The American Soul
The American Soul
Ready in Season, Out of Season: Preparing Your Faith and Marriage
Spiritual readiness isn't something you can achieve overnight—it requires consistent practice and dedication long before you face life's storms. Jesse Cope delivers a powerful message about the importance of daily spiritual disciplines and properly ordered priorities, comparing them to essential training for athletes and soldiers.
What happens when we neglect our most important relationships? Jesse tackles the uncomfortable truth about marriage priorities, challenging listeners with a straightforward message: "If loving your spouse as your second priority each day is too much of a burden...you should not have gotten married." Through a moving story about unwavering faithfulness in a loveless marriage, we discover the profound impact our example can have on others—even when we're unaware who might be watching.
Diving into 2 Timothy 4, Jesse explores Paul's instruction to "preach the word, be ready in season and out of season," applying this principle beyond preaching to our spiritual preparedness and marital commitment. The podcast then examines Ronald Reagan's prescient 1964 "A Time for Choosing" speech, highlighting concerns about government inefficiency and welfare dependency that remain relevant today. Jesse connects Reagan's critique to contemporary issues, arguing that true charity stems from individual choice rather than compulsory redistribution.
The episode concludes with a thought-provoking rejection of "values-neutral" approaches to education, governance, and international relations. Jesse asserts there simply is no middle ground in our moral journey—we're either moving toward God or away from Him. This challenging perspective calls us to evaluate the true direction of our lives, families, and nation.
Share this episode with someone who needs encouragement in their spiritual journey or marriage today, and join us next time for more insights on living faithfully in challenging times.
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 y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time, energy, little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. I know y'all have probably a million things pulling you in two million directions or maybe, more realistically, have six or seven things pulling you in 11 or 12 different directions. The point remains we always seem to have more to do than we have time to do it. That's a whole different discussion and series of podcasts.
Speaker 1:For those of y'all that continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you so much. For those of y'all that continue to pray for me and the podcast, thank you so much, very, very grateful for that. The prayers, especially Lord, especially the Lord knows. The good Lord knows that I need them. 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 the time that you're giving us as a people, as a nation, to turn back to you and your forgiveness. Thank you for the time that you're giving us as a people, as a nation, to turn back to you and your Son, jesus Christ. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you Well. Be with them, father, please the people that listen to it, this podcast. Be with them. Be with their families. Guide us, lord. Surround us with your angels, protect us from evil of any kind. Help us to do your will. Help us to follow the commands of your son, jesus Christ, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to get our priorities in the right order each day, to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust can't destroy, not here on earth, where they can Be with our leaders here in America. President, vice president, admirals and generals, senators, representatives, governors, mayors, state legislators, judges, be with the leaders in the countries around the world where people are listening. Help those leaders in all cases to turn to you, father and your Son Jesus Christ, including police chiefs, fire chiefs, city councils. Father, help all of them to turn to you, to look to you, and help us to do the same. And, god, my words to your Father, please, 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 pray, to talk to Him? I talk about this every once in a while.
Speaker 1:If you're new getting back into prayer folks, if it's been a while, if you haven't really done it since you were good, or if you've never really done it, it doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be long. Just talk to him. Hopefully our little prayers here at the beginning of the podcast kind of give you an example. Tell him thank you for a couple things. Whatever it is that you have folks. Maybe it's just food on the table, clothes to wear, cars that run a roof over your head, a little rain. If you're a farmer or a rancher, you can find a couple things each day that God has blessed you with. Just tell him thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Ask him for forgiveness for whatever sins that you've committed, big or small folks. A white lie, a huge lie, watching pornography, seating on your spouse, stealing something, gossip, talking about somebody behind their back, doubts, unbelief, it doesn't folks? We, I think sometime at least for me. Folks I send so often it's hard for me to even keep track. I hope that I'm getting better with age, but I can still find things to talk to God about and be sorry that I messed up and some of them haunt you for a while. Honestly, I've got some from years and years ago. I'm not saying that he hasn't forgiven me for those sins because I've asked for forgiveness, but you can still talk to him about this, ask him to help you let go of this or to deal with whatever consequences from it, and then talk to him about those around you.
