The One Big Beautiful Bill last year made some reforms to food stamps. It's now been a year, and the Washington Post searched for some sob stories about how Trump is cruel and awful. But what does the Bible say about food stamps?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day and bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective because there's new headlines every day and that can cause a lot of anxiety. We don't have time for that. We got a country to save here. No time for anxiety. Ecclesiastes says it's not the new under the sun, so we don't need to be scared or anxious about the news of the day and the headlines of every single day. 

So thanks for being here to get the true story. The story of the day today, Washington Post wrote an article, Trump's one big beautiful bill has cut food assistance for millions of Americans. SNAP benefits have plummeted by half in Arizona, a year after President Donald Trump's signature legislation. All right, what really happened here? The one big beautiful bill, remember that? As the Washington Post put it, part of the bill tightened eligibility for food aid and pushed states to do more screening. 

It turns out the number of Arizonans, that's the state that they really focused on, the number of Arizonans on food stamps was cut in half. That's 500 ,000 people, including 200 ,000 children, no longer on food stamps. I assume starving to death. Look for some death tolls coming soon. Now we need to be clear because the Washington Post does not. How did the One Big Beautiful Bill heighten eligibility? 

That's how they put it, right? It tightened eligibility. So you used to need to work until your mid fifties. Now you have to work in order to get food stamps. You have to work from the ages of 18 to 64. You also need to do something. 

This is for able bodied adults. Nothing in the One Big Beautiful Bill with food stamp reform affects disabled people in any way. Able bodied adults, important distinction here, have to work 80 hours a week. month, 20 hours a week, part -time job. You have to work, volunteer, or do approved job training to get by. To be clear, you don't have to do anything. 

You just can't get food stamps. If you're an able -bodied adult who isn't trying to get a job, like job training, volunteering, like helping the community in some way, or actually have a job, you can do that. You don't have to do this. You're not going to get taxpayer -funded welfare. Also, they changed the eligibility for parents. So if you're a parent, you don't have to work to get the food stamps. 

It used to be until your kids turned 18, but now it's 14. So they lowered that. So if you have a 14 year old who's at school all day, then you need to go get a job as well. They also tightened eligibility for non -citizens. Much harder to get if you're a legal alien or not here, or if you're just not a citizen. Remember when the one big beautiful bill was going around being debated? 

There were, you know, the left had all these sob stories that they were sharing and none of them were true because all the sob stories they talked about were for disabled people in some way. That's not what this is for. This is able -bodied adults. So I'm thinking, all right, Washington Post writing an article about it, like checking in a year later, like what sob story are they going to come up with? So my first thought is single mom, five kids, now they're 14 and older. So now mom's got to go get a part -time job. 

That was the worst scenario I could think of in my brain of who this article is going to be about. So who did the Washington Post find to pull on our heartstrings? That that's that's it. That was pretty much that story. But for kids, Michelle Flowers says it took eight months for her to get her food stamp benefits reinstated after they lapsed last year. And she only got it done, she said, because she was laid off from her job at a call center 

and finally had time. So part of this article is about how long it takes to just work through the system. I don't think that's that bad. I think applying for food stamps would be pretty miserable. It should be worse than the DMV. However bad having a job is, getting food stamps should be worse. 

It should be so painful. People are in line or on hold, and they're like, you know what? I'll just get a job at this point. I'll mop the floors here. I'm standing in line at the welfare office. I'll just mop these floors and you pay me in two weeks. 

How about that? Instead of me standing here, I'll be in line here for a month. So I'll just mop the floors. You pay me in two weeks and we'll call it even. Right. So I don't, I don't know if that's like, I don't know if it should be easy. 

The 36 year old mother of four was exactly the kind of person the supplemental nutrition assistance program was meant to help. Not really food stamps, like 36 year old mothers of four. One of the main problem with food stamps is that welfare has replaced the father. Without food stamps, I think men and women would make better marriage and mating choices. But for a few decades now, they haven't needed to do that. The daddy government will come in and fill the void. 

She said they're making the process too hard, Flower says, as she waited with a friend now navigating that system in a benefits office in Phoenix. So the Washington Post doesn't go into any details about Flowers, this woman's life or decisions or any details about anything at all. It sounds like she's a mom who had a lot of kids and doesn't have a job. And there's no dad around. I don't know how many dads, but there's no dad around. So she's got to do something. 

