CGR MONDAY 072423 Part 2

Hi, this is Pastor Greg and you're listening to Chosen Generation Radio. Get more at chosengenerationradio.com.

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Instead, we are fighting an ideological battle for control of our country by contributing to causes that support your constitutional rights. I am Patriot Mobile. I thank and praise God for this borewell that God has enabled us to put in this village with the prayer and support of Pastor Greg Young and Chosen Generation Radio Ministry and by the prayer and support of Pastor Greg Young and Chosen Generation Radio Ministry, we could put the borewell in this village for the community. Before, this community was drinking dirty water and that was really causing a lot of sickness, but now they are getting pure and fresh water. All the communities are so thankful for Pastor Greg Young and Chosen Generation Radio Ministry and all the supporters. And we pray for all of you that God would bless you and God would use you so that we can put more and more borewells in a poor and needy community, those who are really having a problem of the water. And this borewell we have put and pure and fresh water is coming and we are so thankful for all of you. Lastly, we thank Pastor Greg Young and Chosen Generation Radio Ministry that help us and supporters of supporting the borewell.

Thank you and God bless you. Hi, I'm Tim Sheff, a certified natural health practitioner of over 40 years. I went under use to a product that changed my life. The product is called Vibe, available at cgrwellness.com. I thought I was on a good nutritional program before I discovered Vibe.

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Negro products do not treat, reduce, cure, or prevent disease. Welcome to Chosen Generation with your host, Pastor Greg Young. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should shoe forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

And now, Chosen Generation, where no topic is off limits and everything is filtered through biblical glasses. And now, here's your host, Pastor Greg. Welcome to the program. Great to have you with me. Thanks so much for being here. I know you have a choice of where you can listen each and every day, and I thank you for keeping it tuned here to Chosen Generation Radio. Well, folks, I've got a real treat for you.

I'm very, very pleased to have my next guest with me. He's the president of the Independent Institute. He hosts an online broadcast called Independent Outlook and Independent Conversations. He's also the assistant editor of the Independent Review, a journal of economic, political economy.

Earned his PhD in law and political theory from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied with Gerhard Niemeyer and diploma in international security studies from the Institut Universitaire de Hautres Etudes Inéciales, Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied with Philippe Breillard and a BA in history from Houghton College in New York. He has an executive education fellow of Presidio Institute in San Francisco. I want to welcome to the program the president of the Independent Institute, Mr. Graham Walker. Mr. Walker, welcome Graham. Good to have you with me. Hey, what a pleasure to meet you, Pastor Greg. Thank you for having me on your show. I really appreciate it. Oh, it's my pleasure.

My pleasure. Well, I had Sam Staley on just a couple of weeks ago, and we had a lively conversation. His thoughts about what Ron DeSantis' war with Disney may or may not mean to him politically. But then we really drifted into just the general conversation of who is the state? What responsibility does the state have when addressing woke corporations?

And who puts those people in check? So I'm interested to have that conversation with you. I understand that you have a little bit of an opposing view to what Sam presented. So talk to me about your thoughts with regards to Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida, and essentially what he decided to do with Disney when they opposed not perverting children between the ages of four and nine, for goodness sake. Well, you know, Sam Staley, my colleague, and he and I were talking about this at a conference recently. You know, we agree about a lot of things, but we discovered we disagreed about this one. So we decided it would be a good idea, you know, to sort of get the thought out there and disagree with one another in public. And so, you know, you've heard his view, which is that when Governor DeSantis decided to try and respond to Disney's political engagement, that it was improper retaliation.

Well, I see it differently. So I suppose that in your conversation previously, you kind of got some of the basics nailed down, namely, that you know, back, the original error, actually, might have been back in the 1960s. The original error being back then when, you know, everybody loved Disney, it was a bipartisan favorite, it was family friendly from, according to Democrats, family friendly, according to Republicans, etc. So Florida wanted to get Disney to locate a big complex there. And in 1967, they gave Disney a special deal, which nobody else had, which was that they would have their own special district called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which would function like a county government set the rules for development and the taxes. And so they gave Disney this little sweetheart privilege. And everyone said, Oh, this is great, because it's going to bring Disney to Florida. Well, I mean, of course, there was some positive benefit to bringing Disney to Florida. Disney might have come anyway, because they've made a lot of money in Florida, and they could have made that money without the special district, but they got this plum deal. Okay, so fast forward.

