(upbeat music)

- [John] Tonight,

- Our infrastructure is crumbling.

- [John] A breakdown of president Biden's

more than $2 trillion plan

to revive American infrastructure,

and the pushback already against it.

Plus, unemployment on the rise,

a look at the latest numbersfrom the labor department.

And why church membership isdropping across the country.

All this and more tonight on Faith Nation.

(upbeat music)

- A sky high dollar plan

to rebuild infrastructure in America.

Hi everyone.

Thank you for joiningus, I'm Jenna Browder.

- And good evening, I'm John Jessup.

The administration callsit a common sense plan

and now lawmakers are just now considering

the multi-trillion dollarinfrastructure proposal

the president laid out Thursday.

- It's an extremely expensive plan,

but president Biden sayshe knows how to pay for it.

The CBN's White Housecorrespondent Eric Phillips,

joins us now with the details.

Eric.

- Jenna, John, this plantfaces a long hard road ahead

and the opposition iscoming from all sides.

The left, middle as well as the right.

Still the president isforging ahead with something

that he says is absolutelynecessary and we saw that today

in a meeting with his cabinet.

- Today, I'm announcing thatI'm asking five cabinet members

to take special responsibility

to explain the plan tothe American public.

- [Eric] The first Bidenadministration cabinet meeting

happening just hours after hisbig speech on infrastructure.

- It's a once in a generationinvestment in America.

- [Eric] In blue collar Pittsburgh,

the president made his speechfor the American Jobs Plan.

- I began with the heart of the plan.

It modernizes transportationinfrastructure,

our roads, our bridges, our airports.

- [Eric] Key items includereplacing lead piping

across the country,

5,000 charging stations for electric cars,

improving the nation's power grid

and a focus on research and development.

- Markers like batterytechnology, biotechnology,

computer chips, clean energy.

The competition with China in particular.

- [Eric] In the processthe president says,

putting Americans towork on good paying jobs.

- Not a contract willgo out that I control,

there will not go to a companythat is an American company,

with American products,

all the way down the lineand American workers.

- [Eric] The price tag, about $2 trillion

spread over eight years.

The Biden payment plan tax increases

for those making more than $400,000 a year

as well as businesses.

- We're going to raise the corporate tax.

No one should be ableto complain about that.

It's still lower than what that rate was

between World War II and 2017.

- [Eric] The president alsowants to close loopholes

that allow Fortune 500companies to escape paying taxes

and eliminate deductions for corporations

that take jobs overseas.

- It's honest, it's fiscally responsible.

- And it really is not anhonest conversation we're having

about what this proposal is.

- [Eric] South Carolinagovernor Kristi Noem said

she's taken part in a call with governors

from around the country aboutthe president's proposal.

- And I was shocked by how much

doesn't go into infrastructure.

It goes into research and development,

it goes into housing and pipes

and different initiatives, green energy.

And we're going to be backhere a couple of years from now

wishing that we weren't in a situation

where people had less money.

- In 50 years, people aregoing to look back and say

this was the moment thatAmerica won the future.

- A group of top Republicanshas come together

to form a coalition that will push back

against these tax hikes.

Meanwhile, the presidentsays he will announce

the second part of hisinfrastructure plan,

duped the American familyplan in the days to come.

John and Jenna.

- All right. Thank you, Eric.

Well, turning now to jobs in America,

the unemployment picture is on the rise

again though slightly.

New numbers from the labordepartment show 719,000 people

applied for jobless benefits last week,

up 61,000 from the week prior.

It's a sign that more thana year into the pandemic,

the economy is still reeling.

- Joining us now is MarkHamrick, Washington Bureau Chief

and Senior Economic Analyst at Bankrate.

Mark, thanks for joining us today.

More vaccines are being distributed,

more businesses opening up,

why the rise in unemployment applications?

- Well Jenna, as we speakI'm sitting in my house.

I'm not in an office andI know a lot of people

in the same would be boat.

And so that means that many businesses

are still under incredible pressure.

There are all kinds of businessesthat have yet to reopen

or just looking ahead to the time

when they could accommodatea hundred percent

of their capacity and thecustomers they had in the past.

