Rhett and Link are back with a new installment of Mass Monday, and this time, we're joined by Gerald A. Quandt (aka QuarterBlackGarrett) to discuss the latest in the Rhett/Link saga. They talk about their decision to take matters into their own hands, and whether or not the idea of being "brand friendly" is a Christian value.
00:01:04.000So we're going to get into Rhett and Link a little bit.
00:01:06.000And I want to be clear, very much appreciate Rhett and Link, what they do.
00:01:11.000I can appreciate their position that they're stepping out.
00:01:13.000I do think it takes some courage to talk about their sort of abandoning of faith and their crisis of faith.
00:01:19.000Doing my best to keep this really as brand friendly as possible.
00:01:23.000Which brings me to the question, let me ask you, is brand friendly or even sort of mainstream audience friendly Something, the idea of that, something that Christians should value at all.
00:01:32.000Is there a biblical prescription as it applies to living your life so that others around you like you?
00:02:42.000Which brings us to kind of a point that I wanted to talk about.
00:02:45.000This is sort of a chant that we hear quite a bit from sort of a mantra, and you were talking about this audio wave, so feel free to chime in at any point.
00:02:52.000Rhett and Link, they continually talk, and it seems to be a value that is very important to them personally, as well as professionally, and that's the idea of being popular, being brand friendly.
00:03:07.000We know we're kind of the poster boys of the trending page and sort of the, why are these guys always trending?
00:03:15.000That, that question, because it isn't because our videos get, if you look at the trending page, most videos will have more views than what we, that we've got up there.
00:03:39.000And I think the algorithm just interprets it as a lot of people are interested in this video, even if it's our Good Mythical More, which is our sort of like second channel show after the show.
00:03:49.000that may get 200,000 or 300,000 views.
00:03:51.000A lot of times that video will be lost on that video.
00:03:53.000And sometimes it will trend before the main episode.
00:03:57.000So I think it's just based on, it gets thrown into the system
00:03:59.000and they're like, oh yeah, Redlink, they're brand safe, put them up there.
00:04:30.000And if you know, especially over that track record, that they can trust that, okay, we're not going to do anything to invite backlash from brands.
00:05:47.000But to go back to the point that it may originally seem, and this is what I do want to focus on in a biblical perspective, because they sort of tie in their ideas beforehand of how they lived their life into a biblical perspective and why they left, which is just, I would disagree with because I don't think it's a biblical perspective.
00:06:01.000We're talking about brand friendly and the idea of appealing to a mass audience regardless of what is required to be appealing.
00:06:11.000But here you go, I think this is another clip just so you have some context echoing again this sort of overall sentiment in their content.
00:06:43.000And I think that if you had an interaction with us, and I'm, you know what, maybe you remember, but I had this thought that like people can tell that we're different and We would usually say that in a good way.
00:06:59.000It's like, people can tell that we're different, and that's us being a witness for us having a relationship with Jesus, okay?
00:07:32.000I blame it on the people who, um, YouTube gonna YouTube.
00:07:35.000But I do place the blame squarely on the shoulders, and this is also a biblical principle of personal responsibility and being judged for one's own actions, trying to appeal.
00:09:03.000So is there, outside of the idea intellectually, that really you can't use that as an argument at all, how many people receive you a certain way.
00:09:10.000That doesn't necessarily mean that they're right.
00:09:12.000There can be the majority of any group, any country, any historical class, and they can be wrong.
00:09:33.000Yeah, they also use that same argument when they're talking about the church needing to accept, I believe, gay marriage and things like that.
00:09:48.000We will go back to that clip and we have some verses here to get into because I think this is something that this sort of I've always said it does a great disservice unfortunately to Christianity when you whitewash it.
00:09:58.000So a lot of people saying like when if you just say God is just God is love no no God of course loves everyone right as Christians and again this is Mass Monday so for people who are angry atheists I see you in the comment section.
00:10:27.000And the idea that you should be loved by everyone is, of course, untrue.
00:10:30.000Well, and they danced around some topics here, going back through the two clips that we played.
00:10:34.000The first one was dancing around the obvious elephant in the room of, yeah, I don't know really why our videos show up on the trending page as much as they do.
00:10:43.000I wonder why YouTube might feel it useful to have a large channel that basically says Christianity is wrong until they allow LGBTQ pastors I just don't get it.
00:10:54.000I don't understand why they're so friendly to us.
00:10:58.000In the second video, real quick, he said that they had 1,700 videos of a track record that showed that they were going to be brand friendly.
