Empowering Law Enforcement through Faith in God | Mike Gallagher & Joey Hudson | EP 276

Full Episode Transcript:

Rebecca Weber: Hello, everyone. I’m Rebecca Webber. You’re watching Better for America, presented by AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens. We have a special episode in store for you today, featuring two great men, Mike Gallagher and Joey Hudson. So don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back. Joining me now is Joey Hudson, a conservative Christian, aspiring statesman, experienced entrepreneur, speaker, radio personality, a writer and mentor. And with him also is Mike Gallagher, a best selling author and host of the Mike Gallagher show. This is a show heard by over 7 million weekly listeners and Mike’s charitable foundation, Gallagher’s Heroes Fallen Officers Fund, provides assistance to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty.

Gentlemen, I am thrilled to have both of you joining me today to discuss really the great work that you’re both doing. Happy to have you here with me.

Mike Gallagher: Thanks, Rebecca. Great to see you.

Joey Hudson: Thanks Rebecca good to be with you

Rebecca Weber: Excellent. Thank you, Mike. Joey, I’m going to turn to you right away and jump right in. Let’s start with we all understand the importance of supporting law enforcement, but you really took this to great levels.

You have dedicated much of your life to supporting and honoring law enforcement and first responders, and you’re very open about your faith and the spiritual needs of men and women who so readily sacrifice their lives. for our communities and for our nation as a whole. Tell us a little bit about your breakthrough idea and where you found the inspiration for the first responders Bible.

Joey Hudson: We have been and none of this would be possible without the dedicated listeners of the Mike Gallagher show and for Mike support over the years, we started Gallagher’s heroes. Back in 2004, 2005, we’d been doing various projects along the way because of Mike’s late wife, Denise Gallagher, she was the inspiration for Gallagher’s Heroes and kept Mike and me in line and kept us focused on what we were doing.

But as we progressed through the years, we started out with financial assistance to the families of police officers killed in the line of duty. But we, as we got into that and we built relationships within the law enforcement community. We realized it was more than about financial needs, but it was also about their spiritual needs and the things that they go through not only when they lose one of their colleagues in the line of duty, but just that day to day stress that these officers, firefighters, E.

1. T. S. They never know what they’re facing when they get up and they put the uniform on every day. And we started with the First Responder Bible. Mike was invited to speak to the National Bible Association some years ago. They had a military Bible. Mike and I looked at one another and thought why can’t we do a First Responder Bible?

And that’s how we got started in partnership with the National Bible Association.

Rebecca Weber: Now, Mike, I’d like to talk about the Mike Gallagher Show Charitable Foundation. This focuses on our fallen heroes. And in addition to reaching out to hero officer families, your foundation publishes and distributes the First Responders Bible, that is, the King James Bible.

I love that it has a story. spiritual fitness manual which is offered to these first responders to assist with the emotional and spiritual challenges that they face every day. Mike, tell us about the impact that this has had on local communities and what the Fallen Officer Fund aims to do.

Mike Gallagher: Rebecca as Joey mentioned years ago, my, my wife, Denise said, Hey Mike, instead of just jaw boning about the issues on your talk show every day, why don’t you do some good for people?

Why don’t you take your audience and move some mountains and and change people’s lives for the better. And so it’s with Denise’s spirit. I lost her in 2008 to cancer and she continues to be a big part of my my day to day life. And I think about her often, as we always think of our loved ones.

And it’s that spirit and that blessing that she gave us that this whole project was born. Joey and Peg Hudson have been friends of ours for many years. We go back three decades. And Joey has joyfully taken the role of executive director of Gallagher’s heroes, the fallen officer foundation to new heights.

We’ve been assisting as you mentioned earlier, the families of officers. But now the focus is on this first responders Bible, Rebecca. I’m on a multi city tour right now with officer Brandon Tatum, who I know is a good friend of a Mac and like me a big supporter of a Mac, which is better for America.

And of course, officer Tatum and I were talking last night about the first responders Bible. Of course, Brandon was a Tucson police officer. And comes from a law enforcement background, but a deeply spiritual core. He’s a great man. One of my favorite people in the world. And Brandon and I were talking about the impact that these first responders Bibles are having to people all over the country.

