The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Tim Ballard & Stephen Mansfield ｜ 7⧸3⧸23

00:00:00.000 Hey, make sure to check out the pilot episode of my brand new podcast, Honest History.

00:00:05.940 The episode's titled, Control Freaks, The Scientific Roots of Progressive Tyranny.

00:00:12.100 It's available right now wherever you get your podcasts.

00:00:14.800 Oh my gosh.

00:00:16.500 On today's podcast, the amazing Stewina returns. 0.96

00:00:20.800 I'm not going to dead name her, but she is back and it is great to have her back, Stewina.

00:00:30.000 We also talked, we all had a great, you know, had a few days off, drank a bunch of Bud Light.

00:00:36.440 Everything worked out well.

00:00:38.260 Yeah, yeah.

00:00:39.980 And you have like, you're like a fire hydrant.

00:00:43.600 You can attach a hose to it or not.

00:00:46.340 Yeah, I figure that's good.

00:00:47.180 I mean, because, you know, you really don't get any points after you've done the transitioning.

00:00:51.700 You need to constantly be in a state of transition.

00:00:54.000 And that way, I'm kind of get all the woke points all the time.

00:00:56.800 Screw it on, screw it off.

00:00:58.060 That's good.

00:00:58.460 It's good.

00:01:01.240 Thank you very much.

00:01:02.500 We have a great show for you today.

00:01:05.420 We have some reporting from, live from France on what's happening over there.

00:01:10.880 Do a great history lesson on Abraham Lincoln.

00:01:15.840 And a new movie that comes out that you finance.

00:01:20.040 Not the movie.

00:01:20.760 The actual operation that the movie is based on.

00:01:25.040 It's a great movie that comes out tomorrow.

00:01:30.000 You need to make sure that you grab your tickets for it and see it.

00:01:34.200 It's really inspirational and uplifting.

00:01:36.940 It's the movie about Operation Underground Railroad.

00:01:40.120 It's called The Sound of Freedom.

00:01:42.500 All of that and more on today's broadcast and podcast.

00:01:47.640 Brought to you by Relief Factor.

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00:02:12.520 I don't know why the doctor sounds like that.

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00:02:42.580 Here's a podcast.

00:02:50.940 You're listening to The Best of the Glenn Beck Program.

00:02:56.300 Welcome to The Glenn Beck Program.

00:02:59.200 I want to quote Teddy Roosevelt before we go to France.

00:03:05.140 Teddy Roosevelt said,

00:03:06.360 There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.

00:03:10.780 When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I don't refer to naturalized Americans.

00:03:15.900 Some are the very best Americans I've ever known.

00:03:19.640 And they were naturalized Americans.

00:03:22.460 Americans born abroad.

00:03:24.240 But hyphenated American is not an American at all.

00:03:27.800 The one absolutely certain, intricate knot of German Americans, 0.79

00:03:35.960 Irish Americans, English Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans,

00:03:39.880 Italian Americans.

00:03:40.760 Each preserving its separate nationality. 0.75

00:03:44.660 Each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with other citizens of the American Republic.

00:03:53.280 There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. 1.00

00:03:59.040 The only man who is a good American is the man who decides to become an American and nothing else. 0.91

00:04:09.640 I think he's absolutely right.

00:04:11.540 And proof of that is what is happening in France this weekend.

00:04:15.940 Ezra Levant is in France.

00:04:18.100 Now, where are you, Ezra?

00:04:19.380 Hi, Glenn.

00:04:21.300 I'm standing in Marseille, which is one of the largest cities in France.

00:04:24.940 It's on the Mediterranean coast.

00:04:26.540 It's a beautiful city, incredibly picturesque.

00:04:29.060 But there are two Marseilles.

00:04:30.900 There's the beautiful French part of Marseille that you would see in a postcard.

00:04:35.120 But just literally a few blocks away from the tourist center,

00:04:38.660 it is what I think could be fairly called a slum.

00:04:41.500 With many migrants, usually from a Muslim country, particularly Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, but also Iraq, Turkey.

00:04:50.020 And it's very apart.

00:04:52.300 On those streets, you don't hear any French being spoken.

00:04:55.680 The commerce is very different.

00:04:58.960 It's a different industry.

00:05:00.740 And there's a real separation.

00:05:02.740 And I think that the shooting of this 17-year-old North African young man, Nahel is his name,

00:05:10.820 the police sort of, it was in a chase.

00:05:14.180 The police stopped him and they shot him.

00:05:17.340 And it was shocking.

00:05:18.800 And I have to say, I mean, obviously we'll see what the facts are in the end,

00:05:22.660 but I don't know if he needed to be shot.

00:05:24.380 He was a 17-year-old.

00:05:25.420 They knew who he was.

00:05:26.320 He was stopped already.

00:05:27.600 That was the spark.

00:05:28.860 But that spark lit a lot of tinder that has been festering for decades.

00:05:34.180 And there's a real apartness.

00:05:35.960 It's almost apartheid, except for much of it is self-imposed.

00:05:40.320 Here's a quick thing.

00:05:40.980 I went along the cafes.

00:05:42.940 There's a lot of cafes in the tourist spots here, Glenn,

00:05:45.800 with out-of-towners and French people.

00:05:48.260 And there's men and women and they're dressed, as you might expect, in a tropical place.

00:05:52.240 But you go a few blocks further into the Muslim neighborhoods,

00:05:55.280 they still have cafes.

00:05:57.140 But you'll notice a difference.

00:05:58.860 There's no women at them. 1.00

00:06:00.680 It's just men. 0.63

00:06:02.500 And the odd woman you do see is wearing an abaya from head to toe. 0.97

00:06:07.420 Now, there's a law in France that you cannot cover the face with a veil.

