The American Soul
The American Soul
God's Truth Will Guide America Through the Darkness
What drives our daily choices? Jesse Cope challenges listeners to examine their priorities and how they align with their professed values. Do we truly make time for God and Scripture first, or are other things consuming our attention? This honest self-assessment sets the stage for a wide-ranging exploration of faith's role in personal and national life.
The podcast delves into the biblical warning about being "unequally yoked" in marriage—a principle with profound implications beyond relationships. When spouses don't share fundamental spiritual commitments, the foundation becomes unstable. This concept extends to our national character, where America's founders recognized that while religious freedom was essential, the nation's survival depended on citizens voluntarily embracing biblical principles.
Through powerful historical examples, Jesse illustrates how character should always trump denominational identity. Abraham Lincoln's presidential oath, taken with his hand on Matthew 7:1, reminds us that moral clarity doesn't require harsh judgment. The forgotten story of Frank Dwight Baldwin, a double Medal of Honor recipient who risked everything to save innocent lives, stands in stark contrast to our cultural reluctance to confront modern evils like human trafficking.
A sobering reading from Fox's Book of Martyrs recounts the horrific persecution of French Protestants after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The brutal methods used by Catholic authorities under Louis XIV demonstrate what happens when religious institutions claim infallibility and when political powers suppress truth. These historical lessons find modern parallels in authoritarian regimes that similarly silence dissent.
The episode concludes with Mercy Otis Warren's insights on Thomas Hutchinson, whose religious appearance masked his betrayal of American liberties. Her analysis reveals the danger of valuing religious affiliation over genuine character—a warning that resonates powerfully today. As we face mounting cultural challenges, will we choose leaders based on substance rather than style? Will we prioritize Christ's teachings above denominational or partisan loyalties?
Join the conversation and share this episode with someone who needs encouragement in their faith journey. Together, we can rediscover the principles that made America great and will sustain us through these 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. 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 I will help us add some tools to our toolbox and hopefully it will draw us each a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ as individuals and as a nation. For those of y'all who continue to listen to the podcast, share it, tell others about it, thank you so much. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. I'm incredibly grateful for your prayers. And for those of y'all who are new here that haven't been around for a while, I'm glad you're here. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get something out of it. I hope you come back. 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 and your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for all your many blessings, the ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Thank you for the people that listen to the podcast and share it. Please be with their families. Be with them, surround them with your angels, protect them from evil of any kind. Help us to do your will, father. Give us the wisdom to see what that is, the courage to act on it and the perseverance to get all the way home to you and know that you promised to bring our souls safely home to you, and you'll see to that. Be with our leaders, father, here in America and around the world, and the nations where people are listening, giving them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you. Be with our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters. Be with those in conflict in our towns and overseas. Keep them safe. Bring them home safe Our EMS workers. Be with their families. Be with our pastors and our priests, those who stand in our pulpits. Give them courage and wisdom. Help them to proclaim the gospel of your son, jesus Christ, without fear, without hesitation. Be with their wives and their children. Comfort them, give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Be with our educators also, father, around the nation and be with those who are hurting around the world, who are suffering because they follow the name of your Son, jesus Christ, whether it's in Nigeria or Syria, china, north Korea or Iran or anywhere else in between. Please comfort those, father, who are suffering because of the name of your Son, jesus Christ. Help us to comfort them as much as we can in any way possible. And God, my words here. 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? And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? And if you have not, what have you done? What are you giving more time and attention to than God and then your spouse, and attention to than God and then your spouse? And if you really want God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to be your top priority and your spouse to be your second, then you need to start to adjust your actions. If your actions don't line up with that and folks, I don't talk about this very often on the podcast, I guess I'll go for certain periods of time where I do.
