The Senators are back from their much-needed vacation. They work so hard that they needed a good two weeks off. Is the sarcasm thick enough? Why are Republican Senators the worst? They can't pass obvious legislation like the SAVE Act or even pass a funding bill. It's because they haven't followed Jesus' message in Mathew 5:38

Welcome to Politics by Faith. This is where we take the news of the day and we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. New headlines every day, but Ecclesiastes says it's not the new under the sun. So thanks for being here to get the true story. The true story today is Republican senators are the worst. They're just, there's, I know, I'm sorry. 

I mean, uh, uh, the news of the day is reconciliation bills and DHS ICE funding and the SAVE Act and filibuster. The story of the day is these Republican senators are just Awful. I know it's not much of a news flash, perhaps, but I would just like to, it's a little commiserating here about how absolutely frustrating these people are. They pretend like they're on your side. They hide, they hide behind the fact they're like, Oh, we really want to do this conservative thing that we said we want to do. And you elected us for, but we need seven Democrats. 

And then we say, well, there's actually a way where you don't need seven Democrats. Can't do it that way. Nah, I'm against, I'm against that, but oh man, just, oh, I'm with you. You're like, definitely not with us. The analogy I used to say was if there's a mountain, right? You need 60 votes to pass a bill. 

There's this big mountain. Oh, we got to cross that mountain. We're not going to be able to do it. I'm like, okay. Um, but there's also this Valley. You can just walk right through this Valley right here to pass the SAVE Act too. 

Nah, I'm not going to do that. Because this mountain is so hard to climb. We can't get seven Democrats. Yeah, you don't need seven Democrats. Just do this thing. Just get rid of the filibuster. 

No, I can't do that. Guys, see how demoralizing this is? The reason this is on my mind is because we talked to Senator Rick Scott from Florida. He's one of the 

good guys. 

But, gosh, it's so annoying. Someone called in and said, because the word frustrated isn't quite it. And someone called in and said, Slater, I think you're looking for disenfranchised. And that's part of it, sure. But I'm trying to find more of an emotional state. And my emotional state is one of seething disdain. 

I'm full of disdain. Let me look up Webster's Dictionary here. Got to use Webster's Dictionary 1828 . 

com. 

Dane. 

That's a good word. 

To think unworthy. 

That's right. I think these senators are unworthy of the positions they hold. To deem worthless, for sure. They're worthless. To consider to be unworthy of notice, care, regard, esteem. Unworthy of one's character. 

To scorn. To condemn. The man of elevated mind disdains a mean action. Yeah, that's right. He disdains a society of worthless men. He disdains to corrupt the innocent or insult the weak. 

Yeah. I'm full of disdain. They can't get anything done. And they like it that way. There was a CNN story we shared a couple weeks ago, I don't know if we played it here, of a woman who was planning on seeking asylum. She was in the process of seeking asylum using the CBP One app. 

And then Trump canceled all appointments made for asylum hearings made through the app. So CNN did the story on this woman. who's she's from i think guatemala and she's still in mexico she was on her way to america now she's in mexico and the the funny part of the story she's like i'm gonna wait until trump's gone to apply for asylum and you're like well that's not what asylum is you can't like if you're fine here which clearly you are she owns like a little restaurant that you can't just And she said the question was, why did you leave Guatemala? She's like, there's no jobs. Like, well, that's not asylum. 

Right now, the CBP one app was created in 2020 to streamline trucking cargo going across the border. It was made to make crossing the border for cargo more efficient. But the Biden administration took the CBP one app and they turned it into something totally different for people where they could claim asylum anywhere in the world. That's not what it was intended to be, of course. So. That's what Biden did. 

And there are 50 ,000 people a month for two years who use this to claim asylum and made it across our borders. 50 ,000 a month for two months straight. So Trump wins and he says, we're not doing that anymore. We're canceling all of it. There are 900 ,000 claims for asylum and Trump canceled them all. Well, a federal judge, Alison Burroughs, says you can't do that. 

Trump can't do that. So one point of frustration is you can have a president, Biden, who says, we're going to completely recreate this app to let in a million aliens, million foreigners legally. And the president can do that. And Allison says, that's great. But then the next president comes in and says, you can't do that anymore. We're not doing that. 

Oh, Allison is against it. 

Allison thinks it's terrible. Okay. Well, well, what? So that's frustrating. But what could solve this very quickly is if the legislative branch passed a bill, but they don't ever, they could pass a bill. about all this defining citizenship and defining birthright citizenship. 

