The Eric Metaxas Show - Pete Hegseth & David Goodwin (continued)

Episode Date: May 12, 2022

Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin continue their in-studio interview with facts from their new book, "Battle for the American Mind," which investigates the decades-long decline of public education.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. A Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Welcome back. We're talking to the authors of Battle for the American Mind, uprooting a century of miseducation. Pete Hegseth of Fox and Friends. David Goodwin, not of Fox and Friends. But he's a friend.

So you get, but he's a friend. So let me just say, this book tells us how it happened. And that's what we're talking about is like most people don't know how it happened. They just know suddenly they turned around and lunacy was prevailing. I mean, it's almost unbelievable, the level of lunacy. And, you know, whether we're talking about pronouns, you're kind of like, wait a minute, what? Who came up with that 10 minutes ago that we have to like talk about? I mean, and you do want to know who did come up with this madness.

And in a funny way for me, the issue is the brazenness of it. And in those, you might as well be, you know, George Orwell in 1984 saying, we're going to get you to say two plus two equals five. If the party tells you two plus two equals five, you better say two plus two equals five. It's the brazenness of it that I think is the most alarming. The question and the thing that they can count on is who do you point at? At this point, as we tell the story, there's no one boogeyman that you can say, well, that person did. It was just Barack Obama. It was just Randy White Garden.

It was just common core. It was sort of death by a thousand cuts over time as they took over and controlled all of these institutions, which is why in addition to problem identification, we spend three chapters in the book on the solution. I mean, breaking down what classical Christian is, breaking down what you can do as a parent. And then I think the challenge is, and we start the last chapter by saying the most difficult part of this book is exhorting parents and grandparents to choose a different educational path for their children without shaming them for how and where their kids.

have been educated thus far. We all had no idea. And once you understand that it is, yes, it is your public school. It's not just that school over there or the Democrat control there is. It's your affluent suburban school. It's your rural school because the pipeline is still the same of the teachers, the tests, the standards that feed the tests, all of it is a giant feedback loop. So unless you're in a very specific type of school, a very intentional Christian school,

or homeschooling. And thank goodness, there's a much more robust network that feeds homeschools at this point to include classical Christian curriculum. So options are there for parents. But you got to get past the whole I pay taxes. I pay property taxes. We moved here because the zip code is good and the schools are good and there's a brand new gym and everyone has iPads. There's ways you can rationalize it. And we all have done that. And we think about the amount of time you spend on vacations or where you're going to do this or we're going to take a moment to realize. if you're not focusing on education, you're probably sending your kids off to Democrat camp every day. In a school you think is nice with teachers who are nice and principals who are nice. And by the way, when you say Democrat camp, that's a really nice way of putting it. Because when we think of the Democrats, we forget, this is Marxist leftist camp. The Democrats, you know, Richard Gepard and Walter Monda, you know, the Democrats of the past were, you know, kind of like George W. Bush. We don't have people like that. or we have people that either are radical Marxists or are utter cowards who are just passing the baton, you know, the current White House administration, they clearly don't have any beliefs except whatever's going to, you know. So they're very happy to let AOC and the actual Marxists take over. And, yeah, we have to be honest about this. And we have to say we have to pull our kids out yesterday, whatever it takes,

because this is really, it's just dramatic. Now, you know, being the head of the Association of Classical Christian Schools, I've spoken, I'll speak this week at a classical Christian school event. But everywhere I go, I also meet homeschoolers. And I have to say, the thing people used to say about homeschoolers is like, yeah, but they don't, they're not socialized, right? Every homeschooler I meet is the most mature young person, and I say these kids are taking over the world.

So between classical Christian school and homeschool, I think the radical left doesn't know what's coming. Well, there's a big portion of the homeschool movement that's distinctively classical Christian, classical conversations. It's the organization that does a lot of that. One of the things I'd like to append on to kind of, you know, the conversation about Democrat camp, it is true that there's a lot of indoctrination that's going on right now. But what's been robbed from our kids is a vision of the good life. What they're being told, and the reason we have 20-somethings in the streets throwing bottles, is that they don't know what they're about.

