MikeSlater
Politics • Spirituality/Belief • Culture
Tariff Turmoil: Is It Worth It?
Politics By Faith, April 7, 2025
April 07, 2025

People don't like change. The Israelites begging to go back to slavery under Pharaoh is the perfect example. It shows how much people will choose what they know, even if they know it's bad for them. 

Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thank you for being here. The kids are running around in the hallway here, but they're having fun. So I don't really want to tell them to quiet down. So you may hear kids yelling, having fun in the background. I'm talking about tariffs all week on my Sirius XM show. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? That's fun.

Okay. You got to judge it. Like, is that fun or screaming in tariff? I don't know. I think it's fun. That's fun.

Okay. I think they're having, um, we're talking about tariffs all week and it's more than a news cycle. We need to get more, it's stopping more than one news cycle, more than two days. A lot of topics, they'll be big on Monday and Tuesday and by Wednesday I'm like, you know what, we should maybe move on. This, the reordering of the entire global economy deserves more than a day or two of coverage.

So we're gonna stay on this for quite a long time. And something that came up today on the radio is how much, like we voted for this, the American people voted for this. We knew exactly what was coming. This isn't a surprise. Trump's been talking about it for, I don't know, 40 years. So we want change and not Obama's empty, you know, vapid hope and change. Like real, like genuine change.

And we knew what it was. We knew the change we wanted. It was a real defined change. But now that it's happening, people are like, oh, but I don't really want change. I want to change, but not change. I don't want to change. I don't want to go through a change

in order to get to the change. I just want to change, but not really change, just change. It's like, well, what are we doing here, people? Do we want something to change or not? Now, here's how we get past this. Two things need to happen. First, we need to clearly identify the problem

with where we were and where we were headed on this path. And then we need a clear vision of where we're going. So we need to clearly identify the problem. Otherwise it's like, well, why change? And we need to clearly articulate where we're going. Otherwise people will say, well, it's not worth it.

I don't really know where I'm going and this isn't worth the cost of it. So where, let's go through those quickly. Where were we? I think the state of the economy was deceitful. Per capita GDP, very high, very high. Stock market going up, But that's not everything.

And this is my main thesis. The main point I'm making on the radio is the stock market is not a complete indicator of economic wellbeing or social wellbeing. And you know who knew that? The guy who invented the GDP measurement.

GDP is one of those things we think has been around forever. GDP was only invented in 1934, and we only started using it as a nation in 1942. Simon Kuznets was the economist who won the Nobel Prize for it. He created the GDP, a gross domestic product.

And okay, that's fine, I'm not throwing it out entirely, but it's not complete. And he knew it! He! Let me emphasize the it out entirely, but it's not complete and he knew it he let me emphasize the rubber He knew it Simon knew it. He said he knew it wasn't complete. He said the welfare of a nation can Scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined above the welfare of a nation. This is what we're assessing We're assessing the welfare of our nation and people people look to the one measurement, the GDP,

and they say, well, the welfare is great. But the guy who invented the GDP says, no, that's not enough. That can scarcely be inferred through just this one metric. He later, about 30 years later, said, he said that to Congress, by the way, that was in a speech to Congress presenting GDP

as an economic tool. He said, here's a hammer, but don't go thinking you can use it as a screwdriver. It's not a screwdriver, it's a hammer. It's good for hammering, but that's it. A couple of years later, 30 years later, he said, distinctions must be kept in mind between quantity and quality of growth,

between costs and returns, and between the short and long run. Goals for more growth should specify more growth of what and for what. My goodness that's amazing. The person who invented the measurement said, listen guys let's not go overboard with this. Let's not let this be the end-all be-all of our economic or social well-being. Amazing. We'll do more of this on SiriusXM.

Oh, one thing we did play this morning was a clip of our Treasury Secretary, Scott Besant, who said he visited some local food banks, which is pretty amazing, how many Treasury Secretaries have ever visited food banks. But he said the record number of people going to food banks.

And I just imagine going into a food bank and saying, what are you guys doing here? Meta stock is through the roof. Don't you guys know that meta stock, that Nvidia stock is sky high? What are you all doing?

