The Charlie Kirk Show - Marxism Dismantled, Free Markets Explained, and a Comprehensive Defense of American Exceptionalism Live from Calvary Chapel Chattanooga

00:00:00.000 Thank you for listening to this Podcast 1 production.

00:00:02.000 Now available on Apple Podcasts, Podcast 1, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

00:00:09.000 Hey, everybody.

00:00:10.000 This weekend I had the amazing opportunity of speaking 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.

00:00:31.000 And as of today, we are live on radio stations across the country.

00:00:34.000 So check us out at charliekirk.com.

00:00:36.000 And as always, email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:00:39.000 We tackle the key issues and news of the day and so much more here on the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:00:43.000 And also, if you guys want to win a signed copy of the MAGA Doctrine, type in Charlie Kirk Show to your podcast provider, hit subscribe and leave us a five-star review.

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.

00:01:06.000 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.

00:01:16.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:01:17.000 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.

00:01:34.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:38.000 Computer systems in cars are the new normal.

00:01:41.000 From electronically controlled transmissions to touchscreen displays to dozens of sensors, but you can't fix any of these new features yourself.

00:01:47.000 So when something breaks, it could cost a fortune.

00:01:50.000 And now is not the time for expensive repairs.

00:01:53.000 That's why I have Car Shield.

00:01:55.000 CarShield has affordable protection plans that can save you thousands for a covered repair, including computers, GPS, electronics, and more.

00:02:03.000 The people at CarShield understand payment flexibility is an absolute must.

00:02:07.000 Monthly plans can be customized to your needs with rates as low as $99 a month.

00:02:11.000 There's no long-term contracts or commitments, and CarShield gives you options others won't.

00:02:16.000 You get to choose your favorite mechanic or dealership to do the work, and CarShield takes care of the rest.

00:02:21.000 They also offer complimentary 24-7 roadside assistance and a rental car while yours is being fixed.

00:02:26.000 CarShield has helped over 1 million customers, so drive with confidence knowing you got coverage from America's number one auto protection company.

00:02:32.000 For as low as $99 a month, you can protect yourself from surprises and save thousands for a covered repair.

00:02:38.000 Call 800CAR60000 and mention the code Kirk.

00:02:41.000 That's 800CAR60000 or visit CarShield.com and use the code Kirk to save 10%.

00:02:47.000 That's CarShield.com.

00:02:48.000 Code Kirk, a deductible may apply.

00:02:54.000 Charlie, if you're unaware, about, well, is it almost eight and a half years ago, Biguette pioneered a movement, really.

00:03:04.000 I don't know if you knew it was going to turn out to be a movement, but you had some big ideas that we've talked about over the course of this weekend that seems that God has actually taken you further than you could have imagined.

00:03:15.000 And it's really a pretty beautiful thing.

00:03:17.000 You really have a heart for this country.

00:03:19.000 You have a heart for the next generation, which we're going to talk specifically about the next at the next service.

00:03:25.000 But just real quick, how many of you actually already subscribed to Charlie's podcast?

00:03:30.000 A bunch of you.

00:03:31.000 Wow, a bunch of you.

00:03:32.000 Yeah, it's a super simple thing to do.

00:03:32.000 It's amazing.

00:03:35.000 It's been extraordinarily helpful for me to try to navigate a lot of the things that we're being faced with.

00:03:41.000 A lot of the ideas that we've been, you know, we're hearing.

00:03:45.000 Some of us heard these ideas in school, but they're actually making their way to the forefront once again in a very sincere, I call it a threat.

00:03:55.000 We'll talk about that in a second.

00:03:56.000 But nevertheless, if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, do so.

00:04:01.000 Go to that app that actually navigates your podcast, Charlie Kirk Show, and you will be incredibly, incredibly blessed.

00:04:10.000 It's been very helpful and edifying to me.

00:04:14.000 But so anyway, we want to spend some time today kind of going back to school because we're hearing a whole lot about socialism, democratic socialism.

00:04:25.000 We're hearing about Marxism.

00:04:26.000 BLM sort of brought back to the front this idea of Marxism.

00:04:31.000 We've talked a little bit here at the church about cultural Marxism, communism once again. 0.99

00:04:36.000 And then all of those really are a rival to capitalism.

00:04:40.000 Yes.

00:04:41.000 Because capitalism, for a large group of people, is an evil that must be overcome.

00:04:47.000 So could you take us back to school a little bit this morning on some sort of social studies?

00:04:53.000 Yeah, well, first of all, it's awesome to be here.

00:04:55.000 Thank you.

00:04:56.000 And you have an amazing pastor, by the way, and a great pastoral team here.

00:04:59.000 You really do.

00:05:03.000 So yeah, just a little bit of background.

00:05:05.000 Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, started Turning Point USA.

00:05:08.000 It's now on 2,000 high school and college campuses across the country.

00:05:12.000 We're now doing two podcasts a day.

00:05:14.000 Tomorrow, our radio show actually goes to 180 radio stations across the country.

00:05:18.000 Wonderful.

00:05:19.000 And I guess we're going back to school.

00:05:20.000 The great irony is I never went to college.

00:05:22.000 So I guess, you know, you get to learn from someone who actually deals with this stuff every day.

00:05:27.000 And it's actually interesting because I've become, in a lot of different ways, a subject matter expert in kind of how these ideas have materialized in the public space because I have visited over 155 college campuses and spoke at them over the last five years, debating countless professors, understanding the kind of root philosophy that these things actually come from and the consequences, not just in just chalkboard philosophy, but actually how it materializes into our society.

00:05:57.000 So a lot of words there.

00:05:58.000 Let's just kind of talk about factually what they are and then some of the implications of them.

00:06:03.000 So you mentioned first and foremost Marxism.

00:06:05.000 Well, that, of course, was started by Karl Marx in the mid-1800s.

00:06:10.000 Karl Marx was not the first ever communist, actually.

00:06:13.000 He was hired by a group of communists in Switzerland to articulate the communist manifesto.

00:06:19.000 Karl Marx lived in London.

00:06:21.000 His best friend, his best friend, was Frederick Engels, who actually was a pretty rich guy, who financed his writings.

00:06:30.000 The biblical equivalent would be Theophilus, right?

00:06:32.000 So Theophilus was kind of the supporter of Luke to write the book of Luke and Acts.

00:06:37.000 That's kind of probably not the best.

00:06:40.000 It's a fitting example.

00:06:42.000 He was the sponsor, right?

00:06:43.000 So Karl Marx wrote two big pieces of literature that he's known for.

00:06:47.000 Of course, the Communist Manifesto, but more importantly, Das Kapital is the one that really started to articulate his philosophy.

00:06:54.000 Now, Karl Marx did not just come onto the scene and start to invent a lot of stuff.

00:06:57.000 He was just a better articulator of these ideas, more so than anyone that came before him.

00:07:02.000 The idea that there shouldn't be private property, the idea that people should be communal in nature, was not just, he didn't all of a sudden just get in the laboratory and discover it.

00:07:13.000 It was kind of being experimented with many thousands of years before.

00:07:17.000 So prior to Karl Marx being hired to write this piece of literature, he was heavily inspired by a French philosopher by the name of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

00:07:26.000 Jean-Jacques Rousseau probably has had more of an impact on kind of the current political climate that we're living in right now.

00:07:34.000 Rousseau rejected the biblical view of human nature.

00:07:38.000 He believed that in the state of nature, human beings are wonderful to each other.

00:07:43.000 We do not hold that view as Christians.

00:07:45.000 We believe that we have original sin. 0.94

00:07:47.000 We believe that we would tear each other apart.

00:07:49.000 And because of how awful we are and depraved by our nature, we need Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

00:07:55.000 It is the only salvation that we can possibly even comprehend because we're so depraved in the state of nature.

00:08:01.000 Rousseau rejected this completely.

00:08:03.000 He valued the infant over the adult, the primitive over the civilized.

00:08:08.000 And his argument was that the reason there's bad in the world is not because people are bad, but the systems were improperly built around people.

00:08:18.000 And if we build better systems, then we can live in a state of heaven or a state of harmony.

00:08:23.000 This should be completely rejected by any Bible-believing Christian whatsoever. 0.99

00:08:27.000 It is completely antithetical to the gospel and to just basically the first couple chapters of Genesis, right?

00:08:34.000 So Karl Marx wrote this piece of literature and it was actually condemned.

00:08:39.000 It was mocked when it was first published.

00:08:42.000 Marx never lived actually to see his ideas materialize.

00:08:46.000 And then something very interesting happened.

00:08:49.000 The transition happened from the farms to the factories almost overnight.

00:08:52.000 The Industrial Revolution began.