They don't have a solid grounding in what God made them for. and how God, you know, seeks to make their lives, you know, bigger than themselves. That's the gift God gives us, is a life that's bigger than any of us can make on our own. And yet what the leftists have done is convince them that they're all important. Each child is big in their own right. And that's just a lie. Once they're out of the womb, let's be very clear. Yes.

Only then. before that you're trash um yeah if i could add though i mean you you could define because you you could say it properly and i can't the the phrase paidea the inculturation the development the vision of a good life for the youngest right so we assume college education what the left focus on was four five six seven eight years old because that is when who you are is imprinted on your heart and and if you can control that that's why they're so obsessed with early childhood education as well. Get them in the hands of Uncle Sam as early as possible. They realize that's the key. That's where Pidea is formed. That's where the trajectory of their

life is formed. So while we were focused on the lunacy of higher education, it's not lost on you. Closing of the American mind is similar to bat. We've been focusing on K through 12 or, excuse me, higher education for a very long time when the real work of progressives was to get into our youngest of classrooms, because that's where the real transformation happens. And what they said they were doing was industrial. education, as you pointed out earlier, which is what? The pursuit of a good life is tied to material goods. Right.

We'll get you a job. We'll get you some bread, some vodka. You can live in the center block building. Shut up. We don't want to know what you think. I mean, that's communism, except it's wrapped in a different package. You lose the marriage, the family, kids, the real joys in life. We're cultivating a young generation that just doesn't appreciate the real joy.

The good, the true, and the beautiful. You know, you keep hearing that phrase. And those are the kinds of things. Look, we know that the whole 20th century was a war on the good, the true, and the beautiful. Art got ugly. What happened? What happened to the beautiful rhyming poetry of Longfellow, patriotic and beautiful and whatever? Somebody, you know, and this is when I was at Yale, I learned this, right?

Like, if it rhymes, Norman Rockwell, like, all that stuff is for the rubs in Middle America. The elites, you know, we're going to read, I don't know, Wallace Stevens or whoever, we're going to read this stuff that nobody wants to read, and we're going to go to the museums and look at stuff that nobody would say is beautiful. And we're going to persuade ourselves that this is the way the elites, this is the way we want to go. And it's the exact opposite of what made this country great. And by the grace of God, we are still able to even talk about this. It's not over yet, but we're in a battle. It's not over yet, but I'd say the darkest time in American education was the 19-19.

70s when classical Christian education was completely buried. There were no classical Christian schools at all. The progressive Pidea had completely taken over. Today you could enter over 500, over 400 classical Christian schools in almost every state across the country. A huge homeschooling network of millions. They tried to outlaw homeschooling, as you know. I mean, there was a big effort to end all Christian education, private education.

They didn't succeed, though. So we have our chance in light of this new moment where we realize what the Marxists have done, we just have to get at it. Now, if somebody says, I'd like to know if there's a classical Christian school around here, is there a website they might go to? Classicalchristian.org. Classicalchristian.org. If you can't spell that, you didn't go to a classical Christian school. Classical Christian.org. You know, I just can't say enough about how centrally important this is. And you're right, Pete, when you say that, I mean, we know. that in Europe, Europe is always a few steps ahead in terms of the lunacy.

And they are persecuting Christians who want to educate their kids and whatever. They are openly persecuting them. Of course, it's come here now. But enough people are waking up. I hope people listening to this program are waking up. And we'll send this video to their friends and understand that we're in a war. We're going to keep talking about battle for the American mind with Pete Hegeseth and David Goodwin. The fight for the unborn is raging in our country.

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companies actually doing good things. Go to inspireinsight.com today and register for free. That's inspireinsight.com. Go there. Welcome back, folks. We're talking about education, American education. Remember that? The book is The Battle for the American Mind, uprooting a century of miseducation. Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin, the authors. Again, the good news is we're waking up to this. The good news is there are solutions that are still possible. But we are in a battle. I mean, the teachers unions, for example, we now know are just, leftists. They are just Marxists. They don't even believe that we should have a say in what our kids learn. I mean, it's kind of like we skipped backwards to Mao's Cultural Revolution, and we're suddenly in China in 1965, and the parents are being, you know, demonized by their own children.

