Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Bob Moran is producing free political cartoons for The Democracy Fund

00:00:00.600 Oh, hey, what's up, Rebels? It's me, potentially your favorite Rebel host, Sheila Gunnery,

00:00:05.740 but you know what? I'll take being in your top 10. That's fine. You're listening to a

00:00:10.880 free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show. However, this is

00:00:15.400 the internet. The beauty of the internet is freedom, for now, to listen or watch whenever

00:00:22.000 is convenient for you. Now, tonight my guest is someone that I've never spoken to before,

00:00:25.840 but I was really excited to because he's a person who has paid a great personal cost for

00:00:32.680 his outspokenness against the pandemic overreaction of governments. And he lost his job, but that's

00:00:43.780 good news because when he lost his job, he gained creative freedom, hundreds of thousands of

00:00:51.860 followers, and a new job with the Democracy Fund. It's political cartoonist Bob Moran.

00:00:58.820 Now, if you like listening to his show, then I promise you're going to love watching it. But

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00:02:59.620 He spoke his mind. He lost his job. Then he gained hundreds of thousands of followers and got a great

00:03:05.020 new job where he gets to speak or draw his mind freely. Today, we're talking to political

00:03:10.260 cartoonist for the Democracy Fund, Bob Moran.

00:03:30.360 Bob Moran, for those of you who don't know, is a multi-award winning British illustrator and

00:03:34.920 cartoonist dealing with themes of politics, ethics, and family. And in 2020, when the coronavirus

00:03:40.880 pandemic and the government's overreaction to it unfolded, Bob became a cautious skeptic to the

00:03:47.040 restrictions and mandates being foisted upon an unwilling or unwitting society. And so he did what

00:03:53.300 a cartoonist does. He started cartooning and lampooning the government and the power brokers within

00:03:57.740 society. And Bob paid a personal cost for this. He lost his job at the Telegraph, but he landed on

00:04:04.720 his feet over at the Democracy Fund, where he now produces three political cartoons a week,

00:04:10.840 all with the creative freedom he needs to speak truth to power. Bob joins me today in an interview

00:04:16.660 we recorded earlier this morning from his home in the UK. Check it out.

00:04:21.320 So joining me now is Bob Moran from his home studio. He's a cartoonist working with the Democracy Fund

00:04:33.000 on their civil liberties initiatives there. And I wanted to have Bob on the show because as Bob and

00:04:39.300 I were talking off air, there are so few skeptical cartoonists, cartoonists who are willing to speak

00:04:46.640 truth to power instead of punch down at the little guy. But before we get into the cultural ethos of

00:04:53.200 being a cartoonist in the times of lockdown, I thought I would give you a chance to introduce yourself

00:04:58.880 to the Rebel News universe, Bob. What sort of work do you do? How long have you been cartooning?

00:05:06.760 And where are you working from? Sure. Thanks, Sheila. I'm Bob Moran and I'm a cartoonist from the UK

00:05:14.280 based in the southwest of England. I've been cartooning for national papers for just over 10

00:05:21.960 years now. And I was with the Telegraph for 10 years doing political cartoons, the Daily Telegraph

00:05:30.080 in London. I was fired from the Telegraph at the end of last year, partly due to my stance on

00:05:40.220 everything that's been going on. And I'm now working for the Democracy Fund in Canada, producing three

00:05:47.320 cartoons a week, which I make available to any publisher anywhere in the world, free of charge.

00:05:53.560 I think that's wonderful. There's such a deficit of cartoons during the time of COVID. Like I said,

00:06:03.780 that speak truth to power as opposed to punch down at the little guy just wanting to live their life.

00:06:08.860 What was the one thing or was there one thing that was the pandemic turning point for you? I know a lot

00:06:15.580 of people can point to, you know, you're hearing a lot of fear coming out of China and then all of a

00:06:20.720 sudden it clicked that maybe it wasn't as bad as what everybody says it was going to be. Did you

00:06:27.200 have a moment like that? And what was it for you? Maybe there was a, not one moment, but I would say

00:06:34.320 over the course of maybe a couple of weeks, the narrative unraveled for me in terms of, I think

00:06:43.300 like a lot of people, I was skeptical, but cautious for the first few weeks, you know, this could be

