MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Politics By Faith, May 4, 2023
Truth, Lies and Jellyfish Christians.
May 03, 2023

Every day we have our shorter "Morning Motivation" episodes and twice a week we have our longer "Politics by Faith" episodes. They are both available here on Locals without ads and with the transcript. Hope you enjoy!

Did Ukraine launch a drone attack against Putin? We'll never know. You can't believe anything you hear, or even see these days. How are we to have discernment between truth and lies? I'm inspired by Nehemiah, who in 500 BC saw right through the lies of his detractors and never wavered. Let's learn from him and vow to never be "jellyfish Christians".


Welcome to Politics by Faith. I'm Mike Slater. Thanks for joining me. If you're new to the podcast, what we do is we take the story of the day that causes anxiety. Anxiety is not good. I don't want it. So we take the story, we break it down, we then explain what's really happening. We lament the brokenness, and then we provide some historical perspective and then biblical peace, which helps the anxiety go away. Then we focus on something that is in your control, because anxiety is usually something that you have no control over.

0:00:35
So we find something that is in your control, and then we end with a nice parting thought to leave on. So that's the outline of the show, and there's plenty to talk about. Every day, more things causing a ton of anxiety. Today, we got word that there was a drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow, an assassination attempt on the President of Russia. Ukraine says they didn't do it. And we got this very encouraging headline, Russia threatens nuclear retaliation after accusing Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin with drone strike on Kremlin.

0:01:07
I'm being sarcastic. There's nothing encouraging about that at all. So we could talk about how this Ukraine-Russia war is just dragging on, there's no end in sight, and that's bad enough. But the real show today, the show is really about how I just can't believe anything from anyone anymore. I can only assume that everything is propaganda from everyone. And this story right here is a perfect example because we got word that it happened, and my first thought was like, well, I don't know, did it?

0:01:36
And maybe that's, there's like a healthy skepticism, but then it goes into unhealthy cynicism perhaps, and it's not, I just wish we weren't here. So I don't know, I don't know what happened. Was there a drone strike? I don't know, is it propaganda from Russia? Is it propaganda from Ukraine? Is it propaganda from the Pentagon? From our own federal government? I can't trust anything.

0:01:54
And with AI, you can't even trust what you see. So I saw a video of this, but like, I don't know, you can try the video. Now, I don't want to get sidetracked here, but the Democrats, just last week, led by the head of the Teachers Union, Randy Weingartner, said that the unions were always against shutting down schools. Are you kidding me? The left is going to rewrite the history books and say that Democrats were against lockdowns and Democrats were against masks and Democrats were against shutting down schools and Democrats were against shutting down churches and it was those evil Republicans who were for all those things. They're going to get away with it, which is wild because we all lived through COVID. We lived through the politics of it and your grandkids one day are going to ask you about COVID for their history report. They have to write and they'll say, Grandma, Grandpa, why did the Republicans want to shut down the churches?

0:02:55
Why did the Republicans want to shut down the entire country? Why would the Republicans do such a thing? And you'll say, what? What are you talking about? But that's what they'll have learned. That's what the history books will write. And that's very troubling. You can't trust anything, even the things we lived through, they're trying to rewrite. And I say, you know, I'm talking about, you know, your grandkids, but there will be people who lived through COVID, who will remember it, as the Democrats wanted to keep everything open. It's like, what are you talking about? Don't you remember? So you can't trust anything you see, you can't trust anything you hear. You can't trust the things you lived through yourself.

0:03:40
Back to the Kremlin. This is especially bad because Russia, in their desperation, I'm assuming they're losing this war. I don't even know if that's true. That's a bunch of propaganda. I don't know. That's just the news we get is that it's not going well. But this could be their Reichstag fire moment. This could be the Reichstag fire. We'll explain that coming up in a little bit.

0:04:00
They could have sabotaged their own Kremlin, attacked their own Kremlin, blame America for it, and then use that as the excuse to launch a nuclear weapon and say, well, we were attacked first. We're not gonna let you get away with trying to assassinate our president. So again, the real root of this story and of this episode today is you can't believe anything anymore. I promise, I don't promise, what am I saying?

0:04:22
I was gonna say I promise this is the last Tucker Carlson clip I don't promise that at all here is a Tucker Carlson clip I don't know if I played this one already or not I don't think I did but I have I think I played it somewhere I just forget where I don't know if it was here if I was on Breitbart on serious exam I don't know where I played it but it's worth playing again he says he can only trust things he smells the the material the physical things that you can smell those are the things that you can trust. Your spouse, your dogs, your children, especially your dogs, but you know, your actual friendships, your college roommates, people in person. As the world becomes more digitized and people live in this kind of, this realm that's disconnected from physical reality, I think the only way to stay sane is to cling more tightly to the things that you can smell.

0:05:15
And I've really gotten to the point where if I can't smell it, I'm not dealing with it. And I mean that. I love that idea, and I'm testing it out to see if that's true. But I do know I can't smell a news report about the Kremlin. I can't smell a Pentagon press conference about what's going on, so I don't trust it. Here's what I want. I want a discernment. I want a discernment that is finely tuned by the Holy Spirit, not just to smell political deceit, but all the lies from the devil.

0:05:46
I don't want to be deceived anymore. The great Oswald Chambers said, your part, your job, is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul. I want that discernment. I want to be so finely, so closely related to God, and so embedded in the Word, and so closely tuned to the Holy Spirit that I can have incredible discernment and not be tricked anymore by anything. Let's lament here for a minute. God, I hate so much that we are deceived. I hate that there's so much deceit, but Satan's called the great deceiver. 2 Corinthians 11 14 says, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. You know, people have this image of Satan as this big red monster or whatever. No, he's the angel of light. He'll look as slick and smooth and sharp-dressed and handsome as anyone you've ever seen.

0:06:53
John 8, 44, there is no truth in him, the devil. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober-minded and watchful. That's what I want to be, sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I just hate it that when you turn on the TV, you can't even trust what you see. And soon you won't be able to trust anything you hear with AI voice technology. Remember the episode we did a couple weeks ago, I had COVID and I couldn't talk. So I uploaded one episode of this show into some AI program, and then typed out what I was gonna say, and the AI program used my voice to say it it was pretty darn close for Like 30 seconds of work if I wanted to really finally tune that you know like and you can't trust Yeah, you can't like it. So there's gonna be a very least with this AI voice Programming there's gonna be a lot of scams a lot of grandma scams, right?