I mean, it's like you just didn't think this could happen in America. Not only do they not think parents should know, they think parents are the rubs over here who are, oh, yeah, poisoning their kids with yesterday's dogma. and it's the job of the school to give the correct education to hide the gender transition that's going on at school from the very parent. This is a war. We chose that intentionally. I mean, yes, I have a military background. It is a war for the future of our country, of ideas, of our faith, of the things our country was founded on. And if we don't, but education has just been this secondary issue for too many people. Every other political issue has been atop the list for decades. Well, look, and let's be honest, you have Republicans like Jeb Bush pushing Common Core. I mean, they have been useless, utterly useless. They don't seem to get this. And it took almost until the fourth year of the Trump presidency to it as a huge fan of his to look at the 1776 commission.

Oh, man. I mean, he's fighting a thousand battles, so I don't begrudge him anything. But it is the type of thing where it has snuck up on us so slowly yet so quickly. And our answers are so insufficient that that's why the solution section is as big as it is in this book. because you've got to get people to wrap their heads around how infected we all really are. How much we didn't learn. One of the things that, you know, I think we just have to be clear, in American public education, before it went wrong in the 19th century, we would teach love of country, love of God,

like these basic things, love of freedom, what is freedom? We really understood that there's just no pulling these things apart. and if we don't teach them, they go away. In most of the world, they don't have this kind of stuff. So we had this pride in inculcating the generations with these ideas and celebrating them. And as we know, through the decades, this went away. So that patriotism, you know, it just kind of went out in elite circles. They just kind of, well, you know, we're globalists.

We're elitist. We don't believe in that. Rube stuff, you know, rah, ra, America. and they demonize the concept of love of country, which I just find amazing, especially you served in the military. I mean, the idea that we would denigrate a healthy love of country

as somehow, you know, jingoistic, chest thumping, triumphalist. I mean, it's kind of amazing how deep those bad ideas got so that you have a lot of people in the country who they just kind of have gone along with that, especially in the blue states. Yeah, we're self-loathing at this point. was, I mean, to quote the disgrace former governor of New York, America was never great. That is the view of the left at this point. Can you imagine?

But before it was Hannah Jones and the 1619 project, it was Howard Zinn, a people's history of the United States, which is the most prolific history textbook of the modern era. And if your high school doesn't have the book in the classroom, then the textbook that was written for your child's classroom was based on Howard Zinn and People's History, which is American History written. from the Soviet perspective. And then David Coleman and the folks at the college board rewrite the SAT to respond to the Common Core, which was based on Howard's Inn. So now what your kids are learning, what they're tested on, and their entrance exams are based on a Marxist view of American history. No wonder we get kids that are pumped out saying, this America thing is terrible. We're teaching them that. There is no Bill Bennett's two volumes of American history that talks about the providential nature of our country.

that's gone in public schools completely. Yeah. Well, again, I mean, it's the Marxist view of American history, which is fundamentally anti-American. And you go, okay, so you want to point out our flaws. I mean, speaking as a Christian, I want to know my flaws because I want to repent of them and do better, right? So in this country, we had something called slavery. Well, we had a war. We abolished slavery. Like, can we celebrate that, that we abolished slavery?

and people like, no, no, no. Like, we can't celebrate anything. We have to be relentlessly negative. We can never say that we did anything good. We had Jim Crow. We got rid of Jim Crow. Can we celebrate that? No.

It's kind of like a really nihilistic, I would say, satanic view of reality. It's really very, very dark. It's what happens when you wrongly order your loves. The circumstance is that, as we said, the progressives replaced God and Christianity with patriotism. And patriotism couldn't stand up to that kind of pressure. It was wrongly ordered at that point. But it wasn't even healthy patriotism.

Once you have patriotism devoid of God, in other words, if patriotism, if love of a country is not rooted in the deeper love of truth and God and goodness and beauty, then eventually it will float away like a myelar below. It has to be rooted in a transcendent. You talked about true the good and beautiful. You don't, you know, no institution of man creates true good and beautiful ideology. It has to come from God.

