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 washi