Don't fall for the left's fake outrages of the day, especially when they are the ones responsible for the genesis of the racism.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. I'm Mike Slater. Thanks for being here. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so that we can walk away with perspective and peace. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here so we can get the true story. 

Sole Deo Gloria. Glory to God alone. Here's the story of the day. I'm going to bite on this Trump fake racist video controversy. Dumb made up controversies don't work like this anymore. Not like they used to. 

but we'll take a minute on it anyway. So what really happened? The president at midnight last night on Truth Social, which I don't know who's on Truth Social. I think it's like just this MAGA universe thing that Trump supporters are on and Trump himself. And this is a place for him to speak to his base, I guess. I don't see the point of him being there, but he's there and he posts a ton of stuff there all the time. 

He puts only the important things on Twitter and then he goes on Truth Social and posts dozens of things all night long. That's how that worked. And last night, among other things, he posted a 62 second video. And it's a documentary. I don't know what the documentary is from, but it's a clip of a documentary about voting fraud. And this 60 seconds of the 62 second clip is all about how easy it is to hack into voting machines, which, by the way, well, now is not the episode for that. 

But Before the 2020 election, a week before, PBS NewsHour ran a whole 12 or 17 minute piece about how easy it is to hack into Dominion voting machines. But that's not here. 60 seconds of hacking into voting machines easy it is to commit voter fraud. At the end of the video, whoever made the original screenplay of the documentary, in their screen recording, the next video automatically went to another video, but only two seconds of it before that screen recording cuts off. That two second video or two second capture is of a different 55 second AI made video made by a MAGA troll guy. 

And it's the Lion King meme it's like it's like the lion king and all the animals in the jungle are have democrats faces on them and then trump comes in he's a lion right and they all bow down to the lion but the first six seconds of that original video that that 55 second lion king movie the first six seconds has barack obama and michelle obama's heads on monkeys After those six seconds, and it has a weem away, a weem away. And then after that six seconds, it goes to Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat. Hillary's a warthog. And then AOC and Newsom are donkeys, which aren't in, like, whatever. And then Pritzker's an elephant. And Adam Schiff is a giraffe. 

And Chuck Schumer's a zebra. And Zoran Mamdani is a hyena. And Joe Biden's a mandrill, which is another kind of monkey, but that's not racist. And then the lion walks in and has Trump's head on. Okay. It's very silly video, whatever. 

But because Trump's election fraud video or whoever recorded that originally, whoever screen captured that, that video auto -scrolled into this Lion King video. And for the two seconds of it before the screen recording ended, all people saw were this as monkeys. That's what happened. Now, what's broken? Two things. 

First one's just an aside. My second one's my main point. First one is this uptight pretend being offended at racist tropes that no one thinks is racist anymore. I'm not going to make the argument that Joe Biden is racist. Remember when he called Barack Obama an articulate, clean black man? I'm not going to make the argument that we should be talking about The important issue, this is just a distraction. 

Okay, sure, fine. I'm not going to make the argument that someone in Maryland, a Maryland man, was just charged with attempted murder trying to murder Russ Vogt, the head of OMB. Let me quote this. Police say they were called to a Virginia residence after a witness reported that a man wearing a surgical mask and rubber gloves, who appeared to be concealing a firearm under his shirt, was on Russ Vogt's porch. No one in the media was outraged at that attempted murder of a Trump cabinet member. Only a dumb one -second video. 

Where you can make the argument, I think is a fair argument, is that this is a dumb Trump self -enforced error. And I'll hear the argument that all boomers need to stay off Facebook and stop engaging in all boomer Facebook slop. And that goes for even the press of the United States. Boomer Facebook slop on Facebook. I'm redundant. Boomer Facebook slop is awful and should just be avoided at all costs. 

That's as far as I'll go there. But stop falling for the communist tricks that everything is racist all the time. All the communists want to do is divide. All they want to do is rip open old rules. of racism for their own power. No one is really offended by this. 

It's all an act. It's all pretend outrage. Again, self -enforced error politically? Sure. 

Racist? 