I do think the outlook forthe economy is quite bright,

we're due to get somefigures on March employment.

There is some economists that think

that we will restore asmany as a million jobs

in a single month, but wehave many millions more

that we still need to restore,

not only to recapture what we lost,

but what we would have had

over the past year sincethe pandemic began.

That typically would have beentwo and a half million jobs.

- Mark, speaking of losses,

can we talk about what sectorsare being hit the hardest.

And across sectors, we knowthat women have been hit harder

than men by the pandemic. Why is that?

- Well first of all, in terms of sectors,

I think that most peopleunderstand that the activities

that many have restrictedthemselves from partaking in,

have then resulted inthose largest job losses.

And therefore we look atleisure and hospitality,

bars and restaurants.

We saw from ADP,

the payroll processingfrom earlier in the week

that a large number of jobs were restored

in leisure and hospitality in March.

But the labor department tells us we still

have to make back threeand a half million there.

We have hundreds of thousandsof jobs to get restored

in areas like manufacturingand construction.

Yes, residential constructionof homes and apartments.

That's doing great.

Not so much in commercial construction

and government structures.

In terms of the cohorts, the groups

that were adversely affectedduring this downturn

you are absolutely right.

Women were affected more often than men,

but also those who are lower wage workers

that tended to be youngpeople, persons of color,

those people were moredramatically affected

than others who areable to work from home.

- Well, let's shift gearshere a little bit Mark

and talk about the president'sinfrastructure plan.

Your initial thoughts on thismulti-trillion dollar plan

from the president.

- Well, you talked aboutthe politics of it earlier

but let's talk about the economics of it

which is obviously my primary concern.

We spent trillions ofdollars over the past year

with the goal appropriately.

So at least in the senseof the goal of trying

to get the economy back ontrack in the short term.

The long-term growthrate for the US economy

has typically been seenrecent times at about 1.8%.

Not even 2%.

And that we're expectingto have growth this year

on the order of 6% or more orthree times the typical rate.

What are we doing about theeconomy for the longterm?

That is really the goal here

and we do have investmentthat hasn't been made

for decades in infrastructure.

And that's the goal of the administration,

is really to get the economy.

Not so much just skimmingalong the surface,

but rather than to get it flying

and obviously how you payfor that, how you do it,

that truly is where thetension is in the details.

- All right. Mark Hamrick with Bankrate.

We always appreciate yourinsights and perspective.

Thank you so much for being with us.

- Thanks Mark.

- Thank you.

- Well, most Americans approve

of president Biden'shandling of the economy,

that is according to a new AP poll.

60% of the respondents, likehow the president is managing

the country's economicsituation, while 39% disapprove.

Half of the country orthose polled rather,

say they think the country is heading

in the right direction.

Now that's the first time

that number has reached the50s since March of 2017.

- ABC News Political Director, Rick Klein

joins us now from more.

Rick, it's good to haveyou with us this Thursday.

So more Americans approveof Biden's handling

of both the coronavirusand the economy than not.

Is he counting on that translating

into public and congressional support

for this massive infrastructure plan?

- Yeah. He's built up some Goodwill.

His hope is that hecan cash in those chips

around the next big political battle.

There's a lot of reasons to be skeptical.

The price tag is a lot largerand includes new taxes.

The idea of getting Republicans on board

I think is basically outthe window right now.

But the case that thepresident and the White House

can make is like, look,these are popular ideas.

People are largely supportiveof infrastructure reform

and supportive of even higher taxes

on wealthy Americans and corporations.

There's a broad base for the agenda

whether it translates intomore political victories

will be the challengefor this White House.

He's going to have tokeep Democrats on board

to say nothing off Republicans.

- Rick, More Senate Democratsare signaling an openness

to changing the rules of the filibuster.

The most recent that I read about

was Tina Smith from Minnesota.

Is the Biden agenda on a collision course

with filibuster reform?

And if so, what issue do you think will be

the one that breaks thefilibuster as we know it?

- It sure seems like it.

