The Eric Metaxas Show - Dominic Carola
Episode Date: February 16, 2024Disney animator Dominic Carola gives an update on a remarkable upcoming animated feature: “Jesus”. ...
Transcript
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legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blob, starring
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Eric the Texas!
Hey there, folks.
Right now, I have the privilege of having, as my guest in this segment,
Bishop Joseph Strickland,
Bishop Strickland, really an honor to have you.
Thanks for being my guest today.
Thank you.
Eric. It's an honor to be here. The reason, of course, that I have you on today is because it was
brought to my attention a day or so ago that you had on Twitter promoted my book Letter to the American
Church. And I have to say up front, you know, when I wrote Letter to the American Church,
I was thinking this is a book for anyone who calls himself a Christian. It doesn't matter what stripe
of Christian, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, whatever stripe, infinite stripes of the Protestant
Church. But it was particularly heartening to me because you have been, if I can embarrass you,
you've been a hero within the Catholic Church, someone that I and many that I value have admired.
So to see you promoting the message that I hope God gave me,
it's not my message and letter to the American Church.
It just meant a lot to me.
And I'm grateful for that and grateful that you be with us this morning.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, Eric.
Frankly, your letter meant a lot to me.
I think it's a critical wake-up call for, as you said,
all who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior as God's divine son,
who is our Savior.
And I think we need to emphasize that,
but we need to live that truth.
as well. It's interesting because, you know, anybody who is really going to adhere to what the
scripture says and who's going to try to be a faithful Christian is going to be persecuted.
There's no way around it. Oftentimes from within the church itself, that's always been the case,
right? Jesus was, of course, most persecuted by the most religious people of his day. And that's part of what
the theme is, not just of my book letter to the American Church, but the theme of scripture,
that the people of God persecute the people of God. You, Bishop Strickland, I don't know if you can
comment on it, but I've just been astonished at how poorly you've been treated for your faithful,
brave voice in the midst of everything that is happening. I don't know if you're able to talk about that or what
you're able to say. Sure, Eric. What I would say is, yes, it saddens me for the church,
but I have to say that I truly believe it is the Lord's will for me, for whatever reason. And it's
truly an honor, really, to be one who is in this chapter, and there are many chapters,
as we know, in the Bible and in the church since the time of Christ.
Many chapters like the one we're living through.
And I have to say it's an honor to be labeled as one who stands for the sacredness of Scripture,
the truth that doesn't change, and the world.
And sadly, many in the church don't want that right now.
But this will pass as every dark chapter has passed.
We have to stay in the light of Christ.
So, yes, my life has been significantly disrupted, and I think there is injustice there.
But I really focus on what my call is to speak to the American church and really the church worldwide.
As you are talking about the terrible conflict that's going on in the Holy Land at this time,
this is a critical moment, and we need to awaken to live the truth more deeply, more vibrantly, more boldly.
All of us is not just you or me, but it's really all who believe in Jesus Christ.
So I'm honored to, for whatever reason, a kid, I grew up 100 miles from where I'm sitting right now in East Texas.
And for whatever reason, you know, God called David.
He caused the insignificant little ones to be a voice.
And it's an honor.
It's not easy.
I certainly make mistakes sometimes,
but I just keep going back to the truth of Christ.
And that's what I encourage all of us to do.
Look to Christ in the scripture and in his model of life.
The way he lived, what he said, it's not going to change.
He's truth incarnate.
Well, thank you for putting it.
it that way. It's exactly right, of course, and there will always be a holy remnant. There will always be
those within the church who are essentially the true church. And there are going to be many that say,
well, I'm part of the church. I was baptized or, oh, I believe, but they're not faithful to the
teaching or sometimes, as in the case of many leaders today within the church, they're not only
not faithful to the teaching, but they're advocating heretical thinking, actually pushing
heretical thinking so that the faithful are confused, so that the faithful are looking around and
thinking these messages are confusing. What am I to believe? And that alone is diabolical.
