All Episodes
Previous Next
May 11, 2025 - The Charlie Kirk Show
01:38:28
How Conservatives Embody Biblical Values — Live at Texas A&M

Enjoy one of Charlie's most lively speeches and Q&As from the 2025 Spring Tour. Charlie takes heated questions on issues of racism and affirmative action in America, explains the role of empathy in the immigration issue, and more. Watch ad-free on members.charliekirk.com! Get new merch at charliekirkstore.com!Support the show: http://www.charliekirk.com/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Hey everybody, happy Sunday.
My conversation at Texas A&M and a speech that people really loved in front of nearly 3,000 people.
We talk about Christianity, the need to believe in God, the necessity of believing in God, and we have some debates with a pirate and two young black men that disagree.
Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.
Get involved.
By becoming a member, members.charliekirk.com.
That is members.charliekirk.com.
That is members.charliekirk.com.
Thanks to Alan Jackson Ministries for your continued support.
Buckle up, everybody.
Here we go.
Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
I'm sorry.
I want to thank Charlie.
He's an incredible guy.
His spirit, his love of this country.
He's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
That's why we are here.
Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
That is noblegoldinvestments.com.
It's where I buy all of my gold.
Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.
I gotta be honest, that was the coolest intro I've ever had.
That was pretty awesome, everybody.
I wanted to do that for a while.
I was like, there's something about an intro at a Texas A&M football game that is almost metaphysical, I gotta tell you.
So that was really special, everybody.
Alright, we're gonna have some fun tonight.
Thank you to the great Turning Point USA chapter leaders for putting this together and our Turning Point USA chapter.
Also, I'm obligated to say this, we are hiring at Turning Point USA as well, so if you want to work for us, we would love to have you work with us at Turning Point.
We'll talk for a little bit, then we'll do questions.
And, by the way, this is the biggest campus event we've ever done in Turning Point history.
Look at this.
This is amazing.
People are all the way up there.
Incredible.
So, I want to talk about the most important thing that someone can do in their life, which is the decision of whether or not you make Jesus Christ the chairman of the board of your life.
most important thing.
And and Thank you.
The reason I want to mention that is I just recently sat down with Bill Maher.
I don't know if you guys saw it or not.
If not, I encourage you to look at it.
It's a good conversation.
Bill Maher is not a Christian, if you don't know that.
He's very much not a Christian.
He is an atheist, and maybe we'll have some atheists here tonight.
And remember, without God, there would be no atheists.
Remember that.
And I sat down.
It was kind of interesting, and he treated me very well, to his credit.
We just dialogued a lot.
He was smoking pot the whole time, which may or may not have impacted me.
By the way, I've never done marijuana in my life.
I encourage you not to do it.
My whole life I've talked against marijuana about how it makes you not as sharp as you could be.
Totally true.
By the way, 100% right.
Be very careful if you use pot if you go on a podcast with Bill Maher.
I actually didn't do it, but that secondhand high might be a real thing.
Anyway.
We talked a lot about not just Christianity, which again, this is coming after Easter, but what I wish we would have spent more time on is the importance for a society to have an agreed-upon moral structure.
That if you do not have a religious basis, specifically a Christian one, for your society, something else is going to replace it.
And this is where the political meets the spiritual and the political meets the religious, which is that we must first and foremost give our life to Christ.
Why is that important?
Short gospel message for all of you.
We are all sinners.
We all fall short of the glory of God.
God, nothing we can do, nothing we can earn, nothing that we can say can get us to heaven.
God sent his son on a rescue mission to save us from our broken nature.
Of course, Jesus Christ lived a perfect death, taught us how to live, ministered all throughout Judea and Samaria, died a wrongful death to only resurrect three days later, and the tomb is empty, and he is risen, and he is risen indeed.
Now, the significance of this is almost every other religion on the planet is all about...
You have to work hard to get closer to God.
You have to do something.
You have to wear something.
You have to say something.
Whereas Christianity, the promise, is completely inverted and different, where God actually comes to us.
It is a relationship as much as it is a religion.
It is that we have a personal connection with our Lord and Savior that transforms you, that challenges you, that provokes you.
For those of you that have given your life to Christ, you know what I'm talking about.
You know that it all of a sudden becomes a metaphysical difference in how you view the world.
you think differently on how you whether you're going to drink or you're going to smoke or you follow the flesh and even beyond that though which I think is important, we are seeing especially rise to young people, I'm so excited to see so many people applaud when I talk about Jesus it's just amazing to see Ana Santa Claus it's just so great Which is...
Which is, when you become less religious, which this generation is, Gen Z is becoming less and less religious than their parents' generation.
Then you have a gaping-sized hole in your heart, and something must fill it.
And out of the lack of Christianity is where we get wokeism.
Understand that it's easy to attack wokeism, this idea that men can give birth, and all this nonsense that I'm sure we'll have some wonderful people talk about tonight.
Maybe not.
Yeah, get this hissing thing.
I'm not really a fan of it.
I don't know where this comes.
It's kind of weird.
I don't know.
It's like, you could just say, you could say, boo.
You don't have to, like, hiss.
Anyway, okay.
Okay, see, they don't like it.
What is the origin of that, though?
Oh, you saw the horns off?
And that makes a snake?
So you cut off the horns of the longhorn and it turns into a viper?
You what?
Oh, you're too classy to boo here.
Okay, I like that.
That's a good answer.
OK.
Okay.
I will say, it's a remarkably polite campus.
Everyone says howdy, and they're well-dressed, and, you know, not everyone's well-dressed.
You know, it's a separate issue.
But, okay, that one I'll get.
So it's the two-class seat-a-booth thing.
Got it.
So the...
The aspect here that I think we don't want to miss, though, is that when you have a society that gets away from Christianity, our birthright, which Christianity is what founded the West, Christianity is what gave us this amazing country, it's easy to say, well, Charlie, you know, separates church and state.
We can talk about that tonight.
Of course, there should be some separation, some distinction.
But do we have separation of morality and state?
And when you no longer have a bedrock upon agreed moral structure for your society, then people are going to be in moral confusion.
And that is when you start to see widespread transgenderism for our youth or men and female sports.
Because if you do not have an agreed-upon thing of what is right, what is wrong, what is good, what is evil, what is just, what is unjust, what is holy, what is profane...
And again, the first six books of Genesis lay this all out.
What is male and what is female?
The distinctions that keep us free are actually laid out and enumerated within the first six books of Genesis.
Now, there is at times an under-emphasis when we talk about the gospel, talking about how God created the planet and the earth with natural laws.
For us to be able to succeed, harmonize, flourish, and prosper.
And we should not wage war on nature.
We should respect it, seek to understand it, and where necessary, try to improve upon it.
And so, when you see something as asinine, as this idea that biological men should be able to compete in female sports.
890 medals, by the way, have been stolen from women in track, in...
There you go again.
In track or in volleyball.
That otherwise would have went to biological women because biological men decided to play in that sport and we have to accommodate that.
And this is a massive problem that is an outgrowth of the death of Christianity.
So the case I want to make to you is that of course you should give your life to Christ because...
It's true, and it's real, and Jesus was a real person who was killed and did rise from the dead.
But even beyond that, we should also talk about the necessity of believing in God.
What happens when a society gets too secular?
Now, why does that matter to everyone in this room?
It should break you out of your comfort zone to know that it actually does impact you and your children and your grandchildren if a society becomes less religious, if a society becomes less Christian, if a society becomes less...
Grounded to our foundational roots.
Be very careful what will actually replace it.
Leo Strauss talked about this connection between reason and revelation, which is Athens and Jerusalem, which, of course, in Jerusalem we get the idea of the Hebrews, where we get this idea of a given law by our Creator.
Reason is almost only what is talked about on college campuses.
If you can't think it, if you can't prove it, it doesn't exist.
What we as Christians actually acknowledge is that there's a lot of mysteries to life, things beyond even our intellectual or reason comprehension.
And we are willing to acknowledge and say, hey, that very same God that created the heavens and the earth, Didn't give us the entire plan about everything.
And reason unto itself is a death spiral for a civilization.
Because eventually, you start reasoning your way into really, really bad decisions.
You need revelation.
You need what I believe the Ten Commandments, the teachings of the Bible, to almost rein in the worst impulses of reason.
But revelation alone is not enough.
If you only have revelation, then you don't have the West.
If you don't have revelation, you don't have technological advancements.
You don't have some of the most amazing medical advancements.
We don't have the prosperity or the material wealth that we enjoy in the West that has largely pushed back against the dire guise of poverty we've seen across the planet.
So this balance between the two is critically important.
And so as we start to see, many in the younger generation say, I have no religious affiliation.
They're actually lying to you.
They're saying that they have no traditional religious affiliation.
Something is their God.
They are worshiping something.
And to worship is what you are aiming at.
That's why I think you should aim at Jesus.
What better way to aim your entire life at someone who tells you to care for the poor and love your neighbor as yourself and defeat a death?
But if you say, well, I'm not religious.
I just want to aim at whatever I want to aim at.
Ooh, be very careful.
What does that mean?
Does that mean you're going to be the god of the flesh, the god of trying to get as drunk as I possibly can?
And just a little bit of a warning, that is a miserable way to live.
You know plenty of people probably that are in that cycle, that endless downturn, that down spiral of, I'm just going to do whatever the flesh tells me to do whenever I want to do it.
Be very cautious with that.
Instead...
We believe a better way to live as conservatives and as Christians is one that we want to glorify God in everything that we do, in all that we do.
And that includes, by the way, political matters.
You might say, Charlie, how does this inform your politics?
Well, the Western tradition is what we are trying to fight for.
The Western tradition is one that recognizes universal human equality.
So think about how fundamental this is.
You cannot get to this idea that all humans are created equal without a belief in a divine.
If you just have reason and you believe in atheism, you cannot...
You could say murder might hurt people, you could say murder might not feel good, but you can't say murder is wrong, because you have to eventually appeal to a moral standard above you.
And so, we see this playing out.
In so many different dimensions of the West, and my call to all of you that are Christians or center-right or conservatives understand the consequences of where this leads.
At first, it will just be wokeism and secularism.
It will be the craziest ideas imaginable.
Ideas, by the way, that thankfully we beat at the ballot box back in November when presented to the American people.
Thankfully.
However, it does not stop there.
Because the woke movement, whatever it ends up calling itself in the future, it mimics religious maxims.
It will have, whether it be the worship of nature or earth worshiping, or the cult of anti-racism, or this idea that the religion of scientism, remember we went through that entire thing that you must trust the experts and trust the scientists at all point?
At some level...
We as human beings desire to be connected to something greater.
My contention is there's nothing greater than actually being connected to what built this place in the first place.
