Ep 188 | Did Chick-fil-A Cave?
Episode Stats
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Summary
Chick-fil-A no longer donating to the Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Paul Anderson Youth Home amid LGBT backlash. Then, we talk about Kanye West's new gospel album, Jesus Is King.
Transcript
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Hello, relatable listeners. Happy Wednesday. I hope everyone has had a great week so far.
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Next week is Thanksgiving, which I am very excited about. I think I've said before that
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I'm more excited about this year's holidays than I ever have been. I don't know if it's something
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about having a kid. She's not going to remember this Thanksgiving and Christmas at all. She's
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not even going to appreciate it, but something, I don't know, about it being her first holiday
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season makes me really excited. So I'm pumped. I hope you guys are. I hope that you guys have
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fun plans to just relax and be with your family. Let me know what you guys are doing. I'm really
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curious. Send me a message or an email. Okay, today we are going to talk about two big stories. We'll
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see if we have time to cover anything else, but I have a lot to say about especially this first
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story, and that is about Chick-fil-A. No longer donating to certain organizations, including
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the Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes or FCA, and Paul Anderson Youth Home
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amid LGBT backlash. So we're going to go into all of that. I've shared some of my opinions
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on social media already. You may have seen, but I am going to go all in, as they say, and
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tell you exactly what I think about that. Then we're going to talk about Kanye West at Lakewood
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Church, which is a mega church led by Joel Osteen in Houston, and tell you what I think
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about that. I'll play a little clip from it. The episode that we did on Kanye West, Kanye
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knows that Jesus is King from a couple weeks ago, three weeks ago, maybe. That's actually
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the most listened to episode of Relatable ever, which is kind of crazy. So I did an episode
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called Three Myths Christian Women Believe. I think that's what it's called from in January
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of this year, and that held the title as the most listened to episode for a really long
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time. And that's the episode still that I see shared the most by Christian women. But Kanye
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knows Jesus is King is the title of the episode, and it's now taken first place, which is kind
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of crazy. It's probably because this is such an unbelievable, it seems like turn of events
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that Kanye West really did release a gospel album. If you haven't listened to that yet,
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then you can go back and listen to that episode. But first, let's go into this first. Oh, also,
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we're going to be talking about International Men's Day. I'm just going to touch on it. I'm
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going to play you a little video to honor the wonderful men in our lives. Well, as I'm recording
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this, it's International Men's Day. So as you're listening to this, yesterday was International
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Men's Day, but we're going to do a little belated celebration. So okay, Chick-fil-A no longer
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donating to these three organizations, Salvation Army, FCA, Paul Anderson Youth Home. The reason
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why this is a story is because these three organizations are the last three organizations
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Chick-fil-A donated to that stand for biblical marriage. You might recall a story that we actually
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didn't talk about on this podcast for whatever reason. I don't know, maybe it fell on a weekend
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and I just didn't end up talking about it. But the singer Ellie Golding, she declared ever
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so courageously that she was not going to be performing at the Cowboys Thanksgiving halftime
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show this year. If the Salvation Army, who is a sponsor of the game, doesn't provide a statement
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pledging themselves to the LGBTQ community or a donation or pledging a donation to one of their
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organizations. I'm going to go off on a tangent on this particular story for just a second since we
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didn't cover it. And it's all pertinent to the greater conversation about the Chick-fil-A thing.
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This is the privilege of being oppressed in the United States of America. It is amazing the power
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that the LGBT lobby has to get people to bully one of the world's largest charitable organizations
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with membership of over 1.7 million people throughout the world. It's present in more than 131 countries
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since 1865. The Salvation Army has been running charity shops, homeless shelters, helping with
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disaster relief, humanitarian aid for a century and a half, over a century and a half. This organization
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has probably helped more people around the world than any other single charitable humanitarian
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organization ever has. And the LGBT coalition is canceling them because the Salvation Army is Christian
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and because they're Christian, they believe in biblical marriage. They have been accused of
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refusing to serve gay people and trans people. But of course, these are myths. As the Salvation Army
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has said time and again, they provided a statement recently that said, an individual's sexual or gender
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identity, religion, or lifestyle has no bearing on our willingness to provide service. We stand firmly
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behind our mission to meet human needs in his name. So that's Jesus's name without discrimination.
