The Charlie Kirk Show - 10 Reasons Christians Should Vote for President Trump

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00:00:09.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:10.000 This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to speak at Calvary Chapel Chattanooga.

00:00:13.000 We covered everything from critical race theory to 10 reasons why Christians should vote for Donald Trump to so much more.

00:00:20.000 I am honored to be able to share this episode with you.

00:00:23.000 It has been widely remarked as a very positive sequence of speeches.

00:00:28.000 You're going to hear the best of that.

00:00:29.000 Also, listen to our sister Ask Me Anything episode.

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00:00:52.000 Very important topics here discussed.

00:00:54.000 People really have been enjoying this sequence of speeches aired to you exclusively here on the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:01.000 Buckle up, everybody.

00:01:02.000 Here we go.

00:01:04.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:01:05.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:01:08.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:01:11.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:01:14.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:01:15.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:16.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.

00:01:25.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:33.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:36.000 Well, so we talk about, you say, I would just, if I had it, my mission and simple is to see young people love our country again.

00:01:44.000 Well, why would that matter to the church?

00:01:46.000 Why should that be something that...

00:01:47.000 Yeah, how much time you got, Jesus.

00:01:48.000 Well, we're going to go till 9.30.

00:01:52.000 Perfect.

00:01:53.000 It's just about enough time.

00:01:54.000 Do you just get started?

00:01:55.000 Yeah, I mean, boy, I mean, this country, first and foremost, was founded after the First Great Awakening in our country when activist pastors were rising up against widespread debauchery, drunkenness, and moral disorder.

00:02:08.000 And out of the first great awakening of Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards.

00:02:12.000 And if you want to just read a very, let's just say, strongly worded sermon, read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, and you might reconsider some life decisions you've been doing.

00:02:22.000 Definitely more Old Testament-centric than New Testament-centric wrath of God.

00:02:27.000 But no, out of the Great Awakening, all of a sudden, the kind of the religious underpinning of our country was reawakened, which this started, you know, very about 130 years before that as separate religious colonies.

00:02:41.000 And the question started to be posed, especially in 1763 as the French Indian War ended.

00:02:46.000 Where do rights come from?

00:02:47.000 Like, who are we?

00:02:48.000 Who are we in the state of nature?

00:02:49.000 And these questions really hadn't been struggled with very much yet on the planet.

00:02:53.000 The Greeks wrestled with it a little bit.

00:02:55.000 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

00:02:57.000 They had Greek democracy, but that ended within a couple of generations after Alexander the Great and just turned into a bunch of city-states.

00:03:02.000 And they had Athenian democracy.

00:03:04.000 But the idea of like, where do rights come from and self-governance and being able to create a government that first and foremost recognizes rights come from God, not from the government, was just so incredibly transformational.

00:03:15.000 And John Locke did a lot of that work for us.

00:03:17.000 And so here's the one thing. 0.99

00:03:19.000 Why should Christians care about anything outside of the church?

00:03:22.000 And not every Christian holds this view.

00:03:24.000 And this is my view, is that I do not believe in compartmentalized Christianity.

00:03:29.000 I believe in comprehensive Christianity.

00:03:31.000 I believe who you marry, how you act, where you shop.

00:03:35.000 And yes, whether or not you're involved in politics should all be a reflection of the most important thing in your life, which is your relationship with Jesus Christ.

00:03:42.000 And I don't think there should be anything that should be untouched by the gospel.

00:03:45.000 Amen.

00:03:48.000 Well, let's kind of jump right in.

00:03:49.000 Evidently, there's an election here soon.

00:03:51.000 Yeah, I didn't know that.

00:03:52.000 And were you unaware?

00:03:55.000 Yeah, thanks for reminding me.

00:03:57.000 That's good.

00:04:00.000 So here we come, and it is a common sort of position.

00:04:03.000 I know as you speak at churches, as you say with the leadership there, that you deal with this sort of pushback of, I can't believe that they're bringing politics to the, you've defiled the pulpit because you're going to talk about something other than 12 verses, you know, tonight.

00:04:19.000 And so what place does politics have within the context of the church or vice versa?

00:04:25.000 I mean, this is something that you go, well, taboo.

00:04:28.000 Let me just state the obvious, which is the question every person should ask, especially anyone over the age of 40 or recent mothers out there and fathers is, am I leaving a better country or a better place for my kids than I had?

00:04:40.000 And that should just be a very simple question, right?

00:04:42.000 And if the answer is no, then what are you doing about it to fix it?

00:04:45.000 Or if the answer is you don't care, then I mean, come on, you might be giving something that might have almost assured suffering or difficulty for the loved ones that you have that are younger.

00:04:55.000 And so, and if some people say, well, it doesn't matter at all whatsoever.

00:04:58.000 Who cares?

00:04:59.000 It's no different.

00:05:00.000 Oh, no, it matters.

00:05:01.000 Let me tell you why.

00:05:02.000 What you're doing right now, you would all be arrested if you did this in California right now.

00:05:07.000 Politics matter, everybody.

00:05:09.000 Like your governor in Tennessee is different than the governor in California.

00:05:13.000 Calvary Chapel, Thousand Oaks right now, Rob McCoy, my pastor, is under criminal prosecution after criminal prosecution because he's doing exactly what you get to enjoy right now.

00:05:22.000 You think politics doesn't matter?

00:05:24.000 Go to California and go try to go to church service right now.

00:05:27.000 You'll be in criminal defiance of what's happening right now because they say it's not safe.

00:05:30.000 Meanwhile, they keep abortion factories open, weed dispensaries open, home improvement stores open, liquor stores open.

00:05:36.000 You can march in the streets, no masks, no social distancing if you have a sign that agrees with the Los Angeles mayors on certain, you know, certain issues.

00:05:43.000 So yeah, I mean, I mean, if you don't think it matters, I mean, come on.

00:05:46.000 I mean, what more evidence do we need right now?

00:05:48.000 Because, for example, in Calvary, Calvary Chapel is the perfect place to be talking about this.

00:05:52.000 And so Calvary Chapel started in California, you know, the Calvary Chapel Crusades by Chuck Smith.

00:05:57.000 There are 350 Calvary Chapels south of Van Nuys in California, 350.

00:06:02.000 There's more Calvary Chapels than Dunkin' Donuts in California.

00:06:05.000 Okay?

00:06:07.000 It's true.

00:06:07.000 And that one part of the area.

00:06:09.000 In fact, they said you are not allowed to start any more new Calvary Chapels because there are so many of them.

00:06:12.000 They said you can't have more than one in every like 10 square miles everywhere.

00:06:17.000 What do they have to show for it?

00:06:18.000 California has aborted more babies than the entire population of Canada. 1.00

00:06:22.000 They're the authors of no-fault divorce, transgender bathrooms. 0.99

00:06:25.000 They're leading the nation in poverty, homelessness, divorce, discord, social unrest, inequality, you name it. 1.00

00:06:31.000 And so as the church exploded, did the country or the culture around them improve?

00:06:36.000 And now when all it comes to a head, the church wants to reopen.

00:06:38.000 John MacArthur, Jack Kibbs, and Pastor Rob McCoy are all under criminal prosecution right now because they're doing what you're enjoying right now.

00:06:45.000 What's the difference?

00:06:46.000 Same country, different state, different politics.

00:06:48.000 Tennessee has made better, not perfect, choices that say, hey, maybe church is more important than a casino.

00:06:55.000 California doesn't have that belief.

00:06:57.000 So for Christians, better dive right into this political discussion right now because it is impacting the body in this country right now.

00:07:03.000 Pastors in your Calvary Chapel community right now, in California, from Pastor James Cadiz to Pastor Jack Hibbs to Pastor Rob McCoy, three Calvary Chapel pastors right now are dealing with criminal prosecutions, court hearings, and judges because they're doing what all of you take for granted right now.

00:07:19.000 I'm not saying you take for granted, but I'm sure someone in this room didn't probably recognize how unique it is just in this state to be able to enjoy what you're doing right now, where your amazing pastor had the boldness to reopen the church.

00:07:29.000 Other Calvary chapels joined, and they're met with that kind of backlash.

00:07:32.000 Why?

00:07:32.000 What's the difference between Tennessee and California?

