Deuteronomy 28 has a list of curses that will come upon the Israelites if they turn from God. They're horrific, unthinkable evils. One of them looks a lot like what's happening in Los Angeles.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here.

I'm talking about what's happening in Los Angeles right now. And I don't know if I could see this ending pretty soon or I could see this going on for a long time being worse than even what happened there in 92. So some things to know as you take in more content about what's happening there. This is the background that's most important to know. We know of two exact locations, and I heard there was a third, but we don't know the details

of that one, but two ICE operations to remove criminal illegal aliens. Here's who they detained.

This was on Friday, June 7th.

Excuse me, June 6th. We have a citizen of Peru who has previously been convicted of robbery and given a 10 year prison sentence. It's quite a robbery to give 10 years. Citizen of Indonesia, convictions for narcotics driving under the influence, any legal entry.

Citizen of Honduras, who's been arrested for distribution of heroin, cocaine, and domestic violence. Citizen of Mexico, who's been arrested for grand theft, larceny, and possession of a prohibited weapon. A citizen of Vietnam,

who's been arrested for second degree murder. He was sentenced 15 years to life. Don't know how he was back on the streets, but he was until Friday. And then a citizen of the Philippines who's been arrested for theft, assault, burglary, and rape. That is who all of this is about. Right? This is who the ICE raid picked up. So when you see Newsom and Karen Bass and all the rest

talking about our community and the fear that's in our community and we're so distraught and upset and disturbed and you see all the rioting going on, it's about ICE operations that picked up these people.

It's the first thing to know. aspirations that picked up these people.

That's the first thing to know. Second thing, the demographics of California is plurality Hispanic. Last time, the most recent numbers we have, 40% Hispanic, California's 40% Hispanic, 34% white, 16% Asian, only about 6% black. LA, the most recent numbers, I saw 47% Hispanic,

Mayor Bass just yesterday said over 50% Hispanic. So we'll call it 50%. There are parts of Hispanic, excuse me, there are parts of LA that are 100% Hispanic. And not just, well, my ancestors are from Mexico, but no, like California used to be Mexico and should be again.

That type of Hispanic people who talk about me, gente, my people, my familia, la raza, the race. That's like the big activist group from for Hispanics is the race. People who can talk like that. You can't do that in America. Americans can't talk about my people, my blood.

The head of our 250th anniversary for America, Rosie Rios, there's speeches where she's gone to Mexico and talked about my people, my blood, how California should still be Mexico. How the Mexican, my people, they're the greatest people, they're so passionate.

These are the Hispanics that are in Los Angeles. They're also very poor. East LA has a poverty rate of 20%. Poverty for a family of four is $32,000. That's 20% of East LA. $32,000 for a family of four in LA,

you're in a bad place. And that's 20%. You know, you up the income for family four to $40,000 and now you're at 30% make that, right? So it goes higher, like it's poor. And in LA, 54% of people speak a language other than English at home. So this is the demographic background

of what we're talking about here. Talking about in these neighborhoods, 100% Hispanic, very poor, don't speak English. It's also a lawless place, California. LA is just the pinnacle of steal whatever you want, homeless everywhere, businesses shutting down,

filth on the streets, neighborhoods overrun. It's horrible. Also, no one can read. There's a, this home, so there are two raids. One is somewhere in the Garment District and then another one at a Home Depot in Westlake.

Westlake, there's a high school right nearby called Miguel Contreras Learning Complex. 9% science proficiency, 11% math proficiency, somehow a 44% reading proficiency, but I doubt that. I doubt that very highly. And the school inside this complex

is the Los Angeles School of Global Studies. It's a specifically, and deliberately, it's a social justice school, they call it that. It's like the school of social justice. So we're talking super Hispanic, poor,

don't speak English, can't read. And Westlake, again where that Home Depot is, So, we're talking super Hispanic, poor,

don't speak English, can't read. And Westlake, again where that Home Depot is, used to be a quintessential old Hollywood. There's this beautiful Westlake Theater three blocks away from the Home Depot and it's like this beautiful gold ornate, like top Hollywood theater.

And now it's Bonito's Swap Shop and New Life Immigration Services. You would never go to this part of town. It is a slum beyond slum. It's the whole sidewalk. I think it's 7th Ave.

