I love our Pilgrims. I love their story, their courage, their virtue. We need to have a constant connection with these amazing people more than just once a year. Today, let's celebrate the historic document "The Mayflower Compact".

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being to be the beginning of a few Thanksgiving themed episodes. Love Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because I love our pilgrims. I love our Puritans, our ancestors, our heritage. I think about them all the time. 

I talk about them to my kids all the time. Amazing people. They're very short of the story. And then there's like two or three points I want to make here. And we'll, we'll do some more next week. Just the short of the story. 

So these pilgrims, they were called separatists. So back in England, there was the church of England and there were about four different groups of people who weren't happy with the church of England. They're on a spectrum. So the first group is like, man, we don't like this thing. And then the second group is like, we don't like a bunch of these things. And the third group is like, we don't like anything you guys do, but we're not really going to leave. 

And then you're the fourth group, the separatists. That's us. I said, we got to get out of here. They're getting killed too. So they went to Amsterdam. I didn't know that until a couple of years ago, they went to Amsterdam first and they were there for 12 years. 

And it was really tough for them to be there. And they said, this isn't good enough either. And the reason they left is because their kids were starting to embrace their pay, the pagan culture that was around them. William Bradford said, kids were drawn away. by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses departing from their parents. So they left to the new world. 

So 1620, they got on two boats, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and they left their community, they left their church, in many cases, parts of their family. They would leave young kids behind. The idea was that they'll come in later, later boats, maybe some elderly family members. We're just going to go get things set up over there and then you guys can come later. William Bradford, he said, so William Bradford, he wrote this book afterwards, turned into a book called Of Plymouth Plantation. And he always wrote everything in the third person, which is weird. 

I don't know why he did that. So I'm just going to change they. He would say like, so they left that goodly and pleasant city. as if he's talking about someone else, but he's not, he's talking about him. So I'm just going to change it. So we left that goodly and pleasant city, which had been our resting place for nearly 12 years. 

But we knew that we were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted our eyes to the heavens, our dearest country, and quieted our spirits. Heaven was our dearest country. Sure, we're from England. We escaped Amsterdam. We're pilgrims on this earth. no matter where we live, but chased all over the world. 

Heaven is our real country. So they got on the two boats and the Speedwell started taking on water. Not a good start. So they all crammed onto the Mayflower, 102 people in total. But here's what's super interesting about this. Well, it's a lot of interesting things. 

Another interesting thing, half the people on the boat were not pilgrims, the crew. There were 41 pilgrims, 61, they called them strangers. And it didn't go great between these two groups of people. And then you cram them on this little old wreckety boat. It's wet, damp. dark, disgusting. 

It's a cargo ship. This was the cargo ship. It's not even four people. You put 102 people on there and two very different groups of people on this boat. And then you send them on a journey for 66 days. 66 days to sail across the ocean. 

I bring this all the time up with my kids whenever they start to complain about a long car ride. We say, well, our pilgrims got on a boat for 66 days. And then if they groan, I say, well, you want to make it 40 years in the desert? Which would you prefer? 40 years in the desert or 66 days across the ocean? or the two and a half hours we have left on this car trip. 

66 days. They finally make it here and they get off and they go to Bucky's and they all have a barbecue sandwich. Oh, they get here and it's winter time. They got to stay on the boat for six more months. And that is when half of the pilgrims, half of everyone on the boat died. And I just, I, we can't conceptualize this because we were so distant from death and we've sanitized death in many different ways, but, but it's not like they were doing okay. 

And then boom, you die one day. It was six months of dying. six months of starving, six months of disease, six months of like scurvy, six months of suffering, agony, pain, screaming, and then dying, six months of dying, and then finally, and like all night long, there's nothing you can do. What do you do at night? What do you do at night all night long? There's no phones to scroll, just sit there in the dark. 

Even if you're doing well, everyone around you is dying. Six months. Think about that this weekend. Truly, think about that all week. Today we had some fun on SiriusXM. We were joking around because none of my kids like turkey. 

And I don't either. My wife doesn't like it. So everyone's like, no turkey this year. Dad was like, I finally do ham. I thought about it. Well, that's not American of me. 

So I brought it up on the radio and everyone called in. Not one person said stick with the ham. Every single person's like, you're a terrorist. And I reckon I recognize it, too. Right. But everyone is making these really good arguments about why we should still do Turkey. 

