Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 185 – Come & Fake It: 2A Mr. Whittaker Stands with Israel
336 Plays11 months ago
Colorado is a magical place to so many people, and for so many different reasons! Some venture into the mountains to get glazed on big box weapons-grade weed in a puddle of pine sap, some scour Denver for the latest fast casual slop hut bastardizing ethnic cuisine, but me? I’m here to visit one of the last great vestiges of Christian Americana left in these United States of Tanger Outlets: the Focus on the Family world headquarters in beautiful Colorado Springs! While I was disappointed to find that Whitt’s End and the Welcome Center were closed for renovations, Grandpa Dobby made sure that the bookstore was open and ready to take my money. Sam and I chat about all the fun things I found in the store, and one brand in particular that caught my attention called Hold Fast. I’m not sure how to describe their clothing other than that I expect their t-shirts will become a staple of Kid Rock’s wardrobe after the terminal cirrhosis prompts him to join Greg Locke’s biblical manhood Bible study. However, they are doing big things for their brave-but-beleaguered “Big Brother,” Israel. We take a look at some strange organizations with vague goals supported by t-shirt purchases from Hold Fast and have a good time talking about our recent travels. Enjoy the show and have a great week!
Recommended
Transcript
Sam's Quirky Shopping Finds
00:00:00
Speaker
I did find some pretty cool socks that had little pigs on them and it said hog wild for Jesus. I got a magnet for my car that's a blue lives matter flag with crosses instead of stars. No way, dude.
00:00:23
Speaker
Yeah. Like a thin blue line American flag. A magnet for your car. Like the one you just throw on the back of your car. Yeah. And did you put it on your car? No, of course not. That's your way of hoping you don't get pulled over for watching YouTube while driving. Yeah. I'm just going to keep it under the seat. And if a cop pulls me over, I'll just flash it. Like it's a, you know, like I'm showing in my dong.
Vermont's Influence and Teaching Challenges
00:01:06
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Growing Up Christian. I'm Sam. I'm Casey. And I just got back from Vermont several hours ago. I got back this afternoon. I spent the weekend, a long weekend. I get two personal days at work. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's because
00:01:25
Speaker
I work in education, so I get a lot of other days off that the rest of you dorks in the working force don't get. Isn't that the day that you go buy chalkboard erasers with your own money? Oh, poor teacher. Pretty much anything I ever need that's work related, I do have to spend my own money on.
00:01:50
Speaker
That's a problem. We could get into that. Shot across the bow, sorry. It sucks. It's so great because I finally work for a place where I get to spend my own money on the materials I need while getting paid less than I've ever made in the working force in my life. That's great. I love it. It all works out.
00:02:06
Speaker
And it used to be, uh, you open this can of worms, so you get to listen to this shit. But in Massachusetts, you used to get to claim on your taxes up to like two grand. Um, like, so if you spent 2000, you keep your receipts, if you spent like up to two grand on.
00:02:23
Speaker
Maybe it was less than that. I think I over exaggerate. It's probably it was more like a thousand bucks. But if you spend that much money on like, whatever supplies, you could claim it on your taxes. And then like a few years ago, they just that was eliminated. It no longer you can no longer claim even the shit you buy for your underpaid job.
00:02:44
Speaker
on your taxes. So love it. Cool stuff. But no, I was anyway, I was
Debate on Star Wars Sequels
00:02:51
Speaker
in. So my buddy Jesse. Oh, sidebar. We're building this up. Jesse is a big Star Wars guy. Jesse's been on the podcast a couple of times. We were talking about getting them back on because I have recently been going through all of the Star Wars movies with my children.
00:03:11
Speaker
And the conversation came up about your feelings about seven, eight, and nine not being good. And after watching, so I haven't watched nine yet, but I've watched one through eight in a relatively short period of time as an adult who has at least some critical capacity to analyze movies.
00:03:35
Speaker
And you're just obviously clearly abundantly wrong about your take on the latest Star Wars movies. So Jesse being a big Star Wars guy too. Well, I shouldn't say too, as though I love myself in that group. I haven't been. I feel like I'm getting into it for the first time, especially it's fun to live it like through your kids. My daughter's eight and she loves it. It's like this is great for her.
Exploring Vermont and Comedy Show Mishaps
00:04:02
Speaker
And so we're like, I think we should, I think you should watch one through nine again. I know that's a bit of homework. I know you have a lot of time to watch movies while you drive because that's your move.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah, I do show research. Yeah. So we were talking about- Test rumble scripts. You know, whatever. I'm sure we have a lot of listeners that don't give a fuck about that, but they can just take a week off and we should discuss Star Wars episode one through nine and mostly shit on you for your bad takes.
00:04:41
Speaker
What is funny though watching it through the eyes like watching it with your kid like so you're kind of watching it through the eyes of a child is like a child in 2024 is um I did chronolog not chronological I did uh like uh numerical order uh not release order
00:05:00
Speaker
because I thought maybe four, five, and six would be a little tough for my kids to have that pull them in because they're just slower. They're a little more dated. I have some gripes about what all the special edition and how they appear. They don't look anything like they did when I watched them as a kid and I haven't seen them since I was a kid.
00:05:25
Speaker
I think it was the original special edition release was the last on VHS was the last time I watched Star Wars fourth, four, five and six. So when, when Luke goes to like, so my kids like Yoda, right? They watched one through three. They know what.
00:05:43
Speaker
Baby Yoda is even though they haven't watched or should I say Grogu? Sorry, I don't want anyone to come after me, but It's a cultural phenomenon they're familiar with the character and When when Luke encounters Yoda for the first time my daughter was like
00:06:01
Speaker
What is that? I was like, that's Yoda. She goes, I hate that. That, I don't, dad, I hate this. What do you mean? She goes, it's creepy and weird. It's like, and everybody hates that. And it's like, they make him like really silly. I forgot how silly and like quirky they made him, like a little squirrel, like rummaging through shit and laughing like a psychopath.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah. Real funny to realize. Pulls out the world's worst lantern and he's like. It was so weird. And what I hate most about it is he has my chin. I hate that. When you see Yoda from a profile, he has my chin. So when they were like, his face looks weird, I'm like, well, thanks, children.
00:06:47
Speaker
I think I probably look more like Yoda than the average man. When it comes to like, where your chin to neck drop off happens, but I yeah, anyway, I guess that was very tangential. But I think that would be fun. I think Jesse should come on. I think we should just do some Star Wars bullshitting for a while. Anyway, in Vermont,
00:07:15
Speaker
Vermont's a beautiful place. We were in Jeffersonville, but we did a day in Burlington. And we were just kind of playing it by ear. In Burlington, there's the Vermont Comedy Club. That's where I saw Amy Miller last time she was around. And it's a great little venue.