Joey and I get requests from police departments and sheriff’s offices and EMTs and paramedics and fire stations. All the time. We have sent out thousands and thousands of these Bibles, thanks to the support of our general, our generous audience to share with the first responders what it takes, the tools to get through the horrors of their job.

You think about what a paramedic sees in a car accident, or a police officer comes across, in an awful, maybe a multi fatality crime scene, and then they’re expected to punch out, Then clock back in the next morning and go back to work again like it didn’t happen. They need faith. They need spirituality.

They need the tools to equip them to deal with the challenges of their job. And we’re confident that’s what the First Responders Bible does. As you mentioned, Rebecca, it’s a King James Version. With that spiritual fitness manual that contains some important life cleansing tools to get these wonderful, brave men and women through their job every day.

So it’s just been a joy. It’s been a labor of love. And like my wife used to say, instead of just yapping about issues on the radio and TV, we get to try to make a difference in people’s lives. I can’t think of a better community to assist than the community of first responders. All throughout the, these great United States.

Rebecca Weber: That’s beautiful. And I’m in favor, of course, of supporting those who support us. They’re fighting to protect us. We ought to pay attention to this great community. And I love the way that God really uses everyone in very unique ways. We all get caught up in our careers but doing something to give back to others, I think is so rewarding.

Joey, I want to talk a little bit more about how you found this purpose and really the courage to come out and say, this is something I ought to be doing along with Mike. What pulled you in this direction? Can you share a little bit about that journey? Because I think it inspires other people to also speak up and say, Hey, this has helped me and I can speak personally that my faith without my faith.

I don’t know where I’d be today. It’s so important. It’s pivotal. It’s the center of my life and I try to bring that into all things, including how I run a business and how I interact with our own customers and a Mac members. Can you share a little bit about your journey, Joey?

Joey Hudson: Absolutely. Faith has always been a big part of my life as well.

My mom always made sure that my sister and I were in church every Sunday multiple times, sometimes throughout the week. So faith has always been there. It’s always a little odd for me, having always been involved in Bible study and learning about Christ and the role that faith can play in your life.

It’s odd to me sometimes when I’m talking with someone who just don’t have that background. And as I mentioned earlier, When we started distributing the First Responder Bible initially, we thought, Okay, this is wonderful. We’re going to send out a Bible to First Responders. So far, Rebecca, we’ve sent over 60, 000 Bibles around the country.

Quite often we’ll get a request from a sheriff or a police chief or a fire chief who wants them for their entire department. And that’s wonderful, but one of the things that we kept kept hearing was Okay, thank you for the Bible. The Spiritual Fitness Manual is wonderful. But what do we do with it?

And so that’s why we decided to take it a step further and put more resources online to encourage these men and women in, in first responder situations to develop Bible studies so they can lean on one another because, as you probably probably will agree, quite often we need the support of other people who have faith just like we do to lean on.

And I know that there’s nothing. Throughout my life that I haven’t been able to overcome without that faith, without depending on the Word of God, and I just know how much it can change people’s lives if they will dig in deep and study that. So we’ve, we’re taking our ministry a step further now, and we’re sending a Bible, yes, but we’re also offering resources online at firstresponderbible.

org so that the men and women who receive the Bibles and can use them and can help grow their faith so that they can face the day to day stress if they’re under, police officers, firefighters, they have a very high divorce rate because of the stress. They have a very high rate of suicide because of the stress they face day in and day out.

We just know that God’s word can comfort them and give them the strength to face that and we’re just happy to be able to offer this.

Mike Gallagher: And Rebecca, it’s been a joy to see how the First Responders Bible has become sort of an organic part of the Mike Gallagher show. There’ll be a catastrophe in a local community and we’ll immediately get notes, text messages or emails from listeners of our show to say to us, Hey Mike, Our community is hurting.

Can you guys send some first responders, Bibles first responder, Bibles to our local police department or our local fire department. And that’s been such a gratifying thing to see people who again have organically embraced the whole spirit of the first responder Bibles. And they come to us even before we hear about a crime or a terrible catastrophe or an incident in a community.

