The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses President Trump and the incentivization of vice, the issues of Graham Platner, our society’s need for tradesmen, and the need for Christians to work in trades to the glory of God.Part I (00:14 – 10:03)President Trump Incentivization of Vice: President Trump is Loosening Regulations on Marijuana, Gambling, and DrugsThe President of Vice by The Wall Street Journal (Andy Kessler)Part II (10:03 – 17:13)This is Exactly What It Looks Like: The Issues of Graham PlatnerCut Platner Loose by The Atlantic (David Frum)Part III (17:13 – 25:45)The Need of Tradesman: There is a Massive Need for Workers in Trade, and We Need Christians to Do It to the Glory of GodbySign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Tuesday, June 9, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. We often hear at least conversation about virtue and vice, virtue as a moral good, vice as a moral evil. Very interesting conversation about this is now coming up with issues that might appear to be unrelated, such as prediction markets and drug use. And you could go right down the list of any number of social ills. and pathologies. But we're also looking at issues of personal behavior. We're looking at even personal sexual morality, other issues that are coming up as a part of our national conversation. A very interesting argument was presented in the Wall Street Journal by Andy Kessler. He's a columnist for the journal. And it's the headline that'll get your attention, the president of vice.

Now, in this case, he is talking about Donald Trump, the president of the United States. and he makes a very interesting argument that I think many conservatives have missed. He says this, quote, conventional wisdom has Democrats as footloose and fancy free about sex drugs and rock and roll. Bill Clinton's I didn't inhale and Barack Obama's maybe a little blow. Republicans are considered stodgy, moralizing prudes pushing law and order. Not anymore. He then writes this, quote,

Isn't it odd that teetotaler Donald Trump is our first vice president, the word vice put in quotation marks, the president of vice is what he means here. He then writes, and I quote, think about it. A guy famous for cringy dancing to the village people's YMCA is single-handedly loosening controls on weed, psychedelics, and gambling. Is it now hip to be square, he asks? Now, this is a very interesting argument, and this is just the beginning of an essay that Kessler offers in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Interestingly, of course, in the opinion pages. He is expressing an opinion. But that opinion is marked by a certain basis, in fact. There has been something of a reversal of the traditional Republican conservative argument when it comes to many issues. If you go back, for example, to President Ronald Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, undertook to try to address the nation's drug use and drug abuse with just say no, a policy that was often lampooned at the time, but frankly,

has been followed by many other political leaders. And when you look at virtue and vice, the big question, of course, are many in the United States, is what is the role of government in the first place? Okay, this is a big issue for Christians. Christians need to lean into this argument. And here's where we also need to understand that the political and moral landscape around us

is a little more complicated than most people recognize. That's why, for example, Andy Kessler writes about a switching between the two parties. You go back just a generation, it was the Democrats who were for so many of these things, or at least not against them, now many Republicans are also in on it to some degree. Now, a part of this is social liberalization, that is to say, in the modern age, societies generally move towards more liberal positions, more tolerant positions,

is the way many on the left would put it on so many issues. As a matter of fact, a good number of social conservatives, including Christian conservatives, at least to demonstrate the fact that their general inclination is to slow leftism or liberalism down rather than to offer a genuinely alternative argument, a contrasting argument. Now, as you're looking at this, it is also interesting to note that the role of President Trump and this is not incidental. And here's where I think we need to think about some basic worldview issues. And I've talked about this before.

It's the contrast between libertarianism and a conservative position. A conservative position does prize liberty. And here's where you say, well, what kind of liberty? Conservatives prize civic liberty, coming right down to the civic liberty held by individuals. But that's quite different than embracing a kind of libertarian individual freedom that means the freedom from moral rules or moral constraints. And here's where we need to understand. This is one of the big dynamics of our time.

