The Eric Metaxas Show - John Cooper (Encore)

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

Wimpy, Weak, & Woke: How truth can save America from utopian destruction. More at: https://stores.kotisdesign.com/cooper-stuff/new

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

Tune in and then move on to item number eight, skydiving with Chuck Schumer and AOC. Here now is Mr. Completed Mind. bucket list at age 12, Eric Matt, Texas. Welcome, hour two. I'm talking to Kyle Rittenhouse. Brand new book out tells the story of his life what he's been through. The title of the book is acquitted. So, Kyle, you know, somebody my age looks at somebody your age. You're not even 21. And you, you've been through so much. The stress of that trial. Again, it breaks my heart that you had to go through that. And I know God was with you. And I'm thrilled that you were acquitted. And but I have to kind of wonder, what are you thinking about doing with your life, having lived through this in America? Well, I am currently working a 9 to 5 job.

I go to work in the morning. Today I'm off, but I go to work. I go home. I spend time with my dog. I'm just trying to live as normal as a life as possible. Sometimes that gets difficult, getting recognized when I got out into public. It's very hard to go out to eat. But right now I'm just trying to just get through what I'm going through right now.

I'm being sued by the three people who attacked me in the Eastern District, Wisconsin, federal courthouse in Milwaukee. I'm being sued. So I'm fighting these civil lawsuits and just working on winning this battle as well, winning these next three trials. Again, I'm very sorry you have to go through this, but there is, this is, God lets us go through things sometimes so that we will learn to lean on him in the midst of the battle.

He wants us to lean on him to turn to him, and to know that all things are in his hands if we will put them in his hands. And so your future with regard to all of this stuff. And one of my favorite scripture verses is Romans 828. All things work together for good. Even the worst thing, trials, whatever it is, imprisonment. All things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. And when you're going through a tough time, I want to tell people, folks, that is the Word of God.

You could take that to the bank and then some because God wants us to have peace in the midst of these difficult things. Trials, whether literal or metaphorical, he wants us to have peace in the midst of it, to look to him in the midst of it. And I just want to say that to you because nobody your age should have to go through this. But God is with you in the midst of it. And I just hope that you will avail yourself of his presence in the midst of it because there's no other way to fly. Life is tough.

And when I hear your story, I just think, wow, the only answer to this is turning to God. Absolutely. Absolutely. I know God protects me and I know God continues to protect me. I put my faith into him. And I know he's looking out for me when I go out into public. And there's times where I worry, but then I realize whatever's going to happen, it's God's will. I know where I'm going.

He's going to keep me safe. He's going to keep me protected. Ed. I, you know, I'm just amazed again at your age that you lived through all of this. And you had to endure just the harsh attacks in the media, the nastiness. It shouldn't happen to anybody, much less a young man who was trying to do good. And I guess, you know, it's just, it's hard for most people to appreciate it, which is why I'm so glad you wrote this book. Because frankly, Kyle, your battle is our battle.

We're all in this, in this country right now. We've all got to step up and to do what is right and to stand with those who are being attacked. It's one of the reasons it's a privilege to have you on this program to get your story out so that people understand what really happened and understand exactly how it went down so that they don't believe what they heard, but they actually know. And so the book is titled acquitted. And again, folks, you can get signed copy. at writtenhousebook.com. I assume it will be available at other places eventually, but the book is titled Acquitted.

And who persuaded you to write this book? Was it your idea or did somebody say, hey, you need to do this? There are so many false narratives about my story. There are so many media personalities who got it wrong, like MSNBC, CNN, and a bunch of others, the fake news media. And I just wanted to set the story straight.

to where people can sit down, they can take the time, and they can read it. And I'm hoping that they'll give people an understanding of who I really am. I'm hoping that people don't look at me as this entitled rich kid growing up that a lot of the people say I was. Because the truth is, I was this poor kid who grew up in government subsidized housing with a drug addict dad. I didn't have it the easiest growing up. but I'm working on being a better person today from my life experiences growing up. I don't have many life experiences, but the ones I do have, I know that I want to have a better life for my future. And I just want to tell my story.

