- Riots, flag, and Bible burnings,

restrictive measures against churches,

and the cancel culture.

Are these signs Americais beginning to abandon

its Judeo-Christian roots?

Appearing on this week'sepisode of "The Global Lane",

author and radio host Eric Metaxas

says these recent developmentsare a wake-up call

for the Body of Christ.

- America is, generally speaking,

definitely forgetting itsJudeo-Christian roots.

But I just wanna say, I praise the Lord

that these folks are doing these things.

Because in the past they would hide this

and people would think that,

"Well, they just adifferent point of view."

By coming out of the closetand doing these brazen,

shocking things, they havereally stepped into a realm

where we can all seeprecisely what they stand for.

When you burn a Bible orburn an American flag,

they did both in Portlandrecently, you have to understand,

this has very littleto do with Christians.

The Bible is the bookthat gave us the West.

In other words, whetheryou're an atheist or agnostic

or a Muslim or Christian or a Jew,

if you live in a place likethe United States of America

it's because people tookideas from the Bible.

These are God's ideas aboutself-government and liberty,

about having a relationshipwith the Creator

where I govern myself,

that led to freedom and ledto tremendous prosperity,

human flourishing, thriving,the elevation of human dignity.

So this is the sort ofthing that Christians

should be the most alarmed in a sense.

But everyone who has a stake in civility,

everyone who has a stake inbeing able to have open debate,

to figure out what'sactually best for everybody?

What's best for the country?

Christendom in Europe, overthe last two millennia,

that's what gave us the possibility

of creating something likethe United States of America.

We used to know that as a people.

And even not just Americansused to know that,

everyone in Europe.

I mean, Churchill would quote the Bible.

They knew that when they werefighting totalitarianism,

whether it's Hitler or Stalin,

they knew what they were fighting.

They were fighting agodless tyrannical view

that sees human beings notcreated in the image of God,

as the Bible declares.

Not created as something that God adores.

But on the contrary,

as something that can beused for anyone's ends.

For the state's ends you'regonna attack churches,

you're gonna attack Christians.

Hitler did precisely the same thing.

In my book, "Bonhoeffer" whereI talk about it extensively,

he went after the Church.

He was very wise in thebeginning, very canny,

but eventually, the gloves came off

and you saw the kindsof things in churches

like Martin Niemoller's church.

The Gestapo would come inthere just to threaten them.

We see that happeningwith certain governors

in certain states.

We've seen it recently in California.

- Let's talk about acouple of those governors

in California.

Newsom has restricted gatheringsin homes to less than 10.

Now that's had an impact on Life Groups,

home Bible meetings.

In China, and I've beenthere a number of times,

the Communist Party

doesn't become overlyconcerned with house meetings

until they reach 50 or more.

So this is worse than China.

What do you think?- Listen,

in the United States of America,

we are being reminded of whatit means to be an American.

And again, forgive mefor referring to my book,

but it's why I wrote mybook, "If You Can Keep It".

I said, we have forgotten whatit means to be an American.

And we've forgotten torecognize overreach,

to recognize when somebody likea governor like Evan Newsom

does something like that,we should all instantly say,

"That's an American. Youcan't do that in America."

And by the way, we won't abide by that.

We are a free people.

If some of us have forgottenothers of us, remember,

and we will scream and shout

until people understand youdon't do this in America.

You have no right to do this in America.

You have no right to say thatworshiping God is unnecessary,

but casinos are necessary.

That's arbitrary.

It's the kind of thing that you see

in third world dictatorships,where, you know,

they persecute whoeverthey wanna persecute.

We're supposed to have justice for all.

We're not supposed to have adouble-tiered justice system.

All of these things are wake up calls

mainly for the Body of Christ.

- Finally, then, Eric,what is the solution?

I know Bonhoeffer said,

"Politics are not thetask of a Christian."

Yet, he was involved in theresistance against the Nazis.

So that's why he was executed.

Should Christians bemore engaged in politics?

- Christians should bevery engaged in politics.

The idea of making an idol of politics,

that's another story.

But any Christian who says,"I'm not going to vote

"because I can't decide."

You know, "Neither ofthem is perfect enough."

If you don't vote you, Mr.Christian, Mrs. Christian,

you are on the hook forwhoever gets elected

and whoever doestremendously harmful things.

If you care about the poor,

we are commanded to care for the poor.

Who you elect or whoyou allow to be elected

is going to put out policiesthat are either gonna help

people get on their feetor are going to harm them

and keep them trapped inperpetual bondage to the state,

which is what the Democratshave done for over 50 years.

So I'm sorry to say, we must get involved.

And the only reason we have governors

like Governor Newsom in California

is because evangelicals didn't vote.

They're not registered tovote. They didn't vote.

This is a scandal and anything I can do

to help people see that as bad theology,

that is not biblical theology.

You must get involved. Godcalls us to get involved.

If not for our sake, forthe sake of all the others

who are going to beaffected by these horrific

ultimately Marxist policies

that elevate the stateover the individual,

and that do not understandwhat American freedom was or is

and certainly don't wantit to continue to be.

- Okay, Eric Metaxas,speaker, radio host, author.

Your latest book is "If You Can Keep It:

The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty"

Thanks for sharing yourthoughts today, Eric.

- My privilege. Thank you.

- And you can hear moreabout other important issues

and trends in the news bytuning into "The Global Lane"

tonight at 9:30 Eastern.

You can find that on this CBN.