The Eric Metaxas Show - Bishop Jethro James

Episode Date: March 9, 2020

Bishop Jethro James from Paradise Baptist Church in Newark, NJ, brings an important message about the dangers of legalizing marijuana and how it can become a gateway to more powerful drugs.

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Thank you. It's embarrassing when Todd brings that up. But the fact of the matter is that my great grandmother loved blueberry pie and we've never been able to get the stains out. And these dentures have been passed down. And if you believe this, I've got some land I'd like to sell you in the marshlands of, oh, you know what? It just dawned on me.

Speaking of the marshlands, I have a guest in the studio. Folks, this is very special. I'm sitting here in the studio with Bishop Jethro James Jr., who comes to us from originally Patterson, New Jersey, now is in another part of New Jersey, where he has been the senior pastor. pastor for how many years, Bishop, in Newark? I've been in Newark, senior pastor, for 31 years. 31 years. Well, first of all, welcome to the program. Thank you for having me. I'm, I've got to say, you know, I'm joking around about the me about the meadowlands

and the marshlands and stuff. When you're in Manhattan, across the river is the great state of New Jersey. And the only way to get there is you've got to either take that big bridge or you've got to take a tunnel. And so usually when I get there, I'm driving through. through to get to another part of New Jersey. So I, you know, if somebody said, can you find Newark on a map? I don't know if I could. Isn't that embarrassing? Norick is the largest city in New Jersey. One thing about Newark, it has a great history. As a matter of fact, it was one of the first Puritan settlements in New Jersey. Now, okay, that I had no idea. That is amazing. I have to ask you, you're a native New Jersey in your whole life. I mean, is this, I would,

was born in New Jersey, but at the age of five days, my mom took me to my grandmother in a place called Powhatan, Virginia. It really does exist. Powhatan is the actual Indian chief and the father of Pocahontas, so it just wasn't a Disney show. I was going to say, that's right, that's right. But then you came back to Jersey at some point. Now, when I think of, you know, that part of Jersey, which is not so far from New York, I really think, you're basically New Yorker.

You grew up in the New York area your whole life. Let's be honest. You're so close to New York, you're closer to New York than parts of the Bronx. That's true. That was a joke really because Bronx is New York. But you really are, people who know this area, I mean, I grew up in Danbury, Connecticut,

which is just past the gravitational pull of New York. But the tri-state area, there's a certain feeling here. It's really New York is the center of our universe. you've been here most of your life. Spent a lot of time here. Was a musician as a youth played the old Chitlin circuit, the Apollo and places like that. Whoa, whoa, come on.

Now, I want to hear more about this, but I want to tell my audience, the case of wondering where we're going with this, because I'm famous for digressing. We're going to talk about the legalization of marijuana. That is how you came to my attention. You have taken on this issue. on a national level, talking about the dangers of marijuana. And when I read your story, I thought, this is a man I want to talk to because this is an issue. The level of ignorance on this issue is just Himalayan.

It's stunning to me. And I thought, I want somebody who understands this better than I do to talk about it. So before we get into that, though, your story, I love getting to know people's stories. What kind of a musician were you? Well, I played, as I said, the old Chitlin circuit. I played in bands back in the day, a band called the In-crowd, a backup band. But what instrument did you play? I was a percussionist.

I played drums. As a matter of fact, in the gospel music hall of fame, I played for a group called the gospel highlights. I played behind Shirley Caesar. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I played behind Shirley Caesar and Al Green. See, I never know who's sitting here until I start probing a little bit. If we just start talking about marijuana, we're not going to get there.

I love this. The old Chitland circuit, I don't know if you could tell about the color of my skin, but I did not play the old Chitland circuit. I'm fascinated with that whole idea, the Apollo. That's like a real, that's real history. But you ended up becoming an executive in, what, PR? Public service, electric and gas company, which is a utility. A utility.

A utility company. In Jersey. In New Jersey. And when did you make the leap to full-time pastor, being a pastor? Believe it or not, Eric, I was doing full-time pastoring and full-time executive for public service. My vice president and my general manager would say, who are we working for today? Paradise Church or Public Service? Wow.

And they would allow. New Jersey had the uniqueness of having a faith-based program. As a matter of fact, they have a Homeland Security faith-based program. which I'm one of the founding members. And PSENG, when we started that, it's actually under the Secretary of State in New Jersey. PSENG fund, they actually funded the project with the first $100,000 where churches, mass, synagogues, temples could come and get the technical assistance they needed to set up 501c3s and things of that nature. So I was all part of that.