I want to tell the truth in my story. And I want to share what it was like for me to grow up and just put everything out there what my life was like. And how far does the book go through your trial? The book covers my childhood. It covers my trial. It covers my family life. And it covers now. And so the trial, how long did the trial go on?

Too long. Three weeks. Yeah. The trial went on for three weeks. The jury deliberated for, I want to say it was over four days. And those were the longest four days in my life. Yeah. Well, again, the.

title of the book says it all. It's acquitted. I'm just so grateful to God that you were acquitted because we know that we're living in hard times. We're living in times where the news media don't tell the truth, where there are a lot of judges and juries that are not doing their job. And we need to get America back to where your average citizen is more like Kyle Rittenhouse than not, where we understand we all have a duty in preserving freedom and preserving order. in our communities. And so I'm just so grateful that you have been willing to step up in the way that you can, that you have Kyle as a model for a lot of young people, really, who, you know, they don't know what's going on. They're kind of blowing with the wind. I'm glad somebody gave you a policeman's uniform when you were

six or seven years old or whatever it was that it sort of inspired you to understand that we need people to protect us from evil. in this world, it's not just a pine the sky, kind of an idea. Are you going to be traveling around and speaking about the book, or are you going to mostly be staying at home during this season of the book launch? If I get any offers to go and speak about the book, I will take it. Right now, I don't have any speaking engagement scheduled yet. I'm in the works of some speaking engagements come January, February timeframe, but I don't know how they're looking yet, but potentially speaking about the book.

Well, I think you should prepare your stump speech because I think there are going to be a lot of people inviting you. They want to hear your story. It's an important story in America right now, and you didn't ask for this, but it came to you, and you responded heroically in every way. And, you know, I think there are a lot of people that were praying for you during the trial. and that's vital. And so again, I want to say, you know, thank you for what you've done. And I know there are people who listen to this program who will pray for you and for your future. Ladies and gentlemen, the book is acquitted.

It's by Kyle Rittenhouse. You can find it at writtenhousebook.com. Kyle, thank you. Thank you for having me, Eric. Thank you for giving me this platform to talk about my book. It's a privilege. And folks, I want to remind you, you can find you. find out about CSI at metaxistock.com. I want to keep reminding you so that everybody gets a chance

to go there. We're talking about literally freeing slaves during Christmas season. This is the meaning of Christmas. Jesus came to earth to free the captives. And we who claim to believe in him, we need to live out our faith. I want to ask you, go to metaxisotototot.com. You will see there the banner for CSI. This is an amazing thing to get your family. involved in your kids, your church. It's just, I can't think of a better cause, folks. So let me recommend that to you. It's at metaxis talk.com. God bless you. Folks, right now in other parts of the world, people's lives are being threatened simply for believing in Jesus. People have been enslaved for their faith. So listeners to this show know that I'm passionate about the work

of Christian Solidarity International because they protect and free those who are being persecuted and enslaved for their Christian faith. I've got to thank you for your life-changing generosity for years now. If you've given a CSI through this program, you have played a role in freeing literally thousands of captives. So as we near the end of this year, can I ask you to give once again your gift of just $250 will free a woman in Sudan who has been enslaved for years?

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small or large, with a few clicks, visit legacy pminvestments.com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool they've added. LegacyPMinvestments.com. Legacy pm. Investments.com. Check it out. Folks, welcome back as promised in the studio, my friend John Cooper. John, welcome. Hey, it's good to be back and be here in person. I can't believe you're in person. You're wearing your rock outfit. It's like the leather jacket, the tattoos. I know that's not you.

I know those tattoos wash off. With brown soap, folks, with brown soap. If you want to get tattoos off, people don't realize brown soap will take them off. Look, you and I have gotten to know each other, and you're a patriot, and you've written a book called Wimpy, weak, and woke, how truth can save America from utopian destruction. Why did John Cooper, the rock star, with Skillet, decide to write a book? Man, I tell you what, we are at the brink. I think we are at the brink. Nobody knows that better than you.

