Book you talk about the Golden Triangle of freedom. Your leaping right in, arent you . I have to tell you people always ask me how i write my books and with this book if you can keep it which is my newest book, the book on luther is coming out in a couple weeks but this book im talking about america and at the very heart of it is the Golden Triangle of freedom. But what i find funny is that i never heard of it, no ones ever heard of it. A number of years ago dear friend of mine Alec Guinness wrote a book calleda free peoples philistine. Again all founders understood this. Quickly its that freedom requires virtue. When we say freedom we mean selfgovernment requires a virtue. Virtue in turn requires faith and then faith in turn requires freedom. To explain it, the founder said they wrote this over and over and over. You cant have selfgovernment or actual freedom unless the people govern themselves, which is to say less the people have some semblance of virtue, you cant force people to govern themselves. Its free whether it want to govern yourself it has to come from your inner virtue. They wrote about this over and over and over. Growing up in america i never heard this once. I grew up in Good American schools, went to yale. I never heard of this concept of virtue, connected to freedom. Then the founder said and virtue by the way really needs to be married to face. Not in every case the typical it has been their observation. This is what i find funny. It was their observation. Franklin observed when George Whitfield preached, people would find faith can get excited about faith and their virtue would rise. In other words, cry would go down, alcoholism would go down. All founders understood those people can govern themselves. You dont need to be a christian but the point is virtue and faith are connected. They want to promote project faith. The final final piece and this is what makes america i would say the greatest nation in the world, we say that faith is important but it must be free. If the government in any way trying to coerce states or lack of faith or the type of faith, it all breaks down. True faith has to be completely free. In my little book i talk about the catholics try to force people to catholic. The protestants try to force everyone to be protestant. Luther wanted to get the satisfaction. Religious freedom is new idea. The founders understood in order for this to work, for freedom and faith to floors come for virtue to floors, freedom has to be religious freedom at the core. If the people are allowed to choose whether they go to church, whether they go to synagogue, when they go, if its completely free, only then it can work. That in a nutshell is a golden trying coal thought to myself every american must understand this because without that we cant be america. Host you go on to quote john adams and saying our constitution was made only for amaral and religious people. Guest the funny things that people have heard that quote. Thats one of dozens of quotes that many of the founders you would never know they talked about this. Benjamin franklin, washington, they all talked about the link between virtue and freedom jerk the fact that virtue is never spoken about today in Public Schools, if you are going to teach kids about america, in American Public schools paid by american tax dollars you need to tell them how this is supposed to work. When i sit all of the founder said this, i mean all of the founders. There was not any of them who thought there are other ways. As far as they were concerned, there were no other ways. If the people in a virtue, it doesnt mean every person but generally speaking, if there is not virtue and an ability to govern yourself, if those instincts, those muscles are not developed you cannot have selfgovernment. You go back to tierney whether its a monarchy or bureaucracy. No matter what, that has to happen. So the fact that this is not been taught roughly for 40 years since ive been a kid, we walked away from the idea of virtue. Makes us uncomfortable. That is really destroyed america. America. I dont say that as a person. I see that as an american. If you care about freedom you have to care about this concept. I wrote the book by the way for everybody. Its about a book for for conservatives pick this not a book for hardcore patriots are tea party people. This is about the left and right, Richard Dreyfuss is big on this issue, people need to understand that there some things that are nonnegotiable. The stuff in this book is nonnegotiable for every american. How you played out thats up to you. If youre not teaching this in the schools we lost a couple of generations. I think were in big trouble. Host indie book if you can keep it you write about your time at yale and you say how could ive grown up in a world that no longer values this great treasure, this great treasure being paul repairs ride, a poem. Guest theres a couple things. There is paul repairs ride. Because my parents are immigrants, my dad came from greece, wartorn greece, more than wartorn. Doubly wartorn. They had the civil war, an earthquake. He appreciated america. He loved america. He loved america today. I hope is watching. My mom team from wartorn germany, fosterfather into work. People come from outside this country typically have a better view of what we have. I talk to cab drives all the time in new york city. Most of them immigrants, mostly great about how Great America is. I thought if you understand what we have and how fragile it is this is not to say there are no problems and i read about that in the book but first you have to see what we have is incredibly special, incredibly fragile here if we dont show it up and take care of it it so because way. One of the thinks im a book if you can keep it i suggest must be done you have to teach young people the stories, myths, the heroes. You have to celebrate George Washington and paul revere and nathan hale. If you dont do that something is sick. In