Save America Ministries

Chuck Crismier: So what would you do? Would you choose prison over a lie? Or would you be willing to lie like Islam teaches using Taqiyya in order to escape punishment or prison for yourself? What would you do?

Well, today on Viewpoint, you have a choice. You have an opportunity to hear from someone who had to make that choice. In fact, he's joining us live from Florida. He's a former California boy just like I was, grown up in the land of fruits and flakes. Whatever else out there when we first came to Portsmouth, Virginia. He felt that it was the land of plenty. He felt when he went to California that it was, as the song said, California dreamin'.

Well, it may have been California dreamin' for him on such a winter's day, but when it came to January 6th, that winter's day was not so pleasant. California dreamin' turned into a United States nightmare. So today on Viewpoint, our special guest joining us, John Strand, joining us here. He is a fascinating guy, and you're going to be interested in hearing his story. He's now a candidate for Congress, I believe, down in Florida, and we're going to hear a part of that story here today. So, John, it's good to have you on the program, my friend.

John Strand: It's great to be with you, Chuck. Thank you so much for doing the work that you do to save the United States of America. She is worth fighting for, as I love to remind people.

Chuck Crismier: You think she's worth fighting for. Now you're an Italian boy, right?

John Strand: Yes, sir. John Strand, but my Italian family name generations back came from Naples. My Italian name is Cinquegrana. So yeah, I've got some very authentic stock.

Chuck Crismier: So your family came from Naples, but they ended up in California. How did that happen?

John Strand: Well, it was my great-grandparents that came over through Ellis Island back in the day. My dad served as a Lieutenant Commander in the US Navy. He was born in Hawaii because my grandfather was a Marine Corps officer who served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. So there's a long, proud tradition of patriotism and service in my family, loving America.

My dad's family grew up around the DC and Maryland area. My mom was in the New Jersey and New York area. So my dad being stationed around the country was actually stationed in Florida where my brother was born, in Pennsylvania where my sister was born, and in California where I was born.

We were homeschooled. I did get to live and work around the nation and overseas throughout my life, but I did come to find California as a home as a young man working in the arts as an actor, writer, fashion model, and musician until COVID came crashing down around all of us and my story, like so many others, took a very interesting turn.

Chuck Crismier: But then you got caught up in the entire January 6th debacle in Washington, DC. It consumed American life and money and so many lives. Not just America as a whole, but so many very innocent people were caught up in the dragnet of a governmental force that was so intent on destroying anything that was contrary to their political viewpoint that everybody was worthy to die in order to accomplish that agenda. You didn't die, but it was kind of like a death for two and a half years in prison, wasn't it?

John Strand: You're very accurate in your summation of what happened. People may not realize it, but the January 6th persecution was the largest US law enforcement manhunt in our nation's history. It consumed close to a third of the total FBI's manpower and tens of millions of dollars for about four years where they were chasing down grandmas to the four corners of the country on misdemeanors, along with a whole bunch of people that they threw massive felonies at which had no legitimate grounds.

Chuck Crismier: And drove them into bankruptcy because in order to try to stave off the onslaught of the Department of Injustice, they were forced to hire lawyers at $700 to $1,000 an hour that there was no way they could pay and it drove them into financial oblivion. I don't know how you survived that, but maybe you'll tell us a tale about that. But there are literally very renowned and dedicated patriots in America who lost their fortunes, they lost their sacred honor, so to speak, by standing against that tyranny.

John Strand: They certainly lost their lives and their fortunes. I'd like to think that most of them retained their sacred honor in standing that day against election fraud and a clearly untrustworthy and stolen election. We will continue to hold that view because the evidence continues to increase supporting that view.

The reaction by the left to refuse it, to call it the safest or most secure election in history, and to continue to refuse any reasonable basic standard of protecting elections where the Save America Act has over 80% support Republican and Democrat across the board across the entire country, and yet we can't get it passed.

So the sacred honor is a big part of what was going on that day. But yeah, lives and fortunes were destroyed, mine included. Almost 1,600 people indicted by the federal government during January 6th. I call it our American Reichstag fire. It truly was a nefarious and intentional government entrapment operation, which they then continue to weaponize for the next four years.

I spent an entire year in a federal prison, 366 days because it was a leap year. They tried to lock me up for the rest of my young adult life. They were going for almost a decade and I refused a plea deal to then appeal the charges and then won at the Supreme Court, which is why I was released after a year.

Chuck Crismier: So the thing went to the Supreme Court and your time in prison was cut off because of what?

John Strand: Yes, it was cut short because I won my appeal via the Fischer decision at the Supreme Court level, which eliminated the 20-year felony they'd brought against me. I continued appealing until all charges were vacated with prejudice by the DOJ.

So in my case, I never pled guilty and I got a complete vacation or vacated charges by the DOJ, which means I'm totally exonerated, not pardoned technically, but legally exonerated within our legal and judicial system. Which is a historic win and a measure of satisfaction and honor really to prove the point that in my case, I had the option of taking the easy way out.

They gave me a golden parachute plea deal of a single misdemeanor, which I likely could have gotten to basically home confinement. So I could have had it behind me years ago if I'd just signed that false confession. But it was a lie, and moreover, it was a weapon against innocent Americans and against President Trump and his supporters at large. I was not going to participate in that and give false testimony to a lie, and I refused that deal. And that's why the book is called Patriot Plea.

