Radio Show Hour 1 – 02/14/2025

[00:00:14] From atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Happy to have you along, my fellow Americans, Sam Bushman live on your radio. Hard-hitting news the network refused to use, no doubt, starts now. This, my fellow Americans, is the broadcast for February the 14th in the year of our Lord 2025.

[00:00:40] This is Hour 1 of 2, and the goal always to protect life, liberty, and poverty, to promote God, family, and country, to do so on your radio in the traditions of our founding fathers. Yes, indeed, we use the checks and balances brilliantly put in place by the founding fathers. That is the supreme law of the land, the Constitution of the United States of America, our guide. We reject revolution unless it's a Jesus revolution. Then we're in because we follow the Prince of Peace. It is a freedom-loving. Fantastic.

[00:01:06] Fantastic. We're taking America back one heart, one faith-filled mind at a time. It is Freedom Loving Friday. You've got to dig that. It's also Valentine's Day, ladies and gentlemen. We'd like to give you a big old shout-out for Valentine's Day. And I agree that it's a time to think about others. It's a time for civility. It's a time for respect. It's a time for appreciation. I know they want it to be a romantic holiday, and to some degree that can be. At the same time, it can be, well, I'll just tell you this.

[00:01:31] I've got eight children and nine grandchildren, and we do our very best to have a Valentine's dinner. And the children serve, and they learn to serve, and they learn which side of the, you know, plate the fork goes, and what you eat with what and how you do it. You kind of learn a lot of Emily Post kind of-esque things, and it's just a great opportunity to love one another and, hey, set aside differences and learn to forgive and be patient, and the list goes on and on.

[00:02:00] Happy Valentine's Day to all of you. Dr. Scott Bradley's with me, freedomsrisingsun.com. Check out his award-winning work. He had his incredible webinar yesterday. We'll talk about that in the second hour. We'll talk about a whole lot more, too. Doge is going crazy. I love it in a lot of ways, but, man, it's just Congress is missing in action. We'll get into that. There's just so much on the table to discuss. And I know it's supposed to be like soft stories for Valentine's Day, right? No, we're just going to hit it hard anyway, folks.

[00:02:30] But when we hit it hard, there's an interesting guest, and this guest is really hard to introduce. Let me tell you why. He's got a Ph.D. He's a retired special agent from the government. He's a research professor. He's a board-certified police chaplain. He's an author, a writer, if you will. And that's just getting started.

[00:02:54] Now, when we say he's a professor, he's a research professor of all kinds of interesting things relating to combat psychology. Member emeritus, National Academy of Neuropsychology. I mean, the guy's just got so many good. It's like Jack Reacher turned chaplain. It's great news, in my opinion. Now, his name is Chaplain Joseph F. Bannon.

[00:03:23] He's got a Ph.D., of course. I told you he's an author. His book is The 19th Chamber, Killer of Men to Healer of Men. Yeah, Killer of Men to Healer of Men. That book is available at all fine bookstores. If it's not available, ask for it. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, everywhere else. Dr. Joseph Bannon, welcome to Liberty Roundtable Live, sir. Thank you, sir. Good morning, folks, from rainy California. Oh, boy, it's raining everywhere. It seems like that, or snow and everything else.

[00:03:52] We got a big old snowstorm in several inches yesterday for us, and they say that, hey, there's big swaths of cold and storms blasting through. It looks like global warming, Joe. Or the apocalypse. There you go. Or the apocalypse, because, man, it's a coming. That's for sure. Joseph, before we get started, I want you to just give us a thumbnail of who you are, where you grew up. Give us kind of a, what did life look like before you became an adult?

[00:04:19] Well, I'm still focused on the Jack Reacher turned chaplain. I'm going to steal that from you. That is awesome. Thank you. You're welcome, sir. But I read all your different bios and different things that I'm in. Man, this guy's like a bad end. And then I'm like, but wait a minute. You know, he's kind of progressed in his life. And Jack progresses a little bit. Jack's just not quite there yet. You know what I mean?

[00:04:42] Well, Sam, to answer your question, yes, I did progress basically from a juvenile delinquent to a highly decorated law enforcement officer. And obviously, I attribute that ascension to my relationship with God and accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was 19. But before that event, I basically grew up in New York, out of Long Island.

[00:05:11] Juvenile, delinquent, got in every kind of trouble you could think of. Didn't have much of a future to look forward to, per se. You know, everything from growing up in domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse. I didn't really see much of a future for myself. When I was 14 years old, I actually worked for the, I like to say the New York Italian men. They had a gambling operation.

[00:05:39] And in the back store of, I'm sorry, in the back room of a candy store was a horse race bookmaking operation. And I would answer the phone and I would take bets over the phone, take money, put it in a brown paper bag, shove it down my pants and run about three blocks. Bring it to the back door of a funeral parlor where you basically walked in and it looked like Las Vegas. There were roulette wheels, card tables.

