On this episode of Ash Wednesday, we have a special guest, John Lovell, founder of Warrior Poet Society and author of the new book, "The Warrior's Way." We talk about guns, guns and guns again.
00:00:49.000We will be prepared for death, because our guest here today, his new book, if you see it right there, I think it just released yesterday, The Warrior Poet Way.
00:00:59.000You probably just know him as The Warrior Poet.
00:02:19.000They're lovers and defenders of truth.
00:02:22.000And you can take the warrior part a little bit metaphorically if you wanted to, but I do think there should be some physical element as well of, you know, we're protectors of people.
00:02:34.000So that's kind of the banner, and all kinds of creeds can crush in under that.
00:02:39.000And you focus a lot on sort of masculinity, and we'll get to that.
00:03:20.000And I'm sure right away, sort of dealing with this, cutting it off at the pass, you'll have some people say, well, how can he be a Christian and leading young men as young Christians?
00:03:27.000And be all pro-gun and the tattoos that you got.
00:03:30.000Right, and so I think it's just... They say it that way.
00:03:32.000I think what they have built in their head is a caricature of Christianity, but not the real piece.
00:03:40.000If you lean into the Bible, you realize, man, the heart of God is one of a warrior.
00:03:49.000Now sometimes you're to turn the other cheek, like somebody says, like, I don't like your face, you know, and there's one of those interchanges.
00:04:22.000There's a time to heal and a time to kill, you know?
00:04:26.000And so there is a time for both actions, and so he's built some people to be physical protectors, and that is a good Yeah.
00:04:37.000And so, in Jesus as well, Jesus is a warrior.
00:04:40.000He is the commander of the Lord's army, as seen in Revelation 19, with a sharp double-edged sword to strike down the nations, not win a tickle fight, you know?
00:04:48.000And so, he put his armor and sword aside to come to earth on a hostage rescue mission.
00:05:55.000And I think that's a big, I don't want to misrepresent, but I think, or would you say that's why you focus on that idea of sort of masculine strength combined with, of course, humility, because it's something that's maybe been lost a little bit or the church has been done a disservice and being overly feminized in the modern era sometimes.
00:08:54.000I don't know a single man who's never been afraid.
00:08:57.000But I've never known a single man that could go sinless either.
00:09:00.000I would actually make the argument that the Garden of Gethsemane experience was not so much about the physical, even though the physical was a major part of it, it was about the, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
00:09:14.000The time where God looks down and no longer sees his son and having the first time in all of existence broken connection.
00:09:21.000That maybe would be the biggest... I guess if there's a point at which you could say, was Jesus afraid?
00:09:27.000I think it would be on the cross in that moment where he's for the first time ever separated from God.
00:09:32.000But I don't know if... I understand what you're saying about afraid.
00:09:34.000No, and I... You're trying to define it.
00:09:37.000Yes, and I didn't want to... I didn't mean to start a theological debate right off the bat, because I think we agree on 99% C.
00:09:43.000But I say because there are a lot of pastors sometimes who don't do what you do, and they say, you know, be not afraid.
00:09:49.000It's like, hold on a second, the reason that we're called to, for the same reason that we're called to, you know, not have premarital sex, for the same reason we're called to, it's hard to be not afraid.
00:09:56.000In other words, as human beings, our instinct is to be afraid, and I think sometimes that's undersold to Christians.
00:10:01.000Like, if you trust in the Lord, you won't be afraid.
00:10:03.000No, that is the struggle, and that's why we have to trust.
00:10:07.000And I always felt, as someone who has always lived my life very fearfully, you know, before grappling tournaments, before live appearances, you said you like public speaking.
00:10:51.000And you've talked about this, and I have a quote that I find interesting that may not be historically accurate, but the relevance, I think, applies.
00:10:57.000You say, a whole man is not part warrior, part poet.
00:11:43.000Yeah, I think a warrior should really love the people that he's trying to protect.
00:11:49.000Otherwise, you spend your time trying to protect those you love, and you end up being such a brute.
