Should someone on food stamps be allowed to buy soda? HHS might ban people on SNAP from buying soda. There is also a bill in TX that bans people on SNAP from buying soda, candy, cookies and chips. It seems obvious to me, but more importantly, what does the Bible say about it?

Hello, welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. The last couple of days on the radio we talked about food stamps and soda. Three different things happening. In the federal level, there is a move by Health and Human Services to not allow people on SNAP, that's the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to be able to buy soda. SNAP, by the way, if you go to the website, it says, SNAP provides food benefits, so it is not food, to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget. Real groceries, like food is what we're looking for here. So they can afford the nutritious food, so it is not nutritious, essential to health and well-being. So HHS is probably going to come out and say you can't use food stamps to buy soda. Apparently WIC, women, infant, and children, that type of food stamp you're already not allowed to do, but they're going to expand that restriction to SNAP. Now we talked to a Texas state representative about a Texas bill that expands that to, you can't buy soda, cookies, candy, or chips. So they're expanding it out to junk food. I would like to propose, and we have not done this yet, I'll do it on Monday show, I think, see how things go this weekend, but I'd like to expand that to all fast food. That's my nature, that's my instinct. But maybe that'll change based off this conversation here on this podcast, we'll see. Let's just start, let's just stick with junk food. We'll stick with junk food for now. To me, this is so obvious. And on the radio, I had trouble making a steel man for it. It's so obvious that you should not be able to spend my money on junk food when the premise of it is nutrition. So we took some calls. I called for people to only call in if you're against the ban. And there were a couple good arguments. No one changed my mind, but there's some good arguments and then after the show I went down I talked to my wife and so wife what do you think should people on food stamps be allowed to buy soda and She said yes now

My wife is as conservative as they come she's from small town East, Tennessee, right? It's in her bones. She will say things that are so conservative. I'm like you should do the show you should Do a segment or there's like the whole three hours. She's like, oh, I couldn't. I was like, no, you did better than me. So I was like, okay, so don't question her conservatism here in this point. So I said, why? Why should people on food stamps be able to buy soda with the food stamps? And by the way, they could still spend, it's not like if you're on welfare, you're not allowed to buy soda. You can just buy it with your own money. And it's not like you're not allowed to drink soda. Like if you go to a birthday party and you drink a soda you're getting Arrested like you could still drink it. Just can't buy it with the food stamp money I said why should people be allowed to and she said because they're people too And she felt bad for them not being able to buy soda And I said, but it's our money. She said it doesn't matter. They're people too and I made the joke on the radio that this is why women should not be allowed to vote. Now, listen, I'm not going to make that joke here.

Okay? I'm not going to make that joke. It's not appropriate. It's not an appropriate joke to make. So, we then got into a conversation on this chart. The chart here that Mike Lee sent out, Senator Mike Lee from Utah. And he said, how does one explain this? And it's a chart that has voters' opinions of, in a bunch of different groups of people, or people or groups. Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk, Doge, Republican Party, Zelensky, DEI, and the Democratic Party. Voters' opinions of. And it breaks it up into four different groups. White men with no college degree, white men with a college degree, white women with no college degree, and white women with a college degree. The difference between white men with no college degree and white women with a college degree is so enormous on every single one of these things. It's insane. These people are in totally different planets. A white man with no degree and a white woman with a college degree live on different planets. Their opinion of Donald Trump, white men with no degree plus 41. White women with a college degree, negative 38. I would love to see 10 white men with no degree and 10 white women with a college degree in the same room together. I don't know what happens there. How does that politically function? It can't, yet we all live in the same country. White women, excuse me, let's do DEI. White men with no degree, negative 40, view on DEI. White women with a college degree, plus 31. And it's like that with every single one of these. So what explains this? I've heard analyses like this before and I think this one is well-worded so let me share it here. The person says the answer to this is very simple.

