The Eric Metaxas Show - Kate Anderson and Bruce Fogerty
Episode Date: March 10, 2021Kate Anderson of the Alliance Defending Freedom shares the success of the latest Supreme Court ruling; then, Bruce Fogerty has an uplifting way to celebrate this upcoming Easter Season. ...
Transcript
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Hour two. In this amazing hour, we begin with John Zmirak. Did you hear that? Yes, he's waiting in the wings. He's right here. We begin with John's Mirack. We talk to our friends at the Alliance Defending Freedom. And then I talked to my friend Bruce Fogarty, who's also in Dallas with John's Mirac and all the fun people. And we're talking about he has one of the greatest ideas I've ever heard to share your faith. And I'm not making that up. It is brilliant. It's the Easter crosses.
He'll talk about it, but it's brilliant.
You've got to do it.
You've got to do.
If you've got a lawn or anything and you don't do this, I want to know why.
All right, John Zmirak, what else should we talk about?
Please, let's not talk about the Pope, please.
Well, no, and I do want to talk about Christianity in the Second Amendment.
I'm writing the book right now, and I'm trying to find a publisher for it called God, guns, and the government.
And what I want to do is bring together two streams in the conservative movement that ought to be together,
but sometimes flow in different direction.
Conservative Christians and gun owners.
I'm sure there are a lot of conservative Christians
who have guns and who keep their family safe on target shoot,
but they probably don't see the link between gun rights
and the Christian view of men.
But in fact, our gun rights as Americans come directly
from a Christian concern for religious freedom.
That's right.
Our Second Amendment is in the Constitution specifically to protect
religion's freedom. Not a lot of people know that, but I've done the
digging in the history. The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is
largely a copy of something from the English Bill of Rights passed in
1889. It was passed after the overthrow of James II.
James II was a king who the Protestants in England were afraid was going to
persecute them for their religion. That was partly because his
sponsor, Louis XIV of France,
had just persecuted Protestants for their religion.
Thousands of Huguenots, French Protestants, were beaten, killed,
their children taken away from them, put on ships, sent away.
James II took the throne.
He was an ally of Louis XIV.
The English were afraid the same thing would happen to Protestants there.
So the English Bill of Rights of 1689 said,
no Protestant may be denied of the right to bear arms.
Our Second Amendment made that universal, basically.
Every citizen may be permitted to bear arms.
But the origin of it was to prevent religious persecution.
And if you go back,
the root are a whole idea of overthrowing a tyrannical government,
that the citizens have the right to, in a sense, declare a civil war,
and that war would be subject to the same just war principles as any other war.
All of this derives from Protestants being persecuted during the Reformation,
struggling with the theology, should I obey Caesar when he tells me to oppose my faith?
And our whole idea of a just moral Christian revolution of the kind that happened in 1776.
It all goes back to the fight for religious freedom in a time of mutual intolerance during the Reformation.
So our Second Amendment does not emerge, it doesn't come out of nowhere.
And it doesn't come out of a reckless secular individual.
It comes out of very devout people like the Puritans who had settled North America and were intent on teaching Christianity the way they believed it and not allowing any government to impose another religion upon them.
One of the main reasons for the American Revolution was there was a threat that George III would appoint Anglican Bitions who would govern all the Protestants of North America.
and they were afraid of another persecution,
so I said they had seen in 1640.
The idea that you have the right to defend yourself
against criminals, against terrorists,
against in the 18th century Indian attacks,
and against the tyrannical government,
that is a direct fruit of the Christian view of the human person,
that the human person is made by God,
his rights come from God,
they don't come from the king,
they don't come from the government, and he has the right to defend himself.
We as Americans are one of the few countries that have maintained something like a Second
Amendment where ordinary citizens are seen as the backdrop, the last backstop of freedom.
Our founders, if you look at the debates over the Bill of Rights or the ratifying,
over and over again, every one of our founders had commented said,
the people, citizens malicious, and armed citizenry will be the last guarantor of freedom.
everything else failed, the Supreme Court, the separation of powers,
if everything else fails and the government becomes tyrannical,
ordinary people, because they are armed, because of the Second Amendment,
will be able to step in and restore liberty in America.
If the Democrats try to take our guns,
it's the last hill to fight them.
It's the last possibility of reversing a tyrannical government.
If we allow the Democrats to take our guns,
we are literally veal in a pen waiting to be turned into veal parmesan.
