The Eric Metaxas Show - Albin Sadar: Some People Are Still Oblivious to the Obvious

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

Our friend Albin Sadar joins us to discuss his recent article "Some People Are Still Oblivious to the Obvious".The article criticizes modern gender norms as rejecting self-evident truths and urges Christians to actively defend traditional values.

Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blobs starring Steve McQueen? The blood-curdling threat of the blob. Well, way back when, Eric had a small part in that film, but they had to cut his scene because the blob was supposed to eat him. But he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest.

Eric the Texas! Hey there, folks. It is my joy to welcome back to the program, our dear friend, Albin Seder, and that's his real name. Albin, is that your real name? That is, and it's a real joy to be back with you, Eric Metaxes. And that's also my real name. Let me ask you, what is on your mind? There's so much going on in the news right now.

It's always hard to know where to begin. This wrote an article, which I thought was interesting. Should we talk about that? Yeah, let's talk about the article. because it really kind of nails the fact that there's so much out there and people still don't see what's obvious. In fact, the article is called Some People Are Still Oblivious to the Obvious. And of course, I wrote the book on Obvious, the book Obvious. But I tie in something very interesting.

And by the way, you can find this article either at Americanthinker.com or it's also been posted at stream.org. So it's up there where John Smirak, the mighty John Smirak is at stream.org right now as well. Some people are still oblivious to the obvious. But here's what the genesis of the article, Eric. I had to go online. I was going to see a new doctor about a new problem I have physically, right? And online, of course, you've got to fill out the forms before you go to see the doctor. And I'm not kidding.

And I know other people can identify with this. I went on and it said sex, and it said male, female, and underneath that it had in parentheses, it said, sex assigned at birth. Okay, now you and I, when we were growing up and other people about 10 years ago, all it said was sex, male, female. Some places I've seen sex, male, female, other. I'm not kidding, right? And so I tied that into something, and if you go to the Fun Facts Friday for for the 4th of July. I talk about some fun facts there, but in the, and this all ties in about age and about how we used to perceive things. When the founding fathers wrote the direct declaration of independence, they used the word obvious, but in another way. They said, we hold

these truths to be self-evident. Self-evident means obvious. And back then, one of the truths that was self-evident was all men are created equal. Now, today, they might say that some men are born women. That's what they would say to them is self-evident, you know, to the lefties, the progressives. But I also wanted to mention that there were 56 people that signed that for 13 colonies. They signed the self-evident thing, and they were also saying that that was obvious. So they were, in effect, they were endorsing my book, obvious. That's always going to say, button, Winette, Samuel Adams, they've all endorsed your book by signing the Declaration, Albin. Well, you know, I keep saying I'm writing a book on the American Revolution.

And so interesting, I'm learning so much. One of the things that I have learned recently is that that use of the word self-evident, which is in the Declaration, that was Benjamin Franklin changed Jefferson's words. Jefferson said we hold these truths to be something like sacred and something else. And Franklin, being the kind of no-nonsense Boston Puritan in his upbringing, the Yankee, he said, no, no, no. And he crossed it out and he put in self-evident. And it's an extraordinary thing because you're making,

it's a strange claim, right? We hold these truths to be self-evident. In other words, we rational people do not need to argue the reasonableness of these truths. And it's kind of like a dodge in a way, not in a cynical way. But it is an interesting thing. And I know that there are philosophers who can speak to this issue of, you know, if you're having a conversation, are making assumptions right out of the gate if you're having a conversation with someone, if you're trying to persuade someone, the idea that they can be persuaded, the idea that there is an objective truth. And those fundamental ideas, and this is what you talk about in your book and in this article, have fallen on hard times. And we have been, in recent years, told to believe

insane things. And I guess the question is, are you willing to go along with it? And many people have been willing to go along with it, knowing that these are not true. And it reminds me of that's what's asked of people in communist countries. Like you're basically told, just shut up and do what you're told to say, even though you know it's a lie. When you read the newspaper, you know it's going to be full of lies, but you're not supposed to mention that. You're supposed to go along with it. And it really corrods our ability to trust and to think clearly. And so it's therefore really pernicious. This is really dark stuff we're talking about. So for you, you know, an adult man trying to visit a doctor, for them to really subject you to the indignity of having to

read a form with a straight face and fill it out, there's something insulting about it. I guess I just want to say that. There's something insulting about it. And I think more people ought to see that, that you're being insulted when you're told to go along with a lie. We ought not to go along with lies ever. And to be asked to do such a thing on a medical form, these are the times in which we live. But people like you and I were pushing back. Yeah, I know. It's really funny because just to check a box is almost like saying, yep, I'm going along with whatever you said here. And I say in my article, well, how did this all change because in the declaration itself, something else that was self-evident was nature and nature's

