Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Culture Christianity - The Allen Jackson Podcast - Featuring Brandon Tatum

Episode Date: October 10, 2025

When Christians tolerate immorality, it does not bring peace from conflict—it leads to cultural collapse. In this episode, Pastor Allen Jackson sits down with former police officer and the host of "The Officer Tatum Show," Brandon Tatum, to reflect on the shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk and what it reveals about the spiritual battle unfolding in America. Their conversation moves from the weight of that loss to the broader cultural decay seen in moments like the Super Bowl halftime show, where artists like Bad Bunny headline performances that reflect anything but biblical values. Brandon shares his powerful personal testimony and how his eyes were opened to the spiritual forces shaping the headlines. Together, they wrestle with what it means to stand firm in a time of deep moral confusion and why believers must hold the line with courage and conviction.—It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Welcome to culture and Christianity. Today is a special episode for me. I get to sit down with a friend, Brandon Tatum. I met Brandon a couple years ago at NRB and said, I'm leaving for Israel. Why don't you come go with me? And he said, yes. And we had an amazing time in the land of Israel.

And ever since then, we are fellow travelers. And I ask him, he's going to share a bit of his story, how he made it to faith and how God got a real place in his life and then get some takes on some of the things unfolding in our culture. I think it will encourage you, strengthen your faith, and hopefully help every one of us to say we will not stop. We're going to honor the Lord with our lives. It's important, and I think Brandon will encourage you. Enjoy the show.

You know, you don't have to look far to see that our economy is in real turmoil. Our nation is $37 trillion in debt. Inflation rates made it hard to buy and sell a house, even a car. We're all feeling it. When you go to the grocery store and you spend an extra dollar or two in every item, that gets personal in a hurry. Well, the most important thing we can do during uncertain times is to invest ourselves in knowing God better. Read his word, pray. That's the only place we're really going to find stability we need for the disruption that I'm pretty certain is ahead of us.

Beyond that, it's just plain wise to make the best decisions possible in our daily lives with our investments. When you think of all the options out there, gold is an investment that has stood the test of time. That's why I work with preserved gold. They've treated me with honesty, integrity, kindness, every step of the way. They're offering a free wealth protection kit, and all you need to do is text Allen, that's A-L-L-E-N to 50-505. As a bonus, you'll get up to $15,000 in free gold and silver with a qualified purchase. Go ahead and text them today. Hey, my guest today's not really a guest.

He's a friend, Brandon Tatum. Welcome back, Brandon. Well, thank you for having me back. the real Officer Tatum. Yes, sir. You know what's funny, I feel like I wear the same thing every time I come to church. So this is definitely recorded on a different day

even though I wear the same outfit. This is kind of like my uniform. Well, we've changed our studio, so even the space is looking a little different. Right, true. I want to start a little different. You know, I follow your social media and all your places,

and you know, you've always got a bold take and a courageous take and sometimes unpopular takes and you stand in that space. But we've talked a little bit, and you haven't always been that Brandon Tatum. So maybe we take a minute and start about that journey a little bit because I love the way God makes a story with our lives.

That's true. That's true. I think it's important for people to know that I haven't always been the Christian conservative Brandon Tatum that they know that seems to have wisdom and have everything figured out for the most part. But, you know, I grew up in a very diverse background. You know, my parents had split up when we were young. I never saw my mom and dad together, especially not together without arguing or having beef with one another.

So I grew up in that kind of household where they wouldn't talk to each other. My mom and daddy wouldn't even talk to each other. So that's all we knew growing up. And then, you know, we didn't come from a silver spoon. You know, we came from a really rough upbringing when it comes to our family structure. outside of our, you know, central family home, you know, a lot of my family members are on drugs. A lot of my family members doing a few of them doing life in prison. And, you know, when I was younger and nothing against my mom, she's done the best she could.

But, you know, my stepdad, who was a major part of our life growing up, was a drug dealer. And he was OD on heroin. We were young, died. That was one of the biggest losses that I experienced as a young person that was, traumatic for me, you know. And growing up like that comes with a little bit of stereotypical behavior, the hatred of police officers, feeling like white people hated us, living that, living through the lens of everything being racist, you know, that whole rigmarole. And also, the good in that was that growing up in Texas in an environment like that, you prioritize going to church and believing in

God. So we went to church a lot and we play football. That's what we do. When you live in Texas, you go to church and you play football. And it don't matter if you're good at either one of them, you're still going to do them. And so we did that. And one thing I often say about my experience with the church is that we were in the church, but the church wasn't in us, meaning that we would show up on Sunday. But on the rest of the days of the week, we weren't doing anything related to church. We put in secular music, you know, watched secular shows, all of the above, idolized people who were completely secular and had no identification with God. But it wasn't until I went to college that things began to change.

I was an All-American football player out of Fort Worth, Texas, out of Dunbar High School. We actually had a pretty significant football team. And the funny thing is, our football team wasn't really the biggest sport in our school. Basketball was our big sport. Coach Hughes is still the most winningest basketball coach in the entire. United States of America history in U.S. history. And so our basketball team was more popular, but we had 9D1 players on our football team and four of us were all American over the course of four-year period. And so coming out of college, I mean, coming out of high school, I was

the man. You know, I had scholarships everywhere, ended up going to the University of Arizona, which was like my last option. It was only because one of my coaches introduced me to the school. Coach Stoops was there. Coach Mark Stoops was a tremendous coach, and I said, this is the perfect environment for me. Half of the players on the team were from Texas. And so I really thought that God had sent me there. And now I realize he did. But when I was there, I didn't at first.

