The Eric Metaxas Show - Bill Federer

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

It's Saint Patrick's day, so we had our friend and author William Federer on the program to tell us why we celebrate it. 

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Hey there, folks. Remember I said today was St. Patrick's Day? Well, it turns out I was correct. And because of that, as I promised to you, our dear friend Bill Federer is on the program to give us the facts concerning St. Patrick. Bill, welcome back. Eric, great to be with you. I see you're wearing green.

I'm not wearing green, but if people are listening on the radio, they would have no idea. So as far as they're concerned, I'm dressed like a leprechaun, and they have no evidence to the contrary. So I'm just going to throw that out there. So I want you to tell us, we've got about 30 minutes here. I know the story of St. Patrick. I've forgotten a lot of the details. Where should we begin? Well, by the way, I put it in a book and a flash drive, but China builds the great Wall of China around.

the third century. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You just said you have you've written a book about it. What's the title of that book? I don't want to that's very important. As an author, I want to make sure we get the title of the book. Yeah, yeah. It's called St. Patrick the real story of his amazing life from tragedy to the triumph. And I begin with, and I have a flash drive with my video presentations on it. But I like to give the backstory. A lot of people don't realize that, you know, Patrick lived the same time as Attila the Hun. And it's like, what? So China builds a great wall of China. the Huns can no longer attack into China as well. So they turn west, and it starts a domino effect of displaced tribes across Central Asia that spill over the Roman border.

Give us a century, please. Give us the time frame. The early 400s. Okay, so this is the early 5th century. St. Patrick, we know him as St. Patrick. He is alive. At that same time, you say, when did China build the Great Wall of China? Well, it built it in sections, but a large part of it was completed by 220 AD.

And so that's when the Huns, which was a nomadic tribe, and they had the stir up and they would ride horses and they would raid into China. The Chinese built this wall in sections. And so that's when... Okay, now, wait a minute. So they built it in sections. And I want to be clear on this. It's because the Democrats did not want to fund it. They didn't want to fund it. So the Chinese had to build it in sections. folks, are you tracking? All right. So they build it. Go ahead, Bill. I'll let you, I'll let you take the factual part of the program. I'll just throw in stupid jokes. Keep going.

And so there's this domino effect of displaced tribes across Central Asia. And they go west and they spill over the Roman border. These are the Visigoths and Ostrogoths and Anglos and Saxons and Jutes and Lombards and Thuringians and the Vandals. And you know what the vandals did when they went through town. They vandalized. And then the Attila the Hun. He had an army of a half million men. And they literally wiped out cities, reams and mites and cologne. Now just so we're clear, because you're so familiar with this history, this is, it's hard for folks to get their heads around. Attila the Hun, where did he start? Well, of Mongolian stock. So, okay, so let's try to imagine this, that Atila the Hun, and what century was he in? This was in the 400s?

Early 400s. Okay. So Attila the Hun starts in what is Mongolia. So what is today part of China? And he goes so far west that he ends up in France, what's today France? Right. If you see a picture of the Hunnic Empire, Attila the Hun, it's enormous. It goes all the way from China. Central Asia and into Europe, and he's destroying cities. There was one of the ninth largest city was, I think, Aeolia, something like that, and it was on the Adriatic. And when Attila sets up a palace with a throne, and he sits on the chair just to watch the city get wiped out.

And so the people run out into the shallow areas of the ocean and hammer down logs and then live on these platforms and go from one platform to get to the other with boats with long sticks, and it grew into the city of Venice. is the result in Matilla the Hun. You just, you never ceased to blow my mind, Bill Federer. Honestly, ladies and gentlemen, you got to look at Bill Federer,

F-E-D-E-R-E-R. What you just said to me, I've never heard that. I have never heard that. You're telling me that Venice began in this period because of Batilla the hunt. Yeah, yeah. They would run out into the

shallow area of the beach. You know, sometimes you can get like a you know, a hundred yards out in the ocean and it's still shallow. Well, that's sort of what the Venice was. And the, and the, Attila's armies couldn't ride out there in the, in the surf with their horses. And so they were sort of protected. But then St. Genevieve. So Attila is headed toward Paris and this young woman gets all of Paris to fast and prey. And for some reason, Attila skips sacking Paris. So Genevieve's considered the patron saint of Paris. And now, Rome had gone woke.