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According to CNN, in 2013, the organization maintained that the Bible forbade sexual intimacy between
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members of the same sex maintained. So they didn't just acknowledge that the Bible actually does
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forbid this, but they just maintained that the Bible forbade sexual intimacy between members of the same
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sex, saying that gay Christians should embrace celibacy and that scripture did not support same-sex
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marriages, but that its services were available to all people. So this is true.
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The Salvation Army does in its ideological, religious, mission beliefs. They do believe
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in biblical marriage, but as they have said time and again, and I'm sure as they have proven by
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practice, they don't discriminate in their services. So my question is, who cares if they're not
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discriminating against feeding and housing and helping people? Who cares what they believe? They're a
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Christian organization, which means that yes, they believe in the Bible. And because they believe
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in the Bible, they believe in a biblical definition of marriage as all adherents to the Bible do.
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If you want to know the why behind this biblically, behind why Christians believe in marriage being
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between a man and a woman, it's not just some arbitrary, archaic belief. It's not just some
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extracting and decontextualizing a few verses in the Old Testament. That's not what it's about.
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It's about something much bigger, much more eternal than that. Then you can listen to my
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episode, which is titled Biblical Marriage, which explains this thoroughly. And you know what? If
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you're not a Christian, though, if you're not a Christian, I don't expect you to believe that. I
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don't think any Christian expects you to believe the same things we do if you're not a Christian and
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if you don't care what the Bible says. I don't expect you to adhere to a biblical definition of
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marriage if you don't believe in the Bible. And we're not forcing that upon you. And the law
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already recognizes legally what's described as marriage, even though biblically it's not described
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as marriage. The law recognizes now your right to be married to whoever you want to. And yet,
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LGBT activists, not all LGBT people, but these activists are not content with allowing us to
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believe what we believe and to live out those beliefs authentically. Even when those beliefs
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actually don't affect you, actually don't affect them at all. The same people who constantly preach
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about self-love and living authentically are also telling us that we cannot believe what we believe.
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We cannot be authentic to our faith, that rather than obey God, we have to obey them or else they
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will bully us into submission. It's like Nebuchadnezzar saying, bow down to my image. Shadrach,
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Meshach, and Abednego were like, no, we are not going to do that. And I'm not saying that we are,
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I'm not trying to insert ourselves into the story, but I think there's a lesson that we can draw from
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that, that Christians is the first commandment says, you shall have no other gods before me.
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We're not supposed to acquiesce to an ideology, an idea, a group that contradicts what the Bible
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says. These activists do not care that an organization like the Salvation Army has helped more
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people in its existence than probably any other group ever has. They don't care what they do for
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the homeless or the abused or the vulnerable or the hungry. They care about ideological purity. They
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are ideological tyrants. They are like 1984 thought police. They're patrolling your mind and your
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beliefs to make sure that everything that you think aligns with the things that they think or else
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what, or else they're going to make your life miserable and they are going to make your business
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as submissive to their ideas and their worldview as possible, which is what they've done with
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Chick-fil-A for years or what they've tried to do with Chick-fil-A for years, ever since the CEO said
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his belief in biblical said or articulated his belief in biblical marriage, because again, Dan Cathy is a
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Christian. So we would expect him to have a Christian definition of what marriage is because
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Christians by nature believe in the Bible and the Bible, as I've said, is clear on the subject. It really
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shouldn't be that controversial, even if you disagree with it. Um, and by the way, by the way,
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I always think it's important to remind us of this until like two seconds ago, this is what the majority
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of Americans believed about marriage. That's just a fact. Uh, it's only been since 2015 when a
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Berger fell was decided that people who believe in what's called traditional marriage have been called
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bigots. It's called traditional marriage because it has been the definition of marriage for all of
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time. And by the way, this definition of marriage and sexuality is the sole reason why any of us are
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currently here. It's been like this for millennia, but in the past four years, all of a sudden it's
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scandalous to believe in what literally has been the definition of, uh, human reproductive relationships
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and marriage forever. Um, but we are called, we are called the religious fundamentalists,
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but the reality is the reality is they are the religious fundamentalists. Leftists are the
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religious fundamentalists. Uh, we take our faith seriously. Yes, we take the word of God seriously,
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but we're not trying to coerce you into believing what we believe. We're not trying to cancel you
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for disagreeing with us. Maybe there was a certain point in history in which that was true. Uh, but that's
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not the case anymore. That hasn't been the case for a long time. You are free to believe what you want
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to believe. You're free to do what you want to do as long as it's legal. We're not going to agree
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with it, but we would simply like the same courtesy, the freedom to disagree, to operate out of our own
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beliefs. Just leave us alone. Religious people have a constitutional right to religious liberty.
