MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
What Is An American?
Politics By Faith, August 15, 2025
August 15, 2025

This might be the most important secular question of our time: what is an American? I'm frustrated that I love this country in my bones, but am unable to articulate a proper answer to that question. But we should be prepared to make a defense of anyone who asks.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I want to bring over a very important question that we asked on the SiriusXM Breitbart show. And I want to bring it here to you because I think you will have the best answer for it. I think if you're listening to this podcast, I think you have the key. I'm going to skip over some of the backstory and cut right to the chase here. The question is, what is an American? Matt Walsh wrote,

this is why what is an American is the new, what is a woman? Or Matt Walsh had that wonderful documentary entitled, What is a Woman? And really gave a platform for the people who are pushing this transgender stuff to just

beclown themselves. And it was great. But now we have a more important question or not more important. It's like next level. We're ready to move on to the next question, which is what is an American? He said these people want to be embraced as Americans and even become political leaders

in America. But to them being an American means absolutely nothing at all. He's referring to this interview with Democratic representative congressperson Delia Ramirez. She's a congresswoman from Guatemala. She represents the people of Illinois, one of the most gerrymandered

districts in the state and the country. Third District of Illinois outside Chicago. We I don't think we played it here, but there was a clip of her about a week or so ago in some foreign country talking about how she's more proud of being Guatemalan than she is an American.

And she's a congressperson. Her mom came across the border illegally while pregnant, plopped her out and she's an anchor baby. And now she's a congresswoman. Here is what she said the other day.

I wanna ask, it seems like a really broad question,

but what does it mean to you to be an American? What is it for me to be an American? For me being an American is the ability to dream, to love, to have dissent.

Okay, so already, so dream and love that's like nothing, it's like pablum, and then immediately into negativity.

To be able to organize and build a kind of solidarity that recognizes the good and the bad of the formation of this country.

Yeah, so I shouldn't say negativity, right into bad mouthing America. It's even worse. Dream, love, America's awful. That's what it means to be an American. Dream, love, and we're the worst.

That is willing to reckon with how we have used colonialism to harm others, especially in the Western Hemisphere, and begin to think about and imagine creatively what reparations look like, what building solidarity looks like, what bringing all of us together means. To be an American, for me, is the ability to love and also

push back, the ability to be able to fight back and also build community. And to me, this precise moment is a time for us to ask ourselves, who are we as Americans? And let's be frank, we haven't always been great. And let's be frank, our history says a lot about what we've done and who we've done. This country has never been great for poor people, for black people, for indigenous people.

And so to be American for me is to be able to live into what we should be, not what we have been.

So we all know that's a terrible answer, but if we can sit at a rock bottom moment, okay, let's use it for good. But I'm thinking, geez, if that woman asks me, what is an American? I don't know if I would give a satisfactory answer. I'd do better than that. But I don't know if I'd give

a very satisfactory answer, actually. So Matt Walsh said, if someone, I could tell here, I know, like I know it in my bones, like I know it deep down, but I'm not able to articulate it. Matt Walsh said, if someone answers what is an American without any mention of tradition, culture, ancestry, language, borders, or even legal documentation, at least, then that is a person who thinks America doesn't exist.

And being an American means precisely nothing. So I grew up in the very beginning of woke very be so where there was an era where, for example, we were taught that Christopher Columbus was amazing and now kids are taught that Christopher Columbus is a murderer and the worst person ever to have lived. I was in the middle where we just didn't learn about Christopher Columbus.

I said, so it's there was an era where it's America's amazing and now we're in the era of America invented slavery and I was in the era of just don't learn anything about this country and because of that because I was never given the tools to think properly about America I can't think clearly enough about it and I can't articulate therefore what is an? Not like I want to be able to. So I want to ask you, what is an American?

How do you define it? What is an American? How do you answer that question? What is an American? Now here's where I want to push back. And this is what we did on the radio.

We did this for two hours a day, and we're going to do it for many more hours because we got to get this right. You can't, if you can't define it, you can't defend it. That's gotta be true. That we're just coming out of 20 plus years of fighting terrorism. We couldn't, we didn't define the enemy.

Terrorism is a tactic. It's not an enemy. It's like you're fighting a war against like people attacking the right flank or something. It doesn't, it doesn't make any sense. Because we wouldn't say Islamic extremism. We wouldn't define what the enemy was. And same thing here, if you don't define it,

you can't defend it. If you can't define America, what is an American, then you're gonna lose it, and we are, in the process of losing it. But here's what I wanna push back on, because all these phone calls came in,

and everyone, and we she did in the beginning. She said, oh, it's love and dreaming. What? And we had a lot of people calling that was like a little bit of that, but it was like, oh, it's the freedom to do whatever you want. Is it?

Because then the Somali comes over here and says, I'm a Muslim and I'm going to kill my daughter because she wants to wear a skirt and you can't do anything about it because I'm free to do whatever I want like, oh, that's not what we mean. What then do you what do we mean? What do we mean? It's a real example and they rubbed it in your face.