They’re coming to us and saying, Hey, can you lift our local community up with these first responders Bible? It’s been so gratifying and really uplifting to see.

Rebecca Weber: Yeah. And it is so powerful because as a Christian woman, I can say here to our audience that God in his power and his might, it takes one moment, one word for your life to change.

And that is the real deal. So when we know that we’re not going to hide that secret from other people. We want other people. To have access to the truth. And you can find so much of that in the Bible, knowing that God is an all loving God, can take evil and turn evil to good, and God is there and loves each and every one and calls us closer and closer to him.

I love what you’re doing. I think it’s so important. And Mike, You obviously are a widely known radio host, but you have this fantastic reputation really for helping other people. And we were so heartbroken by this news of another the killing of a NYPD officer that was Jonathan Diller by a career criminal just this week.

Unfortunately, it seems that this has become far too common. What in your opinion can our local, state, federal agencies do to help protect those people who are protecting us? Because it does feel to me that our heroes have been abandoned, especially by the left. It’s coming from the left.

Mike Gallagher: We have to have the strength to recognize that elections have consequences and a lot of the public policies are getting Americans and cops killed.

It’s no secret that a whole lot of leftist prosecutors and politicians believe in defunding the police. They believe in social justice reform, which Quite frankly, frees a lot of criminals based simply on their skin color or their ethnicity. And really good is evil. Evil is good. Everything is upside down right now.

I come from an era where police officers were the good guys. Today, the progressives and many on the far left have vilified police officers and turned them into the villains. It’s a little bit like the in, in Israel. Joey and I we’re blessed to go to Israel a few weeks ago and we did the show from there.

In America, we have people taking to the streets, supporting the terrorists, literally lifting up Hamas and making Israel out to be the bad guys. All Israel wants to do is survive. They want to be left alone. They don’t want to wipe the Palestinians off the face of the earth, but clearly many in that camp, the Palestinians want the the Jews eradicated in Israel.

So we’re in a very challenging time, Rebecca. And yet I’m continually convinced that the goodness of the American people and God’s hand is blessing this nation. I think to answer your question, we have to urge our local communities to elect politicians. Who are going to respect the rule of law, who are going to be all about true justice, not social justice reform.

We don’t want to upend or defund the police. And let’s face it, that’s largely a political question. That’s a political equation. If we have the right elected officials in office we’ll get a return to law and order. We’ll get a return to civility and indeed, we’ll even get a return to sanity because Rebecca, I’m not kidding you.

There are days I go through the pile of stories that my team gives me to for the Mike Gallagher show. I can’t believe my eyes. I can’t believe what we’re experiencing as a country. And it does, sometimes it feels like end times stuff. I have listeners once in a while say, Mike, doesn’t it feel like it’s the end times?

Like things are evil is portrayed as good and good is characterized as evil. That’s right out of the Bible. Just remember, but there’s more of us than there are of them. And there’s a lot of good people in America that are making a difference. And we’re very proud of having the opportunity to do that every chance we get.

Rebecca Weber: Yeah. And we’re certainly at this intersection here in America where you’re right. The difference, the choice that people have to make is really, do you support life? Or do, are you against life? Do you support law and order or are you for wide open borders and crime running rampant? Are you for parents having control over their children or are you forgiving that away to government to make choices for your kids?

The list goes on and on. It’s a clear choice. And I think, clinging to our traditional American values is so important. And I love that, there’s no shame in that, this is a Christian Judeo nation that we’ve been built on, right? And there are, like you said, Mike, and this is the good news.

This is the hope, is that there are so many people out there who really do feel and believe like we all do. But we’ve got a, a mainstream, rather, mainstream news media that’s been taken over. And they’re pumping out a lot of propaganda and a narrative that plays to what they want people to think and hear and say.

It’s one of the reasons why we do this show. Again I just applaud you both. Now, Joey, you’re a long time advocate and board member of Crime Stoppers of Greenville. I want you to tell us a little bit about this great non profit community organization and what you’re doing to help local law enforcement there.