00:11:08.000And I don't say this out of anger towards them, but in this conversation that's been started, are you telling me over 1,700 videos you've never taken a stand that was unpopular?
00:11:17.000You have tried to conform your worldview.
00:11:19.000I realized recently, unfortunately, in calling me a piece of s***, they were surprised that
00:11:22.000they ended up not being seen as champions of the good guy at that point.
00:12:08.000If you read the Old Testament, it's an R-rated film.
00:12:10.000And that's not because God doesn't love, but that's because God is also just.
00:12:14.000And God understands that certain times in history require certain appropriate levels of punishment.
00:12:20.000So just whitewashing Christianity with the Rob Bell or even the prosperity gospel, it's too easy to poke holes in.
00:12:27.000And unfortunately, I think that some of that might have been the basis of a lot of Rhett and Link's faith, because that's a lot of young Christians.
00:12:34.000And then that's a really easy transfer to sort of moral ambiguity, situational ethics, which is where we see them now.
00:12:42.000Well, and I think that it comes out of the whole God is love thing.
00:12:44.000By the way, would you want to serve a God that was unjust, that didn't punish wickedness, that didn't reward doing the things that He asks you to do?
00:12:53.000And there's a really quick answer to this.
00:13:30.000So I'd like to get into kind of focusing on this idea that is there a biblical basis at all to wanting to please as many people as possible or being as brand friendly as possible.
00:13:41.000I think we have a couple of verses here.
00:13:43.000Gerald, if you or AudioAid, if you want to read the first one.
00:13:45.000Yeah, so Luke 6 26 woe to you and all people speak well of you for so their fathers did to the false prophets pretty rough stuff Galatians 1 10 for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am I trying to please man if I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of God All right, let me have Gerald read the other one, because he's got buttered radio sex voice.
00:14:48.000But the truth is, and they are, and here's what also matters, they are also enabling, and they are also accessories to other governments outside of the United States.
00:14:57.000This particularly matters as we'll get into China a little bit.
00:15:17.000But when they asked him, and he said, I am, that's about as offensive as you can get when Jesus says, no, this is absolutely what I believe.
00:15:30.000That came with hatred of some, not all.
00:15:33.000Well, he knew that truth would divide people, and so that's why in one of the verses, we didn't quote this one here, but he says, I didn't come to unite, but to divide.
00:15:40.000He wasn't saying, like, I've come to be a division among you.
00:15:42.000He was saying, I came to give you truth, and I know that truth is going to divide you guys, because people are not going to accept it, and it's going to make them very angry.
00:15:49.000I'm not going to do it in an unloving way, but I am going to be truthful, and I'm going to take a stand.
00:15:53.000So you're saying that crucifixion was kind of the first demonetization?
00:16:00.000Going back to what Gerald said, if you've made that much content and have made nothing that people disagree with or that rubs brands the wrong way, then you don't have any standards.
00:16:11.000And if there's that much content, is Taco Bell your ultimate morality standard?
00:16:19.000Whether they're going to monetize your video?
00:16:20.000That's a silly way of viewing content.
00:16:50.000It was very much the whole Agape, Los Angeles, Christianity, brand of love, which again is more easily transferable.
00:16:56.000Your rewards points with no blackout dates, it's feel good, God is love, is much more easily transferable to, you know what, I just want to make everyone feel good by not offending anybody.
00:17:07.000And that also so happens to conveniently land you on the trending page, and land you in the good graces of YouTube.
00:17:12.000By the way, that's also a logical fallacy, the idea that, well, Taco Bell.
00:17:16.000This is also something, when you're talking about being brand-friendly, you're talking about appealing to brands that, through the selection process, inherently share one worldview.
00:17:25.000You want to tell me that Walther, that Smith & Wesson, that, I don't know, take your pick of a litany of these companies, wouldn't want to run ads on YouTube?
00:18:10.000For example, if he's anti-firearm, that's fine.
00:18:13.000And you can have a discussion about that.
00:18:14.000But at a certain point when you say, hold on a second, I have spoken out against firearms.
00:18:18.000I have clearly spoken out against the church for not—or most churches—for not recognizing same-sex marriage or allowing gay people in positions of authority.
00:18:27.000By the way, same thing with promiscuous members of the church are not allowed.
00:18:30.000If you're cohabitating at my church, if you're cohabitating with your girlfriend, you're
00:18:55.000Is there ever a history when you were a Christian, or an atheist, or agnostic, ever a track record of taking a stand that may not be brand friendly?
00:19:04.000In other words, it's no risk to say I'm against firearms.