Speaker 1:But if you're looking for a spouse, if you're not married but you want to be married someday. So you're college and high school maybe, or past college, and you're looking. Make sure that you do not burden yourself by being unequally yoked. I don't think we talk about this enough to our children in the church, and that is and probably because it would step on so many toes even inside the church. I think it's a lot more common than we'd like to admit, and that is when you have a person who truly wants to, strives to follow the commands of God, even if imperfectly. Folks, because we're all going to be imperfect. Everybody was and is except Jesus Christ. There's no other perfect people, not the disciples, not Mary or Joseph, not John the Baptist, not anybody else, just Jesus Christ. And so we're all going to have moments when we fail. But there's a difference between having moments when we fail and choosing to accept failure as an option, as acceptable, constantly right, and that's even above and beyond the sins that we fall back into constantly. There's a difference between just going along with it and pretending it's not a sin and we're not failing, versus fighting back against them as much as we can. I got way off track there. My whole point was if you're looking for a spouse, make sure you find somebody else that wants to follow those commands, those roles and responsibilities for men and women, for husbands and wives in marriage and sex, because if you don't, it makes it a really long hard road because you really don't have a foundation that's solid and unchanging. There is no other foundation that is solid and unchanging besides God and his son, jesus Christ, in scripture. Everything else is kind of like shifting sand it might be there one day, it might not be there the next, and so if you are a follower of Christ and you're seeking a spouse, you really need to focus on making sure that you're yoking yourself, that you're joining yourself to somebody that believes in God and Jesus Christ and scripture and their roles and responsibilities in your upcoming marriage, whether you're the husband or the wife or vice versa. All right.
Speaker 1:Revelation, chapter 8. The seventh seal, the trumpets. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour and I saw the seven angels who stand before God and the seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints at the golden altar which was before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake, and the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. The first sounded and there came hail and fire mixed with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. The second angel sounded and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed and had life died and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of the waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood and a third of the waters became Wormwood and many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. The fourth angel sounded and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it and the night in the same way. Then I looked and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven saying with a loud voice Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of three angels who are about to sound.
Speaker 1:This is one of those chapters, folks, where there's just a lot that's above my pay grade. I mean, on the surface it's really simple. These are some of the tribulations that are going to come toward the end, for those who are here are going to have to suffer, and I won't get into pre-tribulation or post or during or whatever else, but I think the overall, one of the things that strikes me every time I read this part of the book is just how horrible it is and it's going to be, just the amount of destruction and and why it's so important. I know this is going to sound kind of weird or maybe it sounds kind of and why it's so important. I know this is going to sound kind of weird, or maybe it sounds kind of weird, but it's comforting in a way, or encouraging, I guess I should say because God still saves us from all that, and I'm not saying that he's taking us out again. I'm not talking about pre or post or when we're going to leave or anything. I just mean literally, regardless of what happens to us here, folks, in this life, god has made a promise that he's not going to break.
Speaker 1:I choose to believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God. I've told you all that a number of times on the podcast. I'm telling you again Jesus Christ is the son of God. He died for my sins and yours. God raised him from the dead and he is my Lord and Savior and he's the only way that I have my name written in the book of life and that I'm going to get to enjoy eternal life with God in heaven forever. And so for those of us that claim Christ, whatever happens to us here on this earth, we know that God's made a promise through His Son. Because of His Son, because of His merit alone, nothing we can do that we're going to spend eternity with Him in heaven, like the thief on the cross right. And so that's just a great encouragement. It's just a great encouragement. I hope it encourages you at least a little bit, wherever you are and whatever part of life you're in.
Speaker 1:All right, a little bit of history. Abraham Lincoln in 1865, placed his hand on Matthew 7-1, 18-7, and Revelation 16-7 as he took the presidential oath of office. One is judge, not that you not be judged. And Lincoln put that, I think, in his second inaugural address. I can't remember what speech it was anymore, sadly, we've read it on here on the podcast a couple of times. And he talked about you know how weird it was, or how strange it might seem that the South would try and use God to justify slavery, that they would try and use God to justify taking their income, their bread, from the sweat of another man's brow. But then he said but let us judge, not lest we be judged. And to me that and I wish I had it in front of me, I don't, but that smacks of John Quincy Adams Duty is ours, results are God's.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, we need to worry about ourselves. If you've heard parents, maybe you've been told that if you have siblings a number of times by your own parents like you need to mind your own business. You don't need to worry about your brother or your sister and what they're doing. In regards to me as a parent, right, you just need to do what I tell you to do, and sometimes that brings us into conflict with our siblings, right, our sibling wants to do something that's wrong and we know it's wrong and we refuse to go along with it and we refuse to allow them to do it, and so that brings conflict. That's not us putting ourselves in a position of judgment. That's not us judging their soul or condemning them, right, that's simply us saying, hey, what you're trying to do is wrong, we're not going to go along with it and we're not just going to sit here while you do it.
