The American Soul
The American Soul
Jesus at the Center: How We Lost America and How to Win It Back
Time—our most precious and finite resource. Once spent, it vanishes forever. What if you knew exactly how many minutes you had left with your spouse, children, or parents? How would that transform your daily choices?
Jesse Cope challenges us to examine the stewardship of what we already have before asking God for more. Like Mayor Giuliani's focus on "broken windows" that reduced major crime in New York, our attention to seemingly small matters often determines our success with weightier responsibilities. We readily demand promotions at work without excelling in our current positions. We dream of perfect family vacations while neglecting daily moments of connection with our children.
The podcast draws a troubling parallel to our national condition. Recent reports revealed 3.2 million Social Security numbers belonging to people supposedly over 120 years old—a stunning example of government waste that few politicians have seriously addressed. More concerning than the waste itself is the pushback against those attempting to correct such problems, revealing deeper values that prioritize power over service.
Drawing from Reagan's prophetic "City Upon a Hill" speech, Jesse examines America's unique position in history and the responsibility that accompanies it. For nearly a century, progressive forces have systematically removed God from American classrooms and culture, understanding that controlling education means controlling the nation's future. The podcast makes a compelling case that no political leader, policy change, or government reform can permanently restore America without returning to the Christian principles that formed its foundation.
"We cannot escape our destiny," Reagan said, "Into the hands of America, God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind." That destiny requires more than voting or policy changes—it demands a spiritual awakening that begins in our homes and hearts before it can transform our nation.
What's the solution for America's challenges? Not merely electing the right politicians or implementing the right policies, but returning to God and Jesus Christ as the center of our personal lives, families, institutions, and nation. Make time today for what truly matters, before time runs out.
The American Soul Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe
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 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. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it will give us all some extra tools for our toolbox and hopefully it will help us turn back to God and Jesus Christ, even if just a little bit. Help our nation turn back to God and Jesus Christ, even if it's just a mite. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell other people about it. Thank you so much For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you so very much, incredibly grateful for that.
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 and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness. Thank you that you hear our prayers Even when it doesn't seem like it, father, even when we have doubts. Forgive us our cowardice. Forgive us our unbelief. Help us to overcome it. Father, we do believe. Forgive us when we put our own priorities first. Forgive us when we go back to the same old sin time and time again. Help us to help those, father, that have less than we do. Help for us to look for those around us who are suffering, hurting and in pain. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Guide our steps, give us wisdom. Give us discernment, perseverance. Give us wisdom. Give us discernment, perseverance. Help us to love your son, jesus Christ, and to follow his commands. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those listening to the podcast folk, father. Be with their families. Bless them, keep them, draw them close to you. Be with our leaders. Help them to turn to you. Be with our leaders. Help them to turn to you. Be with those around the world who are suffering for the name of your son, jesus Christ. Help us to help them as much as we're able, father, and please bring us all home to you and your son Jesus in your timing. And God, my words are pleased. In your Son's name, we pray Amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk his word? Have you made time to pray and talk to him? And, if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Are they going to go to bed knowing that you value them above all else? Save your relationship with God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I have all sorts of little notes from the past few days that I've just been kind of collecting. We're going to go through some of them. We talked about this a little bit, I think a podcast or two ago. There was a sermon a couple weeks ago that kind of got my focus on it. But speaking of, are we willing to focus on the little things or what we see as little things that God puts in our life? We see as little things that God puts in our life.
Speaker 1:You know there's, I'm sure, some of y'all that know law enforcement a lot better than I do. There's actually a theory, a name for this particular action, but Mayor Giuliani, up in New York, I think, back in the 90s, at some point in the past when he was mayor, he started focusing on little things, jaywalking, broken windows, and what they found was that as they, as they, really focused on keeping those little things in check. The bigger things also were reduced your violent crimes rape, murder, arson right. We're reduced your violent crimes rape, murder, arson right. I think so often we look at the big things or we want these big things right, but we're not willing to take care of what he's already given us. We're demanding more, bigger, better.
