The Eric Metaxas Show - AmFest 2024 (Encore)

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

Our encore presentation of the late great Charlie Kirk and Erika Kirk from AmFest 2024

Welcome to the Eric Metaxas show. I shouldn't tell you this, but Eric hired someone who sounds just like him to host today's show. But since I'm the announcer, they told me, so I'm telling you, don't be fooled. The real Eric's in jail. Hey there, folks. It is Monday, September 22nd. Today, I'm flying home from Phoenix, where I was at the Charlie Kirk, Memorial. I'll be talking about that on tomorrow's program. But today, we've got something kind of

special here. Here is the conversation, Vody Balcom, Charlie Kirk, and me. God bless you. We have this cycle of mainly tied together, of this public pressure, this idea that you have to go to college to succeed, and let me just talk about some of the numbers really quickly. 59% of kids that go to college graduate, 41% of the kids that go to college drop out. 41% of the kids that go to college drop out. 41%. They exit with debt, a damaged self-esteem and confidence, very little to no direction, and they make perfect revolutionaries for the future,

because they're in this kind of financial purgatory. And the ones that do graduate, we send them to inner cities to go rent, not own. When you don't own anything, you're far less likely to want to conserve anything. And then we tell them, whatever you do, don't get married, don't have kids, go become a cog in the corporate machine. and then they become early 30-something people earning $120,000 a year, not accumulating really any of that capital, by the way, because they're spending it, spending it, spending it on short-term gratification

or rental expenses, and we wonder why all of a sudden they want to uproot the entire system. They have nothing worth, they have nothing they want to conserve. They don't own anything. They're not paying a principal of any mortgage. They don't have kids. They're not married, and all of that originates at this one cultural institution that we have wrongly platformed in America, which is higher education. There's some great colleges out there. Hillsdale is one of them.

You know, Eric, you and I have done some work at Liberty. There's some great schools. They're in the vast 1% of 1% in the nation. And by the way, you want to talk about where this is at its worst. Go to the seminaries across America. Holy moly. Go to Hope College. Go to Wheaton.

And you want to see all these ideas being institutionalized to the pastors of tomorrow. It is worse than ever before. Calvin College, just the name of few. And I see their critical race theory manuals. I see what the pastors of tomorrow are being taught. So I'm trying to radically and sometimes provocatively tell the body of Christ, we have to rethink the way that we pass down our values to the next generation. You don't need a certificate to succeed in America.

You don't need to say that you went to some college to be a good person. I care about whether you're saved, whether you have character, and whether you want to do something in your life, not if you went to Harvard and if you want to do something like that. America is a white supremacist order. Our youth are being told. So how do we counter that idea? Well, it's kind of funny because there are many ways to counter it.

The first thing you have to do is you have to loudly and forcefully say, that's a lie. I think that oftentimes we rely too much on reason, and sometimes you just have to kind of push people back and say, that is a lie, and put the onus on them. You could say that's a lie, that's a pernition. lie, that's a satanic lie, that is evil. Don't say that again. Explain to me how that is true and explain to me where you get the right, even to say such a foul, untrue thing. There are many

reasons for this, but I didn't really understand this fully until I wrote a book called If You Can Keep at the Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. And in it, I was forced myself to really see what I had kind of been missing over the decades. And so, you know, I got the best, the best miseducation you could get. I went to Yale University, which is exactly where you would go to learn how the global anti-American elites think. So I learned to speak that language. I got those ideas in. Then I became a Christian, but it still took me a long time to get comfortable with what I now know to be true, and to understand how dramatically over at least 50 years. I mean, the 60s was the watershed moment when all of these evil ideas kind of bubbled into

the public realm. And of course, they've been bubbling. And, you know, this is trickle-down evil, right? This is cultural trickle-down theory where you see these ideas, you know, they're brought in by Marcuse and Gramsci and there's certain people talking about them in faculty lounges and stuff and derrida, right? And then they trickle down, trickle down, trickle down. So when I bumped in all this stuff in the 80s at Yale, this was not yet out in the public, but I've watched it come out into the public so that now people are even using terms.

