The Eric Metaxas Show - Danny Gokey

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

Danny Gokey joins to talk about his story of faith and music 

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. You checked your bucket list lately? Are you ready to take care of item number seven? Listening to the Eric Metaxe show? Well, welcome.

Tune in and then move on to item number eight, skydiving with Chuck Schumer and AOC. Here now is Mr. Completed My! bucket list at age 12, Eric Matt, Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, I have an awkward announcement. First of all, there's nothing awkward about having my friend Albin Seder in the studio. I salute you, Eric. Albin, you, you, there's a lot to talk about here, but you reviewed my book, Religionless Christianity. I did.

At American thinker. At American thinker. Okay. And then you told me that you had a twin brother. Of course. And that your twin brother was also going to review my book, Religinalist Christianity. Yes. And folks, just to show you the power of DNA, both reviews, word for word, the same thing.

Unbelievable. And they didn't even know that the other guy was writing it. That's insane. I didn't even know I had a twin. I think we need to actually, I'm kidding about that part. but it is totally true that you reviewed my book, Religious Christianity, and your twin brother, Tony, whom I've met, who doesn't really look that much like you, he also did a review of religionless Christianity.

And I'm not kidding, folks. I said this in my email. If you get my email, go to Ericmetaxis.com. But I actually said it was the best review of my book thus far, because it absolutely beautifully captures the book, which a lot of times reviews don't do. So, Albin, would this be a good time to see how much your twin brother looks like you? We should.

And by the way, my twin brother's review, it was at the Washington Times. So we covered all the scales. My twin brother, let's bring him on, I guess. Now he's, now he looks something like you, just to be clear, not exactly, but close enough. Yeah. All right, here we go. Let's see him. Tony, welcome aboard.

Yeah. And can I just explain? What the? Holy cow. You know, you look so much like Albin. I'm not kidding. You could be his twin. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. Can I explain that we are the poor man's. My twin brother, let me just mention this. We are the poor man's Benham brothers. Yes. If you can't afford the Benham brothers,

the Sadar brothers will do in a pinch. In a pinch. If God has not been kind to you financially, maybe you could afford the Sadar twins. Come on. Tony, seriously, welcome back. It's great to see you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, I wanted to mention, first off, on reviewing a book. I didn't review it because you're Eric McAxis necessarily, because people have asked me to review books. Can you look at the camera? Can you look at the camera? I know you're not a professional like Albin. Look at the camera because we want to see your highly albin-like face. So say what you were just saying again, because this is true. And I want people to understand. So say it again.

Sorry, go ahead. Well, yeah, I reviewed a book on my own. People have asked me review books. I don't do it that way. What I do is I select books. So I think I'd be interested in and that the Washington Times would be interested in. They have to prove ahead of time, yeah, go ahead and review that. And I've done many, many books. I have a really interesting one coming up here in a couple weeks on more on my topic, which is on climate change. But your book, I had reviewed, I think your earlier one, letter to the American Church. And I thought, well, this would be interesting to look at this follow-up to your book.

And so that's it. Again, my twin brother didn't ask me to do it. I just review books independently. The thing is that, you know, before we get serious, I have to say that, you know, you and Alvin are so much alike. Obviously, one of you is redundant. Yeah. I don't know which one it is.

And I'm going to look into it. I got staff looking into it right now, but one of you is redundant. It's him. And when we find out, we're going to let the audience know. Well, let me put it this way. I think it's obvious. It's me. And I'll tell you, because I'm the older twin.

And I wrote the book obvious. But other than that, I'm the older. So you wrote the book obvious. That's right. I wrote the book, Religinalist Christianity. And my co-brother... He wrote, in global warming, we trust, too big to fail. That's right.

