MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Tough Love
Politics By Faith, November 21, 2024
November 21, 2024

Eddie is full of despair. He wants to give up and take the welfare checks forever. He said the best time of his life was COVID, because he got to watch TV and got $600 a week for doing nothing. What would you say to Eddie?

Hey, welcome to Politics by Faith, brought to you by the Patriot Gold Corp. We have a really interesting moment in the show today. Eddie, from Massachusetts, called in. It all built to this, so let me give a quick review. We started off talking about Alexis de Tocqueville and how when he came to America in 1831 and wrote, in 1835, Democracy in America, he talked about what tyranny will look like

in this free country we call America. Now here we are 200 years later and he was spot on. That turned into a conversation about personal responsibility. We've talked a lot about making America healthy again lately on the show and it's great.

You talk about RFK getting rid of food dyes and all these other things, okay? But that has its limits. That's, let's just say, half of the equation. We can debate over what percent it is, but let's say half. There's another half, if we really want to make the difference that needs to be made.

So, sure, we can take the red dye 40 out of Froot Loops. But also, maybe we shouldn't eat Froot Loops. You with me? We'll take the red dye out of it, but also we shouldn't eat it at all. So what could happen is we take the red dye

out of Froot Loops and then we just eat a bunch of Froot Loops still. Are we gonna be healthier? No, maybe, I guess, but not really.

We're not gonna be healthy.

Maybe we'll be healthier, but we're not gonna be healthy. So that got into a conversation about hillbillyology and some tough love that J.D. Vance, our next vice president, gave us in that book. He wrote, we read a bunch, but let's do this. J.D. said, psychologists call it learned helplessness.

When a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes of my life. Whenever people ask me what I'd like to most change about the white working class, I say the feeling that our choices don't matter. The message of the right is increasingly, it's not your fault that you're a loser, it's the government's fault.

I don't know what the answer is precisely, but I know it starts when we stop blaming Obama or Bush or faceless companies and ask ourselves what we can do to make things better. People talk about hard work all the time in places like Middletown, Ohio. You can walk through a town where 30% of the young men work fewer than 20 hours a week and find not a single person aware of his own laziness. A lot of students just don't understand what's out there. A teacher told me, shaking her

head, you have these kids who plan on being baseball players who don't even play on the high school team because the coaches mean to them. There's a cultural moment in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government and that movement gains adherence by the day. So we talked about learned helplessness, we had some people call in who work in welfare offices

and what they've seen, some people work as therapists, some addiction counselors. And then we had someone call in who's like in the exercise world and he's like, just go get him, like get to work, bootstraps, workout, that whole thing, like let's go.

And it was great. And then Eddie called in. Eddie is 56, works at a printing press and Eddie is tired he's tired he said I got my bachelor's degree didn't help I make $23 an hour he's got a wife and two kids and he wants to give up and so we just did all the show about you know let's go let's get going, motivational talk, be better, all the rest.

And he's like, I just want to give up. And I just want to take the welfare check. So does that make me a bad person? He said the best time of his life was COVID. Got 600 bucks a week, check in the mail, didn't do nothing. Watch TV all day.

I've never talked to this person. I've never talked to someone like this.

And then we had to take a break.

And I'm like, all right, well, let's, what do we do for Eddie? What do we say? What do you say to someone who's tired? Let's meet him where he is first.

I feel for him.

He's been working his whole life, making $23 an hour. He got his bachelor's degree because everyone told him to. So he got scammed.

Let's just be real about it. It's a scam.

hour. He got his bachelor's degree because everyone told him to. So he got scammed. Let's just be real about it. It's a scam. Oh you're gonna make this much more. He won't and he didn't. So that was a waste of time and money and I'd feel really bitter about that too. First thing that comes to mind is sloth. Sloth is bad. Sloth is a sin. If you read Dante's Inferno, which you should, layer five is sloth. And the punishment for people who lived in this sin

is you are drowning in the river Styx for all of eternity. And so you're in perpetual drowning forever. And you're stuck underneath the water and you can't climb your way to the top because you lived a life of such sloth that you can't even be bothered to try to get up

and breathe inside Dante's Inferno here. So you're just stuck underneath drowning constantly forever. So Eddie has that sloth in him. We all do. It's all part of our sinful nature, some more than others. And I think someone has called, he said the word spark.