Give me a break. All right. No, here's the real point I want to make. What's really broken here is evolution. Slater, what do you mean? How could you possibly bring the Bible into this story? 

Glad you asked. That's why we're here. Do you know where this racist idea came from that black people are the same as monkeys were that came from evolution. It came from the idea that we all evolved from monkeys, but that black people just haven't fully evolved as much as white people have. This idea, this is evolution. This is the wicked, from the pit of hell idea of evolution that comes not from Christians, but from pagans. 

It sort of started in the early 1800s. There's a scientist named Gregor Johann Mendel. He's an Austrian fella. And he was a scientist, a researcher on pea plants. And he did all the hereditary breeding of pea plants. And he's the one who coined the terms recessive and dominant genes. 

From his research, the eugenicists came and took all that and applied it to their eugenics movement, which is all anti -Christian pagan wickedness, which led to the abortion movement, which said we should kill black people and all undesirables. Margaret Sanger was a leader of that. And she founded what became Planned Parenthood. These racist eugenicists, not Christians, said that in the process of evolution, there was a separation in Africa. white people and black people became separate species and Africans are closer in evolutionary terms to the monkeys that we all came from than the Europeans are. Talk about slop. 

That is pagan, eugenist slop. There were some scientists back then who thought that, uh, maybe they wanted to, even if they wanted to say that man sort of popped out of nowhere, even not from a Christian perspective, but like man started first. Uh, there are scientists that believe like the ancient Greek was the first man, but then as they moved around the planet, man degenerated. So monkeys are degenerate versions of original man. So it was all kind of messed up. And then Charles Darwin came along and Charles Darwin said, no, no, no. 

We are all evolved from a single organism that came about by spontaneous creation. He never even tried to explain how that came about. But that little amoeba turned into a fish, which turned into a frog, which turned into a monkey, which turned into a human. Stupidest idea I've ever heard in my life. None of that's Christian. The Christian view of creation eliminates racism because God made man. 

End of story. We didn't evolve from anything. God made man. Then also God made animals and gave us dominion over the animals. We are not animals. We did not evolve from animals. 

We're separate from animals. And God made man in his image, in God's image. Here's the Bible, Genesis 126. Then God said, let us make man in our image. according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. 

" Genesis 126. There is an unbridgeable gap between human life and animal life. We did not evolve or as some scientists back in the day believe devolved. No, there's no connection. We are distinct. Humans are distinct in our moral, intellectual, and spiritual capabilities. 

And I love it. These evolutionists, they try so hard. 

They'll be like, Oh, well, look, here's a video of a monkey using a tool. 

Remember monkeys made tool. That's it. Monkeys made tools and they broke a stick. off a tree or found a stick and they stuck it in a hole and they eat the ants off the stick. You're like, I don't know. It's not really a tool. 

Show me when monkeys manufacture a miter saw that can challenge the local DeWalt factory. And we'll talk about monkeys can make tools. It's ridiculous. Made in God's image means humans have a soul. Animals don't. We have reason, morality. 

We are a reflection of God's holiness. Now, of course, then Adam sinned. Then we're an enemy of God. But we can be born again and restore that communion. And we all know this. And if you choose not to accept it, then the Bible says you are a fool. 

Romans or worse, Romans 1 .18, actually not worse. We think of a fool is not that bad. We did a segment on this recently, an episode. A fool back in the Bible meant wicked. But Romans 1 .18 says, Invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they're without excuse. 

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolishness. were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Not the creator. Therefore, God gave them up to their lusts, to their hearts, to impurity, to dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worship and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. 

It's Romans 1 18. The world today worships the teaching of Charles Darwin and evolution. And if you're an idiot, if you believe in the biblical account of creation, but in reality, the fools are the evolutionists and woe to them. I'll quote here, George Whitfield. I saw a movie trailer. He said there's a movie coming out about him called A Great Awakening about the relationship between him and Ben Franklin. 

I can't wait for that. And he gave a sermon about Nicodemus, asking questions about being born again. And in that sermon, Whitefield says, Being made in the very image of God, undoubtedly before the fall, man had no other will but his makers. God's will and Adam's were like unisons in music. There was not the least disunion and discord among them. Now he hath a will as directly contrary to the will of God, as light is contrary to darkness or heaven to hell. 

