From Klansman Terrorist to Christ
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- As an ordinary high school student in the 1960s in Alabama, Tom Tarrants became deeply unsettled by the social upheaval and turned to extremist ideology. While attempting to bomb the home of a Jewish leader in Mississippi, Tom was ambushed by law enforcement and shot multiple times during a high-speed chase. After escaping from prison and being caught, he then had a crushing experience of the weight of his sin and became a Christian while in solitary confinement. Now he's a co-pastor of a racially mixed church and became the president of the C. S. Lewis Institute, where he devoted himself to helping others become wholehearted followers of Jesus. Please check out and share his amazing story.
READ: Consumed by Hate, Redeemed by Love: How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation by Tom Tarrants (amzn.to/3AozyLw)
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1970 was the same year God saved this very lost 29 year old.
Amen!
Such a powerful story of redemption. Tom’s words at the end were right on something we all need right now.
I heard many years ago, probably shortly after I was converted, that there is nearly always someone praying for your conversation whether you know it or not. So keep praying for individuals.
Good encouragement
Amen
🎉😊
I’ve had Christians praying for me off and on for a long time yet I’ve never converted. That’s because praying is just talking to yourself and fooling yourself into thinking your imaginary friend is actually real and is listening to you.
@@daleproctor3723while you still breath there’s still a chance. The thief on the cross proves it.
So encouraging and just complete confirmation of what the Lord has been speaking to me over the last 6 years! Thank you Lord Jesus for this man who loves you so much!
Amen!
Thank you for sharing this interview. It is so relevant for the times in which we live. I found my myself praising the Lord for how He drew the speaker through unconventional means and for the prayers of the saints!
You’re welcome!
Clan was in Davie, Fl….near me. They had a lot of marches and handed out brochures. What a Joy that Tom, has truly become a Believer 👑 HalleluYah 😊
The clan still meets out in western Broward county near a Jewish cemetery. I am a Jewish believer in Yeshua Jesus and my parents are buried there.
It seems that many of us regard “comfort” and “convenience” as our standards to maintain. Also, “our stomach is our god.” It is so easy to slip into the peace of sleeping, while we are supposed to be watching. So it will be a rude awakening if things fall apart all of a sudden. This is a great message, thank you! Blessings! from Canada 🇨🇦
Hey Sean, it's Earl & Georgetta ...the black couple from the Church at Rocky Peak. Thanks for informing us about this interview, it was a blessing as was your unique apologetic event with your atheist persona. Bless you brother and hope to see you again soon❤
Good seeing you both again!
Why don't you guys ever go to Africa? You know, you're real home.
@@rockysalvatore435Where in Africa should they go? Africa is a continent and why don’t you go back to Europe, your real home?
@@rockysalvatore435why are you on a video about the KKK saying something as abhorrent as that?!
What makes America anymore YOUR "real home" than someone non-white?? Seriously, I would love to hear why you think such a thing.
@@rockysalvatore435 how ignorant ... smh
What a lovely Christian man who has been saved by God's most wonderful power, love, and mercy. What a story! Thanks, Sean.
You bet! I agree 💯
Wow, Jesus can turn anything around!
Those who have been forgiven much love much.
I'm a daughter of the living GOD. HE is my ABBA FATHER! Thank you for having this gentleman on your podcast. What a miracle his life is from childhood to now. I'm sooooo glad he was willing to be honest and vulnerable about his experiences. I will continue to pray for him and you in ministry and life. GOD Bless Tom and you!🙏🏼
I really appreciated Tarrants’ testimony. I hung in there to the very last, despite the low column. My journey from being a segregationist to believing in integration took five year. Like Tarrants, I too prayed and did everything I could to encourage reconciliation between the races.
Totally agree with the closing statements. Powerful testimony. Thank you both.
I have just listened to Tom Tarrants's testimony.
The way he describes the racism and segregation in Mississippi in the 1950s reminded me of the “apartheid” in South Africa until the 1980s. Like the Clan, we had the AWB and the ANC terrorists.
