The Glenn Beck Program - Best of the Program | Guests: Tim Ballard & Stephen Mansfield | 7/3/23

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Rebel News founder Ezra Levant joins Glenn to discuss the unrest that France is experiencing and why. Learn more at www.FranceonFire.com. Author of "Lincoln’s Battle with God" Stephen Mansfield joins to share the often-unheard faith struggles Abraham Lincoln had and how those struggles can inspire modern believers. Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard joins to discuss the upcoming movie "Sound of Freedom" and how it can be used as a weapon against child trafficking. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, make sure to check out the pilot episode of my brand new podcast, Honest History. The episodes titled Control Freaks, the Scientific Roots of Progressive Tyranny. It's available right now wherever you get your podcast. Oh, my gosh. On today's podcast, the amazing Stuina returns. I'm not going to dead name her. But she is back, and it is great to have her back, Stuina. Yep.

We also talked. Yeah. We all had a great, you know, had a few days off, drank a bunch of bud light. Everything worked out well. Yeah. Yeah. And you have like, you're like a fire hydrant.

You can attach a hose to it or not. Yeah, I figure that's good. I mean, because, you know, you really don't get any points after you've done the transitioning. And you need to constantly be in a state of transition. And that way I kind of get all the woke points all the time. Screw it on, screw it off. That's good.

It's good. It's good. Thank you very much. We have a great show for you today. We have some reporting from live from France on what's happening over there. Do a great history lesson on Abraham Lincoln and a new movie that comes out that you finance, not the movie, the actual operation that the movie is based on. It's a great movie that comes out tomorrow. You need to make sure that you grab your tickets for it and see it. It's really inspirational and uplifting. It's the movie about Operation Underground Railroad. It's called The Sound of Freedom. All of that and more on today's broadcast and podcast.

Brought to you by Relief Factor. In pain? Get out of pain. Oh, thanks, genius. Well, it's not that hard. Try Relief Factor. Uh-huh. And it reduces inflammation.

Uh-huh. Exactly like ibuprofen? Well, no. Okay. But it reduces inflammation. That's what ibuprofen does. Yeah, but this works four different directions. I don't know why the doctor sounds like that.

Would you trust him? Look. Trust me, I've taken it. And it actually has given me my life back. Just try it for three weeks. If it doesn't work in three weeks. in three weeks is probably not going to. 70% of the people who try it go on to order more month after month.

Go to relieffactor.com, relieffactor.com, or call 1-800, the number four relief. 800, the number four, relief. Relieffactor.com. Here's a podcast. You're listening to the best of the Glenbeck program. Glenn Beck program. I want to quote Teddy Roosevelt before we go to France. Teddy Roosevelt said there is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I don't refer to naturalized Americans.

Some are the very best Americans I've ever known, and they were naturalized Americans. Americans born abroad, but hyphenated American is not an American at all. the one absolutely certain intricate knot of German Americans, Irish Americans, English Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans, Italian Americans, each preserving its separate nationality, each at heart feeling more sympathy with Europeans of that nationality than with other citizens of the American Republic. there is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. Only the only man who is a good American is the man who decides to become an American and nothing else. I think he's absolutely right. And proof of that is what is happening in France this weekend. Ezra Levant is in France.

Now, where are you, Ezra? Hi, Glenn. I'm standing in Marseille, which is. one of the largest cities in France. It's on the Mediterranean coast. It's a beautiful city, incredibly picturesque. But there are two Marseys. There's the beautiful French part of Marseille that you would see in a postcard, but just literally a few blocks away from the tourist center. It is what I think could be fairly called a slum with many migrants, usually from a Muslim country, particularly Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, but also Iraq, Turkey. And it's very apart on those three

you don't hear any French being spoken. The commerce is very different. It's a different industry, and there's a real separation. And I think that the shooting of this 17-year-old North African young man, Nahel is his name, the police, sort of was in a chase, the police stopped him, and they shot him.

And it was shocking. And I have to say, I mean, obviously we'll see what the facts are in the end, but I don't know if he needed to be shot. He was a 17-year-old. They knew who he was. He was stopped already. That was the spark.

