The Eric Metaxas Show - Leah Farish

Episode Date: June 21, 2024

Writer, advocate, and podcaster with over 25 years of experience as a civil rights litigator joins us to discuss the American Church drifting from the biblical view. 

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Do you like your gravy sick and rich and loaded with creamy mushrooms? If no one was looking, would you chug the whole gravy boat? Chug, chug, chug, chug. Stay tuned. Here comes Mr. Chug-a-lug-lug-lug. himself, Eric Mattaxas. Hey there, folks.

It's been a while since we did an Ask Mataxis segment, and we thought we would remedy that right now. Yeah, we've actually gotten a lot of questions from the listeners over the last month or two, and it's been a while. So we actually have a lot more than these, but we're going to. But we're just going to start. We're just going to start, yeah. The journey of a thousand miles must begin with one step. Yeah, one question. All right. So we'll just jump in. This is from Gerald. That's his name. And Gerald asks about your book, Religionless Christianity on page nine. I'm confused with the use of your word, mythical. Quote on page nine, all the events of scripture are mythical. What does that mean? Also, the next sentence is confusing because it says something about events and time and history. How can they be mythical and then actual events? So in one hand, you use it.

say that things are mythical, but then you say they're actual. What does that mean mythical? Well, this is a good question because it reveals that most people misunderstand what mythical means. Yeah. And I'm not saying mythical. I'm saying mythical. Like Mike Tyson would say mythical. No. Okay. In order to answer this question, I have to bring up C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis was aware of Norse myths. He loved these myths, whether about Odin or Boulder or whatever. And his friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, said to him that the story of Christ is just like one of those myths. It's mythical, except it actually happened in history. In other words, something, if you think mythical means never happened, you don't understand the term mythical. Mythical, maybe another way to put it would be to say it's archetypal, but let's face it, the story of Jesus of God coming to earth in human

form of being murdered and rising from the dead, it's not just a story. It's, beyond a story. Like, yes, it actually happened in history, but it also is mythical. It's part of, so the term... It doesn't mean make-believe, and I think maybe that's what he's thinking. The term make-believe, or I'm sorry, the term mythical doesn't mean didn't happen. So when somebody says, ah, that's just a myth, they're sort of misusing the term myth. When you use the term myth in that sense, I get what you mean. Would you say they would be mything the point?

Yeah, they'd be totally, totally mything the point. point. Thank you very much. So, yes, something can be mythical, archetypal. I mean, when you think of Adam and Eve and the garden and whatever, that's mythical, but it also happened. There are things in scripture like that. They partake of the mythical, and yet they actually happen. So when people say, oh, that's just a myth, they're basically misusing it. They're mything the point. Thank you, Chris. You were. I was Father's Day this weekend, so I figured I had an allowance to... You had a dad joke in your pocket. Yeah, that's right. All right. Next question. Hopefully there's some more puns in here.

I was wondering, this is from Austin, a listener named Austin. I was wondering if there were any comments on Dietrich Bonhofer being a universalist, not holding to the inerrancy of Scripture. I'm a big fan of you and your works and was shocked when I found this out and wondered if you had any comments. Yeah, my first comment is, I hate questions. like that. Oh, okay.

When people say, what is it holding to the inerrancy of Scripture? It already sounds like unpleasantly theological, holding to the inerrancy of scripture. But let me say this. Bonhofer early on was not the guy who he became. So where he was at the end of his life on some of these things, I think was different from where he was early on. it's not clear that he is the universalist or that he didn't hold to the inerrancy of scripture.

People state that like it's some kind of fact. And I don't think that that's quite the case. But I also think that you have to remember he started out his life in these very liberal theological circles where he might have exceeded to the idea that there are errors in scripture or whatever. So I don't know. But what I find interesting is how some people automatically go like, like he's working for the devil because he got that wrong or he got, you know. So I think that that is something that if you are looking for reasons to hate Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

you know, that's kind of like saying like, I'm looking for reasons to hate Washington. What do you got? Well, he owns slaves. Okay, I'm good. It's really not fair in the case of anybody to judge them on one thing. But it's particularly unfair in the case of Bonhofer, because it seems to me that if he ever was guilty of those two errors, it seems to me that he ended up in a different place.

