In this sermon, the preacher expresses his love for the kids on his basketball team and his desire for them to grow up in a free America. He encourages people to join a church that sings solid songs that have built the church and brought revival to the nation. The preacher then discusses the influence of music and how the communists use it as a tool to spread their doctrine. He shares an example of how music can affect people's behavior by observing the reactions of cafeteria-goers to different types of music. The preacher emphasizes the importance of being aware of the impact of music and encourages listeners to choose music that aligns with biblical principles.

I doubt if anything reveals the character of a nation or the character of any organization as does its music. It would not take one long, sitting in the pews of the First Baptist Church of Hammond, to find our position on music. Those of you who have been here just today know the kind of music that we sing and in which we believe here at First Baptist Church. I've often said that the music of a group reveals the condition of the hearts of those in the group. Somebody said music makes us what we are. That's true, but it also reveals what we are. In the Bible, it's unbelievable the influence that music had on the characters of the Bible. And that influence is wielded today still in our generation. When our Lord gave the first supper in the upper room, the Bible says when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Psalm 137 tells us that the Jews were strangers and pilgrims and, better still, captives in Babylon. They had a reputation for being good singers and loving and singing good music. The Babylonian people came and said, Sing us a song. And the Jewish people said, How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? The Jews were known for their singing. When Moses and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, there was music involved as they sang a song of victory in Exodus 12, verses 1-21. David composed a song upon hearing of the death of Jonathan and Saul in 2 Samuel chapter 1, verses 17-27. Deborah and Barak sang a song after the great miraculous defeat of the forces of Sisera when the stars in their courses fought against the power of evil in Judges chapter 5. Psalm 45 is a song used to celebrate a wedding. The psalms themselves are simply a compilation of songs used for the Songbook of Israel. When God gave a baby to Samuel and Hannah, she sang in 1 Samuel 2, verses 1-11. When Mary heard of the coming of the Christ child, she sang in Luke 1, verses 46-55. The Jews, in their journey toward the temple for the feast days, would sing. The Song of Solomon is a beautiful love song and the Bible certainly teaches the importance of music. Music not only had an important place in the Bible days, but it also has an important place today. Back in the days before television, you folks that used to hear the radio programs, you know how music did. I've mentioned this to our people many times. Remember the program, The Shadow Knows? The Shadow Knows, and that morbid kind of music would come. Remember Inner Sanctum? And the morbid Inner Sanctum? And the music. Remember McGee and Mollie? Stella Dallas? Memories, memories, dreams of love so true. O'er the seas of memories I'm drifting back to you. Buy this tape. If you never buy a tape, as long as you live, buy this tape. And now, the true life story of Stella Dallas. Will Stella's daughter, Laurie, be happy with Dick? Or will Laurie find it more pleasant to return home to Stella, her mother? Stay tuned. Memories, memories, dreams of love so true. Henry? Henry Aldrich! Coming, mother! Nobody home, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope, I hope. Now you're dating yourself, you're laughing at any of these, but the honest, simple truth is, back in the days before television, the radio depended greatly on music. And that music is such an important part of our lives. Take away the music from a wedding and see how sweet the wedding is. Take away the calls for I Love You Truly or the wedding march and see how empty the wedding ceremony would become. Take the music from our service tonight. Take away the prelude. Take away the opening with the choir. Take away our congregational singing. Take away these young people singing. Take away this duet. Please, take away this duet. And take away the choir special. And you'd be surprised. No, you wouldn't. But it'd be unbelievable the different spirit of the service. Who hasn't cried on graduation day when they played the alma mater, or as a band playing a stirring number came by in a parade? Who hasn't thrilled as the flag was raised and the star-spangled banner? Well, some dirty beatnik hippie hasn't, but God pity his soul, he ought to go to Russia where he belongs. In one of my books, I tell about a man who was in my church in Texas. He was manager of a cafeteria, Wyatt's Cafeteria in Dallas, Texas. And he said, Preacher, I want to show you something. He took me down to the Wyatt's Cafeteria one day at noon. He said, Now you watch. Watch the organist. And he told the organist, he said, Play a waltz, please, if you would. And she played a waltz. And he said, Now watch the people get their food. And I watched. It was amazing. The folks would go through the line getting their food like this. Then he said, Now, Preacher, watch this. He said, Play a march. And then they'd get it. Now, if you don't believe music has an effect on you, here's what you do. You go down, you turn your radio on, W-A-I-T, that's still a station that has some halfway decent music, W-A-I-T, that's it, isn't it, in Chicago, and or some good FM station, and listen to the classics, maybe, or some good, real good love songs, and drive down the highway, and notice you'll drive about 45, 50 miles an hour. And then you turn your radio on some jerky, hippie kind of beatnik folk music or rock music, and then notice in the rearview mirror that little twirling light behind the car. It's an unbelievable thing what music, the influence that music has on each of us. They say, for example, that they can help alleviate the pain associated with the pulling of a tooth with good music. I don't think that's true, let me say. Check the great soul-winning churches in America, and you'll find that a certain kind of music and a certain kind of church always go together. I don't care what you are. Brother, your music will ruin your church