It's all like a flea market. It's a constant 24-7 flea market with umbrellas covering the whole sidewalk. I put it up on my Twitter, Slater Radio. You can see just this place is absolutely disgusting and It didn't used to be that way

But now we're enriched I'm so enriched by by so many people from Mexico waving the Mexican flag, which by the way you like They love Mexico so much, but if you threaten to send them there They'll tell you how their life is over and how that's horrible and you can't, how dare you send someone to this place whose flag I'm waving on the streets. So that's the scene. Now we can go over all the details of what happened this weekend,

but more and more are going to be coming out and more and more things are going to happen here. So I just want you to know this first background things about the demographics and the situation in LA and where this is all coming out of. Okay, let's turn to the Bible here. Let's talk about Proverbs 28 and I want to start by reading it and you tell me if this is relevant to us or not. Deuteronomy 28, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord

your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. This is all conditional and it is in many cases around the Bible. 1 Kings 2 which we quoted last week says, if your sons take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. There's a lot of ifs and here's a big one in Deuteronomy 28. If you, in this

case, if you do not obey, then these are the terrible things are going to happen. May I read the list here? Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. So it's everywhere. There's no escaping it. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. So everywhere, your homes, farms, kitchen, everywhere you'll be cursed. "'Cursed shall be the fruit of your body

and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. Cursed shall be you when you come in and cursed shall be you when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing,

confusion and rebuke in all that you set your hands to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly." You're starting to get the picture here because of the will. Israel, like this is what God said in Israel, like, if you don't obey here's what will happen. "...because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until he has consumed you from the land which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you

until he has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. You will have no health. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, with mildew.

They shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens, which are over your head, shall be bronze, and the earth, which is under you, shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them." So you're not going to win in any war. "'You shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Everyone's gonna hate you. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air

and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. The Lord will strike you with all the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. madness and blindness and confusion of heart. Ooh, madness, blindness, confusion of heart. You shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in

darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways. You shall only be oppressed and plundered continually and no one shall save you. We haven't gotten to the relevant one here yet, although all this is true in ways already. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes.

Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. See, it's unjust, just unjust, horrible things. Your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies and you shall have no one to rescue them. Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people and your eyes shall look and fall, fail with longing

for them all day long. And there shall be no strength in your hand. A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually." Think of the Israelites, like, all right we get it, we'll obey. So you shall be driven mad, they didn't by the way, you should be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head." We're getting closer.

"'The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, and you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you an astonishment is like Like confusion more more like the confusion of the mind You shall carry much seed out of the field but gather little in it for the locusts shall consume it

You shall plant vineyards and tend them But you shall neither drink of that wine nor gather the grapes for the worm shall eat them You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land." All right, here we go. You ready? The alien...

Congratulations if you made it this far through Deuteronomy 28. The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him. Why not? Because he's wealthier, he's richer, he has all the power. He shall be the head. You shall be the tail. Moreover, all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed because you did not obey the voice of

the Lord, your God to keep his commandments and his statutes, which he commanded you.

Okay.

So what, what do we do with this? Well practically we do what John Nolte on the radio today said, which is Trump just needs to follow the law. Follow the law and he'll be fine. Don't worry about the optics of things from your perspective. Just do what is right and the law is correct.

And as Trump said, if they spit, we hit. So if they cross a line of assault, then you arrest them and that's it. Just follow the law and you'll be fine. Here politically. Spiritually this is a curse upon our nation. Is to have a nation where foreigners come in and overtake us.

And don't obey the laws.

And it's okay to be a nation that has laws and to enforce those laws. Also know spiritually that we are foreigners in this world. And we have to obey God's law when we're here too.

