This week on Next Steps Forward, Dr. Chris Meek welcomes Pastor David Lowery, Jr. – a passionate civil rights advocate, national speaker, and founder of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation. With a career spanning military contracting, ministry, and social justice, Pastor Lowery brings a uniquely multifaceted perspective to the fight against racial profiling and systemic inequality. In this inspiring and deeply informative episode, Pastor Lowery shares the powerful story behind founding the Living and Driving While Black Foundation, the reality of racial profiling in America today, and how his organization works to educate, empower, and uplift Black communities and other marginalized groups. He discusses the policies that could drive real change, the importance of economic opportunity for ex-offenders and disadvantaged youth, and how mentorship and second-chance hiring programs can create lasting impact. With stories of hope, resilience, and transformation, this episode offers listeners practical tools for advocacy and personal empowerment – plus a reminder that change begins with each of us taking our next step forward.
About Pastor David Lowery Jr: Pastor David Lowery Jr. is co-pastor at Fernwood Community Outreach Church in Chicago, an outreach pastor at Universal Baptist Church in Harvey, Illinois, and host of “Let the Truth Be Told” on The Exceptional Conservative Network. He is also the founder and president of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation, which is a national civil rights organization advocating against racial profiling. The group also promotes economic opportunities for ex-offenders, disadvantaged youth, and indigent individuals across the nation. Pastor Lowery is an experienced speaker on the national stage and the foundation is often sought out by various civic and social services agencies to assist in finding ways to alleviate social, economic, and legal barriers for minorities. Pastor Lowery has served as a civilian procurement/contracting officer for the United States Navy, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. He is a former union ironworker and also operated a successful computer sales and technology business.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
There are few things that make people successful. Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there. How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you? Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek. Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward. Now, here is Chris Meek.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello, you've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us. Our focus is on personal empowerment, a commitment to well-being, and the motivation to achieve more than you ever thought possible. We have another outstanding guest this week. Pastor David Lowry Jr. is co-pastor at Fernwood Community Outreach Church in Chicago, an outreach pastor at Universal Baptist Church in Harvey, Illinois, and host of the Let the Truth Be Told on the Exceptional Conservative Network. He's also the founder and president of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation, which is a national civil rights organization advocating against racial profiling. The group also promotes economic opportunities for ex-offenders, disadvantaged youth, and indigent individuals across the nation. Pastor Lowry is an experienced speaker on the national stage, and the foundation is often sought out by various civic and social services agencies to assist in finding ways to alleviate social, economic, and legal barriers for minorities. Pastor Lowry served as a civilian procurement contracting officer for the United States Navy, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. He's a former union iron worker and also operated a successful computer sales and technology business. Pastor David Lowry Jr., welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Meeks. But first, let me give all praises to God my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for making it possible for me to be here, as well as your listeners, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Pastor, that's a lot of hats you've worn, I just read off there. You've had a diverse set of life experiences and skills. Take us through your upbringing, what did you do as a civilian procurement contracting officer for the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers, and how you ultimately became a pastor?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well, I grew up on a plantation in a little town called Marie, Arkansas. My parents were sharecroppers. I picked and chopped cotton from five to eight years old. During that migration, my parents moved to Chicago where my grandmother, Eloise Barton, got involved in politics. And so I've sort of been in the political fray for a long time, but I really didn't enjoy it because of the lying and all the cheating and stealing and politics. But I went off to college at Augustana University in Rock Island, Illinois to play basketball, but I ended up having a kid at 16, so I dropped out of college and I went to work for J.I. Case Company as a welder. A year later, I found a restaurant that I used to buy lunch for and the guy wanted to sell it. I did a land contract, gave him 5,000 and bought the restaurant. From that time, I have five children, 51, 49, 47, 44, 19, all grown and doing good things in their lives. It has just been, for me, I've been an entrepreneur. I started a computer company that made a lot of money for me. But before that, I got involved with the military as a civilian. I went back to college and there was a program that they had where I could work four days and go to school for four days. I ended up at the Corps of Engineers and I did such a good job at procurement that the chief said, well, look, why don't you just take the service exam and become a, you know, a contracting officer. So I did that. And for 15 years, I was able to help build the 8A program with minority participation. I learned the rules and regulations of government contracting and procurement. And so that was a real structure for me because during high school times, I graduated from high school at 15. During those times, I worked jobs like grocery store. My father was a manager for Dominick's Fine Foods, but the military gave me structure. I had to be at work at six o'clock every morning. It kept me focused on the things that I needed to do. It was a lot of learning and contracting. You know, you gotta learn a different clause, Davis-Bacon Act, all of those things we had to learn. So it kept me pretty busy, raising my family and raising my children, but also I had the restaurant. And I was a young father. And so I really, you know, I really had never dove into sports when I was in high school, but then I was in Davenport, Iowa, and I had younger relatives that was coming up and coming. Michael, second to none, the middleweight champion of the world. I trained him. I played with Roger Craig with the 49ers. I taught Roger how to run up the heels. I played semi-professional football under coach Jim Hester and the Quad City Blackhawks and I was picked up by the Chicago Blitz in the 80s and played with that team a couple of years and then I sort of retired and I wanted to get into boxing because Michael was growing up and he had won the Pan Am games and then he went on the Virgil Hill at the Olympics, and we went pro with, it was called 10 Goose Boxing, which is America Presents now. And so, in 1990, my idea was that, you know, I was in excellent shape. I said I was going to make an announcement that I was going to, you know, turn professional boxer and at least try to deal with Mike Tyson at the time. But, you know, God works in strange ways and even though I trained you know like crazy he had me training for another reason and it was to save my life because December 7th 1990 I went to be with the Lord I was accidentally shot in the chest with 357 Magnum and it changed my life it changed my mindset you know the night that that happened I was about to make the announcement to my friends and family that I wanted to turn pro because you know I was married and I had to ask the wife hey is it okay and so that was a incident that happened at the restaurant I went downstairs to address it with my father and when I got there some guys had him he ended up in a corner and I you know I got the guys out the place and dad was so mad he went got his gun a 357 and a 38 and I'm just telling these people just leave, you know, you violate it, just leave. And so when he came out the door behind me, I didn't realize that he had the guns out already. And so when the people left, I got them in the car, I turned around to dad and I said, Hey, come on, let me buy a drink. I got to make the announcement. The 357 went off and shot me in the heart. And and that was the defining moment in my life. Because when you die, time freezes, Everything freezes except your spirit and when I realized that I was dead I called on the lord And he he came and got me And um, he gave me the report. He said that you know, um I need you. I need you for a time to come And I need you to change your life And he whatever he wanted me to do. I said lord, whatever that you want me to do. I will do it And so he said well You haven't been the worst. You haven't been the best and he gave me my marching orders And before I left to come back to my body, he said no matter what they tell you tonight No matter what they say, no matter how bad the report is Every time somebody say that you're going to die You tell them that God said I wasn't gonna die tonight. So I said I got you it's a He put me back into my body and I and I was you know by me being in such good shape shape. I was about a 225 pounds, zero body fat. The bullet went inside my chest. It nicked my heart. It exploded my lung. It broke the ribs under my arm. The bullet split in half, so I had fragments all over inside my body. And so when I got into the restaurant, I told my mother to call 911, but it was just as if the spirit of the Lord was all over me. I probably was the most calmest person at the restaurant because everybody was screaming and hollering and I just kept saying, God told me I wasn't going to die tonight. And so that was my mantra. That's all I had to say. So when I got to the operating table, it was sort of chaotic because I was known as a football player in the community and a family guy, restaurant owner. And so when they got there and they gave me the report, they said, well, the lung is gone. The heart is nicked. We got Torn stuff everywhere and I just kept telling the doctor. I said well God said I wasn't going down tonight and and the doctor got frustrated with me and he said well if if that's what God told you then he got to save you and You never mocked God because at that point I died on the operating table The second time and then as I was going to be with the Lord My mother was holding my hand and I was so mad I said God you said I wasn't gonna die tonight and he said your faith has made you well, and he put me back into my body and I was shot Friday. I laid in hospice in a dead state all day at Sunday morning I woke up and walked out the hospital. That's been 34 years ago. My heart was healed ribs was healed I was restored totally and a knife never touched my body and that night I gave my life to Christ Four and a half years ago. I became a pastor With Universal and with Fernwood with our Reverend Samson, and it has been a labor of love ever since You know, I'm in the community working with those who are less fortunate And we're trying to provide things for them so that they can get their lives back on track, you know So, currently, I'm here in Chicago and I have an organization called Living and Driving While Black. We have written legislation. I know for a fact this. In order for us to change the dynamics, especially in the black community, there has to be proper legislation to stop the discrimination, the racial profiling, the police brutality. And so I first didn't understand what God had planned for me because as a successful businessman, I never experienced racial profiling before. You know, it was like, you know, you always, like I said, being a sort of young celebrity, you know, most of the officers knew me and I didn't have that problem. But as time went on, there was different changes and command officers changed. I had a meeting with with a Procter & Gamble John Deere. They were buying computer products for me And so I dropped an employee off in Rock Island, Illinois And I stopped at a stop sign a police officer was sitting there and you know, we both sitting at the stop sign So he didn't leave so I had just bought a brand new Lexus and so I pulled off This one got me into all of this mess. I I pulled