God. And I think that's the clue to how things change because now people don't believe in nature, in science, and they don't believe in God. So it's like they don't believe in God. They don't believe in nature's God. So what? They have to fill the void because we have that void inside all of us by saying, wait a minute, we're God. We can change things. We can do it with one. In fact, if we don't like the weather, we could see the clouds and we can make rain because there is no God who makes rain. There is no climate change. You know, we're in charge of climate change. When you and I were growing up, there was a word for climate change. Actually, it was a phrase. It was called winter, spring, summer, and fall. That was climate change. And it changed at least four times a

years in different and varying ways. But that's what happened there. The self-evident, the obvious, and it has become a different mindset. And that's why if we got away from nature and nature's God, which we did, now it's like every man for himself. You come up with your own truth. Well, it's fascinating, too, that the founders assumed, this is so fascinating. It needs to be said over and over and over. The founders all assumed that in order to do the right thing,

we had really, we had to believe in God. And we had to go along with his plan. And they were saying that, you know, our liberties are given to us by our creator. Our creator. So they're talking about a God. This is in our founding document in the Declaration of Independence, a God who created us. That's an amazing thing that our whole nation is built on that. And of course, the progressives, they want to get away from that.

But there's no way to get away from it. They're just writhing away from it. But if you go away from that, you lose your liberties. And of course, that's exactly what's been happening. Yeah, yeah. And I love how you bring it out in your book. And I know you're probably going to bring it out in the new book in your letter to the American Church, the golden triangle of freedom right there.

Virtue. Virtue is so important to freedom. And virtue means that there is something higher than us. There is a, you know, we appeal to a higher court as it were. And that's what's been lost. because we don't have virtue. And virtue is not seen as like, oh, that's a noble thing. Oh, somebody has morals. They have scruples. They have, no, no, no. You can do whatever you want. If it feels good, do it. That was a phrase that was born in the late 60s that unfortunately has grown,

has sprouted into more than just if it feels good to me. It's like now you need to acknowledge me. If I dance around in women's closing your stuff, you have to like applaud it. If I tell you that your child needs to go and, you know, instead of being a bill has to be now a jail, well, you're supposed to go along with that, you know, because we're, we're now in the top, top echelon here of wisdom and knowledge. Well, we're going to go to a break, folks. I'm talking to Albin Seder. Don't go away. Mike Lindell and my pillow employees want to thank you, my listeners, for all your continued support. Mike has a passion to help everyone get the best sleep of their life. He didn't stop by creating the best pillow. He created the best bed sheets ever. Yes, Mike is offering the best deal on his percale bedsheets.

You can get a set now for as low as 2498. The MyPill Perkale bedsheets are breathable and have a cool, crisp feel. They have deep pockets to fit over any mattress. They look and feel great, which means an even better night's sleep for me, which is crucial for my busy schedule. Also for limited time, when your order is over $100, you'll receive $100 in free digital gift. Did you hear that? Go to MyPillow.com, use promo code Eric to receive the MyPillow per kale sheets for as low as 2498. Order now or call 800-978-3057, 800-9757, and use promo code Eric. Go to MyPillow.com, use promo code Eric or call 800-9783057.

Ingredients. When I flip a container around and I can't pronounce or recognize the ingredients, I put it back. That's why you'll find balance of nature's fruits and veggie supplements on a shelf. my home because every single ingredient is a fruit or veggie plucked from the soil. No binders, no additives or artificial colors, no fillers, just whole fruits and veggies, gluten-free and vegan-friendly. These harvested ingredients are freeze-dried into a fine powder using an advanced vacuum-cold process to better preserve nutritional value. I can say with absolute confidence that I'm getting 31 ingredients from fruits and veggies every single day with balance of nature.