[00:06:08] And in the front, there were caskets, people crying over their loved ones. And in the back, you have people shouting, yelling, smoking cigars and gambling. So that's how I grew up. And I wanted to become a gangster. I was so impressed with the way these guys dressed, with the pinstripe suits and the hats and this, that and the other thing. I didn't have much of a role model in my family growing up.

[00:06:34] So it was very easy for my interests to be deflected towards people that I admired. And at the time, I admired these Italian guys, even though I'm Irish. I mean, that's one of the reasons they used me. They knew the cops were looking at the Italian men, but they're not going to suspect some little Irish kid. Yeah, plus the Irish are in those days. Hey, the Irish are at the bottom of the barrel anyway. Not that it's true, but that's kind of the attitude from certain folks, right? No doubt.

[00:07:03] And I don't mean that negative to you. I'm just telling you, that's the reality in which you grew up, right? Absolutely. I mean, you know, we were known as good drinkers, good fighters. We became priests, firemen, and police officers. There you have it. All right, that's the thumbnail growing up. What happened? Which aspect of your life became kind of the change agent, if you will?

[00:07:28] Well, as I said, I had some experience with drinking too much, alcoholism. And I basically went into a 12-step program when I was 16, but I was way too young to kind of catch the message that was being preached at me. And so long story short, I ended up in an alcohol rehabilitation center in New Jersey. And I was basically thrown out after three months as somebody who just wasn't going to make it.

[00:07:56] They didn't really see much hope in me. And it was at that time I was probably at the lowest point of despair in my life. And I was, you know, I grew up a Catholic, went through all the sacraments, communion, confirmation, all of that. So I prayed to God as I understood God at the time. And I just knew I was at the end of my rope. And I said, God, if there is a God, I really need your help. I mean, you couldn't mess my life up any more than I have at this point.

[00:08:24] So I had a girlfriend who was a born-again Christian, and she kept trying to get me to go to church with her when we were together. So I couldn't really take it anymore, all her preaching. So I basically called her a Jesus freak and told her to, you know, let's just call this quits and be friends. And we didn't speak to each other for a while. And I was at the end of my bed pretty much getting ready to just probably do something stupid because I didn't see any hope in my life. And the phone rings.

[00:08:53] And it was her. And she said, hey, I haven't spoken to you for a while. I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to church with me and my sister on Wednesday night. And that was out on Long Island. And for some reason, something down deep inside of me said, yes, I'll go. So I postponed basically ending my life. And I went to church with her. And I walked into that church, and I felt something and saw something in the people there. I couldn't quite put a finger on it, what it was.

[00:09:22] Yeah, the Lord said, hey, hey, hey, Joseph. Yeah. Right? Yes, sir. And I accepted the Lord. And for the first time in my life, I had no desire to drink, no desire to destroy myself. And I felt hope. Wow. Where's this girl today? You know, it's funny. As I mentioned in my bio, I was a volunteer fireman. And she ended up marrying the captain of my fire company.

[00:09:53] So I guess it was an even exchange. She got my captain, and I got Jesus. So I guess that's pretty fair. Yeah, just trade captains. There you go. So are you friends with her today? Is she around? No, sir. It's been decades. We haven't. All right. So you don't even know. All right. No. Going forward then, so this changed your life. Did it stick, or did you have a few falls along the way? I mean, let's be real about it, right? Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. It stuck for about two years.

[00:10:20] I was so dedicated and on point with the Lord. And then, you know, I allowed the glitter, glamour, and attractions of the world to draw me back into the world. I didn't drink. I never went back to drinking and taking drugs again. But, you know, I got into a promiscuous lifestyle and doing things that were not really honorable to God. But I have to say, even in that process, and it was probably a 40-year process.

[00:10:50] I like to refer to it as my 40-year wilderness experience. God never turned his back on me. And despite the fact that I'm living a, I'm going to just say it, a sinful life. I went back into sin, kind of like the prodigal son. And God was just coaxing me. A little bit like Mary, right? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. The Savior saved Mary, and she was rescued.

[00:11:18] And, you know, then she kind of fell back and stuff like that, too. And, you know, I think that's the reality of this life. We're here to get a body and here to make wise choices. And you're getting beat up along the way with your choices. When did your government career start in relation to all this? Because that's an interesting parallel, right? Oh, it is. It's an unexpected parallel. I mean, that's why I wanted to set a baseline in my childhood, how I grew up in New York.

[00:11:46] And then all of a sudden, I became a police officer. So I got a call one day, and it was from the Italian man I used to work with. And they advised me that one of the main people that I worked under died. So I came to the funeral parlor and, you know, saw all the boys from the old days. And when they asked me what I was doing, I said, I'm a police officer out in San Francisco. I mean, they almost had a heart attack. You could see the blood drain from their face.