So we're all authors here. In global warming. And another, I wrote another academic book, too. You did? Yeah. All right. So now, I want to say, I mean, ostensibly the subject of this segment, other than the big reveal, of Albans' twin was to talk about my book, Religion and Christianity, because I was not kidding

when I said that for some reason, Tony, your review was, it captured my book very, very effectively. And I was so impressed by that. I said, I want to have you on to talk about it. Because, look, we can joke around. But unfortunately, what I write about in the book is extremely serious. It's extremely serious. And so I want to thank you for appreciating. the seriousness, the import of the moment in which we find ourselves. Yes, absolutely. Yes, and I, yeah, as I went through it, what I normally do, too, is on my reviews, is to take, you know, essential quotes from the authors to incorporate them so people get,

you know, not just my opinion on it, but to see where you're coming from, from your own words. And yes, this is an exceptionally, exceptionally important topic. It's a sad time that we find ourselves in. And I do think that number one reason is because Christians, Christians have drawn the ball. Yes. I'm sorry, what? No, I heard that. I was kidding.

I was kidding. I tease. I tease. You know what? You know what I noticed, Albin, about you and Tony? Yeah. And this is true. Even though you guys are like literally the same age, you know, down to the minutes.

Yeah. Like Tony seems like the older twin. Has you ever gotten that? before? Well, I know. Well, yes and no. Well, when I say older, I don't mean older. I don't mean he looks older. I just mean, but there's a, there's a little bit of sobriety that makes him seem like he's, you know, like he's a year older. He's two years older. He's in the field of science and all that. So, you know, when you're in the field of science, you got to, you know, there's no joking about that, man. No, no. Follow the science, Falci and all those guys.

Yeah. There's nothing. Okay. So how do you, how do your reviews of my book differ? I don't know which one of you wants to answer that. I feel like I'm interviewing John Sheaver and John Updike. How do your reviews? Seriously, folks. Yeah, Anthony, you might go first on that? Well, the thing is, I don't recall what you said in your review. Frequently, when I do reviews, also, I don't read other people's reviews because I don't want to influence my own review. So, I mean, I might read things on the back, you know, the teasers on the back of the book and such. but typically, now with Elbin's review, yeah, I probably read it.

I honestly don't remember what he said about it. It was in American thinker. Unmemory. But that had nothing to, again, it had nothing to do with my own review. Of course, Elbin I probably think alike. So there's probably some similarities. Well, you certainly dress alike. It's really embarrassing.

Has your mother, you know, it's kind of like one of these things. She's dressing us alike and they call us the twins and people don't know which one. And I feel today like that's exactly. I'm interviewing the twins. The twins, you know, were you as kids referred to as the twins, like the twins? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I would say. So the twins are going to come along today or the twins are here.

I mean, inside the inner circle, which is our family, yes. Outside, probably not so much, right, Anne. How many twins are there? In our family. That's about it. In fact, I was hoping that Anthony's. Well, how many? How many?

Yeah. How many? We're not mathematicians. So there's just two of you? I want to be mathematically precise. So there's just the two of you? Yeah. Because some families have three twins.

Yeah. I don't know if you knew that. Yeah. Are our relatives, are they twins, a boy and a girl? No, no, no. How many twins are in your immediate family? Just in the immediate being interviewed right now. I'm just going to say the one.

So just the two of you? Yeah, just the two of us. But you were talking about the difference in our review. and I think I might have a few more quotes from Eric, and it's funny because I have more of an inner understanding of Eric because being associated with him for at least six years or so. But the number one thing I wanted to pull out from my review, which it always sticks out from your book,

is that when Niemaller went to Hitler and said, you're going to leave the Jews alone, right? You're going to leave the Christians alone. This is before Hitler took office about three months before. He said, oh, sure, you just, that's fine, that's fine. Then about three or four months after office, He started rounding up Jews and telling the Christians to cut it out. Niemmaller comes back and says,

Hitler, what'd you do? I thought you said, you're going to leave him alone. He said, you just go and preach your sermons. You worry about your sermons. In other words, shut up. You've got no say in the Third Reich. And the number one thing was Niemala realized, oh, no, Hitler simply lied to me. And I'm thinking that's when the Democrats today are saying like, oh, we got the border secure.

