MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Pastor Calling For Violence Against Elon
Politics By Faith, February 11, 2205
February 11, 2025

It seems a pastor was calling for violence against Elon for "stealing your Social Security check." He justified violence by quoting Jesus in Matthew 11:12, "...the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." What does this scripture actually mean?

Welcome to Politics by Faith.

I want to talk about this pastor in Chattanooga, who it seems is calling for violence against Ceylon and Doge and the whole conservative movement. We'll play the clip and maybe give him the benefit of the doubt. But I definitely want to take the opportunity to dive deeper into the scripture that I believe he takes very much out of context. We have a little background here.

We've been talking a ton about Doge and Elon on the Sirius XM show, because this is the conservative movement's fiscal dreams come true. We've been fighting for this, arguing for this for decades, and nothing's ever happened. We've had like Paul Ryan, like all the hope we had for Paul Ryan. And he didn't do squat and here it is finally happening all these cuts are

finally happening it's happening from Trump and Elon and it's absolutely incredible so part of me is like oh you know maybe we're talking a little bit too much about you know it's like no we cannot talk enough about doge and Elon and everything they're doing it's incredible now a lot of this still has to go through the legislative branch has to go through the house and then the Senate it's a little harder to get through the House.

It's amazing through the executive branch, and they can do a ton. It's still hard to get through the House right now. Everyone likes their own pet projects. A lot of this is gonna be really difficult to get through the Senate.

We still need, in a lot of these things, we need seven Democrats to vote for. But I have great hope that the negotiating tactics and power of President Trump and Elon, getting this stuff out to the American people and the pressure can be applied to these

Democratic senators to do the right thing. Is Slater calling for violence? No, no, no. Appropriate pressure, dealing with reason and common sense. Like maybe we shouldn't have $100 billion of fraud in our social security system.

I don't know, maybe if Elon roots out

and finds $100 billion of fraudulent social security payments, if you want to continue the social security system, if you want it to remain solvent this would be a good thing to root out that $100 billion of fraud. Wouldn't it? Doesn't everyone want to be on that team? Maybe not.

And this is it, this is the time. Elon said, this administration has one chance for major reform that may never come again. It's now or never. And he later said in another tweet, it's now or never. We are at a fork in the road of destiny. That's the mentality of Doge and Trump.

Trump got shot in the head the other day. If you remember that, it's now or never. There is a fervor. There is a zeal. There is a passion for doing what is right right now from Trump and his entire team.

So when a program is put in front of Elon and Trump, should we keep it or should we cut it? If there is any doubt, it's gone because it's now or never. And as we've said many times before, Elon, his entire mentality with business,

is you cut, cut, cut, and you know you cut enough when you have to add 10% back. That's the mentality they're gonna bring to government. We're gonna cut and cut and cut. When in doubt, cut, and if later you need to bring it back, great, you bring it back.

But you have to cut it now because it is now or never. Now, as they keep doing this, and they keep uncovering not only the waste, but more fraud and ultimately criminal behavior here shortly, soon, they're gonna face more and more resistance ultimately leading to Violence at first it was you know, they're young

Like the doge people to do guys are young. Who cares? James Monroe in 1776 was 18 Aaron Burr was 20 Alexander Hamilton was 21 James Madison who wrote the Constitution was 35 Thomas Jefferson was 33 John Adams was the ancient one in the group, he was 40. Or George Washington, he was the elder statesman, he was 44. Benjamin Rush, who was the doctor of the founding fathers,

the doctor, was 30. All right, he wouldn't even be out of med school today. So, young, whatever. The Manhattan Project guys, they were all in their 30s, a couple were in their 40s. Richard Feynman was 24.

Oh, let me see if I can find this quick.

Let's see, this is Elon, who started this. Okay, so, some guy, I don't know who this person is. Must commandos include guys who are 21, 23, 24, 25. One is 19 years old, his job title is, quote, expert. When you were 19, what were you an expert at? And Michael Dell said,

I started a company when I was 19. It's worked out pretty well so far. Founder of Dell Computers.

Great.

So the first thing, you're too young. Second thing is you don't have the experience. I love that one, experience. Where's experience gotten us? Not having government experience is the best thing about them.

Hillary Clinton tried that line, she wrote against the to the Secretary of Transportation. She said they have no relevant experience. Most of them aren't old enough to rent a car. Are you gonna let them mess with airline safety that's already deteriorated under your watch? I love under your watch. He's been the Secretary of Transportation for like a week. And he wrote back, Sean Duffy, he said, Madam Secretary, with all due respect, experienced Washington

bureaucrats are the reason that our nation's infrastructure is crumbling. You need to sit this one out. Then they tried unelected. Oh, Elon, he's unelected. Elon is the most elected non-elected government employee ever. So first of all, everyone in the executive branch is unelected,

except for the president and vice president. The secretary of defense is unelected. Like whatever, it doesn't mean anything. Trump, we elected Trump, Trump put his people in power to do his will, the will of the American people. End of story, that's the end of it.

But Elon was a package deal and everyone knew that Elon was a package deal with Trump. You voted for Trump, you knew you were getting Elon. So that's a ridiculous argument. Then they said, well, Elon's gonna steal my social security number?