[00:12:16] And, you know, they... Joe, you're not serious, are you? No, exactly. That's what they say. You've got to be kidding. You know, they said it with a really strong Italian accent. What's the matter with you? You're crazy. How could you do something like that? But, you know, it was a funeral, and there was respect there. It was a very positive experience. And they're also kind of like, hey, if you're on the other coast, it's okay, Joe. Yeah, right. As long as you're far away from us, we're okay with you. All right.

[00:12:46] Dr. Bradley, I want to chime in here because a very interesting start to his life. As you can tell by his book, it's been a life-changing experience for, you know, 50-plus years now. What do you think of a growing up like that? And then, hey, a girl brings him to Jesus. You know, I think that the eclectic life of Joe is something that I think replays a lot. I mean, we could go back and talk about a lot of different things.

[00:13:15] A lot of my friends growing up that had a similar kind of experience ended up having a, you know, ended up being in law enforcement or, you know, all sorts of other things. They knew the one side and they walked the other side when they grew up. But I think that it's kind of something to think about, you know, all of the nonsense, the distractions, the diversions, the downfalls, all the tripping and falling. You know what?

[00:13:44] That's kind of what mortality is about. And the thing that's really interesting to me is Jesus took care of all of that. I mean, you don't, you know, it's not like you can say, okay, I'm too far gone. I can't come back. You know, I've tripped and fallen one too many times. You can feel like that, but it ain't the truth, right? No, it's not the truth. And the thing is that sometimes, you know, if you fall far enough that you're at rock bottom, you land on the rock, the rock of your salvation, you know.

[00:14:11] And that's the thing is that wherever you happen to be able to find your Savior and trust in him enough to let him pull you out of whatever you got yourself into, it seems to me like a lot of people, they just give up before they realize what's really there. And I think it's a really happy ending for people that can say, you know what?

[00:14:41] I found my way back. And so I, you know, we can be all kinds of judgmental and harsh and how could you be so stupid and all this kind of stuff. But to tell you the truth, if we really admitted it, many of us have been down a path. I mean, albeit maybe not as, you know, corrupt maybe or as hard fallen or anything like that. But every one of us needs a way back. And unless and until we learn that, I think we're going to still continue to kind of muddle

[00:15:10] around and think, well, I can do this myself. I'm OK. I'm fine. Yeah, Jesus guy. I don't need him. I, you know, I'm a pretty tough guy. That works till you hit the bottom. That's for sure. And I think from his book, I think it really encapsulates a lot of what we're talking about. I get killer of men to healer of men. You go to, you know, a special agent to a chaplain. And what about the 19th chamber, Joe? How does that relate?

[00:15:37] Well, the 19th chamber, I have to go back to a reference point back in the 70s when David Carradine played in Kung Fu on TV. And the opening scene was, and I'm going to keep this short, but the opening scene basically was an old Kung Fu master. And he always said, if you can take the pebble from my hand, you're ready to leave the temple. And obviously, this man was very highly skilled in his martial arts. And David Carradine was a little boy at that time.

[00:16:05] And he could never take the pebble. The master was always faster. And then the next scene showed what it's like being in the temple, what it's like becoming a warrior monk. So you have the first chamber. You may fight one guy, pretty, pretty strong guy. And then you go into the second chamber, you fight two people, and on and on the progression all the way up to the 18th chamber. So by the time the warrior monk got to the 18th chamber, you could say that he survived

[00:16:35] basically life and death confrontations and challenges. And the 18th chamber is when it was a hot urn with two symbols on the side. One was a dragon. And one was a tiger. And this urn was holding these hot coals. And then the monk was required to pick up the urn with his forearms and from one table to another one. And basically, in the process, it would burn the brand marks of the temple into his forearms,

[00:17:05] the dragon and the tiger, which I have on my forearms as well. But I didn't get it at the Shaolin Temple. I got it at a tattoo parlor in Los Angeles. But it really means the same thing. Now, let me ask you, was that before you came to your senses or do you love them today? Oh, no, I still have them. And I spent 21 years in a Chinese Kung Fu temple. So I embraced this. I embraced the art.

[00:17:32] I embraced the custom, the history, the philosophy of the Shaolin Temple and the art itself. So, no, I still, you know, hold that a dear experience in my life. So, you know, basically the point that I wanted to make is you arrive at the 18th chamber, you're done. You've survived so many different things in life. And remember, this could be a metaphysical or metaphorical story.

[00:18:02] You can say somebody's ascension from a juvenile delinquent to going to medical school and becoming a doctor, you know, growing up on the hard side of the street, becoming a police officer, whatever. I mean, you can metaphorically apply this story to anybody, Navy SEAL, Green Beret, anybody.