Football began to fall apart for me when I first got there. You know, I had a terrible attitude. People wouldn't even believe it, but I had gold teeth in my mouth. I got young, savage tattooed across my stomach. And that was the lifestyle I wanted to live, listening to rap music and gang. You know, I just, I was embodying that kind of behavior. And so the first sign of coaching to me was a threat to, you know, who I was. So I would get into it and clash with the coaches, cuss them out, all kind of stuff.

So I was in the doghouse, to be honest. Although I was a tremendous athlete, I wasn't coachable. And I saw my career begin to fade away, which drew me back to Christ. Because I literally came to a breaking point where I said, you know, I don't know if I, you know, I don't know what I do from here. I'm not playing football. My dreams are shattered. I don't think I'm ever going to get out of this. I have nowhere else to go.

Let me give that guy a thing a try. And I wasn't, Pastor, I wasn't giving it a try as if I thought it would work. I was giving it a try to rule it out. That's the honest to God truth. I said, let me just go through this and rule this out. Is God really something? Because I got other things I want to do, you know, to satisfy my anger and frustration with this. side of God. What do you know? I went to a church. You said Pentecostal running around the

church at the sermon. That's exactly the church. I went to an apostolic church, which is kind of like the black version of Pentecostal. And it changed my life. It changed my life. For the first time in my life, all that church I had gone to, for the first time my life, I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wow. I mean, the real gospel, not the fancy talk and the picking scripture here and there and put together a sermon. I'm curious, when you say you heard it, would you hear that it was different? Well, you know, other pastors would talk more about the things in the New Testament

past the book of Acts, right? I mean, some of the writings that were done to people who were already saved, people who had already been given a promise. It was kind of like correction. And then they'll go to the Old Testament, the Braing Godless together to, you know, I would say to give you this very water down, version of what Christ wanted in our lives. So they try to give a prosperity gospel and all the friendly talk and they would put things together

avoiding the gospel, which is in some parts are very hard to listen to if you sinning. So, you know, but the story that pastor, or I call him Bishop Arthur Pierce mentioned was, and I never forget it, that Jesus said he's the way. And the pastor just made this good analogy of the door. He said, you can't go around it. You can't go under it. You've got to go through the door. And the preaching of the true gospel is where I started really feeling like I understood my assignment and what Jesus was all about.

And that led me to going to church more consistently. I could go through a whole bunch of other stuff, but it'll take forever about some of the visions that God was showing me when I was going to church. And one day I went to church and there was the altar call. and I had gone with a young lady who was my, she wasn't my girlfriend at the time we had broken up, but we were really good friends. And to be honest, I didn't want to go to church by myself. I was a little nervous,

so I invited her to go to church with me. And at the altar call, she was crying, her eyes out, just crying. And I'm like, let me be a good friend and take her to the front. Because she wanted to get prayer. Be a gentleman. I went down there and I ended up getting prayed for. And I ended up getting baptized at the church. and, you know, in the tradition of the apostolic church,

you get baptized, and then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So they tarry with me, you know, pray with me for some people that don't know, that turned for King James. But on a Thursday night, and they lay hands on me and I spoke in tongues. And I had never been the same. And the interesting thing is a lot of people begin to come to Christ because of what God had done through me on the football team. And I wasn't the one to tell people about it.

It was my lifestyle. People started noticing I quit cussing. I wasn't going out to the clubs. I wasn't doing any of those things. And I wasn't doing it to impress nobody. It was just really my conviction and my newfound faith that I wanted to be serious about. And I ended up singing in the choir and doing all that little stuff. You believe it or not, I could sing in the choir.

When I had to do it by myself, I was terrible. But Brother Bill. Even Jesus couldn't get me to sing in the choir. He doesn't want to hear me sing. But, you know, I was so in love with God at that time that I wanted to do anything. I wanted to do anything. I was sing in the shower, right? But I never sing out loud in front of anybody.

But I was so on fire for God. I said, you know, I just want to be a part of this. And so I ushered at the church and then I also sang in the choir. And then, you know, obviously there's turmoil that happens when you go to dedicate yourself if you don't have mentorship or whatever. ended up with a young lady that I was dating at the time. We dated before I got saved. And then so when I got saved, I said, hey, we can't date anymore because you want to live that lifestyle. I want to live this lifestyle.

But I felt like it was a part of the devil and myself that I went to compromise. I said, okay, we can still date, but I go to church you do with your thing and then we stay away from each other at night, if you know what I'm saying. I got it. So, but somehow, some way, I found. myself in a position where she ended up getting pregnant. It's a whole story about that, pastor, of how God worked through that because she wanted to initially have an abortion. And I tell the story at the pro-life events, but, you know, God really worked in that

situation because I didn't agree with it. She tricked me to a certain degree where she had told me she wanted to go see how far along she was at Planned Parenthood. And I didn't know what Planned Parenthood was. You know, I thought it was planning parenthood. I didn't know it was planning to eliminate parenthood. So we get there and at the front door, she told me, I'm sorry. I came here to having a abortion.

