Are you a sheep or a sheepdog?

August 06, 2015

WRITER

Glenn delivered a passionate monologue on Thursday’s radio show calling for people to start taking action. Glenn admitted the struggle this has been for him in the past, as even during the 9/12 Project and Restoring Honor Rally, he saw himself more as a person to set others on the path for leadership. He never wanted to be the leader of this movement. But the time to sit on the sidelines has come to a close, and it’s time to choose. Will you continue to be a sheep? Or will you be a sheepdog?

Start listening at 40 minutes into today's podcast:

GLENN: Yesterday I read a fascinating article on a website, The Art of Manliness, which is a great book, if you haven't read that book. I read it I think last year. It's really great, and a good website. The article mentioned two incidents in New York City in the subway system that happened in the past year.

During one of them that happened in last December, a 58-year-old man was knocked onto train tracks and laid there, and he was unable to get up. Eighteen people stood there on the platform for about a minute to a minute and a half and did nothing. Old man falls on the tracks. Eighteen people are standing there. No one moves.

One guy actually acted. Not in the way you would hope. He actually took out his cell phone and took a picture of the guy laying on the tracks before the train ran over him. Six months before that tragedy, a 49-year-old woman was grabbed and thrown onto the very same tracks. This woman thrown onto the tracks.

This time, her friend chased down the attacker. Punched him. Then went back to help several other people pull the woman to safety before the train arrived. Just the same exact story, a different reaction from the people standing on the platform.

So the question is, what happened? What's different? Why did the first group freeze and the second group jump into the fray, face down the danger, do what needed to be done, risk their own life in the process?

The question is: Why are some people sheep and others sheepdogs?

As I'm reading this article, it pointed out that lieutenant, colonel, and author and friend of the program Dave Grossman has written something really interesting on the subject. He believes that humankinds can be broken up into three different categories: Sheep, wolves, or sheepdogs. Which are you?

Grossman contends that the vast majority of us are sheep. And he's not saying that to be insulting. He just believes that we are in one of three categories, and most of us are kind, gentle, peaceful. We're sheep.

I went to a rodeo last week, That Famous Preston Friday Night Rodeo, I think it's called. It's the biggest rodeo in Idaho, and it's fantastic. And they have kids that are like four years old ride on the back of sheep.

heep are amazing. Because they will run in -- unlike bulls or anything else, they will run in, and then they will just run to the other sheep. And they stand there, and they wait. And they just stick in a herd. And you could be coming at them with a chainsaw, and they just -- I can herd them up and cut them in half. It's amazing.

Rarely if ever are people faced with conflicts that rise to the level of life or death. Most people try to avoid making any waves. Just try to do the right thing. Most people are good. And they don't know how to deal with dangerous and evil people when they fall into something that is unpredictable. They just do what everybody else is doing.

Most people depend on someone else to protect them. Now, according to Grossman, a tiny percentage of humans can be described as true wolves. Wolves are the bad guys in our society. This is a very small number of people. Wolves are the -- the sociopaths that commit violent crimes or ignore our moral or ethical boundaries. They're the ones that take advantage of the defenseless sheep among us. The wolves, he says make up about 1 percent of our population. So when the guy fell on the -- off the platform, the first guy, all the people that were there were sheep. Nobody moved. If one person would have moved, others would have followed. But nobody moved.

That's the last category. Sheepdogs. These are society's protectors. Sheepdogs live among the flock from birth. Helps them imprint on the animals they protect. They blend in. They watch for intruders within the herd. And usually just the presence of the sheepdog will keep the wolves at bay. But if a wolf isn't persuaded to keep his distance, a sheepdog is willing and able to fearless attack the wolf and protect the sheep. So the sheepdog among humans is almost exactly like the canine counterparts. Grossman says there are human sheepdogs that have the capacity for violence, but also the moral compass and a deep love for their fellow citizens. But in times of peace, they look like sheep. They're gentle. They're loving. They're kind. They blend right in with the sheep. For the sheep's part, they often find the sheepdogs annoying when things are going well. When people complain about a police officer giving them a ticket for a minor traffic violation, when a wolf shows up and the police catch him, the complaining stops and the people line up and cheer and celebrate. But that cop, that sheepdog, when it's peaceful -- and we see this all the time -- when things are going well, nobody likes the cop. But once you need help, boy, are you glad they're there.

Sheepdogs make up a very small percentage of the population. Maybe 1 percent. So that leaves 98 percent of the human population, is sheep. People who are not used to getting involved. Who just want to warned and graze. Take care of their lambs. They go to work. They go to school. They like their entertainment. They like to do what everybody else does. They just want to be left alone. They're sheep.