So it's, you know, early in 2022. And a lot of people in Florida are getting uncomfortable with the changes going on in Florida public schools with the with the beginnings of introduction of a new kind of approach to gender curriculum in the schools. And people felt like it just really wasn't the place of government schools to take over the discussion on what is a man, what is a woman, what's a boy, what's a girl. And so Governor DeSantis and the legislature decided that they would enact a law governing, you know, new regulation governing the schools, which would restrict discussion in the classroom from kindergarten through third grade, just kindergarten through third grade, four year olds to nine year olds, Graham, I mean, for goodness sake, from four to nine, we're not we're going to stop with this idea of, of indoctrinating and I had Dr. Carol Lieberman on the program just week before last, and we were talking about, you know, they're they're they're essentially creating a mental health crisis with the small children, by the way that they are introducing and forcing these things upon them. And and and now all of a sudden, to suggest that we don't do that, go ahead. But I just want to make sure again, I want to reiterate, yeah, that this is about not not forcing little and and in my opinion, honestly, and I disagree with Judge Jeanine on this, I don't nine year old is not is still too early. I mean, to introduce this kind of stuff, you know, where you're literally showing in books, how to how to insert one's fist into another small person's anus, okay, in a graphic book that literally describes these events.

Nine years old, in my opinion is way too early for that. Well, okay, and I agree with that. I'm not sure how extensive was the introduction of books exactly like that in Florida, but my my objection might be a little broader, which is that people on the other side might well say, Well, we simply wanted Florida schools to be, you know, neutral between one kind of old fashioned approach to male and female and the new approach to male and female. So this, kids realize that it's up to them to choose whether they want to have this new approach to male and female or the old approach to male and female. The truth is that even if, you know, setting aside your horrible example a moment ago, but even even if it was only that the state of Florida schools were going to talk about the subject with these little children in such a way that the children are made to feel that there are various different ways of being male and female and that at different points of view, and it's up to them to choose what to be what to how to think. Even that is to form the students views on sexuality in a very powerful way. Because when the schools tell the children that, hey, it's up to you to decide what to be male or female, boy or girl, et cetera, that's taking a very strong position. It's forming the outlook of children. And the state really has no business displacing parents in the effort to form how children think about themselves, their bodies and their natures male and female. That's not the state's role, especially not in K through K through three.

I mean, good grief. So OK, so so nevertheless, OK, so these things are beginning to be introduced. And let's just say for the sake of the argument that the horrible books you described a minute ago weren't really much of that.

But but simply this idea of being so-called neutral, which isn't really neutral at all. Teaching students that the progressive point of view is just as valid as their parents point of view. Let's say they're teaching them that. So then Floridians were getting uncomfortable with this.

Governor DeSantis up for reelection later that year knew that. And so he decided that there would be this legislation to restrict it. Don't don't have these discussions in the K through three classroom. So Disney, then pressed by its employees here in California and elsewhere, decided that they would publicly resist this new legislation. They took a stance against it. They were vocal about it. They wanted to stand up for so-called freedom in the classroom.

And so it was a big public dispute. Governor DeSantis responded. He responded to their response. He responded by having the legislature of Florida pass legislation modifying the special sweetheart deal that Disney had gotten back in 1967.

And so there's going to be five new board members appointed to the Reedy Creek Improvement District Board. They were going to be appointees of the governor of Florida. And those people were then going to start rolling back the special arrangement that Disney enjoyed. Now, then Disney and its defenders cried foul and they said, oh, this is terrible.

This is retaliation. You're restricting our freedom of speech and so forth. And of course, it's gotten even more complicated since then, Pastor Greg, because I can't entirely unpack it all for you briefly here. But what happened next was that Disney decided not only to publicly oppose the governor and not only to cry foul at the attempt to take away their sweetheart deal from the state, but also they decided to initiate a change in bylaws of the special district around Orlando or near Orlando and make it impossible to change the board composition until many generations from now, as I pointed out in my article online, they literally resorted to a kind of a whimsical mechanism by which they said the charter of this district can't be changed until the death of the last currently living descendant of King Charles the third. So what's that all about? Basically, the point is to make their sweetheart deal last in perpetuity and block the governor. And so then the governor has attempted to enact a new change from the state to undermine that there's been lawsuits. And the thing is not entirely resolved yet.

