The Eric Metaxas Show - Eric Metaxas "Religionless Christianity"

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Eric's new book "Religionless Christianity" is out now.  https://ericmetaxas.com/books/religionless-christianity/

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus 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. Welcome to the Eric Metaxis show. It's the show featuring Go-Go-Go the chimp. Nothing like a chimp to liven up the radio show. Easy there. Go-go, go, go, go. No, go-go. Hey, the folks, welcome to the program. Oh, my goodness.

Chris Heimes, do you know what I did yesterday? I mean, it looked like you somehow went back into time to the 60s. It did some sort of freedom march. It was crazy. Well, no kidding. I was in Danbury, Connecticut gardening in my parents' garden. And then I jumped in the car, drove to Manhattan. I got some Bonhofer posters in the mail from my store.com using the code Eric.

I put cardboard on the back of the posters. I jumped in a cab and I zipped up to Columbia University where my friend Sean Foyt and Pastor Russ Hall were leading a rally to stand with Israel, to stand with the Jews at Columbia University. It was, you know, it was amazing because we were there. in the very place where Bonhofer really found the meaning of his life, right? Like he comes to, I mean, we're right up there by Columbia, right across the street as Union Theological Assembly. So in the very place, here I am with a Bonhofer poster,

in the very place where Bonhofer lived and found that you have to put your faith into action, which led him to stand up for the Jews, which led him to give his life in standing up for the Jews against the evil of the Nazis. Here we are at Columbia University as Christians standing up for the Jews in our own time. So it was a real privilege to be there. But it was amazing. It was just amazing. I mean, I don't know. I know that it was on Fox News and some other places put out stuff, but most of it has not really been fully reported. But it was, it was unbelievable. I mean, here you have Sean Foyt, a Christian. Christian leading this whole thing. I'm a Christian. Pastor Russ Hall from Seattle. He's a Christian. And we lead this march, this rally to speak up for the Jews, to stand up for the Jews. And tons and tons of Jews showed up until it was thousands of Christians and Jews stood up until it was thousands of Christians and Jews standing with Israeli flags, American flags.

It was very moving, actually. It was very, very moving. The pro-Hamas students were... Yeah, what was the reception like? Because I know it's like, it's literally the number one political issue happening right now in the country are these... I'm not going to lie to you.

I got stabbed a couple times, but I'm cool. That's my role. No. You said no, Mas, Hamas. Please. I'm done. No, honestly, their side was absolutely pathetic, as Sean said. He says, like, yeah, they always talk a good game.

They were pathetic. There was like nothing. There was nothing. There were so many hundreds into the thousands of Christians and Jews who showed up. It was an amazing show of solidarity that the state of Israel has a right to exist, that the hostages need to be released. and as I said, I made, you know, these Bonhoffer posters with cardboard backing so that we could hold them up. Because here you have a Christian who, because of his faith in Jesus, spoke up for the Jews.

That's our model, right? And so here we are, you know, 90 years later at Columbia University, which is a very Jewish university. I mean, it's amazing. It's in New York, which is a very Jewish city. and and Jews have been you know cowed into having to go into hiding because the the pro-Hamas pro-Palestinian activists are vicious they are not you know following the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr. who who showed dignity and nonviolence no they are you know they're they're it's it's it's so ugly. And so, so Sean said, we've got to take a stand. We've got to show our support. So he led

this. And also just to interject for a minute, you know, it's important to stand against anti-Semitism. And you can have issues with how Israel is engaging the response to 10-7 and still support the ugly, you know, to stand up against the ugliness of anti-Semitism that has clearly been resurrected here. So it's not like, you know, that's important. That's important that you said that, and I thank you for saying that, because I'm not, this is not some unequivocal approval of, you know, Netanyahu or whatever. But this is, I mean, listen, what Hamas did, every Palestinian, every human being should denounce it. It was sadistic, satanic cruelty, raping, murdering, beheading children. When you behave like that, you need to shut up.

