The Eric Metaxas Show - Joseph Arthur (Encore)

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Musician Joseph Arthur introduces some new songs and shares his story of being shunned for voicing his opinion on vaccines. More at josepharthur.com.

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 p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m.investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least to make it a double or triple line. Now here's your line jumping host, Eric Mattaxas.

Hey there, folks. Welcome to the show. It's the Eric Metaxus show. I play the role of Eric Metaxus traditionally, and I have guests on. And I love it when I can get guests in the studio. For example, today, I have the singer-songwriter, Joseph Arthur. He's right here, Joseph Arthur, my new friend. Welcome.

Thanks for having me, Eric. Listen, you and I, we're friends. Like, it didn't take long. We have a lot in common and a lot of stuff to talk about. In fact, I want in the next segment, because I want to tease this, I want to talk about how I came, how it became aware of you, because it's a crazy story, ladies and gentlemen, and I want you to hear this.

But you, I mean, you grew up in Ohio, you've been a musician your whole life. You've played with many, many of the greats. You've done a ton of your own material. So I always want to know people's origin stories, right? Yeah. Like, here's the first question. Right. How did you become a Christian?

When did that happen for you? Well, I feel like it's an everyday process in a way. It's like, agreed. You know, it's like, so it's like even to say like, you know, I'm becoming a Christian. All right. Every day, like I feel like, you know, my day is increasingly centered around, seeking the father, right? Like the first thing.

And that's relatively new, I would say, in terms of just like really framing my day that way. So like even like a couple of years? Oh yeah. Even in the last couple months, the practice of seeking the father has increased a lot and sort of

holding captive every thought and understand, you know, and sort of, you know, your instinct or our instinct in this society is reach for our phone or engage the mind, right? Engage the part of us that's sort of in this realm, the ego or whatever,

the sort of noise of the world. So it's similar to meditation, I guess, in meditation some Christians might think is a dirty word, but I think of that as like a sort of listening for God's revelation. Well, it depends how you meditate. We're not talking about transcendental meditation. We're not talking about the Maharishi,

Maharishi Mahariahehi, Maharishi, Mahesh Yogi Gizinhite. Okay, let me ask you a simpler question. When you, you shared this with me yesterday, because we had the privilege of dinner together, but you shared that when you were 10 years old, I mean, when I hear stories like this, it blows my mind, that your family was and remains not at all interested in God,

but somehow as a kid, I mean. Yeah, I spoke to God a lot. I would pray to God. Where did you even hear that he existed? I don't know. I mean, well, and I'm wearing these John Lennon sunglasses, but like John Lennon has this line, God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

And I don't really know what that means. Neither did John. And for the love of Pete, don't ask Yoko. She has no idea. But our suffering does bring us to God. And so I would say in childhood, I probably needed that, kind of comfort. There's this guy, the pastor Charles Stanley, I think I was talking to you about him. He's a

hero. And I listened to a lot of his sermons, and he was talking about how our suffering is what provokes intimacy with God. It's sort of, and so I love that concept, the fact that like when you think maybe God isn't answering your prayers or God is hanging you out to dry, he's not, he's inviting you into new levels of intimacy within him. So I think when I was 10, even though I wouldn't have been able to to frame it that way, obviously. I think that's essentially what I was doing, and it really hasn't changed. I mean, I'm still doing that.

But when you said to me yesterday that you started going to church as a 10-year-old by yourself, not your family taking you? No, I went with me. How the heck did that happen? I asked my grandma to take me. You asked her. Yeah, yeah.

She didn't say, come with me. They were not church people. They're not Jesus people. You know, they're not. So you actually asked your grandmother at age 10, would you? Well, because we lived in Akron, Ohio, right up the road from Farallon School and Farallon Church. And so I knew what the school was. And I'm like, well, what's that building?

And what's that weird building? And it's like, oh, it's the church. And like, when do we ever go there? And it's like, no. And I'm like, well, I want to go there. Like, and then, well, you go there on Sunday. well, okay, well, you know, and then I asked my grandma and she took me. But that's just...