It's pretty messy. But the main point is, Disney was not deprived of its free speech rights, right, and the government decided to take away its special deal. I mean, does somebody does a private company have a constitutional right to a sweetheart deal from the state?

No. So if they lose their sweetheart deal, they're not being deprived of their free speech, they can still oppose the legislation as much as they want. They can still control their property like any other landowner in Florida.

But what they can't do is do so from the platform of the special arrangement by which they control their own taxes and development rules. Well, and and so the the the issue here now now, Sam Staley's position is is that he sees it as this was a political attack on Disney, because of their engagement in politics. And and that perhaps if they had stayed politically neutral, or or come out on the other side of this, then none of this would have happened. Well, that's probably true. If Disney hadn't decided to get involved politically, then there wouldn't have been a political response. I mean, their whole complaint is that they should have been free to throw their weight around politically, and not trigger any kind of political response.

That's just unrealistic. Now one of the arguments that I had made to to Sam was is that because he kept talking about the state, the state, the state, the state. But the question then begs to be answered, who is the state?

Right, exactly. Yeah, the state is the citizens of Florida. Yeah, well, and and then and then his argument is, as well, most of the citizens of Florida don't don't don't, you know, they're a pair, he seems to think that they're in agreement with the idea of little boys and little girls having this kind of indoctrination happen.

The studies, the surveys that I showed don't seem to indicate the same thing. You know, we do have a governmental system in this country and in our respective states, which is the mechanism by which the people decide what the rules shall be governing their states. And, you know, it doesn't necessarily matter what the latest poll results results show.

And I don't even know what those are. But it's not relevant because there's a system in Florida for the election of state legislators and state senators and and a governor of the state. This is the mechanism through which the citizens exercise, you know, their sovereignty over the state of Florida. Right. And through that mechanism, duly elected, subject to reelection or to, you know, being pushed out of office in the next term.

They use that process. And the responsibility of the governor and the legislature is to make sure that the public good is advanced as they best see it. They're the ones who were charged with the responsibility for protecting, you know, the public good in Florida. And this was the outcome that they came to. Now, if the citizens decide that they want to reverse course at the next election, of course they can. Right.

If they want to restore to Disney the special sweetheart deal by which Disney can set its own rules and allow Disney to throw its weight around politically without any political reaction. The citizens of Florida can do that at the next elections. But the funny thing was at the next election, Ron DeSantis, which came a few months after this thing got heated up, Ron DeSantis elected, reelected by 19 percentage points.

And so it seems like the people of Florida were pretty satisfied. Yeah, that he won by 19 percentage points. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. That he won.

Yeah. 19, 19 percent. If I'm not mistaken, I think that his his his number was something like 60 something percent, right or 70 percent. I mean, he was I mean, he dominated it wasn't even a question. It wasn't like, you know, this is, you know, the people are, you know, he won 51 to 49. I mean, he he dominated the election. And and the and and the legislators who who gave him this bill to sign also won by by pretty significant margins. I mean, in general, the people of Florida rose up at the polls and and and and voted pretty loudly in favor of of protecting children. Yeah, yeah, they did.

They seem to be on board with this. You know, the the thing that needs to be pointed out also is that public education gets itself into these tangles all the time over many issues. I mean, you and I are both old enough to remember all the disputes over school prayer, over the posting of the Ten Commandments. In all those cases, the U.S. Supreme Court weighed in and said there had to be a uniform national policy by which every public school in America had to have the same approach to questions of religious meaning. That uniform nationalization, you know, was very regrettable.

I agreed. What's really what's really regrettable is that these things that the public school system exists in such a way that it is at the mercy of politics in the first place. I mean, the only reason why this is such a huge public controversy is because the legislature in Florida does control the schools in Florida and the schools have the vast majority of Florida children. And so when the school set up a curricular change, it really it's what's really happening is that the government is deciding to exercise its power to shape the views of children. Now children are the most impressionable of all citizens, right?

I mean, they absorb what's around them. They get the feeling of, you know, what's acceptable and what's not and so forth. And so when public schools shift, then the children are really hostage to them.

Right. But but the reason they're hostage in the first place is because the government controls the schools. There was a day in America when education was undertaken by families and by literally by local communities, which were not controlled by the states, right, controlled locally.