They had gone soft. They did not allow the people to be armed, only the military. Because if the people were armed, they could rebel against the emperor. But the military was being stretched. Once again, it sounds like the Democrats. Sounds like the Democratic Party. The elites could have protection, but not the little guy. They're not big into the second amendment in the fifth century in Rome.

Now, this is, of course, pretty much the end of Rome, right? We're talking about this is Rome is right at the end of the end of the Roman Empire. Right. So Attila is planning on marching toward Rome, and the Pope, I think it was Pope Leo, goes out and meets him. And Attila decides to skip going into the peninsula of Italy, and Rome is saved in 453. So there's artwork on churches of Attila and the Pope. meeting and above their head is an angel with a sword and they're saying, well, the angel is scared to tell away. But nevertheless, in 476 AD, the Visigas did invade Rome and they sacked it.

And so 476 AD is considered the end of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the dark ages. But so you have Attila scourging Europe. Rome, a couple of interesting things. They were immoral. They had bath houses. I won't get into all that they did. They had exposure of unwanted infants, their version of abortion. So if a Roman woman bore a child, she'd laid at the father's feet. If the father picked it up, they would keep it. But if not, she would have to put it out in a basket in the woods and expose it to the elements and let it die. And it was horrible.

But the Christians would have a reputation of caring for the children. So the Roman women would leave the baby in a basket on the door of a Christian family, knock on the door and then run away and watch. And that's where you get the story of, you know, an elderly Christian couple of a baby in a basket. So then they... Now, when are we going to start talking about lepracons and green beer? Because I know you're going there.

This is St. Patrick's Day. And you're giving us a typical Bill Federer amazing tour of history. How do we get to Patrick? So 55 BC is when Julius C. are first invaded Britain. So Britain was a Roman colony. But when all this Attila is invading, Rome has to pull its legions back from the frontiers. And so suddenly, Britain's left unprotected, and you have marauding bands, robbing, stealing, killing, and kidnapping.

And so around 405 AD is when Patrick is kidnapped and taken to Ireland. We don't know much about him, but Patrician, Patrick is the name for nobleman. Plebe, plebeian is the name for commoner. like, you know, if you pledge your fraternity, oh, they're the plebs. But he was a patron, so we know a little that he's from a wealthy Christian family. He gets to Druid Ireland. Now, Druids is where Halloween came from. They believe that...

Now, actually, I'm sorry, I keep interrupting, but I want to be clear here that we're saying that at the very beginning of the 5th century, so 405 around there, Patrick is a young man, and he has kidnapped by marauding bands of these, I mean, This is what they would do. And he is taken to Ireland, which is a pagan nation. Yeah, it's like sending your kid away to college. I mean, anyway. It's almost as bad as sending your kid to an Ivy League school.

Okay. So the Druids is where you get Halloween. They believe the woods were filled full of spirits, poltergeists or whatever that needed to be appeased all the time. And so that's where you get the trick or a treat. If you don't leave it a treat, you'll get something bad will happen. Bill, I'm so sorry. I promise I will not be interrupting through the whole hour.

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with a gift of $100 to feed their future. Welcome back, Phob. It's St. Patrick's Day. We're talking to our friend Bill Federer, who has written a book about St. Patrick, and who's giving us this extraordinary history of the true story of St. Patrick. So you were just saying that he's a young man,

he probably a nobleman, where would he have been? And what's today, France or England, or where was he living? No, it was Britain. So it was on the coast of Britain. He's in England. He's kidnapped by marauding tribes and taken to what we know of today as Ireland. Right, and ire means green. But the Druids is where we got Halloween.

They thought if you had a scary face like a jackalantin, it would scare away the demons. I mean, that's sort of why they have gargoyles on Notre Dame Cathedral and the downspouts. Why do they have an ugly thing? They think it'll scare away the demons. It doesn't work that way. The name of Jesus scares the way of the devil. But here he is. And Thomas Cahill wrote in how the Irish saved civilization, Druid sacrifice prisoners of war to the war gods.

They sacrificed newborns to the harvest god. they used the head of their captured enemies as footballs in their victory celebrations. They'd use skulls for ceremonial drinking bowls. I mean, this was the druid. So Patrick's a slave over there. He tends sheep for a druid chieftain. And after a while, he begins to remember his parents' Christian faith, and he ends up believing and converting. So after his entire 30 years of ministry, church leaders in Britain now,

begin to, somebody says, hey, I remember him when he was a young boy. He told me he didn't believe in God. And church politics being as they are, they wanted him to leave Britain and come back for a little church investigation. And he said no. Wait, wait, I'm confused. He's taken as a slave from England to what's Ireland. And these pagan chieftains keep him as a slave to 10 sheep. How long does that last? Six years. Okay, six years. So he's a, and while he's there, and while he's there, Does he have some kind of an experience with God while he's alone tending the sheep as a slave shepherd? Right. He writes about this in the confession of Patrick. And it's a document that all historians agree is authentic.

