Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth With Eric Metaxas 20170904

Guest you just jump right in. Hello. People ask me how i write my book and this is my newest book and the newest one on the with there is coming added a couple of weeks it is about america with this concept of the Golden Triangle of freedom. Very he but when i found funny i have never heard of it and a number of years ago a friend of mine wrote the book wrlled a free people suicide in where he centers, and this issue he calls the Golden Triangle of freedom. Once i understood i went nuts. How was it possible i have never heard this every single one of the founders understood this concept. And with the book came out i said there is going to be more but i didnt know i would write a book about it but the Golden Triangle of freedom of the founders understood this but freedom requires of virtue we mean selfgovernment in turn that requires faith that requires freedom so they said that they wrote this over and over and over you cannotyo have selfgovernment or actual freedom unless the people govern themselves so unless they have some semblance of virtue you cannot force people ton govern themselves. It is free will. They rode about this over and over and growing up inin america i had never heard this once. E. And went to yale law and the american schools i never heard virtue connected to freedom and they said virtue by the way hed to be married to this states. D it was their observation franklin observed when with field preached people would find faith can get excited and their virtue would rise all the founders understood they could govern themselves. E and they want to promote virtuee and faith this is what makeseatt america the greatest nation in the world. If the government and any way tried to coerce states it all breaks down. Faith has to be free so i talk about the catholic side toa or the of protestant side ofte the other wanted to get them together for religious freedom is a new idea of. For freedom and virtue to flourish freedom has to be religious freedom at the core and if people are allowed to choose whether they go to church or synagogue and it is free only then can it work. Y americ i thought every american must understand this because without that we cannot be america. Host you john adams to say the constitution was made only for a merle peep moral people. That is one of dozensy many of the time you would never know what they talked about they all talked about the link between virtue in freedom the fact virtues never spoken about in Public Schools to teach america in american schools paid for by tax dollars we need to teller them how this is supposed to work. When i say all of the founders i mean all of the founders there is not anyho food thought there are other ways. There were concerns there were no other ways that if they dont have the virtue but generally speaking the they dont have the ability to govern themselves and those instincts are not developed you cannot have selfgovernment it goes back to the bureaucracy or tyranny or no matter what that has to happen. Act that t so the fact this hasnt been taught roughly 40 years since i was a kid you walked away from the idea of virtue because that makes us uncomfortable destroyed america for cars say that as an american view care about freedom you have to care about the concept. Wrote the book for betty not a book for conservatives over patriots 30 parties but left and right Richard Dreyfuss is big on the issue there are some things that are not negotiable for every american. Your if were not teaching this in the schools we are in trouble. Host if you can keep it you rightabout your time at yale how could i have grown up in a world that no longer values this great treasure of paul reveres ride . Guest because my parents are immigrants my dad came from the greeks greece he loves america and he loves America Today my mother came from germany lost her father in the war. People will come from outside of this country typically have a better view of what we have i talked to cabdrivers all the time inmm your city in the raid how Great America is and if hell understand what we have and how fragile it isno but first you have to see that we have is incrediblyt special and fragile if we dont shore up it simply goes away in one of the things in my book if you can keep it i suggest teaching young people the stories in the myth and the hero to celebrate George Washington and paul revere because if you dont in every culture i would hear about the greek heroes they would rave about greek independence that isrm normally were supposed to bebe proud of your culture but we stop doing that so the story of paul revere is ride because he is not a modernist poet is 19th century white male that is one of the greatest poems ever written it is beautiful i decided to memorize it with my daughter when she was eight. I was embarrassed i did not know the pollen poem people literally sacrificed their lives so i could sit in this house to think whatever i want we need to teach that to our kids or it did a thing on my red dirt Radio Program to memorize the long pole we got a lot of submissions and want to get people excited of who we are. Host the chapter you ask the first question to ask how could we possibly be expected to love a country we know to be guilty . Guest this is the question unfortunately it is about sound bites but the fact is any fool knows love is not binary it doesnt mean you approve of everything they do in fact, if you really love them you might be really hard because you dont want them to make the mistakes you made so that never means love it or leave it so you celebrate what is that is normal and healthy. Thats so if you had trouble with the kit imagine instead of saying i will put them in the right direction and correcting them and they hope it goes on the right path the parent says you are bad and will never amount to anything. End if you have that attitude that is the antithesis of love you judge somebody in such a harsh way they can never redeem themselves so in the 60s dealing with the civil rights and slavery that something happened we were never able to let it go. Into throwed back over and over the you have worked on that were not there yet to. But that attitude has taken cole hold with that sentiment that is unhealthy in causes america to be stuck. Host almost chosen people est. Chapter. Rican but american exceptionalism that is something of a controversial subjects. Most people understand the concept it is the same idea that jews are gods chosen but when you are chosen you go click your heels to say ha ha. Were chosen you are not so that means you are chosen for something grim and serious. So when we revere Abraham Lincoln he is the one to be blasphemous there is something unique in americaca that is special but it is a burden and a responsibility the only reason why it is great or exceptional in those that existed for others. How do we spread our freedom to give people hope in the 1980s . How do we give people the ability to come to this country . Nobody denies if we dont have that a certain ethnic background you are now welcome but will make said crazy of varying is there is no country intr the world that if you buy into these ideas but only because the one to stress this on the rest of the world and through a history america has we have gone out of our way to take responsibility like the big kid in the schoolyard to 1 2 to . No. I choose to do that that is the dna of america even with a Hurricane Party barge people great . No americans are great because plenty of places experience devastation is not part of their culture. There is something aboutbu giving back for helping your neighbor those are biblical ideas but to pretend every person in the world behaves like that when Tragedy Strikes it is about me. But we care about the neighbors. We care about the other guy. D au and muslims being persecuted. Said that side of it. My neig nevada won the neighbor to think. Edy couple of names we have y mentioned it became a friend 20 years ago. It is a sobering event glorious end to American Freedom explains through the founders and what we must do to preserve that but as a real he is rare. Check out. How half of my career is being embarrassed. Assed. When i discovered who withth field was to say there is something really sick withha this country he is as important as any of the founders he was the evangelist 21 years old then preach like a maniac and i am not even kidding. Unlik he was a force of nature like we have ever seen. Wasnt just preaching about jesus but the freedom of the gospel and explaining to people this idea the first responsibility is to guide if they are preaching the truth go to another church. Magistrate, a governor, norn leader you hold them to account under god. That is a radical idea. Guy wi the powdered wig were all equal because we are all under god the founders and the framers put into those documents literally four or five decades it would not have tripled down to the common man. By the time he passed away you have a people in america whos so understand this idea that they are ready to govern themselves that decided founders saw thise to kid them freedom they can govern themselves you can see if they are not prepared its not like you toppled of a dictator that is a normal we need to be educated howai to govern ourselves that is why if we dont teach this now we lose it. What was the connection to ben franklin . He was such a phenomenonhe d, it is hard to believe but 80 percent of all people in the colony is heard him preach at least once before he even came here he was famous drawing crowds. With the autobiography of of ben franklin he preaches off the boat into figure how many people are in the crowd. And franklin decided 30,000 could hear him preach without a microphone. not invented yet but as a student of religion he decides to publish all of which field sermon in the pennsylvania gazette. So imagine if he had the ability to publish tons of sermons what the effect he is having a single positive i want to do everything ian can they were friends their whole life. Host booktv cspan to our Monthly Program with one author to talk about his or her body of work this month his bestselling author and radio talkshow host eric metaxas. He began writing books 1995 a Childrens Book dont you believe it 96. Bible abc. Everything you always wanted to know about god was afraid to ask. And the second edition came out 2007 and the terrible twins of christmas. Amazing grace. Who was William Wilbur . Youve got me. I wrote the book buyerer responsible. But what i learned hooky was i got