On this episode of Culture Brief, we break down the headlines shaping your world—from politics to pop culture—with thoughtful, Christian insight. We unpack Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the latest SCOTUS rulings, and why everyone suddenly has opinions about Chili’s. Plus: the Diddy verdict, UPenn’s apology to its female swimmers, Meta’s newest AI strategy, and a Fourth of July poem that’ll actually make you pause. It’s sharp, fast-moving, and grounded in truth—don’t miss it.
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Topics
- (00:43): The Big Beautiful Bill
- (02:09): Senate’s role and key players
- (06:10): Key provisions and impacts of the Bill
- (14:12): Spiritual Reflections on Political Decisions
- (17:05): Supreme Court decisions
- (23:33): Medicaid and Planned Parenthood funding
- (25:59): Free Speech Coalition vs. Paxton
- (29:57): Spiritual application and challenge
- (33:23): Listener mailbag: casual dining debate
- (36:30): Recent news highlights
- (40:21): 4th of July and American pride
Resources
- Mailbag: [email protected]
- Culture Brief Instagram
- DenisonForum.org/subscribe
- What Senate passage of “Big Beautiful Bill” says about the US
- US Senate advances “Big Beautiful Bill”
- Axios: Wall Street is post-tariff
- A List of Nearly Everything in the Senate G.O.P. Bill, and How Much It Would Cost or Save
- Thom Tillis denounces GOP megabill’s Medicaid cuts in fiery speech – Live Updates – POLITICO
- Senate passes Trump tax breaks and spending cuts bill | AP News
- Here’s what’s in the Senate’s version of the ‘big, beautiful bill’
- Tangle: Fact vs. freakout on the SCOTUS universal injunctions ruling.
- SCOTUSblog
- Supreme Court enables states to defund Planned Parenthood
- Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Threatens Planned Parenthood Funds | TIME
- Supreme Court upholds age verification for pornography sites
About Micah Tomasella
Micah Tomasella is the Senior Advancement Officer at Denison Ministries and co-hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. A graduate of Dallas Baptist University, Micah is married to Emily, and together they are the proud parents of two daughters. With an extensive background in nonprofit work, finance, and real estate, Micah also brings experience from his years in pastoral church ministry.
About Conner Jones
Conner Jones is the Director of Performance Marketing at Denison Ministries and Co-Hosts Denison Forum’s “Culture Brief” podcast. He graduated from Dallas Baptist University in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. Conner passionately follows politics, sports, pop-culture, entertainment, and current events. He enjoys fishing, movie-going, and traveling the world with his wife and son.
About Denison Forum
Denison Forum exists to thoughtfully engage the issues of the day from a biblical perspective through The Daily Article email newsletter and podcast, The Denison Forum Podcast, as well as many books and additional resources.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been fully edited.
Conner Jones: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Conner Jones.
Micah Tomasella: I’m Micah Tomasella.
Conner Jones: And this is Culture Brief, a Denison Forum podcast where we navigate the constant stream of top stories and news, politics, sports, pop culture, and technology. And we’re doing it all from a Christian perspective. It’s 4th of July week, it’s middle of the summer. Micah, we got a lot to go through.
You wanna give us a quick rundown?
Micah Tomasella: I absolutely do. Conner. Thanks. So we’re gonna be talking about the one big beautiful bill today, the Supreme Court decisions and their impacts, responses to the casual dining debate from last week that has swept the nation, a 4th of July poem as we wrap up and so much more.
So let’s jump into the brief.
Conner Jones: The brief. Okay. Micah, as we’ve seen. President Trump’s big, beautiful bill, as he calls it, although officially the name changed. Yesterday Democrats came back with a procedural, some sort of action to officially dock the name. That was the name in the congressional records, was the one big beautiful bill.
[00:01:00] It’s now like HR something, something, something. Oh, anyways, yeah. Okay. Took away the fun name. Anyways. It’s still gonna be known as the big beautiful Bill. It did pass the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. It’s now back in the house’s hands, and they will be making their changes, any changes they wanna make. And if it passes through the house, I.
It will be ready for the president to sign by his self-imposed July 4th deadline. Wow. He has been pressuring Congress to get it to him by July 4th on his desk to sign into law to start his agenda. It is a 960 page bill. So Micah, have you read every page yet? Absolutely. Yeah. And what did you, you wanna give us the spark notes?
Yeah. No, I don’t think anybody outside of Congress, no. Or research or law is right going through it, but there have been plenty of people that have been breaking it down. And that’s one of the things I wanna do here is, yeah, there’s 960 pages of stuff. What all is in here? What’s it going to impact?
Who’s it going to impact?
Micah Tomasella: Definitely lots of pros and lots of cons. It’s kind of complicated. Lots,
Conner Jones: lots of cons depending on who you [00:02:00] ask. It’s gonna affect different people across the country and you know it’s going to affect everyday Americans like you and I and just people outside of DC who are wondering how will this impact their lives.
First and foremost, how did we even get here? Just so y’all know, the house technically passed the bill and their first edition back in May, May 22nd, they passed it. So then it’s been in the Senate’s hands for the last month and a half-ish, and now they’re the ones who got it passed this week, goes back to the house for them to basically approve all the edits that the Senate made.
So the Senate’s had it for a month. They’ve been negotiating things, they’ve changed stuff, they’ve struck stuff through, they’ve added things, they’ve changed amounts on tax deductions, all that. House now has to approve all those changes, but the house can still make changes themselves. That is gonna be happening over the next 24 hours before they vote on it.
