Gentlemen, this is a football

00:00 Abba Father, thank you for the privilege of being here today, that we get to sit at these mics and have a conversation. And Father, my heart is that it will be a conversation that helps someone else in their own conversations, whether it's with themselves or with others, Lord. So, Father, we get to do this. It's more than a motto, more than a slogan, more than a mantra. It is literally our heart. So, Lord, as we step into this and lean into this today, Holy Spirit, we ask you to be our guide. Your word says that you're the spirit of truth who leads us and guides us into all truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. It's Wednesday, May 20th, 2026.

00:41 We get to do this. This is episode number 33. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gets ready. We get to do this. This is the chance we cannot miss. This is the life we get to do this. Well, hello, brother. Brother, how do you get to do this? We do. We do. We do. We do. And thank you for changing your schedule around for mine. No worries. Do you know that I'm literally actually on vacation right now? That's right. Is this the official start? This year on? Yeah. At noon today, I tipped the scale. It was like, I'm off. That is so nice. It's a good feeling. Are you still going to do the show during your vacation?

01:25 Absolutely. That's not even negotiable. It's not work. No, it's not. When you love what you do, it's not work. So I had to change a schedule around today. Here's the words you never want to hear your phlebotomist say: You've got no flow. I mean, this poor woman was literally looking at me going like, there is nothing coming out of your vein. Oh, that is odd. And can I try the other one? Now, as you know, I have some odd childhood trauma, not for the needle. It's the actual flow of the blood. And I don't know where it's from. You need to work through this, brother.

02:07 I do. I mean, it's something deep-seated, deeply rooted. I'm over, I mean, I'm whistling Dixie. I'm like, yeah, come on, let's do it. And then she's like, let me pull it out a little bit. Let me put it in. I'm like, okay, okay, I'm still here. Now my palms are starting to sweat. Yeah, because you feel this thing moving around. And they said, oh, let me do the other one. And there is nothing moving. Look, look. I'm like, really? You want me to look at this thing? And you can see the blood go, chook, chuke, chuke, chook. And I drank water this morning. I don't know what it was. I said, am I technically alive if my blood is not flowing? Something's wrong here. Houston, we have a problem. Does that happen? Is that a regular thing? I don't know. I've never heard of that, actually. I figure if your blood's not moving, that's bad signs.

02:51 That's what I thought. So, anyway, we finally seen, it's finally started to happen. Do you have thick blood? I mean, unusually thick. Royal blood, maybe. I don't know if it's thick. Well, when you're on the tea, sometimes it can thicken. Oh, it'll thicken up. That's why they want us to give blood, like, you know, to the Red Cross and give blood thins it out. Oh, I didn't realize that helps your blood flow, brings your blood pressure down. So maybe I'm too, I got too much tea now. We'll see when the results come. This is all because of you, Damonette. Hey, all of this stuff is, all of this tea stuff is because of you guys.

03:32 You know, it's been a game changer for me and other and other of my men friends. So I feel good. Yeah. I always felt good. I guess I feel better, I guess. You guess? Yeah, you don't know. You know, we celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. Congratulations. Tea is working. Everything's good. I was quite the man at the restaurant. Yeah. It was nice. It was real nice. Brother, there's so much going on right now. We had just an amazing, really week. If you go Wednesday to Wednesday, I would say that was marked for me just seeing that you did the invocation of our brand new mayor here in Fredericksburg, which is, you know, it's, we've been talking about Randy Brilly.

04:18 We, we, you know, we really wanted him to become the mayor. Absolutely. He's a believer. He's a biblical man. He's a good man. He's a smart man. Did a podcast with him. I didn't get the invite. I didn't know the invocation was even taking place. I'm like, okay, no one told me it was happening. I'm surprised. He had asked me to pray to kick that off. They start all the city council meetings with prayer from local clergy. So I was honored to do it. What I didn't realize is it was a lot of firsts. So they had never used this space before.

04:58 It's brand new. So. everything's new, which as you listen to the recording, you could tell because half the guys didn't know to keep shaking their mic. Shall I play just a little bit at the beginning? You've got that. Go for it. Because I got it. I'm like, I can't even play this whole thing. But just listen. I mean, it started off like. And now listen to this. Welcome, Jimmy. Pastor of Bridge Church. As I began, I just want to recall that Dr. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest representative convention in June of 1787. The colonies were in turmoil and great disarray. Tension filled the air. The representatives met together and found the cold taste or all the time.

