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
Christmas Joy Is Contagious, Even For Grumpy Adults
If joy feels scarce and the cultural noise won’t quit, here’s a calmer path forward. We pull together three strands—how we raise our kids, how we ready our souls, and how a nation holds its center—and trace them through Scripture, history, and a timeless Christmas message from President Calvin Coolidge. The throughline is simple: standards matter, humility matters, and joy rooted in Christ outlasts the season.
We start with the honest ache we hear from college and trade school students who sense something is wrong. Rather than scolding a generation, we turn the mirror on ourselves: adults set expectations, shape incentives, and model habits. From there, we talk about building homes where discipline and love walk together, and revisit a marriage passage in Proverbs that frames covenant as a mutual promise of delight and devotion. Then Revelation 10 invites us to “take and eat” the open scroll—truth that is sweet and heavy—and to live ready because there will be no more delay. Psalm 138 calls us to humility that God draws near, while Proverbs 30 warns against pride that devours the needy.
History gives flesh to principle. The Medal of Honor story of Peter Martin Bohm shows how one brave act can rally the wavering. Coolidge’s Christmas message reminds us that the spirit of the season is not about what we give but who we are while we give, and that a nation’s strength rests on the strength of its religious convictions. We close with assurance: security in Christ frees us to serve boldly, raise standards kindly, and carry a steady joy into ordinary days.
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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 to appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully, you're getting to listen to it with somebody else and enjoy that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. I'm very much very, very grateful for your prayers. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others, tell others about it. Thank you as well.
SPEAKER_00: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. Through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the blessings we admit, Father, and the ones we don't, for whatever reason. Forgive us our sins. Forgive us when we're more concerned about men and women than we are what you tell us. Help us to truly love your Son Jesus Christ. To follow his commands, to love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us, Father, to care about the things that you care about. Help us to care for the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy. Draw us close to you.
SPEAKER_01:Be with our military and our law enforcement, our firefighters, EMS, those who go out to the cold and the rain and the dark, snow, ice to protect us, to provide for us, to care for us.
SPEAKER_00:Be with them, be with their families. Be with those who are hungry, who are cold, naked, be with those who are in prison, those who are injured or ill. Help us to care for them with words. But more importantly, Father, help us to care with them for them an action, deed. To do, to be doers of the word, not merely hearers. Help us to spread the gospel of your son Jesus Christ. And be with those who listen to the podcast, Father, wherever they are. Comfort them, bless them, be with their families, bless their marriages if they're married. Draw close to the brokenhearted father. Please hear my words. God, my word. Your sons made me pray, I know. So we've talked about this on the podcast recently. But I've had the opportunity, the privilege of talking to individuals, young people in college or trade school recently. And some of those involved in collegiate athletics as well, as part of that group. These young people know that there's something wrong, folks. They feel it. And it's easy to point fingers and say that this generation is lazy. Maybe in the last few generations, selfish, entitled. And those accusations are certainly true. But it's a lot like feminism. We can sit here and point fingers at the feminists, and we should to a certain degree. But who allowed feminism? Men. We can point fingers at these last couple generations of our youth and talk about their lack of drive, lack of character, lack of integrity, lack of discipline. And those are valid. But who allowed those things? Folks, we did.
SPEAKER_01:Academically, athletically. And when we give these opportunities for our children away to foreign entities, to foreign individuals, to foreign children, we're taking away something that belongs to them. We're taking away something that belongs to our country. And the problem isn't that we don't have bright children. Strong, fast, beautiful, smart. We have children with abilities, but as adults, we've let them down because we haven't demanded that they hold to a higher standard.
SPEAKER_00:We haven't demanded that they have discipline, integrity.
SPEAKER_01:Marriage verse for today comes out of Proverbs chapter five verses eighteen and nineteen. We talk about this pretty much every time we go through these verses, folks. If a husband has a requirement to be always satisfied and intoxicated with his wife, then logically, by default, the wife has a responsibility to always offer that satisfaction and intoxication. It works both ways, folks. You can't have one side of the coin without the other.
SPEAKER_00:Scripture for today? Go back into Revelation. Chapter 10, maybe. Yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_01:Verse 1 through 11. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire. And in his hand was a small scroll that had been opened. He stood with his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a great shout, like the roar of a lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders answered. When the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, Keep secret what the seven thunder said, and do not write it down. Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, There will be no more delay. When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God's mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants, the prophets. Then the voice from heaven spoke to me again, Go and take the open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So I went to the angel and told him to give me the small scroll. Yes, take it and eat it, he said. It will be sweet as honey in your mouth, but it will turn sour in your stomach. So I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel and I ate it. It was sweet in my mouth, but when I swallowed it, it turned sour in my stomach. Then I was told, You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings. I give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart. I will sing your praises before the gods. I will bow before your holy temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness, for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. As soon as I pray, you answer me, you encourage me by giving me strength. Every king in all the earth will thank you, Lord, for all of them will hear your words. Yes, they will sing about the Lord's ways. For the glory of the Lord is very great. Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. Though I surround I'm surrounded by troubles, you will protect me from the anger of my enemies. You reach out your hand, and the power of your right hand saves me. The Lord will work out his plans for my life. For your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me. Proverbs thirty verses eleven through fourteen. Some people curse their father and do not thank their mother. They are pure in their own eyes, but they are filthy and unwashed. They look proudly around, casting disdainful glances. They have teeth like swords and fangs like knives.
