The American Soul
The American Soul
The Bible or the Bayonet: America's Foundation of Faith
Jesse Cope explores how America's foundation of faith in God and Jesus Christ is essential for maintaining liberty and how virtue must be developed alongside physical capabilities for communities to thrive.
• Making time for God should be our first priority each day if we claim to be Christians
• Marriage requires spouses to put each other second only to God, with mutual commitment and selflessness
• Biblical teachings on sex and marriage from 1 Corinthians 7 establish clear principles often neglected today
• The church must stand against "no-fault divorce" with the same conviction it opposes other unbiblical practices
• Historical examples show how free societies require citizens with strong moral character to maintain order
• Militia training and self-defense capabilities must be developed alongside virtue, not in place of it
• America's founding leaders began the Continental Congress with prayer, recognizing divine guidance as essential
• Robert Winthrop's warning that societies must choose between "the Bible or the bayonet" remains relevant today
Make time each day to read God's word, pray, and allow His principles to guide your actions. Remember that America's future depends not just on our physical strength but on our moral character and relationship with God.
The American Soul Podcast
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1791934/subscribe
Hey folks, this is Jesse Koch, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me and giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox extra tools for our toolbox. Hopefully it'll give us all a little bit better relationship, closer relationship with God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation, as our communities, schools, churches, states. Excuse me, for those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you so much. I'll help it to grow. I'm very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you so much. I'm very, very grateful for your prayers. 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, for all the many blessings you bestow upon us, father Food to eat, clean water to drink, clothes to wear, cars that run AC heater, cars that run AC heater, clean air, people in our lives that care about us living in America. Thank you for all of those things, father. For those of us who have them, please be with those who don't Comfort them. Draw them close to you. Guide our steps. Please, father, be with our leaders. Guide them. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you. Be with our pastors, our priests. Guide them in the pulpit. Be with their wives and their families, their children. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith and help them to lead us in fear of you, father. Be with our educators across the nation homeschool, public school, private school. Give them wisdom, courage, a strong faith in you, father, and your Son Jesus Christ. Help us to seek and save the lost by leading them to your Son Jesus Christ. Help us to show the world a little bit of his light. Help us to do your will, father, above all of us. Be with those who are listening, wherever they are, across the nation and around the world. Be with their families. Guide us, lord. Bless us, surround us with your angels. Protect us from evil of any kind. Comfort the hearts of those who are broken. Draw close to them. Be with those who have injury or illness, heal their bodies, ease any discomfort and pain they have. Be with those who have lost loved ones. I bring this all home to you, father, in your timing and God, my words are placed in your sons' 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, to listen to him? I struggle with that, trying to do a little bit better Listening with that, trying to do a little bit better listening. You know, if we claim that God is our top priority and if we claim we're Christian folks, then that kind of has to, by default, be true, right, because Jesus Christ first commanded us what To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Speaker 1:And so if we're really doing our job right, that means that we have to put God first each day, do we? Because I can tell you straight up that I do not. I have to work on that and I am working on that, but that ought to be our true priority and our actions ought to line up with that. When we get up each morning, that ought to be the first thing that we do. Is god. What do you need me to do today? Help me to do your will. Help me to do what you want me to do, is it?
Speaker 1:And then, if you're married, right? God's, jesus christ's, second command is to love our neighbors as ourselves. We don't have a closer neighbor than our spouse. That's our closest neighbor. Do we love them the way that we want to be loved? Meaning not, do we love them the way we really want to be loved ourselves, but do we love them as they want to be loved? Right, because that's the point of treating our neighbors as we want to be treated. If you want, your want to be loved. Right, because that's the point of treating our neighbors as we want to be treated.
Speaker 1:If you want your spouse to be interested and eager about what you're interested in eager about do you return the favor? Do you reciprocate? If you're a huge fan of sports and you want your spouse to be super interested in sports and they are a huge fan of cooking and you are not, well, you better figure it out. You better find something about cooking that you like. If you want your spouse to be super interested in sex with you and eager to do whatever, whenever, however often wherever, and your spouse is super interested in workouts right, maybe like CrossFit or something, and you're not, you better get interested. You better find something about that that interests you. If the bookstore is what makes them happy, if shopping and you got to maybe remove the materialistic connotation there, but maybe just going shopping my mother was a phenomenal window shopper. She would not necessarily buy a lot, but she could shop even if she wasn't spending money.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're married to somebody like that. If that's what's interesting to them, if that is what binds you together and brings joy, then you better find some way to enjoy part of that and be part of that. Maybe your husband is a hunter and not the kind that wants to go sit out in a stand by himself, but maybe he wants you to come with him. If that's the thing that is interesting to him, that makes him feel love, that makes him feel like you care, you better figure out how to do something to enjoy some part of that so that you participate in that eagerly whenever he wants to, wherever, however often, right, what it is doesn't matter folks. That's not the important part. The really important part is our attitude and us putting our spouse before ourselves.