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You do not have a constitutional right not to be offended. That's just the truth. And yet, and yet
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you would think you would think with how companies bow down with how they kowtow to these woke,
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a woke activists of all different kinds that they do have a constitutional right not to be offended.
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Case in point, Chick-fil-A. Now, some of you have said, Ali, these headlines are misleading. They're
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not true. Chick-fil-A is just restructuring their charitable giving, which is partly true. This is
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partly true. They had a multi-year deal with these three organizations, Paul Anderson Youth Home,
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FCA, Salvation Army, and they fulfilled their obligation. And now they say that they're focusing
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on three things. That's education, hunger, and homelessness. So that's true. But here's why that
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doesn't make a whole lot of sense. These three organizations focus on education, hunger, and
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homelessness. Paul Anderson Youth Home is a Christian program for so-called troubled young men. That's what
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they say on their website. Men who have gotten in trouble with the law, but aren't in jail, who have
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struggled with things like substance abuse or other addictions. It's an amazing program. I actually
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used to work for the PR company that did PR for them for a little bit. Fellowship of Christian
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Athletes aims to make disciples through athletes and coaches. And we know what Salvation Army does.
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We've already talked about that. But the characteristic that all of these organizations share, besides that
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they all do unequivocally good work for their communities, is that they all believe in biblical
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marriage. So I just don't think this is a coincidence. BizNow reports, and this is the
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this is the report that really started the whole thing. It was an exclusive article when it first
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came out. And of course, other organizations, other outlets have picked it up since then. So this is what
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they report. The move comes after several US airports rejected the company from concessions deals
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earlier this year. More recently, the landlord of the first Chick-fil-A in the UK announced eight days
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into the lease. The pop up venue would not be welcome to extend all because of the company's
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perceived anti LGBT stance. The San Antonio City Council was voting on an airport concessions
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contract in March when ThinkProgress reported that Chick-fil-A was still donating to anti LGBT
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groups. And so let's see the San Antonio City Council brought up brought up the article at the
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council meeting and counselors voted in favor of the concessions contract. As long as a plan took
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was dropped from the deal. The story had ripple effect because Delaware North, the concessions
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handler for Buffalo Niagara International Airport, also decided in March not to move ahead with plans
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for Chick-fil-A at that airport. And officials in San Jose, California announced they would not renew
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the chain's lease at the airport when it runs out in 2026. More than 100 LGBT and animal rights
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protesters showed up to opening day at Chick-fil-A's first Toronto store in September.
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After protests and a boycott by a local LGBT group, the landlord behind a Chick-fil-A pop-up
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store at a mall in Reading, England, announced eight days into the lease that it would not renew
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with the chain because the mall is meant to offer an inclusive space where everyone is welcome.