It's an amazing thing. I mean, I certainly didn't know this history, and I don't know the English history of the 17th century, although it seems to me that the more I learn about it, the more I realize if you don't understand that century and that country's history, it's tough to understand what happened in 1776.
Right. It was a completely an echo of that. Our founders were looking to recent English.
history and seeing that the monarchy in France became ever more dictatorial and intolerant
until it gave way to a revolution that was even worse. In England, the monarchy got
trimmed back, got controlled, got hedged in, got balance of power between the parliament and
the king, and it created what they called English liberty. And they saw George III taking
those liberties away and the parliament taking those liberties away in America. So they
were appealing to their cousins in England, we want the same rights that you guys fought for in
68.
We demand them here.
And one of those is to be an armed citizen that you can protect yourself against violence.
We saw during the riots this past year, the left hates this liberty.
Look what they're doing at Kyle Rittenhouse.
He's still trying to raise money for his defense.
By the way, look up the Kyle Rittenhouse defense fund is now being run by his mother.
Wendy Rittenhouse. They want to send him to prison forever for defending himself against a
mob. Look what they did to the McCluskey's in St. Louis. Look what they did to Jake Gardner in Omaha,
Nebraska. He was a store owner defending his store against a violent mob. They attacked his father
in front of him. He shot and killed the guy beating up his elderly father. The local prosecutor
wouldn't prosecute the case. They got one of George Soros's attorneys, who was like a higher-level
state attorney, and they cooked up a hate crimes investigation.
They go to Jake Gardner until he committed suicide.
God rest his soul.
Anne Coulter is written about this.
And then after he committed suicide, a member of the Nebraska State Senate
actually went and gloated on Twitter that he was dead.
I mean, I'm not familiar with this story.
Jake G-A-R-D-N-E-R, look up Ann Colter's story about it.
He was goaded to suicide by being prosecuted for defending himself and his father
against a member of one of the Black Lives Matter moths.
And we're supposed to forget him.
We're supposed to let them send Kyle Wittenhouse to prison.
They don't want an individual American citizens to protect themselves against tyrannir of crime.
They want us to be completely subject and helpless.
It's unbelievable.
much is going on, I should say that I don't think I told you. YouTube has banned us for a video that
we put on with Michelle Bachman from right after the election. YouTube has said because of that,
which they found, you know, they looked for it now, okay, in March. They said we can't post
anything for two weeks, which is really devastating to us in many ways. And so I want to tell people,
If you want to watch John Zmirak on this program, you have to go to Rumble or just go to my website,
Eric Mataxis.com and sign up for the newsletter, and we will send out newsletters with links to all of these things.
John, we've just got 30 seconds left.
What do you see happening in the next month in the United States of America?
Well, we'll see if the filibuster survives.
We'll see if we can stop HR1 from giving us a Venezuela and electoral system.
If that happens, American politics are over.
They're just over.
It's just a matter of thing.
Michelle Bachman spoke about this very recently,
and we're going to play that audio on this.
Get in touch with your senator.
In the next couple of days.
Make sure your senator fights against HR1,
which is just electoral fraud on a massive scale.
No question.
It's the end of honest elections in America.
John, we love having you on.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I walked out this morning,
and I rode down this morning.
I just can't remember who to send it to.
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Folks, we no longer have John Zemirak, but we've got something I think is better.
We're talking to our friends at the alliance defending freedom.
Actually, nothing's better than John's Merck. I take it back.
But perhaps equal. Our friends of the alliance defending freedom, they're heroes,
They're standing up for religious liberty.
They're fighting at the Supreme Court without them, frankly, I don't know where we would be.
Today we have Senior Counsel Kate Anderson.
Kate, welcome the program.
Thank you for having me.
I want to talk to you about the Chiquet case of the Supreme Court, but I also want, if you could just mention the Stand for Freedom initiative, so my listeners are kind of keen on what that is.
Absolutely.
Well, Alliance Defending Freedom has a Stand for Freedom campaign.
we're watching the actions and the orders and some of the appointments coming out of the Biden administration
to make sure that we are standing for freedom for each of our constitutional freedoms.
People can find out more about that campaign and that initiative at ADFlegal.org
slash stand for freedom.
ADFlegal.org.
