that then they can use when they’re getting into these conversations. I think it’s why we avoid the conversations, we’re afraid we don’t know the answers, we don’t know how to handle this with the other side sounds so informed and so smart, and all that. And the facts, the evidence, the history, all of those things are on our side, but when you don’t know them, you’re afraid to engage and to try to help people with this.

Kendra:

We live in a biblically illiterate world too, even within the church, that’s a huge problem. And what I really found that is with just a little bit of study on some of these key passages of Scripture that are just wonderful tools for us, you really don’t have to spend years dedicated to this topic. You can spend an hour or two getting in your word and digging into this, and it really is very clear what God’s word says on this.

Rick:

Inhisimage.movie is the website, Inhisimage.movie. Tell us, lastly, what are you recommending do you have? Is this something that we want people to show at the church? Do they distribute to the church? It’s going to be streaming, it’s going to be theaters? Well, how are we doing this?

Kendra:

Yeah, so we would love your listeners help because we had planned to release this in theaters this fall. And of course, with COVID, causing a lot of shutdown, it’s proved more difficult. So we really prayed about waiting and releasing it later, and we felt like this issue is just so timely, this is something that the church needs. So I’m so blessed to work for a ministry that their main goal is to get this message out. So we’re actually going to be releasing this for free and streaming it online on October 20th.

And our heart is for this to just get shared and passed around. We would love to see this video go viral. So basically, if you go to Inhisimage.movie, just sign up for your email and you’ll be sent a link on October 20th. And in the meantime, you can go watch a little sneak peek that talks about some of the… and we didn’t even get into all, the some of the amazing oppression and spiritual warfare that’s been going on behind the scenes and how you can join with us in prayer.

Rick:

And social media shares, that sort of thing is one of the ways people can help and get people informed that this is even out there. Just share it on Facebook, Twitter, just let people know this, get this link inhisimage.movie.

Kendra:

And “In His Image” has a Facebook page, we’d love you to join us and share our content. And pass it not only to your pastor and people in your church, but it’s also something that you can feel face to pass to unbelievers because it’s done in a very loving and compassionate way. We’re not beating people over the head or it’s something that I think they may start some interesting conversations.

Rick:

It’s awesome. I’m so glad you guys are doing this. Kendra, God bless you for this work. I could totally appreciate what you said at the beginning that you didn’t say it this way. But it sounded like you know, God gave you this assignment, you’re like, Lord getting back up assignments for me, is there something else I could do? And then once you got into, it was like, oh, wow, you began to see what God could do with this. So I just want to say thank you to you.

Kendra:

Well, we’re so grateful for your ministry. Thank you for being willing to have us on. We know there’s not a lot of people that are willing to talk about this topic, and so we appreciate your ministry and for standing on the truth and getting the word out.

Rick:

Amen. Amen. Well, God bless you. Looking forward to the release. October 20th, folks, get inhisimage.movie, get signed up. All you got to do is put your email in there and they’ll let you know when it’s ready to be released, and then share it on Facebook. Start giving folks heads up that it’s coming out. Kendra, God bless you. You all keep up the great work over at the American Family.

Kendra:

Thanks so much.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

BREAK

Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We’re looking around for leaders of principle to step up and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They’re crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need.

Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress and business, in the film industry, in the pulpit and every area of the culture. They’re leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation and now’s your chance to experience this life changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit patriot academy.com for dates and locations.

Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a citizen track for adult, so visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at patriotacademy.com

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. And thanks to Kendra White for joining us today. The movie is called “In His Image” and it releases tomorrow. The website is inhisimage.movie. We’re back with David and Tim. And guys, of course, we don’t shy away from this topic, we’ve talked about a lot here on the program. But doing this in a way that will influence and equip Christians to know how to answer these things because they get asked this stuff at family dinners or at church or whatever and they’re just afraid to address it.

David:

Yeah, I think for a lot of folks that they’re just kind of tired of the issue. This has been an in your face issue for a few years now. Lots of legal suits going on this. And I think for a lot of folks, it’s just kind of put your fingers in ears and say, la, la, la, la, la, la, and hope it all goes away, but it’s not going to go away. This is a big deal. As we see even measures that have been introduced in Congress this year, depending on what happens in the election is where these measures become law, but they intrude even more into our belief system.

And so what’s really necessary here is the apologetics. We’re going to have to face this, confront it. We’re going to have to argue for or against it. We’re going to have to know why we believe what we believe. And what we saw here in Texas just a few weeks ago, as Texas was considering his sex education curriculum, this was a big part of the debate and because Texas is such a big state in influencing curriculum all across the entire nation. Texas and California, we drive curriculum for every other State.

They came here with their guns loaded and said, here’s what you need to do in curriculum. And so believers need to be ready for the arguments that they’re making. And one of the arguments they make on these LGBTQ issues is a look, when you look at pedophile, science tells us that pedophiles are born with the proclivity to want to have sex with children, with the young people. If they’re born that way, that’s the way God made them, that’s God’s choice, that’s not their choice. What a Christian say to that, because this is the argument that was now made at the Texas State Board of Education?

We saw the same thing where they say, well, you know, you look at all these people, LGBTQ i.e. plus folks, and God loves them and we need to love them too. And when you love someone, you embrace them and you affirm them and so we’re being told that God expects us to affirm and push us. This is all narrative by the religious Left. Part of their narrative even went so far as to say, you know, God told us to replenish the earth and we’ve done that; now the earth is overpopulated, so abortion is part of God’s plan to save the earth. This is something that God gave us and it’s a good thing.

Believers need to be able to respond to these tough issues because this is now part of the debate. And so what AFA has done with this documentary is really, really, really helpful to give us some apologetics. This is not an issue we can dodge. It’s not an issue we can hide from. We need to be equipped and be bold and courageous and go into this philosophical battle with the right ammunition.

Rick:

You know, it really does begin with us. I mean, we have to know our rights. We’ve got to study the Constitution. We got to know how to properly defend and assert those rights. That’s why we talk about it so much on the program. And folks out there that are listening, you can learn so much listen to the program, and we’re glad you’re doing that.

We want to ask you to take an even bigger step and that is actually take our Constitution class; go through Constitution Alive. Visit David in the library there as he pulls all these incredible documents off the shelves. Go with us to Independence Hall where I teach you the Constitution right there in the room where it was framed. You can do that for free right now.

If you go to constitutioncoach.com, you can actually sign up as a host and be a volunteer with our effort of getting people to know their rights. And as a volunteer, that just simply means you take our materials, and you get people to join you online and Zoom or get them to come over to the house in a living room or gather at your church and go through those Constitution materials with you. It’s a fun, entertaining class. It doesn’t take that long. And you’ll find as you do that class, it will create community and camaraderie, and it’ll give people hope for the future of the country. Check that out at constitutioncoach.com. Get signed up. Use Constitution Alive with David Barton, as your materials to get your community educated, get the people in your church, knowing how to be good biblical citizens in modern America.

Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.