Freedom Coalition Founder ralph reed who over the next two hours will be talking your calls and comments. His books include act of faith and for god and country which was published earlier this year. Host author ralph reeding when we asked you what some of your books are, the first one you listed was the bible. Is the bible a political book . Guest i dont think of it that way. Certainly, it has instruction about Civic Affairs and politics and how we order our societies, but i for me, obviously, the bible is primarily the revelation of gods man and principles for humanity and the best huawei to know best way to know the keys to living a godly life with intimacy with him. And if you believe in the new testament, as i do, his son, jesus christ. I also think as a trained historian its one of the most important history books that youll ever read. I mean, if you want to understand the ancient world, theres no better Single Source than the bible. Its all there, the rise and fall of empires from, you know, the babylon to the persians, to the greeks, to the roman empire. And then finally, even if you dont shower share my faith or the jewish or Christian Faith, i think its one of the most important books of philosophy ever written. I mean, if you read the psalms, you read the proverbs, even if you dont have a monoing no threistic view monothreistic view of the world, the philosophical beliefs that are found in scripture are, you know, some of the most timeless and eternal and important ever written. Host how did you come to your Christian Faith . Guest well, i was raised in the church. My parents grew up in the methodist church. I grew up in the methodist church. My best friend growing up was the son of my pastor. Few father was chairman of the board my father was chairman of the board of deacons or elders, few mother was the head of the methodist youth fellowship. I grew up going to methodist youth camp and grew up going to sunday school. I didnt know any other life other than that. I mean, it was just the way i was raised. Finish but i never really had a personal relationship with jesus christ. And when i got excited about politics as a teenager, you know, i kind of went off on that track and worked on campaigns and ended up going to washington, d. C. And working at the Republican National committee. Really long story short, i dud not find that i did not find that to be satisfying, did not find it to fill the void that was inside of me. I came in contact with some Young Christians who were involved in the College Republicans who shared their faith with me. But more importantly, just share ed their lives with me. I mean, they loved me, we balm good friends we became good friends, and i saw a happiness and a joy in them that i had never known. I was curious about where it came from and that ultimately led me to driving to a Small Evangelical Church outside washington, d. C. On september 18th, 1983. And at that church service, i gave my life to jesus christ. Host ralph reed, why are you a conservative . Guest im a conservative because i believe in free markets, i believe in capitalism. Not unfetteredded, unhinged capitalism, but a capitalism that is governed by the principles that i referred to earlier from scripture about caring for the poor, caring for the downtrodden, the left behind, the marginalized. Finish i believe in, i believe free markets and free minds are the, together, freedom in a civic sense and freedom in the markets has been the greatest generator of wealth and happiness and peace and stability in all of recorded human history. And i believe that conservativism, which has found its home in the Republican Party in the modern context, in the postworld war ii period, is the best way to preserve and guard and protect those free minds and free markets. And i think, unfortunately, liberalism which has found itself in the modern Democratic Party in the postdepression, postnew deal context spends most of its time trying to restrict and even crush those freedoms and those markets and believes in the redistribution of wealth and trying to create equality of outcomes rather than max musing the wealth maximizing the wealth and the progress that comes from free markets and free minds. So over time, both because of the way i was raised, i grew up in a mull tower family military family, my father served in the u. S. Navy during the vietnam conflict and then was a career Naval Reserve officer, and i grew up in a household of faith, and so that was the way i grew up. But over time i made my own independent decisions based on my own study and few own involvement. Host from your 1996 book act of faith, you write what does it mean to be a person of faith in the political world . It is no different from being a christian in any other vocation. Politics is a contact sport. I have a job to do, and it involves trying to advance my agenda. In that combat i play hard, and i try to win, but i never hit below the belt. Guest right. You know, there a lot of times i get asked the question, you know, how, you know, what is the proper relationship between christianity or our faith and politics. It seems to be such a dirty business. Its so cutthroat. And, you know, first of all, theres really two answers. The first is were called as men and women of faith to be engaged in the polity wherever god has placed us. In the time of the ancient jews, that sometimes meant being under subjugation of an occupied power whether it was the babylonians or the persians or later the romans. In the current context, it means, for me, being