The Eric Metaxas Show - John Rankin

Episode Date: July 7, 2020

Candidate and Reverend John Rankin explains why the time is right for him to run for Congress, and Eric provides comments on his platform and suggests a change to his intriguing campaign slogan.

It's the show that Mark Twain once called Smartern, a Blue Jay, what can talk possum, and faster than naked fat man riding a bolt of lightning. So here's your plain spoken homespun host, Eric Mataxis. Folks, I'm talking to Nick Baz Baines. The book is a biography of, as you know, probably one of my favorite writers, Longfellow. The book is called Cross of Snow. Nick, in reading this book, there's so much that came to me that was. new, that was unknown. One of the things that I think is remarkable in the basic sense of the

word remarkable is that Longfellow and Fannie, his wife, lived at a time when to have a basic Christian faith was significant. And you see that in just a few lines, you don't go into it, but there are a number of things that each of them says, and that certainly Julia Ward Howe says that some of their contemporaries, they really had a deep and a strong faith. And I'm just guessing from what a little I read on this subject, that that had to be one of the ways that Longfellow was able to get through the tragic death of his amazing, wonderful wife.

I just wrote, and it should be published shortly, a Peace for Humanities magazine. And it was, I was inspired by what we're going through now with the pandemic and this fear of contagion and death that we have, so many people have. And how the Longfellow's dealt with this same sort of thing in the 19th century, it was a commonplace.

And so not only you're quite perceptive and you're quite correct in your evaluation of how Henry dealt with this, but Fannie was the same. when they met, you know, when they first met in 1836, she was traveling through Europe in Switzerland with her family. And the reason that they left is because her 20-year-old brother had just died of consumption.

And this was two years after their mother had died of consumption. And she has a journal, which we call the spiritual journal. And you read her letters to her. She writes, so they're almost prayers to her, mother. There's none of this whining and complaining and woe is me. What, what, what, why, why, why, why, why, why, why did this happen? It's just a, a, an understanding that things happen and we deal with them and it is an abiding faith, I believe, in both of, in both of, uh, in both their cases that really helps them get through these, both of them. Henry, certainly after the

death of Fannie, but Fannie also dealing with the deaths of her brother, her mother, and then they have a child a little named after her. The child, little Fannie, who dies at 18 months. And she has, again, it's a vague infection. Nobody can really describe what it is, but she's 18 months old. And you read Fannie's response to this, and Henry's response to this. And dealing, coping, he wrote a poem about it, resignation, you know, dealing with the death of a child, a loved one.

I mean, you can't imagine anything more horrific. and yet they, I hate to use the word soldiered on, but they continue. They go on and they deal with things and they confront it and there are any number of different factors that help them through this. Well, there's no question that, I mean, I guess when I was reading about after Fannie's death, Longfellow, I think it's writing to one of his kids or to someone, I can't remember, but he says that he's always almost hourly thanking God for the time that he had with her. And I thought that is real faith to be able to thank God as a way of dealing with the grief,

to be thanking God for the time that he had with her. There's a lot of that in the background of this. And I think it's one of the reasons. Pardon me, but that letter you're talking about that's a letter to Fannie's older sister, Mary. Okay. And it's, and it's, as his children are pretty young, and there's such an important letter. Probably one of the most important letters I think it's reserved. It's, there's so many other literary figures and historical figures in this book.

It's another reason that it's wonderful is that you feel like you're living in the 19th century. The idea that he spent time with so many of these people, including Mark, Mark Twain and including more dramatic. much more time with Charles Dickens. My goodness. He really didn't get, he really didn't know Twain, but Dickens for sure, it was very close with Dickens

and a friendship that was spread out over 25 years, you know, that's pretty remarkable. And when they get together for Thanksgiving in 1867, it's an amazing, it's an amazing scene. You have arguably the two most,

the two best-known public figures in the English-speaking world. Dickens from England and Longfellow in the U.S. breaking bread on Thanksgiving. And I'm able to recreate, you know, that dinner that they had in Craigie House. Pretty, pretty amazing situation. You talk so much in the book about Craigie House in Cambridge. I didn't know anything about it. I cannot wait to visit it.

