Faith, leadership, and unwavering action – the intersection where Christians shape the future of America, one vote, one voice, and one heart at a time. In this episode, host Terri Hasdorff sits down with Dr. Alveda King, a renowned author, Christian evangelist, and esteemed civil rights advocate. As the chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for the American Dream, Dr. King brings her unique perspective and insights to the intersection of faith and politics, offering a compelling look at the role Christians play in shaping the future of America. In the age of cancel culture and the rise of socialist ideologies, Dr. King reminds us that leadership is not limited to a chosen few; instead, it resides within all of us. Through servant leadership and unity, she argues, individuals can make a profound impact on their communities and beyond. She also delves into the growing threat to religious freedom and traditional values in today’s society. Dr. King boldly addresses the dangers of critical race theory and the deceptive allure of socialism, reminding us that it is essential to stand firm in our beliefs and push back against ideologies that aim to replace God with the government. Tune in now and together, let’s embrace our calling as servant leaders and work together towards a brighter future for all.
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Faith, Freedom, Fight: How Christians Can Shape America’s Future With Dr. Alveda King
In this episode, I’m honored to be joined by our guest, Dr. Alveda King. Dr. King serves as the chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for the American Dream. She is the daughter of the late slain civil rights activist, Reverend A. D. King, and the niece of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as a Christian evangelist, a graduate of Aidan University, and the Founder of Speak for Life and Alveda King Ministries.
Dr. King is also an acclaimed author, Fox News channel contributor, Fox Nation host, Newsmax blog contributor, twice elected to Georgia State House, past Presidential Appointee, 2021 recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, and is a film and music industry veteran. Dr. King, thank you so much for being on the show with us.
Terri, thank you so much for inviting me.
Dr. King, approximately 64% of Americans identify as Christians yet according to a study, 90 million Christians in America are eligible to vote but as many as 40 million fail to vote in presidential election cycles. Fifteen million Christians are not even registered to vote at all. I’m curious. This is a show where we talk about the intersection of faith and politics. What are your thoughts on this study?
That study is probably very accurate. Back in the 1970s, I ran for office. There were five of us in the race. I was the least favorite. City Hall has elected someone. The rich folks uptown had elected someone. Also, the community of activists. Here I am in this race. I ran for office and was told by my mentors and advisors to knock on as many doors as possible during the summer. I knocked on over 700 doors. I told each person who answered the door, “Please vote for me. Would you contribute to my campaign, $1?”
You’ve got to remember this was in the 1970s so that was maybe $10 a day or more. I won that race without a runoff by 2,000 votes, which made me a state representative of the 28th House District in Georgia. That means that there weren’t as many people as I thought registered to vote. For those who turned out, it was amazing. More people do not vote than people vote. That’s something that is shocking but it’s true.
If we remember the grace and mercy of God and how much we’ve been forgiven, then it’ll be easier to forgive others.
In times when the Christians have weighed in and the Christian community has come out and voted, we ended up with a president like President Trump, for example. Our votes do count and matter. I’m taking a long time to explain this but my grandchildren are with me during the summer. Their world is so different from mine. I was asking my granddaughter to read some texts to me. She got to a word and said, “That’s an unfamiliar word. What is it?” Her mother looked and said, “That’s Judeo. Judeo-Christian.”
That’s in my house and my granddaughter stumbled over Judeo-Christian. Her daughter said, “What’s that?” She says, “The Jews in the Old Testament came together with Jesus. The Jews, Gentiles, New Testament, and a community came forth called Judeo-Christian.” She says, “I heard you all talking about that, maybe.” I’ve been praying, “Sometimes, I’ve been disheartened, Lord, by the things they saw on TV and the things they’re doing everywhere.” What God said was, “Don’t give up hope. I’m still here.” I don’t know if you know that I’m a Christian entertainer producing film and music. Sometimes, I sing, act, and all of that.
We are doing a new song called Grown Folks’ Business. Grown Folks’ Business is to work with your hands and be about God’s business and protect the children. We just did another one called Nia, which means purpose in Welsh and Swahili. What I want to encourage folks to do is people need to vote. It does matter. Teach your children well. Don’t give up. We assume that artificial intelligence has taken them over but the Bible still says, “Train up a child in the way that he should go.” Don’t give up. Get out and vote.
People need to vote. It does actually matter.