But again, if you look at the man's life, I recommend, because of where we are in America today, I recommend now would be a good time to dust off your copy of Bonhofer, Pastor Martyr, Prophets, spy by Eric Metaxus, because when you get the full story of Bonhoffer, you can pretty much answer these questions for yourself. Well, people's ideas and people's viewpoints on things grow and change and evolve. When I was five, I wanted to be a gas station attendant because I saw all that cash he got to carry around with him.

I thought that was really cool. Yeah. And that's who you are. You can't walk away from that, Chris. That is who you are. All right, I got to go. I got to go do that then. But, you know, you change.

You're like, you have kids. You're more lenient as a parent. You know, when I was younger, I believed in, you know, spanking a child. And now I believe that light murder is okay. Light murder. Light murder. A mild choking. Like it just happened.

It just happened. What are we going to do? All right. Next question. Next question. I mean, six kids will do that to you. This is from someone named Ted. Let's see.

Make sure I got the right one. Dear Eric, first I want to say how truly I appreciate everything you've done ever since the cartoon show. My daughter was very young then and appreciated Veggie Tales. I have read many of your books and find your work. I invented the character of Phil Fisher. Most people don't know that. He goes on to say, I was wondering what is your opinion?

of the tension between the ideas of Lev Shestov, Kirkegaard, Dostaski, and more traditional views such as C.S. Lewis and Frances Schaefer. What? I guess he's asking what, you know. The tension between the what? C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaefer and people like Kierkegaard and Doste. But what aspect of Kierkegaard? Sort of like traditional.

Before Kierkegaard, there were some adjectives. Lev Shestov. No, they were before that. Oh, just what the tension. The tension, because they're two sides. I guess I'm going to have to say pass. I'm going to have to say pass. And then he goes on to ask.

Well, obviously, look, obviously, you know, Francis Schaefer and C.S. Lewis are people that I would, you know, I would tend to side with them. I'm not sure what the questionnaire is referring to. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure. And then he mentions Unseen Realms, a show, a few. ever seen some of that. It's a... No, no, no. I'm a... I watch a lot of all in the family. Yeah, I don't think you've seen it. I've seen it actually. It's quite good. I was hoping that the, I'm blanking on the guy's name, but he was basically a, kind of a pastor type who would sort of delve into questions in the Bible and other... Oh, Heiser. Yeah, Heiser. Michael Heiser. Oh, right, right, right. He was great. He passed away, sadly, last year of cancer.

Very sudden... Actually, yeah, I did not know. He was kind of the only person that was brave enough to take on those subjects, I feel like, on a podcast, like, you know, kind of like that. He was almost like the X-Files. Like talking about the Nephilim and stuff? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sort of demons and aliens and sort of like what those could have been. Yeah.

All right. Do we have time for one more quick question? Yes. All right. Let's see here. There's a basically, I'll summarize it. What's going on with the Bonhoeffer film? Whoa.

Bonhofer film coming out. It's distributed by Angel Studios. It's coming out in November. You can look it up online. You can see the trailer. They're making a new trailer. It is so exciting. Now, it's not officially based on my book, but trust me, this is a great film, and it's been 12 years in the making.

It's actually so exciting. Thank you, whoever asked that question for asking, because it's hard for me even believe that we're finally at a place where I can say it's coming out and everybody in the world should see it. going to be opening in like 1,200, at least 1,200 theaters in the United States. And it's not like a fathom event. It's like going to be in theaters for a long time. And it's going to be in other countries. Very exciting. Check it out. Okay, I have never seen a discount this huge from Balance of Nature. And this discount is for a very limited time. So today is the day to order it. Look, if you've listened to me for any length of time, you've heard me rave about Balance of Nature's amazing fruits and veggie supplements. You've heard their customers rave about how much they

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That's discount code Eric to get 50% off your first order. percent off. This summer savings promotion is an extraordinary offer. Get 50 percent off your first set today using the code. Eric, you can go to balance of nature.com or call 800 24668-751. 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'll 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 p.m.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. in silver, no matter how small or large, with a few clicks, visit legacy pminvestments.com to get started. You're going to love this free new tool they've added. LegacyPM Investments.com. Legacy PM Investments.com. Check it out. Folks, welcome back. I have as my guest now, Leah Farrish, F-A-R-I-S-H. She's the host of the podcast Conversation Balloons. She's a civil rights attorney.