00:08:54.000 And Marx started to see the beginning stages of this.

00:08:57.000 And Marx made some correct arguments and observations and then some very incorrect policy suggestions.

00:09:05.000 He made the correct observation that in a market, you're going to see some form of inequality.

00:09:12.000 And that is absolutely correct.

00:09:14.000 The idea is how do you manage that inequality?

00:09:16.000 His argument was let's obliterate the entire system because eventually he believed that the destruction of the capitalist superstructure was going to be one of demise.

00:09:28.000 And so the ideas really didn't catch fire.

00:09:32.000 And there was a couple small movements up until the Russian Revolution.

00:09:36.000 And so Russia was under Tsarist rule for hundreds of years.

00:09:41.000 And there was a lot of anxiety growing because as all of Europe was industrializing, the agricultural part of kind of the Russian landscape felt to be they were very disenfranchised.

00:09:53.000 And it's actually a way to break apart World War I. Vladimir Lenin was sent out of a German prison, equipped with a communist manifesto, and started a Russian revolution that we know as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

00:10:04.000 This was the first real experiment of communism. 0.50

00:10:08.000 And it was a bloodbath, right?

00:10:09.000 I mean, it was awful. 0.95

00:10:11.000 It was the Bolsheviks versus the Mensheviks.

00:10:13.000 Eventually, Vladimir Lenin takes power.

00:10:15.000 Messy transition.

00:10:16.000 And eventually, you know, Joseph Stalin takes power.

00:10:18.000 Couple big beliefs of the communist Marxist belief that human beings are good in nature.

00:10:26.000 That if we create things correctly, eventually we can live in a state of heaven on earth.

00:10:31.000 We reject this as Christians.

00:10:33.000 You can get very, very close to some form of hell here on earth.

00:10:37.000 You can't get anywhere close to heaven on earth.

00:10:39.000 And we know that as Christians.

00:10:41.000 The communists also believe inherently that work is a form of slavery.

00:10:47.000 That if you are toiling, if you are working, there's something wrong with that.

00:10:52.000 They believe it to be inherently exploitation.

00:10:55.000 The Bible doesn't believe that as well.

00:10:57.000 The Bible believes a man does not work, he shall not eat.

00:10:59.000 Now, that's not to say all work is created equal, right?

00:11:02.000 That some work is more fulfilling than others.

00:11:04.000 But the complete and total rejection of all labor is not something that is biblical.

00:11:09.000 But communists also, the big fight that they really make is that the workers should own the means of production.

00:11:14.000 This is their biggest thing, is that, for example, if you were to go to Home Depot down the street or Walgreens, their biggest complaint, and you'll see this a lot of times in kind of veiled terms by certain people in the political discourse in our country, is that if someone works at Walgreens, they should own an equal share of the toothpaste that is being sold or the equipment to make the toothpaste as the person who started the company.

00:11:39.000 This sounds like a pretty good idea, but the danger is that why would anyone take a risk then?

00:11:43.000 Why would anyone start a new business to try to invent something new or innovative or exciting if you had to share all the profits among people that had no risk, right?

00:11:52.000 Why would you ever try to start something of any sort of with any adventure in the marketplace?

00:11:58.000 And so I hope that's helpful to just kind of set terms as to what communism and Marxism is.

00:12:02.000 If I had a Marxist sitting next to me, which I don't, he would agree with everything I just said.

00:12:08.000 Nothing I said was pejorative or negative in nature, right?

00:12:11.000 This is of their literature.

00:12:13.000 And I encourage all of you just to go on an adventure of learning.

00:12:16.000 Just really steep yourself in this stuff.

00:12:19.000 And so in the late 1920s and early 1930s, communism was kind of hitting a little bit of a speed bump.

00:12:26.000 A lot of the Western world had the roaring 20s.

00:12:29.000 We know that.

00:12:30.000 And there was a lot of wealth being created.

00:12:33.000 There were a lot of communist failed movements.

00:12:36.000 And someone by the name of Antonio Gramsci, who spent time in an Italian prison, coined this term called cultural Marxism.

00:12:44.000 He argued that Marxists should not just talk about economics, which again, all Marx really cared about was the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat, was the working class versus the business owners.

00:12:54.000 Antonio Gramsci argued that there should be a cultural struggle to all of this stuff.

00:13:00.000 It took many decades for this to really take root.

00:13:02.000 It finally kind of played out in postmodernist thinking and eventually the Frankfurt School of Critical Race Theory of Herbert Marcuse.

00:13:11.000 What's the significance of this?

00:13:12.000 Is that what started as just an economic struggle is now a struggle of power dynamics, right?

00:13:18.000 So it's not just that it's the rich versus the poor.

00:13:21.000 Instead, they say it's the white people versus black people, overly generalizing that every single white person in the country is in a position of power and every black person is not, or men versus women, right?

00:13:32.000 All men must be in power because they believe that we live in a patriarchy and that all women must not be in power.

00:13:38.000 So that's kind of how they transitioned it into just the bourgeoisie versus the proletariat to a much broader idea of the oppressor versus the oppressed.

00:13:47.000 And so when we start to talk about these sorts of terms and the significance of them, we should ask the question of, you know, do we support this as Christians and kind of, you know, how we build it out more?

00:13:57.000 But if is there any specific you want me to do?

00:13:59.000 I'm doing great.

00:14:00.000 Just keep going.

00:14:01.000 All right.

00:14:01.000 Okay.

00:14:01.000 Yeah.

00:14:02.000 So I need to get my notepad.

00:14:06.000 Okay.

00:14:06.000 Yeah.

00:14:07.000 It's fantastic.

00:14:07.000 And so.

00:14:08.000 And so these ideas have been tried many different times.

00:14:12.000 And we have to understand this: that communism and socialism is tempting.

00:14:15.000 It's very tempting.

00:14:17.000 I'm the first one to admit it.

00:14:18.000 It is much harder to oppose these ideas and articulate a framework that relies upon responsibility, virtue, hard work, waking up early, going to bed late, and taking ownership for your life than one where you can take other people's stuff, redistribute it at your liking, and have to work less.

00:14:34.000 It is much easier.

00:14:35.000 My job would be so much easier if I came here today and said, you get healthcare, you get education, you get a car, you get a home, just take it from the guy down the street.

00:14:43.000 Congratulations, right?

00:14:44.000 That's a lot easier to do.

00:14:46.000 So because of this, because this ideology is easily, it's very persuasive, right?

00:14:53.000 Especially amongst people that are struggling, it has been experimented so many.

00:14:57.000 We have so many different little test modules, if you will.

00:15:00.000 And they're all horrific, right?

00:15:02.000 It's been tried 100 times over the last hundred years, only resulting in the intentional slaughter of 100 million people, right?

00:15:09.000 And you name a continent, any continent from Rhodesia that turned into Zimbabwe to Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Vietnam, to the Korean Peninsula, where people still live in absolute darkness in North Korea because of these horrific ideas.

00:15:21.000 And I hope you all understand the significance of ideas that translate to politics, which translates to real life.

00:15:27.000 Christians sometimes say, I don't like that sort of stuff.

00:15:29.000 It doesn't really impact me.

00:15:31.000 I'm going to give a little side note of how politics really impacts every person in this room, whether you know it or not, and just the Calvary family.

00:15:37.000 You're all here today and you're enjoying your time of worship because salvation is essential and church is essential.

00:15:42.000 However, the difference between Tennessee politics and California politics is this, is that right now today, my pastor, Pastor Rob McCoy, head of Calvary Chapel Thousand Oaks, is facing the fifth straight week of arrests and criminal prosecution because he's doing what you guys are doing right now.

00:16:00.000 And some of you might be taking for granted.

00:16:01.000 Yeah, I'm going to church, had a long night last night.

00:16:04.000 It's illegal to do what you're doing in California right now.

00:16:07.000 That's the significance of politics.

00:16:09.000 So if you don't get involved in the public square, you don't contest in the kind of government you want, all of a sudden in your family of Calvary Chapel pastors, three pastors right now that I know of, James Cadiz, Jack Hibbs, and Rob McCoy, are all facing massive criminal prosecution for what you guys get to enjoy in the state of Tennessee because you have made choices that are not perfect, but better around the idea of respecting religious liberty and peaceful assembly.

00:16:33.000 That's just one example of the consequence of these things.

00:16:35.000 So some people say, it doesn't matter for us Christians, but your brothers and sisters in the faith right now might be arrested today in Thousand Oaks, California.

00:16:43.000 Not a different country.

00:16:44.000 I don't have to talk about Cuba.

00:16:46.000 No longer do I have to use like these examples distant.