00:11:56.000You're insufferable to live with, and you're going to lose the thing that you protect.
00:11:59.000And I think the poet understands a little bit better of how to Actually, hey, say something that doesn't, you know, make your kids hit the roof and, you know, you can get along with the missus and whatnot.
00:12:10.000And so I think there's different aspects that absolutely need to be present for us to be able to just do life well.
00:12:20.000Of most of the dudes that I know that were in special operations of any kind, most of them, you know, their families fell apart.
00:13:35.000But on the nice thing, I think, you know, it's more about respect and obviously loving your wife, loving your family as Christ loved the church.
00:14:38.000And so, and Paul talks to us about this, like it doesn't matter if you don't have love, you're missing the point on all of these things and so it's not received.
00:14:43.000And so you can be nice all day long to somebody, but without the truth, It still doesn't mean anything, so I think people really— I think we've gone for the other way, though, I would say.
00:14:53.000We've gone for the other way where a lot of churches are about—because, you know, they need to pass an offering plate—about nice, right?
00:14:59.000You're incentivized to not focus on discomfort.
00:15:03.000For example, I think one of the worst hijackings that you've seen from—and conservatives and Christians will do this and say, well, you know, you can identify however you want to identify if you're an adult, but—and then they draw the line with kids.
00:15:15.000You're not drawing the line at truth because you think people will think that you're not nice.
00:15:19.000I don't think there's anything unkind in telling someone, hold on a second, I understand that you feel a certain way, but you're not a, I love you, but you're not a woman.
00:15:27.000And to go out and to tell other people that they're a woman, that's not nice because you're going to harm other people.
00:15:33.000That truth has to be that dividing line, and sometimes we bend it in the church.
00:16:46.000I actually thought it was really cool, because I always loved that line, they fought like warrior poets, and I was like, well, that's great.
00:16:51.000I don't know what the poet part meant, but they mooned people and then won.
00:16:54.000Well, Warrior Poets is a freedom fighter.
00:16:56.000It's somebody who is moved by virtue to risk life and limb for others.
00:17:49.000It's in your workplaces, it's at your own family reunions, which have been divided for years where, you know, of like wherever you fall on COVID or whatever, you can't even talk to these family members anymore and sexuality and The fight is at our doorstep for truth, and we just need men with backbones that love people enough to actually say, I'm not moving, I'm not self-censoring, I'm going to say the truth, and if you don't like it, then I am deeply upset by that, because I love you, you know, family, but I'm going to tell the truth, as Martin Luther would say, peace if possible, but the truth at all costs, because love cannot stand on lies.
00:18:46.000And so, you know, I have to join the military to be able to be one of those silent guardians out there.
00:18:52.000One of these warrior poets ready to protect.
00:18:54.000The innocent and so do your part to stand for truth in your speech in your workplaces it's gonna freedom at this point we're so late in the game freedom is going to cost everyone something personally.
00:19:08.000Now and so that's this that's the fight.
00:19:12.000I think we're talking about protecting the innocent right now we are definitely At a tipping point society where that would include all children.
00:19:18.000And I don't just mean the gender reassignment surgeries and the puberty blockers and those laws, though that is the most severe manifestation.
00:19:24.000I mean the idea that our children, they have access to a digital town square, very different from a public town square, that may be completely devoid of truth, and that's by design.
00:19:34.000And you can't combat that, for example the big tech censorship, with just being, just being nice.
00:19:40.000Truth has to cut through, and that means there is absolutely a fight.
00:19:43.000I mean, there's a fight in informational warfare right now that is, and for crying out loud, our kids were locked up and they weren't going to school.
00:19:49.000We have the highest depression rates that we've seen in a long time.
00:19:52.000Substance abuse rates in teenagers never seen before.
00:19:59.000One wonderful thing that happened during the lockdown, and it's hard to even say, oh wait, something happened that was good to be, yeah, a lot of folks found out what was happening in government schools and they pulled the plug and they got their kids back.
00:20:12.000Who knows how many generations will be rescued because of that one simple thing.
