The Eric Metaxas Show - Erick Stakelbeck

Episode Date: September 16, 2022

Erick Stakelbeck, host of "The Watchman" on TBN, looks into what's happening in Israel and how that plays out for America; plus, Ask Metaxas and thoughts on Queen Elizabeth's passiing.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy pm investments.com. That's legacy pm investments.com. Ataxas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Uh-oh. Alvin, you know what time it is? I know, I know. It's Thursday. This happens every week.

I love it. Thursday, hour two, segment one, that's this segment. We do something we call Ask Mattaxas. I am Metaxus. So people ask me questions. People write in to us and we pick whatever we think I can get through in a few minutes. You ask the question, so I'm just going to say, go. Okay.

What are you most excited to talk with Andrew Claven about at your upcoming Socrates event? That sounds like a cream puff question. Because if you listen to this program when I interviewed Andrew Claven about his new book, The Truth and Beauty, he brings a literary genius mind to the words of Jesus. That doesn't often happen. And I have to tell you what he does in the book, The Truth and Beauty, that's going to be the main subject of conversation because I'm a literary guy. I appreciate literature.

I was an English major in college, and I appreciate classic literature. So the idea, the basic idea of the conversation, is, you know, how did the greatest poets in the English language in the romantic period help you understand the words of Jesus or the tougher passages, what Jesus says, tough things? So that's the main conversation. But I also want to talk to him about, really, to answer this question, he wrote a book came out a few years ago, talking about, it's kind of like my book, Fish Out of Water. It's like the story of his life and how he came to faith.

it is nuts. I could do a separate Socrates in the city just on that. It is absolutely an insane story. And I do want to get into that with him at the Socrates and the city event. And which reminds me, go to Socratesandcity.com. Please buy a ticket. Buy tickets for your friends. If you want to come in, we want to make it possible for you.

The 27th of the Union League club. if you can come September 27th. We're doing an event in Houston on October 12th. That registration just opened up with James Tour. But these are exciting events. And I just, anyway, so next question. Good. I've been hearing a lot about opening drug markets in San Francisco and how the city has gone downhill. What do you think is the best approach to cleaning up the streets?

Open drug markets. Yeah. Well, listen, this is... an issue of philosophy, right? What's your philosophy on people? Are you helping people by giving them easy access to drugs or are you harming them? And what are the limits of liberty? And how does that work? Well, it seems to me that if you really care about people, if you care about the homeless, you have to take a tough stand on this stuff. And almost all Democratic mayors in blue states, they are doing precisely the opposite.

The chaos that I have begun to see erupting in parts of New York, not all of New York, but you just see it here and here that these Democratic mayors, and this goes back decades, but it's just gotten infinitely worse, really, they don't seem to understand life. And they seem to think that if we just let these people live in the streets, they are, these are lost, broken people. They need help. And so open drug markets, this is kind of feeding the monster. It's just, it's creating danger.

It's creating crime. So what you really need in this case is strong conservative leadership. And you're not getting that in most of these cities. So next question. Okay. Just a few words here. Tribute to Queen Elizabeth two? Oh, I guess that means would you like to comment on the trip?

I have to say that it's very moving. The other day, our daughter said something about, yeah, the queen is dying or whatever, and we found the BBC and we were watching it at home. And it really is something I think you don't want to miss. There's something, it's almost otherworldly. The level of tradition, it's so. beautiful. It's instructive. It's kind of, to some extent, why I watched Turner Classic movies and watch old films. You're seeing something that has mostly been lost, and these tributes

have been so beautiful. I think I was watching the BBC just two days ago. I was working out in the living room with my dumbbells there, and that's just a couple of friends of mine. They're not that sharp. But we were working out together. And I said, let me turn on, no, other dumbbells. Oh, okay. No, but seriously, I, was watching the vigil that they had. This was in, I believe, St. Giles's Cathedral in Scotland. And just the sobriety, the dignity, the gravitas that goes along with it, it really is beautiful. And so many people filed past the coffin. And these are commoners. These are just people who live in that area. And they made the sign of the cross. I thought this is so interesting. So this is a real moment for the whole.

