The Eric Metaxas Show - #162 - Elijah O’Neal

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Today On The Eric Metaxas Show, Eric talks with Elijah O’Neal, Director of Education at Glenn Beck’s American Journey Experience, about extraordinary artifacts from America’s past. They examine George Washington’s compass, glasses, and hair, an early reproduction of Thomas Jefferson’s original Declaration of Independence draft, the anti-slavery passage removed from the final document, and the forgotten sermons that helped inspire the American Revolution.⭐ ORDER NOW:Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World📕: https://a.co/d/0ir3NlapTODAY'S SPONSORS:☀️ Honest, fast, and free Medicare plan guidance: https://askchapter.com/metaxas/

Hey there, folks. Welcome back. You've heard me talk about visiting what I think of as Glenn Beck's Museum. He's the crazy genius behind finding these objects of history almost unfathomable to me. The other day I posted on Instagram holding the spectacles, the glasses of George Washington. It seems fake. It seems like it can't be real. It's real. holding the compass that Washington used to, you know, to measure things on maps. Completely unfathomable that these things still exist and that you can see them. And in my case, get to touch them. It doesn't seem right. But I thought it would be fun to talk to somebody who knows more about this. So today we have, as my guest, Elijah O'Neill, who serves as the Director of Education at the American Journey Experience, which is in Irving, Texas.

Elijah, welcome to the program. Yes, Mr. Metaxis, thank you so much for having me. Okay, now you've got to call me Eric, but thank you for being polite. Okay, so listen, you are there. I really can't believe that, you know, you're the Director of Education at this American Journey experience. You get to live with this stuff. How did, what is your background that you've got to do this? Because this, to me, it's just absolutely amazing to be around.

this kind of thing. Yeah, well, you know, discussing my background is, is another story in of itself, because when you kind of think about the typical path that people will generally take to get into the museum space, it doesn't really look like mine. I used to be a communications director in the Texas House of Representatives. And while my schooling, my formal education wasn't necessarily in museum sciences or history, after I left the Texas legislature, Glenn and Glenn Beck's team saw, an immense love of country from me. And they said, if anyone's going to run the museum, we want someone who loves America,

someone who wants to see the rising generations be taught what the principles of freedom are, what the truth is. That guy seems to know it, so please lead the organization and please lead the American Journey experience. And so... Yeah, well, the whole thing is crazy.

I mean, I'm practically drooling when I see this stuff. I can't believe it. So tell us, I mean, this is... It seems to me that the point of this is to let the public, history comes alive, you know, to use that cliche. But history comes alive when you're looking at the actual thing, when you're looking at an actual document. So now folks can come to this museum in Irving, Texas, right? I mean, they go to American Journey Experience, I guess, online. What are some of the things you have there, Elijah?

What are some of these things that people can look at from a few feet away? Absolutely. So the American Journey Experience has over 100,000 artifacts spending from the time of Christopher Columbus to the space race. And what we do at this facility is we talk about America's darkest hours as well as our highest glories, all in the context of the artifacts that were actually present at those critical junctures. So one of the artifacts that I'm sure you'll recognize that you recently saw at our last event is George Washington's personal surveying compass that he, for 54 years. of his life. I'm telling you, Elijah, it does not seem, my brain cannot process it that there it is. I mean, there's no, because it's this, you know, exquisitely crafted instrument, you know, there's no deterioration.

This is not like a shoe from 200 years ago. You're thinking like, well, I don't know what it looked like when it was new, but now this looks exactly the way it would have looked. I mean, is it made of brass? Yes, it's made out of brass and various other materials, but I think kind of to strike at the heart of what you're discussing is the reason why the American Journey experience selects certain artifacts for the public to hold is that history comes to life in a way like never before when people are able to touch and feel and experience what our founding fathers and framers experience. And what that does is that it energizes them. it activates them and it mobilizes them into realizing, look, these were not just American mythological people that we study about. They were people just like you. They were people just