Speaker 1:And we don't really understand that today. I don't think in a lot of issues you could talk about abortion, feminism, lgbtq lifestyles. You could talk about illegal immigration, not going along with something evil and not judging somebody else. It's acknowledging the fact that God says that's evil and you're not going to go along with it and you're not going to sit by while other people do it. At least that's my, however many cents it's worth. Let's read Matthew 18, 7, because Lincoln also put his hand there. Let's find it 18, 7.
Speaker 1:Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. Yeah, I think we could all do with hearing that quite a bit today when we're talking about kids. You know, there's all of this stuff that we're allowing kids to take in and there's going to be sin that comes from it. You could talk about pornography today and how young, how many kids are being exposed to pornography, both boys and girls, at such a young age, and it's sad and it's heartbreaking and there's consequences for those kids that fall into it, just like any other sin that we fall into folks, just like those of us that eat too much or drink too much or seek or lie or steal. There's consequences, right, but man, woe to those people who bring them in and allow them, and we need to worry about that for ourselves, right the live and let live mentality, the fiscally conservative but socially liberal, when we encourage these actions or go along with certain actions that end up hurting children, hurting others, I suppose in a way it's kind of like we're a conduit for that offense, even though we're not really going along with it. We're just kind of standing by right.
Speaker 1:Robert Winthrop, speaker of the House of Representatives. Phenomenal quote. We read it here often. I'm going to read it again. It's a great one. The voice of experience and the voice of our own reason speak but one language, both united in teaching us that men may as well build their houses upon the sand and expect to see them stand when the rains fall and the winds blow and the floods come, as to found free institutions upon any other basis than that of the morality and virtue of which the word of God is the only authoritative rule and the only adequate sanction.
Speaker 1:All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent state government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or a power without them, either by the word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet arm of man, either by the Bible or the bayonet. It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the state supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is religion which must support the state.
Speaker 1:This is really just going the two sides of the same coin that I've talked about on this podcast for years now, and that is that our founders understood two things really clearly. They understood that in order for us to have free institutions, we had to allow people freedom of choice. Freedom of religion right. Freedom of choice. Freedom of religion right. You had to be able to choose whether you were going to serve God or not, whether you were going to serve a false god or whether you were going to reject God altogether, which is still serving a false god, right. Whether it's Darwinian evolution or the state science, whatever it is, it's a false God. But the other side of that coin is that they also knew that if we did not have a people that followed the principles of God and Jesus Christ, that we couldn't maintain those free institutions. So you've got to give people free will, right, and that's a lot like God, and there's a reason why that's the basis for our nation. You've got to give people that free will, that choice. But if we choose to go against God, if we choose not to follow along with Jesus Christ, then you end up with chaos and despitism and tyranny and slavery and anarchy. Right, it goes back to the Peter Marshall, the chaplain of the Senate, you know, saying the choice before us is clear Christ or chaos. And you hear Winthrop, the Speaker of the House, here back in the 1800s, talking about the fact that we're either going to be controlled because we're following God and we have self-control, or we're going to be controlled by man, by the state, by the bayonet. And today you see so much of our nation leaning towards, sadly, chaos and being ruled by an iron fist, by the bayonet, by the strong arm of man. One more, well, do we have time? Yeah, we got time From Winthrop.
