Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the Path.

And you're listening to Live From The Pathway Studios here in Johnston Proper. It is good to be with you this evening. You know, here you know what I learned about singing this week? What? If you're breathing properly,

when you inhale, your your belly should go out. Yeah. Try it, boo boo. Yeah? Your diaphragm. I don't do that ever.

My belly's just kinda already out. Wait. So Wait. What what was it again? So when you when you when you breathe in before you're getting ready to pop a note out, you should feel your your your belly come out. Yeah. That's proper breathing. I don't breathe like that ever. Like, I just feel my lungs fill, but, like, you should breathe you should breathe breathe and then your belly should You're taking voice lessons? Kinda stick no. I listen to a podcast. Oh, yeah. That's like that's like the first thing they teach you. Yeah. I did. I remember that in chorus. Yeah. I I never took chorus. Never took any singing type whatever. And so this lady drops this on me. I'm like Six years. What? This hurts my belly, and I don't like doing it. That's how you get those great opera singers. They got this power and everything. And Here's the thing, though. You see these rough and tumble dudes, you know, singing on the radio or whatever. I'm like, I bet they ain't doing that. You think they're home working on their their diaphragm? They are. Yeah. I think they are. Oh, man. The rock the rock guys that that last, they are too. Yeah. That's yeah. I think that's true. It's gonna say Nikki's Nikki's six from Motley Crue. He's kinda pretty honest about the kind of stuff he does. He's he's been in the game for thirty some odd years now. He still does lessons and stuff like that. Yeah. Really? Yeah. I do too. No. I don't. No. No. He doesn't. Dan

is Dan is trying to like himself to Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue right now. And he's not doing a great job. Mention it to me. Yeah, man. I all the time. I'm like, Nikki? No. Not Nikki Sixx. Dan Hudson. I keep thinking I should take guitar lessons. Oh, man. Maybe. Hey. I was I've been thinking that same thing too, Dan. I just it I just wanna know. Yeah. That's intimidating. I once took guitar lessons from you, Ben. Well, they were bass lessons. They were bass lessons. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. So, no. I I had that same thought, actually. Like, I I think it would take only a matter of, like, ten or twelve weeks to, like I don't know. To just bump your game up one level. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I've I've been I actually think I I bought one off the it was $10 or whatever the online court Udemy. That's what it was. And, like, it looks like a cool thing. I had a lot of great feedback, and then I just don't sit down and do it.

I need a real person to sit down and say slap me and say, no. No. No. That's incorrect. No. You're doing that all wrong, Nicky Sidney. I mean, Dan. Right? No. Alright. Alright. You're listening live from the path. Thanks for hanging out with us. Hey. If you didn't get a chance, go back and check out the, the last episode. We had a chance to talk with the guys from, I I I keep wanting to say Discover Hope. Yeah. Discover Hope.

And they're a cool organization, and they're just some guys who said, there there needs to be a group of Jesus people providing a solution here, in the town of Newton. And one of the things that stuck with me was when the the sheriff Aaron was saying that, like, he was in what was it? Ohio. Ohio. Yep. And they knew of Newton, Iowa. Yeah. I said Newton, Iowa. Oh, yeah. Methtown. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I heard that. I I listened to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I and it was it really interesting to see how, you know, how far that spreads. But, anyway, I I thought that was a really good,

it was a really cool example of some guys saying there's a gap here, and, Jesus folks can can help fill it and then how they, meeting up at the local church and having them kinda take part in it. Because, like, I I always I always struggle with thinking, like, how much do you how much do you help a guy or how much do you teach him to help himself and figure out kinda like, are you doing it for him? Are you you know, whatever. And so, anyway, I thought it was very interesting. So if you didn't have a chance, go back and listen to that. And then, you know, look for things in your area that you can help out with, ways you can those guys can always use money. They can always use prayer time,

people volunteering for those types of things, get involved with those guys. So I I think I'd I'd really like to go out and then sit in on some of the meetings. Like, you know, I was listening to those guys talking. Like, it's it's been a recurring thing over the last week or whatever. Like, it it it's it's this kind of stuff where you you roll up to heaven and and he says, well done, good and faithful servant, instead of, well, I see you made it. Barely. You're in. Yeah. I mean, you sinned less kind of.

And that was the extent. Well, I'm glad you glad you got, like, holy cats. Like, you know, I I think I likened it earlier this week on on, like, you you know, Jesus writes you this awesome check and, like, you are just too much of a coward to cash it. You know what I'm saying? You you tell everybody how awesome the check is. You're like, yeah. This is what my life is changing. I got this check. And then you walk around with it in your back pocket for thirty years and never really plunk it down and and trade the joy and get the joy and the peace and the and and and all the great things that come with following Christ. And you're like, you tell everyone what it looks like to follow Christ, and maybe you've given it a shot sometimes. But, like, you never actually cash that check-in. That explains a a a a weird dude that, like, that beams all the time and, like, you know, and it smells like Jesus. That man cashed the check. You're out here sweating it out, hustling it. You know what I'm saying? Putting a bunch of work in and be like, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this thing, you know, blah blah blah. And then you're defeated by it, you go this way, and you go that way, and it's nothing but a boat and a waves, you know, and the guy that cast the check's like, yeah. You know, moved to Zimbabwe for a little while. And then I'm like, yeah, the Lord didn't have me there anymore. And so I threw all my money away, and then I came back here and started a homeless shelter. And then I did and you're like, what the heck is wrong with you? I gotta get Jesus to fit in my office nine to five. I wait till a guy takes a sandwich and I'm like, bread of life, you know. You know, and I just feel like Jesus up there will like, cash the check, will you? Stop doing that bread of life crap at break time. It's stupid. It's stupid. You're doing a Ned Flanders. Nobody likes And you I think the point is, right, is like once you once you actually do that,

your your nine to five becomes different. That's right. Right? Like, as opposed to trying to scheme your nine to five or scheme your family time or scheme your softball league or whatever it is. Right? Like, you're looking for angles. You the the just the whole the whole peripheral changes, the whole, you know, what whatever you can take in, that that all shifts and you stop scheming and then just you just start kinda living. Yeah. Yeah. It's different. You live off the bounty the Lord has provided. Right? He's given you all of this. Like, the promises he makes are outlandish. You know what I'm saying? Forgiveness, total forgiveness of sin. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. You know I'm saying? All of this stuff, he says, this is what happens in my kingdom. And we're like, I'm working on the patience part, but I I just cannot seem to grill through it. I got a bookmark and a crocheted doily for patience this week. Yeah. And, like, you know what I'm saying? We're we're doing it wrong. You gotta cash that check. Just cash the check. Right? And then find yourself talking to drug folks and go, yes. This is where the Lord has me. And I'm not saying you gotta do the drug thing, but I'm just saying that, like, God's created you for big kingdom sized things, and you are slogging it out and wondering why it's not working. Breaking Bad?

Yeah. Do you see like the like, I I just watched the first episode, like, a few weeks ago. I mean, the first season. I'd be that guy though. I'd be like he he had no clue. Right. You know, I don't know if he does now, but I I haven't got that far. I'm like I'd be like the total nerd like, oh, yeah. I see you're doing the drugs. Yeah. Right. They they be doing it in front of me. I'd be like, I wouldn't even know. I mean, I am I am Yeah. That's not where I think Jesus wants me. That's right. So and so that that is as much to say is like, don't necessarily have to start a Discover Hope five seventeen in your area. God's got guys on that. Yeah. God has a guy like Yeah. Yeah. We know them now. That's right. Yeah. Cash the check he gave you. And I don't know what that means, but here's what I know it don't mean. It doesn't mean this this this this boring,

lackluster, non present of the Holy Spirit, you know, where you are fighting tooth and nail every day to figure out whether you're on the right side of this thing or not. That is not what that is. That is not what that that that check does. Yeah. And so you have either not cashed it or you don't have it in your pocket. And so, like, I'm I'm I'm begging you to cash that check. I'm talking to to Mike Foust here. Yeah. This is like me talking to Amir. I'm begging you to cash this check and just and just do this thing. All the promises you tell everyone about and all the the the kingdom that you're inviting them to and you believe it when you're saying it. And then when you step back and realize all the stuff that you've said and you're like, maybe I haven't cashed that check. Maybe I'm still fighting this thing. And and and it's either because I'm too much of a coward or I'm too arrogant. One both of those things have to go. Hey, Dan. By way, if you see somebody blowing smoke out of their face that doesn't have a cigarette, a vape, or possibly an inhaler, they're probably doing drugs in front of So if you're that oblivious to it, just a heads up. I gotta pay more attention. K. Most guys' IT guys doing it have a have a brown paper bag with three x's on it. Yeah. That's how I know. That is that is very convenient. It's like, oh, that's obviously some kind of moonshine or worse. That is a list.

That had to have been smuggled here. It's like an old school Mickey Mouse cartoon. Oh, man. Steamboat Willie. Alright. You're listening live for the path. Here's what got going on on the show this week. So I just came across some articles, some which are funny and some which are, I mean, just not funny at all.