like me with the potential to do excellent things. And I have been a part of numerous opportunities where we have elected officials, where we have various men and women throughout culture that hold artifacts like this and make resolute. declarations in defense of their country and running for office and running for your election right in front of me because they were able to experience artifacts like this in a way that most museums don't allow people to experience them well and obviously something like that if you're careful it's okay to touch it I mean this is not a copy of the Declaration of Independence this is a piece of metal um that as I said earlier it's not

like leather or paper uh it's something that you know a thousand and years from now should look the same, which is amazing. The glasses that I held, now I held them in the case, I didn't touch the actual glasses, but again, there's a part of the brain that says this can't be the real thing. Sure. And yet it is. Now, how did Glenn and company come to acquire these things? That's to me what is just so difficult to comprehend. that these things have existed for 250 plus years. Well, in the case, the glasses, it's probably about 250 years or maybe even a few years less. Because I remember, you know, obviously the moment in 1782 where he pulls them out when he's,

you know, reading this letter from Congress up in Newburgh, you know, to kind of crush the Newberg conspiracy. And it's conceivable that those are the actual glasses that he would have pulled out. Right. Yeah. It's absolutely a possibility. We know that George Washington owned multiple glasses over his lifetime. But that being said, to get to the heart of your question, we have a team of researchers that before we purchase certain artifacts, we do our due diligence and research all the provenance we can before we advise Glenn or anyone else on the team before purchasing certain artifacts.

And what's awesome about those particular glasses is that the provenance going all the way back to Alexander Hamilton's family was right. rock solid. We have to remember that a lot of these artifacts owned by the founding fathers and framers, they actually have dual provenoths because not only were they owned by the founding father, they, it would end up willing them to their children that were also friends with the Hamilton children, which is exactly what the cases with those glasses. They were given to Alexander Hamilton by George Washington actually himself while he was alive and it passed down in Hamilton's family. And those are tracks and records that we can find replete online as well as through what the auction house provided. And so we were just incredibly honored to be one first people in line to be able to purchase these artifacts.

Well, so what are some of the things with some of the other things you've got there? So again, this is the American Journey Experience, a museum and research library in Irving, Texas. What are some of the other things you've got there? Yeah. So for America 250, we've been going around the entire country talking about, how to know America is to love America. We've had the honor of doing that with Secretary Lyndon McMahon, and one of the artifacts that I will show the schools nationwide

is this particular one right here. And I don't think we brought this to the last event that you were at, Eric, but this is a sample of George Washington's hair in a brooch that was gifted to George Steptoe Washington, which was George Washington's nephew. And I love this story. Because there are records that you can read online of George Washington,

riding to Steptoe telling him, hey, don't worry about the girls, don't worry about what you're going to wear. I want you to study hard. I want you to get good grades. Why? Because he was paying for Steptoe's education because his father, which was George Washington, the younger brother, was not able to pay for it himself. And so he's writing to Steptoe saying, get good grades, study hard, learn all that you can,

because days lost in your youth cannot be repaired with years as an adult. What was George Washington saying? He was saying, look, these years that you have in your adolescence and your childhood, these are the times to learn all that you can before your country calls upon you to be a citizen, before your church really calls on you to be a congregate, before a wife calls on you to be a husband and you get all of these other responsibilities in life, but you didn't take time to learn, to be able to mobilize that knowledge into being better in each one of those facets of society. And so I love traveling with that particular

artifact to show people, look, some of the same struggles that we're having today in deciding what to spend our time on and participating in probably a little bit too much hedonism in this country, nothing is uncommon to man. Nothing is new under the sun. And George Washington was even dealing with this with his own nephew. And so it's so important for students to understand, especially for America 250, that we have to redeem the time.

