The American Soul
The American Soul
Prioritizing Faith, Family, and Morality in Modern America
How do we prioritize what's truly important in our lives? Join me, Jesse Cope, in this thought-provoking episode of the American Soul Podcast as I explore the critical themes of faith, family, and morality. Inspired by a conversation with a respected friend experienced in working with children and families, we look at how modern challenges like pornography and certain feminist ideologies can impact the family unit. I reflect on Philippians 4, encouraging you to focus on joy, peace, and contentment, and to reassess your daily priorities, ensuring that nothing comes before God and your spouse.
We also draw wisdom from a compelling commencement speech by Mr. Johnson on the role of moral education in society. True education, he argues, should serve more than personal gain; it should uplift friends, country, and humanity. We'll talk about the virtues of justice and civic duty, the need for a moral foundation, and the intertwined relationship of God and government. Join me as we envision a spiritually guided America, nurturing families, marriages, and a nation deeply aligned with its founding principles.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in. I'm sure to appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it gives us some more tools for our toolbox. Hopefully it helps us turn back to God and Jesus Christ a little bit more, and our nation as well. For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it, thank you so much. Very grateful for that, and for those of you all who continue to pray for the podcast, incredibly grateful for that as well.
Speaker 1:Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love, mercy, grace and your forgiveness. Thank you for all your many blessings, the ones we admit and the ones we don't. Father, thank you for the people that listen to and share the podcast. Be with them, be with their families, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil, guide them, guide us all, Father, in all that we do, give us wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help us to follow the commands of your Son, jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Give us discernment to see fact from fiction, wrong from right, truth from lies. Help us to get our priorities in order. Help our priorities to line up with your priorities. Five Be with our leaders, both civic and in the church, in the state and in the church. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Be with our military and our law enforcement. Our firefighters protect them. Bring them home safe to their families. Be with our educators all across the nation, whether it's public school or private school or homeschool. And God, my words here Father, please, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Is he at the top of your priority list? Is he somewhere in the middle? Is he even on it? Have you made time to read your Bible today, even if just for a few minutes, folks, even if all you do is read a chapter of Proverbs every day, we've done that before. We may go back and do that again on the podcast. It's a good place to start. At least I found it to be, so I was kind of getting back in to reading the Bible as an adult. But if you're married, does your spouse know it?
Speaker 1:I hear so constantly. Folks about not having time oh, I don't have time, don't have energy. I was talking to a good friend of mine recently, someone I consider a good friend we don't we don't get to hang out that often, but I certainly. How about this? Somebody whose value, whose opinion, I value a great deal, and they've had the opportunity to deal with kids and families in their career for over 30 years now, I think. And they talked about the importance in our conversation particularly of the family unit and how so many of the struggles that they see in their professional life, especially with kids, start with the family and with the marriage, with the family and with the marriage. They talked about the destructive nature of pornography on young men, the destructive nature of feminism on young women. Folks, we've been sold a bunch of lies that we have to put all this time and energy into things outside of our marriage and our family. Particularly, young women have been convinced that they have to work a full-time job inside the house and outside the house and that somehow that was going to be freeing or liberating, and of course it's a complete lie and of course it's a a lifestyle change in the sense of it's not that we really don't have time because we're having to work so much. It's because we're choosing to, or we're choosing to give our time and energy to other things screens, sports. There is nothing in your life that should come before God first and your spouse second, every day. All right, so we're going to get back into Philippians. I think we're on chapter four. Yeah, sync of Excellence, philippians, chapter four, verse one.
Speaker 1:Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see my joy and crown in this way, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge Iodia and I urge Synthica to live in harmony in the Lord, indeed true companion. I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you, god's Provisions. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now, at last, you have reviewed, revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
Speaker 1:Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity In any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction. You yourselves know also, philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone, for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent A fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice well-pleasing to God, and my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father, be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord, jesus Christ, be with your spirit A lot, as each day when you're reading a chapter a day, there's a lot to unpack. A couple things.
Speaker 1:Verse 13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me? It just was a verse that my mother had all over the place as a child when I was a child. Yeah, I think a lot of times it's kind of like the verse about ask and you shall receive. A lot of times I at least think, or have thought in the past, that that means you know well, whatever I ask for I'm going to get, or whatever I want to do, he's going to give me the strength to do, to do, and obviously, on its face, that's easy to see that that can't be true, because if we wanted to do something really wrong, god's not going to help us do that. He's not going to give us the strength to hurt others. He's not going to help us or give us when we ask to hurt others. And so there's obviously, logically, limitations on these verses. They have to be when we're asking within God's will, and I would make the argument even further that they have to be perhaps when we're asking with the right motivation and when we're asking for things that are best for us.