We had a guy, Sean, from South Carolina call in the other day who literally said this. He said, I don't want Elon looking at my mother's Social Security number. I'm like, what do you think he's gonna do? What do you think he's gonna open up a checking account

in your mother's name or something? What are you talking about? So that's the concern. So none of this is going anywhere for them. So ultimately, it very well could resort to violence. Elon tweeted out a bunch of messages

that people put on the internet. We've got to kill these people, and we know where they live, and we know their names, and all this stuff. Ed Martin, chief of staff of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a letter to Elon saying that we will protect all Doge work and all Doge employees.

Quote, we will not act like the previous administration and look the other way, as the Antifa and BLM rioters as well as thugs with guns trashed our capital city. We will protect those and other workers no matter what. This right here is the most official call for violence that I've ever seen. There's some Congress people who are out there saying like we got to take to the streets stuff like that. I think this one is in the lead so

so far. This is Dr. Steve Caudill, CAUDLE from the Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church

in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And from the pulpit. In this nation, I'm worried that we are on the verge of bloodshed. This is a an attempt to take us back to a day that we do not want to go and we So therefore, there will be conflict. I pray that the peace of God will win out and overcome the madness that is attempting to take over this nation. And I will say to you, beloved, no one likes violence, but sometimes violence is necessary.

When Elon Musk forces his way into the United States Treasury and threatens to steal your personal information and your Social Security check, there is a possibility of violence.

Okay, all right, all right. We got to go. We got to go back. We had a guy call in last week who said, so we're on channel 125 on SiriusXM. 126 is Urban View. So we had a guy call and he said that every once in a while, turn over to Urban View and just see what's going on over there. He said, it's crazy. They're absolutely freaking out and it's insane what they're worried about. Maybe this is what they're saying,

this is what people think.

So let's start, when Elon forces his way into the United States Treasury, what do you mean forces? Trump won the election, put Scott Besant in charge of the Treasury Department. Scott said, hey Elon, come on in.

There's no force, threatens to steal your personal information. Who's stealing your personal information? And stealing your social security check? What do you think, the richest man in the world wants your, you know, thousand dollar check or something? I don't even know what, what are you talking about?

So like, all of that is wrong. All of that is wrong. Okay. But, but then that leads to what?

And your social security check? There is a possibility of violence. Sometimes the devil will act so ugly that you have no other choice but to get violent and fight. Well someone might say, now Reverend, you know you shouldn't be talking about violence. This is the Christian thing to do. Well I will say, why not talk this way? Because Jesus did. Jesus said in this key verse, didn't He? The kingdom of heaven suffers what? Violence. And the who? The violent take it by force.

The kingdom of God is a war zone. It is a battlefield. You did know this, right?

Okay. So, let's chat about this. Let's do benefit of the doubt first. Would you get benefit of the doubt? thinks Elon is committing violence by stealing your social security check. And you, people in this church, you are going to be the victims of it because Elon is violent and violent people will steal your social security checks.

Maybe. Maybe that's what he meant.

I'm trying my best.

So I wanted to see if there's any more context here. I wanted to see if he's given any statements. So I searched up his church and I looked at his Facebook page. I thought maybe this church would have a nice Facebook page and they would say something.

So the first one I clicked on, it says, it's come to our attention that a message delivered on this time, blah, blah, blah, has led to misinterpretations and strong reactions from individuals across the country. And it's like, oh, I found it, found the church.

While we respect all houses of faith, we want to clarify that Second Missionary Baptist Church is a separate congregation and we're not affiliated with Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church. They're like, oh, okay, wait, wrong church. Wrong church. Okay, alright. So this is the Second Missionary Baptist Church and we're looking for the Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church in Chattanooga,

Tennessee. My bad, it's down the street. Okay, so they don't have a Facebook page. I didn't see any statement, but the local Chattanooga News did an interview with him, and in no way throughout the entire interview did he in any way say, oh, that was taken out of context. Here's what I really said.

We're a people of peace. I would never condone violence against Elon and Trump and conservatives. And in fact, I was saying that they're violent. Nothing, he didn't explain it in any way. He doubled down on everything he said. Okay. So let's take

this as an opportunity to talk about this verse and what this verse really means, what Jesus is really talking about. It's Matthew 11 12. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. What does that mean from Jesus? What is Jesus saying? We actually talked about this verse a bit the other day. We referenced it the other day because it ends with,

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Anyway, the word violent here in Greek means strong and forceful and energetic. If you look at the original Greek, strong, forceful, and energetic. This is a tricky scripture so I went to a lot of commentaries to learn how this has been analyzed over the centuries. This is Myers New Testament

commentary from 1832. In this way is described that eager, irresistible, striving, and struggling after the approaching messianic kingdom. It is as though it were being taken by storm. That's not like a violent storm, right? Strong, forceful, energetic. Those of whom, the, and then the Greek word for violence, holds true, achieve a speedy success. And that while they press forward to join the ranks of my followers, they clutch at the approaching kingdom as though they were seizing spoils and make it their own. So eager and energetic no longer calm expectant is the interest in regard to the kingdom

the Greek word here is be a states it is translated as one who is forceful in eager pursuit in Jewish culture it was a zeal for God's law back to Myers New Testament commentary he says the be a states those who are forceful in their zeal, are believers struggling hard for its possession. Matthew Henry, 1706, his commentary, it shows us what fervency and zeal are required of all.