Speaker 1:You know we want a promotion at work, but are we already doing a good job, the best job that we can, in the position that we're in? We want a better relationship with our children, but are we doing the best we can with the time that we have with them already? You know, for example, we want to go on this, we want to take our kids on this vacation. We want them to have these experiences, but are we already in the day-to-day life? Are we spending time with them? Are we interacting with them? Are we reading with them, playing games with them, talking to them, listening to them? Or are we just putting them in front of a screen or on a sports field so we can pretend that we're actually doing something with them? You know everything right, whether you're talking about kids, parents, spouse, parents, spouse, friends. Are we giving of ourselves? Are we making time for those people that that's our most precious commodity by far.
Speaker 1:Folks, this time, once we spend it, we can't get it back. It's like can you imagine? Can you imagine if, if god said when you got to the age of adulthood, so say that you turn? But I think we used to. My father was actually just talking about this recently. It used to be a really big deal for a young man to turn 13. And there was a huge transition between before 13 and after 13. Was there was a huge transition between before 13 and after 13. And now we've kind of thrown in this like nebulous term adolescent and basically all it is is an excuse for us to act like children on into our adult life. Right, and it's not working out very well, is it? But before I get too sidetracked there, let's say when you turned 13, 14, 15, whatever it is, whatever number you want to use, god said hey, this is, here's all your money. This is all the money you're going to get for your entire life. You can't make any more. It doesn't matter how you invest it. It's never going to grow. This is it. You're not. You know, once you spend it, it's gone, even if you put it into an investment account and you started to make some money. You're going to lose some money somewhere else, so this is it, here's your pile, this is, this is all the money you're going to have for your entire life.
Speaker 1:How much do you think that that would affect the way that we spend our money and what we spend it on? If we knew that that was it, man, there was no more, how many examples would we have to see in our life of people spending all their money before they die and then being completely destitute or dependent upon the grace, the kindness of others for the rest of their life? How much would that change? What if we looked at our time, which is infinitely, I would argue, more important than money? If we looked at that, we don't know how much time we have. But what if we did? What if we knew exactly when we were going to die? We knew exactly how much time was left? How would that change how we spend it? Or what if? What if we knew exactly how much time we were going to have with a loved one in our life? Maybe it's not dependent upon our death. What if we knew exactly how much time we were going to have with our spouse, with our children, with our parents, with our friends, and so every minute we spent that would be one less minute we had with them, and we could spend it however we wanted to, but once we got to the end of that, that was it. That was it. How much would that change our actions?
Speaker 1:We act like we have forever in this life, folks, but we don't. We don't. We have eternity with God, thankfully because of Jesus Christ, but how we act here on earth makes a pretty big difference in how we're going to spend eternity outside of at least the way that. Again, I'm not a theologian, not a pastor, not a priest, but when Christ talks about the fact that it's going to be better or worse on day of judgment for some people, when he tells us to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, not here on earth, doesn't sound like it has much of anything to do with money, folks. It has to do with how we spend our time here on earth.
Speaker 1:Do you want a better marriage, though? Are you following God's commands already as a husband or a wife? Are you trying to get, or even demanding, that God change your spouse to have this great marriage and then, once he changes his spouse, then you'll start doing the little things that God asks you and then perhaps this is one of the things that the pastor, one of the comments they made, just as important, maybe more important Are you content to do that, to focus on the little things? Are you content to be where God has you right now? That doesn't mean that you're not striving for more. It doesn't mean that you don't have dreams, hopes, aspirations, folks. But are those dreams and hopes and aspirations within God's will Meaning if you don't get that promotion, if you don't have that great relationship with your children, if you don't have that great marriage, even though you're putting everything into it, you can't? Are you going to be content to trust God where you are? Heard another sermon, maybe we'll get into it on a different day, talking about that, talking about when we pray and we don't feel like God has heard us.
Speaker 1:Little blip here, not a big blip. There was an article in the Epoch Times newspaper I recommend often recently about Social Security and the cleanup of Social Security, and I just wanted to read one thing, if I can find yeah, yeah, it's a by jack phillips. Title of it is doge or doge or dodge or, however you say it, social security cleanup underway, right? This is from march 19th through the 25th. That issue, and what I wanted to read is a statistic that they put in this article, that there were approximately 3.2 million social security number holders, all listed above the age of 120, who have now been marked deceased. And later on in the article it makes clear that not all of these people. It breaks them down by age. One of them, I think, was over 360 years old. It makes clear that not all of those people were receiving benefits, but the point is still that they were on the roll, that there was paperwork that was required at different points, right, and, and so you're still spending money, even if nominally keeping up with which we weren't keeping up or they wouldn't be on there.