And then that was really strange, because then, like, when you're a 10-year-old and you have no background of any of this and you see Jesus on the cross, you're like, what is going on? This is fascinating, you know? Well, it's fascinating to me that you were the one that initiated this at age 10. I got another question for you. Yeah. How long have you been wearing sunglasses indoors? Well, it's just because we're on TV.

Or are we on TV? We're on TV? It's just the radio. What? I could take them off. Holy cow. If it makes you feel more comfortable. But I felt like, you know, I just cut my hair off.

I need to have some rock and roll credibility. Well, all you need to do. And the sunglasses say I'm a rock and roller, so I'm trying to, you know. All you need to do to get a rock and roll vibe is sit next to me because I do not have a rock and roll vibe. I'm not dressed. You are very rock and roll, sir. Yeah. Thank you very much.

Yeah. Sometimes in, like, 80s, they would, Thomas Dolby would wear like a suit. Yeah. You're a certain kind of rock and roller or Robert Palmer. I'm just going to say, that's cheating because those guys were going, like they were cutting back, you know, against the, whatever, the grain. But, no, all I'm saying is that you definitely have the rock and roll vibe. Like, your guitar, I want to get into all of this. And by the way, in the second segment, I'm going to tell my audience how I came to discover you, which is itself, I know it was a Holy Spirit thing.

Like, you'll see. It's crazy. It's actually, it's kind of amazing. But you are not just a singer-songwriter, but you're an artist, and your guitar is, like you obviously, if anybody knows your art, knows that you are the one that defaced

that perfectly nice guitar. I know, it was beautiful before I got to it. Actually, Gibson lent me this, and then I painted it. Are you serious? Yeah, but I mean... What do you mean Gibson let me this? Well, they would give you guitars

back in the day. It was like a real free for all back then. If you had some notoriety as a musician, you could go to their warehouses and pick out guitars. They would let you take them on tour. And they were very loose about getting them back. And it was all very blurry. So you put your art all over the guitar.

I think I might have ended up having to pay for this one. But who knows? When did you, okay, I try to ask you when you came to faith. when you came to believe, like Jesus was the son of God, rose from the dead. Was there a moment? Because it doesn't need to be a moment. I'm just asking. I'm wondering if there was a moment or, you know.

But you weren't paying attention so you didn't notice it. I had my sunglasses on, so I might have missed it. No. My faith was always, I was one of those guys that was spiritual. You know, I was into like all kinds of different things. I would, you know, Hinduism, Buddhism, all of them, I was investigating all of them. I would go to the Eastern bookstores and stuff. And I would write songs about Jesus, and I believed in Jesus as well, but I didn't know him to be the way.

And that has evolved. And it's an evolution that continues, you know? Right. So it's an interesting one. I mean, what's your take on? You think Jesus is the only way and that there's no other way. And if somebody doesn't accept Jesus as the Lord and Savior. Well, that gets very complicated.

You don't want to go there. No, no, no. When I say it gets complicated, I mean, Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but through me. Period. Done. That's in the Bible. It's the Word of God.

Now, then the question is exactly what does that mean? What does that mean? Because some people will have a very, what I would call, religious interpretation of that. Unless you pray this prayer, but, blah, blah, blah, you're going to hell. I would say, I don't think so. I don't think it's quite that simple. Jesus is the only way to the Father,

but the idea that everybody is going to have the same, I guess people kind of try to make a formula, which always offends me because that's not, if you really know the scripture and you know the Lord of the Scripture, it's not formulaic. So we have to be careful that, you know, you can say something like that, but then exactly what does that mean? When we come back, I'm going to tell you how I discovered Joseph Arthur.

We'll be right back. Folks, have I told you about Moink, M-O-I-N-K, that's moo plus oink? I get all our meat and our salmon from them, M-O-I-N-K. Moink delivers grass-fed and grass-finished beef and lamb, pastured pork and chicken, sustainable wild-caught salmon, straight to your. door. There is so much that I want to say to you about Moink. I don't know, I could tell you one thing. Shark Tank host, Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful, said Moint's bacon is the best bacon he's ever tasted. They are people who really firmly believe in the family farm. Some of you know I've mentioned this.