Speaker 1:The Bible itself is its own best witness. No evolution produced that volume and no revelation of thought or action or human will can ever prevail against it. Revisions and new versions may improve or may impair the letter, but they can never change its essential character. The gospel of Jesus Christ, through which he brought life and immortality to light, like its divine author, is the same yesterday, today and forever. 1866, robert Winthrop again Beyond all doubt. My friends, we are dealing here today with the great ingenuity of the world's progress, with the greatest of all instrumentalities for social advancement as well as for individual salvation. If we really want progress, if we really want individual salvation, social advancement, the place we have to turn is the Bible.
Speaker 1:The Bible and I haven't said this enough lately, I haven't been using them quite as much as I was before. But if you don't have a hard copy of America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes by William J Federer, or the Patriot's Bible edited by Dr Richard Lee, or the Founder's Bible printed and edited by the Wall Builders Association, I highly, highly recommend that you get a copy of those phenomenal resources, just great resources to have. And if you're looking for gift ideas, I highly recommend for kids or grandkids or graduation gifts, anything those three books. They ought to be primary textbooks in every classroom across the nation, for sure. Without a doubt. All right, medal of Honor. Where did we leave off? I think, yeah, charles H Baldwin. So Frank D Baldwin, us Civil War. Frank Dwight Baldwin, ranked Captain, highest Rank Major General, us Civil War, delta Company, 19th Michigan Infantry, us Army.
Speaker 1:12 July 1864, place Peachtree Creek, georgia, usa, first award, led his company in a countercharge at Peachtree Creek, georgia, 12 July 1864, under a galling fire, ahead of his own men, and singly entered the enemy's line, capturing and bringing back two commissioned officers fully armed, besides a guidon of a Georgia regiment Credited to Constantine, st Joseph County, michigan, not awarded, posthumously Presented December 3, 1891. Born June 26, 1842, manchester, washtenaw County, michigan, maybe, united States, april 22, 1923. Buried Arlington National Cemetery 3-TAC-1894, arlington, virginia, united States. Interesting again, isn't it? Action date was July 12, 1864, but it wasn't presented until December 3, 1891.
Speaker 1:The other thing that just strikes me every time I read these Medal of Honor books is, like in the news right now you're seeing all these pictures coming out of California with the people waving the Mexican flags and throwing bricks, et cetera, et cetera. What a disgrace, and just an absolute disgrace, it is that we've let our country get to this state and you read what these men were willing to sacrifice and what the women in their lives by extension, right Because they were somebody's son, husband, brother, father were willing to sacrifice. What excuse do we have, do we have? It's hard not to call ourselves cowards folks for the fact that we've gone along with this, and a lot of times, at least at pretense, we use the excuse right. We talked about excuses earlier on the podcast, or maybe it was a previous podcast. We don't want to rock the boat, we don't want to offend anybody, we don't want to make anybody upset. Well, when you go along with evil folks just because you don't want to make people upset, that's not loving, it's not kind. Frank White Baldwin Frank Dwight Baldwin yeah, there we go, here we go.
Speaker 1:There aren't very many people, folks, that have two medals of honor. Frank Dwight Baldwin is one. First Lieutenant, highest Rank, major General, indian Campaigns, fifth US Infantry, us Army, november 8, 1874, mcclelland's Creek, texas, usa. This is the second award he was given Medal of Honor. Rescued with two companies, two white girls, by a voluntary attack upon Indians whose superior numbers and strong position would have warranted delay for reinforcements, but which delay would have permitted the Indians to escape and kill their captives and probably rape them before they killed them too. Accredited to Constantine, st Joseph County, michigan, not awarded. Posthumously Presented March 17, 1894. Born June 26, 1842, manchester, washington County, michigan, united States. April 22, 19,. Died April 22, 1923. Buried Arlington National Cemetery, three-tack, 1894, arlington, virginia, united States. Double Medal of Honor recipient Frank White Baldwin.
