Brad Sullivan on Socialism, Biblical Work Ethic, and America's Crossroads
About this episode
Pastor Brad Sullivan of Search Church in Mobile, Alabama joins Philip Cameron for a timely and substantive conversation about socialism, biblical work ethic, and the spiritual battle shaping American culture. Drawing from a sermon series titled "Now Hiring: What the Bible Says About Work Ethic," Sullivan unpacks why the dignity of labor is a foundational biblical value — noting that "the first thing God gave the first man, Adam, was not a woman, was not a paradise — the first thing God gave him was a job." Sullivan traces the philosophical roots of socialism from Georg Hegel's dialectics to Karl Marx's critical theory, explaining how manufactured division — pitting workers against business owners, race against race — is a deliberate strategy to erode individual rights and expand government control. He draws a sharp contrast between a Spirit-led life and a system of social control, arguing that "socialism has an antichrist, anti-biblical system" that redirects people's dependence from God to government. Referencing Ephesians and Paul's call for former thieves to "work, that you may have something to give," Sullivan makes the case that free-market capitalism aligns with Scripture's vision of private ownership, personal responsibility, and human flourishing. The episode closes with a passionate call for the Church to reclaim its role as salt and light in a divided nation.
Part of our Freedom collection of conversations.
What's Discussed
Pastor Brad Sullivan of Search Church in Mobile, Alabama delivers a biblically grounded analysis of socialism and the erosion of American freedoms. He traces the ideological lineage from Georg Hegel's dialectics — which use manufactured crises to justify government power grabs — to Karl Marx's critical theory, which sows division between groups to destabilize society. Sullivan contrasts this with Scripture's affirmation of work, private ownership, and individual dignity, citing Paul's teaching in Ephesians that believers should work to have something to give. He argues that the American dream is rooted in free-market, biblically aligned values, and warns that ignorance — not malice — is what allows socialism to advance. The episode ends with a call for the Church to stop retreating and boldly reclaim its role as salt and light.
- Now Hiring Sermon Series on Work Ethic
- God Gave Adam a Job First
- The American Dream and Free Market Capitalism
- Ignorance Fuels the Spread of Socialism
- Hegel Dialectics and Manufactured Crisis
- Karl Marx, Critical Theory, and Division
- Socialism as an Antichrist System
- The Church Must Be Salt and Light
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron and I am so glad you have tuned in today. We have got a great program. I believe instructive, informative, and I believe — I hope — inspirational, to make a stand up for what we believe in. Our ministry has been involved in missions overseas in communist — formally communist — countries for 33 years. 33 years ago I adopted a wee boy in an orphanage in Timișoara, Romania. I knew nothing about orphanages. I didn't know anything about it. That was something that other people did, and my father nagged me to go to Romania. He'd watched this on the television and he literally forced me to go. He told me he was recovering from cancer surgery and he said, if you don't go with me, I'll go by myself. And if I die on the way, it's your fault. And that's how I ended up standing in an orphanage in Timișoara, looking at a wee boy in a crib — a rusty iron crib. And I picked him up and I said, I don't know what it's going to take, but whatever it is, I promise you I'm not going to stop until I get you out. It took me a year. And that year I put toilets into place and redid the beds that were painted with lead paint. The roof leaked. Everything had to be rebuilt, and by the end of that year I was completely hooked on the purpose of caring for those in need, especially in these communist countries overlooked by most of the world.
Philip:And most recently, for the last 20 years, we've been in Moldova — poorest country in Europe, devastated by communism. It was once part of the Soviet Union, and when the Soviet Empire broke up, this little wee country, bankrupt, was chucked out by itself, depending on Russia for everything. It has apples, it has wine, and it sells women. And the young girls you're about to see in a video — each one of them, for a trafficker, is worth three hundred thousand dollars a year. And for the last number of years we have built a place called Vatra Village. It's the most amazing place you've ever seen in your life. It's beside the largest lake in the country. It was built for rich people to have summer homes on the lake, and they poisoned the lake — there was lots of algae — they put chlorine in the lake and killed the lake and killed this building project, and it sat for nine years, derelict. And we bought it, and I've spent the last number of years rebuilding and fixing it up and taking kids from desperately poor situations and telling them that they were born and God has a plan, putting them back in school.