60% of U.S. pork production comes from one company owned by the Chinese. I don't need to say any more. Let me just tell you, go to moinkbox.com slash Eric, M-O-I-N-K, Moinkbox.com slash Eric. That's Moinkbox.com slash Eric. Check it out. Legacy precious metals has a revolutionary new online platform that allows you to invest in real gold and silver online. In a few easy steps, you can open an account online, select your medals of choice, and choose to have them stored in a vault or ship to your door. You have access to a dashboard, where you can track your portfolio growth in real time, anytime. You'll see transparent pricing on each coin and bar.

This puts you in complete control of your money. The platform is free to sign up for. Visit legacy pm.investments.com and open your account and see this new investing platform for yourself. Gold hedges against inflation and against a volatile stock market. A true diversified portfolio isn't just more stocks and bonds, but different asset classes. This new platform allows you to make investments in gold and silver, no matter how small, large with a few clicks. Visit legacy pminvestments.com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool they've added legacy pm investments.com. Legacy pm investments.com. Check it out.

One, two, three, one, two, three, five. Welcome back. Folks, I'm talking to Joseph Arthur. Hello. Who lets me call him Joe. Yes. Okay, Joe, the way I stumbled across you, I find it's so fascinating to me. Now, people, my audience knows that I work out, right? I'm a runner. A couple times a week I work out with weights. And as I've said many times, I'm almost always listening to like 70s tunage.

I'm like listening to, you know, you name it, Super Tramp, E-L-O. Bad company. A little bad company. What about Striper for Christian Rock? No, no. No striper. I rebuke you for even bringing that up. We're going to edit that out in post.

Edit that out. No, I've never been like a heavy metal guy and definitely not a stripper. But no, but my point is that for me, music, anybody who listens to this as a radio program knows that my bumper music, all the bumper music on this program, not all, but most of it is like 70s, poppy, rock, you know, it's all over the map. Literally like Partridge family from when I was seven. like really poppy, you know, all the way through to, I don't know, Joe Walsh and anything, just all this melange of stuff.

So I was working out with weights and on Apple Music, you know, if you've got a song list, when it gets to the end of the song list, the algorithm kicks in and it'll be like suggesting songs that other people who like the songs you like, right? Right. So that's been really fascinating for me because I have discovered songs by, bands or groups that I love that I'd never heard before. Like, you know, Fleetwood Mac in 2000, they put out an album, and there's like two amazing songs that I listen to, like, all the time now, right?

So it kind of introduces you to stuff. So some stuff pops up, and, you know, most of it I'm not interested or whatever. So this thing pops up, folks, are you listening? This thing pops up. It says, Fistful of Mercy, 2010. I'm like, 2010. I don't listen to music, really, from 2010. What the heck is this?

Right. Like, I was just kind of like, why did this pop up in my feed? Like, what is it about the music that I listen to that pops up? Right. And so I had to look it up. So I look up Fistful of Mercy and I say, oh, it's a band that put out one album. That's right. And it has three members.

And one of them is George Harrison's son, Donnie, Danny, D-H-A-N-I. And I go, oh, that's how this ended up in my feed. Right. Because I had, I went through. Actually, it's more George Harrison. than Beatles because I listen to more wings than Beatles and I went through a season All things much past. In the last, yeah, in the last like six months where I was

listening to a lot of George Harrison stuff, right? It's beautiful. So it pops up that there's this band called Fistful of Mercy, put out one album, so it's Danny or Donnie Harrison. So that's why it's in my feed. And then it's these two other people whose names I don't know. Ben Harper. Ben Harper and Joseph Arthur.

Yeah, no, I know, but I didn't recognize them. Okay. because I'm out of it, you know, like I'm a 70s dude. So, so, but the title, Fistful of Mercy, I just, something in me goes like, wait, wait, fistful of mercy. That sounds Christian. Like, non-Christians don't, like, that title comes from somebody, it sounded to me, like, who's probably a Christian,

because just the concept of mercy is such a Christian thing. But it's not like I have Christian music on my playlist so that this is a Christian group. This is all 70s, pop, rock, whatever, you know, Elton John, whatever. So, so I thought, I wonder if somebody in this fistful of mercy thing is a Christian. Like, this is just too weird. So I look up your name first, and the Wikipedia page comes up and say, boom, he's a Christian. Got it.