00:20:17.000The homeschooling movement has exploded.
00:20:19.000Now I'm speaking at homeschooling conferences and dads are now joining in to help raise these kids and educate the kids, and you're seeing a bit of a ground-swelling movement where mom and dad's working together to actually educate and to make kids strong, ready for a world breaking at the seams.
00:20:39.000Well, I've always thought it was very important, and when I was raised in Canada, I knew one kid ever who was homeschooled.
00:20:46.000I don't know exactly what the laws are, but I know in a lot of other European countries and in Canada, specifically where I was, Quebec, they're far more stringent on homeschooling.
00:20:54.000And I think maybe, yeah, with COVID, we learned that you're more capable of doing it than ever.
00:20:59.000They were basically doing homeschooling, but with a public school teacher and a blue chain gang haircut.
00:21:04.000I hear it and immediately it just upsets me of like, what do you mean they're, you know, allowing you to educate your own kids?
00:22:02.000And I understand like what you're saying, technology had to spring forward quite a bit to make sure that we made it accessible for people to be able to do homeschooling.
00:22:10.000And you know, with zoom and all this stuff that kind of was there, but then really kind of blew up, I, it was the people were a little bit more weird.
00:22:19.000They hadn't been socialized quite as much.
00:22:21.000Right now that's going away with all of the different ways that people are socialized and it's the kids that go to school that they maybe run with their kids for a minute and then friends but then they come home and they're on Facebook they're on well maybe not Facebook anymore the kids are on something else they're not on Instagram they're on something they're doing something else that's not connected to the outside world right they're just isolating by themselves we would come home and go play That's where we got most of the socialization from.
00:22:43.000But you didn't experience it because you were a bully, Baby Huey.
00:22:46.000You were bigger than all the other kids who were like, I had a great time in school.
00:23:03.000I came to my come to Jesus moment in third grade when I accidentally heard a kid who had just returned from knee surgery and I didn't know it and I ran up behind him and kicked him.
00:23:26.000So I was a nice kid who was bigger and I abused my biggerness.
00:23:30.000I never beat anybody up or pinned them against lockers or ran with a crew that would push down the little kids that couldn't defend themselves.
00:23:37.000It was just that when it came to sports, I was going to assert myself and I didn't care if you liked it.
00:23:41.000Well this brings me to another... So I was bullied a lot in school.
00:24:06.000I mean, it was more acceptable to preach the ideas of socialism, which Quebec is, or communism in class, than the idea that, hey, America isn't such a bad country.
00:24:14.000Now, I wasn't a physically strong kid like you, so I fought back with my mouth, you know, making fun of whatever it is, teasing, and then, of course, I would inevitably get my ass kicked.
00:24:25.000But I really wish, you know, that I had, and this goes back to the idea of bridled strength, I didn't know how to defend myself.
00:24:32.000And I remember my dad wanted me to learn how to defend myself as a kid because he knew that I was bullied.
00:24:36.000And at that point in time, you know, it was karate and kung fu and all the stuff that doesn't work, you know, the McDojo stuff.
00:25:26.000And as a kid, being so afraid, not knowing that I could ultimately take care of that if it came to it, definitely forced me to live in a lot more fear than in my later years at 18, 19.
00:26:46.000If a kid is being bullied, if you do anything at all where I was raised, you could be getting punched in the face, and if you shove the bully off, you both go into suspension.
00:26:54.000So there are punitive damages sometimes levied on men for doing what men have done since the beginning of time, whereas everything feminine, even if it's masculine femininity, Is that something that you feel has a lot of young men confused and is ultimately worse for women?
00:27:09.000And you brought up the idea of government schools feminizing men, your young boys as well.
00:27:14.000So it basically stops that pursuit of being able to be strong.
00:27:18.000And men need those kind of killer instincts.
00:27:22.000It's going to help them in every single area of their life of, hey, Push comes to shove if you have to physically protect that you're ready to do that.
00:27:29.000It's also going to give, it'll spill over into confidence.