a citizen of the United States. And i think we have earthly civic responsibilities, and then we have heavenly responsibilities. And we essentially carry two passports. We are citizens, in effect, of two realms and two kingdoms. One is of the United States. Were american citizens. And the other is of the kingdom of god which is both here today and yet to fully come. And each carries responsibilities. As a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, im called to obedience to gods commandments, to care for the poor, to share the gospel with others, to pray, to read the bible and to worship, to not neglect the coming together of believers, you know . Theres certain responsibilities. And in the earthly sort of context, theres certain responsibilities which i believe are to register to vote, to be informed, to vote, to make ones views known to elected officials, to petition our government, to redress grievances and injustices. And if we fully understand our faith, we are to be muscular citizens of both. And the reason why we are called to be muscular and robust citizens in the earthly realm is not because we believe we can usher in the kingdom of god by electing the right person or passing the right law. We cant do that. Gods kingdom will only come when christ returns. But until then, we are to occupy until he comes. And if we understand our citizenship in the bubbly call understanding biblical understanding, its effective in two ways. Number one, it can protect the innocent, and it can establish justice and redress injustice and resist evil. Certainly, the Civil Rights Movement did that in the 1960s, the Antislavery Movement did that in the antebellum period and on through the civil war, the Temperance Movement did that and the Suffragist Movement in the late 19th century. They werent just on their knees praying for jesus to come back, they were doing everything they could to resist and combat i evil in their time. The second thing that it does is it allows the gospel to spread and to rise to the highest and most influential levels of our society because of our Civic Engagement. In other words, other people become aware of our faith and our principles and are exposed to them in an altogether positive withdraw because were engaged way because were engaged in the civic process. So, for example, when you read the new testament, you find that because the apostle paul was a citizen of rome and appealed his case all the way to the emperor which was a right of a row man citizen roman citizen, the bible says that many members of caesars household came to know jesus christ because paul did that. In fact, in some epistles that paul wrote later he sends greetings from members of caesars household. And there were governors and roman officials who were exposed to the gospel only because paul chose to be an effective citizen. So thats, thats the way that i approach it. Host now, mr. Reed, from your 2014 book awakening how america can turn from moral and economic destruction, back to greatness, youre talking about a topic were talking about today. You write because we have never fully repented for the injustices and wrongs done during slavery and segregation, we have never experienced the healing that comes through the redemptive process of repenitence and forgiveness. Until we do, we will not fully experience the spiritual awakening our nation so desperately needs. Guest yeah. I mean, i thats certainly not a thought thats original to me. I think in that chapter i quote a beautiful speech that my good friend Mike Huckabee gave when he was governor of arkansas to honor the children who were the first to integrate a high school in little rock, arkansas, and then ultimately led to dwight d. Eisenhower, as i recall, federalizing the National Guard to protect those young people from the violence that they were threatened with. And Mike Huckabee said, in effect, the same words and said that some of the poverty and the backwardness that arkansas had experienced in the 20th century was a attributable to the sin of racism and the sin of segregation and specifically to the failure to fully repent of that sin. And i still believe thats true. And, you know, we both individually and collectively as a nation, we need to acknowledge that this sin occurred, that it was a collective sin of both commission by those who erected jim crow and subjected africanamerican citizens to be second class citizens and deny them their rights as americans, and by omission by those who allowed it to go on and failed to oppose it. Theres no question that thats true. And while i know theres a lot of controversy about the 1619 project at the New York Times and i think theres been a distortion of some truths about American History in that project, i do think that it is undeniable as the historian Edmund Morgan wrote in american slavery, American Freedom that American Freedom was inextricably intertwined with slavery and that its been very difficult for us as a society to disentangle the two. Even almost 400 years after the first europeans landed on this continent. Host so does some of that repentance include reparations . Guest i, i have not felt that that was the way to go because i think its very hard, you know, 150 years after the end of slavery to figure out who gets compensated and how. It was done for the victims of the japanese internment during world war ii. Congress actually passed a law and made a monetary payment to the families of those who were denied their freedom who were citizens, who were put in internment camps during world