That word stuck out to me, whether maybe he didn't say it, maybe the Holy Spirit did, but I heard the word spark and I think what I would say to Eddie is you're never going to get the money you want. That was part of it.

All right.

23 bucks an hour.

It's not going to happen, man. It's not. You're never going to live that life of wealth. And that's hard in today's world because I've talked to many World War II veterans who are like, I grew up in poverty. I didn't even know it.

So now if you grow up not making a lot of money, you know it. So that's hard. And it's never going to happen. You're never going to get ahead. So you just got to put that aside. And you got to be content with 23 an hour.

But the good news is, that's not the point of life. When you go to heaven, it's not based off of, or when you die, and God's deciding whether or not you go to heaven or not, it's not based off how much money you make per hour. Not even close. And while we're here on earth, it's all about your daily bread. So we got to focus, be grateful for that

and then focus on the things that are in our control. That is serving the Lord and loving people. It doesn't matter how much money you make. You can make a million a year. Loving God and your neighbor and serving your wife and kids is the most important thing right now. When you die, Eddie, no one is going to be at your funeral and say, Here lieth a man who made $23 an hour.

Well, it's possible that your kids could say, here's my dad who loved me and played with me and helped me when I needed him and listened to me and worked so hard, got up every day and worked hard at the printing press and was able to scrape together what he could

and bought this thing for me for Christmas one year and I'll never forget it and all that whatever right but those stories are still within your reach even if you're only making $23 an hour so if that's getting you down you gotta refocus your life on something else because you're never going to find fulfillment in your job and maybe you shouldn't either but there are other parts of your life where you can definitely still find that fulfillment. Now I know that's easy for me to say.

I'm not on my feet nine hours a day like he is. That was the best I could offer something like that. We had a bunch of other calls after that saying, hey man, there's no freedom in that life that you think you want. And this is what Alexis de Tocqueville talked about. You think sitting on the couch watching TV all day is freedom, but it's not. Someone called

in and said, sitting and watching TV all day, that is the life of someone in jail. Someone in jail sits around and watches TV all day. And so does Eddie. So he's incarcerating himself. I always go back to the Bible, this may not speak, I bet it speaks to everyone listening to this podcast, but not to everyone on SiriusXM radio, but I mean it's all in the Bible, Colossians 3, 23, it says, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.

That's so incredibly insightful. You're not working for you or money or this business or the man. You're working for God and your work glorifies Him. Our pilgrims knew this profoundly. Sloth is running away from your responsibilities. It's running away from heartily working.

It's running away from your potential. And you're choosing to remain spiritually and morally stagnant. I read someone said you're running away from God and the fullness of life He's offering you. You're not cultivating the gifts and the talents that God gave you or the people that he put you around, put around you.

You're not participating in God's continual work of creation and redemption. You're just giving up on it all. And that's sinful. The Greek word is akidia. It means absence of care.

I read this, spiritual listlessness. This is how the fourth century Egyptian monk, Avargrius Ponticus, describes Aikidia, the spiritual malaise whose name has no equivalent in a modern language and whose nuances include disgust with life, boredom, discouragement. This is Eddie Tuati, if you heard his voice. Laziness, sleepiness, melancholy, sadness, lack of enthusiasm and motivation. Aikidia is a sort of asphyxiation or suffocation of the spirit that condemns those

who suffer from it to unhappiness by causing them to reject what they have or the situation in which they live, whether it's work, emotional, social, and to dream about another situation that's unattainable. That's it. That's perfect. That's the old, that's the biblical word, the Greek word, I'm rejecting, I'm unhappy because I'm rejecting where I am, and I'm going to dream about another situation and just become bitter about it, and then not care and give up and be discouraged and all the rest.

I bought a couple of books on Puritan prayers. That's all this, just prayers that the Puritans gave, said. And a common theme of all of them is our own wretchedness, which is not very fashionable today, but also how weary life is in our fallen world. It is a weary world. Weary is a great word, isn't it?

