Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 117 – Blessed Are Those Persecuted for Their Christian Remixes w/ Two For Christ
97 Plays3 years ago
Our guests this week are Nick and Haley Gaglione of Two For Christ, a husband and wife ministry team (interview starts at 29:00)! We learned about Nick and Haley thanks to you fine folks, because many of you sent us a recent viral video where they performed a Christian version of Eye of the Tiger. Nick is a Christian motivational speaker and fitness influencer that runs a page called @liftwithchrist. Haley (@haleygaglione) is a musician and performer who is half of the conservative musical duo, Camille & Haley. They’ve released many albums over the years and have drawn national attention for their music videos for songs like “Back the Blue,” “March for Life,” “Keep America Great,” and “That’s Why America Loves President Trump.” Nick and Haley join us to talk about their upbringing, Nick’s struggles with substance abuse as a young man, Haley’s musical career, and their current work as a newly married and expecting team. There’s a lot that we disagree about (and we get into some of that), but Nick and Haley are nice folks that we enjoyed talking to. You can follow them on all socials (@twoforchrist), and find out more about their upcoming events on their website: www.twoforchrist.org!
Recommended
Transcript
Transition to Faith-Based Content
00:00:00
Speaker
Okay, so you've made some political videos. You made some, now you're like getting into, you're doing more faith-based stuff. Obviously there's a lot of awful people that comment mean things and stuff like that. Not very interesting, right? But was there any people, did anybody say anything like a quip or a little comment or something that stuck out to you as like particularly funny? Yes. So a lot of people are calling me vanilla Christ.
00:00:29
Speaker
Yeah, exactly.
'Grown Up Christian' Show Introduction
00:00:51
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of Grown Up Christian. I'm Casey. I'm Jeremiah. And Sam is not here. He and his wife are splitting. What's that burger with the egg on it at Red Robin? I have no idea. The big rooster. It's not that. The Grand Robin, the Royal Robin.
00:01:16
Speaker
I think that you might be close there. I think he and his wife go to Red Robin. They oil. They order the the Royal Robin sands everything but the egg. So they just order bun and egg and then they cut it in half and eat it like a couple of old folks. It's the Royal Red Robin. That's what it's called. Oh, my God. You got it.
00:01:39
Speaker
Oh, I mean, this is great, though, because Sam's
Lighthearted Discussion on Conservative Opinions and Gun Ownership
00:01:41
Speaker
gone. So you and I can drop the facade, we can quit acting like we're woke, and we can talk about all our conservative opinions. So yeah, you just you just joined the gun podcast. This is all guns all the time right here. What new revolvers have you purchased recently? I've got a bunch of them actually.
00:02:00
Speaker
Uh, I go through phases where I like, uh, kind of fixate on something and I end up with a whole bunch of it. And then like three months, I'll just stop thinking about it all together and it'll be like it never happened. I can see the artwork on your wall behind you. Yeah.
00:02:18
Speaker
all my thrift store artwork. It actually, it does work really well. It'd work better if it was over wood paneling, like. Oh man, I should get some of that. It would really make the bestique work a lot better. I think it would be like, it would be traumatic for me though, because I'd be like back in my church basement, like at a junior church meeting, we'd be singing a, you know, onward Christian soldier or something. You guys had a gun and a buck skull on the wall in your church.
00:02:47
Speaker
Just about.
00:02:51
Speaker
Oh, my God. I do. At some point, I want to do like an episode where we get into like children's church songs that people remember that stick in their head. I was talking about this in the Discord the other day, but did you guys ever sing the happy Christian cowboy song? No, no, we never did. That was that was unique. OK, so it would go. So we had this like really old lady that taught junior church on Wednesday nights.
00:03:20
Speaker
Mrs. Langston. And she was just like this sweet old lady, just, I don't know, 1000 years old, like a month, like she, she was like when she wasn't in church, she was like in a sarcophagus or something. And she played the acoustic guitar. Oh, yeah, I was definitely picking piano.
00:03:41
Speaker
Yeah, she would like bring her guitar and she'd take it out and then she'd just start strumming away and we'd sing like the four songs that she knew every Wednesday. And one of them was, I'm a happy Christian cowboy going down that winding trail. I'm a happy Christian cowboy going home. Yee-haw. With my Bible in my saddle to help me win my battles. I'm a happy Christian cowboy going home. Yee-haw.
00:04:08
Speaker
And then there was like an extended like, yippie a, yippie ayo sort of thing. But that was my favorite.
Cowboys and Christian Nationalism
00:04:15
Speaker
And that's the only one that I remember other than Christian soldiers, which I think everybody's saying that. I'll do a, I think they did. I'll do a shameless plug for Behind the Bastards. Go listen to the episodes about John Wayne. And so you can learn how everything that you think you know about modern, like about cowboys is all right wing propaganda made up by Christian nationalists.
00:04:39
Speaker
Oh my God. So I'm reading this book right now. I don't read books, okay? So whenever you hear me say I read books or I'm reading a book, that means I'm listening to an audio book about 50% of the time. Okay, and does right now mean over the last six month period in little snippets? No, this is maybe like a week, maybe like a week and a half and I'm almost done with it. That's still a pretty good timetable. That's pretty fast.
Contrasting Cowboy Images in Literature
00:05:03
Speaker
So it's called Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Have you ever heard of this? Oh, yeah. Mm hmm. Never read it. But but I've I've read The Road and a few of his other things. He's awesome. Yeah, The Road. And then he was the like the greatest movie ever made. What is that?
00:05:20
Speaker
Uh, the great with Anton Shiger and he's got the cat. Oh, no country for old men. Okay. Yes. Why did I not? Well, I couldn't think of it. Yeah. So anyways, I'm, I'm in the middle of this, uh, this like Western novel called blood meridian and.
00:05:35
Speaker
It's more like what I imagine the West was like, just a band of sociopaths riding into a town, destroying it and then scalping people. Yeah, it's probably a lot closer. Although like a lot of the cowboys, like the actual working hands were actually like poor immigrants and stuff and not as many like rugged bearded white guys, real men, you know, out there on the range. Like it was actually like the working class has kind of always been the working class.
00:06:03
Speaker
I don't like that at all. The hats were quite as white and quite as big. Supposedly just like some poor folks rounding up cows, I don't know. And a lot of rapists, a lot of rapists.
Critique of War Narratives in Film
00:06:15
Speaker
So if you want to learn about actual pedophile, John Wayne.
00:06:21
Speaker
Oh my God, really? Well, okay. I mean, was she a little bit underage? Sure. Was he cheating on his wife with this underage girl? Yes. Did the studio buy him an apartment that she could live in near his set so that he could be cheating on his wife and his underage girl while he was making movies? Yes. All those things actually happened. Are we talking about John Wayne or John F. Kennedy?
00:06:44
Speaker
Uh, this time John Wayne, but it also works for John F. Cooney. I don't think he wishes he was underage. He dies from cancer that he gets playing Genghis Khan on a nuclear test site. And that's all a real story. So behind the bastards, John Wayne. Holy smokes. Well, I was always more of a Clint Eastwood guy.
00:07:05
Speaker
I'm sure he's the worst too, but he's still alive, so we might not find out quite as much. I think mostly Clint Eastwood's insufferable, and maybe that's just as he's gotten older and you have to listen to him have opinions about things, but he was really good at acting in those movies. I'll give him credit.
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like he's produced some good movies too. And then he's also produced some just awful movies. Well, anybody who's in movies for like 70 straight years, like you got to assume it's fine. Dude, yeah, if you okay, if if you can go back 30 years in time,
00:07:38
Speaker
And you said to a person who is a movie buff, you're like, Robert De Niro is going to suck. He's going to put out just turd after turd, where he's like, you know, the rascally grandpa next to like Zac Efron or something like that. Like nobody would believe you, but it's absolutely true. Like he hasn't made anything good in a long time.
00:07:59
Speaker
No, that's, you need to go back in time until people like, this is why you need to budget and save for retirement because like actual movie
Clint Eastwood's Career Discussion
00:08:06
Speaker
star, you know, one of the greatest actors of all time is obviously doing this for the money.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's uh Definitely the Clint Eastwood low point was when he gave that speech to the empty chair at the RNC Yeah, yeah, cuz before that I think everyone thought of him as like the gravelly old cantankerous But like, you know, man's man actor type guy and then he did that and you're like, oh, okay So you're you're an idiot just like everybody else like great now we have to listen to your opinions. Oh
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, so if you're too young to remember this part or maybe you just somehow missed it, which I don't know, you've done good so far. Don't don't even look it up. But back in like, I don't know, it would have been in the run up to like the 2012 election, maybe. Yeah, I believe it was the Republican National Convention before the 2012 election.
Questioning Military Hero Narratives
00:08:56
Speaker
Yeah. And Clint Eastwood was going to be a speaker at the RNC and he gave a speech to an empty chair as if it was Obama. And it was, it didn't work at all. It was like, it was really uncomfortable. The audience was like clearly not sure what to make of it. And it lasted way too long. And it was just like, Oh my God, this guy who, you know, you've watched in all these movies and kind of idolized or whatever, like.
00:09:26
Speaker
he's kind of turned into a fumbling idiot are you describing the speech or like his last like five or six movies because everything you said i think did you watch the mule no 85 year old however old he is Clint Eastwood like it actually the story is kind of interesting it's like a critique of the american healthcare system and whatever
00:09:46
Speaker
i believe the health care system like cuz he starts like trafficking drugs and stuff cuz he needs money as this old guy but then like he directed this movie so i'm assuming he's the one who decided he should get to have the threesome with like two young prostitutes no way yep that's really like oh i don't not to be approved here i don't know if the movie needed this clint
00:10:10
Speaker
I don't know. Maybe things were better. Was it like a geriatric sex scenes? Like, well, they, they show like taking off his Velcro shoes, like they cut away at a tasteful time. I think probably because they didn't have enough budget to pay the actresses to actually be in the scene with him.
00:10:32
Speaker
But I feel like that's his last five or six movies where like there's genuinely he has some good ideas in there and he's an old guy who's willing to be seen as an old cantankerous guy on film and like I think he actually can make some really good stuff but then there's enough of those things where you're like, oh man, come on. Didn't he also make American Sniper? That was also him, wasn't it? I think he might've.
00:10:52
Speaker
And that's all. That's a lie. If you're if you're listening to this because you're a fan of our guests, like, look, I'm sorry, just hang in there. We'll get to it. Yeah. Yeah. American Sniper was definitely nobody. Nobody that's joining this because they're a fan of our guests that are on this episode is going to be like, yeah, American Sniper. Ridiculous. You know, that's true. Well, I think it's ridiculous just from reading his book. Did you ever read Chris Kyle's book?
00:11:19
Speaker
In his own book that he presumably wrote himself, he talks about how much he likes killing people and how much he enjoyed war and how totally rad it was to go kill brown people. Like I have a hard time, even as a fairly indoctrinated college student, I came away reading that book like, yikes. Like this dude, I'm happy. Like I'm, I appreciate on one level that we have people like him in our country to go do violence to people when we need it.
00:11:48
Speaker
On the other hand, from his own words, I don't get the impression that his violence really moved the needle a whole lot for America in any way that matters. Like it really seems like you just like killing people. And thankfully, the US military was there to give him an outlet.