00:19:06.000It's no risk to say, allow LGBTQAIP in the church.
00:19:10.000But I've got to imagine that every single person From far-left Marxist communists to far-right anarchists have some views that are unpopular or not brand-friendly.
00:19:22.000I can't imagine anyone going through 1,700 videos without something that isn't brand-friendly, whether it's the Pope, whether it's the Imam of Peace, whether it's our channel, whether it's Philip DeFranco, unless it is by design inconsequential.
00:19:37.000Yeah, and I think it shows a bit of a lack of awareness to the system that they are playing in.
00:19:42.000It may be that they know exactly what they're doing, or that they may be just a little naive about it, but you can't go through that entire process and say, well, we haven't ever done anything that would make brands not want to be a part of us or see backlash.
00:20:40.000There also is a component of right and wrong here.
00:20:43.000And my point is, if we want to talk about common ground, The division that is sowed is often because of YouTube and because of big tech sort of acting as though there's this brand friendly, like, this is the discourse that's allowed in a civil society.
00:20:56.000But the fact is, hold on a second, Black Rifle Coffee, right, they sponsor this show because they want to go against the grain, because they don't want to sponsor those points of view.
00:21:04.000But they have to come to us directly because a lot of these companies can't just get in the same YouTube branding
00:22:00.000And I think that's actually the next clip.
00:22:01.000And this is actually, so here's another clip where, and honestly, like I say, I say this with a heavy heart and, you know, listen, obviously I know I make fun of people a whole lot more.
00:22:10.000I'm trying to avoid doing that with Rhett and Link just because I would love to obviously speak with them and I'll make fun of them some other day for things that are relatively inconsequential, but I don't want to twist the knife if they feel alienated because of their worldview.
00:22:20.000So yeah, if you're feeling like you're seeing a different side of me, it's because I'm being good.
00:22:27.000They couldn't be, this is so sad, more obsessed with what other people think about them.
00:22:31.000That is the basis because that also determines how they view themselves.
00:22:35.000If you don't believe me and you don't think this is sad, here's another clip.
00:22:59.000Now, let me be really clear here, by the way, because you could lob this criticism at me.
00:23:03.000When I wake up, and actually I will say when I wake up I try and do my devotionals first, and often make some coffee, try and take some time, and I do pray because that's a big part of what makes me me.
00:23:13.000But even the first thing I do, when I go into my email or I go into our drive to look at show maps and research, The last thing on my mind is, hey, what did people think about me?
00:23:24.000In other words, I don't read the comments section.
00:23:27.000I'm not supposed to because specifically this can happen.
00:23:30.000What I am doing is going, okay, what inaccuracies, injustices, or need-to-know information do I have to work on today to best serve our audience?
00:23:40.000It's not how can the audience best serve my ego or determine My moral worldview so that I'm still under the brand-friendly umbrella and make the YouTube trending list.
00:23:48.000So there's a big difference between wanting to do your job well, wanting to serve your audience well, and wanting to shape-shift in order to, frankly, maximize the pat-on-the-back ego stroke that your audience provides you.
00:24:04.000Which is why it's sad to me, because that'll always be fleeting.
00:24:07.000Yeah, it's never going to lead you to a good place.
00:24:09.000And historically, we've seen that just following after popular opinion, it doesn't normally lead to a more edifying, more loving, more accepting, more truth-centered world or a freer world at all.
00:24:20.000And so there's this saying in Latin, Vox Populi, Vox Dei.
00:24:34.000But basically, this concept that the voice of the people is the voice of God, right?
00:24:38.000And that seems to be where Red and Link might be leaning, right?
00:24:42.000Because they've talked about how they've, you know, we went through the deconstructing their faith and that's what started all this, obviously.
00:25:57.000And I was as a kid going, simply count his friends, and as a kid it bothered me.
00:26:01.000Jesus had few friends and a lot of people who wanted him dead.
00:26:05.000So you've got to count friends as well as enemies.
00:26:08.000And some people have more friends and some people have more enemies, and it doesn't mean that they're necessarily morally right or wrong, but you shouldn't... To me, someone saying, that's the metric of a man, how many friends bothered me as a kid.
00:26:42.000Because we also have a clip specifically from Rhett and Link for that.
00:26:47.000I find it really interesting that some people are making that argument, and one thing I saw said, it's too late for Rhett and Link, mostly because of this LGBT thing.
00:26:57.000Once they've gone there, it's too late for them.
00:27:00.000And I'm like, can't you see that you guys have lost this argument?
00:27:06.000History is going to leave you behind, you know?
