Is it un-Christian for Trump to believe God spared his life?

We know it to be true. And when you wake up and you find yourself in America, you realize, holy smokes, I won the lottery. That's just the way we see it. Are you paying attention to the news that's coming out of?

this Secret Service debacle? Are you watching? Look, I'm not going to dive into it all.

As it, I don't know, as all of it comes to light, as it breaks the surface, it is just, I encourage you, keep your eyes open. Keep your mind open. Keep your heart open. Just take it all in. We've got to get to the bottom of it.

Somebody has to get to the bottom of this.

So just, you know, continue to pay attention, I guess. That's my advice to you. Continue to,

and not only pay attention, but pay attention with an open mind and an open heart. Instead of just taking, you know, one side, and it doesn't matter what side you're taking. I'm just, that's all I'm going to say. I'm just going to encourage you to pay attention.

because things are going to surface. Things are going to surface and they may shock us, but I think we need to be paying attention. All right. I've got a narcissism update today. There is somebody there, I can't even, I can't, I'm not even going to mention this person's name because I don't want to, I don't want to give her publicity, but you know, there's a host out there saying that it's unchristian for Trump to say that God was watching over him.

That's an unchristian thing to say. We're going to, we're going to get into that again. I'm not going to even say the person's name. I don't want to encourage you to watch such, I don't know. I don't, I mean, it's not filth.

It's, it's just stupidity. It is. It's just flat out stupidity. And I don't, I'm not going to encourage you to engage in stupid entertainment. That's, that's what I'll, that's just all we're going to say about it.

So we're going to dive into that a little bit. And also, ironically enough, I've got an article here and it's entitled, We Tend to Grow Out of Narcissism, but Today's Children May Have a Harder Time. And I'm interested in that because I think part of education is not only teaching kids to read and do math and, and diagram sentences, but a big part of education, maybe the main part, is to teach them, to direct them, to guide them to become a particular type of person. One who is not a narcissist. That's, I think, what we want to drive them away from is narcissism.

But according to the article, today's children may have a harder time. And I'm interested in that. I'm intrigued by that. So we're going to, we're going to dive into that a little bit. Also, we have a little history class to get into.

It is, should we dive into history class first? Should we? I mean, maybe we should, just because I love it. Today's July 22nd. And on this day in 1893, a young English professor from Massachusetts, her name was Catherine Lee Bates.

She traveled to Colorado Springs to spend a few weeks teaching a summer session at Colorado College on July 22nd, the supreme day of our Colorado sojourn, as she put it.

Bates and others, the other visiting teachers, piled into a wagon for a bumpy ride to the top of Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak towered over the town. From the snow-capped summit, she gazed in wordless rapture over the far expanse of mountain ranges and the sea-like sweep of plain before her. These are her words, her writings. She's gazing in wordless rapture over the far expanse of mountain ranges and the sea-like sweep of plain.

She's from Massachusetts.

and she's entering into the interior of the country, perhaps for the first time.

I'm going to assume this is the first time, because she gets up on Pikes Peak and she just looks out over the plain. She's just awestruck. She's awestruck at the majesty of God, at this glorious creation.

That night, back in her room, Bates scratched out the opening lines of a poem that had floated into her mind while on the tip of Pikes Peak. The words originally said this, Oh, beautiful for halcyon skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties above the enameled plain. That's her original writings. Two years later, on July 4, 1895, her poem was printed in the Congregationalist, a popular church magazine. It quickly found an appreciative audience.

Of course it did, because, you know, Christians tend to be patriotic. They fell in love with this song.

Several years after that, it was set to the hymn tune, Materna, composed by Samuel A. Ward. By that time, Bates had made some revisions to her verses, including changing halcyon skies to spacious skies and enameled plain to fruited plain. Today, the song which we know and love reminds us that America can be great only as long as the beauty of the land is matched by the goodness of its citizens. It's one of the nation's favorite patriotic hymns.

