Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast

Nick Freitas: I'm not here to defend the West. I'm here to defend Christendom. Once you understand that Western civilization is things like tradition, classical liberalism, and representative government sitting upon a Christian moral framework, then all of a sudden you can understand why other parts of the world don't want to embrace these sorts of cultural and political institutions. It's because they're built upon a completely different moral framework.

The American lie is that the most important thing is being able to do what you want. I would say that's a perverse version of the American dream. Will I fight for freedom? Absolutely. The freedom to do what? The freedom to do whatever I want, or the freedom to actually go out and pursue what God has for me?

Allen Jackson: Well, welcome to Culture & Christianity. I'm excited today. I get to introduce you to a new friend of mine. In fact, we're going to get acquainted together with cameras rolling. Nick Freitas, welcome to Culture & Christianity.

Nick Freitas: Thank you very much for having me.

Allen Jackson: For those that don't know my guest, he's a veteran. We'll talk more about that. US Army Special Forces Green Beret, impressive credentials. Served in the legislature in Virginia, so you've been in the political arena, the military, podcasting world. You are a tough guy.

Nick Freitas: Politics is like war, but without any honor.

Allen Jackson: That'll work. And just so I don't get busy and forget, you've got a new book. It's called The Man Book. What's it about?

Nick Freitas: I basically talk about a lot of the things I've learned as being a man, a husband, a father, a soldier, and an elected official. I didn't design it to be like a ten-step guide to being the best man. It was more of, these are just things I've learned, oftentimes the hard way, about being a man and stuff where if I had to do it all over again, these are the sort of things I'd want to know.

Allen Jackson: You looked at all your buddies and made a book about what not to do based on their lives? Did you tell their names? That's what I want to know.

Nick Freitas: No, I'm generally praising the people that I thought were a good influence. There is one guy in there who I don't name, but his story or the advice that he gave to me about raising daughters I found to be very helpful, very useful.

Allen Jackson: After 9/11, you joined the Army Special Forces Green Beret?

Nick Freitas: Yes, so I had actually enlisted in the army right out of high school in 1998. I thought I was going to get out. I had been in the 82nd Airborne Division, which was a great unit, but I didn't have a great deal of love for the peacetime army. A lot of running around, a lot of painting rocks when I thought I was going to be doing other things.

I remember I was going to get out, and my wife, who's the sensible one in the marriage, was like, "Well, we really haven't saved any money because you're a private," and so there was no money to save. She asked what would happen if we reenlisted. I said if we reenlist, for your first one, you can go anywhere you want. I said do you want to go to Italy or Hawaii? She said she wanted to go to Hawaii.

Reenlisted, got to Hawaii, and about four months later 9/11 happened. I looked at her and I said, "Well, I know what I'm doing now." I ended up volunteering for Special Forces after I saw the operations they were conducting in the early days in Afghanistan. Again, had the privilege of serving in First Special Forces Group. Did a couple of tours over in Iraq.

Allen Jackson: With that background in the Middle East, we've got to stop for just a minute and talk about what's happening now with Iran. I know Trump is the ultimate dealmaker, but making a deal with the knuckleheads in Iran, they don't intend to keep their word, do they?

Nick Freitas: No. In fact, in some ways you could say that they're morally obligated not to. Here's the problem. There's a lot of people that have critiques of what Trump has done in Iran that I think are perfectly legitimate. I actually think Matt Walsh did a good job of saying, "Look, I've supported Trump's foreign policy, but I don't see the cost-benefit analysis adding up in this one."

What I had hoped early on was that there was some sort of intel that suggested that there was a significant armed element within Iran that was willing to rise up against the government, perhaps members of their army. Again, you need to distinguish between their army and the IRGC, which is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That's the enforcers, their version of the Gestapo, which terrifies the people and abuses the people. They are happy to murder the people if they don't fall in accordance with the Ayatollah.

That has not materialized. So the question now that you have to ask is from a practical standpoint, regardless of what you would like—I would like for the Ayatollah to fall. I would like for a pro-Western government to establish itself in Iran. Having fought in Iraq and having a lot of friends that fought in Afghanistan, I realize that's not easy to manifest in that part of the world.

The only way that you're going to be successful for a long-term regime change strategy over there is if it's organic. The question is, do they possess the current capabilities in order to facilitate such a regime change? It doesn't appear likely in the next several months.

Going into midterms and gas prices being high and everything else, I'll put it this way: I trust Trump probably more than any other president in my lifetime to be able to negotiate and negotiate well, but the idea that we're going to get successful regime change I just don't think is in the cards right now. If we lose really badly in the midterms, it won't matter because they'll control the budget and they can shut it off regardless of what the deal looks like.

