Have you ever heard of the Black Robe Regiment? I haven't either, but when you hear what the Black Robe Regiment meant to America 250 years ago compared to what we're working with today, it makes sense why we're not where we need to be.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day. Ecclesiastes says, not the new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. Today, the Black Robe Regiment. 

You've heard of this? I've never heard of this group until, I'll be honest, this morning. This is the name that the British gave the American clergy, or I should say the clergy colonist clergy, the clergy in the colonies who preached the gospel from the pulpit firing brimstone for 150 years prior to the revolution, the black robe regiment. We talked to Seth Gruber on my recorded TV show. We're going to air that podcast or release that podcast here, I think on Friday. and he said it just in passing. 

John Adams said that the pulpits thundered and he specifically identified Christian pastors. as being among the characters most conspicuous, the most ardent, the most influential in the awakening and revival of American principles and feelings that led to the American Revolution. There was a British magazine that said if Christian ministers had not preached and prayed, there might have been no revolution as yet, or had it broken out, it might have been crushed. There's a British historian who said the ministers of the revolution were like their Puritan predecessors, bold and fearless in the cause of their country. And that also says everything we talk about in this show, it comes up often, I should say, not just our founding fathers, but our founding grandfathers. The founding grandfathers were the Puritan predecessors, and now we have the preachers during the revolution as well. 

This British magazine says, the British historian said, no class of men contributed more to carry forward the revolution and to achieve our independence than did the ministers. Ready for the story about Paul Revere? Paul Revere goes off for his ride. One if I land, two if I see. Where did he go? He went to the home of Reverend Clark in Lexington. 

That's where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were. Everyone talks, at least when you go to Boston, you go to Leicester, they talk about how Paul Revere went to go see John Hancock and Sam Adams, but whose house were they at? They were with Reverend Clark. Clark and Hancock and Adams, I should say, Hancock and Adams turned to Clark and asked if the people were ready to fight. And the Reverend Clark's response was, I have trained them for this very hour. So they all went to the town green and Let me quote here from Joel Headley. 

He says, there they found their pastor, Reverend Clark, who arrived before them. The roll was called and 150 answered to their names. The church, the pastor, and his congregation stand together in the dim light awaiting the Redcoats, the seven colonists who died on the Lexington Green, all members of his church. I'll give you another one. Part of the black regiment, the black robe regiment. Reverend Nepthali Daggett. 

You ever heard that name? Feel like I would have heard that name if I wouldn't forget it. Reverend Nepthali Daggett. He was the president of Yale University in 1776. That's my mater. the name Naphtali Daggett. 

When the British attacked New Haven, he fought back. He was on the top of this hill firing shots down on the British. The British captured him and bayoneted him to death. And was it just him in New Haven? Reverend James Caldwell did the same thing in New Jersey, and the British burned his church. His family was murdered. 

The British soldiers, they abused, killed, tortured, imprisoned clergymen across the country, and they suffered harsher treatment, more severe penalties. The British targeted the ministers, also their churches. There were 19 church buildings in New York City. 10 were destroyed by the British. From the very beginning, the British knew they had to take down the church in America. republished in 1772. 

Again, it's been called The Textbook of Our Founding Fathers. I'll share that in just a minute, but I just want to share the Black Robe Regiment and who these guys were and what they preached and how hard they fought physically and spiritually for the revolution. And I want to compare that just for the sake of comparison to James Tallarico. James Tallarico, when he was a state assemblyman in Texas, he's now running for Senate in Texas. This is the best Christian that the Democrats could find in Texas to run for the Democratic Party. Listen to this guy. 

The house and gallery will please rise for an invocation which will be offered by the Honorable James Tallarico of Williamson County. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let us pray. Holy mystery, you have so many names. The Torah calls you creator. The Quran calls you peace. 