[00:18:23] So, me personally, when I graduated from the 18 chambers of life, and I don't call my chapters in my book chapters. I call them chambers. So I kind of lay out these chambers of my life of challenge and progress and, you know, success, really. And then all of a sudden, you know, one day I said, I'm arrived. I have a 10th degree black belt in the martial arts.

[00:18:52] I have this degree, that degree. I've done this. I have an I love me wall at home with my so-called accomplishments. And I really thought I was done. So one day I had a very powerful, I'm not even going to call it a mission. You thought you had arrived, my friend. But the Lord has something more for you, sir. Yes, sir. I thought I had arrived. There's no more to do. I mean, obviously, you can always learn. But I really felt I was on the top of my game. And then God showed me I wasn't.

[00:19:22] And I'm just so glad Jesus is a bigger Savior than I was a sinner, you know? Amen to that, sir. So God came to me. I'm going to say I just had an experience of thought. I was meditating at my temple. It's really peaceful. Bamboo trees, wind chimes, burning incense. I just wanted to set up the scenario. And I'm just meditating, meaning I'm just thinking and I'm relaxing in a peaceful place. And I had this idea.

[00:19:52] The 19th chamber is about spiritual growth. And that was my challenge. I was basically very well achieved on the outside of my life. But inside, I was a broken man. I had fear. I had anger. I mean, serious anger issues and unforgiveness towards my parents, unforgiveness towards people in my life. So, you know, on the outside, I looked like I had it all together.

[00:20:20] But on the inside, it was a scrambled egg. And this was the challenge that God brought to me and basically said, you're just getting started. Take that black belt off and put on a white belt because you're going to start a new journey, not on the outside, not as an external warrior, but as an internal warrior and a man of peace. And that was a great challenge for me because I lived a life of violence, fighting, whether

[00:20:46] it be in a paramilitary scenario, a law enforcement scenario. I taught the art of mortal combat to the military, to special operations groups, tier one warriors. So that was my life. That was my whole life about teaching the art of killing. And I had already been to college and I studied the body anatomy, physiology, how the brain works.

[00:21:11] I put it all together and I created some of the most violent, effective, well, basically killing programs for the United States military and other organizations, you know, which was good. I mean, that's what these folks do. That's what these folks need. But I found one day that I wasn't just doing this as a profession anymore. It's something that I had become as a man.

[00:21:36] And I knew I needed to make a U-turn and get back to my God that I met in church when I was 19 because I saw that I was drifting a little too far into the mortal combat arts and that became my identity. And it started challenging my identity with Jesus, my identity with killing, my identity with teaching the killing arts. So I had to make a decision. Jesus said that he wants, he creates us to be fishers of men.

[00:22:07] And I knew that it was time for me to go from like Ecclesiastes 3 said, there's a time to kill and there's a time to heal. I knew that my time of Ecclesiastes 3 had come from a killer to now a healer. So I took my art, you know, my college studies and I progressed in them. And I eventually became a police chaplain working with soldiers, with PTSD, police officers,

[00:22:33] first responders who are dealing with stress, battle stress and PTSD. So God helped me make that transition. He kind of acknowledged my accomplishments from the 18th chamber. And then he escorted me, so to speak, and now challenged me in the 19th chamber to grow spiritually. And that's, and that's where I'm at today. I know when people have a life full of sin, and I, and I think all of us are there to a

[00:23:03] great degree, but some are there more than others, at least, you know, publicly speaking or whatever. And is it hard for you? Cause one of the, I mean, if we're talking 19th chamber spirituality, it's easy to forgive others in time compared to learning to forgive yourself. How did that play for you, Joe? Oh, amen, brother. You know, you hit the nail on the head. You're right. It's a lot easier to forgive other people.

[00:23:29] You know, I even had to forgive God and you know, that might sound silly. I'm not sure God needs to be forgiven, but I had a broken. God doesn't need to be forgiven, but he needs you to forgive all. Yes, sir. Absolutely. So I had to change my perspective of God as well. I saw, I've seen a lot of horrible things in life, you know, from a military perspective, from a law enforcement perspective.

[00:23:57] And, you know, you have to ask yourself, God, why do you allow this? So I just had to come to terms with that. Why do you allow this? A great transition. We'll take a quick pause at the bottom of the hour. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Scott Bradley's with me. That's only freedomsrisingsun.com. And we are interviewing our guest, chaplain, Joseph F. Bannon, Ph.D. He's the author of a book called The 19th Chamber, The Spiritual Chamber, if you will. Killer of Men to Healer of Men.

[00:24:26] Available at all fine bookstores. You can check out what he also does at BannonInstitute.com. Hang tight. More in seconds, you're listening to the one and only hard-hitting Liberty Roundtable Live. Exposing corruption. Informing citizens. Pursuing liberty.