I'm sorry. But I prayed in the lobby and that's why men can't go there anymore because I prayed in the lobby out loud for like 20 minutes. And eventually she couldn't do it. And now obviously my son is 15 years old. But that was a big hit on me at the church because it was a whole in this church. And so I had to apologize to the church. And I brought her to church with me.

And so, you know, I'm standing out like a sore thumb. I bring her to church. She ended up getting baptized at the church and everything. So the guy worked that part out. But that led me to the 2010 NFL draft where even though I didn't play in college, I was such a tremendous athlete that they were going to, Oakland Raiders said they were going to draft me in the sixth or the seventh round. I threw a draft party at my house.

My whole family was there. And they passed on me in the draft. And my agent told me it was because the day before they had had a conversation with the coach and he said a lot of negative things about me and therefore they didn't want to take a chance and I was devastated but then I had an opportunity um because the guy in me said you know what brandy you and a mentor that I had a guy named John and he had told me you know you got to put an ex on a calendar whenever you've given it all your effort and it's not yielding results you need to transition to something else you cannot chase a dead dream forever and that's exactly what I did

and I applied for everything in the city of Tucson, the police department ended up calling me back, and I was not expecting that call because I was just applying because I needed a job. I didn't think I was going to be a cop. But I did a ride-along, and that's what really convinced me that I wanted to be a police officer

with Officer Sean Payne, incredible guy. He just retired. But Sean Payne, white guy, you know, people would like to think that officers in the black community can't get along, and that's a lie from the pit of hell in most cases. And he took me on a ride didn't know me from Adam.

I just pulled up next to him at the park in the parking lot of, we call it Code 4, was the East Division. And he looked at me, I looked at him. You know, he didn't know of what I was going to try rob him, and I didn't know if he was going to pull a gun on me. And, but we ended up doing a ride along next day and blew me away.

So that's a long story around there, but I want to move forward so we can get through this enemy because I could talk forever. No, no, you're good. So we get to that point, and I ended up becoming a police officer. It changed my life. It changed my trajectory politically.

It changed my trajectory when it comes to my love for country and how I view people. And I can actually live out my faith to the fullest because I wasn't only a man of God and word. But now I have to be a man of God to people that I don't know. And also be a man of God to people that try to kill me and hurt other people and that have heard other people. And so being able to speak life to people and pray for people and all of those things that I was able to do as a cop was tremendous for me. You know, I know it's, in hindsight, it's all easier to see. But, I mean, God's hand on you. And your willingness to cooperate with him.

I met you pretty casual. We had kind of a casual appointment. But when I sat down, there's a, you have a heart open to the Lord that's not typical. And when I hear you tell your story, you stand up in front of church and say, yeah, it's me. Yeah. You know, I got it wrong. I mean, not everybody's willing to do that. Right.

We blame everybody else. We hide everything. We, whatever. But I see the trajectory of that. And, I mean, and then God puts you in a place to learn to love the country and love law enforcement, respect authority. When you were the opposite of that. I mean, you know, God sends us to a school we didn't know we got enrolled in. Right.

I mean, I got my own story that way. I mean, it's like you knucklehead. And that's why he sticks you over here for a little while. But I still see that hard in you. And he is multiplying that in your life. So you're a police officer, and then how did you transition into the media? Yeah, that was another interesting story. But this wasn't like a deal.

No, you know, the kids now want to be Brandon Tateau. Right, right. But it wasn't the deal when you were doing it. Before it was popular, cool, and people could actually make money doing it. So. Wait a minute, I'm supposed to make money doing it? Somebody take a note of that. We've been overlooking that.

So we, you know, I was a cop. And a lot of the guys on the police department were conservative. And I believed, because of the way I grew up, that I was more on the left. And, you know, they would always point out to me, you believe this. And the party that you support is saying this. You're a Christian. You don't believe in abortion. You believe in marriage between a man and a woman.

But with the side that you're on, this is what they're saying. That don't seem like that match. And I didn't know I'd blow it off. And it wasn't until Barack Obama started bashing police officers. He came out with the Cambridge police officers, said they acted stupidly. And then once it came out that they didn't, he never corrected the script, Michael Brown. And all these other incidents where he had an opportunity to unite the country and support the law enforcement, he bashed him and never apologized for it. And I remember thinking to myself, I would never support somebody like that that, that won't stand up for the men and women that wear that uniform.

And I'll never forget the dudes on the SWAT team where like, you see your boy? You see your boy out there? You see what he said about the police? And it changed me forever. I said, I'll never support that guy. So then I started to look on the other side of the aisle and open my mind up. And I liked Ben Carson during their 2016 run. And I thought, yeah, obviously he's brilliant.

He's one of the smartest men that ever live. Good Christian values. I like his tax, you know, plan of like almost a tide of 10%. And so I thought he was amazing. He drops out of the race and he endorses Trump. And I didn't think Trump was even serious. I thought Trump was just getting some TV time, right? Showboating a little bit.