Speaker 1:And the frustrating thing is this has happened, this has been going on for decades, folks. This isn't like it suddenly just happened within the last decade. And there's two things that are extremely frustrating to me about this. One is why haven't the people, particularly on the conservative side, who say that they care, the representatives and senators raised, to put it not politically correct, but just raised holy terror about the fact that we have this much waste going on? And if they didn't know that? That seems to beg the question is that gross negligence, especially for those senators and representatives that have been there for a while? If you've been there for a while and you don't know of the fraud and abuse and waste, are you really doing your job? And if you did know, why didn't you make a bigger deal about it? And is it just on our fault as the people? Are we just so unplugged that we just don't care?
Speaker 1:I think that's probably valid for a lot of us. We're just not interested. I heard this years ago talking to a lady and I was asking you know how much do you and your friends talk about politics? Because you vote this particular lady. I know that she votes frequently and so I asked that and she said well, unless it really just involves us in particular, we don't worry about it too much. But yet you're voting for people who are going to affect policy. Even if you don't feel like it directly affects you, it affects somebody. I just wonder how many of us do that. How many of us go to the voting booth each time we have an election? But we don't really care too much, right? We just want our party to win, or we just want the guy that we like to win. We're not real interested in the nitty gritty, and then we end up with this, with 3.2 million people on the rolls of social security.
Speaker 1:The second thing, though, that really just lit a fire is all the pushback that Musk and this Department of Government efficiency are getting, and it's not shocking because it's coming from the left. This is the same party that champions celebrates ripping apart little babies. You have to remember that. This is the same party whose core value is Antichrist. You have to remember that, and the people that vote for it, you have to remember that in your daily life, whether it's your neighbors, friends, whatever. I mean. That's probably the central fact of our life in America today. If somebody's really for the left, for Islam, you have to know that their core value is Antichrist, and so it shouldn't be surprising that these people are irritated about even just the potential of wasting less money, of not stealing as much money from other taxpayers, other people. That's what they're upset about. They're upset that there's the potential that this Department of Government Efficiency might actually save some money and American citizens might actually keep their own money that they worked for instead of giving it to others so that the left can gain votes and pretend to be benevolent.
Speaker 1:And we're going to talk about not today. We're going to talk about an article about sex trafficking on a different episode. And it's just. I just I don't understand folks. I have my own sins, that's just not one of them. I cannot comprehend how a person is upset about potentially not stealing money from other people, and even more so the sex trafficking, stealing money from other people, and even more so the sex trafficking. I absolutely can understand how people are upset about the potential of reducing children being sold for money to have sex with people. I just it's mind boggling.
Speaker 1:2 Timothy, 2. These to faithful men who will be able to teach others also Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. When someone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops.
Speaker 1:Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not imprisonment. For this reason, I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement, for if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
Speaker 1:An unabashed, unashamed workman. Remind them of these things and solemnly charge them in the presence of God, not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness. Lost my place, I'm sorry, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they upset the faith of some.
Speaker 1:Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. Now, in a large house, there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work. Now, flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels.
Speaker 1:The Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of truth, and they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. Those last three verses, huh. The Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do this will. How many of us are not quarrelsome? How many of us are patient when wronged? How many of us are kind to all? How many of us are kind to all? And how many look on those who oppose us when we truly know we're right, which the only way we can know that is when we're following God right? How many of us look on those who oppose God in their life with gentleness, correcting them gently, brothers and sisters, in particular in the church, how many of us look on somebody in the church that's fallen, that's sinned, who's trying to recover, who's trying to repent, to do better, who is repentant, repentant right, repentant repentant? How many of us look on them with gentleness, instead of as eagerly as an opportunity to gossip verse 23 but refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce squirrels? I think a lot of us.