You sound great. Yeah. So You're selling it. So so I'll start with, something that I found amusing. So if you guys obviously, there's it's flooding in Texas. Right? Mean, it's flooding like mad fire down there, and the Twitter is blowing up at Joel Osteen. Oh, no. They're I mean, they're they're hosed at them because they're like, hey. You have you have millions of dollars, that you you've gotten from the citizens of Houston. You should open up your church. You own a basketball arena. I mean, you bought a basketball arena. Get should you you should open your church just to help them out.

The the Lakewood Church has been relatively silent on the matter. They said, hey. They didn't have services on Sundays that were closed for flooding, and there's been, like, a few pictures of some, like, minor flooding in the building. But, otherwise, like, they have they're just not speaking on the matter. And so one, like, I I I was kind of it struck me thinking about,

the world has an expectation of what churches will do Mhmm. Of what what the people of Jesus will do. Regardless of whether they are people of Jesus, like, even like, call them angry atheists for all I care. But they're looking at the church and saying, you should be doing this. Are they being unreasonable here? Is it unreasonable for them to look at a guy who, like, has got a big building, but it seems like they got plenty of resources around and say, hey. Look. You should open The Joint. No. Not at all. I'm I'm glad they have that impulse that that, they should I would hope they would expect it out of the church because the church should be doing Yeah. They will know they will know me by you, by by by the way you love. Yeah. And we're like, man, the church has got a little bit of water. A freaking warehouse opening up to people. You kidding me? Like, dude, you got the space. Let them in. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, I kinda had that reaction. I was trying to figure out a way to defend him. No. I mean, not him specifically. Right? But, like, it's it's interesting

when people are looking at the church and saying, hey. Don't churches do this? And, like, shouldn't we be like, yeah? Yeah. That's exactly what you do. Yeah. Exactly. You usually can't beat them to it. That's the thing. It's usually when God's people get a chance, they especially in disasters, they get all fired up. They're like, we're gonna get a team down there today. It ain't stop raining, Bob. I don't care. We should get a jump on it. Get the chainsaw. Exactly. Yes. You're like, they get all a tizzy when there's a when there's a disaster or something going on. And, like, the it's it's it's hard to beat them to it. But, I mean, most of the stores you're hearing out of Texas, like, there's especially the guys with furniture stores, they're like, I got a ton of beds. And there's a ton of couches. Yeah. Yeah. There's all kinds of places for y'all to sleep, and he's just taking them in left and right. That's freaking awesome. And then, you know, the place filled with seats and pews were like, I don't know if y'all coming in here. You know you know what's weird, though? It's we've been a part of this. Right? We we we drove quickly down to Oklahoma after a tornado to help with with relief. We we've gone to Louisiana after flooding there, year ago, whatever. And and here, we're coming from Iowa, right, with Yeah. Caravans of people. And then there's like the church on the corner doing nothing. Yeah. And and sometimes you look I I you try not to think that, but they think, wait a minute. We we drove fifteen hours to get here. Church on the corner is like, hey. We were a part of us. No. You freaking weren't.

I get like, I get you're physically a part of the disaster, but you still represent Jesus in this situation. Help Go ahead. Help. Yeah. Yeah. We're here to help you. Help your neighbor. They're like, no. They're You need to get to work. Just because you were part of the disaster, Jesus doesn't go, hey, man. Make sure you represent me unless you got troubles in your life too. If you got troubles, don't worry about it. Jesus is like, I don't give a crap about your troubles. Like, go work. There's stuff to do. No. And, actually, this came up in in, the Corinthians bible study we're doing. Like, that's kinda where the Christian has the has the liability even if, like, no one else in the world does. Like, when you're in trouble, and there's people around you in trouble, you're actually the guy responsible Exactly. For holding it up. Because you still have the peace of the fact that you live in the joy of Christ. Yeah. Like, like quoting Mike Foose. Cash your check. Yeah. Cash. Yeah. We're down here. Cash your check. Yeah. Bank is in front of you. Cash it. Get to work. So here's what Cash them happy checks. Hold on. Hold on. Let's I've just just just to quote Paul real quick on the way that he ran his ministry. Just a quick heads up.

We put no obstacle in anyone's ways that no fault may be found with our ministry. But as servants is god of god, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger. Get it, Paul? That's not gonna sell books. Paul says, okay. We survived through all that. But I'm gonna tell you what we did on top of that. We did it by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the holy spirit, genuine love, by truthful speech, and the power of God. And you can't open the church door to let people in here? Why? Paul's like, I literally lived through everything you think you've been through and so much more. Here's the deal. If if if they open the church to let a bunch of people stay there, and as the people came in, they threw them a quick right hook and then went and slept, Paul would say, open the door. Yeah. Everybody that's gonna come in here to try to sleep in your pews is gonna punch you in the face. Paul says, yes. Sweet. Doors open anyway. Doors are ready.

How many time what was it? The 40 lashes minus one or something like that? How many times did I take that deal? Yes, please. Come on. I've got Christians lined up in shift to take a punch so that you sit in that bed so that then I can tell you that we're still here for you. Exactly. No. This is terrible. Come on. Come on. So what was funny though, if you go to Christian don't do this because it's not worth your time. But then on christianpost.com No. So the the main article, lead article in the middle of the page is Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church staff members rescued from Hurricane Harvey flooding. Now hold on. You think yourself, oh, must be a reasonable defense as to why he's not inviting people. Dig the sub At least three staff members of pastor Joliestein's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas had to be rescued from their homes

while several others experienced flooding due to the impact of hurricane Harvey. See, the point of the article has nothing to do with whether the man's got the church doors open. It's just three guys who happen to work there, live somewhere in which the flooding was bad and had to be rescued. So, like, the big bold type makes it seem like, oh, maybe there's a reason the doors aren't open. But, really, it's just dudes live somewhere where there's flooding. Wow. Is Lakewood Church in Houston? Yeah. And it had it's it has minimal flooding.

I yeah. So, like, the the it said that I'm trying to be fair to this thing. No. Houston's enormous, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're a place that didn't have that big Yeah. So it said that It's enormous. Yeah. Is it large? It's lot bigger than Des Moines. It said that there were some, like,

some pictures of, like, some some flooding going on the building, but minimal flooding. Right? So, like, some guy's house, the whole 1st Floor is covered. They've got some water on the floor in some places in the building. Yeah. I you gotta open doors there too. I mean, it's still gonna rain. Like, I get it. Right? You don't wanna group people in a place where, like, you're gonna get them in there, then they're gonna be trapped. You're gonna have to rescue them out later. Like but here's the thing. All that, it can be said. Well yeah. Yeah. I'm hasn't it rain, like, 50 inches or something, though? In some places. Yeah. I'm thinking get out of Houston. Why don't why don't they bus them to a church north? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. I agree. There's gotta be places along the road. Right? Like, there's plenty of places to stick people and move them little by little. Boat get get a boat. Yeah. Send a John boat out there. Haul them out. Yeah. I I mean, that's what I I would I would just wanna

I I it's easy for me to say I'm not flooded. I was gonna say, but isn't the problem with that, like, they had within New Orleans was getting people out is incredibly difficult to do Yeah. Even as it's happening, before it's happening, after it's happening. It's it's either congested or it's impossible. So, like, in a in a city, that's Congested normally. Exactly. Yeah. That that that place is enormous. Hey, man. You should get old Creflo down there with his plane and start claiming people out. You got nowhere to land it, Mike. It's a he he doesn't have the skis on have him have him out there to be a water buggy. Only asked he only asked for a million. So it says, here's part of this article. Some on social media have criticized Osteen and Lakewood for announcing that they had canceled Sunday services because of the hurricane, suggesting that the church is closed to those who need to access the massive arena for shelter. However and I think this is a, someone who speaks so bad for the church. Olaf told CP,

