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Feb. 27, 2024
Jesus & Politics with Bunni Pounds at the NRB in Nashville
Stephen is joined by Charisma Author Bunni Pounds to talk about "Jesus & Politics " at the NRB in Nashville
Transcript
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Hello everyone, this is Stephen Strang and welcome to this very special edition of the
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Strang Report podcast.
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Well, today I'm in Nashville, Tennessee and with the, because of modern technology, we're
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able to use an iPhone and to record this at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention,
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which happens every year about this time of year.
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It's sort of where everybody who's in broadcasting or print or media of any kind come together.
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And today I'm with our author, Bunny Pounds, whose book, Jesus and Politics Just Came
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Out.
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I'm a little excited.
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And I've been wanting to do a podcast with her and normally we're live every Tuesday
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and Thursday.
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Today is Tuesday, February 20th.
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So I said, why don't we do this?
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We got a little booth.
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It's not a very fancy setting, but here we are at NRB.
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There's all kinds of interviews, TV interviews, podcast interviews going on.
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You probably hear a little bit in the background.
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And what I want to do is talk about this book because it just came out.
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And so Bunny Pounds and I, first of all, start by asking you about some of the media you
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were telling me earlier about being on 700 Club and meeting with Michelle Bachman.
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So tell me the response that you're getting to this book.
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It's been amazing, Steve.
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And I just want to say thank you to Charisma for believing in me as an author in our story.
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But yeah, I mean, I was on the Steve Dacis show.
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I was on 700 Club on with Dr. Jim Garlow last week on World Prayer Network, on with Dr.
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Michael Brown for an hour and just doing tons of media here at NRB.
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And it's just been awesome to see people really love, you know, really gravitate towards
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wanting to see a book that inspires Christians to get involved with government and politics,
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but to do it with the nature of Christ, with the spirit of Christ behind us, that we need
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to get involved and we need to get involved in the right way.
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Well, that's important, especially on this election year.
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And we'll talk about that in a minute.
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But I've published a lot of books.
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We're not sure how many.
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I think about 2000.
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And rarely have we had an author as enthusiastic as you.
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I'll take that as a great trophy.
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It is a compliment.
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You know, you are just like a one woman marketing machine because you believe in this.
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So just tell a lot of my viewers would not even though we've written about you, I've
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done a podcast book once before with you.
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A lot of people don't know your story, which you do tell in here.
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Jesus in politics.
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So bring us up to date on what your story is and what motivated you to write the book.
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Yeah, well, I was a homeschooling mom that got involved 20 years ago.
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I went down to a state convention in my state in Texas and I testified in front of a platform
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committee on a school choice issue on homeschooling issue.
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And I got hooked that man, I could make a difference.
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I could, you know, testify and change a platform plank in a party platform.
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That was like unbelievable to me.
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And I thought, well, we as Americans have so much power that we don't use.
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And that led me into going back to Dallas Baptist University, finishing in my degree
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in political science at night while homeschooling my kids.
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And then I landed a job with a U.S. member of Congress, Jeb Hensreling, worked for a
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congressman Hensreling for 10 years as he went on to become conference chairman in the
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house, financial services chairman in the house.
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And then I started my own consulting firm helping solid Christian conservatives run
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for office from county, state and federal level became one of the largest consulting
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firms in Texas by the grace of God.
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And then I affectionately say I blew up my life running for Congress in 2018 and ran
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a million dollar campaign and, you know, barely lost, but, you know, God had other plans,
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Steve.
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And so the kind of the vision behind this book is to take my little individual story,
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which is just one of many stories of Americans out there that are actively pursuing government
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and politics with Jesus, but to say everybody can make a difference.
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And now I lead a ministry called Christians Engage, helping every Christian in America
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pray, vote and engage regularly.
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Why do you think so many Christians who would be sincere church going, you know, Bible
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reading Christians, why do you think they're so hesitant to get involved?
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Well, I think we still have some sort of division in our minds, whether we admit it or not,
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that some things are secular and some things are sacred.
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You know, I grew up in a very charismatic Bible college at Christ for the Nations, you
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know, the Lindsay family.
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And back in the early nineties, we didn't have really anybody in the pulpit there that
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was not in full time ministry that was not a missionary, evangelist, pastor, etc.
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And so there was not really a grid when I was growing up of, man, God can call you into
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these places of influence.
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Thankfully, we now have an understanding that God's calling Christian leaders into education,
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media, politics, government, business, and then we can make a difference.
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But frankly, we hear a lot of pastors go, take Jesus to your boardroom, you know, to
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the businessmen or take Jesus to your classroom as a public educator.
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But very rarely do you hear a pastor go, take Jesus into the halls of Congress, take Jesus
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into your state legislature.
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But that's exactly what we should be doing.
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We should be taking Jesus wherever we go.
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And most importantly, in our government, that government can ultimately shut us down.
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That can control our life.
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Thank God we don't live in Korea.
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We don't live in Venezuela or Cuba.
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We live in America.
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So we take things for granted and we become apathetic, instead of realizing that we should
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be engaging.
