Amen. Keep your place there in Romans chapter 7. So I love the book of Romans. I think that's why if you remember from the satellite ministry, I think that's the first book I ever preached through was the book of Romans. Just such great stuff in Romans. Romans chapter 7 especially. Paul here is talking about the law, sin, salvation through Jesus Christ. What does the law mean for us? He's talking about what's the point of the law, if the law is just there to kill us? Is it bad? Is it, you know, what's the purpose of the law? And he explains that in Romans chapter 7. The title of the sermon this morning is a very specific one. I don't think I've ever preached an entire sermon on this topic. But the title of the sermon this morning is the age of accountability. We're going to talk about the age of accountability this morning. This is a term that is used to talk about the doctrine of children being saved, children being condemned, many different religions, many different religions, you know, Christian type religions teach very different things about this. The term is not actually in the Bible, but we're going to talk about where the idea, it's a concept in the Bible. And we're going to look at that concept in the Bible this morning. So keep your place in Romans chapter 7. But first of all, just this idea of the age of accountability is what we're going to talk about this morning. Without this idea, meaning that there is an age, what does the term age of accountability mean? The term age of accountability means that there is an age that a child will reach where he is aware of his or her sin and then becomes condemned by that sin. This of course is contrasted by the doctrine of infant baptism which comes from the false doctrine of original sin. Meaning that you are born as a baby with original sin on you. Meaning you are guilty of Adam's sin. You are guilty of sin that somebody else has committed. That's against what the Bible teaches very clearly. And then of course that's where infant baptism comes from. So of course the Catholic Church founded in, you know, 310, 313 AD, whenever that was. They want to baptize babies. They want to have salvation be controlled by the church. They want to have, you have to bring your children to the church to give them salvation. And infant baptism was one of the methods or tools that they used to do that. It just became one of what they call the sacraments. Meaning you get salvation through this act which the Bible teaches nothing about. But basically even Protestants and Lutherans which I grew up in talk about it's the same thing. They believe salvation comes to a child through baptism. They don't call it works because they call it a means of grace. Meaning it's the way God gives that child grace so they can still claim the gift. They can still claim free grace but you have to do something to get the grace. They call it a means of grace. So without this age of accountability you have to buy into infant baptism, original sin, all these things. Which, you know, if you follow that through logically that a child and infant, let's just, we'll start with infants because it gets a little bit more complicated as we go into child. But if you follow what that means through that a baby has to be baptized in order to get grace, salvation, then you have to come to the next logical conclusion. Look it's not like five steps down the linear chain. It's the very next logical conclusion of what happens to a baby that is not baptized if they should die. And, you know, here's the thing. The Catholics are changing on this as are the Protestants changing on this. St. Augustine, St. Augustine from, you know, the original Catholic church back in 300 A.D. and the other fathers of the church believed that unbaptized infants, they taught that unbaptized infants share the same fate as the damned.  Of course they would say that the hell that the unbaptized baby goes to was a lesser punishment, which that is biblical. There are different levels of punishment in hell. The Bible is clear about that.  Now the Catholic church is changing on this over the, you know, over history. Eight hundred years after Augustine, there was a French philosopher named Peter Abelard that said dead infants that died unbaptized went to a cooler place on the edge of hell. And this was a place that he called limbo, right? And this is a Catholic church also grabbed onto this philosophy of limbo. And then in 2007, the Vatican announced in 2007 the results of a papal investigation on the concept of limbo. And that they changed their church doctrine to state that unbaptized babies can go to heaven, by the way. They're not definitive about it instead of getting stuck somewhere between heaven and hell. Really the answer that a Catholic will give you is we don't really know. It is the answer that most Catholics will give you. So it went from basically hell to limbo to maybe heaven, all right?  I mean the Lutherans, the Lutherans are also changing on this.  But here's the bottom line. They're really what the Lutheran will tell you today is that there is no answer to this, all right?  And look, I have had, you have the advantage of having an ex-Lutheran on your hands here. Not only was I an ex-Lutheran, but the culture that I grew up in was very Lutheran Catholic. I remember controversies of people that we know from 50, 60 years ago of the Catholic Church not doing a burial for, we're not talking about hundreds of years ago, not doing a burial for a child that wasn't baptized. Why?  And there's a lot of hard feelings and all these types of things. I'm about that. But that's been happening for ever since the beginning of the Catholic Church. For Lutherans, I have had Lutheran pastors that were strict doctrinal Lutheran pastors tell me because they follow through this doctrine. At least they believe the doctrine, right? At least, I mean, give them that. Like, if they're going to believe a false doctrine, at least they believe the whole thing.   Now, that never really sat with me. That never really sat with me. But if you believe that baptism gives you faith, that is the conclusion that you must come to for babies, for children. Turn to Acts 8 in verse 37. Look, if baptism saves you, then without it, babies do not have salvation because that's the only way that a baby could get salvation. Of course, we know that baptism is not of salvation. Baptism does not save you. Baptism is something that happens after salvation. It is something that we do out of obedience to God to show that willingness to walk in newness of life in that Christian faith, something that we what? What does Paul say again and again in Romans chapter 7? Something that we should do. Something that we should do. That's one of the greatest words in the book of Romans is just, should, should, should. You should do these things. But it doesn't mean if you get saved by trusting on Jesus that you're automatically everyone's just going to do all these things.  It's like you should do these things out of obedience. If he loved me, you know, obey my commandments. You know, if we want to show our love towards God. But this is why they have to take Acts chapter 8 verse 37 out of every modern Bible version. You think, oh, it's just an accident that they took this verse out. Literally, this verse is missing from most of the modern Bible versions. Look at verse number 36. It says they went on their way and they saw, so Philip had just preached the gospel to this Ethiopian eunuch. He had just told him about Christ and preached the gospel. And look at verse 36. As they went on their way, they came under a certain water and the eunuch said, see here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? The eunuch literally is saying, Philip, there's water here. Why is there anything that would stop me from getting baptized? Is there anything that can hinder me? And then all the modern Bible versions just go straight to verse number 38. And if you look open your NIV and look at it, it will literally go from verse 36 to 38. You think people would be like, whoa, what happened to 37? Because 37 says this. And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  Now, I mean, let's go up to a baby and ask him, do you believe in the baby? It's ridiculous.  So baptism is something that we do after salvation out of obedience to God. It doesn't give us faith. It doesn't save us. You want to really confuse a Catholic priest or a Lutheran pastor? Don't even ask them a question about unbaptized babies. Ask them about an unbaptized two-year-old. You're at some event and you happen to run into a Lutheran pastor and you want to really confuse them. What happens to an unbaptized three-year-old that gets in a car accident and God forbid dies? What happens? They're going to be like, they're going to give you some long non-answer and maybe recommend a book to you is what they're going to do. Because you can't believe the doctrine that they believe without believing that that child is now in hell. This is why, by the way, this is why two of my children, when I was in the Lutheran church and my children were born, they were baptized in the hospital. And the most conservative Lutheran pastors that we had were like, good job. Why? Because why risk it?   I'm not taking that kind of risk with my kids. But then we started to have liberal Lutheran pastors as time went on. And one, for the last child that we did that with, the one pastor was like, why are you doing this? Don't you want to have a party and have people over?  Do you even know what your own doctrine teaches? But he didn't, right? He didn't. He didn't believe his own false doctrine. All right, so look, enough confusion. All right, enough confusion. Let's look at the Bible this morning and see what the Bible says about children, about children. Are they condemned? When are they considered sinners? If there is an age of accountability, what is that age? What is that age? Let's look at it this morning. Let's just look at the Bible. Go to Romans chapter 7. Go to Romans chapter 7, or you're in Romans chapter 7. So like I said, the phrase age of accountability is not in the Bible, but the concept is laid out pretty clearly in a couple of places. I'll show you both of them this morning. Look at Romans chapter 7. Look at verse number 7. Let's start out here. Paul's talking about the law. He's like, what's the purpose of the law? If we're saved by grace through faith, what does the law do for me? Is it there to just beat me up, to kill me? What's it all about? What shall we say then? Is the law sin? He says, God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law. So he's saying at some point through the law, he knew sin. All right? So how did he know sin? Through the law. All right? That's an important point as we go to the second point or later on in the sermon. Just remember that that Paul did not know sin except through the law. For I had not known lust, except the law had said thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. Concupiscence, even though I can't pronounce it, means lust, covetousness. For without the law sin was dead. Now here's really the key verse right here. So he's saying sin showed him or the law showed him his sin is what he said so far. Though by through the law he recognized his sin. All right? Without the law he didn't