Christian Post that there are currently about eight maintenance personnel inside the church who have been instructed to let anyone into the church who needs shelter. But to their knowledge, no one has come to the church seeking shelter. They would have to swim to get there, he explained, adding that there is a flood shelter set up a couple miles from the church at the George r Brown Convention Center. Oh, they're blowing this up then. Somebody is. Yeah. No. No. We're yeah. No. That's that's obviously gonna happen. Most of Lakewood's missionary efforts involving hurricane Harvey will come in the aftermath as thousands of homes and buildings have been damaged. Now yeah. I mean, here's the thing. That's probably true. Yeah. There there there is some truth to that. I wonder if, but here's the thing. Is is that the right

is is that the right expectation? Well, we're not gonna advertise that we're taking people in. But if they come Yeah. It's still not quite the right tact. Right? You're saying, look. I guess if someone comes by, we'll let them in. And, like, once again, use I mean, mean, disasters that I mean, the Christians just get all autistic. I was gonna say. They're like, you know what? Open the door, dude. We're good at this. We're good at disaster. I was gonna say, this is our wheelhouse, man. This is this is literally this is our free bird. Yeah. This is our free bird, dude. Like, we can get up there and rock this. And everyone's expectations is, hey, man. That huge church was handing out food Yeah. And water and life rafts. Whatever, man. Like, this is literally god is going, hey. You exist in this place. The storm is here. People need people. You are my people. Go. Yeah. I mean, we can whoop up pots and pots of potato salad, I mean, in an hour True. If we need if it needs done. We we could percolate 40 gallons of coffee at a time. We're we Get in here. Go help out the people who are relieving people. That's right. You know it's hardwired in that church. They got straight four eighty volts right into that coffee pot. They're busting it out. They're making six gallons in two minutes. I just fill up a thermos and out they go, close the risk you guys. With big stuff like this, I feel like there should be people in trailers that are driving down there, going not just from Iowa. So there are. There. So that's the thing. There are. Right? So, like, this is one of the things that's unfair,

and frankly, part of this conversation I I would I would put into this bucket is a little unfair. Right? As you can you look around and there's, you know, 80 out of a 100 churches that are doing something. Right. They're raising money. They're sending trailers. Somebody's got a boat out. Maybe not in Louisiana or, wherever wherever Dan run to the church on the corner not doing anything. But, like, so so, like, there's churches here doing things. Right. There's churches all over the country. Right? And so is it fair to point at just pick out some congregation somewhere of which you know nothing about their inner workings Yeah. You don't know nothing, but they've talked about and say, hey. You're not doing what I expect you to do, so you're not doing nothing, and you suck. Okay. Well, that's probably not fair. Right? Except for that, like, we know more about the inner workings and the way that church works because of its size and because of the way that it advertises itself. And So yeah. So that is the problem. Like like, you you kinda beaconed yourself. Right. You came to be the one that, like, if you decided you're gonna be on the front lines, you're gonna buy the big building, you got the big sign, you kinda put yourself on the hook for representing the folk, representing the church community in situations like this. And so, like, here's the thing. If this is the case, like, you need to at least communicate better Right. About what you're doing,

and validate what people expect the church to be able to do. Because that's not a defense. Just do it. Right. That very easily could be a stumbling block for people that did not like the church before and have a resentment for Jesus again now even more than they did before because they see a church that is either not doing something, which is probably not true and full, but isn't telling people that they're doing something. Now, again, like you said, it's not the job of every church in the world to do something, but the beacons. Yeah. Talk about it. Say what you're doing. Don't get silent and then let news articles come out that you got three dudes that are at their homes. Eight full time maintenance, man? That's a lot. That's a lot. And they seem to make it in alright. They could at least brew the coffee. Maybe they're good swimmers. You'd be shipping that coffee out in vats. You know they could make coffee. You could put it on boats. You you could just float it. Just Send an SOS Yeah. Boat full of coffee. People are like, sweet, man. My house is flooded. Put these down to the rescue workers. This is our artisanal cup of Joe. I kinda wanna go. I'm down. Yeah. I do. It's early on in this semester. I can leave school. I just wanna think, I could take I could take some time off, maybe make my way down there and be like, when it's when you can actually be of help, feel like you you roll down there now, you're gonna start swimming around. Yeah. All you're gonna do is swim and go, hey, man. I'm here. Yeah. Thanks

for the empathy. You see that and I think it was a video, but I only saw the picture of that dog hauling tail down the road carrying that sack of dog food. Did you guys see that? No. No. Oh, it's great. It was just a picture of the floods, and, like, there's this dog that has picked up in his teeth a bag of dog food. He's, like, trucking down the road. Yes. That was great. Love it. Fido's bringing the help. Anyway alright. So that was, article number one. I just I thought, like, a, sometimes I think, hey. It's unfair they're picking on a church, but, like, it's whatever we've done as, Christianity as a whole, people have the expectation that we're doing something. And and I feel like, it's just it's a big responsibility, but we gotta meet it. Yeah. It's ours to meet. It's our job. We have to be doing that kind of stuff. Well, I mean, non Christian or the like you said, the devout atheists are gonna look at us as a nontaxed entity that's getting money. You better use the freaking money. There's a deal, though. I never see the church of Satan set up no kind of barbecue fest or whatever. It's perfect for their themes. Right? They got flames, and they got all kinds of stuff. And they could go down to the inn and serve up hot food or whatever they wanna do. I don't see them organizing. I don't know if they don't have the capability. They only do web properties. I don't know how it would look if the church of Satan showed up to a relief situation with a bucket of hot tamales. I'm just saying. I don't see them putting anything together. You're right. You're right. They suck as a community. Man, why are people not talking to the Buddhist temples about getting in on this? Hey. Yeah. Like, what is that? Did you Why is it the okay. Here's the deal. Yeah. Christianity is a big deal. We get that. We understand that. But you never see news articles talking about the Zen Buddhists that aren't doing anything for the the people. Are they just humble, or do they not do that? It's

like, seriously, what are the Zoroastrianists doing for for Texas right now? It's like, nobody gives a crap. No. Yeah. What are the Christians doing, though? Say, here's the deal, that we come under the heaviest load, but we we deserve it. Yeah. We do. We have set an expectation of, hey, man. We've been helping for about two thousand years. Let's get to it. Yeah. Alright. Alright. I think it's still from the plague when we helped out back then. You think you think that's what People still think that. They're like, hey, During that during that big black plague thing, Christians were all over the place. They were coming backed off then. Maybe they're maybe they're still at it.

There was an article in, on Mere Orthodoxy, a couple weeks ago, and it says lessons from UK for American evangelicals. I thought, some of this perspective was interesting. So it said, you ought to forgive my sounding like something of a broken record, but I couldn't let this news pass without flagging it. It said Tim Farrin has announced his resignation as liberal Democrat leader after he was repeatedly pressed during the general election over his personal beliefs on issues including homosexuality.

Farrin issued a statement on Wednesday night saying he felt remaining faithful to Christ was incompatible with leading his party. This is UK stuff. It is understood several senior figures in the party had visited Farrin in recent days to attempt to persuade him to step down, though he was initially reluctant. Now, listen, Sid, there's a certain class of evangelicals in The US, mostly young, middle class, and white that dismiss things like Rod Dreher's Benedict Option and other related books as alarmist. Are are you guys familiar with that? Nope. That was a that was a pile of words. Yes. So Dreher's Benedict, his Benedict Option of which, like, I've read some some stuff on it. I haven't read the book itself, but it's basically he spends quite a bit of time outlining where we're at as a culture, how we got there, and that kind of thing. And that

widely agreed that he's got that nailed. Part of his his, reaction, though, was to say the Benedict Option, which is we we we we, are gonna become a supreme minority, and it's time to bail on trying to influence culture.

Now the here's the thing. The people that hate the book take it that's their synopsis of it. I'm guessing it's more nuanced. Just like every other guy I've ever disagreed with made a much better argument than the guy that hated the book made made his argument for him. Right. But, anyway, so that's where the discussion comes from. It's like, is there a point in time where we say, look. We're we're, we'll just be an enclave here. Otherwise, we're gonna we're gonna get swallowed by this thing. And so anyway, that's what they're referring to is his, his book, the Benedict Benedict Option. So he says, mostly young, middle class, and white that dismiss things like Roger's Benedict Option and other related books as alarmist. While I'm sympathetic to concerns about Rod's tone, I'm much less sympathetic to the idea that Rod is overstating the challenges confronting the Western church today. And so here's his consideration. This is what kinda stood out. Tim Ferrin actually supports same sex marriage. On policy issues, he was blameless in the eyes of progressives, but even that concession was not sufficient. He was consistently grilled during the campaign season about his personal beliefs regarding homosexuality.

One member of the party resigned over his views, and many have speculated that part of the reason the Lib Dems underperformed in this election was a general mistrust of Farrin because of his religious beliefs. Pair this with last week's Bernie story, and I don't know what that was about, and will you understand why American Christians who are paying attention are a bit anxious. The issue in at least these two cases does not seem to be anything, but the actual policies a person supports or how they would do in their specific job within the political system. The issue is personal convictions informed by traditional religious beliefs. There are all sorts of bad ways that Christians might respond to this fact, but denying that this is happening does not help us either. And so one of the interesting things that I think we need to be reminded of, even in your pursuit to say,

if you don't you wanna find, areas of, of agreement or at least sympathy with where people are coming from. Like, if I assume some people,

even from a political side, have come to their, their position simply because their value structure is different, but otherwise, they are in earnest about it. I think one of the things that this article points out using this guy as the example is recognizing that, like, boy, it just sounds conspiratorial, but, like, there's an agenda here. Right? Like, it is not just a,

Dan, you can probably speak to this better than I can. Right? But, like, there it's it's a progression. It's a, look. We we see ground on an item, and then we've made progress, and now, like, we've kinda blurred the lines a little bit, and then we've made some ground on another one. This guy is a leader of a, like, advocates and supports policies that are otherwise consistent with his party, and he still got screwed because, personally, this is a belief that he hasn't. So, like, it's not a broad can can we get a part of party consensus here and have your support? Like, because this guy believed this thing, even though he advocated for the other thing, it's not it's insufficient.