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Yes, that's changing.
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In fact, I met a man here at NRB, met him briefly, somebody I'd never known before.
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He's here pushing his book, telling his story that he was in the CIA for, I think he said,
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a dozen years.
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Then he was a whistleblower and got totally shut out, shut down, wrote a book about it.
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And he was telling me that this has happened to a lot of people.
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Now, I'm under the impression that there are laws to protect whistleblowers because we
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need whistleblowers.
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But you know, since Roe v. Wade, the Justice Department, has actually targeted pro-life
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people with something called FACE, which was a law passed in the 90s, that they are now,
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or they'll use the RICO laws to come up with some way.
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In fact, one of the things that's very, very concerning to me about President Trump and
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all these lawsuits and stuff is if the system can bring down a former president of the United
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States, what can they do to the rest of us?
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It's true.
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We're all vulnerable.
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Yep.
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We have to get on somebody's bad side.
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And more and more and more, if you stand for any kind of conservative, traditional values,
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you're on the bad side of certain people who want to drum that out of society altogether.
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So really, in a way, when you stand up, as you have done in so many ways and are going
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to continue to do, it's almost like you're putting a big target on your back.
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Have you experienced that or do you fear that at all?
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Well, I tell a story in the book.
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We were in the ministry in 2021 that was denied our tax exempt status by the IRS.
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You can't have more of a bullseye on your back than getting denied your tax exempt
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status.
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And so they said in writing, the Internal Revenue Service, here we were just teaching
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Christians from a nonpartisan Christian ministry perspective about prayer, voting, and engagement,
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not endorsing candidates or political parties.
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And they said, Bible teachings are inherently Republican.
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Bible teachings are typically affiliated with a Republican Party and candidates, quote,
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ending quote.
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And then they went on to say, because you're teaching on the sanctity of human life, biblical
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justice, debt, taxation, Israel, these things are inherently Republican.
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Therefore, you're not nonpartisan.
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And so, you know, number one, the IRS was so what do you have to do?
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If you've wop philosophies worked in, so you're even.
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Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
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Just move over to their side.
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And then they would think that that is subjective.
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Well, and you would have thought that every Democrat in the country would have railed their
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hands and go, the Bible's not Republican.
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How dare you say that?
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But you know, what happened was that I just walked that letter over to my friend Kelly
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Shackifer at First Liberty Institute.
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I said, Hey, have you guys ever taken a tax exempt status denial?
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And they're like, no, but we want this one.
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They're literally saying the Bible is Republican.
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So we filed a beautiful appeal with the help at First Liberty Institute.
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They did it pro bono for us.
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We were a very small ministry at the time.
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But the beauty of that was we went on Fox News three times.
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We were the top story of epoch times, Breitbart, all of that.
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And thousands of people, Steve, started waking up.
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The very thing that God called me to do was to find the awakening church and plug them
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into habits of prayer, voting and engagement for the sake of America.
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Well, thousands of people started going on our website, taking our pledge to pray, vote,
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engage.
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And I had this one man, he emails me and he goes, I'm writing an angry letter to the IRS
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right now.
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And I was like, well, please do that in the spirit of Christ, you know, kind of tongue
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and cheek.
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But what happened was 16 members of Congress wrote a letter to the IRS commissioner led
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by Chip Roy from Texas.
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And then Senator Mike Lee and Senator Ted Cruz wrote a letter on the Senate side.
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And people were calling their offices going, how dare we shut down a Christian ministry?
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And that would have affected every Christian ministry in church in America if that had
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stood.
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Well, if they could just arbitrarily say, if you believe this as Republican, I mean,
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why right do they have to say it?
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Well, but it's a mindset that a lot of those people have.
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Now I want to give a disclaimer.
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I've been both a Democrat and a Republican.
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I'm not a big fan of either.
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But with the way that the issues have come down recently, the Republicans will at least
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give lip service.
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But you know, I think that both parties are part of the deep state, which is part of the
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problem.
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Both parties have a significant problem.
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What we have to look at as believers is what is in the party platforms, what are they saying
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they believe, what are the individuals in that party that works from the precinct level
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to the Senate level to the state level to the national level, saying that their values
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are and how can they hold those elected officials accountable to it?
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You know, it's a it's a hard process, but it's really we, the people have to speak,
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not the elites.
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You know what you said about your experience with the IRS makes me think of that scripture
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that says talks about woe to he who calls good, bad, evil and evil, good.
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You know, they were calling good evil.
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And the thing is that unless we stand up, they will get away with it and then do it
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again and again.
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And then it becomes the norm and we almost lose our right to say anything about it.
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And so, so well, and that's in chapter eight of the book.
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So everybody read the IRS story in chapter eight.
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So kind of walk through the book to peak people's interest because I want people to, you know,
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we don't publish this just to do it.
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We do it to get resources in people's hands where they can read it, take action, share
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it with others and so forth.
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So walk us through the book and tell us what we'll learn when we read Jesus in politics.
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This is not a boring book, Steve.
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Now we've all read the political books.