recognize his sin. Now look at verse number nine. This pretty much destroys, this verse right here pretty much destroys the idea of original sin in general. For I was alive without the law once. Isn't that interesting? Now look the law, the law is we have the law written in our heart and we also have the law of the Bible. In Romans 2.15 you know Paul's explaining that you know what about you know the Jews he explains in the first part of Romans he explains you know what advantage hath the Jew. He's like if everybody can get saved what advantage hath the Jew. Well the Jews they had the oracles of God they had the Bible. That's an advantage that they had. All right? But then he says in Romans 2.15 that even the Gentiles did the things you know according to the law because God had written the law in their hearts their conscience. He explains that every man has a conscience which is the law written in his heart. But Paul it's interesting he says in verse number nine here he says I was alive without the law once. If original sin is true this statement can't be in the Bible. He's saying there was a point where I was alive. Look the wages of sin is death meaning as soon as sin is in your life you're dead. The wages you owe death. You deserve death but he's saying I was alive without the law once. When was that? When was that? He's saying there was a point where I was alive without the law but when the commandment came sin revived and I died. So before he knew the law he was alive. This is what Paul is saying. So there's a point that Paul was alive there's a point that everyone was alive and then the law came they recognized their conscience they recognized the Bible and they died at that point. For sin taking occasion by the what the commandment deceived me and by it slew me.  Wherefore the law is holy the commandment is holy and just and good. So literally the law shows you your need for salvation. The law shows you that you're dead it kills you and it shows you your need for the Savior. That is the point of the law. So he's like no the law is holy. The law is just meaning it's fair. It's fair. Okay look that's the first point that's the really the those verses right there are just the real clear explanation of before you understand the law you're alive. This is a very clear explanation from the Bible directly on this idea of the concept of the age of accountability. But look turn to Romans chapter three just a few chapters back. The age of accountability can also be explained clearly in the concept of the gospel itself. Because in order to be saved step one of getting someone to believe the gospel to believe that they need a Savior and this is why by the way most people that are teaching original all these people that are teaching original sin all these people that are teaching infant baptism they believe a false gospel. Because the idea of you know this age that you're alive before the law comes in is actually found in the gospel too. If you look at Romans chapter three look at verse number 10. Look this is step one in giving someone the gospel is that they understand that they're a sinner. As it is written there's none righteous no not one. Verse 23 says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everyone knows that you cannot be saved unless you understand that. You can I mean there's no way that you can be saved unless you understand that you are a sinner. It doesn't even make logical sense because I mean that's also why it's one of the simplest things for people to accept. People that will get to you know the end of the gospel or the midpoint of the gospel and say well you start talking about you know Jesus and Jesus was God and Jesus was sinless and Jesus rose from the dead and all this and they're like I don't know about that. 99.9% of people will accept this first part of the gospel that they are a sinner. I can count the people that I have met after talking to thousands of people. I can count the people that have told me that they're not sinners probably on one hand because that is just a very it's like the simplest part of the gospel. Just you're a sinner you're guilty and the wages of that sin is death that's kind of step two but the point is if you don't believe that if you don't understand that you can't be saved. So just this idea that a child must be old enough to understand that what they do is wrong that they have done things that are wrong it's kind of written into the gospel folks just the concept that there is an age where you can understand that. Obviously a one-year-old has no idea they're just look a one-year-old is just going around or a two-year-old is just going around and look they're doing what they do. That's why they call it the terrible twos they're going around they do what they do they're just tearing stuff up and look they're starting to understand consequences they're starting to learn those things hopefully through their parents but the point is before they even understand that there is right and there is wrong and they've committed sin they can't be saved so there is there is an age of accountability they're alive at that point they're alive at that point that's what Paul is talking about. So the question is okay pastor sounds good when is it though that's that's the question right when's that age of accountability what's that what's that date you know what's that mark I need to put on the calendar for my children so there's a few points that the bible kind of leads us to there's no magical date for every single person I believe it's probably a little different for every child out there depending on their circumstances but let me just show you a couple concepts again from the bible to explain about when this is turn to Genesis chapter three turn to Genesis chapter three so the first thing that we can look at is you know when shame starts to appear in children because at some point shame will begin to appear in kids look at Genesis chapter three and verse number six here we saw here we see the the fall of man we see when when Eve first eats of the the fruit of the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they that man first sins against God all right look at verse number six it says in the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat so she sins this is the first sin and gave also under her husband with her and he did eat and look at verse number seven the very first thing that happens after they sin did they willingly sin against God and the eyes of them both were opened and what they knew they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron apron so as soon as they had sinned as soon as they had sinned and they knew they had sinned that shame entered right away and they recognized that they were uncovered they were naked there is they didn't have that shame before they had no knowledge that there was anything shameful about having no clothes on until they were sinners all right so look this is a good kind of analogy a good kind of picture this is why young children can run around you know with no clothes on after a bath or whatever and just have no shame about it they just don't care they're just like whatever there's nothing wrong here they have they have no that shame of sin is not with them at that point now look hopefully this is something that's taught by their parents you know soon nobody likes going over to those people's house that thinks it's cute where their kids are running around with no clothes on all the time you know but the point is there will be a time even if parents don't teach that there will be a time when those children get to an age of you know my kids haven't been young for a long time but like five six seven years old where they're just going to be like yeah they're not going to do that anymore because they're going to start to realize like hey I don't have any clothes on and this is shameful but my point is that a child that is taught that that is you know not something that they should do is going to be able to recognize those things much earlier by the way and that's kind of a concept that we're going to see this morning as well so just that shame that sin brings is is kind of a good key or a good measuring stick for us as parents of when this age of accountability kind of comes in when kids can kind of recognize shame recognize you know what is right and what is wrong it's going to be around that same time when they're when they're young children you know when they're younger than you know seven six years old now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 31 let me further back this up all right further back this up look at Deuteronomy chapter 31 and look at verse number nine so the first one is just like when they start to recognize shame you can tell that this is a clue in their lives right you can tell that this is a clue that they're reaching that point where they can start to recognize their own sin look at Deuteronomy chapter 31 look at verse number nine here's another clue for us the bible says this the bible says and moses wrote this law and delivered it under the priest the sons of levi which bear the ark of the covenant of the lord and at the end of every seven years in this solemn nitty of the year of release in the feast of tabernacles when all israel has come to appear before the lord thy god in the place which he shall choose thou shall read this law before all israel in their hearing so every seven years they are to read the law to the people this is just to make sure that like hey you know if people aren't studying this stuff on their own if people aren't you know doing what they're supposed to do and learning the law on their own everybody's going to get the law every seven years all right look at the verse number 12 it says gather the people together this is one of the reasons we're a family integrated church one of the places in the bible that it teaches that children should be listening to the law as well gather the people together men and women and children and thy stranger that is within thy gates that they may hear that they may learn and fear the lord your god and observe to do all the words of this law and again look what it says here and that their children which have not what which have not known anything may hear it's saying this is where what is when was paul live again before he knew so this is one of the ways that they know they're going to read the bible to them that they may hear and learn to fear the lord your god why would why would they have to fear because sin is shown to them through the law and now they have to fear the wrath of god they need to be saved see so this is how they know this is how they know as long as you live in the land whether you go over jordan to possess it so how often are they supposed to read the law every seven years so let's think this through for a second let's say worst case scenario the law is read and then the next day a child is born that child is going to be what about seven years old almost seven years old one day before seven years old when the law is is read the next time meaning that you know worst case scenario we're talking about you know seven years old you know so it makes sense right around that time of shame and understanding sin all these types of things so a child born the next day that doesn't hear the law for what