And I thought, that's really wild. What's funny, though, is because I did name the band. And I wasn't Christian or I wouldn't have identified as a, as a. as a real Christian at that point. So even though it does have Christian connotations, the inspiration for the band name, there was this band, you know, this band called Blur. Damon Alburn had this side project

called The Good, the Bad, and the Queen. You know, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the Klinniswood movie, right? And so, like, I liked that changing of just that. The Good, the Bad, and the Queen, I always thought that was a really good band name. So I thought, I wanted, like, fistful of dollars.

And then I thought, What if I change another Clinisewood thing? So I said, it's full of mercy. It was like that. Wow. That's where it came from. Wow. And there's other Clinizua connections.

We're not going to get into. We're not going to go down this travel. Is he Christian? So, I don't think, I don't know. But here's the thing. But a friend of his, I mean, a friend of mine who worked with him is definitely a Christian. But here's what I wanted to say. So I'm reading down the Wikipedia page.

This is where my heart stopped. So I say Joseph Arthur, fistful, and literacy is, okay, I think he's a Christian. I look it up. It says on the Wikipedia page, oh, yeah, he's a Christian. Then it says, Arthur, Joseph Arthur, received media attention and controversy during the COVID-19 pandemic due to his belief that the COVID-19 vaccination is a danger to humanity. And it basically goes on to explain that you were canceled, dropped by. your label, by your management, by your bobo, boo, boo, boo, boo,

and I was like, whoa, this guy is a hero. He actually dared, you know, from within the liberal world of, you know, cool musicians to dare to say, I'm not going to get this COVID thing, and I think it's a danger, whatever.

And you even wrote a song called Stop the Shot. Oh, right, yeah. Oh, yeah, you remember? Yeah. I just listened to it on the way home yesterday. What do you think of it? I've heard it before.

I love it. There's several things I love it. about it. But when I read that, I said, this is a really interesting guy. And I did something that I never, ever, ever do. I went to your website. It said, contact, and I emailed you. It took me a while because I've been going through a hard season. And you email me back the next. You've been going through a hard season? Yes, I have. Yes, I have. Oh, man, a lot of stuff. Insane travel and whatever. So it took me a while, but I emailed you. You emailed me right back that day and said, hey, you want to be my radio show tonight?

And I just was kind of blown away that this Apple algorithm, God can use anything, can use Balaam's ass, he can use whatever, he can even use Apple, even use Apple algorithm to, you know, to bring people together. And I just thought, how else would I have ever stumbled into you? It's an unlikely friendship. I guess it's not that unlikely, though. I feel, I feel a certain. inspiration from you as well, just in how focused you are with your work. And, you know, I have

aspirations to write books as well, but even aspirations to finish an album. Also, leaning more towards a lot of this faith-based music I've been writing, too. So I feel like God put you in my life to sort of guide me in a certain way. I'm not calling you a mentor, Eric, or anything like that, but I'm just saying. Please say, say, Guru. Eric. You are an inspirational guy. No, but I got to tell you, though, it was just so fun to discover you this way. And by the way, I haven't mentioned it, to listen to your music, some of which I just love so much that I've listened to it over and over and over. That album, Fistful of Mercy, the title track, Fistful of Mercy, and then the song, In Vane or True, I've listened to that

over and over and over and the there but for the grace of God go I which is a recent song. Oh yeah that's recent yeah that is so I could play that one beautiful well I can't play it so I guess that would mean that you should yeah oh I just right now how about now

okay what about now? Yeah yeah I know that's look at life in the vacant sky the day We've lived And the healing cry To see the wounded Live and die There before the grace

O'd go I You can sing along There before the grace Of God Go I Truth's wings to fly Gave us the will To get by

For those that can't even try Here we go There before the grace of God go There before the grace of God go out There before the grace of God go out Each up, we run for a cup The fences and open up our heart

And we're going to make it out tonight To give a little love and hold a little light I'll wrap this one up. We'll do the rest later. You didn't need to wrap it up. See, people who are too media savvy. Too media savvy. They're all worried about that.