Speaker 1:Too often within the church, we get really offended if our little point of theology that we like, for whatever reason, isn't approved of by others. You know, if we've got something that we really believe from the Bible and somebody else disagrees with us, do we sit there and get in an argument about it? Or even the speculation part are we inferring things that aren't in the Bible, trying to figure something out? If we really trust God, folks, everything that we need to work on that relationship with him is in the Bible. We don't have to add other stuff to it. That's one of the problems with trusting in denominational doctrine is when you start adding to the word of God, right the proverb where many words are present, sin isn't absent, right? When you start adding to the word of God, it's really dangerous, even if you're just trying to teach and clarify, right, if you start to set that down as gospel. I was trying to teach here about this verse, but so now my words are equally weighty to the scripture themselves. And how many times throughout history has a denomination changed their stance? And again, that's the problem between the unchanging Word of God and the changing political whims, even inside the church of men.
Speaker 1:Verse 9, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not imprisoned. Along with verse 3, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ. I don't like either of these verses, folks, because it talks about suffering. But I think everywhere we look throughout the history of the church and Christianity, there's suffering, there's hardship. You can't escape it. If you're going to follow Christ it's going to happen. There's no like magic path where you manage to get through all of life and there's no hardship. You can either go through the hardship with God and Jesus Christ or without, and if you go with God you're going to have more, probably, hardship, not always, but you're definitely going to have it one way or the other. And how much better to have the rock of God and Jesus Christ to cling to that anchor in the storms of life. So just a couple more verses that struck me. Always have verse five Anyone who competes as an athlete.
Speaker 1:He does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. I've been reading Pilgrim's Progress and part of that analogy is people trying to get into the narrow way some other way besides Jesus Christ. Right, you can think about that a lot of different ways. There are certain churches that say you can know you can buy forgiveness, like if you give enough money to the church you'll get these blessings. I think one of the president's advisors just said something like that recently. I'm not 100% sure on that. But, folks, you can't buy your way into heaven. Others will tell you that you can pray to different people besides God and Jesus Christ and get into heaven, like Mary or Joseph or the apostles or whatever else. Folks, there's no other name in heaven or below or anywhere else that can get you salvation besides Jesus Christ. That's not going to happen. And so this verse you don't win the prize unless you compete according to the rules, right. You can't win a basketball game if you're not shooting baskets on your goal and applying all the rules of the game, right. You can't win the track meet if you cut across the center of the track as opposed to running around the corners. It'd be nice. I would like that.
Speaker 1:I actually had an experience years and years ago. This was Fort Bliss, maybe El Paso, I don't remember where it was anymore. We were somewhere and while we were on base, get some equipment. There happened to be a unit at this base, and I won't tell you what branch they belong to, but this military unit they were running their physical fitness test and some of my young marines saw that some of these so the the run route went out of view of the instructors briefly, and in the spot there were a number of these members that were cutting across the corner so that shaved quite a bit of time off of their physical fitness test and that really incensed my Marines. And I think I remember that an officer staff NCO caught these people doing this and they were pretty out of shape to begin with, by the way, so that was probably a huge part of the problem, but I don't really remember that or not. But I don't really remember that or not. But what I do remember is I remember my staff NCOs, ncos, my Marines. They were really upset by that. It wasn't even our unit, but they did not like the fact that somebody in the United States military was cheating on a physical fitness test and that made me smile, made me proud of them, for them, because they were really upset. In fact, I think now that I'm going through this episode in my head, I may one of my staff NCOs may have gone over and said something to one of the officers or staff NCOs of this other unit, and that's a whole long. We could get into a bunch of discussions there.
Speaker 1:But anyway, you can't win folks at Christianity If you don't put your faith, if you don't choose to believe in Jesus Christ. I'm going to tell you right now Jesus Christ is the only son of God. He died for my sins and for yours. God raised him from the dead on the third day and the only way I get into heaven, the only way I'm going to and I'm going to because I choose to put faith in God and Jesus Christ. Right, that's I choose to put and you all choose to put your faith in something.
Speaker 1:Folks, right, people that talk about Darwinian evolution. They don't know, they weren't there. I can be a professor in a class in college I taught for very briefly at community college one semester. I could have told those kids those rocks were called whatever I wanted. In order for you to make an A, this is what you got to call it. I can give you a fossil of trilobite and give you a test and tell you that unless you call that trilobite fossil a horse, you're going to fail.