00:07:34.000 Well, Tennessee, your income rate is what?

00:07:36.000 Income tax rate is zero.

00:07:38.000 You vote for, hopefully, leaders that want you to live quiet and peaceable lives.

00:07:42.000 And in California, they are now decriminalizing pedophilia, SB 145, where now all of a sudden pedophiles no longer have to register in the sex registry database.

00:07:51.000 So in California, you could be living next to a pedophile, and they don't have to do that any longer.

00:07:54.000 So why is that the case?

00:07:56.000 Well, it's because this amazing constitutional republic that we've been given is a participatory government.

00:08:02.000 It's not a spectator government.

00:08:04.000 And you might think it's messy, so it's the church.

00:08:05.000 What's the point?

00:08:06.000 You might say that, oh, both sides are awful unless Jesus Christ himself is running for office.

00:08:10.000 You're always going to be voting for the lesser of two evils.

00:08:12.000 The question is, are you going to contest for the good, the right, and the moral in every single vertical of your life?

00:08:18.000 And people say, well, again, they say, well, I can't move the dial.

00:08:21.000 I just demonstrated to you there's a difference between Tennessee and California.

00:08:24.000 Justin, something that you're enjoying right now.

00:08:26.000 So I think all those arguments are fickle and fragile and kind of fall apart upon cross-examination every single time.

00:08:31.000 And I'm not arguing that there is perfection out there.

00:08:33.000 I am arguing there's better.

00:08:34.000 Amen.

00:08:35.000 And it's a big difference.

00:08:36.000 And I also think that we have a moral obligation as believers and as Christ followers to, of course, first and foremost, spread the gospel.

00:08:42.000 Most important thing we can do.

00:08:44.000 Second thing is make sure you can spread the gospel.

00:08:46.000 Because you can't, right now in California, it is illegal to do what you're doing right now.

00:08:46.000 Amen.

00:08:50.000 Amen.

00:08:51.000 Amen.

00:08:55.000 So you've started with a good point.

00:08:57.000 Just as we look at this next election, you look at, I think the reality is, it should be an unmistakable reality, but seemingly still a little foggy, as to just on whose chest is the bullseye as it relates to a conflict, a struggle between right, wrong, life, death, darkness, light, truth, and error.

00:09:20.000 So you start off by saying there is a certain liberty that we're enjoying here right now tonight than somewhere else in another political environment. 0.95

00:09:29.000 In our country, guys, this is not Korean.

00:09:30.000 This is not North Korea or China.

00:09:33.000 This is our country.

00:09:35.000 And so, yeah, it matters.

00:09:37.000 Jeez.

00:09:39.000 You know what Pastor Rob McCoy would give to be able to have the local government that you guys have right now?

00:09:44.000 He would give jail time, literally, because that's what he's facing.

00:09:48.000 And so for Christians and believers out there who just think you can just cash it in, your brothers in Calvary Chapel church could go to jail because of bad politics.

00:09:57.000 And so let me just build this out even further.

00:09:59.000 How did we get here, right?

00:10:01.000 How do we get to a point where cannabis dispensaries are valued more than churches, where casinos are valued more than churches, where abortion is deemed essential, but the body of Christ does not, and salvation has somehow been put to be debatable?

00:10:12.000 How did we get here?

00:10:13.000 Well, the Calvary Chapel is actually the perfect example of this because Calvary Chapel has a heavy emphasis on an eschatological belief that Jesus Christ will return.

00:10:21.000 I hold that belief.

00:10:22.000 However, every eschatology comes with a liability and an asset, every single eschatology.

00:10:27.000 So a big belief in the Calvary family is that the house is on fire.

00:10:31.000 We've got to get kids out, right?

00:10:33.000 Jesus is coming next Thursday.

00:10:34.000 I always joke around.

00:10:34.000 You sure it's not next Friday?

00:10:36.000 Because, you know, I think the time and the hour is unknown, but there's this belief that there's an eminent collapse.

00:10:41.000 The times of Noah are here. 1.00

00:10:42.000 That very well might be right. 0.84

00:10:43.000 I think none of that warrants an excuse for non-engagement in the public square.

00:10:47.000 None of it.

00:10:48.000 And so I think in some ways the eschatology breeded apathy.

00:10:52.000 And a lot of churches just kind of said, it's all awful.

00:10:54.000 It's all falling apart.

00:10:56.000 I don't have to get involved.

00:10:56.000 It's all messy.

00:10:57.000 We're just going to focus on kind of this myopic view.

00:11:00.000 And now you're starting to all of a sudden see the consequences of this, where people that were secular, atheistic, and hedonistic in nature, they cared much more about the public square than those of us that had truth, those that actually were ambassadors of light and the word of God.

00:11:13.000 And that never should have happened, to be perfectly honest with you.

00:11:16.000 It never should have happened that those people that are the ambassadors of darkness are contending more in the public square than those of us that are the ambassadors of light.

00:11:23.000 Amen.

00:11:24.000 And so that kind of collision right now should be happening.

00:11:27.000 You're always going to have conversations of good versus evil.

00:11:29.000 And I don't think I really have to make it more clear.

00:11:32.000 Like, oh, wow, in California, SB 145, you have cuties on Netflix.

00:11:36.000 They're teaching 10-year-olds the most graphic sexual education things you could possibly imagine.

00:11:40.000 I could go on, but I'm going to keep it PG.

00:11:43.000 And so if that does not elevate your sense of awareness, I mean, I would challenge you and ask, well, what exactly would?

00:11:50.000 And again, I understand it's messy.

00:11:52.000 I understand it can make you uncomfortable.

00:11:53.000 People say, I don't like it.

00:11:54.000 It's this.

00:11:54.000 I just kind of vote.

00:11:55.000 I kind of cash it in.

00:11:57.000 But I guess I make the intergenerational argument, right?

00:12:00.000 I'm 26, so I can look at this kind of from a younger and an older perspective, right?

00:12:06.000 So I look at it where I want to start a family, and just 10 years ago, I was a teenager, right?

00:12:10.000 And I could tell you right now, there's a mess being handed to young people where we are really kind of for the first time in our country's history, handing over a country that will be less free, less prosperous, and further from a moral center.

00:12:24.000 And so that should take every person that has been reborn in Jesus Christ should pause of concern and say, what are we doing about that?

00:12:33.000 And then some people say, this is one of my favorite things.

00:12:35.000 I'm just kind of playing devil's advocate throughout all this, so we can kind of dismiss it so we can get into the meat of it.

00:12:40.000 Where people say, well, it doesn't matter what I do doesn't actually make a difference.

00:12:44.000 I'll say, that's an unchristian view because everything you do matters to God.

00:12:48.000 Everything you do, to how you act, to what you say, to who you marry.

00:12:51.000 If you all of a sudden believe that God gives you a hall pass for certain actions, then kind of tell me where the parameters of God's providence don't shine down.

00:12:58.000 Please, like, inform that to me. 0.92

00:13:00.000 That's compartmentalized Christianity.

00:13:02.000 It's like, oh, he doesn't matter what I do in this specific realm.

00:13:05.000 It doesn't care if I lie, really?

00:13:07.000 So all of a sudden, like, what part does God's almighty dominion over earth not touch?

00:13:14.000 And whether you signed up for this or not, well, guess what?

00:13:17.000 You're part of it.

00:13:18.000 Politics is a huge part of now the country that you live in.

00:13:21.000 You don't like it, you're free to leave.

00:13:23.000 But if you're going to stay, then you should engage and double down because now everything is touched by politics.

00:13:29.000 And if you don't get involved, other people will.

00:13:31.000 And those other people probably don't share the same worldview that you do.

00:13:34.000 They probably don't believe that God is real.

00:13:36.000 Most of them don't.

00:13:37.000 They probably don't believe that exploitation of children is wrong.

00:13:39.000 They don't believe that there's something wrong with showing cuties on Netflix.

00:13:43.000 Do I need to give you more cultural red flags or fire alarms that there's some need for engagement?

00:13:49.000 Because even five years ago, I wouldn't be able to list off the things that I'm listing right now.

00:13:52.000 And that's just the beginning starting point.

00:13:54.000 Where in Georgia, it should have been the number one news story.

