The Michael Knowles Show - May 09, 2018


Ep. 153 - Spiritual, But Not Religious


Episode Stats


Length

43 minutes

Words per minute

185.44586

Word count

8,080

Sentence count

751

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

19

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Trump secures the release of 3 American hostages from North Korea. Porn star Stormy Daniels sues the president s lawyer for defamation, accusing him of calling her a liar. We'll also bring you my full 60-minute conversation with her.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 One-fifth of Americans and a full third of adults under 30 describe themselves as spiritual, but not religious.
00:00:07.080 Which is to say, they don't care very much about God, but they find themselves very, very interesting.
00:00:12.600 We will discuss this post-modern theology with Tyler Blansky, author of the excellent book, An Immovable Feast,
00:00:20.000 How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance. 0.98
00:00:23.680 Then, in a bunch of news stories that the mainstream media are doing their best to hide,
00:00:28.160 President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo secure the release of three American hostages from North Korea.
00:00:35.280 Our National Guard is actually protecting our national border.
00:00:38.560 What a concept.
00:00:39.600 And last night's GOP Senate primaries show good signs for Republicans in November.
00:00:44.120 I'm Michael Knowles, and this is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:00:52.480 It just won't stop.
00:00:54.680 Can't stop.
00:00:55.780 Won't stop.
00:00:56.860 More incredible news.
00:00:58.560 One day after Donald Trump burnt down Barack Obama's entire legacy, he has now gone over to that legacy's grave and relieved himself on the ashes.
00:01:07.620 Well done, Mr. President.
00:01:09.100 So we recall now, we recall Otto Warmbier, this poor American student who was taken hostage by the North Korean regime during the Obama administration.
00:01:18.260 The Obama administration couldn't get him out.
00:01:19.760 President Trump, we know now, has secured the release of three American hostages who had been held in North Korea.
00:01:27.020 Do you remember when Donald Trump, he would send those angry tweets to North Korea?
00:01:31.440 He called Little Rocket Man short and fat.
00:01:34.460 Because Little Rocket Man, Kim Jong-un, said that Donald Trump is old and crazy.
00:01:39.800 And an American president would have responded and say, well, that's not very nice.
00:01:43.020 Don't, don't do that.
00:01:44.320 Normal, you know, Barack Obama.
00:01:45.740 No, no, no.
00:01:46.680 And what does Donald Trump say?
00:01:47.980 He says, how dare he?
00:01:49.320 I would never call him short and fat.
00:01:52.580 He's like, yeah, he's got a button on his desk.
00:01:54.540 I got a bigger button and my button works.
00:01:56.540 The whole mainstream media freaks out.
00:01:58.300 They say he's going to plunge us into World War III.
00:02:00.300 We're going to have a nuclear holocaust. 0.94
00:02:02.000 He doesn't know what he's doing.
00:02:02.980 He doesn't know.
00:02:03.500 Oh, he just secured the release of three American hostages.
00:02:06.800 Oh, Kim Jong-un is now doing what we tell him to do.
00:02:09.660 This is a major diplomatic feat.
00:02:12.780 Let's tune into the mainstream media to see all of their coverage of this incredible diplomatic feat.
00:02:18.420 But if the president insists on keeping a stormy silence, he's got to hope that 60 minutes doesn't become 60 days.
00:02:27.380 More details from Stormy Daniels.
00:02:29.840 Jeannie Moe, CNN.
00:02:31.220 We still stay a little on the stormy side.
00:02:33.180 New York.
00:02:34.680 Good evening tonight.
00:02:35.700 Breaking news in the Stormy Daniels story.
00:02:37.440 We'll bring you the latest legal development.
00:02:38.720 We'll also show you my full 60 minutes conversation with Daniels tonight, along with portions not shown on last night's broadcast.
00:02:45.000 Her attorney joins us as well.
00:02:46.300 So does Michael Cohen's lawyer to discuss new legal developments late today.
00:02:50.240 I actually wanted to see the clip.
00:02:52.420 So, yeah.
00:02:52.940 So I want to see the clip of North Korea coverage because we've seen, you know, we've gotten a lot of Stormy Daniels coverage.
00:02:58.240 So let's just see the mainstream media reporting on this great North Korean diplomatic feat.
00:03:02.460 Porn star Stormy Daniels sues the president's lawyer for defamation, accusing Michael Cohen of calling her a liar.
00:03:09.400 As Daniels goes public about her alleged affair with Donald Trump and says she was threatened, the White House says the president still denies an affair and rejects her claims.
00:03:19.100 I'm Wolf Blitzer.
00:03:20.620 You're in the situation room.
00:03:29.420 This is CNN breaking news.
00:03:32.480 That's not the breaking news.
00:03:34.580 I want the breaking news is that Donald Trump secured the release of three hostages from North Korea.
00:03:39.360 Just show me that coverage.
00:03:40.740 Michael Cohen's first statement about the Stormy Daniels payment was on February 13th.
00:03:45.160 All right, that's enough.
00:03:45.960 No more.
00:03:46.420 I don't know.
00:03:47.080 No more mainstream media.
00:03:48.280 Turn it off.
00:03:48.860 I don't want any more of this stupid mainstream media.
00:03:53.200 This is, by the way, those clips could have been taken from any moment in the last five months.
00:03:59.020 Those are just any day.
00:04:00.140 Breaking news that porn star is still talking.
00:04:03.820 That porn star who wanted to run for Senate as a Democrat five years ago or however long ago.
00:04:09.400 She's still talking about it.
00:04:12.000 She doesn't like Trump and breaking, breaking news.
00:04:16.480 So anyway, on the actual story where Donald Trump secured the release of three American hostages in North Korea,
00:04:22.760 the New York Times, the New York Times, this is really the failing New York Times.
00:04:27.580 This is the epitome of the failing New York Times.
00:04:30.480 As Mike Pompeo, as the secretary of state is in North Korea personally securing the release of American hostages there,
00:04:37.960 the New York Times runs a headline.
00:04:40.860 At key moment, Trump's top diplomat is, again, thousands of miles away.
00:04:47.320 And they're saying at the key moment because the Iran deal was ripped up yesterday.
00:04:50.400 But they had already done that.
00:04:51.620 That was already a fait accompli.
00:04:53.500 So Mike Pompeo was busy securing the release of Americans who were being held hostage in North Korea.
00:04:58.280 The New York Times runs, where is he?
00:04:59.780 What's he doing?
00:05:00.440 He's probably on a beach somewhere in Boca, you know.