And if you allow me one very small time of brown-nosing, I love what you do, you know, that I think you do a great job. And I'm glad we're in the fun together. This is my show. I allow you way more than that. You have more than more than, yeah. Whatever you, whatever you. Lots of brown-nosing. But yeah, I mean, we really are at the brink.

I think that a lot of Christians in particular, it's not written just for Christians, but I think a lot of Christians really don't believe that. I think they still don't think things are as bad as they are. And I wanted to write a book for the everyday person. It's not an academic to say, you don't understand these ideas from Marx, from the neo-Marxists, from Freud, from Wilhelm Reich,

and the sexual revolution. You don't understand how evil they are and how absolutely destructive of America, Western civilization, and Christianity they are. I don't think, I think there are a lot of Christians, and I have a new book coming out like in April called Religinalist Christianity.

And probably, yeah, that's, it's a Bonhofer phrase. But the reason I bring it up is that part of what I see happening, and it's just what you said, I think a lot of Christians today are mostly religious in the negative sense, and they do not understand Jesus died to save us from satanic evil. He didn't die to make your life a little better, to make your marriage a little better. There is evil in the world, and we've been so blessed that we kind of think, like, well, there's not real evil, evil. And what you write about in this book and what is happening in America, the Lord is allowing us to see actual evil to wake us up. Yes.

And so what you just said reminds me in a way that, yeah, there are a lot of people that they don't want to buy that. They want to think, well, if I'm just nice, or if I'm, they don't understand what you're dealing with. If you're dealing with people that are really, really evil or have been taken over by evil ideologies. And you need to, you need to be awake to that. Yeah, I think one of the things that happen is that we have taken for granted Western civilization as if it's like justice as a given. People being nice as a given. People not wanting to murder you. Of course, everybody agrees with that.

But that's not actually true, as we're seeing right now what's happening in the Middle East. It's not actually the case that people are just kind of good nature. And so I think that we have seen Jesus as a sort of, as you said, as a therapeutic, like Jesus is going to make me feel better about myself. He's going to help me get along with my life. I'm having a bad day, but Jesus will help. By the way, if you go into the airport and you see those inspiration racks, they're loaded with those books. It's like all about you, all about how Jesus can help you deal with. stress or whatever. And you think, it's a little bigger than that.

It's sort of like, to kill your family, it's not about stress, you know. Yeah, it's sort of like a self-help, but a Jesus version. So, you know, we have self-help, let's have the Jesus version. We have psychology, but let's have the Jesus version. Yeah. I think one of the things I really wanted to get across in the book is for the people that say things like, Eric, don't talk about Marxism so much. It's not about politics. We're about the gospel. What they don't understand is that these things, are rival religions. They are the end of all things,

and they want to absolutely destroy Christ, and any reflection of Christ, I mean, and Marx says that, I just wish that Christians would read literally a paragraph of Karl Marx and find out how much he hated God, and he'd want to destroy the image of Christ in any institution, including marriage,

and so when you stand up against that kind of evil, you are standing on the side of the light. That is a part of our faith. Well, that's, again, part of, to me, that's the Romans 828. The good news is that all of the horrors we're seeing is God's mercy to wake up the church. Yes. That all these things work together for good. All these horrible things are having the good effect of waking up those who can be awakened.

Some don't want to wake up. But what you're talking about, you know, I just get the impression a lot of Christians would say to Elijah, don't talk about bail so much. You know, like just, just focus on the good stuff, you know. And it, there's, that's not biblical. It's not biblical at all. When you're dealing with a satanic enemy, you have to be aware of it. And you have to understand what is happening and they're trying to destroy your faith.