05:43 And now, like, Chad GPT is talking in there. Oh, my gosh. And it got better at a certain point. Fortunately, in the house. It was good in the house. It was clear. It was good. I was mad, brother. I want you to know. First of all, I texted our brand new mayor and said, hey, mayor, congratulations. I didn't say, how come I didn't get invited? But I said, are you guys going to stream again? He's like, no, we stream. You have to go to the website and click on the camera icon. Brother, this is like eight levels deep. Wow. You got to go all the way into the actual agenda of that city council meeting. You need to find it. To find a little camera icon. They need to clean up. I'm going to make some suggestions about that.

06:27 That needs to be on front page. But they do it. And so what I immediately did is I turned it into a podcast. So now in the Godcaster, every single time there's a city council meeting, you will hear a promo with some piece of what happened. And you can go right into the Godcaster and it's right there. You can listen to, I think we have 20 of the previous ones. And whenever there's a new one, and it's actually good because they did a whole bunch of stuff after the invocation. It was a regular city council meeting. It was. So the beginning was awards, swearing in of Randy Brillias the new mayor and blessing and honoring. I love Hoover. I love that you did that. He's a hoot, man. He's really. He's a good guy. He's been a good mayor for us.

07:11 He was so funny. I think I told you this. He was trying to exit. Everybody stood and clapped. And it was a really beautiful moment. He gets to the door to leave, and he doesn't know the combination to the lot. And he turns around and says, You've already logged me out. That was such a good idea. I love that. I love a lot of this sense of humor. So this is the new building. Yeah. New building. Grand opening of the city council chambers was then. And so I was the first person to ever pray at that podium. I love that. So the first action at that podium ever on that microphone was a prayer.

07:51 And it was a prayer based in history and out of historical perspective and just a calling back to prayer. Can I share the beginning of that? Yes. And I want you to know that I actually pulled the piece from the movie. So why don't you set it up? Oh, very cool. Yeah. All right. So see, I come loaded for bare, brother. I come prepared for you. I'm going to use what I did the other day. So I just took it and I just kind of morphed it because we had just watched it the night before. I was really stirred about it. A great awakening. Oh, man. Dr. Benjamin Franklin was the oldest representative at the Constitutional Convention in June of 1787.

08:27 The colonies were in turmoil and great disarray. Tension filled the air as the representatives met together to find their way and solidify the terms of forming the union. Dr. Franklin was 80 years old, had been mostly silent through the prior days of divisive and contentious deliberations on how to unify our nation on the heels of the revolution. George Washington was presiding over the meeting and gave the floor to Dr. Franklin. And then you went into prayer. Well, no, I went into his quote. Oh, that's right. Well, so we have to kind of step back because Sunday, during your message from the pulpit, you said, I just watched this movie, A Great Awakening, for the second time.

09:10 And I'm sitting there going, How come I haven't seen this movie? What is this movie? How come I haven't heard about this? How old is this movie? It's brand new. It just went to streaming. Right, because I had to pay like 10 bucks for it or something. Yeah, it's been in the theaters. And it was really interesting because when it started off, because I told Tina, like, we got to watch this movie. She said, okay, what is it? Say, well, it's a period piece, but it's based on a true story of Benjamin Franklin and the Constitutional Convention, the Convention of States. And it started off, and she's like, what is this really about? And then all of a sudden, the first mention of God comes in. And it was wonderful to watch her attention go from, oh, hold on a second, what is this?

09:52 And it's such a. you know, it comes on the heels of us listening to that Glenn Beck episode, which was about George Whitfield. Yes, yes. Because it really was a lot about George Whitfield, who came over and really started the Great Awakening by preaching to everyone in the colonies, literally until he died. He's 30 plus years. He just died from, you know, exposure, I would say. He's 55 years old. And so Benjamin Franklin, you know, I grew up hearing that, you know, he was an inventor and he flew a kite in a lightning storm.

10:32 And I think I also learned that he created the first set of false teeth out of wood for George Washington. And that was pretty much what I knew about him. And to see this movie, thank you for the recommendation was so good. And so I pulled the clip, which is not the last piece of the movie. I actually have that as well because that's perhaps even more powerful. It's about four minutes, though. But is it okay if we just run this? So good. Because it is. So he's at this point. Benjamin Franklin's 80, and 80 in those days was 80. You know, you're like, you're still alive. For real, yeah. And he was. And so the convention, it was the, was it the 13 colonies of that point?

11:13 It was this? Yeah. They had had the Revolutionary War five or six, seven years, but maybe a little bit longer. It was 10 years later. Yeah. And here they're all arguing. And as you said during the message, like, this is just like it is now. Everyone's arguing and yelling, except there's no cameras, there's no sound bites, and no little shots to get on MSNBC. But they're clearly in disarray. They can't figure it out. And then George Washington gives the floor to Benjamin Franklin. Mr. Chair recognizes Dr. Benjamin Franklin.

