While the world continues to go crazy all around us, I'm here to be a voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Uh It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH.
That's 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Hey, friends, I had a wonderful time in England over the weekend. I was in London and had a blessed time there.
Arrived on Friday, spoke a couple times Saturday, a couple times Sunday, and flew back yesterday. That's why we had a pre-recorded show yesterday, and we did email questions on Friday. But it is a delight to be with you. The number to call 866-34TRUTH-866-342323232323. Three four eight seven eight eight four uh I I just posted an illustrated video.
I think you're going to want to see it. But as another example of the world going mad around us. Are you ready?
Okay. Cecile Richards is campaigning with Hillary Clinton. Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood. And she made a statement which, even for pro-abortion radicals, has to be one of the craziest statements I have heard in all my life. Are you ready?
She said. A woman voting. For Ted Cruz. is like a chicken Voting for Colonel Sanders. I'm not making this up.
Yeah. He said A woman voting for Hilary? For it should be for Hillary Clinton. That would make more sense. For Ted Cruz is like a chicken.
Voting for Colonel Sanders.
Well, for Colonel Sanders, the chicken are meant to be killed and. Eaton.
So is she saying if you vote for Ted Cruz he advocates killing and eating women? Maybe with some KFC spices, add it in. Are you kidding me? Obviously he's strongly pro-life and believes in the personhood of the child in the womb.
Now it was a little over a week ago Hillary Clinton made a comment that the the baby in the womb she was struggling for words she said the unborn person does not have constitutional rights.
Well, she got slammed from both sides. She got slammed from the pro-abortion side for daring to call the fetus a person. I mean, isn't that crazy? That that child Fully developed on the other side of the room. I'm talking about.
nine months, one minute before it emerges from the womb. Is that a person? That's not a person. But when it makes the exit from the womb, it becomes a person? You kidding me?
And of course, the pro-life side was saying, how can you call the baby a person and say it has no constitutional rights?
Well, that's the moral insanity of the world in which we live today.
So I addressed that on my latest video. I encourage you to check it out. Go to our YouTube channel. That's Ask Dr. Brown on YouTube, A-S-K-D-R-Brown on YouTube, and you will find it eye-opening.
and disturbing. I saw a link, and I'm just talking about the insanity of the society that we live in today. how right has become wrong and wrong has become right. How truth has become error, and error has become truth. And how.
Reality is whatever you perceive it to be.
Someone posted this video. I had not seen it, or an article. I had not seen it. post it on my personal Facebook page. And it is from a transgender Baptist preacher.
So a male to female Baptist preacher while considering suicide. Says that the angel of reason, an angel that she identifies with reason. uh told him slash her that the Bible was wrong about these issues or was being wrongly understood. This is now a Baptist preacher going by the name of Allison Dylan Robinson. This is a picture of the world in which we live.
We'll be right back. Shake the It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUT. Here again is Dr.
Michael Brown. All right, if you are voting in the Republican primary today, or if you did vote, This is Michael Brown. You're listening to the line of fire.
So, everyone listening to me, in particular on WMCA. And then on internet all over at New York. If you're voting today, or if you did vote, cast an early vote. You'll be voting later. You want to call in and let us know who you voted for and why.
I might even take some calls, 866-348-7884. 866-34-TRUTH. Uh news. Event after news event, the latest things happening. I continue to watch and think: what world are we living in?
all the more reason for us not to be like the world. But to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. to be like Jesus in thought and word and deed. To go against the grain of the society and swim against the tide of this world.
The world really is going mad around this.
Now look. Since Adam's sin, the world has been falling. We understand that. and there has been moral insanity and spiritual deception from the beginning. And there have been horrific periods in human history, periods worse than this at times.
And there have been periods of human history that have not been as bad or in places have not been as bad, certainly in America. This must be one of the most spiritually and morally confused, bankrupt times in our history. And in certain ways, I don't know that we've ever been more confused. giving way to not just relative morality, but relative reality. There's a video that's getting a lot of circulation now where a guy.
shorter white guy who's on a college campus and he's interviewing students and said, well, what if I believe I'm a woman? Am I a woman? Yeah, you're a woman. No problem with that. Yeah, if that's who you are, more power to you kind of thing.
Well, what if I believe I'm a Chinese woman?
Well, all right, sure. If you are, that's great. And then a couple: well, if you tell me why you believe that, then I could accept it. And then they're there with him. And then, well, what if I said I was a six foot five Chinese woman?
Well, but you're not. You're not six foot five. But what if I believe?
Well, I mean, you think, no, no, this is happening on our college campuses? Relative reality, not just relative morality. You know, when someone says to you there are no absolute truths. you know the right question to ask them. You you say Are you absolutely sure?
Mm-hmm. Are you absolutely sure? Because however they answer that, they have just defeated themselves. If they say, well, no, you can't be sure about anything, well, then you can't be sure there's no absolute truth. And if they say I'm absolutely sure, then there are absolute truths.
So it is one of these self-contradictory statements that people make to sound so sophisticated. But the level of flack coming our way in in North Carolina. and and come in the way of other states. Simply standing for religious liberties? We're simply standing for bathroom safety and locker room safety and public privacy and things like that, privacy for people in public facilities, bathrooms, locker rooms.
The amount of flack and attack, Pearl Jam, the latest band to cancel out.
So let's see. It's Pearl Jam and who else? Pearl Jam, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen have all canceled North Carolina concerts. Cirque de Soleil, is that how it's properly pronounced? They have said they're not coming to North Carolina.
Of course, they've got a big event coming up in Dubai. Yeah, compare the treatment of gays, lesbians, and transgender-identified individuals in Dubai within America. And with Dubai compared to North Carolina? But They got no problem going to Dubai. An apple?
Apple. with its sickening hypocrisy. If you haven't read my article on that, check out my latest article, The Sickening Hypocrisy. Of Apple and Starbucks. Oh, they.
They threaten and speak out against states like Indiana. When they passed religious freedoms law and bill that basically mirrored the national ones that were passing on the state side level, when they did that last year, Apple was one of the lead companies coming out and pressuring them. And sadly, the governor and legislators caved immediately despite a few heroic voices standing up against it. And Apple, oh, oh, they are indignant. Oh, these terrible, bigoted states and how dare they protect religious freedoms and they're discriminating against others.
How dare they have public safety bills, they're discriminating against others, how terrible. Apple's got no problem. They're opening their biggest Apple store in the world in Dubai. And since 2014, they've had stores in Saudi Arabia. And when I went online to look at their Saudi Arabia website, they boast about the close connection they have with the businesses and government there, how they're working on all this, and Apple is doing these amazing things in Saudi Arabia.
Oh, Saudi Arabia. If you're you're caught two men sleeping together, you could be beheaded publicly. If you're caught in adultery, you can be beheaded publicly. If you're caught stealing several times, you have a hand chopped off. Yeah, you speak out against the government, you could be beheaded, you get a thousand lashes.
Yeah, these are the kind of treatments, these are the kind of punishments. that that people are subject to there. I had a guest down who lived in Saudi Arabia for 20 years, had him on last week, and he told me about a story that I. I somehow missed it. I went online to check it.
It happened as he described it. I wasn't doubting him, I just wanted further verification so I could link when I posted. But eight years ago, a man who is a member of basically the religious police A 17-year-old daughter said that she had converted to Christianity from Islam. He cut out her tongue and burned her alive, burned her to death. Saudi Arabia.
These are the kind of things that happen there. Apple's got no problem, no problem working in Saudi Arabia and boasting. about their close relationship with the Saudis. No problem. Oh, but these bigoted states like Indiana Mississippi or Zurrier North Carolina, whoever it is that passes a religious freedoms bill.
or stands up for public safety and privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms. Ha Can't work with them. in different cities. saying they're they're not going to do business or they're they're not going to they're not going to allow their their uh s uh government-funded employees to do any non-essential travel to North Carolina. It is just cultural madness, and we need to raise our voices because otherwise, friends, we'll get used to it.
We will get used to it. That's why for years I have been functioning as your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution to draw attention to this cultural madness. 866-348-7884. What about Starbucks? Starbucks In order to have their stores open all over Saudi Arabia.
and to make money. in this Islamic country. They changed their Logo. Oh, I kid you not. They changed their Logo.
I say, why?