another seven years obviously a child that is you know born at that time would hear the law when they were two three and the seven years later they'd hear it when they were nine or whatever so seven years eight years nine years this is a good gauge is all i'm telling you why they decided to read the law every seven years and children are mentioned twice so that why so that they may know the law they may know at that point here's a third point turn to second Corinthians chapter 11 second Corinthians chapter 11 so first of all we see that when shame comes in is a good indication of you know when you know children are starting to understand their sin the second one is the law was read to people including the children every seven years all right meaning you know we know that there's not you know going to be kids out there that haven't heard the law you know in 10 or 15 years i mean they've heard the law read every seven years here's a third point we can get some clues we're looking at clues to figure out like around what time you know is this age of accountability that the bible conceptually talks about look at second Corinthians chapter 11 verse number two paul says for i am jealous over you with godly jealousy for i have espoused you to one husband and that i may present you as a chaste virgin to christ he says but i fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in christ what he's saying here is that the gospel itself he's talking about them being saved through jesus christ he's saying the gospel is simple he's like don't let somebody come and complicate this whole thing you know the through subtle means and all these different types of things he's like this this concept of the gospel of jesus christ is very simple look the simplest concept in the bible is the gospel the simplest concept in the bible and look if you go out soul winning you will hear that from people all the time you will explain the gospel to somebody who's been in a pentecostal church or a catholic church or some other Protestant or denomination of some kind that's teaching all this complicated you know you can never really know what all the different things you have to do to go to heaven all these things that you just give somebody the gospel straight from the bible and they're just like man i've just never had anyone explain it so simply before people will say that all the time to you because the gospel is simple you're a sinner you deserve to go to hell jesus paid for those sins and if you trust only on him you're saved you're sealed it's done i mean that's very simple you know it's so simple that a child can understand it doesn't this make sense it's so simple that look i've seen so many examples of this by the way it's so simple that a child raised in church according to the bible that that listens to bible preaching whose mom and dad read the bible to them whose whose mom is just reading them the bible every single day look they will be able to understand these concepts many times way before the age of seven because as soon like it's the simplest thing in the bible on purpose and what i always say to people when you're out preaching the gospel and somebody says that it's just like it's like just this this sigh of relief comes over them they're like boy that is really simple and and i always say to them i'm like well would it really be fair would it really match your conscience if the gospel was so complicated only the smartest people could understand it if the gospel was such a complicated you know thing that only the smartest people could understand the gospel only the theologians could understand it you know the the doctors of you know whatever could understand it no it's it's the paul says in second Corinthians 11 it's simple it's simplicity there's a lot of complicated things in the bible there's a lot of doctrine in the bible there's a lot of prophecy in the bible that we're looking at through a glass darkly the gospel is not one of those things the gospel is very simple and it's people and false teachers that make it complicated right look these concepts of sin and of hell turn the Proverbs chapter 13 by the way and and of hell and punishment they're very simple concepts and by the way this is why the bible is so serious about disciplining your children because when you are disciplining your children look it has to do it it's tied to their salvation unless don't misquote me on that it's not how they get saved but it it it leads them down the proper road to where they will understand the gospel look at Proverbs chapter 13 and look at verse number 24 this is why you know when the bible talks about disciplining your children properly it's so serious about it you know I was like well you know what's the big deal it's a really big deal look at Proverbs 13 24 it says he that spareeth his rod everyone's like spare the rod spoil the child that's not what the bible says that's like made up niv version or whatever that is or just you know some you know some rip off watered down version of what the bible is trying to say it says he that spareeth the rod hateeth his son it's like if you don't spank your children we're not talking about child abuse we're talking about spanking and physically correcting your children in a loving way it says if you don't do that because everyone's like oh I just I don't want to be mean and all this oh you hate your son I'm sorry I don't know how many Christians I've met that just they won't do it they will not spank their children they won't I don't want to be mean they they just like they're they're weak the man is is weak and he just doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings it's like hey but you hate your son no I don't I love my son well the bible says you hate him remember love and hate is what you do not how you feel so if you don't spank your children you hate your son you hate your children like man that's a really extreme statement but it says he that love with him chasing with him be times look if you love your children when they are young and look I'm going to tell you something I don't spank my kids now you know which is you know I'm I'm supposed to be an example to you I don't I never spank my kids after they were I think 10 years old but when they were little kids like they got spanked all the time but I mean I didn't spank like like you should be done spanking them by the time they're 10 if you're like oh man I got an 18 year old and like I just got to keep spanking him like there's a problem here you probably didn't spank him when he was one two three years old and now you know you're not going to go spank your 22 year old or whatever it's weird I mean I guess you know and look people have different opinions on when you should stop spanking your kids but like whenever I thought like okay this is going to be weird you know I kind of stop spanking my kids and you know like there's other things you can punish them with when they get to be a little older but you know you know you know I'm kind of listening to my conscience there a little bit all right so I mean that's just me that's how I did it everyone may differ a little bit there but the point I'm trying to get you to understand is this is directly tied to them understanding the gospel you don't believe me turn to Proverbs 23 turn to Proverbs 23 look at verse number 14 Proverbs 23 look at verse number 14 you explain explain if disciplining your children properly by spanking them doesn't have anything to do with the gospel explain this statement to me then look at Proverbs 23 and verse number 14 Proverbs 23 it says thou shalt beat him with the rod and shall deliver his soul from hell you're like what first of all again not talking about child abuse not talking about you know you know it's just it's talking about physically spanking punishing your children and it says you will deliver them from hell you say what do you mean it says you know what it's talking about it's saying what the message that you're giving them if you don't spank your children is that sin is no big deal the message that you're giving them when you they do things wrong and then you're like hey uh stop it one two i'm going to count to three two and a half two point eight and like i mean how many times have you done this i'm going to count to 50 you know like look the kids you know what you're doing or i'm going to put you in time out the kids are like what you're doing is you're literally teaching your kids if you do all these other methods of you know worldly discipline what these other methods are doing is teaching your kids that consequences aren't real you're teaching your kids like oh that is a two-year-old recognize that he's a sinner no but a two-year-old recognizes he if he does something that dad told him not to do that he's going to get spanked on his bottom and it's going to hurt it's going to sting okay and he's going to recognize just this simple concept of what consequences that way when this idea of the gospel comes in what's the first step sin next step consequences serious consequences you know like god's not going to put you in time out okay when you die as a sinner and you have not accepted the lord jesus christ god's not going to be like well one two he's no it's it's hell and that's for eternity and it's real so that's why the bible is so serious in pro verse 13 and pro verse chapter 23 about telling you like look you better discipline your kids you better spank them you know when they need to be spanked you spank them you're like but i gotta spank them 12 times a day do it that's what needs to be done look and look i'm telling you if you spank them when they're young you don't have to spank them when they're 10 it's just it just works that way because you raise them right and then they move in the right direction you know the bible actually works not only is this going to lead them to understand the first couple steps of the gospel it actually works the bible actually works folks you want to raise godly children they want to just they want to serve the lord with their own life one day this is how you do it i don't care if it hurts your feelings i don't care if you're weak you're like you know you're you're a weak man and you can't stand to see your kids you know shed a tear whatever look and here's another thing just from personal experience we actually had a foster child for uh i think it was over two years we had a foster child and so we had a child in our house we had one young child and then we had a foster child and i've literally i've literally seen this scientific experiment play out because we could not spank the foster child that was the rule and look we followed those rules we followed the proper rules with the foster child so one child we could not spank and our own child like that it just drove the social worker crazy she'd come in like talk to us about you know come do checkups or whatever on how the child was doing and of course um with our oldest child um we spanked him and we just told the the social worker look it's not illegal to spank your kids folks you're in a grocery store whatever and it was like oh you know it's not illegal it's not against the law it's not against the law to spank your children right i mean i don't think i ever spanked my kids in public but i mean i don't know maybe my wife has i'm