And I'm borrowing this from William Bennett. Those are his words. Bennett says that this song reminds us that America can be great only as long as the beauty of the land is matched by the goodness of its citizens. And this, my friends, this is where true education comes into play. Because I don't think necessarily that innately we're born to be good.

I feel like this is something we have to be steered into. We have to be taught goodness.

I mean, you know, all right, think of yourself as a child. Did anyone teach you how to lie? As a child, I don't remember being taught how to lie. It just kind of came naturally. It's kind of innate.

All right, you realize I'm about to get into trouble if I admit that I did this thing. So I'm going to say I didn't. You know, I didn't take those two cookies out of the cookie jar. You know, you don't want to get in trouble. And as a child, this is your rationale.

To avoid trouble, I am going to say whatever I need to say to steer me away from this.

That's not innately being good.

I think to lie is the opposite of being good. Wouldn't we all agree to that? I think we would. But we have this innate ability to rationalize our way out of trouble and our way out of danger. And that might include, as a child, lying about something that you actually did.

Because if you admit it, you know, there's going to be trouble. Trouble's coming down the pike. We have to teach kids to be good. Part of being good is taking ownership. Taking ownership for your mistakes.

Taking ownership for committing a wrong. You know, taking ownership for, yep, okay, it was me. I took those two cookies out of the cookie jar. They were delicious. I just, I couldn't resist.

So there's this moment now to start teaching some virtue.

You have this opportunity to teach self-control. Which one of the virtues would be temperance? It can be temperance. You can control yourself. You can say, ah, no one's looking.

I really want those two cookies. But, all right, I will show some self-control. And then I'll also show some responsibility. And I'll ask, you know, maybe I'll go ask my mom. Mom, can I have, you know, a couple of those cookies?

Maybe I'll get one out of the deal. Maybe I'll get two out of the deal. Or maybe I won't get any. Maybe the answer will most likely be, no, you're going to spoil your, maybe after dinner. Then you're like, I don't want to wait till after dinner.

I'm going to take cookies right now. Again, self-control kicks in. And Bennett is telling us here that America can be great only as long as the beauty of the land is matched by the goodness of its citizens. That's what makes America great. It's the goodness of its citizens.

So when Trump stands up and he says, we're going to make America great again,

his foundational point is America is going to be great because the citizens are going to be well off according to his policies and things he's going to interject. And that's true. That's true. We are going to be well off. But the true greatness of America comes from what we're teaching the kids.

It comes from, are we teaching them the virtues? Are we teaching them goodness? Are we teaching them justice? Are we teaching them honesty? Are we teaching them to be truthful and to be honest to their peers, to their friends, to the adults, to their parents?

Are we teaching them to honor their parents, to be truthful to their parents? Are we teaching them courage? Because it's going to take some courage. If you take two cookies out of the cookie jar and you didn't exhibit self-control, will you have the courage then to say, yeah, I did. I took it.

You know, the chances are, you might not. And so again, courage and temperance, you know, sometimes it's showing courage to show temperance. Sometimes these virtues go hand in hand. and sometimes it's showing wisdom to show courage by showing temperance. And then, you know, being honest, these virtues, they all play into each other.

These cardinal virtues, as they're called, it's a Latin word for hinge, because everything else hinges on these virtues. All the other virtues, they say, hinge on these four.

These four give us the catapult from which to dive into the others.

And this, my friends, this is the foundation of education. This is what makes

a classical Christian education, so viable, so important. Now, again, you don't, I mean, you can teach these without having any type of Christian dialogue to it. These four, there are theological virtues that go alongside of them, faith, hope, and love. And you can also teach those without any type of, I mean, they're called the theological virtues because the apostle Paul says, you know, he refers to these three. Now we have these three, faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

But you, again, you can teach these classically without religion, but our founding fathers used religion to teach these. They used religion as the foundation and not just any religion. They used Christianity as the foundation in order to teach these virtues.

And this is, and I've just, I've repeated this over and over and over again. And I didn't mean to dive into this when we were going to talk about history class, but it just, it plays into it beautifully. Bill Bennett's words just spring into this whole idea of this is what education is.