00:12:03
Speaker
Like, Oh my God. Yeah. It's much like the lone survivor thing. Like once it's all said and done, no one's now gonna like, no one's going to say anything bad because you know, they're fallen heroes. And so none of the facts actually matter. Like, and the facts aren't that like they're amazing or they're horrible. It's the reality is a lot grayer for all these type of things, but they just been lionized to the point where like, that's it. Clint Eastwood is going to make a movie about you. Bradley Cooper is going to play you.
Glorification of Martial Values in History
00:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, we're in this weird space where there really isn't an anti-war contingent in America anymore. No, there's this pro-war and then pro-the-troops anti-war. What does it matter? They switch places depending on who's advocating for the current conflict that we're looking at. The fact that all our wars can be done but our military budget went up again? Interesting.
00:13:02
Speaker
We just have the pro-military and the more pro-military party. And to be like, I've got family members in the military. I'm not like trying to dog the military, but it's, oh man, I am kind of tired of like the lionization of anything from the war in Iraq in film as like a big old heroes going to do big old hero stuff. When like our biggest big old hero, like in his own book is just like, yeah, as soon as I was back over there, like,
00:13:26
Speaker
getting in combat, shooting people, kicking down doors. This is amazing. I love this more than anything. I love this more than my family. I love this more than my country. Well, I don't love anything more in my country except Jesus, but I really love killing those Brown people. Anyway, like it's a disturbing book.
00:13:43
Speaker
It's weird because like, so, okay, your description initially was accurate about the other book that I've been reading slash listening to, which is The Storm of Steel by Ernst Younger. Okay. Who's like this German, he's very much like a man's man that was in World War One and was a war hero and stuff like that.
00:14:05
Speaker
Generally, like the takeaway from World War I is that it's like this horrific, unnecessarily brutal and awful conflict, you know, with no redeeming values. Like, that's usually the line that people take. Pretty much everybody on every side agrees.
00:14:20
Speaker
Ernst Younger is not like a, he's like this weird middle ground that I feel like people in society right now don't have a way to contextualize because he like fully acknowledges how awful all this stuff was. But then he kind of like views it as this like culling process that like sharpens people into, you know,
00:14:47
Speaker
Like full fledged human beings like he has like a deep respect for like martial values. You know, which we as Americans, I feel like we act like we don't respect those things until there's a conflict that we in particular like and then we're like, yeah, you know, he craved blah, blah, blah.
00:15:07
Speaker
But yeah, it's just, it's weird to hear that perspective out of somebody who was there and did it and saw the wars. Like it's one thing to read about somebody who is like glorifying war and conflict and martial values and all that stuff. Like prior to World War I, when it was all just theory and legend and like,
Nuclear Weapons and Historical Context
00:15:36
Speaker
high-minded ideals and stuff like that. It's another thing to read those things coming from someone who lived in mud and body parts and stuff like that for years. I don't know. It's just hard to really put yourself in that person's shoes and understand where they're coming from.
00:15:58
Speaker
Who knows? Maybe we'll get our chance. I mean, you and I are kind of old and fat to draft it at this point. We're definitely not going to get our chance. We're just the right age to die in a nuclear Holocaust, though. Well, that's a good thing. Everybody's that age.
00:16:14
Speaker
It's not as discriminatory as the draft. Have you ever gone on to like the nuclear detonation maps where you can like pick the size of the bomb and then do you drop it on major cities and just see like, am I good where I live? Now you live in Wichita, Kansas. So I imagine you're good for almost all of those scenarios. We have an Air Force base.
00:16:33
Speaker
Yeah, but it's like real in the middle of the country. Like it's not going to get hit first. Are you saying our planes aren't real? Is that what you're saying? No, the planes are real. I'm just saying it may not be on the top 10 targets. That's all I'm saying. Kim Jong Un's got to throw that missile a long ways to hit Wichita. Hey, they probably have already made a propaganda video where they've already hit yourself.
00:16:55
Speaker
in the hearts and minds of the North Korean people, your dad. I would love to see their depictions of how they would bomb the US. And it's just like big trap doors on a bomber opening and Kim holding a bomb out of the door and dropping.
00:17:13
Speaker
No, I've never gone on those sites. I've heard about those, but I've never actually gone on them and tried them. For you and me, it's really reassuring, because I can look and be like, oh, even with the biggest bombs that have ever been detonated, I'm so far enough away. And I'm within easy driving distance of a couple of major cities, and I'm still good. Now, it's not going to be good for everything around me. I'm not saying it's going to be great, but I'm not going to get incinerated immediately in the blast. I'm going to die in the fighting shortly afterwards.
00:17:42
Speaker
I get to die of cancer, like most fat Midwesterners. Not if you go aggressive right after, like right out of the gate. Like, you know, do you play like Warzone or Battlegrounds or anything like that? Yeah, I don't really make it very far.
Surviving Nuclear Apocalypse: A Humorous Take
00:18:00
Speaker
oh well so maybe you can relate to this you ever have a round where you're like we're just gonna land like we only have 10 minutes left before i gotta go do something we're just gonna go aggressive right from the beginning like win big lose like lose big you ever done one of those rounds yeah okay that's what you gotta do when the bomb's hit you're just like all right you gotta get the taste for human flesh out of the way immediately
00:18:19
Speaker
And then like, yeah, you're probably not going to make it for six months. So do you want to drag that out while your cancer gets worse? Or do you want to go out like a hero, like lighting your truck on fire and driving naked through the town, like screaming out the window like a legend? That's all I'm saying. Yeah. I am. I am a fan of that strategy. It's never worked out for me in video games, but maybe real life will be easier, you know?
00:18:43
Speaker
Have you ever watched videos of that giant Russian nuke that they detonated in like the 50s? Tsar bomba. Tsar bomba. Yeah. So cool. And awful. That's one of my fun trivia stories that I'd like to talk to people about about how like,
00:18:59
Speaker
You're like this too, because you're like an old history nerd. You've got those like, no, society's always been horrible stories are like, yeah, can you believe the crazy things that we used to do? I love telling people about Zara Bamba, just the idea that the Russians were like, all right, we're gonna make it this big. And then someone was like, wait, that might crack the Earth's crust. Also, it might set that atmosphere on fire.
00:19:20
Speaker
And if we do that, we're not sure how to put that out. Like if we burn all the atmosphere, we think we're all going to die. And they were like, all right, half as big. Do you want to flex your muscles or do you want to make new volcanoes?
00:19:35
Speaker
But I can just appreciate that someone was like, oh, well, okay, well, obviously that's insane. Let's scale it back to only 200 times bigger than any other BOBs we've dedicated. And let's see how that goes. And then I guess it went well enough, they did it once and they were like, yep, that was enough. And probably the person who advised against the 100 megaton or whatever version was probably like, woo. Cause didn't the shockwave go around the world like seven times or something?
00:20:00
Speaker
I don't know, it was a big one. It was a lot, it was a big boom. We were talking about, we were watching something the other day and they were talking about there's an island off the coast of Russia that had people on
Russian Military Strategy Through History
00:20:14
Speaker
it. They didn't even evacuate the people before the test and just like, it just like flattened them. Well, it's Russia. That's their strategy for a lot of things. They probably saw that as like, well, obviously they're gonna die for the glory of this nuclear bomb test.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's like Russia's military strategy in every war is like when you, it's like when you used to play Goldeneye and you're like, all right, no guns this round, only punches.
00:20:44
Speaker
And like nobody else obeys the rules. No guns, no potatoes. Only punches. We're just going to mount up human bodies until we form a wall and the invaders can't get into Russia. And it works because it's negative 35 degrees and everyone else is starving. And they're like, yeah.
00:21:04
Speaker
Like if you look at maps of how far the Germans made it into Russia, you're like, oh yeah, they had no chance. Like all of that death in the made it that far. And the Russians are like, yeah, we're just going to keep having babies. Like by the time you get back, we're going to be good to go.
00:21:20
Speaker
Human capital is something that they're very comfortable with, especially back at it. It is weird, too, when you look at all these different conflicts that Russia's been in over the past few centuries, and they always start out really bad.
00:21:37
Speaker
Like they always just start out by just like getting like a huge percentage of the population in whatever the area is just ground into hamburger meat. And then at some point, like the the rest of the population realizes like, oh, the leadership is just going to push us into this like
00:21:56
Speaker
like mulcher until like the other side gives up and so they start fighting back with like a like a heretical fury. Yeah do you think that's going to happen in Ukraine or do you think like modern society with like social media that can show people on the Russian side what's actually happening and stuff like do you think that is enough to turn the tide in something like this?
00:22:19
Speaker
Maybe. I mean, I don't know. I mean, at this point, it's like hard to even tell what's going on over there because I mean, we've been we've been hearing since the very beginning that like Russia is just getting destroyed. And they are. But the problem is they can get destroyed for a long time. A long time. Like a long time.
00:22:37
Speaker
They've already set Ukraine back like 200 years in terms of like economic development. But that's okay because the military industrial complex is just like hot diggity.
US Military Spending Critique
00:22:49
Speaker
Because if there's anything the US likes doing, it's making weapons. And if we can give them away for goodwill and we can spend military dollars at the same time, we can do this for 30 years. Like there's no bottom. We will.
00:23:02
Speaker
like, we will not pay for anything to benefit our own soldiers. And we're not giving anyone health care, but we are going to help Ukraine. But it's gonna be out of Russia. It's gonna be a golden Christmas again at Mr. Lockheed's house. Like it ever hasn't been. They were all out of Iraqi orphanages or whatever. He's like, What are we doing next? Thank goodness. Here comes a bunch of World War Two takes coming over from Russia.
00:23:34
Speaker
Just half of them breaking down on the road there.
00:23:39
Speaker
Let's hope we can use to train all of the drone pilots who maybe weren't quite sharp enough. They didn't get the good missions. We're like, all right, good. Guys, you're going to get some good practice in. Yeah, I wonder what percentage of our drone pilots are just in a Las Vegas basement stoned. I mean, we're probably using this to train AI to fly drones, if we're being honest. Probably. We're letting chat GPT work out its aggression on some human capital.
00:24:08
Speaker
Well, it keeps having to meet people from the Internet, so I'm sure it hates us all already. So that's probably a healthy outlet. We're doing this service. We're trying to prevent Skynet. We're letting the computer kill some people. But it's OK, because they're Russians. And as you just heard, it's making jokes about history. Nerds love to make jokes about Russians dying by the millions. Well, yeah, it just happens so often. Russia's czars, they enjoy it more than we do. Sam's really going to hate this if he listens to it. Yeah, he is.
00:24:39
Speaker
Anywho, so let me introduce our guests this week because this is a little different episode than we've done in the past.