0:07:54
Someone calls up grandma says Oh grandma. I need a thousand dollars I'm in a Tijuana prison send target gift cards or whatever is right and grandma won't be able to tell my grandma's not gonna be like I don't know it sounds a little tinny right it's like well yeah I'm in a Tijuana prison of course it'll be that good but that's just the very basic of fraud that's gonna happen it's gonna get a lot worse than just that Satan is deceitful and devious and cunning this is why we got to put on the full armor of God. That's right. So that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That's what that says. It doesn't say put on the full armor of God so you look great or so you can combat bad guys. No, it's so that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That armor is salvation, righteousness, faith, truth, peace, and the word of the spirit.

0:08:53
That's the armor, we gotta put it on. All right, I can't wait to tell the story of Nehemiah. We'll do that coming up in just one second, but first, Public Square. This is an incredible app. You can download it for free in the App Store. Start small like I did and hit just restaurants near me or coffee near me, and it'll show you restaurants that Share your values owned by people who share your values. It's a wonderful resource. We create a Parallel economy next to the woke economy. That is just getting worse I still don't think businesses will learn their lesson from Bud Light. I still don't think they will and Well, I mean a couple other companies have hired Dylan Mulvaney even still so This will continue because it's just who they are, and I don't want anything to do with them anymore.

0:09:42
I don't want anything to do with them. So start with restaurants near me, and then you can move on from there to every type of service near you, and then a bunch of businesses online as well. And anyone featured on this app agrees with the values that are on their website, publicsq.com, and they're like, I'll say extreme values, but it's a high bar. It's a high bar to get featured on this app.

0:10:03
PublicSQ.com, but those people are out there, those business owners are out there, and it's wonderful to do business with them. PublicSQ.com, you can scroll down and see the values yourself, and you can download the app for free in the App Store, Public Square, our first sponsor. I'm so grateful for them. Whether they're our sponsor or not, I'm grateful for them. It's a wonderful resource, we use them all the time in the Slater family.

0:10:24
So let's do the historical example of deceit first. I mean, how long you got? I mean, what are we doing? I just saw a picture today of Tiananmen Square in China, but not the one you're thinking of, right? The one that they always show is the one with the guy standing in front of the tank. That's the one they always show. But what they never show is the picture after the tank kept going and killed everyone in its path.

0:10:50
That picture is not allowed to be shown in China. And that's trippy to think that there are a billion people who have never seen that picture. And it makes you wonder, what have we never seen? But the short story I want to share here, I mentioned earlier, is the Reichstag fire. That's the classic example. February 1933, Berlin. This was four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as the Chancellor of Germany, when a communist agitator, you can see my air quotes here, a communist agitator, lit the parliament on fire.

0:11:19
And that's what Hitler used as the pretext to claim, oh, the communists are plotting against the German government. And this is proof. This is proof, Mr. President, why you need to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree. It is officially called the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State. A Reich just means era. Like, it means realm, technically, but it's like a time period. So this is the actual decree.

0:11:51
And it's just amazing that they were this blunt back then and got away with it. Today, our politicians are much more sneaky about what they do, and they hide it in colorful language they did not hear. It says, articles, and then it lists a bunch, of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. It is therefore permissible to restrict the rights of personal freedom, that's habeas corpus, the freedom of expression, including freedom of the press, the freedom to organize and assemble, the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, warrants for house searches, orders for confiscations, as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

0:12:38
Isn't that amazing how blunt that is? You know if the Democrats came up with that today, they would say the opposite words. But they would do the same thing, but they would say the opposite and they would trick everyone. Thousands of people were thrown in prison the next day. It's believed that within two weeks, 10,000 people were thrown in jail and they just got rid of all the civil liberties of everyone in Germany. And all of this was based off of the deceit of this, this false flag operation and the people, well, I was going to say the people didn't see through it. I don't know, maybe they did, but they were powerless to stop it. Is that what's happening in Russia today at the Kremlin? Probably.

0:13:20
Could that ever happen here in America? Well, sure. But I want to get to this biblical story because I love this story so much. So we're around 500 BC. It's the story of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Babylonians, which is present-day Iraq, conquered Jerusalem and took a bunch of Israelites back to Babylon. Many years went by, and the king of Babylon let a lot of these exiles go back. And there are three people in particular that the book of Ezra and then Nehemiah go back. Zerubbabel's mission was to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Ezra's mission was to teach the people the Torah and then Nehemiah's mission was to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. Now, one of the reasons I started this podcast was to encourage people to read the Bible. And these are two wonderful books in the Bible to read. There's nothing new under the sun. It's all there.

0:14:35
Everything we need to know is in the Bible. And that's just one of the things like that's if I we take a political story, and no matter what it is related to something that has already happened in the Bible, I just find that incredibly fascinating. And here it is. There's nothing new under the sun. And if you read Ezra and Nehemiah, you're like, oh, yeah, like I get that. So Zerubbabel's mission was to rebuild and rededicate the temple to God, and he did. And there was this big old dedication ceremony. Everyone was so excited because they expected God to do this big thing, and he didn't. And they were all very disappointed.

0:15:08
They were thinking, well, maybe we need more than just a new temple. Maybe we got to get the people back to the Torah. That's what we need. That'll make God happy. So that was Ezra's mission, to reteach the Torah to the Israelites. And it didn't go well. Well people, they talked a good talk, but they didn't really change their lives. Their hearts were not changed in any profound way. So then enter Nehemiah 1, those who survived the exile and are back in the providence are in great trouble and disgrace.

0:15:44
The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire. So when you have a big city with no walls around it, well you know what's going on at our border, your city is going to be attacked. It's going to be attacked by animals and enemies. And a wall-less city is a shamed city. It's a defeated city. The Jews who returned to their homeland were humiliated at their city, how it was never properly rebuilt. Nehemiah 2.17, he told the Jewish leaders, You see the trouble we are in.

0:16:18
Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. It's great, but here's what happened. As he was rebuilding the wall, actually he was almost done. Jeremiah, or Nehemiah 6 is a fun chapter because there's a lot of crazy names and it's easy to give up, but if you just focus and power through, it's actually a really easy chapter to understand.