But that spark lit a lot of tinder that has been festering for decades. And there's a real apartness. It's almost apartheid, except for much of it is self-imposed. Here's a quick thing. I want to along the cafes. There's a lot of cafes in the tourist spots here, Glenn, with out-of-towners and French people, and there's men and women, and they're dressed, as you might expect, in a tropical place. but you go a few blocks further into the Muslim neighborhoods.

They still have cafes, but you'll notice a difference. There's no women at them. It's just men. And the odd women you do see is wearing an abaya from head to toe. Now, there's a law in trance that you cannot cover the face with a veil. They actually banned that. But COVID-19 gave a lot of folks a workaround. So you see Muslim in head-to-to-and-the-toe and then the COVID mask.

I asked a lot of these folks in my broken French. I said, how do you feel being a Muslim in France? And the more assimilated ones said, we love it. We love France. We know there are races here and there, but it's not systematically racist. I would say, is there racism back in Algeria? They said, yes. So there were some beautiful answers that were very much on point with your quote from Roosevelt.

But there were other people who said, French don't respect us. French don't treat us equally. but then I said, in your heart, are you a French person first or an Algerian first? And most of them, without hesitating, said Algerian. In fact, a man and his young boy came up to me and they wanted to say a lot about Nile, the 17-year-old kid who was killed? And I listened to them, and I said, who are you in your heart? Are you an Algerian or are you a Frenchman?

And they were so proud to say Algerian. And I was thinking, how can you be upset that the French don't welcome you fully as an equal Frenchman when you yourself refused to give up where you were, except for to come here. I said, if France is so racist, I said to someone, why did you come here? And so I think both sides have some reconciling to do because you have a de facto apartheid, but here's the thing, how that's going to end. Demographics. I mean, France has a declining birth rate for the ethnic French, whereas not only through continued mass immigration, but I think, just do birds right, the city of Marseilles will go the way the city of Malmo, Sweden is gone.

It will be beautiful still. It'll still have the gorgeous sun and the port and the yachts and the cafes, but it'll be more like a Moroccan city than a French city. The world is changing, and it's because I think France, and maybe America has something to say about this too, is welcoming in people who are not willing to say America is first in my heart. heart. You know, I agree with Teddy Roosevelt on immigrant Americans, naturalized Americans. They're some of the best Americans out there. And they're the ones who chose America, the guy I work

with who is Scottish. He loves Scotland. And he came here and he was thinking about citizenship. and when he went back to Scotland just recently, he said, I saw Scotland for what it really is because I now have the perspective of living in Texas and in America. And he said, I'm American. I am not Scottish. I'm American. That renews all of us. You know, that kind of guy comes in and he starts businesses and he starts to take advantage of the opportunities.

And that is the big difference. I want immigrants here that are coming in and they want to be Americans. I don't want an Italian coming in and saying, I want an Italian community and we're going to have our own rules and our own ways here. No. Bring your culture with you, but become an American. You know, Charles de Gaulle, the great French leader whose name literally means Frenchman. He was

considered arrogant and he was considered many things, and he was a trans-first kind of person. He, remember France had colonies in North Africa. He was once asked, can a foreigner become a Frenchman? But in his blood, can you

become French? Can you join this country even if your bloodline is not French? And he said, yes. He was a show He was arrogant. He was transverse, but he said, yes, if you inculcate yourself. If you breathe in the history, the culture, you must learn the language, learn the history, learn the art. You can become a great Frenchman. And by the way, Emmanuel Macron, for all of his flaws, says much the same thing. He gave a beautiful speech three years ago, right in the wake of a lot of the Black Lives Matter riots in America, he gave a beautiful speech in France, swearing in. some new French citizens where he talked about their rights, but he went heavy on their responsibility. You know those old French mottos? Liberté, egalite, fraternity,