So you've been involved. So, you know, you're not just. a pastor pastor, you're a pastor who's involved in the community, obviously. And that, really, I was going to ask you, how did you get involved in the issue of the legalization, the proposed legalization of marijuana? What drew you into taking that on? Well, Eric, I've been an advisor to the last six governors on minority matters in the state of New Jersey. I'm a chaplain with the New Jersey state police currently. And on 9-11, I actually did the triage on ground zero. God has blessed me to come through the cancer, a couple of stents in the heart. And so I've sort of been an advisor to the last

10 attorney generals as well as other police departments. I was one of the first minority consultants to Governor Murphy when he wanted to run for governor. He, I was asked to make him a candidate. And so during the campaign, when he mentioned this marijuana piece, I said to him, absolutely not. What it would do, it would devastate not just communities of color, but it would devastate the state of New Jersey. Some folks said that, well, you know, if you take on this governor, it's going to be because he had got elected then when he announced this thing. And this is Murphy. This is Governor Murphy. I'm so confused because lately I've been paying attention.

Once Christi got knocked out, I think I lost track of who's been the governor. So who's been the governor since him? Since Chris Christie, who I do speak to on a regular basis, we call each other a friend. We didn't always agree on everything, but I always tell people my lovely wife and I don't agree on everything. Usually she's right about most stuff. But the reality is that government. Governor Murphy decided under his watch that he was going to legalize marijuana, and he talked about it as it was going to be the answer to the social problems. I need to state, Eric, I also hold a license in the state of New Jersey.

I am a licensed social worker. Now, let me ask you another question. Murphy, you said, is the one who's been proposing this? Yes, he has proposed it. He's proposing and he is pushing for it now. Is he a Democrat? Is he a Republican? What is what is he?

He's a Democrat. However, it doesn't matter what label. Chris Christie and I were able to do things. He's a Republican. I point out to people, it's not about Democrat, Republican, or Independent. It's about a consciousness. And I believe that what has happened is that too many folks in government have lost a sense of dignity Too many folks in government has lost a sense of respect and responsibility.

Too many folk in government have lost their way, and there has to be a voice of reasoning. There has to be a voice from God. There's always been, regardless of where a nation went, there had to be a voice of a prophet. You don't have to be popular. However, what I'm most proud of, and we're going to get into it, to the details is when I took on the governor at a program at my church, called them out. He had just been elected. I was his advisor and said, sir, I cannot allow you to do this. I want to put a pin in it. Folks, we're going to be right back. This is important. Do not go away.

Hey there, folks. It's the Eric Mattaxas show. I am talking to Bishop Jethro, James. James, who is the senior pastor of Paradise Baptist Church. I got to say, Bishop James, talking to you about this issue of the proposed legalization of marijuana in New Jersey. This hits close to home literally because obviously I'm a lifelong New Yorker. But the lack of wisdom on the part of our leaders that they would rather blithely leap ahead without understanding what that's going to do to communities. or that, you know, it's, I guess I get the impression. I want to start here that they're just doing this for the votes, that they really feel like, hey, this is a winning issue for me,

and they're not thinking through the effects that it would have. What is your experience? How do you come to this issue? Well, there has to be a moral consciousness, and it should be from government as well as a health consciousness. Eric, I don't know if you know, but New Jersey leads the nation and low birth rate babies in the Latino and African American community. These are facts.

They don't deny it. One of the things that we do know. Low birth rate, low birth weight and low birth rate. And so, yes, many Latino and African American babies in New Jersey, as I said, we lead to lower 48, don't make it. They don't make it. Or their birth weight is so low that they need special income. incubation during this. And one of the contributing factors we know are drugs. The THC in New Jersey, for example, every mother, regardless of nationality, regardless of ethnicity, has to be tested

for illegal substance in her body. The reality is the moment that anything illegal, even if it's a prescription, the worker in the hospital must notify child services. And so there's an open investigation, even if you're taking a legal prescribed drug. Now, we know that marijuana is a federal banned drug. And so the reality is the impact is unbelievable, not only on the mother, but on the child, because the reality is THC remains in the mother's breast milk. THC, what it does to a baby's brain, THC will cause even early death. And so the reality is that when we find out the medical problems that we have with smoking marijuana, there is no moral consciousness.