And so I I think the the broad point is to say, like, sometimes, like, that seems conspiratorial. It seems like, hey. You're you're concerned about this, a progressive agenda that tries to, erode certain things. Like, slippery slope arguments always sound alarmist. They always sound like, hey. You're overstepping. It they're actually just arguing about this one thing. And that's generally the tactic I would take. Like, I would say, look. Just be careful about how alarmist you go with something. But I think there is a reality of which we have to be aware of a broader scope that says,

they are actually trying to figure out ways to erode the the base foundation of the things you're believing and picking it away at it one by one. Mike, would would that be a normal position that you would take or something you would be concerned about? And does this influence that one way or the other? No.

And no. You you that wouldn't be a normal position you take? And and this does not change that factor at all for you? Correct. Why not? Well, mostly because I'm a I'm a lower thinking individual. Most of what you've said has literally I mean, I've been trying to reconstruct it in my mind and with puppets I don't know the position of which you speak. To to explain it to myself in a way that I can speak intelligently.

So so basically, what you're saying is the people of, the people of Britain or The UK Yep. Are having trouble with their party members that are willing to advocate going with what their party thinks. In this case, it was about same sex marriage. Right? That is a liberal democratic agenda, is that same sex marriage should be, legalized. Yes? Yes. His personal beliefs are that same sex marriage is wrong because he's a devout Christian. Yep. And they are saying even though he was willing to go for same sex marriage from a party and advocate perspective, because he still does not believe

in same sex marriage as a Christian, he should be eliminated from that. And he was. And he was. Yeah. So that is running to the problem of should we as Americans be worse? Should we as Americans who are Christians in this society be worried that,

ultimately, regardless of what we do even within political powers and situations like that, what we do and act upon does not matter. What we believe is ultimately what matters. That's the core of the question. Right. And that's the problem. Yeah. And why should should we be worried about that? And is that, like you said, within that Benedict Option going to become an issue where Christians are no longer able to influence society, and we will be backed into a corner where we could just go, we can't affect policy. We can't affect anything. All we can do is preach Christ, and that's it. Yeah. Mike, what was your question? I don't understand why that's a problem.

What do you mean? I mean, if if the guy if if the reason he was eliminated from the the political process was because of his beliefs in Christ, you know, what's the problem?

It's a problem for believers who are still in 1980 who think that because you're a believer, you should be a privileged status and people should go with it. Even if they disagree with you, should they should at least applaud you

rather than the reality of we're in a foreign kingdom that is not natural on this planet. And it's a lot of people are having a hard time adapting to the new reality that some people just don't like Jesus people. They'd rather talk about it, you know, but not experience it. Yeah. I mean, isn't that just unveiling what the truth actually is? Yeah. Like you're basically just saying Pretty much. Yeah. Exactly. That's what people are afraid of. Okay. So I don't understand this conversation, Ben. I mean, it just seems to me that like they're saying, look, you've been living under this facade and it was sweet, but here's the real deal. And you're like, no. I can't take the real deal. Put the facade back on. Cool. There are plenty of people that are still very afraid of that. Like, Christians in this society are still very afraid. They haven't caught up. Yeah. They don't they don't have to change. We are Yeah. It's the problem with the thought that well, okay. In my it it seems like it's the problem with the thought that thinking America is God's kingdom, and America alone is God's kingdom. Here's the deal. Is that that is the general critique I find from a liberal Christian side perspective. They're they're arguing about the same thing.

What do you mean? What do mean by that? Wait. So so they're looking and saying, I'm tired of of, of the of what they consider a perverted mix of, Christian

Christianity and nationalism and American nationalism. So, like, Christian kingdom and American nationalism. Right? Right. Yeah. And so, like, you have people on one side who are lamenting about losing something that they've already lost and, frankly, had lost for a while. Yeah. Mhmm. And and, frankly, probably never had to the extent that they thought they had. Right. They just thought that because they were comfortable. And then and then the the other side is complaint about the guys, about the mix of Christianity and nationalism when in reality, they don't actually have that. It's not a it's a thought process, but it's not a it's not a reality. Right. Right? So, like, a lot of the the liberal Christian critique that I find, in America is saying, hey. This this mixture of nationalism and Christianity is is really our downfall. I'm like, it's it's not even real. Right. It's some there are people figment of their imagination. People that believe it, but, like, in I'm not sure if the practical reality is that those two things are actually intermixed to the extent that we think they are. Here here here's I was just thinking about this the other day, and I'm I'm still processing I've been processing this for some time, so still trying to come to a conclusion. K. But there there there are a group of pastors out there who who see their role in in

the church as they are like in an Old Testament prophet getting the people of God. So they they are speaking to the community. Yeah. You know? And and we have to get the people back to to God. Alright? And that's that's who's struggling Right. With this. Because then there's other

side is, you know, like, my my approach is, well, I'm part of the kingdom of God, and my job is to introduce people to Jesus. And if they say yes, I'll tell you how to follow Jesus. Right. If they don't, then they're just doing something different. We happen to live in America. Right. You you know, we're not a anyway, that's a totally different way of approaching Christianity and and your faith. So is is the let me see if I can if I back that out a step Yeah. Is it under the assumption

is the the other side, the assumption is that, like, these are actually all God's people, and they're being to be called back where, like Yeah. The the the the on the other side of that, which is the the side that you were talking about, is that, like, these people you have large groups of people who actually have not decided to follow Jesus, and so the surprise like, I'm not calling them back to God. They were never there. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's true. I I think I think that is true. I think they weren't actually following Jesus before. And so, like, the compelling nature of saying, repent, they're not turning back towards Jesus. They weren't for the first time. They from him. They were who he is. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. You know, it's eerily similar to the Roman Empire. Right? Yeah. We'll build we'll build y'all a temple. Yeah. You can do whatever you want here. And we of course, we support you. Yeah. That's no problem. I'm gonna put this thing in here. So don't

mind this half Zeus, half naked man. It's going to be So something people think if they get the right T shirt that has the right message on it, the people will come back or they put the right message on a sign or they have

an airplane do a smokescreen, you know, words that all of a sudden, the nation is gonna fall on their knees and repent and and pray and we will be as people, but we've never been as people. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. That that's a good point. Just for okay. So just to make sure that the whole prophet thing, often did they like, they I shouldn't say that. Prophets went and spoke to governments because they were kings. Right? They would went and spoke to kings, but Mhmm. A lot of the time, they were in the streets. Like, they were calling two gods people specifically in the streets talking to people. And those were gods people Yeah. Who had fallen away. Right. Exactly. But it's a different But it wasn't like a go and go speak to the government thing and try and fix it from the top down. It It was only that way because they were kingdoms. So what's interesting is, like, what you find is a lot of the Old Testament dudes who weren't God's people were actually still interacting with God's prophets.

Yeah. Right? Like, you still have you still have Nebuchadnezzar dealing with God's prophets. Yeah. Yeah. But they Sorry, Babylon. But here's the thing. There was still a sense of power there. I think there were there was something to at least power recognizes power. Oh, absolutely. And the prophets themselves were inherently powerful, but, like, you recognize that a man that bears God's word, there is still power to it. And so, like, as opposed to exercising, like, the the, frankly, the the clear power of god's word, and these prophets were really calling to mostly calling repentance his own people Right. And then telling you how he was gonna use not his people to enact such a thing. Right. Exactly. Babylon's gonna bring you from where you were. Assyria's gonna bring you from where you were. Yeah. Right. And so so so I I I think I get what you're what you're pointing at, but but it's it doesn't change the perspective, though, because

what what Dan is saying is that, like, if you believe that they were God's people and they're just lost, then you've also believed that the that the Old Testament prophets will work because they were also talking to God's people. Right? Versus the actuality of they were never God's people in the beginning. Right. Right. What you don't see, though, is you don't see God's prophets showing up. Like, they'll talk to people of power in other kingdoms, generally invited.

But, like, there you don't see him traveling over to other areas and, like, speaking to the nations around Jonah didn't wanna go to Nineveh. Yep. I mean Yeah. Yeah. God knows how that them. Thank you. I mean, yeah. That's that's a Syria. That sounds terrible. I don't wanna go there. They're crazy warrior kings. Yeah. So so I I guess that's the thing, though. You you're you're right. So the the broad reaction to this is, like, if the

I think it's it tries to call you to be concerned that say, hey. They're not just after you on your issues. They're after you on your faith. But, like, you should know that already. Yeah. It's it's the core of your issues. We've literally been marked by this for a long time. The Keurigans, like, made us lazy. Because we they did set us up with some good thoughts and design and and things, but then we just became lazy and didn't realize, wait. They're not not with us. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We've been pretty comfy for a very long time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so I suppose, this this couples, I think, with what Mike was saying. I don't think I said anything. You did. You did kind of. It was with a puppet. This is gonna make you feel wise here. So, whereas, like, these types of discussions helped trying to help reveal to us reveal to us the future doom that is in store. It's it's not it's not revelatory. Yeah. It's the core of what you know. You you you follow a king and a kingdom that is that is not,

like, physically ruling here. And so within those confines, you're going to find the conflict. It's what gets Jesus killed. It's what, you know, causes problems for the disciples and Christianity throughout the years. As a matter of fact, I I was having this conversation with a, with a friend of mine a couple weeks ago. It's like, it's Christianity actually doesn't know what to do with power.

