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Someday, your children will move out on their own – are you preparing them to biblically and logically grapple with the hot-button issues they will face in the world?

Today, we introduce Victor Joecks, host of the Sharpening Arrows Podcast. Victor shows how we can break down topics like declining support for Israel, transgender ideology, immigration, and abortion— exploring each issue from all sides so that our students are prepared for the arguments the world will throw at them.

If you’re looking for creative ways to start deep discussions with your teens as they learn to form their worldviews, this episode is for you!

Episode Transcription

Note: This transcription may vary from the words used in the original episode.

Marlin Detweiler:

Hello and welcome to another episode of Veritas Vox, the voice of classical Christian education. Today we have with us Victor Joecks. Victor, welcome.

Victor Joecks:

Hey, thanks so much for having me on. It's great to be with you.

Marlin Detweiler:

I'm going to make an assumption that you may not be known well to our audience, so please introduce yourself. Your education, your family, and, of course, your career would be a good starting point.

Victor Joecks:

Well, I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. I thank you for letting me share this with your audience. About 20 years ago, I graduated from Hillsdale College. Terrific school. Learned a lot. I was a history major.

Marlin Detweiler:

We have a lot of students out of Veritas that end up at Hillsdale.

Victor Joecks:

Well, I always say I'm so glad I went 20 years ago, because I'm not sure I make it in with the current admissions standards, but it was a great education, learned a lot. I went into the think tank world. I worked for a think tank in Washington state, ended up joining the National Guard and doing that for a bit and ended up in Las Vegas. Of all the places, you know, a conservative Christian kid, you think, where are you going to live someday? I don't know, but not Las Vegas.

Marlin Detweiler:

What's the lake near you that people refer to? The region with the name of the lake.

Victor Joecks:

Lake Mead.

Marlin Detweiler:

We have a math teacher who’s taught for us for years, our online school. And it's the funniest thing to say to her, where are you from? She says from near Lake Mead and she’s from Las Vegas. And so I say, you're just trying to hide that you're a blackjack dealer, aren't you? And it just rattles her. It's kind of fun. Well, you know, the Lord has to work even in Sin City.

Victor Joecks:

And I'm rightfully. He brought me here shortly after I moved here and married my wife. And she moved down here and blessed us with seven children. And I did the think tank thing for about eight years, ended up deploying with the National Guard to Kuwait for about a year. And then I came back and the Lord opened the door for me to write for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

And, you know, if you had told me in high school, you know, someday you’ll live in Las Vegas and write for the newspaper, I definitely wouldn't have believed it. But God, you know, he's got his plans. And I think half the times he does things that you look back and you're like, only God could have done that.

Marlin Detweiler:

Now, I'm happy to hear more about your writing with the newspaper and how that is impacted by your worldview. But tell us a little bit about why you're here, the podcast that you've started.

Victor Joecks:

Yeah, I started a podcast called the Sharpening Arrows Podcast. And as my kids have gotten older, my oldest daughter is now in high school, which certainly makes me feel old. But you know what? I've noticed and what I've seen, talking with other parents, I help to run a speech group out here for homeschool students. You know, I'm in politics all the time, every day.

That's my job. And if you are a normal person, you may follow the news, but you've been busy being a parent and keeping your child alive. And all of a sudden our children are being exposed to these ideas. And what I want to do with this podcast, Sharpening Arrows, is help parents talk through issues with their teenagers.

The apologist Nancy Pearcey has talked about how do we keep children from leaving the faith. And it's not necessarily prayer, though prayer is very important. It's not necessarily a good youth group, although that's really important too. It's actually talking through issues with our children before they leave the home and helping them work through those issues. Because, you know, as a parent, we know we have our values.

We do our best. We pray the Lord, we ask the Lord to guide our children into the truth. But ultimately, they have to make those decisions themselves. And what I want to do with the Sharpening Arrows Podcast is walk parents and teenagers through issues and say, you know, here's why the other side believes this and here's what's appealing about those arguments.

Now, here are the answers, here are the counters. And here's why I believe what I believe. But let's discuss and let's work through it. Let's even disagree. And let's do that before they're exposed to it without our parental guidance.

Marlin Detweiler:

Very good, very good. As you think about today, there is no limit to the topics that you might take on in such a thing. How do you discern what would be a good topic for you to discuss in the podcast? And is the podcast you alone talking, or do you have guests? How does it work?