And I believe that's what we brought to the Murphy administration. that's what we brought and said, Thus saith the Lord, that's what we brought to his administration. And when he decided, and they said, it was a foregone conclusion that folks came to me and said, Bishop, you know you're David taking on Goliath.

I said, did you read the end of the story? Aha. Yeah, I think Goliath, what happened? Was it a tie? Or was it, no, no. David won by decision, right? Yeah. Can you imagine, when people say David and Goliath,

what I love about it is that they act like this is a natural story. This is, David is anointed by God and he defeats Goliath because God is with him. When you're talking about this kind of an issue and you have the guts to approach this as you have publicly, you know, God is with you. And I think that we need to sometimes put aside, you know, the natural view of things, because this is really something that children's lives are at stake. You know this. You just brought it up. And people, in the media don't seem to have the courage. Like it's somehow, you know, Kamala Harris goes on and kind of acts like it's cool to to smoke pot. And you think, wow, they don't seem to understand that they're sending a message to young people. They seem to have

forgotten this. And so you really are a voice, a moral voice, and you've dared to be public about it. It's why I wanted to have you on this program, because I think that so many people are somehow afraid to talk about this. Oh, Eric, I share this with you. As you are probably aware that when they tried to pose this to the legislature and because of what we have done, especially in New Jersey and speaking out around the nation, that when it came to a vote, the governor lost, it was interesting because it was last year back, I believe it was in. May when the governor and I were at an event together. And one of the senators that was with the governor yelled to him. The vote was that Monday. And we were together that Friday.

And I remember the senator yelling out, Governor, we're with you on Monday. And he said, from your mouth to God, as I said, Governor, don't worry about it. I talked to God already. So it's not happening. And he was defeated. So now when you say defeated,

You mean the New Jersey legislature voted on this? The New Jersey legislator didn't have the votes. And what kind of a margin was it in the Jersey legislature? It was only five votes short, but those five votes with a Democratic governor, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic assembly is saying to you, governor, you were wrong. God spoke. The reality is that they promised all kinds of. of money that we're going to have all this money. But when you look at the states that have legalized marijuana, the black market still sells.

If you tell me, Eric, that you're going to sell me your suit jacket for $100 and I can get them on the streets for $60, who you think I'm going to buy from. Then you tell me you want tax on the $100. I mean, I got to say there's so much here to dig into. First of all, there's something to me despicable about what. when people throw money into it. It's kind of like with the lottery, they don't really concern is it right or wrong.

They don't talk about that. They just say, oh, the state's going to get money. We're going to get money from bringing in casinos. We're going to bring in gambling. We're going to be. And they don't really think what about what is right and what is wrong. What about the message we send to young people about a culture of a gambling, about a culture of smoking pot, about a culture.

I mean, you know, when you talk about legalizing all these things, it sends a message. I can't remember who said the law is a teacher. There's a role for government. Obviously, the culture and the church and families is the bottom line, but it does matter what is legal and what is illegal. Let me ask you around the country, do we have a sense of how many states have legalized it or where is it in play? Because I know New Jersey is where we are, New York, New Jersey, but where is it around the country? Where's this movement going? Well, one of the first states was Colorado. There were promises made in Colorado that the money would be used to bolster up educational programs and stuff like that. The reality is what has happened in Colorado and what we've seen, we've seen a 70% increase in poisonings of children. 70%. What do you mean poisoning? Well, THC, like any other substance, if your child gets it, he or she is going to chew on it, he or she is going to swallow it. And of course, it's poison. We've seen that the marketing has been to young people, for example, Rice Krispy Squares, Gumby Bears, you can go online right now and order them online from anywhere. What helped defeat us, in New Jersey, Patterson is an urban city.

Norfolk is an urban city. But then understand that New Jersey has one of the wealthiest counties in America. New Jersey, you know, we have the housewives of New Jersey. They're from Upper Saddle River. You need a few million just to think about buying anything there.

And so the reality is that New Jersey is such a diverse. state that in the municipal municipality of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, which is very few folks that look like me, Eric, are there.

The Friday before the vote, they had somebody got a hold of some gummy bears, it went lace with marijuana, it went to the high school, and many of the students there wound up

in the hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey, another very high-end and well-to-do community. And so that changed the mind of legislators who said, well, we're only going to put it in urban areas. When you look at other areas, for example, Colorado, you're seeing a large influx of the black market. When you look at what is happening, you have a great deal of homelessness because if you smoke every day, you're not going to be responsible to work. When you look at Colorado, they're seeing

that it's cheaper to import the stuff. And so the legitimate businesses are fighting with cartels now. You're seeing prostitution because if I need that smoking and I smoke every day, if it means selling my body, I do what I have to do. I mean, this is such a big issue. They're not, they're not denying that this exists. We're going to go to another break. Folks, I'm talking to Bishop Jethro James. We're talking about the proposed legalization of marijuana in New Jersey and around the country, and we'll be right back. Hey there, folks.