I'm not going to do it here. But it really had to do with manhood and tradition and conservatism and the pilgrims. Not no one made the claim. It's good. A couple of people did at the end. But that's ridiculous because Turkey's not good. 

Oh, but Slater, if you inject it with butter and you pour spices over it and you deep fry it... and then smoke it for 20 hours. You're like, okay, I guess maybe then it's edible. But no one eats turkey any other time of the year. I don't mean turkey sandwiches, I mean like a turkey. No one's, what's the big of turkey, honey? 

And just get a whole turkey and put the whole bird in the oven. No one does that except for this one time of year. It's not good, it's okay. There's other reasons why we're still having turkey in the Slater home. But I bring it up because someone said, Slater, I know the way to make turkey taste good. 24 hour fast before the turkey. 

Absolutely brilliant. Can my children make it 24 hours before the meal? Tastes delicious then. Because our pilgrims went 66 days on the boat and six more months hanging offshore. And then when they got off the boat, they still had all the work to do, but everyone was so sick. There were only six men who were able to do any work and they had to do all the work and all the work needed to be done. 

But I want to, my first main point here is I want to talk about the Mayflower Compact because we had this problem here with the 61 strangers. with the 41 pilgrims. So they're supposed to land in Virginia. That's where their legal authority was to set up, but they got blown off course and they landed in Cape Cod. So the patent they had, the permission was null and void and the strangers are going to kill the pilgrims. So William Bradford wrote up this Mayflower Compact. 

It was the first document ever creating a consensual government between individuals without a king. So all the other declarations in the past were in agreement with the king and the people like the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was the king saying, all right, fine, I won't do these things to you people. But this was just people coming up with their own separate agreement. John Quincy Adams says it was the first example. in modern times of a social compact or system of government instituted by voluntary agreement conformable to the laws of nature by men of equal rights, so no king, and about to establish their community in a new country. 

And this was the beginning of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. This is the Mayflower Compact. So I want to read it to you here. Again, my first point is how secular this document was. Just more evidence that, of course, we were founded as a Christian nation. Let's go back to the very beginning. 

The Mayflower Compact. It said, this is the whole thing, I'm going to read the whole thing. In the name of God, Amen. That's a great opening. The Constitution has a great opening too. We the people. 

That's a good opening. The Declaration opens with when in the course of human events. That's a good opening too, but this is a strong opening. You can't get better. In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith. 

Oh, they were deists and not, they didn't really believe. In honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Due by these presents, these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends of Forset. The ends are the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. And by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, and constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, we have here under subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, King James, Anno Dominio Lievre Lord, 1620. 

This is our heritage. This is our country. This is where we come from. And I'll leave you with this, Anne Bradstreet. We're going to talk more about her next week. Anne Bradstreet came over to New World with her dad and her husband in 1630, first to Salem Mass. 

And then two years later, they settled in what's now Cambridge, Mass. She had eight kids, incredible life. She was our first poet. She's a wonderful poet. I've read a couple of things of hers in the past, and she's a fantastic poet. Our very first. 

I just want to share this again, more evidence of where we came from is who we are. And I hope this inspires you to reconnect to this. This is, uh, the church covenant 1630 and a bunch of men. And also Anne Bradstreet signed this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance. We, whose names are here underwritten. being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ our head, in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed and sanctified to himself, to hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to the 

ordinances, and in mutual love and respect each to other. So near as God shall give us grace. 

" The beginning of the church is now known as the First Church of Boston. 

Still around. I'm so inspired by these amazing people. It's so important for us to reconnect to them. We know their courage. We know their bravery. We know their virtues. 

We know what mattered most to them. And the more we can reconnect to that, the better off we'll all be. I was going to say, better off we'll all be even today. Better off we'll all be especially. A few more Thanksgiving points we'll make next week. But I hope you have a wonderful weekend thinking about that. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript and commercial free.

I love the reaction Jillian Michaels has to the truth of Jesus' existence. So many people think that Jesus didn't even exist, that he was like the Tooth Fairy. But when people hear the truth, what a joy to see the scales fall from their eyes.

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being here. Someone asked me yesterday or two days ago. So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? And I said, Oh, I don't know. 

What are you like? 

What are you doing for the Fourth of July Thanksgiving? It's like forever away. You're talking about it's a week away. 

So I say that here because in the next couple of days, our episodes, we will have a celebration of the Puritans and our pilgrims, my favorite people. Oh, love the pilgrims. I can't speak enough about the Pilgrims. They're the best. They're just the best. And I will prove it over the next few days when we do a humble attempt to celebrate these amazing people. 