Philip:This last September, one of our girls, Natalia, who came to us — her mother was bedridden, she was stuck in a little hovel in a village in the middle of nowhere — and she had a dream of being a doctor. She is a genius, I mean intellectually a genius, and we took her in and we committed six years to put her through medical school. And also they care for our bedridden mom in the village. And just this last September, Natalia became a doctor. Her dream came true. So we've been doing this for a long time. And then this last year, when Ukraine — we had a home in Ukraine for many many years. We leased a large house, 24 girls, and we've been caring for that. And when Ukraine was invaded by Russia, a country that no one knew where it was suddenly became aware of where Ukraine was — the Donbas and all these names you're familiar with, Crimea. And Odessa is the main port of the whole country and Russia is trying to get there, and they are failing, thank God.
Philip:We've had a home there, and I will show you a video because a situation has just arisen in the last few weeks that is causing us concern, and it's challenging our spirits to reach farther than we've ever done before. Watch this video from Ukraine.
God challenged us to open a home. Just a year ago, we looked for many months to find a place big enough to make a difference in young girls' lives. We finally found the perfect place that can house 24 girls. We signed a long-term lease with the owner, and it has just ended. At the moment we are able to house the Ukrainian girls in Moldova, but as the war drags on there is pressure to have those who escaped the Russian invasion return to Ukraine. Moldova simply cannot afford the cost of maintaining so many refugees. Many have returned to Ukraine. Many have left for Europe and the USA and will never return. Our girls wait every day to return to their homeland. If their home is sold, there will be nowhere for them to go.
In the natural, it seems impossible. We have already strained every sinew in our ministry this year to care for thousands of destitute lives. We are about to send at least two containers packed with warm clothes to help these lost souls survive the brutal winter. But what about the young lives we already committed to protecting? Where would they go? Can you imagine handing them a bus ticket to a death trap and telling them, you are on your own, we have nowhere for you to go, your home has been sold? How would they survive in a country stuck in the no man's land of war?
We are going to believe God to buy this special place. We will continue our work in Ukraine and trust him for protection as the days ahead unfold. We will be right there in the middle of tragic events, with a place of refuge for young girls to find rest in a home provided by loving hearts. If God moves, the home we need is already waiting. We just need you. Will you pray? Will you give? I'm certain everyone who could wouldn't even hesitate to help this miracle take place. That is how this huge door of opportunity could open. We can minister to these dear souls for years to come and be a beacon of hope in a bleak battlefield of despair.
Philip:When the Lord challenged us, we believed God to buy that home. The lease is up, they're selling it. I can't even think — I can't even imagine how it would be to put those girls out. You'll notice in that video there's a girl with strawberry blonde hair with a wee boy beside her. She has been in our home for a number of years. When we announced we're taking them from Odessa down to Moldova to Vatra Village, she disappeared and came back with her little brother — that's her little brother. And she said, if you're saving me, could you also save my brother? Another girl left and came back with the mother that put her in the orphanage and said, can I take my mom with us too? So there they are, as we speak, in Vatra Village.
Philip:I need to address this: when the Lord challenged me to buy this home so these kids will have a place to go instead of the streets — Ukraine, whether Ukraine wins or Russia wins, this is going to be a desperate place for years to come. When the Lord challenged me on this, I said, Lord, how can I ask people to give to help me buy a home in a war zone? And he said this to me. He said, would you be willing to personally sacrifice two thousand dollars to buy a house to rescue 24 girls? If I stood you at that door and said we can save 24 girls for $2,000 each — every face you saw will earn $300,000 for a trafficker. And I said, yes, I would. And I gave $2,000 personally. He said, well, believe God for 99 more people and the house is secure. So that's what I'm doing right now. I'm asking people to pray about helping us be one of a hundred giving $2,000 to buy this house, to furnish it, and to buy a van so that in case Russian troops get close, we can put our kids in the van and drive them back to Moldova to safety.