00:07:41
Speaker
Burlington's just a, it's just a real cool city. There's just, you can walk. There's just a lot of, it's not a lot to do unless it's other than eat and drink. Um, it's a big time college town. So there were some like Liberty vibes in the way that it's just like, it's mostly, it's all young people walking around being young people, which is a little tiring. Yeah. You get older and you're just like, Oh, wow. You're,
00:08:04
Speaker
So yeah, like we, um, we walked down like, uh, there's like a bike path. It's like a trail that leads to, it's a giant lake, gorgeous. Uh, it's one of those massive ass lakes that across it, all you see is just giant mountain ranges. Uh, so it's beautiful to just like sit there. So right, right at the, at the waterfront.
00:08:29
Speaker
there's a little roped off area, which is like a, it's like a restaurant and a place to grab drinks. So we just went and drank by there and spent about two hours relentlessly shitting on every idiot that walked by. It's like such a great pastime. It's just all you do is sit there and make fun of people. A lot of like tick tock hair, cut, like bro, some of the worst tattoos you've ever seen in your life. Yeah, that is.
00:08:58
Speaker
That's one of my favorite things to do. People make it, they say that you're not supposed to do that anymore, that you should never poke fun at people's appearance. You know what, you shouldn't poke fun at people's appearance to them, but what you do in the privacy of everybody but them. Yeah, the privacy of your friendship.
00:09:22
Speaker
You know, what is freedom really worth if I don't have the freedom to like rip on somebody's haircut and terrible shorts? Well, you might think some of my shorts are terrible too, but one of the tattoos that stuck out to me big time was it was definitely the, you know, and he's he's probably like a jacked 20, whatever year old, like just he has the time and the metabolism to look that good. But I
00:09:50
Speaker
The only tattoo, the only visible tattoo he had was like, it was a tattoo of like a chain necklace, like dog tags. He got like a dog tags tattoo. And I couldn't read all of them, but the only one I could make out was mom. I was like, that's an ugly ass tattoo, dude. You look pretty dumb right now. So anyway, we did a lot of that shit.
00:10:17
Speaker
It's literally all we did was walk around and drink and you can buy drinks and leave with them because Vermont loves freedom. So we took those drinks and we walked back down like a mile and a half ish trail to another place to get some drinks. So we did that again, made fun of some people that we saw there in the privacy of our friendship. And by that time we were like, what should we do next? We knew there was a comedy show at the Vermont Comedy Club.
00:10:46
Speaker
And so we thought, well, let's just go to that. We got time and there's nothing else to do. But before that, we're just killing time by walking around looking for a place to just grab a quick bite to eat before we go in. And we keep passing these two women.
00:11:05
Speaker
I don't know how old they are, possibly mid to late 30s. Just cackling, scream laughing. These scream laughing. You can hear them from two blocks away. We heard them coming from a couple of blocks away. And we passed them a couple of times. Everything's the funniest thing in the world to them. I don't know what they're saying to each other. You can't really even pick up on what they're saying through the way they're laughing. It felt like a different language we were watching.
00:11:34
Speaker
And everything just ended with just these shrilling scream laughs that pierced your ear that made you, you know, those moments where you lock eyes with total strangers on this agreed upon hatred of what's going on around you. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was that plenty of times. So they're finally out of ear shot.
00:11:57
Speaker
I thought they might have drowned in the lake just based on how easily you could hear them. The only possible explanation for not heard a gurgling noise shrill gurgling. So then we go to the comedy club and.
00:12:13
Speaker
Jess and I grab a couple of seats at the bar waiting for the doors to open and an older couple comes and they grab two seats at the bar next to us. And we're sitting there and those two ladies walk in cackling their asses off. And the old people look at us and they go, Oh fuck, are they, they're coming to the show, aren't they? And we're like, we've been listening to them for the past 40 minutes, just up and down the street.
00:12:39
Speaker
and they keep doing their like overpowering laughs and we start just going back and forth with this older couple next to us just kind of shitting on them as terrible people. The worst kind of people to go to a comedy show like anyone who's interested or enjoys comedy knows that like they make for the worst type of audience members
00:13:02
Speaker
And it was bad. I mean, they did that same laugh regularly throughout the whole show. The first 10 to 12 minutes of the show was the comedian just relentlessly shitting on them for being terrible.
00:13:19
Speaker
patrons and they didn't I don't even know if it registered because they just kept laughing at how horrible they were and it was a regularly revisited thing throughout the act where she would kind of go back to them and point out how shitty they were and how hated they were and
00:13:35
Speaker
Prior to the show starting, the person sitting immediately next to them was this guy who was there with his girlfriend. And he looked like he wanted to kill himself. He, arms crossed, slouching big time, just side glancing at them constantly. Looked like he was in complete and total misery. And it turned out that that was just his vibe. It wasn't necessarily related to the lady sitting next to him because
00:13:59
Speaker
I felt so bad for the comic. Laurie Kilmartin was the comedian for anyone wondering. I think she's in her 50s. She's been doing comedy for quite a while.
00:14:18
Speaker
And you could just tell, you just felt bad. It was a bad audience. This was a second show. For an hour straight of her act, he sat there slouched with his arms crossed, rolling his eyes, didn't smile, front row.
00:14:38
Speaker
She made fun of him a little bit and then moved on. These three people started to ruin it for me. I kept getting sucked out of what was going on because you're just watching these psychos laugh their asses off and then this guy just sit there with his arms crossed like he's never laughed in his entire life.
00:14:59
Speaker
And you could just kind of tell that she felt the bad energy of the crowd. A lot of comics will be like, there's no such thing as a bad crowd. Sometimes you just have a bad set. False. I could tell you sitting in that room that that was a horrible crowd. All the people she interacted with and tried to do crowd work with just gave nothing.
00:15:23
Speaker
It was like everyone, it was like every miserable person in Burlington decided that they thought they'd try a comedy show for the first time in their life. And they were, it was so bad. Laurie was very funny. I did enjoy her set, but you kept like stopping to look at like these people. And I'm like, this isn't the front. I can't imagine being up there trying to do your set and just looking at that the whole fucking time. It's pretty brutal.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah. It's the equivalent of being at a, at like a concert and there's like, every time there's like a break in the music, there's that guy, like he's always tall. He's always like semi drunk, usually wearing a backwards hat and he yells free bird. Every time there's any silence.