00:27:32.000I think you were alluding to this as well, so that you can be strong with your words and you can be a safe guardian of truth knowing that if like, oh, if this goes to blow, oh, I'm good with that too.
00:27:42.000Like in Good Will Hunting, when he just totally undoes this dude intellectually and he's like, but then if you want to step outside.
00:30:59.000It doesn't need to go over the top to kind of counterbalance.
00:31:02.000It just needs to go back to its proper place.
00:31:04.000And that's really my point in the warrior-poet way, is I want to avoid the historical errors of penduluming back and forth to these extremes.
00:31:58.000It might be Dark Knight Rises, but no, that's absolutely true.
00:32:00.000Now, I do think there does need to be some grace for For both sides.
00:32:03.000In other words, don't expect a poet to be a full-blown warrior.
00:32:07.000And I do think that sometimes, having been around these people who have been in a concussive environment in war, it's like, look, they can't just shut it off.
00:32:15.000Sometimes we don't do a good job of bringing them back into the fold.
00:32:18.000And there's a quote, you've heard the quote, jack of all trades, master of none.
00:32:23.000I don't know if this actually comes from Benjamin Franklin, but it was used at one point that a man should be a jack of all trades and a master of none.
00:32:31.000One, meaning you should be capable in all areas, but you should have an area that you've mastered, an area of expertise.
00:32:36.000And is that sort of maybe the archetype that you see, like a warrior, poet, all these, but some people are more warrior and some people are more poet?
00:32:44.000Yeah, I trend more lion and I have to work more on being a lamb.
00:33:26.000But when being part of a team is probably recognizing and lending your area of expertise, which is like, I'm probably a little more warrior.
00:33:32.000I'm probably a little more poet when you're talking about serving your community sometimes, recognizing your skill set too.
00:33:37.000So, for instance, the warrior, you know, say you're in some debate, the warrior needs to understand how to season his speech with salt at certain moments, to be able to not offend somebody necessarily, of like, I'm not afraid to offend somebody, but I recognize that offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city, and therefore there's a time to just be like, nope, this is truth, suck it up, buttercup, and there's another time to say, okay, This is wrong.
00:34:02.000I can gain more traction in persuading them if I come at them like a brother, shoulder to shoulder.
00:34:09.000And that's all I'm really driving at here, is there's a way that a warrior can become far more poetic in those moments, and it's a good thing.
00:34:16.000And whereas a poet will naturally be like, oh, I don't want to offend anyone, I don't want to say anything.
00:34:21.000I'm like, well, then you're ceding the battleground to evil forces.
00:34:24.000Which we've been doing for quite a while.
00:34:27.000I think maybe a big difference there, as far as when the role is appropriate, is the ability to identify evil.
00:34:33.000You know, I've talked about this, like we do Change My Minds, where the vast majority of them are incredibly civil and productive, and then you get some that aren't, because there's a matching of it.
00:34:41.000There are some people whose minds won't be changed, and that's when it occasionally becomes a debate.
00:34:45.000Like, there was a girl one time who showed up, and she was very aggressive.
00:34:49.000She said, well, I had an abortion, and everything else that day had been mostly civil.
00:34:56.000And this, I still would say, but I said, and when did you have this abortion?
00:34:59.000I said, well, I'm going to tell you, you're going to meet that child in heaven one day, and you're going to see his eye color.
00:35:04.000And you're going to know what his name was.
00:35:06.000And she got, and people got really upset.
00:35:09.000I mean, the death threats that I got, she came on the show the next week and she had changed her point of view on abortion, which wasn't nice.
00:35:18.000I didn't feel that I was looking into the face of someone evil, but I could see this baggage of evil and from people around her going like this.
00:35:27.000I have to recognize the difference here.
00:35:28.000I'm not going to be able to do it with just the Socratic method.
00:35:32.000And sometimes that is, I think, a very valuable skill set is recognizing the minds you can change or people who've been influenced by evil versus those who perpetuate evil on others.
00:35:41.000And that's where you put your warrior hat on.