Speaker 1:I forget that often, folks, that his concern is eternal. What gets my soul home to him? What circumstances in my life are going to push me closer to him? And sometimes I don't like those. You know, you hear, you see, in these, in this from Paul, these comments about I know how to get along with humble means, how to live in prosperity, the secret of being filled and going hungry, of having abundance, and suffering, need A lot of times I forget that goal of God's is not to grant my every wish and whim but to get me home to him, and I think that kind of talks about or leads to verses six and seven.
Speaker 1:Be anxious for nothing, but everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. A lot of the lack of peace and the anxiety that I felt over the years when I feel it has to do with just not trusting that God's doing what's best for me. The circumstances don't feel the way I want them to feel or think they should have. I'm not where I thought I should be or would be, and so I start to get anxious be. And so I start to get anxious. I start to look at the clock of my life and go how much time is left? How can I get where I think I'm supposed to be from a worldly point of view, instead of trusting that God's got an eternal, heavenly point of view? Right, because if you know for certain that somebody's got your best interests at heart, if you really trust them, like a child to a parent, it makes going along when you don't understand or when the situation is tough. So much easier, so much better. Maybe you don't struggle with that, but I have over the years. So just a good reminder to turn to God every time we're anxious Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:And the last thing is what we talk about on the podcast, not infrequently Whatever's true, whatever's honorable, whatever's right, whatever's pure, whatever's lovely, whatever is of good repute, whatever's excellent, worthy of praise. Dwell on these things. What we focus on matters a great deal. When we look at things that are evil folks, it changes who we are, just like when we focus on things that are good, it changes who we are, which is why it's so important to read the Word of God every day. It includes music, books, tv, our phones. What we look at alters who we are. Either for better or for worse, we're either getting closer to Christ, closer to the devil. You know, paraphrasing CS Lewis, it matters what we give our time to. Is it true or is it false? Is it pure or is it evil? It affects us as individuals. It affects our marriage. You know, if you're, if you're married and you're I've heard so many marriage counselors talk about this if you're married and you're around people who constantly degrade marriage or degrade their spouse, it's going to have a negative effect on your own marriage and your relationship with your spouse, whereas if you're around people that positively build up marriage and their spouse, that's going to have a positive effect on you and your spouse. Just some thoughts, folks, excuse me. We are going to get back in and try and finish up.
Speaker 1:Today we started on the previous podcast and that is this commencement speech from William Samuel Johnson. Johnson, you remember, was a signer of the Constitution, right. Johnson, you remember, was a signer of the Constitution, right, and somewhere in here I did something fancy with it, which doesn't shock any of y'all that have listened to the podcast for any length of time. I'll get there. Just give me a second. There we go. President of Columbia University, which was formerly called King's College, right, and this is a commencement speech that he gave to the first graduating class after the Revolutionary War. He also ended up being state representative, us senator and a Connecticut Supreme Court justice, as well as the president of Columbia College. So a guy that definitely knew something about our founding and the need for education, right? So we're going to pick up where we left off. If you want to go back and read the other part of it. You can go to the previous podcast and we read through it. So he's talking to these students that are graduating.
Speaker 1:As scholars, it is your duty continually to cultivate your minds and improve in every branch of useful science. Remember that your minds are properly yourselves, your better part, which is to continue and act in a more exalted state of existence when you shall have done with time and sense. How infinitely important then is it that you form them to wisdom and virtue. In this seminary, you have only entered the portals of the temple of science. You have yet to survey and examine the august building in all its dimensions and extent, in all its grand and spacious apartments, with all their various uses and ornaments. Here you could only lay the foundations of science. The superstructure is yet to be reared, but there are such foundations as I trust you may build upon to great advantage, so as to render you happy in yourselves and useful to society.
Speaker 1:I say useful to society, for remember always that whatever internal pleasure, external splendor or personal emulament of any kind you may derive from the cultivation of science, you are not to rest here. All knowledge is designed for use, and not only for our own use only, but for the benefit of others also. We are born, says Cicero very justly, not for ourselves only, but partly for our friends and partly for our country, and give me leave to add with Cato, in part also for all mankind. For to relieve the oppressed and to do good to all men is the most glorious art that man is capable of and that which gives him the nearest possible resemblance to his divine maker. It is also attended with the sublimest pleasure the human heart can feel, a heavenly pleasure known only to those who are of a truly beneficent, enlarged and benevolent disposition.