And in our day and age, of course, there's many other alternatives. But think how great it would be if schools were stand alone, if they were privately held, if they were parent controlled or community controlled or private. What if there was a whole multiplicity of different kinds of schools? So if you want to send your kids to a school where they're going to learn a new progressive ideology about gender meaning, OK, you send your kids to that school. That's your choice.

You pay the tuition, whatever. And then other people can choose different things. But unfortunately, because K-12 education is primarily controlled by the government, we get into all these tangles all the time.

Why don't we just cut the Gordian knot? Well, can I can I let me let me because you were mentioning something about constitutionality earlier. The Department of Education is not is not is truly not constitutional.

There's nothing about a federalized education that was introduced by our founding fathers. They they did not envision that. And so I mean, that was you go back to Dewey and you're talking about the very beginning of of really this progressive, you know, anti-God indoctrination. I argue on my program that the idea, you know, people because people say they say, well, why weren't more people involved in fighting for prayer and and the Bible? And why wasn't there a bigger stink about it? Well, because for 30 years before it ever happened, they had already been turning up the heat for the frog that was in the water.

And the frog that was in the water was the Bible and prayer. And they'd been turning up the heat on that. They introduced evolution. And it's interesting. Everybody looks at the Scopes trial and says, well, no, they they they outlawed evolution.

No, they they they they attempted to restrict the conversation. But in reality, they put a guy up there that didn't know how to argue creation, who left so many horrific holes in the conversation, that the people who were who were left to have the conversation, it was they lost the Scopes trial and off and opened the door. And once you introduce evolution, now you've already begun to remove God out of the equation. Well, but the thing is, Pastor Greg, I really like your metaphor that you used a moment ago about the frog in the pot of water and little by little and then the frog doesn't notice it until it's almost dead.

But, you know, the real question, I would say, going back to the what I think is more the heart of the matter. Why was there one pot of water to begin with? Why weren't there many pots of water? And then people could decide and parents communities could decide what kind of water they want, what color of water, how what temperature of water. But instead, the big mistake was made at the end of the 19th, the beginning of the 20th century to unify and and universalize education, have it all come under one heading. And then gradually the state states began to take full control. And then, of course, the federal government began gradually to preempt their control.

If there hadn't been just one big vat of water, then we could have had 1000 different vats of water and people could have made their own choices. And the shift, you know, I think you tagged on it very clearly in the in the switching over from the 19th to the 20th century, there was a shift and we moved into this this federalism. And we moved away from individual rights, individual liberty, and and we gave we succeeded power to federal entities, a variety of federal entities in a number of different areas that had up to until then previously been held. And there's a lot of people that would argue we're going to run out of time now, but a lot of people that would argue that this was truly what the Battle of the Civil War was about. Yes, there was slavery that was at issue. However, the founders had said that by the 1860s, they intended that slavery was going to be completely abolished anyway. I mean, that was the original intent of the founders was was to eliminate slavery from our country.

And and that was why in 18 was it 1808 when they said, we're not going to import any more slaves. I mean, that was the genesis. The issue was who had the rights and who had the powers. Well, that's probably a whole nother show, isn't it?

That's a whole nother show. I was gonna say, I probably agree with you probably disagree. I mean, slavery was an unmitigated evil and it was a mistake. Oh, I'm not I'm not there's no I'm not arguing.

No, no, no, no, you're not getting an argument from me with regards to that whatsoever. But the other underlying question became because after we came out of the Civil War, and I would have been I mean, I would have fought on the side of the north, I would have thought would have said, Hey, we need to get rid of slavery. I get that. And and and we need to try to be united because we've got other issues going on. We've got France, we've got England, we've got, you know, different empires and powers and individuals and all that. However, by the same token, we needed to do a better job coming out of that structurally of maintaining individual liberties. Yeah, the rights of the states and and local communities and parents.

There you go. And and so we began to lose that from from about 1880. Moving on, it slowly started to unwind. And and that, I think has led to a lot of the issues we've got today. The big error, the big fail error, I think wasn't the settlement of the Civil War or the 14th Amendment. I think those were fine.