Now let me just say if you heard me make this analysis on SiriusXM, I did like a like a bit with it. I made it like a bit more dramatic. Yeah I'm just gonna read it straight here. We're serious business here. No goofing off like we do on the radio. We're serious business. The answer to this is very simple. Women are a standard deviation higher in trait agreeableness and trait neuroticism than men. And the bit I did here was, Whoa, women, listen, you're upset because I called you neurotic. I didn't call you neurotic. I did, but I called you agreeable too, and you weren't happy about that now you're upset about being called neurotic let me explain it that was it but no more bits no more bit neuroticism is a personality trait that gives one the tendency to experience emotions such as anxiety worry fear anger frustration envy jealousy guilt and loneliness now it's for know about this is these are not insults these can be channeled for good and can be used, these can be tools that can be used properly or when used properly are good. People with high neuroticism can have a higher risk awareness, they can have higher self-awareness and a neuroticism has like a really bad connotation, you're neurotic, it's like, okay, well, this can actually be good. People higher in this characteristic can be more creative, they can have a higher drive for achievement and more relevant here though, they can have more compassion. Due to their heightened sensitivity to emotions, neurotic individuals may develop a strong capacity for understanding and caring for others.

This is biological, mostly immutable. Both of these traits, agreeableness and neuroticism, when channeled properly in the right direction, are very useful. Back to this person. He said their compassion like a woman's compassion and politeness directed towards their in-group kids family friends and their neuroticism Channeled into hyper vigilance into making this group happy and cooperative. This is a wonderful thing It's an amazing thing. It's a society building thing. It's a family building thing a society bill. It's essential and wonderful and God-given Here's here's what breaks down. College convinces women to redirect these traits away from their tribe, family, kids, and friends, into higher order, the higher order tribe of society. I would also argue that women today are not having kids or families at the age that they used to. Back in the day, you're a 26 year old woman, you have three kids by now. And today, you're a 26 year old woman and you just graduated college. And you have nowhere to channel that innate, God-given, biological impulse inside of you. So instead of channeling it to your kids, you don't have any, or your husband, you don't have one yet, like other women in the past would have at that age, you then channel it to Ukraine and all minorities everywhere with Black Lives Matter and Zelensky and DEI and your hatred of Trump because he hates whatever, Mexicans.

So you take this agreeableness and these other characteristics that women have a higher standard deviation of and you channel it in the wrong direction. This is why, I don't know if you saw this, but the other day Tommy Lahren, who's a very activist conservative, I think it was Danica Patrick, they were talking about how you shouldn't misgender trans people because it's mean. Okay, so it's like, well, right, but we gotta be nice, right, we gotta be nice, avoid conflict, and we gotta protect, right? These are wonderful things when focused in your group, right, we want everyone to be nice to each other in our group, we wanna avoid conflict in our group. We want to help each other in our groups. But it can be very easily hijacked. Those tendencies can be hijacked and turned into a very leftist political ideology. And when you send your young daughter into a pit of vipers that is our university system, that often is the end result. Does that make sense? I think that analysis, that secular cultural analysis, I believe is right. So when I ask should people on food stamps be able to buy soda, I say, no, of course not. But a college-educated woman will say yes, because there are people too. Now, the final joke I made on the radio is that this is why some people say women shouldn't be allowed to vote. And I say that's wrong. It's wrong, and it's way too far. Women should only be counted as 3 5ths of a person when it comes to voting. And it would be a compromise. We'll call it the 3 5ths compromise But again, that's not a funny joke. I'm not gonna make that here. We're very serious Now the question is and this is the point of this podcast What does the Bible say? Don't care what I think Don't care what white college-educated women think Okay, what their feelings are. I don't care what my instinct is. What does the Bible say? Let's first start with a curveball. Let me quote this from John Calvin. I have this little book here called A Guide to Christian Living. Chapter 6, actually this is section 6 of chapter called, chapter 2, Denying Self, the Key to Christian Living. We are not our own, we are the Lord's.