Speaker 1:And when you hear people talk about well, they're just too clingy, you know that the problem is that person who's saying that. Because cleave, when you look it up, is a super strong, strong word and that's what God tells us to do. And if you don't want to cleave to your spouse, if you don't want to be what the world says is too clingy, if you want to be an independent I don't need anybody else, boss, babe or woman or man or whatever then don't get married. Then go be that independent. See, that's the lie. That's how you can tell. The lie is people say I'm independent, I don't need anybody else, I do things on my own, and then they get married. Well, one of them is a lie. Either your marriage is a lie, or you being this big, huge independent I don't need anybody else is a lie. Anybody else is a lie, or you're just really not a good person because you are knowingly trapping somebody in a marriage with zero intention of actually being a decent spouse.
Speaker 1:A couple things from a sermon from our pastor. I think this was a couple weeks back. Might have even been a few weeks. I meant to read it earlier, but and this isn't in any particular order, I was just making notes all over our little sermon handout.
Speaker 1:Sociable norms don't change the Word of God. If that was true, any part of the Bible could be quote-unquote reinterpreted. A huge chunk of societal norms today go directly against God. Are we supposed to reinterpret everything, even the divinity of Jesus? To reinterpret everything, even the divinity of Jesus, as feminists claim we should reinterpret roles and responsibilities, you know? So that was just one example I wrote down while he was talking. Feminism claims that roles and responsibilities are outdated. Even a number of people in the church that claim to follow Jesus Christ but I guess are really closet feminists.
Speaker 1:Well, that was society 2,000 years ago and God obviously doesn't mean that today. Well, okay, then everything else is up for grabs. God meant that Jesus was the Son of God 2,000 years ago, but not today. Obviously we wouldn't believe that. That society believed that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. But we know we're so smart today, we have so much science, we know that that's ridiculous, that's not possible. So obviously he was just using that to talk to, you know, to kind of speak their language. That's what you'll hear a lot with feminism. It was a patriarchal society and that's the only way God could talk to them. We've grown past that.
Speaker 1:No Negative, that is negative ghostwriter. That is not at all the way this works. God's word doesn't change. There's some things in there I don't understand. There's some things in there I don't really like too much. But that's a pretty good indication of my lack of understanding and not being God. Thankfully, not that I need to change God's word to fit what I like or what I understand.
Speaker 1:One of the interesting things if you have ever checked it out, go look at Ephesians 5, 21. I believe that's the right and it talks about let me see if I can read it real quick Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Interesting thing the New American Standard Bible and the King James Version and I think a couple others maybe. They put verse 21 as part of the previous paragraph, obviously talking about Christians as a whole. They do not put it in the marriage section, which starts with verse 22, where it says wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord, and what you get from a lot of the feminists is they like to use that verse to say well, we're supposed to be subject to each other and anybody that's ever been in the military or in any organization really where you have to have some form of CEO or commanding officer. It's like two oxen both trying, or two drivers both trying to control where the plow goes. It doesn't work because eventually they're going to go in different directions and then it's just going to be a standstill or they're going to rip up all the rows. Or if you're talking about a vehicle, could you imagine having two steering wheels that both tried to control the car and some of y'all that are married? You know what that's like, because there's the driver and then there's the passenger that really thinks they are the driver trying to tell the driver what to do. It does not work well and it's just interesting how that verse placement in some of the older or more accurate versions perhaps, but that's a discussion that I'm not qualified to really get into.
Speaker 1:A couple more little things from our pastor from that particular sermon Read your Bible over and over again, because the world is continuously trying to confuse and sell lies and deceive. We talk about that on the podcast. Read your Bible every day, and that's one of the main reasons, because the world's going to try and sell you lies at every chance they get and the way you counter that is by reading the Bible. And without God at the center of our nation, of our marriages, of our families and of America, just in general, of our institutions, without God at the center, we fail. And it doesn't matter how many natural resources we have, and it doesn't matter how many natural resources we have, it doesn't matter what our geopolitical situation is, it doesn't matter what our geographical situation is, whether we have the Atlantic on one side and the Pacific on the other, and we are insulated or not. If we don't have God and Jesus Christ at the center, we fail. And you can see it today.
