The Eric Metaxas Show - Rabbi Jason Sobel and Kathie Lee Gifford

Episode Date: August 24, 2022

Rabbi Jason Sobel and Kathie Lee Gifford have a new book "The God of the Way: A Journey Into the Stories, People, and Faith That Changed the World Forever" they join Eric to discuss

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. The Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Oh, hello. I believe it's Tuesday. Chris, hey, happy Tuesday. It's Tuesday. Now, Albin, he used to be sitting there. What happened, Albin? I believe he was injured at a clompen factory in Holland. I heard he was in England with his current wife.

What's her name? You know, he's been through so many wives. That's show business. I believe it's Ann. He'll be back very soon. But you, Chris Heim's, you're ably representing him. Thank you. Let me say this.

We have three very exciting guests coming up. So before anything, it's only taken me seven years to learn this. anything. I want to let people know what is happening. So in a couple of seconds, we have Kathy Lee Gifford on the program from her home in Nashville, or wherever she is these days. And she and Rabbi Jason Sobel have written a book

together. It's their second book together. But it is such a joy to talk. First, I'm going to talk to the Rebbe, Manacham Schneerson. And we're going to talk to talk to the Rebbe, and then we're going to talk to Kathy Lee Gifford. But I just, I love Kathy Lee and how she lives out of faith and stuff. So that's coming up in a couple seconds.

In our two, oh my gosh, we have Rick Green, the founder of Patriot Academy. I will say nothing except you'll see. Patriot Academy.com. Very, very exciting. Now Patriot Academy, that's different than, say, like, the Police Academy movies. A little different. Because that would be a good movie. Patriot Academy.

Right. Yeah. A goofy comedy from 1987. So, no, this is Patriot Academy. This is like so, it's just so vital and important. So first, we talk about the new book with the rabbi and Kathy Lee. Then we talk about what it means to be an American and how faith is inextricably intertwined with faith. We never talked about that before, right?

No. Okay. Let me say, I just got back from Houston. I was privileged to speak for the first time ever on my new book, which is not out yet, but I hope you pre-order it. It's called Letter to the American Church. But I was invited to Second Baptist Church. Ed Young, Dr. Ed Young, is a legend, a legend in terms of preaching, in terms of Houston. There's no one like him.

and I spoke at two of their campuses. We will get those videos out if you're subscribed to Ericmetaxis.com. We will send that to you. But I just want to say what an unbelievable honor it was. I'm very moved by it. It was a very moving experience. We visited with some friends in Houston, but it was just absolutely a wonderful thing.

And it's exciting to start talking about the new book letter to the American Church because, as you know, for this in the program, there's just a tremendous urgency that I feel in communicating this message to people of faith in America. So I want to say that we will post the video of what we did in Houston. I have a Houston question. Now, you're in Texas a fair amount. You have a lot of, I would say, I would call them fans down there. Do you own cowboy boots?

Because I feel like I can't really see you in that. I own cowboy boots. But like when they gave them to me, me back in Fort Worth, like, I don't know, 10 years ago, they gave me this gift of these cowboy boots. But they kind of felt like, well, what would a city guy from Manhattan? What kind of cowboy boots would get them? So they didn't get me like the kind of cowboy boots that really look like a thousand percent

like cowboy boots. I feel like I want a pair of cowboy boots that look more like cowboy boots. I'd be even more inclined to wear them. Maybe some with spurs. Yeah, maybe spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle. And then, da da da da da da da da da da. Okay. Okay, two important announcements before we get to the Rebbe and Kathy Lee Gifford.

Number one, food for the poor. I say this on this program that I want everybody to be involved, but I know actually how many people have been involved, and it is a tiny, tiny fraction of the audience. And so those of you, the larger fraction of you who have not been involved, I want to say to you seriously, this is important, and I'm asking you, it makes no difference what you give. If you want to give a couple of bucks, it makes no difference. But we want people to be involved because the suffering that is going on among refugees in Ukraine is horrible.

They are starving. They can't feed their kids. Now, I'm one of the very few radio hosts who will say it is because of Joe Biden. that this is happening. If Donald Trump were president, and I'm convinced he was elected president, but that's another subject, we would never have this situation. So it's a nightmare situation. What can we do about it? We can give a little something. Food for the poor is as reputable as it gets. And I want to say, folks, please, please go to metaxis talk.com, click on the banner. these people did not ask for this.

This is real suffering. And most of us in this country have never even glimpsed what it would be like to not be able to feed our kids or to be chased out of our homes. So you go to metaxis talk.com. You click on the banner. $100, if you can afford to give $100, pays for 400 meals.

