Abba Father, thank you for the privilege of being
here today that we get to sit at these mics and
have a conversation. And Father, my heart is
that it will be a conversation that helps someone
else in their own conversations, whether it's
with themselves or with others, Lord. So Father,
we get to do this. It's more than a motto, more
than a slogan, more than a mantra. It is literally
our heart. So Lord, as we step into this and
lean into this today, Holy Spirit, we ask you
to be our guide. Your Word says that you're the
Spirit of truth who leads us and guides us into
all truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. It's Wednesday,
May 20th, 2026. We get to do this. This is episode
number 33. We get to do this. Well, hello, brother.
Brother. How you doing? We do. We do. We do.
We do. And thank you for changing your schedule
around for mine. No worries. You know that I'm
literally actually on vacation right now. That's
right. Is this the official start? This year
on an o 'clock at noon today, I tipped a scale.
It was like, I'm off. That is so nice. It's a
good feeling. Are you still going to do the show
during your vacation? Absolutely. That's not
even negotiable. It's not work. No, it's not.
When you love what you do, it's not work. So
I had to change the schedule around today. Here's
the words you never want to hear your phlebotomist
say. You've got no flow. I mean, this poor woman
was literally looking at me going like, there
is nothing coming out of your vein. Oh, that
is odd. Can I try the other one? Now, as you
know, I have some odd childhood trauma. Not for
the needle. It's the actual flow of the blood.
And I don't know where it's from. We need to
work through this, brother. I do. I mean, it's
something deep -seated, deeply rooted. I'm over.
I'm whistling Dixie. I'm like, yeah, come on,
let's do it. And then she's like, let me pull
it out a little bit. Let me put it in. I'm like,
OK, OK, I'm still here. Now my palms are starting
to sweat. Yeah, because you feel this thing moving
around inside your body. And they said, oh, let
me do the other one. There is nothing moving.
Look, look. I'm like, really? You want me to
look at this thing? And you can see the blood
go chook, chook, chook, chook. And I drank water
this morning. I don't know what it was. I said,
am I technically alive if my blood is not flowing?
Something's wrong here. Houston, we have a problem.
Does that happen? Is that a regular thing? I
don't know. I've never heard of that, actually.
I figure if your blood's not moving, that's...
That's what I thought. So anyway, we finally
see it finally started to happen. Do you have
thick blood? I mean, unusually thick royal blood,
maybe. I don't know. I don't know if it's thick.
Well, when you're on the T, sometimes it can
thicken, you know. Oh, it'll thicken up. That's
why they want us to give blood like, you know,
to the Red Cross and give blood. It thins it
out. Oh, I didn't realize that. That helps your
blood flow, brings your blood pressure down.
So maybe I got too much tea now. We'll see when
the results come back. This is all because of
you, Damonette, and Tina. All of this tea stuff
is because of you guys. It's been a game changer
for me and other of my men friends. I feel good.
Yeah, I always felt good. I guess I feel better.
I guess you guess. You know, we celebrated our
seventh wedding anniversary. Congratulations.
Tea is working. Everything's good. I was quite
the man at the restaurant. Yeah, it was nice.
It was real nice. Brother, there's so much going
on right now. We had just an amazing, really
weak. If you go Wednesday to Wednesday, I would
say that was marked For me, just seeing that
you did the invocation of our brand new mayor
here in Fredericksburg, which is, you know, we've
been talking about Randy Briley. We really wanted
him to become the mayor. Absolutely. He's a believer.
He's a biblical man. He's a good man. He's a
smart man. Did a podcast with him. I didn't get
the invite. I didn't know the invocation was
even taking place. I'm like, okay, no one told
me it was happening. I'm surprised. He had asked
me to pray to kick that off. They start all the
city council meetings with prayer from local
clergy. So I was honored to do it. What I didn't
realize, it was a lot of firsts. So they had
never used this space before. It's brand new.
So everything's new, which... As you listen to
the recording, you could tell because half the
guys didn't know to keep taking their mics off.
Should I play just a little bit of the beginning?
Oh, if you've got that, go for it. It's pretty
bad. Because I got it, and I'm like, I can't
even play this whole thing. But just listen.
I mean, it started off like... As I begin, I
just want to recall that Dr. Benjamin Franklin
was the oldest representative of the Constitutional
Convention in June of 1787. The colonies were
in turmoil and great disarray. Tension filled
the air as the representatives met together to
find the war. And now like Chad GPT is talking
in there and... Oh my gosh. It got better at
a certain point. Fortunately, in the house. It
was good in the house. It was clear. It was good.
