From his armies the big picture series, nato maneuvers aimed at deterring soviet aggression in europe this weekend on American History tvs reel america sunday at 4 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Booktv interviewed author eric metaxas about his book trend 11 out of 2014 seven men and the secret of their greatness. In the book, he profiles of seven men who he argues should serve as models for men today. Seven men and the secret of their greatness is the name of the book published by thomas nelson. The author eric metaxas. Who are these seven and what do they have in common . I dont know, sir was written by a ghost writer. Who are they . I have to tell you, these are seven great men. It doesnt mean that there arent others who are great. This is come if anything, this is a subjective grouping but not entirely subjective. I said the reason i bought the book as i said theres a crisis of manhood in the culture in a way we shied away from the idea of saying this is greatness, or this is a great man, you know really since the 60s. We celebrated antiheroes and they feel like it hasnt done, it hasnt been so good for us. So i said, i think that this generation needs heroes but real heroes. And i had the privilege of running a book about bone bob hr of which i was on cspans booktv talking about bob hoffer, a great hero, a true hero who died for what he believed in that approach of writing a book about William Wilberforce. So my friend said that im not a big rig on a going to read this. I thought ill fix them. All right the 20 page version output in seven men. I started it and i thought what is it that makes anyone great in a way it has to do with selfsacrifice. Its not about strength. Its not using your strengths for those who dont have strength. We deliver therefore no. Theres much more i just thought about the stories with which i was familiar with, with which i was familiar, of the great men from history. These seven i said, i know many people dont know some of these stories. For example, so few people know what happened eric little. Many people dont know came out 30 years ago. Seems like 10. Eric little is one of the seven men in there. Of course bonhoeffer i mentioned, wilberforce. George washington, i have to talk about him. Jackie robinson, very few people know the whole story of Jackie Robinson, what an amazing story face with a simple piece of the story most people dont know that. Obviously, john paul ii, a great men. Im not catholic but im very procatholic noncatholic. So that approach of doing personally, chuck colson. Thats the long answer to question. Would you prefer the short answer . That was fun. Who was William Wilberforce . Well, wilberforce, the short version is hes of the man who led the battle for the abolition of the slave trade of the british empire. Anybody knows little about him, they may know that much. But theres so much more to but i did know it until i wrote my biography of him Amazing Grace. Whenever they came out, Amazing Grace, i was asked would you like to write a biography . Ive never had written a biography. I do have the ambition or desire. I figured that was a john or i would skip in this lifetime. Very happy to skip it but its one of the things i really thought carefully about it, prayed about it but this was a great man and i thought the anna, the privilege to tell the story, is not to be taken lightly. I vote that sort and in the course of writing that story i discovered what i did know and what most people dont know, which is that what he did in the slave trade is really the tip of an iceberg, is an expert anything that they get one man could affect history as much as he did. Wilberforce was a humble man to be the first to say it wasnt wilberforce. He would say he was helped by others and it was god who did it. But when you study a lifelike that you cant help but be inspired to get help but be inspired to see what might happen if i turn my life over to some nobler purpose or do gods nobler purposes in this case, certainly plural. The Great Britain into which he was born, 1759 was a broken place. Its hard for us to become broken it was but every social evil you can imagine, the slave trade was only the worst of a host of social ills but i was myself a study. This was news to me. Im not a historian who studies it for decades and decidedly to write a book about a. I knew what most people know which is almost nothing. But in 1785 we had a dramatic conversion experience, very dramatic, and he turned everything over to god. Basically said, ive been given wealth, connections, influence, tremendous talent, oracle skills. How can they put these in service to others, not my own political ambitions but in the service of others . The cardinal example of that is his efforts to end the slave trade, which he led and accomplished to end slavery itself which he also was successful in the publishing. Just before he died, but a host of other things. So to me hes a true example of bold example from history of whats possible through one person. The secret to their greatness is what . A secret of their greatness is, im referring principally to the idea of selfsacrifice. I mean, you know, the new testament version of love, wrote about them, but the one divine love is a copy love. Being greek ive known that my whole life but it does mean romantic. It means self giving love, love that says i will sacrifice myself. Each of the men in this book either in one dramatic way or in a number of dramatic ways or in a lifetime of obedience to some nobler purpose sacrifice of themselves but in some cases, in the case of chuck colson whom i had the honor of knowing, there are two things that stick out. He came