Speaker 1:Why in the world is that not a common household name? Are the men who have received because there's a few of them folks, I'm ashamed to say, I can't even tell you how many, but there's a few of them that have received too why are those not common household names? Why are those not common names in our schools? And then you think about the drug cartels and the people bringing over and trafficking these girls in the United States. Bringing over and trafficking these girls in the United States. And you see, this man, one of the Medal of Honors was for fighting against overwhelming Indian numbers to save these two little girls from rape, village plunder and killing. By the way, as a side note, that doesn't sound like these passive, utopic indigenous people that are supposed to have existed. When our leftist friends tell us to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day, does it? People's Day, does it? But again, the trafficking folks. You look at these people, these men primarily, that are willing to traffic these girls from Mexico and other places around the world in the United States. It's hard not to get extremely irritated at the fact that so many people want to complain about a type of slavery that hasn't existed for 140 years, 60 years. I guess now yeah, 160 years, almost give or take they want to ignore the very real slavery that we have today in the United States of sex trafficking, child trafficking, human trafficking in general. We still have slavery folks and we ought to be doing everything we can to fight against it and abolish it and destroy it.
Speaker 1:Frank Dwight Baldwin, double Medal of Honor recipient. All right, we'll move on. So we're going to get back into Fox's Book of the Martyrs. Every once in a while I go back and read the title page. I can find it. This is for those of you all that are new or just joining us. We've been reading through here Fox's Book of the Martyrs, or A History of the Lives, sufferings and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs, from the Introduction of Christianity to the Latest Periods of Pagan, popish and Infidel Persecutions. This was published in 1881 by E Claxton and Company in Philadelphia, 930 Market Street, and we're starting. I'm almost there. So we just got finished with the Bartholomew massacre at Paris and we're going to start now from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the French Revolution in 1789.
Speaker 1:One of the things I think I said this recently that you've got to realize is this is not ancient history, folks. So some of the stuff, especially in the last podcast, it was just really disturbing. That was 1500s moving into the 1600s, folks. It was not forever ago and you ought to think about that a little bit in regards to whether you think this is possible still or not possible, still or not, both just in general and in the particulars of who was what organization was executing most of the violence against Christians at this time.
Speaker 1:The persecutions occasioned by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes took place under Louis XIV. This edict was made by Henry the Great of France in 1598 and secured to the Protestants an equal right in every respect, whether civil or religious, with the other subjects of the realm. All those privileges Louis XIII confirmed for the Protestants by another statute called the Edict of Nismas I'm probably mispronouncing these names, folks, and I apologize but nonetheless and kept them invulnerable to the end of his reign. On the accession of Louis XIV, the kingdom was almost ruined by civil wars. At this critical juncture, the Protestants, heedless of our Lord's admonition that they take the sword they that take the sword shall perish with the sword took such an active part in favor of the king that he was constrained to acknowledge himself indebted to their arms for his establishment on the throne. Instead of cherishing and rewarding that party who had fought for him, he reasoned that the same power which had protected could overturn him and, listening to the popish machinations, he began to issue out prescriptions and restrictions indicative of his final determination. Rochelle was presently fettered with an incredible number of denunciations. Montauban and Malou were sacked by soldiers.
Speaker 1:Popish commissioners were appointed to preside over the affairs of the Protestants, and there was no appeal from their ordinance except to the king's council. This struck at the root of their civil and religious exercises and prevented them, being Protestants, from suing a Catholic in any court of law. This was followed by another injunction to make an inquiry in all parishes into whatever the Protestants had said or done for 20 years past. This filled the prisons with innocent victims and condemned others to the galleys or banishment. Protestants were expelled from all offices, trades, privileges and employees, thereby depriving them of the means of getting their bread to such excess in this brutality that they would not suffer even the midwives to officiate, but compelled their women to submit themselves, in that crisis of nature, to their enemies, the brutal Catholics. Their children were taken from them to be educated by the Catholics and, at seven years, made to embrace potpourri. The reformed were prohibited from relieving their own sick or poor, from all private worship, and divine service was to be performed in the presence of a popish priest. To prevent the unfortunate victims from leaving the kingdom, all the passages on the frontiers were strictly guarded. Yet, by the good hand of God, about 150,000 escaped their vigilance and immigrated to different countries.
