MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Politics By Faith Podcast, May 20, 2023
Why We Believe The Mindless Narrative
May 19, 2023

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We have a media today that is fueled not by truth, but by clicks. And a media that will make up the most absurd stories (Trump with prostitutes in Moscow) and people run with it assuming it's true. Today we'll share two viral tiktoks to prove this point and bring it back to the false prophet Hananiah to prove there's nothing new under the sun.


Welcome to Politics by Faith. I'm Mike Slater. Friendly reminder that the transcript of every podcast we do is on MikeSlater.Locals.com. If you're new to the podcast, what we do is we take something in the news that is causing anxiety and we don't like anxiety. I don't want anxiety. So to get rid of it, we talk about the story, then we get down to the root of what's really going on in the story. Like, what is the root sin, basically. Then we give some historical perspective and a biblical story, some biblical piece to help that anxiety go away, and then something that is in our control.

0:00:36
So I saw two very disturbing TikTok videos. I don't have TikTok, but they went viral outside of TikTok. And I think it says a lot about where we are. First, this one's in London. Three younger, I don't know the ages, I don't know if they're in high school, maybe just out, 20, something like that. Three younger black guys. By the way, the race doesn't matter. This is all behavior of the underclass. I cannot recommend enough a book by Theodore Dalrymple, it's called Life at the Bottom, and it's about the underclass of England, race is irrelevant.

0:01:14
So there's this TikTok guy who makes viral videos and the game is walking into random houses. Now it's worth noting that in London, no one has guns. So you could play that game over there. So he's walking down the street with, it looks like two other guys. He got three guys in total. And there's a woman outside of her house, in the front, in the garden. So these three guys just walk into her house.

0:01:45
And she's outside like, what are you doing? And she's like, James, or whatever his name is, or James, James! And he's downstairs, and there's a couple of little kids downstairs with him, and here's what happens. Get inside the house, let's go. Hey, Adam. ♪ I'm trying to go, but I can't go ♪ James? James?

0:02:10
James? James? James? James? Hi. You man come. Hello James. We need to speak to James. James. Hi. Hi. Oh. Is this where the study group is? No. No. What the hell is this? No. Now, what happens? Come on, come on, come on.

0:02:31
We're just in the study group. We've got kids, man. Oh, you've got kids on the phone. Oh, I thought this was a study group. I actually thought. And it's a study group. Now, fortunately for everyone, they just walk away. And that's the end of it. Now, again, there's a very high likelihood that if this happened in Texas, he'd be shot. Now, think about that, too, by the way. What if he did, or what if the guy happened to have a knife in his hand and he stabs the TikTok influencer star?

0:03:03
We do like a Daniel Penney situation. He'd be charged with murder. Could you imagine the headlines if a 40-year-old white guy shot three black teenagers? No other facts would be relevant. It wouldn't matter that they walked into his house. None of that would matter. Or even if this was in London and he just had a knife. If a white guy stabbed a black teenager, oh, he was just looking for something to eat. The facts would not matter. Just like the second story. Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

0:03:35
A woman, employee of the hospital, she's a physician's assistant, six months pregnant, by the way, the original New York Post story was that she leaves work and steals a bike from a young black man. Now in New York City they have these bikes, they're called city bikes that you can rent CITI, like the bank, and the bikes, they're locked up in these stalls and you pay with your credit card or your phone and then the bike unlocks and then it charges you until you put it in some other stall, wherever you're going, right?

0:04:06
So the claim is that a young black man took the bike out and she stole it from him and luckily he got it on video and here she is screaming and crying about it, acting like a Karen. New York Post headline, NYC hospital Karen denies trying to steal city bike from young black man. So here's the video that that young black man took. Oh, I took it. Oh, You're not buying you're not crying.

0:05:14
I got you up in here. Where? You pulled it out? There's a very popular guy on Twitter. He said a suspected white supremacist woman that's the lead tried to steal a city bike from a black kid after he paid for it. None of this is true. And when him and his friends wouldn't allow her to steal it she went through all the Karen tactics to try to get the black youths hemmed up. Screaming for help, fake crying, mayo babbling. Did it sound like at the end of that video did it sound like one of the guys said the baby's gonna come out retarded? I think that's what I heard. So this whole thing is framed as she stole his bike and it took about a day or so before her lawyers released her receipt that showed of course she was the one who paid for it. But for whatever reason they decided to come up to her and video it all and try to ruin her life.

