The American Soul
The American Soul
The Power of Silence
What happens when a society abandons its moral foundation? In this thought-provoking exploration of faith, speech, and civil order, we journey through James 3 to understand the devastating power of our words and the necessity of taming our tongues. "The tongue is a fire," Scripture warns—capable of burning down relationships, communities, and even nations when left unchecked.
Drawing from the fascinating 1811 New York Supreme Court case People v. Ruggles, we examine how America's founders viewed Christianity not merely as a personal belief system but as the essential moral framework for maintaining civil society. Chief Justice Kent's opinion that "whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government" serves as a prophetic warning for our current cultural moment.
Have we conducted a dangerous experiment by removing Christian principles from public life? Look around at the state of our marriages, families, communities, schools, and institutions. The correlation between our rejection of biblical morality and societal breakdown becomes increasingly difficult to ignore. This isn't about imposing a particular denomination—it's about recognizing that certain fundamental principles are necessary for maintaining order and protecting freedoms.
Prayer doesn't require theological complexity or fancy language. God simply wants us to talk to Him as a good father wants to hear from his children. Thank Him for something, ask forgiveness for shortcomings, and pray for those around you. These simple actions connect us to the source of wisdom that can heal our divided hearts and troubled nation.
Take a moment today to consider how your words affect those around you. Are you bringing healing or division? Building up or tearing down? The health of our relationships, communities, and country might depend on your answer.
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 and energy, little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say, and hopefully it will help us all draw a little closer to God and Jesus Christ as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast and tell others about it, thank you so much. Very, 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 need them and want them. So thank you, 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 of sins, especially because we don't deserve it. Father, for your unmerited mercy and grace. Thank you for those people who listen to the podcast. Be with them, be with their families, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind. Guide us in all that we do, father. Help us to trust you. Help us to persevere, to run the race, to fight the good fight all the way to the end, even when we can't see the little bit in front of us. Remind us that we can trust you, father, with our soul, with what we have turned over to you to guard far better than ourselves. Watch over our leaders, father. Watch over those who are in harm's way our military, our law enforcement, firefighters, ems. Keep them safe, bring them home safe to their families. Watch over our farmers and our ranchers, our fishermen. Help us to not take them for granted. Our lumberjacks, those that work on our roads, on our infrastructure, electricians, etc. Thank you for those men who are willing to go out into the dark of night, into the cold, the rain. Be with them, give them wisdom, give them courage, give them a strong faith and help us to support and encourage them. Give them wisdom, give them courage, give them a strong faith and help us to support and encourage them. Father, please and God, my words are please. In your son's name, we pray amen. Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read His Word and to pray, to talk to Him, and if you're not comfortable with that, if you haven't done it in a while or if you've never done it, folks, it doesn't have to be fancy, it doesn't have to be some.
Speaker 1:I remember at a church that we went to years ago phenomenal pastor this actually was not the head pastor. They would let the staff every once in a PowerPoint presentation, like he was praying to God and he made it kind of funny, like God was kind of picking on him using the words that we would associate really with the King James Version or older. You know, verily, I say unto you I'm doing a horrible job, folks. I wish I could do better of explaining it, but it was funny and his whole point was look, you don't have to talk in a specific language, you don't have to talk in Old English or Middle English, you know, you just talk to him.
Speaker 1:If you're a kid which all of us are somebody's kid or you're a parent, try to imagine if you've had a good relationship in either one of those scenarios as a child with a good father, or being a good father yourself, or being married to one, et cetera, like look at that relationship, how much you want to interact with your kids, or how much your good father wanted to interact with you. And now multiply that by a lot and God, he just he's our. He's our good father. He just wants to talk to us, right? Just just tell him thank you for a couple of things that you're grateful for. To talk to us, right. Just tell him thank you for a couple things that you're grateful for Rain, sunshine, a car that runs, a paycheck, something, whatever it is water, clean water to drink, right.