There's a bunch of Muslims who are building this Muslim community in Texas and they're naming it's like it's a like a housing development, but just for muslims and they're keeping christians out by building this huge mosque and all the hoas go to the mosque. So that's all i keep and all the streets are named after muslim conquerors before the crusades and the guy was on the podcast the muslim guy behind this and he said yeah and if anyone criticizes us we just use their freedom of religion against them. They knew what they were doing.

So it's got to be more than just freedom to do whatever. And I'm not satisfied anymore with any answer, and again I mean this nicely, with any answer that also applies to other countries. Like oh it's the freedom to go where you want to go. Well like in France you could do that. Or it's the freedom to love who you want. It. Well, like in France, you could do that. Or it's the freedom to love who you want.

It's like, okay, you can do that in Spain. I don't like, I need something, I don't know, deeper, more unique, more specific. Maybe that's a better word for it. I just need something more specific than that. Now, okay, so we kept digging.

People were adding these great elements of it. We're like, okay, let's go a little more. Let's go a little more. Okay, well, the freedom to live in the vision of our founders. I got an email on that. Great. Love that. What's their vision?

All right, it's free to live up to our founding values. Okay, awesome. What are they? We need to be able to define those found those founding values. Finally, someone called in and brought up Christianity. It was about an hour and ten minutes before someone did, so it's interesting and I don't know if it was people who are

unable to bring that to the table or they were afraid to so instead they couch it as founding values, but I got any more than that or or they'll couch it as something even Judeo-Christian values. It's like no. Pilgrims didn't come over to spread Judeo-Christian values. That's not what they came here.

They came here to create a new promised land, a new, leaving, and that was a second Exodus from tyranny to a promised land, to spread Christianity or to live their Christian lives. So we need to be as specific as we can. Slater at brightbar.com, I got a ton of emails on this.

So if you can send an email with your answer, Slater at Breitbart.com, I would really appreciate it as we try to figure this out. And I want as precise, and as we keep doing this, I want to get to something that is precise and as specific as possible.

Because I don't know what an American is, but I do know and I'm certain that Christianity is a defining aspect of it. And again, not just do Judeo-Christian values, Christian. The biggest lie that the devil has pushed on the American people in the sense of our history and specifically to our history is that we were not founded as a Christian nation. It is so it is as absurd as saying the earth is flat.

That is how that statement should be treated. The more you read about our founders and our and from our founders and our founding grandfathers all the way back to the pilgrims, these men and women were profoundly devout Christians beyond anything we see today.

Beyond anything we would believe today. And for 250 plus years later, 400 years later for the pilgrims to say that they weren't Christian is so ludicrous. I provided three proofs on today's show that I just want to present to you here. This is kind of a fun one. So we talked about Trump taking over DC, renaming it Washington DJT. He hasn't actually done that, but I don't know why that hasn't taken off more Washington DJT. Come

on. So CNN did a report from Union Station, the train station in DC. It's this beautiful building and we went over the whole history of the building in on today's show. I'm not going to do it here, but in front of the train station is a giant statue called the Columbus fountain. And that statue was dedicated on in 1912 by president William Howard Taft. And he gave this wonderful speech about Christopher Columbus. I highly recommend it. Just search for William Howard Taft,

a Columbus memorial or Columbus fountain dedication, or it'll pop up. Beautiful speech about Christopher Columbus. Again, we used to celebrate Christopher Columbus. Now we rip down his statues, but just I wanna share one quote from it

that's relevant here, the opening. He said, we are gathered here today to dedicate this beautiful memorial to the greatest mariner of history, who for centuries and two decades ago, opened to the possibilities of Christian civilization, nearly one half of the geographical world. Uh-oh. Christian civilization. Muslim civilization? Chinese civilization? Middle Eastern civilization? Judeo-Christian civilization? Nope. Christian

civilization. That's the first point. Second, before the revolution, I know I made this point before, I'm doing it again. Before the revolution, every colony had their own religious tests in order to hold office. And they were as blatant as you could possibly believe. This is Delaware. This was the oath of office you needed to take before you got into an elected or an appointed position.

The oath was, I do profess faith in God the Father and Jesus Christ, his only son. And in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed forevermore. And I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.

There are some churches that barely require an oath like that anymore to join the church. And this was just to be like the state treasurer or anything in the state. That's what you had to talk about. Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God, and and you you say that the old and New Testament were divine inspiration just to hold office

Someone called in today It's maybe the first maybe the second person to talk about Christianity on the show And he talked about the freedom to worship. I think he just said the freedom to worship. That's right It's the freedom worship and I said, okay, okay freedom to worship. I think it just said the freedom to worship. That's right, it's the freedom to worship. And I said, okay, okay, freedom to worship what? Right, because now you get all the people that are like,

oh, you're free to worship whatever you want. And it's like, a bail? Right, well, you're free to worship bail? And yeah, I guess in America you are, but that's not what it means. That's not what American culture is. That's not what we should be striving for to get back to bail worship.

So I asked him, I said, what free to worship what? And he said, God, I said, what God? He said the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Bingo.

