America is a Place NOT an Idea

It's not ideas not just to defeat Trump. You have to defeat Trump ism. You have to defeat the idea. That the United States of America is a place and not an idea.

Liberty University and Biblical Justice

Welcome once again to the conversations that matter podcast. My name is John Harris a short episode for you today Gonna be trying to at least start to answer the question. Is America a place or an idea or something else?

And and you may think why do I care and I'm gonna try to convince you why you should care about that. First though. I want to show you This clip this is encouraging for you guys those who support this podcast Patrons prayer warriors all of you guys who signed the petition about concerning Liberty University and concerns a Parental group had about the teaching of social justice and that kind of thing.

I want to show you This clip. This is a recent Clip from Jonathan Falwell. So he's the son of Jerry Falwell who founded Liberty University. And and this is just for those who don't know. This is the petition I plug this on the program ask Liberty University to release a statement on biblical justice and it looks like almost 1 ,500 people signed this and You know essentially says let's add this to the faith statement because we're concerned it was very nicely worded.

I mean this is the template in my opinion if you have an Institution that is starting to go this direction or you see signs of it. Which I think every institution just about has signs of this if they're Do if they have any size whatsoever someone in there is gonna want to be pushing this.

And this is a just a really great way you can go about I think Sounding the alarm while being Concerned and nice about it. And so you can go look at that. I've talked about in another episode. So this was signed by many of you a few weeks ago and looks like people are still signing it.

So here's what happened two things to encourage you that have happened since then. Number one. I noticed this. No, that's not it. I noticed this. Here we go. This is from the Liberty champion. This is the school's newspaper and the school's newspaper from from everything.

I know is pretty solid, you know. It's always been. I don't think there's been a question there, but they put this out on November 16th. Opinion social justice is not the same as biblical justice and there is a whole article here by someone named John Simmons jr I'm assuming that is a student.

Oh the page doesn't exist when I click it. So I'm not sure who that is, but But anyways that was put out by the the school newspaper then you have this clip from Jonathan Falwell check this out.

I've heard in the last couple of weeks in the last couple of months Individuals that have shared with me that they're concerned that Liberty is going to go the wrong direction. That Liberty is going to turn left and it's gonna become liberal and it's gonna become You know an institution that kind of falls into the politically correct realm.

Well, listen part of that video that you heard tonight. We put it in there for on purpose and for a reason when you heard my dad say that if Year from now or ten years from now or 50 years from now. If someone comes along and they're watching that video and hearing My dad speak and they look at Liberty University and it's gone off the rails and it's gone left and it's gone liberal.

It's gone wild and it's walked away from the inerrancy of scripture and it's walked away from the gospel and it's walked away from its Original mission and vision. You heard what my dad said. He said this burn the place down and I'm here to tell you tonight that if Liberty ever goes that direction I'll be the one to light the match.

Alright, so this was put out there by Jonathan Falwell who is Like I said the son of Jerry Falwell who founded the school brother to Jerry Falwell jr. Most of you know who that is. He pastors Thomas Rue Baptist Church.

Now. Look, I don't know I'm sure there's questions that are come my way. You know, does Jonathan follow really understand the insidious and subversive nature of the critical theories? I don't know I I would assume probably not in detail.

Most people don't And but it's still nonetheless. This is an encouraging thing to see this. There's someone there who at least acknowledges I've gotten some complaints and you know what I'm gonna treat those complaints the way they should be Treated as Legitimate and I'm just gonna tell you look.

I'm with you even now I don't know where this is all going. But look that's that's more than I can say for pretty much any other Christian institution. I mean look what's happening with Southern Seminary.

I mean, it's all if you're in the Southern Baptist Convention. It's like you you raise a concern and it's like you get attacked.

And.

You know. It's always hide whatever the issue is or don't talk about it. Pretend it didn't exist. I mean This is so different and I just want to encourage you guys who have been in this and we're concerned about Liberty University.

I'm not saying not to be concerned anymore, but you have someone that at least is willing to listen there and.

So.

That was very encouraging. Now on to the topic at hand. Which is an important one to me and I'm gonna try to Demonstrate to you why I think it should be important to you as well. Is America an idea? Or is an America.