And that is, of course, Christianity.
I don't think it's talked about enough for multiple reasons.
I think Christianity gets a really, really bad rap.
But you think about stuff that seems so self-evident.
You should help a poor person when you see one.
You should make sure that people are clothed.
This is not normal thinking if you do not live in a Christian society that did not have this as an inheritance.
You are an inheritor of a Christian way of thinking.
And when you dismiss that, when you saw off the roots, you become cut flowers that are not able to grow because you are no longer anchored to what gave you life in the first place.
And so...
As I am encouraged that the younger generation is moving significantly to the right.
Young men, by the way, moved 30 points in the conservative direction in just the last year and a half.
30 points.
It's an amazing thing.
Incredible.
We equally must be...
Young women, we'll get there.
Just don't worry.
We're working on that.
So that's a work in progress.
We must say this is all just a temporary moment.
Or a momentary victory if there is not the true foundation.
And that true foundation we believe is scripture.
And we open it up.
For liberals or leftists or atheists, you tell us what ultimate authority should be.
Now, politically, we believe the Constitution should be ultimate authority.
But out of the Constitution are all biblical truths.
These are things that we find in the Bible.
All men being created equal.
That you have a right to free expression.
That you have a right to be able to worship your Creator.
That we're not going to do it by force, but you have to do it with your own agency.
These ideas were grown out of the biblical worldview.
That many, many people take for granted.
But the ultimate authority, and I appeal to anybody that can find me a different book or a different way of thinking or a different philosophy that has been able to build something as great as America, and that's the final thing I'll say, is that there is so much unnecessary America bashing that happens, not on this campus.
I've seen a lot of patriots here on this campus, but on many campuses across the country, which is, and my friend mentioned this earlier.
You know you live in a great country when even those who hate it refuse to leave, except Rosie O'Donnell left, which is amazing.
Praise God she's in Ireland.
I'm kidding.
That was mean.
But largely, the haters of America don't leave.
Generally, when you hate your country, you try to get out of it at all costs.
So they enjoy the material comfort and they enjoy the prosperity that they inherited, but they don't necessarily want to leave.
There is no country like this country.
There is no greener pasture.
This is as good as it gets.
And I'm glad that we have a new administration that is fighting for some of these core values.
It's going to be bumpy at times.
It's going to be a little bit uncertain.
But honestly, I'm glad that we have a border again and that our southern border is secure.
I am thrilled and thankful.
That we have a president that is signing an executive order, despite a judge stopping it, saying that you're not allowed to medically mutilate a 14-year-old under the guise of chemical castration.
And I could go piece by piece and element by element.
But politics is only an aftershock of what happens in the culture.
And far too many Christians, if I may say, are a little bit passive about getting involved in the political.
They'll say, well, Charlie, there is no evidence or there is no biblical example of getting involved in politics.
And I challenge them.
I say, well...
Yes, if you remove Esther, Mordecai, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Joseph, Moses.
Yeah, then there's nothing political in the Bible.
We as Christians are called to be counselors to the king.
We are called to bring biblical truths into the public arena.
As Christ our Lord said, to be salt and light.
What do salt and light have in common?
They change the environment that they come in contact with.
You should try to make text A&M more Christ-like.
You should try to fight for the unborn.
You should try to fight that people save themselves from marriage.
You should try to constantly try to make the unbelievers believe in Jesus to change the environment that you come in contact with.
Mind you, Christ did not tell us to look more like the environment that we come in contact with.
We're supposed to be the change agents.
And that goes with your local city council, that goes with your state government, and that goes with your national government.
As it says in Jeremiah 20, Demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation's welfare.
We are called to care about the peace of the country that we are in.
Daniel fasted and prayed for the nation that he was in before he was thrown into the lion's den to contest for values that we so care about in the public square and in the public arena.
And the failure to do that, if I may say so, is bad for everybody.
And even an honest atheist, and I think I didn't quite get Bill Maher there, he was...
Not exactly in agreement here, but it's a conversation worth continuing with him because I think he wants to get to this conclusion, which is this, which is that even an honest atheist might not believe in God, but can recognize and notice that a society that does not believe in God is bad for even atheists.
And that is the necessity of believing in God is one that must be talked about more.
Because the moral chaos and the moral confusion, at some point you have to discuss, what are you going to teach your kids?
By what moral standard?
And if all of a sudden you say, well, I'm going to just teach my kids what the New York Times says, that's a bad answer.
Or I'm going to just, whatever my teacher wants, that is a bad answer.
Instead, you need something to appeal to.
At all points, you will hear people say, well, that's good, or that's bad, or that's evil, or that's wrong.
And your answer should always be, by what standard?
Just so we know.
That we can, you know, basically judge the same thing.
That we can have the same idea of what we are appealing to.
The final point I'll make is this, and then we'll open it up for some questions, is that we as Christians, I think, at this moment in time, must be unafraid.
To not just share our faith, but to see where our faith overlays with political engagement and involvement.
And understand, politics is not the most important thing.
Jesus is the most important thing.
And I'll say that again.
The most important thing is Jesus.
But what is the second most important thing?
To make sure you can do the first thing.
To make sure we still have religious liberty.
And to make sure we live in a free society.
A free society is awesome for the gospel.
A free society is good for all people.
For poor people.
For marginalized people.
For people that, quite honestly, want to be able to get ahead.
And at its core and at its foundation, we as Christians should not be saying, oh, you know, looks like the rapture is coming this next Thursday.
I'm about to get zapped up.
No.
Bad.
You might be right.
I'm not going to get into that.
You might be wrong.
I'm not going to get into that.
Instead, you should have a belief system.
How am I going to make this country, how am I going to make this campus more ready for Christ's return?
How am I going to fight evil?
In Psalm 9710, it says, those of you who love God, it's in the command form, those of you who love God, you must hate evil.
That is in the command form.
To hate it.
And by the way, we should be able to say what evil is.
And in America, evil is butchering babies while they are still in utero and calling it health care.
That is not glorifying of God.
It is telling a 16-year-old that you might be another gender because you might be going through a difficult patch in your puberty.
That is evil, everybody.
It's also evil, simultaneously, to allow...
The border to be completely wide open.
The Bible...
Christ explicitly effuses the idea of nations, of borders, of boundaries of a nation, and it creates moral chaos, not to mention the terrible exploitation of women and children that happened on the southern border over the last four years of sex trafficking, all the associated things.
And so it is tempting as Christians, and you're here tonight to your great credit, but I want to reinforce this.
There'll be moments where people will tell you, no, no, no, no, stop being political, just be a Christian.
You should say, you know what, I'm being biblical.
Not political.
Because I'm called to get into the tough fights, to make that place more Christian, to make the government more glorifying God.
Look, it's very difficult.
There's so much wretchedness and nonsense that infuses our government.
But the other alternative is this.
Is the alternative, just like we should retreat from the public square, run to the hills, and just kind of live in our own homeschool communities, which I support, by the way.
To raise children, but have, I love homeschooling, but to have no contact with the outside world.
And here is the balance.
We need to be in the world, but not of the world.
And my contention is that the last 20 years, Christians have forsaked the public square because it wasn't easy and it was not comfortable.
Christ said, on this rock, build my church.
Catholics in this audience will have a different interpretation of that.
That's fine.
The word is ekklesia, which literally means build my public gathering place, build my civic center of meeting.
No matter how you interpret it, we can all agree that we should try to bring the truths of the scriptures to every domain and dimension imaginable.
We should not force it upon people, but that's the final thing, is that although you might believe we have separation of church and state, a little more complicated than that, nobody believes.
Including Bill Maher, to his credit, we have separation of morality and state.
And therefore, it begs the question, by what standard do you say that is good?
By what standard do you say that is evil?
We have the answer that has been unchanged.
We believe it's breathed out of the scriptures, and as true today as it was 2,000 years ago, the liberals have no alternative, and I encourage all of us that are believers to keep on bringing that into the public square for the remainder of our life.
We're honored to be partnering with the Alan Jackson Ministries, and today I want to point you to their podcast.
It's called Culture and Christianity, the Alan Jackson Podcast.
What makes it unique is Pastor Alan's biblical perspective.
He takes the truth from the Bible and applies it to issues that we're facing today.
gender confusion, abortion, immigration, Doge, Trump, and the White House.
Issues in the church.
He doesn't just discuss the problems.
In every episode, he gives practical things we can do to make a difference.
His guests have incredible expertise and powerful testimonies.
Each episode will make you recognize the power of your faith and how God can use your life to impact our world today.
The Culture and Christian You can find it on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes.
Alan Jackson Ministries is working hard to get biblical truth back into our culture.
You can find out more about Pastor Alan and the ministry at alanjackson.com.
That is alanjackson.com.
Again, that is alanjackson.com.
As they get the question line all set up, I also want to say the turning point.
Do we have any high school turning point leaders here?
What school?
Brandeis.
Good for you guys.
That's great.
Is that in Houston?
Or?
Yes.
Where?
Oh, San Antonio.
That's quite a drive.
Good for you guys.
Where are you from?
You're a high schooler?
Good.
I didn't hear what that said, but I'm glad you're here.
So, where else?
Other high schoolers?
Tobol.
I thought you said Cobalt.
Are we ready, sir?
Let's begin.
Hi, Charlie Kirk.
My name is Camille Burns, and I'm a freshman agriculture economics major here at Texas A&M.
And I would just like to say, on behalf of Texas A&M University, we are so grateful to have you here today.
Thank you.
My question for you is if you were stranded on a deserted island with any political opponent of your choice, who would you choose and why?
I won't say Bill Maher because I can't stand the smell pot.
So I couldn't live on an island smelling marijuana the entire time.
Definitely not Gavin Newsom.
Nope.
That wouldn't happen.
I'd have to think about that.
Let me see.
It's hard to pick.
Let's play this out.
If you're stranded on a deserted island, you can reason that you want that person to be very productive, not a complainer, and have done something in their life.
So that's like...
No Democrats at all.
So...
And they're also, like, most of them are super old, so they'd probably, like, die while we're on the island.
Could be, like, super awk.
Like, oh, Chuck Schumer's dead.
Like...
And bad, of course.
But...
Yeah, I would have to think about that.
I don't have a good answer.
But...
Probably, boy, how long am I on this dessert?
I'm infinitely stranded with no hope of reconciliation.
Forever.
My goodness.
It's like, for, you know, infinity.
I don't know, I would probably pick, like, the most resourceful Democrat that I could find.
Like, I don't know, like, Mark Kelly from Arizona is an astronaut, so he probably knows how to start a fire.
By the way, if you wanted to survive on a desert island, there'd be like a million Republicans to pick.
I'd pick Joe Rogan, people that could actually hunt and gather, right?