00:16:47.000 I'm talking about California because they open their church.

00:16:51.000 Meanwhile, marijuana dispensaries are open, liquor stores are open, abortion factories are open, home improvement stores are open.

00:16:57.000 And if you support BLM Incorporated, you can march in the streets.

00:17:00.000 No social distancing, no masks, 100,000 people in the streets.

00:17:03.000 So there's serious consequences of these things.

00:17:05.000 And it's been tried all across the planet in isolated examples and big examples, Soviet Union to Cuba to Southeast Asia, and there are all different variations of it.

00:17:13.000 And the long and short of it is this, is that we believe absolute power corrupts absolutely.

00:17:18.000 We know this.

00:17:18.000 Lord Acton articulated it very well.

00:17:21.000 And the whole idea, what ends up happening is that if you don't trust a lot of power to be in a small subset of people's hands, then you should completely reject this.

00:17:29.000 The idea of a representative constitutional republic is trying to keep the power away from a few people.

00:17:35.000 That's the entire premise, is that the few should not dominate the many, that the strong should not dominate the weak.

00:17:41.000 That is the idea of a constitutional republic, that your right to disagree, your right to say something contrarian will be protected by your government to not be infringed upon.

00:17:52.000 And it's easy to take those things for granted.

00:17:54.000 And so what are we as Christians supposed to do as we unpack this?

00:17:57.000 Well, first of all, I believe we should look at things empirically with wisdom, right?

00:18:01.000 We have a whole book that is rooted in wisdom, the book of Proverbs.

00:18:04.000 When there's an idea that's been tried 100 times over 100 years, resulting in 100 million people dead, we should probably say that's probably a bad idea, right?

00:18:12.000 That's probably a good, that's probably a good pause.

00:18:15.000 Now, so I think that there's a universal rejection of that, but then like, oh, then what should replace it, right?

00:18:20.000 Because some people say, well, I definitely don't like that, but, you know, I don't like capitalism.

00:18:24.000 That's what people say.

00:18:25.000 I don't like it.

00:18:26.000 And by the way, capitalism has plenty of flaws.

00:18:27.000 I'm the first one to admit it, but it's the best of all the worst systems.

00:18:30.000 I mean, absolutely.

00:18:32.000 Of course, it creates inequality.

00:18:33.000 Of course it does, because you have competence hierarchies, and people are going to be better at certain things, and some people are going to work harder, and some people are going to work weekends, and some people are born with certain God-given gifts that other people aren't, right?

00:18:44.000 And it's actually the Matthew principle.

00:18:46.000 We derive this from the book of Matthew, which is a very harsh teaching, which is that the many will be given more, and the least will be, and you know the verse better than I do.

00:18:55.000 And it's literally the Matthew principle.

00:18:57.000 And so, but the question is, first of all, what is capitalism?

00:19:00.000 People say Adam Smith invented, I hate that term capitalism.

00:19:03.000 By the way, it actually was a Marxist term.

00:19:05.000 I prefer free enterprise.

00:19:06.000 I think that's actually a much better term.

00:19:08.000 Entrepreneurship, I also like a lot better than that.

00:19:11.000 But Adam Smith did not create it.

00:19:12.000 He discovered it.

00:19:13.000 This existed thousands of years.

00:19:15.000 It existed in the times of Christ in small areas, in markets, and kind of like transcontinental trading relationships.

00:19:23.000 But Adam Smith saw this happening at a rapid rate.

00:19:25.000 He wrote the Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations.

00:19:28.000 And in that book, it's a very interesting book.

00:19:30.000 By the way, Adam Smith was a Scottish Presbyterian.

00:19:32.000 The Scottish Enlightenment was led by the Presbyterian Church, thanks to the Protestant Reformation, that built a lot of modern society.

00:19:39.000 This part of the world has a lot of Scots.

00:19:41.000 Hello, I'm Kirk, so it's nice to see all you again.

00:19:43.000 Been a couple hundred years.

00:19:45.000 In a lot of different ways, the Scots built the modern world.

00:19:47.000 A lot of what we have came from what was the poorest country in Europe that all of a sudden sprang up these amazing ideas of John Locke, Burke, Hume, Smith, and many others.

00:19:56.000 And so, what Adam Smith was asking, and the title is so important into the, we call it the wealth of nations.

00:20:02.000 That's not the title.

00:20:03.000 It's not.

00:20:03.000 The title is an inquiry into the wealth of nations.

00:20:06.000 He was just asking a question, like, why are certain countries getting richer?

00:20:10.000 And why are certain countries staying poor?

00:20:12.000 He was on a discovery mission.

00:20:13.000 That's what he was.

00:20:14.000 He was a fact finder.

00:20:16.000 And he was just asking questions.

00:20:18.000 And he's like, wow, the people that allow the countries that allow people to kind of trade, they're doing really well.

00:20:25.000 And over time, the products improve and the price systems actually work.

00:20:29.000 And he acknowledged in the Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations that there are people that will be disadvantaged.

00:20:34.000 And you know what he argued?

00:20:35.000 He said that the Kirk, the church, should step up and help those people.

00:20:39.000 That was his solution, which I completely agree with.

00:20:41.000 I think the church should do even more to help the least of these in society.

00:20:45.000 I think the church should be the first safety net, not the government.

00:20:47.000 I think that the church should step up even more so in the place of the welfare state in our countries.

00:20:52.000 That was what Adam Smith argued.

00:20:53.000 But then all of a sudden from that moment, you saw a lot of other countries embrace this idea of markets.

00:20:59.000 And so how have we done since 1776?

00:21:03.000 Which, by the way, is the same year he wrote Inquiry into Wealth of Nations, same year that we had our birth certificate.

00:21:07.000 Interesting how that worked, right?

00:21:09.000 Same year.

00:21:10.000 Also, when common sense was written, how have we done as humanity?

00:21:13.000 Well, from Christ's resurrection to 1776, life expectancy went up maybe five years.

00:21:21.000 We didn't have access to modern medicine, international transportation, all these sorts of things.

00:21:27.000 From 1776 to today, we have things so unbelievably good with a standard of living that is so hard for us to comprehend that you look at where things were and where they are, we have to ask ourselves the question, why don't we do an inquiry into why things are so good in 2020?

00:21:40.000 Just like Adam Smith did in 1776.

00:21:43.000 Not perfect.

00:21:44.000 Lots of problems.

00:21:45.000 I have plenty of critiques.

00:21:46.000 I think that government should play a bigger role in certain areas, smaller role in others, but to just indict the entire capitalist system is lazy and it's wrong.

00:21:54.000 And so let's look at it.

00:21:55.000 During this pandemic, despite all of the kind of runs on toilet paper and all the different things that happen, our market experienced the greatest stress test we could possibly imagine.

00:22:10.000 Think about this.

00:22:11.000 Our grocery stores had a throwaway food.

00:22:14.000 We still produced so much food.

00:22:15.000 Our drugstores remained open.

00:22:18.000 We were able to have the supply chain continue.

00:22:20.000 If you needed something at your home, a lot of you had the opportunity to have it delivered straight to your home through some sort of home delivery service, Amazon or otherwise.

00:22:28.000 We passed the stress test.

00:22:30.000 And we did a lot wrong during this pandemic.

00:22:32.000 I'm the first one to mention it.

00:22:34.000 What do you think this pandemic would have looked like in 1704?

00:22:38.000 That's a different question, right?

00:22:40.000 Do you think that we would have had the same sort of access to information, to technology, to all these sorts of things?

00:22:46.000 So we have things rather good.

00:22:48.000 And by the way, other countries that didn't embrace these ideas, go see how they handled the pandemic.

00:22:53.000 Mass starvation.

00:22:55.000 Poverty rates that will take them decades to break out of.

00:22:58.000 And so, yes, we went through a lot of pain the last six to nine months, but we are so far ahead of other countries that didn't have a sort of market-based system after we experienced this kind of stress test.

00:23:10.000 So we can kind of see that.

00:23:12.000 And we take it for granted when we're like, man, you know, I have to go get another type of almond milk or something, right?

00:23:19.000 Or whatever.

00:23:21.000 You know, great.

00:23:23.000 The struggle is incredible, right?

00:23:25.000 I mean, but look at how amazing our companies and our options adapted, right?

00:23:31.000 Where all of a sudden mobile order was given and curbside pickup.

00:23:34.000 There wasn't a government, there were some government orders that suggested it, but the market just kind of did it, right?

00:23:39.000 They saw what people were worried about and they adapted to it in real time.

00:23:43.000 And that's what Adam Smith called the invisible hand.

00:23:46.000 And albeit was clumsy and plenty of companies made mistakes, but generally in this country, I think we took that for granted the last nine months.