I was mad, brother. I want you to know, first
of all, I texted our brand new mayor and said,
Hey mayor, congratulations. I didn't say, how
come I didn't get invited? But I said, are you
guys going to stream again? He's like, no, we
stream. You have to go to the website and click
on the camera icon. Brother, this is like eight
levels deep. Wow. You got to go all the way into
the actual agenda of that city council meeting
to find a little camera icon. They need to clean
that up. I'm going to make some suggestions about
that. That needs to be on front page. But they
do it. And so what I immediately did is I turned
it into a podcast. So now in the Godcaster, every
single time there's a city council meeting, you
will hear a promo with some piece of what happened.
And you can go right into the Godcaster and it's
right there. You can listen. I think we have
20 of the previous ones and whenever there's
a new one. And it's actually good because they
did a whole bunch of stuff after the invocation.
It was a regular city council meeting. It was.
So the beginning was awards. swearing in of Randy
Barali as the new mayor and blessing and honoring
Gerald Hoover. I love that you did that. He's
a hoot, man. He's a good guy. He's been a good
mayor for us. He was so funny. I think I told
you this. He was trying to exit. Everybody stood
and clapped. It was a really beautiful moment.
He gets to the door to leave and he doesn't know
the combination to the lock. And he turns around
and says, you've already locked me out. That
was so good. I love that. I love the sense of
humor. So this is the new building? Yeah, new
building. The grand opening of the city council
chambers was then. And so I was the first person
to ever pray at that podium. I love that. So
the first action at that podium ever on that
microphone was prayer. It was a prayer base in
history and out of historical perspective and
just a calling back to prayer. Can I share the
beginning of that? Yes, and I want you to know
that I actually pulled the piece from the movie,
so why don't you set it up? Oh, very cool. See,
I come loaded from there, brother. I come prepared
for you. I'm going to use what I did the other
day. I just took it and I just kind of morphed
it because we just watched it the night before.
I was really stirred about it. A great awakening.
Oh, man. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest
representative at the Constitutional Convention
in June of 1787. The colonies were in turmoil
and great disarray. Tension filled the air as
the representatives met together to find their
way and solidify the terms of forming the Union.
Dr. Franklin was 80 years old, had been mostly
silent through the prior days of divisive and
contentious deliberations on how to unify our
nation on the heels of the Revolution. George
Washington. was presiding over the meeting and
gave the floor to Dr. Franklin. And then you
went into prayer. Well, no, I went into his quote.
Oh, that's right. Well, so we have to kind of
step back because Sunday, during your message
from the pulpit, you said, I just watched this
movie, A Great Awakening for the second time,
and I'm sitting there going. How come I haven't
seen this movie? What is this movie? How come
I haven't heard about this? What is it? How old
is this movie? It's brand new. It just went to
streaming. Right. Because I had to pay like 10
bucks for it or something. It's been in the theaters.
And it was really interesting because when it
started off, because I told Tina, like, we got
to watch this movie. What is it? Say, well, it's
a period piece, but it's based on a true story
of Benjamin Franklin and the Constitutional Convention,
the Convention of States. And it started off
and she's like, What is this really about? And
then all of a sudden, the first mention of God
comes in. And it was wonderful to watch her attention
go from, oh, hold on a second, what is this?
And it's such a, you know, it comes on the heels
of us listening to that Glenn Beck episode, which
was about George Whitefield. Because it really
was a lot about George Whitefield. who came over
and really started the Great Awakening by preaching
to everyone in the colonies literally until he
died. 30 plus years. He just died from exposure,
I would say. He was 55 years old. And so Benjamin
Franklin, I grew up hearing that he was an inventor
and he flew a kite in a lightning storm. And
I think I also learned that he created the first
set of false teeth out of wood for George Washington.
And that was pretty much what I knew about him.
And to see this movie, thank you for the recommendation,
was so good. And so I pulled the clip. Which
is, it's not the last piece of the movie, I actually
have that as well, because that's perhaps even
more powerful. It's about four minutes though,
but is it okay if we just run this? Because it
is, so he's at this point, Benjamin Franklin's
80, and 80 in those days was 80. You know, you're
like, you're still alive. For real, yeah. And
he was, and so the convention, was it the 13
comedies at that point? It was, yeah. They had
the Revolutionary War. five or six, seven years,
but maybe a little bit longer. Ten years later.
Yeah. And here they're all arguing. And as you
said during the message, like this is just like
it is now. Everyone's arguing and yelling. There's
no cameras. There's no sound bites and no little
shots to get on MSNBC. But they're clearly in
disarray. They can't figure it out. And then
George Washington. gives the floor to Benjamin
Franklin. This chair recognizes Dr. Benjamin
Franklin. Mr. President, the small progress we
have made after four or five weeks close attendance
and continual reasonings with each other are
different sentiments on almost every question.
several of the last producing as many nose as
eyes, is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the
imperfection of the human understanding. We,
indeed, seem to feel our own want for political
wisdom since we've been running about in search
of it. We have gone back to ancient history for
models of government. and having examined those
forms of those republics, which having been formed
with the seeds of their own disillusion, now
no longer exist. We have viewed modern states
all around Europe. I'd like to, I'm just going
to interrupt it for a second. I didn't know that,
that they had looked at all the different systems
and forms of government. And they said, well,
most of these have gone kaput and we can't really
find ourselves in some of these other ones. And
this, as far as I know, this is a true representation
of the historical. I did, I did do a little research
by talking to Matt Long. who is our very own
Benjamin Franklin. Very much so. He looks like
him, which is why when he's in costume. You can
call it uniform. I call it uniform. I mean, he
pulls it off. Amazing. So I and he's very intelligent
and articulate and just he knows his history.