Listen, that is so beautiful. There's so much. I'm choked up. You know what? I thought I heard the background vocals. Those lines. Coming in there strong air. That's it.

Listen. You got some lyrics that should get me choked up. We'll be right back talking to Joseph Arthur. For 10 years, Patriot Mobile has been America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. And when I say only, trust me, they're the only one. Glenn and the team have been great supporters of this show, which is why I'm proud to partner with them. Patriot Mobile offers dependable nationwide coverage, giving you the ability to access all three major networks, which means you get the same coverage you've been accustomed to without

funding the left. When you switch to Patriot Mobile, you're sending the message that you support free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, Second Amendment, and our military veterans and first responder heroes. They're 100% U.S.-based customers. service team make switching easy. Keep your number, keep your phone or upgrade. Their team will help you find the best plan for your needs. Just go to patriotmobile.com slash metaxis or call 972 Patriot. Get free activation when you use the offer code metaxus. Join me. Make the switch today again. Go to Patriotmobile.com slash metaxus or call 972 Patriot. Patriotmobile.com slash metaxus. Tell me 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 helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. That's the point. So approaching from four different angles may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. If you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exerciser, just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it'll work for you. It has worked for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. On one of them, go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer.

Feel the difference. Wondering What we're Falling down on Welcome back I'm talking to Joseph Arthur And I guess I'm singing with Joseph Arthur

Joseph, thank you for playing that beautiful, beautiful song and letting me hum in the background because that is just Your lyrics, I mean I want to say this, I'm not here to blow smoke. Some of your lyrics are

really very beautiful. As a writer who values writing, some of them are just really beautiful and that's not always the case a lot of people who write music. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, as a writer, do you think like God

is speaking to you through sort of like the process of writing is almost like revelatory in its nature? It can be. I mean, it depends on the kind of writing. I guess. It depends on the right. Does it come more from your mind or from like this sort of external voice, the voice

of God, revelation? It depends on what you're writing, right? In other words, I think, I mean, I would say that, you know, when you accept Jesus into your heart and you say, Lord, lead me, guide me. He's leading you in all kinds of ways. Even for me, just what am I going to write about? When I wrote the Bonhofer book, there is zero doubt in my mind that God not only led me to write that book, but he created me in my mother's womb to write that book. Like, that's so obvious to me in retrospect. but in terms of, you know, how much freedom do you have creatively?

When you're writing a biography, you don't have a ton of freedom. You know, you're telling this story. It's somebody else's story or whatever. But there are other things like The Letter to the American Church and the new book that I have coming out that I just sent to the publisher. Like, I definitely felt more a little bit of what you're talking about. But it really does depend on the nature of the thing. And I think when you're writing music, that's particularly the case. that, I mean, but look, let's be honest, all of your gifts, even the ability to write anything or to write music or whatever, that's clearly a gift from God.

Now, whether you're open to him using it for him, for his purposes, to speak truth, you and I were talking yesterday and on the phone about how people like to divide things into sacred and secular. And it's like, is either Christian or it's not Christian? And I kind of think, like, what are you talking about? Like, is that a Christian apple? like Jesus invented the universe, created the universe, and every atom in that apple, you know, the electrons are being moved around the nucleus by Jesus, but I don't say it's a Christian apple.

Like, it's kind of a weird thing. And people do that with music all the time. Yeah. So that when I hear a line in a quote-unquote secular song that's beautiful and true, I know that that's Jesus, even if the person who wrote the song doesn't know Jesus. Yeah, but, you know, A lot of Christians seem to be very sensitive about the sort of the way things that aren't sort of strictly Christian could influence you.