I think this is one of those times where there's what I would like to see happen. By the way, I don't want US-led nation-building or regime change. I want it to be organically led and US supported or assisted.

Allen Jackson: I think we learned that lesson. We've seen enough purple fingers after they voted.

Nick Freitas: We've arrogantly assumed that everybody wants to be Westerners. What's fascinating is we can't even properly explain what that means anymore, in part because we have too many people trying to explain it in a way separate from Christianity. I don't think that's possible.

Allen Jackson: There is no Western civilization as we have known it apart from Christianity.

Nick Freitas: No. I was just at the ARC conference, which is the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. This was started in large part by Jordan Peterson and other people. When I got up, I said, "I'm not here to defend the West. I'm here to defend Christendom." There were a lot of people that liked that. I'm sure there were some people that were a little bit uncomfortable with it.

Once you understand that Western civilization is things like tradition, classical liberalism, representative government, property rights, and capitalism sitting upon a Christian moral framework—it doesn't sit there in mid-air—then all of a sudden you can understand why other parts of the world don't want to embrace these sorts of cultural and political institutions. It's because they're built upon a completely different moral framework.

I'm not supportive of us trying to, through the force of arms, convert everyone to what we want. By the same token, Iran is a threat to the United States. The people that claim that this is just Israel or this is just oil—no, Iran is absolutely a threat to the United States. They have an ill intent toward the United States, and there will be times where we have to deal with that through force of arms.

When it comes to achieving long-term regional stability, that's going to be a much larger effort that's going to take something very different, and what it should not take is massive deployment of US ground forces in order to achieve regime change.

Allen Jackson: I agree. If we can keep the straits open, find a way to get petroleum flowing, and keep Iran from intimidating the civilized world.

Nick Freitas: The biggest question that we have right now is, is it possible? So far it has not proved possible. Is it possible to somehow open the straits and maintain control of the straits without the deployment of a significant US ground contingent? The answer so far has been no.

That's where things get really tricky because once you deploy over there, does that now achieve success? How many casualties are you willing to take in order to do it? Those are all the unknowns at this particular point that I don't think are going to be solved before the midterms.

Allen Jackson: What about with the agreement we've signed now with Lebanon? Does that give the Israelis the green light to go in and do something about Hezbollah? Is Iran weakened enough that they can't support them? Hezbollah is an irritant. If we leave them right there on that border, they're going to be a pain in the neck.

Nick Freitas: No question that a combination of Iranian-supported Hezbollah and Palestinian refugees that went into Lebanon destabilized that government and then used it as a base of operations against Israel, as well as a base of operations against other governments as well.

I don't know. I try not to be too confident about things in the Middle East because history and personal involvement has taught me that none of it's ever as clear. The thing that we're going to have to understand is that US foreign policy and Israeli foreign policy, I think, oftentimes overlap and have similar objectives. There are certain times where they don't necessarily, and in those cases, we have to go with what is best for US foreign policy.

Allen Jackson: We're two sovereign countries. We're not always going to be fully aligned.

Nick Freitas: Exactly. But I also recognize Israel has a right to protect itself. If Hezbollah was doing to the United States what Hezbollah is doing to Israel, we would be taking names and doing a lot of other things that included a lot of violence.

We're just going to have to understand that this is going to be a difficult—these are generational issues that we're fighting here. We're talking about conflicts that are as old as Abraham. The idea that we're going to arrogantly fix all of these with air power or whatever else, I think, is a little bit naive.

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Allen Jackson: Let's take a happier note. The military in general feels like there's a complete tone change in this administration and Secretary Hegseth.

Nick Freitas: It's funny because JD Vance was an E-4 when he left the Marine Corps, which is a corporal or a specialist in the army. We used to refer to the E-4 mafia. There's a lot of things JD Vance will do every once in a while where we're like, that's E-4 mafia stuff right there.

Pete Hegseth very much had his experience in the military shaped by being a junior officer, and then I think he got out as a major and being an infantry officer. That's a combat-focused MOS. That's why you see Pete focusing on things like you're going to be in shape and our job in the military is to kill people and break things. We're not a petri dish for social engineering. Ultimately that's what we do here.

Allen Jackson: I like clarity. It's good. I don't want a military that's an expert in DEI. That doesn't help anybody.

Nick Freitas: I remember watching General Milley, who I got to say, when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, you see the Special Forces and Ranger and all that and you're very impressed. The thing that was shocking to me is that Special Forces is a fairly small community. So if you don't know someone, you know someone who knows someone.