00:06:10.700 They actually banned that.

00:06:12.760 But COVID-19 gave a lot of folks a workaround.

00:06:15.980 So you see Muslim women head to toe and then the COVID mask. 1.00

00:06:19.840 I asked a lot of these folks in my broken French,

00:06:23.420 I said, how do you feel being a Muslim in France?

00:06:26.980 And the more assimilated ones said, we love it.

00:06:30.460 We love France.

00:06:32.180 We know there are races here and there, but it's not systemically racist.

00:06:35.680 I would say, is there racism back in Algeria?

00:06:37.860 They said, yes.

00:06:38.540 So there were some beautiful answers that were very much on point with your quote from Roosevelt.

00:06:42.300 But there were other people who said, French don't respect us.

00:06:45.780 French don't treat us equally. 1.00

00:06:47.760 But then I said, in your heart, are you a French person first or an Algerian first?

00:06:53.320 And most of them, without hesitating, said Algerian.

00:06:57.100 In fact, a man and his young boy came up to me and they wanted to say a lot about Nihal,

00:07:01.980 the 17-year-old kid who was killed.

00:07:03.860 And I listened to them and I said, who are you in your heart?

00:07:07.420 Are you an Algerian or are you a Frenchman?

00:07:09.540 And they were so proud to say Algerian.

00:07:12.060 And I was thinking, how can you be upset that the French don't welcome you fully as an equal Frenchman

00:07:19.240 when you yourself refused to give up where you were, except for to come here?

00:07:23.260 I said, if France is so racist, I said to some of them, why did you come here?

00:07:27.680 And so I think both sides have some reconciling to do because you have a de facto apartheid.

00:07:35.180 But here's the thing, how that's going to end.

00:07:38.180 Demographics.

00:07:39.100 I mean, France has a declining birth rate for the ethnic French, whereas not only through

00:07:44.820 continued mass immigration, but just through birthright, the city of Marseille will go the 0.92

00:07:50.180 way the city of Malmo, Sweden has gone.

00:07:53.040 It will be beautiful still.

00:07:55.360 It'll still have the gorgeous sun and the port and the yachts and the cafes, but it'll

00:08:01.320 be more like a Moroccan city than a French city.

00:08:04.840 The world is changing.

00:08:06.460 And it's because I think France and maybe America has something to say about this, too,

00:08:13.040 is welcoming in people who are not willing to say America is first in my heart.

00:08:17.600 You know, I agree with Teddy Roosevelt on immigrant Americans, naturalized Americans. 0.75

00:08:27.960 They're some of the best Americans out there.

00:08:31.280 And they're the ones who chose America.

00:08:35.080 The guy I work with who is Scottish, he's loved Scotland.

00:08:40.560 And he came here and he was thinking about citizenship.

00:08:45.460 And when he went back to Scotland just recently, he said, I saw Scotland for what it really is,

00:08:53.920 because I now have the perspective of living in Texas and in America.

00:08:59.160 And he said, I'm American.

00:09:01.260 I am not Scottish.

00:09:02.780 I'm American.

00:09:04.420 That renews all of us.

00:09:07.140 You know, that that that kind of guy comes in and he starts businesses and he starts to take

00:09:13.260 advantage of the opportunities.

00:09:15.400 And that is the big difference.

00:09:17.840 I want immigrants here that are coming in and they want to be Americans.

00:09:24.320 I don't want an Italian coming in and saying, I want an Italian community and we're going to 1.00

00:09:31.360 have our own rules and our own ways here.

00:09:34.920 No.

00:09:35.440 No, bring your culture with you, but become an American.

00:09:42.240 You know, Charles de Gaulle, the great French leader, whose name literally means Frenchman.

00:09:47.840 He was considered arrogant and he was considered many things.

00:09:51.400 But and and he was a, you know, trans first kind of person.

00:09:57.540 He remember French colonies in North Africa.

00:10:00.620 He was once asked, can a foreigner become a Frenchman?

00:10:04.760 But in in his blood, can you become French?

00:10:07.880 Can you join this country even if your bloodline is not French?

00:10:11.760 And he said, yes, he was a chauvinist. 0.98

00:10:17.060 He was arrogant. 0.99

00:10:18.480 He was trans first. 0.99

00:10:19.840 But he said, yes, if you inculcate yourself, if you breathe in the history, the culture,

00:10:25.560 you must learn the language, learn the history, learn the art.

00:10:29.680 You can become a great Frenchman.

00:10:32.360 And by the way, Emmanuel Macron, for all of his flaws, says much the same thing.

00:10:36.740 He gave a beautiful speech three years ago, right in the wake of a lot of the Black Lives 1.00

00:10:41.180 Matter riots in America.

00:10:42.740 He gave a beautiful speech in France, swearing in some new French citizens where he talked

00:10:48.680 about their rights, but he went heavy on their responsibility.

00:10:51.660 You know, those old French mottos, liberté, égalité, fraternité.

00:10:57.360 Emmanuel Macron said, you must follow those.

00:11:00.000 You must fight for liberty for everyone.

00:11:02.740 You must permanently struggle for liberty.

00:11:04.640 He told these immigrants, he said, you must follow fraternity.

00:11:07.740 You must be fraternal to your new French citizen colleagues.

00:11:11.720 He said, you must put the republic first.

00:11:14.120 He said this.

00:11:15.080 Now, I do not like Emmanuel Macron at all, but it was bracing to see what he said.

00:11:20.740 Alas, his deeds don't live up to his words, and it is not happening.

00:11:24.600 And I fear for what's, you know, this is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been

00:11:28.320 in, Glenn.

