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Ep 189 – Pastor Morris Says NDAs Are the 6th Love Language
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This week we’re joined by Jeremiah to discuss CNN’s televised squawk match between the ultimate Boomer avatars, as well as some updates in the continuing mudslide that is Gateway Church and their recently resigned pastor, Robert Morris. More articles are popping up, more church leaders are stepping down, and as predicted, we’re finding out that this isn’t the first scandal the church has attempted to sweep under the rug… All that and more on Episode 189 of Growing Up Christian!
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Transcript
Megachurch Critique and Financial Pressures
00:00:00
Speaker
it's ah It's just a follow the money game, right? When you start paying certain people a certain amount of money and you you've built an organization and you don't have shareholders. There's never any explicit rule that says like, cover this stuff up. It's just everybody like you're protecting something that you've built that's huge. People feel this little pressure. church shouldn't be like that I think that's just the antithesis of what church should be. If you're a megachurch, that's when I hit like burn it all down mentality.
Podcast Reunion and Catch-up
00:00:31
Speaker
Well, you know, somebody, this one guy said a long time ago, it'd be easier to, uh, for camel to pass through the eye of a needle. I don't remember the rest. I feel like you had some opinions about it. That's why I still, that's why I'm not burning all down. I'm burn aspects like.
Home Maintenance Challenges
00:01:04
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Growing Up Christian. I'm Sam. I'm Casey. I'm Jeremiah. And I think it's been so it's been so long since the three of us have like actually been on this together. Jeremiah, you've been MIA, man. You've been out racing cars and doing cool shit. I mean, I guess I think it's all in physical therapy. That's right. Yeah, racing cars are going to physical therapy. Yeah, not trying to go outside as much as humanly possible um because it's at least down here in the South has hit that time of year where everything feels like a furnace. Yeah, it's probably pretty nasty down there.
00:01:37
Speaker
It is. We just, our, our porch was recently redone and it's at the point where you have to stain it. And I think about a weekend ago, I was out there staining on a Saturday and it's, it just feels like you're in an oven just being cooked the entire time. And you're really not supposed to, like, I get that you got to do what you got to do, but like the on, when you're staining, it gives you like kind of parameters for like dew point and heat, right? Yeah, it does. Yeah. I just kind of ignore all that and just. So we haven't finished it yet. We're going to have to, I had to go out and buy more. I did not realize how expensive stain is. It's going to take four gallons of stain to do the whole deck because we yeah so on it's like a couple hundred bucks of stain and doing it in the store. It's just, everything feels terrible right now. That's what I thought.
00:02:21
Speaker
but My house was built like six issues, uh, seven years ago and I never stained my decks. So now I have to do the whole like pressure, wash, duck, deck, brush, bullshit. You know, you just put off regular adult things and then you have to like spend four times as much time doing it later just because you were lazy. But I am also one of the, like when I was moving from my house in Worcester when I was selling it, I was, ah the deck was in rough shape. I bought it and the deck was in rough shape. I didn't do anything about it. And then you're moving. You're like, it'll help sell if the deck doesn't look like shit and people don't wonder if they have to redo it. So.
00:02:59
Speaker
I ended up doing the deck paint, you know, it's like get that sand in it. It kind of makes it have like that treks like ah feel. Yeah. And I did that because it was so cracked. Like that really feel like it, that stuff's good at like filling in like the cracks and making it have a much newer look. So I did that. It took me fucking forever.
Avoiding Outdoor Tasks Due to Heat
00:03:19
Speaker
I mean, it was such a big deck. I think I pressure washed it for four days straight. I took a week off from work. like pressure washed it for four days straight and then after the pressure washing kills your shoulder too like that constant like holding that trigger and like it doesn't feel like you're doing a lot of work and then you like stop pressure washing and your arm just kind of goes up on its own because you've been resisting it moving backwards for so long and then it took me just days and days of like after work painting anyway and so I thought I learned from my mistake and here I am seven years after buying a new house and
00:03:55
Speaker
I'm going to be doing the same shit again, so that sucks. But i one of my excuses is always like, well, you know, it's a little too hot. It says on the can not to do it, so I guess I won't do it. And then I'm like, busy. Everybody eventually disregards those parameters. That's up to God. Yeah. yeah God knows I have this weekend off. right i need to I need to put my stuff back out on the deck so the deck needs to get stayed. The thing I actually care about the heat for is it's too hot to like wash and wax the cars properly. So they'll just have to sit there being filthy, but the decks gotta get done. Washing a car is also something I haven't done in 10 years. oh Oh, okay. I know. I wanted to hurt you. really I um wanted that to hurt. You could hurt me worse, but what Casey just said, just go through the car wash. Which I, that's the only way I've done it, but I haven't washed
00:04:46
Speaker
We've brought our van through a car wash, but I have never hand washed my 2011 Civic. Casey, my truck has been at the dealer for just over a month waiting to get looked at. and That means it's had transmission fluids sprayed all over the underside and up the back of it for one month, sitting in the parking lot, black truck in the heat, just cooking. Like if I, I'm going to be shocked if there's still paint on the
Car Maintenance and Financial Burden
00:05:15
Speaker
tailgate. when i see and Won't be rusty. It won't be rusty. Well, it's a limit and they won't rest anyway. But I do take the truck through the car wash because it's like, it's black paint. It's a truck. It stays outside. It always looks nasty. Like, I don't know.
00:05:27
Speaker
I don't know what the problem was in the car wash. Honestly, you're this is new shit you're bringing to my attention because the brushes they I'm not going to go into the whole thing, but they they pick up grit and stuff from other cars and they're just smooshing the grit into your paint. And just like that's how you get all the swirls and stuff in your paint is how dirty the brushes are to carwash. I feel like none of my cars are nice enough to worry about grit in the brush. For for your your two jeeps, especially staying in Kansas, that's probably right. I mean, yeah, yeah it's a it's relative. you know I'm not saying you need to like you can never take a car through a car wash, but that's how it gets all of the grit and swirls and everything.
00:06:05
Speaker
Cool. Well, I can't imagine myself. I mean, like I said, my civic hasn't seen a car wash in 10 years and it hasn't been washed. Well, that's because it's an old Honda. That's how you should treat it. I would have helped a buddy diagnose his mom's van. It's a 03 Honda Odyssey. It's leaking two quarts of oil a week. That's crazy. Yes, it's pretty bad. You can see how much is dripping like the oil pan gaskets leaking. um I think the oil filter housing gaskets leaking the valve cover gaskets are leaking the intake plenum gaskets leaking like all of the gaskets are leaking.
00:06:42
Speaker
um But everything keeps working. The only thing that's not working on it is the AC compressor got drenched in oil for like years. It has quit working. But everything else, it runs like a top. The rear engine mount is so ripped up. It's like two chain links now. Like nothing's mounted anymore. It's just like a loop holding it. And so the whole engine pitches forward like four inches every time it accelerates. I feel like at that point, it's not leaking. it It's excreting. yeah it's like constantly put I mean that what they just put oil in it constantly yes like there's a frog skin yeah there's a funnel just tucked under the hood so it's like permanently ready to go like in Tommy boy when he doesn't take it out and but but it's a Honda it's a running just fine
00:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think mine's like that. i gotta to get I think I need to spend ah you know a good few hundred bucks on it in the next few weeks. But I keep being like, I was just talking to my wife about it tonight because I'm like, we don't have a lot left on our Sienna, um but we kind of like regret not getting it. like The hybrid Sienna's were a little more not available, you know, ah when we bought ours, we we needed the van. It was right after ah my foster son moved in, we just needed the van. um So we ended up with the Sienna, which we wanted. We love it. It's great. But I know it'll last forever. ah But we've already put like a shit ton of miles on it. We drive it everywhere. And we wanted to do like the hybrid. So we thought about like maybe like trading ours in and then getting a hybrid or whatever. But I'm like, I think
00:08:18
Speaker
You know, whatever we want out of the hybrid, are we'll save more money just paying this thing off than we will just in and gas, like having no car payment. Like if our car pay would have been an extra hundred bucks a month, we probably could have saved something about that much with a hybrid. But anyway, so now I'm just like, we'll just ride it out with knowing my luck. Like I want a new vehicle. I, you know, I would like something else. I would like something I want to have with the civic, but I don't want multiple car payments. And then I'm afraid like, you know, I just, I would like to just go as long as I can without a car payment. I'm more about that than having the things that I want. So, um,
00:08:56
Speaker
I, when I'm like, because I would like my car to die, that it's just that typical like, 2011 civic, it'll never die. It's just one. But because you, but if I, if I was like, I can't, if this can't happen, I need it to survive. I'm sure it would find a way to die in the next two years. I feel like that's like the car paradox. Sam walk outside. one want Well, that's just great.
00:09:24
Speaker
I've got my wife's RAV4. It's almost like we had to dump so much money into it because everything was leaking oil when we first got it. And the convertible top was ripped up. and like we So we put like way more than the purchase price of the vehicle into fixing it up. um But it's a cool little truck. It's a truck in quotes. It's a 99 RAV4 convertible two door. It has a locking center diff. It's a manual. like we I gave it a two inch lift, kind of knobby tires. like It's pretty dope. um And I've just decided I'm just so many things on. I'm just never going to maintain like the AC works as well as it ever has worked. I'm not touching it. It's had a cracked serpentine belt for a couple of years now, and the power steering makes a hideous screeching noise when you first turn it on until everything gets warmed up. And I'm just not fixing any of those things because the stupid thing will not die. It's running on the ah of the spark plugs, ignition coils. I haven't replaced any of that stuff. I've done oil changes in a battery and that's it. The stupid thing just will not quit.
00:10:23
Speaker
There you go. That's, uh, yeah, that's, I mean, it's, it's a funny thing to like, marginally complain about as I'm, as I've just done too, but all right, enough car talk. This isn't car talk. This isn't that, that was a show, right? Car talk. Yes. Yep. Nice. Uh, all right. you did I have a few things, you know, we haven't been together in a minute. Uh, a few things I've seen or been around or thought about in the past several weeks that, uh, I just want to wrap and fire off and share with you because they were fun for me ah
Nature Observations and Bird Training
00:10:57
Speaker
today even. So the first one's from today. a Hot day, about 90 degrees. Incredibly humid here. We ended up just hanging out at my in-laws pool all day. I'm sitting, it I'm just in the pool hanging out. Good timing. Like I just look into the yard a little bit. I mean, maybe
00:11:14
Speaker
20 feet from me at best. like I heard a look up just like a flapping sound and I turn my head quick and I see these like three birds just flipping the fuck out in the wind in this massive hawk just slams into the ground but completely silent. and grabs one of them. It's got some, I don't know if it was a baby bird or if it was a mouse. i don't it was a It had something in its talons and it made all the other birds just be like, just get the fuck out of there as fast as they could. And it just landed. It did like a quick left to right thing. I swear to God, it locked eyes with me and then just shot off into the sky. like I was like, locked eyes with him, it bent forward slightly and shot a big stream of white stuff all over the place.