00:06:49.660 something real. This could be something dangerous, but it smells fishy. It doesn't quite add up,

00:06:55.940 particularly because it all allegedly began in China. And I think really it was getting my head

00:07:04.840 around the moral situation of lockdowns and of the way the governments were behaving and the way they

00:07:12.600 were treating their electorates in this unprecedented way. You know, for me, I thought that's what's

00:07:17.540 unprecedented here, not the illness, not, not the pandemic or the virus. It's the behavior

00:07:22.240 of these allegedly democratic leaders. And I could see that we were headed in a really dangerous

00:07:28.800 direction. But to be honest, I went, when I kind of changed my stance and began to put out cartoons,

00:07:37.600 this was probably the beginning of May, 2020 was when my output changed in that way.

00:07:44.080 I fully expected that pretty much everybody in my industry would be following along with me. You

00:07:51.360 know, I kind of thought, well, maybe I'm the first, but I'm sure within a few days, all the other

00:07:56.660 cartoonists are going to be on the same page with this. Because as you say, it should be instinctive

00:08:04.120 for anyone who does my job to want to hold those in power to account and to monitor, you know,

00:08:12.000 when they go too far, when they get too big for their boots, when, because they have a natural

00:08:16.440 tendency to overreach, to seek powers that they have no right to hold and these things. And that is

00:08:24.020 the job of cartoonists. And I'm still amazed that so many have not done that. And I can't really

00:08:31.600 explain why.

00:08:32.360 I think some musicians are having sort of the same experience as you, those people from the cultural

00:08:39.360 arts, where they've got an industry built on free speech, actors, same way, you've got an industry

00:08:46.220 built on free speech and free expression. And yet, more often than not, quite frankly, they've become

00:08:53.660 the enforcers of acceptable speech, and acceptable expression, as opposed to the free expression upon

00:09:01.280 which their industry is built. I find it all very odd.

00:09:05.560 Yeah, and it's, I guess it's, it comes down to the pursuit of truth, you know. And as creative

00:09:15.020 people, as artists and actors and musicians, our output is supposed to be based very much around that,

00:09:23.240 getting to the underlying truth of a situation. And I have always felt that in particular,

00:09:30.660 the art form of cartooning and caricature has an ability to do that, you know, to peel back these

00:09:35.740 layers, and to try and show a truth that may not be immediately visible to an audience. And

00:09:44.420 it's as though all of these creative people have kind of abandoned that principle and gone,

00:09:52.200 we're just going to accept the truth of what those in authority tell us, and not question it,

00:09:58.540 and not delve any further. It's, it's really bizarre. And, and sad, you know, I wish it hadn't been the

00:10:07.840 case, even though I've gained a massive audience and more notoriety, because I'm one of the only

00:10:14.660 people doing it, I would much rather be part of a large group, just another cartoonist who was trying

00:10:21.860 to fight this, because I really feel like if, if all of us had taken the same line, we could have

00:10:27.440 had a genuine impact, you know, that's the sad thing. Yeah, as we were talking off air, you know,

00:10:34.640 in the days of the court jester, and not to say that you're just some goofy guy in a weird hat, but

00:10:39.160 in the days of the court jester, you know, it was the role of that person to speak truth to the king,

00:10:46.080 when the people could not, or the people didn't have the same voice or access to the king. And I

00:10:52.680 feel like that's sort of the job of the political cartoonists these days is, you know, there's,

00:10:57.600 there are these people, but you have the platform, and you get to speak truth to power. And it feels

00:11:03.780 as though the entire industry has fallen down on the job. And the political cartoonists in Canada,

00:11:08.320 they are particularly bad. It seems every day you flip open the pages of the editorial newspaper,

00:11:14.120 if people still buy a physical newspaper. And it is something poking fun at truckers,

00:11:19.460 normal people, conservative voters, there's a very classist divide unfolding in pop culture,

00:11:28.300 versus the people who consume pop culture. There's this real divide happening right now. What do you

00:11:34.360 think that what would you attribute that to? You're right. And you know, it's so bizarre, because

00:11:40.120 if you were to look back, it was certainly this is the case in the UK, I don't know about

00:11:44.960 in Canada, but so many of these cartoonists have spent most of their careers, trying to defend the

00:11:50.640 little guy, you know, standing up for working people, and trying to highlight the fact that

00:11:55.940 governments weren't taking care of the poorest in society and, and people with, you know, small 0.91

00:12:02.640 businesses and all of those things. And it's like they've done a complete about turn.