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Here's what I here's what I don't understand about that. So number one, the Chick-fil-A in Manhattan,
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probably the most liberal city in the country, maybe, maybe next to LA and San Francisco,
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but right up there, is doing pretty well. I would guess every time I've been there,
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the line has been out the door, literally out the door. So unless I'm just not seeing something,
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I've never seen a protester. I mean, I've been there pretty often. I've never seen a protester
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in front of there. I've never seen or heard people talk about, wow, I can't believe Chick-fil-A is in
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New York. I'm not visiting New York or I'm not going to Times Square. I'm not visiting Manhattan.
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I'm not going to the store. I guarantee you the vast majority of people that go into that Chick-fil-A
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are liberal and they might not like it that they donate to these liberal groups,
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but it seems like that store is doing pretty well. So I'm wondering why Chick-fil-A can't look at that
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and say, okay, yes, there's going to be some outrage in the beginning, but once we get over
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that hump, people are still going to buy our chicken sandwiches because we have good service
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and our chicken sandwiches are good. And there's a huge group of people, and I'll touch on this in a
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minute, a huge group of people that go to Chick-fil-A specifically, exclusively, pretty much
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because of their ideological beliefs, because they have stood up against the rage mob for so long and
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said, you know what, we're giving money to these organizations that believe in biblical marriage
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because they do good work. And hey, it's okay that our CEO also has the same beliefs, that he also
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adheres to the Bible. That is a huge reason why so many Christian conservatives, who, by the way,
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are the core customers for Chick-fil-A, go to Chick-fil-A. I think that they underestimate that.
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But my other thing that I think is weird is that obviously there's been backlash. There's been a lot
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of at least annoyance and resentment against Chick-fil-A for not being open on Sundays. And so
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if we are acquiescing in this arena, stopping our donations to organizations that are so-called
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problematic according to the woke, because it is hindering the growth, then why not just open on
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Sundays for the same reason? If that's what you're worried about, then why don't you just stay open
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seven days a week? If you're more concerned about growth than you are your values, then there's no
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reason, I don't think, to be closed on Sunday. Let the people get their chicken biscuits after
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they're hungover on Saturday night. Why not? So that's what I don't really understand about all
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of this. And again, it doesn't matter to the activists who have tried so hard for so long to
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get Chick-fil-A to push over on this. It doesn't matter to them that the Salvation Army does incredible
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work. It didn't matter that Chick-fil-A has impeccable service and doesn't actually have
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any policies whatsoever that discriminate against gay or trans people. What mattered, what matters to
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them is that Chick-fil-A wasn't allowed, wasn't allowed, according to them, to be associated with
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Christian organizations that operate on Christian principles. That's what mattered to these
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activists. And I guess that's now what matters to Chick-fil-A. In regards to this change, chief
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operating officer Tim Tassapalas, Tassapalas, I don't know how to say his last name, said in an
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interview with BizNow, there's no question we know that as we go into new markets, we need to be clear
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about who we are. Chick-fil-A president, oh, he's also the Chick-fil-A president. Sorry, I said that
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incorrectly, but Chick-fil-A president and COO Tim Tassapalas said that. And then he said,
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there are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A and we thought we needed to be clear
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about our message. So this is intentional. This is intentional what they're doing. There are some
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people that are saying, oh, this is not intentional. Conservatives are blowing out of this out of
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proportion. No, this is an intentional political move. Another executive said that after years of
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taking it on the chin, changes had to be made. Relevant Magazine had an article saying,
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oh, you guys are just making too big a deal of this. And only quoted conservatives this article
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did freaking out about this and said, no, this is just restructuring blah, blah, blah. No, it's not.
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No, it's not. This is clearly in response to the pushback they've gotten. And the article in Relevant
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Magazine failed to cite the multiple sources that reported that this is in response to LGBTQ pushback.
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And I think we can take the statement of its COO and another executive to confirm that.
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So the question is, is all of this going to work? Is acquiescing to the LGBT rage mob going to work?
