Two topics on today's podcast: I love when the Appeal To Heaven flag returns to the news. Also, too many families know what the Reiner family went through with an addict son.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I want to talk about Rob Reiner in a moment. Let me get this out off my chest first. Every once in a while, this flag comes up in the news and it's great when it does. The latest is a USA Today report. 

The congressional reporter at USA Today found a Christian nationalist flag. In his words, a controversial Christian nationalist flag. This one hanging outside the DC office of a top education department official. This USA Today reporter is very upset because this is the flag that was raised by rioters during the January 6th insurrection. Don't remember it there, but I'm sure someone had the flag. It's the same flag that flew at Sam Alito's house. 

Unbelievable. 

It's the Appeal to Heaven flag. It's a white flag with a tree in the middle and in black letters on the top it says Appeal to Heaven. Now this USA Today reporter, after being roundly criticized online, deleted the tweet and he wrote back, this flag is more accurately described as quote, a symbol associated with Christian nationalism. Why? Because when you call it a Christian nationalist flag, it makes it sound like the January Sixers made it up a couple of years ago. It's a brand new flag that they just made up themselves. 

The appeal to heaven flag was commissioned by George Washington. The tree, the pine tree in the middle was a symbol of new England. It's a symbol of, uh, well, it's a symbol of tyranny too, because the colonists, There were all these regulations that the crown put on the colonies of harvesting our own timber. The King's officials would come by and they would mark the best pine trees. It was an Eastern white pine. They'd mark the best pine trees for the King's Royal Navy, but they were our trees. 

and we wanted to use them for our boats. So the pine tree became a symbol of resistance and a symbol of independence and a symbol of our Navy, the boats, our boats that we'd use the trees for. There was also something called the Pine Tree Riot in New Hampshire in 1772. So that's the pine tree. The appeal to heaven comes from John Locke on his second treatise of government. And his point was that if you don't have anyone else to appeal to, in our case, appealing for freedom, then your ultimate appeal comes from heaven. 

He wrote, sufferers who have no, who having no appeal on earth to write them, they are left to the only remedy in which cases, in such cases, an appeal to heaven. And he quotes judges 1127, which says, you go a little bit back actually. Therefore, I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord, the judge. render judgment this day between the children of Israel and the people of Amman. So we have lacking a human court. 

The Jephthah must appeal directly to God and appeal to heaven. I love this story and I love when this flag pops up every once in a while because it highlights a few realities. One, that people have no idea about our history. That's sad. We should all know this flag. Everyone should be intimately aware of what this flag is. 

Second, how ignorant people are about our Christian roots and our Christian founding. where they see this flag and appeal to heaven and they're like, Oh, that must be some crazy evangelical Christian nationalism. George Washington, okay, appeal to heaven. George Washington commissioned the flag. John Locke wrote about it. And to prove how far we have to go still, that flag 

and the concept of an appeal to heaven should not be controversial. Go get the flag yourself. Fly it high, fly it proud. All right, let's talk about Rob Reiner and this horrible, tragic story. Rob Reiner's wife murdered by their son with a knife, slit throats, where it's reported. It's worth, as horrible as it is, I think it's worth taking a minute. 

I think it's important to take a minute to consider, to imagine this. And what Rob Reiner must have been thinking, and his wife must have been thinking, one of them saw the other die. They saw their son do it. The fear that... I don't even know. 

I don't even know. 

Just go there for a minute. It's important to do that, I think. It's about as awful as it gets. I don't know if there's a family, obviously. They made a movie together, Rob Reiner and his son, Nick. It's called Being Charlie, about their experience with addiction. 

Nick went to a It's called rehab for the first time when he was 15. He's been 17 times. He's been homeless in many different States before. I've seen three family photos and everyone in the family looks very happy and healthy and rich except for Nick. He's standing there, but he's not there at all. He's not wearing appropriate clothes that everyone else is wearing. 

And his eyes, his eyes are totally spaced out. It's just not, not there. And it's very sad. And I know this is very relatable for a lot of people. of families as well. I don't know enough about addiction. 

