The Eric Metaxas Show - Pat Boone

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

Pat Boone joins us to continue the conversation about his friendship with former President Ronald Reagan 

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And now here's your Ralph Cramden of the Airways, Eric Mat, Texas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the show. We call it the show. It's the Eric Mataxis show. Some people think they named it after me, but they didn't. It's just a pure coincidence. Somebody came up with the title.

They were able to track me down. They found out that my name was Eric Mataxis and said, we've got this show called the Arcton Taxis show. Your name, Eric Mattaxas. have you ever thought of doing radio? And I said, no, I spit on radio. I never would want to do radio. And they said, well, would you think about it?

And I said, yeah, I don't think so. I don't think so. Please don't bother me again. And they just kept coming back and they would keep sweetening the pot by saying, please, and crazy stuff like that. So eventually, I became the host of the Eric Mataxis show. And again, total coincidence. I just happened to be named Eric Mataxis.

and they had a show called the Irquintaxis show. So it was a fit. You know what I'm saying? It was a fit. It's so freaky, you know, in those, you know, books, as atheism had the odds of, you know, the earth and the moon being a certain distance. I ran the odds of this happening through chat, GBT, and they said it was one in 40. Right.

I don't know. I might have put it in wrong. Yeah. I think that might not be right. But anyway, there, since we're doing a show, I thought I'd have a guest on. And I thought in hour one. I would talk to maybe my favorite person to talk to

is Pat Boone. I talked to him a couple weeks ago and it was so great. I thought, can we get you on soon? Because I just want to talk to you about anything. I love Pat Boone so much. He's 90. He is sharp as the proverbial attack.

You do, and you know, I knew you liked him, but it wasn't until we actually got to hang out with him in person at NRB, a few NRBs ago. And I thought you were going to just explode. You know, you couldn't, you couldn't be with him enough.

You couldn't, you know, I turned it around and I was walking with you and you just disappeared. And then I saw like a guy in a white suit that was Pat Boone, you know, down the, you know, a mile away in this big convention center, you would sprinted down there like, you know, roadrunner. Like Jesse Owens. No, it's true. It's true. I really do feel a love for him because he is, you know, the perverse.

showbiz icon. I mean, this is a guy who has worked with people, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, anyone you can mention almost. And the fact that he is a friend of mine and that I can talk to him about anything, you know, so when people say, what is your favorite interviews, talking to Dick Cavett, talking to Pat Boone, it doesn't get better. It just doesn't. Mark Helprin is also in that group. the novelist Mark Helprin, you could just talk to him about anything and anybody. He knew everybody. And it's just pure fun. It's sort of like the Kevin Bacon, seven degrees of separation of Kevin Bacon, who's, you know, he's been in tons of movies.

Six degrees. Six degrees of separation. But with Pat, with Pat Boone, it's like, it's like one degree. Oh, no, it is. Maybe two. You know, it's insane. It is. He was friends with Ronald Reagan.

You know, I mean, this is like one step away from, you know, I shook Abraham Lincoln's hand. I mean, I don't know what to say. So anyway, in a couple of minutes, I'm talking to Pat. Now, on that with numbers, but is there any way that he also shook Abe's hand? I know, because I know he's getting up there, but it's probably not bad. Pretty sure that couldn't happen because Pat was born in 1934. And I believe Lincoln was shot just before that in 1865. Yeah.

So, yeah, so that probably didn't happen. I'm just guessing. Yeah. You know, I got to tell you that we're going on a cruise, Chris. Did I tell you about the cruise? Probably not. Hey, I'm excited. I fired up all my favorite old episodes of The Love Boat.

That used to be my favorite show when I was an unattended six-year-old watching hours of television in my basement. I don't know what my parents were doing, but I was watching the Love Boat, and I love that show because it was so funny. Well, let me just say that Fred Grandi, the former Croner, Congressman will not be on this boat. But listen, if the gopher decides to sign up, he might. He might listen to this program. And wouldn't that be fun? I actually, speaking of the love boat and cruises, Gavin McLeod, who played Murray on the old

Mary Tyler Moore show, he was Captain Steuben on the love boat, right? You know that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Did you know, he was in one of my favorite movies, The Party, starring Peter Sellers. Oh, that's a great one of my. that he was a born-again believer. And Gavin McLeod once was next to me at Redeemer Presbyterian,

back when I used to attend Redeemer. I look over in the aisle, there is Gavin McLeod, Captain Steubing, Murray on the Love Boat. There he is, and I got to talk to him. And anyway, he passed away recently, and so he will also not be on the cruise. But folks, you, you who are alive. I was helping to invite him. You could be on the cruise. And we're trying to get Hervey Villalcette.