But if it's about survival, I don't know, the Democrats would try to unionize the island with just two of us.
They would constantly steal my stuff and then call me a racist.
Like, it'd be terrible.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi, Charlie.
My name is Casey Clagus.
I'm an animal science major in class of 2026.
You guys got all this stuff on.
It's great.
My question for you today is that I want to know what your why is.
Was there a specific point in your life where you realized this is something you needed to do with it?
Yeah, I mean, again, my ultimate why is Jesus.
So you all must, if it's not Jesus, then it's something.
We are aiming at something.
You aim at a destination.
And so, for me, I wanted to aim at the ultimate thing, the biggest thing imaginable, and the truest thing, which is Christ our Lord.
So everyone tonight should think in the next couple of days, what am I aiming at?
What's the most important thing?
What am I thinking?
Where's my destination, right?
And then, yeah, look, as far as politics go, I've always been conservative.
I grew up in a very different era.
I grew up when Obama was ascendant, and Obama was very popular.
Back in, like, 2008, 2009, I was a freshman in high school.
And I saw a massive need for a youth...
I saw a need for a grassroots movement to try to counter what Obama was doing.
And I do want to just add, like, when we started, it was not like this.
It would be maybe two or three kids showing up to our events, right?
And that would be a success.
And it's easy to kind of, like, make fun of it and mock it, but that was really gritty and really grassroots-y.
When I started, it seemed like a daunting generational project.
And I just give all glory to God.
And I'm just so humbled that I get to live to see the fruit of the last 13 years of my relentless traveling around the country and speaking to very small crowds.
Just to give some idea, though, like, people say, you know, Charlie, I want to do what you do.
I say, all right, fine, you can.
But for 10 years straight, I traveled 300 days a year.
That's 3,000 days on the road.
I'm a million miler in United, in Delta, in American.
I know every possible hotel and airport combination imaginable.
I didn't pay myself for the first five years, and it was very, very hard to break out of, hey, other Republicans, conservatives don't want you to succeed.
And so my why was constantly, of course, the ultimate aim of Christ, but...
I believe deep down that there was untapped conservative potential on these college campuses.
That there was massive opportunity and really big upside.
And boy, this last November, Donald Trump won the youth vote in Michigan.
Donald Trump won the youth vote in Texas.
Donald Trump won the youth vote.
It's unbelievable.
And it's been so satisfying to see all of that fruit come to harvest.
God bless you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Hello.
Hi, my name's Emma Clare.
I'm a freshman poli-sci major here on campus, and I've heard this argument recently, and I wanted to ask your opinions on it.
So it's that if Jesus were to come to America in a modern day time, that Republicans wouldn't let him in.
And I just wanted to get your opinion on that.
Sure.
So, yeah.
Thank you for that.
So, the argument is this, is that Jesus was a refugee, and therefore we wouldn't let him in.
First of all, Jesus actually was not technically a refugee.
He was actually going to two parts of the Roman Empire.
Just, we want to be, like, hyper-technical and weird Bible nerdy.
Egypt was actually under Roman jurisdiction, so he was not technically a refugee.
But, like, I guess the argument is that because we want to put our own citizens first and have closed borders, we wouldn't let Christ our Lord.
I would agree with them.
We don't want Jesus coming across the southern border illegally.
And so, a little different, right?
But what this is fundamentally is an attempt to manipulate us, and it's an attempt to be so theologically sloppy in so many different ways, it's hard to even know where to begin.
And what they're implying is that there's a divine character amongst the tens of millions of people.
That want to come to this country.
So fundamentally, it's an attempt to manipulate us, and it's not a very good argument.
Okay, yes.
So I was going to tie it to the fact that there were people that are against Jesus.
Not everyone was for him, including Jews and Romans.
But basically what I'm trying to say is that there are, compared to the southern border, because you know it affects us, especially here in Texas, that there are good people coming in.
It's not all bad people.
Of course.
And that we don't necessarily like.
I know that there's bad people being let in, but there's also good people letting in, and I just think everyone should have an equal opportunity to...
Yeah, it's fair enough.
If you come from the belief that we must let anybody in...
And so, right now, we have let 14 million people, we have no idea who they are over the last four years.
You don't have to let people into your country.
It is a privilege, not a right.
And right now, we've completely diluted that over the last couple of years.
And if and when we have immigration, there should be highly qualified people who love America and want to assimilate to our country.
And so, of course, when you let 14 million people in, you're going to allow some people in that are great and some people that are not so great.
But think about this in the micro.
What is true in the micro can be true in the macro, and in this case it's correct.
Our country is a home, really, for people in it.
We don't have open borders at your home.
You don't have open borders in your dorm room.
And so I guess I would say, why should our country have open borders if we don't do it on the micro?
And I would say this, that it actually, as we as Christians, it's much harder to love our neighbor.
If all of a sudden we're allowing in tens of millions of people, we have no idea who they are, and we have actually forgotten the neighbors that were here.
Understand that there are tens of millions of forgotten Americans of all different skin colors that have been forgotten in this country, and President Trump's run to office and successful election was about basically saying we want to put the American citizenry first.
It's more about loving American citizens, not about hating foreigners.
Okay.
So I actually wanted to bring up this quote from Exodus.
It says, do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you are foreigners in Egypt.
Correct.
I mean, we're a country built on foreigners, and I just think it's a matter of when you were born and where you were born if you get the liberties that you get.
Well, yeah, I mean, look at the scripture.
By the way, equally in Deuteronomy, Moses warns about having mass migration because the migrants will become your masters, just so we're correct.
But that's fine.
But we're not talking about mistreating them, though.
Saying you get to go back to your home is not a mistreatment.
We're not abusing them.
We're not saying, okay, fine, go back to your country of origin.
But even when they are legally here, there's still restrictions put in place that I believe are unfair.
For example, my roommate back home, I talked to her.
She has a lot of family that have immigrated here legally.
For example, her uncle has been here for 20-plus years, but he's not legally allowed to go home for the fear that he might not be able to come back.
I just think that...
Once you're a citizen, you should be a citizen.
You shouldn't be restricted when you go back.
He's not a citizen.
He might have temporary green card status for 20 years, but a U.S. citizen can come and go out of America as they please.
So I'm not sure about your example.
I might be missing something, but that's not how it works.
Okay, sorry.
Yeah, I just think that we should let more people in because love thy neighbor, you know.
You should love everyone equal.
Everyone should have equal opportunity.
I got it, but it's okay, guys.
Let me make a Christian argument, though.
The entire book of Nehemiah is dedicated towards building a wall.
You must have, it's called an order of loves.
My Catholic friends, you're going to love this.
It's from Thomas Aquinas.
You're going to love this.
You're going to love this.
It's called ordered loves.
And it's one of Thomas Aquinas' most potent moral teachings.
Which is first, you are called to have a relationship with Christ.
Then you must love your family.
And if you don't have one of these things, you cannot do the next one.
Then after you love your family and take care of your family, you love your community.
Then you love your state and love your nation and so on and so forth.
We've done a very, very bad job of the ordered loves.
In fact, I think we have not taken care of our neighbor as well at all.
We have tons of vets in this country that are treated terribly.
We have a lot of people that have seen their jobs shipped overseas.
And fundamentally, you need to have a country that first loves its citizens.
And then, once we generally have our act together, we can have a compassionate immigration system, one that is strictly based in merit to let other people into the country.
And I would also just say, allowing 14 million people to bum-rush into America has not been good for anybody.
It's not good for American citizens.
It's not good for native-born Americans.
And finally, the last point that I'll make on this is that...
When a government ceases to understand that it exists first for its own people and not from the people of the other country, you actually don't have a government.
You have something else.
You have like a big social experiment.
And I think that's been incredibly destructive to the American body politic the last couple of years.
It was nice talking to you.
That's all I had to say.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you for being respectful.
Yes, next question.
Well, thank you very much for giving me a chance to ask you a quick question.
So, my name is Andrew Jansen.
I'm the CEO of Street Simplified.
And there's, each year in the United States, 44,000 people die in traffic crashes.
Of traffic crashes, yeah.
Traffic crashes, correct.
And the U.S. spends $21 billion, and that's a conservative estimate, on Medicare and Medicaid payouts to crash victims.
But they only spend $4 billion to actually solve the transportation safety problem.
On top of that, the $4 billion that they are spending is being wasted because over the last 15 years, from 2010 on, an additional 1,000 people are dying in traffic crashes than the year before on average.
So my question for you is, who do you know that can actually get to the root of this problem and solve it?
I mean, I know a lot of people, but that's not the question.
But I mean, are you advocating for driverless cars?
No, my question, I actually work in a company that helps solve this problem, but I cannot get to the right people on the USDOT side.
Okay, got it.
It's like a brick wall.
Yeah, I'm happy to connect you with Sean Duffy and his team.
Just so we understand, that traffic deaths tragically have gone up because of depolicing.
It turns out when you take the police out of a community, it's bad for every layer of crime.
But more than that, I mean, they say that...
I don't know if this is your advice.
I asked you, but they say driverless cars would drop auto fatalities by 90%.
I have a lot of moral problems with driverless cars, and it feels a little too totalitarian to me that I'm not able to control my vehicle when someone else is in it, but that's a separate issue.
But I do see the potential upside, but happy to...
How would you say, just really quick, we could best, let's say, stem the increase of traffic fatalities?
I mean, there's a lot of factors, right?
I could spend an hour on this, but the short of it is 98% of crashes are caused by humans.
There's 2% snow, weather-related, technical vehicle failures.
So we have to solve the human problem.
So it's autonomous vehicles.
No, I think you don't have to actually fully automate.
You can automate one-one-thousandth of the decisions drivers make when they veer off the road when they're sleeping.
You don't have to automate the entire vehicle for 99% of the time.
Respect.
What do you think about what Elon's done with Tesla?
Is that a good start?
Is that a good direction?
Frankly, I'd love for you to connect me with him.
That's one way.
With all due respect, a lot of people would, but that's fine.
I'll send him this clip and maybe he'll be persuaded by it.
I think Tesla's done a lot of good work, though, to have the car begin to intervene.
When these things happen.
Right.
What we do at Street is we're the infrastructure side of what Tesla is doing on the vehicle side.
It's a very admirable cause you're on.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You can talk to one of our staffers.
By the way, I brought a study Bible.
Oh, thank you.
This is a John MacArthur study Bible.
I'll give it to one of the staffers.
Is it a John MacArthur you said?
It's a John MacArthur study Bible.
He's the greatest.
He's amazing.
Thank you.
I've given it to you for your own personal walk.
Thank you.
And thank you for...
God bless you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
I didn't even say anything yet.
