The State Departmetn issued a 100 page report about how Cuba has been the source of Communism in America. Communists have been around for a while in America, but there is one fundamental difference today. We break it down today and talk about the best way, maybe the only way, we can stop the rise of communism in America.

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. That's our goal. At the end of every episode we do here, there should be a sigh of peace. New headlines every day, which can cause anxiety. But Ecclesiastes says it's not the new under the sun. 

So thanks for being here to get the true story. The story of the day today. Cuban communist revolutionaries in America. All right, here's what's going on. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, issued this report called Cuba, the Capital, 21st Century Communism. It's 100 pages longer, and it's all about Cuba and their role in spreading communism around the world, but particularly their influence here in America. 

So a couple of examples here, and then we'll tie this into DSA and then the Bible. ICAP is a word that they use often in this report. It's called the Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos. Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples. Fidel Castro founded it back in the 60s. The purpose of this is to reach out to international activist groups, many of them in America. 

One of them is called the National Network of Cuba. It's here in the United States, and they lobby Local state groups like school boards, labor unions, city councils, all these things. They lobbied them from a pro Cuba angle. I have a clip of the coach. I got a two longer clips. I want to play later. 

So I'm not going to play the clip here. Why don't I just tell you what the clip says? Her name is on on. Yes. On who shot. Oh, yeah. 

I read her bio. Her bio says she is an African woman marooned in the United States. Marooned. She's stuck here. She can't get out. Lady, it's super easy. 

to get out and she is organizing to defeat capitalism colonialism imperialism and patriarchy she's editor with hood communist and she's the co -chair of the national network on cuba and she's an organizer with the vencer venceremos brigade venceremos It means we shall overcome. We'll get to them coming up in a little bit. So I get this clip where she's talking about how she's living in the belly of the beast behind enemy lines. It's America. And her ultimate purpose of this clip here in this clip is she says, we got to persuade black men in America to not join the military because when black men take up arms for the imperialist state America, they end up fighting against their fellow blacks around the world in oppressed countries. Okay. 

I have tons of clips like that of people like that. And it's very easy to come to the conclusion, the conclusion that I've come to for many years, which is these people are silly. They're foolish. Who cares what they say? Are we really going to waste our time with what this woman talks about? Like whatever. 

They're totally worthless. Not going to spend our time on it. And I think in the past, that was maybe definitely sensible, if not accurate conclusion. They were just a bunch of third party losers. Now here's the big difference. These losers have taken over the Democratic Party from within. 

So these previously third, fourth, fifth party losers, they have now taken over the Democrats apparatus, their infrastructure, their fundraising, their credentials, their prestige, their power. And now they are winning. We talked a lot about this in our episodes, our last TV episode, which we re -aired over the weekend here, but they're winning. They're winning. Their power is growing. never before. 

I'll give you an example of this. In the report, they talk about this guy, Stokely Carmichael. In 1967, he gave a speech at the Organization of Latin American Solidarity called Black Power in the Third World, and he talks about how black people in America are internal colonies within the United States. And he actually gave a speech in Cuba. And he said, black communities in America are the victims of white imperialism and colonial exploitation. Thus, he says, black power means that we see ourselves as part of the third world. 

So black people in America should and do see themselves as the third world. And we see our struggle as closely related to liberation struggles around the world. He said there's only one place for black Americans in these struggles, and that is on the side of the third world. Now, this is 1967. The fruit of his rhetoric, was, you know, riots, resentment, spreading anger, and all this stuff with other people, right? And like messing up lives and all this. 

Certainly wasn't peace and unity, but he never got any political power. So the damage he could do was limited to only so far. He was a member of the Black Panthers and some other political parties, but it was always a third party. Then came the 1964 Democratic National Convention and they wouldn't recognize any of the parties that he was in support of like any of these other communist parties that had these weird names so he was appalled that the democrats wouldn't recognize him and and his these other groups that he supported so he rebelled and you know how he rebelled he created another party that didn't do anything no one like a third party it's never gonna work it's a two -party system that's what we have here so these people had a third party system it worked adopted by one of the main parties. So then they started another party and you're like, man, like that's not the communist today. 

I figured out and have been successful in taking over one of the two parties, Democratic Socialists of America leading the way, taking over the Democratic Party. Again, that's what we talked about in our last couple episodes over the weekend. These people are crazy. The co -chair of the New York City DSA was on Fox News the other day calling for getting rid of the U . S. Senate. 

This is a part of their platform. Abolish the Senate. So it's crazy. The same type of people, they'll say, oh, you know, you're not being very biblical. You're judging. You're not a good Christian. 

You're not doing what Jesus told you to do. And they themselves hate the Bible and aren't Christian. It's a similar deal here. These are the people who say, Oh, Trump's terrible. He's destroying the constitution. And then they have in their party platform, abolish the Senate, abolish the Supreme court, eliminate the constitution. 

What's broken. I want to play two clips here. First start off with Marco Rubio and then, uh, Stephen Miller. This is at an event called the resurgence of political terrorism. Both of these clips are tremendous. I hope this is these guys work shopping. 