And if you don't, among many curses that God will reign upon us is to be overtaken by the alien, not as an invading army, but the alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher. By the way, that's only half of Deuteronomy 28. There's a whole bunch more curses to go. You should read all of them, but I just wanted to build to that one because as you read, and one of them is you're gonna eat your babies and that ended up happening. We've talked about that before in this podcast. There's a siege of Jerusalem and mothers ate their

children in desperation, cannibalism. This is among the curses. So among these horrible curses, this is one of them. The alien among you shall rise higher and higher above you. Now I'll just end on a political point, I usually don't, but it's amazing that Mexicans are allowed to love Mexico. They can love it, love, love, love, love,

wave the Mexican flag on top of a burning car in our country, they can love it. The chair of America's 250 can talk about mi gente, mi familia, la raza, and all that. They can love Mexico. They don't want to be there obviously, but they can love it. And I love America. And I want it to be America again. And I'm not gonna pretend or act like I'm the bad guy for to be America again. And I'm not gonna pretend or act like I'm the bad guy for wanting that anymore. MikeSlater.Locals.com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater, dot Locals, dot com.

The Trump and Elon Battle and The Bible There is trouble in paradise, it seems. The Bible has advice for them and all of us.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you very much for being here. So we're going to talk about this Elon Trump battle that's going on. It's going to change minute to minute. So let's just get caught up here and then we'll bring it to the Bible here. Where to start? Let's just start here. Elon Musk doesn't like the big beautiful bill because it doesn't cut enough spending. And he's right about that,

doesn't cut nearly enough spending. Trump, his argument is we're dealing with the realities on the ground here with the Congress that we have. And in this one big beautiful bill are all these things that we would never get done otherwise, all these campaign promises that we're actually delivering on

and we should pass it for all those reasons. And Elon says, it doesn't cut enough spending. And there is no country if we keep going down this road of debts, of deficits and debt. So Elon wrote, so Trump said in this, in the Oval Office, he was with the Chancellor from Germany

and he was asked about it. And he said that Elon doesn't support this bill because they take out the subsidies for electric vehicles. So Elon wrote on Twitter, I'm going to try to do this best I can real time like as this happened over an hour period on Twitter yesterday, Elon said, whatever, keep the electric vehicle solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil and gas subsidies are touched, very unfair, but ditch the mountain of disgusting pork in the bill.

In the entire history of civilization, there's never been legislation that is both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this. Either you get a big and ugly bill or a slim and beautiful bill.

Slim and beautiful is the way. As I'm reading that, I am remembering that there's another Elon tweet that I probably should have started with. Here it is. This was two days ago.

Elon said, I can't keep it in anymore. He said, I'm sorry, I can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. He said, shame on those who voted for it. You know you did wrong.

You know it. So that was the start of it. That was two days ago. Okay. So then Trump responded. Then Elon gave the response.

I just gave you, okay. Then Elon said, without me, Trump would have lost the election. "'Dems would control the house "'and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate. "'Such ingratitude.'" Then Elon said,

"'The easiest way to save money in our budget, "'billions and billions of dollars, "'is to terminate Elon's governmental subsidies "'and contracts. "'I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it. He later said, Elon was wearing thin. I asked him to leave.

I took away his EV mandate that forced everyone to buy electric cars that nobody else wanted. That he knew for months I was gonna do and he just went crazy. Elon then responded, time to drop the really big bomb. Trump is in the Epstein files.

That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT. Trump then said, I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago. This is one of the greatest bills ever presented to Congress and he gives all the reasons why. Then Elon said that Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him.

Then he said the Trump tariffs will cause a recession in the second half of this year. Okay. That's the latest as of now. So you got the back and forth. Super. I don't know how much we should talk about Elon here. Let me just, and I've said all these things at different points, but I'll put them all together here. When it comes to cutting spending and doge, I've all in, it's incredible, amazing, it's total support of Elon.

When it comes to creating, innovating and inventing and going to space and running these companies, no one's like him, he's brilliant and genius and the way he runs his companies with efficiencies he does and all the companies he runs, it's remarkable and he's the great inventor of our era. He also is not a Christian at all and you see it in many different ways that he

has a very unbiblical worldview. And he doesn't claim to be a Christian so it's fine but and you can look at it with his fathering. It's an abomination what he's doing with these kids. He just he has this belief that we don't have enough people in the world and we're not making enough kids. I used to agree with this I used to make that argument but I'm kind of thinking maybe that's not entirely true. I don't know. I got to think more about that, but he thinks there needs to be more people in the world.