Last proof. John Adams wrote in his diary, 1756. It's before, before the revolution. He said, suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book. And every member should regulate his conduct

by the precepts there exhibited. Every member would be obliged in conscience to temperance and frugality and industry. You just got some virtues here. So now we're talking like, we're getting closer to some real things.

Like you are freedom to do whatever you want. No, freedom to be frugal and industrious and temperate. Right, it's like, oh, well, that's not freedom. Freedom should be, right? No, no, that's not our founders perception of freedom was it to do whatever you want.

This is why it's a life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. Pursuit back then meant practice of and happiness our founders knew could only be accomplished through virtue. So it's life, liberty, and the practice of virtue. That's what you're free to do.

What virtues? Temperance, frugality, industry, to justice and kindness and charity towards fellow man, and to piety and love and reverence towards almighty God. So it's not as the, go back to the Congresswoman, what does it mean to be American?

To dream in love. Well here's Thomas, excuse me, John Adams talking about love, but it's not just love. It's piety, love, and reverence to Almighty God. In this commonwealth, no man would impair his health by gluttony, drunkenness, or lust. So now we're against vices. No man would sacrifice his most precious time to cards or any other trifling and mean amusement. No man would steal or lie or in any way defraud his neighbor, but would live in peace and goodwill with all men.

No man would blaspheme his maker or profane his worship, but a rational and manly, a sincere and unaffected piety and devotion would reign in all hearts. What a utopia, what a paradise would this region be?" It's John Adams. Our founders weren't Christian. What an absolute joke. As I was reading that quote, it popped in my head, the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord the fear of the Lord our Founding grandfathers, I think of like the pilgrims they had a fear of the Lord. That should be part of the definition I don't want to put anything in your minds. Let me let me write that down

I don't want to put anything in your head yet. I'll write that down for Monday show as we continue on this Okay, I'm gonna do more study on that in the Bible and of our founders saying that, okay. I'm not saying Christianity is the only aspect of what it means to be an American,

but it's gotta be part of it, has to be, right? So I'm gonna throw it to you now. I've said enough. Fundamental question of our time right now. Our ability to define this, our ability to answer this question.

It's like our American version of being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. What is an American? Please send me your answers at slater at breitbart.com. Put these together and we'll get closer to the truth here.

Slater at breitbart.com. My website is my, the website where we put these is mikeslater.locals.com. There's a transcript there and a commercial free on the website. Mike Slater. There's a transcript there and a commercial for you on the website. There's a transcript there and a commercial for you on the website. Mike Slater.locals.com

 

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https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20220122_110000_FOX_and_Friends_Saturday/start/5640/end/5700

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Good day Brother Slater, et al.,

Regarding your mention of Church Bells contra the apostate Muslim Call to Prayer, a deep history article link, below, for your Kit Bag of "what to think".
May God Bless and Keep you and yours

Pax Christi en regno Christi

Exodus 28:33 And beneath at the feet of the same tunic, round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with little bells set between:

Exodus 28:34 So that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate.

Exodus 39:23 And little bells of the purest gold, which they put between the pomegranates at the bottom of the tunic round about:

Exodus 39:24 To wit, a bell of gold, and a pomegranate, wherewith the high priest went adorned, when he discharged his ministry, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Sirach 45:10 He put upon him a garment to the feet, and breeches, and an ephod, and he compassed him with many little bells of gold all round about,

The Holy Bible,...

October 10, 2025

Good day Brother Slater,

Given your propiquity for History, here’s a Euro-Catholic Christian Feast of Great Fanfare for you and your peeps.

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https://x.com/RodDMartin/status/1976624966696149365

That's all I got; have a grand and Glorious Columbus Day, you and yours.

Pax Christi in regno Christi

Top Silva 🔝

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Good day Brother Slater,

Wondering if you have checked out this dialogoue between Ross Douthat of the NYT and Pastor Doug Wilson and if you have any commentary of consequence.

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Pax Christi in regno Christi
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Happy All Saints' Day
Politics By Faith, October 31, 2025

It's time for my annual lament as to what our holy days have become. But the good news is, we can reclaim them right now.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. It is October 31st, so it is time for my annual lament about the holiday season and what the holidays have become in our secular pagan country. All of the holy days that we have on our calendar used to be, I should say, all of our holidays that we still have on our calendar used to be holy days. It's a better way of putting it. Thanksgiving started off as a day of prayer and fasting. 

Fasting. Thanksgiving used to be, used to be a day of not eating. And now it's a day of football and gluttony. Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. Now it's Santa and presents. Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus. 

Now it's an Easter bunny and eggs. St. Patrick's day, even it was a day at St. Patrick or Patrick was this guy. He's born in England. It's not even an Irish. And he was abducted and he was put on a slave ship to Ireland. And he spent six years there, six years there. 

And then he escaped to his home country, became a Christian, went back to the people who enslaved him. to spread the gospel to these lost people. And now it's drink green beer and pinch me. And so I was like, this hit me, I think it was like five years ago. And it was around Halloween. I've never really liked Halloween, but it was like, especially meaningless, whatever shred of meaning there even was. 