Over the weekend though, Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, not a super popular senator. He’s not a name most people would recognize, but I mean, he stood his ground and he said he was not gonna vote for this bill over Medicaid cuts. ’cause he believes there are [00:03:00] 663,000 North Carolinas that will be cut off for Medicaid if this bill becomes law.
This mattered. A lot because Republicans could not afford to lose more than three yeses to get it through the Senate. And they already had Rand Paul as a no. Tillis was gonna be a no now. And then they were worried about some of the other senators who were on the edge and it ended up coming down to that three senators voted no and the bill barely passed with the slimes of margins.
51 to 50. And that’s only because Vice President JD Vance came in and broke the tie. And to clarify,
Micah Tomasella: three Republican senators voted no, correct. Sorry, I should, all the democratic senators said No.
Conner Jones: That’s correct. The Republicans had to get all of those senators, at least 47 of them to say yes. So they did do that with Vice President Vance coming in and breaking that tie.
Anyways, Trump pressured. Tillis big time and said he was gonna primary him. But here’s the thing, Tillis came out and said. I don’t care. I’m going to retire over the weekend. And so now we got another senator, kind of like Mitch McConnell, kinda like Rand [00:04:00] Paul. They just kind of don’t really care. They don’t have as much to lose.
Tillis is I’m gonna be a thorn in your side. And I. Yeah, I, I don’t know. That’s just something to watch over the next 18 months before the, the primaries and before the midterm elections as Trump tries to push through his agenda and he’s gonna have some people that are gonna try to prevent that.
One thing that did get struck through Micah that we mentioned two weeks ago before the Senate passed us, was an amendment to remove the 10 year ban on the regulation, the state regulations. My goodness of ai. Yeah, so basically there was language in there that was preventing states for the next 10 years from being able to regulate AI advancements on their own.
This was pretty unpopular across the country. Obviously, big AI companies wanted this, but that amendment passed 99 to one. Can you take a guess as to who the one senator was that did not vote to pass that?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah, probably Tom Tillis. It was Tom Tillis. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Yeah. He’s just gonna be that guy that’s gonna make his mark.
Micah Tomasella: So he wanted to keep it in.
Conner Jones: He wanted to keep it in. I don’t know why. I do [00:05:00] not know why. Whoa. Yeah, he’s even everyone else voted. I know. It’s
Micah Tomasella: I kind of respected him standing his ground. ’cause Trump really laid into him, you know, like whether, if you agree or disagree with like how he voted, I did have like respect for him on standing his ground and like not giving in when he was in his way trying to protect his state.
But then you’re the one no vote on this AI amendment that needed to be taken out because AI does need to be curtailed and monitored. That’s. Now I’m just like, what are you doing? Are you just trying to be rebellious? You know? Yeah. Maybe just for rebellious sake. Weird. Yeah.
Conner Jones: Anyways, Bill’s now in the house’s hands.
They will vote either. Today we are recording on Wednesday morning, so by the time you listen to this, this may have passed the house or it may be even delayed, or they might be voting on Thursday, maybe even Friday. I doubt they vote on Friday on July 4th. Here’s the deal. This self-imposed deadline is.
Getting a lot of just Congress members wanting to get it done. ’cause they want to go home for the 4th of July. They wanna be in their town’s parades.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Because Mike Johnson, speaker of the house said that if it doesn’t pass, everybody’s staying. Yeah. Uhhuh, nobody’s going [00:06:00] home.
Conner Jones: They don’t wanna be there for the long weekend.
Micah Tomasella: What a motivator that would be. Huh? Wow.
Conner Jones: Yeah. That’s part of the reasoning here. Yeah. But it, it could push on past the 4th of July if they cannot come to an agreement. Okay. So you may be wondering what are some of the details of this 960 page bill? Remember, this is a very. Thick bill. It’s got so much stuff.
It’s got basically all of Trump’s agenda that he campaigned on, so I’m only gonna be able to give you a pretty high level overview, but here are some of the items that are in there. One is an extension of the 2017 tax cuts that was from Trump 1.0 his first term. He got tax cuts they were going through this year.
They’re now going to be extended if this bill passes. It’s also going to include no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. And it will allow taxpayers to deduct up to $10,000 of auto loan interest for us made vehicles. This is part of the agenda to keep production in America, get people to buy American made vehicles, all of that.
Conner has your vehicle, American made. Mine is Arctic. Okay. I understand that you drive a Ford and I drive a [00:07:00] Toyota, but I do believe Toyota trucks are made, at least some of them are made here in America. We need to do some research on this. ‘
Micah Tomasella: cause is it like only US auto companies or As long as it’s assembled in the United States, it counts.
That’s a good, we do more research on that. I don’t. We’ll get back to you, you people. I’ll look
Conner Jones: into that. I’ll also look to see if my truck was made in America. Yeah. Or somewhere else. Anyways, there’s also gonna be an increase in senior and child tax credit, so that’s good stuff for older folks or anybody who has kids.
And then the state and local tax deduction cap. This is what’s called salt, is going to be raised to $40,000 for households. Earning under half a million dollars for the next five years, then it drops back down to 10,000. That might sound kind of confusing, but anyways, it’s a big deal for people who live in places with high state or local taxes.
You’ll now have a deduction from your federal taxes. This doesn’t matter if you’re in a state like Texas that doesn’t have state income tax, but it does if you’re in like New York. Or California Trump accounts for children. That’s what they’re called. And this bill is literally the Trump account. This is gonna be a savings account that parents [00:08:00] can put money into for their kids.
