MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Department of Education GONE! Now what?
Politics By Faith, March 6, 2025
March 06, 2025

It has been a crusade of conservatives since 1980 to eliminate the Department of Education. Trump will do it. It's amazing. But this leaves a massive void...and an opportunity for us to reclaim the education (literally "bringing up") of our children.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. Very excited about the news that Donald Trump may sign this executive order ending the Department of Education. This is from the Wall Street Journal. They got a little preview of it.

It commands the new education secretary, who was just confirmed like two days ago, Linda McMahon, to quote, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the education department based on the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law. The experiment of controlling American education through federal programs and dollars and the unaccountable bureaucrats these programs and dollars support has failed our children, our teachers and our families. Beautiful.

I love it so much. Get it done. And you're like, oh, but what about this? The Office of Civil Rights would move to the Justice Department. All the student loan stuff, which really should just go away entirely, would move over to the Treasury Department.

Everyone always brings up, what about funding for special needs students? We'll figure it out. We actually had a special needs teacher call in the other day who said, the money makes it way worse, actually, because of all the strings attached. We'll figure out all the things that are important, but we've got to get rid of this thing once and for all.

Now, very excited about it. Maybe the thing in my early radio career I talked about more than anything at all was getting rid of the Department of Education. So I'm all in. And I don't want to come in too early with this because I don't want to take away from the celebration.

We should celebrate when it goes away. But the truth is, as much as I want it to go away, that alone is not going to reform education. We are so far away from where we need to be. It will take a massive movement. There are schools where no one can read, not a single kid can read, none of them, no kids.

We get rid of the Department of Education, those kids won't magically want to read a book. They won't magically be able to read a book, but they won't even want to. And their parents won't magically be like, oh, my kids should now read the Odyssey. That's not even anywhere near anyone's frame of reference. We're so far away from where we used to be and where we need to be. So what does this movement look like? I wish I could solve it right

here in just a few minutes. But I do want to play this and I think this will be helpful as we start rebuilding. Something we talk about a lot on this show. I might play these clips on SiriusXM. I'm not sure if we'll get to it. So if we do, then you get a little preview of what's to come. This is an interview with Jordan Peterson.

He is interviewing the headmaster of a school in England called the Michaela School. And this woman is known as the toughest headmaster in all of England. And she challenged, and it's all, it's not the tough, it's all basic stuff.

She was on the forefront of no phones in the classroom. It's about discipline and respecting your teachers. It's like basic stuff. But she challenged in this interview something I've heard for a very long time. And I accept that it is true because it sounds nice. And there's so many of those things like,

beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Oh, I can say that. Or, um, uh, what's the other one? The ends justify the means. Right? It just kind of rolls off the tongue.

And then you think about it, you're like, well hold on, wait a second. No, beauty's definitely not in the eye of the beholder. That's garbage. And the ends do not justify the means, actually. But you see how these things just sort of

enter into our mind and they sound nice. And here's another one of them. And when I heard her say this, I realized how wrong I was. You've heard this before. I've said this before.

And I'm going to say it now, and you're going to get a little mad at me when I tell you it's not true, and that's okay, I had to go through the process too. The expression is, don't teach kids what to think, teach them, yes, very good, how to think.

Hmm, profound.

I heard that maybe a decade ago for the first time. I actually just heard someone say it last week. I think we were talking to a congressman on the radio who said it just last week. We don't need to teach kids what to think. We need to teach them how to think. And now to that I say no.

We need to teach kids what to think. Because if we don't, someone who hates us will. Give you a sidebar, and I'll prove it, just one quick sidebar. I was talking to John Carney, the Breitbart business editor today, about tariffs.

And I ended the conversation with, well, John, who are you and who's the president to be telling companies who they should trade with and who they should do business with and what the prices of things should be and all this other stuff.

And he gave a good rebuttal to it. And then he ended with, well here's another one Slater, either we set our trade policy or Beijing does. Like if we take this hands-off like oh you know it's not appropriate for American government to do whatever then all right Beijing sets it. Either Trump sets it or President Xi sets our trade policy. Who would you rather be setting our trade policy? Similar thing here, either we tell our kids what to think,

or the world does. And the world hates you. Okay, two clips I want to play. Here's the first from Catherine Berbolcing. So what that is, is the standard discussion

between knowledge and skills. Should we teach them knowledge, or should we teach them skills? How to think is a skill, and it can only be done within a particular domain. So I don't know how to think about cars. You told me, you put a car in front of me and said create a different kind of car, Catherine. Be creative, think outside the box. I wouldn't

know what to do because I don't know anything about cars. But if you tell me to turn education on its head, I've done things very differently. Why? Because I know education inside out. The only way you can think in a creative manner or think outside the box and have independent thoughts about anything is to know it really well. And so that means children at school level need to be taught loads of knowledge. So when you all say things like we need to teach them how to think,