00:05:03.040 But what's really weird about this, you can't even chalk it up to just total ignorance on the New York Times' part as you frequently can
00:05:10.540 because the caption on a photo in that article said that Pompeo was busy in North Korea trying to deal with the hostages.
00:05:20.340 So did the headline writer just not read the article?
00:05:24.880 Did he just not see the photo?
00:05:27.160 No, it's certainly incompetence, it's certainly ignorance, certainly terrible journalism.
00:05:31.920 But that's the New York Times.
00:05:33.440 This, by the way, is the argument for Twitter.
00:05:35.680 Some of the, I don't know how this is still the case, but some of the sophisticated conservatives and Republicans,
00:05:42.260 they say, well, Trump is doing good, I like Trump, but we need to take away his Twitter.
00:05:46.240 His Twitter is ruining him.
00:05:48.440 Twitter is the whole thing.
00:05:49.580 Twitter is the whole presidency.
00:05:51.080 Without Twitter, none of this happens.
00:05:53.360 Without Twitter, that's what we get.
00:05:54.700 Without Twitter, it's just the Stormy Daniels presidency.
00:05:57.060 You wouldn't even hear about the North Korean hostages.
00:05:59.660 You just, no, it's just Stormy.
00:06:01.220 Let's have, we've only had Mike Avenatti, the Stormy Daniels lawyer, on 15 times today.
00:06:07.380 We still have a couple hours left in the day.
00:06:09.380 That's what we would get.
00:06:10.420 So, let's hear it from Donald Trump himself.
00:06:12.920 Call it a confidence-building measure, a goodwill gesture.
00:06:15.900 You could describe a number of different labels to it,
00:06:17.820 but the bottom line is three Americans who have been detained for some time in North Korea
00:06:22.240 are on their way home right now, and the president, very happy about it.
00:06:25.980 Tweeting just a few minutes ago, quote,
00:06:27.460 I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air
00:06:31.460 and on his way back from North Korea with the three wonderful gentlemen
00:06:34.480 that everyone is looking so forward to meeting.
00:06:37.100 They seem to be in good health.
00:06:38.900 Also, good meeting with Kim Jong-un, date and place of the summit with President Trump set.
00:06:44.820 The president also suggesting he's going to be up late tonight.
00:06:47.720 Secretary Pompeo and his guests will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2 a.m. in the morning,
00:06:53.280 the president tweeted, I will be there to greet them.
00:06:55.880 Very exciting.
00:06:57.060 It's why I love these tweets, because you get the words from Trump himself.
00:07:00.860 He tweets it out, but then his tweets become the news.
00:07:04.480 The fact of his tweeting is the news.
00:07:06.700 And as Fox News just said, that is the bottom line.
00:07:10.220 The bottom line is that Donald Trump secured this release,
00:07:14.260 that Mike Pompeo secured this release,
00:07:16.500 that the Republican administration secured the release of hostages,
00:07:19.860 which the Obama administration was not able to do.
00:07:22.220 No, that's the bottom line.
00:07:23.700 And that's a really good thing.
00:07:25.100 It cuts through all the stormy, whatever other nonsense they're talking about.
00:07:28.520 And look at how Donald Trump is handling this.
00:07:31.720 That tweet, you saw it right there.
00:07:33.540 He's positive.
00:07:34.960 It's engaging.
00:07:36.060 It's positive.
00:07:36.760 It's grateful.
00:07:37.880 And it's a TV show.
00:07:39.960 Stay tuned.
00:07:41.040 Stay tuned for what's going to happen.
00:07:42.800 We've got this character going over here.
00:07:44.340 This is happening.
00:07:45.200 And he says, I'm going to meet them.
00:07:46.300 They're getting in at 2 a.m.
00:07:47.140 I'm going to meet them there.
00:07:48.000 This is an important aspect of this whole announcement.
00:07:51.380 Meeting them at 2 a.m. is a signal from Donald Trump to Kim Jong-un,
00:07:56.860 to the international community.
00:07:58.560 It's as much for them as it is to score points on domestic politics.
00:08:01.940 Because what he's saying is, I'm a vigorous guy.
00:08:04.740 I'm paying attention.
00:08:06.020 I am personally involved in what's going on.
00:08:08.220 I don't need sleep.
00:08:09.660 I've got a button on my desk that actually works.
00:08:12.400 This is like when Reagan met Gorbachev for the first time.
00:08:15.760 And he was, you know, he's an older man.
00:08:19.880 Gorbachev was supposed to be this young, vigorous leader.
00:08:22.380 And it was winter in, it was still chilly in Washington, D.C.
00:08:26.280 So Reagan was going to wear his big overcoat.
00:08:28.920 And at the last minute, either his advisors or he decided to take off the overcoat.
00:08:32.980 And he trotted down those stairs, not wearing a coat,
00:08:35.980 just wearing his suit jacket and, you know, light little suit jacket.
00:08:39.620 And Gorbachev was all buttoned up and he's plodding slowly.
00:08:42.720 It was this great display of vigor.
00:08:44.480 And Gorbachev actually brought this up to Reagan.
00:08:46.580 He said, next time, tell me if we're wearing the coats or we're not wearing the coats.
00:08:49.440 Because it was a total PR win for Reagan.
00:08:52.460 And you see the same thing happening with Trump.
00:08:54.160 Trump is doing this.
00:08:54.900 Trump is not a young man.
00:08:56.980 Trump is one of our older presidents.
00:09:00.280 And, but he's saying, I'm going to stay up late.
00:09:02.600 I'm going to be tweeting.
00:09:03.440 I'm going to be vigorous and informed.
00:09:05.020 It was really, really good.
00:09:06.600 He also announced that this summit, this possible summit with Kim,
00:09:10.280 will not take place in the demilitarized zone, in the DMZ.
00:09:13.240 We don't know where he said he'll announce it.
00:09:15.160 Within three days, there's the reality TV.
00:09:17.560 Stay tuned.
00:09:18.200 Stay tuned.
00:09:18.800 Don't miss the next episode.
00:09:20.360 Very optimistic.
00:09:21.520 But he keeps saying everything could be scuttled.
00:09:23.580 So keep playing nice, Kim.
00:09:24.820 Because if Kim doesn't play nice, they'll cancel the whole meeting. 1.00
00:09:27.140 And there it goes.
00:09:28.740 Now, when, forget the tweets.
00:09:31.680 Here is a clip of Donald Trump on video describing this feat himself.
00:09:36.260 Do you deserve the Nobel Prize, do you think?
00:09:39.100 Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it.
00:09:41.820 You know what I want to do?
00:09:43.160 I want to get it finished.
00:09:45.820 The prize I want is victory for the world.
00:09:48.540 Not for even here.