Introduction to Nick and Hailey Gaglione
00:24:49
Speaker
So we we've had a lot of different kinds of guests on over the over the past couple of years. Musicians and authors and
00:25:00
Speaker
activists all sorts of different guests but most of them like even though they differ a lot kind of come from the same sort of like current viewpoint that we do in that you know a lot of them have left the the the version of evangelicalism and stuff like that that they grew up in and uh
00:25:20
Speaker
There's only like one other episode. Well, there was two other episodes where we had on people who are still like currently evangelicals in the way that like a lot of us would recognize from our from our youth and stuff like that. One of which we published was a pastor from a church in Virginia, I think, or Pennsylvania. The other which
00:25:42
Speaker
was a mega church pastor and we recorded it and we didn't publish it. It was just, it just wasn't good. It wasn't compelling. It was not something that anybody would care. Very boring. Our guests today are still very much a part of that brand of evangelicalism. They're, not only are they like still a part of the church and still like, you know, professing those types of, I keep using still. That's not a, that's not a good word for,
00:26:12
Speaker
Maybe if you can interview him a few more times, you'll get him. You can do it, Casey. I'll just break him down the way that I broke Sam down.
00:26:23
Speaker
You know, they're definitely a part of the church that we grew up with, they're evangelicals, and they're kind of like creating their own ministry. So they call themselves Two for Christ, and their names are Nick and Hailey Gaglione.
Gagliones' Ministry and Talents
00:26:41
Speaker
So Nick is a fitness enthusiast, he runs a page called Lift with Christ, and Hailey is a singer and performer,
00:26:51
Speaker
And her and her sister, prior to her and Nick getting married, they made patriotic songs. They made a lot of songs about pro-life songs. They have a song called Back the Blue. They've done a couple of Trump songs. They're real passionate about that kind of stuff.
00:27:13
Speaker
And the two of them together are kind of combining their skill sets. So Nick is kind of like motivational speaker and Haley, she does a lot of musical stuff and they're sort of like taking their act on the road and performing for religious groups and things like that. They clearly come from a very different
00:27:34
Speaker
viewpoint than Sam and I occupy and what a lot of our audience thinks, you know. And so going into this thing, we found them because there was a video going around and a bunch of you sent it to us of them doing a Christian version of Eye of the Tiger, where Nick does some freestyle rapping and Haley sings and they kind of like apologetic style change the lyrics to be a Christian in nature. And it
00:28:03
Speaker
It's fun. You know, it's great. They don't take themselves super seriously. So like to them, this is like a fun thing. And some people laugh, some of the internet got real me, you know, typical internet stuff. But going into this interview, we thought, okay, we clearly have very different viewpoints on a lot of different things. What we don't want to do is turn this into some stupid debate where we like retreat to our separate trenches and fire shots at each other about
00:28:32
Speaker
abortion or whatever else. We did get into some of those topics, some of which we disagreed on for sure. But our goal was not to like, turn this into some sort of hostile gotcha interview type of thing. We wanted to talk to these guys because we thought they were fun, you know, and and they were they're very nice people. And some of what they say you probably you probably not going to like, but
00:29:00
Speaker
They're good people, and they just come from a different viewpoint and mindset than a lot of us do. So, without further ado, here is our conversation with Two For Christ, Nick and Hailey Gaglione.
Personal Milestones: Anniversary and Pregnancy
00:29:17
Speaker
And we're back with our guests, Nick and Hailey Gaglione. How are you guys doing? Fantastic. We're in our attic, not attic, basement.
00:29:26
Speaker
The opposite of an addict. Nice. What does your banner say behind you? I think a lot of Ohio houses have basements that you found out. Yeah, that's such a northern thing. I guess it's a Kansas thing too, because otherwise, like, eventually you get swept away by a storm.
00:29:43
Speaker
Oh, you know, I'm from Oklahoma and we didn't have too much of a problem there. I mean, other cities did, but Tulsa was always pretty good. So in a moment, I should say tornado and twist. And then we would literally see a tornado about to form and it would be like back up like that.
00:30:00
Speaker
Pretty cool. Pretty cool. Just like an airbender. So first off, before we jump into things, happy anniversary, right? Oh, yes. Almost. Thank you. On Valentine's Day, that's next week. Nice. One year? On what? Is it one year, right? Yes, one year. And I don't know if you saw that we were pregnant. Could you see that announcement?
00:30:30
Speaker
I think I caught that on the, because you mentioned that on the interview. You can let him tell us. He's his homework. Yeah, he does. He turned out to gender on Valentine's Day. It just happened to be that was the earliest they could do it.
00:30:41
Speaker
It's actually less homework in case he's a little bit of a stalker, so you might actually still be hearing some of this after we're done here, too. It's just a matter of who gets caught. If you have a social media, you're a stalker. As long as you don't hit the double tap with your thumb, you're good. As long as you don't find yourself parked outside people's windows at night, I think we're in the clear. Who at this point hasn't crept around on someone they hate social media?
00:31:10
Speaker
Oh. Like, everybody's done it, right? Yeah. He's like, show up to my house, you know, trying to gather info, you know what I mean? It's all good. It's what social media is for. I mean, the most people looked at him, right?
00:31:24
Speaker
Speaking of that, he was watching that, uh, the predator show was his name, Hanson, Chris Hanson. Oh yeah. And it was all these guys that are like older and they're meeting 13 year olds. And then, you know, they have an actress who is not, he's probably probably probably 18, not 13, but she's like, huh, I'm really nervous and stuff. And then as soon as each wants to give her a hug, she leaves and then Chris comes out and says, hi, I got a show and you you're in trouble, you know, whatever. So it is great to see some of these guys. And then they're like, what's wrong with that? I'm just asked her questions, you know, and it's like, they're super inappropriate questions.
00:31:54
Speaker
Yeah, they don't know what to do. It's kind of crazy. Crazy world out there. Always such terrible lies, too. Oh, yeah. Every time. The lies are so fun. I want to hang out. Like I was just delivering McDonald's. She wanted a Happy Meal, and I thought it was fine if I brought it over. Yeah, I'm happy. I just figured it was better for her to buy alcohol from me than, you know, somebody else. Someone's clearly crazy.
00:32:24
Speaker
We stumbled across your video where you guys did the Christian rendition of Eye of the Tiger.
Viral Parody Takedown and Reactions
00:32:31
Speaker
Is that like your smash hit so far? That seemed like it went pretty viral.
00:32:37
Speaker
Well, um, you know, it did, but because it is not our original song, it got taken down. I don't know if you saw that, but all the parody videos are like, you know, the reaction videos are still up because that's like protected, but our video is not a pic. It's not funny. It's not. Well, it is funny, but it's not like supposed to be funny. Like we weren't. Okay. So crazy. I actually thought parody was acceptable.
00:33:03
Speaker
No, it is. But while our video, while people did laugh at it, the lyrics are not made in a funny way necessarily. It's not supposed to make you laugh, even though we did it for fun. So that's the line for parody, huh? It's not just like changing it for a different. I actually never really would have thought much about that. So that's interesting to learn a lot of the same lyrics, especially the title of the song.
00:33:27
Speaker
Instead of like I have a savior or like some people are saying you wanted to do this or that we just kept I the tiger because I'm like You know, we'll just change as minimal words as possible because like people like the original song
00:33:37
Speaker
he doesn't sing. So I was like, okay, let's maybe you could do a rap or something like that. And I think that's a huge thing about what rock the boat is the original does not have rapping. So, and then he comes in, he's just like super excited. It's our first main event that we, the first big event that we had ever done. So that was August of last year, August 17th. So it was a really good time, but yeah. Yeah, they get lame with anything involving music, it seems like.
00:34:04
Speaker
I guess. We actually do have an original song slash rap coming up pretty soon. We have it written, we just need to get it recorded. Oh yeah? Yeah, it actually has some of the same. See, I'm trying to think of what a good candidate for that would be. Maybe not Stairway to Heaven. What's the one with the guy with the Satan shoes that everybody hated for her? Lil Nas. Lil Nas. Lil Nas X. Yeah, I definitely don't know any of his music.
00:34:33
Speaker
We're probably going to start not doing parodies just because it's, you know, some people may be okay with it, but survivor is not. So, you know, survivor, like the song survivor is the band that did eye of the tiger. Oh, so that was lost on me. What do you say?
00:34:53
Speaker
I don't know how that was lost on me. I immediately went to Destiny's Child. Thought we were really going to kick it old school with some Destiny's Child is what I was hoping we were going with. Oh, funny. No, but he's always liked the Rocky movies. He's literally wearing the Rocky necklace right now. And, you know, that's a theme song of the series. So I was like, let's just let's do I have a tiger. That's a good song.
00:35:17
Speaker
So, uh, your events. So like, it sounds like you guys have kind of complimentary skill sets where like, Haley, you do a lot of singing, a lot of the music side of things. And then Nick, you're doing some speaking, some motivational Christian oriented type stuff. Like what kind of things are you tackling in your, uh, presentations that you're doing?
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, so for me, I am so blip with Christ, you know, hence the name of my company.
Nick's Transformation Through Faith
00:35:45
Speaker
It was inspired by how I became a reborn Christian. So I used to be addicted to painkillers really bad at the height of my addiction. I was doing over 200 milligrams of oxycodone a day. And I felt that the Lord healed me from my addiction. And I turned that addiction from drugs into fitness.
00:36:00
Speaker
And for me, that's how I really found Christ and started that relationship with him. So through my testimony, I want to help people, you know, get off of drugs because I know I could do it through Christ. And for me, I think your body's a temple of the Holy Spirit. And if you could, you know, stay strict to your diet and you can go to the gym every day, you can accomplish a lot of things in life. You know, so if you can inspire people to go to the gym or just find that outlet that isn't drugs or drinking or partying,
00:36:30
Speaker
My biggest thing for me is just trying to lead people to the Lord in a sort of unique and different way. So at the end of the day, I feel like my genre as younger men, I feel like resonate more with me. And just trying to guide as many people as possible to Christ just through sharing testimonies and whatnot.
00:36:51
Speaker
Do you ever, when you're lifting, like, you know, people listen to metal or, you know, they'll watch like an action movie or something while they're on the treadmill and stuff. Do you ever think about just like beating the Sackler family to death? The Sackler family? Who is it?
00:37:07
Speaker
they were the, they're the Oxycontin people. Oh, no, I, you know, I just, for me, I'm a pretty positive person. So it's my own fault. I'm the one who went out and bought, bought him, you know what I'm saying? So I mean, like, I can't blame other people for my own mistake. Like I was prescribed the painkillers from my personally like that route best.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, you know, at the same time, if I didn't go through that, I wouldn't be the person who I am today. You know, so it's just, everybody, if it's not oxycodone, everybody, you can find different vices. Everybody has their weakness. You know what I mean? So I mean, through it, when you're able to slay that beast, you know, just like how David slayed Goliath, like you're able to tackle something that you thought that was so hard. You know, you can, you can like, wow, I can accomplish so much more. Whenever I'm having like a down day or not one of my best days,
00:37:56
Speaker
I reflect one of my days when I was on the detox center, just like trembling and just like having like tremors and like twitching. It's like, you know, today ain't that bad. If I went through that, like this is a piece of cake. You know what I mean? So I just try to learn from every life experience, good and bad. That's honestly, that's pretty well. You're a pretty young guy, right? How old are you? 27. 27. So how long, when was this? That you like were already, that you went through the detox center and stuff? Years ago. Yeah. 17 through 19. Wow.