I mean, the one I struggle with the most is yoga and we've talked about it. But like, you know, in terms of exercise technology, if you want to call it something like that, it's like really profoundly good. Now, is it invoking demonic spirits or like spiritual forces that are. against Jesus or something. For me personally, no, but a lot of Christians think that it's demonic in nature. I would caution people against yoga,

and you yourself caution it, so it's like, so extrapolate that out with rock and roll. Well, no, that's different. I don't think of you. It's different, but to a lot of people, that wouldn't be different. Okay, but the point is that

I have worshipped God in churches singing praise music. That's like rocky or rock and roll. You know what I mean? So like there's this continuum. And I think there are some people that they're, they're all too comfortable with creating these strict rules. And like it's got to have this kind of a beat or it's, you know, of the devil. I think that's preposterous. And I think you have to be careful. I think that that's. But then again, I'm not afraid to do a sun salutation and then talk to Jesus while I'm doing it. You know what I mean? Do you know what I would love to do? Whenever I hear, we mention George Harrison. Right. His song, My Sweet Lord, right?

Right. Obviously, in that part of the song where he's blurring, you know, Hare Krishna, Harrah Rama, I'm like, eh, buzzer, not interested, because to me that is dark stuff, to me. But up to that point. Yeah. And then the music, it is so beautiful. And I thought, I would just want to hear that song as a worship song.

And I'll rewrite the lyrics at the end or just keep saying, you know, my sweet lord because i think you can sing it right in a worshipful way now i've never heard anybody do that exactly but i i think that that's listen martin luther about whom i wrote you know a 450 page biography he would take like german drinking songs and put christian lyrics to them to sing because he said i want popular people to sing about god yeah so i think typically this is like people get religious and weird and create these categories i like your message about the sort of courage it takes to be a Christian rather than being religious. Or like the title of your new book, have you revealed that yet?

I don't know. Have I? Yeah, I probably should since I sent to the publisher. Well, I mean, the whole theme of that is really interesting. It's a Bonhofer phrase. It's religionless Christianity. But we were talking about this, and this is. And I bring that up because I feel like.

the sort of like, you know, sort of fight against maybe secular music, that's more on the religion side of things. Rather than the religion lists Christianity that you're speaking of, that's more open-ended to the world as it is, and how do

you be like a Christian within this world where you're not sort of a shrinking violet away from, oh no, I can't take rock and roll music or I can't do this stretch or whatever. It always depends, right? Because there are people, I mean, this is why there is no substitute for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

and asking him to lead you by the Holy Spirit, because sometimes there's no exact answer, and you have to have wisdom directly from God. Hey, I'm talking to Joseph Arthur, and we'll be right back. Hey, folks, Eric here. Mike Lindell is always looking for ways to solve. everyday problems. So have you ever picked up a towel set because it felt really soft in the store? But then when you go to use it, it's not very absorbent and doesn't actually dry you. Well, that's why MyPillow has developed the MyPillow towels. This six-piece set has 100% long

staple sheer poor cotton. It's a combed ring spun cotton that makes the towel softer and more absorbent than ever. Tows that actually dry you. And right now, you can receive a six-piece set for only 2998 with promo code, Eric. 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 800-978-3057. That's MyPillow.com promo code Eric. Mypillow.com promo code Eric or call 800-9783057.

I use these towels. They work. I promise you. Lord, can you really love? If I don't love myself. Welcome back. I'm talking to Joseph Arthur, singer, songwriter, artist. You do a lot of art, a lot of, you do a lot of different stuff.

You've got a cool, cool stuff you do on Instagram. But I wanted to talk to you about... The helium guru. What? The helium guru. Yeah, don't even, don't quit on time to get into that. All right. Although I will say my favorite Woody Allen film is Broadway Danny Rose,

which features a helium segment. That's funny. Oh, yeah. I went and saw that Martin Scorsese movie last night. You're kidding. We went at 9.30. It was up till 1 in the morning or something. It was a crazy movie, but anyway.

Yeah. I have mixed feelings about Scorsese. Yeah. I do. Totally mixed feelings. Well, he loves dark. Yeah. And that's why I want to smack him like, hey, Marty, uh-uh.