Well, the mermaid logo was considered inappropriate. It displayed too much female flesh. It's just a mermaid logo. Hardly graphic. Are they sensual?
But they removed it, to cater to Saudi sensibilities. Could you imagine them in America? Could you imagine this in America? If Christian companies said, you know, we uh We have a problem with the logo, or just Christians around America, my companies, Christians around America. Said You know, we have a problem with with the logo and we'd like you to change it.
Otherwise we don't want you operating in our city or in our state. We're happy to have you, but you need to change. Could you imagine that? bigoted Christians, primitive Christians, puritanical Christians. backwards, backwoods, ignorant Christians And of course we get blamed for everything else in the process.
It would be likened to crusades and inquisitions We're seeking to impose a theocracy. We're like the American Taliban, the American ISIS, the American Al-Qaeda. People would go crazy, and Starbucks would surely scorn such a request. In fact, when someone at a shareholder meeting, whatever it was, a few years back. made the comment that you know, people are offended by Starbucks' aggressive stand.
In behalf of same-sex quote marriage and things like that. Basically, the CEO said, let them take their business somewhere else. To paraphrase, a close paraphrase of what Howard Schultz said in response. Oh, but they won't offend the Saudis. With all their atrocities that take place there on a weekly basis in public squares, the beheadings and the other things.
No. Yeah. comes to the Saudis, we will bend over backwards to cater to whatever demand you have. And we'll get rid of that mermaid on the logo. Of course, they came up with holiday cups last Christmas, so got rid of any Christmas greetings or anything like that.
Just make them holiday cups. Doesn't matter if that offends Christians or seems like why are you singling out Christmas? Get away from Christmas, it's such a massive holiday in the States. No, no, offend the Christians. Don't offend the Muslims.
Make a lot of money over there. What sickening hypocrisy. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr.
Michael Brown. Welcome back, friends, to the line of fire, 866-348-7884. Look, I I'm not hopeless or discouraged. No, I mean to the contrary. I am full of faith and full of expectation and full of holy optimism because God is God, because Jesus is Lord.
Because the kingdom of God will ultimately triumph. My heart goes out to those who oppose. My heart goes out to those who mock. My heart goes out to those who don't know the Lord. You know, I get.
On a daily basis, sometimes many times in a day, really ugly, nasty, hateful comments that are posted. They can be. On our Facebook page or Twitter feed or on our YouTube channel. And it's kind of day and night, day and night, day and night. I see some of them.
And when I see them. Again, my heart goes out to the people who write them. My heart goes out to them because they don't know the Lord. Here's someone posted this a few days back. transgender identified or activists, I'm not sure which, telling me that that my my deity, the the God that I serve and worship, has anger management problems.
And then Uh let's see, what's your doctorate in? Homophobia. And then Dr. Brown, Dirty Brown, Dirty Brown, I'm calling you out as a crypto Jew. I don't know what that one was about.
Fake Dr. Brown, can't you see you're being tested by God? And repent, fake Dr. Brown, repent now or suffer the consequences. Fake Dr.
Brown, why don't you just stop talking and you might not burn in hell? And this is different ones. One is a Jewish outreach site, and another one is a Jewish outreach video, and another one in response to Can You Be Gain Christian?
So that you know, they just come in from every angle: you're a fake doctor, an intolerant, homophobic bigot, posing as a Christian, and judging by your prices. Oh, yeah, right. Making a killing from exploiting people's ignorance and gullibility. And then, are you a doctor? Did you just pretend to be one?
Shame on you for using fear without fact to scare people. A doctor, imagine.
So, this, I mean, this is just comes in on a daily basis. I feel bad for the people because I know they're wrong, and I know ultimately. that the one true God will glorify himself. And we'll bring everything to light, every hidden thing, every dark thing to light. And on that day the We'll bow the knee.
Either joyfully. or unwillingly. but will bow the knee and acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus.
So my heart breaks for the people who don't know the Lord. All I'm saying is it's an urgent time, friends. We talk about Jesus' revolution. The revolution that overcomes evil with good, that overcomes hatred with love, that overcomes the powers of darkness with the power of light. The revolution that overcomes lies with truth, not an angry, hate-filled revolution, but a love-birth Jesus revolution.
Revolutionaries think in revolutionary ways. Revolutionaries don't just sit around and say, Well, yeah, I don't like what's happening. No, no, they say, I've got to make a difference. We're here, friends, to make a difference. We're here to make a difference in the way we raise our kids.
We're here to make a difference with our presence in the business world and media and entertainment. We're here to make a difference wherever we go because we are lights, we are lamps, we are torches. How can you put a light in a dark room without it making a difference? I'm saying more of the same is only going to produce more of the same. It's like the way I deceived myself for years thinking, well, I'm going to lose weight and get in really good shape.
And I'd eat the same way I always ate. No. More the same is what you produce, more the same, but when you make a radical change by God's grace and help, you can see radical lasting fruit. I'm an eyewitness. What I'm urging you to do is not be on the sidelines.
What I'm urging you to do is not be cowardly. What I'm urging you to do is not. Not be afraid of what the world might say or do, but rather be concerned with how God feels and say, Father, here I am. I'm your son, I'm your daughter. I don't know what to do, but I want to obey you.
Lord, I'm yours. I'm scared. You know, I'm scared to speak up and do what's right, but Lord, by your grace, I'll do what you call me to do. And then press into Him every day and spend more time with Him every day and get the Word in your heart and mind every day. And then from there, From there, David B a witness.
To a lost and dying world. Let's go to the phones in Brooklyn. Christina, welcome to the line of fire. Hi, Dr. Michael Brown.
Hello. Praise the Lord. I just wanted to comment on the transgender man. that you talked about and When you said that, I was going to say that. Let me just mention it for those that missed it earlier.
A man who's gone from male to female and is now a female Baptist. Preacher and says that the angel of reason told him that the Bible was wrong about these issues. Yes. That was that was crazy.
So I had to look the person up. And when I saw it, like, with my own eyes, I was like, What? I was I was in my room. I was looking up. I was like, Lord, is this real?
Like, I was saying, is this real? This can't be real. This person is going to just come out of nowhere and just say, I'm joking, this is a this is a fake. I was like This is crazy. What which has people come to?
specifically in America. Because it's like the people in America used to be based on the Bible, based on the Bible teaching. They got away from that.
Now they now they want to promote the Bible. and say it was this, and say it was that. When just That's why I tell people, get your own personal relationship with Christ. Study the Bible for yourself. Get to know Christ for yourself because if you don't, there's going to be somebody out there that is going to try to pervert your mind.
And like you said, if we are the light of the world, we're supposed to enlighten people on the truth. If you have the people in the church, a gay church, a transgender church, how the no they're not gonna ever tell you what they're doing is wrong.
So it's just Very appalling, and it was crazy. Yeah, and look, my heart goes out to this fellow. All his life he struggled. He was considering suicide. He was married to a woman.
His ex-wife, I imagine they're divorced, but she supported him in making these changes. I can't relate. To the agony he's gone through. I can't relate to the struggles. I don't believe he just decided: I'm going to be a woman one day.
I'm going to. Go, you know, I'm going to lose everything potentially and do this. I don't believe that for a split second.
However, we must do. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but spirits and personality. Right, and whatever, right, whatever's going on. In his life, that caused him to experience these things. Yeah, we should be praying.
Look, anything we take a stand about, if we're going to take a stand about abortion, we need to have compassion on the women that are aborting their babies. We need to be working for better solutions and et cetera. If we say homosexual practice is sinful and someone comes into the church, says I'm same-sex attracted, we need to be there for the long haul to help this person walk with the Lord and love the Lord and experience wholeness and fullness. And the same thing with this individual, Christina.
So I've got a break coming up. Let me just say this. When the ultimate issue is, I have to decide between what I feel and what the scripture says, the moment you go with your feelings, you have entered the world of deception. When you have to decide between a revelation And what is written in the Bible, when you go through Revelation, you have now entered into the world of deception. And that's why this man who now goes by the name of Allison Robinson made the comment, yeah, you won't find uh you won't find a lot of um Isaac Watts and things like that in in my hymnal, but you'll find more of Bruce Springsteen and things like that.
should tell you everything. Hey Christina, thank you for the call. I appreciate it. Go to my website, ask drbrown, askdrbrown.org. Askdrbrown.org.