war ii under the administration of franklin roosevelt. I think it would be very difficult to do it 150 years later. I think if it was going to be done, it needs to be done after the civil war or during reconstruction. But i think there are other ways that you can express a repen about the spirit. I think some of that repentant. I think some of that is personal, some of it is spiritual, and some of it does take place in Public Policy. And without getting into a fullblown Public Policy discussion today, i think in areas like health care, criminal Justice Reform, Economic Empowerment and education reform and opportunity, we can build a society that is just, and we can build a society that is based on equal opportunity for everyone, and we can make sure that no one is left behind. Particularly those minority americans and particularly africanamericans who have been denied that opportunity and still are in many cases today. They live in neighborhoods that are not safe, their children go to school where they are not safe and cannot learn, and they do not have the same opportunities as other americans. And we should do everything that we can to redress that. And, obviously, im a supporter of president trump, but i think whether you look at his education reform and School Choice agenda, you look at his Economic Empowerment agenda, lowering africanamerican unemployment to the lowest level if recorded economic history, you look at his Opportunity Zone agenda where they have unleashed approximately 5 billion in capital that is flowing into hundreds of Opportunity Zones mostly in disenfranchised minority areas of urban and Rural Centers and if you look at what hes doing on criminal Justice Reform, historic to redress what i think was a twotiered Justice System for too many minority americans. I i think it is possible. I think donald trump wants to do it, and i think once we get past this election and this partisan season that were in, im optimistic that well be automobile able to. Host so, ralph reed, your most recent book is for god and country. Did you just lay out your christian case for trump . Guest somewhat. That certainly is part of what i talk about. I have a proposed in both awakening, the 2014 book and for god and country i lay out what i say is not a republican or a democrat, not necessarily a liberal or conservative, but a biblical agenda for the country. And, you know, in some cases like criminal Justice Reform and Immigration Reform, we end up in a little bit of a different place than the Republican Party has traditionally been. You know, its not generally understood out there because people tend to look at conservatives of faith and just think theyre reflexively republican. But they have changed the Republican Party far more than the Republican Party has changed them. Theyve made the Republican Party a prolife party, and believe that black lives matter. I believe all black lives matter including unborn lives. And abortion is one of those cases where disproportionately minority lives are being lost and are being taken systematically by what i consider to be a grave social injustice. Weve also changed the Republican Party on the issue of criminal Justice Reform. Historically, the Republican Party has been a toughoncrime party, lock em up and throw away the key party. And through our efforts not just our efforts, but largely our efforts this has come through the Faith Community, weve called for a more biblical criminal Justice System based on redemption and not simply punishment, giving people a Second Chance at life and focusing particularly on nonviolent first offenders. Compassionate, humane and tough love alternatives to longterm incarceration like job training, like mentorship programs, like spiritual programs including those led by prison fellowship and others that minister to inmates and lead them to a better life spiritually. And then the last one that ill mention is Immigration Reform. You know, most people focus on Donald Trumps desire for Border Security and building a wall to secure the border. But beyond that weve also called for welcoming the stranger and welcoming the immigrant and making sure that while they abide by our laws, we also treat them with compassion and give them a chance if they obey our laws and if they pay taxes and if they either get a job or they go to school, of being able to have a path to citizenship. We have called for either permanent residency and we dont oppose a path to citizenship for the entire dreamer population, because we dont think those young people should be punished for the crime that their parents committed. We believe the bible teaches that you dont punish the child for the sin of the father. And so, you know, again, if violating laws, if theyre trying to get on public assistance, thats a different deal. But if they serve in the military, they have a job or theyre getting an education, we think that they can be part of the greatness of america, and weve called for as part of a comprehensive solution to our immigration system allowing them to have residence. So, you know, i think there is such an agenda. Thats what we work on. Most of the time, of course, we find ourselves in agreement with the Republican Party but not always. Host mr. Reed, is there some discuss comfort in evangelical circles with the president because of some of the personal issues that have been reported on . Guest sure. And as i point out in for god and country, you know, theres been a little bit of revisionist history by the media about how evangelicals came to support donal