He's very much taking it upon himself and he just fathers children and then abandons them. And he has a ton of money. So he got plenty of money. They're taking care of. He's like a compound in Texas that they all like live in

or I don't know, but it's just weird. He's not a father. He's not a proper father. One of his kids, and this is one of the reasons why he supported Trump, one of his kids that he abandoned is transgender. And clearly this is a result of dad abandoning this child. And this boy, now he sees a girl and that's all Elon's fault. So he's a terrible dad.

Just by, listen, if an NFL player did this, and many of them do, I'd be critical of him. And I have been, and Elon's the same thing. Also, he has this Neuralink company that puts computer chips in people's brains. I hope that thing fails.

So I wish only the worst on that company because where that is going to lead and no one seems to care at all when everyone just puts a computer chip in their brain. And Elon, if the great military advice of the world is you wanna gain the high ground,

Elon with all of his satellites is the owner of the high ground. He has the ultimate high ground. And I don't know how wise that is, especially with someone who has a worldview that is not good and very antithetical to the Bible.

That's for sure.

Again, Doge, efficiency, government waste, total agreement. Everything else, nope. Not in any way. Now, is it better if these two are getting along and agreeing on Government getting rid of government waste I think so maybe not I mean we'll see how things pan out Is this the end of MAGA? No, this is the end of the world. No, we told the story this morning of

Ben Frank, excuse me, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and they were best friends best friends they wrote the Declaration of Independence together Adam Jefferson wrote it, but Adams consulted a lot. And they were great fellow patriots. And then they hated each other. And they hated each other their whole lives. And at the end of their life, they died on the same day.

Happened to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Isn't that incredible? July 4th, 1826, they both died on the same day, and when Adams died, his final words were, Thomas Jefferson survives. And he did not know that Thomas Jefferson

died just a couple hours earlier. What is that story? So we'd like to look back and think, oh, they were best friends. They weren't, they hated each other. They didn't start that way.

But we could still look back on him and be like, Oh, they were awesome. Thomas Jefferson was awesome. And it was Thomas Jefferson wanted a small limited government with states rights. And John Adams wanted a larger central government. And they're still both amazing patriots and we can love them for the great things that each of them did. And we do the same thing with Elon and Trump moving forward.

None of that ever changes. And MAG is not going anywhere. And Trump is the CEO and Elon was an employee and now he's not anymore. And that's that. So I think it's going to be okay and get alpha males going at it and it's not a big deal. Now we got some Bible lessons to learn from this. You have two people here who are not Christians and we see what happens when that is the case. I want to talk about gossip and how to confront people.

First on the gossip Elon said that Trump's pedophile. That's what that was with the always in the Epstein files Now I don't think it's true Maybe he's mentioned there once because he was Jeffrey Epstein was a member of Mar-a-Lago for a while before Trump kicked him out but I can't believe that Trump was in the Epstein files and the Democrats just sat on

that like they hid that from the American people. The Democrats did? I don't think so. So this is, at best, gossip. Leviticus 19 says, you shall not go about as a tail bearer among your people. What's a tail bearer among your people. What's a tail bearer?

Adam Clark, Bible commentaries in the 1790s, he says, the person who, a tail bearer is the person who travels about dealing in scandal and calumny. Calumny is making false defamation statements about someone, slander, slander, calumny, slander. Getting the secrets of every person and family and retelling them wherever he goes. A more despicable character exists.

Not such a person is a pest to society and should be exiled from the inhabitations from the habitations of man. Do not be a tailbearer among your people. I spread gossip the other day. Actually, let me show this first. I was talking to a friend the other day and they were just talking about how much

they're working on not gossiping. And they have a conviction against gossip, as we all should. I gossiped the other day and it felt so wrong, so, oh, it was disgusting. I told my wife about someone who I heard from someone else cheated on their wife and I told her,

I felt so dirty about it. It was weird, because I heard it a while ago and I was like, ah, I don't know, I can't tell. And then it just came out, it was like ridiculous. It was like so disgraceful. And I felt so dirty because I have no idea if it's even true.

But it made my wife's impression of this person bad and for what? What was the point of that? I don't even know what happened. I just added to the net negative impression of this other person. I feel awful about it. So I mean, all I can do is vow to never do that again.