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There's like, oh, gosh, this is hard reading.
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This is not that.
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So this is fun stories.
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It really is an intimacy with Jesus book disguises a political book a little bit.
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I say that tongue-in-cheek because I want people to walk with Jesus.
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I want them to understand that they can make an influence and impact in their world.
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So I share like stories about being willing to go to Washington, DC, my race for Congress,
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how I was the only person in the country in the 2018 primary endorsed by Vice President
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Mike Pence, and that was because we had developed a relationship and a friendship and I prayed
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for him and we'd shared our testimony to each other and a whole bunch of things that happened
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before that point.
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I share stories of ministering to Congressman Lee Zeldin from New York, one of my clients,
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Congressman Sean Duffy.
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I share a dream I had about a member of Congress that wasn't from my party, Beto O'Rourke,
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and how three months later I'm standing in front of Congressman Beto O'Rourke in the
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middle of a gubernatorial race where he was running against our governor, Gary Gabbett,
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where I got to deliver the word of the Lord to him that I had seen in that dream three
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months before, which was really crazy.
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Walking with friends of mine that have had moral failures in Congress, walking with friends
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of mine that have had terminal cancer diagnosis as a member of Congress and praying over them,
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greeting God for their healing, seeing them go to Congress, even when the doctor said
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that they were going to die, Congressman Ron Wright and others.
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So you're going to hear a lot of names in the book that you'll recognize, hopefully,
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but it's not just about the who's who and the political movements.
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It's about, man, I'm just a girl that loves Jesus, Steve, and somehow if God can use me,
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just as a staffer, as a consultant in this space, man, he can use every single one of
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us.
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And that, I hope, is what people take away from the book, that God wants to use them.
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And what kind of response are you getting?
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The book's been out now, what, two or three weeks?
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And you've been doing a lot of media, good media, as you refer to, but what are some
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anecdotes of the people that have told you?
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Well, the few people that have already read the book have said that they are just really
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inspired for their own life to go deeper in God, number one, to not just be complacent,
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not be apathetic, but to really push forward in what God's called them to do.
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I hope that people identify, even as they read some burdens that God's put in their
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heart, you know, sometimes we just look at the news and we just want to yell at the news
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and we see the injustices, Steve, we see what's happening.
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We see what's happening on our border.
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We see what's happening with drug overdoses in our communities, with still dealing with
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the unborn and the sanctity of human life, justice issues, different things.
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But sometimes we don't identify our part we can play in that.
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So I hope that people, as they read the book, will just start seeing themselves and the
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burdens that they're carrying and how they can step out and be obedient to the Lord and
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that.
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And God can use people.
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How has all of the things you've been talking about affected your family?
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Well, running for Congress was really, really difficult for my family.
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You haven't lived until you've had a million dollars spent against you.
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It was really difficult for my husband.
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I actually dedicated this book to my husband, Tim.
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We've been married 28 years and we have two sons and two daughter-in-laws and two grandbabies
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now.
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I wanted him to be honored because nobody understands the effects that it takes on you and your
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family and your loved ones when you are brutally attacked.
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I say, in the very beginning of the book, I don't know what Muslims that have converted
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to Jesus feel like when they have to abandon their families or they're attempting to be
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martyred for Christ.
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I do know a little bit more about suffering and persecution than the modern, normal American,
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right, just going through political campaigns.
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So I hope that people understand that the families of the candidates, the families of
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the elected officials all go through deep things and they need to be honored.
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Whether you agree with a person or not, you need to see about the toll that is taking
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on that family and those people are individual families.
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We treat politicians and candidates sometimes as these caricatures, right, and we don't
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sometimes see them that this is a real person with a real family, with a real children.
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Even Senator Ted Cruz, who I'm very close with his family, you probably remember during
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the time we had this Texas freeze and our grid was shut down and he was going off to
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Cancun with his daughters, right?
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And people just made fun of him that he was escaping this freeze to go to Cancun with
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his daughters.
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But number one, he couldn't do anything about the situation in Texas.
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Number two, he never sees his family.
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And his daughters were like, Dad, can we just do something for a couple days while you're
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actually stuck here and not in Washington, DC?
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And he's like, yes, daughters, let me help you.
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Let me be in your life.
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And sometimes we forget that these folks are real people with real families and real things
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that they have to deal with.
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Well, I'm on Ted Cruz's Christmas card list.
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I'm not sure how they did.
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So I've kind of watched his girls grow up with their picture every year.
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He's got a beautiful family.
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And of course, he's a great American.
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Our country is so divided.
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We hear that all the time.
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And in some ways, it's been divided for a long time.
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In fact, I'm reading a book called Founding Partisans on how divided things were back
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when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were presidents.
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So I mean, this goes way, way, way, way back.
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And but it does seem that things have reached a new high when a former president of the
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United States has quite our really frivolous lawsuits of where they're finding technicalities
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to go after him.
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But also, there seems to be a great groundswell of support.
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In fact, President Trump is going to be here at National Religious Broadcasters tomorrow.
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I should say Thursday.
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It's Thursday.