unless you have the right kind of music. I don't care who you are, how good your preaching is, if you, if you have starchy staid music, then you'll have a starchy staid church before long. Music, tranquil, all over this area, all over this area, and all across America. A gospel preacher gets up after the people have been tranquilized by highbrow music, so called, and there's no spirit, there's no guilt, there's no joy, and of course, there's no power. The great soul-winning churches, and many churches, a good, faithful gospel preacher stands after the audience has been ruined. Nothing can wake the people from their slumbering lethargy after an organist or soloist has sufficiently tranquilized them to a funeral dirge or the Volga boat song. You're not going to have an Episcopalian song service and a Pentecostal invitation in the same service. By the way, mix a Baptist sermon in between. Nothing is deadening our churches any more than our music program. And it's coming, I fear, in fact I know from the music departments in our colleges. Some long-haired effeminate sissy, and God pity him, in many of our colleges stands up and teaches our preacher boys the kind of music that doesn't reach the heart, just reaches the head, doesn't do the job for God, doesn't warm the heart of the people, doesn't prepare the people for the sermon, and nothing is deadening our churches quite as much. We sing here at First Baptist, we sing the gospel song, the song of the joy, the light, and it's real. Now don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about the rock and roll beat. I'm not for the jungle beat, whether it's across the street, in the village boutique, or in the church here, or at First Baptist Church of Hammond, or whether it's in Campus Crusade, or Youth for Christ, or in some church out at the edge of town. I'm not for the jungle beat, and I detest with a passion the putting of gospel words to the hippie kind of music. Listen to me. I'll go a step further than that. I detest anybody looking like a hippie. Listen, you preachers tonight here, you got sideburns down to your Adam's apple, and before you—now listen, don't get mad now. You got a whole week to get mad in, and it'll get worse as the week goes along. So you better just take this now like a good little boy, and some of our own folks too. Listen, listen, if you're a Christian, don't wear your hair and sing and act and dress like a bunch of heathen communists do. By the way, I love the classics. I love classical music. I doubt if a day ever passes without my listening to some classical music. But as long as I'm pastor of this church, not a classical number will be played on this organ for a prelude or an offertory. I love anthems, but we don't use them here in First Baptist Church. We use gospel music that reaches the heart. The Bible speaks in Colossians 3.16 about spiritual songs, and in Ephesians chapter 5, it's very interesting thing to me, that it talks about being filled with the Spirit, and in the next verse it doesn't talk about preaching, it talks about being filled with the Spirit, and then it goes right to music, not to preaching. I'm talking about Billy Sunday, Homer Old Heber, Dwight Moody, R. A. Torrey kind of music. I'm talking about Ed Calvary, at the cross, running in Buter Land, how firm a foundation, what a friend we have in Jesus, wonderful words of life, all hail the power of Jesus' name, and Jesus is coming again. I'm talking about solid songs that have built the church and brought revival to our nation. Now, if music is so life-changing, and here's the sermon, if music is so life-changing and so atmosphere-determining, the Communists are certainly not going to bypass it in their efforts to take over America. The Communists are master propagandists, something that affects the nation so much would certainly not be bypassed by people who are as brilliant as are our Communist adversaries. In 1920, Lenin spoke at the third All-Russian Congress of the Young Communist League, and here's what he said, and I quote, If we're going to spread our doctrine, we're going to have to rework the culture. Did you hear that? Lenin said, fifty years ago, if we're going to spread our doctrine, we'll have to rework their culture. This modern art we have didn't come from Waxahachie or Nacogdoches, Texas. It came from the heart of Communism, trying to destroy the culture and the art of our country. Did you know why we have herky-jerky music and herky-jerky art? The kind of art you see on the average canvas is only the kind of music, the typical kind of music you hear in the average place. It's herky-jerky. You get an egg and scramble the egg, get some ketchup and squirt the ketchup on it and throw some lemon juice through it, and you've got a network of art nowadays. You can sell it for something, God pity. I feel like a tree or a sunset or a house or a meadow or a flower, but to say the least, it depicts the condition of our nation. In 1929, the Russians founded the Association of Proletarian Musicians just for one purpose. That was to place Communist influence on the music of the world. That means for, since 1929, or for 42 years, there has been in Soviet Russia a department, just like our Department of Interior, just like the Department of Commerce, just like the Department of Defense, there has been a Department of Music in Russia dedicated to affecting and hurting the music of the world in an effort to spread Communism. It means that for 40 years, there's been a department in Russia. The House Un-American Activities Committee, now let me go on record as saying I wish we had a dozen of them, called Sidney Tinkerstein, that's a real name, that sounds like a musician, doesn't it? Sidney Tinkerstein. They called Sidney Tinkerstein the cultural spokesman of the Communist Party. That's what the House Un-American Activities Committee said. Tinkerstein is the cultural spokesman of the Communist Party. Tinkerstein said, quote, break down the barriers in America between classical and popular music. That's what he said. Break down the barriers between classical and popular music. It is no surprise, then, that barrier has been broken down. That means these fellows on television, these hideous talk shows, now I don't watch them myself, I just go to visit Dr. Billings occasionally and they're always on his house, but I go and I, and these idiots, these long-haired, stinking beatniks, these fellows dedicated to destroying