00:35:43.000I think in a public debate, it far more yields itself to, like, no, crush these terrible arguments, which are actually doing incredible damage of like, oh, no, no, it's minor attracted part.
00:36:42.000Come up with a scenario where I can... It's a famous example.
00:36:45.000No, I think it's important because I think a lot of people here will agree with it and then go, okay, what's the road... and when I say roadmap, I mean map, not minor attracted persons.
00:38:23.000And I would say, too, when I was young, he would probably say that he had, you know, probably didn't have his temper completely under control.
00:38:29.000Certainly never dangerous, but he was always so loving.
00:38:31.000In other words, my dad would discipline us where we feared the repercussions.
00:38:35.000But he's still one of my best friends.
00:38:36.000I mean, the three people you met here today, like my best friends, are still.
00:38:40.000Johnny Boy, who you met out there, I've known since I was 12, a year old for 15 years, and
00:38:51.000He was very, very close with my brother and I. Awesome.
00:38:54.000More so than other dads, but then I also saw him get into some scuffles, or I guess skirmishes.
00:38:59.000Never anything very violent, but guys who would maybe do something inappropriate with my mom.
00:39:05.000I'll tell some stories, because I don't know what I am allowed to discuss, but never anything violent or criminal, but I also noticed that my friend's dads Had a healthy respect of him and and I always saw that as
00:39:15.000something that I wanted to emulate when I got to an age Where kids like I told my dad to go screw himself because I
00:39:20.000can kick his ass and I was like I don't have that luxury
00:39:25.000And so he was able to raise me, you know, for a longer period of time.
00:39:29.000As opposed to, oh, 15, went through a growth spurt, bye, do what you want.
00:40:30.000Tony was the girls' soccer coach at my high school.
00:40:37.000I already don't like the description, but I know how the story ends, so I have grace for Mr. Lopez.
00:40:41.000I knew that he was all martial arts whatever, and I kind of looked down on it a little bit as a little just... I'm like, I don't know, I was like...
00:40:52.000He wasn't like this specimen figure, just maybe a tiny on the portly side.
00:40:58.000He's gonna watch this, find me, and beat the crap out of me all over again.
00:41:59.000You know, I got the rage vein in my neck.
00:42:02.000And he's just, while pleasantly speaking to me, you know, while this... Oh, that makes it, that makes it so much worse.
00:42:09.000I thought I was the most dangerous man in the room, and I wasn't.
00:42:11.000you're like, oh please stop, just put me unconscious and be more gracious.
00:42:15.000So I talk about this in the book of, I thought I was the most dangerous man in the room,
00:42:20.000and I wasn't. And so what I learned as part of being the most dangerous man in the room
00:42:25.000is actually humility. It's the very center of morality, the very center of Christian morality.
00:42:31.000If pride is the center of Christian immorality, it is the ultimate anti-God thought, pride, then humility is the ultimate center of all morality.
00:42:54.000I had a similar experience, except I will say I'm probably the opposite of you in that I was bad at everything growing up, so I had horrible self-esteem.
00:43:02.000I remember seeing a homeless guy outside of Ogilvie's, and I might not have told the story, where I said, that's going to be me.
00:43:07.000People walked by, and I was like, I'm not good.
00:43:16.000Uh, so I always went into everything scared and I found sort of my niche later in life, what I was good at, you know, no one knew that you could make a living doing this or I didn't know what jujitsu was where I kind of found my sport later on, not a world beater, but it was pretty good.
00:43:28.000And, um, there was a guy, I hope he doesn't mind me saying his name, uh, because it was after this that I found out he was also a believer.
00:44:19.000And I didn't think by any means that I was going to, but he said like, come give me more intensity, more
00:44:23.000intensity it's okay, so get me an instructor.
00:44:25.000And then it was like walking into a closet full of You know, he just like, butterfly hook, and grabbing the collar, and I just remember feeling like Pinocchio, and completely helpless.