They could define all these things properly and pass these, but they just don't. And what's broken about this scenario is we have a legislative branch that doesn't get anything done. They can't even pass the budget, which is the fundamental thing to do, right? We have a judicial branch full of Alisons who are going way beyond their scope and authority. All we're left with is the executive branch. 

So if we ever want anything to get done, it's going to have to happen through a more powerful executive branch, which I don't care for ideally, but it's obviously the direction we're going. And I put most of the blame on Congress for being pathetic. So someone called into the show today and said, Slater, the reason why Congress people, senators, especially are like this is because, and then the members of the unit party is because they just want to stay there and get rich and be comfortable. And that's true. Of course, it's a cushy job. If you're a narcissist who likes that sort of thing, it's not terrible to me, but if you're wired for that, then this is like a great job. 

In the past, you were reluctant to take this position before the 17th amendment, the directional direct election of senators, the state houses. voted for senators to go to DC and represent the state legislature. That's what the senators were. And when we got rid of that process and went to direct election of senators, it jacked up the whole system because the senator's allegiance is now focused on DC. It used to be on their own state assemblies. That's who they were beholden to because that's who put them in office. 

That's who voted for them. It was the state legislatures. And the people voted for the state legislatures, but the state legislators voted on the senators to go represent them. Now they don't have that. So now the senators are there to represent DC. They're there to represent the national government. 

And And that's not what it is. The gravitational pull is now to D . C. and all the lobbying and all the fame and power and comfort that comes from D . C. 

is now centralized there where it used to be centered. The gravitational pull used to be on their own state. So it's all messed up. All right. So let's go to the Bible. So picked up this book yesterday sitting on my desk. 

It's an amazing book. You have to go get it immediately. 

I'm going to call it Required Reading. 

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones. It's wonderful. And I picked it up yesterday. It's been a long time since I read it, so I got to read it all over again. So good. So good. 

I picked it up yesterday because, you know, yesterday's episode we did about the spat between the president and the pope. By the way, After I recorded the episode, I read the tweet from the Pope about embracing the Muslims in Algeria. You're like, oh man, yikes. We'll see how it goes. Maybe we'll do another episode on that. But I would have put that in yesterday's episode if I saw it before. 

So we did the episode yesterday on the Pope and the President, and the Pope's criticizing the President for not choosing peace. 

Whatever, ridiculous. 

And I thought, you know what, I want to go see what Dr. Martin Luther King says about turn the other cheek. That's Matthew 538, Sermon on the Mount. So grab the book. So Martin Luther goes through every line of the Sermon on the Mount and breaks it all down. It's brilliant. So let me quote here. 

538. You have heard that it was said, this is Jesus. You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you, 

and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. " Okay, so let's break this down. So eye for an eye, right? Jesus said you've heard it say eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Almost everyone misinterprets that, certainly pagans who hate Christians and hate Christianity and hate the Bible. And what they do is they say that Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth is bad because you people want to seek revenge, right? Like Gandhi, there's no evidence that Gandhi ever said it, but everyone quotes Gandhi as saying, oh, an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind. But the point of eye for an eye was not so that we go seek revenge. It was to limit the revenge that is instinctual in humans and to enact a system of proportional justice. Meaning if someone pokes you in the eye, you can't kill them. That would be disproportionate. Justice has to be proportional. We see this principle in our constitution. No cruel, unusual punishments, no excessive bail, no excessive fines imposed. I believe it's the eighth amendment. So eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, like nothing beyond that. So it's not, it's not a call for revenge. It's a limit to revenge or, uh, I would call it portional justice. But then Jesus says, but I say to you. do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." Now, Martyn Lloyd -Jones brilliantly goes into this whole thing about how this is for individuals, not for the state, not for the government, not for the military. It's not about the death penalty. 

It's not about pacifism. This is about the individual. it's a key point this is but the individual christian and their reaction to injustice done to them now once you realize that this leads to a very important question that i guarantee you i shouldn't guarantee you i bet you asked yourself without even noticing this is what happened to me i asked myself this question but it was like really deep down and i could barely hear its voice until martin lloyd jones pulled it out of me i was like oh yeah i was wondering that actually i did but it was i didn't even here let me see if it Let me see if this happened to you. So I'm gonna read that section again, Matthew 5, 38. You've heard it said, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. 

But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, give to him your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. So my question is, why are all these seemingly unrelated things all jammed together like this? Like we always, everyone stops at, you know, turn the other cheek, but he keeps going. 

This is the middle of a thought, which by the way, is in the middle of a sermon, which matches the same theme that I want to make clear in just a second as well. But, but it seems like he has all these totally unrelated things all jammed together. Like it's like Jesus had a bunch of things to say and he forgot he was running out of time or like the end of a sermon. He's like, I can tell people are getting a little, a little antsy here. Let me just, let me just throw everything in here at once. A bunch of random things. 