0:16:42
So, Nehemiah 6, 1. Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall. So I'm already checked out. Who are these cats? Who's Sambalat, Geshem the Arab? What's going on? These are the regional governors who served the Persian king. They hated Nehemiah.

0:17:05
They did everything they could to try and stop him from rebuilding this wall. That's what we need to know about him. All right, so they were there and the rest of the enemies I heard that I rebuilt the wall, and that there were no brakes left in it, though at that time I had not hung the doors and the gates. And some Balot and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?

0:17:40
But they sent me this message four times and I answered them in the same manner. I love that so much. So he was almost done. There were no gaps in the walls, but the gates weren't put up. So he was almost there. So these guys, these bad guys, knew that they had to pull out all the stops to try to get him to stop. So they go, Hey, Nehemiah, let's go. Let's go celebrate. Oh yeah, you've been doing such a great job building the wall.

0:18:03
Come on, take a break for a while. You deserve it." But Nehemiah saw right through the deceit. And that's what I want to be. I want to be a person who sees through the deceit, who sees through the tricks. Alan Redpath, pastor, mid-1990s, he says, whether you be a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist or a Sunday school teacher or whatever your position may be in Christian leadership, let me say that there will always be those who are friendly to your face, but plan your downfall behind your back. Beware of the fawning, flattering Christian who's always fluttering around you, and who behind your back will be the first to rejoice when you go down.

0:18:40
That's these guys. That's Sam Ballett, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab. But Nehemiah had discernment to see who these men really were, and to see what they were really up to. And he didn't hesitate with it, he knew exactly. And he didn't look at the outward appearance, he didn't listen to just the words they said. First Samuel 16, seven says, "'The Lord does not see as man sees, "'for man looks at the outward appearance, "'but the Lord looks at the heart.' Nehemiah had such discernment, he was able to look at the heart.

0:19:10
Way too often people, and myself included, are deceived by the smooth talkers. That's what Joe Biden was. That's all Joe Biden was in his heyday. He was a smooth talker. He was a liar. He had to drop out of the 1988 presidential race because it came out that he plagiarized his law school test and he lied about his exams. Like he's a giant liar.

0:19:32
He always has been. And that the, I got the book right. Clarence Thomas, the Clarence Thomas autobiography talks all about how Joe Biden lied to his face during his confirmation. He's a giant liar, but he was a very smooth and slick talking politician. But that shouldn't matter to us because if we have the Holy Spirit we can have discernment. Someone without discernment would say, oh wow, look this person wants to take me out to lunch, how wonderful! Someone out without discernment will watch the news and believe it. Someone without discernment will listen to the Kremlin or Ukraine or the Pentagon lying to you again. We're just so quick to believe people who should not be trusted anymore.

0:20:17
Who do not deserve your trust. And I love how Nehemiah said, I'm busy. I'm doing God's work. I can't come. I've got stuff to do. And maybe that's the trick. If you know you're doing God's work, it's much less likely you'll ever be distracted by the devil's schemes. He said, why would the work cease when I leave and go down to you? I've got stuff to do.

0:20:40
But they tried four times. Here's the key I wanted to share. This is why I share this whole story. Nehemiah 6, starting at 5. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me, as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand in it was written it is reported among the nations that's a great way that's that's like the old timey way of that's the 500 BC way of saying everyone's saying the gossip it everyone around town rumor has it everyone's saying that you and the Jews plan to rebel therefore according to these rumors you are rebuilt rebuilding the wall that you may be their king and you've also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem saying there's a king in Judah now these matters will be reported to the king so come therefore and let us consult together right so the claim is hey you name I you're doing this just for yourself for your own glory quite an insult to name I name I and it was all again to try to get him to stop building to insult his motive and how did he respond?

0:21:38
Then I sent to him saying no such things as you say are being done But you invent them in your own heart That's it. That's all you need But what a beautiful rebuke No No such thing as you say is being done. You invented in your own heart. I love this, not even in your head, you're not inventing it in your head, you invented it out of your wicked heart. I'm adding the wicked there, but that's the intent here, that's the implication. You invented them out of your own wicked heart. But I love how concise, crisp, clean, concise, no such thing as you say are being done, no such things as you say are being done, you invent them in your own heart. That's beautiful.

0:22:21
That's the line. How many things today are invented out of people's own wicked hearts from rewriting COVID history to what's going on in the Kremlin to any economic spin about the economy, you name it, the debt ceiling, whatever you see on the news today, it's all invented in people's own head and hearts. Why? Well, here's what my success for they're all trying to make us afraid. Isn't that it? Just trying to make you afraid. Whether that's for political reasons or maybe, you know, economic reasons, right? To get you to watch the news, make you afraid, so you turn on the news the next day, like that's it. That's their goal, make you afraid. So check out this conclusion. This is in the Bible.

0:23:05
For they all were trying to make us afraid, saying, their hands will be weakened in the work. So if we make them afraid, then their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands." It's amazing. So all the deceivers are saying, oh we got to spread these rumors or do whatever we can to get them to stop building. And if we do, if we if we say these terrible things about them and if we scare them, if we make them afraid, then their hands will be weakened in the work and they won't finish the wall. And And Nehemiah said, God, strengthen my hands. Strengthen my resolve. Beautiful.

0:23:43
So, what's in my control? Well, first thing, don't be afraid. The bad enemies here, what they were doing was saying stuff to get Nehemiah afraid. So you don't be afraid. Deuteronomy 31, 6, be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you he will not leave you or forsake you that's number one don't be afraid number two read the Bible you got to read his words you got to be deep in his word every single day number three pray for discernment pray for that discernment Oh God strengthen my hands strengthen my resolve strengthen my discernment and number And number four, don't be a jellyfish.

0:24:27
What do you mean? I don't get it. I came across this from the great J.C. Ryle, 19th century British pastor. He was giving a sermon about compromise, lacking conviction. Nehemiah did not. He did not compromise. He did not lack conviction. And here's what uh JC Ryle says. The consequence of this widespread dislike to dogma. Dislike, dogma today is a bad word. It's a pejorative. And he's like, no, that's just conviction. So, the consequence of this widespread dislike to dogma are very serious in the present day. Whether we like to allow it in or not, it is an epidemic which is now doing great harm and especially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call, if I may coin the phrase, a jellyfish Christian. That is a Christianity without bone or muscle or power. This is so good. A jellyfish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little delicate transparent umbrella.