When you get there, check out this week's special resource offer. We put it together in particular for. Passover.
So join me on the website askdrbrown.org. Check out the special resource offer, Jewish resource offer. It's a great blessing and it's for this week only. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown.
Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, I'm working on a new book.
I'll tell you more about it in the months ahead. I'm working on a book, though, where I talk about the state of America today. It's the most comprehensive thing I've written. In terms of what has to be done to turn the tide in America. And part of what I look at is how we were founded as a country, our earliest days.
And contrast the universities, the Harvards, the Yales, how these schools were founded, how much the Bible was part of American culture. And I'm not trying to recapture that. I'm not trying to go back to that. And say that we're going to live the way the colonies did. No, no, no, it's a totally different environment now.
We've got a much more diverse population, and so on. We've got all different Christian groups, etc. But what I am saying is that there were biblical principles, there were biblical ethics, despite the failings of America. There were things at our foundation that were very healthy. And if we get back to those, we can see great blessing come to America.
Right now, I see us in a state of great cultural and moral deterioration. The question is: how Christian was America? You read sometimes that the founders were all deists and didn't believe in a personal God the way we do. Or then you read, no, they're all like Bible-thumping evangelicals. Obviously, the truth is somewhere in between there.
David Barton has spoken and written about this a lot, and there's been controversy over his writings and well, it's exaggerated or it's not accurate.
So, I've wanted to continue this discussion. It's an area I'm reading about more and more and more, and looking to get the original quotes in the best context that I can so I can do good research. But I'm thrilled to have with me a professor of history and philosophy at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, also associate director and senior research fellow at the Land Center for Cultural Engagement, John D. Willsey. His area of specialty is American historical theology and the history of American identity.
And his new book out late last year. American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. Reassessing the history of an idea. This book came to my attention and I should have had Professor Wolsey on back then because I was very interested in it.
So, Professor, welcome to the Line of Fire. Thanks for joining us today. Thanks, Dr. Brown, for having me. My joy.
All right, we've just this is just a real short segment. We've just got two minutes before our first break. But how did you get into this field of study yourself? I started with my dissertation when I studied for my PhD work in Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Had a always had a you know interested in American history.
I was a history major in college and I wanted to trace the uh the contribution that Christian theology made to the foundation of our nation. And that's what I studied for in my uh in my Ph.D. dissertation. Very, very interesting.
So, when you speak of Christian theology in the history of our nation, explain that in terms of exactly what that means.
Well, the Americ American Christianity has a very unique history. As it developed from the founding of the British colonies starting in 1607. Jamestown, uh all the way through until our very own day. Uh American church history is really interesting. unique from the development of Christianity on the European continent and in England.
And um So there's a lot of those unique uh aspects uh of American Church History. Art the Yeah. Um art American articulations of theology are also very unique.
So j just in short, total bite-size question, and then we'll unpack it. And then I want to ask you a few questions specifically in a little while about Thomas Jefferson and David Barton's representation and get your feedback on that. But in short, Would you say that it is America's adherence to biblical principles that was the key to our exceptionalism, or is that an overly simplified statement?
Well, there's a lot of truth to this statement. Yeah. Biblical principles are very, very important in the founding of America and in. American culture since the founding. All right, perfect.
We'll unpack that, all right? That's a bad question to ask when someone's devoted their life to studying these issues and given them 10 seconds to answer. The book by Professor John D. Wilsey, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.
Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I'm speaking with history and philosophy teacher.
John D. Wilsey, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He's the author of the book American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea. We're talking about how Christian was early America.
So, Professor Wilsey, you've lived in the ancient documents, not ancient, excuse me, those are the ones I live in. You've lived in these early American documents. You've read things in context. You've read enough to kind of get a picture of the culture and the way things were.
So, it's an overly broad question, but if I say, how Christian was early America from the colonies up to, say, the founding of our nation into the early 800s, 1800s, can you paint a picture for us? Yeah. Sure. I mean, the. The question of how Christian was America in the early colonial history.
prior to the revolution, it was extremely Christian. I'm thinking about specifically the New England colonies, founded starting in sixteen twenty when the Puritans founded Plymouth. sixteen thirty when the Puritans started the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They, you know, the New England colonies that were founded by the Puritans. Namely, again, Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, New Hampshire, Rhode Island.
Uh th these were colonies that were established to be Christian colonies, to be Christian commonwealths. And they were linked together by local church covenants that formed sort of a cohesive knit in each of these colonies that. Was designed to form a Christian commonwealth and designed uh for the citizens of these um colonies to see all of life through the lens of reformed theology. Um Yeah. great awakening takes place in the early eighteenth century and the The Great Awakening is an evangelical revival that sweeps across all the 13 colonies, and of course it does so in.
in Britain as well, largely through the teaching of and preaching of George Whitfield and the theology of Jonathan Edwards. By the time we get to the revolution, the American people, the American colonists, they drink deeply from the well of biblical theology as they're as they receive it mainly from the preachers and the preaching of the colonial period.
So America is a deeply religious country. It always has been. And There's a Protestant consensus that reigns in American culture, really, from the early colonial period all the way into the early 20th century.
Now the the old deluder act Which comes again in the time of the colonies in the 1600s. To me, that really reflects how Christian things were. Where a colony says, Okay, everybody, if you have X number of people, you have to have a school for education because Satan, the old deluder, is going to try to keep people from reading the Bible, so you need to have schools to make sure they can read the Bible. That to me kind of says it all. Yeah, it's a little, I mean, it's it's that's an interesting history.
I mean, you know, Harvard is founded in 1636, William and Mary, 1692, Yale. 1701, Princeton, Dartmouth. Columbia. These are all founded in the 16th and 7th and the 17th and 18th centuries, and they're founded as. institutions mainly for the propagation of the gospel, to educate ministers and so forth.
But one thing we have to keep in mind is that when those schools were found, most of those schools were found, particularly Harvard and Yale, When they're founded, they're founded as centers of Neoplatonic Augustinian epistemology and Reformed theology. under a particular curriculum that's um Really, you know, informed by the philosophy of Petrus Ramos, who was a sixteenth-century French philosopher, who believed that. All ideas existed as ideas in the mind of God. And so the curriculum prior to the early 18th century is. called the old learning.
It's very heavily theological. But The new learning that comes mainly uh starting out as a as a gift of books to the Yale Library in seventeen fourteen. is heavily influenced by the work of Isaac Newton and John Locke. who, of course, are informed by Francis Bacon's method of induction, the scientific method. And this is really one of the key aspects of the English Enlightenment.
And it puts the emphasis away from the authority of Revelation. and puts an emphasis on the authority of reason. And so there's sort of a dual epistemological authority, one in revelation and one in reason. And that the new learning and the influence of Locke and Newton and Bacon particularly have a really big influence in those colleges that are originally founded um you know, mainly for Puritan uh Puritan ministers. the new learning is is gonna you know, really be informed largely by the by the Enlightenment, by English Enlightenment.
And so it's a little complicated. I mean, the history of these schools, there's not a straight line, right, from their founding to the revolutionary period where. you know, it's just informed specifically by Christian theology. It is But there are secular influences in the curriculum as well that's being put forth in those schools. All right, so So you have obviously scripture.
Is there. They're reading scripture as part of their curriculum. They're learning Greek, in some cases, Hebrew as well. They have to live by Christian ethics. And, you know, you look at the code of conduct for Harvard in the early days, and I don't know a Bible school in the world that has one.
Yeah, I mean, ours is pretty strong, and I'm sure yours is, but wow. All right, so, but it's good to understand that there wasn't just kind of a Bible-thumping thing. You know, they were reading the classics, they were learning to think and reason, and so on. When our founding fathers drew up the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson's wording, and then with others working with him, when they say that it's certain things are self-evident, these inalienable rights, and it's clear that these have been given by By the Creator. Was that, in their minds, just kind of the God of the philosophers, the God of reason?
Or is it impossible to separate that from the biblical fundamentals that we were created in the image of God? Was it kind of a both and biblical and reasonable statement, or was it just one or the other? Yeah, I mean, I think it's both and. I mean, Jeff you know, Jefferson It's fashionable to sort of say Jefferson was like almost an atheist or Benjamin Franklin, you know, another Um you know, another natural, you know, first follower of natural religion, these people were not really they were kind of godless, but they weren't. I mean, they they were very strongly theistic.