0:06:53
She was placed on leave by the hospital because people thought she was a white supremacist. She was in the New York Post as a white supremacist. Jeez. All right. So, we have two things going on here. We have in the second story people believing things immediately without any evidence whatsoever, but believing it so easily because it fits a narrative. And in the first story we have some sensationalism. We have a show. We have watch this, click this. And I want to make the argument here that this is nothing new. There's nothing new under the sun. And there's something pretty darn close to this in the Old Testament, which always blows my mind how everything's in the Bible. So that's the goal. We'll see if it works.

0:07:39
In my head it's great. I'll see if I can make sense of it with words. But what's really going on here? So we got pride involved, we have people doing deceitful things thinking they're invincible. In this case they may be right actually. I'm sure none of these videos is the complete disregard for truth, of course, and proper boundaries, but this added element of doing it for views. So we're going to toss to the wind. We're going to completely throw away and disregard proper civilized behavior for views because Because what these guys did, they themselves put online for people to watch and laugh at and get more followers and this creates this mob mentality.

0:08:36
We talked about mobs earlier in the week and the importance of avoiding the mob. But with social media, everyone creates their own mob even if it's just like a made up one in their head. But they're putting it online so it's like we're cultivating a mob of followers wherever we go, and that causes people to do things that they normally wouldn't do, because now they're egged on by their so-called fans. And we, for a decade or so now, we've just been acting in extra irrational ways.

0:09:07
I don't think those three guys in London would have done that if they weren't filming themselves for views. And I don't think these, maybe five guys or so, and I think it was five guys in New York City, would have done that if they weren't filming it for laughs either. Social media has made people act out of their minds even more than usual. You know what I think of it like, so I don't like birds.

0:09:30
Let's see if this makes sense. I don't like birds. Birds have these beady little eyes and they have no souls. So, they're scary to me because they don't care. From far away, they're fine. Oh, they're beautiful birds, whatever. But a bird up close, I don't like them because they have no moral compass. A friend of mine, here's what I mean.

0:09:53
A friend of mine, his two-year-old son was crawling into a chicken coop and he got stuck headfirst inside of a chicken coop. And the chickens started pecking at his head and they almost pecked his eyes out if dad wasn't there to scare the birds away and pull his son out. If dad wasn't there those birds would have pecked out the kids eyeballs and not even cared. They wouldn't have felt bad. The chickens weren't thinking, well this innocent little boy might need these eyes. This is not proper behavior. This is not becoming of a bird. They just would have eaten his eyeballs and then they would have gone back to eating the bugs off the ground. You wouldn't know that.

0:10:35
I felt like birds and you could see him in the eyes. You look in their eyes you're like oh you don't have a soul and I feel like social media has turned people into equally mindless and immoral zombies. You're like oh I'll just eat this person's eyeballs out. We'll get me views. Great, done. And we've all been made zombified by phones or we've seen it. Hey kids, can you come here for a second? Yeah, yeah, yeah, dad. It's great.

0:11:03
No, I love it. Yeah, yeah. You want, oh yeah, be right there. Right? Or you've done it yourself, right? You're stuck in your phone. It's bad enough when a phone distracts you so much that you go from being a moral, present person into being an absent-minded, amoral person, but it's worse when it goes even a step further into social media making you an immoral person.

0:11:29
You do evil things, and your conscience is so seared you don't even care. You don't even know. You're just like, will this get me views? Okay, great, I'll do it. Let's lament this for a little bit, and then we'll give some history and some biblical examples, because this actually is nothing new, which is supposed to make the anxiety go away, but I do think it's worse now.

0:11:58
But let's lament. It all makes me very uneasy. We're just not able to live together as human beings anymore. On my local radio show the other day, there's a town in San Diego that voted to no longer open up their city government sessions with a prayer. And my first thought was, I'm shocked they even still do that. But it's just a shame that we're not a Christian country anymore. It's a shame that we don't have shared values. By the way, that's why I'm so grateful for the Public Square app, if I may. This is actually a perfect time to talk about it.

0:12:39
We do not live amongst each other with shared values. We just don't. And our founders are very worried about that. I lament it, but I'm also not going to continue to give my money to people who have not just different values, but antithetical values, hate my values and have the opposite one. I can't do it. I'm not going to give my money to Adidas and they're just going to have men in women's bathing suits. I can't. I'm not doing it.

