Raising Expectations, October 20, 2026

Raising Expectations with Pastor Joe Schofield

California's Muslim Holidays Law, Campus Islamization, and Parental Rights Battles with Denise Gary-Pandol

Pastor Joe Schofield welcomes longtime guest Denise Gary-Pandol, a Bakersfield school board candidate, for a wide-ranging look at California's new Muslim holiday law, campus activism, and parental-rights fights over gender curriculum in public schools.

Opening Prayer and a Golden Ticket Recap Pastor Joe Schofield opens the Monday broadcast of Raising Expectations by thanking listeners and restating that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for sins, so expectations can rise in daily life. He reviews recent Golden Ticket guests tied to California's midterm races, mentioning Herb Morgan's run for state controller and Janet Price's appearance with the Republican women, and previews a coming interview with a former lieutenant governor. Schofield welcomes his cross-country team, Dr. Paul Hall joining from Lompoc, California, and Dr. Craig Thayer, the Christian surgeon and author, joining from Dalton, Georgia without his wife Stephanie, offering the couple a belated happy anniversary. He notes Ron Greer in McKinney cannot appear this week. Schofield then introduces Denise Gary-Pandol, calling her a family favorite making roughly her ninth appearance on the show, and frames the hour around staying awake to the forces shaping today's leaders before turning the microphone over to her.

AB 2017 and the Muslim Holidays Law Denise Gary-Pandol opens from Bakersfield in Kern County, in California's San Joaquin Valley, to discuss Assembly Bill 2017, signed by Governor Newsom at the end of September. She explains the law adds two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, and the end of Ramadan, to the school calendar, requiring teachers to build curriculum around them. Gary-Pandol objects that no comparable recognition exists for Jewish holidays such as Passover or Hanukkah, arguing the Jewish people gave the world monotheism, the Ten Commandments, and the natural law tradition underlying American government. She ties the bill to a wider pattern, noting FBI counterterrorism work in Kern, Los Angeles, and Orange counties uncovered what she describes as a bombing plot targeting synagogues and churches around Hanukkah and Christmas. She urges listeners to vote for Steve Hilton for governor and Michael Gates for attorney general, and says the concern pushed her to run for a seat on the Norris School District Board of Trustees.

Muslim Student Associations and Outside Funding Gary-Pandol links the holiday law to what she calls a broader Islamization effort, pointing to unrest in Paris, where she says more than fifty organizations, including the Muslim Student Association of France, have destroyed buildings and businesses. She says similar Muslim Student Association chapters sit on California's university and community college campuses, and recalls that Bakersfield's chapter held a celebration the month after October 7, 2023, mourning Palestinian deaths while marking what she calls the torture of Israeli civilians. She traces Palestinian Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula, arguing they settled in the region as British-era laborers before Israel's founding. Gary-Pandol alleges the Democratic Socialists of America, with chapters nationwide including Bakersfield, now works alongside these campus groups, funded in part by Qatar, Russia, China, and Iran, and backs the Muslim Brotherhood, which she says sits behind Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. She cites Senator Ted Cruz's bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Answering Charges of Genocide and Apartheid Responding to campus chants of genocide, apartheid, and occupation, Gary-Pandol argues none of the terms apply to Israel. She says Palestinians are Arabs rather than a distinct race, that Israel's military warns civilian neighborhoods by phone, text, or leaflet before entering, and that Ara