Sen. Tim Scott joins Glenn Beck to discuss his new book, "One Nation Always Under God," and some of the amazing stories he tells in it that prove America's REAL history.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Tim Scott, welcome to the program. How are you?
TIM: Glenn, I'm doing really well. I hope you're doing fantastic.
GLENN: I am doing great. I'm doing great.
Tell me about One Nation Always Under God.
TIM: There's a story -- Glenn, the way I look at it, if we're going to understand our future, we must have a great foundation in our past. And America's foundation was a Judeo-Christian ethos.
GLENN: Now --
TIM: In One Nation Always Under God, I speak a lot about these amazing Christians who dedicated their lives to being extraordinary, not because of who they are, but because of whose they are. In God's hands, we can do the most remarkable things.
GLENN: So there's a -- there's a couple of books out, that are -- one of them is coming out.
Yours is iota now. One nation under God. That is explaining this, I think in the best way possible.
When a country loses its story, it loses.
It -- you can't sustain it anymore.
And these are the stories where American Christians stepped up and needed God. And moved our nation forward.
So let's talk about a couple of the stories.
Let's start with William Lloyd Garrison.
Who is he? What happened?
TIM: You know, one of the things that got my in trouble back in 2021. Is I said the truth, which is that America is not a racist country.
And one of the reasons why we're not a racist country, is because we've wrestled with race for so long, we've won.
And William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist who fought tooth and nail against racism and slavery.
And because of his fortitude, and his faith in God, that he was called, as an ordinary person.
To resist the way that the world was at the time. He achieved a victory for other people.
You know, proverbs 31:8 reminds us to stand up for those who can't stand for themselves.
William Lloyd Garrison. And millions of Americans have taken that stand. And today, we celebrate the achievement of those who went before us, and if we're smart, we'll remember that, as we look to our future. And celebrate where we are today, because of the sacrifices of yesterday.
GLENN: Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell.
TIM: Yeah, what a great story. Jim Lovell was a man of conviction and strong faith. He was lost in space, 200,000 miles -- 200,000 miles away from home, so to speak.
Running out of oxygen. He started praying. This peace fell over him. And he understood what he needed to do, to save the lives of the astronauts that were with him by conserving oxygen. Making some things happen that were merely impossible. But he was led by his faith and prayer, that gave him a peace that allowed him to rely on the expertise that he had inside of him, over years and years of an astronaut.
It's a tremendous story of victory, even outside of this world.
GLENN: Dorothea Dix.
TIM: Dorothea Dix is a wonderful story of an amazing Christian who felt called to examine the institutions, who are those suffering from mental health and mental breakdowns were housed. She found their life to be disgusting and challenging. She felt called by God, an ordinary, everything woman. She did something extraordinary.
She changed the way that the insane asylums at her time were housing everyday Americans. And because of her, we have sanity. We have respect and dignity. In so many of the places that today, those who are suffering mental health challenges are -- are taken care of.
Really an amazing story.
GLENN: Go ahead. Go ahead.
Finish up.
TIM: Just really an amazing story, of a woman called by God, to do something, frankly groundbreaking around the globe. All started here in America.
By one woman, with a Christian conviction.
GLENN: So we are -- let me get off the book here for a second.
But focus on this. What she did.
We are now -- we have a mental health problem on the streets of our country.
It is really bad.
And I don't know how to solve it. Tim, there's -- you know, the president says, you know, we've got a -- we've got to get these people back into -- into CAIR.
And that is absolutely true. But I also remember what the government was like.
What those government institutions were like. And what they became.
When I was a kid, and Reagan stopped them, they were really bad. And dangerous.
How do we stop this from becoming that again?
TIM: Well, that's a great question and one of the reasons I wrote about Dorothea Dix, I have looked around and saw the light of everyday Americans.
Today, 100,000 people have lost their lives, because of fentanyl and drug overdoses.
During COVID, we saw a 30 percent increase in parents bringing their teenage kids to the ER, because of mental health episodes. We are -- you are 100 percent right. We are living at a time, of great mental health instability. The way that we solve this is frankly not by having a government take it over.
It is, however, by having programs like the ones started by John Baker, who focused on celebrate recovery and church.
I believe the fastest way to solve the problems that we face today, is by depending, not on the government, but depending on each other.
And this program, called Celebrate Recovery is in over 40,000 churches around the world.
And as a result, we have seen lives restored.
We have seen people healed. We have seen families brought back together. The one thing you and I both celebrate, is the fact that the government -- we don't depend on the government.
Because they don't do things well.
And, frankly, the actual solutions are closer to home, in your local church.
In your local community.
In your family. We need the restoration of a family as the bedrock of our society. And meaning, the issues and the ills that we face.
That can't happen because of government fiat. It only happens because a person convicted by the Lord turns to God for help.
Families restore because fathers and husbands see their rightful place in the family, and they find their common sense, and return home to the families.
GLENN: What does it mean, convicted by the Lord?
TIM: I'll talk about my personal experience, as a kid growing up in poverty, I was lost as a goose in a rainstorm for much of my childhood. I nearly flunked out of school, because I didn't see a way forward.
Man, I'll tell you, I felt this growing need for something.
And I have some really good Christian friends who state me, by example, more than words, that what I was looking for was a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I felt this conviction. And I wanted -- I wanted to look at that, comparatively speaking to condemnation. So often people that condemn you, are looking out for your best interest.
But you need to have this conviction in your own heart.
That there is a better way.
