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It’s time for a new declaration: Pastor Todd Wagner

December 05, 2014
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The Glenn Beck Program

Last night on TV Glenn interviewed Pastor Todd Wagner, who recently did a sermon series called ‘Declaration’ at his church in Dallas, Texas. The founding fathers didn’t just choose to be free, they made a bold declaration and Wagner’s message really resonated with Glenn.

Pastor Wagner: And as any loving father wants, He just keeps saying hey, choose me, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I’ll give you rest. So one of the things that I just shared, you know, with our body as we look back in history, if you go from Rome to Zimbabwe, it’s never, ever worked for a country to pay its debts by running the printing press. It’s always led to disaster.

Glenn: Right.

Pastor Wagner: I introduced them to a book written by a Harvard economist and a Virginia economist called This Time It’s Different, and what they did is they studied civilization after civilization, and every single one of them fell into the this-time-it’s-different fallacy.

Glenn: We’re hearing it now.

Pastor Wagner: Yeah, we’re hearing it now.

Glenn: The world needs us. China needs us. They’ll never abandon us. This time it’s different.

Pastor Wagner: Right. We’re not an isolated nation. There’s a world economy. And what I’m going to tell you is there are certain laws that are fixed and immutable, and this time is not different. Our own government accountability, okay, the GAO, has said this is unsustainable, and our Congress, our executive branch, didn’t respond to this.

Glenn: Made it worse.

Pastor Wagner: They made it worse, and so they came back, and they defined unsustainable. They said this can’t continue, as if they needed to know what unsustainable meant. And so here’s what I would say, what is a pastor doing talking about the economy, right? Because some guys go I want to be about the gospel. I do too, but the gospel has legs. The love of Christ, what God cares about…economy just means house administration. That’s what it means, this is the way you should run your house, okay? And it’s not going to go well for you.

The borrower is the lender’s slave, and God is a person that rescues us from slavery and bondage to the way that seems right to us but in the end leads to death. And so in the economy one, I just said look, gang, this is what’s going on, and by the way, we can’t get mad at Washington. We are responsible for Washington.

This is a government of the people, by the people, for the people, and I really meant, I want you guys to know, Glenn, I want you to know, I made the case and I make the case all the time that I think the greatest evil in America is not the radical left. It’s not the ultraconservative right. It’s not the abortion industry. It’s not the, you know, people that are trying to redefine marriage.

I really believe the greatest evil in America are the people that have been given the truth that say they know the truth that are supposed to be keepers of the truth that are not faithfully declaring that truth to others, okay?

Glenn: See why I like this guy?

Pastor Wagner: And so we’ve got to quit throwing stones at everybody else and just gotta go, so I’ve told my body this again and again. You want change? Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to change themself, and so we have just continually said what we’ve got to do is draw a circle around ourself and change everything in it, and then as we experience the blessing and the prosperity of living ourselves wisely—

Glenn: The best missionary is one that lives it.

Pastor Wagner: Amen.

Glenn: There’s a great letter we have in the library to George Washington from Aaron Burr. He had just won a battle, got shot in the head, and he writes two lines. He says the fort and the garrison is ours, General. Your men behaved like men determined to be free. That’s why we’re missing it, because we’re not living it. We’re not determined to be free. If we were determined to be free, we would be looking for those things that free us. What frees us? Not having debt frees you. Once you have debt, you’re a slave to the bank or to the lender or to whoever. You’re a slave.

Pastor Wagner: And so one of the things that I would just say to folks because they might go Todd…Glenn, why do you have a pastor on there, right? Why do you have a guy who calls himself an evangelical Christian? You come from a Mormon expression. And there’s so much that we have in common about our desire for truth.

Glenn: And a lot I disagree with you on.

Pastor Wagner: Yeah, and a lot we disagree with each other on, but we love each other, right? Because, you know, love without truth is not love, and truth that isn’t loving is not going to be heard, and that’s one of the things I really appreciate about you. I think you’ve even said hey, I’m learning to be a little bit maybe even kinder about the way that I go about it. That’s my deal my wife would tell me, Todd, you need to learn. That tone helps you with me, right?

Glenn: Right.

Pastor Wagner: And there’s a great quote by a guy named Frederick Faber that was an Anglican gentleman, actually converted to Catholicism in England. He said this, there was a quote when I read it, it just stopped me in my track, and he said kindness has converted more sinners then eloquence, learning, and I even scribbled it down because sometimes I quote…than zeal, eloquence, or learning. And you know what—

Glenn: It’s true.