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So in a couple of days, I'll actually be home by then.
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But there's already a buzz.
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People talking about it.
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What do you think is going to happen in this election?
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Well, I think the American people have a choice.
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We can just continue to be apathetic and just continue to exist thinking that things are
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going to fix themselves or we can stand up and we can go, you know what, I've not really
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liked what's happened the last few years.
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And I want to see something different.
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I want economic prosperity.
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I want limited government.
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I want family values to be upheld.
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I don't want the pride flag, you know, on the White House constantly.
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I want to see something different.
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And so we're going to have choices.
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We are picking, Steve, as you know, between imperfect candidates.
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Neither are perfect, but we have to look at the platforms of the parties, what they say
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they believe, but to say what the candidates say out of their own mouth.
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And when it comes to president, we need to consider that the president will be electing
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or will be putting in every person on that executive branch.
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Every person, all the cabinet members, the thousands of federal employees, and they will
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be putting in every federal judge.
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The policies at the border.
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Yep.
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Having a strong stance militarily so that we don't invite the bad guys to attack.
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I was telling somebody recently that I really believe that if President Trump had been elected
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last time that the Ukraine war would have never happened.
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Putin would not have.
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He would have seen.
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You would have seen strength, not weakness.
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And there's other examples too.
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I mean, there's even a reason to believe that the Halas War might not have started.
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We can only speculate, but it's a very, very important time.
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And of course, as Christians, we believe that we have to pray.
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And that sounds like a cliche.
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And for some people, it may be even a cop out, but the spiritual world is more real
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than the physical world.
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And we access the spiritual world with prayer.
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Yes.
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And I believe that God still has a plan of purpose for the United States.
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I don't believe that God is finished and there's been all kinds of prophecies and everything
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else.
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So.
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Well, and I'll say this to Steve as we close this, that the reality is I wish a civic engagement
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ministry such as Christians engaged didn't have to exist.
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I wish every Christian was voting regularly.
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I wish every Christian was engaging in their community, but we're not.
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But we have to exist because liberty has to be protected so that the gospel can go to
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the ends of the earth.
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I'm not saying that America is special nation above all other nations, but I am saying that
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God has used America and the blessings that he's given our nation and economic prosperity
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to fuel billions of dollars into the proclamation of the gospel around the world.
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So I get up every morning and say, I want to mobilize Christians to pray for this nation,
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vote in every election and engage in our communities so that liberty can be infected.
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So the gospel can go to the ends of the earth.
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So well said.
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And I want people to connect with you.
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And as we wrap up, I want you to tell how people can get a copy of this book and also
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to engage with no pun intended.
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With your ministry.
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But first, I want to ask people to, if you don't already subscribe to the Strang Report,
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hit subscribe at the little bell so you're notified when we're on live and we do different
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special things and share this with anyone you know that would be interested in this
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or who you think should be interested.
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Let's get the word out.
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If change is going to happen, it's going to happen from the grassroots.
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Yes.
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Not from the top down.
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I really believe that.
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So how can people get the book?
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Where's it?
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My charisma shop.
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So at charisma, you can get it at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Christian book.com, Bunny
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pounds.com and Christians engaged.
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Join us join a movement of Christians.
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We have 200,000 Christians now in our system praying every week for America, voting in
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every election and starting to engage in their community with our on demand video curriculum.
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So go to Christiansengaged.org and sign up and take the pledge.
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And let's do this, folks.
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Let's reach a million Christians before the presidential election.
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Wouldn't that be awesome?
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Amen.
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And I'm going to sign up myself and I hope that a lot of my viewers and listeners will
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do that.
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So we're tuning in to this special live edition from the National Religious Broadcasters in
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Nashville and tune in again on Thursday at four o'clock for another edition of the Strang
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Report on the Charisma Podcast Network.
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God bless you.
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Do you ever feel discouraged?
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Do you need hope?
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The world is so upside down that even if you believe there's power in the Holy Spirit,
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sometimes you need to be reminded that greater is He that is within us than He is in the
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world.
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My new book, Spirit-led Living in an Upside Down World, was written to give you hope,
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to remind you of things you know, to explain spiritual truths that you didn't understand
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or maybe have forgotten.
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I draw in my decades of covering the worldwide move of the Holy Spirit to give you examples
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and stories of great men and women of God from Jack Hayford to Catherine Coleman and
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many others explaining spiritual gifts and telling stories of victory in the face of
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trials and temptations.
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I wrote this book for you and I want you to read it.
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It's easy to read with lots of practical stories to help you.
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It is not a theological treatise on the Holy Spirit.
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In a way, it's a self-help book looking at the spiritual side of life.
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So if you long for more of God and to experience the power of the Holy Spirit and the power
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to rebuke the spiritual attacks in your life and boldness to stand for God, when the cancel
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culture wants you to sit down and shut up, then my book, Spirit-led Living in an Upside
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Down World, is for you.
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You can find the book wherever Christian books are sold, including Amazon.com or My CharismaShop.com.
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Remember, the Holy Spirit is here to help us now and for all the days ahead, no matter
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how upside down the world gets.