But you said early in this program that it was the headquarters that Washington, used during the siege of Boston. And then later on, of course, it falls into the hands of Longfellow. And it really, today, of course, it's a museum. But when you do think of the history of that house, and you go in your book into all kinds of stuff that's not displayed in the Craigie House, stuff that's in the basement, casts of people's hands and all kinds of things, it really is an amazing place.

I have to say, I wish they could display more of some of the things you described, including the jacket of Charlie Longfellow that, I mean, you can tell my audience about that. It's amazing. But again, I mentioned they have 800,000. You'd like to think they could display so many of these things, but the Longfellows saved everything. I interviewed one of the former site directors there, very good for more than interview. He helped me over here. Here's Jim Shay. I said, Jim, why in the world would they save this toy musket? Charlie loaded a toy musket, their son, Charlie, with gunpowder and blew off his left his thumb. That's a story there. Why would they keep this derelict piece of this toy? And he said, because the Longfellows were

curators of their own lives. I mean, they kept the things that were not so pleasant, along with the things that were pleasant. Henry kept the stubs of the pencils that, you know, and he put a little coil of paper around it, you know, with this pencil I finished, Tiawatha, with this pencil I finished eventually, saved everything. And what I tell you, when you go in as a scholar and as a researcher, how can I use this material to help me build a life, tell a life? And I really made a mindful decision to try, without being obtrusive about it, but how, how, if an object, a material object, can help you tell a story better. What helps you tell a story better about Fannie's death than to see the five little lockets of hair that she was sniffing from

her daughter and attempting to seal in envelopes with a candle? When I came across them, I have to say, you know, you stop and you sit back and say, oh my God, you know, that's the object. Are the a wedding gift that Fannie gives to Henry on their wedding day. And it's a book of sketches that she made in Europe when they met. And she inscribed Mary Ashburton to Paul Fleming in the day, July 13th, 18th, they say, well, what's the significance of that? Well, the names of the characters in the novel that he wrote, Hyperion, which caused the great disruption in their relationship,

the character was Mary Ashburton and he was Paul Fleming. And what she was saying there, in essence, is she was basically, quoting his poem, A Psalm of Life, let the dead past bury their dead. You know, life goes on. We look to the future. So it's an extraordinarily important artifact that you pick it up. And when you know this is the backstory,

artifacts don't speak. They can only point the way. Documents tell us what's going on. But if you know the backstory of an artifact, how much richer does the biographical treatment become, I think? Listen, we've only just begun the conversation. We're out of time now. I'll end by reading what you began to quote earlier.

This is the end of the building of the ship that he put these lines in at the last minute. Thou too sail on, O ship of state, sail on, oh, Union, strong and great. Humanity with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on thy fate. Nick Baz Baines, I hope you will have you back as soon as possible. Congratulations on Cross of Snow and thank you. Thank you. Folks, welcome back to Eric from Texas show. And I have, again, as my guest, my very dear friend, the Reverend John Rankin,

who in our previous hour shared about the loss of his 34-year-old son Jeremy. and we want to transition now to something that I think of as unqualified good news, the idea that you, John, my friend, and my guests on this program are running for Congress in the 5th Congressional District of Connecticut. What does that comprise? What is that area? Well, Eric, if you move back to your native Danbury, you could vote for me. Okay, so the whole district?

The fifth district, they used to be a sixth in the state. When they downsized to five in 2010, they grotesquely gerrymandered the fifth district. So four or five towns next to me in the Northwest Hills that belong in my district are stuck in downtown Hartford. Okay. And then Bristol, which should be in my district, is stuck in the downtown Hartford district. Meriden that belongs to New Haven is stuck in my district. Okay. Danbury is well. So it's a grotesquely formed district to basically increase democratic vote tallies. Right. That makes no difference to me. Because the bottom line is the largest plurality, maybe majority of voters in the 5th District are unaligned. Not only that, I intend to win votes with the racial minorities and poor, because that is the gospel. I'm comfortable in black churches, Hispanic churches on outward. And so, and this is, and this is,

is the Emancipation Party. And so that heeds back to the Emancipation Proclamation. Emancipation not only from slavery in 1863, but emancipation from all forms of government totalitarian slavery. And so this is what I'm doing. And so the district, therefore, you can call it basically Northwest Connecticut, but it is misshapen. Okay. So when people, you know, I guess, I want to be clear, John, that I've known you for, what, 30 years now, right? Which is almost unbelievable. But we were younger.