Frette, Emmanuel Macron said you must follow those. You must fight for liberty for everyone. You must permanently struggle for liberty. He told these immigrants. He said you must follow fraternity. You must be fraternal to your new French citizen colleagues. He said, you must put the Republic first. He said this. Now, I do not like Emmanuel Macron at all, but it was bracing to see what he said. Alas, his deeds don't live up to his words, and it is not happening. And I fear for what's, you know, this is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been in, Glenn. But there is a shadow over it. And there were 1,300 people arrested in riots two nights ago. Average age was 17. And that's the thing. I look at the police. And I don't believe in affirmative action. But the police,

feel like they're an alien community. They have no ties to the community. They're very few minorities in the police. They don't speak Arabic. They have no, and half the time, they're just defending themselves or the firemen. You know, they torture place. The firemen go in. They attack the fire trucks. The police have to go in to escort the fire trucks out. It's almost like, you know, some of these dystopian movies like Blade Runner or something where the police are this foreign, hated, alien, disconnected force. And they're going to leave. just from pure demographics. You know, there's the bobby's and

so Robert. Go ahead. Sorry to interrupt, but that was the, that was the secret of American police in New York. The, the Irish guy who had become an American, he was the guy who patrolled his own

neighborhood. The Italian guy, he patrolled his own neighborhood. And so they weren't a foreign force. The problem with this is that, at least in New York, the New Yorkers cannot afford to live in most of those neighborhoods. The police can't. So they are a foreign, you know, they're not part of the community anymore. And you can't have people who swear allegiance first to Algeria being the cop for France.

Well, that's the thing. Does your oath mean something? Now, by the way, one of the answers I got, was, I said, are you Algerian first or are you French first? You said, Allah first, and I believe in the Uma. And you know what, in some ways, that's like a Christian who would say, I put Jesus first. And I respect that. But as the Bible says, render under Caesar what's Caesar. So yes, in your heart, your conscience, your morality, if you want to put Allah first, I get it. Because if a Christian said, I put Jesus first, I would respect that. I wouldn't say you're a bad American.

but in matters secular, in matters of civil law and order, in matters of police and learning the language, you have to put Caesar first, or in this case put the republic first. And isn't that what an UMA means, the opposite of that? Doesn't an UMA in kind of suggest a caliphate kind of? A global, yeah, a global government of sort. And, you know, by the way, he later ran up and demanded. Yes, that's right.

It's very different. So, listen, this is a beautiful city, but terrible things are happening. And it's spreading to Belgium. It's spreading to Switzerland. Why is that? It's an ethnic solidarity. And I think that massive, unabsorbed, unintegrated immigration, in this case, from Islam, is going to be a problem no matter what.

De Gaulle insisted on absorption, assimilation. integration. He said, yes, you can become French. I asked some of these guys, could you ever, I said Barack Obama became a black president. Rishi Sunak is a South Asian prime minister of the UK. I said, could you imagine a Muslim president of France? And most of them said no. And maybe that's a problem too. If you can't imagine yourself having full access to the corridors of business and political and cultural life, I guess you do get a wise yourself. So, but it's a two-sided problem, Gwen. I don't know.

It's very sad. I came here not knowing what to expect, and I leave with a feeling of fatalism that between demographics, open border immigration, and political correctness, all of these trends will get worse over time, not better. And I think that there's a whole new level of violence we saw this last week. Listen, there's always riots and trance. It's a national pastime. but this felt especially ethnic in its character.

Well, I will tell you, the Norwegian countries are facing the same. I was just over in... I love those French police cars. They sound like toys. But I was just over in England and Scotland and Ireland. Ireland is almost entirely gone because of the rapid immigration without assimilation. It is the world and Europe is completely changing and won't be the same in 20 years. Thank you so much, Ezra.

Have a safe trip back to Canada. We thank you for everything that you guys do. Thank you very much. Thank you. You bet. Thank you, Glenn. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on iTunes.

Stephen Mansfield is joining us. he is a great, great writer. He has written many books, the faith of Barack Obama. He was also the faith of George W. Bush. He's written biographies of Booker T. Washington, George Whitfield, Winston Churchill, Pope Benedict, Abraham Lincoln.

And he also wrote the book, Killing Jesus. Publishers Weekly describes his book, Killing Jesus as Masterful. I think it's genius. I haven't even read it, but it's the same name as Bill O'Reilly's book, and I know Stephen's book has got to be better. So it makes me happy.

Stephen Mansfield, welcome to the program. How are you, sir? Good morning, sir. How are you? And don't get me in trouble with Bill now. I want to talk to you about several people that you have written about. But let's start with seeing that we're, you know, on the doorstep of 4th of July and Independence Day tomorrow.