No, no, no, could be. But what really was the error was the the growth of progressive ideology at the end of the 19th, the beginning of the 20th century, John Dewey, you mentioned him and well, and I would argue that the other issue was was the 17th Amendment. When when we when we when we made senators, you know, when we when we remove that, right, and we put ourselves in a situation where senators became voted by popularity, as opposed to having their purpose, which was to make sure that the citizens rights within each state were defended, and we lost it. The genius of the American system is the protection of the liberties of individuals and the subdivision of jurisdiction into multiple parts. So we've got 50 states, and then within the federal government, we have the three parts. And then moreover, the federal government is only supposed to exercise the powers enumerated in Article One, which really gives the federal government very, very limited, limited Yep, well, and huge in the current constitution, we would avoid a lot of these problems. Well, and if we would remember that the ninth and the 10th Amendment are again about securing the rights of the people, powers delegated from the people, whether it be to the state, or to the federal government, but only succeeded so long as it's the will of the people. And unfortunately, the people in America become very lazy, and have succeeded most of their rights to the government to tell them now what rights they get to have. I mean, millions of Americans can't even conceive of the idea that schools shouldn't be run by the government.

I mean, it's so changed their minds. Here's the I'm going to close with this. Here's the scary part. This is your kid at this at this building. And you go to pick up your progeny.

And they tell you, you have to have their permission in order to get your child back. If that doesn't stun you, scare you and and wake you up. I'm not sure what else will. Graham Walker president independent Institute independent.org is the website independent.org. You can sign up there.

They have emails that they send out regularly articles that they post, as well as podcasts and and all of the information they produce and multiple sides to these equations as well. So you can be engaged and involved and really get a a full spectrum of understanding. I'll be back with more Children Generation Radio coming up after this. So up next, we have clean slate. When you have different things like cancer and different diseases that are autoimmune related, it can really help with inflammation because you're helping clean the body and clean slate is a formula that's made from a natural or the silica acid that basically is put into a formulation that's naturally occurring that uses different processes from polarization to heating to cooling to different types of catalyst, which will go in the body and really help communicate to get rid of those things that don't need to be there. People don't understand why there's so many autoimmune disorders, but our environments toxic. The land, air and water have changed. We've been exposed to nuclear war.

And the issue is if there's a nuclear bomb or there's pollution or there's war in one country, it actually affects everything up to the stratosphere. So we're all connected and we've really got to clean things out. You can pick up your clean slate today at cgrforlife.com that cgrforlife.com.

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products do not treat, reduce, cure, or prevent disease. My passion is the fight for freedom. My father fought for a World War II defending our country. Today, we are no longer fighting with guns. Instead, we are fighting an ideological battle for control of our country by contributing to causes that support your constitutional rights.

I am Patriot Mobile. You can support Chosen Generation and make a tax-deductible donation by visiting www.chosengenerationradio.com. And now, back to Chosen Generation with Pastor Greg. By, you know, a couple of things you said, and I want, I just want to ask you about a couple of them. One of them you mentioned was, is I don't want to beat somebody over the head with the Bible, but you sound like a strong believer. I mean, you're espousing a very strong Christian ethos.

So, so what, what does beating somebody over the head with the Bible sound like in that vernacular when you're talking with these normal people? I have, when this is a long, are we airing this somewhere? We are. We're on.

Yeah, no, we're talking, and I'm recording this, and it's audio and video, so you'll get both. Okay, so first, I think the root of Christianity, if you had to boil down Christianity to one word, which it's impossible. It's, it's too complex of a religion and a way of life to boil down to one word. But if you held a gun to my head, I would say the words grace. And the grace is God sending Christ gracefully to wash us of our sins as a result of his death. And I am a failed human being.

And I don't have, I don't have it right, ever. And the only way I really face every morning is that at night, I pray, and I ask for God's redemption and His grace. And so in the same respect, how hypocritical would I be as a failed human being to accept and expect the grace of God, the grace of who I think is the ruler and founder and construct of our universe, if then I'm not willing to turn around and give that same grace to other failed human beings that are no better than me. That's what I think Christianity is at its root. So with that background, I think Christianity in the United States and Europe has done itself a horrific disservice with leading with, if you don't believe like me, you're going to hell. And we can get into theology and Scripture if you want to.

But in general, we have chased a lot of depth setters away from our faith. Because we didn't talk about grace. And we didn't talk about love. And we didn't talk about redemption. First, we talked about it's like, if you got a book, there's 32 chapters, let's not start at chapter 31.