Speaker 1:Folks, pray for your friends, family, kids, parents, spouse, country, community, church. Pray for your pastor. We need them so desperately today in America and really across Western civilization. We need a great awakening across the entire Western civilization world, but particularly in America. We need another great awakening, and those pastors lead that and their wives. Pray for them. Pray for your schools. Our schools are in such disarray. I read a story just this week about another teacher up in Indiana who had abused children. Those stories just seem to be coming one after the other.
Speaker 1:So, and again it doesn't have to be long folks, just a few minutes. I would argue this is just my, my opinion, but it would do better to pray just a little bit, a few times a day, than to try and pray once a day. This big like 30 minute prayer, this when you see something that needs prayer. You see an ambulance drive by. My father always called those arrow prayers. Pray for the people driving the ambulance, pray for whoever they've got inside.
Speaker 1:And then, if you're married, folks, does your spouse know it? Do you act like it? Like it? I can't tell you how disheartening it is to hear people constantly say that our spouse isn't our second priority each day, that that's too much, that you're expecting too much, that that's too much of a burden. Folks, I'll tell you what. If loving your spouse is your second priority each day is too much of a burden. It's too late now, but you should not have gotten married. You should not have gotten married, but you are married now. You made a vow. Apparently you didn't take it very seriously, but it's a pretty big deal, considering it's in front of God, and you better figure out how to fix yourself. As we used to say in the Marine Corps, you need to fix yourself, you need to get your priorities in line. And if you're on the receiving end of that, if you do realize that your spouse is supposed to be your second priority, but your spouse doesn't Pray. Folks, I can't promise you it's ever going to change.
Speaker 1:There are some people in this world that are only concerned with themselves constantly. We're all concerned with ourselves to some degree or another, but some people more than others, and we could have a long conversation about that. But the only the comfort that I can offer is pray and focus on God and ask for his guidance and, when you slip up, ask for his forgiveness. And I wish I had something else. I wish I could guarantee you that your spouse would wake up someday and you would have this wonderful marriage. But I can't.
Speaker 1:I was listening to a sermon by a pastor who has a wonderful marriage by all accounts, from his own comments and from what little I've seen. Who has a wonderful marriage by all accounts from his own comments and from what little I've seen. I haven't been around this pastor a lot, but a little bit, but his mother-in-law did not, and he was talking about that the other day and he said that his mother-in-law was one of the most godly women he'd ever met in his life. It followed Titus 2, 1 Peter 3, ephesians 5, 1 Corinthians 7, hebrews 13, 4, right, just a loving, godly woman. Proverbs 31 woman. And he said and you could tell that this, at least to me, listening to his voice, it sounded like it really got to him what a great example she had set for he and his wife of unrequited. Is that right Unrequited? Anyway, some of you English majors can hammer me on that one Love, because her husband apparently was not loving at all and she continued faithfully for decades to follow Christ and to do the best that she could to fulfill her role as a Christian woman and as a Christian wife, in that order.
Speaker 1:And he said the impact on he and his wife was just so huge Because there was no reason for it to. The world would have told her easily hey, especially in this modern age of feminism, man, get out, bug out, leave that guy's not worth your time. You've done all you can and way more than you've had to. And he said her faithfulness even under that horrible, horrible situation in marriage, and it wasn't, as far as I could tell folks, this wasn't a marriage of like physical abuse, this was just a marriage where the husband just didn't care about her. And I've seen those, I've seen them both ways.
Speaker 1:And man. It's just heartbreaking and if you're in that situation I know this isn't going to help a whole lot, but you have no idea who's watching you. How big an impact does that have on us. When we see somebody who's hurting, suffering and yet still they trust Christ, I mean that's huge and I don't want to be that person. But I guess in some way, folks, at some point in our life we're all going to kind of be that person. If we're really following Christ, there's going to come a time where we've done the right thing, shockingly by accident, and we're still treated poorly. You never know who's watching. It might be your spouse, it might be your kids, it might be your parents, friends, it might be some random kids that you don't really know but who get to see you each week, maybe at church or somewhere. What a great example witness, some people would say to those people watching you to see that you're in a situation where you're not appreciated, you're not loved and yet you still are doing the best you can to follow Christ. I know that's easier said than done. Folks Believe me.
Speaker 1:2 Timothy, chapter 4. Preach the word. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith In the future. There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing Personal Concerns. Make every effort to come to me soon, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Galatia, titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service, but Tychus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus and the books, especially the parchments.
