In this episode of The J. Henry Weston Show, host J.H.Wright interviews Y.G. Nightstorm. YG shares his story of growing up in a broken and abusive home and how God saved him.
00:03:05.480And unfortunately, on the last day of camp, the very last day of camp, when people were starting to get on the buses, he pulled me into a cabin.
00:05:21.280He prayed over me, and he told me that God loved me and that I am going to change the world on my story and to go out and help people.
00:05:33.440And, of course, at 18, I didn't believe him at the time.
00:05:35.960I'm like, to hell with God, to hell with you, to hell with everything else.
00:05:39.980But he prayed over me, and he said, God loves you.
00:05:45.660And just as sure as you are sleeping on the streets right now, 40, 50 years ago when I was a young man in Chicago, I was sleeping on the streets, completely giving up on God.
00:05:56.640And a gentleman got out of his car, came to me, and he put a pair of socks on my feet and told me that God loved me.
00:06:04.320So, young man, I'm going to do this for you.
00:06:06.920So he took off his pair of Argyle socks, John Henry, and he put them on my feet because I had been robbed of my socks and my shoes.
00:06:15.280And he prayed over me again, and he said, just as sure as these socks cover your feet, God is going to cover your life.
00:06:21.680Go forth and love people and change things.
00:06:25.840And, of course, it took me a little bit longer after that, but that is what initiated my renewance of faith in God.
00:06:35.800And eventually, many, many years later, after raising seven children, I was introduced to some wonderful gentlemen within the Catholic Church, befriended them, still had my angst against the church.
00:06:50.180But being involved in their activities, their families welcomed my family in.
00:06:54.440I started going to Mass, and at one night, the Lord woke me up and said, YG, I want you to be a part of my church.
00:07:02.660And instead of reeling against my church in hate, I want you to be a part of my church and help bring healing to my church.
00:07:10.880And that is when my faith journey of the Catholic faith began.
00:07:18.640I think this will resonate with so many people, because there are a lot of people who have been harmed in so many ways, but people who know people who have been harmed.
00:07:29.020And yet there's hope, there's healing, there's redemption from the worst of all circumstances.
00:07:34.120Your story is so incredible for that reason.
00:07:37.860So thank you. Thank you for sharing that.
00:07:40.240I pray it's an encouragement to lots of people.
00:07:42.520Now, let's get into a little bit what you've been doing, because what has gone on in your life is just so absolutely unreal.
00:07:53.620And yet today, you are on a very different track where you were before.
00:07:59.840Politically speaking, you were, what, I presume a Democrat supporter before, and yet now you are way out front in supporting Trump.
00:08:09.600Yes, actually, you know, it all ties back in with my faith with the church.
00:08:16.640You know, I was proud to come into the church January 7th, 2018.
00:08:21.360And that is the day I officially came into the church.
00:08:24.560But I started paying attention more about policies and looking over my life.
00:08:30.960And the biggest thing that has really affected me personally is this thing with abortion.
00:10:27.660And the amazing thing is, John Henry, many years later when she found out that I was in politics, and she saw me on Facebook because there aren't too many YG nightstorms in the world.
00:11:23.800Now, this is my ex-girlfriend, but I held her, and we cried over the lost life of Howard and Hank together.
00:11:33.200And I started dedicating myself on following policies that support life, being pro-life.
00:11:41.280And unfortunately, I could not find that in the Democrat Party because every time I would go and do a speaking engagement, and I started bringing this up, the organizers would pull me down and pull me to the side and say, hey, you can't talk about that pro-life stuff.
00:12:14.400And if she kills your kids, then there's nothing you can do about it.
00:12:18.200And at that point, John Henry, when you talk about the death of children, because I have my oldest son, because I have nine children, and the oldest of my nine passed away in 2008 when he was 19 years old.
00:12:33.100So the death of children touches me very deeply.
00:12:38.540I am a person who loves my children even in the womb.
00:12:41.700You cannot tell me that I do not count, that my voice does not count, that those lives of Howard and Hank do not count.
00:12:51.580And at that point, I decided that there is no way in the world that I could support a party, unfortunately, who has put all kind of support for Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood.
00:13:06.040And these people have honestly are responsible for over 20 million deaths in the black population, and even more of that with just America altogether.