whole world. You don't get a monarch like Queen Elizabeth pretty much ever. This is an extraordinary moment. By the way, folks, later on the show, we're going to talk a little bit more about Queen Elizabeth in the past. Actually, that's right. We've got that coming up on this program. So stay tuned. More. Okay. Do you see Broadway plays often and which is your favorite? The short answer to that is no. And the answer for the last couple of years is because Broadway's been been shut down. I've seen them on occasion. And I would like to say that because of the way New York has died in the last couple of years, I want to get out more and I want to do more of this. It's why I want to encourage people to come to Socrates and the city, stay at the Union League Club if you need a place to stay. But

try to bring life back to this city. Some of these plays are wonderful. And I will put that on my to do list to look into which plays are worth seeing, because I do want people to come to New York. Come to New York, September 25th to do the Let Us Worship Event in Times Square

with our buddy Sean Foyt. We're going to a theater after that to watch the film Super Spreader, September 27th. There's all kinds of

stuff going on that. When we were in London, they had back to the future the musical. I hope it comes to to New York. We didn't see it there, but it was on their

Broadway, whatever there is. I don't know if that seems like something I'd want to see. Back to the future of the musical. Sounds pretty cool. Maybe. Okay. Please recommend a book

to give to a recent college graduate? Well, it depends on the recent college graduate. And in this case, because I didn't see these questions in advance, I immediately think of my books, which I would love to give to recent college graduates. My book, Seven Men, My Book Seven Women, My Book, Well, My Book Fish Out of Water, which talks about my own struggles after college. A lot of these books, when I have a chance, I do give them to recent college graduate. So forgive me for not having a better answer. Where are you traveling soon? Today I am in Omaha, Nebraska, Council Bluffs, Iowa. I'm going to be in Murfreesboro, Tennessee this weekend. I'll be in Dallas next week. After that, I'm going to be in

Thousand Oaks, California. After that, I'm going to be, before that, I'm going to be in Seattle, Washington. The week after that, I think we have a family wedding, and then the week after, I tell you, I am traveling more these months than I have ever traveled in my life. Please go to Eric Mataxis.com. You can check out my schedule. Better yet, please sign up for the newsletter. We want to send you all these interviews. We've had some amazing interviews lately, folks. And I just feel like people say, well, where do I find your stuff? Please, please, just go to Eric Matoxcom. Sign up for the newsletter, and then you'll know where I am, and I hope we get to see each other. Okay, three little words. Best News Channel? Well, if I had to pick a Best News Channel on the TV dial, at this point, I would definitely say Newsmax.

Greg Kelly, I think he's on 7 p.m. or something like that. I've met him a few times. That dude is a hero. He's a hero. We all know about Tucker Carlson. He's fantastic, and we know about it. There's a few heroes out there, but I am really impressed with Newsmax and with Greg Kelly in particular. Of course, Fox News Channel has problems, but they have some good things.

Our friend Shannon Breem, an amazing woman. She's just the real deal, woman of faith. She hosts their Sunday morning program. Used to be hosted by Chris Wallace. now it's hosted by her. So there's no easy answer. Obviously, frankspeech.com. We're out of time.

Thank you. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes, leading the prices of goods to rise.

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can also ship gold and precious metal safely and securely to your house. Call Legacy at 866-528-1903 or visit them online at LegacyPMinvestments.com. Tell me, Eric, why is relief factor so successful at lowering or eliminating pain? I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal, and I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100% drug-free ingredients, helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. And that right there, approaching from four different angles, may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to relief factors. or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Hey there, folks. Have you heard of Eric Stackleback? Neither have I. Eric Stackleback, who are you?

No, you're my friend, and I can joke around with my friends. You are, in case anybody doesn't know who you are. You're the news director for TBN, and you do so much as the news director for TBN that I I just like to check in with you now and again, especially with regard to the Middle East. So, Eric, let's start there. We just had 9-11, the anniversary, 21 years. And it's a funny thing because suddenly 9-11 seems old. It's like we used to talk about terrorism in the Middle East and radical Islam all the time. And it's like that, we're not talking about that so much anymore.