And when they get to see George Washington's heir in that brooch handed down to his family, telling that story hits in a way that most people had never heard a receipt that before. Well, that's, you know, that's beautiful and important. and profound. I'd like to focus on the silly, just the idea of a broach with hair. Most of us would consider that creepy, macabre, odd, eccentric, but we have to be clear in previous generations and centuries, really, that was the thing. A lock of someone's hair was a keepsake. We haven't done that

really in well over 100 years. Yes. But in the latter part of the 18th century and into the 19th century, this was a thing. And so you can see hair from all kinds of historical figures. But to put it in a brooch, I mean, what was the idea behind that? I mean, it's a brooch given to his nephew. Why would, I mean, I wouldn't want to wear a brooch of any kind as a man, much less a brooch with the hair of any.

of my uncles. Can I say that to my audience, folks? I love my uncles. I had three wonderful uncles, but I don't want to broach with their hair. It's creepy. It's weird. Why was this put into a broach? Why was it given by Washington to his elder brother's son? When we look at the headlines coming out of Iran and Israel right now, the fog of war is real. It's hard to know whom to trust. That same feeling of confusion often hits home when you're trying to navigate Medicare. There are so many bad actors in this space looking to capitalize on confusion rather than provide clarity. That's exactly why I am proud to partner with Chapter. Chapter acts as a trusted advocate, helping you cut through the noise to understand your Medicare options.

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Yeah, absolutely. So we have to remember that portraits back then were extremely expensive and not everyone could afford them. And specifically in this case, if we realize that steptoe is being given a lock of hair in a family that typically could afford it from Washington, we have to remember that the whole reason why Washington was paying for stepto's education is because his father wasn't able to afford a lot of things. And back then, giving hair from a deceased person was a very typical practice. A lot of people will come through the American Journey experience and they'll be surprised that we don't only have George Washington's hair. We have Abraham Lincoln's hair. We have Mary Todd Lincoln's hair. We have Alexander Hamilton's hair and numerous other samples of DNAs from our founding fathers and framers, as well as other people in history. Well, let me ask again just to clarify. So this brooch, the hair was taken from Washington after he had died?

That is correct. Yes, in 1799. Okay, so obviously he did not give the brooch. This was given presumably by Martha Washington to his nephew, to their nephew. And again, a broach, just to be clear. So, you know, if it's 1799, did men wear broaches? It's just not clear to me. I mean, you were holding it up and I wasn't sure, really sure. Yeah.

So I don't think it was particularly normal for men to wear broaches at that point. It's most likely that that hair was put in a brooch later on within. But this is more so, I believe, just for preservation purposes. But that in particular was in fact given to steptoe. Right. I just, you said you had other DNA besides hair. What does that even mean? other DNA could you have besides hair in this museum? Yes. So we have numerous artifacts that

contain the DNA of very significant individuals. And what we also have to realize is that, and you would know this absolutely just being such an incredible scholar of World War II history, but we also have to take care of the history from the atrocities, from the evil, very evil, depraved times in history. And so we actually own a napkin that was present at Operation Valky when Adolf Hitler had an assassination attempt on his life. And on that particular napkin, we see blood spewed across the napkin after the explosion went off. Now, unfortunately, because Russia is one of the only countries in the world that claims to have the DNA of Adolf Hitler, and with the current geopolitical issues going on, we don't have access to that particular DNA to cross-reference.

That being said, there's really strong evidence to suggest that that napkin very well might contain Hitler's DNA or someone else in his high command. Well, I was going to say, from what I know, Hitler was not wounded to the point of shedding blood when the bomb went off. It blasted his pants into a hula skirt of tatters. But in any event, so blood would be DNA. So what other DNA and what other historical figures were, I should say, what other, what DNA of which other historical figures do you have? Right. So it's mostly just hair because that is typically would have been passed down and preserved from family member to family member. Right. So what else do you have in this museum? Because I know people are coming to Dallas all the time. I was there yesterday. What other objects of American interest do you have in this museum? And so I'd have to say,

One of my favorite artifacts in the entire collection is actually right here. Now, this is a large binder that contains all four pieces. But this is my favorite artifact in the entire collection. It's the original draft of the Declaration of Independence dated from 1829. So you probably wonder, how do you call it the original declaration draft of the Declaration of Independence, but it be from 1829? 1829. So obviously, 53 years after it was. was written. So yes, how can it be an original if it dates to 1829? That's exactly right,

because after Thomas Jefferson died, July 4th, 1826, the same day as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson Randolph went to his home in Monticello, found the original four slips of paper that he submitted to Congress July 2, 1776. And before he submitted them to Congress for preservation after his grandfather's death, he made this exact replica that I am holding in my hands, that we let the public hold right here. And so. Okay. Yeah.