00:38:24
Speaker
surgery was I was a junior in high school. And my last surgery was my first year in college. Okay, so you were prescribed these. And that's where the whole thing kicked off. You were talking surgery. Yeah, because I was prescribed the Sacklers Casey was right. I was right. Yeah, so it's getting getting prescribed them. And then because I built up a tolerance, I just naturally have like a high metabolism, you know, so my tolerance for them kept increasing.
00:38:51
Speaker
Right? And then I knew people that I could get them from that, oh, I, one person approached me one time in high school and I was just like, oh, no way. And then once I was like, my tolerance was getting up, I was like, I might reach out to that dude. You know what I mean? So I just, it just escalated. And at the height of my addiction, I was doing over 200 milligrams of oxycodone a day. And I thought it was justified because I'm like, well, if a doctor's giving this to me, it should be fine for me to take, you know? And I'm a 17, 18 year old kid.
00:39:18
Speaker
going through this. So I don't know any better. And I was just so accustomed to taking them that it was almost like breathing in a sense, you know, you, I needed to have oxycodone that day in order for me to function like a normal person, oxycodone oxygen. Keep you in the 200 milligrams tonight. So I just did a quick Google search because I don't know that a lot of people know I didn't. So I had to look it up.
00:39:42
Speaker
And I assume I'm smarter than most people, so other people probably don't know it. And nine milligrams every 12 hours with food is like the general doctor prescribed dose. And then it says usually not more than
00:39:55
Speaker
Uh, yeah, nine milligrams every 12 hours. So yeah. Uh, two hundreds a lot. Uh, it sounds like with those recommendations. So I think at some point they started making like Oxycontin pacifiers and stuff. They got real wild with it. Did you, uh, so did you know other people like was when you were in the middle of that, like, did you know other people that were going through the same thing or was that something that was kind of like, uh, was that a secret that you were sort of barren on your own?
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was definitely a secret. Like it was just, and the thing is I naturally have a pretty bubbly personality. So when I was in high school, I could play it off so well. And if I did something goofy, this is like, Oh, that's just gags being gags. You know what I mean? Cause I was just, especially in high school, like I didn't care. You know, I cared more about making my friends laugh than getting good grades when I was in high school, you know? So I was just something that I kept to myself. And I just, people, most people in high school were either drinking or doing marijuana.
Balancing Ministry and Family
00:40:52
Speaker
And my advice was painkillers. So I really didn't know anybody else that had the same addiction or problem that I did. So it was just sort of me and my own little island. I just tried to figure things out for myself. Were you in a Christian environment at that time? Oh, no. So I went to a private school up through seventh grade. And then eighth grade, I switched. I knew I had to be private school when you said there was a kid who was selling pills. It's always private school kids who have
00:41:19
Speaker
they got it when he went through his addiction it was actually in high school so it's as you would expect from from a public school now I never been to public school but he went to Christian through seventh grade and then eighth grade he went yeah eighth grade was when I started going to public school so it was eighth grade
00:41:37
Speaker
So the dirty, rotten heathens. Growing up in a Christian school, never went to anywhere besides Christian and homeschool. There were kids in, in my school that did a lot of drugs too. And you know, doing all kinds of different stuff. Yeah. I don't think drugs discriminate in general. I think drugs pretty, that levels the playing field when it comes to people thinking they're
00:41:58
Speaker
All doing all right. I shout out homeschoolers. I was I'm a fellow homeschooler. I let's buy pills from his mom. Yeah, I did I The only pills I got were the ones I took from my parents medicine cabinet I didn't do that
00:42:14
Speaker
When I've spoken at like AA meetings or when I've spoken to like past addicts, most of them are actually Christians. They found Christ through their addiction, you know? So like, at least for me through like the circles of people that I was with, most of them, you know, that around the other side actually are Christians compared to like atheists or different other religions, you know? So at least that's at least what I've seen through my own walks of life and people I've interacted with.
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of a central tenet of like AA and things like that, right? Like a belief in a higher power and something bigger than yourself. Yeah. Did you guys both grow up Christian? I'm just guessing because growing up Christian is the name. Yeah, sure did. I was a Christian school kid. So what kind of Christian school did you go to? I don't know. It was a non-denomination, but we are charismatic. We were raised that way in our church anyway.
00:43:04
Speaker
Okay, we believe in speaking in tongues and healing and all that kind of stuff. And I was at school through seventh grade. So not Christian. Gotcha. Do you remember what kind of curriculum you guys use that your school
00:43:21
Speaker
curriculum. There's like a few different brands of like Christian school curriculum. Like mine was accelerated Christian education was like the books and stuff that we used. I don't know if there was like a franchise one that you guys used. You know, I don't know about from school, but in homeschool, I think it was like maybe a Becca or we're getting that. That's a big one. Which one has the yellow English books and the green science, the blue?
00:43:50
Speaker
English, that's A-C-E. A-C-E? Had the little, yeah, that was what I went to. It has little comic strips with the little Christian kids in them. Maybe that's what it was. I don't recognize that name, but maybe that, um, that's probably it. We kind of switched between. It was forgettable. I had a computer one and I had written ones. I let the computer one better. Written ones are just, I don't know, it's, and there's eight of us. So it was very hard for my mom to like take care of, you know, make great each kid's stuff. So.
00:44:17
Speaker
Sometimes I had a greater own stuff, but anyway. Always. You were a straight A student then, weren't you? No, I was not a straight A student, only in English. And math, I barely graduated because I was not doing well in math. I think I... You need a D to pass, I think. Is that right? You need a D?
00:44:36
Speaker
At least you can get at least one, I think. I think my transcripts were mostly entirely made up. So I'm not exactly the right person to ask here. Isn't that he's a super math guy and I'm a super English. So you might even catch me in this interview saying, Nick, don't say have overcame, say have overcome, you know, or whatever this and that. I prefer come. Yeah. Okay. So Haley, you grew up like
00:45:04
Speaker
Very conservative Christian, like you're holy. I think I heard you say you got saved at a pretty young age, right? Well, you're old. Nice. Okay. So would, would you say that you were like pretty devout, like all, I mean your whole life, did you have a point at which you like, uh,
00:45:22
Speaker
I don't want to say like we're less so or like you – everybody kind of has like these weird turning points in their life and in their faith where they're like – went to summer camp and you're like, I'm recommitting my life to Christ. Did you have that? Was it an ebb and flow sort of thing?
00:45:38
Speaker
I did not have that. And I also didn't have like a backsliding stage either. I didn't give my parents a lot of trouble. But his moment was when he got off drugs. You know, it's hard to say since I did get saved at such a young age. I didn't always think that I would go to church until I was like 18 or something like that. My dad was like, would you go to church if I wasn't telling you to go? Because under my roof, everyone goes to church.
00:46:08
Speaker
And I was like, I don't know, you know, and he's like, okay, you know, to figure that out, whatever. And I thought about it and I was like, I, I would, I still would because it's, it's a good thing. It's always made sense. And Bible says, do not forsake the gathering together of the saints. So I was like, yeah, I think I will. So yeah, we do. Well, I got saved at six. So you have two years on me. Um, even for two years longer than I was, but, and probably a lot more than two years, depending on
00:46:35
Speaker
when you track my exodus from my inherited faith. But so maybe we're looking at like 20 years at this. It's hard to put my finger on it now. Sam still calls himself a Christian, but nobody considers him. But Christians don't. So I've just kind of stopped even trying. I was like, fuck it. I guess we're over that. It's not working. No, it's like generally you get pushback. So it's like,
00:47:02
Speaker
or I have to explain myself for too long and it just becomes easier to be like, whatever you will think I am is what I am to you. So we'll just, we'll resign to that. We're all raised Christian, but two of my brothers say they're atheist. I don't know if they really are or just say it's convenient to be or, you know, I'm not sure, but I know that they, the Bible says that you, if you are, if you're trying to child in the way they should go when they're old, they won't depart from it. So your parents failed.
00:47:30
Speaker
Um, you know, just like anybody else. Um, but everyone, mine, mine did too. I think most do. I, I always find that funny cause there's like this, there's also, uh, it says like it talked when the few passes where it talks about like, um,
00:47:47
Speaker
Uh, prerequisites for being like in leadership, like a pastor or something. I don't even, maybe it's relegated to deacons as well, but it's like that same applies. Like, well, if you can't, if you can't keep your own kids in the fold, then how are you going to rate, like have been be responsible for an entire flock. And that one is seen super clear in the Bible. And I see so many pastors with kids who go fuck this and then take off and then
00:48:14
Speaker
They still get to be pastors. I've always found that one super interesting. Do you mean they still go on to be pastors later? No, like the pastors aren't fired for their kids. Because I knew someone who went to a church whose pastor was fired because their kid defected from the faith. And I was like, that's actually a really solid level of biblical literalism. I don't respect the outcome, but I appreciate your commitment to the cause.
00:48:40
Speaker
Wow. Well, I think a lot of times in the ministry, um, it's hard to have time for your kids or to say it's, it can be difficult to make, to make time, you know, because everybody else is calling for you. Everyone else needs you. And it's calling in the middle of the night. My dad was a pastor for seven years and he'd get late night calls that he would be ministering to people. So, you know, when you have people that are really pulling at you for help, then it's easy to
00:49:04
Speaker
help them first before your own kids. And your kids are not always asking you for help either. You know, yeah, it's not super, it's not very fair to like, I don't know, people as a, you know, they get to, they come of age and they have periods where they come and go and it just
00:49:20
Speaker
I mean, everybody goes a little different direction to end up at the point at which they feel like they are in control of what they believe. And they've made those choices for themselves. And it's really not fair to blame parents for that sort of thing. I really don't think so. I hope that came across as a joke. Oh, no, totally. The whole thing about Christianity, I think, is God gave us a choice. I mean, he could have made us robots and said, you have to worship me. You have to be a Christian.
00:49:49
Speaker
But the fact that we don't have to be makes it more beautiful when we choose to be. That's my opinion, you know what I mean? Because he or else he wouldn't have put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, right? Because that was tempting, this snake was in the garden. So because of that, they had a choice to disobey God, you know, and unfortunate for all of us. You're not a Calvinist. I am not a Calvinist. But what is that? You're not a Calvinist, are you?
00:50:14
Speaker
because that wouldn't bode well for your guys. Oh, man, I am very familiar with Calvinists and with all I respect their the fact that they, they defend the faith, you know, but I, I just love the Christians. No.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah, I would say for the people I've interacted with on social media after the eye of the tiger, I'd say most of the comments that I got were from them, like just on their opinions of it. Well, I think a lot of atheists saw it too. We had a lot of atheist comments and some people said now I'm an atheist because of this video. That was easy. Well, it's not on you guys.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's not as interesting. We hadn't ever seen so many atheists rolling at one place before because my sister and I have a couple viral videos and I don't know both of them were political videos and so maybe they're just people that didn't support our stance, but not necessarily atheists, but you just never know. You just never know.
00:51:13
Speaker
Well, politics is the true religion. So it's brought people out more than you could. That's why that shit goes viral. That's why people come out to respond to it. Doesn't matter what side it's on. It's like I think nothing makes people want to troll other people on the Internet more than differences of political opinion more than Calvinists.