I was on her podcast talking about my book, Letter to. the American Church and the new book, Religinalist Christianity. And Lydia and I got into such a wonderful conversation because she understands these issues. I said, I've got to have you on my program. So, Leah, welcome to this program. Thank you. I'm honored to be here, Eric. We were talking about a lot of things, but we were talking really, I mean,

the subject of my book, of course, has something to do with how, in a way, when we define the church, We have to ask the question, what is the church? It doesn't mean I go to some building, and so I go to a church or I go to. And what I keep talking about, and you were reiterating it as we had a conversation, it's so much more serious than that. And somehow the American church has drifted, and this is in the letter of the American church, I make the connection with the German church of the 30s, has drifted away from really the biblical view of being the holy remnant of God, God's people.

And it's just become less and less costly to call oneself a Christian. And so that's kind of at the heart of the conversation that we were having, you and I, when I was on your podcast. Yeah, you know, I was reading the book of Revelation, which, you know, is kind of like taking medicine without a prescription, but I was actually reading toward the end of the book the other day. And toward the end, it says, let the evil continue to be evil. Let the righteous continue to be righteous. And I thought, wow, I think I hear a door slamming here. I think this is the end of the opportunity that has been so graciously extended to people to be in the church.

But then I read the final closing of the Bible, which is, let everyone who thirsts come and buy water without price. And the spirit and the bride say come. And so there's this paradox in Christianity of the open invitation by grace and the fencing of the table, the requirement that we be perfect, which we can only fulfill through Christ's perfection. So it's a paradox that much of the world doesn't understand, but it's epitomized in something I've been studying, which is the use throughout church history of communion tokens that we don't engage in. anymore. And that's something I've got to tell your audience to be clear. Yes, I had never heard of this and I know you wrote about it. And I'd like to talk to you about anything. And this is just

as good a place as any to start. I mean, talk about this. Before you do, let's just say that communion, I mean, I grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church. Many people grew up in the Roman Catholic Church where there's something really sacred about communion. You're not drinking grape. juice. It's not a cracker. It's really sacred. And when I wrote my book on Martin Luther, I was astonished at how even as he pulls away from the Catholic Church, he has a very, very high view of communion, this sacred, sacred thing. And that has really staggered downward, stumbled downward, downward, downward, so that today, um, it just, it's, in many cases, it's, it's, it's almost like a nothing. It seems like, and, and that to me

is a metaphor for what it means to be a Christian. We don't take it seriously. We don't seem to have, you know, the fear of God that, that one ought to have. If you know the story of Martin Luther, when he performs his first mass as, as a, as a Roman Catholic priest, whatever, the fear of God and the sanctity of communion. So what is this practice? that you write about. I'd never heard about it until I read what you wrote. Yeah, and it's interesting because in 16th, 17th, 18th century, Scotland and some of Europe, one historian has said there was no more common object in the land than communion tokens. And they started actually in pre-Christian, Greece and Rome as little emblems of admission, permission to be admitted to perhaps secret ceremonies, to voting, to,

it was a certification, especially if one traveled from one chapter of an exclusive society to another, that I'm good to enter and participate. And there are church records from the Catholic Church that refer to token books that were kept. We don't have those objects, but it is said that perhaps the Knights Templar used them for admission as they traveled. and they didn't have, you know, the Internet and LinkedIn to, you know, vet people. And so these people would carry this around with them or be issued it upon being interviewed by one of the leadership. And how that developed in relation to communion was John Calvin, for example, suggested that we use what he called Merrot, which comes from the word merit,

that would be an object that would admit you to communion to show that you had examined yourself and been examined by an elder in the church so that you would not take communion unworthily. And then as it, actually, it never was used in his church, but it was already being used. elsewhere in Europe. And it was

used also not just for the process of spiritual admission to communion, but to keep out spies during the troubles in Scotland between the Catholics and Protestants

and the age of the covenanters. It was documentation without the document that I should be admitted to communion if I'm holding this object. And so some of the churches would print or manufacture these. They could be on lead or tin, just some inexpensive material, leather, perhaps, paper.

Sometimes the pastors would actually fashion them themselves and give them out. Other times they were, you know, there was. one communion celebration that was Protestant in the 1700s that had 2400 people in attendance. And so this was also something that pastors, especially when it started carrying over to America, pastors would carry supplies of these around to issue to people. after they had interviewed them. And so you see... The idea is that you would be interviewed to see that you were worthy of taking communion.