She's got to find it. And now the kids are over 14. So she's got to find a job. She's got to volunteer. She's got to do something already. get food stamps. 

That's it. That's the story. That's the end of their sob. There are no other sob stories. The one thing that was it. The Bible is very clear about this. 

Second Thessalonians 310. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. End of story. There it is. I don't know if we've ever done anything more like clearly relevant, like a story that where the Bible is like right there. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Eat. 

That's the end. That's it. Now again, unwilling to work. There are some people who are unable to work. That's who food stamps should be there to help. We're talking about the unwilling to work. 

And that's what the Bible says to able bodied adults. When this is being debated about, you know, being put in the one big beautiful bill, the left is freaking out about all the disabled people who are on food stamps are getting kicked off. That's not what that was all lie. Like they're fine. This is for able bodied adults. All right, let's go to the Bible here. 

So what do we do with this? So you're so cruel. That's what the Bible says, I don't know what you want me to do. We are also commanded in the Bible, Deuteronomy 15, 11, for there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in your land. And Paul in Colossians 2 .10 says they desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do. 

Now, again, obvious distinction between the widow and the unwilling. Also, there are some people who are poor because of circumstances out of their control. And we need to have that discernment. And that's where church and charity come in and provide that discernment. The government can't. They can't provide discernment. 

And they've never even really tried. It's like, Trump is like the first attempt at being like, all right, let's tighten this up a bit. What would a church do? What standard would a charity have? As opposed to just the government handing out money to illegal aliens and everyone else that just asks. We used to also have a society with shame, where people were ashamed to get welfare. 

In the movie, it was a Cinderella man where the boxer goes after he wins a fight, he goes back to the welfare office and gives the money back to the welfare office. Not only have we made efforts to de -stigmatize, I think that should be stigmatized, but we, you know, we call it, instead of calling it food stamps, we called it WIC and now we call it SNAP. Sounds fun. And we've replaced the actual physical stamps. There used to be actual stamps with this digital card, so no one knows, but there should be some stigma on it actually. Here's what I want to talk about though, in light of this story. 

Sermon on the Mount. We are often told to Not judge. Don't judge. Can't judge. Judge not. Jesus said. 

Jesus says don't judge. I love when non -Christians tell you they'll do something horrific. And we're like, that's not a good idea. They'll say, oh, that guy in that book that I don't believe in says you can't judge me. Not allowed to judge anyone. Can't judge people for their behavior, for their actions, for their lifestyles. 

No judging ever. Jesus said judge not. But of course he did not mean to never have discernment. And we know that's not what he meant because the very next section says do not give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you how do i know who the dogs are if i can't judge how can i watch out for people in sheep's clothing, for wolves in sheep's clothing who appear to be harmless and honest, but I can't judge if they're wolves or not. Jesus said, don't judge. 

Jesus said, you shall know them by their fruits, but I can't judge fruit, good or bad, not allowed to do anything. Of course, that's not what Jesus meant. Of course, we're supposed to have discernment. I like this insight from Mart Lloyd -Jones. This is a section he wrote about passing judgment, or I should say passing. It's like a different term. 

Having discernment within the church, among church members. He said, they show clearly that judgment is to be exercised in the realm of the church. This is worthy of an entire study on its own because owing to our flabby ideas and notions, it is almost true to say that such a thing as discipline in the Christian church is non -existent today. He wrote this in the fifties, maybe. He said, when did you last hear of a person being excommunicated? When did you last hear of a person being kept back from the communion table? 

Go back to the history of Protestantism, and you'll find that the Protestant definition of the church is that the church is a place in which the word is preached, the sacraments are administered, and discipline is exercised. Discipline to the Protestant fathers was as much a mark of the church as the preaching of the word and the administration of the sacraments. But we know very little about discipline, and it's the result of this flabby, sentimental notion that you must not judge, and which asks, who are you to express judgment? But the scripture exhorts us to do so. We're also told to be on the lookout for false doctrine, but we're not allowed to judge. So clearly that's not what it means. 

It doesn't mean you're supposed to turn off your brain. So what does judge not mean? Jesus says, judge not. What is he talking about? Quite simply, it means we should exercise discernment, judgment, but not assume the role of ultimate judge as in condemnation for eternity. We've been told don't judge. 