00:51:37
Speaker
Oh, for sure. Yeah, we will never all agree. But it's become more of a spiritual matter as the sides have gone so different ways, you know? Like, I believe that the Bible stands more as a Republican conservative side. You know, we're pro-life and believe in gun rights and, you know, just regular human rights, you know, all that kind of stuff, so.
00:52:05
Speaker
I support those gun rights. It's like one of the only episodes I've ever done where I don't have a gun hanging over my head. Oh, really? Part of my set piece, but I'm here at the stupid Hampton Inn this week.
00:52:20
Speaker
And they just wouldn't let him bring a gun in. He's just like, this is ridiculous. So instead of sitting in his car, fully loaded, just in case. I don't want to be coming in here looking like Steven Paddock or anything. Does it at least have continental breakfast?
00:52:35
Speaker
Yeah. We don't go to a hotel that doesn't have content on breakfast. So we're always, we're always on the search. Well, I was going to say, if you brought that up with you, you probably wouldn't struggle getting first in line. You just, you seek out the gun, like, all right, he can have the eggs, you know? Yeah. You like put the soggy Danish down. My other baked goods always wet. I don't understand. We're going to, um, we're going to the WrestleMania in LA in April. And we found a really, well, we're not paying for the hotel as dad is.
00:53:04
Speaker
but they have like the best continental breakfast. We're really in for a treat. So I'm looking forward to that. Nice. I don't think it's worth going to a hotel without a continental breakfast. And every time we have, it's always been a big regret. It just, and I regret not having it more than I always regret eating continental breakfast.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah. And you know what I have found too, with the really nice hotels, they have the good view, but the beds are harder. They don't have a microwave or a fridge oftentimes, and they don't have the kind of breakfast. So it's just like, I'm much more comfortable in the cheaper hotels in general. Yeah. No fridge in a hotel room is one of the most bullshit things anyone could do. It's not acceptable. Yeah. Yeah. You really like, okay, you want to be comfortable.
00:53:47
Speaker
you need to stay at a hotel like a Hampton Inn where a fat, depressed businessman like myself is gonna, you know, lay in bed and watch Seinfeld reruns until they fall asleep. I literally watched a Seinfeld rerun for the first time. It was on Netflix. It was the first episode maybe that he ever did. And I got an appreciation for him because I really didn't know. I just knew his theme song, but I didn't have an appreciation for him because I had just seen him on like Miranda Sings
00:54:17
Speaker
And just like other things that are, he's older and they're making fun of him or something like that. But it's nice to see him shine. He's just young man, just being funny and oh, quite a guy. Classic. So, okay. So you've made some political videos.
00:54:33
Speaker
You made some, now you're like getting into, you're doing more faith-based stuff. Obviously there's a lot of awful people that comment mean things and stuff like that. Not very interesting, right? But was there any people, did anybody say anything like a quip or a little comment or something that stuck out to you as like particularly funny? Yes. So a lot of people are calling me vanilla Christ.
00:54:59
Speaker
And I thought, yeah, exactly. I thought it was hilarious. So if you guys go on my merch store, I actually have Vanilla Christ merchandise because of it, because it was just gold. And in our next video, he's going to be done in the hat and the shirt.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't want to spoil too much, you know, because I definitely like, I try to look at what happened objectively. You know, I don't take any comments. Good. You know, I don't take much of it personally. You know, I just try, I tried to learn from it, you know, see what, if people are critical, why they're critical or they're being trolls, do they actually want to help me? Vice versa. You know, knowing the internet wants to actually try to help you. That is not what the internet is for.
00:55:41
Speaker
only people that you know, and the people that you know get offended for you. And they're like, I know this girl. I know her sister. She's so nice. Please take this down. If you have any respect and to me, I'm like, No, just let them just let them it's just giving us air time. You know what I mean? It's like, it's fine. I know it looks a little goofy, but we're not gonna take ourselves ourselves too seriously. I wish it didn't get pulled down. I hope people don't think is because we are embarrassed because we wished it could have gone. Shame.
00:56:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, not ashamed. He knows that he doesn't always clap on beat. He knows that he's not a musician or like, you know, this and that, but we want to clap on something. And I thought it was a really great memory. I wish we could do it again, but I feel like they'll send us a cease and desist where we can't even perform it ever live. We'll see. But yeah, that's why we're working on getting our own stuff out so that we can have. I think I feel like the rule is you could do whatever you want.
00:56:33
Speaker
live to some degree at least I've seen so many bands just randomly do covers and no one seems to care so there's got to be some sort of cover log when it's like yeah I mean you're doing it like where are you doing these churches it's like yeah where are you doing your events I think if you're not selling it it should be okay but maybe that's not the case yeah that's another thing
00:56:52
Speaker
Yeah, I was talking with some people about it, and it's just sort of hit and miss. It depends on who, what group you're doing. Like, some people are super chill about it. Some people, they throw cease and desist at you, you know? Don't do anything Disney. You'll be fucked. Don't do anything Disney. I literally did a whole album of parodies of Disney.
00:57:11
Speaker
And it's still up. It was all about Branson. Yeah, well, they're not funny. And it's still and it still is up. I just basically wanted a Branson boom, right? Because Branson is kind of dying or it was me. I don't know if it still is or not, especially around COVID time. And you can't blame me. It was during COVID when I recorded this album. So it was called Branson boom. And it was like a bunch of Disney songs.
00:57:31
Speaker
You know, I just can't wait to be king. I took that song and it was about the road trip to Branson and how, you know, you know how road trips are fun. Anyway, and I talked about the Dolly Parton Stampede, like anything that's really big I mentioned in the song. And so my biggest one was The Bare Necessities randomly from Jungle Book. Yep. Classic. Classic. And then I did a whole other album about Branson from the sound of music, every track from the sound of music. And I rewarded it to be about Branson.
00:58:00
Speaker
You like Branson a disturbing amount. I do like Branson. I've been there for a couple years. My first theater job was I was Mother Mary in the Nativity Show at Silver Dollar City. Have you heard of Silver Dollar City? Oh, yeah, I've been there. OK, so yeah, it's like basically what Branson sort of built around the marble cave and marble marble. It was marble cave. They found out they didn't have marbles and they called it marble cave.
00:58:23
Speaker
Anyway, um, so I worked there and then the next following year, I don't think, I don't think I'm hearing it marble marble with a B like rock, but bought the cave. They realized it wasn't marble. It was limestone. So then they named it Marvel cave. I hope they didn't pay for marble.
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah, but so I did that. I was in a longer show than the following year, 2020. I only did three shows and then shut down for COVID. Then after a few months, we came back and it was not the same. So at least we had three shows that were basically sold out. It wasn't a very big haul, but it was a great experience. About two hours show. I did a whole monologue and songs and stuff. So it was really good.
00:59:07
Speaker
like secondary, like a second job for theater. Then I now, well, all last year I worked at the Amish country theater, which is here in Ohio. They wanted me to work there a couple of years ago, but because my sister and I had to make all decisions together, she didn't want to move to Ohio. And I was like, I'm not moving by myself. And so we got married Valentine's day this last year. Then it made sense to work there. Cause we were only an hour away. So that's Miller's Berg. I don't know if you know that as Berlin, Miller's Berg area. So we're an accurate, but yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. I know accurate.
00:59:36
Speaker
So that had to be was that like your did you feel like that show and Branson was that kind of like your man I'm getting I'm getting a foothold and I'm getting moving and then all of a sudden like the rugs pulled out from under you on that thing.
00:59:50
Speaker
Um, I wouldn't want to do it again. It would have been cool to do the whole season, but I did enough. Um, and then, you know, I, you know, an understudy is someone that does it for you when you would have to be there's two understudies. Um, and I, and I always made sure that when I needed to be out to do whatever I was doing, my sister using video, whatever that they were in. Well, I started leaving too many times and they were like,
01:00:15
Speaker
You can't do this. We need the cast to gel." So I was like, okay, well, I guess I need to put my two weeks notice in then. They're like, as far as we can concern, you're up tonight. So I was like, okay, well, I guess that's okay. So I moved back to Oklahoma and my sister and I filmed a song called Back the Blue, which was in support of law enforcement when they were talking about defunding
Creative Projects: 'Back the Blue' and Tribute Shows
01:00:34
Speaker
him or whatever. We were like, oh, this is ridiculous. So we made a song and
01:00:37
Speaker
put that out and that one didn't go as big as our Trump song, but it was also kind of past the point of where there was a big craze of the defunding thing. But yeah, nothing was smoldering anymore. We went for 10 years and we never had a big break. And I don't know if we were just kind of too clean. You know, we're very spooky clean with our values and everything like that. We're non-compromising. So oftentimes if you don't compromise, you don't go that far.
01:01:07
Speaker
unless you want to go completely into the Christian world, which we just never did, probably should have. But we have like, you know, love songs and other stuff. And I was like, well, I don't know if we want to pull an Amy Grant here, because not everyone views that in a good light. And then you go back and do love songs. And it's like, are you Christian or country? And it's like, we're kind of all of it. But anyway, so but now I'm just in a different phase after being married and we're doing our two for Christ events. And speaking of two for Christ events, the I the Tiger video was not actually a church service. I don't know if you knew that.
01:01:37
Speaker
But people thought that, you know, we are doing a worship song and this is actually just an event they put on because I had a cross in the background. It looks like a church, but it's actually a Christian event center. And so we just have been having some fun. I did 45 minutes of music. He did his preaching and then we just.
01:01:51
Speaker
Kind of did a fun thing and they invited us back too. We came back for a Karen Carpenter tribute where he's my Mr. Postman. So that's all so fun. Karen Carpenter tribute. I don't know Karen carpenters. You know the carpenters. Yeah. So that's one thing I do. I've probably done like 20 shows of carpenters since, since the year 2020 before they announced COVID. It's actually the day after Valentine's day when I did my first one 2020. So it has been three, wow, three years.
01:02:18
Speaker
It's a long time. Karen related to June. It's been 10 times. What did you say? Oh, man. I'm not. No, I'm way off. Sorry. Is Karen what? June Carter was the lady that sang with Johnny Cash a bunch and stuff, right? Yeah, Karen Carpenter. She was born in like in 19, I don't know. She died in 1983. She was only 32 years old.
01:02:40
Speaker
and it was from anorexia. And it wasn't, anorexia wasn't very, it wasn't a very big deal at the time. She raised awareness to that, the fact that it's actually a problem. So, she began with that poster child. Still doesn't seem like it gets a lot of attention, but. Oh, yeah, I guess not. But it's very sad thing. What a horrible thing. Yeah. You know, and all because the fans were saying she looked chubby in her pictures. God damn, that's wild. That hasn't changed. No, thanks. Yeah, that's still the same.
01:03:10
Speaker
Yeah, my wife's like a social media personality. And like, it's amazing how mean people Yeah, dumb junior high kids just being mean. Yeah, it just in general, in this world, you know, you got to have thick skin, you know, no matter what you're doing, because especially with what people say, like, if you don't know personally, you can't table people say personally.
01:03:34
Speaker
You know, and it's just, I mean, even if you're a CEO of a company, you know, you're president of a big company, you always got people underneath you. They're saying, oh, you should be doing this or should be doing that. You know, and it's just, it's just a life skill that you have to develop in order to be successful. Yeah. Honestly, they get them back pretty good by underpaying everybody. So it's, I think you guys are funny.