I hope people listening will go to ADFlegal.org and check out what it says about stand for freedom
because what's going on with this administration is horrible.
horrifying, and that's putting it nicely. So what happened to the Supreme Court yesterday, Kate Anderson?
Well, we had a wonderful win from the Supreme Court, an 8-1 decision for our client, Chiquet Uzabunum.
The decision stands for the principle that government officials need to be held accountable
when they violate someone's constitutional rights. That's something that we can see in all areas of life.
But certainly with Chiquet, it was the college officials at his campus, tried to take away his
free speech rights and were successful in doing so. The case went through years of litigation and
ultimately landed at the Supreme Court with a great win for free speech on college campuses,
as well as for all Americans, because it's important. Whenever a government official violates
our important freedoms, they need to be held accountable and the courts need to have a mechanism
to do so. And now we saw the Supreme Court coming out strong on that issue.
So explain this to us who aren't familiar with it. I did read about this briefly yesterday,
but I assume most of my listeners didn't.
It went to the Supreme Court recently,
but this happened a number of years ago.
So where did this happen and what was the case?
What was the issue?
So Chiquet Uzabunum was a college student
at Georgia Gwinnett College in Georgia.
He wanted to share his faith with his fellow students
by publicly speaking with them on college campus,
engaging people in conversation.
Well, his college stopped him from doing this twice.
First administrators told him
that he couldn't speak in just a public part of campus.
he had to reserve a time and get advanced permission to use one of two tiny speech zones.
Those are small areas of campus that make up, well, if you're standing on a football field,
it would be like standing on a piece of notebook paper.
And they were only open just 10% of the week.
So he did what they asked, and he got time in one of those zones and went there to speak.
But then two campus police officers stopped him, took his ID,
and then told him that he couldn't speak anymore in that area because someone had
complained. And so they effectively shut down his speech where he just wanted to
peacefully share his faith with his fellow students. And he wasn't able to speak at all on campus.
This is still outrageous. I'm just stunned at what you've just said. First of all, the idea that
you can't share your faith, it's obscene. This is the United States of America. People share the
most vile, destructive ideas. So here he is trying to share his faith, which presumably most
Americans share in one way or another, and the college steps in and tells him, you can't do this.
When you talk about the larger case that was at the Supreme Court yesterday, what was it when you said
administration officials, you mean college administration officials? Is that it?
Yes, college officials stopped him from being able to share his faith. And then when they were
challenged in court on the issue. First, they said that the Constitution didn't protect his speech,
which is just ridiculous. And then they decided to change their policies and tried to say,
no harm, no foul, because the policy had changed going forward. But Chiquet lost that moment,
and he lost the ability he had since graduated. So he lost the ability to share his faith on
campus and his rights were violated, and that mattered. And that's the issue that went to the court.
Do government officials have to do something? Do they owe something to that victim when they violate
constitutional rights. And the court eight to one said that they do. I mean, the eight to one is the
stunning part of it to me. It's one thing for a majority to uphold basic rights. But eight to one,
what do you think can account for that? First of all, who was the dissenting vote?
Chief Justice Roberts was the dissent, and certainly he had his own view of the case, but it was
a strong majority here from justices that are not always in agreement on things. And that was something
we saw as a theme in this case. We had broad support across the ideological spectrum,
from the ACLU to the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty. Groups weighed in and filed
friend of the court briefs with the court asking the horse to weigh in on this important issue
and to defend all of our constitutional rights. Because anytime a government official
violates constitutional rights, there's serious harm to the victim and that needs to be remedied.
Now you say government official. So how was it a government official? It was not an official at
the university? It was a public university. So the college officials are government officials.
Okay. So this seems to be the issue here. In other words, if I have a business, or even if I'm a
football, I have a football team, I can say it would seem to me like this is not a public space,
right? You're getting paid. You're here. You can't do whatever you want. You can't wear a t-shirt that
says Jesus loves you, whatever. You've got to wear the uniform. You've got to, you know, you're doing a job.
is not public space. When you're dealing with the university, it seems to me that ostensibly they
could make that case, that they would say, this is not a public place. This is this place. People pay
money to come here and to learn and we set the rules, and those things don't apply to us.
Is the issue that this was a public university, that this is a government-run institution?
Well, certainly our constitutional rights need to be respected by government officials. They're there to
protect those rights, not to take them away. And so when public universities, that is something
that is government run. It's public university. Those college officials need to respect students'
rights and freedoms. College campus should be a place where future leaders can explore ideas
and debate things that are important to them. That's something that we should want on college
campus. And all too often we're seeing across the country, college officials use their authority
to squelch speech and to hurt freedom on college campus.