Speaker 1:And then ask him for forgiveness if you've done you lied, cheated, stole, looked at pornography, lusted, gotten drunk, you know, whatever it, it is big or small, just I'm. I'm sorry, father, that I you know that I've sinned against you, that I've gone against your word, that I've hurt you. Please forgive me and then pray for a couple people around you, pray for the nation. Just, it doesn't even have to be specific. It can be if you've got a particular person like I, just me personally, folks. I think elon musk and his team need a lot of prayer right now because they're to be specific. It can be If you've got a particular person like I, just me personally, folks. I think Elon Musk and his team need a lot of prayer right now because they're doing something that a lot of people don't like, right?
Speaker 1:But maybe it's a city council member in your town, a mayor, the fire chief, police chief, maybe it's a teacher or counselor or coach, you know. And then somebody in your little circle, cousin, aunt, uncle, brother. We've got a family down the road, folks, just I don't know, an hour or so away, and uh, it's husband, mom and dad, you know, and two kids, boy and a girl. And the mom and dad and boy were driving from a golf tournament to a baseball game about a week or two ago and an 18-wheeler came up and crashed into the car behind them. And I think those people lived somehow, but they didn't, and their daughter was home alone, and so now she's lost her mother and her father and her brother and she's all alone in this world. All of a sudden, sudden, as a high schooler, bam, nobody. I mean she's got extended family, but you know what I mean Sounds like somebody pretty worth praying for. You get the idea.
Speaker 1:Pray for yourself too. God knows what you need already, but it doesn't just. If nothing else, folks pray the Lord's Prayer each day Just to do God's will right. Pray the Lord's Prayer and if you're not familiar with it, I say it every once in a while. Probably ought to say it every day here on the podcast. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, right our sins, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the power and the glory in the kingdom forever and ever. Amen.
Speaker 1:I think I got that last part backwards, but again, it's the intent, folks. So have you made time for God? And one of the reasons? I'll tell you something. This happens on X and you kind of you put yourself out there. You know you're going to get it.
Speaker 1:I posted some verses from Titus 2. There's a lady I follow and she does a phenomenal job really trying to teach younger women about what it really means to be a woman who follows God and Jesus Christ and she gets the amount of hate that she gets. Who follows God and Jesus Christ and she gets the amount of hate that she gets. It's not shocking in the sense that we know it happens, but it's shocking in the sense of how much vitriol there is, how much anger, how much resentment, and a lot of times she's literally just reposting scripture with a little bit of her own commentary around that scripture.
Speaker 1:And the interesting thing is always and somebody said this to me on X the other day too, and I've noticed it over the years, all the years my wife stayed home with our children to raise them all the condemnation that she got, all the judgment, all the looking down upon all the conceit, all the snarky comments, they came from women without exception. I can't think of a single time one man ever said anything condescending or judgmental or condemning about my wife staying home with our kids. In all the years that she has stayed home, not once, not one single time, was it ever a man. It was always women and this lady that that posts just in fact it's hard for me to think. I know there there have been, there's been some men that have attacked her, which is that's a whole different discussion. That's so pathetic it's not even worth talking about really. Whole different discussion. That's so pathetic it's not even worth talking about really. But the number of women that come out is just astounding and so I posted something.
Speaker 1:She, she made a comment and it was some scripture from Titus two and so I just posted those scriptures and I used a particular version and a lot of people didn't like it. It was Titus two, verses three through five. Uh, and I'm not even going to tell you what version I used so that I don't prejudice you in any way. But go, if you've got a Bible app or something, go click on when you, when you ever get confused, if somebody tells you, oh well, the scripture that you're using that's not the good translation and maybe it's not folks, but if you can go to multiple translations, like the King James Version NIV, nasb, cev, whatever you know, pick two or three and if the intent is the same across the board, if you can clearly see the intent, then that's what God meant. Folks, it's not gray, it's not cloudy or murky. Right In these particular verses, the things that really got the people commentating stirred up is it tells it specifically tells a woman right to love their husbands, to love their children and to be workers at home, subject to their own husbands, and that obviously doesn't go in line with feminism.
Speaker 1:The sad thing is that some of the people that commented on it claimed to follow Christ. Right. But you can tell. You can tell somebody, folks, if there's.