01:03:59
Speaker
The Bible says that if you are a Christian, you will be hated and mocked and scorned and just basically look forward to that. Not look forward to, but just kind of like, no, it's coming. And it's the same if you stand up for almost anything. I haven't scorned it. I feel like some people lean on it a little harder.
01:04:19
Speaker
I'm curious. Okay. Well, first off, you mentioned that you and your sister, you've done some Christian music, but you didn't really want to lean fully into that, like brand yourself as a Christian act and stuff. Did you grow up on Christian music or
01:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, Christian music exclusively in Oklahoma was called KXOJ. And it was just, you know, I can only imagine all the time and some other songs. Things changed. I think that one's still on. And so we just grew up in that we didn't we didn't listen to any secular music until we were adults. And we started singing at a golf course.
01:05:00
Speaker
We were actually at a flea market and I was just singing while I was walking and there was this old, like maybe 72 year old man said, oh, you got a nice voice. I got a golf course I want you to come sing at for money.
01:05:13
Speaker
And I showed him my sister. We sang together. He's like, all right, both of you. We're going to pay you $200, sing for four hours. No, it's $400 for four hours. And we did that a couple of times. It became too much, too long. So he said, OK. That's a long time. He said, no, two hours for $200. But he said, but when you go to other places, you charge them $400 for $200. But I'm paying you twice a week, so you give me a deal. So we're like, OK. So he started us off on it.
01:05:41
Speaker
He gave us money to record some of our music, and I don't know if he's online, but we have six albums now, and two of them are on Spotify. One's called Snowing Again, and one's called Rocky Road. So yeah, three country, one Christian, one patriotic, and one, what did I say, Christmas? Christmas. And that's one of our best ones, honestly, Snowing Again. We have a lot of music videos. We have a lot of videos of Christmas.
01:06:02
Speaker
on our YouTube, you'd think we are just completely Christmas singers. I have a question. Because it's so you said you're going to you're going to WWE event, right? Yes. Yes. So I this is so growing up Christian, I can get along to see Roman Reigns. But like, so the Christian thing and the only like, only Christian music did you were you? Haley, were you into wrestling at all? Or is that something that Nick got you into? Or is dragging along to?
WWE Introduction and Personal Connections
01:06:32
Speaker
I had never heard of WWE and, um, I was like, how did, and it hasn't even take this seriously. Like it's not any, nothing's real about it, but just kind of like you watch a movie and you know, it's all scripted. I guess that's how they view it. I don't know. I was going to say her trade-offs, like I'll watch her Disney movies if she watched wrestling. So like she's watched the Royal Rumble recently.
01:06:57
Speaker
And she's like, I wanted to watch Lion King. I'm like, you did watch the rumble. Yeah. Watch Lion King with it. You know, so that's sort of our trade. The reason I was asking is because growing up, my parents were like absolutely unequivocally against
01:07:15
Speaker
wrestling of any, like we were not allowed to watch it. It was like, this shit's bad. It's, it's ridiculous. It's glorifying violence. The it's all everything about it. It's over-sexualized if it's women wrestlers.
01:07:28
Speaker
It's like they hated it. And so that's what I think is so that's why I had to find out like growing up only doing Christian stuff. But Nick, you said you didn't really like have the same strict Christian upbringing. So were you did you ever get that as a kid or were you always just allowed to watch wrestling or did you find that later?
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, so it wasn't to my parents divorce because my dad was super into wrestling. He wanted to be the cool dad. I got you. Exactly. And my dad would always watch the pay-per-view events with his brothers and then my mom wouldn't let me go because, you know, because my mom, because I have triple brothers that are the three of them are all 20 months younger than me.
01:08:07
Speaker
So the last thing she wanted was me and my brother is getting influenced by a bunch of guys fighting, you know, because my brothers and I were very energetic growing up, you know. A lot of kids got body slammed through plastic tables because of wrestling. Yeah, my cousin got chokes slammed off of his bed and broke his arm at like age six.
01:08:31
Speaker
But yeah, so it wasn't until my parents got divorced was when my dad's like, hey, like you're with me right now. And that WrestleMania 26 was the first event that I watched at his place. And I was just like, what, this is the coolest thing. So immediately from then I was just hooked like every single week.
01:08:49
Speaker
And then it got like, I got really, really into it, you know, like more so I feel like I think of it as like the greatest form of entertainment on TV or anything. Like, I saw the influence of that on the tiger because they're like, he's shadowboxing. What is this John Cena, you know, and he definitely has a lot of his personality, let alone
01:09:09
Speaker
dance moves or whatever from the wrestling show. I'm not against wrestling for kids to... I think it's actually good because you're shaking each other's hand, you're looking in the eye, it's like a respect thing. As long as you keep your ears protected from the cauliflower, I think that it's a good thing. Now, boxing is different. While we like the Rocky movies, I would never want my kid to get into boxing.
01:09:34
Speaker
Yeah, we're pretending to beat each other up. You are taking it to the face. Yeah, I don't even know how that's legal. Yeah, I feel like I would be really, I don't have kids, but I feel like if I did, there's certain things. You would sign them up for boxing it from like age three. It depended on how annoying they were. Right, yeah. 20 bits in the ring of
Impact of Sports on Character Development
01:09:56
Speaker
their punishment. Is that how you handle things? You were going to play softball.
01:10:01
Speaker
now you're going to go get punched in the face. That will be a good sport. I think he was a basketball coach recently. And he also got, he got an offer for AAU game up in Cleveland. So we'll see if he does that or not. But AAU, my only experience with AAU is my foster son did it. And I was, had never been involved in anything like that. And he wanted to play on the team really bad. So we're like, all right,
01:10:28
Speaker
will sign you up. And then after I signed him up, I realized how much of my life that was going to consume. And boy, did I not love AAU for that reason. It's like every Friday and Saturday night I was out. It's like, Oh my God, this doesn't end forever. And you drive really far and he loved it. So that was fun. But I was like, Oh my God, I did not realize what I was. It was good that I didn't realize what I was.
01:10:52
Speaker
committing to when I signed up for it because had I, he would have missed out on a good opportunity. Resigned him to a bad childhood. Yeah. I was telling her, I actually enjoyed playing AAU more than I did for my school teams growing up. Yeah. I've heard that a bunch. As a kid, being in sixth grade, just like, oh, you're playing four basketball games today. You know what I mean? You ain't going to complain about that. It's just, I don't know. I always enjoyed just the travel aspect of it and everything. I got a better experience doing that than for my school growing up.
01:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's a cool thing, man. And it connects you with a lot of different schools. If you're trying, if you feel like you're taking it seriously and for kids who want to take it to a collegiate level, especially if you're on a team, like some teams have great kids, but aren't great teams. And it's like a good opportunity to like actually interact with some college coaches and kind of scope out some colleges in the area when maybe they're not showing up to your schools games all the time.
01:11:49
Speaker
Yeah. At the end of the day, I always view sports like I feel like people's true character comes out in sports. You know what I mean? Like you can go to like a fourth grade tackle football game and you see some parents turning into animals. You know what I mean? You learn a lot about composure and you can learn a lot of really good life skills that you can apply when you get older from sports, you know?
01:12:07
Speaker
Yeah. You can also learn how not to act as a parent. My son, my son was five and they're playing, he's playing soccer and none of the kids know which way to kick it. And so the coaches step in and they just kind of like kick it back into play and help out. And some of the parents standing up like, what are you doing? Let them play the game. You're like, Jesus, sit down. This is just, they're five years old. They don't know one school, 20 minutes.
01:12:32
Speaker
Yeah. So I have my officiating license. For eight years, I refereed football and basketball in Ohio. And there's no story that I couldn't tell you. You know what I mean? There's so many things that happened. They're like parents saying things. The most extreme things would happen, and I just wouldn't be surprised. I'm just like, it's just another day where I'm just trying to make a little bit of side cash, you know? That's how you like that. Stress with the student situations, that's a really good life skill.
01:12:59
Speaker
Yeah, you have to be resilient to be a ref at a kid's game. I feel like in my experience, people's true character comes out playing Halo. That's why I'm cynical. I know playing Call of Duty is I think you'll hear some from a bunch of like you.
01:13:22
Speaker
You'll be told to kill yourself by a bunch of eight year olds so relentlessly that you like actually go into a deep depression. Yeah, I'm not so I'm not much of a gamer, but so I had a surgery recently in December.
Negative Aspects of Gaming Culture
01:13:34
Speaker
So I was playing like a little bit of video games because I was forced to write. So I'm just sitting there playing games like some Madden and this dude's just cussing me out on the other end. I'm just like, yo, like I just picked up my controller.
01:13:45
Speaker
You know, so people take, take this stuff like, like, you know, and you don't see somebody face to face. You can get away with saying whatever, you know what I mean? And people are about it. It sucks to find out of it as like a mid thirties guy who's gesture. I've just started playing video games again. Cause I've fine found the time here and there. And I'm like, you got it ruins it. Like just getting belittled by middle schoolers is fun.
01:14:12
Speaker
You know what the game for you has been Tetris yeah, I should just get on Animal Crossing I think I hear that one's pretty relaxing Well Monopoly is a good game if you play it online because then you don't have to count the money just all accounted for you and Hours of monopoly and in general, you know, I think it takes like two or three hours to
01:14:33
Speaker
And it takes at most an hour and a half for us to play a game of Monopoly when you do it online. So it's a cool thing. Noted. Okay. So, uh, as you might've guessed, I don't know if you've gotten to listen to any of our show before, but a large portion of our audience.
Challenges in Modern Christianity
01:14:50
Speaker
… are people who left the church that they grew up in. There's a lot of them that – I mean, it's not all atheists by any means. There's a lot of people who are still professing Christians but grew disgruntled with the brand of Christianity that they grew up with.
01:15:05
Speaker
and found some other version of it that they like better, that fit them better. Church seems to be a thing that's like, it's in a rough patch right now in America. And I don't know, I think a lot of people are, what is it that you think the church is doing wrong right now? Open-ended question. Totally. I mean, not looking for any specific answer, but like when you see, you know, whether it's a, you know, a mega church pastors in, you know, $2,500 sneakers or,
01:15:35
Speaker
you know, other ones that are, you know, calling into Fox News on a Sunday morning or whatever. Like, what is it that you see out there that you're like?
01:15:44
Speaker
I don't know if this is the way. Yeah, so for me, people will ask me now what my denomination is, or just like, oh, this church, that church, mega churches, small churches. And for me, I'm really big on just focusing on your relationship with God. And I think when we all go to, sometimes I feel like a lot of churches, they focus more on the empty calories versus the meat and veggies.
01:16:09
Speaker
of Christianity and when at least for me like sometimes being a Christian at the end of the day you should be able to show people you're a Christian instead of telling them and taking a bible sometimes some Christians have a habit of like bible bashing you know somebody's skull or like a lot of people will just go completely away from the church because of how hard some people come down on them where at the end of the day we're just trying to be molded into the image of Jesus you know trying to be Christ like you know being loving caring
01:16:35
Speaker
compassionate, being there for people when they're down. And at the end of the day, you could say, oh, I've read my Bible 10 times through, or I'm going to church every single Sunday, but are you living it? You know what I mean? And I think that's where there's some disconnect is that I feel like some people have a bad experience at a church.