00:09:49.960 I want victory for the world.
00:09:51.460 Because that's what we're talking about.
00:09:53.400 So that's the only prize I want.
00:09:55.160 I think he's being serious here.
00:09:56.620 We'll get to why this is so important, what this shows us about politics.
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00:11:32.700 So Donald Trump, he says, the reporter asks him, are you going to get a Nobel Prize?
00:11:37.540 Should you get a Nobel Prize?
00:11:38.440 He says, people keep saying that.
00:11:39.980 I wouldn't, look, I wouldn't say it.
00:11:41.400 Everybody's talking about it.
00:11:43.060 But when he says, what I care about is that it gets done.
00:11:46.300 I want victory for the world.
00:11:48.200 I don't care about the prize.
00:11:49.280 I care about the victory.
00:11:50.480 I think he's being serious.
00:11:52.320 I don't think that's false modesty.
00:11:54.420 With other politicians, it would be false modesty.
00:11:56.360 With Barack Obama, it would be false modesty.
00:11:58.080 With him, I actually don't think he cares.
00:12:00.120 What we know from Donald Trump is he doesn't really seem to care about accolades from other people.
00:12:05.520 Now, that's not to say he doesn't care about accolades.
00:12:07.560 He loves accolades.
00:12:08.880 He slaps his name on everything that he's ever been a part of.
00:12:11.820 But he does it himself.
00:12:13.620 He doesn't beg and say, oh, please, you give me this, or you do this, or can you, it's always him putting his own name in lights.
00:12:19.560 He's already won the biggest prize in the world.
00:12:21.540 He's the president of the United States.
00:12:22.980 Nobel Peace Prize does not matter after that.
00:12:25.840 But what he wants is to accomplish the thing.
00:12:28.740 He wants to do the thing.
00:12:30.080 This is a major difference between the right and the left.
00:12:32.320 The right likes the thing itself, securing a denuclearized North Korea at the biggest end of it, or at least bringing an end to the Korean War, bringing American hostages back home.
00:12:44.240 They like the thing itself.
00:12:45.740 What the left likes is the appearance of the thing.
00:12:48.880 They just like the appearance, just the glitz and the glamour, but not the substance.
00:12:52.220 The husk, not the real thing.
00:12:53.920 So Barack Obama, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
00:12:57.020 He won the Nobel Peace Prize.
00:12:58.260 He won the Nobel Peace Prize something like eight and a half months after entering office.
00:13:02.760 He was nominated, I think, 12 days after entering office, very quickly.
00:13:08.660 But what did he do to deserve it?
00:13:11.280 Absolutely nothing.
00:13:12.260 He certainly doesn't deserve it.
00:13:13.440 Even the left admits that now.
00:13:14.960 Donald Trump wants the real thing.
00:13:16.560 That is what the right should focus on, the real thing.
00:13:19.500 Forget all the mainstream media articles and the polls and the this and the awards and how nice and the dinners.
00:13:26.100 No, just do the real thing.
00:13:27.780 Get the real thing.
00:13:28.320 It's much more gratifying.
00:13:29.620 Speaking of the real versus the superficial, let's talk about being spiritual, but not religious.
00:13:36.160 This is one of my favorite.
00:13:37.300 You hear that everyone says it now today.
00:13:39.080 Well, I'm spiritual, but not religious.
00:13:41.660 I'm joined now by Tyler Blansky.
00:13:44.280 Tyler is an author, musician, and record producer.
00:13:46.960 He is the author of When Donkeys Talk, A Quest to Rediscover the Mystery and Wonder of Christianity.
00:13:53.620 And most recently is the author of an excellent book that I highly recommend, An Immovable Feast, How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance.
00:14:03.420 Tyler, thank you for being here.
00:14:05.300 Hey, Michael.
00:14:06.020 It's so wonderful to be here.
00:14:07.200 Thank you.
00:14:07.960 Tyler, I can't.
00:14:08.960 Is this just a Catholic thing?
00:14:10.400 You look like you're in Matt Walsh's set.
00:14:12.600 You're broadcasting from your car.
00:14:14.520 Are all Catholics required to broadcast from cars or broom closets like I am?
00:14:20.720 You know, I hope not.
00:14:21.880 I was actually going to go use the public library.
00:14:24.700 I'm on the road today, and I got all set up, and kind of like most government programs, it didn't work.
00:14:31.080 The Wi-Fi was cheap.
00:14:32.720 I couldn't get cell phone reception, so I came running out here to my car.
00:14:36.360 Thanks for your patience.
00:14:37.560 I'm shocked.
00:14:38.300 Not at all.
00:14:38.820 Not at all.
00:14:39.360 You know, if we knew you were using government facilities, we would have given you even a bigger buffer of time to go use the private stuff instead.
00:14:46.900 So, Tyler, you're a major heretic. 0.95
00:14:49.600 You are a huge heretic, and I'm not talking about religiously. 1.00
00:14:52.980 Religiously, you're quite orthodox.
00:14:54.640 But I live in Los Angeles, and out here you would be a total heretic, man, because it's all about spirituality, man.
00:15:02.080 None of those bad religious feels, you know.
00:15:04.520 It's just about spirituality.
00:15:06.960 To begin, before we get into it, I really, really enjoyed your book, and I think everyone should go read it.
00:15:11.600 But what does it mean to be spiritual but not religious?
00:15:16.660 Great question.
00:15:17.900 I think my experience of, even with myself, of identifying as being spiritual but not religious, was that I wanted authentic relationship with God.
00:15:27.620 And for a lot of folks, that means just with the divinity or the good or the force that might be with you or not.
00:15:34.580 The universe.
00:15:36.060 You hear that a lot out here.
00:15:37.400 They say the universe.
00:15:38.620 Even though that is truly heresy because that is a creation rather than the creator.
00:15:44.860 But I think they're getting at the same thing.
00:15:46.460 The energy, the divinity, the God spirit.
00:15:49.360 Yeah, now, of course, as a Christian, being spiritual but not religious, I always thought that for me meant being authentic.
00:15:57.080 A truly deep personal relationship with God that didn't involve any obligations or rules or morals that might impose themselves on me and direct my life, right?
00:16:08.020 So, for me, being spiritual but not religious was about this personal relationship that allowed me a wide breadth of beliefs and practices, even if they contradicted each other.
00:16:18.540 I totally understand that.
00:16:20.620 I, having been raised a Catholic, although I went away from that for a long time, I did always enjoy St. Augustine's entreaty to, Lord, make me chaste but not yet, which is a version of that.
00:16:35.100 And as a kid, as you write in the book, you spurned the ritual, religious ritual.