00:23:54.000 That still generally our population was able to have access to medicine, have their prescriptions filled, put food on the table, have the supply chains uninterrupted.

00:24:03.000 And so, anyway, what do all these terms mean?

00:24:05.000 People say, well, Charlie, a Christian can't be a capitalist. 0.50

00:24:07.000 I say, well, that's entirely on you.

00:24:09.000 I say, capitalism gives you freedom. 1.00

00:24:11.000 If you believe that the gospel tells you to go live like a Mennonite, you can go do that, right? 1.00

00:24:16.000 I mean, you have freedom to do that. 0.87

00:24:18.000 You don't have to live a certain way in a capitalist system.

00:24:20.000 It's easier to live in certain ways.

00:24:22.000 But for example, the Mennonites or the Amish, they live communally.

00:24:26.000 If you think that is what the gospel tells you to do in a capitalist system, you're given the freedom to do that.

00:24:31.000 You can live like a socialist in a capitalist system.

00:24:35.000 Can't live like a capitalist in a socialist system.

00:24:37.000 So the Amish, God bless them, they think they figured it out.

00:24:41.000 You know, Pennsylvania, Dutch country, really fun to visit, right?

00:24:44.000 And they kind of share products and services, and it works for them.

00:24:48.000 Okay.

00:24:49.000 I don't know if it would work for me, but that's just my own approach.

00:24:52.000 But the idea is that it's all on you.

00:24:54.000 So if you have virtue, you have the agency to make good decisions.

00:24:58.000 So for example, if there's business owners out there, you have the liberty to treat your employees with dignity or not.

00:25:06.000 That's the whole idea of liberty, right?

00:25:07.000 Is that you have the opportunity to act with virtue or not?

00:25:10.000 And that's the golden triangle that built America.

00:25:13.000 Liberty is easy, right?

00:25:14.000 We teach our kids liberty, but we don't teach them responsibility, which is the other side of the triangle.

00:25:19.000 We definitely don't teach them virtue.

00:25:21.000 So liberty is the easy thing.

00:25:23.000 Go do whatever drugs you want.

00:25:24.000 Go put whatever you want in your body.

00:25:25.000 But for everything, there's a cost in life.

00:25:27.000 You drink too much, you feel bad in the morning, right?

00:25:29.000 You treat somebody bad, the relationship falls apart.

00:25:32.000 There's a cost to everything, right?

00:25:33.000 And we just kind of have the one-sided argument of liberty, but not on responsibility.

00:25:37.000 And so as we start to unpack what does that mean for the capitalist society, we have to understand that the framework for enterprise systems is a framework.

00:25:44.000 Do what you want with it, right?

00:25:47.000 And so if you're blaming other people's problems on the framework, I think that also just has more of an idea of are we communicating virtue and are we communicating values?

00:25:55.000 That's the first thing.

00:25:56.000 The second thing is this.

00:25:57.000 What system has proven to be the best at multiplication?

00:26:02.000 We don't use that word enough, I think, in Christendom.

00:26:04.000 Multiplication is a goal that Christ leaned into many different times.

00:26:11.000 Parable to talents, I'll get to that in a second.

00:26:13.000 But also, feeding the 5,000, multiplication is something you talked about quite often.

00:26:17.000 So the question is this: everyone in this room has been given gifts.

00:26:20.000 Everybody.

00:26:21.000 What system allows you to multiply the gifts God gave you the best for the advancement of his kingdom? 0.93

00:26:27.000 One that has freedom and liberty or one that looks like Cuba? 0.97

00:26:31.000 That's a question, right?

00:26:32.000 So when you have agency, when you have choice, when you're given liberty and freedom, let's say that you're a carpenter like Jesus was.

00:26:40.000 Let's say that you were, you know, a fisherman.

00:26:42.000 Or let's say that you run a church or you have a convenience store and you want to do everything in the pursuit of the gospel.

00:26:49.000 Now, mind you, that doesn't mean that if you're making shoes, as Martin Luther would say, you have to put a cross in every single shoe, right?

00:26:55.000 Martin Luther said you live it out in how you treat people and how you communicate people, right?

00:26:59.000 Communicate to people. 0.60

00:27:00.000 The question is then, what kind of system has allows Christians to multiply not just on the wealth side, but their impact to the most amount of people? 0.69

00:27:10.000 The answer is, of course, a free enterprise system. 0.91

00:27:12.000 Of course it is.

00:27:13.000 And by the way, socialism violates two out of the 10 commandments.

00:27:15.000 Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal.

00:27:18.000 And it's rooted in taking other people's stuff.

00:27:20.000 Capitalism is rooted, or free markets are rooted in creating new things.

00:27:24.000 It's rooted in building things up, new innovations.

00:27:26.000 And I actually think it's a really good thing that we can have open heart surgery, brain surgery, lung transplants, kidney transplants, dialysis machines.

00:27:34.000 Life expectancy has gone up.

00:27:36.000 I think there's a really good things that we take for granted.

00:27:37.000 I think it's a good thing that we have incredible supply chains in our country.

00:27:41.000 And so I think that all of that is attributable thanks to a market-based type system.

00:27:46.000 And I'm not arguing that there aren't problems.

00:27:47.000 Of course, there are problems.

00:27:48.000 I think that certain companies need to be kept in check.

00:27:50.000 And I think that monopolistic behavior needs to be cross-examined.

00:27:54.000 And so I'm not trying to argue in a dogmatic sense.

00:27:59.000 Instead, I am arguing in a framework sense.

00:28:01.000 And I think that we as Christians need to lean into this more and say the system that we currently live in, which is generally a private property-based system.

00:28:11.000 By the way, private property is a biblical idea.

00:28:13.000 Abraham bought Hebron, and you can visit it in Israel.

00:28:16.000 He didn't steal it.

00:28:17.000 He didn't say this is mine.

00:28:18.000 He bought it.

00:28:19.000 He purchased it.

00:28:20.000 The idea of private property is a biblical idea.

00:28:22.000 And you guys all know this.

00:28:24.000 You guys can have stuff.

00:28:25.000 Just don't have stuff have you.

00:28:26.000 And so, and I think that if you, the final thing is this, and we can kind of build out other ideas, which is what system uses the worst of human nature and behavior for the pursuit of betterment for the whole?

00:28:43.000 And the answer is free enterprise.

00:28:44.000 Here's why. 1.00

00:28:45.000 There are jerks. 1.00

00:28:46.000 There are bad people in the world. 1.00

00:28:48.000 We know that.

00:28:49.000 But generally, it's hard for a long period of time to run and operate a business and be an awful person.

00:28:56.000 It's very hard to do that.

00:28:57.000 It's not impossible, but people generally don't want to work for you.

00:29:01.000 They don't want to buy your products and they won't keep showing up.

00:29:04.000 I know from the best places that I like to shop from, it's people that care about their businesses the most and treat you the best.

00:29:10.000 Now, that's not to say everyone is great.

00:29:12.000 However, there's an incentive to act closer to the biblical mandate of treating people the way you want to be treated in a market, closer to that.

00:29:20.000 It's not perfect, but it's close.

00:29:23.000 Whereas the other side, one where you have no commerce, no markets, none of those sorts of things, I'm afraid it actually gets closer away from that sort of illustration.

00:29:31.000 Interesting.

00:29:32.000 Interesting.

00:29:32.000 Well, you know, biblically speaking, we know that there is a liberty.

00:29:36.000 It is for freedom.

00:29:37.000 It is for liberty that Christ has set us free.

00:29:40.000 But liberty is not easy.

00:29:42.000 I mean, it requires the responsibility.

00:29:44.000 It's really hard.

00:29:44.000 I've talked about before.

00:29:47.000 But given the choice between a bondage or some ruler, some ownership over you, and the chance to have true liberty, still requires a lot of responsibility.

00:29:58.000 You know, it requires a lot of responsibility.

00:30:00.000 When you talk about those other systems, the Marxist, the socialism, communism, and capitalism, which of those would be most antagonistic to our faith, the exercise of our own faith?

00:30:12.000 Would you find in socialism and communism that we still have this kind of liberty is still granted since we want it seems so fair, so nice?

00:30:21.000 Right.

00:30:21.000 So I think that the default position for believers should be to allow people to make choices as they see fit, and it's actually better for the kingdom, whereas socialism is the antithesis to that, right?

00:30:33.000 So it doesn't create a framework for choice or for the capacity to be able to pursue means as you see fit.

00:30:41.000 And we would all want that in this construct.

00:30:44.000 So the real question is this, is where do rights come from and what are rights?