Victor Joecks:

It's me talking at this point. I haven't had guests on yet, but what will happen, I'll usually take an issue that's in the news. I'm not doing, you know, Matt Walsh headlines every day type podcasts. This is, you know, an issue that's happening, but it's not going to be the up-to-the-minute.

But we're going to look at the issue. We're going to take it and we're going to step back and say, and this is what I do on the podcast, I'll kind of introduce the issue, talk about it. I did a recent episode on Israel. Why is support for Israel dropping, especially among young people?

Well, you know, we detailed October 7th, what had happened. And then we step back and we said, well, there's this critical theory mindset, and what is that? And then what I will do on this podcast, which I think is unique, is I will make the best arguments that I can for the side that I personally disagree with.

And so I will try and present that and make those arguments, and then we'll both, you know, go in and say, well, what's appealing about those arguments and what's wrong about that argument? And then, you know, make the argument for the side that I ultimately believe in.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. How does your work as a journalist contribute to what you're doing?

Victor Joecks:
Well, it's a big help because, you know, as I said, I'm in the news and I'm constantly in the news. I'm reading arguments from both sides, trying to understand what's happening. And, you know, I write an opinion column, so I'm very used to giving my opinion. It's one of the odd jobs in politics where you actually get paid to say what you believe.

And I'm very grateful for that. And so it really helps me to know, you know, kind of all this background knowledge that I can take and bring to a specific issue on the Sharpening Notes podcast.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. Like me, I'm going to guess most of our viewers and listeners are not familiar with the newspaper. Is it a distinctly conservative or Christian orientation in its perspective?

Victor Joecks:
So I wouldn't say that. The paper has long had kind of a libertarian, it's more onboard perspective, but the news side and the opinion side, like most newspapers, are distinct. And I think, you know, the news side would say they just focus on the news, they try and cover the news.

They try and share and talk about what's happening. And so even through some ownership changes, the editorial board has stayed pretty consistent with its position. And I'm really blessed to have a newspaper where I can, you know, write that men are not women and still have a job. You know, I don't take that for granted.

I think there's a lot of papers around the country where, you know, that would get you your walking papers. But, you know, in my opinion column, it is my opinion, and I do my best to make arguments for it. But it's not the paper's opinion. It’s mine.

Marlin Detweiler:
Okay, so the paper is, well, like what you've described at some level, a libertarian presupposition for the newspaper. Is that a fair assessment of the editorial board?

Victor Joecks:
That's been its perspective for decades. The news side is different. There's a distinction between who writes for what. But the editorial page has been kind of a free market perspective, which is also a rarity, certainly around the country.

Marlin Detweiler:
But let's throw a topic of controversy in here. There's been some talk of linkage between transgenderism and violence. Is that something you've researched? Is that the kind of topic that you might take on?

Victor Joecks:
Yeah, I think it would be a great topic. I've wanted to dig into the transgender issue, and I just haven't gotten there yet, but it's important. It's vital. And I think the biggest thing to understand is, you know, why are there people, and people who are smart, who have intellect, who've been educated at good universities?

Why are there people who say biological sex either isn't real or isn't the most important thing, that you can choose your own gender, that there are more than two genders, that there's almost an infinite spectrum of gender? You know, it just sounds so absurd, and it is absurd to be clear. But I think what we have to know as parents is that, you know, our children will be presented with people who take this very seriously.

And not only that, who will ostracize you if you state biological reality, if you go back to the book of Genesis and say, you know, God created them male and female. You know, that's bigotry. All of a sudden you're transphobic. And so how do we prepare our children to understand what the argument is, confront those ideas, and know their responses, and ultimately know what they believe?

Marlin Detweiler:
I don't know how familiar you are with classical Christian education, but of course, Veritas is a promoter of classical Christian education, both in homeschools and in schools. And one of the things that is very important to our brand of classical education is that students generally in the seventh, eighth, ninth grade range are taking a couple years of logic and learning how to think and articulate logically.

It sounds to me like some of what you're doing is really applied logic in the discussion. Is that fair?

Victor Joecks:
Yeah, I think that's very fair. I mean, I think the classical model is really terrific. You learn facts, you know what's actually happened, and then you learn logic and how to debate and hopefully even take it to the rhetoric stage, where you're not only able to debate and discuss it, but you're able to actually articulate it and make the arguments that you want to make for what you believe.