There is a left-right dynamic, to be sure, and it's huge. the chasm between progressives and conservatives is going ever deeper, the distance ever wider. But even within those who are sometimes characterized on the cultural right, there really is a distinction. Libertarians say what we want is unfettered individual freedom, whereas conservatives, and in particular Christian conservatives understand, there are just some things that are objectively wrong, morally wrong, and no society should facilitate, much less encourage them. Now, here's where Andy Kessler has a very interesting argument because when it comes to the Trump administration and it comes to many of these issues, the Trump administration is more libertarian than

conservative, and is libertarian in a unique way. It's libertarian in the sense that these things are going to happen, so they might as well happen in terms of a free society and a free economy. They might as well happen with persons invested in them and at least reaping something from them. The way the president looks at many of these vices is a sense of inevitability. These things are going to happen, so you might as well put it into a controlled economic situation in which, well, you can invest, you can control. This is a big argument when it comes to the issue over drugs and drug use. There are those who say, no, what we need are very tight laws that restrict any kind of

individual drug use, any kind of drug abuse, and especially when it comes to narcotics and and psychotropic drugs and all the rest. There are others who are saying, no, you know, it is simply going to happen. So instead, we should just be a society that tolerates it and, frankly, allows investment in it. There's another argument, and this is one of the arguments that came up in the United States in the 20th century over the issue of prohibition. So in prohibition, you had a constitutional prohibition against the sale of alcoholic beverages, the import, the distribution, the sale.

And this was backed up by interstate commerce. laws. This led in a large part to the development of modern law enforcement, certainly at the state and national level, especially the national level. Here's where you had the development of national law enforcement agencies in a big way. And then, of course, there was the repeal of prohibition which made the sale of alcohol available. Legal again, why was prohibition reversed? Well, at least the conventional wisdom is that Americans simply weren't going to do without alcohol, at least a certain segment of the population, and thus what had happened is that when you make illegal a trade that had been legal, or in that sense you make it illegal in any point,

you are basically forcing the business to go underground. And so even as some people look at the experience of prohibition, they'll say, well, you know, there was a decrease in alcohol use, and in the effects of alcohol in many segments of the population, at the same time, there was also the rise of organized crime, and there were fortunes to be made in the illegal sale of alcohol.

Many people have used that kind of argument when it comes to narcotics, going all the way back to the 1950s and the 1960s. But at least when it comes to the United States, Congress, and for that matter, presidents of the United States, there's been a very guarded sense of making those arguments at all.

Instead, regardless of the partisan affiliation, the reality is most presidents have led administrations that have taken pretty significant efforts to crack down on the sale and distribution of illegal drugs, just to give just one example. But, of course, there's a counter example with the legalization of cannabis. Now, this is still uneven nationwide, but culturally it's becoming more of a thing. It's becoming more culturally acceptable I think Christians have to recognize for people to use marijuana. Even as, by the way, some of the health dangers have become even more recently affirmed and accentuated. But it is interesting. Just look at this article, the president of vice. And what Andy Kessler's arguing is, well, here's a summary.

Trump has relaxed legal restrictions on marijuana, other drugs, and gambling. So once again, very interesting. When it comes to gambling, it's a lot like the argument about beverage alcohol and about illegal narcotics. Do you simply try to manage the business? And of course, this is where many states have gotten into it because they see the opportunity for vast revenue. Let's be honest, a lot of states have gotten into the licensing of casinos. And of course, this really began with the expansion of lotteries state by state over the course of the last several decades. The point I want to raise is this. Christians have an understanding of virtue and vice that isn't just based on political or economic considerations.

We believe that some things are inherently wrong. We also believe, and this is a consistent Christian argument, that love of neighbor means that a righteous government, an appropriate government, would not look at these kinds of vices as an opportunity for tax revenue, but would rather understand these are dangers that have to be managed by any sane society. And you know, we're still a society that believes the eight-year-old shouldn't be handed these things. We're still a society that believes that you shouldn't be able to walk into a, you know, a neighborhood market and find these things. things marketed on the wall. But the fact is, we are moving more and more in that direction. And it is interesting that in the Republican Party, which has, for a number of decades, been making a pretty consistently conservative argument, I think at the very least we need to note that that argument is becoming less consistent. And in worldview consideration,

