Faith, Freedom, and America’s Decline - Sunday Fireside Chat

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Hi everybody, Dennis Prager for the Fireside Chat number 2,817. Not exactly, but my hope. Gee, in order to get there, 50 into 2,000 is 40. No, it is. I think it is 50. Yes, 50 times 4 is 200. Well, I can't see us doing 2,000 of them. If we— once we do it every day. All right, anyway, this is truly absurd. Hi everybody, it's the Fireside Chat. This is Otto. I'm Dennis Prager. It is a pleasure to be with you every week. I just get to think aloud with you, as it were, and there's no teleprompter. It's all unrehearsed, which is usually beneficial. Sometimes it might rear its ugly head, but I think Generally speaking, it's a good thing. And then I take your questions wherever you are in the world. So I am going to present a proposition to you today that, as Megan said prior to this, when I told her what I'd like to open up speaking about, said that's going to trigger any number of people. It's not meant to at all, but it will. Why it will is probably something I'll also address. So here, here's, here's the proposition, but first I have to point out a fact that we have to agree on, otherwise the, the proposition won't make any sense. America is less free today than a few years ago. And less free than at any time in its history. Now, obviously, it was less free for some of its citizens, namely Black citizens, for quite some time because of slavery. But in general, this has been the freest country in the history of the world, which is why the French gave America the Statue of Liberty. They didn't keep it for themselves. They didn't give it to any European country. They gave it to the United States. When people have demonstrated for freedom, they have often waved the American flag, most recently in Hong Kong, where they were demonstrating against the subversion of liberty in that little place called Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist government. They waved American flags. This is the sweet land of liberty, as the lyrics go from one of our major songs, America the Beautiful, I believe it is. Not God Bless America, it's from Sweet Land of Liberty. Of thee I sing. Yeah. I'm sorry?

What the name of it?

Yeah, it's America the Beautiful, right? Yeah. Sweet land of liberty. Let's put it this way. The most important freedom of all is freedom of speech. And that freedom has been attacked for the first time in American history. That was the one thing Americans of all political persuasions agreed with. As I heard when I grew up, I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it. That was actually a phrase that people used on both sides of the political spectrum. However, that is not the case today. Wherever the left, as opposed to liberals, in the past we had liberals generally and conservatives. We didn't have many leftists. Liberals are not leftists. Liberals are left of center, but they're not leftists. And leftists do not support freedom of speech. Nowhere in the history of the world have they— in the history of the left since Karl Marx, they have never supported it. They have always suppressed it. The university is a perfect example. Cancel culture is what it's called, and in large measure, you, you can't speak your piece. Twitter shuts you down, YouTube shuts you down. Google shuts you down, Facebook shuts you down. They call it misinformation, they call it whatever they might, hate speech, but they shut you down. You can be an epidemiologist at Yale, I'm actually thinking of one, and Twitter will probably shut down your account because you will say things that the CDC doesn't agree with. The irony is, is the only area where there's no disagreement allowed And that is the sciences, precisely the area where it is most important that disagreements exist. Otherwise, you'll never find the truth. So any, any fair-minded American knows we have less freedom today than ever before. And this is a very real danger, because without freedom, America is not America. America is just a country between Canada and Mexico. That's condition number one. Condition number two. Forget number one. Now let's concentrate on number two. And that is that America— another thing anyone can agree with, because this is a matter of fact, not opinion— America is more secular, less religious than at any time in its history. Everybody agrees with that. Left, liberal, conservative, centrist. This is a fact. There are more nones, N-O-N-E, people with no religion, than at any time since Americans have been in existence. Fewer Americans go to church on a regular basis percentage-wise than at any time in American history. Americans know less about the Bible than at any time in American history. There are more atheists than at any time in American history, more agnostics, more secular people. Every institution is essentially secular, almost every school is