The School of Greatness - 962 Racism, White Privilege, and Healing America with Reverend Michael Beckwith

Episode Date: June 3, 2020

"I am here to contribute to a kind and just global society. Let me be an instrument of peace."As thousands around America continue to protest racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd's death, Lewis is joined by Reverend Michael Beckwith to discuss how to fight against racism, how to think and talk about our biases, and how to create a more loving, compassionate, equal country.Resources:-Anti-Racism for White People-Guide to Allyship-For more, visit lewishowes.com/962. And text Lewis at 614-350-3960 to start a conversation.

This is episode number 962 with Reverend Michael Beckwith. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Please, I can't breathe. They're going to kill me. Everything hurts.

Those were among the last things George Floyd said before he died under the knee of the Minneapolis police. Protests are still sweeping the country more than a week after Floyd was killed. And I know many of you out there are feeling anger and pain. I am too. The School of Greatness has always focused on positive growth, change, love, and healing. And I realize that racial justice is an essential part of that. So I'm committing to that now,

because we can't all achieve greatness and live our best lives if we aren't all truly equal. And I understand there's a lot of work I need to do personally, both internally and externally, and that this work will take time. I'm going to make mistakes. I'm going to say the wrong thing, and you might also. But my intention is to help build a more kind, equal, just, loving world, and I hope that's your intention as well. And today I'm starting by having a conversation with Reverend Michael Beckwith, the founder and spiritual director of the Agape International Spiritual Center. He's one of LA's foremost black leaders and an old friend.

And our dialogue was extremely powerful for me. And a few things we dive into are how we can educate ourselves and begin to make a difference. What white people like myself need to do right now. And why this apocalyptic moment might be one to create actual change. I hope you enjoy this episode and please share it with a friend if you find this resource helpful. So let's dive into this episode with Reverend Michael Beckwith. But first, I want to thank our sponsor. What an emotional journey for this year. Just a year.

Yeah. What do you mean with everything? Pandemic and everything. Everything for people. It's just been an emotional... I've probably cried more in these last two weeks than I've cried in like a couple. Yeah. Oh, you mean with everything? Everything. The pandemic and everything. Everything for people. It's just been an emotional thing. I've probably cried more in these last two weeks than I've cried in like a couple of years. Wow. Yeah. You know, just seeing the video. It's really sad.

Memories I've had of racism that I've experienced and, you know, just bubbled up. Well, welcome to everyone at the School of Greatness podcast. We're super excited about our guest today. The inspirational Reverend Michael Beckwith. Thank you so much for being here, my man. Appreciate you. We've had you on before, and it was one of our favorite episodes and interviews, and people keep talking about it today.

And we are in an incredible time right now where there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration, and there's a lot of miseducation, especially by white people. There's a lot of white privilege. I think for millennials have a lot of a lack of education understanding. And I wanted to bring you on because you are such a leader of spiritual hope and inspiration and you you're rooted in love. And I think that's what I appreciate about you the most is your principles and guiding root of love. And that's what I want us to talk about today is how can we be more loving as a society?

How can we be more loving as human beings? And how can we be a solution to the problems in the world right now? And I wanted to ask you first, how are you feeling? You know, right this moment, I'm feeling good. I guess over the last couple of weeks, I probably have cried more than I've cried in a couple of years. Just witnessing the atrocity and the public lynching that we all saw obviously brought tears to my eyes. eyes and every time I see it is still a visceral emotion about that because it brings up memories as well of me growing up and experiencing you know that that kind of that kind of racism not that kind of racism but racism period but for for for white people like myself who most white

people are probably never experienced any type of racism the way that you have, in general, I'm speaking. What are some of the types of things that you had to face growing up? To give context to people like myself who never had to walk down the street, wondering if someone's coming behind you, a police officer or...

All of that. In the education, I can remember being graded down in my papers because we had to write a future autobiography. So in junior high school, I wrote, I was going to follow in my father's footsteps in law, go to USC, do X, Y, and Z. And the teacher said, you're never going to go to USC. She dimmed my hope. I mean, I went to USC, by the way. I went to Morehouse. I transferred to USC. But I can remember her saying that people like me, I shouldn't dream that big. I remember telling my mother about that. My mother went up to the school and handled her business. What year is this? Or what year is this?

This is junior high school. So this is back in 60s. People like you, meaning what? People? Black people. Wow. Did she say black people no she said your people something like that i remember her name i'm not going to say her name yeah she's probably passed on or maybe he's had a great change who knows okay so that's the educational piece that that that was that was in school it was in school okay you know i was on the track team in high school would jog around my around my block, pulled over by the police. You know, where are you going?

I got my sweatsuit. I have my L.A. high. You know, I'm jogging. I'm on the track team, you know. So my mother would make us go down to the police department and file a complaint. That was a part of the rules of our family. Wow. You know, if a police officer stops you, get their badge number, file the complaint. Now,

if we didn't do that, we got in trouble. You know, so my mother and dad, you know, basically had to talk with us about how to get home safely, how to deal with police officers, yes sir, no sir, get the badge number, file a complaint. You know, so that was just part of our upbringing. This is in the 60s, 70s. Yeah. 50s, 60s, 70s. I mean, I could give you I don't want to go down that whole list. But I remember at Morehouse College, you know, we rented a hotel for a party, you know, it's like a our own version of a frat party. And police came, remember, threw me and my guys up against the wall.

What are we doing here? Says, we have a room. You can't have a room here, you know, and threw us up against the wall, arrested us for criminal, what was it? Some kind of, this is mischief or something. I don't remember what it was. But they're essentially finding a way to make you wrong.

Right. You know, so I can go down the list. When I, right before I started Agape, I spoke at a community in Fullerton. The congregation overwhelmingly wanted me to be their minister. I said, I really don't think I'm a fit for this, but I'll be a guest speaker. They really wanted me.

Threw my name into the hat. Congregation wanted me, and then a small group of people started saying that if we bring this black man to be the minister of this church, the property value's gonna go down, people are gonna start parking their cars on the lawn, there's gonna be litter and trash everywhere. You know, and they started this whole thing.

And what's interesting about that is that the people in that community, which was mainly a white church, they didn't know that their friend that they were sitting next to was a racist. All the racists thought that everybody was thinking like them. And all the people that were progressive and just into, you know, loving humanity thought everybody was thinking like them. But I show up and everybody gets revealed. And so I eventually said, no, this is not my place to be. And I started Agape.