In other words, they weren't just going to say, everybody, come on down, you're welcome. They said, no, this is a sacred thing. You're not to take it unworthily. So we want to make sure that you've examined your conscience, that you've repented of sins, whatever it is. And you're saying, so the clergy would do this. And then once they did that, they would give you the token after which you could present the token to take communion. I mean, this is something I've literally never heard of, Leah.

And I'm just amazed that I've never even heard of this once until today. Yeah. And it was used the last I know in the 1900s at a Presbyterian conference in the U.S. and it was more of a souvenir at that point. But it was usually given by Catholics pre-Reformation on Easter, more as a souvenir after you had taken the Eucharist. Kind of like I voted, like a sticker that says I voted. But with Protestants, it was a condition of admission.

and one reason was that communion was not taken all that often and there would be a whole communion season. You would start with a fast day and then you would have a confession time. Usually on Friday was the fast day. Preparation day was Saturday. and usually then the elders of a denomination would come around on that circuit and do interviews. And they would make sure that... Forgive me. We're coming to a break here. We'll be right back. Folks, I'm talking to Leah Ferrish, F-A-R-I-S-H. We'll be right back.

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by 2030. Many of you take supplements already. Switch to Nutrametics. It's the highest quality, and they donate 50% of their profits. Get 15% off by using the code Eric during checkout. Go to Nutrametics.com and search health bundles, support your health while helping others in need. Go to Nutrametics. That's N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Neutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Nutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-D-I-X.com. Nutrametics.com, use the code.com.com, use the code Ericmedics.com, the code Eric for 15% off. Welcome back. I'm talking to Leah Farrish, who is a podcaster. The name of the podcast is Conversation Balloons, Civil Rights Attorney, many other things.

And Leah, we were just talking about this curious practice that you have written about about communion tokens. You just have been describing it, and you were just making a point, I guess, about pre-Reformation Catholicism. I mean, I remember growing up, even in the Greek Orthodox Church, there's a rather cavalier attitude toward communion. It's like, you're in church, yep, you go up and get communion. People aren't really talking about where are you prepared for communion?

Sometimes somebody might say something. But this is, this was to take that very, very seriously. And I guess I want to ask you the question of how did you come to? know about this or write about this? What led you to examine this? I was actually researching the origin of the First Amendment to the Constitution as a legal scholar, and I've written about that, too, finding out, by the way, that the operative wording of the religion clauses of the First Amendment were not written by James Madison. They come from the Westminster Confession of Faith

and subsequent Presbyterian actions and documents. And so I was researching that in Philadelphia, and I visited the Presbyterian Historical Society, and they had an exhibit on communion tokens. And like you, I had never heard of this, and found that in the Reformed Church, in the early, early Reformed Church, the earliest we know of is 1560, elders would come to a village and interview people for eligibility to take communion the next day. And so Saturday there was a whole communion season, and Friday would be a fast day.

Saturday would be preparation day where you were encouraged to examine your own conscience, but you're also encouraged by the elders to make peace with anyone who might have something against you, which the book of Matthew tells us to do, and nobody does it anymore. But it was a time of conflict resolution. It was a time of justice being brought about in the way. that community. You have to remember that back then there were no, you know, therapists, there were no mediation boards, there were no, there's no media to social media where you could air your grievances. And so people would tell the elders, you know, so-and-so here in the community cheated me

at the blacksmith shop or my husband has been beating. me or the woman next door and I, she always gossips about me. And these kinds of things would lead to church discipline, which was usually exclusion from communion. John Calvin said, don't stay away from communion just because you feel sinful. That's like not taking medicine because you feel sick. It doesn't make sense. But there is a place for the church to say, you're not walking worthy.

You're not conveying to the world the transformed life that Christ promises. And we're thinking you might benefit from standing aside and considering the importance of what you've done. and so this was an important process in peacemaking, especially among the Mennonites in the early American church. They would really use it for healing the community. And the closest I've come to it in my own life was one time there was in my church, many years ago, a business man, a professional man, and I as a lawyer worked with him on something.

And he didn't handle it quite right. He didn't feel like he'd handled it well, and I didn't particularly. But I didn't feel like it was a sin. I didn't have anything against him, but the result could have been better. And he was an elder in my church. And as he was handing me the elements of communion, he looked at me and whispered, Are we good? And I said, sure, we're good.