It's not even really appropriate to call these people deists because they didn't think of themselves as deists. They thought of themselves as strong theists. Mm-hmm. And so, like in the language in the Declaration, you know, nature's God and our Creator. We do have to understand though that their understanding Jefferson's understanding of God particularly Jefferson's understanding of God, is very much um You know.
As a creator, as the author, of the universe, as the as the maker of the universe. And so Jefferson believes that God is a is a personal God, but he He in in stressing God's transcendence. He takes away a lot of his imminence, that is, his activity in the world through. providence and through intervening miracles. It's complicated because the language that's in the declaration is certainly.
uh conformable to Christian Historic orthodoxy. I mean, certainly, you know, as a conservative evangelical Christian. Um you know Would I affirm what the Declaration of Independence says about God?
Well, generally speaking, yeah, sure, no problem, right? But we have to understand the historical context of where Jefferson, particularly Jefferson, is coming from. when he thinks about God. and also the historical framework of the eighteenth century. Jefferson is going to be influenced by Voltaire, for example, and Voltaire is a French philosoph.
Uh he he s he was, you know, Very comfortable calling himself. He thought of himself, he called himself a militant theist. He didn't even call himself a deist. But he certainly rejects the incarnation of Christ. reject the Trinity and on and on it goes.
So it's important that we bear those things in mind as a very specific historical and theological context. in which the um articulation of God in the declaration is coming out of. Right, so there was clearly a fear of God, a reverence for God, a recognition of God as the Creator, and human dignity came from being His creation.
So, let's say those foundational biblical truths would have been largely embraced, even if everything else in Scripture was not embraced. Oh, yeah. I mean, Jefferson Jefferson is very intent. He's very big on these on these broad Um Transcendent qualities of God, and then also the human dignity aspect, you know, these things are inseparable from his belief system. Got it.
All right.
So let's do this. We've just got a few seconds before this next break. But let my listening audience know: if they get the book American Exceptionalism, what are they going to get out of it? What's the eye-opening feature of this book? In the book, I try to ask what exactly does exceptionalism mean and what are the theological entailments in the term?
And I sort of divide up exceptionalism into two categories. One that's strongly Um you know religious. and one that is more to more articulated in a political, sort of a social way. and I advocate that a strong religious an articulation of exceptionalism does violence to the Christian gospel. Got it.
All right.
Very interesting.
Okay. So the book, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea. The author John D. Willsey. We come back.
I want to ask for Professor Wilsey's take as a American historian about the work of David Barton. I had him on the air. He had a great interview.
Some contacted me and took issue with things. I said, well, let's bring on another historian to discuss these. We'll be right back. Angel World. Give us strength to always do what's right.
It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to the line of fire.
I'm speaking with Professor John D. Wilsey. He teaches at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His book, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion. Professor Wilsey, I have a lot of friends who over the years have done this tour of Washington, D.C.
thing with David Barton, where he points out all the different things in D.C. from whether it's a Ten Commandments fresco at the Supreme Court or something else in our early history. That points back to something very Christian, very biblical in our roots. And he paints a picture of how Christian America was. When I had him on to discuss his book, The Jefferson Lies, which became a bestseller then was pulled by the publisher because of alleged errors in it, then got republished with some revisions by WorldNet Daily.
We were discussing that book, and he said Jefferson was the least religious of our first four presidents, and yet attributed various statements to Jefferson that would. Point to him, you know, one in the Bible in schools and things like that. It's not my area of expertise. And when I have people who are critical and saying, no, no, he's misrepresenting things here or there, I want to give a fair hearing for the sake of our listening audience.
So, first, overall, your evaluation as a historian of the picture that David Barton paints of early America, and then if there are areas or one you want to focus on where you take issue, to give us an example, let me hear your perspective. Sure. I I've listened to David Barton. I've been at a couple of his events over the years. Most recently, he came to Angleton, Texas, near where I live back in twenty twelve, and I sat in the front row.
It was great because, you know, nobody sits on the front row in church.
So. The place was packed. And I had this great seat on the very front row and got to listen to David Barton. Uh in my dissertation, my PhD dissertation, which was uh later published as a book under the title One Nation Under God. I spent a lot of time talking about David Barton's works and addressing some of his.
Um some of his writings as well as really most of the Christian American thinkers Yeah. Yeah. And the way that I sort of look at David Barton broadly speaking is that. David Barton is wrong. about history actually quite rarely.
When you listen to him, when you read you know, his books Uh Yep, right. right on about American history. and about. the things that he says in terms of the in terms of the facts In terms of the uh the details, it's pretty incredible to listen to him. He has a a very good handle on those things.
Um you know, my my primary problem is is his use of history. He often will cherry-pick from historical record. Mm-hmm. Uh you know in to in order to forward Um what I would see is an as an ideological uh agenda an ideologically driven agenda. which I think is um Not a very good use of history.
I don't think that's historical. I don't think you can call yourself a historian if you're going to. not look consider all of the data that's available to us. through careful research and honest inquiry. Um in terms of um you know how he he does this I I really think about his um and there's there's a few things that I could point out, particularly when he talks about Jefferson uh being unable to free his slaves under Virginia law.
And I would just refer to your readers to an excellent book. Um those readers who may have may be interested in reading Jefferson Lies that David Barden has written. There's another really well researched book that Is a rebuttal? to Jefferson's book called Getting Jefferson Right. checking claims about our third president, Bruton Bay.
Grove City College scholars Warren Throckmorton and Michael Coulter.
Now, I know that if David Barton was listening to this, he would immediately want to fly into a rage for me bringing this book up because he. He he does talk about it a lot in his updated edition. By the way, without referencing the authors or the name of it, we made reference to attacks and critiques, of course, that came up immediately. And then he said he made a few minor corrections and was appreciative of that, but the rest he rebuts. Yeah, I recommend people read both.
I've written books and they're books written against my books.
So I said, read them both. That's the best thing to do. I mean, I totally agree. I had a bad review come out of my exceptionalism book just yesterday.
So I feel it. It's uh it's it's you know read the books and and make your own decisions. You know, when he talks about when j when when Barton talks about Um the manumission laws of Virginia. What he does when he looks at the seventeen eighty two Virginia Law and Manumission. I mean, he really does.
He really does leave out some very critical details in that law. And it leads him to really a false characterization and portrayal of how Jefferson viewed his own slaves. Specifically, the seventeen eighty-two, well, let me back up. Specifically, David Barton says that Jefferson. Did not free his slaves.
like George Washington did in 1799 when he died. because Virginia law forbade um the freeing of your slaves. unless you were doing so if at your death. Like what Washington did when he died in 1799.
So He actually quotes the seventeen eighty two law, but he leaves out the important parts that say that you can free your slaves by a deed. Um While you're still alive. Um So Jefferson could indeed have freed his slaves as a living person. Uh he dies in 1826. could have redisplayed at any time between seventeen eighty two.
in eighteen twenty six. And there is a a notable example of someone who did that, Robert Carter. who owned over four hundred slaves. He was a very wealthy Virginia plantation. Uh owner?
and he freed his slaves in seventeen ninety one. under the seventeen eighty two law. And so this is an example, and it's an example that David Barden brings up a lot, that saying that Thomas Jefferson could not free his slaves. It was illegal for him to free his slaves, and that's why he didn't. Because, you know, he It Died in 1826.
George Washington did so, but he did so in his last will and testament. Um And so that's you know, these are these are that's a troubling example. Um Or one of the ways that David Barton I think misuses history in order to forward a particular characterization of Jefferson. As someone, you know, trying to make excuses for him for why he didn't free his slaves. Look, he he had his slaves, he could have freed him, he didn't.
Um lots of people had slaves in those days. Um, you know, George Washington George Washington could have freed his slaves a long time before he died. Um Yeah. I I don't know why he feels the need to defend Thomas Jefferson in this way and and to misrepresent, you know, the the seventeen eighty two law in the way that he does. And friends, just as we're just about out of time, the two books, David Barton, The Jefferson Lies, and then Getting Jefferson Right, Warren Throckmorton, other names.