00:12:03
Speaker
in the direction of his civic. I thought that was the coolest nature thing I've seen in a long time. I mean, this thing was massive. And to watch it come flying in and land, go, it felt like it was just smashing. It looked like it was crash-laying in the ground. It moved so fast. And it was just there. It stopped. And it started off. It was sick. I saw one swipe at a bird on our bird feeder. like uh maybe like two years ago i was just watching out the window and it just came in just lightning speed snapped at one i don't remember if it got it or not but there's this video i think we were talking about it in the discord a while back but there's this like video that goes around of a peregrine falcon hitting uh it it literally takes the head off of a duck
00:12:50
Speaker
It's, it's incredible. wow I mean, I forget what they can dive at, but it's like 200 plus miles an hour that they rather something wild. Yeah. and And like sometimes when they hit things in the air, like you watch them just like tumble and they just, they can straighten out. They're like a rail gun. They're a bird rail gun. yeah There's a video I saw a while ago. Have you seen of the guy who has, I think it's a Falcon, hunting out the window of his car. Like they're driving along and he's got the Falconers glove out the window and then like it just sees something like in the grass on the side of the highway and just takes off and nabs it and then flies right back to the moving vehicle. Oh my God. So Falconry is so sick. How great would it have been if it just flew back and dropped like a live snake into his son? It's a poisonous snake.
00:13:38
Speaker
Just think how cool would be to be a raptor there, like relative to its body size, how fast it is and how good its eyesight is and how lethal it is. Like, does it realize how cool it is? No, they have no idea. Just be glad those things aren't like don't have like a 10 foot wingspan or something. I know. They just be picking up people, small children and
Invasive Species and Local Oddities
00:13:56
Speaker
shit. Birds would be terrifying if they were big. I think we could train Falcons to assassinate people. ah Probably. You ever seen that video of him dropping the goat off the mountain? Yeah. Like, is that like a golden eagle or something? I think it's a golden eagle. Yeah. Yeah. If you could trade a golden eagle to do that to a person, like what's the, oh, okay. Me saying, what's the secret service going to do? Maybe gave my hand away a little too much. what ah What's, what's the one security going to do when like a Falcon comes dive bombing out of the sky? Like you're not going to see it until it's too late. There's nothing you can do. i Treat it like metal. Listen, I don't.
00:14:29
Speaker
put some like metal claws on its feet and shit really like make it able to slice someone up shoot I don't even know if you need that have you ever seen an osprey's claws they're not I mean the talons on those things are that's why you can't hold them without a giant ass leather glove I feel like if you could just get him to go for the artery like they That's true. Yeah, if you could get and just fly down quick and just a quick slice across the neck. That'd be the Carpy Eagles that probably pick off Biden, like mid speech, just like you've ever seen the videos of them pulling sloths off the side of a tree in the Amazon. Like it's basically the same thing. I'm pretty sure a slightly elevated step up without that yellow and black caution tape across it could.
00:15:10
Speaker
So we're trying to least do the Florida method of iguanas where they wait till like the temperature drops below like 60 and the iguanas just fall out of the trees. yeah That's sick. I didn't know that. It hit 35 and they all cold shock died. They're cold blooded, Sam. so they like They're an invasive species. When I was in Florida last year, like the boat captain was like, you can kill literally every iguana you want. like Go nuts, kill them all, please. like You want to eat them, you want to skin them, I don't care. Kill the iguanas.
00:15:43
Speaker
But when it gets cold, they like they're cold blooded, they fall out of the trees and then people can just walk around just killing them. Like playing on the ground you imagine yeah like 30 of them just follow the trees and and people just walk through just blasting each one in the face. They're so big, too. yeah like the When they get full grown, man, they're huge. Are they an invasive species because like too many people got them as pets and said they didn't want them as pets anymore and just put them outside? I feel like that's a Florida thing. No, I think they came in like from countries further south like with produce and other stuff like on ships and things. like I think they they came to Florida a long a time ago. Florida is such a mess with that kind of stuff. like it's It's crazy how many invasives they have.
00:16:27
Speaker
ah All right, my next one. So in my in the center of my town, we have this like, I've never known what this building is. It's just one of those ones that has like just so much shit in the windows. It's like UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS. It's like we can ship it all. And then it's like, you can buy boxes I would presume in, I don't know, there's just so much stuff. And he's got this truck that's parked outside of it that's just like plastered with different stickers. i don't know what I don't know what else they do. I'm like, it can't just be a business where you ship shit for people in town. but Like a UPS store? it's Yeah, but not a UPS store. like i so i had to i had I had a friend who was shipped from there before and he had ah he made a comment to me about how sometimes he's not there during his posted hours. and I was like,
00:17:17
Speaker
All right, that sounds about right. It looks like that kind of place. The open sign it never goes out. It's just always blinking open. um His hours on a Saturday was like opens at nine I get I have this rug we ordered a rug came in colors look not anything like the picture so we um we were returning it. And I don't live in an area with a lot of different, a lot of places that are, I can't just, it's very inconvenient to have to return something, um, to go to like a ship station, like UPS or FedEx or whatever. So I, like, I'll check this guy out. I get there. It's about nine 30.
00:17:55
Speaker
I go to open the door, it won't open. The open signs, of course, it's flashing. You do the little peek in, this woman gets out of the car and she's like, this is the third time I've been here and he is not here when he's supposed to be like, like, ah crazy. So I go back like the next day, I go in, I'm behind two people, it's It looks like a job lot that's going out of business, but it's only like two aisles, like two aisles of a job lot that's going out of business. um It smells like shit in there, like dog piss, dog smell, kind of whatever. I get up to the counter and I see behind it and there's like a weird like sink.
00:18:35
Speaker
Uh, in the back of it and to the left, there's this, this, it looks like it was like a porch couch for 15 years and it's like in there and he's got this massive dog laying on it. And the dog's wearing a service vest, like a service animal vest. No chance this dog is a service animal. There's no chance. Uh, I don't believe that this man trains service animals, um, because I don't believe that this man knows how to function in a society in general in order to get the service animal. You sure it's not his. Uh, it's his, oh, it's his dog. I think he just has like the service animal vest on it so he can bring it into stores and people don't say, I'm sorry, sir. This dog can't come in here. I think it's, you don't, you don't think he's like late to get to the store every day because of like a disability or something? No, no. Okay. Uh, so I, the guy, two guys in front of me, this, uh, he's shipping stuff. And you know, when you ship a package, it goes like, you have to check that box. It's like to the best of my knowledge.
00:19:33
Speaker
Everything in this box is like squared away. It's not gonna blow up and it's not acid and or Whatever nothing think liquid hair what ta has we just yeah It's not a battery you just you sign that and he goes he's just all over the place He seems pissed the guy's like he's like do I ship with UPS or FedEx and he's like I get UPS I guess is what I usually ship with it he's like Well, I didn't ask what you usually ship with. I'm wondering what you want to ship with. And he goes, UPS, man. like And he goes, well, UPS, it's going to cost you $15.30. And if you go with FedEx, it's going to be $14.90.
00:20:12
Speaker
He's like, I'm good with UPS, dude. I don't, I'm fine with UPS. 40 cents. What are we talking about? He goes, okay. He goes, I need you to raise your right hand. And he's like, what? He's like, I need you to raise your right hand. And he's like puts it up and and and he reads that statement. He goes, do you solemnly swear that the contents of this package are as accurately reported as possible? I don't think this is a solemnly swear situation. so the guy has his hand up and he's just going through he reads the entire fucking claws and The guy who's just standing there afterwards and the guys the guy at the desk is looking at the man who wants to ship shit And he's like I need you to acknowledge that this is true. I need you to say yes or no He goes yes, I solemnly swear and then he's like, okay good. And he's just like Hands up his receipt and like sends him on his way as well 100% sure that's not a real service dog
00:21:07
Speaker
i because I think that the guy might live there in the back of the front. I have an easy time believing this guy might have a service dog. and The service dog is is trained to like every 30 seconds just like tap him on the shoulder and be like, come on, man. it's it's true It's trained to sniff a package and tell you if it's cheaper to ship with FedEx or UPS. He's got batteries in there. um and Then when you look at the store and you see what he does and you like look at the services available, you just go, is is this a front for something? like Is this just a money laundering business?
00:21:48
Speaker
Probably. I don't know for sure. I know for absolute certain I will be shipping from there more often. Like I think, I don't even, his rate seemed decent considering, you know. What about that whole interaction made you want to go there more? Oh, because it's insane. Cause every time I go there, I know I'm going to have something to say to somebody. It's fun. When I go to ship something, I want to like be reasonably confident. I'm actually going to be able to ship it. Like this, this dude seems like he might have a loss rate. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and I want to be out of there as soon as possible. I was having, I was having a great time. This is why me and Casey like to live in the country and Sam was like, we're just wanting different things out of this interaction. i There's something about crazy
Costa Rica Adventures
00:22:31
Speaker
that's fun. Like I don't want to interact with people. Like if I was in, if I went to a place and I was in line and then someone in line started talking to me, I'd be like, I don't
00:22:42
Speaker
I don't know what I don't, I i don't want to, I don't want that ever. I don't want to be talked to, but like with a guy like that, there's an entertainment value where you're like, we're not pals. I don't, I just am going to go and I'm going to ship something and you're going to probably be weird about it. And I get to hold up my hand and be like, I solemnly swear. I think it's fun. I think he's a fun, eccentric kind of guy. And I will absolutely ship my next thing out of his store front hey front, an actual front, uh, his money laundering scheme, whatever he's got going on towards your local rascal. Yeah. I think he was, uh, I think he's an incredible specimen of a man.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, so we we were in Costa Rica all last week. Yeah, and um ah we had so so many interactions with people because it what a cool place amazing place loved it going back as soon as possible uh like what was your stay situation because you're the kind of person who is adventurous and will like figure your shit out or if you don't have it all figured out you'd be like yeah we'll figure it out like
00:23:59
Speaker
the opposite of me, which is like, just give me a resort. And I don't want to leave and I'm not a I'm not an adventurous person at all. So like, say you're like Instagram but stories and, and I'm like, that looks like that looks like a lot of adventure for a guy like me. yeah what Yeah. I mean, we literally, like we were talking about it on the way back, but all we did was hike and look for animals. We occasionally took a break to sleep and to eat, but most of the time that was just like a, like a, uh, protein bar or something. And then we were back at it. But like, yeah, we, I mean, every single day that we were there, we went out hiking, looking for animals the whole day. It was so much fun.
00:24:42
Speaker
Was it like guided stuff or were you just like walking out into the like woods? We did one guided thing, but then the rest of it was just like you go to parks. Like they have national parks everywhere. Okay. Like a huge percentage of the country is national parks. oh So you go there and you pick trails and stuff and then just hike, you know, and there was like public ones. And then there was also like private reserves and stuff that you could go to and you know, you pay to get in and stuff. It all costs some money, but like, it's not crazy. And, um, but we did do one guided thing. We did like a night tour, which is pretty big there.
00:25:21
Speaker
But you basically go out with a guide after dark and look for like nocturnal animals and stuff. And that was really cool. It was kind of a pedestrian version of one. I would like to try doing like a longer one that's a little more, you know, um adventurous, I guess. But dude, the there's there's so many different things there. it It's crazy. Like the plant and animal life is just like so diverse. So the first, the first place we went was up in the cloud forest, which is like this really wet, high altitude jungle, basically. So it was cooler. I mean, the warmest it probably got was like 80 degrees while we were there. And it rains a lot. It was, it's the start of the rainy season. But uh, so while we were up there, we did like a guided night tour. Uh, we went out with a guide and it
00:26:16
Speaker
We're, we're hesitant to do guided stuff a lot of times because like, you know, you get a guide that's not much fun and like that sucks. You know, our guide was really cool, but, uh, you also end up doing it with other people, which like Jeremiah just said, we avoid at all costs. Yeah, I can be awful. Yeah, and I thought it was, they ended up being, they ended up being okay. But like, we had like these three, probably college age, and it was two Americans and a French girl. And they were all three there together with some other people.