embarrassed because Everybody Needs to know and i hardly know. Along with chuck colson the had the privilege of the funding introduced me to the concept they he was the man in Great Britain he machines is the of power and of parliament so when you know, all the details it is freaky stuff they he has a moral issue a serious question around 1785 and ask god what it you want me to do . And he went to visit his friend john newton who wrote Amazing Grace and he said no. Repare as seems he has prepared you and stays in politics to say the suppression of the slave trade and the morality or culture. He understood Great Britain was a hypocrite nation with every kind of abomination. Do e do with tax dollars or private dollars . In those days nobody helped him up for. Wilbur said died called me into of politics to abolishh slavery and everything else. Y iu he is a force if you dont know who he is you are missing because i was embarrassed almost daily it bought he changed the world so of course, it is wrongslaver except him in a few quakers say evangelicals and said this is an abomination he spent years and years doing other stuff. He is my great hero. If youre not a politician you are not much of day politician a lot of people think if i will be spiritual or christian it means i am other worldly and i amst stupid. Absolutely not he wants people to bring them into reality so there was a false idea taken control was this idea you have to be among can pray all the time you cannot be as a former budget arat idea is not biblical. But many people were guilty of that there were serious questions christians beg w god wants us to deal with normal peoples problems. We are not here to say theyre ready to go to heaven to moral. But wilbur got that. He was not of the world. Why is he working with histh enemies . But he was thoroughly knowing what he d needed to do politically. You can be effective without compromising. Host 2008 the booktime t time to sleep came around to everything you wanted to do about guide the end jesus edition and bonhoeffer k mount 2010 before the book came out you wrote in your other book i am far too selfcentered to spend several years thinking about someone else. Never wanted to writean biography not fiction. I admired woody allen allen, benchley and marquez and faulkner and i wanted to write humor but if he would ask me in 2006 to everythingll he would ever write a biography of a flat out say no. I dont get it but when somebody asked me, said this is one of the things like a religious cliche but i i prayed about and i wantof people to know that it is possible. It is quite rare but i needed to know if i should spend all this time. So to work on something with all your might you want to tell this is what you want. To be doing for our was very proud of the first book it allowed me to do exercise maya literary muscles in people and say thanks who were you writing about next . I said i dont want to write another biography but theyey wore me down so then i thought it would have to be bonhoeffer nobly rises to that level. Because of his face to stand out in history. These are men who are so great by any standard unless you are a white supremacist s supremacist, you have to acquire them then if you look deeper with those rare creatures that were normal and emotionally healthy amazing hemin beings that govern their actions. Typically we dont hear those stories. That is a shame if you dare never hear that and that is simply not true and it is a great injustice there are people that are doing gooding gd and it comes out of their faith and you dont hearo that so here are two magnificent heros i thought their stories were of littlee known and they should be well known. Host when does bonhoeffer star protesting . It is hard to say. His family was the elite seoul ready in the 20s and they were aware because the nazis were locally present w they were aware of what they were if you were living on a farm in the middle of central germany would in no. But they do early these are violent people going into the streets they were Wearing Masks but they were looking for trouble if they dont get their way they will make physical violence and trouble so bonhoeffer sought the san hitler early smel they could smell who there were they were not bamboozled by the rhetoricay th but the bonhoeffer familyes had their eye on hitler way back but wind hitler comes to power in 33 they were already prepared to work against him. Nobody of 33 understood it would be 12 years of death camps i dont think anybody in the nazi party thought that nobody could foresee how far this would go. But bonhoeffer secretly already had meetings and was planning all kinds of things. Host there lutheran. Not jewish. They are lutheran the way a lot of germans are to saywh they are not jewish or aphis the indicias been a faithful lutheran the rest of the family were cultural questions his sister variate jews you concede they were not really religious. He converted to christianity but bonhoeffer and his mother had their eyes on the nazis from the beginning by trying to plan other ways to get them out of power. Only late into the thirties he is the plot with hitler. Re and the principal goal is to get the church to stand against hitler. The church needs to stand up to this wicked man but the church did not understand until it was too late. Host a couple moreos books by eric metaxas. Socrates in the city 2011. Seven then. 2013. Miracles 2014. Iven women. 2015 if you can keep it 2016. The man whod rediscovered god. In your book seven men you refer to and as a heroal. He was the real deal he was behind the facade. This isnt original but to see proof of god that he was the dirty tricks cry working for nixon and convinced we will do whatever we can to defeat the opposition and he reached out to try to get an advantage in the reelection. But colton was brilliant. He was a genius as a real go getter and sometimes if you are paying strong and if youll hate yourself but when watergate broke he thought his life was sending he had ruined his marriage he was really empty he met a man at the time you sat down and told him pretty bluntly at 309 you have a problem with pride. Can you imagine . This guy says it to him. He is older and wildly successful and said i have accepted christ and i understand when you are a hard charger go gogo the number one problem is pride not that i am lazy uri can get a job you are a workaholic. Take no prisoners and i and miserable. In then said go ahead and will not lie put me in ine prison said the people in in this town mocked him. Me when paul became a christian gimme a break. He spent the rest of his life to minister to the down and out. And this is a man who is a real hero so when the lightd changes that dramatically that is evidence. Host he did the last introduction . Amazing. And i was thats in the event i introduced them every you year at his weekend when your use to seeing somebody who is toughgh with these old man steps i thought what happened to chalk . It was startling. Fled fell very protective like dome triple of those cables to give a powerful speech then you could see something wrong right in thea middle of the speech. I dont know if it was a stroke or what we were literally behind him we jumped up them put him in a chair. He didnt finish his speech i said goodbye and i never saw him again. E died som is a massive parade average indicted few weeks later but he was a real father figure to me and was the real deal when you meet somebody like that you cannot fake fats. Host how did you get to know him . When i had my a jesus born again experience water gay guys like a freak in they said this guy is a genius that is what this is called. So i thought if yemen saywa hero and i graduated in 84 they handed him a copy of my Childrens Books and i wrote a long letter to introduce myself. About one week later i got a letter that was very kind and one year later his staff contacted me and i got to meet him in that context but it was one of the great privileges of my life to know him. 2013 the washingtonst post now with the article is eric metaxas the next chuck colton . That is a one word article. No. There are many things that i admire but i thought he would be like me by may humorist and a poet. I really am so different from chalk. He was a lawyer. A legal mind. Marine. Political player. Am i am then of those beings ior cry of a joker. In many ways i am very different. I am more inclined to writete a poem or novel or sing a song but colton was is a washington plier playerincree who had an incredible legal mind so i discovered quickly i am nothing like him eric metaxas. Host was surprised me was his friendship with very liberal idea was senators during harold hughes. One of the things i learned from chalk is if you really are about god first thing you have to be politics second which means you dont make friends withn people you love everybody. Even if he is my enemy i am commanded to love him if you dont take that serious you are a hypocrite but for him to do that spoke to me and i have many friends thatgree withe disagree with me ideological and theological and religiously by one of them i hope they know that because you have to take that seriously. That may analog lot of sensehosi host eric metaxas is our guest were on social meander as well. You will see a short video you can make the comment under that and finally said in email to booktv we will be here for the next two and a half hours looking forward to talking to about thegu issues eric metaxas has been talking about human ginned 1988. I have been trained at yale generally that people who have those experiences avoid them of is doing everything i could to avoid serious questions christians. Salon that happens to you you say now what . Like he saw a big front my friends what do i at me. So i had a dream in 1988. I was lost, i moved in with my parents they dont have the patience of the typicall american in parent their say find yourself a job and get out of the house. What is wrong with you . Been trying to figure out what do i do with my life . But he started to share his face with me and i know they dont believe that. He will not be one of them but he was. And all he believed in the bible and jesus i was in peene will not let him get too close but i kept asking questions but basically saying this is not for me keep your distance if i was enoughit pain i didnt do enough so every now and then i would think quite honestly was trying to avoid them so one day he said prayed that god reveals himself by said if i knew he was real but that is the whole point where prey to the oxygen in the room . And sometimes when you areso