Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path. You are listening to Live From The Path on livefromthepath.org

on a balmy Monday evening. Are you trying to mock me? Is that the How's everybody doing? Doesn't balmy mean, like, warm? Yeah. It's warm somewhere. I got a sweatshirt on. It's not balmy. Hey. Still the breeze. Here's what we got going on the show tonight. Hey. For hanging out with us. So I got some stories. All kinds of interesting stuff went on. Francis Chan's moving to Hong Kong. Of course, he is. That comedian that shows up on Facebook all the time, John Christ. Chris?

Yeah. Is it Christ? Creeper. Yeah. Is he he's an honest creeper? He no. He's a creeper. He's a straight creeper. My girls are quite disappointed. Yeah. He had to cancel all his his his shows and stuff because I mean, did you read the whole article, Dan? Yeah. I did. I mean, it's terrible. Yeah. It's terrible. He's a manipulative turd. Is it Charisma or Christianity? Yeah. Charisma News or something. It was actually a well written, well It was. Researched. Oh, I meant. I was impressed as I was reading it. Was it was it recent Craig Venice?

Yeah. And long lasting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, decade Yeah. And, people knew about it or at least, I mean, like, they had to have known about it. I worked with a guy like that once, but you give him the benefit of the doubt. Oh, it's Christian community. Comedian. He, you know, it was no. I I must have misinterpreted. Right. No. No. No. He was pretty pretty clear about what he wanted. Yep. Not good. Dang it. In other news, James McDowell, you guys remember we talked about him where they he was he was a bully Mhmm. And manipulative and threatened to kill people and hire people to kill others, from the Harvest Bible Bible Church. Oh, go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he, he issued a letter,

talking about his repentance and wants his future focused on preaching teaching. Hey. I like it. It's classic. This is You won't forgive me. Here's the deal. I can tell you, with there's there's, like, a two sentences in this letter from him, and, like, immediately, you could be like, yep. Never. Yeah.

Never. Never gonna do this. But, no, that's that's what he wants to do. Here's how this is gonna work. You're gonna forgive me. I'm gonna preach. You're gonna like it. You will sit there and take it. Yeah. Something like that? No. I'm gonna call down the fire. That's right. You've had my repentance now. You put it on and you sit and deal with it. Put your stone back down. So anyway, this is this is the this is the Christian world rocking. We'll catch up with that. Great job. Also, I don't I don't know if we'll get to this or not, but there was

Oh, no. For what? This is where you introduce some kinda heady article that me and Booy ain't gonna understand. My crap. That is kinda That's actually every time that's what happens. That is kinda what it is. Don't know we're gonna get to this thing, but it's about the summation of the repentance of the justification gospel, normally found in the book of Enoch. It's a new Greek gospel. We really wanna take a new age look at sanctification, and I've got about seven scholars that wanna talk about it. This is two weeks in a row. I've been straight up mocked. Because you make me feel dumb, and I gotta defend myself. Okay. We'll see. But there was a there's a on the the Mere Orthodoxy blog, Jake Meter had a post on 15 proposals for church renewal Oh. That I thought were that were interesting,

and that we could get some that maybe we could get some feedback on and say, hey, do we recognize that as valuable in church renewal? Yeah. I suppose. Okay. We'll see what comes to it. Oh, also, Mike, what did you have? You had something. I I I just know here's what I've been experiencing over the last week because I've been I I some part of the youth group curriculum for this year is we we're doing a character study on humanity. Like, we've done a character study on on, like, some saints, and then we actually did Yahweh last year. And I thought, to round this out, let's do a character study of us, of humanity and our interaction with Yahweh, you know. And and I was I'm somewhat I don't know I don't know why I was worried about it. I thought, you know, I because I have to write this stuff, and so I thought, how am I gonna be able to to read some biblical examples of humanity and and and how they tend to work and and the sins they tend to gravitate for and the bigger you know, the ones the the big overarching themes,

and then and then have it apply to them, you know, in a way that makes sense to them. And, like, some of these stories, man, I just, I'm just embarrassed to be part of humanity. And the one the one I came across this weekend, it just I I straight up laughing. Right? It's like when god is providing the manna from heaven. Pete, they're they're mad about the they're mad about the the meat, first of all. And then God says, okay. I tell you what. I'm gonna flood this place with meat. And then next morning, I'm gonna give you the the manna, you know, the stuff to to make and and make bread, whatever. And he sets out some simple rules. He goes, here's the deal. Basically, I'm gonna give you enough for today. If you under gather it, I'm gonna make it so you got enough. If you over gather it like a big jerk, I'm gonna take it away. You're gonna have the regular amount. Right? No matter what you do, you're gonna have what you're supposed to. Except for the day before the Sabbath, I'm gonna give you the double amount. Now listen. And there's like a a weird biblical pause. He goes, now listen to me now. I am not gonna put any out on the Sabbath. I'm not gonna do it. And, like, the very next sentence in the in the Bible is basically like, and dudes were out looking for manna the next day. I'm like, I now listen, if this I don't even know why I searched the Bible. Right? Like, I could probably go verse by verse and find humanity doing the exact opposite of what God just said to do. God sits Aaron and Moses down just I mean, just prior to this and says, hey, listen or just after this and goes, listen, don't make any golden images of me. You know, I just it's not how this thing's gonna roll. And then Moses disappears for forty days. The people freak out. Aaron's like, give me the gold. We're gonna make something. And I'm like, even after the manna story, right, where God said, look, I'm not gonna provide manna on the Sabbath. I don't go out. I'm not gonna put any out there. And the next day, some people come out looking for the manna. And you go, wow. He was just here. He just said this thing. I mean, not not a day ago. He said, look, I'm not gonna put it out there. And here's the folks out there. Oh, man. Well, we don't have enough manna for today, though. I wonder if we put it out today. You know what, though? That that is characteristic of god's people always. It is. I I mean, like,

let's say a church is having, a potluck dinner, and they announce it for six weeks in a row. And it's in the video announcements, and they send a flash email, and it's in the text group, and they have a personal carrier taking to each person. There's always 15 people who say, I had no idea. I had no idea. I know this was even happening. What do what do you mean there's no man on Saturday? I mean, I mean, I'm hungry. It's Sabbath. I guess I'm bringing Ruffles. Your poor planning has left me just to be the bag, the chip man, so I guess I'm bringing the chips. That's that that's that's our problem. It's it's been I I dream I I I blame Old Testament Judaism What? For the fact that people don't come to potlucks today. I mean, it's it's I here's the thing, it's like I I thought I thought by doing this, we could point out the the the pitfalls and the and the traps that humanity falls into

over and over and over again. Right? Like, I mean, we're we're barely gonna get out of the Old Testament before this thing's done because it's just time after time after time of, look, we actually didn't trust Yahweh on the thing that he said he was gonna do. We don't trust him that he's good. We don't trust him that he's gonna do this thing. And frankly, if given the reins, we could drive this horse better. And so, like, if if if maybe they could catch a glimpse of, how humanity has done this over and over again. Everybody that was ever born before you thought the same thing. Bob, everybody thinks that they're gonna drive the reins better. Yeah. Everybody thinks that God is not trustworthy in this thing and they should probably take it over. Everybody thinks that God sets down rules that are unnecessary, and they're just gonna circumvent them and do what they want. And everybody's been wrong. Everybody. And so up to this point, can there just be a little dinging? Just like when we say the line of David, and you're supposed to hear a little bell that goes straight line to Jesus. Right? As as you're as you're trained as a Christian to hear line of David and go, Jesus line. That's what I want you to hear when you when when something starts to be, I wonder if I could take this on. There should be a little bell that goes, Israelites,

not a good idea. It's not a good plan. Anyway, the it's it's straight comedy because it's still true and it still happens every day in every part of the world today and just not such a ridiculous, you know, way that we can read in a in a book, you know, but, like, everybody does the exact same thing and it's almost comedic on how how you can plan for it and say, like, clockwork, it's gonna happen. Now, Dan, have you had the experience of teaching something on a Sunday morning and then, like, within, say, twelve, twenty four hours, I'm thinking a married couple here, but, like, somebody comes up and, like, starts talking to you about a problem that you very I mean, addressed that day. Oh, yeah. And they obviously had not taken any of it in. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Happens all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it's it's amazing. It's amazing to me. Here here's a confine slightly off. Okay. But but Sunday, probably one of the most direct, hard hitting, in your face, slap upside the head teachings I've ever had in my life Yeah. Honestly, in a in a particular section.

And I hit it pretty hard for a service. I mean, to the point that afterwards, I thought, shoot, man. Who the heck was that? Right? I mean, it's just like, wow. And it was really funny. The next service second second service, it I I I put notes so that I can do the same thing at both services and not did I say that or whatever? Right. I completely, like,

skipped an entire page of notes. That was that page. It was the hard hitting part. It was the hard hitting. And, like, I didn't know it till I was, like, I was way past it and I thought, wait a minute, how come I'm on number two? Like, didn't like, where was number one? And, you know, I, you know, I didn't, like, stop and I I just kept going. Yeah. And and and the sad thing is, like, half the people like, I told a few people and they're like, oh, I didn't even notice. I'm like, oh. Oh. It'd been pretty obvious. Yeah. That should have been the old school the soul story. Number two.

Dang. And number one was Number two is yeah. The guy back running ProPresenter is the one with his hands up going, oh, come on. You know? We were told You're like, man. I would have that would've been embarrassing. I mean, nothing really matters, but, yeah. Anyway, peep yeah. I don't know. Now now I did kinda, you know, try to bridge it in in in a way that that, like, Cheryl's even like, well, I thought it was kinda goofy, but, yeah, you you made it work. Right. Yeah. Thanks for the encouragement, woman. I made a big mistake. Next thing you know, you're gonna give me a golden earring to make a cow. I know it. I was like, it's I've been guilty of this a lot. Right? I'll find something that super convicted me, and I'm like, oh, man. This is a life changer. I'll tell, like, five people, no one give two craps. They're like, whatever.

Whatever, Mike. That sounds fine. Okay. I mean, go ahead. Spend more time alone in the word if you want. I don't know. What's what's with all the hell the hell and brimstone? Just leave me be. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Let's catch up with Francis Chan. Okay. So okay. Well, he was he well, I should have saved him for last. That's too late. Francis Chan's moving to Hong Kong to share the gospel. Says, playing plant churches among the ultra poor. Best selling author and bible teacher Francis Chan, Frankie, has revealed God is calling him to move to Hong Kong to bring relief, share the gospel, and plant churches among the ultra poor. Days after announcing he and his family are moving to Asia in February 2020 to become international missionaries, the Crazy Live author identified the exact destination, Hong Kong.