You guys have too much of the assisting, I'll tell you.
Alright, so my name is Eric Stoll and I'm currently a senior here at A&M.
I just had a question.
I know you talked a lot about your faith driving your politics and how important that is to you.
I think when I look at the scriptures and Jesus in particular, I think there's a lot of admirable things about what Jesus talks about.
Caring for the poor, trying to heal the sick, and things like that.
I was just curious, for your faith and political beliefs, how does that reconcile?
I feel like...
Taking away and advocating for reducing welfare and advocating for kids not having free and reduced lunches and not wanting to expand that program, that kind of seems antithetical to the whole message of Jesus, in my opinion.
Do you feel that way?
Fine.
Fair enough.
You're ascribing an intent with our public policy position.
Let me be clear.
Welfare should be...
It should be a hand up.
It should be a safety net, not a hammock, is the best way I could possibly put it.
But I understand the scriptures equally say, if a man does not work, he shall not eat, repeatedly.
Paul says it's said throughout Proverbs.
But I guess the question, we both want to help people, right?
What is the best way to help people?
So we have a case study over 60 years.
Is it good for people to be permanently on government assistance?
It's not.
It's really bad.
It's bad for them.
It's bad for their families.
It's bad for their psyche.
It's bad for their soul.
It's bad for everyone.
So then, what is the solution?
And we have to ask the question, like, has welfare, since we've started this project in the 60s, good intentions, made us a better country?
It really hasn't, actually.
So, number one, I think a vast majority of what the state does, not the state of Texas, but the state, should and can be done by churches and local municipalities.
I fully agree that we should help everyone in need.
But the first cause to do that should be private charities and churches, not the government.
We should not outsource our compassion.
To the federal government.
It should be, first and foremost, the local church.
And would you say that the church should do more than they currently do?
Say that again.
I can't hear what you're saying.
Would you call for the church to do more than they currently do?
Oh, of course.
Absolutely.
But this is what's important.
The church does less as the state does more.
We see this in Europe.
Europe basically has shrunk the church where it is just a husk of its former self, and it's basically to do a couple services, and to do almost very little charity.
And the reason being is because the government is so big.
And they'll just say, oh, the government will provide the health care and the government will provide this and that.
So the church doesn't feel compelled to do that.
Said differently, the bigger the government, the smaller the church.
So when you grow government, your church becomes small.
We want a big church and a small government.
We want the church to be more involved, more active.
And so if I were just, and I think we both want to help people.
So hypothetically, would I rather have somebody go to a church to go get fed or rather get food stamps?
Ten out of ten times to a church.
More human connection.
They might get saved in the process.
It's better for the church.
It's better for everybody than just a faceless EBT card that, quite honestly, is nothing more than just a digital transaction.
So I think both of us would agree that the church should do more to help those in need.
Can I ask one more thing?
Sure.
I feel like someone embodying Christ in a leader is important.
So as far as Donald Trump, what Christ-like characteristics do you feel like he embodies?
I feel like oftentimes he uses hateful rhetoric or kind of...
The Bible talks about, like, the meek shall inherit the earth.
I don't really see a lot of meekness in his character.
Do you agree with that?
Well, if we're saying that, is Donald Trump humble?
No.
But I also will say, so I'm going to put this on you for a second.
Can you think of anything admirable or Christ-like that he's embodied?
I mean, I guess you could say he's bold.
There you go.
That's good.
I think that's a fair thing to say.
He's definitely bold.
He's a bold person.
I would say he's courageous.
I would say that he's a truth-teller.
I don't know if I agree with the truth-teller part, but he is a bold person.
Remember, they get mad at Trump not because of the lies, it's because of the truth that he tells, but they get really, really mad.
We don't have to debate that.
But that's not where this conversation is going.
I don't want to derail it.
But Trump showed courage under fire, literally.
In a very miraculous way.
I will say this, though.
We all fall short of the glory of God when we try to elect political leaders.
You're not trying to have a church elder board elected.
You want to be president of the United States.
Are there examples of people in the scriptures that might be a little rough around the edges, that might be, let's just say, a little bit difficult to understand, that were also considered holy or good or faithful?
Well, one I would posit to you, as a man who made the Hall of Faith in the book of Hebrews, is a guy who also had great hair, Samson.
Samson.
Donald Trump and Samson, both great hair.
Samson was literally in a prostitute's bed when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and told him to basically go to war for the people of Israel because they were not willing to fight for themselves.
Took a jaw of a donkey and go and killed a bunch of Philistines.
And with Samson, he was ready, he was willing, he was able.
So, look, of course, Donald Trump has faults.
I have faults.
But I will say this, that to have a president...
That does things in advancement of our value system, not just says things.
I would consider it far better for those of us as Christians than, and I'm going to make some enemies here, than somebody like George W. Bush, who said all the right stuff, but he never spoke at the March for Life, and gave us questionable Supreme Court justices, and gave us, unfortunately, a very reckless foreign war in Iraq that caused a lot of unjust human suffering.
So the question is, and it's something to think about.
Would you rather, let's say it's George W. Bush or Donald Trump.
George W. Bush says the right stuff.
You know, he's more Christ-like in that presentation way.
But how he governed was actually, I would say, oppositional to what I would want to say.
I guess I just also put a lot of value on the way that you present things and the way that you make people feel with the words you say.
The Bible talks about speaking life with your words, and I feel like Donald Trump often does not speak life with his words.
And I get your point, like it's all about action, like actions speak louder than words.
Words matter, but I think actions matter more.
But action speak louder than words isn't biblical, which kind of is the, like that doesn't represent what you feel like morality and the way that countries should be dictated.
Well, let's play that out.
So it's actually both.
So what did Christ say were the two commandments, the two teachings that of all the cult teachings matter?
They were actually action-related.
Love your neighbor as yourself, and love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
Those are both action-related.
And so, do words matter?
Of course words matter.
But I would argue the Bible actually does have a heavy emphasis on action, on doing good and helping the poor and healing the sick, not just words.
Words do matter.
I totally agree.
But words without action, or words given more preference than action, I actually don't necessarily think is biblical.
Okay, I understand that.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
Thanks for your time.
Thanks so much.
Let me tell you guys more about the sponsor and the underwriter of the campus tour.
It's YReFi.
It's YReFi.com.
Y-R-E-F-Y.com.
Check it out right now.
YReFi does not care what your credit score is about student loan refinancing.
Y-R-E-F-Y can reduce your monthly payment and guarantees interest rates under 6%, ensuring affordability and financial relief.
Y-R-E-F-Y offers a 3-minute rate check without any credit impact.
Bad credit is expected.
And do you have a co-borrower?
Well, Y-R-E-F-Y can get them released from the loan, and you can give mom or dad a break.
Call 888-Y-R-E-F-Y-34, log on to Y-R-E-F-Y.com.
That is Y-R-E-F-Y.com.
It may not be available in all 50 states.
Y-R-E-F-Y.com.
Alright, I'm here to ask the age-old question, DEI.
Okay, great.
Yeah, give me your perspective on DEI, because based on what I heard earlier, I feel like you don't think I belong here.
Oh, really?
Why?
Because of how I am a black man, and because of DEI, I'm not qualified enough to be here.
Are you?
Yes, I am.
Okay, great, then you belong.
But why do I have to prove that to you?
You don't.
You brought it up.
I didn't.
Okay, but...
Can you explain to me your position on DEI?
Yes, people should not be in positions just because of the color of their skin.
Hard stop.
Okay, but do you feel like I'm here because...
I'm not feeling anything towards you, actually.
I'm not prejudicing you.
I'm not stereotyping you.
I'm saying that it's a material...
I'm not saying you are.
No, you are.
You said, I don't feel comfortable being here.
You started with...
I didn't say I wasn't comfortable being here.
I said, I feel like you made it to where I got here through DEI.
So let's examine that.
What have I said that makes you feel that way?
When you mentioned how DEI is only just putting people of color and marginalized groups in spaces, even if they're not so-and-so qualified.
Correct.
That's exactly what DEI does.
But that's not all that it does.
You're categorizing it as something it isn't.
No, that is the charter mission.
That's not all that it does.
Okay, so diversity, equity.
So equity is outcome-based.
It's about making people who are of different skin colors have the same outcome.
Regardless whether or not they are qualified.
The best example we have of this is the Students for Fair Admission, Harvard Supreme Court case, where black students, they did not, literally, they could have a SAT score 300 points lesser than the Asian equivalent and still get into Harvard.
That is DEI in practice.
I believe when you're hiring for an organization, or for a company, or for whatever you are doing, you should prioritize merit and character, and race should mean nothing.
We should build around things that matter and not things that don't matter.
You have to also take into the fact that black people have only been able to completely and completely legally be able to make profit for themselves for around 60 years.
No, no, no.
Since segregation ended in 1965 and the Equal Rights Act in 1965, so there's not...
So let's talk about you.
How did that impact you?
How did something that happened 60 years ago impact your life?
It impacts me all the time.
You're at Texas A&M.
You're doing great.
So are you a living example that all that's a bunch of nonsense and you can just act good and behave well and succeed?
But there's also living examples of the exact opposite.
If you look in the impoverished neighborhoods in certain parts of Chicago or St. Louis, there's black communities being Thrown aside because they're not getting education.
Thrown aside?
Okay, so I think we can get somewhere.
Why have the black community gotten poorer since the passage of the Civil Rights Act?
Tell me that.
Because of the way the culture has been perpetuated through the years.
Hold on.
Think about it.
So they were richer when we were segregated and more racist.
America's become less racist.
What about Tulsa?
No one's going to defend what happened in Tulsa.
We're talking about a lot of different cities.
We're talking about Chicago, Tulsa.
Again, this is a very important point.
Why is it that black America has gotten richer on average, poorer on average, since America passed all these anti-racist laws?
I can't answer them.
So do you think the fact that 70% of black youth don't have a dad around is probably pretty important?
That's because of the culture.
Respectfully allow me to interject.
How does the white culture impact the fact whether or not a black dad stays around when he impregnates a woman?
I'm not saying it's the white culture.
What is it?
The culture that has been perpetuated through the 200 years of slavery, the 100 years of segregation, and Jim Crow laws.
The marriage...
So I've got to interject again.
I'm sorry.
I don't mean to interrupt too much.
But in 1960, before the Civil Rights Act, 20% of black youth had a dad around.
Now it's...
I'm sorry, 20% were single fathers, 80% had a dad around.
It's been inverted.
So we actually have seen black dads run away from their kids the last 60 years.
Why is that?
Because of the raised incarceration rates, because of the perpetuated culture.
So how does one go to jail?
That's obvious.
I'm not answering that question.
Yeah, so maybe it's because they committed crimes.