I disagree with you. When I say we need to teach them what to think, what I mean by that is we need to give them knowledge about the world wars, about slavery, about colonialism, about all of these ideas that if they don't have historical knowledge, they're unable to make a judgment that is well informed and that isn't just going to go down an ideological route. You know, all children are communists, okay? They're all communists. When you talk to them, they're all communists because when they hear about communism, they go, you mean everybody is going to have equality? You mean everybody's

we're going to share and then, you know, everybody poor and rich doesn't happen anymore. Everybody's just the same. That's lovely. And the reason why children are all communists is because they're naive, they're vulnerable and it sounds nice to them and so that's what they go for. They don't have enough knowledge or enough wisdom to be able to make correct decisions. That's why for instance we ban alcohol, we ban cigarettes, I believe we should ban smartphones, we ban sex, we ban marriage, we ban

driving, there are all kinds of things that we ban from children. And the thing about the libertarian right, while I myself believe in freedom and I believe in freedom of speech and all of that, when it comes to children, I don't believe in any of it. I believe that children need their freedoms restricted so that later in life they can be truly free.

And when I say their freedoms need to be restricted, that doesn't mean that they're unhappy. You saw at my school just how happy they were.

Let me ask you.

Stop there for a second. I love this idea. Today, we let our kids be free when they're kids, but if they don't learn the virtues and self-control and things that are necessary to learn, then they turn into slaves when they're older. Slaves to their passions. Slaves to their ignorance. Slaves to a cult. Slaves to lies.

But if you fill your kids with truth when they're young, then they have the tools necessary to be truly free when they're adults. It's beautiful. I play one more clip of hers here.

Then that we give them knowledge and if some of you are saying what we need to do is teach them how to think, it means they're not taught anything because that skill cannot be taught in isolation and schools try to do that in isolation. They try to teach skills. What they ought to be doing is teaching knowledge. And if they don't teach them knowledge, children are leaving school not knowing very much. And if they don't know very much, like I said, they're all communists. Like I said, they're always going to take the side of the underdog. And I'm not saying that that's necessarily

wrong, but it's wrong if you don't have the knowledge and information that could make you see why always taking the side of the underdog is not necessarily the right option. And that it's complex. And that wouldn't it be nice, perhaps, I mean I don't even necessarily agree that it would be nice for everything to be equal, but let's imagine they think, wouldn't it be nice, that actually the reality of communism isn't that. And that they need more information before they can make a properly informed decision. Now that should be the job of schools. At the moment it is immersing them in ideology, but the biggest problem is, for me, is those on the right, who I very much agree with, they don't realize that they're giving a backdoor,

they're leaving the backdoor open to progressivism to take over the culture. And the tyrannical culture of the left has taken over our schools because the right keeps arguing for this freedom for children to have and we're arguing for children to be able to think what they want and do what they want. Children shouldn't be allowed to do that. Now look, when you were at our school you didn't see them unhappy. You saw them playing in the yard. You saw them, they play basketball, they play, you know, a football table, you know, and we don't have a big

yard, we don't have any grass or any trees, you know, we are an inner city school with not many resources, but what we've got, the children have fun and they love it. They love it because they are secure in the knowledge that we love them and we are teaching them knowledge that makes them feel really smart, clever, successful, and then eventually they can come up with their own ideas. But they cannot come up with their own ideas isolated away from knowledge.

That knowledge is absolutely crucial. But the right never talk about the importance of knowledge and they never talk about the importance of schools. Because people don't realize that schools have all of our children. They are the future. And the reason why our universities are so messed up, it's not just because the universities

are telling them the wrong things. It's because they've already been brainwashed and stole. And so when they arrive at university, they're just sitting ducks.

Oh gosh, there's so much more there.

I could go on about education. I'll save that for the radio. Let's pivot to the Bible. True story, this morning, wake up, wake up around 4.10, and I get up and I make my way to the couch and start reading the Bible.

As soon as I sat down on my spot on the couch, the corner, a section, I'll sit right there in the corner, you know what I mean? As soon as I sat down, the TV came on. Like, what? We almost never watch TV.

We have a, we splurged on the frame TV, the Samsung frame TV. It's awesome because when it's off, which it is 99.9% of the time, you could put beautiful artwork up on the wall. It's really good. I'd recommend the splurge. And it came on automatically.