I mean, one thing for me that I noticed is when people use terms like hegemony or intersectionality or any of the – I just feel like saying, hey, shut up. like speak English, because all those words are sophistry. They're designed to skew your thinking a little bit, to knock you off balance. So like, now I've got to talk about critical race theory or systematic. And be like, those are called weasel words. You know what weasel words are, right? They're empty words.

A weasel, you know, theoretically they would suck the interior of an egg out, right? So a weasel word is like an egg that's hollow. And weasel words are like that. And the left does that. They come up with these terms. So anytime anybody talks about privilege, it's like, that's not a thing. Shut up, go back, find like the real word, and let's talk about it. But these are invented ideas.

And so that's kind of, you know, that's part of what has happened. But I bumped into this stuff first. And it took me decades really to perceive that we have been pushing these ideas out, out, out, out, out. So for me, Charlie said it's the parents to blame. I agree. It is always the leaders. if you look at what happened in 1968, when the students took over the universities, okay, it is just like today, if a city burns down, that's not, to me, that's not on the people doing the burning.

That's not on the people doing the burning. That's on the people who are supposed to stop them, not stopping them. It's very simple. If you do not have the guts, if you do not have the ability to say that is wrong, and we will crush you if you try to disrupt private property, you try to do anything like that. But the leaders have imbibed these false views going back to the 60s where people said, I don't trust anybody over 30. It's a Russoian idea. It's a utopian scheme that says the youth are pure. The Bible says the youth are hellbound sinners. Those things can't coexist. But in the 60s, you have a situation where these leaders of Columbia University, these different

places did not have the ability to stand up to the students and let these arrogant thugs. You know, these are cultural Marxists. These are, these are cultural revolutionaries under Mao. We've seen them through history. They're the same ones that created the bloodbath of the French Revolution. It's always these shock troops. And then there are people who say, like, oh, they've got the truth. And let's let them have their say. You cannot let the devil have his say. You cannot let the devil have a millimeter. If you do, you're a fool. And the fact of the matter is, we have a last this to happen and these anti-American ideas to come in. And it's why today we have an entire population that is not conversant in the basics of what is self-government and liberty and why is it

beautiful and good and doesn't need to be perfect. It's just way better than anything else. So I try to answer the question and I failed. Thank you. No, you did well. Thank you. We're concluding here in just a moment, but we need to say a couple things. We need to say that Uncle Tom 2, the documentary is coming out this fall on Salem Now. It's featuring Vody, so extensively.

I think you had like a crew filming you and all that sort of thing, right? That must have been cool. Okay. So you want to check for Uncle Tom 2. Uncle Tom 1 has had a major effect and Uncle Tom 2 will as well. Excellent work by Salem. And then we want to say a quick thank you to

Tim Peterson, who's the president of Salem Books. If we could have a hand for Tim Peterson. He has acquired a number of us up here and is really leading the counter revolution in a lot of ways because books do that in a free society. So we're very thankful, many of us for Tim. And I want to just conclude here. We have literally one minute, but I want each of you to give us 15 seconds on the antidote for what ails us. And we'll start with Eric and finish with voting. Speaking of Salem books, I have a book coming out

in October called Is Atheism Dead? And I've never been as excited about a book, and it is the answer to this question, because the cover of the book essentially is a snake, you know, eating itself, biting its own tail, right? That's what

false ideology is. If you push it to its logical conclusion, it swallows itself, disappears with a pop, and you'll never see it again. But I know that you cannot go wrong speaking the truth and trusting the Lord to use

you as you do and having the confidence that you cannot fail. He defeated death on the cross. There is nothing to fear but displeasing the Lord. Folks, I'm at Amfest, and you know, a lot of people want to know who is married to that guy, Charlie Kirk? Is he

married? What's going on with him? Is he single? Is he available? Turns out he's married he has two kids and his wife Erica is sitting with me Erica welcome thank you you're one of my favorite humans aside for my husband but humans wow on Charlie's podcast and in our orbit because you're fun and you're real fun is important yeah reality being real is important authenticity is important but you're very smart I love and you're very wise please never leave stay here stay here keep going no that's so sweet Erica