Yeah, we were 20 years younger 30 years ago. Let me ask you, though, since I've known you, you have been one of those rare, rare figures that can speak with theological sophistication into political life. And as you said, that's God's calling on your life going back 38. years. So when you are communicating, you understand that we're living in dark times. You referred to it at the end of our previous hour together. Why do you say that? In other words, when you said that earlier, I want you to expand on that, because I think most people... In terms of our darkness? Well, in terms of where we are culturally and politically, yeah. Let's just put it this way, without going

into it. The amount of structural evil present in politics, business, academia, media on outward is unprecedented in human history. We've seen as bad of evil before, but we are now connected internationally, okay, in a way we've never been before. I won't go in the details of that most people can see. Our society is in chaos right now. We have cities burning. Who could ever have imagined that, okay? And it is all against. Donald Trump, because Donald Trump came into office to get rid of corruption, among other things, and he's doing it to the Department of Justice for those who want to research the reality. A lot of people who are targeted by justice coming to corruption are basically fanning the

flames in the American culture right now. And so that's what we're facing. However, where does the gospel step into this? Okay. So what I do on the website, so, The website and with some consultants who have experience in political campaigns told me to begin with my website was too philosophical. Okay? I talked about simplicity, trust, and transparency in government. They said, John, a lot of people that will wash over their heads. Okay?

I got it. So I'm trying to take the intellectual, historical, theological content and bring it down to a digestible level for the broad public to understand honestly who I am, and then those who want to dig in to what I believe, I give them the videos and the articles and so forth to do that. So when you get to the website, now, first job is to collect 1900 signatures to get on the ballot, and we got that process going, and that should be straightforward. That's actual... People online cannot participate in that. Oh, yes, yes, anyone in the 5th District of Connecticut. If you go to john rankin.us, there's a place on the website where

you can download the petition. This is part of the COVID restrictions in Connecticut, okay? Allow us to actually send out the petitions electronically. They sign it and then mail it in. Okay. So if you, if someone's in the fifth district, if they're in Connecticut, they're not sure. If you go to the website, it shows you what the fifth district is. John Rankin. Not U.S. John Rankin. Not U.S. is the website for you running for Congress. I look, I'm going to be shameless here. I want people to give you money. I want you to win. I know that if you were to get in the U.S. Congress, you would be trouble with a capital T.

And I'm telling you, you'd be the best thing. Mr. Smith goes to Washington. Sounds like a cynical story in comparison with the idea of you going to Washington. I have to tell you, John, I'm so happy you're doing this. But you're going to need help. It's one of the reasons I want to talk about it on this program. Yes. So go to the website.

So go to the website. Go to the website. Hopefully when you do, we'll have electronic giving. If not, you can mail it in. One of the other to begin with. We'll get the electronic giving going, hopefully by the time this airs. I'm working on it. Hey, hey, we will not air this until you tell us.

Oh, okay, good. That the PayPal thing set up. I want people to get to you. We need folks like you. You're going to shake them up like they've never been shook up. You know, Eric, let me share with you something. As I've entered this season and I'm doing the work, and there are real time pressures on me,

I've never been so peaceful and so unanxious in my life. And the Holy Spirit's word of me every day is move slowly and move deliberately. And I'm learning the wisdom of that because as I move slowly, I make far less detours, you know? and he brings stuff together in the right order. So that's the first thing. Secondly, yes, the key to this is getting a campaign staff. I need to be able to hire, I think, at least six or seven good people, okay?

I won't be spending money on major media advertising. Social media, yes, but I'll be doing all my work, eyeball to eyeball with people. And if I have, and through YouTube and social media, and various meetings and such, but give me six or seven people that are quality people and we will win this thing. Okay, so that's where we need the money. So john rankin. Now, let me give you a little flavor of the process. So the website I chained three times and I arrived at first. finally what I wanted to. And I was so surprised because the last advice I got was John your campaign.