And I don't know where the clicker is. I haven't seen the clicker in weeks. I have no idea where the clicker is. I didn't sit on it. I don't know where this thing is. And it popped up, it was like NBC News Now.

We don't have cable, so it's like some free NBC News thing or something. And I have no idea how to turn this off. So I'm like, alright, well, I'm comfortable. Maybe when the wife gets up she'll know where the clicker is. I don't know.

So I sat there and I started reading the Bible with the TV on in front of me, but like up a little bit. So I couldn't see it, but I could see the light. And I was just reading, and just the light from the screen was so obnoxious. It was just this bombardment.

It was like I was in a, I was gonna say a disco club. That's what I was really gonna say, a disco club. It was like I was in a club, just the lights flashing, like the constant frame changing every split second, like a strobe light. It was like a salt to my senses.

I couldn't imagine what it'd be like with the sound on.

I grew up, we grew up in a house with the TV on

all the time. We'd have the Today Show on all morning long, I just can't imagine having the TV on in the background. Anyway. So I just thought of this TV being on all the time, this morning.

And as I'm reading, I've literally read 1 Corinthians. And it says, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness and do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. The preceding part of what Paul was talking about was all about the resurrection.

And Paul was asking the people in Corinth, where are you guys getting your bad ideas about the resurrection? And they were either getting it from the Jews who didn't believe in the resurrection or pagan Greeks who didn't believe in it. Either way, stop hanging around with these people. Stop being influenced by them. Evil company corrupts good habits. And we know this from Romans 12 too.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are way, I, so conformed to this world all the time. We need to do a full audit of all of our inputs, everything that comes into our home, everything that comes in through our headphones, everything that enters into our kids souls. A full audit because evil company corrupts good habits. Now what's interesting also in this first Corinthians line is it's in quotes. Paul says, do not be deceived, quote, evil company corrupts good habits. I wonder where the Old

Testament, like where does it say that in the Old Testament? Like did Moses say that? Who wrote that first? Is it a psalm? Like who wrote that? Nope. It's actually from a play written by an ancient Greek writer named Menander and it just became a popular expression in Greece that's an amazing like the here's the Bible here's Paul in the Bible quoting some pagan secular source but he got it right it's true pagans stumble across truth I suppose from time to time evil company corrupts good habits.

What do we do with this? Get new habits, get new company, awake to righteousness, do not sin, for some do not have the knowledge of God. Yet we surround ourselves and we allow these people to get into your kids' souls.

And a lot of it's through, it's bombarded everywhere. But a lot of it is through your kid's school. We do have knowledge of God, but then we send our kids off to be with people who don't. Evil company corrupts good habits. We have knowledge of God, we have to be different.

And part of that is protecting our kids, and this is a very controversial thing to say now, but part of that is telling our kids what to think. And I know there's resistance to that. No, you have to teach them how to think. Sure, yes, that will come. If we don't tell our kids what to think,

someone who hates us will. Getting rid of the Department of Education is great. It is just the beginning. We need to now reclaim education. The word education literally means to bring up and to bring forth. How could we ever do that if we don't tell young people what to think? What is good? What is beautiful?

What is true? Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript What is true? Mike Slater dot locals dot com transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com

 

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Eric Swalwell, CA Governor's Race, and Bearing Rotten Fruit
Politics By Faith, April 13, 2026

Please subscribe to our youtube version at youtube.com/@PoliticsByFaith 😀

It's been an open secret among Democrats that women should stay away from Congressman Eric Swalwell. So why are all of these accusations coming out now? And what can we learn from Numbers 17?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so that we can all walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, story of the day. Eric Swalwell thrown under the bus. Here's what happened. 

Eric Swalwell, Congressman of California, San Francisco, since 2012, first gained national prominence when he was found to be sleeping with a Chinese spy, Fang Fang. And he was kicked off, that's her name, Fang Fang. And he was kicked off the Intel Committee at the time for that. What a dope. That was in 2020 or so. More recently, he's made a name for himself as a leader of the Never Trump Movement. 

He's totally shameless and a total political hack. I don't know how full blown his TDS actually is, but he comes across as the most TDS person there can be on MSNBC and all the rest. He's a San Francisco Democrat. That's been the last couple of years. But now he's in the news because he's running for the governor of California. Now, here's the noteworthy thing that you got to understand about this situation. 

The primary for governors on November or June 2nd or 3rd. I forget. It's coming up in June. And it's an open primary, which means all the Democrats and all the Republicans run together on one big, giant primary ballot. The top two move on to the next and final round. It didn't used to be this way. 