not sure but the point is that it's not illegal and the social worker say do you spank your own children it's like well absolutely and well i just i i don't care what you i have to i mean i didn't say it that way but like you have no authority over my own family but with uh we took classes on time out on how to do time out and how to do all this stuff we couldn't even stand them in the corner remember we have to stand in the corner when you get in trouble in school or whatever i'm sure they don't do that anymore but we couldn't even do that it was just time out and first of all nobody does time out correctly we took like a whole class on time out but time out's a joke time out's a joke that they just don't take it seriously ooh you maybe sit in a chair ooh you know i mean the thing and here's another thing with time out and doing time out properly when the foster child would do time out we would put him in time out and look if they mess up or they do something then the time out starts over this could be a long drawn out process for like half an hour an hour look some kid does something like our child did something wrong dad comes home this is what the child did dad goes in spanking hug you understand what you did wrong hug let's go play ball like seven seconds i mean it's just it's the perfect solution to the problem and what does it do it just shows like hard consequences look it doesn't mean that you know i don't love you anymore and and we always talked about that and and it was it was done i don't like spanking you i don't like being at work and then not getting to see you all day long and i gotta come home and i gotta give you a spanking but you know what that's the way it's gonna be and then we make up and we go throw the ball around i mean that's you know it's just over just like that and you're back to that uh relationship again but the point i'm trying to get you to understand is that this is teaching children at a very young age that things are wrong things are right and the things that are wrong have consequences and that is the first step to the gospel this is why a kid that is that is in church that's being taught the bible that is having the bible played out in his life that is loving parents that are actually chastising him actually spanking him they will get they will get saved at a young age because they'll start asking you questions they'll hear the pastor talking about the gospel constantly they're out soul winning with you and you're preaching the gospel to people constantly and they're going to be like hey you know um at some point when they're five six seven years old i don't know when that is with with different kids but they're going to start asking you questions like uh i think i need to be saved um how do i know if i'm going to heaven all these things and guess what then you preach them the gospel and you're like the first part of the gospel sin the sin that you have son you know the sin that you do yeah i know dad i know i have that sin that has consequences the consequences for that is hell oh yeah yeah i've heard you tell this before and it's just like it's just going to be easy they'll just accept it like like a like a perfect key fits a perfect walk so it's very simple kids raising church reading the bible hearing the bible preached will get saved many times younger than seven years old i've seen it many times which means there are no danger literally no danger at all i mean look then there's kids sometimes nine or ten years old that have never been in church this is the other side never been in church maybe they didn't have loving parents that were disciplining them properly teaching them what was right what was wrong look we're finding kids out there today they never even heard of jesus who's jesus they don't know look yeah it was it was hard to find this type of thing five plus years ago now you're starting to see kids all the time don't know who jesus is no idea look many times these kids are going to have a harder time understanding the gospel many times and also by the time they're nine or ten years old they've got other ideas forming in their head already see we ran into this wednesday or sunday i can't remember just a couple soul winning times before we ran into these kids and uh jacob approached these kids they were about nine ten years old maybe eleven years old about about jacob's age maybe a little bit younger completely uninterested already already what was it with them well they were just into all these video games that they had sitting in front of them like they're sitting outside in the sun playing video games which is you know another sermon in itself but the point is is just like you see they're not in church they don't know the bible they never heard of jesus they they don't have a conviction in their heart about sin or the consequences for that completely uninterested in knowing how to go to heaven because i mean that was the question hey do you guys want to know how to go to heaven you guys know if you're going to heaven don't care busy so you see the importance of you know raising children properly when we look at this idea of you know the knowledge of sin uh you know brings death upon them turn to matthew chapter 19 see the bible folks just to conclude this morning the bible has all the answers so anybody that is telling you well there's not really a good answer to that well especially when it comes to salvation look at matthew chapter 19 look at verse number 14 this also makes this verse actually makes sense and the catholics and the lutherns especially will misuse this verse talking about you know how you know children need to be baptized look at verse number 14 of matthew chapter 19 he says but jesus said suffer the little children and forbid them not to come on to me for of such is the kingdom of heaven he's talking about their their innocent catholics and lutherns will say oh yeah you know infants can believe and they'll use this verse you're just like what are you talking about first of all those little children little children like so they're changing their doctrine on babies they're they're they're liberalizing their doctrine just like they're liberalizing their doctrine on everything they're liberalizing their doctrine on babies but they literally have no answer for little children at all so like i said if you want to stump a priest there there's your question right there but the bible has all the answers you say you know that the theoretical question you get asked all the time is like what about the child in africa the bible has all the answers there's there's what about the child in africa there's three there's three possibilities for the child that grew up in south american jungle or whatever you want to say the first possibility is that you know that two-year-old three-year-old child dies early dies young is in heaven that's that's possibility number one then you're like well okay that child grows up to be a pagan unbeliever like their their their relatives or their family or whatever they grew up in you know and then they they're gonna if they don't seek the truth they're gonna pay for their own sin their own what their own actual sins they commit not some original sin that was put on them that's fake doctrine right but look there's another third option is that they have the conscience in their heart and they seek the truth and god promises that they'll find the truth in that case and that's what missionaries are for that's what soul winners are for that's what we're doing we've got soul winning we're we're finding the people that are seeking we're finding those people and we'll talk look there's too many non-thinking people out there is the problem we'll talk about this tonight but when somebody when any church or any spiritual leader of any kind or any false teacher or any teacher of any kind let me just say it that way tells you that you know regarding salvation that there's just no real answer or or that here's two words that the Lutheran church will teach this it's a paradox they'll talk about salvation is a paradox a paradox is like it's a one and a zero at the same time it's like they're like you know in quantum theory right it's like no salvation is simple it is not a paradox the the catholic things I was reading last week about this says it's a quandary when people start using this word these words around you talking about salvation and the gospel or what they think is the gospel a quandary means it's perplexing or uncertain the gospel is not uncertain it is simple you must depart these teachings because the gospel is simple for everyone so simple that a small child can understand it a child of four five six seven years old can understand the gospel very simple it's for everyone so the age of accountability it's not a definition in the bible but it is a very clear concept laid out in the bible and look you just have to have the right gospel in order to understand it let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer


Good afternoon everyone! We are here on a hot, humid summer afternoon on the corner of Archibald and North Winooski in the heart of the historic Old North End at the wonderful town meeting television studios. My name is Andrew Champagne. I'm a member of the Democratic State Committee. I'm very involved in voter registration and Democratic politics. I have a monthly show here and you know, you think in the summer, oh, dull drums. It's, you know, what are we going to talk about? I could talk for three hours talking to, I was talking to Ms. Davidian, the boss here, about that I could talk for three hours today because we have a very, very big primary coming up August 9th.  My friends, COVID has not disappeared. COVID has not gone. It has killed over a million, one million Americans. The population of Vermont is 700,000. So that means the whole state plus 300,000 people have passed. So as I always do, please, if you're not vaccinated, let's just start off by getting that first vaccine, okay? It has no side effects. You couldn't even feel it and it's so, so easy. Also, you know, we've been struggling for two years, four months now with COVID and let's say you're having problems with rent, you're having problems finding a job, maybe getting unemployment insurance, maybe getting three squares, which is commonly known as food stamps, maybe trying to get a Section 8 voucher, maybe try to get a car or a bike, maybe trying to get a bus pass, all that kind of stuff, maybe trying to take a college class. Well, we have a number. It's up on the screen and I'd like to thank Kevin, my producer, along with Daniel and Jordan here today, but that number is in Vermont, toll free 2-1-1. Now that'll help you for COVID questions. That will help you for questions about housing insecurity. That'll help you with questions about perhaps getting some assistance with food, oil, gas, electric bills, your mental health. Now as we've gone through two years and three months of this thing, everyone has some kind of stress from this. It was, I mean, there's there's been nothing like this for 100 years in America, since the since the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918. So to wrap this up, because we're doing a short show today, 2-1-1, if you have any COVID questions, and please consider getting vaccinated. It's safe. It's healthy. It takes care of other people. For example, if we're around people that maybe are threatened or have immune system problems, you could unwillingly give them COVID. Okay, that's my COVID wrap. 2-1-1. I thank you. Okay, so we, a couple things. Full disclosure, I am working on Congressman Welch's US Senate campaign. Which has really been great. And there he is. He's fantastic. And last Wednesday, we had a very special event. We had a concert with Vermont's own Grace Potter at the beautiful Hula Workspace in the south end for Peter. And Grace played some songs, and it was a blast. It was a big party. Unbelievable catering. Everyone had a drink. It was really fun. I'd like to thank Hula, Russ Scully. I'd like to thank Ms. Potter, her parents. I saw them there. They're wonderful people. And it was a great job by Congressman Welch. He gave a really fired up speech talking about some of the recent developments and what we've seen. Since I've been on last time, Roe versus Wade has been overturned. And I'll tell you, that's hard to even say. Law of the land for just about 50 years, 49 years. And we see what these lifetime appointments on the Supreme Court can bring to our country, these terrible justices we have, some of them. Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh. Brett Kavanaugh said during his confirmation hearings that he thought Roe versus Wade was the law of the land. So did Amy, Amy Comey Barrett. And we see these terrible, terrible picks by a really awful president have come back to haunt us. I personally, I am in favor. We'd have to change the Constitution. It's very, never easy. But I'm in favor of a 20 year term. I think a lifetime term, you know, back from the founding fathers, the life expectancy of someone was probably in the fifties. Now it's in the eighties. So we see Clarence Thomas is a holdover from the first President Bush. That's 1990. Many people watching this show tonight, including one of my cameramen, was not alive at that time. So we see what's happening. I'm really glad to report that Judge Katanji Jackson was sworn in as a new member of the Supreme Court. She is going to be awesome, the first African-American woman ever on the Supreme Court. Congratulations to her and her family. There she is taking the oath. She is fantastic. And so that was a big victory. So we, you know, I can talk about a lot of things tonight, but I guess I better talk about the primaries. We, we have huge primaries August 9th. That's Tuesday, August 9th. Now, for people watching, if you're not registered, it's so easy to do so. You can give me a call. My telephone number is<PHONE_NUMBER>. You can go to City Hall in Burlington or any of the city or town clerks in the state of Vermont. While you're doing that, you can also request an absentee ballot. Ballots are not being sent for the primary. They will be sent in November, but they are not being sent in August. A lot of people, even people who are political statistics do not know that. So if you think a ballot is coming for the primary, it is not. You have to request it. You can do that by filling out a form online, filling out a paper form, calling city clerks, emailing them. You can also request a ballot for a family member, your father, mother, grandmother, anything like that. We also have, thanks to the legislature and retiring secretary of state, Jim Condos, we have same day registration, which means on August 9th, you can go to your polling place and register to vote and vote right there. Now, I have to admit, when same day registration started, I was, I said, wow, is this going to be disorganized? Is this going to be crazy? And it's worked out so, so well at each polling place or someone whose job is to register voters. And so same day means that you can come register and vote that day. Also, to anyone watching that does not have Vermont identification, we can register you to vote on with the last four digits of your social. Now, that's how the Republican states stop people from voting. What they'll say is, oh, you don't, for example, Texas, you don't have a Texas ID. I'm sorry, we can't register you. Now, we know any efforts to stop people from voting or limit voting is just straight up racism, okay? Because it's the people who are challenged in this world, the poor, the elderly, people who maybe aren't familiar with voting. And we see what the Republicans have done. It's classism, it's racism. Trying to stop someone from voting is taking away their constitutional rights. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Now, that's in the Declaration of Independence. Now, how can you be happy if you can't vote? That leads me, I'd like to thank the city, did a great job on the second annual Juneteenth celebration. Fantastic events at the Flynn Theater, the hip hop museum was there. And then great stuff in Roosevelt Park, Battery Park, and then a big, big hip hop show and speeches and free food in City Hall Park. The biggest stage I've ever seen in City Hall Park. I'd like to thank Atomic Pro Audio, a lot of Clarendon, Vermont for doing that. It was fantastic. I'd also like to thank my friends at BCA for helping with that. And it was an excellent, it was an excellent, now it's now a national holiday. But what got me talking about Juneteenth was that was an era where people weren't able to vote at all. And we see them chipping away at that when they stop drop boxes, when they stop early voting, when they stop weekend voting, when they stop the ability for you to pick up a friend's ballot. This is all a way to decrease the turnout. The Republicans are afraid of the people. They've gerrymandered themselves in so tightly, it looks like they're going to grab the U.S. Congress and that's a real tragedy. We are going to hold on in the Senate. Hopefully we can pick up some governorships. But the one thing that the Republicans did during the second term of President Obama was focus on local, local races. And Democrats have always done that, but they have done very well and they're able to change rules to negate people's presence at the ballot booth. So anyone who tells you anyone trying to limit voting is not for the people. Okay. I do a lot of voter registration. I just registered my 1600th voter and I believe in the process. I believe in Vermont. I better now thank retiring Secretary of State Jim Kondo's because he's been so helpful to me, but also getting all these changes through. Really, really great job. So let's get to the primary. Where are we? We have 19 minutes. Okay. That's perfect. Let me take it from the top. From the governor's race. We have a very, very popular Republican governor who looks very short of victory. I have to be honest. There he is. I wish he was doing more for the people. He's a nice guy, but status quo doesn't cut it, Governor Scott. I want you to take a look at an economic new deal for the North Country. Too many young people are leaving.  And just holding the line on taxes and being a nice person isn't quite enough. We saw the vision that Governor Shumlin had, Governor, Governor Dean. And so we have a Democratic candidate. We have Brenda Siegel, who's a activist from the southern part of the state. She first started getting involved in politics because her nephew, unfortunately, passed away from an overdose. And fighting the opiate addiction has been her passion and her mission. And she has stepped up and decided to run for governor. And I'd like to thank her. It's not easy. There's a lot of towns, 251 towns you have to travel to. The governor is very popular. But so Brenda Siegel, you'll see her. She has a lot of energy. She cares about people. I saw her in the park the other day talking to some people and working on registration of vote and working on trying to help them with some social services. So I'm just going to talk about the Democratic primary tonight. The Democratic primary for governor, Brenda Siegel, and she's facing no opposition. Now the big, big race that's really going to change things is the congressional primary. We have never had a woman congressman in our from 1791 till present ever. And that's going to be broken because Congressman Welch is running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by our great friend, Senator Leahy. And before I go any further, I'm I've got to wish Senator Leahy the best. He, he took a fall and he had some hip issues. And Senator Leahy, you are the best. I know I'll see you soon. I'd like to think say, say hi to Mrs. Marcel Leahy too. They're very, very fine people. And that man is a fighter and strong. So he's going to be back soon. You'll see him in Vermont soon. He is retiring after 47 years as U.S. Senator. He took his office in January 1975 when President Ford was president. So an amazing, amazing man, perhaps the best Senator Vermont has ever had. Some people might say Justin Morrill. Some people might say George Akin. But I think I think it's Senator Leahy. And I'd like to thank he and his staff, such wonderful people. They've done so much for Burlington and Vermont. I hope you get well soon, Senator Leahy. I'll see you in Burlington soon. And I just like to thank you for your lifetime of service to Vermont and America. So thank you, Senator Leahy. Senator Leahy is retiring. Congressman Welch is running in his spot. He faces token primary opposition. And as I said, I'm working on Congressman Welch's campaign. I enthusiastically endorse him. I think he's fantastic. So that's the U.S. Senate. So we've done Governor Brenda Siegel. And then I will definitely be voting for Congressman Welch. Now we get to the big one, where I'm going to stay neutral on television here and just going to spell out to you your options. We have two very fine candidates. The first one is Ms. Becca Ballant, Senator Becca Ballant. She is pro, there she is. She is pro tem of the Vermont Senate. Former teacher, professor, lives and represents Brattleboro. Wonderful, wonderful person. She's running a great campaign. Now her opponent is Lieutenant Governor, Molly Gray. Hey, there she is. There's Molly. Molly's from Burlington. Molly is Lieutenant Governor. They are, they are facing off in a, I'll have to say, very spirited congressional race. And I like how they focused on the issues. They're two excellent candidates. And so, you know, as I talked to anyone about this race, I say, please do your research, because you have their, I have to say they are quite similar on the issues. They're both liberal, progressive Democrats, small P progressive Democrats. So I think we'll be very well served with both of them. I cannot tell you who's going to win. I feel like the race is very close. Now we're, now we don't know how turnout is going to be. So if people stay home and don't vote, the turnout will be very low. But again, we have more races. So I'm not finished. Secretary of State Jim Condos is retiring. And I'd like to thank him. Boy, he's a good guy. We have a few candidates. We have four candidates to replace him. Chris Winters, Deputy Secretary of State, Representative Sarah Hoplin, Sarah Copeland-Hansis, Patricia Preston, part of the World Affairs Institute, and State Rep Charlie Kimball. Charlie's from Woodstock, Patricia's from Burlington, Sarah is from Bradford, and Chris is from Berlin. They're all very fine candidates. And, you know, the work that the Secretary of