The Gita calls you destroyer. The Dharma calls you truth. And the first epistle of John calls you perhaps the most beautiful name of all, love. You are the strange love uniting all things. The love that drew elements together after that big bang. The love that drew life itself from those primordial oceans. 

the love that drew us all to this exact moment, the love we were born of, the love we exist in, and the love we will one day return to. In my faith, you expressed yourself through a barefoot rabbi who embodied your perfect love, a crucified carpenter who gave only two commandments, love God and love neighbor, because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. Help us love not just in word, but in action. Help us honor not just the name of Jesus, but the way, of Jesus. Help us free the oppressed, feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal the sick, release the prisoner, welcome the stranger, forgive the enemy, and above all, protect your creation. The word of God is love. 

Let us not be hearers of your word, but doers of your word in our families, in our communities, and in this chamber. Not just with prayers, but with policies. Not just personal love, but political love. Because democracy is not just a constitution. Democracy is a covenant. Holy mystery, open our minds, open our hearts, open our hands so that we may build a new world in the shell of the old, a world that is more just, more free. 

more whole, and more in love with you. In all your many names, we pray. Amen. Every time I hear that, I hear something new, more blasphemy. Did he say release the prisoner? That's not what the Bible says. 

The Bible does not say we need to release the prisoners. Let's compare that with the opening prayer of the Constitutional Convention in 1774, which was led by just the local guy. It wasn't like the most renowned pastor in Philadelphia. It was like, hey, let's find a guy to do it. Oh, Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers of earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the kingdoms, empires, and governments. Look down in mercy, we beseech thee. 

On these are American states who have fled to you from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on you. Oh, how we have fallen from Reverend Duchesne to Tallarico. I mentioned a second ago this pamphlet that was published in 1710. It was by Reverend Wise. So there was a proposal in 1705 to centralize the power of churches across New England. And Reverend Wise was very much against this concentration of authority. 

So he wrote this pamphlet called The Church's Quarrel Espoused, 1710. It was republished in 1772 and became alive again because the topic wasn't as relevant anymore specifically because it was published dealing with something that happened 70 years earlier. But the themes, were then reapplied to the revolution itself with government. So where the pamphlet was about against a concentration of church authority in New England, the colonists took the same themes and applied them politically. They were against a political consolidation of power in England against the colonies. 

And it's full of amazing quotes like, churches and governing our own government, not needing a king. And it's up to us. Furnish your churches with ruling elders. He said, take charge yourself for yourself, for your community, for your church, for your own governments. I want to jump over to the Bible again, but again, just to drive that point home, started off as this church document, which was then republished in 1772. Again, written by this reverend, Reverend Wise, and thought of again in a more secular way for the revolution itself. 

The Black Robe Brigade was incredibly powerful or influential, I should say. Let's wrap up with a Bible story here. I'm reading about all this. I'm learning about this Black Robe Brigade that I've never heard before. And somewhere along my reading, I came across, or I'm reminded of, Luke 16, the parable in Luke 16, the dishonest steward. This is a potentially tricky one. 

At first glance, you read it and you're like, I don't get it. Why? Why is Jesus praising? I don't, it's hard to understand the motivations of this, but here's what happened. Luke 16 verse one. So this is Jesus talking. 

He tells a story. There was a certain rich man who had a steward and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods or even embezzling the money. So he called him and said to him, what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship for you can no longer be steward. He was going to get fired. Then 

Then the steward said within himself, what shall I do? For my master has taken away my stewardship away from me. I'm going to lose my job. I cannot dig. I'm ashamed to beg. There's nothing else I can do. I'm going to get fired. 

What do I do? I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Who? So he called on every one of his master's debtors to him. and said to the first, how much do you owe my master? And he said, 100 measures of oil. 

So he said to him, take your bill and sit down quickly and write 50. So you don't owe Hunter anymore, you now owe 50. Then he said to the other, and how much do you owe? So he said, 100 measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80. So now you owe less. 

So the master, right, so he went to all these guys and say, you think you owe this much? Well, congratulations, you owe now half as much. So he kept doing this. The master then commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. What? He stole from him more. 

But here's what Jesus said of this parable. For the sons of the world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. Well, that's confusing. So the, the, the master is going to fire this manager of the money and the manager then steals more from him. He went to all the people who owed money and gave him a deal. Why did he do this? 