And so this decision is another mechanism and a loud voice from the court that that's something that can't be done anymore.
I'm kind of stunned that the ACLU weighed in.
Did they file an amicus brief?
Was that their role here?
Yes, they filed an amicus brief for a friend of the court brief.
And we did see broad support because this is an issue that reaches across the ideological spectrum.
No one should have their constitutional rights violated by government officials and then not have any ability to remedy that violation.
If we don't hold government officials accountable, it emboldens them to violate further rights.
And it basically makes our rights worthless.
And so that's why it's so important that we protect these freedoms.
Well, it's thrilling.
Congratulations to the Alliance defending freedom and congratulations to the citizens of the United States of America.
This is a big deal.
Let me ask you, will this have an effect on other universities?
I mean, it seems to me that what's going on at universities around the country, whether they're, you know, state-run,
private, it really is obviously against the basic idea of what a university is, much less,
you know, free speech. Does this send a message to other universities? How does this,
how does that work? Well, I would hope that it sends a message to all government officials.
Our constitutional rights are priceless. They are valuable and government officials should
protect them. So I think that's something that is important on college campus in particular,
because it's a place where we see some of these violations coming up, but really everywhere.
in our life. We've said early on that we thought that a win for Chiquet was going to be a win for
everyone, and this court decision certainly is a win for everyone. It's just fascinating to me because
I think that what's happening now with this draconian suppression of basic rights, it forces us,
who are not legal scholars, to think about these issues and think about, you know, what are my rights?
These are things most of us take for granted because we've always had them. We've never had to
contest, you know, whether I can speak about what I believe or something like that. And so in a
situation like this, I assume that at a private university, it would be different, that the rules
would be different or no? Well, there are differences between private and public universities and
how constitutional rights play out. There are other laws that come into play in some cases with
private universities, but certainly on a public campus, we should have every expectation that
students are free to speak and to engage in these kinds of debates.
Georgia Gwynette College and others were actually warned about the policies that became in play
here. They were told that these policies were unconstitutional and yet they continued them
forward, violated Chiquet's rights and then only changed them after they were called on it in
court and then tried to just say that there was no remedy, nothing for Chiquet because they wouldn't
violate people's rights in the future. And while that's certainly an important part of this,
They shouldn't be violating other people's rights.
There was real serious harm done to Chiquet, and we're glad that the court recognized that.
Well, that is amazing.
So does he get a payout somehow?
How does that work?
So what was requested was nominal damages.
It's a dollar, but it's an important dollar.
And that's what we've used in the court system to account for.
It sends a message.
We're out of time.
Kate Anderson, God bless you.
We are grateful to the Alliance,
defending freedom. I want to tell people you can go to ADFlegal.org, ADFlegal.org, please go there,
and you can call them 655-5-5-5-4-7-5-4-7-5-4-7-53. We'll be back with my friend Bruce Fogartney.
Folks, welcome back. Do you remember what I said? You remember what I said? I said that I would
have my friend Bruce Fogarty on to talk about this insane idea, Easter crosses, and here he is.
Bruce Fogarty, welcome.
Eric, it's always a pleasure to be with you ever since I met you on a cold, rainy night
in New York City probably, what, 15 years ago?
Isn't it wild? It's wild. And we've been friends for a long time. You, of course,
live in Dallas. And I just want to say that when I heard about this Easter Cross idea,
I kind of flipped out because this is the sort of thing that I think I wish somebody would do
that. And it turns out that my friend Bruce Fogarty is doing that. So let's start from the
beginning, how did this idea come to you and explain the idea? Because it's amazing.
Well, it started with making a nice real estate commission in 1984 where I did the only
smart thing you do is you travel. So I planned a three weeks a month trip to Europe with my
recent bride, Mary Jane, and I asked my parents to go for part of the trip. And the only place
my dad wanted to go was Normandy.
He had been in the Naval Air Corps, and he wanted to go to Normandy.
So on their anniversary, October 15th, 1984, Bluebird Day, we walked out on Omaha Beach.
I saw all those white crosses.
You know, if anyone's been there, you've seen saving private Ryan.
It's just amazing sight.
It's really staggering.
So I went home.