00:13:16.420But when you talk about the death of children, the most innocent of us, the ones who Christ tells us to protect, the ones who the church tells us to protect, I cannot stand with them.
00:14:16.540But my children are the major influence of why I do what I do, because there are millions of people, millions of parents across this country, sir, who have been affected by situations like this.
00:14:32.100Like through the sex trafficking or children being harmed, not only in the church, but within industries, just out here, children being hurt or killed.
00:14:42.340So I cannot rock with organizations that find that there's nothing wrong with that.
00:14:48.700So being a part of the Republican Party, I'm the vice chair of the GOP out here in Georgia and Forsyth County.
00:14:54.380And I travel around the country on behalf of the president speaking about policies.
00:15:00.720This ain't about emotions and feelings.
00:15:03.100But this is about policies that have significantly harmed our people.
00:15:09.120And if you stand with the church, and I tell anybody, if you are a Christian, if you are a Catholic, there's going to be a time when you're going to draw a line in the sand and you're going to say, I'm either going to stand for God and the policies of my faith or I'm not.
00:15:25.900And I chose to stand with the policies of my faith on protecting life at all costs, especially the most innocent of us, sir.
00:15:36.340Last, well, a couple of weeks ago, I had on Jesse Romero, who is a Mexican-American, and he was talking similarly.
00:15:43.880He just wrote a book about Catholics supporting Trump.
00:15:46.520But I'm sure from his community, he's gotten a lot of flack.
00:15:49.760And you, from the black community in America, from the community of African-Americans, have probably had a lot of talk back, a lot of flack.
00:15:57.680Well, I tell him this, of course, being called sellout, Uncle Tom, coon, tap dancer for white people, you know, white supremacist, apologizer.
00:16:45.820But if you want to pull the race card, and if you want to talk about the systemic annihilation of our culture, look no further than the Democrat Party-led Planned Parenthood.
00:17:18.700So, and then we also want to talk about policies.
00:17:22.460Like I said, when I talk about Trump, and we talk about the 1994 crime bill that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden decided to author and decided that this was a good idea.
00:17:35.040This 1994 crime bill disproportionately affected black and brown people, period.
00:17:42.440Since you want to play the Trump card, then I'll play this ace card right here.
00:17:48.820That bill, with that three strikes rule, systematically put away more black fathers and black people in jail, period.
00:17:57.480And after all these different administrations, and even the Obama administration, Van Jones, a major CNN Democrat contributor, begged the Obama administration to do something about criminal justice reform.
00:18:16.240And when you talk about racism, he's the most, he got to be the most racist person in the world where he's freeing black people from jail.
00:18:25.600He's trying to stop Planned Parenthood from killing black people.
00:18:29.020And he's pumped more money into historically black colleges than any other president.
00:18:34.400Man, that dude is just so freaking racist.
00:18:36.880So you have had this unbelievable trajectory, just going from where you were on the streets to, to how are you doing financially right now?
00:18:51.400I mean, you've, you've come out of off the streets, of course, you've had seven kids, presumably you're doing all right.
00:18:58.580Has your life really, has that prophecy of the man who put the socks on you, has it been fulfilled in that regard as well, in terms of what you might call the American dream, or in terms of being able to sustain and care for your family?
00:19:13.420Well, I'll tell you this, the American dream is different for different people, and success is measured differently.
00:19:20.060To me, success is being able to do whatever I want when I feel like doing it, and having the time to control, being able to control my own time.
00:19:44.060And it's all about mindset, John Henry, because while I was on the streets, and I was working, I was working like six, seven, sometimes eight different jobs.
00:19:54.340I was cleaning bathrooms in fast food restaurants, wiping the windows down.
00:20:00.500And I told him, you keep your employees inside.
00:20:08.040All I need from you guys is just a meal and some money.
00:20:12.060And that's all I need, and I will work my behind off.
00:20:15.500And I went to different places, and I worked, and I worked, and I worked.
00:20:18.980And that work ethic, John Henry, is what catapulted me into being able to be in the position where I am now.
00:20:27.000Now, of course, with the crisis going on, with the economy tanking right now, unfortunately, because of the crisis, it affects everyone.