00:30:47.000 That's also the really important question, right?

00:30:49.000 So are rights stuff or are rights something that God grants you naturally?

00:30:54.000 And this was the question the founding fathers wrestled with.

00:30:57.000 And it's very popular to say that certain things are a human right.

00:31:00.000 And, you know, for example, people say Netflix is a human right, or people say that, you know, you're joking.

00:31:05.000 Just wait.

00:31:06.000 It's going to happen.

00:31:06.000 I mean, people say that certain conveniences or luxuries are a human right.

00:31:10.000 Of course not.

00:31:11.000 That's not true.

00:31:12.000 Rights are who you are in the state of nature granted you by God.

00:31:14.000 That's what rights are.

00:31:16.000 So, and this is a harder argument to make because it's so much easier to say, no, no, no, free education is a right.

00:31:21.000 Again, I reject that from a pure philosophical and principle standpoint.

00:31:24.000 My argument's a harder argument to make, but it's true, which is that in the state of nature, who are you?

00:31:30.000 Consciousness, you have speech, you have ideas, and you should have the capacity to protect yourself and not have your stuff stolen from you.

00:31:37.000 That's basically the entire construct of natural rights.

00:31:41.000 Whereas you have a position that doesn't have natural rights, where it's more of a positive rights standpoint.

00:31:47.000 People believe that rights are things that should be given you the convenience to be able to live.

00:31:52.000 And mind you, that sounds very acceptable on the surface.

00:31:56.000 The question is, well, then at what point do you start to draw lines on what are rights and what aren't?

00:32:01.000 And so people say, well, I know my rights.

00:32:03.000 Okay, what are your rights?

00:32:04.000 And sometimes they don't actually know their rights when they say that.

00:32:08.000 But basically, it's the rights of cross-examination, the right of criminal, you know, lawyer, legal representation against an accusation, a right of due process.

00:32:16.000 And so, look, if you just look at these systems, again, I said it very clearly, capitalism is the best of the worst systems.

00:32:22.000 All these things are flawed because we're dealing with sinful human beings and acting, kind of interacting together.

00:32:29.000 However, if we just look at the data, and this is a very interesting thing that we as Christians need to look for, we like helping poor people, right?

00:32:36.000 Of course we do.

00:32:37.000 That's one of the biggest things that we're told to do.

00:32:39.000 Thanks to capitalism, thanks to free markets, world poverty is at the lowest it's ever been in human history.

00:32:46.000 You know that?

00:32:46.000 Probably not.

00:32:47.000 Activist media probably wouldn't tell you that.

00:32:49.000 Life expectancy has gone up.

00:32:50.000 There are less people living without running water, without medicine.

00:32:54.000 Now, how does that happen?

00:32:55.000 Well, all these countries are countries that tried the socialist communist experiment.

00:32:59.000 Most of these countries are Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines.

00:33:04.000 And they're basically doing the Adam Smith thing. 0.93

00:33:06.000 They're just letting their people trade.

00:33:08.000 And they're still trying to figure it out and manage it, and they're having issues here and there.

00:33:12.000 But generally, people are breaking out of poverty.

00:33:14.000 In India, there are 480 million people in India without toilets.

00:33:18.000 You think you got it bad?

00:33:20.000 They have a larger population than our entire country that doesn't have a toilet.

00:33:23.000 Now, that country, now that number was 800 million 10 years ago, so they're doing really well.

00:33:28.000 And so when you sit down with the Indian government, when you sit down with their country, they say, you know what?

00:33:35.000 We have a lot of problems, but things are a lot better today than they were 10 years.

00:33:38.000 You have to look at these things sometimes in relative terms, right?

00:33:40.000 And markets work.

00:33:43.000 They work in a way that a lot of us can't even explain.

00:33:46.000 Where all of a sudden you could go to Walgreens right here, and they have more choices of stuff than you could possibly ever imagine without you ever having to fill out a form for it.

00:33:54.000 It's because somebody out there is taking a risk to try to satisfy that for you.

00:33:58.000 And I think the other part of this is, look, what system allows you to have work that is meaningful?

00:34:07.000 And I think that we need to talk more about entrepreneurship, which is starting something from nothing.

00:34:11.000 And I think we're losing that in our country in a lot of different ways.

00:34:17.000 When running a business, HR issues can kill you.

00:34:20.000 I know this quite well from running a business.

00:34:22.000 Wrongful termination suits, minimum wage requirements, labor regulations, and more.

00:34:26.000 And HR manager salaries are never cheap.

00:34:28.000 They're an average of $70,000 a year.

00:34:31.000 Bambi, spelled B-A-M-B-E-E, was created specifically for small business.

00:34:36.000 You can get a dedicated HR manager, craft HR policy, and maintain your compliance all for just $99 a month.

00:34:42.000 With Bambi, you can change HR from your biggest liability to your biggest strength.

00:34:47.000 Your dedicated HR manager is available by phone, email, or real-time chat.

00:34:51.000 From onboarding the terminations that customize your policy to fit your business, and they help you manage your employees day-to-day all for just $99 a month.

00:34:59.000 Month to month, there's no hidden fees.

00:35:00.000 Cancel anytime.

00:35:01.000 You didn't start your business because you wanted to spend time in HR compliance. 0.95

00:35:04.000 Let Bambi help.

00:35:05.000 Get your free HR audit today.

00:35:07.000 Go to Bambi.com slash Kirk right now to schedule your free HR audit.

00:35:11.000 That's bambi.com slash kirk.

00:35:13.000 Spelled bam to the b-e-e dot com slash kirk.

00:35:20.000 Yeah, something we know a little bit about here.

00:35:22.000 We, you know, my wife and I moved here 20 years ago, just the two of us.

00:35:27.000 Start a little Bible study in an apartment, and you look around here and you see that there's this great thing that God has done, you know, through the agency of individuals that say, What do you want to accomplish?

00:35:44.000 Life is either what it is, life is either a discovery of what God created us to be, or it is, in a sense, this sort of drudgery of becoming trying to, you know, in a sense, make yourself make something.

00:35:57.000 And it's just a thrill to look on and go, well, what is it that God wants to do?

00:36:02.000 And he wants to be generous and kind, and he wants to shine light through us and to others.

00:36:07.000 You've said in a couple of our gatherings that the most important thing anyone will ever do is put their faith in Jesus Christ.

00:36:15.000 And the second thing is to make sure that that can actually happen.

00:36:20.000 And that, I think, is something that we're toying with right now because these ideas that sound so fair, so equitable, you know, it's going to be, we're going to come and solve the problems by tearing down the system that has its flaws.

00:36:34.000 And we're going to just make it all, it'll all be equal.

00:36:37.000 It won't all be equal at all.

00:36:41.000 Why would we want equal?

00:36:42.000 Since when is that a good thing?

00:36:44.000 No, that's a really interesting question, right?

00:36:46.000 Like people like, we want equality.

00:36:47.000 I'd love equality under the law.

00:36:49.000 I like equal rights.

00:36:50.000 But what if I work harder than somebody else?

00:36:53.000 Well, what if somebody doesn't show up to work?

00:36:56.000 We want to be equal with that person.

00:36:58.000 Like, I actually believe that it's biblical that if you don't work, you don't eat.

00:37:02.000 It's true.

00:37:03.000 And that whole idea of the whole idea of that verse is that if you don't show up, someone's going to have more than you.

00:37:08.000 Same with the parable of the talents.

00:37:09.000 You guys, I'm just going to let's remember the parable of the talents, which Christ challenges us to multiply.

00:37:16.000 Where in the parable of the talents, you have an owner of sorts or an employer, and it depends on the translation of how you interpret it, and three subjects.

00:37:28.000 And they're all given a certain piece from the owner.

00:37:32.000 One of them does nothing with it and hides it under a rock, the second of which multiplies it minorly, and the third of which multiplies it majorly.

00:37:41.000 And in one of the most harsh verses that we have that Christ ever uttered, he condemns the person so unbelievably clearly that puts what is given to them under a rock.

00:37:54.000 And the person who multiplies it faithfully gets some of the highest praise and reward from our Lord and Savior.

00:37:59.000 What are we supposed to make of that?

00:38:02.000 Well, I think it's pretty clear that we're pushed every day to get up and try to multiply the kingdom in every single vertical in the arts and the sciences and markets and of course the church. 0.95

00:38:16.000 And I don't think God would want a stationary or sedentary Christian body.

00:38:21.000 And so when we ask ourselves the question of, you know, what sort of framework creates that, I think it's one where Christians are being pushed to try in a good way, you know, to aspire and thrive to the highest level possible for The betterment of the kingdom.

00:38:40.000 That's great.