Speaker 1:And I can tell you a whole lot about that trilobite fossil, right, it's a little ocean creature, kind of like a horseshoe crab. That's a really bad analogy but maybe that'll fit for some of y'all. But I can tell you a lot about this creature, but I don't know it a hundred percent because I wasn't there. Nobody's ever seen one in real life. I don't know it a hundred percent because I wasn't there. Nobody's ever seen one in real life, just fossils.
Speaker 1:So when you put your faith because nobody's ever seen, for example, a one species truly morph into a different species which is what evolution, darwinian evolution calls for Nobody's ever seen it, not in real life. You got a fossil record that they want's ever seen it, not in real life. You've got a fossil record that they want to point to, but not in real life. And so we all put our faith in something Government, science, false gods or God and Jesus Christ. So that's why I tell you that, because my assurance sounds kind of arrogant and cocky today, and I don't mean it that way, because I have Lord knows, I have a lot of doubts and I struggle with that often, but I'm going to end up in heaven because of Jesus Christ. That's it. That's, that's how you have to run the race. You have to compete if you want the prize.
Speaker 1:And then verse six, and we'll move on. The hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Man, the hardworking farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Tell you what that sure sounds like to me, that that shoots welfare down real fast. Just that one verse, taking from others, to quote unquote give to somebody else, to give to the government, to give to somebody else. I just that doesn't sound like it. Folks, we're going to go back into Ronald Reagan. This is we Will Be a City Upon a Hill January 25, 1974. See if we can pick up where I left off. There we go, there we go.
Speaker 1:The widespread disaffection with things military is only a part of the philosophical division in our land today. I must say to you who have recently or presently are still receiving an education, I am awed by your powers of resistance. I have some knowledge of the attempts that have been made in many classrooms and lecture halls to persuade you that there is little to admire in America, for the second time in this century, capitalism and the free enterprise are under assault. Privately owned business is blamed for spoiling the environment, exploiting the worker and seducing, if not outright raping the customer. Those who make the charge have the solution, of course government regulation and control. We may never get around to explaining how citizens who are so gullible that they can be suckered into buying cereal or soap that they don't need and would not be good for them, can, at the same time, be astute enough to choose representatives in government to which they would entrust the running of their lives. So we're too stupid to participate in free enterprise, but we're smart enough to vote men into office who are going to be honest and just and take care of those hard decisions.
Speaker 1:For us, that doesn't make any sense, folks, and that's what Reagan was saying here. It's not logical. And you see, this is basically what we talk about on the podcast all the time. So I'm not going to stay here, folks, but the left has known for the last century that if they can control the classroom, if they can control children, if they can get children away from God and away from their family, then they can control the future of America. On the conservative, patriot, christian side, we've been really slow on the uptake. We're still being really slow, even today. If you can control the classroom, you can control the nation, folks, because if you can control the children, you can control the future. The left knows us. And so if they take away truth, the only source of truth, consistent God and Jesus Christ, if they take away the Bible, which they have in both cases in the classroom, then they can replace it with lies. You know, and it is astounding that any children come out with a knowledge of the truth today, because we've had so many decades of lies substituted for God and Jesus Christ in the Bible. And that's Reagan saying I'm awed by your powers of resistance. Get out of public education today With that grasp. And it's a lot to do folks, with the parents, a whole bunch to do with the parents. And it has to do with some really good teachers that are out there that aren't willing to take the Ten Commandments down out of their classroom. But the fact that we've taken the Bible out legally, technically, of our schools as a nation is completely unacceptable.
Speaker 1:Not too long ago, a poll was taken on 2,500 college campuses in this country. 2,500 college campuses in this country. Thousands and thousands of responses were obtained, overwhelmingly 65, 70, and 75% of the students found business responsible, as I have said before, for the things that were wrong in this country. That same number said that government for the things that were wrong in this country. That same number said that government was the solution and should take over the management and control of private business. Eighty percent of the respondents said they wanted government to keep its paws out of their private lives.
Speaker 1:We are told every day that the assembly line worker is becoming dull-witted a robot, that mass production results in standardization A dull-witted robot. And that mass production results in standardization. Well, there isn't a socialist country in the world that would not give its copy of Karl Marx for our standardization. Standardization means producing for the masses and the assembly line means more leisure for the worker, freedom from the back-breaking and mind-dulling drudgery that man had known for centuries past. Karl Marx did not abolish child labor or free the women from working in the coal mines in England. The steam engine and modern machinery did that, with Jesus Christ at the center.