Thank you. Listen, I interviewed Charlie a little bit ago, and I said the same thing to him. It's so much fun to talk to him because, well, I mean, I guess on some level it's because we agree violently on so many important things. So it's a joy to speak to somebody who gets it, so to speak. But in all seriousness, people want to know. Now, I know, because I met you when you guys were just dating. but how did you meet Charlie?

You were like, where are you from and how did you guys meet? I'll give you a brief spark notes for you. So I grew up here in Arizona. This is where Ampress is right now. And I went to Trump's first rally here in Arizona because in 2012 I was Miss Arizona, USA. Wait, now wait a minute. Now wait a minute. I have lived many lives.

That I didn't know this about you? Or maybe I knew and I forgot. No. Donald Trump owned Miss USA and Miss Universe. Yeah. And so I was one of the last few years before he sold off his portion of ownership. And so being Miss Arizona, his first rally, I guess you could say, was in Arizona. And so I went.

Yeah. I met Tyler Boyer, and he came up to me and he was like, we're starting this. We have this organization, this young conservative movement. You should check it out. And I was like, thank you so much. but no, like I I live in New York, I have a lot going on Right

I thank you, but let's stay in touch I love staying in touch with people I feel like God puts people in your life as little puzzle pieces You have no idea where they fit and eventually they fit Right So I stayed in touch with him And then randomly enough I went to Israel with my mom

And I saw this guy in the ticket line On our way home and I was like gosh That guy looks so familiar Was it a tall guy? Tall guy Tall good looking guy Yeah, handsome And so my mom was like, go say hi. And I was like, no, I'm not going to go see.

So then fast forward when I got home two months after I got home, mind you, my whole intention on my heart, anywhere in Israel, you know this because you've been there. You stick like little pieces of paper wherever you go of prayers. Anywhere. Like if there's a wall, you can stick prayer. Right, right. Then my intention was for my future husband, always praying for my future husband.

I get back from Israel and I get a text message from Tyler Boyer, who I haven't talked to, since the first Trump rally. He said, hey, we're doing our office opening. I would love if you're in town to come to that. I said, okay, why not? This I think was in August. I went to the office opening, saw the guy that was in the ticket line, Charlie.

And I was like, that's creepy. And then, but God. I don't think you need to say creepy. I think you'd just say, that's weird. That's what? That's incredibly interesting. That's God. Because there's nothing creepy about it.

No, you're right. But please continue. Yeah. So then, anyways, long story short, we met very briefly. And then he messaged me and was like, hey, we're starting a faith portion of the organization very early on. This was, I would say, in 2018. And sat down with Charlie at Bill's Burgers, where you and I first met later with Charlie. And he grilled me for three and a half hours on politics, philosophy, theology.

Now, wait a minute. Was this a date? What was this? It was a job interview. It was a job interview. Job interview. And then at the end of it, he puts down his napkin and he stares at me and he goes, I'm not going to hire you. And I said, I bet I didn't need the job.

I just was here because Tyler suggested. And he goes, no, no, no, I'm going to date you. And I was like, you don't want to just be friends. He goes, no, I haven't. How arrogant? How arrogant I'm going to date you? Oh, you are? Because I haven't said yes yet.

But thank you. It's very caveman-like. Like, you're my woman. That's wonderful. Yes, that's the good part. So we literally, he's precious. And I said, do I have time to think about it? He said, yes, tomorrow night until I take you out for dinner again.