He does. So I asked him while he and I were having
a meeting about, you know, things going on in
the world. And I said, I just saw the movie.
I said, have you seen the movie and what do you
think? He goes, oh, I saw the movie and I loved
it. And he said, it was excellent. It was well
done. And he said, those speeches are verbatim.
Okay, that's beautiful. But find none of their
constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
In this situation of this assembly, groping as
it were in the dark. for political truth and
scarce able to distinguish it when presented
to us. How has it happened, sir, that we have
not hitherto once thought of humbly applying
to the father of lights to illuminate our understandings?
In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain,
when we were sensible of danger, we had daily
prayer in this room. for the divine protection.
Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously
answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle
must have observed frequent instances of a superintending
providence in our favor. To that kind providence,
we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in
peace. on the means of establishing our future
national felicity. And have we now forgotten
that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we
no longer need his assistance? I have lived,
sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the
more convincing poofs. I have seen of this truth,
that God governs in the affairs of man. And if
a sparrow cannot fall without his notice, is
it probable that an empire can rise without his
aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred
scriptures, that unless the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe
this. And I also believe that without his concurring
aid, we shall succeed in this political building
no better than the builders of Babel. We shall
be divided by our little partial local interest,
projects shall be confounded, and we ourselves
shall become a reproach and a byword down to
future age. And what is worse, mankind may hear
after these unfortunate instances, despair of
establishing governments on human wisdom, and
leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I therefore
beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers, imploring
the assistance of heaven and its blessings on
our deliberations be held in this assembly every
morning before we proceed to business and that
one or more of the clergy of this city be requested
to officiate in that service this wow blew me
away what piece did you use i think the sparrow
part i used uh yeah i did i used that he says
i've lived sir a long time yeah so i used that
And then on the sparrow, I used that. So I just
cut it down to four short paragraphs or sentences
to capture the heart of it, you know. You know,
just in reflecting on this, because this really,
there's something going on, whatever. It's construction.
We're still under construction. Progress, progress,
progress. What really struck me is that During
the Revolutionary War, particularly George Washington,
there was a lot of prayer going on to get through
that. And clearly, God had His hand on that because
the sheer numbers of it made no sense that this
took place. But how quickly they forgot is the
first thing I was thinking of. Only five, six,
seven years later, they'd already forgotten about
that? This was a reminder to me. You know, like
brother, you know, you got to think every single
day that God is the one who makes things happen.
Yeah, we have to remember and we have to revisit
often. Yeah. And it's almost like in sports,
you know, you learn the basics, the fundamentals,
they call it. You learn the fundamentals. But,
you know, great football coach, Vincent Barty,
every at the beginning of every when they brought
them all back together for training camp at the
beginning season, he would hold up a football.
in front of all these world -class athletes and
say, gentlemen, this is a football. And that's
how he started every season. Gentlemen, this
is a football. Well, that was exactly what Benjamin
Franklin was doing. And it put him into such
a different historical perspective for me. And
honestly, I'm kind of mad at my teachers. You
know, and the people that claimed he was a deist
or atheist, in his early years he was. He wasn't
an angry atheist. No, no. He was actually quite
comical and there were some great exchanges between
him and George Ritfield. He was saying like,
yeah, this word is going to sell a lot of papers.
Coming back to how can I make some money off
of this? George Ritfield made a comment about
the deal they struck and he said, yeah, God's
hand is on this and he goes, or we just made
a deal in a print shop. He was a realist. I think
it's remarkable that he used these words. I,
sir, have lived a long time and the longer I
live, the more convincing proofs I see of this
truth. That's right. Because his whole life was
about being convinced. He considered himself
a scientist. Right. And so he was all about objective
proof. And so to be 80 years old and now stand,
and he was very quiet through most of the proceedings,
you could tell he was so disturbed in his soul.
Just watching what was happening and these young
guys coming in and wanting to fight, you know,
yeah and you could see it but the fact that That
he's saying after all of these years I love it
the more convincing proofs I see of this truth
that god governs in the affairs of men That is
a huge statement coming from a deist. Yeah We
can get over the people calling him deists. I
know I know it's just not true Well the title
of the movie I have to say this out loud because
I think it's important and If I'd recognized
it going into it, I probably would have watched
the movie with a little more different perspective.