Okay, let me skip over to number six. Love to the unlovely. So that we do not grow weary in well-doing, as might otherwise happen at any time, we should also remember that what Paul goes on to say, love is patient and is not easily irritated. The Lord requires us to do good to all. He makes no exception, even though most people are unworthy if we judge them on their merits. Like, if I may, someone on food stamps. Scripture, however, forestalls us, warning us to pay no attention to human worth in itself, but rather to consider the image of God which is in all of us, and which deserves all our respect and affection, especially should we acknowledge it among God's servants in the faith, because it is being renewed and restored in them by the Spirit of Christ. If someone then turns up who needs our help, we have no reason to refuse our aid. What if we claim that he is a stranger? Well, we're reminded that the Lord has stamped him with a mark which should be familiar to us. We are thus urged not to despise our own flesh. Calvin then quotes Isaiah 58 7. It's a very interesting moment in Scripture. God's people are asking, why do our prayers go unanswered? Why are you not answering our prayers, God? And God exposes the shallow worship of His people. And verse 6 says, Is this not the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bonds of wickedness? To undo the heavy burdens? To let the oppressed go free in that you break every yoke? So you're saying, stop oppressing each other. What are you doing? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out, when you see the naked, that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Your own flesh here means your fellow man. Let me go back to John Calvin. What if we maintain that the man is worthless and beneath contempt? The Lord replies that he has honored him by causing his own image to shine within him. What if we say we owe him nothing? The Lord tells us that he has put him as a substitute in his own place. We are to think of him as the one for whose sake God has bestowed his blessings on us.

Whoa. We are to think of this person as the one for whose sake God has bestowed his blessings on us. Wow.

What if we think he is not worth lifting a finger for? We should hazard our lives and goods on account of God's image, which we are meant to see in him. Even supposing the man deserved nothing from us, that's no reason to stop loving Him or offering assistance and support. For if we argue that He deserves only ill of us, God might well ask what ill He Himself has done us, He to whom we owe every good thing. For when He commands us to forgive men their sins against us, God lays those sins to His own charge. John Calvin says this is the only way we can attain what is not only difficult for human nature but totally abhorrent to us. That is namely loving those who hate us, repaying good with evil, and praying for those who slander us. This I repeat we can attain if we are careful not to dwell on the evil which men do, but rather to look upon the image of God which they bear, and whose worth and dignity can and should move us to love them and to bury their faults, which might otherwise repel us."

Wow. So does that mean we should give soda to every poor person?

What I'm now, I'm gonna put it. Now, how do you, how can you maintain that and the sections of the Bible that talk about responsibility and personal responsibility? Interesting. Galatians 6, 2 and 5. Galatians 6, 2 says, Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. I love that line. You think you're something? You're not. Stop thinking so much of yourself. Go and seek to carry the burdens of others. Now, this is very different. This does not say that people should expect others to carry their burdens. That's self-focus. It doesn't mean, I have a burden, you carry it. That's self-focus. But we instead should go seek to carry other people's burdens. That's other focus. That's the point. This is John 13. This is a new commandment I give to you that you love one another, as I've loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you've loved for one another. So that's Galatians 6, 2. Go seek out other people's burdens. Galatians 6, 5 says, For each one shall bear his own load. Hold on. But we're carrying other people. Now we're own. There's no contradiction here. Bearing your own load means everyone will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Romans 14.10 says, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we all will stand before God's judgment seat. So that is about your final accountability to God. Okay, great Slater, now I feel even more convicted. I guess we'll just let everyone eat junk food all the time. Here, take my money, buy some snicker bars with it. Hold on.