Well, this was before this Cuba report was issued. Obviously, they knew what was in the report, so they're getting ready for the report. I hope this is them, though, getting ready for the midterm convention, which is going to be September. I think the chair of the RNC said September 9th and 10th, I think that's what he told us. So it's going to be like a month and a half or so. So I hope they're workshopping these ideas to create the contrast between what this administration is for and what the opposition is really all about. 

This right here is about as good as it gets. Here's Marco Rubio. This is a distinctive and unique evil. It has always been driven by a hatred above all else, a hatred for civilization itself. It is a revolt of the worst against the best, a revolt of the weak and the cowardly against the strong and the good. 

It is perpetrated by those who cannot build, who cannot create, who cannot achieve great things and take their revenge upon the world for their own inadequacy by seeking to destroy those who can. This is what radical leftism is. It may wear various different slogans and ideologies across place and time. They can call themselves anti -capitalist, or anti -imperialist, or communist, or anarchist, or Marxist, but the fundamental character is always the same. It's always the same. It is a poisonous resentment cloaked in the language of equality, and justice, liberation, an overwhelming need to tear down what greater men have built, to wreck what is beautiful and what is right, on behalf of people who are only filled with ugliness and have nothing else to offer the world. 

Through violence and through terror, they once again seek to impose their ugliness on all of us. The old dogma was wrong. The old dogma was wrong. None of this is driven by idealism. It is not utopian. In fact, it is the opposite. 

One of the criticisms you sometimes hear of communism, for example, is that it sounds good in theory, but it never works in practice. That's actually not true. Communism does not sound good in theory. The world it envisions for all of us is small, flat, gray, leveled of all exception, drained of all that is good and noble in the human soul. The world it envisions is a world without courage. a world without creativity or ambition, a world without heroes or glory or great causes to strive towards, a world without miracles, without myths, without men who rise above the rest to do incredible and extraordinary things. 

And the world communism envisions is a world without God. For these architects of revolutionary violence, the towering achievement of our civilization, for them, it's an unbearable humiliation. A reminder of what they cannot do and a reminder of what they cannot be. So they choose instead to destroy. They attack pipelines. They attack railroads. 

They attack power grids and laboratories. The physical embodied symbols of power and invention and achievement. This is the nature of the terrorism we face today. They despise the West because the West is great. How good is that? poisonous resentment. 

That's what really fuels the rise of communism. This desire to tear down what greater men have built. People who are filled with ugliness and have nothing else to offer the world. We're going to get to that in just a second. Of course, mention of being godless. And when they see the greatness of what people have achieved, what God has done to our country, it's a reminder to them about what they cannot do and who they cannot be. 

So they choose instead to destroy. I mean, that's just amazing. As good as it gets. Again, how awesome would this be if this is what they talk about at the midterm convention. This is Stephen Miller might be even better. And the leftist justifies this violence to himself by saying that they alone are the arbiters of what is right or wrong, not the law, not history, not civilization, not 

public opinion, and certainly not God. The leftist assumes for himself judge, jury, executioner. But let's not pretend for a moment that these radical leftists, these terrorists, are operating from a place of sincere political conviction. Sure, there are plenty of useful idiots that they use who may believe these discredited ideologies. The leftist is fundamentally motivated by envy, by hatred, by jealousy, The leftist looks at what is beautiful and what is good and what is natural and is filled with envy and hatred. The leftist looks at a perfect family with the perfect life and a perfect job and perfect kids that goes to church every Sunday and is filled with envy and hatred. 

a feeling of inadequacy and jealousy, and they covet, and they turn those emotions ultimately into a desire to subjugate, to oppress, and to inflict pain and suffering. It's not a coincidence that when you look at these violent Antifa demonstrations, you see any photograph of those who were assembled, to be blunt, not one of the people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. Not one, looks normal. They're all deformed in some way in their appearance, in their dress, in their mannerism. Why is that? You look at two photographs and you see a normal American street, you see an Antifa protest. 

Why do the people that are violently demonstrating, why is there not one normal -looking person among them? Every one of them, through the course of their life and their decisions, has scarred their body and their appearance in many different ways to the point in which their outer appearance becomes a manifestation of their inner hatred. your instincts to all people and across all civilizations. You know what normal is. You know what beautiful is. You know what good is. 

You know that families are right. You know that children are precious and beautiful and must be protected. You know that the criminal and the junkie and the predator is a threat to normal, healthy living. This is so much deeper than than issues about taxation and regulation, although they're incredibly important. It's about normal, healthy, ordered living. Tremendous. 

Again, people motivated by hatred and envy and jealousy. They look at what is good, beautiful and true, and they themselves are filled with envy, hatred. This last week, we spent a lot of time talking about covetousness. They'll look at a family who goes to church and is living a normal life, and they're filled with an adequacy and covetousness. and they turn those desires into inflicting pain and suffering. His point about how these Antiva people, they're deformed, their outward appearance is deformed because their outward life has become this reflection of their heart. 