Showboating a little bit. Embarrassing these politicians showing the world that these politicians are just, you know, they're reading scripts. They're not really genuine people that got a genuine message. So then when Ben Carson dropped out, I said, let me go check Trump out because he's getting momentum. He's top of the polls and he's coming to Tucson. And according to the media, he's a real thing. racist and that black people getting thrown out of his rallies just for being black. And so I said, let me, let me be, I'm a man of wisdom.

Let me go see for myself. And I went to the rally and I was blown away. Everybody was nice. They were kind, genuine. It was like America should be. Nobody gave anybody grief at the rally. Everybody was there excited to see Trump. He comes out like a rock star saying all the things that I believe.

You know, it's like, wow, I do believe in, you know, closing the border. I do believe in lower taxes. I do believe that we live in a Christ-based society and we need to be operating in those principles. And I left that event being like, I'm going to vote for that guy. But the crazy thing is that the left is lied about what happened at the event. They blocked off the doors. They were trying to assault people.

They disrupted his rally five or six times in a coordinated effort. They were yelling and cussing and acting a fool in front of children. And they were deranged. and the media never said anything about it. And so I made a video just to give my two cents. I wasn't a person on social media. Like I'd never made a video before. I wasn't doing social media.

I was a cop, so I kind of had to stay on the low, and I would only write scriptures because I was still on fire for Christ, and that's all I would put on my thing. But I was too lazy to really type it out. So I said, let me just make this video and go to bed because I had done a night shift, and I stayed up to do the rally,

and I was like, let me do this, and I'm going to go to bed and go to work like nothing ever happened. I made the video, uploaded it, went to sleep, woke up 35 plus miscarls. And I thought I missed my shift. I was like, what happened? Am I getting fired? It's something like, why 35 missed calls?

Hannity called me, and I didn't know who Hannity was. I'd never watched Fox News. I was like, what is a Hannity? Fox and Friends, Fox First. I mean, all these people calling me, the police station called me. And I had to call them back. I'm like, what happened? Like, am I in trouble?

Like, why are these people calling me? She was like, I don't know, you made a video. And I didn't even think about the video of the rally. I'm like, what video could I possibly have made to get this much attention? And then I thought about it. And I said a lot of stuff in that video that I didn't think nobody would see because there was a fight that happened. And it was the perfect storm for that Antifa guy to get beat down. It was a black man in the audience, a Trump supporter.

He was black and a veteran. These two idiots who were protesting, one had a Ku Klux Klan hood that he put over his head. And the other one had a sign that says F the military. So these two guys ran into the perfect storm, right? You got a black guy who served the military. So one of them said something crazy to him or like pushed him and he beat him down bad. And in the video, as a cop, I'm saying, that's what he get. He should have got, you know.

So I'm thinking I'm going to get in trouble. And it didn't happen like that. It went well. So long story short, I went on TV for the first time Fox and France first. It was during the Brussels attack, terrorist attack. So everybody canceled me and said Fox and France first. And I went on. That was the first time I got exposed to being on the media.

I realized God was calling me to do more and have a voice. And so I would just go live. I didn't have no video editing skills. I didn't know nothing about social. So every time a topic come up, I'll go live and upload it to the internet, and they were all going viral. So that was my gig. I would just do that.

Let my voice be heard when I'm off duty, focus on what God called me to do primarily as a police officer, and I thought I was going to go and be the chief of the police department one day. It wasn't until 2017, me running my mouth about Colin Kaepernick. And I'll tell you a quick story behind it because most people don't know this, and I don't often talk about it. All they do is, all they know is they see that video I made. They got 70 million views.

But the catalyst to the video, there was a young man I owe him all the credit from Australia. when I made the first video, he became friends of mine. You know, he lived in Australia. He would just text me every now and again. When Colin Kaepner was doing his foolery, he called me. I was getting ready to take a nap. Honestly, I was in a real low place.

I was depressed a little bit from policing, and I wouldn't answer some phone calls for my parents. And so they flew out there. My dad was like, Brandon's not being, he's not normal. He's not answered the calls. We're going to fly out there. We're not going to tell them. So they flew out there.

They fill my refrigerator up. But I was really struggling at that time as a cop. And I remember everybody's going to take a nap. We just came from Trader Joe's. We got all my groceries that I wanted. Everybody was taking a nap. My friend from Australia calls me and he said, hey, Brennan, you got to say somebody calling Kaepernie.

It's out of control. And I'm like, you know, everybody's making videos, man. My friend James T. Harris from Phoenix, he got 14 million views on his video. There's nothing more I need to say. He was like, man, you got to say something. You got a unique perspective on this. I said, whatever, man. Thank you for that.

I think about it. Simultaneously, I'm talking to one of my friends who I play football with. He played in the NFL. Of course, you know, that was my dream and I didn't. So we're arguing about Colin Kaepernick back and forward, and he hit me with a low blow, man. He said, you're just mad because you didn't play in the NFL. Oh, my goodness. And then it sparked something in me where I was like, you know, these guys, you really think what you're doing is something.

You're playing football is a game. I sacrificed my life. to do what I'm doing. You lose a game. If I lose my life, there's no coming back from this. And it just sparked some of me. So I ran in my garage, put my SWAT hat on, in the garage, no AC sitting in the car screaming for 10 minutes.