I don't want to hear one word from anybody making it sound like, well, you know, they're being oppressed. I mean, that would be like Martin Luther King, you know, leading a riot to behead white people. Like, you know, the reason we revere him was because it was nonviolent protest. And listen, that's in the footsteps of Bonhoeffer. Bonhofer, you know, who revered Gandhi. I mean, this is not about violent insurrection and protest. And so, yeah, we needed to take a stand against anti-Semitism,

against the right of Israel to exist as a nation. And it was, I felt honored to be there. Patty Heaton, the star of Everybody Loves Raymond, she was there. She's been all over Twitter. since October 7th, you know, posting against what happened and what's been happening. And so it was just great to see people saw so many friends there. Amazing to see Christians and Jews unite against this evil. So I just was honored to be there.

Sean Foyt and Jay Coopman are amazing. They know how to do this kind of stuff. and I just, you know, I'm not, I'm not doing rallies every day, but it was, it was wonderful. And I'm just so glad I brought the Bonhofer posters. I mean, he's the face of standing against, you know, the hatred of Jews. And he's our Christian model. So anyway, it was, if anybody wants one of those posters, you can get it where I got it at my store.com, use the code, Eric.

I had to pay like an insane amount for like overnight shipping. but I just I said it's important that people understand that this is who we want to be, somebody who we live out our faith. I mean, in my book, Religion's Christianity, the title comes from Bonhofer. And I wanted to say, this is what we're about. This is not some political thing. This is about standing against evil. But it was so beautiful.

We were at the gates of Columbia. And, you know, we, we, it was, it was. just beautiful. We prayed for the return of the hostages. I prayed. I spoke. And I said, we bless those who curse us. And, you know, we stand for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So it was, it was incredible. And people can, if you follow me on Instagram or on Twitter, I'm posting some stuff. But it was great to be with Sean and with Jay Kupman. And I, I should say that, by the way, in both hours today, we've got some important stuff. So I hope you'll tune in.

We're launching today our campaign to raise money to literally free slaves in Sudan. We do this once a year. It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. We've got to put our faith in action. Again, that's the theme of my new book, Religionless Christianity, because it's what Bonhofer kept talking about faith in action. and it's the theme of my book letter of the American Church.

And how do we do that? How do we live out our faith? And the answer is in every way possible, in however way we can. So I just wanted to say that last night was a staggering success. It brought attention. It brought, you know, and it showed people like, you know, you're not going to pull this on these campuses. Like you're going to, you think you're going to get away with this kind of, you know,

super nasty, nasty activism. No, we're going to speak up for what we believe is right and good and true. And we encourage every Christian and every Jew to do the same wherever they are. So we're out of time. We'll be right back. Remember as a kid, your parents and grandparents making you try all the vegetables on your plate or when they coax you to eat fruit instead of sweets? That's because they knew what was good for you. And it's true today than ever before. You need to eat your fruits and veggies.

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Hey there, folks. Welcome back. I can't believe it, but I'm sitting here in the studio with Albin. Is it Sadar? It's, yeah, Sadar like Radar. What kind of a name is that, Sadar? It's a Slovenian. Slovenian?

I've got an even more important question. What kind of a name is Albin? Ah, it's also Slovenian. My mother's name was Albinah. And, of course, I have a twin brother named Anthony after my father. Elbin after my mother. Albina, there you go. Thank you, folks.

Albin sounds like Alvin, but it's not. Oh, I got that as a kid all the time. Of course. Hey, Alvin in the chipmucks. I'm like, no, it's Albin. Nobody cares. Is your brother's name Theodore? No.

Well, your name, your name, your name, we've settled it, it's Albin Seder. So that was my question for you. But the reason you're here, we met once, by the way. I know, I know. I feel like we've met. We, we, you, you wanted to ask me questions about my new book, Religionless Christianity. Or people have submitted questions. And you've been elected to read the questions to me? I have. Yes, I have. Okay, I'm nervous, but let's get, let's do it. Here we go. You think you're nervous. This is a great book, by the way. Religionless Christianity. God's answer to evil. And there's another part of the front of the book that I think is absolutely spot on. It says there is only one hope left to save America and the world, active, robust, and public faith in God. And I think most people out there that listen to the show and other shows like it will have to agree because things have gotten so far off the rails that, you know, we're now in the ocean somewhere. Well, not everybody would agree, and that's why I wrote a letter to the American Church

and why I wrote this book. I'm trying to make the biblical case so that people would consider it because not every people are on this page. But anyway, so somebody, who has submitted these questions you're going to ask me? They're just from all over. So general questions, a lot of them come in like, you know, people ask the same questions over and over again. So I can say like Bob, Mary, Jane, and Bill, they all asked this question. In fact, let me start with the first question. And this is general one to all authors, but what sparked you and your interest in writing this book? I needed the bread, man, you know?