Speaker 1:Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our teaching. At my first defense, no one supported me but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet Prisket and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. No, I didn't say that, right, sorry folks. Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. Make every effort to come before winter. Ebulus greets you Also Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Speaker 1:This chapter is a good example of why I don't do the Old Testament. Y'all see how much I struggle with those words. God forgive me and have mercy. Verse 18, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:This verse really struck me this morning when we were reading it, because so often there's parts Psalms has a lot of examples, other parts where it talks about god protecting us right from every evil deed, and to a lot of people, at face value, that sounds like okay, well, I'm not going to have any problems in my life, I'm not going to have any any evil in my life, and and obviously the disciples had problems. The disciples had problems. Jesus most of all had problems. Right the Old Testament, david had problems, had lots of problems, and so, for whatever reason, when I read this this morning, folks and I always remind you, just because I'm not, I'm not a theologian, I'm not a pastor or a priest, I don't have a doctorate in divinity but reading that to me it's the second part that's really important and the Lord will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. I think maybe that's what a lot of these people in the Bible mean. It's not that we're not going to have problems here on earth, it's that God's going to keep us from being overwhelmed by him and protect us from evil that would cause us to lose our souls in hell and bring us safely to his heavenly kingdom. That's pretty comforting, that thought that Jesus Christ is going to bring us home safely to him and then there won't be any more evil, there won't be any more tears, sorrow, sadness, broken bodies, broken hearts and hearts. Verse 2, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season.
Speaker 1:Reprove, rebuke, exhort great patience and instruction. How much reproving or rebuke do we see inside the church today? How often have you seen it? When have you seen an elder or a deacon or a pastor truly reprove and rebuke? You know, and one of the tenets of the Marine Corps was praise in public, censor in private, right. So if your Marine was doing something wrong, you needed to pull them aside in private at least to start with, say, hey, you got to square yourself away, you got to fix yourself, you can't do this. And so if that's going on in the church, that's great. But you have to wonder. You see this I think we've read it a couple times in the last few weeks but this rebuke, right, if somebody's doing something wrong, there needs to be some comment about it.
Speaker 1:We don't just go along, you know, we focus so much, at least in America and the American church so often on the feel good stuff, on the mercy part. But, folks, there's no reason for mercy if God isn't just. And if God is just, as President Jefferson said, we ought to tremble Because we know that his justice can't sleep forever. Right, and that ended up being pretty prescient, thinking about the Civil War and the fact that Jefferson was talking about slavery. We ought to tremble today for our country even more than that, because of abortion, because abortion dwarfs slavery, not even in the same ballpark.
Speaker 1:And then preach the word be ready in season and out of season One of the things, again, that I remember. I pull so much, but I got it from other places too, surprisingly enough. I kind of remember this from Boy Scouts or whatever. I was never a Boy Scout folks, but the younger Cub Scouts, maybe Weeblos, I don't remember what they were all called. The Marine Corps too, though.
Speaker 1:You can't wait until you need to be ready to get ready. It's too late then. That's why you have to train so hard prior. There's a coach. My father knew that, passed this on to me. He said you can either sweat blood and tears in practice or in the game. Obviously, practice is better. That's why you train so hard, that's why you press so hard in practice.
Speaker 1:And this is also true not just in the military, not just in professional sports or college or high school sports, but it's true, more importantly, in our faith and in our marriage. You can get ready for the storm, prepare for it, train for it, get ready right In season and out of season Prior to the storm, or you can wait until the storm comes With your faith. As long as you have Jesus Christ, you'll weather it. May not be pretty, probably won't be pretty, but he'll bring you home safely. May not be pretty, probably won't be pretty, but he'll bring you home safely With human endeavors, including your marriage. That's why a lot of marriages don't make. It is because they wait until one spouse has had all they can take, and then they try and fix themselves, and then it's too late. The other spouse isn't interested anymore.
Speaker 1:I go back to that story that the older woman at our church shared with me years ago. Her husband had been super successful in his career in a very high-powered environment. She was talking about the wives. But it works both ways. I've seen it with husbands who work hours and hours on end when they don't really have to. But in this case the women had children and they poured all their time. Her little friend group almost all of them, she said poured their time into their kids and told their husband to kind of take care of themselves for the next 15 or 20 years. And then the kids were all gone and then the wife turned to the husband and said hey, okay, I've got time for you. And the husband was like no, it's okay, I figured out how to live without you, I'm good. And she said it was really heartbreaking. But those women had put something in front of their spouse besides God and Jesus Christ, and they weren't training, they weren't getting ready in season and out.