And so part of what I hope to do in Letter to the American Church is speak to those who are a little
bit on the fence and thinking, should I take a stand? Should I speak?
up? Should I get, quote, unquote, political? Because these issues to me seem like moral issues,
but I've gotten this memo. Maybe I'm not supposed to be political. And of course, that's absolute
nonsense. We're supposed to advocate for the truth. And if you're a Christian, you have no excuse
because you claim to believe that Jesus defeated death on the cross. And so you're free to speak the
truth, and you're not worried about what's going to happen. You rejoice, really, to be able to
speak the truth, rejoice, even when, obviously, there's the famous scripture about when
these things happen to you rejoice. And so you really have been persecuted for your faithfulness,
and so many that I know have been persecuted in one way or another for their faithfulness.
And you think, what a beautiful thing to be persecuted for your faithfulness, for it to be attacked,
not for going wrong as many have, but for going right, for standing up. And so I just, I just,
just, as I say, I want to thank you. You've been one of those voices along with Archbishop
Vagano. He is an Archbishop. Am I getting that right? Correct. And others who have really been
so brave within the Catholic Church standing up in the midst of a kind of a madness and confusion.
And so it means a lot to me. And thanks for giving me the opportunity to reiterate that
when I wrote letter to the American Church, which of course is now a film, and I'm hoping that people will go to letter to the American church.com to see the film or to get it, I should say this, to get a free screening in any church in America around the world that wants a free screening of letter to the American church. Obviously, that includes Catholic churches. It will be our delight to let you have a free screening of letter to the American church. But it's important.
for me just to reiterate that this is for Eastern Orthodox churches. This is for Roman Catholic
churches. This is for any church, for anyone that says we call on the name of Jesus. So Bishop
Strickland, this has been brief, but just a joy to meet you in this way. We'll have you back
because I want a larger conversation on what's happening in the church, but I just appreciate
your support for a letter to the American Church and look forward to having you back again very soon.
you, sir.
Thanks. God bless you, Eric.
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Hey, the folks, welcome back. I'm really excited right now because I have a guest who has been one of the top animators at Disney before Disney went to the dark side.
Can I say that on this program? Before Disney became the kind of a place that I, it's a byword.
It's the song of drunkards. But back when they were doing awesome stuff, my guest was one of the
lead animators with them. His name is Dominic Carolla. Dominic, welcome to this program.
Thank you, Eric. It's a pleasure to be here. You have been in the middle of the world of
animation, working a lot of big films. I want to talk to you about that. I want to talk about the
history of animation. And I want to talk to you about the film that you're working on right now,
which is not a Disney film. The title of it is,
let me tell me if I'm pronouncing this correctly
Jesus did I get that that's it that's it's it you got it you got it
Yeshua Hamashiyah it's going to be translated to thousands
hundreds of languages probably
so in some languages it will be Yeshua
Jesus
Esau all kinds of languages that's the beauty of animation
but tell us Dominic Carolla how did you get involved
before we get into your history with a lot of these landmark films that many of us have seen,
how did you get involved in this film?
Who's making this film, a monster animated film about the life of Jesus?
Sure, sure.
Yeah, it all stems from crew, CRU.
I've been working with crew for, in Jesus film, probably for close to 20 years.
We work with a lot of major studios, but my passion is,
this type of content, very powerful, impactful content, and certainly anything with the Word
of God is very, very powerful.
Okay.
People, I should clarify, many people know formerly called Campus Crusade for Christ in Orlando.
Now they're called Cruz, CRU.
So you've been working with them for a number of years, you're saying, and that's how
this came out.
And I forgot that they're the ones that they own the Jesus film, which a lot of people have
seen over the decades.
Absolutely. So the Jesus film, which is the most viewed film in the world, many people don't realize that.
You could add up all the Spielberg movies and all the George Lucas films and nothing compares the amount of views that the Jesus film has had.
The Jesus film was a 1979 Warner Brothers film, and it has had so much impact in the world.
It's much more than I can ever even articulate.
The other beauty about the Jesus film is that it's in over 2,100 language.
I mean, hold on a second. That's unheard of. That is absolutely unbelievable. 2100 languages. So forgive me because I had forgotten that. That's what we're talking about. The 1979 Jesus film that Bill Bright and Campus Crusade pushed out to the whole world. Now you are producing an animated version of that. Obviously, they got the best of the best and you're overseeing this. And this will be out.
at the end of 2025. That's next year, obviously.