No, so I think when I was in Las Vegas where there was a traveling exhibit of this just a few days ago before I was in Dallas. Right. And I saw this. And your colleague, I don't remember which, was explaining this to me. So the grandson of the recently deceased Thomas Jefferson, in 1826, finds the actual four pieces of paper

in Jefferson's own hand of the original, of his first draft, which was heavily edited. So what we get is, you know, about 75% of that in the actual document. But this is what he would have liked, including this really powerful,

Philippic against slavery, which is so powerful to think of, that here you have Thomas Jefferson railing against the institution of slavery in what he hoped would be the Declaration of Independence. And of course, South Carolina and Georgia, shame on them,

forced the Continental Congress to edit those out. But that, what you're holding in your, your hand is this copy you're describing of that original document that Jefferson hoped would have become the Declaration of Independence. Absolutely. And that's the magic of the American Journey experience is that you can come to A.J.E. and hold this document and read it for yourself. You don't have to just believe one of our educators, but grab the document that the founding fathers and their

children would have made and held and see the truth and evidence for yourself, that the beginning of the revolution was one of freedom and emancipation for all from the tyranny and slavery of the king. And I think it'd be helpful to say a little bit of the passage that ended up getting removed because only two of the original 13 colonies said no, South Carolina and Georgia. The supermajority of Americans represented in that room, over 70% of the population, wanted that grievance. So what does it say? It says he, being King Georgia 3rd, has waged a cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of the distant people

who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation tither. This piratical warfare, this opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of a quote, Christian king of Great Britain determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold. If I bring this closer to the camera, you'll see that Jefferson, capitalize the word men. And what he's doing is that he's linking that

with the concept on the first page that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. It's an absolutely incredible message. Are you tracking, ladies and gentlemen, Elijah O'Neill has just told us something very important. And I've just learned something, you know,

maybe people think I know all this stuff. There's a lot of stuff that I have missed or never heard or forgot. But what you just said, first of all, the first piece of information, which I find vitally important, only two of the 13 colonies. Ladies and gentlemen, did you hear that? In other words, 11 of the 13 colonies wanted to keep that passage in the Declaration of Independence.

So when people tell you all the founders were pro-slavery hypocrites, you're, you're a hypocrite if you repeat that you're a liar if you repeat that lie that is not true yes um 11 of the 13 11 of the 13 wanted to keep that passage in there and when you say that he capitalizes men the word men and you just said it but i want to underscore it yes this is a callback to the first sentences, all men are created equal. Here you have Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, confessing this, admitting this publicly. He didn't need to do that.

And 11 of the 13 colonies didn't need to vote, yes, we want that in. If that doesn't give you joy and hope for this nation, that 250 years ago, 11 of the 13 colonies wanted to condemn the institution of slavery, folks. Again, this is called history. This is called truth. So whatever narrative you're jumping on to, it better accord with the truth.

And thanks to you, Elijah, today, this has been clarified for me. Because I understood most of this, but not as clearly as you've just made it. That's just astonishing, absolutely astonishing and wonderful. Now, I have to ask you, a much more mundane question.

You said that Jefferson's grandson discovers these four sheets and in 1826 after the death of his grandfather and decides to make a copy. So what you're holding is the 1829 copy. How in the world in 1829 does one make a perfect copy? I mean, because when you look at it, it looks like the real thing.

There were no mimeograph machines. Xerox had not yet been born. What is that? How do you make a copy in 1829 of something as delicate as a 53-year-old handwritten letter? How does that work? Right. And so there were multiple different processes for achieving an exact replica like this. And what you see in the handwriting is that it is Jefferson's prose, but it's not his ink.

and ink came from a different machine. But there are acid etching processes that you can commence on the original document to lift it on another piece of paper. It then etch a piece of metal. It then that metal going through a printer at that time, you know, an 1820s printer will be able to replicate the document. I mean, I just, but I try to imagine this. You have paper.