And I think he acknowledgedas much as an interview

two weeks ago or so thepresident saying that,

yeah, it basically is going to be a choice

between his agenda and the Senate rules.

The issue of voting rights isthe one that I have my eyes on

because you have peoplelike James Clyburn,

the Congressman from South Carolina,

former president Obama, who have said,

look if the issue is thatRepublicans are going to stand

in the way of basicaccess to the ballot box,

then it's time to get rid of a tradition

that has deep roots inthe segregationist era

in this country, Jim Crow era Senate.

And I think, look, you can be a critic

of the history of this process.

It comes down to policy andif there are concrete policies

that Democrats cannot pass

because Republicans are blocking them,

I think that's the thing that adds

to the equation as the public pressure

that might come toeliminate the filibuster.

Yes, there are more Democratswho are coming on board,

they still don't though as of now,

appear to have the votes to do it.

- Well on that topic of voting rights,

president Biden is also comingunder quite a bit of fire

for claiming the new lawends voting hours early,

a statement that actuallyearned him four Pinocchios

from the Washington post.

Rick, where is this issue heading?

Other States of course

are also advancing similar legislation.

- Yeah. Texas, just this week,

the state Senate early thismorning passed a legislation

that's roughly comparable in some ways

to what's going on in Georgia.

There were debates in Arizona,Florida, New Hampshire,

in Missouri and also some other efforts

that are less likely to pass in places

like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

I think you have onedirection at the States,

especially States that arecontrolled by Republicans

and another directionthat's being spearheaded

at the federal level.

The house passed the bill.

The Senate is debating a billthat would override a lot

of these local restrictionsthat are coming in.

There's one state,

Mitch McConnell's home state of Kentucky

that had a bipartisan bill actually

to mostly expand voter access.

So States are moving indifferent directions.

And I think you're right,

at times this the factshave been misstated.

It appears to me that apresident Biden was referring

to an older draft or anolder part of the bill

that wasn't in the final legislation.

He's wrong about that

but there are other reasonsto be critical of this

as we've seen CEOs of Delta and CEO

just as we come out and say.

- All right.

ABC's Rick Klein,

we always appreciate your insights.

Thank you so much for your time today.

- Thanks Rick.

- Thank you both.

- To Minneapolis, the murder trial

of former police officerDerek Shovan today,

George Floyd's girlfriend testified.

Courteney Ross recounted thestory of how she met Floyd

at the Salvation Army wherehe was working at the time.

- He said,

can I pray with you?

It was so sweet at the time

I had lost a lot of faith in God

- [Jenna] And much oftoday's testimony from Ross

centered on Floyd struggleto overcome addiction.

The prosecution put her on thestand to help humanize him.

And we'll be right back withmore Faith Nation after this.

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- Welcome back.

The red cross is in thedisaster response business.

While there might be plenty of work,

the response part can be challenging

during a global pandemic.

- As Caitlin Burke shows us,

the Red Cross had changedlike the rest of the world

learning to respond virtuallyto help struggling families.

- From large-scale naturaldisasters like hurricanes

or wildfires to smaller emergencies,

Red Cross volunteers are oftenamong the first on the scene.

Joining state, localand federal authorities

to provide support.

- We work with all of those agencies

to set up a Family Assistance Center.

Where the families of thosewho died during the event

are able to come and accessresources from a number

of different organizations.

- [Caitlin] When the scope ofthis pandemic became apparent,

folks at the Red Cross realized this type

of mass casualty event wouldrequire a new approach.

- We set up what we were calling

our Virtual Family AssistanceCenter on a website

by inviting many differentagencies to join us

on that website to let people know

what services they offer,what resources they have.

- [Caitlin] Rather than sending volunteers

to physical locations,they deployed virtually.

- Because normally in aFamily Assistance Center

we would have mentalhealth and spiritual care

and health servicesvolunteers working directly

with the clients.

Because of the pandemic we can't do that.

So we have a call center.

- Good morning.

This is the Red Cross VirtualFamily Assistance Center,

how may I help you?

- [Caitlin] Spiritualcare is the specialty

of volunteer Linda Rainey.