They're not just nice, unsaved people. They're trying to wipe out your ability to talk about Jesus. Yes. I would say that the, the philosophy, that are ruling our day, all the way from Marx through Freud. You've got the neo-Marxist, of course, Mark Hughes, and you have the postmoderns, Foucault. You have all these people. The thing they all have in common is this. They are all atheists, and they all believed that Christianity is the biggest thing oppressing the world. It's the number one thing that's got to go. All of them

say it. They're not shy about it. But I think Christians, we just don't believe people when they say what they want. It's like, it's like sort of like the people this week that went, why is there kids on TikTok saying that maybe Osama bin Laden had a point? Maybe he was okay. I feel bad for him. It's like, it's like, why don't you believe that these people mean what they say? Well, by the way, let's be clear. Osama bin Laden said many things that were true. Adolf Hitler said many things that were true. Joseph Stalin said many things that were true. Satan quoted scripture. in the world just because you say some things that are true, they're using that as leverage for the big lie, for the big satanic lie. And so you have somebody like Osama bin Laden, like he criticized the West.

He was right on many of the stuff that he said. His solution was from the pit of hell. Absolutely. There you go. There's a chapter in my book. You'll like it. It's called empathy. One commandment to rule them all.

Wow. And the idea is sort of like, we have been so. captured by this idea of empathy that we go, well, Osama bin Laden, I mean, he had a bunch of good points to make him. We need to recognize he had good points. It's like, no, sometimes you need to lay down a line and say, it doesn't matter if I can quote unquote understand where he's coming from. I was arguing with a pastor, a friend of mine, who I love. And we're arguing about this critical race there. There was a church he was working with. And I kept saying, this church is saying racist stuff. You can't do it. And he said, yeah, but.

but you've got to understand, I can see where they're coming from. And I said to him, what you just said, I said, I said, brother, I can kind of see where Hitler's coming from. I can see where the devil's coming from. I can see where the devil's coming from. And it doesn't mean that I'm going to go along with him. Yeah. You have to tell some truths to sell a lie. There's no such thing as a pure lie, right? So they basically play on our Christian and American empathy. We care about the downtrod. And we care. All of that is Christian. And they. take that and they do the satanic inversion of it. And that's exactly what we're talking about.

And a lot of Christians are taken in by it. Yeah. They're taken in. They go, oh, it's about caring for the downtrodden. Yeah. Caring for the downtrodden, the way God tells you to do it, not the way the devil tells he do it. Because guess what? He actually doesn't care about the downtrodden. He's just blown smoke. And he did Marks. So I hear this lot of people are like, yeah, but Marks actually got some things right because he cared for the poor. And you say, no, he didn't. He hated the poor. He really hated them. He hated everybody, to be fair. But you just said, that's what I mean when I say weak.

But wimpy, weak and woke. The weak part is the we are not understanding the philosophy. We're weak intellectually to understand these philosophies might sound good to you because they've been packaged a certain way. But we've got to wake up. We've got to get a little bit stronger, get some grit. Well, a lot of people know you obviously is the front man for skillet, but they don't know the intellectual side of you that I've gotten to know,

very impressive, patriotic and intellectually robust. You have a podcast. How can people find your podcast? Because you're just doing great stuff. Well, thanks. Cooper Stuff Podcast. It's on every- Cooper Stuff?

Cooper Stuff Podcast. And you can get my book at John L.Cooper.com. Unfortunately, at the moment, it's the only place to get it. You can get the Kindle on Amazon. So JohnL.Cooper.com is where you want to go. Cooper's Up Podcast is on pretty much wherever you find them. Cooper's Stuff. podcast. I've been on your podcast. I think twice. But you

talk about really important stuff. We're talking about it right now. And I think that there are some that are waking up and there's some that they don't get it yet. They're still buying this lie. They're still buying. It's like there's enough truth that they kind of get sucked in emotionally, usually younger people, because I remember when I was in college, I got sucked in to this, a lot of this thinking. Yes. You know, one of the things I would probably mention about it is this, when I say how we can save America, from utopian destruction, it's because young people are really suckered into the idea of utopia.