00:13:57.000 The Federal Bureau of Investigation working with other agencies, they rescued 47 children from being sex trafficked in Georgia.

00:14:04.000 A lot of you probably didn't even know that.

00:14:05.000 You can look up the story.

00:14:06.000 That should be national news.

00:14:08.000 You get covered under the activist media.

00:14:09.000 Who's sex trafficking our children in our country?

00:14:11.000 You know that people say we abolish slavery.

00:14:13.000 I say, a form of slavery, yes.

00:14:15.000 There's more slaves on the planet now than there were when slavery existed legally in America.

00:14:20.000 We have legal sex slaves coming across the southern border every day.

00:14:22.000 And some of them, through Hartfield Jackson International Airport, the number one hub of sex trafficking in the North American continent, so that women that are innocent are being, and I'm going to use more PG terms.

00:14:33.000 You guys know exactly what I mean by that.

00:14:36.000 And it's not even worthy of saying, but what are you doing to contend to try to fix that, right?

00:14:41.000 So I think the reawakening is so important, right?

00:14:45.000 And so I will not stand idly by when some of these things that are so incredibly urgent to a moral society, and even more than that, has the world become a better place because of America?

00:14:56.000 And the answer is absolutely yes.

00:14:58.000 It's not even a question.

00:14:59.000 America's made mistakes, but America is not a mistake.

00:15:02.000 America set the standard for Western society, which is one that respects speech, respects the rights of the innocent, respects the rights of minorities, allows family formation to succeed and thrive.

00:15:12.000 America not only was the first in flight, the first to the moon, brain surgery, open heart surgery, the absolute expansion of life expectancy.

00:15:20.000 However, not only, all those things are absolutely true, but it's America that gives $500 billion away to charity every single year.

00:15:26.000 When there's a natural disaster, flood, hurricane, or earthquake, they don't say, let's call the Belgians.

00:15:30.000 They say, where are the Americans? 0.63

00:15:32.000 South Korea exists because 32,000 Americans went and died, what they call the forgotten war in the Korean Peninsula, and we pushed back the evil Chinese Communist Party forces, North Korea.

00:15:41.000 Now, 100 million people live free in South Korea.

00:15:43.000 Guess what?

00:15:44.000 One of the most Christian nations on earth.

00:15:45.000 So the kingdom has advanced because of the United States of America.

00:15:49.000 Again, I'm the first one to admit, I'm the first one to admit we've made plenty of mistakes. 0.96

00:15:55.000 Vietnam wore a mistake.

00:15:56.000 Iraq wore a mistake. 0.92

00:15:57.000 We have the sin of slavery. 0.99

00:15:58.000 We're still trying to be able to move forward of all those sorts of things.

00:16:01.000 But I will not tolerate a professional, well-rehearsed, pathological narrative that this country is an awful place.

00:16:08.000 There's a waiting list to get into this country.

00:16:08.000 It's not true.

00:16:10.000 There's a reason why there's 36 million people trying to come right in the seat that you're in right now.

00:16:15.000 There's a reason why 3 million legal black immigrants came to this country since 1980.

00:16:21.000 Because despite challenges and difficulties and legitimate prejudices that existed, it's still the best place for people of any skin color, any language, and any culture to be able to exist in this country.

00:16:29.000 And what ends up happening is that valid critiques quickly turn into pathological resistance, which then translates into hatred.

00:16:35.000 So all of a sudden, what turned into valid critiques, of which I share many in this country, all of a sudden, next thing I know, five years later, the very same people that were offering valid critiques about the country were all of a sudden saying this place is awful.

00:16:45.000 I said, hold on a second.

00:16:46.000 Five years ago, you were just critiquing.

00:16:48.000 Now you're trying to debase and disintegrate.

00:16:50.000 And that is a no-go zone for me, because if you do not have appreciation for gratitude for this beautiful gift that we have been given, which is this country, which was divinely inspired, by the way, and God was mentioned four times in the Declaration of Independence, four times.

00:17:04.000 Laws and nature and laws of nature and nature is God.

00:17:06.000 We had four great awakenings in this country.

00:17:08.000 The first founded it.

00:17:09.000 The second continued it.

00:17:10.000 The third borderline almost allowed us to almost saved us from total disintegration.

00:17:15.000 And the fourth that all of you are most familiar with, the Billy Graham great awakening of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which led so many people to Christ, which was an international awakening, which made that one so unique.

00:17:25.000 And so look, the failure to acknowledge, understand, appreciate, and defend this gift, I am afraid, will be one of the most regrettable suicides ever of a country to exist.

00:17:39.000 Because never before have so many people had it so good that wanted to stop.

00:17:44.000 That's amazing.

00:17:46.000 So when you look on at this particular juncture, you know, everything's so sort of polarized.

00:17:54.000 What do you say to the son or to the Christian who says, I'm just going to sit this one out?

00:18:00.000 I just. 1.00

00:18:01.000 Yeah, I mean, I just exercise my right to sit this one out. 0.99

00:18:06.000 I mean, you absolutely have a right to do something foolish. 0.99

00:18:10.000 No doubt. 0.99

00:18:12.000 That is a constitutionally protected right in this country.

00:18:15.000 It is. 0.97

00:18:15.000 No, and that's what's so beautiful about liberty is you can make a fool of yourself, right? 0.97

00:18:19.000 As long as you're not harming somebody else, right?

00:18:21.000 Which is what was always the number one case for reopening the church for me is like, you're not going to force people to come.

00:18:26.000 They could still live stream it.

00:18:27.000 Allow the people that want to come the ability to come, right?

00:18:30.000 That's the whole idea of liberty is you cannot have liberty without responsibility.

00:18:33.000 Liberty without responsibility is called indulgence, okay?

00:18:36.000 That's just called like just basically, I'm going to do whatever feels good and not actually take responsibility for it.

00:18:42.000 Everything in life has a cost.

00:18:43.000 Everything does.

00:18:44.000 So what do I say about that?

00:18:45.000 I would just challenge it.

00:18:46.000 I'd say, look, first of all, if you're, people say, I don't want to vote.

00:18:51.000 And I just kind of laugh.

00:18:53.000 I'm like, have you waited 10 minutes in a Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks line and you're willing to do that?

00:18:57.000 You're not allowed to just go and mark a couple boxes that better reflect your worldview and say everyone running is every single person running is a sinner.

00:19:04.000 Let me just be very clear.

00:19:06.000 The person running from dog catcher to city council to state rep to senate to the president, like 100% sinners, 100% depraved, 100% need Jesus.

00:19:18.000 Not all of them reflect the biblical worldview, though.

00:19:21.000 And that's the difference.

00:19:23.000 And so find the one that best fits.

00:19:25.000 Some of them will be like, oh, it's kind of a tough fit, a little incongruent.

00:19:28.000 Okay, then ask advice.

00:19:30.000 That's why you got pastors, right?

00:19:31.000 It's why you have elders.

00:19:32.000 It's why you have mentors.

00:19:33.000 If you're confused, awesome.

00:19:34.000 You should be because it's kind of confusing out there.

00:19:36.000 It's why I do two podcasts today, one on Saturday, one on Sunday, and it seemed to be a national radio show.

00:19:40.000 I try to make clarity out of the clouds, right?

00:19:42.000 I try to have some people make sense of all the incoming.

00:19:46.000 And I don't do a perfect job, but we do a pretty good job, right?

00:19:49.000 And so I guess the argument, the only argument you could be to have to not vote is you really have no care whatsoever about what happens next.

00:20:00.000 And so if you're here, you're probably not a nihilist.

00:20:03.000 And if you are, welcome to church.

00:20:06.000 Seriously.

00:20:07.000 And so that's fine, by the way.

00:20:09.000 But don't do that.

00:20:10.000 I mean, come on.

00:20:10.000 Every single person here should vote.

00:20:12.000 I'm going to make a suggestion of how to vote if you want.

00:20:15.000 That's fine.

00:20:16.000 But I'm not going to say.

00:20:18.000 No, it's a very personal thing.

00:20:19.000 You might have your own reason.

00:20:20.000 I'm not going to say you're wrong or condemn you or all those sorts of things.