[00:24:55] You're listening to Liberty News Radio. News this hour from townhall.com. I'm Rich Thomason. As official Washington heads into the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson heaping praise on President Trump's Department of Government efficiency. On the Salem Media Group news program this week on Capitol Hill with Tony Perkins, the Louisiana Republican says Doge is shaking up the federal government with budget cuts never seen before.

[00:25:22] The deep state is in full panic mode because Elon Musk and the Doge team is right over the target, which is why they're catching so much flack. I tell you, what they're doing is truly transformational. I met with Elon for an hour in his office. He's working out of the Eisenhower building, which is right across from the White House, in the old Secretary of War room. And we laughed about how appropriate that is because he's effectively declaring war on the big bureaucracy.

[00:25:48] Speaker Johnson's full this week on Capitol Hill interview will air on radio stations nationwide this weekend, as well as being broadcast starting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time Saturday on the Salem News Channel. President Trump plans to impose what he calls reciprocal tariffs on America's trading partners. Mr. Trump says the U.S. will match the import duties that other nations charge us. Retail sales tumbled last month, plunging nine-tenths of one percent in January from December.

[00:26:16] Southern California facing the ongoing risk of rock and mudslides in areas where earlier wildfires left the hillsides barren. Heavy debris has clogged roads, including the Pacific Coast Highway. Anytime there's rain like this, you just want to be careful. Driving around, you know, take it slow. Visibility is going to be bad. There could be water ponding on the roads, the rocks, the mud on the canyon roads. So just, you know, take it easy on the road.

[00:26:44] Carol Smith at the National Weather Service. On Wall Street this hour, the Dow is nine points higher, the NASDAQ up 22, the S&P better by five points. More on these stories at townhall.com. Lee Financial Group is not a law firm. Hi, I'm Chuck McDowell, the timeshare cancellation guy and founder of Wesley Financial Group. And I want to set the record straight. I am not an attorney. I've never wanted to be an attorney. And the truth is, I really don't even like attorneys.

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[00:30:13] Casting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Welcome back. We spent the first half hour interviewing Joe Bannon, his eclectic life and his transition through that life to someone that has risen to a higher level.

[00:30:40] As we begin this second half hour with Joe, I'm going to harken back a little bit to his 1970s TV series, with Cara Dean and the Kung Fu artist. Yeah, Kung Fu fighting. Right? Well, you know, it's interesting to me that it is kind of a, you know, there's a physical journey that everybody goes on. There's a spiritual journey, hopefully, that we're able to kind of keep up on. And his transition into the 19th chamber,

[00:31:09] it's just kind of what I want to just mention before we throw it back to Joe. You know, some people kind of think that they're the enlightened one. Somehow they feel like they've arrived to the point of being the enlightened one. And my experience has generally been that if you think you're the enlightened one, you are not. No doubt. You have kind of raised or elevated or irrigated or whatever you want to call it yourself

[00:31:36] to a position where, you know, the glass is full and there's no place to put anything else in. Yeah, there's only really one that got there, right? Exactly. And so this transition, you kind of need some assistance to go to this new movement. And if your self-opinion is such that, hey, I'm there, I've got it, and so on,

[00:32:02] I'd like to know what kind of experience Joe had in kind of recognizing perhaps, and maybe I'm overstating it a little bit by saying he thought he was the enlightened one, and suddenly it's like, holy cow, I've got to cross another threshold here. And that humility point where people say, by golly, you know, I think I can still learn some more. And I am not the enlightened one that I thought I was.

[00:32:31] And now there's an opportunity to move on. So, Joe, was there kind of a hinge point, something that you stumbled over or was revealed to you or whatever? I don't know what terminology to use, but what brought you to the point to realize that you had to transition into that 19th chamber? Well, sir, you used the word enlightenment, the enlightened one.

[00:32:56] And obviously, yes, I did think I was the enlightened one based on my accomplishments. But I had a pastor in a church that I went to. He grew up in South Central L.A., so he had a pretty interesting story himself. But very simplistically, he told me one day, you know, we got to know each other very well. He told me one day, and he says, Joe, you know, I look at you from the outside.

[00:33:22] You're the last guy I'd like to run into in a dark alley or have you angry at me. He goes, you're probably one of the best trained warriors I've ever met in my life, and you've got quite a resume. He goes, but I got to tell you, on the outside, you're like Robocop. And on the inside, you're a spiritual wimp.

[00:33:44] And I got to tell you, those words went through me like a double-edged sword, which basically they were because God's word is a double-edged sword. And that was a challenge. That was like, okay, this guy called me out. He recognized my outside achievements, but he also saw my inside brokenness and the need for really God to take full control of my life.

[00:34:09] I never denied God that he helped me achieve those things in my life, but I was still very self-willed, and I was sharing his glory with him. Until that one day came when I was told that inside I was a spiritual wimp. And I knew that it wasn't as easy as going through military training or jumping out of a helicopter or doing all the wazoo wild things that I did when I was in the world.