00:16:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's been going on for as long as I can remember. Local hard court shows, dude. Like a long, you know, just like a long piece of bamboo, like six feet long. Thin, not trying to hurt anybody, but just like when somebody's doing that sort of thing in public, you just kind of walk up behind them and
00:16:32
Speaker
Whack right on the back of there like calf. Yep, or just slicer Achilles Keep it chucky style. You're going light dude end it for Man but you travel. Oh, sorry. What I Just sucks when there's there's somebody like that That's so distracting that like it just pulls you out of things like constantly or you know movie classic like movie theater
00:17:01
Speaker
patron that just won't shut up the whole time. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, it's, it's, if, if you, if the vibe is that like, Oh, these are just people that are authentically enjoying whatever this thing is, like it can still be annoying, but it's at least like somewhat, you know, you can cut somebody some slack for that. The annoying part of it to me is that it's like performance. And I hate that kind of stuff. It's like, like when you go to the, like the, uh,
00:17:31
Speaker
Sometimes you go to like Walmart or something.
00:17:34
Speaker
and there's teenagers all in there together, and they're just like shouting F-bombs occasionally over the store. It's like the funniest things. All the jokes that teenagers have been doing since the dawn of time, it's like this rite of passage handed down, like, now you ride the bicycle down the aisle. That was crazy. Oh, now one of the girls needs to get in the cart and sit in there like a toddler.
00:18:02
Speaker
That would be hilarious. And it's like the performance part of it is what drives me crazy, where it's like, yeah, I don't care, man. Like, just shut up. And then I don't want to be a part of your routine here. I think what's so aggravating about shit like that is you have to try to not look at them because that's what they want. They want you to look at them and then they want to talk about how everyone was looking at them and was like, couldn't believe they were doing this.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. We can believe it because we've all been there. I think we're just not teaching our younger generation properly. Somebody's got to break the cycle of annoyance.
00:18:41
Speaker
I mean, I'll I know for a fact that I didn't have one of those cool lightsabers that that those telescoping lightsabers. But I, my friends group I was part of, we had the Millbury Plaza, it was like a strip mall with the movie theater. There were some lightsaber duels that happened in public that never should have, you know,
00:19:04
Speaker
There are plenty of things that happen. You look back and go, God, we thought we were hilarious and we were the worst. So I get it. There's nothing you can do about it other than just pretend it's not happening because you have to you have to accept that that's never going to stop. For the rest of my life, I'm going to watch some twerp in a shopping cart. Think you just invented jackass for the first time. Yeah.
Musical Reverie at Red Rocks
00:19:28
Speaker
so yeah i did travel recently so april got free tickets to see sleep token which in denver which dude it was the greatest
00:19:40
Speaker
I mean, I think it was the greatest concert experience I've ever had. It was so cool. It was at Red Rocks, which is like the world's coolest venue, I think, at least that I've been to. That's the only one. People talk about wanting to go to certain venues. I feel like that's at least one of three venues I've ever heard anyone mention wanting to go to.
00:20:02
Speaker
And that includes the recent sphere in vegas. Oh yeah, who said that? Cane that person. You know what would make you two even worse? Being surrounded on a three-dimensional plane by you two. Like, oh, kill me. Now, but it's funny because we've been to like, you know, go to shows for like months on end.
00:20:26
Speaker
maybe a year and then all of a sudden like we went to like five in a month, you know, they just all lined up. Yeah. And like having been to several venues recently, like the sound quality at several of the venues that I've gone to recently is rough. Like some of them you get in there and it's like, you can't like I'm, I'm really there to hear the guitar. That's what I want to hear.
00:20:53
Speaker
And sometimes you just can't pick it out at a metal show. Like it's just lost in the fuzz, you know? Red Rocks is like, it's like sitting in your car and listening to it. Like it's just perfect like sound balance and quality and stuff like that. So that was really cool. It was unbelievable. Like you kind of like everybody part, you park down at the bottom of the mountain and then you walk like,
00:21:22
Speaker
You trail up the mountain into this like bowl, you know, that's like an amphitheater set into the rock. We thought we had general admission tickets. You know, we weren't sure how that red rocks worked, right? So we get in there and we're trying to see if we can get in line for sleep token merch, which they had two merch tables and like 300 people in line for both. Dude, that's how that was what I saw in Worcester. Like people missed the show getting merch, like
00:21:49
Speaker
Yeah. It's so dumb. So there was that. One was up at the top of the stadium, the other one was down at the bottom, and the lines went all the way to the top and bottom on both sides. So we get in there and we're looking around and it's just packed. Like the stadium is just packed, right? And I'm like, God, how are we going to find
00:22:12
Speaker
How, where are we going to sit? Like, I don't, you know, like we're going to have to like elbow our way into one of these like corners or something. And we look at our tickets and it's like, Oh no, that we're fifth row, like right in the middle. Is so, is there, so there is general, there is like floor where you can just push your way into and then there's not, it's all seating, but it's like general seating. So you got like big bench, you know, style, like concrete.
00:22:39
Speaker
you know, tears that you're sitting, standing on whatever. But I imagine they bring chairs in there for certain things, but.
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah it was incredible like at one point during the show I mean there's tons of like stage effects and stuffs lights and smoke and everything and then like there was like a storm kind of blew in at one point during the show so it was also like raining and the wind was blowing really hard and the trees are shaking and stuff and it was just like all of it just added into the like the
00:23:10
Speaker
the ambiance of the place. It was so cool, dude. The guy who is the lead singer, Vessel, is what he calls himself. His unbelievable voice, unbelievable songwriter, played the guitar for a song or two, played the piano for a song or two. I mean, that guy is just a phenomenal talent. It's definitely like my favorite band right now, I think.
00:23:36
Speaker
I don't know. I just, any chance I ever get to see them, I'm going to go. It was so, like I did. I was pissed because so that's the tour. I really wanted to go to it when they first announced it. I had just seen them. I had seen the Palladium in Worcester not that long before. And that was a terrible venue experience. It was fucking awful.
00:23:59
Speaker
Sleep choking was great, but it just felt oversold, incredibly packed. I have never in my entire life seen a show with a line that wrapped around the entire block. That's so crazy. Yeah, it was just insane.
00:24:18
Speaker
So that was tough to get into because it was just it just wasn't a good feel. You go in and you go to like the main floor and at the plate and there's a bar in the way back. And usually like just up past the bar there's a rail. I've never not been able to just kind of get up near to the
00:24:39
Speaker
that back rail and watch the show. It's not a huge venue, so that's a decent viewing spot. Sleep Token is a viewing band. I don't need to be on the floor. I'm not trying to get into it with the crowd. I just want to watch. It's a show. That's an actual show. We couldn't see.
00:25:01
Speaker
You couldn't get closer than like the back part of the bar. You could not see the show at all. And we ended up being able to be lucky enough to find seats like really high up in the balcony. And it just wasn't a great experience in the venue. So then they announced their tour and it was hard to get tickets because they just sell out so fast now.
