Gentleman Outlaw

Freedom Starts With You — What the Founders Expected from Free Men

by Ryan Rush | Mar 24, 2025 | The Outlaw Faith

Welcome to Outlaw Faith—where this week, we’re looking at the kind of government that actually matters most: the one inside your own skull.

Everybody loves to talk about fixing America, but nobody wants to talk about fixing themselves. Why? Because fixing America is easier—you just yell at the TV and share angry memes. Fixing yourself? That requires actual work.

But here’s the brutal truth the Founders understood:

If men can’t govern themselves, freedom doesn’t work.

Self-government isn’t just about voting—it’s about being the kind of man who doesn’t need a leash. If you can’t rule your own emotions, your own habits, or your own responsibilities, then what are you doing crying about the government? You are living proof that people need more of it.

That’s not me saying it—that’s straight from the Founders.

The Founders’ Expectation: Be a Man Who Can Handle Freedom

John Adams:

“Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private virtue, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.”

Translation: If people can’t control themselves, the government will have to.

George Washington:

“A good moral character is the first essential in a man… It is therefore highly important that you should endeavor not only to be learned but virtuous.”

Translation: If you’re a degenerate but can quote Thomas Jefferson, you’re still a degenerate.

The Real Reason America’s Falling Apart

Here’s the cold, hard reality nobody likes to say out loud:
America isn’t falling apart because of elections. It’s falling apart because of men who can’t govern themselves.

Think about it:

• How can we have small government when people can’t even show up to work on time?
• How can we defend freedom when men melt down over mean words on the internet?
• How can we be a strong nation when half of us can’t put down our phones for more than 30 seconds?

The government keeps growing because people keep getting weaker. You can scream about tyranny all you want, but if you can’t control your impulses, you’re just outsourcing your personal responsibility to a bigger, badder babysitter.

And the Founders knew this would happen.

The Cycle: How Weakness Leads to Tyranny

The pattern is always the same:
✅ Strong men govern themselves → Government stays small.
❌ Weak men need to be controlled → Government gets bigger.
❌ Bigger government removes responsibility → Men get even weaker.
❌ Weak men cry for even more government.
💀 Freedom dies.

Congratulations, we’re right between steps 3 and 4 right now.

Self-Government in 2025: How Are We Doing?

Let’s check in on how well we’re governing ourselves today:

• Finances: 60% of Americans can’t cover a $1,000 emergency.
• Discipline: 75% of men are overweight, and our grandfathers would laugh at our idea of “hard work.”
• Impulse control: The average person checks their phone 144 times a day. (That’s not a joke—144.)
• Mental toughness: College students need therapy dogs and safe spaces because words are scary.

Meanwhile, the Founders were fighting the British with lead balls and handwritten letters.

Tell me again how we’re ready for freedom?

The Bible Saw This Coming

The Founders didn’t just make this up—they got it from Scripture.

• Proverbs 25:28 — “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” (Translation: If you can’t govern yourself, you’re an open target.)
• Galatians 5:23 — “The fruit of the Spirit is… self-control.” (Translation: If you’re walking with God, you should have discipline—not just feelings.)
• 1 Timothy 3:5 — “If someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” (Translation: Lead yourself first.)

The Outlaw Faith Challenge: Start With You

Want freedom? Start where the Founders did—by ruling yourself first.

This week, I challenge you:
✅ Wake up on time—no snooze button.
✅ Put your phone down for an hour—see if the world keeps turning.
✅ Make a decision and stick with it—don’t flake.
✅ Own your mistakes—no excuses, no blaming.
✅ Act like a free man, not a spoiled child.

The truth is freedom isn’t taken—it’s surrendered. And if we don’t reclaim self-government, we can forget about keeping the rest.

Tomorrow: Biblical Self-Control — The Original Leadership Requirement.

Self-Government — The Freedom Nobody Talks About

by Ryan Rush | Mar 23, 2025 | The Outlaw Faith

Alright outlaws — buckle up.

Next week, we’re talking about the kind of freedom that doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker. It’s not about what the government’s doing — it’s about what you’re doing. It’s called self-government — and it’s the one kind of freedom you can’t vote for, protest for, or hashtag into existence.

The Founders talked about it all the time, but for some reason, nobody teaches it now. Why? Because self-government requires personal responsibility, and that’s harder to sell than victimhood and excuses.

But here’s the hard truth:
You cannot govern a nation if you can’t govern yourself.
If your emotions run you, if your phone owns you, if your impulses control you — you’re not free. You’re a slave with WiFi.

This week, we’re going there.