Joey Hudson: Crime Stoppers is an organization that is really a community organization. It’s a way that the average person can be involved but yet not really get involved. In other words, they can provide information anonymously. that can help solve crime that maybe the local police department or the local sheriff’s office would have never solved without that anonymous tip.

And that’s how we work. There are multiple ways that people can call in. They can do web tips. We have an app and they can give information, remain anonymous, and also receive a cash reward if their information leads to an arrest. We’ve had many law enforcement officers around the country. And this is a nationwide group.

Most communities have a crime stoppers program. I happen to have been involved for about 30 years now in Greenville and the southeastern crime stoppers. But it’s just a way that people can again remain safe. But if they see something happening or maybe they overhear something and we have been responsible for solving cold cases, murders that were 30 40 years old and someone just happened to overhear a conversation or they knew a family member who had information on that crime, they called in or they went online to our website.

They made that tip and it gave that last piece of the puzzle that law enforcement needed to make an arrest and to give closure to a victim’s family.

rebecca: Terrific. Really good stuff. Mike, we see how crime is rampant. It’s rising. We see violent crime in our nation’s capital, cities across America.

Property crimes are soaring. Carjacking craze, it seems like, is gripping major cities throughout the country. And then this ongoing epidemic of minor crimes like shoplifting. And it’s become increasingly difficult for law enforcement to do their jobs. How do we deal with the disastrous consequences of liberal rule, and how do we change hearts and minds?

Mike Gallagher: I go back and forth between geographically from Florida, my home in Tampa Bay, and I have to be in New York City for part of the time to go from those two communities to those two states. It’s two different universes in New York. A lot of dangerous crime is occurring in the subways.

You referenced the young 31 year old father. and husband, the N. Y. P. D. officer who was brutally killed by somebody who is a career criminal. You talked about and you identified it, Rebecca. This is a guy who had I think, 30 or 40 arrests, a career criminal who made his life. harming his community.

And yet you’ve got activists who are hell bent on saying, if this is a person of color, we can’t incarcerate that person because of, the Jim Crow era of the past because of racist policies. Let’s face it. A lot of progressives hate America. They just don’t like what we stand for. They think America is a terrible, filthy, racist nation.

And I am convinced that this is a political solution. We can change this with elected officials who are representing the will of normal law abiding, God fearing American citizens. This show is, this AMAC show with you, Rebecca, better for America. AMAC is better for America. AMAC is an alternative to some of these woke companies that are so worried about a diversion and, or diversity rather, which is a diversion, diversity and inclusion and tokens and affirmative action.

I think about Dan Weber a lot. I spent years ago, I sat down with Dan when he first partnered we developed the partnership with AMAC and the Mike Gallagher show. And I remember his love of country and his patriotism and his support and respect for law enforcement. Dan’s spirit lives on in the AMAC message through his children, you and your wonderful brother.

We, and the millions of members that we get to reach out to every single day. I have never seen the kind of pushback by the American public that we’re seeing right now against this lawlessness. I’ve been doing this a long time. My first radio show was 46 years ago. Now I’d like to think that makes me some kind of an elder statesman of talk radio.

All it means is I’m an old man. But in all those years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Americans eyes as wide open as we are right now. The left likes to use the, we like to use the word woke. We’re awakened. Americans are awakened to the realities of what lawless politicians are doing to our communities, how career criminals are destroying communities and prosecutors funded by George Soros.

George Soros is a powerful figure. He has funded a lot of prosecutors and district attorneys and attorneys general who are committed to social justice reform. And all that means is letting bad guys go free. This pushback though, Rebecca has been gratifying. It has been, I’ve been enthusiastic about seeing it.

And I think a lot of Americans are willing to get into the fray. We got to all be in the fight. We all have to be warriors, Rebecca. We all have to do what AMAC is doing and that’s fight for the American people and everybody has a role to play. And thankfully I’m seeing more and more people do that now more than ever.

Rebecca Weber: Let’s pray the tide, when the tide rises, we all rise with it and together we can save this country. Joey, how concerned are you about both the short term and long term outlook for safety in our communities?

Joey Hudson: It certainly is a, an issue that we all have to be concerned about because lawlessness seems to be growing daily.