And you can get a $1,000 tax credit per child more in between 2024 and 2028 if you deposit money into this account. And that’s gonna be savings for them. That will grow and they can access that when they turn 18 for either education, business expenses, if they wanna start a business at 18 or even a first home purchase.
So great way to kind of save up money there. And then private universities is another thing here. If you have more than 3000 students will now face taxes on income from endowments. So this is a way to tax small schools, big schools that are private, basically non-state schools and getting into their endowments, food stamps, or snap is the actual term there.
States are now going to take on more of the cost and add more work requirements for recipients. So food stamps will be a little bit harder to get. That is one big thing that a lot of people are worried about with lower income individuals in America. Yeah, same thing with Medicaid and everything. With Medicaid is kind of the big.
Rally and cry here. Basically, the bill introduces work requirements for Medicaid [00:09:00] recipients and CAPS federal funding. So it could potentially affect a lot of people on Medicaid either kicking them off or they don’t meet the requirements anymore. So that’s a big contention point
Micah Tomasella: here. Yeah, that’s kind of the probably biggest con that people are bringing up is yeah, and I’ll, I’ll hit on some of
Conner Jones: the, yeah, a little bit more detail on that here in just a second.
But along with Medicaid, federal funding is no longer gonna be provided to Planned Parenthood. This is great news. Amen. Amen. Amen to that because they are the largest provider of abortions in America. And so there should absolutely, we’ll stand on that.
Micah Tomasella: Cut the funding there should
Conner Jones: absolutely be, we’ll stand on that.
No government money funding that, so I, I’m very happy with that one. Medicaid funding for gender affirming care is now cut for individuals of all ages. If this bill passes, that’s a good thing too. Agreed. So those are wins for sure. From a biblical stance. We are from a biblical standpoint. Yeah. And we do not believe in basically gender affirming care.
That is not a thing that is biblical, and so it definitely should not have government spinning behind that. Defense wise, this will, if, [00:10:00] if the bill passes, it will add an additional $150 billion to the, the defense budget, including 25 billion for the new, what Trump is calling Golden Dome, which is basically the iron dome over Israel, but here in America, a missile defense system over the homeland, and then another $150 billion is dedicated to border security measures, including 50 billion for a wall to be built on the southern border and significant investments in detention facilities around that area.
And personnel, including agents, but also immigration judges to start parsing through the backlog of basically, I think roughly a one and a half million asylum cases are still out there and open and pending, and so they need a lot of judges, and so this bill allows for the hiring of. Potentially up to 800 judges.
It also rolls back clean energy tax credits and imposes new taxes on wind and solar projects, and actually promotes oil drilling and streamlining permits for fossil fuel projects. So it kind of reverses what used to happen where more tax credits would [00:11:00] be out there for solar and wind energy. Now it’s gonna say, actually, we are gonna encourage.
Oil drilling basically for energy. Mm-hmm. So what is the cost of this whole bill? The federal debt ceiling will be raised by $5 trillion. This is the point of contention for a lot of fiscal hawk Republicans. They do not like that. They do not like that. The. Debt will just be raised even more, and not by a small amount, by $5 trillion.
Yeah. And it will add 3.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. So that’s a big, big number. That’s a big cost. And then the New York Times is saying that $1.1 trillion. It’s gonna be cut from healthcare programs, mostly Medicaid, and that could cause nearly 12 million Americans to lose health coverage.
So that is what I was saying earlier about Medicaid, what you were saying, Micah, that’s a big point of contention for a lot of these senators who are trying to protect their constituents and their states. And same with congressional members in the house. Protecting their constituents and their districts.[00:12:00]
They’re not happy about that. They, a lot of them are saying that this is gonna be the biggest issue and several years down the road it’s gonna backfire on Republicans. That is what Tom Tillis was saying, is he doesn’t wanna cut Medicaid. This is gonna end up being a huge mistake for Republicans. It will backfire.
They will lose elections because people are gonna say, you cut my Medicaid, I don’t have health coverage anymore. It’s hard to know at this moment how true that’s gonna be. We will see how it all plays out. But Micah, any thoughts? Overall thoughts on everything that I just mentioned that’s gonna be in the bill.
Micah Tomasella: All the, what if stuff is hard for me. I mean, go back to any past president. The other side is going to, you know, whoever the other side is opposing what the president’s trying to push or what the majority’s trying to push that’s in the Senate. And the house is going to scream that it’s gonna destroy everything.
And of course, 12 million people losing Medicaid at. I would not like that at all. That doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. Raising the federal debt limit, that doesn’t sound like a good thing at all, but you just rattled off a lot of things that do sound good, and that would cut [00:13:00] taxes for everyday people.
And so it’s just a balance. And it’s this thing of what ifs, right? I mean, we’ve all been nervous about the repercussions of these tariffs, and I’m not necessarily saying that there won’t be any, but so far a lot of people saying it was gonna kind of destroy everything. That’s, that’s not what’s taking place.
So I. I don’t know, man. It is we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
Conner Jones: Yeah. And again, this might sound all boring and stuff, but this is one of the biggest bills in history in the US government pass.
Micah Tomasella: No, it’s gonna affect us. This is gonna affect us.
Conner Jones: This is like equivalent to like, when Obamacare passed back in, I was it 2011, 2012.
A massive bill like that, that just, it, it’s gonna affect the history of the country. It’s gonna affect us over the next decade. So there’s a lot here. Anyways, a lot of people upset. Like I said, Democrats are trying to rally around Medicaid cuts and saying that that’s just gonna benefit the wealthy. The tax cuts are gonna benefit the wealthy and affect the lower income individuals and Medicaid users.