It's nine years ago while we were in Hong Kong, Weeks and I both felt God was calling us to move there. He wrote an online update, adding that they enjoyed their dependence on God in unfamiliar, uncomfortable places. But at that time, the pastor said he felt God tell him were two things he had to do in The United States before he could go anywhere else. He wanted me to display a different picture of church and a different picture picture of marriage family. In obedience to God's requirements, Chin said he penned two books, Letters to the Church and You and Me Forever, Marriage and Light of Eternity, and noted, I've tried to live those messages out, giving those around me example of what I wrote about. Now he did write in in that book, Letters to the Church, he had talked about, spending time in Asia, going kinda place to place, and feeling like, like God was calling them there. And he noted here, it said,

two months ago, Chan was in Myanmar traveling from hut to hut with a translator, sharing the gospel with people who had never heard about Jesus. He said the more he did it, the more he realized he wanted to do this for the remainder of my life. When I considered the need and opportunity, I knew I wanted to be based in Asia. He said, I also have an opportunity there to work with the ultra poor living off less than 50¢ a day to bring relief, share the gospel, and plant churches among them. When I compare that opportunity to things I currently do in The States, the kingdom profit seems much greater overseas at this point in my life. He said he still plans to minister in The United States, but will be based in Asia for the next season of life. Our current plan is to move to Hong Kong in February. A lot can change between now and then, but we are heading this direction unless the lord redirects us. I have no idea how long I will stay in Hong Kong. I had no idea I was going to live in San Francisco for nine years. We will just try to discern the spirits leading daily. I'm telling you, I still like that guy. I just really like Francis Tan.

Here's the thing. Say what you will, but it's it's genuine. Right? The man's doing genuine work. It's all it's all kingdom profitable work. I I know it's a it was an interesting phrase Yeah. Kingdom profit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's all it's all value to the kingdom. Like, I I think he has not made a move in the last ten years that someone doesn't have an opinion on. But I think the point is to say, like, if you if you strip away what you personally think his opportunities are and say, did the man just say he was gonna do something that by all stretch seems faithful to the Lord, and not focused on him? Yeah. Okay.

Seems alright then. How how's his last few years I mean, this ministry in San Francisco, how's that? I don't haven't heard anything about He has The house church in house. Yeah. The house church. Yeah. So So how do they is it the network of house churches? I'm sure right. He doesn't do, like, anything small. I mean, he's No. It was it was it's a network of house churches. It is still, it is based in San Francisco. So I think they had they expect that it will continue to grow beyond that, but, primarily, it's still based in San Francisco. It's grown to 25 pastors. Although two of those guys are now, are going with them to to, to Asia. But yeah. So it went from him to Aren't they the the that

did a lot of the sponsoring of the bible project while it was up and running? Yeah. Yeah. That was a they they were the he was him I think him and and and that organization were the, some of the money that was behind the bible project work to help really get, like, them bring on a bunch of staff and kinda move it along. I actually I read an article from a guy that I'm, connected with on LinkedIn and he, he he is a house church

planter, I think, if you wanna think of it that way, the South. And he went to San Francisco and, like, went to one of those and said it was really good. It was, like, super encouraging and, like, every basically, it was genuine. It was what it was what they said it was. It wasn't more or less. It wasn't less than that. It wasn't more than that. It was what they expected. I'm I'm guessing that they would they'd like to see it bigger. But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone knows. Are they were were they able to make an impact in that culture at all? I mean, that's that's a rough that's a rough culture. Yes. That's what I'm saying. You know, it's like, are they actually reaching people? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bunch of Christians saying, no. It's fancy changing. I mean You know what? It's hard to I suppose it's hard to say. They some of the some of the stories and there's some blog on the Crazy Love, site. He's got some kind of stories about some of the house church stuff. But yeah. Yeah. It does seem like they are making progress in the culture.

Cool. There's There's a lot of opportunity in San Francisco. Yeah. That mean, almost honestly, a guy of his stature, I I could see him wanting to go to Asia just yeah. I wanna go somewhere where they don't know. Yeah. I'm a nobody here. I'm just a dude on the street talking to poor people. I have no they've never read my book. That's right. Let me just let me do gospel work and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's

see. What was I looking at? Yeah. Okay. I think that's good. Anyway, again, based upon the what we're gonna read in the next two things, I think we can thanks for Francis Chan. Yeah. Whatever. And we could pray for Francis Chan and the new thing that he's doing. That's right. It sound it sounds cool. Yeah. It does sound cool. So

here we are. Next, John, I I I don't know if is this Christ? It's probably Christ. I hope it's not Christ. Popular Christian comedian John Christ has canceled his latest tour due to reports that he engaged in multiple instances of sexual misconduct, including sexting, harassment, and affairs with married women. So, Mike, are you familiar with this dude? No. So he's he's he's he gets shared a lot around Facebook. He's he he does a lot of kind of playful mocking of church culture, potlucks and, going out to dinner after Sunday and, just all kinds of stuff. Okay. So anyway, I've seen quite I've never watched, I think, a video of of any length, but, I see all kinds of people sharing. But, anyway, says, Taylor Berglund of Charisma News reported Wednesday afternoon that Crist exploited his Christian reputation and platform to harass, manipulate, and exploit young women over the last seven years. These allegations, according to Berglund, including sexting multiple women, having sexual relationships with women who are married, and giving away tickets to his shows in return for sexual favors. The testimonies of five women are mentioned in her report. The women are not named, but though an editor's note says that four of the five gave permission to use their names.

In an email sent to Charisma News earlier this week published in the story, Chris wrote, he was not guilty of everything I've been accused of, but admitted to treating relationships with women far too casually, in some cases, even recklessly. I don't I don't mean to think No. I'm sorry for the hurt and pain I have caused these women and will continue to seek their forgiveness. I've also hurt the name of Jesus and have sought his forgiveness. He went on to note that he has privately sought and received professional treatment for his issues with addiction and sexual sin, deciding to cancel his remaining tour dates for 2019 to focus on handling his problems. Those closest to me, my family, team, and close friends have known about this battle for some time, and now you do too. I now humbly seek forgiveness and mercy and love, not just for me, but for those I've heard along my path. I'm so sorry. Over the past few years, he's become a popular comedian through his stand up comedy as well as through the skits he posted to his widely viewed YouTube channel,

in January till nobody cares about that. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, that's it. So one of the stories in there was about, he actually like, somebody reached out to him, this young lady and her boyfriend,

and she was gonna interview him for something. And, he agreed to the interview and they kinda got along. And then he invited her back, just her, to go, like, rollerblading and, like, gave her a bunch of alcohol

and then just, like, kept texting her and, like, was obviously was propositioning her for, for like, I tried to kiss her a couple times and then kept, you know, like, always text in the middle of the night to to, like, seven different ladies or whatever. And, it just looked yeah. It's creepy. It's a straight up creep fest. It it amazes me, guys like this, that that, like, how would how I mean, the more famous you are, the more likely you are to be caught.

Yeah. Like, if I do it and then say, put it in the news, I'm like, I don't know who Dan Anderson is. Whatever. Yeah. It's like Dan Hudson's creepy guy. Okay. Like, people know him. But but it's it's it's a common theme. You see it with, you know, whether it's a television anchor or a I mean, there there's something there's something about Like, hubris just thinks that, like actually, I think that's the right point. There's something about power that gives you the impression that you're more powerful than you are. Yeah. Like, that you are able to control more things than you are. Like, what kind of guy really believes that, like like, once you send a text message, like, you can't be that dumb. You know that message is sitting on somebody's phone, some married lady's phone going, hey Yeah. Wants want to give me a sexual favor? Like Right. Come on, bro. See this? You can have this. I mean, what? No. No. No. No. I don't I don't I don't want it. I just don't I don't

I just I just find it utterly hard to believe that, like, you could I I mean, I don't know how long you could do this before none of this would ring any bells to you that, like, hey, man. Like, I'm I it it it's it's more difficult. Put it as a guy that's a pastor. Right? Like, this guy is publicly announcing himself as a Christian. He's, you know, he's doing Christian entertainment. And so most of the people in the room are Christians. And so, like,

one, you shouldn't have gotten away with any of this for any amount of time. Every lady you text or whatever should have been like, woah, woah, woah. What are you doing? You know? So now now we got two Christians involved in it. Right? As soon as he as soon as he texts inappropriately a Christian woman in parentheses, and then she doesn't turn him in right now and be like, this guy is not following Jesus at all.

Now we got two Christians sinning. And then and I'm not taking this off of him at all. I'm just saying, like, how could you have gotten away with this in a Christian community for so long? Right? Like, no one went, hey. Hey. What are you doing? You know? You need help, buddy. You know? Or, like, hey, we gotta work on this. No. No. I'm not coming back after the interview without my boyfriend. That's ridiculous. No. Yeah. I'm not doing that. Right? And so, like, it just says she was, like, starstruck, you know, a little bit don't know if that the words that you use. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, was like, mean, the super famous guy says, hey, come spend time with me. You're like, woah. He really likes me. You know, I'm gonna have another interview or Yes. Give me all the earrings. I mean Maybe we can melt it down and make a cow.

Right. No one's on a bigger cow. Yeah. But I mean, there's I suppose that, you know, the the part of your own ego feeds into that a little bit. I suppose. I kinda think of who would like do a guy who's hang out with life in the past, and we'd be like, okay. You know, I I don't know. Yeah. You got the wrong place, friend. I I yeah. I I it's not to knock down anything that he did. It's deplorable. Like, all of it is just horrible. But but you'd figure it would've it would've surfaced out. If it's been going on for years, there's not one Christian in the whole mix to, like, even the boyfriend saw the text and go, woah. What are you doing, John? You know? Yeah. Yeah. What kind of accountability are we running here? And there's some guys that just get away with stuff like this that that

like, I I can't get away with anything. I'd be arrested within ten seconds. Yeah. I I can't I mean, I just can't do that stuff. When I when I was first driving back a long time ago in Iowa, Matt Price, they used to, inspect cars so you could get a license. Yeah. Mhmm. And and and I always had, you know, I was a high school kid. Had crappy cars and single mom, that whole thing. And and I always heard people could, like, bribe the guys and and they'd they'd pass it. And I you know, I'd be like, I don't know how he said it, but they're like, no. Oh. I tried multiple times because because I had to, like it was just but I I finally put tin on my car because it was, like, rusted through, you know. And and I was like, I'm just not that guy. I'm I'm not I'm not the crooked guy. And some people just they're gifted at it. They just they just they just know how how does a priest rape, you know, a 100 kids? I mean, how all all this stuff, that happens. You hear these stories. Like, how does that happen? How how do you how does the the first time, how does it happen? Yeah. Like you said, they they didn't call they didn't call him on it. And so he did it again and he felt more powerful, more empowered, more empowered. He kept doing it and and I don't I don't see how they do it the first time.