00:26:48
Speaker
And like immediately, like we walk in and we start talking and stuff. I go through and pay, pay our fees and everything. And one of the girls, like, she starts paying and she immediately like tries to question their, their pricing. She's like, what, $13? Didn't you just charge him 10? I was like, no, she charged me 13. Just pay, just, you're, you're here on vacation. Like you're an American here. on vacation, we're not going to make a stink out of $3. Okay.
00:27:21
Speaker
Just like weird things like that. I think it's partly because they were young or whatever, but at one point, like the guide, he's a local Costa Rican dude, and he has a pair of Swarovski binoculars and a Swarovski spotting scope is probably like 12 grand worth of optics that he's got with him to help you see animals. You know, one of the girls is like, can I hold your binoculars? And you you can see it was one of those moments where like he's trying to be really nice and he's trying to like, you know, not get agitated or anything, but he's like, Oh, okay. You can, you can hold them for a minute, but yeah I just want, this is $6,000 for these binoculars. Okay. You can't, you can't, you can't drop them. And I'm just like.
00:28:04
Speaker
Why did you ask that? You don't know. You don't need to use this binoculars. like just Just wait. Just wait. He's going to set it all up. It's going to be fine. Just don't touch. that But they ended up settling down, and it was it was cool. They were fine. but So we go out walking, though, and he takes us like there's banana trees everywhere. And like banana if you if you see like a banana tree, like they'll have like a cluster of bananas. And then there's a long stem that comes down and this big like bullet shaped purple thing on the end, which is like the flower blossom and it opens up, right? So he takes us out there and he's like, all right, we got to wait a minute. But, uh, you know, if after it gets dark, I'll show you what we're looking for.
00:28:46
Speaker
So we wait and stuff and then he, he brings us over to the spotting scope and he's got it set up there and everything. And he looked and there's this like super vibrant little snake that's coiled up. He came down out of the banana cluster and he's coiled up in an S position right over top of the flower. And it was an eyelash pit viper, which are super cool. You should definitely Google one if you don't know what they look like. That is so sick. But they basically sit there perched all night waiting for a bath that comes in and drinks nectar from the flower.
00:29:23
Speaker
and like that dude There is so much stuff like that there that like you can't see it all and I mean it was just I don't know how long it would take you to really get a sense of like the place but you know we went to two spots and I feel like we didn't see even a fraction of what what's there and stuff but it was so much fun setting a camera Yeah, we actually bought a camera for the trip. Oh, sweet. We have like a Sony A3, A7, A7. That's right. But a big DSLR. So we bought this like Sony, it's a RX100, but it's like... Oh yeah. Yeah, those are good. It's kind of like their top of the line, like point and shoot. And that thing's awesome. We did a lot of pictures with that. Yeah, I'd love to see your pictures when you're done with them.
Extreme Heat Comparisons
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, April's going to put them all up somewhere. How was humid was it down there? It was very humid, but heat wise, we got back to, we flew in and out of Dallas because it was a direct flight from there. And like none of the heat that we experienced there was anything like stepping off the plane at like nine zero in the morning in Dallas, just a miserable like hellhole. I had to go, I had to go up into my attic for this bathroom renovation I'm working on to pull some speaker cables.
00:30:44
Speaker
and uh so you can listen to music through speakers while you shit uh 100 i'm mean i've installed an in-wall audio system into the into the bathroom and actually my wife heard it i've never been more proud ah she listened to it for a few minutes when i was hooked up and she was like it does need a sub doesn't it i was like absolutely so i ordered some new stuff so i can i can plug a sub Now I don't have to pause Bill Maher while I shave my taint. Exactly. So I had to go up into the into the attic. And so it was on a day where it was almost a hundred degrees outside. So I brought up a like temperature and humidity meter and just stuck it and on the side of the, like up in the attic while I worked. Then I checked it and it was 119 degrees and like 11% humidity, which actually worked out great because I mean, I wasn't itchy from all the insulation because it just sweats right off.
00:31:30
Speaker
So but that's not the point of the story. So like, that's obviously horrible. um I have ah a staff member going to a conference next week in Vegas, and it's gonna be like 115 peak during the day in Vegas all week long. Yeah, Vegas in July is it's just like going to clinics, you're, you're so walking on the surface of Mercury. Have you seen like the the shots in Phoenix of like car tires, like de-laminating, sticking to the ground, if the car sits too long on the asphalt? That's nuts. I've mentioned it in Vegas in October, and i even then, I people i've heard that it was really hot last October.
00:32:13
Speaker
like it then it it cools off as soon as like the sun goes down but it's like it's like hot all day and then it's like now you're freezing because like sun's gone you're in the desert so it's like October you're going for uh when we were young yeah yeah nice yeah when I was there desert temperature swings I think it was November and it was about the same, though, like it got pretty warm during the day. Now, November it wasn't too bad, but pretty warm during the day and then nice and cold at night, which I kind of like, like if it's going to drive that so you can just wear a jacket in the evening and then, you know, down to a T-shirt in the day because I sweat so easy, like I'm going to be down to a T-shirt if it's warmer than 50 degrees. So like we had a good heat wave in mass at the towards the beginning of the summer, we had like 90s during the day, like pushing 90. But then it was ah
00:33:01
Speaker
it would just drop to like a, you know, high sixties at night. And so you could have a fan in your window and still like pull cool arid without having to like do AC. It was just nice. I have two window units and my aging HVAC system are all running the entire time trying to keep the house cool here during this heat wave. My electric bill last month was $500. That's crazy. It's shockingly not, is significantly worse than what mine has been at times when I have central air and I'll run that. But yeah. ah Anyway, that's not fun. No one gives a fuck about that. I also. Oh, and Casey, anything else to add about your trip? I don't want to interrupt. I ah i was curious to hear about it. This is the first we are hearing about it in real time.
00:33:52
Speaker
No, it was just, it was incredible. I think- That millipede made me want to kill myself, that you posted. When you put your hand near it. our millipedes There's millipedes and centipedes. And as far as I know, and I might be wrong, because I don't know shit about nature, but ah like one's typically poisonous and the other typically isn't. Is that right? Yeah, centipedes will bite you. I don't know if they're all poisonous, but there's definitely some poisonous ones out there. Some of them are supposed to have like a really rough bite. Like I don't think it's like life threatening or anything, but it's going to suck. There are like certain, sorry, go ahead, Jeremiah.
00:34:34
Speaker
ah So millipedes are not venomous, generally not venomous, and are considered non-poisonous. They do have, some have glands that can produce irritating fluids that might cause allergic reactions to people. um It kind of seems like it's, you know, maybe like a milder version of skunk spray or something they can secrete, but they're generally considered to be harmless. Yeah, there's I think some of the ones down there have like a like a toxic stuff that they secrete if they feel threatened. And they said that ah there's these, these little like raccoon guys with long noses called coates that are running around. We saw quite a few of them.
00:35:13
Speaker
They're really cute and they're kind they're just kind of like a ah ah distorted raccoon is what they look like. But um they actually like rub those. they'll They'll take those millipedes when they roll into a ball and they like rub them on their fur and it's supposed to act as like an insect repellent almost. du That shit is so fucking cool that animals figure out anything like that. I know every time I hear about like weird like weirdly specific things that animals do to accomplish a certain goal it what is it as it koala I'm probably gonna mess this up too but or the koalas right like ah they eat eucalyptus but they're eucalyptus is poisonous.
00:35:56
Speaker
Right, they've just developed an immunity to it. Yeah, they like eat their like their parents shit for a bit until they develop an immunity to do it. And then they're like, now I can eat ukulele. Like, why do they do that? Because God made a beautiful earth in six literal days. I'm sure we can find a video on Bitchute about how you should do that with your baby. Koalas are like and a lot of piss drinking videos on the internet about why that's so good. Have you seen the videos of people like using an eyedropper to put like piss in their eyes and explaining why that's awesome? I love it. oh That's a beautiful place koalas and pandas. They're both in that category of like animals. We need to just let them go extinct. We need to stop helping for real like they're
00:36:42
Speaker
They don't want to be here evolutionarily. they they tried to They keep trying to exit and we won't let them. Yeah, they've come to a genetic dead end. it's like like Pandas have to have the right song playing and be at the right stage of digestion before they can get horny. And even then, like, they need a human to jack them off to get them hard. Somebody has to mash two pandas together. Right. Like at what point does the pandas consent matters here? like
00:37:13
Speaker
like it's just It was like way too much inbreeding. It's, uh, they just reached the genetic, yeah, but it's a genetic dead end at this point. Just like, uh, Bulldogs. yeah Yeah, yeah, there's nowhere else for that to go. It's like if one more like if there's just like one more ah like ah genetic, what's the word, evolutionary generation of Bulldogs, they just won't be able to breathe. They'll just be born and suffocate to death immediately. Just start breeding a big hole in the middle of their face.
00:37:53
Speaker
You have to use drills to just get the airways open as soon as they're born. And they're like, people are like, it's so cute. We love it. They just build like a jig, a baby bulldog jig.
Political Debate and Media Critique
00:38:09
Speaker
Humans would keep that shit going, though. They would love it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They definitely push those boundaries. You'll love shuffleboard, Grandma. So did you guys watch the debate? No, I didn't. I watched the lowlights. I watched the first hour and then I was like, I got to go to bed. Like I can't. it Yeah, it's like when a car crashes in front of your house and you're like I'm gonna watch this before I go to bed like watch them clean it up and eventually you're like They're still sweeping up body parts. Like I just I need to turn in Dude watching watching the two dumbest old men on the planet argue about golf scores. Yeah, it's just Like and you're like these guys have to like these guys are gonna potentially be Negotiating like an end to the war in Ukraine
00:38:59
Speaker
See, but yes, but that's what, that's what I thought it got interesting. I was like, do it. Let's have them like put 20 bucks on their golf game, like live dirt and debate. Like, come on. Like that would, that's at least like that felt real, which is not a great thing to say, but like, I think they were actually heated up about that. thats I love it. There are more heated up about that than any foreign policy. Like, yeah, we get, there's a lot going on in the world, but the thing I'm most pissed about is that you tried to call me to the carpet on golf, dude. You have to admit, Trump had a pretty good line there. He's like, six handicap. That's the biggest lie of all. yeah well then they Did Biden say something after that? He was like, 215 pounds. doda duda du Like he started to brag and I'd like Trump's official weight. It's like, this is so petty. Like I challenge you to a game of golf, but you have to carry your own bag. I'm like, please, please do that. That would kill both of you.
00:39:52
Speaker
Right. Yeah. that's also does Does Biden carry his bag? Is he even allowed to do that as the president? You're not allowed to drive yourself places. Is he allowed to carry a golf bag? Dude, Biden's almost to the point of needing a caddy for his internal organs. it going to be pushing him around in a tank like he's going to have a crank set up. It's like horrifically painful to just look at his face at the like it. It looks like they stapled it up like he looks like it's like the it's like the after like when you see the after photos when someone's plastic surgery just finished and it's like everything's tight and pulled up and they're like I mean this is exactly what I've always wanted for my face.