0:13:08
So Public Square is my way out. They have curated businesses across the country and near you, restaurants, coffee shops, banks, clothing, makeup, whatever, everything, you name a thing, cars, whatever. And the owners of the businesses have to agree to five values in order to be featured on the app. And you can rest assured, you can have confidence and a joy in knowing that you are spending with people who share your values. Public Square app, totally free to download.

0:13:41
And you go to publicsq.com, you can read those five values on the website. Just scroll way down to the bottom. Public Square app, totally free download. And I'm grateful it's here. I lament that we need it. Because we just don't have a similar worldview anymore. And we don't all need to agree like lockstep, but if 70% of people had a biblical worldview, we'd be a thriving unified nation. John Adams said our Constitution was only made for a moral and religious people.

0:14:11
It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. I came across this Dwight D Eisenhower quote the other day. George Weigel, he wrote a great piece called Ike's Insight in First Things Magazine. So this was 1952. It was right before the inauguration and he was speaking at some event. It just won World War II and he said, our form of government makes no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith and I don't care what it is. Like, now, I do care what it is chaos. It's this pluralist diversity is our strength nonsense that's gonna kill us. Let me quote George Weigel here. Authentic religious faith reminds us that this world is not all there is and our obligations extend beyond me. Now, one of the things that social media is it's all about me, me, me, me, me. The idea that a camera can be turned around and constantly focused on me all the time, that's new. So Christianity and authentic religious faith, again, there's more than just the here and now and my obligations are beyond just me. He says, what does any of this have to do though with our form of government? A great deal, I would suggest.

0:15:38
As even a cursory historical survey confirms, self-governance is not the norm in human affairs. One or another form of authoritarianism is. You say, oh, but Slater, we don't have an authoritarian government, we have a democracy. Okay, well, here's the deal. Germany, prior to World War II, created the Weimar Republic. It's because the new government was not formed in Berlin, but it was formed in Weimar. This new government was formed by some of the finest minds of the time.

0:16:06
The designers got the mechanisms of democracy right. Separations of powers, regular elections, independent judiciary, etc. But when the Great Depression brought unbearable pressure to bear on that new democracy, the Weimar Republic crumbled. Then Hitler's third right came into power in an election that wrote the obituary for interwar Germany's brief experiment in democratic self-government. The crucial lesson to be drawn from that debacle is that democracy is not a matter of institutions and procedures alone. So they had the ingredients, they had the separation of powers, they had this, they like on the surface it looked like they had all the parts, but that's not all it takes. It also takes a critical mass of citizens, critical mass. That's why I was talking about like a 70% earlier.

0:16:49
I don't know what the percentage is, but it's more than we have now. It takes a critical mass of citizens living by certain virtues and the convictions that undergird them to make a democracy work so that the result is individual human flourishing and social solidarity. I love that so much. All of the things we take for granted, rule of law, which we talked about last week, free and fair elections, to just treating each other decently, decently like you don't just walk into someone's house randomly, you don't steal things from people and video it to try and ruin their life.

0:17:25
These are all things that we've taken for granted. They're not normal. Like the old way of living in America, the one that you grew up in, that was not normal. That was an anomaly. You have to work to get that. And I lament that it's like we've given up or forgotten and now we're in a very different place. All right, let's get to the history. I just thought of a Ben Franklin quote.

0:18:00
Let me share it at the end of the episode here. So, let's start with history and then we'll get to the Bible. Again, we have two things going on here. We have the sensational video. Look at me, I'm going to go into someone's house for views. And then the second story is the lying about something and us just believing it so quickly because it appeals to a preconceived notion like, oh, clearly the nurse or the physician's assistant, the pregnant physician's assistant stole the bike from the five black kids, five black young men.

0:18:35
Clearly that's what happened. Like, what? Why would we believe that? So we're putting those two things together here. And I think of yellow journalism. Okay, why have I been thinking about that? You know the Durham report, right? This idea that Donald Trump was a Russian asset, Russia collusion. Remember 2016 to 2020, all we heard about was Russia collusion, Russia stole the election.

0:18:56
And excuse me if there's any kids listening right now, but the claim was that the Kremlin had video of Donald Trump urinating on prostitutes in Moscow. And because of that, they were able to control Trump and steal the election for him in 2016. That was the, that is insane. That is absolutely insane. But the media ran with it and would not quiet about, would not hush about it for four years. And the Durham report came out and said, oh yeah, that's a lie. Like that, none of this ever happened.