Right? When it when it tries to power empower itself, which goes like American government, for the most part, it doesn't know how to balance humble service to God and then oh, an overarching power structure. It's the same problem, like, where there are and these are overblown, but where there are legitimate critiques of Christianity's mingling with, like, Constantine,

like, it's it's because Christianity gets power and then doesn't know how to deal with it well because it's it's, it's not designed to to actually have We shouldn't be in a power position. Well, the disciples to the end, the end of Jesus before the Right. The the the crucifixion, they were still struggling. You know? They wanted power, and they're they're and he's like, no. No. We are literally destined to be the wanderer. We we we were called to be the one who walks into an established town. That is who we are. We are not the ones who sit in the town established. But We are the ones who walk into the established town and kick dust at our feet if we don't make it. So here's the thing is I don't that doesn't preclude Christianity from being a majority. No. It doesn't mean that you cannot have 90 Christians to 10 atheists. You just it's just a power structure for you to rule over the atheists is the thing that Christianity really isn't designed to do. Yeah. Yeah. And that when we've tried to meet intermingle those things, and this is where it gets complicated because we say, like, well, then how much are you supposed to be involved in government? I think you use the freedom that God has provided, to to attempt to influence things. Like the Sadducees. No. They ceded. That's not that's not exactly accurate. Right? Because they ceded that. Which you have to do to be in government.

I don't I don't know if that's Except for this Lib Eglisman, which apparently is an is an offshoot. But, I mean, how what's over looking over the last thirty years of my life, and I look to see every conservative Christian candidate that came on the box, and I'm like, yeah. Okay. You're you don't really believe the stuff you're saying. Right? It ain't two months after the election's over and he lost. Well, it turns out I was cheating on my wife, and I stole a bunch of money on my cash. Here's the thing. I I my guess is, like, just just like the the churches that are helping, coverage, you guys, you don't there's not news stories about the humble servant.

Right? There's not humble there's not stories about the guy that's been in government service for forty years, staying faithful to his wife, fighting for the bill that loses every time. Right? Like, that guy's not on the front page. Hey, Clarence. Should we go up against homosexuality? Yep. Yep. Yep. We should vote on that. Yep. Clarence, you lost again. Whatever. You know? And like and then you know, right. The only time that guy shows up, right, is when someone's gonna pick at him. Right? Or when someone's upset. But, like, here's the thing. He's not being so bombastic and, like, borderline reckless with his language that he gets targeted. Like, the guy what we have is we have the series of guys who are, like, what we would consider to be the right side of the issue, but their their words are so freaking unloving and un unprincipled that you're like, I can't we can't even find the right guy to talk about this because the guy that's talking about it right didn't get any airtime. He's not causing fire somewhere where someone's gonna keep an eye on it. Like the Sadducees. Not like the Sadducees. How much television time Sadducees see, Ben? Zero. Ask me another question on policy at

today's time, Sadducees. I think here's the deal, and and this is why I still kinda wanna read this book. I I I kinda wanna read you do. Benedict Option? Yeah. So here's it's because, like, I think it's right to understand, it's right to understand what you're dealing with. Right? So, like, having a a a perspective

of what we've contributed to and what does that mean for our culture is that I think there's some value in that. However, like, where some of these reactions act like I'm revealing to you,

the doom that is coming upon you, that that just comes from, like, a a bad reading of of of application of scripture and, frankly, disciples' lives and, like, an understanding of what you serve versus, you know, what regardless of what government context you're in here or elsewhere, this is going to be continue to be a problem.

Yeah. And if the thing that and and if you think that your way to resolve it is to put Christianity in power, that's foolish. That's the wrong thought process. That that is not like, what are gonna dictate, to serve Jesus from the top down and and regulate behavior? Good. Like, that has ever worked in the history of everything. Yeah. Like, we're if you're fighting well, here's the here's the thing. It's like if someone if the most progressive agenda that ever showed up tried to regulate your behavior, would you concede? No. No. Of course, you wouldn't. You go right you go to jail. You take a beating. Whatever it was, you'd be like, yeah. No. I'm just not gonna do that. Right? It's it's an ideological

issue. It's not a law problem, although whatever influence to your best, yeah, ability. Fine. Sadducees. See, Buva feels what I'm saying. Brotead. Know I should've been like, Essenes. Essenes.

Essenes. Hey. The Essenes were wiped out. All dead. Okay? I'm just saying. You you wanna find a guy ideal Jesse Cross. Say, we're gonna do this thing. They they and we're gonna hide out away from everything else. Yeah. They went out and found him and then wiped him out. True.

That's what they they didn't even make the scriptures. You can't even find an Essene anywhere except maybe John who is borderline. John the Baptist might have been an Essene, but he sure they don't call him John the Baptist and Essene. Sadducees. Alright. It's it's been a while. Hey. Do you guys hear that,

the Kim Jong un lobbed a a missile over Japan? What are you doing about this, boys? Today? Yeah. I'm not I'm not doing it. It was midafternoon. The the the story came out that, like, this guy went ahead and just hurled one, hail married one over Japan just to show, hey. I can hail one over Japan if I want. I love it when children get power.

Here's It's a the deal. If I get sniped tonight, y'all know why. But, like, I just we we live in a really messed up place. I mean, here's the thing. Is it are are are there qualifications for assassination as biblical biblically based? Dan, what are your thoughts on that? Can you send a man in? There is biblical precedents for, hey, we're gonna come in and destroy that land

Yeah. And kill all those people. Now now now uncouple that with American That's what I was gonna say. Yeah. That's the problem. We're no longer in the, hey. God's given us the promised land. We gotta go clean house to make sure we got it. And we're no longer in the, hey. God doesn't like Sodom or Gomorrah. We are in the, hey, man. I really don't like that guy. America. I don't know. I think if, you know, we're gonna be good citizens in the world where we can save a few million lives, I

I love it's a biblical thing, but I'd be like Dan's like, I'm willing to take that sin on. We're gonna see what happens. You take him out. We'll have a conversation about if that was a good idea. The best way to show love is to give someone else's life for your prince. I just The man is like, it's better to ask forgiveness and permission in this situation. Let's do this. Here's the deal. It's like, every

every low road leads to Hitler in these conversations. I get you. Right? But, like, I mean, the man is a nut. He's a he's a crazy nut. And so I think to myself With nuclear weapons. Yeah. Yeah. And he's taunting people. Now here's the deal. I'm not sure our president isn't doesn't fit some of those characters. I was I was gonna say we should be careful about who we're calling here. But he's not one over Japan as he said. He's not. Yeah. That's that's apples and oranges. So, like No. It's shit. These are bad people. They're very bad, bad people. I'm just I'm not willing to say that's not gonna happen.

Throwing over Hawaii like we got them too. It's like, I feel like that's what the sorry. Here's the deal. I'm I'm I'm willing to concede apples and oranges to a certain extent. His language starts to blend an apple heading toward an orange if the man is not careful. True. So in either case, though, I'd like,

I would say I put a lot of thought into this. Well, it was, like, three weeks ago when this thing had really kind of amped up, and we're like, we've it felt like tensions were rising. You had a a bit of a notional bay of pigs going on. And you think to yourself, like, like, what do you do here? Always fun. What are you what are you supposed to do with this type of thing? It's like, do I do I think that the good news changed the world? Yeah. Do I think, like, the like, I'm I'm not, like, completely pacifist, but, like, do I think there's a solidarity in saying, look, if I don't reach for the weapon first, like, some people need Jesus. But, like, I mean, that's the man is a crazy, crazy man. Starving his own people. I mean Yeah. This isn't like he he has power, and he's abusing people.

Yeah. I mean Although, I mean, so Wait. If so every Roman emperor I mean, here's I was gonna say, this has been happening for thousands of years. Like, this isn't something that's new in our lifetime. There This is this is this has been happening in The Middle East for forty years. So they take him out? And into Libya. I mean, it's all the Qaddafi was the same kind of deal and Here's the deal. So that there's no early Christian literature of Christians speaking of

or recommending physical violence to Nero Right. Or Domitian. I think they they just knew that the the the government in charge would take care of those things. It's it's not their it's not their conversation. Nero is the government. Yeah. I was gonna say Nero was the government. They didn't take care of that stuff. Yeah. Right. Nero destroyed the temple. Well yeah. Okay. No. I was No. Well No. Sorry. No. Lit fire to it, didn't he? Test this. No. Nero burned Christians for lands. Sorry. Not yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, Rome burned under his thing, and he blamed the Christians, and, like, he was responsible for a lot of the persecution

in the area. Right? But, like so so, like, he the government was not taking care of any of that. He was explicit persecution towards the Christians. And, let me be clear about it. There's just no evidence of them advocating that. Right? Like, it's not I mean, we don't have mountains of documents, but we always have decent amount, and, like, nothing points to that.