• Monday: What the Founders actually expected from free men.
• Tuesday: What the Bible says about ruling yourself.
• Wednesday: Why weak men always invite strong tyrants.
• Thursday: What real self-government looks like in 2025.
• Friday: The Outlaw Faith challenge — building a life that needs no babysitter.

It’s going to be funny. It’s going to hurt. But it might just be the most important thing we talk about all year.

See you Monday.

Faith & Freedom — Not Either/Or, It’s Both or Bust

by Ryan Rush | Mar 21, 2025 | The Outlaw Faith

Alright outlaws — this is the big one. We’ve spent all week tearing down the lie that faith and politics should never mix. Now let’s build something better in its place.

If you remember nothing else from this week, remember this:
You cannot keep freedom if you lose faith.

That’s not my opinion — it’s baked into reality, and the Founders knew it. In fact, they hammered this point so hard, you could frame the entire Constitution with their quotes about it.

Faith & Freedom Are a Package Deal

Here’s how the Founders actually saw it:

• Faith teaches people to govern themselves.
• Self-governed people need less government.
• Less government means more freedom.
• Lose faith — people stop governing themselves.
• People act like fools — government steps in to control them.
• Freedom dies.

That’s not theory — that’s history. And we’re living the consequences of forgetting it.

The Founders’ Greatest Hits (Faith Edition)

John Adams:

“Religion and virtue are the only foundations…of republicanism and of all free governments.”

George Washington:

“Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Benjamin Rush:

“Christianity is the only true and perfect religion.”
(Imagine saying that at a PTA meeting today — they’d have him canceled before lunch.)

What Happens When You Separate Faith from Freedom

If you want a country with maximum freedom, you need people who govern themselves — people who don’t cheat, steal, or punch each other over parking spots because they fear God, not because there’s a cop watching.

When you take faith out of the equation, you don’t get more freedom — you get more laws.

• Don’t believe lying is a sin? Here’s 47 pages of corporate disclosure regulations.
• Don’t teach kids that all humans bear God’s image? Here’s a 300-page anti-bullying policy.
• Don’t value honesty in contracts? Here’s 12 agencies to monitor your business.

Lose internal control — government adds external control.

Freedom Without Faith = An Expired Coupon

Here’s the brutal truth:
Freedom only works when people are capable of handling it.
That’s why the Bible says:

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” — 2 Corinthians 3:17

No Spirit? No freedom. Period.
You can vote all you want, but if people aren’t governed inside, you’ll end up begging for laws to protect you from your neighbors.

Modern Example: The Parent Swap

This is like firing your strict-but-loving dad and replacing him with a weak babysitter who’s scared of the kids.
At first, it feels like freedom — no rules! Candy for dinner! But after about three days, the house smells like armpits and Axe body spray, the dog’s missing, and nobody knows what’s real anymore.

That’s what happens to a nation when you trade moral self-control for legal loopholes and personal “truth.”

The Outlaw Faith Challenge

Faith and freedom rise and fall together — always have, always will.
If you want to keep your freedom:
✅ Strengthen your faith.
✅ Teach your kids real truth — from the Bible, not TikTok.
✅ Build a home that needs zero government intervention because you handle your business like a man.
✅ Be the guy who prays first, acts second, and never bows to Caesar unless God says so.

Next Week: Back to the Founders — but this time, we’re going tactical with what they actually wanted government to do — and what they wanted it to stay out of.

The Founders’ Warning — What Happens When You Kick God Out (Spoiler: It Gets Weird)

by Ryan Rush | Mar 20, 2025 | The Outlaw Faith

Alright, outlaws — time for some bad news and hard laughs. The Founders didn’t just talk about God because they were bored or trying to pad their word count. They knew something we forgot:

A nation without God turns into a circus.

That’s not me talking — that’s them, in their own words. And if they could see 2025 America, they’d be like, “Yep, called it.”

What the Founders Actually Said (and What They’d Say Now)

John Adams:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Translation: This system only works if people can control themselves. If they can’t, the government has to do it for them — and that’s how you get surveillance drones watching your lawn and 42-page regulations on how to grill a hot dog.

George Washington:

“Religion and morality are indispensable supports.”

Translation: If you yank those out, don’t be surprised when everything collapses like a Jenga tower at a frat party.

Benjamin Rush:

“Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.”

Translation: If you’re ‘educated’ but think truth is whatever you feel today, congratulations — you just got scammed by the education-industrial complex.

Kicking God Out: A Quick Timeline of Disaster

✅ 1960s — Toss prayer out of school.
✅ 1970s — Discover consequences are optional.
✅ 1990s — Replace morals with “follow your heart.”
✅ 2020s — Your heart identifies as a toaster.
✅ 2025 — Government prints pamphlets teaching kids how to sue their parents for calling them the wrong Pokémon.