Because we all go, man, I'd love to live in the perfect world where nobody's hungry ever. Yeah, there's no homeless people. Give piece of chance. Get rid of your guns and give piece of chance. Get rid of your guns and give piece of chance. And when they cut your throat, you'll say, oh, maybe we made a mistake. This is real, folks.

I'm talking to John Cooper. John L. Cooper.com. Check it out, johnelcooper.com. We'll be right back. why relief factor is so successful at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question just the other night. I was asked that question. Well, 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. And the doctors who formulated relief factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100% drug-free ingredients. And each one of them

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Go to MyPillow.com right now. Click on the radio podcast specials to receive this amazing offer of only 2998 on the six-piece set from MyPillow towels. Just go to MyPillow.com. Click on the radio podcast specials and enter promo code Eric or call 800-978-378-3057. That's MyPillow.com promo code Eric. Mypillow.com promo code Eric or call 800-978 305. I use these towels. They work. I promise you. Welcome back. I'm talking to John Cooper. John L. Cooper, who is the frontman for Skillet, the rock band, and has a podcast, Cooperstuffpodcast.com.

We're talking about some really important stuff. And you, I would assume, because of your music, you're reaching a lot of young people to try to help them to understand where they're getting this. wrong because we were just talking about this idea that, you know, when when people say, just give peace of chance, who doesn't want to give peace of chance? I mean, that's just silly to me. Like, of course you want to give peace of chance. But if somebody's coming for your family with a gun, you've got to deal with that. If somebody is ultimately wanting to destroy you and your way of life, you need to be aware of that. And I think that they're people that they're so blessed that they haven't been forced to see evil. They haven't been forced to see some what you're talking about. I mean, I want to talk to you about everything. So where do we go from here? Because you say,

like, first of all, let's talk about utopia. Utopia, we all say, oh, I want utopia. But it's kind of like wanting heaven without the cross. You don't get the resurrection without the cross. You have to be realistic. We're living in a world of sin. Yes. And just to say like give up your guns and love on people, that's naive. That's not biblical. Yeah, I think that's the idea of utopia. And why young people are so, they're just so drawn towards it, which we understand we all want, I want the best for people. I don't want people hungry. I don't want people suffering and this and the other. I think what it is is that we, we are so weak intellectually. We've had it so good. We just don't believe that anybody would think

these evil things. And now all of a sudden people are going, wait a minute, 51% of Americans age 18 to 24 are pro Hamas. They think Hamas was justified. Now this is the most tolerant generation of all history saying,

well, yeah, but what other choice do they have? You've got to go rape women and butcher babies. You've got to gouge people's eyes out. Yeah. You've got to cut women's breasts off, right? It sounds like what Hamas did. is so demonic that I don't even want to talk about it on this program.

It is so evil. And the only thing that can account for young people in America saying this stuff is ignorance. Ignorance. They do not believe that what Hamas did was satanic, evil, cruel, sadistic. We're not talking about taking somebody out with a gun, folks, which would be murder. We're talking about really wanton, cruelty, and evil. and what are people saying, John? A lot of them are saying exactly what the Nazis said.

Oh, it's Jewish propaganda. Never happened. It didn't happen. It's just Jewish propaganda. Well, I wish it were. I really wish it were. But it's not. Yeah.

And I think that I think what we're dealing with and what I writes about so extensively in the book is for people to understand that wokeness is a totalizing worldview in opposition to the Western worldview, to the Christian worldview. And it is so, You know, the academics, what they call it. They call it a grand narrative, right? You always hear that in post-monters. It's a grand narrative. And what they mean is it's a story of the world that tells you everything. Christianity. We have a grand narrative. There's a God who made a world. He tells us how we are supposed to live in it. He tells us who we are. The grand narrative of wokenness is power. Oppressers and oppress people. And the only thing that we're supposed to do is fight for the quote unquote oppressed. So therefore, anything you do that, is for the victim is moral. If that means gouging eyes out and doing the most heinous demonic things