Speaker 1:As men, then, and in all your commerce with mankind, you must be just and upright, true and faithful, kind and merciful, affable and benevolent, be useful upon all occasions to the utmost of your abilities and apply all the knowledge you have acquired or shall acquire to the benefit of mankind, endeavoring always to render them wiser and better. As citizens, you are under every obligation, human and divine, to exert every faculty that God has blessed you with and to embrace every opportunity that he may furnish you with to promote, as far as possible, the peace, prosperity and happiness of your country, and to devote all your talents and acquisitions, and even life itself, if need be, to its service to awaken continually in your own bosoms and to diffuse as far as possible around you every principle of public virtue and the love of country that they may be drawn forth into action to effectuate and accomplish that great and glorious and godlike design the general happiness of civil society and the universal felicity of all mankind. Such, gentlemen, are the obligations you are under. These are the duties which you have this day, in this respectable presence, pledged yourselves to perform. As far as a gracious providence shall enable you and give you opportunity to discharge field for the display of all your talents and all your virtues, cultivate it. I beseech you diligently. Your own honor and reputation in life demanded of you, the reputation and honor of this seminary of learning, your alma mater in which you have been so long and so tenderly nursed the glory, the prosperity and the happiness of your country, that dear country which hath not only given you birth but an honorable birthright and title to all the distinguishing privileges of free men. All I say, with united voices demand of you a diligent attention to the discharge of those important and honorable duties. Let them not demand in vain.
Speaker 1:Study carefully the fundamental principles of civil government, especially of republican government, especially of Republican government. Make yourselves well acquainted with the true nature of civil liberty which, fond as we all justly are of it, too many seem to be unacquainted with, sadly, the true industry of your country. I'm sorry. Study the true industry of your country. See what will render it happy at home and respectable abroad. Examine its present situation and what will be the effect of union, order and harmony. Affirm government of laws and an energetic execution of them. Government of laws and an energetic execution of them. See whether true liberty does not consist in an exact obedience to law, a submission to the public will, a surrender of all individual, inferior, partial, subordinate interests, emulaments and objects to general public and universal welfare.
Speaker 1:Desert not, then, the station you have assumed, the post which Providence hath assigned you, but go forth into the world firmly resolved, neither to be allured by its vanities nor contaminated by its vices, but to run, with patience and perseverance, with firmness and a clarity, the glorious career of religion, honor and virtue. I say again, the glorious career of religion, honor and virtue, for in this career alone be assured is true glory to be acquired, real glory and honor in this life, and everlasting glory and felicity in the life to come. Finally, gentlemen, in the elegant and expressive language of St Paul. Finally, gentlemen, in the elegant and expressive language of St Paul, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise. Think on these things and do them, and the God of peace shall be with you. That he will be your guardian and your guide, your protector and the rock of your defense, your savior and your God.
Speaker 1:That's the second half of that commencement speech that we started the other day by Johnson. There's a huge amount that you could unpack there. You could talk about in classes, you could talk about this in English. You could talk about it in history, you could talk about it in history, you could talk about it in government. So, but we don't. You know I would argue that the vast majority of high school graduates across the country have never heard of this particular commencement speech.
Speaker 1:Probably most of us are not super familiar with Mr Johnson, just to begin with. And you know he talked about being acquainted with the principles of republicanism and the need for that, so that we knew what a republic was actually supposed to look like and how it was supposed to act. He talked about the fact that so many of us enjoy the results of liberty right but we're not really acquainted with what's required to preserve that. If all we did, folks, was go to school, put our children in schools where they learned real history and the Bible before that, we would be far better off as a nation. We would be far better off as a nation.
Speaker 1:It would be nice to learn science. It's useful, extremely. It would be nice to learn languages, also very useful. It would be nice to learn art and music that make life better, even if they're not completely necessary. But if we don't have a fundamental moral foundation, but if we don't have a fundamental moral foundation and a fundamental knowledge of history, those are absolute necessities for the continuation of liberty. And the only way you get that is by teaching the Bible, the principles of God and teaching history.
Speaker 1:There's no acceptable excuse based on our founding, for the last 80 years of separation of God and state. It should never have been and it should never be allowed to continue. And if we're really going to turn our country back around, we have to get rid of that of separation of church and state. I'm not sorry. Separation of God and state, which is wholly different than separation of church and state. God bless you all. God bless and state. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world listening, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks Looking forward to it.