0:25:36
Yet the same jellyfish when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas, it is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, in which the leading principle is no dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine. We have hundreds of jellyfish clergymen who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions, they belong to no school or party, they're so afraid of extreme views that they have no views at all. We have thousands of jellyfish sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge or a point or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner and edifying no saint. We have legions of jellyfish young men annually turned up from our universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it's a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion.

0:26:34
That's so good. If someone's like, well, I don't know, I'm a, what's the word, not atheist, but agnostic, oh, you think you're clever. And to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, hanging between heaven and earth. Their only creed is to be sure and positive about nothing. And last and worst of all, we have myriads of jellyfish worshippers, respectable churchgoing people who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ any more than colorblind people can distinguish colors.

0:27:11
They think everybody is right and nobody is wrong, everything is true and nothing is false. All sermons are good and none are bad. Every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They're tossed to and fro like children by every wind of doctrine. Often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement. Ever ready for new things because they have no firm grasp on the old and are utterly unable to render a reason of the hope that is in them. Wow, it's worth rewinding and hearing that all again. Isn't that our day today? Everybody's right, nobody's wrong, everything's true, nothing's false, and that is absolutely seeped into the church. Never was it so important for laymen, that's us, to hold systematic views of truth and for ordained ministers to enunciate dogma very clearly and distinctly in their teaching. And I guarantee you when they do, this is me talking. Now, when they do, we will all be much more finely tuned to God, finely tuned to the Holy Spirit, and have much more discernment against the devil, against the liars, and for the truth. So, what should we think about? What's our final thought? What should we meditate on? In this new world of AI that we have you can't believe anything you see and People are gonna get really messed up about this That this is really gonna throw everyone for a loop and everyone's gonna be frantic and have no idea what to do But not us not us first John 4 13 by this I I mean, he's talking about loving others.

0:28:47
By loving others, we know that we abide in him and he in us. See, no one else has any abiding, so they're just totally tossed to and fro and have no clue what to do or what to grab onto because nothing is real. But not us. By this, by loving others, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit. spirit of discernment. Patriot, gold, group. See if this is something that makes sense for you and your family.

0:29:16
Gold, owning gold. I don't know, I don't trust the Fed. Do you trust the Fed? Do you like how things are going? As I am recording this now, the Fed just raised rates for the 10th time. They got it under control. This is the same people who said that inflation wouldn't even happen in the first place while we spent more money than the 13 most expensive wars in American history adjusted for inflation combined in a year.

0:29:50
Well, that won't cause inflation. I just don't trust these people. I don't trust their systems. I don't trust the dollar. So, I don't know, I bought gold. So and I bought it from Patriot Gold Group. And if you want to learn more, 1-888-617-6122 for a free investor guide. You may be eligible for a no fee for life IRA and qualifying rollovers. So you can get your IRA or 401k in physical gold and silver as well. Whether or not it's the best, it's a good idea for you, that's totally up to you.

0:30:27
But if you are going to buy gold, Patriot Gold Group is the best. Consumer Affairs top rated gold IRA dealer six years in a row, six years in running. 1-888-617-6122, 888-617-6122, PatriotGoldGroup.com.

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

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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.

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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 ...

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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
October 23, 2025

Good day Brother Slater, et al.,

Regarding your mention of Church Bells contra the apostate Muslim Call to Prayer, a deep history article link, below, for your Kit Bag of "what to think".
May God Bless and Keep you and yours

Pax Christi en regno Christi

Exodus 28:33 And beneath at the feet of the same tunic, round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with little bells set between:

Exodus 28:34 So that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate.

Exodus 39:23 And little bells of the purest gold, which they put between the pomegranates at the bottom of the tunic round about:

Exodus 39:24 To wit, a bell of gold, and a pomegranate, wherewith the high priest went adorned, when he discharged his ministry, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Sirach 45:10 He put upon him a garment to the feet, and breeches, and an ephod, and he compassed him with many little bells of gold all round about,

The Holy Bible,...

October 10, 2025

Good day Brother Slater,

Given your propiquity for History, here’s a Euro-Catholic Christian Feast of Great Fanfare for you and your peeps.

The Salvation of Western Civilization: The Battle of Tours, October 10, 732 A.D.
by Jack Wheeler, October 10, 2022

Gibbon noted that had the Muslims won this day, all of Europe would have been Islamized and Western Civilization would have been extinguished.

https://x.com/RodDMartin/status/1976624966696149365

That's all I got; have a grand and Glorious Columbus Day, you and yours.

Pax Christi in regno Christi

Top Silva 🔝

October 09, 2025

Good day Brother Slater,

Wondering if you have checked out this dialogoue between Ross Douthat of the NYT and Pastor Doug Wilson and if you have any commentary of consequence.

Thanks and may God Bless you and yours.

He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.
Doug Wilson’s political project to “stop making God angry. By ROSS DOUTHAT and VICTORIA CHAMBERLIN 2025-10

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/opinion/doug-wilson-america-religion-theocracy.html

Pax Christi in regno Christi
Top Silva 🔝

Happy All Saints' Day
Politics By Faith, October 31, 2025

It's time for my annual lament as to what our holy days have become. But the good news is, we can reclaim them right now.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. It is October 31st, so it is time for my annual lament about the holiday season and what the holidays have become in our secular pagan country. All of the holy days that we have on our calendar used to be, I should say, all of our holidays that we still have on our calendar used to be holy days. It's a better way of putting it. Thanksgiving started off as a day of prayer and fasting. 

Fasting. Thanksgiving used to be, used to be a day of not eating. And now it's a day of football and gluttony. Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. Now it's Santa and presents. Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus. 

Now it's an Easter bunny and eggs. St. Patrick's day, even it was a day at St. Patrick or Patrick was this guy. He's born in England. It's not even an Irish. And he was abducted and he was put on a slave ship to Ireland. And he spent six years there, six years there. 

And then he escaped to his home country, became a Christian, went back to the people who enslaved him. to spread the gospel to these lost people. And now it's drink green beer and pinch me. And so I was like, this hit me, I think it was like five years ago. And it was around Halloween. I've never really liked Halloween, but it was like, especially meaningless, whatever shred of meaning there even was. 