Imagine a platter with 31 different fruits and veggies on it every day. Join me in taking balance of Nature and use my discount code Eric to get 40% off plus free shipping this week only. You've got to use my discount code Eric. Call them at 800 24668-751. Use discount code Eric. Or order online at Balance of Nature.com. Use discount code Eric to get 40% off this week only. Welcome back.

We're talking to Albin. Sadar is the name. Albin, you just on the break, we're bringing something up. Tell us about that. Yeah. You know what? It's been having a long break. I'm trying to think what it was I brought up. Oh, yeah, you know, we're talking about Christian reaction to all of this because it's one thing for the world to go their direction. They want to go, this is what we believe now is the truth. But there are Christians out there that unfortunately are going along with this. And like I said, even if you check the box, mail, it's like saying, yes, this is the sex I was assigned at birth.

male. In fact, my wife said she just left the thing totally blank. She did not even want to acknowledge her sex at birth. It's like, it's up to you guys to figure it out. You're the so-called doctors. If you can't figure this one out, maybe I've got to go see another doctor. How's that? But just recently, this was been a big controversy, and I actually linked to it in my article, again, which you can find at stream.org, some people are still oblivious to the obvious. is I linked to the article to the controversy about Chip and Joanna Gaines and their TV show where they welcome in a same-sex couple, two guys, and their children onto the program as if this is what a family is today now. And think about what Chip and Joanna Gaines did on their TV show, and then think about what the Benham brothers did and how the Benham brothers put it all on the line and lost their TV. TV show and their fortune in that area because they took a stand and they weren't yelling

and screaming. They just, you know, they just spoke the truth in love as the Bible tells us to do. Well, listen, I guess this is the point is that you have people in the Christian world that are, they're very confused. They have been very affected by the world. And they feel that taking any kind of a stand or making any kind of a statement that's countercultural, It might hurt somebody's feelings. In my book, Letter of the American Church, I talk about the idol of evangelism. They have this fantasy, I guess,

that if they never say anything controversial, people will flock, you know, to the Savior that they purport to worship. And I think we have to say, and this gets back to your issue of what's obvious, you know, there have always been people with what we can call

disordered affections. That has always existed. There have always been men, attracted to women other than their wives, and they act on that. There have been men attracted to children, and some have acted on that. We have always said that we're broken. We need God to help us, but we do not say these things are okay. And as Christians, we don't condemn the person.

If a person has what we consider a disordered affection, if a man wants to be with another man. We don't condemn the man, but we say we don't believe this is God's plan, and we don't want to go along with this, and we believe that going along with this actually hurts people, because if you're confused in this area, all you need is for some, you know, self-described Christian to say, well, maybe it's okay. Maybe you should pursue this. You will pursue it in a second. So if you actually love people who are struggling like this, you try to tell them the truth. And what Chip and Joanna Gaines did on their new show, it's this reality show, they have people are saying, and I think it's true, they have normalized same-sex marriage. And that is actually not loving.

And so it's not about condemning anybody. And we have to say that because there are people that they feel condemned if you disagree with them. This is not about condemning people, but it's about saying what the Bible says and what Christians have always believed and what Jews have believed is that we're made in God's image, male and female, and God created us for each other, men and women for each other, ideally in lifelong marriage. So this is basic stuff, and it gets to your issue. This always used to be obvious. And, you know, there are different ways of dealing with it. It's not easy. But to suddenly shift and say, who's to say what's right or wrong? Who's to say whether maybe adultery is okay.

We had that, you know, those poor, that poor couple on the Jumbotron the other day caught in their adultery. Yeah. We have to say what is obvious. Adultery is always wrong. We're not supposed to, we're not supposed to go outside the order that God has ordained for us. And we say this in love because we don't think that God gives us rules to harm us, but to bless us. And we're living at a time right now where a lot of Christians, they're uncomfortable with this, and they're afraid of the blowback they're going to get. And I think that's what happened with,