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Enjoy the book and God bless you.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:17,660
Hello everyone, this is Stephen Strang and welcome to this very special edition of the
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Strang Report podcast.
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Well, today I'm in Nashville, Tennessee and with the, because of modern technology, we're
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able to use an iPhone and to record this at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention,
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which happens every year about this time of year.
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It's sort of where everybody who's in broadcasting or print or media of any kind come together.
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And today I'm with our author, Bunny Pounds, whose book, Jesus and Politics Just Came
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Out.
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I'm a little excited.
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And I've been wanting to do a podcast with her and normally we're live every Tuesday
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and Thursday.
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Today is Tuesday, February 20th.
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So I said, why don't we do this?
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We got a little booth.
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It's not a very fancy setting, but here we are at NRB.
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There's all kinds of interviews, TV interviews, podcast interviews going on.
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You probably hear a little bit in the background.
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And what I want to do is talk about this book because it just came out.
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And so Bunny Pounds and I, first of all, start by asking you about some of the media you
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were telling me earlier about being on 700 Club and meeting with Michelle Bachman.
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So tell me the response that you're getting to this book.
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It's been amazing, Steve.
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And I just want to say thank you to Charisma for believing in me as an author in our story.
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But yeah, I mean, I was on the Steve Dacis show.
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I was on 700 Club on with Dr. Jim Garlow last week on World Prayer Network, on with Dr.
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Michael Brown for an hour and just doing tons of media here at NRB.
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And it's just been awesome to see people really love, you know, really gravitate towards
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wanting to see a book that inspires Christians to get involved with government and politics,
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but to do it with the nature of Christ, with the spirit of Christ behind us, that we need
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to get involved and we need to get involved in the right way.
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Well, that's important, especially on this election year.
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And we'll talk about that in a minute.
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But I've published a lot of books.
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We're not sure how many.
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I think about 2000.
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And rarely have we had an author as enthusiastic as you.
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I'll take that as a great trophy.
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It is a compliment.
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You know, you are just like a one woman marketing machine because you believe in this.
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So just tell a lot of my viewers would not even though we've written about you, I've
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done a podcast book once before with you.
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A lot of people don't know your story, which you do tell in here.
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Jesus in politics.
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So bring us up to date on what your story is and what motivated you to write the book.
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Yeah, well, I was a homeschooling mom that got involved 20 years ago.
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I went down to a state convention in my state in Texas and I testified in front of a platform
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committee on a school choice issue on homeschooling issue.
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And I got hooked that man, I could make a difference.
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I could, you know, testify and change a platform plank in a party platform.
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That was like unbelievable to me.
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And I thought, well, we as Americans have so much power that we don't use.
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And that led me into going back to Dallas Baptist University, finishing in my degree
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in political science at night while homeschooling my kids.
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And then I landed a job with a U.S. member of Congress, Jeb Hensreling, worked for a
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congressman Hensreling for 10 years as he went on to become conference chairman in the
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house, financial services chairman in the house.
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And then I started my own consulting firm helping solid Christian conservatives run
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for office from county, state and federal level became one of the largest consulting
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firms in Texas by the grace of God.
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And then I affectionately say I blew up my life running for Congress in 2018 and ran
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a million dollar campaign and, you know, barely lost, but, you know, God had other plans,
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Steve.
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And so the kind of the vision behind this book is to take my little individual story,
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which is just one of many stories of Americans out there that are actively pursuing government
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and politics with Jesus, but to say everybody can make a difference.
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And now I lead a ministry called Christians Engage, helping every Christian in America
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pray, vote and engage regularly.
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Why do you think so many Christians who would be sincere church going, you know, Bible
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reading Christians, why do you think they're so hesitant to get involved?
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Well, I think we still have some sort of division in our minds, whether we admit it or not,
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that some things are secular and some things are sacred.
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You know, I grew up in a very charismatic Bible college at Christ for the Nations, you
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know, the Lindsay family.
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And back in the early nineties, we didn't have really anybody in the pulpit there that
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was not in full time ministry that was not a missionary, evangelist, pastor, etc.
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And so there was not really a grid when I was growing up of, man, God can call you into
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these places of influence.
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Thankfully, we now have an understanding that God's calling Christian leaders into education,
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media, politics, government, business, and then we can make a difference.
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But frankly, we hear a lot of pastors go, take Jesus to your boardroom, you know, to
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the businessmen or take Jesus to your classroom as a public educator.
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But very rarely do you hear a pastor go, take Jesus into the halls of Congress, take Jesus
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into your state legislature.
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But that's exactly what we should be doing.
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We should be taking Jesus wherever we go.
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And most importantly, in our government, that government can ultimately shut us down.
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That can control our life.
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Thank God we don't live in Korea.
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We don't live in Venezuela or Cuba.
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We live in America.
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So we take things for granted and we become apathetic, instead of realizing that we should
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be engaging.
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Yes, that's changing.
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In fact, I met a man here at NRB, met him briefly, somebody I'd never known before.