So I was curious when I saw the name of the movie,
A Great Awakening. Instead of The Great Awakening.
Because that's what it's known for and known
as. It wasn't until the end of the movie that
I realized A Great Awakening was Benjamin Franklin's
Great Awakening. And that's what the whole movie,
I thought the movie was more about Whitefield
when in fact it was more about them together
in their relationship, but really I would say
60 -40 on Benjamin Franklin and his great awakening.
That blew me away. I didn't see that coming.
That was a great surprise. For me, when he said
he was talking about the proof that he is now
seeing in his living a long time, I related to
that so much. I thought about you actually. And
I thought about myself, because that's exactly
what I went through. I approached it, not scientifically
because I'm not a scientist, but I approached
it from my research mentality of conspiracy theories
and really turned me into a conspiracy therapist.
And to hear him say that, I'm like, that's exactly
what I went through. Thank God I didn't take
80 years. It took me about two weeks before I
went. All the stuff I believe, how it really
went down, there's less proof on all of that
than the existence of God, Jesus, Holy Spirit,
and how God does govern the affairs of men. And
then once I started praying and once I started,
of course, I think it seems like if you're a
new believer, God, I think he gives you some
extra points in the beginning. I think he does
too. Like, you get this one, you get this one,
you get this one. I agree. And then it's like,
no. No, let's see how you are. Let me see how
you're doing. Let me see if you really can work
in my timing. And thank you and Annette, by the
way, because we have both, Tina and I, have learned
this from you, you know, in God's perfect timing.
A delay is not denial. Man, I got them all. And
he tests his work. Yes, exactly. My grandfather
was a cabinet builder and I watched him every
time he constructed anything, a piece of wood,
a cabinet. Shelving unit or whatever whatever
he was building and he would always test his
work and he tested it with pressure Yeah, pressure
exactly. There was something else. Excuse me
Benjamin Franklin was talking about Building
a Tower of Babel kind of struck me. Yeah, you
referred to that because that if you look at
our halls of Congress and you know Congress as
a whole in the house and the Senate it is a bit
Like the Tower of Babel everybody is trying to
get up higher and none of them are really speaking
the same language. It's quite remarkable. It's
amazing we get anything done. Well, our system
is set up to actually not get anything done,
kind of like that. Unfortunately, we still get
way too much done. Look at our tax code. The
tax code is crazy. The very last part of the
movie, is not this. It's actually George Whitefield
who is deathly ill and decides to. I think it
was like, do one more sermon from the top of,
what was that, City Hall or whatever it was?
I think so. I think that's, well, actually, they
were in Independence Hall. He walked out of there
to speak. Right, yes. On the swimming nets. Independence
Hall, yeah, out on the balcony. It's 48 seconds,
but it was also powerful. The father of lights
says in his word, for you who honor my name,
the son of righteousness will rise with healing
in its wings. My friends, do you want to be free?
Liberty is found in him alone. Do you want to
live? He alone gives eternal life. Because of
the tender mercy of our God, the rising sun will
come to us from heaven to shine on those living
in darkness. I beseech you, do not reject so
great a gift. A great awakening has come. Arise,
O sleeper! Awaken! Arise, O sleeper, awaken.
Where does that come from? Oh, it's out of the
scripture. Okay. Yeah, when you look it up. I
want that soundtrack behind my closing from now
on, on my sermon. We've got to tell Cass. Cass,
I've got a project for you, brother. I want this
soundtrack at the end of the message. It has
to build up like that all the way into the crescendo.
As long as I went on Sunday, they'll have to
build it for a long time. It is fantastic. It's
so good. Yeah, let me look up that scripture
because it's a powerful scripture. Take me a
second take your time. Well, yeah, I'm getting
a little tiny distracted by the yeah By the sounds
of beeping. Oh, it's one of those Those machine
it's a lift. Oh, so when you're moving it has
to be like backing up a truck basically exactly
Yeah, I don't hear it anymore. I'm just ignoring
it back on Okay Well, that's great, but they
didn't tell me the... They didn't tell you? They
didn't give me the reference. They didn't give
you the... What is it? You gotta be exact. Now
is this your... I'm getting spoiled. Is this
your Logos system? No. Oh, okay. Because that
probably... Scrocked. Oh. Okay. Here it is. Ephesians
5. The verse is in a few comments. It says, Therefore
it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the
dead, and Christ will shine on you. That's out
of the ESV. King James, wherefore he saith, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light. That's so good.
I also love how they talk about the father of
light. Yes, yeah. That's really good. The whole
thing, it was just so inspirational. And particularly
now as we're moving up towards July 4th, we're
moving towards the 250th anniversary of our country.