00:27:09.000Even the most conservative denominations a hundred years from now.
00:27:14.000No one except a fringe cult is going to be anti-LGBT in a hundred years.
00:27:21.000If you just look at history and the way things progress culturally, eventually the church says, okay, we'll incorporate that, too, because if we don't, we're going to die.
00:27:30.000But I think because the church is being really slow to do that, and it's kind of causing an existential crisis and a
00:27:34.000crisis of just the way that they see the Bible.
00:27:38.000The young people are just saying, I'm out. I'm not gonna be a part of this.
00:27:42.000Well, hold on a second. Maybe if young people are the young people like you, that doesn't cause someone like me to say,
00:27:46.000I'm out from the Bible, because guess what? It doesn't force me to relook at the Bible at all. The idea of
00:27:50.000progress, first off, progress changes.
00:28:14.000And then we had the 60s and the 70s where we changed that, where we actually made men look like women and men wore bell bottoms and tighter tops because it was kind of a feminist revolution.
00:28:21.000Then you look at the 80s where it went the other way.
00:29:33.000Right, but you also had a misperception.
00:29:36.000This is also important, where he was like, in the earlier video, we've talked about this, where he talked about Michael Buckley, the what-the-buck guy.
00:29:43.000That was his thing, his catchphrase was what-the-buck.
00:29:48.000It's not the gay thing, but you don't have to be so gay.
00:29:52.000So I do think if you interpreted that you were supposed to hate someone because they were gay, that was not at all a biblical interpretation.
00:30:00.000And if you're trying to say that won't be in the church a hundred years from now, it's not in the church now.
00:30:06.000There have been bastardizations of it, but it's never been mainstream theology in the church that you are to hate No, but I don't think that he's just saying that.
00:30:15.000I think he's saying that it will be openly celebrated and accepted as normal and not sin, right?
00:30:29.000We have something that can kind of move around and go, well, at some point, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife is going to probably have to go out of style because you'll just be some random church and you'll die, right?
00:30:46.000You've got to have an understanding that God's Word is what it is, and you can think what you want about it, but you have to be honest about what it says.
00:30:53.000So if he says, well, churches are just going to have to change, well, you're not saying churches will have to change.
00:31:07.000Someone said you can't water down medicine and then be surprised when it doesn't work.
00:31:10.000That's why I think it's really wrong when you have a lot of preachers who go out there and they draw the line at LGBTQAAIP, but they don't go out there and actively speak against, you know, living with someone before you're married.
00:31:33.000A heroin addict, and I'm not comparing all gay people to heroin addicts, but a heroin addict, someone who dresses, a cross-dresser, and transsexual, and gay person, and a person who is just living with his girlfriend for seven years, who says, it's just a piece of paper, baby.
00:32:12.000But for some reason it's more acceptable to some Christians because she's attractive.
00:32:15.000And Jesus actually set the standard for this.
00:32:18.000He was actually accused or he was heckled essentially because he would be often found around sinners, prostitutes, and people who needed, and he basically made the comment, it's not the well that need a doctor, it's the sick.
00:32:29.000The people that are sick, those are the people.
00:32:30.000So you don't shun these people groups from church.
00:33:21.000It's not a bad thing, but you need to be able to diagnose the problem.
00:33:25.000You need to be able to assess the sin so that you can serve the sinner.
00:33:30.000Otherwise, they are held bondage to sin for the rest of their life.
00:33:33.000This is what we've always believed as Christians.
00:33:36.000And it's remarkable to me that that's become a problem now because people don't like to ever be reminded of the fact that we're all sinners.
00:33:41.000I mean, I've probably sinned 20 times, not today, on this broadcast.
00:33:45.000Well, and look, it goes back to, you know, going back to the popularity and kind of serving the mob.
00:33:50.000We understand that that's not what we're supposed to do, even if, and we've talked about the monetary side of this, if you're making your show brand friendly so that you can get money, even if it costs you something, the Bible calls us to do what's right, right?
00:34:01.000And it goes back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.17, and this is just, it's one of my favorite verses because these guys basically are being called to bow down and worship before this king, Nebuchadnezzar, and they say, they're basically like, king, we can't do this.
00:34:16.000And the king says that he's going to throw them into the fiery furnace and then it picks up in verse 17 It says look if it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace And he will deliver us out of thy hand Oh King, but it then it goes on and says even if he does you're not gonna do it Going to do transgender makeup tutorials.
00:34:36.000If you have a line in the sand, it may cost you something.
00:34:40.000So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are making the point, we're not going to serve you above our God.
