The John-Henry Westen Show - February 25, 2020


Christian teen bullied by rapper for refusing to say ‘F＊＊＊ Trump!’ at concert breaks silence


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

146.13258

Word Count

2,167

Sentence Count

147

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

Austin Joyner, a Christian young man who was publicly humiliated in a most extreme manner at a music festival for refusing to say F-Trump on stage, has come out with an incredible letter of forgiveness. The foul-mouthed rapper YG physically pushed the young man and cursed him, calling him a racist, and much more.


Transcript

00:00:00.080 Hello and welcome to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.
00:00:03.740 There is an incredible story blowing up on the internet right now.
00:00:07.240 An 18-year-old Christian young man who was publicly humiliated in a most extreme manner
00:00:13.160 at a music festival for refusing to say F-Trump on stage has come out with an incredible letter
00:00:19.760 of forgiveness.
00:00:20.920 The foul-mouthed rapper YG physically pushed the young man and cursed him, calling him
00:00:26.160 a racist and much more.
00:00:27.700 You'll want to stay tuned.
00:00:30.000 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
00:00:50.260 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
00:00:54.220 Amen.
00:00:54.520 The readings at Mass this Sunday were about our Lord's admonition to turn the other cheek
00:01:00.860 and pray for your enemies and those who persecute you.
00:01:04.440 And there couldn't be a more fitting example than this week, that of Austin Joyner.
00:01:10.940 Austin turned 18 on October 27, 2019.
00:01:15.080 And for his birthday, he went with three friends to the two-day Malaluna Music Festival in San
00:01:21.060 Antonio, Texas.
00:01:22.400 One of the musicians playing was rapper Kenan Jackson, known as YG, who is famous for his
00:01:29.400 F-Donald Trump song.
00:01:31.500 And by the way, he uses the expletive.
00:01:33.780 So, as he was performing, YG noticed Austin, who was near the front, was not singing, so
00:01:41.960 this song of, you know, F-Trump, but so YG called him up onto stage.
00:01:47.920 YG asked him to decide right there and then to say F-Donald Trump and to say his name because,
00:01:55.120 that's the young man's name, because he knew his mother, his father, his grandmother and
00:01:59.660 grandfather were all watching.
00:02:00.860 When Austin refused to say F-Trump, YG shoved him and hurled a barrage of curses at the young
00:02:08.960 man for being a Trump supporter.
00:02:10.960 You know what?
00:02:11.700 Rather than me explaining it, why don't you have a look?
00:02:14.340 Hey, listen.
00:02:16.180 I spotted you out in the crowd.
00:02:18.120 I asked you if you f*** with Donald Trump, you said you don't know.
00:02:22.480 So, since you don't know, I need you to make up your mind tonight.
00:02:26.240 I need you to say your name.
00:02:28.160 I want you to state your name because I know your mama, your daddy, your grandmama,
00:02:31.260 your grandfather is watching.
00:02:33.140 I want you to state your name and yell out F-Donald Trump.
00:02:37.380 No, you won't.
00:02:39.120 Get his f*** out of here.
00:02:40.400 Get him out of here.
00:02:43.900 He a Donald Trump supporter.
00:02:45.380 Get his f*** out of here.
00:02:47.140 Donald Trump racist.
00:02:48.160 He don't f*** with black people.
00:02:49.240 So, if you f*** with Donald Trump, you racist as f*** and I can't f*** with you.
00:02:52.960 Period.
00:02:53.400 Straight like that.
00:02:54.180 Absolutely unbelievable.
00:03:00.060 Now, it took Austin until February 22nd, just a few days ago, to prayerfully discern how to respond.
00:03:08.860 And now he has, with the most beautiful letter, which exemplifies Christ's admonition to pray for your enemies
00:03:15.140 and to turn the other cheek, like very few things do in public today.
00:03:19.300 Austin explains in his letter that he was very nervous when he was singled out of the crowd,
00:03:25.540 but he said he felt supported by the Holy Spirit.
00:03:28.880 Here it is in his own words.
00:03:30.480 He says, and I quote,
00:03:31.300 When I got up on the stage, the Holy Spirit immediately took over.
00:03:35.100 God was on my side.
00:03:36.420 I was too nervous to handle that situation by myself.
00:03:39.380 He says,
00:04:09.380 Now get this.
00:04:28.700 He continues,
00:04:29.700 Ironically, of the three friends who were celebrating my birthday with me,
00:04:35.580 one is Hispanic, and the other two are Nigerian.
00:04:39.580 Also, my mom is Mexican, and my dad is white.
00:04:42.960 Clearly, I'm not a racist, and I never have been.
00:04:45.620 You misjudged everything about me.
00:04:48.040 I'm sticking up for myself because I have the strength of God in me.
00:04:53.000 But many people don't have that.