And when they disordered it, anything that's disordered, even a good thing like patriotism, becomes ugly when it gets set on top and made the centerpiece. That's what we said about taking the pressure plate. You know, you put the patriotism on the pressure. plate and it can't perform there because that's not what it's there for. That's a headline for me. I mean, I have absolutely never heard that when you said at first Pete, but I've never heard that idea that Dewey and these progressives very, very slyly thought, yeah, we want to

get rid of God, but we're going to need to do a little sleight of hand. So how can we pull this off? We'll use patriotism. I mean, it's really evil because, of course, it's not really. real patriotism, but it's enough patriotism to get the rubs not to pay attention. And so what, you know, when they talked about that, what kind of patriotism or what was the long game the idea that we're going to put patriotism in and what? I mean, it was just kind of like a filler at that point. What was it, what was their idea of patriotism? Well, it was a, it had to be

close enough to legitimate patriotism in order for Americans to buy it and say, it's okay if you take the creeds of Christian. Christianity out of the classroom as long as you replace them with the Pledge of Allegiance, because the Pledge of Allegiance is a good thing. So a good thing replaced something. Okay, I think I'm figuring it out. What you're telling me, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is ultimately the secularization of America. In other words, it's the miss, it's the wrong idea that you get in the Burger Court or whatever, that basically they say, we're going to have separation of church and state, which doesn't mean what it meant to Jefferson,

which is that the church is sacrosanct and the state cannot touch it. No, no, no, we're going to completely subvert that. And we're going to say, we need to take the church away from the state and they can have nothing to do with each other. So we're going to have a secular patriotism. We're going to have love of country, but it's going to be what Richard John Newhouse called the naked public square. We're going to pull God out and we're going to make it look neutral.

But it's actually satanic. I mean, it seems to me like that's what I'm getting. And it had a practical application at the time, influx of immigrants. How do you unite them? You unite them under one flag, as do we often did. It was either training for the future vocation or integration that way. They used it in that application. And they debated it openly in the new republic.

It was how do we remove God? Do we, okay, we're going to let them do religious instruction off site. And then the churches, as you talked about, Eric, did the work for the left at that very same time, which is a huge section that David wrote about by splitting itself. I mean, today's evangelical movement has basically given up the idea of education at all, and that became Sunday school. And the progressives, we have a couple of quotes in here, openly mock it. They say, what can one hour of theistic training on Sunday do against five days of progressive training during the week?

They knew once God was pushed out, they had the advantage, which was why the name of this book was almost the 16,000-hour war, because it's 16,000 hours of public instruction that your kids get from K through 12 when that's nowhere near the amount of time they would spend inside a church or a church group or with religious instruction. I mean, this is jaw-dropping stuff. This is absolutely jar-dropping stuff. I, you know, I marvel at the genius of the wicked. In other words, the idea that they thought this through and that they were so dedicated to getting God,

out. And again, there are many people today, many, you know, they think they're conservatives who don't understand that without virtue and faith, you can't have freedom. You can talk all you want about the free market and we believe it and freedom. Your version of freedom is like Dewey's version of patriotism. Ultimately, it's hollow and it will, there's nothing there. And you're going to find out. You will find out if you don't understand that at the heart. Part of what you think you value has to be some kind of virtue. You're going to have to teach virtue, and virtue comes from faith in something larger and whatever. But if you're teaching nihilism, you can't do that.

So it's this sleight of hand, and, you know, the proof will be in the pudding. We're talking to the authors of Battle for the American Mind, Pete Hegsef and David Goodwin, don't go away. The lions who come on. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed. And when oil prices go up,

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to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Hey folks, final segment talking with Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin, battle for the American mind uprooting a century of miseducation. So Pete, the headline here is that you're not just an empty talking head on Fox and Friends. It's not like they say he's smart. He could do things. It gives me such joy to know that you not only get this stuff,

but that you've joined with David and written a book about it and that you're using your platform to get the word out to the American people about what is happening. I think part of this has been as a father, a journey of discovery myself, as a parent. Right? I mean, and that's how we've treated this book and how we treated the film series at Fox Nation as well.

David, I call him my Sherpa, you know. He's leading me through and I'm discovering in real time very much like most of our viewers are right now. Oh, my goodness. I knew there were some problems. I didn't realize it was this big. And hopefully, because I've only more recently made some of the choices to get my kids intentionally into some of these schools.