Just like the reversed racism of the Woke groups in the USA we also have reversed racial hatred in South Africa to deal with.
Reading your comments, you sound like a European South African facist.
You put the word apartheid in inverted commas and called the ANC a terrorist group.
It is WILD listening to someone from that time, in the state I was born, where my family is from, talk about the way things were.
My maternal grandmother grew up in Tate County MS. She was 19yrs old in 1966. My grandfather also grew up in the south. They definitely held views rooted in a view of white superiority... But thankfully my parents held less stringent of these views & even less as time went on- when I was in high school 20 years ago my dad was opposed to me or my sister dating black guys, but as my younger sisters got older he let go of that. One of my sisters only ever dated black guys. She married a black guy & had a biracial son. My dad couldn't have been prouder to be Pawpaw to that little boy. And growing up I always just knew the things my grandmother or her father would say were just wrong. I remember working at Sonic in high school & telling me great grandfather about it & he asked if "black ppl worked there" & whether or not we got tips. I said we did & he said "all they deserve is a quarter". So i did grow up hearing certain ideas & views. But I always rejected them. In my 20s one of my best friends was a black guy. We met at work waiting tables in 2004-2005 & we ran around all the time. I remember my grandmother (the same one), who I lived with, telling me one day "I don't want Chris picking you up at the house. Have him meet you at the gas station" & I was so confused. I asked her why & she said "I don't want my neighbors to see that" (meaning she didn't want her neighbors to believe I was dating a black guy). I was so pissed off. I mean my best girl friend at that time was biracial (but it turns out my grandmother didn't realize that until I told her). I threw enough of a fit about it that she backed off her stupid request. Looking back I can see that her views were shaped by how she grew up. My parents how they grew up & mine how I grew up. Meaning by society (not necessarily only in our homes). So even tho my dad once held a bigoted view of interracial dating (tho I do think it was more related to how it could impact children born from that relationship than it was anything else) he eventually let it go. And now at 39 years old in 2024 I live in AL (also with it's own racist history) in a racially mixed neighborhood. The majority of the kids at the bus stop where my 7yo catches the bus are black (I think including my daughter there are maybe 5-6 white kids, 2 Asians, & the other 20+ kids are black). My daughter's best friend is a little boy who was in her class & lives down the street from us & he is black. I consider myself to be friends with his mom. We text often. The kids play at each other's houses. They even want to have a sleep over together (they're in first grade). Last year he brought my daughter a special Valentine's gift bag (instead of the standard cards and candy they pass around) bc "she was his Valentine". My daughter went on a birthday event last weekend with another friend down the street, also black.
So, it took 2 generations- from my grandmother growing up in the 50s, to my parents growing up in the 70s, to me growing up in the 90s, for the actual systemic racism of Jim Crow to become so watered down to become almost non-existent.
It was surely dying off...
But, today, concepts like critical race theory & anti-racism (according to Robin DiAngelo & Ibram Kendi) have reinvigorated a different kind of racism. A racism that isn't about individual beliefs & actions & is instead about a "system". They use the racism of the past, of time we've gotten away from, as evidence for racism existing throughout all of society. So now we have a generation (at least, if not multiple) who will grow up believing it's as bad as it once was & they'll pass that trauma down to their children. Not only that, but the way it's being used to justify anti-white discrimination is also creating resentment from the other side.
And the wound that had taken decades to get to where it was in 2008, when Obama became President & so many of us believed we were FINALLY at a place where we could say race no longer had to divide us, was ripped open. I mean I remember the day after the election (I didn't vote cuz I wasn't registered in that state & waited too late) when I heard on the radio that Obama won. I was stopped at a red light & I banged on my steering wheel shouting "Finally!!" I was so excited. But then Obama brought in a lot of the divisive race based policies we've seen make their way into American society. He put a lot of radical ppl into positions of power to make change from the inside. And change they certainly made.