The rents do, and I had to come up with something. It's all about this, money. Yeah, well, no, clearly, we hope that's not the case. We hope that I wrote it because God put it on my heart, which, you know what it is? Actually, Letter of the American Church, that book, I know God called me to write that in a way that I had never experienced anything before.

Like, I knew I had to write that book. and the response to it has been so extraordinary, frankly, very surprising to me, that, you know, the publisher was saying, well, do you have more you want to say on this? And I thought, well, yes, actually quite a bit. And so the letter of the American church is my shortest book. This is almost as short. But there's some very important things in terms of, you know, when people say, okay, so I'm supposed to live out. I mean, if you agree with the premise of letter to the American church, I'm supposed to live out my. faith. I'm not supposed to be merely religious as a Christian. What does that look like? Well,

religionless Christianity means to be the answer to that question. What does it look like to actually live out your faith in a way that's not merely religious in the negative sense of religion? And I don't know, should I answer the question about the title now, or is that one of the questions? Well, that's the next question from Mary, Bob, Jill, and Peter. Can you define religious-less Christianity? Why is it God's answer to evil? Well, obviously I write it. I shouldn't say obviously, but I'm happy to say that I do write about all of this in the book, about the title, the meaning of the phrase.

Religinalist Christianity is a Bonhofer phrase. Bonhofer was writing to his best friend, Abrahd-Badke. I met Abraham-Badke's widow in Germany in 2008. Abraham-Begger was Bonhofer's closest friend, and he was intellectually brilliant as Bonhofer was brilliant. And in a letter right at the end of his life, Bonhofer is in prison, I believe he was in the Gestapo prison, which was a dark place figuratively and literally. And he wrote a letter to his best friend in which he was asking now in 1944,

how did we get where we are that we've sort of lost the battle? The church did not live out its faith. and he says, if only we had had a religion-less Christianity. And he's using religion in the pejorative term that Carl Bart would have used it. Religion has just dead religiosity, just playing church. And Bonhover says what we ought to have had was a religionless Christianity. In other words, instead of going through the motions, you know, the Pharisees went through the motions in the temple.

A lot of Christians go through the motions on Sunday morning. He was saying, instead of just doing that, what if we had actually lived out our faith? in a heroic way as though we actually believed it. We would have stood against the evil, but the German church didn't do that. And I thought, I need to explain what is religion apart from real faith? What does that look like? What are some religious idols that Christians worship, thinking that they are being Christians, but actually these are just religious idols.

And in the book, I lay out some of these religious idols where they really substitutes for actually worshiping Jesus with our whole being. And so I kind of lay that out. And because it's an example of how Christians have been fooled in the past. And the story of Bonhofer, it's the classic case of he was trying to wake up Christians to stop being merely religious and to be actually faithful in every sphere, willing to stand bravely against the Nazis. And they were thinking, no, no, no, we just want to do church.

We just want to have our little religious services. We don't believe it's our job to get into that. So in the book, I kind of, I try to unpack what these religious idols are and how we might be guilty of worshipping them rather than worshiping Jesus. Yeah, because it seems like a lot of churches now have leaned toward becoming more like social clubs. Come on in. We're going to celebrate this activity and that activity. And we're going to have a bake sale and we're going to, you know,

and then they have their flags out there that don't say, you know, we believe in Jesus. It's like we believe in what the culture is doing. going to follow that. And so where did the religion go? Well, there's a lot of that. I mean, that's really the darkest side. But to me, it's even churches that wouldn't go there, but neither are there being heroic in the battle for God's purposes. You know, that leads me back to one of the most dramatic examples you put in letter to the American church about that, what was it, 18,000 churches? Yeah. Yes. Could you explain that again? Because that is really powerful. I don't know if you redo it here. No, I don't, but it's in a letter to the American Church. And in a sense,

letter of the American Church, you need to read that first, I would say, because it kind of tease up what I'd say in this book. But the bottom line was that in Germany, in the early 30s, there were about 18,000 Lutheran pastors in Germany. By 1935, two years into the Hitler regime, only 3,000 of the 18,000 were standing heroically, willing to go to concentration camps, really living out their faith. On the other end of the spectrum, you've got about 3,000 that are 100% in for Hitler. But the key is in the middle. You got 12,000 basically saying, you know what, we don't need to choose. We're going to stay right here in the safe religious middle, except the safe religious middle that sitting on the fence thinking you're being neutral, I always say over and over, the devil