But if you just get those two titles, The Jefferson Lies, The New Edition, and Getting Jefferson Right, compare them for yourselves because David Barton will have a response, and then the critics will say it's an inadequate response. But sort it out. But, Professor, I'd love to have you on to talk more about American history, some of these cultural issues, how we come back to certain Christian or biblical foundations without trying to establish a theocracy and separation of church and state controversy.
So perhaps another time we can have a little more time to talk and explore these broader issues. But thank you, sir, for weighing in, for giving us your perspective. Much appreciated. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
All right.
The book again, American Exceptionalism, Professor John Woolsey. My bottom line today. The only way America is going to stop from completely losing its mind is by going back to the Word of God. It's that simple. While the world continues to go crazy all around us, I'm here to be a voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity.
Yeah. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.
That's 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to the line of fire. Back from London, got in last night, had a wonderful trip, arrived on Friday, spoke four times over the weekend, some good private times as well with key leaders, and then flew back yesterday.
Yesterday's broadcast was pre-recorded because I cannot fly in the air and do a live broadcast at the same time. Maybe. One day that technology will change, but right now, hasn't happened. By the time that changes, I could probably just speak directly into everybody's ear around the world and they'll all hear me at the same time. 866-34TRUTH-866-3487-884.
I've got a bunch of things I want to discuss with you today, but I'm going to open the phone lines as we do on Fridays for you've got questions, we've got answers. This past Friday, I only answered e-questions, so I didn't take your calls. But if you'd like to raise your questions, if you'd like to weigh in with comments, if there's something you want to probe with me, by all means, give me a call. Any question you have of any kind whatsoever that you want to ask me, as long as it's fit for Christian radio. 866-348-7884.
Be sure to check out my latest articles, my latest videos. We have posted a video today where I address the question: is it ever right for a Christian to remarry after divorce? while the spouse is still living. I address that question. I've got a video on an outrageous statement by Cecile Richards, head of Planned Parenthood.
that a woman voting for Ted Cruz is like a chicken. Voting for Colonel Sanders.
Yes, she actually said that. I addressed that in an illustrated video. Those are on our YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, and then my latest article on the sickening hypocrisy of Apple and Starbucks.
So check out the latest video, latest audio, latest article, all on Ask Dr. Brown, a SKDR Brown.org. Oh. Gosh. Yesterday A terrorist bombing.
Jerusalem. two simultaneously in Jerusalem. If you look at these buses, they're they're just uh just The bus is just is this gutted. And uh it's it's just it's it's a horrible Picture. Uh and and yet Vice President Biden last night, so this is within hours of the bus bombing.
Says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading the country in the wrong direction. He was speaking to an Israel advocacy group, J Street. He criticized Palestinian leaders, but saved his harshest words for Israeli officials. Quote I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years the steady and systematic expansion of settlements. The legalization of outposts, land seizures.
They're moving us, and more importantly, they're moving Israel in. The wrong direction. According to the article I'm reading from Foxnews.com, Biden did single out Palestinian leaders. Including Makman Abbas for declining to condemn specific acts of terrorism carried out against Israelis. Vice President said he didn't know whether Monday's explosion was a terrorist act, but added that the U.S.
condemns misguided cowards who resort. Yeah. Come on. Hours after a bomb blast Leaving how how many injured, wounded at least 21. God only knows the severity of the conditions, and if any will die.
And Vice President Biden does not Take his major emphasis put his major emphasis on Palestinian terror. But rather Israeli policies. That's messed up. That's messed up. 866-34 Truth.
We'll be right back. Shake the It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome back to the broadcast 86634Truth. This is Michael Brown, your voice of moral sanity and spiritual clarity. In the midst of a society in chaos and a church all too often in compromise. I'm opening up the phone lines on this Tuesday, like I normally do on Friday. You've got questions, we've got answers.
Any question of any kind you want to ask me, any issue you want to raise to me, the phone lines are wide open: 866-348-7884. Right before the break, I mentioned the bus bombing in Jerusalem. And 21 people injured when you see the bus, just a shell of a bus left. It's amazing. that everyone wasn't killed on the bus.
Vice President Biden, speaking to an Israel advocacy group last night, dishes out his harshest criticism not for the Palestinian Authority. and against Palestinian terrorism, but rather against the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu. and Israel. Extraordinary. Extraordinary.
So palwatch.org, this is Palestinian Media Watch. Reports that Fatach, Which is Uh official organization, Palestinian Authority Fatak, are very much linked hand in hand. Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, what did they post on the on the Facebook Fatakh page? The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades bless the self sacrificing operation. The good news of victory keeps arriving.
A bus bombing operation in the occupied city of Jerusalem in which dozens of Zionists were injured. The fact that there can be a Facebook page publishing this, the fact that Mahmoud Abbas has not 100% completely renounced fatakh and statements like this tells you all you need to know and explains why Israel does what it does and lives the way it lives. And shame on Senator Biden. for rebuking Israel at a time like that. If you have issues with policies, save them for another day.
866-34TRUTH. We go to the phones starting in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Carolyn. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Um I just have a question about a belief that a small I think a small number of Jewish people hold about how God created man to begin with.
I believe that they think that everything that is male and female existed in the first Human being, and then it was later when the scripture says male and female created he them. that they became male and female from that point on. But originally were not. Do you know what I'm speaking about? You know that it's.
A heresy, and I know it has a name. No, here's the mistaken part, okay? Let me explain what's truthful. God originally creates one human being called Adam. Within which was the fullness of the human race.
Meaning that within Adam, when it says male and female, he created them. But it's just one person that he created initially. All right?
So within that one person, There was obviously he was a male, and within him there had to be some type of female genetic component in the way God made us. And then in Genesis 2, he takes out of the man, he makes a woman, and now you have the two separate ones.
So the woman comes out of the man.
So initially in that sense Adam Man is male and female. And then God takes the woman, the Esha, out of the East. She takes the woman out of the. Man. And from there, we have Adam and Eve, and now Adam is exclusively male, and Eve is exclusively female.
The idea that some ancient rabbis had And it's just it's not necessarily Have been conceptualized by this in any kind of dogmatic way, but more in a just a It's kind of a graphic picture. was as if you had kind of back to back, a male and female. And that in some way Adam was androgynous, that he was somehow both male and female physically. Right. And that then God kind of like splits them.
But that's not a widely held viewpoint. And it's certainly not what Scripture says. Adam, if you looked at him, he was a male. But he had within him, obviously, those components for the female.
So when God takes out of his side or takes the rib, out of that makes the woman, now you have male and female.
So the idea that would be unbiblical would be as if you had like kind of this dual human being that like almost a Siamese twin with back to back and one side male, the other side female. Of course, that's not what would have happened. That's not how he was created. Uh-huh. Right, right.
Well, do you know the name of that belief? I've heard it one time, but I don't remember. The only way that I've heard it described was that Adam was originally androgynous. And that would have been the only name I've heard. I don't know if there's something else associated with it.
If so, I'm not familiar. Yeah, okay. All right.
Well, thank you so much. Sure thing. And look, initially, God says to Adam. Which in Hebrews be fruitful and multiply, which he cannot do until the woman is separated from the man and now is her own human being. 866-34-TRUTH.
The woman is created out of the man. Let me just make an interesting point. There are Evolutionary scientists who are completely against intelligent design creationism. And they will often say, look, human beings share What is it, 98% of chimpanzee DNA? Is that the figure?
Something like that. As if. This now points to wow, uh, we must have evolved from From apes. No, all it shows is the masterful genius of the Creator. Who could use so much of the same Yeah.
Building material, so to say, the DNA. and yet come up with beings that are so completely different.
so radically and dramatically different.
So in the same way Adam, who was a man Looking for a companion, but having none.
So he was not a dual, you know, half male, half female, walking around like that. He was a man. There was no suitable companion in the animal world, right? Adam names all the animals, shows his superiority, dominion over them, but no, there is no suitable companion.
So out of his either his side, the word sella can mean side or rib. Out of that, God now makes the woman. and then the two become one. Only a man and woman coming together can be one. Two men coming together, two women coming together, cannot be one in the way that a man and woman were because originally man and woman were one in a unique way.
And now that union reflects the fullness of male and female and the uniqueness of the creation of God. 866-348-7884. We go to Ames, Iowa. Robert, welcome to the line of fire. Thank you.