And he wrote that confession of Patrick when he's later in the church leadership in England after 30 years, wants to have him come back and answer these accusations. And he said, no, I'm not going to go back. I'm going to die in Ireland and I'm going to write my confession. And so what we have is sort of like the Apostle, had he not been put in jail, he wouldn't have written those New Testament letters. And so in his confession, Patrick writes that I was a mere boy, 16 years old, taken captive.

I did not know the true God. I was taken to Ireland, many thousands of others. We didn't keep God's commandments. But after I came to Ireland, every day I had to tend sheep. Many times a day I prayed. His love and fear came over me more and more. And sometimes in a single day, I would say as many as a hundred prayers and as many at night through snow, through frost, through rain on the mountains.

I felt there was no sloth in me. And then he says that the Lord opened the sense of his unbelief and he trusted in the Lord. And like a father, the Lord watched over him like a father or son. And then he began to have dreams. And he said, one night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me, it is well that you fast, your ship is ready. And so he takes this as God directing him to escape. And he goes to the coast, and there's a boat putting wolfhounds on it to take to Europe

to sell as hunting dogs. And they tell him if the dogs mind him, he can come along. The boat's shipwrecked in Gaul, southern France. He hitchikes his way back to Britain, reunited with what's left of his family, pretty uneventful till he turns 40 years old. And then he has another dream. And he writes in his confession, he said, in the depth of the night,

I saw a man named Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave one of these to me. And I read the heading, which ran the cry of the Irish. And while I was reading, I thought I heard the voice of those who were beside the wood of Focleth near the Western Sea,

call out, please holy boy, come and walk among us again. Their cry pierced to my very heart, I could read no more, so I awoke. So he took this as a call from God to go back to Druid Ireland. And so he says goodbye to his family, and with a half a dozen guys, he goes over there. He goes to the chieftain where he had been a slave, and the place was burnt out, and people killed in a battle with a neighboring tribe. So had he not escaped, he probably. would have died. But then he goes to the main chieftain, and he goes right into the smoky den,

and presents the gospel. This would be the equivalent of you going into a drug dealer's den, right? And he's unarmed, and the druid priests realize his new religion will displace them, and they want to kill him immediately. And the chieftain was like, well, what's the hurry to kill him? He's unarmed, and we don't get visitors that often. And so the chieftain gives him a plot of land converts and Patrick uses that as his headquarters to go there's about a dozen different chieftains across northern Ireland and he does top down evangelism. He basically says, my God's more powerful than your pagan gods. And they tried to kill him. In his confession, he says daily, I expect murder, fraud, or captivity, whatever it may be, but I fear none of these things because of the promises

of heaven. He said that the merciful Lord freed me from slavery and from slavery and from 12 dangers. God is my witness that he would forewarn me by divine messages. And I came to preach the gospel in Ireland and to suffer insults from unbelievers. And so one time they laid up ambush for him in a valley and they waited and waited and the only thing they saw go by was a deer. Yet the next day, Patrick was on the other side of the valley. And so one of Patrick's prayers is called the Deers Cry or the breastplate of Patrick. One story was a druid conjured a fog. It was thick and Patrick says,

can you disperse it? And he couldn't. And so Patrick prays and the light shoots through the fog and the fog disperses. And then it said, and the druid fell dead. It's like, okay, I'm not quite sure what to do with that. And then there's the famous contest at Tara. And so this is northwest of Dublin.

and it's a very flat plain and then there's a big rising hill. And the story is that the chieftain would make everyone extinguish their fires on this particular night of the year and then bring a gift like a goat to the druid priests and they would get coals to relight their fire for the next year. And whoever did not extinguish their fire on this particular night would be put to death. Well, it happened to be the night before Easter. and Patrick's like Farbyant for me to submit to this pagan king. And so he goes to the top of that highest hill called Crowag Patrick, Hill of Patrick, and he lights a bonfire that can be seen for 20 miles around.