This is our heritage. These Pilgrims are our heritage. It is a crime, purposeful, to disconnect us from these people who founded this country. These are our true founders. We talk about our founding fathers. These are our founding grandfathers. 

They did incredible things and for all the right reasons. So we'll talk about them in the days to come. I want to share this here, including the preacher, the main preacher of the church, these Puritans, because the Puritans, they started in England, of course, but then they went to Amsterdam for 12 years and things didn't go well there. We'll talk about why next time. And when they went to England, or when they went to New England, there was a sermon that the preacher gave from the boat about Ezra 821. 

So we'll talk about that. 

But I want to play this instead, and maybe this can be encouraging to you before we go into Thanksgiving gatherings. This is a video of Jillian Michaels and Victor Davis Hanson. That's a fun video, and I don't know how much you can tell it from listening to it. But Jillian Michaels, who, by the way, is married, married to a woman, she's been going out with him. conservative kind of awakening. How shocked she is as VDH goes into the historical confirmation of Jesus outside of the Bible itself. 

And Jillian Michaels is blown away. She's never heard this stuff before, can't believe that this was true, but also loves it at the same time. 

Jesus the Magician was written by a scholar at Columbia that showed that, I don't necessarily agree with his thesis, but there were a lot of people that were traveling magicians, and Christ was the best one, and that also bothered the Romans, and he was able to create mass populist Sermon on the Mount stuff. And then the message, you've got to remember that the message... 

I thought we didn't even know this guy. This is going to infuriate people, and I'm so sorry, and I stay out of it. But I thought we weren't even really sure whether or not Jesus existed, and the apostles wrote this stuff hundreds of years later. 

No, no, the Romans knew. We have Roman documents completely separate from religion that he was a magnetic, he was a romantic, wonderful person to the people who knew him and he had staged a revolution and that that presented a problem in this troublesome Province and how the Romans ran Judea as they ran everything they had client Kings Herod So they would go to the Jews or the Gaul anybody and say you're going to be the regent here This is the protocol. We have Roman legions to keep you in line, but we want this and it's basically a question of taxes control and in exchange for that we give you roads and aqueducts and habeas corpus and Civilization and that was a deal. 

So the way by the way that we go into the developing world. 

Yes, and so there were Regent Kings and then you always had a provincial Roman official, like Pilate, who had a temporary, you know, assignment, and he was the ultimate judge. So, his whole point was, I don't want to get into this stuff between this new offshoot of Judaism called Christianity, and this guy Jesus and the Orthodox, but I do know, I don't know what he did, but I know that it's troublesome. Both, he's got a new religion, and unfortunately it's turned the other cheek. Brotherhood of man, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor. That's not Roman. 

We have a Roman military ethos, that the strong inherit the earth, and if an enemy offends you, you hit him twice. And this guy is preaching something very different. And oh, by the way, the local Orthodoxy doesn't like him either. So we'll just wash my hands of it and say, how do we kill two birds with one stone, i . e. not have them angry at us so that and not have this revolutionary new sect, so what we'll do is, we'll get Pilate and he'll say, well, I washed my hands of it, but since these guys think he's guilty, I'll let him kill him, and then we'll blame them. 

But at the same time, with the Apostles and the next two generations, they were being killed systematically in Rome by Romans that had nothing to do with Jews. 

Right, right. 

Yeah, so when anybody says that the Jews killed kill Jesus, it's more like the Romans wanted a quiet province and they did not like Jesus and what he represented was anti -Roman. It was a popular revolt they thought could happen. And there was an orthodoxy that they had come to terms with and used them to keep the peace. So they said basically, well, in Judaism, in Judea, the Jewish establishment, the religious establishment doesn't like him any more than we do. So we can get rid of him and then say the Pharisees basically did it. 

This is so wild. I'm sorry, I know it's not wild for people who know this information, but I genuinely thought, okay, the Jews had the Old Testament, the Torah, and then maybe there was this guy Jesus. The apostles wrote stuff, but the first guy who wrote something was like, you know, 90 or so years later. We think maybe there's some Dead Sea Scrolls, kind of mentioned this guy Jesus, but then constantly had a, what, the Council of Nicaea or something like that? 