America, singing their rock and their jerky music and their hippie music and their communist music and their dope music and their narcotic music, all of it, is nothing in the world but an effort by Soviet Russia to destroy America and our way of life. Somebody take the fellow out who said that. I don't like it and I don't plan to love it and you'll answer to God for that. Don't be surprised. I, all of you don't go. Listen, one of our teenage boys can take care of that little fellow. In fact, send one of our girls. Everybody leave. Don't feel bad. I've never preached this sermon yet, what, before folks didn't get up and walk out. Last time I preached it I had seven walk out. My goal is eight tonight. Now, don't you one thing, what you just saw is a perfect picture of why we need this kind of preaching. This is First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. This is one of the greatest churches in all the world. And right here in our pews on a Sunday night some idiot can get up and holler and scream, if you don't like it you can lump it. I don't like it, I don't plan to love it, I plan to fight it as long as I can. And I want you preachers to get enough courage to go back home and do the same. One reason I'm preaching on this tonight is to put some grit in the cross. Some of you push a foot and compromise and you're tickling, back-scratching, penny-pinching, nickel-nipping, pink-tea-lemonade preachers, so you'll go home and cut loose and let her rip. But you sound afraid my denominational secretary wouldn't like it, then do what that boy said, boy, whatever it was, what it said, like it or lump it. I am sick up to here of preachers letting dirty, rotten, rock music ruin our churches and thereby ruin our nation. I was in a certain house out in Munster, a few years ago. In fact, it was when Lyndsey Terry came to our church, I think. Some of us were looking for a house for the Terry. So we were in Munster and I noticed they had some boys there in the house and there was a picture of the Beatles. And by the way, to my way of thinking, the Beatles have done more to destroy America than any four people I know, four or five, whatever it is. The Beatles, that is some kind of bug, I forget what it is, but I like to squash it. But anyway, they had pictures of the Beatles. And I said, how nice. You have four boys and the boys got their girlfriends together for a group picture. Isn't that nice? And the lady said, well, that's not the... I said, I know what it is. I think that's just as sweet as pie. And I said, boys, each of you has a lovely girlfriend. I think they're very, very pretty. They're the Beatles all in one picture, you know. And as I walked out of the house, they were still shaking their head, trying to convince me those were the Beatles. And I was trying to make them think that I thought they were the girlfriends of the boys. Sidney Peikolstein said, let's replace the classics with the jungle beat. Now, here's the spokesman for communist culture. He said, let's replace the classics with the jungle beat. Now, listen to this. Plato, who was not stupid, of course, said in his great writing, The Republic, and I quote, the introduction of a new kind of music should be shunned as imperiling the whole state. Plato said that. Many generations ago, Plato begged the legislature to ban all music with an effeminate and licentious character because, quote, it will destroy our nation. And ladies and gentlemen, look, these rock festivals, these dirty, lewd, sensual, vile, filthy, vulgar, satanic-inspired rock festivals will soon destroy and cause our nation to decay. And let me say this, every one of you young people, every one of you, and those too, sit around listening to a radio, some rock music, and some dirty radio station that plays this dirty, filthy rock music, bitch, on destroying America. You're going to face God over every one of those sorry things you listen to. By the way, parents, you say, we don't do it in our house, then you better check all the air plugs too. Don't you allow an air plug attached to a radio in your house. Throw them away. You say, well, how's your getting me in trouble? I hope I do. I hope I get you to the place where you can't play one song with a Rolling Stone to the Beatles or the Jefferson airplanes or any of the rest of them. I hope I get you in such hot water, you got to be decent young folks. I hope I get you in such hot water, you got to hear decent music and be decent kids and not be a part of a communist conspiracy bent to destroy our nation. David Thoreau made this statement in his writing to Walden, quote, music may be intoxicating. It has helped cause the destruction of the Greek and Roman empires, and it will sooner or later destroy America and England. These were not excited reactionaries. These were men who knew what music could do to a society. The ancient legislators felt, listen to this, that they could not form a state without the help of a lyric poet and maybe even a dramatic poet employed as an officer of the state, like a secretary of state or secretary of war. Scientists have experimented with dogs and have found that certain music played while dogs were eating causes them to lose their appetites or to increase the action of their salivary gland which causes the dogs to eat more. I know that's true because I can hear the Beatles and lose my appetite, not out here in a canine. Just as music will stir the appetite for food, music will also stir other appetites as well. There is a direct correlation between music and beastly living, immorality, indecency, dope addiction, LSD, filthy bodies, long hair, shaggy beards, dirty feet, and sandals on the feet. In fact, I'll go so far as to say this, and now, now, somebody else may walk out on this one, but I'm, don't forget, I'm shooting for eight. Now listen, I'll even go so far as to say the members of this church who wear long shaggy hair do not listen to the best kind of music. Now you can come back to service and say I'm wrong, and I'll apologize to you, but I'll go so far as to say that the members of this church who do not wear, the men who do wear long shaggy hair, I'll go so far as to say that you in the last seven days have been listening to this dirty kind of music. Now, by the way, this is where I'll always get some laughter and folks disbelieve me, but have you read that people have been experimenting with plants and that music even affects plants? I have a