It doesn't mean turn your brain off from being able to think. No, we're supposed to think critically and carefully and distinguish right from wrong. And we could critique beliefs and teaching and conduct. But we can't pass a final judgment on a person's soul or their worth before God. That final verdict is for God alone. We also have to judge properly with humility and realize that you're no better. 

I'm no better than that person on welfare. It's easy for me to say, oh, you shouldn't do it. And maybe they shouldn't. But you have to say that with the humility of knowing that my entire ability to work, the situations that I've had in my life are all a blessing from God. So you can make a discernment and say that person has no work ethic. It's true. 

You can make a discernment, a judgment and say that person made terrible life decisions about having kids when they shouldn't have had kids, shouldn't have had relations with that guy again, right? Like you can make, you could say that, but also say with the humility of, oh gosh, God, I am so grateful that you gave me parents who had a work ethic to show me what it looks like. And God, I'm so grateful that you gave me an amazing wife and a wonderful family, right? So true criticism is thoughtful and fair and constructive. to them and to others listening. That's fine. 

It's good. I like this summary. Biblical judgment is discerning but humble, principled but charitable, careful but not cynical, and honest about error but hopeful about people. It is right and proper and biblical to say, no, you're able -bodied. You have to work if you want money for food from the government. That's not judgmental. 

We leave the final judgment, however, to God.

Bryan Johnson is a super-rich tech bro who thinks he can biohack his way to immortality. He was just diagnosed with an incurable disease. We can criticize his foolishness, but the truth is, we aren't much different from him.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so you can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day. That can be, make me anxious. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. 

And if you could subscribe to our YouTube page, that'd be great. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. The story of the day today, Brian Johnson is going to die. Here's what really happened. Have you ever come across this guy before? 

Is that name ring a bell? Brian Johnson. He's a super rich Silicon Valley man. venture capitalist guy. He's not a Christian, so he worships the self. That's what happens when you're not a Christian, you worship yourself. And his form of self -worship is to see if he can live forever. 

That's his goal. His goal, his life goal is to live forever. Now, different tech bros have different ways of doing this. One way is through AI. So the idea here is you upload your entire life and your writings and your emails and all your thoughts up into this AI server so that when you die, you live forever in a computer, right? So people can communicate with you. 

And, and, and you're like, imagine like emailing or texting a deceased parent or child or loved one. That's just, it's just terrifying to me. And so the idea of it is how much, this is the question, like how much of our lives are we going to be living in AI so that when you die, you don't even know you're dead. Like you're still living on in AI. That's what the technology people today, a lot of these tech guys want to try to figure out and make it so that you don't even know you're dead. Like you really think you are living forever. 

It's very matrix sounding, but that's one terrifying thing that some tech guys are doing right now. basically like they want AI to replace the soul so that your soul can live on. Your soul, your AI soul can live on forever here on earth. The other way that this, I want to live forever idea is being implemented is with this guy. Brian Johnson decided that the way he's going to live forever is to literally live forever. like his body he wants his body so i guess a good way of putting this is the the first version i brought up is that's this like fake soul to live on forever brian johnson wants his body to live forever so he's done everything he can to like hack his body. 

He goes to bed at 8 .30 every night, wakes up at 4 .30 precisely every single morning. Goes immediately underneath these lights to set his circadian rhythms. He does, I don't know, his electrode heart rate variability therapy. He does this precise workout regime, eats a precise number of calories every day. He only eats from 6 a . m. 

to 11 a . m. every day, takes like 100 pills a day. Every you know, zinc, all the vitamins and stuff you could possibly imagine, spends millions of dollars a year. He built this home laboratory with this dedicated medical staff to track every aspect of his health, constantly taking blood panels, red light therapy, gene therapies, tried this plasma stuff. One of the creepy ones that got a lot of attention a couple years ago is he would take plasma from his son and inject it into himself, right? 

He claims He has the body of an 18 year old, but he puts every aspect of life into like a checklist, like a box. So one of his aspects of health is he wants to meet with one in -person, he has to have one in -person friendship contact a week to support his social health. And you're like, yeah, that's a good thing to do, but checking a box, that's not really in the spirit of friendship or life. His philosophy, and this is so sad, his philosophy, this is the name of his documentary that he made, like this is his, If you go to his Twitter page or his Facebook page, like this is what it says up at the top is don't die. It's like he's gamified his body for maximum longevity, but he was just diagnosed with an incurable stomach disease. 