Let's spend some time with Lincoln because Lincoln is a fascinating guy before he starts running for office. He's kind of a dark dude. He had a really tough childhood. And then he goes kind of off the wagon a bit. Lincoln was a very unusual character. and I think it's why he's one of the most beloved in our history. And what people often don't know is that he suffered horrible depression growing up. And this was largely due to the death that he endured in his life, as you allude to.

He lost his mother when he was nine. He lost his sister when he was 19. Famously, he lost the first love of his life, Anne Rutledge, when he was in his early 20s. And then, of course, throughout his life, he would lose two sons. and then have to endure all the over 700,000 deaths of the Civil War. So friends said that he dripped melancholy while he walked. They often had to stand suicide watch. He missed his first wedding date because he was considering suicide.

So very dark figure, very sad beset by depression. And this affected everything from his faith to his understanding of the Civil War. So, yes, he's a very, very complicated character. Now, is it true, Stephen, in your research, that Lincoln really, his father was a horrible guy and alcoholic and a Christian. And Lincoln rejected Christianity at first when he first kind of goes out on his own because of what he thought a Christian was due to his father. And he apparently, yeah, was not a moral. character at first. Lincoln.

Well, he was a kind of character. The father was a kind of character that we are familiar with from literature and history. Very religious, very sentimentally, emotionally, emotionally religious, and yet brutal to his son. Right. One of the best stories I can tell to describe this is that when Lincoln was president, he once spoke to a room full of ex-slaves and quite literally said that he knew what slavery was because as he had been used like a slave. And he was referring to his first 20 years, 21 years of life when he was under his father's

dominion. And, of course, the people in the room kind of looked at ask at each other like, well, Abraham Lincoln was never a slave, but that's how he spoke of it because that's how oppressed he felt himself to be. And yes, you're right. When he left his father's home at the age of 21, he owed his father his labor before then. He went and thoroughly rejected Christianity.

read a lot of the rationalistic writers, pain, and others fell in with a lot of religious skeptics in New Salem and was actually carried a Bible around town just to argue with people about it. So yes, he was the village atheists for a lot of years. And he also was very promiscuous, but freaked out because he thought he was going to get some venereal disease. Is that true? Exactly true. He was a fought in a war called the Black Hawk. war and he apparently had some time with prostitutes and later, yes, worried that he had problems and maybe even his depression was related to various kinds of venereal diseases. So yes, very immoral.

He never gave himself much to drink. He tried, drank for a while and really lost control. But yes, immoral, atheist, angry, we know the type. And that's what Abraham Lincoln was for a good number of years. And what was the turning point in his life? the turning point probably it came gradually as he began to know ministers who were better than the ones he had known in his early life began to we all know that he became a state legislator and began to live in springfield moving from a town called new salem and when he got there he fell in with Christians who were articulate who were learned who were well read They weren't just the teary-eyed sentimentalists emotionally imbalanced, kind of like his father was. And so he came among, you know, a simple way to say it is a better class of Christians.

The turning point really came when he met a Presbyterian minister named James Smith. This is a little later in his life now. He was a congressman, his father-in-law had died, and he was taking care of the estate. He pulled a book down in his father-in-law's house written by this Presbyterian minister, James Smith, kind of a cross between Billy Graham and Daniel Boone. But the man could really write, and he made a lawyer's case for Christianity, which, of course, Lincoln, as a lawyer, respected. And that really began to turn things.

And then, of course, a progression began that carried him all the way through the White House years. So he did say, though, I wasn't a Christian. when I got married, I think he said, I wasn't a Christian when I lost my son, but I became a Christian at Gettysburg. Do I have that right? That is a quote that is out there. It's hard to verify. There's no question he had a deepening when he stood at Gettysburg.

Scholars tend to discredit that quote. It's sort of the same thing with all famous men who spoke well, Churchill, others, did he say it or didn't? Scholars tend to discredit that, but I don't think there's any question. Lincoln had a profound experience when he looked out on the graves at Gettysburg, and he alluded to it often to visitors at the White House. But the thing that really deepened his faith, the things that really changed things were the deaths of his boys.

Imagine that he lost two boys and lost them, by the way, to horrible diseases that lingered a long time. and this just sent Lincoln already a depressive right right to the edge of sanity really. And of course, famously Mrs. Lincoln was known for her just a loud, extreme bouts of grief. She would fill the house, later the White House with howls. The servants would describe them like the howls of wounded animals. And so it wasn't just Lincoln's grief that he had to deal with. It was the grief of his wife that would go on for weeks and be terrible.

