MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Politics by Faith, The Bubbling Anger
Is It Righteous?
May 02, 2023

*The Politics by Faith podcast is available everywhere. We put it here ad-free and provide the transcript.*

Tucker Carlson said the debates in our country are between Good and Evil. But you can't say that today. In today's culture, everything is good. If you talk about evil then you're being mean. This leads to a lack of moral clarity and conviction. This has led to chaos.
Let's learn from Achilles to the Puritans about when anger is righteous and when it's corrosive.


Welcome to Politics by Faith, the long-form episode. We have the daily, shorter episodes, and then we have the twice-a-week, longer episodes here just for you, just for the podcast, and I'm grateful you're here. It's brought to you by Patriot Gold Group and Public Square. There is a lot to be angry about right now. A lot to be grateful for, of course, but anger is an overwhelming emotion. It's a very motivating emotion. It's a captivating emotion. This is why a lot of snake oil salesmen use anger to captivate us, to hook us, and then manipulate us. I'm thinking about the debt ceiling in DC. There's so much betrayal. Oh, it's just a mess. And the Democrats do this all like self-righteous. Oh, can you believe the Republicans would be willing to default on the debt of the United States of America? It's like, guys, you kidding me? You're the ones who keep spending all this money that puts us in this position every year.

0:01:18
There's been a lot of senseless murders lately. The guy in Texas, the neighbor who goes to the fence and says, hey man, can you stop shooting your gun? We have a baby over here trying to sleep. So then he walks over to their house and murders five of the people in the house, including an eight-year-old, shoots him in the head, and then he's on the loose. I'm talking right now, and they haven't even found him. This happened on Friday.

0:01:40
I'm recording this Monday night. And it's like, what? And then just to make you more angry, he's been deported four times. How can that be? Four times? This murderer has been deported four times to Mexico and he keeps coming back? He keeps... he's able to come back? I read early on, don't know if this one is true, but the last time he was deported maybe was 2006. So all that time he's able to come back many times and then just stay here for that long. Unbelievable. He came over a fifth time. That makes me angry. The military found another unidentified balloon flying over Hawaii. We're back to the balloons and they don't even know, they don't know what it is, they don't know who it belongs to, they don't know anything. And it's just, we are just being led by inept people. So I get angry that we have a system that has turned into this. It's just, it's just such a far cry from founding FOD. And I don't know, is it just me?

0:02:56
I'm the only one feeling this low grade malaise of anger. I don't know where you are. It's somewhere between anger simmering deep below to, oh no, it's boiling on the surface later. Either way, anywhere in between, it's not good. So let's talk about it. We've played a couple clips from Tucker Carlson's final speech that he gave as an employee of Fox News. He was speaking at the Heritage Foundation 50th anniversary dinner. And there's a couple great clips.

0:03:33
I don't think we've played this one, but this is an important one because some people are saying that this is maybe not the thing that got him fired, but the type of talk that got him fired. He's talking about good and evil. What you're watching is not a political movement. It's evil. So if you want to assess and I'll put it in and I'll stop with this, I'll put it in non political, I'll put it in non political or non rather non specific theological terms and just say, if you want to know what's evil and what's good, what are the characteristics of those? And by the way, you know, I think the Athenians would have agreed with this. This is not necessarily just a Christian notion. This is kind of a, I would say, widely agreed upon understanding of good and evil. What are its products? What do these two Well, I mean, good is characterized by order, calmness, tranquility, peace, whatever you want to call it, lack of conflict, cleanliness.

0:04:38
Cleanliness is next to godliness. It's true. It is. And evil is characterized by their opposites. violence, hate, disorder, division, disorganization, and filth. So if you are all in on the things that produce the latter basket of outcomes, what you're really advocating for is evil. That's just true. I'm not calling for a religious war. Far from it.