00:16:39.540 It was all about faith not works, that dichotomy that we hear so much in popular religion.
00:16:46.200 You were a thoroughgoing antinomian, it seems.
00:16:49.540 Jesus saves, your free will has nothing whatsoever to do with it.
00:16:53.620 And when I look around, though, at this idea of the performance, the performance of ritual, it seems to me spirituality is at least as performed or enacted as religion and usually more so.
00:17:06.240 So, what is it that convinced you that this popular theology was wrong?
00:17:10.260 You know, what I found out just through trial and error, it's kind of funny, when an immovable feast finally arrived, you know, bound and looking beautiful, I was like, oh, Brittany, to my wife, I was like, are you going to read it?
00:17:22.800 And she's like, oh, no, I'm not going to read it.
00:17:24.780 And she's like, are you?
00:17:25.440 And I was like, no way, because I kind of like the pigs out, I kind of tell too many stories.
00:17:30.420 And they're really like, through trial and error, through a lot of hard-won lessons, I learned that spirituality, being spiritual but not religious, almost always ends in disappointment, if not loneliness.
00:17:41.300 I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said that if we won't obey the Ten Commandments, we'll obey the Ten Thousand Commandments, right?
00:17:47.780 Where if we don't have the real thing, we'll end up making 10,000 replicas.
00:17:51.800 And being spiritual but not religious, I totally did that.
00:17:54.380 I would invent, I'd be very religious about things that weren't religious, whether it was my diet, eating organic eggs, or drinking wheatgrass, or yoga, or just kind of being dogmatic about being spiritual but not religious.
00:18:07.160 Right.
00:18:07.640 That's such a good point.
00:18:08.720 You write one of my favorite sentences in the book is, the Catholics are content with a single pope and that he is only infallible when he speaks ex cathedra. 0.77
00:18:17.780 But I gladly accepted popes by the dozen, and they were infallible when they stood in the pulpit or in their Birkenstock sandals.
00:18:25.460 So you get this sense, and from the quote that you say too, that everybody's got to serve somebody, that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.
00:18:34.980 Is there any way, as you see it, to escape the strict boundaries imposed by some religion?
00:18:42.160 You know, I actually, I think it's deep, deep in our nature, just as human beings, as men and women, to end up becoming religious.
00:18:51.780 We need to live a life that has patterns, that has structures that make sense to us.
00:18:57.720 And all of us are telling stories to make sense of the world.
00:19:01.060 We can't help it, right?
00:19:01.940 We think in story.
00:19:03.700 Whatever story you're telling yourself, whatever patterns and rituals you're creating around your daily rhythms and your relationships, that is your religion.
00:19:12.720 Whether you admit it or not, you are choosing to conform to something that is hopefully bigger than yourself to some degree,
00:19:21.320 whether it's politics or, you know, some kind of environmental issue or social justice issue.
00:19:27.880 We tend to get religious.
00:19:29.420 We can't help it.
00:19:30.700 The question is, are you being religious in a good way?
00:19:33.700 And are you being religious about what's actually true and good and beautiful?
00:19:38.420 And it's the culture.
00:19:40.000 It's in the culture.
00:19:41.260 As you quote Russell Kirk, making an observation that we talk about on this show all the time, that there's no culture without the cult.
00:19:49.120 Cult and culture come from the same word.
00:19:51.520 And the spiritual but not religious types, they spurn cults and religious organization.
00:19:56.680 Does this explain why the spiritual but not religious types are usually such cultural Philistines that they don't, they have a sort of narrow culture?
00:20:06.140 I think so.
00:20:08.820 I have very good memories of being in college, but also memories that I've been able to reflect on of where with so many of us, you know, so many of us were Christians.
00:20:17.220 We had so much in common or should have.
00:20:19.960 We should have been able to worship together on Sunday morning.
00:20:22.280 But we couldn't because we disagreed.
00:20:24.560 We were Christians without a culture.
00:20:26.620 And yet every Friday night we could party together.
00:20:29.580 And it's because we all spoke the same entertainment, Billboard Top 100, Hollywood newspeak, right?
00:20:37.120 That was the common denominator.
00:20:38.720 That was the cult that actually tied us together.
00:20:42.060 And that, to me, is tragic.
00:20:43.140 I wish that there was a way we could, and I'm working towards this, right, with the book, An Immovable Feast, how can we recover a sense of culture that's truly rooted in a cult that makes sense, that's rich and beautiful and true?
00:20:57.280 That's such a good point.
00:20:58.720 What is your cult?
00:21:00.800 What are the things that bind you to other people?
00:21:03.120 What is the common language?
00:21:04.900 If most of us are being honest, it's the popular culture.
00:21:08.000 Whenever you get three Christians in a room of perhaps some different denominations or sects or whatever, they'll disagree about everything.
00:21:18.320 But we can all agree on going out and getting a drink or something like that.
00:21:21.800 That's a really good point.
00:21:23.180 And the Catholics especially can agree on going out and getting a drink.
00:21:25.880 Now, you have been a Protestant evangelical fundamentalist, it seems, just from perusing the book, Catholic now.
00:21:33.640 Now, I find that all of, I have a lot of friends who are Protestants, and they're still Protestants, but they say they're not Protestants or evangelical or whatever.
00:21:43.740 I find all of the non-Catholics or non-Eastern Orthodox, and in some cases the Anglicans fall into that Anglo-Catholic sphere too.
00:21:52.960 But all of the fundamentalist types are frequently quite hostile to the saints and to the Virgin Mary.
00:21:59.580 They're not simply indifferent to them, they're outwardly hostile.
00:22:03.920 They say, why would you ever pray to a saint, or why would you ever venerate the Virgin Mary?
00:22:08.280 Why is that? Where does that hostility come from?
00:22:11.000 Well, having once been quite hostile myself, I think it comes from a frustration that people keep bringing into what should be a private relationship between you and Jesus,
00:22:21.500 an actual community, a community that seems to almost threaten the purity of being spiritual but not religious.
00:22:30.400 So, for example, a big epiphany for me in just discovering, you know, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the communion of saints
00:22:37.540 was realizing, you know, when Jesus talks about the first and second commandments,
00:22:41.760 you know, love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself,
00:22:44.960 these two commandments aren't in competition, right?
00:22:48.540 Even in heaven, the second commandment will be like unto the first, 0.86
00:22:52.360 where even in heaven we will love the saints and intercede for the saints on earth just as we love Christ, right?
00:22:59.120 In heaven the saints do what Jesus is doing, which is loving God and loving neighbor.
00:23:04.380 And we see evidence of this, especially in Revelation.