every culture, going up with my dad being greek i would hear about the greek heroes. They would rave about greek independence. Thats called normal picture supposed to be proud of your culture. In American Culture something happened. The story of paul reveres ride, because it by henry long works longfellow, hes not a multicultural paul, hes 19 century white male poet, well, Paul Driggers right is one of the greatest poems ever written, one of the most beatable poems ever written and excited to memorize with my daughter when she was eight, i was embarrassed that it didnt know the poem and i would get tears in my eyes because i said people literally sacrifice their lives so i could sit in this comfortable house and think whatever i want. We need to teach that to our kids. I did a thing on my Radio Program or challenge people to memorize paul reveres ride, along poem. We got tons of submissions on youtube and its just part of what to do, to get people excited about who we are. Host the chapter loving america you ask the first question to ask is how can we possibly be expected to love a country we know to be guilty of so many things. Guest this is a question and this is why unfortunately most of these programs are not like this one, its all about soundbites, all about gotcha gotcha gotcha. The fact of the matter is any fool knows that love is not binary. If you love your kid it doesnt mean you approve of everything your kid does. In fact, if you really love your kid you might be really hard on your kid because you want your kid not to make the mistakes you made. When you love your country, that never means america love it or leave it. It means if you love it, you celebrate whats good, and you look seriously at whats wrong and to try to fix it. That to me is normal and healthy but i cannot think of of it this way. Its like lets say you have a kid thats bad and youre having trouble to keep your imagine is the parent is to think im going to try to love this kid in the right direction, correct this kid, going to work correct this kid heart and love this kid and encourage Good Behavior and help this kid goes on right path. What is the parent says, you are bad come youre bad, you will never amount to anything. Youre basically cursing to keep producing you will never let anything against his i did this. I dont care, too late. If you have the attitude toward somebody, thats the antithesis of love. That judgment. You judge somebody in such a harsh way that no matter what they do, never redeem himself. A narrative entered American Public life roughly in the 60s were we begin to deal seriously as we should with civil rights, slavery and how we dealt with the native americans. We dealt with that step in a wy for the first time but something happened where we never able to let it go. In other words, you keep throwing it back, its come like were in a marriage. Use Something Back in some essays over and over and over, so they could never get past you can never say you worked on the, pressured the fact you worked on that. We are not there yet, but that kind of attitude if you keep harping on the negative, chris unaired which has taken hold in Public School teaching certainly in colleges, a kind of antimac and sediment which is actually really unhealthy and is causing american to be stuck in some of the ruts were we have been stuck. Host the almost chosen people is a chapter in your book, and you write some extent, this is a book about whats been called american exceptionalism. Which is rightly and wrongly something of a controversial subject. Guest because most people understand the concept of american exceptionalism. Its the same idea of when you say the jews are gods chosen people. When you are chosen by god you dont click your heels in, ha ha, we are chosen, you are not. Its just the opposite. You are chosen or something grim and serious. You are chosen for a mission. The jews were chosen by god if your christian sim, you believe they were chosen for admission, its going to be hard. This is not a fun thing. Lincoln who we repair refer to america as gods almost chosen people. He did want to be blasphemous company said that their something unique. This is lincoln, okay, lincoln picky said the something unique in america come something really special. But its a burden, a responsibility. And its a responsibly to the whole world. What i say is the only reason i would ever say that americas great or exceptional is because america is the one nation in the world that has for over two centuries explicitly existed for others. Its not about us. Its about how do we spread our freedom . How to spread our freedom and get people in the soviet gulags hope in the 1980s how do we give people the ability to come to this country could weave always been a nation of immigrants. Now begins to arguments about the details but nobody denies that weve always been outward focus. Weve never said if you dont have a certain ethnic background or certain color you are not welcome. What makes this country crazy amazing is that my parents who have accents to this day, they are as american as George Washington. There is no country in the world that is an idea. Its an idea that if you buy into these ideas you can be as american as anyone who ever lived. Its only because want to stress this, because were supposed to exist for others. We are supposed to care about the rest of the world. I would say throughout history america has treated the first of will. Im not going to pretend where perfect but weve gone out of our way to take responsibility. Just the way kind of like the big kid in the schoolyard says im a big kids im going to defend the weak, if i can. I cannot have responsibly. Do i have to . No. I choose to do that. I really think thats been the dna of america and even now with the hearty flood. People go art people great . I would say no. Americans are great. Why . Because there are plenty place around the world that experience devastation but its not part