0:19:35
And the Washington Post and the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for it. A Pulitzer Prize back in 2018. Here's what they said, For deeply sourced, relentless, that's for sure, reported coverage in the public interest that dramatically furthered the nation's understanding of Russian interference didn't happen in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to the Trump campaign, the president-elect's transition team, and his eventual administration.

0:20:01
All of it completely made up and they still want a Pulitzer for it. New York Times had no comment when asked if they're gonna return it and the Washington Post said, the Post stands by its reporting. Let me quote John Nolte. He said, you gotta understand what has happened to the left in this country, which includes the corporate media.

0:20:17
To them, the goal of an American living under centralized government fascism is so moral that anything done to further that goal is moral. What they want is so good to them, so righteous, so moral, they will do anything to get their even lie. And they won a Pulitzer Prize for it all. But then it got me thinking about Pulitzer. It's named after Joseph Pulitzer. This is the main guy behind yellow journalism. Do you remember that term from eighth grade social studies class?

0:20:54
This was an era in American media, late 1800s, led by Joseph Pulitzer, also Hearst, kind of an East coast, West coast battle, but the accusations were that these guys were making up wild sensationalist, completely unproven claims to get more readers. Sound familiar? We haven't changed a lick. Social media today is no different. Breaking news! Oh look at this Karen! She's crying! She's sobbing! She stole a bike from black people! Wild sensationalist unproven claims for clicks. Back then there weren't clicks but sales, today clicks. And now people with social media have taken that upon themselves.

0:21:43
Look at this wild and crazy thing I'm gonna do for views. And it's made everyone lose their minds. But the problem is because of broken human nature, it works. So when Pulitzer took over the New York World newspaper, it was a failing newspaper, they were losing money, they had 15,000 readers, and in a very short amount of time they were the biggest newspaper in the country with 600,000. They went from 15,000 to 600,000.

0:22:06
I've told the story a lot here of Woodrow Wilson, the very short of it. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson had a stroke and they kept it a secret for a year. And they kept him hidden for a year. But Louis Seibel did an interview with Woodrow Wilson, wrote this big long article about how wonderful he is and healthy and vibrant. And he's never been sharper and clearer and healthier. And he now has like a new lease on life and a new understanding of what's really important.

0:22:28
He's actually a better president now than before the stroke and he won a Pulitzer Prize for it and it was totally made up. He made up the whole thing. Woodrow Wilson was in awful shape. You could barely get out of bed. He couldn't put sentences together and he made up the whole thing. Lewis Seibold won a Pulitzer for it. He won a Pulitzer Prize and it was in the New York World newspaper. It was in Joseph P. Olson's newspaper. But you just think today how many stories are we told that just are not true at all. The Durham report, Russia collusion never happened. The Republicans in Kentucky just nominated for their governor, I think he was the Attorney General of Kentucky, who did not go after the police officers for killing Breonna Taylor.

0:23:15
Well, we were told that these police officers shot Breonna Taylor because they went to the wrong house. And it wasn't the wrong house, it was the right house. And they were looking for her in the right house and there was a guy inside who shot at them first. But you didn't hear the true story. I'm thinking of, because we're talking about Trump Charlottesville, the very fine people on both sides, lie, like this stuff never happened. But isn't it all just the same yellow journalism that Joseph Pulitzer was famous for?

0:23:43
Buys, reads, clicks. And today, everyone's in it for the clicks. Everyone's in it for the views. Everyone's in it for the follows. And we just go with it, especially if it fits what we really want to hear. Let me give you the biblical example. So I'm reading through Jeremiah and it's just amazing to me how relevant this is for us. These are a people who turned away from God and who are being punished for it. And this is what Jeremiah is warning them about. So Jeremiah was an Israelite priest who lived in Jerusalem and he was the prophet that God used to warn people, the people of Israel, to obey God or else God will punish you by the Babylonians coming from the north and taking over Jerusalem.

0:24:35
And he was right, of course. Israel broke the covenant with God. They were worshipping other gods, Canaanite gods, everywhere. Their leaders became corrupt. They abandoned the Torah. They were engaged in child sacrifice to Baal. It was like awful stuff. So in chapter seven, God says that the enemy from the north is gonna come. Well, God tells Jeremiah, and Jeremiah says that the enemy from the north, Babylon is gonna come and take us over.