0:05:06
I'm merely calling for an acknowledgment of what we're watching. One side's like, no, no, I've got this idea, and we've got this idea, let's have a debate about our ideas. They don't want a debate. Those ideas won't produce outcomes that any rational person would want under any circumstances. Those are manifestations of some larger force acting upon us. It's just so obvious. It's completely obvious. And I think two things. One, we should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates where we are using the terms that we used in 1991 when I started at Heritage as if maybe you know I could just win the debate if I marshaled more facts. I've tried that, doesn't work. And two, maybe maybe we should all take just like 10 minutes a day to say a prayer about it.

0:06:05
I'm serious, like why not? And I'm saying that to you not as some kind of evangelist, I'm literally saying that to you as an Episcopalian, the Samaritans of our time. I'm literally an Episcopalian, okay? And even I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will. People get turned off by that language of good and evil. It makes people very uncomfortable. Christians shouldn't. Christians should not get uncomfortable when talking about good and evil. We need to have more maturity and discernment and confidence when it comes to talking about this.

0:07:02
Ephesians 6, 10, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm." Not wishy-washy, not, I don't want to, stand firm. having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, in all circumstances, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, oh I don't know, evil, good, makes me feel uncomfortable, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

0:08:07
To that end, keep alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my mouth boldly, and this is true for you, to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I might declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. Yes, there are some people who may support a policy, let's just say transgender kids. They may support a policy that they haven't thought through and they may not know any better and they just want to be seen as nice and it hasn't really affected them personally so they don't really get it and they say they support it.

0:08:42
Is that an evil person? No, they're not evil. They're misguided, certainly. But then, some people are actively involved and pushing evil things. And that is more than just misguided. That is evil. We must admit—well, maybe first we must be aware that evil exists, and then we must be able to admit that evil exists and not be afraid to say it. Far from this modern idea that evil doesn't exist, evil is pervasive.

0:09:19
It's everywhere. It's inside all of us. It's personal. It's spiritual. And it carries on. Sultan Iskandar said that the problem with revolution is, his quote is, they destroy only the carriers of evil. So the person may die, but the evil lives on. So what's really going on with this? We're so far away from battling good and evil. We're in a culture today where we can't even admit that that even exists. That there even is evil. So who do you think will win? I remember as I just a quick flashback to the war on terror and there are people on the left who wouldn't say islamic extremists and uh... claim from the conservatives were you're not going to win if you can't even say what it is, like what are you fighting against, even the war on terror itself, like what do you mean terror, you can't fight a war against terror, what are you even talking about, define what we're talking about and the same thing with our country today, we can't even define evil, we can't even admit that it exists. My concern is in our modern world, which prioritizes being nice over everything else, tolerance isn't even enough. Tolerance has been replaced with affirmation of acceptance of everything all the time, no matter how deviant, how perverted, how sinful, how just dumb, how wrong or evil, you must actively affirm always. So the concern is that because you just have to be nice that this concept of evil is therefore mean. And if you speak in terms of good and evil you're called a bigot and an extremist and you're shut down. It's funny, if you say good and evil and you like you're talking about these terms, they say, oh, that's, you're being exclusionary and you're shutting down debate and you're like, no, you're shutting me down.

0:11:22
I'm trying to define some terms here. If you see things in terms of good and evil, your opinion doesn't count because apparently you think you're better than everyone else or you're too extreme. And you're like, no, I just have moral clarity on this issue and I have a conviction that this is wrong and I have some wisdom here of a better way. That's all. I'm like, oh, you're a bigot extremist. No, moral clarity, conviction, and wisdom is actually what I have. Moral evil has dominated human life. Genesis 8, 21, the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth.

0:12:06
There's three types of evil. You have your natural evil, that's disease, disaster, catastrophes, that all comes from the fall as well. Then you have moral evil, and that's, I mean, we see it all the time. We see it everywhere. It's every human person and every human relationship, therefore, because every human relationship is just collisions of immoral people and then you have supernatural evil this is demonic evil John 844 Jesus said to the Pharisees you are of your father the devil first John 519 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one I know we've talked about Judas a couple times in the last week but Luke 22 3 says, Then Satan entered Judas, one of the twelve, entered him. Fascinating detail right there.