And I loved the, and you promoted this from the
pulpit and the message. the Freedom 250 Rededication
of America. Rededication 250 is what they call
it. Right. And so I decided to stream this thing
live on the Godcaster and it was 10 hours and
there was worship music, there was some gospel
stuff, it was a lot of different things, a lot
of different speakers, and it was so good. There's
no way you could listen to the whole thing. So
I'm just restreaming that for a week. Nice. It's
on a nonstop loop. And it's on the Godcaster.
I'll pop in from time to time. Wherever it's
at. And it's so good. I did pull a couple of
clips. Oh, good. Did you have a chance to listen
to any of the, or watch any of it? Oh, we watched
almost, I mean, when we got home from church,
we just turned it on. So we caught probably four
hours of it, five minutes. Okay, yeah, good.
I pulled... Marco Rubio was good, but that was
a pre -recorded that he did. And he actually
had that music behind him. You're kind of cheating.
You're cheating Marco Rubio. So I got to ask,
who was your favorite or who stood out for you?
Tim Scott. Okay. Tim Scott's a rock star. I did
not get to hear him. Okay. I have a little bit
of Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House. That
was who stood out to me. And I like that a lot.
That was a history lesson plus prayer. Here we
go. The same devotion of patriots like a Patrick
Henry, for whom liberty was worth any price.
The same devotion of President Abraham Lincoln,
who at Gettysburg charged his countrymen to rededicate
themselves to the unfinished work of our fathers.
Lord today, we pray that you grant us that same
devotion to these United States Give us courage
Lord make us worthy of all those who devoted
and sacrificed their lives So that a government
of the people by the people and for the people
shall not perish from the earth Almighty God
we ask that you hear these solemn petitions Just
as we in the beginning dedicated this land to
your most holy name today here Lord in this 250th
year of American independence, we hereby rededicate
the United States of America as one nation under
God. Look upon us with favor upon your country
as you celebrate this momentous anniversary and
let your Holy Spirit descend upon this land So
that future generations will look back at this
day in this present age and once again see your
providential hand at work I Asked this today
Lord. I pray it and I believe it in your holy
name in Jesus name. Amen Wow and you know So
this is all a combination for me, because I'm
just as worried about our country as you are,
as anyone else is. And even when I look at A
Great Awakening, I think the beauty of it all
is it doesn't take everybody. We don't need to
have the whole country praying. It's those who
humble. And I've been making a study of the humble
yourself before God. I love this Jesus stuff.
I just got to tell you, brother. Just so you
know, spoiler alert, it'll take the rest of your
life to even scratch the surface. That's okay.
That's not as hard. That's part of the fun of
it for me. I'm still all these 40 -something
years later discovering things all the time.
And the humble yourself before God. I look at
this event and I said, you know, how many people
really watched it? I don't know. I didn't do
a look up, but maybe it was a couple million,
maybe it was 10 million. I don't really know.
But that power, the power that these, just like
that convention of states, that these men and
women got together and humbled themselves before
God with whatever audience was there on the mall.
And there were people from our church who went
there. To me, it's like, that gives me a lot
of hope. It really, really does. That is just...
Me too. It makes it possible. But we all, as
believers, I really think we all, we got to do
our part. That's right. We got to be the voice.
We have to be the hands and the feet. Yeah. And
we have to open our mouths and speak. Speaking
of that, just, and I'm not shifting away from
this, I'm actually, this sort of leads to this.
I got some questions and a little bit of pushback,
not bad, wasn't negative. It was just very focused
questions about why I'm so political in the pulpit.
Why are you so political pastor? Now obviously
these are new people to our church. So I talked
to two people this week, one an 82 year old man,
I think I briefed you on that, and who's a history
teacher. And he brought to me a copy of the Lyndon
B. Johnson in 1954. The amendment. He said, I
don't know if you've ever heard of it. I said,
oh, the Lyndon B. Johnson bill. He goes, Oh,
you already know about that. And I said, Oh,
I know it probably better than most. And he said,
OK. He said, I was just going to show it to you
because he said, I'm concerned that by you endorsing
candidates or speaking for the pulpit on politics,
that you could lose your 501 C3. Of course, that
led me into this year. You're not your non no
tax nonprofits. Right. Right. I love how Jesus
works between you and I, brother, because. Would
you believe it if I told you I had a couple clips
explaining the Johnson Amendment? No way. I do.
I do. It was the best I could grab at the last
minute. So it's a British voice, high AI potential,
but it's not too irritating. It's a YouTube,
so I took out most of the sound effects, but
it explains the reason for the Johnson Amendment.
Ah, this will be good. Oh, it's talk about political
and how this came to be. And thank you, Jesus,
for working between Jimmy and I because I think
this is stuff that people really need to hear.