00:40:35
Speaker
I want to agree with you, but I feel like if I had to wear a suit and go on TV at nine in the evening at my age, I would probably be making about the same face. and how are your eyes like how are they How are you wincing so hard, but your eyes are so wide open at the same time? That's my biggest question for you. The horrors. That's why. did you say the more money is ah horrors horrors yes or yes the The funniest ones are when like he could he's he's just like staring off into the distance and then it's like he has like a slow motion realization that he's supposed to be acting and you know, like looking active in front of the camera. Yeah. And it's just like this.
00:41:17
Speaker
mouth agape like like bugs flying in and out of his doing the Taylor Swift finds out she's winning another award at an award ceremony like that was the face he was made was like oh oh god Oh no, um because his his lot his eyes move to where he wants to look at and it takes like 30 seconds for the rest of his face to catch up. It's true. that is exactly what it is ah So it's like you see him, he's like looking directly in the camera and then you just like see his eyes shift and you just see the whites of them and then his head slowly turn to like go to where his eyes are looking. It's awful.
00:41:58
Speaker
It's like a remote control car that's like starting to lose its battery. yeah It was true. I again, I didn't watch the whole thing. I just saw the clips. I saw the golf arguing. I like just all of his response. He had that like. Well, you know what? You're wrong, man. but yeah i mean that's trust um That's Biden's basic disposition. Wasn't the first ever, I think televised debate um was John F. Kennedy, right? It was John F. Kennedy versus who?
00:42:31
Speaker
You're right. I can't think of who he was. But I think the part that was significant about it was that's why a lot of people think that's why Kennedy ended up winning was because it was the first televised debate and he looked good on television. He presented himself very professionally. He looked dignified. He looked presidential. And if you look at all the presidents that came before him, we elected some real uggos. like that were just maybe better at governing and then Kennedy was like our I'm not saying he's our first handsome president but like he was the first one where like you know his his stage presence really made that big of a difference and I thought that was significant about the debate because like yes objectively uh Biden sounded like a reanimated corpse for a good chunk of it and like maybe he did have a cold or whatever I mean I don't have a hard time believing that he sounded like he did
00:43:17
Speaker
Um, but it sucks because like what he was saying, there was plenty of stupid stuff in there, of course. Um, but he had a lot more substance, um, in the stuff he was saying, he was just mumbling it at breakneck speed at like barely above like air conditioner volume. And so there was so much stuff in there. I was like, there's actually some good points in there, but we're okay. We're just going to blaze on past them and keep going to the next thing. I mean, while Trump. Which I don't know what they had to threaten Trump with to be like, you're not allowed to swing at people. You're not allowed to scream. He kept his cool. Like, he kept his cool the whole time. He did. He, I, it hurts me to say that he did. All right.
00:43:59
Speaker
Yeah, but we're not going to give him too much credit because literally everything out of his mouth was like a lie. A lie. He doesn't live in truth. He just says whatever he thinks is helpful for him. He's keeping his cool. He's like, we had the best air that's ever existed in the history of the world. And the moderator is just like, okay, thank you. And just moves on to the next thing. I'm like, what are you doing? Every single thing like this, though, is just like a further like affirmation of what's what everybody's known from the very beginning. Like like you look at these two, and Trump's a moron, but he is like…
00:44:37
Speaker
his group his pocket of of believers champion. And they picked him. like The RNC tried to head him off. They tried to get rid of him, dismiss him, and stuff. And by sheer force of like their will, they put their guy in place. And regardless of what happens, like he's their guy. And they're going to stick with him. Biden's not anybody's guy. Like, nobody wanted Biden the first time around. They certainly don't want him now. I don't think Biden wanted Biden the first time around. Like, Biden almost seemed resigned to like, well, I guess I got to do this. Like, he tried to get peped up, but he did not seem to- I don't know. If he didn't want it the first time around, where is that the sack?
00:45:17
Speaker
I think it was just like a a feigned humbleness. I don't, whatever. i know i No, I actually don't think so. Because when um like when somebody's gearing up to run for president in four years, like Ron DeSantis, it was obvious three years out that Ron DeSantis was going to run for president, right? like You can just tell when someone's gearing up to do that. You can tell it with Hillary. like You can you could tell it with Jeb Bush. um but Biden kind of went away after Trump got into office. like He wasn't back in the public spotlight for at least a few years until he started wanting to run for president. like I actually can believe that wasn't really high on his list of things he was planning to do until the party was like, we need a good candidate. and i don't and We don't have one. and We don't have one. Because we cock blocked Bernie. like we They had a great one. He sounded like a Ron Paul fan. Be careful saying that. Nobody picked him.
00:46:06
Speaker
Nobody picked, oh nobody wanted him. He was back in the, he was in dead last in the polls for like a whole bunch of the time period. And they slowly like whittled off candidates and everybody backed out at the right time so that it was just like him versus, you know, Bernie or whatever. um I don't know. i'm I'm screwing up the timeline, but like he is a reaction. he He is a a a candidate picked by by committee, and he is everything he does. like Trump is out of his mind, but like he has the he he is like that group's favored person that they want in place. like Everything that Biden's done, he just seems like a reaction to Trumpism.
00:46:49
Speaker
And like, it just continues to be that way. And then it and then like this debate thing just falls apart and he looks like a moron on stage and stuff and like all the things that everybody knew everybody. I mean, he's been checked out for like three years at this point, like. We're basically voting on his cabinet of pregnant morons which to run the country. Which, to be fair, like I think they've they've been a fairly competent administration. like i I mean, I'm not even comparing them. Highly different. Well, without taking the time to get into the details, usually when you and I differ, then we talk about it. i Maybe we wouldn't differ that much. I was saying like definitely compared to the administration that came before them, like of which 30-some people have felity
00:47:30
Speaker
like felities on the Roosevelt. The bar's not very high right now. like it's not It's not great. and But like they if they had just a decent front man for a pretty boring, relatively competent administration, like that could work too, but he' he's not even doing that anymore. But that's also a demoralizing realization too, right? like i at the end of the day, like Trump, Biden, whatever, like they have their cabinet that's going to do the things that they do and their their influences to a certain degree. But like, ah I mean, they're present. There's obviously power that comes with that. But the hope is that a presidential candidate is
00:48:13
Speaker
uh you know when they brag at the state of the union it wasn't like they single hit like we all recognize that there's like a cabinet of people that are working behind the scenes to to make things happen and i just think what's like uh i kind of lost my train of thought actually but i think was just anyway regardless like i like we know We know at this point that we're not in any way, shape, or form pretending at all to vote for president. We're voting for a democratic cabinet that will quell potential problems while creating some other ones. which is i mean The ones that I would argue is creating is this whole like
00:48:55
Speaker
you have to do this at all costs because we intentionally fucked you so hard that you have to do it. like it's a hostage We're all in a fucking hostage situation. The Democrats did that on purpose and that is going to, I think that's going to lose in the election. I think we're all so over that. You all are like, the Kool-Aid tastes amazing. like You just have to reframe yourself. We're not hostages. like We're in the cult. We all get to be members. It's fun. They gave us like it what what the debate was in the candidates that we're dealing with. it was like if It's like watching a date the a debate between Derek Zoolander and Hansel. For real. That is kind of what it's like. Of course, hindsight's 20-20, and I would have probably thought he would have been it would have been foolish for him not to debate Trump. you know
00:49:46
Speaker
But like there was just nothing for him to gain here. Like Trump didn't win. He just lost. He lost hard. Like and all Trump had to do, like the only thing that he needed to do to pass the test was just not to seem like a totally off the rail psycho. Don't forget what you're saying mid sentence and people you'll get what you need out of it. Right. Don't, don't threaten to like exterminate any new people groups this time. Uh, you know, don't threaten to throw your opponent in jail. Like keep the threats to a bare minimum. Don't call out any white nationalist groups by name and just try to make it through the end without punching somebody. And like, I kind of sucks that like they are being judged by very different standards. They both fell pretty short of those standards, but it's still, and that's still not great. Um, I think, I think what I, I've.
00:50:39
Speaker
part of what I was saying earlier and I lost my my direction a little bit was that like I feel like when you if when you look at the two and you're like, why are these two it? like you you can You can legitimately blame like Republican voters for Trump because they put him there and they've continued to just advocate for him at every turn, no matter what happened, like because he's part of their identity at this point, right? They picked him though I you I mean, can you you can't even do that with Democratic voters like Democratic voters didn't pick Biden Like he was foisted upon everybody by the DNC, you know I do Debbie Wasserman Schultz who was like the one that got caught, you know She was the head of the DNC when they got caught, you know the emails where they were, you know actively like trying to squash Sanders's campaign, you know in favor of Hillary's like
00:51:37
Speaker
She just popped up again the other day talking about um you know perpetuating all the like nonsense about you know the systematic use of rape as a weapon in in on October 7th and stuff. I mean, this was like two weeks ago. And that that story's done. That's flown. i mean The New York Times had to redact all that stuff and everything. like But why is she still around? like She got caught actively like rigging this this primary process and stuff, and yet here she is talking about something again ahead of some organization.
00:52:13
Speaker
I think the bar for corruption ah is lowered, I guess, but like people's tolerance for it has been increased to the point where like that just doesn't really register like it used to. and I mean, I think a large part of that is the Trump years where you would see headlines on a daily basis. that were so insane after a while, like it just cauterized your nerves, to like the idea. I mean, remember Nixon stepped down because of like the appearance of scandal and like the chance that he wouldn't make it. Like that's think how far we've come from that point. Yeah, it's embarrassing. We're like it literally doesn't matter. Like Trump's name was last week popped up ah in all those Epstein papers once again. And like, of course, you know, his whole the whole side of conservatism that's been
00:52:58
Speaker
foaming at the mouth for the Epstein, uh, for anything Epstein related for years, like all of a sudden shuts up and goes quiet, like literally. And I'm, I'm, this is a legend. I'm obviously not saying we know this for sure, but ah like literally the rape of a child would not be enough for a good chunk of Trump's base to turn away. And I think that's just cauterized a lot of everyone else's tolerance for that thing for that. And other people like mild corruption feels like, Oh, well, it could play the game. Right, right, like, it whereas, you know, 30 years ago, that mild corruption would have been a massive scandal and people would have stepped down. That's because everyone thinks at like, at large, the government is so corrupt that they go, it's just like, don't hate the player hate the game now is where we're at. That's a better way. And that's, way but i was that's what fucking sucks though, because that's like not
00:53:47
Speaker
that obviously cool this whole thing was drain the swamp and it's like but so on one hand they'll hold fast to this idea that he did drain the swamp and do what he said and then you can just look at every single person that was next to him getting like getting arrested or indicted on corruption charges or felony charges including himself even though I mean he obviously they'll they'll they'll throw out all 34 felony charges but uh criminal charges sorry uh but they won't Like and then you bring up his civil suits that he's lost, you know, you bring up all this and everything is just well It's it's really not that like there's just this
00:54:27
Speaker
It at some level, they go, he's just he has to do these things to drain the swamp. But then when he's actually accused of doing those things, they go, well, he never really did them. And you're just we're just stuck in make believe land now. And I'm like, I think it's significantly worse on that side. I think the Dems are you know pulling the wool over their own eyes in a lot of ways as well. Not so much in the same ways in his I mean, you could argue corruption equally across the board. um But what area that I have never quite been on this train, but I am kind of now. um It's always frustrated me like all the attacks Trump did against the media during his, ah you know, his first presidential run and then his presidency and then, you know, the four years afterwards.