00:23:06.760 Now, good luck to anybody who can tell me precisely what Revelation means,
00:23:10.660 but we see the saints holding the prayers, worshiping God and holding prayers.
00:23:16.020 Who are they praying for?
00:23:17.280 They're praying for those of us who need the prayers.
00:23:19.520 And that point is so important.
00:23:22.280 You know, we're talking about a city of God.
00:23:24.080 We're talking about a community that binds us to people who are not dead but who have everlasting life.
00:23:29.580 Some will say, why do you pray to dead people?
00:23:31.280 I say, the saints aren't dead.
00:23:33.460 They're the only people we know for sure are alive, as a matter of fact.
00:23:38.220 Absolutely.
00:23:38.920 That distinction, yeah.
00:23:39.800 Sometimes it can be lost.
00:23:41.140 And people say, well, it's not clear.
00:23:42.480 It's very opaque.
00:23:43.340 But Dr. Johnson told us all shallows are clear.
00:23:46.400 All shallow thinking is clear.
00:23:48.500 Now, this has all been too enjoyable.
00:23:51.840 So I want to bring in some terrible news.
00:23:53.960 And you can try to convince me that this is not true.
00:23:57.320 All of the data show us that religiosity is on the decline.
00:24:01.020 Now, on the flip side of that, you know, people like Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro or Andrew Klavan or other people who explain about God, either explicitly or implicitly, those guys are more popular than ever.
00:24:17.080 The people who are talking about meaning in life, they're selling a lot of books and a lot of young people are listening to them.
00:24:23.280 Is this the triumph of spiritual but not religious?
00:24:27.580 Or on the bright side, is this the darkness before the dawn of a religious revival being led by those people who are talking about God in, I think, a mostly explicit way?
00:24:38.600 You know, I think what it is is kind of like the suburban sprawl of spirituality.
00:24:43.660 It's become popular.
00:24:45.160 It's so ubiquitous.
00:24:46.260 It's like everyone is spiritual but not religious.
00:24:48.640 And it's just beige.
00:24:50.400 And it looks like when you drive through suburban sprawl, it just looks like everyone is living in the suburbs and there's no hope for humanity.
00:24:58.160 When, in fact, I think in the midst of that, there will be urban renewal.
00:25:02.140 You know, there will be a renaissance for farming, that kind of thing.
00:25:05.260 I think the same goes for being religious.
00:25:07.020 There is actually, I think, a deep hunger and a longing, especially in young people today, for religious moorings, for something that's beautiful and for a story that's bigger than themselves that they can participate in.
00:25:21.080 And true religion, not phony religion, right?
00:25:23.680 Not when you're being a big fake show.
00:25:25.520 But true religion rooted in history and in revelation, that goes deep.
00:25:30.720 And people are longing for those old liturgies and traditions that are actually perennial.
00:25:37.020 That's so true.
00:25:38.020 I will say, especially speaking of the liturgy, there, you know, all of the churches I find that have this watered down liturgy and, you know, they're all the acoustic guitars or whatever.
00:25:49.360 Those are emptying out.
00:25:50.660 The pews are emptying out.
00:25:52.080 And you see more Latin masses and more traditional masses, even masses in English, but they have some chanting.
00:25:58.040 Those are cropping up all over the place.
00:26:00.520 And the houses are packed.
00:26:02.080 So, yeah, I do see, I certainly see a sign for hope there.
00:26:04.700 What I must tell you, you know, I read a ton of books to prepare for the show.
00:26:09.780 I especially loved An Immovable Feast.
00:26:12.440 So everybody should go out and read it.
00:26:14.240 It's a really good book.
00:26:15.320 I'll put the link on my Twitter and Facebook as well.
00:26:17.720 Tyler, thank you so much for being here.
00:26:19.940 Tyler Blansky, An Immovable Feast, How I Gave Up Spirituality for a Life of Religious Abundance.
00:26:25.600 Probably not going to make it to the Oprah Book Club anytime soon, but you can get it here.
00:26:30.160 No.
00:26:30.840 Tyler, thanks for being here.
00:26:31.820 Michael, thank you.
00:26:32.820 Thank you so much.
00:26:33.640 It was such a joy.
00:26:35.080 All right.
00:26:35.500 Speaking of the spiritual but not religious, a Catholic university has now opened a sex-segregated prayer space to accommodate Muslim students.
00:26:45.940 It's a true story.
00:26:46.820 We have a little bit of time to get into this.
00:26:48.740 I can't let this story go without mentioning it.
00:26:50.740 St. Ambrose University in Davenport has now opened up a prayer space yesterday that designates separate areas for male and female worshipers.
00:27:01.820 Okay.
00:27:02.440 This prompts a few questions, I'm sure.
00:27:05.160 It prompts a litany of questions.
00:27:07.120 To begin, why does a Catholic university have a Muslim prayer space?
00:27:11.740 I don't think Islam is a version of Catholicism or a denomination of Catholicism.
00:27:22.140 This is a serious question.
00:27:23.600 Now, you might say, well, it's a university.
00:27:25.460 Why can't they have one?
00:27:26.480 Right.
00:27:26.740 It's a university.
00:27:27.460 It's a Catholic university.
00:27:28.840 There are plenty of secular universities in America.
00:27:31.840 Nobody is forcing Muslim people to go to Catholic universities.
00:27:35.680 Nobody is forcing atheists to go to Catholic universities.
00:27:38.720 There are virtually every university in America is secular these days.
00:27:45.140 Most of the top universities, most of the big brand name universities.
00:27:48.860 Why can't the Catholic university be Catholic?
00:27:52.120 Well, you say, what's the big deal?
00:27:54.040 Oh, what's the big deal?
00:27:54.880 If they want a prayer space, that's fine.
00:27:56.060 If they want to keep the men and women apart when they're praying, who cares? 0.99
00:27:59.560 Why can't they do that at a Catholic university?
00:28:02.260 Because it's anti-Catholic.
00:28:03.660 Because it's anti-Christian. 0.95
00:28:05.360 We know that Christianity is a religion.
00:28:07.500 In Christ is a person wherein there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave nor free, nor male nor female. 0.89
00:28:16.680 But all are one in Christ Jesus.
00:28:19.300 What Islam says is, no, well, let's not go that far.
00:28:22.900 Split those two biological sects apart.
00:28:26.580 So, what is the Catholic teaching on Islam?
00:28:30.620 That's another question to ask.
00:28:32.220 Oh, why can't they have a prayer space?
00:28:33.720 Because Catholicism rejects Islam. 0.98
00:28:37.180 Islam began, actually, as a Christian heresy.
00:28:39.740 And it developed into its own separate religion.