The Bible also speaks about responsibility. 2 Thessalonians 3 10 For even when we were with you, Paul says, we gave you this command, if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies. For such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Plenty of Proverbs on this. Proverbs 10, 4 says, A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. Many, many scriptures and Proverbs in particular about working hard. I would also say it feels natural that if you, on a personal level, if you feel called to help someone, you give them money to pay for their rent, but then they go around and they spend it on junk food. Or let's say you give money for healthy food for their kids and they go and they spend it on candy. I think you would feel betrayed at that. We're also called to be wise stewards of our money. And giving is wonderful, but if you know that the money is not used for a noble purpose or a wise purpose, are you still called to give aimlessly? Are you still called to give something that will cause harm? What is the balance? Hopefully I shared some convicting things here as well, but what is the balance between giving and being a wise steward of your money to help someone else in a way that they can then help themselves? I'll end with this. Leviticus, there's a couple sections about reaping your field, right? You harvest your field, but you leave the edges alone so that the poor and the foreigner can gather for themselves. Now the idea though is they have to go gather. The Bible doesn't say, hey, harvest your entire field and then give 10% of it away to the poor and the foreigner. The Bible says, harvest everything except the edges. It's very generous to leave this for other people. Leave it for others. But then there's also a call from the other side of the equation to provide something for this arrangement as well. You have to also engage in the harvesting for your own good.

I feel like I didn't give as much of a convicting answer on this topic like maybe I do on other ones. Help me with it. Slaterradio at gmail.com is my personal email. Slaterradio at gmail.com. How do you think through this? And now having worked through some of these scriptures here, how would you answer this question? Should someone on food stamps be allowed to buy soda? Really curious your take now. Slaterradio at gmail.com. Also Slaterradio on Instagram and Twitter to give me your answer on this one. We'll talk more about it on Monday's SiriusXM show as well. Slater Radio on Twitter and Instagram. And we also post all this on my website MikeSlater.Locals.com and you can leave a comment down there as well. and you can leave a comment down there as well. MikeSlater.Locals.com

The Signal controversy has passed. The Democrats hope they can get Trump on something more substantial in the future, but the story provides us a few good reminders 

Hey, welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. The Signal app story of the last few days. It's all pretty silly. It was a mistake, a bizarre one, putting the wrong guy in a group chat with all the highest national security people.

And whoever put that list together, put in the wrong name, put the wrong contact in it. And of all the people, apparently they meant to put the U S trade representative, I think his name is Josh Greer, but instead they put in. Of all people, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, the person in the country who hates Trump more than maybe anyone, they put that guy in the chat same initials JG oh you kidding me just bizarre so he saw the

chat and you know exposed it now of course he should have excused himself like uh I'm not supposed to be in here these are all the highest national security people in the country class if the information is all classified I'm not eligible I'm not able legally allowed to see any of this stuff guys I got to go but of course he didn't do that because he's a hack and just like as we say in the show pagan is gonna peg hacks gonna hack so there's no

surprise that he didn't I like David our Sonny's take here though he said it's hard for me to get annoyed any journalist getting a legit story. Tom Wolf said reporting wasn't a skill but an attitude. I have the right to get information from you to which I'm not entitled. That's what Jeffrey Goldberg is it was information that he was not entitled to but he wasn't going to excuse himself. Jeffrey Goldberg sees

himself as a spy in enemy Nazi occupied territory. He thinks he's an American soldier behind enemy lines, spying on Hitler and his Nazis. So this was his chance and he was not going to excuse himself. And then he was going to go and write an article about it, of course. Proverbs 11.13 says, a tail-bearer, I like that word, it means a gossip, a gossip or a tail-bearer, reveals secrets.

But he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter. The gossip loves the power that comes from revealing secrets that they're not supposed to share, not supposed to know. It's power that they use for their own advancement. But again, Pagan's got a peg. Some life lessons for all of us out of this story. That's what we do in the show. We take the news of the day and then we run it through a biblical lens, try to learn something from it. So a couple life lessons. First a practical one. Never put anything in

writing that you don't want on Facebook for everyone to see. It's a rule of thumb. Never put anything in a text that you would not want published in the newspaper. Fortunately for the Trump administration there was nothing in these texts that made anyone look bad. Nothing, nothing improper, immoral, nothing against the president, nothing incriminating. Notice the story wasn't what was in the text. The story is the fact that it's just by a freak accident. Now some people say

there's something nefarious going on here. I don't need to go there. No need for me to go down conspiracy theory lane. I trust the Trump administration to be hyper-vigilant against the deep state. I think they know better than anyone ever. So if there is anything nefarious about how this guy Jeffrey Goldberg got in the chat in the first place, I trust them to be able to root that out.