owns the fence. They believed that they had this kind of religious, you know, carve out, that we could do nothing that we could be neutral. We're not going to stand heroically against the Nazis the way Bonhofer and others do. We're just going to stay here. You know, it's kind of like somebody saying, I'm not going to vote. Well, you're helping evil to win. And I try to make the case in letter to the American Church that if you think you can avoid making a choice, you have made a choice. You have chosen to allow evil to have its way. But you're pretending you've got this religious objection and you can just be somehow neutral. And that to me is where many in the American church are today. And I'll say it is where there are many people who go to churches like

that where you're just effectively playing church on Sunday morning rather than saying this is not the church. We are the church and we meet on Sunday morning. But then we go out. The church goes out of the building and affects the culture and fights for God's purposes in every sphere, including politically, just as we did when we fought the slave trade, just as we did when we fought for the abolition of slavery in this country, just as when we fought politically to end Roe v. Wade, that's part of the church's calling. And so in both books, I try to make that clear. Yeah, very good. Thank you. Let's go on to what does it mean to, and I think you covered a lot of this, but what does it mean to live out your faith actively? Yeah. Well, again, this gets to the core of what I'm calling sort of the American heresy. is this idea that we don't need to live our faith out in all spheres. We can talk about it, but the reality is it's like a hobby.

It's something I do in the basement. It has no bearing on what I do when I leave the basement. That's the opposite of what our faith is supposed to be. Our faith is supposed to be lived out in every single sphere. And I think that we kind of make faith, as I say, it's like this part-time thing. But it's supposed to inform everything that we do. My faith is supposed to inform my relationships. is supposed to inform what I would do with my life professionally.

Everything is supposed to be informed by my faith. And I think that in America we've been so blessed that we've gotten spoiled and complacent, and we kind of act like, well, it's this private thing. And we're supposed to bring God's view of things, the biblical view of things, into every single sphere. And a big part of the way we can do that is politics. We have the gift of self-government where we can advocate. for the right kind of, for people who are advocating God's policies or we can ourselves run for office.

So there are many things. We'll continue that. I know we're going to a break. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Eric Mattaxas. For years I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles. Whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort or detoxification support, Nutrametics has a health bundle right for you. best part about Nutrametics every year they donate a minimum of 50% of their profits to Christian charities and missions. That's right, 50% of their profits. Nutrametics has a goal of surpassing 100 million in giving by 2030. Many of you take supplements already. Switch to Nutrametics. It's

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Use promo code Eric or call 800-9783057. That's promo code Eric. 800-9783057-3057 promo-com promo code Eric. Or go to MyPillow.com and use promo code Eric. Hey, folks, welcome back. We're talking about my brand new book, Religionless Christianity. That's a Bonhofer phrase, which I hope I explained sufficiently a few minutes ago. So, Albin, you're asking questions that the people who follow this program,

YouTube, they have submitted. So there's a couple more questions, I think we have. Oh, yeah. We've got a couple more. And speaking of Bonhofer, this next one kind of, I think a lot of people will thinking about this one. If Dietrich Bonhofer were alive today in 2024, what do you think he would say about the state of America? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's fair to say that, well, I say this, I think literally in the first page of this new book, that, that we're in a spiritual war and that we are in the third existential crisis of our history. The first was the revolution. The second was the civil war.

And the third is where we are now. And what we're fighting now is the forces of real wickedness. In other words, forces that are deeply hostile to Christian faith. In other words, it's not like in the old days where, you know, Tip O'Neill is the face of the Democrats. and we've got some differences on taxes and this and that. No, no, no, no, no. We are now dealing with evil. I mean, we had the president of the United States,

who is dramatically pro-abortion, who is dramatically pro-transgender. I mean, really sick stuff. He declared Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, as some trans day of visibility. I thought to myself, I've never in my life seen such an open hostility to Christians. I've never seen it before.