00:25:30
Speaker
And then when I, so I didn't even try. I was like, I'm not, I'm not putting the effort to try to get tickets. Fucking deal with Ticketmaster being the worst company of all time. Get in the queue. Don't get it. You get in the queue. You put tickets in your cart. They're gone. I tried. No, I lied. I actually did.
00:25:48
Speaker
half-assed try to get tickets but it did that bullshit where you get in the queue and then it goes you're up and then you go to buy tickets and there's like those tickets are no longer available like that classic ticket yeah or shit so I just said fuck it I gave up immediately
00:26:05
Speaker
didn't keep trying and then they announced the set list and the set list it like we don't need to get too into it but sleep token kind of has like over the three albums kind of a story for the most part um
00:26:21
Speaker
that friends and I just kind of had fun investing in and talking about and thinking about. And when I saw that the Palladian, they didn't play a few of my favorite songs. One of them is Euclid. I think Euclid is one of the greatest songs of all time. I love it. I listen to it all the time. Still, on repeat, I've listened to that song three to five times in a row, for sure.
00:26:44
Speaker
And I just so I see the set list and I go, God damn it, that's great. But I don't have tickets in the resellers were insane. So I just had it on. I just wasn't going to go. And then the night of that show, I had already had plans hanging out with a friend and seeing a while we were out for dinner doing shit. And I get a text from a friend who goes, do you want tickets to sleep token tonight? And I was like,
00:27:12
Speaker
Obviously, but this is the worst timing ever because I can't just bail on my friend. Like that would be shitty. Right. But she was like, yeah, tickets. I guess resellers couldn't get rid of some of them. So it's like the night of the show. They were 50. They were like 55 bucks.
00:27:32
Speaker
Wow. And they were charging 200 to 50 for them prior to that. So screw those people. Yeah, it pisses me off. So I couldn't I wasn't able to go. But that was like my biggest disappointment because the set list they had for the tour they're on right now, the one that you saw is just it's phenomenal. And it would have been they play like stuff from each album kind of in order. Yeah, it was awesome. I've never I haven't gotten to see them play like my favorite song either.
00:28:01
Speaker
But, um, yeah, it was great. So I, although I will say both times that I've seen sleep token, the, the opening act, the first opening act, the first time I saw him just boring, not, it wasn't that it was bad. Like she did, she did fine. It's just boring. Uh, the opening band for this show, somebody out of Massachusetts sucked so bad.
00:28:28
Speaker
They're from that so bad. Well, New England somewhere. I can't remember where, I guess. OK. But it really seriously made you go like, how did this happen? Like, they must know somebody. Like, it was terrible. It was just like a local dad medal band, you know, playing their first set at the at the, you know, corner bar is what it sounded like just.
00:28:53
Speaker
garbage you sent me a video of it and I was floored by how horrible it was it was offensively bad and then you go now they're doing they got their European tour coming up and they pulled Bill Murray for it ah that would have been awesome right and that that doesn't even make any sense because Bill Murray is like
00:29:14
Speaker
They're kind of all over the place with what they're saying. Absolutely 100% nothing like Sleep Token. It makes me wonder if people in the band were like, we love Bill Murray, so we're gonna just ask. I don't know how that worked its way out, but that's a phenomenal opportunity. When I saw Sleep Token 2, the opener was boring as fuck, dude. I think that was probably the same one that was with him when I saw him.
00:29:42
Speaker
So that was all great. So much fun, awesome experience. I highly recommend if you can go see SleepDoke and make it happen. But after that, so we're in Denver and we decided to just kind of like drift a little bit. So we head south from there the next day. You met the spirit in the middle of nowhere, telling you to recommit your life to Christ. That's right. You know, not all who wander are lost. I saw that on a spare tire cover.
00:30:11
Speaker
You were like, God, what do I do with my life? And you were driving behind some asshole with an American flag tire cover over the back of their Jeep with a not all who wander or a lost bumper sticker. And you're like, yeah. Ernest Hemingway was the first person to have that on the spare tire cover of his heaped Angler.
00:30:32
Speaker
But, uh, so we were driving down towards Colorado Springs, which is kind of a favorite spot of ours to go at, you know, whenever we get the chance for a long weekend or whatever.
Conservative Christian Merchandise Adventure
00:30:46
Speaker
And I've, I've driven past and seen the signs for the focus on the family headquarters before and thought like, ah, but I always have somewhere to be, or it's just not good timing, you know?
00:31:00
Speaker
This time we're like, we don't have any plans or anything. And I was like, you want to go and just see what it is? April was like, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we get off at the exit. Now the disappointing part was that, you know, they got their little campus there where you can go and see whatever, you know, but, um,
00:31:21
Speaker
It's their world headquarters. The bad thing was that. Is it actually say world HQ? I think so. I think that's what it said. Yeah. Global ministries or something like that. They have a few different buildings there. Not the greatest landscaping I noticed. Was it just burnt grass? They don't water their lawns. It was a little patchy. Yeah. It was not.
00:31:47
Speaker
Not, uh, you know, it's not what I would expect to find in Odyssey. I mean, not like in the words of, uh, Jerry Falwell, if it's Christian, it should be better. And there wasn't better. And that counts for fescue as well. Fescue. So it's a kind of grass. Oh, it's the only kind of grass I could think of on short notice. It's not what Hank Hill has. I know that.
00:32:15
Speaker
Bermuda, I don't know. Blue.
00:32:19
Speaker
Ah, I don't remember what Hank Hill has for grass, but he talks about it all the time. So looking it up, Whitsend was closed for remodeling, which sucked. I was very excited to go to Whitsend and like, I don't know what's in there. I don't know what's in there. I think there's like a, you know, like a diner or something and some sort of a playground or whatever. So the only thing that was really open that we could go to was the bookstore, because of course they're going to keep the merchandising front open at all times.
00:32:49
Speaker
And so yeah, we went and walked around in the bookstore and just looked at some of the amazing things that are on the shelf there. It's like, yeah, it's really like headquarters for like, um, conservative suburban parents who, you know, listen to Glenn Beck and enroll their kids in like a summer creation studies class or something like that.
00:33:19
Speaker
Like just hilarious Christian media of all sorts, like all over the place. I did get an adventures in Odyssey t-shirt, which I was pretty excited about. I bought myself a.
00:33:32
Speaker
A Bible manga book. Nice. Haven't had the chance to dive into yet, but I'm pretty pumped about that. Uh, I think I got one about the end times because naturally. Dude, uh, former guest of the pod, uh, also has his own podcast called idiotalk Walker Glenn. I got a message from them. Uh, they were at a yard sale.
00:33:58
Speaker
I don't, I, Walker and his brother do it and I don't know who was messaging me at the time or who was at the yard sale, but, uh, it was from their podcast page. It was this tie dye hat that just said it was like a embroidered adventures in Odyssey across it. He just sent it to me. It was like my recent yard sale find.