What is turning the other cheek have to do with giving away your cloak and having to do with going two miles when you don't want to go. two mile, you don't want to go any mile, right? What do those have to do with each other? Here's what ties it all together. It's about the emptying of the self. If you are truly a Christian, you must become dead. 

to self. Meaning if something bad happens to you, if there's an injustice done against you, your first human instinct, of course, is to attack, attack back, seek revenge. That is all fueled by the self. Similarly, your personal possessions, your cloak, it's about the self. If someone says, hey, let's go this way one mile, that's your self. Like they're trying to take you from where you want to be and where you want to go. 

And Jesus says, we'll go to go even further. But we don't want to do that because we want to be about the self. Because that's our natural state is to glorify the self and to protect ourselves. And when someone asks you for something, our instinct is to be like, no, that's mine. Why would I, why would I impoverish myself? It's all about self. 

So what Jesus is saying here is that if you want to be a disciple of mine, you have to become dead to yourself. If you want to be my disciple, you have to deny yourself. Everything about it, everything about you, all the rights to self, and you have to take up the cross and follow me. So we can bring it to the Pope. Again, it's not, it's not about this verse right here. It's not about pacifism. 

If you want to read about pacifism, go read Romans. If you want to hear about what Jesus thought about the Roman soldiers or whatever, there's other verses, other scriptures you can go to about that issue. This scripture, turning the other cheek, it's not about pacifism. It's not about the military. It's not about war. It's about dying to self. 

Now, why does our, back to the main topic here, why is our Senate so awful? Because they're all about the self. It's all about their power, their money, their prestige, their greed, their cloak, their power. Injustice is there, going where they want to go. It's all about me, me, me. Our founders set up the system, the constitution as justice. 

Adams said, for a moral and religious people. And in a Christian country, the only people who would become senators would be moral and religious people who are not about the self. So they would do the right thing. With moral and religious people, lobbyists would come knocking, job offers would come knocking, corruption deals would come knocking. In Swalwell's case, women would come, whatever. But the senator would already be dead to self. 

So all of these efforts would be useless. So if you want to have a Senate and a Congress that functions again, and beyond just DC, if you want to have anything in our society that's broken, you want to have it work again. We need to be a moral and religious people. And what does that mean exactly? You have to die to self. YouTube . 

com slash at politics by faith. If you haven't subscribed yet, I really appreciate it. It'd be amazing if you could subscribe over there at YouTube, trying to break into that algorithm so that we can together spread the word.

After the Pope criticised Trump's actions in Iran, the president said the Pope should focus more on being Pope and not a politician. What exactly was the Pope's criticism of Trump? And when the Pope referenced Isaiah 1, surely he wasn't suggesting Trump is anything like King Ahaz, right?

Welcome to Politics by Faith. It's where we take the news of the day, we bring it to the Bible so we can walk away with peace and perspective. There's new headlines every single 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. President Trump attacks the Pope. That's what all the headlines are saying today anyway. 

So let's chat about it. It all started back about a week ago when the president wrote A Whole Civilization. We'll die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. " He says, let me just keep reading. However, now that we have totally complete regime change where different, smarter, less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen. 

Who knows? We'll find out tonight. One of the most important moments in a long, complex history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God bless the people of Iran. Now, we know how the rest of that story ended. 

It was like, tonight at eight o 'clock and it never happened, right? And then the left criticized Trump for chickening out. We talked about this. But the Pope was commenting on the president's message there. When the president wrote that, it never crossed my mind that he was going to nuke the people of Iran. But people with TDS took that literally. 

They really thought Trump was going to kill them all. Have you not been paying attention for the last 11 years? Don't you know? What Trump does? Don't you know how he does it? And then maybe more importantly here, don't you know who he's talking to? 

He was talking to the insane mullahs of Iran in a way that only they, and I shouldn't say only, in a way that they understand. And it got them to the table. Now, the negotiating table didn't work, as we then found out with the negotiations with J . D. Vance in Pakistan. So nothing came of that, which leads to the blockade. 

Let me explain this blockade real quick. Why this blockade, the president's blockade of the straighter who moves is different than when Iran had a blockade of straighter who moves. When Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz, that stopped 20 -25 % of the world's oil from going to the rest of the world. About 20 -25 % of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. When Trump blocks the Strait of Hormuz, he's only blocking Iranian ships. He's not blocking ships that want to go get oil from UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, anywhere else in that area. 