00:34:45.000We're not going to serve money above God.
00:34:46.000We're not going to serve family above God.
00:34:48.000We're not going to serve my job above God, whatever it is.
00:34:51.000And even if it costs us something, we're willing to pay the price.
00:34:53.000Our God's able to deliver us, but even if he doesn't, we're still not going to serve you.
00:34:57.000And here's the thing, they may actually believe that this is sort of their, if they've abandoned God, that this is their new God right now.
00:35:04.000That being said, it's also mighty convenient.
00:35:07.000It is mighty convenient that you work on YouTube and you've happened to abandon the God and the worldview that you thought maybe would hold you back from appeasing your new golden calf in YouTube.
00:35:48.000And by the way, while we're talking about this being brand-friendly and this sort of crisis of faith and abandoning it and changing and progressing, let's kind of go over the quantifiable benefits of what it's gotten them.
00:36:01.000YouTube funded their half-hour scripted show.
00:36:05.000YouTube paid them to make their show longer.
00:36:07.000It was an experiment that didn't really work out that well, but I appreciate the creative risk.
00:36:12.000Keep in mind, though, by the way, this is the same company that sunk millions of dollars into The Young Turks.
00:37:00.000And if that were as fulfilling as the actual, I guess, sort of fulfilling your purpose in how you were fearfully and wonderfully created by God, then it would be worthwhile.
00:37:24.000In light of all of these other things, I think that's why we're bringing this out and saying, well, look, you guys are just bowing down to the authorities.
00:37:30.000I begrudge it being used as a justification.
00:37:33.000I don't begrudge anyone being successful.
00:37:35.000I begrudge it when people use it as justification for actions, whether it's a successful government that, or you know what, for example, let's use the wealthiest people in the world list.
00:37:58.000So when people, when we talk about this, I talk about it often, I don't begrudge Jeff Bezos at all for being wealthy.
00:38:03.000I have no problem with it because Amazon has improved my life.
00:38:05.000I do begrudge people who make that wealthiest list if it's ill-gotten gain or if the justification is, well, hey, who are you to criticize them?
00:38:13.000Well, I could also be rich if I simply was born into a royal family that lived on a plot of land that raped the wealth from all of its citizens.
00:38:22.000I don't begrudge anyone for being successful, and I don't begrudge anyone for making decisions that may be totally out of alignment with my own.
00:38:30.000I begrudge people using success, their version of success, as a justification.
00:38:35.000Well, and it is a big contrast between their approach and your approach.
00:38:39.000I mean, and the reason that you've been able to approach.
00:39:24.000Both before and after, and videos that involved the gay gentleman in question who called himself, let's be queer, which is where I came from, and without him in question.
00:40:21.000So when I say I'm not going to apologize because you think it's wrong, I'm not going to apologize because I say I don't think the two guys, and I said this to Dave Rubin, getting hitched up, the civil union, fine, states can do that, I support them doing that.
00:40:35.000I'm not going to see that as the same as a mom and a dad with kids.
00:41:07.000They've been parroting Chinese COVID propaganda points as of late.
00:41:11.000So when people who actually work with governments that All of their whistleblowers disappear.
00:41:17.000When an entity, a company, works with governments that deny the sovereignty of a nation who wanted to simply be free, when they decide to acquiesce to them because it's nice and brand friendly, I think that's evil and I won't apologize because an evil worldview, knowingly or not, tells me I'm wrong.
00:41:37.000Yeah, and even if I disagreed with you completely and everything that you stood for, I would still be for you having a voice and a channel, right?
00:41:43.000I may not want you to have as big of a reach or I may want to make sure I counter points that are wrong that you're saying or something like that.
00:41:52.000We already lost the race to that guy over there.
00:41:53.000They would be a passionate five people.
00:41:55.000But what I'm saying is that if you end up kind of building a box for yourself and then you walk in and you close the door on yourself when you allow YouTube and other places like that to control what you say because they're basically the one person saying here is what's acceptable for our society to have as an idea.
00:42:12.000And you made a point about this, if you have kind of a multinational company and you start making the rules based on other countries, it gets even worse from there.
00:42:18.000And we saw this even with Facebook in China, with the social score and Facebook being used to be able to help them give people social scores to see if they were supporting the party or not.
00:42:27.000It's like an episode of Black Mirror, only not an episode of Black Mirror.
00:42:45.000You always try not to say something that's so inflammatory, but think of somebody in Germany kind of at the right time to be able to stand and say, wait a minute, maybe free speech and saying that Jews aren't bad people is not a bad thing.