Philip:I need you to pray about something right now. Can you be a part of this? Whatever you give, large or small, it'll all go towards this. Please make sure you just write "Girls Home, Ukraine" or "Odessa" to identify your gift. I promise you every dime of that money is being put in a separate account so we can buy this, and we are believing God to have this bought by the end of November. You can be a part of a miracle. Our address is really simple — just write Daily Faith, you are the orphan's hands. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. You can also — the quickest way — go to dailyfaith.tv. There's a gift button on there, and make sure you tell us what it's for. Or you can dial 1-833-DAILY FAITH — just dial Daily Faith on your pad and someone will pick up the phone 24 hours a day. And please allow us to rescue these girls. If it was your daughter or your granddaughter that was standing at the threshold of being lost, wouldn't you want someone to believe God?
Philip:I'm finding great difficulty in explaining this — that we're doing this in a house in a war zone. And the Lord says, well, whatever the end result will be, this house will be needed. Whether Russia is in control, I'm not leaving because Russia's there. And I'll stay if Ukraine prevails in this horrendous war that is getting worse by the day. Winter's coming. It is diabolical what's happening. We have containers right now — we have 15,000 coats that folks like you have given to help us, and we are so grateful for that. So please pray about it. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716.
Philip:I'm delighted I have with me today a great man. He comes out of a great church down in Mobile, Alabama, and his name is Brad Sullivan. It's an Irish name, but we love him anyway. We're not going to be prejudiced in this place against Irish people — we love Irish people. And Brad, it is a delight to have you with us today. God bless you, my friend.
Brad Sullivan:Hey, thank you, Philip. It's a joy to be here today with you, and thank you for what you're doing to help those in Ukraine. This is crazy. I mean, for us to buy this home and believe God for this home — it just, you know, to the natural mind, I'm thinking how will people ever believe? I'm happy to say we are halfway to victory right this minute. So folks are responding and hearing the voice of God.
Philip:That's awesome. Well, you know what, when you meet a need and you have vision for it, that's what inspires people. People are with you. It's great. People will continue to do that. As I've been praying through this thing, the Lord says, well, dying on a cross was a risk. Giving my son's life on a cross was a risk. Being put in a grave was a risk. Catching fish for a tax collector — I mean, all the way through, the world is full of risk, and it's just whether you're committed to help those in need. We've just finished an election here in America. Go ahead.
Now Hiring Sermon Series on Work Ethic
Brad Sullivan:Yeah, I was just going to say real quickly, in terms of people watching — to give of themselves and to sacrifice — you know, Jesus giving his life was a great sacrifice, but the Bible says he did it for the joy that was set before him. And if he could go to that extreme for the joy that was set before him, because the end result would be you and I, well then, my goodness, we are without excuse to run from sacrifice. So we ought to do it for the joy that is set before us.
Philip:Absolutely. Well, I was the first person to give, and I talked to my pastor and he said, oh my Lord, that's God. And then I did — a friend of mine, Rusty Nelson from Huntsville — I was sharing with him and he said, oh my goodness, that's God, I'm in. And so we're watching this crazy thing happen and unfold, and I know there are people watching that God is speaking to right now to be a part of this. We just passed an election in the last couple of days, and frankly I'm disappointed in the results of many of these things, because it seems in a day when inflation is eating our money and security at the border is gone, you would think the dire straits that America is in would wake up the country. They'd say, whoa, we are not going down that road to socialism. Because let me explain to you — those that have been elected on the Democratic side are socialists. This fella Fetterman up in Pennsylvania — he is an out-and-out socialist. The Squad — they've doubled their numbers. I mean, this country is at the precipice of being lost, instead of pulling back and saying, whoa, this is not the way we want to go. We are just continuing over this cliff.
God Gave Adam a Job First
Philip:And you taught something in the church in Mobile — at the church that you're pastoring — on socialism. Give us a synopsis of what God spoke to them.
Brad Sullivan:Well, we just felt inspired, earlier in the year over the summer, to really just speak to the needs that we're seeing in the culture today. And everywhere you're going, you keep seeing these "Help Wanted" and "Now Hiring" signs. This summer on the road, I was traveling with my son playing baseball and traveling preaching — no matter where here in Mobile, everywhere I went on the road — you always see restaurants and businesses with these "Now Hiring, Help Wanted" signs. So we thought, you know what, the Lord just kind of dropped it in our heart to speak to that issue. And so we did a series throughout September and October titled "Now Hiring: What the Bible Says About Work Ethic" — that the Bible espouses the dignity of work. Paul said in Ephesians — he was talking to pagans, you know, people who came out of a pagan life where they were a thief — he said, now you're a new creature in Christ, so act like Christ and work. There's dignity in work. He said, work that you may have something to give. And so we just began to speak to this issue about that.