secular. So though that's a fact, no one denies that. So here is my proposition: that as America has become less religious, more secular, America has lost freedom. It has had less freedom. There is a— so here is the question. Here is where the trigger, as Megan put it, comes. I think— no, I am certain, I don't think— I am certain those two facts are correlated. You might say they are both true, there is less freedom and there is less religion, but they're not in any way related. You can say that, and you may be right, but I am pretty close to certain that they are related. Look at any coin in the United States, and this has been true for much of American history. You have 3 statements or phrases or values on every American coin. What I— this is how I got my concept of the American Trinity: Liberty, In God We Trust, and E Pluribus Unum, from many one. Let's take E Pluribus Unum and put it aside. On every coin are, are the propositions are the beliefs in God and liberty. This country, the United States of America, was founded to be free, and it was founded by people who believed God wanted us to be free, and that freedom depends upon faith in God. A part with regard to the large majority of the population. Now, this is true for all of the founders, even Jefferson, who was not a big believer. Even Jefferson, by the way, just for the record, there were no deists among the founders. Deists, the way it is understood, is people who believe that there is a creator But the creator took no interest in his creation. Creator created the world and then retired. Unmoved mover, as Aristotle put it. None of the founders of this country, of the United States of America, were deists in that sense. None. They all believed in God, the creator, who intervenes in human affairs and who judges human behavior and to whom people should pray. All of them, especially Benjamin Franklin, who was always called a deist— they weren't all Christians, but they were all God-centered, Bible-centered people. They not all believed in a triune God, not all believed in the Christian Trinity. That is absolutely correct, but they were all believers in the God of the Bible. Okay, that's— if you want to be honest, you have to acknowledge that these were not the deists. They knew freedom depended upon God. That's why the Liberty Bell, the iconic symbol of America, has a verse from the Bible: And you shall proclaim liberty throughout the lands to all its inhabitants. Throughout the land to all its inhabitants. Unto all its inhabitants. Leviticus 25. It's interesting that it's from the book of Leviticus. I believe, I truly do, I'm gonna ask Will Witt to try this out, to go on a campus and ask 50 students randomly, "What is Leviticus?" I predict that if he asks 50, 10 of them will know it, 40 won't. The founders not only knew what Leviticus was, they knew it basically by heart. Who knows Leviticus 25? They did. Many of them knew it in Hebrew, as it happens. John Adams knew Hebrew, second president of the United States. You couldn't get a degree from Harvard till 1800 if you didn't know Hebrew. That's how important Bible study was in the United States. This country was free because it was deeply rooted in the belief that God wanted us to be free. And here is the key, key proposition: if freedom comes from God, men cannot take it away. But if freedom comes from men, men can take it away. Pretty simple. That's why they speak in the Declaration of Independence of certain inalienable rights, because they're from the Creator, from God. That's why they're inalienable. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That is why they, they're inalienable. If they don't come from God, they are not inalienable. They can be removed by anybody. And that's, that's what's happened. Because people believe less and less in the God of the Bible in the United States, they believe less and less in freedom. Because freedom doesn't come from God. If you don't believe in God, where does freedom come from? From you, from your beliefs. But what if your beliefs are, I should shut the next guy up if he speaks hate speech? Right? And who determines who— what is hate speech? You do. So you can shut anybody up you differ with, which is exactly what is being done. As America becomes less religious, less God-centered, less Bible-centered, it is less free. Those are two facts. I am certain they are related. It is not a coincidence. I have spent my life basically teaching one thing: the consequences of secularism. People are so brainwashed in a secular brainwash that they don't, they don't ask the question, is there any price? Which, by the way, you, you know that you haven't met someone who has thought seriously about life if they don't ask the question, what is the price paid? It's one of the most important questions you can ever ask. What is the price paid? For anything. What is the price pay if I marry? What is the price