Self must be denied. The bent, the frame and temper of the mind must be altered. Those who have an interest in the great salvation will have it upon any terms, and not think them hard, nor quit their hold without a blessing." So I will do whatever it takes, and I'm not going to complain about it.

It won't be difficult because it's obvious that this is what I'm going to do. That's the forcefulness that I have, the zeal. Barnes' commentary from 1830. He says there was, this is Jesus, "'Was a great rush or a crowd

pressing to hear John the Baptist. Multitudes went out to hear him, as if they were about to take the kingdom of heaven by force. Jesus says that since the kingdom of heaven or the gospel has been preached there's been a rush to it. People have been earnest about it. They've come pressing to obtain the blessing as if they would take it by violence.

There's an allusion here to the manner in which cities were taken. Besiegers pressed upon them with violence and demolished the walls. With such earnestness and violence, he says, people had pressed around him and John since they began to preach. Vincent's Word Studies says this word means overpowered, taken by storm. Christ thus graphically portrays the intense excitement which followed John's ministry. The eager waiting, striving, and struggling of the multitude for the promised king. Real quick, just to be clear, this does not say that we should go kill Elon Musk because he's taken

away our Social Security check.

Pastor!

The word take by force means literally to snatch away, carry off. It's often used in the classics of plundering. Those who use violent efforts drag it to themselves. They that make violence pull it unto them. Christ speaks of believers, they seize upon the kingdom and make it their own." I love this ancient idea. The passage recalls the old Greek proverb quoted by Plato against the sophists who had

corrupted the Athenian youth by promising the easy attainment of wisdom. It was Plato and this old Greek proverb, good things are hard. Dante seized the idea. I'll translate this. This is one of Dante's poems. He said, this is the more modern translation, the kingdom of heaven is taken by storm, not through force, but through passionate love and a living hope so strong and aligns with God's will. It's not like how people overpower each other, but instead it triumphs because it wants to be won over. And in being one, it wins through

kindness and grace. John 6 15, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. That's the same idea by force like that shows the fervor that people had and it's the fervor we need again for Jesus and for the gospel not fervor against Elon finding a hundred billion dollars in the social security payments that are fraudulent like he has fervor for that. Elon that's good. Like Elon you go have a zeal for

that. We are called to have a zeal for Jesus and that pastor if I may should well pray about him. Let me end with Charles Spurgeon. He wrote frequently complaints are made and surprise expressed by individuals who have never found a blessing rest upon anything they have attempted to do in the service of God. They'll say, I have been a Sunday school teacher for years and I've never seen any of my girls or boys converted.

No, and the reason most likely is that you have never been violent about it. You have never been compelled by the divine spirit to make up your mind that converted they should be, and no stone should be left unturned until they were. You've never been brought by the Spirit to such a passion that you've said, I cannot live unless God bless me. I cannot exist unless I see some of these children saved. Then falling on your knees in agony of prayer and putting forth afterwards your trust with

the same intensity towards heaven, you would have never been disappointed, for the violent take it by force." That is what that scripture actually means. Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater Mike Slater, dot locals dot com. Transcript and commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com.

 

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Happy All Saints' Day
Politics By Faith, October 31, 2025

It's time for my annual lament as to what our holy days have become. But the good news is, we can reclaim them right now.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. It is October 31st, so it is time for my annual lament about the holiday season and what the holidays have become in our secular pagan country. All of the holy days that we have on our calendar used to be, I should say, all of our holidays that we still have on our calendar used to be holy days. It's a better way of putting it. Thanksgiving started off as a day of prayer and fasting. 

Fasting. Thanksgiving used to be, used to be a day of not eating. And now it's a day of football and gluttony. Christmas was about the birth of Jesus. Now it's Santa and presents. Easter was about the resurrection of Jesus. 

Now it's an Easter bunny and eggs. St. Patrick's day, even it was a day at St. Patrick or Patrick was this guy. He's born in England. It's not even an Irish. And he was abducted and he was put on a slave ship to Ireland. And he spent six years there, six years there. 

And then he escaped to his home country, became a Christian, went back to the people who enslaved him. to spread the gospel to these lost people. And now it's drink green beer and pinch me. And so I was like, this hit me, I think it was like five years ago. And it was around Halloween. I've never really liked Halloween, but it was like, especially meaningless, whatever shred of meaning there even was. 

And I was like, this is really, like, what is this? Like, what is this silly thing? And I looked it up and turned, Halloween is All Hallows Eve. Hollow, meaning sacred. Webster's original dictionary definition, 1828, to make holy. Hollow means to make holy, to consecrate, to set apart for holy or religious use, to devote to holy or religious exercises, to treat as sacred. 

as in our father hallowed be thy name. And Eve, All Hallows Eve, day before All Saints Day. All Hallows Eve, kind of put it together, Halloween. That's where that came from. But what's All Saints Day? I mean, think about this. 