The Founders saw this coming because they understood one thing:
If God doesn’t set the standard, someone else will — and that someone will always be Caesar, Karen, or Karl Marx.

The Bible Saw It Coming Too

• Proverbs 29:18 — “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.”
  (Modern translation: No truth = no brakes.)
• Isaiah 5:20 — “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”
  (Modern translation: Welcome to the news cycle.)

The Founders’ Prophetic Roast

What they said:

“Virtue, morality, and religion. That’s the foundation.”

What we did:

“Let’s see what happens if TikTok and Washington write the rules.”

What they’d say if they came back today:

“Ben Franklin found TikTok, and now he thinks we fought a revolution for 15-second dances and eating laundry detergent.”

The Outlaw Faith Challenge

This isn’t about whining for the ‘good old days.’ The Founders gave us a manual to fix this mess — but only if we have the guts to use it.
✅ Bring back real truth — not “your truth.”
✅ Teach your kids who actually defines right and wrong (hint: not influencers).
✅ Be the guy who knows the Constitution, the Bible, and how to change his own oil.

Tomorrow: Faith & Freedom — Not Either/Or. It’s Both or Bust.

Render Unto Caesar — But What Doesn’t Belong to God?

by Ryan Rush | Mar 19, 2025 | The Outlaw Faith

Welcome back to Outlaw Faith, where today we’re opening one of the most misquoted lines in Scripture:

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” — Matthew 22:21

This verse gets thrown around whenever someone wants Christians to sit down and shut up about politics — like Jesus was telling us to mind our business and just pay taxes. But if you actually look at the context — and ask the right question — you realize this isn’t about keeping God out of government at all. It’s about recognizing who actually owns everything in the first place.

The Setup — and the Mic Drop

The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking if Jews should pay taxes to Rome. If He said “yes,” He’d look like a sellout to Rome. If He said “no,” they could accuse Him of rebellion. Classic setup.

Jesus asked for a coin and said:

“Whose image is on this?”

“Caesar’s,” they answered.

That’s when He dropped the line:

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Most people stop there. But the real punch is what He didn’t say.

The Real Question: What Belongs to God?

Here’s the logic Jesus was setting up:

• The coin has Caesar’s image on it — fine, give it back to him.
• But what has God’s image on it?

You do. Your kids do. Your marriage does. Your whole life bears God’s image. That means Caesar has no rightful claim over any of it. It’s all God’s — your work, your parenting, your land, your education, your body, your loyalty.

So if we render unto Caesar things that actually belong to God — like handing over our kids’ education, our moral compass, or even our understanding of truth — what are we saying?
We’re saying we don’t think those things belong to God.

That’s not just bad politics — that’s bad theology.

What We’ve Handed Over (Without Even Thinking)

Here’s a list of things Americans (including a lot of Christians) have handed to Caesar with a shrug:

✅ Our kids — letting government schools teach them what to believe about life, truth, gender, history, and even God.
✅ Our rights — acting like government grants them instead of recognizing they come from the Creator.
✅ Our money — assuming taxes are the price of being “safe,” even when they fund evil.
✅ Our morality — waiting for laws to tell us right from wrong instead of starting with Scripture.

What’s Left for God?

If Caesar gets all that, what’s left for God? Just an hour on Sunday morning and a prayer before dinner?

That’s not rendering to God — that’s tipping Him like a valet. And the Founders knew it. That’s why they tied freedom directly to self-government under God. Because if you’re not governing yourself by God’s truth, some version of Caesar will step in and do it for you.

Biblical Backup

• Psalm 24:1 — “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
• Genesis 1:27 — We are made in His image.
• Deuteronomy 6:6-7 — Parents are commanded to teach God’s ways diligently to their children (not farm it out to Caesar).
• Acts 5:29 — “We must obey God rather than men.”

So What Now?

This isn’t about saying taxes are evil or that government has zero role. It’s about remembering:
Caesar is a steward. God is the Owner.
When Caesar forgets that — or when we do — we end up handing over things God never said belonged to the state.

The Outlaw Faith Challenge

This week, ask yourself:

• What have I handed over to Caesar that actually belongs to God?
• My kids’ education?
• My definition of truth?
• My family’s values?
• My own sense of responsibility for my life?

If the answer is “yes,” it’s time to take it back.
Because God doesn’t just want your Sundays — He wants everything.

Tomorrow: The Founders’ Warning — What Happens When We Kick God Out of Public Life.