we've ever heard of, you're still fighting for the victim. So you're looked at as the moral, the moral person. So you've got 51% of 18 to 24-year-olds thinking, we are the good people in this story. We are the moral people. Now you've got these kids on TikTok. They're not even kids. They're young adults saying, Osama bin Laden was actually the victim. And now we're going to be the good people by being on his side. wokeness is a totalizing worldview and it encompasses everything. That's the reason that the unborn child, the unwanted unborn child, is victimizing the mother. We as a population are victimizing the earth. That's where the environmentalism is something.

Everything is about this totalizing vision. Okay, so let's be clear. This is Marxism, folks. If you want to know when we say Marxism or cultural Marxism, that is the lie at the heart of Marxism and cultural Marxism. It divides the world into oppressed and oppressors. And as with every lie, there's just enough truth in it to suck people in. But notice how it cannibalizes Christianity. Why would you care about oppressed people? Oh, I'm a good person. That's basically that comes out of the Bible. In history, people never cared about the powerless.

They cared about getting power. So the Christian faith coming into the West gave us all this idea that, oh, we should care about those out of power. We should care about those who are suffering. We should care about the hungry. Yes, that comes from the scripture. But then they take it and they do what I called a satanic inversion and they make it work against God's purposes. And that's what you write about. In the book, I want to say, the title of the book is Wimpy, weak, and woke. And again, they talk about utopia as though we could just have utopia. There's no evil in the world. That's not a biblical idea at all. There's evil. And that's why I say, I've had people say, utopian destruction, because that's the subtitle,

how truth can save America from utopian destruction. They say, utopian destruction, what does that mean? Because there's never been utopia. Every time they try it, it ends in dystopia. That's what they tried in Germany, Nazi Germany. It's always going to be an inversion, and you get people, for instance, shout your abortion. That's a great example. They're excited about it.

We should be happy that we're killing children in the womb, because, this is what justice is, everything is always going to be the inversion of the biblical idea. Now, biblical morality, God says this is right, this is wrong, and it's always going to be so. We're going to go to a break. Go to John L. Cooper.com. John L. Cooper.com. The podcast is Cooperstuffpodcast.com. 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. You've decided to stop shopping or doing business there,

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How Truth Can Save America from Utopian Destruction. John, you talk about how these bad ideas, these are satanic ideas, atheistic ideas, how they have entered the church and how many pastors, I talk about this all the time, many pastors have opened the door to these bad ideas and said, oh, there's, you know, you have a point. A lot of people know I work for Veggie Tales. And Phil Visher, who created Veggie Tales, who was a friend for many years. He got on this bandwagon about white oppressor or white nationalism or really about systemic racism. And he put out this video. And there's a lot of truth in the video. But the larger idea is, to my mind, mistaken. And a lot of Christian leaders have opened the door to these things.

They don't seem to see where it goes. Yes. I think that's to do with the grand narrative that we're talking about because they are both totalizing worldviews. So the kingdom of God is a totalizing kingdom. So God is going to tell us what is right and wrong. He's going to tell us the way we're wokeness does the same thing. Social justice, secular social justice or critical social justice, wherever you want to call it. Does the exact same thing.

And I think what you have was a lot of probably good-hearted Christians, I'm assuming, good-hearted pastors, who want to reach people and they want to say, I also care about race. I also care about this. And so they began to let some of it seep in. And it cannibalized Christianity because they actually are different. They're coming from a different place. And I think the thing that's tough is that they don't come from static morality. So the Bible gives us static morality. The law of God is perfect, reviving the soul. That's what the Bible says. God's way is right. The morality of wokeness is always changing. And it's changing with the fads. And you've got to keep up with the trends.