Plato once said, “The punishment, which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.”
I read that. That’s right. If we don’t do something about it, what right do we have to complain?
Dr. King, the importance of political engagement, especially in our history, is so critical. Yet so many people feel like, “I’m just one person. What can I do?” If there’s anyone in history who has changed the course of American history in many ways, it was the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As his niece, I wondered if you could talk with us a little bit about why it’s so important to be engaged politically, and even if you’re just one person, how you can follow that example.
I have a book that I’ve written, and I’ve written several, but this one is called King Rules. In that book, it says, “If MLK could tweet.” I took many of his quotes and reduced them to 140 characters or less at the end of the book. I’m saying this for you, young readers. When I hear my uncle’s words that say, “We may have come over on different ships but we are all in the same boat now,” it was like, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He said, “The Negro cannot win if he’s willing to sacrifice the futures of his children for immediate personal comfort and safety.”
People always ask me what would he say if he were here. I said, “What would Jesus say if he was standing right in front of us? All we had to do is pick up the Bible and we would know exactly what Jesus would say.” What would Abraham Lincoln say? We would go back to the Gettysburg Address or all of his other speeches, you see. What would the founding father say? We have the Constitution.
We have to read the words that linger and are still here. Words that are rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith don’t die. I say Judeo-Christian but I don’t know if people know that there are many Muslims who have accepted Christ, are coming to Christ, and are being persecuted and killed all over the world. I don’t know if people understand that as well. Words that come from God last. They don’t go away.
We’re facing a time where if we don’t speak up, we risk losing everything. In his book, Letter to the American Church, Eric Metaxas talks about how we risk being caught up in what German political scientist, Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, dubbed The Spiral of Silence, which is a phenomenon that occurs when people see a culture transitioning towards tyranny but they refuse to speak up.
The longer people hesitate, the more the price of speaking rises. As the price rises, fewer people choose to speak, the price of speaking rises again, and so on until a nation is silenced. Eric contrasts what happened in Germany under the Nazi regime to what is happening in many ways in America. I’m curious. What is your opinion about that and the cancel culture that seems to be taking hold in America more and more each day?
I was talking to my grandchildren about the cancel culture. My friend, Ryan Bomberger, for example, he and his wife Bethany wrote a book called She is She. I was featured in the book at a podium making a speech. I was one of the characters in the book. The book came in the mail. In the summer, my grandkids will help me open up packages. They’re like, “You can’t open or read this. They will cancel you.” I said, “I’m already canceled but I’m still talking. I’m still here. We are going to open the book.” We were rearranging books and we put that book right in the front of the bookshelf.
I’m explaining all of that to say regardless of what goes on and whether it appears as though we might be canceled or not able to any longer have the voice in a convenient way. There was a lady named Alice Bailey who established what was called the Modern Day New World Order. She did a ten-point charter. If we have time, I’d like to share some of that.
We came up with a strategy like Madalyn O’Hair in ‘63 to pray out of school. In ’73, we had abortion. This lady was pre-cursing that these are real facts. Her name was Alice Bailey and it was in a New World Order system. Take God, pray out of the education system, reduce parental authority over children, and destroy the Judeo-Christian family structure or the traditional Christian family structure. If sex is free, then make abortion legal and make it easy.
Make divorce easy and legal. Free people from the concept of marriage for life. Make homosexuality and alternative lifestyle. Debate art and make it run mad. Use media to promote and change mindsets. Create an interfaith movement. Get governments to make all these laws and inter-laws. Get the church to endorse the changes. All of that has happened but what they did not figure out is that everybody’s not going to agree with that.
They don’t know that an Alveda King will give her phone to her granddaughter and say while out in my little garden on a Sunday, “Take this phone and record this quick.” I had planted some new deal plants. There was a caterpillar on the plant. My hobby is gardening. I posted that. I said, “Put it on TikTok.” A lot of Christians will say, “TikTok is so evil. Don’t do TikTok.” I said, “No, overcome evil with good.” I’m going to put the word of God on every platform, generation, decade, and platform that I have. I involve the young people in assisting me to put out positive messages.
In the 2020 elections, there were dozens of candidates that were endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. They won a lot of seats across the United States from City Council to Congress. Membership in the DSA has been growing. According to a poll that was done a couple of years ago, about 70% of millennials say they would vote for a socialist.
