The American Soul
The American Soul
Reagan's Warning: What Happens When We Abandon Our Christian Foundation
Can we truly call ourselves Christians if following Jesus costs us nothing? In this thought-provoking episode, Jesse Cope challenges listeners to examine the authenticity of their faith and its visible impact on daily life. Drawing from 2 Timothy 1:12, Jesse reminds us that suffering is an inherent part of genuine Christian discipleship—if we're not experiencing some struggle specifically because we're following Christ's principles, perhaps we should question whether we're truly following Him at all.
The conversation shifts to the critical foundation of family in American society, with Jesse making a passionate case for the irreplaceable value of wives and mothers who prioritize their families. With characteristic directness that some might find controversial, he argues that the exodus of women from the home due to feminist ideology has damaged our cultural fabric in ways that rival even the outright rejection of God.
Continuing his exploration of President Reagan's powerful "City Upon a Hill" speech, Jesse shares the remarkable story of Captain Ingram, who risked his ship and crew to protect a single American citizen—demonstrating America's exceptional understanding that individual liberty flows directly from our Christian foundation. This principle stands in stark contrast to the utilitarian "greatest good for the greatest number" philosophy that Reagan warned has justified every dictator's enslavement of their people.
As Jesse contemplates the growing divisions in America, he offers a sobering reflection on the possibility of future civil conflict if we continue to abandon our founding principles. His passionate call for a "great awakening" and return to God serves as both warning and inspiration for listeners concerned about the spiritual condition of our nation.
Whether you're examining your own faith journey or contemplating America's future direction, this episode offers a compelling conservative Christian perspective on what's at stake and how we might find our way forward through personal renewal.
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 sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us some extra tools for our toolbox. Hopefully it'll help us turn our country and ourselves back to God and Jesus Christ, even if just a little bit. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it, thank you, I'm very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you Very, very grateful for your prayers Definitely, definitely need them. And for those of y'all who are new, I'm glad you're here. Hope you enjoy it, hope you come back.
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 forgiveness. Thank you for all the many blessings that you bestow upon us as individuals and as a nation. Thank you, father, for those who have gone before us and set such a good example for us, with perseverance through trials and tribulations, sufferings, pain. Thank you for those who have been so willing to sacrifice so much for us to live in this land of freedom and liberty. Help us to be a light to others, to show them a little bit, father, of you and your Son, jesus Christ, and to direct them toward you. Father and your Son Jesus Christ, forgive us when we're poor, stewards of the talents that you've given us. Forgive us when we get our priorities out of order and we put other things before you. Help us to truly love your son, jesus Christ, and follow his commands. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength to love our neighbors as ourselves. And Father, thank you for the people listening across the nation, here in America and across the world. Be with them, be with their families, guide them, bless them, surround them with your angels. Protect us from evil, father, help us to do your will and them with your angels. Protect us from evil. Father, help us to do your will. And God, my words here, in your son's name, we pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray If you're feeling anxious, if you're concerned, if you're sick or if you have others in your life who are. Have you turned to God? Have you talked to him? Have you turned to God? Have you talked to him? Father, give me a little peace. Calm my spirit. Help me to trust you, help me to do your will, whatever that is. Give me contentment. Are you talking to him on a regular basis? Are you praying continuously? Are you talking to him on a regular basis? Are you praying continuously?
Speaker 1:If you don't know Jesus Christ, if you haven't accepted him as your Lord and Savior, cannot recommend anything more importantly than that. Today, father, I recognize I'm a sinner. I seek your forgiveness through the blood of your son, jesus Christ, who died on the cross for my sins. Please fill me with your Holy Spirit, take charge of my life, guide me in all that I do. It's not much more complicated than that, folks. It's a free gift that he gives to us. All we have to do really is accept it.
Speaker 1:And if you're going to a place, folks, that tells you that there's all these rules that you have to abide by in order to obtain salvation, that's not it. If you're going to a place that says that only their particular denomination can save you. That's not it. That's not Christianity. If you're going to a place that tells you that Mary or Joseph or one of the apostles, or a pope or a priest or bishop or cardinal or anything else pastor can save you, that they lived a sinless life, that's not Christianity. It's something, but it's not Christianity. All you need is Jesus Christ. The Bible specifically tells us he is the mediator between us and God. That's all we need.