As one who lived in South Mississippi during the time of Mr. Tarrant's exploits, I watched this video with trepidation. The late 60s in Mississippi were a dark time for many, and I was not sure I was ready to relive those days through the eyes of an avowed (albeit reformed) KKK terrorist. Even though I was neither a victim nor a perpetrator of the violence that emanated from the underbelly of hate, you could not live in Mississippi during the 60s without tasting that frightening darkness. The video was indeed difficult to watch. I am truly joyful at Mr. Tarrants' survival and, more importantly, at his change of heart. I am certain Mr. Tarrants suffered in ways I cannot imagine. But I want to remind viewers who may watch this video and blithely see only inspiration and proof of miracles: things are seldom as simple as they seem. Yes, the bomb did not explode. Yes, the officer shot in the heart survived. Yes, Mr. Tarrants recovered from his wounds and, after a conversion to Christianity, secured an early release from prison. But I appreciate Mr. Tarrants' caution in applying the term “miracle” to the events. Kathy Ainsworth did not receive a miracle that night nor did the man shot in Mr. Tarrants' escape from prison. As for the Jews who lived in and around Meridian, Mississippi, I have to believe that many were traumatized for months or years to come.
Yes! Tom...In the early 70's God was pouring out His Spirit in awesome ways in many places throughout the U.S. & in Europe... I had a front row seat watching with amazement thousands and thousands of people getting saved... Transformed lives! Thank you for your testimony! What an awesome God we have!
Brother Tom, I praise God for His Spirit moving in your life, rescuing and redeeming you. I'm grateful you did not resist Christ's calling on your life. I thank you Sean for this interview. May Jesus continue to use you both to glorify God and lead people away from divisive and false ideologies not rooted in Christ. BTW, I just ordered your book, Tom.
I remember the school situation with the troops and George Wallace and school desegration...all on TV.
That was an incredible story Mr Tarrants!
God bless and thank you!
Thank you Sean! God bless you!
Exceptional testimony, great man of God, to Jesus be all the glory
Thank you for this wonderful testimony. God is So Good!
Amen brother. We are in allegiance with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Goodness, " we had a maid, black guys working for my dad"😢... was the family friends/ friendly to anyone that wasn't in a subservient role.😢
GodReigns❤
❤❤Amen in standing firm for Jesus ❤❤❤❤❤
We must first seek the KINGDOM OF GOD.
LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Oh, the parallels of today.
Yes, I was thinking the same thing regarding the climate crisis and gender ideology.
Great testimony ❤
I wish I could give this man hug! Awesome. Just awesome testimony and commentary in this present age. I pray I can meet him on the sea of glass.
Faith alone in Christ for eternal life IS all that is required. That is the clear teaching of the Apostle Paul. Conversion is not a NT concept. Discipleship costs you everything and you should count the cost before you begin. Discipleship in NOT salvation, as salvation is NOT by works.
Wonderful teacher! Thank you both.
WOW!! And WOW again!! I love to see and hear how God takes people and completely changes them. This is nothing short of awesome!! I had to get out my sermon note book and jot down notes from the last few minutes. I have come to the same frame of mind regarding “seek FIRST his kingdom”. We need to be on the same wave length as Jesus. He says his thought are not our thoughts. He has a very different perspective than we do. I want his thoughts to be mine….about everything!
Praise the Lord!
"Truth is OBJECTIVE. You don't get to make it up"
Thank you for your testimony Mr Tarrants. God bless you 🙏🏻
It was a very powerful testimony!
I love this interview. The testimony is a witness of the work of the Holy Spirit
God is good all the time❤❤❤
All of the time God is good
Amen!!🙌🙏💙 God bless
Thank you Tom, Sean for this converstation, found Tom's story inspiring, Best wishes.
Could not have ended on a higher note. Wonderful interview!
Powerful testimony! Praise Jesus
You are so right: first seek the Kingdom of God. This is an answer to something I thought about today. And the answer is : First seek the Kingdom of God.