Yeah. No, stop. He made a children's film maybe 10 years ago. A film for children, like for families. It was so beautiful. and I thought that's the kind of work he could be doing instead of whatever really dark thing he and De Niro and DeCaprio decided

they wanted to wallow in the darkness for it's dark. And it's a lot of people getting shot in the head. Yeah, and you know what that is? It's like, what is that? What's that fascination with like tons of death and murder? I'll tell you. You could do like a skit, like a Saturday Night Live skit on Martin Scorsese where it's like, hey Bill, how you doing?

And everybody just blows each other's brains out. every five minutes. Because that's basically what it is. No, it's sick. Well, that's why I would say, avoid him. Listen, I wrote a piece. If people go to my website, where I have my writing, my essays,

I wrote a piece titled the Apotheosis of Martin Scorsese where I deal with this whole issue of how he does glorify violence. But I don't want to talk about that now. I know, but it's an interesting take on human nature because I'm like watching this and going like, is this human nature where just there is no moral compass at all? And it's interesting when you frame it with Christianity because it's like, you know,

this does give us a moral framework. That's part of what Christianity's meant to do. And without that, where's the limitation of evil? And we're living in this time where we're seeing evil run amok. Okay, this is why I want to go with you. First of all, the scripture says, whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatever they think on these things.

God is telling us, like, yeah, there's evil, but focus on the beautiful and the good and the true. It doesn't mean you don't ever see the evil, whatever, but God calls us to be careful what we take in. But I want to talk, when you talk about evil, okay, what happened with the pandemic, a lot of people woke up and said, what is going on?

I feel this authoritarian thing, this pressure. It feels like evil. They're telling me, I've got to get this vaccine. It's not even a vaccine. It's made with aborted babies. I got, like, and everybody's telling me, including my pastor and Christian leaders, I've got to get this, whatever. So it was a real difficult moment for a lot of people.

And I want to talk about this because what really got to me, when I discovered you and I'm like, you know, looking you up and I, and when it says that you pretty quickly saw the COVID-19 vaccine as a bad thing, And I, and I, that took real courage at that time. Yeah. Because as soon as I started saying stuff about it, I got blowback from people that I thought were friends. They were like, stop spreading disinformation. I got attacked.

My fan base was primarily on the left, as it turns out. And the attack was relentless because also, and this isn't to brag, but I was very early on speaking out. That's right. Like Joe Rogan was, was still like a year from speaking out, basically. even like hinting that Ivermectin might be a good idea. But, I mean, to me, you know, it was a ticker tape parade of red flags. They were demonizing things like Ivermectin. They were even demonizing things like vitamin C.

So it just became obvious that there was something, like you would have to have turned your brain off to not notice that there was something funny going on. And then once they wanted kids to get it, and you know it's an experiment with no long-term, safety test in place that just makes no sense on the face of it. And that is when I first started speaking out. And I said, wait, kids shouldn't get this. And I thought, oh, most people are going to agree with that. That's reasonable.

And it was not, it was the opposite of that. It was like a full scale meltdown. How dare you? You want to kill people. What are you? Who are you? I thought you were something else. Yeah.

Yeah, I got a bunch of that for other stuff. And it's, it's hard to process because you're thinking, wait a second. we live in America, it's a free country. I'm expressing what I think is true. Yeah. And you're telling me, shut up, you can't say that. And that's where you say, wait a minute, wait a minute. Like, what do you mean I can't say that?

Yeah, well, I had people write me privately, like, you know, mentors, people that I've known and worked with for a long time wrote me in private too and would say you need to stop speaking out. And it's weird On some level They might have just been concerned For the For me to For your career Yeah so I don't hate them

But I The more pushback I got And I don't know if this was ego or Jesus But the more pushback I got The more I wanted to speak out It did not make me want to like hide It provoked the opposite reaction I was I went

I went a little ham at that point ham like I went nuts I started I don't know I'm not familiar with that term I don't even know I don't know it means you go you go wacky with it you like you start speaking out more I said I couldn't you know I was posting more and more and more and more and at that point too there was no

informed consent so I was actually trying to alert people because I had been doing lots of research you know so I knew certain things that you know that I didn't think the the public knew so I was concerned with that. You actually cared about people. I did. And now...