00:12:06.340 Uh, and they are promoting policies that are destroying those, those areas of society.

00:12:14.180 Um, and I think it's when you look at the propaganda drive, that so much of this has

00:12:20.060 been driven by propaganda. And, um, I don't know if it's the same in Canada, but certainly in the UK,

00:12:27.460 newspapers who were already struggling have essentially been financially propped up by

00:12:32.740 the government's propaganda. You know, they are paid huge sums of money to carry all of the warnings

00:12:38.880 and the advertisements and the propaganda about getting vaccinated and staying at home and, you

00:12:44.080 know, not killing your grandmother, all of these things. And, um, the cartoonists, most of them have

00:12:50.560 essentially been providing additional propaganda free of charge for the government rather than doing

00:12:56.400 their jobs, which was to provide a counterpoint. Um, it's, uh, it's really disheartening. Um, I don't

00:13:03.680 know, is it part of the mass psychosis? Is it, uh, that they may have just been told, look, you,

00:13:10.560 you, um, you can't keep working for this paper unless you toe the line. I mean, that's in a way,

00:13:17.260 that's kind of what happened to me, uh, because I wasn't prepared to do that.

00:13:20.520 Yeah. I think you might be right there in Canada. We go one step further. We, as in the Royal,

00:13:27.240 we, as in Justin Trudeau, um, with direct funding to, uh, the newspapers, um, because it's a failing

00:13:36.480 sunset industry. And instead of just having one state broadcaster parroting the government line,

00:13:42.920 why not turn them all into state broadcasters parroting the government line? And so he's bailed out,

00:13:48.800 um, failing media companies, but they know what side of, uh, their bread is buttered and who's

00:13:55.140 doing the spreading. And it's Justin Trudeau. And so, you know, political cartoonists, if times get

00:14:01.340 lean at a newspaper, they could be the first guys to go. So they can form ideologically if you want

00:14:07.920 to keep your job. Yeah. But you know, that's creative and spiritual death. I would have thought

00:14:14.540 for a cartoonist, you know, not who we are. It shouldn't be the way that we're wired. Um,

00:14:20.840 yeah, I think, am I right in saying that Trudeau has actually been, um, quite open about this? Is

00:14:26.060 he not? He's, he's openly acknowledged that he's essentially funding the media.

00:14:31.100 Right. And they call it protecting, uh, quality journalism. This is protecting it by infecting

00:14:36.880 it with the government. Yeah. Um, it's insane. There is, there is supposed to be a large degree

00:14:45.020 of separation between an independent media and the state and the government and the politicians,

00:14:50.200 um, to, to blur that line is one thing to come out and like you say, brag about it is,

00:14:57.100 is just nuts. Um, and, uh, I, I am aware, probably more aware than a lot of people here in the UK

00:15:04.700 of how bad things are in Canada. Um, and I felt it was a, it was, um, uh, an interesting twist of

00:15:14.820 fate, I suppose that as I began, almost the moment I began working for a Canadian organization,

00:15:21.280 the democracy fund was when the, the truckers protest began and suddenly Canada became the

00:15:30.240 front line of this battle for freedom and human dignity. And, um, the eyes of everybody on our

00:15:36.360 side of this fight was suddenly on Canada. And it was so, uh, I felt very lucky and privileged to be

00:15:41.960 able to cover those events. Um, because I realized immediately that had I still been working for any

00:15:49.080 national publication here in the UK, I would have been told to pretty much ignore what was going on,

00:15:55.300 um, um, or, or to probably, uh, uh, uh, portray the truckers as, as, um, mad conspiracy theorists and all of

00:16:03.100 that kind of thing. Um, so it's been, it's been a great, um, a great, uh, uh, change in my career and

00:16:12.940 change of direction. And, um, you know, when I lost my job at the Telegraph and I was lucky, I had various

00:16:21.420 opportunities presented to me for what I could do, but I really felt like, um, it was important for me

00:16:27.800 to, to put some distance between myself and the mainstream media. You know, I, I, I knew I didn't