On July 7th, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service
agreed not to enforce a 70 -year -old rule in
a federal court filing. The rule had barred tax
-exempt organizations, including churches, from
endorsing political candidates. Under the new
agreement, a church can endorse a candidate from
the pulpit and keep its tax -exempt status. That
raises a question. If churches can endorse candidates
while receiving tax -deductible undisclosed donations,
what starts them from becoming political fundraising
vehicles? To understand what changed, we have
to go back to 1954. Act 1. What the Johnson Amendment
was. Lyndon B. Johnson was not yet president.
In 1954, he was a U .S. Senator from Texas, and
he was in trouble. Two tax -exempt non -profit
organisations had been attacking him during his
re -election campaign. One was called Facts Forum,
a group funded by Texas oil billionaire H .L.
Hunt that promoted a hard anti -communist line.
The other was the Committee for Constitutional
Government, which had distributed millions of
pieces of literature opposing candidates had
considered too liberal. Both organisations were
using their tax -exempt status to influence elections.
And both were targeting Johnson. Johnson contacted
the IRS to ask whether their activities violated
the tax code. The answer came back. What they
were doing was legal. So Johnson found another
way. On July 2nd, 1954, he appeared on the Senate
floor and introduced an amendment a massive tax
code revision bill, HR 8300, which would become
the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. The amendment
was just 31 words long. It added a single restriction
to section 501c3 of the tax code. Any organization
that wanted tax exempt status could not participate
in or intervene in, including the publishing
or distributing of statements, any political
campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any
candidate for public office. The amendment was
agreed to without any discussion or debate. No
hearings, no committee review, no floor argument.
It was folded into a 929 page tax bill and signed
by President Eisenhower on August 16th, 1954.
That restriction became known as the Johnson
Amendment. So let's just put that into some historical
perspective, shall we? Isn't that amazing? Slipped
it in because he wanted to be president and he
didn't want an H .L. Hunt. If I'm not mistaken,
I think he owned a lot of radio stations. It
could have been newspapers, it could have been
both, but he was a huge publisher and he had
a lot of influence. And so that's where that
came from. Now there's a whole second clip which
I'm going to skip about, there was one time when
this came before court when a black church in
New York City, they started taking out full -page
ads in newspapers saying, don't vote for this
guy. So that did become a case, but this has
never been litigated or I don't think it's ever.
It was two times. It was brought up. I know that
one African -American church and then another
time. And I think it was yet another African
-American church because they've never stopped.
They never. They didn't listen to that at all.
Kamala Harris was going there. And I'm completely
good with that. Yeah, of course. I was saying,
vote for me. Yeah. But if we can't, then there's
a problem. And so it's interesting, two people
approached me this week, again, not in a nefarious
way, but just concerned like, could you get in
trouble for this? Of course. And I said, no.
So this was... rolled back by the IRS under the
Trump administration worth listening to that
piece. And then July 7th arrived. Act 3, what
happened on July 7th, 2025. The turning point
began with a lawsuit filed in August 2024. The
plaintiffs included the National Religious Broadcasters,
an evangelical media organization, Intercessors
for America, a Christian ministry, Sand Springs
Church in Athens, Texas, First Baptist Church,
Wascom, also in Texas. They filed in the U .S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Their argument was constitutional. The Johnson
Amendment, they claimed, violated their First
Amendment rights. Both freedom of speech and
the free exercise of religion. The plaintiffs
also raised a comparison that made their case
harder to dismiss. They pointed out that some
nonprofit newspapers and publications had been
allowed to endorse candidates without losing
their tax -exempt status. If those organisations
could do it, why couldn't churches? Pastors,
the plaintiffs argued, should be allowed to speak
about political candidates as part of religious
teaching without risking tax penalties. Normally,
in a case like this, the IRS would defend the
law in court. But this time, something unusual
happened. Instead of defending the Johnson Amendment,
the IRS agreed to a consent judgment with the
plaintiffs. In that agreement, the IRS stated
that it would not treat certain speech by churches
as prohibited political activity. The specific
language matters. The IRS said that when house
of worship speaks to its congregation through
its customary channels of communication during
religious service about electoral politics viewed
through the lens of religious faith, the IRS
would not consider that a violation of the Johnson
amendment. In practical terms, a pastor can endorse
a candidate from the pulpit during a worship
service, and the church will not risk losing
its tax -exempt status. To me, it's like, oh,
it's a bunch of old radio dudes. But I have respect
for them. This is what they do. And I have respect
for an organization that said, hey, it's time
to strike. We're going to do it. And they're
also a nonprofit. They went out, and they spent
the money, and they got this done. And it is
so good. And so when you told me about this 82
-year -old, I'm like, Oh, man. I got to find
something quick. I'm so glad you did. The Holy
Spirit, man. And he gave it to me right here.