00:11:29.200 But there is a shadow over it.

00:11:31.740 And there were 1,300 people arrested in riots two nights ago.

00:11:35.620 The average age was 17, and that's the thing.

00:11:38.540 I look at the police, and I don't believe in affirmative action, but the police feel like 0.99

00:11:43.460 they're an alien community. 0.66

00:11:45.840 They have no ties to the community.

00:11:47.300 There are very few minorities in the police.

00:11:49.600 They don't speak Arabic.

00:11:50.800 They have no, and half the time, they're just defending themselves or the firemen.

00:11:55.320 You know, they torture a place.

00:11:56.400 The firemen go in.

00:11:57.440 They attack the fire trucks.

00:11:59.240 The police have to go in to escort the fire trucks out.

00:12:01.800 It's almost like, you know, some of these dystopian movies like Blade Runner or something

00:12:06.820 where the police are this foreign, hated, alien, disconnected force, and they're going

00:12:12.440 to lose just from pure demographics.

00:12:15.060 You know, there's the bobbies and gritties and robert.

00:12:19.220 Go ahead.

00:12:20.160 Sorry to interrupt, but that was the secret of American police in New York.

00:12:27.200 The Irish guy who had become an American, he was the guy who patrolled his own neighborhood.

00:12:36.120 The Italian guy, he patrolled his own neighborhood, and so they weren't a foreign force.

00:12:42.860 The problem with this is that, at least in New York, the New Yorkers cannot afford to live

00:12:50.480 in most of those neighborhoods.

00:12:52.660 The police can't.

00:12:53.800 So they are a foreign, you know, they're not part of the community anymore, and you 1.00

00:12:59.880 can't have people who swear allegiance first to Algeria being the cop for France.

00:13:09.140 Well, that's the thing.

00:13:10.140 Does your oath mean something?

00:13:11.220 Now, by the way, one of the answers I got was, I said, are you Algerian first or are you

00:13:15.460 French first? 0.95

00:13:16.000 She said, Allah first, and I believe in the Ummah. 0.95

00:13:19.220 And you know what?

00:13:19.800 In some ways, that's like a Christian who would say, I put Jesus first.

00:13:22.920 And I respect that, but as the Bible says, render unto Caesar what's Caesar.

00:13:27.940 So yes, in your heart, your conscience, your morality, if you want to put Allah first, I

00:13:33.160 get it.

00:13:33.580 Because if a Christian said, I put Jesus first, I would respect that. 0.99

00:13:37.460 I wouldn't say you're a bad American.

00:13:39.360 But in matters secular, in matters of civil law and order, in matters of police and learning

00:13:45.040 the language, you have to put Caesar first, or in this case, put the Republic first.

00:13:49.420 And isn't that what an Ummah means?

00:13:55.200 The opposite of that?

00:13:56.520 Doesn't an Ummah kind of suggest a caliphate kind of...

00:14:04.880 A global, yeah.

00:14:06.020 A global government of sorts.

00:14:09.860 And, you know, by the way, he later ran up there and demanded...

00:14:13.420 Yes, that's right.

00:14:15.080 It's very different.

00:14:16.180 So, listen, this is a beautiful city, but terrible things are happening.

00:14:20.220 And it's spreading to Belgium.

00:14:22.220 It's spreading to Switzerland.

00:14:23.780 Why is that?

00:14:24.960 It's an ethnic solidarity.

00:14:26.620 And I think that massive, unabsorbed, unintegrated immigration, in this case from Islam, is going 1.00

00:14:34.120 to be a problem no matter what.

00:14:35.560 De Gaulle insisted on absorption, assimilation, integration.

00:14:39.460 He said, yes, you can become French.

00:14:42.540 I asked some of these guys, could you ever...

00:14:44.760 I said, Barack Obama became a black president.

00:14:47.200 Rishi Sunak is a South Asian prime minister of the UK.

00:14:50.520 I said, could you imagine a Muslim president of France?

00:14:54.700 And most of them said no.

00:14:56.900 And maybe that's a problem, too.

00:14:58.820 If you can't imagine yourself having full access to the corridors of business and political

00:15:04.280 and cultural life, I guess you do ghettoize yourself.

00:15:09.300 But it's a two-sided problem, Gwen.

00:15:12.060 I don't know.

00:15:12.780 It's very sad.

00:15:14.200 I came here not knowing what to expect, and I leave with a feeling of fatalism that between

00:15:20.440 demographics, open border immigration, and political correctness, all of these trends

00:15:24.920 will get worse over time, not better.

00:15:26.560 And I think that there's a whole new level of violence we saw this last week that I...

00:15:32.500 I mean, listen, there's always riots in France.

00:15:34.060 It's a national pastime.

00:15:35.480 But this felt especially ethnic in its character.

00:15:41.900 Well, I will tell you, the Norwegian countries are facing the same.

00:15:45.740 I was just over in...

00:15:47.560 I love those French police cars.

00:15:50.820 They sound like toys.

00:15:51.700 But I was just over in England and Scotland and Ireland.

00:15:58.120 Ireland is almost entirely gone because of the rapid immigration without assimilation. 0.99

00:16:07.680 It is...

00:16:08.320 The world and Europe is completely changing and won't be the same in 20 years.

00:16:16.260 Thank you so much, Ezra.

00:16:18.140 Have a safe trip back to Canada.

00:16:19.740 We thank you for everything that you guys do up in Canada.

00:16:23.560 Thank you very much.

00:16:24.320 Thank you.

00:16:25.440 You bet.

00:16:26.140 Thank you, Glenn.

00:16:26.740 Bye-bye.

00:16:27.240 This is the best of the Glenn Beck Program.