Speaker 1:We are 1 Corinthians 7, teaching on marriage. I think this is where we are. Yeah, let me double check. Some of y'all know already. Yeah, okay, now, concerning things about what you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does, and likewise also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. And likewise also, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
Speaker 1:Stop depriving one another, except by agreement, for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. But this, I say, is way of concession, not of command. Yet I wish that all men were even as myself. However, each man has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I, but if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. But to the married I give instruction to not I but the Lord that the wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
Speaker 1:But to the rest I say not the Lord that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her, and a woman who has an unbelieving husband when he consents to live with her. She must not send her husband away, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband, for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave. The brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace. For how do you know, o wife, whether you will save your husband, or how do you know, o husband, whether you will save your wife? Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each in this manner, let him walk.
Speaker 1:And so I direct in all the churches was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. But what matters is keeping the commandments of God. Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it. But if you are also able to become free, rather do that, for he who was called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freed man. Likewise, he who was called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. Brethren. Each one of you is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.
Speaker 1:Now, concerning virgins, I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who, by the mercy of the Lord, is trustworthy. I think that it is good, in view of the present distress, that it is good for a man to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you marry, you have not sinned, and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life. And I am trying to spare you.
Speaker 1:But this I say, brethren the time has been shortened, so that, from now on, those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they did not weep, and those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, and those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use the world as though they did not make full use of it, for the form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried and the virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But the one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
Speaker 1:This I say for your own benefit, not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is appropriate and to secure undistracted devotion to the Lord. But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she has passed her youth, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes. He does not sin. Let her marry. But he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will and has decided this in his own heart to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well. So then, both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage and does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better. A wife is bound as long as her husband lives, but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord. But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is, and I think that I also have the spirit of God.
Speaker 1:There's a ton here, and I'm not even going to begin to try to get into all of it. If you go back, though, and look, there's some pretty clear commands from God here about sex and marriage verse three through five and you look at verse six, a lot of people they say well, he said that as a concession. Yeah, that's the part about if you abstain from sex only during periods of fasting and prayer, but you don't have to do that, you don't have to abstain at all. That's the concession part. And then, I think, the part that we miss here, especially in this.
Speaker 1:I hear a lot of pastors rightly talking about pornography in the church, and we need to talk about it because it is a rampant problem and we need to fight against it because it is absolutely an evil and a lot of people are addicted to it. It's an easy addiction for a lot of, and it's not just men anymore. I think that's traditionally the view, but you see some of the statistics coming out. There's a lot of women that are pretty addicted to pornography, maybe in the form of books, over videos, but it's still the same kind of trash. But we make a mistake when we don't look at like verse 9, but if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to be married than to burn with passion. And then you go back up and you look at verse 5, stop depriving one another, except by agreement, for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Speaker 1:We talk about Hebrews 13, 4 and wanting a pure marriage bed. We want loyalty, we want fidelity, right. We want someone that's going to stick to us. But we don't, inside the church, talk too much about this opposite side of the coin, which is, if you want to prevent Satan, if you want to try and shore up the defenses of your marriage, right, you, you always in the military. You wanted to try and limit the variables. You want to try and limit the variables as much as possible. You're never going to be able to eliminate all the variables, but you, you try and take away from the enemy those variables which you can. And if you're looking at Satan obviously as the main enemy, try and take away from the enemy those variables which you can. And if you're looking at Satan obviously as the main enemy and you want to try and protect your marriage, one of the ways that you do that is you're not going to deprive your spouse of sex, because that opens a doorway for pornography, for adultery, for all these different kinds of immoralities, and we don't talk about that enough in the church. You're going to get married.