I don't need to go there. I'm just going to go with freak accident. That's the story, not the content of the messages itself. Of course, beyond, you know, is it classified? What's classified? Is it appropriate to be on signal versus some other messaging means?

Stuff like that, of course. But it's not like anything that was said in the texts was immoral. But still, nice warning for all of us to not send a text or email that you don't want sent out to the world. It's funny, on the radio, someone sent me an email about this story, about sending a text to the wrong person.

They sent me an email and they accidentally sent that email to the wrong address. They sent it to a co-worker named Missy and the headline of the email was war plans!

Exclamation point.

So poor Missy got this email that was meant for me about war plans. The irony there is pretty great. So they got me thinking. I was right on the radio. I got the email in the middle of the show. I said, hey, has anyone ever sent a text message to the wrong person before we got all these calls from people who have

done that in pretty funny ways now let's do a biblical lesson that's just a practical lesson biblical lesson got me thinking about betrayal there was no betrayal from the people on this text right the betrayal was from the enemy who got inside the camp but still worth talking about how there are wicked people out there who are looking to do evil things and Wanting to harm you and people who are doing good

You'll hear people today say they think they're very smart. They'll say oh, you know we used to in the past We used to just disagree with each other politically, but now If we disagree it's because the other side is evil And I hear that that person is trying to be very oh, yeah kumbaya. And yes, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of the dark world,

and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And those spiritual forces lead people to do wicked things. Maybe in the past there were just some political differences. Should we raise taxes by one percent or lower than by one percent? Okay, like that we can disagree that's not what we're dealing with right here there are indeed spiritual forces that are leading people to do wicked things it's a very progressive worldview that says oh you know people are good and we just have slight disagreements if we could just

get along if we talk about the dish no well we're not born good and you really the wicked. Psalm 64. David said, hear my voice, oh God, in my meditation. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. This word is often translated dread, dread of the enemy. It's more debilitating. It's a more crippling word here. Dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the rebellion of the workers of iniquity, who sharpen their tongue like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows bitter words that they may shoot in secret at the

blameless suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear a lot they're so confident they don't fear anything the wicked here they encourage but I thought there was no such that we all just get along we just have slight disagreements while the Bible says otherwise they and the wicked encourage themselves in an evil manner. They talk of laying snares secretly. They say, who will see them? They devise iniquities. We have perfected a shrewd scheme. Both the inward thought and the heart of men are

deep." I love that line, that they're deep. Meaning like, there's a bottomless supply of evil deeds. This is John Trapp in the 1600s. He said they searched the devil's skull for new inventions and he's ready enough to lend them his seven heads to plot and his ten horns to push at good people. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly they shall be wounded. So he, God, will make them stumble over their tongue. All who see them shall flee away. All men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall wisely consider his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the Lord and

trust in him, and all the upright in heart shall glory." That's it. That's the end of Psalm 64. So, the lesson for us here, be righteous, trust in him, people Be righteous. Trust in Him. People will try to take you out. Trust in Him.

Be upright in heart. Upright in heart. What a wonderful turn of phrase. It means to be sincere, to be honest, to be morally pure. Albert Barnes, who was a theologian in the early 1800s, he says, And all the upright in heart shall glory, shall rejoice, shall feel that they have cause for trust and triumph. The good, the pure, the

righteous, the godly will always rejoice in everything which tends to show that God is just and true and holy. For all their own hope of security and salvation rests upon the fact that the God in whom they trust is a righteous God. We need to 1st Peter 5 8 be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. This adversary may be anywhere. Leave it in your signal chat. Psalm 12 8 says, those who freely strut about when

what is vile is honored by the human race. That's not us. We need to be upright in heart and trust in God at all times. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com for transcript and commercial free. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com for transcript and commercial free. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com.