And I was like, this is really, like, what is this? Like, what is this silly thing? And I looked it up and turned, Halloween is All Hallows Eve. Hollow, meaning sacred. Webster's original dictionary definition, 1828, to make holy. Hollow means to make holy, to consecrate, to set apart for holy or religious use, to devote to holy or religious exercises, to treat as sacred. 

as in our father hallowed be thy name. And Eve, All Hallows Eve, day before All Saints Day. All Hallows Eve, kind of put it together, Halloween. That's where that came from. But what's All Saints Day? I mean, think about this. 

Even Halloween used to be a religious holiday, and now it's pagan. Even worse than pagan, right? It's like satanic in many ways. So I'm talking about All Saints Day. and give you the encouragement that your house can be whatever you want it to be. Your home does not have to be influenced by culture in any way at all. 

You can do anything. It doesn't matter how you grew up. It doesn't matter the things you did when you were a kid or what your parents did. You can do whatever you want. 

You're an adult. 

Think about it like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone or was it Home Alone 2? No, Home Alone 1 when he got a cheese pizza. He said, I got a large cheese pizza and it's all for me. That's you with the holy days that are in your house. You can do whatever you want. So celebrate All Saints Day if you want. 

So I was reading yesterday a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called The Reality of Conversion. And he was, in this sermon, articulating all the reasons why we know conversion exists. What is conversion? Of course, we'll go from a unbeliever to a believer, being born again, as we would put it today. And one of his proofs for the reality of conversion is martyrs. And I just want to read like three different paragraphs here about the existence of martyrs and how this creates evidence of such a thing as a change of nature by a supernatural power in their enduring such 

suffering for a good conscience and the glory of Christ. A very great alteration in life and manifestations of holiness of heart in doings is a great argument of a change of heart. " He said, many thousands, yay, and millions of professing Christians that have had this trial have acquitted themselves so under it as to give the most remarkable evidences of a supernatural love to God. and a weanedness from the world, like they've weaned themselves off the world. For they have been tried with the most extreme sufferings and cruel tortures that man could invent. I'll give you one of those in a minute. And the sufferings of many of them have been lengthened out to a very great length. Their persecutors have kept them under trying torments that if possible, they might conquer them by wearing out of their spirits. But yet they have rather chosen undergo all and have held out in suffering unto death rather than to deny Christ. Such has been their faith, and their love, and their courage, that their enemies could not by any means overcome it, though they had him in their hands to execute their will upon them. And very often they have suffered all with the greatest composedness of spirit, yea, and with cheerfulness. And many of them have appeared exceedingly joyful under the torments, and have glorified in tribulations." Amazing. Many have braved it out through an extraordinary stoutness and ruggedness of spirit. But so it has been with multitudes of all sort. 

Many that have been under the decays of old age, long after the strength of nature has begun to fail. And they were in that state wherein our want very much to lose their natural courage. And also women, even children, and persons of delicate and weak constitution, such as these have by their faith and love to Christ and courage in his cause conquered the greatest and cruelest monarchs of the earth. In all the most dreadful things that their power could inflict upon them, they have rather chosen to suffer such affliction than in the least to depart from their dear Lord and Savior. " These are just the parts I've underlined. Whoever reads the histories that give an account of these things must needs acknowledge, if they don't put out the light of reason, like if you're not a total fool, that those persons had something in them far above nature. 

that they were influenced by some supernatural and powerful principle that men naturally don't experience. And many of those that have thus patiently and joyfully suffered such things before their change were very loose, vain persons, contenders of all religion. Many that were cruel persecutors themselves have been seized with conviction and have then at last borne witness to Christ and his gospel by a patient suffering his will, a remarkable instance in which they have been blessed, which we have in the blessed apostle Paul. He goes and he talks about the state that people were in before they were saved. And yet here they are now. And one more part here. 

I'll end on this. I'll end on this line. It requires something above nature to make a man love an unseen object. So as cheerfully to lose all things and suffer all things for his sake, nature doesn't work in that manner. It may work so as to cause men to have a strong love to an object that they've seen with their bodily eyes and have conquered and conversed with. But it is beyond the power of nature to beget such a love to an object that they are told of. 

of which they are informed that he lived on earth many hundreds of years ago and now lives in an invisible world. Nature may operate so as to cause transient affections about that which they are so informed of, but not to knit the heart so strongly to an unseen object as to have such great effect as these. Only some mighty work of God alone hearts, changing their natures and infusing principles that strengthen them and carry them far beyond the strength of nature would be possible. Great stuff there from Jonathan Edwards. Now, if that's true for us, if we've been converted, if we've been saved, if we've been born again, do we act like it? 

Do we celebrate it? Are we grateful for it? Do we live like it? Do we tell people about it? Do we tell people about our salvation as if we were going to spend eternity in hell? But instead now we're going to spend eternity in heaven. 

Now it'd be nice if our society were a Christian society again. And we had these holy days set up around the calendar to remind us about what's really important. All the holy days that we had on the calendar have been secularized or eliminated entirely or secularized and become meaningless. So again, I just want to encourage you to make these holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, whatever you want them to be, whatever they should be, whatever they used to be. You don't have to be sucked in by the culture to make them pagan. It's your home. 