And the rest is history. We have two kids, precious babies. And it's been unbelievable. God is so good. How amazing. I'm glad you shared that just because a lot of people, it's interesting. I do this thing called Socrates and the City. Obviously, we're sitting here with a banner and stuff.

And when I do a Socrates and City interview, I get the deeper, you know, that's, now really I'm doing my radio show on my podcast. But it's nice to get the bigger picture. And when I'm talking to Charlie or when Charlie's doing interviews, it's kind of like politics, politics. But you want to kind of get behind that. And talking to you now, I feel like I get behind that a little bit because people want to know, who is this guy? Is he a good guy? Is he a real guy?

Right. He's not a robot. Right. Because there are people, you know this, that you interview them. I won't mention names. But there's some people that I'm not saying that they're phony because I don't think they're phony. but they don't there's

you don't make that kind of connection as on a human level it's kind of more about you know ideas ideas ideas ideas and then they're gone and so I've had the joy of getting to know Charlie behind the scenes and we just can't stop joking you know it's it's like

I love it's a but it's healthy it's emotionally healthy right so okay so he has been traveling around like a maniac he is utterly devoted to you and your kids and so he you know, he's getting home. He cares about this.

So it's kind of amazing. What does it like to watch? Because you're very involved in TPSA. I mean, it's been an historic year. It's been unbelievable. It's been very humbling to witness the way God has used him, especially in this last year specifically. But to be able to know that my job is to make sure,

as the guardian of the home, to make it a safe space for when he comes home, he drops his bags, and he can be Charlie. He can be my Charlie and he can just relax, play with the kids. Nothing needs to be done on his end other than just to breathe. I want to make that a space for him where he can always have a reprieve and never be like dishes, laundry, something. He's home for such a short amount of time, make it count. He's so good at being in the present moment and he's so good at making sure we're all included for trips or if we can travel with him with kids.

But he's just, he's an amazing human. He really is. That's clear to any idiot. I mean, we don't need you to tell us that because it's kind of funny. Now, Eric, it's funny because he is so gifted, but the key is that he knows God, and he knows that the gifts that he has are, they're a gift from God for God's purposes. Because you can imagine anybody who's tremendously gifted are talented, there's a temptation to think it's me.

And that is fatal. And so it's such a beautiful thing for me, you know, old enough to be Charlie. his dad to see this young man who gets that and who's chosen this extraordinary way. I mean, it really makes me very happy. Now, I've got to ask you, how old are your kids? So Genevieve, we call her Gigi, Genevieve Grace. She is two and four months-ish, and then MacArthur is seven months. Now, do you call him Mac?

We call him Mac or the little general. Oh, that's so great. Seven months? Seven months. He's my little dream boat. Oh, my gosh. I know. We're so blessed. And they love their daddy. I mean, Genevieve is obsessed with Charlie. Isn't that? How wonderful.

Very sweet. And so, and he's very good at, even though it's a, it's the quality over quantity when it comes to time when he's traveling. Because when he's home, he's laser focused on the kids. Yeah. puts his phone down, doesn't touch it. Like, he's there for the kids. Well, that's, that's very, very important. And, I mean, just the juggling the whole thing, but I've never seen anything like it. But so, yeah, you must be obviously relieved that we won this election because, my goodness, I... He poured so much of his heart and soul into it and to see, I mean, you know, the youth vote was huge.

If we didn't have that. It's amazing, but, I mean, it's not, it's kind of funny because on the one hand, like, okay, we're thrilled that the youth vote went for Trump. Like, that's great. But even better than that, for the future, the idea that these young people kind of, got it and that they're sort of on board that's that's a cultural shift and I think it's going to keep shifting

and you know I'm I'm more interested in the cultural so I'm not a political junkie the way Charlie is obviously he's a super expert but I for me it's about the culture and it's the kind of thing that we have to we have to care

about because the culture you know you can win a lot of elections but you have to change the way people think on every level and So that's really what God's called me to. That's a big part of what Socrates in the city is about. It's kind of these longer conversations on the big questions. We rarely go political.