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He's here pushing his book, telling his story that he was in the CIA for, I think he said,
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a dozen years.
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Then he was a whistleblower and got totally shut out, shut down, wrote a book about it.
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And he was telling me that this has happened to a lot of people.
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Now, I'm under the impression that there are laws to protect whistleblowers because we
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need whistleblowers.
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But you know, since Roe v. Wade, the Justice Department, has actually targeted pro-life
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people with something called FACE, which was a law passed in the 90s, that they are now,
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or they'll use the RICO laws to come up with some way.
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In fact, one of the things that's very, very concerning to me about President Trump and
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all these lawsuits and stuff is if the system can bring down a former president of the United
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States, what can they do to the rest of us?
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It's true.
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We're all vulnerable.
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Yep.
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We have to get on somebody's bad side.
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And more and more and more, if you stand for any kind of conservative, traditional values,
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you're on the bad side of certain people who want to drum that out of society altogether.
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So really, in a way, when you stand up, as you have done in so many ways and are going
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to continue to do, it's almost like you're putting a big target on your back.
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Have you experienced that or do you fear that at all?
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Well, I tell a story in the book.
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We were in the ministry in 2021 that was denied our tax exempt status by the IRS.
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You can't have more of a bullseye on your back than getting denied your tax exempt
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status.
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And so they said in writing, the Internal Revenue Service, here we were just teaching
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Christians from a nonpartisan Christian ministry perspective about prayer, voting, and engagement,
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not endorsing candidates or political parties.
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And they said, Bible teachings are inherently Republican.
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Bible teachings are typically affiliated with a Republican Party and candidates, quote,
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ending quote.
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And then they went on to say, because you're teaching on the sanctity of human life, biblical
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justice, debt, taxation, Israel, these things are inherently Republican.
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Therefore, you're not nonpartisan.
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And so, you know, number one, the IRS was so what do you have to do?
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If you've wop philosophies worked in, so you're even.
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Yeah, it doesn't make sense.
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Just move over to their side.
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And then they would think that that is subjective.
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Well, and you would have thought that every Democrat in the country would have railed their
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hands and go, the Bible's not Republican.
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How dare you say that?
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But you know, what happened was that I just walked that letter over to my friend Kelly
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Shackifer at First Liberty Institute.
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I said, Hey, have you guys ever taken a tax exempt status denial?
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And they're like, no, but we want this one.
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They're literally saying the Bible is Republican.
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So we filed a beautiful appeal with the help at First Liberty Institute.
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They did it pro bono for us.
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We were a very small ministry at the time.
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But the beauty of that was we went on Fox News three times.
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We were the top story of epoch times, Breitbart, all of that.
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And thousands of people, Steve, started waking up.
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The very thing that God called me to do was to find the awakening church and plug them
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into habits of prayer, voting and engagement for the sake of America.
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Well, thousands of people started going on our website, taking our pledge to pray, vote,
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engage.
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And I had this one man, he emails me and he goes, I'm writing an angry letter to the IRS
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right now.
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And I was like, well, please do that in the spirit of Christ, you know, kind of tongue
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and cheek.
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But what happened was 16 members of Congress wrote a letter to the IRS commissioner led
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by Chip Roy from Texas.
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And then Senator Mike Lee and Senator Ted Cruz wrote a letter on the Senate side.
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And people were calling their offices going, how dare we shut down a Christian ministry?
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And that would have affected every Christian ministry in church in America if that had
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stood.
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Well, if they could just arbitrarily say, if you believe this as Republican, I mean,
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why right do they have to say it?
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Well, but it's a mindset that a lot of those people have.
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Now I want to give a disclaimer.
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I've been both a Democrat and a Republican.
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I'm not a big fan of either.
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But with the way that the issues have come down recently, the Republicans will at least
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give lip service.
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But you know, I think that both parties are part of the deep state, which is part of the
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problem.
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Both parties have a significant problem.
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What we have to look at as believers is what is in the party platforms, what are they saying
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they believe, what are the individuals in that party that works from the precinct level
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to the Senate level to the state level to the national level, saying that their values
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are and how can they hold those elected officials accountable to it?
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You know, it's a it's a hard process, but it's really we, the people have to speak,
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not the elites.
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You know what you said about your experience with the IRS makes me think of that scripture
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that says talks about woe to he who calls good, bad, evil and evil, good.
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You know, they were calling good evil.
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And the thing is that unless we stand up, they will get away with it and then do it
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again and again.
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And then it becomes the norm and we almost lose our right to say anything about it.
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And so, so well, and that's in chapter eight of the book.
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So everybody read the IRS story in chapter eight.
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So kind of walk through the book to peak people's interest because I want people to, you know,
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we don't publish this just to do it.
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We do it to get resources in people's hands where they can read it, take action, share
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it with others and so forth.
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So walk us through the book and tell us what we'll learn when we read Jesus in politics.
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This is not a boring book, Steve.
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Now we've all read the political books.
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There's like, oh, gosh, this is hard reading.
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This is not that.
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So this is fun stories.