off and he got behind me. And so my brother-in-law was the The sergeant of police in Rock Island. So, you know, they used to play tricks on me and stuff like that They'll pull me over sell my brother your brother-in-law told me so when the officer came to me You know, I was dressed like I am now and he was like, well, you know Whose car is this? And I says well, who do you see driving it? And so wrong answer and he took the bad attitude And so me I thought it was a joke and I said well, you know You know, what's the problem? So he got my license state gone a long time I got out the car to address him and told him I had to go to a meeting When I got back in the car, I stayed like 35 or 40 minutes, man And so finally came back to the car says, you know Get out of the car you're under arrest and I'm thinking this is totally absurd So I told him to tell I said you tell my brother-in-law This is not funny and I snatched my license out of his hand and he you know He got he drove his weapon on me. So I said, oh, wait a minute, you know, that's that's so I said they wanted to search the car they searched the car that was nothing there and That put me on the path because when I went to the court the judges knew me and they said you know what this is not the guy that that you pulled over a guy that that's that's good to the community and so forth and And after that, that sort of put me on a path to say, what if I'm not known? What if a police officer stops me and I'm not known and they take me to a whole nother level, not because I've done anything, because I was driving a nice car. And so that got me into the path. I contacted NAACP and that led me from there to Reverend Sharpton as a National Crisis Director, to my organization, Living and Driving While Black, because I found out these poverty pimps and these race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson does not have the black community interest at hand. And so after I left New York, I started my foundation and we have just been tearing across the country, building relationships with law enforcement. We've been connecting ex-offenders, the people that they call gang bangers. I'll be meeting with them this Friday. We're having a big event here in Chicago where we're taking our communities back. We're stopping our young men from killing and educating them, providing resources for them. And so it has been a labor of love for me since then. And I understand why God took me out of that arena to be the world champion because I became a world champion for him. You know, I stand and fight when nobody else will fight. When people call me and they need help, then I step in. When they call the others and they don't respond, We respond and do what's right that God tell us to do. And we've been so successful. We're probably the most unknown organization in the country because we don't take money. I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal. We've been investing into our own organization out of my pocket and others. And so we've stayed and kept our independence so we don't get compromised. And we have just been blessed to continue and save lives and build relationships to get jobs and help create families with young men who have no future, man. It has been a labor of love, man. I just can't see how other pastors aren't doing this type of work because this is what God said we should do. We should be Christ-like and we should be helping those that are less fortunate and oppressed to find victory in life. So that's what I've been doing and I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Do what you love and call it work, right? Yeah, kind of.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And let's make you the most well-known organization in the country, not the least known.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I really appreciate that, man. We have done so much. We're currently here in Chicago. I'm planning to run for mayor here in Chicago in 2027. We've been preparing with exploratory committees and to the American people and patrons across this country. What God is doing, He's doing what you see Mr. Meek is doing with me. He's creating the body of Christ because the arms can't work without the legs and the legs can't work without the hips. And so that's what he's doing right now. Other leaders across this country have been in place a long time and they have just not did it. They worried about money and all the material things in the world. We don't do that. We know that God should be first. And as Christians, we should be acting Christ-like because the word is this. And every time I think about how what Jesus went through. It's a lot of us Christians that are going through the same type of thing. And we're gonna go through that because the world is being ran by Satan. And to run for mayor of Chicago was the farthest thing from my mind. I'm 68 years old. You know, my kids are grown, they're doing well. I'm doing pretty good as a retiree. But it was that God that came to me and said, look at your city, look at Chicago, look at how it's being torn apart. He said, go take the city. And I'm thinking, go take the city. And so he made it clear to me that Christians need to be in a position of authority. The religions and the government, it don't mix because if you work for God, you are well above the government. We have to maintain the position that we have to ensure that the government run properly and righteously. and that's why I urge other Christians now, let us step up to the plate because Moses was a politician, but he understood what God had for him to do. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was politicians and they went to a furnace for God. I mean, Daniel's in the lions den and it goes examples across. The Bible talks about Christians being in powerful places because we cannot expect for people that do dark things and bad things to be right by Christians or anybody because they're gonna do what they need to do for Satan. So I urge Christians across the country, go in local politics, get involved with your school boards, get involved with the state rep jobs, because when that money or whatever needs to be done, whatever the policies that need to go into the schools for the future of our country, our children, Christians need to be in charge of that so we don't see homosexuality in the schools. We don't see the transgender stuff and I don't have nothing against them, but we need to get our house in order so that we can have a future because the Lord is already here. He's in us. And that's what he's waiting for. He's waiting for us to unify. And that's why my hat is off to you, Dr. Meeks. I saw some of the things that you're doing. You are a champion in your own right. The things that you've done for our soldiers, paralyzed soldiers with the robotics, All of those things is your ministry and you are standing tall and I know God is saying, you know what, it's time for us to be together and help our people in every kind of way that we can.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know, in all the research we did on your background and your bio before the show, never knew the story about you being shot. And you've completely blown my notes up from that story, no pun intended. What you've gone through is amazing. you are, for lack of a better phrase, sort of say the poster child for our mantra of next steps forward. And nothing has held you back, you've kept going, you've done what's right for you, for your family, for your community. So thank you for that, and you continue to serve because you're running for mayor of Chicago, which we all know is one of the hardest, hardest races to run for in government.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Well, let me say this to you and to our listening audience. When God gives you a mission, You don't question him. He's already told me to take the city. And I see what Brandon Johnson is doing. When he brought the migrants to Chicago, this was all a wicked plan that was set in tone with Barack Obama when he ran for office in here in Chicago. When Barack passed the same sex law, excuse me, he knew that if it went to the public and went to a vote, it never would have happened. So they did it under the auspices of coming of COVID. All of these things that was done in 2012, after Barack got back into office, went to play because they had decided Hillary Clinton was gonna be the next president. But when President Trump won, that threw the wrench in, but they had already placed people in positions to do this, distill the election. And so he started that, and then Joe Biden was the culmination of the transgenders coming out. And for the last four years doing that ministration with the illegals being the borders being open, I'm also friends with Tom Holman, who was the border czar. I know quite a few people being Burquam with Real America Voices, Steve Bannon. They've all been working with me here in the city of Chicago. And I just think that it's time for God's people to stand up and put God first and we'll see the change. I know that when I take City Hall, that the first thing that's going to be done is the audit, like they did with Doge, and then we want to get rid of all of these politicians. To the American people across this country, if you live in a state that have experienced the influx of illegals, the hatred that you've seen from the, and I just have to say the Democratic Party, then we need to think about how we can replace those politicians, because They cannot go into office again. Now that we know what they're doing, this is a spiritual war. And then we, the people of this country have to realize that and that's why I'm asking Christians to step up and get into these races and take over so righteousness can be done. But this is our time to really be at a place where that we can make the changes because if we don't change it right here, cause I was so fearful, Because I did a lot of work in the city of Chicago promoting the Republican Party. And I'm an independent, but I look for righteousness. When President Trump said that he was going to end the three genders and said that he was going to remove all of these things and get the people out, man, I've gone on a tear in Chicago. It was like every meeting, every organization, I was making black people aware that we have to look at the fruit and the labor of the people and what we've seen from the Democratic Party for 60 years have not been conducive for the black community. And so those lives transformed into Chicago and the state of Illinois, garnering 47% vote for President Trump, and it has changed the dynamics here in Illinois. And so we're going to make some changes for the governor, we're going to make major changes is for the city and throughout the state. And I'm hoping that, and I know for a fact that God's people will be in charge and this whole world is gonna change once we step up and try rightful place and be the guardians of this earth. That Christ said, greater works that you should do on earth are gone. And I send the Holy Spirit, but I'm not giving my power that Christ gave me to nobody. So I stand above all of this. I work for God and Christ and there's nothing bigger or better than that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Clearly, I don't, I've never had the experience of being pulled over for racial profiling. And when you were pulled over, you thought it was a joke from your brother-in-law. Was that the impetus for you to start the Living and Driving While Black Foundation?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yes, it was. You know, that was the thing that drove me to really go into the civil rights world. when I went to the NAACP, they told me I should not have bought a car that the police would stop me with. And so I went to Baltimore to speak to Inquisay and Foomey. I flew out there to tell him about what was going on until he finally said, well, I'm too rough for office. But yeah, that right there was the tip of the iceberg for me because I felt I'm living in the American dream. I started on a farm. My daddy, my mommas was poor. The support that they gave us was astronomical. We didn't get on welfare. My dad worked, he had a third grade education. My mother had 11th grade education. They taught us about finances, economics. They taught us about history. And so, you know, to me to grow up like that and here I am now, not knowing that I would be at a pastor to be in this place, it's just a blessing, man. So that drove me to where I'm at right now. And just like, I'm sure there were some things in your life that drove you to work with our military to understand the needs that they have. When people have needs, then we as Christians and we as Americans should be stepping up to play to help each other. And that's my message to this country. Let's get out of this individual. There is no black and white in God's kingdom, not at all. I was there. There's no black and white. It's just saints. That's it. And so we just have to use the spirit of the Lord to work with each other and do what's right, and righteousness is always going to prevail, man. This is our time, Brother Chris.