00:43:08.000You become complicit in that system to some degree.
00:43:11.000We've been saying this the whole time.
00:43:13.000If tomorrow YouTube changes their policies and it's the complete opposite of what Rhett and Link think, what does that do to Rhett and Link's point of view?
00:43:20.000What is their worldview like if all of a sudden they change?
00:43:23.000And I would absolutely, and I hope that people understand that, I would absolutely fight for the right to still be on the platform.
00:43:29.000Without a burp in my breath that after having broadcast for 45 minutes was trying to find its way.
00:43:33.000I would support, I'm just, I'm getting too close.
00:43:56.000You know, it's a very difficult struggle.
00:43:58.000To find the balance between sort of international different forms of government.
00:44:02.000And this is something they've talked about openly.
00:44:04.000And my worldview on that, my point of view, is you have to go with the laws and principles in the country in which you were founded, the United States.
00:44:41.000That means that YouTube, Google, Twitter, Facebook, take your pick, zip tie me and hand me over to the Pakistani government so that I'm beheaded at a soccer game.
00:44:48.000Because there are official complaints from the government.
00:44:51.000I believe the government of Pakistan, the government of Germany, and the government of China for violating hate speech laws.
00:44:58.000So you have to either believe that free speech is absolute and that it's not a right that should ever be trampled on, and you shouldn't even design algorithms behind the scenes to try and change that even social interaction because you want to determine that a country that believes in those values is the one that has made your company valuable or Lowest common denominator.
00:45:18.000Zip tie everyone who said something offensive on your platforms and hand them over to the sharks.
00:45:22.000Well, under the laws of the country in which Google was founded is the reason that Google can exist.
00:45:44.000I've never been a member of the Alt, right?
00:45:45.000I remember this sort of came and went, and at some point I was target numero uno.
00:45:48.000Listen, I wasn't a pro-Trump guy in the primary.
00:45:51.000I wasn't pro-Trump, honestly, for the first few months of his presidency, and then there were some turnarounds where I was going, oh my gosh, I'm actually pretty impressed with this guy.
00:46:00.000I've been pretty open about it, and there was a point in time when we weren't doing Pepe memes and weren't just being edgelords online.
00:46:08.000Some of it wasn't a huge percentage, by the way, of people in the conservative movement, but unfortunately they dominated the conversation quite a bit online and made it very difficult for us to go out and create content.
00:46:17.000There was a period in time where we thought, you know what?
00:46:20.000This is the new conservative, and it's not me.
00:46:26.000We're still here standing, and you can look at the ThruLine and see that we have all been, if not consistent, because views do change sometimes, certainly, at the very least, I guess you would say, you know where we stand, and you know why we've changed our point of view.
00:46:42.000And there are very few point of views that I've honestly changed.
00:46:44.000What some people see as a bad thing, it means you're inflexible.
00:46:48.000No, I mean, of course you're going to learn and grow over time, but you're not going to flip-flop on issues like a politician would just to gain votes or popularity.
00:47:15.000It's like someone nailing, you know, it'd be like some kind of a Roman, right, entering in the, or what am I, what's the term I'm looking for right now?
00:47:21.000The people who would have nailed it, not the Roman, not centurion.
00:47:39.000We're adhering you to the wall of Rome right there, metal fun time.
00:47:42.000It is just re-wording it something else, a deconstruction.
00:47:45.000No, you are turning your back on Christ, which makes a father who loves you very, very sad.
00:47:52.000So I don't want to use that language because I think it diminishes, and I know that you were using it, because it diminishes the magnitude of what it is.
00:48:04.000So, really what happened is common, right?
00:48:06.000In the Bible it talks about the peril of the sower, basically, where seed ends up in good ground, but weeds quickly come up and choke it out, right?
00:48:14.000And I think what we saw with Rhett and Link more, and I have to guess, I'm not judging, I'm not saying that this is 100% accurate, but it's kind of a story common to man.
00:48:22.000They went out to someplace else, they went out to Los Angeles to chase after a career, and there's nothing wrong with that.
00:48:28.000You went out there, you pursued a career, but then you started chasing after something more than you chased after God.
00:48:32.000You started chasing after what people thought, what people felt, how you felt about how they felt about you, and all of the things that come with that, and you started chasing after something more than God, and you ended up leaving your faith.
00:48:44.000I wouldn't say more than God, I would say chasing after something other than God.
00:48:47.000Well, more meaning you spent more time chasing after that than God, because I don't think originally they completely left, but they started putting something above God, whether they meant to or not, and eventually it created such a chasm that they're like, well, wait a minute, maybe I don't really believe this anymore.