00:55:13
Speaker
I say the media, I mean like actual journalists, obviously when you have like sensationalized media that everyone would agree is like, this is just trash entertainment or whatever. But there's lots of good journalists doing actual journalism and he would attack them constantly and try to, you know, I think he's a large part of why a lot of people's faith in the media has been torn down to where it is now, where most of the time Trump was lying about them and they were being like, I'm not saying without bias, but they were being honest, at least, and you know he's just attacking them because it's not good stuff about him. But all the criticism of like, well, the media fed into the Trump pipe in 2015 and 2016 because he was good for ratings. And so they just gave him so much attention and stuff and you know they helped him become president. And I've always been a little bit skeptical about that just because like he was very newsworthy as a candidate, like you were saying, Casey, it's
00:56:03
Speaker
It's not like the establishment wanted him to be in the position that he was in. He just kept taking the spotlight over and over and over again. And so it made more sense then. But after the debate, the media coverage that both of those candidates have been getting, I do find myself like flabbergasted. I'm like, I think the mainstream media actually is like giving Trump a free pass on most of this stuff. Like they're excited for the ratings again. And that is so what it makes me so bad. But what's there to say? I mean, that's the thing, though, is like he did exactly what he did exactly what everybody expected him to do. That's just what he does every time he touches a microphone. He's like, right. So why are they still giving him so much attention? every scandal Right. But they're still like every scandalous thing he says. They're still acting just like they did back then. It's like he's playing you the entire time, like
00:56:54
Speaker
cover the fact that literally everything he says is a lie. like don't cover Don't cover both of them together like they're two equally serious candidates. like um Obviously Biden has loads of issues, but as far as the seriousness of them, you know one at least the Democrats are trying to have a functioning government that's literally not just literally like a money funnel and into Donald Trump's pockets. right like like and I'd rephrase that and maybe I'd agree with you. Well, I mean, yes, everybody wants money. I just mean, like like, Trump is so blatantly like, all the RNC's money should go to pay my legal bills. Like, it's just, it's so blatant. I knew if you rephrased it, I'd agree with you. i said That's a good thing with like, just think how far we've come that like, that's not even a scandal at this point. That's just accepted. And I get so irritated the media. I'm like, do you you guys just want the ratings again?
00:57:45
Speaker
Like this is worth doing all of this again. Yes, it is. They always only want the ratings. So I think you're thinking too highly of the media. Not all media, like actual journalists, though, actual journalists are doing it this time. And that's what's frustrating to me. Like, yeah, I don't care. Well, I'm going to push back a tiny bit. I hear what you're saying. And I mostly agree. But I also think it's worth noting that, like, for the first time, like we have like we actually have because the problem the 24-hour news cycle covering Trump constantly, giving him these boots. There's a huge problem in the way he was covered. There's a way to cover newsworthy and noteworthy things without feeding into it and giving into the ratings game. of like As long as we just keep playing this fucking motherfucker, we'll make money. like right You could honestly and objectively manage that if you chose to. But for the I think for the first time,
00:58:41
Speaker
we're seeing CNN turn their back on like Biden. And now like at post debate when they had, who, who, who did they, what was the guy who did the interview with Biden? about the debate. on abc Yeah. Was it It might've been George Stephanopoulos. He went very hard on him. Pushed on him. It was weird where it like right afterwards it seemed like they were all like kind of trying to figure out what direction to go, you know? Yeah. and It seemed like everybody was going to roll like circle the wagons around him and stuff, but the
00:59:17
Speaker
Like a bunch of the mega donors have basically said, what's the the Disney granddaughter or whatever, you know? Right. She's one of the ones that's correct got some headlines because she said that she's not donating any anymore until they replace him. Right. But I think the media is being appropriately hard on on Biden. Like I'm not taking much of an issue with that now. But like, yes, I'm I'm saying since we're in crazy town now, I'm just I'm taking the situation as it is. It's just it's. i like I don't really have as much of a problem with that. I just hate that this the fairness doctrine or whatever the fairness doctrine has been perverted to at this point, where then we have to listen to them, like grill Biden about his objectively terrible debate performance and is he actually fit to do this job. And then Trump, that meme of Trump saying like, there's 10 billion Guatemalans attacking the Lincoln Memorial right now. And they're just like,
01:00:10
Speaker
okay and they move on to the next thing it's like guys this it's what just it's such a fruitless endeavor to try to challenge him on these things stop and like then don't give him the air time that's what like you can have some principles of like he's just gonna play you every time just don't don't give him the air time he has the ability to talk to the public he doesn't that's kind of what you're saying though right about the debate is that like all of the news coverage after the debate has been pretty much just Hey, you know, Biden looked awful and he's old. No, they've but they've still also been complimentary to Trump, but like by comparison, Trump did really well. It's like, no, he didn't. He just sounded confident while he just lied nonstop the entire time. That's not doing well. That's all it takes to be in charge.
01:00:52
Speaker
right that's but you see what i'm saying like you i hear you I agree the bars on the floor and look at him this 78 year old man crossed the bar good job I think the problem is we've known that for so long he's never stopped lying he's only been a liar the people who believe it believe it the ones who like believe evidence don't and don't just do the gymnastics they need to to be like if it says that what I don't like then someone made it up and it's a conspiracy so everything always just works the way I need it to like we know that I think the problem is for all this time we we haven't wanted Biden we've had other serious candidates we've had
01:01:32
Speaker
Like, and all we've all they've done is shove down our throats that he's the guy for the job, but he can't do it. And he fucking did this debate and he can't fucking do it. And he's worthy of shit. And all of that was there. for years now. and They and like need to face those facts. i think that I think the heavy criticism that Biden's getting, it was George Stephanopoulos. I think he really pushed Biden. and i Good for him to sit there across from the president and be like, would you do a cognitive test? where do you Why do you think you failed so bad? Because
01:02:08
Speaker
Biden is constantly, in the depth and and and his administration is constantly talking about how lucid and wonderful he is. And all they've done is pump up that he is the serious candidate and he can do the job. And we watched him crash and burn. And now we have to deal with that. It's not about Trump. We've known, we know Trump and we know that no debate is going to influence any thought anyone has who loves him. But we know where Biden stands and where Now we're all just fucking running around with our tails between our legs because we're fucked. Yeah. And I think there's there's so many things, too, like that, you know, over the years you hear about, like how Biden has this like close circle of advisors and stuff. And they're the only ones that are really like in his ear. They protect him from the outside. They they're the ones running cover for him when he's fallen asleep in meetings and all of this stuff. Like he's part he's partitioned himself off.
01:03:03
Speaker
from the public in a way to protect that secret that, you know, we all, knew like you said, we all knew that he's old and he can't do it. And like the time to have this conversation was two years ago, you know, they should have had primaries this time around and stuff and they actively blocked the primary process and scooted by it. the done challenge him They're such idiots. they It's always the old trope of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. like They always try to go middle of the road wherever the road, wherever they think the road is, they want to be in the middle of it.
01:03:35
Speaker
they' like to try to make everybody happy and we're gonna win people over it's like no. The other half of the voter base thinks you're like baby eating demons like there's no point trying to be in the middle of the road like you just need to find a like mill trying to trying to pull like maybe left right leaning people over 70s their authority like they act like it's the 70s or the 90s where you can be like vaguely populist and throw out some phrases and give you a board it's like The Overton window has shifted so far on the right. like that that strategy That strategy is literally worthless. like the They need somebody like Bernie. I mean, obviously, if Bernie's too old at this point, too. But they need to just go with somebody who actually has- Right who has actual convictions that they'll stick to and is gonna piss a lot of people off but like will actually energize a large part of the base that is technically Democrats because they're you know they're left of center um but they hate Biden for most of the same reasons the right hates Biden.
01:04:38
Speaker
And you know, they're just, they're gonna, a lot of them are going to pinch their nose and vote for him because they hate Trump more. But that doesn't mean that they want to vote for Biden. And like those voters, like they're, they're just in it for spite at this point. Like that's not a good position to be in. Nobody is, well, no, no, there are people pinching their nose and voting for Trump. But I don't think he's picked up a lot of those people since the last election. Like I think he's probably lost more than he's gained. I certainly hope that might just be wishful thinking that there has to be a line somewhere. But like his core, his base hasn't gone anywhere. And it won't matter. The polling does not look good. It looks pretty bad. Blowing like now. I mean.
01:05:21
Speaker
you know the the The right thing to do would be for Biden to say, I'm going to step aside. Let's do this before the convention. The convention hasn't happened yet. It's not like he can't do that. Except for he will not do it unless he's i know forced to. it He stated emphatically that he will not and that he doesn't need to submit himself. yeah That was what he said. Only God himself could, could get him to step down. Well, when you're 81 years old, I mean, I think that's, that's a request as much as it's a dare. He's pushing the hand of God here a little bit. He's like, God, uh, only, only you could stop me. Please, please free me from my suffering. There is an arrogance in that man though, that like, it's, he's really gotten to take full advantage of the like, Oh, sweet grandpa Joe. well i Bless his heart. He's a little sleepy, you know, like.
01:06:12
Speaker
He's taken full advantage of that for the last like six years now, but like if dude if he if he insists on staying in and gets beat which it Looks like he might yeah He's gonna be hated. Yeah, and fuck this guy cuz he gets to die the year afterwards And we all have to fucking live with this shit yeah it's It's wild how you can like you can pivot your legacy at the last moment. like John McCain, I think, is a good example of that, of like very complicated history, like John McCain in politics. But towards the end, a lot of people like came around on him because he just so like violently opposed Trump the entire time because he he still had some like Republican convictions. I remember when he came in like dying of cancer, barely makes it into the chamber just to vote yeah down on that bill.
01:06:57
Speaker
like That a lot of people remember stuff like that when they're like, yeah, but he went out like, you know, that's how he went out. Biden's going to be straight to hell. Well, yes. But Biden's going to be remembered like to the exact opposite. Like Biden was it was he wasn't voting down. He was going he was saying going down. He was calling this celestial elevator. but like but but the people can remember cage for the second time in his life. all oh
01:07:29
Speaker
that was rough that's amazing um but like that's That's what he's going to be remembered for right is going to be the war, obviously being a POW and everything and then and how much of a maver, quote unquote, he was towards the end of his life. like And I'm not saying those are bad things to be remembered for, but like that those are gonna be the things that people stick around with. And like Biden, he could have been the guy who was in politics for 40 something years, got to be the vice president to the first black president. retired and like, yeah, he wouldn't have been world famous, but he would have been a pretty famous politician and no one would have anything super bad to say about him at the end of his life, right? Like he'd have a pretty inoffensive, just rode off into the sunset, yada, yada, yada. Instead, he's going to be like, whether this is totally fair to him or not, because I think the DNC is complicit as well, like he might be remembered one day as like, the guy who gave our democracy away because of toxic masculinity or something, I don't know, like, Yeah, well, people- Because of his own insecurities, he yeah he gave us back to the madman. You always hear this like that like Trump was the first president in X amount of years to not win a second term, and it's like, congratulations, Biden, you're working on being the second. Dude, did you hear that answer that he gave the- Actually, no, the first.