Speaker 1:That's a reason for a lot of people getting married and it's a valid reason and it goes back to my comment that I get so much hate and discontent for often and that is whatever, whenever, wherever, however, often eagerly, and it doesn't matter what it is folks, whether it's baking a cake or sex or going for walks or workouts or anything else the point is, is our spouse truly our second priority each day after God? Do they truly get our time and energy and effort before anything else? You know, if you're a partner, if working out is a big deal to them and I know there's a lot of people out there that it is. And it's not just men, right? Men or women, it works both ways. I know some women that are very, very much enjoy running, working out. Are you willing to do that with them? Are you willing to get up each morning and go for a run or workout? Or in the evening, if that's a big deal to your spouse, right? And I guess the other side of that coin, folks, is you don't get to pick everything as being a big deal to you, right? You can't say, well, you've got to work out with me each day, day, multiple times, and you've got to make me a cake each day for dinner and you've got to have sex with me. You need to be fair with your spouse. Pick what's truly important to you, that truly makes you feel loved by your spouse, that makes you know that you are their top priority. Tell them what that is. Don't play mind games with them. They can't read your mind. Tell them what that is and and then in in the reverse, reciprocate. Ask them you know what is really important to you. What can I do for you today, each day, what do you need? And then do it.
Speaker 1:Verse 10 and 11. The wife should not leave her husband, but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and the husband should not divorce his wife". We, man, we've dropped the ball inside the church on no-fault divorce. There's no such thing. You don't just get to leave just because you want to. You don't get to pretend that you can just walk out the door just because you want to. It doesn't work that way. And we want to hammer. Some of us in the church want to hammer LGBTQ lifestyles right and rightfully so. And we want to hammer feminine men again rightfully so. We better make sure that we're also hammering no-fault divorce, the idea that you can just walk away from your spouse anytime you want, for whatever reason, and get married again.
Speaker 1:Make up some half-hearted, foolish lie of an excuse to walk out the door on your spouse and just get married again, and you ought to think about that. We ought to be telling our kids that, folks, hey, once you get married it's over, because that's a big deal, and if you're not willing to pay that price, then you shouldn't get married. You may look up and your marriage may not be everything that it should be. In fact, if you look across the nation right now, I would say that the vast, vast majority of marriages are not what they should be. So you ought to think really hard, long and hard about that. If you want to gamble, if you want to be in that kind of institution where you have to stay even if your spouse isn't doing what they're supposed to do theoretically right, because it's hard. But that also ought to encourage you for those of y'all high school, college young people that are looking to get married to put a lot of effort and energy into paying attention to who you think you're going to marry.
Speaker 1:Is that really a good idea? Are you marrying a man or a woman that's truly going to follow God's clear roles and responsibilities for them in marriage? And if there is even one little red flag, I would walk away. Folks, this is just my opinion. Now Make sure, kind of like I think Paul did here. Make sure that this is my opinion. But if you see even one little red flag and I'm not talking about something stupid, like they can't cook meals exactly the way that you want them to, but I'm talking about big picture Are they going to follow the roles and responsibilities that God clearly laid out in scripture, and and they don't want to have a bunch of kids or they don't want to follow their roles and responsibilities.
Speaker 1:One Corinthians, seven Ephesians, five Titus, two. One Peter, three Hebrews 13,. Four Proverbs five, 19,. Song of Solomon. I would run, because otherwise you're setting yourself up for a long, hard, lonely road. All right, we're going to get back in. You know what? The first thing we're going to do is? We're going to go to our Medal of Honors. I think we ended with Frank J Bart in World War I, so we're going to go to Gordon H Barter, us Civil War ranked landsman. That's interesting.
Speaker 1:Us Civil War, uss Minnesota, us Navy, january 15th 1865, fort Fisher, north Carolina, usa. Onboard the USS Minnesota in action during the assault on Fort Fisher 15 January 1865. Landing on the beach with the assaulting party from his ship, landsman Barter advanced to the top of the sandhill and partly through the breach and the palisades, despite enemy fire which killed and wounded many officers and men. When more than two-thirds of the men became seized with panic and retreated on the run, he remained with the party until dark, when it came safely away, bringing its wounded, its arms and its colors Accredited to New York, new York, not awarded posthumously.
Speaker 1:Born 1843, williamsburg, kings County, new York, died April 22, 1900, viola, idaho, I believe. Viola Cemetery, mh 63, tac 3, viola, Idaho, united States. Location of metal. Idaho Military Historical Society, boise, idaho, idaho Military Historical Society, boise, idaho. Gurdon H Barter Landsman that's an interesting rank. Thomas Barton, us Civil War Seaman, uss Hunchback, us Navy, october 3, 1862, franklin, virginia, usa, on board the USS Hunchback in the attack on Franklin, virginia, 3 October 1862, franklin, virginia, usa, on board the USS Hunchback in the attack on Franklin, virginia, 3 October 1862, when an ignited shell with cartridge attached fell out of the howitzer upon the deck, seaman Bartley promptly seized a pail of water, threw it upon the missile, thereby preventing it from exploding. Accredited to Ohio, not awarded posthumously.