I just No. And that that that's come up like, it it does. It defies it defies logic but that's probably not the right reaction. Right? Like, the people don't like, this was the basis of the me too stuff. Right? Like, hey, I I felt, that I that by someone who was more powerful than me, and I was intimidated so I did x y I felt I had to do x y and z. And we look at them and be like, I just why didn't you just say no or why didn't you but, like, pretty consistently, like, this this feeling of someone who has has a power over you, perceived or otherwise, causes people to not

not light a torch, man, to not throw up a red flag with of some sort of of of a fear of a repercussion that is feels worse at the time. But on the grand scheme of things, like, you're better to light a dude up than you are to hang around in a situation of which this is seems normal. You know, actually, so in their defense, now that I've thought through this a little bit, right, like, if you're the person that levels an accusation against John Crist, then you are now in the limelight That's right. For something that's embarrassing anyway, probably. You know, something that you didn't particularly wanna talk about in front a 100,000 people. And so I get it. I get it. But maybe my my broad brush was a little judgy. That's I I still think we we gotta figure out how to shut this down. Right? Like, we used to kick people out of the camp and ban them and cut them off from the people. Yahweh is like, look, man, if you're gonna act like this, you're cut off from the people. You're out of here. We're not gonna tolerate this. And we tolerate everything. We just tolerate all of it. Right? And, like, once again, I think we've talked about this before too. It's like, it's it's it's God's

grace and the death of Christ that have covered that sin. Right? It's not for you to allow it. It's not your job to let it go just because Jesus said, will pay for it. Right? It's still ours to call out and say that's not allowed. Right? That is not how God designed us to live and a following Christ, this is what it looks like. And so I'm not gonna just gonna sit you and let here let you do this just because Jesus will forgive you for it, doesn't mean that we let it continue. Right? Like, it does we don't let sin increase. And so stuff like this, like, it just it astounds me. Like, I could see it with the kids. Maybe the kids are embarrassed. They don't know what to say and whatever. But, like, we're talking about a grown comedian that is sexually inappropriate with grown women or teens at least, you know, that go, hey, Christ follower, what are you doing? You know, like, no one's got their ducks in a row or he's got more power than you're afraid of of Yahweh that you wouldn't go, woah. You know, like, this is way out of bounds, man. So I I don't know. I I find that frustrating, but I also could see, like, you don't wanna be the the discredited 17 year old that when he goes, no, I didn't do that. And now you look like, you know, you're I mean, you do have a I assume you've got a picture of his Wangdoodle on your phone. Well, I mean, I suppose if it's a straight Wangdoodle. But, I mean, you would have to have his face in it. It could have been his, but he could have. So I don't know how he pulled that his number. I mean

Yeah. When it comes to manipulators, which I'm guessing that there is some semblance of that, to this story. Someone that is willing to,

not care about the relationship that someone's in and want to pursue selfish actions, sinful actions of their own desires. There there's definitely a semblance of of of hubris there, obviously, but there's there's also a semblance of manipulation. And someone that does that well enough knows exactly who they're. They've got targets. They know who to look for. They know what wives to to target.

They know what types of person to look for. You can tell, people who have low self esteem, people that are in certain circumstances, people that are susceptible to that kind of suggestion.

That's exactly I would be willing to guess that's what he's doing. Is he's finding the people that he can manipulate knowing that he has stature, he has a standing in that community. There's a lot of Christians that know him. There is a semblance of, oh, it's super cool that this person is contacting me. There's also a semblance of, I'm lonely, and this person is giving me attention. I am in a bad place. I'm depressed,

and this is something that I can attach my self esteem to because I'm the woman, or I'm the man, or I'm the person that this person reached out to and is wanting to pursue an inappropriate, yes, but sexual relationship with. It's gratification, and it's justification, and it's it's self esteem for them. It's a fading and terrible way to get it, but it's there. And so, you know, it's completely sad, and it's it's a terrible way that that people with that kind of type

can manipulate that those people, I should say, and take advantage of that. And I think that that's probably what's going on you see that in a lot of of these cases where someone is, of stature and is

accused of sexually harassing or soliciting these people and and and having inappropriate relationships with them. You see that kind of manipulation in a lot of these people. They're looking for exact they know exactly who they're looking for, and they're successful because they recognize the the identity, the profile of their targets. And I hate to say it that calloused, but it's truthful. And it's it's sad, but that's exactly what happens.

Yeah. I mean, we're supposed to be to set apart people. That's all I'm saying. Like, all that all the thing that you're saying is true in every demographic. But, like, God's people are supposed to be so far removed from this that there it it's just you shouldn't be able to stand for that long. Like, he should have been nailed as a manipulator 10 ago, if that's what he's agreed. Right? Absolutely. Like, it's it's just frustrating. And it I mean, it once again, it doesn't take anything away from what he's done. He's he's made some very big mistakes and some and and he's gifted in a way that can be used for very good things or very bad things. Yeah.

Absolutely. But at the end of the day, I'm I'm I'm still just a little bit disappointed in the Christian community Yeah. That we can't that we can't see do we just let this stuff go because he's funny and, like, hey, at least he's palatable to half the world. You know, at least he's not the dull Christian that that whatever smacks you with the ruler. He's at least somewhat cool and can and and live in the world and not be a an embarrassment, you know, so I guess we'll let this stuff go. Who's his manager? Manager? That that that I think that was that that was part of the implication of the article, which is, take someone had to have known. Like, I think that to to someone we were talking about earlier, I think Dan had said, like, people know this stuff. Like, it's not like it's not known.

The way that the article flows, like, sounds like he's been into like, he said, like, his family knows Yeah. His tour manager knows. But he I mean, here's the thing. Like, we just we're not willing to chop an arm off. Like, no one's willing to say, look, you know what? I have this problem. I will not go on tour. Like, what's what's it worth? What's your sin worth, man? Like, what's your what's your willingness to harm people worth? Like, if you know if you know that this is a problem of yours, you're not gonna you're not gonna find me pointing a finger at a guy who says, hey, we have this problem. Everyone's got some kind of problem. But, like, your willingness to then subject other people to it in the service of what? People think you're funny? Bringing money in? Like, go work at the Dunkin' Donuts. You can provide for your family or whoever there. And you could be a, you could be a stitch at the Dunkin' Donuts, man. Everybody can come laugh at you. Cut them up over this over 10 sprinkles and a and a couple glazed. I don't care. But, like, that's the thing is the trade off we say, this is the thing that I wanna do in my human life. I'm willing to put these things at risk because of it. And they're and it's that's the problem. Like, you should have we should be we should be surrounded by people who say, you know what? Not gonna work. Yeah. Not gonna work. Hey, I'm gonna spend my nights in comedy clubs,

from ten to two telling jokes in front of drunk ladies. You know what, dude? Not gonna work. Yeah. That's not the place for you. Sorry. You wanna you wanna run a blog? You wanna tell jokes on a blog from your desk chair where you can behave yourself until you've rehabilitated? Yeah. Focus on your YouTube videos. Yeah. I don't care. Well, I mean but but it's like, if you can't if you you gotta know what you gotta know what your problems are. There's nothing about the Christian the grace and mercy of a Christian life that says, do whatever the hell you want. That is not the premise at all. Paul's pretty clear on that. And so you you we care about those things that otherwise put some level of protection for, between us and things that we will harm with our sin.

You owe that. You owe that to your community to not act like a turd like that. And your community owes it to you to go, you know what? No. Hey. Will you share my Facebook thing? Because I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a tour. Hell, no. I won't. No. I will not do that because I don't support this at all. And I will not be part of, feeding into something that's gonna be you should not go. I'd step in front of your car if I didn't think you'd run me over. And, you know, I gotta be honest with you. Like, that's the thing that that especially this generation and maybe the one before it, like, they just take this so badly. Like, no one takes that well. Right? The the the chopping the arm off thing, it just it does not go over very well. And it seems like in previous generations that there was a little bit more bootstrapping and a little bit more, well, we gotta do what we gotta do. You know, it doesn't matter for if I wanna do it or not, it is what has to get done. But, like, some parts of this, like, to trying to tell somebody that, like, they don't understand why they can't do the thing. They're like, look, if I could just overcome my propensity to say, pick up married women and continue to be a comedian,

Why should I have to give up the thing God has gifted me to do? I should just stop picking up married women. But you know you're not going to do that. Right? You're lying to yourself and to other people. But they seem like it they they believe it's unfair that God has called them out the thing that apparently they believe that god has gifted them for. And it only exists in this one sinful area. It's gotta be done with one foot in the world and one foot following Christ. And they say there's no other way to do it. And so instead of giving up the thing, they're just like, I'll just be heavy footed on the on the Christ following part and light footed on the world part. And it ends up dragging them in. And then and then they're way off balance. Right. Right. There's there's certainly some guy somewhere who goes, god has gifted me to be an excellent pornographer. Right. I'm really good at this. I shoot the naked body with this camera like no one's business. Yeah. I'm really great. I'm like, no. Like this, like and so take that extreme example and then dial it down 10 notches and it's still true. God has gifted me the ability to handle this sinful thing well. God has gifted me the ability to constantly be around a sinful temptation of mine of which I often succumb. Right. No. Maybe you can't be a bartender. Maybe you can't. Maybe you can. Maybe you can't. Right. Right? Maybe that's just not something you can do. And it's and I think the core of it is to say, look, is this something I want or is something that God wants? Like, am I willing to say, God, here's what I wanna do. I want you to serve me in this thing and and support my desire to do x y z. Or is it someone who goes, look, I feel like I've you've given me something and I wanna use it for you. You tell me how it is to be used. And if it and if one is me asking you to support the thing that glorifies me, which I'm making gospel excuses for to subject me or someone else to sinful behavior, then no, that's not that's not right. And you know what? It it takes up, what, one faithful,