11:56 Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings with each other, our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many no's as I's, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom since we've been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government.

12:41 And having examined those forms of those republics, which, having been formed with the seeds of their own disillusion, now no longer exist. We have viewed modern states all around Europe. I like that. I'm just going to interrupt it for a second. I didn't know that, that they had looked at all the different systems and forms of government. Yes. And they said, well, most of these have gone kaput, and we can't really find ourselves in some of these other ones. And this, as far as I know, this is a true representation of the historical. I did do a little research by talking to Matt Long. Who is our very own Benjamin Franklin?

13:25 Very much so. He looks like him, which is why. When he's in uniform, when he's in costume. You can call it uniform. I'd call it uniform. I mean, he pulls it off amazing. And he's very intelligent and articulate and just he knows his history. He does. So I asked him while he and I were having a meeting about things going on in the world. And I said, I just saw the movie. I said, have you seen the movie and what do you think? He goes, oh, I saw the movie and I loved it. And he said, it was excellent. It was well done. And he said, those speeches are verbatim. Okay. So that's beautiful. But find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

14:09 In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark for political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings. In the beginning of the contests with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were gracious. graciously answered.

14:53 All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?

15:32 I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I have seen of this truth: that God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred scriptures that unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

16:10 I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little partial local interest. Projects shall be confounded. We ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, these unfortunate instances despair of establishing governments on human wisdom and leave it to chance, war,

16:54 and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. And that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service. This blew me away. What piece did you use? I think the sparrow party? I used, yeah, I did. I used that. He says, I've lived, sir, a long time. Yeah.

17:36 So I used that. And then on the sparrow, I used that. So I just cut it down to four short paragraphs or sentences to capture the heart of it, you know. You know, what just in reflecting on this, because this really there's something going on. It's whatever. It's construction. We're still under construction. Progress. Progress. Progress. What really struck me is that, you know, during the Revolutionary War, particularly George Washington, there was a lot of prayer going on to get through that. And, you know, and clearly God had his hand on that because just the sheer numbers of it made no sense that this took place.

18:17 But how quickly they forgot is the first thing I was thinking of. Like, what, only five, six, seven years later, they'd already forgotten about that? This was a reminder to me. Yes. You know, like, brother, you know, you got to think every single day that God is the one who makes things happen. Yeah. We have to remember and we have to revisit often. Yeah. And it's almost like in sports, you know, you learn the basics, the fundamentals, they call it. You learn the fundamentals. But, you know, great football coach, Vince Lombardi, every at the beginning of every when they brought them all back together for training camp at the beginning season, he would hold up a football in front of all these world-class athletes and say, gentlemen, this is a football.

19:03 And that's how he started. That's how he started every season. Gentlemen, this is a football. Well, that was exactly what Benjamin Franklin was doing. And it put him into such a different historical perspective from me. And honestly, I'm kind of mad at my teachers. You know, and the people that claimed he was a deist or atheist, in his early years, he was. He wasn't an angry atheist. No, he was. He was actually quite comical. And there were some great exchanges between him and George Ruthford. Yeah, where he was saying, like, yeah, this word is going to sell a lot of papers. Coming back to how can I make some money off of it? Yeah, and George Rootfield made a comment about the deal they. they struck.

19:45 And he said, Yeah, you know, God's hand is on this. And he goes, Or we just made a deal in a print shop. He was a realist. And I think it's remarkable that he used these words. I sort of lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth. That's right. Because his whole life was about being convinced. He considered himself a scientist. And so he was all about objective proof. And so to be 80 years old and now stand, and he was very quiet through most of the proceedings. You could tell he was so disturbed in his soul just watching what was happening and these young guys coming in and wanting to fight, you know.

20:26 And you could see it. But the fact that he's saying, after all of these years, I love it. The more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. That is a huge statement coming from a deist. Yeah. We can get over the people calling him deists. I know. It's just not true. Well, the title of the movie, I have to say this out loud because I think it's important. And if I'd recognized it going into it, I probably would have watched the movie with a little more, a different perspective. So I was curious when I saw the name of the movie, A Great Awakening. Instead of The Great Awakening.