Well, he knew he was going to get fired. And he knew that when he got fired, he was going to need some friends. But why would the master praise that? The master praised it not because he was doing the right thing, but because he was shrewd. We've done this before. You ever come across someone or maybe one of your kids doing something wrong or sneaky, or they do something at school that they're not supposed to, they break the rules somehow. 

but they're clever about it. Here's kind of a silly example. Grace at school, the math question, one of the questions was like, and how did you solve this problem? It was a word problem and in the end it was like, how'd you solve it? And she said, I used my brain or something. And you're like, that's not the right answer. 

But also you're like, no, pretty good, pretty clever. That's good. So if ever someone does something wrong, but they're clever about it, you're like, nah, well played. Well played. You admire the ingenuity of their thievery. You don't approve of their conduct, but you admire their shrewdness. 

The illustration here that Jesus was using is that we, the sons of light, need to be as shrewd for good as the sons of evil are for the world. David Guzik, he said, if we pursued the kingdom of God with the same vigor and zeal that the children of this world pursue profits and pleasure, we would live in an entirely different world. The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And we shouldn't be like that anymore. We need to be more shrewd ourselves. We need to have more zeal, more passion. 

Alexander McLaren, a Bible scholar in the early 1900s, he said, go to the men of the world, thou Christian, and do not let it be said. that the devil's scholars are more studious and earnest than Christ's disciples. " Gosh, I love that quote so much. Go to the men of this world, Christian, and do not let it be said that the devil's scholars are more studious and earnest than Christ's disciples. The pastors of the revolution and prior who set the foundation of this country, the spiritual and cultural foundations of this country, which we still benefit from today, they were zealous and they were brave and they were skilled and they were studious and they were spiritual and they were impressive men. 

We today, sons of the light, should be too. And we do it the same way they did, prepare every day, read the word, pray to God. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith just wanted to present to you something new to me, the Black Robe Brigade. youtube . com slash at politics by faith spread the word

California is voting in its primary. Can the two Republicans come out on top of the governor's race and make the Democrats' plan for power backfire? And can Spencer Pratt make the top 2 in the mayor race and continue his campaign until November? Either way, he has the perfect attitude, which we all need to have in everything we do in our lives.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible, so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. Thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. Can Spencer Pratt pull it out in the LA mayor's race? 

So what's going on? The primary in California is tomorrow. There's the governor's race. By the way, tomorrow is Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026, depending on when you're watching this right now. So as I'm recording this, it will be on tomorrow. There's a governor's race too in California, which I haven't been following as closely, but I will note this before we go on to Spencer Pratt specifically. 

The governor is fascinating because about, I think it was like 10 years ago or so, the California Democrats moved the primary to a jungle primary where there's no political parties. It's not like the Democrats vote in the Democratic primary and the Republicans vote in the Republican primary. Everyone's together, and the top two, no matter what party they're from, move on. Now in California, it's always been, in every statewide race, it's been two Democrats move on, except for maybe tomorrow in the governor's race. There is a scenario where maybe two Republicans move on as the top two candidates, mostly because all the Democratic candidates are terrible, awful, so inept in every way, and so unlikable, like Katie Porter, but also there's a ton of them. So they all are maybe going to split the vote and have the two Republicans maybe come out on top at the end. 

There's a slight possibility. I don't get my hopes up too much. But Gavin Newsom did say there's a break the glass scenario, like break the glass in case of emergency scenario in case two Republicans win. I hope we find out what that is so we can call out the left for being just a bunch of wild hypocrites about democracy and all this. But I just so hope it comes back and haunts them. They did this to keep Democratic Party power. 

And now it may backfire on them with this governor's race. I hope it does. The other race we're watching in California is the Spencer -Perry race. .A. A. mayor's race. 

Same thing. Top two move on to the runoff. The runoff is in November. So all Spencer Pratt has to do is get second place. If I'm a betting man, it probably Karen Bass, the incumbent, getting first and then hopefully Pratt second and then the city councilwoman from India third. I don't think anyone's going to get over 50 percent. 

Which would just be, you win outright if you get over 50%. If you get under 50%, the top two move on. If Spencer Pratt pulls out a victory over Cara Bass, even if it's like 34 % to 31%, it's not like that. Incredible. Absolutely incredible. Incredible. 