He passed away. It's tough. These are all my favorite people. I know, but if you're alive, we want you to come on the cruise. So go to Ericman, Texas. Ericmantaxas.com slash cruise. Hey, boss. Dottoe.com slash cruise.

A tattoo, please be quiet. Ericmantaxas.com slash cruise. Now, I want to say that, I think I said this, right? That we've got, in hour one today, we have Papoon. in our two, we have Mel K, who is next level, forget it. Like, you just, you'll see, you'll see, right? Because I think that's who we're airing today, correct? Yes.

Yes. Anyway, all right, so very exciting. We have a lot of stuff next week. I'll save it. Next week we have somebody who was on the soprano who's come out as a very pro-freedom advocate. Yeah. It's going to surprise you, ladies and gentlemen.

You're going to be very surprised. It's not Pauli Walnuts. I'm just letting you know. So I don't get too excited. But basically, oh, actually, before I go, let me mention our friends at the Heritage Foundation. Folks, have you heard of Project 2025? I think you've heard of Project 2025 because Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz, the communist monsters who are, you know, wanting to take over America for China and the globalist elites. They don't like Project 2025, which is a good reason for you to love Projects.

2025. The Heritage Foundation has created it. You can find out about it at 2.5truth.com. Find out what's in it because it's exciting.25truth.com. Don't miss it. It's exciting. And I also want to say, I think I said this yesterday, we have so much coming up this fall. We've got a load of Socrates' events. Socratesin the city.com. Sign up for that, folks. Please. We're on Instagram. I'm on Instagram. We're trying to get the information out because there's so many great... But we're doing an event in Philadelphia in November. We're doing events in New York. We've got a gigantic gala in New York City, December 10th. Very exciting. It's a 25th anniversary. It really is unbelievable to me that it's 25 years. It's insane. It's insane. But it's 25. years since we've been doing Socrates in the city and we're having a gala. But to get all this information, you have to go to Socratesandcity.com, sign up for the newsletter. Also, you can sign up for Socrates Plus.

I've told you about that in the past, but all kinds of stuff is available to you if you sign up for Socrates Plus, including live streaming of all our events, if you can't get to the events. And if you go to EricMtaxas.com, you can sign up for the, you know, the newsletter where we basically send you all these interviews. Don't you want to see what Papoon looks like? Don't you want to see this stuff? So you have to go to EricMetaxis.com.

Sign up for the newsletter. We'll send out all the interviews. And when you go to EricMetaxis.com, you can find it about the cruise at EricMetaxis.com slash cruise. But my schedule at Ericmataxis.com, there is so much going on between now and December that, you know, you might want to change. check it out because I'm coming I'm coming to your town practically

I'm coming all over I'm going to I don't know how many places but it's probably you're going to Dallas you're going to be maybe in Phoenix you're going to be in California I'm going to be everywhere I'm going to be everywhere so I just want to tell

people that please don't you know don't forget it's kind of important that you know that I'm in your town so even if you can't come you know you can tell your friends you can get the word out because I hope I said it often enough. I love meeting people in the book line, whatever. We just, for me, it's a, it's a blessing. It's a blessing because right now I can't see you

or hear you. And I, I would, I'd love the feedback and I love the feedback. All right, we'll be right back. Are you worried about the future of the U.S. economy? With so much uncertainty in the air, it's natural to fret about the security of your retirement savings. But there's one asset that stands the test of time, gold. For centuries, gold has been a hedge against market volatility and economic instability. With a gold IRA from noble gold investments, you can harness the power of precious metals to help protect your financial future.

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Inspire advisors, biblically responsible investing, visit inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. That's inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Hey there, folks. Hold on to your hat because guess who my guest is. Did you guess Pat Boone? Yes, and he's wearing a hat. Pat, my friend, welcome back. I'm holding on to it.