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Is this going to bring Chick-fil-A back into the good graces of the woke? Well, here's a statement
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by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian and Trans Etc. Alliance. They said, in addition to refraining from
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financially supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations, Chick-fil-A still lacks policies to ensure safe
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workplaces for LGBTQ employees and should unequivocally speak out against the anti-LGBTQ
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reputation that their brand represents. Listen, you guys, listen, Chick-fil-A. The woke can never be
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satiated. They will never be satisfied. There is nothing you, Chick-fil-A, will ever do to get back in
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their good graces. You can look at this hashtag or the story on Twitter and all of the people who
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have been on the left side of this issue are saying too little too late. I'm sorry, you've done too much
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damage. I'm never going to eat a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, blah, blah, blah. You will never appease
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them. You will never appease them. This is not going to help your business. Like I said, there are
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thousands of people. Yes, there are a lot of people who eat at Chick-fil-A. They don't care about the
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politics. They don't care about the ideology. They just like their, their nuggets, their chicken
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sandwich, and they're eliminated. Yes, that is absolutely true. But there are a lot of people
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who love Chick-fil-A, not just for their chicken, not just for their awesome service, which is amazing
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by the way, but also at least in part, they love Chick-fil-A because of who they are, because they
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have stayed true to their mission and true to their values for a long time. So a deliberate choice to say
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we are no longer going to donate money to organizations. These are not organizations
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that exclusively or primarily stand or centrally stand against gay marriage. These are organizations
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that do a lot of humanitarian good who just happen to be Christian organizations who just happen to
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believe in biblical marriage because of those things. And so they're saying, you know what? It's
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more important for us to take our money away from organizations that we know we're doing good,
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especially the Salvation Army, the number one organization that fights against homelessness
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and hunger. We're going to take our money away from them because they have a controversial stance
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that makes it a little bit difficult for us to go into certain markets that believe that we are
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anti-LGBTQ. You are kidding yourself if you think this is going to help that problem. I see this all
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the time. I see this within the church. I see this with pastors. I see this with Christians. I see this
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with organizations. They think that they are going to be woke enough to cover up the things that they
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believe. So the Christian things that they believe. That if they're woke in a certain area, then maybe
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the left will be okay with them and they won't bully them and they'll accept them and they'll link arms
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with them. They'll be allies with them and hold hands with them saying kumbaya. That never happens.
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Unless you are able to, unless you are willing to bow down on the altar of leftism, on the altar of
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so-called progressivism, you will never be accepted by the left. You will always be told you're a bigot.
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You will always be excluded. And this is why I say the left, they are the religious fundamentalists.
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They are the ones who say you have to take up your cross, deny yourself and follow leftism in order
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to be a part of it. Which is why I say that it is so hard, if not impossible to be a leftist and a
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Christian. And it's not because Jesus is asking us at the pearly gates, hey, what's your, what's your
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religious association affiliation or what's your political affiliation before we allow you in?
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It's because leftism does not tolerate any view that aligns with the Bible. You will be kicked out.
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You will be bullied until you finally and fully submit until Chick-fil-A is waving pride flags
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outside of each store until they come out with some kind of advertisement saying boys are girls and
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girls are boys. They are never even going to be considered by the woke, by the left to be even a
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little bit acceptable. I hope they understand that, that this just is not, in my opinion, a smart business
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decision. Now, it may be true that people who love Chick-fil-A, maybe this won't change their sales at all.