00:20:23.000 But if you're feeling a little uncomfortable and like, I don't like it, that's just evidence that we got to talk about these things more, right?

00:20:28.000 That you have to have more of these dialogues and more of these discourses, right?

00:20:31.000 And if there's only one issue for a Christian that you should vote on, and this is the one that I just think is just so obvious, is just like, when does life begin?

00:20:39.000 Like, when does life begin, right?

00:20:42.000 And there's so much, I mean, I believe that if you cannot agree that life begins at a specific moment of the fertilization of the egg, and that maybe there's something wrong with 61 million abortions since Roe versus Wade, then I just, you right?

00:21:00.000 And I just say, look, what do you do for those that can't defend themselves?

00:21:05.000 And that's kind of the whole Christian doctrine, right?

00:21:07.000 Which is that we're supposed to stand up for the innocent.

00:21:09.000 And I get a lot of the other issues can be messy.

00:21:11.000 I'm going to try to make sense of some of those issues because they take nuance and they take data.

00:21:14.000 This one I don't think is actually that complicated.

00:21:17.000 I really don't.

00:21:18.000 I understand it could be very emotive.

00:21:20.000 I think it could be very personal.

00:21:21.000 I think the church has to do a much better job of adoption, much better job of counseling people that made that decision, and a much better job of not making women that have made that decision the enemy at all because I believe they were deceived by people that knew a lot better.

00:21:36.000 So I'm the first one to say that.

00:21:38.000 However, I think it's an awful thing that 61 million souls never got the chance to experience birthdays, breathe this beautiful air that we have.

00:21:49.000 And I think that we should do something about that.

00:21:51.000 In fact, I think we as Christians now have an opportunity to do something like that.

00:21:55.000 And whether you came tonight, you're like, I didn't really want to hear about this tonight.

00:21:59.000 Well, you are.

00:22:00.000 And Amy Coney Barrett is now nominated to Supreme Court.

00:22:05.000 So for the first time in anyone's lifetime in this room, there is no one old enough that can say you had an opportunity to do something about the end and termination of innocent life in this country.

00:22:15.000 You have an opportunity to do it.

00:22:17.000 And if it's not your DNA, quite honestly, it's not your choice.

00:22:20.000 It's not.

00:22:22.000 It's a sovereign being that will never be created again, where there's a unique form of deoxorbonucleic acid that is created at that moment that still science can't explain, but the Bible can, where we are made in his image.

00:22:34.000 I knew you before you were in the womb.

00:22:36.000 That that is made for a specific purpose and reason.

00:22:40.000 And we as believers have a moral obligation to do everything we can to protect those that cannot protect themselves.

00:22:53.000 Real quick on that point, what you just described is what is getting a little bit confused today, the difference between biblical justice, like the real defense of the defenseless, and social justice.

00:23:07.000 Social justice sounds great in the same way that BLM sounds great, in the same way that women's rights sounds great.

00:23:17.000 And just for me to even touch on any of those automatically, you know, these days puts me in a position of like, well, you don't champion women's rights. 0.95

00:23:25.000 You don't like, you're against black lives.

00:23:29.000 So you look on it and go, what you just described would be the Micah 6.8.

00:23:34.000 What does God require of you?

00:23:36.000 To do justice, to do justly.

00:23:40.000 We have a unique opportunity right now as the church in this particular issue of abortion.

00:23:46.000 But what about, so you got this social justice and justice, which are really, really murky in the minds of a lot of church people and church leaders.

00:23:56.000 Talk about that for a second.

00:23:57.000 I'd be happy to build that out. 0.88

00:23:59.000 And first of all, just on the women's rights thing, half of all abortions statistically were women. 0.82

00:24:02.000 So 30 million women are not on this earth because of what we did with Roe versus Wade.

00:24:06.000 So let's just be honest that if you're for women's rights, then, well, 30 million women aren't living because of Roe versus Wade. 0.82

00:24:12.000 So I don't understand how you could be on the side of women with that. 0.70

00:24:15.000 Secondly, just kind of building out that kind of idea of justice and what we do about it. 0.90

00:24:22.000 Look, justice is supposed to be blind, and that's what, at least earthly justice, and that's the idea of Lady Liberty having a cloth over her eyes, where the idea of justice is supposed to be deliberative with the idea of cross-examination of witnesses, with the idea that you must have done something, that you must have done something worthy of being cross-examined and possibly, you know, being held accountable for that.

00:24:44.000 So it's a very interesting thing.

00:24:46.000 Social justice, environmental justice, and racial justice, none of which are biblical.

00:24:51.000 There's just justice in the eyes of God.

00:24:51.000 They're not.

00:24:53.000 Amen.

00:24:53.000 So let me just be very clear that when you start to pick and choose these different types of justice, none of that is supported at all by the gospel.

00:25:00.000 Now, let me be very clear, though, that we are all called individually to go forth into the world and to feed the hungry and to take care of the sick and to nurture the disadvantaged.

00:25:14.000 And I think we sometimes conflate an individual mandate to go do that and a governmental and civic one.

00:25:20.000 In fact, I would go further and say some of the well-intentioned public policy programs that have been passed over the last 65 years have hurt the very people that were designed it was actually trying to help.

00:25:33.000 I mean, let's just go back to the issue of abortion.

00:25:36.000 The black birth rate stagnated as soon as Roe versus Wade was passed. 0.96

00:25:42.000 Blacks are about 14% of the population in our country, and they still were back when Roe versus Wade was passed.

00:25:49.000 In New York City, if you see a black woman on the subway, it's a higher likelihood she's heading for the abortion clinic than for the delivery room. 0.98

00:25:55.000 The black abortion rate is higher than the black birth rate. 1.00

00:25:58.000 It's kind of stunning. 1.00

00:25:59.000 Truly.

00:26:00.000 The black population in this country is about 14%. 1.00

00:26:04.000 Half of that is 7%.

00:26:05.000 Half of that is infant-bearing age, about 3.5%.

00:26:09.000 Yet the black community comprises 48% of all abortions in this country. 0.99

00:26:13.000 The idea of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, the original author of abortion, was eugenicist. 1.00

00:26:18.000 She was an avowed racist. 0.99

00:26:19.000 Just look it up yourself. 1.00

00:26:20.000 She wanted to have population control against black and brown communities.

00:26:24.000 So I grow fatigued with this argument that somehow you're perfectly okay with $500 million of our taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood every single year.

00:26:31.000 Meanwhile, the black birth rate remains stagnant.

00:26:34.000 The black fatherlessness rate is at 77%.

00:26:37.000 So I guess the question is: what do we do to try to help people?

00:26:40.000 Because we should.

00:26:40.000 We want to help people, right?

00:26:42.000 What's the best way to help people?

00:26:43.000 Well, thankfully, we actually have some data, right?

00:26:45.000 God gave us a heart and a brain, reason, and revelation.

00:26:47.000 We put it together.

00:26:48.000 Let's look at the data.

00:26:49.000 We did a lot through taxpayer funding to try to help disadvantaged communities post the Great Society Act passed in the 1960s.

00:26:56.000 Over $20 trillion have been spent in the urban cities of our country trying to abolish the war on poverty.

00:27:02.000 Did we win?

00:27:02.000 No, poverty won.

00:27:04.000 In fact, we subsidized bad behavior and we reinforced bad incentives. 0.90

00:27:08.000 The fatherlessness rate in the black community at the passage of the Great Society Act was 22%.

00:27:12.000 Now it's 77%.

00:27:14.000 77% of black children in this country will be raised without a stable father in the home.

00:27:20.000 That means gang membership will increase, crime rates will increase, prison recidivism will increase, literacy rates will go down, and that cycle that all of us understand and know will only explode.

00:27:30.000 It wasn't just the black community.

00:27:32.000 In the white communities across the country, fatherlessness is now about above 40%.

00:27:35.000 The divorce rate is plus 50%.

00:27:37.000 It's not just one group that this is focused on, but in urban areas in particular, it was more.

00:27:43.000 It's been more.

00:27:44.000 So, the question is, what do we do to help people?

00:27:46.000 Well, I truly believe the best way to help people, and this is a biblical principle, is empowerment, education, is being able to give people the idea that you're actually a lot tougher than you think, that you can actually endure a lot more suffering than you might have convinced yourself of.