When did you start Agape? 1986. Wow. So right before that, that particular church, it was a big earthquake, split. The Fullerton Church, wow. It split. They had to evacuate their building and then uh uh eventually they hired this woman and they hired a white woman really fast they wanted a little diversity so they hired a woman and then she stole a bunch of money and left all

the things they were afraid of happening hey happened by a white woman. Wow. You know, but anyway, I don't need to... This has happened at every stage of your life. Oh, absolutely. From education as a little boy to high school to college to in the workplace. Do you feel like after you started Agape, you know, for the last 24 years now, do you continue to feel racism in LA as a leader in spirituality, as a leader of a church, as a leader of humanity? Agape, we're in our 34th year. 34 years. Yeah. It's a, um, extremely diverse community. It's a, we wanted to build, um,

be an example of the beloved community that Dr. King talked about. You know, we're all people worshiping together, serving together, growing together. So I'm kind of in a little bubble where that's concerned. Right, right. And because I'm kind of known, I don't really have a lot of things coming at me in that way. I know it's there, you know. And the beautiful thing about the space of Agape is that people come and we get to deal with those issues.

Like very soon we're going to have some dialogues where people are going to be able to just come together, like the Rodney King situation. After certain things, the community comes together. Now it'll be on Zoom. Comes together and actually talks it out. They talk about privilege. They talk about how it feels to be black, how it feels to be a woman, how it feels to be gay, whatever the case may be. So it's a safe space for people to really get into the conversation and not avoid it.

And then take ownership of perceptions that you might have, that you may have inherited from your parents or whatever, and begin to dismantle and transmute that. So I do know that racism is alive. Racism is still alive. I mean, it's systemic in the culture. I mean, when you look at it from a historical context, you look at 1619 when the first, I don't like to call them slaves, like this, say, forced immigrants, you know, that they turned into slaves, arrived, and the United States wasn't even a union yet, you know.

It took these Africans to Virginia, thus began slavery. Africans to Virginia, thus began slavery. Now the idea was in order to justify it, the good Christian people at that time had to say they were less than human. They were like a horse or a dog, you know, cow. So that way they could abuse them because they're not really abusing a human being. They're abusing these people from Africa that aren't human. So that became a part of the narrative within the fabric of our society. So then when slavery was abolished, then you had the Jim Crow era. You had public lynchings of black men. But the point being, laws have come into effect to stop segregation, Jim Crowism, public lynching, slavery, etc. But the underlying narrative is still active in many people.

So at this particular time in human history, you see that the veil has been lifted. So you actually see racial superiority. You see the supremacists rising up, being very bold, like they were in Charlottesville, very bold about who they are, primarily because of who we have in the office at this time, making it easy for that to show up. Why do you feel like they're showing up that way? I think it's two reasons. One, we're in an apocalyptic moment, the apocalypse, which means, apocalypse simply means the lifting of the veil. When you lift moments the apocalypse which means apocalypse simply means the lifting of the veil you lift up the veil that means what was hidden

is now visible mmm so all these things that have been hidden for a long time or denied or people saying you're exaggerating we can now see it right right you know saying oh this was just I'm seeing all these videos saying if it wasn't on videotape, you wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't even believe it. Oh, you're exaggerating. You're making that up. Yeah.

You know, so I think because of the energy of people on the planet who have been praying and meditating and doing spiritual work, the planet itself raising its vibration, things are easier to be seen. And then we have this evolutionary trigger who's like a transformational Mr. Magoo in office who incites a lot of things so it becomes easier to be seen. So people feel emboldened because of who's in office. So, oh, you know, it's like a dog whistle. You know what I mean? He says certain things, they're like, okay, let's go rally, you know. And so all of this can be seen now which was hidden before and and so that's the good and bad news yeah social media as well being a landscape for people

every person have a voice publicly and show these things right so the good news is we see it you know the bad news it exists the good news is once you you can't heal something that you're denying. If you deny that you have cancer, you know, no, that's just a pain in my knee or whatever. And, you know, go check, you know, that's not going to heal it by you denying that you have an issue. You have to actually examine it and see it and then provide what is necessary for your healing. So now that we can actually see abuse of power and force by police departments that we can actually see abusive power and force by police departments, we can actually see racism. Now we can begin to have a conversation as to how to dismantle it. And I think that's the time we're living in now. So that's the good news of the protest.

What's the bad news? Bad news is that the narrative is being hijacked by violent anarchists that are primarily white. You know, that they're trying to steal the narrative of the fact that this man, George Floyd and others that preceded him, you know, unarmed, handcuffed, pretty much subdued. On the ground. On the ground. On the ground, was murdered. But I have to say by four officers, the one that had the knee, the two that were sitting on him and the one that was not doing anything.

So I think we gotta ask ourselves sometimes, where are we not doing anything? Where are we seeing something or hearing a terrible conversation? Hearing a racial slur and we don't do anything, you know, so he represents the people that See stuff Don't say anything The man who had the knee on the neck

represents just pure aggression Racism abuse of power. The two that were laying on him, aiding and abetting. So everybody has to look at themselves. Am I aiding and abetting? Do I have a knee on somebody's neck? Or am I just looking and not saying anything?

I just don't wanna have the conversation. It doesn't affect me. It affects us all. It affects us all. And I was reading some anti-racism literature, and there was a section in this literature talking about for white people of how to talk about this for the first time. And some of the questions were, and the first time you're talking about it, I'm afraid I don't know enough. The second thing is I'm afraid to say the wrong thing right the third thing is I don't know what steps to take right and I think again coming from a place of white privilege of not having to experience these types of systemic

challenges I think this is what a lot of white people feel. They don't know how to bring it up, what to say. And it's not white people's responsibility to ask people to educate them, but it's more the responsibility to do the research and do the work. Yeah. But what, I guess, feedback would you give to the white community on how to be empowered and not be afraid? Two things. One, I saw Jane Fonda recently speaking to this.

And she was being asked about it. And she's progressive, you know, climate change, anti-war. You know, she's spoken on a lot of issues. And she admitted that, you know, she was aware racism obviously exists. But she was aware that she was ignorant of a lot of the ways by which brown and black people experience their life on a daily basis. The nuances. The nuances. And walking into a room, suddenly you're the other or whatever, you know.

So she started researching. for the past three years, she went and got books, started studying, started reading the historical context, the different ways that this has been perpetrated throughout the years, and she's much more sensitive to it now. Now she can speak to it. So to answer to your question, there has to be research. Now, what people need to understand is that racism, bigotry is not gonna be dismantled by black and brown people. It's gonna be dismantled by white people.