We all bring into the world with us a carnal mind, which is not only an enemy to God, but enmity itself. Praise God that we can be born again. That comes from paganism and Darwinism that says that man is nothing but a beast as opposed to something separate and distinct and made in the image of God. So if you want to reject monkey and black people tropes, whatever, great, reject them and reject Darwinism and paganism because it's all connected. If we stayed away from Darwinism in the first place, we'd be much better off today. But politically, don't be fooled by people pretending to be outraged by it. 

especially when they're the pagans who believe in evolution themselves, which gave rise to this trope and gives it any ounce of power, whatever it still has today. Rejected entirely and acknowledge that God made all humans in his image. And you can be saved so that you can go to heaven and be with God forever. And for that, I want to play one last clip here. I, I don't endorse Jesse Lee Peterson. 

I don't know enough about him to one way or the other, but his YouTube page where the shorts that make the short videos are hilarious because no one is funnier at repeating the question multiple times, over and over. 

And his guests, I don't know where he finds these people, they refuse to answer his question and he just asks it over and over and it's just great. 

This isn't necessarily one of those clips, but it's still a funny clip nonetheless that I just saw the other day. 

Is a human being an animal? 

No. 

Oh. 

Are you sure? 

Uh -huh. So human beings aren't animals? No. 

Well, I mean, that's not debatable. That's science. Humans aren't animals. 

No, they act like animals when they fall away from God. 

I know they act like animals, you're right, those in that fallen state, but they're not animals when they are God. 

that fallen state. You gotta agree. You gotta agree. 

No, I mean, there's no debating. 

I mean, like you learned this in elementary school. 

Humans are animals. 

Oh, you believe that humans are animals? 

That's not up for debate or discussion. 

So do you believe that humans are animals? 

It is. 

You believe that? 

100%. 

You should go back and beat that teacher. Which one? 

That lied to you about that. I went to the number one teacher. public school in the country. 

No, they lied to you. They do act like animals in a fallen state. 

You believe human beings are in a fallen state? You're taking this to a spiritual conversation, but just on a scientifical, what is platform? Humans are animals. 

Humans are not animals. Unlike animals, humans are created in the image of God, so they're not animals. They do all kinds of crazy things like animals, but they're not really animals. I don't know if you know that, but she went to the number one public school in the country. It's a very scientifical school. Mike Slater dot locals dot com is where we put the episode without commercials and the transcript. Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

The Democrats won a TX state senate race in a district Trump won by 17 points. The lame stream said this is a bellwether for the midterms! In reality, there has never been a less consequential election. But don't forget the Democrat's US Senate candidate and how he justified abortion using the Bible. Woe to him.

Welcome to politics by faith. Thanks for taking time today. I want to talk about this Texas Senate race that happened the other day. And then I want to get to this James Tallarico fella and we'll talk about Mary and Gabriel. That's the plan. So there was a Texas state Senate race last week outside of Fort Worth and a Democrat won it. 

Now Trump won this district by 17 points in the last election and a Democrat won. So the media loved him. This is a bellwether of what's to come for the midterms when the Democrats are going to crush it and the Republicans are going to be crushed. And here we see, even in deep red Texas, we have a Democrat winning this seat that Trump won by 17 points. Would you like to know the full story? Would you like to know what really happened? 

This is a state Senate race that couldn't matter any less. There's no way you could conceive of an election that has less significance than this one. This winner, this Democrat, will not even take office until after the November election. So the same two people, the Democrat who won and the Republican, are going to have another election in November. In the meantime, there will not be any meeting of the Texas state legislature. He will not get sworn in. 

He will not vote. nothing will happen from now until November. He was elected to literally nothing. There was no job that he was elected to. And the people knew that. First of all, there was an ice storm as well. 

So that decreased turnout, but the people knew there was nothing to vote for. He won with 54 ,000 votes. I think she had like 43 ,000 or something. So he won with 54 ,000 votes. The last time there was a real election in this seat, 2022, the winner did not have 54 ,000 votes, but 2 .9 million. And the winner had 2 .4 million. 