00:28:41.940 But there are major differences here.
00:28:43.860 Not just that in one, there is neither male nor female, but all are one in Christ.
00:28:49.520 And in the other, men and women have to be kept apart to worship.
00:28:52.460 But also, Islam denies the cross of Christ. 0.91
00:28:55.060 And St. Paul writes, there are many walking now, and I tell you even weeping, who deny the cross of Christ.
00:28:59.660 The Quran states, they crucified him not.
00:29:02.480 They crucified him not.
00:29:03.680 That's a major difference.
00:29:05.280 What the Catholic university is teaching here is what we were just talking about with Tyler.
00:29:10.080 Spiritual, but not religious.
00:29:12.020 Be spiritual, but not religious.
00:29:13.980 Now, this is not to say, by the way, that we should go out of our way to offend people,
00:29:17.880 or to insult people who have different religious views.
00:29:20.820 But, certainly, we should not compromise our own faith to appease those people.
00:29:25.880 It doesn't make any sense.
00:29:27.420 It's ridiculous.
00:29:28.000 That's why this is a news story.
00:29:30.020 It is absurd that a Catholic university has sex-segregated prayer centers for a religion that denies the cross of Christ.
00:29:37.160 We know that that's ridiculous.
00:29:38.820 That's the reason people are reporting on it.
00:29:41.680 When you water yourself down, this is the lesson that is beyond just a religious discussion or whatever.
00:29:48.700 This is true broadly.
00:29:50.200 When you water yourself down, when you water your mission down, you do not become better or bigger.
00:29:55.660 You become nothing.
00:29:56.720 That's what happens.
00:29:58.000 When you try to broaden out to encompass everything, you don't become broad and big and all-encompassing.
00:30:03.180 You become nothing.
00:30:04.460 There's a story now.
00:30:05.640 The Boy Scouts have become the Girl Scouts because the Boy Scouts are allowing girls in.
00:30:09.760 They've actually changed their name.
00:30:10.960 The program is now called Scouts.
00:30:12.920 Scouts BSA.
00:30:13.880 They took the boy away.
00:30:15.140 What happened?
00:30:15.940 The Mormon Church has ended its century-long relationship with the Boy Scouts.
00:30:20.260 The Mormon Church has been a huge supporter of the Boy Scouts for 100 years.
00:30:23.880 Mormons represent almost 20% of every person in the Boy Scouts organization.
00:30:27.980 18.5% of the 2.3 million people involved in Boy Scouts.
00:30:33.160 Now they're gone.
00:30:34.040 Now it's over.
00:30:35.240 They're out of there.
00:30:36.720 This is the same thing that happened to churches.
00:30:39.160 When the Catholic Church watered down its liturgy, watered down its teaching, the pews emptied.
00:30:45.720 They didn't water down doctrine, but they watered down the practice of it and the liturgy.
00:30:49.920 The pews emptied.
00:30:50.960 Same thing happened with all of the mainline Protestant churches.
00:30:53.800 Do those still exist anymore?
00:30:55.240 Are there still mainline Protestant churches?
00:30:57.400 I think they're ghost towns.
00:30:58.480 You just see tumbleweed going through them on Sundays.
00:31:00.820 The same thing happens to politicians.
00:31:02.560 When politicians try to be everything, to everybody, they lose their base.
00:31:06.520 They lose the people who supported them in the first place.
00:31:09.860 Just look at John McCain or Jeb Bush or John Lindsay.
00:31:12.920 These liberal Republicans who want to appease everybody.
00:31:16.160 They end up like low-energy Jeb.
00:31:17.960 You've got to stand for something.
00:31:19.400 You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything.
00:31:22.360 We've got a lot of news to get to before we get to it.
00:31:24.300 I'm sorry.
00:31:25.080 I've got to say goodbye to Facebook and YouTube.
00:31:27.880 If you are on dailywire.com, thank you very much.
00:31:30.120 You help us keep the lights on.
00:31:31.180 You keep covfefe in my cup.
00:31:33.120 By the way, I need this cup.
00:31:34.860 The last few days, man, I've almost drowned on several occasions.
00:31:39.820 If you're not there, please go to dailywire.com.
00:31:41.580 You will get me.
00:31:42.240 You'll get the Andrew Klavan Show.
00:31:43.120 You'll get the Ben Shapiro Show.
00:31:45.360 Do you hear it?
00:31:47.460 Do you hear that right now?
00:31:49.700 I can hear it.
00:31:50.500 It's like birds chirping, bells chiming.
00:31:54.120 It's because it's almost time for the next episode of The Conversation featuring me, little
00:31:58.580 old me, Michael Knowles.
00:31:59.680 On Tuesday, May 15th at 5.30 Eastern, 2.30 Pacific, I will be taking all of your questions
00:32:04.820 and easing your anxiety by answering all of your questions live on air.
00:32:09.100 Every query that has burned in your hearts will be resolved.
00:32:13.180 Best of all, it's an extra hour-long dose of little old me, which, you know, what more
00:32:17.540 could you ask for?
00:32:18.320 I almost certainly will not be wearing pants.
00:32:20.900 That just has sort of become the rule for the conversation.
00:32:24.080 Alicia Krauss will be there, too.
00:32:25.400 You like her.
00:32:26.020 That'll be nice.
00:32:26.960 This month's episode will stream live on Daily Wire's YouTube and Facebook pages.
00:32:30.740 It will be free for everyone to watch.
00:32:32.300 Only subscribers can ask questions.
00:32:34.860 To ask questions as a subscriber, log into the website, dailywire.com.
00:32:38.500 That should be your homepage anyway.
00:32:39.920 Head over to the conversation page.
00:32:41.680 Watch the live stream.
00:32:42.480 After that, just start typing in the Daily Wire chat box, and I will answer questions
00:32:47.220 as they come in for an entire hour.
00:32:49.640 Once again, get those questions answered by little old me.
00:32:52.940 Tuesday, May 15th, 5.30 Eastern, 2.30 Pacific.
00:32:55.560 Join the conversation.
00:32:57.100 Again, none of that matters.
00:32:58.420 All that matters is this.
00:33:00.000 The John Kerry vintage, the Obama vintage, the Hillary's AIDS vintage.
00:33:05.360 They're all tweeting.
00:33:06.080 They're all so, so sad.
00:33:07.320 They're all so...
00:33:08.340 Go to dailywire.com.
00:33:10.200 We'll be right back.
00:33:12.480 All right.
00:33:20.900 Now we've got to get to all of the stories that the mainstream media just doesn't want
00:33:24.080 to cover, that they just, they refuse to cover.