In fact, we almost never do because, you know, we kind of want to invite everybody in to think. I know. Because I believe if you learn how to think, it will lead you to the right political ideas, you know. And what's interesting is if we won, I mean, well, we won. But you know what I mean? Yeah. If Trump would have gone into office in 2020, I don't think. that this culture and shift would have ever.

I have said this a million times. Four years ago would not have been voting. I have said this a million times on many levels that this was God's mercy, that the 2020 election was stolen because it woke up a ton of people and all kinds of other stuff that followed. It did. It was amazing. Erica Kirk, we're out of time.

But what a joy to get a few minutes with you. God bless you. Thanks for being here. Thank you. And so Become yourself Because the past Is just a good bye

Teach Your children Folks, as you know I am at Amfest And Amfest It's just a little thing that I dreamed up years ago But my friend Charlie Kirk He's been taking credit

And you know what? Ronald Reagan said, I just don't care. As long as good stuff is getting done, I don't care who gets credit. So, Charlie, if you want to claim... You are the brainchild of Amphus. I remember we were sitting in a room. It is my brainchild. I'm saying you were sitting in a room and you mapped it all out. And then you said, you left the room abruptly. And I stole it all. And Charlie stole it. But you know what? I'm fine with that because it's just so wonderful. Charlie, listen, you know, I tease people that I love. So I tease you the most because,

I'm just reciprocal. Well, that's the joy of our friendship. But this has to be such a glorious moment for you, but you are, because of the election. But what I love about you, I think, is that you get better than anybody that we don't have time to rest. We have just been given the gift to go to war for all this stuff. So what do you see happening in the months ahead? Well, first, I do think, and this is so hard for me, I'm trying to give people. my team, myself, permission to celebrate.

That's hard. And because we did something hard and big and deep and challenging. And so just rolling battle to battle is important. However, there is a need to say thank you, Lord, for your grace, for your intervention, for your mercy, for your love. And you know where I'm coming from with that because my temperament is like, let's just go to the next hill. So I'm going to try to take time over the next couple of days. I'm just trying to soak all of this in. Yeah.

Because I do believe that we're living through one of God's greatest graces upon the Republic since its founding. There's absolutely no doubt. I mean, I'm tracking 100. I've been saying the same thing. This is, we're living through tremendous history this minute. And I think God gave his grace at its founding. God gave his grace in a civil war. God gave his grace in World War II.

And I think that this is up there because where we were headed, it would have. Honestly, this is ahead of World War II. Could be. I mean, I mean, I'm not. I mean, it could be as far as the implications for the civilization and for the Republic. I haven't thought deeply whether it's greater or not, but it's up there. It's in the same category. So that's the first thing.

The second thing, though, is that there is this energy that I haven't sensed. And this is what's so important. People, our team, who haven't been around, they said, well, Charlie, if we win, you know, are donations just going to stop because we want or say, no, it's the opposite. You don't understand. Once we win, our side is going to go nuts to go do more because we've been so demoralized. I said, if you think we worked hard in 23, 24, just wait until 25. There's a lot of work yet to be done.

We have to make the Republican Party more conservative and more in alignment with its voters, which is why we're going to be embarking on primarying senators that do not align with President Trump's agenda. We have a lot of work to do to make sure President Trump gets his cabinet and his personnel. And then we have the cultural stuff and the stuff that you and I care about. We could talk about high school, college, all that. But the thing that is just staring at us is the fact the church failed this election. And if you and I and your audience do not make it a primary concern to strengthen and sharpen the church significantly in the next couple of years, then we might not be given another respite from the Lord and another period of grace.