Even Halloween used to be a religious holiday, and now it's pagan. Even worse than pagan, right? It's like satanic in many ways. So I'm talking about All Saints Day. and give you the encouragement that your house can be whatever you want it to be. Your home does not have to be influenced by culture in any way at all. 

You can do anything. It doesn't matter how you grew up. It doesn't matter the things you did when you were a kid or what your parents did. You can do whatever you want. 

You're an adult. 

Think about it like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone or was it Home Alone 2? No, Home Alone 1 when he got a cheese pizza. He said, I got a large cheese pizza and it's all for me. That's you with the holy days that are in your house. You can do whatever you want. So celebrate All Saints Day if you want. 

So I was reading yesterday a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called The Reality of Conversion. And he was, in this sermon, articulating all the reasons why we know conversion exists. What is conversion? Of course, we'll go from a unbeliever to a believer, being born again, as we would put it today. And one of his proofs for the reality of conversion is martyrs. And I just want to read like three different paragraphs here about the existence of martyrs and how this creates evidence of such a thing as a change of nature by a supernatural power in their enduring such 

suffering for a good conscience and the glory of Christ. A very great alteration in life and manifestations of holiness of heart in doings is a great argument of a change of heart. " He said, many thousands, yay, and millions of professing Christians that have had this trial have acquitted themselves so under it as to give the most remarkable evidences of a supernatural love to God. and a weanedness from the world, like they've weaned themselves off the world. For they have been tried with the most extreme sufferings and cruel tortures that man could invent. I'll give you one of those in a minute. And the sufferings of many of them have been lengthened out to a very great length. Their persecutors have kept them under trying torments that if possible, they might conquer them by wearing out of their spirits. But yet they have rather chosen undergo all and have held out in suffering unto death rather than to deny Christ. Such has been their faith, and their love, and their courage, that their enemies could not by any means overcome it, though they had him in their hands to execute their will upon them. And very often they have suffered all with the greatest composedness of spirit, yea, and with cheerfulness. And many of them have appeared exceedingly joyful under the torments, and have glorified in tribulations." Amazing. Many have braved it out through an extraordinary stoutness and ruggedness of spirit. But so it has been with multitudes of all sort. 

Many that have been under the decays of old age, long after the strength of nature has begun to fail. And they were in that state wherein our want very much to lose their natural courage. And also women, even children, and persons of delicate and weak constitution, such as these have by their faith and love to Christ and courage in his cause conquered the greatest and cruelest monarchs of the earth. In all the most dreadful things that their power could inflict upon them, they have rather chosen to suffer such affliction than in the least to depart from their dear Lord and Savior. " These are just the parts I've underlined. Whoever reads the histories that give an account of these things must needs acknowledge, if they don't put out the light of reason, like if you're not a total fool, that those persons had something in them far above nature. 

that they were influenced by some supernatural and powerful principle that men naturally don't experience. And many of those that have thus patiently and joyfully suffered such things before their change were very loose, vain persons, contenders of all religion. Many that were cruel persecutors themselves have been seized with conviction and have then at last borne witness to Christ and his gospel by a patient suffering his will, a remarkable instance in which they have been blessed, which we have in the blessed apostle Paul. He goes and he talks about the state that people were in before they were saved. And yet here they are now. And one more part here. 

I'll end on this. I'll end on this line. It requires something above nature to make a man love an unseen object. So as cheerfully to lose all things and suffer all things for his sake, nature doesn't work in that manner. It may work so as to cause men to have a strong love to an object that they've seen with their bodily eyes and have conquered and conversed with. But it is beyond the power of nature to beget such a love to an object that they are told of. 

of which they are informed that he lived on earth many hundreds of years ago and now lives in an invisible world. Nature may operate so as to cause transient affections about that which they are so informed of, but not to knit the heart so strongly to an unseen object as to have such great effect as these. Only some mighty work of God alone hearts, changing their natures and infusing principles that strengthen them and carry them far beyond the strength of nature would be possible. Great stuff there from Jonathan Edwards. Now, if that's true for us, if we've been converted, if we've been saved, if we've been born again, do we act like it? 

Do we celebrate it? Are we grateful for it? Do we live like it? Do we tell people about it? Do we tell people about our salvation as if we were going to spend eternity in hell? But instead now we're going to spend eternity in heaven. 

Now it'd be nice if our society were a Christian society again. And we had these holy days set up around the calendar to remind us about what's really important. All the holy days that we had on the calendar have been secularized or eliminated entirely or secularized and become meaningless. So again, I just want to encourage you to make these holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, whatever you want them to be, whatever they should be, whatever they used to be. You don't have to be sucked in by the culture to make them pagan. It's your home. 

It's your family. And I would argue that if we stopped wasting our time with Halloween and made it All Saints Day again, we'd live in a better country. Because people would know the stories. They would know the stories of the people we should be emulating. We'd have heroes. Reminders of what's important. 