He was the first guy that I ever went into our Special Forces chat rooms and asked, "Who served with this guy and does anybody have anything nice to say about him?" Typically what you'll find is someone saying, "Well, when he was a team leader, he was a pretty good guy," or "When he was a company commander, I thought he was pretty decent, but then he got political." Everyone was like, "No, he was political from the beginning," and that's what he is: a political creature.

When Pete got in there, he ruffled some feathers. Then you saw these articles saying, "Senior leadership has lost faith in Pete Hegseth." I'm like, "Oh gosh, senior leadership? You mean the people that oversaw the withdrawal from Afghanistan? I hope they're not mad at him." No, I'm thrilled that those guys are mad at him because we need to clean house.

Whenever you're cleaning house, are there things that you do or things that you say that potentially ruffle other feathers that are actually decent guys? Sure. But my response to them would be how about you put on your big boy pants and recognize that we have a huge problem to solve right now.

Sometimes you might get offended in the course of actions that are required to follow it. The proper response there is to say, "I support what's going on," but maybe we should consider this or that—not to do anonymous calls to the Washington Post so you can complain about the new Secretary of Defense telling you to get in shape.

Allen Jackson: By the way, he'll do the workout with you and kick your butt if the cameras are rolling.

Nick Freitas: When you saw this other thing that they lied about where they said, "Look, Pete Hegseth can't even bench press two plates." No, Pete was actually engaged in a multiple-exercise, multiple-level event where you're supposed to reach muscle failure. Yes, when you reach muscle failure, you can't bench press as much.

Again, this just goes to the lengths that they're trying to defame this guy.

Allen Jackson: You don't think the media would report something that wasn't completely accurate?

Nick Freitas: That would be against their journalistic integrity! I learned a long time ago—people ask me how did you get involved in social media—and it's like, I learned the hard way in the legislature that the press will deliberately lie about what I say or what I do. The only way that I could explain what I actually believed was to go directly to the people.

If the mainstream press is trashing you, there's a good chance you're doing something right. I think on the whole Pete has been excellent for the military in restoring its sense of mission and purpose and camaraderie.

Allen Jackson: How long? It seems to me it's going to take more than Trump's administration to really bring the full change that needs to happen. It's really important what happens in the midterms and then in '28 to keep the momentum that we've started to establish.

Nick Freitas: The midterms are going to be essential because if we lose control of the House, then all we're going to see for the next two years is essentially a bunch of tribunals against the president and calls for impeachment. You're going to see probably active measures because the House controls the budget to defund DHS, to defund ICE specifically, to probably try to hold a bunch of committees and hearings against individual ICE agents.

Even if they can't convict them, what they'll do is they'll try to create a culture to where law enforcement is afraid to actually do its job if it looks bad on TV. The whole purpose of the left in things like with Renee Good or Alex Pretty was to elevate the temperature to a point where they could get something to look bad on TV so that they could then come back and say, "Look how horrendous this is."

If we don't have good conservative leadership past the midterms, then you're going to see a very different next two years.

Allen Jackson: I've had multiple conversations across different departments in the last few weeks where there are either executive orders or Pete signs some order, but the bureaucracy is doing everything in their power to not comply. They have a tremendous impact. They can slow things down significantly.

Nick Freitas: That's why the Loper Bright decision that you just saw in the Supreme Court was so essential because what it actually did is it reinforced what Trump was saying through what they call Schedule F. To give everyone kind of a quick overview here—and again, I say this as someone that served in elected office and saw how influential bureaucracies can be.

Most people have this impression that the president is the chief executive, so anybody in the executive branch he can hire or fire. No. He has hiring and firing authority over a minuscule amount of the federal government. What Trump was trying to do with one of his executive orders was say, "Look, I can't run the federal government if I can't fire people that refuse to actually do what the president says."

It's not like he was opening up the entire federal government to be hired or fired at will. He was largely opening up things like GS-15 positions. There's 15 positions in the GS scale. He was talking about senior guys that had the ability to impact policy by essentially not doing what they were told.

Allen Jackson: Who were given a directive, refuse to do it, and yet you can't touch them.

Nick Freitas: The whole reason they set up this civil service thing is because once upon a time, people would run for president and they would offer people federal jobs as favors to get elected. But this was back when the number of federal jobs was minuscule.

Now it's obviously hundreds of thousands, millions of positions. What Donald Trump is essentially saying is if I'm the chief executive, I get to hire or fire people that are essential to me carrying out my duties and responsibilities. Thank God we had people like Justice Alito and even Justice Roberts who essentially said the executive branch falls under the purview of the executive.

A lot of people are going like, "Oh no, the spoils system." You're right, that is a legitimate concern. You know what's a really good way to make that not a legitimate concern? Significantly reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy in accordance with Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and the limited and enumerated powers of the federal government. If you do that, all of a sudden you get what the Founders intended.