Chuck Crismier: What a fascinating story. Friends, that puts all in a new dimension, the words of Scripture that say, "having done all to stand, stand. Having done all to stand, stand, having your loins girt about with truth." Wow, what would you do, my friend, charged with a 20-year prison sentence as a felony and could have gotten off by admitting to a misdemeanor that was untrue?

Once upon a time, children could pray and read their Bibles in school. Divorces were practically unknown, as was child abuse. In our once-great America, virginity and chastity were popular virtues and homosexuality was an abomination. So what happened in just one generation? Hi, I'm Chuck Crismier and I urge you to join me daily on Viewpoint where we discuss the most challenging issues touching our hearts and homes. Could America's moral slide relate to the Fourth Commandment? Listen to Viewpoint on this radio station or anytime at saveus.org.

According to the late Charlie Kirk, our guest today, John Strand, had the whole government thrown against him in the Divided States of America. John Strand's book called Patriot Plea, a plea to patriots. What is a patriot anyway? Have you ever thought about that, my friends? What is a patriot?

Is a patriot one who hangs a flag out on June 14th, which is Flag Day? That's my birthday. That's Donald Trump's birthday. I just happen to be a year older than him. But is that what a patriot is? Is it just clothing ourselves in flag and patriotic songs, or is there something deeper about being a patriot? Maybe we'll find out a little bit from our guest, John Strand, here today on Viewpoint.

I want to make his book available to you. Friends, this is a piece of work. As you know, I've written 12 books myself, and this one is a pretty substantial piece of work. It's a hardbound book, $33 retail, but it's yours for $28 on our website, saveus.org. You can give us a call at 1-800-SAVE-USA, that's 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255.

Writing a check adds $6 for postage and handling. I told John that I don't want him to promote his book because, as Abraham Lincoln said, he who represents himself has a fool for a client. And I didn't want John to be a fool, so I saved him from foolishness and enabled him to make a patriot plea here on Viewpoint today. John, tell us what a patriot is from your viewpoint.

John Strand: Absolutely, Chuck. Thank you for sharing that. That's a fantastic quote. Wise sayings. The Book of Proverbs is one of my favorites. My dad taught me to read this daily, to cherish it, and to pursue wisdom above rubies and all the world's treasures because, as God tells us, it is infinitely valuable and will result in a much better life not only for yourself, but for those you care about and for those coming after you.

I think it's so great that you ask this question, Chuck, and I do address this in the book. I wrestle with this question. I give the history behind it. So I looked into the word patriot. I mean, you've got time on your hands when you're sitting in prison thinking about how you got there and what it means to be a patriot. And of course, I knew I was going to call the book this.

So I looked it up and the word patriot comes from a Latin root, Pater, which is the root of the word father. So at the core, being a patriot means that you have fathered something of importance and value that you are then entrusted to protect, to care for, and to look forward, looking ahead into the future as to what's coming and what needs to be done in order to nurture and protect that which you have birthed.

So that's what the founders had in mind when they carved out a new life in the wilderness in order to pursue what they believe God had commanded them to pursue, which is freedom. Freedom to worship, freedom to raise families, freedom to pursue the creativity and innovation that God has equipped us and enabled us to do with our talents, our bodies, our minds, and our energies. And they pursued that freedom according to God's design and had a father's heart and a father's will to foresee what it needed to be protected and nurtured and continued and passed down to the next generation.

Chuck Crismier: Obviously, you're very articulate in this and probably a lot because you have read some of those founding fathers. Here's a good quote from Sam Adams, who was considered the voice of the father of the revolution. He said this, "Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country, in other words, a true patriot, who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extended, will not allow a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man. If we would most truly enjoy this gift of heaven, let us become a virtuous people."

Now, that theme ran through so many of the words of our founding fathers and they connected with the word virtue very much like the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1 where he said add to your faith virtue. In other words, you may say you're a people of faith, you may say you're a land of faith, you may say you're a Christian nation, but if you're not living as a virtuous people, you ain't what you say you are.

John Strand: That's right. And the Apostle James, of course, said, "faith without works is dead." But Christ died that we might live and he raises us to new life. So we are to understand if we are sincere Christians, and if we are not, then by God's grace, we pray and hope that those around us would encourage us in that direction and preach the gospel.

But faith comes from hearing, hearing by the word of God. So the word of God is, thankfully in this country, it's very easy to find. If people read Patriot Plea, the book I wrote in prison, you'll find a lot of excerpts from the Bible as well as many founding fathers' quotes because I trace this journey.

But faith without works is dead. We are not called to be dead but alive, and we are called to be active and to be doers of the word, not only hearers, which the Scripture also says.

Chuck Crismier: All right. And that's what's making you into a transitive person. In other words, not an inactive, passive person, but transitive. In other words, to become a doer, to try to do something to make a difference. And what you have chosen to do now in Naples, Florida, and that area is to run for the Congress, isn't that correct?

John Strand: Yes, Chuck. At johnstrand.com, you will find the entire platform that we've been building out over the last year since back in 2025. I ran as a Republican in a very crowded primary race here in Naples, Florida, to fill the seat for Byron Donalds, the current congressman who is running to be the next governor of the state of Florida.

So we ran a very exciting and compelling race. We translated a very limited number of dollars into an impressively large amount of votes per dollar. $39 per vote, we were very efficient in bringing our message. We were only able to raise about $150,000, and there were a number of other candidates that were bringing in multiple millions of dollars.