State does, I've, as a winter project, I looked at all the voting rules for all 50 states. Believe it or not, Vermont is the absolute best. So the Secretary of State is a very, very important position. Thank you, Secretary Condos. Enjoy your retirement, my friend. You and Annie, you are a good man. We've had so much fun together. You're always for the people and I appreciate it. Okay, going while there's more positions. Attorney General, TJ Donovan decided to resign. There he is, my good buddy. I'd like to thank you for all your good work. Also say hi to your great mom, former rep Joey Donovan, who's an awesome friend of mine. The Donovans have been involved in politics in Burlington for 60 years, 55 years. TJ is doing something else. He resigned. He's doing a change of pace. He's changing his life around. We have some candidates. We have two candidates for Attorney General. The first one is Charity Clark. She's a deputy Attorney General. And also the second one is Rory. Oh, my Rory. Tibodeau. Sorry, Rory. I took me a second. He is state's attorney in Addison County. Those are both two good people. Again, we'd be well served with both of them. They're both going to continue TJ's work, but please do some research here. Okay, now getting back to an uncontested race. So I'm going to endorse this guy. My friend Mike Pichek is taking over the retiring Beth Pierce as treasurer. Now, Miss Pierce is a wonderful person. I want to wish her the best. I hope you get better soon. I hope you're feeling better. She is really a people's treasurer. And she has decided to step down. And there's only one candidate running. He is the current director of financial regulations. He was appointed under Governor Shumlin, a Democrat, and then again by Governor Scott. So this Mike's got a lot of nonpartisan support. So Mike Pichek for state treasurer. We also have some state house primaries. I hope you'll vote for the speaker, our wonderful speaker, Jill Kroinsky. There's also some primaries for state Senate because we have some new districts. Burlington will be in a three three seat booth now, not six. We actually had the largest in the whole country, six senators for a county. That's been broken up. We'll never have that again. So on your ballot, you'll be voting for three. Also a race for Chittenden County. This is this is important race is state's attorney. We have two excellent candidates, the incumbent Sarah George, who is the current state's attorney, and a friend of mine. Attorney, former public defender Ted Kinney, Sarah and Ted are both excellent. As we've seen in Burlington, we've had some problems. We've had some problems with crime. We had a murder, not more than seven blocks from here. A 20 year old man was murdered. Okay, in broad daylight. We see the opiate epidemic probably at the worst point I've ever seen it. It's really, really sad. And I don't know what's going to happen. There is a lot of treatment options out there for someone. Because, you know, working with an opiate problem is a terrible load to carry. And I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's really, it's really, you know, devil's burden. And so we have someone. So we now have, we now, Sarah, now this is interesting, that's a four year term instead of a two year term. So you're making a pretty big decision here. And so Sarah George is the incumbent. TJ Donovan, when he was elected to Attorney General, she was appointed by Governor Scott. And she is running for her second four year term. And Ted is a member of the longtime member of Democratic Committee, a public defender, he's on the select board in Williston. So you have two excellent candidates here. We'd both be well served by both of them. Let me think here, anything else? Well, we've got probate judge, my buddy, judge Greg Glennon, good man, honest man. Please vote for him. Okay, so I have nine minutes left. We better talk about the momentous decision that came down about Roe versus Wade. It was a terrible shock. It wasn't a shock. Because a decision was leaked. We still don't know who leaked it. But it looks like Judge Ludo wrote this decision. Boy, is he conservative, man.  He and Clarence Thomas, they're terrible. And I think a literal interpretation of the Constitution is a big mistake. And as we've seen, these Republican judges are imposing their will on a whole nation. And it's just an unfair attack on women. It's an unfair attack on anyone. Roe versus Wade was the law of the land. It was accepted as precedent. During, as I said before, during several of the confirmation hearings, these people lied and said they had no intention of overturning it. So it looks like the court has almost gotten too powerful. I'm not sure what we can't do. Court packing is not going to do. It's very hard to change the Constitution. But I would, as I said, I favor a 20 year term. We also see their decisions on the EPA stripping the EPA of some rights, which is unbelievable. The Environmental Protection Agency, actually that came out of a Republican administration, a president that was much maligned, but actually had some very interesting social program, President Richard Nixon. And as we've seen in Flint, as we've seen all over places, without clean water, you don't have anything.  I don't trust them. They want to drill in national parks. They want to drill off Alaska. They want to do fracking. We all know that just ruins the land. If anyone's ever been out to North Dakota, see how they like that, see how they like that in 20 years. Obviously, our obsession, our addiction, our Jones for fossil fuels has really cost us. There's some places in the summer today that are 115, 118 degrees in America. People, animals, wildlife flowers can't live under such conditions. With this is coming drought.  And we see that President Biden has been so strong on this issue. And you know, I'm here to speak up for President Biden. Boy, he takes a lot of grief. I think he's done a great job. We just got a Supreme Court justice in. The stimulus was unbelievable. We are coming out of a recession. Of course, we'd have a recession after two years of COVID lockdown. I like his appointments.  I think I was fortunate enough to be a delegate for him in 2020 at the Democratic National Convention. So I really believe in him. I think Dr. Jill Biden, the first lady has been doing a fantastic job. And Mr. Biden's got a great heart. He cares about people. He understands loss. He understands tragedy. He's been through a lot in his life. He's an honest, caring, good man.  I have five minutes left. We better talk about the January 6 commission. It's been fantastic. I'd like to thank them. You know, I very rarely agree with Congressman Cheney or her family on anything. But she has been beyond brave. She stood up for the Constitution. She stood up for the truth. As President Kennedy say, she showed a profile in courage. And we see it looks like the president knew all this stuff was going to go down and encouraged it. And supposedly, and I believe these people they're under oath, wanted to go to break into the Capitol. So we've seen the closest thing that we've come to civil war. We had Confederate flags in the Capitol that day. Don't forget it. Those people tried to take away our rights. They assaulted her, tried to gouge the eyes out of Capitol police. Those poor people are suffering from post traumatic stress. I'd like to thank them and all of law enforcement. I think the police do a fantastic job. But we see that the truth is coming out in the lives of Trump. And it looks like my feeling is he might be convicted of a felony and then he will not be able to run for president. And I think it would be absolute travesty for the two party system to nominate him. He's just very awful person. The closest thing we've had to a fascist in this country ever. I know these are strong words and you try to have respect for the president, but it's just not possible. Now Kevin, did we get a picture of Joe Biden up there on the screen? Oh, no, I don't want him. Forget him. Okay, let's yeah, there he is. Hey, smoking Joe, Uncle Joe, you're the man cares about people getting things through getting judges appointed getting ambassadors appointed getting legislation through Congress. We're working with a very, very divided Senate as you know, I am down to three minutes. So I better wrap it up. Well, the one thing I have to do is thank town meeting television. I'd like to thank Emily, I'd like to thank Jordan, I'd like to thank Daniel, I'd like to thank Kevin, I'd like to thank Miss Davidian, I'd like to thank all the people who make town, town meeting TV what it is. Now, next month we're going to be on a week later. Usually I'm on Tuesday afternoons, the second Tuesday, but we're going to do it the third, because the primary is on Tuesday, August 9th, usually when I do the show. And so the next week, we're going to be able to reflect on the primary, talk about the numbers, talk about turnout, talk about surprises, talk about upsets, and set the compass towards November 8th, the general election. Very quickly, Brenda Siegel is running for governor. I'm in wholeheartedly endowsing Peter Welch for US Senate. Molly and Becca in Congress, very tight race, Becca Ballant, Molly Gray. Chris Winters, Sarah Copeland Hansis. Those are the two for Secretary of State. Lieutenant Governor Kitty Toll, David Zuckerman, Patricia Preston, and Charlie Kimball. That Lieutenant Great Lieutenant Governor's race is too close to call. We'll see what happens with that. They're all been working very hard. Secretary of State, I did that. Attorney General, Rory T. Balt, and Charity Clark. So I'm sorry, it's hard to keep it all together. And also, very important, in Chinden County, the state's attorneys race, Sarah George, the incumbent against public defender, Williston Select Board, Ted Kinney. Two excellent candidates for your term. So that's till 2026. So take a look at that. Please do your research. That's what everyone needs to do. The ballot is quite long. Now, when you get the ballot, if you get an absentee, you're going to get three ballots, Democrat, Republican, and progressive. Really, the actions on the Democratic ballot. You must return the unused ballot. You must put your ballot in the envelope, sign and date. So the polls are open Tuesday, August 9th, from 7am to 7pm. Early voting is at City Hall in Burlington every day and all around the county. In Burlington, it's 8 to 430. They're closed for lunch, 1230 to 130. You can request an absentee ballot by online. You can call City Hall. You can call me<PHONE_NUMBER>. I am pretty much getting, we're just about done. I'd like to thank everybody. Please vote August 9th. I'd like to thank everyone at Town Meeting Television. I hope you have a great day. Take care of yourself. Be safe. Get vaccinated. Vote. And I wish you the best. I'd like to thank you all very much.


I mean, I used to be incredibly intimidated by the concept of marketers having to beat data, you know, data experts and comfortable with data, and now it's the first question I ask. I can't wait to get my hands on it if it's not present, I'm wondering where it is. Similar with things like generative AI, when you peel it back and take away, you know, the worry and you start thinking about, wait, what might I be able to do? What's possible with this technology?