in enough pain you do and wanted a sign in one night i had a dream maya uncle had just passed away and i will go into the dream now there is a video on my website that is very short where i tell this story but it is completely blew my mind and no doubt that guide revealed himself to me. Your move. I thought the thing that iul will sure could never happen just happened and i knew wasnt just a dream but it was so dramatic it was troubling because now what do i do . When will ravage erratic conversion experience he was troubledall mi they get my friends will make fun of me so i will have to leave politics. What do i do . It is but a the kit you cannot fight see and cd you can see so now guide my career. D rather hand rather dramatically asa number of miracles happened where god has led me in my career. I have some tough struggles s but no doubts that god is real and if i give him my life he made me for that purpose. Host what is the Greek Orthodox church and powers that different from mainstream . It is a great church i was raised a lot of people o thinking in the catholic it to be more of a cultural experience than faith and so if youre not paying attention or isnt importantrc d it is just part of being greek by the time it went to yale i was not prepared for the questions for yalee university is dramatically aggressively secular so to be a serious question is not an option unless you alreadynd y are enjoying the of christian groupon campus butme i if i go into this environment lost and confused and drifted intonism. Nine sections lizard non secular humanism those tools were not given to me even as the altar boy. Risen, is that a metaphor . I was never prepared so growing up in the mainline churches of what were forced to deal with is this true . And theyey will say of course it is not it is ridiculous. Host everything you always wanted to know why he would allow even even suffering god allows evil to exist he wanted us to exercise that will. Is a very simplistic way but this is the question is somebody wants a good book on the subject it was a book making sense out of o suffering. Some peo some people asked as the agnostic and atheist but every person of faith will ask that question because it is hard to except he would allow that level of suffering and we have to be honest at the same time the only antidote is to go by it is like knowing a parent. I have been blast my mom and dad are the finest people i have ever known when you know, someone loves you it changes everything because if they allow something to happen you give themem graveside know the above me so much there has to be an explanation i dont turn on them and say you are a jerk because they proved their love so thoroughly that would be ridiculous response and that is the case when you know, him for food he is even the you have questions you still say i have no doubt of the depth of his love so i will ask him why would they get to heaven. Host october 2016 heed wrote the oped that garnered a lot of attention should christians vote for trump . The reason i wrote thatthe is they kept hearing something that had never heard before. I hated trump most of my adult life somebody said a Bad Influence on the culture i would say donald trump. Some o when he gave a goofy answer about the bible i wrote a huber peace making fun of it called more bible verses felt because i felt there was a lot to make fun of but when he became the nominee i thought we have a problem. There is a narrow thirdle option colada people pretended there were so we writv will write in mix mickey mouse but i said youre not being intellectually honest your kids and all the little kids is to get those who have a president if you care about then you have to do the hard work to figure out do a bof these too flawedd candidates will do a better job . You might to get it wrong but dont pretend you dont have to choose a reggae and we have people that said i dont want to vote people died for thatmistak, but dont say i will set this out and i got a lot of conversations. And i thought if you dont vote for him you will be on the hook under the Hillary Clinton presidency. You cannot say no i did not vote for her. Timing. I didnt plan on the timing my piece went into the wall street journal two days after. But my conclusion was it was widely misunderstood and it breaks my heart people to this day the guy said if you dont vote for trump youre going to hell which i did not say. Is said you cannot pretend you have a third option the you have to vote but because of the corruption of the clintons. Becau thinking that she is the devil because of the corruption you agree with his policy as Bernie Sanders renatas a political hack but it was so horrifying thinking if she were president the end of religious freedom and america as we know it youre already teetering so i really saw her as a threat to the republic so i said yes he may not conduct himself and i am the last one to say he is the evangelical christian. That is not the issue. Voting for somebody based on their policy wrote that piece to be as logical as i could to say this is how i see it but i think it is a measure of where we are in the country the flowback is mind blowing. I really have lost friends over this. Really . Because of politics . Were supposed to be beyond that in america. Host eric metaxas is our guest we want to hear your voice is. Good afternoon from pennsylvania. Caller good afternoon. My question vanishes in regard feeling proud to bebe Greek American im actually in the american and i have the shared feelings between may own native country. The the french, but it simply means that these are my people growing up, the languages i heard overea and over. I heard a greek and german, my mom and her relatives speakingre german. So i think we need to have a love for where we are coming from but america is Something Different as an idea, so its not just proud to be an american, but what do we stand for, who are we as a people, what am i proud of. Even iraqis during the gulf war, they fought for their country. They were not fighting for the brutal torturing dictators of saddasaddam hussein that he hada feeling of the countries which is normal but then we do havebi the responsibility to the dismay country represent. They express the german patriotism by standing against hitler and praying that germany would lose the war. That is real patriotism so it is a little complicated. Since you lost your maternal grandfather as a german soldier or. I dedicate my book to him and in a way i wrote the book for him and for germans like him. People forget that many, many germans hated hitler or at least didnt want him to be president , didnt want him to be chancell chancellor, did not want to go to war. We act as though all germans were nazis. That is grotesque, the grotesque misrepresentation of history. So when people write their books, they have a point, but they are also fundamentallyam wrong in other ways. He was the father of two girls and knew if he stressed that he may be. He killed millions of germans and destroy the germany for effectively 80 years i think Angela Merkel ridiculous policy is pure guilt from what the nazis did in world war ii. In other words, its not irrational thing come it is an emotional thing saying we owe everybody something. Something. So, the instinct is good but practically speaking i think they have been waiting for eight decades under a tremendousilt. Burden of guilt, and as a christian the only way to get past that is the forgiveness of jesus and god to say that we want to repent and do everything we can to repent and move pastto this. It my mother didnt have a father because o of the non seeds. These things come apart of what i hope i get in my book is a show that by now he ought to be able to deal with this. David is calling in from hopes on florida. Caller good afternoon, peter. Thanks for taking my call. Two things. In first i read your column about donald trump, and i was one of those conservatives that had my doubts. But you pushed me over, so thank you. I got very deep into it and i like it and discuss what went on within the Protestant Church hierarchy in germany that made them kind of either stand aside from hitler or in fact cooperate with hitler through most of his reign. Guest i just have to ask cala new yorker . R . You cant put it past me. I can hear your voice. This is the question, you are asking the question. When you make a film movie, you have to hone in on the guts of the story. That has to do with the German Church. How is it that the church could lilay down and allow this to happen . Thats the question. The church today, people always have excuses. You cant demonize them as though they are devil worshipers. They might be wrong but you have to say what are the reason. They simply want to keep our jobs, we dont want to rock the boat. They were very progovernment romans 13 if you know the scriptures as they are appointed by god. Who are we to stand against our leaders. Some of them are good reasons but they made the wrong decisi decision. I would say prophetically whathe others could not see. To cut through the chase, what he represented for all of the rhetoric was from the pit of hell and what he was going to d. To germany and europe and to the world was antithetical to anyone who calls themselves a christian. So, he was in a race against time just like any of the olddhi testament prophets. He begged them to be the people of god and what happens every time they say no thank you, we are going to do what we are going to do. We are not interested and then we say they were all so great. But at the time the people they were seeking to didnt treat them very well. He is a prophetic figure in that he was trying to get the church to see what they could see and again, you always have different reasons. Some people said its not our thisthis would be like the evangelical. Our job is to pray, not to get involved in politics. Theres some trutthere is some t it just as much as today people say they are too involved in politics, you can be little involved in politics. Too you have to find a balance. The germans were convinced we shouldnt be involved in politics. We should just pray and support. He hates the people of god, and you have to stand against him. You also have the people that were just what i would call fake christians. These are many people today listening to say i go to church but i dont take it so seriously. I dont know that he was born a virgin but culturally i am a christian. If you are only culturally a christian, you are not a christian. You have to make a decision do i really need the leave, you dont have to, but be honest