- So spiritual care for the Red Cross

is not based on anyreligion or denomination.

For us spiritual care really is about care

and compassion for the people.

- The Red Cross, our missionis to alleviate suffering

and people who have been affected

by a disaster or by an emergency.

And that's what we're doing

- [Caitlin] Over the last year,

just about every call seemsconnected to the pandemic

- People call in askingfor all sorts of things.

They ask for help designingfunerals or memorial services.

Many people are lookingfor financial resources.

- [Caitlin] The pandemicled to the creation

of the Virtual Family Care Center,

but it will continue even after the US

is no longer in COVID grip.

- We feel that there willcontinue to be a need

for a place where peoplecan go to get both

that emotional support andsome access to resources.

- [Caitlin] And the virtualmodel allows the Red Cross

to respond within seconds.

- We can scale up.

We can add people to the call center

if we start gettinglots and lots of calls.

We can pivot to being a morelocal or regionally based site.

- During a time when safetyseems synonymous with isolation,

the Red Cross wants youto know you're not alone

and their volunteerswant to hear your story.

Caitlin Burke, CBN News.

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- [Jenna] When faith and culture collide.

Why more and moreAmericans are walking away

from church membership andwhat it means for our society.

- When I came to Regent University,

it's like the world opened up.

I felt like I needed to advance my career

and go back to school.

Regent was a perfect fit for me.

The reason, professors are world-class.

You are equipped.

The focus of the faculty ison each individual student

whether it's online or in-person

you've become a part of Regent's family.

You carry with you, not justthe content and the knowledge

but the confidence to understand

that we can be significant in the world.

- [Announcer] RegentUniversity, follow your path.

- [Announcer] Nigerian Christians.

- [Announcer] Christians inIran are routinely arrested.

- [Announcer] Christianscontinue to suffer.

- [Announcer] In timesof trial and affliction,

you need to know the truth.

- One of the fastest growing

Christian populations in the world.

- [Announcer] Join WendyGriffith and George Thomas

for Christian World News.

- [Announcer] Young people are the ones

who are open to the gospel.

- [Announcer] Powerfulstories of suffering and hope

that affect all Christians.

Saturday night at sixon the CBN News channel

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A free DVD or booklet

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- If you're not a great sleeper,

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If you're already a pretty good sleeper,

you can enhance yoursleep and even better.

- [Announcer] Five leadingexperts help remove the obstacles

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- [Announcer] Call1-800-700-7000 or go to CBN.com

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- Everything you do,

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- [Announcer] You'll discoverhow food affects your sleep,

how to put insomnia to rest,

explore effective remedies for sleep apnea

and much more in Protect Your Sleep.

Wake up to your best life andget Protect Your Sleep today.

Call 1-800-700-7000 or go to CBN.com

to get your free or booklet.

- Is America losing faith?

According to a new Gallup poll,

Christian membership isfalling across the country.

It shows only 47% of us adults say

they belong to a church,synagogue or mosque.

This is the first time thatnumber has fallen below 50%

since Gallup startedmeasuring church membership

back in 1937.

The decline comes as a lackof religious affiliation

grows in America.

- David Kinnaman is thepresident of Barna group,

a leading research companyfocusing on the intersection

of faith and culture andhe joins us now for more.

David, what is behind thisdrop-in church membership?

- Well, thanks John.

So good to be with you.

For many decades, ourcompany has been tracking

the changing religious landscape.

And I think there are a lotof factors that are at play.

First, there's greatinstitutional skepticism.

We also know that youngerpeople are walking away

from faith and from the church.

And we know that we lookback over the last year,

the pandemic has certainlychanged a lot related

to church attendance.

We'll have to see whatthe long-term impact

of the coronavirus will beon ongoing church attendance

but that certainly has put abig damper on church attendance

and church in a church goingover the last 12 months

- I gotta ask.

So is formal churchmembership still important?

- It is much less important today

among younger Christiansand younger people.

They don't join much ofanything, much less a church.

Now that doesn't meanthat it's unimportant

and that we shouldn't have ways

of creating connection and alliances

and things for youngpeople to be a part of,

but we're certainly seeing in our research

among millennials and Gen Z Christians

that church membership isnot what it used to be.