0:12:59
So yes, there's evil in the world. I mean, that's what they, well, is there evil in the world? You're not even allowed to say there is. What are you talking about? Is there? Isn't there? It's everywhere, and it's inside all of us, and we have to hate it. We have to have a moral clarity against it. We must hate it and it's okay to be angry about it. And that's what I want to talk about today. Righteous anger. Let's lament first though. Let's lament. Let's lament all this brokenness. I want to talk about Homer and Achilles here in just a minute and see, there's four ways that Achilles' anger led to even worse destruction, and I wanna see which of these relate most to your life, but first I wanna tell you about Patriot Gold Group.

0:13:51
We have more banks being taken over by the federal government. It's like, this is fine. We have more failed banks. I guess First Republic Bank was seized by the feds and then sold to JPMorgan. Okay. Oh, it's all fine. And Biden says, no, the system is safe and sound. Do you believe him? You believe any of them?

0:14:15
I don't. See if gold is wise for you and your family. Consider it. I can tell you it's been around for a while. Patriot Gold Group is, well, it's where I bought gold. I think they're the best. I'm not going to mess around with anyone less than the best. Why would I not go to the best? So I went to the best, and I'm telling you who I went with, Patriot Gold Group. They have a no-fee-for-life IRA, where your IRA or 401k can be put in physical gold or silver, and you may be eligible for a no-fee-for-life IRA and qualifying rollovers, that's good.

0:14:56
Or you can just buy gold and just have it, and they mail it to you. A FedEx truck shows up and gives you gold. You're like, huh, this seems illegal, but that's certainly not. Well, not now. For now it isn't, I should say. FDR made it illegal to own gold physically. basically. 888-617-6122.

0:15:14
Get a free investor guide. Start there. Patriot Gold Group, consumer affairs top rated gold IRA dealer six years in a row. Told you they're the best. 1-888-617-6122. 888-617-6122. Tell them you know Mike Slater. PatriotGoldGroup.com. Homer's The Iliad is a great description of how rage and anger it's all-consuming. The opening word of The Iliad is wrath.

0:15:48
It's the first word in the whole thing. It's long, but Homer went with wrath as the very first word. So I've got four examples of the wrath of Achilles here, and I want to see which one of these four you can relate to the most. So you can look back on the anger, the times when you've been angry in your life, and then also if you're angry right now. So the very first one is, dear childhood friend died in battle. His name was Patroclus.

0:16:15
So here's from the Iliad. Achilles was now beside Patroclus, weeping bitterly. He laid his hands on his chest and held them there for a long time as if warming them out of fire. Patroclus, he cried, dearest friend, since I left you last, I have come to know the full extent of my anger. It has brought me nothing but pain and grief, and now it has cost you your life.

0:16:39
So anger can bring pain to others around you, those closest to you. Have you ever experienced that? Okay, we don't want that. So let's table that. We'll get back to it. Achilles was also angry at the Trojans for killing his fellow Greeks. Achilles was burning with anger. He stood on the high ramparts looking out over the plain and shouted to the gods of Olympus, Father Zeus, if you have ever granted me a prayer, grant me this. Let me take revenge on these Trojans for they have killed my friends and stripped them of There's anger again, and again not helping. So anger can hurt not only the people you love the most, those closest to you, friends or family, but any group you're a part of, any community you're a member of, and your country.

0:17:27
It derails the mission you're on in life, consumes you, and takes you to places you don't want to go. We'll get to that in a minute. A third example, his rage and battle. Thus spoke Achilles and led the way in the forefront of the battle. And the earth groaned beneath the tread of the warriors as they rushed to the fight. And the dust rose up like a thick cloud as the Trojans and their allies advanced to meet them. And in the midst of the conflict, Achilles raged like a lion that has been wounded by hunters and fights with double fury. Anger makes you go berserk, makes you lose your mind and do things you would never dream of doing, nor should you do. And the fourth example is the beginning of the entire thing. It's the opening line of the epic poem. Agamemnon took his war prize and Achilles that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.