And even first or second, even, even if we get second, then we just, we get a few more months of the Spencer Pratt campaign. and a few more months of people making these videos about how terrible Los Angeles is and about how obvious their failures are. Karen Bass and all the Democratic Party. His campaign is so perfect. It's so brilliant because he has narrowed it down. His messaging is spot on and his target audience is spot on. 

He is targeting Democrat moms and animal lovers. Democrat, otherwise Democrat, like your default Democrat women and animal lovers. This is the demographic, I don't know about the animal lovers part, but the default woman demographic is the one that Trump does the worst at, but it might be the one that Spencer Pratt does the best at. Now on the animal lovers part, I told my wife the other day that this is who Spencer Pratt is targeting, animal lovers. She's like, what? What do you mean? 

Why? I said, well, drug addicts in LA, they take dogs, stray dogs, and they inject them with their drugs to see if there's a lethal dose of fentanyl in them or not, among other horrors of animal abuse on the streets. And my wife was rightfully horrified. And it turns out Spencer Pratt did one of his nine minute videos about dogs. This is the third nine minute videos he's made. 

There's something about a specific issue. There's something about nine minute interviews or nine minute videos. He makes them nine minutes. Don't quite know the reason for that one, but there's one about dogs and how he does so great because he'll make his case clear his day. Then he'll do a quick cut of a local news story. backing up everything he's saying because this is one of the benefits of the democrats craziness from their perspective is it's so crazy no one believes it and you tell regular people who don't normally pay attention to politics like oh this is what the democrat party believes in they said nah that can't be right like no i i promise you this is what they say this is what they fight for this is what they're doing like nah that can't be true but when spencer pratt says it and then puts a local news story highlighting all the animal abuse specifically um you can't deny it it'll be interesting too there's some story here, and maybe now's not the time, but that the thing that gets solving homelessness, like treating homelessness seriously and the way it needs to be treated, the thing that gets it over the finish line is not the human souls that are on Skid Row, but the dogs who are suffering on Skid Row. 

There's something to be said about that. But in this video, he makes a seven point plan on how we need to reform the dog shelters and all this stuff. And it's just great because who's going to be against that? But the losers in power for all these decades, they've let everything get this bad and they have no intentions of ever fixing anything. And it's also great to watch this, the Spencer Pratt campaign, because when celebrities come out and speak bad against Spencer Pratt, it's just, it's so perfect. The other day on the radio show, we talked about Drew Carey. 

Drew Carey saying, oh, how can you vote for that loser, Spencer Pratt and blah, blah, blah, drop the F bomb. You're like, Drew, you live in a 12 ,000 square foot house, $34 million mansion overlooking Los Angeles from a very great distance. And from that distance, Los Angeles looks very nice. You can't see all the grime on the street from Drew Carey's infinity pool in the sky. There's some other actress, Hannah something or other, she was on the red carpet talking about how terrible Spencer Pratt is. And Spencer Pratt wrote back, this is great. 

This is so, this woman is, this actress literally on a red carpet, surrounded by armed security, completely insulated from the horrors on our streets that regular people and their kids have to suffer through every single day. He said, like, I'm glad she doesn't have to suffer through this, but the rest of us want change. It's great. I hope Spencer Pratt gets in the top two and every celebrity, one a day, comes out against Spencer Pratt and just makes the dichotomy between normal people and the elite even clearer. So what's broken in this story? Well, a lot. 

I don't know, what do I pick, right? I just mean LA, like what's broken about LA? MacArthur Park, we'll do that. MacArthur Park used to be really nice. in Los Angeles. Used to be this beautiful area. 

For comparison's sake, let me give a shout out to a city. We were in Boston. We just got back from Boston, family trip to Boston, did all the freedom tour and all this stuff. It was great. The Boston Central Park, they call it the public gardens. Beautiful, wonderful. 

We did the make way for duckling swan boat thing on their little lake thing they have as a five bucks and you ride around on this swan raft for 15 minutes and peddled by this old lady. It's been there since 1877 and it was lovely and beautiful. All these weeping willows on the side of the river and it was safe, safe and there are no homeless bums everywhere. Safe and clean. It's really wonderful. 