I talk a lot about this in my book, Running Into the Fire, that socialism at its core is about replacing God with government and freedom with tyranny. We can’t let that happen here. Dr. King, I’m curious. How concerned are you about our religious freedom in particular being in jeopardy? What knowledge do you want our readers to have about why it’s so important to push back, especially against socialism in the country?
We must push back against socialism. I made a point on my platforms about critical race theory. There was a big argument and the Republicans are racist White people. They don’t want equality or equity for Black people. I said, “That’s ridiculous. Critical race theory is based on a premise that came from a group of socialists who believe that there’s an elite race of people when there’s only 1 blood and 1 race. They have worked very hard to eradicate anybody else except their superior growth group. CRT is racist.”
Dr. Chris Leader who works with me had that meme created. He was like, “What do you mean it’s racist?” The more we explain it, you notice that the CRT backed up and tried to walk back somewhat. Everybody will believe whatever is out there until they hear the truth. If a lie is being told and the truth is not brought forth, people will believe a lie.
We have an obligation. Your book is marvelous. It’s a classic so it’s an old music video. Alveda King Latter Rain. It says, “Running through the fire, through the hurting pain, joy of my desire. You cleanse me with your rank.” We have to have your book, the other books, studies, inventions, and everything that we all do. When we all do our parts, we make a difference in our generation, decade, and platforms.
You have been such a leader in so many ways. Dr. Martin Luther King was such a leader. Can you share with us what are your principles you’ve observed in leadership that you encourage others to go by? Are there any books or other things that you would point people to when they’re trying to think about leadership?
From Aidan University, I received a degree in Leadership and Applied Theology. More of us are leaders than we realize. Everyone first is a leader, at least in your life hopefully but under the hand of God, you’re leading yourself. Also, in your communities, jobs, churches, families, or wherever you are. The characteristics of a leader, the Bible says, “If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, you must be a servant of all.” Jesus Christ taught us as servant leaders.
We must begin to care more about God and humanity than ourselves. We need to care about ourselves too because we don’t want low self-esteem. That’s never helpful but we want to care and act accordingly if we can all do our part as leaders. If you go to AlvedaKing.com or KingForAmericaInc.org, you can see some of my music videos and books. I have quite a few books myself. I read other books. I listen to other music. I’m always expanding this knowledge base.
I’m referring so much to my grandchildren because I’ve got one that’s going into the second grade and she’s being tutored by her uncle and some of the older grandchildren. I’m learning. They said, “You didn’t learn it? Didn’t you know that or this?” We were doing some math. I said, “I did but I didn’t learn it that way.” Even though I’m old, I still try to be teachable. Even though I teach, I’m also ready to learn.
You’re a lifelong learner like me and I love that. I love your quote about how more of us are leaders than we realize. You’re right. We have influence. Sometimes, we don’t use that as effectively as we could, do we?
We do not. One of my favorite quotes, and I didn’t hear anybody say it before I did, was, “When peripherals collide, convergence is imminent. Your main task may not be my main task and vice versa. Since we are working together and moving ahead together, when we put our goals and purposes together, especially in Christ, then we are assured of success and victory.”
Dr. King, as we wrap up, what is one final thing you would like to say to our readers or one last thought that you would like to leave them with?
As I consider where we are in our lives, in the year 2023, it was a long hot summer. I believe that as we seek Him first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, everything that we need and desire can and will be added unto us. I firmly believe that. Every day, I wake up. Every night, I go to sleep. Every morning, when I wake up, I’m believing that. I often say, “Good morning, God. Yes.” That’s it and the day begins.
Where can our readers find you if they want to learn more about what you’re doing or get a copy of your book?
Please visit me at AlvedaKing.com and KingForAmericaInc.org.
Thank you again so much for being on the show, Dr. King. Thanks to our readers for reading. We’ll have more episodes coming for you soon. Take care.
Thank you. God bless.
Important Links
- America First Policy Institute’s Center for the American Dream
- Speak for Life
- Alveda King Ministries
- King Rules
- Letter to the American Church
- She is She
- Running Into the Fire
- KingForAmericaInc.org
- @AlvedaCKing – Twitter
- @AlvedaKing – Instagram
- @AlvedaKing – Facebook
Alex is a Christian apologist, author, evangelist, religion and culture analyst, and advocate for biblical truth. He has preached in over 2,200 churches throughout North America and numerous more internationally.