Speaker 1:And if you're a Christian out there, make sure you're not putting stumbling blocks in front of other people looking for God and Jesus Christ. And there's a couple ways we can do that right. We can do it via hypocrisy. We claim to be a Christian publicly but we don't act like one, and so, of course, people that don't know God and Jesus Christ are going to look at us and go well, they're just a bunch of hypocrites. They're not any different than anybody else. So why would I be interested in that?
Speaker 1:Some of the best preachers I've had over the years they have talked about that often. If there's nothing different inside the church than outside, why would people join? Why would people come if we're not following Christ, which is going to look really different than following the world. Why would people come? And, of course, the flip side of that is if you have people that are really interested in following the world and they've got a church that is following the world, then they're going to join it. And that's sadly where you get some of the churches that we have today of multiple different denominations. They're full not because that church is following Jesus Christ but because the church is following the world. The leadership of that church is following the world and those people are interested in following the world and that makes it real easy to be a member.
Speaker 1:One of my all-time favorite pastors and, as I say on this podcast often, I've had some pretty good ones over the years but he said that frequently. He said if you're a Christian and there's not something in your life some struggle specifically because of you trying to follow the principles of Christ, he said I question whether you're really a Christian or not at all. If you're a Christian, if you claim to follow Jesus Christ but you don't have any struggle in your life, right, maybe you've got somebody in your life that just is not a nice person, but you know that Christ wants you to be kind to that person. Maybe there's something in your life that you just really don't want to do on a regular basis. But you know that God and Jesus Christ want you doing that. Maybe you're in a horrible marriage, a lifeless, cold, loveless marriage, and the world says, man, you just leave, you don't have any reason to stay, there's nothing there for you. But you know, either in the forefront or somewhere in the back of your mind, that Jesus Christ didn't give you that option, right.
Speaker 1:But there's something, if you've got some illness or injury that you're having to deal with, that would turn a lot of people bitter and angry. And I'm not telling you this because it's easy, folks. I'm not trying to make it out to be easy to deal with the illness, to deal with the injury, to deal with a loveless marriage, to deal with a horrible job, to deal with rebellious children. I'm not saying any of those things are easy. That's the point, that's one of the things.
Speaker 1:And, man, it's heart-wrenching, I know it is, folks. I mean it just sucks the air out of you sometimes, like you can't breathe. You feel this weight because we're human, just this huge weight and pressure right, like you're underwater. I don't know if you ever did this when you were a kid, and you would go down to the deep end, right, and you would sit there for a while, not too long, but long enough so that, as you're coming back up, you make it to the surface just as things are starting to get really uncomfortable, and you can take that big gulp of air. I don't know if y'all played that game Maybe it's just me, but are you? Are you just trying to hold your breath for as long as you can, Right? And then finally, you just have to come up and take that breath, and a lot of these things feel like that.
Speaker 1:Point right, whatever it is the financial stress. You're under the, the marriage stress. You're under the physical, emotional stress. You're under right. That's what makes us look different, though, folks, when we turn to God and Jesus Christ and cry out for help, as opposed to turning to the world. You know, for example, you go back to the marriage. You're in this horrible marriage not because of physical or verbal abuse, just because the person doesn't care about you, obviously. And the world says well, just go find somebody else, go sleep with somebody else, maybe go watch porn, go find a hooker somewhere, a prostitute, but go do something else there's pleasure to be had, right. Maybe it's drinking. Maybe you've got a horrible job, that's just absolutely oppressive. And the world says, well, man, just go get drunk every night, leave your troubles behind. Maybe the financial pressure right. And the world says, well, cut the corners a little bit, you don't have to do everything on the up and up. That's when people start to take notice of us as Christians.