Speaker 1:There's some scriptures that I'm not a big fan of. I don't like like the turning the other cheek one. I'm not a big fan of that, but it's clear in Scripture. You can argue about whether that ought to be a one-on-one relationship. You know whether Jesus was talking about okay, if an individual strikes you, you know. Or if an individual comes at you, or you can talk about it, whether it's on a large scale. But the fact is that Jesus Christ told us to turn the other cheek. That's not debatable, right. And so if you ever run into somebody and they just absolutely reject what Scripture is saying, it's a pretty good idea that they're not really that interested in God or Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:So, at any rate, I had a couple other little things. Let me see how much time. Yeah, we're going to go ahead and get. If I have some time later on, then we'll get back into it. I think we're in James, I hope.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, not two, three, and so the tongue is a fire. Isn't that the truth? Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such, we will incur a stricter judgment, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble and what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well.
Speaker 1:Look at the ships also. Though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also is the tongue a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, the very world of inequity. The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell, for every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race.
Speaker 1:But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things ought not to be this way. These things ought not to be this way. Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh Wisdom from above. Who among you is wise and understanding, let him show by his good behavior, his deeds and the greatness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy. Verse 1. It's one of the reasons I say here often, folks, I'm not a pastor. Verse one it's one of the reasons I say here often, folks, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a priest, I'm not a theologian, I'm just.
Speaker 1:I think CS Lewis said something along these lines, and I am not putting myself in the same category of CS Lewis at all, so much of his writing is so far over my head. I think I could read it for lifetimes and I wouldn't be able to understand it. But he made the comment you know. He said look, if you really want theology, he said I'm not your guy. He said I'm just a layman, I'm just a simple man trying to bring others to Jesus Christ and talk about some things from the perspective of a simple man, and that's what I hope I do here. Folks, if you want really deep theology, I'm not your guy. Maybe even shallow theology, I'm not your guy. I'm just a man that tries to read Scripture each day and asks God to do his will each day, and I haven't always even done that. So hopefully, as I say at the beginning of each podcast, hopefully, if nothing else, all I do is draw people in our nation just a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:But that's, that's verse 1. You've got to be real careful, right, let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such, we will incur a stricter judgment. I have enough problems with the level of judgment that I'm already at. I don't need a stricter set of rules. Verse 2, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well? I'm not sure, but I've always taken that kind of as a snarky comment like oh well, if you're able to completely control what you say, you're a perfect man. Of course there isn't anybody perfect except jesus. Otherwise we could obtain salvation through somebody else, and we can't. And so when you hear people tell you that there's somebody else that's perfect besides Jesus Christ, you know that that's not true. You can go back and look at Scripture. There's nowhere else in Scripture that anybody else is listed as perfect.
Speaker 1:So also the tongue is a small part of the body and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by a small fire, and the tongue is a fire. The very world of iniquity Set among our members is that which defiles the entire body and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. No one can tame the tongue. This is verse 8. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Just all these warnings right. Verse 9,. With it we bless our Lord and Father. With it we curse men who have been made in likeness, in the image of God. Verse 10, from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things ought not to be this way.
Speaker 1:I was talking to a gentleman at church a week or two ago and I think in the end he said it wasn't even a big deal. But I said something at the very beginning of church, before the sermon started, when we were just kind of congregating, and it really bothered me after for a while and, as I said, I think in the end I was making a mountain out of a molehill. But the thought that kept coming back to me was Cope, just geez, just be quiet, just quit talking. And I think so often, at least in my life and I'm assuming in some of y'all's we would better serve others and ourselves if we were just quiet more often, if we just kept our mouth shut. I go back so often. I've told you all that have been around the podcast for a while. If you're new, by the way, I'm very glad you're here, hope you enjoy it and hope you come back.
Speaker 1:One of the stories that I tell every once in a while is this girl in college that was a friend of mine that was on the tennis team with us and she used to say think, speak. And she would say look just 10 seconds. Even if you can just keep your mouth shut for 10 seconds and think about what you're about to say before you open your mouth. And I know for sure for me and I'm assuming, for some of y'all, that would have kept you out of trouble at times in the past of your life. It certainly would have kept you out of trouble at times in the past of your life. It certainly would have me. And God warns us here about the tongue and how dangerous it is.
