Trey Gowdy speaking at Second Baptist Woodway

thank you thank y'all thank you all I may move here y'all are dollar well I served in the reception I get back home it is great to be back in Texas spent four years here in college and had it not been for the most beautiful kind sweet christ-like person I had ever met in my life who is my then girlfriend now wife I'm that and some difficulties with the law enforcement I may have stayed in Texas but I went back home to get married and my wife and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary last week so honestly you don't have to clap she's not been that tough to live with she's she is the most christ-like person I have ever been around and the young family has been incredible to me for over 30 years Ben and I were talking about that last night it time goes so quickly I remember I guess it's the second loneliest feeling of my life the loneliest feeling was last week when I forgot it was our anniversary the loneliest feeling was when my father dropped me off as a 17 year old in Waco Texas and I did not know a soul all of my earthly possessions were in a wooden Green Army box and my dad had a 14 hour drive ahead of him I said dad you go ahead and head on back to the dorm had not opened yet and the Lord has a sense of humor within a couple of hours I had met a guy named Ben Young and we have been friends since then his father dr. ed young senior has been depending on what stage in life I'm in a voice of accountability and discipline a voice of encouragement a model for enthusiasm and energy which I find exhausting ed jr. is living proof that older brothers can be nice because I was unaware that that was possible until I had met little ed in cliff ordinarily I do not like talented people but I have made an exception for cliff but the person in the young family as a cynic and a skeptic and someone who is always doubting and always questioning I had no defense for the authenticity of the life that Jobeth lived I have there is no defense that any skeptic or cynic has for a credible consistent authentically lived life and her humility from the time I met her until the last time I saw her spoke to me more than a thousand of the best sermons I could ever hear so thank you for welcoming back and thank you for giving me a chance to reconnect with the young family Tim Scott and I wrote a book together I guess it's start I wish we had a picture of Tim Scott I don't know how many of you know there he is he's the one depending on where you're sitting well he's bald-headed if that helps stars say the one on the left or right but this circular thing has me all messed up he's the one this bald-headed we eat dinner together every night that we're in Washington and I guess it was about two years ago we sat down to dinner and said sure I want to do something shocking I want to do something surprising and I thought well great he's gonna buy dinner tonight he said I want to do something that shocks every teacher I ever had he said I want to write a book that's it with him if you read a book it would shock every teacher you ever have you don't have to write one he said now I want to write one so then the challenge becomes what do you write a book about and I wanted to write a book about how miserable it is to run for public office and all the terrible mean things that are said about you some of which by the way are not true not all of them are not true but nonetheless how difficult it is to run for public office in our current political environment I said that's what I want to write about and I started thinking when I first ran in 2004 District Attorney I remembered our then young daughter Abigail walking into my home office holding the local newspaper tears streaming down her face saying please tell me it's not true daddy please tell me it's not true I said Abigail let me see it I mean let me see what they said Oh daddy please tell me it's not true please tell me you're not a lawyer that's only partially true we wrote a book about unity and I get the joke this is a crazy political environment for anyone to be talking about the need for unity but Tim and I have been there for the last eight years I love contrast 19 contrast is exactly what we need in a pluralistic society I appreciate the fact that we're not all going to eat at the same restaurant when we leave church I appreciate the fact that everybody doesn't pull for the Cowboys if there is another team I think in Texas I appreciate the fact that people have different views on the size and scope of government and people have different views on every political issue I think it's great that we have contrast it's exactly what you would expect in a pluralistic melting pot Society but when that contrast morphs into conflict when you can no longer have a conversation with someone when you began to challenge motives when you begin to question people's patriotism the cause they happen to have a different political belief structure that's when I get worried you know you when Tim and I say we're writing a book on unity I love the media the media said well y'all are both Republicans from South Carolina you almost have everything in common look at the picture you have you have a black man and a white man from the state where the civil war began writing a book together I guess we should celebrate the fact that that's no longer newsworthy I mean that I guess we should celebrate the fact that that alone is no big deal and I do celebrate that because when Tim B and I were born we could not go to school together we now teach a class together at a school so the progress has been phenomenal in our lifetime but don't think for a second just because we're from the same state and we have roughly the same political views that we are the same Tim and I have a lot of differences we have differences with respect to our relationship with law enforcement I was a prosecutor for 20 years every time