And so then he gave me the elements, but it was like, that was his quick way of doing a little conflict resolution. And I think that was precious. And it let him be vulnerable to me. It would have been hard to work out any differences right there on the spot. but the point is that church discipline can take a lot of forms, but it is suggested to us in the Bible to be hesitant about joining the table when you're not accountable to anybody,

and you're the sole arbiter of whether you're obeying God. And you may have a blind spot. and one time, Eric, I walked into a church in another state, and they were handing out these little plastic covered bread and grape juice as we walked in. We hadn't been told there was going to be communion. Well, hang out, Leah, forgive me. We're going to another break.

When we come back, we're going to hear this story. I'm talking to Leah Ferris. conversation balloons is the name of her podcast. We'll be right back. You might have heard Mike Lindell and My Pillo no longer have the support of their box stores or shopping channels the way they used to. Yes, it's because of cancel culture. But as a result, they get to pass the savings on to you directly by having a $25 extravaganza. When Mike started My Pillo, it was just a one product company. With the help of his dedicated employees, they now have hundreds of products, some you may not even know about. To get the word out, I want to invite my listeners to check out their $25 extravaganza. A two-pack multi-use, MyPillows, just $25. MyPillow Sandals, $25, there's six-pack towels, just $25. Brand-new, four-pack dish towels. You guessed it, just $25.

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Leah, so you're just telling the story that you were in another part of the world. You go to a church, you walk in, and they're handing, as you come in, they're handing out these little, what do we call them, these little plastic cups with the grape juice and the, the cracker. It's just there. I've been to many churches where that's the case. We're just there on your seed or whatever. So keep going. And so there was no, you know, explaining to me what it was or under what conditions I should partake of this.

I think that's, you know, one extreme. I think another extreme is keeping someone from communion when they've repented, when they're trying to be part of. of the larger body of the church, being judgmental, making it a permanent exclusion without hope. I don't see much of that happening. I see exactly the opposite happening. I think, for example, of people like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and others who say I'm Catholic and they go to get communion, and you think, my goodness, they are dramatically pro-abortion

in every way possible. And you would think that when you have a church like the Catholic Church, where you have real hierarchy and real rules or whatever, there's a place where it's not complicated where you get to say, if you want to partake of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, this sacred thing, you have to get right on some of these issues. And some of them are very obvious. And that, the one I brought up is very obvious. And it's astonishing to me this fake inclusivity, like, oh, we're open to every. everybody. And you think, well, if I just murdered my wife and you knew that and I show up, are you going to say, well, we welcome everybody here. Come on in. You know, you have to go through a process of repentance. My goodness. That to me is the larger issue today, that we don't really,

and this is, of course, true in many Protestant churches and evangelical churches, but particularly where it's clear in the Catholic Church, you see this over and over and over again, people who say, I'm a Catholic and they take communion and you think, wow, if ever there was a clear cut, easy way to enforce church discipline to say, well, no, one of the rules here is that we believe in the sanctity of unborn human life. And you have been a very powerful advocate against that. We have to fix that before you take communion. That to me has been the issue going, you know, way back to Teddy Kennedy at least and Mary Okomo, former governor of New York. Well, and some of the offenses that would keep one from communion back in Puritan days in this country were, you know, not catechizing your children. Your children would be interviewed about how you were treating them, how you were raising them. you would be asked before communion,

are your children able to recite the Ten Commandments? Are you praying with your children? Do they know their catechism? And so households were kept accountable for, you know, are they instilling this discipleship in their kids? and there was even a process of the way that you made them, you would often put a little sentiment like let a man examine himself or there would be a picture of the church on the token

or there would be other scriptures, give thy heart to God, or something concentrated little sentiment like that. There might be an image of the communion cup or a heart. And that would be a reminder as you hold it in preparation for communion of the seriousness of what you were doing. And there's a historian that says, through the acculturation of the church and the rise of liberal theology during the 19th century, communion tokens fell out of favor.

Socially, members came to see church discipline as unfashionable and judgmental. So that's kind of the trend, and now they're not used. But I think the process, at least, of examining yourself. and being accountable to others is still an important one. And I wish we hadn't lost it in so much of the American church. Well, it's just extraordinary to hear about this. And then it leads us into the larger conversation that we've been having. I just have to ask you, just got a couple minutes left real quick.