I'm just gonna be honest. I'm tangentially connected. I'm in no position to give any advice at all. What is the balance between people, you know, back in the day we used to say, you have a couple screws loose. That was the old expression. And how much of it comes from, like people are born that way versus how much of it is trauma from childhood. 

What the amounts are of each, I don't know. But I do know, and this is going to be next week's or this week's special is Spiritual Warfare is Real. I know it's real, and I know that plays a role. The Bible talks about alcoholism. Talk about nothing new under the sun. It's there. 

Isaiah 5, 1. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evenings as wine inflames them. Titus 2, 3. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine, not being a slave to wine. They are to teach what is good. It's a sin. 

And if you're addicted, you are a slave to it. It doesn't end well. Woe to those. Romans 6 20. It says, but when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at the time from the things of which you are now ashamed? 

For the end of those things is death. If you're a slave to sin, what do you get from it? Nothing. The end is death. I don't know how to break addictions other than the same way we break any sin. The only way to break sin, and that's through salvation with a new heart. 

We played the clip the other day of Jelly Roll on Joe Rogan's show, talking about a new heart, a new creation, not a slightly modified heart, not fixed a little bit here or there, a new creation, a new heart. Romans 6 .11 talks about being dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. It's the only way to do it. My TV producer sent me a note the other day. It's something I'm thinking about a lot lately. Everyone's always like thoughts and prayers. 

You hear it all the time. Whenever there's a tragedy or thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers or thoughts and prayers go with now. Thoughts is the most ridiculous thing ever, but I'm setting my thoughts. I don't even know what that means. Really. It's definitely become an odd trite thing to say thoughts and prayers, but the prayers part is interesting too, because as my producer said, why not just pray right there? 

Thoughts and prayers is essentially a social way of acknowledging a situation, but not actually praying. Notice this in churches a lot too. You'll be seeing people in the hallways of the church and someone will share something. Oh man, I'll pray for you. And then you go on. And how many people actually pray for the person later? 

How often does that happen? Maybe a lot. I don't think so. Not enough. As opposed to, pray right there. Here's my challenge. 

If someone says something to you in church this Sunday, instead of saying, man, I'm going to pray for you about that. How about let's pray right now and just do it. Let's do it right there. No one will think you're weird. That's the place to do it. Now you do it anywhere, but that's a good place too. 

It's not an odd, it shouldn't be out of character to pray in the church building. What may be out of character is to pray on a podcast. Dear Heavenly Father, I want to pray for everyone who's going through addiction right now. Way too many people, God. I want to pray that you can break their addiction, give them a new heart and have the Holy Spirit speak so clearly to them that they can focus on you. and focus on good things. 

God, I pray for peace for families that are going through addiction with family members. God, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything more difficult than that. I pray for peace for them and a clarity, God, that everything will be perfect in heaven. There will be no crying or pain or addiction in heaven, and I can't wait to be there. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We talk about the Puritans a lot on this show, and they wrote often about how God has limited our comforts here. 

and how that is a blessing so that we don't cling to this life too tightly, but instead we long for what is to come. We long for eternity. Maybe that perspective, if you can relate to what the Reiner family went through for a long time, if you can relate, maybe that perspective can be helpful. That's all I got. mikeslater . locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website mikeslater .

Your Chriamas service might mention Isaiah 9, calling Jesus the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. That's great, but I have never heard the REST of Isaiah 9 quoted. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. Quick, before we get to the main portion of today's podcast, I want to mention the Michigan football coach. Still lots of rumors going around. Don't exactly know what happened, but it seems to be a mistress of sorts on the staff, a young woman on staff. He's married. 

He has three kids. He was taken into custody by police in Michigan. A lot of holes to fill in the story, but apparently he was fired. And then he went to this young woman's house with a knife and threatened either to kill her or himself, both, and then she called police and they took him in and he's in protective custody right now. Daryl Harrison, he said, as a pastor friend of mine once said, sin makes you stupid. Adultery is never worth what it will surely cost you in the end. 

Proverbs 5 says, my son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding. that you may keep discretion and your lips may guard knowledge, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two -edged sword. Her feet go down to death. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not ponder the path of life. 