of the cultured on the talk about the dna. The people are the same but there something in American Culture about getting back, but helping our neighbor. Those are biblical ideas that are taken root in the west in part thanks to wilberforce and others, but to pretend that a person in the world case like it when Tragedy Strikes. A lot of time when Tragedy Strikes its about me, how can i survive . There something in the American Culture that we set over 200 years and the common man and woman has not lost it that we care about our neighbors. Somehow we know its the right thing to do. That to me is what makes America Special is we care about the other guy. We care when 9 11 happened, we cared about muslims being persecuted. Thats amazing. What a beautiful thing that we cared about that. Wasnt just like we will kick but. We are going to wipe out. I mean, that sight of it but another site that says but hold on, there are really good people. My neighbor i know is muslim. I dont want my neighbor to think that i hate him. Thats america. That is beautiful. We need to celebrate it. Host before the greedy further eric metaxas, a couple of names you mentioned. Lets get some clarification oz guinness. Guest he became a friend 20 years go. A great man come a great writer, a great thinker. Recommend his book of the people suicide might any of the book. It is a sobering glorious, American Freedom and it explains to the founders and through the total after lincoln as i turned in my book, not as well, what is is that we have and what we must do to preserve it. But he is a real intellectual turkeys written many books and i would recommend to anybody anything hes ever written. Check it out. Hes a rare bird. Host George Whitfield. Guest George Whitfield is another one of these characters. I say how half of my career is being embarrassed. I am goaded by being embarrassed. When i discovered it George Whitfield was, i thought to myself, there something really sick with this country that were not teaching young people who George Whitfield is. Hes as important as any of the founders. , case closed ricky was an evangelical who came here who came here when you swing when youre sober he preached like a maniac. He makes the apostle paul and billy graham look lazy. Im not even kidding. He was a force of nature unlike weve ever seen. But heres the key. He wasnt just preaching about jesus although he was. He was preaching about the freedom of the gospel and he was explaining to people, and this is luther talks about this but whitfield really brought this to the colonies. This idea that the first responsibility is to god. If your preachers preaching the truth, go to another church. If your magistrate, your governor, your leaders are not speaking the truth, you hold them to account abilities equal under god. Thats a radical idea. Everyone is equal. The guy with the powdered wig, a the guy holding in the field, we are all equal because we are all under god. That of course is at the heart of american liberty, the founders and framers put it in our founding documents. If not for whitfield, for literally four or five decades this like crazy up and down the colonies, it would have not been imbibed. It would not trickle down to the common man. So by don yet the 1770s when whitfield passed away, you have a people in american who so understand this idea of this kind of american egalitarianism that theyre ready to govern themselves and thats why the founders saw this and they said these people, if we cant than freedom, they may be able to govern themselves. If you have People Freedom in iraq or afghanistan use that if they are not prepared, it doesnt just happen. Its not like the top of the dictator with try. Hats and muskets and constitution pops up. Thats not normal. We need to be educated and trained how to govern ourselves. Its a rare and a fragile thing and again thats why i feel if we dont teach this stuff now, we lose it. In fact, we are losing it. Host what was George Whitfield connection to ben franklin . This is alleged. Whitfield was, he was such a phenomenon. They said by the time he died, this is hard to believe but this is true. By the time he died, 80 of all the people in the colonies had heard him preach in person at least one time. He was saturate the continent. Before he came in he was famous in england. He was drawing crowds. Anybody in high school if you read the autobiography of Ben Franklin Ben franklin recounts as he meant whitfield gets off the boat and preaches, and franklin think site is can be decides to figure out how many people in the crowd, how many people could hear his voice. And franklin decided that yes, about 30,000 people and hearing preaching without microphone. Of course microphones were not intended. Franklin had a connection with it. Franco was not what i would call an orthodox christian, but neither was he some kind of atheist or even agnostic. He was sort of a student of religion and he decided to publish, think of this happened today. He decided to publish all of which fields sermons in the pennsylvania gazette before whitfield came to america when whitfield came to america he became as publisher. Imagine you have the to publish tons of sermons. He was himself not a bornagain evangelical but he said what this man is doing, what effect this man is having is so positive i want to do everything i can do nothing. He became friends over the years, and they really were friends their whole lives. Host good afternoon and welcome to booktv on cspan2. This is a monthly transfer program where we have one author on when we talk with his or her body of work. This month its bestselling author and radio talkshow host eric metaxas. Mr. Metaxas begin writing books in 1995, the birth the abc which is a Childrens Book. His first adult book was dont you believe it, and actual parity cannot 96. By the abc nightly. Squanto and 99, several Childrens Books. Everything you always wanted tn 2005. Everything you wanted to know about go