California voters in 2010 voted for this as Prop 14. It barely passed. I was there when it happened. I don't think people knew what it was. But anyway, so that's what they do in California now for a bunch of these races. The Democrats did this and they manipulated people into voting for this because they obviously 

completely controlled the state and they were sick of having to run in general elections and spend a bunch of money so they said well let's what if we could come up with a system where no republicans make it to the general election so they said oh let's do this top two primary system where they just get two democrats to make it to the finals so whoever wins democrats win does that make sense So it used to be the Democrats have a primary and the Republicans have a primary, and then the top Republican and the top Democrat go on to the general. But now they just have all do one giant primary and then two Democrats always make it to the next round. So Democrats win already. That's it for them. It's great for them. It's been. 

But it might backfire in this governor's race. There are so many Democrats running that there is a world where each Democrat gets 12 % of the vote. And the two Republicans who are running, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco, they each split the Republican vote and get 15 % of the vote. Now, I will grant you that this is a bit of a Republican pipe dream, but as we will share in a moment, not that much because they threw Swalwell under the bus. So you can call it a pipe dream, but it's enough that they had to get rid of Swalwell. So What if the two Republicans get about 15 % of the vote each? 

That's about 30 % overall, which makes sense. In California, if Republicans get about 30 % of the vote overall, maybe it's a little more. Maybe they get 35 % of the vote overall, right? So maybe it's like 17. They each get 17 % of the vote, something like that. They could do that, and all the other Democrats get 12, 13, 14 % of the vote, and then two Republicans make it to the top two to go into the next round. 

That background is important. That possibility is important because the Democrats need to start taking each other out now. in order to consolidate their vote because none of the Democrats are dropping out on their own. The top Democrats are Tom Steyer. He's a billionaire environmentalist guy. He's been funding tons of California stuff for decades. 

And he's like, well, I'm just going to run now. Then Congressman Katie Porter, who's a terrible person, just one of the all time worst people ever. And then Eric Swalwell, Those are the big three, but there's also the mayor of San Jose is running, also Antonio Villara Garosa, whose real name is Tony Villar, the former mayor of Los Angeles. These guys, you know, former mayors, they got enough name recognition where they are and they're gonna help split up the vote for the Democrats, and none of them are dropping them. So the Democratic machine got together and they said, all right, well, we gotta get rid of someone. And they said, well, let's get rid of Swalwell. 

So a woman came out and claimed, any kids listening, kids mourning for a moment. Woman came out and said she was... Actually, I don't even know if she used the r -word. She may have just said sexually assaulted. Just. But you know what I mean. 

By Suomo. We don't need to go over the details here. It sounds like a classic Me Too. It looks like where he got him alone and then asked him for stuff and they felt pressured to say yes because he's the superior and they're the intern and they were all very inebriated and it was all regrettable but there was a power imbalance and there's all that stuff. I don't know what happened. I wasn't there. 

But it's enough. that members of Congress, granted, even further left people, are calling for him to resign and even be expelled from Congress, get kicked out entirely because of his relations with a subordinate. They want him gone. I think four women have come forward so far, but now a bunch of other people saying that they've known this for decades, an open secret. Swalwell is on his second wife. He's been married to this woman's second wife. 

He's also now, just because they got to get rid of him. So he's also accused of violating immigration and employment laws by keeping his Brazilian, I guess, illegal alien nanny, live -in nanny, who doesn't have work authorizations. I guess that she's legal, right? And he paid her with campaign funds. So they're doing everything they can to try to get him out. By the way, that illegal alien thing, that harkens back, Meg Whitman, Meg Whitman in the 2010 governor's race, which she was doing well as a Republican. 

California wasn't completely gone then. And then it came out that she had an illegal alien housekeeper for many years. So Swalwell has an illegal alien living handy too. All right, so that's the story, right? It's a Me Too throwing them under the bus, but you understand why they're throwing them under the bus? 

Right. 

So that's that's my what's broken section for today's episode is obviously the infidelity and the sexual assault. That's horrible. But the political broken and I should say and also the political brokenness of this, because the only reason why the Democrats and the media are are turning on Fang Fang's lover is because of the California governor's race and because of the recent polling. There's no other reason. They obviously would have kept all of this going forever if there was no reason to throw him under the bus. But now they're more than happy to throw them under the bus. 