Okay, but when you're forced for...
You're, it's not just the, oh, it's, it's, this is old, this is in the past, this doesn't affect you anymore.
Okay, so, actually, let's take a different group.
How did the Holocaust impact Jews?
They're doing pretty well.
Well, because they got reparations, we didn't.
How?
What reparations did Jews get?
Through acknowledgement, through money, through all things.
No, we acknowledge slavery happened.
Okay, but, but you're sitting here and acting like it plays no role now.
No, no, no, but to your argument, the Holocaust was 80 years ago.
Half of all the Jews on the planet were killed.
Everything they earned was taken.
Jews are doing great.
They're the wealthiest racial group or ethnic group in America.
If all of a sudden something that happened 80 years ago impacts your material prosperity, how did Jews defy the curve?
How did poor Asians do so well?
Why is it that Asians are now the wealthiest minority in America, many of whom came with no money in the 1950s or 60s?
Because of the culture and opportunities that were provided to them.
No, but you're not hearing me out.
Black Americans have had the same opportunities.
However...
But people still look at us like criminals every day.
Hold on.
But, like, I don't look at you like a criminal.
I'm not saying you do.
I'm saying some people do.
But, I mean, can I...
Do you want me to be brutally honest with you or do you want me to be politically correct?
Yes, be brutally honest with you.
Okay.
Do black people commit more crimes than white people?
It's not even close.
Okay, buddy.
Okay?
But you have to take into account the culture that has been perpetuated.
Okay, got it.
So we can agree on this.
Do you mean internal black culture?
It's deeper than that.
Let's take time out.
Do you think the average rap artist that a black kid in the hood is listening to is glorifying marriage and family and saving your money?
That's what sells because it's a culture thing.
It's not just within the black community.
I agree.
No, but hold on.
Everyone listens to it.
It's not just isolated.
It's bad for everyone who listens to it.
The point being is that black youth, as they are being raised, their role models are largely not glorifying staying with one woman, getting married, going to church.
And if you're wrong, show me the black role models that are doing that.
There might be a couple I could think of, maybe.
But if it's about culture, you're right.
The internal black culture has collapsed the last 60 years.
We're no longer elevating the family.
We're no longer elevating staying with the person that you're with.
So our contention here as conservatives is that the systemic racism stuff is a bunch of rubbish.
Instead, it's systemic bad choices.
Do you feel that systemic racism isn't real?
Of course not.
What can I do that you can't do?
Name it.
No, no, seriously.
What can I do that you can't do?
That's a slippery slope fallacy.
No, it's not.
Very simple.
Back in 1940, you would have been able to answer that question.
Well, Charlie, there's a bathroom over there that I can't go to.
There's a major league team.
I can't walk into the grocery store and get the same looks that you do.
I walked into Brookshire Brothers a couple weeks ago.
That's an insanely hyper-paranoid way of living life.
That's not evidence, right?
It's a real example.
By the way, if I walk into a black neighborhood, I get bad looks too, okay?
So I don't know what the contention is.
Because of the way you treat our culture and the way you perpetuate our culture.
Oh, wait, hold on, hold on.
We have gone to such great calisthenics and ridiculous gymnastics to prove that we're not racist.
In fact, it's the worst thing that you could be called in America.
We had, during, you know, George Floyd 2020, we had hundreds of millions of dollars given to Black Lives Matter.
I don't know where that money went.
Did it improve material worth of black America?
So, I mean, and we actually do know where it went, actually.
And so, but going back to your main contention, when you practice DEI, because that was your main point, right, you are rewarding bad culture.
You even acknowledge it.
You are saying that someone should be there based on the color of their skin.
We say skin color doesn't matter.
If you want that position, work harder, study harder, and then you might be able to get that position.
When we're forced into underfunded communities where schools are based off of property value, we can't...
Well, actually, school choice is now the law of the land here in Texas, so that's not correct.
Do you just expect a single-parent home to pick up and move into some rich neighborhood?
Well, again, so let's go back to why are they the single-parent home?
Because of the hundreds of years.
Do you believe in the maxim or the belief that you should take responsibility for your decisions?
It's not just one person's decisions.
It's so much deeper than that.
Why are you trying to...
That's where you and I have a different belief.
You believe...
It's a fact.
No, it's a belief.
Again, you have to tell me then, why do Jews do so well?
Holocaust didn't impact their material worth.
How did Asians do so well?
And by the way, even more so, why are Hispanics getting so much wealthier?
If we were so racist, why are Hispanics all of a sudden gaining income the last 20 years?
There's something.
There's something.
It's a difference in culture.
I don't know why I like clapping.
But it's a difference in culture.
The way that each culture is treated is so vastly different in America.
But again, you have to tell me, other than bad looks at the grocery store, how else is your future?
You, as a man in America, not a black man, how is your future?
My natural hair seemed as unprofessional when I go into an office or workplace.
When I walk around in certain places, people just assume, like I said earlier, the dirty looks.
When people think you...
Are automatically the worst of the worst solely because of...
We don't think that.
You've been interrupted me like ten times now.
Because you think you know what white people think, and you don't.
I don't know what white people think.
Then why do you keep on saying you know what white people think?
Because I've seen it.
Oh, you've seen our thoughts?
I've seen what people have done to me and people who look like me around the world and in America.
How?
Again, let's just make an example.
You are here in the wealthiest country ever at an amazing university.
With all the opportunity imaginable in front of you.
And all you want to do is look backwards at everything that prevented you when you are a glaring example that there is no systemic racism and you can actually achieve your wildest dreams.
I'm not the only black person who exists out there.
There's so many people who this culture is affecting to this day.
Do you know black Americans are the richest black people on earth?
What statistic is that?
Okay, I need you to pull that up, like, right now.
You can.
Black Americans per capita on average.
Can you pull that up?
I mean, I'm hosting an event right now.
I don't know what to tell you.
But anyone can fact-check me on this.
So you cannot find a black-majority country or any country where black people have significant representation where they are as wealthy.
Because even the poorest people in America are in the top 5%, the top 2% of wealth around the world.
And so my whole belief is stop acting like you're a victim and start making better choices.
This is not a victim mentality.
No, it fundamentally is because white people are not out to get you.
There is nothing holding black people back.
Let me say that again.
There is nothing holding black people back.
In fact, the opposite.
You can get into colleges with lower test scores.
You could say things that white people can't say and not be fired for it.
Black people are wildly disrepresentation.
People say that to me all the time, and they just walk around like it doesn't mean anything around you.
Say what?
Say the word.
The N-word.
I'm not going to say it on this public platform, but people say it to me all the time.
Derogatorily.
Yes.
No, I think you're lying.
Why would I be lying about that?
So you're trying to tell me at this campus, did you report at the student services?
I'm not, I have too much on my plate to worry about this.
Oh, so you're going to say at this campus, you're going to indict the moral character of Texas A&M.
I'm not indicting the moral character of Texas A&M.
Oh, yes you are.
You're saying that, hold on.
I'm indicting the moral character of one person or a few people.
Oh, now it's one.
So you heard it all the time and now it's one.
Got it.
It's not, okay.
This is the point, is that I don't believe you because now you resort back to a race hoax to make it seem as if the white kids on this campus are like racist and terrible.
I'm not saying white kids.
Was it a black guy that said it to you?
I'm not...
It matters a lot.
Because this is how lies are able to grow.
Jussie Smollett, we see this.
Do you think I'm lying when I say that people say the N-word around here?
If I think a white person comes up to you derogatorily and says, shut up, N-word, I absolutely...
I'm not saying they said it like that.
I asked, I said, are they saying it derogatorily?
But that doesn't mean it's word for word like that.
Okay, so then it's not an insult then.
So then don't bring it up as if it's evidence of racism.
Because you brought the N-word up first.
No, I didn't.
No, no, no.
You specifically said, name me an instance of the N-word.
No, I said black people can say things that white people can't say.
Of course that's true.
But that's automatically implying that one word.
It's more than that.
But let me just kind of build this out further.
Okay, so what is it then?
There's a lot of things black people can say.
Explain it to me.
You want me to give you more examples?
Yes.
Yes.
Black people are allowed to talk about black culture in a way that white culture cannot.
For example, black people can come up and say that there's a baby mama problem in black America, and white people are not allowed to say that.
Oh, I just did.
So what are you going to do?
Cancel me?
Black people are allowed to say...
Black people are allowed to say...
I'm a grown man.
I got way less to worry about.
Black people are allowed to say that there is a systemic fraud issue.
Within the PP loan application of black America, black people are much easier to be able to say that black individuals, despite being 13% of the American population, commit 55% of the murders.
If most white people say that at a job, they would get fired for being a racist.
I don't care because I say whatever I want.
So black individuals...
Have much more intellectual public freedom than white people do.
If a white person were to come up and say, you know, black America really needs to get its act together and stop sleeping around all the time and needs to actually have enough.
Because it's true.
Because it's true.
But why would you just walk up to someone and talk and attack their culture from the outside?
Well, hold on.
Let's look at the evidence.
You said to myself, you said there's all these people suffering in Chicago.
There's all these people that are terrible.
I'm telling you why.
It's because there's been bad decisions.
That have been institutionalized.
Let me finish.
And rap artists and athletes and people at the top level of black society that refuse to ever challenge the core rot in black America, which is that they are allowing degeneracy and hedonism to eat the soul of what once was a beautiful black culture, and instead they go around saying it's the boogeyman of racism, the white man is out to get you, and the result is black America is doing worse than it was in the 1960s.
That is the contention.
Period.
It's not just...
It's so much deeper than the present day we are in.
I don't know why you're pretending like it just doesn't matter.
What doesn't matter?
I mean, things that happen...
Again, I've been through this multiple times.
Let me just ask you one...
But you're not listening to understand.
You're listening to reply.
No, I'm doing both, actually.
But let me just ask one final question, right?
Which is that you have your entire future ahead of you when you are hired for a job.
Would you rather be hired because of your race or because of how qualified you are?
It doesn't boil down to just that.
That's what DEI is, man.
No, it's not.
Yes, it is.
No, it's not.
It is definitionally the hiring of people.
They're not just going to immediately see...
You get extra points if you're black with DEI.
That's how it works.
Racial quotas elevate people based on the color of their skin.
So do you think I got extra points to come here?
I don't know.
You said you were qualified.
But affirmative action was institutionalized in Harvard and in Texas and a lot of other places.
We know this.
So I, again, TU.
We don't like them, right?
So, but, again, I just want to, like, I want to just repeat this point.
Where can I go to work that you can't?
It's not just that.
Exactly.
There's nothing that is preventing black people from prospering.
Nothing.
The only thing is that you guys have been hypnotized to be victims of your own mind.