It's fine also, similar to Washington really, it's winter, but it's extremely hot. I made a point of going over there, just to show that we'd come and look. It gets very nice this time of year. Yes, it is. The weather in autumn has at the beginning of... We have a good... Around? Yes. The present? Yes. In the middle? Yes. Do you have any money here? I don't have it. Have I? Oh, you don't have it? No. You don't have it? I don't have it. But... No. You don't have it? I don't have it. You don't have it? No. Anyway, you and I are going to have a fixed table in a fire place. Thank you, sir. I'll maybe... 15. I think we can get them all right there, sir. It's fine. Just move in just a little closer there. It's fine. Okay. That looks good. Thank you very much. Our city. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank you. Stand back, sir. Hi. How are you on that side? President. No. President. Okay, sir. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Yes, sir. About Jerry. Yes, sir. Okay. Are we going to sit? Thank you. Pleasure to see you. And this is Rebecca. I'm going to visit her. This is Rebecca. This is Rebecca. Hello. Nice to see you. And Joaquin. Joaquin. Thank you. Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here with you. Today is your congratulations on your success. And it's going to be my thanks and my warm regards. We had a very fine visit. I was back home about two weeks ago. I just had to be there. Yes. I think we're trying very hard to do that. It's an unusual situation. And it's a great honor and a pleasure to have Prime Minister of Fiji and his wife as our guests. And this is an historic occasion. Prime Minister is the first head of state in democracy and freedom. A tremendous example for all the countries of the developing world. Fijians could be proud indeed that in their country people from diversity and freedom of accomplishment and it is a great accomplishment is a tribute to your democratic insidians or our brothers and sisters in the family of democratic nations. We share values that are at the heart of our societies the most important of which is our abiding love of human liberty. Together then in the cause of human freedom that bravery is matched today by the magnificent commitment that your people have made to the cause of peace and in Lebanon. It is too well the price that peacekeepers sometimes pay to put themselves on the line and won the gratitude of these loving people everywhere. If more nations were as responsible in their international community as Fiji it would be a far better world. The Fijian nation of the brutal invasion of Afghanistan and the deliberate shooting down of a civilian Korean airliner. Americans also deeply appreciate your support of our conviction and wisdom. We are at exemplary leadership for his people in the crucial beginning stages of democracy. His support of free enterprise and a market economy has enabled his people to enjoy stable American naval vessels. I know that such decisions are not easy and reflect a high degree of political courage. I applaud your statesmanship, Mr. Prime Minister. I thoroughly enjoyed our exchange of ideas today. Mr. Prime Minister taught me the meaning of the government free from international tensions and rivalries. We seek cooperation and improved relations for the betterment of all our peoples. Pleasant visit in the United States and a safe journey home. Nisa Mote. Well, Mr. President, I have views and aspirations. Our two countries have stood together for those common principles of justice, freedom and fair play. PG was used as a transit base for the American troops in the South Pacific Dane, peace and security everywhere. We believe in peace and we are ready to play out what appears to us to be a country of unlimited resource. Moreover, there is a basic similarity and broadly common origin of many of our economic and political institutions confident that your assistance will continue in the future because we believe that you see it as part of your overall responsibility in our part of the world. And this is an effective guarantee for peace and stability in our islands. Our meeting this morning. How about that? You tell us. What do you think? Have you read it? We are studying it right now. No decisions have been made. There are options in there as we expect it. So we should have set the agenda for that. I think that this is more positive today. It's a hard time getting it through Congress. We do understand providing it. But I understand they did for you. Over years. No. That seems like it. It seems like it. I think that's a little better. We're supposed to be talking to each other. I don't know. It's a special occasion. Can you get this whole group down? Can we whatever? That would be better. That would be better. Great. This is a figure-looking group down here. Who's that? Mr. President. Sir. Thank you. Mr. President. Do you think all those deep cuts that are going to stop you from being really doable in Congress? Sam, I'm not going to take any questions. I'm just thinking of looking pretty for the cameras. Do you think it would work for the new majority leaders? Already working. Thank you.


Welcome to the National Archives and Records Administration's 2022 Genealogy Series. We are pleased to present this educational series of lectures on how to conduct family research using the 1950 Census. My name is Andrea Matney, and as the program's coordinator, please allow me to do a quick introduction and provide instructions on how to participate. These lectures will demonstrate how to use records from the 1950 Census and other federal resources for genealogical research. Our presenters include experts from the National Archives and Records Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau. Sessions are intended for beginners to experienced family historians. All are welcome. We invite you to join the conversation. Please participate with the presenters and other family historians during each session's premiere. You can ask questions via chat by first logging into YouTube. Keep your eye on the chat during the broadcast because the speaker will answer your questions there in the chat. Type your questions in at any time, but please keep your questions on today's topic. In addition, find live captioning, handouts, and the events evaluation form under the video box by clicking on Show More. Note on our schedule that all sessions are broadcast on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. Eastern. And yes, all of the recorded videos will remain available for viewing later and at any time. Today's program is the 1950 Census website, Design, Development, and Features to Expect. I'm so pleased to introduce our next presenter, Michael L. Knight. Mr. Knight serves as the Web Branch Chief within the National Archives Office of Innovation Digital Engagement Division. Michael joined the National Archives in 2017 as a project manager within the Office of Innovation's Project Management Division. He has worked extensively on web development and design projects and is also a subject matter expert on agile product development methods. Michael is a Certified Scrum Professional, Certified Scrum Master, and a Certified Project Management Professional. I'm pleased to turn the broadcast over to Mr. Knight. Hey, thank you, Andrea. In this presentation, I'm going to tell you about the approach that our team has taken to design and develop the 1950 Census website. I'm also going to discuss the features that you can expect to find and use on the site to explore the census records. As some of you may know, the 1950 Census website will launch on April 1st, 2022. Through the website, visitors will be able to access more than 6 million population schedule pages and estimated 9,634 enumeration district maps and an estimated 33,360 form P8 Indian Reservation schedules. To begin, I want to share with you some background on how the website was created and also show you how the design of the site progressed over the course of the project. What's important to know first is that the overall design of the website, everything from the layout of the site to the colors that were used, the placement of text to the function of the various search features, all of those things were shaped by feedback that we received from key audiences inside and outside of the National Archives. To help us in that process, our team incorporated elements of agile and user-centered design practices throughout the project. The very first thing that we did at the start of the project was user research. Between January and February of 2021, our user experience team conducted a series of interviews with individuals from within the National Archives, as well as individuals outside of the agency. Our goals for these interviews was to gain insight on the specific expectations, needs, design preferences, and other points of feedback that had to be considered in the creation of the 1950 census website. In the end, our team interviewed more than 20 individuals. This included internal narrow stakeholders, genealogists and professional researchers, stakeholders with a specific interest in Native American census records, and other potential users of the planned 1950 census website. Everyone was interviewed individually and asked similar open-ended questions, and the feedback that we gathered helped to shape the design direction of the website. In just a little bit, I'll be sharing some of the wireframes and other design prototypes that resulted from this process. Our team used an iterative and incremental workflow for the development of the website. Again, we leveraged a lot of agile and human-centered design practices. For example, our team was committed to working in two-week intervals called sprints, in which our efforts were focused on the development of specific design and or functional elements of the website. Each sprint built on the work of the previous one until the output ultimately resulted in the 1950 census website that will launch on April 1. At the conclusion of each sprint, the results or the product of the sprint was presented to a group of stakeholders in a demo session. These sessions were held virtually, and they were attended by some of the individuals who were interviewed during our user research phase earlier in the project, as well as individuals who were unable to join our interviews but wanted to stay engaged throughout the project, and also other NARA staff and project stakeholders who were involved at various levels in the 1950 census public release efforts overall. The key benefits of those demo sessions were that they provided an opportunity for participants to get a firsthand look at the progression of the website, and they also serve as a forum for participants to share feedback and for our team to ask questions to get clarity on some of the features that we've worked on. The feedback that we received in those sessions helped to determine changes that needed to be made to the site's design and feature set, and ultimately helped to guide the direction of the development of the website overall. So this is a sample of one of the initial wireframes that was developed based on the feedback that our team gathered from individuals during our user research phase. Wireframes, if you're not familiar, are essentially very high-level design blueprints that are intended to represent potential page layouts and to help facilitate discussion with stakeholders and to inform decision-making toward the final design. The wireframes were designed without color, so they're black and white, and they did not include any actual design elements, graphics, or images. There were, however, dark shaded boxes that we would use to indicate where a photo or graphic could be placed in the future design. The design of the wireframes also followed the US web design system, which influenced elements such as the type font and grid spacing that was used throughout the site. So here we have another wireframe that was created during the design phase. We can see here that the design direction has shifted a bit based on some of the feedback that we received. So after several sprints and additional rounds of design iterations, and based on the feedback that we received during our demos, we landed on a general design direction for the site. This is a shot here of