01:08:47
Speaker
ah no what we're Well, they asked George Stephanopoulos, I think during that interview, asked him what if if he were to lose, how does he think he would feel in January? And he's like, I feel like like I did my best. and Worked hard and didn't give up and that's what it's all about. It's like no, it's not yeah it's all about yeah This isn't a youth this isn't like ah ah a yeah um
01:09:20
Speaker
Uh, like a varsity like basketball game. It's like, Oh, well we showed up and worked our asses off and you know. Right. But, but Joe is from a generation where you actually could just show up and give it your best. And we don't let the black kids in the school to play. So it doesn't matter. And you can just show up and do your best and we win. Um, yeah, but like they need somebody, you know, a spring chicken in their fifties or something like somebody who could run circles around Trump. And then like that, that's what's so frustrating about this is it feels like obviously we are not political operatives. We don't know what we're talking about. This feels like it could be such a slam dunk. Just like call Gavin Newsom and be like, Hey, you like fighting people in debates. You're 35 years younger than the next candidate. Like get in here or Pete Buttigieg. Like it's not like they don't have capable people.
01:10:07
Speaker
who could probably, I don't know that anyone can run circles around Trump and capable and just say people and we're still in better shape, but, yes but right but like, but you know, somebody who's like young enough to like that immediately that's off the table and they could just repeat word for word, all of Biden's policies and people will be like, Oh, well I can understand what this person's saying. Like this person's awake. That works. i think that They would learn from 2008 though. Like, like nobody went in and held their nose and voted for Obama. Like, Obama was a movement. People were voting for him and they believed in what he was trying to do. And there was like, it was a banner, you know, that people were following. And like, I don't know why. They could have had it with Bernie twice. They could have had it with Bernie.
Church Scandals and Accountability
01:10:52
Speaker
But no.
01:10:53
Speaker
because Bernie doesn't like we just know like we don't have to yeah we don't have to keep harping on this but we know at the end of the day like Bernie wasn't playing the same game they were and that's when you start really seeing like the you know the cracks in the veneer right where it's like why not Bernie because he was a Democrat who would have won but why not because because this isn't about what the people want. This isn't a battle because they're trying to find they're trying to find the middle of the road and they're like, well, the middle I actually I disagree with that very strongly when it comes to burn. I think they've often tried to find the middle of the road. I think we knew Bernie was in the middle of the road. We they saw the momentum he had and they knew that it was not helpful for like that. Just the neoliberal bullshit we've been
01:11:38
Speaker
Right that's what i was trying to say was like i think they look at it and they're like well he might not appeal to all these different demographics yada yada yada like they tried to play the safe route but when once they build the road i'm thinking like they're trying to get so so oh if you don't get some people on the left like the amount i i'm still shocked. Because Bernie was essentially what any and on the right, I know would have called commie trash, you know, just pulled out all the stops, socialist, everything they would have thrown all the buzzwords. And the only thing I really ever heard anyone on the right say about him was, you know, I really disagree with him. But I, you know, I can tell he's like wants to help people. And like, I think I really respect that he's been
01:12:22
Speaker
he's he's He's been following his convictions for the past 30, 40 years. like I don't think you're around enough Republicans. I heard a lot worse stuff than that. why and That's fine, but it doesn't matter if I'm not around enough. I'm around enough to know that. I've never heard a Republican say that about a liberal person in my life. and they didn't they didn't They were clear that they didn't agree with him, but they were also very clear that they They actually showed some fucking respect for a guy that stuck to his goddamn guns. And it was like refreshing. And I think, yeah, I'm in Massachusetts. you know it's ah I think the conservative around it mostly family members, and they are, all the conservatives I'm around are die-hard Trump. They have the flags, the banners. They like they they love it. I mean, i I was listening to a conversation today from family members that I was actively not engaging the conversation with.
01:13:20
Speaker
where like it was very clear that there ah yeah Trump's going to win and someone's going to assassinate him and it's going to start a civil war. like That's the belief system that they're operating in is that like he's the one they want, they're scared of him and what he can do for this country and they're someone's going to kill him. And we have to figure out what to do next. And that's why people need their guns and they need that. It's like, it's always that spiral. And ah it's those people that didn't throw any shade at Bernie. They just were like, yeah, I mean, he's a respectable guy. I just disagree. He's like, that's insane. It's insane that he was able to get that at all, because I don't know anyone on the
01:14:00
Speaker
left in my lifetime that's ever been able to. So I don't know. I just think it's like it wasn't about middle of the road. It wasn't about what it was about. Bernie challenged the the left, the the status quo of the left of the Democrats. He hated big businesses. He wanted higher corporate tax. like he He wasn't a Neolib. So like they hated him and they he had no chance. But he's the only one. like That's the shit that could have actually pulled Republicans. like Fuck these big businesses that are ruining your small business. That's so important to conservatives.
01:14:38
Speaker
Right. The messaging is just not that difficult. It's not, and but that's the problem. That's why I disagree with you when you say like the the middle of the road, like Bernie was more middle of the road for your average fucking American than any other kid in the past 40 years. But not to what the DNC is so used to going for. Like like think look at Obama. Obama was basically like he was three shades away from being Republican. I do not mean skin tone when I said that. But like he he's about as centrist as I think a Democrat could probably get. Right. Like he he's just barely liberal. he's ah Yeah, he's a neoliberalism.
01:15:20
Speaker
But that's the type of thing that they go for because they think they'll have appeal. I'm saying Bernie is too like principled and has too many strong opinions to where I think they were like, he might get more people on the left, but we basically have those people anyway because they're not going to vote for a Republican. So you know we don't care about them as much. We care about trying to get people on the fence sitters. Meanwhile, the fence sitters had gone crazy because we elected a black guy. ah Charles did a great, that Charles McBride did a great video about this exact thing, like I don't know, a week ago or something, where if you if you haven't seen it, you should go to his page and watch it. But like he was talking about like how basically since like the 90s,
01:16:03
Speaker
Like the like Clintonian group of yeah like neoliberal thought leaders has held kind of a stranglehold over the democratic establishment. And they, you know, whether or not they're in office, they do it through fundraising and all of that kind of stuff. But like they're kind of chiefly responsible for what happened to Bernie in 2016 and stuff. And I think they're kind of the reason that we're just in this hole right now with you know, with Biden. And ah I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that like they're not going to be able to like pull support the way they need to unless they break out of that a little bit. And, you know, like somebody to go out there and talk about like the corrupting influence of corporations and stuff, you know, which none of them really want to talk about much. And I don't know. He does a really good job of summing it up. It's definitely worth going and watching it.
01:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, I will. i Now, bringing this back a little bit on topic with the name of the podcast, since we've mostly just been yelling about politics for a while. so We can do whatever we want. um I apologize. um Something that I've noticed, and i'm I'm not saying this is necessarily going to stick all the way up to election day, but I've been pleasantly surprised. um I have not seen nearly as many churches like endorsing Trump and talking positively about Trump. Now, I'm not saying about the the members of their congregations and stuff. Casey. Oh, I was just busy up again. Making friction between his hands. Yeah, I'm not saying that your average evangelical isn't still probably going to vote for Trump, but I just mean like the very like blatant, all of evangelical Christianity is lined up behind this guy. It does look like they're a little more gun-shy this time than they were last time. Let's break lock in, like... Right. Which is slightly comforting. Again, I don't know how much that'll actually matter by election day, but for where we are right now in the cycle, I was like, oh, that's... occasionally things get better. I've seen way less than I normally, than last election. Like Kenneth Copeland's not leading a prayer circle for him this time yet, you know? Yeah. Robert Morris isn't there to head the whole thing up, you know? Hey, let's see. We've talked your ears off about politics. We've also have one more update for everybody before we close out of here. But before we do that, I'm going to ask you to hit the pause button there, Casey.
01:18:24
Speaker
That's my new fetish. And we're back. in He gets a little shiver whenever I say that he went pee. And I'm happy to give it to him. So ah we a couple of weeks ago, we talked about the the scandal around Robert Morris, the pastor of Gateway Christian Church in ah in Texas. And if you missed that, and I don't know, Jeremiah, have you followed any of this story? No, no, I don't know what's going on. So they're a huge mega church. He was a very successful like pastor church plan. I mean, multi-campus church. Um, he was on Trump's like evangelical, uh, prayer circle jerk thing or whatever, you know, that he had spiritual special operations. Yeah. Yeah. He actually did a campaign event at gateway church.
01:19:17
Speaker
church in ah Fort Worth or whatever back in 2020 something. Anyways, so recently, it's come to light that he allegedly molested a 12 year old girl. Okay, friends, family, friends, daughter, they were staying at their house. This is and this was back in like 1984. Oh, okay. But he he had an ongoing, like, ah it was an an ongoing, many, many occurrences. oh i'm I'm trying not to use the word relationship. now he He molested her for like four years. And then when she was 17, she like told a friend or friend convinced her to tell her parents, big blow up. But the the father said that he wouldn't go to the police if they ah he agreed to to to back out of ministry completely.
01:20:13
Speaker
Which he did for like two years yeah and then went back to it. and Since then, like he founded Gateway Church in like 2000. He was fully restored. Yeah, he went through some pastoral counseling of some sort. you know They helped him root out the the sin. But basically, this recently came out, this- Spiritual root canal. The woman who he assaulted back in the day, she did an article with ah a journalist that's done a bunch of like reporting on Catholic Church scandals and Southern Baptist Convention stuff and told her story publicly.
01:20:49
Speaker
so In the beginning, the church backed him and stuff like that, but then very quickly, like there was nowhere to hide on this one. Like there was no denying it. She had some receipts and stuff like that. And, uh, he had to step down as pastor. They allowed him to resign rather than firing him. So, you know, very courteous of them. One of the things that's come out in the past couple of weeks here is that ah he didn't get a a severance package. So at least they didn't pay him to go away like they do so many other occurrences.
01:21:25
Speaker
but um So yeah, it's just been a big messy fallout situation. So since we last talked about it, I think three of the church elders and the ah Robert Morris, his son, I think his name's James, he was kind of like set to inherit the throne and become the senior pastor. then all The three elders and him took a a voluntary leave of absence. They're clear to say it's a temporary leave of absence, but they did that on the on the ah the advice of the independent legal counsel that they hired to conduct an investigation. But yeah, so some of that kind of stuff has gone on, but then there's also been some stuff that came out since then, just other details about what's going on. So this is- Wait, why would his son and some of the elders need to take a leave of absence? Was there more going on than the coverup of this?
01:22:21
Speaker
Of the rape from from years and years ago, or did I miss something? Okay, so There was a group of elders in the church back in the like early 2000s like 2005 to 2007 this lady ah She you know hired a legal counsel and talked to them about um recompense basically like you know hey this happened you've never faced any consequences for it i've been through years and years of therapy and like i believe that i'm entitled to compensation because of what you did to me this thing that cost you nothing you know and cost me everything okay so she didn't report she didn't talk about it publicly just recently she did this like seventeen eighteen years ago
01:23:06
Speaker
Well, but it wasn't public. It was just between her legal her her legal counsel and then this select group of elders at the church. OK, then obviously the elders did not remove him from his position because he's been the pastor up until just recently. Right. OK, I'm caught up. They. ah It was icky the way that they handled it. Like she really didn't ask for much at the time. Like when that all was the the the transcripts that she showed in the beginning, she wasn't asking for much and they tried to like whittle her down. And, um, their, their, their legal counsel argued that she was partly at fault because she was flirtatious in her behavior as a 12 year old. Oh, it's just gross. It's gross direction to go in.
01:23:53
Speaker
I'm actually the lawyer who's getting paid to make that argument.
01:23:59
Speaker
oh man What's the one the awful one that's always around whenever somebody's in a scandal. Anyways, um but yeah, so there's a group of elders that knew that this went on. Now, in the beginning, they kind of argued like, well, we didn't know what had happened. you know He told us that he had a like a moral failing, ah an extramarital affair with a young lady, but that was all he described her as. Ask some questions ask some clarifying questions. It's never helpful. It's never helpful for them to ask questions. I know.