Thank you for this wonderful, eye-opening interview.
Wow! Thank you.
Seek first the kingdom of God. Neither veer towards the right or the left. Amen! That is the truth. The hardest part is how do you love your enemies??… seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. God bless you Sean and Thomas!
Hallelujah
I’d be curious to know if as part of his faith journey Tom apologized to his victims and what their response was if so.
I haven't heard the whole interview. But I wonder if he truly has empathy for others now.
Powerful story is right! God is so amazing!!!
What a story!! Wow!
*Totally* agree with the point @ 1.20. So many Christians, I believe, *don't* take their walk with Jesus seriously. It's like being a Christian is your ticket to life, and then they ditch their part of the covenant. 🥺
Sean, Great Questions. Good Interview. It would be great if you would have a black influential man who can speak to their time and perspective during those days of segregation and their journey through life. I would love to hear SUPREME COURT JUSTICE Clarence Thomas, Larry Elder, Thomas Sowell, to name a few.
I will never understand how people can hate because of someone's race, religion, culture... just hate to the point of wanting to desecrate. We all have a right to opinion, our morality, but hate, That's definitely of Satan😢.. I'm glad that he found God because judgment will visit us all. I just hope that I hear, " well done".
❤ shows the importance of reading great literature!😂
What happened to Kathy?
She died during that bombing attempt.
At 32 minutes and 49 seconds you say Muslims would like to see that flourish I disagree with that and you shouldn't disparage a group of people. Life is not a monolith just because you don't have an eyes or lens to see what the other side sees doesn't mean you know what's going on. It's so sad to see people that get lost and say oh I've got found I'm saved now only to share their dehumanization of others as if they're better sometimes I think we use religion as a crux to make ourselves feel better why can't it just be the kingdom of God is within that Jesus Christ came to show us that simple and that leave the rest up to faith. 😇🤕
If you look at Islam and it's founder Mohammed you'll see that as a religion it has many supremacist racial ideas similar to that of the KKK, Mormons & Nazis.
Islam proclaims Arabs as the most supreme of races. Mohammed himself refers to black Africans specifically people as sub human & compares them to animals and says hell is full of them. Mohammed himself is constantly praised in the hadiths for his 'white' skin.
In the 1940s the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem spent 5 years in Berlin with Hitler in Nazi Germany because of their shared mutual hatred of the Jewish people. Though Arabs were seen as a lesser race and called monkeys by Nazis, the Grand Mufti were given for their allegiance to Hitler honorary Aryan status. Btw The Grand Mufti was a representative of the then Islamic Ottoman Empire & had hoped that allegiance with Hitler against the Allied Forces would help their interests of driving Jews out of Palestine as well as maintain that Islamic empire.
The yellow star that Jews living in Germany were forced to wear in Germany after the Nazis took power there was in fact a symbol inherited from Islam as since 637 Muslim conquerors of other lands would force those conquered to wear different clothing to distinguish them from their non Muslim conquerors. It was in fact that Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who suggested the idea to Hitler of forcing Jews to wear yellow badges with 'Jew' emblazed on it.
In conclusion there are many similarities between Nazism & Islam you only need go through history to find them
The whole world is a mirical. Am happy God saved you , but never never say you are hesitant to call it a mirical . IT WAS A MIRICAL . AND GIVE GOD THE GLORY IT IS ONLY BECAYSE OUR LORD AND SAVOR THAT YOU TESTIFYING TO THIS !!
You're so right. I was just thinking about this yesterday as I drove to fill up my car! Just the variation of foliage... how can anyone believe it was blind chance? Truly a miracle of God.
Mobile alabama was not segrated since the 1800's The first segration law was in 1902. I dont know what this man is talking about
His release from prison cannot be the work of God, its a random event in a mindless system. It was a bad Idea to let criminals go. Although nowhere in the bible is there any provision for a prison system but rather restitution, corporal and capital punishment.
