And thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. Have you ever heard of a man named Gerald

L. K. Smith? If you haven't, you are forgiven. He is no longer a famous figure, but in his day,

he was a famous-ish guy, a preacher and political figure. At one point, he ran for Senate in Michigan

as a Republican. In 1944, he ran for president against FDR. He ran on the ticket of the America

first party, which he had founded. Gerald L. K. Smith did not get far with that presidential bid or

with the Michigan Senate bid as a Republican either. If Gerald L. K. Smith is remembered for anything

today, it's probably mostly for this. This is a statue that he erected in Arkansas in the 1960s.

It's called Christ of the Ozarks. Christ of the Ozarks was the subject of a huge, a suspiciously

huge fundraising operation by Gerald L. K. Smith. He died in 1976, but that statue still stands in

Arkansas today. But Gerald L. K. Smith is about to have another moment in the public eye,

because what he really wanted to be remembered for, even more than that statue,

was a nationwide movement that he tried to build, a movement that he named and that he led and

that he promoted tirelessly, and that he wanted to outlive him forever.

In other words, we must remain true to the declaration of independence. That is nationalist.

We believe that the spiritual symbol of our statesmanship is the cross, which indeed is the

symbol of Christianity. We believe that the inspiring dynamic out of which America grew is Christianity.

We believe that there would be no real America, such as we love and for which we're willing to die,

if there had been no Christianity. Thus, when a Christian is a nation, he becomes necessarily a Christian

nation. A Christian nationalist. That was Gerald L. K. Smith speaking in the 1950s, as both a sort of

pseudo preacher and a political figure on the American right. He was the spokesman and the founder

for this movement that he called Christian nationalism. If that is ringing a bell for you at all,

if it feels, despite the annoying music bed with that speech and the guy's weird speaking style

...