Announcer: Today, on Family Talk:
Dr. Dobson: Well, this is James Dobson, and you're listening to Family Talk, which is a production of our parent organization, James Dobson Family Institute.
My staff and I are in the conference room here at James Dobson Family Institute, and we have just watched a portion of a new documentary video that is titled No Safe Spaces. We're going to be talking about that and other things here with my guest, Dennis Prager. He has insisted that I call him Dennis. I find it difficult to do because I have such respect for this man. I'm delighted to have you here. Would everybody welcome this man?
Dennis Prager: Thank you so much.
Dr. Dobson: Dennis has been here today doing his own program upstairs in our studio. He's heard all across the country on the Salem Radio Network. How many stations are you on, Dennis?
Dennis Prager: Between two and 300. I try to always understate, maybe it's 400. A lot. That's all I know.
Dr. Dobson: And they're big stations. And there's one of them here in Colorado Springs.
Dennis Prager: That's right.
Dr. Dobson: And I listen to you regularly. It's not possible for me to fully express how much I appreciate you and respect you and admire you. You've done wonderful work. You're an Orthodox Jew. I'm a committed Christian, but we have a lot in common. There's a lot that we take on together in the culture war. I consider you to be a fellow warrior in that conflict. We're losing it, aren't we? That's my impression, anyway.
Dennis Prager: First, let me just say that I would amend your conjunction. You said you're a committed Christian, and I'm a committed Jew, but we have so much in common. I would drop the "but" and do "and, therefore". That's the case. The committed Christian and the committed Jew have far more in common on the great issues of our day. The moral issues. Our views are utterly unison.
We are worried about America, because if America fails, cruelty on earth will increase exponentially. The people who tear down this country don't love human beings, because if they did, they would understand that the greatest force for good on earth is the United States.
All people need to do is think, what would happen if the American military decided to all go home? They just wanted to go back to friends and family. No more American military. Within six months, how many human beings would be tortured, raped, and murdered on this planet if that happened?
As I've often said, if they really gave the Nobel Peace Prize honorably and honestly, it would be given to the U.S. military, the greatest force for peace on earth. You know that, and I know that. We're fighting for it. Are we losing? We were almost defeated on Election Day of 2016, and then, incredibly, we got a reprieve. That's how I look at it.
That's how bad things were that day. I wrote a book on happiness. I do an hour on happiness every week since 1999. I'm a happy human being, but I was despondent about the chances of our country recuperating from the onslaught of the left, and I always distinguished between the left and liberals in our film, No Safe Spaces. There are so many liberals who agree with us. No leftists agree with us.
Dr. Dobson: Let's talk about that film. We have just seen it and yeah, I found it deeply disturbing and moving, because it does describe the condition of the university system in this country, and so many other things where we are losing ground, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the religious liberties that we have enjoyed is all in jeopardy.
And your film describes that graphically. Tell us, or tell the other people who haven't seen it, what you were getting at, there.
Dennis Prager: Well, first of all, even if it weren't a terrific film, people should see it on the moral grounds that we can't let the Hollywood left dominate the film industry. We need to put out films as well and have people see them and be successful. But it is a terrific film. I have always put terrific ahead of any other consideration in my life. If it isn't wonderful, I don't want to be part of it. This is better than I even expected. So, No Safe Spaces-
Dr. Dobson: How's it going to be distributed? How can people see it?
Dennis Prager: Well, it starts out in one major city, and then it goes from there on.
Dr. Dobson: So, it'll be in theaters.
Dennis Prager: Oh, it'll be in theaters all over the country. That is correct.
Dr. Dobson: Yeah.
Dennis Prager: What you said was good. You said it was disturbing and moving. That's exactly right. By the way, you'll also laugh, because if Adam Carolla's in it, you have to laugh. I think he's the funniest living human being in the English language. So, he calls himself an atheist. I'm a believing in God, deep believing in God. I have a Bible commentary out. I'm on volume three. You could get it at Costco. It's that popular, I'm proud to say.
Dr. Dobson: You are an authority on the Torah, aren't you?
Dennis Prager: Well, that I will acknowledge. I don't know if I'm a star, but I am an authority on the Torah. Yes. That is correct. But listen, as I tell Christians all the time, Jesus didn't know the New Testament. Jesus only knew the Old Testament. So if you want to know what Jesus knew, then you need to know the Old Testament.
A lot of Christians know that, but a lot of Christians don't read the Old Testament, thinking, well, it's just ...
Dr. Dobson: Well, he quotes the Old Testament.
Dennis Prager: Of course. Constantly. That's his frame of reference.
Dr. Dobson: Yeah.