but the Iran nuclear deal is in danger of being put back on the table by this corrupt Biden regime. Forgive me for being political. What do you think is going on? You know more about this than like almost anybody. So let's talk about that. Eric, thank you. Hey, number one, in terms of the lack of coverage of 9-11, I found it stunning that the 21st anniversary of 9-11, which took place in New York City, of course,

was not even mentioned on the front page of the New York Times. Stunning. That's how far or how low we have gone in the past 21 years. The anniversary of the worst terror attack in U.S. history, which unfolded in New York City, is not even mentioned on the front page of the so-called paper of record, the New York Times. But where have we gone? I think part of it, Eric, is our leadership in the media class, which is predominantly of the left. Needless to say, they want to do. move on. And that's part of the Iran nuclear deal, Eric, which you mentioned and the push for that. The left wants to focus on transforming America from within, focus on the domestic front. Foreign policy

for them, foreign entanglements as they see them. That's a distraction. Look no further than Afghanistan last year. Speaking of 9-11, the regime which harbored al-Qaeda, which attacked us, the Taliban, is now back in power because the Biden administration could not. wait to beat a hasty retreat out of Afghanistan. So the focus, certainly, of this administration is domestically, and in all the wrong ways, domestically, and foreign policy has fallen by the wayside. But the problem is, Eric, the Middle East never sleeps. And what's happening there will profoundly affect all of us, no matter where we live. Well, talk to us about the Iran nuclear deal, because, I mean, most people know that it was a night-mead.

mayor that Obama, I mean, I have to say, if you don't know what to think, and you're just looking at the optics, as they say, it looks like the radical left in America is anti-Semitic, is anti-Israel, at least anti-Israel, and they seem to almost want to help the enemies of Israel. Maybe I'm wrong, but when I look at it, that's what it looks like to me. When you make a deal, like President Obama made and you give $150 billion. It's astonishing. I can't even believe that's true. But it's like, you know, Trump said this is the worst deal in history.

And he, to his amazing credit, undid that deal, ended it. And here we are now, two years into Biden, and he is talking to the mullahs, talking to, he wants to put this back on the thing. How can this be? I mean, what am I missing? Why would somebody want to go back to that? What do they think they're doing? Eric, there is no rhyme or reason to it. The only thing I can think of is that they want to take this off the list of problems. We don't want the Iran menace looming over us constantly. And if we just give them what we want, then they'll go away and they'll play nice. This echoes obviously Neville Chamberlain, Chamberland, Days of Appeasman in the run-up to World War II, the rise of Hitler.

We have a gathering storm, and clearly the leadership, not only in the United States, but the West, wants no parts of it. They just want it to go away, but it's not going to go away. And I have a hard time, Eric, figuring out what exactly the United States gets out of this Iran nuclear deal. As you mentioned, hundreds of billions of dollars into the hands of the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, which, by the way, has blood on its hands, American blood on its hands. Not only that, Eric, when we talk about this deal, Iran's ballistic missile program, which is the largest in the entire Middle East, it's not even on the table. It's not even mentioned in that deal. And lastly, Iran's sponsorship for terror, Hamas, Hezbollah, around the region, also not even mentioned. By the way, last thing, Eric, when we talk about those Iranian ballistic missiles, Iran right now is developing intercontinental, or at least trying to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles. I see. ICBMs, for short, they do exactly what their name says. They're designed to travel across continents, across oceans. Those ICBMs are not for Israel. They're not even for Europe. They're for us. They're for the United States. The country Iran refers to as the Great Satan. It is a very dangerous moment. The Great Satan. That sounds pretty negative to me. What do you think? Iran, I just can't believe it. You know, Eric, before I forget, I said you're the news director for TBN.

But you also host the Watchman newscast where you get into a lot of this stuff. So if people want to hear more from you, they can go to the Watchman newscast. But I guess, you know, when we're talking about Israel and Iran, clearly people of faith, Christians in particular, evangelical Christians, care about Israel, understand that Israel is the only democracy in the moment. Middle East, that they are targeted by Iran and others. We had the Abraham Accords, but Iran really, it seems, unless I'm missing something, would love to wipe Israel off the face of the map. Ladies and gentlemen, think about what we're saying. These are words. Think about this. What happened in the Holocaust, what the Nazis did. Why would we believe has human nature changed to the haters of God and Israel have they just decided, no, we're not going to hate God and Israel anymore?

It's the same thing. And the church today in America is being largely silent on this issue. We know the Democratic Party is helping the enemies of Israel to achieve, whether they realize they're doing it or not, they're helping the enemies of Israel to achieve their goal. I just find it absolutely astonishing that there are people who do not understand that the Biden administration and the Democratic Party is so different than it was, you know, 20, 30 years ago. They have just become really kind of crazy. It's hard to believe that they would be dealing with our enemies in this way. And take it even further back, Eric, to the days of Harry Truman, who was the first to recognize the reborn state of Israel.