00:44:35.000And then afterwards, we were sitting there, and I assumed, you know, every Brazilian who I had known was Catholic, and you know, I would say very carnal, if you see Carnival, very sexual people.
00:44:44.000But he was a really straight-laced guy, and I said something in the car, he was driving me back, which he didn't have to do.
00:44:49.000He said, well, you know, we're all waiting for the same time when you come back.
00:45:25.000It's funny how common it is for the most dangerous men alive are humble and unassuming and extremely nice guys.
00:45:36.000It's, you know, the lower level guys who get some measure of skill and it's, you know, Bravado, I always want to say vibrato, and that's a difference.
00:46:07.000Yeah, incredible, but some of the most dangerous men on the planet, and I've met all kinds of them, and all the different special operations that I've worked with, usually very humble, unassuming dudes that can take you apart.
00:46:22.000Well you have those humbling experiences.
00:46:24.000You guys just described yours and I think that's a challenge for guys is if they don't have one of those humbling experiences, they end up thinking that they can kind of do whatever they want, say whatever they want until they run to that wall eventually, because eventually you will.
00:46:36.000That's why physical activity, like I think you said, we're not talking about being the most macho guy, but it does matter because it is something quantifiable tangible.
00:46:43.000In other words, you can't move that weight on that barbell.
00:46:46.000You can't pin this guy, or whatever it is, you can't throw that football.
00:46:49.000That measurable progress, for me, I don't think there's a way for young men to develop self-esteem any other way outside of becoming excellent at something.
00:46:56.000I think suffering produces character and there's no shortcut.
00:47:03.000And there's just, suffering produces character and perseverance, endurance, and so there's no shortcut.
00:47:11.000Yeah, but what would you say, let me ask you this, because there are a lot of people, and I agree with a lot of what he says, like for example, Andrew Tate talks about math, and I think he's right in a lot of what he says as far as, you know, young men are hurting and they need to be told not to be hyperly emotional, but to be disciplined in regulating their emotions.
00:47:25.000There are things that he says that are right, and then there are things that he does that kind of do as I say, not as I do.
00:47:29.000But people say it's a men's rights thing, and we've been doing this on the show since Cassie J back in 2015-16.
00:47:38.000Young men who are hurting their suffering, but they feel as though they're suffering with no end in sight, right?
00:47:44.000That's what a lot of young men feel, where they're browbeaten for being men, and then they're not as good at being women, and they're just checking out of the dating pool.
00:47:50.000Forty-something percent of young men don't want to get married, and sixty-something percent of young women say there aren't men worth marrying.
00:47:57.000Do you see that as a reason that maybe sometimes people like the Andrew Taits of the world, that's why young men tend to gravitate toward them and get maybe a piece of the puzzle but miss another component?
00:48:06.000Yeah, so I haven't followed Tate for long.
00:48:10.000I tried, and then I said something he didn't like, and he blocked me on Twitter.
00:48:16.000Anyway, he mentioned somewhere, though, that, hey, to talk with me, if you give $50,000 to a charity of your choice, then I'll tell you, like, I will take him up on that.
00:48:26.000So I would love to talk with Andrew Tate on masculinity in a forum like this.
00:48:31.000Now, I'll donate the 50 grand to a charity of my choice.
00:48:36.000I'll show it all up, but I would love to talk to him about that.
00:48:39.000I think you'd probably agree on more than you disagree, and then that last stretch.
00:48:43.000But that last stretch is really pernicious.
00:48:45.000It's a really big deal, because he is Yeah, we agree on some big pieces of, hey, self-accountability and be strong and tell the truth, and I love all that stuff that he puts out.
00:48:59.000But if humility is the center, Of morality, you know, and I think that it is, and that's part of being, you know, you can't hold together deep relationships over long periods of time without a measure of humility.
00:49:15.000You become unsufferable, and he's leading folks to be consummately arrogant and prideful.
00:49:22.000No one's accusing him of being humble.
00:49:25.000And I think that is really, really bad.
00:49:27.000He's serving up a beautiful steak mash, but to have a beautiful meal with a little arsenic in there.