Weary.

Here's one of these prayers. I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my sinful, my willful sin. All my powers of body and soul are defiled. A fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being. I have gone from one odious room to another, walk in a no-man's land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature. I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself.

I have no green shoot in me nor fruit but thorn and thistles. I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away. I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be honed down and burnt. Lord, you have mercy on me. To just live in that state is no good. And that's where Eddie is. He's just there.

But then we have God. Oh, what blessedness accompanies devotion, when under all the trials that weary me, the cares that corrode me, the fears that disturb me, the infirmities that oppress me, I can come to you in my need and feel peace beyond understanding." That's what Eddie doesn't have, the peace beyond understanding. The Puritan said,

Let me willingly accept misery, sorrow, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin is the greatest evil and be delivered from it with gratitude to you acknowledging this as the highest testimony of your love once you know how depraved you are that just makes you all the more grateful for your salvation and I know it's maybe is it a sin to be discouraged in the moment I don't know. Elijah, my favorite story in the Bible.

I usually in my brain like stop the story after the triumph of it all. But when he's done, he gives up. He's like, I can't go on. The Bible says, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. This is actually the most triumphant, amazing man that's ever happened. And he asked that he might die, saying, It is enough now, O Lord.

Take away my life, for I am no better than my father's. This weariness is real. But God didn't let Elijah die, and God calls for us to go on, and to be content, to love God and love others. That's all we're called for in this life. So I don't know, I can ramble on forever.

I don't have any advice for Eddie. Other than to simplify to the most basic things ever. This is what happens whenever you're in trouble. Go to the basics. Okay, what's the purpose of life? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Do that and that's a really good start.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcriptor commercial free on Transcriptor commercial free on the website. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

 

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Horrible Atrocities and God's Grace
Politics By Faith, March 23, 2026

Please subscribe to the show on youtube! Youtube.com/@politicsbyfaith

I could have picked any headline about any number of issues, but this particular story stood out as especially horrific. Are the bad things that happen in America part of God's judgment against us for stories like this? Praise God for His Grace in spite of our sins.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective because there's new headlines every single day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. Headline out of England. It's an older headline, but we'll make it more relevant to today. The headline says, Aborted Babies Incinerated to Heat UK Hospitals. 

Read that one again. Use your brain and your heart. really did not want to accept this. Aborted babies incinerated to help heat UK hospitals. Ali Beth Stuckey said, I do wonder if the Islamification of the UK is divine judgment for its wickedness. Yes, is the answer. 

It's true for us too. So let me read a little bit of this story. The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste, with some even being used to heat hospitals. 10 National Health Service trusts have admitted burning fetal remains alongside other rubbish, while two others use the bodies in waste -to -energy plants, which generate power for heat. At least 15 ,500 fetal remains were incinerated by 27 hospitals over the last two years alone. Yikes. 

Of course, God will bring his judgment upon us for this level of depravity and disobedience to his word. We should be grateful that right now it isn't much, much worse because we deserve even worse judgment than he's given us already. It is only because of his grace that he has not yet. I was on Andrew Klaven's show the other day and we were talking about sin and how you should stop sinning. It was particularly about pornography. He asked me how someone should stop sinning and I gave a secular answer and I gave a spiritual answer. 

I'll wait till the episode comes out. You can hear for yourself. Uh, I should have said it that way. Oh, you can hear it for yourself there. I mean, uh, episode doesn't come out yet. So I'm going to let it, I don't want to beat him to it. 

Let him, uh, let the episode, let him release it first. And that's what I meant to him. So it was fine. I think I did an okay job with that answer. And then right after the show, I went downstairs and I talked to my wife and told her what I said. And she, she's like, okay. 

And I said it and she goes, yes, but it's God's grace. And then she went on a two and a half minute sermon about God's grace. And I thought, Oh, I should have said that. Why you should have said that. Where were you eight minutes ago? That would have been a way better answer than what I gave. 