And again, I go to sleep, take it now, wake up, that video is Megavirus. 70 million views. Now, a backstory to that just a little bit is that a guy that I had met that was a ULA, U of A alumni, he had kind of introduced me to the world of making content. So I made a few content items for his channel. He was talking to a company called Liftable Media in Phoenix like two weeks before this happened. And they were entertaining me doing content with them, but, you know, I wasn't really viral enough. This video came out and they offered me a deal that I really couldn't refuse at the time because they were paying,

they're going to pay me $20,000 more a year than I was making as a police officer. They bought all of my social media from me. And, you know, I was naive at the time. So I sold it to him for $34,000. So you got to imagine I was only making $45,000 a year as a cop. So they said, we could do it for a year. And if you don't like it, you can go back to being a police officer. And I said, you know what, I probably need to take advantage of this opportunity.

The most money I'm ever going to make is what I thought. And it'll give me an opportunity to do this for a little bit, take a break from policing. And I'll go back to being the police if this don't work out. Long story short, got a bigger plan for me. Because as soon as I took that position, I met Candace-on. She hit me up randomly on Twitter, said, hey, let's connect. Let's do content together. Funny story I'll tell you at another time probably about that story when I first met her

because it was nothing that I expected to be. And we ended up pretty much getting kicked out of a restaurant that first day. So, but so fast forward, I met her. Liftable media almost go out of business because Facebook changed their algorithm. So they went from 40,000 concurrent views. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on average, to now 2,000 concurrent views. And they give me this ultimatum, pastor. They say, and you got to think, I had sold out my social media to them.

They said, hey, we promised you a year, so we'll finish the year with you. But if you leave now, we'll give you all your social media back for free. And I couldn't, I was like, God, you answered my prayers because I had prayed to God that I made a mistake because they weren't really fulfilling, and I sold everything that I own. I had to start over. So anyway, I went to bed. I told them, I want to, I'll take it out right now.

I went out, and at the same time, Candace was promoted from Turning Point USA to the, she was like the spokesperson or something like that for Turner Point USA. And then so the vacancy of the Urban Engagement Director came up. And simultaneously, when they were going out and getting ready to let me go, she said you need to come work for turning point we got a job over for you and i went to turning

point and the rest is history you know almost everybody i know wants to feel better have more energy i mean myself included i went to a concert a few months ago it's been almost a year ago now and i sat down next to a friend jordan rubin was there i made an offhand comment i need to feel better get a healthier you showed up in my office a couple days later with a plan for me part of it was a diet my diet was centered on Oreos. He had some different ideas. But a part of what he brought to me was this multi-collegin protein. It's been a part of my routine for months now, and it's made a difference.

More energy, I feel better, my joints feel better. It's real food from real food sources. Helps us feel better. I recommend it to you. It's made a difference for me. I think it'll help you. Just go to ancientnutrition.com. You can put in code Allen 30.

That's A-L-L-E-N-30. You'll get a 30% discount, and it'll also. bless our ministry. Again, that's ancientnutrition.com, Alan, A-L-L-E-N-30. You get a 30% discount on multi-collegin protein. You'll feel better and you'll bless our ministry. Thanks. Well, I listen to quite a bit of your stuff and I always appreciate your take. You're bold and you're direct, but I don't ever feel like you're chasing clicks. You're trying to help people sort out what's happening. And it's such a... It's an important voice.

I want to toss you kind of some softballs, kind of quick hitters, but you're, I mean, you're not a stranger to controversy. You mentioned Turning Point. I know Charlie Kirk was a friend. I mean, you were a lot closer to him than I was, and I was close enough. This one felt really personal. I think you did his show, sat in on the show last week with that chair empty. What's your take on Charlie is a martyr, and what next?

What's that look like? What's it feel like? Yeah, I was, you know, I said this in my speech last night that Charlie wasn't just a person that I see online and I admired. It was a person that I knew. I consider him to be a friend. And one thing that I'm very proud of to say, because, you know, a lot of times when people pass unexpectedly, you have a lot of regrets. I wish I would have done this. I wish I would have done that.

But my relationship with Charlie is that I had never told Charlie no to an opportunity. Anything he needed for me, I always say yes. and it helped me grow as a man to do that and also it helped our friendship grow because he knew he can always depend on me no matter what I was going to stand by Charlie young guy he was eight years younger than me you know he and but I always admired him

and kind of goofy nerdy smart he was when I first met him when Candace introduced me to him that's exactly what I thought I like this goofy how he got this whole thing going but he's smart though but he's kind of awkward you know he's kind of nerdy and You know, he's really like bookwormish. And but the kid was on fire for Christ and he was running a hundred mass power.

I don't think Charlie, I ever known Charlie not to run a hundred mass power. I mean, he was, I'm going to tell you this. Me and here were friends, I'd never sit down and having a conversation with Charlie like this. Because he couldn't. Right. You can get a couple words. We'll text, but Charlie will say something to you a couple words. and then he's traveling here at fundraisers, doing this speech, five speeches here, three speeches in one day.