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It really is an intimacy with Jesus book disguises a political book a little bit.
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I say that tongue-in-cheek because I want people to walk with Jesus.
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I want them to understand that they can make an influence and impact in their world.
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So I share like stories about being willing to go to Washington, DC, my race for Congress,
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how I was the only person in the country in the 2018 primary endorsed by Vice President
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Mike Pence, and that was because we had developed a relationship and a friendship and I prayed
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for him and we'd shared our testimony to each other and a whole bunch of things that happened
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before that point.
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I share stories of ministering to Congressman Lee Zeldin from New York, one of my clients,
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Congressman Sean Duffy.
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I share a dream I had about a member of Congress that wasn't from my party, Beto O'Rourke,
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and how three months later I'm standing in front of Congressman Beto O'Rourke in the
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middle of a gubernatorial race where he was running against our governor, Gary Gabbett,
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where I got to deliver the word of the Lord to him that I had seen in that dream three
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months before, which was really crazy.
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Walking with friends of mine that have had moral failures in Congress, walking with friends
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of mine that have had terminal cancer diagnosis as a member of Congress and praying over them,
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greeting God for their healing, seeing them go to Congress, even when the doctor said
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that they were going to die, Congressman Ron Wright and others.
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So you're going to hear a lot of names in the book that you'll recognize, hopefully,
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but it's not just about the who's who and the political movements.
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It's about, man, I'm just a girl that loves Jesus, Steve, and somehow if God can use me,
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just as a staffer, as a consultant in this space, man, he can use every single one of
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us.
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And that, I hope, is what people take away from the book, that God wants to use them.
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And what kind of response are you getting?
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The book's been out now, what, two or three weeks?
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And you've been doing a lot of media, good media, as you refer to, but what are some
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anecdotes of the people that have told you?
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Well, the few people that have already read the book have said that they are just really
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inspired for their own life to go deeper in God, number one, to not just be complacent,
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not be apathetic, but to really push forward in what God's called them to do.
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I hope that people identify, even as they read some burdens that God's put in their
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heart, you know, sometimes we just look at the news and we just want to yell at the news
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and we see the injustices, Steve, we see what's happening.
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We see what's happening on our border.
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We see what's happening with drug overdoses in our communities, with still dealing with
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the unborn and the sanctity of human life, justice issues, different things.
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But sometimes we don't identify our part we can play in that.
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So I hope that people, as they read the book, will just start seeing themselves and the
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burdens that they're carrying and how they can step out and be obedient to the Lord and
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that.
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And God can use people.
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How has all of the things you've been talking about affected your family?
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Well, running for Congress was really, really difficult for my family.
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You haven't lived until you've had a million dollars spent against you.
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It was really difficult for my husband.
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I actually dedicated this book to my husband, Tim.
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We've been married 28 years and we have two sons and two daughter-in-laws and two grandbabies
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now.
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I wanted him to be honored because nobody understands the effects that it takes on you and your
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family and your loved ones when you are brutally attacked.
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I say, in the very beginning of the book, I don't know what Muslims that have converted
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to Jesus feel like when they have to abandon their families or they're attempting to be
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martyred for Christ.
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I do know a little bit more about suffering and persecution than the modern, normal American,
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right, just going through political campaigns.
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So I hope that people understand that the families of the candidates, the families of
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the elected officials all go through deep things and they need to be honored.
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Whether you agree with a person or not, you need to see about the toll that is taking
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on that family and those people are individual families.
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We treat politicians and candidates sometimes as these caricatures, right, and we don't
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sometimes see them that this is a real person with a real family, with a real children.
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Even Senator Ted Cruz, who I'm very close with his family, you probably remember during
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the time we had this Texas freeze and our grid was shut down and he was going off to
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Cancun with his daughters, right?
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And people just made fun of him that he was escaping this freeze to go to Cancun with
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his daughters.
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But number one, he couldn't do anything about the situation in Texas.
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Number two, he never sees his family.
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And his daughters were like, Dad, can we just do something for a couple days while you're
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actually stuck here and not in Washington, DC?
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And he's like, yes, daughters, let me help you.
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Let me be in your life.
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And sometimes we forget that these folks are real people with real families and real things
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that they have to deal with.
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Well, I'm on Ted Cruz's Christmas card list.
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I'm not sure how they did.
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So I've kind of watched his girls grow up with their picture every year.
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He's got a beautiful family.
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And of course, he's a great American.
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Our country is so divided.
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We hear that all the time.
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And in some ways, it's been divided for a long time.
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In fact, I'm reading a book called Founding Partisans on how divided things were back
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when John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were presidents.
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So I mean, this goes way, way, way, way back.
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And but it does seem that things have reached a new high when a former president of the
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United States has quite our really frivolous lawsuits of where they're finding technicalities
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to go after him.
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But also, there seems to be a great groundswell of support.
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In fact, President Trump is going to be here at National Religious Broadcasters tomorrow.
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I should say Thursday.
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It's Thursday.
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So in a couple of days, I'll actually be home by then.
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But there's already a buzz.
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People talking about it.