Speaker 1:Born 1831, cleveland, oof, ihoga County, ohio. Died October 24, 1888. Buried Mountain View Cemetery, oakland, california, usa. Thomas Barton. Double names Gurdon H Barter and Thomas Barton. Double names Gurdon H Barter and Thomas Barton. All right, now we are going to get back into when did it go? Not Fox's Book of the Martyr, but the United States Elevated to Glory and Honor. A sermon by Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, before the commander in chief and general assembly of the state of Connecticut and we will pick up where we left off, if I can find it. There we go.
Speaker 1:Republics are democratical, aristocratical or monarchical. Monarchal, democratical, aristocratical or monarchical Each of these forms admit of modifications, both as to hereditation and powers, from absolute government up to perfect liberty. Monarchy might be so limited, one would think, as to be a happy form, especially if elective. But both monarchy and aristocracy, when they become hereditary, terminate in the prostration of liberty. The greater part of the governments on earth may be termed monarchical aristocracies or hereditary dominions, independent of the people. The nobles and nabobs, being hereditary, will at first have great power, but the royal factions have not failed to intrigue this away. From the nobles to the prince, the assembly of even hereditary nobles then becomes ciphers and nullities in dominion.
Speaker 1:The once glorious Cortes of Spain experienced this loss of power. It is next to an impossibility to tame a monarchy, and few have ruled without ferocity. Scarcely shall we find in royal dynasties, in long line of princes, a few singular good sovereigns, a few Cyrus's, antonini, alfred's, alfred's, boramas's. Indeed, if we look over the present sovereigns of Europe, we behold with pleasure two young princes, the Emperor and the Monarch of France, who seem to be raised up in Providence to make their people and mankind happy.
Speaker 1:A ganganelli in the pontifical throne was a phoenix of ages, sewn for his moment and scarcely to be found again in the catalogue of a platina. Found again in the catalogue of a Platina. We see enterprising literary and heroic talents in a Frederick III and wisdom in a Poniatowski. I add no more. But when we contemplate the other European and Asiatic pontentates, and especially the sovereigns of Delhi, ispanun and Constantinople, one cannot but pity mankind whose lot is to be governed by despots of small abilities, immersed and rioting in the splendor of a luxurious effemancy.
Speaker 1:Nor could government proceed were not the errors and desultory blunders of royalty, frequently corrected by the circumspection of a. A few sensible characters venerable for wisdom, called upon the stated counselors of majesty. Lord Bacon said that monarchy had a platform in nature and in truth, monarchical ideas reigned through the universe. A monarchy conducted with infinite wisdom and infinite benevolence is the most perfect of all possible governments. The Most High hath delegated power and authority to subordinate monarchies of sole ruling powers in limited districts throughout the celestial hierarchy and through the immensity of the intellectual world. But at the same time he hath delegated and imparted to them wisdom and goodness adequate to the purposes of dominion and thence the government is, as it ought to be absolute. But in a world or region of the universe where God has imparted to none either this superior power or adequate wisdom beyond what falls to the common share of humanity, it is absurd to look for such qualities in one man, not even in the man, moses, who shared the government of Israel with the Senate of 70.
Speaker 1:Therefore, there is no foundation for monarchical government from supposed hereditary superiority in knowledge. If it be said that monarchs always have a council of state consisting of the wisest personages of whose wisdom they avail themselves in the government of empires, not to observe that this is a concession indicating a deficiency of knowledge in princes, it may be asked. Why not then consign and repose government into the hands of the national council, where always resides the superiority of wisdom? The supposed advantage of having one public head for all to look up to and to concenter the attention, obedience and affection of subjects and to consolidate the empire, will not counterbalance the evils of arbitrary despotism and the usual want of wisdom in the sovereigns and potentates of the earth, for the hereditary successions in the dynasty of kings, in the effeminate families of the great, seem to be marked and accursed by providence with deficient wisdom. And where is the wisdom of consigning government into such hands? Why not much better, since we for once have our option or choice to commit the direction of the Republic to a wetina gemat or an aristocratical council of wise men? Should we call forth and dignify some family, either from foreign nations or from among ourselves, to create a monarch, whether a hereditary prince or protector for life, and seat him in supremacy at the head of Congress? Soon, with insidious dexterity, would he intrigue and secure a venal majority, even of new and annual members, and, by diffusing a complicated and variously modified influence, pursue an accretion of power till he became absolute. Accretion of power till he became absolute.