He says his stomach is eating itself. So he is going to die. Now we're all going to die. Not sure when exactly. Some people have a better idea of when, as you get closer to the end, kind of a better idea of when the end will be. But even then, you don't know for sure. 

But I can assure you, you will die. We don't like to think about this. I don't know why. I like to think about it. We should think about it. We used to live in a society where you couldn't not think about it. 

People were dying all the time. You probably had six kids who died in child when they were born. Probably had a wife or two who died giving birth. Like you were surrounded by death all the time. Today we're not. We've sanitized it from pretty much every aspect of our life. 

But death was a pretty normal thing. Like most people saw many people die in their life. Have you seen anyone die? Really? And even maybe you think you have in the hospital. or something, like my dad in the hospital, it was also sanitized and hospital -like. 

And you know, then even then the body's whisked away and that's, that's the end, right? So we don't really have any associations with death like we used to. So we kind of forget that we're going to die. So I'm just here to tell you, you will. Now, not everyone has died. True. 

Enoch and Elijah, those are the only two. They were taken by God. Actually, I think the Bible is pretty funny on this. I don't, I don't think the intention here was to be funny, but in Genesis five, uh, it says the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years and he had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died. When Seth lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 

Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died. That's the genealogy of Genesis 5. It keeps going on and on and on and it always ends with, and he died. But Enoch was taken by God and Elijah and Elisha were walking together and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Those are the two. 

And, uh, Brian Johnson's never going to join that list because you cannot hack your way to immortality. And God, so the first thing is you will die. Second thing, God already knows how long you're going to live. He knows when you're going to die and how. Job 14, 5, our days are fixed. The number of our months with you, you set a statute, a statute, and we can't exceed it. 

Our days are fixed. Psalm 139, 16, your eyes saw my unformed substance and your book were written. Every one of them, the days that were formed for me. when as yet there was none of them. So God knows even before you were born, how long you would live. God's outside of time and he knows everything. 

So you can't biohack your way past God's control and power and like take the right number of vitamins. Now, I don't want to totally dismiss all of this. Like some people take that to mean like, well, I can just do whatever. And like, there are things that are still in your control within the days that you have. So God may know that you're going to die when you're 82 years and six days. Oh, but it's not that close to your birthday. 

Although it'd be pretty cool to make it to 82. It's something to celebrate. Whatever the day is, he may have those numbered, but there are things in your control that you can do to make those 82 years and six days better than they otherwise would. Right. Does that make sense? So the amount you move, exercise, all that stuff. 

Right. So there are some things that are within your control, but the days are not. And it's sad that someone could be so deluded into thinking that they can live forever in their earthly body. Maybe it's even worse that someone would want to live forever in their earthly body. So let's go to the Bible. Um, because here's the truth. 

We can talk about how sad it is Brian Johnson for him to live his life in this way, but we all kind of live like it. Not with the doctors and the constant blood panels and all that stuff. We don't, no one lives like that, but we live with the same mentality. We all live like we're going to live forever. or we live like this is all there is. We live like we're going to live forever because we don't. 

do what we need to do now. We don't take care of the things we need to take care of now. We don't do the things we need to do now as if we have forever to do them. And we live like this. We live like this is all there is when we don't consider all the actions, all of our actions based on eternity. This one short blip that we call life. 

We live like this short blip of existence. Is this the end of it? But in reality, eternity is forever. It's sad because Brian Johnson dedicating his life to keeping this forever. But this isn't forever, and it's not meant to be forever, and it's not forever, and it shouldn't be forever, and I don't even want it to be forever, but eternity is. We just can't comprehend it. 

We can't comprehend eternity. Our heads can't wrap our head around it. There's no end to it. We just can't think that way. So we live our life in a way that says, you know, YOLO, you only live once. Who cares what I do here? 

And we live in this fallen atheist society that doesn't even think heaven exists or hell. So we don't think that there's an eternity after it. So as delusional and sad as you think Brian Johnson is, we, for the most part, are much better. We spend so much time on the things of this world and planning for things that we think are coming. And there's prudence, of course. Proverbs talks all about it, but we don't think about eternity. 