This is kind of like uh since we're kind of like on the topic of uh gender. Um I'm heavily involved in the vineyard movement and the issue of a same sex marriage is definitely been an issue. But one of the other issues that has kind of becoming concerning is like while we're standing for the biblical definition of marriage, or some within our movement that is starting to say Well someone who is transgendered since Supposedly the Bible doesn't Specifically mention someone who a man who identifies as a woman or vice versa. We shouldn't consider that a sin.
Well, transgenderedism.
So I was like. I was like, and it's not loving to Um The loving way to respond to someone who says that they're transgendered is to pray. uh that God would uh make him comfortable in whatever what whatever they are now. And that would be including, you know, if they're on their way to, you know, having the full surgery. And I'm like, Like what is I'm just confused because I'm like, what is going on?
Yeah, well, that's certainly, you've had a fringe within the vineyard. who have wanted to redefine marriage and sanction Committed homosexual relationships, but that still remains a fringe in the vineyard movement, not endorsed by the national leadership. And I would imagine, I haven't looked at the response to the transgender issue yet, I would imagine it's the same. You've got a fringe, just like you have with almost every denomination, you have those that lean left. And when they lean left, they get away from scriptural authority.
A few things. If someone has a genuine. Mental disorder. a mental or emotional disorder. and they they are biological chromosomal males and believe they're females.
and they dress as a woman. That may not necessarily be sin if we classified them as having a mental or emotional disorder. You know, someone that's medicated for a certain thing and they go off their medication and they act crazy. We don't necessarily consider that sin. I mean, they don't know what they did sometimes because they have a disorder.
Look, there can be a disorder in the brain just like there can be a disorder in the body. But the last thing a transgender wants to be classified as is someone with a mental or emotional disorder. They want to say it's anything but a disorder.
So, then, how do we address it? I'm going to come back to that on the other side of the break. Stay right there. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.
Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I'm talking with Robert Ames Iowa. He's part of a Vineyard Congregation National Movement that was birthed.
By John Wimber some years back. Official statement on vineyardusa.org. We live in a deeply divided partisan nation, but we need not be a deeply divided partisan church. The body of Christ must embrace life and tension regarding the LGBT community, welcoming all people but not affirming all behaviors.
So, Robert, that official statement is what I would always preach: that whoever someone is, whatever state of life they're in, We need to welcome them into our midst and preach the gospel to them and serve them and seek to bring them to repentance and wholeness and salvation.
So I tell people at my home congregation: if a man comes in wearing a dress and carrying a Bible and praises the Lord through the message, what do you do? Invite him out for lunch afterwards. Get to know them and help them find wholeness in Jesus. The question of what about those. Who are advocating within Vineyard and in other denominations, Christian groups?
No, no, you have to embrace that this is who the person really is. If Johnny is 100% convinced to the core of his being, and has been for years. And that he's actually Jane, and that after psychological evaluation, he has what's called gender dysphoria. then he should be embraced as Jane. And that's the compassionate thing to do.
Of course, I recognize there are some people, a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny minority, who have biological or chromosomal abnormalities. And that there's a whole separate issue to address. We're simply talking about someone who's a biological chromosomal male. say like Bruce Jennifer, Everything We Know, who identifies as Caitlin and now we're all supposed to embrace as Caitlin. Is that what we're supposed to do?
Oh no, certainly, certainly not. The first problem is, where does one draw the line? If perception becomes reality, then how do we tell Rachel Dalazal she's not black when she is a white woman identifies as black? And if you can have transgender, why not transracial?
Some say you can because perception is reality. Then what about trans species?
Some say you can. Go to my YouTube channel, folks, Ask Dr. Brown, ASK Dear Brown, on YouTube, and check out my video on the man who became a woman, then a dragon. He now believes Richard Hernandez now believes he is Eva Tiamat Medusa, a mythical dragon.
Well, why not? If the one is real, then why not the other is real?
So that's the first problem, affirming perception as reality.
Now we get away from any semblance of truth. The second thing is. Gender distinctions are important biblically. Not only does God make us male and female, but deals with us as male and female throughout. But Deuteronomy 22:5 says, Says, a woman must not put on man's apparel, nor shall a man wear women's clothing.
For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord your God. And that phrase, Toavata the Nile Hecha, abhorrent to the Lord, or abhorrent to the Lord your God. I checked every one of those references, and all of them were for things that applied for all time, not just for ancient Israel. They say, no, no, we're not cross-dressing, this is who we really are. The reality is, if you're a biological male and you lived in ancient Israel and you said, I'm a woman and you put on women's clothing, you would be in strict violation of that.
The compassionate thing to do is to help that person find wholeness by getting to the root of their problems. And by finding out why it is. Is it an emotional issue? Is it a psychological issue going back to certain things earlier in life? Is there any component that's biological that needs adjustment or healing or anything like that?
No, you don't affirm the person after sex change surgery and say, Hey, this is who you are. We embrace you now as this. You try to get to the root of the problems. The website sexchangeregret.com, sexchangeregret.com, was founded by Walt Heyer. Himself, a man who was on hormones and had sex change surgery to become a woman, only to realize that that was really not his issue.
And reversed whatever he could reverse to go back to being biologically male. But he was always a man the whole time. And he has many, many cases on that website of people who had sex change only to say, you can't change gender. You can't, no matter what anyone says.
So it's a dangerous trend. It's done in the name of compassion. I think people mean well, but it's ultimately destructive, unbiblical, and opens up a Pandora's box of social and cultural madness. And Robert, if your home congregation went in that direction, that would be one good reason to leave because that would mean they're departing from scriptural authority. If it's just a fringe within the movement, I wouldn't worry about it.
No, it's actually my home congregation is pretty We're pretty solid and I think I I've not seen it in a congregation, but it was just kind of like in a Facebook vineyard theological forum that I started getting these. arguments and I was like I've never like Um Or a bit. or someone that basically the argument was if you're like if they're coming up to you for prayer and their definition of healing is that God would provide them the means to go through with the uh Sex change, you know, the best compassionate way is to pray for their desire. And I'm like, Yeah, their desire.
So then, I want the abundance of God to provide me with more heroin. Yeah, because I have a need, I have an addiction. And even if we're not comparing those two things identically, look, if you're asking God, then you ask God, heal me from the inside out, help me from the inside out. You don't ask God to provide money so you can get hormone therapy and then have these perfectly healthy bodily parts made by God, now mutilated or changed or removed or whatever. It'd be just like someone with body identity integrity disorder, B-I-I-D, who for decades has been tormented by the presence of a right hand and they feel that it's like this, like a head grown out of their shoulders.
It's something terrible and something horrific.
So what do they do? They cut the hand off. I mean, people have done it. They've amputated limbs. One woman blinded herself with the help of a doctor blinded herself.
Yeah. And now they're happy. Because they got rid of these extraneous limbs, or they never, they were not whole when they were seen. I know it's it sounds crazy, but these are they're deeply troubled. I'm not judging them as wicked.
I'm saying they're deeply troubled and need help from the inside out. I'm not going to pray for them that God would provide money to amputate the hand. No, no. Nor would I provide money, pray for money to be provided to amputate or mutilate or change something else on their body. Thank you for the call, Robert.
And again, from what I can tell, Vineyard leadership is standing rightly on this. Hey, look, friends. The DSM, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, is like the Bible of the psychiatric world. And In the fifth edition, Three. change gender identity disorder into gender dysphoria.
So it's no longer listed as a disorder. Previously it was listed as a disorder.
So everyone comes to me and says, but look. Look, look what it says, Mike. Look at that. DSM5. It's an illuminary disorder.
That's what they said. You know how much pressure transgender activists put on them? Do you know the backlash they got when they didn't come out with just the right language? It's kind of like me putting a gun to your head and saying, tell everybody I'm a nice person. You tell everyone I'm a nice person.
I said, see, You're misjudging me. I'm actually a nice person. It's insane. This was not just done in some dispassionate, completely scientific, non-political, non-pressured way. No.
These are the facts. These are the facts. So let's face the facts. And let's pray for people who have this disorder to find wholeness and help in Jesus. And let us be a community of believers where they do find wholeness and help.
Friends, we've got a terrific Passover resource for you. We put a great package together, something that we don't normally have in stock, in stock at a very special price with a free video as well. Go to my website to find out more. Ask Dr. Brown, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org.
It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr.