Marlin Detweiler:
You are obviously familiar with classical education, having mentioned rhetoric without me mentioning it. Tell me how what you're doing is maybe intersecting with what's going on in the world of education and classical ed.

Victor Joecks:
The way I set up the podcast is I have points in the podcast that I call parental pause points. And another unique thing about the podcast is I encourage parents and teenagers to listen together. So if you're a homeschooling parent, you can put it on the speaker, you can put it on the computer, you can be around the kitchen table, and every three or four minutes, there's a time to stop and discuss and to actually kind of practice that rhetoric, practice those discussions, practice thinking through the issue together.

And I think that's really important. Because, you know, as I said, you know, parents, we've been so busy just keeping our children alive, which is a lot of work. And you know, what I've been able to do is be in politics for 20 years and to be able to kind of know what's happening. And so what I see this podcast as is a way to kind of come alongside parents and help them with the issues that are happening in the news on a daily basis.

Marlin Detweiler:
You call the podcast Sharpening Arrows. I'm not sure. I don't think I had mentioned that before. Tell me about the naming of it, that certainly we understand the biblical reference. And I suspect there's something in there that you're going to provide us.

Victor Joecks:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's a reference to Proverbs 27:17, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And then obviously the arrows reference Psalm 127. You know, like arrows in the hands of a warrior or sons born in one's youth. You know, that's what we want as parents is, you know, God's given us this great gift of these children, and we are to send them out like an arrow.

But we don't want to send out a dull arrow, right? We want to send out students and children who are ready to engage with the ideas of this world. And, I mean, I applaud classical education. I think it's such a terrific model. Some of my younger kids do a classical education co-op, and it's terrific.

I really am impressed with it. And, you know, I was grateful for the education I had. But I think what the classical model is, is really just a terrific way to go.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah, we enjoy hearing that, of course. So thank you. Let's take you out ten years. Your kids are almost grown. You're almost an empty nester, unless you go out and have some more. But what does success look like from the podcast standpoint? I understand what success looks like with your kids.

You want kids that are faithful and engaged in culture and restoring as our purpose. Our mission, I should say, is restoring culture to Christ, one young heart, mind at a time. I'm guessing that you want to make sure that your children are faithful and engaged culturally. But what does success look like out of the podcast?

Victor Joecks:
Well, what I want for the podcast is I'd like it to be a useful tool for parents. And, you know, obviously everyone does a podcast. They think, how big is the audience going to be? And, you know, if it's a blessing to people, I certainly would be excited for more people to enjoy it.

What I try to do and I try to keep my mind on is, you know, my daughter's in high school. I'm trying to train her to produce the podcast, both as a connection to take work off of me, but as a way to almost trick her into listening to these things. But don't tell her or anyone.

Marlin Detweiler:
Oh, yeah, if she listens to this, she might learn it. Otherwise, I'm not telling her.

Victor Joecks:
So, you know, I want it to be a blessing. And, you know, in terms of the growth, I think that's up to the Lord. When I was deployed in Kuwait, we had this great chaplain. Really loved the Lord. Really had a fantastic heart. And we'd have a church service every Sunday, and there usually be like 8 to 10 of us there.

And I could always see that he was disappointed by the number of people that were there, because he had done all this work, and I understood that. And I also thought, you know, but I'm important too. And so that's kind of my heart behind this. Obviously, I will do what I can to put the podcast out there to encourage people to share it.

But maybe it's for three dozen people, maybe that's where it is. And if I can be faithful to the Lord, that's my job.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. But I suspect it's a bigger audience than that. But what I really think is a clever and really good idea that you suggested was the idea of pause points for discussion. And I think that that could be a very effective way of getting a segment that you pause and stop so you're not having too much at one time for discussion purposes. How long have you been doing it at this point?

Victor Joecks:
It's been about four months.

Marlin Detweiler:
Okay. So you haven't been through the election season that we went through in 2024 with the podcast. But tell us what a Christian's view of that might have been if you had been doing the podcast in, say, August through November timeframe as things were heating up. What kind of topics might you have taken on? Help us understand how you think about what's good grist for the mill of discussion between parents and child.

