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 melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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.

Shocking: Chart-topping ‘singer’ has no soul at all

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A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking shift: America’s youth lured by the “Socialism trap”

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A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

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Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.