0:18:30
Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures. So Achilles' wrath didn't help anything. Sent them all down a path. That's not a point you just can't get back from As either of those happen to you Just examples of where your anger Doesn't help I Lament that all of it inside of us Ecclesiastes 7 9 says be not quick in your spirit to become angry for anger lodges in the hearts of fools I Don't want to be a fool, but hold on Slater not all anger is bad, because Jesus got angry. So how do we make sense of this? All right, let's pivot to the biblical stuff here. So my conclusion here is that it's okay to get angry just for the right reasons and in the right way. And the Bible is clear about this. Well, the Bible is full of wrath. So God's wrath is just. That's the first point Romans 2 5 pauses, but because of your hard and impenitent heart Means a feel no shame you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath When God's righteous judgment will be revealed so it will be revealed and you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath There's more wrath coming." Proverbs 24 12 says, If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

0:20:09
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it? And will he not repay man according to his work? Yes, he will, is the answer to that. The main difference, one of the main differences, but I think the biggest difference between the Greek and Roman gods, we were talking about Zeus a second ago, right? And God is the, uh, like Roman, uh, that's what I'm looking for, uh, when they're fake. What's the fake gods? Mythology. The mythological gods, they were fickle and irritable and acted on whim and they were just people. They were just like acting like people, they just had like power. God never does that. God is not fickle. He does not act on a whim.

0:20:53
His wrath, in the words of J.I. Packer, is a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. It's a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil. And second point, God's wrath is love. His wrath is just and it is loving. He must act justly to judge sin, otherwise He wouldn't be God, or good, or loving. And Jesus did the same. Jesus got angry too. People only refer to Him as the Prince of Peace, but He's also the King of Righteousness. Matthew 18, 6 Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me.

0:21:36
But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. That's a better outcome than what is going to happen to you. Dane Ortlund makes an important point. He says, Jesus says this not because he gleefully enjoys torturing the wicked, but because he loves little children. It's the love. People today, just in our politics, they focus on the wrath and how bad that is, but what they don't realize is that the wrath comes from love.

0:22:11
I'll just give you a simple example. So let's say someone murders someone, and people focus on how mean it is to sentence the murderer to life in prison, But what about the family of the people he murdered? So people's desire to not have a righteous anger at the murderer and not to seek justice is leading them to not act lovingly towards the victims. So you have to balance both of those. Matthew 23, 13, But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

0:22:43
For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves." That's not like, woe to you! This isn't nice. Oh, Jesus, you're being very judgy. Yeah.

0:23:23
How about the famous scene of Jesus flipping tables? Not nice! Come on, Jesus, control yourself. He was. He was perfectly under control. John 2, 14, In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money changers sitting there and making a whip of cords. He drove them all out of the temple with a whip with the sheep and oxen and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables and told those who sold the pigeons, take these things away.

0:23:51
Do not make my father's house a house of trade. This visual of Jesus sitting there making a whip himself. Why did he do this? And why didn't he just do it nicer? Because he knew it mattered. He knew it mattered. The temple, the Lord's house, his Father's house, was a house of prayer. By the way, our churches today, many have forgotten their true purpose. It's not a social club. It's not a babysitting event.

0:24:20
It's not a place to be entertained. It's a place to praise God. And it's time that we clear out all the lies from the church and clear out all the corruption from our government, from DC, from the media, from everywhere. There needs to be a clearing out of the temple and a draining of the swamp. We need to demand more. Let me, because here's what happens. When you clear out and you demand more, you get clarity and conviction. A righteous anger that doesn't turn into sin, we'll get to that in a second, but a righteous anger properly acted upon leads to clarity and conviction. Here is Martin Lloyd-Jones, I was able to find his actual sermon, this is out of maybe 1930s or 40s or something like that, and listen to him talk about what happens during a proper restoration, a proper clearing out.

0:25:17
Go back and read your history. Read about the Protestant Reformation. What did it lead to? Well, amongst other things you know, it did lead to the Elizabethan period. Once you are right at the center, once the temple is cleansed and reformed and renewed, it percolates through the whole of life as a new tone. Where there is vision, the people succeed. Where there is no vision, the people perish. And this is the supreme need of the hour, to recapture the vision, to turn back to him and allow him to act and to speak to us, and to cleanse and to drive out. And then I say, you will get what you had following the Protestant Reformation.