Brad Sullivan:The first thing God gave the first man Adam was not a woman, was not a paradise — the first thing God gave him was a job. He didn't give him a wife and kids first. The first thing God gave him was a job, because there's dignity in work. God told him to be fruitful and multiply, so there was power inside of Adam to increase, but it's the work of your hands that releases that creativity and that increase. And you know, America is the greatest nation ever on the face of the Earth. It's the most prosperous nation on the face of the Earth because of the free market capitalist system, which is a system of private ownership, which the Bible espouses. The Bible talks about land ownership, private ownership, your prosperity, hard work. Jesus said the workman is worthy of his wages. And so there's no other country out there where you see the name of the country attached to the word "dream."
The American Dream and Free Market Capitalism
Brad Sullivan:There's no such thing as the European dream, the Asian dream, or the French dream, but there is the American dream. And the American dream is this idea that through this free market capitalist society, people can become something they could never become in other countries — by their willingness to educate themselves, work hard, and produce. But now that is being upended, and those are biblical values. And that's the whole message of the Bible — that your life can change. Our church's tagline is "Live Beyond Limits" and we're telling people all the time, your life can change and it doesn't have to stay the same. And that's been the story of America, and that's why to this day people are flocking to America, because they know they can have things and achieve things that they could not accomplish in their countries of origin.
Brad Sullivan:But unfortunately, we have witnessed over the last several decades — and now through COVID it is on warp speed — just the continual encroachment and the proliferation of socialism that is directly opposed to biblical values and this biblical work ethic that the Bible espouses. And my goodness, it's so concerning. And I think what we saw in the election results the other night, as you're talking about, is that America is much more divided than we thought. The blue states became more blue and the red states became more red, and that's the situation we're dealing with.
Philip:And there's just — what's happening — I'm unique in that I came from Scotland. I come from a country that is socialist. Scotland will be socialist unless God were to reverse it. Scotland is a socialist country. Right now there's a party — in particular the SNP, the Scottish National Party — and they hold sway. The First Minister is a socialist. Don't get me going. But if you want to learn anything, if you're interested, watching this program — I want you to look at Great Britain. America still has enough of the work ethic in it to keep it alive, but over the last many decades Britain has gone more and more to this socialist thing. So the Conservative Party — the Tories, as they call them — even they are speaking left-wing. They're completely sold out to green, the Green New Deal, and all of these things. And as I'm talking to you right now, the British pound has collapsed down to — it used to be one-fifty when I first went to America, it was two-fifty, and it's now one-thirteen, one-fourteen — because the pound is so weakened. The banking system is at the point of breaking. They've gone through as many prime ministers in the last number of years since Brexit, because the British people said, we don't want to be part of Europe, because the Europe model is absolutely diabolical.
Philip:And what blows my mind is it seemed the dam seemed to burst at Obama — he wanted to look cool like the Europeans, he wanted to have that intellectual, I'm-in-on-the-thing — and this country, the dike is breaking. The resistance to keeping this pressure out is crumbling.
Brad Sullivan:Well, socialism — I'll just say this real quickly — because I think a lot of the time it comes as a result of ignorance, Philip. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, that people are stupid. The word "ignorance" comes from the word "ignore." So while we're binge-watching Netflix and scrolling on TikTok and Instagram and going about our day and not paying attention — we see a little headline here, a headline there, and that's our news source — we're not getting news anyway, we're getting narratives and we're getting views. And there's a generation that doesn't know history, so they don't even know what socialism is. If I could just say it real quickly — socialism is this economic philosophy where the government controls the means of production. So you're talking about every sector: energy, medical, farming, textiles, manufacturing, whatever it is — it's a government role. Whereas capitalism is the private ownership of these means of production. So when you look at the fact that the post office, which runs in the red every year, is not run efficiently — nothing the government runs works well.