He says, it's AI, but it's okay, Adam. Yeah,
exactly. Well, what I appreciate about him, and
it was his young man, probably his late 20s,
early 30s, who approached me on Sunday on one
of our meetups. And then the builder guy, the
teacher, he made an appointment. So it was great.
And I thought, how interesting that I'm getting
these two questions back to back in a very short
amount of time. So I always listen to multiples.
What's God saying? And I was reminded about,
you know, the first 160 to 170 years, it was
the pastors who fueled the fires of both the
Great Awakening and the American Revolution.
Yes, the Black Row Regiment. Yeah, Reverend Jonas
Clark, Schulenburg, all these pastors fueled
the fires. And so it's interesting because we're
literally standing on the shoulders of giants.
So when I go into that mode in the pulpit and
I'm doing it, whether it's a briefing or I'm
saying something else more direct, I just feel
very, I feel surrounded. It's the weirdest, it's
hard to explain. I feel a confidence. I feel
a calmness when I say those things. I don't sit
there going, I'm going to get blow back from
this. I know somebody's going to be angry. I
know I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings. None
of that comes into my mind now. I'm not trying
to be caustic or belligerent or any of that That's
not the goal. The goal is to be truthful and
matter -of -fact And so that's how I present
these things I would say a couple years ago I
got a little rowdy sometimes because I got caught
up in the moment, but I but I'm growing and learning
and I'm trying to be more Clear and direct when
I say things about politics culture, whatever
I see called culture and politics. You can't
separate them The policy drives culture and culture
drives policy. They work together. So you can't,
those are things like two pieces of duct tape
that you stick together. There's a chemical reaction.
You cannot pull them apart. It's not going to
happen. So that means we have a responsibility
to speak into that. And it's my joy to do so.
But I don't, I don't feel I need to get out on
social media and do that a lot. I don't feel
like I've got to. grandstand or take pictures,
selfies at the Capitol. You know, I don't need
to do any of that kind of stuff because it's
not about that. It's about my local church and
my local community. So there's no grandstanding
here. There's no pictures of me and Trump together
or me and whoever because my goal is to fuel
the fires of revival and the righteous revolution
within the people. so that it's our people, like
a Randy, Riley, going and running for mayor and
winning by 55 votes. That is such a textbook
moment of what a church can do. They come together
and say, we have a righteous guy here who will
serve our community well, not disparaging anybody
else that's running. That's not the goal, but
to honor him and get behind him as a church body.
He's us and he represents us. As you were describing
how you feel a calm to come over you, all I could
visualize was the cloud of witnesses of these
pastors from the Revolution and the Great Awakening
days coming around you and encouraging you. And
I love that you do that and I hope so many pastors
will do this instead of... hitting on other types
of issues that are out there that are hot buttons
that do get views and likes and clicks. And I've
kind of stopped worrying about that because I
know it could only take one church. Maybe it's
two churches, maybe it's ten, maybe it's a hundred.
But if we humble ourselves before God and we
pray for our country, It's going to make... I've
got a grandbaby on the way, man, and this kid's
going to know about my culture here in America.
It does. It does. And Tina asked Christina, my
daughter, because I think they're going to come
over in September. Oh, great. Would you be OK
if Pastor Jimmy blessed your daughter? She's
like... Absolutely. I really want Pastor Jimmy
to bless it. I love Kevin and Christina, and
I am so excited about this. Yeah. You know, there's
a couple of things happening here. One is I don't
feel compelled to get too caught up in the current
political stuff. That's really, I mean, I want
to speak to what needs to be spoken to, but that's
not where I'm putting my energy. My energy is
getting people and trying to harken them back
to get them to look back to our foundations.
look back to where we started. This is why I
continued. Every time I go into my office, I
look at the National Monument, you know, my little
model I have. Monument to the forefathers, yeah.
A little tiny thing, but I love, and I read through
that, morality, law, liberty, freedom, faith.
I mean, I missed one. Education? Thank you, yes.
Yeah, I made liberty and that's the same. But
my goal, and I really think this is my call in
this arena, is to bring people back to our foundations.
Gentlemen, this is a football. Ladies and gentlemen,
this is the Geneva Bible, the one they brought
over. This is where it started. This is the national
monument to the forefathers. Forget the rock,
1692. That's true. We saw that rock. The rock
was very anticlimactic. It's a rock. And the
best part was there's a sign that says, we don't
even know if this was the rock, but some dude
said it was the rock. We laughed so hard. We
did. Because people were crowding around, pitching
pennies on it, making wishes. And we're like,
let's go back over to the monument where nobody's
at. And yet, this is the most. awesome thing.
I don't ever want to get that out of mind in
your vocabulary and conversation because I was
very imprinted by that short trip that we made.
I'm still drawing from that. both being at Reverend
Jonas Clark's house. We didn't even get to go
inside, but we just walked around and put our
hands on it. We prayed. We prayed over the house.