00:49:00.000Maybe that foundation that I thought I had, I didn't really actually have.
00:49:03.000Well, they would argue that the whole process started when they were back in North Carolina, but didn't start when they were in L.A., but you've made that I don't know that that's true.
00:49:12.000And I think that's probably true in the sense that these were probably people who eventually, if the right person came around, would abandon their faith anyway.
00:49:36.000Remember, it was a crisis of faith for me in the sense that I remember sleeping out of my car and then sleeping out of Seymour's renovated apartment up on the top floor where I auditioned.
00:50:33.000Like, it's not like I'm eliminating everything.
00:50:36.000I'm pretty lenient, which to my everlasting shame sometimes on this.
00:50:41.000Um, and I hate it, and I really reject where I said, I said this, I spoke with my parents, I was like, this is something, what do you do, this was for me, this was a very, and maybe this is why this strikes close to home for the same reason, not that they call me a piece of shit, but what if I were to say, oh that lesbian producer, piece of shit.
00:50:59.000It's just that it's okay, it's brand friendly to say it to this guy, even though the truth is it's a minority viewpoint on YouTube by design.
00:51:05.000But this was my not-crisis-of-faith, though you can call it that, was when I had lived in New York and I'd done stand-up and I'd gone to the Just for Laughs festival and I'd done a few films at this point.
00:51:14.000I'd done Arthur, I'd done a lot of commercials.
00:51:17.000And I was in Los Angeles and I had this conversation with an agent.
00:51:21.000There was a point where I realized, hold on a second, everything that I ever thought that I wanted, which was just to either do stand-up or just be a professional actor, I don't know that I can do this.
00:51:29.000I don't know that I want to do this anymore.
00:51:30.000I remember telling my dad, I don't know that I'll ever play well with others when the others are these people.
00:51:37.000In this state, in this industry, I don't know that I can do it.
00:51:42.000And that's when I went back to stay with my family for a little bit.
00:51:45.000And I actually said, give me six months, because you have to get a job if you're not going to be in Los Angeles.
00:52:19.000And the second I came out with more conservative leanings, I had my manager drop me as well.
00:52:24.000And all of these cards just came tumbling down.
00:52:28.000And thank God, and I mean this, I mean thank God, thank Christ, I don't mean that in the Irish Catholic way, thank Christ that there were some companies that came by.
00:52:35.000There was PJTV at the time and Fox News and Dennis Miller.
00:52:39.000At that point, it was Dennis Miller, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, and Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto were the people who kind of took me under their wing and had me on their shows.
00:52:48.000And Alan Combs, to his credit, who had me on these shows to express my point of view because it was unique enough.
00:54:35.000And I just left and I walked out and I kind of knelt down behind a dumpster.
00:54:38.000I remember just like, just that kind of like a bitch, just sobbing, because I had been doing it for five weeks, full time, and I thought I was moving towards something, and it was just pulled off the table.
00:54:47.000And I had a good friend at that time, who didn't even go into bat for me, who knew it was wrong.
00:54:51.000And I remember my dad just saying, hey, at this point, this was the guy who said, you better start working.
00:55:01.000And that was the moment where I got the rights to this show.
00:55:04.000And I know, listen, it's not like this is some unbelievable hallmark film success case, but I am grateful for what we have, and I'm able to make a living, and everyone here is able to make a living, and it's blessed That's a lot of people, and I consider it very much a blessing to me.
00:55:20.000And he said, and I know, I believe in you.
00:55:22.000And at that point, I've always tried to draw closer to God.
00:55:26.000And I'm not very, the reason, I want to be clear too about this, and I want to go back and you guys can wrap up because you make much better points than I do.
00:55:32.000The reason that we didn't do Mass Monday for a long time, and I've always been very open about my faith.
00:55:36.000But I didn't feel comfortable doing this kind of a format is because I am not an expert at all.
00:55:43.000Like I said, I've read through the Bible multiple times because I had a one-year Bible.
00:56:26.000This is very imperfect people who do not claim to be experts at all taking a stand.
00:56:33.000For what we believe is right, in spite of it maybe not being very popular.
00:56:36.000Yeah, and really just having a conversation about this, knowing that it could cost us.
00:56:41.000Knowing that it could be an unpopular opinion to say something like, hey, we just don't think Rhett and Link's story really lines up with reality a lot of times.
00:58:28.000One of those duck things that has the wheels on them.