00:16:34.020 really belong there anymore. Um, and ideally I didn't want to tie myself to any, um, specific media

00:16:42.200 brand. And it's not that there weren't plenty that I admired, including Rebel News, but, um, by,

00:16:49.900 by doing that, by tying yourself to any one outlet, regardless of how much you admire them,

00:16:56.340 you are essentially denying the opportunity to all the others, to share your work and to use

00:17:02.100 what you're doing. And for me, the most important thing was to allow anyone who wanted to use my work

00:17:09.100 and share my message to, to just take it and use it. And the democracy fund provided a perfect

00:17:15.500 opportunity to allow me to do that, which has been great. Well, that answers my question. My next

00:17:21.020 question was why the democracy fund and how did you end up there? Um, so you just answered that for me.

00:17:27.400 Um, I guess my other question would be what, what has the reception been like from, I guess, your

00:17:34.560 former colleagues, former peers in, uh, the visual arts, uh, are they sort of envious of you? I feel

00:17:42.860 like other journalists are envious of me and my freedom. I really do. I think that's where some of

00:17:47.240 their prickliness about Rebel News comes from. Uh, what ha what has the response been like to your

00:17:52.860 shift to the democracy fund and this more freedom, freedom oriented cartooning? Um, to be honest,

00:18:00.680 I, I haven't heard from many of my former friends and colleagues, uh, even before that'll happen.

00:18:07.660 Yeah. Um, but even before I lost my job, um, you know, that there, there was quite, um, a tight knit

00:18:14.960 community of us cartoonists here in the UK. There really aren't many of us as maybe a group of, uh,

00:18:21.060 15, 20 people who do it full time for the newspapers. And we would meet up in London a couple of times

00:18:27.100 every year and, and have drinks and there'd be, you know, sometimes awards shows and things like

00:18:32.260 that, where we, we'd see each other and, um, talk about nerdy things like paper and paints and,

00:18:38.380 and complain about editors and all of that stuff. Um, and as soon as I took this line, um, against

00:18:47.480 lockdowns, masks, vaccines, all of that, uh, just, I was cut out, you know, they didn't, they didn't,

00:18:53.480 uh, communicate anymore. A few of them, um, spent some time sending really nasty, abusive emails,

00:19:01.500 which I didn't respond to. And they seem to have given up now. So, uh, you know that to answer your

00:19:07.800 question, I, I don't really know what they think, but I can guess. Um, yeah. And, and, uh, I, I,

00:19:16.300 maybe they're, maybe they're envious, but, um, you know, they, they still have their secure jobs and,

00:19:23.380 uh, they're still tied to these big brands and, uh, maybe they, they think I'm, uh, I have seen

00:19:31.060 them quoted actually in some other articles where they've been interviewed about, well, what do you

00:19:35.140 think, uh, Bob Moran and what he's doing? And several of them have said that I'm committing

00:19:39.780 career suicide, um, which is interesting. And, um, the articles often then go on to say that I have

00:19:48.640 more followers than them. And, uh, you know, I sell more work than they do and things like that,

00:19:54.220 which is kind of funny. Um, I don't know, you can't spend too much time worrying about that. Can

00:19:59.020 you, you just got to focus on, um, your work and, you know, I, I feel really good about the fact that

00:20:07.000 I now have this wider audience and I have a much better idea of who those people are because they

00:20:14.220 share such important values, you know, that binds everyone on our side together. It's not one

00:20:19.940 readership. It's not one area of the class system. It's not one nationality. It's nothing like that.

00:20:25.120 It's just human beings who care about freedom and dignity and, um, democracy, you know, that's it.

00:20:33.720 And that feels great. And it sounds like they're giving you the creative freedom that you need over

00:20:37.900 at the democracy fund. Your work is phenomenal. Um, your, um, keep on trucking original artwork. I,

00:20:44.740 I mean, I think it really does capture, um, that moment in time when all the systems failed Canadians,

00:20:52.820 uh, the politicians, the judges, the laws, our charter of rights and freedoms, the public health

00:20:58.600 officers, the media, uh, pop culture, everything failed Canadians. And so the truckers did it for

00:21:05.780 themselves. Um, and, and, you know, it shows the hope it shows, you know, the, the common dignity of

00:21:12.940 the blue collar man and just the government tyranny and the darkness that befell us after, um, even

00:21:20.300 though the truckers succeeded, even though the truckers succeeded by the time they landed on Ottawa

00:21:25.820 provinces were repealing their mask mandates so fast, they didn't want to get convoyed, but it does,

00:21:32.040 it, it shows, um, the hope, the, the, um, accomplishment, but also the tyranny all at once.