paid if I don't marry? What is the price paid if I have children? What is the price paid if I don't have children? For anything. The only time we ask what is the price is when we actually buy something, which is important. We should ask it about anything. Before you buy secularism, you should ask what is the price? What's the price? Happiness, meaning, objective morality, freedom. It's a pretty big price. It's very scary. Australia is very secular and very totalitarian right now. As I speak to you, in most of Australia, you can't leave your house for more than 3 hours. You can't talk to people in the street. You can be arrested if you do. Same with New Zealand. What do they have in common? They are particularly secular. Same with Canada. The more secular in the West— now, there is secularism I welcome. If Iran became secular tomorrow, I think it would be a great thing. I want to make that clear. Between a secular Iran and an Islamist Iran— I'm not saying Muslim, I'm saying Islamist— where they want to impose Sharia on people, I'll take secularism. I understand gradations of lack of freedom. There's more freedom in a secular Iran than there is in a totalitarian Islamic theocracy. I agree. But I'm not talking about the non-Western world. I'm talking about in the West. When we drop the Judeo-Christian origins of the West, we get less free. Big, big issue. Okay. Do you want to show the plate? Oh yeah, I got a gift. People send me gifts all the time and I got this one today, so got in the mail. So we'll zoom in there, Nathan. And somebody, it's a beautiful fired, beautiful plate. The plate itself is from the Czech Republic, as it says. I read it in the back. And, uh, it's from D.S. Warwick, who was an artist, and who is— this is beautifully— it's fired. The painting is fired into it. It is the Statue of Liberty smoking a cigar. Really dedicated to me. Liberty and cigars, it's a good combo. Lit, by the way, with a torch. Okay, thank you. I love these gifts people send like that. That's very thoughtful. Okay, let's take your questions. And we begin with the first, which is always a video question.

Hey there, Dennis Prager. I'm Lila Berger. I live in Los Angeles, California. What's your take on AOC and her Met Gala dress this year saying that we should tax the rich?

I have a take. So for those of you who don't know AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. We're so used to saying AOC that you got to think back. A radical left-wing member of Congress from New York, not shockingly, and the— she was at the Met Gala annual event. Where many stars go and they dress up to, you know, in the most glamorous things they could find or buy or borrow. And she wore a flowing dress with big letters artistically written on it, "Tax the Rich." So my take is not about the message. My take is that this is classic leftism. For the left, everything is politicized. Nothing is allowed to exist outside of politics. Nothing. Not late-night comedy, not baseball, not football, not music, not Not first grade in elementary school, not religion, nothing. Everything is political. Everything okay with Otto? Yeah. Is he up? He's awake. Hey, my man. Okay, is his tongue out? Is he looking sophisticated as usual? Yeah, that's the word for Otto, sophisticated. There's no room for the non-political. That's why I've always, always said my whole life, because I studied leftism as my major, believe it or not, that the left is totalitarian. Liberalism is not totalitarian, leftism is. Every aspect of life, that must be politicized. That is, that is why they would have Black Lives Matter messages on the mound at a baseball game, or on helmets of football players at NFL games, or the back of uniforms of NBA players. There is no room for the non-political. Late night comedy used to be late night comedy. The whole purpose of it was to unify Americans and laugh together before they went to sleep. Not anymore. One after the one competes with the other in, in just sending their, their political message to Americans. The purpose of their shows is not, not to bring you laughter and goodwill, but, but is to, to bring you a left-wing message about how awful this country is and how the other half of the country are your enemies. That's what struck me about the dress. Did any conservative have a message written on their dress or on their suit? Would a conservative do that? Can you imagine a pro-life— even pro-life, and they're as passionate about pro-life as she is about taxing the rich. It's hard to imagine a pro-life actress or politician or other star with a dress saying pro-life on, in giant letters on the dress. Even, even people who believe as strongly as pro-life people do know that there is a time and a place for your message, but the left does not have those boundaries. Now, as regards the message, just let me tell you, the rich are taxed. Here's just a piece of data for you. In the