Speaker 1:The celebrated historian Mrs Catherine Macaulay, that ornament of the Republic of Letters and the female Livy of the Age, observes the man who holds supreme power for life will have a great number of friends and adherents who are attached by interest to his interest and who will wish for continuance of power in the same family. This creates the worst of factions, a government faction in the state. The desire of securing to ourselves a particular unshared privilege is the rankest vice which infests humanity, is the rankest vice which infests humanity and a protector for life, instead of devoting his time and understanding to the great cares of government, will be scheming and plotting to secure the power after his death to his children, if he has any, if not to the nearest of his kin. This principle in government has been productive of such bloodshed and oppression that it has inclined politicians to give the preference to hereditary rather than elective monarchies and, as the lesser evil, to consign to government of society to the increasing and, at length, ultimate unlimited sway of one family, whether the individuals of it should be idiots or madmen. It is an uncontroverted fact that supreme power can never continue long in one family without becoming unlimited. Pretty obvious. He's talking there in reference to the British king, right? Pretty interesting, though, if you kind of pay attention to what our Supreme Court judges today that are appointed for life. Now, their children don't automatically take their seats, that's true, their seats, that's true. But you can see some of the problems when a Supreme Court justice has no real fear of being removed, even if they go directly against the Constitution and the founding, faith and principles of the nation, all right, we'll move on.
Speaker 1:So Foxes, book of the Martyrs, and we're talking about the persecutions in Calabria. So I'm saying that right, and if I'm not, please forgive me. So the Pope Pius IV. He was determined to exterminate those from Calabria that didn't follow the Roman Church, those from Calabria that didn't follow the Roman church. To this end, he sent Cardinal Alexandrino, a man of very violent temper and a furious bigot, together with two monks to Calabria, where they were to act as inquisitors. These authorized persons came to St Exist, one of the towns built by the Waldenese, and, having assembled the people, told them that they should receive no injury or violence if they would accept of preachers appointed by the Pope, but if they would not, they should be deprived both of their properties and lives, and that their intentions might be known. Mass should be publicly said.
Speaker 1:That afternoon, at which they were ordered to attend, the people of St Exist, instead of attending Mass, fled into the woods with their families and thus disappointed the cardinal and his coadjutors. The cardinal then proceeded to LaGarde, the other town belonging to the Waldenese, where not to be served as he had been at St Exist. He ordered the gates to be locked and all avenues guarded. The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants of LaGarde garden. The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants of La Gardaise, as had previously been offered to those of Saint-Exist. But with this additional piece of artifice, the cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of Saint-Exist had immediately come into his proposals and agreed that the pope should appoint them preachers. This falsehood succeeded, for the people of La Gardaise, thinking what the cardinal had told them to be the truth, said they would exactly follow the example of their brethren at St Exist.
Speaker 1:The cardinal, having gained his point by deluding the people of one town, sent for troops of soldiers with a view to murder those in the other. He accordingly dispatched the soldiers into the woods to hunt down the inhabitants of St Exist like wild beasts and gave them strict orders to spare neither age nor sex but to kill all that came near. The troops entered the woods and many fell a prey to their ferocity, before the Waldenese were properly appraised of their design. At length, however, they determined to sell their lives as dear as possible. When several conflicts happened, in which the half-armed Waldenese performed prodigious prodigies of valor, and many were slain on both sides, the greatest part of the troops being killed and the different Rentgen I don't know the rest were compelled to retreat, which so enraged the cardinal that he wrote to the Viceroy of Naples for reinforcements. The Viceroy immediately ordered a proclamation to be made throughout all the Neapolitan territories that all outlaws, deserters and other prescribed persons should be surely pardoned for their respective offenses, on condition of making a campaign against the inhabitants of St Exist and continuing under arms till those people were exterminated of Saint Exist and continuing under arms till those people were exterminated.
Speaker 1:Many persons of desperate fortunes came in upon this proclamation and, being formed into like companies, were sent to scour the woods and put to death all they could meet with of the reformed religion. The viceroy himself likewise joined the cardinal at the head of the body of regular forces and in conjunction they did all they could to harass the poor people in the woods. Some they caught and hanged up upon trees, cut down bows and burnt them, or ripped them open and left their bodies to be devoured by wild beasts or birds of prey. Many they shot at a distance, but the greatest number they hunted down by way of sport. A few hid themselves in caves but famine destroyed them in their retreat and thus all these poor people perished by various means to glut the bigoted malice of their merciless persecutors.