SPEAKER_00:They devour the poor from the earth and the needy from among humanity.
SPEAKER_01:Medal of Honor for today Peter Martin Boom, second lieutenant highest rank major, US Civil War, Kilo Company or 15th New York Cavalry, US Army, March thirty first, eighteen sixty five, Denwiddy Courthouse, Virginia, USA. While acting as aide to General Custer, took a gun from the hands of a color bearer, rode in front of a line that was being driven back, and under a heavy fire rallied the men, reformed the line, and repulsed the charge. Accredited to Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, not awarded posthumously, presented december fifteenth, eighteen ninety eight, born february tenth, eighteen forty five, Albany County, New York, died june fourteenth, nineteen fourteen, Chicago, Illinois, buried Arlington National Cemetery, two Tac thirty six seventy four, Arlington, Virginia, location of Metal Indiana Military Museum, eighteen thirty sixty-three and eighteen ninety-six designs.
SPEAKER_00:If I said that right, Indiana. Peter Martin Bohm.
SPEAKER_01:So we're going to go back into the Christmas messages, and we're going to kind of keep moving that direction. We're going to start with what's considered one of the earlier Christmas messages proclamation proclamations, and that's by President Calvin Kulich on the 24th of December, 1927. My fellow Americans, it is a peculiar satisfaction to me that as we gather tonight in our homes, we can reflect that we have made progress in the relief of distress. Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we have the real spirit of Christmas, we shall not concern ourselves so much with what we give as with what we are. The real Christmas is not so much what we do for others as the spirit in which we do it. Christmas is the one time of year when we can lay aside all pretenses and be ourselves. If what we long to do is make somebody happy, we have only to remember that the way to make others happy is to be happy ourselves. If we are unhappy, we cannot make others happy. The way to be happy is to make others happy. As we approach this Christmas season, let us remember the words of the angel to the shepherds. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. May the Christmas Spirit abide with us throughout the coming year. Merry Christmas to all, and a happy new year.
SPEAKER_00:Calvin Coolidge, the White House, December twenty fourth, nineteen twenty-seven.
SPEAKER_01:This first one is from a speech he delivered on the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I think in Philadelphia, July 5th, 1926. They, talking about the founding fathers, were intent upon establishing a Christian commonwealth in accordance with the principles of self-government. They were an inspired body of men. It has been said that God sifted the nations that he might send choice grain into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00:And then another quote, sometime around the same year, I think, 1926.
SPEAKER_01:The strength of our country is the strength of its religious convictions. The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teachings of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease to be practically universal in our country.
SPEAKER_00:So a few comments here and there.
SPEAKER_01:But it talks about when the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God's mysterious plan will be fulfilled. Right before that, it says there will be no more delay. And that you just don't know how far how long you have, folks. None of us do. And you have no idea when Jesus Christ is coming back. We're told it'll be like a thief in the night. And so the point is to always be ready. I think that was very something very similar to the Boy Scout motto, right? Always be prepared, always be ready, something like that. But but are we in our faith? And then Psalm 138, verse 6 is ought to be pretty comforting and encourage us to. The Lord, though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud. It's just another encouragement for us to be humble, folks, before God, to walk humbly before God. Don't forget Peter Martin Bohm, right, who took a gun from a color bearer and ran into heavy fire to rally men, reform aligned, repulse the charge in our civil war.
SPEAKER_00:And then you go back and you look at Calvin Coolidge and his Christmas message.
SPEAKER_01:And the words of the angel to the shepherds, kind of, for whatever reason, it reminded me of something our pastor says often, and that is a lot of us who claim to be Christians need to remind our faith that we're actually Christian.
SPEAKER_00:Those of us who have put our faith in God and Jesus Christ, we ought to always have a little bit of something akin to joy, happiness in reserve, folks, because we know the end game.
SPEAKER_01:And the end game is that our name is written in the book of life, not because of anything we did or can do or won't do, but because of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00:And I don't know why, folks, but let me offer you a little something here for those of y'all that worry about this.
SPEAKER_01:And I'll just offer it without any other commentary from my father. Your name, when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, is secure for all time. There's nothing that can remove it or change it, except you deciding to reject Christ. And that doesn't include under duress, under torture, under threat of pain or terror. Take comfort in knowing that your name is securely in the book of life, that you will spend eternity with God and Jesus Christ in heaven, and try and help spread that happiness, as Coolidge says, the gospel of Christ. If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out Countryside, I would appreciate it. It's a couple books in the series so far. It's along the lines of Narnia, The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson. I'm not claiming it's equal to those in any stretch of the imagination folks, but if you like that kind of book, I think you would enjoy Countryside. And if you do enjoy it, if you would leave a review online for the first book or the second book or both, I would be very grateful for that as well. And if you feel like you're getting something out of the podcast each day, or at least every so often, and you have three or four or five dollars a month that you can spare, if you could donate that to the podcast, there's a website on the BuzzSprout webpage where you can set up that monthly donation, and 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 thine is 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 to folks, we'll talk to you all again real soon. Looking forward to it.