brother of yours or sister of yours to go, nope. Nope. You're lying to yourself. Yeah. You're lying to that's garbage. I mean, put it in in a more common example. Right? Like, people are like, I have a I have problems when I go out of town without my spouse, but I have to do it for my job. No, you don't. Quit. Tell them you don't travel or tell them you or tell them you're gonna get a new job. Quit. I can't quit. It's my job. It's not your job. You need to quit. You need to find another job. If you can't do it, then quit. Right. There's tons of other jobs that don't require that. Yeah. There's and and you're like, oh, but I should be able to do it. Doesn't matter. It's not working, is it? I mean, let's be honest with ourselves. You keep going out of town, you keep making terrible decisions. You drink the bar half under the table, and you you talk to a bunch of women you shouldn't. Stop going out of town. Quit your job. Find another job. I can't find a job that pays as well. Well, good. You're gonna have to downsize your house then, but at least you're not cheating on your wife and acting like a fool. And, you know, that that's it's not just it's not just occupation either. Like, hey. You know, every time I go out with these friends of mine, buddies, or whatever, I end up doing x y z. Look. You're gonna have to stop going out with them. Yeah. Yes. But I love them. They're my friends. Great. They can be your friends from a distance, not at that place, not going to this type of event. Yeah. You can't like, there's there is no, oh, but they are this. That's why it justifies me exposing myself to things,

that obviously are sinful, that contribute to negativity both in my life and somebody else's. Correct. It's it it's it's not gonna work. Whatever justification you have, the reason you came up with a justification is because you know better. And so, like, there've there've been things that I had to cut out of my life. Like, to be honest, so we used to be Mike and I both used to play in bars. Like, we were, we were in a in a blues band. I played in bars. And, like, here's the deal, I I'm a lame. I'm lame. I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't I I'm I'm rude to ladies who show any interest in me because I don't want them talking to me. Like, it's it's very awkward. Yeah. So it's not as it wasn't a super risky joint for me because I'm not those aren't my risks.

But the truth was it wasn't a great environment. And the one thing it always risked was, hey, I'm not gonna get home till 02:30 in the morning. Is it possible that I'm not gonna make it to church in the morning? Now that I I don't recall that that ever happened. But, like, it the older I got, the harder it was, and I'm like, I this is not worth it. I I'd rather be home with my kids on a Saturday night, and I'd rather make sure that, there's no way that I'm gonna miss not going to church on Sunday, not because of Pharisee, because I love it. I like to be there, and I like my people, I'm and gonna be there. And so, like, they just kinda fade away. We just gotta stop doing it. I'm not against it. You can still do it, but, like, like, you just gotta know where your stuff is and say, look, this is what's important to me, and I'm willing to make changes to show what's important. And, like, trying to trying to live in both worlds for your job or for the type of people you hang out with, like, just can't it it can't work that way. That is it's it's not worth it. Whatever trade off you think you're making, like, you're making a sweet edge for the gospel, you're not. Yeah. Well, I mean, look and look how harsh people will be like, hey, look, if your eye offends you, cast it out, get rid of it, you know? And we're like, god, he just that's a metaphor. He's like, actually, no. Well, no. Here's the deal. I mean, think yes. But no. I think it legit imately is hyperbole. But, like, he didn't go, hey, you got an offensive tattoo covered up with a Band Aid. Like, he went with something extreme. And so if your reaction to that isn't,

hey, that's wild and an extreme thing that I might have to do, then, yes, you misunderstood the thing. Like, if you if by calling it hyperbole hyperbole, you feel like that excuses you from taking some sort of drastic action, yes, you've completely missed the story. Yeah. You're looking for an excuse. Yeah. Yeah. And and to be honest, like, we're kinda nailing it feels like we're beaten up on, like, all these addiction type issues, whatever. But, like, if have you a tendency to get up in front of a group of people and start telling lies or making a big deal out of yourself and not not a big deal about whatever other people, maybe you can't talk in front of people anymore. Right? Like, it applies to all things, all manners of sin, like all things that drive a wedge between you and and Yahweh, all the things that take away from you following Christ. So if they start to direct you in another direction, it doesn't have to involve sex, boobs, or alcohol, right, or drugs for this to affect you. We're talking about things that lead you if if you have a problem being the office gossip, you, sir, are gonna have to stop getting excited when people are over by the snack table. You're just gonna stay at your desk, and that's what you're going to do. And if you can't do that, you're gonna quit. You're gonna become a newspaperman

or something that keeps you from doing that. Don't gossip. Right? Because they're by themselves throwing papers at four in the morning. Oh, you mean a newspaper delivery man? Yeah. Sorry. I was thinking of the gossip covers. You were with gossip reporter. You're like, you might as well make some money off this thing. Do it right. Full colon. Full colon. I've been mocked again. Speaking of guys who can't learn the lesson, Ousted Illinois mega church pastor James McDonald issued a statement of and and this is in quotes, repentance. I can't wait to hear this. And said he hopes to return to preaching even though he was fired in February over allegations of bullying, intimidation, and using his position for personal benefit.

The 59 year old McDonald who served for over thirty years as senior pastor at the Multi Campus Harvest Bible Chapel before his ousting issued a Facebook on Facebook, a lengthy post in which he declared my repentance. Okay. See if you can pick it up. I was, am, and will remain very sorry for the careless and hurtful words that were illegally recorded and publicized. Legally? Illegally. Illegally. So you guys are wrong in the first. Okay. There it was. That was I start I after that, I'm like, yep. Nope. I I reject this repentance.

Because his his primary focus at the front is not that I said it, but that somebody legally recorded me. Right. I immediately sent written apologies where appropriate giving grieving what it revealed about the state of my heart at the time, as well as the hurt caused to those who trusted us to be more consistent example of Christ likeness. I have no excuse and truly sorry. McDonald's ousting earlier this year followed highly inappropriate recorded comments that McDonald made on a hot mic. The pastor was heard on the audio footage talking about things like planting child pornography on the computer of Christianity Today CEO Harold Smith. Where did he even get child pornography?

This is ridiculous. McDonald also joked that freelance journalist Julie Royce was having an affair with Christianity Today editor in chief Mark Galley. He also made a vocal reference to Ed Stetser. It does not say what it was. Must have been harsh. Executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Oh. Although McDonald said he sent apologies where appropriate, Roy's wrote in a blog post that she's not received a written apology from McDonald even though he was heard mocking her in the broadcasted Hot Mike clip. I also don't know of anyone else who's received one either, including more than two dozen sources who went on the record with me with horrific stories about McDonald. In a statement, of repentance, McDonald confessed to regressing into sinful patterns of fleshly anger and self pity that wounded coworkers and others. Again, self pity. Mhmm.

I had a mild excuse for my behavior. These sin issues had been points of growth and victory as expressed through my preaching and writing because I was awesome. But I fell back beginning in late two thousand sixteen and have only myself to blame. McDonald wrote, I wrestled with the stress I felt, the injustice I endured, etcetera. Yet over time, I have come to see only myself and my own relational failing in the mirror and with grief and sorrow, I ask your forgiveness. As part of this, I've come to see my sin of handling pressure in a way that got things done but neglected the priority of love and the presiding humility of serving others first, he added. Letters have been sent to those the holy spirit has brought to mind. Oh, man.

Owning what is true without reference to what is false. We are looking to the lord to keep my focus here as long as it takes in hopes of reconciliation with every willing heart. McDonald's post came just days after nine Harvest Bible Chapel elders issued a formal letter of rebuke, formally disqualifying the former senior pastor for ministry. Well, there's a lot of formalities at this church. Yep. Formal letter, formally disqualification. Right. How do I mean, here's the here's the thing. I wanna be part of this sit down meeting where they're like, okay. Look. We voused him, but how do we formally do it? Well, what do you mean? We already got rid of him. Yeah. But we should write a letter or something. But why? So they they said that, the elders terminated McDonald for having a sinful pattern of inappropriate language, anger, domineering behavior. The church elders felt inclined to issue the letter months after McDonald's firing because of the existence of confusion over the church's previous statements regarding McDonald's. What do you mean? The elders assured that the investigation only considered evidence from firsthand witnesses and that everything covered in the letter includes many more witnesses than the biblical requisite of two or three. Hey, man. Is a is a is a pastoral

position, is it an at will employment like most jobs? Like, look, they can get rid of you and you can leave anytime you want. Like Yeah. I mean mean, could Pathways straight up fire you, Dan, if they wanted to? Dan's like, no. I've created Well, I it's little bit different because I I've made sure there's not any mechanisms to fire me. So In a typical church setting, I mean, there are there is a contract with an exit plan Yeah. In a typical yeah. Yeah. And a length of time so you're fair to each other. You know? I mean and whether it's a a positive like, hey. I'm going to do something different or you've been caught in, oh, gross Yeah. You know you know, immoral behavior,

the plan. I just But he's a national guy. I mean, so it I mean, I get it. But once again, I feel like we're just we're we're cow tailing to things that we don't actually care about. Right? Like, you're just a bod you're just a church body. You fired the guy for for inappropriate behavior. That's it. Right? Who are you issuing the formal letter for and sending it to 50,000 people? For people like us who who might say, hey, we should hire this guy. Yeah. Yeah. Dave McDonald. He's fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Or or become one of his followers. He might wanna come and try to absorb a church and say, hey, we're gonna start a whole new movement and you're gonna be mine and your mine and your mine and Perry Noble, Mark Driscoll, like, same guys, similar thing.