We were talking about pornography specifically. And the question was, it was something like, why does the truth about the real relationships and beauty and how God's way is better? Why does that truth not land with people who think fake and ugly and sinful is better? And I came back with, wherever it is in 1 Corinthians 8, maybe, for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved. it is the power of God." " So it's like, okay, well, you can talk about righteousness, but to someone who's perishing, I mean, the cross is, it's folly. 

It's only for us who are being saved to understand that the cross is the power of God. And that's true. But as my wife said, it is only by God's grace that any of us think that anything is good, beautiful, or true, or who can see God's goodness at all ever. It is grace that any good things ever happen, that any relationships ever work, that we ever experience anything good. We had this whole conversation about sin with Andrew Klamer. It was 30 minutes, 35 minutes, whole conversation about sin. 

I forgot to mention God's grace. My wife never does. On The Satellite Show, I've been talking a lot lately about the difference between Islam and Christianity, doing a little comparative religion analysis. They're totally different, right? A lot of Muslims will tell you, oh, we believe in Jesus, too. We believe in Jesus. 

Yeah, well, you don't think Jesus is God. So we have a major fundamental problem there. And we don't worship the same God. You call your Allah the great deceiver. Our God cannot lie. You don't believe in the Trinity. 

And you think that people are born neutral and can earn their way to heaven. So we have some major differences here. On that last point, Muslims think you're born neutral and you have to work really, really hard. And if you do everything right, and maybe if you kill enough infidels, then you can get into whatever their version of heaven is. They have no concept of original sin and therefore no need for a savior. They have no concept of original sin. 

So therefore, need for grace. And this is a solid definition of grace. As I raise my chair again and we'll fix it after the show. Grace is defined as God's favor towards the unworthy or God's benevolence on the undeserving. 

That's us. 

In his grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us way beyond anything. And it totally in spite of the fact that we don't deserve to be treated this generously in any way. We were born in sin. We broke God's laws. 1 John 1 8 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. We've all sinned. God's grace is what saved us. Ephesians 2 8 says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is a gift. 

from God. Grace is called a gift multiple times in the Bible. Ephesians 4, 7 said, but grace is given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. It's a gift, which means you don't deserve it and there's no way you can repay it. And our lives are so much better because of it. 2 Corinthians 8, 9 says, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, if for your sake, he became poor so that you through his poverty, his becoming poor so that you might become rich. 

And we are rich with grace. for sure. Thank you, Jesus. You don't deserve God's, you don't deserve salvation. You don't deserve grace. You better be grateful. 

Our founding fathers and grandfathers knew this. John Jay was the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. He said, our gracious creator has provided for us a redeemer. These inestimable benefits are of the free gift and grace of God, not of our deserving, nor in our power to deserve. First Supreme Court justice, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, he was signer of the Declaration of Independence. He said, on the mercy of my redeemer, I rely for salvation and on his merits, not on the works I've done in obedience to his precepts. 

It's not my works, it's all him. And our founding fathers knew this to the core. It's how they designed our constitution, with checks and balances, because they understood human nature. Why would a new government need checks and balances if people are perfect or could be perfect? But Muslims, they think people can be, which is why in Iran they have a supreme leader. He's perfect in every way. 

We don't do that in America. The only reason America exists, the only reason we have any freedom or prosperity at all is God's grace. Our founding grandfathers wrote about this a lot, how we have sinned and we're not worthy of anything good. But by the grace of God, we have all of these blessings around us. And it's still true today. And out of that, we always need to be grateful to God and to love him. 

And also. to give grace to others. 1 Peter 4 .10 says, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. Let us proceed this week. with giving grace to others, our friends, our family, coworkers, people around us who don't yet see the light. Let's give them grace. 

Oh, but they don't deserve it. Like you do. God gave grace to you. You sure don't deserve it. I don't. YouTube . 

com slash at politics by faith is our YouTube page. If you want to watch me, if you want to watch my chair sink up and down throughout the show, you can watch that on YouTube. youtube . com slash at politics by faith if you could please subscribe that'd be wonderful youtube . com slash at politics by faith spread the word

 

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The Conservative Podcast Wars and WWCKD
Politics By Faith, March 19, 2026

The Conservative Podcast War is...unfortunate. I wasn't going to say anything until the odd altercation started by Rand Paul against Markwayne Mullin at his confirmation hearing. It seems we need a refresher on what the Bible says on how to handle personal disputes. Also, WWCKD?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day. We bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective because there's new headlines every single day. But Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. The story of the day today, the conservative podcast wars. 