Chip and Joanna Gaines, that they somehow were persuaded that this was the loving thing to do. Yeah, and they jumped on that scripture, judged, not lest ye be judged. But like you say, in several of your books, what about the slave trade, right? What about standing up to the Nazis? Oh, don't judge Hitler. Don't judge the slave traders. We're supposed to not judge. Come on, go along with or just keep your mouth shut if you can't go along with it, you know? Come on. At some point, you have to tell you. Do you think St. Paul, did he ever take a stand? Did he say, like, now, don't beat me. I'll go along with what Caesar says or what the Sanhedron says. I'll go along with it. Just don't beat me. Let me have a reality show sometime down the line, huh? Well, it is, it's just, again, you know, the theme here, it's the title of your book, we have to restate the obvious. When you're living in times when people are unable to acknowledge what is self-evident, what is obvious, what is true, you have to restate it over and over, and you have to help people and you have to say, listen, objective reality doesn't change. If something does change, well, then we do, we want to change with that. But there are many things that don't change.

God's order and his laws, they don't change. Sometimes our perception of them can change because I think we have to be honest and say that there have been many people that have been cruel in the way that they have treated gays. In other words, that's not of God either, right? We're supposed to approach people with humility and understand that, you know, people are struggling, but we don't want to affirm them in taking the wrong path. And so, but when it comes to God's order, the idea that suddenly, you know, 3,500 years of biblical tradition can be wiped away and that people will go along with it.

I mean, you and I know the Episcopal Church, the Church of England, most mainline denominations, they just go, they blow with the wind. They don't know what is true and they're kind of looking around for clues. What is the New York Times permitting me to believe today? and that's kind of what's happened to a lot of evangelical Christians. And it's, of course, why I wrote my book letter to the American Church, because I think that we've come to a place where we have to know what we believe and we have to speak these truths lovingly, but we do actually have to speak these truths.

And if you're unclear on this, I mean, in many ways, Albin, you know, part of the problem is there hasn't been good leadership on this. we've had pastors like Andy Stanley send very confused messages. We've had Pope Francis send confused messages. So you can understand how people would be confused and how folks like Chip and Joanna Gaines would be confused. But they're mistaken in this. Yeah, I know.

Talk about things that used to be self-evident or obvious on the back of my book, George Orwell, who was no friend to Christians, by the way. He said, we have now sunk to a depth at which reinsertion. statement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. And he went on to say that that's going to be a revolutionary act. Just stating the obvious, the things that are self-evident. That's revolution. It really is. It really is. And I think I've said it once before. I think we have to repeal the sexual revolution. When you think what happened, when the pill came in in 1961, and then you had this push in the culture that, oh, we can have free sex, we can have sex without,

consequences, it really destroyed so much. And we're now seeing 60 years later the devastation in divorce, in people, just broken people, lonely people. It is an amazing thing. So we have to go back to the basics and we have to say, okay, what does God tell us about our design, about men and women? What does God say is best for us? And, you know, in the Garden of Eden, he gives Adam and Eve to each other. He says, be fruitful and multiply. These are very, very basic things, but we've drifted so extraordinarily far that we are now seeing the brokenness. And I think it's time, you know, to get back to basics. Yeah. And I, you know, I begin my article talking about, you know, male, female, sex assigned at birth. And then I talk about really the Christian response

to all of this. And then at the very end, my last line is, The mission, our mission as Christians is, our mission as Christians is to confront these things. And that was assigned to us at birth. And at rebirth, I probably should have said, because at rebirth, we have a new, you know, we are a new creation. And we're supposed to, you know, talk about these things and not just sit on the sidelines and say like, okay, now I'm going to heaven. So that's all I need to know. No, we're supposed to talk about the truth in love. Well, that's beautiful. We're going to have to leave it there.

Folks, the book is obvious, and you can go to stream.org and read Albin's latest offering. God bless you, Albin. Great to see you. Thank you. Thank you. Folks, welcome back. You know we've been doing a campaign with Food for the Poor. this is an emergency, so much so that I thought maybe we can get our friend Paul Jacobs on to help explain what is going on. Paul, welcome back.

No, it's great to be back. You know, it's nearly three weeks since the devastating floods in central Texas, and the need has never been greater. What is food for the poor doing? I mean, I've talked about this, but it's, you know, it's hard for people to get their heads around this because it's such a nightmare. You hear about these floods. You hear about children dying. But then I think most of us think, well, that's that. I don't know, you know, what is there to say? It's a horror. It's a tragedy. But the reason you guys are there is because the tragedy is ongoing. They're people suffering right now and they need our help right now.