So kudos to Boston for keeping this clean. MacArthur Park used to be a lovely park like that and now it's a total third world cesspool. You may remember MacArthur Park because there's a Home Depot down the street where ICE did a couple raids, and ICE also did a raid on the park, through the park, and the left freaked out because of the optics of the militarized raid on MacArthur Park. Meanwhile, the U . S. attorney from California said that just the other day, this mob, not mob, gang leader, whose nickname is Diablo, is the 18th Street gang, convicted murderer, also a Los Angeles peace ambassador. 

Chicago has a bunch of cities have programs like the Chicago most notably, because there's this has hired so many criminals who are still criminals to be peace ambassadors. But LA has this program to the city paid this guy $58 ,000 to be a peace ambassador just last year. So the city they pay this NGO millions and millions of dollars. And the NGO then hires all these former criminals, former criminals, and they're still criminals. This guy was convicted in 2002 of first -degree murder, sentenced to 50 years to life. He was released after just 24 years, went right back to the gang, and got paid by LA taxpayers. 

Can you fathom? That's a perfect example of what I'm talking about. You tell that to a normal person, be like, oh, do you know this gang member guy murdered someone, supposed to serve life in prison, served 24 years, now the city pays him. $58 ,000 a year and he's still in the gang and still a criminal. What are you talking about? You're making that up. 

We're not. He was just arrested by the feds. Okay. So that's one example of many of how bad things are in LA. If people want to see it or not, here's the video I want to play them. Uh, two videos in particular, one, one, I'll just tell you, he was talking about his lawyer, um, his lawyer who's suing the city about the failures of the fire that burned his house down. 

And he asked the lawyer, he said, he said, how are you fighting? How are you saying so calm when you're fighting? all these losers in city hall. And the lawyer said, Spencer, I just tell the truth. And Spencer said, Ooh, yeah, I'll try that. I want to do that. 

I'm just going to tell the truth. And that's what he's done. This entire campaign just says, tells us what he knows and tells the truth. And it's so clear and refreshing. You can feel it when he talks and every interview I've ever seen. Now this is the one I want to play. 

Um, I, I'm not suggesting we follow the theology of Spencer and Heidi Pratt. I know nothing about Heidi's church. beliefs or anything like that. But here's one thing that Spencer said that is true and good and an attitude that we should all have because it is indeed biblical. Here's Spencer Pratt. Thankfully, I married an angel who was very connected with Jesus and has brought me to the light. 

You know, I was always not so bright in the light on the Lord's path here. And thankfully, my wife has always just been so connected with Jesus and God and been like, Spencer, if this is God's plan, then it will be. And if not, then it won't. And come home and help me with the kids. So it's been very empowering to just pray and just be on this path and just say, God, if you want me to save these animals, save these humans and protect my city, just keep putting me in the place where I can do that. And if it's not God's plan, it won't happen and I won't have 

that pressure and that burden on my heart that I now feel because I am so close to being able to do it. And if that's not the plan, I won't feel that anymore. So that will be a blessing also. But going into the debate, I was very nervous because, again, I've never been a politician. I've never done a debate and I've never argued with two lying demons live on TV. in a political setting. 

Technically, maybe in my past reality TV career, we could say that happened before. But, and I just said, God, if you want this for me, please just have me destroy them live on TV. And I walked off that stage and this young high school kid came right up to me and he said, thank you, sir, for being the only one that told the truth up there on the stage. And for me, when I set out on this mission, it was just to get the truth at the highest platform I could. That's all I ever thought I was going to be able to do. Obviously, I know what needs to be done. 

But if it was only to expose the lies and the corruption of our beautiful city, I would have been fine if that was God's plan. But it seems like God has me going all the way in five days if everyone just turns in their ballots right now and votes. Love that attitude. That's really the beginning part, in particular, is one of my favorite political clips I've ever played. The way he says it, it's so genuine too. If you win, great. 

If you don't, then great. Come home and help me with the kids. But that's, that's, that's the perfect attitude to have. If it's God's plan that you win, then great. You'll be the mayor of LA. If not, then great. 

You come home, help me come. I'll be with your family. Great. It's all great. Either way. Great. 