America is beautiful. It's a glorious, wonderful place. And, as Bill Bennett says, it can be great only as long as the beauty of the land is matched by our goodness, the goodness of the citizens. Those of us who are not, we're not narcissists in this article that I'm going to dive into, which says we tend to grow out of narcissism, but today's children may have a harder time. And in my opinion, they may have a harder time because they're not being taught other things.

And those other things would include the virtues. Those other things would include this very foundation to all education.

Now the article dives into some other things, which we will get into, but specifically my take and my opinion is that education, the purpose of education, is to raise and train a child to be a particular type of individual.

And the Bible speaks about this in Proverbs when it says, train up a child in the way you should go. When he's old, he won't depart from it. And that word, way, you know, refers to the personality, makeup, the bent of the child, you know, allow the child to engage in their desires, things that they're interested in, and steer them in that. But as you're steering them along the way, you've got to pour the virtues into them. You've got to pour into them wisdom.

You've got to pour into them self-control. You've got to pour into them honesty, truthfulness. It's what we refer to as justice. And you've got to pour into them fortitude or courage. They've got to be a courageous lot.

They've got to be willing to just go after it, to have courage and just to set a goal, have a dream and just pursue it. And this is the beauty of America. And this is what our founding fathers passed on to us. This is what they gave to us. They said, here, you have this ability, you have this freedom.

Now, go after it. Continue the American dream. Continue to build upon this foundation that we've given to you, because you have the freedom to do it. You have the liberty to do it. And there are those among us who say, no, you don't.

No, you don't have the ability to do it. The constitution wasn't written for all of us. The declaration wasn't written for all of us. And those of you that it wasn't written for, sorry, you're fresh out of luck. You're the wrong color.

You're the wrong gender. You're the wrong whatever, fill in the blank. You're just wrong. You're wrong, wrong, wrong. You don't have any hope.

There's no hope for you because you're not a man. Or there's no hope for you because you're not white. You're just oppressed. That's all. There's no hope, hope, hope, hope.

But what our students, what our children, need, is hope. Hope is a virtue. It's a theological virtue, and they need that poured into them. They need faith, hope, and love poured into them. alongside of the four cardinals.

They have to realize, yes, there is hope. They live in a country that gives them hope. And they must have faith in that, because faith is the substance of what we're hoping for, according to Hebrews. And these are the things, this is the foundational stuff that makes up a quality education, my friends, quality education. Now, on the other side, I'm up against the brake, but on the other side, before I get into this article on narcissism, I want to dive into what a very famous talk show host is saying.

And it's what she's saying about Trump. I'm not going to call her out by name because I don't want to give her, I do not want to give her any accolades. I just don't want to mention her name. The other day, Trump, in his RNC speech, he said, I'm only going to say Biden's name. once.

I had to say it because I was talking about the 10 worst presidents ever combined. I didn't want anyone to be confused why I had to say his name, but that's it. I'm not going to say his name anymore. I'm done saying his name. I don't know.

I didn't catch the speech in Michigan. Did he say his name or did he? We're not sure. I mean, okay. At the RNC, though, he did not.

He did not say, just that one time. Then he would refer to the they or the administration. It's interesting that he referred to they, because I think we have to refer to the administration as they, because we don't know who's in charge. It could be any number of people named Barack Obama. I mean, no, it could be anybody.

I think saying they is probably the way to go. There is somebody out there on the airwaves, saying that it's unchristian for Trump to say God was watching over him. Oh, we're going to have a good time with this. Then we're going to dive into this article on how our kids, what we can do to keep them to not be narcissists. All right.

We are going to pick these things and other things up on the other side of this break. My friends, you are listening to The Dean's List on America Out Loud Talk Radio.

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There has got to be goodness taught in the country. All right, welcome back to the Dean's List. I'm Dean Bowen. You, my friends, are listening to America Out Loud talk radio, and I think it's clear. I think it's a particular thing in American public education.