to face around 1973. I better remember this, and during the watergate debacle, most people made fun of him and thought sure, thats like dick cheney, you know, becoming a jehovahs witness. Like please, give me a break. Hes not going to change. He is a tough guy and thats the end of the. This tough guy, this white house man who was a nasty political operative had a historical kind of conversion. The most dramatic example of that at least initially, he tells his lawyer who got him a plea bargain, a great plea bargain to avoid jail time. He said to his lawyer, i will not take it. I will go to jail but i will not lie to save myself jail time. I refuse. I claim to have given my life to god. I refuse to live. I will honor god and he will honor me. His lawyer of course went ballistic. He thought, excuse me, chuck, thats very noble. You are out of your mind, youre insane together family, three kids. You cannot go to jail. Chuck said no, im going to im not going to disobey what i think is the right thing to do. Im going to trust god. He literally refuses the plea bargain and goes to jail to anybody who thinks it was a country club, read the book born again. His life was threatened. It was awful. Then when he gets out of jail, something very similar, he says im going to give up a lucrative career, think of Martha Stewart or she gets out of joe. Does she ever mention joe . You want to do it, forget about it, move on. Chuck says im going to spend the rest of my life going into prisons bringing my faith in the present, bringing hope to prisoners, or an injustice, reform. He found something called prison fellowship. I had the privilege of working for prison fellowship to of prisoners, their families, to bring restitution to victims. On and on. He sacrifice the rest of his life, 35 plus years to do what he felt was the right thing to do. He gave up a very lucrative career as a big shot lawyer with all kinds of connections in washington. Not that somebody i knew personally and i could see that his faith was real and his sacrifice was real. He was not perfect. He was a person just like we are people. But he was somebody whose life changed dramatically, whose life was given over to some nobler purposes. When you see that it affects you. You cant help it. Even when he died a year and half ago a lot of the beltway pundits didnt believe, they were still referring to a sense of watergate. They couldnt leave after all those years he really had changed. But he had. Thats really the secret to everyone of the stores in your that these people really were, they were the real deal even though they werent perfect. In each store, i hope its not, they were not perfect but they were the real deal. How did you get hooked up with prison fellowship . I was a coincidence but in dont believe in coincidence. I guess i myself had a fifth star, faith conversion in the 1980s, kind of a dramatic conversion. I have written about in a few places. My website, let me say eric metaxas. Com, my store is right there and theres a video. But i know immediately somebody recommend to me the books of chuck colson, and i had this in memory from watergate being a kid answer reading chucks book, loving god, those excellent example of all his books. I thought, i the who is this guy . Has a profound faith conversion, clearly not kind of come clearly the real deal concluded intellection on us, clearly extremely bright. So i read his book and on and opportunity i graduated yalet met in 1984, and he was speaking at Yale Law School psycho back to new haven to hear him speak. I had him a Children Book which had written with a letter just telling them what i thought of them. Within days i got a letter back from them. I couldnt believe it. My hero, this guy wrote me a letter. And he said something about keeping in touch. And i thought sure, and about a year later they were looking for writers and editors for breakpoint which is his daily radio commentary. Breakpoint. Org. Everyday at the commentary of world issues, cultural issues, a worldview. And i ended up riding and working for breakpoint, and today all these years later im one of the voices of breakpoint and chuck passed away. They asked me at prison fellowship would i take over. So ive been doing that for about a year and a half now. Whats the short version of your conversion . Of what . Your conversion. The short version is i was raised with some fake. Greek orthodox, altar boy come believe in god but did we know the details. Did know why i believed it. Didnt even know is this something that is intellectually sound . I wasnt convinced that it was. I thought is just some sort of, if youre greedy to go to the greek church and you dont ask me questions. Be a good boy, get good grades, go to a good school and you will make a good living. Well, ma at yale my faith, such as it was, was strongly challenged. Academia at yale is particularly secular but by the time i graduated i was not only lost a might know i did what i believe because i never had really drill down to know, do i believe what i claim to believe . When push comes to shove i thought i guess i dont, i dont know what ugly. Im openminded and thats an excuse to think i just dont think there are answers to any rational person can have. So i hold the whole thing lightly. I wanted to be a writer. Of course thats really tough so i flouted. Then i drifted and then exploded. It was not a good time in my life. Moved back in with my parents, which i dont recommend, and during a really lost time i took a menial job as a proofreader at Union Carbide in connecticut. Very unpleasant. During the initial period i met a guy whos pretty serious christian, very generous soul, very kind soul who