00:28:04.000 That with the proper empowerment, the proper values, the proper character, that you can achieve a lot on this earth.

00:28:12.000 And yeah, it's going to be hard.

00:28:13.000 It's going to take a lot of difficulty.

00:28:15.000 You're going to encounter a lot of opposition.

00:28:18.000 But I also actually don't think that continually getting another $20 trillion in stuff, which is what we did since the 1960s, is going to make anyone richer.

00:28:26.000 In fact, it hasn't. 0.80

00:28:27.000 The black community, per average per capita, is poorer today than it was before we spent $20 trillion in the urban cities. 1.00

00:28:33.000 What do we spend the money on? 1.00

00:28:35.000 Well, we spent the money by subsidizing bad behavior. 1.00

00:28:37.000 Single motherhood is subsidized by our federal government. 1.00

00:28:39.000 Or if you're a single mother, you get more money from the federal government. 1.00

00:28:43.000 That might sound like a good idea. 1.00

00:28:44.000 We want to help single mothers, but it only incentivizes bad behavior even further. 1.00

00:28:48.000 The things that we should focus on more is: are we able to educate children properly in this country? 1.00

00:28:54.000 And the answer is absolutely no.

00:28:55.000 Our public sector, the public sector system in our country is an absolute outrage and disgrace.

00:29:02.000 Our public schools are a moral travesty.

00:29:04.000 And a lot of it is because of public sector teacher unions.

00:29:06.000 Not all of it is because of that, but that plays a huge role in it.

00:29:09.000 The second is the disintegration of the family.

00:29:11.000 So we should say, we want to cut fatherlessness rate in half in the next five years.

00:29:15.000 Make a moonshot goal.

00:29:16.000 What is it going to take?

00:29:17.000 Well, it's going to take, I'll handle this side. 0.99

00:29:20.000 For young fathers out there, if you impregnate a woman and you abandon it, you're a coward.

00:29:24.000 You take responsibility for your life and you don't all of a sudden abandon the woman that has a child and you act as if that's okay because they'll get government benefits.

00:29:33.000 Young men need to learn to take responsibility for their actions in this country.

00:29:36.000 They need to be able to control themselves.

00:29:38.000 We need to teach our children self-control, not self-esteem.

00:29:41.000 We need to be much more clear with young men that.

00:29:48.000 And so, look, the idea of social justice, I think, actually has kind of a tenderheartedness in the approach.

00:29:55.000 I think some people want some good in the world, see some good in the world.

00:29:58.000 First of all, you embody exactly what want to see happen in the world.

00:30:04.000 I laugh because I deal with this a lot on college campuses, and this is just a stereotype that's absolutely true.

00:30:09.000 Where these guys that are completely disheveled, they haven't showered in a couple weeks, they're coming up and telling me that everything's wrong in the world.

00:30:14.000 First of all, first of all, it is a biblical concept.

00:30:20.000 It starts with the self, then family, then church, community, state, federal, nation, right?

00:30:24.000 It goes from that progression.

00:30:25.000 And finally, if we can get our act together enough, we can deal with the world.

00:30:27.000 My goodness.

00:30:29.000 However, I think that we've kind of lost this idea of what does the individual journey look like?

00:30:36.000 What does it mean, especially for young men?

00:30:39.000 And we've hyper-feminized our country, and there's a war on men in this country, which is not good for men. 0.69

00:30:43.000 It's not good for women.

00:30:44.000 It's bad for everybody. 1.00

00:30:45.000 And it's resulting in many unintended consequences.

00:30:48.000 And I'm happy to build that out even further.

00:30:50.000 But basically, it's, are we trying, do we have a school system?

00:30:54.000 Do we have a culture that tries to create young people that are more likely to be able to endure suffering and become tougher people or more likely to point out the injustices and be better at complaining?

00:31:08.000 So are we creating better complainers or tougher people?

00:31:12.000 The answer should always be tougher people because life is a really suffering-filled place.

00:31:19.000 It just is.

00:31:20.000 The Buddhist principle is life is suffering.

00:31:22.000 I think that's probably not exactly biblical, but it's close.

00:31:25.000 No, that's the first universal Buddhist principle.

00:31:29.000 And it's probably the first time Buddhism got mentioned in this church in quite a time.

00:31:34.000 It is actually.

00:31:35.000 Yeah.

00:31:36.000 Very clear.

00:31:36.000 I'm not a Buddhist.

00:31:37.000 I'm a Christian.

00:31:39.000 That's the first universal Buddhist principle is that life is suffering.

00:31:41.000 Things are awful.

00:31:42.000 Okay, what are you going to do about it?

00:31:43.000 You kind of have two choices.

00:31:44.000 You can engage in this kind of nihilistic, self-indulgent, you know, awful, you know, way of thinking.

00:31:50.000 Or you can say, yeah, I'm actually a sinner.

00:31:51.000 I'm not enough.

00:31:52.000 No matter how hard I try, I can't get to, you know, get, I can't check enough boxes.

00:31:56.000 I need Jesus Christ.

00:31:57.000 I'm born new.

00:31:59.000 And then you also say, my goodness, that also means I got to start taking responsibility for my life.

00:32:04.000 I am born new.

00:32:05.000 I have that connection to Christ.

00:32:07.000 What I do matters.

00:32:08.000 How I act matters.

00:32:10.000 Every word that I say is a reflection of the gift I've been given, which is in Jesus Christ.

00:32:15.000 Amen.

00:32:15.000 That's why I'm going to tell the truth because Christ is truth, right?

00:32:18.000 I'm going to embody that.

00:32:19.000 And I think we've kind of lost this.

00:32:21.000 And especially with young people that are kind of living in this very misleading kind of pool of just, you're just keep on doing whatever substances you want.

00:32:32.000 Just keep staring at the screen and kind of, you know, keep your digital pacifier right next to you.

00:32:37.000 And somehow you're going to find happiness, which is what I call smartphones digital pacifiers, by the way.

00:32:42.000 They are.

00:32:42.000 It's like, I can't get away from it.

00:32:44.000 I can't get away from it.

00:32:45.000 And I'm happy to build that out in future services.

00:32:48.000 And by the way, if you're interested, every service is different.

00:32:50.000 I have to say, this one's completely different than the one we just did, right?

00:32:53.000 Which is fun, right?

00:32:55.000 But what kind of what it gets back to, and I can't even remember the question of what we were talking about.

00:33:00.000 That's how we know we're having fun.

00:33:02.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:33:02.000 All right, we'll come back.

00:33:04.000 You left us with a lot of great things there.

00:33:07.000 Let's go, let's come back.

00:33:09.000 So I have, we kind of started with just the why would, why should we talk about abortion?

00:33:16.000 There are some issues right now that are sort of pressing that should matter to every child of God.

00:33:24.000 And they are on the line in this particular, they're always, but in this particular election.

00:33:30.000 So build out a couple more.

00:33:31.000 And then you are a bit of a, you are a supporter of our president.

00:33:37.000 Yes.

00:33:38.000 And a whole bunch of people are not.

00:33:41.000 But I would like to, let me talk, all right, I'm doing what you do except for and go all over the place.

00:33:48.000 Just with my question.

00:33:49.000 This is my question.

00:33:50.000 So because I want to talk about some of the issues that should matter to us.

00:33:54.000 Then I'd like to talk about your particular perspective on what it is that we've actually seen.

00:34:00.000 And I'd like to talk about what it is that we've seen with this current president, the difference between intention, intention, like this is I'd like, versus an actual, you've got intention versus actually, there's a track record now that we can take a look at and go, well, what could we expect as we go forward?

00:34:22.000 So I know what you're asking.

00:34:24.000 I'm going to be much more blunt.

00:34:26.000 So look, and just I'm going to give you all trigger warning, you know, like just permission to be provocative if you're offended, like, oh, you're awful kid and just whatever.

00:34:38.000 Your church, so just fine.

00:34:39.000 Okay, so look, I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you 10 things.

00:34:42.000 Look, I'm a friend of the president.

00:34:44.000 Please pray for him regardless of your political affiliation.

00:34:46.000 He's fighting a virus right now.

00:34:48.000 That is a very real thing.