We're pointing our finger to it. That just happened. He pulled me over for no reason. I was fired even though that person was hired after me or whatever. We can point our finger to it. But it has to be those that have a level of privilege that actually assist in the dismantling process of that. When white people, I mean, I feel like, hopefully I don't speak in too general terms,

but I feel like millennials, most millennials, probably unaware of this happening. In the Midwest, they're probably unaware. I speak for myself growing up. I grew up in a small town in Ohio. My dad brought in seven exchange students from around the world from five years old until I was about 10 that came to live with us. He wanted us to see the world by not having to travel. He brought people from Japan, France, Germany, Brazil. So from a young age, I got to live with brothers and sisters who were 17,

18 of different cultures and races. But there were two moments in my life when I realized, oh, like things aren't okay in the world. One, when I was eight years old, my brother got sentenced to six to 25 years for selling drugs to an undercover cop. He got out on four and a half years in good behavior. But I remember at eight years old, we went to go to the visiting room of the prison for the first time where they allowed families to come in on the weekends for a certain time. And I go to the prison and we, you know, my, my older siblings are there. My parents are there. We, we go into the prison, we're in the visiting room and we're sitting at a table of chairs.

And as I'm looking around at all the other families and inmates, we're essentially the only white people. Right. And I remember looking around thinking, huh, as an eight year old, like, why are we the only white people here? Right. Right. You know, and that was just my first idea of like, oh, this is something happening. That's a that's a great awakening because we represent 17% of the population, but about 80 or 90% of people in jail. Black people are doing all those crimes. Right, right, right. And so that was my first like, okay, I'm an eight-year-old. I'm trying to figure out who I am in the world. What is the world? What am I? I'm a being, I'm growing. And I noticed this. The second blatant incident was when I was living in Huntsville, Alabama in the south.

And I remember driving from Columbus, Ohio to Huntsville, Alabama. And as I crossed the border from Tennessee to Alabama, I noticed Confederate flags. And I noticed I was driving behind a pickup truck that had a Confederate flag and a shotgun hanging in the back of the pickup truck. And I went to go play arena football in Huntsville, Alabama. I was one of the few white guys, and it was all black guys. And just hanging out with them for six months, all my friends, teammates, and going into the restaurants

and going to stores and driving with them, just noticing and hearing these stories, I go, huh, like this stuff doesn't happen to me. Right. And I don't have this type of anxiety or fear. Right. And those kind of two moments stick out for me as, wow, there's an issue and there's a problem that I have never had to face and white people have. We might have faced other problems. Right. Everybody has issues. Yeah. But we don't face this. Yeah. Right. That's just, yeah yeah so those are those are wake-up moments for you we actually had a direct experience of something as i was i was saying earlier we represent approximately 17 of the population in the u.s in the u.s and how many what's the population in prison about 80 90

percent people of color now we're not doing all those crimes. Everybody else is not innocent, you know what I mean? But we're targeted. So, you know, I remember going to department stores, and right away somebody's following you thinking you're going to steal something. I'm not a thief, you know, but you're targeted. So you're having an extra eye on you. He has an extra eye.

He has a black guy coming in. What's he going to steal? You know. So I think we're targeted because of the color of our skin. and then, you know, justice,

you know, they say justice is blind. We've known that justice peaks. That justice raises up that little blindfold and if you're black,

Mexican, or poor, you get a different standard of justice than if you're white and rich. or poor, you get a different standard of justice than if you're white and rich. You get a harder punishment. Harder punishment. Plus, you got to plead out.

You have to plead guilty to get less of a charge. Even if you're innocent, sometimes it's better to plead guilty because you're going to lose. You have a public offender. You can't afford it. You're going to probably lose if you go to the jury, which means you're going to get more time so you had many people in jail who didn't do it but it was just better just to plead out get this thing over and uh and move on that's the legal system that's the legal system issue that we need to fix yeah as well and plus justice needs to be blind you know

i was jokingly saying the other day that, you know, we should have a system when a person comes in, you don't even know what color he is. He's in a box or something. You don't see him. Your jury can't see whether this is a white guy or a black guy. That's interesting. You know, and you have the defense attorney, you have the prosecutor. And it's all based on evidence. It's all based on evidence only. You know, oh, that black guy, I know he did it. I know he did

it. You know, whatever the case may be. I mean, of course, that's probably never going to happen, but I've thought, how do I make justice blind for real? That's interesting. You know. This has been happening for obviously decades. You were talking about the riots in the 90s in L.A., the unjust killings of the past, all these things. Why this moment, in your opinion?

I think a couple of reasons. One, things had been going on for a long time with no justice. You know, we can go Trayvon Martin, we can go case after case after case where there wasn't any justice meted out. The police officers were never convicted. convicted. So I think it was a buildup of energy. And so this particular one, right after the Ahmaud Aubrey killing, where he's jogging and two supremacists track him down and kill him, short period of time we have this happening. So I think it's a buildup of energy. And some of the police chiefs around the nation have been saying that George Floyd is gonna change policing.

I mean, these are police chiefs coming out and saying he's really gonna change policing. So I think if you go back to 1955, when Emmett Till was killed, he was from Chicago, went down to the South to visit some relatives, and a woman said that he, a white woman said that he had whistled at her. They broke into his house, took him out of the house, these guys, killed him, murdered

him. That created such an outrage that it put a spark into the Civil Rights Movement. I think this could be one of those moments. We have this moral outrage because everybody is seeing, there's no ifs, ands, and buts about it. You know, I mean, they may see the video. They may try to do some things with the autopsy and try to get a lesser sentence for the guy. But you see him sitting, you see him with his knee on there and people are saying to him, you're killing him. He's saying, I can't breathe. He's asking for his mother.

You know, get off of him, man. He can't breathe. You're killing him. He's urinating. So I think that particular scene could be a watershed moment like Emmett Till was, in which people are just like, enough is enough. And we may get into some major shifts in policing. Because hiring, you have to really get into the psychology of these guys.

I mean, what background do they have? These guys are trained. I mean, you have to have a greater training to be a barber than to be a I heard. Than to be a police officer with a gun. So it has to be psychological training, there has to be sensitivity training. And I'm not talking about a two week little class. You have to really bring up to bear. Yeah, and I know there's,

I can only imagine the anxiety and stress of being a police officer as well. Absolutely. When there are bad people who come at you and punch you and bring out a knife where you need to react and respond. Absolutely. This is not that time when you can see there's no offense happening against you. There's nothing you need to defend yourself against to do something like this. Do you feel like it's more the uprising against the lack of justice after something like this happens or just the act of it happening?