- David let's talk impact,

is religious affiliationdeclines in America,

what are the societal implications?

- Well, so many differentanswers to that question.

I think one of them is thatthere's greater skepticism

about the role of scripturein our civic society

whether reading scripture would make us

a more civil and good society.

We see huge differencesbetween older Americans

and younger Americanswhen it comes to that

whether they're Christian or not.

So there's certainlythis sense in which how

will faith play itselfout in the public square.

That's one of the big questions

I think that's ahead ofus in the next decade.

Another question is a senseof like what is the story,

that the primary narrative,

that people connect to asChristians and as Americans.

And so I think this is another big part

of our our changing religious landscape

is there's no longer a central narrative

for what it means to be an American,

much less a Christian in America.

And that's another big factor.

Certainly questions of morality,what is right and wrong.

We see in scripture thissection at the very last

portion of the old test people do

what was right in their own eyes.

And we see sort of thissense of of morality

being up for grabs andquestions about truth.

Those were the things we see today

and those questions areonly increasing in frequency

for young people today, especially Gen Z.

We've done quite a bitof research on that.

- David, any way you thinkthat the trend can be reversed?

- Well, I think there's someencouraging things in the data.

First, the percentageof, we say it this way,

the percentage of people whoare reading their Bible weekly

has not changed in almost 30 years.

So about a third ofAmericans in the early 90s

said that they read the Bible weekly

and a third of Americans say

they read the Bible weekly today.

So there's still a verydevout a group of people

who are Bible minded Christians.

So that's one thing I thinkwe can do as Christians

is continue to immerse ourselves

in the truth of God's scripture.

And find in us then throughJesus an opportunity

to stand as light in darkening culture.

And remember that evenas the trends change,

and I think we shouldpay attention to that,

we're less Christians daythan we ever have been.

I actually see that as anopportunity for really good news

for the church to shine hislight brighter than ever

and to be the kind of Christians

who aren't just sort of good people

but we are actuallychanged and transformed

by the power of the gospel in our lives.

And because of that, we're able to change

other people's lives around us.

We're doing quite a bit ofwork now as a company at Barna.

Try to help do state of the city research,

trying to help empower localChristians and local churches

to make a difference in your city.

And so that's some of theways that I think we can make

a real difference torelease that potential.

Every Christian is gifted with good gifts

by God to make a differencein their community.

And we hope to be apart of giving you guys

information, data insightsabout how you can make

a huge difference in your community.

- And we look forwardto seeing that research.

David Kinnaman of the Barna group,

thank you so much for insights.

And given that Easter isright around the corner,

Happy Easter

- Same to you. Thanks John

- [Jenna] Coming up a return to tradition

at one of the world's most holy sites.

That story when Faith Nation returns.

- [Announcer] Christians around the world

are standing with the Israelis.

But why?

In CBN's free magazine, Friends of Israel,

you'll discover why Christians

are supporting the Jewish state.

How Israel is fulfilling prophecy

as a light to the nations.

And ways you can prayfor the people of Israel.

Israel needs the supportof friends like you.

Call now or go to CBN.comto get your free copy

of Friends of Israel.

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- Heavenly father we do thank you

for the work of your spirit, Lord God

with this movement of getting the Bible.

Lord into public schools.

- [Announcer] Watch The Prayer Link,

Tuesday morning at 7:30on the CBN News channel.

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- Finally tonight,

a special holy week service in Israel.

- A clergy in Jerusalemmarked Maundy Thursday

with a traditional feet washing ceremony.

Today's service was held at the church

of the Holy Sepulchre, asacred site for many Christians

believed to be the sitewhere Jesus was crucified,

buried, and resurrected.

The service was a welcome return

for many believers in Jerusalem last year,

all Easter services at thechurch of the Holy Sepulchre

were canceled due to theCoronavirus pandemic.

(soft music)

- Well, I know I'm certainlylooking forward to Easter.

How about you? Jenna.

- Me too.

Glad to see it almost here.

- Have a great night.