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I certainly, I don't think it's going to help because I've always heard them say that if we ever opened
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on Sunday, that would be basically the beginning of the end for Chick-fil-A. And so they know enough,
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obviously, they know enough to realize that their values are what sets them apart. It's why they are
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so wildly successful as a fast food chain. And yet, and yet they don't see this, I guess, as a part of
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that, or they just underestimate the love that people have for Chick-fil-A based on their values
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and based on the strength, based on their ability to quote, take it on the chin for so long. And I just
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can't imagine that this is going to be helpful. Again, I don't know that it's going to hurt their
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sales that much, but I can't imagine that it's going to be helpful. And I think a lot of people
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do see it as a betrayal. Again, we're not asking Chick-fil-A to discriminate. Of course,
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we don't want that. We don't want them to change their policies to, you know, be mean or discriminate
00:23:40.480
against one group of people. Of course not. But yes, we want them to stand strong and donate into
00:23:46.680
charities that do good work that just happen to believe in biblical marriage and them saying,
00:23:52.420
no, we're not going to do that. It's weak. It's, it's so weak. And quite frankly, I think it's
00:23:57.580
embarrassing. So that's my take on all of that. You guys know how much I love Chick-fil-A. Like how
00:24:03.120
often did I talk about Chick-fil-A in my pregnancy? The number one thing that I craved all nine months.
00:24:09.140
I love Chick-fil-A. I do. And I'm not calling for a boycott here, but I, I'm a little bitter.
00:24:15.540
I'm bitter. I'm bitter against this decision. I think it is stupid. I think it's completely
00:24:21.300
idiotic. And I hope that they've enjoyed the backlash over the past couple of days because
00:24:27.840
you had a line of defense, Chick-fil-A against the woke, against the people that were talking about
00:24:34.520
how terrible Chick-fil-A was and how bigoted they were. You had people like me, Christian
00:24:39.760
conservatives, and even just people, even Pete Buttigieg. It was like, you know what? I need a
00:24:43.840
Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. Who cares? That's the logical stance to, to take care to, on, on his
00:24:50.820
end. But you had all of us saying, you know what? They're free to believe what they want to believe.
00:24:57.440
And now you don't have that line of defense anymore. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying that
00:25:01.720
Chick-fil-A can't do what they want to do with their own money. Of course they can. And if that's
00:25:05.220
how they want to realign themselves value-wise, then they're totally free to do that. And I'm not
00:25:10.620
out here calling for a boycott. It's the acquiescence to the rage mob that shows me that
00:25:16.900
there is some moral weakness there. And it just bothers me. It bothers me. And again, I think it's
00:25:23.720
a stupid business decision. I think it's a stupid moral decision, but if that's the direction that
00:25:29.780
they want to go, good luck, good luck. Like I said, you will never satiate the left, but best of luck to
00:25:37.180
you in that endeavor. Okay. Now we're going to move on to Kanye West, who has been doing a lot
00:25:42.720
of stuff in the past couple of weeks. He visited a prison and he performed there. The video of that
00:25:48.420
is pretty moving. And he went to Lakewood church, which is the church of Joel Osteen, a huge mega
00:25:54.880
church in Houston. And you guys know, most of you know how I feel about Joel Osteen. If you don't know,
00:26:00.580
I would go back and listen to an episode that I did. Also one of the most listened to episodes of this
00:26:06.960
podcast called plans to prosper question mark. It's called plans to prosper question mark. If
00:26:11.660
you have Apple podcasts, you just type it in plans to prosper question mark relatable,
00:26:15.620
and it will pop up. You can Google it. It'll come up too. And it's on YouTube and all of that good
00:26:20.840
stuff. So I talk about why the prosperity gospel isn't biblical and how Joel Osteen specifically
00:26:26.780
represents this prosperity gospel. Now my hope is that Joel repents from this. And I know
00:26:30.980
every time I talk about this, there are at least a few angry people, especially on Facebook
00:26:35.640
saying that I'm being judgmental. Well, the Bible calls us to discern false teachers.
00:26:40.080
So if you want to read second Timothy four or second Peter two, and you can listen to Joel
00:26:45.440
Osteen sermons, you can tell me what you come back with, and we can have a conversation and a debate
00:26:49.980
about this. But according to God's word and listening to his sermons, he preaches a false doctrine.