I was told, look, with Barack Obama, hope and change, free words, that led the campaign, even though it was amorphous. A lot of people invested in that. And two of those words were lies. Go ahead. Well, you know something? You won't get that language from me. I'll tell you why. because any lie will implode upon itself. Let the light shine, the darkness will eviscerate or be eviscerated. Well, I'm not ready to Congress. I get to say stuff like that. Right, right, right.

But the point is, yeah. Go ahead. I just want to understand that, in other words, when you talk about connecting with voters, because I know you, John, your problem is always that you are, you know, you're going to give people the longer theological and explanation. As your president said, people are going to tune out. So you have to. You are exactly right.

Well, look, I've known you for 30 years, right? As your friend who loves you, I'm excited about this. And so I want to, I want to see. So let me walk this through to give you how I have prepared to be able to succeed as I need to succeed. Right. So a friend of mine, he pointed that out and Trump make America great. And then again, a very simple slogan that people can grasp. So then a friend of mine who helped.

his successful political campaign in Massachusetts some years ago. He said, John, your motto is fear not. And so I thought about that. And, you know, fear not little children. God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I tried that out, but I didn't like it because even though it's a double negative for a positive, it still starts with a negative word. So I said, what is the positive word that's simple? And I looked at my computer while composing this, and I said, yes. Then I said, yes, Lord. the words of Martha to Jesus. Then, yes, Lord, I believe. That's my campaign motto.

Now, how does yes, Lord, I believe, communicate? Christians will love it, but what about the non-Christians? Okay. And so what I do is I say this is John's assumptions and public policy indications, and I show how the yes, Lord, I believe, of me as a disciple of Jesus, is the best basis to serve all people equally. Hold on. We're going to be right back to unpack what my friend John Rankin has just said. The Trump campaign has a special offer just for you. President Trump wants to meet you.

This will be the first opportunity he's had to meet with American patriots like you since our country started reopening. His team will cover the flight and hotel and give you VIP access for yourself and a guest. He'll even take a picture with you. All you have to do is text VIP to 88022 today for your chance to meet President Trump. Again, that's VIP to 88022 for your chance to win and join President Trump in the fight to keep America great for four more years. Hi, folks, trying times. Just know they won't last. Triumph times can be hard on our digestive track. So why not try LifeChange Tea to get the tea.com?

Life Change tea is an herbal blend of tea that helps the digestive track and the colon cleanse from intruders. For years, people have experienced the benefits from life change tea. and so can you. Log on to get the t.com. That's get the tea.com. And for those of you that want to go a step further, we have non-GMO organic supplements. If you're listening to Eric,

you're informed and educated. So how about free shipping? Just go to the checkout, find the coupon code, enter Eric, E-R-I-C, hit apply, and receive free shipping. Again, Eric, in the coupon code, hit apply, free shipping. These historic times will pass.

The yuck in your gut will pass also with getthathe.com. That's get the t.com. You talked to me and he smiled. Hey there, folks. I'm back with my friend, the Reverend John Rankin, who is running for Congress in Connecticut's 5th District? Oh my gosh. John Rankin, we were just talking about your campaign slogan, which strikes me as, on some level, preposterous. Let's have it. What is the campaign slogan? Yes, Lord, I believe. Okay,

I think most people wouldn't get that or they would just want to mock it. So I'm going to, I'm going to spend this time, our time together trying to get you to switch, to go to something else. Okay. Yes, Lord. Eric believes. No, but yes, Lord, I believe. It just sounds so. Okay. Are you ready, Eric? yourself. Eric, let me tell you something. Okay. I am radical means root level. 38 years worth of theological work, cultural work leads me to utter confidence in this. Now let me explain why. When I tried to do a political slogan that would be automatically appealing to the wider public, I came up with nothing but slogans and cliches.

okay, that didn't have content or could not touch the content that I wanted. So, and I wanted a yes. So what happens is above that, and people can see this at john rankin.us, it says John's assumptions and public policy implications. And then it quotes, yes, Lord, I believe. Then three clauses, Jesus came to be light in the political darkness. Then Jesus came to heal the mind and the body. And then Jesus came to prophesy honest politics for all.