And the king, King Leary said, if we do not extinguish that flame, it will sweep all over Ireland. And Mary Cagney writes in an article, Patrick the Saint. He talks about the chieftain sent men up. to kill Patrick. He prays in a loud voice. May God come and scatter his enemies and they're struck down. Sort of like Elijah on the mountaintop and King Joash sends 50 soldiers to get Elijah. Oh man of God come down. He goes, if I am a man of God, my fire come down and consume him. Anyway, so those guys are knocked down, I'm not quite sure what happens to him. But then the king comes and on bentonie and converts. and he uses the three-leaf clover to teach the Trinity.

These are illiterate druids, and they can't read. And so he uses this as an illustration, Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, three and one. And then he is always associated with driving the snakes out of Ireland. There are no snakes in Ireland today. It's too far north, climate-wise. But before 800 AD, which was the Little Ice Age, it was warmer up there.

So they could have had snakes and he could have driven him out. Some commentators say, well, maybe it's symbolic of him driving out demons. So he dies on March 17th, 465 AD. So that's 465 all the way to the 1100s. You have the monk named Jocelyn. And he writes a book called The Life, and acts of St. Patrick. So it's written seven centuries after Patrick, so there's really no way of verifying it. But from the 12th century on, these are the stories that have been passed down

about Patrick. And so just some of the chapter headings, I think, are worth mentioning. Bill, we're going to come back, because I've got a lot of questions about this. It's St. Patrick's Day, folks. We'll be back. I want to remind you, we're doing a fundraiser with food for the poor. It really is a joy that we get to give, that we get to go, that we get to do God's will and feed the hungry. And there are many children that are hungry in Central America and particularly in El Salvador at this point. Food for the poor is feeding them, but they need your help. So I ask you very bluntly to please go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner.

It says feed the future. I've given you the details at other times. But we need everyone who can possibly to step up. So please go to metaxis talk.com. You can see the banner there. Metaxistalks talk.com. I'll give you the phone number when we come back. But the website is metaxistalks talk.com.

They're asking for $100 that feeds a kid. for a year. This is an amazing thing. Please go to metaxist talk.com. Numbers don't lie. The impact that Balance of Nature makes every single day is astounding. You can see the numbers for yourself on their website at balance of nature.com. Listen to these stats concerning Balance of Nature's worldwide success. More than a thousand success stories reported each month, hundreds of thousands of customers worldwide, millions of orders delivered each year, and billions, yes, billions of fruits and veggie supplements. consumed by people who've decided to start living better.

There's only one number missing, and that's you. Do what I did and add yourself to these numbers. Start taking Bounce of Nature's Whole Food Supplements like so many others around the world. Here's another number that should get your attention. 35%. Use my discount code, Eric, to get 35% off plus free shipping and their money back guarantee. You must use my discount code Eric. Call them at 800-2468-751 and use discount code Eric or order online at Bounce and

Nature.com. Use discount code Eric to get 35% off plus free shipping balance of nature.com. Welcome back, folks. It's St. Patrick's Day. And I'm talking to our friend Bill Federer. Bill, it's always a challenge, you know, when we look back in history to think what is sort of mythical or made up and what is real. Now, you and I know God does miracles. But sometimes when we're talking about saints, I know that in the Orthodox tradition and the Catholic tradition, some of it sounds. like folklore. It doesn't necessarily sound real. And it's always a challenge for me. What we do know, without any doubt, because you've just laid it out, is that St. Patrick was a real person. He was kidnapped as a young man. He was enslaved by pagan druids on what is today Ireland. During this period, he comes to faith. God speaks to him miraculously that there's a ship waiting to take you home.

so that you'll escape this slavery. He goes, he gets on the ship, he goes, and he's there for quite a while until eventually God speaks to him and says, I want you to go back to where you were kidnapped, to where you were enslaved. Paul had a dream of a guy in Macedonia saying, come over here. Very similar, right?

And he goes, and then you know and I know, the details are a little difficult sometimes, or maybe you're controversial, but the most basic facts are established. He Christianizes this utterly pagan territory. It's, I mean, this is, history records this. There's no doubt about that part of it. Yeah, 1957 World Book Encyclopedia says, he found Ireland all heathen and left it all Christian.