I am so sick of the "poor federal bureaucrat." The federal government is way too big. What DOGE uncovered was not—I wish the only thing DOGE uncovered was fraud, waste, and abuse. The most pernicious thing that DOGE actually uncovered was that our tax dollars were being used in wholly inappropriate ways to push left-wing ideology, not just in this country but around the world.

Now that all of a sudden that funding has gone away—you're telling me that super popular Planned Parenthood can't keep their clinics open unless they get to steal my tax dollars in order to use it to kill babies? You're telling me that all of a sudden, who will fund the trans operas in Colombia? I don't know, but it shouldn't be me. I'm thankful for all of that.

Allen Jackson: I have a question. How can Christians be so stinking naive? Because then they look at us and say we have to separate the church and state. And we go, "Oh, thank you." And we kind of quietly and demurely withdraw from the stage. And they're taking our tax dollars and funding an ideology that's every bit as much a religion as Christianity. Same kind of adherence. But somehow Christians, it's like their brain turns to mush or we don't have the courage to stand up for what we believe.

Nick Freitas: Christians send their kids off to be educated by leftist elites who train the faith and the conservatism right out of them. Voddie Baucham said it best: you can't send your kids to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans. It's the same thing here. Whenever someone says, "Separation of church and state," I like to look at them like, who told you that? Was it God?

Did God say that he's not interested in civics? No. You didn't learn that from the Hebrew prophets. It wasn't from the prophets, wasn't from God, wasn't from Christ, wasn't from Paul, wasn't from the disciples. So who did you learn it from?

The response would be, "Well, isn't it in the Constitution?" No. What the Constitution says is the federal government shall not make any law establishing a religion, which is true because God himself—God is the only entity in the universe that has the moral authority to command you to believe in him, and yet he gave you the agency to choose otherwise.

So yes, government should not assume for itself a power that God does not grant to government and that God does not exercise on his own behalf. So yes, that's absolutely true. I don't want the government to impose religion. Does that mean religion cannot play a part in the civics? No.

One of the dumbest things I will hear people say, and oftentimes it comes from Christians, is, "Well, Nick, you can't legislate morality." Oh, is that a fact? Because ten years in the legislature, let me see how many bills I voted on that were not predicated on a moral premise. Zero. They were all predicated on a moral premise.

So you honestly tell me that Christians are not allowed to have a say in what the moral premise constitutes? Who do we hand that off to? Secular atheists? Oh, that sounds like a great idea. That's who I want. I want the people that have no objective standard for determining truth or morality to be the sole people that can issue opinions on what our laws should look like.

That is so mind-numbingly stupid. You wonder how do Christians come to this place?

Allen Jackson: Because they're cowards. I mean, I've spent my life in the Christian world. We'd rather go have a polite Bible study about Paul and first-century culture than talk about the 21st-century culture and our need to stand up.

Nick Freitas: I look at it this way. There is a Christian culture which still exists within the United States that I think especially older Christians believe still has authority within our culture. The part that I want them to look at is go read Antonio Gramsci.

Antonio Gramsci, Italian Communist in the '30s, and he essentially said, "Look, I want what Karl Marx wanted. I want a stateless, classless society where no God and atheism and no traditional—I want all of that, but Karl Marx clearly got something wrong because it's not happening in the way Marx said it would happen."

What did Gramsci offer as an alternative? He said, "Well, if you want to overthrow Christian bourgeois capitalist culture, you need Marxist culture." Okay, great. What's Marxist culture? Well, it's the sort of society where the culturally shaping institutions elevate Marxism as opposed to Christianity.

How do you do that? You infiltrate the culturally shaping institutions and you either utilize them for their social capital that they possess, but then you manipulate them to either do one of two things: demoralize the culture as it currently exists or to reshape the culture in the direction you want it to go. So you're either trying to subvert the cultural norms or take over the culture, but with both of them with the eventual goal of taking over the culture.

Allen Jackson: Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier, and I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident, but that hasn't been my experience. So what do we do in a world where there are so many options and diets seem to be like fashion trends, they change with every season?

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I have found those Ancient Nutrition supplements to be very valuable, whether it's the Multi Collagen or now the new Multi Protein. It's hard to eat enough protein sometimes as you age to maintain the muscle that we want to maintain, and those supplements have been very helpful for me. They've been gracious enough to give those of you who are listeners to our program—if you'll use the code FUEL26, you'll get a 26% discount sitewide on Ancient Nutrition. That's ancientnutrition.com.