All that to say the Trump administration is stressing. That the bill strengthens national security, [00:14:00] stimulates economic growth and puts more money into the hands of middle income and working class Americans. I don’t know. You’re right, Micah. A lot of what ifs, we’ll just have to see how it all plays out.
I do not know, but that was your quick rundown on that. I, I did wanna make a quick spiritual application. So Dr. Jim Denison, we talk about him all the time. He just has such a great way of bringing spiritual applications to these types of things. He wrote a. A great article on Tuesday about this bill. It will be linked in the show notes, and he noted that while this is obviously a very monumental thing happening today, this week, and in the, you know, near future coming years, it.
Will at some point just be forgotten in history. Maybe that’s 20 years from now. Maybe that’s 2000 years from now, people will not think about this big bill. And a senator’s decision to vote yes or no. Yeah, it’s gonna have an impact on that near future, but there are some decisions that we. You, Micah, me and the listeners, if you’re listening to this, we all make decisions that will bear eternal weight.
Mm-hmm. One of the most powerful motives for choosing godliness is the [00:15:00] fact that our decisions today bear unforeseeable consequences tomorrow. Sometimes it’s, you know, a sin that causes destruction. Other times it’s a beautiful thing that has an eternal impact. For instance, when Adam and Eve, when they ate forbidden fruit.
Yeah, they did not know that that was gonna bring sin into the entire human race. It had an eternal consequence. Or when a pastor falls into a moral sin, it damages their witness and has the possibilities of even more eternal consequences. ’cause all of a sudden their ministry is damaged. Yep. Other times it’s that righteous decision though, right?
That leads to bountiful blessing and legacy, such as David not knowing that when he killed Goliath, he would end up being king and then one day in the lineage of the actual Messiah. The disciples did not know that when they left their boats and nets to follow Jesus, they would write much of what we now see and call the New Testament.
How cool is that? And then you and I, you know, we’re the product of a generational line of faithful believers who Yeah. Brought the [00:16:00] gospel. Yeah. From their time to ours. Over, over centuries, over thousands of years, someone was faithful. 2000, 1,500 years ago. And that led to us being Christians today, speaking to believers now and to non-believers now.
And so are we being faithful in that way. So yeah, this bill, it’s significant, but rather than giving too much credence to a bill signed in 2025, consider the things in your life that are having an eternal significance. Is it a sin? Will it have an eternal consequence? Is it a gospel conversation that you need to have that could have eternal blessing by producing new legacy, new eternal believers that are going to be in heaven one day and now have the opportunity to go spread the gospel themselves?
Consider that as you go about your day and as you think about big things like this that yeah, they’re, they’re, they matter now, but they do not matter nearly as much as the eternal things in our lives.
Micah Tomasella: Yes, Conner, that’s a great perspective shift as we’re [00:17:00] looking at all this. Thank you for the rundown and thank you for the solid application.
Alright, so let’s jump into the most recent Supreme Court decisions as we jump into our next story, the decisions and the impact from them. So let me kind of give you the Mica version of what. The Supreme Court is like, what is it really? We throw the phrase around a lot, right? The court ruled, the justices decided, but sometimes we forget what the Supreme Court actually is and what what they are and how they function.
So at its core, the Supreme Court doesn’t create laws that’s Congress, and it doesn’t enforce them either. Technically, that’s the President’s job. What the court does is interpret the law. Especially when there’s conflict, confusion or questions about constitutionality. The court’s been busy then because there has been a whole lot of conflict, confusion, and questions about constitutionality for the last several years.
But really in Trump’s 2.0, a lot of this stuff keeps coming up. So the court decides what’s inbounds, what’s out of bounds, and ultimately it draws a line at that point. So there are nine unelected justices in the [00:18:00] sense of the public doesn’t elect them like in a vote, right? Presidents put them in power.
They’re appointed for life holding enormous influence over how we live, how we’re governed, and what rights we actually have. Not just rights like in theory, but actually rights in practice. And so over the past few weeks, these nine justices have handed down a ton of rulings. So let’s jump into this. So Conner, what are your initial thoughts or like how much do you feel like you know about the Supreme Court?
Kind of before I jump into. These things.
Conner Jones: I feel like I know quite a bit. I mean, yeah, it’s, everything you just said is, is stuff that a lot of Americans know. It is kind of an interesting segment of our government, like the checks and balances part, and that they are the top unelected officials in the country, basically, aside from maybe some of the president’s advisors, but just they’re appointed and then they’re there for life if they wanna be.
Yeah, that’s always been the crazy part to me. Although, who knows When the founders wrote that into the Constitution, did they think it was gonna be. This way many years down the road. The other thing about the Supreme Court is, if [00:19:00] I’m right on this, I don’t think the Constitution actually says it has to be nine justices.
I don’t even think it
Micah Tomasella: No limits the number. No, it doesn’t. That’s just the standard. Yeah. The court has, it’s been the standard for a while, but you know how like at the end of presidential terms, everybody’s okay, they could do this amendment to expand the court so that they can stack the judges who are mm-hmm.
You know, more in political affiliation with that sitting president who’s heading out. I feel like that comes up at the end of each presidential term. Alright, here are the three most significant decisions that the court has handed down recently and why they matter. There’s been a lot of decisions that they’ve made, but I’m just picking kinda the most popular three, or maybe the ones that we need to focus on as Christians the most.