I always think of the story Perpetua. I'm gonna share two here, but Perpetua I gotta share. I share it every time. She lived in the year 203 under a brutal Roman emperor. She refused to worship the emperor and she was thrown in jail. She was to be executed at the next gladiator games. 

And her father visited her and begged her, pleaded with her to recant her foolish Christian beliefs, this invisible God and do it for you. You're only 22 and do it for your baby. You have a full life and you need to be here for this baby. So just do it, just recant, even if you don't really believe, or if you do believe, but you just say you don't, just so you can be free and live. Just recant it so you can get out of prison, give up your pride. Just say you're not a Christian, you'll be set free, and then you can continue to do whatever you want, but just say whatever you need to say. 

And she refused. In prison, her father visited her in prison, and she said, Father, do you see that bowl there? What is that? He said, that's a bowl. She said, of course. Could it be called by any other name than what it is? 

She said, well, neither can I. Be called anything other than what I am. 

A Christian. Couldn't lie, even when it led to her death. Which it did. at the Gladiator Games. She couldn't lie. What if we had All Saints Day, a day where we celebrated the martyrs of the Christian faith? 

What if this day was, once again, about heroes, martyrs? What if we changed the stories that we told in our country? There was an emperor in Rome, Julian. One of his main goals was to decrease the influence of Christianity in culture. He wanted to water it down. He wanted to create division in it. 

He wanted, he did, bring in more paganism. In schools, no Christianity. was able to be taught. Also, Christians couldn't be taught the classical texts, like the pagan texts, which means they couldn't rise up into the higher classes of power and influence. He just wanted to keep Christians down as much as he could. His goal was to marginalize Christians. 

So he would do some things, like a lot of unjust things, obviously. One would be if a Christian broke a minor law, then they'd get the book thrown at him. But if pagans committed crimes against Christians, then they'd get a slap on the wrist. We see versions of this today. There's nothing new under the sun. Everyone in our culture should know the name Artemis. 

He was a military leader, was a Christian. Two priests were tormented and executed, or so they were, they were exiled and then they died when they were exiled. And Artemis said that the emperor was possessed by Satan. The emperor didn't like this. So the emperor got him, tortured him. They pressed him between two rocks. 

It was so horrible. His bowels squeezed out and his eyes popped out of his head, but he lived. momentarily, but he lived. He lived enough where he had another chance to denounce Jesus, but he didn't. So the emperor beheaded him. I just think of a society that knows that story and thinks on that story, meditates on that story, lifts up that type of conviction. 

Hebrews 12 21 says, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders, and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. How would we act if we knew that these great martyrs were watching? They are our example. They are our model. 

And if we don't lift them up, how will people know what to do? 

We wouldn't. We'd flounder. We'd be tossed to and fro. And we have been. But we can't anymore. We're called for more. 

The truth is out there. The answers are out there. The models are out there. The martyrs are out there. In your home, in your family, let's bring them back. Make sure that your kids know the martyrs of our Lord. MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free. It's on the website MikeSlater .

 

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Why Are There 42 Million Americans On Food Stamps?
Politics By Faith, October 28, 2025

This is not a sign of a healthy nation. How can we reverse the trend of more people relying on the government dole and return to the way God wants us to help each other?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. 42 million Americans are on food stamps. That's not a sign of a strong, healthy country. We talked earlier today about creeds. AOC gave a speech where she talked about how there's countless creeds in America. 

The immigrants and people who speak hundreds of different languages. And I'm like, that's not good. The crowd was cheering. There was a Zohan rally. And they're like, oh, it's amazing, 100 different languages. And I'm like, hmm, that sounds like the Tower of Babel. 

Yay, we can't communicate with each other. Yay, none of us believe the same thing about important principles of life and governance. Yay, I think. That doesn't sound good. So then we read from this thing called the American ethos. It was about 100 years ago. 

This person says, the American ethos, I do not choose, excuse me, the American creed, I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk, to build and to dream, fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. 

I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid. to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, this, with God's help, I have done. these 42 million Americans. And I don't want to be cruel. 

I don't want to be mean. But this is not good. One in eight Americans are on food stamps. Now I'm taking a pretty moderate approach here. I'm not saying we got to get rid of entirely. Maybe one day it'd be great if we could get, and I used to make this argument, it'd be great if we could get to the utopian ideal, which is where when someone's down on their luck, first you go to family. 

If you don't have any, you go to friends. And if you don't have any, then you go to church. And if that doesn't work or whatever, then there's other charities, faith, you know, Christian based, like rescue mission, stuff like that. And then like way down the list would be food stamps, but it wouldn't even exist at that point. It wouldn't be necessary. I think one reason why people don't want to go to church is because church requires a relationship and people don't want relationships because the person giving the charity may say, Hey, maybe you should stop doing drugs, or maybe you should make these other changes in your life. 

And people don't want to hear it. They just want the anonymity of getting the free money. So you can continue to live in this way that's clearly not going well. Another benefit of having church be the main means of charity is you don't just get regular water. You get a water where you'll never be thirsty again. People want government cheese. 