This is the worldview that our founders had later. He went on and talked about the burden of running. There's another clip. He says like, this isn't fun. I don't like doing this. Our founding fathers didn't want the burden. 

They didn't want the burden. They just wanted to go home and be on their farm. But if it's God's plan, the word they would use is providence. They use providence a lot. If God wants us to win this revolution, then great. I got a quote here from John Adams. 

This one, I mean, this is so on the nose. He said, if it is the will of heaven, today we would say God's plan, but same thing, will of heaven, that the two countries, England and America, should be sundered forever. It may be the will of heaven that America shall suffer calamities still more wasting and distress yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect at least. It will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies, and vices, which threaten to disturb, dishonor, and destroy us. The furnace of affliction produces refinement in states as well as individuals. 

" So that's John Adams saying, if we win, great. If we win this war, great. If we don't, great. then it'll be horrible, like the calamities imposed on this country, but at least we'll be better people in the end. John Adams trying to find the bright side, like, if we win, awesome. If we lose, well, like, okay. 

That's the will of God. Ben Franklin said in the beginning of this contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard. and they were graciously answered. All of us who are engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. I have lived so a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. 

And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? Or is it possible that a mayor can become mayor, an outsider can become mayor of Los Angeles without his aid? no no it is not George Washington said it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey his will and to be grateful for his benefits and humbly to implore his protection and favor this connection between God and and and the political outcome our founding fathers always believed in and never questioned, George Washington said, while we were justly encouraged by the good providence of heaven from his many signal instances of his favor to us, we ought not to forget that it is an inalienable right bestowed upon us by heaven to which we are bound and which we are bound to transmit to our posterity. So we have a role in this, of course. So to go to the Bible. And to prove this point as well, gosh, there's so many Proverbs three, five, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding and all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight. 

Psalm 25, four says, show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God, my savior and my hope is in you all day long. God, what is your plan? I think it's maybe this, I'm going to go try. I'm going to try to win. And if I win, then that's great. And if not, then, oh, okay. 

Like, I trust your plan too. Proverbs 19, 21, may all the plans, excuse me, many are the plans in a person's heart. I love this. I want to be mayor, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. To go back to John Adams theme, right? Uh, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 

Let those who suffer according to God's will. and trust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. That's 1 Peter 4. So even if you suffer, you can still do good. And finally, on the theme also of just tell the truth, just do the right thing. 

James 4 .13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we will go into such and such a town and, and spend time there and trade and make a profit, right? So people are like, oh, today, tomorrow, we're gonna do this future, our future planet, right? Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this and that. 

That is, as it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is a sin. So again, I don't know what tomorrow, that's Spencer Pratt's attitude. He's like, I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I'm just going to do the right thing. We'll see every day, do the right thing. I think this will happen. 

I want this to happen, but I don't know. We'll see. Is Spencer Pratt going to become the mayor of Los Angeles? I don't know. But in the meantime, do the right thing. We'll see what God wants. 

YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. If you could subscribe there, that'd be great. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith spread the word.

We give a humble tribute to 13 service members who we add to the list of Americans who gave their lives fighting for this country. We also go over Rudyard Kipling's poem "Recessional" on this Memorial Day.

Welcome to Politics by Faith, our Memorial Day edition today. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing to do under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, story of the day today, Memorial Day and peace deals. Just getting news last day or so about a new Iran peace deal possibility. I don't know the details. 

No one does. A lot of commenting on things that no people have seen. And there's been a lot of these deals, a lot of back and forths. We've seen this a bunch already. I'm kind of, you know, wake me when it's over. Like, let me know when we really have a deal and everyone signed a deal and all that stuff. 

As it relates to Memorial Day, I haven't really heard anyone talk about the Americans who have died in this effort. 13 Americans have died. Six in Kuwait when an Iranian drone strike hit one of our ports, our bases, command center. One in Iraq, there was an attack in Iraq, six crew members died. This was a military refueling aircraft crashed. And then Saudi Arabia, a service member was killed on an attack on our air base there. 