0:26:09
You had exactly the same thing in the Puritan era. You can laugh at the Puritans if you like, my friends, but never forget this, that the Cromwellian period, the period of the Commonwealth, was one of the greatest periods in the whole history of this country. Everybody's agreed, even secular historians, that the basis of this country's greatness was laid down then, when there was a moral tone in the nation, when men and women put God first. Then, I say, the whole nation was elevated. Righteousness exalted the nation. And indeed, it is true to say in a large measure that what was truly great and glorious in the last century was the direct outcome of the evangelical awakening of the eighteenth century. There is no question about this. It can be established even historically.

0:27:02
Leckie, the historian, tells us that it was that and that alone that saved this country from something similar to what happened in the French Revolution. And other historians will tell you the same thing. The fount, the origin, the source, not only of greatness in a national sense, but the enlightenment of the people. I've been saying the same thing about, and this is why I've been focused so much lately on Puritans and the preaching from America's true founding, like the 1600s, early 1700s, because they laid the groundwork for our founding fathers. I've been very focused on our founding grandfathers and great-grandfathers and the people who laid the moral foundation that our founding fathers were born into, that gave them clarity and conviction.

0:27:52
They were angry at the right people for the right reasons. My point of all this is it's okay for humans to get angry. In fact, it's essential because here's the problem. The people who say, oh, you're talking about more good and evil, that's not right, you don't know, you can't judge. What that does is it turns them into people of indifference. And that's like awful, like that's terrible, indifference. Like, wake up, wake up and make a stand, take a stand on these, you know, not on everything necessarily, if you don't know all the facts or whatever, that's fine, but on the things that are obvious and that matter, take a stand. This is B.B. Warfield, he was a professor at the Princeton Cemetery, this is like late 1800s.

0:28:37
He says, it would be impossible, therefore, for a moral being to stand in the presence of perceived wrong, indifferent and unmoved. If you are a moral being, you should not stand, you should not be able to look at evil and be indifferent and unmoved. Precisely what we mean by a moral being is a being perceptive of the difference between right and wrong. If you're unable to determine or to see the right and wrong, you're not a moral being. And not only determining the difference between right and wrong, but reacting appropriately to right and wrong. The emotions of indignation and anger belong, therefore, to the very self-expression of a moral being as such and cannot be lacking to him in the presence of wrong." You have, clearly, a deceived world telling you that there's no such thing as evil.

0:29:34
You can't—how dare you even say such a thing? You're a bigot and trying to silence you, that is an effort to make you no longer a moral being. That is an effort to silence you and make you indifferent and meaningless and to doubt and to not have conviction and not have moral clarity. And then what are you? The Bible on the other hand is very clear. Psalm 4.4. David says, be angry and do not sin. The Hebrew word here for be angry is, it means to tremble, to be troubled, to shake, to quake, to be perturbed, to quiver with anger.

0:30:23
So care. Care. Like, have conviction. Care about what's happening in front of you. Care about it. Be angry. Be perturbed. Tremble. Shake at what you're seeing. Have the moral clarity to see that this is evil.

0:30:46
And while our country is saying, Oh, who are you to say blah blah blah, I'm a moral being. I am angry at this because this is bad, this is wrong, this is dangerous, this is evil. Be angry and do not sin. So his point here is it's okay to care a lot. You must, in fact. Just don't go so far as to sin. Ephesians 4, 26, be angry. This is in Greek so it's a different word, but be angry and do not sin.

0:31:12
Do not let the sun go down on your anger. So the Bible commands you to be angry. But what do we do with that anger? Well, a couple lines after that Psalm 4-4, he told you, be angry, but don't sin, offer right sacrifices and put our trust in the Lord. Put your trust in the Lord. That's the key. So, what's in my control? First you don't get discouraged. When everyone around you is lukewarm, when everyone around you is, oh don't be judgy, when everyone around you doesn't have conviction and doesn't care and isn't paying attention, don't let that distract you, don't let that discourage you. You are called as a moral being.