00:38:41.000 You know, God's a creator.

00:38:42.000 He's the creator of all things.

00:38:44.000 And we, his sons and daughters.

00:38:45.000 And so, you know, one aspect of Christ-likeness is a certain sense of creativity.

00:38:51.000 It's a sense of something coming out of us that is something coming out of us that uniquely created by God who's a creator.

00:39:00.000 And then we turn around and in a Christ-like way, you know, create something else.

00:39:04.000 Created things that were beneficial for others, that met the needs of others.

00:39:04.000 And what did he create?

00:39:08.000 And so for the church to have the liberty and the freedom to be who it is that God has called him to be, and then, you know, create something that may, in a sense, turn out to be an extraordinary blessing for other people, as opposed to mandates that say that this is how we're going to make sure everything, again, sort of gets distributed equally so that there isn't anything unfair.

00:39:30.000 Where do you think the sort of the idea that's rising, it's got to be fair, any inequality, any inequity, where does that sort of, you know, sort of to these, at this time, it seems to sort of be hitting sort of a fever pitch, you know, with now is the time for this.

00:39:50.000 There's so much injustice, and the injustice is that things just aren't fair out there.

00:39:55.000 And again, capitalism is sort of, you know, in the scapegoat.

00:39:59.000 Yeah.

00:40:00.000 I mean, look, I'm not, of course there's sin in the world.

00:40:00.000 Yeah.

00:40:03.000 And of course, there's things that are awful and terrible.

00:40:06.000 I think that acknowledging that America has made mistakes is perfectly fine. 0.72

00:40:11.000 But saying that America's a mistake is foolish and I won't tolerate that.

00:40:11.000 Sure.

00:40:15.000 We're the greatest country ever to exist in the history of the world.

00:40:18.000 We're the most generous, benevolent, forward-thinking, open-minded country ever that has brought in more people into our country successfully ever in any other country ever.

00:40:27.000 We gave away $500 billion to charity last year.

00:40:30.000 We bring in a million immigrants to our country every single year, whether it be a earthquake, flood, natural disaster, it's always our country that steps up disproportionately more so than any other country in the world.

00:40:40.000 And it's been good for the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

00:40:42.000 Amen.

00:40:48.000 Let's look at South Korea.

00:40:49.000 South Korea has 100 million people, one of the most Christian countries on the planet.

00:40:53.000 Why does South Korea exist?

00:40:56.000 Because of the United States of America, because 30,000 people, many of whom from this beautiful state, went and fought the forgotten war to push back the Chinese Communist Party and Korean military forces to now the DMZ zone, where it would have been all of Korea be communist, where all now half of Korea is communist.

00:41:11.000 So now 100 million people live in a neoliberal democracy where the kingdom is on fire in South Korea.

00:41:20.000 So America's made plenty of mistakes. 0.54

00:41:22.000 The Iraq war was a mistake.

00:41:23.000 The Vietnam War was a mistake.

00:41:25.000 We have plenty of people in the political class that I think serve their own self-interest and don't make good decisions. 1.00

00:41:30.000 All those things are true.

00:41:31.000 But I also think that there's an ingratitude brewing in our country that I feel called to confront.

00:41:38.000 Again, I'm the first one to say there are plenty of legitimate problems.

00:41:41.000 In fact, all of Next Service will talk about all the problems that we have in our country, seriously, because we got a lot of them.

00:41:47.000 And I think there's ways that we can solve them a lot easier than we give ourselves credit for. 1.00

00:41:50.000 And we'll do a whole service on that and talk about the crisis of young people and all that. 0.67

00:41:54.000 But I think that what happened, and this is a transition that happened, it happened suddenly. 0.99

00:41:58.000 Valid critiques of things that we can improve on that all of a sudden became to our country's an awful place.

00:42:04.000 Maybe we should disintegrate it.

00:42:05.000 I'm like, how did that happen?

00:42:07.000 And it happened very quickly.

00:42:09.000 And when I talk to first-generation immigrants from countries that are war-torn and that there are people living in the slums and the sewers, we have things very, very good here.

00:42:19.000 We really do.

00:42:20.000 And there's a big conversation right now about racial injustice and all those sorts of things.

00:42:24.000 Just one statistic that's very interesting. 0.96

00:42:26.000 Since 1983 million black people have legally immigrated into this country, 2 million from Africa, 1 million from the Caribbean.

00:42:32.000 The richest immigrant group in our country is Nigerian Americans to our country.

00:42:37.000 In fact, Bloomberg wrote an article saying that we need more Nigerian immigrants to our country. 0.99

00:42:41.000 I agree with that.

00:42:42.000 They're productive, family-oriented.

00:42:44.000 If we are so systemically racist and awful, how is it that Nigerian immigrants are doing so well in our country?

00:42:50.000 It's because they value the three things you need to do well in our country. 1.00

00:42:53.000 You need to do three things in our country.

00:42:55.000 And these things are colorblind.

00:42:56.000 It doesn't matter where you come from on the planet, you do these three things, you're going to break out of poverty.

00:43:01.000 You get married before you have kids.

00:43:03.000 You get a job, any job, and you graduate high school.

00:43:06.000 And then there's a fourth one that's pretty nice, which is don't mismanage money and don't commit crimes.

00:43:11.000 That's about it.

00:43:13.000 And those other three things play into the fourth thing, right?

00:43:16.000 But for example, a young white kid that is born to a single mother, who are heroes, by the way, this is not an indictment of single mothers. 0.62

00:43:25.000 But a young white kid born to a single mother is less likely to succeed than a black kid who is raised by a mother and a father. 0.96

00:43:30.000 It's empirically true. 0.82

00:43:32.000 It's two parent privilege in our country more than anything else.

00:43:34.000 And 77% of black kids in our country are born without stable fathers in the home. 0.82

00:43:38.000 That's a moral injustice, the likes of which is the true concentration, should be the true concentration of our outrage. 0.99

00:43:44.000 And it's not just the black community. 1.00

00:43:46.000 In certain states, such as West Virginia and parts of Tennessee, the fatherlessness rate in the white community is 38%.

00:43:54.000 You know a lot, you guys have ministry work that deals in a lot of those parts of very, very poor Appalachia.

00:43:59.000 So it's not just pertained to just one specific group.

00:44:03.000 And so you look, again, I think that there's some very, like, again, I could talk about all the things that have gone wrong, but you look at this really short experiment we have in self-governance and liberty in a constitutional republic, and you kind of got to give America a little bit of credit that we've gotten some things pretty amazingly right.

00:44:18.000 And that considering that the track record of governments are self-implosion, civil war, genocide, power-hungry maniacs, what have we done that has actually set the example for any sort of stable government?

00:44:32.000 And that is the decentralization of power, checks and balances, representative government, fair and free elections, all these sorts of things.

00:44:39.000 And if you have a problem with it, you're able to run for government, run for office.

00:44:42.000 You're able to actually serve in the government, which is a citizen-led government.

00:44:46.000 And so we kind of look at these things right now.

00:44:49.000 And I think, so, for example, only 43% of my generation thinks that America is a great country, 43%, right?

00:44:56.000 So that number was 70% 10 years ago.

00:44:59.000 Went from 70% to 43%.

00:45:02.000 That is like civilization-ending stuff, everybody, just so you understand.

00:45:06.000 A country's ability or inability to replicate its values and what it believes to the next generation will be the reason whether or not that country continues to exist.

00:45:17.000 And I believe firmly that we should be thankful for what is given to us.

00:45:22.000 I believe that gratitude is one of the least talked about biblical virtues.

00:45:28.000 I really do.

00:45:28.000 And gratitude is almost the fruit that makes everything else after it tastes sweet, right?

00:45:34.000 When you are thankful when you wake up, things just get a little bit better.

00:45:37.000 When you're unthankful, things don't get better.

00:45:39.000 And so I think that we should have a position of gratitude that we live in this country, that maybe there are some things that we got right.

00:45:45.000 Maybe that we are living in the exception, not the norm of human history, which we are.

00:45:50.000 And it's pretty remarkable when you look at the incredible, I mean, just another example is this: is that, you know, the poorest people in America are still in the top 1 to 2% on the planet.

00:46:04.000 And again, I'm not discounting that there's not poverty in this country, but it's very relative.

00:46:09.000 And it's very relative, is that the standard of living that we enjoy in the West versus almost all of Southeast Asia or the developing world should really give a lot of people pause.

00:46:18.000 It should. 1.00

00:46:19.000 For example, if just the black people in this country had their own economic country, they'd be the 18th wealthiest country on the planet. 0.92

00:46:28.000 So I mean, there's some reason to kind of pause and say, maybe things aren't as bad as people are telling me.