00:33:27.120 We already got to some of them.
00:33:28.460 Do you remember, you probably don't remember this because it hadn't been in the news that
00:33:31.240 much, when President Trump deployed the National Guard to the border?
00:33:35.640 So he says, I'm going to deploy the National Guard because there are all these people coming
00:33:38.760 through and they won't let me build the wall yet.
00:33:40.800 So I'm going to send them there and they're going to keep these illegal aliens from breaking 1.00
00:33:44.120 into our country and invading our country. 1.00
00:33:47.340 It's working.
00:33:48.760 It turns out it's working.
00:33:49.980 That's why you haven't heard about it.
00:33:51.080 If it wasn't working, you would have heard about it all the time.
00:33:53.260 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have apprehended an extra 1,600 people who have
00:33:58.840 attempted to illegally enter this country since April 15th in just the last couple of weeks.
00:34:04.080 And that's thanks to the National Guard troops on the border.
00:34:07.540 So what are they doing?
00:34:08.820 They're guarding.
00:34:10.480 That's in their name.
00:34:11.380 You might expect that.
00:34:12.360 They're not arresting people.
00:34:13.420 They're not performing law enforcement roles.
00:34:15.480 But they are freeing up Customs and Border Protection officers to do all of the arresting.
00:34:20.920 There's increased surveillance.
00:34:22.340 There's increased communication.
00:34:23.700 That's a lot of extra people, 1,600 extra people.
00:34:26.200 They also caught an extra 451 people who were turned away at the border before then trying
00:34:31.560 to enter illegally.
00:34:32.500 This is really good.
00:34:34.280 Now, the trouble is we need actual immigration reform.
00:34:39.080 And I don't mean that in a Marco Rubio way.
00:34:40.880 I mean that in people can't enter our country illegally because otherwise they're just going 1.00
00:34:45.540 to be caught and released.
00:34:47.160 They're just going to go through the system.
00:34:48.540 It's going to be this long thing.
00:34:49.860 We need actual reform.
00:34:52.200 And in the meantime, isn't this what the National Guard is for?
00:34:55.140 This is pretty good.
00:34:56.140 The National Guard is to guard the nation.
00:34:58.460 And that's what they're doing.
00:34:59.460 They're guarding the nation.
00:35:00.280 People are trying to invade the country and the National Guard is there and saying, nope,
00:35:04.300 go back.
00:35:04.960 No, no, no.
00:35:05.440 No, thank you.
00:35:06.620 This is really good.
00:35:07.920 This is a good use of the National Guard.
00:35:09.460 I'm glad that President Trump was able to do it.
00:35:11.240 And we should keep it up because also it keeps these things in the news.
00:35:13.800 And it keeps clear how many people are crossing into our border constantly and why you need 0.62
00:35:19.300 to send them back.
00:35:20.660 We have a country or we don't have a country.
00:35:22.700 As the campaign said for a long time, you have borders or you don't have borders.
00:35:27.020 You have democratically enacted, legitimately enacted immigration law that's enforced or you 0.57
00:35:33.300 don't.
00:35:33.660 It's a nation of laws or a nation of men. 0.61
00:35:35.340 We're a nation of laws.
00:35:36.200 We're supposed to be anyway.
00:35:37.060 And so this is great stuff.
00:35:38.840 Also, before we go, I've got to get to the excellent electoral news from last night.
00:35:44.500 Oh, the mainstream media.
00:35:45.940 They are so...
00:35:47.060 That I could taste a hint of the Washington Post because the GOP did very well in last
00:35:55.220 night's Senate primaries.
00:35:56.480 So how do you think the Washington Post reported that?
00:35:59.200 How do you think?
00:35:59.780 You say, GOP did really well.
00:36:02.380 This is really good news.
00:36:04.160 Great sign for November.
00:36:05.360 No, they reported, quote, in Senate primaries, Republicans avoid their worst fears.
00:36:13.540 Are you kidding me?
00:36:14.900 Are you kidding me, people?
00:36:16.220 Because they used to be at least a little bit clever about how they would attack Republicans
00:36:21.600 and how they would try to spin everything to put Republicans in the worst light.
00:36:24.700 Now they don't even do that.
00:36:26.060 They're so much less sophisticated than they used to be.
00:36:29.860 So the Washington Post reports, quote, their battles did not hinge on policy.
00:36:34.940 Since all the candidates basically agreed with the course set by Trump.
00:36:38.760 They swung on attitude, style, and outsider bona fides.
00:36:43.860 That just isn't true.
00:36:45.500 That isn't...
00:36:46.000 It wasn't...
00:36:46.440 They're trying to make it out like these are these crazy, wonky characters.
00:36:49.880 And really, all the voters wanted was blood and red meat and craziness. 0.88
00:36:54.280 That isn't true at all.
00:36:55.220 In West Virginia, Patrick Morrissey won there.
00:36:58.860 He beat the kooky candidate, Don Blankenship.
00:37:01.680 Patrick Morrissey is the attorney general.
00:37:03.600 He's a completely normal, well-spoken, educated politician.
00:37:08.380 And the kooky guy was Don Blankenship, this guy who's an ex-con.
00:37:12.680 He's a coal baron.
00:37:13.960 He called Mitch McConnell cocaine Mitch.
00:37:16.840 He referred to Mitch McConnell's father-in-law being a Chinaman.
00:37:20.180 And why that would make McConnell not like him or something like that.
00:37:24.560 That's the kooky guy.
00:37:25.560 They didn't go for him.
00:37:27.620 And Morrissey was a totally normal candidate.
00:37:29.500 He's a sitting office holder.
00:37:30.480 It's very good.
00:37:31.480 This is a big win for Trump, too.
00:37:33.420 Because Trump said ahead of the election, he said, vote against Blankenship.
00:37:38.080 He didn't say who to vote for.
00:37:39.240 He said, don't vote for Blankenship.
00:37:40.780 Vote for Morrissey or Jenkins.
00:37:41.920 And he gave his explanation.
00:37:45.300 He said, don't vote for Blankenship because he won't win in November.
00:37:48.800 The last time Donald Trump said this in Alabama, people didn't listen to him.
00:37:54.180 They voted for Roy Moore in the primary and then Moore lost.
00:37:58.020 So we actually kind of have to thank Steve Bannon today.
00:38:00.780 It's a very hard thing to lose Alabama as a Republican.
00:38:04.300 Steve Bannon managed to do that for us.
00:38:06.740 And it really scared people into thinking, oh, yikes.
00:38:09.720 All right, maybe we shouldn't go that crazy and pick candidates who are unreliable.
00:38:14.980 So what else happened?