The left is lying to scare our veterans. Do they really think Trump is going to take healthcare away from our veterans? We can't unify on wanting to fix the VA? One symptom of TDS is a hatred of unity. We need to focus on the most important thing to unify around.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Nice to be here. Something's, uh, my mind a little angry right now. I just saw this article in the San Diego newspaper. Its purpose is to scare veterans. The headline is, I didn't think it would be this bad.

San Diego veterans worry that VA cuts will hurt their care. And it's a whole article about the 80,000 people at the VA who Trump, the Trump administration plans to fire. Now nowhere in the article does it give proper context that if we cut 80,000 people from the VA that leaves us with 400,000 VA employees which is the same amount of employees that the VA had in 2019. So we have to go way back to 2019 to get the same number of jobs. But of course it also assumes that more people in the VA means better care. And there's nothing in this article that

talks about what those 80,000 people do at the VA. Because the point here isn't to inform or enlighten, it is to scare. And it's to scare our veterans. And I think it's shameful and it's it's sick. Let me go ahead it starts off with this guy who has a traumatic brain injury. And let me quote this guy now. The article now, Concord and other veterans in San Diego are worried about how their benefits could be impacted by the staffing scale back and how far

the cuts will go for some. The agency has already targeted specific cuts to health care. Oh, no, specific cuts to VA health care. That's terrible. Announcing last week that it will no longer provide gender-affirming care to transgender veterans. Quote, I didn't think it would be this bad. I

didn't think Trump would brutalize the government like he is. These efforts have surpassed my darkest images. What a bunch of, what just such shameful, shameful work local paper. TDS will cause people to do terrible things. Let's just look at it logically. Do you really think that Trump the populist who got 65% of the veterans vote in the last election, I'm surprised it was only 65%, 65% okay. Do you think that guy right out of the gate, Donald Trump. Do you think he's gonna go out and hurt our veterans?

It's a top priority for Trump. So you go out and take away their care, take away their benefits, take away their treatment. You think that's Donald Trump's goal? Really, lefties? Like, that's what you think?

That's the attack you're going to Donald Trump hates our veterans? We don't have time to go into it in this show, but did you see what happened this weekend at the NCAA Wrestling Championships? It was incredible. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life.

We have the heavyweight battle, the Olympic champion who wrestles for Minnesota. Olympic champion, he won the gold medal. He's from Minnesota, Apple Valley, Minnesota. You don't think you can out America the Olympic champion, Olympic gold medals. But then there's this guy from Kansas, wrestles for Oklahoma State, who's a second lieutenant in the Air Force went to the Air Force Academy and is doing his fifth year at Oklahoma State?

and it was this ridiculous upset victory in the final seconds, and he gets up and he has an American flag and Salutes his commander-in-chief standing right there And then goes over and gives him a big hug and the president says I'm so proud of you What in the world is happening here the only thing it like there's somebody that's like ridiculous images from the Trump administration and just like last seven weeks like last week a pod a capsule a capsule from space with

Abandoned stranded astronauts on it landed in the Gulf of America only to be greeted by a pod of dolphins What? What's happening? What's going on? Anyway back to the back to Trump at the wrestling championships. You think that guy? You think that Donald Trump guy is going to cut care for our veterans? Really? Come on, of course not. Stop being ridiculous activists. Trump of course only wants to improve health care for our veterans. So I'm just angry at that sick attempt to make veterans scared.