It's your family. And I would argue that if we stopped wasting our time with Halloween and made it All Saints Day again, we'd live in a better country. Because people would know the stories. They would know the stories of the people we should be emulating. We'd have heroes. Reminders of what's important. 

I always think of the story Perpetua. I'm gonna share two here, but Perpetua I gotta share. I share it every time. She lived in the year 203 under a brutal Roman emperor. She refused to worship the emperor and she was thrown in jail. She was to be executed at the next gladiator games. 

And her father visited her and begged her, pleaded with her to recant her foolish Christian beliefs, this invisible God and do it for you. You're only 22 and do it for your baby. You have a full life and you need to be here for this baby. So just do it, just recant, even if you don't really believe, or if you do believe, but you just say you don't, just so you can be free and live. Just recant it so you can get out of prison, give up your pride. Just say you're not a Christian, you'll be set free, and then you can continue to do whatever you want, but just say whatever you need to say. 

And she refused. In prison, her father visited her in prison, and she said, Father, do you see that bowl there? What is that? He said, that's a bowl. She said, of course. Could it be called by any other name than what it is? 

She said, well, neither can I. Be called anything other than what I am. 

A Christian. Couldn't lie, even when it led to her death. Which it did. at the Gladiator Games. She couldn't lie. What if we had All Saints Day, a day where we celebrated the martyrs of the Christian faith? 

What if this day was, once again, about heroes, martyrs? What if we changed the stories that we told in our country? There was an emperor in Rome, Julian. One of his main goals was to decrease the influence of Christianity in culture. He wanted to water it down. He wanted to create division in it. 

He wanted, he did, bring in more paganism. In schools, no Christianity. was able to be taught. Also, Christians couldn't be taught the classical texts, like the pagan texts, which means they couldn't rise up into the higher classes of power and influence. He just wanted to keep Christians down as much as he could. His goal was to marginalize Christians. 

So he would do some things, like a lot of unjust things, obviously. One would be if a Christian broke a minor law, then they'd get the book thrown at him. But if pagans committed crimes against Christians, then they'd get a slap on the wrist. We see versions of this today. There's nothing new under the sun. Everyone in our culture should know the name Artemis. 

He was a military leader, was a Christian. Two priests were tormented and executed, or so they were, they were exiled and then they died when they were exiled. And Artemis said that the emperor was possessed by Satan. The emperor didn't like this. So the emperor got him, tortured him. They pressed him between two rocks. 

It was so horrible. His bowels squeezed out and his eyes popped out of his head, but he lived. momentarily, but he lived. He lived enough where he had another chance to denounce Jesus, but he didn't. So the emperor beheaded him. I just think of a society that knows that story and thinks on that story, meditates on that story, lifts up that type of conviction. 

Hebrews 12 21 says, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. How would we act if we knew that these great martyrs were watching? They are our example. They are our model. 

And if we don't lift them up, how will people know what to do? 

We wouldn't. We'd flounder. We'd be tossed to and fro. And we have been. But we can't anymore. We're called for more. 

The truth is out there. The answers are out there. The models are out there. The martyrs are out there. In your home, in your family, let's bring them back. Make sure that your kids know the martyrs of our Lord. MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free. It's on the website MikeSlater .

 

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Why Are There 42 Million Americans On Food Stamps?
Politics By Faith, October 28, 2025

This is not a sign of a healthy nation. How can we reverse the trend of more people relying on the government dole and return to the way God wants us to help each other?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. 42 million Americans are on food stamps. That's not a sign of a strong, healthy country. We talked earlier today about creeds. AOC gave a speech where she talked about how there's countless creeds in America. 

The immigrants and people who speak hundreds of different languages. And I'm like, that's not good. The crowd was cheering. There was a Zohan rally. And they're like, oh, it's amazing, 100 different languages. And I'm like, hmm, that sounds like the Tower of Babel. 

Yay, we can't communicate with each other. Yay, none of us believe the same thing about important principles of life and governance. Yay, I think. That doesn't sound good. So then we read from this thing called the American ethos. It was about 100 years ago. 

This person says, the American ethos, I do not choose, excuse me, the American creed, I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk, to build and to dream, fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. 

I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid. to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this, with God's help, I have done. these 42 million Americans. And I don't want to be cruel. 

I don't want to be mean. But this is not good. One in eight Americans are on food stamps. Now I'm taking a pretty moderate approach here. I'm not saying we got to get rid of entirely. Maybe one day it'd be great if we could get, and I used to make this argument, it'd be great if we could get to the utopian ideal, which is where when someone's down on their luck, first you go to family. 

If you don't have any, you go to friends. And if you don't have any, then you go to church. And if that doesn't work or whatever, then there's other charities, faith, you know, Christian based, like rescue mission, stuff like that. And then like way down the list would be food stamps, but it wouldn't even exist at that point. It wouldn't be necessary. I think one reason why people don't want to go to church is because church requires a relationship and people don't want relationships because the person giving the charity may say, Hey, maybe you should stop doing drugs, or maybe you should make these other changes in your life. 