So throughout their life, they've made these decisions to scar their body and to have a disgusting appearance. They don't have to be like this, but their outward appearance has become a reflection of their inner heart. And he talks about what's normal. Normal is an interesting word. He doesn't mean normal as in common, because now more than ever, degeneracy is the norm. He's talking about normal as in good. 

Actually, the original definition of the word normal means square, like a carpenter would try to make a right angle. They call that normal. So square, right angle, proper, right. So he doesn't mean normal as in everyone's doing it. He means normal as in, oh, like, this is what's good and proper. I want to speak to this inner ugliness real quick. 

He, um, his comment is, reminded me of a poem from Kipling and I had to share it because it's about a story we shared just the other day too. This is all tying in from just the last couple weeks. Second Kings, the story of Gehazi. So here's the very short of it. So Naaman was this warrior who had leprosy. 

He went to Elisha to try to heal the leprosy. He did. And then Naaman offered him a gift as a thank you. Like, oh, I can't believe you did this here. I want to give you some money. And Elisha said, no, no, no, no, no. 

I refuse. He doesn't want any money. So Naaman goes back home. On his way back home, Elisha's servant, Gehazi, runs after him and says, oh, Naaman, Naaman, Naaman. Oh, you're not going to believe it. Elisha changed his mind. 

He does want the gift after all. So if you could just give it to me, I'll go. I'll give it back to Elisha. And Naaman's like, oh, yeah, sure. Of course. Here's the gift. 

So he gets back and Elisha says, hey, where'd you go? And then he lied to Elisha and Elisha gave him the punishment. He said, Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and to your descendants forever. Kipling was inspired by that story and he wrote this poem. He said, whence, so the image of Gehazi, so the timing's a little off with what Kipling does with this story, but it's still worth it. So it's, well, let me just start. 

He says, whence comest thou Gehazi? so reverent to behold, and scarlet, and furs, and chain of England's gold. " So someone's coming across Ghazi, and he's like, man, look at you. Look at you. You look unbelievable. You're dignified. 

Look at you. You got all the chain. You look amazing. What's going on? And Ghazi says, ah, from following after Naaman, to tell him all is well, whereby my zeal hath made me a judge in Israel. Well done. 

Well done, Ghazi. Stretch forth thy ready hand, thou barely scraped from judgment, take oath to judge the land." " So now this man is going to give Ghazi this advice, and he's taking oath now, right? But he's complimenting him. He's like, oh, man, you're unbelievable. 

This is great. Look at you. Unswayed by gift of money, or privy bribe, more base, of knowledge which is profit at any marketplace. You can't be bribed. You can't be bought off in any way. Search out and probe, Ghazi. 

as thou of all canst try the truthful, well -weighed answer that tells the blacker lie. But you're going to be a great judge. You're going to be shrewd. You're going to be wise. Nothing can corrupt you, Gehazi. This is great. 

So take order now, Gehazi, that no man talk aside in secret with his judges the while his case is tried. So again, you're not good. No one's going to trick you. No one's going to trick you. No one's going to talk to you. No one's going to deceive you. 

Lest he should show them reason to keep a matter hid and subtly lead the questions away from what he did. Again, you won't be corrupt, Gehazi, because you're so wonderful. Here's the turn. Thou mirror of uprightness. So it's not like a title, like, look at you, like you're this man of virtue. And the man who's looking at Ghazi is like, oh, what's going on? 

Thou mirror of uprightness, what ails thee at thy vows? So imagine Ghazi is about to take this vow to be the judge, right? Thou mirror of uprightness. Mr. Ghazi, what ails you at thy vows? What means the risen whiteness of the skin between thy brows? The boils. 

that shine and burrow, the sores that slough and bleed, the leprosy of Naaman on thee and all thy seed." " That's what Elisha told him would happen. Naaman's leprosy will cling to you and all your descendants forever. So in this story that Kipling is telling, a little bit different than the Bible timeline, but this is the moment where the leprosy is coming out. So he's taken this oath and he's being praised for being so honest and good. And the penalty of his greed and his sin is coming out at this moment in the poem. 

Stand up, stand up, Gehazi. Draw close thy robe and go. Gehazi, judge in Israel, a leper white as snow. Right? It's like, oh, unbelievable. Like, oh, we have the judge in Israel. 

Get out of here, man. Like you better cover up and run. We can't have a judge in Israel who's a leper as white as snow. So here's the moment when his inner sin was being manifested. on the outside of his body. Stephen Miller saying these communists have, they have essentially a leprosy in their heart, a covetousness in their heart, sins in their heart, and it shows with the deformity of their body. 

I thought of that poem when I saw that Miller clip. All right, let's go to the Bible here. It's a long episode today. I'll keep it quick here. I think there's three points I want to make here about defeating communists. You call it three levels. 

I don't know if it's quite three levels. It's like two and a half levels, maybe. On the surface, So how do we defeat communism? I think the surface level that we try for a long time is to explain why our economic system is better. Why capitalism is better than communism. It's not going to win hearts and minds. 