Oh, we're not the fudson with your kids. One plus one equals three. We've always known that. Come on. All right. When we come back, I think I'd like to continue the conversation, but it's very confusing. I just want to be clear. I'm seeing double. I'll be right back.

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Are you ready? As a top three finalist on season eight of American Idol, Danny Goki quickly became a favorite of millions. Following that, he dropped his first album, My Best Days, debuted at number four on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, and on and on and on. I bump into him here and there. As far as I'm concerned, you know, there's a lot of musicians,

but there are very few people that I know they're the real deal, and I like Danny Goki a lot. because he is the real deal. I've seen him so many times over the years. I've interviewed him many, many times. But I think that there are many people on this show that don't know him. So I bumped in him the other day and I said, hey, hey, can you come on the show? And you know what he said?

He said, okay, Danny Goki, welcome. Well, Eric, actually what I said was, let me pray about it. Yes. Yeah, let me pray about it. Let me fast and pray. You obviously didn't fast and pray because here we are. So look, Danny, now, listen, some people know you. and love you already and they're excited to see you.

Other people don't really know your story. So I want to get to eventually talk to you about your new album of patriotic songs, which I got to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you know I don't blow smoke. Some amazing stuff. Very exciting. But Danny, help my audience understand, like, sort of where you came from and your story, what happened with your wife passing away.

It's an unbelievable story, so I've heard it a few times. but start from the beginning, if you don't mind. Yeah, I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a worship leader of church, and me and my wife loved the show American Idol. And so I decided one year I was going to try out because it was my last opportunity to try out. My whole goal, Eric, was to make it to Hollywood Week. I felt like if I could just make it to Hollywood Week, I could get, you know, a start of a career and take it in my hands from there.

How old were you at that time? You were... And I was, I was 28. Right. So this is it. Okay. So you, like a lot of Americans, you say, oh, I think I'd like to go to American Idol, but you actually did it.

You didn't just think about it. Yeah. It's kind of a big deal. Yeah. Unexpectedly, though, because my first wife was a huge fan of the show, I mean, huge fan. I mean, she was super excited that we were going to America. She was texting her friends saying, hey, when Danny makes a show,

I'm going to invite you and give you tickets to the show. And so she was so excited, but unfortunately, one month exactly before her passing, I mean, before the show, she passed away. Okay. And that alone is so crazy. You're a young man married to a beautiful young wife. And you have this dream together and a month before you get an American Idol. It's unbelievable. What happened?

How did she pass away? So she was born with a heart condition. So when I met her, we were 17 years old. She was 16. I was 17. And I remember her telling me that she had a heart surgery. And so ignorantly, I was like, oh, if you have a surgery that fixes it, we're all done. Little that I know a year after we got married that she would start having many complications,

during the three of our four years of marriage that she would be in and out the hospital, we were praying and believing God to heal her heart. We would have scriptures everywhere, Eric. We'd have scriptures, you know, like pasted on our bathroom mirror and our refrigerator. You know, the scriptures like if you command this mile to be picked up, removed in the sea, and you shall believe and not doubt in your heart, you will have what you say. And, you know, just faith scriptures that would just get us to believe for the miracle and unexpected. The first surgery went wrong. She got into an emergency surgery.

Heart donor list put her on an artificial heart. And she passed away. And it devastated me. Absolutely devastated me. To the point where I didn't want to go on American Idol. But thank God for my church family and some friends. they really encourage me to go. So I'm trying out for American Idol.

I'm in that line. 10,000 people, Kansas City. I think it's called Kemper Arena. And I'm in the line. And I'm crying. And then I'm happy. And then I'm crying. It was an extremely emotional experience because I was there for about 12 hours that day.

But I ended up with my first golden ticket. I mean, again, this is one of those, one of these stories. Like you're making it up. This, you lived this. I mean, a month after your wife passes away. Now, before I get to, we get to this piece, I want to go back because the other day we were together in Georgia and you shared this story. And I wanted to ask you, because I'm friends with Jim Garlo, his wife passed away.

