A story of hope in a hopeless world

This morning on radio Darryl and Tracy Strawberry called in to discuss their new book The Imperfect Marriage: Help for those who think it's over.

Some of you may remember Darryl and Tracey were guests of the Glenn Beck Program, covering their own personal addiction and struggles in life. This morning, Glenn asked Darryl and Tracy how do people take that first step towards going to church. Glenn said, "There's a lot of people I'm sure listening to you and they're like — and are struggling, that are like, I don't know if I believe in God and this whole Jesus things drives me out of my mind and how am I ever going to get to church because church people are going to look down on me anyway."

Darryl Strawberry provided some amazing advice concerning that subject, saying:

People have to understand. The church is like a hospital. You come there to get well. You come there to hear the word of God. Don't look at man, don't look at woman. You got to listen to the word. It's the word that changes people. And I think people need to get really that clarification in their mind, Glenn, that it's not the people who ought to change. It's the word of God that's going to change you. It's the word that changed Tracy. It wasn't the people. If I sat and worried about the people, I'm never going to get well. They talked about me when I was rich. They talked me when I was famous. Now they talk about me because I love Jesus. They're going to always talk about you.

Watch some of this amazing interview below:

GLENN: I want to introduce you to a man and wife, Darryl and Tracy. You know — you know Darryl Strawberry. Darryl Strawberry played for the Mets, the Yankees, the Dodgers, probably would have been one of the greatest ballplayers of all time had it not been for massive drug abuse. He turned his life around 12 years ago, married his now wife Tracy eight years ago. And together they have found a way through alcoholism and addiction and really bad, bad places. Before I bring them on, I want to tell you a story. They were on the TV with me. And we have an employee that — their family is struggling. Somebody in their family is struggling with a member who is addicted to heroin. Not only did I talk to Darryl and Tracy about this and said, look, I don't know what advice has come to me. I don't know what advice to give. I was never addicted to heroin and the family is at wit's end. Not only did they immediately ask to meet with us — with this employee, but they met with him for about 20 minutes, talked to him, comforted him. Darryl then reaches into his pocket and says, look, I run a treatment center and if we can get your family member in, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. Which I thought was amazing. Then I find out later that they had called the mother of this employee who is really struggling and happened to call her on the worst day of her life. She had given up. And she didn't know what to do and the phone rings and it's Darryl and Tracy Strawberry. And they spent I don't know how much time with her on the phone just counseling. This is who these people have become. They are the real deal. And I'm really impressed with them and I wanted to bring them on the program. They have a new book called "The Imperfect Marriage, Help For Those Who Think It's Over."

Darryl and Tracy, welcome to the program. How are you guys?

TRACY: Good morning, thanks for having us.

DARRYL: We're doing great, Glenn. Thanks for having us.

GLENN: Let me start with you real quick. You don't have any memorabilia in your house at all. Where you were a great baseball player. You've gotten rid of all of that stuff. Do you ever think to yourself what could I have done had I been clean?

DARRYL: Oh, not at all. The journey of each person life is the journey they will go through and I think a lot of times too many people try to revisit the past and you can't. You can't look at the past because you can't — Glenn, you'll never walk into the anew. I think that's where most people struggle in their life and not just in addiction but in life period. They look in the past, what the past used to be like. That's old. That's not who you are anymore. It was — at that time who I was. That's who I was. I had a lot of issues inside. I mean, I was famous, I was rich, I was successful. I had everything you could want but I had nothing inside. Inside I was empty and I think a lot of times I prefer where I'm at today not to be empty. When I was back there having everything and to be whole where I'm at today and being imperfect. So I'm grateful for all the things that have happened because it brought new character and it made me a true man. I think sometimes we think success makes you a man and that's not the case. Success doesn't make you a man. Success makes you successful doing what you're doing. But becoming a man and moving in purpose and doing God's will is the most incredible gift I've ever received, in a trophy, in a championship, and millions of dollars. To be in the know — the principles that I live by, the biblical principles. Not worldly principles, but biblical principles, that I'm stronger than ever and I'm in purpose and leading them to salvation.