Superstar pastors out there. Maybe so. Rob Bell. They really I I just I Or sheep? I just feel like we like like, sometimes we're living completely disingenuously,

I guess. You know what I'm saying? Like, it seems to me that, I could just you're sick, you're fired. You don't work here anymore and, like, I I don't have to tell a thousand people or do a press conference or whatever. And for all the reasons that you said, I suppose it makes sense to issue a a letter to people. But, like, it just seems like we do this a lot. Like, we ham it all up and we do this big thing. It's like involving everybody in in your business and it just it's not their business. Right? I I think the problem is that because he's such a broad dude, you end up appearing one side of the story. Now here's the thing, as Christians, I feel like oftentimes, that that is one of the hardest things to be part of is is to allow someone to, who is telling the wrong side of the story

and in order in an attempt to otherwise find peace for yourself and for the parties involved or whatever, you do not engage in in that. I I think there's a time and place for it. Don't hear me wrong. But I think I think often, I the I think the Christian way of handling something is is is actually to not engage in a in a fight like that with certain people in certain ways because you're feeding into the the the frankly, the cult of personality will beat you up and you're it's not a winnable fight and you don't care to win in that form anyway. However, I I think that's probably what they're up against is I they were a bit wishy washy, to be honest. If I'm if I remember correctly, they had released something and, like, had not had not said the firm thing. And that's kinda, I think, what we're what one of the things that we're getting at with all this is, like, like, dude sends picture of Wang, we say, look, dude, you can't you did that wrong. Right. That's not that's not permissible. No good. But you and and to three fellas. And then, like, if that doesn't change anything, you hear reports of another, then it's national news. You're not seven ladies in, you're not ten years in, like,

there's there's biblical mechanisms in this place for the protection of the church in the name of Jesus. And, we're not following him because we're too afraid of human things. And so, like, his, I think is that the elders came back and they're like, well, you know, we're not sure if all these people are trustworthy and, we really don't don't wanna come on the wrong side of this domineering fellow who might come at them. And so they they didn't have a spine. Here's the thing. One of one of the biggest

fears that I have, and Dan, maybe this is an interesting conversation just given, there are very there can be poisonous eldership.

Mhmm. But, like, they're the backbone of this thing. Like, where they don't I'm gonna say this and then I'm gonna I'm gonna where the poisonous elders thing is, then this is not true. But, like, where they're because that that power is a bit false. But, like, where there are the right people serving humbly in the church, they're the ones that keep this from happening. Right? Because the first time you see a a dude like that that runs a church produce behavior like this, you go, dude, can't go on like this. And then second time, you're like, for the protection of these people, you're not preaching for three months. Go get this worked out. And if you don't go get this worked out, you no longer work here. Like, that that is when, like, when eldership is functioning well, they're keeping an eye on the sheep to make sure that some joker doesn't come in there and jack with it. And, like, where they got buddy buddy with this fella or intimidated by him, you're screwed.

You're screwed. That's what that like, these people are here to help with that kind of thing, and it's it's people tolerating human behavior that, like and we get it, they're humans, but, like, it doesn't mean you gotta have to be the pastor. It doesn't mean you get to continue to serve in this role. It's too much of a risk. God loves you. We love you, but you ain't pastor here anymore. It's just the nature of the thing. Well, that and that is the same thing that we were talking about earlier with the cutting off the arm thing. It's like, sure, you did some human things and they were sinful,

but you don't get to keep your job. Right? You get to fall under the grace of Jesus Christ. You get to be welcomed in the kingdom of heaven, value that your repentance is honest and that you are following Jesus. But, like, you lost your ability to be a preacher. Sorry. You know? And, like, we don't need to feel bad about that. I don't even we don't even put sorry in there. Like, you made choices. Mhmm. And and so did the Holy Spirit. And, like, you're sorry. You're just out now, you know? You can it's it's like that guy remember when he got done with his megachurches, like, I'm a put another megachurch in, whatever. Like, he could have preached anywhere. He could have started a home church. He could have been a prison minister. He could have done a million things and he's like, I gotta reclaim my throne of the giant megachurches, like, hey, You lost your you're you're done. That's the same dude, Mike. This is the same guy? Yeah. This is the same guy. Well, holy cow. He's a real he's a real bugle horn, ain't he? Alright. Well, touche, o Mike k. I go to refer to someone as a bugle horn? Yeah. No. I thought this was some dude in Florida.

I I think there's a different guy. There's a bunch of guys. I was gonna say there's probably more than one. It's the same symptom of the of the of the same of the cause. Right? Like, they like their celebrity pastor status and that means you're in it for the wrong reason. Like, you take a dude like Chang or Francis Chan who who who ran a, whatever, a million people church, then he runs 25 house churches, then he moves to Hong Kong. He his salary is not going up as he goes to Hong Kong. Right? Like, his his accommodations aren't getting better, his renowned is not increasing. It's going down. It's getting less as it moves on. Right. Like, the only he's only more popular among people who are like, yeah, look at that. That's great. Yeah. And here's the thing. That's alright. That's the reason Paul was popular. Because he keeps doing outrageous stuff and you're like, no kidding, Paul. Oh, boy, that guy. He's just he's just crazy. So I I I I think that's the run. Like, sometimes,

for all the protection, people always wanna be real careful that we don't overstep the bounds of mercy. Right? That you don't lay the the hammer down too hard. Okay. That really isn't has has not been our problem. Like, you tell me the problems at the church, like, the the the headline front page stuff, problems in the church over the last twenty years has been because we've been overly merciful. I don't mean that God don't love you. I mean, are we at least reacting to human behavior and going, no. And continue in this way

in the church. And here's the deal. If our churches we have to shut down, you know, 4,000 churches in The United States because we can't find appropriate dudes to lead them, Okay. What I here's the deal. I I know that people have, like, risk. It's a common joke among, small groups. Right? It's all the the all manner of heresy that might be going on in a small group in a given week. But I would I would turn it over to your lay people studying scripture and getting it, like, 70% right, more so than I would put them under the leadership of some boisterous,

bugle horn of a man Yeah. That that is totally manipulating people and God's church. Like, God will sort out faithful people who aren't quite getting their theology right. Let's clear the ranks if we gotta clear the ranks. I'm for it. Yeah. I agree. That's I think that's all we got for stories. I'm gonna start issuing formal letters. Who would I even send those to? Like, give me a list of people that's put that receive formal letters. Let's say I wanted to put one out. Who do I put on the list? Like, the paper? The governor? Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's a press release. The head the head of the head of the school board? For immediate release. Actually, Mike, that would be awesome. You should just start doing press releases once a week of things that are on your mind for immediate release. I'm I'm thinking about the following. Yeah. James McDonald's a bugle horn. That's what I said. They might pick it up. Local man sends letters says James McDonald's a bugle horn.

Did did you guy you guys touched on it a little bit last week. Did anybody listen to that Kanye West album? I think I accidentally heard some. Boob accidentally turn took it. Hey, man. It's run it's running the gospel charts and top of the pop charts too. Top 11 top 11 spots in the He's tearing it up. Yeah. Yeah. I've got I've got a little bits of it. I I don't I didn't love even as a, like, a as a guy who doesn't, like, I like some some, rap music.

He hasn't been my favorite. But, like, I listened to a few and it's I mean, it seems alright. Yeah. I've never actually heard him. Was on the song with Paul McCartney and Rihanna that was four or five minutes from Wylan. And I tried to institute the word Wylan into my vocabulary nonchalantly. Oh. And boy, people just picked right up on it like it was a foreign What do you mean? Four four to five minutes from what? From Wylan. From Wylan Out, going wild. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. That's the name of the song? I don't know what it is called. It's catchy tune. But anyway, the phrase was I'm about four or five minutes from Wylan. And so, like, I tried to use it at work the other day. I'm like, man I think it's seconds.

I think it's seconds. Four, five that means it's a short fuse. I got four, five seconds of wilding. And I tried to use it at work like, hey, man. These conditions got me wilding. Hey, people are searching for it. I typed in four dash five seconds, and the third popular answer is four to five seconds from wilding. Yeah. Hold on. Hold on. This is this is not a conversation I ever saw. We go. I'm gonna we're gonna read through these lyrics. Here we go. I think I've had enough. Last second. How old wait. How old is this song? Is this is this this isn't on the album. Two or three years old? No. Yeah. Two no. It's two, three years old. Paul McCartney was on it. Okay. So they're not Jesus lyrics. Well, I think I've had enough. I might get a little drunk. I say what's on my mind. I might do a little time because all my kindness is taken for weakness. Now I'm four or five seconds from Wilden. Yeah. And we got three more days till Friday. I'm just trying to make it back home by Monday morning. I swear I wish somebody would tell me, oh, that's all I want. Three to four days from Friday is, like, Monday or Tuesday. But I'm about Wilden. He's already about fourteen seconds. Four and five seconds. Wilden. This week has sucked already. Yeah. That is just horrible. Four or five seconds from Wild, and it's literally three or four days till Friday.

Yeah. You know that's bad. You know things have really turned out terrible that day. Okay. I've had it with this week. Anyway, that sounds the only music I've ever heard. I've I've that's the only one I've ever heard from him. And you like that song? Yeah. It's catchy. Paul McCartney was on there. He was barely on it. Yeah. That's I liked his part. He's alright. I mean and Rihanna's a pretty good singer, you know. Rihanna's phenomenal. I was not a fan of Kanye. I I just I just, in general, like, I just didn't like his I just think he didn't write very good songs. So I I'm just haven't listened to it. I'm just

I I want to believe in this. I want so badly to believe that Yeezy has, has figured himself out. Maybe so. I hope so. I I hope so too. But, like, literally, what? Last year, he had a song, with a dude named Lil Pump, and it was literally

it was you're such an effing harlot is what the song was called. Yeah. And it was that was literally the the majority of the song was him saying that over and over and over again. Right. But, like, I mean, couldn't you just as reasonably in the first century gone, last year, Paul was collecting coats? I'm not saying that's why I'm saying I want to believe in it. I do. I just I'm I'm weary.

You're you're you're cheering for him. Yeah. Of course. I just I I mean I don't get personally burned by just believing that someone's came came to know Jesus. I don't here's the deal. I I don't know what it gains me to I don't want my hesitancy gains me. I'm not prone to lifting a man up and going, hey. You should follow Jesus because Kanye does. Like, I'm not gonna do that. So, like, it caused me literally nothing to be like That's that's the only way I know how to share the gospel, Ben. You know what Kanye said? Yeah. Yeah. Just wanted to share Kanye's stuff. I shared John Chris videos. Do you remember My famous James McDonald sermons. Do you remember

and he like I said, he came on to the scene with a song called Jesus walks. I don't that wasn't that wasn't really that was more Jesus walks with me. Like, that wasn't like I followed you there. What's the lyrics to that tune, man? Fired up. Okay. Yeah. Jesus walks. God show me the way because the devil's trying to break me down. Jesus walks. Okay. Here we go. Lyrics for Jesus walks. Order, Yo. We at war. We at war with terrorism, racism, but most of all, we at war with ourselves. God show me the way because the devil's trying to break me down. Jesus walks with me with me with me with me with me.