I think my theory, I'm not sure exactly what I think, but my theorizing on this issue is that we're living through a reformation in the sense that when people talk about the church, the church is no longer the church. The church has changed. God has moved on. And I think that what's kind of funny, I said this a few years ago, God does his best work outside the church. God goes outside the church. He'll pick, you know, a thrice married New York real estate developer to show the church what courage looks like. that's what God does. And you see this all through history,

and I think the churches that are thriving, and you and I know a lot of these pastors, they have been bold as brass, and the churches that are playing the safe game and saying we don't want to be political, I think they're struggling to keep their doors open. I think they're dying. We need to accelerate their demise.

Exactly. Did you hear my speech? Were you at the TPSA Faith Pastors thing? Yeah. That I gave the speech at night? Yeah. I can't remember you there. And for the audience,

I think I finally figured out problem and I know that's like a big contention but I'm doing the church thing for a couple years and I only started doing church work in 2019, 2020. You've been in it for quite a while. And I think in the last couple of months I finally found a way to distill it. It's that the first principal category error is you can't answer what is the church. And from that answer, what is the church? You get woke church. You get, so you just have to get back down to first principle. And I can tell in 30 seconds on how a pastor what church is, whether or not you're a good church, you're a bad church. And so, for example, what the church should be, obviously the bride of Christ, a place to create disciples, not converts.

That is critical. A place of community where your worldview is sharpened and fastened, and everything that you view goes through that worldview. A church is not a place to be affirmed. A church is not a place to go feel good and comfortable all the time. It's a place to go to spiritual surgery and become better. I think you stole all this from me, but I'm going to let it go because who cares? No, seriously, what a joy. This is the funny thing that you and I, a lot of places that I would go speak, you spoke right before me. And it was hilarious because you said everything that I wanted to say.

And you were like, I'm done. I get up there and I'm thinking this is funny because, but the good news is it's clearly God is speaking. God is, you know, when you said all that stuff, it's like, yeah, this is not just some ideas I came up with God is speaking. He's speaking to his people. and I think that what you just said about the church is not meant to be religious. It's meant to be everything. It's supposed to affect our whole world, including the political. Yes, but I mean everything, every action that you make throughout the day,

every action is a byproduct of your worldview, what you eat, who you talk to, how you talk to, them, how you treat them, who you marry, whether you have kids, how you vote, your ethics, your conducts, your morals, all actionable art. So Aristotle's ethic starts with every art, every inquiry, every action points towards some good. Okay, then what is good? And only the Bible and the biblical world that you can tell you what is good. So the church needs to be every single day

with great pattern repetition, repetitiously saying, hey, this is what is good in politics. This is what is good in spiritual matters. This is sin. This is not. We don't do that. And then we wonder why the church does not have a strengthened worldview.

Yeah. Welcome back. I'm here at Amfest, which is something I cooked up years ago, but I didn't have the team to execute. So I gave it to Charlie. Charlie, thank you. Charlie's just tuning me out at this point. Let's talk about Tom Holland. I interviewed him at Socrates in the city this summer. We did an Oxford, England event, and I interviewed Tom Holland about the very subject that you were just

going to talk about. It's called Dominion. Now, he is not officially a Christian, but when he's not a Christian, it's almost funny because he sort of wants to be. He can't help it. That's right. And so Tom Holland writing dominion has this phrase that I love, and I repeat, called Christian inheritance, that we have inherited a Christian tradition. Oh, yeah. And we don't even know it. Correct. Natural rights, separation of powers, charity, care for the poor.

And his contention is that if you look at other civilizations that do not have a Christian inheritance, they're the most inhumane, the most barbaric, the most medieval, the most backward-looking. And he says, for those you that want, it's like cut flowers. They will not grow in a vase. They won't grow in a vase. once you cut the flowers. And so our Christian inheritance is what built Western civilization.