Yeah, that's right. You know, more, but hundreds have lost their lives and probably almost the same amount that are still missing. I think this attention, this tragedy has caught our attention because of the children and the families and this community. The Guadalupe River was literally the center of these three communities. where more than 30,000 people lived, and it was the churches, the businesses, the ministries, and schools, and of course, these camps. And food for the poor, while there's thousands of people there in the response and the recovery effort, food for the poor is working with the local church, church partners on the ground that have been

responding to help families with emergency relief kits, everything from tarps to cover their belongings, to women's care kits for women and girls to be provided for, and even something as simple as baby diapers for small children who have become very vulnerable in this disaster? Well, so what is the area that's affected? I'm not clear. I haven't seen much video or anything of this. In other words, are there towns that have been wiped out? I mean, I know that there are individual businesses and homes. And where are the people who have been displaced? Where are they staying, many of them? The Guadalupe River is in the center of Kerr County. Curville, Ingram, and Hunt, number of cities in the surrounding areas.

You could say it's probably just out, just about 45 minutes to an hour, just outside of San Antonio area, if you're familiar with the San Antonio area. But the thing about this is, while you may not have ever focused on this community on the map, it is for Texans, a very thriving community. One of our ministry partners, excuse me, one of our staff members here at Food for the Poor lives in the San Antonio area. used to work in Kerrville and this Kerr County area. Matter of fact, he was personally affected because the camp mystic, which was the camp where a lot of those children who were there in summer camp lost their lives. One of the camp directors, a friend of his, also lost his life.

So this is very personal for us. This is very personal for my colleague, Kevin Mayne, in San Antonio. But this area in the Guadalupe River has quite a few people that have been displaced, hundreds of homes, completely destroyed businesses. It's going to take a long time for them to get back on track. But right now, we're focused not necessarily on the long term, but really the immediate need of getting families,

the recovery efforts, and the recovery efforts, helping them with the emergency kits they need to just get through another day. Okay, so folks, if you want to help, you can go to my radio website, metaxis talk.com. Metaxistalk.com at the top of the page, there you see the banner, and we're asking you, every $50 purchases one of these emergency relief kits.

So some of you can do multiples of that, but whatever you can do, we need your help, desperately need your help. And what is the partner that Food for the Poor is working with on the ground there? Do you know the name of that, Paul Jacobs, the name of the partner. We, well, that's the great news. We work with the local church, church partners, ministries that are set up in San Antonio as a

distribution site. We've already sent the first few pallets of emergency relief kits like the ones you just mentioned that these families for $50 could provide a family with emergency kits. And it's going through pastors, local ministries on the ground. Matter of fact, I was supposed to right now be in an interview with them just to kind of get an assessment of what's going on at this very moment, unfortunately, as you can well imagine, they are very caught up with meetings and a lot of things that are going on on in the ground. They could not change.

So we've had to postpone that. But you can just imagine that's how busy things are and how frenetic and why you're needed right now to help our ministry partners and churches on the ground. I have a phone number here, which I want to give in case anybody prefers to call. But folks, anything you can do, this is tax deductible and it is an emergency. So the phone number to call so you can give is 844-863-4673, 844-863-8-6-7-3. I mentioned the radio website is metaxistalk.com. You'll see the banner at the top of the page. Or if you want to text my name to this number, you'll get the link.

Metaxus is M-E-T-A-X-A-S. You can text it to 5-1-55-5-5-5. Again, text Metaxus, M-E-T-A-X-A-S, text Metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5. Text Metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5. The phone number, again, is 8-4-6-3-46-7-3, 8-4-6-7-3. Paul, any final thoughts? Yeah, very much. It's community effort.