I've ever been stopped was because I deserve to be stopped in a few times I have not been stopped I should have been stopped I've never had a negative experience with law enforcement if anything I would be biased towards law enforcement and I confess that bias Tim sky will stop seven times in the course of one year as an elected official I don't wear the house pen I have a colleague here John Culbertson who's also a friend I don't know whether he's got it on he we're supposed to wear a house pen I don't wear one I've never been stopped trying to seek entry into a capital building Tim Scott does where the Senate pen he's got it on in the picture he's been stopped he's been physically stopped so we have different experiences with law enforcement we have different faith experiences he's an optimist he's always looking for the good and any factor he's hopeful he thinks tomorrow's gonna be better than today and I'm a former prosecutor which means I have a really low opinion of mankind which the good news is is a rarely disappointed and I'm even more rarely surprised but we come at life I mean I am a skeptic and a cynic and he is an optimist and do not minimize the different narratives that that presents you for life tim has never been married I've been married for 29 years tim has no children I have two which means Tim has never had a child asks for money 20 minutes after you gave them some money and Tim does not know what it's like to have a child major in philosophy I wish I were kidding - then go to law school - then graduate law school and tell his mom and dad that he would like to pursue a career as a professional golfer all of which has happened in the last four weeks I think I have a better idea now of why Tim does not have children Tim grew up in a single-parent household his mom worked at the hospital changing bedpans 18 hours a day I had a parent that worked at hospital - mom was a doctor I think the moment I knew that despite the fact that we're from the same state and we may have the same initial after our name that our lives were very very different was about four years ago with that same table at that same restaurant in Washington and Tim was telling me a story by his grandfather who was the only male figure in his life mr. Artemus where lived to be 94 years of age and Tim was telling me how his grandfather would hold up the Charleston Post and Courier at breakfast wanted tend to appreciate education wanted tim to value current events what's going on in the world got to stay informed got to stay educated so rather than telling him that he modeled it read the newspaper every morning at breakfast and I couldn't help but interrupt them said well we got that in common - Tim my father did the exact same thing my dad held up a different paper the Spartanburg Herald your but he held it up every morning and if one of my three sisters would deign to ask him a question he would lure it answer it maybe and then raise it back up I said we got that in common too ain't that neat so the difference tre is my grandfather couldn't read died not being able to read faked it faked it because he wanted a grandson to pick out a seat in the United States Congress instead of picking cotton for a living so yeah you can look at that and see the similarities but even people you think are similar have differences and even people you think are different and they got nothing in common you'd be surprised you'd be surprised so we decided to write a book on being more unified and aren't we lucky that is believers we had such an incredible model for that I don't know how closely you follow current events and maybe it's the cynicism and the skepticism in me but it just feels like it's getting worse it just feels like we can't have a conversation with people that have a different belief structure it feels like every day is election day it feels like when we go home at night we vote depending on what channel we want to watch depending on what radio station we want to listen to every day is election day and then I have that validated with the polling that indicates if you are a Democrat two-thirds of all self-identified Democrats do not have a Republican friend two-thirds of all self-identified Republicans do not have a Democrat friend so if you are trying to figure out what motivates the thinking of someone that you disagree with who better to ask than someone that you disagree with but if you don't know that person if there's no one in your life I don't know who you're supposed to ask I'm lucky I don't have to walk very far to find somebody that disagrees with me and I'm not talking about in the house I'm talking about in my house I live with a 21 year old socialist that is not my wife my wife my wife looks 21 my wife is not 21 that is our daughter our mark our daughter has very different positions on issues than her father we don't argue about it our voices aren't raised I don't challenge I don't view myself as a failure like some other family members do view me as being a failure for raising a 21 year old socialist here's the way I look at it Abigail can you tell me why you believe what you believe is there a factual basis for it and then I think back to when I was 21 and how much I have changed and intervening 30-something years but I am NOT I am NOT gonna have a fractured relationship with my daughter and if that means I got to sit there and listen himself that I'm not a hundred percent crazy by hearing then I'm gonna do it if you are a believer then I want to I want you to eavesdrop I'm not asking you this question I'm gonna ask myself this question I don't want you to eavesdrop in on it giving you permission to listen in as I have a conversation with myself are you a believer who happens to be interested in the political process or are you a Republican or Democrat who happens to attend church are you will believer who happens to want to be civically engaged or are you a Republican