So what what made this guy famous? I mean That song, pretty much. That song was his beginning. I can't really repeat Onto the rap the rap. Is he married to someone? Or He's married to Kim Kardashian. Yeah. I mean, like Yeah. But that he was famous before that. He was famous way before that. How did he get a break? I mean Jesus Walks was that song. Yeah. That was his first main reason. Out on the street doing that, and somebody said, hey. That should be on Yeah. I'm sure he was doing music way before then. Like, you don't usually get picked up by major labels immediately. What his road was. Yeah. That I if I yeah. I cannot remember a single Kanye West song before Jesus Walks. The The thing I've the only thing I've heard, like, I I I don't know nothing of him, but but people have said, like, his lyrics are just really not mature.

No. No. Like, this This well I can't think of the words I'm trying to say, but but they're not impressive. Impressive. No. Yeah. I think he's I think he's a decent flow man. He's not a lyricist. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's true. But but you think you'd have to have that to be that popular because Yeah. Popular. Everybody knows what you're about. Name, you know. Yeah. Like, he's he's been either featured in in songs with great artists or himself

having artists feature with him for ten plus years. Yeah. I mean, he's been in it for a long time. Something going on that I don't know. Yeah. And, well, I mean, I I wouldn't expect that you would know much about the rap world, Dan. Why not? I don't know. It's just a feeling, I guess. I'm all hip. Yeah. That's true. I I would be interested if we read 50 rappers that I can think of, like, the what you would say

about them and who all you would know. But, yeah, no comment. You spent 50? Yeah. There's there's hundreds of Did you say his name was Yeezy? So he referred to himself as Yeezus. Yeezy for years. Kind

of like p Diddy has changed his name from Puff Daddy to p Diddy to, to Sean p Diddy Combs to all that kind of stuff like shoes named Yeezys? Yes. They're his shoes. Oh. It's a way to pull it together, Mike. Wow. I gotta get Yeah. So his shoes I just don't don't make Yeezys. Here's okay. Hold on. Sorry. I got distracted. So I was I was going up to look for those lyrics, and I came, there's a statue of Molech at the Colosseum in Rome.

You know that? A statue of the pagan deity Molech to which children were sacrificed in the ancient world is now stationed at the entrance to the Colosseum in Rome. It was like a new one? Yeah. It's A new one? Statue Of Molok outside the Colosseum was built as a celebration of car the Carthaginian culture and art. A reconstruction of the terrible deity Molok linked to Phoenician and Carthaginian religions and featured to the 1914 film Kabriah

will be stationed at the entrance to the Colosseum to welcome visitors to the exhibition. That's horrifying. Wait. They they worship Moloch in in Carthage? Yeah. I didn't know that. The Colosseum in Rome? Like, close to the pope, Rome? Yeah. Yeah. So here's what's interesting. The ancient Roman stadium was declared a sacred site in 1749

by pope Benedict the fourteenth in official church policy. Stations of the cross were later installed depicting images of Jesus Christ on his way to the cross with accompanying prayers. So what they're what they're saying was, oh, they've they've a a statue of child sacrifices on display at a holy site for Christians. But, like, just because the church said, oh, hey, this is a holy site. Yeah. It doesn't mean the Colosseum is actually a holy site. I just I can't they just tell a straight story even from Megrin. Well, see, there's nothing to do with anything. Can you imagine someone coming to you as as a statue man and would said, look. We need a we need a 12 foot Molek. You need a what? A 12 foot Molek. Who's Molek? Why? Well, he looks kinda like a gila monster,

kinda with wings and we chain him to the wall, and we don't wanna put him at the Colosseum. He's done for child sacrifice. Oh, yeah. Let me get right on now. What do you say to pay? He looks like a gila monster. He doesn't like gila monster. You should have a look at him. He's like a half goat, half gila monster with three eyes. Oh, are you looking at a picture right now? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I thought you just pulled that out of existence like you called the man a flugelhorn horn earlier. No. No. Because of my long study of the of the book of Nehemiah, I know what Molech is. Does does he have, like, the arms extended, like, to hold the baby and everything? Yeah. Yeah. They're out like this. Hold on. Let me I'll see if I can get one. You guys continue talking. That's horrifying. He's not a legit Molech. You know what saying? Like, I mean, I guess, why would even be offended? It'd be like someone showing up with a baseball bat and be like, I worship this bat. I call it god Louisville, and we worship it and we we sacrifice ducks. I'm like, mean, here's subtle legit guy. But the kings of Israel, were to take down the Shireh poles, the pole wasn't the god. I was gonna say they're just poles. That's what I'm saying. Well, right. But, like, obviously, like, the instructions were tear down the poles. Yeah. But no one's worshiping yeah. But no one's worshiping the captain. Kings is just terrible. Know what I'm saying? Like, people worship the old testament god of Molech. No one's worshiping this. Wait a So would you feel comfortable having a painting of Molech in your house? Yeah. I wouldn't want it there. Really?

I don't Wait. Are you saying really you don't No. You would be you would you're not against that? I am against it. That okay. Then you're arguing against yourself then. You just said it doesn't have any power. Yeah. It doesn't. But I just don't like it. Oh, you just you don't want it there because you don't like the look of it? Yeah. I don't need it. I'm a monstrous weird picture inside my house. It doesn't do anything for me. It's a it's a nonstarter. I put art that I enjoy. Okay. Hold on. Let me I've seen it. It's great. I can show you this. Yeah. Put it put it up. Let me see the Gila monster with wings. There he is.

Good. I think he's It does look like Gila monster. I feel like people He looks like a Power Ranger monster. I'd at least make fire come out of his mouth or something. I feel like it's something where you toss M and M's in. Yeah. I'm sure people will. Yeah. People are terrible. Wait. So His arms were, like, straight out because they would lay the baby and and they would actually roll into it. Oh, that's horrifying. Yeah. Yeah. They would burn him alive. So the so this is up now because they're trying to celebrate the the links between Phoenician and Carthaginian culture. It's like a history it's a historical exhibit. Right? Like, it's like What is what does that have to do with the Colosseum? They should, like, sell barbecue out of it too. Mean, they burned babies in them, so Oh, that's awful. You could sell Ville in it.

Let's see here. Let's Oh, that's probably the worst thing I've said today. That's one of my even another step. Oh, man. That's worse. Yeah. I was feeling bad for what I said. Yeah. I know. Thanks for making me feel better. You're welcome. You should you should realize how terrible of a person I am, Dan. Wait minute. Did it say the guy that did it? Oh, this is awesome. Hold on. I'm just trying to figure out what the Carthaginian Phoenician culture has of a molex statue follows another incident in Rome. Oh, well, that sounds fun. Hold on a second. Did you take a break from his Hitler statues he was making? No. It didn't say who did it. It's billed as a celebration of Carthaginian culture and art. We'll run through 03/29/2020. But this is kind of interesting. So the art display of the Molex statue follows another incident in Rome where pagan symbols were situated at or near sacred sites and gatherings. Controversy erupted in Vatican City last month over the use of Amazonian carved images, specifically Pachamama statues during the Amazon synod, a synodical meeting of Catholic bishops,

which some considered overt idolatry. Think taking a statue of, of the emperor Putum in the temple. Vatican and Sinai officials asserted that the images were representative symbols from the region, not pagan idols. Traditional Catholics hurled the Pachamama statues, symbols of fertility from the Amazon region into the Tiber River in Rome Oh, sweet. After having removed them from a side chapel of Santa Maria in Trans Patina, a church situated next to Saint Peter's Now here's the deal. Think of the stuff think of the stuff we were just talking about. We're like, hey. There's a problem. We just need to call the problem out. Now whether you think these fellows are right or overreacting You go throw that statue in river. They said, look. That is an Amazonian,

pagan deity, and it's near a holy place. We're throwing it out and put it in the river. I'm for it. You know what? I'm in. I agree. Yep. Well, maybe we should go take care of this molech problem. You guys ever spent time in a Romanian jail? Paul has. Why are we going follow.

Let's go take care of the statue. Why are they putting it as a Romanian jail? I mean, that's what I think he may him and Roman. Oh, okay. Right? I said it right. I got your back. Okay. Alright.

Bubba, you were looking for advice. What was it what was it that had to do? Father advice. That was so long ago, Ben. We've we've we've we've done so much since. Put it together. Don't go to the mole extension. I just okay. So so I'm not a father, and I'm not expecting to be a father anytime soon, so don't don't insinuate anything there. But I've had the the opportunity to be around a lot of kids. Like, I've got a lot of nephews, and I've got all the nieces, and godchildren, and, you know, friends' kids, and stuff like that. And I'm just

I'm interested in the way that that Christians deal with their kids. And and I that's Are you asking this because you want you're gonna be a father soon? I mean, not expecting. I mean, I'm hoping to be a daddy soon. Like, I can't wait to be a father. Okay. I gotta figure out the marriage thing first. But so

a friend of mine has a kid that is just he's a sweet kid, he's a sweet boy, I love him to death, But he's got a lot of issues with discipline and he has a lot of issues with, like, outbursts and temper tantrums and stuff like that and, like,

he's had it for years and, you know, everybody says the terrible twos and then that goes on to threes and then I don't know when that ends but Terrible twos, terrible threes, terrible person. He's a bad child. But like, I'm interested to hear how Christian fathers

deal with kids and help discipline children, either to help prevent this kind of stuff or, like, what they can do in that instance. Because I honestly don't know what discipline looks like in a Christian household. And I suppose that's my real question, is because I I don't know what it looks like, and I don't know how it's done well. Because I've seen both sides of it. I've seen, a very coddling perspective of,

you know, the child is always right, and the child is is young and they should get away with everything and all this kind of stuff. All the way to, oh, no. I'm gonna spank my children and all that good stuff and like, very capital punishment kind of deal. And I just I don't know what's right and I don't know if there's anything to glean from from what the Bible says about how to deal with your kids, or if this is just something that we have to deal with culturally, or what we can do because I don't understand it. And I guess,

you guys are all dads and have dealt with kids and have risen chill or or raised children, excuse me, of all ages at this point in time from from babies all the way up to, you know, married children. And so what what does that look like? What is what is what is raising a child in discipline look like in a Christian household? I don't know, Dan. Core principles?