00:34:18
Speaker
And god damn, it's a sick ass hat. He was like, I'm not sure if I'm bold enough to wear this around, but I was like, then send it to me because this will be my main hat from now on. I need a new hat. And that one fucking rips. Yeah. So the bookstore at the place is pretty much like a Cracker Barrel country store for like
00:34:45
Speaker
Christian nationalists. I guess that doesn't even track. I guess Cracker Barrel is kind of the same way, but. Could you get that game with the little pegs where you have to jump up? Oh yeah, the golf tees. I didn't see one, but I would hope that there's a Christian equivalent to that. The only difference is it's little crucifixes that you put in there.
00:35:10
Speaker
They got little Bible verses on the back, the name of a martyr inscribed on it. Um, so one of the things that stuck out, cause there's a bunch of different brands of stuff that they've got in there, you know, everything from like, you know, hokey, you know, grandma t-shirts and stuff like that to, you know, Bibles books of all sorts. There was a, there was a whole section about like.
00:35:36
Speaker
What to do if your kid thinks they're trans sort of things. I did find some pretty cool socks that had little pigs on them and it said hog wild for Jesus. Jesus for nine.
00:35:56
Speaker
I got a magnet for my car. It's a Blue Lives Matter flag with crosses instead of stars. No way, dude. Yeah, like a thin blue line American flag. A magnet for your car, like the one you just throw on the back of your car. Yeah. And did you put it on your car? No, of course not.
00:36:18
Speaker
That's your way of hoping you don't get pulled over for watching YouTube while driving. Yeah, I'm just gonna keep it under the seat. And if a cop pulls me over, I'll just flash it. Like I'm showing him my dong. If you get pulled over, you have Christian nationalist videos playing on YouTube on deck just to be like, throw it on as soon as you get pulled over. Like, oh, I'm sorry, officer. But I was watching something really important. And they go, I get it.
00:36:49
Speaker
Dude, I don't know if anybody said this to you today, but thank you for your service, man. It's a bummer that they're not included in memorial. We don't have a holiday for cops.
00:37:04
Speaker
It's pretty unjust. Yeah, for real. I mean, St. Patrick's Day in Funeral is the only time you get to bust out the bagpipes. So there was one brand of stuff that stuck out in the focus on the family store. I noticed that there was one particular brand that had all of the like conservative manly man, you know,
00:37:31
Speaker
dad of a girl dad sort of t-shirts and stuff with some crazy sayings on them. It's called Hold Fast Clothing. I was just looking at their website here. There was a couple that really stuck out to me. There was one that said, the constitution doesn't need to be rewritten. It needs to be reread.
00:37:58
Speaker
They forgot about all the amendments. I'm sure there's a few that they don't think are valid. They're like, my favorite part of the Constitution is the Second Amendment. You're like, you don't get it. You're bolstering my point, dude. It can be amended. Yeah, it's a lot of like we the people gear.
00:38:22
Speaker
you know, crosses imposed over like thin blue line shirt or merchandise. They had like their own little collection of I stand with Israel merch. Of course they did. Yeah.
00:38:39
Speaker
And, oh man, like American flag, Israeli flag crossed. Oh my God. I tried to get one, but they didn't have, they didn't have any sizes left in it. They were just that big of a seller, you know? You know what's so funny about, uh, Christian nationalist shit is, um, it,
00:39:00
Speaker
it's definitely fairly well documented that like wearing the American flag is like paraphernalia is kind of like disrespectful but every right every fucking company in the world has like an American flag bathing suit an American flag shirt like there's all these like over overtly attempt
American Flag Imagery in Christian Merchandise
00:39:22
Speaker
overtly trying to attempt to be as patriotic as they can by just putting the American flag on everything. And it's, it looks insane. It looks insane. It's according to like any form of anything that they would find legitimate is technically disrespectful. You shouldn't wear it as a bathing suit. You shouldn't wear it as a cape. It's not a cape, but they love it as capes.
00:39:50
Speaker
They do indeed. I can't get their stupid menu to work right here. I was trying to see if there was an about section on here. That's the least shocking thing about everything you've said tonight is that their website barely works. Here's a good one. This is a t-shirt. It says, when people forget God, tyrants forge their chains. Wow.
00:40:16
Speaker
Dude, can you imagine the boner that that fat toad popped when he thought of that? He's just like, oh my gosh, that's the best thing I've ever written.
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah, so it's It's super just the cringiest of cringe crap Enjoy your freedom. Thank a veteran. Of course, that's a classic I do I I'm waiting for them to update that. I know it's not we're not there yet and I know they have their sexual ethics and
00:40:55
Speaker
But I'm waiting for, just think of, enjoy your freedom, blow a veteran. I think that would be a more appropriate t-shirt for them. I think you have to be a, you have to have never like been in the military to buy one of those shirts too. Yeah, no kidding. Like anybody I know who's actually been in the military, I really don't think they would wear that on a t-shirt.
00:41:20
Speaker
I don't think they would wear it. I know, dude, it goes both ways pretty hard. Like there's like that group of people who are like real up their ass because they joined the military at the lowest level and their job is basically doing a hundred pushups a day for not following orders. And they, and they,
00:41:46
Speaker
those are the people who love that shit the most and then you talk to like a lot of people and they're like yeah that shit's wack it's just it's insane and it's funny because like i i feel like well amber uh is one of them our frequent guest uh who just obviously thinks like goofy shit like that is insane but i've got family members who like i
00:42:10
Speaker
Really respect because I look it's it's common for me to make jokes about the military. Yes, you have open contempt for soldiers. I am for a type for a type of soldier. But like a cousin, one of my cousins is like one of his jobs was basically to watch like drone footage and be the guy who decided whether or not they like launched a missile at something.
00:42:39
Speaker
And he was like, my job is literally all day long telling idiots that we shouldn't blow that up. It's like they, they see, they'll see like a basket. They'll see like you'll have people come to me with footage. Like we saw that we saw this and they'll see a basket with like the cover half off. And they're like, should we, should we shoot it? And he's like, of course we shouldn't shoot it.