That's how far food for the poor is able to stretch our American dollars. Please, folks. tough but if you can't feed your kids it just doesn't get more horrifying than that i will give you a phone number um but i hope that those of you who haven't participated will see an opportunity to do something beautiful for god um the phone number is 844 it's 863 hope 844 8663 hope i want to say again doesn't matter what you give some of you can afford to give a lot this is is tax deductible. It's for God's purposes. You are literally feeding the hungry. Where have I read about that when I was hungry?

844-8-4-863-hope, 8-4-8-6-3 hope. 8-4-8-6-3 hope. I will keep repeating this because this is very important, please. And anybody who has the ability to give $10,000, I will be delighted to spend an evening with you, have dinner together as many people as you want to bring. I just want to do what I can to entice those of you who can give that kind of amount. But it doesn't matter what you give folks. God sees what you give. Please, 844-8663 hope. 844-863 hope. We really, really need your help. I should also mention before we go to speak to the rabbi and to Kathy Lee Gifford, we have a Socrates and City event coming up September 27th in

New York City at the Union League Club. And people are now realizing that because I'm a member of the club. They can get a room at the Union League club. If you want to come and stay for a day or Tuesday, it's just like a glorious venue. Like you can't imagine when you walk in there. It's beautiful. I've been there many times. I've been there in numerous. It is gorgeous. The art is just like this incredibly magical place.

You get to stay there if you want. And even if you don't stay there, you get to be there for this event. It is really, if it were only that, it's worth it. it. I'm pretty sure the early bird tickets are gone because those were priced at less than cost. But if you are familiar with Andrew Claven, and if you're familiar with the book that he wrote, the book that he wrote called The Truth and Beauty, I was blown away by what he wrote. He says it's about how the romantic poets helped him to understand the words of Jesus. I read the book. I said, there are certain books I read, I think, I don't know how somebody could pull this off.

You know, I was a Yale English major. I couldn't even dream of like, what, what is he going to do? It is amazing. So I'm going to have a long conversation with him. Socrates in the city, September 27th. You've got to go to socrates and the city.com. Socrates and city.com. And we also have a special VIP reception.

If you're interested in that, in the heavenly Lincoln Library, that's another thing. Like, I can't believe they let us into these rooms. And there's a patron's dinner if you want after the event to join us at, at the patrons dinner really special. You get to ask Andrew Claven questions and chit-chat, and it's just beautiful. But I just want to remind you that these things do sell out. It's, you know, pretty limited venue. So September 27th, Andrew Claven is my guest.

We've got more Socrates events coming up in the fall. But this one, I just can't believe it. In a month, we're going to have Andrew Claven, Socrates and City. Go to Socratesinthecity.com. And sign up for the newsletter there. and if you're not signed up from my newsletter, all this information will be in my newsletter. When we come back, I talk to the Rebbe, Rabbi Jason Sobel,

and then Kathy Lee Gifford. Don't go away. In case, the sea, she's there watching for me. a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed and when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes leading the prices of goods to rise. And when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble and you need to take steps to protect yourself. If all your money is tied up in stocks, bonds, and traditional markets, you are vulnerable. Gold is one of the best ways to protect

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Get 30% off with code Eric. Memories are real treasures. Keep yours. Help us pray for miraculous healings that give God glory. V-V-V-O-R dot com and use code Eric. V-V-V-V-L-O-R-R-D-C. As promised, we have a rabbi, a rabbi. Jason Sobel on the program.

Rabbi Jason, welcome. Shalom. It's great to be with you. Shalom back at you, bro. Listen, you, people know in a couple of minutes I'm talking to Kathy Lee Gifford because you and she, again, have combined to write a book. The book is brand new. It's called the God of the Way. So for people who know nothing about this book, what happened?

Why did you and Kathy LeGifford team up again to write a book? Yeah, I mean, people were so impacted by the Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi, seeing the Bible and the Holy Land through the lens of a Jewish rabbinic perspective. It really helps you to see it in high D. and just like the Rock Road and Rabbi was a journey through the Holy Land. Listen, when you go to Israel, it changes your life, right? Everyone says it's like it makes the Bible come alive. Well, this is that, but it's a journey through the people and stories that we all know in the scriptures, and it contains these promises that will literally transform our lives.

It's interesting. I've got many, many friends at the top of the list of my brain right now in Southern Cal is a Greg Denham, who explained to me, Eric, you can barely understand the scriptures. They've been gentilized. The Jewishness has been taken out of them. And obviously, you can't do that. The whole point of this is that worshiping the God of the Jews. Now the Gentiles can worship the God of the Jews. But weird things happen over the centuries where the essence of Jesus the rabbi and the faith that he lived, it's been taken out. So you're part of bringing it back.