I think he's done that since 2017 to the day he died. He was running and gunning like that. So that's what I'd known about him, and he was a really good friend of mine. So his death, it hit me hard initially. And it's only because the grace of God that I'm not just down and out right now. But it hit me hard. I remember the day it happened. Obviously it wasn't too long ago, but I remember we're getting ready to do.

do my show and we get the phone call from Fox News and they go, Brennan, we need you to come on now. Are you ready? I know it's last minute. We need to come on. Charlie's been shot. And I was paralyzed, man. I was like, wait a minute. I don't want to hear.

What are you talking about? I don't care nothing about your show. You just said my friend was shot. What do you mean? Is he okay? What are you guys talking about? Like, I need to know that. That's more important than coming on your show.

And they're like, we don't have any details. We'll let you know. And I just was paralyzed, man. My stomach dropped. in my mind I was like there's no way he got killed or anything he just probably got shot maybe some idiot was shooting a nine meal

in the crowd and he kind of got hit scraped or whatever and I saw the video from the distance and it looked like he just kind of got shot in the shoulder and he kind of leaned off to the side that's all that I saw so I was very optimistic that are we going to pray

and we're going to stand by Charlie and he's going to make a hear and make a recovery just like Trump you know Trump missed that bullet got to do the same thing for Charlie And the very unfortunate part that was just devastating, and I couldn't watch it. My team had showed me, or they had told me there was a closer up video, the gruesome video that everybody's seen. And I remember the horror and the shrieks from them watching the video. And I told him, I don't want to watch it.

I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear it. I was in denial. And I was also angry because when I realized he had died and he was, That means it's over. It's no second chance. There's no wishing away. You know, God could do any miracle, but, you know, him raising from the dead was highly unlikely.

And I wanted revenge. I remember crying on my show. The first time my wife ever saw me cry, anybody ever saw me cry. I remember crying on the show because I was like, we just don't get a lick back. You know, we don't get the revenge what had been done. And it was a part of me that was like, I'm going to get my rifle. I'm going to go down there, you two. tall because I've had enough.

We're not going to let them do this to us. They're going to just kill Charlie and you're going to get away with it. Arrest is the least of your worries. But I remember thinking to myself, Charlie wouldn't want that. And God wouldn't want me to be that type of person. That's the old brand. That's not who God needs me to be in this moment. In this moment, I need to be strong.

I need to have courage and I need to lead people the way God want me to lead them in a time like this because everybody's confused. And so we prayed. on my show and we honored Charlie. And what this means to me, two things. One is that I think Charlie is the biggest Christian martyr to ever live outside of Jesus. And not because of the significance of his faith and how perfect he was or wasn't. It's the timing of it.

We live in a generation where everyone in the world, I think a billion people saw Charlie die. It wasn't just a word of mouth, right? Rumors that this happened. They saw his gruesome assassination. The whole world did, which created a ripple effect and a tremendous impact. And he became in that moment probably the biggest Christian martyr to live in our lifetime, at least in our lifetime. Because hundreds of millions of people are now talking about Christ, talking about Charlie. And that to me is what moving forward looks like is the legacy.

And it wasn't just about Charlie because it was God in Charlie that was doing the work. Right. And Charlie's mission, because we all, it's easy to say, I'm going to follow you, God, and use me. It's just, it's, it's, like everybody said, I'm going to use me for your glory. And whatever it is, God, I'll do it. And wherever you want me to go, I'll go. But that's what Charlie did. And God, to me, said, Charlie, I'm going to use you.

I'm going to build you up. I'm going to prosper you. I'm going to give you all the words and the wisdom that you need to go on campus and do this. But then I'm going to take you at 31 years old because your life being taken is going to elevate the kingdom bigger than your life being alive could. And it's hard for us to accept it. but Charlie is, he's having it. He partying. Charlie's good.

He's partying with Jesus somewhere. Yeah, yeah. And everybody else that's up there. He got the promotion. He got the promotion that we all are dreaming about. However, God is doing something in that. We got to lean into it. We, we, like never before.

Yep. Right? Or our brother would have died in vain. But, you know, it tells a lot about Charlie's life, too, is the reaction after his death. right? And I'm not trying to bring other religions in it, but some religious figures in history were violent, and it breeds violence, and the retribution of this is violent. But Christ breeds love. Forgive them for they know not what they do. Love your neighbors. I mean, you know,

love your enemies, all of those things. Christ could have fought back. Peter wanted to fight back. Right. And Peter was like me, you know. You were very good at it. Yeah, yeah. All he got was in the ear. He missed. He wasn't trying for the ear. So, you know, you know, so, you know, when he died, when Charlie died, look at what

happened. People came to Christ. They didn't come to a Republican Party, right? I don't think he had anything to do with politics. And to be honest, it was the first time you hear some of these politicians even talk about God. Some of them sound like theologians. You know, Marco Rubio was talking about how.

God came down in the flesh and he did this. Telling more truth than most of the high-profile pastors we know. 100%. So I think that's the legacy of Charlie and what we have to expect moving forward is that God had used him to call us to do something great. And it would be a shame if we didn't take advantage of saying we're going to finish the race and we're going to do more than we've ever done before because look at what our brother has sacrificed.