00:49:35.000And so I do not want young men emulating all of Tate.
00:49:39.000There's some pieces there, but you could go other places and get the full thing as well.
00:49:44.000I like some of the things he says, but holy smokes, that is a dangerous path and it's going to destroy your relationships or destroy the things that matter the most to you.
00:49:55.000And you'll end up with flashy cars, maybe, and a lot of money, and you're going to die alone and miserable.
00:50:44.000I always tell people, we never, and I'm not just talking about, but in general with young people who go like, I say, look, you don't know how this story ends.
00:50:50.000How many times have you been in the worst spot and then it completely changes?
00:50:54.000I mean, how many times have you known people who've been diagnosed, you know, terminally ill and it doesn't happen?
00:50:59.000And it does happen sometimes, but the truth is you don't know how the story ends, so you have to behave and exercise in your day-to-day.
00:51:07.000Treat it as though it can turn around and you'll still be around for that.
00:51:11.000And I think, yeah, those are kind of, you can't really live that way if you're looking at riches of the now.
00:51:18.000And maybe he'll have that humbling experience, but the problem is that I think some of it is also, you know, he has a persona, which has been, you know, which is something that he needs to needs to do.
00:51:26.000Like there are people out there sometimes where it's, you know, Muhammad Ali was friends with a lot of the guys who would trash talk.
00:51:32.000Part of it is the entertainment side of it.
00:51:34.000So you don't know how much of it is a disagreement versus, you know, kind of a path to.
00:51:37.000Yeah, I mean, when you look at kind of how Andrew lives his life and the things that he has and kind of what he espouses, like, if there is that moment where there's a humbling experience, it's going to cost him a lot more.
00:51:47.000Because he's gone so far in the direction of what would appear not to be a humble existence or a humble life.
00:52:34.000Because a lot of young men are not taught, they're taught to suppress their masculine tendencies, period.
00:52:40.000I mean, people think most pastors are men, but if you look at Board of Elders and influence in the church and the way that they conduct a lot of, even Sunday school, it's not designed, we often complain about public school, if you look at the way that often churches will do Sunday school or daycare, it's still designed for young girls.
00:52:53.000And I know that a lot of young men who are Christians feel, in a pragmatic level, they'll say, yeah, but Okay, I get half of this message, and then I'm constantly wrong for the way that I am.
00:53:04.000And so they look out there and say, hey, look, these relationships are broken.
00:53:47.000I've got some biographical stuff in there as well, so you're gonna hear from me, and I'm gonna say my thing, but a lot of folks in our society, they're not Christian.
00:53:56.000Some are atheists, or agnostic, or Hindu-Buddhist, or, you know, all kinds at New Age, which is, you know, most everybody.
00:54:06.000I'm like, that's so New Age of you to even say.
00:54:12.000But I'll definitely plug Bible in the book.
00:54:16.000It is such a shame that there's a disconnect in what some churches teach and then what really gritty first century Christianity looked like.
00:54:27.000These men led the greatest revolution Uh, that the world has ever seen.
00:54:34.000Literally, Jesus had split time in two.
00:54:45.000They lived off the land and they're getting scourged and beat with rods and stoned and thrown out of like, do you know the type of character and strength That you've got to have to do.
00:55:22.000I mean, forgivable, but, you know, it's a terrible They're not exactly accusing Jesus of being the demonic fit, but it's just crappy.
00:55:31.000It's really, really bad, but I'll also say some of the greatest, strongest men I know occupy pulpits and are vibrant members of the Church.
00:55:38.000And it may not be that the Church is broke, it's just you've got to find the right one.
00:55:42.000And there may be this amazing family of faith that's the healthiest, brightest, most creative, strongest people I know are Christians living and breathing in the Church.
00:55:52.000Yeah, but it's that Christians a lot of times in churches want it to be perfect.
00:56:11.000I think today's church, unfortunately, they have a blind spot.
00:56:14.000And what I mean by that is, And I understand it, but we have people who will watch our show.