Michael Brown. Welcome back to the line of fire. This is your host, Joyfully. Michael Brown, freshly back from London, got in last night after a great weekend of ministry. 866-348-7884, the number to call.
In a little while, I'm going to open up the phone lines wide. In fact, I'll open up now, be a few minutes before I get to your calls. But if you want to ask me a question, any question whatsoever of any kind you want to ask, because I was flying to England on Friday and flying back on Monday, I only answered emails on Friday show. I was not able to take live calls.
So if you've got a question you'd wanted to ask, 866-348-7884. In a few minutes, I'll be joined as normal at this time on Tuesdays by my esteemed colleague James Robison as we talk about some key issues going on in society today in God's heart and God's mind. And that'll be about five minutes from now. But first, let me draw your attention to something not to do. May I do this?
Something not To do. Yeah. Uh If this is accurate, if this really happens, sometimes somebody makes this up. But According to this report, a waitress in Charlotte, North Carolina, says that she's hurt after a customer left a quote hateful message for her on a on a bill instead of a tip.
Now, this has been done before and the person forged it. All right, this has been done. There have been people, gays and lesbians, that said, I got beat up. I got this happened to me, that happened to me. Here are the marks.
And some guys did it, you know, holding a Bible and yelling at me. And it was all a hoax. I mean, they did it to themselves. But assuming this is true, okay, assuming this is true. Where there's a place for the tip, okay?
And it it looks it looks legit, so accepted on face value. Where it lists the the tip, it's a $23 bill. It says Leviticus 20, 13. Which is death penalty for Two men lying with each other. And then on the bottom, praying for you, exclamation point.
If you talk about an unchristian thing to do. You talk about a way to alienate people. You talk about a poor witness. It's bad enough. When you go into a restaurant on a Sunday afternoon after church service, And you pray before your meal, and you and you got a big party there and you make that that server Work hard back and forth, back and forth.
And, you know, everybody sees you come in, maybe in your Sunday best, or they saw you pray before your meal, or they hear you talking about the Bible or what a great sermon today. And then you leave some. Blow tip. That's bad enough. That's bad enough for your Christian witness.
Show generosity, show appreciation for the people who serve. Uh honor honor them, okay? 'Cause most of the money they're gonna get is is on tips. And when they get a big table, that takes a lot of their time. or they got the place filled with church crowds.
I I listen, we used to have students from our ministry school that worked at a restaurant uh near Pensacola, Florida, and it was a time when the manager and almost all the all the the waiters and waitresses were students from the ministry school. And they would Try to do their best to not work Sunday afternoon because it'd be filled with Christians and they get the worst tips of all. That's bad enough. But to not leave a tip at all. And then to put down an Old Testament verse about the death penalty for homosexual practice, and then to add praying for you on top of it.
Again, if this is legit, because I don't know how this person would have known that the server was a lesbian. But you talk about a bad witness. He said, but but whatever she was. Lover. She's a human being for whom Jesus died, created in the image of God, fallen and flawed like the rest of us, needing redemption.
Sure love. Go out of your way to be kind. Take an interest in her life. And give an extra generous tip. Just if you identify yourself as a Christian, by all means, give an extra generous tip.
But don't, don't, ever do something like this or or leave a little, you know, it looks like a hundred dollar bill and it's just a track on the other end. Think, oh, praise the Lord, isn't that cute? Hey, do that if you leave a generous tip, too. All right?
We'll be right back with Reverend James Robinson. Shake the nation. Change the world. Change the world. It's fire we want.
For fire we please. Shand the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 Truth.
Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. I tell you about the last week plus, right up to this morning, I've been doing radio interviews. This was a Skype TV interview this morning. National radio programs, local radio programs, with folks wanting to talk to you about articles that I've posted on the stream, stream.org.
If you don't go there regularly, if you don't get news updates from the stream, if you don't get Commentary updates, by all means, do it. As I'm looking at it right now, here's a major story: Utah governor to sign anti-porn law today. I'm looking at commentaries from a wide range of top conservative thinkers, and then along with that, some great inspiration. And this website, the product of the vision God gave to Reverend James Robinson. James, welcome again to the line of fire.
Thank you, Doc. It's good to be with you, and I appreciate what you're writing and contributing and the fact that people are wise enough concerned enough not only to read what you're writing, but to share. last week in three days, we added about a million new viewers and readers to the stream. just based upon what uh God had put on your heart to share. And now, again, as you've talked about Really the hypocrisy of uh two major corporations and they're heads of Apple and Starbucks doing business freely in Saudi Arabia.
uh where they are killing people who are um claiming to be or practicing homosexual activity. and where they do not allow freedom of expression in so many areas. And yet they do business there, but someone has a conviction here that we should not allow opposite sex or transgender to just go freely. into the bathrooms of our granddaughters or our daughters and children. And they pull out.
They say they're criticizing these groups. Bruce Pring seemed into same thing and yet he'll play these other places.
So it's a As you point out, it's hypocrisy and God uh help us to recognize that and stop the nonsense. Yeah, and again, friends, we need to be a voice. Yes, the world is going crazy around us, but that doesn't mean we just let it go crazy around us. James, this I think gets to a root of a problem that you've addressed for many years, which is if we are to make our voices heard, Then we have to be true as well. In other words, it's right for us to expose the hypocrisy of an Apple or a Starbucks.
Again, friends, you can read my article at stream.org on the sickening hypocrisy of Starbucks and Apple. But we ourselves then have to live right. If we are going to speak to the world and shine brightly, then we must be consistent. We've got to deal with hypocrisy in our own midst.
Well, we've got to acknowledge defeat and the inconsistencies. I think. You know, one of the things that is so terribly damaging. The fact is, we've all missed the mark, but at least we admit there's a mark. there's a standard of measure to show us the standard we failed.
We don't just eradicate the standard. and remove the standard of measure because we didn't measure up. That's really when the nation is going into what we might call reprobate and depraved thinking. To the point that they don't think straight. When you change God's truth into something that it's not, into a lie, or you ignore it or misrepresent it.
just discard it. And that is, in essence, exactly what's happening today. It's not a matter of whether we fail. It's a matter of whether or not we return. To the correct standard of living because we have a standard that corrects us.
We don't eliminate the standard. That's what's happening today. We're scrapping the truth. We're casting the great foundational principles of Yeah. as though they don't matter.
We're building on sand. lives, relationships, opportunity and freedom. is collapsing. Mm. All right, so you can't have freedom without a moral people and a responsible people, and ultimately, you can't have that without a God-fearing people.
One of the things on the stream is you've got some commentators who are expert with finances and economics, which I certainly am not. I'm anything but that.
So, I always find it fascinating when someone can take biblical principles and apply those, say, to the economy or other areas of life.
So, in your judgment, it's not just a matter of, say, the Bible tells us how to live. In the home, and how we should be married, husbands, and wives, and raising our children, and so on, like and things like that. But all of the major areas of life, you would find that there's a biblical principle, and some of your stream authors and editors are using biblical principles to address things like the economy, correct? Yes, and I think we've got to understand when you look at some of the trends today, just there are a lot of young people who think that we should take and redistribute the wealth. which then guarantees poverty for everybody.
And you are seeing people on this this momentous move. even as it relates to one of the candidates right now who's promising that we're going to take from others and redistribute. Once you make people dependent upon a source other than God, You have moved them over into the realm of total defeat because they don't accept responsibility. They don't take advantage of the privilege that freedom has given them. to become productive and contributing individuals.
It is a very sad trend that we've got today. And I'm telling you, if Christians don't pray, And if Christians don't spread the truth, which is what we're trying to do with the screen, tributaries of wisdom. and enlightenment and insight and correction that is very helpful. It's there. If we don't reach out not only to get truth, but also share it with love and conviction, We're not going to correct our course.
We're going to collapse. And if people are going to look to a source other than God, and to their own responsibility and accountability. We are going to lose the freedom we've enjoyed and the opportunities and blessings it's afforded us. And we really do have the stage set for collapse.
So Christians really need to pray. and they need to care about all these candidates who seem to be at one another all the time. We better come to the table of reason.
So start praying for that. Start praying for the civility that would get us to sit down together. and where we have differences even in our discussion. we have different approaches. Let's sit down and really seek the the most sound solution to the serious problems we face.
and let's just don't blow one another up. Try to rise by tearing other people down. We really do need to be careful that we build on principles and we exalt those principles, not just attack personalities. are worship personalities. Yeah, and obviously in the midst of the political season, it's easy to get into the political spirit, which is attack, demean, degrade others for your own benefit or to advance your cause, discredit others.
