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 Twitter and @jtcopeiv on Instagram 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
Time, Priorities, And The Narrow Path
Start with a question most of us avoid: how did you really spend the last 24 hours? We walk through an honest time audit that confronts distraction and resets our days around a sturdier compass—God’s Word, prayer, and the lordship of Jesus. Instead of guilt, we aim for recalibration: like a farmer checking a furrow or a night patrol stopping to confirm its bearing, we pause, adjust, and move forward with purpose.
From there, we step into the poetry of Song of Solomon to recover the craft of honoring marriage. The language is ancient, but the wisdom is modern—speak life, delight in your spouse, and treat covenant love as a treasured garden. Then our gaze lifts to Revelation 5, where only the Lamb is worthy to open the scroll. The scene is blazing with worship, angels, and a new song that reframes our priorities: when Jesus is at the center, every lesser idol loses its hold, and courage grows.
We keep the thread of unity with Psalm 133 and Proverbs 29, urging believers to major on core truths—Christ’s deity, His death and resurrection, and salvation in Him—while pursuing justice that comes from the Lord. Finally, we draw strength from history with William Bradford’s Thanksgiving Proclamation and the Mayflower Compact, reminders that gratitude and covenantal responsibility can shape homes, churches, and nations. If you’re ready to trade noise for clarity and division for harmony, this conversation offers practical steps and deep encouragement.
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The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks.
SPEAKER_01: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 you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your dough. I will kind of use it wisely. Hopefully, y'all are getting to listen to the podcast with somebody else. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you for those of y'all that continue to pray for me and for the podcast. Thank you very much. Very grateful for your prayers.
SPEAKER_00:Father, thank you for today.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for you, Father, and your son, Jesus Christ, and your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for all the blessings we don't acknowledge or admit, Father, for whatever reason. Thank you for the people that you bring into our lives. That draw us closer to you and to your son Jesus Christ. Thank you for the people that have come before us, the men and women in our lives that have left an example leading us closer to you and to your son and to your Holy Spirit. Help us to be an example to those around us. By following your son. By following his example. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Help us to love you, Father, with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. To love our neighbors as ourselves. Be with those who are hurting a lot. Scared. Be with those who are persecuted around the world for the sake of your son Jesus Christ, Father, help us to offer them whatever comfort we can. Most of all, Father, help us just to do your will each day.
SPEAKER_01:And God, my words here, please. And thank you for the people, Father, listening. Will you be with them, be with their families? Surround them with your angels, guide them, and bless them.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for them. In your son's name we pray. Amen. Well, folks, how did you spend your last 24 hours?
SPEAKER_01:What did you give your time to? If you had to look back and break down your last 24 hours. Social media, sports, entertainment, workouts, books, spouse.
SPEAKER_00:God. Shopping? Does it line up with what God's priorities are? Are you pleased with how you spent your last twenty-four hours? And then what about the last week? The last month, the last year, the last five years, the last 20 years of your life.
SPEAKER_01:And if you're not pleased, folks, I'm not saying that to try and put a burden on you and make you feel like a horrible human being. I'll tell you right now, I'm not real thrilled with how I've spent a lot of my time over the last 20 years of my life.
SPEAKER_00:I've given a lot of my time to people that didn't deserve it. And it's not even their fault.
SPEAKER_01:It's my fault for having my priorities in the wrong order.
SPEAKER_00:To things that didn't deserve it, to putting certain people or things above God and Jesus Christ. So I'm talking to myself here just as much as y'all.
SPEAKER_01:But the point of looking back, folks, is so that we can get a little better. It's not looking back like Christ warns us about, looking, putting our hand to the plow and then looking over our shoulder, right? You don't want to keep staring behind you because it's like trying to drive down the road looking in the rearview mirror. There are gonna be problems. But the point is to stop every once in a while, right? While you're tilling that row if you need to. And look over your shoulder and make sure that it's straight. And if it's not, to do a course correction. It's like when we used to do compass marches. Every once in a while, you need to stop and look at your compass and get your bearing and make sure you were headed in the right direction. Especially at night. That was no fun. I didn't like those. But you got to stop and look at that compass every once in a while to make sure you're going in the right direction. And what is our compass in this world that we're pilgrims in?
SPEAKER_00:The Bible, God, Jesus Christ, prayer.
SPEAKER_01:And that's true for our nation, folks. It's true for our families, it's true for our marriages, our churches, our communities.
SPEAKER_00:The only way to keep any of those institutions or ourselves on the right track is by God and Jesus, the Bible, praying, the Holy Spirit. Marriage verse for today, Song of Solomon chapter four.