01:24:32
Speaker
yeah and i like i' was I'm sure that woman, when she came forward to them in 2005 or whenever it was, like she probably mentioned that detail. Like yeah when you walk into the, like the, the leadership conference room, just in big block, kind of like, uh, you know, in Ted Lassa, how he puts believe above the door. They put a plausible deniability and then they smack it every time before they walk out. So basically the ones that stepped down are elders that were there from like 2005 to 2007 that would have definitely been aware of the fact that he molested a 12 year old girl and kept it quiet, kept him in leadership.
01:25:11
Speaker
Um, so they might come back. There's no, there's nothing saying that they won't reassume their position in three weeks or whatever, you know, but, um, Some transcripts came up saying, I'll just kind of read you this piece here. It says, the transcript from twenty two from September 22nd, 2005 provided to NBC by a former employee of Gateway Church shows Morris telling his victim who recently received revealed herself to be Cindy Klemeshire to quote, put a price on it when she asked to be compensated for the trauma inflicted on her. It is not a small number, Klemeshire said.
01:25:50
Speaker
He responded, money doesn't make you happy and I can understand that. So that is not what this is about. trans I'm miserable. I've been accused of molesting somebody. You think all this money is really making me feel great right now? The transcript allegedly shows Clemenshire requesting $2 million dollars at which more which point Morris hung up the phone.
01:26:14
Speaker
right He basically was like, how much will it cost to send you away? And she's like, I don't know, $2 million. dollars And he's like, bap. but that's That's so cheap. I thought it was going to be way more buddy with that. I think this was just like, a she was just ending the conversation in this particular instance because in the in the transcripts that came forward as a part of the court proceedings and stuff back then, I can't remember all the details, but it was $50,000 that she had asked for and they tried to compensate with 25,000 and she would have to sign an NDA. And she was like, no.
01:26:49
Speaker
good for her. Like, fucking good for her because so many people have taken that deal and regretted it. Now. um Also, but and NDAs don't matter when it's covering up criminal activity. What is it, even if it's past the ah like the statute of technical limitations? He's not dealing with, yeah, because right the problem the problem and challenge of this is he is it it i ah it seems apparently like it's past the statute of limitations, so like. It is. It's more about covering his ass to keep his assets. Right, it's reputational damage and everything. Yeah, so like how much you're willing to pay for that.
01:27:28
Speaker
ah He wasn't, and obviously he's seeing how well that worked out for him. I mean, at the end of the day, he was going to have to pay, and people were going to find out anyway. but so so that's kind of the robert morris news piece of this updates there. um But this is very interesting and this is more gateway church in general. Real quick, I don't know if we talked about this previously, even when it's passed the statute of limitations, a civil suit is still, is that, is this one of those situations where a civil suit can still happen? Yeah, I believe so. I mean, I think you can pretty much file a civil suit and
01:28:07
Speaker
close to any circumstance. right so aht maybe that was maybe Maybe that's the direction she's going to move in. ah Maybe you're getting to that. I don't know. so It's similar, just different situation, but just two months before Gateway Church founder Robert Morris resigned over an explosive allegation of child sex abuse, the megachurch settled a lawsuit in which at least five Gateway Church pastors and a youth leader were accused of concealing the sexual assault of a minor by another member. Whoa! The initial lawsuit was filed in Tarrant County, Texas in August 2020 on behalf of a minor identified as A.D. and her mother, who the Christian Post doesn't name in this piece. Gateway Church, Denise Edwards, and Youth Leader Logan Edwards were all named as defendants, along with Doug Vaughn and Gateway Church pastors Kelly Jones, Rebecca Wilson, Samantha Golden, Mondo Davis, and Sion Alford.
01:29:04
Speaker
The plaintiffs in but in the case were both members of Gateway and sought damages of more than 200,000, but not more than 5 million. And um this like just came out. This this article was published today. So um basically they're saying that like they settled out of court to quote, buy peace. That's what the church is saying. um But more or less, flip I thought you couldn't buy that. We all grew up in the church and I thought that was free. It's interesting how they've changed their tune. That freedom in Christ isn't so great right now, is it? like That's eternal peace, Sam. They've got a eternal peace on lock. They're a little more concerned about temporary peace, temporary, very localized peace.
01:29:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good point. I appreciate you running cover for this church. So here's what we know about this. That's the thing about being the devil's advocate. You don't get to pick sides, you know what I'm saying? I'm just here to be adored. So here's what we know about this this case. okay According to the allegations in the case prior to the sexual assault, the minor and her mother frequently attended worship services and participated in various ministries and church-sponsored functions. On or around March 14, 2018, the minor was sexually assaulted by an unnamed member at the member's personal residence.
01:30:29
Speaker
In his capacity as a youth leader at Gateway Church, defendant Logan allegedly became aware of the sexual assault through count conversations with the alleged perpetrator and other youth who attended Gateway. So it sounds like they were in an accountability circle or something and so this guy confessed to um molesting this girl. Logan went on to share the allegations with other pastors and defendants named in the lawsuit. Defendant Samantha, Sion, Kelly, Rebecca, and Mondo were all informed of the sexual assault allegations to which plaintiff Doe subjected to as being the central leadership of Gateway. Although defendants were made aware of the sexual assault all likec accusations made by plaintiff Doe, a minor, none filed a formal complaint with the necessary child protective agencies, law enforcement agencies, or even alerted plaintiff Doe's mother to the existence of the alleged assault.
01:31:26
Speaker
The lawsuit states, can you believe that? Oh, my God. Does the lawsuit mention did anything happen to? ah Was it one kid who did the assault? Well, it was a minor. I'm not making excuses for it. I'm just trying to understand. It's a minor assaulting a minor, right? I believe the person from what I can tell, it wasn't a minor that assaulted. Oh, so there's only one minor involved, the victim. Oh, OK. Um, the gateway pastors and other defendants in the case allegedly engaged in many conversations with the accused member and their parents. Okay. So we talked to the boy and his parents quite a bit, you know, trying to root out the sin or something. As soon as the miner's mother eventually learned what happened to her daughter, she filed a report with Hamilton, Hamilton city police department.
01:32:19
Speaker
The defendants who were ordained pastors of Gateway embarked on a concerted campaign to conceal, misconstrue, and discredit the assault accusations while the active criminal investigation was ongoing. Defendants encouraged other members of Gateway to ostracize the minor's mother and had her removed from the various ministries of which she had served dutifully. She was making too much trouble. She was making too much drama. that's what she That's what she's alleging is that she was basically like rooted out of the community because she made us think about you know her daughter being abused.
01:32:54
Speaker
i two i yeah got I just know I don't I don't really know what to say or have much to say I I think what's incredibly infrequently not infrequently and frequently infuriating is that like this is all somewhat par for the course Is it like we are not it's not always to this extreme degree, but the person making a stink about the problem is always the one who gets like rooted out because it's just it's so inconvenient for the organization as a whole. It doesn't matter if it's a church or a business or whatever. Like it's just that's what happens. And it I we get the church's function as businesses. But, you know, given their words and their statements of faith and their beliefs, you would you just
01:33:43
Speaker
always hope and wish that it would be better which is to me just one of those like overarching recognitions that like what they have their but they have their like Stated beliefs, but like they're just not overly impactful. It's just everything's always about protecting So frustrating though because I I grew up in a church That did not handle this type of stuff that way and I have so many critical things I could say about the church I grew up in like I'm not here to defend them on a bunch of things I mean doesn't matter cuz I'm not saying the name of the church but like but they took stuff like this Incredibly seriously, I don't understand that like a lot of churches what they think like the congregation is gonna be shocked to hear that type of thing happens like
01:34:24
Speaker
it I think everybody knows this type of stuff can happen anywhere. Churches get the bad rap because they're the ones consistently trying to cover it up. like yeah yes and Not just exclusively churches, but like they frequently are the ones trying to cover it up. But there was multiple instances in my church growing up where like you know somebody who lives in the entire nation- Everyone is trying. I feel like it this is being constantly covered up everywhere. Let's speak. Sure, sure. But I mean, churches, they they certainly seem to um they spiritually bypass the way this stuff is supposed to be handled quite a lot of the time. But like there was, you know, there was one or two people growing up who like got you know arrested for abuse of a minor or something, not not at the church, but like they were a member of the church and the church handled it very seriously each time. And then there was there was I would I feel like that is different, though. I feel like this isn't apples to apples at that point. Like it's not the same until it's a someone
01:35:17
Speaker
Are you talking to someone on staff in the church? ah Eventually, there was someone on staff who was accused of um abusing someone in the youth group. um ah The first example I was using was just to say like this this type of thing had come up in the church before and was handled very seriously. And then when it came up and it was a member of the staff, it was handled exactly the same, very seriously. like And nobody faulted the church leadership or like got all bent out of shape about like, oh, you're not giving pastor so-and-so the benefit of the doubt. like Everyone was like, yeah, seems like we should bury them under the church. like Cool. eight that that seems the prove like Pretty much everybody has that reaction of like, oh, they abused a kid? Well, thank you for taking the trash out. Who's the church thinker defending?
01:36:03
Speaker
That's usually most people's lines of like, I'm not here to entertain a conversation. If you abuse a kid, that's where, I mean, left or right, if you're going to hear someone talk about the kind of person they're going to kill, it's someone who hurt a child. And that's just across the board. That's how people feel. And I don't know what, you know, I don't know the size of the church you had or were part of as a kid. There's like 600 people. And I feel like size plays a huge part in it. Like 600 people, you're fine, but you're not a biz. You're not receiving a lot of money from people outside of just the ones showing up. You're not receiving a lot of money from the ones like you, you make it once it hits a certain point, you're no longer. This is my huge problem with mega churches in general. Um, this is my, I have a, I mean, uh, uh, uh,
01:36:56
Speaker
I think we've all done enough conversing here to know that like none of us have and at its core a bone to pick with Christianity. it's It's the way that it plays out at times. That's incredibly frustrating. but like none of us here burn it all down anti-religion people so like my issue is that like when you start it's a it's just a follow the money game right when you start paying certain people certain amount of money and you've you've built an organization and you don't have shareholders there's nothing to do.