And I think if you're a Christian, you need to understand that's what's happening right now and you need to be awake to it. And Bonhofer was awake to it in Germany. He said that what's happening now in Germany, we need to fight. And many, many, many Christians said, no, no, no, no, no, we think you're just being a hot head

and take it easy and, you know, Hitler, he'll be around, but he'll leave and we'll move on. No. Bonhofer could see that the Nazis were playing. for keeps. They wanted to fundamentally transform Germany. Yeah. Just as the atheist, Marxist, globalist forces in the world and inside America. Now, they want to fundamentally transform America, and they're doing it to make us no longer the nation that our founders brought into being with the Lord's help, to put it mildly, the Lord brought it into being. And,

it was once meant to be a city, a shining city on a hill in the words of John Winthrop, and that it was supposed to be a beacon of liberty and a beacon, frankly, of Christian faith, so that people would look at this country and go, what do they have that we don't have? What are they doing that makes them flourish? Why is God blessing them? Well, how come they can govern themselves? That's so beautiful. What is going on over there?

I mean, Tocqueville came over here in the 1820s to investigate, because this didn't go that way in France. The French Revolution was a bloody, atheistic, to some extent, demonic revolution. It did not go well. It was a bloodbath. So Tocqueville comes over here to say, what do they have? What is his conclusion? The church's vibrant Christian faith, it was at the very heart of America. Now, it wasn't, we weren't officially Christian, because why would we need to be officially Christian? We would just need to be actually Christian. We don't need to be officially Christian. But it was kind of assumed by all the founders that were

going to be essentially Christian. And we have drifted so far. far away from that, and we are now being attacked by people that are not just on board, but they are openly hostile to God's values, to God's principles, to biblical values, and to Christians. And so you have things that we never dreamt of in our lifetime, the FBI being weaponized against pro-life people. You have children being taken away from their mother and father, because the mother and father have a biblical view of sexuality of the human person, and they don't want to use their kids quote unquote pronouns. And in Indiana and other places, the kids are being taken away by the state.

This is a level of wickedness, a level of evil we've never seen. And if the church doesn't recognize and say it is our job, God has called us to stand against this. God has called us to get in the fight, then it's over. And so I'm afraid that that's kind of, that's where we are in America. I see some, a simple example of that is this, you know, guy wearing a dress and he's got a beard. And he says, my name's Michelle, and I want you to call me Michelle. And if you call him Michelle and treat him as a woman, not only does he have a problem, you have a problem. And then, of course, the nation has a problem.

You've been forced to lie. Exactly. We are self-censoring. We're afraid. You know, I think if somebody said that to me and I went like this, it would go to the Supreme Court. You're not allowed to do that because that's hate speech. That's a hate smirk.

But I mean, honestly, that's where we are. But the thing is, and again, the reason I wrote this, both of these books, but specifically this religionless Christianity, is because there are many Christians who feel like they can opt out. They can avoid this. Like, it's not going to come for them. One of the chapters of the book I talk about the spirit of cancel culture. Yeah.

It is a wicked Marxist. spirit and it's coming for you. And so you need to stand against it when it comes for anybody, not just when it comes for you. We'll talk about that later. But in the book, I talk about Bonhofer, I talk about Martin Niemuller. There's a lot of Bonhofer in this book. Yeah, well, he's, of course, I'll through it because he gave you the title. He was like, what title can I give Eric? 60, 70 years from now. But when we come back, a very powerful question about,

are you optimistic about the future of America and the world? I can answer that question. It's funny because I say that we're in the third existential crisis of our history. We have survived the last two, but it's a war. You have to fight in a war. And I don't mean just fight with rifles or what I mean. You have to understand what is at stake. And if you don't, if you don't fight through prayer, through action, you definitely lose.

And so when we come back, I'll answer that. And other questions, the new book is Religinalist, Christianity. You can get copies at Ericmetaxis.com. I hope you will get a copy there. We'll be right back. Three-star general, Michael J. Flynn, head of the Pentagon Intelligence Agency, knew all the government's dirty secrets. He was one of the most respected generals in the military. Flynn knew what the Intel world had been up to. He understood its funding. he ordered the first audit of the use of contractors. This set off alarm bells. The explosive new documentary, Flynn, deliver the truth, whatever the cost,

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In case I haven't mentioned it, I have a brand new book out called Religionless Christianity, God's Answer to Evil. and in the book, I've never written a book like this, and I'm actually curious what people make of it. But one of the things that I talk about in the book, Chapter 6 is the spirit behind cancel culture. And I talk about how this occurred when the Nazis were trying to persecute faithful Christians in Germany.