Just keep it to yourself. Don't be a tail bearer, God says. And it's all throughout the Bible. Proverbs 20, 19, a gossip betrays a confidence, so avoid anyone who talks too much. Proverbs 11, 13, a gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. So don't gossip.

And just a great overall one, Ephesians 4.29, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs that it may also benefit those who listen. Do not put people on blast on Twitter. It's not that, Bob didn't say that exactly, but that's, that's the idea. Now what about confronting people? Christians should confront people differently

than people in the world. Matthew 18, moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, and if you guys come to an agreement here, then you've gained your brother. So if someone sins against you, you have two options.

You either drop it, move on, or if you can't do that, you go to them. Not Twitter. Go to them. Charles Spurgeon, he said, we must not let trespass rankle in our bosom. So if someone sends against you and it's like eating away at you, that's not, don't do that.

But he said, nor, I mean, like don't keep it in, if you can't move on, nor may we go and publish the matter abroad. But also don't go tell it ever. We must seek out the offender and tell him, him, his fault as if he were not aware of it as perhaps he may not be that happens a lot of time to like oh hey you said this like what I didn't oh my gosh I'm so sorry and and you'll find a brother meaning the matter gets cleared up

hopefully and brings you together that the irony is not lost that Trump and Elon their division here is over a bill called reconciliation so so maybe one maybe if they, they're supposed to have a phone call today, so maybe they will reconcile. There will be reconciliation over reconciliation.

But if you have this one-on-one conversation with a person, you clear things up, you gain a brother. Also, you've prevented, or you're not sinning by gossiping all over town. So got lots of wins here. But if he will not hear,

take with you one or two more that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear then tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.

Just wise advice. Don't call people pedophiles on Twitter. It's not the most biblical course of action. Now Trump and Elon are different, but we should take advice from the Bible and do what the Bible says. Don't gossip, and if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly, ending

Don't gossip, and if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly, ending love. And if you have a problem with someone, go confront them directly and do more.

Can we be surprised that Congress wasted money when frugality among We The People is no longer a virtue? 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you so much for being here. Yesterday we talked about Pride Month and we talked about lack of self-control and read some proverbs about pride and about sexual morality and self-control and lust and watching out for the adulterous woman. Today I want to talk about another aspect of self-control and that is with money.

Now this is a perfect timing because of the debate going back and forth about the one big beautiful bill. So the very short of it is this bill passed the house barely and now it's in the Senate and the senators, there's enough senators that are saying this thing stinks, it needs to cut way, way, way more spending. People like Rand Paul saying, I'm not going to vote to raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. That's crazy. We're supposed to be the people against

raising the debt ceiling and against spending money we don't have. That's nuts. So there's a debate going back and forth and I hope, because that's all I can do right now is, and just have a good attitude, that it will result in a better bill. But they have three weeks to get this done, until the 4th of July, so I guess maybe a little less than four weeks to get this done and see what they can pull together. But now we also got a lot of Elon coming out and saying some very dramatic things against

Trump and now Trump is, ah, it's a whole thing. I don't wanna focus on that. I wanna focus on us. Made the argument this morning that spending is a moral issue. As Andrew Breitbart said, politics is downstream of culture.

And so culture comes first. What is culture? Culture is just a collection of people that have shared values and virtues. We have the Congress that I believe best reflects we the people. We are a people for the most part, who do not have a biblical view of work or spending. And therefore we have a government that reflects that.

Ben Franklin said, rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt. He said if you know how to spend less than you get you have the philosopher's stone. Our Congress does not have the philosopher's stone but either do the American people in their own lives at this point. We have more debt now than ever before. I mean, personal debt, like people have more debt. So how can we be a people that have more debt than ever before? And be like, oh, congress can't believe you have so much debt. That's really, really

unacceptable. Like, what did you think? Politics is downstream of culture.

It is a sin to be a sluggard.

It is a sin to be a profligate, waster, spender, waster of money, materialism. All these things are sinful. So ideally, you have a culture that does the opposite of these things are sinful. So ideally you have a culture that does the opposite of these things and calls them virtues. Okay, well the opposite of being a sluggard is being a hard worker.

The opposite of being wasteful is being frugal. So we had a culture that, and we have one, the opposite of being irresponsible is being responsible, personal responsibility. So we had a culture that, and we have one of the opposite of being irresponsible is being responsible, personal responsibility. So we had a culture that built up these three things. Like think about it.