00:43:05
Speaker
He's like, I actually view my job. He's like, because he has so many problems with the way the military industrial complex works. He has a lot of moral qualms with the military. He was like a stoner hippie that didn't know what to do with his life, but was always a really smart
00:43:22
Speaker
guy, he just didn't know where to direct it. And he was like, it was one of those like one day he was like, this is the career for me. He like I can do this without any education, like I don't need an education, I can just sign up. I don't know what else to do. Shaved his head from having like long coheating Cambria hair. And
00:43:43
Speaker
quit smoking weed, joined the military. And he because he was a very smart dude, he like just kind of moved his way up pretty quickly. And he's like, I just, he's like, it's he goes, I have like this kind of weird moral complex, because like, on one hand, I feel like I'm complicit in some fucked up shit. But on the other hand, I go, if I'm not here,
00:44:07
Speaker
There's gonna be somebody else that just gives the green light to blow shit up all the time. That isn't actually suspicious. Yeah, you know where there's none of those kind of people like him is in the IDF. They need some, they need some coheating Cambria hippies to just be like, no, don't, please don't.
00:44:27
Speaker
just don't blow that up. Oh no, that's called an ambulance. We shouldn't blow that up. Oh no, that's a humanitarian aid company bringing in food to the children whose parents you just murdered, but you shouldn't kill them. And then they go, okay. And then they just quietly pull a pin out of their grenade and go, oops.
00:44:51
Speaker
Oh, man, there's this. Oh, this is a good one. So this one, it's a guy. He's wearing this shirt and he's standing there with his arms out, like arms wide open. Pretty much. He's like, what the heck? That's the kind of the look he's got on his face. And it says, so if we lie to the government, it's a felony, but if they lie to us, it's politics.
00:45:16
Speaker
I love the assumption that the people they believe aren't total frauds too.
00:45:23
Speaker
Just invest in the dumbest people alive. You have to be an absolute moron to attain prominence in these circles. I like to say assume that they have enough assets where lying to the government is even beneficial. You claimed your Labrador is a dependent. No one cares. You're not getting audited, dude.
00:45:53
Speaker
You claim that six by six closet as office space. Ooh. They caught me writing off oatmeal cream pies and now they're trying to repossess my trampoline.
00:46:14
Speaker
If you go to the Holdfast homepage right on the front, you scroll down immediately below the opening banner thing and that's where the Stand with Israel collection is, which it is a full collection. Full collection. That's great.
00:46:31
Speaker
It says, stand with Israel. Hold fast, stands resolute with Israel. We invite you to pray and show your support. For every shirt you purchase from our Israel collection, $5 will be donated to the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry or Frontier Alliance International. Let's see if there was any though. There's a pray for... What was it, Friends of Israel? What? Gospel Ministry? Yes.
00:47:00
Speaker
I feel like we need to look that up. I'm sure we could do an entire episode on the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. They have a 4.6 rating on Google. Both of these ministries have been instrumental in providing support to the Israeli people, ensuring they have the resources and protection they need in these challenging times.
00:47:20
Speaker
Your contribution matters, and then there's some bullet points. When missiles threaten the skies of Israel, your support helps provide bomb shelters, giving citizens those crucial 10 to 14 seconds to find safety. When a lone soldier in the IDF seeks solace during the Sabbath, your support provides them with a welcoming family. When a woman needs to escape the clutches of domestic violence, your support offers her a safe haven.
00:47:46
Speaker
And when emergency medical assistance is needed, your support provides major equipment like ambulances. By wearing these t-shirts, you're not just making a fashion statement. You're making a statement of faith, hope, and love. You're standing with Israel and you're making a difference in the lives of those who need it most. Amazing. Join us in this mission. What was the first line?
00:48:10
Speaker
Uh, when missiles threaten the skies of Israel, your support helps provide bomb shelters. That's what I thought. I think they confuse their t-shirts with the iron dome, but yeah, I'm pretty sure we do that a few other ways. So I was like frontier Alliance international. That's like a very vague sounding title. So, uh, I just looking at their website here and.
00:48:38
Speaker
I don't know. I'm, uh, I'm not sure what to think of this. Okay. So it says our commitment as an organization and spiritual family frontier Alliance international is committed to exalting the worth of Jesus Christ among the out, unreached and unengaged at the end of the age. We share Paul's ambition shared in Romans 15, 20, the guy who thought the end of the age was at hand. And we're here 2000 years later, maybe shared years, but a day or something.
00:49:08
Speaker
Thousand-year layover or whatever so lay foundations for the gospel where none yet exist and Declare the name of Jesus where he has not yet been known This is our burden in Israel the people you're standing with the ones who don't believe in Jesus Nice, exactly And this is our burden and privilege until our great King splits the sky and power and glory The sky King dude, he might get iron domed
00:49:37
Speaker
You imagine like a Patriot just hits him in the face. You would catch it between his teeth. Dude, you were glowing. We thought you were a rocket. Like, who are the- Oh God. M80 fired from a slingshot.
00:49:55
Speaker
Who are the comics? The big guy? The big burly dude and the small guy? Penn and Teller. Would have been a solid joke if I could have come up with it in time. I was gonna say, catches it between his teeth like a bullet like Penn and Teller.
00:50:09
Speaker
There we go. Our commitment to reach those who do not have the gospel is complemented by a commitment to resource those who do have the gospel. To this end, all our media messaging films, music, publishing podcasts, et cetera, are funded by project to project through the sacrificial giving of like-minded friends and family worldwide and made available online with our free and free forever policy.
00:50:35
Speaker
I feel like what I noticed with this so far is it's very vague on what they actually do.
00:50:43
Speaker
Okay. So, I mean, what, what you just read was a whole lot of thoughts about how they feel about things, but so far it doesn't, I mean, it gives you an accurate perspective on their stance, but yeah, I mean, no clear idea of what they do. So maybe they have a real mission statement that you're going to get into.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, okay, so this one starts out with a quote by Samuel M. Zwemer, pioneer to Islamic African nations. It says, frequent setbacks and apparent failure never dishearten the real pioneer. Occasional martyrdom are only a fresh incentive. Opposition is a stimulus to greater activity. Great victory has never been possible without great sacrifice.
00:51:30
Speaker
Under which it says, while persecutions and pioneering should come as no surprise, we do not seek them out. The broader tension, however, for our organization functioning with all the communication technologies of the 21st century is navigating political pressures and complications related to the various religious and geopolitical fractions and ideologies that make it difficult to publicly declare who we are working with and where.
00:51:56
Speaker
In order to avoid compromising the integrity of our spiritual, of our operational initiatives, we disclose what we can disclose and publicly acknowledge that most of our work on the gospel frontier is of the nature we cannot disclose. Oh my God. What is this? What is this? We disclose what we can and don't what we can't.
00:52:18
Speaker
And we expect you to trust us because we said the right things in three paragraphs before that. We accept this handicap to our fundraising and advocacy in order to prioritize and protect the integrity of our operational initiatives on the gospel frontier. Yeah. I mean, it is a bit of a handicap making this five bucks at a time split between them and some other like garbage organization. Our strategy.