Is America a place or some people could say a people, you know a place people that kind of thing and. And this is really the difference here is between it's it's between artificial and organic. Is this some abstract thing like a Kantian idea like like something that exists just in the head like as America is something that exists in the mind And doesn't have any.

It only manifests itself as it is imposed from the top down By by someone who is taking these abstract concepts and forcing them. Or is America organically from the ground up a place where people settled where things happened where different kinds of people brought different kinds of ideas and they grew up together and.

It just it's happened over time with the providence of God and his sovereign hand. Which one is it or is it both some people have told me? Oh, it's both. I don't think it can be both. We'll get into it though.

So here here I want to show you so, you know, why should I care about this John? Well, who cares? Here's something Bono said a few years ago. I want you to listen to this. America is.

It's not just a country. It's an idea. Ireland is a great country. It's Really proud to be Irish. It's not an idea. Great Britain is great. It's not an idea. America is an idea and And that idea sort of Belongs to everybody Who wishes to serve it.

It strikes me when the American idea seems to fade? Or is under threat.

Or is vulnerable.

People feel it in a way. They don't. Feel about other countries. What was happening with with America in the 70s in Vietnam was people felt it was the end of America as this kind of idealistic.

Idea and.

The pain of that.

The sort of.

The torture of Seeing the country torn apart.

Racial division political division.

Lives Lost fighting war. They didn't really understand Or feel was any of their business. It was a real low point for America and Jimi Hendrix playing the Star-Spangled Banner was a.

Credible.

Exorcism just Americans before all of us.

So there you have it. Jimi Hendrix played the electric guitar probably high on drugs and. Was it was. He was able to exercise the demons out of America for the whole world. Because America is just an idea.

Notice. How mystical and spiritual that is? You know using even that term exorcism and and how. Borders don't define it. People don't define it. Culture doesn't define it. Really. It's just an idea. It's something that can just exist in the head.

You can nuke America off the face of the planet. Doesn't exist anymore. The people there could be replaced by Martians and you'd still have America if it was just this idea. And the idea is a quality.

Essentially, I'll show you that but this this is um. It's kind of ridiculous if you really think about this for two seconds. Okay, Ireland's a country. Great Britain's a country. But America's an idea.

No.

I can actually give you like the border of the collector there is a country people actually. The same way they went to Ireland they had to get there somehow. They went to America people traveled there they established as an extension of families governments.

That's you know read Albion seed. I'm gonna plug that at the end by David Hackett Fisher. It organically formed over time and it's not something that you can just put on paper and and say well this you know.

This three by five card. I have America. This is America right here. Well, no, there's there's you know, that's like saying You know your girlfriend or your wife or your boyfriend or your husband, you know, you're just an idea.

But you know, you're a great idea special idea, but an idea they probably if your wife would probably slap you. They're not an idea and you can't encapsulate everything about them in a poem on Valentine's Day.

You can get a lot of things, right, but Organic things are things you recognize when you see them and you know them you because you see it. You can read about it. You can get a sense for it, but you can't Quantify all of it.

It's changing. That's what organic things do even the nation of Israel think about this biblically if there's any nation any country that Would have the status of having a spiritual or mystical component.

It'd be Israel. I mean literally we're gonna happen the New Jerusalem is gonna come down from the sky. But guess what? It's got borders. It excludes people because it's got a particular religion. It's got a particular law that's laid down and even with all those things Israel Changed over time.

We have the historical record look at the the country called Israel today. It's a lot different than what you read about in Scripture as well. Right. Is there a connection between the two there is is there a connection between the Israel that was in captivity the people and The Israel under Moses.

Yeah, there is a connection. Are they the same Israel in some sense? Yes, but are is it all just an idea. Israel is just this idea. The only way you can say anything is an idea is that it is an idea in so far as in the mind of God this thing Existed before and God said let there be light God created.

God is the only creature in the universe who is able to create from the abstract. From the realm of ideas to the physical to the to put it into reality. Okay, humans don't have that and when you start saying that America is an idea that belongs to humans and It's in the minds of humans.

It becomes this malleable thing. You can just tweak and shape and you get the right to say well What you have wasn't really America when we were fighting Vietnam. There's demons. And and we need to get back to the idea of America.

And so Ireland and Great Britain, I guess just you know, other countries don't have this there. They're not they don't have principles. They don't have governments that work off of laws. They don't have.