And the next Easter, I thought, you know, wouldn't it be.
cool if enough process could be gotten out demarking the home of a follower of Jesus than a
grave. So every year for the next 19 years, I thought this. And finally, in 2005, I'm kind of like,
I'm a little worse than Samuel. I think Samuel had the three, three times, you know, I said,
Lord, if you're in this, okay, it's your idea. I don't want to do what's my idea. So before Easter,
1995 by about six weeks before Easter, I mean, I started designing crosses.
And I had the, I had the Arthur Blessed Cross, you know, the Giant Cross.
I had the bitty-bitty cross that, you know, I wondered if it was, you know, you can hardly see it.
But I came up with this design, which is 20, which is stayed the same.
This is the 16th year.
Same size.
And the big idea was, you know, you saw the white crosses.
but this has the stakes on it.
The crosses go out,
black side out,
on Palm Sunday for a week.
And then the big reveal,
drum roll, come on.
You turn it on Easter for the good news.
Listen, this is,
there are a lot of people I know
who already know about this,
and they're now thinking,
oh, that's the guy,
that's the guy behind it,
because this has been going on
all over the country,
but there are parts of the country
where people don't know anything about this.
And I know,
know because of COVID, you know, people, it's just such a bizarre year. I thought we need to talk
about this and we need to talk about it with enough time so people can do this. And actually,
I don't want to forget to say this. Churches need to do this. Churches can order a bunch of these,
give them to your parishioners. The idea of putting a, you know, you know, Bruce, the reason this
is so brilliant, you already know this, but it just struck me that the simple,
idea, the simplicity of a white cross on your lawn on Palm Sunday for that week, for Holy Week,
it's so subtle, but it's powerful. It's not a big sign. It's not a big crazy thing. It's beautiful.
It's subtle. You know, we have, I don't know, 300 million Americans who believe in Jesus. And it's
just so simple. But then the idea that on Christmas morning, boom, it says he has risen. Look,
Easter morning, Easter morning.
I got, we can do Christmas.
Did I say Christmas?
Yeah, Easter morning.
Yeah, I meant to say St. Patrick's Day.
No, honestly, but it's such a simple, beautiful idea.
Honestly, I want to give you, congratulate you on it because a lot of times those of us who want to share our faith, we struggle how to do it in a way that's appropriate, how to do it in a way that's, that's simple, that's subtle, but powerful at the same time.
So this to me, if I can say so, you're brilliant, but this seems like a God idea from my point.
It is a God idea.
So again, 20 years, finally, God said, you want to do it?
You won't probably get someone else to do it.
But you're right.
We all, anyone who professes Christ has the privilege, I say privilege and responsibility,
but privilege most to share our faith.
And what is great about the Easter Cross witness is that for those who are charged,
timid, they can participate, and they might not have the gift of evangelism, they can invite their
neighbor to church.
They can do that.
And there's some guy at church who probably might have better gifts of apologetics or evangelism.
So this is something where the timid can come along and share.
And what's, and Jesus probably isn't going to ask you about, you know, the lost, people don't know Jesus in Sicilian.
He might ask you if you get around.
But I think he is going to ask us about our next door neighbor.
I mean, place is important.
You know, God puts us in a place for a reason.
And this is a simple way to do that.
And it also, in some communities where this is taken over,
and I mean taken over, it's like one, across and every third yard,
something can be.
Not only does X mark the spot of a follower Jesus,
but without a prospect, X might mark the spot of someone who you can pray for.
And it has been, it's a tool.
I mean, that's what I share that the Easter rush, which is it's not plastic.
Actually, we're going to go to a break.
We've got more time with you, but people can go to Eastercross.org.
Eastercross.org.
I want to say that.
We're going to come back.
We got plenty more time.
But folks, if you want more information, go to Eastercross.
org you got to you got to fly your freak flag folks the time has come in america eastercross
dot org we'll be right back with my friend bruce fogerty
good bye to all my sorrow and by tomorrow on my way
folks uh you might not know this but spring is coming uh and every spring typically
we celebrate easter did you know that yes that's what we do a lot of us do anyway and my friend
Bruce Fergitie and Dallas has come up with an idea that I just think is so beautiful.
It's so beautiful.
It's so subtle and bold at the same time.
Seriously, Bruce, I guess that's why these things are so popular in certain areas, just because there's nothing like it.
The idea of putting this subtle white cross on your lawn.