00:34:49.000 And you might hate him.

00:34:50.000 You might think he's the worst thing in the world.

00:34:52.000 I've had the opportunity to know him over the last four years, and I do publicly support him.

00:34:56.000 I'm going to give you 10 things, though, that every Christian should know about President Trump and what he's done that reflect the biblical worldview, and many of which you might not know.

00:35:03.000 So we'll start with number one, most pro-life president in American history, right?

00:35:07.000 First president, first president to speak at the March for Life, slash Planned Parenthood funding, recented the Mexico City policy, which is no more international funding of abortion, has been outspoken about life beginning at conception, has also appointed Gorsuch Kavanaugh.

00:35:24.000 We'll get to that in a little bit in a second, and also Amy Coney Barrett.

00:35:27.000 Most pro-life president in American history. 0.98

00:35:28.000 Number two, Israel.

00:35:30.000 Every Bible-believing Christian should care about the state of Israel.

00:35:35.000 President Trump has just signed one of the most unbelievable, miraculous peace deals in the history of geopolitics between Israel and the UAE.

00:35:43.000 Now, you might hate him, but you got to love this deal.

00:35:46.000 You might not like his style, but you better love this deal because he has brought the Emiratis and the Arab world to the table and they've signed a peace deal with God's chosen people, which we are told in the word of God is the Jews, the state of Israel, moved the embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Golan Heights, kept the Palestinian Authority in check, rescinded the Iran deal.

00:36:03.000 And finally, for the first time in a couple decades, we now have the most peaceful atmosphere between the state of Israel and the Arab world, which was told to be impossible.

00:36:12.000 That's something worthy of applauding.

00:36:16.000 Number three, judges.

00:36:18.000 We have a whole book about judges, don't we?

00:36:20.000 We believe that fair and correct interpretation of the law is a biblical principle.

00:36:26.000 Not what you want it to say, not what you think it should say, but what does the law say?

00:36:31.000 We find that in the Bible, right?

00:36:32.000 200 circuit court judges, the most ever since George Washington, has been confirmed to the federal bench under President Donald Trump.

00:36:39.000 Many of these people are God-fearing.

00:36:41.000 Many of these people will defend life, and they do defend the right for religious liberty and for Christians to assemble.

00:36:47.000 Also, Gorsuch Kavanaugh and a third, the trifecta Amy Coney Barrett, that will contest for first principles and, yes, the fight for life.

00:36:54.000 Fourth thing, we believe in second chances, right?

00:36:56.000 That's part of the whole idea of redemption.

00:36:59.000 President Donald Trump signed the most historic and transformative prison reform in our country's history called the First Step Act.

00:37:05.000 A lot of people don't know this happened, but it wasn't the Democrats, it wasn't Barack Obama.

00:37:09.000 He signed the First Step Act a year and a half ago saying people that have these very long life sentences, not life sentence, but multi-decade sentences, and they've proven good behavior, good credit system.

00:37:20.000 They've earned the goodwill of the prison guards.

00:37:23.000 And it's obvious that they are ready for re-entry.

00:37:25.000 There should be a way to do that.

00:37:27.000 1,800 prisoners that were never given a second chance at life have been successfully re-entered into society using the First Step Act under President Trump, many of whom are black and brown people in our country.

00:37:39.000 That's President Trump.

00:37:40.000 Many people don't know that.

00:37:41.000 Fifth thing, we love our veterans and those people that have served in our military, and we should.

00:37:45.000 It is something the ultimate sacrifice to bleed and to die for America.

00:37:49.000 President Trump signed the VA Accountability Act to give better health care to our veterans.

00:37:55.000 40 years they talked about it.

00:37:56.000 He finally delivered it.

00:37:57.000 It was historic being able to fire bad people to veterans' affairs.

00:38:01.000 And finally, the delivery of care is going up tremendously.

00:38:05.000 Number six, the Right to Tri Act.

00:38:07.000 We all believe that terminal diseases is one of the hardest things for us to be able to reconcile as believers.

00:38:13.000 A lot of things that we just struggle with, right?

00:38:15.000 And like, how could a child be given a tumor that is just not able to be treated?

00:38:20.000 For years, the pharmaceutical companies were trying to get Washington, D.C. to be able to pass something called the Right to Try Act, where people that have terminal diseases, they've been given a death certificate, are able to try drugs that would be deemed more risky.

00:38:35.000 What's a better patient to try it on than an actual human being?

00:38:38.000 Before President Trump, someone was not able to use these drugs.

00:38:41.000 He got everyone in a room together, got rid of the liability measure, and people, real-life stories that I have met, have had their lives saved due to the Right to Try Act passed under President Trump, pretty extraordinary, unbelievable.

00:38:54.000 Number seven, the Tax Reform Act, the biggest middle-class tax cut in American history, which included an expansion of the working mothers' tax cut and, yes, paid family leave.

00:39:04.000 I think that we as conservatives and Christians, I don't know if you're conservative, we as Christians should make it easier to have children in our country.

00:39:10.000 It's a biblical principle.

00:39:12.000 It wasn't Obama, it wasn't the Democrats.

00:39:14.000 It was President Trump that signed paid family leave for eight weeks so that you can borrow or take from your Social Security money, which is a very fiscally sound way to do it, and say, I want to be able to have children.

00:39:26.000 I want to be able to be with my children for a couple months, paid family leave.

00:39:29.000 A lot of people don't even know this exists.

00:39:31.000 My gosh, I don't know that.

00:39:32.000 That's interesting.

00:39:34.000 Number eight, probably one of the least appreciated things that happens on the landscape, but President Trump has reasserted American sovereignty.

00:39:42.000 For decades, we have eroded America's role in the world, kowtowing to internationalist organizations such as NATO, such as the United Nations, such as the World Trade Organization, and basically eroding America's role in the world.

00:39:56.000 Retreating from those and reasserting first principles and the Constitution has resulted in a lot of these sinister and secular internationalist and globalist forces being confounded that all of a sudden America makes choices for America.

00:40:12.000 Number nine, prior to the shutdown, we experienced the greatest economy in world history.

00:40:18.000 You might say, I don't care.

00:40:19.000 I don't care about finances, but you might care about this.

00:40:22.000 Six million black people got off food stamps and into meaningful work under President Trump.

00:40:26.000 That's a good thing.

00:40:27.000 Off of government assistance, onto self-reliance.

00:40:30.000 Beautiful.

00:40:31.000 That all of a sudden that they didn't have to look for governments for their next paycheck, but they had a paycheck or for some form of government or financial assistance.

00:40:38.000 And the fifth and the tenth thing I should say, 10 things that Christians should care about is, of course, he has gone out of his way to surround himself with people of faith.

00:40:46.000 He's unapologetic to speak at churches.

00:40:48.000 He serves with an outspoken man of faith, Mike Pence.

00:40:51.000 He has people pray over him every single day.

00:40:54.000 I equate him in a lot of different ways.

00:40:55.000 I understand this can be confusing for people.

00:40:58.000 How can a three-times married, twice-divorced playboy from New York, some sign says things, you're like, ah, I don't like that.

00:41:04.000 Be the most pro-life president, surround himself with people of faith, stand with Israel.

00:41:10.000 How does that work?

00:41:12.000 Well, of course God is going to work in a way that confuses you.

00:41:14.000 That's called Samson, Cyrus, King David.

00:41:16.000 I mean, like, let's just get used to this, right?

00:41:22.000 And I will say this. 0.87

00:41:25.000 Let's use the Samson example.

00:41:28.000 He's my favorite.

00:41:30.000 I can't go to your children's ministry right next door and teach the story of Samson without some sort of edits. 0.96

00:41:39.000 God came to Samson twice while he's with a prostitute. 0.97

00:41:45.000 I'll just stop there, okay? 0.79

00:41:49.000 Samson contested for truth.

00:41:54.000 And eventually God came to him in the later form of his life, and he earned a part in the hall of faith that we all know in Hebrews.

00:42:04.000 So this idea that like he's a bad guy, I don't like him.

00:42:06.000 So they said, what is he contending for?

00:42:08.000 He's contending for the rights of the unborn, for Israel.

00:42:11.000 He's contending against child sex trafficking, which would be a nice 11th on that list, doing more to end the scourge of child sex trafficking in our country than any other president in our history.