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Like they say, don't give a handout, give a hand up. Yes. What were the primary goals of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation when you founded it, and have its goals evolved as society has changed?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, we know that education is the key to a lot of things. And so when I founded the Foundation Living and Driving While Black, because not only are we racially profiled in our cars, but if we go to stores, it's the same type of attitude. People follow us around. So when I founded it, I started to educate people, especially on the driver's side. I told them how to conduct themselves. Say, yes, sir, no, ma'am. Keep your hands where they can be seen. If you need to reach something, tell the officer, either let the officer get it. If you don't have nothing to hide, if he asks me to get out, I'm gonna say, hey, I'm complying, blah, blah, blah. So we start educating people on how to diffuse racial profiling situations. That led into me working with some of the officers in Iowa. And it's a mindset because racial profiling is beyond black and white. It's black on black, it's white on white. It's the perception that you perceive of a person that they might look like somebody. And so education is key for the citizens as well as law enforcement. But to law enforcement, you just have to be an honest person. You just cannot take your job. If you take a job in law enforcement and you feel that you wanna be a cowboy, that you wanna go out here and crack some heads, that's the wrong profession for you to be in. Because you will create a situation out of nothing just to say I did something and take somebody's life when they didn't really understand what you were saying or understand what you were trying to do. So I tell officers all the time, if you're gonna do this job, you have to wear the armor of the Lord for sure because every situation is not going to be what you think. And you do have to have perception to know when something is good and when something is bad. So I tell officers, take your precautions, but keep a solid attitude when you deal with people. And I tell drivers the same way, you might have had a bad day, but this officer is trying to do his job. He's trying to get home to his family that he left this morning. And he don't know you from Adam. So it's best to be cordial and make it a happy ending by getting a ticket or going home. So I just teach people on how to deal with law enforcement. And I teach law enforcement on what type of attitude they should have concerning a person that you might have to stop?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
My wife is very close with her college roommates and they get together a couple times a year. Most live here in the Northeast. And then COVID happened and so they would do Zoom calls. One of her roommates is from Guyana. And early in the COVID crisis, the George Floyd tragedy happened. And so they had a Zoom call shortly after that. And her roommate from Guyana was I was telling like, as you mentioned a few moments ago, she'd be in a store to go shopping and the manager or somebody, a clerk, would be following her around the store. Different things like that that obviously I can't understand or begin to fathom. What's the history of racial profiling? Has it been around forever? Is it new in the United States?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Well, it's been around forever. Now, let me tell you a story. And see, this is why I say during my education period, when God allowed me to live, That was things that happened to me that I could never envision of happening. And so, there's a grocery store named Hy-Vee in Iowa.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I know Hy-Vee.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So, in Silver, Sillinois, me and my girlfriend went there to go shopping, and so I like Chinese food. So, I went to the deli, ordered some food, okay. My girlfriend walked around the store. The lady said, I'll bring the food to your cart. They're walking around the store, getting groceries and all like that. And I don't know for what reason the manager is following us around the store. And so when the lady came about the Chinese food, she said it in the car, we thanked her. And when we went to the checkout line, the food was set on the belt. The guy ringed it and then he said, hold up, wait a minute. You guys trying to steal this food. This is true and I'm sitting there with a pocket full of money saying what and so anyway long story short That was the second racial profiling incident in a grocery store and idea to high be and we were successful To stop it, but it's the perception. I think that because of how America and The black and white society have not really ever this government has kept us against each other and I wanna call it the way it is. It is our government that has always given the perception of black people that they're lazy, they don't want nothing, they're not entrepreneurs. That's not true. To the American people and patriots across this country, that's probably less than 5% of the black community. Black people that I know, they're not worried about discrimination, they're working jobs, they're taking care of their families, they're successful. We're not out here looking for things to do. We're trying to make sure that we can rebuild our communities. So what the media does is create this facade that black people are lazy and they don't want to work, they don't own homes, and they don't own businesses. And that's that 2% to 3%. Those on welfare, there's nothing wrong with that. Those that are on welfare, those that are considered gangbangers, that's what the media focus on. and it gives the wrong perception to the American people. And I'm here today to tell you that that perception needs to change because right now we cannot continue down the road of being separated as Americans. Whites can no longer continue to believe the narrative that the government is putting in front of us. And blacks are the same way because the way the government portray us is that we should never live together. We should just hate each other and stay divided. But when the COVID came, that was the tale of the tape for all Americans. If you didn't have money, it didn't make no difference. You were rich or poor. We was all in the same place. And the government was running us in the ground. They were lying. They were cheating. They were stealing. They was keeping us from our loved ones with the fake COVID. They didn't want the proper medicines. So it was a mess. And I think for those who experienced it and went through it, that taught us that from this point, there is no division in the American people because all of us suffered. Rich people suffered, poor people suffered. If you weren't part of the government, you were gonna suffer. And through that suffering, it has caused us to unite and understand more about each other and do our research and not worry about this government saying, because we control it. It's we, the people of this country that should be running this country. And if they're not falling in line for what we want, we have to get rid of them. It's just that simple.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
You mentioned you're interested in running for mayor of Chicago. You've used the phrase gangbangers a few times. We all know Chicago has one of the highest crime rates, one of the highest murder rates in the country. To your point, the media keeps pointing it at the underprivileged and the black communities. What are your thoughts in terms of how do you right that ship if you're elected?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Well, I've already started writing the ship. You know, this Friday, coming up, we will have a meeting. Let me say this. When I was growing up in Chicago, in Englewood, there were street organizations, and a lot of people called them gangs, but everything is a gang. Police officers, gang, the judges, the lawyers, they're all gangs. These are street organizations. And I have to say this, and I give props to where it's due. I graduated out of high school at 15 years old from Taylor Technical High School. I was the son of a sharecropper. When I got to the city of Chicago, I didn't know nothing about the city. I was green and grass, but I know that I was fighting all the time because white gangs were chasing me home because we lived in a predominantly white neighborhood. The black organization started getting together. They started to protect us so that we could go to school without being jumped on. Larry Hoover started the Gangster Disciples in Chicago. My grandmother was the second lady ever elected to the city council. Her name is Eloise Barton. We was grandkids of Alderman, so we had the silver spoon in our mouth. But the ideology that they had of raising us just to hang out, to play basketball at the park, it never was about drugs. It never about none of that stuff. It was about protection and teaching the children and making sure that we have stuff that we needed. And so I went on to college and the point that I'm making is this, that street organizations that I have ties to, I never forgot where I came from. Because when I became successful, I started going back to the streets. I started telling brothers, man, listen, put the dope down. We can sell these types of products. We can get contracts from the government. And it worked. It worked a lot. And so my reputation, not just here in Chicago, but in every major city, LA, New York, I have, I'm known on the streets as the organization's pastor, because here in Chicago, this Friday we're having a meeting. All the heads of the organizations, the Bloods, the Crypts, all of them will be here in Chicago this Friday. And I'll be speaking to them because they are the grassroots of the black community. They are the grassroots here. If the street organizations was allowed to, The shooting and the killing and the black community would stop overnight because what we're doing now when we go out, we go out to the abandoned buildings, we go out to those cars where these kids are sleeping. They're uneducated. They don't understand the process of life. They're on drugs. There's nobody that's reaching out for them. And I'm proud to say that I work with street organizations like the Gangster Disciples, the Blackstone Rangers, the vice lords, because they allow me and others to come in and help these young people and talk to them and find out what the problem is. So we're meeting this Friday because in 2022, the crime in Chicago was just horrendous. And so the Brothers of the Struggle, they're called bosses, which I am one of, the Brothers of the Struggle, we was the political arm of the the gangsta disciples. And it wasn't about banging, it was about teaching. It was about providing substance for those people that didn't have it. And so the Brothers of the Struggle will be sitting back and we'll be talking about how that we can continue to rebuild our neighborhood. How now that we have to, now that the migrants are leaving, how we have to capture and create economics. You know, and one of the first things that I'm going to do to help rebuild the black community. And I'm asking for help across the country to do this. We can't keep watching it happen and saying we're Christians and we won't help the downtrodden. We have to create the type of continuity where these young people trust us. Once they are trusting us, which they are now, we're providing substance for them to be able to do, for them to get their lives back on track. And as the mayor of Chicago, I will and I promise to the city of Chicago, the citizens of Chicago, we're gonna go back to the way it used to be. We're gonna clean out all of the Arabs out the black community and I don't have nothing against nobody, but I feel that if the black community is gonna survive, it needs to become self-sufficient of itself. Black people are consumers and we spend more money than everybody and never own nothing. So I wanna teach what we're doing now, we're teaching entrepreneurship. We're getting guys to give their life to Christ because that's the problem with our young people. They have no spiritual foundation. So if you're an empty shell and if Satan live in that shell, you're gonna do all the bad things. But we've been preaching and teaching. I've been had young guys to give their life to Christ. When I tell my testimony, you know, they break down in tears and you