Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

Glenn: It’s time for an Army of Compassion

June 03, 2015
Staff

WRITER

Glenn issued a clarion call to viewers as he began to lay out plans to kick off a new movement this summer. It's the five year anniversary of 8/28 and since that time Glenn and his audience have been preparing, cleaning out their own lives and turning towards God. Now it is time to put faith into action.

Below is a rough transcript of this monologue:

I want to take you first to the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria. It was taken by force by ISIS a little over a week ago.

Palmyra is steeped in history, dating all the way back to 2000 BC. It’s mentioned in 2 Chronicles, and it’s a city built up by Israel’s King Solomon. It’s famed for its ancient ruins. ISIS has now slaughtered hundreds and chased most of the remaining 70,000 people out of the city. The only ones left are those who are physically too old or too ill to make the trek to safer cities.

They’ve blown up the country’s most notorious prison and released hardened criminals. Several beheadings have now been reported, and the city is now under the watch of masked gunmen. Those who remain in the city are begging anyone in the world for help. One Palmyra resident said ISIS is everywhere. He and 50 friends and relatives who lost their homes are afraid for their lives. ISIS, they know, could slaughter them at any moment, and to make the situation even more intolerable, their food supply is now running out.

In the midst of this human suffering, scholars and historians are pleading for the safekeeping of the ruins. As you can imagine, that hasn’t gone over well with the trapped innocents. But where are the churches? The innocents have said, “The world does not care about us. All they are interested in is the stones of ancient Palmyra.” Shame on us. If we cannot collectively muster more concern for people than old rocks, shame on us.

ISIS now controls half of Syria, including most of the gas and oil fields. They are cutting off the heads and brutalizing children, selling them into slavery. What else is required for something, anything, to stir our souls? Has the government completely killed off our compassion gene, or are we so removed from actual service, always expecting someone else to do it, that we just don’t care anymore? Or, more likely, I think, we have all been beaten down so much that we don’t think that we make a difference as an individual, and we just don’t know what to do.

We recently did a show called the “Christian Holocaust.” We detailed a lot of the Dark Age style persecution happening right now. Many people watched in horror, and then more people found ways to become actively involved. Many more, however, did not. They were easily lured back into the creature comforts of leisurely activities, and I believe it’s because we don’t know what to do. What else can I do other than pray?

Well, we can pray for our eyes to be open and our hearts to be open and our spines to be stiffened. We have shown the beheadings in all of their own edited gruesomeness. We’ve told the harrowing stories. We’ve spoken with the missionaries on the ground, and still, despite everything, most Americans just wait, put it off for another day. Someone will do something eventually.

While we wait, they remain huddled with a handful of friends or maybe all alone, trembling, afraid, hungry, looking up to the heavens, scanning the vast, empty skies crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” God has not forsaken them. God has not abandoned. God is not asleep. God is not dead. I believe our churches are.

God, I believe, has been busy equipping an entire army of saints for times just like these but not with guns. He’s been stockpiling them with a formidable arsenal of ability, ingenuity, compassion. I don’t know if anybody else has noticed, but God doesn’t announce his presence with a thundering voice from heaven like He used to. He doesn’t have to. His thundering presence comes from the spirit, and the spirit lives within us.

Because of this power that we now have, we can be the voice for the voiceless, defenders of the poor and needy, the help for the orphans and the widows in their distress. We are the army for which they wait, the very hands and feet of God. I’m not talking about an army with guns. I am talking about an army of compassion. The question remains, what will we do with the arsenal of which we’ve been given to fight?

Like it or not, this is a time of war. It’s a greater time of spiritual warfare than it is physical warfare, but physical warfare indeed is fierce. There are no neutral parties in this. The gifts that we have been given have been stockpiled. They were not given so we could say gee, thanks a lot, thanks for giving me more than those other poor saps overseas. That’s not what it’s about.

Our blessings are not meant to begin and end with us. I think those who think that are missing the point. We’ve been given so much so we too can give. It is for the good of the receiver, the good of the giver, and the glory of our God. So, what will we do with our arsenals?