Her ways wander, and she does not know it. " Harrison said, Sharone Moore, the head coach of Michigan football, is finding that out in real time. Pray for him, his wife, his children, the alleged adulteress, and everyone involved, the situation is as ugly as the sin that caused it. Someone else posted the line, sin will take you farther than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay and keep you longer than you want to stay. It's amazing that someone can have it all. 

Wife, kids, tons of money, fame, power. You had it all. So you thought. So the world told you, but it wasn't enough. So you sought more. 

Blew it all up. 

Parable. Actually ties in nicely to the ending of Isaiah 9. If you go to a church service coming up here and it's Christmas themed, Isaiah 9, the beginning of Isaiah 9 might come up. This often quoted around Christmas sermon or scripture says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, if that's all you read out of Isaiah, you might think Isaiah is pretty nice, pretty good little book in the Bible. Alas, if you read all the chapters leading up to that, it's as heavy and dark as could possibly be. 

Praise God that there is this not only a glimmer of hope, but the brightest blinding light of hope that you could ever imagine. But it is this bright because it is amidst the darkness that is the first at least 10 chapters of Isaiah. Let me just quote a couple quick points of Isaiah or moments in Isaiah 1 through 10. I just picked like four random ones. A sinful nation of people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. The audience, We'll go on. 

Instead of perfume, there will be rottenness. Instead of a belt, a rope. Instead of a well -sealed... baldness. Instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth. And branding instead of beauty. 

Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. And our gate shall lament and mourn. Empty, she shall sit on the ground. Later on, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom go up like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them. 

And the mountains quaked, and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. " Later on in that day, every place where there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver will become briars and thorn. And then the line right before Isaiah 9, what we call Isaiah 9, they will look to the earth, but behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness. But now we have Isaiah 9, but the gloom will not be upon her who's distressed. As when at first he lightly esteemed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, we'll get to those in a second, and afterward more heavily oppressed her by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan and Galilee of the Gentiles, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. 

Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. Let's jump over to Matthew verse 15. Jesus was just baptized. He was immediately tempted by the devil. And the very next section, often titled Jesus Begins His Journey. verse 12, now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee, and leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, of all places, so that when was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, and he quotes, the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, Isaiah was written about 700 years before Jesus was born. 

Here's what I love about this. Neptali and Zebulun, it was as dark and hopeless as you can imagine, called out in Isaiah as being the darkest of the dark lands. But then Jesus, in the very beginning of his ministry, went to this place. And said what? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The people in this region were the first to feel the wrath of the Assyrian invasion on them. 

And they were the first to see the light of the Messiah during his ministry. Now, if I may, a Christmas sermon might stop at the beginning of Isaiah 9 with a very nice sounding Prince of Peace. But if you keep reading, here's how it goes on. The Israelites, unrepentant Israelites. who say in pride and arrogance of heart, the bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild. The sycamores are cut down, but we'll replace them with cedars. 

Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of resin against him and spur his enemies on. The Syrians before and the Philistines behind, and they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. " This is straight after the old Prince of Peace talk. So the Israelites, ah, who needs God? Oh, fine, sure, maybe an enemy will come and knock us down a little bit, but we'll just rebuild, no big deal. They still refused to humble themselves. John Calvin wrote this over 300 years ago. He said, how many are the distresses with which Europe has been afflicted for 30 or 40 years? How many are the chastisements by which she has been called to repentance? Say the same about America today, right? And yet it does not appear that those numerous chastisements have done any good. On the contrary, luxury increases every day. Lawless passions are inflamed and men go on in crimes and profligacy more shamelessly than ever. What then? shall we expect, but to be bruised with heavier blows." More affliction on our nation doesn't necessarily cause people to repent, could cause people to sin even more. So my goodness, what's the way out? 

There's only one way out, being born again. And only Jesus can give us the new heart. This is the Christian singer Jelly Roll. It's Jelly Roll's real name. I don't like using stage names. I think it's silly. 

Jason DeFord. It says Jason DeFord. Right when he walked on the Joe Rogan set, Joe Rogan says, you're a totally new human being, man. 

And here's how Jason takes it. 