So you’ve got Trump versus casa, which is the universal injunctions, curtailed so. This has been super relevant recently because the court ruled that lower federal courts can no longer issue universal injunctions. Meaning that these universal injunctions are broad rulings that block federal laws or policies.
And even if the [00:20:00] case. Only involves like a handful of people that are able to, one federal judge is able to block the entire thing at least for a short period of time. So from now on, unless it’s a certified class action lawsuit, rulings from district courts only apply to the specific parties involved in the case.
So basically what this means is that this decision restores historical boundaries on judicial power. It seems it stops a single judge from putting a national policy. On pause just because of a local case. So supporters of this say it cuts down on people kind of shopping what they want or what they don’t want.
Where political groups look for sympathetic judges to block federal actions. So if you are somebody who is more of a liberal persuasion in their politics and you have power. You would then go to a federal judge in California or Oregon or or Washington, where there’s a ton of more liberal leaning federal judges.
You get them sympathetic to your case, and then this thing that the other side does, you can just block it. So it will force seemingly more thoughtful, deliberate legal [00:21:00] challenges that move through the proper channels. But the opponents argue and have a valid point that it could slow down relief for people affected by unconstitutional policy.
So the person who is in power, who’s handing down executive orders, for example, relief comes for those things slower now because of this ruling, and it will lead potentially to inconsistent legal realities across states. So more power, you know, in the hands of. Certain people but the core idea behind it is.
It kind of creates more simplicity. Nationwide policy decisions will be handled by the highest courts or through Congress, not by a L district judge. And this marks a big step in, I think, what Trump is trying to do in rebalancing power and, and the way that he looks at it between the, the judiciary and the other branches of government.
So that’s kind of the biggest ruling on. The fact that, you know, Trump’s executive orders, they have to be challenged in in a more streamlined way, and a federal judge anywhere can’t just [00:22:00] put a stop to it. What are your thoughts on that?
Conner Jones: Yeah, no, I think it’s very interesting. Federal judges have been granted a lot of power over time.
Yeah. My biggest thought though is if this is what the Trump administration wants. This is what Republicans want right now. They’re gonna end up being on the other side of this down the road. Yep. One day there’s gonna be something that the Democrats do that Yeah. A federal judge will no longer be able to stop that.
And then the Republicans will be mad about that. I, it’s kind of interesting. It seems like a political Yep. Tool right now as opposed to something that I don’t know actually. I, I’m not a legal expert, so I just can’t say fully
Micah Tomasella: No, you’re, no, you’re totally right on that because you know, they can dress it up how, however they want is that, this is what the founders intended, but really.
The Republicans just wanna accomplish what they wanna accomplish. Mm-hmm. Trump just wants to get done what’s he want, you know, what he wants to get done, how he views the country should be run. So he’s gonna celebrate it and Republicans, for the most part are gonna celebrate it. But you’re right, Conner and I was gonna kind of make this point later, but we’ll just gonna make it now at some point, the shoe’s gonna be on the other foot.
Mm-hmm. So [00:23:00] a caution to anybody in leadership. Don’t just think about how it’s going to impact you. When you make a decision that will affect everyone, actually think about how it’s gonna affect everyone now and in the future. Because at some point there will be a Democrat back in the office. The highest office most likely.
And if these things are in place, they can accomplish their goals quickly. Just like Trump is trying to accomplish what he’s trying to accomplish quickly.
Conner Jones: Alright. Yep. Setting precedents without thinking through, like only doing it now and maybe not. How is this? Look down the line.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. Okay. And then there’s Medicaid and Planned Parenthood states can choose where the money goes.
So this most recent case, the court declined to hear an appeal. And so I mean that when I say they didn’t rule, they just declined to hear an appeal. Where in South Carolina they removed Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program. So that means the state can block public funding, not just for abortion related services, but also for general health services like.
Cancer screenings and STD testing if the clinic is affiliated with abortion [00:24:00] providers. So again, we are not knocking the parts of Planned Parenthood that actually provide. Free healthcare for women who need help, who need screenings for diseases and for cancer related things. I have just personally never felt comfortable as a Bible believing Christian that my tax dollars would in any way go towards the aborting of children.
And so when we say we’re celebrating this, we don’t want women to lose access to healthcare. If Planned Parenthood would just. Care for women in the sense of their individual bodies and, and they would care for them and help them overcome diseases and give them healthcare that they need, that they might not be able to afford.
Then great. Nobody’s arguing with that part. It’s the fact that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider. I. In the country and every single day children are killed. That’s what abortion is. Mm-hmm. And so that’s why we’re standing so strong on it. So supporters see this ruling as a victory for federalism.
And you know, conscious driven governance, I guess is what you could call it. Medicaid is a state [00:25:00] administered program with federal funding that. Backs it. So this ruling reinforces the idea that states will have the freedom to decide which providers are eligible to receive those funds. So just like when Roe v Wade was overturned, certain conservative states are going to outlaw abortion, and the more liberal states can say that they’ll allow abortion.
Same thing with this. A state like South Carolina is going to cut Planned Parenthood from federal funding, but. A state like California is probably gonna continue to, to fund Planned Parenthood. So critics of this worry that this could limit access to basic healthcare for low income women, especially in rural areas.
Totally see that as a concern. And I understand that. I’m not saying that this is overall just a, a seamless, simple issue, but we stand against abortion, right? So this wasn’t a dramatic declaration because the justices didn’t release a big opinion. They just. Didn’t hear the case, meaning that they’ve made their own decision that South Carolina can no long, you know, can choose to no longer fund Planned Parenthood.