note placed on my book tonight from a Moody student. Brother Hiles, some junior high students in Frankfort, Illinois, did a science project concerning the effect, if any, music would have on the growth of a plant. Those plants that grew near classical music grew toward the music. Those that grew next to rock music grew away from the music. Did you know a petunia's got more sense than you have? They, they, they've experimented on green beans, and they find that a green bean plant that grows right next to rock music played regularly will die, and a green bean plant that grows next to classical music will produce green beans almost as big as those grown in Texas. Did you know that many of the nations of this world are spending millions of dollars tonight on government-sponsored projects trying to determine the effect that music has on plant life? A doctor's wife in Denver, Colorado, proved conclusively to those who saw her project that plant life would be affected adversely by rock music, and positively by the classics. Now, two things. First, rock music is being used by the Communists to bring Communism into America. Now, listen carefully. Consider the Beatles hit, Back in the U.S.S.R. Be honest now. Now, I won't ask you the question. One reason that our country is going toward rock music is that the Communists are using it. Capitol Records says of this song, Back in the U.S.S.R., this is the Beatles' biggest hit now. Quote, it is the fastest-selling record in recording history. I don't mean now the thing you sold in Russia. I mean your kids are listening to it, and you don't know about it. They're hearing, Back in the U.S.S.R. That's back in Soviet Russia. Here are the words. Been a ways so long, I hardly knew the place. Gee, it's good to be back home. Leave it to tomorrow to unpack my case. Honey, disconnect the phone. That sounds like a wonderful song, doesn't it? I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you are, boy. Back in the U.S., back in the U.S.S.R. Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out. They leave the West behind. Moscow girls make me sing and shout. That Georgia's always on my mind. I'm back in the U.S.S.R. You don't know how lucky you are, boys. Back in the U.S.S.R. Show me around your Snowpeak Mountains, the way down south. Take me to your daddy's farm. Let me hear your, and I wouldn't pronounce the next word, ring out. Come and keep your comrade warm. I'm back in the U.S.S.R. Boy, you don't know how lucky you are, boys. Back in the U.S.S.R. Now, that's the Beatles' latest hit. It is being sold in record stores to your boys and your girls and young people. And if you buy it, God pity your wicked soul. And parents, if you let them listen to it, God pity your wicked souls. The fact that could be allowed in America is beyond comprehension. You're hearing a preacher tonight that's old-fashioned enough to believe that a man who is for the communist destruction of America and for revolution, all of you in the penitentiary are in Soviet Russia, one or the other. I'm sick of our colleges opening the doors to a bunch of mangy, flea-bitten, hound dogs, so-called people, coming in and telling our young people they are bent on a bunch of television stations opening their cameras and pointing them to those shaggy, mangy, flea-bitten people and saying, tell us your plans. God pity that kind of thing that's destroying our nation. We spend $70 million a year in America fighting the communism and atheism that Russia is trying to cram down our throats, and yet the outstanding record, as far as sales is concerned, is not back home again in Indiana or back in Virginia where I was born or the eyes of Texas or upon you, but back home again in the U.S.S.R. If we had a Supreme Court that had an ounce of integrity and decency, they'd ban that kind of rot in our country. The honest, simple truth is that we're being choked to death by our so-called freedom. Nobody has a right to be free enough to steal our freedom. Nobody has a right to use our freedom to destroy our freedom. They've got the idea that we're having peaceful coexistence with Soviet Russia. Russia dedicated herself years ago, and that dedication is no longer, no less rigid and dedicated than it was before. She dedicated herself to destroy America and bring communism around the world. Paul Cantor of the Jefferson Airplanes, and by the way, that's the Naval Singing Group, Jefferson Airplanes. I hope they crash. Paul Cantor of the Jefferson Airplanes said on the Les Crane Show, and I quote, the new rock music is intended to broaden the generation gap, agenate parents from their children, and prepare young people for revolution. Did you hear that? This guy said it. He said it on the Les Crane Show. For all to see it, he gets up and says it. Now the rock music, and he's from To broaden the generation gap, and to prepare young people for revolution. The only people more guilty than he is are the folks that watch such shows as that. A lot of you thrive on turning on your television set and watching some of these heathen, infidel, communistic, atheistic traitors to American freedom. If you'd turn the thing off, there'd be a lot of folks who wouldn't listen to it, and they'd get that rod off television sooner or later. Bobby Dylan is called of the Communist People World Publication as America's Greatest Poet. Did I pronounce that right? I had not been allowed to ask you, because you'd think that I thought you knew too much. Bobby Dylan is called with the Communist People World Publication as, quote, America's Greatest Poet. Look Magazine said that he is, quote, the unchallenged, he's unchallenged as a teen and college crowd absolute hipster. And here's one of his recordings. Are you listening? This is one of the recordings. I mean, sold in our town, sold in these record shops, sold in these jewelry stores. Here, young people, don't you talk while I'm preaching on this. Now, you sit up and listen. You need this, and you're going to hear it tonight. Don't you even move. In fact, quit breathing for a while. Bobby Dylan recorded these words. Come, mothers and fathers throughout the land, don't criticize what you can't understand. Your sons and daughters are beyond your command. Your old road is rapidly aging. Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand, for the times are changing. The line is drawn, the curse is cast. The slow one now will later be fast, as the present now will later be past. The order is rapidly fading. The first one now will later be last, for the times are a-changing. Now, that's what Bobby Dylan sings, and that's what these kids... You don't hear these words. Now, I can't understand these words, but look, these folks know what the words are. They have a language all their own. I'll say a few words about that after a while. If I found one of my children listening to that kind of stuff on the radio, I would tear the radio right to pieces immediately after I performed the funeral of my child. You call me what you want to call me, but brother, nobody that's dedicated to treason is going to sing in my living room if I know about it. The music of our nation is dedicated to revolution. Phil Ochoa is one of the heroes and darlings of the revolutionaries. By the way, these songs are played on the Hammond station. Phil has one record called, and his records are selling for the millions. Phil has one called, I Ain't a Marchin' Anymore. That one is against the Vietnam War. How do you like this for a song, one of his songs? Draft Dodger Rag. Our boys and girls are listening to it. This traitor, this Judas Iscariot, this Benedict Arnold is publicizing it. Now, I'll read you what this singer Phil Ochoa said, quote, LaVette Conger write, we should support Ho Chi Minh. Now, I dare you to go out here to one of these stores. I'm talking about in the shopping center out at Woodmark. I dare you to go out there and look and see if you can find some of these records. They'll be there and others just like them. He's created popular lines such as white boots marching in yellow land. We're fighting in a war we lost before the war began. We're the white boots marching in the yellow land and cop soldiers of the world. Here are some of the words. We rammed into your harbor and tied your port. Our pistols are hungry and our tempers are short. So bring your daughters around the port for we're the cops of the world. That's one of the nice songs they're singing. Here's one that's also being sung. The war is over. Here are the words. Serve your country in her suicide. Find a flag so you can wave goodbye. But just before the end, treason might be worth a try. Those are words that come from one of his songs. The Loving Spoonful. That sounds like a wonderful spiritual group. The Loving Spoonful published an article entitled Revolution 1969. Revolution 1969. The second thing I want to say is not only is rock music dedicated to destroying our country and bringing communism in, but rock music is also dedicated to the sale and use of drugs in America. And don't you like the ostrich? Put your head in the sand and think all the drug users are out yonder in the high schools and the Episcopalian churches. Brother, we've got them right here in these pews tonight. I know of at least three cases of people who come to our church rather often who have committed sex orgies, been found in indecent exposure. By the way, I'm going to tell you one thing. There's one fellow I heard about. If I hear about it again, I'm going to expose him. I know of some homosexuals who come to this church, and I know of at least five young men in our church who have been caught peddling marijuana. Now, I'm not trying to hurt anybody. I'm trying to help you. You better get out of that rotten kind of stuff. You're going to condemn your soul and your decency and everything that's right and holy. And let me say, you say, why preach about it here? I'll tell you why. Because every young person who attends any public school has to face it day after day and week after week. Rock music is dedicated to the promoting and sale and use of drugs in America. Listen to this. In the authentic biography of the Beatles, we're told that they started using drugs at the beginning of their career. That's in their biography. This means that every time you hear the Beatles, you're listening to some dope addicts. They used to call them dope fiends, where I came from. Every time you buy their record, you're paying for the dope with these fiends, and you're hooked up with a culture that is dedicated to the destruction of America, the propagation of LSD and narcotics. And let me say this. I wouldn't buy a record. I wouldn't listen to them. I wouldn't watch them on television. I wouldn't hear them on the radio. Some long-haired men who are dedicated to destroying these young people whom we love, and for whom we pray, and whom we teach, and for whom we work, and whom we train. And these, the enemies of decency, trying to destroy America. And some of you folks put your money in their coffers. God pity. You're a traitor too. The Beatles have a song entitled, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Get it? Lucy in the sky with Diamonds. LSD. L for Lucy. S in Sky. D in Diamonds. There's not a hippie in America doesn't know that's what it's talking about. They have code words in their songs. You don't know it when you hear a song, but these code words are known by the hippie crowd. These words have to do with certain narcotics as they sing these songs. They're speaking about drugs. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a definite correlation between the rock music, the dirty body, the long hair, the festivals, the loose morals, the free love, the homosexual, the effeminate, the one-worldism, and communism. There's a definite correlation. Gordon McClendon, a Texan who owns 13 radio stations across the country, this site, by the way, used to own WNUS in Chicago, decided to take all the music off his radio stations that had anything to do with drugs or the use of drugs. He was attacked and blasted even by the Newsweek magazine because he took them off his radio stations. You know one of the great things that's happened in America that I think is hurting us so much, and that is we've talked too much about this stupid generation gap. I said to our people, there's nothing that wouldn't, there's nothing wrong with the generation gap that couldn't be cured by an old-fashioned razor strap. Here's one church where the young folks don't run it. We have a high school where the young folks haven't captured the dean or the principal. And here's one church and one high school where we don't even have a student council. We're so old-fashioned, we believe that the head of the penitentiary ought to run it and the inmates ought not to run the insane asylum and the school students ought not to run the high school. No association