I think Christians really need to take a look at that. And I could say Christian churches, Christian leaders, you might say especially in this case, Christian parents, it's a big issue. All right, we have to come back to the Maine Senate race because of a big moral lesson that is really unfolding before our eyes. Of course, we have the moderate Republican Susan Collins running for another term in office in a state that voted against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden in the 2024 election. Maine is basically a Democratic-leaning state, but you have a longstanding moderate, which is to say on some issues liberal Republican. Susan Collins, however, does vote as a Republican. She caucuses with the Republicans, and there are many who see a victory for the Democrats in Maine in this race as necessary to any Democratic reclaiming of control in the United States Senate. And here is where the Democrats

thought they were in a situation. They couldn't lose. Chuck Schumer, the New York Senator, who is the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, basically recruited Maine Governor Janet Mills to run against Susan Collins and give him. the fact that the Democrats have an advantage, and this was a two-term governor there in Maine, it was believed that Janet Mills would basically cruise to victory. And you know she might have, but will not know, because it actually was the case that Janet Mills had to withdraw from the race for the Democratic nomination, something that would have been unthinkable just a matter of months, maybe even weeks ago. And that's because Graham Platner, who is basically an insurgent

candidate who is often identified by different vocations, including the fact he's an oyster farmer, and that's sometimes the way that it's put. Well, Janet Mills had to withdraw off on the race because this populist candidate coming from basically nowhere in the Democratic Party in Maine was clearly leading in the polls. And the Democrats decided to get on his bandwagon. Well, that has become quite costly because let me just remind you, there have been a series of moral revelations. We're talking about a Nazi tattoo. We're talking about all kinds of statements made in various social media context, misogynistic, anti-women, just some very brutal things.

And then we have claims being made by some women that they were directly confronted by Graham Platner in an overly suggestive sexual way. There are other people who are looking at the fact that the candidate's wife had revealed to the campaign manager that there could be controversy over some sexually explicit text. that the candidate had with women other than his wife, and that even in recent years. So all of that's on the table. But what's really interesting right now is that the Democrats are in a position where they are openly fearful of what comes next.

Okay, so here's a very interesting picture for us in moral terms. When you have a cascade of moral issues like this, I think we know the pattern all too well. There's almost always something more. There's almost always another shoe to drop. The Democrats, interestingly, are now saying that, out loud. It's also interesting to see that people who want the Democrats to gain a majority in the Senate are now offering advice to Democrats in Maine. Dump Platner. That's pretty much the outright argument made by David Frum as he writes in the Atlantic. The title of his article is cut Platiner loose.

Okay, I want you to hear how he ends the article because there's a very interesting moral point here. He writes this, quote, with Platner, the main election will offer voters a contest between a moderate Republican woman, who had voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial and a man who can be plausibly depicted as a violent misogynist whose working-class image is built on fictions and fakes. How much will Roy Cooper, John Ossoff, and James Telerico love seeing Plattenor's photograph alongside theirs in TV graphics about the 2006 election?

That's speaking of three Democratic candidates for the Senate and respective states. The point is, they're not going to want to picture with this guy. quote, not much one should think. He then goes on to say this, quote, to defend Platner, Democrats will have to choose between two strategies, denouncing his liars of possibly growing number of women, or else accepting the stories, but then arguing that twisting a woman's arm

and locking her in a room is not quite the same as beating her. He then asked, do they want to haggle over just how inappropriate these romantic relationships were, even as they argue that wearing an SS tattoo throughout most of one's adult life does not prove that one is a literal Nazi, he then says this, quote, these are not conversations that Democrats should wish to prolong in a year that might otherwise deal with Trump's abuses

of power, corruption, and economic mismanagement. I read it just as David Frum wrote it, big opponent of Donald Trump. But my point is this, sometimes in politics, it's really important to read the other side's mail. It's really important to look at the discussion taking place on the other side. So it really is interesting. to see how David Frum, who, by the way, was associated with Republican administrations, including the administration of George W. Bush, but he has turned into a virulent anti-Trumper, and so you'll see how the logic is now being extended. He clearly wants the Democrats to gain a majority in the United States Senate. He's looking forward to a Democratic ascendancy.