Speaker 1:You look at some of these people today, some of these videos that you've seen coming out of Syria, and the Muslims have the Christians and they're threatening them and they're going to kill them. And it's obvious that they're going to kill them and the only choice that they give them is hey, convert to Islam and we won't kill you. Abandon Jesus Christ and we won't kill you, and the world would 100%, absolutely Sounds good. What do these Christians do Right now, today? No, no, I'm not going to do that. And, folks, I want to make clear I'm not saying that that's always the only solution, but I'm telling you right now that those people are setting a shining example of faith in God and Jesus Christ and trusting them. What kind of example are we setting when people look at us?
Speaker 1:Is there enough evidence to convict us. As they used to say in the Marine Corps is there enough evidence to convict you of being a Marine, if somebody accused you of it? If somebody accused you of being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convict you? And then, because it's just such an important topic, right, the cornerstone of our American nation is the family. The cornerstone of the family is marriage. So, if you're married, have you made time for your spouse today? If somebody accused you of being a good husband or a good wife, a Christian husband or a Christian wife, would there be enough evidence each day to convict you? And that's the other thing, folks, is.
Speaker 1:Every day is a clean slate, and that's both positive and a little bit overwhelming, right. So what you did yesterday doesn't affect today. There's no rollover minutes, right, you get up each day. Do you act like a follower of Christ today? You get up each day. Are you a loving Christ, following husband or wife today? And then you do a good job and you're like, oh, that's great, oh, I can just sit back and rest tomorrow. No, that doesn't work. You have to start over tomorrow from zero and prove again that you are those things. But it's also a positive, right, because if we have a bad day, if we have a day where we fail and we will the slate gets wiped clean again. The next day you turn to Jesus Christ and ask for forgiveness. You turn to your spouse and you ask for forgiveness and you get to do it again. You get a clean slate and you get another chance to put enough evidence together to prove that you are a Christian, that you are a loving spouse.
Speaker 1:Look at Timothy, chapter 1. Timothy charged to guard his heart. How important is that? We read that proverb often right, guard your heart, for out of it bring all the issues of life. Everything you do flows out of it.
Speaker 1:Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy, For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well, that it is in you as well. For this reason, I remind you to rekindle, to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day, retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me and the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phigolas and Hermogenes, hermogenes, the Lord, grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he was in Rome he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus.
Speaker 1:Verse 12 is one I think of often. For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him. Until that day, god will take care of our souls, folks, god and Jesus Christ. Until the day that Christ comes back, he will guard If we entrust right. I've given my soul to Christ. He's responsible for it now, not me. I've turned it over to him.
Speaker 1:I have absolutely zero hope of making it to heaven on my own folks, but I know I have faith. I choose to believe this scripture. It's a choice, folks, it's a choice we make. No one out there knows 100% that they're going to end up in heaven or not, because if they did, it wouldn't be faith, faith in the unseen right, as the Bible tells us. You can't have faith in what you see because you see it right. Faith is what you can't see. But I choose to put my faith in God and Jesus Christ and trust that they can guard my soul all the way up through the day that Jesus Christ returns and bring me home to them, or till the day that I die and bring me home to them Like the thief on the cross. Remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Speaker 1:If you need a verse to look at on a day-to-day basis, folks, if you need a verse to look at on a day-to-day basis, folks, to encourage you in your faith, I highly recommend 2 Timothy 1.12. And you notice the suffering. Right Talks about. What does he say there? He says for this reason, I also suffer these things. And then you look at verse eight. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God Kind of what we were talking about earlier folks.
Speaker 1:If there's not something in our lives some struggle, some bit of suffering, as my old pastor says, I question whether we're really following Jesus Christ. Suffering is a part of following Jesus Christ. You see it constantly throughout the New Testament. I have opinions of why, and the Bible talks about some of them. Folks, I can't sit here and tell you why you're suffering, in whatever particular way you're suffering, but I can tell you that you're not alone. I can tell you that there are other Christians around the world suffering for the sake of the gospel, suffering because they choose to follow Christ instead of the world.