there between the high school students and insane. Did you know if I were a heathen, and I'm not, but if I were a heathen, I think my cultural taste would be above such garbage and rot as this kind of music. If I didn't believe in God, I'd still find such trash disgusting. And if I were a Christian, I'd want to clean the dirt out from between my toes, cut my hair. In fact, I just wish I had some hair to cut. But if I were a Christian, I believe in taking a bath. My culture says that good music ought to be played. My culture says when somebody's trying to destroy my nation, I think I'll do something about it. My culture says that when somebody's trying to serve LSD and promote it by their singing, trying to serve it and promote it to my children, my culture says stand up and fight them. I was in New York State. I told our people this. You preachers, I'll tell you this. I was in New York State preaching to a state convention of Baptists. Anybody here, is anybody here there that night I preached? Anybody of you preachers here? Okay, then you'll verify what I'm about to say. I'm glad you're here, brother. A group came out to sing at the state convention of Baptists. I won't tell you what group of Baptists. It was the church choir singing for the annual convention of the state Baptist group. A beautiful auditorium, a very nice refined pastor, and a lovely building. And the youth group, the youth choir came out to sing for the state meeting. The first fellow who came out, first four fellows that came out had long hair. All the girls but one had mini skirts. One boy came out, had his shirt open and his undershirt showing and a hair on his chest showing over his undershirt. And they came out and one guy got the guitar and began to beat on it like this. And now this is true. The kids, the prelude for their song, or the introduction was, all of them. You see, that, that, watch out there darling, you're going to drop off that seat if you go like that very much. But, but that's what happened. I mean, that's the way they start off. Did you stay after the service? They kept me to 115. That crowd gathered, I, I, they came out like that, sang a bunch of rock music in the state convention. In my own timid, tactful way, I blew that thing high in a kite. I didn't have anybody to say amen then. And I was a stranger in a foreign land. I wanted to put my harp all over the trees and not sing the Lord's song in a strange land. But I spent an hour and a half busting that wicked kind of stuff wide open in a fundamental church, a Bible preaching church. God help you preachers to go home and put some clothes on your kid and get some haircuts on your kids. Teach them some decent music. Whatever happened to Shakespeare? Whatever happened to good music? Beethoven? Whatever happened to Bach? I like Bach. Bach in the hills where I was born. Carry me back to old Virginia. I like that. Whatever happened to decent music? We have catered to a gent trying to get the young people. Everybody in this house done tonight, there's 21 and under. Would you stand up please? Now, let me ask you a question. Do you have to cater to young folks with the trends of the day to get the teenagers? There's not a church in America that has any more teenagers in it tonight than we do. And here's the kind of preaching they hear 52 weeks a year. We have dedicated ourselves to training some young people who sing right, dress right, talk right, act right, and are cultured and refined and decent and Christian. Now, you go home and do the same thing. You say, but the house, if I did, my folks would fire me. Well, then you ought to be fired if you got that kind of folks. You've been there very long. Now, go home and start preaching. Thank you. You can be seated. God bless you. By the way, that, to see what you just saw was worth your trip to this area. There's a song called the White Rabbit sung for the Jefferson airplanes. And here it is. One pill makes you larger. One pill makes you smaller. The pill that mother gives you don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall. And if you go a-chasing rabbits, then you know you're going to fall. Tell them a hook, a smoking caterpillar has given you the call. Feed your head, feed your head. That's one of the records being sung and sold in our record shops today. Can't you see in quote, one pill makes you bigger, one pill makes you smaller, and one that mother gives you don't do anything at all. How the home is being attacked. Go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall. I wonder what that means. If you go a-chasing rabbits, you know what you're going to fall. I wonder what that means. Tell them a hook and a smoking caterpillar has given you the call. Isn't that a great line? Wouldn't Shakespeare be proud of that? Now, listen to the words of the Beatles hit. She's leaving home. She's having fun. Fun is the thing that money can't buy. Something inside that's always denied for so many years. Bye-bye. She's leaving home. Bye-bye. That's one of the Beatles' latest hits. I wonder how many girls have heard that song played to some wicked, vile, vulgar disc jockey on some heathen radio station, have left home to go to New York City or Greenwich Village. And I don't mean people outside this church. I know at least three young people who grew up in this church, who have gone into the hippie crowd and have left home. At least three. What type of young person does this? The type whose mother and father defends him every time he gets in trouble. And goes home and says, well, the pastor preached on something pretty rough tonight, but I know my children wouldn't do anything like that. Cheetah, Cheetah, one of the magazines aimed at timid youngsters. By the way, that's a pretty good title for a teenage magazine these days, Cheetah. Quote the New York musician as saying, now listen to this, if the establishment knew what today's popular music is saying, not what the words are saying, but what the music itself is saying, they wouldn't just turn their thumbs down on it. They'd ban it, they'd smash all the records and arrest anyone who would try to play it. That was said by Cheetah, one of the big magazines aimed at teenagers. Frank Zappa, the leader of a rock group called Mothers of Invention said, quote, the loud sounds and bright lights of today are tremendous indoctrination tools. It is possible to modify the human chemical structure with the right combination of frequencies. If