Okay. Third one, [00:26:00] final one, free Speech Coalition versus Paxton is what this was called. And this was called, and this is all about protecting kids in a digital age. So in another big ruling, the court led a Texas law stand that requires pornography websites to verify that users are 18 or older. If a site has more than one third of its content deemed harmful to minors, it has to put age verification tools in place.
Opponents. Who challenged really weren’t necessarily, for the most part, saying oh, porn is a great thing. They were saying more like this. Definitely infringes on First Amendment. Rights, and they’re doing this on like a First Amendment grounds of people should be able to access what they want to access without giving their information, be able to express themselves, consume what they want to consume.
But the, but the court did deny to block it effectively letting it move forward. Supporters of the ruling say this is common sense. We already require ID to buy alcohol, to buy cigarettes and enter certain movie theaters. It’s not unreasonable to require age checks for explicit content online, right? This ruling sends a [00:27:00] message that the digital world shouldn’t be exempt from other things that we already place, an age restriction arm that are widely known as harmful.
So in the same way. You know that’s what they’re trying to do here. There’s growing research about how early exposure to pornography can impact kids affecting mental health relationships and how they see themselves and others, and that’s just to name a few. This law isn’t banning adult content. It’s simply is saying that if you’re going to consume this kind of material.
There needs to be reasonable steps taken to make sure minors can’t access it. I’m all for this. Yeah, I’m, I’m all for this concept. Children should not be consuming this. They are in such a developmental phase and for a long time, Christian and those who are considered religious. We’re the ones who, you know, were kind of fighting against pornography, but there are more and more articles coming out of people who might not consider themselves Christians who are saying, Hey, pornography is damaging.[00:28:00]
And they’re talking about, for the most part, for adults. This law is basically just saying, Hey, we should try to make sure kids can’t access this. And so I understand what the opponents are bringing up on this and like First Amendment stuff, but overall, you know, they’re making the point well. Maybe adults might not wanna give their ID to enter into, you know, give more of their information to view adult content.
I’d say that’s probably a good thing too, right? Yeah, I
Conner Jones: mean, then don’t view it. I don’t know what to tell you. Like it’s not a good thing at all. This is actually a great law. I fully agree. No children should be able to see any of that stuff. It is damaging and definitely impacts the way you think in your younger years, even through teenage years.
I absolutely think that this. Should stand. So I’m very happy with this decision. I’m right there with you, Micah.
Micah Tomasella: Yep. Alright, so here’s what all this means. In my opinion, just as far as like politically and you know, just as a country E each of these cases is, you know, it’s taken together, I believe it [00:29:00] reflects a broader shift.
The court is pulling back the power of federal judges. It’s giving states more control over healthcare, morality laws, and how public funds are used. It’s also setting a tone of restraint. And I don’t know, people say it’s constitutional originalism. Everybody seems to have a different interpretation of the constitution these days, but they’re saying that not every conflict deserves a sweeping nationwide fix.
So it’s in, in a lot of ways, these decisions are putting a lot of rights back in states’ hands, states’ rights. So whether you see this as progress or a step backwards, just overall, it probably depends on your worldview. But one thing is clear, the legal and cultural. Battlefield is moving to the states and federal power seems to be being trimmed back.
Would you agree with that, Conner?
Conner Jones: Yeah, I would. Yeah, it definitely seems that way. Supreme Court is basically saying, we’ve allowed the federal government maybe to have too much power, give it back to the states. Really, honestly, give it back to the people. That’s what they’re trying to say.
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. So my spiritual application and [00:30:00] challenge from this, you might already guess what it is, but I.
Let’s jump into it. So when you look at rulings like this, it’s easy to treat them like just a political scoreboard. Who won, who lost, which side gained momentum, which side lost momentum? But underneath the legal arguments is something I think that’s a little bit deeper, and it’s a question of authority.
Who gets to decide what’s right? Who determines what’s allowed? Conner, where do we turn for truth as followers of Jesus? That question’s already answered for us. We’re commanded to care about justice. We’re commanded to love mercy, to walk humbly, but we are not called to put our ultimate hope in the courts or in a political party, or even in the Constitution.
That’s not where our ultimate hope should lie. Our hope is anchored in something higher, something greater. Micah six eight. It says he has shown you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you to do justly, to love, mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. These rulings will shape our nation, but they don’t define [00:31:00] our mission as Christians in a cultural moment where truth is constantly redefined, constantly redefined, morality is constantly treated just like personal preference.
You do you man. You do you right. We have to be clear. God’s word doesn’t change on issues like pornography and abortion. The line isn’t political. It’s biblical. That’s why we so firmly stand on it today on these specific issues. You’ll hear us talk about a lot of things. If it’s a gray area and it’s up to political preference, and we can, as believers say it kind of seems like it could go either way, then we’re gonna say, take that issue to God.
Lean on people in your life that you care about who love the Lord as well, get advice from them, and then you can come up with an opinion there to think critically. But these issues are biblical. Jesus said in Matthew 5 28, but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Pornography is not a private matter. It’s a heart issue that distorts what God has designed [00:32:00] uniquely to be sacred. It fuels lust. It fuels violence. It’s, it damages relationships, and I’ll go as far as to say it, enslaves minds. Right? Mm-hmm. And when it comes to the unborn scripture’s, just as clear, Psalm 1 39, 13 through 14 says, for you, formed my inward parts.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you. For I am fearfully and I am wonderfully made. Life is not disposable. Life is not up for debate. It is sacred from the womb to the grave. When we ignore that, we don’t just shift policy, we deny the image of God the Imago day in every human life. So here’s the challenge.