Then underneath that, yes, yes, yes to such hope. Then I give a 16-minute videotape where I explain this. Then I give another video tape or an article on Jewish assumptions and how this honors Jewish assumptions. And then also how it's based on the golden rule and then how that applies to people of all religions. Anyone who goes into that will be cannot raise a finger of accusation against me and what I'm doing. What I am doing honestly is I'm saying I am a disciple of Jesus.

And as a disciple of Jesus, I'm here for equal justice and mercy for all people equally. Look, what you just said is anybody who goes into that can't say anything against you. But that's the point. No one has the time to go into that. No one will go into that. All they'll hear is, yes, Lord, I believe. And that's fine with me. Do you know why?

One thing I'm going to be doing is, I've already reached out to the other two candidates. I'll be organizing this through churches. Now, the 1954 Johnson Amendment, you know, that forbids political opinion in the pulpit, I'm not even worried about that because I will invite the other candidates to come to churches all over the district to do candidate forums with me. And there are five questions on the website with videos that follow them on what questions I'm raising. And if they come, then that is excellent because that's my comfort zone, is public conversation in the face of debated political issues. And people will come out for that, okay?

Why wouldn't they just ignore you? Because we're going to, because we're mobilizing the churches to be there, hosted in churches. Okay. And the churches, when they see, yes, Lord, I believe, and they see what follows, they are motivated. Okay? So this touches the base that we need to mobilize. And then if my candidate friends do not come, I have the church free to me to take questions and build a campaign on that basis and look at the tough questions that are there. Now, it will be virtually impossible for third party at this late stage to succeed if it's another Tweedle D or Tweedledum.

Okay? I am radical and I am convinced. You're not looking at the camera, John. I want you to connect. Thank you so much. If we're another Tweedled D or Tweedledum, then a third party candidate would never, never succeed. But I believe that, and I'm known in Connecticut, and I'm known in the churches, I believe that, I believe. that we can set a backfire in the churches of genuine excitement, and then the churches and the

Christians who read the website and see how I love my neighbors myself and how the politics I have are honest politics, they'll be that much more motivated to recruit others and confident in the presence of those who would question me. Now, also, this is an honest goad. And in my book, Jesus in the face of his enemies, where Jesus comes into Passover week, and his enemies are trying to trap him. They're surrounding him with questions to trip him up. And he receives those questions, answers them, and they end up, quote unquote, daring not to ask him any more questions. He embraces the level playing field, allows himself to be raked over the colds with questions, honest or dishonest now. If someone wants to say John is violating church and state or John is being a nasty

Christian, you know, that's going to multiply interest to what I'm doing and I'll be able to defang that immediately. Not that I'm aiming for that, but that's my freedom. If you let the light shine, the darkness will react. Okay. And as people who are Christians see the darkness reacting to the light, that's going to multiply their hope. If on the other hand, if you're an outsider, And you see, why is everyone so much against this when you look at John's character? And see, it's very hard for people in Hartford Establishment, political and media to slander me. My father, historically, as chief hematology at the Harvard Hospital and a hematologist was so well known and so well loved by people across every political spectrum. Now, that goes back many, many decades.

but that's always the fact that I'm his son is a blessing to me and the fact that I conduct myself as I do all right well when we come back I want to ask you about you know your stand on the issues and what you think the winning issues would be for your candidacy we'll be right back folks talking to my friend John Rankin go to john Rankin.combe. They're going to make a big story I'd rather have Jesus

than see Hey folks here from Tax the Show talking to John Rankin. My dear friend, who is now running for Congress in Connecticut's 5th District. John, so for somebody who can't get into the theology, for somebody who's just an average person living their life, what are you saying to them that would make them take a second look at you? Okay. And also, you spoke to me personally,