He basically is opposed in entirety to the modern Republican Party, but he does have limits. Now, it's also interesting to note that he doesn't make a straight, forward moral argument, but there is an undeniable moral component to the argument he makes. And that is that it's not going to be good for the Democrats to be found having supported this guy. Behind that again is the fear. There's another shoe to drop. But I do appreciate what we see in this article, and that's David Frum saying, you know, if we find ourselves saying it's not what it looks like, well, here's the thing.

When you say, and especially when you have to say, and you have to say loudly, it's not what it looks like, it usually turns out to be exactly what it looks like. When it comes to questions about character and conviction and elections of public policy and leadership, obviously there are issues on both sides of the partisan aisle. But it's really important that Christians have a straightforward and basically biblical understanding of how to deal with these issues. We're in a complex world. Nothing is easy.

But in some cases, you look at someone's record and you go, okay, that turns out to be easier than I thought it might be. You might think that at least some Democrats are having those thoughts, especially in the state of Maine. All right, let's switch gears to talk about another big moral issue, and here's where Christians are really invested. We're talking about the dignity and necessity of work, and we're talking about the challenge of raising young people to take their place in the world of work. And here's where Christians understand this is more than just an economic issue. It's more than just a moral or cultural issue. It has to do with the very fact we're made in God's image, and we are given the assignment to work.

Okay, so let's just think about this for a moment. By the way, recent surprising statistics coming from the federal government concerning the current surge in terms of the employment rate in a very strong market. Of course, there are all kinds of things that factor into this, for one thing, long term, a falling birth rate means there's going to be a constriction of the number of workers available for deployment in the economy. That's going to turn out to have massive consequences. But I found a very interesting article. This one, too, in the Wall Street Journal, was in the front page of yesterday's business page. Here's the headline, big employers spend to fix technician gap. Okay, this is interesting. This is something you might not have heard of before.

I think it's interesting. It's on the front page of the business section of the Wall Street Journal, after all. It's about the technician gap. Okay, how much of a gap is there? Well, just listen to this. Quote, every morning, the chief executive of Ford Motor checks the same number. How big is the nationwide mechanic shortage at his dealerships. Lately, it has hovered around 5,000. Okay, so you're the CEO of Ford, and all of a sudden, it turns out you have a crisis as the CEO of a big auto manufacturer, one of the biggest in the world, and it turns out that one of your problems is that in your locations, you have a shortage of mechanics, technicians. What kind of shortage? Well, we're talking here at least 5,000 people. The reporter in the story tells us, quote, it was even

worse a couple of years ago, but this is still a yawning gap the automaker has to close. Chief executive Jim Farley said, the technician shortage drives up labor costs and delays repairs. In an interview, he said, customers are feeling the pain. You have a problem with your car, you take it into the Ford dealership, and by the way, Ford is just the example in this article. This is not a problem unique to Ford. And the local dealership has a backlog because there simply aren't enough mechanics. There aren't enough men in particular. You could say men in in terms of the larger workplace with a certain set of skills in all kinds of areas. I want to speak to Christians.

An awful lot of Christians are looking at the job market. They're looking at their own children. They're looking at their own sons in particular. They're looking at the boys and their family wondering, what are they going to do? And I think this article is a wake-up call, and there's some other wake-up calls as well, to the fact that Christian parents ought to be rethinking some of the fundamental assumptions. So, for example, one assumption that everybody seems to talk about is that everything's going online, Everything's moving onto the cloud.

Everything is a part of a digital future, and there's not going to be a need for people who work with their hands and know how to fix, for example, a motor. There are even those who are making the claim, artificial intelligence will be the next mechanic. The problem is, of course, it's actually hard to imagine how exactly that happens, given the way that mechanics work. And so, yes, there probably will be all kinds of AI diagnostic assist.

There will be all kinds of AIDS in these things. but the bottom line is here is absolute irrefutable evidence that already right now in 2006 the Ford Motor Company is 5,000 mechanics short. Okay, so you say, well, it's just a mechanic. Never say just a mechanic. Never say just in anything. This is a basic Christian principle when it comes to work. If it's good, honest work, it's never just anything. This is all to be done to the glory of God. Now, of course, I'm president of a seminary in a college. I wholeheartedly believe in college. and in particular, we're speaking here about the future for young men. You're going to need millions of trained young men, educated young men,

who are going to need college degrees in order to do their work and fulfillment of the very dominion command and the dominion authority, the stewardship that is given to human beings in Genesis chapter 1. But there is also going to be a continuing need for people who work with the soil, people who work with crops, people who work with stuff, people who work with wires, people who work with plumbing. And here's just another reminder. There is tremendous dignity in that work.