Speaker 1:Folks, you don't just love your spouse when you feel like it, and if you love your spouse consistently, then all of a sudden it's not so hard to do, right? It's the same thing with training. You don't just read the Bible when you feel like it, you don't just pray. When you feel like it, you do it, and then all of a sudden you realize that it's not a burden, it's not a chore, right? The training getting ready for whatever the event is football. I heard a story and then we'll move on. This is kind of what it says. I heard a story and then we'll move on. This is kind of what fits.
Speaker 1:There was a movie that pretty famous actor, ben Affleck, I said that, right, most of y'all probably know him, or some of y'all do, and he had to. Whatever this movie was, he had to put on a lot of weight muscle and he said it ended up he had to be in the gym I don't remember what he said two hours plus every day, specifically trying to gain weight. He said I hated every second of it but he did it and he was ready for that role when he got there. Right, but I would argue, especially with our faith and our marriage. The more you do that, the more you go to the quote, unquote gym, the less of a chore it becomes. Right, the old practice makes perfect.
Speaker 1:The last thing I'll leave you with here, verses three and four, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. So many people aren't interested in the truth, folks. They want teachers that tell them things that they want to hear, and that's just that's kind of where we are today. So so many people they're not interested in Jesus Christ and the truth. They want to hear what they want to hear and you just have to know that and you're probably going to lose some friends over it and have to move that, and you're probably going to lose some friends over it and have to move on with life, folks. But don't ever trade the truth. Don't ever go after falsehood to appease those around you, no matter who it is Kids, parents, spouse, friends, it doesn't matter. And that's why it's so important to read the Bible each day, so that even if it's inside the church and sometimes it is a lot of times today it is it seems like you read the Bible every day you can tell when even a pastor or priest is saying something that doesn't line up with the word of God, with truth. So we're going to go back. This is, ronald Reagan, a time for choosing speech. This is October the 27th, 1964. This particular one, 1964, this particular one.
Speaker 1:Meanwhile, back in the city under urban renewal, the assault on freedom, carries on Private property rights are so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few government planners decide it should be. In a program that takes from the needy and gives to the greedy, we see such spectacles as in Cleveland, ohio, a million and a half dollar building completed only three years ago must be destroyed to make way for what government officials call a more compatible use of the land. The president tells us he's now going to start building public housing units in the thousands, where heretofore we've only built them in the hundreds. But the Federal Housing Authority and the Veterans Administration tell us they have 120,000 housing units they've taken back through mortgage foreclosure. For three decades we've sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan. The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency. They've just declared Rice County Kansas a depressed area. Rice County Kansas has 200 oil wells and the 14,000 people there have over $30 million on deposit and personal savings in their banks.
Speaker 1:And when the government tells you they're depressed, or when the government tells you they're depressed, or when the government tells you you're depressed, lie down and be depressed. We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well now, if government planning and welfare had the answer and they've had almost 30 years of it shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? But shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help, the reduction in the need for public housing? But the reverse is true. That line, folks, the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. That reminds me of the Bible verse, and I don't have it in front of me.
Speaker 1:But we're not supposed to show partiality to the rich or the poor. Let me see if I can find it real quickly. Give me just a second, because I think we do this a lot. We look at the status of somebody based on money and we decide well, if they're poor, that's a virtue. Yeah, there we go? Leviticus 19, verse 15. You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. We don't do that a lot in America today, and we haven't for decades. We look at somebody being poor and we say, well, that's a virtue. Or we look at somebody based on their skin color and we say, well, that's a virtue if you're this skin color and that's a vice if you're that skin color. Folks, that doesn't tell us anything. Actions tell us everything. Just because somebody's pretty doesn't mean they're kind. Just because somebody's ugly doesn't mean they're stupid. You can't judge on appearances. You have to judge on actions. Just because somebody's poor doesn't mean they're a good person, just because somebody's rich doesn't mean they're evil, but the reverse is true.
Speaker 1:Each year, the need grows greater, the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well, that was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we're told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty stricken, on the basis of earning less than $3,000 a year. Welfare spending is 10 times greater than in the dark depths of the depression, we're spending $45 billion on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic and you'll find that if we divided $45 billion up equally among those 9 million poor families, we'd be able to give each family $4,600 a year, and this, added to their present income, should eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only running about $600 per family. It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.