[00:34:37] And those schools and challenges and merit badges, blah, blah, all of that, I knew that this was not going to be that easy. This was a journey, and this was going to be a tough journey because I had to look inside myself and see that spiritual wimp that this pastor called out in me. And I knew that this was going to be a rough road, getting back to God 100%.

[00:35:02] Instead of just 50%, I needed to give God 100%. And that means I had to die to myself. I had to mortify the flesh, all the things that we don't really like to hear as Christians. But now it was getting real. The gospel was now going to be my guide, and it was a challenge. I had to give up so many things. I mentioned earlier about even forgiving myself.

[00:35:29] I not only had to forgive God because of my tainted perception in Him. It's like, why do you allow all of this? I've seen so much death. I've seen so much suffering. It's like, God, why do you allow this? How can you be a loving God, right? I'm not the only one that's going through that. But I had to forgive that perception that I had of God. I had to forgive other people, not only that did horrible things to me, but the things that I saw in life. I had to forgive evil men that did horrible things to other people.

[00:35:58] I had to forgive them. But as you said earlier, it got down to a point when it's just me and God in my room. I needed to forgive myself. And that's a commandment. God says the two greatest commandments are to love Him with all our hearts, mind, soul, and being, and to love others as we love ourselves. And it seems that as we love ourselves. Happy Valentine's Day, people. Go ahead. Yeah, there you go. So God wanted to be my Valentine. Amen.

[00:36:28] He wanted me to be my own Valentine. I agree with that completely. And I think that's the key. Now, I want to talk a little bit about your research professor of this integrative medicine, PTSD, combat psychology. And the reason I want to focus on that is because, on one hand, that psychology stuff is man's way of trying to wrestle with things beyond this world in a way.

[00:36:54] But also, when you turn to God, there becomes this spiritual warfare side of the discussion. And so, at first, it's a battle between hopelessness, despair, if you will, and hope. It's a battle between fear and faith. It's a battle between trust versus I trust nothing and no one but myself. You start inward, and then you got to look outward, and you got to say, okay, wait a minute. Where do I fit into this cog?

[00:37:24] What's my relationships with whom? How do you navigate that from an emotional and a mental and a spiritual perspective, Joe? Well, the whole reason I wrote this book, I didn't want it to be another war story, a cop story.

[00:37:43] So many books are out there and movies are made from, you know, cop stories and police chases and all of the dangerous things that we do. All the Jack Reacher books. Hey, that's 18th chamber stuff, right? Jack Reacher turned chaplain. But that's 18th chamber stuff, right? Yes, sir. It is. Jack Reacher was the 18th chamber for me, becoming a chaplain and serving God 100% was my 19th chamber. But you're right.

[00:38:12] The transition was very rough but very necessary and very possible because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. So I didn't have to do it alone. I always had the Holy Spirit helping me. But to answer your question, I wrote this book not to address the external 18th chamber achievements of so many men and women.

[00:38:36] I wrote this book about the 19th chamber, about the inside of these great men and women, how much suffering. 22 military veterans at least kill themselves a day because of PTSD. There's what's called the five-year syndrome in the retirement from the police profession, first responders. I mean, we absorb so much negative energy that especially after we retire, now we have to deal with it.

[00:39:04] While we're in the adrenaline and while we're in the moment, we deal with it. We do our job. We do it well. But then you lay your head down on a pillow at night and things start to become quiet. And I used to always say- You can't go on trained automatic pilot mode then, can you, Joe? No, no, sir. That's when you really have to face yourself. And I always said the loudest noise is silence for people like us. And that's what I wanted to address in this book.

[00:39:32] The inside of the warrior, the inside of the Navy SEAL, the Green Beret, the police officer, the government agent. All things that, you know, many things that I've done in my life. And if I haven't done it, I've trained those type of people. I trained Navy SEALs, Green Berets to be the best killer on the planet. Thus the title, Killer of Men. And then the transition, Healer to Men.

[00:39:59] And my book explains the killing arts, but it focuses on the healing of people that are in that profession. And hopefully to lower that statistic of people killing themselves, they have a successful career and then they end it because of PTSD. It's just they survive the battlefield of Iraq or other places in the world and then they lose the battle of our minds. And that's just a terrible thing.

[00:40:26] And I think if I could write a book and get the message out and maybe just help a few people, I've done my job. I obviously can't help everybody, but I can certainly do my job and help the sphere of influence that God has put me in. Ladies and gentlemen, we're talking to Joe Bannon, author of The 19th Chamber, Killer of Men to Healer of Men. Available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, all fine bookstores.

[00:40:55] It's a riveting story. And I guess the question that I have next is twofold. One, what changes someone's trajectory from, I can't handle this, there's no hope, what I've done can never be forgiven. I'm at the end of the road now. Now, yeah, I might be a great warrior, a killer, but man, there's nothing for me now after that, this despair, this, I think a lot of times even demons start to take over in many ways.