Speaker 1:To relate the dismal narrative. There's a lot of good lessons here, folks, but perhaps some of the ones that stand out the most are you see the danger when you put denomination before Christ. Nothing should come before Jesus Christ at all. And if you're putting denominational doctrine, if your focus is on spreading your denomination and it doesn't matter whether it's Methodist or Baptist or Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholic or Anglican or just pick whatever denomination you want if your main goal is promoting that denomination, right. If somebody comes up and asks you, what do you consider yourself? And your answer is well, I'm a Methodist or I'm a Baptist, or I'm a Lutheran, or I'm a Presbyterian, or I'm an Anglican, or I'm a Catholic or I'm a Greek Orthodox, that's the wrong train of thought, folks. That's the wrong way to identify yourself If you want to. For example, here in America, again you see a lot of people talking about making the country great again, and the only way to do that is to make America Christian again, not to make America Catholic or to make America Orthodox or to make America Protestant, whatever denomination. The only way to do that is to make America Christian. And the only way to truly be a Christian is to follow the commands of Jesus Christ as laid out in Scripture, not in denominational doctrine. And again it bears repeating.
Speaker 1:The, some point in their history, have supported some kind of evil persecution of those that didn't choose to submit to their particular denomination. The problem is and we're reading about it here with the Catholics is when that denomination tries to claim infallibility. And any denomination that tries to claim that they're infallible is leading you down a path away from God and Jesus Christ and the truth. Because just like God tells us that any person claims to be without sin, he's a liar, tells us that if any person claims to be without sin, he's a liar. You can translate that over to organization just as easily.
Speaker 1:There's another interesting thing in this last line here, and I don't know how much of this you could attribute to the writers. But it's certainly true. You can see it across every communist, socialist, fascist, nazi, leftist institution, country. You can see it that the powers that be try and control and they don't want the truth out there. You know Jesus Christ is the truth and so they don't want anything to do with Christ. They don't want anything to do with truth in general. And yet by the good hand of God, about 150,000 escaped their vigilance and immigrated to different countries.
Speaker 1:To relate the dismal narrative, it makes it seem like the Catholic Church didn't want word to get out of what they were doing to the Protestants at this time in France. And you see that again. You see it in China. It in China. China isn't interested in word getting out about how they treat the Muslims or the Christians or Fulan Gong or whatever that religion is called, that they're harvesting organs from. They don't want the truth out there about their financial state right, even to their own people. They don't want the truth out there. You saw that in the 1920s and 30s, even in England with Fleet Street and the newspapers there. They didn't want the truth getting out to the British people. Of course the British people weren't really that interested to begin with, but you saw it even in America and in some places like the New York Times correspondence. They didn't want the truth getting out, and sometimes it wasn't the correspondence, sometimes it was the editors. Often the editors, the correspondence would send them the truth, and the editors, they didn't want the truth, they wanted what fit the narrative. In that case it was often pro-Nazi, pro-pacifist and anti-themselves, certainly anti-Semitism in Europe. Just kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:All that has been related hitherto were only infringements on their established charter, the Edict of Nantes. At length, the diabolical revocation of that edict passed on the 18th of October 1685 and was registered the 22nd in the Vacation, contrary to all form of law. Instantly, the dragoons were quartered upon the Protestants throughout the realm and filled all France with the like news that the king would no longer suffer any Huguenots in his kingdom and therefore they must resolve to change their religion. In every parish, which were popish governors and spies set over the Protestants, assembled the reformed inhabitants and told them they must without delay turn Catholics, either freely or by force. The Protestants replied that they were ready to sacrifice their lives and estates to the king, but their consciences being gods, they could not so dispose of them. They could not so dispose of them Instantly.
Speaker 1:The troops seized the greats and avenues of the cities and, placing guards in all the passages, entered with the sword in hand, crying Die or be Catholics. In short, they practiced every wickedness and horror they could devise to force them to change their religion. They hung both men and women by their hair or their feet and smoked them with hay till they were nearly dead. And if they still refused to sign a recantation, they hung them up again and repeated their barbarities till, wearied out with torments without death. They forced many to yield to them. Others, they plucked off all the hair of their heads and beards with pinchers. Others, they threw on great fires and pulled them out again, repeating it till they exhorted a promise to recant. Some they stripped naked and, after offering them the most infamous insults, they stuck them with pins from head to foot and lanced them with pen knives and sometimes with red-hot pincers. They dragged them by the nose till they promised to turn.