It's the Arkham Taxis Show. I'm talking to Bishop Jethro C. James Jr. Bishop James, you're married. Your wife is here. You've got some kids, and you have four grandkids. So you're not just speaking, you know, as a pastor or as a person involved in public policy. You're speaking as a family man. That is correct.

And you know that this is going to affect children you've been talking about that. What do you think is behind this idea to push marijuana? Why would a politician like Governor Murphy of New Jersey want to get behind something like this? First of all, the money. The scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil. And money seems to be the driving force here. Folks talk about the hundreds of millions and even the billions dollars that they could make from selling this product. Well, we know what happened with the opioid crisis.

It wasn't a problem until it moved to upper class, middle class communities. We know now that we have a problem that has really no answers except for the Lord Jesus Christ. The reality is this that I believe that whether you agree with it or not, it's greed, no state, no state that has legalized has made the money. As a matter of fact, the cost of law enforcement, the cost of whatever, whatever. One of the things that Governor Murphy tried to sell to the African American and Latino community was the fact that once they legalize it, they're going to let everybody out. of jail. Well, the reality is, depending on what you're charged with, and I know a little bit about

law enforcement, being a chaplain with the state police in New Jersey, the reality is that, depending on how much you had and what you did with it, you can't get out of jail. It's not that simple. I talk to a few former U.S. Attorney Generals as well as former Attorney General's in New Jersey and they gave me their legal thought process and they said, well, we're going to make a ton of money setting up these corporations. And then five years from now, we're going to make a ton of money dealing with the lawsuits that are come about because of the mental illness, because of the health crisis. As a matter of fact, I believe it was in the New England Journal of Medicine, 2018, they stated that if you're a constant smoke of marijuana, you'll probably be having your

first heart attack before you're 35 years old. Your lungs will be gone before you're 37. And so the reality is this country is spending tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, that tell you to stop smoking. Why in the world would I want you to eat, put something in your body that's going to probably kill you a lot faster with no thought process at all. I talked about how do you regulate because that's been the other big piece. Well, we'll be okay under regulations. How do you regulate something when you haven't done a good job and I'll take the small things? Eric, I don't know if you know what a loosey is, but in the urban community.

I happen to know, I'm down, man. You're down. I hear you're. And one of the things I'm sitting with some of the governor's, the governor's people and they were saying, Bishop, what's your problem with this? I said, well, you can't enforce Lucy laws. And one of the people after a minute and said, Bishop, what's a Lucy? I said, it's a cigarette that they sell that's been open and probably have lice eggs and roach eggs and everything else in them. And that's a health problem. Now, we are talking about,

we're talking about tobacco cigarettes. Tobacco cigarettes. So one cigarette that's loose is called a Lucy. And you're saying that you cannot enforce that. Now, it's on the street, Right. If I'm so broke, maybe I'm a street person, I just want to buy one cigarette. And so you go to the local bodega, the local store, the local food store, so many restaurants, and they will sell them to you. Even though it's not legal. Unless a lot of them know me and say, oh, bishops in and the kids will come in, yo, give me two Lucy's, man. And they said, get on out of here with that. And they'll say, you sold it to me last week, and one of the kids will say, he's in here now.

And so if they have no idea of culture and history, how are you going to stop someone from selling? Then the other thing, Eric, it's all cash. It's all cash. Yeah. This is so nasty. I don't know. You know, I guess the cynicism of politicians to be able to put forward things like this without really caring, it's obvious, how. it's going to impact different communities, usually who suffers, the poor.

