Iran’s Crackdown And America’s Core

Streets stained with blood in Iran, an internet blackout, and a regime silencing dissent—these scenes force a harder question: what kind of ideas build liberty, and which ones destroy it? We connect current events to first principles, tracing how beliefs shape cultures, policies, and the everyday freedoms most of us take for granted.

We share reports of mass casualties and censorship, then examine the claim that liberty cannot survive without a moral core rooted in something higher than the state. Along the way, we highlight a Brooklyn sermon that calls for fighting U.S. institutions and ask how societies should respond when rhetoric openly rejects the civic order. From there, we step into Scripture: 1 Peter 3 reframes marriage around inner character and mutual honor, while the parable of the vineyard workers humbles pride and reminds us that grace, not seniority, opens the gate to eternal life. A brief Medal of Honor spotlight on Felix Branigan anchors virtue in real sacrifice amid the chaos of the Civil War.

We close by revisiting Theodore Roosevelt’s sharp warning against hyphenated Americanism. Allegiance, not ancestry, makes a people. That insight feels urgent today, as identity labels multiply and loyalties splinter. The invitation is simple: recover a shared American identity tied to the founding principles of justice, service, and Christ-centered virtue. If we want a nation worthy of our children, we need homes shaped by grace, leaders bounded by humility, and citizens committed to the common good.

If this conversation moves you, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with a friend. Your voice helps keep these ideas in the public square and this community growing.

#Iran #TeddyRoosevelt #DailyScripture

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome And Opening Prayer
• 3:02 Iran Protests And Regime Violence
• 5:15 Islam, Ideology, And Liberty
• 8:46 Brooklyn Sermon And Security Concerns
• 9:56 Marriage Teaching From 1 Peter 3
• 12:10 Parable Of The Vineyard Workers
• 16:27 Medal Of Honor Spotlight: Felix Branigan
• 18:37 Roosevelt On Hyphenated Americans
• 23:09 American Identity And Christian Foundations
• 24:43 Listener Support And Series Plug
• 25:37 Closing Prayer And Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well wherever y'all are in whatever part of the day you're in. Sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and attention, a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully, y'all are getting to listen to it with somebody else. For those of y'all who continue to share the podcast with others and tell others about it, thank you. For those of y'all who continue to pray. For me and for the podcast, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Definitely need your prayers. Father, thank you for today.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Thank you for you, Father, and your son Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins through the merit of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you for the time to record this podcast. Thank you for the people that listen to it. Please be with them, be with their families, bless the marriages of those who are married. Help us all, Father, to truly love your Son Jesus Christ, and therefore to follow his commands. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Help us to help those who have less than we do. And help us to help our country.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Turn back to you, Father, and your Son Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sins, forgive us our greed and our selfishness, our pride, our apathy, our lukewarm attitude, lack of gratitude, our cowardice, and our unbelief. Forgive us for abandoning the widow and the orphan, the poor and the needy.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Help us to follow your commands with actions and deeds, not merely words. Be with our leaders.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

President and Vice President all the way down. Give them wisdom and courage and a strong faith. Help them to rule in fear of you, Father.

Iran Protests And Regime Violence

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Be with our enemies. Draw them close to you and to your Son Jesus Christ. Help them to live in fear of you. Help us all to live in fear of you, Father, not of man or woman. Be with our military, our law enforcement, our firefighters, EMS, keep them safe. Be particularly with our ICE officers. Keep them safe. Protect them, bring them home safe to their families. Guide us in all we do, Father. And guide my words here, please. In your son's name we pray. Amen. So there was a recent article in the Epic Times on Iran.

Islam, Ideology, And Liberty

SPEAKER_01 3:10

A couple of sentences jumped out at me. It was by Sharzad Ghani, if I'm saying that right, I'm probably not. And the title uh it was about the protests. As Iran protests grow, thousands killed by regime. In the article, there was a Iranian woman who had recently left Iran. And she said the security forces often move through the crowds on motorcycles firing indiscriminately. In the morning, you see bodies in public areas and blood on the streets. Another section of the article mentions the fact that Iran's as the protests spread across the country, the residents are in their seventh consecutive day at the time of this writing of a near total internet shutdown. No access. And then one more quote in the article London-based news channel, Iran International, reported on January 13th that after a two-day multi-source verification process involving information from senior security and government sources, eyewitnesses, hospital data, and medical professionals. It is concluded that at least 12,000 people have been killed, mainly over two consecutive nights in early January. This doesn't probably, hopefully, those of y'all that are paying attention, doesn't really strike you as shocking coming out of Iran. But there's there's an underlying message, uh bit of information that's really important here. What you have to understand is that these actions tie directly back to the ultimate end of Islam, not just the Iranian regime. The idea that there's some version of moderate or quote-unquote decent followers of Islam refuses to acknowledge the fact that those who are considered as such are merely a gateway to the end game. You may have Muslims who are not openly violent in their actions, who come to your country and seek to live peacefully. But they're not really very good Muslims. But they open the door for those who are. Once the camel gets its proverbial nose under the tent, those Muslims who abide by the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad bring the violence with them. You know, I've said on this podcast often I knew some good men overseas that were Muslim that I knew I could turn my back on, and I felt pretty confident that the only way a bad guy was going to get to me is if he killed them first. They were going to give their life defending mine. But in every single case I can think of, those men were nominal Muslims.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

They weren't very good Muslims. But the problem is it still opens the door.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Islam, just like leftism and socialism and communism and Nazism and fascism, is incompatible with liberty. Because at the core it's antichrist. And in order to truly have liberty, you have to have the Spirit of God. You've got to have Christ. And at the core of America, we were founded, as John Adams, our second president, said, we were united around those principles of Jesus Christ. It's the only way that our country works. Again, you need to really understand from this article if you get a chance to read it, it's a good article. That although there may be a large number of Muslims in Iran fighting against the current regime, that doesn't mean that there are moderate Muslims that you can live alongside indefinitely and still maintain peace and security and safety and liberty. At some point, the end game of Islam is always the same, just like the end game of leftism. And that is the total submission of and eventually eradication of any who refuse to go along with their ideology. There was a recent post on X that I stumbled across as I was getting ready for this podcast. It was a Friday sermon, I believe, from last week in Brooklyn, New York. A youth center director, Mohammed Badaway, said, As a Muslim, my life's mission is to fight the U.S. government, the U.S. Army, and ICE until my last breath.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

That is my reason for existence. Marriage verse for today one Peter three.

Brooklyn Sermon And Security Concerns

SPEAKER_01 8:22

In the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chast and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external, braiding of the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person at the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. Just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. Again and again, folks, if you're getting marriage advice from anybody, it better line up with God.

Marriage Teaching From 1 Peter 3

SPEAKER_00 9:35

And if it doesn't, you need to absolutely trash quickly that marriage advice. Scripture for today. Go back into Matthew starting with chapter 20, verse 1. For the kingdom of heaven.

Parable Of The Vineyard Workers

SPEAKER_01 10:08

He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work. At nine o'clock in the morning, he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o'clock, he did the same thing. At five o'clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, Why haven't you been working today? They replied, Because no one has hired us. The landowner told them, Then go out and join the others in my vineyard. That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o'clock were paid, each received a full day's wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they too were paid a day's wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner. Those people worked only one hour. Yet you've paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat. He answered one of them, Friend, I haven't been unfair. Didn't you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others? So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last. As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. Listen, he said, We're going up in Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead. Then the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus with her sons. She knelt respectfully to ask a favor. What is your request? he asked. She replied, In your kingdom, please let my two sons sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left. But Jesus answered by saying to them, You don't know what you are asking. Are you able to drink from the cup of suffering? I am able to drink. I am about to drink. Oh yes, they replied, We are able. Jesus told them, You will indeed drink from my bitter cup, but I have no right to say who will sit on my right or my left. My father has prepared those places for the ones he has chosen. When the other ten disciples heard what James and John had asked, they were indignant. But Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Psalm twenty five verses one through fifteen. O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God. Do not let me be disgraced or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat. No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced. But disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. Show me the right path, O Lord. Point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me. For you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. Remember, O Lord, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past. Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth. Remember me in light in the light of your unfailing love, for you are merciful, O Lord. The Lord is good and does what is right. He chose the proper path to those who go astray. He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them in his way. The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness. All who keep his covenant and obey his command, his demands. For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins. Who are those who fear the Lord? He will show them the path they should choose. They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land. The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. He teaches them his covenant. My eyes are always on the Lord, for he rescues me from the traps of my enemies. Proverbs six verses six to eleven. Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy bones. Learn from their ways and become wise. Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. But you, lazy bones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.

Medal Of Honor Spotlight: Felix Branigan

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Jesus' parable about the landowner in the vineyard is both I I get both some encouragement and a little maybe a lot of humility out of it. You know, if you've been a Christian for a long time, I I think too often we kind of fall into this superiority complex, right? Maybe it's just me. But you think, well, I've I've tried to be good for all these years, and then this so-and-so over here that's done all these drugs and all this sexual stuff and everything else is criminal, they get to come along and suddenly they're, you know, they're right along with me. And I think it's important to remember what Christ is saying here is at least the way, again, I'm no theologian, I'm not a priest or a pastor, folks, but he's saying the price to get into heaven is the same. It doesn't matter whether you start early in the morning or at the very end of your life. You have to have Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean that we're all going to, you know, in other places, Jesus is very clear. Some people are going to have more treasure in heaven than others. The day of judgment is going to be harder on some and easier on others. So the idea that all are equally good and bad, that doesn't bear any weight when you really take Scripture as a whole. So there's a reason for us to do good, to strive to do good our whole lives. But but everybody equally needs Christ, folks. There's no shortcut. There's no way to no other gate to go through. Right?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

And we ought to want everybody to go through that gate, even the worst of our enemies. Medal of Honor for today is Felix Branagan, private, highest rank first lieutenant, U.S.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Civil War, Alpha Company, 74th New Infantry, New York Infantry, U.S. Army, May 2nd, 1863, Chancellor, Virginia. Volunteered on a dangerous service and brought in valuable information. Accredited to Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, not awarded posthumously, presented june twenty ninth, eighteen sixty six, born eighteen forty four, Ireland, died june tenth, nineteen oh seven, buried Arlington National Cemetery, three tech sixteen forty two, Arlington, Virginia.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Again, folks, Felix Branigan.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Whole different ball game between what we see going on across so much of the country today with the mass illegal and Muslim immigrants.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Whole different quality of character.

American Identity And Christian Foundations

SPEAKER_01 18:37

So we're going to read a little bit out of uh a speech that Theodore Roosevelt gave before the Knights of Columbus at Carnegie Hall, October the twelfth, nineteen fifteen. And we're just going to read a little section of it, and we're really probably only going to get through a few paragraphs of this particular section. But it's really important today. And it's titled, this section is titled Hyphenated Americans. What is true of creed is no less true of nationality. There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all. This is just as true of the man who puts native before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance. But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as anyone else. The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, an intricate knot of German Americans, Irish Americans, English Americans, French Americans, Scandinavian Americans, or 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. The men who do not become Americans and nothing else are hyphenated Americans, and there ought to be no room for them in this country. The man who calls himself an American citizen and who yet shows by his actions that he is primarily the citizen of a foreign land plays a thoroughly mischievous part in the life of our body politic. He has no place here, and the sooner he returns to the land to which he feels his real heart allegiance, the better it will be for every good American. There is no such thing as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The only man who is a good American is the man who is an American and nothing else. I appeal to history. Among the generals of Washington in the Revolutionary War were Greene, Putnam, and Lee, who were of English descent, Wayne and Sullivan, who were of Irish descent, Marion, who was of French descent, Schueller, who was of Dutch descent, and Mulberg and Herkimer, who were of German descent. But they were all of them Americans and nothing else, just as much as Washington. Carol of Carrollton was a Catholic, Hancock a Protestant. Jefferson was heterodox from the standpoint of any Orthodox creed. But these and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence stood on an equality of duty and right and liberty as Americans and nothing else. There's some more to this section, more than I can read. Maybe we'll come back and read the next part of it on another podcast. But there's definitely enough meat here to talk about, right? You see the application today, for example, the Somalis in Minnesota, there's no place for Somali Americans and America. There's no place for Native Americans, Latin Americans, Mexican Americans, European Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans. There's no place for hyphenated Americans in America. And what's the loyalty to? Again and again, this is the ultimate question. What does it mean to be an American? You go back to W. H. V. Faunt's and his speech back at the turn of the 20th century, 19th to 20th. To love a place means to love the values, the foundation of that place.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

What does Adam so clearly tell us among others? Right? Justice Josiah Brewer, Supreme Court Justice, this is a Christian nation.

Listener Support And Series Plug

SPEAKER_01 24:04

The principles of our nation are founded on the principles of Christ. It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your skin color is. What makes you a true American, and what increases or decreases the quality of your Americanism is how closely you cling to and promote those principles of Christ that are the foundation of the virtue and the lifeblood, the liberty that make our republic successful. If you are looking for a family-friendly middle-grade fantasy series that hopefully puts those principles of Christ, applies them a little bit more than a lot of uh modern day entertainment. If you would check out the Countryside series, I would appreciate it. And if you enjoy it, if you would leave a review for the first and or second book, I would be very grateful for that. Those reviews help a lot. Same thing with the podcast. If you feel like you're getting something out of it, if you could leave a review somewhere online. And if you have five or ten dollars a month that you can donate to the podcast, there's a link at the bottom of the show notes. I would be very grateful for that as well. And if you know somebody that would rather listen to it on YouTube, we've started to put it there so you can tell them about that.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. Rely on us the kingdom, the power, and glory forever and ever. Amen. God bless you all. God bless your families, God bless your marriages if you're married. God bless your nation wherever you are around the world listening. God bless America. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, folks. Looking forward to it.