And it's also provocative.
People are like, hey, what's that?
You put it up on Palm Sunday, and it's there all week.
And then Easter morning, Shazam.
you flip it around and it says Christ is risen or what I mean it's just so it's just it's just
beautiful and I how many states I mean this must be like all over the country by now I've
shipped crosses to every state I believe maybe maybe not maybe not North Dakota North
Dakota ends come on but every state you got to step up North Dakota step up man and also
printed crosses in Spanish Spanish church a resuscitado
And we got the air of Texas special.
All you Orthodox Christians, you have another month, you know.
I don't know if you do that, but orthodox is you have to.
Christos Anesti, alitos Anesti.
Topis stevete.
That is so beautiful.
That means Christ is risen.
And then alitosenesti means truly he is risen.
You know, Bruce, we talked about this.
I sometimes think that there are certain people who they're big on evangelism,
certain churches they're big on it and other churches they're not good at it. This is a way for
everyone to share your faith. Folks, if you don't share your faith, I just want to ask you,
what kind of faith do you have? It's kind of like having a billion dollars in your pocket and there's
hungry people everywhere and you're not peeling off a couple of bills. What is wrong with you?
Do you not understand that they're hungry people? Do you not understand the billion dollars in your
pocket is not just for you to have in your pocket? That's evangelism. And so this is an idea
Bruce, and you know, forgive me. It's why I wanted to have you on because there's almost nothing I can
think of like this. Anyone can do this. Any Catholic, any Greek Orthodox, and I want to say to my Greek
Orthodox brethren, why aren't you doing this? Why are you hiding your light under a bushel? Do you not
believe Christos Anesti? Maybe you don't believe it. Well, I don't know why you go to church if you don't
believe it. But if you believe it, don't you want to tell the world? And it's kind of cool, too,
that Greek Easter is often a different time this year.
It's like a month later.
Can Greek order the Christi be able to share your faith with the Christosanesti crosses?
Do you have those this year?
Yes, but it's a little bit of, I need a special order.
They can email me at info at Easter crosses,
Eastercross.org, info at Eastercross.org.
Yes, for those who want the Greek crosses.
Okay.
Anyway, I just love this that every single church,
It doesn't matter what kind of a church you go to, a megachshar, congregational, Methodist, Catholic, whatever.
We celebrate Easter together, unless you're a freaky, you know, Greek Orthodox like us.
But the point is that it's such a beautiful thing when you're driving around and you see these things and they represent all these different churches.
So again, forgive me for raving.
But there's so few things like this, Bruce.
So when you told me about this, I thought, so you're that guy and you're doing this.
And you've been doing this since 2005, you said?
That's the first year.
After thinking about it for 20 years, so again, I was a little slow in the uptick,
but I know it's not my idea because Eric realized, now, how many,
there's 33,000 plus denominations globally.
Okay, yeah, 33,000.
Martin Luther started it, you know, and had one little crack in the windshield and plus the Orthodox.
And the primary, one of the purpose of this is to unify, unify the church so we can celebrate together and testify.
Unify the church.
I have a saying, I have a saying, I like theology and philosophy.
You do too, a little bit of history.
Too much theology kills you and too little theology kills you.
I was just at a breakfast with a wonderful ministry, you know, talking about this.
And so Jesus is coming for a bride, not a harem.
Okay?
It's coming for a bride, not a harem.
And we've got a harem.
And often we don't even like each other, sadly.
We need to love each other.
And in these times of COVID and his increased persecution around the world,
we need the family, the distant cousins need to come together on what's important.
And what's important is the resurrection, because without that, we got nothing.
We're toast.
You know, you know.
So the joy of this is, is, various churches in small towns, you get the Baptist, you get the Methodist, you get the Methodist, you get the Presbyterian, you got the wild charismatic, you got the Anglicans, you know, and you get them, and everyone, the only qualification for participating this is you have to believe that Jesus.
Jesus really rose from the dead, one, and he earned the right to forgive the sins of those you call on them by faith.
That's it.
That's, you know, now, if you're a church that doesn't necessarily believe in the resurrection, you're a Kiwanis club with the choir.
There's some out there, you know, we want you too.
But you know, Eric, that Paul, Apostle Paul said, if Christ isn't risen from the dead, we're still on our sins.
and the purpose of this, it's not an Easter cross,
it's the Easter cross witness,
because it's the prayer as the crosses go up.