I think most of us think that we have to grab a flight to Erbil and pick up a weapon. I have been—you saw the show if you watch regularly. I talked to one of the survivors, the nun who finally came over who was being kept out of the United States to tell her story. I said to her with tears in my eyes, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. That’s a lie. I feel like I’m not doing my part if I’m not catching a flight to Erbil.

That’s not what’s required of me. That’s not the gifts that I’ve been given. Maybe that is a gift that you’ve been given, but most likely it’s something small, but together it’s something tangible that we all can do and will make a difference.

In the next coming weeks, beginning Monday, I’m going to announce something because I believe my entire life has led to this point, and we’re going to provide as many opportunities as we can find for you to get actively involved, because humans are suffering. Human rights are being taken away. Whether they are for the Christians or for the Muslims who aren’t Muslim enough, for the gays that are being thrown off of the roofs of buildings, human rights are being lost, trampled. People are dying, and we’re arguing about politics.

Meanwhile, others look to the heavens, cry out to God in their distress as their women are raped and the throats of their babies are slashed. And in the face of this injustice, the rest of the world has chosen to answer the call, the silent call, of ancient rocks.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” So, who is it that will step up? Who is it that has the courage to stand, especially for those who are most unlike you, to use their God-given arsenal and bandage the wounds? Who will drive a spoke into the wheel of injustice?

We put on the set this quote from Martin Luther King. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but this is important. “We are not makers of history, we are made by history.” The people that we read about now, the giants like Martin Luther King, they weren’t giants at the time. They were just people just like you who answered the call of their time. Now is our time. The slumber can last no longer.

Me personally, I’ve been preparing for five years. It seems like it’s been 100 since we sojourned together to go to Washington DC when I said to you with Restoring Honor, we have to rid ourselves in the junk of our own lives. We have to stand together. We have to pick up our own staff and know what we were born to do.

Five years ago, I asked you to turn your gaze toward God. We stood at the feet of giants in the mall in Washington, and together we vowed to begin living the lives we were meant to live. Somewhere I read that it takes five years to change a man. I’m no longer the man I was when I stepped up in front of that crowd. I’m not.

The moment for which you have prepared for, the moment of which you were born for, is at hand. Persecution now of biblical proportions is happening, and the seeds of it are being planted all over the world. It is not just the innocent blood that is crying out that is happening overseas. Those same seeds of hatred and vengeance and revenge are being planted in the streets of San Francisco or St. Louis or Baltimore, Maryland.

We are the ones equipped to answer that call. Now is the time to unleash the arsenal of love and reconciliation. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to be mamby pamby. This summer, I’m also—we’ll tell you more probably on Monday or next week—I’m releasing a book called It is About Islam. Just because you stand with the faith and fear of God does not mean that you don’t turnover a few tables. We must begin to speak the truth, but the truth is we’re better than this. The truth is politics and politicians will never solve our problems.

This summer, 8/28, is the fifth anniversary of Restoring Honor. Everything that I personally have been living for and building towards has led to this point. I’m going to be real honest with you, I don’t pretend to know what big plan He has. We see dimly what the master painter sees clearly. There are times that I feel that can’t be right because history doesn’t happen like this. This happens with giants. We’re just all schlubs. We’re all the same. We’re not giants. Yes, we are, if we answer the call now, if we all say to ourselves, “In the end, I just want to go home with honor.” In the end, I want somebody in my family to be able to say my father or my mother stood for what was right.

I answer to God. I do not answer to man. We all have a reason for being, and that reason is not to build a network so I can enrich myself or for you to go get a better job so you could have a great 401(k) or stockpile a toy or a new car or whatever. There’s an old saying, and it’s true, I’ve never seen a hearse towing a U-Haul trailer. I’ve never seen a hearse towing a U-Haul trailer with the political bumper sticker on the back. Politics are not going to solve this.

God has a purpose for you and for me, and it is much bigger than we can possibly imagine. All we have to do is open our eyes, open our hearts, and then say, “Okay, I’ll do my best.” This summer is a call to action. As the details continue to unfold, I will share more with you. Monday, I’m going to make an announcement. For now, all I can say is if you’re ready, good, I’m not. Good. If you’re like me and you’re not really ready, continue to prepare, because mark my words, never again is right now.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The Bubba Effect erupts as America’s power brokers go rogue

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A nation unravels when its shared culture is the first thing to go

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.