I mean, Jesus is so clear. Treasure and set your treasure in heaven. What about my 401k now? It's like, yeah, okay. 401k now, but also treasure in heaven. Like that's where it needs to be. 

And life is a vapor. The Bible says life is a vapor. So how should we live our life? Well, with eternity in mind, with the afterlife in mind. Our life today should be lived with the afterlife in mind. Brian Johnson, his main problem was he didn't think there was an afterlife or he wants to avoid the afterlife. 

He can't. But I want to live in such a way now that I only am considering the afterlife. Jonathan Edwards, he said, our lives, though short, are deep, beautiful, and meaningful if we view them as means to glorify the eternal God. When Jonathan Edwards was young, he was like 19, he vowed, while I do live, I should live with all my might to glorify God. Why is Brian? What does Brian Johnson live for? 

His motto was don't die. Big whoop. Jonathan Edwards motto was something more like live for eternity. And of course, with that comes a yearning to die. I can't wait to die. How great will it be to be in heaven? 

Why do I get to heaven? Great question. Believe that Jesus is the son of God who died for your sins and go get baptized. Peter said, and it's the only way you can't. Avoid it. You can't avoid dying. 

And when you do die, go in one of two places. Peter said in Acts 4 .12, salvation is found in no one else for there's no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Now in our post -Christian world, we think everyone goes to heaven. If heaven is ever considered a thing that exists, everyone goes there or, you know, you just gotta be nice. All right. But the truth is only Christians go to heaven. 

John 3 .36 says, whoever believes in the sun has eternal life. Eternal life. But whoever rejects the sun. will not see life. For God's wrath remains on them. That's one of my favorite verses right there. 

God's wrath remains. God's wrath is on the unbelievers. already. If you are unsaved from that wrath, then you will go to hell for eternity. If you're saved, then you're saved from hell and you'll go to heaven. Life is short. 

Eternity is forever. Live life accordingly right now. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. Please subscribe on our YouTube page. Helps us with the algorithm. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. Spread the word.

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I love when pagans criticize Christians for not being "Christian enough" or the right type of Christian that they would prefer. Obviously, don't listen to them, but what does the Bible say about the words we speak and the tone we should have?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible. The point of this is we need to walk away with some peace and perspective because there's new headlines every day and it's all very anxiety inducing, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. Story of the day, J . D. 

Vance making the rounds and doesn't like his tone. Got a mean tone. Got to watch that tone. The tone police are out. J . D. 

Vance is making the rounds because he's got a new book out. and he is also a great spokesperson for this administration. So where Trump can sometimes be maybe rough around the edges, Vance is smoother, more polished, if you will. I don't know if that's entirely true. I think Trump is pretty smooth and polished, too, in his own way. But maybe the biggest advantage that Trump, excuse me, that Vance has over Trump is he's not Trump. 

So as much as much TDS people have seething through their veins, pulsing constantly through their entire body and soul, they don't yet have the same hatred for J . D. Vance. They will, don't worry. But right now, there's no such thing as J . D . 

D . S. That's right. One day there will be. Aw, he's even worse than Trump because he actually believes what he's saying. That's what's gonna happen. 

But there's certain places where I would much rather have the president be. Like negotiating with Iran, for instance. Trump's great at these big press conferences. Obviously, he's the best at the rallies. But when it comes to one -on -one with adversaries, I choose Vance all day on that one. All day long, you put Vance in that battle. 

big press conferences, Trump with another world leader, you put Trump. Someone versus, you know, meet the press lady or whatever, you send JD on. No question. JD Vance did great with the Ladies in the View, for instance. We played the entire 25 minutes or so he was on on my radio show. My one critique, if I had to have, critique's not even quite right, a nitpick, is the women on The View, they would hit him with like 48 questions at one time, and he'd have to think in his brain, okay, I have 12 seconds to respond. 

How can I possibly combine all of these questions? How am I gonna be able to find a cohesive thread, coherent thread to your incoherent questions, and somehow come up with an answer that can best encompass everything that's been said here? with a 12 second response and a smile. So there's times when he would say, okay, um, let me say this. You can see his brain. I try to put the pieces together. 

That's my one critique. My goodness. He did as good as any human can do in that unenviable situation. But I want to pick out this moment from the New York times podcast. Russ Dothat as this guy's name or an unpronounced or sign. He's very upset that the administration is not nice enough with their tone. 