So it was a very uphill climb in that sense. But I do want people to visit johnstrand.com and read through the platform, consider what kind of a story and what kind of a message that we are bringing, which I'm still campaigning on that message even though the primaries are over and I was not able to win this first primary. But I'm continuing to advocate for this message to reclaim the Republic.

So you'll find this on the website and in the policy details that I'm giving. And you'll notice that I am continuing to advocate that people engage in the civic process, that they vote, that they support the Republican Party because the alternative is the Democrat Party, which is demonic and utterly destructive at this point.

So we're in an off-kilter one-party system kind of a moment, unfortunately, but that is the reality. And the thing I want to really challenge your listeners, Chuck, if they are hearing my voice right now, and of course, obviously read the book and understand the whole story of what went into this.

But what I really want to challenge people is that if you consider yourself a Christian, and I hope you do, voting is not optional. And I'll tell you why in two verses from the Scripture. Genesis 1:28 in the New Living Translation, that's my favorite, says, "be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it." And James says in James 4:17, "he who knows what he ought to do and does not do it, for him it is sin."

So God told you to fill the earth and to govern it. You know that is your command. That command was not given to a king or a pope but to all mankind. And to not govern the earth and as a citizen of America where you are the sovereign, your vote is how you do that. That is the mechanism.

So at a minimum, you must vote. To refuse or to fail to do so is actually sin. And sin is destructive. We know this from the Scripture. The wages of sin is death and our nation is falling apart by a plethora of sin. But it really traces back originally to Christians failing to be obedient to God to steward the country that God has blessed us with, the freest country in the history of the world. And voting is the bare minimum.

Chuck Crismier: Well, the great Charles Finney back there, a lawyer turned pastor and evangelist back in about 1830, he said that if America is failing, it's because the pulpits in America are failing. It's because the pastors are not preaching truth, they're not preaching righteousness.

And today, I have it on the confession of a pastor of a large, one of the largest evangelical churches in the Richmond, Virginia, area telling me 15 years ago to my face he didn't think he knew how to preach righteousness. Now I want you to think about that as a pastor.

Let me tell you what happened and I think this will be helpful to you to understand because we're working together. See, I ran twice for the state legislature in California in 1976 and 1978 in the 42nd Assembly District. I had exactly the same situation you had with very limited money, walked a thousand miles door to door, had all the holes, the proverbial holes of the politician's shoes to prove it.

And I was not elected. Thank the Lord for that because it was a training ground for the rest of what God had me to do. So I want to encourage you in that regard. But the reality is, as Edmund Burke once said back in the 1700s in not so jolly old England, he said, "I can't do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do, and by the grace of God, I will do."

And we need to understand that we each have a responsibility. We can't do everything, and we can't prove that our vote made a difference, but we don't know that it didn't. And if a number of people rationalize that their vote doesn't make a difference or that they don't like this particular person and so they're not going to vote, they're not going to make a decision, you already did make a decision. You made a decision by not voting. And so this is a problem, a conundrum that we're facing within the broader Christian community.

And I think it's very dangerous for us. I hear so many people say, well, in fact, I heard somebody recently tell me, I've never voted in my life. This was a person over 80 years of age. I've never voted in my life.

John Strand: Yeah, it's an enormous breakdown in the church, honestly. As you said, Chuck, it really is an enormous breakdown. I like to paraphrase Edmund Burke and I began doing this since the COVID era to say that the only thing necessary for evil to win is for good men to play it safe. Yes, the only thing necessary for evil to win is for good men to play it safe.

Chuck Crismier: All right. You could have played it safe with regard to the charge of the US government attempting to get you to confess a lie and you would not do it, even if it would save your skin and so you were willing to stand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand, having your loins, in your mind and your heart, girt about with truth and you were willing to suffer the consequences if need be. How did you feel about that?

John Strand: And "if need be" was necessary because I did have to suffer them and they were great. And even before that, I made the choice not to play it safe when COVID tyranny was shutting everything down, including our schools and our churches. And I refused. I went out to the streets and organized, started a freedom rally that grew so large with tens of thousands of people coming through Beverly Hills of all places at the second half of 2020.

President Trump tweeted that rally out because it was so vibrant. And that led me to become the creative director of America's Frontline Doctors, a nonprofit that saved thousands of lives and really burst the bubble of the COVID propaganda and changed the narrative.

Chuck Crismier: All right, now let's go back to that. You became the coordinator, head, or whatever you want to call it, of America's Frontline Doctors.

John Strand: The creative director of America's Frontline Doctors.

Chuck Crismier: Okay. And describe for us Frontline Doctors.

John Strand: America's Frontline Doctors came to be in July of 2020, which was peak COVID crazy. And people were panicking and they thought they were all going to die and they thought there was no medicine to help. And 20 doctors stood on the steps of the Supreme Court with a congressman and did a press conference that melted the internet with 20 million views in eight hours. And it would have been 100 million views by the next day, except that Google and YouTube coordinated to erase it off the internet the next day.

It was extraordinary, but nevertheless, the word had gotten out and tens of thousands of phone calls came pouring in. A nonprofit was born that has been fighting ever since. We do a lot of work at the Supreme Court level to set precedent protecting medical freedom and patients' rights. But this work is a part of, that's actually why I was in Washington, DC, on January 5th and January 6th of 2021. We were touring the country from West Coast to East Coast to speak on these issues, and January 5th and 6th were just scheduled speaking events that we, we had a government-approved permit to be part of a speaking event there.

