Meet the church leader hosting Glenn for the fifth anniversary of 8/28

Glenn announced this morning that on 8/28/2015, the fifth anniversary of “Restoring Honor,” he would be speaking at Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The “Restoring Honor” event was a pivotal moment for Glenn and everyone in attendance. It was on that day that Glenn called for people to turn back to God and unite as one. Now, it’s time to take the next step. Bishop James Lowe of Guiding Light Church joined Glenn on radio to discuss the movement and the role churches will play in the days to come.

GLENN: I have to tell you, we were just talking off the air. I have something -- that because of this illness that I have, it causes vocal cord paralysis from time to time. And I swear to you, I mean, Lord, what are you doing? You want me to say these things, and then this happens.

PAT: Well, now you said them. And so now he's like shut your mouth.

GLENN: Shut your mouth, Beck. All right. Whatever. If I got it wrong, shut it down. I don't want to do it anyway. Just shut it down. Bishop James Lowe is with us.

This is a preacher, a pastor from Birmingham, Alabama. Who is a very brave man. Now, I've only had two conversations with him. One was probably three or four minutes. Last week, we talked, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes. And this guy -- this guy is peel-the-skin-off-your-face brave and speaks the truth. If you don't like it, go find someplace else. Because he'll tell you the truth as he sees it.

Welcome to the program, Bishop Lowe.

JAMES: Good morning, and God bless you.

GLENN: God bless you. How are you, sir?

JAMES: I'm doing well today. I'm listening to your program, and I'm ready. Let's go forward to what we have to do for our people, our country, and our nation.

GLENN: Now, let me ask you something, Bishop, how much trouble personally do you see coming your way just for us getting together?

JAMES: You know, I don't know. But I do know this, that in this life, the Lord never promised us that we would have a peaceful life. He told us we would have trouble. And if I'm going to have trouble, then it has to be trouble for my Lord, something that I do for him that glorifies his name to bring his people together so that they understand that he is God of all gods. And if my master suffered persecution and trouble, then what options do I have? No servant is greater than his master.

GLENN: So we talked a little about things last week. And, you know, we both see the direction of the country. And we see the problems on the horizon. We see the problems in Ferguson and St. Louis. We see the problems with what's going to happen to our churches. I believe if the Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage and it becomes then federal law, what happens to churches that is, I don't want to marry homosexuals? Do they have a right to do that anymore? And I see trouble on the horizon. Real trouble on the horizon.

And we talked about how can we bring people together? How do you do that in a peaceful way while still standing for the truth?

JAMES: Well, I think if we recognize the truth and the only truth as God's word, then when we join together, we stand on God's word. We cannot talk about violence when our Lord has not told us that we're to be violent. We have to be able to come together and discuss with one another in peace. That's what Jesus was able to do. He didn't become violent. We do know he did overturn the moneychangers. But he didn't destroy anything. We have to have a fundamental foundation and a backbone to stand up for the foundation of -- of the teachings of Christ. If we don't do that, know we will fall apart. Even churches have that problem. But we must come together and stand for what is correct.

Listen, the homosexuals and what they do, they are people too. They have a right to life, as all human beings do. But there are authorities that we all must submit to. And those authorities are the authorities of the Word of God. We cannot change and redefine the definition of what marriage is. That's beyond man to do that. Marriage was defined by God, and marriage can only be redefined by God, the Creator. And he has not redefined it. The last I checked, it was between a man and a woman.

GLENN: What happens if -- and, you know, we're kind of getting into nuts and bolts here about this one topic.

JAMES: We can go anywhere you want to.

GLENN: No, no, no. I would like to say this. What happens if the Supreme Court says to you and your church, you have to perform gay marriages? What do you do?

JAMES: I stand by my convictions and the Word of God. I told my church in the late '90s that if they voted for a political party that was going to support things that were against God, I could no longer support that party. And if they were going to honor God, they would have to support what God said. And if the time came that my government said that I would have to violate my God, it would be better for me to obey my God than my government.

GLENN: How many people did you lose?

JAMES: I quite got quite a few folk that left. And when I told folks at the same time that you don't need to be defined by what White America has defined you as -- I refuse to be defined as a black person. I refuse to be defined by any person. The only person that has a right to define who I am is the Almighty God. And the ability to define is the ability to control. We have to understand that if I allow -- and don't be offended. But let me just say this. If I allow you people to define who I am, then you control me. And I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. I simply mean that no man has a right to define any other man. Because the ability to define is the ability to control. And only God has a right to define. Only the Creator of a thing has a right to define it. And so I don't want to be referred to as Afro-American. I don't want to be referred to as Black America. I just want to be defined as a child of God. And that's what I am. And if I define myself or people define themselves as children of God, then we understand that we are part of the brotherhood of man. And that God has put us together as one. Every life is valuable. Every life of every man is valuable. But when we start redefining ourselves, then we start dividing ourselves.

GLENN: Why are the churches silent on what's happening with the Christians and the Muslims who aren't Muslim enough and the homosexuals that, you know, won't stop being a homosexual so they're thrown off the roofs of buildings by ISIS, why are our churches so dead inside?

JAMES: I would probably have to say that those churches that do not speak out about those things and injustices being done in any part of the world are churches that are not connected with the spirit of the living God. Jesus was concerned about the poor. He was concerned about the ones that were being mistreated. He was concerned about the hungry. He was concerned about all mankind. God himself was so in love with the world that he gave his only son. We have to be concerned about the plight of the people in India, in Israel, in Arabia, Saudi Arabia, we have to be concerned about the people in Mississippi. Whenever any man suffers an injustice, all men do. We must in churches be connected to the spirit of the living God. And when we're connected to the spirit of the living God, then we have the power to bring about change because we submit to the one who is the life changer.

GLENN: Bishop Lowe, we want to thank you for making your church available to have us speak there in Birmingham, Alabama. And I look forward to shaking your hand and seeing you there on 8/28.

JAMES: Well, I hope I'm not alarming too much of your audience. But I think that it needs to be heard.

GLENN: I don't think you're alarming this audience.

JAMES: No, Glenn, people need to know that as a nation of America, we must stop dividing ourselves between race. We must see ourselves as a nation that was founded on principles that all men were created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have to stop separating ourselves. Because if we divide, we fall. If we unite, we stand.

GLENN: Well, we're there united on 8/28. And I thank you very much for your invitation. And I thank all --

JAMES: Are you ready for it, Glenn? Can you handle it?

GLENN: What you throwing down? Yes, I can, bishop. And we will see you then. God bless you.

JAMES: Bring it.

GLENN: God bless. Bishop James Lowe from the Guiding Light Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where we will be on 8/28.

[laughter]

PAT: That was a nice little challenge there at the end.

GLENN: I thought he was going to say, what's up, my cracker?

STU: I doubt that was the approach.

GLENN: You don't think --

PAT: No. I didn't think there was any danger of that at any point.

STU: No. Or anyone else in America saying it outside of you, who says it every day for no particular reason.

GLENN: What's up, my cracker?

PAT: Yeah. No.

GLENN: Maybe that's why the vocal cords are gone. Maybe God was like, okay, you said that. But I know you're going to say, what's up, my cracker, and I got to get you to stop saying it.

STU: Yes, we'd like you to abandon the catchphrase.

PAT: It's a sign.

GLENN: It's a sign?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Huh. Okay.

We would invite you to join us at mercuryone.org and look at the things that we are -- we have set out on today's program. Never again is now. And there are certain things that you can do to get involved. We will be telling you more about them here in the next few days. But it is time that we come together and we stand together for life. All life matters.

The double standard behind the White House outrage

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Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

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The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

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The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

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The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.