Dennis Prager: That's exactly right. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God. That comes from the Torah. God creating the human being in God's image, that comes from the Torah. It's all from the Torah. Everything. That is my vehicle to faith in God. And I call it the Rational Bible, because I only use reason. Only reason. An atheist could read my Rational Bible and come away wiser.
Anyway, Adam Corolla called himself an atheist, and here I am, a religious guy. We also have all these values in common. Values is where it's at, and America was founded with this amazing notion: God wants us to be free. What country in history had that idea? We are losing it.
Prager University, which had a billion views last year, it's another of my projects. Prager University puts out a video every single week. We have about 350 videos out. Five minute videos. And they come out each week, and there's a conservative take on politics, on economics, on philosophy, on a whole host of issues by very, very ... We've had four Pulitzer Prize winners, three former prime ministers. We have very serious people giving these courses.
They're all knocked by people on the left, but nothing is as knocked as a defense of God or religion. Do you know that Google put the Ten Commandments on the restricted list? That means kids can't see it in homes that block pornography. My video on the Ten Commandments. And I just testified in Congress on this, in the Senate.
Senator Ted Cruz asked the guy from Google, "I don't understand. Why would you put Dennis Prager's video on the Ten Commandments on the restricted list?"
Dr. Dobson: Let me stop you. I have a recording of your statement to the U.S. Senate just recently, and I would like our listeners to hear what you're talking about.
Dennis Prager: Good. Thank you.
Dr. Dobson: Let's do that right now.
Dennis Prager: Good.
Senator Ted Cruz: Mr. Prager, we'll start with you.
Dennis Prager: I will take just a moment, because my opening comment is under five minutes, just to respond on the issue of the Ten Commandments video that was placed on the restricted list by Google. The representative from Google mentioned that a reason that it would be on the restricted list was that it contains mentions of murder.
So I was thinking, I have a solution that will, I think, appeal to Google. I will rerelease it as the Nine Commandments. That should solve the problem of including murder in my discussion of the Ten Commandments. And as regards to the swastika, yes, there is a swastika. It is, again, in the commandment of do not murder, wherein I show that there are people who believe murder is all right even today. And I use the swastika and the hammer and sickle as two examples.
I would think we would want young people to associate the swastika with evil. That was why I had a swastika. It was an honor to be invited to speak in the United States Senate, but I wish I were not so honored, because the subject of this hearing, Google and YouTube's, and for that matter, Twitter and Facebook's, suppression of Internet content on ideological grounds, threatens the future of America more than any external enemy.
In fact, never in American history has there been as strong a threat to freedom of speech as there is today. Before addressing this, however, I think it important that you know a bit about me and the organization I co-founded, Prager University, Prager U as it is often referred to. I was born in Brooklyn, New York. My late father, Max Prager, was a CPA and an orthodox Jew who volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy at the start of World War II.
My father's senior class thesis at the City College of New York was on antisemitism in America. Yet, despite his keen awareness of the subject, he believed that Jews living in America were the luckiest Jews to have ever lived. He was right. Having taught Jewish history at Brooklyn College, written a book on antisemitism and fought Jew hatred my whole life, I thank God for living in America.
Breaks my heart that a vast number of young Americans have not only not been taught how lucky they are to be Americans, but have been taught either how unlucky they are, or how ashamed they should be. It breaks my heart for them, because contempt for one's country leaves a terrible hole in one's soul, and because ungrateful people always become unhappy and angry people. And it breaks my heart for America because no good country can survive when its people have contempt for it.
I have been communicating this appreciation of America for 35 years as a radio talk show host, the last 20 in national syndication with the Salem Radio Network, an organization that is a blessing in American life. One reason I started Prager U was to communicate America's moral purpose and moral achievements both to young Americans and to young people around the world.
With a billion views a year, and with more than half of the viewers under age 35, Prager U has achieved some success. My philosophy of life is easily summarized: God wants us to be good. Period. God without goodness is fanaticism, and goodness without God will not long endure. Everything I and Prager U do emanates from belief in the importance of being a good person.
That some label us extreme or quote, "haters," only reflects on the character and the broken moral compass of those making such accusations. They are the haters and extremists. Prager U releases a five minute video every week. Our presenters include three former prime ministers, four Pulitzer Prize winners, liberals, conservatives, gays, blacks, Latinos, atheists, believers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, and professors and scientists from MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and a dozen other universities.
Do you think the secretary general of NATO or the former prime ministers of Norway, Canada, or Spain, or the late Charles Krauthammer, or Phillip Hamburger, distinguished professor of law at Columbia Law School would make a video for an extreme or hate-filled site? The idea is not only preposterous, it is a smear. Yet Google, which owns YouTube, has restricted access to 56 of our 320 five-minute videos, and two other videos we produce.