Chuck Crismier: Isn't it interesting? You had a government permit to speak there. You weren't there to assault the White House. You weren't there to assault the National House, but you got caught up in the dragnet of a Department of Justice that was not interested in justice but in political dominion and absolute destruction. We'll be right back after this, friends. Stay tuned.

There is so much more about Chuck Crismier and Save America Ministries on our website, saveus.org. For example, under the marriage section, God has marriage on his mind. Chuck has some great resources to strengthen your marriage. First off, a factsheet on the state of the marital union, a factsheet on the state of ministry, marriage, and morals, saveus.org. Marriage, divorce, and remarriage. What does the Bible really teach about this? Find all of this at saveus.org. Also, a letter to pastors, the Hosea Project, saveus.org and many more resources to strengthen your marriage. It's all on Chuck's website, saveus.org. Again, you can listen to Chuck's Viewpoint broadcasts live and archived at Save America Ministries website at saveus.org.

Our special guest today, John Strand. He's joining us from Naples, Florida. He's given us a bit of his story here. We're going to unfold more of that story as we move forward here on the program today. His book is called Patriot Plea. It is a very strong book. It's a hardbound book, $33 retail, yours for $28 on our website, saveus.org.

Saveus.org, you can give us a call at 1-800-SAVE-USA, 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Writing a check adds $6 for postage and handling. Again, the January 6th journey of a political prisoner in the Divided States of America, the book called Patriot Plea.

And there is a woman doctor who became very, very well known as a result of all that COVID debacle. Her name was Simone Gold, a doctor, and tell us a little bit about her.

John Strand: Yes, Chuck. Dr. Gold is an extraordinary person who has both a medical degree from Chicago School of Medicine and a law degree from Stanford, which gives her a unique perspective on how policy affects medicine as well as the freedoms and inalienable rights of the people.

The nonprofit is actually titled Free Speech Foundation, and freedom of speech and our inalienable rights has always been a passion of Dr. Gold's. So she really fights from that vantage point. And along with America's Frontline Doctors, she has founded goldcare.com, which is a revolution in how to practice and participate in medicine and healthcare.

I describe it as kind of the Amazon or Uber of health and wellness, connecting patients and providers from all over the country in a private environment of total freedom. So visit goldcare.com. It's amazing and it's really the solution for the healthcare part of the problem, which is a huge component of the problem politically speaking when you look at the United States. The United States spends almost 20% of GDP on healthcare. Other first-world nations by average are about 10% or half. So we're spending twice as much on healthcare as other first-world nations. It should not be nearly that expensive. We're talking trillions of dollars.

Chuck Crismier: Did the American Medical Association strip her of her medical license?

John Strand: They sure tried to. The California Board of Medicine persecuted her for years. She fought back over years and eventually won, so she was fully vindicated there, which was also an amazing victory. But the battle continues.

Chuck Crismier: Well, it is because we've had at least two doctors that were involved in all of that, in fact, three now that I'm thinking of it, on this program who did lose their licenses. And the AMA became an agency of the Department of Justice, so to speak. It became the Department of Injustice. Not only the AMA, but then also the legal groups became part of the complicity. It was almost like the reverse of the French Revolution. In the French Revolution, the people rose up against the leadership. In this revolution, the leadership or purported leadership rose up against we the people. And that's where you came in. You were standing with we the people and they didn't like it.

John Strand: They didn't like it at all, and it was a very consequential moment that could have been intimidating because how can one man stand up against institutions? You really can't, and yet I just realized that that was the moment I was in and I was not responsible to calculate how I would be able to survive that or anything else. I was not, it was not my responsibility to understand how could I defeat or overcome an institution. No, I simply had to understand my responsibility was to stand firm. And having stood, to stand, right.

Chuck Crismier: Yes, exactly. So the question though is how do you stand firm when you're facing the fiery furnace? I mean, you had three young Hebrew guys like yourself, maybe about the same age as yourself at that time. And they were faced with the most powerful government at that time, Nebuchadnezzar heading up the Babylonian government.

And they had to make a choice. Am I going to bow down or am I not? And the choice that they had was you either bow down or you get thrown in the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter. Now what choice are you going to make? I can tell you today that the majority, and when I say majority, I mean probably not even one out of a million professing Christians today would stand under such circumstances. We're just not prepared, not prepared to stand alone. What say you?

John Strand: You're right, Chuck. I say you're right and I think the answer because I want to answer the question, like how do you do it? And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are an incredible example. Choosing the fiery furnace is the name of one of the chapters in my book where I explain the thought process and the spiritual environment and the path that I had to navigate in making these choices and taking these extraordinarily painful actions and decisions that I made.

But they basically said, "But if not." Right? So Nebuchadnezzar gave them the ultimatum and then they responded and they said, "Our God can save us from your hand and can save us from this fire. But if not, we will still be obedient to God alone."

So that's how you do it. You have to decide in advance that I am allegiant to God Almighty. My allegiance is to the Lord. And I will be obedient to his call and I will trust in him for the results. And he may not withhold all of the suffering in this present moment because suffering is part of the deal. The Bible teaches us this and Jesus explicitly told us, "You will suffer for my name's sake."