And, but this book, the Life and Acts of Patrick, written by Jocelyn in the 12th century, Some of the chapter headings are interesting. Here's chapter 68 of his journey and his manifold miracles. Chapter 69, the sick man cured. Chapter 71, the dead are raised up, and the king and the people are converted. Chapter 78, 19 men are raised by St. Patrick from the dead. Chapter 80, King Ichu was raised from the dead.

You sort of get a picture here of his, the stories passed down. Chapter 81, a man of gigantic stature is revived from death. Chapter 82, another man who was buried and raised again. The boy was torn by swine restored to life. Another, he banishes the demons forth from the island. And the soul of a certain sinner by St. Patrick is freed from demons. So the stories passed down, but he is known for confrontational, like Elijah type thing. You know, my God against your God and my God's more powerful. But he had an inferiority. You say that again? He had an inferiority complex.

In his confession, he starts off by writing, Patrick the sinner, an unlearned man to be sure. I had long had it in mind to write, but up to now I have hesitated. I was afraid lest I should fall under the judgment of men's tongues because I'm not as well read as others. As a youth, nay, almost as a boy, not able to speak, I was taken captive. Hence today, I blushed and fear exceedingly to reveal my lack of education. I mean, you and I are like, what? This guy did all this great stuff, but inside of him, he always felt inadequate because at the time, the church scholars are writing these deep theological works.

And he's like, you know, trying to use a three-leave piece of grass, you know, three-leave clover to teach people, you know, church doctrine. But nevertheless, God loves to use people who feel inadequate in themselves. I think that's an interesting thing. Well, it really is. And I think that, you know, aren't we glad that he wrote his story and that others wrote this story? Because this is real. And that's why I think, you know, most St. Patrick's days over the years, I want to have you on or somebody on to tell the story that it's a true story. This is this is history, folks. You can quibble about the details. But the reality is that St. Patrick was a man of God. He heard from God. He obeyed God. And he goes. into the lion's den. He doesn't need to go back there. Most people, once you escape slavery with these pagan chieftains, you don't want to go back, but God sends him back. And it's just, it's such a beautiful story, but it's a true story. That's what amazes me is that we know

that this is real. And we know that Ireland was Christianized to use the term. Now, I have to ask you again about the snakes. People say, oh, he drove the snakes out of Ireland. I think sometimes when people say stuff like that, it encourages people not to take the whole thing too seriously. Like it's kind of folklore. And I think the reality is that we don't know if that's literally true, if there were snakes in Ireland. I would, my interpretation at this point would be to say that that's metaphorical, that he drove the demonic, the demons out of Ireland. But we don't, we don't really know. Yeah, well, you know, Deuteronomy 28, you know, does say, if you are, to the voice of the Lord, these good things will happen. If you don't harker, bad things will happen.

And one of the bad things is there'll be wild animals that'll attack you. But what's interesting is, again, he baptizes 120,000 people, starts 300 churches. But in the next century, it was Irish monks that went back to Europe and evangelized all those heathen hordes that had overrun Europe and started the whole thing off to begin with. And so one was Columba, which means dove. And this guy, sneaks into a neighboring castle, borrows a book of Psalms, spends a year copying it,

and then sneaks it back where he got it. Well, the king of the castle that it was borrowed from demands the copy. And the king that had the copy says, no, you got the original. It turns into a battle. 3,000 people die. And this Columba feels so bad,

he banishes himself to the island of Iona, a little rock outcropping in the ocean between Ireland and Britain. And he lives off a clams on the beach. but he gathers a following of guys and they recite all 150 Psalms by memory every day. They're really, you know, austere. And then they go and evangelize the Scots and the Picks. And then they would say, hang on.

We're going to go to it. We're going to another break. We've got a final segment. There is so much stuff here, folks. I'm talking to Bill Federer. Let me remind you. We need you to go to metaxis talk.com. The phone number is 844-863-4673.

please help us out. They're asking for $100 to feed the hungry. 844-863-4673, 844-8663-4-86673. Folks, welcome back at St. Patrick's Day. I'm talking to our friend Bill Federer about the actual St. Patrick and the amazing stories. So where did we leave off? Where were we? What century were we in?

Right. So this is the early 500s. Okay, so 100 years after St. Patrick. Yeah. Well, he dies in 465 AD, so maybe, you know, 50 some odd years. 50 years after his death, okay. And so you have Irish monks evangelizing the Scots and the picks in Britain. Okay, sorry.

