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Richard Paul Evans - The Christmas List

December 03, 2009
 Radio Clips

The Glenn Beck Program


The Christmas List


By Richard Paul Evans

GLENN: Okay. I'm looking at USA Today. This is A Christmas Blizzard, The Christmas Secret, The Christmas List, The Christmas Promise, The Christmas Cookie. I mean, I'm just looking at all the and you know who we have to blame? Richard Paul Evans. Because I believe

PAT: You started this, didn't you?

GLENN: Come on.

PAT: Was it The Christmas Box that started all of this?

EVANS: Yeah, The Christmas Box. The next is going to be The Christmas Sweater Box.

GLENN: Wait a minute. Now we're thinking. Now we're thinking. You have The Christmas List out which is number 4 on the holiday gift guide books. This is USA Today. The Christmas List is out. It is a great, great book. It is modern day A Christmas Carol. So wait a minute. No, it wasn't him. A Christmas Carol.

EVANS: That's right.

PAT: But it wasn't The Christmas Carol. It was A Christmas Carol.

EVANS: I own "The."

GLENN: Yeah. You own "The." It's starts with The Christmas.

EVANS: The Christmas.

GLENN: It's you.

PAT: I wrote The Christmas Lint. It's about what accrues in your belly button after you wear The Christmas Sweater.

GLENN: Really?

PAT: And then you put the lint in the box, in The Christmas Box. So that's it hasn't done real well.

EVANS: There were two parodies of The Christmas Box right after. The Christmas Pox was one of them.

GLENN: That's very good, that's very good. Seriously, weren't you the guy really that kind of started the Christmas, the little Christmas Gift book kind of thing?

EVANS: The Christmas Box was such a phenomenon, we sold eight million copies. And then what happened, the year after The Christmas Box hit number one, it was selling at levels we hadn't seen until Harry Potter. And so the next year the New York Times reported it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Box because there were hundreds of imitations. And my wife would walk through the stores and say, oh, look, there's your book. And she was like, oh, no, it's one that looks just like your book.

GLENN: You know what's amazing is they do it all the time. I mean, how many vampires books are there now.

EVANS: Exactly.

GLENN: Because Stephenie Meyer did Twilight which, by the way, I can't no self respecting I had to turn my man card in about 15 minutes into that movie. I mean, I just

PAT: You went to the New Moon thing?

GLENN: I went with my wife. I went to the New Moon thing. And if the guys take their shirts off and stand around and talk anymore, I'm just going to I mean, I looked at him, we went with our wives and I looked at a friend of mine and we were sitting next to each other and I went, dear heavens, let's turn them. And he went, the man card? Yes, turn it in. Who do we turn it in to right now? But that's the same thing that is happening.

Now, you took the book The Christmas List, you took a new approach to scrooge.

EVANS: Yep, what really happened was last year my book Grace which was your book of the month was

GLENN: I loved that book.

EVANS: Very heavy topic dealing with child abuse and it did extremely well.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. If you haven't met Grace, is that last year?

EVANS: It was last year.

GLENN: If you haven't read Grace, it is such a good book. I saw and I don't mean to relate to the story per se. I saw myself as the central character just because of the way, it was the way we used to think, it was the way our life used to be, it was the settings that we all remember. I mean, you painted that time period and that boy's life so well, it was like me. Different story obviously but it was, it just, just fantastic. There are few books that come out and you don't remember the words. You see the pictures that you had in your head. And Grace was one of those books for me. Anyway

EVANS: It was that way with me, too. It was very autobiographical, really describing my childhood and some of the struggles we had. But after, like a woman in Texas said to me, she said, loved the book, loved Grace; I was depressed for three days.

GLENN: Yeah.