And when I say bringing it back, it's like making it whole again. It seems to me like a major, major thing that's happening in the Christian faith is that we're seeing, as you put it, like in high death. Yeah, absolutely. I think that when you disconnect the Gentile roots from the Jewish shoots, you wind up with strange fruit. A lot of bad theology, a lot of misunderstanding things out of context is because they're taken out of its original cultural historical context. And when you put it back in, it makes so much more sense and there's a richness to it. Now, you were born as a Jew. Were you born as a religious Jew?

Serious about your faith? Yeah, I've lost most of my family in the Holocaust. I grew up in a conservative synagogue. in New Jersey. But you were not born as a rabbi. No one is born as a rabbi. I want to be very clear. I want to be very clear. So when did that happen for you? When did this become serious for you? I identify as a rabbi. You identify as a rabbi. Well, so do I. You know. What, what, what happened in your life? When did you suddenly say, I want to get serious about this? I

wanted this to be my life. I was actually working in a large recording studio in New York City and looked at the lives of all these famous people around me, said there has to be more to life than just this, began a spiritual journey, was going to synagogue, stunning with my rabbi. But I wanted more than just religion. I wanted a encounter with God. So through martial arts,

started to study Eastern philosophy and religion. And one day I was meditating. My soul left my body. It went into heaven, and I encountered this king on this throne, high and lifted up. And I felt a powerful. power of God pulsate through my body.

And I didn't know anything about Jesus. Now, how did you know? Because when people talk about Eastern religion, whatever, I would think that you could be, like, you know, taken out of your body and taken into a pantheon of demons. Like, how did you know this was the God of the Bible? Because when people say that stuff, it's like, be careful.

You don't know what's going to as a whole, you know. I think it's like, you know, I'm not comparing myself to Paul, but I think it's like it's God's sovereign grace and goodness that he gave me this encounter, because I was honestly seeking him through the synagogue, seeking him through this real encounter, and God heard my cries. And I knew that was Jesus. And I came back in my body and I was like, oh, my goodness,

I'm called to serve Jesus. Mom's like, you're called to serve who? We're Jewish for goodness sake. But I had no idea what this meant because, you know, as a Jewish kid, I thought Jesus was a nice Jewish boy. You converted to Catholicism because I didn't know any kids by the name of Jesus with mothers by the name Mary. It's just like, I'm Jason. Sobel, I thought this is the Christ family. I had no idea that Christ was the Greek for Messiah. I mean, this just goes to show you, Rabbi Jason, seriously, like, you never know what God's going to do, because I would tell people avoid Eastern religion. Of course.

You can get sucked into demonic deception and whatever. But God, in his utter sovereignty, chose to do this for you. We're not telling people to do that. Folks, don't do that. But he did it for you, and you knew that it was Jesus, and you have walked with him ever since. That's actually, that is amazing. Seriously. I'm so glad I asked that question, because that's crazy.

That's like when people hear it say, like, I was dropping acid. It was 1970, and I dropped acid, and I met Jesus, and I've been walking with Emerson. You're like, what? Like, that's not the path I would recommend, but God and his sovereignty will do the weirdest. Unbelievable. And so you, so do you get a lot of kickback in the Jewish community? where people would just say, like, you don't understand? Yeah, yeah, I've definitely, yeah.

And I've definitely gotten some throughout the years. I mean, I was at one point studying in an Orthodox yeshiva and Israel after becoming a believer because it was important for me to just continue to grow and understand, you know, that aspect as someone who was studying to become a rabbi and got kicked out for my faith. That's a whole other story. But, yeah, but you know what? I mean, I think most Jewish people are not religious, you know, and they're open to the Messiah when you explained it to them in a way that puts Yeshua, that's Jesus's Hebrew name, in his Jewish context. Well, so the God of the Way is the book that you and Kathy Lee Giver did should be on a couple minutes.

But there's also a film affiliated with this? Yeah, so the book is connected to the film. Kathy, it's kind of like a one-two punch. Kathy wanted to tell the stories of the Bible creatively with song and music. And out of that came the book, which stands alone but takes people deeper. So, for example, in the movie, she talks about the prodigal son, right? And so we, like in the book, we talk about, okay, what's a Jewish understanding of the prodigal son? So, for example, the prodigal has this awakening epiphany in the pig pen.

Well, why the pig pen? Well, pigs are the most unconsure animal because they have the external sign of being kosher cloven hooves, but they lack the internal sign which is chewing its cut. It's the picture of the hypocrite. Someone who looks good on the outside but is unclean on the inside. That's the prodigal son. But the word for pig in Hebrew is Hazir. Hazir in Hebrew literally is from the same verb to return.