Speaker 1:Verse 7, one of my mother's all-time favorites there were little pieces of paper, I think I've told you all this before around the house and this is one of the verses that I remember For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. There's other versions of that. This is out of the NASB. But before I, if I go down that path, verse five, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm sure that it is in you as well. This verse, for whatever reason, today, and the fact that the verse seven reminds me of my own mother. Folks, I know this is going to step on some toes Wives and mothers who choose to stay home and pour their time and energy into their husbands, first and foremost, and into their children, second, are absolutely irreplaceable to our nation.
Speaker 1:You cannot replace them, and losing those wives and mothers out of the home to go pursue careers outside the home over the last several decades, thanks to the propaganda and lies of feminism and the left, thanks to the propaganda and lies of feminism and the left, I've done more harm to our nation than just about anything else, save outright rejection of God and abortion. And all three of those things are connected Rejection of God, feminism and abortion. A mother has so much influence on her children when she's at home with them, as opposed to them growing up in the arms of a stranger from six weeks on and older, and even when they get older. A mother still has so much influence on those children when they're around her throughout the day. And even more than that, a wife has so much ability to influence her husband. You know, proverbs tells us that the wise woman builds her house up and the foolish one tears hers down with her own hands. I have always read that verse and thought of the home in general and marriage in particular. A wise woman realizes how much influence and effect she has on her husband and marriage and therefore home and family. And she can either choose to pour her time and energy to a boss outside the home and give her strength and energy and time to someone who doesn't love her, or she can choose to pour that strength and energy and time into her husband and home and children, and it's a choice. It's a choice. The wise woman builds her house up, the foolish one tears it down with her own hands. I remember, even as a young kid, I have memories of spending time with my mother. It's a huge deal. I cannot overemphasize how important it is for our nation to have the example of women who choose, as wives and mothers, to pour their time and energy and effort into their husbands first and their children second.
Speaker 1:And we're going to go back into President Reagan's we Will Be a City Upon a Hill speech from January 25th 1974. And just kind of pick up where we left off, see how far we get. I think this was the last paragraph we read in the previous podcast, lord Acton of England, who once said power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely would say. Of that document they had solved with astonishing ease and unduplicated success two problems which had heretofore baffled the capacity of the most enlightened nations. They had contrived a system of federal government which prodigiously increased national power and yet respected local liberties and authorities, and they had founded it on a principle of equality, without surrendering the securities of property or freedom. Never in any society has the preeminence of the individual been so firmly established and given such a priority.
Speaker 1:In less than twenty years we would go to war because the God-given rights of the American sailors, as defined in the Constitution, were being violated by a foreign power. We served notice then on the world that all of us together would act collectively to safeguard the rights of even the least among us. But still in an older, cynical world, they were not convinced. The great powers of Europe still had the idea that one day this great continent would be open again to colonizing and they would come over and divide us up. You remember again here, folks just a little side note that the war, because the God-given rights of American sailors were being violated, was with the Barbary pilots I've said that twice now, pirates who were Muslim, and that's important.
Speaker 1:You have to know that. You have to be willing to see a couple things from there. To see a couple things from there. One, that we're still fighting the Muslims today because the Christian foundation of our nation is antithetical to the Muslim ideology. The two don't go together. Liberty and Islam they don't go together and you have to understand that, folks. You have to be willing to acknowledge that it just doesn't. And the second thing therein and it's not just Islam, but you can't have leaders in America that really defend America's foundational principles unless those individuals are willing to be Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim or atheist and yet have the principles of Jesus Christ supersede their own individual principles. And of course, you can see that's a dicey path to be on. Can see that's a dicey path to be on. But if you elect communists, leftists, atheists, atheists, muslims, buddhists, hindus, unless again they're willing to put the principles of Christ, which are the foundation of our nation, above their own personal ideology, it's going to end poorly because none of those ideologies function. And you just have to look at examples of leaders that have been elected today. Look at some of the leaders that we have that are Muslim. Look at the leaders that we have that are less leftist communists. Look at some of the Indian Hindu leaders that we have.