Victor Joecks:
Well, I think immigration would have been a major topic to discuss. You know, I think it's very easy for us in that kind of Christian conservative bubble to just think people are here illegally. They broke the law. They should be removed. I think there's a lot of truth to that. But I think it's also important to understand, well, why would people disagree with this?

You know, if we could talk about the economic benefits of illegal immigration, and I think, you know, when you look at just a raw GDP number in terms of gross domestic product, you look at Las Vegas, there are a lot of illegal immigrants here. And so you can say, and I think truthfully, you know, if you remove a million illegal immigrants, you're going to hurt the economy in the sense that the gross domestic product is going to go down.

You're going to see some downward pressure on employment levels. And in fact, I think we actually have seen that, as Trump has been. So, you know, he's actually kept his campaign promise about deporting people. And so I think it's important to acknowledge that that's a real trade off, you know, and that there are people, you know, if I had been born in Mexico, you know what I would have wanted to have done, gone to the United States.

I think that's a real understandable thing. And I think you can look at that illegal immigrants and say, there are people who broke the law coming here. But, as they've been here, you know, they've been a, you know, for lack of a better term, upstanding citizen. And we can understand why someone would say, you know, that person's not really causing the problem.

Maybe they should be allowed to stay. Even if we disagree, we can understand why that is. And then you can, of course, get into, you know, the Democrats love to make this a racial issue or a xenophobic issue, you know, oh, you just don't like people because of their skin color. And I think it's hard for people to be prepared for that to be called racist for what they believe and what they think is normal.

And I think we need to let our kids know that, you know, if you believe that we should enforce immigration law, one of the responses will be, oh, you're a racist, you're a xenophobe. And why do people call them these names? Well, it could be true, but we can look at the argument and say, well, no, we're following the law.

Every country on earth has borders, controls who comes into their country. So it's not a race issue. But you need to be prepared for that, my son or daughter. And that's an appeal to an emotion, not logic. And you've got to be mentally tough enough to know that that's what's coming. I'm sorry. I think immigration would have been a big one.

I mean, I think obviously a lot of the moral issues in the last election, abortion, you know, why do people support abortion? Well, they minimize the fact that a preborn baby is alive and they view a pregnancy not as a great gift, but as an economic hindrance. You know, they say, oh, if a young single mother has a baby, her financial future is going to be affected.

And that may be true, and in many cases that is true. But that doesn't outweigh the fact that the key question is, is a preborn child alive? Is that a human being or not? And so sometimes you have to kind of wade through those things to get to the heart of the matter, and certainly in the case of abortion, that's certainly the case in the transgender issue.

You can look at things like women's sports and protecting women's sports. I mean, the Trump campaign, I just from a political perspective, did a lot of incredible work on the ad side of that. But, you know, what's at the root of the transgender debate is, does biological sex exist? Is that an actual thing? And all of the outgrowths of that come from that one question.

Marlin Detweiler:
I realize that you are a reporter and not a prognosticator, but what do you anticipate in terms of issues as you look at your children and you certainly think about their future, you think about what might be coming in the next two, five, ten years. Where do you see challenges that you may want to help people address effectively?

Victor Joecks:
Well, you know, look at the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and I think you're kind of seeing the country dividing into two camps. I mean, people who believe America is a great country and America's founding ideals are terrific, are wonderful. This idea that all men are created equal, I think that's an incredible idea.

That's an idea that changed human history. But you also look at the other side and you look at the left that says, well, actually, you know, that's not a great ideal. That's just cover for the white supremacy that's in the country, right? This idea of critical theory that we have to divide people into arbitrary groups based on their race, their sex, their sexual orientation.

That's a major conflict in the country. And it kind of undergirds all of these issues that we see popping up into the forefront. So what I'd like to prepare my own children, I'd like to help parents prepare their children, is to understand this false dichotomy that the left puts forward, understand the logical flaws with it.

Understand the moral problems with it. When you judge people by groups and not by their individual character, and prepare them to defend traditional American and Christian values.

Marlin Detweiler:
Yeah. But I commend you for taking this on and thinking about it in terms of a real tool for parents and kids to have grist to put through the mill as a great idea.

Victor Joecks:
I appreciate it, and I appreciate you having me on and spreading the word.

Marlin Detweiler:
Well, thank you. And, folks, thank you again for joining us on another episode of Veritas Vox. We hope to see you next time.