And I was like, this is really, like, what is this? Like, what is this silly thing? And I looked it up and turned, Halloween is All Hallows Eve. Hollow, meaning sacred. Webster's original dictionary definition, 1828, to make holy. Hollow means to make holy, to consecrate, to set apart for holy or religious use, to devote to holy or religious exercises, to treat as sacred. 

as in our father hallowed be thy name. And Eve, All Hallows Eve, day before All Saints Day. All Hallows Eve, kind of put it together, Halloween. That's where that came from. But what's All Saints Day? I mean, think about this. 

Even Halloween used to be a religious holiday, and now it's pagan. Even worse than pagan, right? It's like satanic in many ways. So I'm talking about All Saints Day. and give you the encouragement that your house can be whatever you want it to be. Your home does not have to be influenced by culture in any way at all. 

You can do anything. It doesn't matter how you grew up. It doesn't matter the things you did when you were a kid or what your parents did. You can do whatever you want. 

You're an adult. 

Think about it like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone or was it Home Alone 2? No, Home Alone 1 when he got a cheese pizza. He said, I got a large cheese pizza and it's all for me. That's you with the holy days that are in your house. You can do whatever you want. So celebrate All Saints Day if you want. 

So I was reading yesterday a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called The Reality of Conversion. And he was, in this sermon, articulating all the reasons why we know conversion exists. What is conversion? Of course, we'll go from a unbeliever to a believer, being born again, as we would put it today. And one of his proofs for the reality of conversion is martyrs. And I just want to read like three different paragraphs here about the existence of martyrs and how this creates evidence of such a thing as a change of nature by a supernatural power in their enduring such 

suffering for a good conscience and the glory of Christ. A very great alteration in life and manifestations of holiness of heart in doings is a great argument of a change of heart. " He said, many thousands, yay, and millions of professing Christians that have had this trial have acquitted themselves so under it as to give the most remarkable evidences of a supernatural love to God. and a weanedness from the world, like they've weaned themselves off the world. For they have been tried with the most extreme sufferings and cruel tortures that man could invent. I'll give you one of those in a minute. And the sufferings of many of them have been lengthened out to a very great length. Their persecutors have kept them under trying torments that if possible, they might conquer them by wearing out of their spirits. But yet they have rather chosen undergo all and have held out in suffering unto death rather than to deny Christ. Such has been their faith, and their love, and their courage, that their enemies could not by any means overcome it, though they had him in their hands to execute their will upon them. And very often they have suffered all with the greatest composedness of spirit, yea, and with cheerfulness. And many of them have appeared exceedingly joyful under the torments, and have glorified in tribulations." Amazing. Many have braved it out through an extraordinary stoutness and ruggedness of spirit. But so it has been with multitudes of all sort. 

Many that have been under the decays of old age, long after the strength of nature has begun to fail. And they were in that state wherein our want very much to lose their natural courage. And also women, even children, and persons of delicate and weak constitution, such as these have by their faith and love to Christ and courage in his cause conquered the greatest and cruelest monarchs of the earth. In all the most dreadful things that their power could inflict upon them, they have rather chosen to suffer such affliction than in the least to depart from their dear Lord and Savior. " These are just the parts I've underlined. Whoever reads the histories that give an account of these things must needs acknowledge, if they don't put out the light of reason, like if you're not a total fool, that those persons had something in them far above nature. 

that they were influenced by some supernatural and powerful principle that men naturally don't experience. And many of those that have thus patiently and joyfully suffered such things before their change were very loose, vain persons, contenders of all religion. Many that were cruel persecutors themselves have been seized with conviction and have then at last borne witness to Christ and his gospel by a patient suffering his will, a remarkable instance in which they have been blessed, which we have in the blessed apostle Paul. He goes and he talks about the state that people were in before they were saved. And yet here they are now. And one more part here. 

I'll end on this. I'll end on this line. It requires something above nature to make a man love an unseen object. So as cheerfully to lose all things and suffer all things for his sake, nature doesn't work in that manner. It may work so as to cause men to have a strong love to an object that they've seen with their bodily eyes and have conquered and conversed with. But it is beyond the power of nature to beget such a love to an object that they are told of. 

of which they are informed that he lived on earth many hundreds of years ago and now lives in an invisible world. Nature may operate so as to cause transient affections about that which they are so informed of, but not to knit the heart so strongly to an unseen object as to have such great effect as these. Only some mighty work of God alone hearts, changing their natures and infusing principles that strengthen them and carry them far beyond the strength of nature would be possible. Great stuff there from Jonathan Edwards. Now, if that's true for us, if we've been converted, if we've been saved, if we've been born again, do we act like it? 

Do we celebrate it? Are we grateful for it? Do we live like it? Do we tell people about it? Do we tell people about our salvation as if we were going to spend eternity in hell? But instead now we're going to spend eternity in heaven. 

Now it'd be nice if our society were a Christian society again. And we had these holy days set up around the calendar to remind us about what's really important. All the holy days that we had on the calendar have been secularized or eliminated entirely or secularized and become meaningless. So again, I just want to encourage you to make these holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, whatever you want them to be, whatever they should be, whatever they used to be. You don't have to be sucked in by the culture to make them pagan. It's your home. 

It's your family. And I would argue that if we stopped wasting our time with Halloween and made it All Saints Day again, we'd live in a better country. Because people would know the stories. They would know the stories of the people we should be emulating. We'd have heroes. Reminders of what's important. 

I always think of the story Perpetua. I'm gonna share two here, but Perpetua I gotta share. I share it every time. She lived in the year 203 under a brutal Roman emperor. She refused to worship the emperor and she was thrown in jail. She was to be executed at the next gladiator games. 

And her father visited her and begged her, pleaded with her to recant her foolish Christian beliefs, this invisible God and do it for you. You're only 22 and do it for your baby. You have a full life and you need to be here for this baby. So just do it, just recant, even if you don't really believe, or if you do believe, but you just say you don't, just so you can be free and live. Just recant it so you can get out of prison, give up your pride. Just say you're not a Christian, you'll be set free, and then you can continue to do whatever you want, but just say whatever you need to say. 

And she refused. In prison, her father visited her in prison, and she said, Father, do you see that bowl there? What is that? He said, that's a bowl. She said, of course. Could it be called by any other name than what it is? 