Speaker 1:Buddhists in the country it, it just doesn't work, folks. It can't, it won't. It's which is why, right John Jay, our very first Supreme Court Chief Justice, we go back to his quote so often. And if you really love America, regardless of your personal ideology, this quote has meaning for you. It doesn't matter whether you're ideology. This quote has meaning for you. It doesn't matter whether you're Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or atheist or leftist or communist, socialist, mother nature-ish Satanist, it doesn't matter. This quote still supersedes all of those individual personal ideologies, and that is. Providence is given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers. If we don't do that, if we don't elect men, not women, and not men who don't rule in fear of God, but if we don't elect men who rule in fear of God, it's not going to turn out well.
Speaker 1:In the meantime, men who yearned to breathe free were making their way to our shores. Among them was a young refugee from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He had been a leader in an attempt to free Hungary from Austrian rule. The attempt had failed and he fled to escape execution In America. This young Hungarian, koska by name I probably murdered that and I apologize Became an imposter by trade, really struggling today. Became an importer by trade and took out his first citizenship papers. One day business took him to a Mediterranean port. There was a large Austrian warship under the command of an admiral. In the harbor he had a manservant with him. He had described to this manservant what the flag of his new country looked like. Word was passed to the Austrian warship that this revolutionary was there and in the night he was kidnapped and taken aboard that large ship. This man's servant, desperate, walking up and down the harbor, suddenly spied a flag that resembled the description he had heard. It was a small American war sloop. He went aboard and told Captain Ingram of that war sloop his story.
Speaker 1:Captain Ingram went to the American Council. When the American Council learned that Kostya had only taken out his first citizenship papers, the Council washed his hands of the incident. Captain Ingram said I am the senior officer in this port and I believe, under my oath of my office, that I owe this man the protection of our flag. He went aboard the Austrian warship and demanded to see their prisoner, our citizen. The admiral was amused, but they brought the man on deck. He was in chains and had been beaten badly. Captain Ingram said I can hear him better without those chains, and the chains were removed. He walked over and said to Kostya I will ask you one question. Consider your answer carefully. Do you ask the protection of the American flag? Kostya nodded dumbly yes, and the captain saidded dumbly yes. And the captain said you shall have it. He went back and told the frightened council what he had done.
Speaker 1:Later in the day three more Austrian ships sailed into harbor. It looked as though the four were getting ready to leave. Captain Ingram sent a junior officer over to the Austrian flagship to tell the admiral that any attempt to leave the harbor with our citizen aboard would be resisted with appropriate force. He said that he would expect a satisfactory answer by four o'clock that afternoon. As the hour neared, they looked at each other through the glasses. As it struck four, he had them roll the cannons into the ports and had them light the tapers with which they would set off the cannons. One little sloop. Suddenly, the lookout tower called out and said they are lowering a boat and they rowed Oshka over to the little American ship.
Speaker 1:Captain Ingram then went below and wrote his letter of resignation to the United States Navy. In it he said I did what I thought my oath of office required, but if I have embarrassed my country in any way, I resign. His resignation was refused in the United States Senate with these words this battle that was never fought may turn out to be the most important battle in our nation's history. Incidentally, there is to this day, and I hope there always will be, a USS Ingram in the United States Navy. I did not tell that story out of any desire to be narrowly chauvinistic or to glorify aggressive militarism, but it is an example of government meeting its highest responsibility.
Speaker 1:In recent years we have been treated to a rash of noble-sounding phrases, some of them good. Some of them sound good, but they don't hold up under close analysis. Take, for instance, the slogan so frequently uttered by the young senator from Massachusetts the greatest good for the greatest number. Certainly, under that slogan, no modern day Captain Ingram would risk even the smallest craft and crew for a single citizen.
Speaker 1:Every dictator who ever lived has justified the enslavement of his people on the theory of what was good for the majority. Remember that, folks, every dictator who ever lived has justified the enslavement of his people on the theory of what was good for the majority. That's how you get tyranny. That's how you get tyrants Is by focusing only on what's good for the majority, not to mention the fact that you don't know how long you're going to be in the majority. If it sounds good to you in a moment because you're part of the majority, what about when you're not? What about when you're not? You know.