When if you go to a church, you'll get a lot more than your regular old bread. Charity through a church is a blessing for everyone. And food stamps are a track for everyone. But people don't want to go to a church because again, relationships, accountability, better to just get it for free in the mail. Better for what? 

Of course. 

So I'm taking a pretty middle of the road approach here. And I think for the next few decades, probably, we should limit food stamps to the elderly, the disabled, and people with an IQ under 80 who can't hold a job. IQ under 80, Jordan Peterson talks about this a lot. You can't fold a paper into thirds to put it in an envelope. That's what that IQ is. 

And everyone else, you gotta get to work. It's probably 60 % of people on food stamps is a combination of fraud and able -bodied adults who can work but don't. Probably 60%. So we'll say 20 million Americans are elderly, disabled, and otherwise unable to hold a job. 20 million. That's a pretty... 

Am I a horrible person for saying, I only want to give food stamps to 20 million Americans? I think if we do that for a while, then maybe, and we change a lot of other things in our culture, in our country, then I think maybe we can start to get to that ultimate ideal. But right now we're nowhere even close. Now we did talk on the radio. And we're going to do more on this tomorrow because someone sent me a article written by John Stuart Mill, or an essay written by John Stuart Mill in 1861 about universal suffrage. And it's very funny because this is 1861. 

This was 60 years before women had a right to vote. So this John Stuart Mill, very progressive guy, says, no, everyone should have a right to vote. Everyone should be allowed to vote. Women, laborers, low -income people, everyone should be allowed to vote. Unless, of course, you're on welfare. If you're on government dole in any way, then no, like definitely. 

And he also said, unless you can read, if you can't read, then obviously you can't vote. He went through all these exceptions that would pretty much accept, exempt or remove everybody's right to vote in America. He said, if you've ever been, if you've ever had bankruptcy, you can't vote. If you're in debt, you can't vote. So like no one in America would be allowed to vote. today if this progressive John Stuart Mill had his way a long time ago. 

But we presented this question of if you, just in an effort to shake this up and try to turn the ship around, if you're on specifically food stamps, you can't vote in federal elections. Again, I know there's problems, there's pros and cons to this, and I get it. I mean, you're still human, you're still a person, you're still all these things, you're still a citizen, but you can't vote in federal elections. So we brought this up as just something to think about. And then John Stuart Mill said the exact same thing back in 1861. But here's what I want to talk about on today's show on Politics by Faith, different than what we do on the radio. 

One last thing, someone wrote on Twitter, they said, my mom is disabled, 78 years old. She would die without food benefits. Oh, wow. Do you hear yourself? Your mom would die without food stamps? Your 78 year old disabled mother would die without food stamps? 

Feed your mom. Feed your mom. Honor your parents by feeding them goodness. All right, here's what I'm talking about here. Isaiah 58. Last night, I was reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards on Isaiah 58. 

I'm not done with it. So maybe we'll do a part two of this when I'm done with Jonathan Edwards' words on it. But let's run through Isaiah 58. It's fascinating. It's about hypocritical religious observances versus true God -pleasing worship and action. That's what Isaiah 58 is about. 

And this opening section here is entitled, Why Do Our Prayers Go Away? And one of the reasons why our prayers go unanswered is because of our own sin. Isaiah 115 says, When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. This is God talking. I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. 

Your hands are full of blood. Isaiah 59 verse one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear. He's like, well, I'm able to do whatever I want people. Don't don't. I'm not answering your prayers because I'm not able to don't be fooled. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 

Adam Clark in 1823, he said, how can any nation pretend to fast or worship God at all or dare to profess that they believe in the existence of such a being? while they carry on the slave trade, and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies of men. O you most criminal of knaves, and worst of hypocrites, cast off at once the mask of your religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while ye continue in this traffic. " Of course, this applies to abortion today. The fasting in Isaiah 58 that's hypocritical is a fasting that You know, you're fasting to hurt your enemies, or you're fasting for selfish needs, or you're fasting to, the scriptures say, make your voice heard on high so to glorify yourself. This is no good. 

So what's true worship? Verse six, is this not the fast that I have chosen, colon, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry? and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out when you see the naked that you cover him and not hide yourself from your own flesh? Loose the bonds of wickedness. Don't oppress others. 

Undo heavy burdens. Break every yoke. So stop oppressing others, but then actively love others, right? So stop doing the bad things and then share your bread with the hungry. So I know, hopefully you sense the pivot here. So my opening of this podcast is about, the receivers of the welfare. 

And now Isaiah 58 is talking about the givers of charity. And what happens when you serve others? First, it should be done for its own sake. But then when you do serve others, then your light shall break forth like the morning. Your healing shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 

Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. How about that? So why are my prayers not going answered? Well, here's why. Okay, fine. What if I do that? 

Well, then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness and your darkness shall be as the noon day. It's great. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones. You shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. 

Those from among you shall build the old waste places. You shall rise up, raise up from the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach. the restorer of streets to dwell in. Wow. If we fast and pray and live a life of righteousness and love, then our prayers will be answered. 

And of course, if you're living that life. then your prayers will be in line with God's will. But I love this line, last part, those from among you shall build the old waste places. So if you do all these good things and you will build the old waste places. Wow, we need a lot of rebuilding today. It's a broken world. 