Ignorance Fuels the Spread of Socialism
Brad Sullivan:And so we see that in the process of this takeover of the industries, what happens is that it ends up taking control over people's lives. And so socialism came to us in a modern form by a man named Karl Marx, who — his own family said he was demon-possessed. They hated him. He died isolated from his family. They said he was demonized. He hated God. He said that religion is the opiate of the masses. But in this case, in America, where we're seeing it, ignorance is the destruction of the masses.
Hegel Dialectics and Manufactured Crisis
Brad Sullivan:And so Karl Marx — if I could just take a minute, because this is so powerful and it speaks directly to what we're dealing with today, Philip — he was the pupil of a man named Georg Hegel. Georg Hegel was a famous German philosopher, and Georg Hegel was the one who began to bring in these ideas of totalitarianism, communism, socialism. Basically he didn't believe in individual rights. How do you go about formulating concepts of how you take over people's individual rights and gain control of them? Well, Hegel came up with his concept of Hegelian dialectics, and it's basically in a triangle. At the base of the triangle you have a thesis, and then you have an antithesis. The thesis is the status quo, right? But the antithesis is the problem you create to disrupt the status quo.
Philip:Absolutely.
Brad Sullivan:And at the top of the triangle is the synthesis, which is the solution to the problem, which is only half as bad as the problem, right? And so what you do is you create this antithesis — you create chaos to the status quo, everybody's upset — then you step in with a solution that's only half as bad as the problem, and so people agree to it. But what happens in the end is you give up more rights and they usurp authority and they gain more power, and the triangle just keeps repeating itself over and over and over again. Well, Karl Marx was an ardent student of Hegel, so he took it to the next level with the thing called — get this — critical theory. And critical theory, what Karl Marx said was, what you do is you study a culture — and it can be anywhere in the world, from African tribes to the Indian kingdoms to the British — you pit these people together, you pick these groups against each other, and so you send in community organizers, you send in provocateurs, you send in agitators. They gin up this false division, this great problem, right? And so what he called it was the proletariat against the bourgeoisie — the proletariat being the working class against the bourgeoisie, the business owner — and you create this controversy and this division.
Philip:Well, that — I also use Black Lives Matter as an example. That's the plan. It can be anything. It can be the worker versus the business owner, you divide the Black versus the white, you divide the Catholic versus the Protestant, you divide the Christian versus the Muslim. I mean, it doesn't matter who the group is.
Brad Sullivan:They did it in African tribes, you know. It doesn't matter who the group is. You just sow the discord. And that's why it's called critical theory. And in the middle of that you can put anything — it'd be critical religious theory, critical race theory, critical workers theory. It's basically sow the division, and when the chaos erupts you step in with a solution, and the solution is only half as bad as the problem. But every turn they're giving up more rights and they gain more and more control. And that is exactly what we're seeing take place in our culture today. But notice the difference — demon possession versus Spirit-led. Satan controls and manipulates. God doesn't want to control you. He wants to lead you into his goodness. Satan wants to control you and manipulate you to his end. And there we see the spirit of socialism — socialism has an antichrist, anti-biblical system. It wants people to not look to God as a source. They want people to look to government as a source, and therefore government becomes the god. And America is in the crosshairs of this right now.
Socialism as an Antichrist System
Philip:Absolutely fascinating. Rahm Emanuel — Obama's Chief of Staff, I believe he was, and then the mayor of Chicago — says, never let a crisis go to waste. And they create crisis and then they solve crisis. But in the meantime you've lost more of your rights, and they are inching away at the rights of America — free speech. I mean, the things that they are pushing through. And we need a revival. Our time has gone, Brad. This has been so informative. We need to pray for America, folks. We need God to speak in the church. The reason why this is all happening — it isn't the government's fault. It's the church's fault, because we have ceased being salt and light.
The Church Must Be Salt and Light
Brad Sullivan:And we've become cowards, afraid, tucked our wings in so we can't talk about this in case they get mad at us.
Philip:It's time to get mad, folks. It's time to stand up for Jesus. But I thank you so much. Go and see him at Search Church in Mobile, Alabama — a great church with a great man of God. We'll see you again. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. Bye-bye, God bless you.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells, to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They championed the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now, no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 1-833-DAILY FAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Topics
sullivansocialismbiblical work ethiccritical theoryamerican culturechurch and politicsfreedom