there were many thats because i was born in germany, and the lutherans therefore i am a christian. Ri he said no, you cant have it both ways. Up you are going to have to represent the truth. There were very few germans willing to do that. This day and age i would say the same thing to the church today. What is the controversy . It is with issues of sexuality. We are supposed to love everybody and care about peoples who disagree with us but they still say we stand by what youch believe in for 2,000 years we believe in the biblical view that its only between a man and a life. Not even between a heterosexual couple thats not married. We have a very narrow view. There are many people in the church today that are saying maybe that is too harsh. Maybe we need to evolve on this kind of thing and they are throwing everybody that holds the traditional view under the bus and saying things have changed. And i would say theres nothing different under the sun. There are people today that say if you do not toe the line on this new view of sexuality, you are a bigot, you will lose her job, you will lose credibility in the community. In the america we are supposed to have freedom so i hate to say that we are facing similar issues and we are nowhere near where the German Church was in the 30s but its the same kind of concept. I have to tell you nobody is more shocked by the book that i do what is more grateful to the lord for the people that are thading and talking about this book. I. I know that it was granted even by president george w. Bush who is curious as we all read. He read the book. No pressure. [laughter] i just want to say no pressure i know you are very busy that here. [laughter] no pressure at all. Who am i to pressure you. Guest i have to say that i. Am a jokester. I wrote a book as an editor in the New York Times and atlantic monthly. When i was up talking in front of the president i felt like i was on a dean martin roast. 2012 i had an incredible honor to be at that breakfast so i couldnt help thinking of myself like im at a dean martin roast. People tend not to do that and thats why you humanize them. Host what was the reaction of the president afterwards . Guest i didnt get the chance to chat with him afterwards. It was in a way joe biden rather sweetly took my phone and took e picture of me with the president. I have a president with me taken by a sitting Vice President and then two weeks later i see that the white house photographer in fact did take a photo. Is that the most bizarre thing . An agenda you arand agenda youa picture of nixon and eq. It was a wonderful day and one of the privileges of my life i cant get over it. Its got to be like 700,000 people you can still see it is one of the most incredible event but i imagine i will ever experience. Host and it was covered by cspan, so you can also watch iy on cspan. Org. Caller it was an amoral atmosphere. These were not people trying to commit crimes in the sense that they lost sight of the things a president cannot lose sight of or any Government Official or civil servant. And that is the rule of law. Succumb it is in my mind horrific that they let that happen. Nixon was a good president fors worst thing is that he denied america its foreignpolicy leadership but i do think that he had a fatal flaw and allow the post to be magnified. It is a great pity. Host ing. Caller my concern is when you made a crack about the whit nationalistsybe guest i do not remember this. Without both sides of the equation we arthisequation we an trouble, thanks for reminding me. You are talking about different genres. The letters and much of what he g wrote is gorgeous writing. Theres no question about it. Nevei think of him as a prose stylist even though he was good as a writer. Host lets hear from john in san francisco. Caller i found your presentation verypresen thoughtprovoking. Theres a lot of people using the term nazi and not necessarily understanding what they are talking about. You brought this to the floor and ive been studying a lot bed about germany and how that all came about. Maybe you can explain something to me. The other day i was watching a presentation for your book you mentioned vietnam. Whether they were right or wrong going in there they sacrificed their lives. It seems like youve covered upa rather quickly we were right or wrong because i think why we fight is the ultimate decision on whether to go. And i feel our cause was wrong and how do you believe that as s your soldier is he going to vietnam isnt there an individuals responsibility to take a stand and say i dont believe in this fight but then he comes up against patriotism. N guest you are bringinguest a lot of issues and questions. Inkr my grandfather for example had no idea what was going on or the level of information no matter where you lived in the 30s you didnt have very much information in the country like germany you are getting 99 propaganda. Now i had to know that my grandfather would listen to the bbc radio with his ear literally placed against the radio speak speaker. It tells me something about my grandfather that he was trying to find out whats going on but most germans wouldnt know why somebody goes to war thats between them and god theres no question in my mind that there are people who wanted to kill jews and people that wanted, they were confused and didnt want to go to war. I know my grandfather literally wept when he had to leave his family. I think for us to judge what is in a mans heart we have to be very careful. One of my friends and heroes hap many people on his program to talk about the vietnam war and have a conversation with al haig at some point. What do you tell somebody whose son was killed . Wasnt for nothing or what do you say and he said i wouldve told them that their son died for freedom and i think that we ought not to be so jaundiced and cynical that we dont understand that concept. The vietnam war we understand of course it was democratic president s that put us in that war. There is no doubt about that and i dont think that today people can think of jfk or lbj. I think the general idea that we were fighting to produce freedom, he said you have to do anything to stand against communism. They are evil. Many never saw that they foughte communism, one of the dumbest things the hard ali ever said that he didnt say many dumb things but when he said i dont have beef with viet cong or Something Like that, i thought to myself thats pretty shallow because its not about you, its about the country and freedom. So even though in retrospect we can say it wasnt a good idea for us to go in to try to break it down into simplistic binary choices i think their ar there e that land and they did what they could. It is a tragedy and mystery i was just a kid but i went there as an american to do what i had to do. L. But Joseph Campbell, you look a his books and religion and they are about making us better humanitarians. Guest Joseph Campbell troubles me greatly. It doesnt mean that theres nothing in what he says that but anybody that can contemplate religions into a bubble bath of goodness for fellow man is being so intellectually sloppy. All religions are not the same. Joseph campbell was part of a tradition in america in the last 40 or 50 years where we are in love with spirituality but afraid of organized religion. The idea that you can kind of believe in anything would beoule generally spiritual i knowow people that have experienced the demonic realm. People like Joseph Campbell opened us up to a spiritual world and there is no danger to. So i think Joseph Campbell isy troubling to me in that they are not properly wary of the dark side of. I talked to kind of an expert on this stuff and theres a lot of people that write about the dark side of spirituality and they urge people to take this seriously because we need to understand that you cant be neutral. If you think you are a natural you open yourself up to the dark side and that is scary. I dont mean to go off on that so much right now, but its something that i take very seriously in that you have to figure out what is true and what you believe and i write about that in my book for the first part of that question has to do with comparing trump to hitler. I think that was a parallel. A lot of people have read my book and said this is donald trump. I get that parallel. Nobody gets it better than i do. But at the end, i came to the conclusion that if there is a parallel, is blessed with trump, it is less than trump. So we have these terms but really it is antifreedom. Within a the forces i think Political Correctness is like this where you told people if you dont say this or think this be are going to keep our eye on you. That is mccarthyism. But the point is when you start looking at people sideways you are not taking a rainbow flag in front of your business i noticed. Are you a bigot . When we start doing that in america, we are in trouble. I dont think that is coming from donald trump. When people try to drop troubles between him and hitler i will declare they are familiar more with my book and i would say i get it and i think youre wrong. Is there a clergyman risking to sacrifice everything for values and his Franklin Graham in that conversation . When you make these comparisons it becomes very helpful. It was a theologian more than kind of a popular evangelist. We will see maybe 40 years from now those that were speaking our truth and people do the same thing with the forces of today. I dont think that god works that way. I think the force was unique. You and i are unique and everyone in the world is unique. People compare me in first i laughed but the point is there maybe some similaritiemay be sot ultimately speaking, we are all too different to make those comparisons. Host thank you for holding you are on the line you are explaininforexplaining what waso the german people. I was born in germany in 1938 and my dad and my brother both served. I guess you would call them nazis. My dad was in the submarines as a cook and my brother was fighting in russia. We dont know whatever happened to my brother. I recall my brother being home on leave and making my mom begged him not to go. People took him back because they didnt want to join the army but they had no choice it was either go or be killed and i remembered that vividly because i remembered my mom crying. She had lost so much at this time. So i was correct about that. Guest im glad you called in to say that because we get a living picture of history that you have just given us. This is the reality. So anyone that cavalierly calls all germans nazis, they certainly were not. He was antinazi. I