or a Democrat who happens to attend church what is the source of your identity there was a British theologian politician statesman controversial writings on the one hand but had a quote that I cannot get out of my head a man named GK Chesterton he said it's not the Christianity has been tried and found wanting or lacking or insufficient it is that Christianity is hard and therefore it's rarely been tried and I can't get that out of my head because it is hard it is counterintuitive to what we are told to do and what we watch it is counterintuitive to love your enemies it is counterintuitive to pray for those who persecute you it is counterintuitive if someone asks for your shirt to give them your cloak as well and it is most assuredly counterintuitive to live in this current environment and know that Jesus said blessed are the peace makers it is hard but if you want to see the kind of unity that senator scott and i want to see then the change will come from you it will not come from your elected officials and it will not come from Washington DC and I'm not [Applause] I'm not I'm leaving but I am NOT bashing people as I walk out the door it's been an honor to be there for eight years and I've met a lot of really wonderful people but it is not the way to change our culture politics reflects it does not lead and so I hear this word people and I think well it's in our foundational document We the People and it's also in the foundational document for your life which is the Bible where it says if my people Christianity is hard it is hard to follow the teachings of Christ but if you want a model for unity then you need to find someone who broke every barrier you can possibly imagine gender barrier not just the woman at the well that was radical that was radical the fact that he would speak to her in public but it's more than that some of the very first people to recognize his deity or women the last people to leave him at the cross were women the first people to embrace the fact that he had been resurrected or women so he broke gender barriers he broke racial barriers you familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan it's not about a rich dude who footed somebody else's hospital bill that's part of it it's about crossing religious and racial barriers socio-economic barriers that's a big one in our country I have look and looked and looked to find nice things that Jesus said about rich people because I am leaving government work and I'm going into the private sector so I have really been looking for nice things that he might possibly have said about rich people and I'm I tried anyway but I'm having a really hard time finding a lot of complementary things I find something about a needle and an eye and a camel every barrier you can imagine he broke down so when you think about do I want to live in a society that embraces contrast but rejects the conflict you all want to be able to have a conversation and listen without prejudice and have other people listen to me without prejudice do I want to live in a society where we don't immediately rush to what we don't have in common that's the beautiful thing that I have found is I have travelled the country for the last eight years as most of us won't most of the same things we may have very different ways of acquiring it but at least start with the fact that we want the same things how many of you have ever sat beside someone on a plane that can't read body language and cannot figure out that you do not want to talk for the next four hours and you put the headphones on and you got the book out and you're not making eye contact but none of that's working they're gonna talk how do you start do you start by saying ah tell me about your deeply held religious views tell me who you voted for in the last presidential election no we don't start where are you going you're gonna see family you got children you got grandchildren what do you do for a living we do that in almost every facet of life we look for that common ground where Tim and I eat dinner we are in the minority and when I say we're in the minority most of the folks who work at restaurant we're not born in the United States they got here as quick as they could but they were not born in the United States so where do we go tell us about your country tell us about your family and then it morphs into sports there are lots of things that are not divisive that we can talk about and I don't understand why as we as a culture had figured out that that's where we want to run to first you can have those complicated conversations after you have a relationship with someone Tim and I have had some very frank conversations about law enforcement after almost every officer-involved shooting I get a call from him tell me what happened tell me how you're seeing this race is tough race is tough to talk about but when you have a relationship and you care about each other I'm married to a public schoolteacher tim has a very different perspective on education he's a he's a straight choice guy I'm somewhere in the middle if we wanted to argue about things where's plenty of things we could find to argue about we don't want to we want to discuss them and then we want to come back to stuff we have in common and if you are a believer that should be enough in common with someone else to overcome any conflict that you have so I guess our first question is do we want to live in a less divisive country do we want to live in a country where the contrast remains but the conflict is gone and if we do who's going to lead that movement and how is it going to be led and it will be led by the church and it has been modeled for you by the greatest barrier breaker who ever lived and the best bridge builder who ever lived think about the bridges that he built for you and your life he bridged the chasm the two you and God he bridged the chasm between death and life he bridged the chasm between