know, because they feel like finally somebody understands us. finally somebody, one of us who understands what we're going through. And so that is gonna be a big change. It's a big change in Chicago already. The media want the world to think that it's these young men out here doing all the killing. It is not. Since that 2022 March, we had over seven to a thousand people that came. I took a casket and marched down Hofstra Street where all the crimes, whatever shootings, people was getting killed or they was running out the store just killing each other. I took that casket and at every place where a child had lost their life, I stopped and I prayed, we stopped traffic. Man, the crime stopped because we got the shooters. We went to the shooters and say, hey, you know what? Why are you doing this? And when they explained to us why, we don't know nothing else to do. Nobody's ever talked to us. Nobody ever told us how to be a man. Nobody ever told us on how we need to be responsible. So when we were able to do that with these street organizations, because they trusted us, then the trajectory of the crime stopped in Chicago. You're seeing numbers now with the teen takeovers, with the illegals in the black community, but the young black men now are looking toward political aspects. They're finding Christ in their life. And I wanna thank God, man, that we've been able to reach out for them and that they're listening because they're empty sponges. They're looking for something. They're getting tired of shooting each other. They're getting tired of the misunderstandings that they have on Facebook. We're teaching conflict a resolution. We're providing jobs. And so I can tell you under my leadership as the mayor of Chicago, you're gonna see the old Chicago come back. You're gonna see all of our communities come back and benefit the citizens. We're gonna create economics everywhere and it's gonna be safe to come to Chicago if you wanna walk the mag mile, you're not gonna worry about all of that, the takeovers and all that stuff. We're gonna get our children back under some type of order and structure, and we're gonna get teaching them about who they are and how they can benefit our country like we raised up. We was raised up to benefit the country. You know, to graduate out of high school at 15, I was knowledgeable, I was taught to be smart, I was taught to research, and that's what we have to get back to in this country and our schools to start teaching our children in the future and provide economics for the areas that need it the most. And like I said, black people, we need to take care of ourselves. We have to quit waiting on everybody to free us. All we have to do is invest into ourselves, invest into our communities, and we can be self-sufficient just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
As someone who's lived in Chicago twice for business, excuse me, it is a fantastic city. And I cannot wait to see what you're gonna do to make it even better. And for those folks who haven't been there, I highly recommend you making a trip there and especially when it's Mayor Pastor and then help his economy out there. Pastor, what are some of the challenges you've encountered in advocating against racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Well, the biggest challenge is, like I said, it was education. But racial profiling would end if people had a better attitude and understand that nobody is better than nobody. See, let me tell you this story. When I got shot, I was very successful. I had a lot of money. I had money hidden in the house and all of that, cars, big old house. And as I was sitting on my deathbed, I was crying like a baby. And I was crying because I had $100,000 saved up in the house and I knew if I died, somebody was gonna find it. But when I came to the realization that the possibilities of dying is here. And when I saw Satan come to my bed and try to make me give up on what God told me, I was afraid, but I kept saying, God said I wasn't gonna die, but all the material things, the money, the house, the car, the relationships, all the stuff that I material things that I had, he couldn't save me. It could do nothing for me and I tell people if you will off you're nothing but a custodian of your money If you got a big house, you're just renting it because if you die tonight Nothing is gonna go with you And so that's why I tell you know, I tell people all the time if you are rich Take the money Help others do things that's right. If you do that, see God is a very, very mysterious God. Because you can be a bad person, but if you do righteous things, he'll bless you. If you do righteous things, he'll bless you. Because it was Matthews who was the tax collector that was cheating everybody. He cheated everybody so long that he said When he found Christ, he gave everybody their money back three to four times full. That's what we have to do. We have to understand that the money and the material things mean nothing, but that when God called your number, if you are to survive, if he gonna let you survive, he'll let you know that just like he let me know. Man, I was so worried about that $100,000 and that Lexus I was driving. I was Really really That's what made me so humble It's because of that when I got back to my life Those things meant nothing to me anymore. My wife is like what did you don't change? You don't know You know what? I like having a pair of Wranglers on I don't need to have all this expensive stuff all the diamonds and stuff that don't mean nothing It means nothing to me because I know I'm not gonna take nothing with me but I am going to find Christ, which I did. And I gave my life over to him, and that probably made me a champion in this world, bigger than boxing, never could have made me.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
What steps should local, state, and federal governments take to reduce racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (44:42):
I think that, first of all, officers need to understand the plight of their neighborhoods and they need to get back to policing, being visible in the neighborhood, building relationships with the people in those communities. I think that that trust could be built again if the officers do that. And then the citizens need to understand the pressures of police officers. They need to understand that, you know, we have to have ourself in the right mindset too. We can expect the police officers who are going through, some have fear, people are killing officers for no good reasons. We have to understand the pressures that they're under, and we have to be much more accommodable for them and respectful. Now, that doesn't work all the time, because some officers are out there to do what they wanna do, and you see it. I mean, we see it all the time, and nobody's perfect, but there are officers out there that has a ax to grind or whatever that they've joined for. Those are the type of officers that shouldn't be on the force. And I just think that officers should be trying to build relationships in the communities that they're working in and build the trust again to know that if something's wrong, you can contact me, you can talk to me. And I think that's what we have to do as we have to stop worrying about communities and rebuild neighborhoods again. If we build neighborhoods, that mean everybody in the neighborhood come together, no matter what color. That means the politicians work for the good of the neighborhood. the police officers protect the people in the neighborhood. And I think the relationship with law enforcement and the citizens need to be fixed. And when that's fixed, you will see the police shootings stopped and you will see the crime go down because now the citizens can trust officers to tell them who are committing the crimes, which will make our communities better across the country.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
How do you engage with policymakers and law enforcement to address racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Well, I wrote a couple of bills. I wrote the Racial Profiling Act, and I'll tell you, the one that Barack Obama claimed that he wrote, he did not write that. I got the paperwork. I wrote that bill, and I put it through the House of Representatives with Representative Monique Davis and in the bill when I wrote it it was it had teeth in the bill to where if an officer Showed that he was racial profiling out the week. You had a four-year request and we saw his numbers We were able to distinguish that if he was racial profiling with a lot of stops That if we filed a lawsuit against you the criminal side of it You could mandatory to get five years if you were shown a pattern of racial profiling But when it got to the Senate, state Senate, this young senator named Barack Obama got it and sat on it for months on top of months and that's how I met with Obama. And I told him about what I was doing with this bill. And so just to say that he did something, he took the teeth out, he took the mandatory five years out and made it an act. And the act ended in 2015. And so it has not been really enacted yet. And we are looking at ways. We're going to put another one out there to bring it to law because it needs to stop. Because racial profiling causes a lot of problems when you mistakenly think somebody is something that they're not. And they don't know why you're there. And you have a perception of who they are. And you end up killing somebody because they don't know what you're talking about. And they end up dying on the road. And that's what I tell citizens. Do not let a police officer be your judge and your jury and your executioner. Do not. Be cordial. Be understanding. I don't care. Let us win this battle here and you go home and then we deal with that officer at the next time and you're in a better position. But don't let nobody kill you out here. Be calm, collective, and speak properly. And whatever the officers say, do. Let them do. And don't show no quick
Speaker 2 (48:54):
moves and you can survive that. You host the show, Let the Truth Be Told, on the Exceptional Conservative Network. How has that platform aided your advocacy efforts, and what topics do you typically address?
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, the Let Your Truth Be Told show, it came about six or seven years ago. I was being interviewed by a company called Intellectual Radio. And so when I interviewed, the owner says, man, you need your own show, which I took a show, and we started talking about issues. We talked about racial profiling. We talked about discrimination, all forms. We got into politics. We talk about relationships. We talking about building relationship with God because that's God's show. That's why when I opened up, first giving honor to God and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that's what we should be doing. That's God's show. And that allows us the platform to reach out to people and get them to understand about our communities and about the different races. It has to be a show. It has to be some type of show that depicts the truth. And that's what we do at Let the Truth Be Told. There's no lying, there's no cheating, there's no stealing. We do our research, we put facts in, and we tell the American people the truth. Not like what we're seeing with ABC and NBC and CNN and all those types of places. They have an ax to grind with the political people. We don't, we center this show around bringing the truth to the American people and patriots across this country so that they can actually make good solid decisions because when you know the truth, you can make the appropriate decision on how you can react to a situation. When you don't know the truth, you're sort of feeling your way around in the dark trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong. And that's what we make mistakes at when we don't know. And that's what this show is about, putting information out there, showing what the politicians have said. And cause you know, they lie about everything that they can when they think you've forgotten what they said a year ago. And so we've been putting this stuff out there with these guys are saying, and a lot of people are starting to gravitate us. We wanna get the whole world to start thinking about things that they need to do to better the community. And so it's about righteousness for me. This show is about making people aware and educating them about the lifestyles as us as Americans. and the key that is providing solutions to the American people and patriots so that we can avoid a lot of the pitfalls by making right decisions, by knowing the truth.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Pastor, we have about 60 seconds left. Would you share with us what gives you hope and why we should all have more help in today's stress-filled world?