EVANS: I said, well, that wasn't really the point. And I thought, so after I got home for the holidays, I went and watched The Christmas Carol with my family, and I said it always makes me so happy. I want to write something that makes my readers feel that way. And so I went back to write The Christmas List, which is about a modern real estate developer, he's lost his way, he's divorcing his wife who's dying, his only son won't speak to him. And then in the course of this the newspaper makes a mistake and runs his obituary. He reads his obituary, he doesn't like what people have to say, what they are writing about him on the Internet. And after a few more things happen, he decides he wants to change his legacy.

GLENN: So basically because if the, at least the movie version and I don't think I've ever actually read The Christmas Carol, or, I'm sorry, A Christmas Carol, I don't think I've ever read that. But I know the movie version pretty much ends with him standing at the grave and seeing his tombstone. So you just took and started with that moment of revelation.

EVANS: Exactly. And so as he goes back and he goes back to visit, he has a secretary create a list of people he's harmed. He's delighted that there's only five names on the list, until she explains these are the finalists, these are the people whose lives you've completely decimated. So he goes back to try to make right, try to see if he can fix things, and it's not quite as easy as saying I'm sorry.

GLENN: Do you, when you write your books, do you write them with the hope of doing good? Or the, "I'm just looking to tell a good story," or is it a combination of both?

EVANS: Well, I think I come from a central belief system. I'm very optimistic about humans and I believe in hope. So I think all my books are a book about hope and they are also on some level about that God does indeed love us. So when you come from that background, then anything I write is going to show that. But most important is to write an entertaining story because if you don't read it, then you haven't done any good.

GLENN: What was the book you wrote about the healer with Tourette's?

EVANS: The Gift.

GLENN: Another great book. You have 14 novels, more than 13 million copies of books in print. I saw today that you received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century award. I mean, over Mother Teresa? I mean, I don't I mean, I don't mean to, you know, put you out on the spot here, but out of 100 years, you're the guy?

EVANS: No, there were a few of us.

GLENN: Oh. So it was like The Christmas List, they are like, these are the five. Okay, who else was on the please tell me Mother Teresa made that cut.

EVANS: I honestly don't know. I just remember going to this meeting with a bunch of congressmen and senators and listening to a very long talk.

GLENN: You were the humanitarian of the century because you went and you listened to these guys talk. Nobody else would do it. I did it out of the kindness of my heart, I listened to it. And you also, volunteers of America National Empathy Award for your work helping abused children. I know you have taken a ton of the money that you have made from these stories and you have truly affected lives, and you do it with just great, great words and great stories. You are a fantastic storyteller. And as always, good to have you on the program.

EVANS: Thank you so much, Glenn.

GLENN: You bet. The name of the book is The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans. I notice that somehow or another Richard has made sure that The Christmas Sweater is not on that list from USA Today.

EVANS: Nothing to do with it.

GLENN: Which it doesn't make any sense because I think he owns it. It is The Christmas Sweater, not A Christmas Sweater.

All right. Richard Paul Evans. The name of the book is... The Christmas List, available everywhere.

YIKES: Joe Biden says 'palmist' instead of 'Psalmist' — twice — then fractures foot while playing with dog

Image source: C-Span video screenshot

The media went nuts after President Donald Trump said "Two Corinthians". But apparently, nobody cares when Joe Biden called the authors of Biblical Psalms "palmists" — twice.

During a Thanksgiving speech on Wednesday, Biden said, "I'm sure we can, we can pros-claim [sic] a palmist, with a palmist who wrote these following words, 'The lord is my strength and my shield and with my song, I give thanks to him.'"

On the radio program Monday, Glenn Beck and producer Stu Burguiere pondered whether Biden actually meant to quote a fortune teller instead of a psalmist, but ultimately decided the former vice president likely had no idea what he was reading.

They also discussed the hairline fractures Biden suffered in his right foot on Saturday while playing his dog, and Glenn tossed out a few headlines he thought might work just a little too well.

Watch the video below:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Subscribe to BlazeTV today with our BEST DEAL EVER for $30 off with promo code GLENN.

