TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Courage Is Contagious: Rabbi Daniel Lapin Meets Pastor Corey Brooks
Date: 10/31/25 Length: 00:29:07
Daniel Lapin 0:00
Greetings, Happy Warriors, and thank you for being part of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show where today. And you know this is unusual, today, we have a guest. And what a guest? This is a guest who I'm very eager to spend a little time with. And I'll tell you why. You know how cowardice is contagious. That's one of the reasons that in dangerous combat situations, it sometimes happens where they have to punish deserters, because when a person feels cowardly and frightened of the battle, that can spread very quickly, it's like a virus. And so you've got to make sure that doesn't happen well, in the same way that cowardice is contagious, courage is contagious, and I want a little bit of Pastor Corey Brooks's courage to rub off on me. And you've more than once exhibited, my dear friend, that there's very little you're afraid of other than the good Lord Himself, absolutely
Pastor Corey Brooks 1:06
and let me say Rabbi Lapin, thank you for having me on your show. I really appreciate it and giving this a chance to talk about what we're doing on the south side of Chicago and how we're trying to be as courageous as possible tackling the issues that we're faced with every single day. So thank you so very much.
Daniel Lapin 1:24
I am as you know, I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and I appreciate you making making yourself available for a start. Tell me pick a moment in your life the most epiphanous, some point at which you realized what you were created for. Some point you realized what your destiny was, what you had to do. Was there a moment like that? When was it?
Pastor Corey Brooks 1:46
Yeah, I don't think it's been just one singular moment. I think it's a series of moments over time, being on the south side of Chicago and being in a really tough neighborhood and seeing my faith acted out in ways that helping to transform a neighborhood and helping to transform people's lives. I think a series of events, being here in this neighborhood has helped me to discover my purpose, what God has called me to do, and what he put me on earth to do, not just my purpose, but my passion, because I'm passionate about it. You know, I I love there's no other place I'd rather be in the world than on the south side of Chicago on this block. This block is called O block because it's named after a young man named od Perry. The gangs took the O and his name and start calling it O block, but it's actually 66 through 63rd and King Drive. And so I'm passionate about this neighborhood. I'm passionate about the work, and I know this is the purpose that God has placed me here. And so I think a series of just situations after situations after situation dealing with the violence, dealing with the poverty, dealing with the education, dealing with families, has helped me to discover my purpose.
Daniel Lapin 3:00
Who or what presents you with the the biggest challenges? Oh, wow. What entities keep you awake at night, you know? Is it city government? Is it is it the gang culture? You know, what? If you had the power to use a magic wand and make one set of problems vanish. Which are the biggest what is the source of your biggest challenge?
Pastor Corey Brooks 3:27
The source of my biggest challenge is number one, the mindset that has been so embedded and ingrained into our culture on the south side of Chicago, especially when it comes to politics, for far too long. You know, everyone has mostly decided that they're going to be Democrats and they're going to follow those policies, and the sad commentary about that is because they follow those policies and have that mindset. Our educational system is horrible. In our neighborhood, there's a 4% reading proficiency, a 6% math proficiency, and we see kids failing every single day, but yet being passed on in their grades, graduating from even high school and not even knowing how to properly read. Those are issues that I see, the economic problems of lack of entrepreneurships and lack of people doing the things that need to be done because of that mindset. So first and foremost, the mindset. First and foremost, the mindset that's that's that is prevalent is a major issue. And then secondly, the political machine, as there's no doubt about it, that they would definitely love for me to just go away, and any barrier they can put up in front of us to keep us from doing the work that we do, they definitely try to do it, whether it's the governor, the mayor or our local alderman, they're not working for us. Oftentimes they're working against us. And a lot of that is born out of the fact that I have some very conservative viewpoints and values, and I'm very vocal about it, and that is not always that's definitely not smiled upon. It's frowned. The point in this neighborhood. And so those two things, so the mentality is a barrier, and then the political landscape is definitely a barrier operating in this neighborhood.