00:26:57.780
He just does. He does. Um, and Kanye West, there was a lot of controversy within the Christian
00:27:03.460
community about whether it was okay for Kanye West to go to Lakewood. Of course, the Bible also
00:27:08.380
instructs us not to associate with false teachers. And there were people saying, is this Kanye stuff
00:27:13.740
real? Blah, blah, blah. On my episode, I choose to believe that it is real. And I choose to celebrate
00:27:19.020
the fact that people are hearing the gospel for the first time from a very unlikely source.
00:27:24.580
But yes, when I heard that he was going to be at Lakewood, I wasn't super excited about that
00:27:30.160
because I think Joel Osteen leads people astray that he doesn't preach the true gospel. He
00:27:34.960
admittedly doesn't preach about sin, uh, which is pretty necessary. If you're going to teach people
00:27:40.640
about salvation and sanctification, the three S's that all pastors should be talking about every
00:27:45.200
single Sunday. Um, but it seems like that's just not his priority. In fact, he has said his goal is
00:27:51.460
to just help people sleep at night. Well, you can help people sleep at night, right? In the hell.
00:27:55.080
So I wasn't really excited about this whole collaboration, but as I've said, Kanye is a
00:28:02.240
new Christian. We all had not good doctrinal theological beliefs when we first became
00:28:09.140
Christians. I know that I did. So I'm not saying there's not grace for this situation. I will say,
00:28:14.980
yes, God can use anything. And, uh, apparently the gospel was preached when Kanye West was there,
00:28:21.880
which is awesome. And I watched a clip of it and it, I mean, it's an amazing performance. It just
00:28:28.440
is. So I'm going to play you a little bit of a highlight from that service. Even for someone
00:28:33.280
who's professing God and saying, this is going to be a God, a gospel album. The devil is going to come
00:28:38.640
and do everything he can to distract people from knowing how to fully be in service to the Lord.
00:28:48.360
And all of that arrogance and confidence and cockiness that y'all seen me use, uh, before God is now
00:29:00.440
King of kings, lord of gods, all the things he has in store. From the rich to the poor, all I welcome
00:29:08.120
through the door. You will never be the same when you call on Jesus' name. Listen to the words I'm
00:29:15.400
saying. Jesus saved me, now I'm saying. And I know, I know God is the force that picked me up. I know Christ is the
00:29:24.920
fountain that filled my cup. So look, like I said, that's obviously an incredible, it's an incredible
00:29:32.260
performance. I mean, I would love to attend one of the Sunday services and see what it's like. Um,
00:29:38.680
I, I won't go into all the analysis about Kanye because like I said, I did that a few weeks ago,
00:29:43.800
go back and listen to the episode. If you're interested in what I think, uh, no, this is not
00:29:48.340
necessarily an alliance that I'm excited about because I just don't think it's, uh, I don't,
00:29:56.520
I, I'm not sure how beneficial it is, but, but who knows? Maybe people heard the gospel for the
00:30:02.160
first time and that's amazing. I'm still very thankful for what Kanye West is doing for the
00:30:07.300
gospel album that he put out for how many young people apparently are going to church for the first
00:30:13.180
time or hearing the gospel for the first time or picking up a Bible for the first time. I mean,
00:30:17.980
that's pretty amazing. Praise God for that. And it sounds like whenever I hear Kanye talk,
00:30:23.740
it sounds like he is humbly, uh, accepting simply being a vessel for the Lord to work.
00:30:29.660
And I pray that the Lord continues to do that. I pray that the Lord continues to humble him,
00:30:33.820
humble all of us, sanctify him, sanctify all of us, and to use him to preach the gospel. I pray that
00:30:40.620
God would keep him close, that God would align his heart and his mind to his word and his law.
00:30:48.600
And that the Holy Spirit would work in him, in and through him. I mean, praise God for what he can
00:30:53.640
do, especially through those that we deem unlikely. So I'm still very, very thankful for that. And I
00:30:59.900
pray that Joel, maybe Joel heard the gospel from Kanye West and he's like, wow, we've been preaching
00:31:04.480
too much of this health and wealth stuff. That would be amazing. Who knows? So I just wanted to make
00:31:09.660
sure that we cover that. Okay. Last and final thing, like I said, yesterday was international men's day.