Like, all right. So the Bible says you shouldn't be a sluggard, which means that it's people's natural instinct to be a sluggard, which means it takes a lot of effort to not be a sluggard. That effort we call virtue, that concerted, directed, intentional effort we call virtue. Effort to be something that one is naturally not, right? To do the opposite of sin, it's virtue. So we had a culture for a long time that celebrated the opposite of those sins. We

had a culture for a long time that celebrated virtues. Makes sense. Here's a list of sins. What are the opposite of those things? Great. Let's do those. Let's honor those. Let's celebrate those. Let's value those. And then we'll have better lives and better families and a stronger country.

We haven't done that in a long time on our personal lives, on a personal level, on an individual level. We are now a culture of laziness. We're a culture of no responsibility, we're a culture of materialism, we're a culture of wasting money and going into debt and that is reflected in Congress. So it's hard to say, oh Congress are wasting so

much, spending so much money, we don't have when the American people are billions of dollars in debt. Let me look this up here. Credit card debt. We go again, it's a podcast later, you can press pause. I thought I was gonna say tens of billions. And I was like, man, it's not that much.

The American people currently hold $1.18 trillion in credit card debt. 1.1 trillion. And we're we're like Congress how dare you be 37 trillion in it. What did you think? New Jersey has an average balance of $10,000 per cardholder. Come on. This is a reflection of America. Congress is. So if we want to fix Congress it's not gonna happen by like raving about it. It's

gonna happen by changing the American people in our culture first. Okay, before we get to the Bible, I wanna share what I did again this morning because it's so good. It's Ben Franklin.

Ben Franklin wrote a wonderful work of art called The Way to Wealth, 1758. And he broke it down into three points. It's a beautiful story where there's these guys complaining about taxes outside of a business, and then this old man comes up,

this wise old man comes up and just starts giving advice. And it's beautiful. Let me cut to the point here. He has three sections, one on industry, hard work, one on responsibility, not being dependent on other people, and one on being frugal.

Let's jump right to the frugal one. Actually, I take that back. Let me share this one first on being industrious. He says, industry need not wish, is the wise man, as poor Richard says, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There are no gains without pains.

That was my teacher when I was like 12. Poor Richard says at the working man's house, hunger looks in, but dares not enter. Diligence is the mother of good luck,

and God gives all things to industry.

Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep. Work while it's called today, for you know not how much you will be hindered tomorrow. One today is worth two tomorrows. If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Marr, you then, your own master, be ashamed to catch yourself idle.

When there is much to be done for yourself, your family, your country, be up by the peep of day. Let not the sun look down and say say in glorious here he lies. That's like beautiful, like unbelievably awesome American Ben Franklin stuff right there. All right. Now the saving. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business,

personal responsibility and other section of this letter. But to the but to these, we must add frugality. If we would make our industry more certainly successful. The Indies have not made Spain rich because her outages are greater than her incomes. Away then with your expensive follies. You may think that perhaps a little tea or a little punch now and then, a diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and a little entertainment now and then. Diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer,

and a little entertainment now and then can be no great matter. But remember what poor Richard says, many a little makes a nickel. Nickel, or for a lot. So many a little makes a lot.

And farther, beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship. Here you are, all get together at this venue of fineries and knickknacks. You call them goods, but if you do not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. Remember what poor Richard says, Buy what thou hast no need of, and before long thou shalt sell thy necessaries.

That's just perfect. Perfect, we are so broke in government, in our country, we're so broke from all the wasteful spending. Well, listen, it goes both ways. But to be real, on an individual level,

we spend so much money on things we don't need, and then when an important expense comes up, we don't need. And then when an important expense comes up, we don't have the money. Broke, can't afford it, why not? And at the federal level, it's the same thing. Oh, can't afford to educate our kids, just we have no more money.

Like what, why not? Wow, we just blew it all over here. They won't admit that, but that's what it is. We had a guy, wrote me a note, So you just work in the military and I said like the Air Force or whoever will ask for a billion dollars And the first thing they do is spend it on a golf course And then they come back like oh we need more money. We don't have enough money for an airplane hanger and a runway We're out. We're out of money. What would you spend it on?