And so Americans are so spoiled and they say, oh, you know, it's just common sense that we look after the least of these. No, it's not, actually. Correct. You think it's common sense because you were raised in an environment and a condition

of which that was considered to be normative. You think it's normal that we don't murder. And it's becoming less and less, by the way. Correct. But we raised in an environment where we believe that's... So I could go through the example, but because all of our literature

our books, our music generally lift up these Christian virtues and values, we think that is just the way that all people live. I'm not kidding. It's funny talking to you because normally everything you're saying, like, I'm the guy talking about this stuff. And I just sit here and you're saying it's so wonderful because, look, we have to, I keep saying we have to re-catechize the culture. People have to learn. Everything you just said, they have to get the idea that without God, you do not get the idea that slavery is bad, that infanticide is bad. God is where we get these ideas from. And I wrote a book about William Wilberforce. Before Wilberforce, most people in the West didn't even have a social conscience. They didn't have a biblical worldview.

They were kind of like, let the poor rot. Who cares? Now we argue about how do we help the poor? You know, the left says, you know, the government and the right says private sector. But we now all know somehow that we're supposed to care for the poor. We're supposed to do something about it. That comes out of the Bible. Most pagan cultures don't believe that.

No, in the opposite, they believe in the elimination of the poor. Thank you. Darwinian. Social Darwinism. So there's three different worldviews that are competing. There is just pure eugenics, Darwinianism, eliminate the lowest. There's paganism, which we are seeing a rise of. Worship of the earth, worship of the sun or whatever.

And then there is Christianity and this ethic that we have in the West, and which is best. We know which one is best. And Donald Trump represented a restoration of the Western morality to be re-implemented, to be defended, that this is the best. ethic. Let's think about it. No men and women's sports, Christian idea. Borders, Christian idea. You're going to be able to have your kid be raised in a good environment. Christian idea. Donald Trump represented all of the inheritance of these. And pastors are so, what word would you use? Oh, my gosh. It depends on what pejorative we're going to focus.

I would say shallow. I would say they're not, they're dull. They are so dull that they don't understand the value system in the worldview that President Trump was defending on a daily basis is downstream, is a tributary effect of the scriptures. And yet, not every pastor, but you know plenty that we're silent or complicit or cowardly. Of course. Now, part of this, I mean, what Trump has done, obviously God has done it through Trump, but the idea of bringing back this positive, masculine energy, you've experienced this like crazy on these campuses, because without that, without strong men who want to protect the weak, who want to be warriors. But let me interject, the West only believes men should protect the weak.

In other cultures, they say the men should just crush everybody. Thank you. And so that's a very important thing. When we talk about masculinity, we say using the strength in a charitable, magnanimous way. You know what I'm saying? Whereas in, I don't know, Genghis Khan worldview, you use the masculinity to rape the women. I was going to say, to rape the women, to rape the boys, to rape the men. Yes.

I mean, it's just... So that's an important distinction, though, that when we say we want strong men, it is strong men in the pursuit of the good, to defend the good against the terror and the tyranny. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but... No, no, you're making the point. And it's an extraordinary thing. And I think it is, you know, you talk about God's grace, the idea that we're living in a moment where we're seeing this dramatic shift that young men are understanding this.

They're not buying the lies about who they are. This gives me just tremendous hope for the future. It does. And what we do with young people was profound and important. And Eric, I just want to reiterate this as we wrap. You and I have to work more closely together on the church thing. This is an existential crisis. The church failed this last cycle.

Yeah. And if we don't fix this and elevate it and strengthen it, we're going to have a long-term problem. The church is working themselves into a corner of cultural irrelevance. We have 45 seconds left. I would do anything to help you with this. What do you think we should do? No, I mean, it would be great if, you know, we had TPSA Faith and, you know, did something together. If we had, yeah, why do you cook something up called TPPUSA Faith?

That would be a great idea. Eric, what I'm saying is we have to be bolder, do more together, speak more together. This is a top concern, excited to work with you more on it. I would be, I'd be delighted. And listen, congratulations to you on TPP USA Faith because a lot of people don't know. You're just doing so much, Charlie. but TPUSA faith, the idea that you've taken this to the churches, God bless you, God bless Lucas Miles, who heads it up brilliantly.