I think it's a combination of systemic racism that people feel for a long time and the lack of justice. Yeah. Those two combined. It's just like, oh, he was fired and that's it. Yeah. Right? There's no justice beyond that, right? Yeah.

So I think it becomes a powder keg. And seeing somebody helpless wasn't like, I mean, you've seen situations where, and this is egregious as well, where the man is running away and he gets shot in the back and killed. Terrible. Matter of fact, that police officer is doing 20 years. That was like one time, one out of two, three times where somebody actually was convicted. He got 20.

So you see the buildup of that. But yeah, lack of justice. And then just the, you know, let me just say this. Some of these psychological research projects have shown that by the time a young black boy seven years old you know he has experienced the nuance of racism so many times that he builds up a kind of a psychological antibody it's like it's like a little shell it's like a an armor an armor that just kind of starts building and building and building by the time the individual seven, then he goes on to ten, he has a thing. He doesn't even know what it is consciously. It has a thing to survive in the world, you know. And so...

You already have to survive in the world as a human. Right. Now you have to survive plus be aware of this racial injustice happening all the time. Absolutely. It's funny because in December 2019, I kept thinking to myself, it's funny because in December 2019 I kept thinking to myself wow isn't 2020 a great number the year for the year for perfect vision the year for clarity the year to be able to see I think we're getting it right isn't it I mean it's like I don't think this is the best way to see it but if this is the way to see it then I'm I'm happy that people are opening their eyes like

you said lifting the veil yeah what is the the importance of healing work on the inside versus healing work on the outside? Yeah, it has to be both. So there's a conversation that I have with people of color, a conversation that I have with white people, people of color. I teach them to not see themselves as victims, to begin to heal the wounds and the scar tissue within themselves, to come to a sense of empowerment,

go to some deep levels of forgiveness, so you're not carrying the thought forms of resentment, animosity. This is deep work, though. It's not like I'm gonna go forgive. And so that you begin to see yourself As an african-american or a Mexican or whatever Latino whatever the case may be But beyond that you are this eternal being your spiritual being having this human incarnation

That's great work to the to the to the white brothers and sisters, I teach them about compassion. Compassion allows you to see something. You walk in somebody else's moccasins. When you went to prison to visit your brother, you were a little kid, but you looked around, and you said, something's odd about this. Why is everybody in here black? You start to see things from somebody else's perspective.

So instead of just turning a blind eye, they're complaining again. Oh, they're pointing the finger again. Oh, they're making excuses again. You have a level of compassion. You do some research. What is the history of this? So there's two conversations. And then there's a conversation we all have

together about what you brought up at the very beginning, you know, about love and compassion and building a kind and just global society. It has to be built on love. It's not going to be built just on law itself. Just as we've had laws against slavery, we've had laws against Jim Crow, we had laws against segregation. We've had laws against Jim Crow. We've had laws against segregation. We have those laws. Sometimes they're enforced. Sometimes they're not. But unless in our heart of hearts

we come to an awareness of what love is, and it has nothing to do with the color of skin, has something to do with who we are as spiritual beings, then you can only have an enlightened society with enlightened people. You can only have a loving society with loving people. And so laws are important. I want laws.

I want to be able to say it's illegal for you to lynch me. You know, I want that law. But there has to be something else as well, and that's the shifting of our consciousness, and that's deep work. That's why agape exists. That's why spiritual centers exist, why we have self-empowerment in order to go in and take full responsibility for our own life, our own perceptions, our own opinions. What opinion am I holding that's

not congruent with the truth of humanity's excellence. This is not an overnight, read one book, you're in. You've got the healing you need. This is years, decades of the work is what I'm hearing you say. When I have gone through healing of deep things from my childhood, even doing workshops and a few months of therapy or what you may be was helpful, but it still takes years of, okay, there's triggers and you have to constantly remind yourself and have compassion and forgive and let go of that pain or that frustration.

It becomes a way of life. It needs to be a way of life. It's not just a weekend seminar. It's like, this is how I live my life. I have a level of introspection where I take responsibility for what's going on in here. And I work with it. That's called becoming aware, becoming conscious. And then I have a way of living where I'm doing that on a regular basis.

You can call it prayer. You can call it meditation. You can call it fellowshipping can call it meditation. You can call it Fellowship with progressive high-minded people you know how I mean Here's a question on ask about People who who people who say to themselves? You know what? I'm a I'm a stay-at-home mom. I've got a couple of kids. I'm a I'm going through so many challenges in my life right now. I just lost

my job. I've got no money. I've got so many problems in my own life that problems about racial injustice or problems about women's rights or problems about gay rights, all these other rights. I've got so much going on in my own life. I don't have time to think about it, to educate myself, to ask these questions. What would you say to people who think like that, who are just so overwhelmed with their own life that maybe they're like… I would say that many people are like that. They're just in a little bit of a struggle from day to day just to survive. So I understand that survival ethic.

And I think that if an individual, one, establish an intention, if you establish an intention, to this day, I'm intending to become a better version of myself. I'm intending to understand what's going on. Doesn't mean you have to run out tomorrow and jump in a protest or write a petition. But if you establish an intention, something's going to come to you based on that intention. Now, most people, as I've taught over the years, suffer from an intention deficit disorder. They don't have any intention, so they just kind of react every day to things that are going on to stay in survival mode.

But if a person wakes up and actually has an intention, the universe by law will begin to bring into that person's life a way to fulfill that intention. A book may show up. A neighbor may start having a conversation with them about something. You know, they may see a special on television. They may hear us on this podcast, you know, and then say, hmm, I never thought about it that way. Let me think about that. You know, but to have no intention means that you're just up for grabs at whatever the popular emotional mental contagion is that's going throughout the world.

We're not here to live an unintentional life. So during this time in human history, we want people to establish an intention. I want to learn more about this. I want to become a better person. I want to be on the right side of history. That's a good intention right there. I want to be on the right side of history when all this goes down. I want to be the one to say, you know what? Not before I left the planet, I helped build a better society. It may have been just with my neighbors around my neighborhood. It doesn't mean I have to go out into the whole world and protest. Maybe it's just the conversations I'm having with the lady across the street.

And we get into a dialogue and suddenly, oh, that's a way of looking at it. Oh, my God, I need to think about that. Yeah, the moment-to-moment intention, the reflection of those moments. You know, how should people, in your opinion, address protesting and in-the-moment reactions? There's two levels. moment reactions? There's two levels. In one, the peaceful protests that have happened is a proclamation that one, this has been going on too long.