00:16:29.160 And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

00:16:32.300 Steven Mansfield is joining us.

00:16:35.040 He is a great, great writer.

00:16:38.220 He has written many books.

00:16:40.340 The Faith of Barack Obama.

00:16:43.080 He was also The Faith of George W. Bush.

00:16:46.920 He has written biographies of Booker T. Washington, George Whitefield, Winston Churchill, Pope Benedict, Abraham Lincoln.

00:16:56.520 And he also wrote the book Killing Jesus.

00:17:00.100 Publishers Weekly describes his book Killing Jesus as masterful.

00:17:04.300 I think it's genius.

00:17:06.260 I haven't even read it.

00:17:07.720 But it's the same name as Bill O'Reilly's book.

00:17:10.600 And I know Stephen's book has got to be better.

00:17:14.940 So it makes me happy.

00:17:16.980 Stephen Mansfield, welcome to the program.

00:17:18.980 How are you, sir?

00:17:20.180 Good morning, sir.

00:17:21.300 How are you?

00:17:21.840 And don't get me in trouble with Bill now.

00:17:23.500 I want to talk to you about several people that you have written about, but let's start with seeing that we're, you know, on the doorstep of Fourth of July and Independence Day tomorrow.

00:17:37.700 Uh, let's, let's spend some time with, uh, Lincoln because, uh, Lincoln is a fascinating guy before he starts running for office.

00:17:51.700 He's kind of a dark dude.

00:17:53.700 He had a really tough childhood and then he goes kind of off the wagon a bit.

00:18:01.540 Lincoln was a very unusual character.

00:18:03.800 And I think it's why he's one of the most beloved in our history and what people often don't know is that he suffered horrible depression, uh, growing up.

00:18:13.400 Uh, and this was largely due to the death that he endured in his life.

00:18:16.860 As you, as you allude to, he lost his mother when he was nine.

00:18:20.580 He lost his sister when he was, she was, uh, he, when he was 19.

00:18:24.660 We famously, he lost the first love of his life, uh, and Rutledge, uh, when he was in his early twenties.

00:18:30.780 And then of course, throughout his life, he would lose two sons and then have to endure all the over 700,000 deaths of the civil war.

00:18:38.880 So friends said that he dripped melancholy while he walked.

00:18:42.920 They often had to stand suicide watch.

00:18:45.560 Uh, he missed his first wedding date because he was considering suicide.

00:18:48.980 So, um, very dark figure, uh, very sad, beset by depression.

00:18:54.260 And, uh, uh, and this, this affected everything from his faith to his understanding of the civil war.

00:18:59.700 So yes, it's, it's, he's a very, very complicated character.

00:19:03.700 Now, is it true, Steven, in your research that, um, uh, Lincoln really, his father was a horrible guy and alcoholic and a Christian.

00:19:15.080 And, um, and Lincoln rejected Christianity at first, uh, when he first kind of goes out on his own because, uh, of what he thought a Christian was due to his father.

00:19:29.600 And he apparently, yes.

00:19:32.420 Yeah.

00:19:32.900 It was not a moral character at first Lincoln.

00:19:36.800 Well, he was, he was a kind of character.

00:19:38.920 Uh, the father, uh, the father was a kind of character that we are, we are familiar with from literature and history, very religious, very sentimentally, emotionally religious, and yet brutal to his son.

00:19:49.740 Um, right.

00:19:50.900 One of the best stories I can tell to describe this is that when Lincoln was president, he once spoke to a room full of ex-slaves and quite literally said that he knew what slavery was because he had been used like a slave.

00:20:06.420 And he was referring to his first 20 years, 21 years of life when he was under his father's dominion.

00:20:13.080 And of course, the people in the room kind of looked askance at each other like, well, Abraham Lincoln was never a slave, but that's how he spoke of it because that's how oppressed he felt himself to be.

00:20:22.600 And yes, you're right.

00:20:23.660 When he left his father's home at the age of 21, he owed his father his labor before then.

00:20:28.180 Um, he went and thoroughly rejected Christianity, uh, read a lot of the rationalistic writers, Payne and others, um, fell in with a lot of religious skeptics in New Salem and, uh, was actually carried a Bible around town just to argue with people about it.

00:20:44.260 So yes, he was the village atheist for a lot of years.

00:20:47.000 And he also was very promiscuous, but freaked out because he thought he was going to get some venereal disease.

00:20:56.380 Is that true?

00:20:57.880 Exactly true.

00:20:58.920 He was a fought in a war called the Black Hawk war and he apparently had some time with prostitutes and later, yes, worried that he had problems.

00:21:08.060 And maybe even his depression was related to various kinds of venereal diseases. 0.74

00:21:11.860 So yes, very immoral.

00:21:13.380 Uh, he never gave himself much to drink.

00:21:15.260 He tried drink for a while and really lost control. 0.98

00:21:18.540 Uh, but yes, immoral, atheist, angry. 1.00

00:21:21.420 We know the type. 0.63

00:21:22.160 And that's what Abraham Lincoln was for a good number of years.

00:21:25.900 And what was the turning point in his life?

00:21:29.940 The turning point probably came gradually as he began to know, uh, ministers who were better than the ones he had known in his early life began to, and we all know that he became a state legislator.

00:21:44.620 And, uh, began to live in Springfield, moving from a town called New Salem.

00:21:49.060 And when he got there, he fell in with a bunch of Christians, um, who were articulate, who were learned, who were well-read.

00:21:56.100 They weren't just the teary-eyed sentimentalists, um, emotionally imbalanced, kind of like his father was.

00:22:02.460 And so he, he began, he came among, you know, a simple way to say it is a better class of Christians.