00:04:55.100 And just because you have a platform, that's no excuse for you to use others to make your political statements.
00:05:02.980 Absolutely amazing.
00:05:04.820 But listen to this.
00:05:05.700 The most incredible part of this letter comes as Austin addresses YG very personally.
00:05:10.980 He says, and I quote,
00:05:12.180 You put a target on my back that night and made it unsafe for me at the festival.
00:05:21.440 Thankfully, two security guards came up to me after you kicked me off stage.
00:05:25.480 They advised me to leave because they determined it was too risky for me to stay there at that point.
00:05:31.480 Now, okay, let's think about this for a second.
00:05:35.700 So there was a 17-year-old celebrating his 18th birthday with three friends at an overnight music festival,
00:05:42.860 and he was grossly, publicly humiliated, and then told to leave the event for his own safety,
00:05:49.480 spoiling his birthday, and even that, you know, that would have been for many people
00:05:56.640 a sort of life-altering negative encounter that could have led to disaster, maybe even suicide.
00:06:02.640 Yet, as the good book says,
00:06:05.120 all things work for good for those who love him.
00:06:10.460 So here's what happened next.
00:06:13.160 Austin recounted in his letter to YG, he says, and I quote,
00:06:17.560 As I drove back home, nervous and not knowing what to expect,
00:06:21.400 I still prayed for you.
00:06:22.780 Because you, Kenan, that is YG, whose name is Kenan,
00:06:28.440 because you, Kenan, still deserve and need God.
00:06:33.000 Your actions were so wrong, but can be forgiven.
00:06:37.420 Jesus did not die on that cross for no reason.
00:06:40.580 And because of that, I have kept you in many of my prayers.
00:06:45.180 So if you think no one has cared about you, I have.
00:06:50.400 End quote.
00:06:51.240 Wow.
00:06:53.480 What incredible love this young man, Austin Joyner, shows.
00:06:58.740 It's reminiscent of the line from Christ on the cross.
00:07:02.300 Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.
00:07:06.200 Austin Joyner, this heroic young man, continues in his letter as he says, and I quote,
00:07:10.360 It has taken a few months for me to fully forgive you, but I did not want to respond to the incident until I did forgive.
00:07:19.620 I forgave you on January 4th, 2020.
00:07:23.400 End quote.
00:07:23.860 Which, by the way, that's a few months after the actual incident, which happened again October 27th, 2019.
00:07:29.740 And he continues in his letter,
00:07:32.560 I really don't want to hold on to those type of feelings.
00:07:37.120 Because God created you with purpose.
00:07:40.520 Kenan Jackson has the power to do great things in this world.
00:07:43.600 And I'm speaking it into existence.
00:07:46.900 God is pursuing you.
00:07:48.560 And it's going to become obvious to you.
00:07:51.040 But God isn't going to force himself into your life.
00:07:54.000 That's something you'll have to accept if you want him.
00:07:56.840 But if you ask me, it's a strange coincidence that you picked on a supposedly racist white boy like me.
00:08:05.840 Out of all the people in the crowd that night.
00:08:09.400 And of course there he's referring to the fact that he is of Mexican heritage himself on his mom's side.
00:08:15.820 And that his friends there were one Hispanic and two Nigerians.
00:08:20.120 And Austin speaks right into the heart of YG, of Kenan Jackson, as he says, and I quote,
00:08:28.320 You have the potential to become a man who loves and cherishes his wife and children and protects them.
00:08:34.260 And treats them with utmost respect and stands up for people who are weak.
00:08:39.860 Ultimately, that's how real men behave.
00:08:43.120 I believe that you could even make the type of transition Kanye West has made.
00:08:47.520 In the end, I want you to succeed and I want you to become the man God designed you to be.
00:08:53.080 I can keep writing about how great it would be, but that is a decision you have to make for yourself.
00:09:00.500 I hope you can take advantage of the opportunity you have.
00:09:04.880 End quote.
00:09:06.920 Truly, truly amazing.
00:09:09.580 Here, the latest clip of Austin doing a little video himself responding to YG.
00:09:14.800 Have a look.
00:09:15.260 It wasn't like I was defeated or anything, but YG called me a racist in front of thousands of people.
00:09:20.800 He thinks that's something that makes him a man.
00:09:23.980 If he was a man, he wouldn't have needed to use a 17-year-old to make his political statement.
00:09:29.800 Men protect women and children.
00:09:32.440 Men protect the weak.
00:09:34.400 Men protect and men follow God.
00:09:37.240 I support Trump, but Trump is not my idol.
00:09:40.180 Jesus is, he's my king, not Trump.
00:09:42.880 I forgive YG because we've all made mistakes and YG deserves forgiveness.
00:09:47.220 God has forgiven me when I've asked for it.