To think as if there's a white person out there to get to.
I walk in the grocery store, they look at me differently.
All that stuff is complete rubbish.
The thing that is preventing you...
You're just denying my experience I just shared to you in front of all these people.
Yes, if you think that, okay, let me just be very clear.
America has come really far.
If your best example of racism is getting bad looks in a grocery store, we have made incredible racial moral progress.
That's only my experience.
There are so many other people out there.
But I'm happy to hear every example that they have.
It boils down to this.
We are not just a racist country.
We are the least racist country ever to exist.
We go out of our way not to be called the R-word, to demonstrate that we aren't racist, to show to people that I actually have compassion for others and that I want to try to help.
You know, people of different skin color.
But at its fundamental core, I have to go back to this.
I don't actually think skin color matters that much.
I don't.
I want a country that aims towards MLK's dream of one based on content of character and one on competency.
I think the hyper-race obsession of this country is really bad.
It's really bad for everybody involved, including black America.
And I would just ask you, what would you do to improve the material well-being of black America?
What is your solution?
Education.
Okay, we've spent trillions of dollars on education.
Trillions.
You need to fundamentally change the system of education because there's not enough funding.
Teachers are not paid enough anywhere, let's be honest.
We need to seriously fix our education, especially when public school education comes from property taxes.
When you're in a low-income neighborhood, you're not going to get high-income teachers.
If you had to choose...
More money for education or more dads for black kids, what would you say?
That goes hand in hand.
Education goes into family planning.
Oh, I agree.
That's why if we get more dads into homes, it starts solving the problem.
No, education is what solves the problem.
Well, hold on.
But, again, if you're just educating and there's not a dad at home reinforcing it, we've seen this play out.
We see this in Chicago.
In Baltimore, we've spent...
Hundreds of billions of dollars in Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit.
We have entire classes of kids that can't read at grade level.
We have incredible examples of this.
And it goes back to this.
If you want to have a privileged life in America, very simple.
Start acting a certain way.
Do not...
What do you mean act a certain way?
Get married to one person and stay married to that person and don't abandon them.
Of which 75% of black...
Men do.
So, okay, we have two black men right here.
By that statistic, one of us is not going to get married to one woman.
So, what do you think?
Okay, I hope you guys defy the odds.
Were you raised by a two-parent household?
Yes, I was.
Okay, good.
And that's why you are probably here, because that elevates my argument.
But the reason why they are here is because of the education they received.
Both my parents got their bachelors at college.
I'm not discounting education, but I'm saying the parental family nuclear unit is fundamental.
It solves everything, and it's not just the hypothesis.
Education is what builds that fundamental family structure.
That's where we disagree.
More government education is not going to put dads back in the home.
I'm not saying government education.
I'm saying just education in general.
Again, New York spends four times as much on education than Idaho.
It's not a spending thing.
And we'll just end with this.
Our belief system is that you come down to the most foundational family unit.
And when that breaks down so severely, don't be shocked if that group, when it acts that way, stays in poverty over a longer period of time.
Asians are incredibly loyally married.
It's one of the reasons why Asian Americans do so well in this country.
Hispanics do very well.
White Americans increasingly are not doing as well.
They also came here by choice, too.
My ancestors did not come here by choice, but we don't have to go too far into that.
We don't have to go into that?
I want to get to the next question.
Again, you should be kissing the ground because you're right.
You didn't come here by choice.
Why are you telling me to?
Hold on, I'm telling you right now.
You should be kissing the ground with gratitude because you're right.
You are not in Africa.
And you should be thankful you're not in Africa, that you're in the United States of America.
That's my end of contempt.
Thank you very much.
The battle between good and evil seems to be escalating.
It is easy to blame politicians, government, or poor leadership, but behind all of that is a spiritual battle.
Pastor Alan Jackson's new book, Angels, Demons, and You, talk about the reality of this battle and the spiritual realm that exists around us.
It has a real impact on us every day.
As you read, you will discover that angels and demons are not imaginary.
They actually exist.
You can find them playing a variety of roles throughout the Bible, and they're still influencing the world today.
We don't need to be afraid, but we do need to be aware and prepared.
Angels, Demons, and You provides valuable insight, practical tools, and biblical truth to help you recognize the spiritual battle around us and become a difference maker in our generation.
Get your copy today at alanjackson.com slash angels.
Hear from people whose faith directly impacts our culture on Pastor Alan's Culture and Christianity podcast.
Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello.
Hello.
My name is Malcolm, and I guess my question to you today is, when did systemic racism end, and what is your definition of systemic racism?
Systemic racism is a law on the books that prohibits an individual from doing something based on their race.
It largely ended with the Equal Rights Amendment and the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s.
Okay, and so do you think that it just ended right then and there, and there's no lingering effects of that that could...
You know, kind of explain some of the disparities we see today?
If the hypothesis of lingering intergenerational 60-plus year effects are true, then you must tell me how Jews have done so materially well post-Holocaust, despite everything being taken from them.
Well, I don't think that's a one-to-one comparison.
You're right.
Jews had it much worse than blacks.
Well, I think that also there are...
Have black Americans ever had a crazy fanatical dictator trying to kill half their population in the span of five years?
We have been enslaved for hundreds of years.
No, that's not the question.
I'm saying Jews actually had it far worse than black Americans did in the 1930s and 40s.
Way worse.
But do we have to look at Jews as how we should...
Like, black people should...
No, I'm saying you have to prove the argument that it applies to other groups.
So your argument is that things pass down through generations, right?
That there's aftershocks.
There's a ripple effect.
We discount that as very minimal at best.
So you have to show me another minority group that has suffered that it held them back.
So for black people to have...
For the 60-plus, you know, like, disparity to be true, you have to...
See that in another group.
Well, yeah, because then it's a rule, right?
So the rule should apply to other groups that had other types of suffering.
But the way black people were treated in America isn't the same as any other group.
Well, I mean, Asians were put in internment camps actually in the 1930s and 40s.
Well, yeah, they were.
Again, and Jews came with no money in the 40s or 50s after...
And that hurt their communities.
Right, but then they were able to overcome it.
So how is it that Asians are super wealthy now?
Well, they were...
Put in internment camps and then let out of camps.
For two or three years, some Asians and Chinese and Japanese were in internment camps with no ability to own property, run business.
I mean, it was terrible.
Every group has gone through some period or form of suffering.
Let me ask you a question.
Do you think that the material bad status of black America right now has anything to do with decisions that black Americans have made?
I think that while that might be part of the reason, I think that there has been a...
Push for black Americans to make that choice.
I don't understand what you mean.
I would say like take the war on drugs, for example.
I would think that that is a way that black and white people are using drugs at similar rates.
But black people were punished for it more severely and given longer sentences.
Okay, none of that is correct, but that's fine.
Well, it is.
It's based on income, not based on race.
But again...
But those are pretty much the same thing.
Again, I always find the war on drugs argument so laughable.
You don't want to go to jail for doing cocaine, don't do cocaine.
Like, I don't understand the argument.
Like, it's not that hard.
It's not complex stuff, right?
It's as if, like, wait, so the argument is that a bunch of...
Black people were doing cocaine, and they caught us, and we're the problem.
Well, they were given longer sentences than white people.
Again, hotly and highly debated, but it still is.
It's not.
I've heard it from a lot of sources.
If you distill it down based on the quality of attorney they had based on their income level, it just so happens a lot of black Americans had a lower income level.
Why is that, though?
And I think there's a reason that that's...
And just so we're clear...
And I think that's a systemic reason.
The war on drugs was insanely popular with black leaders back in the 1980s because black communities were actually being ravaged by drugs.
There's a reason why we launched it.
Well, why were they...
They were put in there in the first place.
Oh, so the government, like, put a bunch of cocaine in the inner city?
Into the inner cities, that is a...
That's true.
No.
I believe that is true.
That's not true.
Well, you don't have to.
Well, we can move on from that.
It's okay, but let's try to find some common ground, because I don't want this to be overly combative.
Okay, I would agree.
Would you prefer a country that prioritizes race or one that prioritizes merit?
I think we should have a country that prioritizes merit, and I think we need to look at why some races are seen as less merited than others.
Okay, so again, just to go back to it, I can give you another example.
Cubans came here with nothing.
Any Cubans in the audience?
Nothing, right?
Nothing, right?
Am I right?
Nothing.
Because of Castro.
Like, the poorest people ever to come to America would be Cubans.
They're incredibly wealthy per capita now.
How does it keep on happening with every other group, but black America is, like, seemingly always held back?
I think you also have to look at, there are Cubans who move here with wealth.
It's the ones who are rich enough to move.
At least, a lot of them are.
And I think that even the ones who do come here, you know, with nothing, which a lot do.
But you have to, in order for your hypothesis to be true, it needs to bear out with one other group.
So there have been...
What?
Okay, what do you think my hypothesis is?
Your hypothesis is one of intergenerational struggle that what has happened 60 years ago has direct impact to the material well-being of what happens today.
We reject that premise.
You don't think that...
History affects the president?
Not nearly as much as you think it does, actually.
We believe that you are most importantly a consequence of your agency and your actions.
Most importantly.
And yes, there are historical implications that impact you.
Of course they do.
But to just say something that happened not in your lifetime and not even in all of your dad's lifetime...
Well, it happened in my grandmother's lifetime.
Right.
And it affected how my dad grew up.
And it affected how...
You know, what he had to do to get where he is and for me to do what I did to get here as well.
Okay, but you've got to break that down, though.
Do you want me to explain, like, my whole family's history of how we...
Not necessarily, no, but at some point you have to say, huh, despite all the bad stuff happening to us, we still could have made good choices and we would have flourished.
Well, I think you can make good choices and I think that you should also help people make good choices because I don't see why we shouldn't.
No, we should help people make good choices.
Do you know why?
That's why we should get rid of DEI, which actually elevates and rewards people that have not necessarily worked as hard.
DEI just means diversity, equity, and inclusion.
No, it means didn't earn it, but yeah, that's fine.
It doesn't.
I know.
Well, why would you say that then?
You know it doesn't.
Well, because the essence of DEI means didn't earn it.
No, it doesn't.
Yes, it does.
It means diversity, equity, and inclusion.
And I will explain what's wrong with inclusion.
What's so evil about that word that you don't like it?
Okay, well, in practice, not the word itself, this is a forced corporate program or college program, however you want to put it, that is putting people in positions that have less...
I went with this previous guy.
It's very simple.
You are elevating things that do not matter, that should not be in the matrix of making decisions.
DEI isn't just about hiring.
It can be research to find, you know, disparities of, you know, diseases against different groups.
And it can be like...
It's not just race.
It's also, you know, disabilities.
