TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Rick Wiles & Dr. Robert A. Schuller Discuss Today's Toxic Political Environment

Episode Date: August 12, 2022

Today on TruNews, host and founder Rick Wiles welcomes Dr. Robert A. Schuller to the Godcast. Dr. Schuller's family legacy extends to today as he pastors Community Church of Orange County in the midst of California's toxic political environment. Rick discusses what believers can do to navigate the current climate of institutional evil in our nation. Rick Wiles. Airdate 8/9/22It’s the Final Day! The day when Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. You can order the second edition of Rick’s book, Final Day!  https://rickwiles.com/final-day

The following program is made possible by the faithful prayers and financial support of listeners just like you. To find out how you can help, visit www.truenews.com. The beautiful state of California has become America's bellwether of far-left extremist politics. It's where the zaniest ideas get tested before they're pushed on the rest of the states. There was a time when California produced some of America's most conservative leaders who represented patriotic and traditional family values. People such as Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. Well, those days are long gone.

Today's California political leaders are hardcore extremist leftists. What's it like these days for conservative Californians? I want to ask a member of one of the most well-known families in California. Many of you remember him as the associate pastor of the Crystal Cathedral founded by his father Robert H. Schuller. Dr. Robert A. Schuller is now the founder and pastor of Community Church of Orange County. The Newport Beach Church was founded in March 2020 when California's government ordered churches to stop meeting in person. It's a pleasure to welcome Robert A. Shuler. Hello, Dr. Shuler.

Thank you, Rick, for allowing me to be on your program and for making this happen. I just love you and I love your work and I'm honored and privileged to be a part of this. Well hey we're glad to have you here. In my introduction I commented that California was for many many years the leader of conservative politics in America and it produced great conservative leaders like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. But now California is the bellwether of left-wing politics. And so I wanted to find out from a conservative Californian what it's like to live in California these days under these political conditions that

you're facing in the state. What's it like for you? Well, it is not the California of Ronald Reagan. That's for sure. And it is very difficult. My son is a chiropractor. He wants to start his own business. And the hoops he has to jump through in order to start a business are overwhelming. And so he's

going to go to another state and start. He's looking at Utah. So I suspect he'll start a business and move to Utah. My daughter and her husband, they have a business that they've had for some time, and they have moved their business to Florida, and they'll be moving their residence to Florida as a result because it's friendly for business. California's politics is anti-business and does not work for people who want to have business here. We ran out Tesla out of the state. I mean, the list of people who are leaving the state are astronomical. It's really sad and it's really detrimental for our state. But it's not because of their stance on business, even though it is. It's really their stance on religion and freedom, which is the foundation of the problem here in California. Because of their stance against religion and for communism, basically, it only ends badly for everybody.

So you're currently, you're pastoring a new church, Community Church of Orange County. And you started the church at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Yes. And if I understand it, you actually were motivated to start to church because California, the government, was making it difficult for churches to even open their doors on Sunday morning. Go back to 2020. Tell us about the environment. So in March of 2020, the feds, it wasn't just the state of California, the feds, or it wasn't even the federal government. It was the CDC made this declaration. And then Biden said, we need to know.

It was Trump said, we need to have 14 days of closure. Right. And everyone just sit down but then they had the essential businesses that could stay open like liquor stores and pot shops but churches had to close they weren't considered essential and most of the churches uh in the nation closed i know there are a few that didn't. And in the state of California, and specifically in Orange County, I knew of only one church that did not No, in Orange County, I don't know of a single church that did not close. And in LA County, I knew of one church that

stayed open. And basically still in California. So on the middle of March, my wife and I, in the middle of March 2020, my wife and I were attending about four different churches. We would attend my son's church. We would attend my daughter's church. We would attend my other son's church. We attended another church that we liked to go to, and we'd bounce around all these churches. I knew all all these pastors and they're all young, great guys. And