What's really going on here? I don't even know, to be honest. I just know there's a lot of drama. I was never really going to say anything about it, but something happened today that made me feel like something's worth talking about. So, quick background here. I'm not in it. 

I'm not famous enough. I'm in a good place right here. If you're watching on the YouTube, youtube . com slash adpoliticsbyfaith, the people in the podcast wars, I'm down. I'm like here in the hole. I'm very content. 

with my life and with being with my family and my level of fame. It's a place where if you're just famous enough where you get a little ego boost every once in a while, which is nice from time to time, people thank you for your job. No one else gets thanked for their job. The amount of times I get thanked for my job versus other people's jobs that deserve way more thanks is way out of whack. And I get to talk to cool people. It's great, I love my job, but I'm not like, need to hire security for my family. 

Famous, because that level of famous is not good. 1 Timothy 2 says, pray for all the kings who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. There's a couple of cool parts about that scripture. First, early Christians were killed because they weren't worshiping the emperor. But the Bible here says the job of a Christian is to pray, not to the emperor, but for the emperor. So that's a neat point. 

But obviously the main point is just be left alone. We just want to be left alone. I just want to live as quiet and peaceable as a life as I can with the people I love. But my understanding is that a lot of the big conservative podcast people are getting in pretty public fights and it's very odd. And I don't know any of these people involved, any more than anyone does. But just watching from afar, it draws people in because it's drama. 

It's like The Real Housewives or whatever, that level of drama, but for conservatives. And it's very unproductive and should stop. And I was never going to talk about it, but I think the thing that got me into it lately is, I heard Rand Paul in the Mark Wayne Mullins confirmation hearing. He's a senator from Oklahoma and he's going to be the next head of Homeland Security. He'll he'll make it through. But he and Rand Paul, who's the head of the Homeland Security Committee on the Senate, he and Rand Paul have some beef or something. 

I didn't know this. I don't know if anyone did until today. But here's Rand Paul at the committee hearing. 

The leaders in our country disavow violence and lead by example. Through the years, I've personally been exposed multiple times to political violence. I was in the right field batting cage when the crazed shooter unleashed nearly 200 shots at our congressional baseball practice. I'll never forget Steve's police valiantly trying to drag his body away as the gunman continued. Later that year, a Trump -hating felon attacked me from behind. in my yard. 

I was just straightening up from picking up a tree limb. I was wearing noise cancellation headphones. Never saw him coming. Running pell -mell down the hill. I was struck in the back. The force of the blow sent us through the air nearly 10 feet down the hill until a shoulder impaled me as we hit the ground. 

Six of my ribs were broken. Three of the ribs were completely separated such that for weeks the ends of the ribs would grind upon each other. My lung was damaged. For weeks I could inhale but not have the rib strength to exhale. I developed two pneumonias. The pain was such that I could only sit up in bed by tying a rope to the foot of the bed and pulling myself up. 

But even then, the pain was that of a thousand knives. Over the year of recovery, I began to cough up blood. I underwent removal of part of my lung. Complications led to an infection in the space between my lung and chest wall. I spent a week in the hospital having the infection lavaged every six hours through a chest tube. Recently, Senator Mullen, if you have time to listen. 

You were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted against my amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs. Instead of explaining your vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked that he would justify and celebrate this violent assault. That caused me so much pain and my family so much pain. I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force. 

You might argue you were mad and angry. about being confronted by your constituents. But Senator Mullen, your constituents are justifiably upset with you. By now, most of America knows that the Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota stole over $9 billion. But instead of defending your vote, you took to continue the vote to continue these refugee welfare programs. You chose to lash out at me. 

You went on to brag that you'd already told me to my face that you completely understood and approved of the assault. Well, that's a lie. You got a chance today. You can either continue to lie or you can correct the record. You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified. So today you'll have your chance. 