Restricted means families that have a filter to avoid pornography and violence cannot see that video. It also means that no school or library can show that video. Google has even restricted access to a video on the Ten Commandments, as we have seen. Yes, the Ten Commandments. We have repeatedly asked Google why our videos are restricted. No explanation is ever given.
But of course, we know why. Because they come from a conservative perspective. Liberals and conservatives differ on many issues, but they have always agreed that free speech must be preserved. While the left has never supported free speech, liberals always have. I, therefore, appeal to liberals to join us in fighting on behalf of America's crowning glory, free speech.
Otherwise, I promise you, one day, you will say, "First they came after conservatives, and I said nothing. And then they came after me, and there was no one left to speak up for me." Thank you.
Senator Ted Cruz: Thank you, Mr. Prager.
Dr. Dobson: My goodness, that is powerful.
Dennis Prager: Thank you.
Dr. Dobson: What has been the reaction to that short statement?
Dennis Prager: First, liberals often wrote on the comments, because I read comments on YouTube. I'm very curious what people say, who hate me, or love me, or neither. There were quite a few said, "I don't agree with Dennis Prager on almost anything, but he's right on this." That's fine with me. That's fine. To disagree with me on everything except freedom, you're my ally.
And the conservatives, it's very interesting. Obviously mostly supportive, but there were a couple of pieces in conservative journals saying that all of this is not right, and I was thinking, if a conservative does not acknowledge that a place like Prager University has been suppressed because of ideology, then I don't know what makes them conservative. There are 320 videos, only 15 are about Israel.
Half of them are on the restricted list. Is that not ideological? Alan Dershowitz, liberal, Hillary Clinton supporting, professor of law at Harvard, puts out a video on the legality of Israel's founding. It almost sounds like it'll put you to sleep. The legality of Israel. It's on the restricted list. Children, libraries, can't see it. That's not ideological?
Dr. Dobson: Is that symptomatic of what's happening in the universities?
Dennis Prager: Yes, totally. Listen, the university, it's elite, and if the elites have contempt for freedom, then it will ... These are trickle down ideas. They go down from the elites to the average person. There are kids who will now think, "Oh, if you're white, you have white privilege." They don't even know what that means. What does it mean, white privilege? Why do white men commit suicide at a greater rate than any other group in the country if they have white privilege?
I guess they didn't get the message. They probably didn't go to college. The whole thing is so perverse that Ben Shapiro needed $600,000 in security to speak at Berkeley. That's vile. The guy's an Orthodox Jew saying how much he loves America. He's not even the biggest Trump fan. That's the irony of ironies. He supports the president, but he's very critical, and he was, in the beginning, he was quite opposed.
So, when I went to Berkeley, as you can see in the film, I said, "Hey, listen, I have an idea. Since I believe in clarity over agreement, that's a motto of my radio show, I'll just have a dialogue debate with their best leftist students." Okay, so that way, there were no riots. There was no screaming. They heard everything, and let me tell you how it ended. It's very interesting.
I asked them if they think people are basically good, which is the dividing line between wisdom and idiocy. Because you're an idiot if you think people are basically good. I'm sorry. I know it's insulting. It's meant to be an insult. You are a fool. No one over five should believe human nature is good.
Dr. Dobson: If they're basically good, show me a society where that's played itself out.
Dennis Prager: There is no system of wisdom that has ever argued that. It is a brand new idea in human history, and it has led to unbelievably terrible results. Anyway, so, I asked them, "Do you think people are basically good?" And of course, I knew what they'd say. "Yes, we do." Because if you're on the left, you're naive as a definition of your condition. So they said yes.
And then they continued, and I said, "I want to tell you why you think people are basically good. Because you live in America, where there are so many good people."
Dr. Dobson: You know, David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me." It was not that I bumped into a wicked environment and learned to do wrong. We're born with it. It's genetic to us, and it goes back clear to the garden, from my perspective.
Dennis Prager: Well, it's why I asked the Berkeley students, "Are we basically good?" That's right.
Dr. Dobson: And they said, "yes."
Dennis Prager: That's right.
Dr. Dobson: I feel sorry for them.
Dennis Prager: I feel sorry for us, because we will bear the brunt of their foolishness.
Dr. Dobson: What is happening on the university campus today? Describe it in greater detail.
Dennis Prager: Look, we have in the film, Bret Weinstein. Bret Weinstein is as liberal as you can get without crossing the line into leftism. He was a professor at Evergreen College. Even within college standards, it's a left wing university. One day, they announced, "All whites should leave the campus." So, Bret Weinstein has been teaching biology there. The guy's an atheist, evolutionist, liberal
leftist, but not fully leftist.