That's one of the ways you know it's satanic folks, is that ultimately there's no, you just said it, static morality. They're basically willing, it's like dealing with a person who keeps changing their story. And you say, wait a minute, something's wrong. Yes. Because I'm agreeing with what you're saying, but you're changing your story, you're moving the goalposts. You don't. And then what you realize is that their goal is power. They will say whatever they need to say to get you to come along with them because they're trying to get power.

They will never say, yes, we've made racial progress in America. Yes, we abolished slavery. Yes, we abolished Jim Crow. Yes, we elected a black president. They will never say we've done anything good. It's always not enough. Yes. Not enough.

Not enough. And there's something very sick about that. Like if you have a kid who you're trying to help him along, but it's never good enough. And the parent keeps telling him you're no good. It's not good enough. It's not good enough. cursing them. It's like these voices have been cursing America and cursing the West for all the good that has been done, never celebrating that good, always saying it's not enough, it's not enough. Well, this kind of shows you that it's not really a good faith exercise that's happening. This is not in good faith.

And they're ideologues and they're activists, so they know where they want to go. And they will use any argument. In fact, Foucault even says this, he's the postmodern philosopher. He even says, we use different. lines of attack, even contradictory line. We don't, we don't care if it's true because there is no truth of both modernism. They don't believe in truth. They don't believe in truth. So they use any argument. If that doesn't work, then they jump to the next argument. And so in the book, I talked about that. I talked about Hegel a bit, who's a really confusing philosopher. But really what we're dealing with now is a world where they are trying to make all opposite things synthesize into this kind of like fake oneness. You know, it's a fake version of. It's a fake version of Christianity. And that's why everything is the opposite. And they don't mind, for instance, they'll say

America is patriarchal, we abuse women. What is a woman? We can't define a woman. A man can be a woman. There's no such thing, but also you're oppressing them. It's like everything is opposite, but they don't actually care because they just want to create utopia. Well, yeah, they just say they want to create, but what they really want to create is they are in power and you're not, whatever they need to do. You talk, I mean, there's so much to get into. The book is wimpy, weak, and woke. You talk about a philosopher. A lot of people aren't familiar with magic, alchemy. Talk about that. Yeah, I think what, all right, so Marx was a group in a college group called the Young Higalians. It was like a club of him and his friends that idolize this philosopher, Hegel, who's a German philosopher.

And Hegel is the one that created this, the dialectic we hear, thesis, antithesis, and antithesis, synthesis. And what a lot of people don't know is that this idea actually comes from alchemy. It was very mystical, and it was the idea that you can take an element, you take another element, and you meld them together, but neither one is ever burned up. They both burned together, but they both coexist. And so Hegel said, nothing is false in its own. Everything is part of the truth. It's just evolving, just like God is evolving, because he was a mystic. So God is evolving, truth is evolving, nothing is false on its own, and that's where we get, for instance, critical race theory says it's anti-racistialism, but also it's race essentialists, right? Critical race theory basically.

The most important thing about you is your skin color, it defines your outcomes, but also there's no such thing as race. So they put all of these things together and they try to make it synthesize. It's the same reason we have queers for Palestine. Queers could never go live in Palestine. They'd be put to death. Well, why are they standing up for this? Because they believe, as long as you're in this oppressor, you get it,

saying we're fighting for the victim eventually, it's all going to unfold into the perfect world. It's going to be hell on earth once they get what they want. Don't fall for it, ladies and gentlemen. Well, no, it is, it is so important that people understand this so they can deal with it. First of all, what you just said, what the goal is ultimately when you're talking about critical theory, critical race theory,

when you're talking about all these things, ultimately, or I should say one of the ultimate goals is to confuse you enough so that you just go along with it. Yes. It will never make sense. So their goal is just to get you to shut up. They'll throw whatever they can at you because they don't want you to understand it because you can't understand it. Yes.