So 5 million people voted in this race normally. And in this race, the winner had 50 ,000. There's never been an election in the history of America that has mattered less than this one. Now, what we can gather from this story, and this guy is nothing about Pell Weathers or the Trump administration or anything. What you can gather from this story is that the Democrats are trying to run a new kind of Democrat. We'll put them in the category called bearded white guys. 

Fetterman, now they don't necessarily need beards. It's a little, like Fetterman, I don't think he has a beard, but tough guys, like big, strong, tough guys. Like this guy in Texas was a machinist. You have Fetterman, right? The guy in Maine who turned out to maybe be a Nazi, Graham Platner is running for Senate in Maine. They're running a bearded white guy for Senate in Iowa, Nathan Sage. 

Dan Osborne's running for Senate in Nebraska, another bearded white guy. So the Democrats are trying to shore up their working class white guy union vote play here. Now, is it going to work? Clearly a lot of those guys left when the Democratic Party leaned really hard into the trans queer, right? I mean, they lost a lot of that working class base. Now there's another type of Democrat that that party is throwing out there as well. 

They're trying to run not only bearded white guys, but also Christians. I got to do the air quote Christians. One of these guys is James Tallarico. He's a 36 -year -old state senator in Texas who's running for U . S. 

Senate in Texas, which is great because it's either going to be him or Jasmine Crockett as the Democratic candidate. 

candidate. So the Republicans are going to win in the end, but it's still fun. He, at the top of his bio, he says that he is a Presbyterian seminarian, Presbyterian seminarian. He's leading as a Christian. That's his first, that's my identity is I'm the Christian guy running for the Senate in Texas. I don't know. 

where he's going to seminary or what exactly that means to him. I don't know what he's studying. It's not the Bible. Pro -abortion. So we have a big, big red flag there. And this happened on Rogan. 

He was on Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan's been going to church lately. So Joe Rogan doesn't need someone like this around him spouting ridiculous things like this. 

Here is James Tallarico. But I say all this in terms of, in context of abortion, because before God comes over Mary, and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary's consent, which is remarkable. I mean, go back and read this in Luke. I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be, let it happen. 

So to me, that is an affirmation in one of our most central stories that creation has to be done with consent. You cannot force someone to create. Creation is one of the most sacred acts that we engage in as human beings. But that has to be done with consent. It has to be done with freedom. And to me, that is absolutely consistent with the ministry and life and death of Jesus. 

And so that's how I come down on that side of the issue. 

Wow. Using the birth of Jesus to justify abortion. Well, Matt Walsh says, this is why I say you cannot be Christian and pro -abortion. Maintaining your pro -abortion position requires you to mutilate the Bible and Christian teaching in unspeakably blasphemous ways. 

This is example 1 ,325 ,000 He's trying to make a biblical argument for abortion. 

Yikes. So, let me play this clip here before we go to Luke, which he said to do. He said, if you look at Luke, and we will, our special that we recorded the other day, that we're gonna come out, I think, tomorrow, here, was about the war on empathy. Hillary Clinton wrote this long article about the conservatives and how conservatives are against empathy. And she quoted Ali Bastaki and Dr. Joe Rigney, and we'll talk to Dr. Joe Rigney, it's great. He was awesome. 

We ran through the whole article with Dr. Rigney. But Hillary makes, in this case, in her article, she makes the argument for abortion from the empathy perspective. And she says, well, why do you conservatives have no empathy for the woman who was raped, who now is forced to have the baby from her rapist? That's always what they go to. I mean, that's like, 0 .00001 % of abortions, but okay, fine. That's what they always go to. 

Here is Allie Beth on the Major Garrett podcast, asked about that argument from Hillary. 

And the moral diagramming of the rape victim who traumatized, feels objectified, criminalized by an offender, does not want to bring a child to term because that would extend all of the things she most felt criminally invasive upon her in the original act of rape. Well, I think all of us would agree that we wouldn't kill a child outside of the womb because he or she was the product of rape. And if we are not killing people outside of the womb because of the circumstances surrounding their conception, then I don't see the moral justification for killing a baby inside the womb because of the circumstances surrounding her conception. The only difference there is time. And are we really killing people based on their location and their age? 