Speaker 1:Verse 13, who among you is wise and understanding, let him show by his good behavior, his deeds and the gentleness of wisdom. Right Gentleness, wisdom, good deeds. Again and again, if you're going to show people, if you're going to tell people that you're good, if you want people to view you as good, you have to show them. You have to actually be good. You have to actually stop and help a kid at school, in the hallway, in the junior high or high school that nobody else is willing to help. You have to actually be willing to sit at a table with a kid that nobody else wants to sit with. You have to actually be willing to sit at a table with a kid that nobody else wants to sit with. You have to actually stop and help a kid that just got pushed down, pick up their books. You have to actually be polite to your teachers and coaches and administrators, even the ones that you know are a little bit crazy, even bat crazy. Right?
Speaker 1:If you want people to view you as good, which is a noble thing, right? You want to follow the commands of God and Jesus Christ, you have to actually do some things. If you want your kids to know that you love them as a parent, folks, you have to actually spend time with them, do things with them. If you want your parents to know how much you honor them, how much you appreciate them, you have to actually show them that and tell them thank you and, again, spend some time with them. You want your spouse to know that you love them, that they're your top priority each day, second only to God and Jesus Christ, then they actually have to be. You have to show them with your deeds each day. What do you want to do? What do you need to do? And not at the end of the day, when you're just worn out and tired. Right? This goes for reading our Bible and praying too.
Speaker 1:We get to the end of the day, we're like, oh my gosh, I still have to read this stupid Bible. How bad is that? Been guilty of it, str? How bad is that Been guilty of it? Struggled with it a little bit. The other day. I was getting partway through my day and I had made the mistake of not reading my Bible early in the morning and I was like, oh, I need to do this still. And I did. I did need to do it. The attitude needed to change, though, right. Anyway, so show about his good behavior, his deeds.
Speaker 1:Verse 16, 17, for where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there is disorder in everything, every evil thing, but the wisdom from above, this first, pure than peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwawavering, without hypocrisy. How many of us maintain our thoughts right? How many of us struggle with gossip or pornography, some kind of lust or something you know? Pick your list. Peaceable how many of us are peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy, right, unwavering I need to work on that one right, persistent? How many of us don't waver back and forth and change course without hypocrisy? How many of us give a pass to certain people that we like on certain issues and if it was somebody we didn't like on that same issue, we wouldn't give them a pass. How many of us look at a particular group of people right, and we are harder on that group of people than we are on another group, simply because we like the second group better? That's hypocrisy, folks. If something's right for one group of people, then it's right for another group of people. If something's wrong for one group of people, then it's wrong for another group of people. You don't get to change the standards based on whether you like that group of people or not. It's based on whether you like that group of people or not. And the first part of that, folks.
Speaker 1:So much of our problems come back to jealousy and selfish ambition. Marriage I go back to this so often because it's supposed to represent the relationship between Christ and the church, and there's so many of us out there. Everybody has been around a marriage to some degree or another Good marriages, bad marriages, indifferent marriages. So much of the problem in marriage is selfish. Jealousy I would include in that too, yeah, but selfish so much. Well, I want to do what I want to do. I don't want to worry about you. What are you doing for me. Well, this is what I, these are my dreams, these are my aspirations. This is where I want to go today. This is what I want to do. And why'd you get married? Why'd you get married If you don't really want to cleave to your spouse cling right, this clingy word If you don't really want to stick to your spouse each day, and if you don't want to build them up, serve them in your role as a man or a woman and it's different, folks, the roles for husband and wife are not the same at all If you don't want to do that, why did you get married? All right, two things, real quick, and then we'll move on.
Speaker 1:There were two things I read in the Epoch Times from last week that just kind of stuck with me. The first is a bigger deal. Well, I guess they're both pretty big deals, but we may have. I think we talked about one of these recently. But, folks, these actually I think we talked about that the other day the amount of scrutiny that some of our Ivy League schools, like Columbia and Harvard, are under and the people are irritated that we're not protecting people who hate our country. It's just astounding If you hate America, folks, and you wish death on America. You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be here. I think.