Today, I'll give you that chance to clear the record. Tell it to my face. If that's what you believe, tell it to me today. Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you're at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents. 

Explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example for over 250 ,000 men and women who work at the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Peters, you're recognized for your opening. 

That was his opening. Listen, I don't want anyone to be in pain and it sounds like a brutal experience physically. What does that have to do with anything, Senator? Also, I didn't know this until today, but there's a teleprompter in the back of the Senate chamber. So Rand Paul's doing this, this, this like say it to my face thing and everything you just read was off of the teleprompter screen. I just feel like I should give, I should play the clip of one of those. 

Mullen's initial response. 

Here it is. I can understand why the neighbor did what he did. As far as my terms as a snake in the grass, sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems. I've worked with many people in this room. Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us. I did address those remarks. I did explain your gimmicks by the amendment you put forth. 

And as far as me saying that I invoke violence, I don't. I don't think anybody should be hit by surprise. I don't like that. But if I do have something to say, everybody in this room knows I'll come straight to you. I'll say it publicly and I'll say it privately, but I'll never say it behind your back. So for you to say I'm a liar, sir, that's not accurate. 

And I got proof to say that because you have spent millions of dollars in my campaigns against me, because we just don't get along. However, sir, that doesn't keep me at all from doing my job. I can have different opinions with everybody in this room, but as Secretary of Homeland, I'll be protecting everybody, including Kentucky, as much as I will my own back yard in Oklahoma. It's bigger than the partisan bickering that we have is bigger than the political differences we have. The truth is I have a job to do and I don't like to fail at anything at all. So I can set it aside if you're willing to set it aside. 

Let me earn your respect. Let me earn 

very weird confrontation, like a very weird, like, I can't get over, I guess, Rand's say it to my face thing, as he's eight feet elevated above everyone else behind this, you know, Senate desk, and you, Mark Wayne Mullina, way down there below, and we're both sitting here and we can't move, and I'm reading this from a teleprompter, it's like, say it to my face. to my face. It's like just weird. Like, Grant, you could have gone to Mark Wayne's office and said all that to his face. So that's this is a good example of the show, right? So that's the news of the day is one of the pieces of drama or whatever. 

And I'm sure we could go into more detail on the the podcast wars that are out there. But let's just let's just get to the Bible here. So first, Matthew 18, 15 says, If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you've won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church. 

And if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. So if I made it to the conservative podcasters and to Rand, to Mark Wayne, if you have a problem with someone, go and talk to them. Not a text, a phone call or in person, like talk like humans. I'll see these tweets that some conservatives will send, a tweet, a public tweet to other conservatives, and sometimes they're like, and you didn't respond to my text that I, like what? Talk to the person one -on -one, and if they don't listen and there's still some issues here that you want to get resolved, go get some advice from a mutual friend, bring them in on it, try to resolve it. If that doesn't work, you just got to 

on because people unfortunately do care about your beef that you're throwing out there publicly because it's a drama and we're attracted to that. But we shouldn't be wasting our time with this. We have a country to save. If I may make an aside here, all this podcast war silliness, it shows to me also how important Charlie Kirk was to the conservative movement. He was way more of a linchpin behind the scenes than I think most people gave him credit for. I think when Charlie was assassinated, I think, of course, there was remorse and lament for his family and all that. 

But from a conservative movement perspective, we were like, oh, you know, his speeches and his campus tours and his Q &A moments and the YouTube videos and stuff like that. That's what I think people were thinking we would miss the most, or what we've lost. But I think what we've lost with Charlie Kirk in particular was something much more important, something much more valuable, and something that was much more impressive about him as a man, and that was his ability to bring a bunch of broken, probably jealous and envious and certainly ambitious people together, and have them focus on moving the movement forward. Charlie Kirk, within the conservative movement, was a peacemaker. James 3 .18 says, peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness. The full scripture is, but the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 

And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. And instead people are fueled by, I think it's envy and anger or something, but this is why James 1 .19 says, for Christians to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to speak, slow to tweet and slow to anger for human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. I love all the verses in the Bible about the tongue. James 3, 5 says, so the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. 

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life and set on fire by hell. 

Yikes. 