21:03 The Great Awakening. Because that's what it's for and known as. It wasn't until the end of the movie that I realized A Great Awakening was Benjamin Franklin's Great Awakening. Yeah, exactly. And that's what the whole movie. I thought the movie was more about Whitfield when, in fact, it was more about them together in their relationship, but really, I would say 60-40 on Benjamin Franklin and his Great Awakening. That blew me away. I didn't see that coming. That was a great surprise. It was also for me when he said, you know, he was talking about the proof that he is now seen and is living a long time. I related to that so much. I thought about you, actually. And I thought about myself.

21:48 Yeah. Yeah. Because that's exactly what I went through. You know, I approached it not scientifically because I'm not a scientist, but I approach it from my research mentality of conspiracy theories and really turned me into a conspiracy therapist. And to hear him say that, I'm like, that's exactly what I went through. Thank God I didn't take 80 years. It took me about two weeks before I went, all the stuff I believe, how it really went down, there's less proof on all of that than the existence of God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and how God does govern the affairs of men.

22:27 And then once I started praying, and once I started, of course, I think it seems like if you're a new believer, God, I think he gives you some extra extra points in the beginning. I think he does too. Like, you get this one, you get this one, you get this one. I agree. And then it's like, no. No, let's see how you are. Let me see how you're doing. Let me see if you really can work in my timing. Yes. And thank you and Annette, by the way, because we have, both Tina and I have learned this from you, you know, in God's perfect timing. A delay is not denial. Man, I got them all. And he tests his work. Yes, exactly. My grandfather was a cabinet builder, and I watched him every time he constructed anything, a piece of wood, a cabinet, a

23:12 shelving unit or whatever, whatever he was building. And he would always test his work and he tested it with pressure. Yeah, pressure, exactly. There was something else. Excuse me. Benjamin Franklin was talking about building a Tower of Babel. Kind of struck me. You referred to that. Because that, if you look at our halls of Congress and Congress as a whole, the House and the Senate, it is a bit like the Tower of Babel. Everybody is trying to get up higher, and none of them are really speaking the same language.

23:50 It's quite remarkable. It is amazing we get anything done. Well, our system is set up to actually not get anything done, kind of like that. Unfortunately, we still get way too much done. I mean, look at our tax code. Right. That tax code is crazy. The very last part of the movie is not this. It's actually George Whitfield who is deathly ill and decides to, I think it was like do one more sermon from the top of, what was that, City Hall or whatever it was. I think so. I think that's... Well, actually, they were in Independence Hall. He walked out of there to speak.

24:30 Right. So I'm assuming that's Independence Hall. Yeah, out on the balcony. It's 48 seconds, but it was also powerful. The father of lights says in his word. for you who honor my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. My friends, do you want to be free? Liberty is found in him alone. Do you want to live? He alone gives eternal life because of the tender mercy of our God. The rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness. I beseech you. Do not reject so great a gift.

25:17 A great awakening has come. Arise, O sleeper! Awaken! Arise, O sleeper, awaken. Where does that come from? Oh, it's out of the scripture. Okay. When you look it up, I want that soundtrack behind my closing from now on on my sermon. We've got to tell Cass. Cass, I've got a project for you, brother. I want this soundtrack at the end of the message. It has to build up like that all the way into the crescendo. As long as I went on Sunday, they'll have to build for a long time. That is fantastic. So good. Yeah, let me look up that scripture because it's a powerful scripture. Let me look at it. I'm finding on my

26:02 take me a second. Take your time. Well, I'm getting a little tiny distracted by the sound. This is beeping. Oh, it's one of those machines, it's a lift. Oh, and you're moving, it has to be. It's like backing up a truck, basically. Exactly. I don't hear it anymore. I'm just ignoring it. Here it is. Okay. Here it is. Well, that's great, but they didn't tell me the reference. What is it? You got to be exact. Now, is this your. You're getting spoiled. Is this your logos system? No. Oh, okay. Because that probably rocked.

26:45 Oh, okay. Here it is. Ephesians 5. The verse is in a few comments. It says, Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. That's out of the ESV. King James. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. That's so good. I also love how they talk about the father of light. Yes. Yeah. You know, it's really good. The whole thing, it was just so inspirational. And particularly now, as we're moving up towards July 4th, we're moving towards the 250th

27:31 anniversary of our country. And I loved the, and you promoted this from the pulpit and the message, the Freedom 250 rededication of America. Was it rededication? Rededication 250 is what they call it. Right. And so I decided to stream this thing live on the Godcaster. And it was 10 hours. And there was worship music. There was some gospel stuff. It was a lot of different things, a lot of different speakers. And it was so good. There's no way you could listen to the whole thing. So I decided, I'm just restreaming that for a week.