00:52:46
Speaker
Our field teams and leaders pioneer strategic initiatives across the 1040 window to serve and support persecuted minorities and people groups in war and conflict zones. We are committed. Does that include Palestinians? I don't think it does.
00:53:05
Speaker
We are committed to the quote long haul required to bear fruitful faithful witness of the gospel of the kingdom in word and deed and refuse to convert the people in this regions into projects or pity posts online. Our media messaging to resource the already reached global demographic advocates for the work we do on the field.
00:53:29
Speaker
Amazing. The long haul for the return on the investment of the fruit growth and their
00:53:39
Speaker
It's of a nature that we cannot be described, you know? We have to wait until figs grow in this desolate, dry desert of a place where, you know, you never know. The language they use is like, we understand this is gonna take a lot of time, and we're willing to just drag this out to the bitter end. Yeah, okay. So there's an articles section.
00:54:07
Speaker
May 31st, 2024, Holocaust, Aliyah, and the Palestine Regiment. Palestine Regiment. Oh boy, dude, why can't I read? European Jews flee from the Third Reich towards their ancestral home only to encounter the complexity of wartime politics in the Middle East. Leaders of the Yeshuv propose another all Jewish regiment in the British army.
00:54:34
Speaker
Was this article written in like the 40s? No, I think this is a... Wait, where's the... Thus says the Lord God. This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nation. I was waiting for the Lord to speak. Which examines the history of the modern state of Israel in the midst of an increasingly hostile world.
00:54:59
Speaker
Uh, so yeah, this is like a history article about, oh, the world's Zionist organization, David Ben-Gurion, uh, uh, Kaim Wiseman. Yeah. This is like history lesson on, you know, the Israeli Zionist project.
00:55:22
Speaker
So this is basically just like a big and what is this website? I mean money is it was is this the company that money? from the focus on the family t-shirt sales go to Yeah, this was one of the two organizations listed Like this there's literally no mention of what they actually do. It's just like ideas about how they feel and
00:55:48
Speaker
But there's nothing about what they're doing. It's like messaging articles and things like that. Based on what they've said, whatever they're doing, I would have a huge problem with. But organizations like this that are just beautifully unclear.
00:56:08
Speaker
Because that is all anyone would really need to read. If you're a state of Israel type person, all you have to do is read that and go, oh, that's a great place for my money to go. But you don't even know, which is kind of a problem with plenty of nonprofits anyway. I don't actually know if these guys are a nonprofit. That would be interesting to know. But even if they are, it's not like it's overly complicated to be a 501c3.
00:56:37
Speaker
But a lot, anyone can really kind of put forth flowerly language that would allow anyone who's willing to buy a goofy ass t-shirt that they'd wear in public to just go, oh, I'm cool. I'm cool with that. Like I, they said the right thing and that's all that anything's actually really about is just saying the right thing because everybody I know who would,
00:57:03
Speaker
terminate relationships over their belief about the whole standard Israel thing are just doing that. It's just a belief. They go, if you don't believe that you should stand with them in a capacity that means nothing and is totally arbitrary, then I have a problem with you.
00:57:23
Speaker
Right. So, boy, let's see. Well, what is the date on this? So this is December 4th, 2023. Somebody wrote an article saying Dalton Thomas Leipzig, founder and president of Frontier Alliance International, an evangelical charismatic missions and media ministry has resigned. FAI's board has announced
00:57:48
Speaker
Leipzig, married since 2006, reportedly confessed to sexual infidelity with a woman who is not a ministry team member. But did she stand with Israel? Because that might make a difference. I'm guessing so. Well, I think if you're having sex with a Zionist, you're a Zionist by proxy, maybe. I don't know how the rules work.
00:58:11
Speaker
Seems like a great org. Uh, I think, yeah, I think seems like a money laundering organization. It's just washing coin. Uh, yeah. So I think what we're trying to say is you should buy these t-shirts from focus on the family. Yeah. If you don't need a t-shirt, you can just give sign up for a week, like a monthly donation, like recurring donation to
00:58:41
Speaker
their organization, which is monthly. That's even more, you know, that's even more handy. Oh, they do have an event coming up.
00:58:50
Speaker
No, no, no, this is old. So this was November 3rd through 5th, 2023, the Maranatha summit in Europe. Oh, we missed it. Yeah, it's too bad. What does it say? I would make an excuse to go to Europe. Maranatha summit Europe will be a deep dive into the subject of the end times and an exploration of its far reaching implications for our lives, both now and in the days ahead.
00:59:14
Speaker
Um, all right. See if you recognize any of these people, uh, plenary of such sessions led by Dalton Thomas, Joe Richardson, Dalton Thomas was the one that we just saw resigned, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Jeff Henderson, Stephanie quick, Holger Reinhardt, which, okay. That's a cool name. Given that Sebastian van Wessom also a cool name.
00:59:42
Speaker
Nikolai Boyajev, focusing on critical subjects pertaining to the end of the age and the return of Jesus. For pastors and church leaders, there will be a special roundtable in cooperation with Kingdom Alliance, which is spelled K-N-G-D-M. That's cool. On Friday afternoon, featuring the speakers from the summit, capacity is limited, tickets are free, pre-registration is required. Can you imagine?
01:00:11
Speaker
traveling all the way to Europe just to sit in this like circle jerk. Yeah. What could they possibly say? All this is, is an excuse for a vacation that's paid for by your church. Is Kingdom Alliance, was that the other one that they listed money goes to? Oh, I don't recall. You'll have to hit that back. Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. That was the one we started with. Uh, I looked them up.
Critique of Donation Solicitation Language
01:00:40
Speaker
Yeah.
01:00:41
Speaker
Kingdom Alliance mission is funded through generous donations of partners, blah, blah, blah. What is your mission? What do you do about us? This is the Alliance, Kingdom Alliance. Friends of Israel, the first thing that says that you can really see on their website outside of like how to get involved and give money, which is obviously the right place to start a website.
01:01:02
Speaker
Why we exist you'll never guess it's building bridges in bringing hope which they are doing neither of those things to people who Are not is are being firebombed in? Yeah Yeah, not really, huh?
01:01:19
Speaker
Kingdom Alliance got started in the beginning of 2022 when a group of ministers from all over the world got together around a common passion and goal, getting the Gospel of the Kingdom out into the world with a special focus on our quote, older brother, Israel.
01:01:36
Speaker
It's our desire to connect churches, ministries, and leaders globally that have similar kingdom vision and values into a true global kingdom family.
01:01:53
Speaker
the religion of Judaism, but we can obviously delineate between Jewish culture and religion and the Netanyahu regime.
01:02:08
Speaker
And I just, I love when they play like that older brother card, like, cause it's like that lost older brother for them, right? It's like, I have an older brother and he's not a Christian anymore. And it's my job to get him saved. Like the weird.