Iran is only about 4 % of the world's oil. So when Iran stopped 25 % of the world's oil, that's going to affect things. That's a problem. But when Trump stops 4 % of the world's oil, Iran's oil, and only Iran's oil, well, that's not a problem at all. We could pick that up everywhere else or maybe even in Texas. So that's the difference with that. 

But anyway, I never thought that Trump was going to nuke Iran, never even crossed my mind. It was like a couple of days later when I was like, oh, wait, people thought People thought he was going to nuke Iran. Like, what are we talking about? That's what all the Trump trained people were thinking and MSNBC and apparently the Pope were thinking. The Pope said today, as we all know, there was this threat against all the people of all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable. 

No, it wasn't to the people of to all the people of Iran. Trump, Trump, not only has he never said anything bad about the people of Iran, he repeatedly has talked over and over about how brave the people of Iran are and how they're not like their leaders and how they need to, when the time is right, stand up and take their country back. He is doing this all for the Iranian people in a way that the Iranian people could then take over their country and be a normal country. The idea that he was ever going to kill them all is insane. The president saying he wants to kill all the people of Iran, that's not even a threat against the leaders of Iran because the leaders of Iran are happy to kill all the people of Iran. 

As we saw with the most recent round of protests a couple months ago, they killed 30 ,000, I believe 30 ,000 of their own people. So if Trump says, Hey, you leaders in Iran, if you don't knock it off, I'm going to kill all the Iranians. They'd be like, whatever. We don't care. That's fine. 

Go ahead and do it. 

We'd love it. 

Actually. We'd like it. It would save us some bullets. So it clearly wasn't directed. He was never going to kill the people of Iran. It's the leadership. 

That's obviously what he was talking about. But the Pope said, there are certainly issues of international law here. So only international law only applies to us. It doesn't apply to when Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz. So we're the only ones who have to fight. But even more so a moral issue for the good of the whole entire population, the Pope said, I would like to invite everyone to truly think in their hearts about the many innocent people, so many children, so many elderly, completely innocent, who would also become victims of this escalation of a war that began from the very first days. 

This is Archbishop Paul Coakley. Tell me more. Tell me more about how you would stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear bomb, Archbishop. Talk. bomb. Pope Leo is weak on crime. 

This is the president's response to Bob. Pope Leo is weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy. He talks about fear of the Trump administration, but doesn't mention the fear that the Catholic church and all other Christian organizations had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else for holding church services, even when going outside and even being 10 and even 12 feet apart. I like his brother Louis much better than I like him because Louis is all MAGA. I forgot about him. I forgot about Bob's brother. 

He gets it and Leo doesn't. I don't want a pope who thinks it's okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don't want a pope who thinks... I don't want a pope who thinks it's terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a country that was spending massive amounts of drugs in the United States and even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers in our country. And I don't want a pope who criticizes the president of the United States because I'm doing exactly what I was elected in the landslide to do, setting record low numbers in crime and creating the greatest stock market in history. The US should be thankful because as everyone knows, he was a shocking surprise. 

He wasn't on any list to be pope and was only put there by the church because he was an American and they thought that it would be the best way to deal with President Trump. I don't think that's wrong. If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican. Unfortunately, Leo's weak on crime, weak on nuclear weapons, does not sit well with me, nor does the fact that he meets with Obama sympathizers like David Axelrod, a loser from the left who is one of those who want churchgoers and clerics to be arrested. Leo should get his act together as Pope, use common sense, stop catering to the radical left, and focus on being a great leader. not a politician. 

It's hurting him very badly, and more importantly, it's hurting the Catholic Church, President Donald J. Trump. " Okay, so what do we do with this? First, we must address the war concept here from the Pope. We can never fight a war ever. That's clearly not what the Bible says. We've talked about a lot of Old Testament examples of war. Just last week, we did a couple episodes on that. But even in the future, I'll use a Catholic saint, Thomas Aquinas, to prove that war is not always sinful. Aquinas said three things need be present. You should be in a position where you can declare war, like, for instance, a commander -in -chief. As the care of the common wheel, wheel is like welfare, is committed to those who are in authority, it is their business to watch over the common welfare of the city, kingdom, and province subject to them. says Trump, and just as it is lawful for them to have recourse to the sword in defending the common welfare against internal disturbances when they punish evildoers according to the words of the Apostle, Romans 13, 4, which says, But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." So you have to be in a position to wage the war, which this president is. Second, a just cause is required. Namely, that those who are attacked should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault. Anyone want to question 47 years of Iran and the terrorism? 