United States of America, in— as of 2018, the top 25% wage earners paid 87% of all taxes. In other words, 3/4 of all Americans paid 13%. Okay, you want it even more? The top 10%, 1 out of 10, the top 10% wage earners— they are— or income earners is a better term— 71% of all taxes were paid by the top 10%. The tax— so the rich aren't taxed? Even if you went to the top 1%, 40% of all taxes in America were paid by the top 1%. Okay, so at what point do you say the rich are not taxed? And it's not healthy, by the way, if people are not taxed. It means they don't have skin in the game, and that's not good. That is why There's a beautiful notion in the Bible that every Israelite, no matter how poor, had to pay half a shekel. That's the name of the currency in Israel today, but it's taken from the Bible. Because anyone who didn't pay anything wasn't really regarded as equally responsible for what is happening. You are part of something if you take some responsibility for being part of it. It is not healthy to give nothing. Do you know that under Jewish law, under biblical law, you're supposed to give 10% of your income to charity? Under, under later Jewish law, if you are the recipient of charity, you have to give a tenth of that to charity. Even the recipients of charity have to give charity. That was wise. What's our timing? 23. Oh, we're in great shape. Doing good. Oh my God, I could hum Beethoven 7. All right, here we go. Question number 1. Robert, 16 years of age, Wyoming. Hello, Mr. Prager. Thank you for all that you do for our country and world. Thank you. God bless you. He has blessed me. Is it better to have no friends than to have poor ones? As George Washington said, I didn't know George Washington said it. Is it better to have no friends than poor friends? I would say so, yeah. A poor friend. Well, I don't have— I only have good friends, so I don't quite understand even what it would mean. To have poor friends. Obviously it doesn't mean financial— bad friends, friends who don't share my values. But I, I have no joy with, with being with such people. I spend a lot of time with people who don't share my values, but when I want to spend time with friends, I want to spend it with people whose values I share. Anyway, if you have no friends, maybe you'll be more You'll feel more urgent about finding friends than if you have poor friends and don't feel it quite as urgently. Anyway, if George Washington said it or not, I agree with it. Okay, George, 88. That's not often we get a question from an 88-year-old. Kopalis Beach, Washington. Very much enjoyed your conversation with the young lady of North Korean descent. Didn't know a person could be brainwashed as completely as she described. Thank you. I could spend the entire rest of this this broadcast, this fireside chat on the issue of brainwash. But to a certain extent, I do understand what he's saying. That people in North Korea believe that Kim Jong-un can read their thoughts shows you how powerful the brainwash is. They are afraid to think anti-regime thoughts. Think it. They're certainly afraid to even say it to their spouse at night in bed. But they're even afraid to think it. The brainwash is beyond belief in North Korea. But the brainwash is not yet at North Korean levels, of course. But this past year, I mean, look, half this country now believe that you're a hater if you deny that men give birth. That's brainwash. That's pure 100% North Korean-style brainwash. Ask, ask the average American, white or black, how many unarmed blacks do you think police kill in a year? And the answer is under 20. And most Americans will probably say thousands. That's brainwash. There's a tremendous amount of brainwashing. How about this? Even if you had COVID, you should get a vaccination. That's idiotic. You are far better protected against COVID with natural antibodies from having had COVID than from an mRNA vaccine. It's brainwash that people would think I need a vaccine even if I had COVID. Do you need a chickenpox vaccine if you had chickenpox? No. So we, we are approaching, we're certainly not there, but we are approaching on the spectrum of brainwash, we are moving toward North Korea. So, my friend in Washington State. Okay, now there is a reason I am not able to turn this on. Oh yes, that is the reason. I'm pressing the wrong button. You know why? I have an Android device and Megan insists on an Apple device. Anyway, George, great point. Katie, 26, Orlando, Florida. Hi Dennis, warm regards to you, Megan, Nathan. Nathan, 26. Nathan. So she's on the other side of the country, big deal. And Otto and Snoopy, I am an elementary music teacher with a particular fondness for music history. Since you have knowledge of both classical music and life in the USSR, I I wanted to ask your perspective on the Soviet relationship to the great Russian masters of the 19th and 20th century. Well, this is not a general