00:09:49.300 There's going to be other people after me.
00:09:51.020 I want to tell those young people, have courage and stand by your opinion.
00:09:55.220 Don't follow someone else's footprints because it's your path.
00:09:59.700 It's your life.
00:10:00.620 Stand up for yourself because you're worth it and you have value.
00:10:04.000 You know, don't let someone bully you into saying something you don't want to say or believe.
00:10:07.340 Now, let me close this episode with an amazing insight that I got from Exodus 90, a 90-day
00:10:13.460 practice of fasting and asceticism I've been taking on with some friends.
00:10:16.900 Now, Jesus invites us, as we all know, to take up our crosses and follow him.
00:10:21.420 Strangely, though, he says in the scriptures, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
00:10:25.600 But we often feel that our burden is actually quite heavy, sometimes way too heavy to bear.
00:10:31.620 So, how did poor Austin feel experiencing what he did?
00:10:34.800 How do we feel when we get into a car accident or, even worse, are ridiculed by our own spouses
00:10:40.140 or colleagues at work or sometimes even children?
00:10:43.340 There seems to be nothing easy or light about these crosses or burdens that we are asked to
00:10:48.700 bear sometimes.
00:10:49.820 And yet we're told that the saints would rejoice in adversity and hardship.
00:10:56.020 Rejoice?
00:10:56.680 How is that even possible?
00:10:57.920 We know the line, offer it up, which, you know, we should do as a means of offering up
00:11:04.940 our sacrifices and sufferings in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacrifice
00:11:08.680 of Christ at Calvary.
00:11:10.460 But still, how do we get to that joy of rejoicing in such hardships?
00:11:16.420 Well, here's the insight from Exodus 90, which really made things clearer for me than they
00:11:21.920 ever have been before.
00:11:22.960 I want you to picture yourself sitting on a city bench in the bitter, bitter cold, waiting
00:11:28.680 for a bus, which is like 25 minutes late.
00:11:31.820 It's freezing cold and even snowing, and you get more and more miserable by the second.
00:11:40.180 Now, I want you to imagine that instead of that city bench, you're sitting on a very similar
00:11:47.660 bench.
00:11:48.120 It's cold and snowing.
00:11:50.380 In fact, the same temperature, the same snow as it was on that city bench, only this time
00:11:54.400 the bench is suspended from a cable and moving up towards the top of a mountain.
00:11:59.620 You aren't aggravated or cynical about it.
00:12:02.820 The cold and the snow, instead, you're stoked and overflowing with joy.
00:12:07.520 In fact, you paid good money to be out in these elements because these seemingly adverse
00:12:11.960 things, bitter cold and uncomfortable bench and the dumping snow, will gain for you the
00:12:16.760 chance to be waist-deep in a powdery snow day on a hill.
00:12:20.960 And as a skier, you possess the eyes to see the value of that cold, of that snow, and that
00:12:28.840 hard bench you're riding up on.
00:12:31.280 Thus, even the bitter cold is sweet.
00:12:35.160 And there it is.
00:12:36.800 There is the key to seeing your sufferings as an awesome opportunity to offer something
00:12:41.760 worthy to the Lord in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
00:12:45.020 Our sufferings that we're given are a gift to the Eternal Father, if we're willing to
00:12:50.360 take them as such.
00:12:51.040 And with those eyes, with that seeing, those sufferings become indeed joys.
00:12:56.460 We have the opportunity to give a gift to the Eternal Father that's worth suffering for.
00:13:00.940 Let us really try to see in all of our adversities which the Lord permits us, to see in them something
00:13:12.380 worthy to offer up to our Lord, to assist Him in a small way in the salvation of the world,
00:13:17.280 to make a worthy gift to our Savior, to accept a small share of that suffering which He endured
00:13:23.180 so that we might be co-redeemers with Him and can repeat with St. Paul,
00:13:27.140 I make up in my own body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
00:13:32.900 What lack is there in Christ's sufferings?
00:13:35.600 Only that which He intentionally left for us to do so that we could reign with Him in glory forever.
00:13:43.860 Let's do good to our enemies and pray for those who persecute us just like Austin Joyner did this week.
00:13:49.760 Until next time, may God bless you.
00:13:55.780 Hello, this is John Henry Weston.
00:13:57.700 I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the John Henry Weston Show YouTube channel if you haven't already done so.
00:14:03.940 There you will find all the past episodes and much more.
00:14:07.380 Thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.
00:14:19.760 Thanks again for watching, and may God bless you.