00:31:15.180
And I want to play you this video. This is a video of, uh, uh, group of officers. I was about
00:31:22.840
to say a squad, but a group of officers in Fort Worth, Texas, saving an eight year old that was
00:31:29.640
kidnapped, literally snatched out of her mother's arms in an affluent neighborhood in Fort Worth,
00:31:35.840
an eight year old, just walking with her mom and a guy drives up. This was caught on a ring doorbell,
00:31:41.300
by the way, uh, ring doorbell camera was a guy drove up, grabbed her child, pulled the child into
00:31:48.840
the car. And the mom starts screaming, calls the police. And a few hours later, this was back in
00:31:54.240
May, but the body cam footage just came out. Uh, the, the Fort Worth police found the guy and found
00:32:01.840
the eight year old in a hotel room. I'm going to play you a clip of that.
00:32:05.740
Then they rushed to room 333 and barge in. The suspect is placed in handcuffs. Cops desperately
00:32:14.360
searched the room. Hey, here she is. Got her. We got her. We got her. The little girl popped her
00:32:19.340
head out of this laundry basket where she had been hidden under a pile of clothes. She was afraid to
00:32:25.220
make any noises because the suspect had threatened to hurt her and her family. We have her. We need an
00:32:31.560
EMT. Come on, sweetheart. You're going to be okay. So thank God for men. Thank God for men. I'm not
00:32:38.180
saying that there aren't some strong women out there, but this is, this is the beauty and the
00:32:44.220
necessity of masculinity. Now, as I've talked about, not all men are like this and that's okay.
00:32:51.400
Men are allowed to like things that aren't four wheeling and busting down doors and hunting and
00:33:01.840
football. Of course, there is a range of things. What it means to be a strong man, the kind of men
00:33:09.680
that we need doesn't necessarily fit some superficial definition. It means being responsible. It means
00:33:16.940
taking care of your family, taking care of your community, protecting them, providing for them,
00:33:22.820
helping the vulnerable, helping women and children who, by the way, are weaker than men are in a variety
00:33:29.400
of ways, actually. So thank God for men, communities, families, nations, the world. We need strong men.
00:33:38.240
That is when societies stumble and fall, uh, when we don't have the leadership of strong men. And so
00:33:46.640
these stupid Antifa protesters who talk about, uh, who talk about abolishing the police, I mean,
00:33:54.360
you've got socialists talking about, uh, abolishing the police. You know what? I'm just going to play
00:34:00.160
you this video over and over again. Without the police, this girl, this guy, as you saw, he came
00:34:05.120
out of the room naked with a little eight year old girl in there. So what was he doing? Raping her,
00:34:12.440
molesting her, molesting her without the police, she would probably be dead, raped and molested multiple
00:34:18.380
times. So you're telling me that's a better reality. That's a better world. I don't think so. And for
00:34:24.240
everyone that talks about toxic masculinity, what you really mean by that is actual masculinity. And
00:34:30.940
what you actually mean by that is that you would rather men be passive and take a backseat and not do
00:34:35.020
anything, not speak up, not defend women. Well, I don't want to live in that world. You can go live in that
00:34:40.280
world. I don't want to live in that world. I want to live in a world where brave men like this are
00:34:44.420
defending us and doing their jobs. Well, whether you are a father, whether you are a CPA, whether
00:34:49.520
you're a police officer, firefighter, whether you are any kind of employee person, whatever you do,
00:34:56.840
you can be a strong, responsible man that your community, that your workplace, that your family
00:35:00.560
needs. Thank you. Thank you. And God bless international men's day. Okay. That's all we have.
00:35:07.100
We'll be back here on Friday with once again, another awesome interview. If there's ever anyone
00:35:12.060
that you guys really want me to interview, please reach out to me and let me know. I would love to