Correct. We're targeting Christmas of 25, but I do want to clarify, the version we're making
is not a remake. Obviously, we're using the similar content. It's the Word of God. It's from the
gospels. But the beauty of what we're able to bring in animation is literally we are going to
rebuild First Century Jerusalem. We've rebuilt it in the computer. We're working with Unreal Engine,
which is a very, very powerful software tool.
You're going to go to the marketplace.
You're going to be able to see things in a way that it's quite challenging for live action films to replicate.
So we're going to go right down to the textures.
And it's become really probably the greatest Bible study of all the time because we're working with the allusions and historians.
And we're trying to be as biblically accurate as possible, but also making sure that it's cool and appealing for modern-day family audiences.
So it is really going to be a remarkable.
film. And I think it's, I think it's going to be probably a work of art that represents the
word of God. And so crew is behind this project, to be clear. Absolutely. Absolutely. Josh Newell,
the executive director, it was his heart and his passion, and God spoke to him. And we have been doing
some smaller animated products with them. And the ROI or the return on investment is so
wonderful when you work on projects like this. It's not, again, I had a beautiful career at Disney.
We still do some work with them.
But the reality is it's not about money.
It's about changing lives.
And they saw what the smaller products were doing.
And Josh literally said, the Lord spoke to him, said,
it's time to go with a large, fully animated.
Dom get the best of the best.
And we've got people from Pixar, Netflix, ILM.
I mean, the list of only God could put this team together.
I'll tell you right now, Eric.
I've had an independent studio for close to 20 years outside of Disney.
And whenever you staff up for a movie, it's a challenge.
It really is a challenge because the talent is limited and you want the best of the best.
And I can't tell you exactly what God's doing, but we are on a journey I've never seen in my 30 years.
The people he's bringing to the show is underneath.
I was going to say some of the names involved.
And although it's true, you were not able to get Mel Blank involved.
Is that correct?
That's true.
Mel Blank has passed on.
Couldn't afford Mel Blank.
That's a pity, because I always see him as a Matthias figure.
I could see, I can hear that voice.
No, seriously, you are, you've been in the middle of this world for so long.
So it is, you know, to me that's the headline is that someone like you now is able to create this masterwork,
which is, of course, utterly biblically accurate, the story of Jesus, kind of, kind of a,
amazing that it's been so long since 1979. Suddenly, that's a zillion years ago, right? It seems to me
like it wasn't so long ago, but it's a long time ago. And, you know, the effort to do this.
So I know it's a huge amount of work, but I want to ask your story. I mean, you've been in
animation forever, your whole life. How did you get started? Where did you grow up? And how did you
find your way into animation? Well, I've always, I've always been drawing. As long as I can remember,
I've always been wanting to tell stories, whether it's through comic strips as a little kid or my dad was in, you know, when you've got a great dad and a great mom.
But my dad's office was right next to DC Comics.
He worked at NBC for 40 years.
And, you know, he brought over my portfolio over there.
And, you know, as a kid, it's always a challenge.
Like, man, can I really make a living as an artist?
It's hard.
It's really hard.
And I'm thinking these things.
And I kind of had a had an old.
man's thought even back then. I was like, I don't know if I could do this. And with the encouragement
of my parents, you know, they never said, hey, go do what you love to do and you'll find a way
to make a living at it. What kind of parents did you have? Most parents know it's their job to say,
what are you insane? You go to school for computers. All right, I don't want to hear about this stuff.
Your parents actually tell you. So you grew up in L.A.? Is that where you grew up?
No, I grew up on Long Island. You can't tell us. I can't get rid of the accent.
You grew up on Long Island?
What part of Long Island?
The Massacre County, Elmont Franklin Square area.
Look, I've spent a lot of time in that neck of the woods.
My relatives lived there, Northport, Belmore, all over that area.
I know that really well.
I should have known.
But when you said, you know, your father took it over to NBC,
I just kind of assumed that this was L.A.
But no, you're talking about New York.
Yeah, yeah, New York.
My dad was 40 years.
He worked at NBC with Lorne Michaels, and he had an amazing career.
