When Public Tragedy Meets Christian Duty

A single Scripture can change how you see everything and Psalm 2 does not whisper. We start with God’s warning to rulers and His promise of joy for anyone who takes refuge in Him, then we bring that lens to a modern story of violence in Lancaster, South Carolina. The question we keep circling is simple and uncomfortable: when we talk about immigration, crime, and ideology, do we remember the real victims and our responsibility to protect the vulnerable right in front of us?

We also slow down and pray for listeners who are anxious, depressed, fearful, or at the end of themselves, and for those who serve in the military, law enforcement, EMS, and firefighting. From there we turn to Proverbs 5:18–19 and speak plainly about marriage, desire, and why churches often avoid the parts of Scripture that challenge our comfort. If you want Bible-based marriage encouragement that does not sugarcoat reality, this part will make you think and maybe prompt some honest conversations at home.

Then we read Acts 22 and follow Paul through injustice, lawful appeal, and a chaotic council, connecting it to Proverbs 18:13 about the danger of spouting off before listening to the facts. We close with a piece of American Christian heritage: JCPenney’s Great Depression collapse, a hospital hallway hymn, and a surrender that lifted crushing worry. If you need a reminder that faith in crisis is not bravado but release, this story lands. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

Psalm 2 Warning To Rulers

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Psalm two verses ten through twelve. Now then you kings, act wisely, be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with reverent fear and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God's royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities. For his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him.

Lancaster Shooting And Immigration Claims

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Marisha Sherell Thompson, May 2025, Lancaster, South Carolina. Forty, a mother of two, was shot and killed while driving her car on Riverside Road. She was heading to meet friends when a group of six individuals pulled up alongside her vehicle, opened fire, fatally shooting her. Then tried to enter the car. All illegal aliens from Honduras. Charinos, Ramos, Aneda, three juveniles, 13, 14, 15. They were also charged with a burglary, attempted armed or robbery of a convenience store. It's never just one thing, folks. With Islam or illegal immigration, leftism, communism, it's never just one thing. And you look here and you see the kids 13, 14, 15. This is why one of the reasons why the whole argument about splitting up families is just total horse maneuver. We're not splitting up the families. The families are splitting themselves up. If you've got one member that's being deported and you want your family to stay together, then be deported with them. And when you say that, oh, we got to take care of the kids and the widows, what about our own widows and children that are here? Wives, vulnerable, the elderly. We have a responsibility to them first and foremost. They have first right to our help. And you look at these young boys that are coming in again and again. Islam, illegal immigration, leftism, communism. They're not a positive. They're not helping. There is no possible way to be kind and caring and loving, uh, follow Christ and support illegal or mass Muslim immigration at the same time. Because you are by default supporting hurting the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy.

Welcome And Gratitude To Listeners

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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. And just one more thing, folks. Look, what what about the what about the woman here, the mother, Thompson? When do you ever hear people concerned for her or her two children? Thank you all for joining me, giving me some of your time. For those of y'all that continue to share uh the two podcasts with others and write reviews for American Soul Podcast, America's Christian Heritage Podcast, thank you. For those of y'all that have found the Countryside Book Series and shared it with others, read it, left reviews, thank you. For those of y'all that continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you very, very much. Very grateful for your prayers.

Prayer For Wisdom And Protection

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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. Thank you that we can trust you to get our souls safely home to you. Thank you for the refuge that we can take in you and your son, your Holy Spirit, the guidance. Thank you for those listening to the podcast, Father. Please be with them, be with their families. Forgive us our sins, Father. Comfort those who are brokenhearted, anxious, depressed, suicidal, concerned, fearful. Give us wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help us to love you with our whole heart, violent soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Help us to do your will each day, above all else. Forgive us when we fail. Be with our farmers and ranchers, fishers, foresters, bless their crops, their herds. Be with our military law enforcement firefighters, EMS. Give them wisdom, courage, strong faith, strengthen speed, protect them, defend them, their families, their wives, and their children. Be with our pastors and our priests. Give them courage to boldly share the gospel of your Son Jesus Christ, to speak to the events of the day. Be with our leaders in the state as well, president, vice president, admirals, generals, senators, representatives, governors, mayors, judges. Help them to rule and lead in fear of you. And God, my words, here, Father, please. In your Son's name we pray. Amen.