It is going to be a community effort in the response to help each and every one of these families. We have seen on the news. We've heard it through our ministry partners on the ground. And we have seen thousands of dollars poured out through the Metaxis talk listeners. You know, those of you that are listened to this program. And maybe if you have not heard of this, maybe this is the very first time of hearing about food for the poor or you're hearing about the efforts that through this radio program is going to help those families, we need you to join this community of those who are desperately in need,

vulnerable children, families, just like you, who need your help right now. Make like a Mr. Milk Toast, you'll get... Folks, welcome back. You know we've been doing a campaign with Food for the Poor. This is an emergency, so much so that I thought maybe we can get our friend Paul, Jacob's on to help explain what is going on. Paul, welcome back. No, it's great to be back. You know, it's nearly three weeks since the devastating floods in central Texas, and the need has never been greater. What is food for the poor doing? I mean, I've talked about this, but it's,

you know, it's hard for people to get their heads around this because it's such a nightmare. You hear about these floods. You hear about children dying. But then I think most of us think, well, that's that. I don't know, you know, what is there to say? It's a horror. It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. But the reason you guys are there is because the tragedy is ongoing. There are people suffering right now and they need our help right now. Yeah, that's right. You know, more, but hundreds have lost their lives and probably the same, almost the same amount that are still missing. I think this attention, this tragedy has caught our attention because of the children and the families and this community, this Guadalupe River was literally the center

of these three communities where more than 30,000 people lived and it was the churches, the businesses, the ministries and schools. And schools. and of course these camps and food for the poor while there's thousands of people there in the response and the recovery effort food for the poor is working with the local church church partners on the ground that have been responding to help families with emergency relief kits everything from tarps to cover their belongings to women's care kits for women and girls to be provided for as even something as simple as baby diapers for small children who have become very vulnerable in this disaster. Well, so what is what is the area that's affected? I'm not clear. I haven't seen much

video or anything of this. In other words, are there towns that have been wiped out? I mean, I know that there are individual businesses and homes. And where are the people who have been displaced? Where are they staying, many of them? The Guadalupe River is in the center of Kerr County. Curville, Ingram, and Hunt, number of cities in the surrounding areas. You could say it's probably just out, just about 45 minutes to an hour, just outside of San Antonio area, if you're familiar with the San Antonio area. But the thing about this is, while you may not have ever focused on this community on the map, it is for Texans, a very thriving community. One of our ministry partners, excuse me, one of our staff members here at Food for the Poor lives in the San Antonio area. used to work in Kerrville and this Kerr County area.

Matter of fact, he was personally affected because the camp mystic, which was the camp where a lot of those children who were there in summer camp lost their lives. One of the camp directors, a friend of his, also lost his life. So this is very personal for us. This is very personal for my colleague, Kevin Mayne, in San Antonio. But this area in the Guadalupe River has quite a few people that have been displaced, hundreds of homes, completely destroyed businesses, they're going to take their, it's going to take a long time for them to get back on track.

But right now, we're focused not necessarily on the long term, but really the immediate need of getting families, the recovery efforts, and the recovery efforts helping them with the emergency kits they need to just get through another day. Okay, so folks, if you want to help, you can go to my radio website, metaxus talk.com. Metaxistalk.com at the top of the page. You see the banner.

And we're asking you, every $50 purchases one of these emergency relief kits. So some of you can do multiples of that. But whatever you can do, we need your help, desperately need your help. And what is the partner that Food for the Poor is working with on the ground there? Do you know the name of that, Paul Jacobs, the name of the partner? We, well, that's the great news. We work with the local church, church partners, ministries that are set up in San Antonio as a distribution site. We've already sent the first few pallets of emergency relief kits, like the ones you just mentioned,

that these families for $50 could provide a family with emergency kits. And it's going through pastors, local ministries on the ground. Matter of fact, I was supposed to right now be in an interview with them just to kind of get in a assessment of what's going on at this very moment, unfortunately, as you can well imagine, they are very caught up with meetings and a lot of things that are going on on the ground. They could not change. So we've had to postpone that. But you can just imagine that's how busy things are and how frenetic and why you're needed

right now to help our ministry partners and churches on the ground. I have a phone number here, which I want to give in case anybody prefers to call. But folks, anything you can do, this is tax deductible and it is an emergency. So the phone number to call so you can give is 844-863-4673, 844-863-4673. I mentioned the radio website is metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner at the top of the page. Or if you want to text my name to this number, you'll get the link. Metaxis is M-E-T-A-X-A-S.