So my two points of practical advice, first practical advice is keep your mouth shut. Uh, Martin Lloyd Jones made that point. He gave an amazing sermon. One of his, I think the best sermon series. 

I have it right there. 

Let me pull it up. 

Martin Lloyd Jones studies and sermon on the Mount. Amazing book. Um, One of his points on Blessed Be the Peacemakers is just quiet. Stop talking. Stop talking. And when it comes to tweeting, if you sit down and you write out a carefully crafted tweet to a fellow conservative enemy of yours, or whether you rip out a hastily spit out tweet, calling someone out, just delete it. 

Just write it out and then delete it. And then just go for a run or pray or something. Matthew 5, 9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. " Mart Lloyd -Jones, he said, the peacemaker is active, not passive. He doesn't merely reflect. 

from causing trouble. I think that's me. I just gotta stay out of it. But that's not a peacemaker. A peacemaker actively works to resolve tensions, to reconcile differences, to bring harmony where there's discord. It's one of the hardest works in the world because it requires humility, wisdom, and love. That's practical advice, is to zip it and write the tweet if you want, but just delete it. 

The spiritual advice is for all of us to guard our hearts, keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life. We talked about that scripture recently. I'll give one more scripture here dedicated to Charlie Kirk, Romans 15, excuse me, 14, 19. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. We have a lot of work to do in this country of spreading the gospel, spreading the good word, spreading Christian ethics and morals, spreading God's kingdom on this earth, spreading. Political wisdom we've way more focused. 

We need way more focus on good things not on petty drama Don't let the enemy win in causing divisions over ego Let's focus on and unite over what is true and good youtube . com slash at politics by faith I won't give daily updates anymore on my quest to be the biggest podcaster in the world So that I can be so famous 1 ,340 subscribers. It's amazing. Super grateful. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith.  If you could subscribe over there, that'd be amazing. Spread the word.

 

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Nick Shirley and California Fraud
Politics By Faith, March 18, 2026

Nick Shirley exposed some of the daycare and hospice fraud in California. How do we prevent this much outright fraud from happening? It's not with more laws.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. Thanks for being here to get the true story. Story of the day today. Nick Shirley, fraud in California. 

Nick Shirley, YouTuber, independent journalist coming out of minnesota his last greatest hit out of minnesota taking his talents to california where there are insane amounts of fraud if you're looking for fraud of course your next step is going to be california metacal spending has increased in california in five years from 108 billion dollars to 228 billion dollars more than double in five years but the population has stayed about the same. So why has Medi -Cal spending doubled? Medi -Cal is their Medicaid program in California for poor people. L . A. County, there's been a thousand percent increase in hospice care services. 

A thousand percent increase. One out of every ten dollars in home health care is spent in L . 

A. 

County. This Dick Shirley video is very good. That's 40 minutes. You should watch the whole thing. You can find it on my Twitter, Slater Radio. It is great. 

comically on the nose like if we weren't talking about tens of billions of dollars it'd be just funny but uh it's funny and sad but but there are parts that are so unbelievably you couldn't like there's a some foreigner runs a fraudulent daycare it's called a boo -boo daycare like what there's a scene where he's in an old motel that's been converted into offices and one of the guys one of the a bunch of the fraudsters they all start leaving as soon as he gets all their cars are in the center courtyard of the motel. And a lot of these offices are totally empty. So all the foreigners who are working there, they all get in their cars and they leave. And all the cars are like $100 ,000 cars. There's 150 ,000 BMW. 

One woman is driving a Maybach, $250 ,000. So he's trying to ask questions to this guy who, I guess, runs a hospice center in California. And the guy gets in his car, drives away, and the engine goes... It's this $150 ,000 BMW. And Nick Shirley gets behind the car and he goes, that's the sound of hospice care in Los Angeles. Like, oh, you couldn't write that. 

You could do 20 takes from that scene, of that scene, and you would never get it that perfect. as what happened in real life there. It's a total joke. So what's broken here? We can bring this in a lot of different directions. I'm going to pivot to a cultural discussion here because I believe this is the most important issue of our era that is protecting our culture. 