It's also veterans.
You know, that's a group of people that we include here at Texas A&M.
So I want to get to the next question, but here's my plea to you and to all of black America, which is this.
You could pick the Salvadorians, the Mexicans, the Iranians, the Persians, the Syrians, the Lebanese.
You could pick any country.
The ones that have succeeded reject the attitude that you and the prior guy have said.
What do you think my attitude is?
Again, your attitude is very clear.
You are prioritizing the past and de-emphasizing agency in the media.
I am saying that the past should have an effect on what we do now.
All these other groups do not believe this.
How do you talk to all of these other groups?
Well, again, you can look at their cultural ethos.
What?
Again, so you cannot find in major Cuban literature in Miami this belief like...
Well, I'm not able to succeed because they took my farm away and everything's gone in Castro.
That's not what I'm saying.
And that's not what anyone who's pushing for DEI is saying.
It is, though.
And that's the problem.
No, but the vast majority of people I've talked to who support DEI don't say that.
Okay, they might not say it, but again, in practice.
They don't practice it either.
In black America, it is a dominant worldview, irrefutably, that focuses on past injustices and not future prosperity.
Can we agree on that?
Well, okay, can you say that again?
In black America.
There is an attitude, a worldview, an ethos that is predominantly focused on past injustices, not on future prosperity.
Well, I think it's, I think, one, you're simplifying it too much.
I think black Americans see that there have been past injustices, and those past injustices are still here to some extent today.
Okay, has that mindset worked for black America?
Well, what do you mean?
I mean, it worked for MLK.
I mean, it worked for him.
MLK actually had the exact opposite.
MLK would be marching in the streets against DEI, actually.
No, he would not be.
Well, he said, I don't care about color.
I care about content of character.
DEI cares about color.
DEI is about making an inclusive space for everyone of every background.
DEI and Wokeness believe that every action is impacted by some systemic injustice and that DEI can fix it.
We're not going to agree much.
My final plea is this.
I just hope Black America stops this victim mentality and embraces a victor mentality.
They'll be much better if they do that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for your time.
All right, we'll take one or two more.
Oh, we got Johnny Depp here.
Hey, boss, how you doing?
All right, so I had a question about something you were talking about earlier.
Oh, my bad.
So you were talking about science and the church and, like, separating the two?
I just fundamentally don't believe that.
I want to know where that came from.
Say that again.
Science, for me, explains God's creation.
Yeah, science.
No, I never said, no, I said reason and revelation.
You kind of did earlier, though.
No, no, no, I never said that.
I said reason and revelation are two different matrices of viewing things, and actually one can point to the other.
Okay, well for me, I'm saying science explains the world and whatnot, right?
That's why I chose science as a course.
Right.
I think science proves that God is true.
I think the more that we study the human genome, the more that we map DNA, the more that we understand the miraculous improbability of our existence.
We're talking about verbiage here a second ago.
Let's just talk about how science doesn't prove God.
It explains God, if anything.
Fine.
Right.
Semantics, right?
That's what we were talking about earlier?
Okay, sure.
What I'm saying is, why does it have any room in our political discussion whatsoever?
Oh, it has a huge role in our political discussion.
Why?
You mean politics or religion or what?
Yeah, politics.
Why does religion play any role in politics?
Again, I'll go back to what I said in my opening speech.
Can you have a separation of morality and state?
Yes.
Okay, explain that to me.
So if we're going to pass a law.
Yes.
And we're going to say, do not murder.
By what standard do we believe that?
By any of which, please.
By what?
Separation of church and state says that I can have any reason for believing that.
No, no, no, no, no.
You're not following.
Chill.
You're not following.
You have to tell me by what standard do you get that from.
Calm down.
So what I'm saying is, I can derive morality from any which way I do believe.
Oh, I agree with that.
That's a problem.
Which means...
Christianity does not need to be the fundamental cause for morality, so I'm saying they should be separate 110%.
Okay, so what cause of morality do you think the state should ascribe to?
There's no basis for morality.
Morality is what the collective believes.
Oh, it's what the collective believes.
Like a democracy.
Got it.
So under that belief, was Hitler right to kill the Jews?
They wanted it.
No.
Oh, but that's what the people believe?
Yeah, but there's more than just Germany out there.
There's a whole damn world.
Okay, yeah, Soviet Union, they believe that we should imprison the...
There's more people than just Russia.
Okay, Mao's China.
Mao China wanted to go...
There's more people than just China.
What do you not understand about this?
Well, actually, we're getting up at, like, half of the world population at this point.
At eighth, first of all, so be clear about your numbers.
Well, hold on.
If you...
Hold on.
Calm down.
Okay, so...
You're the one who doesn't know anything.
And so, wait, hold on.
If you add up China's population, Russia's population, a population of Europe...
Which all have different beliefs.
You add up, like, half of, you know, the world population.
Which all have different beliefs.
What are you talking about?
Right, exactly.
So at some point, do you believe murder is objectively wrong?
Yeah, because the collective says it's wrong.
What do you mean?
But not in every country do they say it's wrong.
That's the view in power of each of those countries.
What are you talking about?
That's not correct.
That is correct.
What do you mean?
See, now you're getting a little upset.
I am, because you're objectively trying to lie to the crowd.
So, again, the collective.
This is not a Star Trek episode, okay?
But let me walk you through this.
In Nazi Germany, the body politic wanted bad things to happen to Jews.
And most of the world said that was wrong.
Okay, but the country itself said it was okay.
Most of the world right now says abortion is okay.
Is most of the world right?
Yeah, probably.
Oh.
By what moral standard?
By the one they've collectively agreed upon.
Can the collective ever be wrong?
Probably.
So, in world history...
Why are you a man being able to say this when everyone here believes God sets the mandate?
So, why are you trying to tell me what it is?
In world history, the entire planet, the entire planet for 2,000 years, believed slavery was okay.
Was the entire world right?
No, obviously not.
We just talked about morality being wronged by the collective occasionally.
Well, I think slavery and mass murder is pretty wrong, right?
Yeah, 100%.
So, again...
When the collective gets things wrong, then maybe we shouldn't appeal to the collective because the collective has given us really evil things over the years.
Instead, we should appeal to something higher than us, something greater.
Has Christianity ever led to anything evil?
Of course.
You can use a shovel to dig a ditch or to murder somebody.
What I'm saying is Christianity has no merit above the collective.
Of course it does.
How?
Well, first of all...
That's not the word of God.
That's the word of men describing the word of God.
Okay, that's a separate issue if you want to discuss that.
But I do ask the question, what faith did the founding fathers have?
Separation of church and state.
Okay, again, that actually wasn't in, that's not in the Constitution.
All right, those words explicitly were not in there.
Yeah, and just so we're clear, do you know where that phrase came from?
People escaping religious persecution from their home countries.
Right, so it was Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Convention guaranteeing them that the state will not come after them.
He also had slaves, so how is he inherently right?
You said people make mistakes.
Of course they can, but that's not even the contention I was making.
I was saying that's the origination of the term.
John Adams famously said, the Constitution, the structure that we care about, is only compatible with a moral and religious people.
When the American people are no longer moral or religious, the promise of the Constitution starts to fall apart.
And again, I will kind of go back...
Semantics or.
Not moral and religious, moral or religious.
People can derive morality outside of religion.
Okay, again, you might come to a conclusion with a blindfold on, but that's a bad way to be able to find proof.
But you're taking your own bias into account, are you not?
So let's, I do have to, and by the way, just so we're clear, John Adams didn't own slaves, so you should also...
I didn't say John Adams.
No, I'm just saying you should take what he takes more seriously, but I do want to get down more fundamentally.
In the 20th century, we saw mass murder in China, in Vietnam, in the Soviet Union, in Nazi Germany, all because they believed the collective morality is correct.
Does any of that make you have pause that maybe we should appeal to something greater?
You're also describing places where they had power consolidated at the top.
Well, okay, because the people largely gave it to them, right?
Not necessarily.
You guys complained for years about a rigged election.
You can't think that happened beforehand, before technology was so abundant?
Okay, again, we're now conflating like three separate topics.
No, you're talking about a new issue and I'm converting to the issue with you.
So if today, let's do a hypothetical.
Okay.
If today, so actually in 1870, 1840.
Okay, that's not now.
Okay, let's even say today.
If today all of a sudden there was an up or down vote and people want to bring back, you know, let's just say indentured servitude, would the collective be wrong?
Probably, and I would speak against that too.
By what definition of wrong are you appealing to?
My own sense of morality that's not derived from religion.
See, this is where you get this, now the final revealing.
He's now revealed himself.
What revealed?
It's your opinion versus their opinion.
We as Christians believe there's something above both of us that we appeal to.
And I agree with that.
I don't agree with your sense of morality.
Your sense of morality is a bastardized eyes of the church word.
Okay, fair.
100%.
Not fair enough, but I'm going to go to this.
Okay.
But one final thing.
Wouldn't we both agree, then, we need objective, transcendent morality to live under?
Objective cannot exist in morality.
That is opinionated.
Okay, so therefore, murder cannot objectively be wrong.
Child rape cannot objectively be wrong.
It's just an opinion.
That is not anything I just said.
You put those examples forth.
That's actually what I said, right?
So let's take child rape.
You're talking about a very deep...
Sorry.
You're talking about a very deeper issue that is a...
No, it's actually exactly where this conversation is going.
You're talking about philosophy here, which is beyond the scope of the conversation we're having.
Is that not philosophy?
Religion is a form of philosophy.
No, it's not.
It's a form of religion.
So what does the word philosophy mean?
The word philosophy means what?
A definition of morality and ethics outside of religion.
What does philosophy mean, everybody?
Philos, love.
Sophos, wisdom.
The love of wisdom.
And where do you get wisdom from?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
I would argue...
No, no, no.
Absolutely not.
Absolutely not.
Wisdom comes from experience.
The word of God comes from the bastardization of man.
Who wrote the passages in the Bible?
Man.
Well, he transcribed them.
He transcribed...
That's the same...
I'm sorry.
That's the same thing.
I'm sorry.
That's my bad.
I'm sorry.
By what moral standard was it wrong to swear?
Yeah.
Woo, woo, woo, woo.
I don't find it to be wrong.
I think every adult here cusses and it's not objectively wrong.
If it's not wrong, why'd you apologize?
Okay, that's fine.
Are you ever going to apologize?
I'm sorry, hold on.
This is important.
If it's not wrong, why'd you apologize for swearing?
There's something in you that said this is wrong.
Because the collective of this room said it's wrong and I try not to do it.
No, they didn't.
There wasn't a vote.
There wasn't a scorecard like don't vote, like don't swear, not swear.
Who clapped with Christianity?