You're a totally new human being. It is, man. You know what's crazy? I don't want to get super spiritual out the gate, but I will, because I think God wants me to right now, because you're saying that. There's a scripture in the Bible that says, in Christ, all things are a new creation, which I thought was interesting, because it didn't talk about restoring the old. It says that in God, we are a completely new creation. 

You know what I mean? So like I was looking at it at first, like I'm restoring my heart. But then when you're saying that, I'm like, no, I didn't restore my heart. I got a whole new heart. 

This is a brand new heart, Joe. 

You know what I mean? Yeah, it might be cloaked as the old one, but God touched it. 

It's a whole new heart, baby. All I can end with is what Jesus told us to do when he was in the land of Zebulun in the land of Naphtali. Repent, repent, repent, and he will give you a new heart. Merry Christmas. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com.

Media today doesn’t just blur facts—it distorts morality. From a young age, children are told that good and evil are relative, even reversed. Another “kids’ movie” came out teaching that villains are the heroes. In a world bent on confusion, our goal is to find moral clarity.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks so much for being here. Got a little sneak peek on something we're going to talk on the SiriusXM show tomorrow. There's a new movie coming out. It's called Steps, a new animated film for children that follows Cinderella's evil stepsisters who are actually depicted as kind and misunderstood. Starring Ali Wong and Stephanie Hsu as the stepsisters releasing in 2026 on Netflix. 

So what's happening here? It's same as always. pretty much every aspect of our culture, and specifically entertainment for kids, stories, movies, et cetera. It's a moral inversion. The bad guys are actually the good guys. Or the bad guys, they're just victims of trauma from their childhood, or they're really just misunderstood. 

We see this in real life, too. We see this in the criminal justice system. Oh, that murderer, he just had a tough job. There are two 15 -year -olds from Afghanistan in Germany, no, London. who assaulted, in case there's kids listening, a young girl in a park in England. And the claim was, well, actually, let me, I don't think I'm making it up. 

There we go. I could pause right here, but I'm not. I keep forgetting this is a podcast. I'm recording this, not live radio. Here we go. During the trial, the defense attempted to excuse the rape of the 15 -year -old girl by citing, quote, cultural differences and the supposed trauma experienced by the rapist while growing up in their native Afghanistan. 

The lawyer told the court that his client is quote, not used to a society where women are free. and deemed equal to men. He's not used to a society where alcohol is freely available. He's morally at sea. There are massive cultural barriers that have become massive moral barriers. Fortunately, the judge said nice try, although many other judges have agreed with that. 

We see it in movies here, too. Oh, well, who's really the bad guy? You think that's the bad guy, but they're actually the good guy. I haven't seen Wicked because it looks awful and the stars of the movie just look awful. Like the wokest people imaginable, so I'm out. But I looked up the plot. 

It says here, a central point of Wicked is that the Wicked Witch of the West is profoundly misunderstood due to prejudice, propaganda, and her green skin, which leads to her being scapegoated as evil by her advocacy for the oppressed. The story reimagines her as a smart, fiery outcast who faces lifelong bullying and discrimination, challenging simplistic good versus evil narratives. Born different, the witch seeks acceptance while boldly opposing injustice. like the silencing of talking animals, earning her the Wicked label from the wizard's manipulative regime. The wizard brands her wicked to unify Oz against a common enemy using propaganda to control the populace. Devil, Deville, was bullied as a child and her mother died because she was pushed out of a window by a Dalmatian. 

That's why she hates Dalmatians. So who is the bad guy? The left just wants, the devil, wants to create moral confusion. I'm in the business of moral clarity. All right, that's the news. Let's bring it to the Bible. 

On the radio tomorrow, I'm going to go in a different direction. Here, we're going to thump the Bible. The other day, I decided to go through Isaiah because Isaiah 9, it is said, prophesies Jesus. But I want to know what's going on in 1 through 8. So here's the background. 

I'm just going to go through Isaiah 1 and a little bit of 2. Isaiah is a prophet. This is a period of Israel's history. It's from 2 Kings 15 through 21 and 2 Chronicles 26 through 33. It's all historically accurate. By this point, Israel had been in the promised land for 700 years. 