He finally took her to a window one time and pointed at a mental institution in D.C. and said, Mother, if you don't get control of your step, we'll have to put you there. And that got her to tame herself a little bit. But Lincoln dealt with agonizing deaths his whole life. And he said once famously that he was haunted by the sound of rain falling on graves. Well, he had so many graves in his life that he would visit and, of course, had to attend funerals of people he loved. So all of this, though it sounds dark, is what caused him to search. And it was at those moments that James Smith, this Presbyterian minister at First Presbyterian in Springfield, stepped into his life and gave a, as the scripture say, a reason for the hope that lies within Christians. I have a rational explanation.

And Lincoln bought it. And I think that those times were the turnings for him. You know, you say that the way you describe him while he's in the White House and her, I can't imagine that a president would have been able to remain the president today, just with the media and everything else. I mean, that's disturbing. It's, I mean, you know, close to insanity. Absolutely. When he lost Willie, named for William Wallace, by the way, as a young boy in the White House, Lincoln would close his office and sit in the dark all day every Thursday.

so he would grieve sitting in the dark. Now imagine that a modern president turns out the lights, closes the west wing or the Oval Office, and sits in the dark just in a depressive grief all day long. People, of course, would question insanity. But this is what Lincoln did for quite some time until finally, a fairly famous minister made an appointment with him and said, sir, what you're doing is not right.

Don't you know that if you believe on Jesus Christ, you will go, though your son cannot come to you, you will go to him. And this was a massive turning point in Lincoln's life. And he stopped those Thursday darkness sessions. And he began to search the scriptures more thoroughly and buy copies of this minister's sermons. And so, again, Lincoln is on a journey. There's a progression. You don't have one moment of a full turning, but you definitely have a leaving of the atheist years

and a deepening, a constant deepening, largely in. inspired by his recovery from grief and from the deaths of those he loved. When he was president, they say he didn't care about slavery. I don't believe that to be true. And it's my understanding that he had a relationship somewhat with John Quincy Adams, who kind of passed the torch to him on anti-slavery. Is that true? it is it is they did know each other they did correspond in the early years and it's folly of course to say that

he didn't care about slavery i mean not only do we know about his famous trip to new Orleans where he said if i ever get a chance to hit this thing speaking of slavery i will also when he was a congressman for a very short period of time only about 12 14 months um he proposed a bill that would have outlawed slavery in dc um he proposed the same kind of bill in uh springfield back in back in back in Illinois. So the idea, and by the way, we have some of the most fascinating writings we have from Lincoln are where he's sitting alone at night in his office, and he's sort of wrestling with God, wrestling with his conscience. What does Providence want? God can't be for the same thing and against it at the same time. He would wrestle with his conscience on, you know, scraps of

paper. And fortunately, when he died, his secretary's kept those for us and we still have them. But to say he didn't care about slavery as silly. Of course, he, He deeply cared about it. And it actually was part, since we're talking about his faith, it was part of the reason that he, you know, was troubled about the state of Christianity. He couldn't believe that Southern clergy would make a case for slavery from Scripture. And since he identified with the slaves deeply because of his own labors, he was troubled by all of that. The best of the Glenn Beck program. Mr. Tim Ballard, how are you, sir?

Hey, Glenn, how are you? I'm great. I saw this movie three years ago, maybe. Yeah. And I'm not even sure it was locked at that point, but watched it with Jim Caviesel and you. And I think like a Prince of Italy or something was there as well. Yeah. That's right. And watched it.

And this is a tremendous, tremendous movie called. the Sound of Freedom. Tell the listener about it. So this tells the story of the launch of our rescue operation, which leads into Operation Underground Railroad, also the Nazarene Fund. But this is the story of when we were in the government and was confronted with this dilemma of if I want to stay on the operation and rescue these children, I had to quit my job. And what's so exciting talking to you, Glenn, is that your audience should be reminded that they paid for the operation that you're seeing depicted in the film, the whole island operation, whole island raid.