And that two, something must be done finally. And America has always, through the First Amendment, given us, everyone, the opportunity to speak. So that should not be quelched at all. Then there are those who have nefarious ideas using the protest, using the protest to lewd, using the protest to steal the narrative, to go into some kind of anarchy. I saw a video of someone that I know

trying to stop this white guy in this black outfit. He was a white guy and a white girl spraying Black Lives Matter onto this business. And they're saying, you're white. You have to ask me if you can put that up there. Don't do that in my name. We're not here to destroy anything. I saw this too, yeah.

Did you see that? I saw it, yeah. Yeah. And so there's two levels. She's saying, we're here peacefully protesting. Right. These people are vandalizing. It's not us.

It's not us. So on the one level, the protests keep the pedal to the metal. It's like, we're not going to forget. You know, let's see justice. Not only see justice in this one case, but let's begin to see pedal to the metal. It's like, we're not gonna forget, you know, let's see justice, not only see justice in this one case, but let's begin to see individual police departments look at their policies. I mean, this particular guy had like 18,

I don't know if they're in fractions, but you know, you know, listen, if you're on the job and you pat a girl on the butt, this is zero tolerance that you're fired the next day. It's not like, oh, OK, don't do it again. Not today. Got a pink slip today. Yeah, not today. You're gone. So if an officer who's to enforce the law, to enforce the law, has 18 complaints and still able to carry a gun, there's something wrong with the system, you see. So I think that some of the protest is about that, not just about that officer.

But let's look at the system and begin to create a uniform way of hiring training and then pulling out the bad apples because I know a lot of really beautiful police officers yeah that police officer friends hearts I care about black yeah Asian the team I mean you know so it's not a condemnation on police officers but the system itself allows for the bad apples and the bad actors to stay and to affect other people. You know, sometimes, you know, you may have somebody that's coming in all, I want to protect and serve my neighborhood. And then he gets involved with some bad apples.

And after a while, in order for him to stay in the club, he has to go along with the program. So yeah, the system needs to be changed. I mean, for those that wanna help, you're saying white people need to make the change. We're the ones that need to make the change, right? Black people have been the ones pointing at the problem. We're the ones that need to be allies

in educating ourselves and being a stand for equality right what do you think is the right balance for white people in their lives to say okay I'm gonna champion this I'm gonna stand up for this because I believe in equality I believe in equal rights I don't want to see my brothers and sisters have unfair right things happen in the world. What is the balance between advocating, fighting, marching, protesting, standing up, posting on social media, dialoguing with their friends, calling governors, signing petitions? What, I mean, is it? All of that is helpful. When you said our black brothers and sisters, first of all, that's the context.

We're all living in this fabric of society. So it's not just what's happening to black people. That's important, yes. But this is our society. There has to be a context that we're all in this together. So something is happening to brother over there. That's my society. That's my neighborhood.

That's my city. You know, so I have to ask myself, this is people have to ask the sincere question, what is it that's mine to do? Everyone has gifts, talents, and capacities. Everyone can't do everything, but everyone can do something. So perhaps the woman that you talked about, that stay at home mom, she's taking care of her kids, she's trying to survive. Perhaps what she can do is actually pick up the phone and call her councilman and her congressman and her senator or text them or email them and say, you know what? I think what I saw was unjust.

I'd like to see justice. You know, perhaps that's what she can do. Perhaps someone else, like you were talking about millennials earlier, they have the energy to go out. March all night. In March, you know what I mean? And the beautiful thing about millennials are this,

because of music and because of social media, dance, millennials, a lot of them not on like you said we don't we do generalize they don't have a the racism and the homophobia it's not a big thing to many Millennials that's just you know you know that's my girlfriend you know that's my you know they don't they've come a lot so they have to take leadership they're more open-minded they're way more open-minded and then people that grew up in the 50s. So I would say everybody can't do everything, but everybody can do something.

So everyone has to be sincere with themselves and say, what is it that's mine to do? You have a podcast. You're opening up your podcast to have this dialogue. Hopefully one thing that we say may make somebody go, hmm, hmm, hmm, let me see what I can do. So everybody has something. There's no one that doesn't have anything. Again, from the neighbor across the street to a petition to writing a congressperson, to being on the streets, to some of my security people who were on the streets, stopping people from

looting. I mean, they can do that because they're very strong martial artists, ex-sheriffs. I mean, they can handle themselves in the street. So their job, they went out at night and stopped people from looting. They saved eight businesses. Eight that were about to be burned. They were able to stop that. That's what they could do, and that's what they did.

Now, the woman staying at home, I wouldn't ask her to do that. You better stay at home. Do your part. Do your part. Do the skills and talents you have. One of the things I'm hearing from all people is who is leading this charge is there a leader organizing like the actual steps that we can do

like action as opposed to there's no hierarchy people are peacefully um marching people are writing people are doing this people are posting we're only one week out of this right happening still right so i think there's a lot of confusion for people. And just also three months locked indoors, it's like this anger and resentment and frustration. It's like now we're just getting out and unleashing all the energy of three months inside. Even from that, right, right, right, right, right. I think that that's the next step. Like right now you have the anger of the unheard, the protest for justice.

Now there has to be strategy. There are some people that have strategy. I mean, they're not necessarily on the news, but there are people in the legal aspect of life that are working on strategy and have been working on strategy, have been doing things to try to push the needle forward. For decades. Van Jones. I mean, there's a lot of people doing work. And I think good news is that that work will probably speed up. The bad news is that there are people that are impatient saying what you've been doing hasn't been working because here another person has been killed.

saying what you've been doing hasn't been working because here another person has been killed. So I think that we have to be more vocal with the strategy and with the plan. And we have to look at Justice Department. We have to look at the prison industrial system. You have to look at the sick care system masquerading as a health care system that, again, is run on greed. If a poor person goes to the hospital, he's not gonna get the same treatment as a person who has the greatest insurance in the world. So all these systems are up for change.

So many systems to put energy behind to try to change, right? And all based on profit motive, not necessarily humanity. So again, the veil is lifted. So now we see it all. When COVID came through, it revealed that the most vulnerable people in our society have the least access to the resources. We knew it, but COVID revealed it. Yes. 40 million unemployment, all this stuff. It's all there. So I think that if everybody asks, what is it that I can do? And then very importantly, we have to be able to articulate. This is where strategy comes in.