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Well, first of all, God is in control. And anything that Satan does to cause us harm or evil, and I'm gonna give you the perfect example. It was just like when Joe Biden got into office and they created COVID. They created all of these things and they tried to divide the American people. But God is not gonna have it because it was an attack on Christians. COVID was a covert operation to shut our churches down and to separate us from God. And so what God did was he made each individual, because I can tell you this, Chris, during the COVID fiasco, there were more people that gave their life to Christ than any other time before. Because now you had nothing else. You didn't have no money. You had nothing. All we had was what the Lord said. And because they shut the churches down, God sent the spirit and poured it out on the land and people started reading. They started understanding about God and Christ. All of those things came out for our good. And so to the people of America and to Christians across this country, it's our responsibility to stand up now. We have to stand in the gap for God's people. We can't continue to watch what's happening to us and not put ourselves together and take this country back. And so what keeps me going is every morning at three o'clock I'm a watchman. I'm a watchman for the last watch when this world wakes up at three o'clock in the morning, I'm up praying, I'm up reading scriptures, I'm up talking to God about what he needs me to do, what we need to present. Like I was up this morning at three and I was saying, you know, I'm gonna be on Dr. Meek's show, Lord, what you want me to say? And I never know what's gonna come out, but you know, I spend time with them. And I'm telling the American people, let us get back to God through Christ. Let us build that relationship because that's what happened during COVID. People start building relationship with Christ. We start teaching our children. Even though we were fighting against this thing, we was fighting against the transgender world in our school with our kids, with DEI, the inexperienced people, we were fighting against all of that. But guess what? God will always send a warrior to make the difference in our life. And he sent President Trump. He got him back in office. He survived 34 charges. He survived two assassination attempts. God had his hands on the president and look at what he's doing. He getting rid of the illegals. He's getting us back in order. He's putting God back first. He got rid of the third gender. So we have to support that. And I'm telling the American people of Pentecostal country, my attitude is to use this. Let us get our country back to the way it used to be when God was first, because we even put it on our money and God's we trust. and let us support what President Trump is doing. We have to realize that what he is doing is best for our community and our welfare. Let us support it and let us not fall prey to what the Democrats are doing. Let us stay strong and let us be one nation here under God so that we can make our country great again and for the future of our children.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Pastor David Lowry Jr., thank you so much for being with us today. It was really a pleasure and an honor. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
Thank you for having me and God bless America.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Amen. I'm Chris Meek, run of time. We'll see you next week, same time, same place. Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
There are few things that make people successful. Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some time to get there. How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you? Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek. Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward. Now, here is Chris Meek.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hello, you've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek. As always, it's a pleasure to have you with us. Our focus is on personal empowerment, a commitment to well-being, and the motivation to achieve more than you ever thought possible. We have another outstanding guest this week. Pastor David Lowry Jr. is co-pastor at Fernwood Community Outreach Church in Chicago, an outreach pastor at Universal Baptist Church in Harvey, Illinois, and host of the Let the Truth Be Told on the Exceptional Conservative Network. He's also the founder and president of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation, which is a national civil rights organization advocating against racial profiling. The group also promotes economic opportunities for ex-offenders, disadvantaged youth, and indigent individuals across the nation. Pastor Lowry is an experienced speaker on the national stage, and the foundation is often sought out by various civic and social services agencies to assist in finding ways to alleviate social, economic, and legal barriers for minorities. Pastor Lowry served as a civilian procurement contracting officer for the United States Navy, US Army Corps of Engineers, and the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. He's a former union iron worker and also operated a successful computer sales and technology business. Pastor David Lowry Jr., welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Meeks. But first, let me give all praises to God my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for making it possible for me to be here, as well as your listeners, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Pastor, that's a lot of hats you've worn, I just read off there. You've had a diverse set of life experiences and skills. Take us through your upbringing, what did you do as a civilian procurement contracting officer for the Navy and the Army Corps of Engineers, and how you ultimately became a pastor?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Well, I grew up on a plantation in a little town called Marie, Arkansas. My parents were sharecroppers. I picked and chopped cotton from five to eight years old. During that migration, my parents moved to Chicago where my grandmother, Eloise Barton, got involved in politics. And so I've sort of been in the political fray for a long time, but I really didn't enjoy it because of the lying and all the cheating and stealing and politics. But I went off to college at Augustana University in Rock Island, Illinois to play basketball, but I ended up having a kid at 16, so I dropped out of college and I went to work for J.I. Case Company as a welder. A year later, I found a restaurant that I used to buy lunch for and the guy wanted to sell it. I did a land contract, gave him 5,000 and bought the restaurant. From that time, I have five children, 51, 49, 47, 44, 19, all grown and doing good things in their lives. It has just been, for me, I've been an entrepreneur. I started a computer company that made a lot of money for me. But before that, I got involved with the military as a civilian. I went back to college and there was a program that they had where I could work four days and go to school for four days. I ended up at the Corps of Engineers and I did such a good job at procurement that the chief said, well, look, why don't you just take the service exam and become a, you know, a contracting officer. So I did that. And for 15 years, I was able to help build the 8A program with minority participation. I learned the rules and regulations of government contracting and procurement. And so that was a real structure for me because during high school times, I graduated from high school at 15. During those times, I worked jobs like grocery store. My father was a manager for Dominick's Fine Foods, but the military gave me structure. I had to be at work at six o'clock every morning. It kept me focused on the things that I needed to do. It was a lot of learning and contracting. You know, you gotta learn a different clause, Davis-Bacon Act, all of those things we had to learn. So it kept me pretty busy, raising my family and raising my children, but also I had the restaurant. And I was a young father. And so I really, you know, I really had never dove into sports when I was in high school, but then I was in Davenport, Iowa, and I had younger relatives that was coming up and coming. Michael, second to none, the middleweight champion of the world. I trained him. I played with Roger Craig with the 49ers. I taught Roger how to run up the heels. I played semi-professional football under coach Jim Hester and the Quad City Blackhawks and I was picked up by the Chicago Blitz in the 80s and played with that team a couple of years and then I sort of retired and I wanted to get into boxing because Michael was growing up and he had won the Pan Am games and then he went on the Virgil Hill at the Olympics, and we went pro with, it was called 10 Goose Boxing, which is America Presents now. And so, in 1990, my idea was that, you know, I was in excellent shape. I said I was going to make an announcement that I was going to, you know, turn professional boxer and at least try to deal with Mike Tyson at the time. But, you know, God works in strange ways and even though I trained you know like crazy he had me training for another reason and it was to save my life because December 7th 1990 I went to be with the Lord I was accidentally shot in the chest with 357 Magnum and it changed my life it changed my mindset you know the night that that happened I was about to make the announcement to my friends and family that I wanted to turn pro because you know I was married and I had to ask the wife hey is it okay and so that was a incident that happened at the restaurant I went downstairs to address it with my father and when I got there some guys had him he ended up in a corner and I you know I got the guys out the place and dad was so mad he went got his gun a 357 and a 38 and I'm just telling these people just leave, you know, you violate it, just leave. And so when he came out the door behind me, I didn't realize that he had the guns out already. And so when the people left, I got them in the car, I turned around to dad and I said, Hey, come on, let me buy a drink. I got to make the announcement. The 357 went off and shot me in the heart. And and that was the defining moment in my life. Because when you die, time freezes, Everything freezes except your spirit and when I realized that I was dead I called on the lord And he he came and got me And um, he gave me the report. He said that you know, um I need you. I need you for a time to come And I need you to change your life And he whatever he wanted me to do. I said lord, whatever that you want me to do. I will do it And so he said well You haven't been the worst. You haven't been the best and he gave me my marching orders And before I left to come back to my body, he said no matter what they tell you tonight No matter what they say, no matter how bad the report is Every time somebody say that you're going to die You tell them that God said I wasn't gonna die tonight. So I said I got you it's a He put me back into my body and I and I was you know by me being in such good shape shape. I was about a 225 pounds, zero body fat. The bullet went inside my chest. It nicked my heart. It exploded my lung. It broke the ribs under my arm. The bullet split in half, so I had fragments all over inside my body. And so when I got into the restaurant, I told my mother to call 911, but it was just as if the spirit of the Lord was all over me. I probably was the most calmest person at the restaurant because everybody was screaming and hollering and I just kept saying, God told me I wasn't going to die tonight. And so that was my mantra. That's all I had to say. So when I got to the operating table, it was sort of chaotic because I was known as a football player in the community and a family guy, restaurant owner. And so when they got there and they gave me the report, they said, well, the lung is gone. The heart is nicked. We got Torn stuff everywhere and I just kept telling the doctor. I said well God said I wasn't going down tonight and and the doctor got frustrated with me and he said well if if that's what God told you then he got to save you and You never mocked God because at that point I died on the operating table The second time and then as I was going to be with the Lord My mother was holding my hand and I was so mad I said God you said I wasn't gonna die tonight and he said your faith has made you well, and he put me back into my body and I was shot Friday. I laid in hospice in a dead state all day at Sunday morning I woke up and walked out the hospital. That's been 34 years ago. My heart was healed ribs was healed I was restored totally and a knife never touched my body and that night I gave my life to Christ Four and a half years ago. I became a pastor With Universal and with Fernwood with our Reverend Samson, and it has been a labor of love ever since You know, I'm in the community working with those who are less fortunate And we're trying to provide things for them so that they can get their lives back on track, you know So, currently, I'm here in Chicago and I have an organization called Living and Driving While Black. We have written legislation. I know for a fact this. In order for us to change the dynamics, especially in the black community, there has to be proper legislation to stop the discrimination, the racial profiling, the police brutality. And so I first didn't understand what God had planned for me because as a successful businessman, I never experienced racial profiling before. You know, it was like, you know, you always, like I said, being a sort of young celebrity, you know, most of the officers knew me and I didn't have that problem. But as time went on, there was different changes and command officers changed. I had a meeting with with a Procter & Gamble John Deere. They were buying computer products for me And so I dropped an employee off in Rock Island, Illinois And I stopped at a stop sign a police officer was sitting there and you know, we both sitting at the stop sign So he didn't leave so I had just bought a brand new Lexus and so I pulled off This one got me into all of this mess. I I pulled off and he got behind me. And so my brother-in-law was the The sergeant of police in Rock Island. So, you know, they used to play tricks on me and stuff like that They'll pull me over sell my brother your brother-in-law told me so when the officer came to me You know, I was dressed like I am now and he was like, well, you know Whose car is this? And I says well, who do you see driving it? And so wrong answer and he took the bad attitude And so me I thought it was a joke and I said well, you know You know, what's the problem? So he got my license state gone a long time I got out the car to address him and told him I had to go to a meeting When I got back in the car, I stayed like 35 or 40 minutes, man And so finally came back to the car says, you know Get