Two things here, Eric, when we talk about Iran's intentions. Number one, at the 20th century, the century of Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Saddam taught us anything. It's that when evil men tell you they want to kill you, you should probably listen to them and take them at their word. That's number one. The Iranian regime is announcing what they're going to do. We should take them seriously. And number two, Eric, they are putting policies in place, key point here, to make that a reality. Iran's not just saying this as bluster for domestic consumption. They're actually putting it into place Exhibit A, they are surrounding Israel right now. Israel, which is the size of the state of New

Jersey, is surrounded on all sides right now by Iranian proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, which are armed to the teeth with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles. So they're not only saying they're going to do it and they want to do it. They are putting the pieces in place to accomplish that goal of wiping Israel off the map. We've read the book, so we know that's not going to happen. but not for lack of effort on the part of the Iranian regime. What astonishes me, I think, is how we in America in particular, we've been so spoiled, we've been so blessed that we don't really believe evil exists. We think like, well, that happened in the past.

These things can happen in the past. By the way, it just happened at 9-11, 21 years ago. We got a big wake-up call. Yes, evil exists. There are people who want to kill you and your fathers and mothers and children. You see it. But I think, again, we've been lulled into this sense that, well, it can't happen here. We've moved past that.

And I mean, I write about it in my new book, a letter to the American Church. We have to understand the world hasn't changed. There's evil in this world. And when you talk about regimes dedicated to wiping Israel on. off the face of the map. Folks, why do you think they wouldn't do that if we gave them the opportunity? It seems to me the Democratic Party has been famously naive when it comes to evil, to dealing with the former Soviet Union.

And if you care about people, if you care about strangers, if you care about, you have to care about these things, which is why we talk about news. We don't say that we don't want to get political. We care about truth. We care about people. So I'm going to continue my conversation with our friend Eric Stacklebeck. He's the news director for TBN, and he's the host of the Watchman newscast. This is the Eric Mataxis show.

You can find us at ericmetaxis.com. Please sign up for my newsletter at ericmetaxis.com, and we'll be right back with Eric Stacklebeck. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion, travel, and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies. decided to stop shopping or doing business there, but did you know that you most likely own stock in those companies through your 401ks, IRAs, and other investment accounts? Folks, this is a huge problem, and we need to do something about this to send a message to Wall Street through our investments.

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the movie on demand or buy the DVD on Friday, September 23rd at SalemNow.com. That's Salemnow.com. Salem now.com. Folks, welcome back. We wanted to do another segment with our friend Eric Stacklebeck because we could talk for days actually about all this stuff. But Erica, you're the news director for TBN and you host the

Watchman newscast. What do you see for the future? In other words, from where I sit, unless we elect MAGA candidates, unless we reelect Donald Trump, we don't have anyone in American public life who's willing to stand against these vicious enemies of Israel, of freedom. And that's just talking about the Middle East, but I'm just kind of amazed at this. What do you think it's going to happen, by the way, in the elections coming up in Israel? Do you think Netanyahu will get back in as prime minister? Yeah, a few things here, Eric, number one, in terms of those Israeli elections on November 1st, if you can believe, I believe this is the fourth or fifth election in Israel in the past two and a half years alone. People say, well, Israel's not free. It's not a

democracy, four elections in three years, that's pretty free and pretty open and democratic, in my view. They can't stop having free elections. But Netanyahu seems to be the favorite right now, no doubt, Eric, he obviously in the past was Israel's longest serving prime minister, 15 years in total. He's 70 years old now. And I was part of an evangelical delegation that met with him and off the record meeting back in April in Jerusalem, Eric. And we asked him, why are you doing this again. You're running again. You're 70 years old. Like Trump here in the U.S., the Israeli left, and the Israeli media just pillages Beebe and his family. And he said one word, Iran. He sees himself as a Churchillian figure. And speaking of strong leaders that we could use his sword today,

a guy like Winston Churchill again who saw the gathering storm. But Beebe has seen the gathering storm of Iran for decades now. He's been sounding the alarm. And he again, Churchill is, someone he really admires, and I think he sees himself as a Churchill for our times. That's number one. Number two, we're talking a lot of Middle East today, obviously, of course, Eric, but China and Russia, I've called this the modern day gathering storm. I just hosted a special with that title on TBN. You can check it out at tbn.org. Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, that rogues gallery are coming closer and closer together, Eric. And they're unlikely allies in some ways. North Korea is a Stalinist communist regime, Iran, a radical jihadi regime. But they are coming together nonetheless.