But I think because of his love of the arts, I think he really supported what I wanted to do.
And my grandfather on my dad's side, he was an artist.
So, you know, I don't know, sometimes is it passed down?
You know, my dad was really good artist.
Of course it is.
Of course it is. It's called jeans.
You didn't.
Yeah.
Yeah, you don't pick your jeans.
But I'll tell you, though, you know, it's one thing to have a talent or an inclination that's built in, but to be able to pursue it the way you were and to have parents that lovingly would encourage you in that direction, we all get to benefit from it now because you are where you are and you have put in, you know, decades in the industry so that now in making this Jesus film, yeah, crew has the best of the best and you're leading the team.
Now, when did you find out that you would be doing this?
Like, is this, how many years ago did this again?
Well, probably about three years ago.
About at the height of COVID, we got together and it wasn't something I was pursuing.
And again, you know, it is a massive undertaking.
And I just want to be clear, no one person can do this, Eric.
I have an incredible team.
I'm merely, and I'm a servant.
I tell you right now, brother, I am representing incredible people.
and not just people in this building, but people around the world.
So I just always want to make that clear to people.
It's a phenomenal tapestry that God's put together for this group.
And about three years ago, they asked me to, can this be done?
I said, yeah, we can do it.
And I was going to find a way to do it one way or another.
And my living room became the story room.
And Barry Cook, who was the, he was a director of Milan.
I've known for 30 years, he started writing the screenplay.
And we just dove in.
And we were like, okay, well, we don't have.
two and a half hours, you know, the Jesus, the original Jesus film is very, very big.
We have less than 90 minutes because animation is very laborious.
No, and also animation, after a certain point, it, yeah, it's so intense that, you know, 90 minutes,
even that is kind of pushing it for an animated feature.
We're going to be right back.
Lots more.
I'm talking to Dominic Carolla.
Very exciting project.
The animated Jesus film coming out next year.
Stick around.
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Welcome back.
We're talking about an animated feature film coming out next year about Jesus.
This is kind of exciting.
The person who is heading it up is my guest, Dominic Carolla.
Dominic, how did you, you know, find your way?
I was just saying, you know, you said your father had worked for NBC.
And so show business was not some crazy thing out there.
You know, your father obviously was making a living in that world.
So this was something that you saw as possible.
But, you know, what are some of the first films that you worked on in animation?
Well, yeah, let me touch on that.
One other thing I want to add, and obviously I know we don't have a lot of time for this,
but the importance of mentors and the importance of apprenticeships,
because, again, there's a long list of people that I can never stress enough how important a really good
great mentor is because I wouldn't be here without those people. So it was somebody that had said to me,
if you really want to pursue this, you have to go to California because at that time,
the main school was still a school that Walt Disney had started in the 60s called California
Institute of the Arts or Cal Arts. It's still there today. It's a premier school for animation and
filmmaking, quite frankly. But coming from where I came from, and again, you know, you know this,
Derek, from being in the tri-state area, you don't move from the family.
You buy, you know, if anything, you just expand the house.
Thank you.
That's good.
No, but that's, I get that because I'm an ethnic from the New York world here.
And it's like, yeah, you don't just pick up, you know, and go over to the left coast.
What are you crazy?
I got a stick to my sister.
So what did you do?
They all thought I was crazy.
I loaded up my S-10 and drove across country.
And I, I remember waking up in the hotel and say, well, tomorrow.
I started this, you know, world-renowned school, which I didn't realize how hard it was to get in.
They would only accept 30 students at the time.
And I have amazing relationships from that, from those years of being at the school and very well-known animation directors and many, many of whom you guys know about.
And it was just a wonderful time.
This was around 1990.
And, you know, I just felt like, I felt like I was, I really, I was on a mission to just, if this is it, you get one shot in life.
And we all know this.
And there's, there's moments where.
It's like, well, I could turn right or I can turn left.
I know no matter what, if I turn left, there's always a right turn later I can make.
If I screw it up or if I, you know, fail fast has been kind of my motto so I could fall forward.
That's kind of where I've been my whole life.
And I just, you know, none of this would be out without God, quite frankly.
I didn't grow up knowing God the way I know him now.