Here's what he said. We could have a longer argument about the economics, but I just want to let's let's stipulate that the Trump administration has in some way a kind of vision of rebuilding the working class that's connected to Christianity. Was that hard to say? Was that hard to say, Ross? I'm stipulate for the sake of argument. and the fact that you have not given us three hours to have this discussion, we're stipulating it. 

It also seems to me like the administration has distanced itself in different ways from some other sort of obvious expressions of Christian influence on politics, some of them more sort of liberal coded, some of them more conservative coded, right? Like, the administration has been more hostile than any prior Republican administration, to say nothing of Democrats, in the last 20 years to the way we do humanitarian aid. It has kept religious conservatives, pro -life organizations especially, at arm's length in a way that has led to a lot of criticism. And then, you know, let's be honest, the tone of the administration is not consistently a Christian tone. there is a tone of aggressive uncharity to people who aren't on board with the administration's policies. So I would describe those as three areas where the administration has felt functionally post -Christian to me. 

And I'm curious what you think. Well, so on the first point, well, sorry, the third point. You can work backward. So on the tone thing, This is it's it's very hard to rebut this because it's like fundamentally unfalsifiable because for every clip that you could show me of me or the president or some cabinet secretary saying something that in your view is unchristian i could show you another few clips of us doing something or saying something that is like very christian the nature of political communication in the era of mass media is that sometimes people are going to say jokes that are taken out of context sometimes people are going to say I'm not saying I make mistakes. I talk about this in the book a little. 

In my book, Communion, available where books are sold, I talk about the own mistakes that I've made as a Christian reader in America. There is an apology to childless cat ladies. We don't need to get sidetracked by that. Go on. But my point is, I'm not saying we're perfect because we're not. My point is that the tone argument is in some ways, I think, people see what they want to see. 

And I also think that tonal arguments are ways of, frankly, policing working class ways of communication and covering them in elite preferences. So let's talk about what's broken in this scenario here. So yes, the Bible, God, talks about the way we should speak. Proverbs 51, a soft answer. turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. " President, we've talked about this before, his game theory approach to talking with people and negotiating, but just everything, he will always start positive. 

He'll start kind every time, always. He will always start with a soft answer and a soft response and a soft initiation, always. 1 Peter 3 .15 says, make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The fruits of the spirit. One of them is kindness. Another is gentleness. 

Also, we are told to speak boldly. Acts 4 .31 says, and when they had prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. " So what do we think boldness, what would boldness mean today? I bet based off of the New York Times editorial board, if they heard a preacher today speak with boldness, they might say, Oh, that tone makes me uncomfortable. That's not very inclusive sound. And we talked about this just the other day. 

The Bible says there is one way to get to heaven. Oh, that's. I don't like your tone. Paul speaks about boldly proclaiming the gospel. First Thessalonians 2 .2. But though we had already suffered, we had been shamefully treated at Philippi. 

As you know, we had boldness in our God to declare you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. How were they treated shamefully in Philippi? Or I should say, why? Is it because the people loved so much what they were saying and how they said it? No, that doesn't make any sense. They were treated shamefully, but what does that mean? 

Does that mean, uh, they, they, they preached the gospel boldly. And then people went on Twitter and said, I don't like your tone. No, they were stripped and beaten with rods, all without a trial, of course, then thrown into prison and placed in stocks while bleeding from the beating they just took. And they weren't treated this way because the people of Philippi liked what they were saying. And then all of a sudden, these are two different things. There's what's being said. 

And then there's how it's set. And. Progressive could make the argument, and it's not accurate, but they could make the argument that, oh, they don't mind what the administration's saying, they just don't like how it's set. No, that's you trying to get around. That's just a trick. They don't like what the administration is doing, and they're trying to tone police it as a way to seem like they're morally superior. 

So let's go over the four options though, right? I mean, there's four options. We can make like a chart of these four options. You have bad tone, mean words, good tone, nice words, bad tone, nice words, or good tone, mean words. So maybe this example work, we'll see how it goes. Bad tone, bad words. 

I hate you. Good tone, good word, nice word. Good tone, good, good, good. I love you. Well, let's mix it up. Bad tone, good words. 

I love you. I love you. That's almost like too passionate. How do you do it like hatred? I love you. Good tone, bad words. 