Let me read their names here. Captain Cody Cork from Winter Haven, Florida. Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens from Bellevue, Nebraska. Sergeant First Class Nicole Amore from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Sergeant Declan Cody from West Des Moines, Iowa. Major Jeffrey O 'Brien from Waukee, Iowa. 

Chief Foreign Officer Robert Marzan from Sacramento, California. Sergeant Benjamin Pennington from Glendale, Kentucky. Major John Klinner from Auburn, Alabama. A lot of people who are against this Iran war effort, and I get it, talk a lot about the money, how much it's costing, and that's a concern, of course. This has also cost 13 lives and we should know that. Now, I believe a noble effort, what we've done in Iran here last, however long it's been, a couple of months. 

We can't let Iran have nuclear weapons. Donald Trump has been talking about this since like the eighties. He talked about Iran not having a nuclear weapon on the escalator speech. When he first announced in 2015, coming down Trump tower, the escalator, he talked about how we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. So this isn't like some shocker, like, oh wow, Trump hates Iran. Like he doesn't want, like, no. 

We've known this forever. I'm for this effort to stop them from having him and to stop them from being a thorn in our side. Our national security strategy, the document talks about not having the Middle East be the center of our universe anymore of our national security concerns. Like why are we so focused on the Middle East all the time? And Iran is one major reason. There's two parts. 

in particular, that I want to read here from the Middle East section of, it's like a 30 page document, the National Security Strategy. And part of the document says, for half a century, American foreign policy has prioritized the Middle East above all other regions. And that's because the Middle East for decades has been the world's most important supplier of energy. There was a prime, like superpower competition going on, and that was ready to smash. into the wider world and even into America. Now, the fact that we are now the global oil superpower, taking a lot of energy, or literally a lot of focus away from the Middle East, that's been great. 

Second reference in this National Security Strategy says, we want to prevent an adversarial power from dominating the Middle East, its oil and gas supplies, and the choke points through which they pass. while avoiding the forever wars that bogged us down in the region at great cost. Donald Trump does not want a forever war. And he, the point of this is so that they don't control these choke points. Now they have for these last couple of weeks, but the point is long -term, we don't want that. And we've talked before, we don't have to do it all here. 

I don't want to get too off base for Memorial Day, but this administration has locked down every other choke point around the world that exists to protect America and the free world. Let's get a peace deal so we can open up that straight. I'd prefer if the Iranian regime was done for once and for all. I don't know if that will happen in the near term. It doesn't look like it so far. The Iranian people never rose up. 

They didn't know that. I don't blame them. I'm not like, wow, it's their fault. I'm not, I'm not blaming them. Right. The regime killed 35 ,000 of their Patriots just a couple of weeks before this whole thing started. 

I'm currently reading Gulag Archipelago and the whole opening couple of chapters are all about how the government just picks. people up off the street, anyone and everyone for even having a hint of being against the regime and how everyone's spying on their neighbors. And the littlest thing you could do against the government, they'll come and they'll grab you and they'll sweep you up and give you 10 years. And that's it. No matter who you were, what you were doing, it doesn't matter. And that Gulag Archipelago scenario, it's not far off from the reality in Iran. 

It's really easy for us in America to be like, well, just rise up. Like we did 250 years ago. Like that's it. Um, they also don't have guns, so kind of hard for them to rise up. I'm also for this Iran war. And again, the last thing I'll comment on Iran really big picture is, um, hurting Iran hurts China, which is the main goal period in foreign policy was. 

So what's broken about this situation and Iran and Memorial Day war war is awful. And it's the inevitable reality living in a fallen world. C . S. Lewis wrote an essay, it was actually a sermon, 1939, called Learning in Wartime. And he was talking to these students, and he said, he was answering the question, because people were asking, like, how can we be studying? 

How can we be sitting here learning, going to school, going to college, when there's a war going on, right? People felt, there's a lot of people even today and then, like very urgent, people are on the edge. And I love what C . S. Lewis said, he said, this war, and let me read the quote. He said, this war, creates no absolutely new situation. 

It simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. But human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, the search for knowledge and beauty would never have begun. We are mistaken when we compare war with normal life. Life has never been normal. Even those periods which we think most tranquil, like the 19th century, turn out on closer inspection to be full of crises, alarms, difficulties, and emergencies. 