And one major reason is that they smell weakness in Washington, D.C. and in Brussels in the form of the European Union. They see NATO on the down swing. And they are capitalizing on it now. I think, Eric, between now and 2024 is a very dangerous time where Biden is weak, clearly. China, Russia, and the rest, Iran, they smell weakness. Who knows what's going to happen in 2024 by their calculus. Perhaps China said, look, we'll invade Taiwan in 2026. Maybe that was their original plan. Now they may be saying, you know what, let's take advantage now in this period of weakness for America and strike while the iron's hot. And they don't fear any sort of forceful American response. The Afghanistan effect, obviously, was a major point in that regard.

Well, I mean, listen, they'd be crazy not to take advantage of this weakness. This is what evil does. This is why they're suffering in Ukraine today because of Putin, who is brilliant. I mean, a lot of these evil people, they can smell weakness, and they know that. this is the time. Don't wait until Trump is back in. Don't wait. You won't be able to do it then. We have to have leaders who are standing up to evil who understand there is such a thing as evil. I just want to be really clear, folks. This is history. You see this over and over again. You mentioned Eric the appeasement of Neville Chamberlain. When you don't understand evil for what it is, you try to appease it. When you appease it, you're basically helping it to grow. You're basically working with it.

We saw the same thing. When Winston Churchill comes in, he says, no, I'm going to stand strong. And it's always tougher to stand strong. It's always tougher. Reagan with the Soviet's exactly the same thing. They had detente. They told him, don't say, Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall. It's these voices to say, play it safe, just go along.

Don't engage the enemy. Don't fight because we might lose. Instead of saying, we must fight, we must win. We must do everything we can. So you have people like Netanyahu. You have people like Trump. They seem to understand evil is really evil, and we cannot allow it to win. And again, I see right now, listen, there are many in the Republican Party.

I'm not going to mention names, but they believe in doing the safe thing. They have always been there. They were there when Reagan was there telling him, don't do this, don't be a cowboy. boy, it's amazing to me that history repeats itself over and over and over again. What are some of the things before we go at tbn.org? I know people can find you there, but what are the things that you're involved in, Eric Stocklebeck at TBN? Yeah, number one, I mentioned the gathering storm against America.

Eric, I host one hour primetime specials on TVN on a regular basis. You can find them at tbn.org. anchoring daily news updates throughout the day, and also the Watchman TV show is on TBN every Thursday and Friday night, and then the newscast on YouTube, you can check it out at watchmanTV.com. And just one last note here, Eric, and just listening to you, you're so spot on. We live in Bible times. You know, the prophet Isaiah said, woe to those who call good, evil, and evil good. We're in those times right now. God is not all about gray areas like our leadership today. He's very black and white. And unfortunately, we have a morally relativistic leadership right now. And every time someone like a Trump, a Reagan, a Churchill speaks out, they're ridiculed. But hopefully we have

someone like that soon who will step up and stand strong. Amen. Eric Stocklebeck, my friend, thank you so much. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Eric. sale of the year. You've all helped build my pillow into the amazing company it is today. Now Mike Lundell, inventor and CEO wants to give back exclusively to my listeners. That's you. The per kale and Giza Dream bed sheet sets are available in a variety of colors and sizes and they're now all on sale for as low as 2998 with our listener promo code. Order now because when they're gone, they're gone. The perkale and Giza dream sheets are breathable and have a cool, crisp feel. They

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You and the wife, the lovely Anne, and your brother, your twin brother and your twin sister-in-law, you went to England. We were in England. And this is just a few weeks ago before the queen died. A couple weeks before she passed away. And, of course, all eyes are on England now and all these highfalutin places like Buckingham. Palace, the Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey. And Balmoral. That's right.