00:46:34.000 And if we are getting some things correct, what are we getting correct?

00:46:37.000 And then what we're getting wrong, how can we actually fix it?

00:46:39.000 And we have the Bible to actually tell us that.

00:46:41.000 How about this?

00:46:42.000 Get married and be loyal to that person.

00:46:46.000 Work hard.

00:46:47.000 Focus on the good.

00:46:49.000 Make your goals sharp and clear.

00:46:51.000 Be thankful more than you complain.

00:46:54.000 And take the education of your children very seriously.

00:46:57.000 If every person did that in this country, all of a sudden a lot of these problems would all of a sudden disappear.

00:47:03.000 So true.

00:47:09.000 So, to whom much is given, and I think it should go with almost out saying we have been given quite a bit.

00:47:16.000 Much is required.

00:47:18.000 Much, I would say, is at stake.

00:47:22.000 So imagine just for a second a world without our country.

00:47:26.000 Yeah.

00:47:27.000 And why would that, like, what part would we play and why would that matter?

00:47:30.000 That's a great question.

00:47:32.000 I was in Germany once, and I was sitting around the table with a group of Germans and Europeans, and they had nothing but negative stuff to say about our country. 1.00

00:47:40.000 Awful stuff. 0.98

00:47:42.000 And just arrogance and bitterness and every stereotype you've heard that now your kids tell you about our country, right?

00:47:49.000 That we have to hear our young people tell us.

00:47:51.000 And I was hearing five years ago, and I had enough of it, right?

00:47:54.000 I just said, all right, I got a question.

00:47:56.000 What happens if America did?

00:47:58.000 What would happen if America didn't exist?

00:47:59.000 And I got very quiet.

00:48:01.000 And they said, one of them said, well, the world would be a lot less free.

00:48:07.000 I said, okay.

00:48:08.000 And that was the end of that discussion.

00:48:12.000 And, well, what's the point?

00:48:13.000 Is that a benevolent superpower is a very rare thing.

00:48:20.000 We've made plenty of problems, plenty of mistakes.

00:48:22.000 We have plenty of problems.

00:48:23.000 I've said many times.

00:48:24.000 I try to always, you know, nuance it.

00:48:27.000 But think about what other countries would do if they had the wealth and power that we had.

00:48:33.000 Look what China is doing with the wealth and power they have.

00:48:35.000 There's a million Muslims in concentration camps in China right now.

00:48:39.000 Million. 0.98

00:48:40.000 We say never again, but we're lying when we say that. 0.99

00:48:42.000 The Holocaust is happening all over again in China. 1.00

00:48:45.000 And we're okay with it. 1.00

00:48:46.000 Are we?

00:48:46.000 I don't know.

00:48:47.000 I'm not.

00:48:47.000 We keep buying products from them.

00:48:49.000 We keep having our companies go over to them.

00:48:50.000 We keep buying textiles from them.

00:48:51.000 We keep buying our electronics from them. 0.90

00:48:53.000 But you're funding the concentration camp surveillance empire in China. 0.78

00:48:57.000 China's building islands in the South China Sea. 0.84

00:48:59.000 They released a virus that killed 200,000 Americans, lied about it, probably a bioweapon from one of their labs. 0.84

00:49:03.000 The very least, it was absolutely covered up at the highest levels of their government, and time will tell about that.

00:49:08.000 That has now infected the top levels of our government.

00:49:11.000 They have the Belt and Road Initiative where they're buying up natural resources and minerals and ports of entry of Africa, Southeast Asia, all across the world for their own betterment and their own enrichment. 0.82

00:49:21.000 There is no church in China.

00:49:22.000 There's an underground church. 0.98

00:49:23.000 And if you get too loud, they'll cut your head off.

00:49:26.000 So what would they do with absolute power?

00:49:28.000 What would Russia do with absolute power?

00:49:31.000 Where they poison dissidents and throw them in prison?

00:49:35.000 Where there is no freedom of speech?

00:49:37.000 Where Vladimir Putin is very popular.

00:49:39.000 Just look at the elections.

00:49:44.000 What would North Korea do with absolute power?

00:49:48.000 So that should be take pause everyone, like, wow.

00:49:51.000 We have the most sophisticated weaponry.

00:49:53.000 We have more aircraft carriers than any other country put together combined.

00:49:57.000 There's only one other country in the aircraft creator, that's not China.

00:50:02.000 We have drone reconnaissance, stuff that no one else could have.

00:50:05.000 An economy that, if we turned on the faucet to just support our military, it could do incredible stuff.

00:50:12.000 And sure, I mean, we make some decisions that are regrettable, the war of Iraq and all this.

00:50:18.000 But generally, we only ask for land to bury our dead.

00:50:21.000 Generally, that's the rule of American foreign policy.

00:50:24.000 We just say, just give us a cemetery plot so we can bury those that died so that you guys could be free.

00:50:29.000 And so.

00:50:30.000 Any other nation have any other of their dead buried on it?

00:50:34.000 I mean, I mean, we're not, Great Britain, other Western countries do that.

00:50:38.000 But I'm saying, look at the look at the power we have with a $26 trillion economy, more airports, more airplanes, more scientific discovery, 18 out of 20 of the top research institutions, a standing army that is unprecedented, incomparable, nuclear warheads, all this stuff.

00:50:54.000 What would another country do with that kind of magnanimous power?

00:50:57.000 And the question is, why don't we do that?

00:50:59.000 And the reason is, despite all of our clumsiness and all of this, there is a pursuit to try to say, we want to do something good in this world.

00:51:08.000 That's why. 0.70

00:51:09.000 That's why we fought the Korean War.

00:51:11.000 It's because we were not comfortable with the entire Korean peninsula being under totalitarian rule.

00:51:16.000 100 million people are living free thanks to that today.

00:51:19.000 And the same could be said for other, you know, other, World War II is another phenomenal example of that, where the European continent was in absolute crisis.

00:51:30.000 And many people from this region of the world rised up to never come back, to go fight land that their relatives would never visit, to go liberate a continent from absolute ultimate evil so that the intentional extermination of the innocent would stop.

00:51:46.000 Yeah, that's a country I'd be proud of.

00:51:49.000 That's good.

00:51:50.000 Very good.

00:51:52.000 Very, very good.

00:51:58.000 You're probably listening.

00:51:59.000 You're listening to the Charlie Kirk show right now, or else you wouldn't hear me say this.

00:52:03.000 And you might have earbuds in.

00:52:05.000 And the best way to listen is actually premium wireless earbuds.

00:52:09.000 And that's why I recommend wireless earbuds from Raycon.

00:52:11.000 They're terrific.

00:52:12.000 The whole team at the Charlie Kirk show just walks around with Raycon earbuds all the time.

00:52:16.000 And Raycon's newest model, the Everyday E25 earbuds, are the best ones yet.

00:52:21.000 They have six hours of playtime, seamless Bluetooth pairing, more base and a more compact design, and a noise-isolating fit.

00:52:29.000 Raycon earbuds are stylish and discreet.

00:52:31.000 There's no more dangling wires or stems.

00:52:34.000 Give them a try.

00:52:34.000 Raycon is a 45-day free return policy so you can make sure they're the wireless earbuds for you.

00:52:40.000 For a limited time, get 15% off your order at buyraycon.com/slash Kirk.

00:52:44.000 That's buyraycon.com slash Kirk for a special 15% discount on Raycon Wireless.

00:52:49.000 Again, make sure to check it out right now while the deal is running.

00:52:52.000 Buyraycon.com/slash Kirk.

00:52:57.000 Well, we are followers of Jesus, you know, most of us here.

00:53:01.000 And we've got, it would take just this last minute.

00:53:04.000 We've got an election shortly.

00:53:06.000 Is that true?

00:53:07.000 I had no idea.

00:53:09.000 We've got an election.

00:53:12.000 Just give us a couple very, very practical action steps as people that, you know, I've been sharing with the congregation, and it, you know, to me, it boils all down to Ephesians 6's spiritual warfare, that there are principalities and powers that at the end of the day, there is a great conflict between truth and lies and light and dark and life and death.

00:53:37.000 And I think that what it is that we're facing in these ideas, because ideas have extraordinary consequences, right?

00:53:43.000 100 years, 100 million people slain because of ideas that are godless.

00:53:49.000 And so I've said in each of the services that it's just, you know, my simple conviction that we face not ideas, but an evil behind those ideas that is not in any way.

00:54:01.000 The enemy comes to kill, he comes to steal, he comes to destroy.

00:54:06.000 And so there's a unique role that the church plays in the restraint and the pushback against evil.