SPEAKER_01:Solomon's love expressed. How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil, your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes, which have come up from their washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost her young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a slice of pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the tower of David built with rows of stones on which are hung a thousand shields, all the round shields of the mighty men. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies. Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. You are altogether beautiful, my darling, and there is no blemish in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. May you come with me from Lebanon. Journey down from the summit of Amana, from the summit of Senior and Hermon, from the dens of lions, from the mountains of leopards. You have made my heart beat faster, my sister, my bride. You have made my heart beat faster with a single glance of your eyes, with a single strand of your necklace. How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride, how much better is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your oils than all kinds of spices. Your lips, my bride, drip honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon. A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a rock garden locked, a spring filled up. Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, henna with nard, plants, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, along with all the finest spices. You are a garden spring, a well of fresh water, and streams flowing from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come wind of the south. Make my garden breathe out fragrance, let its spices be wafted abroad. May my beloved come into his garden and eat its choice fruits. Bible verses for today, scripture for today, we're gonna get back into Revelation. And we're gonna go to Revelation 5, 1 through 14. Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel who shouted with a loud voice, Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, Stop weeping. Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir of David's throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scrolls and its seven seals. Then I saw a lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. And when he took the scroll, the four living beings of the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. And they sang a new song with these words. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God, and they will reign on earth. Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne, and of the living beings, and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus, Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang, Blessing and honor, and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. And the four living beings said, Amen. And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped the Lamb. Psalm 133, verses 1 through 3. How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony. For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron's head, that ran down his beard and on to the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting. Proverbs 29, verses 26-27. Many seek the ruler's favor, but justice comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00:The righteous despise the unjust, the wicked despise the godly. First verse of Psalm 133, how wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers brothers live together in harmony.
SPEAKER_01:We focus too much on the differences between denominations today.
SPEAKER_00:As Christians, folks, instead of paying attention to what unites us.
SPEAKER_01:That Jesus Christ is the only Son of God, that he died for our sins, that God raised him from the dead, and that we have salvation and eternal life only through him. We ought to focus on what brings unity and harmony as Christians.
SPEAKER_00:Focus on those core truths. Charles Bleucher Blucker.
SPEAKER_01:Not real sure, folks. Corporal, highest ranked sergeant, U.S. Civil War, Hotel Company, 188th Pennsylvania Infantry, U.S. Army, September 29th, 1864.
SPEAKER_00:Fort Harrison, Virginia. Planted first national colors on the fortifications.
SPEAKER_01:Accredited to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, not awarded posthumously, presented April 6th, 1865, born 1842, Germany.
SPEAKER_00:And that's it. That's all we got. Charles Butcher. Along these lines. What are we willing to give for our country? So we're going to read today. We may read two if we have time.
SPEAKER_01:We will see. But we're going to read the Thanksgiving proclamation from William Bradford, November 29th, 1623. To all ye pilgrims. Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forest to abound with game, and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye pilgrims with your wives and little ones do gather at ye meeting house on ye hill, between the hours of nine and twelve in the daytime on Thursday, November the twenty ninth of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye pilgrims landed on ye pilgrim rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all his blessings. William Bradford, Governor of Ye Colony.
SPEAKER_00:It's hard to say that many yees.
SPEAKER_01:So I was going to read another Thanksgiving proclamation today, but I think instead of that, I will read the Mayflower Compact. That seems pertinent.
SPEAKER_00:Agreement between the settlers at New Plymouth, 1620.
SPEAKER_01:In the name of God, amen. We, whose names are underwritten the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and the honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and officers from time to time as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, under which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November, in the reign of our sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth, and the year of our Lord 16 to 20.
SPEAKER_00:And if you get a copy, there's all the names listed of which Mr. Bradford is there as long as as well as Mr. William Brewster and a number of others.
SPEAKER_01:Well John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, William Brewster, Isaac Allerton, Miles Standish, John Albin, John Turner, Francis Eaton, James Chilton, John Craddocks, John Billington, Joseph Fletcher, John Goodman, Samuel Fuller, Christopher Martin, William Mullens, William White, Richard Warren, John Howard, Stephen Hopkins, Diggory Priest, Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow, Edmund McGesson, Peter Brown, Richard Burterige, George Sewell, Edward Tilley, John Tilley, Francis Cook, Thomas Rogers, Thomas Tinker, John Ridledge, Edward Fuller, Richard Clark, Richard Gardner, Mr. John Allerton, Thomas English, Edward Dotton, Edward Leissner. I figure if we know all these names of athletes and pop singers, etc. Maybe we ought to know some of those names off the uh Bayflower Compact. If you're looking for a family-friendly middle grade read and you get a chance, you check out Countryside. There's a couple books in the series so far. I would appreciate that. And if you enjoyed, if you gave a review somewhere, I would be very grateful for that as well. And if you feel like you're getting something on the podcast and you can spare two or three or four or five dollars a month, there's a website on the Buzz Sprout webpage for the podcast where you can do that. I would be very grateful for that as well. 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 to temptation, but deliver us from evil for thy home as the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families. God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless America. God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, we'll talk to you all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.