People just don’t seem to respect life and respect their neighbors and their community members. So yes, it is a big concern. Is it something that that is insurmountable, something that we cannot overcome? I don’t think so. I think we can, if we can get back to the basics and it goes back to the first responder Bible.

Yes, we we minister to the first responder community, but we need to be ministering to the entire community just because it says first responder on, it doesn’t mean that anyone can’t read the Bible. And I think that we have to put God back into the equation in our community in so many different ways.

And as Christians, Pray for that. Pray for that safety. Pray that our country can turn around. As Mike said, elections have consequences. We can make some changes by electing the right people at all levels not only at the federal level, but at the local level as well. And our school boards, our county councils, our city councils elections do have consequences.

And we have to turn America around. And by doing so, we can turn our local community communities around as well.

Rebecca Weber: Yes, and it starts with each and every one of us, right? The only way for evil to prevail is for good men to do absolutely nothing. Here at AMAC, we’re encouraging everyone who’s tuning in and listening to do a couple of things.

Join or renew your membership with AMAC, and if you feel it in your heart, please make a donation. It’s so important that we give back to our communities, and I don’t see any better way to do that than to spend a little bit of money so that somebody who’s heartbroken or going through a difficult time can get their hands on the word.

Mike, share with our listeners, how can people donate?

Mike Gallagher: Real simple. Gallagher’s heroes. org. We have that website set up. We also have the website set up for the first responders Bible. I’ll have Joey repeat that, it’s a, it’s as easy as supporting. And again, we’re partners with AMAC. So we’re proud to be in one big happy family.

Of of frankly activists who are fighting for America, activists for freedom, activists for prayer, activists for family. It’s what we’re going to need. So if you go to Gallagher’s heroes. org, you could support Gallagher’s heroes, the fallen officer fund. And then Joey, you mentioned the the site we have set up for the first responders Bible

Joey Hudson: and that’s first responders Bible.

org as well. Although they’re both interrelated. So you can go to one and get information and links to the other. And our newest website as well, Rebecca. And if I can quickly share this with you. Prayer, we’ve all mentioned prayer multiple times today, and our first responders need prayer. So our latest addition to the many ministries that Gallagher’s Heroes is doing is PrayForFirstResponders.

org, it’s a prayer wall where people can go online and request prayer and we’re starting a prayer community for our first responders. Just go to Gallagher’sHeroes. org and we have links to all of those sites there.

Rebecca Weber: I want to thank you both so much for your passion, your interaction with these great heroes of our day, and I for all that you both do.

Before you run, I know that our listeners are going to want to hear more from each of you on your different platforms. Tell us a little bit about your podcast, radio show, and how they can listen to each of you.

Mike Gallagher: Website for me, mikeonline. com, all things team Gallagher. Of course, we’re heard on hundreds of stations around the country every day.

We’re seen on Salem news channel for our over the top, top streaming platform. You can subscribe to our podcast. We have a lot of unique content and you can follow me on social media. I’m liking X these days because there’s a guy named Elon. Who seems to support free speech. So I’m enjoying it. You can follow me at radio talker, Mike.

So for all things team Gallagher, you can go to mikeonline. com. Has to be almost as easy as the AMAC website to remember mikeonline. com. Pretty easy site to remember. Yep.

Joey Hudson: And Rebecca mine is joeyhudson. com. Pretty easy as well. And at joeyhudson. com, you can check out my podcast, just the truth. And we dig into the truth every single day.

Rebecca as well. So joey hudson. com. You can find me on various social platforms to just search for Joey Hudson.

Rebecca Weber: Thank you both. This has been a real honor. I really look forward to having you both back with me to talk more. Thanks again for your time.

Mike Gallagher: Thanks, Rebecca. Keep fighting the good fight.

Great to see you. Thank you. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for having us.

Rebecca Weber: Thank you. And to all of you out there again, remember to tell your friends and family all about AMAC. We’re doing so much. We need you. When we go to Washington and we say we have over 2 million members behind us, they listen, but we need more members.

So be sure to tell friends and family all about AMAC. Join or renew your AMAC membership today at amac. us. Until next time, everyone, God bless you. Thanks for joining. Have a wonderful