Speaker 1:The other thing that really just drove me nuts reading the paper. There's an article in here about the number of federal health agency workers being laid off. There's an article in here about the number of federal health agency workers being laid off, and one of the comments from a past FDA commissioner was he said that there's no good reason to treat people this way. Well, how have the health and human services, how has the FDA been treating us as American citizens? You can throw the EPA in there too. You can throw the EPA in there too. It's not like they've exactly been treating us as American citizens as much of anything besides pawns and serfs and playthings for decades. It's kind of hard to have sympathy when your whole life is governed from half a continent away and controlled and made harder and more difficult, and more money is taken from you. It's hard to have sympathy for the people that are doing that. I can have sympathy for them losing a job for their family. I can have sympathy for that pain, but it's kind of hard to have sympathy when the American people has been struggling, when we've been struggling under these regulations for so long.
Speaker 1:Just a little side note. There were a couple of stories in here Maybe we'll get to one on a different podcast this week but Finland just pulled out of the global landmine treaty and there's Poland and Estonia, latvia and Lithuania have also said that they're pulling out of this treaty, and I just found that fascinating folks, because and if we get a chance, I want to talk a little bit about China and fentanyl on a different podcast but I found that fascinating because I think Europe is really setting itself up for some hard times and I think that little landmine treaty is just a little snippet that is indicative of much bigger things. So anyway, so we're going to roll through. This is not a United States Supreme Court case. This is a court case of the New York Supreme Court, people v Ruggles from 1811.
Speaker 1:And the opinion was given by Justice Kent. I had something in front of me about him just now. When I let it slip away, there we go. He was a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York and the head of the Court of Chancery for nine years, considered the premier jurist in the development of the legal practice in the United States. He authored commentaries on American law and so one of our premier judges, and this is from 1811. So, depending on what part you want to go from, you know 30, 35 years into the existence of our nation, closer even to the ratification of the Supreme court. And so, in this particular case, well, I'll just start to read through it, if I can make the print big enough where I can see it. Chief Justice Kent delivered the opinion of the court.
Speaker 1:The offense charged is that the defendant below did wickedly, maliciously and blasphemously utter, in the presence and hearing of divers good and Christian people, these false, feigned, scandalous, malicious, wicked and blasphemous words. For example, or to wit, jesus Christ was a bastard and his mother must be a whore. That's a quote, and the single question is whether this be a public offense by the law of the land. After conviction, we must intend that these words were uttered in a wanton manner and, as they evidently import with a wicked and malicious disposition, not in a serious discussion upon any controverted point in religion. The language was blasphemous not only in a popular but in a legal sense, for blasphemy, according to the most precise definitions, consists in maliciously reviling God or religion, and this was reviling Christianity through its author Evelyn's Preface to the State Trials, page 8, see also Whitlock's Speech, state Trials, volume 2, 273.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put these in here just in case some of y'all are more interested in this case, in case some of y'all are more interested in this case, but this is, by the way. You can find this online, university of Chicago, a number of other places. Parts of this are in both, I think both the American God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes, probably also in both American Patriots Bible and the Founders Bible. I got this particular rendition off of University of Chicago, though the jury have passed upon their intent for and I'm going to murder this Latin folks, I'm telling you already I'm sorry, I did a little bit of Latin with geology and a master's degree, but very little Just names of animals, and so I apologize in advance for those of y'all that know Latin.
Speaker 1:And if those words spoken in any case will amount to a misdemeanor, the indictment is good. So blasphemy is not only, he says here, in a popular sense, but also in a legal sense, and they're talking again specifically about God, jesus Christ in this case, and they're blaspheming against the Jesus Christ in this case, and they're blaspheming against the. This gentleman was against Christianity. Such words, uttered with such a disposition, were an offense at common law. In Taylor's case, one then convicted upon information of speaking similar words, and the court of KB said that Christianity was partial of the law and to cast contumulous reproaches upon it tended to weaken the foundation of moral obligation and the efficacy of oaths. And in the case of Rex versus Wolstein, I think actually on second thought, I'm going to skip this stuff in the parentheses If you want. Just type in people versus Ruggles, kent and a link ought to pop up for a number of these.