Plausible reasons have never been lacking for putting off all merely cultural activities until some imminent danger has been averted or some crying injustice put right. But humanity long ago chose to neglect those plausible reasons. They wanted knowledge and beauty now and would not wait for the suitable moment that never comes. There's a lot of this today. We expect the world to be perfect. 

We expect everything to be normal. We expect things to be safe and secure. And when they're not, We're all like, ah, what are we going to do? The world's coming to an end. I don't know if I can do it. I can't even. 

It's like, no, no, it's always been like this. This is the, this is the normal. So what are you gonna do? Wait around until what? Until when? And war is normal. 

It's awful. And it won't stop until we're in heaven. This is the point of the podcast when we usually go over to the Bible. And I, I sort of want to do that today, but, um, I want to do it via a poem on this Memorial Day. On the radio show the other day, we read an easier poem, Henry. Henry Wordsworth, Henry, was Henry Wordsworth, was it Longfellow? 

I think it was Longfellow. His Decoration Day. Let me make sure I get that right. Wordsworth, I wish I'd tell you the right poem to read. Yeah, yeah. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Decoration Day. 

Yeah. But I want to read a different one here today. Well, the Longfellow one's so great. Your Silent Tense of Green, talking to the, people who have died in service. Your silent tents of green we deck with with fragrant flowers. Yours. 

the suffering been. The memory shall be ours. " That's the last line of that poem. It's great. But I want to start here or end here instead with Kipling's recessional. He wrote, God of our fathers, which is Exodus 3 .15. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel. The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. So The God of your fathers, this is my name forever. Lord of our far -flung battle line, British Empire, big empire, far away, distant, all God ordained, right? So Lord of our far -flung battle line, beneath whose awful hand We hold dominion over palm and pine. Awful here means like awesome, awe -inspiring. So it's beneath your God, your awesome hand that we hold dominion, control over palm and pine, meaning different climates around the world. Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget. The whole point of this poem is do not forget everyone that God is the source of all good things. God is the source of all of our prosperity. The tumult and the shouting dies. The shouting of victory too. The tumult of war, but it all passes. The captains and the kings depart. They die as time goes on, but still stands thine ancient sacrifice. So God, you remain. and humble and a contrite heart." That's Psalm 51 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. 

Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget. Far called, our navies melt away, on dune and headland sinks the fire. So again, as time goes on, things will disappear. All the things that we think are so important. Lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre. 

All the celebrations that we have of our great victories, it's all going to go the same way of Nineveh. which doesn't exist anymore, and also places of judgment from God. Judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget. If drunk with sight of power, we loose wild tongues that have not thee in awe. I think that's my favorite line of this poem. If drunk with sight of power, we loose wild tongues that have not you in awe. 

So if we get drunk with power, If we let loose people, leaders, who don't understand that you are, again, the source of all that is good, who do not have you in awe, who do not hold you in esteem, God, woe to us. Such boastings as the Gentiles use or lesser breeds without the law, Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget. For heathen heart that puts her trust. Oh, this is so good. For heathen heart. that puts her trust in reeking tube and iron shard, meaning weapons. 

So who's that heathen heart? Not the Christian heart, but the heathen heart, the pagan heart that puts their trust in weapons of war. All valiant dust that builds on dust. Genesis 3 .19 says, by the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and dust you shall return. So the weapons and the warriors, but the weapons in particular are dust that just builds on top of the dust that is us. And guarding calls not thee to guard. 

So God, it's all you. And if we don't call on you to help us, we got nothing. Woe to those who rely on the self versus relying on you, God. For frantic boast and foolish word, thy mercy on thy people, Lord. I love that's the last stanza. I love that ending because it ends with a plea to God, right? 

Every other stanza ends with, lest we forget, lest we forget. But the last line is a call to God, your mercy on your people, Lord, please. It's not our enemies that we need to worry about. It's forgetting God that we need to worry about. Same for America. Same for us today. 

Same for the Israelites back then. Deuteronomy 6 says, then take care lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Indeed, still today, thy mercy on thy people, Lord. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. If you could subscribe over there, that'd be great. 

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