It's good. You need to do it. And we need to know the economic differences. But that's not going to... not going to, it's just not going to change enough. Maybe it'll change some minds, but it's not going to change hearts and hearts are the main issue here, which is the second deeper way to fight communism. 

Heart and minds are sinful and full of resentment, full of all the things that Marco and Steve Miller were talking about there. I don't think you can really change people's minds until we first change people's hearts. People have to be a Christian to get rid of the hatred in their heart and the resentment. And only then can they see the truth. other light or I should say in the light there are you start to like oh yeah no communism's horrible now don't get me wrong being a christian is the most important thing but I hope you get my point that after you become a christian and resentment no longer drives you it no longer corrupts you once all that is gone then the appeal of communism magically goes away as well now I don't know if this is a third layer that's probably not quite right this is like I think this is like an element of becoming a christian as well is most of these communists are outcasts from society. So at some point in their life, probably very early on, for whatever reason, they were pushed aside. 

Before I say that, let me make this economic point. Most of these communists today, they're adults, right? They can't cut it. They don't have what it takes to be successful in the capitalist system. Whether it's IQ or work ethic, reasons within their control or beyond their control, whatever it is, they can't cut it. So they don't like this economic system because it's not working for them. 

So of course they want a different one. But I think even before they become failures in the marketplace, I think a lot of these people are just weird and different. And they may not have friends in middle school. and they get pushed off into a different path of being even weirder and more of an outcast. And there's lots of different things that those people can end up doing in life. And one of them is to find solidarity, find acceptance with other similar outcasted people. 

And those outcasted people Some of them, a percentage, whatever, it's like, let's, let's, I don't know, you look at all the outcasts in America, let's say 5 % of the outcasts become communist. Like they attach their outcastness to, and like, again, all the other 95 maybe latch on to other things that are weird and not great either, but this 5 % or whatever it is, attach themselves to being communist. That's not good. So our goal as Christians should be to make sure that no one feels rejected from society because And I should say this starts young. And it's the classic tale. And we encourage our kids to look for opportunities to be this person, to make everyone feel welcome. 

Make people feel welcome in church. Make people feel welcome in a friend group. Make people feel welcome in a community. Make sure your kids bring in that kid who may be a little more awkward, a little more distant. Being outcasted and lonely can lead to many terrible things. One of them is being a communist activist when you grow up, an Antifa member, right? 

But beyond that, that's less important. We just want everyone. to know God and Jesus, and become a Christian. Everyone. I want to welcome everyone to this new life of being born again. Politics by Faith, youtube . 

com slash faith. politics by faith. If If you're listening to this, um, where you listen to podcasts. Thank you. Uh, if you could just subscribe to our YouTube page too, that'd be great. So we can help get in that algorithm over there. youtube . com slash at politics by faith.

"Young Washington" was spectacular! Go see it as soon as possible, and no, I wasn't paid to say any of this! Bring everyone you know. No one could not love it. I was able to talk to the director of the movie and learn how important it was to them to be historically accurate. The movie also celebrates the truth that God protected George Washington and is intimately involved in the affairs of this nation. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day. We bring it to the Bible. We can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day. I'm going to easily ask you since it's not the new under the sun. 

So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day today. Go see the movie, Young Washington. It was spectacular. I erupted in applause at the end of the movie. I've never done that. I've never applauded when a plane lands. 

I've never clapped when a movie's over. but I jumped up and said, spectacular. And I wasn't alone. The whole theater loved it. It was incredible. I avoid historical movies because if they're not accurate, it annoys me. I see a thing on the screen and I wonder if it really happened. 

And then after the movie, I go home and I check and it didn't happen at all. It's like, oh, what a waste. I hate that. And it's not worth it because it messes with your brain about what really, and then you have to un -remember, un -see something like that's not, I don't know if it's the, it's the, trained historian in me. I was a history major in college after all. But it just offends me because a whole generation of people are going to get their information about history from this movie and then it never happened. You guys just made it up. 

So a film director has incredible power in reshaping a historical figure. I never saw the Napoleon movie by Ridley Scott. That's not how I'm not doing that. And I'm going to avoid the Odyssey by Christopher Nolan. As always, the book will be better. All that being said, I'm just trying to say to say that I'm a tough critic with history movies of all movies. 

I'm a huge movie fan anyway, but with the history movies, certainly this movie is unbelievable. I loved every second of it. And then when I went back and looked at the historical accuracy of the major events in the movie, they all really happened. I don't, no spoiler alerts. And today, if you're not, if you haven't seen it yet, I want you to see it. So I'm not going to give any spoilers here and I want you to have the full experience, but I'll tell you, Washington was really on that Island. 

That really happened. I talked to the director today of the movie. Um, we record an interview. We're going to air it tomorrow on. Sirius XM, but I asked him about the historical accuracy and how you'd handle that as a filmmaker and the responsibility of that. And he said, making a movie, he quoted some famous director. 