He had a vision of the Milliman Bridge that all of a sudden he saw crossing the sky and he flipped the entire empire. So under Diocletian and other recent emperors, they were completely banned and they were executed because they were too revolutionary. Christianity because they could deal with the Jews because the Jews Judaism was localized in a particular area at that time and It was a particular group of people but Christianity said that anybody could get to heaven Through the combination of what would become the New Testament in the Old Testament And so the Romans said you know what this has an ability to be it's kind of like what Islam would do later This can infect everybody because it's not it's not ethnic or anything It's very dangerous and then all of a sudden Constantine was flipped 300 years after the death of Christ. And then they took all of the Roman rituals that had been used to oppress Christianity and turned them upside down. So when you see a cardinal with a purple and the pointed hat, that's all from the Roman legate and provincial system. And when you look even today, the organization of the Roman Catholic Church, it mimics the divisions in the empire. 

They took the whole administrative system that the empire had, and they flipped it over to advance and institutionalize Christianity. 

Okay. 

It's a fun clip, isn't it? So Jillian Michaels is, again, married to a woman. She's been on the left her whole life, but I think just through default. And she's going in this process of awakening. I say default because again, the opening comment she said was, wait, wait, I thought we weren't even sure that Jesus existed. It's one thing to say that Jesus wasn't actually the son of God. 

It's another to deny that he was even a person who walked around. So Jillian Michaels is going through a bit of an awakening on her own. By the way, I want to take back the word woke, or I shouldn't say take it back because we never made it up the word woke, but I want woke to be a word. us because it's actually a biblical concept first. Ephesians 5 .14 says, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. 

Awake, awake, O sleeper. What's a sleeper? The Greek word here for sleeper is someone who yields to sloth and sin or someone who is indifferent to their salvation. So wake up, you who are indifferent to your salvation. Arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Wake up. 

Romans 13 11. Besides this, you know the time that the time has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. " Isaiah 52, 1 says, Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion, put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. But awake, awake, wake up. 

This is the original wake. Be awakened from your spiritual sleep. Be awakened from the darkness that you live on. Get the scales off your eyes and see the truth. It's time to be woke. Anyway, that's why I want to take back the word woke. 

So just about the history of Jesus, that Jesus actually was a real person. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, they wrote their gospels after Jesus died, rose, and ascended. Mark was 40 years later. Matthew was 50 years later. John was 65 years later. Matthew and John knew Jesus personally. 

Mark was close with Peter. Luke was close with Paul. They all based their writings on witness testimony. Of course, it was all the work of the Holy Spirit. But I love Jillian Michaels being aghast at Jesus even being a real person. I distinctly remember, this was before I was a Christian, I was in a seminar in college, and I remember this room, I don't even know how we got up because it was about the Vietnam War or something, but everyone in this seminar, so like 15 people, were talking about how Jesus wasn't real. 

Now, I wasn't a Christian at the time at all, but everyone was talking about how he wasn't real, like he was like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus, like straight up not real. never existed, not a real person, figment of our imagination. 

All of it. 

All of him. I remember thinking, hey, I'm not a Christian, but he was definitely like a guy. He was definitely like a real person that walked around. Liar, lunatic, or lord. These people in college say he didn't even exist. But there were a lot of historians who admitted that Jesus existed. 

And they were contemporaries of Jesus Tacitus. Roman historian wrote about Jesus in 116 AD, wrote about the persecution of Christians. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote just within a few decades of Jesus's death, he talked about Jesus. Pliny the Younger mentioned Jesus as well in his writings. He wrote about how Christians would meet regularly and sing songs to Christ as to a God. Actually, I'm going to quote this, just so you don't think I'm making this up. 

This is Pliny the Younger writing to the Emperor Trajan, 112, 112 AD. Pliny said, It is my custom, sir, to refer to you in all cases where I do not feel sure for who can better direct my doubts or inform my ignorance. I have never been present at any legal examination of the Christians, and I do not know, therefore, what are the usual penalties passed upon them, or the limits of those penalties, or how searching and inquiry should be made. I have hesitated a great deal in considering whether any distraction should be made. according to the ages of the accused, whether the weak should be punished as severely as the more robust, whether if they renounce their faith they should be pardoned." " So he's like, hmm, we've got these Christian people, how should we punish them? And what's too far? Does it matter if they're old or young? What if they're weak or strong? What if they renounce their faith, should we pardon them? Or whether the man who has once been a Christian should gain nothing by recanting. So if they, if they recant, should we let them go? Or nah, anytime you even mention, you know, say that Jesus is Lord, that's it for you, no matter what. Whether the name itself, even though otherwise innocent of crime, should be punished or only the crimes that gather around it. So should you get them for worshiping Jesus or should you get them for all these other crimes? In the meantime, this is the plan which I have adopted in the case of those Christians who have been brought before me. I ask them whether they are Christians. If they say yes, then I repeat the question a second and a third time, warning them of the penalties it entails, and if they still persist, I order them to be taken away to prison until the Roman governor has arrived." 