But wait, no, Balmoral's in Scotland. Sorry about that. That's right. But that was her summer home. My bad. That's where she passed away, I believe. That's right. And the reason why we were able to visit Buckingham Palace, because like I think six to eight

weeks out of the year, she's on at her summer home. She's summering, I guess they say it. Every summer she would go to Balmoral in Scotland. Those months are the only months that you can actually visit Buckingham Palace. and we happened to be there. We actually tromped all through Buckingham Palace. See, I didn't know this because I've never been in Buckingham Palace. It was just exceptional.

Now, we didn't go to the resident area because there are, I forget how many dozens of groups. Are you allowed to? You're not allowed to. They only show you the common areas, but they have the, that were the king and queen, or while she was a queen, he was the consort or whatever they call her. But they had the, like, the throne or the two seats they sit on for concerts and things like that in various places in Buckingham Palace. you know what they look like. They look like first class seats in airplanes. Are you serious? Just big comfy pillows and a big back and all. They just look like a big chair you might have it.

You're done. But you got to see this. We get to see all of this. And then the Tower of London. Now, when you say Tower of London, what you think of maybe torture, that's probably the first thing that comes to mind. But that's where they keep her crown and the jewels, the royal jewelry, right? I've actually seen that. Yeah. And, of course, Anne and I had done, this is before we knew what was going to happen, but Ann and I had to get like a pin cushioned crown. Right. It's also like for an ornament for a tree. It's a Christmas ornament of her crown. That's right. And then, of course, West Westminster Abbey, we were in there. And if you ever watch processions and all that in West St.

St.m. At one point, they kind of all swerve to the right. Yeah. The only place you're not allowed to walk in Westminster Abbey is the tomb of the unknown soldier. No one is allowed to walk on that space, which is about the size of a, you know, a coffin. or something like that. And it's surrounded by flowers, et cetera. But so we were in Westminster Abbey,

where the funeral is, the Tower of London for the Crown Jewels, and Buckingham Palace, her home to run the kingdom. It's so, I mean, it's interesting because recently I've been doing a lot of reading in American history, and I,

Suzanne and I just finished watching the John Adams series that was originally on HBO and now it's on Amazon Prime, whatever, but it's just so interesting. to get the history and to realize, you know, now, of course, we're close allies with England. But when you think back to George III and to the abuses and the tyranny, and it's so fascinating to look back at the history to realize that when we won the war, you know, 1781, 1783, we still didn't know what the future held. So today we think like, well, America's America.

No, you had basically the Spanish and the French and the England and England all had these territories around the 13 colonies, which became the United States. And we didn't know if they would, you know, try to retake it or whatever. And then when then France goes to war with England, we're kind of caught in the middle. And we tried to stay neutral Washington famously kept us out of that way. war and then John Adams keeps us out of it again. But when you think of the amazing history, how we were almost drawn in to that war, and then of course the War of 1812, oh my gosh. I mean, I tell you, the more I read about American history, I just want to encourage you, folks, the more you learn about these things, the clearer you can think about what America is and who

were supposed to be. Now, I saw there's a photo of you when you were in the Westminster Abbey standing in front of William Wilberforce's sculpture. Yes. I've been there a bunch of times. That's an incredible sculpture. Yeah. And he's actually buried when you first come in. Actually, I think you enter Westminster, not at the front where the queen and all those

folks come out. I think you kind of enter the side or the back. Well, there's different ways. I've been there a bunch of times, and it's so huge. It's just so fascinating. In fact, there's a hole in the wall where the bombs fell and it wasn't destroyed during World War II. Westminster Abbey. It wasn't destroyed, but there's a hole where one of the bombs had

an explosion had blown out a wall. I did not know that. Yeah. And they made like a little in that chapel area like a shrine to the various soldiers from America that fought, you know, against the Nazis and against the tyranny. Well, it's so amazing that two of my heroes, Wilberforce, of course, is, there's that photograph of you that you sent us. I mean, he's there. But then in the front of Westminster Abbey, there are a number of martyrs of the 20th century. And one of them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So he is carved there. It's actually kind of amazing.

I love England so much. Suzanne and I are such anglofiles because her dad was Italian. Her mom was English, Scottish. And so we went there on our honeymoon. We went to England. And we, oh, my gosh. And we've been back so many times for these Oxford and Kansas. Cambridge would have these CS Lewis conferences. So we really just love being there. And we haven't

been there in a while, especially with COVID and different things. And his heritage is Scotland, Scottish and Irish. So that's why our wives are so beautiful. That's why. That's it. No, but it honestly, it is so wonderful to learn to learn the history. And I mean, and speaking of the John Adams series, it has flaws, but it is, it's quite good. It is quite good. It's based on the David McCullough book. Yeah, that's good because, you know, I didn't see it at first because I thought, okay, how are they going to twist history now? They didn't hissed it.