You can text it to 5-1-55-5-5-5. Again, text Metaxis, M-E-T-A-X-A-S, text Metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5. Text Metaxus to 5-1-55-5-5-5. The phone number, again, is 844-863-4673, 8-4-6-7-3, 8-6-7-3, Paul, any final thoughts? Yeah, very much. It's community effort. It is going to be a community effort in the response to help each and every one of these families.

We have seen on the news. We've heard it through our ministry partners on the ground. And we have seen thousands of dollars poured out through the Metaxis talk listeners. You know, those of you that are listened to this program. And maybe if you have not heard of this, maybe this is the very first time of hearing about food for the poor, or you're hearing about the efforts that through this radio program is going to help those families, we need you to join this community of those who are desperately in need, vulnerable children, families, just like you, who need your help right now.

Well, I'm glad to hear that it's through the local churches. I know a lot of people who are wanting to help or, you know, would be comfortable with that because they know that local churches know what's going on in the local area, and they have compassion and wisdom. And so I'm grateful that Food for the Poor is partnering with the local churches in the area. So, folks, I'll just say it again. This is an emergency. Food for the Poor has come to us asking us to please ask you to help.

So again, metaxis talk.com is the website metaxis talk.com at the top of the page. You see the banner, Help Texas. We're asking you to do what you can. if you can't do much, just do what you can. And it is direly needed right now. So God bless you as you give. Thank you. Hey there, folks.

We're launching a segment here. Actually, we've done it in the past, but we haven't done it enough. And I want to do it regularly. The segment is called English is a first language. If English is your first language, I would argue that you're responsible for speaking English reasonably correctly. And this segment is designed. to help you do just that.

It's not designed to shame you. We're not going to lay any shame on you. We just want to help you to speak English correctly and to have fun to think about what you're saying, not to just kind of go with the flow, but actually to think like, I want to speak correctly. And it can be fun. Trust me. Okay.

So a few that I've shared in the past, which I should touch on, these are really like my bug bears for me, that they drive me crazy. When people misuse the word home and hone, right? Hone is like a wetstone. If you're sharpening a knife, you hone the blade down. You hone it down. So if you home in on a target, you're going home. A homing pigeon goes home. A bomb homes in on the target. Home in. hone in is wrong. If anyone ever says hone in, it's wrong. So you feel free to cringe. You don't have to correct them, but don't you say hone in.

Hone in is always wrong. It's home in. We hone an argument down. Like you hone a blade down to sharpen it, to sharpen the argument. I hone it down. You hone down your argument. That's number one. Number two, another word, it's not.

a word. When people say irregardless, that is not a word. The word is regardless. If you say irregardless, that's just bad. Please don't do that. Please, I'm just, I'm asking you nicely, please don't say irregardless. It's just horrible. It's a non-word. The word is regardless. And if you don't want to say regardless, don't. But definitely don't say irregardless. Finally, and this is something I could go on for days about this. People constantly, this is a new thing. I've noticed this in the last few years,

constantly misuse the word literally. Literally means literally. In other words, I say, it blew my mind, literally. Okay, if you say it blew your mind, literally means that your mind was literally exploded. Obviously, that you can't say that, right? So if you say the wind literally tore the trees out of the ground,

it means the trees actually genuinely, literally were torn out of the ground. You're not speaking metaphorically or hyperbolicly. If you're saying the wind practically tore the trees out of the ground, but not literally. And it literally means it actually has to happen, literally has to do with the words themselves have meaning. So literally always has to. to mean the exact thing. Now I wish I had better examples. We're going to come back to this in a future segment of English as a first language. In closing, let me say, people often say, we waited with bated breath. This is a spelling issue, but baited is not B-A-I-T-E-D, baited breath. It's we waited with

baited breath, B-A-T-E-D, abated. To abate is to, you know, to hold, like with held breath. I held my breath. So we waited with bated breath. Abated breath means I held my breath. So it's just nice to know what words actually mean. I think it helps. So bated breath. And then finally, I'll say the phrase, to wreck havoc is the right word. I'm sorry, to wreck havoc is often said it's wrong. The real phrase is to wreak havoc, wreak havoc, not wreck havoc. I'm afraid we're out of time. I hope these hints and tips have been helpful. God bless you.