that they've brought upon the world and their desire to have nuclear weapons. Thirdly, says Aquinas, it is necessary that the belligerents should have a rightful intention so that they intend the advancement of good or the avoidance of evil. True religion looks upon as peaceful those wars that are waged not for motives of aggrandizement or cruelty, but with the object of security. securing peace, of punishing evildoers, and of uplifting the good." " Absolutely 100 % believe that that is this president's intent. I don't know what Pope Leo thinks about those points from Thomas Aquinas, but I would be curious what he believes. Now, let's go into a different direction here. So Pope Leo, what he quoted in critique of the president is Isaiah 115. Isaiah 115 says, when you spread out your hands in prayer, this is God talking through Isaiah. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood. So this was written about, was written by again, Isaiah through Isaiah. Let me just quote verse one. This is the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So these kings each had their problems. Ahaz was the worst, which we'll get to in a minute. So Isaiah had this prophecy. The Lord has spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me, people of Judah. The ox knows its owner. The donkey is a master's crib, but Israel does not know. My people do not consider. So we have a sinful nation here. A people laden with iniquity. A brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger." This is not good. 

Why should you be stricken again? Okay, so God wants the people to repent here. Why are you doing this? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. the sole of the foot, even to the head. 

The more people rebel, the more bad things happen. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land and your presence and is a desolate, and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city, unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant. We would have become like Sodom. 

We would have become like Gomorrah. So Judah was attacked by a bunch of other kingdoms. We're talking mostly about King Ahaz. But even then, God showed mercy to the point where in Sodom and Gomorrah, there were no survivors. Right. So unless the Lord of Hosts left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom. 

We would have been made like Gomorrah. No one made it out as a lot and his family. But that's it. There are no survivors, Sodom and Gomorrah. And here's Isaiah saying that we should have been just like them. That's how bad they were. 

All right. So here's the part that the Pope quoted. We're getting to verse 15 here. I hear the word of the Lord. You rulers of Sodom give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? 

This is God talking. Says the Lord, I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or the lamb of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. 

The new moons, the Sabbath and the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They are trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes to you from you. Even though you make many prayers. 

will not hear your hands are full of blood that's what the Pope was talking about so this makes sense right so he's saying God is saying that a has here in this case it's just like you guys like Sodom and Gomorrah and you're doing these religious ceremonies but what's the point you're not you're not even close I'll hide my eyes from you and I won't even hear you as you quote -unquote pray so I don't know if the Pope was intending or explicitly compared Trump to King Ahaz. Ahaz was as bad as you get. So give me some proof. He burned his own children as a form of child sacrifice to Baal. That's bad. He built pagan altars across Judah. 

When Ahaz was attacked by Syria, Ahaz went to Damascus to meet with the king there. And he made offerings to their pagan gods because he's like, well, if they beat me, then their gods must be better than my God. Like that's a problem. Second Chronicles 28, 23, for he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, because the gods of the king of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and all of Israel. Then he replaced the altar, which God gave Moses the instructions to build and built his own altar and then made sacrifices to that. 

Like he's as bad as you can get. Now, this was at a time when the people of Judah were in such a horrible state, they should have turned to God. But they didn't. They went deeper. Because of Ahaz's horrific leadership, they went deeper in their sin and their pagan idolatry. There's a point here to be made about rock bottom. 

We hear a lot about rock bottom. I think we put rock bottom on a pedestal, if you will. We bank too much on rock bottom. We're like, oh, well, things will get better when they hit rock bottom. Then when they hit rock bottom, then they'll trust God. Not necessarily. 

Didn't happen with Ahaz. Now, I don't know if Bob Pope here was saying that Trump is like King Ahaz, therefore God doesn't listen to him. I hope not. I hope that's not what he was doing. That's a horrifically inaccurate comparison. But I'll end on a positive note. 

What is true is that And I do believe this is a positive note. What is true is that our nation needs to repent for our sins. Forget about Trump. Forget about the Pope. We're talking about us and this country, our nations, our founders and the pilgrims. They talked about all the time, repenting for our sins. 

They talked about supplication. Supplication means you confess your sin, you admit your weakness, you ask for forgiveness, and then you ask for God's blessing. If we go continue to go down this road of Ahaz, we're only going to become more pagan. And I don't know how much God's mercy will last. The only way to be more blessed by God, the only way for God to show more mercy than he already has is for us to put him back in the center of our lives as individuals. And therefore, as a result of him being in the center of more individuals' lives, he'll be the center of our civic life as well. 

That's what I get from this drama is, oh, hey, let's not be anything like King Ahas or the people of Israel. who kept getting worse and worse and worse. And then when they hit rock bottom, kept going. We need to turn youtube . com slash at politics by faith.

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.