shouldnt say i dont know how many were pro nazi but the fact of the matter is what hitler being fundamentally selfish he didnt care about the lives of these young men. He didnt care about the Germany Company cared about himself. There were many. Host . Caller good morning. How are you today. Ler good caller i knew who this was, the famous erin because ive known you since 17. Its good to hear your voice. Caller its great to hear you and see you on television. Thank you for your work into the discussion you are having around the school if she would have you and i both know every german ini the best time to code if he wanted to bread you have to have a nazi car, so it wasnt really a matter of choice. The thing that i would love for you to talk about. Theres a growing population of people that sell as progressives and it seems that term has been hijacked. Everyone except god is the focal point in centrality issue and most important things in our lives about how progressives are almost coopting of hijacking. Host before we hear from him tell us about yourself. Coco my grandfather was also in the German Military as one of those dollars and th that was in resistance. He was a german officer as were many in his family. Another relative and uncle was in the german conspiracy against hitler and another was the german ambassador to russia and was the architect of the nonaggression pact. All three of them were found guilty of treason when the plot failed and they were all executed so these things are very near and dear to my heart and i just thank you for exposing a lot of these things. Germany has been paying this notion of guilt for so long and you can never get past that. Guest his family were heroes. They gave their lives to defeat nazi ism. I mention in my book people gave their lives and were torturedte horribly to stand against hitler. These are people from the inside which brings us to the larger question. When the Democratic Party isarty effectively hijacked by people on the angry bitter left. I have to Say Something has happened. There is a pause for something theyre these people look so humble and noble and dignified. There are a lot of people today theyre just angry and looking for an excuse to break something and they know that i can smash a columbus statue or Something Like that in what is goin is goo prosecute me. It is troubling i think. It is as defensive but these are people that are willing to fight if necessary. This is not going to lead to the bitter america which is safe for america. Between these lines we are in a bad spot and good people on the left dont stand up and of good journalists dont emerge to do their job, we are in trouble. We depend on journalists to do their job. Its not your job to take down this president , its your job to tell the truth and if you can tell the difference you should get out of your journalism business. We are in need of honest journalism today. I am really concerned about the state of the union because of that. Host was here from claire in kansas city missouri. Caller i am so happy to be able to speak to you. I just wanted to ask you about the childhood photographs. Gs. Did you notice he had an altogether different . Guest i hadnt noticed that. Theres no doubt the whole family was extraordinary. I have given half a zillion speeches and its almost embarrassing they would split the atom with einstein most of the siblings did not. His brother was the head of the Legal Department and they were all geniuses. Its interesting. Its kind of funny to see that he was balding at the age of 18 and he did seem to have a call on his life even when he was a little boy he seemed to take go. Seriously. He was named after socrates about it must have been a year 2000 per year by and asked if i wanted to do a bible study in new york city for nonchristians and i thought that would be fun. Its kind of evolved. We were in a conversation and thought we could do a thing where we could share some thoughts and qanda and it evolved into socrates in the city. Rather than have a religious or event lets talk about the Big Questions generally speaking. Lets have different speakersinm talk on different questions, the kind of unexamined life youre not going to talk about in a ab cocktail party. All of the bigger questions about who we are and where do we come from, where are we going, it is a big one for me to just did one in france this past summer that we have not aired yet this the genius. Theres nobody like him and i talked to him about faith and science and i feel like a lot of what i do i live in a world where you would get the impression that only seen educated people dont believe in god and those that are not that educated dont believe in god. But the most emotionally healthy and intelligent people i know have a sincere faith and i thought that the problem is you never see them on charlie rose. I would like to hear these people talk and get their voices out there so we did this in the city and we now have a library of geniuses having wonderful conversations and now i interview them like we are doing here but its meant just to get ideas out there and get people talking. I think the general mainstream media, this program accepted dietary happy to say. It tends to be here towards a default secularism and if that isnt representative of america. Most americans have some kind of faith or at least honest questions they dont dismiss it with a sneer in a cavalier way. I felt the need to have those conversations so we started doing this 17 years ago when we are going to continue to do that. We will have an event here in new york city which is the launch of my book but it will be under the rubric of socrates and the college and we will continue to do these. Years i have the last couple of years i was just so busy writing but its something that i hope this contributed to the larger conversation. We want to show you in one of these introductions from 2011. [applause]ell you i just want to tell you i will be back in ten minutes. [laughter] welcome to socrates and the city. I will be your server for the evening. [laughter] let me ask you because this is very important. I see a number of former friend is. Seven, eight. [laughter] it is a pleasure to welcome you here. I understand the president is in town and some of you are having trouble getting here. Let me ask how many of you have never been to a socrates event before . That is a lot of people. Now i last if you are here for the first time be honest how many of you are here for the last time . Mow, iest. Its great to see so many of you here. Now i have to tell you if youve never been to a socrates event before and want to know what this is about i think i have to cut through the chase and if this makes you uncomfortable, i apologize to. Youve all got a silver unitards underneath your chairs. [laughter] once youve got them all on, the mothership is going to come from behind the sun. [laughter] we are going to call it. If it makes you uncomfortable, i apologize. I understand that they have our best interest in mind you have double checked. I cant tell. Thank you. Anyway, it is a wonderful book and that is where we are going to go into the evening. Now what we tell people publicly is we are about asking some Big Questions. We take it as our motto to ask the same question. You can see previous speakers and questions asked. Question you said one of the people you are inspired by was why . Guest how did you not love him. I met him in 1984. He was the class speaker today chri i graduated. I got to meet him and people would always ask me what you want to do with your life. Be i always thought i wanted to host a tv talk show. I reached out and we started a friendship around 2002 and weve been friends ever since. Ive been privileged to be friends with him and i dont know if we can admit that publicly since i havent been officially antitrump but i have to say that his wit that is something to which i aspire. E hes always been very liberal i assume, agnostic or atheist but as i said, there were many people in my life that i loved. He has his own literature in the way that shakespeare has his own literature. He wrote in so many different genres that he is his own literature. One of the writers in the passages of the base trilogiesf which is one of my favorite books of all time is right for any of the magical realism pap paper. Hes very serious about his faith and living out his faith. I think the chronicles are some of the best books that have ever been written and the theology that is incarnated is in the stories. It gets passed some things in a way nobody else has done. Host . We will scroll through those on the screen as we hear from bill in sierra vista arizona. Guest yo guest you answered some of this indirectly already. What do you say to them to hypothesize what socrates or for that matter historian might say to the group that is the black wives matter. Going beyond that. There seems to be a lot going on there with standing. Guest to me, some of this stuff and the unfortunate thing has happened in the last 40 or so years where having the statut of a victim of the cultural capital. I know so many people would call themselves black and want n part of this. They are embarrassed that the people who put themselves out there like theaters. They have done tremendous disservice is over the decades. I think it is just a pity that we have come to a place where anger and screaming victims is flawed by some to be helpful. I just dont think its helpfulu i think it harms people. If you think about minorities, i would run from that kind of stuff i dont think it is helping anybody. I would like to give you a perspective from a christian female with who happens to be a liberal. I hear a lot of judgmental con talk. I was raised in the 50s and 60s in the mean hateful south. I know about the kkk. They were not christian. But i will tell you people from a mothers perspective. We woman out here are independent, republican, and democrats are insulted. We are insulted by all of this. By the derogatory campaign that was led and none of our republican men, none of you, would stand up and say this is wrong. None of you guest say what is wrong . Guest caller to stand up and say degrading people and behaving this way was not morally com parable. Trump terrorized our nation for almost two years. We females and minorities out here and i am an older later. I am older than you. Do not interrupt me and let me continue my statement. We watched with our eyes appalled that you males just took this all in as if it were funny, as if it were a joke. As if none of this mattered. Everything that we were taught our entire lives