This is delicate paper with ink. Right. And they would put acid on it? I mean, maybe you don't know this, because I certainly don't know it, but I'm just fascinated if you do know. Yes. How does that work? You put acid.

I don't get it, I guess, is my what I'm trying to say. All of the particulars. However, this is actually how our United States Declaration of Independence, the final draft, was replicated throughout the colonies. And that's why it's so faded today. A lot of people think it was only because they put it in a window where the sun was hitting it. No, it was a combination of factors.

They had put in acid etching, which lifted some of the ink that allowed them to lay multiple copies on it. Uh-huh. In addition to that, then they put it in the sun. So when you put acid on ink, as well as then put it in sunlight, which then fades the ink, it was the perfect recipe for almost having a completely plain document, which unfortunately is kind of what it looks like in the National Archives today. Well, I have to say, again, this is so fascinating. When I was there in Las Vegas with the traveling exhibit, I took photos of this. I haven't posted any of this online yet. But it is a big deal.

I want to, you know, say it again. Ladies and gentlemen, 11 of the 13 colonies voted to keep in the paragraphs, which South Carolina and Georgia, I mean, you talk about a devil's bargain, okay? They blackmailed South Carolina and Georgia. blackmailed the entire continental Congress. They said, oh, you want to declare independence? You want us to be on board with you? You want it to be unanimous so that you appear strong in presenting this as your excuse to the king of why you're declaring independence.

Well, then you better strike out those. This was a bitter bargain. And I just want to say that the 11 hated having to do this. So any person who says that all the founders, they were perfectly on board with excusing slavery. Again, folks, that is a lie. It is a vile lie. It is a calumny. It is just, it's just untrue.

And there are people who are so emotional that they don't care if it's untrue. They feel like it's true. And, you know, even the other day, I think I realized that one third. third of the signers were slaveholders. One third. So one of those was Thomas Jefferson. Another was George Washington. But I mean, to think that I shouldn't say Washington did not sign the declaration, but the point is that even those who were slaveholders were against the idea of slavery. And so it's clearly complicated, but that lie that is out there that you hear in, you know, the 1619 project and so much of what we've been hearing. Again, it's why I wrote my book Revolution. I said, we need a serious recounting of what happened to it in 50 years ago because we've been laboring under this barrage of lies that every time you talk about this era, people pull out these untrue facts, as I call them. They're just lies. And, And they are designed to mislead people.

And so here you have Elijah O'Neill today explaining this to us and showing us that paragraph. But the fact that the word men is in all caps, I tell you, if you ever needed proof of where Jefferson stood, ladies and gentlemen, why do you think he capitalized the word men? It seems kind of obvious. Yes. But it's just amazing to me. And Eric, you know, it goes even further than that because if you continue on in the grievance, it specifically says that the king, quote, prostituted his legislative negative for suppressing every legislative attempt of the colonies to limit or ban that excorable commerce.

And when we look throughout colonial legislative history, what we begin to see is that there were numerous, innumerable attempts by the colonies going all the way back to 1711 in Pennsylvania trying to raise taxes so high to keep more slaves from coming from the North Atlantic Slave Trade. Thomas Jefferson himself in 1769 proposed emancipation legislation inside the Virginia legislature. So so many people say, well, if he believed all these things, how come he owned slaves? The better question to ask is if everyone, including the entire world, was practicing slavery at that point, the better question is where did freedom come from? And what you begin to realize is that freedom came from a room

where a bunch of white men decided, hey, look, we should create a new nation based on the same promise that we are buying and we are getting for ourselves. If the whole world was practicing slavery at that point, it doesn't justify evil, but it puts history into context and realizing, look, America is not the exception,

exceptional for practicing slavery. It was the standard. What was exceptional was all of these men getting in the room and acknowledging the Amago Day in our founding documents. And over and over and over again, Thomas Jefferson talked about it, Benjamin Franklin talked about it, John Adams talked about it, George Washington talked about it.