I remember that. We prayed over the house and
prayed over the statue. Man, look at that. There's
a real deal right there, brother. It's called
Goosebumps. My blood is flowing all of a sudden.
Are you starting to leak? But it's so important.
I think with pastors, and this is just me, but
I believe if pastors would spend more time studying
their history, and understanding the foundations,
then they would speak more intelligently and
clearly to the issues of today. Because that's
where the compare and contrast is where it's
going to happen. Because if not, you're going
to get caught up in all of the latest, greatest,
you know, higher, you know, what's the word,
spectacular things or epic things and miss the
forging and formation of young men and women
through history. And that's what we got to get
back to as Christians, as believers. And the
beauty of it is, if we can get back to that foundation
of just praying for our country, recognizing
that God is in control, all the other things
suddenly seem much less important. And it really
is in the grand scope of things. And when I think
of 250 years, that's nothing. You can trace back
your family to the Revolutionary War. I know
I can. Almost everybody in America can trace
their roots back. It's not that long. I mean,
it's just a couple of generations. You know,
you look at China, they got 5 ,000 years, and
those guys are sitting their ways. They're not
going to change. We have a lot of opportunity,
just like... you know, the Convention of States,
like that was only six, seven years, and they'd
already forgotten everything. Right. And all
it took is one old dude to stand up and say,
hey, we need to pray. That's all we need to do.
This is what we did. And it worked. Right. We
appealed to heaven to our friend. He called him.
I love that. Yes. Beautiful. Hey, one thing before
we go. Yes, please. We're going on a trip. I
am so excited about this. Road tripping. We are
road tripping. the gruesome foursome. We're going
to K -Love, the awards fan weekend in Nashville.
We're very excited about it. This has kind of
become our retreat, and we get our buckets filled.
It's really important for you and Damon and Ed
as pastors to receive. You're always playing
on the worship team. Annette has always got her
eye on all things happening. It's because you're
running a church. It's a business at the same
time. You've got a lot of moving parts and we
can all just be. We can just be. And I'm so excited
about it. And of course, it all culminates with
Sunday night with the award show, which is in
telecast. I will tell you, I'm going to do no
agenda on Sunday. No, go for it. I'm going to
squeeze it in. We'll be eating. We'll be stuffing
our face while you're doing that. I'll have a
sandwich on my way to the award show. But no,
I'm super excited. Matt Munt has already reached
out to me. He's like, are you guys coming? You
know, the Mercy Me boys. Like, yeah, we're performing.
We got to hook up. Sir Patrick Cobol. He's like,
we got to have a lunch or something. Love these
guys. Are you guys going to stay longer and visit
your family? We are, yeah. Yeah, of course. Our
grandson, he's growing like a weed. So we get
to go see them. them. They moved out to Lewisburg,
which is out south of Franklin, south of Spring
Hill, Tomsotation, if anybody knows that area.
No, I have no idea. It's towards Alabama. Alabama,
the state line's not that far. Anyway, they're
doing great. We're just going to take a couple
extra days just to hang out and play with the
grand boy. I'm super excited. It's also filling
your buckets. Adam Curry 2 .0 on the air. I mean,
energizing you for the Godcaster, also giving
us probably a lot of material. A lot of musical
ideas. I'll be there with my, oh, write that
down. We need to get that song on there. So we'll
get a lot of ideas there and meet people. But
it is a bucket -filling moment where we're just
refreshed and washed in a spirit of worship with
a bunch of other people that we don't know. Thousands.
And yet we're all there for the same reason,
and that's to honor God. to celebrate and to
appreciate those artists too because let them
know how much we appreciate them. Yes. So yeah,
I'm excited. In the biodome, that's always fun.
And that said, it's going to be rainy the whole
time. Who cares? It doesn't matter. It doesn't
rain in the biodome. It doesn't matter. We just
said the same thing. Well, we might be going
out some, and I'm hardly. OK. All right. Well,
we might have a... We'll pull up under the cover,
auditing for you, and pay the guy if he bought
dollars. Brother, I love doing this show so much
with you. I can't wait for us to be able to do
more. You know, I pray to God for opportunity.
opportunities for us to do more of this. I hope
it helps people. It sure helps me. Can we just
thank our listeners once before we go? Just so
appreciate you guys. I'm getting in touch with
some of you through Substack and other things
and X. It's just good to hear from them and hear
that they're listening. It helps us. It energizes
us and it makes us go, you know, hey, this is
helping somebody or This is encouraging somebody.
And when we get feedback, it encourages us to
do it more. And so we love hearing from you.
Give us a shout out. And man, we'll always try
to respond, you know, best we can. But thank
you for being on this journey with us. We get
to do this. All right, everybody, we will be
back next week and I'm sure we'll have some stories
from the road. We get to do this again next week.
See you then.