01:16:55
Speaker
You know, because of certain circumstances. And at the end of the day, like, I believe when we go to heaven, we're not going to be segregated. The Baptist, Calvinists, Catholics, Charismatics, you know. We'll all see the truth. We'll see the truth of how it really is, you know, how Jesus really is. Yeah, but.
01:17:14
Speaker
you know, like, um, I just feel like sometimes we fight so much against ourselves, like, Oh, my theology is better than your theology, you know, and it's just, I feel like that, that internal conflict is what people they see that and they see the bleeding, you know, because churches aren't perfect, because churches are run by men, right. And when they see some of the bleeding that goes on, I feel like don't run by women.
01:17:37
Speaker
Oh, some people because of bad ones, because of like an experience, you know, I feel like get pulled away. But, you know, for me, like, like I was telling you guys earlier about my addiction, like I became a reborn Christian laying on my bed. You know what I mean? It wasn't it wasn't in church, you know. And I think that if churches sometimes just just instead of telling people
01:18:01
Speaker
hey this that this you need to be doing this right you're committing that sin oh you shouldn't be wearing this instead of pointing fingers you know just showing them you know without telling them that you're a Christian I feel like to bring more people to Christ you know and Matthew 5 16 told us to let our light shine before others you know so sometimes just be instead of talking about it actually be about it you know and I think you can lead by example in that way
01:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, also Jesus simplified things when he came, before he came, which is the Old Testament, you know, there was like over 600 laws of all these things that you need to do to, I don't know if you get to heaven or just like to be a good person, whatever.
Simplifying Christian Faith
01:18:37
Speaker
But when Jesus came, he said that all those 600 laws are replaced with two. The first one's love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself. So if you really did that, then it's like you would fulfill everything you need to in Jesus's words, you know?
01:18:54
Speaker
That's pretty easy, I think. You know what I mean? Like, it's nice when things become simple for you instead of...
01:19:00
Speaker
So like so many details, you know. Yeah. It's like until people start arguing about what that looks like and what it means. That's where I guess the rubber meets the road again. It's like I
Theological Debates and Conflicts
01:19:12
Speaker
like that. I mean, I'm I'm here for the simplicity of of the of being the way you live your life. But it is I guess that's I feel like we're at now where so that I would the time that like Jesus came into where it's like I mean, he came into a pretty hefty time of debate on what it means.
01:19:30
Speaker
Jewish people under Roman occupation trying to figure out like, you know, the Pharisees trying to figure out like, we need to follow these laws because we have all these promises that say that, you know, God's going to come through for us and give us our own, our own city. So we're waiting for a Messiah we're doing and we're waiting for our actual kingdom to be rebuilt. And like, so then you have people are like, well, it says that we need to follow these laws for that happen. And it's like, well, what does it mean to follow these laws?
01:19:54
Speaker
And you end up with like a million different ways of looking at it and a lot of arguing and infighting. And I think we just ended up in the same spot when it seems like it could be more simple until everyone starts arguing about what it actually means and what it looks like again. I don't know. I think that's a big part of not that Casey asked me my opinion, but that's my podcast. I can say what I want. I guess to get to his question, that's where
01:20:24
Speaker
It feels like things have gone super awry. There's so much argumentation about what that looks like and what that means that it's caused a lot of people to be like, who then really knows and throw in the towel and find their own way forward? Sure. Well, even simpler than that is just the gospel, which is believe in your heart that Jesus came and died and then God raised him from the dead. Confess it with your mouth. That's evidently how you get saved. You know what I mean?
01:20:52
Speaker
I know some people think that you can be unsaved once you are, and there are some people that think you're eternally secure. That's hard to tell. Which one do you think it is? Because that means a lot to me. That has a lot of consequences for me. I don't know. My dad always said, don't get so close to hell that you say, how far can I go until I fall in? It's like, why don't you just stay away from the edge, and you'll be safe, you know? So it's a spectrum. I don't try to ride the line, so you know. I voted for John McCain in 2008, if that helps. Oh, OK.
01:21:27
Speaker
Okay, so here's a and maybe this isn't something that's really something we can dive into but okay, so Do it so a lot of like social media like, you know, we talked about people being aggressive on social media and saying rude things Yeah, it seems like so much like so much of what happens on social media whether it's someone
Social Media and Performative Discussions
01:21:52
Speaker
You just take, for example, like someone blasting a person for being a bigot because they believe something that they do right. So much of that, I think when you step back and look at it, it feels less like, okay, this is not about you standing up for someone.
01:22:09
Speaker
this is not about you like trying to change another person's mind that you don't agree with like this seems to be a performance to show that you're part of the team right like is this really how you affect change when you're talking about like climate issues or are you just trying to show that you're part of the right team you know continue i'm sorry well i think like
01:22:33
Speaker
Okay, you said earlier you were talking about how like, you know, uh, the Bible says that like Christians will be hated and stuff for living according to Christ and whatnot. Do you think that some of this, the backlash is like self-inflicted? Cause we've all heard people say like, well, you know, I don't believe in homosexuality. I think it's living in sin. So for me to not like call someone out over Twitter for being gay or like,
01:23:02
Speaker
in general, that's not a loving way for me to be, right? I have to tell them that they're going to hell because I love them and that's what real love looks like. How much of that though, then becomes like, this is me performatively speaking to what I want to be known as. Like I'm declaring my identity to the outward world rather than like, I wanna help this person that I don't think is living correctly.
01:23:30
Speaker
Yeah, I'd have to agree with you because at least, so take my Eye of the Tiger video, for example, right? If they, people are really that concerned about my salvation over the video or really concerned about that event, they would have messaged me personally, reached out to me personally, my business emails on my Instagram account, you know? So if they were really that concerned, it would be like, hey, Nick, saw your video, Eye of the Tiger, just wanted to say, maybe quote some scriptures or whatever, but a lot of people, they wanted to go public with it, you know?
01:23:59
Speaker
And so to me, whenever I was reading comments, like I said, I try to be objective. I don't take any of it personally. Most of the time, I just chuckle. Like her and I, we'll be watching or reading some stuff. We were laughing, reading comments. And we've often found it to be a great source of entertainment, reading comments. My sister and I, when we had our videos and then with our video. So I'm no stranger to hate because of the other videos. I'm sure.
01:24:23
Speaker
him referee that he's no stranger either. So I think we are sort of already prepared for it didn't really hit me by surprise too much. But yeah, no to your point like a lot of people on social media that point like look how right I'm sorry, Haley. Don't be like look how right I am.
01:24:38
Speaker
Because I said this versus like, Hey, I actually want to help this person grow as a human being, you know, and, um, especially nowadays with social media, people have businesses on social media, you know, and there's, I've starting to get like a little from the eye of the tiger video, just a little bit more exposure. Um, I've been able to get a little bit of money through Instagram and Facebook for, for posting things. And when people.
01:25:00
Speaker
are running their social media as a business. People go on social media at the end of the day to be entertained. People, just like I'm a WWE fan, what creates good matches is the drama, the clashes say, no, I'm better than you. And she does an impression of WWE wrestlers.
01:25:17
Speaker
Very predictable. But sometimes I feel that a lot of people on social media, even like MGK versus M&M, people invest in peace. You know what I mean? Even if they're not actually beefing, they might be chucking and be like, dude, look at the interactions that we're getting. You know what I mean? So at the end of the day, I feel that, especially if you're going to put something out publicly, I do feel there's a motive to represent your brand, show that you're down with the cause, and sometimes
01:25:44
Speaker
you know, one of my favorite verses is Galatians 1.10, where it tells you not to seek the approval of men, but seek the approval of God. And a lot of people that are, you know, commenting or saying certain things, they're trying to engage with their followers to sort of show them, hey, I am why I post certain things, if that makes sense, you know. Yeah, it almost seems like a trap that like,
01:26:08
Speaker
I mean, everyone, our entire generation is falling into, right? This like purposely courting controversy and like wearing your, your colors publicly for people to see like deep, it almost feels like a trap that the church has sort of stumbled into now where that's like, guys, are we, are, are we really actually trying to like change people's minds and bring them closer to the truth? Or are we trying to make noise to get attention for, like you said, the approval, man.
01:26:35
Speaker
That verse, like you said, like seeking the approval of men, that always gets explained. I mean, I, you know, I always heard it explained in like, you know, people want the world's.
01:26:45
Speaker
Like that's a person who wants the world's attention and approval rather than God's. But like you could clearly, you could definitely see like in your explanation sort of how that would also apply to like, hey, you're trying to get attention and approval from other Christians and it's maybe at the expense of like impact that you could have if you were just living, like you say you wanna live, you know? It's actually scary to get the approval of men. Cause it's like, what are you doing wrong if everybody's approving of what you're doing?
01:27:14
Speaker
You know what I mean? The gospel is not really a pretty message. It is a message of hope, but it's also a message of offense to a lot of people that want to believe they are basically good and are like, I'm not a sinner. Why would I need someone to die for me? Like, you know, it can be easy to reject that. But I don't know. I think that it's good to have people not agree with you. That's a good thing. I mean, obviously,
01:27:41
Speaker
You want to get through to people, if you want them to believe the same way as you do, and say, hey, let's all go to heaven together. Obviously, the point is to get people to believe what you believe, but you've got to know that not everyone is going to. Do you enjoy controversy? You're talking to him or me? To you. I'm sorry, Haley. I have started to.
01:28:04
Speaker
I think I've started to. I was always scared of hate until I got it. And I was like, oh, it's actually very liberating. And you can get to that point. Because if you can't take people talking bad about you or thinking bad about you, you're not a very strong person.
Polarizing Politics and Leadership Needs
01:28:22
Speaker
You have to kind of get grit in this life. And sometimes it comes naturally. Sometimes you make it happen. But I wasn't trying to. We weren't trying to.
01:28:31
Speaker
We weren't doing it for views. We supported Rick Santorum back in 2012. And we actually thought he was a good candidate. It's not like we wanted to, we were trying to get on Yahoo News and all these places like we did. It's like, oh, it's cool that that happened. You guys are pro sweater vest. What did you say? You guys are pro sweater vest. Sweater vest. Was that what he wore? We're talking about the dad from David and Goliath, right? I focus a little more on what he believed than what he wore.
01:28:59
Speaker
But yeah, we were like, this is a good candidate and we don't want to see our country go down. And I feel like it has gone down gradually. I think Trump sort of saved it for a little bit, but he's also very polarizing. A lot of people didn't like him and didn't know. Um, they can only see that he was a child in his tweets. They could only see that he was immature sometimes. They didn't really see what he did good for the country. So that's sad. Um, but you know, um, everyone has their own opinions and that actually is a very beautiful thing, you know?
01:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like there's a real gulf there. I mean, I live in Kansas, so most everybody I know is conservative. I feel like a lot of people would call me conservative, depending on who they are. I don't get the Trump thing. Like, that controversy, that constant, like, I mean, he definitely revels in controversy, right? Do you think that that's, like, that's somewhat controversial, like, contrary to good leadership, is then?