Stay informed. Don’t be inflamed. Speak truth. Don’t let politics steal your peace. In this time, draw the line in the sand, not based on culture, but on the word of God. And when the ground feels shaky, which oftentimes it does, when rulings don’t go your way or they go your way. Remember this foundation from Psalm 1, [00:33:00] 19 89, forever, oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.
That’s the court that we answer to. That’s the higher power that we answer to, even when we feel like a judge here on Earth has mis ruled or made a mistake, and that’s the truth that we must stand on.
Conner Jones: Hmm into that. Thank you, Micah. Big decisions in the court. Big decisions in our heart that’s right,
Micah Tomasella: man.
Conner Jones: That’s right. Yeah. Okay, Micah, let’s pop into our mailbag real fast. We got some responses to our questions slash polls last week. So just as a reminder guys, you can always send us your questions, your thoughts, topic, ideas for us to discuss here on the show too. Culture [email protected]. You can also follow us on Instagram at Culture Brief Podcast where we post clips, polls, we want your comments on things, let us know.
Anyways, last week we brought up casual dining spots. It turned into a bit of a debate here on the show between chilies and Applebee’s, and it turned into a bit of a debate on our chain restaurants even. Good. Here’s what [00:34:00] you all, as the listeners came back with. So on the Spotify poll between the restaurants, Applebee’s, Chili’s, cracker Barrel, olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse and Cheesecake Factory, the winner was.
Unfortunately, Chili’s, which Michael, of course it was, was of course it was your restaurant. It came in at 33%. The rest came in at 17% except for Olive Garden. No one voted for Olive Garden, and one listener commented on Spotify. I love that Olive Garden has no votes. It reaffirms my confidence in the culture.
Brief audience. So yeah, if you need some encouragement today, at least you can vote for Olive Garden. Yeah, there go. There you go. Another comment on Spotify said, cracker Barrel has one of the most positive dining vibes on the planet. I actually can’t deny that. Okay. And he continued on saying, how can you not be happy in a cracker Barrel?
The rocking chairs, checkers, peg games, shopping area, decor, you just can’t beat it. Mm-hmm. That might be true. Mm-hmm. But the food is kind of what I’m basing stuff on. You know, like the food’s just meh, you know?
Micah Tomasella: Yeah. I mean, you just kind of take it all together. I definitely see what he’s saying though, or she, I don’t know, said actually, it’s definitely a vibe in there for sure.
He or she. [00:35:00]
Conner Jones: It’s a, it’s a, it was always a road trip stop for my family. Yeah. Yeah. Let’s just hit the crack. Hey Conner, give us the Instagram poll results. So over there, I, I did post two polls. So one was between the debate specifically on Applebee’s and Chili’s, where. 93% of the respondents said Chili’s is better than Applebees.
Seven. Of course they said that said Apple because It’ss just logical. Yeah. That might be true, but I will say people in the comments on the on the clip were, were kind of siding with me a little bit on at least the chain part. They said, you know, I don’t eat it. Chains, yes. Guy in the blue shirt. This is the loud
Micah Tomasella: minority.
This is the loud minority. No, you know what? I don’t think so. Most of us just wanna live our lives and eat at Chili’s without judgment, and so they’re just voting. You know what I mean? And then you’ve got people commenting. There’s no judgment.
Conner Jones: Mm. No one’s judging. It’s just bad food. I can’t change. I’m not gonna judge you for eating it.
That’s your choice. It’s a free country, but it doesn’t change the fact that the food is terrible. Oh, okay. Anyways, people liked my comment on the sauce being red. You know, I’m just trying to defend my position here. And one person, you know, you [00:36:00] said you can eat for. Two under $20 there. One person said that is not true in the comments, so
Micah Tomasella: I’d like to invite that person on the show to debate them because that is true.
But anyway,
Conner Jones: anyways, over on Instagram. The winning restaurant from the others was Texas Roadhouse at 33%. Yeah, that’s the one I kind of predicted. A lot of people like Texas Roadhouse, even though you can’t get a seat until you wait for two hours.
Micah Tomasella: I do too. I like Texas Roadhouse. It’s fine.
Conner Jones: Yeah, it’s not, it’s, it’s probably the best of the food anyways.
It’s just a long wait. Okay, Micah, let’s pop into our check-in on things that we need to talk about. This upcoming week, actually, right before we started recording, big news came in the Diddy, Sean Diddy Combs verdict came in from the jury. Here’s what we got. He was found guilty on two of the five count.
He was tried for. And those were from the Man Act, which is basically he was found guilty of interstate transport of any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery or for any other immoral purpose. But he was acquitted of the [00:37:00] counts of sex trafficking and racketeering, which were the more serious counts.
Partial guilty, partial, not guilty. Definitely seems like he got found guilty on the lesser counts here. Micah, you talked about this several weeks ago. Very in depth. What are your thoughts on this? Yeah,
Micah Tomasella: I mean, he did get convicted, but you know, I mean this just broke as, as we’re recording, so more stuff’s gonna come out.
So it, he got convicted on the lesser charges. He did avoid. The bigger ones that would’ve put him in prison for longer. So it definitely feels kind of bittersweet. I guess just kind of depending on if you believe like he was guilty or not, or if you believe he did some of this stuff and not some of this stuff.
But it’s not like he’s just getting off scot-free, but at the same time the he’s not getting convicted of, of. The more harsher things.
Conner Jones: Yeah. I’m curious to see if he still gets any prison time. Yeah. Either way. His reputation in the music industry and then just culture is very damaged. He’s pretty much seen as a pretty bad guy.