He goes on and says, "...but they declared that the sum of their guilt or their error only amounted to this, that on a stated day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a God, and that so far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, their oath was to abstain." from theft, robbery, adultery, and from breach of faith. " So he's like far from this being like a criminal group. Their oath was to not break the law and not to deny trust, money placed in the keeping when called upon to deliver it. When the ceremony was concluded, it had been their custom to depart and meet again to take food. Same thing we do now after church, after church lunch. But it was no special character and quite harmless. 

And they had ceased this practice after the edict in which in accordance with your orders, I had forbidden all secret societies. It's great. That was only like year 112, he wrote that letter. Jesus was real. The Christians who knew him were willing to go to their death. I'm very encouraged by the spreading of the gospel and the truth of Jesus and God to many people. 

There'll be many new people who are gonna hear the truth for really the first time, even though they've grown up in a so -called Christian country. And I'm encouraged when I hear stories like Jillian Michaels here who are amazed by what they've never heard before and curious to know more. 

It's great. 

Let me give you one of my favorite facts about Jesus that when, when I was not a Christian, I was reading my first apologetics book, Frank Turk, not enough faith to be an atheist. It makes the point that all the new Testament documents were written just within a few decades of Jesus's crucifixion. And there are 5 ,300 Greek manuscripts of the new Testament, 5 ,300. And still people are like, I don't know if he existed. Does anyone question if Plato existed? Anyone like, I don't know about that Plato guy. 

I don't think he was real. There are only 250 known manuscripts of Plato's works that survive. And those date back, even though he was alive in about 400 BC, those date back to the year 900. So you've got like 1300 years between the actual Plato, like Plato the guy. 1 ,300 years before Plato the god. and the earliest documents we have of his. 

1 ,300 years and no one questions Plato's existence. Yet for Jesus, these are contemporaries who wrote of him and people are like, I don't think so. And again, it's one thing to say you don't think he's Lord or God and all, like that's fine. The son of God, but it's another bit like, I don't think he exists. 

It's great. 

So super grateful, more people being woke, the good woke, the biblical woke. And let's just pray for more. I may have read Titus 3 the other day. I don't know if I did, but even if I did, it's worth it again. I love this section. He says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities. 

Talking to Titus and his church. Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, to show perfect courtesy towards all people. And that's what Pliny was talking about. He's like, ah, man, these guys are like really good people. I don't even know what to get them on. But here's the best part. 

For we ourselves, were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. " We can't be boastful about those things. who are not Christians yet, or who are new and working through it. 

We can't be boastful because that was us not long ago. And also don't be discouraged by those who scoff, who don't believe in the truth of Jesus in the Bible. The fools will scoff. 

That's fine. 

But you also never know whose eyes you can help open, just like yours were. Praise God. Hopefully that's encouraging as we go into this Thanksgiving season. Maybe have some more interactions and encounters with people. You never know. Mike Slater, diallocals .  com, transcript. and no commercials over there. Mike Slater out, Locals .

Some details about the would-be Trump assassin came out, and it's too predictable. There is too much degeneracy in our culture today. It all has to be rooted out. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. I just picked up this book, The Existence and Attributes of God, by Stephen Charnock, written in the 1600s by this wonderful Puritan preacher. Like, just a couple pages in. But I got a lot of underlines already. I'll just start off with this line. 

When men deny the God of purity, they must be polluted in soul and body and grow brutish in their actions. When the sense of religion is shaken off, all kinds of wickedness are eagerly rushed into, whereby they become as loathsome to God as putrefied carcasses are to men. " He didn't hold back, didn't hold back. There's a section about this scripture right here, Psalm 14 1. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. It's a fool. 

It's what a fool says. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. That's my intro to any topic we could possibly imagine in the realm of politics. It's like, spin around, put a blindfold on, spin around, throw a dart in any direction. 