GLENN: Tracy, were you a wreck yourself? We all know Darryl. He was — he was — I mean, what I would dare to call times in his life a waste of skin where he was the worst of the worst. You were in bad shape yourself. You two get together at some point. First of all, I mean, what does that say about you in some ways that you were seeing him at his low point? You had to be just kind of in that same kind of cesspool. What were you like when you first met and why did you guys get together?

TRACY: Well, Darryl and I hit it immediately and right away because we were the same person dysfunctionally. We could understand each other right out of the gate. There wasn't any judgment there. We couldn't judge each other because we were in the same people. He was just the male, I was a female participating in the same defeated lifestyle. So this was this sick safety, of you will, created there. We felt safe with one another. We understood one another. The problem is, dysfunction, when it gets together, operates dysfunctionally and produced more dysfunction. And many people in this world today just so desperately want to be loved, desire to be loved and really want to be loved. And I truly believe want to be well. But we are not equipped to love. We have to become well and become a whole person in Christ before we can even think about becoming whole as one with another person. And Darryl and I, we came together relationally. But that quickly deteriorated and fell apart and it just became another struggle, another problem, another issue, because we could not get along. We couldn't —

GLENN: You were knocking down doors of like crackhouses to find him and try to pull him out at one point.

TRACY: I was. I was trying to be his savior. I was working harder at his life than he was. I was working harder at his faith than he was. You're going to believe and you're going get well whether you want to or not. It's called codependency in the world. Living a life without God, I was his savior. So he had no reason to look to a savior and no reason to look for help because I was his help and his hope.

GLENN: Darryl, you told me at one point when she said "no" to you, and sell this story, this is the first time ever in your life anyone had ever said no.

DARRYL: Yes, it was a defining moment in my life. We were together. We had came to St. Louis together and we were living in her parents' home. And Tracy started studying the Bible and we were — said we was going to go to church and get on with her life.

First, we're not married. So this is the people who are not married. We were just shacking up. There's nothing great that's going to come out of that and I think a lot of times people think this can work. And we thought it could, too. And she woke up one morning and she had be studying the Bible and said I can't do it anymore. And I said what do you mean, she said we're not having sex anymore. I said what. No, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not compromising anymore. And I think that's it. And I said I think I need to get out of here. And she said I think that's what you need to do.

That was a defining moment in my life when she came to me, that's it. Right there, Tracy took a stand. Not only for her but it was a stand that changed me because it sent me off running to California to stay with my sister Regina. And her three kids. And in her two-bedroom apartment and I went there and I got my life together. I stopped sex, I stopped drugs. I stopped everything. I went back to church and got myself right with God.

GLENN: Hang on just a second. What happened, because there's a lot of times that people will say, what? That's fine. And then you go out and you trash her, you know. She becomes the bad person. And you just go deeper. What was the — why was that your bottom?

DARRYL: Well, because I had never been told "no."

And I think — you know, I think most people never tell the other person "no."

This is not going on anymore. They just continue to do it. You know. And for me that was — that was a defining moment. I had to look at me. There was something wrong with me. I needed to look at myself. You know, after Tracy had cut me off and said she's not doing this no more, I'm not living this way. And the thing about it, Glenn, we didn't even know if we were going to get back together. I know most people think, maybe we'll come back together and we'll make it work, but we didn't even know we were going to get back together. The thing was there was a breakoff and there was a pivotal point in my life that I realized, you know, I needed to do something different in my life. I need to go and rededicate my life to God like Tracy is doing and get myself together. And when we broke off, it was a six-month period that I — we broke off for. And I went and got myself together, got it back in church and she went and got herself together and then we decided, you know, well, maybe we're doing the right thing now. And maybe we can come back together and make this work. And that's how it turned out for us. You know, we went our separate ways and got our own self together. And I think a lot of times people don't want to look at themselves and they want to point the finger. When you point the finger, three are pointing right back at you.

GLENN: Tracy, you guys are — you guys write the book and I've heard people say, yeah, like I'm going to listen to these guys who are both addicts. Yeah. I am going to listen to two people who have taken and been at the absolute bottom of the barrel and then changed their life and really truly changed their life and are happy and successful now. And successful in a — in the happiness quotient more importantly. What is it that you think is unique that you guys have to offer here?