And it was a similar thing where they had a lot of faith for healing. And I know God heals today. And I know that the word of God is true. So how did you deal with that? Because I think that there's some people would say, I don't have faith anymore because I believed and I'm a sucker. It didn't work out. What did you, where did you go? How did you reconcile that in your mind that you prayed with this kind of faith and that it did, your wife did not survive? First of all, I love that you say that that you believe in healing today because I do too. You know, Eric, this is a part of the story that kind of even hit me harder. Now, this is going to the dichotomy of what I'm about to share with you is going to be kind of interesting.

Because the prayers and the people of my church were praying so much, after she passed away, a healing movement broke out on my church, meaning for about a month or two months after people were coming to our church, they're being healed of cancer. Even a limb is growing out like a movement sparked out. And this, I'm in the services. You know what I say? I got to get out of here. I can't be here.

Why did God not heal my wife? So I went on a trip. I got away for about a month. And I think what happened is God always answers faith and his word is always true. You know what I've actually believed happened? And hear me out on this. I believe that God would have healed her. But here's what I believe when she saw Jesus face to face,

I bet you she saw Jesus and he said their prayers, I have to answer their prayers. This is going to sound weird. I hope it doesn't sound weird, man. Don't lose me on this one. I believe that when she saw Jesus, she said, I want to stay. And God can never override any. one's will. And even though our prayers, they came back to us. They came back to us and God started healing people. But I believe when she saw Jesus face to face, that she said, will you take care of

my family? And I bet you the Lord said yes. And she said, let me stay. And God has taken care of us. Now, some people are probably wrestling with this. You don't understand it. You go to Job. Job lost his whole family. And God told Job, he didn't answer him why, you know, the questions he had. He said, where were you when I told the ocean to come this far? When I put the sun up here. Job understood one thing. And here's what I've learned. As long as I have God at the center,

Job was able to enjoy a second family because many people think, well, the first, you know, I don't want my second family. I want my first family back. But if you have God, he's the one that gives you ability to enjoy family. So I had to learn like Job, God, if you took my first wife and she's in heaven, you're going to give me the ability to love again because you're the center of the entire picture. and the next steps I can do again because I have you, because I got you, I have everything. This makes sense? I am so glad I asked you this question, Danny, because, I mean, I knew I would get a good answer, but I didn't know what the answer would be.

But when I heard you talk about this in Georgia, you know, I'm always annoyed when I don't get to go. Like, hang on like I just did now and say, okay, explain this. It's why I do interviews. It's why I do Socrates in the city. We used to do it where people would give a lecture. And then I thought, like so many times during the lecture, I feel like on behalf of the audience, I want to say, well, excuse me, can you explain this? Or what about this? What about this? And so it's why I do this show. It's why I do Socrates and City. Because I think I can intuit people's questions. It's like, well, you believe in God. You believe in the word of God. What, hey, what happened? And you just explained what happened. And I think that, you know, part of the answer and you just said it is really that if you know God, it kind of changes things. Because you know, by the way,

When somebody dies, they don't die. Like, it's kind of important for us to understand that, like, yes, you want to pray for healing, yes, you whatever. But if the Lord takes someone and guess what, he takes everyone, there is no one who doesn't eventually leave this world, right? If he takes you and you know him, you go into his presence. I just lost my dad, 96 and a half years old. But as everybody tells you, it doesn't matter if he's 196. You know, you want him. I miss him.