You have to be able to articulate what the kind and just global society looks like, what the system, what the ideal looks like. Then you begin to strategize as to how to get there. So right now, there's a lot of dialogue about what isn't working. There's no justice here. The most vulnerable aren't taken care of. So you have to move from that to what does it look like to take care of the most vulnerable? What does it look like to have a real health care system? What does it look like to have a real justice system? So that has to be articulated. Without vision, people perish. So if you don't have a vision of where you're walking, then you're just kind of walking in circles, you know. So you have all these different steps. There are people who are visionary, people who

can articulate the vision, people who are good at strategy, people are good at doing the work. Execution, yeah. You know are good at strategy. People who are good at doing the work. Execution, yeah. You know, everybody's important. Yes. Everybody's important. So I want to go back to these three questions that white people are, you know, asking in general. I'm afraid I don't know enough.

I'm afraid to say the wrong things and offend people. Yeah. And I don't know what steps to take. Yeah For me if I could end this today Yeah, like as a man of white privilege of never going through this injustice Like I don't want this to happen So I want to know what I could do if I could do it today And I think a lot of white people I don't want to speak in general terms

But a lot of people like white people I know they don't want this either so you know it's like you know it's almost a feeling of like uh we're ready to do the work now like once we figure out the right strategy we'll execute well here's the deal you know you're talking about white privilege that's a big step yeah primarily because it's never been it's never been acknowledged before yeah you know i was having a conversation with a woman in agape about it you know she kind of knew about it but at the same time it wasn't blatant a white woman yeah yeah and then something happened her son well to say borrowed her and her husband's car in the middle of the night they were asleep and he snuck into the garage stole the car went and picked up his boys. Yeah, we did something in my town Yeah, I got pulled over by the police

And they said go home. Oh, they said get a license. He's like 14 15 years old. He said no, sir He said you don't have a license. He's no whose cars. That's my dad's. Oh, hey looked in the backseat I was doing smoking weed to white guys in the back seat with a white guy in the front he says you guys go home right now now if that would have been four black guys that would have been they would have been they had they had their first record fingerprints in jail you know so i told her this is a really good opportunity a teaching moment for you to teach your son about white privilege that if he would have been a black guy driving and gotten pulled over, it would have been a totally different scenario.

So she's taking, she is starting conversations with white women about white privilege. She is so compelled to do that, you know. For white people who, I mean, we, in general, again, there's been other challenges we've faced, right? People have their own challenges, but we've never had to face these types of challenges. We've gotten off. We've, you know, had a pass. We've had all these different things where we don't fear for our lives if we get in trouble

that we're going to get shot and killed. We don't have that type of fear. And I think it's hard for people to have perspective unless they see it like they're seeing it now. But they still, I mean, if you haven't felt it, how do you gain that perspective? If you're never like,

well... You've got to do what Jane Fonda said. You've really got to be interested in study. And you have to say to people of color, I don't... You can say, I don't want to offend, but I do want to be interested in study. And you have to say to people of color, I don't, you can say, I don't want to offend, but I do want to be educated. I do want to have this conversation. I mean, you called me and said, hey, I want to have a conversation. You know, let's have this conversation. You know, I wasn't offended. I said, yeah, let's have it. You know,

and I think people are nervous, but you know what? We have to get over that, that skittishness. You know, I'll tell you an experience. I was in South Africa. I've been many times, but I was there before Nelson Mandela was elected. And they called me over to lead vision process throughout the country because they had been fighting against apartheid for so long that they had lost the vision of how they wanted their society to be. This is what some of the people who were bringing me over saying. So I went over with about a number of my spiritual practitioners, small choir, and I was doing the vision process around

the nation. And we were in Soweto, our choir practicing with the Soweto choir. That was during the time Soweto was listed as the most violent city in the world. Okay? And all of a sudden, the assistant choir director comes into the room and says, quick, get all the white people out of here. The rebels are coming to get them. And my people started laughing. Because, you know, it was an integrated choir.

My choir is integrated. And they started laughing. I said, he's serious. I said, everybody get on the bus. So everybody got on the bus. I said, white's serious. I said, everybody get on the bus. So everybody got on the bus. I said, white folks, get under the seat. No way. Yeah.

Black people sit on the seat. So the white people are hiding under the seat. The black people are sitting on the seat so nobody could see them under there. You know, had their blankets over their legs and everything. And it was very tense. So I got up to the front and got in the microphone. I had to break the ice a little bit. So I said, listen, if they come in here looking for the white people, I'm going to say these white people belong to me.

Oh, my goodness. So everybody started laughing. And we were driving out of Soweto, and busloads of these individuals coming with guns and all kinds of stuff were coming into Soweto. We were going out. So all that because he was black people in the bus. So we got out, got back to the hotel, and processed all night. The white people had never had a direct experience of being a minority, never had a direct experience of their life being on the line. This is how black people had been living for decades.

Right. You know what I mean? And it changed many of them. I mean, they still go to Agape now, and it shifted their perspective because they had a direct experience of what it felt like to be the other, and to have your life threatened. So I wouldn't advocate that for everybody, but-

Maybe a simulated training in school of life threatened. So I wouldn't advocate that for everybody, but maybe a simulated training in school of life history. I thought about that over the years, you know, like having people just move through the experience, have men move to the experience of harassment of what it feels like, you know, have, have, have white people move to the experience of what it feels like to, you know, you're not going to be hired, you know, move to the experience of, you're going to be fired first when it's time to be fired. Move to the experience of a police officer, you know, you're driving and you're probably going to be pulled over if you're driving at night and you're the only one, you know, or whatever.

But I think that that's what compassion is. Compassion is, you know, part of compassion is being able to walk in the moccasins of another person, you know. And so it can be done mentally, viscerally, emotionally, you know. How would you feel if, like this, how would you feel if George Floyd was your brother? That was your dad. He had two children. That was you. People have to get a sense of that, that births compassion.

So I would say, one, don't be afraid of having the conversation. This is the time to have the conversation. And you don't have to complete everything in one conversation. But if you just open the door, then that becomes territory that you can talk about. Because before you might only be talking about sports,

or you might only be talking about that latest movie that you saw on Netflix or whatever. Now that territory is open. And if I see Lewis, I see so-and-so, we can talk about it. We can have conversation and have greater insights. I think one of the things that I've seen in the last week since all this has come about on social media is

I think people are afraid to, people are afraid who are on the right side to speak up for being judged one way or another, for saying the wrong things, for people being shamed for doing it the wrong way. I feel like certain people feel judged, like no matter what I do or say, I'm going to get attacked. And I think you need to overcome like it's gonna happen It's gonna it's gonna happen You're gonna be judged for oh, you're just doing this to do it or do you really care or you put the wrong? Hashtag or right? It's like you don't actually you aren't really educated, right? I think you just got to be willing to say I'm gonna get judged

You're gonna be People are not gonna like you right or gonna be upset at you. You're gonna offend people You're gonna to offend people. You're going to hurt people. And I think going back to your point of intention, it's like if you have the right intention and you know you're doing the work and you're doing your best, you say, hey, I'm trying to figure this out.