So this is a big deal. He evangelizes pagan Ireland, and now you have Christians from Ireland leaving Ireland and evangelizing other parts of the world. That's kind of big news there. And then there's Columbinas, and he is an Irish monk that starts over 100 churches across Europe. Even I was in Cologne in the basement of this big cathedral. They have excavations, and they find remnants of an Irish chapel. And I was with somebody from St. Gallens in Switzerland.

And St. Gallens was an Irish monk that started the church there in Switzerland. So these Irish are converting all those heathen hordes that had overrun the Roman Empire a century earlier that caused the Roman soldiers to leave Britain that caused Patrick to be kidnapped and started the whole thing off. So it sort of went full circle. The way that the monks would do it is they would go down to the coast

and get in a little dingy boat and raise the sail and wherever the wind blew them, they figured that's where the Holy Spirit wanted them to be a missionary. It's like, oh, I feel called to go into the missions. Where are you going? I don't know. It depends which way the wind's blown. One monk was blown west, St. Brendan.

nobody saw him for seven years, he comes back and he describes what sounds like North America. So a lot of people think, well, you know, wasn't Columbus or the Swedes or whatever? It was maybe the Irish that were the first. Another is St. Bridget of Kildare. So she's a woman, and she goes to these chieftains that had converted to become Christian,

and she says, you need to give me land to build a church, a monastery, an abbey, a convent. And then she would say, and you need to fund it. And she was one of these women that you couldn't say no to. And so these chiefs, they're like, okay, where do you want the land? And so there's dozens of churches and monasteries, and abbeats across Ireland that claim that St. Bridget of Kildare

was the one that helped found them. And I do want to mention a little bit about the prayer. The dears cry, the breastplate of Patrick, because it's such a powerful prayer. But it's, I bind it to myself today, the strong name of the Trinity, three in one, one and three. And it says, to keep me from all Satan's spells and wiles, to guard me from the wizard's evil shaft, the death wound and the burning, protect me Christ till thy returning. Christ before me, Christ behind me. Christ with me, Christ within me, Christ beside me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet and in Christ in danger, Christ in heart to those that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. But you really get the feeling. I know I sort of butchered that prayer trying to do it by never. It sounded pretty good to me. And then it ends. I bind into myself today, the strong name of the Trinity by invocation of the same

three and one, one and three. of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit Word, praise to the God of my salvation. Salvation is of Christ the Lord. And so you have them re-evangelizing. Fast forward, King James transplants 100,000 Scottish into Northern Ireland, their Presbyterian.

And so that's the beginning of the Protestant Catholic fight. And Spain even lands with some troops in 1600 to organize the Irish Catholics to fight the British. the British respond by invading Ireland and selling over a million of them into slavery in the 1600s. And then fast forward, the English didn't allow the Irish to vote. They passed inheritance laws where the guys with the biggest states would have to divide it up equally amongst their kids. So it broke the Irish lords and now you got a bunch of poor people with, and the only thing they could grow to keep them alive was potatoes. And then in the 1800s, there was a potato famine. Millions of Irish

die and millions come to America. and the Catholic population of America goes from 1% to 20% in a decade. Lender trivia, Frederick Douglass, escapes from slavery. And when they say you're too eloquent to have been a slave, where were you a slave? And as soon as he says, the slave catchers come after him. So Frederick Douglass has to go to Europe. And he goes to Ireland. And he's befriended with Daniel O'Connell.

And he's the one who was pushing for Irish to be able to vote. And they raised the money, $700. to buy Frederick Douglass's freedom. And so there's always been this sort of connection between the blacks and the Irish that had both been discriminated against. I was even with, you know, Alveda King. And she said, well, I'm black, but I also have Irish in my blood, the DNA test. And so they came in such large numbers that people would put signs in their window. No Irish need apply.

And so then they would have to spread out across the country. And about 33 million Americans have some Irish in them. And, but a fascinating story. That's an amazing story. People really forget. I mean, people have forgotten because the Irish are so assimilated, you don't even think of it. But the persecution in this country in the United States of the Irish, the way they were treated, it's abominable. And it's important that we remember that many groups have been treated absolutely despicably.