Let's make choices to be healthier, and maybe we can limit the pharmaceuticals we'll be dependent upon. That would be a good thing. God's moving in the earth and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork and not just the pills we take.

Nick Freitas: This is the part I always look at Christians and I ask. If we look at the culturally shaping institutions, which are generally associated with the family, the church, politics, arts and entertainment, media, and academia or education—if we look at those ones, is the church dominant?

Is Christian theology or Christian moral principles dominant? Biblical worldview. Is it dominant in education? No. Is it dominant in journalism? No. Is it dominant in Hollywood? No. Is it dominant in your kids' public school? No. Is it dominant in politics? No. Is it dominant in the family? For a fraction of the families. Is it dominant in the church? For about 60% of it.

Then why are you confused that you're living in the sort of country now where grown men and women can dress down—can throw off their clothes, get naked in front of children and dance around in a fountain in front of them in Seattle and face zero criminal charges? Well, I'll tell you why. It's because while you were telling your kids that it's not polite to talk about religion and politics and society, they were telling their kids, to the extent that they had them, that no, that's all you have to talk about.

Because they don't have enough of their kids, they realize something: they can't win elections unless they educate your kids. So now we find ourselves in this situation and I'm still looking at Christians that think, well, this is just not our province. Well, you weren't taught that by Scripture.

Allen Jackson: Let's do this differently. Rather than—because I get agitated when we start down this road and it's easy to sound like I'm scolding. I don't think that's where we are. I don't think we need to get all the Christians in a room and shake our fingers at them. I think we've got to get in a room and say it's a new season. Noah built the boat and had a temporary zoo, but God doesn't call all of us to do that. Moses went up a mountain and came down with the law and had to shape the people into a crew. We don't all do that.

Samuel was the leader of Israel as a judge, itinerant traveled around. David was the leader of Israel and he was a king with a palace and a capital city. Isaiah had a message for the king of Israel that said the Assyrians are coming, but I'm going to send them back home, you don't have to worry about them. Jeremiah said the Babylonians are coming and there's not a dang thing you can do about it.

The messages aren't the same in every generation. The gospel is the same. The gospel doesn't change. But the messaging around the gospel has to change for the season. We're in a different season. We don't live in a culture any longer dominated by a biblical worldview, a Judeo-Christian set of values. We can't huddle in our churches and have polite Bible studies and expect the world to stay on autopilot and be okay.

We have to engage in a more aggressive, assertive, intentional way to take back higher education, the public square, and entertainment. Hollywood used to make movies that taught you to love your country. Now we don't even have politicians that love our country. So I think your message is spot on, but to me we've got to start saying to the Christians, I'm not condemning you, I'm telling you it's not that season anymore.

Nick Freitas: It's know what time it is. Know what time it is and, guess what, be encouraged! 70% of young men right now—and this is always the indicator that you want—70% of young men right now are saying, "Alright, I realize that I've been lied to. I'm looking for truth."

Many of them saw Charlie Kirk as a guy I respect. When Charlie Kirk was murdered, those men were saying, "I'm ready to give church a shot, I'm ready to give the Bible a shot," but what they were really looking for is what is the truth and am I going to find men that actually believe in it and are willing to fight for it and die for it the way Charlie was willing to die.

What I tell pastors is this is a great opportunity for you. You should be thrilled that you are living in such a time as this because you now have the opportunity to shift the direction of an entire generation. We've been on cruise control way too long.

So is there a little bit of what the heck are you doing? Absolutely. But I'm doing it because it's not just because I'm angry about what's going on, I'm encouraged about what's possible. I feel like God has given us an opportunity. God has given us an opportunity and I don't want to miss it. God will use whoever he needs to use in order to achieve his objectives, but insofar as he invites us to join him, are you really telling me that a desire for comfort is going to dissuade you from doing what God wants you to do?

Allen Jackson: Well, if you worship at the idols of comfort and convenience, it will. Serving God is not comfortable or convenient. But I think that's exactly it: that God has given us an opportunity. The question is what will we do with it? If we say no, I think he will respond to us the same way he responded to the generation that said the promised land is wonderful but it's really hard work and we don't want to do it.

Nick Freitas: I think there's also this idea where there's been this modern gospel in the West that treats Jesus like he's "nice guy Jesus." Like Jesus is nice and your job is to be nice.

Allen Jackson: Group-hug Jesus.

Nick Freitas: Yes. Then you also see this idea of the social gospel, that really what Jesus was about was bringing heaven to earth by providing for the poor and doing—it's Marxist Jesus. When I read about Jesus—and Ray Comfort I think did an excellent job of describing this—he goes, "When I read the way Jesus preached, I see grace to the broken and judgment to the proud."