Yeah. I I I mean, I guess my first first thought is it it you can't define it because it's different per child. You have to like, in my home, Danielle and and Shannon were completely different individuals that responded to different things. Mhmm. You know? So you you you you bathe the whole thing in prayer. And Yeah. You you

I mean, basic core things, like, never disciplined out of anger. We had rules set before, so they knew they they knew when they were breaking a rule. It wasn't like all of a sudden, hey. I hadn't thought of that. Bam. You you know, bring down the law. As far as, like, corp corporate punishment of of, like, physical discipline,

my my thought was very extremely rare but memorable. Uh-huh. You know? And then it was always go back, give him some time to let let it soak in and go back and embrace him and love him and talk about it some more. I mean, and never overdid it. You you know? Yeah. Very controlled, very very I think maybe twice ever with with either child because they didn't want it because then you just had to say, hey, this was gonna happen. Right. You know? And they was like, oh, and they don't want that to happen again. Actually, I think you kinda nailed it, Dan. It's like, I think one of the most effective

things that I've seen with parenting is, I mean, kids from when they're born to when they leave your house, really, they're fighting for freedom. Right? They're fighting for choice and and freedom and and and knowing And you gotta give them some. And you gotta give them some. To let them fail. And and Yeah. And especially when they're younger, it doesn't seem to make any sense. Right? But, like, I've had a lot of good luck both with my kids and maybe some other kids too, is is is basically just laying the choices out and letting them choose. Right? Like,

if you choose to not not make your lunch the night before, you know, I'm not gonna run your lunch at school. I'm not gonna make it for you. So if you don't have it, you're just gonna have to borrow from somebody or whatever, you know. So, like, if you forget to put your coat on, no one's gonna be able to bring you a coat at school. You're just gonna be cold today. So, you know, put put some thought into it. Yeah. And and, like, they it's funny because you think they'd be like, whatever. You're gonna leave me without a coat? Actually, you left yourself without a coat. You're just feeling the consequence of that. And so, like, allowing, even at a younger age,

the explain explanation of of what's going on here. It it it depending on the kid, especially if they already have the tendency to act out, They're acting they just want more freedom and they don't like the thing that you're imposing on them. Right? And so, like, once they start realizing that it was their choice that got them here, they still appreciate the feed of the freedom but they also appreciate the fact that you're laying out what's what exactly is going on here. So you like, generally, I will tend to say, you know, here's what's here's what we can do, that we can do this and this. Let me know what you decide. Either one's fine with me but you're gonna have to deal with the consequences with me either way. So let me know what you come up with and we'll go from there. And and, like, the the the corporal punishment thing, it's the same thing, like, look, if you if there's certain things we don't tolerate here as part of the way this house works and they end up with this and so, if it's something that you're not concerned with or you feel like you you'd like to go through that, then that's an option. But let me let me know what you had what you decided. It was a clear choice. Yeah. It's a clear choice. And, like, I'll I'll take that. And you won't have to do it very often. Right? Like, I I I can count. Mine was mine was two or less of of the times that I had to do that and I hated doing it. I'm saying that. I wish they would just straighten it up so I would not have to do this. And usually, it's only for really severe things like lying. That one, I don't tolerate. That's pretty much all I won't tolerate is I don't tolerate any type of lying.

But other than that, look, you made a choice, you gotta sit in it. I can't bail you out of it, you know, but but You expect them to act their age. Correct. Yeah. I mean, you got you know? And so and so you explain it to them at their age level what their choices are gonna be. And, like, after the terrible twos, then they start getting a little bit more talks. But it's it's never it's never I know I know and you don't. That it doesn't It's not a war against your child. Right? It's it's a this because what I mean, really, what is your job? Right? As a parent, your job is to introduce your kids to a world that God created and say, this is how we behave in it. Right? Like, we follow Jesus with this, so we're gonna run into these situations and they have these consequences and you could do this if you want to or this and these are the things that happen and and you're imparting wisdom that was given to you through whatever your life experience is and you're just trying to help your kid understand how to be in the world when you're not there anymore so they can operate. Right? And so, like, you're never doing them the because I said so thing. Right? Like, you probably get two as a parent and I would use them sparingly. Yeah. Like, where they're gonna sass you and you're just not in the mood for it and you're like, that's just what we're doing right now. Do it. But it happens a lot. I had a neat conversation with Shanna a few months ago

where she was in a group of college students. So it was pretty good sized group, and they were talking about their upbringings. And and there was a lot of bitterness toward their parents that people had because they never knew why, the rules. And Shanna had she's like, she always knew the why. It wasn't just don't do hey. Don't eat Cheerios. It's like, I would tell her why. Whatever, you know Yeah. Right. That wasn't the rule. You know, whatever the rules heart health in this thing. I'm away from the Cheerios. Because I figured my goal isn't just to make her a moral person that looked like me, but to know how to act. So we always explain, this is why we do what we do, and this is why I'm giving you this rule. So then she had that full choice. I'll go ahead and take the discipline or whatever. Yeah. You know? But, I mean, that rarely happened. But information

is so critical. You're you're teaching them how to be future human being Christ followers. That's that's that was big. That was big to her. I agree. I think it's I think it's the ability to give them a choice. And even the most rambunctious kid. Mhmm. I've had this I've had this in in youth groups, right, where if I have had a kid, he's just a little bit rowdy, you know, and sometimes you gotta yank him up and say, look, man, if if you feel like you gotta keep doing this, I'm probably gonna have to have you sit outside or you can have a seat and we can get through this thing together. It's your call. I'll give you a couple minutes, tell me what you wanna do. Either one's fine with me but we do have a thing that we need to get through so whatever you wanna do. And and inevitably, he always goes, no no no. I I wanna stay. I said, alright. Well, just remember the deal. If you can't keep yourself sitting in the seat, then we'll have to do the outside deal. But let me know what you wanna do and and we'll move on. And, like, I I got no problems with that kid. Two times, I've had to make that conversation with him. This rambunctious crazy man sits down, does what he's supposed to because it was his call. Right? And it's like, it's all a kid is fighting for, especially I mean, just put depart some some other stuff maybe a kid has going on, but, like, they're just fighting for freedom. They just they wanna feel like they have some control over their over their life and what they're doing and feel like they got to make a choice and nothing frustrates them faster than if, you know, you won't give them that option. Well, I think the I think the clear thing there is that, it sets realistic boundaries because, like, the truth is is, like, there are some things a kid has control over and then some things that they do not.

And if you give them a sense they have more control over the world than they do, you're providing them a false sense of reality. My kid does not, by screaming, does not get to con make the reality that I said was going to be true change. If I say, hey. This is it's time to go to bed, and the kid decides to weep and wail and scream in the hallway, like, if I don't make them go to bed, it gives them the sense that their screaming had an impact on the reality that it was time to go to bed and it does not. Right? And so if you think if you sum up some of this stuff, it comes to your job is to impart, the the world that they are going to live in, the realities of the world they're gonna live in. It includes following Jesus. It includes consequences of things that are going on. It includes the reality that, like, here are your choices. If you think about the choices,

and you're giving them two things that can occur based upon their decision. Not said within that is here's another 80 things that the kid think might happen if they scream for a while. If you say, hey. If you if you don't stop screaming, x x is gonna happen or you can give it up and we can go read a book. And there's if they have in their mind, oh, but if I scream, then I don't have to go to bed as early. Like, that's a false reality. If you and there's no reason for you to abide that. Like, that's that's a lot of the false things that goes on. It's like you give a kid a false sense of what they can control and you're doing them a disservice just like you are if you take all choice away from them. Correct. And giving and and and letting them actually see that they're that they're screaming or whatever gets to change your emotional state. Right? Like, I can remember a distinct conversation with my daughter who said, look, I realize you're upset but if you're gonna if you're gonna make that kind of racket, you're gonna have to go to your room and do it because you're certainly not gonna do it out here, you know? And so you could be mad if you want to, but you're gonna have to do you're really you're toning down what we're doing. And so you have to go in your room and and do it in your room, you know? Or you can stay out here and stop doing that. Your those are your options. That's that's actually one of the most powerful things as a parent is if you can get to a place where, like, your kid's acting like a total doofus and you're like, look, I see that you're mad, but just so you know, I'm not. Like, you don't you don't get to tell me I'm not gonna tell you what you get to feel, because, like, you're gonna like, again, especially when you get to, like, the the early

early teen years or whatever, like, they're gonna feel ridiculous things. And you're like, boy, you feel I feel like you're overreacting here. But whatever. There's a reality to how you're feeling, but that doesn't change my reaction to what your reality actually is. And so my job is to help kinda center your reality and remind you that this is actually what the situation is. Here's the consequences. Here's I really think if I'm giving you wisdom, I think you should take this option. This is what would be best for you. But, you know, other than what but but, like, you don't get to dictate what I feel. And I think that's the one of the worst parts of the the the things where I felt worse as a parent, like, at my very worst, was times where I felt like I let my kid cause me to lose some sense of control over my life, over how I react. And I've apologized to my children not because I actually did the wrong thing, but because I knew it. I felt it in my mind and, I I don't ever really raise my voice. Every once in a while, like, it'll barely inch up and I'm like and, like, in this in the grand scheme of things, certainly, other kids have been yelled at a lot more. But, like, I will apologize to my kids when my voice is raised not because I raised my voice but because I lost some control that is my responsibility to keep. And I will not let my kid bully me into being a a not a person who is not calm, who is not have the right grip on reality because it's my job to help them understand reality. And if I lose my grip of reality, I can't help them, and that's when it's unacceptable to me.

So, I don't know, boob, was that hitting what kind of stuff you're looking for? Yeah. It I I think so. Here's the You know, here's the thing though. I and, this is related, I think, to the initial premise of the question. It's a long haul. Right. Like, if you're the person, of which you are presenting your child with a real with a sense of reality, it has to be trustworthy. They have to trust that you are actually seeing the reality

correctly. They have to trust that you are looking out for their best interest in it, that you are guiding them in the way that they that they otherwise should go. To the extent that you are not trustworthy, your attempts to to do this are gonna go very, very poorly. And, like, for some parents, like, you have you didn't do this for, like, the first six years of your life. And I'll be honest with you, your life is a lot harder than it could have been. Like, if you don't if you don't establish that, it's harder to get it back. I think you can get it. I I think it can happen but, like, it just takes time. That stuff's not gonna happen overnight. Right. And you have you have to invest in it, but but it's one of those, if your parents are struggling with something like that, just know, like, if someone gives you good advice or, like, of some sort of parenting program that says do this, like, it's not just incidental.

You're gonna have to stick with it because over a long period of time because, ultimately, they have to trust you. They have to trust that your recommendation and your view reality is correct. Yep. Fair enough. Thanks, fellas. Alright. I'm gonna save the 15 things we're in church blah blah blah for next week. Woah. Mike, real quick, you got a other people want some advice? Yeah. We got Dear Life from the Path. Okay. Dear Life from the Path.