00:20:36.260But I will tell you this, because of the blessings of God and the grace of God and being able to put myself and my family in certain positions over these years, we got food, the bills are paid, and we're able to take care of ourselves, and we're able to be comfortable right now throughout this crisis.
00:20:57.260There are so many people dealing with this thing in a much, much, much worse way, but I feel very, very blessed to be in the position that I am, where none of my kids are hungry, nobody has to worry about anything, lights are on, and we are good.
00:21:13.820So, but it's work ethic, it's actually standing with fellow American citizens who believed in me and did not look at me as a skin color.
00:21:24.580They looked at me as a young man who was determined to make something of very, very bad circumstances.
00:21:31.180So we can't control our circumstances, but we can definitely control how we come out of those circumstances.
00:21:36.760So I give all praise and glory to God, to Jesus Christ, and great Americans, white, black, who helped me get out of that situation and get me into the right mindset, sir.
00:21:52.040Now, really hard thing for a lot of people is overcoming these very difficult circumstances.
00:21:58.400And you had it, that's, I mean, that's, you know, really near the bottom when you're, when you're abused like that, when you're suffering in poverty, abused in so many different ways, and then especially abused by someone in the faith.
00:22:12.080How did the overcoming of that look like in terms of how did you get to where you are?
00:22:18.920You've described briefly how you got to, you know, the, the, the roadmap, but working through that, what would have been hatred or repulsion towards God or anything like that, to not only faith, but overcoming that right into the church itself.
00:22:36.180And now with an evident, great love for Christ.
00:22:41.420Um, it was very difficult because you have to understand when this happened to me at 11 years old and I put my faith in, into this man and he did what he did.
00:22:52.860And he said, God is going to dispatch his angels to kill me and my mom in our sleep.
00:22:58.580If I ever told anyone that vitriol, that hatred was very, very, very deep, but I had no choice, especially once I was 18 and I was able to come.
00:23:11.420Out of being homeless and that gentleman put those argyle socks on my feet, even though I couldn't fully appreciate the situation there, it made me think.
00:23:21.580And then I just started looking at the progression of my life.
00:23:27.660There is no way in the world that maybe he could have killed me in that cabin.
00:23:32.180I, instead of looking at all the wrong things that happened, I looked at the grace that I'm in, that I am still here.
00:23:38.940I could have been killed on the streets when I was attacked and beat up and robbed and urinated on, or when I was being chased by gangs and I was hiding in the dumpster so they wouldn't kill me on the streets.
00:23:50.880It is many reasons, in many ways, how God has spared my life.
00:24:48.640That forgiveness and freeing that from you, it's for you.
00:24:56.800That is God freeing you of that torment, of carrying that darkness, that burden of carrying that darkness for the rest of your life and affecting your kids for generations to come.
00:25:44.240Now, we just have had the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, who, of course, is about work and about fatherhood, both of which speak to your life very much so.
00:26:03.160St. Joseph is a very, very powerful man.
00:26:05.740And he, honestly, a lot of people look over St. Joseph, but it took St. Joseph to be able to actually take care of business.
00:26:16.540To me, he is, like, the greatest example of taking care of responsibility, stepping up and doing things that other folks can't.
00:26:24.560Because, especially all the things that he was going through at the time.
00:26:28.820Now, just imagine, all the stuff he was going through, all the adversity, he still stood strong to take care of family, regardless of what was going on, regardless of circumstances.
00:26:39.880And that is what God calls all fathers to do.
00:26:47.180But stepping up to the plate and taking care of people, taking care of your children, taking care of all the folks that you are in charge of is a challenge.
00:26:58.920But depending on God and getting the job done, it can change lives.
00:27:04.780Because right now, his example has changed the entire world over 2,000 years later.
00:27:42.560But I just want to say a special thing for you, sir.
00:27:44.940Before we roll, I want to say thank you.
00:27:46.840Thank you so much for everything that you, LifeSite News, all your staff, everybody has done, not only for me in telling my story, but telling the story of so many people that has affected millions of people across the world and bringing light into darkness.
00:28:05.900We appreciate your sacrifice and everybody that works hard to bring the glory of God to people, regardless of race, color, creed, or anything.
00:28:16.560But standing strong for our church and being a great example for what we need to be.