He says, "Excuse me, you're not going to have me leave because of my race. I'm staying here." He was, then, you will see the screaming and cursing of this professor by students. Ultimately, he had to be escorted by the police to the university, and ultimately, he left, because the university announced, "We cannot guarantee your safety." For not leaving the university.
And of course, all the other wimps, aka professors, they left. But he didn't. And so, this is typical of our universities today, all over the country. There are a handful of exceptions, and they're ... Oberlin has just paid millions of dollars, because they joined the boycott of a store, a bakery that has been in Oberlin, Ohio for 80 years. They caught a black kid shoplifting, and it was on camera. The guy shoplifted.
But they were accused of racism for chasing him down, and the students boycotted it, and Oberlin joined the boycott of the bakery. And now, they have to pay millions of dollars. I hope Oberlin goes bankrupt. If Oberlin closes, America will be a better place. That is how bad our universities have become.
Dr. Dobson: It's not just the universities, but it starts in kindergarten, now. Here in Colorado, the schools have virtually been taken over by LGBTQ, and they are teaching nine year-olds how to transform, or how to change your gender, they call it, or the lack of gender.
Dennis Prager: Well, they're not even called boys and girls in many schools, now.
Dr. Dobson: Now, that really makes me angry. If students want to go off to a liberal university and get propagandized, that's their business. But when you take a five, six, seven, eight, nine kid, and you teach them things that are morally wrong, and parents don't have an opportunity-
Dennis Prager: Well, scientifically wrong, morally wrong. Oh, parents? Please. Parents are a nuisance to the left.
Dr. Dobson: They are.
Dennis Prager: Yes, that's exactly right.
Dr. Dobson: They have no authority.
Dennis Prager: That is why, by the way, in my Rational Bible series, I came out, thus far, I've done Genesis and Exodus, and in Exodus, and I have 20,000 words on the Ten Commandments, and I write tersely. And I have actually come to believe that, in many ways, honor your father and mother may be the most important of the Ten Commandments. Every totalitarian regime breaks the authority of parents first.
That's what they did in Nazi Germany with Hitler youth, and that's what they did in the Soviet Union with the Komsomol. The hero of the Soviet Union in the 1930s was a boy named Pavlik Morozov. He snitched on his parents, a Ukrainian child, who were stealing food so the family wouldn't starve to death when Stalin was starving the Ukrainians to death, purposely. People could read the Red Famine and read about it.
And the parents were killed. The child was declared a national hero. There were postage stamps. "Your allegiance is to Stalin and the party, not to your parents." And if you honor your parents, you'll honor God. You'll honor your teacher. You'll honor the police. The breakdown of authority is what getting rid of parental authority is about.
Dr. Dobson: Hitler said, "Who cares what the adults think? We already have their kids." That's not a quote, but that's very close.
Dennis Prager: No, that's exactly right. As I say, all totalitarian regimes break the authority of parents.
Dr. Dobson: I'm telling you, parents, you better object to this, because you're losing your kids.
Dennis Prager: Well, the only way to solve it, I hate to say this, is for parents to take their kids out of schools. If you have a great school in your neighborhood, obviously, send them there. I have no problem.
Dr. Dobson: Would you have said that 10 years ago?
Dennis Prager: No.
Dr. Dobson: How rapidly has this changed?
Dennis Prager: The decline is like an avalanche. It gathers steam as it goes down the mountain.
Roger Marsh: I'm Roger Marsh, and you've been listening to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. Dr. Dobson's guest today has been popular radio host and bestselling author Dennis Prager. Visit our broadcast page at drjamesdobson.org for details about Dennis's upcoming documentary called No Safe Spaces.
There, you'll also find out more about Dennis's many books, and his popular radio show as well. That's drjamesdobson.org, and then click onto the broadcast page.
Be sure to join us again tomorrow for the conclusion of this insightful interview featuring Dr. James Dobson and radio talk show host, Dennis Prager.
Don't miss that conversation coming up next time right here on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh. Have a blessed day.
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Roger Marsh: Hi this is Roger marsh for Family Talk with some exciting news. We've selected 18 of the most popular broadcasts of the past year, and present them to you, together on six audio CDs, in the 2019 Family Talk Best of Broadcast Collection. Join Dr. Dobson and many incredible guests, like Dennis Prager, Rebekah Gregory, and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in this compelling audio collection. You can get your CD set as our thank you for your gift of any amount in support of our ministry. Join Dr. Dobson in serving families: call 877-732-6825, or, visit drjamesdobson.org.