When Jesus is talking to the woman caught in adultery, that's one tone. When he's talking to Mary Magdalene, that's one tone. When he's talking to the Pharisees, when he's talking to the political leaders of the day, "You brood of vipers," "You whitewashed tombs." When he's breaking out the whip and he's clearing the temple, this is not boy-band Jesus that we've all been fed in the West.

What I'm hoping that we're going to see is this resurgence of biblical masculinity and biblical femininity. Because we need both. But if you want more biblical femininity, the biblical masculinity is the leading indicator.

There's a lot of hope right now. They actually did a survey of young men 18 to 29. Young men, young women, those who voted for Trump, those who voted for Obama. They gave them 13 criteria for success. How do you define success in your life?

Their number one criterion for young men that voted for Trump was to have a family. It was number six for young women that voted for Trump. It was number seven for men that voted for Harris and it was 12 out of 13 for young women that voted for Harris. What does this mean?

What this means is that we are primed right now to once again convince young men and young women that they have been lied to about masculinity and femininity. They've been lied to by both the left and the right. There's a right-wing lie that has also taken hold. The left-wing lie is pretty obvious because it's just ubiquitous within our culture. For men it's you need to be more feminine, and for women it's you need to be more masculine.

The joke here is that it's not that the left doesn't like masculinity, they just want it to be displayed by women. So that's the left-wing lie. But then there's also a right-wing version of this lie. The right-wing version of the lie is, no, men, you should be strong and you should be powerful. Why? So you can sleep around, take what you want, and have nice cars.

Then the same thing for women. No, women, you shouldn't be a girl boss, you shouldn't be this ultra-feminist "I don't need no man." What you should be is a 1950s tradwife. Really what you should be is this aesthetic that we've built up. It's like, what does the Bible say about what men are to do? Men are to be strong, they are to be capable. Why? So they can honor God, love their wives, take care of their children, and raise up a generation to honor God and do the same. They are the builders, protectors, and advancers of civilization.

Then you look at what does God say about femininity? It certainly isn't girl boss and it certainly isn't 1950s tradwife. It's Proverbs 31, which my wife describes as the most intimidating woman you'll ever read about. She's strong, she's capable, she uplifts and builds her family, she's called blessed. She is a formidable woman.

That's what I want to see. Because the more men and women that we get to embrace this idea that God has a story here that you're a part of—it's encouraging. It's one of those things where once you start to truly find your identity, meaning, and purpose through it, all of a sudden the things that the world say are important or dangerous don't look the same to you anymore.

Part of what I talk about in my book is I've seen this as a man, a husband, a soldier, and in politics. The moment you start to get your identity from anywhere else other than Christ, of course you're going to be confused.

Allen Jackson: We've got to unwind this notion about Christianity that it's primarily focused on eternity. That you get saved so you don't go to hell, but you've done all of your significant God business. How you live your life really isn't—God wants to make you happy and upgrade your car and let your kids go to a better private school. There's no real challenge left.

Nick Freitas: There's a Bible study my wife and I recently went through that I loved called the Story-Formed Life. That sounds like what does that mean? The thing that I loved about it was the whole idea of the story was that it's reoriented this idea that when we talk about Christianity now it's all about what God did for you, what Jesus did for you. You're the main character in this—no you're not.

God is the main character. God is the main character. He's the author. You get to be a part of God's story. You get to play this incredible role and you are so important to him that he did create something for you, but it was also for him. He went to these incredible levels to both give us agency and to save us from ourselves.

Once you start to embrace that, no, I'm a part of God's story, he's not a part of mine in the sense that I'm the controlling figure, I'm the main character—it is a much cooler story. Once again we find in that a sense of identity, meaning, and purpose that people are hungry for right now that Christianity offers in a way that nothing else offers. If we don't even believe that, if we don't even project that in the way that we live our lives or the way that we preach our sermons, well then why should we expect anybody else to?

Allen Jackson: The greatest honor of our lives is being invited to serve the Lord. There's nothing that could be extended to us that can supersede that.

Nick Freitas: This also gets me into the American lie. The American lie is that the most important thing about your life is being able to do what you want, is being able to achieve a certain level of economic success and reaching self-actualization or whatever else it is. I would say that that's a perverse version of the American dream. I love my freedom. I think political freedom is worth fighting for, I think it's worth dying for.

But there's so much more to existence than getting to vote for elected leaders every two, four, and six years. What I really define myself by is not my freedoms, it's my responsibilities.

Allen Jackson: We've lost that portfolio. We buried it someplace else. It's all about the freedom and our rights. We have all the rights but we don't have any responsibility.