It has been drifting away from that thing for decades, and it's time that we get our moorings back.

It's time we look back up to the North Star and we realize, holy smokes, we're off course. Let's get back on course. Let's get back on course. It's going to require some goodness. It's going to require some goodness, I think, to do that.

It's something that we have to teach. We have to teach goodness, because it just doesn't happen naturally.

If you want corn, you've got to sow the corn. It's just not going to happen. naturally. You have to be intentional about it. Then you have to get out there and you have to pull the weeds, and you have to get in the garden.

You have to tend to the garden, because if you don't, what's going to come up in the garden are just weeds and just whatever thoughts are given in,

whatever teachings. We've got to be intentional. Part of being intentional in education is teaching the kids to be good.

More on that to come. A particular host, I want to dive into this story. A particular talk show host complained last week about former President Donald John Trump's claim that God had been watching out for him after he turned his head at the very last second, that a would-be assassin's bullet would strike him. Instead, because he turned his head, and you've all seen that 3D diagram where if he doesn't turn his head, then the bullet hits him straight on, straight on the side of his head, and it's over. His life is over.

But he turns his head and tilts it just enough so the assassin's bullet grazes his ear, takes a little chunk of his ear out. Instead of hitting it, it's striking him in the head. Trump has said that God was watching out for him. It was the grace of God looking out for him. A particular host is not happy about this.

How dare he? How dare he make this statement? She argued in her complaining that only a narcissist would say that God saved his life, talking about narcissism. These are the words of a narcissist. How dare he say that God would save his life, especially when someone else, Flayer Flayter and hero Cory Coppitor, has died in the same shooting that he survived?

He is a narcissist. How dare he say God saved him and not Cory?

Here is the exact quote.

Here's what she said. I was raised Catholic. I'm a Christian girl. When someone like this, or when something like this happens to you, and you say something like God was watching me, that is a very unchristian thing to say.

It's very narcissistic, she said. I want to point this out. I want to point out one thing. I'm speaking to fellow Christians, she said. I was raised Catholic.

I'm a Christian girl. When something like this happens to you, like this assassination attempt, and you say something like God was watching me, that is a very unchristian thing to say, because it's very narcissistic.

Then she went on to accuse Trump of suggesting that because God was looking out for him, he was not looking out for Coppitor. Halfway through the accusation, by the way, she forgot his name. She said, what about Cory? What's his name? She didn't even know his last name.

Coppitor, the fireman who also got killed. What about all those guys that killed on Sandy Hook, all of those people? She continued, oh, God was watching me and not watching them? There's something very disturbing about that.

All right, first of all, first of all, if you are actually a Christian,

I've got to challenge her statement that she's even a Christian. I'm speaking to fellow Christians. I was raised Catholic. I'm a Christian girl. No, no, you aren't.

You might have been raised Catholic. You are not a Christian girl.

I'm sorry, right now, you aren't, because if you are a Christian girl, you understand the spirit that somebody has. as they're making the statement. Trump is not the first person to make this statement. Trump is not the first person to have his life spared.

and say, I feel like God was watching over me. Trump is not the first person to have his life spared, while other lives were not spared. And the person whose life is spared makes the statement, I feel like God was watching over me. I feel like God has something for me. I feel like I was spared for a reason.

It's not narcissistic. It's spoken out of an attitude and a spirit of gratitude. And if you mis-host,

mis-programmed host, whose name I'm not going to mention just because I can't, I'm not going to promote her. I'm not going to do it. I mean, I've told people in the past, do not watch this person. Do not, because you, I mean, one of two things is going to happen. Actually, one of three things is going to happen.

They're going to frustrate you, number one, or it's going to make you dumber, number two, or a combination of those things, number three. And that's just where I'm going to leave it.

I think she's lying to us. I don't think she is a practicing Christian, because if you are a practicing Christian, you understand the spirit of the speech. You understand the spirit of the statement. You understand the attitude in which it's given, the gratitude. It's an attitude of gratitude.