[00:41:23] When there's hopelessness, that's when that happens. Okay, what is the change? What starts that change? What gives people that glimmer? As you've studied psychology and combat warfare and as you've been through all this yourself, you put all that together. What can they grasp onto? Where do we start with the healing? Well, I got to tell you, you describe that so perfectly of the position we find ourselves in.

[00:41:51] And I always say from gun to God. You know, we have a choice. We can end it with a gun or we can begin it with God. And that's only going to happen when people care for these people. When somebody says, hey, you're not alone. There is hope. There is a way out of this. You don't have, I mean, self-medication becomes the God. We resort to alcohol. We resort to drugs. We resort to sex, drugs, rock and roll, if you will.

[00:42:22] Anything to just deal with our emotions, to keep that adrenaline rush. Because let's face it, adrenaline is a drug and we get used to it for 20, 30 years. And we're, you know, we're adrenaline junkies. We love the highs of adrenaline. We love the excitement. We love being of service to the world and actually doing good things. But when it's all said and done, we retire or we get injured and we can't do it anymore.

[00:42:50] Like me, I really hurt my back jumping out of a helicopter. And that ended my career. Now you have to sit in a chair and think, what do I do now? Because our profession and the things that we've done have become our identity. And now it's like we have an identity, but we have no way to express it. So it almost becomes too much energy to handle. Do you believe people can be too broken?

[00:43:18] No, because that would limit God. Yes, in the psychology world, as you mentioned earlier, yes, people can be too broken. And I honestly believe that I was one of those people. But nobody is too broken. And based on my childhood, the way I grew up, I should, and I was even told I would be dead before my 20th birthday. When I was released from that alcohol rehabilitation center, they called me the angriest young man

[00:43:48] that they had ever seen in their history. And that I would be dead before I was 20 because I was a hopeless case. So I'm going to use myself as that example. I was too broken. But God had a different story. I don't believe anybody is too broken. I mean, was Lazarus too broken when he was dead? Jesus rose him from the dead. So I always like to use that analogy. If you think you're too far gone, let's look at Lazarus.

[00:44:16] He was in burial cloths. He was dead for four days and Jesus rose him from the dead. So, no, to answer your question, I don't believe anybody's too broken as long as Jesus gets involved. Dr. Bradley? Ah, grasshopper. To take a line from the Sholin priest in the referred to TV series. You know, we're all grasshopper.

[00:44:43] They're the neophyte, the young trainee, whatever. But, you know, we've been talking about, and people may say, oh, I didn't go kill anybody. I didn't have to be in the gritty, you know, fog of war, whatever it is. But, you know, I think that there's a lesson to be learned across a whole spectrum of things. Every one of us. Let's just take, for example, a socialist. I don't believe socialists will be welcome in heaven. And you say, what?

[00:45:12] What are you talking about? These guys want to help everybody. No, socialists steal from everybody for their own personal, whatever their best guess is that people need. And so every one of us. Yeah, the road to hell is paved with the best intentions, doctor. It truly is. And here's the deal. So, you know, people could discount and say, you know what? I was never an alcoholic or a druggie or I didn't, you know, go out and kill people for a living or whatever.

[00:45:36] But if you stop and think about it, there's some kind of distraction, let's call it that, that we have put our lives into. And let's just take that socialist example I did. If you want to steal from everybody to give to whomever you decide is the best thing, it's still breaking the Eighth Commandment. I mean, everybody has to say, how do I move to that? You've got to kind of ask yourself who's really the prodigal son, the one we think of, or the other guy, the brother, right?

[00:46:05] Yeah, I've always been the prodigal son. I mean, that's been my opinion about myself because I need to be welcomed back. And every one of us do. And I think there's something to be found to help us transition into that 19th chamber, as you call it, that helps us to step beyond maybe our base natural man tendencies, you know, being the socialist, you know.

[00:46:32] Boy, in today's world, there's a lot of people that think they've made it. But if you stop and think about it, how do you live? How do you get in God's presence if you're breaking the Eighth Commandment, using your agent, the government, to steal from your fellow man? You know, I mean, so there's much, I think, that can be had for all of us in spite of the fact that you might say, you know what, I went to high school and I became a bookkeeper or whatever, you know, come on.

[00:46:59] You can't exempt yourself from having to make that hinge point transition into that point that you can become. Okay, here's what the deal is. We are not mortal individuals preparing for a spiritual experience. We are spiritual individuals that are living in mortality. And we need to return to our true selves, our true spirituality that we came from the presence of God in.

[00:47:27] And we're coming back to that point is the biggest challenge that most of us will ever face in our lives. There's no question about that. Anyway, a little philosophizing on my part, too. There you have it. Now, you sent me a video, a trailer, Joe, of give us a little thumbnail of that. Well, and that's exactly what it is. It's a thumbnail of my life. And it focuses on one.