We're like, great, we'll go that way and go anywhere we want. Let's go this way. New York Post has a story about the guy who was a millimeter away from murdering the president in Butler, Pennsylvania. And it's about how the FBI committed a live omission, saying, oh, we know nothing about this guy's political political motivations from online. Kids warning, if there's any kids listening right now. On one of his accounts, he went by they them. 

So there's some transgender stuff. He also was a furry into this furry stuff. So furry is so wicked and deviant. Actually, the online community is called deviant art. It's like that one website online, it's like his feminist website, it's called Jezebel. They're like, oh man, they literally actively on their own chose to name their website after the most wicked woman ever to have lived. 

And here we have a website where they went out, they called themselves deviant art. Like the pride parade calls themselves pride. It's like they're not even hiding any of this. It's all in the open. Furries are people who dress up like animals as a fetish. So he was engaging in some of this online. 

So total degenerate. The word degenerate, It's interesting, we have to have a pretty firm understanding of this word. On my radio show, this was one of the school shooters, I forget even know what, and a woman called in and said, because we're talking about demons, and she made the point that the demons, demons see weakness, they see prey, and they went after it. And you think of someone who has grown up their whole life with broken family and a school system that she's accommodates every violence or antisocial degenerate whim for 13 years, K through 12. 13 years of no accountability, no masculinity, no discipline, no guardrails, pure poison poured into their brains constantly. Throw in maybe some other horrors and abuse in there, just wicked depraved evil for their entire childhood. 

Of course, that person's soul is going to be ripe for the picking. The word degenerate, the original dictionary definition from Noah Webster, 1828, is to become worse, to decay in good qualities, to pass from a good to a bad or worse state. In the natural world, plants and animals degenerate when they grow to a less size than usual or lose a part of the valuable qualities which belong to the species. In the moral world, men degenerate when they decline in virtue or other good qualities. Manners degenerate when they become corrupt. A coward is a man of degenerate spirit. 

" Isn't that great? And because the original dictionary, Noah Webster, was such a strong Christian, one of our founding fathers, almost every dictionary word has a Bible verse. And he quotes Jeremiah 221. And this is about Israel pursuing false gods, as usual. And Jeremiah says, I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine, degenerate. 

One could say the same about America. Once a shining city upon a hill, how we have turned into a degenerate plant. Now a little added spin to this. The Latin root of the word means birth or descent. So there's a connotation of falling away from the quality of your ancestors. Genius is birth or descent and de means off or away from. 

So genius, degenerate. So you're falling away from your birth. Isn't that interesting? Now I don't know if this stood out to you in the Noah Webster's dictionary definition. The plant. They used the word degenerate to describe a plant. 

It was one of the definitions. And then Jeremiah was also about a plant. 

That's interesting. 

isn't it? So in this book, The Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock, here's what he says about the word, about the fool. He says the fool, a term in scripture signifying a wicked man. Isn't that interesting? So a fool is not someone who's aloof. A fool is someone who's wicked. 

Also used by the heathen philosophers to signify a vicious person. And then it has a Hebrew word that's coming from a different Hebrew word, signifies the extinction, of life in men, animals and plants. So the word and the Hebrew word is taken a plant that hath lost all that juice, which made it lovely and useful. So a fool is one that had lost his wisdom and right notion of God and divine things, which were communicated to man by creation, one dead in sin, degeneracy. And there's all types of degenerate behavior and it's all wicked. And it has every culture, every group of people. 

It knows no race. There's no bounds of race or income bracket. There's all types. of degeneracy and degenerate behavior. None of it's good. You know, we all know for God to love the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

We know that. Everyone knows that line. But how many people quote the next line? Let me just jump a few lines down. We'll go to verse 19. And this is the judgment. 

The light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. People love for everyone who does wicked things, hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever whoever what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." " Darkness, light, degeneracy, virtue. I don't know when this will hit fully the way it needs to. 

I pray we're in the beginnings of it because this isn't enough wherever we're at right now. We need such a proper revolution in this country. We did a great show today on SiriusXM. Three hours of the economy, basically. It was great. But make America great again cannot be GDP. 

And I want the economy to do great and all that, but that cannot be it. We need to root out degeneracy in this country. We need to get out and get rid of the darkness. We need to turn the lights on. Scales need to fall from people's eyes. We need to not only make America great again, but we need to aspire to something bigger again. 

I think this is a place here on this podcast where we can talk it out, figure it out. and hopefully spread the word. Mikeslater . locals . com is my website. We just put the transcript up there and no commercials as well.