0:31:50
See a lot of people will say, well who are you to say? I am a moral being. I'm a moral American human being. That is who I am to say. Oh, who are you to say? I'm a moral being. So don't get discouraged by people who are not. That's the first thing. Are you angry today? Why? Is it righteous? Here's a good tip. Is it about you? If it's about you, it's probably not righteous. Could be, could be, could be, don't get me wrong, but that's a first hint of just something to be aware of.

0:32:38
A yellow flag, not a red flag, a yellow flag. Is it something bigger than you? Is that why you're angry? That's a better sign. Is this anger leading you to a sinful place? I'm reminded of the story of Catherine of Siena, 1400s. She died when she was 33. She had a stroke at 33. Her final words, she said, Dear children, let not my death sadden you? Rather, rejoice to think that I am leaving a place of many sufferings, to go to rest in the quiet sea, the eternal God, and to be united forever with my most sweet and loving bridegroom. I leave darkness to pass into the true and everlasting light.

0:33:32
I have sinned, O Lord, be merciful to me." She had a stroke at 33. She wasn't angry. I say that because anger isn't the only emotion, but it may be a good place to start. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, hold fast to what is good. Hold fast to what is good. So let's not be discouraged by those who say, who are you to say? Let's have a righteous anger in the right way. And then hold and all at the same time while holding fast to what is good. How's that? Let's be angry about the things that truly matter. Final thing to meditate on.

0:34:33
I just found this hymn. Thy kingdom come, O God. Thy rule, O Christ, begin. Break with thine iron rod the tyrannies of sin. Oh, that's violent. Yeah. Break with thine iron rod the tyrannies of sin. Our first sponsor of this podcast is Public Square. Was Public Square. It is Public Square.

0:35:09
They're amazing. It's an app. You can download it in the app store for free and it connects you with people who own businesses that share your values. So the Bud Light is just like a perfect example. I love that people are not spending the money on Bud Light. Great, perfect, but where do you go? Or whatever, but it's not just alcohol. It's every business, every single business has these major players that hate you.

0:35:32
Like they just despise everything about you. They hate every value you have and they're getting bolder and bolder in speaking against you. So enough already. Public square, download it, start small like I did, just hit near me restaurants, and instead of going to some big chain that hates you, go to a local restaurant that shares your values. They have coffee and tea, so just something easy, and then grow from there.

0:35:58
And pretty soon, you're only buying things from people who share your values. And it's great because money's a tool. And how you spend it matters, not only on what you spend it on, but who you spend it with, who you're giving it to in return for great products, of course, great products and services, and they're all on the app. Download it, it's free.

0:36:20
Public Square in the App Store, publicsq.com, and if you scroll down, you can see the five values that every business owner has to sign on to in order to be featured in this app. It's nationwide, public, square, free download in the App Store.

community logo
Join the MikeSlater Community
To read more articles like this, sign up and join my community today
0
What else you may like…
Videos
Podcasts
Posts
Articles
Fox & Friends

We were on Fox & Friends talking about all of the train robberies in CA. It's so bad the train company says they may have to ride right THROUGH Los Angeles entirely and never slow down lol. What a joke this state it.

https://archive.org/details/FOXNEWSW_20220122_110000_FOX_and_Friends_Saturday/start/5640/end/5700

That link is a bit odd, I've attached a short video to get the gist.

In short, The rich get richer, the poor get the handouts and the middle class gets out of town.

This causes these progressive politicians to get even more entrenched.

We haven't hit rock bottom yet.

00:00:32
Boys to men, girls to women

How do you do it? Advice please!

Dean Abbott,
"Why contemporary relations between the sexes are so messed up. The problem starts with men because men lead, the masculine pursues and initiates, and problems always start at the level of leadership.

Most men aren't taught that a relationship with a woman means accepting responsibility. No one tells us that a woman represents not only pleasure, but obligation.
The fact that having a relationship with a woman means responsibility and obligation never enters many men's minds.