[00:47:57] I was a narcotics agent. I was an undercover narcotics agent with the DEA. And I had assigned to me one of the most political hot potato cases in the history of California. I think you should leave me out of this. And that was medical marijuana. When it, you know, before it was legal. And I basically, and it's all in the book, but I'll give you the, like you say, the thumbnail version. I basically was assigned a case.

[00:48:27] Medical marijuana was permitted in San Francisco. And that was at the time when there, you know, AIDS was just coming about. And a club opened up. And it was to offer medical marijuana to people that were suffering terribly. And no, I mean, who could argue with that? I mean, if medical, both of my parents died of cancer. And if I thought marijuana could help them, I would have gone out and got it and given it to them as a police officer. I didn't quite understand that at the time.

[00:48:56] But there were so many people suffering who had AIDS and cancer and other catastrophic diseases. And they were just seeking help, you know. So they smoked marijuana. They used marijuana products. And I had no, I don't think anybody had any contention about that. But I revealed that it was a front for making money. Like the good doctor said earlier, stealing from people.

[00:49:25] Using their medical conditions and hiding behind that to make a fortune in untraceable cash. And this case went all the way up to President Bill Clinton. I also worked as a Secret Service. I said, let me out of this now. Now, I also worked with the Secret Service as a task force agent with certain presidents. But I'm just going to focus on President Clinton because my case went all the way up to him.

[00:49:54] Because and basically at the highest level of government, the DEA was told to stand down and not get involved in this. I mean, everybody saw this as a political hot potato. Again, long story short, Dan Lundgren, who was the Attorney General of the State of California, took the case through the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and basically shut the club down.

[00:50:19] And the protests and all of the protests and all of the things that came about as a result of that were on the six o'clock news every night. Well, one of the things that really involved me was it became public that I was the undercover double agent against my own city. I was a San Francisco police sergeant and I was also a sworn DEA task force agent. So I'm in the middle.

[00:50:46] I carry two badges and it's kind of like both organizations had two different agendas. And I got caught in the middle of both agendas. And when this became public, Mayor Willie Brown came out on the six o'clock news and basically said, I do not believe that a San Francisco police officer should have been involved in this case because I was deep cover.

[00:51:10] I had penetrated this organization and it got up to the Emerald Triangle in California where the organized crime was supplying this club with all of the marijuana that they were growing way up in the mountains. It became a big organized crime case. And long story short, my career in San Francisco was over. I would have been on desk duty for the rest of my life.

[00:51:37] But the attorney general, Dan Lundgren, offered for me to come over as a special agent. And I told him under one condition that I go through the academy at Beale Air Force Base. I didn't want to be a juice boy. I didn't want to be I didn't want a political appointment. I wanted to go through the academy just like everybody else. And I had to move to Los Angeles from San Francisco to accept this new job because I became like public enemy number one in San Francisco.

[00:52:07] All right. We're running flat out of time. We're running flat out of time faster than I want to. Got Joe Bannon. But but I got this question for you of all that you've done in your life. I mean, a gazillion different things, an eclectic life, to say the least, a powerful life, learning from the world and all the world has to offer. Going to the 19th chamber, learning from God Almighty. If you could tell the world one thing that summarized like everything, what would you say to the world?

[00:52:35] Total surrender to God because, you know, I thought I was giving things up and God was taking things for me. And if that were the case, God was only removing things that were preventing me from experiencing the greater blessings in life. And being that today is Valentine's Day, one of those greatest blessings was the beautiful wife that I married seven years ago.

[00:53:01] And from a guy who wasn't supposed to make it to 20, having a great career. Thank God Almighty for his grace and mercy to being able to talk about this and write a book and now be a healer and not a killer and to live a life with my beautiful wife. And I say that again because today's Valentine's Day. I have a wonderful relationship with God. I have a wonderful relationship with my wife.

[00:53:28] And my ministry is to help the people that I used to be. Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to wish Joe Bannon and his bride a happy Valentine's Day. Last comment. You've only got about 20 seconds, Joe. How does prayer fit in? Oh, it's the bullet in the gun. I mean, without prayer, you have a rifle with no ammunition in it. It really is kind of like a person with no soul.

[00:53:58] Prayer is my connection to God and to all the greater blessings that he holds for me. He's a chaplain, ladies and gentlemen, Joseph F. Bannon. He wrote an incredible book, The 19th Chamber, Killer of Men to Healer of Men at all fine bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. To learn about his incredible training programs and more, BannonInstitute.com. Check it out. That's BannonInstitute.com. Hour one in the can. Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.

[00:54:27] Hour two coming up with Dr. Scott Bradley in seconds. I am Sam Bushman. This is the one and only hard-hitting news. The networks refuse to use Liberty Roundtable Live. And God save the Republic of the United States of America.