And it's just been amazing how he has really opened these doors.
And every chapter is a chapter of why you are where you are and why I am where I am.
You know, there's the tough ones where it's like, man, why did you make me go through chapter nine?
Because of 18.
And that's been my life, man.
It's just been an incredible journey.
And I've been surrounded by incredible people, wonderful people of all different backgrounds.
And that's the beauty of it.
I love getting the window down when you could talk to people because it's like, yeah, we're making a film about Jesus.
but I could talk to people about this from a historical standpoint
and just how important this film is because it's not a regular movie.
It's not a regular movie.
I was going to say it's not a regular movie.
It's kind of like, you know, when people would say,
we'd talk about Mel Gibson's The Passion,
and I would say, you know what?
The Passion, that's not a movie like, hey, let's go see a movie,
get the popcorn and the Twizzlers.
No, no.
This is like an act, this is a devotional.
This is like, you know, looking at a medieval triptych.
This was not painted to be like, hey,
that's awesome. I'd like to put that in my living room. It's meant to draw us toward God through art.
And the idea that film could do that, animated film could do that. You know, a lot of people aren't
thinking that way. But so if you, you know, started around 1990 working with all of these Disney
animation veterans, they must have been on films, you know, going, going way back. So you have
this kind of lineage that you're connecting to. Yeah, we were fortunate when we were at the studio,
I started in California, but then they sent me over to the Florida studio
because they were just starting a film about lions and didn't even have a name at the time,
but Lion King was the first film that I trained on.
That would be my suggestion for a title, Lion King.
I think that would be big.
Yeah, I think it worked out.
You could probably even get Elton John because his career is kind of, you know,
he's kind of tank and he needs something new.
You could probably get him to write some of the score.
That's just off the top of my head.
Knock yourself out.
See how it goes.
See how it goes.
That's pretty good. That's pretty good. But yeah, so we had a studio over here in Florida. We did a bunch of films here. And then the studios, they were consolidating back to Burbank. You had that whole Eisner, Roy Disney thing going on. And actually, I knew Roy Disney Jr. very well. He was an incredible man. And that was the moment where you had an opportunity to potentially go back to California or do something different. And I had been talking with my wife. And there was a lot.
some changes that were happening at the studio. And I said, I said, my wife's name is Love. I said,
love, I said, if you support this, I said, I really would love to launch our own shingle. Totally
insane. I don't really recommend it. But I mortgage the house. We hired a bunch of colleagues.
And literally, by the grace of God, we've never looked for work. We've never promoted the studio.
I don't do much social media. But the projects that we've worked on have just been life-changing in so many
ways. So yeah, it's been quite a journey. I wanted to go back to something you talked about
as far as art goes. Most people don't realize Jesus has been depicted in art for 2,000 years.
It's only been the last 100 years or so that there's been a live action version. So when you go to
these churches in Europe and you open up all these panels, that's how they got people immersed
in the story was through the art in the storytelling. And the beauty is we're making this film
not necessarily for the people that know him.
This is for the people that don't know him.
Yes.
Yes.
And forgive me.
We're going to go to a break here.
We've got plenty more coming up.
I'm talking to Dominic Carolla.
Very exciting.
Very exciting what God is doing in the arts and entertainment.
I really believe we're going to have a revival and that this is part of it.
And we need that.
We need that.
We'll be right back.
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Welcome back talking to Dominic Carolla, who is heading up the NAM.
on just an amazing, extraordinary project, the animated film about Jesus.
Do you have the title?
Is the title actually about Jesus?
Is it Jesus?
What is the title?
Do we have that?
Yeah, that's the beauty of it.
It's just Jesus.
And because crew and Jesus' film have had that for so long, they're able to use it as the title
of film, Jesus.
So Jesus' errors will not sue you?
they should come after you i think they got a case i think they could get some money out of this
so all right so it's coming out but you were just talking about i mean you had worked on the lion
king on pocahontas i mean you've worked on stuff going back and i um i remember when pocahontas came out
i wrote i was in the world of animation a little bit tangentially uh around that time in the early
90s i wrote an animated script and so i was really in that world for for a season right
right, and God took me in a different direction.