He said, making a movie is not a photograph. It's more of a portrait. And you do have to do some things, mostly compress some time and compress characters. So he said, um, in real life, there were three French generals in the story of this part of the French Indian war. They had to condense that into one guy. Uh, they had to move the timing of some things. 

So like that interaction with the Indian chief that actually happened 15 years after. the war. Actually, we'll tell that story in just a moment here. I'm OK with that. I think it's sort of like John Trumbull's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We've all seen that painting before. 

That never happened. All the signers were not there in one room signing it like that. It didn't happen. That's a depiction, a portrait that represents the meaning of the moment. And we're OK with looking at the John Trumbull painting accordingly. And I think we should be here, too. 

But well, let me say this. This is the best thing I learned during the interview with the director. If you revere the subject, then you can do this. So they're going to be true to the subject. And they made something that George would be proud of. They made something we can be proud of as patriots. 

I love to be, and I'm not going to give any spoilers, but I loved it because it showed his failures. It showed his pride. It showed his ambition, how it got the best of them and was really bad. Uh, it showed how he dealt with that. I'm trying to be very careful. My words are showed how he dealt with that. 

Uh, he took the lowest seat of the table. Love that Luke 14, 10 says when you are invited, go and sit at the lowest. place. At first he angled to get the best seat at the table. It didn't go well. And then he went back, took the lowest seat. 

This movie did a wonderful job of showing the story arc of young Washington. And failure is one of the main themes of the movie. His mom said, failure is a tutor sent by God. If you don't learn from it, you fail twice. If you do learn, you gained wisdom. So lots of little themes like that. 

The biggest lesson for me, I shouldn't even say lesson, because I've talked about that, I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and I maybe talked about it here too. The more I've been studying the Revolutionary War era and before that, it's just so how obvious God's hand is in the creation of America, because there's so many things that happened that were impossible. And George Washington is a major part of that. So in this movie, one of the themes is the obvious divine protection of George, and everyone knew it. In one battle, he wrote to his brother, quote, For I had four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me, yet escaped unhurt, although death was leveling my companions on every side. 

" In that battle, the British general was killed, 70 % of the men were killed, and almost all the officers. But he made it. There was an eyewitness there who said he escaped from harm on the battlefield that day. It was nothing short of miraculous. I expected every moment to see him fall. Now, before you say, oh, well, he's probably just hiding in the woods. 

His duty and situation exposed him to every danger. Nothing but the superintending care of Providence could have saved him from the fate of all around him. It's true for all of George Washington's life. The movie, it did like three places where it could have ended. And, um, usually when a movie, sometimes movie, you're like, I should have stopped now, but that keeps going. And you're like, Oh, I should have, this one was like, Oh, everyone was better than the last. 

And I'm glad it didn't end. Right. And again, I don't want to give anything away here, but I'll just tell you that the thing is the very last scene, uh, is real. Now that was condensed. This is the part that happened 15 years later. Um, I don't, I don't want to, let me, I'll just share this. 

I, this one, I don't want to give away at all. Cause this is one of my favorite surprise things, but I'm just going to say the word, I'm going to say the word indigo and color. Okay. That's, that's my second favorite part of the whole movie indigo and color. That's the last scene. I take it back. 

That's the last scene indigo and color. Um, but I just want to share this history so that when you see this. you'll know that oh this hopefully it's even more meaningful because like oh wow this really happened because in my brain i'm like did this really like it was incredible it's like did this really happen though so i didn't get the full meaning of it but now when you see the movie you'll know this really happened it's from a biography of george washington in the early 1800s so washington was in the ohio valley 1770 about 15 years after this giant failure from general washington failure but his survival. And they met this Indian chief. And the Indian chief said, I am a chief and the ruler over many tribes. 

My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes and to the far blue mountains. I've traveled a long and weary path that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest that I first beheld this chief. I called my young young man and said, Mark, yawn, tall and daring warrior. He is not of the red coat tribe. He has an Indian's wisdom and his warriors fight as we do. 

Himself is alone, exposed quick. Let your aim be certain. And if he dies and then he dies. Right. So this Indian chief saying, Hey, Indian guys, look, look at that guy right there. This George Washington guy. 

He's not like the rest of the British soldiers. He's different. You can tell. So get your guns and we don't, we never miss. So so aim properly. You won't miss. 

Let your aim be certain. Our rifles were leveled rifles, which but for him knew not how to miss. But it was all in vain. A power mightier far than we shielded him from harm. He cannot die in battle. I am old and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my father's in the land of shades. 

But before I go, there's something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy. Listen, the great spirit protects that man and guides his destinies. He will become the chief of nations and a people yet unborn, and they will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire. I'm just telling you, that's what's in the history books. You'll see how the movie handles that. This is the part of the podcast where we talk about what's broken. 

I'll tell you what's broken. What's broken is that it's taken our entire lives for a movie to be made about George Washington. What's up with that? But I'm glad no one did because this one's so wonderful. And I want the people who made this one to be in charge of it for a long time. Another one's in the works already about George Washington during the Revolutionary War. 