28:12 It's on a non-stop loop. And I'll pop in, and it's on the Godcaster. I'll pop in from time to time. Wherever it's at. And it's so good. I did pull a couple of clips. Oh, good. Did you have a chance to listen to any of the any of it or watch any of it? Oh, we watched almost, I mean, when we got home from church, we just turned it on, so we caught probably four hours of it, five minutes. Okay, yeah, good. I pulled Marco Rubio was good, but that was a pre-recorded that he did. And he also, and he actually had that music behind him. Like, you're kind of cheating. You're cheating, Marco Rubio. So I got to ask, who was your favorite? Who stood out for you? Tim Scott. Okay. Tim Scott's a rock star. I did not get to hear him. Okay.

28:57 I have a little bit of Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House. That was who stood out to me. And I like that a lot. That was a history lesson plus prayer. Here we go. But it was good. The same devotion of patriots like a Patrick Henry, for whom liberty was worth any price. The same devotion of President Abraham Lincoln, who at Gettysburg charged his countrymen to rededicate themselves to the unfinished work of our fathers. Lord, today we pray that you grant us that same devotion to these United States. Give us courage, Lord. Make us worthy of all those who devoted and sacrificed their lives so that a government of the people. the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

29:40 Almighty God, we ask that you hear these solemn petitions. Just as we in the beginning dedicated this land to your most holy name, today, here, Lord, in this 250th year of American independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God. Look upon us with favor upon your country as you celebrate this momentous anniversary and let your Holy Spirit descend upon this land so that future generations will look back at this day and this present age and once again see your providential hand at work.

30:36 I ask this today, Lord. I pray it and I believe it in your holy name. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Wow. And, you know, so this is how this is all a combination for me because I'm just as worried about our country as you are as anyone else is. And even when I look at a great awakening, I think the beauty of it all is it doesn't take everybody. We don't need to have the whole country praying. It's those who humble. And I've been, man, I've been making a study of the humble yourself before God. And this is the more I love this Jesus stuff. I just got to tell you, brother.

31:20 Just so you know, just spoiler alert. It'll take the rest of your life to figure it out. And scratch the surface. That's okay. That's not as part of the fun of it for me. It's still all these 40-something years later discovering things all the time. And the humble yourself before God. And so I look at this event and I said, you know, how many people really watched it? I don't know. I didn't do a lookup, but maybe it was a couple million, maybe it was 10 million. I don't really know. But that power, the power that these, just like that convention of states, that these men and women got together and humbled themselves before God with whatever audience was there on the mall.

32:02 And there were people from our church who went there. To me, it's like that gives me a lot of hope. It really, really does. I'm like, that is just me too. It makes it possible. But we all, as believers, I really think we all, we gotta, we gotta do our part. That's right. We gotta be the voice. We have to be the hands and the feet. Yeah. And we have to open our mouths and speak. Speaking of that, just and I'm not shifting away from this. I'm actually, this sort of leads to this. I got some questions and a little bit of pushback. Not bad. It wasn't negative. It was just very focused questions about why I'm so political in the pulpit.

32:45 People are still asking. Political pastors. Now, obviously, these are new people to our church. So I talked to two people this week. One, an 82-year-old man. I think I briefed you on that. And who's a history teacher? And he brought to me a copy of the Lyndon B. Johnson 1954. Amendment. He said, I don't know if you've ever heard of the, I said, oh, the Lyndon B. Johnson bill. He goes, oh, you already know about that. And I said, oh, I know it probably better than most. And he said, okay. He said, I was just going to show it to you because he said, I'm concerned that by you endorsing candidates or speaking for the pulpit on politics that you could lose your 501c3. Of course, that led me into your no-tax nonprofits.

33:28 Right, right. I love how Jesus works between you and I, brother, because would you believe it if I told you I had a couple clips explaining the Johnson amendment? I do. I do. It was the best I could grab at the last minute. So it's a British voice, high AI potential, but it's not too irritating. I took out, it's a YouTube, so I took out most of the sound effects, but it explains the reason for the Johnson amendment. This will be good. Oh, it's talk about political and how this came to be. And thank you, Jesus, for working between Jimmy and I, because I think this is stuff that people really need to hear.

34:11 On July 7th, 2025, the Internal Revenue Service agreed not to enforce a 70-year-old rule in a federal court filing. The rule had barred tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing political candidates. Under the new agreement, a church can endorse a candidate from the pulpit and keep. keep its tax-exempt status. That raises a question. If churches can endorse candidates while receiving tax-deductible undisclosed donations, what stops them from becoming political fundraising vehicles? To understand what changed, we have to go back to 1954. Act 1. What the Johnson Amendment was. Lyndon B.