00:56:21.000We have a lot of pastors who will watch our show and go like, you know, I don't tell people in the congregation, but I tune in and I watch your show.
00:56:25.000I go, great, you have a Netflix membership?
00:56:29.000Because we occasionally have, you know, we have people, by the way, on this show who aren't necessarily Christians, and the show, you know, I always say it's a PG-13+, but I'll also have Christians, and Gerald knows this, who will reach out and say, That was the first time I had any idea the books that were in my kid's school.
00:56:47.000You mean the one where there's a picture of the kid jerking off in the picture?
00:56:51.000Because your pastor said, there's evil in the world!
00:56:54.000Show the picture that your kids are seeing of a young boy masturbating.
00:56:58.000There can't be this disconnect of, ah, Netflix, and we kind of have this one portion of the world.
00:57:02.000And then when we speak Christian, this is the first time we'll have people who say, we are flawed, we are Christians, but look, this is the world that you are living in.
00:57:07.000And I always tell people this is not a show meant for kids.
00:57:09.000It's meant for adults so they can protect.
00:57:12.000And I always say this, protect and inform their children.
00:57:15.000But that is a disservice if people are in the church and they're shocked at what we show them that their kids are already reading.
00:57:21.000And I don't know that today's church is There are some.
00:57:28.000But even then, it's like there's general evil and then there's this specific prescription for good, but people aren't really faced with the evil.
00:57:36.000That's not condoning of it, but people need to know the books their kids are reading.
00:57:40.000People need to know the drag shows that are taking place in the library.
00:57:42.000So they go and they see it on Twitter, but it never makes its way into a sermon.
00:57:46.000Where I think it's, are the kids gone at Sunday school?
00:59:19.000And I always say, actually, I gave him this lever action rifle because it was the only thing he could hit the broad side of a barn with because he loved going to the range with me and he, you know, loved watching the old, the rifleman.
00:59:28.000But this is a guy who in his church, a small area in northern Michigan with 40 people, he didn't care.
00:59:34.000The overarching sort of, it wasn't a denomination with the umbrella of his church, so I don't want to name it.
00:59:38.000They were saying, well, you maybe don't want to talk about these things.
00:59:57.000But I've never left, and that's why I think sometimes people get this misconstrued because, you know, you're a fit guy, you're a young guy, we're having a cigar, but the truth is we're talking about men who serve their communities, lead their communities, and care about them, and are willing to protect them.
01:00:08.000And I think it's an important message, and I hope there are more guys.
01:00:11.000We're going to go to Mug Club here in a little bit.
01:00:14.000I wanted to ask you before we go, And by the way, the book is, it's the Warrior Poet Way or the Warrior Poet's Way?
01:01:23.000Uh, that you, that you, uh, teach or take part in?
01:01:25.000Yeah, so we teach pistol rifle classes around the country.
01:01:28.000Okay, because I was reading your book, I'm trying to remember the... It's pistol, pistol three is what I thought.
01:01:31.000Yeah, I know three gun is different, and you talk about an exercise that you do, which, uh, at first glance could seem a little weird, so I'd like for you to explain it to people, because it was interesting to me, um, well explain what it is, where you have people basically... Sure, so we want people to be better protectors, uh, and you're carrying guns, the only way to get good at gunfighting is to gunfight.
01:02:31.000Anyway, in Pistol 3, when people are just being introduced into force-on-force engagement, their heart rates up because these little munitions, I mean, it's like getting hit by a wasp.
01:04:57.000That's the one, everyone's carrying nine.
01:04:59.000Yeah, and there are different choices, but it's one of those things that's like, look, if it's something that's adequate and you can fire it effectively, people get really off on the minutiae.
01:05:06.000And often I find people who get really off on the minutiae, these are people who aren't really interested in the macro improvements that are necessary, like you're talking about.
01:05:14.000It's like, if it doesn't start with a four, then you might as well just be carrying a fly swatter.
01:05:19.000It's like, great, maybe you should lose 200 pounds at 420.