And that conviction for me, led me to examine Christianity.
And I came to the conclusion. My life was better off in his hands. When I talk about that conviction, I'm really talking about this understanding that something must change. That it must start in me. Not somewhere else.
GLENN: You know, it is -- to me, it is the definition of evil. What we're seeing happen in our country, where people are telling you, everything is stacked against you. You'll never make it.
You have to vote for this, or your life is wasted.
It is so evil to convince people that they don't have everything in them, to make it. Because they do!
TIM: Absolutely. Glenn, this is one of the most important foundations of our country.
We were given our inalienable rights, not by government. Not from government, but by God. And if that's the case. Then we should never see ourselves as victims. But we should see ourself as victors. Because all things are possible, in a country, whose foundation is the Lord's
We haven't gotten it right. I'm not suggesting that we have.
But I am suggesting that the closer we get to that more perfect union.
The more likely we are, in consistent harmony, with the principles, that undergird the society, that come from the gospel.
GLENN: You know, we -- we never have gotten it right.
And, you know, anybody who says that America is a failure, never got it right.
Never lived up to its principles.
Have you read those principles.?
I mean, those principles that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Those principles are really, really, really super high.
And I can't --
TIM: Absolutely.
GLENN: And I can't think of a grander mission statement than what our Declaration lays out.
And we don't cut ourselves any slack as human beings and say, look, we're going to mess it up, but you've got to get back up, and reapply yourself to the mission again.
TIM: We need to keep preaching that, because that's exactly what the book of proverbs reminds us, that a man falls seven times. The good man gets up the seventh time that he falls.
It's the same thing we hear from Jesus, in the book of Matthew. That how many times shall we be forgiven? Seven times?
No, seventy times seven.
It's exactly the same thing we see in the midst of great challenges, and frankly, even in my own city in South Carolina. The Mother Emanuel Church shooting. The believers of that church said to the killer, that -- they said Matthew 5:44. You've got to love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
They said, I forgive you.
Where does that come from?
It comes from the recognition, that we're all flawed humans. And as flawed humans, the most powerful thing that we can do, is to give it to the Lord.
When we do that, we see this light come out of us. And from around us. That is what makes America in pursuit of this thing called perfection.
We will always, always fall short. But ultimately, are you going to strive for mediocrity?
Are you going to strive for average. Or do you want to get as close as possible, to this notion that we are perfectible.
Well, we're only perfectible on the other side.
But until then, let us strive in the direction of perfection.
Because we believe in absolute truth.
We'll miss the mark.
But I'm going to continue to fight tooth and nail, to be all that I can be, until I am entered into heaven, through the glory of God.
GLENN: I want to ask you something, because we were talking about conviction.
And you've been talking about religious conviction. But let me ask you about conviction to our own country.
We had a Congresswoman Ramirez. She was at a summit in Mexico City. Over the weekend, she's speaking in Spanish.
And she says, I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American.
We've had Ilhan Omar say, that she feels like she serves Somalia, more than the United States.
Can you be, you know, an official of the United States, and hold up the Constitution, if you're -- if you are not convicted that America is where your heart is?
That that is what -- that's what comes from?
You could say, God comes from.
And I get that. That's first citizenship.
But if your first citizenship is in Somalia or Guatemala.
How are you in the government of the United States? Should that be?
TIM: Glenn, let's just be clear for all the listeners.
Anyone who has taken the oath of office.
Who says their allegiance is to another country.
They have betrayed their oath of office. And they should resign, period.
Let me go a little further.
Any American citizen, that says, they're more beholden. Or connected to their homeland. That's not America.
Then they too are as lost as a goose any rainstorm.
The fact of the matter is, to be an American, requires in my heart, in my deepest understanding. You have to assimilate, acclimate to what it means to be an American. You cannot hold an allegiance to somebody else, while saying that, you know, I'm here, because it's it is greatest country of the planet. But I'm going to celebrate home.
The fact that you are here, suggests that the most compassionate country on the planet, has allowed you in.
At least, in response to our compassion and our love, at least assimilate to what it means to be an American. And then go a step further.
Encourage everyone in your community, to do the same.
It is not okay to get here. And be -- you know, to say that Somalia, is where you're going to sell your real affection.
Or that somewhere in Mexico.
That game has been played.
And they all lose.
We, the United States of America, an incredible melting pot of people. But we have one single culture, and it is defined at our inception.
It is the unique place on the planet, where we celebrate diversity. But not multiculturalism. I think they're very different.
We have multiple cultures in our country. But unless they align under the banner.
We can't survive.
You have to be committed. And one of the things you'll read in one nation always under God. Available right now, at Amazon.com. Or where books are sold.
The one that you'll figure out pretty quickly, is we celebrate America.
We don't celebrate any other country.
For one reason!
We are the city on the hill. We are the greatest place on the planet, that calls home. And I believe, we have an obligation. No, a responsibility, to celebrate all the founding fathers, who went before us.
And the ordinary people, who stood up, for this American ethos. Embedded in the gospel, so as to move us towards being a more perfect union. It is a prerequisite for public service, that you state with all of your heart, we are one nation, under God, and indivisible. Period!
GLENN: Senator Tim Scott, always great to talk to you, sir. Best of luck with the book. It's One Nation Always Under God.
It is available now.
One Nation Always Under God.
It's great to have this as a reminder for your family. Reminder for yourself, on who we really are, and how God has just woven into our DNA.
Tim, thank you so much. Senator, I appreciate it.