It's just America that has this shining city kind of ideal. Well, let's keep going here. Let me show you some other things and I know some of you are thinking wait I've heard conservatives use this language and it's one of the reasons I'm making this video.

I kind of think Dinesh D'Souza might have been one of the starters of this. I my suspicion is It's a Straussian concept that came through like Harry Jaffa to Dinesh D'Souza. I'm not sure what the lineage is.

But yes, I think it is the Dinesh D'Souza types the neo-conservative types who have started really using this language, but it didn't come from Conservatives it wasn't something that the right this isn't something the founders would have even recognized.

And I realize a lot of us have said this probably in a well-meaning way. But I just want to I want to challenge you a little bit on this and think through the you know the ramifications of it, so Here here's another I want to read this to you this is from a book called the coming prosperity.

Which I think was in 2010 or so by Philip our I think I'm our Schwalbe, I hope I'm pronouncing that right. He's an academic. And and he quotes from a book. I figure I show you this tweet from 2012. The book he quotes from is by Richard, Florida.

It's called It's it's uh, I didn't put the title down here. It's about the Great Reset. It has the Great Reset in the title. I think it's called Great Reset and by Richard, Florida and Philip our Schwalbe says The Great Great Reset is occurring at the local micro scale as a national level works against the current propping up the old order.

And he quotes him this this Great Reset in the coming prosperity. Now remember the Great Reset is in a new concept. It's been around for a little while. Now we all are hearing about it. But here's here's a passage from his book.

Listen to ask ask yourself. This sounds familiar. This is from like 10 years ago. Resource scarcity is a problem. Climate change is a problem. Denial of human rights is a problem. The lack of opportunity for youth one key source of the sex pistols frustration with Britain of The 1970s is a problem.

But globalization has the word global in it for a reason. It means that everyone's in Inclusion we've got a problem. The problem is us. We're all part of the traffic. That's the bad news the good news now notice the again mystical gospel kind of language here.

So that's the bad news. What's the good news? So is the solution. The exceptionalism that matters for the 21st century is a an exceptionalism of possibility the Practically collaborative possibilities each of us brings to solve problems of which we're apart.

Humans are gonna save themselves guys. That's what he's saying. Humans are going to save themselves. And what and what are the problems again resource scarcity climate change denial of human rights sin problems even?

Humans are gonna save themselves by working together. This is sound Tower of Babel. Does this sound great reset? This was like 10 years ago. This guy's saying this All right. So so let's keep going here.

Well, how does America fit into this the exceptionalism that matters for the 21st century is an exceptionalism of possibility? Collaborative possibilities each of us brings to solving problems of which we're apart problems what you gonna do.

That's what opportunity in the age of entrepreneurship is about and that's why it's the key to the coming Prosperity, so things are gonna get better guys. We're gonna coming prosperity. It's the title of the book Entrepreneurship doesn't just mean building new companies.

Entrepreneurship means connecting to a problem and By so doing connecting to a solution if America is truly exceptional. It is because America is not a place it is an idea. It is an idea that changes adapts and evolves at its man-on-the-moon best.

The last America was magnificent, but it had its problems and In any event, it's gone. The less time each of us spends building levies against inexorable tides of change the better off we will all be.

So don't resist guys. Appreciating the nature of the coming prosperity may not in itself constitute a plan for the future but it may be possible to suggest to us a Next idea a next promised a next possibility a next America.

What did I want you to hear from that. Here's what I wanted you to hear from that. What this individual this this academic is saying ten years ago. Is that America because of the the fact that it's an idea.

It's malleable to changes namely the Great Reset because what the left can do is constantly criticize America for all its shortcomings and Say it doesn't live up to its idea. It's ideal. So what's the solution?

We need to come together Globally not just America. That's what he said around the world. We need to come together to solve problems. One of those problems is all the issues America had but thankfully because those issues don't define America America is just an idea.

Then it's it's this standard of perfection that we can try to attain. And this is exactly what the global elites are doing. This is exactly what leftists do. And it's it's a way of guilting and shaming and then offering redemption and the redemption is you have to come along with us.

You have to do what we want you to do. It's antithetical to Christianity. Every country has problem there. You can't build a utopia. There is no such thing. Tower of Babel was the first time this was tried and there is no Attempt since then that has been successful socialism is predicated on this idea and now that we have a globalized socialism.