0:25:00
Let's jump forward to Jeremiah 28. So at this point, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon put a puppet king in charge in Judah. So a few years go by, and the people of Judah thought that it was now time to rebel against Babylon. Jeremiah in chapter 27 says no don't do that don't rebel you need to just serve the king of Babylon wait and whatever you do do not listen to the false prophets for they are prophesying lies to you. It says 28 verse 15 I have not sent them declares the board they are prophesying lies in my name therefore I will banish you and you will perish both you and the prophets who prophesy to you." That was Jeremiah's message. Enter Hananiah. So Hananiah was a false prophet and he thought that Jeremiah's message was a real downer. So he claimed to be a spokesperson from God. That's what prophet means, he's a spokesperson. He was not. He comes in and says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel saying I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the Lord's house the Babylonians took everything out of the temple I will I will return I will bring back all the vessels of the Lord's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried about one and I will bring back to this place the son of the king with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon." Now, Jeremiah, the true prophet, in chapter 27, said that they will be under the yoke of the king of Babylon. And Hananiah says, no, no, the Lord says, I will break the yoke. Which of those two messages do you think was more popular to the people of Judah? Which one do you think would have gotten more clicks? If each of these guys were running a church today, which one do you think people would go to? If each of these two guys had a TV show, which one do you think people would watch? Well, Hananiah has had a very popular message. It just wasn't true. Bible commentator F.B. Mayer, he says, men who follow simply their own thoughts or are deeply dyed with the spirit of society around them, are apt to prophesy smooth things, to such as live selfish and worldly lives." In other words, people want to hear what they want to hear.

0:27:28
Just like with the media. If someone says something that fits the narrative, no matter how insane it is, we are quick to believe it, if it fits the narrative, if it fits what we so desperately want to be true. So, of course, who did the king of Judah believe? Jeremiah saying, nope, keep going under the yoke of Babylon. Or did the king choose Hananiah? So, Jeremiah's response was, and this is all done in public, right? So, Jeremiah's response was, listen, I hope you're right. I wish you were right. And then Jeremiah says, but look at the prophets who came before me, Joel, Amos, Micah, Nahu, Habakkuk. They all spoke messages just like I'm speaking now from God and they were right.

0:28:12
But still they didn't believe him. Then there was a cool scene. So Jeremiah, to prove his point, he had a prop. He was actually wearing a yoke around his neck. So Hananiah goes over and he breaks it. And then he gives this big speech. He says, thus says the Lord, even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. So, he goes over, breaks the yoke and Lord's like, see, this is what I'm gonna. So, not only do they have the nice, smooth words, he put on a nice show. Just like our media often does. It all looks very fancy.

0:28:48
Then, God, this is later, then God spoke to Jeremiah to go tell Hananiah and said, you have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron. I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him. In other words, nice try. Nice try, Hananiah. You can't beat God. But don't worry for Hananiah. It ended up okay for the false prophet.

0:29:23
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah, The prophet, hear now, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. Therefore, says the Lord, behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the Lord." So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year. It did go badly for him. So to relate this to today, Hananiah told the people what they wanted to hear. He did not want to consider the reality of the situation. He did what was right in his own eyes and he did it in a flashy way, in a way that deceived people from what was true.

0:30:12
Those two social media videos just made me think of this story as everything is so sensational, everything is so convenient, all just fits perfectly. People aren't asking questions, and people are acting out of their minds, not using a dose of common sense, or even wanting to. It's just what makes me feel better. All right, Slater, what's in my control? There's this term going around. I heard it first from Albert Moeller. He was referencing an article in the Wall Street Journal called a diet of darkness, a diet of darkness that the article in the Wall Street Journal is TikTok feeds teens a diet of darkness. A recent study found that when researchers created accounts belonging to fictitious 13 year olds, they were quickly inundated with videos about eating disorders, body image, self harm, and suicide. Of course they were it's a Chinese spyware weapon of war. This is what China was intentionally sending to 13 year olds.

0:31:17
Another article this week in the New York Times, how do you actually help a suicidal teen? It's a dark time for therapists treating adolescents in despair. Gallup poll from this week, US depression rates reach new highs. I think there's a lot of things going on here. But one of the major problems is social media. We've got to protect our kids from this stuff. It is changing our kids, it's changing all of us.

0:31:39
It's changing our nation. It's changing the soul and character and behavior of our nation. It is bad news. And it's such a bummer. And I'm sorry, I hate it. If you happen to have raised your kids in this era when we didn't really know better, I was raised just before it. So I, for the most part, escaped it. Although I have my own temptations as a young adult now. My kids, fortunately, are being raised when we have enough knowledge and wisdom to know it's dangerous, so I'll be able to protect them from it.