And people don't want to hear it. They just want the anonymity of getting the free money. So you can continue to live in this way that's clearly not going well. Another benefit of having church be the main means of charity is you don't just get regular water. You get a water where you'll never be thirsty again. People want government cheese. 

When if you go to a church, you'll get a lot more than your regular old bread. Charity through a church is a blessing for everyone. And food stamps are a track for everyone. But people don't want to go to a church because again, relationships, accountability, better to just get it for free in the mail. Better for what? 

Of course. 

So I'm taking a pretty middle of the road approach here. And I think for the next few decades, probably, we should limit food stamps to the elderly, the disabled, and people with an IQ under 80 who can't hold a job. IQ under 80, Jordan Peterson talks about this a lot. You can't fold a paper into thirds to put it in an envelope. That's what that IQ is. 

And everyone else, you gotta get to work. It's probably 60 % of people on food stamps is a combination of fraud and able -bodied adults who can work but don't. Probably 60%. So we'll say 20 million Americans are elderly, disabled, and otherwise unable to hold a job. 20 million. That's a pretty... 

Am I a horrible person for saying, I only want to give food stamps to 20 million Americans? I think if we do that for a while, then maybe, and we change a lot of other things in our culture, in our country, then I think maybe we can start to get to that ultimate ideal. But right now we're nowhere even close. Now we did talk on the radio. And we're going to do more on this tomorrow because someone sent me a article written by John Stuart Mill, or an essay written by John Stuart Mill in 1861 about universal suffrage. And it's very funny because this is 1861. 

This was 60 years before women had a right to vote. So this John Stuart Mill, very progressive guy, says, no, everyone should have a right to vote. Everyone should be allowed to vote. Women, laborers, low -income people, everyone should be allowed to vote. Unless, of course, you're on welfare. If you're on government dole in any way, then no, like definitely. 

And he also said, unless you can read, if you can't read, then obviously you can't vote. He went through all these exceptions that would pretty much accept, exempt or remove everybody's right to vote in America. He said, if you've ever been, if you've ever had bankruptcy, you can't vote. If you're in debt, you can't vote. So like no one in America would be allowed to vote. today if this progressive John Stuart Mill had his way a long time ago. 

But we presented this question of if you, just in an effort to shake this up and try to turn the ship around, if you're on specifically food stamps, you can't vote in federal elections. Again, I know there's problems, there's pros and cons to this, and I get it. I mean, you're still human, you're still a person, you're still all these things, you're still a citizen, but you can't vote in federal elections. So we brought this up as just something to think about. And then John Stuart Mill said the exact same thing back in 1861. But here's what I want to talk about on today's show on Politics by Faith, different than what we do on the radio. 

One last thing, someone wrote on Twitter, they said, my mom is disabled, 78 years old. She would die without food benefits. Oh, wow. Do you hear yourself? Your mom would die without food stamps? Your 78 year old disabled mother would die without food stamps? 

Feed your mom. Feed your mom. Honor your parents by feeding them goodness. All right, here's what I'm talking about here. Isaiah 58. Last night, I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards on Isaiah 58. 

I'm not done with it. So maybe we'll do a part two of this when I'm done with Jonathan Edwards' words on it. But let's run through Isaiah 58. It's fascinating. It's about hypocritical religious observances versus true God -pleasing worship and action. That's what Isaiah 58 is about. 

And this opening section here is entitled, Why Do Our Prayers Go Away? And one of the reasons why our prayers go unanswered is because of our own sin. Isaiah 115 says, When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. This is God talking. I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. 

Your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 59 verse one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear. He's like, well, I'm able to do whatever I want people. Don't don't. I'm not answering your prayers because I'm not able to don't be fooled. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 

Adam Clark in 1823, he said, how can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a being? while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies of men. O you most criminal of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of your religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic. " Of course, this applies to abortion today. The fasting in Isaiah 58 that's hypocritical is a fasting that You know, you're fasting to hurt your enemies, or you're fasting for selfish needs, or you're fasting to, the scriptures say, make your voice heard on high so to glorify yourself. This is no good. 

So what's true worship? Verse six, is this not the fast that I have chosen, colon, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out when you see the naked that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Loose the bonds of wickedness. Don't oppress others. 

Undo heavy burdens. Break every yoke. So stop oppressing others, but then actively love others, right? So stop doing the bad things and then share your bread with the hungry. So I know, hopefully you sense the pivot here. So my opening of this podcast is about, the receivers of the welfare. 

And now Isaiah 58 is talking about the givers of charity. And what happens when you serve others? First, it should be done for its own sake. But then when you do serve others, then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 

Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. How about that? So why are my prayers not going answered? Well, here's why. Okay, fine. What if I do that? 

Well, then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day. It's great. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 

Those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall rise up, raise up from the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach. the restorer of streets to dwell in. Wow. If we fast and pray and live a life of righteousness and love, then our prayers will be answered. 