Speaker 1:Sometimes they used fathers. They tied fathers and husbands. While they ravished their wives and daughters before their eyes, multitudes they imprisoned in the most noisome dungeons where they practiced all sorts of torments in secret. Their wives and children they shut up in monasteries, such as endeavored to escape by flight, were pursued in the woods and hunted in the fields and shot at like wild beasts. Nor did any condition or quality screen them from the ferocity of these infernal dragoons. Even the members of parliament and military officers, though on actual service, were ordered to quit their posts and repair directly to their houses to suffer the like storm. Such as complied to the king, were sent To the Bastille where they drank the same cup. The bishops and the intendants marched at the head of the dragoons with a troop of missionaries, monks and other ecclesiastics to animate the soldiers to an execution so agreeable to their holy church and so glorious to their demon god and their tyrant king Submitting to evil folks.
Speaker 1:It's hard to see where that's okay or where that falls in line with caring for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. That doesn't mean that if we fight against evil that we're going to be successful. It doesn't mean that we're going to come out unharmed. It doesn't mean that we're going to come out alive. Many of our founding generation.
Speaker 1:At the end of the Revolutionary War, even a number of the signers of the Declaration, were destitute, destroyed, dead. We've gone over that before. I can't remember the numbers right now. We need to read through it again. But you look at these Medal of Honor winners that we read through each day. So many of them, they never made it back home to their families, to their wives, to their parents, to their siblings, to their wives, to their parents, to their siblings, to their children. And the suffering that they endured even though it might be brief, they were pretty horrific being shot at, blown up, stabbed. There's no guarantee there was no guarantee in the Civil War that those men that fought to preserve the union, to abolish slavery, so many of them, the numbers are just astronomical. You know that it took us I forget if it was Vietnam or Korea, but it took us until then and I'm not even sure we I can't remember where we made it when we finally had lost as many in all the other wars combined as we did in the Civil War.
Speaker 1:The point is to trust God first and foremost, but within that, one of his commands is to care for the least of these, and so sometimes, folks, that means a fight. You know he told his disciples at the end Christ did to make sure that they had a sword. It's a fine line to walk, folks, but it's one that we definitely need to be thinking about today. Just laying down and going along with evil doesn't seem to be the path. Doesn't seem to be the path. History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution. Mercy Otis Warren, chapter 4.
Speaker 1:It is ever painful to a candid mind to exhibit the deformed features of its own species. Yet truth requires a just portrait of the public, delinquent though he may possess such a share of private virtue as would lead us to esteem the man in his domestic character while we detest his political and extricate his public transactions. The barriers of the British Constitution broken over, and the ministry encouraged by their sovereign, to pursue the iniquitous system against the colonies to the most alarming extremities, they probably judged it a prudent expedient, in order to curb the refractory spirit of the Massachusetts, perhaps bolder in sentiment and earlier in opposition than some of the other colonies, to appoint a man to preside over them who had renounced the quantum ideas of public virtue and sacrificed all principles of that nature on the altar of ambition. Soon after the recall of Mr Bernard Thomas Hutchinson, esquire, a native of Boston, was appointed to the government of Massachusetts. All who yet remember his pernicious administration and the fatal consequences that ensued, agreed that few ages have produced a more fit instrument for the purpose of a corrupt court.