All of the attempts that they had made decades prior to the revolution to begin the emancipation of slavery, but the king was unwilling. And so when we teach this history that our founding fathers were nothing but a bunch of racist slave holding bigots, it does an absolute disservice to the real sacrifices and the real danger to their life and limb to even propose legislation like this. And if we understood the sacrifices that it took to even get to the revolution, we would love these people

but because there are so many political operatives today that understand if you control the dissemination of information about the past you control the narrative of the present and if you control the narrative of the present you dictate the future

and unfortunately that's what's happening with cultural Marxism in America today if they can destroy your love of history they can control the narrative of that present and they will dictate what your future looks like for your country. It is the same book over. That is so beautifully put. And you're really clarifying the importance of history,

the importance of historical objects such as you have in the American Journey experience where you are now. Because, I mean, I really do think that, you know, the war continues, the revolution continues, that today, as you've just been mentioning, there are people that they don't want you to know the truth because the truth is embarrassing to them. The truth doesn't accord with the narrative that they prefer, which is that all white people are racists and certainly all of the revolutionary era were racist and pro-slavery and loved slavery and they were simple hypocrites. That's not true, but it's an inconvenient thing to acknowledge that that's not true.

And so there you have the original from Thomas Jefferson. And again, it's kind of like when George, it's kind of interesting, you know, when somebody like George Washington, who people incorrectly describe him as a deist, and then you have him talking about God in the way that he does. You go, hey, this is the guy you claim as a deist. Do you see what he said about God? When people talk about Benjamin Franklin, oh, he's a deist. And then you hear what he says in 1787, you know, to the Continental Congress.

you go, oh, that's the deist? What are you talking about? So here you have Thomas Jefferson, the guy that everybody says is super pro-slavery and a hypocrite, whatever. Did he need to write those paragraphs? No, he didn't. He chose to, and it was only the cynical pro-slavery states

of Georgia and South Carolina that insisted, again, insisted blackmailed effectively the rest of the colonies into, excising that paragraph. Yes. Let's be clear, folks. That's what happened. We need to know that history.

It's just, it's so important. Well, we've covered a lot of ground. Before we go, Elijah, is there anything that we should touch on that we haven't mentioned? Yes, absolutely. And it's this artifact right here. This is called the vindication of the government of New England churches by John Wise.

This is one of my favorite artifacts to talk about. Trunkated story is that John Wise was one of the first American patriots to stand up to the first colonial despot of America named Edmund Andrews. Andros was given plenary power by the king to crush all the individual legislative seals of New England back in the 1680s and 90s and essentially bring them all under his control. Well, John Wise was a Harvard-educated minister. And from the pulpit, he talked about how Edmund Andrews was disregarding his responsibilities before God in executing justice against evildoers, not against righteous people. The point that I want to make here is realizing that American freedom was born all the way

in the pulpit almost a hundred years before a bullet ever manifested at Lexington and Concord. John Wise in these sermons talked about popular sovereignty. He talked about the idea of inalienable rights. And this particular pamphlet, a book of his sermons, were reprinted by the Sons of Liberty in 1772 and distributed to the founding fathers right before the Declaration of Independence was made. So what?

Whoa. So you're saying that was 1711 it was published? So these sermons were given. back in 1690s, and then John Wise published them in 1717, I believe. He done in 1724, but then the Sons of Liberty led by St. Adam's reprinted them in 17th. I mean, I have to tell you again in my book on The Revolution, I don't really get to go. I do mention Edmund Andros.

I played Edmund Andrews in a fifth grade production at Beaverbrook School in Danbury, Connecticut. I played the villain, Edmund Andros, because it's about the Connecticut Charter and it took place in the 1680s or 90s. And it just cracked. I write about it in my book, Fish Out of Water. And it's fascinating to think that the revolution ultimately goes all the way back. The British were constantly trying. And that's a classic example to really suck the colonies back into subjugation under Great Britain and to deny. them their rights. So Sir Edmund Andrews in the 1680s and 90s, he was sent as an emissary.