PS . Reminded me of Saul of Tarsus.
❤
My Lord Yes JESUS CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR. But don’t play games with eternity
you look like it god bless mate
👍
If the god of the bible sparing is life is the only explanation that Tom Tarrants could come up with, he hasn’t thought about this very hard. A more likely explanation is that he wasn’t so gravely injured that the modern medical care he received couldn’t save him.
The sound on this video is so low that I had to finally put on my ear buds to be anle to move around while listening to it.
If you can, you should resubmit this same video with higher column and take this one off.
I know the subject of this video. But in the beginning, he says Mobile "was a conservative city?" But never mentioned what party Governor George Wallace represented? A conservative Democrat state! Pretty good twist.
Ku Klux Klan no?
It is WILD listening to someone from that time, in the state I was born, where my family is from, talk about the way things were.
My maternal grandmother grew up in Tate County MS. She was 19yrs old in 1966. My grandfather also grew up in the south. They definitely held views rooted in a view of white superiority... But thankfully my parents held less stringent of these views & even less as time went on- when I was in high school 20 years ago my dad was opposed to me or my sister dating black guys, but as my younger sisters got older he let go of that. One of my sisters only ever dated black guys. She married a black guy & had a biracial son. My dad couldn't have been prouder to be Pawpaw to that little boy. And growing up I always just knew the things my grandmother or her father would say were just wrong. I remember working at Sonic in high school & telling me great grandfather about it & he asked if "black ppl worked there" & whether or not we got tips. I said we did & he said "all they deserve is a quarter". So i did grow up hearing certain ideas & views. But I always rejected them. In my 20s one of my best friends was a black guy. We met at work waiting tables in 2004-2005 & we ran around all the time. I remember my grandmother (the same one), who I lived with, telling me one day "I don't want Chris picking you up at the house. Have him meet you at the gas station" & I was so confused. I asked her why & she said "I don't want my neighbors to see that" (meaning she didn't want her neighbors to believe I was dating a black guy). I was so pissed off. I mean my best girl friend at that time was biracial (but it turns out my grandmother didn't realize that until I told her). I threw enough of a fit about it that she backed off her stupid request. Looking back I can see that her views were shaped by how she grew up. My parents how they grew up & mine how I grew up. Meaning by society (not necessarily only in our homes). So even tho my dad once held a bigoted view of interracial dating (tho I do think it was more related to how it could impact children born from that relationship than it was anything else) he eventually let it go. And now at 39 years old in 2024 I live in AL (also with it's own racist history) in a racially mixed neighborhood. The majority of the kids at the bus stop where my 7yo catches the bus are black (I think including my daughter there are maybe 5-6 white kids, 2 Asians, & the other 20+ kids are black). My daughter's best friend is a little boy who was in her class & lives down the street from us & he is black. I consider myself to be friends with his mom. We text often. The kids play at each other's houses. They even want to have a sleep over together (they're in first grade). Last year he brought my daughter a special Valentine's gift bag (instead of the standard cards and candy they pass around) bc "she was his Valentine". My daughter went on a birthday event last weekend with another friend down the street, also black.
So, it took 2 generations- from my grandmother growing up in the 50s, to my parents growing up in the 70s, to me growing up in the 90s, for the actual systemic racism of Jim Crow to become so watered down to become almost non-existent.
It was surely dying off...
But, today, concepts like critical race theory & anti-racism (according to Robin DiAngelo & Ibram Kendi) have reinvigorated a different kind of racism. A racism that isn't about individual beliefs & actions & is instead about a "system". They use the racism of the past, of time we've gotten away from, as evidence for racism existing throughout all of society. So now we have a generation (at least, if not multiple) who will grow up believing it's as bad as it once was & they'll pass that trauma down to their children. Not only that, but the way it's being used to justify anti-white discrimination is also creating resentment from the other side.