Speaker 1:Folks Don't ever forget all the policies between communism, leftism, socialism and capitalism, free enterprise. The difference, the real difference, is the principles of Jesus Christ at the core, and you want to talk about that. You go back to the verse, jesus Christ talking about the parable of the vineyard owner and at the end of the day, he ends up paying everybody the same amount, right? And the workers that worked all day? They're really irritated. And his response is what he says don't I have a right to do with my own what I want? Pretty capitalistic right there. Capitalism isn't good because it's naturally good, folks. Capitalism is only good when the principles of Jesus Christ are at the heart of it. Unfortunately, the disciples of the new order have had a hand in determining too much policy in recent decades.
Speaker 1:Government has grown in size and power and cost through the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society. It costs more for government today than a family pays for food, shelter and clothing combined than a family pays for food, shelter and clothing combined. Not even the Office of Management and Budget knows how many boards, commissions, bureaus and agencies there are in the federal government, but the Federal Registry listing their regulations is just a few pages short of being as big as the Encyclopedia Britannica. During the Great Society we saw the greatest growth of this government. There were eight cabinet departments and 12 independent agencies to administer the federal health program. There were 35 housing programs and 20 transportation projects. Public utilities had to cope with 27 different agencies. On just routine business, there were 192 installations and 9 departments, with 1,000 projects having to do with the field of pollution.
Speaker 1:One congressman found the federal government was spending $4 billion on research in its own laboratories but did not know where they were, how many people were working in them or what they were doing. One of the research projects was quote the demography of happiness end quote the demography of happiness, end quote. And for $249,000, we found that people who make more money are happier than people who make less, young people are happier than old people and people who are healthier are happier than people who are sick. For 15 cents they could have bought an almanac and read the old Brahmide. It's better to be rich, young and healthy than poor, old and sick. The course that you have chosen is far more in tune with the hopes and aspirations of our people than are those who would sacrifice freedom for some fancied security. What is it Franklin Right? Whoever? Those who are willing to give up liberty to obtain security deserve neither.
Speaker 1:Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, john Winthrop said we will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world. Well, we have not dealt falsely with our God, even if he is temporarily suspended from the classroom and hammered enough folks we talk about on the podcast all the classroom. And hammered enough folks we talk about it on the podcast all the time. If we want to turn this country around, we have to take back culture and the classroom from the evil of the left. You have to put God, jesus Christ and the Bible back in the center of the classroom and culture and if we don't, we don't deserve to keep our republic and we won't. It's not a politician, it's not Trump or Biden or Cruz or Schumer or whoever else you want to name. It doesn't matter how great a job Elon Musk and his team do, not that we shouldn't pray for them, not that we shouldn't be grateful that they're attempting to do the job they're attempting to do and the people that are working for them. But it doesn't matter what policy we enact. It doesn't matter how many executive orders the president signed. It doesn't even matter how much we actually fix, how many illegals we deport, what an end we put to sex trafficking and LGBTQ nonsense in our schools and classrooms, ending the last hundred years of feminism. If we don't have God and Jesus Christ at the center of our nation and our institutions and, most importantly, our families, our marriages and our individual lives, it'll be temporary at best. Reagan says here. Even if God is temporarily suspended from the classroom, if we don't put him back at the center of our lives, whatever gain we make will be temporary.
Speaker 1:When I was born, my life expectancy was 10 years less than I have already lived. That's a cause of regret for some people in California. I know that's a cause of regret for some people in California. I know 90% of Americans at that time lived beneath what is considered the poverty line. Today. Three-quarters lived in what is considered substandard housing. Today each of those figures is less than 10%. We have increased our life expectancy by wiping out almost totally diseases that still ravage mankind and other parts of the world. I doubt if the young people here tonight know the names of some of the diseases that were commonplace when we were growing up. We have more doctors per thousand people than any nation in the world. We have more hospitals than any nation in the world. When I more hospitals than any nation in the world.