Oh, well, it turns out the richest 10% of Americans own 88% of stocks. Amazing. Okay, so then the question is, where are we and this is the well, you know, I don't want change Because change involves change and we want change. We don't really want you We don't have to change it

We don't want to change anything to get to the change that we don't really want but we voted for it Like what are you talking about? Change is hard. It's an old expression, but sometimes it's very necessary, which is why we need to know where we're going. I want to share here the story that's the easy one. It's the low hanging fruit story to share, but I think it's so spot on. I just have to do it. The Israelites in Egypt, they were living in slavery in Egypt and Pharaoh made their life worse and worse and worse and they finally were let free and they escaped the attacking

Egyptian army through incredible miracles. And then they were promised the promised land filled with milk and honey. Milk and honey is mentioned many times. Exodus 3, 8. So I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land to a land flowing with milk and honey.

We'll get back to that in a second. Oliviacus 20, 24. Hence, I've said to you, you are to possess their land and I myself will give it to you to possess it. A land flowing with milk and honey. Numbers 14 8, if the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us a land which flows with milk and honey. It's a beautiful description, milk and honey. Milk requires stability and land and

peace. By the way, you hear kids screaming now. This is funny. They went downstairs. I don't know if you can hear the wife, said you guys are driving me nuts, go upstairs. She said no, you guys are driving me crazy, go upstairs. So, don't blame her. Milk requires a lot of land and stability and peace.

And honey requires lots of plants and trees. So this is a safe and abundant and thriving land. And God said it's, it's good and spacious. The good here, that Hebrew word means pleasant, excellent, rich, bountiful, prosperous, cheerful, at ease, which is an interesting word in there too. It's the same Hebrew word that's used in the creation in Genesis and God saw that the light was good, right? And everything that

God created was good. It's the same word here. But that was the promise, right? But what did the Israelites want? They wanted to go back to Egypt.

This story, it's crazy.

And they said to one another, let us choose a leader to go back to Egypt. Numbers 14, four. Oh, let's start at the beginning. 14, one. Then all the congregation raised a loud cry and the people wept that night

and all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, the whole congregation. Oh, there's so much grumbling today. And the congregation said to them, would that we had died in the land of Egypt or that we would have died in the wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones would become a prey.

Would it not have been better for us to go back to Egypt? And they said to one another, let us choose a leader to go back to Egypt. They want to change, but not really. Not if the change required change and which change, they're like, well, it's just not change. Let's go back. Can we just go back?

Go back to slavery. My goodness. Why do they have this reaction? Canaan and they came back and they said the place is a land of milk and honey,

but the people there are huge. There's numbers three, verse 17, Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan

and said to them, go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they're few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether the trees are in it or not. There are trees in it or not.

Be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land. Verse 23, and they came to the valley of Eshkol and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes and they carried it on a pole between the two of them. They also brought some pomegranates and figs. So the spies came back and they told them, we came to the land, 40 days later,

we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. However, the people who do, and this is the fear mongering, the people who dwell in fear mongering today. This is just their lack of trust in God. However, the people who dwell on the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large.

And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there, the giants. But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "'Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are able to overcome it. Then the men who had gone up with him said we are not able to go up against the people they are stronger than we are. So they doubted the other nine. How did God react? Amazing. And the Lord said to Moses how

long will this people despise me and how long will they not believe in me in spite of all the signs I've done among them. I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them. And I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they." And then Moses comes to their defense and the penalty is they can't go into the promised land except for Caleb. You know the rest of the story. The doubt, the fear, the wanting of change, but not really doing what it takes to get it. Listen, I don't know if the tariffs will work. I don't know if the tariffs will lead us to an economic and societal promised land.

Can't guarantee anything of course. But I know the trajectory we were on and the place we were was not good. And I believe there is a better end. What I really want to emphasize here, and my only point of this episode today is to speak to human nature.

And that is that people don't like change. The depth of that reality is that the Israelites would rather go back to Pharaoh and rather go back to live as slaves under Pharaoh because at least they knew what slavery was like and that is better than the unknown. That's how deep people's desire to not change is. So we need to overcome that and anything that we want to move people, right?

Anyway, we want to move people from some place that even though it's bad, at least it's known. You got to move people by not only making sure they recognize how bad their current situation is, but how good it can be providing that hope for what can be so we can work together to get to that better place. It's the same with explaining the gospel to someone too, right?

No one's gonna be saved if they don't think they need saving, if they think they're pretty good, or good enough, or better than that guy. So you need to help someone understand their full actual depravity.

And then once you're saved, what eternity in heaven looks like. Oh yeah, that's worth it. And there's a cost. You have to count the cost. And there's a cost to it. But it's worth it. But it's worth it.

Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Transcript commercial free on the website Mike Slater dot locals dot com. Now the kids are quiet.

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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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