the temporal and the eternal and the reason I talk about bridges is if you're all on the same side of the river you don't need a bridge you don't need a bridge you only need a bridge if you're willing to talk or interact with someone that's not exactly like you I don't want anyone to surrender a deeply held conviction I don't even want you to surrender a not deeply held conviction I just want to live in a country where we can have a robust conversation about issues that are important to us without fracturing the relationship and making us wonder what do we have in common why did it all do we have in common which brings me back to the quote from GK Chesterton Christianity is hard I knew that Tim and I had a different relationship when I heard the story about his grandfather but that would not be the night that he would tell you he knew something was different that was one of the most tragic nights in history of our country there were believers gathered at a church called mother Emanuel in Charleston Church where Tim's uncle attended for more than 50 years a church where his friend and former colleague clementa pinckney was the pastor it's an African American church and their meeting during the week doing exactly what God told them to do study the word seek my face and if a stranger comes in welcome this and the stranger came in stranger came in that had driven more than a hundred miles from Lexington South Carolina passing mile marker after mile marker after mile marker knowing full well what he was about to do so they welcomed him they prayed with him they prayed for him and then he killed nine of our fellow believers because they happened to be black and he wanted to start a race war in a state with a very provocative history when it comes to race in a city where the Civil War began and what those family members did and the hours after that shooting to the person they looked him in the eye when he was arraigned and said we forgive you we forgive you and then Tim had to give a speech on the floor of the Senate so we call the family members and said what would you like me to communicate to the country and the answer was God is in control and then eating out of something like this something positive will come when I say Christianity is hard I could not do what they did I would not do what they did I could not and I would not what they did because their faith was the most important thing in their lives so what is your identity such spiritual identities and political identity is it a geographic identity I think if we are going to have the community state I'll speak for mine and not yours I'm more familiar with South Carolina the country that we want to have it will not come from a political platform it will not come from a series of political beliefs it will come from you living out what are very difficult Commandments to live out and for you to trust the ways of a God that does not do things in a conventional way there uses the bone from an animal as a weapon that decided to pick a stutterer as a spokesperson they used trumpets and lanterns to win a battle and my personal favorite my personal favorite allowed his own son to lose a voice vote to a guy named Barabbas if you're a believer you serve the ultimate barrier breaker the ultimate bridge builder you have a God that does things in unconventional ways unity is biblical there's a reason there's a verse in the New Testament in Christ there is no male no female no Jew no Gentile no rich no poor and I'm gonna paraphrase because I think if Jesus were here he would say no black no white no brown the Republican no independent no libertarian no Democrat if he were here if you were here I think that is what he would tell us that he alone is sufficient and in him there is nothing other than do you believe do you not believe and if you believe you are called to do some very difficult Thanks one more one more thing that I could not and would not do and I hope at some point you all have a chance to hear from Senator Tim Skye Culberson will tell you he's the best person I know in public service there are lots of good ones on both sides he's the best we were freshmen something terrible had been written about him not only terrible can be terrible and true this was terrible and not true it's actually defamatory libelous actionable I was tired of it sick of it and it's already one thing to be in the world's least popular body it's another thing to have people piling it on with stuff that's not true so I got sick oven I had that article in my hand this is before I got the memo about not sharing all negative articles with your friends I have since gotten that memo and would like to send it to some of my friends but this is before I knew I don't have to go tell him every bad thing I've read I'll walk into his office now right past his receptionist and I said Tim I'm sick of this sick up I'm gonna do something by he said well let me see it showed it to him he said come on in we're gonna do something that good 39 states congressman got a former prosecutor and we got a closed door we're gonna finally get someplace he said sit with me okay we're gonna pray for him I said Tim I'm not I'm not and I didn't but he asked me to sit with him while he did Christianity is hard there very few other facets of life where you would be called to pray for someone who just did that it's hard if you want to change even your own family something is small but important is that or you want to change something as large and important as your country politics hasn't worked sports won't work geography won't work living an authentic consistent life reflective of the teachings of Christ is what will work god bless you thank you for letting me be you

Channel: 43farmall

Views: 312,354

Rating: 4.906661 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: iPgmCANKbKk

Length: 36min 8sec (2168 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 14 2018