But when you know, when you know Jesus, it just changes things. And so, but that's what I wanted to ask you that because, and how interesting, Danny, what you just said, that healing breaks out at your church after the past. I mean, again, you want to talk about the mystery of God? That's so bizarre. And in some ways, you just say, well, but if I know the Lord, I just go, yes, Lord. help me figure this out but at the same time you are your god so can i yeah can i add i think you know the bible says that he works everything together for our good that's now this is what the

lord's been showing me you know this is why we don't lean on our understanding no matter what happened i believe because i remember walking away when she passed away thinking like she she had to have saw him jesus because if i saw jesus i think i'd be like hey i'm staying i don't know about you and and And because God takes everything and because I have them at the center of my life, I can enjoy the new chapter. I mean, now if we put people at the center and not God, when they're gone, we're devastated, we're messed up. But God who gives us the ability to enjoy family, to enjoy spouses will also give us the ability

to walk into the new chapter if we trust them and to help us love again, dream again, and believe again. And we're going to get to that new chapter when we come back, folks, in case you didn't know. I'm talking to Danny Goki. If you can spell gokey, G-O-K-E-Y, I just spelled it. Danny gokey.com is the website. We'll be back with the rest of the story. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxas.

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Promo code Eric, or go to MyPillow.com and use promo code Eric. I'm talking to Danny Goki, and you get to eavesdrop. Don't feel bad. Don't feel bad because it's a show. We don't mind if people listen in. Danny, there are other people listening in, and they're being blessed by your story. I want to ask you about the rest of the story.

So, first of all, let's go back to American Idol. You go on American Idol a month after your wife passes away. And so how does it go on American Idol? Tell us, you know, You're a very young man on American Idol. What happened? Well, so I got my first golden ticket. Little do people know that there were still three more rounds to get to in front of the judges?

And so I had to go back and I got finally in front of them. And then the rest is history. I mean, I made the show, the live show, top 24, then top 10. And then when I finally got out the show, it was top three. And so it was a very healing experience. It was a very restorative experience because here's why. When you walk through loss, your vision of this world can get very tiny, right? And I thank God that he kind of pulled me out of where I was in that moment and put me on a show that I can see a whole new world.

And that's what I saw, a whole new world. And so I got made top three and then started my record career or my music career. Three years after, I met my wife, got remarried, and I have four beautiful children now. And your wife, I've met her many times, she's a Cubana. That's right. It's kind of funny. Anytime somebody has Cuban background, it's kind of like my mom, you know, grew up in East Germany. Anybody who has tasted communism is the most patriotic American.

So it's just fascinating to me because your new album, these patriotic songs that I heard you perform the other day last week, I thought this is, boy, do we need this. And, you know, a lot of people do, you know, I've heard, you know, people who are patriotic kind of do some kind of a cheesy patriotic song. And it's like, okay, I'm tracking, but musically not the greatest thing. You're musically, you know, fantastic. And so what, but what led you, now the album is called Brave, correct? Yeah, album's called Brave. Brave. What led you to do this?

Yeah. So it was stirring in my heart. I can be pretty bold and. You know, and I remember getting on Twitter and on Instagram and Facebook and just sharing my opinions out there. And it, I struggled a little bit with that because, man, I know you experiences, but man, a lot of backlash comes with speaking about our country. And so finally I said, Lord, how can I be more effective? I wanted to be effective. And so I was like, you know, I bet you.

What do you mean backlash? You're saying there aren't stupid, unpatriotic Americans out there? I've never met one. Come on. Really? Really? Yeah. Really?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got to get sarcastic because it's actually heartbreaking, Danny, right? It's sort of heartbreaking. There's some people that they don't get it. There's kind of misplaced anger. So you decide to take the high road.

And, uh, I decide. Because here's things. I can't allow people's ignorance to put us back in bondage. You know, because that's the issue right now. People are woefully ignorant and they're getting trapped. Our ignorance is what keeps us in the dark, right?

And gives the enemy ground in our own personal life. Same with our world right now. Our ignorance allows the powers that be at times if we don't stop it to take control. So anyways, so I thought I'm going to write some music. And so I ended up sitting down and I remember praying about it. I really sensed God saying, do this. I really had his green light. So I ended up writing, it's only a couple of songs.

I wrote a song called Brave. And the lyrics are, I mean, be brave. Stand for freedom, stand for truth. Don't be afraid. You got a voice that you can use. So go on and speak out the time is right now. if you want to keep that flame of liberty ablaze, stand up and be brave. We're the land of the free and the home of the brave, but why are we the land of the free?