00:21:37.900 I love that. I hadn't heard that, uh, getting convoyed, uh, using it as a verb. I like that idea. I didn't want to

00:21:43.920 get convoyed. Yeah. And, you know, I think the other thing was the, the dignity and restraint that those

00:21:49.600 truckers showed was what was so impressive, um, to all of us around the world. The fact that it was such a huge

00:21:55.880 show of force, you know, those are, those trucks are powerful. It's, it's literally a, uh, a massive

00:22:02.080 potential force that they had, but they remained so calm and peaceful. They just parked up, got out

00:22:08.100 of their trucks, became part of the community. They built this, this community there. And, um, you know,

00:22:13.920 they played music and they were trying to have a dialogue. It's all they wanted. And they were denied

00:22:18.320 that. And even when the government reacted with violence, you know, they still kept their heads. They

00:22:23.700 still stayed calm. That was amazing. Um, because it can't have been easy and, you know, not, not

00:22:30.300 necessarily what you might expect from these huge burly truckers, you know, um, but they really, uh,

00:22:37.680 set an example for the rest of us, I think of, of how it is done. Yeah. It was interesting to watch

00:22:43.440 because if that were a far left-wing protest that would have devolved into violence and rapes,

00:22:48.240 murder, drug overdoses, um, uh, within 48 to 72 hours, these guys went on about four weeks and it

00:22:57.340 was completely peaceful, but not only it never devolved it, they actually, as you say, built a

00:23:05.640 community instead of invaded one and made a community gross as you so often see with, you know,

00:23:12.060 left-wing protests like Chaz and chop from the United States, the opposite happened here. Crime

00:23:18.440 rates actually went down and people were being taken care of. Yeah. It was like, they were trying to

00:23:25.120 remind the rest of Canada and the rest of the world, what humanity should be like, you know,

00:23:31.540 how we're supposed to live and interact. That was what was so moving about it. I found, um, yeah,

00:23:37.500 sorry to interrupt you there, but you just, um, that is exactly, I think the point of lockdown

00:23:43.600 resistance is that these truckers showed up there and they showed that you can build a community and

00:23:49.700 take care of each other without the government getting in between you and your fellow community

00:23:55.020 members, which has been the problem with the entire pandemic restrictions and overreaction.

00:24:01.000 They showed the world that you can do this. You don't need the government in between you and your

00:24:05.400 neighbor. And I think that's where some of the, um, overreaction to them came from as well, because

00:24:10.480 they showed how obsolete the government can be in so many situations. Yeah. People don't want to

00:24:16.840 believe anymore that, um, that we shouldn't rely on the government to micromanage every aspect of our

00:24:23.040 lives. Um, it totally goes against what, what, what they've placed their faith in, um, which is this

00:24:30.420 total nanny state, this, this, uh, you know, governed by fear and, and to just, um, hand over all

00:24:37.180 responsibility. And it was like, they were saying, no, taking responsibility for ourselves is actually

00:24:43.120 a really good thing. It's really fulfilling. And it actually reminds you what humanity is about. Um,

00:24:49.160 and yeah, I've, I've really enjoyed having the creative freedom to express these ideas. As you say,

00:24:55.420 it's daunting, you know, I've, I've, for my whole career, um, I've had editors, uh, you know, teams

00:25:03.140 of editors and different colleagues that I've worked with, um, to share ideas with and to, um,

00:25:08.980 hold my hand if you like. And it's kind of scary being more or less on my own, but, um,

00:25:15.120 the, it feels great. It feels great to have such creative freedom and, um, just to be able to channel

00:25:20.660 all that creative energy into coming up with the idea instead of constantly second guessing,

00:25:26.800 uh, whether an editor is going to want to use it or not, or, or want to steer me in a different

00:25:31.120 direction. I think that's great. That's how, uh, we approach journalism here at rebel news. Instead

00:25:36.760 of assigning stories to the journalists, they pitch stories they're passionate about to me. Um,

00:25:42.940 because I think that's the most authentic way to do it. If they care about the story,

00:25:48.260 their passion is going to come through in the story and they're going to be careful about the

00:25:52.020 story, not me assigning something boring that I might care about, but they don't at all.