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What do you think is going to happen in this election?
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Well, I think the American people have a choice.
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We can just continue to be apathetic and just continue to exist thinking that things are
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going to fix themselves or we can stand up and we can go, you know what, I've not really
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liked what's happened the last few years.
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And I want to see something different.
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I want economic prosperity.
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I want limited government.
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I want family values to be upheld.
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I don't want the pride flag, you know, on the White House constantly.
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I want to see something different.
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And so we're going to have choices.
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We are picking, Steve, as you know, between imperfect candidates.
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Neither are perfect, but we have to look at the platforms of the parties, what they say
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they believe, but to say what the candidates say out of their own mouth.
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And when it comes to president, we need to consider that the president will be electing
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or will be putting in every person on that executive branch.
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Every person, all the cabinet members, the thousands of federal employees, and they will
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be putting in every federal judge.
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The policies at the border.
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Yep.
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Having a strong stance militarily so that we don't invite the bad guys to attack.
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I was telling somebody recently that I really believe that if President Trump had been elected
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last time that the Ukraine war would have never happened.
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Putin would not have.
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He would have seen.
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You would have seen strength, not weakness.
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And there's other examples too.
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I mean, there's even a reason to believe that the Halas War might not have started.
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We can only speculate, but it's a very, very important time.
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And of course, as Christians, we believe that we have to pray.
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And that sounds like a cliche.
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And for some people, it may be even a cop out, but the spiritual world is more real
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than the physical world.
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And we access the spiritual world with prayer.
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Yes.
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And I believe that God still has a plan of purpose for the United States.
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I don't believe that God is finished and there's been all kinds of prophecies and everything
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else.
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So.
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Well, and I'll say this to Steve as we close this, that the reality is I wish a civic engagement
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ministry such as Christians engaged didn't have to exist.
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I wish every Christian was voting regularly.
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I wish every Christian was engaging in their community, but we're not.
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But we have to exist because liberty has to be protected so that the gospel can go to
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the ends of the earth.
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I'm not saying that America is special nation above all other nations, but I am saying that
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God has used America and the blessings that he's given our nation and economic prosperity
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to fuel billions of dollars into the proclamation of the gospel around the world.
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So I get up every morning and say, I want to mobilize Christians to pray for this nation,
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vote in every election and engage in our communities so that liberty can be infected.
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So the gospel can go to the ends of the earth.
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So well said.
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And I want people to connect with you.
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And as we wrap up, I want you to tell how people can get a copy of this book and also
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to engage with no pun intended.
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With your ministry.
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But first, I want to ask people to, if you don't already subscribe to the Strang Report,
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hit subscribe at the little bell so you're notified when we're on live and we do different
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special things and share this with anyone you know that would be interested in this
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or who you think should be interested.
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Let's get the word out.
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If change is going to happen, it's going to happen from the grassroots.
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Yes.
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Not from the top down.
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I really believe that.
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So how can people get the book?
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Where's it?
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My charisma shop.
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So at charisma, you can get it at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Christian book.com, Bunny
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pounds.com and Christians engaged.
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Join us join a movement of Christians.
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We have 200,000 Christians now in our system praying every week for America, voting in
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every election and starting to engage in their community with our on demand video curriculum.
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So go to Christiansengaged.org and sign up and take the pledge.
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And let's do this, folks.
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Let's reach a million Christians before the presidential election.
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Wouldn't that be awesome?
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Amen.
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And I'm going to sign up myself and I hope that a lot of my viewers and listeners will
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do that.
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So we're tuning in to this special live edition from the National Religious Broadcasters in
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Nashville and tune in again on Thursday at four o'clock for another edition of the Strang
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Report on the Charisma Podcast Network.
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God bless you.
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Do you ever feel discouraged?
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Do you need hope?
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The world is so upside down that even if you believe there's power in the Holy Spirit,
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sometimes you need to be reminded that greater is He that is within us than He is in the
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world.
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My new book, Spirit-led Living in an Upside Down World, was written to give you hope,
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to remind you of things you know, to explain spiritual truths that you didn't understand
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or maybe have forgotten.
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I draw in my decades of covering the worldwide move of the Holy Spirit to give you examples
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and stories of great men and women of God from Jack Hayford to Catherine Coleman and
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00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:55,720
many others explaining spiritual gifts and telling stories of victory in the face of
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trials and temptations.
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I wrote this book for you and I want you to read it.
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It's easy to read with lots of practical stories to help you.
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It is not a theological treatise on the Holy Spirit.
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In a way, it's a self-help book looking at the spiritual side of life.
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So if you long for more of God and to experience the power of the Holy Spirit and the power
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to rebuke the spiritual attacks in your life and boldness to stand for God, when the cancel
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culture wants you to sit down and shut up, then my book, Spirit-led Living in an Upside
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Down World, is for you.
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You can find the book wherever Christian books are sold, including Amazon.com or My CharismaShop.com.
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Remember, the Holy Spirit is here to help us now and for all the days ahead, no matter
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how upside down the world gets.
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Enjoy the book and God bless you.
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