SCOTUS sides with 1st Amdt., slaps down Cuomo's COVID restrictions on religious gatherings

Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

The Supreme Court slapped down New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 restrictions on religious gatherings Wednesday, arguing that strict limitations on the number of people in churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship — while liquor stores, bike shops, and many other non-religious places face few or no restrictions at all — are in violation of the First Amendment.

On the radio program Monday, Glenn Beck and Stu Burguiere applauded Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who reportedly cast the deciding vote in the 5-4 ruling, as well as Justice Neil Gorsuch who took specific aim at Gov. Cuomo for limiting religious gatherings to as few as 10 people in some areas, while imposing "no capacity restrictions on certain businesses he considers 'essential'."

"It turns out the businesses the Governor considers essential include hardware stores, acupuncturists, and liquor stores," Gorsuch said. "Bicycle repair shops, certain signage companies, accountants, lawyers, and insurance agents are all essential too."

"Government is not free to disregard the 1st Amendment in times of crisis," Gorsuch wrote in a separate opinion.

Gov. Cuomo has since called the Supreme Court ruling "moot" and "irrelevant" because he had recently lifted restrictions in most of the affected areas.

"This is a trick they play all the time. They've done this with Second Amendment cases as well," Stu noted. "They'll put a ridiculous restriction in that's obviously not constitutional, keep it in place for a year while it goes through the courts, and right before it gets to the Supreme Court they withdraw the rule. So then the case gets thrown out because it's moot."

Watch the video below for more details:


Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Subscribe to BlazeTV today with our BEST DEAL EVER for $30 off with promo code GLENN.

Hey Joe, THIS is how you handle terrorists

Wikimedia Commons

If you haven't seen the new Apple TV+ drama Tehran, it's definitely worth your time. It tells the story of an Israeli spy who sneaks into Iran to set up an attack on Iran's nuclear program. Now that the new Bond movie is delayed, this show has a little bit of everything to hold you over: international spies, hackers, double agents.

But I digress...

No matter how Hollywood tries to invent these stories — and this one is definitely good — they always fall short of what happens in real life. What happened in Iran this past Friday is a movie waiting to happen.

What happened in Iran this past Friday is a movie waiting to happen.

Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated as he was traveling to his private villa just a few miles east of Tehran. The operation involved a team of over 60 people. Around 50 logistical support agents backed up a dozen gunmen. They knew everything. His schedule, his private address, his classified movements, the route...

Fakhrizadeh was traveling in the middle of three armored vehicles. When they approached the ambush site, the hit team cut off all the electricity in the surrounding area. A car bomb was then remotely detonated, taking out the rear vehicle in the convoy. 12 gunmen proceeded to open fire on the other two cars. Iran's top nuclear scientist was dead, and NONE of the hit squad were wounded or arrested.

Now you can already guess where the blame is being directed this morning. Almost immediately, the fingers began to point at both Israel and the United States. The mainstream media is trying to paint this as an effort by Trump to sabotage a Biden effort to restart the Iran Nuclear Deal. Remember that "masterful" stroke of Middle East foreign policy? You know, the deal that included $150 BILLION — in cash — that Obama and Biden knew would be used to kill Americans and destabilize the entire region. Remember that?

They said it was impossible... but Trump did it.

They claimed their way was the only path to peace. What did they get from it? Iran spread out all the way to the literal doorstep of Israel. The elite Iraqi troops of the Republican Guard were staging in Syria, plotting that ultimate attack to take back Jerusalem. The entire region was set to explode... but then Trump scuttled the deal. What did it lead to? Historic peace agreements between the Arab world and Israel.

They said it was impossible... but Trump did it. He reimposed sanctions and launched a campaign to kill terrorists rather than give them money.

John Brennan took to Twitter this weekend to call the assassination a criminal act.

It echoes what they said when the top terrorist in the world — Qassem Soleimani — was assassinated in Iraq. Coincidentally, the Iranian government published artwork over the weekend depicting Soleimani and the, now dead, nuclear scientist standing side by side.