So all of us are behind the curve. And I feel this ticking clock in my mind of every moment they're not in that education. I'm not doing what I should be doing for them. Yes, I need to be doing it in the home. Yes, I need to be doing it in church. But to not have the third part of that of the classroom reinforcing the things that I believe, I'm just losing time. And so I would urge the same thing to parents. Do the research, take a look.

It's not enough to feel like your principal's a nice guy or you've got two members of the school board. That's wonderful. We should fight those places. I don't think we should give up any space. But right now we're in a knife fight. We're in the kill zone. And they've got us surrounded and you've got to act when you're in that spot. Well, I've got to tell you, you know, that's a fact, what you just said.

And there are lots of people that don't get that. They don't have the urgency. They think, oh, you're being hotheads. How I wish that were true. How I wish that were true. I mean, look, Chesterton was talking about this stuff in the 1920s. Some people saw this, and they've been talking about it. C.S. Lewis was talking about it in the abolition of

man, this has been going on and on and on and on and on. And all along, the bad guys will smile at you and say, we want to help your kids, you know, in the new world here that we're creating. It's, to me, it's the level of urgency that needs to be communicated. And I know you do in the book. What is the website again for the classical Christian? Classicalchristian.org. Classicalchristian.org.

there's just no way around it. You don't have America without these ideas. In other words, the West, the Greek tradition, the Geo-Christian tradition, come together to make real freedom possible. And people died for this. And when you remove those things, you know, it's a brave new world, it's China, it's death camps. But people don't believe that. They don't seem to understand and how close we are.

basically. Well, before, I mean, we tend to see what's closest to us, obviously. If we go back in history, before Christ and before this form of thought and education, it was an ugly place. It was pretty brutal. People don't. We do not want to go back there. People don't realize. I mean, look, because my mother grew up in East Germany and my father came from Greece where the communists were trying to take over, they raised me to love this country and to understand, like, how horribly bad it can be. But I think most Americans think like, how bad could it get? Maybe the economy will down, go down, or gas prices will go up to 10 bucks. But you know what? It can't get that bad. They don't seem to understand that when you pull these things out, it becomes a satanic nightmare.

They just, they won't believe it until they see it. But I think people are beginning to see it. I think American exceptionalism comes with a dose of a feeling of America inevitability. and as a result, people say, well, yeah, it's bad, but there's no way we can be that and things will be okay and my kid is going to be just fine. And so there is a complacency inside all of us. And when you start to realize the depth of the problem, you realize how small you are, which is a wonderful recognition actually, but that means you can affect something. You can choose where your kids go to school. You can choose where your grandkids go to school. And that's the beautiful message of the book, is there are options.

I think the providence, you know, we've talked from the beginning of this interview about how this thing came together. The providence of it is that Pete and I started work on this in, I think it was February and March of 2020. So if you do the backwards math, you realize that when Pete was first discovering this stuff and I was telling him about it and I was learning a lot of it myself, none of the current madness was really visible yet. And as you pointed out several times, Eric, it's like the Lord has used the providence of our moment. This book took two years to get here, and when it arrives, we're in a time when people are seeing the consequences of this form of education. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. It started before the China virus even hit, and everyone was moored by reality. By the way, it's not right to call it the China virus. It's called the, what's it called? It's called the Kung flu pandedemic. Kung flu pandemic, okay? Make sure you get it right. Otherwise, it's politically incorrect. Pete, I got to ask you, were you raised?

in the faith? Did you come to faith later in life? Very much so. My parents, we went to a small Baptist church in Minnesota. It was a wonderful faith-filled home. But in looking back on it, my childhood, even with all of that, was effectively secular. Well, sure. And I went to a great conservative public high school. My dad was a public educator. I mean, we were, but it was a veneer of Christianity with a core of a secular. And I've careened around life as a result. And the reason we wrote this book is we want more intentional, foundation and development of our kids at an earlier age so that they can avoid a lot of the careening around because we don't have that time in this country and in their lives.

It's just such a wonderful thing that you guys have put the work into telling this story. Because listen, everyone in America needs to understand how this happened, what is happening. Otherwise, we're just going to keep drifting along. But I really do think that you've done it. So congratulations. Ladies and gentlemen, battle. for the American mind uprooting a century of miseducation. It's all true, unfortunately, but we can get out of it if we're aware of what it is.