Proverbs 5 And Marriage Honesty

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Marriage verses for today, Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. May your spring be blessed, rejoice in the wife of your youth. She is a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts intoxicate you all the time, always be drunk on her love. Marriage verses, folks, look around in your marriage. How many of you would you say in your marriage that the wife intoxicates her husband all the time with her body? Makes him always drunk on her love. How many in the church, how many marriages do you think in the church follow scripture here? How many times have you heard this scripture taught in church? We have such a huge problem with marriage. How often are we teaching what God says about the roles and responsibilities of men and women in marriage in church?

Acts 22 Paul Faces Injustice

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Acts starting with chapter 22, verse 17. Paul continued, After I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the temple and fell into a trance. I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, Hurry, leave Jerusalem, for the people here won't accept your testimony about me. But Lord, I argued, they certainly know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And I was in complete agreement when your witness Stephen was killed. I stood by and kept the coats they took off when they stoned him. But the Lord said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. The crowd listened until Paul said that word. Then they all began to shout, Away with such a fellow, he isn't fit to live. They yelled, threw off their coats, and tossed handfuls of dust into the air. The commander brought Paul inside and ordered him lashed with whips to make him confess his crime. He wanted to find out why the crowd had become so furious. When they tied Paul down to lash him, Paul said to the officer standing there, Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried? When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, What are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen. So the commander went over and asked Paul, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? Yes, I certainly am, Paul replied. I am too, the commander muttered, and it cost me plenty. Paul answered, But I am a citizen by burnt. The soldiers who were about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen, and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped. The next day the commander ordered the leading priests into session with the Jewish High Council. He wanted to find out what the trouble was all about, so he released Paul to have him stand before them. Gazing intently at the High Council, Paul began, Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience. Instantly, Ananias, the high priest, commanded those close to Paul to slap him on the mouth. But Paul said to him, God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite. What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that? Those standing near Paul said to him, Do you dare to insult God's high priest? I'm sorry, brothers, I didn't realize he was the high priest, Paul replied, for the scriptures say you must not speak evil of any of your rulers. Paul realized that some members of the high council were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, so he shouted, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, as were my ancestors, and I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead. This divided the council the Pharisees against the Sadducees, for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, but the Pharisees believe in all three, all these. So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees jumped up and began to argue forcefully. We see nothing wrong with him, they shouted. Perhaps a spirit or an angel spoke to him. As the conflict grew more violent, the commander was afraid they would tear Paul apart. So he ordered his soldiers to go and rescue him by force and take him back to the fortress.

Psalm 2 And Listening First

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Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle against the rulers plot together against the Lord, and against his anointed one. Let us break their chains, they cry, and free ourselves from slavery to God. But the one who rules in heaven laughs, the Lord scoffs at them. Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury. For the Lord declares, I have placed my chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem on my holy mountain. The king proclaims the Lord's decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have become your father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession. You will break them with an iron rod and smash them like clay pots. Now then, you kings, act wisely. Be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with reverent fear and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God's royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your activities. For his anger flares up in an instant. But what joy for all who take refuge in him. What a joy, folks, to take refuge in God and his Son Jesus Christ. Proverbs 18, 13. Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish, Lord. I I can attest to that, folks. I have done that far too often. Spouting off before listening to all the facts.

Books Reviews And Monthly Support

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If you are looking for a family-friendly middle grade read, if you would check out the Countryside series, there's two books in the series so far: The Book of the Wise, The Tears of Anina. You can get them in hardback, paperback, ebook, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, whatever your local bookstore is, they can order them. It's kind of like Narnia, The Hobbit, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Fable Haven, that kind of stuff. And if you enjoy it, if you'd leave a review for the books online, that helps others to find them. Same thing for the two podcasts: the American Soul Podcast and America's Christian Heritage Podcast. If you feel like you're getting something out of them, if you'd leave a review or if you listen, those help people to find them. And if you have five or ten dollars a month you can spare to donate to the podcast and the writing, there's a link in the show notes where you can do that. And I would be very grateful for any or all of those. So thank you.