the homepage. It includes narrow branding elements at the top. Also, the top is a simple navigation area that features links to various pages that would be included on the website. Also, we have the main focal area at the center of the page. That includes a large welcome message followed by some introductory text. There's also two call to action buttons, a begin search and how to search. And once again, the dark gray area here was used to represent where an image could be placed. As the project progressed, and we've received more feedback from participants within our demo sessions, the team began to shift to creating more detailed design mock-ups. That included the use of actual photos and colors is seen here in this example. The large photo serves as the main focal point on the page, along with two call to action buttons, one to begin search and another to find resources to assist visitors with their search. And lastly, here's an image of one of the final mock-ups that emerge from the design phase of the project. This design is what you will see when the 1950 census website is launched on April 1st. Now, I'll discuss the features that you can expect to find on the 1950 census website when it launches on April 1st. First up is location search. Website visitors will have the ability to search the 1950 census records by state, county or city, reservation, and enumeration district. Here we see the website's main search page. In the left side bar area, there are a number of search filter options that are available which visitors may use to explore the 1950 census records. These search filters include state, county or city, name, reservation, and enumeration district. Here we see the search results page, which will appear after you have selected one or more of the filters to perform a search for census records. In this example search for census records from the District of Columbia, we can see a number of results that were found, which are organized in rows. We can also see information listed above those results, including the number of results that were found, the number of pages that those results span across, and options to adjust the number of results that are listed per page. You can also click on the page numbers or the links titled first, previous, next, and last to navigate through the pages of results. Another area to take note of is the your search section that appears in the left sidebar above the search results. Each time a search filter is used, it will be reflected in this section so you can keep track of all the active filters that are in use in your current search. You can also clear your current search filters or view your recent search through the links that are also available in this section. Here's a closer look at one of the results from our example search. At the top, we can see the ED or enumeration district number, the state, county or city, and the number of pages that are included in the associated population schedule. Below that, we can see the enumeration district description, which also includes a link to view the digitized copy of the description. At the bottom, we can see a share button, which can be used to copy and share a link to this particular record to various social media platforms or email. Next, there's an ED maps button, which can be clicked to reveal digitized copies of the associated enumeration district maps. Followed by that, there's a population schedule button, which can be clicked to reveal a digitized copy of the associated population schedule. Here, we can see a digitized copy of the population schedule. There are a collection of thumbnails that are also included that can be used to navigate through the pages within the population schedule. It's possible to zoom into an image to get a closer look, and you can do this by clicking on it with your mouse or touchpad. Here, we see a close-up shot that shows the level of magnification that is available. In addition, there's also a set of options that can be used to make adjustments to the images while you are viewing them. This includes options to rotate the image clockwise or counterclockwise to invert the colors and to increase or decrease the level of brightness and contrast. There's also an option that will be available to allow you to download a copy of the current record that you are viewing. The next feature that you can expect to find on the 1950 census website when it launches on April 1st is name search. Through the name search feature, you will have the ability to search for any known name that may appear within the 1950 census population schedules. Specifically, those that appeared within the name column on the population schedule forms. To make this feature possible, our team use an artificial intelligence tool to extract names and their associated line numbers from the 1950 census population schedules. Searches may include an individual's first and or last name and also the search engine has been configured to find close variations or spellings of names as they appear within the site's name index. There are some things to be aware of. As some of you may know, the names on the population schedules are handwritten. The tool that we use to extract the names from the schedules essentially scan the handwriting and converted it to text. In instances where the writing wasn't clear or where ink may have been faded or where words may have been crossed out, those things greatly impacted the quality of the text extractions. This was also the case when extracting line numbers as well. Here we see the search results page once again. In this example, we've searched for the name John Doe and we can see here a number of results that were found, which are organized in rows. Here's a closer look at one of the results from our example search. At the top, we can see the ED or enumeration district number, the state, county or city, and names that were found in the associated population schedule that match or maybe close variations of the name that we searched for. Once again, we see the share button as well as the population schedule button. Clicking the population schedule button in this instance will display the specific page within the digitized copy of the population schedule where the match names are located. This is unique to the name search results screen. At the bottom here, we see a list of all the names and line numbers that were extracted from this particular population schedule page through the use of our artificial intelligence text extraction tool. So we realize that the name search feature will not be perfect. As I mentioned, the quality of the text extractions from the population schedules was greatly impacted in some cases by the quality of handwriting or the overall condition of the original microfilm. And that brings me to our next feature, transcription. As visitors submit transcriptions, they will also be incorporated into the website's name index, which will improve the quality of the name search feature over time. There's also a moderation component within the tool, which includes some quality control measures and will also allow NARA community managers to review the transcriptions that are being contributed to the site. Once again, we have the search results page here. And in this example, we can see the transcription button labeled help us correct names, which will appear whenever you are viewing a digitized population schedule on the site. Clicking on the button will prompt you to follow a simple set of steps to get started, including entering a valid email address for verification purposes. However, it is not necessary to create an account to submit transcriptions. Here we can see one of the first screens that you'll see within the transcription tool after verifying your email address. This is where you would select the line number that is associated with the name that you would like to transcribe. After you've selected the line number, you'll be directed to this next screen where you can transcribe the full name. You'll be allowed to enter a prefix, first name, last name, middle name, or suffix. You also have the ability to view the transcription history of a given name within a population schedule. In this example, you can see that there were transcriptions previously submitted for the names that appear on lines one and three within this particular population schedule that I'm viewing here. In closing, we are excited about the upcoming launch of the 1950 census website. And we also hope that you will be pleased with the overall experience of the site and all the features that will be included to assist you in searching through the records. As noted earlier, the creation of the site has been a fully user-driven effort. We receive feedback from various stakeholders throughout the project on everything from the layout of the site to the colors that were used, the placement of the text to the function of various search features. We believe that this site will provide more ways for people to access and explore the census records on the first day of the public release than perhaps ever before. As I mentioned, site visitors will be able to search the records by state, county or city, name, reservation, and enumeration district. There will also be a transcription tool available. And last, but certainly not least, on April 1st, we will also make the entire 1950 census data set available for anyone to download. When the site is launched, there will be a section included that will direct visitors to the location where they can download the full data set. I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you all about the 1950 census website. For more information about the upcoming release of the records and the launch of the website, please visit the URL listed here. archives.gov slash 1950 census. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for today's presentation. We are wrapping up the lecture portion of the broadcast, but we'll continue to take your questions about today's topic in the chat section. Please take a minute to complete our short evaluation form so we can plan future programs based on your feedback. Find the link to it under show more. If we did not get to your question today, please send us an email. Note that the presentation's video recording and handout will remain available on this YouTube page and our website. If you enjoyed this video, check out our Know Your Records program. We have many more educational videos on how to do research with us. Thank you to the Genealogy Series team who contributed to the success of this program. We are grateful for your work. Again, please stay if you have questions, although we are concluding the video portion of the broadcast. We will continue to take your questions in chat for another 10 minutes.


Who are you and please tell us about what you do at Hydric? My name is Shadi Elfar and I'm the regional managing partner for the financial services practice across Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Where are you from? From Beirut. How long have you been in Dubai? More than 11 years now. Favorite place in the UAE is? I love the palm. Favorite part about Hydric? It's a place that takes its people's growth and development very seriously. What keeps you going every day? Well, my clients and a cup of coffee. What is the one question you ask every client? What is it that you want to be that you aren't yet? Something you can't meet a client without. A new idea. Is there a certain philosophy that you live by? Treat others as well and exactly in the same way as you would like to be treated. What's the last thing you think of before you sleep? I do a brief day review of what went right and what was wrong during the day. Early bird or night owl? Night owl, big time. Your most used emoji? The one with the sunglasses. What was your dream job as a child? Becoming a neurosurgeon. What Olympic sport would you compete in? Roman style wrestling. If you were a wrestler, what would be your entrance theme song? Back in black for ACBC. If you can teleport anywhere right now, where would you go? Straight to Hawaii. If you can time travel, what year would you go to? I would go to 2050 to see what happened to me in the future. If you could be a superhero, what would your superpower be? Eating as much as I can without putting weight on.