And everybody has said it. I feel like Trump just said, everybody believes it. Everybody knows it. I've heard so many people say this. The first person who said it was Cindy.

Cindy said to me, there's something different about Trump. He just looks different. And I've heard several talking heads and commentators say, there's something different about him. He has come out of this a different man. And that mis-talk show host is not narcissism.

No, that's gratefulness. That is somebody who has a deep understanding that they should not be here. And again, you go back and you watch the video and you look at the side by side of the video and the 3D diagram of the head turning and the line of sight, the trajectory that the bullet is taking until he turns his head at that right moment. I mean, we're talking milliseconds or millimeters.

You can't say any other thing that this was nothing but the hand of God. I mean, smart people who believe in God and smart people who don't believe in God are saying, holy cow, there's no explanation for this. Are we all narcissists then? Are we all narcissists? I don't know.

Can you be a narcissist about someone other than yourself? I don't know. Maybe you can't. Maybe that's not a definition of a narcissist. But I don't think that Trump's a narcissist because he said, I think God's watching over me.

Does that make George Washington a narcissist? When he said it was providence that while death was all around him and the letter that he writes to his brother after the Battle of Monongahela in 1755, Washington makes it back to Fort Cumberland. And when he gets there, news has reached him that he was dead. Word traveled that you were dead, that all the officers were dead. Everybody was shot off their horses and they were dead.

And Washington was like, yeah, I was shot off of two horses. I mean, I wasn't shot off. I had two horses shot off from under me. And look, here's my coat. Look at these four bullet holes through my coat, but I'm alive.

But word had already traveled that he was dead. So he said, I need paper. I need a quill and some paper. I got to start writing some letters to people to tell them I'm not dead, because I fear the news is going to get to them before I can, before I can tell them. And his first letter is to his mother.

He says, Mom, I'm not dead. Okay, whatever you hear. I mean, you've probably heard things. And it was bad. The battle was bad.

The Redcoats were cowards. He called them cowards. And he said, the Virginians, my men fought bravely. Matter. of fact, not only did Washington say that, but the chief who met up with him 15 years later said, watch that man right there, that man on the horse.

His men, he fights differently. He's in a red coat, but he's not one of the British. He fights like us and his men fight like us. The British are like standing out there and open, they're not taking cover because Braddock wouldn't let him. He's like, that's cowardly.

You stand and you fight, die like men. And Washington's men, the Virginians, are taking. we want to live to fight another day.

So in Washington's letter to his mom, he says this kind of stuff. And he said, God protected me. And in the letter to his brother, he says the same thing. He said, I had two horses shut out from under me, four bullet holes in my coat, but it was the hand of providence. God kept his hand on me.

He said, well, death was happening all around me because all the officers next to him on either side, they're all going down. Death is happening. So is he a narcissist? Mrs. talk show host, is George Washington a narcissist?

While people are dying next to him, but yet he's giving gratitude to God for preserving him.

Actually, it's a very Christian thing to say. It's a very Christian way to feel. It is a very Christian way to believe. And if you were an actual Christian, you would understand that. I don't think you are an actual Christian.

You can say, you know, I'm speaking to fellow Christians. I was raised Catholic. I'm a Christian girl. That just makes me laugh. And if I gave you the name of the person, some of you probably know, but if I gave you the name of the person who said this and you would laugh right along with me, and I bet it would be a deep belly laugh.

I bet everybody in the room would start laughing. They'd be like, no, no, there's no way. I know. No, no, don't buy it. Do not believe it.

That is not the truth.

But I'm not going to say her name because I just, I just refuse.

But I want to point out here that she's in error and her statements are in error. And if you look at him, and if you listen to him talk, and if you actually were a Christian, you would understand that he is speaking from a heart of gratitude. And look, none of us know.

why, why Corey Comptor, why his life was taken while other lives were spared. Not only Trump's life, but other lives, other lives in the stands. Why him?