Look, a baby inside the womb is a human being, and he or she should have the right not to be murdered no matter how they were conceived. That's great. Ali Beth is wonderful. There's only one minute left. Let me play the rest of her. 

Let's play her last comment here about empathy itself. The article that Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote had the headline, MAGA's war on empathy. 

Do you figure yourself, do you see yourself as someone who is objectively at war with empathy? No, I don't. I want people to see the vulnerability in what I believe sometimes to be emotional propaganda that gets people to not think about both sides of an issue. And I really want people to approach this as a Christian with this dichotomy of the truth and love. The thing about love that we read as Christians in the Bible is that it is inextricably intertwined with the truth. That's first Corinthians 13, six. 

And so I want us to seek the truth in love, loving other people. while still realizing that order is important, that morality exists, that babies in the womb have value, and that we don't want more Lake and Rileys. 

And so all of this has to play into how we decide on policy. Allie Beth is awesome. First Corinthians 13 6 says, love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. So let's go back to James Tallarico's claim that Mary, excuse me, Gabriel asked Mary if she would be willing to carry to term Jesus Christ. All right, so let's just go. 

Let's see what it says. Luke 1 11. Well, actually, let's go to this. Luke 1 11 is John the Baptist, but let's start here. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. 

But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard. and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you shall call him John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. " Now, James Tallarico, this maybe doesn't dispute, debunk what Tallarico said because the angel here is saying that we're going to answer your prayer. So maybe there is some consent here, I suppose. But the angel didn't come down and say, are you sure? Let's jump to the main point. This is also in Luke 1. Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee. named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, rejoice, highly favored one. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was." Meaning if an angel came to you and said, rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you. It'd be like, why? So she was taken back. 

Then the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. I'm not skipping any words here. The angel said, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. 

and his kingdom. There will be no end of his kingdom. There will be no end. That's it. There is no asking permission anywhere in this. I don't even know what he's talking about. 

How could he possibly have come anywhere to that conclusion at all? It says, do not be afraid, Mary. He said, do not be afraid, Mary. You found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son. Not will you please pretty please with a question mark. Just says you will conceive in your womb. 

What is he reading? Let me read a little more. Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that Holy one who is to be born will be called the son of God. Then Mary said, behold, the maid servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word. 

And the angel departed from her. No question marks. The angel didn't say, will you do this? The angel said, you will. She said, let it be. But that wasn't in response to a question. 

That was just her submission. It's really hard to debunk this because that's not what the text said at all. I mean, I guess that's all you have to do. 

He said, well, let me, it's just so crazy. 

God asks for Mary's consent. 

Where? Which is remarkable. 

I mean, go back and read this in Luke. 

We just did. 

I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do. 

No, where, when, how, in what way? And she says, if it is God's will, let it be done. Let it be. let it happen. So to me, that is a an affirmation in one of our most 

central stories that creation has to be done with consent. Wow. 

Wow. 

Okay. 

All right. This is interesting. Creation has to be done with consent. 

That's not real because what he's talking about is rape. 

Okay. Now, even if, let's go here. Even if the angel did ask for permission, which didn't happen, just want to be very clear that did not happen, but let's just go with it. That was before Jesus was conceived. What he's talking about is killing God. a baby after it's conceived, after the creation has already taken place. 

Or in Mary's case, she would have the right to kill Jesus after he was conceived, like three months in the womb or something. That is so crazy. 

Listen, all we're asking is for you to stop murdering babies. 

Okay? That's all we want is for you to stop murdering babies. And you really want to do it. and you want to do it so badly you will just make up stuff out of the Bible and that is a dangerous game to play. Woe to you! Now we shouldn't be surprised at this blasphemy at all. 

This Presbyterian seminarian was asked in the New York Times, do you believe Christianity to be more true than other religions? Now the answer is not that it's more true than other religions, it is the only true religion. The proper answer is yes. John 14, six, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the father except through me. I'll never forget this guy who called in my show the other day, like a week or so ago. And he's like a, like a white guy from, he's from California. 

