There was another time in American history where we loved superhero movies - when was it?

December 03, 2014

Writer

I want to have a frank conversation with you today on the things that we are facing as a nation, the things that are really…these suck. And I want to talk to you a little bit about how you feel about them.

ISIS, and when I say ISIS, I mean about we all feel something is coming. We have global terrorists. We have anti-Semitism on the rise. We have Russia trying to assert themselves again. So you have ISIS. You have the rule of law. Do you feel like being a law-abiding citizen matters anymore?

Unity, civil unrest, how are we doing on that? Your economy, the economy…? When I give you all of these, as I go through them, I want you to ask yourself what, who, when, how can we solve these things?

Let’s start at the top, ISIS. Let’s just look at that one thing. As ISIS continues to fight and demolish the towns in Iraq and Syria, airstrikes haven’t stopped them at all. Regular citizens, dads and sons, they’re left with no choice but to, you know, pick up arms and defend their towns. You want to stop them…how? Who? What? When? When? How?

Go to the rule of law. Illegal immigration, the president went around Congress, abused executive power. Here he is.

VIDEO
President Obama: There are actions I have the legal authority to take that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just, and I took them last week.

Okay, he said earlier that he didn’t have that legal authority, so do you really feel as a person that if you obey the law, it works out to your advantage? Millions of people now likely going to gain some form of amnesty, and despite promising to fight this, the GOP is backing down from that fight. How is the rule of law doing?

Which brings us to division and civil unrest. In Ferguson, riots after the grand jury decision shows how deeply divided and close to boiling over we are. We are a nation divided against itself. You don’t even have to go to this. You can just go to Black Friday and see how we’re fighting over underpants. It’s ridiculous.

And then there’s the economy. America’s national debt, it just surpassed $18 trillion with a yawn. The feds are celebrating our recovery, but historic comparison isn’t really so joyful. According to the economists, this is the worst employment recovery of any postwar American bounce-back in postwar history. GDP recovery is the second worst. Real GDP per capita, barely above where it was when Bush was in office, and real median household income is worse. Are you better off than you were under George Bush? The answer is no.

So when you look at all of these things, and I’m just touching the surface here, you look at all of these things, what is going to solve these? Who is going to solve them? How are we going to solve them? When are we going to solve them? How can any of these be solved?

See, what they have in common is they are all powerfully overwhelming, and there is no end in sight. No matter how many terrorists we kill, it’s like fire ants, they just keep coming back. No matter how much we protest or vote, our government continues to grow, sends us deeper into debt. They ignore the lie, and they divide us.

These problems are so huge that we feel helpless. I keep saying that people instinctively know something is coming. We see it in TV news. The economy is better, but no, it’s not. You can keep your healthcare. No, it’s not. The script doesn’t even come close to matching the reality on the ground, and we know that. There is such a huge disconnect.

So what, who, when, how are we going to solve these things? Well, I’m going to say something I don’t think I’ve ever said before. Let’s look to Hollywood for the answer. Yeah, yeah, I just want to do that for about two minutes here, because even though they miss the mark so often, they are in the business of trying to connect with the mood of the American people.

And I want you to notice something, a trend in the movies. There are now two types of movies that are very, very popular, and I’m going to show you the two trends. The first trend is this. You have Son of God. You have Noah, Heaven is for Real, Exodus, Mary Mother of Christ, God’s Not Dead, A.D., all of these things.

Now, Hollywood, granted, screws a lot of these up, like Noah. I mean, the giant rock people, that wasn’t really a biblical thing, and who knows what Exodus is going to have. Maybe Al Gore is going to come out and part the sea. I don’t know, but the point is there is a mood for this. There is a mood for this, and so they’re trying their best to come up with faith-based movies.

Now, what’s the other big trend in Hollywood right now? Superheroes, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Amazing Spiderman, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Transformers, Guardians of the Galaxy, all superheroes. They’re making a ton of money. These things, blockbusters. Faith-based movies, blockbusters, and this is coming from an industry that ignores that market.

So why is it happening? May I try and answer that question with another question: when? When was the last time we saw something like this happen before? Do you know? Same decade the characters like these were created, Green Hornet, Tonto, the Lone Ranger, the Green Arrow, which is a TV show again, Superman, all of them from the 1930s. And the first team of superheroes, the Justice Society of America, came out in 1940. What was happening during that time period?

Was our economy good? Was our economy good? No, Great Depression. Was there a buildup to war that we saw villains beyond our wildest imaginations? Yeah. Everything back then seemed insurmountable. Everything was too big to handle, and so American needed two things. They needed a superhero or they needed something that revolved around faith to embolden us, to show us that God is here, we’re going to make it, or there’s going to be a Superman.

Now, both times, in the Great Depression and now, we have tried to elect a savior. Now, how has that worked out as we tried to elect a savior? FDR was elected for four terms in office, four terms, and what did we do? We looked to a guy who could manage all of this. In his case, not a savior, we looked for like a dad or a grandfather. We looked for somebody who could just take all these problems and just solve them. We look to an Ivy League graduate to be president.