Sheepdogs, he says, are not born sheepdogs. I look at this like Marcus Luttrell. He is a sheepdog. That guy, if there's ever trouble, he's going to get a guy. Now, I've always thought you were born into that. Because I can't do that. Grossman says that we're hard-wired psychologically and sociologically to be sheep. To go along to get along. To become a sheepdog, you have to make a conscious decision to do so. You have to want to upgrade your mental, physical, and emotional hardware from sheep 1.0 to sheepdog 2.0. You have to be willing to move out of your comfort zone and away from the rest of the flock.

Now, it's a lot easier to just believe that, you know, a sheepdog is going to eventually just find his way into, you know, the situations. That we'll find the right person in the White House. You know, somehow or another, it will happen. My vote doesn't matter anyway. I don't know anything about the issues. I'm too busy to know where everybody stands. Besides, there are other people that know much more about it than I do. They'll go to the voting booth. They'll do the right thing. That's what happened in 2008 and 2012. 42 percent of Americans identify themselves as conservative. 42 percent. Compared to the 21 percent that say that they're liberal.

Who won the election?

PAT: Not the conservative.

GLENN: Someone else went to vote. You didn't go to the voting booth. Somebody else will do it.

Look at a crisis. The Middle East. There's nothing I can do about it. But somebody is going to do something. Eventually the sheep cry out. Somebody has got to do something. The problem is, someone isn't doing anything about it. So Christians, Muslims who aren't Muslim enough, homosexuals that are practicing homosexuals, that, by the way, don't exist in Iran, they're stoned to death. They're thrown off of buildings. Children are being slaughtered.

Planned Parenthood, I'm not a sheepdog. I don't know what to do. I just -- I just want to stay here in the pack. This is what I'm asking you to choose -- and I don't know how many people are going to choose to do this in Birmingham, Alabama. I want you to know, this is not an event -- you know, we had really good intentions with the first 8/28. August 28. When was it? 2010?

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Five years ago, we went to Washington, DC, with Restoring Honor, and 500,000 people attended. But it was pretty easy. I just asked you to go and just see that you were not alone. Now, there were some threats on that. So some people regretted and still tell me to this day, I regret not being there because I was afraid. But 500,000 people showed up at the national mall. But it was easy because all I asked you to do was just come. Just come. I'm not asking you to do anything. I just want you to see you're not alone. We sang. We cried together. Then we went home and we grazed like lambs.

This 8/28 is different. And I don't know how many people will come to Birmingham, Alabama. It's different because it must be different. We are going to Birmingham, Alabama, on August 28th and 29th. And now I've added the 30th because I'm going to be speaking at three different churches. I'm not going to tell you which ones they are. Because one of them has asked me not to because they just want their congregation to hear from me.

But for three days or two days at least, we're going to get our upgrades. We're going to learn how to be sheepdogs. We're going to learn how to stop being sheep. We're going to learn how to protect the sheep. We're going to learn how to march, how to protest, peacefully, lovingly, we are going to learn and demonstrate enough is enough, I will stand. We are going to protect the flock. We're going to stand up and be counted. We are going to declare to the whole world: Never again is now.

We mean it.

I've been a sheep most of my life. When I started the 9/12 Project, I said over and over again, I'm not leading that. I don't want to lead that. I'm not a sheepdog. I don't want to lead that. I said the whole time I was at Fox, I don't -- Pat will verify this. Every day, I don't know how much longer I can do this. I don't want to do this. I grew up in an alcoholic family. I was the pleaser. I was the one that brought everybody together and said, okay, come on. Stop arguing. It's all going to be good. Hey, let me tell you a joke. That's how I grew up. I don't like confrontation. I don't like this role.

I'm not a sheepdog. Let me correct that. I have never been a sheepdog. I am a sheepdog now.

Anyone who wants to join me on this, anybody who wants to change their life and say, I will stand, I will be counted, I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how I'm going to do it, but if I see someone thrown off a platform, I will be the one down in the track lifting them up. When I see an injustice anywhere, I know it's an injustice everywhere, and I will stop it. I will stand in the gap.

Did you know that in Hebrew, one of the definitions of prophet is that? It's not somebody that sees the future or anything. One of the definitions of prophet is just someone who stands in the gap. I told you yesterday, there are holes in our wall as a country. There are holes everywhere.

We have to put our fingers there and plug the holes. We have to stand in that gap. We need to -- we need to strengthen the links. We need to unify. A house divided against itself cannot stand. I want to tell you something that I wrote last night on Facebook.

We must unify. If you want to join me in Birmingham, Alabama, I urge you -- I had another talk with my family last night. My children said, what do you want us to do, Dad? And I said, I'm not telling you what to do. You need to find it. You're adults now. You need to find it. But this is a family of sheepdogs. We must stand united in love together. You want to join me? This time, it's different. Restoring Unity. In Birmingham, Alabama. 8/28 and 8/29. Tickets can be found at now.mercuryone.org. Now.mercuryone.org. Grab your tickets now while there are tickets left. And we will see you in Birmingham, Alabama.

Breaking point: Will America stand up to the mob?

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

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

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

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.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!

What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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