Speaker 1:He was dark, intriguing, insinuating, haughty and ambitious, while the extreme of avarice marked each feature of his character. His abilities were little elevated above the line of mediocrity. Yet by dent of industry, exact temperance and indefatigable labor, he became master of the accomplishments necessary to acquire popular fame, of the accomplishments necessary to acquire popular fame. Though bred a merchant, he had looked into the origin and the principles of the British Constitution and made himself acquainted with the several forms of government established in the colonies. He had acquired some knowledge of the common law of England, diligently studied the intricacies of Machiavellian policy, diligently studied the intricacies of Machiavellian policy, and never failed to recommend the Italian master as a model to his adherents. Raised and distinguished by every honor the people could bestow, he supported for several years the reputation of integrity and generally decided with equity. In his judicial capacity judge of probate for the county of Suffolk and chief justice of the Supreme Court, and by the appearance of a tenacious regard to the religious institutions of his country, he courted the public, eclat with the most profound dissimulation while he engaged the affections of the lower classes by an amiable civility and condescension, without departing from a certain gravity of deportment, mistaken by the vulgar for sanctity. The inhabitants of the Massachusetts were the lineal descendants of the Puritans who had struggled in England for liberty as early as the reign of Edward V and, though obscured in the subsequent bloody persecutions, even Mr Hume has acknowledged that to them England is indebted for the liberty she enjoys.
Speaker 1:Hume's history of England. Attached to the religious forms of their ancestors, equally disgusted with the hierarchy of the Church of England and prejudiced by the severities their fathers had experienced before their immigration, they had, both by education and principle, been always led to consider the religious as well as the political characters of those they deputed to the highest trust. Thus, a profession of their own religious mode of worship, and sometimes a tincture of superstition, was with many a higher recommendation than brilliant talents, was, with many, a higher recommendation than brilliant talents. This accounts in some measure for the unlimited confidence long placed in the spacious accomplishments of Mr Hutchinson, whose character was not thoroughly investigated until some time after Governor Bernard left the province. But it was known at St James's that, in proportion, as Mr Hutchinson gained the confidence of administration, he lost the esteem of the best of his countrymen. For his reason, his advancement to the chair of governor was for a time postponed or concealed, lest the people should consider themselves insulted by such an appointment and become too suddenly irritated. Appearances had for several years been strong against him, though it was not fully known that he had seized the opportunity to undermine the happiness of the people while he had their fullest confidence and to barter the liberties of his country by the most shameless duplicity. This was soon after displayed beyond all contradiction by the recovery of sundry letters to administration under his signature.
Speaker 1:A couple things here. You hear Ms Warren talking about the fact that sometimes the Puritans she's talking about in this case sometimes they looked a little bit too much to the profession of their own particular mode of worship, right, sometimes a little bit of superstition, as opposed to the merits of the individual and the character. She wasn't saying that they didn't look at that at all. But folks, this cuts right to the heart of the matter.
Speaker 1:Inside the church today and for a long time it's one of the reasons that we read through Fox's Book of the Martyrs Our concern as a Christian should always be Christian character in any interaction, any relationship that we have. Whether you're talking about a spouse when you're choosing a spouse, whether you talk about raising your children, serving your parents, friends, co-workers, choosing your leaders, the denomination shouldn't have anything to do with it. It ought to be. Do we follow the commands of Christ? Do we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? Do we love our neighbors as ourselves? Do we care for the least of these? Do we care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy? When we're choosing who we vote for, it should always be the person that's closest to promoting the principles of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:Sometimes our choices, often today, it seems like we're dealing between two pretty bad choices, but there's always folks going to be a better choice. Maybe it's still not a great choice, but it's going to be a better choice. Maybe it's still not a great choice, but it's going to be a better choice, and we need to make that, we need to encourage that, we need to teach our children to focus on merit and character Characters folks. There's a lot of really bright. Hitler was really bright. He was a genius. He was mad, yes, but he was a genius. That doesn't mean he was a good leader to pick. It's the fallacy of socially liberal but fiscally conservative. That's thought wash. Eventually, your social immorality is going to bleed. It's the fallacy of socially liberal but fiscally conservative. That's hogwash. Eventually, your social immorality is going to bleed over to your fiscal decisions. You have to worry about character first and foremost, but then you have to go to merit and ability. Denomination shouldn't be a concern.
Speaker 1:God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation. Wherever you are around the world listening, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks Looking forward to it.