I'm mentoring these guys. And when COVID hit, I said, listen, you can't close your church. You've got to keep it open. This is the state telling the church what to do. This is anti-American. This is anti the Constitution of the united states the churches are essential we need to stay open if you're concerned about the virus meet your cars just have people come and have a drive-in church and not a single one would listen to me and every single church that don and i would go to closed now so i said well i'm going to show these guys how to hold the church for until they reopen we'll just have a drive-in so we found a parking lot where we could have a drive-in

and i bought the little monitor the the fm quarter quarter mile range monitor which doesn't have and doesn't require any uh fcc regulations or anything and we we broadcast our first Sunday the last March. I think it was 20-something. It was the last Sunday of March in 2020. And we had probably 50 cars in the parking lot because there was literally nowhere else anyone could go. By Easter, if I was a betting man, I would have bet the farm that by Easter of 2020, all the churches would be open. Trump would have lifted everything.

In fact, my prediction was that Trump was going to lift everything before Passover, which was the, I believe it was on Wednesday or Thursday, it was on Wednesday before Easter Sunday. That's when everything's going to be open and all the churches are going to come back. Didn't happen. And we ended up being the only place in Orange County, which has a population of 3.2 million people. We were the only place anybody could go to church on Easter Sunday. And how many cars showed up that Sunday? Do you remember? What's that? How many cars showed up?

We had a full parking lot. I think we could accommodate about 150 cars. And so I'm guessing it was close to 150 cars. Every news broadcast, every radio station, everybody who hadn't reported anything that it's Easter Sunday, what's happening? They were all in the parking lot filming. And we were on every news station as here's a creative way to meet together in churches. Did you get any kind of negative pushback from people? No, nothing. Because we're following all the guidelines and that people are in their cars. We didn't enforce any mask mandates. We didn't ask people to do anything, but we respected that.

So some people would wear masks. Most people wouldn't. And we'd go and hand them some song sheets and other things, and we'd have a worship service. But it was amazing what the – what's the right way? It was amazing how beautiful it was feeling connected even though they're looking through their glass of their windows. And some people would roll the window down and wave. And you still felt connected in the drive-in. It was absolutely amazing. But I knew that was going to take place because I have a history of drive-in.

You sure do. I knew that was going to take place because I have a history of drive-in. And my father started the first drive-in church 60 years earlier to the date. To the date? 60 years earlier on, yes. On the last Sunday of March, 1955, my father held his first drive-in church service. And 60 years later to the date, I'm holding the first drive-in service in Orange County in 2020. I didn't know that fact. That's interesting. Did you inspire any other churches to follow your example? Well, there was one man who was really outspoken and forward-thinking as far as the churches are concerned,

and that was Jim Doman. Jim Doman has an organization called Churches United, and it's for California churches. And it's a conservative group. And none of the churches reopened until May 15th in California. May 15th. So they were closed for two months. Only a few opened in May 15th. That's when John MacArthur opened his church. And John MacArthur is with Grace Community Church in, I believe it's Van Nuys, but it made national news. Yes. Because the city of Los Angeles came after him, and he just received all kinds of heat. Then 1,200 churches in California opened on Pentecost Sunday of 2020, which was the last Sunday of May. And then since then, a lot of churches have slowly reopened,

and a lot of churches didn't open until 2021, which is what I predicted would happen when all the churches I was going to didn't open right away. And I called them before Pentecost Sunday and said, you got to open. If you're not opening Pentecost Sunday, you're probably not opening until 2021. And that's exactly what happened. Most of the churches in California did not open until 2021. Dr. Shuler, I want to ask you now about the political climate in California did not open until 2021. Dr. Shuler, I want to ask you now about the political climate in California regarding churches and Christians on issues like

gender and homosexuality and teaching gay rights to children in schools. What are the churches and Christian families facing in California right now? So we have about 10 bills that are on the docket right now. For me, the worst one is AB 2023. Yeah, 20, no, 2223. Yes, 2223, so it's 2 2 2 3 what 80 22 23 does is allow full term abortion we're talking the day before a woman goes into labor even the day she goes into labor she can she can go and get a legal abortion