There are breaches all over the place, but you shall be called the repairer of the breach. There's brokenness, broken homes, broken hearts, a lot of waste places. We need to rebuild a lot. It needs to be a lot of rebuilding. There used to be protections. around sacred institutions or aspects of our life, the family. 

And those have been, protections have been torn down. Therefore the institutions have been torn down. We need to build up the protections again. We need to reclaim these waste places. And I'll leave you with two more scriptures that are convicting to me to be more generous. 1 Timothy 5, 8, anyone who does not provide for their relatives and especially for their own household has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 

Whoa. In Proverbs 19, 17, whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for what they have done. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript of this episode and no commercials. MikeSlater .

 

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Thank You, Pete Hegseth: Holy Warrior
Politics By Faith, October 24, 2025

The Atlantic wrote a hit piece on Pete Hegseth, calling him a Holy Warrior. She said his introduction of Christian principles is a departure from how previous military leaders have led the military. She's wrong. And if he can lead an organization of 3 million people this way, we have no excuse.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. I want to expand on something we talked about in the show this morning. Actually, something we're going to do next week. We'll talk about gambling, sports gambling. It was an incredible hour of the show. 

We briefly mentioned the sports gambling scandal with the head coach of the Trailblazers and all that stuff. But I quickly wanted to pivot into sports gambling and how prevalent this is among people and how dangerous it is. And I don't think it should be allowed because I don't think laws Laws, well, here's the question. Are laws here to protect our freedom or are they here to promote human flourishing? Think about that. Let's table that till the weekend, till next week, over the weekend. 

Are laws here to promote freedom or to protect freedom or promote human flourishing? It's an important question. It'll lead us to two, down two very different paths. Gambling does not promote human flourishing. Let's leave that there. So we'll chat more about that one next week. 

But it was a great hour because we had all these people call in who were gambling addicts, lost everything. And they all said they weren't. Here they are years later and they're not upset at the money they lost. Although hundreds of thousands, one person was a million bucks in gambling. It's not the money they lost, it's the time. And I asked one guy, you know, what's a thing you miss that you regret? 

He said, the birth of my daughter. It was a powerful moment. This forced gambling is a bad thing. So we'll talk about that next week. I want to share this first. The Atlantic wrote an article about Pete Hexeth called Holy Warrior. 

Pete Hexeth is bringing his fundamentalist interpretation of Christianity into the Pentagon. I love this. The fundamentalist interpretation. It's like THE interpretation. I guess it's opposed to the LGBTQIA plus trans -inclusive interpretation of Christianity that exists. But by fundamentalist, she means what the Bible says. 

So she went to a sermon that Doug Wilson gave and Pete Hegseth was in the front row. Although Wilson's Christ or chaos approach to spirituality is interesting enough, I like that Christ or chaos. That's great. The reason I'd come this morning is that I wanted to better understand what Hegseth saw in him. Unlike the 72 year old preacher, Hegseth heads a force of 3 million service members and civilians whose mission, a secular mission, is to keep the nation secure. So she believes that in no way are Christians allowed to introduce their ethos into their profession. 

or leadership or organizations that they run. But the left must. The left must infuse their religion into everything. And it is all a religion over there on the left. Black Lives Matter, trans, whatever it is. It has to be inserted into every single thing. 

They taught transgenderism to kindergartners for the love of Pete. We saw what they did. We're onto them now. And now we're doing it. And there's no holding back. The point I would like to make here is that Christianity has always been a part of our war department's ethos. 

This is the key to her whole article here. She goes into a bunch of examples of how Pete Hegseth is a Christian. All of this is a departure from how previous US presidents and military leaders have understood the intersection of faith and duty for generations. Although America's armed forces have always made space for religion, going back to the Battle of Bunker Hill, that place is a circumscribed one, entrusted primarily to several thousand chaplains responsible for attending to troops of their own faith and facilitating observance by those of other traditions. Prayers may be abundant in the foxholes, but commanders typically do not dictate matters of spirituality. 

" Totally wrong. By the way, she said religion is a circumscribed one. I mean, something's restricted within limits, but like outside of a circle circumference, it's outside of, right? So like we'll allow it, but it's severe, strict limits outside of what we're really here for. Totally not true. Now she brought up the battle of Bunker Hill. 

So I'm going to go as my evidence that this is wrong to the battle of Bunker Hill. There's a book written by J . T. Hedley. He's a historian. He wrote this around the hundredth anniversary of America. 

So 1876, it's called the chaplains and clergy of the revolution. Let's read a couple things here. As before hostilities commenced, there was scarcely a military muster, military gathering, at which the clergy were not present, but they were very circumscribed and kept under strict limits as to what they were on some occasion saying, behold, God himself is with us for our captain and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry the alarm. That's second Chronicles 13 12. It was to be expected when war broke out. They would be found in the ranks of the rebels, that's us, the colonists, urging forward what they had so long proclaimed as a religious duty. 