It's going to be on steroids. Impossible Christian worldview Christian teaching Christian Documents the Bible the 66 books prove to us show to us. Example after example of this failing they teach us that this is not able to happen.

So you if you believe in sacred scripture you believe man is evil you believe everything man touches is going to have evil. There is no way. You have a country and it formed. This is the way that works in the real world the country forms organically and a country is going to have problems insofar as a country Repents and by the grace of God follows the precepts of God blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, but no nation is perfect and it never will be and striving for perfection is The problem with all leftist utopianism and it's been that way for a long time.

I'm going back to even to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. So so this is the kind of thing that leftists have been saying for a while. I want to contrast this with you for a moment. With a farewell address. This is George Washington and This is what he said.

He said with slight shades of difference. You have the same religion. He's talking to the America. You have the same religion manners habits and political principles. You have in a common cause fought and triumphed together.

The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint councils joint efforts of common dangers sufferings and successes. So what's George Washington saying here? Yep, we came together right to solve a problem.

He's talking about the American War for Independence. But what does he recognize in that? Slight shades of difference you have what the same religion manners habits and political principles. You're not just part of this abstract idea you're not all striving for some abstraction of perfection.

You all saw. Even though you had differences and he goes on after this talk about the North and the South and their differences even though you had Differences you were able as real people to come together to fight.

For mutual interest you formed an alliance and One of the reasons for that is because you had what same religion. Same manner same habits same political principles. There was enough in common that you had to form that alliance.

These are things that come from real people groups real think about even just good. I always try to get people to understand nations and by tracing it back to families think of families. Differences between families families can work together.

Some families can't because there's just too many differences. Even when you're getting married to someone sometimes the differences are just too much. You can't marry someone who's not part of your. If you take your religion seriously, you can't marry someone who's not part of your faith and have a successful marriage.

You can't marry someone who has completely different principles on economics and have a successful budgets, right? So you have to have some things in common some common ground. It's the same thing with peoples with nations.

There have to be things that draw them together. Diversity is not the strength. It's actually it's unity that's the strength and the unity that we have the diverse the diversity has to be a diversity that Comes together and says I have different kind of like the diversity of first Corinthians 12 body of Christ.

I have different skills, but I have the same what religion manners habits political principles. I mean, these are the things that George Washington said are the important things that bind us together and those are organic guys.

Those are things that are. These aren't just ideas that are sitting on hard drives. These aren't abstract things. These are real things. Real things that you do. That you you work out in your everyday life that you're taught and that culture kind of filters to you now I want to Show you one more.

We're gonna read one more thing and then I want to show you the clip that sparked The Twitter controversy. I was in little controversy, but this this is this is a something I want to read for you. This is from Boyd Cathy who is he's retired.

He used to teach at I believe or he was an archivist in North Carolina and he Was an assistant to Russell Kirk wrote for those who know Russell Kirk who wrote the conservative mind. Boyd Cathy said this in 2019 so last year.

That narrative is that America was founded on an idea that idea was equality for all America according to both the progressivist left and neoconservatives who dominate the conservative movement is a propositional nation.

Based on the nebulous idea of equality. Now, what are you saying? They're propositional nation. He's referencing the Gettysburg Address and he's right about this when Abraham Lincoln said that you know, we're founded on the idea.

That America's found on the proposition right abstract there that all men are created equal. Then he kind of that has been the hook that progressives have used since then to reduce America to well America is just about equality.

You can go to the Middle East and countries that don't have what George Washington just said we have in the United States they don't have a base for. Having a Republican form of government perhaps but because America is just this idea that everyone's equal you can plant America No matter where you want to anywhere in the world.

That's the nation-building thing. That's the neoconservative thing. You just take America and put it anywhere. Because it's just this idea that people are equal. Right, and it's become an egalitarian equality and more and more egalitarian as time goes on now.

You know everyone, you know genders are even equal and so forth. So so this is. This is actually it. Lincoln didn't even believe link Lincoln would have. Lincoln didn't believe that even races were equal.

And I'm talking about, you know ethnicities. Lincoln didn't even believe that the founders certainly read the Declaration of Independence which Lincoln is even quoting from and It's a poetic flourish.