It's a Greek fisherman's cap. I know you're wearing that in my honor. And you're also wearing a Slazinger tennis shirt. I happen to know that Slazinger. Yes, you do. Did you walk in my bedroom tonight? I am so, I'm just such a smart guy that I even know about Slashinger. Not to be confused with Kissinger, who may or may not be the Antichrist.

We don't want to get into that right now. No, no, that never has been resolved. No, never been resolved. And so you, look, I want to start, I want to talk to you about everything as usual, but let's start with you have an application for the job of President of the United States. What is that? What do you mean by that? You have an application. Well, any job that you're looking for, you know, small job, big job, whatever the job might be, you should fill out an application.

And I just happened to grab this for application for the President of the United States. I read you some of the requirements? Would you please? Have you ever been a mayor or chief executive of any government? This is now for the presidency of the United States. So have you ever run a company of any size? Have you ever been executive or chief operating officers, officer of any company, business or enterprise? And if you have to say no, well, then that may disqualified you for presidency of the United States. Ever run a school board, PTA or charity? ever studied medicine or been on a hospital board, ever studied economics or business administration, ever met in any capacity with any of the leaders of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or Hamas,

ever served as negotiator, chief, or otherwise with the head of another nation or large corporation, ever studied negotiation techniques and strategies? Can you describe in detail exactly what your duties and accomplishments were during the Biden administration, list in detail what you're doing now in your elected duty as vice president and current chief executive officer of the United States right now. What are you doing for us? Exactly what do you intend to ask or demand of the leaders of the other nations you will face? Since you were elected vice president and given charge of border by President Biden, how do you explain the 12 to 20 million illegal border crossings since you were put in charge? Do you intend to grant them all citizenship and

housing, hospitalization, and the right to vote in the coming in subsequent elections. What is your purpose in all of that? You know, this is very disturbing because if, you know, if Kamala Harris chooses to giggle in response to these, that really doesn't count. Giggling doesn't count. No. It's not looking good for her. But, Pat, you understand we're at a point in our nation where, you know, you know and I know,

and I think most Americans know that she's not qualified to be president, but it's not just because of all this stuff. It's for many, many other reasons. We're going through a tough time in this country. I talked to you last time you were on the program about your friendship with Ronald Reagan, who was a great man and a great president, who understood what was at stake and was willing to sacrifice. He really did understand.

the greatness of America. And I think the great presidents have always understood the greatness of America. The top of the list is Abraham Lincoln. But I want to say to my audience, in case they haven't seen it yet, folks, if you have not seen the Reagan film run, run to see the Reagan film. We talked about it last time, Pat, you were on the program. You're in the film twice. This is bizarre.

There's a character. You're in it. Pat Boone is in the film. but then you as an actor playing George Otis Sr. are in the film. So you're in the film twice in the same scene. That hurts my head to think about. While a young boy is playing Pat Boone and a young girl is playing Shirley in that same scene. So that's never, I don't know if it's ever been done in a film where I'm playing George Otis

and somebody else is playing me in the same scene. I mean, it's just amazing. But I just wanted to reiterate what a tremendous film it is. I had a guest on yesterday. He said, oh, I don't know. Is it any good? I thought everybody in the country should know that it's great and that they should see it. And I think you mentioned on the program last time that, you know, Randy Quaid, he should get a nomination for us. Dennis, Dennis, Dennis. I'm sorry, not Randy Quaid. Dennis, Quaid, yeah.

Randy's good, too, but he's not in the film. Right, right. Yeah, it's absolutely wonderful. Oh, he, when we were filming, as I think I told you, All the extras, other bit players on the film kept telling me, you know, we forget each day this is not actually Ronald Reagan. Because Dennis embodied him so in his characterization that they kept thinking that they were actually in scenes with Ronald Reagan himself. I mean, I think Dennis should at least get a nomination, if not the Academy Award for his characterization, which would have been impossible for anybody else. even his brother Randy. What do you think?