Speaker 1:Again, this is part of the principles of Christ. I've heard it said so many times over the years from different pastors that even if you were the only person in the world, jesus Christ would have come to die for you. He would have climbed up on that cross to die for you, even if you were the only person in the world. That is not the same as other faiths, other religions, other cultures. We are not a warlike people, nor is our history filled with tales of aggressive adventures and imperialism which might come as a shock to some of the placard painters in our modern demonstrations.
Speaker 1:Americans be asked to fight and possibly die for a cause unless that cause is so meaningful that we as a nation pledge our full resources to achieve victory as quickly as possible. I realize that such a pronouncement, of course, would possibly be laying open one open to the charge of warmongering, but that would also be ridiculous. My generation has paid a higher price and has fought harder for freedom than any generation that had ever lived. We have known four wars in a single lifetime. All were horrible and all could have been avoided if, at a particular moment in time, we had made it plain that we subscribe to the words of John Stuart Mill when he said that war is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degrading state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war is worse. The man who has nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
Speaker 1:I've talked about this general before from the Marine Corps on the podcast Chesty Puller. I made the comment I'm paraphrasing, at some point in his life that there are worse things than death. Point in his life that there are worse things than death. There are worse things than death, folks, and there are worse things than war. I've said for years, and I maintain, that there's a real good chance we still likely have a third civil war coming in America.
Speaker 1:The left shows no signs of turning from their evil. In fact, they're gaining supporters, muslims among them. You look at what's going on in Britain right now. They're absolutely destroying the UK from the inside by the marriage between the left and Islam. A lot of people think that they don't go together, but that's just at a superficial level. Deep down, the core value of Antichrist unites Islam with leftism, socialism, communism and you can see throughout history the coordination.
Speaker 1:Who did the Muslims work with in World War II? Who have they sided with for the majority of the 20th century? Not us. Where does Iran turn? Not us. The old Soviet Union, china, not America. And I've known I've said this before on the podcast some men when I was overseas that I would have felt pretty comfortable turning my back on and knowing that no one would have gotten to me unless they got through them, who were Muslim, but they weren't very good Muslims, they were kind of like Easter and Christmas Christians, and that's certainly not true, or I can't say it's true across the board. I can't tell you that every single Muslim that's a very devout Muslim, is anti-Christ, anti-american. But I can tell you that the ideology is, and I can tell you that, historically speaking, islam does not join hands with America based on the principles of Christ. And if we do, folks come up to a third civil war.
Speaker 1:We need to remember President Reagan's words here. President Reagan's words here were also echoed at the beginning of our Civil War. Again, stonewall Jackson paraphrasing he really wanted a black flag war, he wanted total destruction because he wanted the war over with as quickly as possible. Thank God that he didn't get that right, because there's a real good chance that the South had done that from the very beginning of the war. It would have divided our union and it wasn't out of cruelty, it wasn't because he wanted war. He didn't want war, he was not one of the proponents, but he understood war and he wanted to make it as quick as possible. You see what Reagan? What does he say here?
Speaker 1:The lesson of Vietnam, I think, should be that never again will young Americans be asked to fight and possibly die for a cause, unless that cause is so meaningful that we as a nation, pledge our full resources to achieve victory as quickly as possible. We haven't done that. We haven't done that in Iraq or Iraq again or Afghanistan. We haven't gone in and absolutely done everything we can to achieve lasting victory and peace. And that's cruel. That's cruel to the people that we're fighting against, that's cruel to our own young Americans who are asked to fight, and it's cruel to their loved ones, who lose them or risk losing them or get them back maimed.
Speaker 1:If the war isn't important enough for us to fight it with utmost ferocity and destruction, then we shouldn't be fighting it. If we're not willing to as we used to say in the Marine Corps to execute a war with extreme prejudice, with the goal in mind being to get it over with as quickly as possible, we shouldn't be fighting it ever. I need to remember that if we end up in a third civil war, folks and he talks here again about this decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war this man who has nothing which he cares about more than his personal safety is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself, much better men. We need to reinvigorate that patriotic spirit, folks, that turns back to our founding principles on God and Jesus Christ, those principles that included greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends. We need a great awakening, folks. We need to turn back to God and Jesus Christ across the board.
Speaker 1:God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world, listen, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks Looking forward to it.