What is your story, Leah? Were you raised as a Christian or did that something happen to you later in life? I want to make sure. I always want to ask my guests that question. I was raised in a liberal Methodist church, which encouraged me to be very critical of the text of the Bible and very skeptical and to laugh at those who evangelized or who thought that Christ was the only way to salvation. and I got to go to an intervarsity Christian fellowship conference in Urbana, Illinois. And I was, they closed with a communion service, and John Stock was preaching, the great Anglican theologian. Wow.

And I looked at that little cup of grape juice with the 17,000 other college kids. that were there. And I thought, I wish I felt worthy to take this. But again, I'm not worthy to call myself a Christian. Wow. And I just felt a voice say to me in my head, you're not worthy. That's why I came and had to die. You have my worthiness.

You may take this. I asked you to take it. You need this. You need for my life symbolically to come in to your life. And that's when I feel like I kind of crossed over. That is. What a wonderful thing that, and it comes takes us right back to this issue of communion. Leah, I'm sorry we're out of time, but just a joy to see you and to talk to you and to let people know about you.

and conversation balloons, a very thoughtful podcast. I was privileged to be on to talk about my new book. Leah Ferris, thank you and God bless you. Thank you for having me on, Eric. God bless. Let me know everything's all right. Hey there, folks. Before we close out for the day, a couple things I need to mention.

I got to mention about running through brambles. I'll mention that in a minute, and I got to mention about staining the deck. I want to talk about that. But before I do that, I want to remind folks that our friends at Americans for Prosperity are on the front lines fighting against the border crisis. Yes, Americans for Prosperity Foundation has taken hundreds of concerned citizens to see the border for themselves, turning them into informed activists. Americans for prosperity knows what we need to deal with the border crisis. They understand we need more border agents, more wall, or more walls, more technology.

They actually organize and mobilize everyday Americans to make a difference in all of this kind of stuff. They've just announced a major campaign to hold Biden and his allies. It says allies in my copy. It should say cronies. Accountable for the crisis at the border. Learn more at SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com.

That's secureborder, secureamerica.com. And one more thing. Have you seen the film The Relentless Patriot? yet. We've had on the guy who made the film and we had on the subject of the film, Scott Lebedo.

It's called the Relentless Patriot. It is in theaters. People often ask me, Eric, what can I do? One of the things you can do. No kidding. Get out of the house and go see this film in a theater near you.

The Relentless Patriot. It's across the country. If we don't support films like this, we should not complain. This is an important film. It's made by Global Ascension Studios. They are Hollywood's first ever conservative movie studio. It's a gripping documentary about Scott Labetto as he champions American values through his art. He paints flags and he does crazy activists.

I don't know. They're almost like, it's almost like. performance art, yeah. So, but don't miss. And the art's incredible. I mean, it's really quite good. Yeah. So we hope that you'll support it during this Patriot, patriotic season, July, sorry, June 14th was Flag Day and Trump's birthday.

And obviously July 4th is coming up. So go to the Relentless Patriot. And, you know, again, people ask me always, what can I do? Well, I just, I tell you many things you can do. and I'm not blowing smoke. I hope you will see this film, The Relentless Patriot. I hope you'll support our sponsors, Mike Lindell. Mike, you can go to Mypillow.com and MyStore.com.

You can get almost all of my books there and the most gorgeous Bonhofer poster ever. These make great gifts, folks. Great gifts. I mean, the Bonhofer poster is just absolutely heavenly. But you have to go to MyStore.com. People know there's a Bonhofer movie coming out November 24th. It is fantastic.

It is Angel Studios, very exciting. Yeah, it's going to be good. I was just back to the movie thing. I mean, there's only so many hours in the day. My wife and I will sometimes, you know, scroll through the TV and try to find something to watch. But it's very clear that kind of the legacy media, they kind of hate us.

You know, they don't really need your love or help. And so when they're opportunities to sort of support things that actually align with your values and our values that it's important we support them. I should mention, I should remind folks, if you are interested in homeschooling your kids, or if you're interested in pulling your kids out of public school and finding a genuine Christ-centered K-12 education for your kids, the one place we are now recommending is Herzog Foundation.com.

We've gotten to know these folks, and they are all over this. It is spectacular. When people ask me what's happening in America, why I have hope, this would be one of the examples. The fact that somebody has funded the Herzog Foundation so that they can help Americans figure out how to homeschool their kids easily and get their kids. This is big stuff, folks. When people say, what can I do? This is what you can do is you can get involved in homeschooling your kids or any of this stuff. Go to Herzog Foundation.com.

I didn't want to forget to mention that.