00:42:21.000 $100 million just got reallocated to ending child sex trafficking in our southern border.

00:42:25.000 So look, I get it as Christians, it might be a very blunt thing, and I'm not trying to turn this into a political rally, but understand, those are 11 very clear differences right there.

00:42:35.000 And I don't act, I'm not saying that puzzle piece should fit perfectly, but does it fit better?

00:42:40.000 Does that align better with your worldview, with what you want to see that happens right in the world?

00:42:46.000 And finally, I'll say this.

00:42:47.000 I'm an evangelical Christian from the suburbs of Chicago.

00:42:52.000 Didn't go to college.

00:42:53.000 There's no reason why someone like President Trump would take me seriously.

00:42:57.000 But I've been with him on Air Force One.

00:43:00.000 I've been with him in the Oval Office.

00:43:02.000 And every human being that comes up to him is a subject matter expert.

00:43:06.000 I'll never forget someone was coming up with a Diet Coke to him.

00:43:08.000 And he turns and he says, so what are you hearing?

00:43:11.000 And I started to say, not you, you.

00:43:13.000 And the guys bring the Diet Coke, what do you mean?

00:43:15.000 What are you hearing on the ground?

00:43:16.000 What's big?

00:43:17.000 What's happening?

00:43:17.000 Do they like it?

00:43:18.000 Well, Mr. President, I don't know how to answer.

00:43:20.000 He's like, tell me, I want to know.

00:43:21.000 They say, well, healthcare is the biggest issue.

00:43:24.000 And they had this discussion.

00:43:26.000 And I saw this repeated time and time again.

00:43:28.000 I saw, this is a man who lived his entire life where he believed every person out there possesses one piece of wisdom that he needs to know.

00:43:36.000 And they say he's the least humble.

00:43:38.000 He's all these things, whatever.

00:43:39.000 You can accuse him for braggadocia and all that.

00:43:40.000 I'm not going to get into it.

00:43:42.000 But this is a guy that I've seen personally firsthand that has learned more from carpenters, electricians, and welders than the ruling class in this country that has gotten so, so much, so wrong for the last couple of decades.

00:43:55.000 I think he gets so misportrayed in our media.

00:43:57.000 I think he gets so misrepresented.

00:43:59.000 And this is a man that has just been persecuted and assailed and is now obviously going through a health trial that none of us would have possibly expected.

00:44:06.000 And so he's my friend.

00:44:08.000 I'm honored to call him a friend.

00:44:09.000 And I'm also able to say that this man has done more for the priority list of evangelicals or for Christians, more so than any other president in my lifetime.

00:44:19.000 That's true.

00:44:20.000 That's true.

00:44:25.000 Good.

00:44:28.000 Any other issue there that you'd say those are 10, you got the 11, yeah, the other you say that you should sort of sort of.

00:44:39.000 Yeah, can I add like a 12?

00:44:41.000 Sure.

00:44:41.000 Which is more like opposing, right?

00:44:44.000 Which is, I mean, there's a growing socialist movement in this country, and socialism violates two out of the 10 commandments.

00:44:50.000 Thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not covet.

00:44:53.000 And look, socialism has only been tried 100 times in the last hundred years, resulting in 100 million people dead.

00:44:59.000 If only we had more of a test case, name a cotton in any cotton except Antarctica, I could tell you how it's failed, right?

00:45:05.000 Everywhere it's been tried, it's failed because it goes completely at odds with how God made us.

00:45:12.000 God made us in a certain way, and then we fell from that.

00:45:17.000 We have original sin.

00:45:19.000 So we believe human beings in the state of nature, we're nasty, brutish, and short to each other.

00:45:24.000 Thomas Hobbes articulated this the best in a book called The Leviathan, where he saw the English Civil War.

00:45:29.000 He agreed with John Calvin on this.

00:45:30.000 That's where you get the cartoon Calvin and Hobbes from, where it's kind of dark humor almost throughout the entire cartoon.

00:45:36.000 The question is this: should one person have a lot of power without any sort of checks and balances?

00:45:43.000 No.

00:45:44.000 We say that's obvious, right?

00:45:45.000 It's not so obvious to a lot of other people.

00:45:47.000 It's not.

00:45:48.000 Because the idea of socialism is not, it's not the workers owning the means of production.

00:45:53.000 That never actually happens.

00:45:55.000 We operate in hierarchies, right?

00:45:57.000 We know this.

00:45:58.000 The ultimate hierarchy is God over humanity.

00:46:02.000 And he gave us a chance to be able to connect to him through his son.

00:46:06.000 But also there's hierarchies of brute force that happen here in the earthly domain.

00:46:12.000 And if you end up with a socialist example, you're like, well, I think healthcare should be run by government.

00:46:19.000 Well, who exactly would you trust with that decision?

00:46:21.000 Can you give a name and face to that?

00:46:22.000 And what if they abuse that power?

00:46:25.000 And the question, and Montesquieu talked about this the best.

00:46:27.000 He was one of the top architects of the American system of governance.

00:46:31.000 He was a French judge, the only good guy ever out of France to have some good ideas. 0.71

00:46:35.000 Almost all bad ideas come from France, except Montesquieu. 0.99

00:46:39.000 And he said it so well.

00:46:42.000 He said, if you wouldn't trust a random person on the side of the street with absolute power, then decentralize it.

00:46:49.000 That's a great way to put it.

00:46:50.000 That's not to say you have no government.

00:46:52.000 You should have checks and balances.

00:46:53.000 You're the first one to say that.

00:46:55.000 In a socialist type example where you say, we're going to take the weapons, we're going to nationalize the health care, we're going to administer all educational decisions.

00:47:02.000 Well, all of a sudden, of course, that power is going to be abused.

00:47:04.000 It's one of the most obvious things for those of us that know how human beings are hardwired.

00:47:09.000 And Lord Acton said it the best.

00:47:10.000 Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

00:47:12.000 And so, what President Trump, he's a firewall against that kind of governmental totalitarian power grab.

00:47:18.000 And if you're a Christian, you say, oh, that doesn't affect me.

00:47:21.000 The church is always primary target number one.

00:47:23.000 Always.

00:47:24.000 They will always go after the church.

00:47:26.000 And if you just want to talk about it from a spiritual plane, do you notice how they almost have a pathological obsession with the church?

00:47:34.000 That it's no other gathering, it's nothing else.

00:47:37.000 It's just always the church and the believers that bother them the most, right?

00:47:40.000 It's the most like provocative art that's always making fun of our symbology, right? 0.66

00:47:45.000 It's always the rap songs or the curse words that always must make our Savior be condemned.

00:47:51.000 Do you notice that?

00:47:52.000 It's not ever Allah, it's always Jesus.

00:47:55.000 It's because that is just that struggle that we know is going to exist of good versus evil, of light versus dark.

00:48:02.000 And so if you give power to these people, the church is on the chopping block.

00:48:06.000 Leave us with a bit of a jeeze.

00:48:08.000 Wow, that went fast.

00:48:09.000 Yeah, we did good.

00:48:11.000 Leave us, you did at the last service, and I've heard you talk about this before, and it just is an appropriate high note.

00:48:20.000 You know, my conviction is that what we face isn't just political.

00:48:24.000 It isn't just ideological.

00:48:25.000 It's darkness.

00:48:26.000 It's sinful, evil, and that there is a particular role that only the church can play because we happen to be those that are actually filled with one greater than that evil.

00:48:37.000 We're filled with God Almighty.

00:48:38.000 We're filled with the Holy Spirit.

00:48:39.000 So we are that deterrent or not.

00:48:43.000 But as you look on, you travel the country, you're on college campuses, you are beginning to have more meetings like this.

00:48:50.000 And you've said something here recently that it sort of resonates with my heart.

00:48:54.000 And that is, to you, as it relates to what's happening in our culture, the church is a sleeping giant.

00:49:00.000 Yes, it is.

00:49:01.000 If we can wake up, if we can play our part, then a great tide of evil can be turned back.

00:49:08.000 And another generation and generations behind us, those of us that are raising little ones, may see extraordinary things.

00:49:17.000 What kind of just baby steps towards like growing a little spiritual backbone, standing up right now in this dark age?