and I think on this radio program last year, about the tremendous corruption in Connecticut right now. Are you going to be touching on that? I will, yes, as a candidate for Congress, I will also address the corruption in Connecticut with a couple of direct challenges to the governor, and people can go to Questions for Ned.com. So I have a website to challenge the governor

at three different levels. Questions for Ned.com. I will be doing that. Is it available through John rankin.us? Yes. No, no, no, not John rankin. dot us, T-EI.I.org. I'm separating state politics from federal politics. John rankin. dot U.S. is only dealing, I think, it's only dealing with federal politics. So people have to go to T-EI.I.org. Well, what happens is I'll be doing T-E-I work simultaneously, the theological foundation, including my challenge to the governor. You know, it all works together very closely, and I work with my attorney on exactly how we conduct ourselves.

Okay. I'm going to ask you again to look at the camera because my audience is on YouTube. Thank you, thank you. Looking at them. Listen, John, talk about some of these issues that are, in others, if you want to connect with voters, you know, obviously you're going to have to talk about. some issues.

Yes. I know you will. When you go to john rankin. US and it's not a lot of stuff on the one page, you get toward the bottom, you will see five candidate forums I am proposing. The first one is what are the science and politics of COVID-19? And so I addressed that radically and directly. And my argument very simply is that this is a political hoax.

It serves totalitarian power. really say that, but what I do is I say, what are the science in politics? No one looks at the science, okay? The bottom line is that the first time in history we're quarantining healthy people. That's no basis for that. That makes people sicker. And so I've done the research, and so, for example, just because I am a student, I went and got myself a 500-page textbook for pre-med students on virology and I started there and I'm moving forward. Why do you think in October people are going to care about this? In other words, this will continue.

What's going to happen is, okay, I'm sorry, let me be quick. Quarantine is unhealthy. Face masks for healthy people is terribly unhealthy. Okay, I go in the details. I do it in a YouTube video I do on it. Okay. And then what's the other one? Quarantine face masks.

what's the other issue? The three major issues that are unhealthy. So I go through them, okay? And I am saying if you want to deal with COVID-19, all you need is a healthy mix of quinine with zinc. The medical community knows this throughout the whole world, whole nation at this point, okay? And yet all this pushing for vaccine,

all the pharmaceutical industrial money, everything is behind it, and all the attempt to get a false issue, against Donald Trump, okay, is all at place. So I address that issue, and so I ask the governor, I'll ask my candidates, what are the science and politics of COVID-19? These politicians don't know. They read talking points. You're probably way more Trump than your Republican opponent in this race, aren't you? What I am is Donald Trump, despite all his, I wouldn't go about things the way Donald Trump does. I would go about them the way Jesus does in the face of his enemies, but he is,

pursuing what is good. Religious, political, economic liberty for all people equally. You're right. I think the Democratic, excuse me, the Republican nominee mentions him once in a slight capacity without endorsing him. And so this might be the case, okay? But I'm not going to hang myself on Trump. I'm simply going to say, who is Trump and what is he doing? What are the issues? Okay. And so what happens here on COVID-19, that'll be one issue. The other issue will be what is the healthiest approach to racial politics. I've already gotten some great responses to what I've put up there. My abolitionist history, but also I've got some very concrete things by which to address racial politics. What we're facing right now is we are facing the bad act of manipulation

of black suffering, you know, absolutely hugely. And in the meantime, some of the black suffering is getting to be known. Is it being addressed? Has it been addressed since Reconstruction? Oh, I can look here. So black suffering is huge, and it's being made known to many people, but what are the positive answers? And so I have, the Democrat incumbent is a black woman supporter of Obama. What a wonderful opportunity to have an honest conversation if she proves to be interested. And then I have several other issues.

Transparency in government is marriage necessary or obsolete? and what is justice for women in their unborn. And so all three of those, I put out the YouTube's, so my goal is to galvanize the church, and they're going to see how comfortable I am with skeptics in the secular or pagan culture, and the issues apply to everyone. And I do think that instead of running away from the church,

by running to the church, the church is still the silent majority. I don't want to take that out of context, because Nixon meant something different by that. But I think they are the silent majority. And so if I can equip that silent majority to be comfortable or receiving tough questions or being in the presence of skeptics and they can watch me do it, this is the backfire

I'm seeking to set. And this, I think, could be done. You think that there are enough conservative Christians in the liberal secular state of Connecticut to do what's necessary to support you? I don't use the language liberal, liberal and conservative. I find that to be unnecessarily divisive. I simply speak to people as Christians because people's Christianity can range a whole range of conservative politics. I know that.