Speaker 1:And in the case of Rex versus Wolstein, on a light conviction, the court said they would not suffer it to be debated whether defaming Christianity in general was not an offense at common law, for that, whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. Listen to that again. For whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. And that's exactly what we have today, folks. Our government is functioning less and less well. You know, we all see that we talk about it often. People have so many different opinions, but the bottom line is, the root of it is whenever we attack Christianity, general principles of Christianity and he's going to get into that later on in this opinion not a particular denomination. That's going to break down civil government, and that's what's happening in Western civilization as a whole and in America in particular. The government's breaking down.
Speaker 1:Because if you treat everything, treat everything as equal, right, all faiths are equal, all religions are equal, then nothing's important. You can do whatever you want. It doesn't matter whether it's islam or judaism or hinduism, buddhism, atheism, satanism, right, see that that's. That seems like an extreme example, folks, but that's obviously the end state, what it has to be. If all faiths are equal, then even if you have somebody worshiping the devil, their worship, their faith, has to be equally important to everybody else's Right. Same thing with marriage. If marriage isn't between a man and a woman, if it's whatever we want it to be, then it has to be whatever anybody wants it to be. If they want to marry a tree, that has to be allowed. If they want to marry a goat, that has to be allowed. If they want to marry a bird or a flower or a 10-year-old child or an 8-year-old child, that has to be allowed. Because if you don't have that definition of a man and a woman from Christianity. Right, then anything goes, then anything goes. So, for whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government. So for whatever strikes at the root of Christianity tends manifestly to the dissolution of civil government.
Speaker 1:But the court were careful to say that they did not intend to include disputes between learned men upon particular controverted points. The same doctrine was laid down in the late case of the King v Williams for the publication of Paine's Age of Reason, which was tried before Lord Kenyon in July 1797. The authorities show that blasphemy against God and contumulous reproaches and profane ridicule of Christ or the Holy Scriptures, which are equally treated as blasphemy, are offenses punishable at common law, whether uttered by books, by words or writings. Right, so it doesn't matter whether you write it or whether you speak it If you profanely ridicule Christ or the Bible. This is the United States state of New York 1811, a lot closer to our constitution than we are today. Right, and before I even hear it from somebody, yes, the United States has made mistakes. Yes, it's not perfect. Slavery is a great example. This is not one of them. This is not one of the examples where we made mistakes. And you see that again.
Speaker 1:You go back to the previous statement. Because what's happening to society over the last century? We're falling apart, we're dissolving, we're breaking down. Why are we breaking down? Because we're attacking the, the root, the foundation of our society. We're attacking christianity because that's that's the foundation of our nation here in america and really western civilization. Folks look at the problems that the uk is having right now. Look at the problem that Sweden. There was an article in the Epoch Times just a couple of weeks ago about the gang violence it's just overtaking Sweden right now. And where do a lot of those gang members come from? Where's a lot of that violence? A lot of it's imported from Middle Eastern Muslim countries. It's imported from Middle Eastern Muslim countries and it doesn't matter geographically where the people come from, it matters ideologically where the people come from.
Speaker 1:So again, profane ridicule of Christ or the Holy Scriptures are offenses punishable at common law, whether uttered by words or writings. The consequences may be less extensive, pernicious, in the one case than the other, but in both instances the reviling is still an offense, because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people and to destroy good order. Such offenses have always been considered independent of any religious establishment or the rights of the church. They are treated as affecting the essential interests of civil society. So this isn't about it attacking the church, folks, right, separation of church and state. And that's going to get really important as we read through this opinion. It isn't attacking Roman Catholicism or Greek Orthodoxy or Methodism, baptism, you know whatever, baptist Methodist Church of Christ. It's not attacking any particular denomination. That's not the problem. It's attacking Jesus, christ and God and the general principles of Christ. Right, and you go back again. Why, why is the reviling still an offense Words or writing, I mean, or yeah, because it tends to corrupt the morals of the people and to destroy good order. Do we not see that today? Can we not see that clearly that the morals of our people and the good order of our nation have been eroded over the last 80 years in particular, really, over the last 100 years? You go back to feminism, all the way back to the 1920s, but really it picked up speed in 1947. Everson v Board of Education. That was a mistake, that was an egregious error To pretend that separation of God and state was the same as separation of church and state.