Chuck Crismier: Now we understand, now our listeners should more strongly understand why my most recent, well not my most recent book, the previous book to that was called When Persecution Comes: Preparing Hearts for Perilous Times. We're just not prepared. You endured a kind of persecution, from your perspective, it was a religious persecution because you were standing for truth and they didn't like it. You were going to tell the truth and they had other agendas and they were going to take you down.

So you had to be willing to take the consequences, and therein lies the problem of persecution. Americans are not prepared to take hardly any consequences. We live according to our feelings and that's not faith.

John Strand: Yes, and we crave comfort and convenience more so than we actually prioritize and pursue freedom. So I have tough news to break to you, but freedom is not the default inclination of humanity. Comfort and convenience and escaping responsibility is. That is the default inclination of our flesh and we are embodied souls in fallen bodies or the flesh that is plagued by the inclination towards sin.

And so freedom, the Bible says Christ, "it is for freedom that Christ has set you free." That is the design and that is the gift and that is the purpose and intention. So being free is God's design for you. And to subject yourself to enslavement to sin is the opposite of his design and desire for you, and it's sin in itself to be enslaved.

Chuck Crismier: So political freedom is actually a corollary to spiritual freedom. Spiritual freedom is the predominant and political freedom is the corollary that echoes from it.

John Strand: And it's a practical expression of it because again, faith without works is dead. So God did not just call you to just imagine yourself free in your mind and sing a song and hum yourself to death. God did not call us out of the world, he said to remain in the world but be not of it.

And this is a fundamental misconception that Christians are so widely confused and deceived by the devil because the devil is the father of lies, he wants to subvert God's design and order and plan. He wants to confuse you and present counterfeits so that you will be distracted and deviated from the narrow path that God has called you to, which is the only path to true flourishing and human fulfillment.

But if we are distracted by the fact that God did not call us out of this earth yet but to remain in it and in fact to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it, to subdue it, to take dominion over the earth because the earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof. And you as the Christian are his son and daughter, his ambassador to exemplify his will and bring his will about on earth as it is in heaven is the beginning of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught us.

Chuck Crismier: All right. So friend, how would you understand or explain how a young man born in 1983, that's our guest today, John Strand, who was born in Beverly Hills, California, the place of wealth and prominence just outside Hollywood, could be speaking to us today with such strength, spiritual strength? You see how God raises people up in the most unusual situations. There are two California boys here speaking here on the air today from an area that those on the East call fruits, nuts, and flakes.

Well, John the Baptist was called a fruit nut and flake, too. So was Elijah. All of the people that God raised up were called fruits, nuts, and flakes from the people's viewpoint. But he raised them up anyway. And John, I just appreciate so much what you're saying here and the strength with which you're saying it, raised up in a Christian home, homeschooled environment in Beverly Hills, California, that was compared in the famous Serrano vs. Priest decision there in California concerning education with Baldwin Park, which was the area where I taught school for nine years and had the highest percentage of ex-convicts in the state.

So here you are coming from one of the richest areas in California, I came from one of the poorest, and here we are talking the same principle, the same truth together. God has an interesting way of doing things. Friends, the book here is called Patriot Plea. John Strand's the author. The whole government was thrown against him on January 6th. It's a hardbound book, not a nominal hardbound book either, it's got about 450 pages. But it's got the whole story here and it's going to be fascinating for you.

It's a $33 book, yours for $28 on our website, saveus.org. Saveus.org, give us a call, 1-800-SAVE-USA, that's 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Writing a check adds $6 for postage and handling. Again, the January 6th journey of a political prisoner in the Divided States of America, the book called Patriot Plea.

And there is a woman doctor very became very, very well known as a result of all of that COVID debacle, her name was Simone Gold, a doctor, and tell us a little bit about her.

John Strand: Yes, Chuck. Dr. Gold is an extraordinary person who has both a medical degree from Chicago School of Medicine and a law degree from Stanford, which gives her a unique perspective on how policy affects medicine as well as the freedoms and inalienable rights of the people.

The nonprofit is actually titled Free Speech Foundation, and freedom of speech and our inalienable rights has always been a passion of Dr. Gold's. So she really fights from that vantage point. And along with America's Frontline Doctors, she has founded goldcare.com, which is a revolution in how to practice and participate in medicine and healthcare.

I describe it as kind of the Amazon or Uber of health and wellness, connecting patients and providers from all over the country in a private environment of total freedom. So visit goldcare.com, it's amazing and it's really the solution for the healthcare part of the problem, which is a huge component of the problem politically speaking when you look at the US. The United States spends almost 20% of GDP on healthcare, other first-world nations by average are about 10% or half. So we're spending twice as much on healthcare as other first-world nations, it should not be nearly that expensive, we're talking trillions of dollars.

Chuck Crismier: Did she lose her, did the American Medical Association strip her of her medical license?

John Strand: They sure tried to, the California Board of Medicine fought her or persecuted her for years, she fought back over years and eventually won. So she was fully vindicated there, which was also an amazing victory. But the battle continues because we've had at least two, we've had at least two doctors that were involved in all of that, in fact, three now that I'm thinking of it, on this program who did lose their licenses. And the AMA became an agency of the Department of Justice, so to speak.

It became the Department of Injustice. Not only the AMA but then also the legal groups became part of the complicity. It was almost like the reverse of the French Revolution. In the French Revolution, the people rose up against the leadership. In this revolution, the leadership or purported leadership rose up against we the people. And that's where you came in, you were standing with we the people and they didn't like it.