She said, well, neither can I. Be called anything other than what I am. 

A Christian. Couldn't lie, even when it led to her death. Which it did. at the Gladiator Games. She couldn't lie. What if we had All Saints Day, a day where we celebrated the martyrs of the Christian faith? 

What if this day was, once again, about heroes, martyrs? What if we changed the stories that we told in our country? There was an emperor in Rome, Julian. One of his main goals was to decrease the influence of Christianity in culture. He wanted to water it down. He wanted to create division in it. 

He wanted, he did, bring in more paganism. In schools, no Christianity. was able to be taught. Also, Christians couldn't be taught the classical texts, like the pagan texts, which means they couldn't rise up into the higher classes of power and influence. He just wanted to keep Christians down as much as he could. His goal was to marginalize Christians. 

So he would do some things, like a lot of unjust things, obviously. One would be if a Christian broke a minor law, then they'd get the book thrown at him. But if pagans committed crimes against Christians, then they'd get a slap on the wrist. We see versions of this today. There's nothing new under the sun. Everyone in our culture should know the name Artemis. 

He was a military leader, was a Christian. Two priests were tormented and executed, or so they were, they were exiled and then they died when they were exiled. And Artemis said that the emperor was possessed by Satan. The emperor didn't like this. So the emperor got him, tortured him. They pressed him between two rocks. 

It was so horrible. His bowels squeezed out and his eyes popped out of his head, but he lived. momentarily, but he lived. He lived enough where he had another chance to denounce Jesus, but he didn't. So the emperor beheaded him. I just think of a society that knows that story and thinks on that story, meditates on that story, lifts up that type of conviction. 

Hebrews 12 21 says, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. How would we act if we knew that these great martyrs were watching? They are our example. They are our model. 

And if we don't lift them up, how will people know what to do? 

We wouldn't. We'd flounder. We'd be tossed to and fro. And we have been. But we can't anymore. We're called for more. 

The truth is out there. The answers are out there. The models are out there. The martyrs are out there. In your home, in your family, let's bring them back. Make sure that your kids know the martyrs of our Lord. MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free. It's on the website MikeSlater .

 

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Why Are There 42 Million Americans On Food Stamps?
Politics By Faith, October 28, 2025

This is not a sign of a healthy nation. How can we reverse the trend of more people relying on the government dole and return to the way God wants us to help each other?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. 42 million Americans are on food stamps. That's not a sign of a strong, healthy country. We talked earlier today about creeds. AOC gave a speech where she talked about how there's countless creeds in America. 

The immigrants and people who speak hundreds of different languages. And I'm like, that's not good. The crowd was cheering. There was a Zohan rally. And they're like, oh, it's amazing, 100 different languages. And I'm like, hmm, that sounds like the Tower of Babel. 

Yay, we can't communicate with each other. Yay, none of us believe the same thing about important principles of life and governance. Yay, I think. That doesn't sound good. So then we read from this thing called the American ethos. It was about 100 years ago. 

This person says, the American ethos, I do not choose, excuse me, the American creed, I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk, to build and to dream, fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. 

I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid. to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this, with God's help, I have done. these 42 million Americans. And I don't want to be cruel. 

I don't want to be mean. But this is not good. One in eight Americans are on food stamps. Now I'm taking a pretty moderate approach here. I'm not saying we got to get rid of entirely. Maybe one day it'd be great if we could get, and I used to make this argument, it'd be great if we could get to the utopian ideal, which is where when someone's down on their luck, first you go to family. 

If you don't have any, you go to friends. And if you don't have any, then you go to church. And if that doesn't work or whatever, then there's other charities, faith, you know, Christian based, like rescue mission, stuff like that. And then like way down the list would be food stamps, but it wouldn't even exist at that point. It wouldn't be necessary. I think one reason why people don't want to go to church is because church requires a relationship and people don't want relationships because the person giving the charity may say, Hey, maybe you should stop doing drugs, or maybe you should make these other changes in your life. 

And people don't want to hear it. They just want the anonymity of getting the free money. So you can continue to live in this way that's clearly not going well. Another benefit of having church be the main means of charity is you don't just get regular water. You get a water where you'll never be thirsty again. People want government cheese. 

When if you go to a church, you'll get a lot more than your regular old bread. Charity through a church is a blessing for everyone. And food stamps are a track for everyone. But people don't want to go to a church because again, relationships, accountability, better to just get it for free in the mail. Better for what? 

Of course. 

So I'm taking a pretty middle of the road approach here. And I think for the next few decades, probably, we should limit food stamps to the elderly, the disabled, and people with an IQ under 80 who can't hold a job. IQ under 80, Jordan Peterson talks about this a lot. You can't fold a paper into thirds to put it in an envelope. That's what that IQ is. 

And everyone else, you gotta get to work. It's probably 60 % of people on food stamps is a combination of fraud and able -bodied adults who can work but don't. Probably 60%. So we'll say 20 million Americans are elderly, disabled, and otherwise unable to hold a job. 20 million. That's a pretty... 

Am I a horrible person for saying, I only want to give food stamps to 20 million Americans? I think if we do that for a while, then maybe, and we change a lot of other things in our culture, in our country, then I think maybe we can start to get to that ultimate ideal. But right now we're nowhere even close. Now we did talk on the radio. And we're going to do more on this tomorrow because someone sent me a article written by John Stuart Mill, or an essay written by John Stuart Mill in 1861 about universal suffrage. And it's very funny because this is 1861. 

This was 60 years before women had a right to vote. So this John Stuart Mill, very progressive guy, says, no, everyone should have a right to vote. Everyone should be allowed to vote. Women, laborers, low -income people, everyone should be allowed to vote. Unless, of course, you're on welfare. If you're on government dole in any way, then no, like definitely. 

And he also said, unless you can read, if you can't read, then obviously you can't vote. He went through all these exceptions that would pretty much accept, exempt or remove everybody's right to vote in America. He said, if you've ever been, if you've ever had bankruptcy, you can't vote. If you're in debt, you can't vote. So like no one in America would be allowed to vote. today if this progressive John Stuart Mill had his way a long time ago. 