beyond that they have a 30-day grace period of any child who dies within the next 30 days they will they're not allowed to investigate the death what inside infant side that's built that's ab build 22 23 it's demonic it's evil it's ugly it's it's a it's a stain on civilization uh it just i just can't even believe it has already passed the committee uh and the committee voted right along partisan lines, which in the state of California is about two thirds to three fourths Democrat to only about 25 to 30 percent Republican. So the Republicans have zero input in the Democrat agenda. And the Democrat agenda right now in the state of California is communism. And communism is a reality taking place across America. In Florida, you have the best governor in the world.

We sure do. I hear what he's doing and I just go, yes, that's what we need. The idea of bringing into this and not enforcing the school districts to teach the evils of communism is one of the things that DeSantis declared, I think, a few weeks ago. Do you? We sure. Yeah. Yeah. yeah hey come on and move to florida we need all the people here that we can get to stand for freedom you know yeah well i don't think you need me in florida i think i need it in california if all the christians leave california and run to florida and leave all the other states,

we need prophets to stand in the evil states and to proclaim the evil that's taking place. That's true, but the children, the children of the Christians in California have to face these demonic people in schools. And I don't know if a six-year-old is capable of doing it. That's what bothers me. So here's what my children are currently doing with their children.

Number one, you cannot send your child to a public school in California, period. It is required for them to teach. Let me see if I can tell you which proposition it was so you know I'm not blowing smoke because this is absolute reality here. I'm just going to pull up my, my cheat sheet here on, on some of this stuff. Here it is. It is AB 329, which is already passed. And it requires public schools to teach the gender bred person and this is for let me let me see this is for

we're talking young people before they get into in the high school and i think while they're still in grade school so the first thing they have to do is determine what their gender is what is your gender androgynous binary cisgender female genderqueer gender expression intersex male or transgender and i don't know if you can see this but that's that's what they pass out there it is that's the this is the pass out i didn't even get to the whole sex education part where they're talking about how to use condoms and how to use and when to use them. I mean, it's just it's too graphic for me to share. So this is mandatory in California schools. Yes.

So how many Christians still have their children in public schools? The ones that cannot afford private school or homeschooling. So it's affecting the disadvantaged.

And that's what happens in a society like this. And that's the thing with communism and socialism. So what's taking place in California is you have the racism card being played heavily. Racism is nothing to do with the color of your skin, nothing to do with your ancestry, nothing to do with the color of your skin nothing to do with your ancestry nothing to do with your genealogy everything to do with oppressed or oppressor there's only two choices you are either oppressed or you are the oppressor and that's why people like candace owens and larry elder and ben carson have been labeled but can you picture those three people okay picture them in your mind now label them

a white supremacist yes that tells you come on you gotta be kidding me the world has gone absolutely mad these three people are white supremacists it's it's insanity but that's because it has nothing to do with color or or or anything it has to do with only two things it has to do with only two things. It has to do with oppressed or oppressor. If you're not the oppressed, then you're the oppressor. There's no middle ground. And so what happens is all of our school systems are teaching this critical race theory, which again, I just love DeSantis and the fact that he went and he's outlawed any curriculum in the public schools of critical race theory because it is communism and communism is is is really the the the root of everything we're seeing since since the covid pandemic of March of 2020.

We call it COVID-19. But I'm not going to get off into all of that. Other than the fact that my belief is that it's been communism ever since. So are you familiar with Antonio Gramsci? Oh, sure. Yes. The Italian. Okay. The Italian. Okay. Yes. The Italian communist, right?

And the Italian communist has been credited for cultural hegemony, right? Mm-hmm. So what is cultural hegemony? Here's how he spoke on it. He said socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. In the new order, socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society. We're there. That's what's taking place. And that's what has started first with, and it's been going on for decades.

And we just were asleep and not paying any attention. At least I was. I was asleep and not paying any attention until March of 2020, when all of a sudden we have this pandemic and we have these institutions like the CDC closing down churches. And the CDC should not have that kind of power to close down a church. They don't. And they shouldn't have the power that they've had. They don't have the power.