And of course, if you're living that life. then your prayers will be in line with God's will. But I love this line, last part, those from among you shall build the old waste places. So if you do all these good things and you will build the old waste places. Wow, we need a lot of rebuilding today. It's a broken world. 

There are breaches all over the place, but you shall be called the repairer of the breach. There's brokenness, broken homes, broken hearts, a lot of waste places. We need to rebuild a lot. It needs to be a lot of rebuilding. There used to be protections. around sacred institutions or aspects of our life, the family. 

And those have been, protections have been torn down. Therefore the institutions have been torn down. We need to build up the protections again. We need to reclaim these waste places. And I'll leave you with two more scriptures that are convicting to me to be more generous. 1 Timothy 5, 8, anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

Whoa. In Proverbs 19, 17, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript of this episode and no commercials. MikeSlater .

 

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Thank You, Pete Hegseth: Holy Warrior
Politics By Faith, October 24, 2025

The Atlantic wrote a hit piece on Pete Hegseth, calling him a Holy Warrior. She said his introduction of Christian principles is a departure from how previous military leaders have led the military. She's wrong. And if he can lead an organization of 3 million people this way, we have no excuse.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I want to expand on something we talked about in the show this morning. Actually, something we're going to do next week. We'll talk about gambling, sports gambling. It was an incredible hour of the show. 

We briefly mentioned the sports gambling scandal with the head coach of the Trailblazers and all that stuff. But I quickly wanted to pivot into sports gambling and how prevalent this is among people and how dangerous it is. And I don't think it should be allowed because I don't think laws Laws, well, here's the question. Are laws here to protect our freedom or are they here to promote human flourishing? Think about that. Let's table that till the weekend, till next week, over the weekend. 

Are laws here to promote freedom or to protect freedom or promote human flourishing? It's an important question. It'll lead us to two, down two very different paths. Gambling does not promote human flourishing. Let's leave that there. So we'll chat more about that one next week. 

But it was a great hour because we had all these people call in who were gambling addicts, lost everything. And they all said they weren't. Here they are years later and they're not upset at the money they lost. Although hundreds of thousands, one person was a million bucks in gambling. It's not the money they lost, it's the time. And I asked one guy, you know, what's a thing you miss that you regret? 

He said, the birth of my daughter. It was a powerful moment. This forced gambling is a bad thing. So we'll talk about that next week. I want to share this first. The Atlantic wrote an article about Pete Hexeth called Holy Warrior. 

Pete Hexeth is bringing his fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity into the Pentagon. I love this. The fundamentalist interpretation. It's like THE interpretation. I guess it's opposed to the LGBTQIA plus trans -inclusive interpretation of Christianity that exists. But by fundamentalist, she means what the Bible says. 

So she went to a sermon that Doug Wilson gave and Pete Hegseth was in the front row. Although Wilson's Christ or chaos approach to spirituality is interesting enough, I like that Christ or chaos. That's great. The reason I'd come this morning is that I wanted to better understand what Hegseth saw in him. Unlike the 72 year old preacher, Hegseth heads a force of 3 million service members and civilians whose mission, a secular mission, is to keep the nation secure. So she believes that in no way are Christians allowed to introduce their ethos into their profession. 

or leadership or organizations that they run. But the left must. The left must infuse their religion into everything. And it is all a religion over there on the left. Black Lives Matter, trans, whatever it is. It has to be inserted into every single thing. 

They taught transgenderism to kindergartners for the love of Pete. We saw what they did. We're onto them now. And now we're doing it. And there's no holding back. The point I would like to make here is that Christianity has always been a part of our war department's ethos. 

This is the key to her whole article here. She goes into a bunch of examples of how Pete Hegseth is a Christian. All of this is a departure from how previous US presidents and military leaders have understood the intersection of faith and duty for generations. Although America's armed forces have always made space for religion, going back to the Battle of Bunker Hill, that place is a circumscribed one, entrusted primarily to several thousand chaplains responsible for attending to troops of their own faith and facilitating observance by those of other traditions. Prayers may be abundant in the foxholes, but commanders typically do not dictate matters of spirituality. 

" Totally wrong. By the way, she said religion is a circumscribed one. I mean, something's restricted within limits, but like outside of a circle circumference, it's outside of, right? So like we'll allow it, but it's severe, strict limits outside of what we're really here for. Totally not true. Now she brought up the battle of Bunker Hill. 

So I'm going to go as my evidence that this is wrong to the battle of Bunker Hill. There's a book written by J . T. Hedley. He's a historian. He wrote this around the hundredth anniversary of America. 

So 1876, it's called the chaplains and clergy of the revolution. Let's read a couple things here. As before hostilities commenced, there was scarcely a military muster, military gathering, at which the clergy were not present, but they were very circumscribed and kept under strict limits as to what they were on some occasion saying, behold, God himself is with us for our captain and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry the alarm. That's second Chronicles 13 12. It was to be expected when war broke out. They would be found in the ranks of the rebels, that's us, the colonists, urging forward what they had so long proclaimed as a religious duty. 