the right kind of beat makes you tap your foot, what kind of beat makes you curl your fists and strike? Zappa, whose group has recorded some Lollapaloozas in the fields of sex, drugs, and revolution, knows what he's talking about, despite his mangy beard, long hair, and hippy costume, for he has a master's degree in music. And so 50 years ago, Lenin said before a Communist Youth League and said, we'll have to change the culture of a nation if it is to go communistic. Nine years later, 40 years ago, a department was formed with the Communist government in Russia to infiltrate America with what we're facing tonight. Such heathens as Madeleine Murray O'Hare have taken cases to the Supreme Court, which has taken the Bible from our school system and has taken prayer out of our public schools. Yet under the guise of freedom, they've allowed beasts and animals to speak on our college campuses. I'll be honest with you, I'm fed up. I'm fed up. I decided a few years ago that a preaching like this gets me out of the First Baptist Church, I'll just get out of the First Baptist Church. I decided a few years ago it's time that somebody stood up and cried aloud of what's going on, and I'll tell you one thing, we're making some dent in this area out of what you're doing with yours. Now we haven't gotten it solved and we haven't changed the area, but we're making some dent in decency in this area, because a lot of churches are seeing the stand we're taking and they're joining our stand. These dirty flea-bitten hounds can get on television stations and speak in the name of peace, call us everything they want to call us, make light of the Bible, deny God, talk about free love all they want to, and we say freedom. I wish they'd put more television cameras on places like Bob Jones University where girls have to wear their dresses down to their knees. And by the way, some of you ladies could well do that too. You say you're getting off the subject. I got a lot of other subjects I ought to get off on tonight before we leave. All goes together. The showing of your thighs, the mini-skirts, the long hair, the long beards, all of it goes together. The dirty music. I told our people about the preacher we had down in college when I was in East Texas Baptist College. A fellow with six children came to college to prepare for the ministry. He got called to a church up in Red River County and therefore I was pastor. The fellow was one of the wickedest fellows you ever heard in your life. His vocabulary was so vile and vulgar he could hardly preach without learning a new language. He was preaching one morning in his pulpit on Sunday morning on the cross and he was telling about how the devil got Jesus on the cross. Now this is not good doctrine or theology, but it's what he said. He said the devil got Jesus on the cross and he said he plucked his beard and he hooked him with a can of nine tails and he put the crown of thorns on his head and the blood flowed down from his brow and he put the nails in his hands and feet and they mocked him and stripped him naked and dog licked his wounds. That's what the devil did. He said you know what I think the devil is? I don't know what I think the devil is. He's a son of a blank, a blank, a blank, a blank, a blank, a blank and a son of a blank, a blank, a blank. That's what I think about the devil. He cursed a blue streak. Literally cursed a blue streak. I mean vulgar, vile, filthy language from the pulpit. Suddenly he realized what he had done. He got his Bible and closed it and walked out the back door and got in his car and drove off. People sat and spellbound and stunned for a few minutes and finally the wise and God and the chairman of the Board of Deacons stood and said to the people, I heard it too. It was awful. But he said I'd like to say that everything our pastor said the devil was, I think he's the same thing. He said I make a motion we forgive him, give him a raise in pay and call him back. Now I wouldn't suggest you preachers try the same measures when you go home, but I did you what? I got more respect for a fellow who'll get up and curse the devil with vile language than I've got for a fellow who will have a liberal stand up and pray on his platform. Dr. Bob Jones Senior used to say, he said, you know I knew a fellow one time that cursed all the time, but said he never did cuss anybody that didn't need a cussing. We need some mad preachers. We need some indignant Christians. We need somebody to say this is wrong. Now what can we do? What's the answer? I'm skipping a lot of this. Read the book if you want the rest of it. One, teenagers break or destroy every record, every picture and every magazine you have that has anything to do with these revolutionary singing groups. Don't give them away. Somebody might use them. Burn them. Break them. Destroy them. Put them in the garbage can. Get rid of the magazines. By the way, let me just stop and say again, I'm a little sick of these religious groups taking different words and putting it to the beat. Now listen to me. I think the beat's sinful. I think the beat. I mean the beat. I mean the rock music. I don't care if it's to Amazing Grace. Use the old-fashioned beat to Amazing Grace too. I was in Rockford, Illinois, preaching to a big Sunday school convention. Eleven hundred people registered. The mayor of the town was there. I was sitting right here about ready to preach. And they had a music group to sing from a certain college over in Chicago. And a bunch of long-haired fellows got up with some of these old outgrown guitars and come over your head and start beating on that thing, doing like that. And they sang about the old man up there, about somebody up yonder who loves me and everybody. And beat that crazy things and jived it like a bunch of people in a nightclub. And that's destroying America. You say, we'll get the young people. No, you're not. The devil's already got you. We're not trying to get young people. Whoever heard that our job's to get young people. Our job's to change young people. They get them. We're not trying to count a bunch of numbers. We're trying to change a bunch of lives. I was over in Chicago one night speaking at Moody Church to a child advances in convention. I went up to the auditorium early. Youth for Christ was having a rally there. And a bunch of Youth for Christ kids were up there. It sounded just like one of these pop radio stations. And I listened for a