And I don't know how they're going to handle that. How are they possibly going to put that into a movie? But hopefully they make a ton of these. What's broken is we've gone through decades now of making silly superhero movies when we could have been watching movies about George Washington and Daniel Boone and Teddy Roosevelt and Davy Crockett and the Alamo and all these incredible moments in our history. How about Lewis and Clark? Stories about the gold rush. 

There's tons of them, tons of ideas. But instead this weekend, the other option you had was the second live action remake of Moana, which by the way, is going to lose around $200 million. Disney is so out of ideas, they've destroyed all the brands they had. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Marvel movies. And to that, I say good riddance, good riddance. Now, maybe Hollywood can make stories that aren't cynical and that aren't silly, but stories that are meaningful and wholesome and inspirational and true. 

And I say that, though, but maybe that's wrong. Maybe I don't. Maybe I don't want to make a movies anyway. I don't want to make in our stuff. The good stuff, I should say. I don't trust them. 

I don't want people like that making young Washington. Hollywood can't reform. Everyone there hates you and they hate the things you stand for and the things you believe in. So many of them hate our country, hate the Bible. I don't want them anywhere near George Washington. I don't want them anywhere near our American story. 

I'm glad the people who are handling it now are the ones who are doing it. Let's go to the Bible. George Washington believed in providence. So do I. God is sovereign over all things. He knows everything. He will always move anything and can move anything. 

towards any end that glorifies him. His kingdom rules over all. And it's everything. It's everything we think is small, everything we think is a coincidence. Proverbs 16, 33 says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. A lot back then was like a stone they would toss to try to make a decision about something. 

Nothing's left up to chance. God decides everything. And you can't get in God's way. No one can, nothing can. Not the British, not Mamdani or whatever political force you want to talk about. No one can get in his way. 

Isaiah 14, 24 says, the Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass. And as I have purposed, so it shall stand. What are you going to do? You're going to stop him. Isaiah 46, 10 says, my counsel shall stand and I will do it all my pleasure. And I will do all, and I will do all my pleasure. 

Atheists. will say our founders were deists, right? This idea that, sure, maybe God exists, but he's like a watchmaker and he makes the watch and then he lets the watch go. And he has no role in the course of human affairs. That's not true. Our founders did not believe that. 

They believed that God had a hand in the existence, creation and existence of America. It was funny, even as I'm talking about this, because we've been raised and trained to think that our founders were atheists or deists, we don't Even I catch myself being like, oh man, you might be exaggerating a little bit. Maybe that's not entirely true. No, it's entirely true. Just look at George Washington's first inaugural address. You wonder why they don't teach American history in schools anymore? 

Because if you taught this address, you could not then teach kids that George Washington was an atheist or a deist or something. George Washington started off his first inaugural address as president the United States, 1789. He said it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that almighty being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations. Same paragraph. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. 

Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency, including in the life of George Washington himself. " This is how George Washington started the country. That's how he kicked it off in 1789. Before that, in 1776, Washington told Joseph Reed that if we win this war, then there's no question, no question that it was Almighty God who made it happen. He wrote to Thomas Nelson. In 1778, he said, the hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all of this that he must be worse than an infidel, the man who lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. 

It's like, it's so odd. Think about this letter. It's so obvious, George Washington saying it's so obvious that God is in control of all of this, that if you don't believe that you are an infidel. And you are more than wicked if you are not grateful to God for everything he's done. Amazing. I'll leave it just, I know I got off the Bible, but I'm back on George Washington, but he gave this address. 

It's a known address called Address to the Delaware Indian Chiefs, May 12th, 1778. And the leaders of the Indians, they brought three Indian kings. to be educated by the Americans. And George Washington said, you do well to wish to learn of our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. What if our popular culture was seeped in this history and this truth? 

Can we be? Of course we can. But we need to make movies like Young Washington a success so people are inspired because the stories are true. It's got to tell them. I'll end with a Bible verse, 1 Peter 3 15, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 

Maybe it's easier for us to say, you know, we love America. We love George Washington. Why do you love George Washington? Ah, he was awesome. And that's maybe now you can tell a story after you watch the movie, you'll be like, well, it's one time when he was with his friend and they were on an island. That's great. 

But make sure it's even easier to talk about how much you love Jesus and to give an answer why. We can know the history of George Washington and the French and Indian War. It's great. It's wonderful. But we need to know the Bible even more. And we need to know God's word even more. 

And we need to be ready to prove how he's changed our lives. And we need to be ready to live every day differently so that we can glorify him. We may not go down in the history books like George Washington did. Maybe no one's going to make a movie about your life. But if you're a Christian, your name is going to be written in the book of life. It's even better. 

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Senator Lindsey Graham passed away suddenly at the age of 71. What should we say about a politician's passing if we disagree with them on many issues? What can we learn from the life, and death, of prominent US Senators?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day and bring it to the Bible, so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day can all be very overwhelming, cause a lot of anxiety, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here for the true story, the story of the day. Today, Senator Lindsey Graham has died. We have a video from just the day before he died. 