And the wound that had taken decades to get to where it was in 2008, when Obama became President & so many of us believed we were FINALLY at a place where we could say race no longer had to divide us, was ripped open. I mean I remember the day after the election (I didn't vote cuz I wasn't registered in that state & waited too late) when I heard on the radio that Obama won. I was stopped at a red light & I banged on my steering wheel shouting "Finally!!" I was so excited. But then Obama brought in a lot of the divisive race based policies we've seen make their way into American society. He put a lot of radical ppl into positions of power to make change from the inside. And change they certainly made.
Neither the Abraham or Moses covenant in Genesis/Exodus was based on physical ancestry. The Israelites allowed converts into the religion all throughout the OT with the book of Esther being one of the more famous case. Based on a number of things in the NT it appears the OT Jews had started to focus on physical ancestry, and boast about being born into the religion when this was never Gods intentions. That is probably why Jesus talked about being born again to combat that idea. Abrahams children in the OT were anyone circumcised into the covenant, and some of the first people in that were his slaves. Mosaic covenant was also just physical circumcision, and the letter of the law. The NT reveals that Abrahams children throughout the OT were only those people spiritually circumcised not just physically. Under the new covenant someone is only Abrahams child if they believe in Jesus, and only follows Moses if they believe in Jesus. No one is born into the Abrahamic or Mosaic covenant, and no one is physically circumcised into it. "watch out for those dogs those evil doers those mutilators of the flesh, it is we (christians) who are the true circumcision" If the word Jewish means Abrahams seed then thats Christians. If it means the synagogue of satan then it is not Christian. Don't be unequally yoked with non Christian brick wall worshipping baby killing homosexuals aka the synagogue of satan.
Just want to throw this in here but ppl should look into the NAME of their actual book along with what was originally on their robes (cresent moon & star). Its all really similar to a certain other supremist ideology that they took inspiration from & it wasnt Christianity (hint: same one ahitler drew inspiration from)
What book are you referring to?
@@peachfountain I believe she's referring to the Kloran.
@@ponygirl6258 thanks! I kinda suspected but wasn't sure if I was reading the comment right
Why does this belief that this precious brother describes sounds like the culmination of January 6th??!!
Where I grew up there were lots of KKK and none of them blew anything up. Strange to focus on that. Do you treat other groups the same or only those who stand up for Whites?
oh dear, a klan apologist who whines when his little cult is shown for the violent ignorant garbage that it is.
Your characterization of KKK members is so HILLARIOUSLY & PATHETICALLY deceptive, that can't even say "nice try". Idk who you think is going to fall for that (outside of other ppl like you).
Guess what?
I knew someone who grew up around alot of proud, loud & active satan worshippers who, among other things, drink the blood of pigs on a daily basis. They never blew up anything.
"Strange thing to 'focus' on"? It's not at all strange for servants of Jesus Christ to CALL OUT White Supremists. White Supremecy is wholly anti-Biblical, Anti-Christ.
Not only is it NOT strange- We genuine Christians are COMMANDED to expose evil thought & practices; bring the darkness into the light.
Guess what else?
After moving into my home, I found out a registered child-molester lived 3blks down the road. He lived there several yrs. Yep...you guessed it: He never blew up anything.
" Focus on"?? Yup! You better believe the army of Jesus Christ keeps an eye on the snakes of the world!
The KKK's danger was and is that it is Christian or Christian-adjacent. White supremacy and closely related Christian nationalism is heretical and, more importantly, idolatrous. This is the ultimate issue, not whether it is violent. The KKK' s heyday was in the 1920s. It was a major political player in American politics. Its "evangelistic" thrust was to grow through the protestant pastors which legitimized this movement.
What do you mean its strange to focus on them blowing things up? Is that not a key part of the story?
Uh dude, if you havent noticed, this is a Christian channel so the onky focus is on CHRIST. Shame on you for insinuating otherwise. I pray you find the reason you are actually watching and not your preconceived biases.
I think the old Tom was right
He group up in Alabama…that’s all I needed to hear. 🙄🤦🏻♀️