But I've written a lot of children's books,
but I wrote a humor piece that was published in New York Times Magazine called Mohandas.
And it was a spoof because Pocahontas had just come out,
and it was a spoof who was pretending to be a review of the Disney animated film Mohandis
about the life of Gandhi.
And it was just anybody who wants to read my humor piece,
they could just go to my website, Eric Mataxis.com.
I think I have it there.
But I was so immersed in the world of that animation
that I thought it would be fun.
What if, you know, what if Disney were to do something controversial?
Because Pocahontas was a little controversial at the time, you know,
is it historically?
You're always going to get that.
And so I pretended that there was a Disney film called Mohandas
and with all kinds of crazy stuff.
Anyway, people can just go to my website,
ericmetaxis.com.
But you, your history in animation goes back to those films.
And I was saying earlier, you know, you were talking about mental
I know that some of the people you worked with worked on films just going way back.
And, you know, there's something exciting about being in touch with the past, with the people
who have worked on things that, you know, we think of as classics.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And, you know, that's the thing, too.
I share a lot with young people in all studio, Primusent Entertainment.
I'll go just last week.
I was over at a major school here in Ringling Down in Sarasota.
And I try and share with young people because we've all been there, right?
Where it's like there's really important stuff happening and you don't realize it because we're just too stupid or our brains aren't formed enough.
So it's wonderful to be able to share that as a time machine, say how special these moments are, how special relationships are.
And in our industry, and I'm sure you're in the industry, it's not a big industry.
So it's really, really important that you do form these relationships.
And even if it's challenging sometimes just to know that you're going to see that person again.
Your words matter.
Your actions matter.
And, you know, unfortunately, the digital world that we live in, there's these digital tattoos that people are leaving out there that can change a life.
So, yeah, so it is really important to, you know, I sound like an old guy now.
But I remember, you know, a few of the nine old men used to come in and visit us at the studio.
The nine old men, these were the guys that started with Walt.
You know, it was like Ward Kimbo, Frank Thomas, Mark Davis.
And I would cherish their visits.
You know, they'd come in the wheelchair.
They come with their walk.
And I would cherish every word.
And I just remember those days.
So whenever I go and, again, I'm nowhere near those guys.
But I can at least share the fact that, man, there's some really important things happening right now that could be the difference of a career or a job.
I tell you, when we think about the classic era of Disney animation,
going back to Snow White and Dumbo,
I don't know when I watched Dumbo a few years ago,
but if you don't cry, you know, you're not paying attention.
It is so powerful.
And I want to say to folks that some of those classic films,
I mentioned Snow White and Dumbo off the top of my head,
but they're amazing, absolutely.
Oh, Pinocchio. I mean, look at the, look at the north, the moral north compass of Pinocchio.
My goodness, it's so powerful in so many ways, you know.
Well, yes, and that was the vision of Walt Disney, who was a great American patriot,
just a great man, pro-family on every level, just beautiful.
Just want to ask you a few minutes left, how did you come to faith seriously?
I mean, did that happen for you in the 90s, or what's your journey?
Yeah.
Yeah, I had some.
I'll give you the very short version, but I had a very life-changing events around 1988 that really made me,
I was one of those guys where God literally had to hit me over the head.
I was one of those guys that, you know, you have to, you have to, and you never want to say this,
but you have to prove to me that you're real.
And he got my attention.
He got my attention big time.
And it took me a little while to realize what had happened.
but once it did, it's amazing, Eric,
and I know sometimes I sound like a crazy person,
but all of a sudden, everything was clear.
I could see what I was supposed to be doing,
and I get emotional about it.
But it's a much bigger story, but it was, that's my journey.
You know, everybody has their own journeys,
but I was the guy that needed to really get pulled by the collar
and say, come over here.
Well, you're talking to another guy who had to get,
hit in the head, not literally, as you said, but close.
But seriously, that's just the way it is.
And God, in his mercy, meets us where we are.
And if you need to get whacked in the head,
if you need to have a miracle, which I clearly did,
because I was so intellectually gumbed up that I needed, you know,
it's like when you hit the TV back in the old days, like,
wham, it's like, okay, it's better.