The first outbreak at Lexington and Concord gave them no opportunity to exhibit their zeal officially. It happened too fast. So some shouldered their muskets and fought like cocks. 

soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill. 

Among these were, and then he lists a couple ministers, who showed that clergy could fight as well as pray. It's great. I didn't bring up Bunker Hill. She brought it up. So here I am telling you about what happened with the tightly, very strictly, tightly circumscribed preachers, clergy at Bunker Hill. Yeah, right. 

They were deeply, intimately, profoundly involved. The militia troops were also religious. and their respect for the opinions of the clergy unbounded. To avoid the expense of chaplains, the clergy in the neighborhood of the camp near Bunker Hill were invited by Congress to perform divine service, 13 of them every Sabbath, a request they punctually complied with. Three or four chaplains, however, were attached to the army and prayed with the troops every morning on the common. " I love that. 

Like, hey, listen, we're not going to spend money on chaplains because we're kind of broke here, but why don't you just go grab some local preachers from all the churches nearby? Just knock on the door of the churches and have them come out. And they all did. Some of them grabbed guns and fought. One of the most important chaplains was David Avery. Washington saw in him the embodiment of all those qualities he wished in a chaplain, intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied. 

And again, just to go back to the Atlantic article, what Pete Hexeth is doing is very, very different, a sharp departure from what the secretary of the military has always been, the total return. Intrepid and fearless in battle, unwearied in his attentions to the sick and wounded, not only nursing them with care, but faithful to their souls. as though they were members of his own parish. With a love for his country so strong that it became a passion, cheerful under privations and ready for any hardship, never losing in the turmoil of war. camp that warm and glowing piety, which characterizes the devoted minister of God. He rode with George Washington, ate meals with George Washington, close friends with George Washington. 

He's Pete Hex, that's Doug Wilson, David Avery. And he wrote in his journal, again, I didn't bring this example up. She could have mentioned any other time in history. She mentioned Battle of Bunker Hill. David Avery wrote in his journal, early in the morning, the enemy attacked our entrenchments, but was driven back. After repeated trials, they succeeded in dislodging the troops. 

In the retreat, many of Colonel's men were killed. My dear friend, Dr. Warren, was shot dead. I stood on a neighboring hill, the name of that hill was Bunker, with hands uplifted, supplicating the blessing of heaven to crown our unworthy arms with success. This is the reliving of Exodus 17 .8, when the Amalekites and the Israelites were battling and Moses was holding his arms up in the air. And as long as Moses' arms were in the air, the Israelites were winning. So Aaron and Hurrick came over and held up his arms and Joshua went on to defeat the Amalekites. 

This is what David Avery was doing. To us infantile Americans, unused to the thunder and carnage of battle, the flames of Charlestown before our eyes, the incessant play of cannon from their shipping from Boston and their wings in various cross directions together with the terror of the field, exhibiting a scene most awful and tremendous. But amid the perils of the dread encounter, the Lord was our rock and fortress. Oh yeah, but no, a military never had any religious tradition, ever. Only now after Pete Exe. Robert E. Lee. 

an incredible man. He would always attend prayer services, always attend church, no matter what. And he said to his troops, he said, soldiers, let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God. By the way, just imagine if Pete Hexeth said this. I mean, he probably would, and maybe already has or will, but just imagine when this happens and the left would just freak out. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God, asking through Christ the forgiveness of our sins. 

beseeching the aid of the God of our forefathers in defense of our homes and our liberties, thanking him for his past blessings and imploring their continuance upon our cause and our people. Allahu Akbar. All praise the monkey God. No, no, no, not that last part didn't happen. It was praying to God in the name of Jesus. I love this from Washington Post. 

Talks about what Pete's like behind closed doors. Several people told me that he's talked about having prayed over personal decisions. He's praying about personal decision. What a weirdo. And once called for a group prayer before an airstrike. Love it. 

This reporter then said, Hegseth has invoked George Washington as a kindred spirit. Washington was famously private in his faith, and rather than infusing the American government in its infancy with his beliefs, he stood for religious freedom. That's not true. George Washington's farewell address. Again, she brought up these examples. I'm not cherry picking anything. 

This isn't a random letter that George one time sent to his wife. This is his stinking farewell address. Everyone in school always talks about entangling alliances. In his farewell address, he said, I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you in his holy protection and that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another. and for their fellow citizens of the United States. And finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion. 

That's God. And without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. He's talking about Jesus there. Yeah, George Washington here never said the word God. He's a divine author of our blessed religion. He's not talking about Hinduism. 

And he never said the word Jesus. Not in the farewell address. But he's talking about the humble invitation. That's Jesus. Farewell address. But he was very private about it. 

George Washington was not private about his faith. That's a lie we've been told to get us to be quiet about our faith. The Muslims want to blast their call to prayer across America five times a day. 

That is not quiet in their faith. 

But we're expected to be. Not anymore. Thank you to Pete Hegseth for being an example. Her point was, can you believe he's doing this in an organization of three million people? All the more encouragement to the rest of us. If he can do it in an organization of three million people, it's ours. 

MikeSlater . Locals . com. Transcript commercial free on the website MikeSlater .

 

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