TRACY: Well, number one, I truly believe that this book is — we keep it very real in here. We keep it very real. We don't paint a picture of a fairy tale story that's not attainable, number one. We really get to the core issue. And I believe instead of blaming your partner or working on outside things, to expect an inward healing, we don't address those things. We talk about those things in the book. But the book really leads you to look within yourself and take responsibility for yourself and your own life. And how you do that with practical application. And understanding that you know, God has to be in the center, but how do you make that happen? I was one of these people going where I was like, look, I know God is important. I know all this stuff is important. Can you help me with that? I'm angry with God. I don't understand Him. I don't what you understand my problem is. I know I'm powerless over alcohol and drug addiction, but boom, now another powerless thing has popped up. I'm powerless over my marriage, my kids, my mind, my thinking, my entire life. And it leads people — my prayer is into the understanding, we're born with this thing called a sinful nature that we're powerless over. We're born with original sin. This character that cannot mold to God. It separates us from God. I'm completely separated from God. I'm not — I didn't do anything to earn this sinful nature. I was born with it. So I don't do anything to earn God's love. And that's the power of the cross right there. And having an understanding of what the true gospel is and understanding what of what is wrong with you and why we need Jesus Christ to make it right, how you put God in the center and then how you live that out in an everyday life, overcome adulteries, addictions, everything that is birthed out of the sinful nature. We want to get a real understanding of that.

GLENN: Can you ask you guys a question? There's a lot of people I'm sure listening to you and they're like — and are struggling, that are like, I don't know if I believe in God and this whole Jesus things drives me out of my mind and how am I ever going to get to church because church people are going to look down on me anyway.

TRACY: Uh-huh.

DARRYL: You go to church because everybody is screwed up anyway. No one there is perfect. That's why we go there.

GLENN: Unfortunately a lot of people who are in the pews think they are.

DARRYL: They're not. That's the whole point.

GLENN: I know.

DARRYL: People have to understand. The church is like a hospital. You come there to get well. You come there to hear the word of God. Don't look at man, don't look at woman. You got to listen to the word. It's the word that changes people. And I think people need to get really that clarification in their mind, Glenn, that it's not the people who ought to change. It's the word of God that's going to change you. It's the word that changed Tracy. It wasn't the people. If I sat and worried about the people, I'm never going to get well. They talked about me when I was rich. They talked me when I was famous. Now they talk about me because I love Jesus. They're going to always talk about you. But what has happened in our life is we allowed the word to change us and bring us to a greater understanding, a greater place of why we were created. I think a lot of people don't even know why they exist. You know, I think a lot of times husbands are supposed to be the head but they're a knuckle head because they think I'm successful, I don't need this God and my family is falling apart. My wife and kids are falling apart. Because I don't know this God to lead my wife and family. Because the man is supposed to lead his family in the biblical principle ways. I lead my family. And that's what this is all about. And I think we're ought off order. We got it all backwards. Most of the women in church. They're loving God. The husbands are out running around chasing football games, basketball games and all kind of other stuff to be successful. And they're missing the point because they don't know the — they don't know the biblical principles of living.

TRACY: And Glenn, I believe, too, it's the goodness of God that leads people to repentance. And sometimes it's easy to get a wrong introduction to God. Some people were raised with harshness and why harmed by what we call a church and they put a label on the church and Jesus said, my God, my God, you're pushing my people away. I love them. I know what's wrong with you. I know what's in you. You are no surprise to me. I'm not trying to get you to fall in love with the church, a place. I'm not trying to get you fall in love with a preacher. I'm not banging you over the head with my word. I'm trying to get you to fall in love with me. I know everything that's wrong with you. You're no surprise to me. I am the solution and I'm leading you in love and I'm leading you with solution. I already know. I just want you to come to me. And we give this misrepresentation and it pushes people away from God.

GLENN: Darryl and Tracy Strawberry, I want to thank you for being on the program and thank you for your book, "The Imperfect Marriage." I have to tell you. I've lived this. I don't care how you get there. What they're saying is right. I've lived exactly the same thing and it is true. If you happen to be in need for you know somebody in need, please, consider the "Imperfect Marriage, Help For Those Who Think It's Over. Darryl and Tracy Strawberry. Thanks.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

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Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

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When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

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Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Grim warning: Bad-faith Israel critics duck REAL questions

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Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

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If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

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Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

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Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.