He's like a, like a white guy and he's a Muslim. He said, he's a Muslim. And I said, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I've never talked to him. 

It's just a guy, like a white guy converted to Islam. 

Right. And, and he said he did it because he couldn't. accept that there was only one way to heaven, as the Bible says. So he went with Islam, I guess. I guess they think there's many ways. I don't know. 

They behead a lot of people who aren't Muslims. I don't know what they... I don't know who told him what that made him think Muslim, Islam is then therefore the way to go. But okay, here's... But I'll tell you, that's what the Bible says. The Bible says there's one way and that's it. 

You may not like it, but I'll tell you this, you cannot reject God's commands. and then expect to go to heaven because that wouldn't be just of God. God says, do this and you'll get to heaven. And then we don't do it and expect that we'll go to heaven anyway. No way. Can't happen. 

Hebrews 10, 26, for if we go now, you may not like what I said so far, but again, I'm not telling you Hebrews 10, Hebrews 10, 26, for if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, this is not just, um, you know, you commit a sin. This is like deliberate. I know what the truth is and I'm going to not do it. After receiving the knowledge of truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, Jesus, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse judgment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified? 

and has outraged the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Do you think that Jesus can die for your sins? You then blaspheme his word like you just heard from James Tallarico. 

Not not misunderstand or miss or oh you know I oh I misread that no no no I'm a Presbyterian seminarian and I'm gonna blaspheme his word like that. You are spitting in God's face and you're saying nah I don't I don't have to do what you want. I don't have to read your your word accurately. I'm good. So here's that New York Times that I was just talking about. 

Here he is asked by Ezra Klein. How do you think about the competing claims of different religions? Do you believe Christianity to be more true than other religions? 

Do you believe there to be exclusivity in these beliefs, that they're incompatible with each other? I believe Christianity points to the truth. I also think other religions of love point to the same truth. I think of different religious traditions as different languages. So you and I could sit here and debate. what to call this cup, and you could call it a cup in English, you'd call it something else in Spanish and French, but we are all talking about the same reality. 

I believe Jesus Christ reveals that reality to us, but I also think that other traditions reveal that reality in their own ways, with their own symbol structures. And I've learned more about my tradition by learning more about Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam and Judaism. And so I see these beautiful faith traditions as circling the same truth about the universe, about the cosmos. And that truth is inherently a mystery. And I think the most destructive thing is when religion becomes an end in and of itself. That's when religion implodes. 

My pastor always told me growing up that religious symbols are like aspirin. In order to work, they have to dissolve. They point beyond themselves. 

If you get lost in the symbols, If you get lost in the words, you're missing the reality that we're all trying to describe and talk about. Yikes. Anti here, it can mean opposite of, but it can also mean instead of. It's very important. It can mean opposite of, it can also mean instead of. So there's the Antichrist, but then there's small a Antichrist. 

There's capital A Antichrist and there's small a Antichrists who present themselves and they present themselves as, as Christians, as Christ followers, as Presbyterian seminarians, perhaps as Christian Senate candidates. They're not. People who would distort scripture in such a way, such a way. that they would make up text like Gabriel asking Mary for permission which to therefore come to the conclusion that abortion is biblical and acceptable and good that is antichrist stuff and we should run from people like this or boldly call them out for exactly who they are mike slater . locals . com transcript commercial free on the website mike slater .

Jason DeFord, aka Jelly Roll, won a few Grammys this weekend. And then he got in front of a group of pagans and talked about Jesus. Jason seems to be an example of the fruit of righteousness that Hebrews 12 writes about.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I saw the Grammys. I didn't see the Grammys yesterday. I saw that the Grammys took place yesterday and that a one performer known as Jelly Roll won three Grammys, Best Country Duo, Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance, and Best Contemporary Country Album for Beautifully Broken. Here he is during his acceptance speech in front of a bunch of pagans. 