out of the car you're under arrest and I'm thinking this is totally absurd So I told him to tell I said you tell my brother-in-law This is not funny and I snatched my license out of his hand and he you know He got he drove his weapon on me. So I said, oh, wait a minute, you know, that's that's so I said they wanted to search the car they searched the car that was nothing there and That put me on the path because when I went to the court the judges knew me and they said you know what this is not the guy that that you pulled over a guy that that's that's good to the community and so forth and And after that, that sort of put me on a path to say, what if I'm not known? What if a police officer stops me and I'm not known and they take me to a whole nother level, not because I've done anything, because I was driving a nice car. And so that got me into the path. I contacted NAACP and that led me from there to Reverend Sharpton as a National Crisis Director, to my organization, Living and Driving While Black, because I found out these poverty pimps and these race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson does not have the black community interest at hand. And so after I left New York, I started my foundation and we have just been tearing across the country, building relationships with law enforcement. We've been connecting ex-offenders, the people that they call gang bangers. I'll be meeting with them this Friday. We're having a big event here in Chicago where we're taking our communities back. We're stopping our young men from killing and educating them, providing resources for them. And so it has been a labor of love for me since then. And I understand why God took me out of that arena to be the world champion because I became a world champion for him. You know, I stand and fight when nobody else will fight. When people call me and they need help, then I step in. When they call the others and they don't respond, We respond and do what's right that God tell us to do. And we've been so successful. We're probably the most unknown organization in the country because we don't take money. I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal. We've been investing into our own organization out of my pocket and others. And so we've stayed and kept our independence so we don't get compromised. And we have just been blessed to continue and save lives and build relationships to get jobs and help create families with young men who have no future, man. It has been a labor of love, man. I just can't see how other pastors aren't doing this type of work because this is what God said we should do. We should be Christ-like and we should be helping those that are less fortunate and oppressed to find victory in life. So that's what I've been doing and I love it.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Do what you love and call it work, right? Yeah, kind of.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And let's make you the most well-known organization in the country, not the least known.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I really appreciate that, man. We have done so much. We're currently here in Chicago. I'm planning to run for mayor here in Chicago in 2027. We've been preparing with exploratory committees and to the American people and patrons across this country. What God is doing, He's doing what you see Mr. Meek is doing with me. He's creating the body of Christ because the arms can't work without the legs and the legs can't work without the hips. And so that's what he's doing right now. Other leaders across this country have been in place a long time and they have just not did it. They worried about money and all the material things in the world. We don't do that. We know that God should be first. And as Christians, we should be acting Christ-like because the word is this. And every time I think about how what Jesus went through. It's a lot of us Christians that are going through the same type of thing. And we're gonna go through that because the world is being ran by Satan. And to run for mayor of Chicago was the farthest thing from my mind. I'm 68 years old. You know, my kids are grown, they're doing well. I'm doing pretty good as a retiree. But it was that God that came to me and said, look at your city, look at Chicago, look at how it's being torn apart. He said, go take the city. And I'm thinking, go take the city. And so he made it clear to me that Christians need to be in a position of authority. The religions and the government, it don't mix because if you work for God, you are well above the government. We have to maintain the position that we have to ensure that the government run properly and righteously. and that's why I urge other Christians now, let us step up to the plate because Moses was a politician, but he understood what God had for him to do. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego was politicians and they went to a furnace for God. I mean, Daniel's in the lions den and it goes examples across. The Bible talks about Christians being in powerful places because we cannot expect for people that do dark things and bad things to be right by Christians or anybody because they're gonna do what they need to do for Satan. So I urge Christians across the country, go in local politics, get involved with your school boards, get involved with the state rep jobs, because when that money or whatever needs to be done, whatever the policies that need to go into the schools for the future of our country, our children, Christians need to be in charge of that so we don't see homosexuality in the schools. We don't see the transgender stuff and I don't have nothing against them, but we need to get our house in order so that we can have a future because the Lord is already here. He's in us. And that's what he's waiting for. He's waiting for us to unify. And that's why my hat is off to you, Dr. Meeks. I saw some of the things that you're doing. You are a champion in your own right. The things that you've done for our soldiers, paralyzed soldiers with the robotics, All of those things is your ministry and you are standing tall and I know God is saying, you know what, it's time for us to be together and help our people in every kind of way that we can.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
You know, in all the research we did on your background and your bio before the show, never knew the story about you being shot. And you've completely blown my notes up from that story, no pun intended. What you've gone through is amazing. you are, for lack of a better phrase, sort of say the poster child for our mantra of next steps forward. And nothing has held you back, you've kept going, you've done what's right for you, for your family, for your community. So thank you for that, and you continue to serve because you're running for mayor of Chicago, which we all know is one of the hardest, hardest races to run for in government.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
Well, let me say this to you and to our listening audience. When God gives you a mission, You don't question him. He's already told me to take the city. And I see what Brandon Johnson is doing. When he brought the migrants to Chicago, this was all a wicked plan that was set in tone with Barack Obama when he ran for office in here in Chicago. When Barack passed the same sex law, excuse me, he knew that if it went to the public and went to a vote, it never would have happened. So they did it under the auspices of coming of COVID. All of these things that was done in 2012, after Barack got back into office, went to play because they had decided Hillary Clinton was gonna be the next president. But when President Trump won, that threw the wrench in, but they had already placed people in positions to do this, distill the election. And so he started that, and then Joe Biden was the culmination of the transgenders coming out. And for the last four years doing that ministration with the illegals being the borders being open, I'm also friends with Tom Holman, who was the border czar. I know quite a few people being Burquam with Real America Voices, Steve Bannon. They've all been working with me here in the city of Chicago. And I just think that it's time for God's people to stand up and put God first and we'll see the change. I know that when I take City Hall, that the first thing that's going to be done is the audit, like they did with Doge, and then we want to get rid of all of these politicians. To the American people across this country, if you live in a state that have experienced the influx of illegals, the hatred that you've seen from the, and I just have to say the Democratic Party, then we need to think about how we can replace those politicians, because They cannot go into office again. Now that we know what they're doing, this is a spiritual war. And then we, the people of this country have to realize that and that's why I'm asking Christians to step up and get into these races and take over so righteousness can be done. But this is our time to really be at a place where that we can make the changes because if we don't change it right here, cause I was so fearful, Because I did a lot of work in the city of Chicago promoting the Republican Party. And I'm an independent, but I look for righteousness. When President Trump said that he was going to end the three genders and said that he was going to remove all of these things and get the people out, man, I've gone on a tear in Chicago. It was like every meeting, every organization, I was making black people aware that we have to look at the fruit and the labor of the people and what we've seen from the Democratic Party for 60 years have not been conducive for the black community. And so those lives transformed into Chicago and the state of Illinois, garnering 47% vote for President Trump, and it has changed the dynamics here in Illinois. And so we're going to make some changes for the governor, we're going to make major changes is for the city and throughout the state. And I'm hoping that, and I know for a fact that God's people will be in charge and this whole world is gonna change once we step up and try rightful place and be the guardians of this earth. That Christ said, greater works that you should do on earth are gone. And I send the Holy Spirit, but I'm not giving my power that Christ gave me to nobody. So I stand above all of this. I work for God and Christ and there's nothing bigger or better than that.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Clearly, I don't, I've never had the experience of being pulled over for racial profiling. And when you were pulled over, you thought it was a joke from your brother-in-law. Was that the impetus for you to start the Living and Driving While Black Foundation?
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Yes, it was. You know, that was the thing that drove me to really go into the civil rights world. when I went to the NAACP, they told me I should not have bought a car that the police would stop me with. And so I went to Baltimore to speak to Inquisay and Foomey. I flew out there to tell him about what was going on until he finally said, well, I'm too rough for office. But yeah, that right there was the tip of the iceberg for me because I felt I'm living in the American dream. I started on a farm. My daddy, my mommas was poor. The support that they gave us was astronomical. We didn't get on welfare. My dad worked, he had a third grade education. My mother had 11th grade education. They taught us about finances, economics. They taught us about history. And so, you know, to me to grow up like that and here I am now, not knowing that I would be at a pastor to be in this place, it's just a blessing, man. So that drove me to where I'm at right now. And just like, I'm sure there were some things in your life that drove you to work with our military to understand the needs that they have. When people have needs, then we as Christians and we as Americans should be stepping up to play to help each other. And that's my message to this country. Let's get out of this individual. There is no black and white in God's kingdom, not at all. I was there. There's no black and white. It's just saints. That's it. And so we just have to use the spirit of the Lord to work with each other and do what's right, and righteousness is always going to prevail, man. This is our time, Brother Chris.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Like they say, don't give a handout, give a hand up. Yes. What were the primary goals of the Living and Driving While Black Foundation when you founded it, and have its goals evolved as society has changed?
Speaker 3 (25:42):
Well, we know that education is the key to a lot of things. And so when I founded the Foundation Living and Driving While Black, because not only are we racially profiled in our cars, but if we go to stores, it's the same type of attitude. People follow us around. So when I founded it, I started to educate people, especially on the driver's side. I told them how to conduct themselves. Say, yes, sir, no, ma'am. Keep your hands where they can be seen. If you need to reach something, tell the officer, either let the officer get it. If you don't have nothing to hide, if he asks me to get out, I'm gonna say, hey, I'm complying, blah, blah, blah. So we start educating people on how to diffuse racial profiling situations. That led into me working with some of the officers in Iowa. And it's a mindset because racial profiling is beyond black and white. It's black on black, it's white on white. It's the perception that you perceive of a person that they might look like somebody. And so education is key for the citizens as well as law enforcement. But to law enforcement, you just have to be an honest person. You just cannot take your job. If you take a job in law enforcement and you feel that you wanna be a cowboy, that you wanna go out here and crack some heads, that's the wrong profession for you to be in. Because you will create a situation out of nothing just to say I did something and take somebody's life when they didn't really understand what you were saying or understand what you were trying to do. So I tell officers all the time, if you're gonna do this job, you have to wear the armor of the Lord for sure because every situation is not going to be what you think. And you do have to have perception to know when something is good and when something is bad. So I tell officers, take your precautions, but keep a solid attitude when you deal with people. And I tell drivers the same way, you might have had a bad day, but this officer is trying to do his job. He's trying to get home to his family that he left this morning. And he don't know you from Adam. So it's best to be cordial and make it a happy ending by getting a ticket or going home. So I just teach people on how to deal with law enforcement. And I teach law enforcement on what type of attitude they should have concerning a person that you might have to stop?