That was funded by your community. So I've been so excited to get on the radio to say thank you to you and your community and go watch what you funded. I mean, that's the reality. And it's so tremendous. So tremendous. And I think there's going to be eventually there will be a movie, maybe long after we're dead.

but there will be a movie about the operation that our audience funded in Afghanistan too. I mean, it's one of the greatest stories ever, as is this one. So what are you hoping people walk away with, Tim? Well, I'm hoping that people open their eyes. I'm tired of, you know, this is domestic release only this week. And so many people in the United States say this is a problem far, far away from us.

And it's not. And this film shows you the first two arrests, are right here in the United States. The first one, the first rescues on the border, which is so relevant today, because we have how many kids being trafficked into the United States into the highest demand country for child sex in the world. You know, we have our kids being targeted by this crazy ideology

of, you know, of sexualizing them and all sorts of things. So I really hope everyone can put the pieces together and realize that kids are in the crosshairs, and this is an American problem, and it requires an American solution. So there are a couple movies that I really want to see. I want to see Till, and it came out a long time ago, and I've wanted to see it. But every time I pass it on Netflix, I'm like, I'm not in the...

You know, you just don't want to be depressed. This is a really uplifting story. This is not... This is something you go to, and yes, it deals with some awful stuff, but you feel great leaving the theater after this. You do, and you know, one reason that is, I remember talking to Jerry Mullen, who's a friend of yours as well, who won the Academy Award for Schindler's List. And he said the one regret he had was they made that film 50 years too late because when you left in theater, there's nothing to do. It's kind of depressing. But this film, The Sound of Freedom, it's like Schindler's list had been made in 1940, right? It's like you can leave and do something, and that's empowering. And so I think that's why, you know, the movie begins for a lot of people as they're leaving the theater. And that's what I think causes hope. and make people feel good. So when you, when you watch this, Tim, is there any part of you that is worried that this just makes you much more famous

and oh, you are much more famous and the tactics that you use more famous? Because you guys go in undercover and catch these guys just being absolute dirtbags. And honestly, I don't know. And we've, we've had this. We talked about this one. We were in Bangkok together. And we were walking down, what's that cowboy street? Yeah.

In Bangkok. And we were talking, and I asked you, how do you live in this world and not take it with you when you get out? Because it's awful, these people. And you have to kind of pretend to be part of that. Yeah. This film has forced me. of all undercover work definitively. And I've been doing it for 18 years, and it does take its toll.

In fact, it's an amazing, crazy process to go undercover and then come out back in. It takes a lot of prayer, therapy. But I'll say this, the only tactics we've ever revealed in the film or in the documentaries are things that people are doing anyway. We never reveal something that's kind of a telltale sign that would give us away. You know, things that are happening anyway, parties or whatever. so that allows it to protect our tactics while at the same time expressed to the world what is happening. Tell a little bit about this movie, this story in particular on how you get the bad guys.

The operation that, as you said, this audience funded. So I had been sent down as a government agent in 2012 to Columbia to consult on an operation. It was very clear I was to stop at that point, but I didn't. and I attached myself. I got involved deeper than I was supposed to. And then I was told to come home because there's no U.S. case here. Of course, I don't care about U.S. case, Columbia case, human trafficking, child trafficking, knows no borders or boundaries.

But the law was the law. And they said, come home. And I said, I can't. You know, and that's when I contacted you and my wife. And I didn't even know you all that well yet. I mean, I've been to your show once. And I thought, can I get a hold of him? Can I convince him to take the craziest risk?

And your attorneys are telling you not to do it, but this was the pending operation. And I don't know. It was crazy that you did it. It was you put yourself out there. And we all put ourselves out there and, you know, and we went for it. And it paid off. And it paid off in this operation. I don't want to do too much.

Spoiler alert. But it is, it's, it rescued over 100 kids. in spent about two hours. And it's depicted on this big island scene in, in the, off the coast of Cartagena. So tell me what it feels like. And I don't want to,

I don't want to spoil anything in this movie. So we'll talk about other operations you've been on. Tell me what it feels like when, because you're undercover, you're arrested with the bad guys. And here are all these women and young girls, really, young girls. And you're down on the floor with your hands behind your back in cuffs. And they're

looking at you like you're a predator and you know you're not. And so you never get that, you never get that thank you really from them or just even the recognition that I would imagine I would want to say, I'm not one of them. I'm not one of them. I was really trying to help you. How does that feel when you're there on the ground with your hands behind your back? Yeah, it's a punch to the stomach. I've had young girls and kids like even cuss at me. I remember once spit at me as we were being taken out. Like, got you, you might, you know.