Nick Freitas: Think about this. Do I love the things I get from my wife in my marriage? Absolutely. But the things that give me the greatest sense of meaning and purpose in my marriage are the things I do for my wife. In any relationship that has any kind of genuine meaning to it, there's a part where you take and there's a part where you give. There's a part where you get and receive and there's a part where you're the one pouring into somebody else.

I can't imagine a relationship with my wife where it was all, "Oh, I have the freedom to do everything because she's giving me stuff," but I don't represent anything for her with respect to her needs, wants, or desires. It means that the biggest part of my marriage that gives me meaning is the obligations I have to her. But we treat obligations or duties and responsibilities as if it's a dirty word when in reality, it's what gives us a sense of meaning.

So I'm again—will I fight for freedom? Absolutely. The freedom to do what? The freedom to do whatever I want, or the freedom to actually go out and pursue what God has for me? I can do that, by the way—I can follow God regardless of whether I have freedom or not. See Daniel. But I certainly want to live in an environment and I want to foster an environment where I do have the freedom to pursue his will for my life regardless of what the circumstances around me might be.

Allen Jackson: That message needs to be shouted from the housetops.

Nick Freitas: There's a fascinating part about this because again, one of the ways that so many people try to appeal to the youth is about what I'm going to give you or what sort of conditions I'm going to create for you. Obviously we want positive economic development and things like that. There was this clip going around social media for a while, and then there were several renditions of it. In each one of these renditions, it's some sort of powerful music that just invokes the sense of honor and courage.

It's all these clips from video games that are really popular with young men. The characteristic that was unique among all of them—or the shared characteristic of all of these clips—was it was either a man or a group of men about to engage in a last stand. They were about to die for something that they believed in.

Why is that the most popular thing? Why does this have millions of views, millions of likes? Because every young man wants to believe that's the sort of man they would be in that situation. That's not about freedom—there's nothing in there about freedom except for the freedom to choose to do the honorable thing in difficult circumstances.

Allen Jackson: But I think we've got to make an adjustment in how we think about family. Because for too long we've been coached that to be a good family, we pour everything into what the kids want. I don't want the kids to be ignored and I certainly don't want them mistreated, but they have to be taught that they have to contribute to the family system too, that it's not about adults making their life okay. I think the reason we have so much depression and all the things that come with that is they've been taught it's all about them. Getting on the right team, having all the things. You're never going to be fulfilled if it's about what satisfies me.

Nick Freitas: Let's look at this logically for a second. What a depressing worldview that you've just taught your children. Because what you've taught your children is: it's all about you while you're a child. Then one day you're going to get married to someone that you think you love and you're going to have kids, but then it'll all be about them. It's not about you, it's not about the marriage, it's not about anything. The rest of your life sucks because now all you've got to do is pour into your kids.

What do your kids really want? Apparently 14 soccer practices, three ballet recitals, and 20 trips to Disney World. What I tell parents all the time is you know what your kid needs more than any of that? To know that mom and dad love each other. How can you do that if mom and dad have alienated one another in order to make the kids the priority for everything?

Obviously when your kids are little, they need more attention because they can't do anything—they'll die without you. But what your kids need as they get older is to know they're not the center of the universe.

Allen Jackson: Well, if responsibility is what makes you feel valuable as a man in your home with your marriage and in your family, don't we have to teach our children in age-appropriate ways to understand that and learn that feeling that comes with that and the outcomes? Because there is no magic switch. If you don't do that until you're 30, it's really hard to go find that button.

Nick Freitas: Oh, I love this idea that they'll grow out of it. No, they grow into it. If your kid's a little pill, if they're a little brat that screams and yells in the middle of the grocery store when they don't get the toy, they don't grow out of it. They become the sort of politician that believes that everything belongs to them and they can steal it from people using the power of government. Why? Because they were always taught you scream at an authority figure long enough and they give you what you want. They become little terrorists.

But if that same kid at three having a meltdown gets a little bit of a swat and gets told, "No, it's not all about you and you won't behave this way," all of a sudden, now they are growing into something better because they got disciplined out of their anti-social behavior. So no, you're 100% correct. And it just seems so blatantly obvious when we put it into the proper terms and context, which is the biblical framework.

Allen Jackson: What a thought. Let's get our Bibles out. This year, we celebrate 250 years of God's faithfulness to our nation. From backyard picnics and ball games to laughter shared with family and friends, we've been given so many blessings to enjoy together. And in a world that feels increasingly divided, these moments remind us of what matters most: faith, freedom, family, and community.