That's kind of what I'm asking is. Yes, I do. I think, yes, I do think we have enough of a base. We are far more of a purple state, though I don't like the blue red dichotomy that was invented years ago. Now, our largest amount of voters are unaffiliated by a long. We're going to go to a break, folks. I'll be right back. Final segment with my friend running for Congress, the Reverend John Rankin. Don't go away. Hey, folks, I'm talking to my friend John Rankin.

He's running for Congress in Connecticut's 5th District. I'd like you to move to that district and vote for John. If you don't have time to do that, I'd like you to go to john rankin. U.S. and give to his campaign. John, this is a long shot. Even what you're sharing with me on this program sounds egg-headed to use ugly word of my own coinage. To connect with voters is another thing entirely. I still don't understand what you seem to think that people will have the time and the patience to bother. Okay. First of all, our politics are in free fall chaos, and people are looking for people not with long knives out for each other.

Secondly, the positive, yes Lord, I believe, will resonate with Christians, and it will intrigue others, and it could even bring some good controversy. Thirdly, when you look at the three statements I have there, far above the deeper dive into the issues, it says Jesus came to be light, in the political darkness. And what I say in my video about that is who doesn't want light compared to darkness? Okay, people can grasp that. If the church grasps at first, we build a base.

Secondly, Jesus came to heal the body and the mind, or the mind of the body. And look at the COVID fiction, okay? It's messing with our minds, forcing us into wearing face masks outside. Many people will do that when they don't need to. That's a larger issue. And the body, quarantining the body,

all the ill health that comes with that. Back to the reality of what slavery is. Jesus came to end the slavery of the mind and body. And then people can take their own issues in each of those. I want a healthy mind. I want a healthy body. I want light, not political darkness. And finally, Jesus came to prophesy honest politics for all.

And then when people go in further and they see what I'm advocating, we haven't talked about the egg-hedy stuff. But this will happen on the campaign trail. I've completely rewritten the U.S. Constitution and laws, Connecticut Constitution laws in my 2006 book, The Six Pills of Honest Politics, transparency at every level cutting it back by 99% for simplicity. And so when you get into the motivators and the thinkers, this will really galvanize. And then the final statement there is yes, yes, yes to such hope. So you are right. This is theoretically a long shot. And therefore, I'm not playing by their rules. I'm going by the fact that I'm a disciple of Jesus, and I believe I can offer every voter life, liberty, property, pursuit of

happiness as nobody else can't, or no other foundation can do. And so the real element will be when I'm on the radio or in public forums, meeting people, am I winsome to people? Do people trust me? Do they see me eyeball to eyeball? Do I give simple realities? Now, I've preached in inner city black churches. I've preached in Hispanic churches, in rural poor churches, and I can connect with them as easily as I can connect with anyone. So do I have a learning curve? Yes. But, you know, all the theology of 38 years sums up in this slogan and I'm eager to take it out there and test it. Because you're right. I think if I get to Congress and I can create a level playing field for ideas we actually put forth and listen to, I think we can really make a

difference. Well, you already know, but I'll say it again, anything I can do to help, do not hesitate take because we need folks like you in our Congress, in political life. And John, I want to say again that people can give to you in your campaign, John Rankin.us is the website, John Rankin. dot us, and your general website is T-E-I-I-I, capital, I mean, the letter T, the letter E, the letter I, the letter I, T-I-I-org. We're out of time, my friend, John. If I can just say one final thing, Eric, when people go to the letter E, the letter I, the letter I, the letter I, the letter I,

say one final thing, Eric, when people go to john rankin.us, spend time and look at the videos. You will be blessed. All right. John, just a joy to be back with you. Thank you so much, my friend. And likewise.