Speaker 1:Pretty good example here, folks, of the reason why it is at least acceptable, if not a duty, for us to train with arms and be prepared to defend the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy, the least of these, against evil men and women, and to be willing to trade our lives for theirs. Because, just like the Roman Catholic Church here, leftism, socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, islam none of those ideologies, when they're in power, are going to leave the women and the children, the old, the infirm. They're not going to leave them alone suddenly when we're gone Right. It's like the fallacy with Israel and Iran out today. If every single Jew in the world disappeared overnight, do you think that Iran would suddenly become peaceful and tolerant with those who don't follow Islam? No, of course not. And if you do, you need to read some history and you need to talk to some people that have been overseas in these countries. They're not going to suddenly go peacefully into the night. And so, even if good men say, lay down and submit the people left behind, they don't have it better. They've just lost their defender and you might not win. You might not win, but you might. It depends on God. It's like John Quincy Adams said duty is ours. Results are God's. Our job is to fight as long as we can, as hard as we can, and save as many as we can, both spiritually and physically.
Speaker 1:The inhabitants of St Exist were no sooner exterminated than those of LaGarde. Engaged their attention, engaged the attention of the Cardinal and Viceroy. It was offered that, if they should embrace the Roman Catholic persuasion, themselves and families should not be injured, but their houses and property should be restored and none would be permitted to molest them. But on the contrary, if they refused this mercy, as it was termed, the utmost extremities would be used and the most cruel deaths the certain consequence of their non-compliance. I just come on folks, a church threatening a community of men, women and children who had done nothing besides attempt to follow Christ and scripture Threatening them. All right, we're going to come back, we're going to move on to History of the Rise, progress and Termination of the American Revolution by Mercy Otis Warren, and we'll come back to Fox's Book of the Martyr and the people of LaGarde on the next podcast. So we're going to pick up in Chapter 5 where we left off. Chapter 5, where we left off While matters hung in this suspense, the people and all the shire towns collected in prodigious numbers to prevent the sitting of the courts of common law, forbidding the justices to meet or the jurors to impanel, and obliging all civil magistrates to bind themselves by oath not to conform to the late acts of Parliament in any judiciary proceedings.
Speaker 1:And all military officers were called upon to resign their commissions. Thus were the bands of society relaxed, law set at defiance and government unhinged throughout the province. Perhaps this may be marked in the annals of time as one of the most extraordinary eras in the history of man. The exertions of spirit awakened by the severe hand of power had led to that most alarming experiment of leveling all ranks and destroying all subordination. Why didn't we do this, folks, when Roe v Wade was passed? Why didn't we do this when Everson v Board of Education, when separation of God and state pretending to be separation of church and state, why didn't we do this? Why didn't the states band together the attorneys general and tell the federal government, the Supreme Court no, we will not and demand that our local law enforcement refuse to enforce and defend the least of these from being slaughtered and defend the Bible being at the center of our classrooms? Why didn't we? Why didn't we do what was right. Why do we still not? Is there a legitimate reason or are we just too comfortable and we don't want to risk our comfort? And we don't want to risk our comfort.
Speaker 1:It cannot be denied that nothing is more difficult than to restrain the provoked multitude. When once aroused by a sense of wrong From the supineness which generally overspreads the common class of mankind, ignorant and fierce, they know not in the first ebullitions of resentment how to repel with safety the arm of the oppressor. It is the work of time to establish a regular opposition to long-established tyranny. A celebrated writer has observed that men bear with the defects in their police as they do with inconveniences and hardships in living. And perhaps the facility of the human mind in adapting itself to circumstances was never more remarkably exemplified than it was at this time.
Speaker 1:In America. Trade had long been embarrassed throughout the colonies by the restraints of Parliament and the rapacity of revenue officers. Note that today, the rapacity of revenue officers. Note that today, the rapacity of revenue officers of the IRS. The shutting up the Port of Boston was felt in every villa of the New England colonies. The bill for altering the Constitution of Massachusetts prevented all legislative proceedings. The executive officers were rendered incapable of acting in their several departments and the courts of justice shut up.