Pastor Wagner: We try to be zealous for what we believe. We try and learn a lot and be eloquent, but you know what, man, kindness, the Lord leads us to—.

Glenn: The protesters that were on the streets last night, I agree with them last night in New York on what happened. That cop acted wrong. I think that was manslaughter. Now, I wasn’t in with the grand jury, so I don’t know, but it looked manslaughter to me. But they were marching in the streets with signs that said “F” this tree, and they were talking about the lighting of the Rockefeller tree. That’s not going to get anybody on your side. What are you doing?

Pastor Wagner: No.

Glenn: If instead you would have been kind and humble, and you would’ve locked arms, and you would’ve sang Christmas carols, and you would’ve done it, yes, in the middle of the street, the people who were there for the tree would’ve said what’s going on here? What’s going on? And you would listen to them. But we are so full of rage and anger right now, everything that is antichrist, everything.

Pastor Wagner: I’ll tell you why. How much time do we have in this segment?

Glenn: How much time do we have left? Two minutes?

Pastor Wagner: All right, let me in two minutes tell you why I think that we’re filled with rage. I think it’s because of the leaders that we’re choosing, and we’re not choosing leaders that are helping us focus on the thing that ultimately sets us free. And so specifically what used to really affect our country was this thing called Social Darwinism, this idea that individuals are not as good as other individuals because they’re not as fit as us, and so we can hold them down and oppress them.

But what has really started to happen in our society today is more defined by the philosophy, the world view, and not Judeo-Christian ethic, okay, which would say let’s pursue righteousness, peace, love and forgiveness and reconciliation together, but I would tell you it’s more culturally Marxist.

Now, what’s that mean? Marxists always want to push you into classes. It’s going to say let’s separate these people by class, by gender, by race, by sexual preference, and then let’s take you, the persecuted minority, and I will be your advocate. I’m going to get my power by appealing to your plight, and I frankly am going to maintain my power by keeping your plight the issue. And what it does is it pits us all against one another, and it makes us concerned about our own little small area, and it keeps us from working together toward the one thing we all need, which is righteousness, truth, peace, love.

Glenn: How did your church…did you have anybody walk out when you say these things?

Pastor Wagner: No. No. Here’s the thing, I’ve never done it in a series before, but I’m teaching this all the time because I’m teaching God’s word, okay?

Glenn: How’s the health of your church?

Pastor Wagner: Well, I hope it’s really healthy. You know, every year, one of the ways that we keep our church healthy is every year our membership goes to zero. So every December or January, we just say who’s still in for this? Who wants to be about believing in Christ, belonging to his body, being trained in truth, and being strong in life with ministry and worship? And if you don’t, we’re not going to love you more, okay? We’re not going to say you’re going to hell. We’re going to say you’re just saying I’m not going to pursue heaven with you anymore, okay? And so then what do we do? We do what the Scripture says we should do when a person is like that. We love them and call them to repentance.

Glenn: Most people will not say these things because they’re afraid that they’re going to lose their membership or whatever, and I think this is critical for people to say.

Pastor Wagner: Here’s what I would say to my pastor friends, here’s what I would say to leaders in general, here’s what I would say to politicians, we don’t need politicians. We need statesmen, people that are concerned for the state, not keeping himself in office. That’s their job. Here’s what I would say to a pastor, you’re not going to lose your people if you teach truth; you’re going to set them free. That’s not my idea. That’s God’s. Truth sets people free.

And when political correctness replaces theological soundness, what you’re going to have is the greatest problem in America, that the place that people should go to have a revolution from darkness to life is the one place they go to get put to sleep and where the rest of the world looks at them and goes I don’t know what the solution is, but it must not be God, because that church over there, I don’t see anything in there that’s attractive to me.

Glenn: Okay, we’ll come back. I want to talk to you a little bit about immigration and if we have time maybe a little bit of Ferguson and what your thoughts are on Ferguson.

Pastor Wagner: Yeah, I’d be happy to.

Glenn: I will tell you, America, that I did call him America’s pastor earlier. And Billy Graham gave me a book, and it was Billy Graham, America’s pastor. I saw that cover, and I thought who has the guts to put that on a title of their book?

Pastor Wagner: I don’t.

Glenn: Yeah, except for Billy Graham, and Billy Graham was right for doing it. There is a time for a new calling, and I don’t know who the Lord is going to call, but I think you should hear this man’s words. We’ll be back in just a minute.

Is the U.N. plotting to control 30% of U.S. land by 2030?