The Holy Spirit, we use this to stimulate.
I have some, I need to write a book about all the people who called me
who have said that, you know, this is stimulated conversation.
One interesting story.
A woman in the first year, maybe a second year called me up,
She said, you know, I've been wanting to witness to my neighbor, and I didn't know how.
And some two or three days after Easter, she saw this woman dragging her son kind of up the side, up the side of her front door,
knocking it in the door.
And she looked, she recognized her neighbor.
And she said, you know, they knew each other, but weren't friendly.
And she, and her neighbor said, would you please tell my son what that cross is all about?
He's been bugging me all week.
kidding i love that we're gonna listen we're gonna drag you uh into hour two uh and after we talk in
hour two our friend john smirak is coming on folks this is a crazy day uh stick around we'll be back
not you're in love with me that's candy it's tastes it's on that old wheel is gonna roll around once more
when it does, it will even up the score.
Help.
I wanted to start out on a positive note.
We need your help.
We need you to go to our website, metaxistalk.com.
Can you do that?
Mataxisotestalkis, M-E-T-A-X-S, metaxistoc.com.
There's a banner, food for the poor.
Oh, you like to listen to Johns Merak, right?
We've had them up until now, and we'll have them again.
As soon as I'm done talking in this segment with Alba,
But in the meantime, we just got to remind you, food for the poor, we're doing a very, very important fundraise with them.
There are folks in Honduras going through hell right now.
They can't feed their kids.
We can do something about it.
You can help us.
Go to metaxistalk.com and click on the banner.
Every $37 feeds a kid for six months, which is stunning that Food for the Poor is able to do that.
Albin, we are also offering everybody who donates anything will get put in the hopper for one of our five grand prizes.
These are pretty special folks, sign books, my new signed book, my old sign books, Albin's books, everything, T-shirts, hats, da, da, da, five of those are going out.
But we haven't mentioned this.
Anybody who gives $100 or more, you will get signed up.
for Metaxus Super.
That is, you get audio of this program with no commercials, yada, yada, yada.
You do the math, folks.
Yeah, yeah, and you get some other surprises at Metaxus Super as well.
And don't forget, anybody that signs up any amount, I'm sorry, anybody that donates any amount,
you get the big box of prizes, includes hamster homes, includes fish out of water,
includes a lot of Eric signed books and hats and T-shirts and mugs and things like that.
And I sign them very legibly.
You too.
Very legibly.
I don't type legibly, but I write legibly.
So, Albin, this is kind of exciting.
Also, I want to say, you know, when I said help, it's not just help food for the poor.
We need your help because we're being canceled.
YouTube has shut us down for another two weeks.
So people go to YouTube and there's nothing there.
It's kind of a bummer.
So we're asking you, please sign up for my newsletter.
So we'll send out all our videos that way instead of you're going to YouTube.
But the newsletter is at ericmetaxis.com.
Lots of folks aren't signed up for that.
And trust me, folks, you're missing some really cool stuff, ericmetaxis.com.
I should also mention another way to help us is if you go either to my store.com or
my pillow.com, use the code, Eric.
Tell your friends.
I don't know what code you're using if you buy sheets or if you buy my books at my store.
come you want to use the code eric um but albin we really forgot to mention the dog beds oh yeah dog bed oh yeah
and john smirak swears by it as well if you uh if you think you're a dog or perhaps you have a dog
around the house you want a dog bed they come in all kinds of sizes uh colors only one shaped it's the dog
bed shape it's the official dog bed shape it's legally required but the point is that the dog the dog
the dog beds or the pet beds or whatever they call them the pet pillows the dog i don't know what they are
but they're fantastic my pillow.com has them they've got all kinds of stuff there which is why
i thought i should mention the pet the pet pillows because a lot of people forget you know you're
looking for pet pillow where would you go my pillow dot com but mike lindel has been horribly canceled
and i feel i say this over and over and i will continue saying it anybody who is canceled
I immediately think, how can I support them?
It's just something, it's the least we can do during these crazy times.
And as I said, YouTube has canceled us for two weeks and we're not able to post anything.
We lose advertising revenue because that's one of the ways that we're able to make this show work and pay our engineers and producers.
So if you go to mypillow.com or my store.com use the code Eric.
And obviously, you're supporting Mike Lindell.
And that's it. We're going to be back with John Znerak.