These are questions that his family might be asking, but there's no answers to this.

There are no answers. We do know scripturally that everybody has an appointment with death. We know this. It's appointed for man. what wants, that?

there's a time for all of us. We all have this appointment that we're going to keep. And we don't know how we're going to keep it. Now, you know, from my perspective, I think my appointment's going to come later on. That's just the way I feel about myself.

I feel like I'm going to a hundred, maybe even beyond. You just never know. I would want to go to a hundred. Well, if I'm not, if I'm not healthy, then I don't. All right.

But that's why I'm interested in my health. That's why I.

take the products from the wellness company. That's why I take the spike support. I want that nasty spike out of my system. That's why I take the heart health from the wellness company, because I want my heart healthy. That's why I eat the Hewlett Wright metabolic health bars, because I want good gut health.

I want good probiotic happening internally. I want good long-term health. So I take these products. That's why I take the supplements. I take vitamin D.

I take C. I take a multi. I take these things.

That's why my short-term health includes the COFIX RX regimen, the throat and nasal spray. I take it 12 months out of the year. I don't just take it during flu season. Although last flu season, holy smokes, it bailed me out. Just bailed me out.

I told you here, time and time again, that COFIX RX bailed me out. The year before. I was out three times. Last year, when I felt something coming on, boom, nipped it in the bud. Nip it in the bud, as Barney Phipe used to say.

Just took it out. All right. Because I feel like I'm going to 100.. No, I don't know. We all have our own point in time.

We are all given this time. And it was Corey's time. It was Corey's time. There is this, in the Chronicles of Narnia, in the book series, I think book five, is called The Horse and His Boy. And there's this one point in the story.

Shasta is the boy and the girl's name. Iris, I forget the girl's name. But they're both riding horses. And Shasta and his horse are in the lead. And he looks back and there's a lion.

chasing them. And they're just, they're hoofing it, they're hoofing it, they're hoofing it. This big lion's chasing them. And the lion jumps up on the girl and her horse and tears at her shoulder a little bit. And then she's injured.

And then, towards the tail end of the story, the lion reveals himself to be Aslan. And he says, it was me. I was the lion chasing you guys. And Shasta says, well, all right, you chased us to the fence row or whatever.

But why did you, what was the point? Why did you injure, forget the girl's name? And he said, that's not your concern. We're telling your story. That's her story.

And that's none of your concern. We're focusing on your story, not hers. I had a reason for that. And it doesn't concern you. And that's always stayed with me.

And I feel like, I don't know if he intended to shed some light on this, but C.

S. Lewis and telling that story and describing that act between the lion and the two, that he shed some light.

into some of these deep questions. Why Cory and not Trump? And is it narcissistic for Trump to say that God spared his life? No, I'm going to say no, it's not. I don't know why God didn't spare Cory's life, but that's Cory's story.

His story has come to its conclusion.

And now he's in the hands of God. And I know, as Christians, this is how his family, I can just imagine, this is how his family feels, that he is now in the hands of God. But we don't know the answers to these questions. Why him? Why there?

Why then? Only God knows. And we don't know. I mean, we can surmise why Trump was spared. I mean, he is the leader of the free world.

I know he's not the president. He's not the sitting president of the United States. But other people have said, that doesn't matter. We know who he is. We know he's the leader of the free world.

We know he's about to be the president. I mean, there was going to be some massive cheating. if he's not elected. I mean, massive.

We know he's the leader of the free world. At the RNC convention, he made a statement as the leader of the free world, when he said to all of you other countries out there, those of you that are holding our hostages, those hostages better be back before I assume office, or there's going to be trouble. That is somebody speaking, who is speaking from the office of the leader of the free world.

All right, so we can draw some conclusions as to why Trump was spared. And for him to say this, it has nothing to do with whatsoever. It has everything to do with gratitude, 100%. And you can't tell me otherwise. And you certainly can't tell me, and now I know I say, have an open mind.