01:37:30
Speaker
There's never an explicit rule that says, like, cover this stuff up. It's just everybody, like, it just pushes people. You're protecting something that you've built that's huge. Right. People feel this little pressure. That's what the church shouldn't be like that. I think that's just the antithesis of what church should be. If you're a megachurch, that's my, like, that's when I hit, like, burn it all down mentality. Oh, you know, somebody, this one guy said a long time ago, it'd be easier to for camel to pass through the eye of a needle. I don't remember. Oh, I feel like you had some opinions about it. That's why I still that's why I'm not burn it all down. I'm burn aspects like magnitude down. Think about like to how so this is this is part of why like if you're if you have a church, if somebody out there that's somehow listening to this show is running a church
01:38:19
Speaker
You should preemptively set up a policy on how you're going to handle situations like this because you think about how this might have played out, right? One guy figured, one guy found out about it and then he didn't know what to do. So he went to a couple other pastors. And now it's like the youth pastor initially handled it fine. and then all of them have to look at each other and decide like so which one of us calls the cops and reports jimmy from youth group you know
01:38:52
Speaker
fall out and like explaining to all these people who, you know, think about how many parents know that their daughter was on a youth retreat and this guy was driving one of the vans and stuff and all the conversations that they're going to have to have and assure it and all this stuff and yeah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they go, what what maybe we just, well, let's just, let's call his, let's call his parents and let them know what happened and tell them that we're, you know, we're trying to, we're you know, deciding how we're gonna handle it. And it just snowball, it just goes forward and it just ekes away and time goes by and pretty soon, like nobody's really even considering calling the cops anymore until, oh, the girl's mom finds out that we've all known this for however long and we had never told her, you know, and now it's a big thing. But like, yeah you should have a policy in place ah way ahead of one of these allegations where like,
01:39:46
Speaker
You know, assistant pastor so-and-so was accused of, you know, being in an inappropriate situation with the secretary or something like that. Okay, well, this is how we handle these situations. We pull the board of directors or whatever together. We we talk about this in that situation. You know, that's not a criminal situation. right You can't have people deciding on the fly like where they're going to go with this and like kind of doubt that they were in that. I'm sure that Gateway had some sort of a scenario on paper for what to do with these kind of situations. Yeah, they have a staff handbook and employee handbook and I'm i'm sure like I'm sure they already had policies. They were just being ignored. That's probably yeah, that's probably true.
01:40:31
Speaker
Again, like these are all the every every single person involved in the decision was protecting themselves. I don't care what they say or who they think they're protecting or if they want to find all the facts. Churches, they could be local, they could be big, but like at the end of the day, and if you're if your church and your function requires paying staff members, a legitimate salary that they are now dependent on for their livelihood. You've already fucked yourself. I just don't believe in. I don't believe in that at all at this point. I've seen it go south
Calls for Church Accountability
01:41:11
Speaker
so many times. I'm watching it go south and I will. ah Let's I'll do this as very ah I'm going to. You don't need to tell. Yeah.
01:41:21
Speaker
I'm watching this go south with some situations right now with someone who has been a part of my life for enough time to know that like that that that person's decision making is influenced by the salary they make to be a pastor and it's not good. And it's just, you can't pay you can't pay anyone to work at a church a full living salary and make it a full-time job. i've just Also, my own personal experience of the churches I've been involved in, the people I know have been pastors, I just don't i don't buy that it's a full-time job. I don't think you should be paid 80 grand a year for it. I think you should volunteer or you shouldn't have a fucking church. I think you could get paid a stipend.
01:42:03
Speaker
Yeah, which is it worth to fuck out? Yeah, get being paid in grounds in heaven. Exactly. Have skin in the game. Get a stipend. Cool. That's nice. That's helpful. You can do shit for a stipend, but all this, like everyone on staff makes 60, 70, 80 grand a year. The head pastor makes six figures. Get the fuck out of here. I don't care if you're 600, 400, 300 person local congregation. As soon as you're paying your pastor a salary, then Well, a lot is lost. When I ended up working for my for that same church, you know my home church, um ah is my second career job. like After I graduated school, I worked for a nonprofit and then I went and worked for them. um I was getting paid $28,000 a year to be in charge of all audio and video production, graphic design, the website, IT. t and That's a stipend, Jeremiah. You got fucked. I was i was working full time for stipend money, so don't worry. like
01:43:01
Speaker
And I've got a friend who who was a, uh, he was the youth pastor at the same church that my wife grew up in. It also in our same town. And, uh, shoot is the youth pastor. I forget what he was getting paid like 17,000 a year or something. Like you it was like, but but he was working full time as the youth pastor. So don't worry. There's plenty of medium sized churches. are stipping They just require full-time work on top of it. so Last note on this, and then I got like a ah more fun thing. um so Just the last little piece here. It says, the minor and her mother claimed they were forced to, quote, endure immense shame and embarrassment and emotional distress, unquote, by the defendants who use their influence to taint the police investigation.
01:43:41
Speaker
And then it says, in quotes, due to the weeks of active concealment by defendants, significant evidence of the alleged criminal assault was allowed to waste and degrade further hindering law enforcement's ability to accurately investigate the original assault. The lawsuit adds. So, yeah, hopefully she takes them to task because man, what a, what a mess. Now, I know, have we ever really talked about Rick Warren much? No, a little bit. he's He's come up. How can he not? Purpose-driven church, purpose-driven life, all that stuff. ah No, purpose-driven life was his first one. And then of course, you know what? Let's be, as I'll be, at least I'll be upfront about it. I think he's a hard person to talk about if because his son committed suicide.
01:44:30
Speaker
And like, he's never been a kind of person that I've thought, I don't know, you get how he commodified his message and his books and stuff, but like, I don't know, he's just someone that you don't, I've always, I always feel like when you look at the bunch as a whole, like he's not, I've never known him to be- He's no Joel Osteen. He's not Joel Osteen. Yeah, I've never known to be a bad apple. I think he commodified his shit. I even reflected back on- Fine, get the bag. I don't know if, I don't know that I, nothing about his messaging stuck out to sticks out to me from what I remember is like, because I remember a lot of messaging I got as a kid and I go, that was kind of fucked. That hit me weird. Reflecting on that. That's wild. I don't know. I don't really think of him as one of the bad actors. And then when, you know, some people did go after him in his books and stuff, I think, and then of of his, his son took his own life. And it there's just a lot of
01:45:25
Speaker
Sadness there and it just feels like someone that I like that you don't like it just was never a reason to go after I got nothing bad to say about him I don't know much about him, but like so he got in a little and we I don't know if he really actively participated in the scuffle, but he made a He made a guy mad with this tweet which I don't know how you get upset about this tweet, but he says, I'm angry and disgusted to hear of Robert Morris's sexual abuse of a child and heartbroken for Cindy Klemeshire. To sexually use a 12-year-old child, then continue it for years, is not merely an, quote, inappropriate relationship. It's a crime. Sexual child abuse is an evil punishable by by law.
01:46:08
Speaker
One can't just confess when caught and move on with no consequences. For the integrity of Christ's body, God insists, expel the wicked person out of your church, 1 Corinthians 5, 13. Perpetrators are to be publicly fired, not allowed to resign. Child abuse still enrages Jesus. ah Quotes a scripture verse, until the church realizes the soul destroying trauma of sexual abuse, the pattern will continue. K still remembers the horror of being molested in church as a little girl. Proverbs 31, 8. So solid statement. Yep. Pretty solid state. I can stand by that. Not everybody agreed. Oh my God. I like, Oh, who are these people going out of their way to take Umbridge with something like that? This guy's nuts, dude. His name is, I'd never heard of him before. His name is living a blue check Mark. Well, I guess that doesn't matter. Anyone can have a blue check. Lance wall. Now while new.
01:47:05
Speaker
W-A-L-L-N-A-U and he's a prophetic pastoral speaker or something. I don't know if he has his own church, but there's a lot of videos of him preaching to like large, large crowds. And he does claim to be a prophet. yeah Okay. um He's also a big MAGA guy. and think It's Christians moral responsibility to throw themselves into the culture war and that it's a literal reflection. It's the spiritual warfare that's happening above us between angels and demons manifested on the earthly plane between God's chosen and the evil libs.
01:47:45
Speaker
It's wild because MAGA people are the ones that almost like blew up Wayfair HQ over a rumor that they were shipping children in cabinets. But now this guy's going to take issue with what Rick Warren said. So he says, he responds to the tweet, he says, the truth about Rick Warren. His outspoken outrage is uncharacteristic for the man who prefers to avoid hot divisive topics ever since helping Obama become president. He urges his pastors to avoid Trump and electoral politics even at the moment their disengagement will cost them their nation. So why the outrage?
01:48:25
Speaker
Robert Morris was the counterpart to his position, which i i think he I don't think that was the word he was looking for. He says, people challenged him to stand like Gateway because Morris was an outspoken supporter of Trump. It agitated Rick. His sudden gush of oratory and, quote, outrage is fueled by his own personal acts, which he can now grind with justification in public. so it's really it's I don't think that had anything to do with Trump actually but it does has to play with trump your yes exactly and it ties back to our whole previous political conversation to where it's like Trump's base right it doesn't matter if
01:49:05
Speaker
Oh, this person who supported Trump got accused of molesting a child. It's being made up by the evil demonic liberal liberal party, this or that. Like, that's it. That's where we live in. And which is why, like, who are we trying to talk to? I mean, who's the media even for anymore? Like in this choose your own adventure fucking horse shit. So I see we've concocted his his page is just it's just nonsense like Ridiculous Annoying magazine and he just like goes at people on Twitter all day like just argues back and forth with people and in his blue checkmark Dude, he's got to make that shit pay for itself, you know Yeah, he is the swamp when it comes to Twitter. But I was scrolling through his page with April, we were like listening to some of the clips he had posted. And he had this one that was part of a sermon where he was talking about like, ah you know, building church and then building your community around it and basically like, you know, to protect the inner central stuff, right?
01:50:07
Speaker
Listen to this. this clip This is my favorite clip in a while. Is this the clip of Robert Morris? This is of Lance Webber now. Okay, just the guy. Okay. Family restored. Church restored. First thing, the house of God. Families. Then they then you build a perimeter around your church and your local community. To what degree are you operating on the school board? Do you even care? Well, we have a Christian school. Well, that's good for you. How about all the other heathen kids who are getting trained by Al-Qaeda?
01:50:37
Speaker
ah
01:50:41
Speaker
I didn't know Al Qaeda was still the rookie man. That was the that was the least expected. I was the least expected antagonist I was. Yeah, yeah I did. Yeah, I didn't know they were still like in the in the villains roster. The villains gallery. What's worse for a kid to be a heathen or to be getting trained by Al Qaeda? So presumably, you know, Muslim like or or Muslims heathens. Yeah, you should have said Hamas. That would have been a more relevant call. Yeah.
Podcast Wrap-up and Community Engagement
01:51:13
Speaker
Touchpoint or ISIS or. Yeah.
01:51:17
Speaker
I really thought that was going to be about the, you know, the LGBTQ community. I know he's not a fan of them. Oh, I can imagine he has some pretty awesome things to say about them, too. That was at the crux of his of his anger with Rick Warren is that he's like, oh, you're mad about, you know, a pastor molesting a little girl. But, you know, you're not mad that, you know, people are talking. Well, Biden has been sniffing him for years.
01:51:48
Speaker
It's just like all the all the things that you would think would be there are there, but that quote made me laugh so hard. Oh my God. That's fantastic. Well, ah any closing thoughts? Anybody got anything they want to add? I feel pretty good that there's not much more to say on these topics at this moment. Well, we'll all keep on praying that everybody over the age of about, let's say 62 gets raptured.
01:52:26
Speaker
We'll do that. God, the rapture would be such a blessing at this point. It sucks. It sucks knowing that it's not true and coming shortly. Like the boomers were right about our generation. So all of them get raptured and it's just us left here. Making the world we want instead of the one we inherited. Oh, what a hellscape. I mean, old millennials are, you know, like 42. I got bad news for you. Like the system got us too. It's true. It's true. It'll just take a little bit longer for you to feel the ramifications. But don't worry, we suck. That trickle down effect. I love it.
01:53:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, thanks everybody for listening. Uh, we've got, oh, we're about to have Mike Valdez back on the show. So that's going to be fun. Keep an eye out for that episode coming up and, uh, join our discord. It's the links in our Instagram bio. So come jump in there and tell us a story about ah so you your're your worst relative. That's what we would love to hear about. So everybody have a good week and we will talk to you next time.