Speaker 2 (28:08):
My wife is very close with her college roommates and they get together a couple times a year. Most live here in the Northeast. And then COVID happened and so they would do Zoom calls. One of her roommates is from Guyana. And early in the COVID crisis, the George Floyd tragedy happened. And so they had a Zoom call shortly after that. And her roommate from Guyana was I was telling like, as you mentioned a few moments ago, she'd be in a store to go shopping and the manager or somebody, a clerk, would be following her around the store. Different things like that that obviously I can't understand or begin to fathom. What's the history of racial profiling? Has it been around forever? Is it new in the United States?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Well, it's been around forever. Now, let me tell you a story. And see, this is why I say during my education period, when God allowed me to live, That was things that happened to me that I could never envision of happening. And so, there's a grocery store named Hy-Vee in Iowa.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I know Hy-Vee.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
So, in Silver, Sillinois, me and my girlfriend went there to go shopping, and so I like Chinese food. So, I went to the deli, ordered some food, okay. My girlfriend walked around the store. The lady said, I'll bring the food to your cart. They're walking around the store, getting groceries and all like that. And I don't know for what reason the manager is following us around the store. And so when the lady came about the Chinese food, she said it in the car, we thanked her. And when we went to the checkout line, the food was set on the belt. The guy ringed it and then he said, hold up, wait a minute. You guys trying to steal this food. This is true and I'm sitting there with a pocket full of money saying what and so anyway long story short That was the second racial profiling incident in a grocery store and idea to high be and we were successful To stop it, but it's the perception. I think that because of how America and The black and white society have not really ever this government has kept us against each other and I wanna call it the way it is. It is our government that has always given the perception of black people that they're lazy, they don't want nothing, they're not entrepreneurs. That's not true. To the American people and patriots across this country, that's probably less than 5% of the black community. Black people that I know, they're not worried about discrimination, they're working jobs, they're taking care of their families, they're successful. We're not out here looking for things to do. We're trying to make sure that we can rebuild our communities. So what the media does is create this facade that black people are lazy and they don't want to work, they don't own homes, and they don't own businesses. And that's that 2% to 3%. Those on welfare, there's nothing wrong with that. Those that are on welfare, those that are considered gangbangers, that's what the media focus on. and it gives the wrong perception to the American people. And I'm here today to tell you that that perception needs to change because right now we cannot continue down the road of being separated as Americans. Whites can no longer continue to believe the narrative that the government is putting in front of us. And blacks are the same way because the way the government portray us is that we should never live together. We should just hate each other and stay divided. But when the COVID came, that was the tale of the tape for all Americans. If you didn't have money, it didn't make no difference. You were rich or poor. We was all in the same place. And the government was running us in the ground. They were lying. They were cheating. They were stealing. They was keeping us from our loved ones with the fake COVID. They didn't want the proper medicines. So it was a mess. And I think for those who experienced it and went through it, that taught us that from this point, there is no division in the American people because all of us suffered. Rich people suffered, poor people suffered. If you weren't part of the government, you were gonna suffer. And through that suffering, it has caused us to unite and understand more about each other and do our research and not worry about this government saying, because we control it. It's we, the people of this country that should be running this country. And if they're not falling in line for what we want, we have to get rid of them. It's just that simple.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
You mentioned you're interested in running for mayor of Chicago. You've used the phrase gangbangers a few times. We all know Chicago has one of the highest crime rates, one of the highest murder rates in the country. To your point, the media keeps pointing it at the underprivileged and the black communities. What are your thoughts in terms of how do you right that ship if you're elected?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
Well, I've already started writing the ship. You know, this Friday, coming up, we will have a meeting. Let me say this. When I was growing up in Chicago, in Englewood, there were street organizations, and a lot of people called them gangs, but everything is a gang. Police officers, gang, the judges, the lawyers, they're all gangs. These are street organizations. And I have to say this, and I give props to where it's due. I graduated out of high school at 15 years old from Taylor Technical High School. I was the son of a sharecropper. When I got to the city of Chicago, I didn't know nothing about the city. I was green and grass, but I know that I was fighting all the time because white gangs were chasing me home because we lived in a predominantly white neighborhood. The black organization started getting together. They started to protect us so that we could go to school without being jumped on. Larry Hoover started the Gangster Disciples in Chicago. My grandmother was the second lady ever elected to the city council. Her name is Eloise Barton. We was grandkids of Alderman, so we had the silver spoon in our mouth. But the ideology that they had of raising us just to hang out, to play basketball at the park, it never was about drugs. It never about none of that stuff. It was about protection and teaching the children and making sure that we have stuff that we needed. And so I went on to college and the point that I'm making is this, that street organizations that I have ties to, I never forgot where I came from. Because when I became successful, I started going back to the streets. I started telling brothers, man, listen, put the dope down. We can sell these types of products. We can get contracts from the government. And it worked. It worked a lot. And so my reputation, not just here in Chicago, but in every major city, LA, New York, I have, I'm known on the streets as the organization's pastor, because here in Chicago, this Friday we're having a meeting. All the heads of the organizations, the Bloods, the Crypts, all of them will be here in Chicago this Friday. And I'll be speaking to them because they are the grassroots of the black community. They are the grassroots here. If the street organizations was allowed to, The shooting and the killing and the black community would stop overnight because what we're doing now when we go out, we go out to the abandoned buildings, we go out to those cars where these kids are sleeping. They're uneducated. They don't understand the process of life. They're on drugs. There's nobody that's reaching out for them. And I'm proud to say that I work with street organizations like the Gangster Disciples, the Blackstone Rangers, the vice lords, because they allow me and others to come in and help these young people and talk to them and find out what the problem is. So we're meeting this Friday because in 2022, the crime in Chicago was just horrendous. And so the Brothers of the Struggle, they're called bosses, which I am one of, the Brothers of the Struggle, we was the political arm of the the gangsta disciples. And it wasn't about banging, it was about teaching. It was about providing substance for those people that didn't have it. And so the Brothers of the Struggle will be sitting back and we'll be talking about how that we can continue to rebuild our neighborhood. How now that we have to, now that the migrants are leaving, how we have to capture and create economics. You know, and one of the first things that I'm going to do to help rebuild the black community. And I'm asking for help across the country to do this. We can't keep watching it happen and saying we're Christians and we won't help the downtrodden. We have to create the type of continuity where these young people trust us. Once they are trusting us, which they are now, we're providing substance for them to be able to do, for them to get their lives back on track. And as the mayor of Chicago, I will and I promise to the city of Chicago, the citizens of Chicago, we're gonna go back to the way it used to be. We're gonna clean out all of the Arabs out the black community and I don't have nothing against nobody, but I feel that if the black community is gonna survive, it needs to become self-sufficient of itself. Black people are consumers and we spend more money than everybody and never own nothing. So I wanna teach what we're doing now, we're teaching entrepreneurship. We're getting guys to give their life to Christ because that's the problem with our young people. They have no spiritual foundation. So if you're an empty shell and if Satan live in that shell, you're gonna do all the bad things. But we've been preaching and teaching. I've been had young guys to give their life to Christ. When I tell my testimony, you know, they break down in tears and you know, because they feel like finally somebody understands us. finally somebody, one of us who understands what we're going through. And so that is gonna be a big change. It's a big change in Chicago already. The media want the world to think that it's these young men out here doing all the killing. It is not. Since that 2022 March, we had over seven to a thousand people that came. I took a casket and marched down Hofstra Street where all the crimes, whatever shootings, people was getting killed or they was running out the store just killing each other. I took that casket and at every place where a child had lost their life, I stopped and I prayed, we stopped traffic. Man, the crime stopped because we got the shooters. We went to the shooters and say, hey, you know what? Why are you doing this? And when they explained to us why, we don't know nothing else to do. Nobody's ever talked to us. Nobody ever told us how to be a man. Nobody ever told us on how we need to be responsible. So when we were able to do that with these street organizations, because they trusted us, then the trajectory of the crime stopped in Chicago. You're seeing numbers now with the teen takeovers, with the illegals in the black community, but the young black men now are looking toward political aspects. They're finding Christ in their life. And I wanna thank God, man, that we've been able to reach out for them and that they're listening because they're empty sponges. They're looking for something. They're getting tired of shooting each other. They're getting tired of the misunderstandings that they have on Facebook. We're teaching conflict a resolution. We're providing jobs. And so I can tell you under my leadership as the mayor of Chicago, you're gonna see the old Chicago come back. You're gonna see all of our communities come back and benefit the citizens. We're gonna create economics everywhere and it's gonna be safe to come to Chicago if you wanna walk the mag mile, you're not gonna worry about all of that, the takeovers and all that stuff. We're gonna get our children back under some type of order and structure, and we're gonna get teaching them about who they are and how they can benefit our country like we raised up. We was raised up to benefit the country. You know, to graduate out of high school at 15, I was knowledgeable, I was taught to be smart, I was taught to research, and that's what we have to get back to in this country and our schools to start teaching our children in the future and provide economics for the areas that need it the most. And like I said, black people, we need to take care of ourselves. We have to quit waiting on everybody to free us. All we have to do is invest into ourselves, invest into our communities, and we can be self-sufficient just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