question. Most people are not curious about it. The Soviets, the Soviets loved Tchaikovsky, they loved Rachmaninoff, they had no problem with any of the great Russian composers that preceded the communist regime. Does that more or less handle it? Good. Okay. Evelyn, 14, Newark, Ohio. Hi, Mr. Prager, and a smiley. I have a simple question, but I'm very curious to know the answer. Just wondering who has influenced you throughout your life. Thank you so much for the fireside chat. It really helps me think through things. Say hi to Otto and Snoopy for me. Snoop, Otto. Hello from Evelyn, 14 years old, Newark, Ohio. So what— who has influenced you throughout your life? So as I look back at my life, I, I more believe today that my father had a big influence on me than at any time prior. In other words, as I get older, I more realize the influence, and the influence that he had was largely as a model, which is what fathers do. Plus, they set boundaries, but that was not my father's issue. He was very strict, so I'm putting that aside. But a boy needs a male model because our natures are wild. So if we don't have a model, we really don't know how to act. That's why a lot of people call my show, my radio show, and say, you're a father figure to me. Which I take as a big compliment and, by the way, a great responsibility. It is a weight on my shoulder to, to be a father figure to many men, but it's a weight every man should feel. Every man should seek to be a model to younger men. We'd have a much better world if that were the case. So my dad as a, as a model, it was not a perfect model, but it's irrelevant. I sort of— the parts that I didn't want to emulate, I didn't emulate. There were a lot of things about my dad that, that I did emulate. I think I did. Well, I'll give you one example that is, uh Not one you would have thought of. I do a male-female hour every week on my radio show, and I'm very, very free about male-female issues, including sexual issues. And people are sort of shocked at how open I am and how easily it comes to me to be open about such matters. I got that from my father. My father spoke about sexual matters as easily as he would speak about, you know, mayoral politics in New York City where I grew up. It just, it was part of life. He treated it as part of life. I got that from him. And I mean, I got a lot from him, but that is just one example where it's so obvious I got something from him that I just noted it. Other than that, the biggest influence in my life, or among the biggest, has been the Bible. I mean, especially the first 5 books, the Torah, which is why I'm writing a Bible commentary on the first 5 books. And if you read the Amazon reviews, of which there are, I think, almost 4,000, you will, you will see how much it has affected people's lives. It's really the most important thing I've done in writing, and I think all my books are important. It's called The Rational Bible. If you, you take the fireside chat seriously, you should really at least try either of the first two volumes. The third of the five volumes coming out next year— it would have come out this year, but because of COVID they had no paper. Matt, did you know that? Isn't that amazing? My book was delayed because of the paper delay. Yes. And by the way, the reason for the paper delay is in my contract I insisted on a particularly high-quality paper so that people would cherish the hardcover edition of the book. It is gorgeous as well as hopefully life-changing. So I believe that aesthetics are very important. Anyway, so Deuteronomy will be the third volume even though it's the fifth volume of the Bible. Next year. Okay, we're good. We're good. Oh, okay. Well, you know what they say, better leaving them wanting more. Or as I often say at the end of a speech and the Q&A session, well, I've always believed it's better for the speaker to leave before the audience does. See, he knows it's over. You got to admit, he doesn't look bright. Uh, in fact, I'm not sure he is, but I got to admit, he knows when time is up. I'm Dennis Prager. Great to be with you. See you next week.

Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

In my 20s, I was on an airplane and I was seated next to a woman who had a vegetarian meal. And wanting to make conversation, I just said to her, "Are you a vegetarian?" Yes, she said, yes. So my enjoyment in life is to find out why, whatever the issue is, why. So I asked her, "May I ask why you are vegetarian?" She said, "Sure, because we have no right to kill animals." And I remember thinking when I heard that part that I respect that. We could live on non-animal food. So she says we have no right to kill animals. But she didn't stop there. She said, who are we humans to say that we are more valuable than animals? I remember my shock.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to lifeaudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.