about loving one another, about taking care of the sick, down troddened, poor, elderly all tied to the wind for dollar bills. You turned human beings into dollar bills and money was the idol worship of the century. We are upset, horrified and very outraged by the lack of moral fiber and to watch republican men twist themselves into pret pretzels and say this is okay. Host kathryn, you have give an example of what you are talking about . Guest did he not watch the campaign . Did he not see donald trump coming down the escalator calling all mexican people bad names . Did he not hear what he had to john mccain . Or the campaign about the ugly talk about women . My goodness, sir, where were you . Under a rock . Host thank you for calling in. Guest i am speechless, kathryn. You have convicted me. My mom, my wife and my daughter all females. And completely disagree with you. All of my minority friends disagree. For you to pretend to speak for all of them is not right. You are entitled to your point of view. Muddled as it is. But i dont think for you to accuse everybody of not taking those things seriously you do anybody a service. I am glad you got to have your say but i dont see the point. Host john, california, good afternoon and good morning to you. Go ahead can questions and comments. Caller hello, eric, i listen with great interest to your description of socrates in the city which parallels much of my own work in the socratic values where i unite the virtues into a single unified ethical hierarchy. As i describe further at the motivationsolution. Net. In terms of Behavioral Foundation and behavioral psychology my question for you is with such an innovation in value ethics be of interest to our society as potentially one more piece of the puzzle toward understanding the examined life and how it relates to world peace which we so desperately need in these times. Guest i think we have always needed world peace and i think you would agree with me. I think that socrates in the city is something i did because i want a conversation. I am not reporting to put answers out there. I think there are things we dont talk about. People have an angry stick and get emotional. I think we need to have serious conversations about everything because people have different point of view. But unless you can to doo it in a civil and respectful way without name calling you will not accomplish anything. It upsets me on either side when i hear that level of despair bin to them into the it is depressing and not helpful we have to give each other the benefit of the doubt that we are all trying or trying. Were not surprised to hear it. What is the focus of your radio show . Guest it has no focus we do 10 hours a week monday through friday two hours a day it is a show about everything because my interests are so eclectic. To talk about schumer or comedians with all kinds of people with movies or books i dont think a day goes by that i dont speak about his or her book and i think people want to read work. So i have people on my program talking about books almost every single day. The like talking about different subjects and i have a wideranging curiosity but i enjoy talking to you different people about different subjects sometimes it is your record deadly serious but the variety of test is what distinguishes the program i am thrilled to have a very wide variety atheist, of a christian christian, funny, serious, if you listen one day and dont like it the next day is completely opposite. I try to have fun instead of being informative. They can hear it on later go to my a web site eric metaxas. Com but it is on the weekend also but and salem radio it is not a conservative program i would really like it to me i like them to hear where they would not have heard other rise. Lets hear from brighton in springfield new jersey. Caller thanks for taking my comments i am not familiar with your work but i am happy to learn about you today. The reason im calling is you mentioned we have deterred cultural jew or those who see religious but dont practice the actual religion. So with the evangelical christians in particular like Character Counts and he had affairs so the question is are there such things as cultural emphasis i know right from wrong but they can compartmentalize their morality or standards to support somebody for shortterm benefit that they previously would have disagreed with . That is the case of having a pipe trouble coming up with the moral and ethical standards. They said so and so is a bad guy so as despicable as it is that was as 2005. If they said that today he would have different weight. If you have grandpa doing in the white house that is different the you have to be able to contextualized is somebody is a faithful husband now that means something that doesnt mean but we always need to think about character. If you talk of human beings to say a president is evil or trumpets is evil nobody is evil were all children in gods eyes we are flawed we can do evil or good but i have to look at the policies and panda character but what does that mean . What i said in my book if you can keep it it has to be with are you being selfish or doing something for the greater good . That person may talk like a sailor are they trying to help the people they were elected to help . Those people are corrupt. So i think Hillary Clinton was corrupt. So people think i am talking now both sides of my mouth but so win clinton did what he did in the white house that was horrifying. That doesnt make him a double. You have to occur if all the current president to the same standard but there are probably no matter what you say people hate clinton so much a matter what you say it is not bad enough so we have to try hard to understand were screwed up. So i have to have graced the doesnt mean electing a public official if you cheat on your wife that says something about you. So it certainly should be in the negative column. Here is an email from john and wonder why certain authors go into the indepth interview eric metaxas is . Witted and bright but not leave christian fundamentalist world view on display with his political opinion renders him unworthy to be on it in depth in my opinion i force myself to watch these interviews for as long as i can to make sure i am listening to arguments but i just heard eric metaxas defend the of vietnamese war as an honorable fight for freedom now criticizing Joseph Campbell for being intellectually sloppy and encouraging the dark side of spirituality. Time to switch the dial i dont think guess like this help booktv. Guest first of all, which is objectively true. I dont think you want to hear from me because you disagree with me make your own case in your own circle for you to call be fundamentalist is namecalling. I am not a fundamentalist christian if you dont know what the word means dont use it. But when people do that it is dismaying or to be ashamed of yourself. I did not defend the vietnam war. I tried to put into context i said some people can see it that way. I think this is part of a problem if it happens on twitter where people say things they were not true or complete the listening and throw this stuff out there you have to know youre talking about otherwise it becomes useless if you know, what that means she would not have said that. Host denver goahead. Caller i am not saying this because of the last caller but the first thing i wanted to use say they got for you a and cspan and. I am calling about the relationship thinking about watergate talking about the 8019 times the prosecuting attorney got together to work experts say but that was not revealed and tell a couple years ago because it was sealed. I would like to see that stopped and then there is a lot of things going on there was a riot after nixon basically becoming up with the same conclusion. Guest . I was a kid when most of that was going on but this simply brings up the issue of fairness and justice if we in this country are wedded to the partisanship so with regard to nixon so we have to do everything we can with regard to Hillary Clinton so if they say it is your true story or justice then that postmodern view of the truth is so corrosive it destructive like mr. Smith goes to washington so you are part of a problem so not everybody is that way they want the truth to prevail. So he was not under the purview . He had his own separate . I dont remember those details. But i do know the judge dealing with a real tough cookie and through the of book get him but his face was so serious that if they begged him to live yeah the kid who is in trouble who needs your help to say i dont have to do that i have been public as a christian i have to tell the truth you go to jail with me i will be fine the family will be fine and that is heroic. We need people like that. I didnt even know until i did the research on him but there are people who are the real deal and when you find them they change your life. And then the rest of the people many stories we dont know but if you know those stories it changes how you live. There is a number of stories that makes you want to be a better person. If you want to make people be better that is big. We need to highlight those. What about the seven men or women . Really there was absolutely no significance. Did he have any conversations with nixon . After he left the white house . He did try a with all of them. I dont remember details but i do remember that he did that when given the opportunity to some were very close and others not so much but i cannot say more than that. Host good afternoon toledo. Caller number one. What president ial library under 100 years use sanctions and why . Guest do you know, the answer to that . Wife you ask that question . Guest i dont know the answer. Host wire you asking the question . Caller because i heard of that and it seems odd. What is the import of georgia view bush 280 billion to the unidentified persons on september 11, coming due september 12th 2001 . What is your focus . Guest but i dont understand the question at all. Who doesnt. Caller i will ask you this are you aware that george h. W. Bush issued to a hundred 80 billion of securities to identify persons. Guest i dont know anything about it. Host i apologize were trying to figure out what you were going after. Host Colorado Springs colorados. Caller good afternoon it is a pleasure i may huge fan of socrates said the city and bonhoeffer is on my bookshelf. To thoughts of a like to get your thoughts. I m64. When i was a kid and someone wanted to know my opinion they would say to me what do you think about this . Okay. Today inseams what do you feel about this . And there has ben a dramatic shift saying earlier that words matter and thinking its objective but feeling is very subjective. We evoked way too much these days as a nation in dont do enough thinking in my opinion. Number one. Guest yes. Caller i do thank you have become an amateur theologian and historian for the guy was so pleased while on hold and you brought up the word context. I dont think we interpret theology, a history, or politics within its historical economic political context. It is totally void. The Founding Fathers were angry white guy is. That thought is crazy. If you understood as you mentioned slavery was an accepted practice at the time then if those people understood history within the context maybe we would not be tearing down statues acting like fools. Guest your two questions are related but the feeling toward the impulse is very strong. We all suffer from it except from peter and myself. Actually we do also. To say they were bad they did this san facts. Of course you are if youre honest you realize it is ridiculous nobody was different today human beings are the same but the question is what are we dealing with . Most People Living today alive 300 years ago would say it is a Necessary Evil summer before it or against it but have the ability to say i am guilty today that people 100 years from now will say can you imagine when he was living he did not speak up of this . We have to have humility that is what context is about not to say that it was okay but put into context is very important purpose of George Washington for example, was a slaveholder but somehow people who want to see things in black and white you cannot get very far if thats what you want because life is far too complicated. But the temptation is very strong. And against your previous question of feeling vs. Thinking although i do think something has happened again although c. S. Lewis read about it in his book talking about the 30s and a subjective feelings verses objective feelings and talk about the subtle shift in education already way back in the 30s and this is the issue of our time. We understand the feelings are subjective but post modernism and most people dont even know what that is. I dont want to get into that right now but objective ideas about truth that concept have ben winning for some years so they act as though their feelings are so strong and powerful to outweigh the truth and if we dont teach ourselves how to think we will of fall prey to mob rule. Nazi, germany did not happen because people were thinking the bloodbath of the french revolution because they were thinking but they wanted to go with the flow and a dire really a angry threw caution to the wind end behaved abominably per you can say this about rwanda the impulse is to feel morally superior in demonize those with and disagree then want to destroy them politically or literally that is the story of humanity and unless we are honest about the fact were all screwed up with these temptations we will go down the path i do think it is Political Correctness today were going down that path now people say i of the mail but i feel like a female my feet feelings are the ultimate truth. We need to say we need a conversation because your feelings to trumpet a biological reality is new in history. So lets think about the implications if i feel a certain way if i am sexually attracted to a child so do i say they are legitimate . If we cannot have a conversation about what feelings are legitimate or destructive when they are against reality we are in trouble. Anybody as a serious scientist ought to care about this when you save material reality does not matter i feel this way i feel i am a woman i feel you are a jerk feelings are not always good any of touched on something that is very important for us right now. I read if you can keep it i am currently on a business trip in india. Commenting on duty meekness of american democracy. Paving part of writing my book has been an education for me i learned about this stuff as i write the book american democracy has been rather different we have the Golden Triangle of freedom which referred to earlier that says there is such a thing of virtue in faith they are intertwined. Many countries in the world like china bath if you dont toe the line you are in trouble they dont believe this freedom of religion. Believe you can think what you want or worship as you want they will force you so that is lack of freedom there are plenty of places with some kinds of freedom but lacked other kinds the first freedom according to founders is freedom of religion we have to be free to think as we want is somebody says i think samesex marriages grey to another says it is a mistake you have to have the freedom for the shows people to exist in the ability to have that conversation and be rational. We have shied away in demonize people if they dont agree with us and that is a real problem we are having freedom is so fragile you constantly have to be vigilant to understand and explain what is america how does it work . Most of us dont know and then i thought if we dont pass this along right away we will be in big trouble because freedom isnt thing but it is complicated. Host texas you are on with eric metaxas. Caller two . Points. I have some neighbors said ra a german couple that commute back and forth to germany and spend a few months at each place the husband was a radioman on the uss enterprise in the wife was 14 years old when the russians marched into berlin. But she wants told me when she was about nine or 10 years old when the war broke out her father was of lawyer and they would sit at the dinner table he said what we do and say in this house stays in this house. And this is for katherine is an alabama i know trump is not polished in his language but i am the baby boomer to me they have been champions of crass and course behavior i can turn on the radio listen to any rap song to listen about cop killers and bitches and hoes so my attraction to donald trump in the middle of the civil war that Abraham Lincoln appointed grant to lead the army and those of third generals were losing battle after battle but the other said grant drinks too much ad looks like a slob and graduated next to last but Abraham Lincoln said i cannot spare that me and. He fights. That is what donald trump does. He fights and to paraphrase. Host we will leave it there. We got your point. Guest first of all, the reference of your neighbors in germany under the nazis germans family would say what we say in this house stays in this house imagine living under that that the neighbor might hear you and report you that is where you go when you the freedom and that is fascism you leave that freedom to agree to disagree to share your opinions in a civil way that is free my mother remembers that. My grandmother remember that when a many people that lived through that or are living through that today in other countries talk about china you cannot write a word or speak about china while you are a year. Can you imagine there are countries that our afraid of people speaking the truth or to give their point of view . That is the antithesis of freedom we all need to understand how a important is if you cannot be civil to those you disagree or try, you are part of the problem because we are at a crossroads in our country to try to give both sides grace host catherine has gotten quite a bit of reaction this is from santa cruz california. Thank you for her very lucid and articulate call she inspires me. It struck me as soon as the boat people that inspire him with the current reading list went up on the tv screen that every single author is male he worships of male god woody allen is up pedophile with his patriarchal views to destroy the world. Youre not opinionated or anything, are you . I love the fact that people are so ideological they cannot get past it. It is so telling when the all they care about what is said gender or ergot color for . That is bad los people listening and not like that some people are looking for an excuse to get a greek. I can think of so many people i could have put down as a favorite authors or influence is that i didnt but when you get into that game everybody loses. I am just sorry there are folks like that out there. I dont have much to say. Host 20 minutes left with eric metaxas offer and radio talkshow host. Caller good morning. I have never heard you prior to today but i dont really care what is going on in the world but jesus came is made a comment about what of it all the earlier that wasnt correct actually what he said was he had no beef with no vietcong it had ever called him a bigger nigger i think you are right on most of the things you have said today. Guest i am glad that you said that to give more context because its like when we get devotional the idea that no vietcong called him that word is totally irrelevant he was just making a political point but john mccain was being tortured by the viet cong. Anybody tortured over years . I am not a fan of him politically but we had our young men being tortured so you have to put it into context people were suffering the horrors that the his of the north vietnamese so to pretend that is not my battle i dont know how you do that the lowest point in the Trump Campaign when he said that about john mccain of but that was despicable. I think we have to be very careful in the savings like that about people who have suffered for this country and he has apologized but mohammed all be saying that i wish he hadnt is all i could say but i do grateful for everything else. Host a facebook of it it, lets hear more from eric metaxas and his new book luther. Guest is coming out shortly will twist my arm. Literally right now you can get signed copies from barnes and noble i have never heard of this in my life they got me to sign 1100 pages i signed very legibly they bound them into the book and offering them on their website. It is number one in the top 100 or top10 right now because everybody says theyre wanted for my local you can it is very hard unless you meet me at one of these events but if you want a signed book i hope they still have them. I did not want to write a third biography as war i would not but i was convinced by friends that because of the anniversary of the of reformation that i was the right guy a to do is so i thought they do have a point because live there is such a fascinating character i had no idea how entertaining the things that he said it and did and the stories is what you make up. He was a wild man good and bad but the story is incredibly educational in terms of history. I did understand religious pluralism