You see, now matter how people like Brennan and Biden might try and say otherwise, this is exactly the type of person Iran's "Robert Openheimer" was: a terrorist in the same category as Soleimani (but obviously with a lot more dangerous capability).

Iran has been protecting this man for two decades. They called him merely "an academic," but denied the UN IAEA inspectors to ever question him.

The rhetoric Iran fed the global community was that their nuclear program didn't have anything to do with weapons, and that this nuclear scientist was involved in research to improve their energy programs. But in 2007, the CIA said this was a cover story. In 2008, the United States froze his assets, and the IAEA made it public that this scientist was leading Iran's nuclear weapons project.

Iran called it "Projects 110 and 111." Fakhrizadeh was tasked with finding out how to miniaturize a nuclear warhead and make it durable enough so that it could survive re-entry into the atmosphere on top of an ICBM.

There can be no accommodation with terrorists.

Obama and Biden's nuclear deal didn't stop ANY of this. Israel revealed in 2018 that Projects 110 and 111 continued. Fakhrizadeh was specifically called out as still being the main man in charge.

Biden thinks his policy of accommodation will somehow bring us the peace that Neville Chamberlain once thought was possible with Hitler. When has this borne fruit with any maniacal tyrant or terrorist... ever?!

And that's exactly what Iran and their thugs are. They're terrorists! They're not a legitimate regime. Long before ISIS, the terrorists in Iran stole a country, planning to spread their caliphate all over the world. Members of Al Qaeda, despite being Sunni, enjoy free sanctuary under their protection. They want to burn Israel to the ground. They chant "death to America"... It's actually a holiday there.

There can be no accommodation with terrorists. Biden wants peace with Iran, and he'll probably roll out a red carpet and offer them a few hundred billion more dollars. We know this doesn't work. To quote Reagan, "there's one way to have peace and you can have it in this second... surrender."

That's how you deal with terrorists, and — whether we were involved or not — another one was just taken out.

'Enemies of this nation are baking a new American cake': Jason Whitlock on how we take our country back

How does a sports writer know how to fix America, and America's racial dilemma?

In a special edition of the "Glenn Beck Radio Program," Outkick sports columnist Jason Whitlock filled in Tuesday for Glenn to explain how we can bring America back together, lean into racial harmony, and restore the values of our Founding Fathers. Because if not us, then who will?

Jason started out by explaining how, during a recent appearance on the program, he felt a spiritual connection with Glenn, regardless of physical differences, as both share a common passion for God and country.

"Glenn and I share a kindred spirit. A kindred passion," Jason said. "We have two things that we love and are passionate about: God and country. I am not a minister. I'm a flawed sinner just like Glenn and just like you. But I am a believer. Believers share an energy that connects them, that cuts through our physical differences and makes those differences irrelevant relevant. That's what I felt when I met Glenn, an energy and a spirit that connects us. We are broadcasters, media personalities, operating in separate spaces, trying to talk to Americans, who share our passion."

Jason went on to say that he believes there are forces operating, both outside of and inside America, that are working to separate America from God, and that much of what we've witnessed in 2020 — from the racial division stirred by the mainstream and social media, to the rioting and looting by Antifa and Black Lives Matter, to the "remaking of the sports world into a shrine that celebrates resisting criminal suspects and denigrates this great country at every turn" — are symptoms and consequences of America's enemies separating God and country.

"We are one nation under God. We are nothing without Him," Jason continued. "The flawed sinners who founded this nation baked God into this country with their Declaration of Independence. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among those, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The foreign and domestic enemies of this nation are baking a new American cake. God isn't an essential ingredient in this new cake. He isn't an ingredient at all. The removal of faith is sewing the disharmony that is terrorizing and destroying the United States of America.

"Why am I here today? I'm here to tell you how we take our country back, how we restore the freedoms and the liberties our enemies seek to remove in their remaking of a godless America."

Watch the video below to hear more from Jason Whitlock:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Subscribe to BlazeTV today with our BEST DEAL EVER for $30 off with promo code GLENN.