I mean, you've been in Hollywood for a long time. You live in Beverly Hills. My wife and I had the privilege of coming to your home. You've been in this world for such a long time. Was it always left-leaning? I mean, there was a time I know when, you know, there were some in Hollywood that were conservative, that loved America. But when did it really drift dramatically left?

because they seem to have gone so crazy there that it's hard to comprehend. Well, that happened during my early days. In fact, when I first came into the business, Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors' Guild, and he was fighting known communists then. And that's why he had to leave that job because the communists were coming on so strong in positions of authority. in the business. Now, when I say communist, they would not all have admitted to have been being communist, but they were definitely leftists. And at that point, about that time, the word communism became a little unpopular. And so they changed the word to progressives. That didn't

sound so bad, more left-leaning. But from then on, from that time on, Reagan actually left that position and left his acting career as well and wound up appearing in Las Vegas a couple of times and doing commercials. And then GE hired him to travel the country and make what was called the speech. Yeah. And said things like government is not the solution to our problems. Government, as he said, is the problem. And then from that, the pressure came for him to run for office, first governor and then president. But the leftists were already infiltrating, and you may remember a guy who wrote a book, you can trust the communist to do what they say, Fred Schwartz, had a doctor before his name, Fred Schwartz. You can trust the communists to do what they say.

It became very popular during that time. And Reagan happened to have been in a session in the sports arena, anti-communist convention taking place because society was beginning to try to come together to fight communism. And Reagan heard me say as a father of four girls

because there was a phrase going on across the college campuses right then better red than dead. You know, let's don't fight communists because, you know, they're powerful, they're strong and better be communist than to be dead. Better red than dead was a phrase

sweeping across the campuses. So when I got a chance to speak, I said I have four daughters at my home in Beverly Hills. I'm training the way I want them to go. But I would rather, if it comes to it, I hope it never will. I'd rather my daughters be blown into heaven in an atomic blast than taught into hell in the communist United States. Well, that was such a shocking thing to say. And it really impressed Reagan then as governor.

And later, he quoted it several times saying, I heard a young man say once. He didn't say it was me who said it because he knew that it would be controversial. Now, I'm guessing this would have been in 1964 when Goldwater was running. Yes, yes. Because the specter of a nuclear blast was very real. And they were trying to scare people into voting for that bum Lyndon Johnson. And I guess they succeeded. Mm-hmm.

Let me ask you. The phrase, better dead was it eventually went away, thank God. Well, I've heard it flipped. I've heard better dead than red, you know. I've heard it the other way. But let me ask you. Yeah, and that's what I was saying. Well, no, you were saying better red than dead.

In other words, people. No, I was saying better dead. My daughter's, I'd rather be. Right. That's right. Right. And in heaven, then taught into hell by the. communist. Well, we're going to go to break in a minute, but I guess where we are now,

and you know this and I know this, is that the Democratic Party once had people in it like John F. Kennedy Jr., who really was pro-American, pro-business. I mean, he may not be on the same page as we are or as Reagan was, but what we're dealing with in America now is a Democratic party that has been given over utterly to atheistic Marxists. We're dealing with folks that are dramatically leftist. There's nothing middle of the road. We're not talking about Tip O'Neill. We're not even talking about Bill Clinton.

That's what we're dealing with. And we come back, folks. I'm talking to Pat Boone. Don't go away. Hey, this is Eric Mettaxas. For years, I've told you about Nutrimetics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles,

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I'm talking to Pat Boone, ladies and gentlemen. And Pat, whenever I talk to you, I just think of all the folks that you've known. I just mentioned John F. Kennedy. Did you ever know President Kennedy? No. You know, I knew all the presidents except Johnson and Kennedy. And I don't know. In fact, I did meet Johnson.

But I never met Kennedy. And I don't know why. It just never, our paths didn't cross. But you knew everyone who knew him. You must have known Frank Sinatra, I'm imagining. Oh, definitely. All the rat pack, all the others who were very supportive of him. And I had very favorable feelings toward John F. Kennedy as president.

I mourned when he was assassinated. Yes, I knew that he had had what we would now call leftist leanings. He was very liberal. But I felt like he had served, you know, in PT109. He served in the Navy. and so he had been, he was a veteran. And so I trusted him, even though he had feelings that were much more liberal politically than mine.

So you did, but you said you knew Frank Sinatra. I'm always amazed by this kind of thing. Oh, yeah, certainly I knew Frank. That's okay for me to call him Frank. Because both he and Bing Crosby both in my early careers when I was recording rock and roll, which they hated. But then they really, they said so. But then I recorded some ballads like on Love Letters in the Sand and April Love.