His family, his life, his legacy. He was 31. He should have been 80 years old writing 500 books and beat with his name on every billboard because of how great he was, like a crusader, like Billy Graham. We put it into work. Yeah.

I mean, really, he put into work. Yeah. And I went to O'Roberts University 100 years ago. And Orel was still involved when I was there, but he was, I think he had a 65th birthday and he got all the student body together. And he was kind of a bigger-than-life figure, but I remember him saying, he looked up, he said, God showed me that your ministry is going to exceed mine.

Which, I mean, he had pretty good attitude, so we weren't quite believing that. And then he smiled, and he said, but it's going to take more than one of you. Wow. And that's kind of what I think about Charlie. I don't think there's one person that's going to fill those shoes, but I think there's a group of people impacted by what Charlie modeled, his work ethic, his effort, his willingness to learn, his willingness to entertain a dialogue, have a conversation. He wasn't filled with hate when he could have been, all those things. And now I think there's, I think the way we honor that legacy is we serve the Lord with that same kind of determination.

So I appreciate your voice on that. One more quick hit. Yes, sir. I'm curious on this one. I usually don't ask a question without having somebody to even answer. NFL, Super Bowl, halftime. What are they thinking? Oh, with the gentleman that's that they have doing it now.

Bad bunny. Bad devil is probably what his real name is. You know, you know, let's be honest, pastor. I know that's 180-degree switch, but... Yeah, but they've gotten us, and we're deceived to think that they don't have us. They know that people are going to watch it anyway. Right.

They know that they got the people who have died of football fans are not going to not watch the Super Bowl. And what they're doing is saying, you guys shut up because all you do is talk. You're not going to hurt us financially. We want to get people that don't normally watch the NFL so we can get the revenue. That's what they're doing.

That's why they picked them, and that's why they don't have any type of blowback, because the people won't act. And for me, it's not hard for me not to watch Super Bowl because I don't watch football anyway anymore. I'm just not interested, especially not NFL. You know, these paid athletes, they're not as loyal as college football is to me.

You know, it's more pride. Now the college football players are getting paid. Now they're not loyal. You'll be watching high school. Right, right. My son is actually playing high school football. He's doing it really well. So, yeah, I'm going to watch him.

That's my only excitement. But that's why they did it. I don't want anybody to try to act like they're going to boss up on the NFL and they're not going to watch the Super Bowl. They're going to watch that thing. They're going to cheer. People are going to bet on the game. And Bad Bunny is going to have a horrific showing and people are going to make money off making videos about how horrible it was. And then everything is going to go on.

So the people that really get frustrated with it, it's like, you know, you guys are not willing to act. Like Netflix. I mean, Netflix, what they're doing is diabolical. But why wouldn't they not do it when people aren't going to run? really make them face the music. A little bit of backlash from Enhauser-Busch. They changed around. Target.

They took a hit. Netflix is taking a hit right now, but how sustained this is going to be? A lot of people are like, I'm going to counsel it. I'm going to reload it next month. I mean, I don't think we counsel it yet. Two-week protest.

I don't think we canceled it yet, because I just haven't gotten around to it. We definitely should. You know, and there's a lot of other programs, especially for our kids. Me and my wife don't need to watch no Netflix. You know, we've got other shows we can watch. especially for the kids, because we're old enough to decipher if it's garbage or not, right?

You see two women kissing on a thing, and it's like, I'm not watching that show. But young kids don't understand how to decipher that, especially at that age. So for the kids, you know, I let, you know, my son watch the total twins, you know, different cartoons like that. Some cartoons from Prager You, and we need to be serious about letting our kids watch godly. There's people praying on our kids, which is. That's exactly. That is hard to believe. They have to, Pastor, they have to get the kids

because their lifestyle is not fruitful. Not only fruitful in deep, but they're not fruitful in reproduction either. So they are running out of people as weirdos. And so they have to now get your kid to be a weirdo. And that's exactly what they're doing. And it's interesting because it's so deep, it's so much deeper than people think.

When you get exposed to certain things as a child, it may not affect you as a child. It will affect you as an adult from your subconscious. That's why when young people get exposed to sexuality, young, a lot of times they don't just act out sexual deviancy when they're young because they're still thinking and growing or whatever. It comes out when they're adults. And these people know that, and so that's what they do to your children.

They indoctrinate them when they're young, get into their subconscious, and then when they get around puberty age, now they're confused, and now they want to demand sex children. changes and all kind of other stuff. And these cowardice, weak, feckless parents that can look their son in the eye and say, okay, I'll convert you to a girl. And pastor, they know it's not true. They know that they're setting their child up for failure because they will never be a

girl or the boy will never be a girl. They betray their children. They dress them up. They make them look cute when they're young. But at some point, you can't, you can't. stop bone density and the way you build, you know. Every cell in your body. Every cell in your body, you can have a size 15 shoe,

and you think you're going to be a, you know, like men are not going to look at you very, very, you know, like they would look at other girls. You hang around your girlfriends, but they're having, you know, the thing that women have every mom. And they're having children. And they got things that they're doing.