Let's start at chapter one. And I think by showing that grace and living that grace and living that redemption and showing that redemption, and the way that you walk and the way that you interact with people, your employees, the people you coach, the people that coach you, your family, your children, your spouse, I think if you illustrate that and make it known that you're a Christian, that that maybe you shine a light on what Christianity is and how it works in your life and what a personal relationship with Christ looks like. Not by saying, believe like me, or you're doomed. But by saying, look how faith and Christianity to work in my life in a redemptive way, and illustrating it, and then answering questions when the questions come. And so that's what I mean by illustrating faith, rather than hitting people in the face with it. I understand what the Great Commission is.

I understand all those things. I think there's a better way. And so I choose to surround myself with lots of people that aren't necessarily faithful right now, and ask questions and develop relationships, and talk about common ground on basic tenets and fundamentals. And then just let Christ shine through the way that I try to lead my life.

So when you talk about an army of normal folks, we have a very diverse country. And I have no desire to use my platform to go out and tell everybody that, you know, this is how you're supposed to live your life. Rather, I like to explore how lots of different people lead their life and the things that they do in their communities, regardless of who they are, or where they come from. And hopefully, the fundamentals and tenets that are espoused in that shine through.

Let me ask you a question. No, no, no, no, I appreciate that. I really do, Bill.

I really appreciate that. And I think that we are, you know, the Bible says that there are hands, feet, fingers, toes, parts we hide, parts we expose. Paul talks about the body of Christ. And I think that we all have been given as different parts of the body, different callings. What you're doing is reaching some people that might not ever be exposed to the gospel, except in the manner that the that God is leading you to expose them. I appreciate you saying that.

And and I think that's, you know, I don't know if that's, I don't know what God's plan and purpose is for me. But if that is part of it, I great. I will tell you this, you know, my wife loves fresh shrimp. And she told me to go get some shrimp and put in a cooler when I was on the coast not long ago, and I did. And I was waiting on the docks for the boats to come in. And if you've ever been at a wharf, it stinks.

It's disgusting. But I was waiting because I'm scared of my wife and she told me to bring shrimp. And then the boats came in and the only thing that stuck worse than the war for the fishermen themselves, they were sweaty deodorants more of a suggestion than reality. They'd probably burned a pack and a half of marble reds while that they were shrimping.

And they're just not very attractive people. But the shrimp are fresh. And so I put the shrimp on ice and I headed home. And I was about it's about a six hour drive from the coast.

I was about Midway, Jack Smith sippy, when I thought those people are putrid. But that's exactly who Christ surrounded himself with fishermen, and prostitutes, and people will repute. And I think if Christ first coming were today, he probably wouldn't descend on my neighborhood, where there's nice houses and lots of wealth, he would actually go to the docks where they're bringing in the shrimp. And so with that mindset that I have, I have to constantly remind myself that I think I'm called to surround myself with people who Christ would have surrounded himself with.

And now I agree with you. Now here's here's the the other thing that Christ brought them was transformation. He didn't he and that's something that I think is important for us to understand too. He didn't leave them in the condition that he found them.

That is true. He challenged them to step to a better place. And he and he encouraged them that they could, I think, just throwing this out here, I think one of the biggest mistakes that the church has made, is we present people.

Okay, yeah. So if you're not saved, I mean, Scripture tells you this, if you're not, if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Word of God says you're going to go to hell. That's just that's plain and simple. What Scripture says. John chapter three, Jesus says, I didn't come. And I think it's interesting that it follows, right, for God's to love the world. Because it says after that it says, Look, I didn't come to judge the world.

Why? Because the world's already judged. You already made your choices, you already made your decisions. And oftentimes, when the light is presented to those walking in darkness, they're going to choose dark, and they're going to leave the light behind because they don't want the light to shine on their darkness. And and but we're called to share that light. But more importantly, we're called to tell them, guess what?

God can fix your darkness. We you know what I'm saying? It's like we get into these, we get into these groups, right? And it's everybody's got their little sin thing. And the world comes in and the world looks at that and goes, Well, yeah, you're telling me one thing, but you're living something else. Because you're giving you're giving your sin a pass, but you're not given my sin a pass.

How's that work? Well, it's because they don't believe in the finished work of the cross. You said, I'm not where I need to be except that I would say to you, Bill, you are exactly where you need to be. You may not realize it every day, but even the fact that you go to bed at night, and before you lay your head on the pillow, you say, God, you know, I know I did some things today. I know I made some mistakes today. Father, please forgive me because I want to be right with you.