And both of them said that they considered that Pat Boone might be our great white hope to save our music business. Well, that was availed. Well, today you wouldn't say the great white hope because all the music that was becoming popular was largely black. And I was singing it and having big hit red. records with rhythm and blues songs by black artists, Fats Domino, Little Richard, and groups like the Flamingos and the El Doradoes and the Four Tops. And I was singing their songs and having big hits with them. And eventually, Jesse Jackson said, oh, about four years ago when I did an album of R&B classics with the original performers, he said, I'm going to say something I've never said publicly before. This is Jesse Jackson.

And I think Pat Boone did more for race relations in the 50s than any other artist. Because he was a white guy from Nashville doing all these black songs. It was called race music. R&B music was called literally race music, black artists on black stations, black charts in the papers. And I was singing their hit songs, which, like with Fats Domino, his ain't that a shame, sold 150,000 number one R&B. That was huge. I recorded his song, Ain't That a shame? And it sold a million and a half as a pop rock record.

And it was ten times more than his had sold. But people thought and made the erroneous assumption that perhaps I was taking something from Fats and Little Richard. No, Fats said himself that he wrote the song. He published the song and he made more money from my record of his song than his own record. because he was writer, publisher of the song that I sold a million copies of, his song. And so that's why Jesse Jackson said he felt I did more to make black race music popular. And therefore, I would bring some of the original artists like Little Richard and Fats and others on my TV show and sing those songs with me, making it all palatable to big white pop audiences.

So your TV show, what was the name of your TV show? show. Was it just the Pat Boone show? Was the CBS hour? What was it called? Pat Boone Chevy show. It was Chevrolet sponsorship, Pat Boone Chevy Show. And this was in, what year? What year did that start? 55. No, I'm sorry. It was 57, 8, and 9. So you were right up against George Goebel? Yes, I was. I was. And a lot of, in fact, I brought black performers on my show who eventually had their own shows like Nat King Cole.

and of course it was a thrill to have Sammy Davis sing with Ella Fitzgerald I mean to sing with all these artists that they would come on my show sing with me as a peer as a somebody that's capable to sing I even scatted a little bit with Ella

and singing it with Nat King Cold How many people can say that they scattered with Ella? Well it was only like one or two phrases I threw in and I'm not sure you could properly call it scat But when I did it, Ella looked at me and says, oh, yeah, and she just kept going. Oh, my gosh. I'm thinking of Mel Tourmet, of course, when you bring this kind of stuff up.

It's an extraordinary era in music. I mean, the currents flowing back and forth. Obviously, you knew Elvis, and he was someone who also was popularizing that kind of music. Yes, he was. Right at the beginning of his career, when we first met, you know, It was at this sock hop in Cleveland and Bill Randall Nations. That's what it was, the number one DJ in America, Bill Randall. He was called the professor because he knew everything about every artist, black and white.

And so when he had me come in, I had three records in October of 1955. Each one had become or was becoming a million seller, my first three records. So he had me come to be on this sock-op, and he brought in this kid from Sreveport, Louisiana, named Elvis, to be on the show because he'd heard that RCA Victor had just bought his contract. And he wanted to see what he was like. So he got Tom Parker to have Elvis come up and appear before me. He was the opening act. Elvis opened for you. Yes.

You see that? I think you said that on this program once before. There's nothing crazier than that, that Elvis opened for me. for you, my friend, Pat Boone. That, Pat, honestly, that is absolutely amazing. We've got to go to a break here. We're talking about everything with Pat Boone. Folks, don't go away.

We'll be right back with much more. I've lost my mind. My head is in a spin. Said she's left me behind. I'll be home, my darling. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to Pat Boone. In case you wonder who Pat Boone is, well, Elvis opened for him.

That's kind of like the joke, Pat, where it's like, who's the guy in the back of that limo? I don't know, but he must be pretty important because the Pope is his chauffeur. I don't know. You probably heard that joke, right? That's what it sounds like. I don't know. I don't know who Pap Boob. but I'll say it must be a pretty big deal because Elvis opened for him.