while. Now, by the way, this was not Moody Church. The pastor knew nothing about this. But they were singing music that had the same tempo and the same beat that the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplanes, The Beatles, all use. Throw them away. Get rid of them. Burn them. What can you do? Number two, parents, don't allow such trash to be played in your home. I mean, don't allow it on television. Don't allow it on radio. But you say, well the house, it's causing friction in our home. Well, you pull the trousers down of that teenage kid and you cause some friction in his home. That's one reason why you've got friction in your home. I dare my boy to say to me, I just don't, you just don't treat me right. He's never had such wrong treatment he's about to have. Parents, don't allow it. And you better be careful about some of these shows like Johnny Carson, Merv Griffith, and this other fellow's on, Mike Douglas and others, watching these shows. And because these shows are full of, full of this kind of garbage and trash. Number three, don't allow gospel words sung to a jungle beat. Number four, get your children in a church like this. You know what? If I live, if I live anywhere near this church and I came and I heard a sermon like this with children, I'd say to myself, boy, that's where I want my kids to go. That's where I want my kids to go. I want my kids to hear that. I want my kids to know something about good music. And I want my kids to know that rock music is heathen. Get your children in a church like this. Number five, not only take away the bad music, but put good music in your home. Dedicate yourself to not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of your mind in order that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. But you say, well, I like it. I like it. That never has and never will be an excuse for doing it. There have been times when I wanted to kill Dr. Billings too, but I didn't do it. So the fist is going to take care of that for me. But I like it. It's no excuse for heathenism. It's no excuse for wrong. It's no excuse for worldliness and it's no excuse for rock music. The time has come when God's people are going to have to put up or shut up, get in, get out, get hot, get cold, get off, get on, decide whether you have a God or the devil's crown. I mean, listen, brother, the fence, you can no longer straddle between the world and Christ. The breach is just too wide. You're going to get the splits. Now, the time has come when God's people are going to have to stand up and speak, sing, smell, act, talk, drink, everything else like God's people and be glad we're God's people. And the time has come, we're going to have to say to this whole world, we're not going to copy you to get your people. We're going to go back to the old fashioned gospel of Jesus Christ and we're going to declare a war on wrong and evil and communism and dope and alcohol and miniskirts. If we don't, we're gone. There's more to this than a rabble-rousing preacher, although that's part of it. But there's more to this than a rabble-rousing preacher standing up and busting his lungs trying to scream against rock music. There's a nation at stake. And if we don't do something about it, we're gone. I mean, we're gone. Kids, teenagers, of course, many of you are in our high school now, but last year we had no high school. How many of you knew of somebody who, you have known of someone in your school who peddled dope and if you wanted to get some dope, you have known at least one source to get it. Would you raise your hand, please? Look over there, where's my pie, where's my pie? Look over there. That's what we're facing. Where do these kids get their desire for dope? They get it from a civilization that is trying to cater to this kind of filth. You say, what can be done? I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure at this late in the game if anything can be done to save our nation. But if anything can be done, it'll be done because we get preachers to change. That is the only hope we have. I'll be honest with you, the hardest thing we do here is the pastor's school. The hardest thing we do. I gave my life years ago to try and reach preachers. I preached last year to over 18,000 different preachers across this country. I traveled day and night, literally day and night. I preached sometimes when I absolutely feel I can't get through. The other night, just a few nights ago, I was in a certain city, I had preached nine times in one day. Every time to preachers. I opened my door to go in my room that night, and I'll be honest, I said to myself, Jack, I wonder if you've got enough strength left to make it to the bed. I don't like to travel. I don't like motels or restaurants. And I don't like a lot of the inconveniences. Years ago, I got the idea that if we're going to help this country, we have to help preachers. Won't you pray this week that we can help these preachers? It's a serious matter with us. Serious matter. The other night, I was preaching to a group of preachers. And as I stood to speak, I prayed for God to help me to change the preachers. As I stood to speak, I looked at my watch. It was a different basketball game. My boys played as a guard on the team. And I said to myself, I wouldn't do this, or anything in all the world, except to save my country. Do my part to save America. I love these kids over here. Every one of them knows, they know I won't take anything, but they know I love them. They know it. Don't you? They know I do. I spend much of my time talking and counseling and preaching and hoping and praying. And I want them to have a decent chance to grow up in an America like we grew up in. I want them to have freedom. And if they do, we're going to have to cry it out and spare naught about the evils of our days. There ought to be five or six or seven or a dozen families tonight walk down this aisle and say, I'm going to join a church like this. Get out of these worldly, liberal, rock music churches. Have dances and skating rinks and card parties and striptease shows and everything else. Get out of them. But you say, Uncle George, he's buried in the backyard. Dig him up. Bring him over here. We'll bury him in the alley. Get out! Come out from among them and be your separate self, O Lord. And then tonight, you are listening to this kind of dirt. I mean, if you've got pictures of these trashy people, if you're listening to this