Daniel Lapin 5:10
You preempted my next question, which was going to be, you're obviously doing good. Nobody disputes that. You're having an impact. Nobody disputes that. So why on earth would politicians in the the power centers of Chicago and the state of Illinois? Why would they not give you medals? Why? Why wouldn't Why would they want you to go away
Pastor Corey Brooks 5:36
right as you can see right behind me, you see a 90,000 square foot building being erected, one of the things that we're really proud of, that we're really doing, and people across the country are coming to recognize it, but yet, in Illinois and in Chicago, you would think that the work that we're doing, the efforts that we're making, the changes that we're bringing about, you would think that They would be applauded. But because I'm not a Democrat and because I'm not liberal, you know, they do everything they can to make sure that our work is slighted and that we're not viewed by a lot of people as we should be. I'm this thankful and grateful I believe, for whatever reason, God is allowing us to transcend their opinions and allowing us to accomplish a great deal, and we've been blessed to be able to do the work that we're doing and not being stopped. It's kind of hard for me even to explain how it's happening, other than all I know is I really do believe that God is is continuing to open up doors, continues to send us resources. And so I tell everyone that he is definitely our source. And so I think being our source, he's protected us from a lot of things, and that being the wrath of liberals and Democrats on the south side of Chicago and inland Illinois.
Daniel Lapin 7:02
Well, I knew we had certain superficial similarities, white beards. Yes, we go to the same hair stylist, yes. But now I see we have something else which is leaning towards the conservative end, the traditional end of the political spectrum, when, in my case, the overwhelming majority of Jews are far left, and in your case, the overwhelming majority of African American particularly leaders, are far left as well. So we both are Hebrews in a sense, in the term that Hebrew meaning to stand on the other
Pastor Corey Brooks 7:38
side, absolutely, let me, I know you're interviewing me, but now that I had anything you want to say when they told me I was going to get an opportunity to talk to you, I was so excited, because what you just said I knew, and I was like, I want to one of the questions I want to ask him is, how does how do you make sure that you thrive in the midst of that type of situation yourself being amongst individuals who may feel different than you, think different than you. How do you continue to thrive in the midst of all of that yourself?
Daniel Lapin 8:10
I won't say that it hasn't been painful, and you don't have to tell me about you, because I know you've had to withstand pain, no question about that. So I won't say it's been without pain, however, being surrounded by my family and thank God, my wife and I have been on the same page, and so our children have grown up on the same page. So with praise to God, there's not a single child I have who is embarrassed by my positions, that's good. And then to also have a group of friends that are with you. You know, Job's life was saved in chapter three when he sat down with his friends. That's where it begins to turn around. That's good stuff. And so we we need that. We need that. And so once that inner fortress of family and friends is strong, we can pretty much handle the incoming shells Absolutely, absolutely. So that's sort of how it's been for me. But there's no question about it that I have had slings and arrows as well as flame throwers and rocket propelled grenades coming in from the body politic of the liberal Jewish community. Yeah, yeah. You know, you can't speak out against prominent Jewish political leaders like Charles Schumer or Adam Schiff or many of the other or George Soros, for that matter, who set up a district attorney in Chicago who is a disaster. So you know, you can't speak out against these very public and very powerful Jews without expecting. Some blowback. So, yeah, that's we, I think we've had similar experiences in that
Pastor Corey Brooks 10:04
respect. Absolutely, absolutely, thanks for sharing that.
Daniel Lapin 10:09
Yeah, yeah, that that's very much part of it. It's, It's extraordinary to me, because if the one thing that that Jews do right is emphasis on family. Yes, marriage and family are strong in the Jewish community, and yet they will push policies that undermine marriage and family for everybody else.