Even if we feel strongly about candidates and issues, we have to be careful to conduct ourselves in a way that does honor the Lord. And yesterday, reports come that Cecile Richards, the head of Planned Parenthood, I don't know if you had seen this story, but she said, campaigning with Hillary Clinton, that a woman voting for Ted Cruz is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders, as if Ted Cruz wants to kill and eat women. I mean, one of the most bizarre statements imaginable, but that's the radical pro-abortion side, whereas the Republicans traditionally and to this day call for a strong pro-life stance. These really are life and death issues, though. It's not just rhetoric, these are life and death issues.
Well, they really are, and it should be so simple to stand up for the preciousness of life itself. And for the helpless and the innocent, the very people who are campaigning to say, you know, let's take care of everybody, are the very ones who are trying to justify the total elimination of the most helpless. People on the planet, those in the womb. and it just breaks my heart. But this is a very serious matter.
Just like marriage is a serious matter, family commitment is a serious matter. economic instability of serious. And excessive taxation and regulations that put people in bondage. These things matter. And we had better start taking the corrective measures very seriously.
And we need to understand right now that I think leadership as it is chosen. For the next years, we'll determine whether or not this nation teeters and collapses. or whether or not we began to return to sound thinking, sound economics opportunity. and the privilege of blessing others because we ourselves are blessed. Yeah, and friends, I just had a guest on the last hour who's a historian, American historian, talking about the Christian roots and foundations of our country.
James, we've just got about a minute, but we're not talking about a theocracy. Yeah. Forcing everyone to live by the Bible. We're rather saying, let's live by it and let's advocate for these principles in society, right?
Well, this nation was birthed because of a desire to worship God and have that freedom. And the fact is that the founders were influenced by the truth of the gospel power and the sound principles in the Word of God. And they actually brought together and put on paper A foundation of principles. that actually led to necessary correction in the lives of those who signed those amazing papers.
So there was a power, there was a force. This is the power of prayer. This is the supernatural power of God. They actually did something greater as a whole. all of them working together.
In the unity of spirit that was bigger and greater than any one of them, and it actually. Call them in many ways to painful, necessary repentance and correction in some of their own practices.
So this nation is. The product of the power of God in prayer, and that's what we need to return to. Amazing. James, as always, thank you for your time. Great having you on the air with us.
Stream.org, visit there. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.
Welcome back to the line of fire, 866-348-7884. Number to call. All right, I know that time is short right now, but. But If you have any question that you wanted to get in on Friday and were unable because I only answered email questions on Friday, any question of any kind whatsoever that you had for me, as long as it's appropriate for Christian Radio, I'm going to try to take a few calls if I can, 866-348-7884. Uh here.
This is Just within the last couple of hours, breaking news. Federal court just opened the door to boy using the girls' bathroom at school. A federal appeals court, this is Associated Press, has overturned a policy barring a transgender student from using the boys' restrooms at his Virginia high school. Three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Gloucester County School Board policy is discriminatory.
Isn't it discriminatory against the boys? Isn't it discriminatory against the boys that a boy who believes he's a girl uses their their bathroom? Or, excuse me, a girl who believes she's a boy. uses their bathroom. That's not discriminatory against them.
The appeals court ruling establishes legal president in the five states of the Fourth Circuit, including North Carolina. Which faces a lawsuit challenging a new state law requiring transgender public school students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their sex on their birth certificate. The child was born female but identifies as male. After complaints, the school board adopted a policy requiring students to use public restrooms corresponding with their biological gender.
Okay, the kid. believes he's he's a male And or she believes she's a male. Apparently, he is happier living as a male. I'd like to get to the root of that kid's problems and help them find wholeness as created as a female. And I have to be on hormones for life and get sex change surgery and all the other trauma and things they have to live with.
Obviously, the better solution is wholeness from the inside out.
However, however, it is Yeah.
Now You discriminate against all the other boys.
So all the other boys are discriminated against. All the other boys Have to put up with this if it makes them uncomfortable, if it seems you're talking about. A a high school?
Okay. Where the guys know that's That person in there As female anatomy. In our bathroom, is that going to make someone uncomfortable or perhaps possibly subjecting that person? to to mistreatment? And yeah What some other schools have done is said, okay, there's a faculty restroom.
And I know high schools can be big, it's not always easy to get to somewhere, but you don't go to the bathroom five times a day in school, right? But let's say you've got to use a bathroom. And some schools have said, okay, this bathroom is just for faculty, but it's gender neutral. It's just a single bathroom. And, you know, so you just go in there one at a time.
There have been cases I know of one I'm thinking of specifically Where the school said to the parent, okay, your child can use that bathroom. No, no. He identifies as a sheet. He uses the girls' bathroom. and and took the school to court over it.
This is the type of madness we're dealing with. The madness of what society is doing, the madness of imposing the struggle of one on everybody else. Look, I I I was speaking at a school recently. I was speaking There was an apologetics. conference.
And uh I was I was speaking there and it was It was being held. in a uh in a school building and I went into one part of the building. And Where I went into the building, it was like elementary school.
So little kids lined up in the hallways. I mean, it's real little kids, you know, in elementary school age. And I had to use the bathroom. I didn't know what part of the building I was in. I went in the bathroom, used the building, went in the boys' room.
And as I'm leaving the bathroom, all these little boys come walking in. I mean, they're little boys. They're younger than any of my grandsons. And just little boys. And I thought, how utterly unfair To have someone that they all know is a girl.
come in their bathroom. And now they have to share it. I don't mean some perverted thing is going to happen. I mean, it's completely unfair to them, it's outrageous. Yeah.
And and then think of the girls when you now open up the possibility. of of some guy deciding he's going to take advantage of the law. He's going to take advantage and s identify as a girl for a while so he can get into the girl's bathroom or locker room. You say people do that. They do it.
It's been documented. the voyeurs and the predators and the others I I hate to bring this stuff up all the time. I could literally talk about it every day, write an article on it every day, put out a video on it every day, because there's something in the news more outrageous than the day before. And there's something in the media more outrageous than the day before. I advocate as loudly and clearly as anyone.
The goal is to find wholeness for those who are troubled. The goal is to get to the root of their struggles. The the goal is to to help them find wholeness from the inside out. That may not be the socially acceptable way today. That may not be the politically correct way, but it's the way of ultimate compassion.
Here, let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. If There You're going to have to have surgical intervention. and have your your hand removed. Because of some infection that could spread through your arm, and you lose your arm, it could even spread through your body, and you'd die.
You have a choice between surgical intervention. Or A doctor saying actually I ha I have uh uh an intravenous treatment that will destroy that affection. And the the risk of losing your hand is only like two percent. If we cut it off, it's a hundred percent. But the risk of losing your hand is only like two percent.
We've seen this work tremendously well.
Well, which option do you take? You you take the the intravenous one to try to save the hand, right? And if someone says, Hey, can I pray for you first? Could I pray? You don't pray, oh God, guide the surgeon's hand as they amputate.
You say, God, work a miracle. and heal. and and remove this infection. That's how you pray, right?
So my prayer for someone who identifies as transgender Is not God help them have the funds for hormone treatment and sex change surgery? or God give them peace of mind as they transition. My prayer is God healed them from the inside out. Let them find wholeness and harmony with their body. May their mind and their body be at harmony one with another without radical surgery, without removing.
uh amputating healthy breasts or R removing or Mutilating or changing, whatever you want to say. Healthy private parts. No, God, heal from the inside out. That's compassion.
Well, I tried hard, and I'm suicidal now. If you're a child of God, He will always give you grace so you don't have to commit suicide. He will. He will. I'm not condemning someone who commits suicide.
As irreparably lost forever. God only knows in what state they died emotionally and mentally. But I am saying there is always grace, there is always a way of escape. Friends, Passover. Is coming in a few days.
We've got a special Passover resource offer. A very special package put together that'll be a great blessing to you. To take advantage of it, go to my website, AskDr. Brown, A-S-K-D-R-Brown.org. My bottom line today: the gospel.
It's a message of life, it's a message of salvation, transformation. It's the message America must hear. Uh