I know they're going to try to kick me off here, so just let me try to get this out. First of all, Jesus, I hear you, and I'm listening, Lord. I am listening, Lord. Second of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my life without you. I'd have ended up dead or in jail. 

I'd have killed myself if it wasn't for you and Jesus. I thank you for that. I thank you for my label, Broken Bow. Country radio, baby! What's up, dawg? Oh, Republic, John McNeely, we did it, baby. 

There was a time in my life, y 'all, that I was broken. That's why I wrote this album. I didn't think I had a chance, y 'all. There was days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big and a radio the same size and a six -by -eight -foot cell, and I believed that those two things could change my life. 

I believed that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life. And I want to tell y 'all right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus, and anybody can have him. have a relationship with him. 

I love you, Lord. 

" Read Hebrews 12 this morning. For consider him, consider Jesus, who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. " You think you have it bad? Let me tell you the story of Jesus. The Bible says, you have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. Jelly Roll, Jason DeFord, this is his real name. 

I don't like calling people by their silly nicknames, but Jason was in prison from a very young age, 16. Jail for aggravated robbery, drug charges, in and out a couple of different times. We were just, maybe an episode or two ago, We talked about Proverbs 27 .6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. We just did an episode about Alex Preddy in Minnesota, how if he was arrested the first time he got involved in law enforcement, like he should have been, then it could have saved his life. It could have prevented him from being involved in with ICE either a second or a third time, which was the final time before he was killed. 

And we talked about how punishment is good. Discipline is good. And I just read this morning. Hebrews 12. First of all, every sermon I've ever heard about Hebrews 12, it's always on the first part about how Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. And that's a great part. 

But I've never heard a sermon go a little further down in the text. Hebrews 12 .5. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons. My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves. He chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. 

When you're going through tough times, here's the authors of Hebrew saying, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten? Don't forget that God is in control of everything. Proverbs 3 11 says, my son, do not despise the Lord your God. or be weary of his reproof for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights. Chastening from the Lord is love. 

Webster's dictionary, 1828. I looked at the word chastening because we don't use that in our normal language. Chastening means to correct by punishing, to inflict pain by stripes or in other manner for the purpose of punishing an offender and recalling him to his duty. to reduce to order or obedience, to restrain, to repress, to correct, to purify by expunging faults, as to chastise a poem. So I imagine you write a poem and then you chastise it by making it better, improving it, cutting out words, purifying it. But to people too, the Lord does that, God does that to us. 

Why? 

Because he loves us. Back to Hebrews 12 verse seven, if you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. " Let's jump to verse 11. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 

Wow. Jelly Roll, I don't know his entire biography, but clearly he made, he grew up in a terrible home and made bad choices as a youngin, and he paid for it. He was punished properly. And I bet he would say, thank you, God, for the punishment. Thank you for sending me to prison. And Jesus turned his life around. 

We all will experience hard times. We will be punished. God is in control. and it's not pleasant in the moment, but it can yield the fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Spurgeon said, many believers are deeply grieved because they do not at once feel that they have been profited by their afflictions. Right? 

So we had something terrible happen. I've been, I've been chastened by the Lord. Great. Or I mean, terrible, but okay. I get it. Hebrews 12. 

Okay, great. Where's my fruit? I'm ready. Ready for the fruit. Ready for the, uh, where are the good times? Imagine if Jason DeFord was like, all right, God, I went to jail a couple of times, but now I'm out. 

Where's my Grammy? It's like, nah, it's not. And Spurgeon said, well, you do not expect to see apples or plums on a tree, which you have planted, but a weak, only little children put their seeds into the garden and then expect to see them grow into plants in an hour. But you must trust God that the fruit of righteousness will come. If, if you follow Jesus and have been trained by it, if you learn your lesson, and if you do that, everyone can experience the joy of redemption. Just as Jason DeFord said there, Jesus is for everyone. 

And you can experience that joy of redemption. Everyone can the same way that Jason DeFord not only feels it, but knows it. And is so grateful for it that he will go in front of a group of pagans and proclaim the name of Jesus. Mike Slater . locals . com.  Transcript and commercial free on the website. Mike Slater . locals .