It's horrifying. I never heard that story and leave it to you. I've learned so much from you. But the idea that Frederick Douglass goes to Ireland and that there's this strong connection that he has with Ireland,

I've absolutely never heard that before. I think we're at a time, Bill. Where can people find this book? Oh, thanks. It's American Minute.com and it's titled St. Patrick, the real story of his amazing life from tragedy to triumph. And I also have a flash drive

with my video presentations with all my PowerPoint pictures and so forth. with him. One last piece of trivia. Once the Druids got saved and stopped chopping off heads, they go to Patrick and they said, how should we do our laws? So he takes a little Irish law, a little Bible law, a little Latin law, and it's called the Coda Patrick. They take it back to missionaries to Britain, and in the 800s, Alfred the Great codifies it. He's the founder of Oxford. And then it becomes the basis of English common law. And then American law is based on English common law and guess what? So I hear Patrick even may have influenced the laws we have in America.

Unbelievable. Americanminut.com. Americanminit.com is the website. Folks, I want to remind you again and again, we need your help with food for the poor. It's urgent. The phone number is 844-863-4673. The website is metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner right there. It says feed their future. A hundred dollars feeds a kid for a a year. Folks, this is real. Please help. Give what you can. Some of you can give $100. Some of you can give less. Some of you can give a lot more. Metaxistalk.com and the phone number 844-863-4673. 844-864-863. Folks, a lot of news to share right now. Okay, real quick. Remember, I was telling everybody to boycott Target because of what they did. You know the whole story. I think it's

time to reverse engines. Target, you need to reward people when they do the right thing. Target made a huge decision to blow off their whole DEI thing, which is amazing that on a corporate level, a company that's been sort of progressive would totally change their tune and say, we are no longer going to play the DEI game. That is big news. They are being boycotted by all kinds of radical Marxist, there's some insane leftist mega church pastor calling for a boycott on Target. I am here to say we should reward them. When somebody totally changes their tune, we need to reward them. So I am today going to buy a TV at Target. Not making that up. I've got to get a TV for my mom. I'm going to do it at Target today. We need to reward them. God bless them for changing what they've done. By the way,

I wanted to talk more about Donald Trump's ultimate. made them in Israel. It's just amazing. Had the evilness of Hamas. I can't talk about it because I get so upset. But I wanted to say that portions of this program are sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism on behalf of the government of Israel. But that's not why I talk about Israel. I just want to mention that. But I'm asking you specifically to visit goisrael.com for more info on visiting Israel. obviously now is not the perfect time to go, but to think about it. Everyone I talked to who's been to Israel, they all say the same thing. It's like funny.

They go, oh, it was life changing. It was life changing because that's where it all went down. That's where it actually happened. And when you see those things, I was just there briefly a number of years ago, I guess it was seven years ago. And even though it was there briefly, I was moved to tears by realizing that Jesus walked here. And so it's a life-changing event for everyone I've talked to. So it's important that we stand with Israel and pray that the horror is going over there end soon. So I look forward to going back there when I can.

In the meantime, visit go-israel.com for more information. Also wanted to mention that we talk about education a lot on the program and how our nation's public schools have been taken over by lunatic ideal. You know, just like corporate America, I was saying like Target, well, Target has reversed course. We need to take back our schools as well, which is why I'm exhorting you to visit our friends at the Herzog Foundation, Hertzog Foundation.com. They are the trusted source on American K-12 private education. They have a remarkable suite of free resources for parents and grandparents thinking about making the switch from public schools to a Christian education. or to homeschooling, which is the best of the best. They have an online publication, The Lion, the Lion, sorry, you can go to readdlyon.com,

R-E-A-D-L-I-O-N dot com. They have a podcast called Making the Leap. These guys are heroes, folks. If you've encountered them, you already know they're on the same page as we, and I want to say that it's important that we're aware of them. And again, they're there to help. Herzogg Foundation.com. Before we end our one, I want to mention that we've got a lot of Socrates and the

stuff, Socrates and the city stuff coming up. I've done a whole bunch of Socrates and City interviews in London. We're going to be airing those soon. One is with Ian Herssey, Ali, buckle your seatbelt. So that's going to be all on. Go to Socrates. Go to Socratesin the city.com. Sign up for Socrates Plus on our YouTube page. Most of the stuff is available. We're doing an event in Lexington, Kentucky with Hillsdale President Larry Arne, very excited about that. That's April 16th, Palm Beach, March 21st. I'm going to interview Senator, Josh Hawley, but there's so much stuff at the Socrates and the city website. And then finally, plug from my store.com. You can get most of my books and especially the Donald, the caveman books,

at my store.com. Be sure you use the code Eric at my store.com. Donald drains the swamp is there waiting for you. Donald drains the swamp. Discount code Eric at my store. com.