The land of the free because people were brave. And this is where people are getting it. Bravery is standing up and speaking truth when you're persecuted for speaking truth. And the lie is the accepted form of speech in the moment, right? So I put out that song, Brave. I did a cover of Lee Greenwood's, God Bless You, USA. And then one of the song, that's my prize song in this. record is called My America.

And I really feel, I sat down, this is my first song, My America that I wrote, that I sat down, I started it on a plane. And because I really sense the Lord say that if you write this song, I'll help you. And I was like, okay, Lord, I need you help because I didn't want to write a cheesy patriotic song. I got, we ain't got time for that. We need a song that connects with people. So I started on the plane.

I went home and I started writing it on my piano. And man, I'm, this is my first song I've ever profession released that I wrote myself with no help. And so that was, it was a huge accomplishment. I felt like the Lord divinely wrote through it because the whole idea of my America is, I still believe in us, my America. You're still the land I love. And here's why. We must, why do I still believe in us? Because I know that America's done so many good things. And if we sit there and remember the good, it's a starting place for healing. You know, I just want to say this because I don't say this often enough. Here's the thing. Like if you have a kid, you got four, I got one, if you have a kid, anybody knows that we're supposed to love our kids.

But part of that might be our kids do something that we don't like or whatever. We have an opportunity to say, listen, I want to help you get past this mistake or to learn how to not do this thing, that maybe it's a bad habit or whatever. I want to bless you. So I'm acknowledging that something's wrong, but I'm not. I want to bless you and love you in the right direction. Now, a bad parent will curse the child and it will say, you know, you're just like your mother, you're just like your father, you will never change, you're bad, you're bad. It's cursing, right?

That's what many Americans have done with America. They have found things that we don't like in our past and we've said that's who you are. You are a racist country. You're this, you're that. It is a curse rather than say you can't overcome this. You will overcome this. You have overcome this. We speak fatalistic cursing just the way you could to a child.

And that is a sin. It is wrong. And that's what many American Christians need to understand. We're to speak hope and truth and life. When we come back, folks, I'm talking to Danny Goki. Don't go away. Hey, folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Danny Goki.

Danny, listen, I get so excited. What you said about why you wrote this. album of patriotic songs. I mean, it comes out of your faith in Jesus. And the song, brave, because the title of the album is brave, but the song, Brave, it sums up something I've been talking about like crazy. We have to be brave. Bravery, courage is not extra credit Christianity. So when people say to me, like, oh, Eric, you're so courageous. I'm thinking, we have to be. If you have faith, I mean, those who are cast in the Lake of Fire, it mentions the cowardly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you do not have, if you're not courageous, then it shows that you are,

you don't really believe what you say you believe. So you can't really have faith. You can't really have saving faith unless it's manifested in some form of courage. And so, Danny, when you wrote that song and I sang that with you. you, you know, nobody knows that, but I was, I was back in my seat singing with you. I was thinking this, people need to know that to be brave is, that is God's will for us. That's not sort of extra credit or some people get to be brave. Every one of us, by the grace of God, can have some measure of bravery and courage.

And so thank you for writing that song. It's a wonderful song. Now, the chorus, it's like, be brave, right? Be brave. Stand up for freedom. Stand for truth. Don't be afraid. You got a voice that you can use.

So go on and speak out. The time is right now. If you want to keep that flame of liberty, your place, stand up, be brave. There you go. Oh, man. We're going to get some strings, you know. We do that in post.

We'll throw some strings in there, some horns, you know, to kind of punctuate that. No, honestly, it's your voice is beautiful. but it's a beautiful song and I was just so excited when you were performing. I think we got to get you on the program because people need to be encouraged. And that's what that song does. I mean, when I was singing that song, as you were, you're performing it and the lyrics are on the, you know, screen. It was just very inspiring.

You know what, like, it's interesting. The first verse, like it says, I've been staying quiet. I'm not looking for a fight. I don't hate nobody, but nobody seems to like that I want to live what I believe. want to keep my right to speak for my family, for my faith to anyone who feels the same, be brave. I just, you said it. Revelation says that those cast like a fire were fornicators, liars, the cowardice.