00:25:57.220 Yeah, exactly. I mean, um, it's kind of how I grew up thinking journalism worked,

00:26:02.800 you know, and, uh, it's what you see in the old movies and things, if there's a newspaper and stuff

00:26:08.520 like that. And then, yeah, exactly. Um, it's not, not what I've experienced, uh, in 10 years of

00:26:15.340 working in the, in the, um, free press in the UK. Can we call it the free press still? I'm not,

00:26:21.100 I'm not sure about that in Canada. No, I said that very sarcastically.

00:26:26.380 No, uh, Bob, I know you're very busy. You're getting a lot of media requests and you're working

00:26:31.220 very hard to produce, um, new cartoons for the democracy fund, but I think it's important, um,

00:26:37.020 to give you an opportunity to let people know where they can buy your original artwork because

00:26:40.920 you've generously allowed people to use your artwork, but if they would like to buy an original

00:26:45.980 print, how do they do that? Yep. So, uh, everything's available through my website,

00:26:51.440 which is bobmoran.co.uk. Uh, and on there you can, if, if you're a publisher of any kind, uh,

00:26:58.660 blog, website, magazine, newspaper, you can download the cartoons in high resolution, free of charge

00:27:05.720 and use them in your publications or on your platform, uh, on the same website, you can buy

00:27:11.500 the original artworks. Um, if you'd like to invest in, in, um, uh, uh, an original Bob cartoon,

00:27:18.840 you can also buy prints, um, various sizes framed and unframed. And there's a link to my

00:27:26.900 merchandise shop on there as well. So you can get t-shirts and sweaters and hoodies and that kind of

00:27:32.520 thing. That's excellent, Bob. I would just want to thank you so much for your hard work. I know

00:27:37.980 you've paid a personal cost fighting for freedom, but on the flip side, let it be an example for

00:27:43.300 other people that if you do stand up, if you do, uh, you know, allow yourself to be guided by your

00:27:50.140 convictions and your morals, you can come out the other side and have a very successful career and a

00:27:56.880 successful following because there are people that they're just looking for someone to stand up and

00:28:01.320 tell the truth. Yeah. And you know, the, the other thing is don't be afraid because our, our side of

00:28:06.920 this is full of the most, uh, generous and decent people. And you know, if you think you're going to

00:28:13.280 fall, they will catch you. So don't worry about it. Speak your truth. Bob, thank you so much. And, uh,

00:28:20.220 I can't wait to see what you do next. Thank you very much, Sheila. Great to speak to you.

00:28:24.160 Regular recent viewers of the show will know that I'm trying something new to wrap up the show each

00:28:34.440 week. I read one or two of your letters to me randomly selected. I do not pre-read them.

00:28:41.220 And I think it's a great way for you to have your say. And it maintains our commitment to telling the

00:28:47.000 other side of the story. Sometimes the other side of the story is your side of the story. And unlike the

00:28:52.500 insufferable Trudeau cheerleaders at the CBC, we don't leave our comments section closed. It's 1.00

00:28:59.220 wide open. My comment section, if you want to have your letter possibly selected to be read on the

00:29:05.400 show, just go to Sheila at rebelnews.com. Send me an email, put gun show letters in the subject line 0.54

00:29:12.920 so that I can easily find it. Poke my finger at my phone screen and say, that's the letter this week.

00:29:18.740 So we've got a letter this week. It's from Eileen DeHaan. She sends me a letter that reads,

00:29:27.320 hello, Sheila. As a practicing Christian and an advocate for freedom, I have been following the

00:29:32.100 trials of Pastor Ardor Poloski on Rebel News. I have been looking for over a year for a faith

00:29:38.140 community willing to stand up for freedom to vaccine mandates and the lockdowns. I have discussed

00:29:43.660 with pastors in three different churches and all are either unaware of the dangers to religious

00:29:50.000 freedoms presented or unwilling to stand up to the authorities due to possible penalties, financial

00:29:56.380 or otherwise, or if aware of the loss of religious freedom and the hypocrisy of politicians who break

00:30:02.340 the rules while jailing pastors for the same contravention, state that it is worse in countries

00:30:08.260 like Iran, but it doesn't stop people from worshipping. In my humble opinion, the person

00:30:14.420 stating this view, a senior person in the local evangelical church near where I live, is more

00:30:20.720 interested in flogging Jesus for his own financial benefit and security of his position in his church

00:30:26.980 than standing up for the principles Jesus was teaching and who did stand up to the authorities of

00:30:33.560 his time. So my question is, does Pastor Ardor Poloski have an online service for his church?