Pastor Corey Brooks 10:36
Yeah, it's amazing that you say that, because that's that's a true statement. You know, the fact that the Jewish culture has such strong families is amazing, especially with all the trials and tribulations that they've gone through for so many years that still families have stayed intact. And I think that's one of the things that have made you in the Jewish family so resilient. However, as you also said, sometimes they push, some of them push policies that are opposite of what's going on in their own, you know, backgrounds, and we see that being played out with our families in Chicago sent, I mean, 85% of the households in our neighborhood are single parent households. We do more funerals than we do weddings. And it's a lot of the culture and a lot of the policy is that is
Daniel Lapin 11:26
terrifying statistic. You do more funerals than weddings.
Pastor Corey Brooks 11:30
Yes, you can't, you can't turn things around like that. It's almost, it's almost like having a hose, a fire hose, and trying to get a drink of water. It's coming at you too fast and too furious, and we see that every single day. And I think the biggest thing that as a black man in our black culture, that we're going to have difficulty is if we don't get our families back intact, it's going to be impossible for us to change our culture and to change the dynamic, and that's reason why, for me, I push those conservative views and conservative values, because I think those are the only things that support having strong families. And we definitely need to have people turn back toward family, and we definitely need to strengthen family if we're going to change our culture and change the situations in our neighborhoods across America. Anywhere you see in urban areas across America, you're going to see broken families and devastation of families hand in hand.
Daniel Lapin 12:36
So if you could wave the magic wand and really rebuild marriage and family. So is that not 85% are single family, single parent households, but 90% are functional family households. How much of the dysfunction, how much of the pathology would go away? Do you think
Pastor Corey Brooks 13:05
overnight you will see a drastic change? Statistics bear that kids are more likely to drop out of school, more likely to be impoverished, more likely to go to prison when they come from broken homes or when they don't come from two parent households, and so just having strong families can change the dynamics of a lot of those things. We would then have the opportunity to not be in so much poverty. We would then be able to have the opportunity to have better educations. We would then have the opportunities to make sure that more of our especially young black boys would stay out of jail, and those three factors alone would change our culture and change our community overnight.
Daniel Lapin 13:55
I don't know lots of countries around the world. I'm not a huge traveler, but I know the United Kingdom, and I know the United States, everything that we sort of euphemistically speak about in America as inner city culture. But I think that's a euphemism. I think it's sort of everybody means black culture, right? We don't say that because I'm very polite, so I say inner city culture. But here's the thing, in the United Kingdom, you've got exactly the same pathologies. Everything's exactly the same. It's inner city and there's crime and there's no marriage and there's no family and education is a mess, excepting everyone has white skin. So am I right or am I wrong to speak about this as not being a black culture thing, but. Something else, a destructive culture thing, regardless of your ethnic background. Am I wrong in that, or am 100% right?
Pastor Corey Brooks 15:10
I mean, there have been studies that show, for some of the individuals who live in the hills of Tennessee, predominantly white, individuals who are in poverty, who are facing some of the same statistics. The same things happen. Broken homes are producing more people in poverty, more people not knowing how to read, more people going to jail. And as you just said in the UK, those same things are bearing to be true as well. And so it's not so much about color. It's about a culture of degradation and a culture of disintegration that we see hand in hand every single day. So no, you're, you're you're right on point. It's not about the color of skin that we see these issues, wherever we see these issues, whether you're black or white or regardless of your religion and nationality, whenever you see a broken families, the results tend to be almost the same.