And first step is knowing that we have a culture. And part of knowing that we have a culture is knowing that there are different cultures. There are third world cultures too. And in third world countries, which is most of the world, it's all about what you can get away with. There's no such thing as guilt. If you can get away with it, it is good. 

That is the determining factor about whether or not something is good or bad. There is no good or bad. It's do you get away with it or do you do it or not? That's it. There's no moral question about anything. Did you get away with it? 

Well, then it's good. That's not how it works in our culture. Part of our culture is guilt. Teach your kids, we used to teach our kids George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. Who chopped down my cherry tree? Said George Washington's dad. 

And George said, young George said, I can't tell a lie. We don't realize how amazing this is about our culture because we live in it. But the rest of the world doesn't. They don't have that value. It's one major reason why they're a third world country. Oh yeah, can you give me like 10 minutes? 

It's one reason why they're a third world country. It's why we are a first world country because Johnny wanted to play piano because we are honest and we believe that God is watching everything we do. And the Ten Commandments say, thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not deal falsely. Thou shalt not lie to one another. 

The word deal falsely is a fun translation. The Hebrew word means lie or deceive, be untrue, to act deceptively. There's also a connotation here of feigning obedience. And I like that one because it's, it's not just about your actions. It's also about your heart. Proverbs 11 one says, dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord. 

But a just weight is his delight. So it's the flip side too. If you're, if you're honest and good and decent, it is to his delight. But an abomination, abomination, an abomination is a disgusting thing. An abomination, lying, being dishonest in your business. It's a disgusting thing to God. 

It shows how deeply God cares about being honest. You know, progressives or atheists, I repeat myself, they thought that they could just throw away God and the idea of God and leave. everything else just as it was. We could throw away God and also everyone will just be honest all the time. Proverbs 12 22 says, The wicked is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous will come through trouble. The wicked, they're ensnared by the transgression of their lips, ensnared in their lies. 

A lot of lying going on. but it's on paperwork. So, and you know, there's no one really hurt by it and who even cares? And there's a ton of money out there and it's just, I got away with it. They gave it to me. What am I supposed to do? 

Not take it? Let's go to the Bible. Psalm 15 says, he who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend and whose eyes a vile person is despised. The Bible story. that comes to mind is Joseph. The amazing story of Joseph, one of the all -time great stories. 

When Potiphar's wife comes on to him, he says, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? This used to be ingrained in American culture that when you sin, you're sinning against God. God sees everything and you're sinning against him. So even if no one catches you, even if you get away with it, you're on earth. Even if the state of California, will pay out the millions of dollars of fraudulent Medi -Cal payments. even if you can cash that money and then bring it to the local Maybach dealership and pay cash quarter of a million dollars and you drive off the lot, God sees everything. 

How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Ananias and Sapphira, uh, Sapphira. They lied about the sale of their land to that was benefiting the church, but, and they dropped dead, but the drive was ax five, but they dropped dead because they lied. So don't lie. And if you have, which you have, repent like Zacchaeus did. Zacchaeus, a dishonest tax collector, but he repented with Jesus and then promised to repay fourfold everyone that he defrauded. 

A biblical based culture wouldn't have as much of this. There's always gonna be some sinners. There's always gonna be sin. There's always gonna be fraud, right? You can't get away with it entirely, but a true Christian culture would have much, much less of this. A proper Christian culture, if it did happen, would be met swiftly in a justice system and the fraudsters would be shamed. 

by society, and they would properly feel very guilty for what they did. When we import people who weren't raised with these values, and or if we stop raising kids to have these values, and we throw the Bible and God out of people's awareness, then don't be surprised when the fraud increases and when tens of billions of dollars are wasted. And then even worse, when God's wrath comes upon us for turning away from him. Shouldn't be surprised. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. 

See how many subscribe. We hit the thousand. How about that now? Come on. 

Hit the thousand. 

Wow. 1 ,230. Oh, that's amazing. That's so cool. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. 

Please, if you listen to this podcast, if you could subscribe on YouTube, that'd be great. We're going to get higher in this algorithm. And this is a way that you can help spread the word. youtube . com slash at politics by faith spread the word

 

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