And if you understand it, you're going to realize, you're going to see through it. it. You're going to say, excuse me, this doesn't make sense. A man cannot become a woman. And by the way, what is a woman? You can't tell me what a woman is. So if you can't tell me what a woman is, how can a man become a woman? How can a woman become a man? If it sounds confusing, it's because it is utterly confusing, and that is their goal, is to confuse you enough that you just shut up and you go along with it. And many in the church, they just go, well, I don't need to understand it. I'm just going to go along with it. My heart's in the right place. I just want to love on people. That is not called being wise as serpents, which is what Jesus commanded us to be. We'll be right back talking to John L. Cooper.

The whining and dying and the menu is blood, sweat and tears. Everybody ready. Hey, folks, talking to John Cooper. Frontman for the band Skillet. Why do I call you front man? I don't know why. Because you're described that way. You're the front man for the band called Skillet. When did you come to faith, John? I was a kid. My parents were Christians. My mom was a fanatical Christian.

Talked me about the Bible ever since. I don't remember a day where my mom was not reading the Bible and explaining it to me. Man, that's crazy. No, seriously, that's pretty cool. And then you go into rock music and you have been faithful as a Christian. But at what point did you start? waking up politically and realize I need to speak out that we're in trouble as a nation, and I need to use my voice because you've been doing that.

Yeah, I would say that was more in the, once we started seeing all this social justice stuff happened, 2013, 14, the rise of BLM, some of my fellow Christian musicians, they're friends of mine, were saying what I thought were extremely bizarre, leftist things on their social media. Christian music has never been known for being political. all of a sudden Christian music is very political and it's all leftist. And I was like, I don't even know what this stuff means. I've never heard of this. And I had to start looking into it.

And I became convinced around 2016 that this was really a godless move. This is where I started understanding. They're trying to tear down America, but they also, that is tied to tearing down Christianity ultimately. Oh, yeah. It's the thing. And a lot of Christian pastors don't want to say that because they think it sounds. idolatrous as if what I mean is in the mind of God, America and Christianity are tied together. That's not what I mean. In the mind of the secular left, they are tied together to tear one down

as to tear the other. So 2020 is when I said, I believe we're on the brink of losing this country. It's evil. What is happening? I live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which got burned to the ground by BLM. Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people, three blocks from my house. I began to speak up, and the pushback from Christians was outrageous. And that's when I said, I can't, I just can't be silent. And maybe God can use some dumb rock star like me for people that don't listen to intellectuals and preachers and theologians. Maybe they'll listen to me. I'll do my little part.

Well, it is heartbreaking. I mean, it happened to you. It happened to me. I had my friend Keith Junta on here the other day. You know, you're trying to speak about things. And when Christians don't understand and then they attack you, earlier I mentioned Phil Vischer, these are like good people who have a different view,

but then they come after you like you're saying wicked things. You don't understand it. And the divide in the church is, it's kind of mind-blowing, how there's been this bizarre divide in the church. And my prayer is that some of these people who got some of this stuff wrong that they would wake up, that they would eventually see, well, okay, maybe I was wrong on that. Maybe I was wrong on that.

Because the fruit is not good fruit. We're not seeing good fruit. No, isn't it unbelievable that activists and utopians never learn from their mistakes. No amount of bad fruit seems to be able to weigh people up to go, maybe we shouldn't have had schools closed down during COVID. Like they just had this stuff come out like two years later, two years after we all knew this, yeah, you shouldn't have closed these school downs and it hurt the poor

more than it hurt the rich. It hurt the people of color, more than the white people. We all said this and we were canceled for saying it. No amount of bad fruit. 29% rise in homicides in America since 2019. The BLM movement has done

nothing but terrible things for people of color in this country. But the people that support it will never apologize and the Phil Vishers of the world will never say, sorry I attacked you. I was wrong. I hope he would. Well, he knows you. I don't know so.

Well, I mean, listen, it's heartbreaking to me. It is heartbreaking to me. They were accusing me of spreading lies and disinformation. It's like, believe me, folks, I would not do that. I'm a Christian. I get the idea that we're supposed to speak the truth. But we're living in weird times. Hey, when we come back in hour two, we're going to get the, how do we fix

this? John L. Cooper.com.