He's a rock star, isn't he? Of course he is. And I was with him last night, and he thinks you're a rock star. And I think he's a rock star, and I think you're a rock star. I don't know if he thinks you're a rock star. I guess grace. We're going to do it. Listen, praise God.

Thank you for coming on here, Charlie. Congratulations. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. A major retail chain just canceled a massive order. leaving my pillow with an overstock of the classic my pillows, and this is your gain, because for a limited time, my pillow is offering their entire classic collection at true wholesale prices.

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to grab your standard, My Pillow, for only while supplies last. Folks, welcome back. I have to say, well, there's a number of things to say. First of all, I want to say the film Letter to the American Church, based on my book, Letter to the American Church, we made that film with Charlie Kirk and TPSA. They helped us to produce that film. Charlie is prominently featured in that film. I think I probably am featured a little bit more. I don't know, but he is as prominently featured as anybody in the film.

And he wanted more than anything. It's why he wanted to produce the film with us to push that film out as much as possible. I'm bringing it up now because the film is available, letter to the American church.com. The book is available, of course. But the film was available. And the reason I'm bringing this up is because many, many, many churches refused to screen the film. We offered it free to churches. That's the main point. We offered it free to churches. Letter to the American Church, film free. If you want to screen it for your congregation, we're offering it free.

Zero, right? And I bring it up now because it's my opinion that those churches that decided to be so apolitical that they would not screen a film like this, it was because of their silence that Charlie Kirk sticks out like a sore thumb and people think, oh, he's so radical. And that's why he becomes the focal point for murderous rage. And so if everybody would speak up, if everybody would be bolder, it takes the pressure off of the few, of which I am one, not anywhere near the level of Charlie. But the point is that we all have to use our voices. Also want to mention we have a big matching grant. Socrates in the city, which exists to get truth out, to get people talking.

It's similar to what Charlie was doing, I guess, in many ways. It's different but similar. To talk about the big questions, to dare to ask the big questions and to talk about the big questions with people that I think have something to say. I may not agree with every one of them on everything, but valuable conversations. Socratesin the city.com is the website. Socratesin the city.com is where you can sign up for the newsletter

because we are sending out weekly stuff at this point. It's kind of amazing that we have weekly stuff that we're putting out. We're doing these things, Socrates conversations, which is I'm not involved in the conversation. It's, I think on Friday we're going to air a conversation with my friend Louis Marcos, who is at Houston Baptist University. Boy, do I love him. Louis Marcos is brilliant on C.S. Lewis Lewis Lewis Lewis, Lewis, he's just wonderful. Lewis Markos talking to Holly Ordway. I've had both of them for Socrates in the studio, but they're going to be speaking to each other. Holly is an expert on J.R.R. Tolkien. Anyway, so that's coming up. It's pretty cool, these conversations that are happening. It's sort of like if you could invite interesting people to a dinner party, who would you invite? And these are the kinds of people that are amazing.

And it's kind of a dream team of folks that are insightful and, you know, spark these really interesting conversations. And by the way, the match link is Salkarys and the city.com slash match. So if people want to go there. Yeah. Yeah, I don't even know if I mentioned that yet. But that's what I was just going to say was we have a match going on right now trying to raise funds. Now, when we raise funds for Socrates and City, it helps us to get this stuff out. And people are telling me they're coming to faith through watching these videos. Okay. We've had millions and millions of views. It's very exciting. We're really

pushing it out there. But if you can help us out, go to Socratesandcity.com slash match. And you can probably see when you go to the page, Socratesandcity.com, how to give to the match. But it's a big match. And so we're hoping for people to step up. Also, I've got to say, December 2nd is our Christmas gala in New York City. That's a big deal. Tickets are now on sale. It will sell out. You've got to go to Socratesoncity.com.

It's December 2nd in New York City. There's rooms available at the Union League Club if you want. But you've got to jump on this. December 2nd, tickets are on sale.