They didn't like it at all and it was a very consequential moment that could have been intimidating because how can one man stand up against institutions? You really can't. And yet I just realized that that was the moment I was in and I was not responsible to calculate how I would be able to survive that or anything else. I was not, it was not my responsibility to understand how could I defeat or overcome an institution. No, I simply had to understand my responsibility was to stand firm. And having done all to stand, stand, right.

Chuck Crismier: Yes, exactly. So the question though is how do you stand firm when you're facing the fiery furnace? I mean, you had three young Hebrew guys like yourself, maybe about the same age as yourself at that time. And they were faced with the most powerful government at that time, Nebuchadnezzar heading up the Babylonian government. And they had to make a choice. Am I going to bow down or am I not?

And the choice that they had was you either bow down or you get thrown in the fiery furnace heated seven times hotter. Now what choice are you going to make? I can tell you today that the majority, and when I say majority, I mean probably not even one out of a million professing Christians today would stand under such circumstances. We're just not prepared, not prepared to stand alone. What say you?

John Strand: You're right, Chuck. I say you're right. And I think the answer because I want to answer the question like how do you do it? And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are an incredible example. Choosing the fiery furnace is the name of one of the chapters in my book where I explain the thought process and the spiritual environment and the path that I had to navigate in making these choices and taking these extraordinarily painful actions and decisions that I made.

But they basically said, "But if not." Right? So Nebuchadnezzar gave them the ultimatum and then they responded and they said, "Our God can save us from your hand and can save us from this fire. But if not, we will still be obedient to God alone."

So that's how you do it. You have to decide in advance that I am allegiant to God Almighty. My allegiance is to the Lord. And I will be obedient to his call and I will trust in him for the results. And he may not withhold all of the suffering in this present moment because suffering is part of the deal. The Bible teaches us this and Jesus explicitly told us you will suffer for my name's sake.

Chuck Crismier: Now we understand, now our listeners should more strongly understand why my most recent, well not my most recent book, the previous book to that was called When Persecution Comes: Preparing Hearts for Perilous Times. We're just not prepared.

You endured a kind of persecution, from your perspective, it was a religious persecution because you were standing for truth and they didn't like it. You were going to tell the truth and they had other agendas and they were going to take you down. So you had to be willing to take the consequences and therein lies the problem of persecution. Americans are not prepared to take hardly any consequences. We live according to our feelings and that's not faith.

John Strand: Yes. And we crave comfort and convenience more so than we actually prioritize and pursue freedom. So I have tough news to break to you, but freedom is not the default inclination of humanity. Comfort and convenience and escaping responsibility is, that is the default inclination of our flesh and we are embodied souls in fallen bodies or the flesh that is plagued by the inclination towards sin.

And so freedom, the Bible says Christ, "it is for freedom that Christ has set you free." That is the design and that is the gift and that is the purpose and intention. So being free is God's design for you. And to subject yourself to enslavement to sin is the opposite of his design and desire for you and it's sin in itself to be enslaved.

Chuck Crismier: So political freedom is actually a corollary to spiritual freedom. Spiritual freedom is the predominant and political freedom is the corollary that echoes from it.

John Strand: And it's a practical expression of it because again, faith without works is dead. So God did not just call you to just imagine yourself free in your mind and sing a song and hum yourself to death. God did not call us out of the world, he said to remain in the world but be not of it.

And this is a fundamental misconception that Christians are so widely confused and deceived by the devil because the devil is the father of lies, he wants to subvert God's design and order and plan. He wants to confuse you and present counterfeits so that you will be distracted and deviated from the narrow path that God has called you to, which is the only path to true flourishing and human fulfillment.

But if we are distracted by the fact that God did not call us out of this earth yet but to remain in it and in fact to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it, to subdue it, to take dominion over the earth because the earth belongs to the Lord and the fullness thereof and you as the Christian are his son and daughter, his ambassador to exemplify his will and bring his will about on earth as it is in heaven is the beginning of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught us.

Chuck Crismier: All right. So friend, how would you understand or explain how a young man born in 1983, that's our guest today, John Strand, who was born in Beverly Hills, California, the place of wealth and prominence just outside Hollywood, could be speaking to us today with such strength, spiritual strength? You see how God raises people up in the most unusual situations.

There are two California boys here speaking here on the air today from an area that those on the East call fruits, nuts, and flakes. Well, John the Baptist was called a fruit nut and flake too. So was Elijah. All of the people that God raised up were called fruits, nuts, and flakes from the people's viewpoint. But he raised them up anyway.

And John, I just appreciate so much what you're saying here and the strength with which you're saying it, raised up in a Christian home, homeschooled environment in Beverly Hills, California, that was compared in the famous Serrano vs. Priest decision there in California concerning education with Baldwin Park which was the area where I taught school for nine years and had the highest percentage of ex-convicts in the state.

So here you are coming from one of the richest areas in California, I came from one of the poorest, and here we are talking the same principle, the same truth together. God has an interesting way of doing things. Friends, the book here is called Patriot Plea. John Strand's the author. The whole government was thrown against him on January 6th.