I have a friend who lived in my home most of the time for about six years. During that period, she rented out rooms in her house. She paid her bills and I paid mine, but I covered her living off me. At the time, it didn't bother me much because I could afford it, although I would have preferred to save that money. I've since sold that house and bought my dream retirement home in another state. Now, I stay with her and her renters have moved out. It's unpleasant sometimes because when she gets drunk, she accuses me of using her. It's true. I am doing that. Is it okay to use her by staying in her home without really liking her much? I feel like it's my turn like it's my turn to leech, and I'd like to stick out until I retire in about a year. What? What? So you're They're I'm not following this. You're knowingly lead chain off of someone now

because you feel affronted at the fact that they did it to you? They stayed at her place for six years. She rented out rooms in her own house, so she paid her bills and I paid mine but she paid the living expenses of her friend living at her house. Uh-huh. So probably her portion of the electricity, water, whatever. Yeah. Yes. Now anyway. Yeah. Your friend wronged you and leached out you, you're right. Right. So now But that doesn't mean you can knowingly do that now. Well, I mean, why is it it's not really leaching if you're if you're if you're if you're okay with it. Right? Like, I mean, if you're just providing a room for somebody, it's not leaching, you know?

I don't know. What means? You don't know? So she's I don't know. So so she's mystified. She's asking if it's okay, though. Yeah. I think it's fine. I mean, I don't think it's morally good. Like, whatever frame of mind you're in doesn't seem positive, but, like, it's not an affront to society. If if the woman here's the the core principle. The woman doesn't mind you being there, then I don't know what it matters. Well, I mean, it only seems to bother her when she's drunk. Yeah. But it sounds like she's being disingenuous about the fact that she doesn't like this gal.

What do you mean? No. She said, even though I don't like her, should I stay here? Well I wonder if she's putting up a front that she likes this gal. I mean, should she let her stay there? Oh, well, okay. If if the question is, should I lie to this person and imply that I like them just so I can stay here for cheap? No. You shouldn't do that. That's what I got. Yeah. But is she just saying, hey. This isn't my favorite person in the world. Is it is it still okay if I stay there? Sure. She's being a key I think so. The gal gets drunk and accuses her of using her. She knows it's happening. Yeah. What that but that's what I'm saying. It's like, she only gets tuned she only gets fired up at her when she's all tuned up. You just need to turn around and say, whatever, Edna. You're drunk. You got the you got the drunk. Yeah. But those thoughts are coming from someone. Calm down. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Those drunken thoughts aren't just just I don't think need be pessimistic. How many drunks have you met? Where they come up with some off the wall craziness? And you're like, what are you talking about? Maybe crazy, but that's stuff that they're possibly thinking when they're so pissed. I I should be worried my friend is gonna fire up a dinosaur relay race. No. How drunk are the people around you getting that they're talking about? Hang out with the

prehistoric animals. Hey, man. We should start our own business. We should do dodgeball. We should do dodgeball dodgeball court. That'd be the best. That probably came from an underlying subconscious love of dodgeball, Mike. That is insane. So And there's no reason to I don't think hey. Actually, I you could probably save a lot of strife in the world if you just, like, refuse to validate anything that comes out of someone's mouth when you know they're tuned up like that. Yeah. I I I mean, I don't care where it came from unless they're willing, unless they have the stones to say it when they're not drunk.

I don't know why it has to infect my life as if it's a reality. Right. Yeah. Do you know what you said when you were drunk? No? Well, then I don't know what I'm investing in. And it's just like with the children. Like, I'm gonna let you get me all fired up just because you get you get on the sauce and start running your gas. Actually, seriously, though, like, I I don't know how many times, like, I've been witness to a parent, like, way overreact. Like, you we've you've heard me say this from a marriage perspective. It's true with your kids too. Like, someone has to be reasonable. If someone's unreasonable, just go, oh, shoot. Guess it must I'm the designated reasonable person. I'm the designated driver here. This person's gonna get jacked up. I'm gonna keep it cool. If your kid's acting like a nut, you have to hold the fort. Okay? Like and, unfortunately, with your kid relationship, it's always you. Your job is to hold the fort. And so, yeah, you don't have to meet that head on. So long story short, she'd want she wants to stick out living with this gal for one more year. Yeah. And she looks at it as a bargain because the other gal stayed with her for, like, six years. I that's not relevant. If the other the other lady could raise the rent if she wants to. I mean, if you're unhappy, leave. If if you can handle it, stay. Yeah. I'll say it's just not a big it doesn't matter. I don't care either way. Yeah. She doesn't have to like the woman to stay there. No. No. Because why? Because when I catch an Uber, I don't check and see whether I'm friends with the man. His job is to get me from point a to point b. I believe living with a person all the time is different than your Uber driver. Yeah. Agreed. You're paying your Uber driver. What do you mean? Why? Wait. Are are are is the implication that they're take a shower into Uber?

I mean, do you put your dresser in there? Do they shower together? I mean Does she live in the same room? Like that. I'm saying where you cook your meals, find your solace, do your recharging. No one does that in an Uber. Everyone does it at home. But hold a minute. If you run an apartment complex, do you have to like everybody who buys from you? Absolutely, my or yes, Ben. Well, that's ridiculous. No. I'm kidding. No. Okay then. I this is the same saying if you look at it, just it lives in a room. That means they're sharing a bathroom or a kitchen or at least a furniture way. I don't know why it might have has to I think it's the same situation that she had with her the first time is that she feels like she's leeching off for a little bit, it's on her conscience, and that's what she's at. She knows she is. I mean, they've been in this relationship for years. Yeah. Just at the other person's house. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so so you got a year left. I mean, I I guess don't carry the weight. Yeah. Yeah. I'm yeah. If you're worked up, move if It's a big nothing burger. No one cares about this. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. Let's see. Stagler says,

okay. Yeah. It's okay with me as long as it's okay with you. But don't kid yourself. You're not living there rent free. Tolerating an unpleasant drunk is the price you're paying, and only you can determine whether it's worth it. Whatever. How often is she drunk? I don't know. Well, At Christmas. Well, sure. But, like, I mean, here's the deal. This is a that's a very basic thing. Like, is this an environment I wanna continue to stay in? Obviously, she thinks it's okay. She's willing to hang it out for another year. Like, it's I agree. That's the cost of hanging out if maybe someone gets drunk or leaves a seat down. But, like, what are gonna do? That's part of the cost of living there. Either it's okay or it's not. Pros and cons, man. Get out a sheet of paper. There you go. Alright. Last one. Ready? Okay. Yep. Dear life from the path. My companion of many years and I ret this is great. My companion of many years and I retired and live a few hours away from some of his family. K. When one of them plans a visit, she always insists on taking us out for a meal. Mhmm. She doesn't ask if we would like to eat out, but rather commands it. Then she insists on paying for the meal. Oh, that sounds like a real crooked woman right now. Man, that's terrible. I'm taking you out to eat and I'm paying the bill. She wants to love on her family, man. How terrible.

Well, here it comes. I enjoy cooking and visiting with family during and after meals. I know what our dietary restrictions are. Most restaurant meals do not meet these requirements, which include low sodium, fat and sugar, and no gluten. According to my companion, I'm a good cook, and he enjoys everything I make. I know I should say something, but what? I need a suggestion on how to deal with the situation without hurting anyone's feelings. What? You know you should say something? You know wrong. You're wrong. You missed that one. You suck as a person. You should not say anything. I'm sorry. You suck. Terrible. That's yeah. Absolutely not. Yeah. Keep it to yourself. I mean, they they they live a long way. They how often do they visit? Like Yeah. Yeah. Like, four times a week? I mean, like, is it, once a month? Times a week, we have we get taken out to dinner for free. These these relatives It's 2019. Everybody's got a gluten free option. Right. Right. You're ridiculous. Mean Low sodium, say no salt. My my man companion loves everything I cook. No one said anything about that. Yeah. No one said anything about that at all. You suck. I mean, what the here's the thing. On on the opposite hand, what person comes into town and says, boy, I can't wait for you to spend a bunch of money and cook me a meal? Gobble, gobble, gobble.

Nice. When I come to somebody's place, I feel terrible. I'm just like, I what can I can I can I take up some chores while I'm there or something? Like Let's go out. It's on me. Right. You inconsiderate boob. Yeah. How dare you wanna take me and my companion out to dinner? Food's not good enough? You're you want to pay for it all? Wow. That is tough to take in despite How dare you. You suck. I need a suggestion on how to deal with the situation without hurting anyone's feelings. You should just shut your mouth. Yeah. Echo, yep. Button it up. I know I should say something. Sounds like you don't know anything. Alright. Secular says, this relative may not may not mean to seem overbearing and may only be trying to be nice. Thank her warmly for wanting to take you to dinner, but tell her no. Explain that because of medical reasons. Both of you must strictly limit the sodium, fat, sugar, and gluten in your diet, which is why the two of you have decided it is, quote, safer to eat at home, where you can control what goes into your food. Then invite her to join you because you would love to see her and spend time with her while she's in

okay. I mean, could you you could say, hey, you you like, this don't sound like the people that would be offended if you said, hey, can we try this restaurant? Right. Right. Because because Larry can have can eat there and does he eat? Like, I mean, do whatever you gotta do. Like yeah. Yeah. Go somewhere besides the steak and shake? Yeah. Of course. She comes and she's like, hey, let's go to Sam and Tony's. And you're like, wow. Here's the deal. Let's get my started to keto. So, I mean, we gotta do you know can we find a place that's pretty keto friendly? Oh, man. Those are hard to find. Well, I tell you what, why don't I just whip something up here? Let's go to a store together, grab some grab some stuff, and we'll make the food here. Sounds great. You know what you can do with that dietary restriction you just said? Order a burger, plain.

No salt. That's it. Throw it on a salad, and you are 100% within your dietary restrictions. No sugars, no fats. You still get a protein. You still get a salad. Enjoy your life. You just want to be angry. I'm on Whole30 and go out to eat when I can. It just It's fucked. Wants to be mad at people. He can be upset. That's all. I know I should say something. Alright. You're listening live from the path. Thanks for hanging out with us tonight. We really do appreciate it. If you get any feedback on the show, give us a call or a text on the complaint line. That's (515) 517-0085. It's (515) 517-0085. We'd love to hear from you. In the meantime, be faithful in the means. God will handle the ends. You've been listening to Live From The Past.