Okay, yes.
Oh, now they're silent.
Christianity inherently has taught me, throughout my youth, not to swear, not to bless.
Has that been a good thing or a bad thing for humanity?
I think it's neutral.
I think it makes no difference.
I think it's a good thing we teach people to restrain their tongues.
I think it's a good thing for self-control.
I think it's a good thing that we teach that your words really matter and that you shouldn't just say whatever you want to say whenever you want to say it.
And the fact...
I agree with that.
Well, hold on.
The fact you interrupted yourself shows that actually the Christian inheritance of you knowing it creates better actions.
Because it creates better behavior.
Yeah, I've also seen Christians do the worst shit I've ever seen.
Of course, but how do you know it's bad?
You know it's bad.
My own sense of morality.
We've been over this.
Right.
And Hitler's sense of morality has killed the Jews.
If we all have our own...
And the collective said that's not right.
Well, actually, they didn't.
He was democratically elected.
It's not true.
Of that country.
There's more people in a country, dog.
Yes.
Again, lots of countries can make collectively awful and terrible decisions.
Right.
And so when a country does that...
And again, just so we're clear.
That also happened in the past.
You are unintentionally minimizing the Holocaust, which is fine.
How?
Because you're saying, oh, it's just one country.
It's just one thing.
First of all, Hitler took over all of Europe.
It wasn't just one country.
Through military strength, not through democracy.
Right, but he believed he was right.
Right, and the rest of the world said, you're not.
Well, actually, that's not true.
At first, Russia said he was right.
Then they changed their mind.
Italy said he was right.
Imperial Japan said he was right.
The whole world was not united against Hitler.
Time out.
The whole world was not against Hitler until two original Anglo-Christian nations, Britain and America, decided to tell him to stop.
So the whole world was...
Nope.
Not correct.
The entire world was not united against Hitler.
In fact, every major power was trying to cozy up to him.
You are talking about the word of the men that were leading those countries, not the people themselves.
Again.
You still ignore the people's word.
I know 75 million people voted or whatever, but there's more people than 75 million in America.
I'm so sick of this conversation of the majority.
I'm talking about the majority with the election, people.
75 is not a majority of 350.
That's math.
Mr. Pirate, you brought up the collective, just to be clear.
Yes.
And I also said the collective can be wrong.
Again, we go back to the moral standard of what is wrong.
There's no absolute truth over here.
Yes, there is.
You're trying to say there is.
Do you believe that absolutely?
You got me.
Do you believe it absolutely?
You said there's...
If there's no absolute truth, do you believe it absolutely?
Personally.
But there is no absolute on the collective.
Wait, hold on.
So you absolutely...
My personal beliefs do not dictate the rest of the world.
Well, hold on.
So you absolutely believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth, therefore showing that there is absolute truth.
Okay.
Because that's a truth plan.
Thank you, boss.
Yes, what I'm saying is that your philosophy falls apart upon even the slightest cross-examination.
Which is that, of course, there's absolute truth.
Your only fundamental truth is a book that was written thousands of years ago and translated multiple times.
What do you mean?
Truth can change with knowledge being input.
Okay, truth can change.
I'll wrap up in a sec.
Okay, boss.
Truth can change.
Can men become women?
Those are trans women, specifically.
But can a man become a woman?
Can an adult become an infant?
But you sure act like one.
Oh, thank you.
That's really sharp.
I thought I'd throw that out there.
Look, you're talking about semantics of someone else's life.
You're talking about semantics of someone else's life where neither of us have a word to say about it.
We will go to the next question.
I will close with this on this and we'll do one more.
This is the moral confusion that happens if Christians do not contest in the public square.
This right here.
Thank you very much.
I'm Christian.
Hi, my name is Santi Granda.
My question is about birthright citizenship.
Me and my brother, I might be a little biased since we're both citizens by birthright citizenship, but I know that you are anti-birthright citizenship.
And I was wondering if you could clarify on...
Yeah, I mean, look, nothing against you guys.
I'm glad you're here, and this is not an indictment of every individual.
But generally, let me take the most extreme case that happens, and maybe we can find some agreement.
There are cases of tens of thousands of times, sometimes a year, of pregnant women from Asia who board flights seven months pregnant.
They land and have babies, and those kids become U.S. citizens.
I think we both agree that's egregious, right?
That you have no connection here.
It's literally you come here, you give birth in a San Francisco hospital, and you get basically your citizenship card.
So I believe that very simply, that citizenship, if you are not yourself a citizen, just like it is in almost every industrialized country in the world, citizenship shall not automatically be granted to your children.
My parents, they were here through a visa.
Is that, like, change, like, the situation?
No, but I think that's a good question.
You should have been given some protected status of, you know, a visa child waiver or whatever.
I don't think you should have had no status whatsoever, but you should have had some way to be here, have documentation, so on and so forth.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Great.
Last question.
Want me to sign it?
Can you sign my hat again?
Yes, sir.
Last question here.
We'll get to the last question.
Howdy, Charlie.
How are you?
My name is Matthew.
I got some questions about, you know, the economic plans that Trump's, like, putting into effect right now.
I thought it was going to be a good last question.
I know.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Pretty boring.
So, like, let's talk about the actual, like, economic system right now.
Don't you think that consumers, when they're looking at the market, see it failing with a 5% decrease in the S&P 500?
I mean, it was up today.
Markets go up, markets go down.
Yeah, I mean, they go up and they go down, but it's not that volatile.
There's a reason why it's being talked about in news and media right now.
It's because it's a 5% decrease.
A Roth IRA right now, and you put $100,000 into that Roth IRA, you lose $5,000 to $10,000.
Right.
For now, and we believe that it will recover.
So then wait.
Let's talk about why economics are failing right now.
What is the reason why the stock is decreasing?
Time out.
Stock markets are not always an indicator of economic health.
Oh, no, no.
Of course.
Of course.
But that's what the consumers are seeing.
That's what I'm talking about right now.
Hold on.
To consumers, we are seeing that the...
You've got to stop interrupting me.
Sorry, sorry.
Yeah, go ahead.
Stock markets are first and foremost...
We fully acknowledge that President Trump's tariff plan is one that is an experiment that people voted for.
And so we believe, we want to see this through, we believe that the economy, not just being a stock market, is very important to fix and heal.
We're about to get, and I think it's important, we're about to get a massive tax bill of no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security.
And we believe that coupled with better trade deals, I'm not going to make any economic predictions.
Wait, let's talk about those new economic trade deals.
Let me finish my sentence.
I'm literally over time.
We believe the market will go up and in spades once we rebalance what is a very unfair global trade practice.
Last point.
Okay, let's talk about the unfair global trade practice.
What exactly is that?
What is unfair about the global trade practice right now?
Is it interdependency or is it the buzzword trade deficit?
The fact we don't make vitamin C in America and we have to get it from China is pretty unfair.
Okay, but that's because wage is cheaper there.
Let's actually talk about that and the reason why tariffs hurt us.
I know why it's happening.
I'm saying it's bad.
I'm saying it's bad we can't make our own drones.
So then let's talk about wages.
Wages are one of the biggest costs to any manufacturing plant.
So whenever you have people in Mexico getting paid $13 a day compared to...
California is $16 an hour.
Isn't that a difference?
Of course it is.
No one's not acknowledging it.
Exactly.
So then how is a 10% to 20% to 30% tariff going to change that?
It's 10 times more expensive, not 30%.
You've got to calm down.
Sorry.
Last question, then I really have to go.
How does one avoid a tariff?
I'm sorry?
How do you avoid a tariff?
So, yeah, you go through negotiations, or you just thug it out.
As a company, you have to, like, actually sit it out.
I mean, you guys laugh about it, but that's what's happening right now.
The cost is going on to you guys.
Let's say you're Toyota.
How do you avoid the tariff?
I mean, you would have to move your manufacturing plant to another country.
You mean America?
That costs hundreds of millions of dollars.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, y 'all.
Wait, hold on.
Are you going to think a billion-dollar company is going to just...
Pick up all the things and move across the world?
Actually, they are.
No, they're not.
Time out.
We have over $3 trillion of new investment that have said they're pledged to build manufacturing plants, to build assembly lines.
And so, yes, they're already doing it.
Toyota's announced three new plants.
We have incredible opportunity to have more manufacturing brought to this country.
That's just one example.
The rest of the goods are still going to be more expensive.
Again, NVIDIA just announced the $500 billion.
So then why did their stock just plummet?
Okay, because...
I lost $4,000 investing in NVIDIA stock.
Okay, well, that was your decision.
That's my bad, yeah, because I, you know, put faith into the economic system that you guys have.
Well, also, to be honest, so let's...
I hate to put you on the spot.
Yeah, absolutely.
Do you know what NVIDIA's price-to-earning ratio was?
Hyperinflated.
A seasoned investor would never actually buy a 23-to-1 price-to-earning ratio.
Oh, no, no, no, I actually sat through...
I still made money, don't get me wrong.
Oh, I still made money.
I picked that $16,000 and I dropped down to $12,000, but regardless...
The point being is that the market was hyperinflated.
It was hyperinflated, but regardless...
It wasn't just NVIDIA.
Let's talk about the other 500 companies.
It was all red.
That was a 5% loss.
Yes.
Again, to go back to this, the economy is more than a stock market.
I'll close with this.
Okay, but that's what the consumer see it as.
The people voted for tariffs.
We believe that it's going to be a net positive and a net benefit.
We are going through a period of turbulence.
And when we come out of this, we're going to have an incredibly attractive tax environment and more companies want to do business here.
Really quick last thought.
Okay, last point.
So, obviously, you think that tariffs are the backbone of this economic policy, correct?
So, we're using that...
Partially.
...as leverage for trade, correct?
Correct, yes.
So, what are we actually, you know, negotiating for?
Is it keeping the United States dollar as the global reserve currency?
Partially that.
Also, the ability to export LNG to the rest of the world.
Okay, so then...
So, that Texas becomes the new Saudi Arabia.
That's not going to happen.
Wait, wait, wait.
We have different formulations of oil.
There's a reason why we aren't supplying the majority of oil.
Asia wants West Texas crude really bad.
Asia wants West Texas crude more than they can put into words.
Right, but California can't use West Texas crude.
They have to use Russian oil.
There's a reason why you have $10 a gallon, bro.
Again, man, I'm not going to keep going.
Because of a refining issue that they've made on themselves.
The point being is this.
China wants West Texas crude.
Long story short.
The economy's going to get better.
Trump was elected to get it better.
Trust the process.
Thank you so much.
In closing, guys, thank you so much.
Gig 'em.
What a great event.
Keep on fighting for freedom, guys.
Thank you so much.
Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.
▲
Export Selection