The American Soul
Are you tired of hearing the myth about separation of church and state? Are you tired of being told that America is not and never was a Christian nation? Do you want to have the information to stand up for the truth and fight back against this fundamental lie that’s invading our culture and education? Each week, host Jesse Cope will dive into quotes and excerpts from our great leaders and documents throughout our history showing how in President Woodrow Wilson’s words “America was born a Christian nation.” We have the truth on our side and together we can absolutely turn our nation around. Follow Jesse @jtcope4 on X for daily doses of the truth to help fight back. Subscribe to The American Soul and share the show with someone who needs to hear it. We're on a mission to spread the truth and get our nation back on the right track — and you can help us make this possible.
The American Soul
Screens Or Souls
What did your last twenty-four hours say about your priorities? We start there and move into a deeper call: trade the endless pull of screens for the slow, steady work of loving people well. From the bank-account logic of daily deposits in marriage to the courage it takes to invest attention where it matters most, we map a path toward homes that thrive and communities that hold together.
We ground the conversation in scripture. Genesis 2 reminds us that marriage is a one-flesh covenant that deserves more effort after the vows than before. Revelation 1 lifts our eyes to the risen Christ whose presence quiets fear and resets our loyalties. Psalm 128 reframes blessing as fruitful work, a flourishing spouse, and children gathered at the table—ordinary scenes that carry eternal weight. Along the way, a brief Medal of Honor story distills courage into a single act, and a 1775 proclamation from Concord models a nation choosing fasting, humility, and prayer while still preparing wisely.
The through line is simple and demanding: prepare, but place your confidence in God. Build resilient ties across churches, families, and local services. Reclaim hours from devices and reinvest them in conversation, prayer, and service. If you’re ready to re-center your days around faith, marriage, and community, this conversation offers both conviction and practical steps.
If this resonates, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review. Your support helps more families trade distraction for discipleship and turn good intentions into daily habits.
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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, in whatever part of the day you're in. Sure to appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and energy, effort, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. Very grateful for your prayers. Need them and want them. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00:Through the merit of your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for all your many blessings. The ones we admit and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Forgive us when we turn away from you, Father, and go our own way. Forgive us when we lead others astray. Forgive us when we don't forgive others, as you have forgiven us. Forgive us our unbelief. Help us to overcome it we do believe. Be with our pastors and our priests across the land. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Be with their families, their wives, their children. Comfort them. Help them to feel your presence. Be with our military and our law enforcement, our firefighters, MS. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Bring them home safe to their families. Be with our leaders, help them to rule in fear of you and not in fear of men. Strengthen our marriages. Be with those listening to the podcast, Father, wherever they are. Be with their families. Bless their marriages. Give them your comfort and your peace. Your son's name we pray. Amen. Well, how did you spend your last twenty four hours? I had a opportunity. I was given the opportunity to get and sit around with one of my very good friends that I don't get to very often anymore recently. And we talked about a lot of different things. But I think one of the things that really came up was people relationships versus screens.
SPEAKER_01:And really it kind of turned into also the amount of time that we put into those relationships. You know, the longer, we've said this on the podcast before, folks, but the longer we have a bank account, right? The more money that's in there, the more we pay attention to it typically. The more important it becomes to us.
SPEAKER_00:And this is probably a poor analogy, but we ought to look at our relationships in much the same way.
SPEAKER_01:The more not it's not just the more time or the more you want a relationship to matter, the more important it is, the more time you ought to put into it. It's also the more time you put into a relationship, the more important it ought to be to you. Right? Like your marriage, for example, you ought to put way more effort and energy each day into pleasing your spouse than you did when they were just your boyfriend or girlfriend. Because you've put so much, you've invested so much time and energy and effort into that relationship.
SPEAKER_00:It ought to be the most important. I hope that made sense at any rate. Marriage verse for today.
SPEAKER_01:Genesis chapter two, starting with verse twenty one. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00:And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. If I can find it. Chapter one, verses one through twenty.
SPEAKER_01:This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place. He sent an angel to present this revelation to his servant John, who faithfully reported everything he saw. This is his report of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and he blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near. This letter is from John to the seven churches of the province of Asia. Grace and peace to you, from the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come, from the sevenfold spirit before his throne, and from Jesus Christ. He is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead and the ruler of all the kings of the world. All glory to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us. He has made us a kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever, amen. Look, he comes with the clouds of heaven, and everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes, amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord God. I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come, the Almighty One. I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering, and in God's kingdom, and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus. It was the Lord's day, and I was worshiping in the spirit. Suddenly I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet blast that said, Write in a book everything you see, and send it to the seven churches in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergama, Diatria, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. When I turned to see who was speaking to me, I saw seven gold lampstands, and standing in the middle of the lampstands was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash across his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like flames of fire. His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice thundered like mighty ocean waves. He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp two edged sword came from his mouth, and his face was like the sun in all its brilliance. When I saw him I fell at his feet, as if I were dead. But he laid his right hand on me and said, Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last, I am the living one. I died, but look, I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and the grave. Write down what you have seen, both the things that are now happening and the things that will happen. This is the meaning of the mystery of the seven stars you saw in my right hand and the seven gold lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. How joyful are those who fear the Lord, all who follow his ways. You will enjoy the fruit of your labor, how joyful and prosperous you will be. Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord's blessing for those who fear him. May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace. Proverbs twenty nine, eighteen. When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild.
SPEAKER_00:But whoever obeys the law is joyful. Those first few verses of Psalm 128. How joyful are those who fear the Lord, all who follow his ways.
SPEAKER_01:You will enjoy the fruit of your labor, how joyful and prosperous you will be. Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord's blessing for those who fear him. Wonder how many of us get confused, what blessings really are.
SPEAKER_00:How many of us look to the things of this world instead of what God tells us? Our blessing. Talks about your wife, your children.
SPEAKER_01:Do we view those as the ultimate blessings from God, our marriage, our children?
SPEAKER_00:People. Again, folks, people. Are we focused on people or are we focused on things?
SPEAKER_01:Milton Oof Blickens Durger Durger Not sure, folks, sorry. Corporal, highest rank sergeant, U.S. Civil War, Echo Company, 126th Ohio Infantry, U.S. Army, April 3, 1865, Petersburg, Virginia.
SPEAKER_00:USA Capture of Flag.
SPEAKER_01:That's the entire citation, folks. Capture of Flag. Accredited to Shaneville. Oof, Ohio. Not awarded posthumously. Presented May 10th, 1865. Born May 20th, 1835, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, died March 17, 1916, buried East Lawn Cemetery.
SPEAKER_00:One TAC 152 TAC 6 Sugar Creek, Ohio. Milton Blickensdurger Durger. Thanksgiving proclamation for today. In Provincial Congress, Concord, april fifteenth, seventeen seventy-five.
SPEAKER_01:Whereas it has pleased the righteous sovereign of the universe in just indignation against the sins of a people long blessed with inestimable privileges, civil and religious, to suffer the plots of wicked men on both sides of the Atlantic, who for many years have incessantly labored to sap the foundation of our public liberties so far to succeed, that we see the New England colonies reduced to the ungrateful alternative of a tame submission to a state of absolute vassalage to the will of a despotic minister, or of preparing themselves speedily to defend at the hazard of life the unalienable rights of themselves and posterity against the avowed hostilities of their parent state, who openly threatens to wrest them from their hands by fire and sword. In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us as men and Christians to reflect that whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, or prepare to act a proper part under them when they come, at the same time all confidence must be withheld from the means we use, and reposed only to that God who rules in the armies of heaven, and without whose blessing the best human counsels are but foolishness, and all created power vanity. It is the happiness of his church that when the powers of earth and hell combine against it, and those who should be nursing fathers become its persecutors, then the throne of grace is of the easiest access, and its appeal thither is graciously invited by the Father of Mercies, who has assured it that when his children ask bread, he will not give them a stone. Therefore, in compliance with the laudable practice of the people of God in all ages, with humble regard to the steps of divine providence toward this oppressed, threatened, and endangered people, and especially in obedience to the command heaven that binds us to call on him in the day of trouble, resolved that it be and hereby is recommended to the good people of this colony, of all denominations, that Thursday, the eleventh day of May next be set apart as a day of public humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that a total abstinence from servile labor and recreation be observed, and all their religious assemblies solemnly convened to humble themselves before God under the heavy judgments felt and feared, to confess the sins that have deserved them, to implore the forgiveness of all our transgressions, and a spirit of repentance and reformation, and a blessing on the husbandry, manufacturers, and other lawful employments of this people, and especially that the Union of the American colonies in deference of their rights, for which hitherto we desire to thank Almighty God may be preserved and confirmed, that the provincial and especially the continental Congresses may be directed to such measures as God will countenance, that the people of Great Britain and their rulers may have their eyes open to discern the things that shall make for the peace of the nation and all its connections, and that America may soon behold a gracious interposition of heaven for the redress of her many grievances, the restoration of all her invaded liberties, and their security to the latest generations.
SPEAKER_00:By order of the Provincial Congress, John Hancock, President.
SPEAKER_01:There's I'm torn between just reading this again on another podcast, folks, because we need to hear it so much and moving on to other proclamations.
SPEAKER_00:You look at how much Hancock and this provincial Congress turn to God for to tell him thank you for the blessings that he's bestowed, to seek his forgiveness for sin, and to trust in his will, right, to prepare. But to trust, to turn to him for guidance, provision. Those first couple paragraphs. Maybe we'll just read those again. But you see him talking here about the alternative, right?
SPEAKER_01:What's the alternative? Reduced to this ungrateful alternative of either tame submission to a state of absolute vassalage and to the will of a despotic minister, or of preparing themselves speedily to defend at the hazard of life the unalienable rights of themselves and posterity. You see him talking about the fact that not only in America was he concerned about us as men, but as Christian men in particular, that all of these prudent measures should be taken to ward off the impending judgments, or to prepare so that we could act the proper part under them when they come, but that above all confidence must be withheld from the means we use and reposed, put in only that God who rules in the armies of heaven, and without whose blessings the best human counsels are but foolishness and all created power, vanity. It doesn't matter what we do, what politician we elect, what wonderful policy we make, folks, if we aren't following God and Jesus Christ, it's a short-term solution at best. And the choices that we have before us today are either a fight or submission under the evils of leftism and Islam. But the bottom line is still that as we should try and prepare for that conflict, we should be increasing our military, you know, our state-level militia. We ought to be increasing our local law enforcement, our local firefighters, EMS. We ought to be doing everything we can to communicate between Christian conservative communities, churches, schools, governments.
SPEAKER_00:But most of all, we ought to be making sure that we're looking to God and trusting Him.
SPEAKER_01:If you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, I would humbly recommend Countryside if you get a chance to check it out and you enjoy it. And you can leave a review somewhere. I would greatly appreciate that. And if you think you are getting something out of the podcast and you have three or four or five dollars a month to donate, there's a website on the Buzz Sprout webpage for the podcast where you can set up that monthly donation. I would be grateful for that as well. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages. God bless America. God bless your nation wherever you are around the world. Almost forget. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and we'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks.
SPEAKER_00:Looking forward to it.