Speaker 1:It must be ascribed to the virtue of the people, however reluctant some may be to acknowledge this truth, that they did not feel the effects of anarchy in the extreme. How do you prevent anarchy in the extreme when the courts of justice are shut up and the executive officers were rendered incapable of acting in their several departments? Virtue, virtue, virtue. And where do you get virtue from Jesus Christ? We need to be building up our militia, our local law enforcement, our firefighters, our EMS, increasing their numbers, increasing the training, increasing the capabilities, improving the equipment. We need to be training with arms both our youth and our adults. But none of that stuff matters, folks, if we don't increase in virtue simultaneously, if we don't develop character simultaneously. If we don't develop character simultaneously, the Second Amendment without the First Amendment is worse than useless. It's just giving weapons to immoral people which we've seen throughout the 20th century Socialism, communism, nazism, fascism, islam. If you don't develop character alongside physical skill and power, you're just making strong, dangerous men who don't have any character.
Speaker 1:But a general forbearance and complacency seemed for a time almost to preclude the necessity of legal restraint and, except in a few instances when the indiscretion of individuals provoked abuse, there was less violence and personal insult than perhaps ever was known. In the same period of time when all political union was broken down and private affection weakened by the virulence of party prejudice, which generally cuts and sunders the bands of social and friendly connection, the people irritated in the highest degree. The sword seemed to be half drawn from the scabbard, while the trembling hand appeared unwilling to display its wedded point. Irritated in the highest degree. The sword seemed to be half drawn from the scabbard, while the trembling hand appeared unwilling to display its wedded point. And all America, as well as Massachusetts, suspended all partial opposition and waited to anxious hope and expectation. The decisions of a Continental Congress. This respected assembly. The of a Continental Congress. This respected assembly.
Speaker 1:The infictions of the Western world, convened by the free sufferings of twelve colonies, met at the time proposed, on the 4th of September 1774. They entered on business with hearts warmed, with love of their country, a sense of the common and equal rights of man and the dignity of human nature. Peyton Randolph Esquire, a gentleman from Virginia whose sobriety, integrity and political abilities qualified him for the important station, was unanimously chosen to preside in this grand council of American peers. All right, there's two things we're going to look at to wrap up this podcast, if I can find both of them quickly. And the first one is Admiral Conger Is no Congress, yes, okay.
Speaker 1:So Miss Warren here talks about a love for their country, and that was true. But you cannot love a country if you don't love its founding values. We talk about that on the podcast often. And what are these values? John Adams told us that the principles that unified all these men were the only principles that could, were the general principles of Jesus Christ. And so, in September of 1774, and so in September of 1774, right, what was the very first thing that they did? Their first official act on September 6, 1774, was for a call to prayer recorded in the journals of the Continental Congress, continental Congress. And so, on September the 7th 1774, they invited Reverend Mr Duche, if I'm saying that D-U-C-H-E to open the first Congress in Carpenters Hall, philadelphia, with prayer. And we've talked about that on the podcast a number of times. So you have God and Jesus Christ at the center.
Speaker 1:And then the other point, the previous paragraph here, talking about the fact that we didn't need legal restraint at this period. Ms Warren says we didn't have any law or justice right then and, except in a very few instances, there was less violence, less abuse, less personal insult than was typically known. Why? Why and we're going to go to a quote by robert win, who was speaker of the House, I believe, at some point, and at either any rate he was an American legislature orator, author, the voice of experience and the voice of our own reasons speak but one language. This was May 28, 1849, at the annual meeting of Massachusetts Bible Society in Boston, 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 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 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 word of God or by the strong arm of man, either by the Bible or by the bayonet.
Speaker 1: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. How do we maintain free institutions, how do we maintain liberty, how do we maintain freedom, god, self-restraint, self-government, virtue, morality, if you don't have those things? One of the comments that you hear often about the Gulf War with Saddam Hussein, about the Gulf War with Saddam Hussein, is that he was a brutal, brutal dictator to his own people, but he controlled them right, and when you took him away you didn't have any control there anymore, because the people weren't going to restrain themselves. They didn't have the virtue and morality to do it. That's why they had to be constrained by the bayonet In America. If we want liberty, if we want our free institutions to continue, we have to govern ourselves. That's why you see so much failing in these riots, in these cities.
Speaker 1:You go back to Portland a few years ago. You go to LA recently. Right, you look at the values of the left socialism, communism, leftism, nazism, fascism, islam. Why do they tend toward tyranny and despotism way to control those people that follow those ideologies? Because there is a gaping hole where virtue and morality should be, because God and the Bible and Jesus Christ are taken out. You can't have one without the other folks. God bless you all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're folks. God bless you 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, listening, sure, I'm glad you all are here, folks, looking forward to talking to you all again.