He was in Kiev in Ukraine. Now, Conspiracy theories are out there. People are quick to make up a story. Isn't that wild? The human brain, heart, something happens. What's the real story? 

Those are quick initial reactions. That's wild. But people's initial reaction was, oh, he was in Ukraine, and he's a big war hawk guy, supports arming Ukraine, so Russia probably doesn't care much for him, so maybe he was assassinated by Russia. I tend to believe the most obvious thing. like an Occam's razor approach to life. But I think the Occam's razor here is he's 71 and 71 year olds can have a heart attack. 

But maybe we'll find out more. The time will will come for that. President Trump said Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the greatest people and senators I've ever known is dead. He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed. So sad. 

The president went on a few of the new shows this last week and here to talk about Lindsey Graham. And, uh, you know, every reporter tried to throw in another question in there and he said, no, no, we're here only to talk about Lindsey Graham. I'm not answering any of the questions. Lindsey Graham became a Congressman in 1994, won the Senate in 2002. He was an air force jag before that. I feel bad saying much about Lindsey Graham, to be honest, because I only knew him as a caricature of the president. 

a caricature in the political realm. Like if politics was a TV show, he was a character in that show. And anything I could say about him is merely political. And that's not much of a ode. It's not much of a compliment to have someone die and then say, well, here were their political stances that they took on certain issues. That's all life is. 

That's all his life was. Gosh, I hope when I die, people say more than, well, He really thought we should reform H -1B visas, and he believed we needed to build a wall. Ah, yes. Really? Imagine that being on your tombstone. Mike Slater didn't really like the one big, beautiful bill, but I mean, there were some parts in it that he thought were okay. 

Yikes. I'm reading Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives right now. Probably one of the most important books ever written by this Greek historian, Plutarch. He wrote something like 48 short biographies, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Demosthenes, Cicero, guys like that. It was written in like the year 100. But what I enjoy so much about the book, and I think what's especially noteworthy about it is what he chose to write about it, what he didn't write about. 

This is in the introduction. He said, it must be born in mind that my design is not to write histories, but lives. And the most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men. Sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest. and forms as better of their character and inclinations than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever. So I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks and indications of the souls of men. 

And while I endeavor by these to portray their lives, may be free to leave more weighty matters and great, great tales to be treated by others. " I love that. So he says, listen, this biography is not a, on this date, then on this date, then on this date. This is more about their lives, their souls, maybe about the smaller things that have happened in their lives. but it's going to reveal their character. So in that spirit, because I could talk about Lindsey Graham's, you know, here's here on this date, he supported this political thing on others. 

Like I don't care, but I can say this about his character. Both of Lindsey Graham's parents died when he was 21 and 22. They died about a year apart from each other. Mom died from cancer. His dad had a heart attack. He was about 22 and his sister was 13. 

He adopted her. I never heard that before. That's that's commendable to step up like that for your sister. Of course, they remained incredibly close ever since. She told the New York Times back in 2015, Lindsey was always my parent. Lindsey Graham, by the way, was never married. 

He has no kids, but he taught his sister how to ride a bicycle. And they grew up together in like a single room behind their family -owned bar. They owned this bar and pool hall, and they lived in one room in the back. Everyone slept in one room. That was it. That was the room that they had. 

It's crazy. He was the first member of his family to go to college. and he was way across the board. And his sister said, I can remember the day my father passed away, standing in the living room of that room, absolutely scared to death. Lindsay wrapped his arms around me and promised me he would always be there for me and always take care of me. That will, well, I suppose you're defined before then. 

You're being made, I suppose. But if a decision like that, that should define you in really honorable ways. It's great. You're 22. Lindsey Graham, he also said, there's a lot of so -called self -made people in this world. I'm not one of them. 

My family, my friends, neighbors, and my faith picked me up when I was down, believed in me when I had doubts. You made me the man I am today. I love that point. To what extent is anyone self -made really? So politically right now, the governor of South Carolina names his replacement until the next election. And there's a Republican as the governor of South Carolina. 

And he's a supporter of Lindsey Graham. They get along, of course, so they got along. So there'll be a good Republican there for now. His re -election was coming up in November. And there's going to be a primary in August to pick. Obviously, it was just going to be Lindsey Graham. 

But now, just a couple weeks here, they're going to have to have an election to figure out who that is going to be. The Democrat, there's a front -runner Democrat. Her name's like, Annie Andrews or Bonnie Andrews or something like that. I don't know what her chances are. You know, when you get a race like against Lindsey Graham, who wins 70 % of the vote, usually it's like a throwaway race. So I don't know if this is a real serious contender in the Democratic Party. 

If someone can swoop in real quick and grab the seat or keep the seat, probably what one It is worth noting how fragile political majorities are. It seems like there have been more deaths or resignations this year than ever. And I looked it up, and the best I could find is that in the past five years, just five years, there's been 10 sitting members of the House. Senator Graham was a senator. But there's been 10 members of the House who have died in office. 