00:22:08.900 Um, the turning point really came when he met a Presbyterian minister named James Smith.

00:22:15.320 This is a little later in his life now.

00:22:18.040 Um, he was a congressman, his, uh, stepfather-in-law had died, and he was taking care of the estate.

00:22:24.900 He pulled a book down in his father-in-law's house written by this Presbyterian minister, James Smith, kind of a cross between Billy Graham and Daniel Boone.

00:22:34.060 But the man could really write, and he made a lawyer's case for Christianity, which, of course, Lincoln, as a lawyer, respected.

00:22:40.620 And that really began to turn things, and then, of course, uh, a progression began that carried him all the way through the White House years.

00:22:49.820 So, he did say, though, uh, I wasn't a Christian, um, when I got married, I think he said.

00:22:57.780 I wasn't a Christian when I, uh, lost my son, um, but I became a Christian at Gettysburg.

00:23:07.480 Do I have that right?

00:23:08.360 That, that is a quote that is out there.

00:23:11.800 It's hard to verify.

00:23:13.700 Um, there's no question he had a deepening when he stood at Gettysburg.

00:23:17.980 Scholars tend to discredit that quote.

00:23:20.480 It's, it's sort of the same thing with all famous men who spoke well, like Churchill, others.

00:23:26.140 Did he say it or didn't he?

00:23:27.460 Scholars tend to discredit that.

00:23:28.900 But I don't think there's any question that Lincoln had a profound experience when he looked out on the graves at Gettysburg.

00:23:33.880 And, um, and he, he alluded to it often, uh, to visitors at the White House.

00:23:38.760 But, but, but the thing that really deepened his faith, the real things that really changed things were the deaths of his boys.

00:23:46.100 Um, imagine that he lost two boys and lost them, by the way, to horrible diseases that lingered a long time.

00:23:53.040 Um, and this just sent Lincoln already depressive, right, right to the edge of sanity, really.

00:23:59.560 Um, and, and of course, famously, Mrs. Lincoln was known for her on just a loud, uh, extreme bouts of grief. 0.98

00:24:08.540 She would fill the house later, the White House, with, with howls. 1.00

00:24:12.560 The, the servants would describe them like the howls of wounded animals.

00:24:16.340 And so it wasn't just Lincoln's grief that he had to deal with.

00:24:19.240 It was the grief of his, of his wife that would go on for weeks and be terrible.

00:24:23.960 Um, he finally took her to a window one time and pointed at a mental institution in, in D.C.

00:24:28.340 and said, Mother, if you don't get control of yourself, we'll have to put you there. 1.00

00:24:31.780 And that got her to tame herself a little bit. 0.98

00:24:33.540 But Lincoln, Lincoln dealt with agonizing death his whole life.

00:24:37.880 And he said once famously that he was haunted by the sound of water, of rain falling on graves.

00:24:45.340 Well, he had so many graves in his life that he would visit and, of course, had to attend funerals of people he loved.

00:24:51.120 So all of this, uh, though it sounds dark, is what caused him to search.

00:24:56.540 And it was at those moments that James Smith, this, this Presbyterian minister at First Presbyterian in Springfield,

00:25:01.520 stepped into his life and gave a, as the scriptures say, a reason for the hope that lies within Christians.

00:25:07.740 I have a rational explanation.

00:25:09.720 And Lincoln bought it.

00:25:10.540 And I think that was, those times were the turnings for him.

00:25:14.240 You know, you say that, um, you know, the way you describe him while he's in the White House and her,

00:25:20.420 I can't imagine that a president would have been able to remain the president today,

00:25:25.940 um, just with the media and everything else.

00:25:28.720 I mean, that's disturbing.

00:25:30.640 It's, I mean, you know, close to insanity.

00:25:34.840 Absolutely.

00:25:35.540 When he lost Willie, um, named for William Wallace, by the way, uh, as a young boy,

00:25:41.320 Lincoln would close the, his office and sit in the dark all day, every Thursday.

00:25:48.200 So he would grieve sitting in the dark.

00:25:50.800 Now imagine that a modern president turns out the lights, closes the West Wing or, or, or, or the Oval Office

00:25:56.960 and, um, sits in the dark, uh, just, just in a depressive grief all day long.

00:26:01.980 People of course would question the sanity, but this is what Lincoln did for quite some time

00:26:06.320 until finally, uh, fairly famous minister made an appointment with him and said, sir, what you're

00:26:11.740 doing is not right.

00:26:12.900 Don't you know that if you believe on Jesus Christ, you will go, though your son cannot come to you,

00:26:18.400 you will go to him.

00:26:19.220 And this was a massive turning point in Lincoln's life.

00:26:23.580 And he stopped those Thursday darkness sessions.

00:26:27.500 Um, and he began to search the scriptures more thoroughly and buy copies of this minister's sermons.

00:26:32.920 And so, uh, again, Lincoln is on a journey.

00:26:35.840 There's a progression.

00:26:36.900 You don't have one moment of a full turning, but you definitely have a leaving of the atheist years 0.66

00:26:42.420 and a deepening, a constant deepening, largely inspired by his recovery from grief

00:26:47.720 and from, from the deaths of those he loved.

00:26:50.900 When he was, um, president, um, they say he didn't care about slavery.

00:26:58.680 I don't believe that to be true.

00:27:01.100 Um, and I, uh, it's my understanding that he had a relationship somewhat, uh, with, uh, John Quincy Adams

00:27:08.980 who kind of passed the torch to him on anti-slavery.

00:27:13.360 Is that true?

00:27:14.840 It is.

00:27:15.780 It is.

00:27:16.220 They, they did know each other.

00:27:17.300 They did correspond in the early years.