When these men enter into a relationship with a woman, they are overwhelmed by her needs, her feminine communication style, and her emotions.
Moreover, he unconsciously resents her for having needs at all since he has been conditioned to see her solely as a source of pleasure.
When her anger and disappointment over his irresponsibility gets intense enough, he splits in search of another woman.
He mistakenly believes the problem wasn't his attitude nor that it is a ...

00:07:55
Surly this will be kicked off twitter eventually
00:06:34
Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023

I found a way to easily transcribe the podcasts, so I will post them here first before they go out to iTunes and the rest.

Good morning. Welcome to The Morning Motivation, brought to you by Public Square and Patriot Gold Group. I'm grateful you're here. I was reading a sermon by the great Puritan preacher John Owen in the mid-1600s. I'm so fascinated by this time period, 1600s, early 1700s. We focus a lot on our founding fathers. I think that the Tea Party movement and just conservatism in general has focused a lot on the founding fathers, and that's amazing, but I'm very fascinated by our founding grandfathers or great-grandfathers, the people who created the culture that our founding fathers were raised in.

0:00:44
Isn't that a fascinating era? We got like 1776, like that's great, I love it, I want to know more, I don't know nearly enough. But what about the 1720s? What was going on there? Or the late 1600s? What was going on in America at that time? And you know, we've all heard of the Puritans, but you ...

Morning Motivation, April 21, 2023
Inflation and ANGER

I am angry and frustrated. With our Rulers. For getting us in this terrible economy. It doesn't have to be this way.

How could they never learn from past mistakes! This is ANCIENT history, stop printing money...yet, after COVID, we never printed more. Amazing.

Please leave a 5-star review on Itunes. We have a ton of momentum, this is about to break through! Thank you!

Also, I haven't done any lives anywhere becauase we're hosting a daily TV show "Road to Misterms" on thefirsttv.com, and it's taken all of my extra time. And my wife is giving birth any day now, so...it's been a lot around here. But after the midterms, time will free up.

Inflation and ANGER
Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

I've gone back and forth on the death penalty many times over the years. I've recently come down on the other side.

Should the Parkland murderer have gotten the death penalty or life in prison?

Please leave a review on iTunes! We need to get to 1k :-)
www.thefirsttv.com/mikeslater

Btw, we're getting the momentum we need, more downloads every day, THANK YOU!

Politics by Faith: Parkland and the Death Penalty

This is spot on Mike! We have become dehumanized! You can not read a persons real needs on a screen nor text! A job or passion offers human interaction and I pray these stay at home on our tax dollars find that truth. We have lost our way… People need hugs and love and someone to listen. If we do not have that face to face interaction we will become nothing more than those who can not deal with lives issues.
Our politicians need to stop thinking about themselves and their agenda and think of the country as a whole. My suggestion today is go out and make someone’s life a little better than it is and not with money! And if it is only leave a space better than you found it -imagine if everyone left every place better than they found it. If you did one thing to make another human beings life better and told them you loved them. If we did this every day- what a great world we would have again! Time to get back to this countries MOTTO… if you do not know the counties motto it is ...

Good morning @MikeSlater and all my fellow Slater Crusaders! I've been following Mike for years and after having MANY one way conversations with the radio or podcast, have finally joined the community here on locals.com. I can't wait for the chance to share thoughts and ideas with you all. Thank you Mike for creating this place. I hope we can help inform each other about our world and support growing our relationship and faith in Jesus.

Hi @Mike Slater! Are you coming back to locals? Haven’t seen any posts in some time.

Los Angeles and The Curse Of Insurrection
Politics By Faith, June 9, 2025

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.

 

Read full Article
The Trump and Elon Battle and The Bible
Politics By Faith, June 6, 2025

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.

 

Read full Article
Ben Franklin and The Big Beautiful Bill
Politics By Faith, June 5, 2025

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.

 

Read full Article
See More
Available on mobile and TV devices
google store google store app store app store
google store google store app tv store app tv store amazon store amazon store roku store roku store
Powered by Locals