That's what we're talking about right now. So you, look, you've been making music since the 50s and you now have a new song out and a country album out. Is that right? Yes. I'm glad you. I just happened to have it here. I didn't know we were going to talk about this, but I haven't have this album, which is called

Country Jubilee. And it is an unusual album. In fact, there's never been, I can say, none like it, because country artists don't do each other's songs, except for Hank Williams. Every country artist does Hank Williams songs, and I do three of them in this album. But the rest of the songs is 26 million-selling country hits sung by one artist, me. Wait a minute. When did you record this? Just the last couple of years.

It was, what, about a year and a half? Last year, came out last year. And it's called Country Jubilee. and I do all of these incredible songs like Tennessee Waltz. I am a Tennessean, and I sang that song in this album, but I also sing Red Foley songs. He was my father-in-law. I was just going to say your father-in-law was Red Foley,

a legend in the world of country music. My goodness. Yeah, he was, he is in the Country Music Hall of Fame, and he had fabulous songs like Tennessee Saturday Night, and he did some Hank Williams songs, he sang with them. But he was more famous, I think, for his gospel songs, Closer Walk with The Peace in the Valley, songs like that,

and also Chattanooga Shushine Boy, which was a song about a Shushine Boy, which Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra both covered. They both did that song, but Red Foley's was the number one pop and country hit about the Shusine Boy, who he was celebrating as he was, as he was polishing.

He was a businessman and an entrepreneur. He had his own business and he was earning his own way. And Red Foley sang this song about him. Now, you just, yeah. You mentioned Bing Crosby. I know that you knew him pretty well. Yeah. And did you ever, did you ever know Bob Hope?

Very well. I was on his show. I did skits, sketches with Bob on his shows. Did it several times. And I have a Bob Hope story. if you have a second. Of course. I had to follow him in a big performance, a charity performance once.

And he had to go somewhere. He was always going anywhere they would give him an award, truly. And so this was in Columbus, Ohio. And he said, can I go on ahead of you because I've got to catch a plane and go to another place to receive an award? You want me to follow you, Bob? Well, yeah, just this one time because I've got to catch that plane. would you do it? I said, well, Bob, okay, but, you know, the people are going to get up and start

leaving when you finish, and I'm going to be trying to pull them back. No, no, no, well, you'll do great. So now it happened. He went on, he did, he got a standing ovation when he finished his show. Then he came back and did an encore, and then he came back and tap danced and did a patriotic song. He did two encores. And then as he left the stage, I said, boy, I said to him backstage, what's it like to have that happen? You get two encores from one show. He said, you'll never know.

That's funny. He couldn't. That's funny. He couldn't resist the comic jab. And he was true. He was right. I will never know that. Well, you come pretty darn close to knowing that.

But that is very funny that he would tease you that way. I mean, that tells you something. about what he was really like? Because those of us who didn't know him, we can only imagine what he's really like. Yeah, he knew I would laugh. Yeah, he knew I would laugh. Well, what an amazing thing.

Now, this new song, because we talked about it last time you're on, tell us the title of it again, because it's kind of important. This is a new song you just recorded, and it's doing very well. Where did America go? And as I speak right now, I'm going to be at a big public function.

coming up at Pepperdine University, celebrating the 3,000 flags that we planted in 2001, in 2002, that is, celebrating, commemorating those 3,000 that died during the World Trade Center debacle, the horrible tragedy. And I'm going to speak at that. And I was responsible with one of the college students for getting 3,000 flags to fly that. that second year, the first year anniversary of the Trade Center disaster. And Pepperdine has kept those 3,000 flags now every year on the anniversary of that time, 2001. And so I'm asked to speak and sing the song, Where Did America Go, which is now big on, I'm on TikTok. I'm big on TikTok right now with my song, Where Did America Go?

millions of likes and listens on all the music services because I'm asking as Bob Dylan did in his song, which I consciously patterned my song after Bob's blowing in the wind. How many roads must a man walk down before he can be called a man? And he woke America up to some of the prejudices that we needed to address then. Well, this song is trying to wake America up to the slide, the moral and political slide that we're and the division that we're in because both Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, and Reagan said a country divided against itself cannot stand. And we are hopelessly almost divided. We're not a nation under God now because Gallup and Barnet and the other pollsters tell us that less than half of Americans go to any place of worship, whoever would never read the Bible. If they pray, they don't know if anybody's listening.