00:27:19.200 And it's, it's folly, of course, to say that he didn't care about slavery.

00:27:22.500 I mean, uh, not only do we know about his famous trip to, to New Orleans, where he said,

00:27:26.860 if I ever get a chance to hit this thing, speaking of slavery, I will.

00:27:30.460 Um, also when he was a congressman for a very short period of time, only about 12, 14 months,

00:27:35.340 um, he proposed a bill that would have outlawed slavery in DC.

00:27:39.940 Um, he proposed the same kind of bill in, uh, Springfield back in, back in Illinois.

00:27:44.560 Um, so the, the, I, and by the way, we have some of the most fascinating writings we have

00:27:50.080 from Lincoln are where he's sitting alone at night in his office and he's sort of wrestling

00:27:54.400 with God, wrestling with his conscience.

00:27:56.220 What does Providence want?

00:27:57.900 God can't be a, for the same thing and against it at the same time.

00:28:01.980 He would, he would wrestle with his conscience on, on, uh, you know, scraps of paper.

00:28:06.960 And fortunately, when he died, his secretaries kept those for us and we still have them. 0.96

00:28:11.280 But to say he didn't care about slavery is silly.

00:28:13.520 Of course, he, he, he deeply cared about it.

00:28:16.960 And it actually was part, just since we're talking about his faith, it was part of the

00:28:20.720 reason that he, uh, you know, was troubled about the state of Christianity.

00:28:25.420 He couldn't believe that Southern clergy would make a case for slavery from scripture.

00:28:29.900 And since he identified with the slaves deeply because of his own labors, he, he, he was,

00:28:34.540 he was troubled by all of that.

00:28:35.660 The best of the Glenn Beck program.

00:28:38.660 Mr. Tim Ballard.

00:28:40.060 How are you, sir?

00:28:41.920 Hey, Glenn.

00:28:42.760 How are you?

00:28:44.380 I'm great.

00:28:45.400 I, uh, I saw this movie three years ago, maybe.

00:28:50.460 Uh, and I'm not even sure it was locked at the point at that point, but, uh, watched it

00:28:57.320 with Jim Caviezel and, and you, and I, I think like a Prince of Italy or something was there

00:29:04.420 as well.

00:29:05.640 Yeah.

00:29:07.120 That's right.

00:29:07.960 Yeah.

00:29:08.400 And watched it.

00:29:10.080 And this is a tremendous, tremendous movie called the sound of freedom.

00:29:15.600 Tell the listener about it.

00:29:17.180 So this tells the story of, of the launch of our, our rescue operation, which leads into

00:29:24.820 operation underground railroad, also the Nazarene fund.

00:29:28.300 Um, but this is the story of when, when we were in the government and was confronted with

00:29:33.660 this dilemma of, uh, if I want to stay on the operation and rescue these children, I had

00:29:39.000 to quit my job.

00:29:40.040 And what's so exciting talking to you, Glenn, is that your audience should be reminded that

00:29:44.720 they paid for the, the operation that you're seeing depicted in, in the film, the, the

00:29:50.120 whole Island operation, all Island raid that was funded by your community.

00:29:54.140 So I've been so excited to get on the, on the radio to say thank you to you and your

00:29:58.460 community and go watch what you funded.

00:30:00.380 I mean, that's, that's, that's the reality.

00:30:02.100 That is so tremendous.

00:30:04.020 So tremendous.

00:30:04.980 And I think there's going to be, eventually there will be a movie maybe long after we're

00:30:09.560 dead, um, but there will be a movie about the operation that our audience funded in

00:30:15.100 Afghanistan too.

00:30:16.360 I mean, it's, it's one of the greatest stories ever as is this one.

00:30:20.800 So, um, what are you hoping people walk away with Tim?

00:30:27.060 Well, I'm hoping that people open their eyes.

00:30:29.560 I'm tired of, you know, this is domestic release only this week.

00:30:32.380 And so many people in the United States say this is a problem far, far away from us.

00:30:36.720 And it's not, and this film shows you the, the first two arrests are right here in the

00:30:41.500 United States.

00:30:42.100 The first one, the first rescues on the border, which is so relevant today because we have

00:30:46.460 how many kids being trafficked into the United States into the highest demand country for

00:30:51.060 child sex in the world. 0.78

00:30:52.600 Um, you know, we have our kids being targeted by this crazy ideology of, you know, of sexualizing 0.84

00:30:58.620 them and all sorts of things.

00:30:59.480 So I really hope everyone can put the pieces together and realize that kids are in the crosshairs

00:31:03.760 and this is an American problem and it requires an American solution.

00:31:09.220 So there are a couple of movies that I really want to see.

00:31:12.080 I want to see till, and it came out a long time ago.

00:31:15.940 Um, and I've wanted to see it, but every time I pass it on Netflix, I'm like, I'm not in them.

00:31:22.320 You know, you just don't want to be depressed.

00:31:25.120 This is a really uplifting story.

00:31:28.060 This is not, uh, this is something you go to and yes, it deals with some awful stuff,

00:31:33.500 but you feel great leaving the theater after this.

00:31:38.420 You do.

00:31:39.140 And you know, one reason that is, I remember talking to Jerry Mullen, who's a friend of

00:31:42.100 yours as well, who won the Academy Award for Schindler's List.

00:31:44.740 And he said the one regret he had was they made that film 50 years too late because when

00:31:49.440 you left the theater, there's nothing to do.

00:31:51.640 It's kind of depressing.

00:31:52.540 Um, but this film, The Sound of Freedom is, it's like, it's like Schindler's List had

00:31:56.800 been made in 1940, right?

00:31:58.800 It's like you can leave and do something and that's empowering.