This is John Nolte, he said, this is the corporate media doing what the corporate media always does. If you want to understand how the media operate, whenever you see the media do something, anything, ask yourself one question, how does this benefit Democrats? So if they can take one of the top three out, in this case, Swalwell, divvy up his 15 points, hand them out to the other couple of Democrats, and maybe now they can take out one of the Republicans. And if they can take out one of the Republicans and just get, even if it's just one Democrat making it to the general, then of course, I shouldn't say of course, but you know, more than likely the Democrat will win the governor's race. So the chance to win this race for Republicans is now, and the Democrats know that, which is why they're throwing Swalwell under the bus. 

If Swalwell was polling at 40 % then or 30 % or even in second place, they wouldn't do this and they would continue to cover up who he was forever. But now he's a threat to the party and he's a threat to the Democrats, maybe losing the governor of California's race. So they don't care. He's dead to them. Let's get to the Bible. So quick, like what, what could the, how do we put the Bible in this? 

A quick little backstory here. When preparing for this podcast, it goes both ways. Sometimes I'll come across a news story, and in my researching it or talking about it on the radio, a Bible story will come to mind. Sometimes it goes the opposite way, where I'm reading the Bible, and then it reminds me of something that's happening in the news, and either way, it all works out. This one's a little bit different, and I thought maybe worth sharing real quick. I was in Bible class before church today, as I record this, and my pen was in my Bible, and it was very early in the Old Testament. 

It was like in the beginning of the book, and I was like, oh, I don't remember reading that recently. I wonder why my pen's there. Was I reading something there? I just put the pen there for, I don't know. So I opened it up. I was like, I wonder if I read this. 

And it was Numbers 17 about Aaron's staff blossoming. I said, no, I didn't. I haven't read that. Just random pen dropping in the Bible. So we have class and then I go and I get the kids in the hallway after their class. And Johnny walks out of his room and he hands me a piece of paper that he colored, which is about what he learned about in church, the Bible class before church. 

And it was a piece of paper. that he drew of Aaron's staff blossoming. What? So today we're gonna talk about Aaron's staff blossoming. We just gotta go with it. We're gonna keep going here. 

It's a wonderful story. Numbers 17. So God was choosing the priesthood over all the other tribes of Israel. And there was a lot of grumbling going on. So God's like, all right, we're gonna put this to bed once and for all for everyone. Check out number 16, you want to read about Korah and all the grumbling about Moses and Aaron. 

So God said, all right, everyone, take a staff, a dead stick from each tribe, write a name above it, put it in the tabernacle. OK, let me pick up from here. Verse eight. So number 17, verse eight. On the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms and bore ripe almonds. Then Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the people of Israel. 

And they looked and each man took his staff. And the Lord said to Moses, put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony tabernacle to be kept as a sign for the rebels that you may make an end of their grumblings against me, lest they die. Thus did Moses, as the Lord commanded him. So he did. So a wonderful little story. And the point of this story, one of the things that stood out to me about this was, of course, this dead stick coming to life. 

But it didn't just have a leaf. That would be enough. I've just had one little leaf sticking out of there. It had all the seasons. It had leaves. It had blossoms. 

It had ripe almonds already. And this stood out to me because I love the concept of fruit. Karpos in the Bible, in the Greek. The fruit of your actions. The fruits of the Holy Spirit. Fruit is the 

outward expression of power working inwardly. You have inwardly stuff happening. Okay, well, what's the fruit? And I came across this commentary from F . B. Meyer, maybe it was a hundred years ago. 

He said the rod, this dead stick, had spring, summer, and autumn all at once. The bud of spring, he said, there's a perennial... And this is us too, right? So we have this dead stick, which is us, And we should have all three of these seasons represented in our lives as well, is F . 

B. 

Meyer's point. So first, the bud of spring. There is a perennial freshness in the true saint, a perennial freshness, an always existing freshness in the true saint. He may be old in years, but his leaf is green with vernal tenderness. And there are always budding promises of richer and better things that he has yet attained. 

The outward man decayeth, but the inward renews his youth forever. 

like an eagle's. So we should all, no matter how we're getting, you see my beard, a gray beard, that old. I think a gray beard old, but I guess I'm four kids old. You should always have this freshness of spirit like spring. He also mentioned the blossom of early summer. He said there's an exquisite beauty in the blossom of orchard and garden. 

No painters ever yet learned God's secret of mixing his colors, such as the beauty of the character of the believer. Men will say involuntarily how attractive, how beautiful. And then the fruit of autumn. That we should bear fruit, ripe almonds, not just almonds, but ripe almonds, is the end of Christ in our redemption and discipline. We can only do it in fellowship with himself. He must bear it through us. 