Allen Jackson Ministries wants to help you carry that message with you wherever you might go. This outdoor blanket and canvas tote bag are simple reminders of God's goodness and a way to spark meaningful conversations about faith and the hope we have in him. Request your limited-edition tote bag and outdoor blanket today with your gift of $100 or more at allenjackson.com or call 800-880-5102.

All right, we could do this for a long time. July 4th is around the corner. President Trump is inviting us to celebrate our 250th anniversary. You have borne arms for our country. I assume you think this nation's worth celebrating. What do you say to all the people that say it isn't and we shouldn't be? I'm tired of the artists that won't sing.

Nick Freitas: Look, one of the things I fought for was your freedom to be wrong. And the thing that I would like to say is for everybody that despises this country or thinks it's horrible or thinks we're a racist, sexist hellscape or whatever else it is: there's a lot of people that just came over from the World Cup that think we're awesome because of free refills, AC, and Buc-ee's and free peanuts.

If you're the sort of person that thinks that we have something wonderful here that you would like to be a part of, I would love to do a one-for-one exchange with somebody that really wants to try real socialism. I will sign that deal anytime you want.

Because for me, it's not about skin color, it's about what do you believe. One of the things that's made this country so incredible is that we do have, as close as any government or civilization I think has ever come, a truly meritocratic society where we have our flaws. But if you look at what we've been able to overcome, it all goes back to not only what was said in the Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That was a radical concept in 1776. The vast majority of human history would have looked at that and said you're out of your mind.

But the reason why we were able to say it with conviction is because it was rooted in a Christianity that said that there's neither Jew nor Greek nor male nor female, that you're equal before Christ. That doesn't mean that you have the same roles and responsibilities as men and women. It doesn't mean you all have the same talents or capabilities. That's where we talk about the body of Christ and the various functions that we play. Living in a free society allows you to figure out what part of the body of Christ am I.

What I would like for this 250th anniversary is to not just look at the wonderful heroes that we have, and they are plentiful within the American Revolution. I would also like to look at who did they look at as their heroes? Who did they look at as their inspiration? Tim Barton and David Barton have done excellent work on this.

There is no question that when our Founders were trying to conceive of the sort of society, civilization, and government that we were going to have, where did they go for inspiration? Did they read Montesquieu? Sure. John Locke? Absolutely. Blackstone? Yes. But they all paled in comparison to the amount of time that they dedicated toward truly understanding Scripture and Christianity and their duties and responsibilities to Christ when they formed this nation.

If we can get back to understanding that all of the social institutions—our Constitution, our Declaration of Independence, federalism—all of these things are wonderful, but they were built on something. They don't stand firmly planted in thin air; they were built on something. If we can remember their dedication to that, well then I think we can see not only a revival of patriotism that I think is desperately needed in our country, but a Christian revival that is actually going to be necessary to truly frame what proper patriotism looks like.

Ultimately that's the sort of thing that I think people are willing to fight for, they're willing to die for, and most importantly, they're willing to live for. So that's what I hope people will use the 250th anniversary of our country to truly appreciate and understand.

Allen Jackson: Amen. Nick, I know you do a podcast daily, five times a week. So if somebody wants to find that, where do they go?

Nick Freitas: You can just go to YouTube. It's called Making the Argument, but my YouTube page is actually just NickJFreitas, which also happens to be my page on X and Instagram and Facebook and everywhere else. We tried to make it easy, but if you go to that one spot, you can find everything. Our podcast specifically is on YouTube and Rumble.

Allen Jackson: I love the way you use sarcasm and humor to say some things that aren't always easy to say. It is not a boring listen, so if you've got a few minutes, check it out. I think it will give you hope. It has me.

It's a wonderful reminder that we don't have to apologize for our faith and for our heritage of faith, and we need the courage to stand up. It was only about less than a third of the culture when the Founding Fathers signed that document that were willing to stand up and fight for it. They carried the day. We don't need the majority, we just need to know we've got God on our side.

Nick Freitas: The good news is this: the enemies of what we believe don't have enough kids or big enough families to actually win this thing long term. So if you want to save your country, honor God, get married, have lots of kids. They're fun to make! They're fun to raise! And we win this whole thing in one generation. So be encouraged, but understand that Scripture is the foundation for what we believe. Our identity comes through Christ and our commitment to God. Man, if we live that out, you can't lose.

Allen Jackson: Nick Freitas, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. Keep up the good work. That's Culture & Christianity. You've got an assignment. It's the 4th of July. Take time to thank God for his goodness to us. He has blessed us, folks. Life's not perfect, our nation's not perfect, but we have so many blessings. Don't forget to stop and say thank you to the Lord. We'll talk soon.

Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Allen Jackson Ministries' YouTube channel and follow the Culture & Christianity podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.