Well, and that's the thing. I've heard preachers take this approach and I really struggle with this. I've heard preachers say, you know, it's God's kingdom that we need to fight for. He's persecution is going to come anyways. And I look at this and say, okay, and they'll use like Daniel in the book of Daniel. But Nebuchadnezzar, that was not a democracy. God has given us the ability to vote. Danny, the reason I love you, you're saying, and we have not compared notes,

you're saying what I say everywhere I go. And I'm thinking to myself, this is biblical, ladies and gentlemen. And so when I hear somebody like you say this, it was not a democracy. Babylon was not a democracy. The Roman Empire in the first century was not a democracy. Patriots have bled and died. so that we could advocate for what we believe is right and true in the political sphere. So when Christians don't do it, you don't get a pass, Christian.

God has given you the ability to advocate for his purposes, policies that will glorify him. I mean, it's unbelievable. To hear you say it, though, like I'm cheering. I'm cheering. Keep saying it. Forgive me for interrupting. I just had to annotate. I get too excited.

Now, I appreciate it. Because if, remember, ignorance of the. The scriptures is what keeps us in bondage, right? That's why Jesus said, you know, the truth and the truth will set you free. Well, ignorance of the Constitution of when the first line is we the people, you know what I'm saying? Ignorance of that is going to keep us in bondage. So I really, I know there's a spiritual passive approach that's we're going to be persecuted anyways. This is not our kingdom of this world.

But you know what? Then why did God put us on earth? That this is not our kingdom? The Bible says in Isaiah it says that he put us on earth to. inhabit the earth. So that's Isaiah 45. And then we talk about Genesis 1-1 and says, take dominion. So somebody's taking dominion of this earth. We can be passive and just say, this belongs to the enemy, or we can do what Jesus did. He already bled and died. We can go and say, well, this is my right. You can judge me. You can think I'm a, what's that,

what's that catch word that they put on us, Christian nationalist? Oh, yeah. If somebody calls you Christian nationalists, understand that's the voice of the devil. so I advocate a horse laugh and walk out of the room. But go ahead. A horse laugh. I need to hear this horse laugh. Well, look, what you just said, that's why I'm cheering to hear you say this,

because it needs to be said. So many people are so diluted. And they give you this, I mean, I say this almost in every speech I give these days with my new book, Religinalist Christianity, is that we've been given this false choice. The devil says, oh, you've got to be all about the kingdom. You can't be about America.

That's like saying, you need to love Jesus. You can't love your wife and kids. And you think, wait a minute, wait a minute. I know I'm not supposed to make an idol of loving my family. But my love of Jesus makes me love my family more, just as my love of Jesus and the kingdom of heaven makes me love this nation and want to bless this nation and make it more like the kingdom of heaven. I mean, so this is, you know, we're living in times of tremendous deception where a lot of Christians, they're buying these religious lives. lies about it's all about the kingdom. Forget about America. We're under judgment. It's over. It's like until the Lord says it's over, it is not over. And I really think that we need to be

encouraged and inspired. But the song, Brave, really, Danny, I mean, when did you write that? I wrote that one. So I wrote these songs actually last year. I released it a week before the Fourth of July. And so now that Fourth of July is around, I'm not sure when this is Aaron, but when the 4th of July comes around, I'm just promoting these and trying to get people to play them in their fireworks show. I'm hoping to sing my song, My America. I want to sing it at the inauguration this year if Trump wins. That's my ultimate goal.

Whoa. That's my goal. I want to be a backup singer. Come on, Eric. No, seriously. Seriously. This is so, this is exciting. But the song, Brave, the whole album Brave is beautiful.

I'm excited about this, Danny, because we need voices like you. I mean, you speak very clearly. The song is beautiful. The lyrics are beautiful. I'm a harsh critic of lyrics, you know? And I got to tell you, I was listening to those lyrics. I thought, wow, beautiful, beautiful. I mean, the music is beautiful, but the lyrics are tremendous.