But that happened to me.
And it's, listen, there are many people that have had miraculous
experiences. Some people are shy about talking about it. I don't know why. That's ridiculous because you
can encourage other people by telling your story. But it's just, to me, I ask just because
it's an encouragement to me, and I know to everybody who's listening, that somebody of
profound faith in Jesus is working in the entertainment industry, is using the extraordinary
gifts and the history that you've been given as a gift by God to take the story of Jesus and bring it
to life. And you said that, you know, this is going to be for people who don't know this story.
Maybe that on the page. You know, at Christmas 2025, people are going to say, you know,
now it would be a nice time to go with the family to see this, the Jesus film. I hear it's
pretty good. And you go and see it. And guess what? It's life changing. So we'll have you back
closer to the release of the film, Dominic.
But for now, let me simply say thank you.
Thank for your faithfulness.
Thanks for your work on the film.
Dominic Carolla, just our privilege.
God bless you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for having me, Eric.
And people can get involved at Jesusfilm.com.
Aha.
Jesusfilm.com.
All right.
Folks, welcome back.
I'm talking to Robert Netsley right now,
who is with Inspire Investing.
Robert, I can't help but get excited
about what you've created, an opportunity for people to find out if their money is funding
wicked things, if they have money in a 401k or a retirement fund, whatever it is, that is
invested in companies that are doing evil things, that is promoting pornography, promoting abortion,
promoting any number of things or ideologies with your money, folks.
So Robert Nestle has created something where you can get a free report that tells you
where your money is and they will help you get your money into companies that are doing good things.
So you have to go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.
Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.
You get a free report.
But this is something I, you know, Robert, I guess it just gives me hope that it's possible to turn
things around in America because when I think of how much money people have invested out there,
if they would understand what's going on and share.
shift that money to good stuff, it's just huge. It's just absolutely monstrous. It's enormous.
It's enormous. And we are seeing fruit from that labor. It's remarkable. It doesn't have to even
be trillions of dollars to change things. I've been on the phone, you know, in recent weeks,
you know, with investor relations and CFOs and whatnot. We regularly engage with companies that
we invest in or are like to invest in or kind of just speaking biblical truth, the corporate power.
And, you know, one of the things we hear is often that, number one, these people have never heard.
They tell us they've never heard from a faith-based investor before.
They've been doing their job for 20, 30 years.
You know, executive major organizations never heard from a faith-based investor.
So number one, they need to hear our voice.
Number two, they're thankful to hear it.
Even in some of these sort of, you know, woke businesses you think that this don't care.
There are people in those businesses of influence that actually do care about what we have to say.
and oftentimes have enough influence to change things.
So, for instance, Costco stopped giving money to gay pride parades.
Chevron stopped giving money to Planned Parenthood.
There's a laundered list of other organizations that can change things.
That is unbelievable.
Robert Nelson, that is unbelievable.
It is so wonderful.
I want to tell people, folks, what you do and don't do, you can change the world if you take an interest in this.
When I hear that a company like Costco would stop giving money to something like that or Chevron,
These are huge, huge companies.
And you shop there, your money may be invested there.
When we get involved in these things, we can change the world.
So I want to say the action point is go to invest.
I'm sorry, inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.
Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.
You'll get a free report that will help you figure this out.
and I know, Robert, that you guys will help people if they want to transition to invest in companies that believe in their values.
But this is a gigantic thing that we have, I mean, it's to me scandalous when we have power and we don't use that power.
It's like when I say, I'm not going to vote.
I'm not going to do this.
I'm not going to do that.
When you don't do those things, people who don't share your values, who share opposite, who have opposite values, they're going to prevail.
So I just want to say to you, Robert, thank you for taking this on because it is game-changing.
Like you said, it's a movement.
The more people that do this, it's an amazing thing when we think of the money that is out there,
that many people of faith with traditional values have invested in woke companies.
Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to do something about it.
You've just got to do something about it.
This is like a mandate that we've got to live our faith out in every sphere and where your money is.
That's a big deal.
So please go to InspireAdvisors.com slash Eric.
This is a free report.
Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric.
Robert Natsley, thank you.
Pleasure.
Thank you, Eric.