There's no need for that. A real journalist would ask questions. Is it true that Donald Trump will hurt health care? They just ask a bunch of question marks in their article. They don't actually report on anything true. They don't actually report on news. They don't actually report on anything, just fear. Those 80,000 that Trump wants to cut,

who are they? What do they do? What kind of jobs? What means is the administration taking to improve health care? The money that's saved through greater VA efficiency, how will that be used to actually increase the number of benefits and the amount of benefits for our veterans. For example, DOGE told us that the VA had a $56,000 contract to water eight plants for five years. That's $1,400 a plant per year. DOGE says the contract has been canceled and DOGE will water the plants free of charge. Okay, it's $56,000 a year. Where's that money going now?

Where will it go instead? I should say. That'd be a nice article. That'd be interesting. It wouldn't be fear-mongering. So they're not interested in it.

Anyway, I just got very angry at that. I want to get to a place in our country, and I think the only way to do it is to keep winning, honestly. Make it so obvious that you just can't deny it. But I want to get to a place of unity. But we can't even have unity on taking care of our veterans.

On the fact that obviously Trump and Doug Collins, head of the VA, want to do that. No, no unity on anything. Nothing. What a shame. I want to give a shout out to my church. I've been a member of this church for about a year.

The church has been around for a long time, coming up in 100 years. 1927 is when they were founded, coming up on a 100-year anniversary. Four people got baptized this Sunday. Isn't that wonderful? Four people. Our church is a diverse church in every way that a group of people can be diverse. It has mostly been a white congregation, black preacher, but lots of different skin colors in the pews. Something I found of great value when we first visited is all the different age ranges.

I sit next to a wonderful couple. They're about to celebrate next year their 75th wedding anniversary. 75 years. They've been married for 75 years. Lots of older people, all the way down to babies. I'm holding my two-year-old during church sitting right next to the 92 year old at every age in between. Diverse with money.

Some people have a lot of it, some people don't have as much. A lot of different cars in the parking lot. So all the different metrics that you can use and look at that show diversity, we have it. None of it matters. The only thing that matters is what we're united in. Jesus is Lord. And four more people said that on Sunday. And I get teared up every time someone gets baptized. I don't get teared up, I cry. I cry every time. Teared up is like a little thing. I cry. First of all, I think

of my kids getting baptized one day because that's all that matters in life. So I have visions of that. But I think what moves me is the unity of it. I think that's, I mean there's a couple things going on surely, but I think it's like that like me and this person, maybe we have very little less in common on the surface, but we have the most important thing in common. And we're both going to heaven now. The sermon was about Ephesians 1 and this one line in Ephesians says, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Christ Jesus to himself. Adoption. You know, every Monday on my 66M show we do a gratitude Monday. People call

them what they're grateful for. It's always great. And someone called me today and said he was grateful that he was adopted. How about that? You gotta be kidding me. What are the chances? Just talked about adoption in church on Sunday, and then you call it a Monday, grateful you're adopted. He was born in Canada, but adopted here in America. If you're a Christian, you're adopted. There's no biological connection. If you're adopted to a family, you have no biological connection to them. You have no right to anything they have or own. There's no natural connection.

And same thing with God. We were enemies to Him. Colossians 1, and you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. In Romans, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He was our enemy. But still, we have been adopted in Jesus and now you are a child of God and everything

that means here's a commentary from from Barclay in Roman law when the adoption was complete it was complete indeed the person who had been adopted had all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family and completely lost all rights in his old family in the eyes of the law he was a new person. So new was he that even all debts and obligations connected with his previous family were abolished as if they had never existed. That's unity.

And it's a beautiful thing. Brings me to tears. A lot more unity in our country. Unity on things like, hey, let's make the VA better. Let's make the VA more efficient. Of all the things, can we make the VA more efficient? Can we all agree on this? Can we have unity on this? Can we not be ridiculous? Can

we not have these scare tactics about the VA? Can we all get on board with this? That's good unity. But my biggest prayer, the most important, is unity on what matters, the absolute most. The absolute Lord. Jesus is Lord. Mike Slater, dot, Locals, dot com. Transcript, commercial free on the website, Mike Slater, dot, Locals, dot com.