The first outbreak at Lexington and Concord gave them no opportunity to exhibit their zeal officially. It happened too fast. So some shouldered their muskets and fought like cocks. 

soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Among these were, and then he lists a couple ministers, who showed that clergy could fight as well as pray. It's great. I didn't bring up Bunker Hill. She brought it up. So here I am telling you about what happened with the tightly, very strictly, tightly circumscribed preachers, clergy at Bunker Hill. Yeah, right. 

They were deeply, intimately, profoundly involved. The militia troops were also religious. and their respect for the opinions of the clergy unbounded. To avoid the expense of chaplains, the clergy in the neighborhood of the camp near Bunker Hill were invited by Congress to perform divine service, 13 of them every Sabbath, a request they punctually complied with. Three or four chaplains, however, were attached to the army and prayed with the troops every morning on the common. " I love that. 

Like, hey, listen, we're not going to spend money on chaplains because we're kind of broke here, but why don't you just go grab some local preachers from all the churches nearby? Just knock on the door of the churches and have them come out. And they all did. Some of them grabbed guns and fought. One of the most important chaplains was David Avery. Washington saw in him the embodiment of all those qualities he wished in a chaplain, intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied. 

And again, just to go back to the Atlantic article, what Pete Hexeth is doing is very, very different, a sharp departure from what the secretary of the military has always been, the total return. Intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied in his attentions to the sick and wounded, not only nursing them with care, but faithful to their souls. as though they were members of his own parish. With a love for his country so strong that it became a passion, cheerful under privations and ready for any hardship, never losing in the turmoil of war. camp that warm and glowing piety, which characterizes the devoted minister of God. He rode with George Washington, ate meals with George Washington, close friends with George Washington. 

He's Pete Hex, that's Doug Wilson, David Avery. And he wrote in his journal, again, I didn't bring this example up. She could have mentioned any other time in history. She mentioned Battle of Bunker Hill. David Avery wrote in his journal, early in the morning, the enemy attacked our entrenchments, but was driven back. After repeated trials, they succeeded in dislodging the troops. 

In the retreat, many of Colonel's men were killed. My dear friend, Dr. Warren, was shot dead. I stood on a neighboring hill, the name of that hill was Bunker, with hands uplifted, supplicating the blessing of heaven to crown our unworthy arms with success. This is the reliving of Exodus 17 .8, when the Amalekites and the Israelites were battling and Moses was holding his arms up in the air. And as long as Moses' arms were in the air, the Israelites were winning. So Aaron and Hurrick came over and held up his arms and Joshua went on to defeat the Amalekites. 

This is what David Avery was doing. To us infantile Americans, unused to the thunder and carnage of battle, the flames of Charlestown before our eyes, the incessant play of cannon from their shipping from Boston and their wings in various cross directions together with the terror of the field, exhibiting a scene most awful and tremendous. But amid the perils of the dread encounter, the Lord was our rock and fortress. Oh yeah, but no, a military never had any religious tradition, ever. Only now after Pete Exe. Robert E. Lee. 

an incredible man. He would always attend prayer services, always attend church, no matter what. And he said to his troops, he said, soldiers, let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God. By the way, just imagine if Pete Hexeth said this. I mean, he probably would, and maybe already has or will, but just imagine when this happens and the left would just freak out. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God, asking through Christ the forgiveness of our sins. 

beseeching the aid of the God of our forefathers in defense of our homes and our liberties, thanking him for his past blessings and imploring their continuance upon our cause and our people. Allahu Akbar. All praise the monkey God. No, no, no, not that last part didn't happen. It was praying to God in the name of Jesus. I love this from Washington Post. 

Talks about what Pete's like behind closed doors. Several people told me that he's talked about having prayed over personal decisions. He's praying about personal decision. What a weirdo. And once called for a group prayer before an airstrike. Love it. 

This reporter then said, Hegseth has invoked George Washington as a kindred spirit. Washington was famously private in his faith, and rather than infusing the American government in its infancy with his beliefs, he stood for religious freedom. That's not true. George Washington's farewell address. Again, she brought up these examples. I'm not cherry picking anything. 

This isn't a random letter that George one time sent to his wife. This is his stinking farewell address. Everyone in school always talks about entangling alliances. In his farewell address, he said, I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you in his holy protection and that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another. and for their fellow citizens of the United States. And finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion. 

That's God. And without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. He's talking about Jesus there. Yeah, George Washington here never said the word God. He's a divine author of our blessed religion. He's not talking about Hinduism. 

And he never said the word Jesus. Not in the farewell address. But he's talking about the humble invitation. That's Jesus. Farewell address. But he was very private about it. 

George Washington was not private about his faith. That's a lie we've been told to get us to be quiet about our faith. The Muslims want to blast their call to prayer across America five times a day. 

That is not quiet in their faith. 

But we're expected to be. Not anymore. Thank you to Pete Hegseth for being an example. Her point was, can you believe he's doing this in an organization of three million people? All the more encouragement to the rest of us. If he can do it in an organization of three million people, it's ours. 

MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website MikeSlater .

 

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