00:49:26.000 Give us a couple of just practical things to go, I can go with this.

00:49:30.000 I can go forward with this.

00:49:31.000 Yeah, so first of all, I just want to kind of just thank you guys for allowing this discussion to happen.

00:49:38.000 It doesn't happen in a lot of churches.

00:49:39.000 You guys might have disagreed with everything I said, but at least you guys allowed it to happen and you internalized and processed it.

00:49:45.000 And that's what civil dialogue is all about.

00:49:47.000 We are the speaking beings.

00:49:48.000 That's what humanity is all about.

00:49:50.000 And that there's two ways to govern people.

00:49:52.000 You can govern them by speaking, persuasion, and talking or by force.

00:49:55.000 You can organize every government in one of those two buckets.

00:49:58.000 And what this is all about is trying to find the best ideas and to reason ourselves into being able to make good choices.

00:50:04.000 So here's just kind of a good thought experiment.

00:50:06.000 Some pastors say, I don't like politics.

00:50:08.000 I don't want to get involved in all this.

00:50:09.000 We talked about that earlier, but some Christians say the same.

00:50:12.000 And so then the question that needs to be asked is, what is your line then?

00:50:17.000 What is your line?

00:50:19.000 If you don't have a line that you will not get involved in politics, then just openly admit it.

00:50:25.000 But you should have a line.

00:50:26.000 If not now, when will you speak out against something?

00:50:29.000 Like, when will it bother you enough?

00:50:32.000 Because good is really hard to find in the world.

00:50:36.000 Evil is not.

00:50:38.000 And there's a lot of it. 0.88

00:50:41.000 And so I guess the question is, if you're born new in Christ and you are a Bible-believing Christian, when will you speak out against some of the moral decay you see around you? 0.95

00:50:53.000 And if you say, you know what? 0.92

00:50:55.000 Not right now, but I'll speak out when the rail cars show up.

00:50:59.000 It's too late.

00:51:01.000 It's like, okay, that's your line, right?

00:51:02.000 Got it.

00:51:03.000 Because that's happening in other countries across the world, just so you know.

00:51:06.000 And I don't deal in hyperbole.

00:51:08.000 Like, we have a whole track record of this.

00:51:09.000 Or I'll speak out when they say, I can't own a gun.

00:51:15.000 Okay, got it.

00:51:16.000 Fine.

00:51:16.000 It's like, it's just the idea, like, if not now, then I just ask when.

00:51:20.000 And of course, the reason I really ask is I'm challenging you, right?

00:51:24.000 Because you all know the moment is now.

00:51:26.000 You know it deep down.

00:51:28.000 You know in your heart of heart that no matter what kind of small reasoning you might have been giving, you know that this is actually the moment. 0.99

00:51:37.000 And what's so troubling, if you guys want to see how dark human beings can go when good people do nothing, read the Gulag Archipelago. 0.99

00:51:46.000 Every young person in America should read the Gulag Archipelago. 0.99

00:51:51.000 It is one of the most horrifying indictments of humanity. 0.97

00:51:56.000 You know, we kind of have this feel-good Christianity movement in the country where like everyone's actually a good person deep down. 0.99

00:52:02.000 I don't have that view. 0.99

00:52:03.000 I don't.

00:52:03.000 I don't mean to be like dark about it.

00:52:05.000 I actually think it's a really good thing because that shows the necessity for Christ, right?

00:52:09.000 But we can do awful things to each other.

00:52:11.000 We can. 0.54

00:52:12.000 And I am traveling the country, speaking at churches from Maine to Signal Hill, California, all across the country saying, this is that moment where, as Alexander Solshenitsyn said in the Gulag Archipelago, the pastors in the Soviet Union said, it's okay if they put those, you know, 10% of people away. 0.64

00:52:35.000 We don't mind. 0.65

00:52:37.000 And you saw exactly what happened.

00:52:40.000 Only 42 million people were murdered and killed.

00:52:42.000 And so look, it really is a question of what does the church ecclesia, the gathering of believers, what do you do when you see something wrong?

00:52:53.000 That's the question.

00:52:55.000 And so I know the answer for me, right?

00:52:57.000 I've dedicated my whole life to this.

00:52:59.000 And I'm traveling the country, we're speaking, we're persuading, we're communicating, we're doing all the, I'm trying to get people to dive deeper.

00:53:06.000 So people say, what can you do?

00:53:07.000 Can I give some application?

00:53:09.000 The most important thing you can do is to learn.

00:53:14.000 Learning is always a precedent for an awakening.

00:53:17.000 Always.

00:53:18.000 So if there's something that confuses you, you live in the greatest time in human history to learn, yet so few people choose to do it.

00:53:26.000 You have a supercomputer in your right-hand pocket with every answer to some sort of like philosophical question you could even make sure your sources are good, but there's plenty of good ones out there.

00:53:36.000 But also you could every make sure it's rooted in biblical wisdom.

00:53:41.000 But if you're like, you know, I don't really know kind of, you know, if it, maybe I don't believe freedom of speech should matter.

00:53:47.000 Like, okay, then I can recommend five things that you can go look at.

00:53:51.000 Learn.

00:53:51.000 Every Christian needs to heighten their sense of knowledge about the world around them.

00:53:56.000 Because sometimes churches are steeped in biblical literacy, but they are vacated in any sort of philosophical understanding of what we're contesting against, of civil government.

00:54:07.000 And you guys are doing this with your civics class, which is awesome.

00:54:10.000 And Christians should be unafraid to be kind of masters in understanding of all these sorts of different pieces and how they, because it can be very confusing. 0.85

00:54:17.000 The second thing is activity.

00:54:20.000 For young parents out there, I highly encourage homeschooling.

00:54:23.000 I'm a huge fan of homeschooling.

00:54:24.000 We should support our homeschooling parents out there.

00:54:26.000 Huge, huge thing.

00:54:31.000 In future services, we're going to talk about college and higher education because I think we're running out of time.

00:54:35.000 Sorry, you're likely to do that.

00:54:37.000 The final thing I'll say is this, is that we are a sleeping giant.

00:54:40.000 And if the church woke up, only half of church-going evangelical Christians in this country are registered to vote.

00:54:47.000 Only half of them actually vote.

00:54:48.000 So one-fourth of all evangelical church-going Christians actually vote in presidential elections, even lower that in midterm elections.

00:54:54.000 So every single person there should vote and you should vote most aligned with your biblical worldview.

00:54:58.000 I think I've made it clear what that actually is.

00:55:00.000 But more than that, it's a republic if you can keep it.

00:55:03.000 This country is disintegrating around you guys.

00:55:06.000 It is.

00:55:07.000 Do something about it.

00:55:08.000 Get engaged.

00:55:09.000 Run for office.

00:55:09.000 Get petitions.

00:55:10.000 Contest for truth.

00:55:12.000 Challenge deceitfulness when you see it, right?

00:55:15.000 Do it with love and do it with compassion.

00:55:17.000 But nevertheless, find the people that might be misinformed and lead them to the ultimate source of, remember, liberty is not man's idea, it's God's idea.

00:55:25.000 And the final, final thing I'll say is this, is take the education of your children very seriously.

00:55:32.000 Because right now they are the primary target of deceitfulness and of darkness.

00:55:38.000 Educate the children in the ways of truth.

00:55:40.000 And I'll tell you, I'm dedicating my life to this.

00:55:43.000 I'm visiting churches across the country and campuses.

00:55:45.000 What a beautiful opportunity we have, everybody.

00:55:47.000 We live in very interesting times.

00:55:49.000 Rise up, engage, and do something about it.

00:55:52.000 Thank you.

00:55:53.000 Amen.

00:56:00.000 Thank you guys so much for listening.

00:56:01.000 If you want to support Turning Point USA, go to tpusa.com, tpusa.com, the get engaged, get involved.

00:56:07.000 We play offense with a sense of urgency to win America's culture war.

00:56:12.000 Please consider supporting us at charliekirk.com slash support.

00:56:16.000 Thank you guys so much for listening.

00:56:17.000 Talk to you soon.

00:56:18.000 God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - October 11, 2020

10 Reasons Christians Should Vote for President Trump

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