Speaker 1:Come on, folks. Government is never efficient in giving to the poor. That's the job of the church. It's not the job of the church. It's not the job of the government. And no, you're not being benevolent if you vote for welfare whether it's illegal immigration or American citizens because you're voting to take somebody else's money. You want to give your own money, that's one thing. You want to open up your own house? That's one thing. You want to give away part of your own land? That's one thing. You want to give somebody else part of your vote, that's one thing. But if you're voting to give away others, that's not benevolent. You're not being kind or generous or caring or loving. You're just pretending to, and really honestly, for some pretty devious reasons, like gaining power based on actions of the last 80 years.
Speaker 1:So now we declare war on poverty, or you too can be a Bobby Baker. Now do they honestly expect us to believe that if we add $1 billion to the $45 billion, we're spending one more program to the 30-odd we have? And remember, this new program doesn't replace any, it just duplicates existing programs. Do they believe that poverty is suddenly going to disappear by magic? Well, in all fairness, I should explain. There is one part of the new program that isn't duplicated. This is the youth feature. We're now going to solve the dropout problem, juvenile delinquency, by reinstituting something like the old CCC camps, civilian Conservation Corps, and we're going to put our young people in these camps. But again, we do some arithmetic and we find that we're going to spend each year, just on room and board for each young person. We help, $4,700 a year. We can send them to Harvard for $2,700. Of course don't get me wrong I'm not suggesting that Harvard is the answer to juvenile delinquency. I mean, there's a lot there, folks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have too many programs, one of the reasons Elon Musk is trying to get rid of some of them and the government's horrible at efficiency. They take way more money, waste a lot of it and then give a little bit to the people. That's one of the things. If you're looking for a charitable organization to give to, you need to really check and see. And most of these places, especially the ones that are honest up front, they're going to tell you how much of each dollar actually makes it to whatever they're focused on Child trafficking, poverty, hunger, whatever it is they'll tell you hey, so many cents out of every dollar we get in actually make it to the people that need it?
Speaker 1:Government does an atrocious job because there's just too much self-interest. Too many people want the job. Look at all the pushback we're getting right now about letting go of federal employees. Well, you can't do that. Those people need a job. That's not the point. The point is to serve. It's not to serve yourself, it's to serve the country. And if there's no job needed, then you need to find a different job, not continue to demand that private citizens fork over some of their earnings so that you can have a job. So that you can have a job. And then, goodness gracious, this is 64, right. So this is what 60 years ago Harvard you can go to Harvard for $2,700. You can't even go to one semester of a state-funded school for that. Today, something is wrong with our economy and our education system. But seriously, what are we doing to those we seek to help?
Speaker 1:Not too long ago a judge called me here in Los Angeles. He told me of a young woman who'd come before him for a divorce. She had six children, was pregnant with her seventh. Under his questioning she revealed her husband was a laborer earning $250 a month. She wanted a divorce to get an $80 raise. She's eligible for $330 a month in the Aid to Dependent Children program. She got the idea from two women in her neighborhood who'd already done that very thing, idea from two women in her neighborhood who'd already done that very thing.
Speaker 1:Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we're always against things, we're never for anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant, it's just that they know so much. That isn't so. A pretty young man that I worked with years ago, extremely bright and much brighter than me, although he was kind of working for me at the time a little bit and we would sit and have these conversations and he was what my father-in-law would call a fact finder. He liked facts, he liked to look up numbers and see what was actually going on on the ground, so to speak.
Speaker 1:And so one day we were talking about this subject actually, and he took the time to go to different government websites and look it up, and he came back to me and he said that at that time a mother, I think, of four children, in order to make the same amount in the private sector that she could make as a single mother of four on welfare from government and this wasn't including benefits, this was just salary, just money coming in she was going to have to make somewhere around $75,000. And I don't remember how exactly he calculated the benefits or I don't think he involved them at all. I think he was just talking about money. He involved them at all. I think he was just talking about money. $75,000. That's astounding. And I remember I told him, I said that can't be right. And he pulled these little graphs up and numbers and charts and I don't know what it is today. Folks, that was jeez 12 years ago, no, 15, maybe it was a while ago, but I bet it's not a whole lot better now. It's quite the incentive to get divorced, to stay on welfare, because I know a lot of people. I know a whole bunch of teachers that don't make $75,000 a year.