00:30:40.500 And if so, how do I join? Sincerely, Eileen Dehan, White Rock, BC, Canada. Hi, Eileen. I'm so glad you

00:30:48.580 sent me this email because I've been feeling this way throughout the entire pandemic. It is the pastor's

00:30:54.400 obligation, a priest's obligation to tend to his flock physically, of course, keep them safe from disease,

00:31:03.160 but also spiritually. And so many of them have fallen down on the job. They have been

00:31:10.840 compliant with the government, even when the government falls out of compliance with God.

00:31:19.040 And, you know, we do live in a secular society, but so many of our laws are taken directly from the

00:31:27.380 Ten Commandments. And we know as Christians, and I speak about this from a Christian worldview,

00:31:35.220 but we know as Christians that we are told to be obedient to our government

00:31:40.020 insofar as the government does not run afoul of the laws of God. And for Pastor Ardor Poloski

00:31:48.260 and many other Alberta pastors like him, like James Coates at Grace Life Church, who actually just

00:31:54.860 wrote a phenomenal book, and Tim Stevens from Fairview Baptist in Calgary, they stood up and

00:32:05.360 resisted laws that they said violated their religious freedom. And while other churches who moved to Zoom

00:32:12.220 church, shrank, and I don't know if their congregations will ever return, theirs are booming.

00:32:18.340 I know Grace Life Church is looking for a larger building, and they have a huge building.

00:32:21.980 Tim Stevens' congregation has outgrown his church, and I think Pastor Ardor Poloski could be experiencing

00:32:27.280 the same problems. Again, this is like when businesses stand up to lockdowns, and they're flooded

00:32:32.920 with business. Churches, same thing. They stood up to lockdowns, and they are flooded with worshipers

00:32:39.960 who feel let down by their own congregations. I completely get where you're coming from, Eileen.

00:32:46.880 So to answer your question, that was a long preamble, but to answer your question, yes.

00:32:51.980 Pastor Ard, although it's been some time since he's been behind the pulpit, since he was incarcerated

00:32:58.620 for 51 days, and you can follow along. I know, I'm sure, Eileen, you have, but for our other viewers,

00:33:05.300 you can follow along at SaveArter.com. You can see all the documents, court filings, interviews

00:33:10.140 with lawyers, interviews with Ard, but basically this time around, he was in jail for giving a sermon

00:33:15.860 to truckers at the Coots border, and they treated him like a pipeline bomber for that.

00:33:22.180 But Pastor Ard does stream his services from the cave of Adulam, that's his church,

00:33:28.260 on ArcherPeloskiTV on YouTube. So you can tune in there. But boy, I sure hope you make the trip to

00:33:36.600 Calgary so you can meet Pastor Ard in person and attend one of his services, because while he's a

00:33:43.780 firebrand on the internet, and he is a firebrand in real life, he is one of the kindest, funniest,

00:33:50.920 most charming guys you'll ever meet in your life. Just a really warm and genuine guy who cares deeply

00:33:57.200 about his community and refuses to bend that knee to the altar of the state.

00:34:03.640 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. And again,

00:34:07.220 if you'd like to have your letter read on air, it's very easy. Just send me an email

00:34:12.100 at Sheila at RebelNews.com. Put gun show letters in the subject line so that I can easily find it.

00:34:20.000 And again, I just select them at random. But the good news is my viewers are very smart and thoughtful.

00:34:24.540 So, you know, I'm getting a lot of good letters. Thanks to everybody in the studio in Toronto for

00:34:31.100 putting the show together for me tonight. I'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same

00:34:35.700 place next weekend. Remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

Rebel News Podcast - April 14, 2022

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Bob Moran is producing free political cartoons for The Democracy Fund

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