From me is thy fruit found. I've chosen you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. " That's John 15, 16. So God brought forth life from this dead stick. To be clear, we're all dead sticks, but with God's power and Jesus's resurrection and with the Holy Spirit, our lives can produce fruit. And if you are not those things, then your life will produce very different fruit. 

Fruits you don't want. 

Rotten fruit. And maybe you'll be of a political party or in a position of power or influence where other people will cover for your rotten fruit, but you will know it. Eventually it will come out. You will know it always. And God, of course, will too. I'll end with Matthew 7, 16, because we live in a culture where you're told not to judge. 

Don't ever judge. Jesus says you will recognize them by, by what? Their fruits. 

Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 

Of course not. Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to work so that we can be people who produce good fruit always. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. If you could subscribe over there, that'd be awesome. It's free, of course, and it helps with the algorithm and it helps us spread the word. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith.

 

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Is Trump A War Criminal or A Coward?
Politics By Faith, April 9, 2026

Please subscripe to our podcast at youtube.com/@politicsbyfaith

If the president says he's going to bomb Iran, the left says he's a war criminal. When he doesn't bomb Iran, the left says he's a coward and always chickens out. You can't help the Trump deranged. But we can learn from 1 Samuel 15 on the importance of following God's Word completely. 


Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible. So you can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story, the story of the day. Donald Trump chickens out. 

It's very funny if the left says that, well, let's say Trump says he wants to drop a bomb, right? Oh, he's committing a war crime. And then Trump doesn't drop the bomb. Oh, he's a chicken, a coward. You cannot win with the Trump deranged, which is fine. The very short of the story, Trump talked, he spoke loudly and carries a big stick. 

He talked a big game in a way that the people he was talking to, Muslim lunatics in Iran, would understand. They came to the negotiating table at the last minute because, again, the big stick part, he's used it. They know he will. So they negotiated and they agreed, Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz. So Trump didn't attack. Great news. 

Now we'll see if they open up the Strait. That's all we want at this point is open up the Strait of Hormuz. If they do that, then we're probably done in Iran. It kind of depends who rises from the ashes. And if the people there can rise up and run their country, we'll see what they're able to do. But this is possible that we're done in Iran at this point, if they open up the Now, if you lived online when this all happened, it was a dark and weird place, even more than usual. 

People very anxious about what was going to happen by the Trump administration. very anxious or confused when it didn't happen. And then people saying we lost the war and Trump showed weakness and it was all very bizarre and weird. Now on the Iran one part, there are a lot of people. First of all, there are a lot of people on MSNBC. Apparently, I didn't even think that people really thought this never even crossed my mind. 

When Trump said there will be a civilizational erasure, people on MSNBC were thinking that Trump was going to kill 90 million people. And Iran just bombed them all. 

What? 

He's been doing this for 11 years, guys. You still don't know his MO? You don't know how this works? 

Geez. 

Now, people even afterwards said that Trump lost and Iran is winning. Iran won. Iran came out ahead. They're the ones winning. So someone said, all right, let's flip it. Let's flip the script here for a second. 

Imagine Iran killed Trump in the first five minutes of the war. established air superiority over the U . 

S. 

mainland, wiped out the entire U . 

S. 

Air Force, U . S. Navy, killed half the cabinet, flattened the U . S. military -industrial complex, then started building runways in Missouri to land Iranian troops without losing any casualties. Would you say that it was a U . 

S. victory if America managed to keep the Panama Canal closed for a couple weeks? I don't think anyone would say that that was a U . S. victory, so how on earth could you say this is an Iranian victory? Now, before we get to the biblical story of the day, I have two frustrations that I would like to share. 

Let me try to do this quick. So, number one, it's very frustrating that we are unable as a country to talk about what is good and right and proper without having to run it through the prism or framework that is the midterms. We've got the midterms coming up eight months from now. we have an election. So we can't talk about if it's good to do anything. It always has to be, well, how is it going to affect the midterms? 

Okay, well, what are these midterms? Well, this is when the people vote. On what? Gas prices. That's it. Just gas prices. 

That's the only thing people vote on, apparently, is gas prices. Okay, so what happens if gas prices are $3 .20 a gallon? They vote for Republicans. 

All right. 

What if gas is $3 .86? Oh, Democrats. Hold on. Democrats want gas to be $10 a gallon. That's what they want. And you're going to vote because gas is a little too high for your liking. 

You're going to vote for the Democrats who want it even worse. If that makes sense. And then you're like, all right, fine. The election's about gas prices. Okay. Well, who sets the gas prices? 