Well, this is 2008. That's what's so funny is it's weirdly patriotic in a way that it wouldn't be if it was made today. So it's kind of interesting, actually. And also, you know, we never allowed HBO into our home. But now that it's available in other ways, we were willing to watch it. And I'm just, I was just curious how they treated it. And it really was, it was quite well done.

as I say, it was not perfect, but I could at least recommend it. There's a lot of stuff out there that I would say, well, I wouldn't really recommend that. But it really was, it was quite well done. Well, Almond, I'm glad you came back from England because we need you here. Oh, yeah. But it's just so fascinating right now with the funeral and everything. Yeah, and I've never been to England before. I absolutely loved London, too.

But England, the whole continent, terrific. Wouldn't it be fun to do this show from England? Oh, I love it. How can we make that happen? I don't think we can. All right, we'll be right back. What a busy day. We're at the end here, folks.

I just want to say a couple things before we go. First of all, in hour one, I talked to our friend Charles Thorngrenate Legacy Precious Metals. I want to remind people, I'm going to do this. Go to LegacyPM Investments.com and turn your, you know, wherever you are, you've got, you know, IRAs or whatever. Who knows what you're supporting by gold. I'm going to do this. LegacyPM Investments.com. After that, we talked to Ben Carson, which is a reminder again. Go to SalemNow.com.

Please watch the film Uncle Tom 2, please, because Ben Carson is in that. We spoke about that. But it's really vital that we educate ourselves and our kids about the truth of American history. If you're at SalemNow.com, there's also a new, film starring Dean Cain. You remember him probably from Superman, but Dean Cain, Sean Young, we're going to have him on this program, I think, next week. Yeah, either next week or the very next week, but coming up real soon, folks. Actually, let me, in case anybody wants to know what the film is, this is the film called No Vacancy, starring Dean C. Staling's and Sean Young.

It's based on the true story of First Baptist Church in Leesburg, Virginia, and a real place called the Samaritan Inn. The basic, you know, plot is it says a demoted journalist finds her cynicism being, cynicism being slowly transformed when she befriends a recovering addict. And at the time she's working on a story about a church struggling to purchase a motel for homeless families. Now, this is what, you know, when people tell you, my Christian, Christian, don't do anything. Christians around this country, let me tell you, you're just not going to read about it in the papers, but they put their faith where, they put their action where their faith is, they live out their faith in so many cases. And in inventive ways sometimes, too, like this film. So you have to go to SalemNow.com to check that out. SalemNow.com. No vacancy. Right. Okay.

And so I should say now, tomorrow, we've done this. in the past, but we haven't done it in a while. Every now and again, I thought on Fridays, I like to air a classic Socrates in the City event to introduce you to what those have been over the years. Now, I don't know how many years ago it was maybe eight years ago, nine years ago. I went to Oxford, England with my daughter, and we filmed, I think, eight Socrates in the City events. You can see them all when you go to Socratesandecity.com. You can watch them. They were beautifully filmed. But the main reason I went, and this is what we're going to air tomorrow, Walter Hooper, the secretary for C.S. Lewis in the last year of his life, who was used

dramatically to put C.S. Lewis on the map, because when C.S. Lewis died in 1963 on the same day that Kennedy was assassinated, in a way his stuff was kind of on the wane. And Walter Hooper, who just passed away this last year, I was able to interview him. We did three interviews with him. He was one of the most magnificent Socrates interviews I have ever done. I promise you, this man knew Lewis. He knew the details. He knew. It's so amazing. And I said, I have to go to England just to see if he'll let me interview him. And he did. We did it three mornings in a row. Tomorrow we're going to play the first conversation. So it's an 80-minute classic Socrates conversation.

If you like it, you can go to Socratesin the city.com and you can watch the second and third conversations. You will get an education on C.S. Lewis and it'll introduce you to Socrates and City. But we're playing that on this program tomorrow. And I think we're at a time. Please don't forget to go to mystore.com and mypillow.com support Mike Lindell by using the code Eric. Please, folks. Thank you.