TV star and his wife, Gena, talk about family values and the difficulties facing every parent in the shifting American culture.

1. You published Black Belt Patriotism in September 2008. What is the meaning behind the title of the book?

Chuck: I guess you could call me a Black-Belt Patriot! I’m a patriot through and through, but really,the book is how to re-awaken America. It’s really to enlighten people to all the things going on in our country. I was totally unaware of it until I finished doing Walker, Texas Ranger. I was so busy working that I didn’t watch the news,and I didn’t read that much about the political scene. But once I quit doing the show, I started doing a lot of reading, and I just saw in the last nine years a transition going on in our country. I decided to write the book.

We’re being taxed to death. We’re being taxed on everything – I talk about this in the book – about how we really need to convert to a fair-tax system. That’s what our Founding Fathers created for us in the very beginning: A fair-consumption tax that we pay on everything we buy. If we did that, that would eliminate all these taxes that are killing us in our country.

2. Chuck, you’ve now republished the book. You devote chapters to family values and the sanctity of human life. Why is that?

Chuck: That’s the foundation of our country. We will never survive as a country without those family values and the moral structure that goes behind all that. That’s what my wife and I talk about extensively. She’s better at explaining that than I am.

Gena: Well, family is extremely important, especially to all us believers. I’m afraid it’s something that wants to be controlled by government right now.

Our journey with the twins was really something, because it was a life and death pregnancy for me, and I had been counseled through the doctors and advised of certain options. And of course, they bring up aborting the babies. For me, it’s not an option. But just to hear them say it like it was nothing – it wasn’t a big issue to them – and it was disturbing to hear it said that way, because if God were to give us these children, certainly He’s going to see me through a difficult time.

I wrote down some things, “Lord, not our words, but what is it that You would have us say.” I really would encourage the Christian Church, and that’s all of us, that there is no more separation of church and state. The ACLU and other groups have been aggressive about the separation of church and state, but I think the churches have been willing to go along with that and not talk about politics. Our silence has gotten us to where we are today.

3. Gena, you mentioned Danilee and Dakota. As a mom, what do you hope, their future will hold as Americans?

Gena: If we all don’t do our part, I don’t know what the future is going to look like for them. We home school our children, which we feel so blessed to be able to do, but if government will have its way and its say, they’d like to take away those rights as well.

The one thing that we do have that a lot of people don’t is faith. If they don’t have faith, then they’re probably getting discouraged. Our hope is in Jesus. Our hope is in the Lord and the things God promises in the Bible, but we still have to be active right now. We can’t be silent anymore.

4. In the book you talk about “Millennials” and the impact they will have on our culture. Who are the Millennials and what are they going to do?

Chuck: They’re the young people. They’re the next generation that’s coming up that will decide the direction of this country. That’s the 18-29-year-olds. I’m so impressed with them. Gena and I went to West Point and met the cadets. It was so enlightening, so inspiring. They were so jubilant.

I had the chance to speak to almost 2,000 of them. I told them a little about my life and how the military turned my life around.

They’re the ones who are going to have to do it. They’re the ones who will have to take the reins and carry this torch, and get our country back on the right track.

5. What part does God play in fixing these problems?

Chuck: Without God, nothing is going to get done in this country. That’s why we’re in this mess to begin with. The Christian community has got to rise up. They’ve got to stop being silent

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