Medal Of Honor Warren Carman

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Medal of Honor for today, Warren Carmen. Private, highest rank was Corporal, U.S. Civil War Hotel Company, First New York, Lincoln Cavalry. U.S. Army, March 2nd, 1865, Waynesboro, Virginia. Capture a flag and several prisoners. Accredited to Victor, Ontario County, New York. Awarded, not awarded posthumously. Presented March 26, 1865. Born March 16, 1845, England. Died October 17, 1894, Rochester, New York. Buried Mount Hope Cemetery, MH3 TAC 223, Rochester, New York. Another which shows the difference between the immigrants

JCPenney Despair And Surrender To God

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that we talked about at the beginning and the ones that we used to get. As a whole, folks, as a whole. So I stumbled across a story out of America's Patriots Bible, edited by Dr. Richard Lee. I haven't talked about them in a little while, but three sources that I really recommend. They ought to be primary textbooks in every classroom, public classroom for sure, across the nation, and that is The Founder's Bible, edited by the Wall Builder Association, America's Patriot Bible, edited by Dr. Richard Lee, and America's God and Country Encyclopedia Quotations by William Futter. Phenomenal books. If you're looking for the truth, if you're looking for the relationship between the United States historically and God and Jesus Christ, great, great resources. Highly recommend you get hard copies. And so this story that I stumbled across was about James Cash Penny, uh J. C. Penny, obviously the founder of J. C. Penny, the retail chain. And I'm just going to kind of paraphrase this story. It it talks about uh he rose to success, right? Uh he did really well. And then going into the depression in the 1930s, he had severe financial losses, as did many. And the store continued to do well, but his personal investments did really poorly. And it took a toll on his health, both physical and mental. He developed some really serious health problems, nervous breakdowns, shingles, both physical and mental, again. Became depressed, despairing, you know, I might as well die. There's no point in living, to the point that he was hospitalized. Even wrote farewell letters to his family because he just felt like there was just no point. And he described himself as being broken, nervously and physically filled with despair, with no real hope that he hadn't a single friend left in the entire world, right? So, I mean, he he definitely felt alone and abandoned. And so he was in the hospital. And I think the hospital was Battle Creek, Michigan. And he was walking around the halls and he heard this hymn, God will take care of you. I think it was written by Sevilla, Sibyllia Martin. And the the opening lines, be not dismayed, whatever betide, God will take care of you. All you need, he will provide. God will take care of you. And so he went in and checked out the hymn, the service, the scripture reading. And I think it was one of was Matthew 11, 28, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, right? Which that would be a pretty comforting scripture to a man that was broken and felt like he didn't have a single friend left in the world. And so he went out, and uh he is self-proclaimed surrender to God, saying, Lord, take care of me. I can do nothing by myself, right? I need you. And just felt like from that day forward, for the rest of his life, all of that worry, that just crushing, I've got to fix this, I've got to do this. I, you know, I can surmount this obstacle. It all went away, all that fear and worry and brokenness. Because he turned it over to God, and I can attest from my own life. Uh, perhaps not something as dramatic as this financial catastrophe during the depression, but times when I have just been overwhelmed, even by little things. And you just get to the point where you get to the end of yourself, and and all I can do is say, you know what, God, you got it. I can't even figure out which way to turn right now. Uh so you're gonna have to do it. And if I mess it up, I'm sorry. And just you gotta take it, God, because I I got nothing left. I don't know what you want me to do, even I don't know what you know where you want me to go, what you want me to say. I'm just, and you just you just turn it all over, right? And the interesting thing when you dig into the story a little bit more is he had been raised Christian. His father was a Baptist preacher, and he said that he had built his business on the golden rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But this time in his life where he just knew that he couldn't do it anymore changed his relationship. He ended up living to 95, did a lot of uh philanthropy and the song, when you go back to the hymn, was written, I think 1904, 1905 by Martin, after her husband uh encouraged her when she was ill and he was away preaching to trust in God. And it reminds me of something that C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity. He said, we don't need pastors and priests to be businessmen, lawyers, uh, poets, playwrights, right? We need Christians. We need poets, singers, songwriters, playwrights, lawyers, doctors, teachers, janitors, construction workers, carpenters, farmers, ranchers. We need those people to be Christian. That's how you turn a society around. So again, great story about one of a man that was just hyper successful, felt like he lost everything, had not a single friend in the world, right? And it's it's a little bit of Americana. JC Penny, that's a huge retail chain. And and that's what we need, folks. If you really want, again, we say this often on the podcast, the best

Sharing The Gospel And Final Prayer

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thing we can do today to help America turn around is share the gospel of Jesus Christ. A lot of ways to do that, but overall, the best way to turn our country around. 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 the stare of 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 and the power of the glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless y'all. God bless your families, your marriages if you married, your kids if you have them, your nation, wherever you are around the world listening, God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.