And you put your head down. Brother, that is beautiful. That's that is that is that is golly, that is absolutely beautiful. Now, I would encourage you to know that when you put Christ at the center of your life, you've been perfected, every part of you has been perfected. Agreed.

Completely you're you're you're a you are a finished and a completed work. And that's so much the good news that we get to share with people, right? And it's and to me, it's not it's not taking this book and and and hitting them with it. It's taking this book and saying, guess what? Have I got good news for you? All those struggles? I agree with everything you're saying.

The problem is, I think, in some past decades, and I'm not criticizing more. And I'm not. And Bill, please hear my heart, because I'm not criticizing what you're doing.

I want that. That's that's why I started out by saying hands and feet and callings and what we're called and and yeah, no, no, no, it's Yep, yep, yep. I mean, I love it. You know, it's it's it's it is it's both.

It's how we walk and how we talk. I agree. And the thing is, I can't tell you how many times I get asked, you know, are you a Christian? Yeah. Why? Then I get to tell her.

Praise God. It's a lot more readily received when someone asks you, you bet. You know what I'm saying?

And so live in a way that people are curious. Yep. Yep. No, I I hear you. That's been my approach. Yeah.

Look, it may be right. And like everything else, I'll be judged one day about all of it. And if I screwed it up, I will apologize. Well, you know what, here's the deal. That's where that grace comes in. Right.

Okay. That's where that grace comes in. And, you know, I think that I said something earlier today was it was a quote that I that I shared in 2010.

Actually, on this date in 2010, Facebook isn't good for a whole lot of things. But But occasionally, it's good for reminding us of something we might have said that actually has some profoundness. I said to the lost, we preach salvation, to the rebellious, we preach repentance, and to the saint, we preach the promises of God.

I love it. And, and, and, you know, I mean, that that it's, I mean, that sounds to me exactly, that's what you're saying. You're saying, look to the lost, I'm telling them, here's how you get saved by how I act. And when you ask to those that know better and are and are doing it wrong, I'm saying, Hey, you know what, you really need to start changing how you're doing things. And to those that are already in the fold, I'm saying, Hey, guess what, look at all the amazing things God wants to do in your life.

That's right. And I will add to that, yeah, we need to, we need to remember that human beings have a an ability to communicate non verbally. And all communication does not have to come from your mouth, it can come from actions and your walk.

And the way you interact with people, many things you do communicate things even better than if you just spoke them. And I'm very mindful of that as I walk through my life. And so important to understand our podcast army of normal folks is specifically not a faith based enterprise at all is very much not. But I am what I am, I am who I am. And I believe what I believe. And I believe how I believe and I respect other people to have the right to believe things and vote and act and worship and everything differently than me. But I also expect that same respect. So I think it's high time we have real conversation about race and faith and politics and creed.

But just do it in a non threatening civil way so that we can have growth. And so that is the approach as we interview all these different people from all walks of life. And, you know, I have interviewed now 26 people, we've only released six episodes so far, episode seven comes out tomorrow, actually.

And I am, I am, I'm amazed at every interview, how basic humanity is universal, and how people being willing to give up their, their talents in areas where they're passionate, is always redemptive and inspirational. And if we can tell those stories, and grow a community of people who are at least coalescing around the idea that we're not going to be saved by the government, we're not going to be saved by Fox and CNN, we're not going to be saved by social media. And, and culturally, the best thing for us to do as normal folks is to get out of our cocoons and go to work.

And then through that, people see where that work comes from. Then I think it's a, I think it's a win win. Yes, it's a win win. Well, and and I we're gonna have to close close up here in a second. But you know, I think about it. We're coaching people up. I mean, that's really what we're trying to do. We're coaching them up.

At the end of the day, we're just trying to coach him up. You know, I did I did business management for 20 plus years. And one of my philosophies always was, you know, it's it's so much easier, right? To work with somebody, first of all, that's moving, you know, like you think about one of those big ships, you know, it's a lot easier to take somebody that's moving in their ship, and change the direction of the sail than it is to try to drag somebody along that doesn't want to move. And then and then you have to find out are they are they are they willing?

Are they are they are they are they at least willing to come on board and have a conversation about it? Because you can't even with an employee, you can have all I mean, employee handbooks are for the people that that that actually are trying to figure out how not to work for you. I mean, at the end of the day, that's really what that employee handbook is for. It ain't for the guy that's sitting there trying to make you and your business and him a success.