As someone who's lived in Chicago twice for business, excuse me, it is a fantastic city. And I cannot wait to see what you're gonna do to make it even better. And for those folks who haven't been there, I highly recommend you making a trip there and especially when it's Mayor Pastor and then help his economy out there. Pastor, what are some of the challenges you've encountered in advocating against racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Well, the biggest challenge is, like I said, it was education. But racial profiling would end if people had a better attitude and understand that nobody is better than nobody. See, let me tell you this story. When I got shot, I was very successful. I had a lot of money. I had money hidden in the house and all of that, cars, big old house. And as I was sitting on my deathbed, I was crying like a baby. And I was crying because I had $100,000 saved up in the house and I knew if I died, somebody was gonna find it. But when I came to the realization that the possibilities of dying is here. And when I saw Satan come to my bed and try to make me give up on what God told me, I was afraid, but I kept saying, God said I wasn't gonna die, but all the material things, the money, the house, the car, the relationships, all the stuff that I material things that I had, he couldn't save me. It could do nothing for me and I tell people if you will off you're nothing but a custodian of your money If you got a big house, you're just renting it because if you die tonight Nothing is gonna go with you And so that's why I tell you know, I tell people all the time if you are rich Take the money Help others do things that's right. If you do that, see God is a very, very mysterious God. Because you can be a bad person, but if you do righteous things, he'll bless you. If you do righteous things, he'll bless you. Because it was Matthews who was the tax collector that was cheating everybody. He cheated everybody so long that he said When he found Christ, he gave everybody their money back three to four times full. That's what we have to do. We have to understand that the money and the material things mean nothing, but that when God called your number, if you are to survive, if he gonna let you survive, he'll let you know that just like he let me know. Man, I was so worried about that $100,000 and that Lexus I was driving. I was Really really That's what made me so humble It's because of that when I got back to my life Those things meant nothing to me anymore. My wife is like what did you don't change? You don't know You know what? I like having a pair of Wranglers on I don't need to have all this expensive stuff all the diamonds and stuff that don't mean nothing It means nothing to me because I know I'm not gonna take nothing with me but I am going to find Christ, which I did. And I gave my life over to him, and that probably made me a champion in this world, bigger than boxing, never could have made me.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
What steps should local, state, and federal governments take to reduce racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (44:42):
I think that, first of all, officers need to understand the plight of their neighborhoods and they need to get back to policing, being visible in the neighborhood, building relationships with the people in those communities. I think that that trust could be built again if the officers do that. And then the citizens need to understand the pressures of police officers. They need to understand that, you know, we have to have ourself in the right mindset too. We can expect the police officers who are going through, some have fear, people are killing officers for no good reasons. We have to understand the pressures that they're under, and we have to be much more accommodable for them and respectful. Now, that doesn't work all the time, because some officers are out there to do what they wanna do, and you see it. I mean, we see it all the time, and nobody's perfect, but there are officers out there that has a ax to grind or whatever that they've joined for. Those are the type of officers that shouldn't be on the force. And I just think that officers should be trying to build relationships in the communities that they're working in and build the trust again to know that if something's wrong, you can contact me, you can talk to me. And I think that's what we have to do as we have to stop worrying about communities and rebuild neighborhoods again. If we build neighborhoods, that mean everybody in the neighborhood come together, no matter what color. That means the politicians work for the good of the neighborhood. the police officers protect the people in the neighborhood. And I think the relationship with law enforcement and the citizens need to be fixed. And when that's fixed, you will see the police shootings stopped and you will see the crime go down because now the citizens can trust officers to tell them who are committing the crimes, which will make our communities better across the country.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
How do you engage with policymakers and law enforcement to address racial profiling?
Speaker 3 (46:43):
Well, I wrote a couple of bills. I wrote the Racial Profiling Act, and I'll tell you, the one that Barack Obama claimed that he wrote, he did not write that. I got the paperwork. I wrote that bill, and I put it through the House of Representatives with Representative Monique Davis and in the bill when I wrote it it was it had teeth in the bill to where if an officer Showed that he was racial profiling out the week. You had a four-year request and we saw his numbers We were able to distinguish that if he was racial profiling with a lot of stops That if we filed a lawsuit against you the criminal side of it You could mandatory to get five years if you were shown a pattern of racial profiling But when it got to the Senate, state Senate, this young senator named Barack Obama got it and sat on it for months on top of months and that's how I met with Obama. And I told him about what I was doing with this bill. And so just to say that he did something, he took the teeth out, he took the mandatory five years out and made it an act. And the act ended in 2015. And so it has not been really enacted yet. And we are looking at ways. We're going to put another one out there to bring it to law because it needs to stop. Because racial profiling causes a lot of problems when you mistakenly think somebody is something that they're not. And they don't know why you're there. And you have a perception of who they are. And you end up killing somebody because they don't know what you're talking about. And they end up dying on the road. And that's what I tell citizens. Do not let a police officer be your judge and your jury and your executioner. Do not. Be cordial. Be understanding. I don't care. Let us win this battle here and you go home and then we deal with that officer at the next time and you're in a better position. But don't let nobody kill you out here. Be calm, collective, and speak properly. And whatever the officers say, do. Let them do. And don't show no quick
Speaker 2 (48:54):
moves and you can survive that. You host the show, Let the Truth Be Told, on the Exceptional Conservative Network. How has that platform aided your advocacy efforts, and what topics do you typically address?
Speaker 3 (49:07):
Well, the Let Your Truth Be Told show, it came about six or seven years ago. I was being interviewed by a company called Intellectual Radio. And so when I interviewed, the owner says, man, you need your own show, which I took a show, and we started talking about issues. We talked about racial profiling. We talked about discrimination, all forms. We got into politics. We talk about relationships. We talking about building relationship with God because that's God's show. That's why when I opened up, first giving honor to God and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that's what we should be doing. That's God's show. And that allows us the platform to reach out to people and get them to understand about our communities and about the different races. It has to be a show. It has to be some type of show that depicts the truth. And that's what we do at Let the Truth Be Told. There's no lying, there's no cheating, there's no stealing. We do our research, we put facts in, and we tell the American people the truth. Not like what we're seeing with ABC and NBC and CNN and all those types of places. They have an ax to grind with the political people. We don't, we center this show around bringing the truth to the American people and patriots across this country so that they can actually make good solid decisions because when you know the truth, you can make the appropriate decision on how you can react to a situation. When you don't know the truth, you're sort of feeling your way around in the dark trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong. And that's what we make mistakes at when we don't know. And that's what this show is about, putting information out there, showing what the politicians have said. And cause you know, they lie about everything that they can when they think you've forgotten what they said a year ago. And so we've been putting this stuff out there with these guys are saying, and a lot of people are starting to gravitate us. We wanna get the whole world to start thinking about things that they need to do to better the community. And so it's about righteousness for me. This show is about making people aware and educating them about the lifestyles as us as Americans. and the key that is providing solutions to the American people and patriots so that we can avoid a lot of the pitfalls by making right decisions, by knowing the truth.
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Pastor, we have about 60 seconds left. Would you share with us what gives you hope and why we should all have more help in today's stress-filled world?
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Well, first of all, God is in control. And anything that Satan does to cause us harm or evil, and I'm gonna give you the perfect example. It was just like when Joe Biden got into office and they created COVID. They created all of these things and they tried to divide the American people. But God is not gonna have it because it was an attack on Christians. COVID was a covert operation to shut our churches down and to separate us from God. And so what God did was he made each individual, because I can tell you this, Chris, during the COVID fiasco, there were more people that gave their life to Christ than any other time before. Because now you had nothing else. You didn't have no money. You had nothing. All we had was what the Lord said. And because they shut the churches down, God sent the spirit and poured it out on the land and people started reading. They started understanding about God and Christ. All of those things came out for our good. And so to the people of America and to Christians across this country, it's our responsibility to stand up now. We have to stand in the gap for God's people. We can't continue to watch what's happening to us and not put ourselves together and take this country back. And so what keeps me going is every morning at three o'clock I'm a watchman. I'm a watchman for the last watch when this world wakes up at three o'clock in the morning, I'm up praying, I'm up reading scriptures, I'm up talking to God about what he needs me to do, what we need to present. Like I was up this morning at three and I was saying, you know, I'm gonna be on Dr. Meek's show, Lord, what you want me to say? And I never know what's gonna come out, but you know, I spend time with them. And I'm telling the American people, let us get back to God through Christ. Let us build that relationship because that's what happened during COVID. People start building relationship with Christ. We start teaching our children. Even though we were fighting against this thing, we was fighting against the transgender world in our school with our kids, with DEI, the inexperienced people, we were fighting against all of that. But guess what? God will always send a warrior to make the difference in our life. And he sent President Trump. He got him back in office. He survived 34 charges. He survived two assassination attempts. God had his hands on the president and look at what he's doing. He getting rid of the illegals. He's getting us back in order. He's putting God back first. He got rid of the third gender. So we have to support that. And I'm telling the American people of Pentecostal country, my attitude is to use this. Let us get our country back to the way it used to be when God was first, because we even put it on our money and God's we trust. and let us support what President Trump is doing. We have to realize that what he is doing is best for our community and our welfare. Let us support it and let us not fall prey to what the Democrats are doing. Let us stay strong and let us be one nation here under God so that we can make our country great again and for the future of our children.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
Pastor David Lowry Jr., thank you so much for being with us today. It was really a pleasure and an honor. Thank you, sir.
Speaker 3 (55:10):
Thank you for having me and God bless America.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Amen. I'm Chris Meek, run of time. We'll see you next week, same time, same place. Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
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