Oil futures markets, which is based off of what people think gas will cost later. Okay. That's not, I'm not going to analyze a thing, war in Iran, or deporting the U . S. or whatever the thing is. I'm not going to analyze that through the prism of the midterms, which is decided by voters who only care about gas prices, which are determined by future oils markets of predictions of what, like that's not happening. And Trump doesn't either. 

Trump only cares about what is right and he's going to do it now. He doesn't worry about timing. Maybe he'll worry a little bit about the timing, he'll tend to drop bombs on Fridays, but that's only because he doesn't want people in the stock market to freak out unnecessarily. Give it two days, he'll know, and people will be fine about it on Monday. But big picture timing, Trump doesn't care, just does what is right. And I am frustrated that we, every time we're faced with something like this, 

it through the midterm matrix. All right, second frustration. This perception or this opinion, I hear it a lot. Matt Walsh articulates it well. I love Matt Walsh, big fan. He said, Americans are suffering. 

It's way too expensive out there to live for most families. Our cities are not safe. Our country's being transformed every day by foreign migration. Our elections are not secure. The SAVE Act was not passed and won't be passed. Okay, I agree with all those problems. 

Then he says, it's time to end this war on Iran and focus on our country, our people, our future. Far too much of Trump's second term has been spent on foreign adventures. It has to end, turn the attention back home. Matt Walsh and I, same team, not a criticism of him at all. First of all, MAGA does not mean non -intervention. It does not mean isolationist. 

It means what's in America's best interest, and that may sometimes involve foreign adventures. That's the first thing. Second, the economy, the country doesn't work. where something only happens if Trump is staring at it, and if Trump's not staring at it, then the thing does, everything else stops. The best example I can think about this, to make this clear, is let's say the Memphis Safe Task Force. Matt Walsh talked about our cities aren't safe. 

Memphis Safe Task Force. It's not like because Trump is looking at Iran right now, at the moment, he's staring at it, that the Memphis Safe Task Force over here is just at a standstill. We can't do anything, we're stuck. Why not? 

Why can't you guys do anything? 

Well, Trump's not staring at us at the moment. We have to wait till Trump's staring. Well, can't you just do what you told you to do? No, we can't do anything. We can't. We have to stop here. 

Oh, wait, he's looking at us now. Okay, back to work, everyone. And then for like a couple hours, Trump's looking at us. at that. And then he got to stop his work. He's back on Iran. 

He tweeted about Iran. We're done. We can't do anything anymore. All these things still happen. Trump, Trump's the CEO. So he has, I don't know how many buildings he ever had, like 50 buildings. 

Maybe he doesn't. It's not like when he's working on one building, all the other buildings are like, ah, we're closed. No, you can't stay here, can't golf here. Sorry, Trump's not staring at us at the moment. No, Trump says, you go fix the thing. You're in charge of that building. 

You're in charge of that building. Go get it done. So there's just this frustration that people have about the Iran war, again, not looking at it objectively. And you could be against Iran or what Trump's doing in Iran. You could be against it. But I don't think it's a fair or wise argument to be against it because, well, we have other stuff at home to focus on. 

Like, yeah, of course we do. Those things are still being done. A couple weeks ago, we talked to a guy who's running a mine for rare earth metals in Arkansas. He's still doing that. They're still mining for rare earths in Arkansas. It's not like he's like, ah, president's not paying attention to me at the very moment. 

I guess I'll just sit at home and do nothing. Like things are still going on. Berta wrote me a note. She said, as for things not getting done, if Trump's not looking directly at them, I have a way to dumb it down. If you load your dishwasher and turn it on, you don't have to stand over for two hours while it runs. Oh, Berta, that's so good. 

It's the same with the washing machine and dryer. If you hire someone to do a job repairing a car or your house, you can go about your business while the job gets done by someone else. Trump hires competent people and delegates jobs and they usually get it done. Well done, Berta. Perfect. Okay. 

That really had nothing to do with this so much as I just wanted to get those. Alright, what's broken about the current moment? People are very anxious about war. That's what I want to talk about here. People are very anxious about war. I want to tell a story. 

1 Samuel 15. So you've got the prophet Samuel and you've got the king of Israel Saul. We'll start in verse 3. God told Samuel to tell Saul, now go and strike Amalek and devote, like a town, a city, and devote to destruction all they have. Do not spare them, God says, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. I want to share this because people get very uneasy about the scripture. 

You often hear people who are not Christian criticize Christians for this story right here. Now I skipped over the first part. Let's go to first Samuel 15 verse two. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted because you think, well, why, why, why, why, why kill everything and everyone in Amalek? What's up? 