Okay, here's something else that comes up, even in this article and in the background around it. There's a lot of money to be made in this work. As a matter of fact, those who are certified technicians in any number of fields, those who work with their hands in any number of fields and have certification in those fields, they can be talking about the high, say, 80s and $90,000 a year. they can be talking about six-figure salaries over a period of time. And by the way, you can talk about urgency here, but one of the points I make, just thinking of what it means to exercise dominion and what it means to live in a fallen world and what it means to be looking at a job and the necessity of a job,

let me tell you, if you have plumbing that's not working, you will understand your immediate need for a plumber, by the way, who knows what he's doing, and one you can hope who will do it to the glory of God. By the way, what kind of economic need are we talking about? Well, let's just think about some of the trades, including those involved in construction. Listen to this section from the report. Quote, the U.S. skilled workforce is aging fast, while demand for workers in the trades multiplies quickly because of surging data center demand and investment in advanced manufacturing. According to estimates from associated builders and contractors, the construction industry needs to add an estimated 349,000 net new workers this year alone to meet demand, fueled in part by a

skyrocketing need for electricians." Okay, I think that kind of paragraph really deserves to be on the front of all the nation's newspapers. I think it needs to be in the information given to teachers and to parents. I think they need to know that we're talking here about 349,000 jobs looking for workers in just this year in these areas. I'm not saying it is for all young people. I'm simply saying, you know, we're living in a world that's increasingly confused about all kinds of things,

and that means confusion's always going to come with consequences, and you know clarity comes with consequences too. Once again, I'm not saying that I know what any particular young Christian needs to do. I'm simply saying, you know, these are some very big indicators that the world of work, as we know it, is not exactly going away as many people speak. Furthermore, we need electricians, we need construction workers, we need plumbers, we need all kinds of people in all kinds of trades. Yes, we also need ER technicians, and we need nurses, and we need doctors, and we need, yes, software engineers, we need all kinds of people working in all kinds of areas in the consumer

market and in all the professions, yes. And most of that will require a college education, and that college education done rightly is a proper act of stewardship, setting the stage for a life of productive work. and labor to the glory of God. If I didn't believe so strongly in that, I wouldn't do what I do. At the same time, I want to say, the world as we know it, for reasons that actually glorified the creator, the world as we know it needs a distribution of all kinds of gifts, all kinds of abilities, all kinds of interests, and yes, that comes down also to all kinds of jobs. I'm thankful we live not in a command and control situation, not under an autocracy or a dictatorship, where you have

the society just claim, okay, we're going to assign these people to be plumbers and these people to be electricians and these people to work on this line, these people to be doctor, surgeons, you know, Indian chiefs, as the old saying goes. No, I'm very thankful that we live in a world in which young people can look at what they enjoy doing, they can look at the gifts that God has given them and in conversation with their parents, and in particular Christian young people, in conversation with their parents and their families, those who love them, and with the leaders and others in a local church can come to an understanding that this is an honorable way forward. This is an honorable way to move into a successful adulthood.

This is an honorable way to be able to support a family. And yes, it's an honorable thing when someone needs a plumber for a plumber to show up just in time. And as Christians understand, it is also to the glory of God that that plumber show up competent and honest. This is where the comprehensive truthfulness of the Christian worldview just becomes a great matter of assurance. There is dignity and value in all these different areas of work. And if the world's confused about that, at the very least, Christians should be clear-minded and thankful, all to the glory of God. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information, go to my website at Albertmohor.com.

You can follow me on X or Twitter by going to X.com forward slash Albert Mowler. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbtsketeenary. Go to sbts.org. For information on Boyce College, just go to Boiscollege.com. I'm speaking to you from Orlando, Florida, where I'm at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, and I'll meet you again tomorrow for the briefing.