Speaker 1:Now we're for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age and to that end we've accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. But we're against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings. Deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments to those people who depend on them for a livelihood. They've called it insurance to us in a hundred million pieces of literature, but then they appeared before the Supreme Court and they testify it was a welfare program. They only use the term insurance to sell it to the people and they said Social Security dues are a tax for the general use of the government and the government has used that tax. There is no fund because Robert Byers, the actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and admitted that Social Security, as of this moment, is $298 billion in the hole. But he said there should be no cause for worry because as long as they have the power to tax, they could always take away from the people whatever they needed to build them out of trouble, and they're doing just that. Let me see how much time we have left folks. Oh yeah, a young man, 21 years of age, working at an average salary His Social Security contribution would, in the open market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee $220 a month at the age of 65. The government promises $127. He could live it up until he's 31 and then take out a policy that would pay more than Social Security.
Speaker 1:Now, are we so lacking in business sense that we can't put this program on a sound basis so that people who do require those payments will find they can get them when they're due, that the cupboard isn't bare? Barry Goldwater thinks we can. At the same time, I would add there probably Elon Musk and Donald Trump know we can Excuse me. At the same time, can't we introduce voluntary features that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made a provision for the non-earning years? Should we not allow a widow with children to work and not lose the benefits supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn't you and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be under this program, which we cannot do. I think we're telling our senior citizens that no one in this country should be denied medical care because of lack of funds, but I think we're against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program. Into a compulsory government program, especially when we have such examples, as we announced last week when France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. They've come to the end of the road.
Speaker 1:In addition, was Barry Goldwater so irresponsible when he suggested that our government give up its program of deliberate planned inflation so that when you do get your Social Security pension, a dollar will buy a dollar's worth and not 45 cents' worth? I don't know much about this time folks, but that's pretty condemning that our government give up its program of deliberate planned inflation. I do think strongly that taking us off the gold standard, where every dollar was tied to a specific amount of gold, was a horrible idea. I think we're for an international organization where the nations of the world can seek peace, but I think we're against subordinating American interests to an organization that has become so structurally unsound that today you can muster a two-thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly among nations that represent less than 10% of the world's population. I think we're against the hypocrisy of assailing our allies because here and there they cling to a colony, while we engage in a conspiracy of silence and never open our mouths about the millions of people enslaved in the Soviet colonies, in the satellite nations. I think we're for aiding our allies by sharing of our material blessings with those nations which share in our fundamental beliefs, but we're against doling out money Government.
Speaker 1:It's a government Creating bureaucracy, if not socialism. All over the world, we set out to help 19 countries. We're helping 107. We've spent $146 billion. With that money we bought a $2 million yacht for Ailey Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek undertakers, extra wives for Kenyan government officials. We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no electricity. In the last six years, 52 nations have bought $7 billion worth of our gold and all 52 are receiving foreign aid from this country. It's not any better folks, and this is one of the reasons that Elon Musk and Doge are so important. It's not any better today. And it's not just Social Security, it's not just the department of education, it's government as a whole.
Speaker 1:Governments that don't support the principles of Jesus Christ shouldn't get our funding. Individuals who are Christians should have preference over individuals who aren't in immigration. Countries that have Christian principles should get our support over those that don't. The idea of values neutral folks is a joke, an absolute joke. There's no such thing as values-neutral education. There's no such thing as a values-neutral constitution or a values-neutral judiciary. There's no such thing as values-neutral aid, whether it's foreign aid or domestic.
Speaker 1:We're either supporting countries that are striving, even imperfectly folks, always it's going to be imperfectly, but striving toward God and Jesus Christ or we're supporting countries that are striving toward the devil and hell. There's this idea that there's this magic like doldrums, dead in the water, middle ground. It's just a lie. There's not this idea that we've bought into of the independent middle-of-the-road voter. It's just a lie. We're going one way or the other. There's no middle ground and it's certainly not a virtue. The only virtue is when you're striving toward God and Jesus Christ, just like the vice or any. Striving toward the devil and hell is a vice. Whatever we do as a nation, if we're going to be good, if we're going to be virtuous and moral, we have to strive toward God and Jesus Christ and support those countries and those people that do great.
Speaker 1:Speech by Reagan. Here we'll read some more of it. 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, we'll talk to y'all again real soon. Folks looking forward to it.