And 12 bailed out. I'm not running for re -election. I mean, just like, I'm out now. We're done with this whole thing. That's amazing. So you can think you have a majority, and then a couple of people die, and a few more resign, and then it's gone. 

But that's politics. More importantly, This is true for life. You can be fine one day and you get a sudden illness and then you're not alive anymore. And then everyone in your life gets that phone call and say, what? I talked to him yesterday. He's fine. 

We used to do Radiothon for Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. And that was everyone's story. We'd have all these families come in and went to Rady. And that was their story. Every single one of them. Like, Oh, my son, he was eight years old and he was great. 

And then on the baseball field, one day he passed out on the field. And now he had cancer and that whole life has been different. Right? So you're fine, fine, fine, fine, fine. Then all of a sudden not. Lindsey Graham, Senator, Senator, Senator, all of a sudden, not. 

Now we're talking who's who's the replacement? What's the process for picking a new Senate? Like, so let's go to the Bible here. My first biblical point is for three, no one lives forever. We talked about this the other day. I know it sounds like a no slater. 

But do we do we know? Because if we really knew and we believed it, we would live differently. We would make different decisions. So yeah, I know Slater, no one lives forever. All right, well, how are you behaving differently knowing that? 

Because for almost all of us, myself included, as an outside observer, look at you and be like, oh, you think you're going to, you're acting like you're going to live forever. You're sure not. and you don't know when your day is, so no one's going to live forever. We talked about this just a couple episodes ago with the rich Silicon Valley tech guy whose goal, Brian Johnson, his goal is to live forever. Literally his life mission is don't die. And he spends millions of dollars a year on his health. 

And he just got diagnosed with an incurable stomach disease. And he's going to die, of course. So you can't live forever. Even if you're a senator, which is my second point, we tend to worship politicians, which is weird because we also don't like them. I don't understand how we can do both those things. We don't like politicians. 

We don't trust them. They can't get anything done or do anything right. They're generally not that skilled or talented at much of anything, probably. Some of them never had a real job. There's some guys now who've had a real job and they come and become a senator. Some of these guys have never had a real job ever. 

So they're not impressive. And then we worship them and we look up to them as if they're of a higher class than us. Like, ooh, a congressman is here. What? It doesn't make sense. So don't worship politicians, which leads To the most important third point, your life should not be defined by your political opinions. 

I feel bad distilling Lindsey Graham to a set of political opinions. He was a human individual person and this was his life, right? Cause he didn't have a wife and kids. He could spend all this time working and he did. And he said how much he loved it. I think I read a thing from JD Vance talking about that. 

Lindsey Graham would talk to him, how much fun this was. He loved it. And that's great, but I just want to make sure we live our lives in a way that when people have something to say about our passing, it's not, well, he had this political opinion. Okay. I find that shallow and transient. I know it's transient, no matter how important it is here on earth. 

It's shallow when it comes to eternity. Proverbs 10, seven says the memory of the righteous is a blessing. But the name of the wicked will rot. Yikes. No, I'm not, I'm not talking about the wicked here. Surely that's not, I'm not saying Lindsey Graham's wicked. 

I'm talking more about the righteous. Like that's the one that matters. Who are the righteous? The Hebrew word here means someone who is righteous in conduct and character. So they're, they're righteous as in they're justified by God. I should say by Jesus, to God, because that means you believe in Jesus. 

I mean, that's the legacy worth living for. You die and someone says, man, he loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength. And he loved his neighbor as himself. That's what you want on your tombstone. That's what you want said at your funeral. We shouldn't be striving for eternal fame on earth. 

It won't happen. I know I just mentioned Plutarch's lives, people from thousands of years ago, but there's like 48 of them. All right. That's not going to be you or me. Also, how much of the people whose biographies he wrote, if they came back to life today and read it, they'd be like, that's not what happened. These are all more myth than anything else at this point. 

And like, some of the stories are like, and he was sailing down the sea and he a giant hand came and picked up the boat. It's all intertwined with myth already, even in Plutarch's life. That proves my point even more. Ecclesiastes 9 .5 says, For the living that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. We forget. 

We forget people. Maybe you can go, maybe you remember your grandpa. Great -grandpa? Maybe you know his name. Give me two. Give me two greats. 

Great -great -grandpa? Nothing. I got nothing. I don't know. That should be really comforting. Should be. 

It's kind of sad at first, but no, it's not, because God remembers his people. God knows his people. You will never forget you. Revelation 14, 12, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them. So we have this contrast here in revelation between the rest of the saints in eternity and the continual torment of the wicked. 

It's Revelation 14, 11, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image. We don't want that. We want to die in the Lord. We want to die in the cause of God. It was Adam Clark in the 1800s. 

He said they die under the smile and approval of God, and they die to live and reign with God forever and ever. Psalm 34 says, blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord. Psalm 40, blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust. This is where we need to find our value. And any memory of us, however much it lasts on earth, any memory of us, Even as we die and after we die, even that should be bringing glory to God. YouTube . 

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