01:02:24
Speaker
gymnastics that evangelical Christianity does when they talk about Judaism and the way they conflate erroneously is like being Israeli and being Jewish and the assumptions that are made about
01:02:44
Speaker
Jews and how they all perceive their government. They blanket it in this language that assumes there's this one-for-all, all-for-one mentality. There isn't a new one. In our country, there's a staunch divide between left and right.
01:03:10
Speaker
Like that, that doesn't exist in Israel. Like they talk about Israel, like everyone there is all on the same page. And then it's like this beautiful utopia that they're supporting, but also like they skirt around the idea that they're not actually Christian and they don't really, they don't want to really get into that or talk about it because that's kind of an uncomfortable territory. Cause it's like, they don't really know how to live with that dissonance of like,
01:03:37
Speaker
Oh, they're our older brother and they're like God's chosen people, but they also like aren't Christian. And that's like our entire move is to make everybody Christian. And it just it feels like it's a constant floundering.
01:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what the average like evangelicals thought process is there. I think it's almost more of a cultural touch point than any sort of like, you know, strongly held conviction. It's just like, well, we stand with Israel. I mean, that's what conservatives do. I just mean the language of these websites, like the way that they like circle around the point. Part of that is because these are fake.
01:04:20
Speaker
These are nothing organizations that are just designed to pull money out of other bigger, broader organizations.
Demand for Financial Transparency in Religious Organizations
01:04:28
Speaker
It's a way to like sap funds out of people that they already are tapped out on in their other giving. But this is garbage. That's why these people can't point to anything specific that they're doing with this money that they're getting.
01:04:46
Speaker
And it's, it doesn't really matter. I don't think to the people who are giving the money or buying the t-shirts, because it's, it's literally just like, I bought this, I didn't buy this t-shirt because it's supporting Israel. I bought it because I want to show that I'm part of the club. And, you know, I kind of hope somebody confronts me about it. I hope they say something to me about, I dare them, you know, it's the same thing. I mean, everything, it's.
01:05:15
Speaker
just tribalism, I guess, but it's just so annoying to look at this like, just these cut and paste websites that say nothing, you know? Yeah. I mean, I would love to see some, some, this is why, you know, like, I feel like I'm not, you know, we've had the conversation before about like, should churches and religious organizations be taxed? And like, I don't know, I don't really, I don't really have strong opinions about that. But I kind of think that it should be
01:05:45
Speaker
the way it is, but I would like to see some like, I think they should be providing like data on where the money that they're taking from their followers is going. More heavily audited.
01:05:58
Speaker
Yeah. Like, what are you doing with all this money? Like that should be part of the deal is like, Hey, you don't have to pay taxes, but like, we need to see where you're spending this money. Right. You know, and like organizations like this and probably like most charities, I feel like you would probably be shocked to see at what they actually do with the dollars that are given to them. And it's just occasionally that one of them gets caught in a dumb enough scandal.
01:06:26
Speaker
to end up in a situation where people actually get to see some of that. But yeah, I don't know. It was hilarious to walk around in the bookstore and just see some of the ridiculous... Having spent a lot of time in Christian bookstores as a kid and that was where you went to find music and all of that stuff.
01:06:49
Speaker
It's funny to see where all of that has gone and what kind of stuff is laying around. Actually, there wasn't a ton of music. There was quite a few movies, but I don't really remember seeing much music at all.
01:07:07
Speaker
Was God's Not Dead trilogy just front and center? Oh, yeah, they had all that. Yeah. Speaking of which, there's a God's Not Dead sequel coming out. Another one. Very excited about this. God's Not Dead in God We Trust. And Sam and I are pumped about this. We're going to probably lean on our buddies at a boys Bible study, which
01:07:36
Speaker
I just listened to an episode of theirs yesterday that was hilarious, very entertaining about Jubilee. Do you know who Jubilee is? The YouTube channel? No. So they do, they do like these terrible clickbait videos that are like, it's like drama. It's like YouTube drama, you know, reality TV, but kind of billed as like, Oh, this is where, you know,
01:08:05
Speaker
We're having an intellectual meeting of the minds between these two different groups and showing how people interact and stuff. And it's just like, it's like, uh, you know, can you guess which one of these people used to be trans or something along those lines, you know, like black conservatives versus, uh, you know, um, moms for Trump or something, you know, like that kind of thing. It's just drama videos.
01:08:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, but they did one that was like fundamentalist Christians versus, you know, progressive Christians. And yeah, so those guys were talking about that there. I think Julian had this quote that cracked me up like the way that he said it.
01:08:55
Speaker
He was talking about how goofy these videos are and just the fake sense of honesty and whatnot to them. He says, as an irony poisoned individual, sincerity porn is one of the few things that genuinely entertains me. I was like, oh my God, I got to write that down. That's great.
01:09:26
Speaker
But yeah, we're gonna have to lean on those guys and figure out how we can do some sort of a watch party for guys. Yeah, because they've done shit like that before. Maybe we can do some sort of team up with them. We haven't done something with them in a while. Maybe we can do some sort of team up.
01:09:39
Speaker
Yeah, because that movie is going to suck. I can't wait. The worst slash best kind of. Yeah.
Preview of Ryan George's Upcoming Episode
01:09:51
Speaker
So yeah, I think that's it for this week. We're doing a short one this week. Cause we, uh, we actually recorded a really interesting conversation before this that we'll post next week, um, with a guy named, uh, Ryan George.
01:10:09
Speaker
who wrote a book called, Boy. And he hurt and healed by the church. A slightly different take for our typical guest. Yeah. And the elevator pitch on this guy is that
01:10:25
Speaker
Uh, he grew up in a fundamentalist Baptist church, the shiny, happy people, you know, sect of conservative Christianity and, um, learned through a podcast that his dad was, who was a pastor was a serial sexual abuser. Yeah. And it's a wild story.
01:10:49
Speaker
title wave of stuff from there, but very interesting conversation. Kind of arrived at some different conclusions than we oftentimes hear on this show, but cool guy. I liked him a lot. I thought he had a good perspective on things. I don't think I'm going to go to church, but I'm glad it's working for him.
01:11:14
Speaker
Very nice guy. A way that wasn't aggravating, you know? Exactly. He's not a prescriptive guy about it, but he's trying to do his best to create a space for people who move in that direction to have a place to be that's safe and healthy. And I approve of his message. Yeah.
01:11:36
Speaker
It's basically like a faith-based Warhammer club. You know what I mean? It's not at all. It's not at all like that. But yeah, that'll be next week. So keep an eye open for that. If you like the show, leave us a review and share it with your buddies. And don't forget that we got a Discord. The link is in our Instagram bio. So thanks everybody for listening. We will see you next time.