It's not an abstract kind of legal document, but the Declaration of Independence. If you read through it, I mean it talks about savages and other countries and and and kind of and how the king used them and that wasn't good and it's Total, I mean today if you wrote something like that, I'd be total nationalist.

It would be considered racist. I mean, that's what the Declaration of Independence would be if Donald Trump wrote it right Thomas Jefferson wrote it at a time When people knew no one in his time period I mean hardly anyone Would have thought Oh Thomas Jefferson is saying that we're all egalitarian equal.

No, what was going on? What was going on was the whole document is about we're British. We have our rights as British people British citizens. We we're in the colonies, but all men are created equal. We're under the same law.

That's what he's saying and. And and you have violated that. So he's he's he's he's hearkening back to their rights as British people. But more than that to what was behind that the principles upon which the British law the British common law system based itself on.

So that's what he is appealing to. He is not making a cry that everyone's equal. I mean women couldn't vote back then that and that wasn't even controversial. So I mean I could go on but look here's here's the thing.

The Declaration of Independence didn't really mean what Lincoln kind of insinuated that we were just founded on this proposition but people since Lincoln have been taken this Lincoln's kind of misreading of the Declaration and then applied it to all kinds of things and This is where conservatives say well we believe in the equality of Opportunity and liberals believe in the equality of outcome.

There's sort of some truth in that but honestly. Here's what the Declaration of Independence meant our founders equality before the law. That's what they're talking about in the Declaration of Independence.

That's what Thomas Jefferson is talking about equality before the law the law judges equally and. So even if you live in North Carolina and if you live in Great Britain you have the same common law tradition and your rights can't be violated just because you live in North Carolina and.

So it had nothing to do with even equality of opportunity. Conservatives have tried to take equality of opportunity and not everyone has that by the way. And and and and so there's there's even sort of a fight for the definition of that some conservatives will say well that means You know that everyone has an equal shot because the the coach, you know, or the the referee is.

Just that sort of an equality before the law idea. The referee is going to treat everyone the same before the law and that we can we can get behind but then others have taken that to say. That there are things that we don't want necessarily quality of outcome because everyone is different.

We don't want to force that but we want to kind of till the soil. So that people who you know are born in abject poverty and people who are born in an affluent area Have exactly the same shot. They have equality of opportunity.

Well, that doesn't exist. Not everyone has the same shot and many people who became affluent Did so because they had barriers they had to overcome it caused them to work hard and it may give them dignity when they did get to that point, so I I don't buy that idea if that's in if you believe in equality of opportunity in that sense.

That's not a conservative idea and that has sort of made its way into the conservative movement if you want to call it that they're the right in this country and and of course the left believes in equality of outcome opportunity and outcome and their idea of equity is egalitarianism on steroids we just we have to Put barriers in front of people who have more and opportunities and we have to You know redistribute Wealth and privilege and these kinds of things to those who don't.

Socialism, that's what it is. So anyway getting back to Boyd Cathy here. He says according to this version of our history from the beginning that idea was perverted by evil white men and even more by evil slaveholders.

Who prevented America from living up to its ideals unlike the Puritans of Massachusetts. Most of the the new Americans did not come to these shores to establish some new city of God. Some new shining city on a hill to quote John Winthrop.

Their goal was not to establish an egalitarian Utopia rather they brought with them their customs their folklore their music and arts their religion. Which were uniquely theirs their inheritance and as they move west across the Appalachians and across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains.

They carried that culture with them giving body to the American nation. And I think he's absolutely right in this that is the difference and that is that's why I am so proud to be an American because I I don't see this country as I don't see it as obviously God is in control and he I I don't think there's accidents in history.

I think God is behind The what we're leading up to the culmination of all things. But that being said I'm proud to be an American because I know there are real people. My family's in that your family's in that who came from other places most of which all of them had to have at some point and.

And they came here and it was hard. And and what they did was they carried their their traditions from other places to this country whether It was slaves from Africa. You know those who were persecuted in Europe like my ancestors were who fled to the shores of the United States.

Wherever all I mean I met people last weekend from North parents. One of them their dad was from North Korea and they came here and it was a struggle and they built something. Real people who like Boyd was saying and like George Washington was saying.

Who brought with them their religion who brought their culture who brought their folklore all these things to make? America what it is and different regions what they are to shape them and It wasn't it unlike the sort of the Puritan mindset political mindset.