The poorest of the poor, urban communities, they suffer. And the idea that some politician is saying, oh, it's going to help the state, we're going to give money to education, whatever. By the way, you can throw as much money as you want at education. If you don't have a moral basis, I don't know where you think your money is going. But it seems to me, one of the reasons I want to have you on is because I think the black church in America has been co-opted by different parts of the government. Because you have a moral voice and a moral authority. We wouldn't have had a civil rights movement without the black

churches in America. And I think that it is time that the black church stood up and said to left and right on these issues, this is what we believe. We believe in a biblical view of sexuality. That comes from the scripture. We believe in equality before the law. There are a number of things that I think that they become left-right issues, that they're not left-right issues. They're right and wrong issues. Let's put it that way. I totally agree with you. One of my frustrations is where is the voice of not just the black church? Where is the voice of the church? The scripture says that sin is a approach to all people, but righteousness exalts a nation. Stop right there. We're going to be right back talking to Bishop Jethro James. Hey there, folks. It's the Eric McAxas show. I'm talking to Bishop

Jethro James of Newark, New Jersey, by way of Patterson, New Jersey. We are talking about moral issues in government. And I was saying earlier, you quoted that beautiful scripture. But it seems to me a lot of times that politicians on the left and on the right co-opt people of faith, right? So the Democratic Party says to the black church, we got you in our back pocket. You're going to vote for us. So we're going to ignore your concerns on a biblical standard for sexuality in our laws. We're going to ignore your concerns on legalization of marijuana on all these things because we know you're going to vote for us. And the conservatives have taken, the Republican Party has taken the evangelical church for granted.

said, oh, you're going to vote for us because you care about life. You're going to vote for us because you care about some of those issues. And we're going to ignore your issues. We're not going to, you know, in other words, we know we're going to get your vote, but when we get in office, we're not worried about what you believe. And I really feel that it's one of the reasons I want to have you on this program, that, you know, the church is such a powerful voice in culture, an American culture. And I think that the left and the right, they need to have a reckoning. with what the people in the pews care about. I think you're 100% right.

As I quoted the scripture that says that sin is a reproach to all people and righteousness exalteth a nation. The reality is that the reason New Jersey is called the pay-for-place state, one of the things that we have in New Jersey that they don't have in some states is that our governor is probably the most powerful in the lower 48 when it comes to Oblast. appointments. For example, I could say, Eric, you know, I really don't like Christian radio or television, but Eric, how would you like to be on one of my boards that pays $110,000 a year? And Eric, as long as you don't say anything about me on your Christian radio and TV show, and by the way, you only have to go to

one meeting a month. And so we are bought and sold. Too many, and I will say it, because I can say it, African-American preachers are bought and sold. I remember the late Dr. C.L. Franklin said this. That was Aretha Franklin's dad. When asked about politics and preaching, he said politics is the science of good government. He said the job of the preachers to make sure no mad scientists get loose in the laboratory or stay. And I never forgot that. Wow. That's, you know, it's, it's, It's an interesting thing to me because I really think that things are changing right now. I mean, Trump is scaring the heck out of every Republican.

But I'm saying it's interesting because things are breaking differently. When you have somebody like Kanye West saying, I'm going to think for myself, I think all bets are off, right? In other words, that we can't play the game we have played in the last 50 years or something that everybody's going to vote this way or this way. We do have to think for ourselves. And an issue like this, I think that once the American public understands that the lives of their kids are being played with by politicians, those politicians have to understand they're going to pay a price once people are educated about this issue. And I think that the media narrative is constantly in one direction. Like, this is cool, that's cool. And I think, wow, that is so childish.

It is so selfish. And, you know, again, it's one of the reasons I want to have. you on here because we don't have enough people speaking out about this issue that people are sort of afraid to appear, you know. Recently, recently they had me at Burlington, Vermont. And I asked the attorney general there a few questions about the legalization issue. And he said things like he didn't know if you're the top cop in the state and you don't know. The other thing is that being part of the New Jersey state police, the question comes. can a police officer, who, by the way, in the state of New Jersey,

can't moonlight at a bar or whatnot as security. It's not allowed because of what they sell. Can he or she be a security guard at a marijuana, grow house or anything else? Because it's federally illegal. And those of us that touch the Bible, raise our hand, and say we swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state. and this is not a constitutional amendment.

And so we are really being, you know, people will confess, Eric, that I was a liar. I was a cheat. I was a thief, even a murderer. But nobody gets up and says I was a hypocrite. Nobody gets up and says I'm a hypocrite. Unless they're really saved. Unless they're really saved. And so it's time for us to come together.

Let God's church be God's church. If God's people, Eric, we're doing something else in New Jersey, and I don't want to to get off the subject, but I pastor maybe 300 folks. The Newark has a water crisis that you are aware of. Our church has given out 62,000 cases of water, and we still, water is coming from all over the nation, from the Christian community. We've had folks from Flint to come out to our church and help. We've had folks that have done things on the continent of Africa, send water to Newark, New Jersey. God is calling for men. and women in this day like yourself who are getting the word out and saying, hey, guess what?