Strangers. And now there's people that still speak out a lot, and I'm a little bit less inspired to because I feel like the information is out there. Right. And people don't want to have their minds changed if they think a certain way, I think, a lot of times. Yeah. Well, I mean, listen, the more information that comes out, this is just one controversial topic,

but it's a huge one. But honestly, it's the way people basically said, shut up, don't say that, you can't say that. You know, you thought, what world am I living in? It was weird. And who are you to dare even tell me what I can and cannot say? Patriots have died so we can speak truth in America. Freedom of speech. And it just so happens what we're saying is helpful.

Freedom of speech became controversial. Yeah. Just like now, even singing a song like Give Peace a Chance seems to be a controversial. thing to do. Well, you wrote a controversial song called Stop the Shot about the vaccine jab. When we come back, maybe we'll, I don't know, maybe we'll hear a little bit about that.

We'll be right back. We're talking to Joseph Arthur. It's the Eric Mataxis show. Stick around. Keep swinging no matter where you go. This one goes out to the contenders still running.

Receive the message. Please just talking to Joseph Arthur. Joseph. So you wrote a great song very recently about putting on the armor of God. And I want to, I want you to play that before we're done. But we were just talking about, you wrote it. You had the guts to write a song about the COVID-19 vaccine called Stop the Shot.

And is that the song that got you canceled? That were your management and everybody freaked out? No, no, no, no. It wasn't a song. posting online and just talking. But then you decided to double down and write a song. I did, yeah. You want to play

a little bit of it? I would... I mean, absolutely. We will overcome a dog. Stop the shot. It might be hot. We lost the plot. We'll find another way. Stop the shot. That's what your part is.

Stop to shot. To speak your mind any time without the thought police. tacking what you say. Stop the shot, baby. Stop the shot. To devastate the broken fate of the viral state that threatens where we stay.

Stop the shot. Come on. Stop the shot. Stop this shot. It might be hot. We lost the plot. We'll find another way. Stop the shot.

Stop the shot. Because Ivermectin you can trust. It's as dependable as a New York City bus. That's hilarious. So take me uptown. Baby, I don't want to make a fuss. And keep your good. Graphene oxide out of me.

Baby, I don't want to rust. You know what's funny about that? I wanted you stop the shot like with BG's harmonies. Yeah. Stop this shot. It might be hot. We lost the blood. We'll fly another way.

Stop the shot. Yeah, we got to figure that out. Later. You know what's funny, though, about that. Like, the whole, like, Ivermectin you can trust. It's obviously I'm being somewhat kind. comedic and then like that was part of the smear too like and he says there's graphene oxide like i also obviously i don't know what what's in the shot nobody does but like i also don't think

it's going to make me rust i'm being humorous like and i'm singing it like bowie on acid you know that that is exactly what just so you understand you must understand this right that's how those people smear us like i said stuff i have no humor i precisely i have said many things tongue and cheek or humorous. Right. They then take it and say, you said this. Full serious.

And you think, okay, it's like, bro. That's really dumb. Like, dependable is in New York City bus. You think I'm being like super serious? That's called a joke. No,

but they have no humor. Look, the devil has no humor. Let's be honest. That's funny, isn't it? That's true. Yeah, of course it's true. Yeah. I mean, Luther said that.

Sense of humor is God power right there. So that's why it's no point in watching PBS or CNN. Okay, so we're done with this, we're done with this segment, but in, and you have a radio show. I want to plug that. Yeah, TNT Radio, yes, please. TNT Radio. Joseph Arthur's Technicolor Dreamcast.

It's on every Saturday night starting at 9 p.m. Eastern. Joseph Arthur's Technicolor Dreamcast on TNT Radio. Yeah, it's a news talk radio, great, like, free speech platform. There's tons of great, yeah, broadcasters on. that station. Okay, that's the end of this hour. We're going to continue with Joseph. Arthur, don't go away.