34:53 Johnson was not yet president. In 1954, he was a U.S. Senator from Texas, and he was in trouble. Two tax-exempt non-profit organizations had been attacking him during his re-election campaign. One was called Facts Forum, a group funded by Texas oil billionaire H.L. Hunt that promoted a hard anti-communist line. The other was the Committee for Constitutional Government, which had distributed millions of pieces of literature opposing candidates had considered too liberal. Both organizations were using their tax-exempt status to influence elections, and both were targeting Johnson. Johnson contacted the IRS to ask whether their activities violated the tax code. The answer came back.

35:34 What they were doing was legal. So Johnson found another way. On July 2nd, 1954, he appeared on the Senate floor and introduced an amendment to a massive tax code revision bill, H.R. 8300, which would become the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. The amendment was just 31 words long. It added a single restriction to section 501c3 of the tax code. Any organization that wanted tax-exempt status could not participate in or intervene in, including the publishing or distributing of statements, any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. The amendment was agreed to without any discussion or debate. No hearings, no committee review, no floor argument.

36:19 It was folded into a 929-page tax bill and signed by President Eisenhower on August 16th, 1954. That restriction became known as the Johnson Amendment. So let's just put that into some historical perspective, shall we? Isn't that amazing? Slipped it in. Because he wanted to be president and he didn't want... And H.L. Hunt, if I'm not mistaken, I think he owned a lot of radio stations. Oh, maybe it could have been newspapers, it could have been both. But he was a huge publisher and he had a lot of influence. And so that's where that came from. Now, there's a whole second clip which I'm going to skip about there was one time when this came before a court when a black church in New York City, they started taking out full-page ads in newspapers saying, don't vote for this guy.

37:13 So that did become a case. But this has never been litigated or I don't think it's ever. It was two times brought up. I know that one, that one African-American church, and then another time, and I think it was yet another African-American church, because they've never stopped. Oh, yeah. They never. They didn't listen to that at all. Kamala Harris was going there and he's completely good with that. Of course. I'm saying vote for me. Yeah. But if we can't, then there's a problem. And so it's interesting. Two people approached me this week. Again, not in a nefarious way, but just concern. Of course. Did you get in trouble for this? No. So this was rolled back by the IRS under the Trump administration.

37:57 Worth listening to that piece. And then July 7th arrived. Act 3. What happened on July 7th, 2025? The turning point began with a lawsuit filed in August 2024. The plaintiffs included the National Religious Broadcasters, an evangelical media organization, Intercessors for America, a Christian ministry, Sand Springs Church in Athens, Texas, First Baptist Church, Wascom, also in Texas. They filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Their argument was constitutional. The Johnson Amendments, they claimed, violated their First Amendment rights, both freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.

38:40 The plaintiffs also raised a comparison that made their case harder to dismiss. They pointed out that some non-profit newspapers and publications had been allowed to endorse candidates without losing their tax-exempt status. If those organizations could do it, why couldn't churches? Pastors, the plaintiffs argued, should be allowed to speak about political candidates as part of religious teaching without risking tax penalties. Normally, in a case like this, the IRS would defend the law in court. But this time, something unusual happened. Instead of defending the Johnson Amendment, the IRS agreed to a consent judgment with the plaintiffs. In that agreement, the IRS stated that it would not treat certain speech by churches as prohibited political activity.

39:22 The specific language matters. The IRS IRS said that when a house of worship speaks to its congregation through its customary channels of communication during religious service about electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, the IRS would not consider that a violation of the Johnson Amendment. In practical terms, a pastor can endorse a candidate from the pulpit during a worship service, and the church will not risk losing its tax-exempt status. And it's, and, you know, I've been to the NRB twice now, National Religious Broadcasters Conference. And to me, it's like, oh, it's a bunch of old radio dudes, you know. But I have respect for them. This is what they do. And I have respect for an organization that said, hey, it's time to strike.

40:03 We're going to do it. And they, and, you know, they, they're also a nonprofit. They went out and they spent the money and they got this done. And it is so good. And so when you told me about this 82-year-old, I'm like, oh, man, I got to find something quick. I'm so glad you did. The Holy Spirit, man. And he gave it to me right here. He says, it's AI, but it's okay, Adam. Yeah, exactly. Well, what I appreciated about him, and it was a young man, probably his late 20s, early 30s, who approached me on Sunday at one of our meetups. And then the elder guy, you know, he teacher, he made an appointment. So it was great. And I thought, how interesting that I'm getting these two questions back to back in a very short amount of time.