Like, I'm going to make mistakes, but I want to be on the right side. So let me know if I can be better. Right. I think you got to take that approach. Absolutely. It's called courage. It's not fun to You have to have a-

It's not fun to get criticized constantly. There are haters out there. If you go on your social media and write the word blue, they're gonna say, blue? Green! No, it's green! And there's always haters that are looking for an argument and looking to put somebody down.

They're there. They're there. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. They have a low level of self-esteem. Many of them aren't doing anything with their own life. They're haters there. So yes, if you try anything new, you're gonna be hated.

You know, I've said over the years that mediocrity attacks excellence. Ooh. That's what it does. Mediocrity always attacks excellence. Ooh. That's what it does. Mediocrity always attacks excellence. So if you start walking towards excellence, mediocrity is gonna rise up and say, what the hell, who do you think you are?

Why do you think you can have a big podcast? What do you, how do you think you can change? What are you doing? You can't do that. You came from this kind of family. No, no. You know, mediocrity is gonna attack it, but you keep on going.

And then after a while, mediocrity and the haters create a level of resistance that allow you to go higher you know that's how what life is you know whatever negative energy is coming at you if you lift your vibration you actually use it to go beyond so at the end of the day you thank the haters you elevated me yeah you elevated you you you you brought deep forgiveness in my heart you made me pray when i didn't feel like it you made me uh finalize my vision when i was being lazy you made me learn how to articulate better because of your hate coming in my direction you chiseled me into a better person. Whereas if it would have been just an open door

with no challenge, because we're not here to live a challenge-free life. Challenges make us strong. So the haters are just part of the challenge. So we can't just sit back and say, oh well, that's like saying, well when I get over my fear, then I'm gonna do something.

No, no, no, no, no. You're not trying to get over your fear. You walk in the direction, and then fear becomes excitement, and then excitement becomes enthusiasm. But it doesn't change unless you're actually walking in the direction. Yeah. Yeah. What's a mantra all human beings can have in this time of, like, getting back to intention?

Okay, the mantra and the affirmation first have to come from context. Context determines our perception. So our context must be, I am here to contribute to a kind and just global society. So that's the context. My context isn't, I'm just trying to get rich, or I'm just trying to be successful. That's within a context of, I am here to participate and help create a kind and just global society. So if I have that context, then I can say, let me be an instrument of peace. That could be the mantra. Yeah. Let me be an instrument of compassion. Let me be an instrument of intelligence and joy. Whatever quality is relevant at that particular moment.

Today, it would probably be peace and justice. Let me be an instrument of peace and justice, you see. So everybody can say that. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter if you're white, black. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

That can be the mantra. Yeah. How can we be comfortable being uncomfortable during this time, knowing that we're trying to heal and trying to get back to a place of normalcy, but we may never be normal again? First of all, we don't want to go back to normal. We don't want to go back to the status quo. The status quo is where systemic racism lives and where injustice lives.

So this is an opportunity, this flashpoint is an opportunity to change the normal and to change the status quo so that peace and justice begins to prevail in all of our institutions. Now, if you're walking in the direction of greatness, you walk in the direction of excellence, you're going to be uncomfortable. If you want to be an Olympic athlete, you got to get up early in the morning, you got to work. You're going to be uncomfortable if you want to be an Olympic athlete You got to get up early in the morning. You got to work out You got to be uncomfortable for years for years periods of time of intensity in order to make those breakthroughs in your mind same thing with

Society if in fact we're really going to dismantle racism. It's gonna be uncomfortable. It's gonna be easy to say Today, I don't you know, I'm just going to go to work. I'm going to get my paycheck. I'm going to fund my retirement program. I'm going to go to the baseball game whenever we can go back to the baseball game. It's easy to do that. But if I really want to be about a kind and just global society, I'm going to have to be uncomfortable. That means I'm going to have to sacrifice my time. The word sacrifice means to make sacred.

So I'm going to have to make sacred my time, which means this period of time, I'm going to make sacred by either having an uncomfortable conversation or calling my congressperson or fill in the blanks. I'm gonna be uncomfortable, because no one changes the status quo and remains comfortable. Right, sitting on your couch, watching TV. No, eating potato chips and getting fat, no, no.

You gotta be uncomfortable. You know this. You talk to anyone who has made any changes in society, whether they're an inventor, whether they're in society, whether they're an inventor, whether they're a dancer, whether they're an athlete, whether they're a business person, they were uncomfortable. They had to do stuff that other people were unwilling to do. Yeah. Progress takes pain. Yes.

It takes pain and- Sweet pain. Sweet pain. It was like- Lovely pain. Yeah. When I'm in the gym and that guy's, it's sweet pain. I'm like lovely pain. Yeah when I'm in the gym and that guy's Sweet pain, you know, I'm doing that yoga. I'm holding that posture for the last enough for another 30 seconds Sweet, you know, so it's the same type of thing. We're not here to live a comfortable life matter of fact

The comfort zone is your enemy. Yeah, you know That's that your enemy is the comfort zone because the good that we're seeking is outside of our present paradigm. It's in the realm of the unknown. That's where the good is. So you have a vision, you walk in that direction. What you don't know, you don't know shows up. You realize you didn't know that you learn it and you keep on moving. So we're not, we're not, we don't, we're not here to make people comfortable. We're here to make people great. Love that. Thank you for sharing all this. And I think this is a great start to a dialogue for my audience.

And I think my audience will have a lot of resources for people in the show notes to dive in on more of what our team has been educating ourselves on. But you have an amazing service you provide for people every week at Agape, where they can find spiritual healing. They can find a community of people to share and create a safe dialogue with. They can learn on how to heal from this, but just lots of things in their life. And right now you guys are doing Zoom.

Is that right? You're doing live stream Zoom. Live stream and Zoom. And where can we go to be a part of this? I've been there before. It's amazing. And I know a lot of people go there religiously every week to listen to you and the community you bring of experts to share. Where can we go and get a place of healing, of intentional love, of community?