Look, my mind is open on this. I promise you, my mind is open on this. And I just cited to you why I think what I think, my mind is very open. And if I felt like there was some decent claim, or some decent support to the claim, that a statement that Trump would make would be narcissistic, I would support it. I absolutely would support it, but there's no support to it.

I mean, it's a baseless claim. It was a statement spoken in gratitude, and that's just, that's the truth of it. All right, again, I am up against it, but I want to dive into how we keep kids from actual narcissism, because there are actual narcissists out there. And it's probable that the person that made this statement about Trump is an actual narcissist. All right, so more of this on the other side of this break.

My friends, you are listening to The Dean's List on America Out Loud Talk Radio.

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Okay, welcome back, my friends. Happy to have you on board. Thank you for joining us. So am I wrong? I mean, is it un-Christian for Trump to say God was watching over him?

No, no, I'm not wrong. Now, you're not just saying that because you like me, right? Okay, all right. Okay, so it's not an un-Christian thing to say. Matter of fact, it's the epitome of Christianity, isn't it?

The epitome of Christianity. It's the epitome of a Christian thing to say if you believe God was watching over you. I know. There have been so many times, my friends, so many times in my life where I know that God was watching over me. It's just the way it is.

I mean, I've talked about my swimming accident here.

You know, there's other things, other explosions that I have caused, which I think probably should have taken me out. I don't know. I think it's a very Christian thing to say. The epitome. The epitome of Christianity.

All right, so this hostess believes that it's un-Christian because it's narcissistic to make that statement. All right, so I'm looking at an article from the Epoch Times. It's from their wellness section. And the author of the article, Matthew Little, believes that today's children may have a harder time growing up to not be narcissists. It's a very intriguing piece, again written by Matthew Little.

He says, a beautiful thing about people is that we tend to improve in the most fundamental ways as we age and grow happier. in this process. That may be in part because some of our least desirable traits tend to decline with age.

One of these least desirable traits, of course, that he's getting into is narcissism. We may not be all that aware of some of those traits, he says. It can often be hard to see ourselves in a clear light, or we may be too brittle to truly reflect on our flaws.

This feeling of insecurity is one of the primary causes of narcissism.

This is what researchers discovered. This came out of 2021, that these feelings of insecurity are primary causes of narcissism. And again, as I'm reading through this, I'm thinking, well, this doesn't match up to Trump. Trump isn't insecure. He's the opposite of insecure,

which would not line up with this talk show host calling him a narcissist.

The article, Little continues, while narcissists are better known for their grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance, these qualities are attempts to compensate for a deeper sense of self-doubt and shame. That's where people would point fingers and say, see, grandiose sense of self, that's Trump. That's Trump. He has an inflated self-importance. I don't think he does have an inflated self-importance.

There's nothing inflated about him. He's an important man. It's not inflated. He is actually an important man. I mean, you guys on the left will say this about him because you don't like that.

he's a very important man.

I don't see any, again, I don't mean to, I didn't want to dive into this article to compare it to Trump. That's not my point, but I just, I feel naturally compelled to do so, because what's her face, or whether thinks he's a narcissist for saying, got to protect it. All. right, back to the article. Narcissism exists on a spectrum from extreme cases that meet the threshold of a diagnosis to the everyday arrogance, hiding insecurity nearly everyone will experience.

In some ways, it's hard to escape this dynamic. We live in a world that values appearances and superficial successes over intrinsic qualities like kindness and honesty. This is the point of the article. This is what I intended to originally bring out when I read this, because this is the heart of actual education. This right here, when we teach kids intrinsic values and qualities such as kindness and honesty, and wisdom and self-control and virtue, when we teach them these things, there's a depth to them.

There's none of this superficial value of how you look. There's none of this superficial value of appearances where you are judging someone by the color of their skin. That's superficial.

There's no depth in that. The depth is judging people by the content of their character. This goes back to MLK 101..