00:54:16.000 And so we've got an election that many believe for our country.

00:54:20.000 Some would say it's the most important election that our country's ever seen or in the last hundred years.

00:54:25.000 I mean, it's been stated in different ways.

00:54:28.000 What are just some practical things that we need to be aware of, or maybe just some practical ways in closing how that we might engage?

00:54:35.000 Because we have a role that simply others, even just Americans, you know, don't.

00:54:40.000 I mean, we have an understanding that's a little different.

00:54:42.000 Yeah, look, I mean, whether it's something that you enjoy hearing or like talking about politics matter.

00:54:47.000 As I mentioned, another Calvary chapel might go to prison today while you guys get to go back home and enjoy watching football.

00:54:52.000 So politics matter because you have better governance here than in California.

00:54:57.000 So while they're dealing with public health officials and trying to negotiate police bail bonds, you guys get to go watch the Tennessee Titans or whatever, right?

00:55:05.000 So politics matter, and it's happening in this country right now.

00:55:08.000 So look, I'm not going to say that one party's perfect and one party is, you know, more fitting into the perfect fit, I should say.

00:55:16.000 But I will say this, there's a couple issues that I think almost every Christian should be able to agree on. 0.74

00:55:21.000 The first of which is the fight for those that can't fight for themselves, which is the fight for life.

00:55:29.000 And let me say, I think that we as Christians need to do a much better job of communicating the necessity to adopt, the need to make it financially easier to adopt, to make the laws easier to adopt children in our country.

00:55:42.000 And secondly, I think that a lot of times in churches that I visit, we do not do enough to talk about how women that have had abortions should not be condemned.

00:55:52.000 We should have a ministry to help heal them.

00:55:54.000 And instead, our critique should be after the abortionists that lied to these young ladies and told them that this was a victimless act.

00:56:01.000 And when in reality, there is serious spiritual, physical, and emotional damage that is done to women that do that.

00:56:08.000 And so I think we need to do a better job of that.

00:56:10.000 So I just want to preface it with that.

00:56:11.000 With that being said, I think that it's a moral travesty that 61 million lives were terminated since Roe versus Wade in our country.

00:56:18.000 That's twice the population of Canada that we have terminated in the womb. 1.00

00:56:24.000 And it's disproportionate to the black community, by the way.

00:56:26.000 And this is something that does not get talked about enough.

00:56:28.000 If you see a pregnant woman, a black woman, on a subway in New York City, she's more likely heading to the Planned Parenthood than to the delivery clinic.

00:56:36.000 And so the question I think that we Christians should be asked, and it might be asked at the highest levels of, you know, when we go face our Creator, is, what did you do when those people that couldn't defend themselves were being, you know, terminated?

00:56:51.000 So the question is, when does life begin?

00:56:53.000 I think we as Christians have a very simple answer to that.

00:56:56.000 Believes that it begins at conception.

00:56:58.000 When that unique DNA is formed, when that unique image, we're made in the image of God.

00:57:02.000 I knew you before you were in the womb.

00:57:04.000 When that life is created, I believe that that right should have the same sort of protection as an older life. 0.88

00:57:11.000 And so I believe that every Christian should get behind an agenda that of some people that speak at the March for Life, people that challenge our public funding of Planned Parenthood. 0.97

00:57:21.000 And yes, appoint justices and judges to the United States Supreme Court to challenge the unconstitutional ruling of Roe versus Wade.

00:57:29.000 I believe that every Christian should be involved in that.

00:57:31.000 The second issue, and I'll just do three because I did 11 last service and it took like an hour.

00:57:36.000 So the second issue is the issue of Israel.

00:57:40.000 Every Christian, Bible-believing Christian, should have a reverence for God's chosen people in the State of Israel.

00:57:46.000 And Israel has been under attack, condemned.

00:57:49.000 From the moment Israel was formed, they were invaded by every direction, by every power, all at once, trying to suffocate and destroy the Jewish people to have their own sovereign state.

00:58:02.000 From that point forward, Israel has had to deal with rockets being shot at their civilians and children, suicide bombers being subsidized by the Palestinian Authority, a three-front war from Gaza to Hamas to the Palestinian Authority. 0.68

00:58:17.000 And for the first time in a couple decades, all of a sudden we are seeing an incredible peace deal that has come through between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, negotiated by a president that many of you support, some of you don't, in a way that you might not like his style.

00:58:30.000 But my goodness, you bring the Emiratis and the Israelis in a room together to agree on peace.

00:58:36.000 Someone's doing something that's not getting mentioned in the media.

00:58:46.000 Of course, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Golan Heights.

00:58:49.000 If any of you have visited Israel, it makes you a stronger Christian and makes you a more convicted Christian.

00:58:54.000 And I believe that it is imperative for Christians to also defend our relationship with Israel for the archaeological discoveries, for making it the Bible in technical and real life.

00:59:06.000 And I think that if the state of Israel were to fall in this period of time that we live in, it would be an unspeakable tragedy and travesty.

00:59:15.000 So the third thing that I think that Christians should care about, and I mentioned this a little bit, is the judges and justices, is interpretation of the rule of law as it is written. 0.76

00:59:24.000 With the United States Supreme Court as it was back in August, Calvary Chapel, another Calvary Chapel fighting for its life, everybody, in Las Vegas, sued because they were not able to open.

00:59:39.000 And the mandate put forward by the state government said no more than 50 people, but they said the casinos are allowed 50% capacity and they get 15,000 people because their fire codes are so high.

00:59:48.000 They sue up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

00:59:50.000 John Roberts ruled incorrectly, 5-4 decision and said, church is not essential.

00:59:54.000 Casinos are.

00:59:56.000 That's what he said, basically.

00:59:58.000 What he said is that casinos can be at 50% capacity.

01:00:00.000 Churches must stay at 50 people.

01:00:03.000 Because they said something about proximity or singing helps spread whatever.

01:00:07.000 So yeah, courts matter.

01:00:08.000 Oh my gosh.

01:00:09.000 And right now, you have a woman who has seven children, two of them adopted, five natural-born children who loves the Lord, who's about to be on the United States Supreme Court.

01:00:21.000 That's a fight that every Christian should get into right now.

01:00:23.000 Oh, my goodness. 0.99

01:00:25.000 And so, and also, just to close, 200 federal circuit court judges, the most in recent history, if not in all of U.S. history, since George Washington, and now three Supreme Court justices.

01:00:37.000 We have three branches of government.

01:00:38.000 The least appreciated and least talked about is the judicial branch.

01:00:42.000 We talk a lot about the legislative and the executive.

01:00:44.000 The judicial branch is one that honestly has more power and more weight than we have ever seen in our lifetime.

01:00:52.000 And so, yes, and to answer your question, I guess we'll close on this: I am a friend of the president's.

01:00:57.000 Please pray for him.

01:00:58.000 He's in a very difficult position right now, and one that just makes me sick seeing how some people react to it on television and social media, just so it shows you the brokenness where I don't even need to get into it.

01:01:10.000 It's just awful.

01:01:11.000 So, but yeah, look, I think that he gets a really bad rap by a lot of people.

01:01:14.000 And understand, if you have a problem with him, remember, you're voting for two people, too.

01:01:17.000 You're also voting for Mike Pence, who's been loyally married to the same woman for 35 years, Bible-believing Christian, who prays over the president every day, who does Bible studies in the Oval Office, who brings ministers into the White House.

01:01:32.000 And you have this combination of street fighter and Midwestern Christian together into the most pro-life, most per-Israel, most successful judicial appointment administration in American history, which I believe justifies four more years. 0.81

01:01:50.000 Very good. 0.86

01:01:53.000 Very good.

01:01:54.000 Thank you.

01:01:55.000 Okay.

01:01:55.000 Thank you, guys.

01:02:01.000 If you guys want to support us at Turning Point USA, the hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters on high school and college campuses across the country, go to tpusa.com, tpusa.com.

01:02:12.000 Email us your questions, freedom at charliekirk.com, freedom at charliekirk.com.

01:02:16.000 If you guys want to win a signed copy of the MAGA doctrine, type in Charlie Kirk Show to your podcast provider, hit subscribe and give us a five-star review.

01:02:23.000 Thank you guys so much for listening.

01:02:24.000 God bless.

01:02:25.000 Again, please consider supporting us at charliekirk.com/slash support.

01:02:29.000 Thank you again.

01:02:30.000 Talk to you soon.

01:02:31.000 God bless.

The Charlie Kirk Show - October 05, 2020

Marxism Dismantled, Free Markets Explained, and a Comprehensive Defense of American Exceptionalism Live from Calvary Chapel Chattanooga

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript