and obesity in china. also in the news, npd book scan reports that print book sales were up 8% for the week ending august 22nd. adult nonfiction books continued their positive sales trend, up just over 9%. and the miami book fair has announced it will be a virtual festival for the first time in its history. author events will be held from november 15th-22nd and will include more than 250 authors. the book fair's program director,ially set mendez, reflected on pivoting from an if-person to an online event telling the miami herald, quote, i feel like i'm building a bridge across the grand canyon as i'm walking. it's a work in progress. booktv will continue to bring you new programs and publishing news. you can also watch all of our archive programs anytime at booktv.org. >> and now on booktv, we're live with author and faith and

freedom coalition founder ralph reed who over the next two hours will be talking your calls and comments. his books include "act of faith" and "for god and country" which was published earlier this year. >> host: author ralph reeding when we asked you what some of your books are, the first one you listed was the bible. is the bible a political book? >> guest: i don't think of it that way. certainly, it has instruction about civic affairs and politics and how we order our societies, but i -- for me, obviously, the bible is primarily the revelation of god's man and principles for humanity and the best huawei to know -- best way to know the keys to living a godly life with intimacy with him.

and if you believe in the new testament, as i do, his son, jesus christ. i also think as a trained historian it's one of the most important history books that you'll ever read. i mean, if you want to understand the ancient world, there's no better single source than the bible. it's all there, the rise and fall of empires from, you know, the babylon to the persians, to the greeks, to the roman empire. and then finally, even if you don't shower -- share my faith or the jewish or christian faith, i think it's one of the most important books of philosophy ever written. i mean, if you read the psalms, you read the proverbs, even if you don't have a monoing no threistic view -- monothreistic view of the world, the philosophical beliefs that are found in scripture are, you know, some of the most timeless

and eternal and important ever written. >> host: how did you come to your christian faith? >> guest: well, i was raised in the church. my parents grew up in the methodist church. i grew up in the methodist church. my best friend growing up was the son of my pastor. few father was chairman of the board -- my father was chairman of the board of deacons or elders, few mother was the head of the methodist youth fellowship. i grew up going to methodist youth camp and grew up going to sunday school. i didn't know any other life other than that. i mean, it was just the way i was raised. finish but i never really had a personal relationship with jesus christ. and when i got excited about politics as a teenager, you know, i kind of went off on that track and worked on campaigns and ended up going to washington, d.c. and working at

the republican national committee. really long story short, i dud not find that -- i did not find that to be satisfying, did not find it to fill the void that was inside of me. i came in contact with some young christians who were involved in the college republicans who shared their faith with me. but more importantly, just share ed their lives with me. i mean, they loved me, we balm good friends -- we became good friends, and i saw a happiness and a joy in them that i had never known. i was curious about where it came from and that ultimately led me to driving to a small evangelical church outside washington, d.c. on september 18th, 1983. and at that church service, i gave my life to jesus christ. >> host: ralph reed, why are you a conservative? >> guest: i'm a conservative because i believe in free

markets, i believe in capitalism. not unfetteredded, unhinged capitalism, but a capitalism that is governed by the principles that i referred to earlier from scripture about caring for the poor, caring for the downtrodden, the left behind, the marginalized. finish i believe in, i believe free markets and free minds are the, together, freedom in a civic sense and freedom in the markets has been the greatest generator of wealth and happiness and peace and stability in all of recorded human history. and i believe that conservativism, which has found its home in the republican party in the modern context, in the

post-world war ii period, is the best way to preserve and guard and protect those free minds and free markets. and i think, unfortunately, liberalism -- which has found itself in the modern democratic party in the post-depression, post-new deal context -- spends most of its time trying to restrict and even crush those freedoms and those markets and believes in the redistribution of wealth and trying to create equality of outcomes rather than max musing the wealth -- maximizing the wealth and the progress that comes from free markets and free minds. so over time, both because of the way i was raised, i grew up in a mull tower family -- military family, my father served in the u.s. navy during the vietnam conflict and then was a career naval reserve officer, and i grew up in a

household of faith, and so that was the way i grew up. but over time i made my own independent decisions based on my own study and few own involvement. >> host: from your 1996 book "act of faith," you write: what does it mean to be a person of faith in the political world? it is no different from being a christian in any other vocation. politics is a contact sport. i have a job to do, and it involves trying to advance my agenda. in that combat i play hard, and i try to win, but i never hit below the belt. >> guest: right. you know, there -- a lot of times i get asked the question, you know, how, you know, what is the proper relationship between christianity or our faith and politics. it seems to be such a dirty business. it's so cutthroat.

and, you know, first of all, there's really two answers. the first is we're called as men and women of faith to be engaged in the polity wherever god has placed us. in the time of the ancient jews, that sometimes meant being under subjugation of an occupied power whether it was the babylonians or the persians or later the romans. in the current context, it means, for me, being a citizen of the united states. and i think we have earthly civic responsibilities, and then we have heavenly responsibilities. and we essentially carry two passports. we are citizens, in effect, of two realms and two kingdoms. one is of the united states. we're american citizens. and the other is of the kingdom of god which is both here today

and yet to fully come. and each carries responsibilities. as a citizen of the heavenly kingdom, i'm called to obedience to god's commandments, to care for the poor, to share the gospel with others, to pray, to read the bible and to worship, to not neglect the coming together of believers, you know? there's certain responsibilities. and in the earthly sort of context, there's certain responsibilities which i believe are to register to vote, to be informed, to vote, to make one's views known to elected officials, to petition our government, to redress grievances and injustices. and if we fully understand our faith, we are to be muscular citizens of both.

and the reason why we are called to be muscular and robust citizens in the earthly realm is not because we believe we can usher in the kingdom of god by electing the right person or passing the right law. we can't do that. god's kingdom will only come when christ returns. but until then, we are to occupy until he comes. and if we understand our citizenship in the bubbly call understanding -- biblical understanding, it's effective in two ways. number one, it can protect the innocent, and it can establish justice and redress injustice and resist evil. certainly, the civil rights movement did that in the 1960s, the anti-slavery movement did that in the antebellum period and on through the civil war, the temperance movement did that and the

suffragist movement in the late 19th century. they weren't just on their knees praying for jesus to come back, they were doing everything they could to resist and combat i evil in their time. the second thing that it does is it allows the gospel to spread and to rise to the highest and most influential levels of our society because of our civic engagement. in other words, other people become aware of our faith and our principles and are exposed to them in an altogether positive withdraw because we're engaged -- way because we're engaged in the civic process. so, for example, when you read the new testament, you find that because the apostle paul was a citizen of rome and appealed his case all the way to the emperor which was a right of a row man citizen -- roman citizen, the bible says that many members of caesar's household came to know

jesus christ because paul did that. in fact, in some epistles that paul wrote later he sends greetings from members of caesar's household. and there were governors and roman officials who were exposed to the gospel only because paul chose to be an effective citizen. so that's, that's the way that i approach it. >> host: now, mr. reed, from your 2014 book "awakening: how america can turn from moral and economic destruction, back to greatness," you're talking about a topic we're talking about today. you write: because we have never fully repented for the injustices and wrongs done during slavery and segregation, we have never experienced the healing that comes through the redemptive process of repenitence and forgiveness. until we do, we will not fully experience the spiritual awakening our nation so

desperately needs. >> guest: yeah. i mean, i -- that's certainly not a thought that's original to me. i think in that chapter i quote a beautiful speech that my good friend mike huckabee gave when he was governor of arkansas to honor the children who were the first to integrate a high school in little rock, arkansas, and then ultimately led to dwight d. eisenhower, as i recall, federalizing the national guard to protect those young people from the violence that they were threatened with. and mike huckabee said, in effect, the same words and said that some of the poverty and the backwardness that arkansas had experienced in the 20th century was a attributable to the sin of racism and the sin of

segregation and specifically to the failure to fully repent of that sin. and i still believe that's true. and, you know, we both individually and collectively as a nation, we need to acknowledge that this sin occurred, that it was a collective sin of both commission by those who erected jim crow and subjected african-american citizens to be second class citizens and deny them their rights as americans, and by omission by those who allowed it to go on and failed to oppose it. there's no question that that's true. and while i know there's a lot of controversy about the 1619 project at "the new york times" and i think there's been a distortion of some truths about american history in that

project, i do think that it is undeniable as the historian edmund morgan wrote in "american slavery, american freedom" that american freedom was inextricably intertwined with slavery and that it's been very difficult for us as a society to disentangle the two. even almost 400 years after the first europeans landed on this continent. >> host: so does some of that repentance include reparations? >> guest: i, i have not felt that that was the way to go because i think it's very hard, you know, 150 years after the end of slavery to figure out who gets compensated and how. it was done for the victims of the japanese internment during

world war ii. congress actually passed a law and made a monetary payment to the families of those who were denied their freedom who were citizens, who were put in internment camps during world war ii under the administration of franklin roosevelt. i think it would be very difficult to do it 150 years later. i think if it was going to be done, it needs to be done after the civil war or during reconstruction. but i think there are other ways that you can express a repen about the spirit. i think some of that -- repentant. i think some of that is personal, some of it is spiritual, and some of it does take place in public policy. and without getting into a full-blown public policy discussion today, i think in areas like health care, criminal justice reform, economic

empowerment and education reform and opportunity, we can build a society that is just, and we can build a society that is based on equal opportunity for everyone, and we can make sure that no one is left behind. particularly those minority americans and particularly african-americans who have been denied that opportunity and still are in many cases today. they live in neighborhoods that are not safe, their children go to school where they are not safe and cannot learn, and they do not have the same opportunities as other americans. and we should do everything that we can to redress that. and, obviously, i'm a supporter of president trump, but i think whether you look at his education reform and school choice agenda, you look at his economic empowerment agenda, lowering african-american unemployment to the lowest level if recorded economic history,

you look at his opportunity zone agenda where they have unleashed approximately $5 billion in capital that is flowing into hundreds of opportunity zones mostly in disenfranchised minority areas of urban and rural centers and if you look at what he's doing on criminal justice reform, historic to redress what i think was a two-tiered justice system for too many minority americans. i i think it is possible. i think donald trump wants to do it, and i think once we get past this election and this partisan season that we're in, i'm optimistic that we'll be automobile -- able to. >> host: so, ralph reed, your most recent book is "for god and country." did you just lay out your christian case for trump? >> guest: somewhat. that certainly is part of what i talk about.

i have a proposed -- in both "awakening," the 2014 book and "for god and country" -- i lay out what i say is not a republican or a democrat, not necessarily a liberal or conservative, but a biblical agenda for the country. and, you know, in some cases like criminal justice reform and immigration reform, we end up in a little bit of a different place than the republican party has traditionally been. you know, it's not generally understood out there because people tend to look at conservatives of faith and just think they're reflexively republican. but they have changed the republican party far more than the republican party has changed them. they've made the republican party a pro-life party, and believe that black lives matter.

i believe all black lives matter including unborn lives. and abortion is one of those cases where disproportionately minority lives are being lost and are being taken systematically by what i consider to be a grave social injustice. we've also changed the republican party on the issue of criminal justice reform. historically, the republican party has been a tough-on-crime party, lock 'em up and throw away the key party. and through our efforts -- not just our efforts, but largely our efforts -- this has come through the faith community, we've called for a more biblical criminal justice system based on redemption and not simply punishment, giving people a second chance at life and focusing particularly on nonviolent first offenders.

compassionate, humane and tough love alternatives to long-term incarceration like job training, like mentorship programs, like spiritual programs including those led by prison fellowship and others that minister to inmates and lead them to a better life spiritually. and then the last one that i'll mention is immigration reform. you know, most people focus on donald trump's desire for border security and building a wall to secure the border. but beyond that we've also called for welcoming the stranger and welcoming the immigrant and making sure that while they abide by our laws, we also treat them with compassion and give them a chance if they obey our laws and if they pay taxes and if they either get a job or they go to school, of being able to have a path to

citizenship. we have called for either permanent residency -- and we don't oppose a path to citizenship for the entire dreamer population, because we don't think those young people should be punished for the crime that their parents committed. we believe the bible teaches that you don't punish the child for the sin of the father. and so, you know, again, if violating laws, if they're trying to get on public assistance, that's a different deal. but if they serve in the military, they have a job or they're getting an education, we think that they can be part of the greatness of america, and we've called for as part of a comprehensive solution to our immigration system allowing them to have residence. so, you know, i think there is such an agenda. that's what we work on. most of the time, of course, we find ourselves in agreement with the republican party but not

always. >> host: mr. reed, is there some discuss comfort in evangelical circles with the president because of some of the personal issues that have been reported on? >> guest: sure. and as i point out in "for god and country," you know, there's been a little bit of revisionist history by the media about how evangelicals came to support donald trump. and i wrote "for god and country" not so much to defend trump, although i do plenty of that in the book and happily so, but i wrote the book primarily as a defense of the faith community, because they've been called every name in the book; hypocrites, spiritual frauds, phonies, selling out the gospel for 30 pieces of silver, compromising their deeply held spiritual beliefs in order to have access the power and get a few items on their policy

agenda. they've been smeared, they've been lied about, and i knew better because i was there. i was in the room with these faith leaders. and what the exit polls show is that two-thirds of self-identified evangelicals voted for someone other than donald trump in the 2016 primary. mostly ted cruz or marco rubio or huckabee or santorum or someone like that. for many of them, donald trump was not only not their first choice, he wasn't their second, third or fourth choice. i met a lot of people in the faith community for whom he was their 17th choice. but once they got to the general election and they faced a binary choice between donald trump and hillary clinton and he was pro-life and pro-religious freedom and pro-israel and he released a list during the campaign of respected

conservative and pro-life jurists, we should point out at the moment there was a vacancy on the supreme court that either he or hillary clinton would fill, and he said if you elect me president, i will choose from this list. you know, sometimes we're not always aware of the history that's being made in front of our very eyes, but donald trump was the first major party presidential candidate in u.s. history to ever tell us who his court picks would be. no one had ever done that before. and so they voted on faith based on this binary choice because on these issues of life, religious freedom, support for the state of israel and the judicial and court picks that would decide those and other issues for their

community, these are deeply held moral beliefs that they believe derive from their faith. and so they voted for trump on faith in spiewt of these reservations -- in spite of these reservations that they had about his character or his background. and keep in mind they also looked at hillary clinton, and they had reservations about her character. she was, after all, under fbi investigation for much of the campaign, and that investigation was reopened just ten days before the election. so as in 2020, they looked at the two candidates, they said neither one of them is perfect, but one of them is making commitments to us base on deeply held moral beliefs, and we're going to vote for those beliefs. not because he's perfect, not because everything he says or does either now or in his life with we necessary lu agreed with -- necessarily aagreed

with, but because we have two choices. and in the case of joe biden in 2020, when you're -- when you have a candidate in biden who is advocating abortion on demand up to the moment of birth paid for with tax dollars and as an entitlement under a government-run health care system modeled on medicare for all, these evangelicals believe that is a grave moral evil. and they cannot and will not vote for a candidate who is embracing that agenda. you know, now at the democratic convention. we have empathy too. we have empathy for unborn, innocent human beings who are losing their lives under an unjust regime of abortion on

demand, and he not only favors that, he wants to subsidize it with tax dollars. he's endorsed by planned parenthood, the number one lobby with organization of that agenda, and he even wants to make it an entitlement under government-run health care. and then he wants to sue ministries like the little sisters of the poor or privately-held christian businesses who decline to participate in the evil. and so that's why thaw voted for trump -- they voted for trump before, and that's why they're going to vote for him in even bigger numbers in two months. >> host: well, good afternoon and thanks for joining us on booktv on c-span2. this is our monthly "in depth" program where we invite one author on to talk about his or her bowed of work. and this month it's author ralph reed. he is the author of eight books beginning in 1995, "after the revolution" came out, "how the

christian coalition is impacting america." 1996, "pretty iically incorrect: the emerging faith factor in american politics." and 1996 as well, "act of faith: how christians are changing the soul of american politics." and then in 2014, "awe wakening came" came out, "how americans can turn from moral and economic destruction back to greatness." and his most recent book came out this year, "for god and country: the christian case for trump." mr. reeled is also the author of three novels, "dark horse," "the confirmation," "ballots in blood." we want to get you involved. 202 is the area code, 748-8200 for those of you who live in the east and central time zones. for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones, dial in at 202-748-8201. now, if you'd like to send a

text f that's easier for you, please include your first name and your city and send it to this number, 202-748-8903. we also have some social media sites that you can make a comment or ask a question on. and we will cycle through those as we go, and we will put these numbers up so so you'll be able to see the text number again as well. and just remember for our social media site,@booktv is our handle. now, mr. reed, people probably know you through your involvement with the christian coalition, the faith and freedom coalition, republican politics. perhaps thaw didn't know you were -- they didn't know you were also an author and, on top of that, a ph.d. in history. >> guest: yeah, that's probably right. my plan was to be a college professor and an historian, but it didn't quite work out that

way. i was privileged to be in the ph.d. program at emory university in the 1980s. i got a great education. dan carter, who was the bancroft prize-winning historian of the scottsboro boys, really the seminal work on that tragic case and then was a biographer of george c. wallace, he did a lot of other things, he was my dissertation director. and i still love history to this day. ..

the united states during the 1h century were actually founded by churches and men and women of faith. i just thought it was a fascinating kind of window into both their world, and their later cultural and political influence.

>> host: would you consider duke or vanderbilt and evangelical college today? >> what i am not that familiar with every one of these institutions today, but actually think the thing that sparked my desire to write about it, was, i was going to emory, getting a doctorate. irem are having a conversation with the fellow phd candidate that it was founded by methodists and was a methodist university and they were like really? and they were going there. and they did not even know. and so i pulled down off the shelves one day, and the library, kind of the official history of emory university. and i went to the first chapter and i read about how a group of the methodist preachers, nil in the woods in

rural georgia in the 1830s. and founded the sight of what would become emory college. and dedicated that institution to the glory of god in the building of his church. and i asked myself, what happened between then and now? how could you go from a founding based on that purpose to today, probably many of the students don't even know that it is a religious institution? so the dissertation was really designed to answer that question. i mean i wasn't trying to render any kind of moral judgment on it. i was just fascinated by what the great historian, richard hofstadter called the trend from sectarianism to secularism that has dominated higher education in the united

states. and i just wanted to tell that story. let's hear from our callers as well, michael in alabama, you are first up with author ralph pitcher. >> caller: this man talks out of both sides of his mouth and is not talk about being judgmental but he trashes biden. everything he said is false. this is another case of jerry falwell junior this and that if anyone damage christianity it's people like him and jerry falwell junior, that's all it got to say about that. thanks. >> host: mr. reed? >> guest: will everything i said about joe biden was true. i know the caller didn't like what i had to say. and certainly joe biden doesn't want people like me telling the truth about his record. but i know joe biden. i have worked with him when he was chairman of the judiciary committee. i actually testified before

his committee on behalf of a law that we were then supporting at the coalition to make the vandalism or the burning of a church a federal crime. and that required it to go through his committee. and i know the joe biden that i knew then, this was back in the 1990s, supported the hyde amendment which bands the taxpayer funding of abortion, elective abortion under the medicaid program. as a matter of conscience to protect people of faith from being required to subsidize what they believe is the taking of an innocent human life. he supported that as a u.s. senator for i think 36 years. he then supported it for eight years as vice president. he supported it twice as a presidential candidate in 1987, 1988. and then again in 2007 and

2008. and when he got into this race last year, he flip-flopped within 24 hours. he now supports not just repealing the hyde amendment and requiring pro-life roman catholics and evangelicals to pay for abortions, with their tax dollars. he supports expanding it to include it as a guaranteed right under government run healthcare based on the medicare for all plan for bernie sanders. you know, i know some people don't like to hear those facts. but that is the fact about joe biden's record. and if you want to know, and i argue this in front of god and country, if you want to know why 81% of self identified evangelical born-again christians, and white roughly 70% of frequently mass attending catholics, catholics who go to mass once a week or

more often, those two together comprise about 37 or 38% of the entire electric. they are larger than the hispanic vote, the black vote, the yea vote combined. if you want to know why they are given 70 to 80% of their vote to donald trump, and two other republican presidential candidate, that is why. and you can shoot the messenger. you can attack me or anybody else you want, isn't going to change the fact that if your party and your candidate advocate abortion on demand up to the moment of birth, paid for with their tax dollars, don't blame us because you are losing 70 to 80 or 85% of the votes. look in the mirror. maybe ask yourself, should we maybe as a party, allow for

some common sense exceptions to abortion? whether it is late-term abortio abortion, or when the child can feel pain, or third trimester or at least not support taxpayer funding. but there is been no such introspection. they get more and more extreme with every election. and this is the most extremist agenda that has ever been offered on a ballot to the american people since roe v wade became law in 1973. >> from forgotten country, ralph reed writes the courage and clarity of men and women of faith in making this choice to support trump undertaken with much prayer and soul-searching, has been dismissed and condemned by the chattering class and joined in by more than a few evangelicals. >> right. i talked about that earlier. the way they have been lied

about and smeared and they have been accused of essentially compromising their deeply immoral beliefs. and demonstrating their faith is a fraud because they voted for donald trump. that is the allegation that is being made against them. and i argue in front of god and country that that's not the case prayed they wrestled with this decision. it was not an easy decision, they were prayerful about it. and for many of them it was one of the most difficult decisions they ever made. but in the end, they look at donald trump and with all of his imperfections, committed to them he would point pro-life judges including in the supreme court that he would be the best friend israel ever had if he would move the embassy from tel aviv

to jerusalem that he would recognize jerusalem as the eternal and legitimate capital of the nation of israel, by the way a fact that has been true for 3000 years of recorded history. no other president with move the embassy. and i'm not being critical of those other presidents. they had their reasons for delaying this decision. but in each of these instances, religious freedom, freeing andrew brunson from a prison in turkey, whose only crime was to share the gospel, he has been a friend of the church. a friend of the faith community, a friend of israel and a friend of the unborn. and he kept his promises. not just to these voters, he kept his promises to the american people. that is one of the reasons why

i added a roughly 30 paid appendix in the book the details the achievements, the promises that were made and kept by donald trump. again, you can like him or dislike him. you can enjoy or be turned off by his twitter feed. but those are facts. those are deep actions and policies that he undertook, that we believe are advancing moral goods. that is the reason. >> >> host: philip is in los angeles go ahead philip. >> mr. reed i have two questions for you. one is, what do you see as the ramifications as a democratic sweep in 2020 including taking the house, senate, and presidency. what impact would that have on the christian coalition and members of the faith community?

the second question had if you don't mind, that jewish american small supporter of trump in the state of israel, what is it and what could be done in terms of the vast majority of jewish americans. particularly younger people who are adamantly democratic rights and going to hang up and listen to your recording. answer. thank you and god bless. >> host: thank you philip. democratic sweep and jewish american. >> guest: thanks for the questions. i think a democratic sweep is unlikely. i am not in the prediction business. i think all three outcomes, senate, house speaker, presidency are all within the margin of error. they are all on the edge as we talk this afternoon. i would be surprised if there is a democratic sweep. we have certainly been surprised before. i will address that, therefore as a hypothetical. i think what you would get is a green new deal. you would get $4 trillion in

higher taxes, you get an advancement of the stream missed abortion agenda that i talk about. you would get some kind of expanded obamacare or government run healthcare. whether it's in medicare for all or whatever that looks like. bernie sanders in the squad, want to make it available to every american and essentially abolish private health insuranc insurance. until 180 million americans who right now, get their own health insurance to the employer on the individual market, all of those policies or be abolished and it would be in the government run healthcare. for the faith community, that government healthcare would include a mandate for abortion coverage. and i think that is wrong. i would hope we could stop it. but that would be the agenda. item by the way since he will

only do that down to the age of 55. but where it would end up if you had a democratic senates, the other thing that would happen is, i am confident if chuck schumer was majority leader, that on the very first day that the democrats took the majority in the senate, they would abolish the filibuster. and that would allow them to ram through this entire agenda without any rights to the minority to stop it. including on all judgeships. naturally much the case anyway as part of the green new deal is the banning of fracking joe biden said he doesn't support the banning of fracking but he doesn't favor allowing any additional permits. which essentially will kill the stock and the value of the

companies that are engaged in it they cannot do any additional drilling you killed the industry that would cost approximate 3 million jobs. there's 9 million total jobs in america, connected to the u.s. fossil fuel industry. we are the number one energy producer in the world. for the first time it's the oil embargo 1973, 74, we are exporting our oil and natural gas. we are energy independent. we don't require access to middle east or venezuela or other oil to provide for our own needs. that would destroy all of it. and in edition of that, biden is called for ending all fossil fueled by 2035. that would raise the average cost of energy a typical

family of four in america by about $75000. devastate the economy of the attacks on classes like with ever seen. that is what i think is around turn number two if the democrats get the white house, the house speaker and the senate and could do whatever they want. particularly if there is no filibuster in the senate. in terms of the jewish community. historically try five to 30% of the jewish vote. i think they got up to about 35% in their perspective reelections i think it's possible, certainly it's plausible that donald trump has get to that level in 2020

jewish vote is less important nationally works only 2% of the vote, and is in individual states. so in places like michigan, pennsylvania, florida, even georgia where there is a sizable jewish population in metro atlanta, if he were to get above 30%, 35%, it could make a big difference in places like date agenda dave and broward and palm beach counties in florida, places like the counties around philadelphia and pennsylvania. and if you were talking about narrow margins, and some of these states because of the presidents pro israel stance because of his stand against terrorism, because he dismantled and defeated isis, because he was through the iran nuclear deer of the number one terror in the world and the number one adversary of israel, i think that is a

real live possibility. certainly plausible. >> a text from josh in ann arbor, michigan. ralph reed spoke about his faith and lifting up the poor downtrodden and marginalized. he also said wealth distribution, welfare and modern liberalism is not the method to achieve this. how is it possible to lift these people out of situations that they can't get out of due to insufficient means to engage effectively with the free markets, i.e. bad credit, health issues, lack of generational wealth. >> guest: that is a great question. we could do two hours just on that. we could do two days on that. but i think, let me and find answer to in order to be somewhat brief, to some of the things i have worked on at the christian coalition. number one, we know from a

brooking institute study and other studies that if you are born out of wedlock and you live in a home in which a father is not present in that home that you are twice as likely not to graduate from high school. you are three times as likely to become chemically dependent on drugs and alcohol. and you are three times more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system. that doesn't mean you are condemned about life. just means that 80% roughly of the people who are born out of wedlock and live in a home without both parents present in the home, have an 80% chance of living in poverty. if they are born and a home, in wedlock and both of their

parents are present in the home, they have less than a 20% chance of living in poverty. the first answer to poverty is behavioral and familiar. we need to strengthen the family, we need to encourage fathers and mothers to get married and to stay married. and some of that can be done by government. a lot of it can't be done by government. the second thing that i support is rewards work and family formation. and bearing children. i've always supported the creation and growth of the tax credit for the child tax credit came into law in the 1990s because of lobbying by the christian coalition. it was included in the contract with america produced creative $500. it was doubled under george w. bush to a thousand dollars.

and it was doubled again under donald trump to $2000. that $2000 has provided 88 million americans with a 2200-dollar roughly give or take, tax credit against their tax burdens. and because of our lobbying, and the work of champions like a vodka trump in marco rubio in the senate, meaning is not entirely refundable it is about 70% refundable. meaning that you don't just get it if you pay 2000 year old the bottom of the income level you're paying no income taxes, you still get 70% of it. the last 50 years, it has lifted 9 million americans out of poverty, two thirds of those are children. and under donald trump, that number has grown by about

700,000 just in the last two years. so that is the second thing, a tax system of tax credits for work and for bearing children that encourages the family formation and work. and the last that i would say, his education. making sure that every child in america, regardless of their ethnic background, their racial background or how rich or poor they are goes to school where they are safe and they can learn. here again there is a stark contrast. joe biden not only opposes school choice and scholarships that will allow children to attend schools that are higher quality outside their own neighborhood, including a religious or christian school, that's where they want to go, but he has been endorsed by the national education

association and the american federation of teachers that want to get rid of those programs in the state where they currently exist. so those are the three. family formation, economic opportunity, and a tax code that rewards family formation at work and bearing children. and thirdly, educational opportunity. i think if you do those three, you would see many more people rise up the wrong. we saw that pre-covid. we saw the lowest unemployment rate for blacks, hispanics, asian americans and recorded economic history. we so wages growing at a rate of about 3% a year. that is higher than they had grown in a decade. and i think if donald trump is reelected, and i believe and hope you will, we will see this opportunity expand even more. >> >> host: janice is calling in from maine. you are on with author ralph

reed. >> caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i've been trying to listen very carefully. i wonder if it has occurred to mr. reed, or if he has considered the possibility that donald trump, as a political figure is simply courting evangelicals and their beliefs and their system for his own political gain? and if so, if he has considered that, how would that influence his confidence on genuine commitment to evangelical belief? in this of course relates to what the recent discussion just now was regarding abortion. the description of strong family life, the issue of out

of wedlock births of children. having a child that a woman cannot afford for without support nor stability could be far more disastrous to living people in the long run in society in general. i wonder if he could respond to that? >> host: thank you janice. those are great question. we start the second one. when you start to make value judgments a society of which lights are sacred, and which lives are worthy of protection which are not. i think you really cross a line. were it becomes very dangerous in terms of making those decisions. i know too many people who

were born into very adverse economic and family situations. i've known women who have borne children and kept them there were absently sure were going to be a disaster for them. and they ended up being the greatest gift they ever had. and they ended up being amazing. not just productive members of society. but were incredibly gifted and talented. and enrich the lives of millions through their gifts. and so i believe every life is precious. i believe every life is made in the image of god. and i think they all deserve our protection. in terms of your first question, you know it is such a great question. and it is one that people of faith wrestle with all the time.

and not just them of course. probably all constituencies. is this person really believe in their heart the policies and the values they are advocating? or are they just playing us to get our votes? and the answer that i make in for god and country, is essentially as a person of faith, i really don't care what your reason is. in other words i am not god. i cannot judge your heart. you know, the bible says that some men's sins will go before them. and others will come after them. there are people that we think are the most pristine and righteous people on earth. and when we get to heaven we are going to be surprised. and then there are other people who appeared to be less than perfect in their lives seem to be a mess. not just because we see their imperfections and now rather than later.

you know, you can't ever know with the motive of someone's heart is. the other thing that i argue in the book is, if a politician supports my issues and my agenda because he wants to win an election, i don't have any problem with that. i don't know very people that do. whether it is the labor unions or the nra. with harry reid when he was a majority leader as a democrat he had a one 100% rating with the national rifle association. he had always been pro-gun. was he pro-gun because he needed to be to win elections in nevad nevada? or was he pro- second amendment because that was a true core belief of his heart? i mean in the end, either one was true. on it didn't make any difference in terms of what he did as majority leader. but i have the added, it may

be accidental, maybe providential privilege of having gotten to know donald trump on a personal level for years before he ran for president and became president. i got to know his daughter ivanka and son-in-law gerrit and 2010, and around that same time i got to know then private citizen donald trump and even though he was thinking about running for president at the time, and 2012 as we all know he ultimately chose not to. but during this period when he was thinking about running, heat reached out to me one day out of the blue. literally cold called me and said the next time you are in new york, i went to visit combined see me. i took him up on that offer. my book, for god and country, actually opened -- the first chapter opens with that story and how he and i became friends. how i was not at the time a

particular fan of his. i did not necessarily have a high opinion of him. i shared that with him. but we became friends and i was pleasantly surprised. i liked him really from hello. he was a very likable, approachable guy. he was the kind of guy, even though he doesn't drink that you would say in the political, that you would want to have a beer with. he was smart, very intelligent. he seemed to know everybody. and you know, without necessarily walking in with a kind of list of questions, that is not really my style. over the course of that friendship, we would have conversations in which i was volunteered organically, where he stood on these issues that i am talking about.

and that is one of the reasons why, one he decided to run into thousand 15, even though i was neutral on the contest and i did not endorse anybody as the primary, why i had zero reservations about him. i felt that his heart was with us on these issues. : : : we got a chance to talk about them, so i think his commitment is genuine and whatever your view is, it's irrefutable that he has kept his promises, kept his commitments and has been the most pro-life pro- religious freedom and pro- israel president in our lifetime? host: and from forgotten country

ralph reed writes i have heard former pro-choice candidates explain how they came to their pro-life views, but if you had more genuine stories than trump. what was historically to he told me and he shared this publicly, i put it in my book so i'm not speaking out of school, he showed-- shared himself that he had a good friend of his who was a married couple, but they were both friends. she had a pregnancy that wasn't planned and her husband's wasn't the view they should have an abortion and was attempting to persuade her that she should have on abortion. she didn't necessarily want to have an abortion and she called donald trump and said what do you think i should do, and he didn't know what to tell her. it was a very difficult

dilemma that she face, and they were both good friends, the husband into the wife. she ultimately chose to have the child, and that donald trump because he remained friends with this family watched a this child grow up. the child obviously didn't know that her mother had nearly aborted her. she shortly did know that donald trump knew she had almost aborted her and he said that as he watched this child grow up to become, in his description, a beautiful intelligent incredibly talented young woman, a star in his telling, it struck him how close she came to never being there and he said that really had an impact on me. i asked myself how many future concert pianists,

painters, authors, leaders, athletes aren't here because we didn't let them be here and he said it changed his mind and that story made sense to me. host: married in colfax, california, mary, things were holding. you are on the tv with author ralph reed. caller: thank you pastor reed. host: mary, i apologize. we are going to put you on hold. it's really break your-- you out. we don't want to hang up on you. we want to give you another chance, but we are going to put you on hold and we will come back to you. someone will come on the line and talk to you to see if we can get that phone line street now. make sure and putting her on hold correctly so i don't hang up on her and let's talk to married in stamford,

kentucky. you are on book tv. hello. caller: yes, mr. reed, i appreciate your activism. i think that country is better off for it and i share a lot of what you believe. i'm conflicted. i'm an evangelical as well, active in politics and public service as i serve on the local city council but i'm conflicted. as i read the gospel, christ steering away from meddling involvement and see policy was just not his thing and he is very keen in his response to pilot. i wonder how you respond that conflict because i believe as evangelicals we get caught in social issues to the point we forget the hard issues are the most important-- [inaudible] what do you think about that?

guest: obviously, i address that pretty directly for god and country and i have addressed it for most of my career. i think if jesus didn't intend for us to be effective citizens and to be involved in a robust way in the civic life of our nation, then he would not have encouraged peter, when they will were asked to pay the poll tax to go down and catch a fish and pull out two coins and pay their taxes. he also, when he was confronted by the pharisees with the question-- this was one of the last questions they asked before his crucifixion. they were trying to set him up to argue that he was call in for a revolution against a caesar and was calling

for the overthrow of caesar. remember, when his disciples was simon the zealot and simon the zealot had been a member of a terrorist political party that was dedicated to the violent overthrow of the roman government. so, they were spreading rumors that jesus was saying he was not caesar , so they came to him and said is it lawful to pay taxes. should we pay taxes to a foreign occupying power, and he said bring me the coin. whose inscription is on it? and they said caesars, and he said-- jesus replied, then the render to caesar what is a caesars and a renter to god what is god's. the question is, what do we zero caesar. the apostle paul goes on in the book of romans to answer that question. he says honor our

participation. we are to pay taxes. he walks through what our responsibilities to government are. as a citizen of rome, which was unusual for a follower of christ, remember most of the original christians were jews who were actually being occupied and subjugated in a brutal way by the roman government. there were very few christians in the first century or right after the crucifixion of christ and resurrection who were roman. he, as i discussed earlier, was a citizen and he exercised the most cherished right that a roman citizen had , which was love right to appeal their case to caesar. this was at a time when his opponent wanted to put him on trial in

jerusalem in a trumped up kangaroo cohort or he was going to be convicted and executed. now, if paul's only focus was on heavenly things, why didn't he just go to his death? why didn't he just allow them to deny him justice and kill him? because after all, he was ultimately executed. he was more than willing to sever and die for the gospel. the reason why is because he took his citizenship seriously and he also understood that if he exercised that citizenship that the gospel would go to the highest levels of the roman government, which it ultimately did. within the 300 years, it had spread throughout the world and rome became somewhat artificially, somewhat

superficially a christian government. so, that is the reason. you don't really need to choose. you can both be a christian who gives your ultimate loyalty and obedience to god and it you are called as a christian to make a difference as a citizen. i lay all of this out in couple of chapters in "for god and country" and if you want to study it more, it's in that book. host: let's go back to mary, in colfax california. mary, please go ahead to. caller: thank you, sir. it's an honor to speak with you, mr. reed. i am a christian and i was also a single mother and i have several questions. one, do you believe who have had abortions should be punished? my second question is where's the christian church on helping take care of these single mothers?

i will take my question off the air. thank you very much. host: mary, can you quickly give us your view on those two questions? caller: i was married and was a single mother, so i had both situations. i could not feed the children i had, and i got pregnant very easy even on birth control, so i don't know. that's why i'm asking the pastor. i just ask the church several times for help and they denied me every time because they said i smoked cigarettes. host: that's mary in colfax, california. mr. reed? caller: we do not favor the women being punished. we do survey you know some sort of punishment for the doctor particularly if you look a case like doctor ghazi now in philadelphia who

was essentially operating a very unsafe, unsanitary clinic. women were being butchered and where their lives were in danger because of the unsanitary conditions of the clinic. that is one of the reasons why we are trying to pass clinical legislation throughout the country to make sure that these-- we oppose abortion, but unless and until it is limited, we want to make sure this clinics are not unsanitary or unsafe. as the gosnell case showed, to be cases-- they aren't safe. they are certainly never say for the unborn child, but it puts another in great danger of infection, of being

never able to bear children again and even death. that's documented in court cases. so, it wouldn't be the mother. it would be those putting them in danger. in terms of caring for the mother, we certainly favor making sure that single mothers are provided for. host: it looks like we lost mr. reed in there for a minute. i'm sure we will get his connection back very quickly. in the meantime, let's take a couple of calls and get some questions down that we can ask him when he comes back. jim in california. please go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm thinking back 60 years when i was just getting interested in politics. i was in high school and we had kennedy versus nixon. kennedy was a catholic and there was a lot of--

many people and some of them fairly prominent clerics who questioned whether he should be president because he was a roman catholic and would take order from the pope or whatever he said. i would like to think that it's pretty much gone people oppose biden it should be on the basis of his policy, not on his faith and also another thing i remember from that time, later on there wasn't much support-- i don't remember much of support for the state of israel coming from the republican party or the evangelical movement at that time and is so what's changed or was it always there and maybe hidden or not publicly known well, the support for the state of israel. are there any people around that would oppose

biden on purely his catholicism? host: as soon as mr. reed comes back with us via zoom we will ask in those questions. gym, tell us a little bit about yourself. caller: i am 75 and as i said 15 when the six election took place i was fascinated by it. i had been learning out of high school and even before. my father was interested in politics and, i mean, i think i watched both conventions cover to cover. i think i knew everything there was to know at that time and it was very-- and of course it nixon and kennedy were really as exciting as i think they have come to be seen many years later. it was an exciting time in american politics. host: did you watch this year's convention? caller: a little. they have become so-- well, now of course with covid everything was a staged, but i remember in 1960, the democratic

convention ran until like two in the morning in chicago because they had all these people getting nominated who had no chance of being elected. the last one was ross barnett, governor of mississippi, and all they talked about was preserving segregation. it was a different time. host: what kind of work did you do? caller: i was an attorney. i'm retired now. host: thanks for spending a few may-- minutes with us. let's hear from robert from chattanooga, tennessee. robber, what is your question? caller: i am african-american and i'm a republican like my teeth senator bill brock's in chattanooga and i don't understand why-- i can see these evangelicals taken over the republican party, and they are very very extremist and they are

danger to the party and i remember a speech that senator goldwater made. he said he never want the religious right telling him how to live. in some instance, history 100%. one thing reagan once said, we want democrats to support us all the time, but we never went to elected democrats or support democrats, but somehow this beloved party of mine has made a 360-degree turnaround and i hope in the near future and i hope i live to see it that the moderate republicans take this party back over again and get it out of the hands of these evangelicals because they believe in punishing people for whatever, abortion and any other since they commit and then they went to go to bible text, but when they get caught doing then they went to still use jesus

as their safety net, so to me they are very scary people and when i grew up in the republican party we never had to identify as i am a christian conservative republican and when you hear those cold words when people say that, you have to be leery of them because they are very dangerous people. host: now, robert, you identify yourself-- did you see a birthright republican? caller: yes. host: i'm sorry. you broke up their. caller: yes, birthright republican. host: what does that mean? caller: i mean, i was born into the republican party. i came in as a true republican. host: what does a moderate republican believe? caller: helping people, believe in republican consultant free enterprise and all the wonderful things the party under bill brock's and people like doctor tom garrity here in doctor prescott at the university of

tennessee chattanooga, but we haven't hijacked by some extremist and everyone was to carry a bible and tell people how to live their lives. host: what kind of work do you do, robert? caller: i'm retired. on 72 years old. host: retired from? [inaudible] host: thank you for calling him. ralph reed is back with us from the atlantic area. mr. reed, i don't know how much you hurt from robert who self identified as a birthright republican, african-american in chattanooga, tennessee, and considers himself to be a moderate republican and feels the evangelicals have taken over the gop and that's not good in his view. caller: yeah, i have heard that for most of my career. i would say a couple of things. number one, we are not in favor of judging

anyone. what we are in favor of is redressing what we believe are injustices, and we are trying to advance what we believe are moral good. i think with you look at civil rights or look at the right to life or you look at criminal justice reform or immigration reform for educational reform, even if you don't share our faith, you can't deny that the public policy prescription that we advocate have better outcomes for the poor, poor minorities, for the marginalized, for the alien for the stranger, for the immigrant. there is no question that the public policies that we advocate lead to greater good for more people. i'm not asking someone-- you don't have to subscribe to my faith to agree with my policy prescriptions. i need on criminal justice reform, and on

education reform and on immigration, frankly, we end up working with a lot of minority organizations and a lot of liberal organizations. and in terms of us allegedly doing such great damage to the republican party, you know when self identified evangelicals in 2016 and 2018 comprised roughly half 60% of all the notes you got, i don't know how driving them out of the party is a prescription for being a my geordie-- a majority. i mean, if they are driven out and the issues that they care about including the right to life in support for israel and religious freedom are driven out of the republican party,

and then the big tent will become a pup tent in this party would be the permanent minority status given the huge number of these voters that have come into the party in recent years, so i think even if you don't agree with my faith, if you are just being a smart political strategist it's not a good idea to insult-- or demean these people and try to drag them out of the party. just doesn't make any sense at all. host: jim from california had asked, he was talking about 60 years ago that kennedy versus nixon race and the fact that president kennedy catholicism was an issue there and he wanted to see if that is an issue today which zero biden and he also talked about israel and went to the-- when did the gop start supporting you know with policy

israel? caller: well, the answer to the first question about joe biden's catholicism, israel-- not really an issue for me because i am eight evangelical protestants, but i think for a large number of faithful frequently not-- mass attending roman catholics it will be an issue because he is at odds with one of the central social teachings of the church, namely the sanctity of innocent human life. you know, that is an issue that will be litigated within that faith community and talked about. i just want to be clear that in terms of my organization, faith and freedom coalition, we are public policy organization. we don't really make it our business to say whether someone is a good or bad christian or they are good or bad roman catholic or a good or bad evangelical.

that's not really our job. we are not the church. you know, that is a decision for the church to make. we are public policy organization and we oppose the policies that joe biden has advocated on abortion, on the green new deal and many other issues, so we don't anticipate to be a part of that discussion, but i think it's a discussion that will come up among catholics. with respect to the republican party and its pro-israel stance, you know the good news is that for most of the history of the modern estate of israel there has been a bipartisan consensus across both parties that we should support israel, not only as an active she main justice and compassion after world war ii where jews who had been persecuted and of course

millions of them lost their lives in the concentration camp of nazi germany, but even after world war ii many were persecuted in the former soviet union and so harry s truman, a democrat, became the first world leader in the first head of state to recognize the creation of the modernist and of israel and to exchange ambassadors with that state and both parties have been both for israel. sadly, that bipartisan consensus is today being tested and is under strain. that's primarily because some elements of the democratic coalition and you saw this with the resolution passed by nancy posey and the democrats in the 19 to initially condemn

anti-semitism and in order to win the support of her caucus she had to expand it to include other isms including racism and other things because had she only condemn anti-semitism it would not have gotten the support of her caucus, so there are elements in the democratic party today, you know the so-called squad that don't have the traditional support of israel that harry truman had, jack kennedy had an even bill clinton had and that's concerning to me, i mean, as a republican, i am not happy about that because i went to see support for israel in both parties and as american i'm not happy about it because i think we are better friend of israel when both parties are fully on board and as a christian who believes it's my moral and spiritual obligation to defend the jews to defend israel.

i went want to see america be the best friend that she can possibly be to israel because i think the bible teaches that those who bless israel will themselves be blessed and i went to see america bless and i think one way to do that is to be a friend of the jewish people and israel host: marine tweets in that she is watching you on c-span. i didn't know of you, but i have to say you are addressing controversial issues with calmness and respect to all we need more of that in this turbulent time. mr. reed, what is the role of the faith and freedom coalition in this election, if any? caller: i appreciate that tweet from the viewer. i do believe we need a greater level of stability in our civic discourse. i think we have violators on all sides, so i'm not really in the business of attacking or criticizing other people as much as i try to it my own speech to show

respect for others and to speak with love even when we don't agree. i have always tried to be like that because it's what my faith teaches. faith and freedom coalition is a faith-based public policy organization whose mission and purpose is to equip christians to be effective citizens and for us at election time that means making sure they are informed, educated, registered to vote and that they vote. educated in fully informed on who the candidates are and where they stand on the key issues. not just the issues that we necessarily care about, but on the key issues that will decide the election right now, we are in the process of knocking on millions of doors in 21 states. we will end up knocking on somewhere between 3 million doors,

reaching somewhere between six and 8 million voters directly to home. we hand them a piece of literature that lets them know where to have been biting a the issues , where the senate and house candidate and in some cases the state legislative candidates standard we are distributing 30 million nonpartisan voter guides and about 117,000 churches in all 50 states. we are sending out about 50 million informational e-mails here we will be pushing out about 38 million ads on facebook and google and when we get down to the end, which isn't that far away, we started doing this in about 27 days when early voting begins in the states where there is early voting like florida and my home state of georgia , these christian voters will get a text message from us has a voter guide attached and

then a link taking them to their early voting location or a link that allows them to vote absentee and our goal is to have the largest turnout of evangelical, faithful roman catholics and others that-- i think we will be successful in doing that. host: how has the jerry falwell junior is-- gary farwell junior situation affected you? guest: it's affected me personally because jerry and back your good friends. i love them and i care about them. i have been in touch with them to let them know i'm praying for them and i'm also a good friend of liberty university and have been for probably 35 or more years. i was good friends with jerry's father, jerry senior. the founder and the first chancellor and president and i'm actually going to go to liberty university this week to speak.

i'm not going to talk publicly about my private interaction or conversations with jerry junior other than to say that i am praying for him. he is a dear friend. i love him. i thought he did an extraordinary job as president of liberty. he took it from a college that was straddled with the debt and had struggled financially for decades to the leading christian university in america if not the world with-- don't hold me too the number, but i think it's a something along the lines of 80 to 100,000 students. a lot of those are virtual or are mine, but tens of thousands on campus with an endowment over a billion dollars in almost $2 billion in

assets and i hope and pray that we have not heard the last of jerry or becky. i they are-- i think they are tremendous people and i still consider myself to be a dear friend stephen lets hear from howling in tampa. hello, alan. caller: thank you. i followed you and donald trump for over 30 years and over the time you guys have both gotten really good at speaking. i have also enjoyed the program today and listen to the way you respond to people. you are very thorough. i have a question, all we seem to ever do is pick the lesser of two evils for president. what is your solution for that in the second question is, as far as the antichrist, do you think the antichrist will come from what country i do you think it would-- could happen in our lifetime based on things going on with a worldwide pandemic, worldwide chaos in the streets with the

protests and the economic local collapse of everything because of that. guest: let me answer the first question. i argue pretty strongly and i hope persuasively. in "for god and country" vice-- decided to support donald trump that people of faith were supported the lesser of two evils. i believe if you are protecting unborn life that is not a lesser evil. that's a greater good. if you defend the street of israel and defended the jewish people, that is not a lesser evil. that's a greater good. if you are defending the right of people of faith, of all faiths to practice their faith and to worship god as they understand god to be, here in the united states and indeed around the world, that is not a lesser evil. that's a greater good.

when these of voters of faith, these of citizens of a faith back donald trump and four years ago continue to do so in record numbers and support his policy agenda, it's not because it's a lesser evil than what hillary clinton or joe biden was offering. it's because it's advancing moral good and it's because they believe that the other agenda is moral evil. we live in a fallen world. there's only been one perfect person who ever walked this planet and we believe that's jesus christ are everything our faith teaches has fallen and has to do with sin in their lives and is not perfect, so obviously as a citizen, when you are making credential and practical judgments and calls about both candidates at election time and about whether or not to vote

for a bill or support piece of legislation or policy, that may not be 100% of what you want, i am a big believer that you live by ronald reagan's rule which is 80% friend is not a 20% enemy and getting 80% of what you want is not a defeat, it's a victory. it may not be a full victory, but it is certainly a partial if not 80% or 90% victory and i think in the case of donald trump we have gotten well north of 90% in terms of the policies that he has advocated. one of the other things that i refer you to that i point other christians to when they asked this question of how her we supposed to make these kinds of decisions and as i point to one of the most important speeches about faith, civic

virtue and civic engagement that has ever been given by a president in american history. that is ronald reagan's address to the national association of evangelicals in 1983. he is speaking about cold war and the choice between the two less-than-perfect countries, the soviet union-- then the soviet union and the united states and the conflict with the cold war and the arms race and he counseled these evangelicals, you know don't-- i am paraphrasing, but he basically said don't consider yourself to be so above it all and so above the fray that you refuse to choose the greater good among two

less-than-perfect choices. he said we are upon to resist evil and to advance the good and if we consider ourselves to be so holy and so righteous and we can get down with the sometimes less-than-perfect decisions that we have to make, whether it's between the soviet union and the united states or between two candidates, then we are of little earthly good. in terms of your question about the antichrist, my reading of the book of revelations, but paul's writings and also jesus' teachings, which are recorded in the gospel are that we do not know either the time of those events nor do i think we can know who it is you know whether it's a different characters

that we find in the book of revelations, whether it's the antichrist or other evil characters. i just don't think there's any way to know. the most important thing is to be prepared for the end times whenever and however they occur. what we do know is that jesus said that no one knew when he would return including him. he said only the father knows when that is going to happen and the most important thing is to know that it's unlikely to be when we expected. is likely to be sooner than we think and we need to be concerned about being ready, not when it happens. host: we are going to scroll through the numbers. we have about 20 minutes left with our guest author ralph reed. if you can't get through on the phone and went to make a comment you can

do so via text or social media. we will put those addresses up and if you send a text include your first name and your city alexander is in las vegas. hello, alexander. caller: hello. i just will want to let you know that it's an honor to talk to ralph reed. we have followed him for years and it looks like you are getting younger, ralph. guest: i don't think so, but thank you for the compliment. i will take it. guest: i'm going to ask you question. do you believe there is systemic racism in the church today? the church that preaches the bible and the whole counsel of god's word. that's number one. number two, as a pastor -- [inaudible] is that considered systemic racism and number three, grace community church in sunderland, california,

do you believe pastor john macarthur and his congregants are coming under persecution by the state for him opening up his church and if so, is this something that the church can look forward in 2021 next year-- host: alexander, think we have the point and that is a lot of questions. go ahead, ralph reed. guest: obviously in the aftermath of the death of george floyd i think we would say that the killing or murder of george floyd in police custody in minneapolis where confronting a new as a nation, this issue of race and the sin of racism and later of segregation after the end of slavery. i am committed to racial

justice. my organization, faith and freedom correlation works every day whether it's on criminal justice reform, economic empowerment education and many other issues, we are committed to racial equality and reconciliation. in terms of whether or not-- there is certainly individual racism. in addition to that, i do believe that there are institutions and systems that the way they have developed in the way they operate by their current operation discriminate against and do not provide adequate and full opportunity. to minorities, particularly to african americans. i've talked about the criminal justice system. i worked with my friend chuck colson when he was still with us.

he was in the head of a prison fellowship to eliminate the 17 the spirit between powder cocaine and crack cocaine were powder cocaine was primarily the drug of the well-to-do and crack cocaine intended to be those of more socioeconomically downscale and the penalties for the same amount of essentially the same underlying drug were three times greater for-- crack cocaine. you could say it was a systemic if you want to use that terms, but it's no question in its operation it discriminated against minorities and i think that's true of farm to many k-12 educational system particularly in the inner cities of our nation. i think if you look at the use schools where--

that are predominantly minority, we are talking about schools that are 80 to 90% minority schoolchildren were more than half if not more are not graduating from high school, where 70% or more cannot perform basic math and reading skills on eight and 12 grade level. we are consigning those children by forcing them to go to those failing schools to a lifetime of economic opportunity being closed to them and them not being able to compete in the high-tech economy of the 21st century. my friend, bill bennett who is secretary of education under ronald reagan was fond of saying many of these schools look like they could have been designed by the ku klux klan. are they discriminatory? in their effect is institutions and as systems?

yes, they are and as i said earlier in the program, i think we are called as people of faith and as citizens to redress those injustices and to redress those systematic forms of discrimination, so that is what we work on it safe and freedom. it's part of our faith. we are very serious about it. it doesn't really have anything to do with politics for us. we don't necessarily get rewarded politically for doing those things. we don't necessarily get the votes of those that we are seeking to assist, but that is not really what it's about for us. host: ralph free, you have tried it before. is there is elected office attempts in your future? guest: not that i know of. i certainly don't have any plans to. you probably never say never, but i think that

i am having a greater impact by doing what i'm doing, by helping others get elected and by the work i am doing at faith and freedom. i have to say that i have a tremendous team at faith and freedom coalition. 10-- tim had, our executive director with an unbelievable public policy team. we have tremendous leadership at the church level and at the state and county level, all over the country and i count it a great blessing to be a part of this team. i have been a part of some really great political teams, the christian coalition 80s and 90s. i was part of george w. bush's political team from the beginning in 1999 and 2000 and all the way through the end of his second term. i worked on the 2000 and 2004 campaign.

i have just had a tremendous opportunity. what we are doing at faith and freedom is-- i think we are making history and i am proud be a part of it. host: your eight books in. what is your process? guest: that is a great question. i talk to people a lot who asked me, how do you go about writing a book and i always tell them, one page at a time and i'm not being facetious. i learned this when i was in graduate school and i was writing my doctoral dissertation and academic writing is pretty dense compared to writing popular fiction or nonfiction, i mean, sometimes the footnote is longer than the sentence or paragraph that is providing the documentation. it's a pretty intense form of writing and the way i did it and no one

taught me this, i guess i kind of stumbled into it was i had a certain amount of time to write before my graduate fellowship ran out and i was basically broke. i sat down with the calendar and work backwards from the goal of when i needed to finish it and i discovered that if i wrote one page every day taking sundays off-- i don't write on sundays. so, six days a week and if i wrote just one page every day that i could write a book in a year and i could finish my dissertation in a year. you know, so you set a goal of one pages day and year end up sometimes getting inspired and i would write two or three pages that day, but i never wrote less than one and that's how it-- would i do as i sit down with the calendar. i know we don't use the

desk calendars anymore. the calendars are on our phone or laptops, but that's what i do. i sit down and write page number one, page number two, page of the three and i estimate each chapter 15 pages. sometimes they might be more sometimes less then i move on to the next chapter. then i sit down and i block out my chapters and determine what the subject matter of each one is and once i've done my research and at this point i use research assistance to assist me in gathering all of the research. obviously when i was doing my doctoral dissertation it was just me. then i sit down and start writing and i write at least one page every day. host: and three novels. what inspired that? guest: yeah, three novels. i think what happened was my agent, rick christian, my literary agent who has worked

with some of the most famous authors in the world, he worked with tim lahaye and his co-author, so he's been involved in millions of books and i think he was the one who suggested you know sometimes in 2006 or seven you know have you ever thought about fiction and i told him i had. i actually had outlined a book when i was 15 years old about the election of the first independent presidential candidate to ever be elected. think of ross perot in 1992 or 1996 and imagine perrault winning or imagine donald trump having chosen rather than run as a republican would if he had run as an independent and what if he had just broken up the two-party system as we know it and one? the reason why i thought of it probably no one

remembers this today or very few do that in 1976 gene mccarthy, the former minnesota senator who ran against lyndon johnson as a democrat in 1968 and actually drove lyndon johnson out of the race, he forced her johnson to the sidelines turkey decided to run as an independent and i was just a young political activist interested in politics and i started research how many ballots he would get on, what kind of impact it would have and then i thought gosh, what is this guy really took off , what if he won? so i outlined a novel about that and i titled it "dark horse" i actually outlined the chapters and i sat down and wrote the first chapter and after i wrote the first chapter i thought to myself with a minute, i am 15 years

old, i have no idea what i'm talking about, i've never worked on a presidential campaign having there is no way to write about this and have it be realistic because i don't know what really goes on, so i set it aside and when rick came to me i said i have got this novel. i'd never wrote it and that became "dark horse" and i have to say to my pleasant surprise it was pretty well reviewed and it did pretty well. it's a little dated now because things new line politics. we have kind of gotten even more advanced in our data science and data analytics and all that, before its time it was very realistic portrayal of what a presidential campaign is about and even though it was highly fictionalized , what i found by writing fiction is that in many ways fiction is true or--

truer and more honest than nonfiction because i took everything i experienced at the christian coalition, on the bush, on other campaign side worked on throughout my career and i highly fictionalized them, but it was all true, the dialogue, the meetings, the strategy, if you want to know what a presidential campaign is really like, dark horse had a lot of truth in it. host: and his other two novels include "the confirmation" that came out in 2010 and ballots in blood in 2011. you have been very patient and you are on now with ralph reed. caller: thank you so much. mr. reid. guest: yes? caller: i was a republican. i came from romania, a communist regime took

when you embed-- evangelicals talk about the danger of socialism, the danger of communism, the danger right now is in the white house with donald trump in power and you pronounce-- you said a few times in name evocative trump several times. that concerns me. she's not an elected official. [inaudible] his son didn't stay in the same room when he had foreign media. [inaudible] his connection with saudi arabia, you talking about antichrist and you know about separation and church and faith, you should know better. you are hey this story

in. you watch the history channel. [inaudible] the crowds, he is so upset with crowds. evangelicals when he says-- [inaudible] host: i think we got the point. is to read? guest: i'm not sure what rally took are is referring to. it certainly wasn't one i'm familiar with. i was at the launch of the evangelicals for trump coalition in nine guests in january or february, of this year which was in miami, the largest evangelical church in the united

states. it is a hospital in church and i can assure you i was there for the launch of this coalition wearing my hat as a private citizen. i was there in my personal capacity and i didn't-- not only did i not hear or see anything of the kind of nature of the call are is referring to, but i saw the exact opposite. i saw an awful lot of hispanic americans and latinos and latinos who love this president, love this country and because they came from places like cuba or venezuela or other communist socialist regimes, frankly, they love this country and appreciate it more than many anglos do. in terms of the attack on his daughter that the caller made, all i can tell you is that i have known her for over a decade. i found her to be beautiful inside and out

, intelligent, incredibly sharp. she loves her father. she loves this country. she and other members of the president's family by a green to serve this country have made an incredible personal sacrifice walking away from companies, being unable to do any deals overseas while their dad's president, which is a pretty big deal if you are a real estate company and your used it to doing deals overseas. in at the case of the covid-19 emergency response including the paycheck protection program, there was one company that was singled out that was not going to be allowed to receive any funding at all under the paycheck protection program and that was the trump organization and its related companies, so even though they have resorts and hotels and golf courses and

developments all over the united states where they have had to either furlough employees or suffer great economic loss during the pandemic , they never received a time to continue to pay their employees. you have your view of the trumps. i understand that, but i will take this, unlike you and many other americans, i actually know them. i have had the privilege and an honor and the opportunity to not only know and work with the president, but with his amazing children and i assure you they love this country. they are men and women of integrity. they are sharp. they have incredible character. they love their dad, and they work harder than almost anyone i have known. the public perception of the family is 180 degrees removed from the people i have had the privilege of knowing. host: as we do with all of our

authors on in-depth, we asked them for their favorite books and current reading list. we mentioned at the beginning that ralph reed favorite book is the bible and here are some of the other books he sent us. ideological origins of the american revolution, by bernard balin, alexander-- alexander hamilton. the strange career of jim crow. witnessed by whittaker chambers. born-again. the secret kingdom. mr. reid, is currently reading paul mccartney "many years from now" by mary-- barry miles and the splendid in the vial ralph reed, most recent book is "for god and country". it just came out this year. ralph reed, thank you for spending two hours

with our viewers on the tvs "in-depth". guest: happy to do it. i have been a fanned and fan of the c-span for as long as you been around. at some of the best television out there. thanks for all you do and thanks for having me host: if you missed any of today's program we are going to re- air it right now. >> next's book tvs monthly in-depth program with author and faith and freedom coalition founder ralph reed. his books include "active faith", awakening and "for god and country" the christian case for trump published earlier this year. host: author ralph reed. we asked you what some of your favorite books are in the first one you listed was the bible. is the bible a political book retail i don't think of it that way. guest: it has instruction about civic affairs and politics and

how we order our societies, but for me obviously the bible is primarily the revelation of god planning principles for humanity and the best way to know the keys to living a godly life with intimacy with him and if you believe in the new testament as i do is son jesus christ. i also think as a trained historian it's one of the most important history books that you will ever readve. .. there's no better single source than the bible. it's all there, the rise and fall of empires from, you know, the babylon to the persians, to the greeks, to the roman empire. and then finally, even if you don't shower