But we presented this question of if you, just in an effort to shake this up and try to turn the ship around, if you're on specifically food stamps, you can't vote in federal elections. Again, I know there's problems, there's pros and cons to this, and I get it. I mean, you're still human, you're still a person, you're still all these things, you're still a citizen, but you can't vote in federal elections. So we brought this up as just something to think about. And then John Stuart Mill said the exact same thing back in 1861. But here's what I want to talk about on today's show on Politics by Faith, different than what we do on the radio. 

One last thing, someone wrote on Twitter, they said, my mom is disabled, 78 years old. She would die without food benefits. Oh, wow. Do you hear yourself? Your mom would die without food stamps? Your 78 year old disabled mother would die without food stamps? 

Feed your mom. Feed your mom. Honor your parents by feeding them goodness. All right, here's what I'm talking about here. Isaiah 58. Last night, I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards on Isaiah 58. 

I'm not done with it. So maybe we'll do a part two of this when I'm done with Jonathan Edwards' words on it. But let's run through Isaiah 58. It's fascinating. It's about hypocritical religious observances versus true God -pleasing worship and action. That's what Isaiah 58 is about. 

And this opening section here is entitled, Why Do Our Prayers Go Away? And one of the reasons why our prayers go unanswered is because of our own sin. Isaiah 115 says, When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. This is God talking. I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. 

Your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 59 verse one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear. He's like, well, I'm able to do whatever I want people. Don't don't. I'm not answering your prayers because I'm not able to don't be fooled. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 

Adam Clark in 1823, he said, how can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a being? while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies of men. O you most criminal of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of your religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic. " Of course, this applies to abortion today. The fasting in Isaiah 58 that's hypocritical is a fasting that You know, you're fasting to hurt your enemies, or you're fasting for selfish needs, or you're fasting to, the scriptures say, make your voice heard on high so to glorify yourself. This is no good. 

So what's true worship? Verse six, is this not the fast that I have chosen, colon, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out when you see the naked that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Loose the bonds of wickedness. Don't oppress others. 

Undo heavy burdens. Break every yoke. So stop oppressing others, but then actively love others, right? So stop doing the bad things and then share your bread with the hungry. So I know, hopefully you sense the pivot here. So my opening of this podcast is about, the receivers of the welfare. 

And now Isaiah 58 is talking about the givers of charity. And what happens when you serve others? First, it should be done for its own sake. But then when you do serve others, then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 

Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. How about that? So why are my prayers not going answered? Well, here's why. Okay, fine. What if I do that? 

Well, then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day. It's great. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 

Those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall rise up, raise up from the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach. the restorer of streets to dwell in. Wow. If we fast and pray and live a life of righteousness and love, then our prayers will be answered. 

And of course, if you're living that life. then your prayers will be in line with God's will. But I love this line, last part, those from among you shall build the old waste places. So if you do all these good things and you will build the old waste places. Wow, we need a lot of rebuilding today. It's a broken world. 

There are breaches all over the place, but you shall be called the repairer of the breach. There's brokenness, broken homes, broken hearts, a lot of waste places. We need to rebuild a lot. It needs to be a lot of rebuilding. There used to be protections. around sacred institutions or aspects of our life, the family. 

And those have been, protections have been torn down. Therefore the institutions have been torn down. We need to build up the protections again. We need to reclaim these waste places. And I'll leave you with two more scriptures that are convicting to me to be more generous. 1 Timothy 5, 8, anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

Whoa. In Proverbs 19, 17, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript of this episode and no commercials. MikeSlater .

 

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Thank You, Pete Hegseth: Holy Warrior
Politics By Faith, October 24, 2025

The Atlantic wrote a hit piece on Pete Hegseth, calling him a Holy Warrior. She said his introduction of Christian principles is a departure from how previous military leaders have led the military. She's wrong. And if he can lead an organization of 3 million people this way, we have no excuse.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I want to expand on something we talked about in the show this morning. Actually, something we're going to do next week. We'll talk about gambling, sports gambling. It was an incredible hour of the show. 

We briefly mentioned the sports gambling scandal with the head coach of the Trailblazers and all that stuff. But I quickly wanted to pivot into sports gambling and how prevalent this is among people and how dangerous it is. And I don't think it should be allowed because I don't think laws Laws, well, here's the question. Are laws here to protect our freedom or are they here to promote human flourishing? Think about that. Let's table that till the weekend, till next week, over the weekend. 

Are laws here to promote freedom or to protect freedom or promote human flourishing? It's an important question. It'll lead us to two, down two very different paths. Gambling does not promote human flourishing. Let's leave that there. So we'll chat more about that one next week. 

But it was a great hour because we had all these people call in who were gambling addicts, lost everything. And they all said they weren't. Here they are years later and they're not upset at the money they lost. Although hundreds of thousands, one person was a million bucks in gambling. It's not the money they lost, it's the time. And I asked one guy, you know, what's a thing you miss that you regret? 

He said, the birth of my daughter. It was a powerful moment. This forced gambling is a bad thing. So we'll talk about that next week. I want to share this first. The Atlantic wrote an article about Pete Hexeth called Holy Warrior. 

Pete Hexeth is bringing his fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity into the Pentagon. I love this. The fundamentalist interpretation. It's like THE interpretation. I guess it's opposed to the LGBTQIA plus trans -inclusive interpretation of Christianity that exists. But by fundamentalist, she means what the Bible says. 

So she went to a sermon that Doug Wilson gave and Pete Hegseth was in the front row. Although Wilson's Christ or chaos approach to spirituality is interesting enough, I like that Christ or chaos. That's great. The reason I'd come this morning is that I wanted to better understand what Hegseth saw in him. Unlike the 72 year old preacher, Hegseth heads a force of 3 million service members and civilians whose mission, a secular mission, is to keep the nation secure. So she believes that in no way are Christians allowed to introduce their ethos into their profession. 

or leadership or organizations that they run. But the left must. The left must infuse their religion into everything. And it is all a religion over there on the left. Black Lives Matter, trans, whatever it is. It has to be inserted into every single thing. 

They taught transgenderism to kindergartners for the love of Pete. We saw what they did. We're onto them now. And now we're doing it. And there's no holding back. The point I would like to make here is that Christianity has always been a part of our war department's ethos. 