It's a hardbound book, not a nominal hardbound book either, it's got about 450 pages. But it's got the whole story here and it's going to be fascinating for you. It's a $33 book, yours for $28 on our website, saveus.org. Saveus.org, give us a call, 1-800-SAVE-USA, 1-800-SAVE-USA, or write to us at Save America Ministries, PO Box 70879, Richmond, Virginia, 23255. Writing a check adds $6 for postage and handling. And pray for this brother, pray for John Strand. Yes, he lost the primary election, but that doesn't mean he's lost what God called him to do. It's very likely that his running in that primary was necessary as a foundation for the next step that God has called him to do. Pray for him in that regard. We'll be right back.

Have you ever considered what the early church was like? Many people are developing a hard longing for a greater fulfillment in our practices as Christians. A recent study showed 53,000 people a week are leaving the back door of America's churches in frustration. What is going on? Why has there not been even a 1% gain among followers of Christ in the last 25 years? Could it be that God is seeking to restore first-century Christianity for the 21st century?

Jesus said, "I'll build my church." Is Christ by his spirit stirring to prepare the church for the 21st century? The early church prayed together and broke bread from house to house. They were family and it was said by all who observed, "Behold how they love one another." Incredible. But the same can be found right now. Go to saveus.org and click Cell Church. We can revive first-century Christianity for the 21st century. It's about people, not programs. It's about a body, not a building. That's saveus.org, click Cell Church.

January 6th was one of the most heinous dates in American history. But for reasons other than what most people think. It was heinous because of what the government did to lie, frame people, to set up false witnesses, in order to do something in the name of justice to accomplish massive injustice. In total contradiction to what this country stands for with liberty and justice for all, all to carry on political power, perks, and position.

Heinous, a day of infamy. And John Strand stood right in the middle of it. He didn't intend to be a part of that, but he happened to be in DC at the time, speaking on a different issue. And indeed his presence there caught him in the juggernaut of the dragnet. Yes, the dragnet of the Biden administration and it was a horrendous thing.

He ultimately was sentenced because he refused to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor with a false confession that would enable him to go home and feel good. He refused. Instead, rather than bear false witness and betray his fellow Americans in the whole situation, he chose to face the full weight of a weaponized government and take the consequences. Sentenced to nearly three years, spent 366 days in a higher-security federal prison, including extended isolation conditions that violated both the US regulations and recognized international human rights standards.

But the story didn't end there, as he said. He was vindicated by the United States Supreme Court and released, continued his appeal, and ultimately was exonerated of all charges. But he didn't know he would be exonerated of all charges. He was willing to take the heat, to stand alone, to stand true, and to not lie just for personal peace and affluence.

What would you do? What would you do, my friend? You see, this is not just a nice story, an exciting, a courageous story about somebody out there. It's a question about what you would do. What would you do? What would you encourage your son and daughter to do?

You see, a fellow by the name of Victor Frankl came out of the Holocaust and he made a statement. He said, "He who has a reason to live can withstand almost any how." In other words, John Strand had a reason to live. It was about truth. It was about standing for righteousness and for truth and not to capitulate. So therefore he could withstand any how, even false imprisonment, even false imprisonment.

So what are you willing to do, my friend? I want you to think about this really strong because this is where we're moving more and more, yes, in the Western world, where persecution is rising amazingly. That's why I tried to get you to get a copy of the book When Persecution Comes: How to Prepare for Perilous Times. You still can get it right on the website. It's about $20 right there. Get it. Go there today. Be encouraged, be strengthened. We've got to have courage.

As Solzhenitsyn said, coming from Russia, he went to Harvard in 1979 and he said, "the one thing that I noticed about America is you've lost all courage." There's no more courage in America. 1979. And if he said that then, what would he say today? Amazing, isn't it, John?

John Strand: It really is. The back of my book says, "now is the time for uncomfortable courage." And I've been speaking on it for years because it was years ago that I had to face these charges and this entrapment and this unjust situation. And I realized I was going to have to make this kind of a choice and it was dragged out over years of lawfare and persecution and just brutal, brutal misery.

But ultimately it came down to a choice. And I detailed this in the book to explain the process I went through. And I am telling you everyone in my life, of course my lawyers, my business colleagues, but also my friends, my family, my parents, my pastors, they all told me to take the plea deal.

Chuck Crismier: I'm not surprised. I was going to ask you because, you know, there's a song back in the 1960s I think it was, "got a good reason to take the easy way out."

John Strand: Yeah, my, I was in a rock band with my brother for years and one of our band's songs was called Easy Way Out. It's also a great song and it's just a strong message. But this theme has been somewhere in the back of my mind for a long time.

I can see now looking backwards as God has guided me through this that he's been raising me up for such a time as this. And this theme of courage and uncomfortable courage, not just to take a risk or to do what you know is right, but to do what you know is right and necessary when you know it's going to cost you and you know it's going to hurt, but doing it anyway.

And I see so little of that in our culture. I see so little of that even in our churches that pastors do not know how to preach righteousness and they refuse to because it will in their eyes hurt their bottom line, it will empty.

Chuck Crismier: In other words, they would have to have courage to do so and they don't.

John Strand: Right. And this lack of courage, in Revelation, it says that cowardice is, I'm paraphrasing, but like chief of sins and that it's one of the costliest forms of sin, cowardice. And cowardice is simply refusing the courage that God calls you to. It is a commandment. In fact, he gives this command in Scripture, I think six or seven times at least. "Be strong and courageous." Do not tremble.