I like that, intentional love. Yeah. First of all, on the website, they can go to a gap a live.com every Sunday 645 830 11 they can see the services the first service is a meditation service I need I love this yeah and then the next two service carries the inspirational message aspect of life. And when they go to the website, beginning in just a few days, there's going to be dialogues around people will be able to express without judgment,

whatever it is that they're feeling during this time, whether it's COVID, whether it's racism, police brutality, without judgment, in order to develop a higher dialogue. That's gonna be facilitated by one of my practitioners, Aisha Mason, and others who are trained in having this kind of dialogue. So it's trained people that know how to create a safe space. That's gonna be up in just a couple of days.

If they go to agaprilive.com, they can get on the Zoom and actually be a part of that dialogue. I just released an app that's going to have a lot. It's free. You can up-level if you want, but it's a free app that's going to have inspiration,

spiritual practices. They can go to michaelbbeckwith.tv, subscribe to the app, and then go to the app store, Beckwith Inspires, MBB, and actually get the app. And I'm going to be putting things on that on a regular basis. So right on your phone, you'll be able to get whatever the latest practice is based on whatever's going on in the world at that particular time.

On my Instagram Live, I'm having dialogues. I mean, stuff's there all the time, but I've been having dialogues about this issue with people. I have one up there now with Iyanla Van Zandt, Kevin Ross, and Ryan Bathay, and Ben Crump came on to talk about what's going on right now. So they go to my Instagram. So there's stuff on Instagram, stuff on my YouTube page. There's stuff on right now. So they go to my Instagram. So there's stuff on Instagram, stuff on my YouTube page. There's stuff on the website, michaelbeckwith.com. They can get the app there.

So we're trying to provide as much as we can to keep people inspired and out of fear because here's the deal. We talk about the COVID virus, but the bigger virus is the virus of the mind,

which is fear. That's the biggest virus. Now we know that the virus is not as deadly as was being taught because thousands of people have had it. You know, when you look at the research that's been done by these universities back in 2019, so that brought the mortality rate really low. So the biggest virus is fear. People are dying of fear. Yeah, the F word.

Yeah. So definitely we want people to wash their hands. We want people to wear masks when necessary. We want people to eat right, build up their immune system. I mean, if your immune system is strong, I'll just say this. You're trying to mandate a bunch of stuff. They need to mandate that people take their vitamin C every day. They need to mandate that they take their vitamin D. They need to mandate that they go outside and take their shoes off

and get in the ground so they get new microbes so the immune system starts to work. Because what's dangerous is if people are at home quarantining and they're not getting any new microbes and new germs to fight, the immune system shuts down. I know this isn't what we're supposed to be talking about. But anyway, all of that will be on my website. You know, just information on how to stay, how the immune system to stay strong spiritually, mentally, and physically. Yeah, the answer, you've got a lot of books. I like this one.

I like short books because I'm a slow reader. But the answer is you is a good one. Heart Sets and Mind Sets for Self-Discovery. You've got tons of resources, tons of books, tons of programming. And again, I love that you lead this weekly meditation for people to get back to a place of peace inside. We talk about healing on the inside first. You can start to heal the outside.

It's hard to make change on the outside if you're not coming back to a place of peace and love and centeredness, which you provide people every single week, live and also through the app. How else can we support you in this mission? You know what? You support me, support Agape, by actually doing your inner work. If you tune in, and I tell people, if you tune in and in you listen and you actually just take one thing and practice it that week you will see your life change we're not here to be a bystander we're here to be a participant so if you hear something in

this conversation you said well I can do that you don't have to do everything if you take one thing and you actually do it I tell people to do it do this for seven days and then next week you'll hear something else actually do it. I tell people to do this for seven days. And then next week, you'll hear something else. Actually practice it for seven days. Don't just say, oh, that was good. I liked the way he said that. Implement. You know, just actually do it.

That's how you help. Because what are you doing? You're building a better being. It means you're building a better neighborhood, a better city, better state, better nation. So I teach. I'm not here to gain followers. I'm here to train spiritual leaders.

I'm not looking for followers. This follow back with, no, I'm not, that's not my thing. My thing is to train people to be leaders and to realize they have an inner authority within themselves. They could be just as tapped into the wisdom and the guidance and the intelligence that anyone is tapped into because this presence that's never in absence doesn't make special people. It makes everyone with equal access to the wisdom and the love and the peace, but you have to participate in it. You have to actually, you know, we can all be at the ocean

and say, oh, we all have access to go and swimming, but if you don't get in, you're not gonna get wet. Exactly. You know, so we all have access. You gotta dive in to life. You gotta dive in, man. That's it. So, you know, if they go to the website

or Agape's Facebook page, they can see how to support us. It's very easy. There's ways to donate, there's ways to keep our ministries going. Sure, sure. All of that. And we definitely are open to that, particularly during this time. And just we have morning prayer time at 8 a.m. Pacific time on the web. Every day?

Every single day. You can go right on Adabi's Facebook page. I have a practitioner leading that every day at 8 a.m. Wow, that's cool. Noon meditation every day. Wow. On the Facebook page. Friday night, community gathering, 5.30 p.m. Pacific time every Friday.

People are tuning in from all around the world. We have youth programs every Sunday. So we're trying to be full service to keep the virus of fear out of people's minds. Come back to hope. Hope goes to faith. And then faith goes to conviction. If you guys want to hear the previous interview we did, which has been one of my favorites on the podcast, I think it was about a year and a half ago we had you on.

And if you want to hear Michael's three truths and his answer to the three truths question, his definition his definition of greatness make sure to go listen to that or watch that on youtube uh michael thank you so much for being a leader of love of faith of peace during this time and i hope we can do more hopefully maybe we'll do an instagram live here soon after this comes out and talk about this more so let's keep the conversation going. We're just getting started. Thank you for the invitation. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks.

I want to give a big thank you to Michael Beckwith for coming on and sharing his wisdom, for giving us some spiritual guidance on how we can approach this time, now and moving forward. I think there's so much more we get to take action on, we get to learn and educate ourselves on.

And again, here at the School of Greatness, we want to be a place that is a powerful resource for you to help you on this journey and educate yourself. So thank you again so much for listening and for being here with us on this journey. And remember to go back and check out my first podcast with Reverend Michael Beckwith as well, if you haven't already heard it.

And I'd love it if you haven't already heard it. And I'd love it if you can join me in doing the work to help reform our society and heal our country. This is just the beginning. We have a lot of work to do. And I'm grateful that you're here on this journey with me. Make sure to stay connected with me on social media as we'll be posting more resources over there as I want to have a dialogue with you and the entire community. And make sure if you have any questions for me directly, please text me 614-350-3960. And I want to leave you with this quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said, The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,

but where he stands at a time of challenge and controversy. I hope you enjoyed this episode and you're going to take action today in your own way. I'm sending you lots of love and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.