00:32:01.720 And so I think that's why, you know, the movie begins for a lot of people as they're

00:32:05.160 leaving the theater.

00:32:05.920 And that's what I think causes hope and, and makes people feel good.

00:32:09.540 So when you, when you watch this, Tim, is there any part of you that is worried that this

00:32:18.580 just makes you much more famous and, oh, you are much more famous and the tactics that

00:32:24.800 you use more famous because you, you guys go in undercover and catch these guys, um, just 0.60

00:32:33.400 being absolute dirtbags.

00:32:34.980 And honestly, I don't know. 0.67

00:32:36.720 And then we've, we've had this, we talked about this when we were in Bangkok together

00:32:40.620 and we were walking down, uh, what's that cowboy street, um, um, in, in Bangkok.

00:32:47.200 And we were talking and I, I asked you, how do you live in this world and not take it with

00:32:55.200 you when you get out?

00:32:56.520 Cause it's awful.

00:32:58.060 These people, the, these people, and you have to kind of pretend to be part of that.

00:33:03.800 Yeah, I, this, this film has forced me out of all undercover work definitively.

00:33:08.560 And I've been doing it for 18 years and it does take its toll.

00:33:11.200 In fact, it's, it's, it's an amazing, crazy process to go undercover and then come out

00:33:15.980 back in.

00:33:16.560 It takes a lot of prayer therapy.

00:33:18.680 Um, but I'll say this, um, the only tactics we've ever revealed in the film or in the

00:33:24.180 documentaries are things that people are doing anyway.

00:33:26.980 We never reveal something that's kind of a telltale sign that would give us away.

00:33:31.260 Um, you know, things that are happening anyway, parties or whatever.

00:33:35.040 Uh, so that allows us to protect our, our tactics while at the same time, uh, express to the

00:33:40.900 world what, what is happening.

00:33:43.400 Tell a little bit about this movie, this story in particular on, and how you get the bad

00:33:48.680 guys, the, the, the, the operation that, as you said, this audience funded.

00:33:53.540 So, so I had been sent down as a government agent in 2012 to Columbia to consult on an

00:34:00.740 operation.

00:34:01.160 And I was, it was very clear I was to stop at that point, but I didn't.

00:34:05.740 And I, I, I attached myself.

00:34:07.680 I got involved deeper than I was supposed to.

00:34:10.160 And then I was told to come home because there's no U S case here.

00:34:14.380 Of course, I don't care about U S case, Columbia case, uh, human trafficking, child trafficking

00:34:19.160 knows no borders or boundaries, but, um, the law was the law.

00:34:23.000 And they said, come home.

00:34:23.780 And I, I said, I, I can't, you know, and that's when I, that's when I contacted you and

00:34:29.100 I, and my wife, and I didn't even know you all that well yet.

00:34:32.040 I mean, I've been on your show once and, and I thought, can I get ahold of him?

00:34:35.700 Can I, can I convince him to, to, to take the craziest risk and your attorneys are telling

00:34:41.440 you not to do it, but, but, but this was a pending operation, you know, and I don't

00:34:47.460 know, it was crazy that you did it.

00:34:49.120 It was, you, you put yourself out there and, and, and, you know, we all put ourselves out

00:34:53.380 there and, and, you know, and we went for it and, and it paid off and it paid off in this

00:34:57.940 operation.

00:34:59.040 Um, I don't want to do too much spoiler alert, but it is, it's, it's, it, it, it

00:35:03.140 rescued over a hundred kids in, in, in about two hours and it's depicted on this big

00:35:09.480 Island scene in, in the, in, uh, off the coast of Cartagena.

00:35:14.960 So tell me what it feels like.

00:35:17.220 Um, and I don't want to, I don't want to spoil anything in this movie.

00:35:21.320 So we'll talk about other operations you've been on.

00:35:24.260 Tell me what it feels like when, because you're undercover, you're arrested with the

00:35:30.500 bad guys and here are all these women and young girls, really young girls, and you're

00:35:38.420 down on the floor with your hands behind your back in cuffs and they're looking at you like

00:35:44.360 you're a predator and you know, you're not.

00:35:49.580 And so you never get that, you never get that thank you really from them or just even

00:35:57.100 the recognition that you, I would imagine I would want to say, I'm not one of them.

00:36:02.700 I'm not one of them.

00:36:03.480 I was really trying to help you.

00:36:05.280 How does that feel when you're there on the ground with your hands behind your back?

00:36:10.360 Yeah, it's a, it's a punch to the stomach.

00:36:12.340 I've had, um, I've had young girls and kids like even cuss at me. 1.00

00:36:16.360 I remember one spit at me as we were being taken out, like, got you, you might, you know,

00:36:22.160 I'm like, no, no, we, we are here for you.

00:36:25.560 And, and that's just part of it because, you know, if they know who you are, it's, it's

00:36:29.280 a security risk for our entire team, but something unique happened on this operation that you

00:36:35.420 know about that I'll go ahead and reveal.

00:36:36.800 Cause I think it's just so cool is, um, something happened on the Island operation where one of

00:36:41.320 the aftercare people on the Columbia side accidentally revealed that we were the good

00:36:45.760 guys after they took the bad guys, the real bad guys off on the boats, they left us there

00:36:50.480 and the, and the, and the kids started like singing and clapping and saying, thank you

00:36:55.020 to us.

00:36:55.640 And then we realized, oh my goodness, they know who we are.

00:36:58.000 And some of my operators were crying cause they'd never seen this kind of interaction

00:37:02.420 between us and the kids.

00:37:04.060 And he said to me, and it may sound cheesy, but it's the truth.

00:37:07.500 He said, it's not cheesy in the moment and the moment is beautiful and so real.