And so we're not a nation under God. We are a nation divided, and we're a nation that can almost come to blows and even violence against each other if we disagree. And a nation divided this way cannot prosper, cannot stand. And so I'm trying to call us back to sanity and to being able to love each other even when we disagree. And also to get back to that our holy grail. as I call it, the Constitution. And also our only hope for salvation is the Bible. The Bible, that old Holy Bible, still holds our survival. That is a great place to end. We'll just have you back to continue the conversation. Always a joy to talk to you, Pat Boone, dear friend. The single is

where did America go, folks? Check it out. Pat, thank you, my friend. Hey, I love you, man. I'll be back. I'll think of something to say. Hey, folks, before we go for the day, I want to remind everybody that if you have not yet looked into the June cruise that we're doing, I am so excited about this. I cannot tell you. And what I think, too, is like, this is a fun thing for families to do or friends to do, couples, to get other couples. It's just going to be an amazing time of fellowship.

and I'm going to be talking almost every night about from my different books doing Q&A, about where do we go from here, what's the future. This is going to be June 6th through 16th. There's all these different levels available. If you're a zillionaire, and I know there's some, there's like, you know, stuff you can get for like $14,000 per person if you want to go like super, super high end. if you are not a zillionaire, and I know there's some people out there that are not zillionaires, I think it's $3,000 a person. This is 10 days. I mean, honestly, when you see what it is, you're going to at least be tempted to sign up,

and you probably think of friends and family that might want to know about this. So to do that, go to ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. Ericmetaxis.com slash cruise. And it's not that expensive. I'm going to be, I'm on the economy, like there's in a new economy level where the room is partially submerged, and that's a steel. I know, it's really wet. You can feed the fish. They're fish that swim around.

That's like 40 bucks a night. Yes. But you have to shovel coal into the, to make the ship go. There's a special bicycle you have to tell. No, seriously, like this is, there's a lot of people that when you look into this, you're going to say, I think we could do this. It's reasonable. It's reasonable. Yeah.

Yeah. That's the joy. Another thing, tonight, no, tomorrow. night. Tomorrow night, I'm doing something called the Bonhofer Circle. If you want to join that, we're going to host a quarterly

video call with me answering your questions to talk about, you know, courage in the face of evil and what do we do now? To join that group, you have to go, I don't have the link here. Well, go to the Socrates

in the city, website and to join the Bonhofer Circle, I just want to remind you that there's a lot involved screenings of the Bonhofer film that's coming out, a lot of stuff. Go to Socrates and the City.com for that. I also want to say that, you know, when you look at the lunacy around us, if you're not thinking about homeschooling your kids or at least getting your kids involved in quality K-12 Christ-centered education, I don't know what you're thinking. We've partnered with our friends at the Herzog Foundation.

They're there to help you navigate this. We have to be raising our kids up right. I think you now know that that's not been happening so much in America. And usually if you send your kids to public schools, you're sending them into lunatic LGBTQ indoctrination camps. It's really horrifying. And so the Herzog Foundation is there to help. go to HerzogFoundation.com.

HerzogFoundation.com. They are heroes, HerzogFoundation.com. They also have a website, reedlion.com, where there's all kinds of stuff. But we want to get everybody who is a thinking person to know about the Herzog Foundation. So check them out. And then before we go for sure, check out our friends at the Heritage Foundation. They are the ones behind the dreaded. Project 2025 that Kamala Harris and others are trying to scare people and thinking,

Trump is going to enact what's in Project 2025. That would be the greatest thing ever if he did. But it's the Heritage Foundation. Yeah. But it's the Heritage Foundation that's behind it, not Donald Trump in his campaign. It's the Heritage Foundation that's trying to get the folks on the Trump team to do what they're suggesting in Project 2025. And by God's grace, he will get in and he will do it.

If you want to find out what's in that, go to 25truth.com. Two-five-truth.com. Find out what's scaring all of the crazies. 25truth.com. God bless you today. Eric, can you do one pickup on Bonhoeffer Circle? To join the Bonhofer Circle, go to Ericbataxis.com slash circle. That's a shortcut.