And the person that you sold this lie to when they were a kid, It's going to grow up and believe that they can actually be this. And when the rubber hit the road, that's when they get depressed. Because all of that still leads you to being a man. And it's sad that these parents do their children like this. And maybe just maybe the parent is a product of the same type of manipulation. Well, I pray enough people wake up that the NFL, and eventually has to pay a price for that.

Yeah. Because they seem to be pushing the envelope on some knuckle-headed stuff. Goodell doesn't seem to. No. He didn't have a lot of fear of God. No, he doesn't. These people, to me, these people are devils. And this is why we should, as Christians, need to get beyond the four walls.

And I know you preach this all the time. The four walls is for us to come and congregate together and worship together. But our action and the actual church is outside of the four walls. We need to permeate into society. We need to, instead of Goodell being an ungodly idiot, we need to have some, I don't know if he's unguided or not, but what he's doing is ungodly. His policies are. His policies are. So we should know them by their fruits.

So I think it's a fair assessment. But we need to get more people in positions that believe in God. But here's the thing, Pastor. People say they believe in God, but when they get pressed, they don't live that out. Because it's not just saying get a Christian to be the leader of the NFL. Because some Christian get there and then they punk out. Then they all, well, I don't want to pray in front of people because I'm now. And we need more Christians to be in positions than boldness.

Correct. Because what happens is when you are bold, other people say, you know what? I'm going to start praying in. You know, you wear a cross on your thing at work. And people say, well, I'm going to wear a cross today. You know, and it's kind of like people got bolding with Charlie. Like, I don't start sharing my faith more because they saw how much he shared his faith. And so hopefully we get people who are unashamed.

And I don't know this to be true or not. I don't know. I don't like the judge of the people on their walk with Christ, but when you really love the Lord, there is nothing that a person can do to make you turn on the Lord. There's nothing somebody going to do to me to tell me I can't talk about Jesus. I'll quit your show. I'll quit your show.

I'll quit working for your company because I know that God got me. So you can keep that craziness to yourself. You would never make me turn. And because God has been so good. to me. We asked. Right? You don't say, how could, how dare, I could not live with myself.

If he didn't do anything else for us. Right. If made, if there wasn't another kind thing after today, he's been so good to us. He's done, he's already done enough. And so with that mentality for me, it's like, people shock when I talk about Jesus on the radio. It's like, what are you guys saying? Like, that's all my life is.

All of my successes come from God. We got to wrap up, but I got one more comment because it's important. a couple years ago, you and I had the privilege going to Israel together. We saw it top to bottom. I mean, from the Golan Heights, the amount of beatitudes to the Dead Sea. Yeah, that's great. And I've watched you find a voice for Israel. And I know how much heat, or I think I know how much heat you can take for that.

You've got a much bigger platform than I do. But I appreciate your courage. It's not a popular position to have these days. but I still think God has a role for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people, and I'm grateful for your courage. Don't let the knuckleheads get you down. Oh, they won't. God made me stubborn to a certain degree.

So the more they say I'm getting paid is the more I'm tweeting and posting and making videos. They're never going to stop me because the truth is the truth. And your sermon today, I mean, you laid it out very clearly with scriptural evidence. how can it be denied? And I'd rather be on God's side and get beat up by these knuckleheads than to be a coward and have to look at my wife in the eye every night and say, I'm a coward and I'm afraid because people on the internet. We're not getting, it's not like we're getting hung from trees.

It's not like we're getting, you know, put on a cross and crucified. You know, for the most part, it's people on the internet, mostly trolls and bots and people that don't have God in them. Why in the world would I let them make me somehow waver on my commitment to what God said about Israel? And I'm proud to do it. At first I didn't want to say I was a Zionist. I was like, oh, that's kind of weird. But I'm like, no, I am a Zionist, and I'm a proud Zionist. And if people don't like it, then take it up with the Lord. We have to get a collection of all the labels they give us.

Yeah, yeah. Christian nationalist, Christian Zionist. I mean, the list goes on and on. They're going to call his names. me Talmud Tatumstein. I think I'm going to make a shirt that's called Talmud Tatum. I'll wear one of those. Every time I get on there, I thought for Halloween, I didn't want to be disrespectful to the Jewish people, but I'm like on a little Halloween thing. You know, I have people dress up.

I'm going to dress up as an Orthodox Jew and troll the mess out of people. My first show, I'm going to come and say, this is Talmud Tatumsteen. I like to just rub it in their face, you know, as much as I can because we'll call to be bold. I can't stop thinking about Jesus going in that temple. And there's people that, that's people that say it. I don't know which one is true that he may have hit people. You know, some people say when he was driving him out with the whip or whatever, and, you know, some people think he was using the whip to get the animals to vacate.

But I've seen people say that he was, he probably struck a couple of people. And so Christ being perfect and having all wisdom and temperament, his zeal and passion for what's right, should make us all feel like it's time to step up. Amen. Brandon Tatum, I appreciate you. It's an honor to call you a friend. Likewise.

I tell you true, when I've had a bad day, I get a little worn down, I'll pull up some of your videos. You'll get me laughing and smiling. I'm thinking Brandon's not backing up. I'm not stopping either. So thank you. You're an encouragement to me. I love that.

Thank you so much, Patrick. We'll see you back in Tennessee soon. Yes, sir. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministry's YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.