No. I think I think the last words of Polycarp that weren't recorded were take them out, boys. Yeah. Yeah. On fire screaming, get them. Get him. Him. Get him. Someday in a couple thousand years, revelation style. I mean, it does not make sense to me. I'm just but, like The best way for the Christians to handle this is to wait for a non Christian man to want to shoot him and then silently agree.

I mean That seems like the most passive aggressive You know? He dies either way. Die and we have hardship. I mean, I don't think it's out of our, you know, realm to to pray for a person to be removed from power. I don't know that's gonna happen. Gonna say, God's got power. He can handle it. He can do it. Like, he's smoked before. Like, that's biblical, but Yeah. I don't know. He but he's not. He leaving him right there. So it's up to you to decide it's time for him to No. I I will never agree with, it's up to you to decide if we're talking about anything that comes to a Jesus thing. Wait. So, Buva Buva, some guy comes to you and say, like, two days. He's gonna come right back at you. Today.

Alright? Says we got a man on the inside. This can go quick. We're gonna knife him. We're gonna knife him. Here's the problem. Yes or no, boo. I I I am so torn right now. It's not even funny because the the American nationalist in me that wants people to be, like, saved goes, gut him. He's Gut him. Here's I'm not hey. I'm I'm here. I know this is He's not an American problem. This is a world problem. That's not even an American terrible way to argue this, but part of me goes, gut him. Give me the knife. Not even kidding when I say that seriously. But then another big part of me goes, that is still not my handle deal here. Like, god doesn't say kill him if you think it's okay. He doesn't say God gives you responsibility,

because you guys give man responsibility in such matters. I okay. If God told me to go kill him, I'd probably get at least a couple 100 Christians behind me to start praying that too. And I would wait I mean, he's I would be throwing rugs out in the rain. Wait. You don't have to do it. Dry. I'd be doing all kinds of stuff like, god, I need I need a hand on the wall. Like, I need all kinds stuff. That no difference, Dan. Dan, if he gives you the decision or doing it, seems like that's not a distinction at all. Right? Well, okay. Yeah. I was just trying to give you as a buffer.

Either It's easier on old boo boo. It's I don't want It's either a yes or no. I didn't want the buffer. I here's the I I would I would say that my most animalistic tendencies would go gut him, and therefore, because I try and fight that the most, I would say no. Dan, yes. Like, somebody says, Dan, we got a man in place. Yes or no? Yeah. Dan's in on it. He says he's The Navy SEALs are there. They're waiting. And Dan's order, Dan says do it. Yep. You call it, Hudson. Mike? Sampson did it. I mean, if it's gonna save a lot of lives yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If it's just, you know, some aggression thing, I'd be I'd be a whole different ballgame. But I know. I get it.

I'm still a no. I'm holding for a put down. Still saying no. Of course, you know what? If there's some dude in my house gonna hurt my family, I'm taking him out. So God has not put me in a place of family yet. I'm a take the bullet. I mean, there's a lot of smarter people than me who would disagree with me. But See, here's the deal. I I do not have enough life experience to say whether I would do that. But right now, like, I'll take the bullet. I would talk I would try and talk him out. I'd take the bullet in that situation. But still, put down. No. Yeah. Take one. I give him a chance. I'll give him the first shot, he's going down.

Here's the deal. The Bible does speak to conventional wisdom that sometimes that we shove off to the side because the Lord didn't speak specifically to it. Right? Like, hey. If you're gonna show up late at a man's door when he's already in bed with his family, you know, like, the good Christian poster is like, you answered the door at all hours to any people in need. You know? But at the same point in time, hey, go away. And the bible's like That man don't wanna get out of no bed and answer the door right now. I'm not advocating for putting myself in a crappy part of town and leave my doors unlocked so that I have a guy walk into my house and try and shoot me. I'm just I'm just saying in the scenario. In in conventional, sometimes, the the I think David the Lord has has given us a common wisdom amongst folks. You're not you're not bringing any new information to me, fellas. I fully understand that this a very conflicted statement from If someone walks in your house and start you swiping a machete at you, you go ahead and get get take care of that man. You're more like, the Lord didn't present a flower to me that says, let him leave. Just coming slowly so he can come to Jesus. No. I just I feel like there's ways to do without killing him. I know that's so crappy. I'm not that talented with a with a spaghetti spoon. Neither am I, but I Hold on. Hold on, man. But this man presents I knew it. This man presents Let's hear it. I mean, a real tangible danger to the world. World. Yeah. I feel like if you feel that there's options to solve this problem, I want you to be get on it today. I mean Here's here's the problem. My knowledge or my my belief of options does not mean that I have knowledge of said options. I

don't know. All he's done is lobbed a missile over a country. He's starving his people. He's been for decades. Yeah. Well, that was I mean, we don't feed our own homeless. Oh, you know? You'd have to go after everybody who's starving the people. We'd be lobbing bombs everywhere. That's right. I'm just saying he's more than just a threat. He he he is doing Agree. But that's that's not just North Korea. Like, that's that's but that's because Take them all out. Hell. Yes.

Wow. Dan is just like anyone not a part of the EU, anyone that's not a part of the UN. No. No saying that. Anybody here's the deal with, like, sanction government problems. Right? We'd bomb Iceland because they're killing off their Down syndrome babies. Frankly, someone knows a bomb to us for the amount of abortions that go on in The United States. Right? By those standards, we've opened up the free world to just bomb all of Yeah. As long as we're gonna as long as we're gonna just take it a commandment and throw it out the window, we just kill a lot of people, and then we just get all the forgiveness at once. Yeah. But when does it ever work? I just

I I actually, so that that abortion thing is where I struggle, though. Right? Because, like, if you were to describe, hey. A country is literally killing millions of its own citizens over the last fifty years You would go, that's obviously something a holocaust happening and gotta go. Blow them up. I feel like bombs would be coming our way. But because we're arguing whether or not they are alive or not. Sometimes it's hurricanes. Is that a person? Fucking stupid.

I my answer is no. I would I'm I'm a no, but I remain extremely conflicted on that matter. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not conflicted at all. Yeah. Dana's not. I'm yeah. I'm I'm, like, I'm ripping myself in did it? I know it. Hey. And here's the deal. I completely do not begrudge that position.

I so if somebody if Dan can tell me Christian conviction, I say the the lord says fine. I say, I believe Mike hit Mike hit it perfectly. Here's the deal. I am per if something happens to where some kind of sniper happens and I can get just sit here and go, I didn't do it. I I know this crap. I'm fully aware of this crap, but I would say I didn't do it. But I'm glad it happened. Glad it happened. Here's the deal. There's some crazy in the world that is gone now. There's one soul that's gotta be dealt with among millions of them. We got a chance to help out the millions. We've given up on casting lots. So what

here's the thing. I would love for you and I to walk into North Korea and go, alright, Kim Jong un, we gotta cast him on this. Yeah. Let's do this. It's I'm just saying, like, everyone puts his big shine on how terrible gambling is. And I'm just saying cast him on this is gambling. And so here's what we do, is we get in league with the chef over there, and we just start shoving weird food in there, and he's bound to be allergic deadly enough to one of them, and he will die. And if he survives them, I will I will take it as the lord's providence that my food did not kill him. If he dies immediately, I will call it the lord's blessing. Mike is gonna compile the top 15 allergens in the world and give them all a shot. Say these are reasonable allergies and Man, here's a whole thing of peanut butter, Kim. Here's shellfish. Go. Man. Jellyfish? We're not sure it's prepared correctly. Can with you just do bombs? We love to bomb it out. It's Some are armed. Providence. Are you are you allergic God, you decide. Are you allergic to napalm?

What's this? I you see this fella? Little wiggle over here. You know what I'm saying? Yes. Okay. This and this is where I'm conflicted. Okay? Yep. What what you were saying, Ben, when you get, like, to abortion clinics is Yep. I I would never in my my life ever advise someone to bomb an abortion clinic or, you know, any of that sort of stuff. But when it happens, part of me says, you know, I don't feel bad at all. I mean, I couldn't ever publicly say great, you know, because I think that's just that's just not Yeah. You know? It's not an If I found out an abortion clinic was on fire and I was a firefighter, I might call in sick. I'd be like, well,

you are murdering children. I mean, so I'm conflicted there. They didn't I'm I'm I'm I know I'm not making sense totally. I don't think any of us are really. No. What? Because I think that there's two things in play here. Right? Like, there is, there is a a sense of God's justice,

and and otherwise, it's it's not it's not passivity. It is it is intentional, willful, sacrifice on others' behalf, which is a Christian thing.