And I know that a lot of the figures in the revolutionary era at the top of the list, Samuel Adams, he knew this history. They knew this history. And it's important to say again, which you've just done, that the sermons, folks, the sermons, that was where people understood, aha, that is how I'm supposed to deal with tyranny. That is what Liberty is. It all comes out of the Bible. It was preached from pulpits throughout New England, throughout the colonies. It's an amazing thing. And it's important that we understand that. I certainly didn't know that this book, which was published in 1717, of sermons preached in previous decades, was handed out to the Sons of Liberty. What a beautiful link.

I wish I'd known that when I was writing my book. That is an amazing and important. thing to talk about. Thank you. Right. And Eric, you know, that's why I also want to render honor to whom honor is due in this book that I remember, I believe it was 22 at America Fest. I was in the upper room with you and Charlie Kirk. And I try to honor him by wearing this pen during my speeches. And he specifically said that one of the most important books of the 21st century was this one that you wrote right here, a letter to the American church. And the reason why he loved it so much was because it was, because it was supposed, it's supposed to mobilize Americans into realizing, look, politics, the church has not

become political. Politics has become theological. And a preacher is doing his duty by seeing the sin and evil and culture and being the emissary and ambassador of God in bringing what is biblical truth to his flock, no matter how political it's labeled. Because here's the thing. If it is a human issue, it's an issue that God has an opinion about. And as the ultimate lawgiver, we ought to declare what he thinks about certain things in this culture. And that's why this book that she wrote

was so loved by Charlie and is so greatly appreciated by me. And so I just want to end this call with thanking you for writing this. Thank you for giving of your life, fortune, and sacred honor in convincing Americans to take up their heritage again,

to fight for what is right, and to be unashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to bring to salvation all who will believe, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. Elijah, that's so kind of you. And I certainly didn't expect to end in mentioning my own book, Letter to the American Church. But the fact is, it's all of a piece, isn't it?

It's all of a piece that the pulpits are supposed to speak about these things. When they shrink from doing that, they fail. on many levels, crucially, and many evangelical churches, that's why I wrote that book, in recent decades have completely failed. They would not have stood with John Wise and with the host of other men of God who were preaching from pulpits in the colonial era against tyranny and against the idea that Romans 13 means whatever the government says, do it, bow to the statue of Nebuchadnezzar. You know, it's amazing to me that here we are in our 250th year, revisiting what happened 250 years ago. And it goes back to the pulpits. It goes back to the truth

of God, to the truth of the scripture. That's where these ideas come from, folks. The idea that we're all created equal, why would we be equal? There's nothing equal about us. And let's see look to God's view in the Bible. So anytime anybody says, like, everybody knows we're, no, most people never know that we're equal and we're not equal until you look from God's point of view and God demands us to acknowledge in his view, we're created equal. He has created us equal. So all this stuff is is of a piece and it's important. That's why it's important. We know history. I'm so grateful, Elijah, for the time you've given us. Is there a website for the American experience? Yes, you can go to

American Journey Experience.com or American Journey.org to learn more about our organization and everything that we offer, specifically something called the Summer Institute that Charlie Kirk spoke at with many of our students. We grabbed students age 18 to 25. We bring them out to

a ranch in Texas, and for an entire week, we go hands on with this history, with the artifacts on a ranch, just discussing what the founding fathers actually believe. They're religious convictions and you get to read the primary source artifacts and articles for yourself. It is an experience like no other, and we're hopefully going to have multiple sections coming

next year. So stay tuned. Sign up for our newsletter on our website so that you can stay up to date in making sure when we're going to launch those new weeks in the... We're going to have to leave it there. Just so grateful, Elijah O'Neill, Director of Education at the American Journey's journey experience. Thank you so much. Thank you. God bless you, Eric. I just decided I want to write a book on the American Revolution because this is extremely important. Unless Americans know our story, we cannot possibly continue to keep the Republic.