Well, God says, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up from Egypt. This was a total judgment against the Amalekites. because of something they did centuries prior. They were the first people to attack the Israelites when they left Egypt. Bible talks about this a couple of times. Exodus 17, 14. 

Then the Lord said to Moses, write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it. The Lord is my banner saying a hand upon the throne of the Lord. The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. Jeez, what are the... What did they do again? 

What did the Amalekites do to the Israelites, to God's people? Here's Deuteronomy 25. on the way when you were faint and weary and cut off your tail, like the back of the caravan, those who were lagging behind. And he did not fear God. Therefore, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you and the land of the Lord your God has given you for the inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. 

" So here we are. The Israelites are, time has passed, and this is the time to do it. The Amalekites, to do what? Enact God's judgment. The Amalekites attacked the weakest of the Israelites, the youngest, for no reason. They just killed them. 

God hates it when the strong take cruel advantage over the weak. So let's go back to 1 Samuel 15, verse four. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them, 200 ,000 men on foot, 10 ,000 men in Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showered kindness to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. 

So the Canaanites departed away from the Amalekites. So this is great. So the Canaanites, Saul says, Hey, we're not, we're not going to attack you. You go, go get out of the way. Because the Israelites, they don't want war for war's sake. And if I may, neither does Donald Trump. 

He doesn't want war. And the Israelites didn't want war here. They're like, you people go, get out of the way. Verse seven, and Saul defeated the Amalekites. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive, and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword, but saw in the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and the fattened calves, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. 

" Uh -oh. 

Saul did not obey God. He did not destroy the Amalekites. He spared the king. I don't know why exactly, but he didn't. The armies back then were paid by plunder, but God said, destroy everything. They didn't. 

They destroyed the things they didn't want. They destroyed the useless things, the worthless things, but they kept the best of everything. They kept what they wanted. That's true for us too. We all have no problem obeying God's commands that are easy. But what about the commands that cost us something? 

That's when most fail. God said, I regret making Saul king. And because Saul did not kill all the Amalekites, they kept popping up in the Bible. They kept having to fight him over and over again. 1 Samuel 30 in your Bible might be entitled, David destroys the Amalekites. He had to fight them all over. 

And in 2 Samuel 1, this is the story of Saul's death. The man who pushed that sword in the final blow to kill King Saul was an Amalekite who Saul was supposed to take care of already, but he disobeyed God. So one point that people make here is that if you don't obey God completely, what you don't take care of will come back to haunt you. But I want to share this story here because people have a tough time with God calling on a people to wipe out an entire group of other people. It's God committing genocide. How could your good God do such a good thing? 

It's very simple because they were a wicked people. So I would advise everyone who has a tough time with this scripture to take note of what God can do to a wicked people. I don't want to follow any God who could do... Okay, but he can. That's God's judgment. You're going to question his judgment. 

I would advise you to not. Now on judgment, when Samuel did kill Agag, he said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless. God hates wanton killing. Now what actually is shocking is not God's wrath. That's not shocking at all. What's shocking is his love for us. 

God said the wages of sin is death. There should be no surprises there. But the fact that we can be made alive in Jesus, that's the absolute miracle. But back to the questioning of, of God's judgment. I think of Job 38, I recommend you read it all often 38, 39, 40. And the gist of it is God saying, who are you to question me, Job? 

Starts off, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? And it just goes on beautifully to describe all these other things that prove that God is God. And it ends with, shall a fault finder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer. Go ahead, your turn, Job. Humans have, you know, I say partial knowledge, not zero knowledge, basically. 

The faintest amount. God has complete total knowledge and authority. Who are we to question him? The story of the Amalekites and his judgment. Now today, I know war is anxiety inducing, but we must trust that God has it under control. We must pray, but know that nothing thwarts God. 

No evil will get in God's way. I'll end with Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage? So the kings all gather up. They're like, Oh, let's, let's do this against God saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Okay. 

What's God's response? I've set my king on Zion, my holy hill. If that God is, sounds like a mean God that you, uh, I recommend you worship him. YouTube . com slash at politics by faith. YouTube . 

com slash at politics by faith. If you give us a subscribe over there, that'd be awesome. It helps with the algorithm so we can together spread the word.

 

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Never Leave A Man Behind: Rescued Airmen and Aristarchus
Politics By Faith, April 7, 2026

It is essential that every servicemember knows that, in America, we never leave a man behind. That hasn't been the case lately. But with the rescue of these two airmen, every servicemember knows it's true once again. Let's learn from the Bible about this principle from the life of Aristarchus.

 

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