01:29:58
Speaker
For me personally, when it comes to this upcoming election, whether you're riding with Biden or thump with Trump, you know, for me, like I, you know, especially with me, like I'm really, really big about Jesus, you know, hence my business, you know, and what we're trying to do. I really want to see one of these political leaders, like actually humble themselves before God. And instead of saying, you're bad, no, you're bad. I actually want to see somebody
01:30:25
Speaker
humble themselves and be like, Hey, if I'm going to be this leader, I'm going to do it through Christ. And I think, um, you know, cause obviously, you know, her and I are really big Christians. I feel like if we're going to bring this country to God, we need to stop idolizing politicians, you know, one way or another.
01:30:42
Speaker
and we need to focus on a Christ centered leader, you know, no matter who that is, you know what I mean? And I just feel like, let's just say someone's really down with Trump, right? Like you're saying, like there's really big Trump supporters in Kansas, you know, let's just say he wins in 2024, goes on to 2028. You know, sometimes we create these false idols out of leaders and the ball's gonna keep going, you know what I mean?
01:31:06
Speaker
And there's going to be other people that keep coming along. There's only eight years max, and that can go downhill again. But what I think is if Trump can be considered an evil, right? What's the less of two evils? Has Biden done well for this country? Is he making, like, is he doing the right thing by our country? You know what I mean? With everything that's going on, sometimes you just choose whatever is the lesser of two evils instead of who the perfect person is, because there are no perfect.
01:31:35
Speaker
Politicians. Who's the perfect corpse? To occupy the chair. Okay, so who's your backup then? If Trump doesn't get the nomination, like who do you hope gets it? Well, of course DeSantis. I mean, people like DeSantis. You're pulling for DeSantis second. DeSantis is a lot like Trump, but he's more liked. And you know what, though, about Trump, he makes peace with other countries, but he's not respected in his own country.
01:32:04
Speaker
And there there's a parallel there Jesus was respected in other cities So he would he would experience a lot of healings other places when you would travel and minister because people believed in him in his own City where he grew up in they're like, oh, that's just Jesus the carpenter's son So they didn't believe in him and he experienced a lot less people having faith and there was less miracles I don't know if you knew that or not, but um, sometimes you're not respected in your own
01:32:28
Speaker
But other people from other countries can see and they're making fun of bite and they're like, oh this is America's president You know and all these memes and stuff and obviously none of them made fun of Trump Yes,
Discussion on Abortion
01:32:44
Speaker
he can be made fun of for stupid stuff he does like stupid things he says or whatever but Don't actions speak louder than words. Do you know what I mean? I
01:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, that was my biggest problem, actually. Did you guys buy his NFTs? Yeah. No, that was one of the only things I liked that he did, because I made a shitload of money off of those shirtless Trump NFTs. Yeah, I mean, the economy was doing a lot better. My stocks were higher, I'll say that. I got into penny stocks. Yeah, fair.
01:33:15
Speaker
But, um, never before that, but, and gas prices and all that. And I don't know. I also support someone who supports, um, like non-abortion, I think abortions murder. And yeah, I don't think that should ever be okay. You know what I mean?
01:33:30
Speaker
And also, you know, I agree to disagree. I feel like these are like the tried and true debates that are kind of not entirely worth hashing out. I don't have it on my hands. These are just you have to split the difference
Fostering, Adoption, and Family Planning
01:33:52
Speaker
here. Like this is something that like
01:33:54
Speaker
people there's no I've never seen a debate on this topic change anybody's mind or you know strongly held convictions impact somebody else's strongly held conviction so I understand it like I even I mean I'm not even necessarily opposed like you know you have like this giant like anti pro-life ethic or anything like that and there's plenty of people who have pro-life ethics who I I would I might find some disagreement on but ultimately would stand with based on their
01:34:24
Speaker
what they believe would be a good answer to solving those problems, like a Shane Claiborne. I'll jump into his camp all day and reach across the aisle there. I don't think that people have the hard line stances that they're made out to have. And I think some of the debates that are forced into the zeitgeist end up doing everyone a disservice instead of being like,
01:34:50
Speaker
If that's the case and we have this disagreement, you'll find the fringe people who are like, you know what, I think abortion's awesome and I love it and we should celebrate it. And I think those people are obviously just fall into the trappings of what Casey was talking about earlier of just trying to like
01:35:09
Speaker
that's pageantry for a particular side. But I think you would find 80% of the country going, what can we do to decrease this if you can't stop it completely and you're not going to legislate it out of existence? Because even if you try to legislate it out of existence, it has always existed. You could look
01:35:29
Speaker
across the aisle and say there are some concrete things we can do to reduce this and let's not let's not it's not a zero-sum game and I think abortion has been turned into that so I don't actually know that like the the tried and true debate of like pro-life abortionist are kind of in the middle where they're like well I don't believe in abortion but in the case of rape or incest you know
01:35:52
Speaker
then I would support it. And I'll always go back to the Bible. It's my rule book, right? And what the Bible says is that before we were formed in the womb, God knew who we were and called us by name. And whether we came out of a married situation or a not married situation, babies come sometimes, right? And it's like God planned them. And if a woman can't take care of a baby, then they can always adopt it out. There's a lot of people that can't have babies. It's unfortunate that a lot of people that really want babies
01:36:22
Speaker
have them and people that don't want to have them oftentimes, you know. You have a lot of siblings, right? Yeah, we did. There is eight of us. So yeah, I am through life. My mom had actually five miscarriages between the seventh and the eighth. But um, we went to a church service and the pastor said, there's a woman in here who's barren, but on your 10th step out of this building, you'll be healed. And my mom's like, okay, that's definitely me. And so she
01:36:46
Speaker
took her 10 step and she's like I didn't feel anything but then she was pregnant shortly after so little Hadassah Jubilees our miracle rainbow baby she's now 16 so. Did you have any adopted siblings? No you never did I mean not legally my dad sort of adopted by heart some of some people but I'm good. Is that something that you guys like are considering?
01:37:09
Speaker
Well, we're currently we're pregnant. So if we couldn't have kids, maybe, you know what I mean? But yeah, man, well, I'm at a one at a time stage.
Religious Freedom and American Values
01:37:18
Speaker
You know what I mean? Especially where she's four months pregnant. Four months? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I was hoping to get a commitment for work right now. You guys aren't ready to make that commitment. Man, there are plenty. There's plenty. I mean, fostering.
01:37:33
Speaker
Even my secular ass fostered some kids. That's there. That's actually amazing. No, that's awesome. Yeah. Do you see the movie called instant family with, uh, what's your guy's name? Mark Wahlberg and the other girl. Anyway, they talked about how hard it could be to foster kids and how they're running around and being crazy. And they may feel like they're warming up to you. Then all of a sudden stab your back. And you know, because they're, you know, it's very, very little love in the system that they put in a lot of times. And.
01:38:01
Speaker
You know, I wish the adoption system was better, you know what I mean? It would be nice if it was. Sam's kind of like living at Sam's house for foster kids is kind of like living with the trench bubble from Matilda. I've never seen Matilda. I know it's got the girl from Miracle on 34th Street. I pick them up by their hair and spin them in circles and toss them out windows is what he's trying to say. Makes them eat cake until they die. Until they cast magic spells on me and send me flying over a gated fence.
01:38:31
Speaker
And how many foster kids you say have again? I have one. I've had another, but that was a weird unofficial situation because she was 18, but still in high school. So it's not actually considered fostering because they're out of the system. But anyway, so so too. Dude, I want to say that's awesome. I have so much respect for people that adopt and foster kids like that. It takes really special people to do that. You know, so it says a lot about you that you're one of those people.
01:39:01
Speaker
Maybe it means I'm saved. No, absolutely not. If you believe in God and that Jesus died on the cross and God raised him from the grave, you are saved according to the Bible. I'll have to get back to you on that.
01:39:17
Speaker
You don't have to get back to me. I mean, it's your personal beliefs and decisions and all, but that's just, that's what the Bible says. Like, I am literally protected by the Bible. I'm just like, this is what it says. And if people think I'm a hater, it's just, everyone believes something, whether they believe in no God or whether they believe in Muhammad or
01:39:36
Speaker
boot or whatever. We all are actually entitled to our beliefs. You know what I mean? Because God bless America. Amen. Beautiful. What a comfortable place to be.
Guests' Projects and Social Media Promotion
01:39:53
Speaker
Where can people find out more about Two For Christ and Live With Christ? And Haley, you and your sister, do you guys have a group name? Well, you know, for a long time it was First Love, but since First Love was taken everywhere,
01:40:07
Speaker
We did First Love Band, and that was our beginnings. And then people would say, introducing Camille and Hailey Harris from the First Love Band. And we're like, goodness, we don't even have a band. But we just used that name because it was available. So then we just changed our name to Camille and Hailey. So we have CamilleAndHailey.com. But since that's hard to spell, it also merges if you type in thesisterduo.com. Thesisterduo.com. And that will go to CamilleAndHailey.com.
01:40:32
Speaker
And then for us, we have twoforchrist.org. T-W-O for christ.org. Maybe even easier is liftwithchrist.org. And it goes to the same website. It's the home of both. So we just updated it actually. Yeah. Actually, I was surprised. Lift with Christ has a... You have a pretty good size following there, man.
01:40:52
Speaker
Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah, I know. All my social media handles are all at Lift With Christ. And if you want to engage, message. I try to get back with as many people as I can, that message. If you want to throw some hate comments, thinks my rapping's trash. It is like, it's, I don't disable comments. I don't block people. So if you, I'm all about free speech. So if you want to say something like, I've had it.
01:41:15
Speaker
Well, maybe I'll reach out for some fitness tips because I'm getting schlubby in my mid thirties. I'll get you on a meal plan workout routine. I'll get you swole.
01:41:24
Speaker
There we go. Well, Nick and Haley, thanks for thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate you hanging out with us. Yes, you're having a good time. Yeah, definitely appreciate it. Like, I know we talked a little bit before we got started, and I hope I didn't set it up as though you're walking into a hostile environment. But it was one of those like asking someone to do something where you know, like, you're going on something where they're
01:41:51
Speaker
there's going to be ideological differences. You, I, it makes it tough. I think people don't necessarily know what to expect. Um, you guys were great. Yeah. It was, uh, Hemet, Hemet Meadow, right? Great guy. Really nice. He is. We've had him on our podcast, uh, earlier on when we got this thing going, he's, he's a nice guy. I appreciate him.
01:42:14
Speaker
But yeah, so anyway, I appreciate you guys doing this. I think it's really cool of you and a good time talking to you both. Oh, thank you so much, man. Yeah, I just, I take things as drive, man. It's gonna roll through. I think even like you mentioned ideologies, it's like, bro, two people are chill. Like, eh, you know, music at the end of the day, I think it's a shame that people are like, oh, different, different viewpoints. You know, it's like, eh, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ here on earth. You know what I mean? So this, this was fun, man. I'm really glad you had us on. This was a pleasure talking with you.
01:42:44
Speaker
Yeah. By the way, is that a loop shirt? What shirt is that? Tesseract? Tesseract, yeah. It's not Loki, right? Oh, it's a band. It's not King of House God. Right. Anyway, yeah. Thanks everybody for listening and we will see you next time. Okay.
01:43:14
Speaker
you