Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast where we are forging a bold Christian vision for America.

I'm your host John Harris.

And I have a question for you, who conquered America?

That's a question that I used for the title of a substack article in which I intend to start a

conversation on the topic of whether our internal threats are greater than the external

threats that we hear about so often.

I don't have a firm grasp on every element of this particular conversation, but I think it

needs to be a conversation. And this is somewhat of an original thought today. It's rooted in

critiques primarily from more traditional Bible Belt perspectives on the nature of particular regions of the United States and the threat that they pose to a Christian order.

But in our environment currently, it is very popular to look at the nature of things in our country, whether that is moral decay, financial

problems, et cetera, corruption, and think the issue is something external, that if we were to

sever our connection with, we would be paradise once again. It's internal groups of particular

immigrants. It is Israel now,

oftentimes, especially with older generations, it's China, or if you're going to Cold War era,

it's Russia still. These external threats are what bring the maladies about that we have currently.

And I saw this from a very firsthand perspective in the Southern Baptist Convention with people who really thought,

if you just cut George Soros money from flowing into the evangelical immigration table,

and if you cut whatever foundation money is going into the seminaries and other entities potentially,

then you will solve the problem of liberal drift in the Southern Baptist Convention. And I knew at the time that was important to do,

but it wasn't the root issue. The root issue was ideological. And part of the reason I knew this was

because I was sitting in the seminary. I was sitting at southeastern. I could see

ideologues being formed before my very eyes. People who came in with conservative views

...