Speaker 1:When I was your age, believe it or not, none of us knew that we even had a racial problem. When I graduated from college and became a radio sport announcer broadcasting Major League Baseball, I didn't have a Hank Aaron or a Willie Mays to talk about. The Spalding Guide said baseball was a game for Caucasian gentlemen. Some of us then began editorializing and campaigning against this. Gradually we campaigned against all those other areas where the constitutional rights of a large segment of our citizenry were being denied.
Speaker 1:We have not finished the job. We still have a long way to go. We have not finished the job. We still have a long way to go, but we have made more progress in a few years than we have made in more than a century. One third of all students in the world who are pursuing higher education are doing so in the United States. The percentage of our young Negro community that is going to college is greater than the percentage of whites in any other country in the world.
Speaker 1:One half of all the economic activity in the entire history of man has taken place in this republic we have distributed our wealth more widely among our people than any society known to man. Americans work less hours for a higher standard of living than any other people. 95% of all our families have an adequate daily intake of nutrients, and a part of the 5% that don't are trying to lose weight. 99% have gas or electric refrigeration, 92% have televisions and an equal number of have telephones. There are 120 million cars on our streets and highways, and all of them are on the street at once when you were trying to get home at night. But isn't this just proof of our materialism, the very thing that we are charged with? Well, we also have more churches, more libraries. We support voluntarily more symphony orchestras and opera companies, non-profit theaters and publish more books than all the other nations of the world put together. Somehow, america has bred a kindliness into our people unmatched anywhere.
Speaker 1:As has been pointed out in that best-selling record by a Canadian journalist, we are not a sick society. A sick society could not produce the men that set foot on the moon or who are now circling the earth above us in the sky lab. A sick society, bereft of morality and courage, did not produce the men who went through those years of torture and captivity in Vietnam. Where did we find such men? They are typical of this land, as the founding fathers were typical. They are typical of this land, as the founding fathers were typical. We found them in our streets, in the offices, the shops, in the working places of our country and on the farms.
Speaker 1:We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago In that little hall in Philadelphia, in the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the Dark Ages. Pope Pius XII said the American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America, god has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind. We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth. I'm going to read that last paragraph again, folks from Reagan. We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia, in the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the Dark Ages, pope Pius XII said the American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. It is into the hands of America God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind. We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth. We still are folks.
Speaker 1:If we don't turn back to God and Jesus Christ, if we don't get this figured out in America, there's a real good chance we're going to go back into the dark ages, a thousand years of darkness. The only way to get America back on track, to make America great, isn't to elect a politician that says make America great, or anybody else. It's not a problem with that. But that's not the solution. The only solution in America is to turn back to God and Jesus Christ and the principles that founded this nation, the general principles of Christianity. Not the denominational doctrine of the Roman Catholics or the Greek Orthodox or any Protestant denomination, but the general principles of Jesus Christ laid out in the Bible. That's why you need the Bible in the center of schools. You don't need Catholic schools, you don't need Baptist schools, you don't need Methodist schools, you need Christian schools. You don't need Orthodox schools. You need Christian schools. You certainly don't need atheist or socialist or leftist schools, like we've had for the past several decades almost up to 80 years, since Everson versus the Board of Education, and we decided that we didn't need God, that we were going to kick him out of our country.
Speaker 1:Reagan said temporarily, but we haven't replaced him yet. We're still. The speech was given. You see, make sure I have the right date. This speech was given 25 January 1974. We're now in 2025 and God is still kicked out of our classrooms.
Speaker 1:That's not very temporary folks in the history of our young nation. I say it all the time, I repeat it so often folks, because the horse isn't dead. We're not beating a dead horse, the horse is very much alive. If we don't turn back to God and Jesus Christ, we're going to lose. And great awakenings the two great awakenings we've had in this nation have both led to horrible wars revolutionary war and the civil war. But there are things that are uglier than war. There are things that are worse than death. The alternative to reclaiming our nation is to let it go to the evil and tyranny of the left, socialist, communist Islam. That's the alternative that would truly send us back into the dark ages for a thousand years.
Speaker 1:The hope, the solution, the solution, the hope. The great hope is Jesus Christ and his principles at the foundation of our private lives and our public, our lives in our churches and in our civic life, in our state. That's the great hope. God bless y'all, god bless your families. God bless your marriages, if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, folks, we'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.