And God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and of a sound mind. Right. So this is God's word. This is absolute fundamental truth. And it's just disappeared in our culture. I was saying that the only thing necessary for evil to win is for good men to play it safe. And we just have weak men in this culture.

Well, we've feminized men. Big time. So the sexual revolution is actually a breakdown in the strength of men. The radical feminist culture that has filled that vacuum is a result of weak, cowardly men. The sexual confusion and gender disaster and transing kids and mutilating them, which is just an abomination. Abortion that has slaughtered 60 million American children, 66 million now. Some insane number. This is the consequence of weak men. That is the truth.

Chuck Crismier: No wonder the Apostle Paul said, "quit you like men."

John Strand: Now is the time for uncomfortable courage. You are the hero of your own story if you're listening to this. Like God created a story and an adventure for you to rise up and seize the destiny God's made for you. And it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Freedom is your destiny. Love is your calling and your identity. But that's all connected to the truth of God's word and love cannot be separated from truth. That's the great lie of our time.

Chuck Crismier: Well, we know that we cannot save America by politics. We need to be involved in politics because that's how people get along. That's how we work. On the other hand, salvation is not from the outside but from the inside. And it begins, it's an inside job that's reflected on the outside. And we need to understand that and we can't extirpate ourselves from being involved on the outside out there in the culture where we live.

You say in your book, "Christianity is not for the faint of heart." Yet we're being told that it's all about sweet feelings. That's how it's been marketed since the 1970s in the church growth movement that began right there in Southern California, in Pasadena, California, in the early 1970s. Did you know that? That's where it began. Yeah, right out of Fuller Seminary. Right across from my law office. I've been in the midst of this fight for a very long time. And I'm so glad to see a brother come out of Beverly Hills with a similar message.

John Strand: It's God's word. It is the message of the Scripture that has been passed down to us and that God has used to just breathe life into his people. And we need to wake up. We need to wake up the church. People don't realize often, and I tell this story in my book, Patriot Plea, but if you just go back and read the history, the United States of America as a political project and as a sovereign nation was built by the church and only because of the church.

In fact, the American church during the colonies because America was a group of colonies before it was a sovereign nation originally, 1607 in Virginia, the Jamestown colony started it off. And then in the early 1700s, the leaders of the time were concerned that the church had grown cold and weak and that there was not enough virtue in the people because they were not religiously disciplined and strong and they did not think that they could sustain independence or self-governance. They were still governed by the British Empire at this time.

But then you had a spiritual revival, it's called the Great Awakening, led by George Whitefield from Britain and Jonathan Edwards from America. That's right. Revival swept through the land and the virtue of the people multiplied and increased because of their spiritual fervency, their repentance, and their commitment to the truth of God's word and actually living and practicing it.

When Alexis de Tocqueville from France came to visit America in the early days, and he wrote a book, Democracy in America. Yes, thank you. And he commented about the state of the people because he visited cities but he visited towns and rural areas and he was amazed at how well-educated even the commoners were, that they were literate, they could read, and that they were reading the Bible and other basic historical texts.

He went beyond that, he said it was clear that it's not that every single person was a Christian, but that the Word of God was the authority in every man and in every household. Yes. And so that spiritual revival called the Great Awakening is what convinced the leaders of the colonies that they could actually move forward with pursuing independence and eventually engaging in the Revolutionary War, which they believed God was with them and he delivered them a victory, which is now the country we get to live in as the freest and most prosperous people in the history of humankind.

Chuck Crismier: All right. Here, John, I want you to do something right at the end of the program here. I want you to pray for our listeners here that courage would arise in our souls.

John Strand: Oh, I love that. I'd be honored. I'll do it right now. Heavenly Father, we come to you in the mighty name of Jesus, the son, your only begotten son that you gave on our behalf sacrificially to pay the ultimate price of freedom that we might be set free as your sons and daughters. And we must remember that, God, because that is the power that gives us the strength and empowers us to do what you've called us to do.

And you have called us to be strong and courageous, not to be trembling in fear or to be limited or to be confused, but to be set free by the truth and clarity of your word that seeking the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so if we fear you, God, with reverence for how great you are and how good you are, that you will enlighten our minds and our hearts and that you will give us the strength, the courage that we need to do what we know is right that you have called us to do and that you have given us wisdom and eyes of our heart to be open and see what you have given us and what you have called us to.

So I just call for every American listening, whether you are Christian or not, to know that the truth of the Bible has given us the foundation of this country and allowed it to prosper for all. And we must return as one nation under God and those foundational principles that liberty might continue to ring throughout our land.

Chuck Crismier: In Jesus' name, so be it. John, thank you so much, my friend, giving you a holy hug over the airwaves here. It's like a couple of brothers here, I'm a bit older than you but it's another generation coming up with a similar kind of a message to reaffirm it. And you know, if we don't do what we're supposed to do, God will hold us accountable.

He's given us a responsibility, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving our own selves. Thanks so much for joining us, friend. Get a copy of the book Patriot Plea, $28 to put it in your hands, it's on the website, saveus.org. Call us, write to us at Save America Ministries, become a partner, friends. Nobody else is doing it, we're relying upon you. God bless and be a blessing.

You've been listening to Viewpoint with Chuck Crismier. Viewpoint is supported by the faithful gifts of our listeners. Let me urge you to become a partner with Chuck as a voice to the church, declaring vision for the nation. Join us again next time on Viewpoint as we confront the issues of America's heart and home.