00:58:30.000We're not even near an airport, but then every now and then you just get a... Well no, I mean, the philosophy that you said, Wade, it's not like we're just espousing this because it's good for faith.
00:59:03.000We're not always gonna stand up when we should, and hopefully we'll kick our own butt and go, you know what, next time I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna intervene, I'm gonna do the right thing, whatever it is.
00:59:10.000This applies to every part of your life.
00:59:12.000If you have no standards, if you have no spine and no backbone, you will just let anything happen.
00:59:18.000We don't want people to be sexually assaulted at work or harassed at work.
00:59:20.000We don't want any situation like that.
00:59:22.000And we also don't want people to kind of curtail their speech because they think that this is the popular thing to say.
00:59:28.000And this actually brings me back, and it kind of brings me full circle back to the point of view that I have changed.
00:59:32.000And people, you can go back and you can see this is actually, I think, from our very first show ever that might have been, our very first live show that was, I believe it Virginia Tech.
00:59:40.000It's either Virginia Tech or SMU compared to U of M or A&M where people ask about, hey,
00:59:46.000I'm in an industry where everyone is very liberal or people say, you know, I want to
01:00:02.000Keeping your head down, and hoping to get to a position where you can influence people for the better, so I can understand being silent.
01:00:08.000If you want to keep your mouth shut, that's okay with me, and I've changed that.
01:00:11.000I've changed that response, and because at first I thought I was offering an answer, and I thought, well, you know what, I can't sort of copy-paste myself into that situation, because I know that I wouldn't be happy doing that.
01:00:20.000I know that I wouldn't be able to do it, but some people can.
01:00:22.000And then I realized that people are going to smell it on you anyway.
01:00:26.000And that's if it's your political worldview, or if it's your worldview as seen through the lens of faith.
01:00:33.000People will smell it on you anyway, and I don't believe that anyone whose fundamental principles, and this is why now I say you've got to just be honest about it, be open with it, and you know we've always said, maybe you're not a shark, but you can be a puffer fish, you can be a porcupine, You can be the poison dart frog where they just really wish they hadn't tried to take a bite of you because they feel really sick.
01:00:52.000I think that anyone whose convictions truly mean anything or define them could not feel good about themselves or happy in putting their head down and keeping quiet as long as it advanced them career-wise until they got to a point where they felt like they could speak up because you never really get to that point because there's always another room on that ladder.
01:01:09.000And so that is a viewpoint that has changed just because I have seen so many, and you can take a who's who of people who have been successful in this movement and fallen, or some people who've become successful through modifying their worldviews.
01:01:20.000When you change your fundamental worldview, when you change your principles, your foundational principles, as an appeal to popularity, as a spiritual argument or an intellectual argument, it truly, not only does it not hold water, But it leaves you empty and it leaves you unhappy.
01:01:41.000And it just takes different people, a different timeline to admit it and figure it out.
01:01:46.000And that's why we're doing Mass Monday.
01:01:48.000And that's why we're talking about this and the idea of being brand safe and popular, if that's a part of a Christian worldview, because It's not.
01:01:57.000And you can look at the founder of the feast, Jesus Christ himself, he was never liked by everyone.
01:02:02.000He was hated by more people than he was loved.
01:02:04.000And I think at the end of this, when you look at what their worldview is, Rhett and Link, and I would have really welcomed them on the show, and we'd keep it obviously respectful and speak in love, you look at what they've done, how they've benefited, but you also have to look at what it has cost.
01:02:19.000And I think this is a pretty candid clip right here from Rhett and Link that sort of crystallizes that.
01:02:25.000Whatever it is that we are right now, I call myself a hopeful agnostic right now, but I don't have the structure, or the community, or the singular sort of well-defined purpose that I did, and that is, that's a problem.
01:02:40.000I'm not trying to paint, listen, it's not like I'm about to give you some philosophy that I live according to now, that gives me community, purpose, and meaning.
01:02:51.000I think there's a giant sort of shift that's happening culturally, and I think that we may be arriving at that sometime, but it doesn't exist right now for me.
01:03:00.000But what does exist is an openness, is this curiosity.
01:03:04.000I kind of saw Christianity as this boat in a very stormy sea.
01:03:44.000And that's where I've lived for about six years.
01:03:48.000But what happened to all that community and the people who caused you to jump ship when you became a part of this cool kid social club at YouTube?
01:04:16.000For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself?
01:04:22.000And that's why we've tried to take this on and do our best job possible for a bunch of Bunch of YouTube hacks with this semi-popular podcast.
01:04:33.000I hope it's been insightful, Lumeninger served you well.