Speaker 1:And why? Again, it doesn't matter about it. This isn't about the rights of the church. Again, it's because this blasphemy affects the essential interests of civil society, good order and discipline and morals. Same thing, by the way, as a side note, with throwing men and women together in the military or law enforcement or firefighters. You destroy good order and discipline in those units. You do not have the same level of morality and good order and discipline in co-ed units that you have in all-male units and you can tell that by the functionality. And you just go back to the Marine Corps tests again that they did within the last decade that nobody likes to talk about, where the all-male units performed significantly above the co-ed.
Speaker 1:And why should not the language contained in the indictment be still an offense with us? There is nothing in our manners or institutions which has prevented the application or the necessity of this part of the common law. We stand equally in need, now as formerly, of all the moral discipline and of those principles of virtue which help to bind society together. The people of this state, in common with the people of this country, profess the general. Again, do to society is a gross violation of decency and good order, again gross violation to decency and good order when we reject right, when we scandalize the author, jesus Christ, when we reject God's commands Again feminism, military reject God's command roles of men and women, we're doing it, and the sins before that. We stand equally in need, now as formerly, of discipline we can get and those principles of virtue taught to our children, be secular or deist or Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu or Jewish or anything else. It has to be publicly funded education in America in order for America to continue to have good order and discipline. It has to be centered on the Bible.
Speaker 1:Nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community or more injurious to the tender morals of the young than to declare such profanity lawful. It would go to confound all distinction between things sacred and profane. For, to use the words of one of the greatest oracles of human wisdom, profane scoffing doth by little and little deface the reverence for religion. And who adds in another place? Two principal causes have I ever known of atheism curious controversies and profane scoffing. That's from Lord Bacon's works, volume two, age, looks like maybe 291 and 503. But nothing could be more offensive to the virtuous part of the community, the people that actually have virtues, or more injurious to the tender morals of the young than to say that it's okay to profane Jesus Christ, it's okay to revile Jesus Christ and the Holy Scriptures. Where are we at today? Look at what's happening to our kids today. Look at how much destruction is being done to our young people.
Speaker 1:Things which corrupt moral sentiment, as obscene actions, prints and writings and even gross instances of seduction, have, upon the same principle, been held indictable. Have, upon the same principle, been held indictable. And shall we form an exception in these particulars to the rest of the civilized world? No Government among any of the polished nations of antiquity and none of the institutions of modern Europe, a single and minority case accepted ever, hazarded such a bold experiment upon the solidarity of the public morals as to permit, with impunity and under the sanction of their tribunals, the general religion of the community to be openly insulted and defamed. The very idea of jurisprudence with the ancient lawgivers and philosophers embraced the religion of the country. There's Latin here that I can't even begin to pronounce folks, so I'm not going to try.
Speaker 1:The point is, when we start profaning and allowing people to profane Jesus Christ and the Bible, we're going to run into huge problems, and we are. We've taken the Bible out of our institutions. Look at just the state of our marriages, the state of our families, the state of our children. Look at the state of our city, the state of our communities. Look at the weaknesses in our churches, look at the dysfunction in our schools. Look at the lack of good order and discipline in our military units and our law enforcement and our firefighters. And if you don't believe me, go and find people that are in these situations right now. Go and find a teacher that you trust, administrator or counselor as far as education goes. Go find a firefighter that's been in there for the last 15 or 20 years, or a police officer or somebody that's been in the military. If they're honest with you at all, folks, they're going to tell you that there's problems and that they've been brewing for a while and they've been getting worse. And it has to do with morality and virtue or the lack thereof.
Speaker 1:And this is a great court case Ratification within almost 20 years of the ratification of the Constitution, within almost 20 years of the ratification of the Constitution. Right, and we're going to see here we're going to quit for today, folks but you're going to see tomorrow that he specifically outlines the fact that we have no constitutional responsibility to treat all faiths equally and discriminately equal. God bless y'all, wherever you are. Thank you for listening. God bless your families. God bless your marriage 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.