began having conversations with them. I kept thinking, dont get too close. I dont want to be one of those weird bornagain christians. By kept asking questions. One night literally like a year later, i had a dream. I relate that on my website, ericmetaxas. Com, but i had a dramatic dream where god revealed himself to me and i did not ask for it but it just happened. It was lifechanging. What can i tell you . On me, either online or im crazy or it happened but i think it happen. And its given me a deep piece which i actually did not think was possible to have. Again, forgive me for making that longer than it ought to be but its hard to tell that sto story. We are here at the conservative Political Action conference talking with you. Are the seven menu profile here, are the conservatives . Did you consider politically conservative . Not really. I think what one calls conservative today is different from what one would of called conservative 50 or 100 or 200 years ago. I think, yeah, im less interested in conservatism than i am interests. And if conservatism is speaking truths, im interested in conservatism. On issue of life, when i spoke of the National Prayer breakfast two years ago i talked a little bit about my values, the valley of unborn life, and the valley of loving our political enemies, of being gracious to those with whom we disagree. I fail at that but i believe that thats what ought to try to do. Those things are important, and so if these men in seven men possess those qualities. Intellectual honesty. With wilberforce was in some is conservative and in some ways not. He put his faith and truth before party. Not always an easy thing to do but he felt it was the right thing to do. He stood against the government a couple times, spoke out against his friend, william pitts. I would say that if you look at the life of Jackie Robinson, Jackie Robinson was a profound christian, very few people know that. Very few people know that his ability, well, his strength in breaking the racial barrier came from his faith, from prayers on his knees, that god would give them the strength to do something that he could not humanly do. His recruiter did what he did in large part because of his face. That story needs to be told. People need to know that. Jackie robinson was not a william f. Buckley conservative in the survey was a republican, no doubt about that, but who cares . To me his faith was just beautiful. You talked about speaking at the National Prayer breakfast. You have a mini book here, no pressure, mr. President. What is this . Well, two years ago i had the high honor of being chosen to speak in front of the president , the first leg of the Vice President , the estimates of congress, every big shot you can think of as the National Prayer breakfast and it was the honor of my life. I didnt take it lightly. I knew as soon as i was invited that this was actually not about me, that god has something he wants to share with everyone there, those people agree with me politically seem to screw with me politically. I was not used the occasion to try to embarrass the president , but to reach out to him in love with some thoughts and ideas, and thats what i attempted to do. I think i was successful only by god,s grace because thats not easy to do, that its online. Again, my website, ericmetaxas. Com. It was a crazy morning. And that book or my speech is in the but the background story which i want to know but it is a crazy story of talking to joe biden a nancy pelosi and of having conversation with all kinds of people, and the encounter with president did something funny happened. It was alleged, crazy with the president. And then finally either the president and a number of others and singing Amazing Grace a cappella at the end of the. I did know i was going to do that. I was inspired, another star thats in the. I just that ive got to write this. Its a long essay. Its pretty funny actually. A lot of what happened was at just how there is an unplanned. Your whole life, youre not mrs. Are just an author gives some other you now. Actually now i am a tv host. Im hosting a show that airs every sunday morning called most markets across the country on sunday morning, half hour show. Its just a tv morning show that deals mainly with faith issues. Not exclusive. Its a morning show for sunday mornings, but as i said 100 huntley. Com, the details are there. I do a lot of things. Were making a movie of my bonhoeffer book right now which is extraordinary to think about what a great story, what a great life. It needs to be celebrated. It needs to be known. People are so inspired by his story, thats the success of my book. Its not my writing. He lived his life, and its touching people. And so if we could make a movie out of it, we are in the process of doing that and its happening. Should be out next year. Pretty exciting. Parents of Young Children may know you from a different genre. What is that . Strangely enough ive had the joy of working either i am the voice of the nader raider on the esther video. Ive written 30 Childrens Books over the years. Another john or i was expecting to skip in this lifetime but god had other plans. I love writing for children. One of the most fun things you can do. Some of my hero seven Children Book writers. Cs lewis wrote Childrens Books. And i really did enjoy it, and my Childrens Books are using the mens also for adults. I hope theres a sophistication and a witness some of the best childrens writing has. Mine aspires to have that. I do love Childrens Book writing. I run something in manhattan, its a series. Five interview the people that you might have heard of
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