in a democracy and freedom in all of that came out of the reformation i am very pro catholic and non catholic a wrote the book because i thought it was a story that a handful of the most influential people in the history of the world two years ago live not would have said that but i am astounded how that very world is the direct result of this one the hon one man. I hope they tell that story. I have gotten fantastic previews i am happy to say because you wonder will people like it . I am happy it comes out any week now if you one day signed a copy bin go because i only signed a thousand all by hand . Absolutely. On my dining room table and i really take pride to be legible there is nothing worse bin to get something signed with a scrawled i want people to read my name is to be proud of it being legible so it takes a long time. I start my book tour sued im sure i will start meeting people soon and i enjoy that it is fun for me i am looking forward to that i will be away from home most of october. Host massachusetts good afternoon. Caller i just want to say i ended my 70s i remember the end of the Second World War i have seen this country go through a lot but the most horrific was kent state los soldiers shooting American Kids and you mentioned heller he didnt really care about germany but himself i am very frightened and sad for our country right now and i wonder dont you think donald trump only cares about himself . It seems that way to meet. Guest i would not expect to convince you but i dont think that is the case i do think he is quirky. I dont think people appreciate he has schumer a river like jackie mason that he refers to himself in ways that knifing are unseemly but at the same time at his core he cares about himself and not the country if think he genuinely cares and is a patriot. I do believe that but when i say to all my friends to disagree with me politically is, i believe time will tell this is a man whose cares about his country. I really do believe that. I would not say it is wise to vote for him if i did it. He doesnt speak the language of the cultural elite so the of media misunderstand him so fundamentally it is almost impossible to report him accurately so it has created a level of dissidents that has been destructive but i tell my friends i really do think we will be okay her but time will tell that that is my opinion. Host if you can keep it it would be suicidal if we did it do something about the stories of america and then you say we cannot reduce the intellectual. We are people we are not robots or computers it doesnt mean the truth claims are not important but fundamentally the stories of people are the upper reincarnated version so when i tell the story of bonhoeffer when you see this story of a wife it is envisaged jesus came down to earth and said that is everything good by. He lived among the stucco in to a create to live with each other and twoseat truth soil lisa your being watched. Your life is more important and what you say the matter. Is she thinking you are a hypocrite or does she see something that means something to her . The matter where we go our lives are more important in the story of a life of paul revere or david hale is one paying to read the constitution bentley need to know the stories of the heros. They sleep the way we do debris did wake up then give their life to their country. They are not disembodied spirits but human beings. It my book if you can keep it i talk about david hale and we need to know the stories if we dont is not teaching them then we destroy the ability of that generation to live in a way to preserve American Freedom. You mentioned luther is coming out but you already have another one in the works . Guest i finished with your i cannot say how excited i am about this luther booktv honest. But i emilys thinking on what i am working on next i have an interest of homer and the odyssey. The father is from one of the islands right next to ithaca. My guess is that is the next book i am already doing research the Victor Davis Hanson has the wisdom of the greeks in that civilization i see it is a fun and interesting subjects the most exciting perhaps is that it seems some friends of mine over many years have discovered what is it the cow which is not. The archeologist in the 80 in the 90s may case it is actually an island to the north sub have made the case it is part of cephalonia and these friends have done a lot of research and have written a book coming out soon i want to write about that because and the course of their discovery they have proven to me that ithaca is the southeastern part of cephalonia end they have discovered the largest to midwestern greece a staggering archaeological find someone to write about that. My interests are wide ranging. Host new mexico go ahead. Caller how are you . I want to say god bless eric for his exceptional work. I have an attorney they were shackling kids did new mexico we came forward again shackling kids they said it is of slavery kids were shackled in court fortunately the Supreme Court agreed so you are a and inspiration and a great book and a great inspiration also what i learned from your other two books like if you can keep it i ask my class as a lot of nature how does that affect a the Protestant Movement with the declaration of independence how that has influenced a whole country and from all men are created equal. Net income of the board did to think somebody was inspired by a book that i wrote what you did with those kids in new mexico is beautiful. I write my books to inspire i dont make this up by just write about it but it speaks when you read about wilberforce or these figures you cannot help but be inspired. We havent talked about my miracle book but that book actually tighten to what i was saying that it struck me me livein this false divide of faith in science the more i looked more was convinced that doesnt point necessarily to a christian god but the idea that were not here through random forces to believe that requires more faith than a guide designed us to put us here. But when i wrote the miracle book i said the biggest miracle of all is the creation and if you look at big bang in the anthropic principle, since more and more of makes it clear that the most powerful argument is the of prospect principal meaning the world is designed on such detail and precision it is frightening and a lot of ags say they were startled because if you look at the science you are challenged to say this possibly just could not have happened if i throw another dime in another and another the hallway and down there edge something is going on that is what science is pointing to so i wrote the hotbed for the wall street journal to a half years ago but increasingly makes the case for god and it was the most popular chaired article literally in the history of the wall street journal since they kept records. 650,000 facebook likes because the congress for god and evidence if science can tell us and being is a huge and were living in a culture that avoids those issues. I tried to get people to think about it will always have ideologues who dont need proof but it is important to do that and you cannot deny the founders are intertwined with people of faith and everyone said we cannot work unless you have virtue or face they were uninterested in the naked public secular square. These are historical facts is a great question. Host from your book everything you wanted to know about fraud but was afraid to ask has been misunderstood and abused terribly. Yes. I think it is true as the caller said fundamentalist christian people need to know what they mean otherwise they use words as daggers if you use words that way you are miss using words. You have to try to understand what a word means that aborted bin christiandom that did not exist 100 years ago jimmy carter popularized that adjustment somebody who had the adult conversion with san epiphany it happen to be around by 26 birthday that whenever i was before before, something happened but there is no exact description people throw a the terms around they become pejorative in change but those you did not lift a finger or when bonhoeffer was around so you have to ask yourself are they actually christian . The serious questions christians will speak out because i have a life from body to use that to glorify him to speak out to do the best i can. People that want to sit on their heathens say that is not my problem. So for somebody to say i have a bornagain christian you have to live that out if not who cares what you claim to believe . If youre not even willing to risk your life but bonhoeffer said when christ calls a man he did in to come and i and that is a huge statement. Radical muslims understand it is life for death christians should understand if we are called by god to put myself second and others first the leading that makes us great is the idea we want to be strong so we can help others to become free we get a wrong sometimes but the point is we are supposed to that guides said i a did this for you do the same for others and when you do that by the way you will be blast is the reason youre on this planet so the idea you are truly alive when you die for yourself that is what it is a want to give my life away for guide by all the will be here for a little while i want my life to account a lot of people through that turn around. Host ralph from new york. Caller eric. It is so good to you period we met at the award dinner i had the pleasure of visiting with you with your lovely wife and daughter because i feel they have lost the stories and without that and to have a shared a throat ease those under that a deal which transcends us so after september 11 with a powerful statement of forgiveness we are taught to love our neighbors and forgive our enemies how do we move from that dominant narrative that they can all Love Thy Neighbor . That is the 64,000 question. And that temptation is to demonize the others. It is normal is and it is wrong. In revenue consider the plight you have to be honest , so i know thats we have to model that. We have to love our enemies. Have to give people grace. We have to give people the benefit of the doubt and if somebody isnt quick enough to denounce whatever you think they need to you should think about yourself, think about your forcing people to live according to a standard that thats not gods standard by the way. I really think that we just have to try to model this. Anyway, thank you. Host for the past three yours he been talking with radio talk show host and author, eric metaxas. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you so much. What a joy