This is the key to her whole article here. She goes into a bunch of examples of how Pete Hegseth is a Christian. All of this is a departure from how previous US presidents and military leaders have understood the intersection of faith and duty for generations. Although America's armed forces have always made space for religion, going back to the Battle of Bunker Hill, that place is a circumscribed one, entrusted primarily to several thousand chaplains responsible for attending to troops of their own faith and facilitating observance by those of other traditions. Prayers may be abundant in the foxholes, but commanders typically do not dictate matters of spirituality. 

" Totally wrong. By the way, she said religion is a circumscribed one. I mean, something's restricted within limits, but like outside of a circle circumference, it's outside of, right? So like we'll allow it, but it's severe, strict limits outside of what we're really here for. Totally not true. Now she brought up the battle of Bunker Hill. 

So I'm going to go as my evidence that this is wrong to the battle of Bunker Hill. There's a book written by J . T. Hedley. He's a historian. He wrote this around the hundredth anniversary of America. 

So 1876, it's called the chaplains and clergy of the revolution. Let's read a couple things here. As before hostilities commenced, there was scarcely a military muster, military gathering, at which the clergy were not present, but they were very circumscribed and kept under strict limits as to what they were on some occasion saying, behold, God himself is with us for our captain and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry the alarm. That's second Chronicles 13 12. It was to be expected when war broke out. They would be found in the ranks of the rebels, that's us, the colonists, urging forward what they had so long proclaimed as a religious duty. 

The first outbreak at Lexington and Concord gave them no opportunity to exhibit their zeal officially. It happened too fast. So some shouldered their muskets and fought like cocks. 

soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Among these were, and then he lists a couple ministers, who showed that clergy could fight as well as pray. It's great. I didn't bring up Bunker Hill. She brought it up. So here I am telling you about what happened with the tightly, very strictly, tightly circumscribed preachers, clergy at Bunker Hill. Yeah, right. 

They were deeply, intimately, profoundly involved. The militia troops were also religious. and their respect for the opinions of the clergy unbounded. To avoid the expense of chaplains, the clergy in the neighborhood of the camp near Bunker Hill were invited by Congress to perform divine service, 13 of them every Sabbath, a request they punctually complied with. Three or four chaplains, however, were attached to the army and prayed with the troops every morning on the common. " I love that. 

Like, hey, listen, we're not going to spend money on chaplains because we're kind of broke here, but why don't you just go grab some local preachers from all the churches nearby? Just knock on the door of the churches and have them come out. And they all did. Some of them grabbed guns and fought. One of the most important chaplains was David Avery. Washington saw in him the embodiment of all those qualities he wished in a chaplain, intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied. 

And again, just to go back to the Atlantic article, what Pete Hexeth is doing is very, very different, a sharp departure from what the secretary of the military has always been, the total return. Intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied in his attentions to the sick and wounded, not only nursing them with care, but faithful to their souls. as though they were members of his own parish. With a love for his country so strong that it became a passion, cheerful under privations and ready for any hardship, never losing in the turmoil of war. camp that warm and glowing piety, which characterizes the devoted minister of God. He rode with George Washington, ate meals with George Washington, close friends with George Washington. 

He's Pete Hex, that's Doug Wilson, David Avery. And he wrote in his journal, again, I didn't bring this example up. She could have mentioned any other time in history. She mentioned Battle of Bunker Hill. David Avery wrote in his journal, early in the morning, the enemy attacked our entrenchments, but was driven back. After repeated trials, they succeeded in dislodging the troops. 

In the retreat, many of Colonel's men were killed. My dear friend, Dr. Warren, was shot dead. I stood on a neighboring hill, the name of that hill was Bunker, with hands uplifted, supplicating the blessing of heaven to crown our unworthy arms with success. This is the reliving of Exodus 17 .8, when the Amalekites and the Israelites were battling and Moses was holding his arms up in the air. And as long as Moses' arms were in the air, the Israelites were winning. So Aaron and Hurrick came over and held up his arms and Joshua went on to defeat the Amalekites. 

This is what David Avery was doing. To us infantile Americans, unused to the thunder and carnage of battle, the flames of Charlestown before our eyes, the incessant play of cannon from their shipping from Boston and their wings in various cross directions together with the terror of the field, exhibiting a scene most awful and tremendous. But amid the perils of the dread encounter, the Lord was our rock and fortress. Oh yeah, but no, a military never had any religious tradition, ever. Only now after Pete Exe. Robert E. Lee. 

an incredible man. He would always attend prayer services, always attend church, no matter what. And he said to his troops, he said, soldiers, let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God. By the way, just imagine if Pete Hexeth said this. I mean, he probably would, and maybe already has or will, but just imagine when this happens and the left would just freak out. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God, asking through Christ the forgiveness of our sins. 

beseeching the aid of the God of our forefathers in defense of our homes and our liberties, thanking him for his past blessings and imploring their continuance upon our cause and our people. Allahu Akbar. All praise the monkey God. No, no, no, not that last part didn't happen. It was praying to God in the name of Jesus. I love this from Washington Post. 

Talks about what Pete's like behind closed doors. Several people told me that he's talked about having prayed over personal decisions. He's praying about personal decision. What a weirdo. And once called for a group prayer before an airstrike. Love it. 

This reporter then said, Hegseth has invoked George Washington as a kindred spirit. Washington was famously private in his faith, and rather than infusing the American government in its infancy with his beliefs, he stood for religious freedom. That's not true. George Washington's farewell address. Again, she brought up these examples. I'm not cherry picking anything. 

This isn't a random letter that George one time sent to his wife. This is his stinking farewell address. Everyone in school always talks about entangling alliances. In his farewell address, he said, I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you in his holy protection and that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another. and for their fellow citizens of the United States. And finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion. 

That's God. And without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. He's talking about Jesus there. Yeah, George Washington here never said the word God. He's a divine author of our blessed religion. He's not talking about Hinduism. 

And he never said the word Jesus. Not in the farewell address. But he's talking about the humble invitation. That's Jesus. Farewell address. But he was very private about it. 

George Washington was not private about his faith. That's a lie we've been told to get us to be quiet about our faith. The Muslims want to blast their call to prayer across America five times a day. 

That is not quiet in their faith. 

But we're expected to be. Not anymore. Thank you to Pete Hegseth for being an example. Her point was, can you believe he's doing this in an organization of three million people? All the more encouragement to the rest of us. If he can do it in an organization of three million people, it's ours. 

MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website MikeSlater .

 

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