They were persecuting others. but cancel culture was at work. It just wasn't called that back then. And it is happening now. It's happened at other times. So I wrote a chapter called the spirit behind cancel culture. And so I say if we're putting forward the idea of religionless Christianity as the answer to the evil we're seeing around us, we should draw a picture of what that evil looks like.

And at the dark heart of the evil we're seeing in our time lies that hideous thing called cancel culture. Most of us have experienced something of cancel culture or we have it. least seen it in operation around us. And then I talk about how it works. And I talk about how, like, you know, somebody says something. And then people freak out about what that person said, and they come after them. The mob comes after them. And that's happened to me a number of times, but it's happened to others much, much more dramatically than it ever happened to me. And I talk about the spirit behind it, because the spirit behind cancel culture, and

it is a demonic spirit, it doesn't believe in truth or justice, so it pretends to say, oh, that's bad. You did a bad thing. But if you apologize, they don't accept the apology. They just kind of it's kind of like

what Jack Posobic when he was on the he talked about the struggle sessions that they have in communist countries. Like they just want to crush you. And so they want you to confess, but then they don't forgive you. Like you confess as an example to everyone else.

And you better shut up. And then they send you to the gulag. Yeah, or meet you with baseball battles. Yeah, or something like that. And so I talk about that in the book, how all that's really going on is that they pretend to have some standard of justice or equality, but there is none because the devil does not have a standard of justice or equality. he doesn't believe in those things, but he pretends to believe in those things so that he can

crush you on the way to crushing you. They talk about that. And it has to do with, you know, what I call the spirit behind cancel culture. And I talk about Martin Neemuller. Some people know that if you read my Bonhofer book or you probably know about it without having read my Bonhofer book, but I talk about Martin Neemuller a lot in this book and a lot of Bonhofer in the book. And Martin Neumler is someone who, in the beginning of what was going on in Germany, he was vaguely pro-Hitler. He was basically saying, listen, Hitler's not as bad as we think. People around him are more radical, but we can work with him. I've met with him. Martin Neumler was a very distinguished patriot. He was awarded the Iron Cross for his service in World War I for

Germany. And so he thought, you know, Hitler ultimately he can be reasoned with. And then, of course, he realized, oops, I was wrong. And by the time he realized he was wrong, it was too late. And so I write about that in the book. So I write about the spirit behind cancel culture. And in chapter 7, which is called Further Thoughts on Cancel Culture, I quote Martin Nemeller's poem that he wrote after the war. And some of you know it.

First, they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the socialist, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me. And that's part of what happens with cancel culture is they pick people off to try to make an example of you, but they never stop. So if you don't stand for that person who's being canceled, like our friend Mike Lindell or me or anybody, then they pick these people off and then they go to the next one, the next one, the next one, and the next one.

And I use the example of our friend Kirk Cameron, who's been on the program. I actually write about him in this book. that he said, like, I don't know, was it 2012? It was like a million years ago. He goes on like Pierce Morgan and says in the kindest, most gracious way imaginable that he believes in the biblical idea of marriage between a man and a woman. And for this, he is vilified. People freak out like he's some fire-breathing hate monger.

And I thought, how many pastors, I'm not going to mention names, but how many pastors, prominent Christian pastors, did not defend him. They said, you know what, I don't want any trouble. Let the wolves have him, and we'll just keep going. Well, that's the way it works. So they come after one. You don't speak up, and then they come after the next one, and you don't speak up and they come after the next one.

And then eventually they're going to come for you. That's just the way it is. It's kind of like in the book of Esther, which I've been talking about lately. you know, Esther's like, well, you know, I'm the queen. And so I don't want any trouble with the king. And Mordecai says, hey, Esther, you're a Jew. Do you think that when this edict is to kill all the Jews, you're going to escape? They're going to get you eventually.

You better speak up now. That's what we need to do. So when they cancel somebody, I don't care if you agree with that person. You should not, you know, jump on that bandwagon of attacking or of being silent. And so actually, I'm really radical about this. When they go after Alec Baldwin, I disagree with him on like almost everything. But when they were like, oh, he's a murderer, but but I'm like, you know what? No, I don't think he's a murderer.