I'm not talking about the theology guys. Don't don't don't misunderstand me. Unlike that mindset which was essentially the idea that we're gonna come here to establish this shining city this almost you this utopia.

Most of the people who came here We're not here to establish utopia and even the Puritans who did I mean they didn't end up establishing utopia. Many of them weren't even in the John Winthrop vein so.

Anyways, it's not an abstract thing that we're supposed to just be constantly living up to and constantly failing at. It's a real place. It is the difference between a farm and a stagecoach. I mean America is a farm.

It's that it gets dirty on the farm and there's different but but you're happy on the farm you get to. You get to eat you get to live and it's an overall a pretty good place and I think America is the best farm.

But it's not a stagecoach of this mission that we're going to somehow Accomplish this insanely great thing and usher in peace for all of mankind. We can't do that guys we just live to the best of our abilities in the country we're in and in the life that we have and I do agree with Reagan.

We are the last best hope for mankind in a sense. Because we we were able to hold on to freedom because we were a more on religious people for so long. But those days are twilighting. In fact, it's getting dark and If we are going to restore the United States, it's not to pound the drum for equality it is to get back to personal Repentance and worshiping the God who made us.

That is the only way to get back on track because we will never be able to achieve anything. We set out to do apart from the blessings and the wisdom of the Creator and Following his principles. We just can't do it.

That's a humanistic. It's an exercise in futility is what it is. So so now that I've kind of laid a groundwork for you. Here is the the controversy. I'm gonna play for you this video. This is James Carville, he is a.

A.

I guess Democrat strategist worked with the Clintons of a pretty famous guy and. And so I had teased out on November 21st, here's a shot of it here I had teased out this America is not an idea. It is a place and a very special one and I got some pushback From some people.

How can you say that? Right and hopefully you understand now why I did say it now. This is the clip though I was thinking of and I waited a few hours to post it and Because people are saying isn't that a conservative thing to think America is just this idea and I want you to hear this is now relating directly to Donald Trump and it's gonna explain for some of you who have scratched your heads why I Voted for Trump this time around a little bit.

Here's what James Carville said.

It's not idea is not just to defeat Trump. You have to defeat Trump ism. You have to defeat the idea that the United States of America is a place and not an idea. And we're all fighting and it's white people fighting against non-white people and men fighting against women and I Don't know gay people fighting against non-gay people and it's just call him on it.

The country does not want him back.

So according to James Carville Trump ism is the idea that America is a place where people are just bickering and fighting and trying to adjudicate their differences through a Political process apparently and it's so terrible that people are bickering with one another.

Well, that's just human nature that happens no matter where you are even in a family, there's gonna be differences of opinion people are gonna bicker and We need a system that Enforces the rule of law forces the principles God has laid down in order to adjudicate those things if that goes away.

Then we adjudicate them through unfortunately force and we it becomes might makes right. But we are a nation of laws. We're a country of laws and that is what America has been should be now. James Carville then what's the alternative he wants the idea that America is just an idea that it's just this abstract thing and that would be I guess a place where people aren't fighting with each Other where they're not trying to adjudicate their differences politically if that's the case.

Then that's just like every communist government that's existed where the people aren't free to voice their complaints and differences and grievances instead. It's whack-a-mole if they say anything so they stuff it keep it to themselves and look there's no conflict in Soviet Russia because we're all On the same page.

Yeah, because you have guns keeping it that way. That that's the kind of world that James Carville is. He's telling us guys. That's where they're going. That's what they want and look at the passion. He has he hates the idea that America is a place with borders.

Imagine that to protect itself and its own citizens. And this is the thing guys. This is this is one of the things that defines Trump. And I didn't even realize this quite at first and I'm I get it now.

One of the things about Trump that made him unique was that he fought for his political Principles that he wanted to enact he fought for him. He wasn't like a lot of other Republicans. He's a fighter.

Okay, got it. But there's something else Donald Trump actually loves the people of the United States real people all kinds of people different people, but he seems to actually want to do what's best for them and He doesn't he's not in love with abstract principles like equality.

He's not just in he he's actually looking at the condition of people listen to his answers. Whenever you hear the question brought up, what are you doing for the black people? You know, what are you doing for this minority or that minority or women and what does Donald Trump usually say?