Supporting Veterans Through Church Outreach

Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. President Trump has made a splash calling for a 66% increase in the military budget to invest in his Peace Through Strength Initiative and with recruiting at an all-time high, how can we better support our service members when they transition back from war fighting to civilian life? That's right and with at least 15 million veterans out there, how do we continue to support those people and their mental health as well as honor their service? Our next guest says the answer lies in faith and community. Joining us now in studio is Troy Miller. He's the CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters. Good to have you with us today, Troy. It's great to be with you. Excellent to have you and we've got a lot to get into but talking particularly about on this front, there is a challenge in reaching and helping veterans across the country in so many ways. One of the aspects is just getting down to the details. There's not a VA office in every community but there is at least one church in every single community out there. What are you doing and how are you utilizing that resource to reach veterans and help them? Yeah, so we're bringing the strength of NRB. So we reach and have members in churches you said all across the country and so as a Navy veteran, one of the things that came to my attention is you said it is hard to transition back into the civilian life when you've really had your life structured for whatever period of time you've been in even if you've just been in two years and there's a lot of challenges there and so we're challenging churches across the country. Most of them have veterans in there. Most pastors recognize veterans on Veterans Day, Memorial Day and Fourth of July, those patriarchs. We're saying that your veterans are the ones that can reach veterans in the community and they can reach them as you said with faith and really a place that really kind of parallels the military because a church is a family, it's a home, it's a purpose, it's a place for service, all of those things and pastors are very equipped for the counseling needs that go on with a lot of our veterans transitioning in. So a very large church, Preston Baptist Church in Texas was our model for this. They have a wonderful program, Dr. Jack Graham down there and so they're helping roll this out for churches all across the country and how to reach just a plethora of veteran services. They're in almost every state. Yeah and as Steph pointed out, you know, you may not have a VA office in every community but you have I think almost 400,000 churches across the country. When you think about what veterans struggle with, PTSD, it kind of mirrors alcoholism in a way where you're kind of apart from the community and with that 10-step program, it really is the spirituality and the faith that helps them overcome adversity. I'd love it if you could share any anecdotes of how this program is making an impact. It really is making an impact because we just had a Veterans Day event down there in Texas on November 11th and the whole point of that was bringing a lot of testimonies. Veterans who had really lost touch and connect. You know the number one issue that veterans will say a few years, a few months out? Loneliness. Loneliness and isolation is what they feel and so getting them connected into these families is really the only antidote. It's really the cure to help them along with, of course, everything that the faith aspect brings. And the NRB of course is involved on a number of different fronts and so I do want to jump around a little bit. I noticed on your website, very dedicated both to Israel and combating antisemitism. Of course, wonderful but wondering how come a Christian organization feels so strongly tied to Israel? Well look, Christianity has its roots in Judaism, you know. We follow a Savior who is a Jewish teacher, a Jewish rabbi, you know. And so our roots are there and so we've had these very strong roots and ties with Israel and the NRB has for a long time. A lot of it in the past has been about tourism. People going into the country want to see the footsteps of where Jesus walked, where the apostles preached, where Christianity started, and the Jewish roots. So there's a lot of commonality between the two faiths and a lot more in common than there's not. And so that's one thing. So we also understand from a biblical standpoint that God gave that land to Abraham and to the descendants of Abraham. The Jewish people have been, are the only real indigenous people that are still alive today in the land of Israel. But the attacks on Jews around the country, antisemitism around the world, really also is a kind of, we look at as a precursor and a connection to the attacks on Christians. Christian persecution itself is on the rise around the world. And so those two battles in my mind and our mind at NRB go hand in hand together. And you're doing a lot on that point. Yes. Fighting religious hate, as we put it, is an important point for us. What are you doing in regards to protecting Christians? So we've been working with the administration very closely. For example, I was in Nigeria in June. We were working very closely with them to get Nigeria designated back as a country of particular concern and to bring that issue of a really Christian genocide, which was going on there along with other places around the African continent that Christians are being persecuted. Right now, 308 million Christians live under some sort of persecution in countries that don't recognize or oppose their faith. It's the most dangerous faith to hold around the world today is a Christian faith in Jesus Christ. And so we're bringing that up in the state department, in the administration, and in the avenues we can. And we are so thankful that this administration has done so much to bring this issue to the forefront, including, as we all know, the president went in and actually bombed some of the people who were perpetrating those atrocities in Nigeria. Yeah, we saw that testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday. It's very important work. I want to turn to one of your initiatives here at home, though. AM radio in cars. People don't really think about the radio too much. Why is that so important to the NRB? Well, look, it's important, first of all, because 80 million Americans still listen to AM radio. A lot of us, I grew up in rural Nebraska, and a lot of rural communities still rely on AM radio as their source for news and information. It's their source for teach and talk. The top genre on there is Christian teach and talk and Christian music. And so this is really still, we believe, is still a viable communication path for a lot of Americans. Plus, it's the number one avenue for the emergency broadcast system for where people get their information here. But the big issue is about free access to information. You know, radio is free. Both AM and FM radio is free. You just need a radio. You tune it in. You don't have to have a subscription. And we really look at the car manufacturers as just another industry that's trying to insert itself as a gatekeeper of information. There's a lot of money to be made there in subscription services, in data mining, all of those areas. But we think AM radio is important. And we think it's more important that Americans have that access to free information and not always have to buy, get a subscription for it. And Troy, such a great conversation. We are running out of time, but I would like to know when your annual convention is coming and where that will be. Well, thank you. The largest gathering of Christian communicators, Christian media professionals will be in February 17th through the 20th at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Resort. You can find out more about it at nrb.org. But it's a great place to learn more. Everybody is a communicator today because we all have a social media platform. And if you want to know how to do your communications better, you should be with us in February. Appreciate you coming in. Troy Miller, CEO of the National Religious Broadcaster. Such a great conversation. Thank you. Thanks for having me.