And it would be about another 700 years until Jesus came to earth, Emmanuel. Up until the time of Isaiah, the kingdom of Israel, the northern 10 tribes had 18 kings, all of them bad. The kingdom of Judah had 11 kings before Isaiah's ministry, some good, some bad. They were also surrounded by Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. So I want to read some of the parts of Isaiah 1 here, and you can see, you can decide if you think there's moral confusion here from God, or if he's pretty clear. Quote, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 

The ox knows its owner, the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. So the people of Israel are dumber than dumb animals. Even the animals know their owner, but we're so clueless we don't even know God. Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. 

The whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence, and it is desolate and as overthrown by strangers. 

As long as Judah rebels, they will keep it. stricken with horrible things. Just repent already. But how about that strangers devour your land, right? Part of God's divine judgment is invasion from foreigners. And then God goes on and talks about the empty practices of sacrifice because their heart isn't in it. 

Bring no more your futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. Your hands are full of blood. I don't really know how he feels here in this scenario. He talks about how the people are like Sodom and Gomorrah, and you will end up the exact same way if you keep this up, Judah. 

There's no moral confusion here, but there's hope. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. 

Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now. Let us reason together, says the Lord. 

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they're red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. " That's moral clarity. Do these good things, good things happen. 

Do bad things, bad things happen. Pretty clear. Let me quote this from Spurgeon just because it's good. Charles Spurgeon says, a wicked old wretch who has taken his degrees in Satan's college has become a master of Baal, a prince and chief of sinners, a Goliath amongst the Philistines. Yet such a man is this word sent today. I would say the people who are putting out most of the content in today's world to children are in this category. 

on purpose. They're purposefully doing this. They're purposefully manipulating kids across the country to have confusion. Here's Spurgeon. Your hands are bloody with the souls of the young. You've kept a hell house. 

You have grid up public entertainments, which have debauched and depraved the young. You have gold in your pocket today, which you've earned by the blood of souls. You have the fool's pence and the drunkard's shilling, which have really come into your hands from the heart of poor women. You've heard the cries of the starving children. You've tempted the husbands to take the drink and ruin their bodies and their souls. You've kept the place where the entertainment was so low, so groveling that you awoke the slumbering passions of evil in the minds of either young or old. 

And so you shall sink to hell with the blood of others on your head, as well as your own damnation, not with one millstone around your neck, but with many. All this may be true of you, Spurgeon says, yet God can forgive your sins and you can be made white as snow. There's some hope. God goes on how the faithful city has become a harlot. My Bible said W. H. O. R. E. It was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in it. 

But now murderers, everybody loves bribes and follows after reward. 

That's all. 

What's in it for me is only all that matters. But we're not even done with Isaiah one halfway through Isaiah one. 

Let's let's skip. 

Let's skip to Isaiah two. 

Can we? 

I can't stop here. I got to do Isaiah two because there's a turn here. The Messiah Isaiah two. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains and shall be exalted among the hills and all nations shall float to it. Many people shall come and say, come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the Lord. of Jacob. 

He will teach us his ways and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. " It's a famous line in our nation's history too. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 

Oh house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Want to stop right there for now. This was to the people of Judah. Jesus was 700 years away, but Isaiah is saying, don't wait. Walk in his ways now. Walk in the light, walk in the light of the Lord. 

Now there's no moral confusion here. There's no, well, your ways are okay too, I guess. No, no big deal. You know, you do you coexist, kind of just figure it out along the way. Maybe it'll be fine. No, no, no. 

You are a harlot or worse. And you're going to die like Sodom and Gomorrah. Unless you do this very specific thing. And there's only one way. Walk in the light of the Lord. Isn't that so refreshing? 

Isn't that so freeing? It's so liberating knowing that that's just all you have to do. That's the answer. There it is. All these terrible things were happening and all I have to do is this. Sign me up. 

But every message from the world is like the serpent. Did God really say? Trying to confuse. Don't let people who hate you get to your children. And then for the rest of us, let's not be deceived. Pray for clarity while the world is trying to confuse you. 

We need to be people of moral clarity. 

Do more on this tomorrow as we build up to Isaiah 9. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot Locals dot com