The Lord is still saying, when I was hungry, you didn't feed me. When I was naked, you didn't give me clothes. You know, when somebody could speak up, you, you kept your mouth shut. And I'm afraid that a lot of folks are going to be so what's the word I want to use. I want to say they misunderstand the simple. things in life that cause you to be, have a moral consciousness. It's funny because marijuana, you know, we're going to go to the end of this hour, but we'll keep you into the next hour. But the issue of marijuana, I want to talk to you about this when we do come back. It seems to me that part of what has happened since the 60s is that a lot of people look at

marijuana is like, oh, it's no different than having a beer or having a drink. And we had prohibition and that didn't work. That led to more crime. and legalization of this is no big deal. And it's one of the reasons, again, I wanted to have you on. So when we come back, I want to talk about that issue. How do we in the church address that issue? How do we say that it's a moral issue?

Folks, in hour two, I'll be back with Bishop, Jethro, James Bishop. Thank you. Thank you. Couldn't even see the floor. I'd be sad in blue if not for you. Ben, I've got a lot to cover in five minutes. You do. Okay, folks, we're going to run this segment twice in both hours today.

We're talking today with Bishop Jethro James. We've been speaking with Bishop Jethro James. I don't need to tell you what that's about because it's amazing. But a couple of, like, I have to be very clear and very quick. Number one, I want to remind everybody if you order anything from Mike Lindell, from Mypillow.com, it doesn't matter if you see a code on TV. You can tell your friends, use the code Eric because you get our full discount. A lot of the stuff on TV, I don't want enough time to go into it.

But if you order anything from Mypillow.com, just use the code Eric and you can see your discount. Number two, honor bound coffee. I forgot a lot of times this lately, I've been, I forgot to mention it. Yeah. If you are new to this program, go to honorbound coffee.com and know that 100% percent of all of their profits go to helping military families, honorbound coffee.com. They're a new sponsor on the show. I'm over the moon about the coffee. Me too.

And what they do with the profits. Okay. And now I've got to go through this really quickly here. We've got a lot coming up this next, this week. But I want to say we're doing a fundraiser. Some of you know to help kids in Guatemala. Guatemala is the number one place for malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere. So Food for the Poor, we've partnered with them before. They're extraordinary, and we're trying to get food and clean, safe drinking water to kids in Guatemala. We believe in this very strongly, and we want everybody to participate. So we're doing kind of a weird thing. Anybody who gives, you go to Food for the Poor on our website, right? So metaxistalk.com. You have to go to metaxis talk.com. Anybody who gives anything, everybody, is entered

in a drawing. Everybody's equal. You're entered in a drawing to win a visit to the studio with as many people as you want. And by the way, if you can't come, you can give it to a friend who's visiting New York or who lives in the New York area to visit us here in the studio. It's a blast. Whoever wins gets that. Plus, a ton of signed books from me, Bonhoeffer, Luther, Miracles, if you can keep it, all kinds of stuff, children's books, and Albin's books. My Donald Drain's a swamp, Donald. All that stuff. That's the Grand Prize winner. We pick one every week. So if you give today, Mataxis talk.com, at the end of this week, we're going to be drawing the winner. Want you to know that. Also have to get this in real quick. Every single person who gives $100, besides from being entered in this gigantic thing, you get free Metaxus super for a year, folks. That is, it costs about $100 to pay for it. That means zero commercials.

You listen to this program, anytime you want, no commercials, okay? That's worth way more than what we're charging for. it but anybody gives a hundred dollars you get that automatically anybody who gives five hundred dollars you get to visit the studio you don't have to win the prize you don't have to win any contest if you give five hundred dollars you get to visit the studio automatically and we'll give you signed books and so on and so forth anybody you can give ten thousand dollars there's lots of folks out there I know who can do that and who want to do that and I just want to say that as a way

of thanking you if you give that it would be my joy to have dinner with you at at a time of our mutual convenience. A lot of people want to do that as a birthday gift for somebody's special friend or whatever. You can't get them anything. So you want to do that. It's just a great cause. So you have to go to MetaxTalk.com. We're not going to have time to play the audio.

I'm sorry. But I want to say, here's the phone number. If you can call it right now, this is a crying need. It's 844-8663 Hope. 844-863 Hope. pilot right now, 844-863. Hope.