Thank you for all you do. God bless you guys. Thank you for this book. Thanks for your time. Hey there, folks. Eric Mataxis here. I know you know how much I love Mike Lindell in my pillow. Well, Mike Lindell and my pillow right now are offering a Bogo extravaganza.

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800-978-3057 or Mypillow.com. Use the code, Eric. Welcome. This is really an important segment today. I want to be really blunt. This is very important. In Zurich, Switzerland, right now, the international head. of CSI, Christian Solidarity International, is coming to us, Dr. John Ibner is with us right now to talk

to us about what's going on in Ukraine. As you know, we're doing a fundraiser with CSI to try to get you to help them do what it is that they do helping Ukrainian refugees. So all the way from Zurich, Switzerland, Dr. John Ibner. Welcome. I'm so thrilled that you were able to be with us today. I'm thrilled to be with you. Thank you very much. for having me and for platforming this dreadful crisis in the Ukraine and the humanitarian disaster that's unfolding there. It is, I always say it's incumbent on us to understand that, you know, suffering is not good. It doesn't matter how it comes about. You don't need to be involved politically to know that when you have millions of people fleeing their homes with their kids, it is a nightmare.

and so CSI, as usual, steps into the breach. So what do we need to know about what is going on over there, Dr. Ibnur? We know there's a terrible humanitarian crisis. I was there some weeks ago and saw something of it myself, but over half of the people in the Ukraine, Ukrainians are either outside the country, they fled, or they're internally displaced, or they are living in danger zones and common. combat zones. The whole country has been turned upside down. It's just impossible for those of us

in the West to imagine what it would be like. Even our parents and grandparents probably can't remember anything this dramatic. We're used to peace. We're used to prosperity. But the idea that Ukrainians are going through this right now, it's just mind-blowing. And I want to thank you and CSI for stepping up to help them. So I keep saying to people that $280 provides food and resources for a month. Now, folks, go to metaxis talk.com. You'll see the banner, metaxis talk.com. I'll give you the phone number in a moment. But tell us how does CSI help these folks? I mean, it's, you guys are all over the world. Where are you now and how are you helping the folks fleeing Ukraine? In the Ukraine, we have local partners.

We're working through them. They're interdenominational. And they're on the spot. They're on the ground. I was in Mukachevo in Western Ukraine. Thousands and thousands of people are flooding there because it's a relatively peaceful area. And our partners are on the ground providing what is needed in a flexible, unbureaucratic way. So there are people who simply have no food.

Okay. were able to provide food. No shelter. They have children that are traumatized. There are all kinds of needs that are there. People have different needs. Some people come with some money. Some people come completely destitute. And we're able, through our local partners on the ground, to meet individual needs. And moreover, not just to meet the individual material needs, but the spiritual needs, the psychological needs, the psychological, needs. People need love. They don't need just a bureaucratic gift. And so working through these Christian partners on the ground, we're able to provide that really important dimension too. The message is not just here's some food, here's some shelter, here's some clothing, here's a mattress, but you're not alone. You're not alone because there are other Christians around the world who care about you. And of course, ultimately, the good Lord, care. about you too and loves you.

Well, see, that to me, I'm so glad you said that because that's at the heart of this. I mean, the reason we partner with CSI, Christian Solidarity International, and not any number of others with whom we might partner, is because it is, we have a worldview that is not materialistic. We don't believe

that a pill and food and shelter that it ends there. There's this thing called love and encouragement. It comes through the love of Jesus, expressed through the folks that CSI uses, employees, volunteers, people who ministering. They are ministering. They are not just disbursing funds and food. I remember, it's amazing now to think that it's over 20 years ago, but here in New York, when we had the crisis at 9-11, one of my best friends, the Reverend

B.J. Weber, was ministering at a site near downtown. And a woman came in, a Hispanic woman, came in, distraught. And some social worker or whatever literally was putting an anti-anxiety drug in her mouth without really even asking her. And the woman said, I do not want drugs. I want to pray. The woman said, I want to pray. And I think this is why we partner with CSI, because you all understand that hand in hand with giving people material necessities, basics. They need the love of God. They need the comfort and the presence of people who have deep faith in the God who died for us, and that is CSI. Forgive me, I'm going to tell the phone number. Folks, metaxis talk.com, you'll see the banner. But if you feel moved to call, we would really appreciate it.