But according to Dr. Ben Carson, this isn't what we have. This type of teaching is frontal lobe instruction right here,

instructing people to really understand and dive into the quality of character. That's frontal lobe instruction. And Carson says that when we teach people to react to the color of skin or react to anything, that's a midbrain function. We're teaching to the midbrain. We're teaching them to react, to respond, not to think, not to actually put thought to something.

We're teaching them this superficial value of appearance. Instead, actual education.

should be instructing children in this intrinsic quality, intrinsic virtues, kindness, honesty, are mentioned here in the article. But I opened up today's program, really talking about the seven virtues. And it's more than just the seven. We talk about the seven,

but there's a plethora of them that we can choose from and should, by the way. Okay, the article continues. We are also encouraged toward the kind of self-centeredness that defines narcissism. This is the education today.

Little is saying that children today are encouraged toward the kind of self-centeredness that defines narcissism. That's the very definition of narcissism. You're self-centered. I mean, okay, I'm going to go back to Trump. People that know him, that have known him for years, all say he's not about himself.

He's interested in those that are around him.

But isn't it interesting that the Marxist left will accuse him of something? And that's what they themselves are exactly. They are that thing. All right.

So how are we encouraging kids to be self-centered? That would define narcissism. Well, Little continues. He says, social media encourages us to broadcast experiences in a self-promotional way. that would be obnoxious in face-to-face conversations.

I love that statement. Just think about it. The next time you're on social media and you see somebody promoting themselves,

just remove yourself from the context of social media and pretend like this was a face-to-face appearance, a face-to-face conversation, and this person was presenting it in this way. Wouldn't it become obnoxious to you?

Absolutely, it would. You guys are all nodding your heads. Yes, it would become very obnoxious.

And the point of the article is, social media is creating narcissists to the nth degree. Coincidentally, he says, this kind of behavior is one reason narcissists have poor relationships. All right, I got to go back to Trump. Again, the people that talk about him, the people that spoke about him at the convention last week, all spoke in gloaming terms of their relationship with him. It was both friends, employees, children, grandchildren, people from every stratosphere of a relationship that you can have with this man.

They all spoke highly of that relationship, but narcissists, they have poor relationships. The article continues.

It says, and this has taught us to tell children how worthy they are, regardless of their character or conduct.

But true self-esteem comes from feeling warmth and affection from parents. Eddie Brumelman, who is a reported narcissism researcher,

makes the statement that true self-esteem comes from feeling warmth. It comes from feeling affection.

We're teaching people that they are worthy, regardless of their character or conduct, based upon how they look, or based upon this action that they're doing, or based upon how they're promoting themselves.

Brumelman says, when children were overvalued by their parents, they developed higher levels of narcissism. Being overvalued, although seemingly benign, may convey to children that they are superior individuals who are entitled to privilege. Do you think you can overvalue your child? Yes, you can. You can overvalue them.

You should treat them with honesty. You should treat them with the same virtue that you want to pour into them.

He cautions that praising children too much in an attempt to raise their self-esteem appears to trigger the tortures of narcissism. You can't praise them to raise their self-esteem. You should show them affection. You should show them love.

Our research suggests, he says, a more effective approach is simply showing warmth and affection to their kids. This reminds me of the robber cave experiment that we talked about last week. And in that experiment, they talk about the difference between authentic pride and hubristic, that these are the two types of pride. Oh, would you look at the time? Unbelievable.

Holy smokes. This segment, this last segment, flew. I mean, I'm not even scratching the surface. Can we get into this tomorrow? Can we dive back into narcissism tomorrow?

Is that okay? Can we have narcissism part two tomorrow? All right, we will do that. My friends, I apologize. We are up against it.

Listen, my opinion is that Trump is not unchristian for saying that he wanted God to watch over him. He is grateful for it. And I think a lot of us are grateful for it. All right, that's all the time we have today. We're going to dive into more, more narcissism tomorrow, and how, indeed, we can drive it out of the hearts and minds of our kids.

Thank you for joining me today, my friends. Encourage your friends and family to get on the Dean's List. Let's unite to renovate the age.