So, Danny, I just want to thank you for coming on the program. Folks, you should check out Danny G-O-K-E-Y, G-O-K-E-Y. Danny-Goki.com. And this album, all of your albums, but this one, very excited. You can play it on Flag Day. That's June 14th, played on Fourth of July, played anytime. Danny Goki, my friend, God bless you.

Thank you, Eric, for all you do. I've got to mention, Chris, I'm just reading this. There's something called The Relentless Patriot. A documentary film chronicling the 30-year journey of Scott Labedo as a voice for American patriotism and activism through his art. It says the film promises to showcase Labedo's story. See, now that's not true. The film doesn't promise to showcase his story.

It actually showcases his story. Highlighting his dedication to promoting American values, celebrating the flag, old glory, schedule for release June 14th. Guess what that is? Yeah, flag day. It's two things. It's flag day.

Oh, yes. And it's the birthday of President Donald Trump. Wow. Anyway, the Relentless Patriot is a film coming out. I wanted to mention that. And we're going to have Scott on the show. We're going to have Scott Labato on this program. As somebody who likes funny things, some of his, some of his art is patriotic,

but some of it's kind of like hilarious too. You know, he's got some. Like our crumb level? Yeah, yeah. It's pretty, pretty great. Like keep your blank together. Okay. I also want to mention Americans for Prosperity.

They're the guys who put the guys and gals, I should say, who put together the Bidonomics.com website. They are launching a national tour, I guess is the headline news. They're launching a national tour. this summer to expose the weak Biden economy and to push conservative solutions to get our economy back on track. It's called prosperity is possible. The tour will have buses and vans crisscrossing the entry over the summer

to educate and inform Americans worried about the economy, which is pretty much everyone except Bill Gates. And you can find out more at prosperity is possible. To find out if they're coming to your area, go to prosperity is possible. Or prosperity is possible. The other sites that they have that's all about border security is secure, border, secure, America.com. Secure, border.

Secure America. Secure America.com. Secureborder, secure America.com. And finally, our friends at the Herzog Foundation, folks, I say, people always ask me, Eric, what can I do? What can I do? And I say just a, I mention a litany of things that you can do if you care about this country. If you're going to a church that's not in the war against evil,

if you're going to a church that's just plain church, for the love of God, for the sake of your eternal soul, get out of that church. You can go to mychurchfinder.org. I beg you to go to mychurchfinder.org. Find out if your church is there and get your church to sign up at my churchfinder. org. People ask me, what can I do? You can do that, my churchfinder.org.

You can also homeschool your kids or put your kids in a Christ-centered K-12 school system or school. And if you want to do that, that's why I'm bringing up our friends at the Herzog Foundation, they have an almost infinite raft of resources. Lots of resources. Hurtzog Foundation.com. Every time we talk to the Sorbos, they're saying you've got to do this. And Hurtzog Foundation.com tells you how to do it. Because people say, I don't know how to do it.

Trust me, folks, if you have any inkling to do it, you can do it. Go to Herzog Foundation.com. It's very important. There are a lot of resources out there. It's not just, you know, because we homeschool right now and our three kids. And it's sort of like co-schooling, you know. There are groups out there that you connect with. There's an arts program near us that our kids are doing next year.

There's like 300 kids that are there, you know, twice a week doing art stuff. Like, it's not a solitary thing. No. And by the way, anytime says, well, I want my kids to be socialized. Well, then why don't you send them to, like, maximum security prison? Well, they'll get very socialized. It's so stupid. It is such garbage.

Your kids will be more socialized if they are homeschooled than if they go to some horrible, woke public school. And don't forget to go to Eric Mataxis.com because you've got to sign up for the newsletter there. Please do that, folks. There's so much information that we're sending out. We never have time on this program. Go to Eric Mataxis.com. If you're not getting my newsletter, folks, you're missing all these interviews. Trust me, ericmataxis.com.