It's for the people that are trying to sabotage you that that's that's that's the bottom line. Otherwise, you don't need an employee handbook. You don't need to tell people to show up on time. And here's the bathroom and hey, don't you know, don't lark on the job.

I mean, come on, man. If they're with you, they're with you. You know, and and so my philosophy was always spend your time with the ones that that are with you. It's true.

And also, you know, we don't love because of we love despite. Sure. And as long as as long as you're surrounded by people who even though they have failings that are screwing up, they continue to try to do it right. You know, that's worth investment. So both I've got 130 employees. I've coached football for 31 years.

And, you know, that's 2000 kids probably. And you find a whole larger percentage of people that are much harder to deal with that they are easy to deal with. But if they're trying to get it right, the continuous show effort, and they're legitimate and their approach, you love and work with that because of the despite. And I think that's exactly how Christ approaches me because he loves me not because I'm perfect.

He loves me despite all my failings. And so I think we're called to love the same way. Well, and and and people know the difference. You know, the biggest compliment that I ever got I was at started this show about 11 years ago at a local station. And a sales gal came to work for the station that had lived in the town where I had managed a restaurant back in the 80s. And, and so I, you know, we got to talk in and I was like, Yeah, I said, I, you know, I used to live there. And she said, Oh, really? I said, Yeah. And I told her the restaurant that I managed. And she went, she was just like, you manage that restaurant?

And I said, Yeah. She said, I went to the high school there. And every kid in our class wanted to work for you.

That's awesome. And I was like, Why? And she said, I'm every kid wanted to work for you. And my heart had been I knew that these kids weren't going to work.

I mean, fast food wasn't going to be their career choice. Right. But my deal with them was, is I'm going to help, I'm going to pour into you to teach you what work ethic looks like, what value looks like, and I will reward you in accordance with that, and show you how to be successful.

If you'll just give me your best effort. And that's what I did. That's awesome. The greatest measure of the success of a leader is the actions of the followers. Yeah. And I would tell you that if you if you're in any organization, that the people in it aren't doing well.

Before you start griping about them, you might want to look in the mirror. And the best leaders of our time serve in order to lead. Yeah. So if you serve by teaching and instructing and loving despite not because of I think more times than not, you're going to have success with the followers, which will be a reflection of proper leadership.

And again, that is a Christ centered ideal. 100% 100% Hey, Bill, this has been awesome. Tell folks about your podcast and how they can listen real quick as we close army army of normal folks, normal folks.us.

Okay. Subscribe, listen, if you like it, rate it, review it, share it on social. You can also find everything at coachbillcortney.com. And on all the social media stuff is at I am coach bill.

So between those, you can find me and find the content. Awesome. Awesome. Bill, this has been lovely. I greatly appreciate the time today. I really appreciate you having me. I'm sorry again for being late. And I appreciate the plug. Absolutely.

Absolutely. All right, folks, we're out of time. And I will be back with you tomorrow. God bless you. Remember, chosen generation radio.com. You can re listen to this and everything that villain I've shared. Just it's it's it's normal people talking about real stuff.

And that's that's the key right there. God bless y'all. All right. Look, I am for marriage between a man and a woman. I am for life from conception. I am for following the Bible and I believe that our founders started this nation on biblical principles.

I am in support of our military and believe that America should play a role in world security. I believe our Constitution was intended for a moral people and that the Bible contains the only true moral code. I believe we are all born sinners and that God in his grace and mercy sent his son Jesus Christ to die for our sins and that if we will confess our sins, he is just and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I believe salvation is not just accomplished in a little prayer, but that it is found in how that transformation is lived out. Jesus is to be the Lord of our lives and we should follow biblical precepts. This is not legalism or works, but a life lived out in love and honor towards the one who died for my sins. Faith without works is dead and is no faith at all. I believe that we will fall and that we need to have a repentant heart and that God will ultimately bring us into perfect action through Jesus Christ, spirit man perfected and soulish man in progress. I believe that we are not to live in guilt and shame when we fall, but we repent and get up and move closer to Jesus. I believe that if our nation will repent and turn from wickedness that God will heal our land. I believe that as a Christian I must occupy until He comes and that to call evil wicked and to warn about those evil acts as a part of the mandated Christianity. That to love also means to be willing to take the risk necessary to confront a friend with the truth.