It's 888-253-3522. Again, 888-253-3522. Dr. I'm just, I'm so grateful you shared that because that's at the heart of why we partner with CSI, why we value you guys. Well, I appreciate that because we do not get government money. We are not the recipients of grants from USAI. or the United Nations or any other. Thank God.

The funds that come to CSI are coming from committed Christian people, mainly at the grassroots level, who have love in their hearts, and they give because of that love. And we want to be the transmission of that. And so, as you say, we're not simply giving food, giving medicine, giving shelter, providing mattresses, providing the basic necessities which people do need. They do need them. But we want to convey the love of our donors. And that is a hallmark of CSI. And as long as I'm leading CSI, it will remain that way. Well, folks, you've heard that. We'll be right back with Dr. Ibner. Please help. MetaxusTalk.com. You'll see the banner there. Or if you prefer to call

888-253-3522. We need your help. 888-253-3522. God bless you. Welcome. I'm really excited. I have from Zurich, Switzerland, right now with us, Dr. John Ivner. He's the international president of Christian Solidarity International.

You know that we've partnered with them again and again. They show the love of Jesus in every kind of way. Right now, we know. in the Ukraine, there are literally millions of people who have been chased out of their homes, who have fled their homes, fled for their lives with their kids. They have no place to live. They have no food. They have no medical supplies.

They need our help. And so we reached out to CSI. CSI has partners on the ground, Christian organizations that are showing the love of God in helping these people. And we want you to join us in that. Dr. John Ibner, thank you so much for joining us. What can we say to get people understand the urgency of what is happening? Well, it's a catastrophe what is happening, and there are tens of millions of people who are either forced out of their own homes living internally displaced, refugees abroad, or are still caught up in the terrible conflict zones with shells going. off blasts all around them. And it's something that hasn't happened in Europe really since the Second World War, anything on this scale. And the human suffering is incredible. It's often,

in some ways, concealed or the full magnitude is not so visible because the whole issue ends up being politicized through the mass media. And so we are sometimes distracted from the extent of the human suffering, and it affects all of the people in the Ukraine, whether they think of themselves as ethnic Ukrainians or some kind of either Russian background or other minorities, whether there are evangelical Protestants, Catholics, or Orthodox. It's impacting all of them without distinction. That's the point. And I see it as every crisis is an opportunity for the gospel. of Jesus. These are suffering people, and Christians through CSI come in to help them to show the love

of God, that they are loved by God. There's a God who cares, and he has sent you and CSI with your partners to show the love of God to these people. I mean, I'm amazed as I read that, you know, not only do many of them not have food, medicine, and shelter, but they don't have pillows, blankets, heaters, every kind of basic thing. When you leave everything, ladies and gentlemen, if you're listening, you have an opportunity to show the love of God to all kinds of people, some of whom may have some idea who God is. Maybe they identify as Christians because they're not Muslims or they're not atheists, but maybe they've never seen the real thing. I want to encourage you to call, to do whatever you can. Go to metaxistococococic.com, please. There's a banner, metaxistock.com,

or you can call the number I'll give you in a moment. But I want to say that $70 provides food and resources for one week. Obviously, $280 provides it for a month. Some of you can give that. Some of you can give a fraction of that. Some of you can give much more than that. Whatever God lays on your heart, but this is an opportunity for the gospel. I want to be blunt. It's an opportunity for us to show the love of Jesus through CSI. We trust CSI. And I thank you, Dr. John Ibner, all the way from Zurich Swistlin, coming on this program at a difficult hour. But we have to get the word out. Folks, the phone number, I will give it to you now. Please do what you can. 888-253-3522. Again, it's 888-253-35-25-2. 22, 888-253-3522, or go to metaxisotalkishton.com, and you'll see the banner. Dr. Ibner, God bless you and your efforts. God bless CSI. Thank you so much for letting God use you for his purposes in our time. Thank you. Same to you, Eric. Thank you so much.