40:46 So I always listen to multiples. What's God saying? And I was reminded about, you know, the first 160 to 170 years, it was the pastors who fueled the fires of both the Great Awakening and the American Revolution. Yes, the Black Robe Regiment. Yeah, Reverend Jonas Clark, Schulenberg, all these pastors fueled the fires. And so it's interesting because we're literally standing on the shoulders of giants. So when I go into that mode in the pulpit and I'm doing, whether it's a briefing or I'm saying something else more direct, I just feel very, I feel surrounded.

41:28 It's the weirdest, it's hard to explain. I feel a confidence. I feel a calmness when I say those things. I don't sit there going, I'm going to get blowback from this. I know somebody's going to be angry. I know I'm going to hurt somebody's feelings. None of that comes into my mind. Now, I'm not trying to be caustic or belligerent or any of that. That's not the goal. The goal is to be truthful and matter of fact. And so that's how I present these things. I would say a couple of years ago, I got a little rowdy sometimes because I got caught up in the moment. But I'm growing and learning, and I'm trying to be more clear and direct when I say things about politics, culture, whatever.

42:07 I see culture and politics. You can't separate them. Policy drives culture and culture drives policy. They work together. So you can't, those are things like two pieces of duct tape that you stick together. There's a chemical reaction. You cannot pull them apart. They've got to come apart. It's not going to happen. So that means we have a responsibility to speak into that. And it's my joy to do so. But I don't feel I need to get out on social media and do that a lot. I don't feel like I've got a grandstand or take pictures of selfies at the Capitol. You know, I don't need to do any of that kind of stuff because it's not about that. It's about my local church and my local community. So there's no grandstanding here.

42:47 There's no pictures of me and Trump together or me and whoever, because my goal is to fuel the fires of revival and the right kind of righteous revolution within the people so that it's our people like a Randy Riley going and running for mayor and winning by 55 votes. Yes. That is such a textbook moment of what a church can do. Damn it. They come together and say, we have a righteous guy here who will serve our community well, not disparaging anybody else that's running. That's not the goal. But to honor him and get behind him as a church body.

43:30 He's us. Yeah. And he represents us. As you were describing how you feel a calm come over you when you're all I could visualize was the cloud of witnesses of these pastors from the revolution and the great awakening days coming around you and encouraging you. And I love that you do that. And I hope so many pastors will do this instead of hitting on other types of issues that are out there that are hot buttons that do get views and likes and clicks. And I kind of stopped worrying about that because I know it could only take one church.

44:12 Maybe it's two churches. Maybe it's 10. Maybe it's 100. But if we humble ourselves before God and we pray for our country. country, it's going to make a grandbaby on the way, man. And this kid's going to know about my culture here in America. It does. Absolutely. It does. And Tina asked Christina, my daughter. Because I think they're going to come over in September. Oh, great. Would you be okay if Pastor Jimmy blessed your daughter? And she's like, absolutely. I really want Pastor Jimmy to go to the house. I love Kevin and Christina. I'm so excited about this. Yeah.

44:54 You know, there's a couple of things happening here. One is I don't feel compelled to get too caught up in the current political stuff. That's really, I mean, I want to speak to what needs to be spoken to, but that's not where I'm putting my energy. My energy is getting people and trying to hearken them back to get them to look back to our foundations, look back to where we started. This is why I continued. Every time I go in my office, I look at the National Monument. You know, my little model I have. Monument to the Forefathers. Statuette I've got. A little tiny thing, but I love, and I read through that: morality, law, liberty,

45:35 freedom, faith. I mean, I missed one. Education. Thank you. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I made liberty and that's the same. But my goal, and I really think this is my call in this arena, is to bring people back to our foundations. Gentlemen, this is a football. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Geneva Bible, the one they brought over. This is where it started. This is the National Monument to the Forefathers. Forget the Rock, 1692. That's the rock was very anticlimactic.

46:13 It's a rock. And the best part was there's a sign that says, we don't even know if this was the rock, but some dude said it was the rock. We laughed so hard. We did. Because people were crowding around, pitching peonies on it, making wishes. And we're like, let's go back over to the monument where nobody's at. Nobody's in the culture. This is the most awesome thing. I don't ever want to get that out of mind and your vocabulary and conversation because I was very imprinted by that short trip that we made. Me too, brother. I'm still drawing from that. Both being at Reverend Jonas Clark's house. We didn't even get to go inside, but we just walked around. We just put our hands on it. We prayed. We prayed over the house. I remember that. We prayed over the house and prayed over the statue.