00:38:16.220 State Representative Mike Braun, he's a self-funder.
00:38:20.060 He raised $5 million.
00:38:21.960 D.C. outsider.
00:38:23.260 He beat Congressman Todd Rokita and Luke Messer in Indiana.
00:38:28.200 That's pretty good.
00:38:28.880 There actually is an outsider.
00:38:30.560 He's not some kooky outsider.
00:38:32.060 He's a self-funder.
00:38:33.340 He can raise a lot of money.
00:38:34.800 And he's a state representative.
00:38:37.560 Good candidate.
00:38:38.120 In Ohio, Representative Jim Renacci won.
00:38:41.360 That's great.
00:38:41.860 Renacci also was endorsed by Trump.
00:38:43.780 So these are all good signs.
00:38:44.980 But what's the big takeaway?
00:38:46.460 This is good news because it means that Trump's support matters and it helps.
00:38:51.340 Now, we shouldn't expect that in this off-year election.
00:38:55.560 We shouldn't expect that in these midterms.
00:38:57.660 If we believe the mainstream media, we would think that Trump would be poison.
00:39:01.180 Trump's endorsement would be total poison.
00:39:03.160 And the voters would do the opposite of whatever he wants.
00:39:05.960 But that isn't the case.
00:39:07.100 Actually, all of the polling suggests that Trump is quite personally popular.
00:39:11.860 His approval ratings have been varying between the 40s to the low 50s.
00:39:16.720 The daily approval rating has been between 47 and 51 percent.
00:39:20.380 We also know that 57 percent of Americans think the U.S. is headed in the right direction.
00:39:25.320 The majority of Americans say the country is going in the right direction.
00:39:27.680 That's the highest percentage of the population who thinks that since 2007, since before Barack Obama, since before the financial crash.
00:39:35.540 That is a great sign.
00:39:37.460 And by the way, the Democrats have nothing.
00:39:39.120 They have nothing.
00:39:40.380 They have Stormy Daniels.
00:39:41.700 That's why they play it all day long on CNN and The Washington Post.
00:39:44.640 There isn't an issue for them to run on.
00:39:46.520 What can they run on?
00:39:47.260 They ran the government for 10 years and everything went to hell, went to hell in a handbasket.
00:39:53.360 Then Donald Trump comes in and 15 minutes later, everything is getting better.
00:39:57.080 So what can they run on?
00:39:58.540 We might get peace in North Korea, for goodness sakes. 0.96
00:40:00.880 They have nothing to run on.
00:40:02.080 So it's just tawdry tabloid trash like Stormy Daniels.
00:40:05.360 What will we see here?
00:40:06.780 We know that Donald Trump is going to be campaigning in races where he can help.
00:40:11.240 That looks like it'll be a lot of races.
00:40:13.560 And that will help.
00:40:14.880 We know that two of the so-called toss-up seats currently in the House of Representatives, they're held by Democrats.
00:40:21.120 And they're in districts that overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump.
00:40:24.740 So are we really confident that Democrats are going to win those seats?
00:40:28.320 I'm not confident of that.
00:40:29.640 We know that a total of 12 House seats currently held by Democrats are in districts that voted for Trump.
00:40:34.760 Now, they're not listed as toss-ups.
00:40:37.300 But that's a dozen seats total that they voted for Trump in 2016.
00:40:42.000 They're currently held by Democrats.
00:40:43.680 What's going to happen?
00:40:44.840 The question you have to ask yourself, history is working against us.
00:40:48.320 Voter engagement theoretically should be working against us, although in practice I'm not sure it is.
00:40:53.760 If they voted for Trump in 2016 and everything has gotten better and all of his numbers have risen since then,
00:41:01.240 which votes has he lost?
00:41:03.440 Which votes has Donald Trump lost?
00:41:07.420 There is one gaffe that Democrats really tried to seize upon to cut away some of his support.
00:41:13.300 And that was his comments in Charlottesville early in the presidency.
00:41:16.560 You know, he said there were good people on both sides.
00:41:18.380 And they twisted this to say that he was anti-black or supporting Nazis or whatever, which isn't true.
00:41:23.680 And it was totally blown out of proportion.
00:41:25.380 But even so, he didn't speak artfully and so they were able to seize upon him.
00:41:30.540 So that should be it.
00:41:31.560 Those should be the votes that he lost, right?
00:41:33.740 Wrong.
00:41:34.440 We would expect the votes that he lost there to be among black people, right?
00:41:38.400 Because Donald Trump was being portrayed as this anti-black politician.
00:41:42.700 Donald Trump's support among black men has doubled in the last two weeks.
00:41:46.940 Literally doubled.
00:41:49.360 Which votes has he lost?
00:41:51.060 This is really good news.
00:41:52.780 You shouldn't get complacent.
00:41:54.580 We should remain engaged.
00:41:56.020 You've got the entire mainstream media apparatus against us, the Democratic Party against us,
00:41:59.760 much of the federal bureaucracy against us, and some of the Republican Party.
00:42:03.840 So conservatives need to watch out.
00:42:05.540 That's a lot of people against you.
00:42:06.780 You've got to go out to the polls.
00:42:08.980 Things are looking good.
00:42:10.680 There is hope on the horizon.
00:42:12.420 And if we can maintain that hope and go out there and actually vote,
00:42:18.000 you could be in for a surprise in November.
00:42:20.260 Okay.
00:42:20.720 And we should pray about that, too.
00:42:23.420 I don't even mean that glibly.
00:42:24.980 There are serious policies here.
00:42:26.640 People do get hurt when Democrats win elections.
00:42:30.080 To say nothing of the unborn, we're talking about a huge, zealous, pro-abortion Democrat Party.
00:42:37.140 You're talking about people losing their jobs.
00:42:38.700 You're talking about people making less money.
00:42:41.220 You're talking about people not being able to provide for their families.
00:42:43.180 You're talking about people who won't take the opioid epidemic seriously.
00:42:46.340 There actually are real consequences.
00:42:48.540 But mostly I just want to tie it back into that spiritual but not religious line.
00:42:52.180 Go out and read Tyler's book, An Immovable Feast.
00:42:54.720 It's really, really good.
00:42:56.460 And by the time you're done reading that, I'll be back on the air tomorrow.
00:42:58.800 So make sure you tune in.
00:42:59.580 Get your mailbag questions in so we can answer all of them.
00:43:01.940 In the meantime, I'm Michael Knowles.
00:43:03.420 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:43:05.040 I'll see you tomorrow.
00:43:05.540 The Michael Knowles Show is a Daily Wire Forward Publishing production.
00:43:32.200 Copyright Forward Publishing 2018.