I think let's be fair. Let's be scrupulously fair because when you play that game, it'll eventually bite you. And I think, I mean, that's not a great example. Kirk Cameron is the great example that how many pastors said, we're not going to speak up for Kirk Cameron. Let them cancel him. and we're just going to get to keep preaching the gospel, the dead pseudo-gospel from our dead megachurch. We're just going to keep playing church

because we don't want to fight for what is right and good and true. We're just going to ignore it. That is the spirit of cancel culture, and it's sick. And anyway, I write about it in the book because we need to understand how it works, and we need to stand up for people. I don't care who they go after. You don't have to agree with that person or anything,

but whenever the mob comes after somebody, you need to understand the spirit, that mob. It doesn't believe in truth. It just believes in winning. And so that's part of what I write about here. And, you know, we've experienced cancel culture on this program. I mentioned Mike Lindell. By the way, I say support anybody who's being canceled. Go to my store.com. You can buy my books there. Use the code Eric. Go to Mypillow.com. Use the code Eric. Anybody, if they're coming after them, that's an indication to me. I need to stand up for them. We'll be right back. The moon will send you on your...

Hey there, folks. I'm talking about my new book. I'm excited. I got a copy of the mail yesterday. Religionless Christianity, God's answer to evil. And I want to say this. There's a number of things I write about in here that are... I have to say, I think that it's going to surprise some people.

And one of the things I write about is the Tower of Babel, or the Tower of Babel. And I talk about how all religion, in the negative sense, is... a satanic project to supplant God, right? So we know that Jesus actually came to end religion. Religion is the effort to, if I do this and this and this and this, somehow I can, you know, solve the problem of evil. And Jesus came to say, you can never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, solve the problem of evil. Only I, God can solve the problem of evil. And then by faith in me and by faith in what I have done to solve the problem of evil, then you can participate in standing against evil.

But if you try to do it on your own... What about, you know, we all have the power within, man. Yeah, man. We're all gods, man. So that, okay, so... We have the divine inside of us all, man. Yeah, man. So that's the point.

So that was kind of babble, right? Satan in the garden says to Adam and Eve, like, yeah, listen, I got an idea. and it's always the devil's idea. By the way, it's kind of like listening to the white witch and Narnia. She's going to say, hey, I'm going to make you my prince consort or whatever it is. Like, nah, not going to happen. That's what the devil is saying to Adam and Eve. Like, you know, if you do this and, you know, it'll be good for us.

So the devil is always trying to supplant God. And the Tower of Babel is an example of religion in the sense that all of humanity unites to create this tower to reach into the heavens. and there's more to it, but it's this concept of we can breach the distance between us and heaven on our own. And what Satan wants to do, of course, and the scriptures talk about this, and I quote it in the book, but he wants to go into heaven and murder God and take God's place. And so dead religion, the effort to kind of join Satan in this and somehow deal with evil, deal with. It's this utopian scheme that you see in all these communist revolutions. It's anti-God, basically. And so that's really what dead religion is. It's this way of somehow,

it's kind of like saying I want to get to, you know, Easter Sunday, but not through the cross. And so that's ultimately what dead religion ends up being. I mean, there's a lot more to it. You're going to have to read the book. But it is, it's interesting because even Christians through history and now are tempted toward these false solutions, which I would say is dead religion. Either you give your heart utterly to Jesus and say, I am dead to self and alive in you and lead me and guide me in being part of the solution that you want to bring, or I'm trying to do it on my own.

And that's what utopianist secular schemes are. So when you're talking about the new world order, you're talking about the globalist ideas of, you know, know, what we can do. All these things are at war with God, but often not openly. What about eating kale, man? Yeah, eating kale. Well, it's interesting. That's kind of funny because there's a lot of good things you can do as long as you don't make an idol of it. And actually in the book, I'll just close here because we're at a time, but I was going to say I mentioned a lot of religious

idols, things that Christians do that are in fact, they're religious, you're worshipping religious idols without knowing it. And I try to make clear in the book, because Bonhofer did this, he made it clear that these are religious idols. We need religion-less Christianity. We need real Christianity. And Christians are tempted along the lines of dead religion, and we need to be aware of what that is. And so in the book, I mentioned a number of idols. In another segment, maybe with Albin, I'll go through what the religious idols are. In the meantime, please pre-order religionless Christianity God's Answer to Evil by Eric Metaxis. Thank you.