But how far that extends to pure evil running rampant in the world and responsibilities of individuals versus responsibilities of governments and when and if there is a distinction. Like, those are the things in play here. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And those are, I think, the the areas that cause difficulty. Individually,

what I from what I can safely point to biblically, it is not the same responsibility as governments seem to have from protection of its citizens. But to the extent that in that you make up a nation as a citizenry, if there's a blurred line in there, I think the scripture is in in indistinct. It is not as as clear as you want to make it. Right. And, like, to the extent that you submit to,

the justice of a nation, when otherwise we fall under what would be qualified for that same level of justice, it becomes difficult to be the moral imperative that says we are right to throw bombs because this man starves his kids when we say we're murdering children. A lot of them. And what are we doing about that relative you know? And so We're agonizing it. Those are the things that are in maybe they're notional things that shouldn't have to be in play, but, like, those are the things that are bouncing around my mind where I'm like, the implication of how I look at this because it's not in my neighborhood is a freaking fierce implication if I let it drop here. Yeah. Okay. So so I mean but once again, uncouple yourselves from American nationalism. We're not murdering children. Christians aren't murdering children. Right. Right. We're dragging them out. We're trying to we're trying to get them adopted. Yeah. Right? And and so, like, the people of God, which is what is that that is your citizenship. Yeah. And, like, I would hate to see America befall those things merely because a lot of the community that we have established is here in America. But, like, as citizens of the kingdom, I mean, a bomb gonna take out a couple of us. A couple of us meet Jesus kinda early. Okay. You know, a bomb don't a bomb don't take out some of us. Hey. We got a life full of serving left anyway. You know what I'm saying? Like, if if you really do uncouple

uncouple your your American deal in it and and and look at the world for what it is, you know, our country leadership as a whole is just as guilty as that one. We we paint an evil face on them all you want. But the truth of the matter is we do let let mass genocide go down in our country, basically, unhinged. I don't even know if the Christians banded together, we could do a a damn thing about it. That you could put an up enough of a fight to change it. Merely because, like, with that that stupid political conversation you had earlier and I didn't understand. Right? Like, if you stand up for that stuff, they're just gonna boot you out. They say, look. That's not the wheel we run. We don't run a wheel where we have an honest conversation about that on on its on whether it's good or bad. We're talking about roads and other stuff, and we're just not gonna talk about this anymore because it's too much of a stalemate. And we're just gonna we're just gonna ignore it. And so, like, you really do have to unbutton your your your nationalism here and say, look. That's as much as I'm American citizen and I enjoy the freedoms of of of which we have, I it's hard for me to fight on her behalf

and say that the ideals that we're fighting for have to be oppressed upon the rest of the world when I I mean, you know what I'm saying? We have we we kill a lot of people. Yeah. A lot of people. Yeah. Alright. But I love this country. Yeah. That's makes it the shake. I do love it here. Yeah. I believe It is. We we have one of the best lots.

Diaphragm, Dan. Diaphragm. Like, breathe. Like, can't you cheat? Nice. Sweet. Let my liberty. Hey, Mike. Mike, your kid was over at my house singing silent night. I mean, real loud over and over again. Yeah. Is that a thing she does? In and out of season?

Like I would say it's unpredictable, the things that she does. She showed me she came down this morning with a popsicle stick tied to a string and a magnet, and she had bent eight paper clips into fish and then was fishing on the dining room table. That's awesome. I said, why? She goes, I had a hard time sleeping. I said, where did you get that magnet?

I found it. That's awesome. Hey, man. In your household, I'm not surprised by that statement. There's a random magnet hanging around. Hey, man. I was at the the the grocery store the other day, and someone was whistling Jingle Bell Rock. Almost threw a grape at him. Rock, shut your face. Hey. Ice Stop that crap. The ice cream band in Bondurant. I mean, he's he's got 90% Christmas tunes. Here's No. He's selling ice cream at Christmas. Nobody goes down to the ice cream shop for a Christmas night frosty.

Yeah. Like, I don't I I I mean, he's in he's a mobile ice cream. He's a truck. He's an ice cream truck. Right? So, like, he never does business. So so someone has really done a number on him salesman wise to say, you know what you need? The nutcracker suite. Maybe he got that for free because he they figured, what fool would do it? That's true. Pay for the tracks. That's right. He got the clearance base for the summer stuff. Do they have to pay for those tracks? Yeah. They're, I mean, I'm sure you buy them somewhere because they're if they're not like songs, it's MIDI. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I there's probably a sight. There's probably a guy making a fortune creating ice cream. Oh, that's do that. Yeah. We should make a live from the path Christmas truck or, ice cream truck album. Yeah. Hey. We could we could totally, you know, ting ting to the ting a bunch of popular tunes and and Jesus music Down. Like the Chick fil A does. We'll make music possible. Like, elevator. Or any Chinese buffet ever. Yeah. Why is that? Is this the sweet, like, oriental version of Shania Twain? Like, what's going on right I heard Why was it racist? I heard all the people said amen at, like, elevator music style at the Chick fil A this week, and I'm like, you know, this is alright. It's like a smooth muted jazz guitar like,

It's like, you can't get it. This is alright. This is great for me. Way to go, Chick fil A. Oh, man. Alright, Mike. What do you got over there? Oh, I got I got I got questions. You ready? Yep. I got sidetracked on that second Corinthians jazz from earlier, though. Okay. Ready? Stuff. Dear

oh, yeah. Dear life from the path. My six two two year old father has recently started to streak his hair with fluorescent colors. Right. He does it when he goes to his job and coordinates his hair color with his outfits. As far as I know, his employer has not said anything as of yet. Also, dad has difficulty with social cues. My mother and I aren't happy with his, quote, fashion choices, and we plead with him to stop doing this. It's embarrassing because it looks stupid and ridiculous.

Jesus. He's really gone to town on that. He he claims he doesn't care what others think and that he has flair. Yes. Are my mother am I wrong to criticize his, quote, flair? Isn't this behavior really inappropriate for a man his age? How can we convince him that he's making a fool of himself and should stop? Your health is appreciated. Alright. I'm almost as conflicted on as this as I am the king of the damn Jong Hoon thing. Because part of me goes, heck yeah, old man.

You better walk your freaking suit backwards than paint a face on the back of your bald head. I don't care what you do. Do it. But at the same point in time, like, if I dressed like that and someone didn't tell me, hey, booby, you look like an idiot, I'd be upset at the people around me. I would look at them and go, hey. Shut your face. I don't care. But I would still be upset that they didn't call me out on something. I don't know. I He they're egging him on. Yeah. He has loved the fact they hate it. Freaking fluorescent? I've no okay. I wear Brotanks. I do not streak fluorescent colors into my hair that match my shirt and pants. Well, I heard the word streak, and I'm glad where it went. Yeah. I I I was wondering if there was gonna be a 62 year old man who was forcing nudity on his want that. We don't wanna be that. No. No. But I I love the neon. Okay. If you okay. If if you do this there's a wrong and a right way to do this. If you're lovingly going, hey, dad. That's kind of a weird getup. What are you wearing? And he goes, hey. Shut your face, son. Ma, and walks out the door. Okay. If you're, like, mean and rude about this, be like, you old man, you look like a curmudgeon. Shut your face and stop wearing that. I mean Stop being a schmuck. Do you care? Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Hey, man. I have to take this in.

Yeah. You are assaulting my eyes. Shut your mouth. I mean, it's not doing any harm to you. He has no one left to impress. Yeah. He's enjoying himself. I can't wait till I start streaking stuff through my hair to match my shirt and pants. Now now here's the thing though. It's like, I know people that don't have anyone left to impress. They go completely the other way. They stop combing their hair altogether. They wear dirty clothes. You look like you're you look like you're the dude in Juman. They stop chasing. They're like, you know what? I don't care, which means it'd be silly for me to put a bunch of effort into stuff that I don't care about. And so he's doing the exact opposite. His flair is is it's totally meant to to it's to bring attention in. He's telling lies. That's the thing. It's like if he wanted to be honest and say, I really dig this, and I think it's awesome. But, like, otherwise, you you wouldn't wait until you went out to work or out to whatever to do anything. You just do it at your own house and be like, I do this at home because I think it rock stars. Yeah. Maybe he's looking for attention.

Yeah. He's looking for attention. And it's the only thing that bothers me is not that he's flaring his hair, but that he's lying about it and making it sound like it's for some other reason. Well, did they did they say that though? What? That they was for some other reason? I thought he just said, I like I have flare. What was his what was his response? I don't think his response was I'm doing this for my own good. Maybe when he was younger, he he just got a lot of compliments for his hair and and whatever in his book. It? And he's missing that because he hasn't had it for twenty years now that he's 60, and he this is the way to get it again. I remember when I listened to the misfits and dyed my hair pink. Was great. He claims he doesn't care what others think and that he has flare. Okay. I'll agree. That first part's a lie. Yeah. Just say you have flare.

You flamboyant old man. I care what other people think. I want them to know I have flare. That would be honest. That would be an honest statement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, when have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and be like, I got flare, and only I appreciate it. Now I'm gonna change it so others don't have to take it I put clothes on that make people, like, appreciate that I'm wearing those clothes. I don't do any outfits. Always appreciate that you have clothes on. Yes, you're right. Everybody does like, man, Moova did not go streaking today. Thanks for the forethought. Thanks for for the good day. Yes, you will not have that run into that situation.