That's just it, Dr. Schroeder. They don't have the power. They just pretended. They've been given the power. They just pretended that they did, and everybody believed that they did. Like they ordered landlords not to evict tenants that didn't pay their rent. The CDC doesn't have that power, but people just pretended that they did.

We have about four and a half minutes remaining. I want to ask you, since you brought up comment. Is that all? I know, it's going by fast. Yeah, that's what happens when you have fun. It is. So you're there in Orange County, California. So when you and I are the same age, so when I was young, Orange County was absolutely the center of opposition to communism.

I can't think of any other county in America that had a greater reputation of being patriotic and the opposition to communism, yet it looks like Orange County has succumbed. What would the leaders of Orange County from the 1950s, what would they say if they were here today? They'd be rolling over in their grave. You know, my father was, when he first started his ministry here in Orange County in 1955, and started focusing on positive thinking and looking at fighting communism with positive Christian faith. Which I believe is still the best thing we can do as any individual is to fight communism with the Christian faith, which I believe is still the best thing we can do as any individual is to fight communism with the Christian faith. So how do we do that? Number one, you invite, you go to an awakened church, not a woke church, an awakened church. You go to a church to understand what's

going on. You bring your friends and your neighbors to a church to understand what's going on you bring your friends and your neighbors to a church that understands what's going on you support those churches and if the and if the church survives in its healthy communism cannot perpetuate it the the the the the good news of jesus christ the the of God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, is kryptonite to communism. They cannot survive. That's why Grimshy says socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. So if we're going to fight this thing, it starts at a spiritual level. It is a spiritual battle, isn't it? Started my church and said, hey, I'm going to do everything I can to create, to maintain freedom of religion, to maintain Christianity and to fight communism.

Good. Hey, take the next 40 seconds and tell us about the Community Church of Orange County. The Community Church of Orange County is a church without walls, meaning we don't have any limitations. You don't have to live in Orange County to participate. If you want to participate with us, we're on Facebook. I do Facebook Live church service every Sunday morning at 8 a.m. Pacific time. Once a month, my wife and I have what's called The Call, which is another time of getting together. And you can participate on that, again, on Facebook Live. You can go to our website, which is drschuler.org or robertschulerministries.org to find us on Facebook. It's Robert Schuller Ministries.

If you wish to participate in our church service on Sunday mornings, we meet at the Newport Community Center at 100 Civic Center Drive. If you go to our website, it's all there. We have about 800 to 1,000 videos on our website and on YouTube, Robert Shuler Ministries on YouTube. So we've got all kinds of, I've got a, I don't know, a couple dozen books that I've written in my lifetime. One was a New York Times bestseller, and you can find those on Amazon. So I've been doing this a long time, and if you Google my name, you should be able to find everything. Hey, we have a lot of viewers in California, and I know some of them are going to be looking you up. Thank you for being here today, My guest, Dr. Robert A. Shuler. Dr.

Shuler, have a wonderful time and looking forward to meeting you in the next few weeks. Take care. Thank you. God's blessing you and keep focused on the reality that God wins. We know that. Amen. God win. Take care. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. All right, Robert, thank you. Very good. And I'll let you get off to the rest of your day,

and we'll have this out. It's going to go out this Friday. Well, I'm glad we were able to do this. I wanted to get this out, and I didn't want to wait two weeks. I'm a firm believer in don't put off for two weeks what you can do today that's right that's right and uh it went by really fast i mean it was the 27th really just blew by quickly so um i'm i'll talk to you about it when you get here but i'm i'm thinking about reviving my original show when I started 24 years ago. The original show was called America's Hope. And I've really been having a stirring in my heart

to go back to that title and say more than ever, this country needs hope. And I always, the program was Jesus Christ is America's only hope. And so we were focusing, back then in the 90s, we were telling people, hey, if we don't get our act together, this is what could happen to the country.