Even if they could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did some of these things, everybody’s got a pretty good sense of, yeah, he probably was very much so doing a lot of this stuff. Parties and all that. Okay. Another big thing that [00:38:00] happened this week, university of Pennsylvania, uin, they have agreed with the Trump administration to apologize to female Division I swimmers.
That were forced to swim against Leah Thomas, which is the transgender swimmer back in 2020 and 2021. That was swimming and beating actual female swimmers, including Riley Gaines. I talked about this very in depth several weeks ago. Yeah, she has been very outspoken about this, and she might get her trophy now after she technically tied with Leah Thomas.
Anyways, all the athletes who had to swim against Leah Thomas, the transgender, are now gonna be recognized. UIN has agreed to apologize to all of them, send direct letters to them, apologize to the basically athletic. It’s kind of embarrassing for UIN to have to say, whoa, yeah, we were absolutely wrong for allowing this.
They’re also now going to apply. Title IX policies to actually have biology based definitions for the words male and female, I can’t even believe that is something that we have to impose that, that you would have to go off biology there and basically ensuring [00:39:00] that males will no longer compete in female athletic programs or this is really important, occupy their athletic facilities that are meant for females.
This was part of the problem was these transgender athletes were using the locker rooms and bathrooms that were intended for females, even though they were technically. Biologically male. So this is obviously very embarrassing for you, Penn. I think they are embarrassed by this ’cause they’re having to say they they were wrong and went completely the wrong direction on this and are now having to apologize.
But it is the right move in my opinion. And then one more thing, Micah. Just something to keep tabs on. Mark Zuckerberg’s been out there for the last few weeks just poaching AI engineers from big companies, particularly open ai, who owns chat, GBT offer people like a hundred million bucks. That’s the rumor is that there’s been a hundred do.
Yeah, a hundred million dollars bonuses thrown out their signing bonuses. They deny it, but either way, they are investing $70 billion into AI because Meta’s AI system called, I think it’s called Llama, was. Far behind it was lagging. And so Zuckerberg was like, okay, if we’re gonna [00:40:00] keep up, we gotta get the top minds and they are just poaching everybody.
So this could have an impact on open AI’s future, but also mean we’re gonna see more on Instagram, more on Facebook, more on just Metas, whatever they’re in with AI and Zuckerberg’s trying to be a power player here mm-hmm. Keep an eye on that. As we’ve talked about, AI race, just. Barges along.
Micah Tomasella: Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, let’s jump into the tune in section. So if it’s gonna be hot for you this weekend where you are here in the DFW area in Texas, we’re gonna kind of experience slightly lower temperatures than expected. Like only Texans are gonna get, you know, or people who live in the southern part of of the USA are are, are gonna get excited when, you know, when they see a forecast that’s 92, 93, that sounds awesome in, in July. That’s fantastic. So we’re excited about that. But if you do need an indoor activity, Jurassic World Rebirth comes out this weekend, go see a good movie. But you know what? More importantly, it’s the 4th of July coming up This episode release is on Thursday, 4th of July is on [00:41:00] Friday.
That’s our Independence Day. As a country, it’s the absolute best you, especially when it’s on
Conner Jones: Friday. Yeah, I love that it’s on, I hate when it lands on like Tuesday and you know, it’s just random. When it’s on a Friday, we got a long weekend, it’s gonna be a great weekend celebrating. There’s a hot dog eating contest that, yeah, I like to watch too.
Watch for that watch.
Micah Tomasella: Do you like to watch that? Dude, Joey Chestnut is back. He was banned last time and it was lame. So he’s back and he’s gonna by far eat the most hot dogs. That guy’s crazy. Mm-hmm. It makes you a little queasy though. It’s kind of nasty to watch. But anyway. Yeah, it’s so
Conner Jones: nasty actually.
Micah Tomasella: But everyone enjoy the long weekend. I, I wanted to read a poem that I saw. I know, crazy, right? It’s, it’s called The American Flag by Henry Holcomb Bennett, who is an American poet and writer. This was written in 1919. We’re just so blessed with the opportunities and the freedoms that we have here in the US of a and I just, I pray for all of us that we’d be.
First, be grateful to God for his blessings, his love, and the freedoms that he gives to us. But if we do have, if you’re listening and you do have the pleasure of being a citizen here of the United States of [00:42:00] America, this is a very special place with special opportunity that God has continued to bless.
And I’m just so thankful for our country, despite the division, despite the issues, I’m grateful for our country. So I just wanna read this poem from over a hundred years ago. It’s called The American Flag. Hats off. The flag is passing by blue and crimson and white. It shines over the steel tipped, ordered lines, hats off the colors before us fly, but more than the flag is passing by.
Sea fights and land fights grim and great. Fought to make and save the state. Weary marches in sinking ships. Cheers of victory on dying lips. Days of plenty and years of peace. March of a strong lands swift, increase, equal justice, right and law. Stately honor and Reverend Awe. Sign of a nation, great and strong toward her.
People from foreign, wrong. Pride and glory and honor all live in the colors to stand or fall hats off along the street. There comes a blair of bugles, of ruffles of drums, and loyal hearts are beating [00:43:00] high hats off. The flag is passing. Bye. So guys, thank you so much for joining us for this week’s episode of Culture Brief for Denon Forum Podcast.
All articles and videos mentioned will be linked in the show notes. If you enjoy today’s episode, please please subscribe. Please vote on our polls and rate and review the show and share it with a friend. We’ll see you next Thursday.
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