Daniel Lapin 16:05
Okay, so, so that is that does not bother you if I speak in those terms, absolutely not. No, sir, let me. Let me try taking this a little bit further and and tell me whether you think I'm okay on this or whether I'm stepping onto slippery ground here, okay, in trying to explore what this culture is about, we've agreed that it's got nothing to do with being black or being white or being Jewish or being Baptist. It doesn't matter, right? So one possibility, and I'm sure there are others, but this, I've been grappling with us, and knowing that I was going to be talking to you for the last five or six weeks, I've been thinking about this a lot. Is it possible that what we're looking at is and let me just sort of get this thesis out, that what we're looking at is a present culture that is oblivious, largely oblivious, of future and past. I think that it is one of the odious legacies of secularism, because I think that what faith does, whether it's your faith or my faith, but a Bible based Judeo Christian faith, keeps on reminding us that there was a yesterday, and so if I say to you what happened 2000 years ago, important to your life or not? Important, very important, right? Absolutely for me too. And if I say that the future is going to bring some kind of glorious, call it messianic redemption of a kind we may not fully understand the details, but we're moving towards something glorious, okay with that, or not okay with that, definitely okay with that. Me too. And so we are relating viscerally in a very conscious way. The past is real and the future is real, yes, but if we take away that time awareness, in other words, the child or the adolescent, who is essentially a product of naturalistic evolution, the child that is brought up with absolutely no religious culture at all, that child and that adolescent, and eventually that adult, is super hyper aware of the present, because every pleasure of Every bodily appetite impacts what I feel at this very moment. Yes, and every pain that I feel is in this very moment, right? And so if I am asked to weigh up a current pleasure against the threat of future pain in five years time. It doesn't register with me absolutely. Or if somebody says to me, don't do that, Lapin, because your grandfather would be ashamed of you, I'd say, number one, I couldn't care. Number two, I don't even remember him. I don't even know who you are. I don't care, because this is what I want to do right now, right do your homework says you'll be able to graduate high school, what in three years time. That's off my radar screen. I don't know about that. All I know is that this afternoon, I'd rather hang out with my girlfriend than do my homework. Do. Yes, that's my theory, and I'm interested in your take on it, that that in secularizing our society by taking God out of the society, one of the Baleful, painful consequences is that we have allowed people to develop an oversized awareness of present. Yes, and we've blurred future and past into insignificance. Tell me what you
Pastor Corey Brooks 20:29
think I would agree with that wholeheartedly, that the secularist thought has definitely, without a shot of a doubt, moved God into the background, and moving God into the background has caused us, just as you just said, to not even consider the past as anything relevant, we're definitely don't have the capacity to look toward tomorrow and next week. And so what happens we're eternally trapped in right now, in the presence, and it keeps us from making things better in life, because we're not even looking forward. We're not even looking to the next generation and how things can be. It's always the seculars thought about I need to do something for me now. I need to feel good now. I need to get it now. And everything is in the now. And I definitely agree that that is causing so much problems for for all of us and all of humanity, that whole secular movement is a tremendous problem.
Daniel Lapin 21:40
I'm interested to hear that you've you've given me a reason to continue thinking along these lines. Yes, absolutely. If some benefactor puts $5 million in your hands tomorrow, you What would you do with it? Well, one,
Pastor Corey Brooks 22:09
and let me just, you know, Rabbi Lapin, those are some like you say, you think things. You think about things. Those are things that I've thought about. So I can answer those pretty quick. So if someone were to place 5 million in my hand right now, some of it would go toward the completion of the center that you see right behind me, yes, leadership and Economic Opportunity Center, where we're building a 90,000 square foot facility to help really transform the lives of people so they can take responsibility for their own lives without having to depend on government. Some of the funds would go there. Secondly, some of the funds would go toward creating a school specifically for young black boys on the south side of Chicago who are from single parent households and who come below the poverty line. I would use those funds to create a private school for them, free tuition, based focusing on classical education, teaching kids so they can know the past and to know the future they're not stuck in right now and then the present. And I would start to mold and build up a strong army of young boys that would become married, produce good fathers and good husbands. That's where I would spend the money. So those two areas, and then the third thing, I would take some money and put it in an endowment. Because one of the problems that we've had traditionally with institutions in our our culture is that they don't they don't last. And one of the reasons why they don't last is because they're stuck in the right now, and they don't look toward Hey, the next generation is going to have to pay for some facilities and some programs and some things. So I want part of my legacy to be that I leave an endowment so that the organization will not have to depend on any government funds, and they can do all the things that we're passionate about and that we have a purpose to do.