I'm like, no, no, we, we are here for you. And that's just part of it because, you know, if they know who you are, it's a security risk for our entire team. But something unique happened on this operation. that you know about that I'll go ahead and reveal because I think it's just so cool is something happened on the island operation where one of the aftercare people on the Columbia side accidentally revealed that we were the good guys after they took the bad guys the real bad guys off on the boats they left us there and the and the kids started like

singing and clapping and saying thank you to us and then we realized oh my goodness they know who we are and some of my operators were crying because they'd never seen this kind of interaction between us and the kids and he said to me, and it may sound cheesy, but it's the truth. He said, it's not cheesy in the moment, and the moment is beautiful and so real, but he said to me, do you hear that sound? That's the sound of freedom. And when I told that story to the produced to Alejandro Monteverre, the writer and directors of Sound of Freedom, he said, that's the name of the movie. And they actually depict that scene on the island, actually depict the scene where the operator says to me those words,

and it plays really well. So it's one of the more beautiful scenes. The writer direct, the writer-director of this is a genius and has done a great job and is very well known in South America. He's done a couple of, I think, brilliant movies here, and this is, of course, one of them. Jim Caviesel plays you. I mean, I wouldn't mind that happening if Jim Caviesel played me, but I'd get, like, fatty Arbuckle to play me. But he's a good guy and a good friend as well. And what did it take to get him involved? Well, when they approached me and said,

you know, I didn't think they were going to make this film because the chances were so small in my mind. But they said, we're doing it. And who would you like to play you? You don't get to choose, but you can, you know, request. And right out of the gate, I said, I want Jim Caviesel. The County Monte Cristo is one of my favorite movies, for one. But I told them, I said, look, I don't trust Hollywood.

I mean, Hollywood is the reason that I'm employed. I mean, they create the content. It creates the demand. It creates the whole problem. And I know one thing about Jim Cavicel. He's a phenomenal actor, and he loves Jesus. And if I didn't love Jesus, I couldn't do what I do. So that's the reason.

And they said, okay, they're worried because, you know, at the end of the movie, if you remember, Glenn, it's really cool. They do this kind of transition into real footage. And it shows some real footage from the operation. And they said, you've got to find someone to him that kind of looks like you. He's tall, dark, and handsome, and you're frankly not. And so I said, well, I don't care. I don't care what he looks like.

You know, he loves Jesus. And so they went with it, and Jim signed up in like four days. He was in, so. I will tell you that tall, dark, and handsome does not come to mind when I think of you coming to my house, immediately following an operation. You'll fly in from someplace around the world and you'll stop in Dallas and you've done it a couple of times where you come to the door and I don't even recognize you. And Tall Dark and Handsome is definitely the opposite of how you look when you're on an operation. That's right.

I come in pretty beat up. So thanks for giving me a warm place to hang out. So there is a two million ticket goal. and why is it, why did you set a goal for 2 million tickets? So before I answer that, I want to announce something so cool. They've already sold over 1 million, I think it's about 1.1 million tickets. They sold 900,000 just over the weekend. We literally be in the theaters where we were competing with Indiana Jones this weekend,

which was Indiana Jones opening weekend, Sound of Freedom sold more tickets than Indiana Jones. And it's not even open. And we even have a movie out. It's really good news. It's incredible. The Angel Studios is just going through the roof. I can't believe it. But there's two million children forced into commercial sex yearly.

And so to kind of commemorate that and connect it to Independence Day, we want two million people in the theaters this week, celebrating the Fourth of July, considering what freedom really means and also representing those two million kids. Believe it or not, this is a really feel-good movie. you will walk out of the movie theater feeling really, really great, especially if you're in this audience because, as Tim said, you paid for the operation that is being depicted in the movie.

And it is called Sound of Freedom. You can get your tickets online. Go see it. It opens tomorrow. Sound of freedom. Tim, thank you. Give my best to Jim, will you? We'll do.

Thanks, I love you. Yeah.