0:32:11
I just mourn for the kids who got caught up in it. So that's the first. We need to think of social media as just a deadly poison. It is a deadly poison. Boys and girls, I beg of you, keep your kids off of it. Going back to that author of from First Things magazine, we need to make sure we're feeding ourselves spiritual nourishment, because that will help us better detect the lies and even more crave the truth. George Weigel wrote, as C.S. Lewis observed, our spiritual natures demand nourishment.

0:32:55
Denied healthy food, they will ingest poison to the detriment of both authentic religion and democratic public life. We need to feed our spiritual life with true eternal things. Next week's morning motivations are about growing in grace. And the conclusion, I'll give you a little sneak peek, once we set the groundwork for the fact that we need to grow in grace, then do we want to grow in grace? And then how do we grow in grace?

0:33:20
It's pray, read the Bible, self-examine. That's it. Got to pray, got to read the Bible, self-examine. And you know, you'll be growing in grace. One of the signs is you will take more interest in spiritual things every year. So your desire, you just need spiritual nourishment every day and then the silliness of life will decrease. Like your desire for the silly things will go down. And JC Rao makes the point, he's like, listen, not all the amusements in life are inherently sinful, right?

0:33:57
And you don't need to condemn people who engage them to hell, right? but they just take less and less of a hold over your life and you seek more eternal affections That's a sign that you're growing in grace. That's a beautiful thing So we need to do that and the more you feed yourself spiritual truth spiritual nourishment The more you need of it, and that's great. And then, just to reiterate that point, the more spiritual nourishment you have, you'll be better to see the lies, and it's less likely that you'll be tricked by the false prophets of today.

0:34:40
All right, so how do we end here? What are you gonna leave me with? Well, Exodus 23 says, do not spread false reports, and do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. Right, that's it. I should have come out with that. Do not spread false reports. Don't lie. That's what the guys in the second video did and do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.

0:35:00
That's the first video was they were a part of the crowd. Maybe they were leaving the crowd, but same idea. They were doing wrong and they're doing it with a crowd amidst the crowd, with their own mob. Exodus 23, do not spread false reports. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. But I want to leave you with this Ben Franklin quote that I just came across. Let me pause here for one second. Let me go get it. All right, here it is. I'm back. This is James Madison writing about what Ben Franklin said in 1787. So Ben Franklin, this is the Constitutional Convention and things weren't going that well. He stood up and said, Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks, our different sentiments on almost every question, is, me thinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which have been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all around Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation, it's like feeling hopeless.

0:36:25
In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. We prayed and it worked and you know it.

0:37:03
To that kind of providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national happiness. And we have now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? Gosh, can't you relate to that in your life too? I was thinking about, oh, the NICU, we were praying every day and now, oh, we're good now. I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice? Is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this.

0:37:51
And I also believe that without his concerning aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. We shall be divided by our little political local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business." Benjamin Franklin.

0:38:36
How beautiful is that? We have to pray the same for our country. We have to pray for the same in our lives. To go back to Exodus 23, God, I don't want to spread false reports. I don't want to follow the crowd in doing wrong. I only want to know the truth. I only want to know more about you. This podcast is brought to you by Patriot Gold Group, PatriotGoldGroup.com. Last week on the TV, we did a special on the war on the US dollar and it was fascinating. We talked about the central bank digital currency, CBDC, and just that is the ultimate tool of tyranny. And we talked about the dollar no longer being the reserve currency of the world and what that means for you and me and what that means for gold.

0:39:17
Consider gold, see if this makes sense for you and your family. The bottom line for me, the reason I bought gold is I don't trust the people in charge at all and they're gonna blow it. Because you know what, they're not doing what Ben Franklin suggested we all do. They're not praying to God for wisdom. They're relying only on their own human understanding and it will fail.

0:39:38
And all of us are gonna be hurt by it. So I bought gold as a hedge against them. One eight at eight, six one seven, 61 22. And then well, who do you buy gold from? Pitcher Gold Group, it couldn't have been easier. Jack's awesome, the CEO. It's like shockingly easy. This gold, like the FedEx man delivers gold to your door. 1-888-617-6122. That's physical gold and silver.

0:40:07
And you can also ask about how you can have a no fee for life IRA where your IRA or 401K is in physical gold and silver as well. And they are the consumer affairs top rated gold IRA dealer six years in a row and counting. 1-888-617-6122 for a free investor guide or patriotgoldgroup.com. or patriotgoldproof.com.

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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
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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