00:37:11.900 But he, he, he said to me, do you hear that sound?

00:37:14.780 That's the sound of freedom.

00:37:16.380 And when I told that story to the producer, Alejandro Monteverde, the writer and director

00:37:20.360 of Sound of Freedom, he said, that's the name of the movie.

00:37:23.020 And they actually depict that scene on the Island, actually depict the scene where the operator

00:37:27.460 says to me those words and it, it plays really well.

00:37:31.080 Um, so it's one of the more beautiful scenes.

00:37:32.580 The writer direct, the writer director of this is a genius, uh, and has done a great job

00:37:39.780 and is very well known, um, in South America.

00:37:44.300 Um, he's done a couple of, I think, brilliant movies here.

00:37:47.480 And this is, this is of course, uh, one of them.

00:37:50.800 Jim Caviezel, uh, plays you.

00:37:54.480 I mean, I, I, I, I wouldn't mind that happening if Jim Caviezel played me, but I'd get like fatty

00:38:01.340 Yarbuckle to play me.

00:38:04.060 Uh, uh, but, uh, he's a good guy and a good friend as, uh, as well.

00:38:12.380 And what did it take to get him involved?

00:38:15.160 Well, when they, when they approached me and said, you know, I didn't think they were going

00:38:19.660 to make this film because the chances were so small in my mind, but they said, we're

00:38:23.420 doing it.

00:38:24.020 And who would you like to play you?

00:38:25.200 You don't get to choose, but you can, you know, request.

00:38:27.660 And right out of the gate, I said, I want Jim Caviezel.

00:38:30.300 Um, the County Monte Cristo is one of my favorite movies for one, but, but I told them, I said,

00:38:34.680 look, I don't trust Hollywood.

00:38:35.620 But I mean, Hollywood is the reason that I'm employed.

00:38:38.900 I mean, that's, they create the content that creates the demand that creates the whole problem.

00:38:42.320 And, and I know one thing about Jim Caviezel.

00:38:44.940 He's a phenomenal actor and he loves Jesus.

00:38:47.200 And if I didn't love Jesus, I couldn't do what I do.

00:38:50.420 So that's the reason.

00:38:51.600 And they said, okay, they're worried.

00:38:54.060 Cause he, you know, there's a, at the end of the movie, if you remember Glenn, it's really

00:38:57.420 cool.

00:38:57.680 They do this kind of transition into real footage and it shows some real footage from the,

00:39:02.000 from the operation.

00:39:02.660 And they said, you got to find someone to, that kind of looks like you, he's tall, dark

00:39:06.880 and handsome.

00:39:07.260 And, and you're frankly not.

00:39:09.060 And, and so I said, well, I don't care.

00:39:11.780 I don't care what, I don't care what he looks like, you know, he loves Jesus.

00:39:16.600 And so they went with it and Jim signed up in like four days.

00:39:19.360 He was, he was in.

00:39:20.180 So I will tell you that, uh, tall, dark and handsome does not come to mind when I think

00:39:26.960 of you coming to my house immediately following an operation.

00:39:30.980 And you'll fly in from someplace around the world and you'll stop in Dallas.

00:39:35.200 And you've done it a couple of times where you come to the door and I don't even recognize

00:39:38.680 you and tall, dark and handsome is definitely the opposite of how you look when you're on

00:39:45.560 an operation.

00:39:47.300 That's right.

00:39:47.940 I look, I come, I come in pretty beat up.

00:39:49.700 So thanks, thanks for, for giving me a warm place to hang out.

00:39:54.220 So, uh, there is a, uh, 2 million ticket goal.

00:39:59.080 Um, uh, and why is it, why, why did you set a goal for 2 million tickets?

00:40:04.480 So before I answer that, I want to announce something so cool.

00:40:07.500 They've already sold over 1 million, I think it's a 1.1 million tickets.

00:40:11.380 Um, they sold 900,000 just over the weekend.

00:40:14.440 We literally be in, in the theaters where we were competing with Indiana Jones at this

00:40:18.500 weekend, which was Indiana Jones opening weekend, Sound of Freedom sold more tickets than Indiana

00:40:23.160 Jones.

00:40:23.680 And it's not even open.

00:40:24.340 We even have a movie out.

00:40:26.600 It's really good news.

00:40:28.080 It's incredible.

00:40:29.360 The, the, the Angel Studios is just going through the roof.

00:40:31.680 I can't believe it.

00:40:32.420 Um, but there's 2 million children forced into commercial sex, uh, yearly.

00:40:36.540 And so, uh, to, to kind of commemorate that and connect it to us to independence day, we

00:40:42.700 want 2 million people in the theaters this week, uh, celebrating the 4th of July, uh, considering

00:40:48.420 what freedom really means and, and, and also representing those 2 million kids.

00:40:53.840 Believe it or not, this is a really feel good movie.

00:40:57.180 You will walk out of the movie theater feeling really, really great.

00:41:02.420 Uh, especially if you're in this audience, because as Tim said, you paid for the operation

00:41:07.560 that is being depicted in the movie and it is called Sound of Freedom.

00:41:13.120 You can get your tickets, uh, online, go see it.

00:41:16.420 It opens tomorrow.

00:41:18.340 Sound of Freedom.

00:41:19.940 Tim, thank you.

00:41:21.060 Give my best to Jim.

00:41:22.100 Will you?

00:41:23.220 Will do.

00:41:23.720 Thanks, Glenn.

00:41:24.180 Love you.

00:41:24.440 Yeah.

The Glenn Beck Program - July 03, 2023

Best of the Program ｜ Guests： Tim Ballard & Stephen Mansfield ｜ 7⧸3⧸23

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