I hate you. The New York Times guy. thinks it's best that we say or do bad things, but in a nice way. That's like the Democrat way. Do bad things, but with a smile. Let's give a political example. 

Maybe this'll make more sense. So the Democrats, they were so nice when they opened up our borders to millions of illegal aliens, many of whom went on to murder and steal and destroy neighborhoods and take jobs and do terrible things. I just saw a story of, it was like 1 ,700 maybe illegal aliens who were arrested in I think like the Houston area. And they went through all their crimes, five murders, 170 burglaries, 78 sex offenses, like 50 against children, 40 domestic abuses, 500 DUIs. Just go down the list. But it was all done with a smile. 

It's so nice. And the poem on the statue says, it's great. The poor, tired, huddled masses. We were so kind when we did this. That's the binary. Bad things, but nicely. 

The Trump administration comes in and says, I actually think they'd said it quite nicely, but they say, you have to go. Oh, that's so mean. Your tone. But that's not even true what I'm saying here, because the real argument is it's the right people. And this is what J . D. 

brought up, right? J . D. after that, where the clip stopped, he said, let me just take a classic example. So the Biden administration had a very humane way of talking about immigration, about illegal immigration. It was very charitable. 

And some of the words that it offered to people who were coming into our country, I would say that it was not particularly charitable to the people who were living with the consequences of mass migration into our country. So at a certain level, what I think matters much more than perceived tone is actual conduct. " Well said, J .D. Vance. There was a similar moment on The View as well. So the questions from a bunch of them at the same time was, the first question from Whoopi was, what did black people do to this administration? that you treat them so terribly." And J . D. was like, what? 

And Whoopi said, she's like, what are you talking about? And they went around the table and they were all like, well, like erasing black history. And he's still like, what are you talking about? But it was all like a tone argument. They were all toned, like the ladies didn't like the tone of this administration or whatever. And J . 

D. says, all right, we've taken over the police department in D . C. , the law enforcement in D . as many murders. Last year, there were Last year, there were 42. 

This year, at the same time period, 20. And that's just murder. I mean, that's like all quality of life crimes are way down. People can go outside. Kids can walk to school. It's a safe city again. 

And it's a predominantly majority Black city. So these are Black people's lives that have improved. So you may not like that we removed a Black history overreach from the Black Lives Matter era. at the Smithsonian. We removed like a sign that was in the Smithsonian about Thomas Jefferson's slaves or something. Is that the most important thing or do you care about actual black lives in DC? 

So that's like, that's a, I think that's like a perfect example of content and tone. So the tone would be, Oh, you're erasing black history. Like, no, they're not. But like, even, but the content is, yeah, but we're saving black people's lives. Don't you care more about what's actually happening? All right, let me go to the Bible. 

So Jesus didn't always have a nice tone. We can't tell the tone really what Jesus was reading, right? But I can't imagine him having a great tone when in Matthew 23, Jesus says to the Pharisees, woe to you, hypocrites, for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces, for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. I don't think he said that like politely or something. There's seven of those, by the way. Woes to you. 

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people. bones and all uncleanliness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you, you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. I don't think the people around were like, Oh, he's got such a nice tone. Listen to his tone. 

Wow. Or John 8 44, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning. and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. That's not very nice, Jesus. 

Revelation 2 .20, speaking about Jezebel. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her. I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searched mind and heart. And I will give to each of you according to your works. 

Yikes. What is, what is Ross Dothat from the New York times? Think about that. Paul said in Galatians 1a, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before. So now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you receive, let him be accursed. 

The accursed in Greek is anathema. And the definition is devoted to the direst of woes. It's not very lovely sounding. Paul in Galatians 1a. Eric called the Galatians foolish. He calls people liar. 

He calls false preachers ungodly, wretched wanderers. Micah said that people hate good and love evil. That sounds judgmental. I think we need more of a strong tone from Christians. And I don't really care if Ross Dothat or whoever at the New York Times, they don't like it. We need strong tones when confronting hypocrisy, when guarding the truth, when protecting the church, when warning of judgment, and every time love requires it. 

True words and a strong tone is not bigoted. The truth demands nothing less. youtube . com slash at politics by faith. If you're listening to this on podcast, thank you. You can watch it as well on our YouTube channel, youtube . com. So if you could please subscribe, we've got youtube . com slash at politics by faith.