You know

More and more of our budget today is just interest of the debt. Money we can't spend on the things we need. The waste is killing us. We are drowning. We are drowning in the shiny stuff. Here's what Ben Franklin said, these are not the necessaries of life.

They can scarcely be called the conveniences and yet only because they look pretty, how many want to have them? The artificial wants of mankind thus become more numerous than the natural, meaning the important things." Now here's a little bit that I did not share on the radio today because I still feel bad about, I think it was like Monday's episode, yeah Monday because of the Swim Meet, I had to go early, it was a very short episode. So we'll go a little longer. He talks about borrowing money to pay for things.

He says, but what madness must it be to run a debt for these superfluities? Superfluities, superfluities, superfluities. We are offered by terms of this store, six months credit. And that perhaps has induced some of us to attend it because we cannot spare the ready money and hope now to be fine without it.

But ah, think what you do when you run in debt. You give to another power over your liberty. If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor. You will be in fear when you speak to him. You will make poor pitiful sneaking excuses

and by degrees come to lose your veracity and sink into base downright lying. For as poor Richard says, the second vice is lying, the first is running a debt. And again to the same purpose, lying rides upon debts back. Whereas a freeborn Englishman, again this is 1758, a freeborn Englishman ought not to be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any man living, but poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue.

It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright, as poor Richard truly says. Now my favorite part of this, oh, I have two favorite parts of this letter. Let me do the Christian one first. Ben Franklin says, he talks about hard work, talks about personal responsibility, frugality,

all these virtues. And he ends with this, this doctrine, my friends is reason and wisdom. But after all, in the end, do not depend too much upon your own industry and frugality and prudence. That's the word I've been looking for. Prudence instead of personal responsibility. Same idea. Though excellent things, like these are great. Industry, frugality, prudence are great.

For they may all be blasted without the blessing of heaven. And therefore ask that blessing humbly and be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it but comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered and was afterwards prosperous." Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin, our atheist founding father. Here's my other favorite part of this letter, of this story. So again there's a bunch of people outside of the store about to go buy stuff and they're complaining about taxes.

And the first part of the letter, this old man comes up and he's like, listen, you guys complain about your taxes, but you waste even more being with your laziness, you waste even more with your silliness, your foolishness, your bad decisions.

Waste way more than you pay in taxes. the taxes were like 10% not 50%. So I don't know, poor Richard would have a different take today, but the old man comes and he gives this great speech to these people and here's the end of the letter. Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it and approved the doctrine and immediately practiced the contrary. For the store opened and they began to buy extravagantly,

notwithstanding all his cautions. It didn't matter. Everyone agreed with it. Everyone knew it was the right thing. Everything knew this guy was right. And they immediately did the exact opposite. And Ben Franklin says, I resolved to be the better for having heard this story. And though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little longer. Reader, if thou will do the same, thy profit will

be as great as mine." We lack the moral and biblical understanding of money and of hard work and frugality and prudence. So of course, our elected representatives will lack those virtues as well. And it's even harder for them to have those virtues because they don't feel the consequences of them wasting money, our money.

Right, at least when you, if someone doesn't work hard and waste their money, they feel the consequences of it. When Congress doesn't work hard and waste their money, waste our money, then they get reelected. So they even even grew. We need to have so much of this virtue. It's such an abundance of it that the people we elect can even overcome the

inherent structures that make it even harder for someone to be industrious and frugal. We have a long way to go for that to happen. Let me just wrap up with a couple scriptures here, a couple Proverbs. First on being a sluggard, just because I love that word. Proverbs 6, go to the ant you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise. How long will you lie there you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? Proverbs 34 for the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,

but the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. Proverbs 19, 24, a sluggard buries his hand in his dish. He will not even bring it back to his mouth. I was like, can't even can't be like, it's so lazy. I can't even put the fork to my face. Proverbs 26, 14 14 as a door turns on its hinges so does the sluggard on the bed. It's back and forth, back and forth. Won't even get up. Proverbs 21 20 a wise man on money, a wise man saves for the future, but a foolish man spends whatever he gets and a foolish government spends two trillion dollars more than they steal from the American people. from the American people. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com.