Okay. Let's see what Secular's advice is here. Secular says, repeat after me. We cannot change other people. We can only change the way we react to them. Understand that how your father presents himself reflects only on him, not you. That's not true. That's not true at all. You got a crazy uncle that wears a banana for a hat, everyone's gonna go, hey. Aren't you that crazy uncle guy? Yeah. You think Kim Jong Un's cousin's like, dang it, man. Can you tone it down just a little? He doesn't reflect me. I can't change him. Yeah. Come to your birthday party. Nah. What's your name? Chuck Eun? It says because you and your mother have tried reasoning with him and he refuses to listen, you all might be happier if you stop making his fashion choices your problem.

That was really Yeah. I mean Snoddy way to say that. Repeat after me. It said so on its face value, I get that that's a principled place, but it's not really true. Like, if I completed like, always acted like a like a ridiculous streak of my hair, drawing a lot of attention to myself, people would judge my wife. And she would say, what's the matter with you? You were somewhat responsible for this man. That's true. Ben, if you showed up at any point in time with some kind of Guy Fawkes sweet goatee shaving into your face, I'd probably call you out and be like, dude, you gotta make better choices in your life. Yeah. Now here's the deal. That's that that is a, people would do that, but to the extent that I care whether other people are, like, shallowly judging off of things like how do I look or whatever, maybe shouldn't care. Yeah. And anybody that would be close enough for me to know would otherwise ask my wife, why haven't you talked to him? And she would say, I have. He refuses to Me and the kid did. Yeah. Nothing happened. And then but so, like, I suppose it's the right way of, like, whose opinion do I care about? And, as long as I have that in the right perspective, maybe this doesn't bother me so much. I would probably,

I would let it go except for the fact if I was married to this man and I felt like he was lying to me about it Yeah. Then I would care. Yeah. Because it seems like it undergirds as some kind of issue where he's worried about. I don't care what people think about me. Yeah. Actually, because because here's the thing is if he was always been like this, you wouldn't be asking this question. That's right. If he was always because, like, there's some people that just have a flare, and when they're 55, they still flaring, and you'd be like, yeah. He's always flaring. That guy's wearing that Flamingo shirt since 84. Yeah. It would be weird if if Ric Flair started at 80 going, woo hoo. Right? Ricketts, stop it. He's been doing it his whole life. I mean, everybody just expects it. I'm not Ric Lame anymore. I'm Ric Flair. I saw him in my neighborhood. He was walking around walking a dog, a Pomeranian, four weeks ago in my neighborhood. I feel like Rick Flair would have more than one Pomeranian.

Yeah. But he only walks one at a time. He likes to give him special attention in Bondurant. Gotcha. I like your style. That's I said I called out to him. He ignored me. That's how I knew it was him. Did you whoo. Here's the deal. A normal person turns around when you go, hey, Rick. Whoo. But, like, if you're actually Ric Flair, you hear that all the time, and so you don't turn. And so that's what I believe happened. Ric Flair is in my neighborhood. Man, I appreciate that. Yeah. I'm going to Bonnerie. You got time for one more? Hey. Don't ruin this from boo. Don't act like a fanboy in my neighborhood when Rick's walking around in his Just waiting for people to not react like, oh, you're not Rick Flair.

Yeah. Go ahead. Dear life from the path. My wife seems to only want to have sex with me when I'm supposed to be at work. It's it's really flattering, but I am at risk of losing my job. We don't have enough savings to last more than a couple of months if I'm out of work. She wanted me to call in sick today, but I didn't know how to say no without offending her. Help. Man up. I have a couple of offices. Say, hey, sweetie. I love this deal, but we gotta make money still. Be practical.

Or take the morning off. Yeah. That'll get the morning fires burning. Yeah. I'm not saying Be practical. Yeah. I'm I'm you you go with this. Yeah. Go with this. Well, you don't need to call in sick for four hours. It doesn't have to be a marathon. Yeah. What? Get up twenty minutes earlier. If I were an employer and someone kept calling in every morning or every other morning or once a week in the morning, I'm firing that person within weeks. No. He's not gonna call in. Just get up a little earlier. I worked for an oil change place, and the only acceptable reason for calling in late was this exact thing. The owner told me multiple times, if you're gonna be late because this is gonna happen at your house, that's fine with me. Just give me a heads up.

And still, people didn't use it. It's like you're not even married. Yeah. Whatever. I'm I'm hungover, Mike. Unacceptable. Yeah. No good. I'm having sweet love with my wife. Take your time. Take your time. Do not call me at this moment. Man, if someone has run people's attendance, if I ever heard that, I'd be like, don't tell me that. I'm firing you. Leave me alone. We did not have an HR department. Yeah. I was in the HR department. Just dudes. And

that's understandable. If you work in an oil change place, sir, wrote into us, keep living. Call in all you want. I mean, there has to be a way to reconcile this. It's this is too black and white of a problem. Right. It's only at 10:30, and I gotta be be at work at 10:45.

That's true. Wake up earlier. Get up at 7AM. Change the clocks in your house so she thinks it's 10:30. Hey. I mean, go And it's actually 07:30. Get up and go to work at 06:30 and come home Yeah. For fifteen, thirty minutes or whatever it is that you gotta take to do your need and then go back to work. If the wife wants it done, you get her done. Yeah. Stick, man. Do it. Stay at work and actually have an angry family. Non married person in this room, but you guys okay. Alright. Well, maybe this will change when I become married man. And I'm just like Husbands Freak out work. Don't care. She's

in every day. You just gotta figure out how I mean, you have problems no one else has, friend. Yeah. Work this. Put the thoughts on it. Get a couple of guys and some coffee and some fries. Getting so much insight into the world of the married man. I have not heard one man complain of this. Yeah. Like, she's always hot to truck for me when I'm at work and supposed to be doing something else. Not one man have I heard complain. Work a freaking night shift. That's because every reasonable guy doesn't He's the only guy that switches I gotta I gotta have the night shift, boss. You wanna put on third shift? Third shift, please. Yeah. Yeah. Can you work the overnight? Deal. Deal. Yeah. The Lord shines. And I'm hating shit. All I need to be able to do It's a double win. Is be home at 9AM. That's all I care about. How is it yeah. This these are the types of problems male ingenuity solves. Here's the thing. You've never heard any guy complain about that because every guy posed with this problem, if it ever existed, freaking figured it out. Yep. That's how the night shift began. It was not a production issue. It was a reproduction issue. Industrial revolution that made it so we could work overnight. It was like, man. My lady only wants to do the Jonesing when I'm supposed to be working. I'm a work later. Yeah. I'm a work when it's nice. And he had a male boss and he's like, we can set that up. We can

can work that out. I got another boss that's the same way. He can't be here during the day. He's gonna he's gonna manage you with that. That's right. We'll keep those machines running. No problem. You're coming in at record six. We ain't gonna make a dime. Mister Ford is gonna be really excited. Alright. Segular's advice is, try this. Ask your wife, which is more important to you? Me and your bed or food on the table and a roof over our heads? Hey, man. Now I feel bad for my original advice because I sound like that. I'll be home by 06:00. I'll be home by 06:00. Be ready. So look at me. Our advice is way cooler. Your advice was way cooler. I came in this like, hey, man. Be practical. And then I was immediately turned around like, man, I kinda get it now. I I suppose I understand. Don't be practical. Figure this stuff out in a different practical way. Non

non check cashing boova tries to be practical about this thing. The check cashing Jesus man says, we'll straighten this out. We'll straighten this out. Sweetheart, I'm a work late late nights. Yep. Hey. Yeah. The reason I go to work and bring money home to be able to pay my bills is so I don't have anything to worry about when good times show up. Yeah. That's a very valid point. That is an incredibly valid point. Right there. Offering good times and that's the end result I wanted, I feel like I will figure it out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No more advice necessary. You will listen to life. Problem solved. If this is a problem you're having, a, you need a different group of friends. Sadducees. B, you come in. We're gonna talk about this.

We'll straighten this right out for you. Alright. Thanks for hanging out with us. Yeah. That's all I got. Don't know what's going on. Oh, hey. Hey. Wayne Stewart's out with the new album. Go check it out. If you go to reverbnation.com, do search for Wayne Stewart.

Here's the deal. I was iffy at the premise. They're like bluesy Jesus numbers by a white man. I And thought to myself, I'm Wayne, you've over you've just a step too far. The totems are falling. No. Wayne's Wayne's a cool guy. He's got all kinds of talent, but I thought I just I don't wanna listen to this because I won't think less of him. Here's the deal. Besides the fact that I hate I hate trumpets, I don't like, band instruments in the blues. Yeah. Because here's the deal. A blues man doesn't have a trumpet. He don't he can't afford brass. He he's got an old good, like a dobro or something. So,

so It's a weird thing to bring in. I'm just I'm just saying. K. So, anyway, besides so the fact that there's brass in it, and it's off putting to me, solid. It's it was it surprised me. I really dug on it. So go check it out. Go to ReverbNation. Just do a search for Wayne Stewart, and and check out that new album of his. It's it's really quite good, and I think you will enjoy it. K. Alright. In the meantime, be faithful in means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Path.