We think their big brilliant brain is going to somehow or another solve the riddle, fix all of these problems, because our little brain can’t figure all those things out. We can’t wrap our mind around $18 trillion in debt. That’s why we need either a savior or a superhero. They’ll solve it. It’s a lie. One person can’t.

People today laugh at the idea of a common sense farmer in the White House, but isn’t that exactly what we really need to return to? I think somebody like Charles Barkley is more fit to be in the White House than most of the polished brilliant politicians and Ivy League scholars that we have today. We need an actual leader that’s unafraid to speak common sense truth, unafraid of the mob mentality in public.

I get the feeling that, you know, I’m not going to agree very much with Charles Barkley. He’s been in the news lately, but he is unafraid to speak the truth. Whatever side that puts him on, he’s going to tell you. He speaks the truth, and it’s common sense, which brings me back to Rudyard Kipling, that poem that I like so much, The Gods of the Copybook Headings.

“As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man, There are only four things certain since Social Progress began, That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire, And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire; And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins, When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins, As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn, The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!”

The Gods of the Copybook Headings, truth, universal principles, common sense things—water will wet, fire will burn. We can deny it all we want, but once there is a fire and there’s nothing you can do about it, oh, all of a sudden you’re like okay, yes, fire will burn, a return to common sense, and you either come back to that gently or with terror and slaughter. And I contend those times are now upon us, common sense waiting to be tapped, but too many refuse to bow down to it.

As an alcoholic, I can tell you this, if you don’t bow down to common sense, it will take you out, with terror and slaughter return. So we’re searching. We’re searching. This is a good thing, recognize that history repeats itself. We’re searching for a superhero, a saint, religion. We tried the superhero thing back in 2008. It didn’t work out. The other option is religion, but is that going to work out?

May I suggest it’s faith that we should be looking for? It’s popular to bash people of faith or religion today. I mean, at this time of the year especially, atheists are putting up billboards throughout the Bible belt. One of them reads, “Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is to skip church. I’m too old for fairy tales!” How is that bringing us together? How is that helping their cause? Is that one of those things, like quite honestly, some faith movies, I think, are like this. They’re like ah, gotcha! Does that bring us together at all?

Recently, prominent scientists have likened the teaching of creation and intelligent design to child abuse. Now, at least for now, these are harmless and sad jabs, but where will they be in five, ten, twenty years of that ideology, that teaching God is equal to child abuse? Climate alarmists are already calling for jail time for deniers. Is it really that far out of reach to suggest that this could extend to creation?

Let’s look at the trends. The trends are that we are a nation looking for answers, and Hollywood is just a leading indicator of that. Some of us are saying it’s God. Some of us are just escaping into the world of superheroes. They’ll solve the NSA. That’s what The Winter Soldier was about. He’ll solve the NSA problem for us.

He doesn’t exist, guys. It’s up to us. But as we bash religion because that’s always…as it starts to grow, so does the darkness. The light gets stronger. So does the darkness. So let me just spend a few minutes here on those who bash religion. What would the world be like without religion, without Christians and Jews in particular?

Do you know how many Christian churches there are in the United States of America? Christian churches, there are about 300,000 Christian churches in America. In synagogues, there is about 3,700. So, now what does that mean in total here in the United States? That makes about 56 million Christians and 6 million Jews. That’s a lot of people.

But what do those people do? Those people, the 56 million Christians, have donated $100 billion, $100 billion. Now, this is far and away the highest amount donated by any other group. You take out Christians, and you don’t have $100 billion for charity. This accounts, by the way, for 30% of all charity. So without Christians, you lose that.

By the way, 75% believe in God, so 75% say yeah, there is a God. This makes us the number one most charitable nation on the planet and the strongest Christian nation on the planet. The money part only tells a little bit of the story. Most churches, and there are bad apples, strive to positively impact the community, and the same thing with synagogues.

Three quarters of Americans believe that a church near you, a church in your area, is actually good for your area. What was the percentage I just said, Tiffany? Okay, they know it’s a positive thing, because they know that church is going to help the needy, provide support to addicts, struggling marriages, the disabled, the poor. And that’s just locally.

What are churches doing and synagogues? What are we doing? Hundreds of thousands of Americans give up their lives to become missionaries. Countless children and families in Africa alone have had Americans to thank, not in a military uniform, but people who come from churches that have given them access to clean water, malaria, food, school supplies, schools themselves, healthcare.

This is who we are. This is what made us great. We’re good. We are not the people who wait around for somebody to save us. We lead. This is why the world looks to America first when there’s a problem. They’re not really looking to America and the soldiers. They are looking for the ones who give relief first, and it is that Christian, Judeo-Christian value that makes our soldiers so great.

We have to stop looking for a superhero and return to the principles and the values that make us strong. There is no one person. There isn’t. E pluribus unum, out of many, one. Okay, so we have to have unity, right? May I suggest e pluribus unum means and they gathered themselves together and became of one accord? When we’re of one accord, we will find the solution. The solution is when we worship and serve one God.

Breaking point: Will America stand up to the mob?

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

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What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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