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

A reliable conservative senator faces cancellation for listening to voters. But the real threat to public lands comes from the last president’s backdoor globalist agenda.

Something ugly is unfolding on social media, and most people aren’t seeing it clearly. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) — one of the most constitutionally grounded conservatives in Washington — is under fire for a housing provision he first proposed in 2022.

You wouldn’t know that from scrolling through X. According to the latest online frenzy, Lee wants to sell off national parks, bulldoze public lands, gut hunting and fishing rights, and hand America’s wilderness to Amazon, BlackRock, and the Chinese Communist Party. None of that is true.

Lee’s bill would have protected against the massive land-grab that’s already under way — courtesy of the Biden administration.

I covered this last month. Since then, the backlash has grown into something like a political witch hunt — not just from the left but from the right. Even Donald Trump Jr., someone I typically agree with, has attacked Lee’s proposal. He’s not alone.

Time to look at the facts the media refuses to cover about Lee’s federal land plan.

What Lee actually proposed

Over the weekend, Lee announced that he would withdraw the federal land sale provision from his housing bill. He said the decision was in response to “a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies,” but also acknowledged that many Americans brought forward sincere, thoughtful concerns.

Because of the strict rules surrounding the budget reconciliation process, Lee couldn’t secure legally enforceable protections to ensure that the land would be made available “only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.” Without those safeguards, he chose to walk it back.

That’s not selling out. That’s leadership.

It's what the legislative process is supposed to look like: A senator proposes a bill, the people respond, and the lawmaker listens. That was once known as representative democracy. These days, it gets you labeled a globalist sellout.

The Biden land-grab

To many Americans, “public land” brings to mind open spaces for hunting, fishing, hiking, and recreation. But that’s not what Sen. Mike Lee’s bill targeted.

His proposal would have protected against the real land-grab already under way — the one pushed by the Biden administration.

In 2021, Biden launched a plan to “conserve” 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. This effort follows the United Nations-backed “30 by 30” initiative, which seeks to place one-third of all land and water under government control.

Ask yourself: Is the U.N. focused on preserving your right to hunt and fish? Or are radical environmentalists exploiting climate fears to restrict your access to American land?

  Smith Collection/Gado / Contributor | Getty Images

As it stands, the federal government already owns 640 million acres — nearly one-third of the entire country. At this rate, the government will hit that 30% benchmark with ease. But it doesn’t end there. The next phase is already in play: the “50 by 50” agenda.

That brings me to a piece of legislation most Americans haven’t even heard of: the Sustains Act.

Passed in 2023, the law allows the federal government to accept private funding from organizations, such as BlackRock or the Bill Gates Foundation, to support “conservation programs.” In practice, the law enables wealthy elites to buy influence over how American land is used and managed.

Moreover, the government doesn’t even need the landowner’s permission to declare that your property contributes to “pollination,” or “photosynthesis,” or “air quality” — and then regulate it accordingly. You could wake up one morning and find out that the land you own no longer belongs to you in any meaningful sense.

Where was the outrage then? Where were the online crusaders when private capital and federal bureaucrats teamed up to quietly erode private property rights across America?

American families pay the price

The real danger isn’t in Mike Lee’s attempt to offer more housing near population centers — land that would be limited, clarified, and safeguarded in the final bill. The real threat is the creeping partnership between unelected global elites and our own government, a partnership designed to consolidate land, control rural development, and keep Americans penned in so-called “15-minute cities.”

BlackRock buying entire neighborhoods and pricing out regular families isn’t by accident. It’s part of a larger strategy to centralize populations into manageable zones, where cars are unnecessary, rural living is unaffordable, and every facet of life is tracked, regulated, and optimized.

That’s the real agenda. And it’s already happening , and Mike Lee’s bill would have been an effort to ensure that you — not BlackRock, not China — get first dibs.

I live in a town of 451 people. Even here, in the middle of nowhere, housing is unaffordable. The American dream of owning a patch of land is slipping away, not because of one proposal from a constitutional conservative, but because global powers and their political allies are already devouring it.

Divide and conquer

This controversy isn’t really about Mike Lee. It’s about whether we, as a nation, are still capable of having honest debates about public policy — or whether the online mob now controls the narrative. It’s about whether conservatives will focus on facts or fall into the trap of friendly fire and circular firing squads.

More importantly, it’s about whether we’ll recognize the real land-grab happening in our country — and have the courage to fight back before it’s too late.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

  

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

   USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

   Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

 

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.