46:58 Man, look at that. It was a real deal right there, brothers called goosebumps. You know, my blood is flowing all of a sudden. You're starting to leak. But it's so important. And I think that I think with pastors, and this is just me, but I believe if pastors would spend more time studying their history and understanding the foundations, then they would speak more intelligently and clearly to the issues of today. Yes. Because that's where the compare and contrast is where it's going to happen. Because if not, you're going to get caught up in all of the latest, greatest, you know, higher, you know, what's the word, spectacular things or epic things and miss the forging and formation of young men and women through

47:43 history. And that's what we got to get back to as Christians, as believers. And the beauty of it is, if we can get back to that foundation of just praying for our country, recognizing that God is in control, all the other things subtly seem much less important. And it really is in the grand scope of things. And when I think of 250 years, that's nothing. You can trace back your family to the Revolutionary War. I know I can. Almost everybody in America can trace their roots back. It's not that long. No. I mean, it's a couple of generations.

48:24 Yes. You know, you look at China, they got 5,000 years, and those guys are sitting their ways. They're not going to change that. We have a lot of opportunity, just like the Convention of States. That was only six, seven years, and they'd already forgotten everything. Right. And all it took is one old dude to stand up and say, hey, we need to pray. That's all we need to do. This is what we did. And it worked. Right. We appealed to heaven, to our friend. He called him. I love that. Yes. Beautiful. Hey, one thing before we go. Yes, please. We're going on a trip. I am so excited about road tripping. We are road tripping.

49:04 The gruesome forsome. We're going to K-Love, the awards fan weekend in Nashville. We're very excited about it. This. This has kind of become our retreat, and we get our buckets filled. It is really important for you and Dame Anette as pastors to receive. And instead of you're always playing on the worship team, Annette has always got her eye on all things happening, because you're running a church. It's a business at the same time. A lot of moving parts, and we can all just be.

49:41 We can just be. And I'm so excited about it. And of course, it all culminates with Sunday night with the award show, which is then telecast. I will tell you, I'm going to do no agenda on Sunday. No, go for it. I'm going to come to squeeze it in. We'll be eating. There'll be stuff in our Facebook. I'm going to have to stand on my way to the award show. But no, I'm super excited. Matt Munt has already reached out to me. He's like, are you guys coming? The Mercy Me Boys. Yeah, we're performing. We got to hook up. Sir Patrick Cobel, he's like, we got to have a lunch or something. Love these guys. Are you guys going to stay longer and visit your family? We are. Of course, our grandson, he's growing like a weed.

50:25 Oh, yeah. So we get to go see them. They moved out to Lewisburg, which is out south of Franklin, south of Spring Hill Thompson Station. If anybody knows that is. No, I have no idea. It's towards Alabama. It's not Alabama, the state line is not that far. So anyway, they're doing great. And we're just going to take a couple extra days just to hang out and play with the grandboy. I'm super excited. That is so funny. It's also filling your buckets. I mean, Adam Curry 2.0 on the air, man, with, I mean, energizing you for the Godcaster, also giving us probably a lot of musical ideas. I'll be there with my, you know, oh, write that down. You know, we need to get that song on there.

51:10 So we'll get a lot of ideas there and meet people. But it is a bucket-filling moment where we're just refreshed and washed in a spirit of worship with a bunch of other people that we don't know. Thousands. And yet we're all there for the same reason. Yeah. And that's to honor God, to celebrate, and to appreciate those artists too, because let them know how much we appreciate them. Yes. So, yeah, I'm excited. In the biodome, that's always fun. Annette said, it's going to be rainy the whole time. Who cares? It doesn't matter. It doesn't rain in the biodome. It doesn't matter. It is the same week. Well, we might be going out some. And I'm not sure. All right. Well,

51:52 we might have to. We'll pull up under the covered audio for you and pay the guy if he bought dollars. Brother. Hilarious. I love doing this show so much with you. I can't wait for us to be able to do more. I pray to God for opportunities for us to do more of this. I hope it helps people. It sure helps me. Can we just thank our listeners once before we go? Just so appreciate you guys. I'm getting in touch with some of you through Substack and other things. And X, it's just good to hear from them and hear that they're listening. It helps us. No kidding. It energizes us and it makes us go, you know, hey, this is helping somebody or this is encouraging somebody.

52:35 And when we get feedback, it encourages us to do it more. And so we love hearing from you. Give us a shout out. And, man, we'll always try to respond, you know, best we can. But thank you for being on this journey with us. We get to do this. All right, everybody. We will be back next week, and I'm sure we'll have some stories from the road. We get to do this again next week. See you then. This is the life we've been blessed with. This is a gift to food. We get to do this. This is a chance we dare not miss. This is the life of we get to do this night.