Daniel Lapin 24:08
Well, that's really interesting. I you know, we didn't prepare this conversation at all. I never gave you a list of questions or any we just started talking, and I expected that when I dropped that question on you, what would you do with $5 million I expected Your first word out of your mouth would be well, like, Let me think about that. But you didn't have to think, not even for a millisecond. No, sir. So part of the value of that question, by the way, is I'm hoping it'll inspire someone in our audience to give you $5 million that's what I'd like.
Pastor Corey Brooks 24:46
Thank you. I believe that. And you know both, both of us have faith in God. And I think being on your show is God plan. God is sovereign. He ordered it to be so. And I think the fact that you asked me that question, and the fact. Fact that I'm, I was prepared to answer it. I think there may be somebody who will hear and see what we're trying to do and will be, you know, feel led to help us. I thank you for even considering and thank you for even asking me the question. And we'll just pray and hope somebody's heart is touched about what we're talking about and what we're trying to do, and and that they'll they'll make the contribution.
Daniel Lapin 25:25
I know we got to start bringing this in for a landing, because you got a whole bunch of people waiting to talk with you. But could you just give us a practical picture in real terms once this building behind your shoulder is finished? Tell what? What are some of the act? What's actually going to be going on. What will we see when we walk into that building?
Pastor Corey Brooks 25:43
Oh, wow. Do you mind if I try to see if I can show you, if I could move my camera over to show it to you a little bit. Go for it. Yeah. I don't know how to work, but let's see.
Daniel Lapin 25:53
Give it a show. Oh, I can see something. Oh, my, it's it's nice and far advanced. It's moving right along. How many floors are we looking at?
Pastor Corey Brooks 26:04
It's three and a half floors. And there's, there's. So we have a bank because we are really big on teaching people financial literacy, making sure that,
Daniel Lapin 26:14
oh, you're talking my language there. Oh, right,
Pastor Corey Brooks 26:16
making sure that they they learn financial principles. That would be a benefit toward them. So we're really, we're really big on that entrepreneur. It has an entrepreneurial class room where we're going to be helping businesses to get started. Because I really do believe that if you're going to transform a neighborhood, you have to have an economic base. And by the way, I'll just be honest, a lot of the principles that I use Rabbi Lapin are Jewish, are based upon Jewish principles that I would glean from lots of study and watching the Jewish community use some of these same principles, whether it's financial literacy, whether it's business and family and faith, those are straight Jewish principles that I'm trying to grow and use them in our in our in our community, and so you'll see a lot of faith being displayed. The finances, the entrepreneurship, even the trades. We have a trade school where we're going to be teaching, where we teach carpentry, electrical, plumbing and H back, because we realize everyone's not going to school. So we want much rather,
Daniel Lapin 27:23
much rather, a man comes with an ability to build things with his hands, and he comes out with a stupid, useless academic degree.
Pastor Corey Brooks 27:30
Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, I tell people, Jesus was a carpenter, so, you know,
Daniel Lapin 27:37
and I thought he was a gender studies professor or an
Pastor Corey Brooks 27:41
accountant, yeah. So we're trying to teach those things, and so we have the center is about teaching leadership. It's about teaching economics. It's about helping people to understand all the opportunities that they have available to them, that they can take control of their lives with the help of God and putting their faith in God and not having to depend on any government to pull them up or to get them out of situations. And so that's what the center is really all about. So it's 90,000 square foot of just life change and transformation.
Daniel Lapin 28:19
Well, Pastor added to my prayers, our prayers for your good, health and strength, sir, because I think you are needed there for many, many, many years to come. Rabbi.
Pastor Corey Brooks 28:31
Rabbi, thank you so much. And I again, am so appreciative of being on your show, and I've been waiting to talk to you, and hopefully, prayerfully, we can do this again. I love the topic. Just gonna say, let's do this again. All right, absolutely, even if we're not doing an interview, I want to talk with you, and just that
Daniel Lapin 28:47
would be a privilege, and I look forward. All right, thank you so much. All right. So thanks so much for being available. And it was exhilarating talking to you, and it fills me with a sense of optimism and hope, so, not to mention renewed courage. So thank you. Thank you. All right, take care. Bye.