So someone who returns to God is connected to the same word for pig. So the rabbi is saying, in heaven, pigs are going to be. be transformed to become kosher again. So I'll get to eat bacon in heaven. And so if there's a promise for the pig that the most unclean animal will become clean and kosher in heaven, then there's a promise for the prodigal. There's a promise for each one of us, no matter where we've come from or how far we've gone. That's so beautiful. And this is, of course, the challenge, right, is that there are words and concepts in the Hebrew that they make everything three-dimensional, that when you understand the meaning of this word or this word and what it relates to. And that's why

rabbinic study is its next level. You're digging in in a way that, you know, if you're just hearing a sermon in some Presbyterian church, it ain't happening, folks. It ain't happening. Yeah. Yeah, it's like Moses in the burning bush, right? God appears to Moses in the burning bush, but the Hebrew says it's a burning thorn bush. Well, why is that important? Because the thorn bush is a symbol of pain and suffering. God's saying, I feel your pain. It's why when Jesus dies on the cross, he has a crown of thorns on his head, because he's taking on himself not only the curse of creation, the ground will produce thorns and thistles. He's taking upon himself as the greater Moses, the pain of the people and saying, I feel your pain. It's why he dies on the cross because

sin enter the world through a tree. So God puts the second. Adam back on the tree for you and me to undo what the first Adam did. So there's all these deeper connections. There's so much of that kind of thing. I have never heard that before, right? And I always feel just stunned and embarrassed and then excited because like, oh, but now I want to tell the world that the burning bush was a thorn bush. You don't need to be deep to get that connection. That's like right there you think to yourself, oh, oh.

But then my question is always, why haven't I heard? that before. I mean, that seems extraordinary. I think the reality is that, you know, the most, like, I went to both yeshiva and seminary, and most pastors and teachers focus on the Greek because of the New Testament. They don't get as deep into the Hebrew. And there's a whole beautiful Hebrew interpretive tradition that I believe is part of the heritage of every believer. And I think as we get to know that again. It helps us have that road to Mayas experience where our hearts burn within us as we see these connections between the old and the new. And of course, I blame Jerome for his vulgate. Shame on you, Jerome. Listen, Rabbi Jason, just a joy to be with you. In a couple

minutes, we have Kathy Lee telling us the rest, but the book is the God of the way. Thank you, Rabbi Jason. Thank you. Shalom, Shalom. Tell me, Eric, why is Israeli Factor so successful? at lowering or eliminating pain. I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal, and I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients, yes, 100% drug-free ingredients, each helps your body deal with inflammation. Each of the four ingredients deals with inflammation from a different metabolic pathway. And that right there, approaching from four different angles, may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck,

hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Hey there, folks. Welcome back. And you remember I promised that we would have Kathy Lee Gifford on the program. Well, I just say stuff like that. You know we're not going to get her. But then somebody said to me, oh, no, no, no, no, we got her up. We got her up and we put some makeup on her and she's willing to go on your program. And here she is. Kathy Lee Gifford, welcome. Hey, hello, Eric. It was so nice to see you all back in New York and my old stomping ground. Well, you cheer me up whether you want to or not. And as you know, I was just talking to Rabbi Jason Sobel about the book that you two did together. It's your second book with him.

Sobel. Sobel. Or do you tease him as Sobel. What do I know? What do I know? I'm lucky I know how to pronounce a rabbi. So he lost your audio. He.

There you. You're back. So he. But so I talked to him about, you know, the nitty-gritty of it. But what is, why are you doing this second book with him? What is your interest in this, in the subject of this book? Well, the second, the second book of ours, after Rock Morden Rabbi, is very, very different.

It has a different purpose. This book supports the film that I've written called The Way. And it's a, it's a 74-minute series of four oratorial. which chronicle the faith journey from the dawn of creation to the building of a nation, the Hebrews, all the way through the conquering of the promised land, all the way to the Messiah's coming. And then when Jesus calls his disciples to meet him on the other side and get in the boat and meet me on the other side. So I don't know, it was, you and I've talked a lot about spiritual things and what was the beginning of this? You know, God always said, do not despise the small beginnings.

The whole thing began as a three-minute song I was writing with a brand new writer friend of mine, Nicole C. Mullin, ended up being an 11-5-minute oratorio, which became, I added a 65-piece orchestra to it, and then I took it to her and the 65-piece orchestral accompaniment. And we went to Israel, and I shot her, my first directorial adventure. And it was just magic for me. And it was magic for her. And it turned out millions and millions. millions and millions of viewers have seen the God who sees. On the basis of that reaction, I'd like to say the success of it, because whatever we do in the name of the Lord, whether one person sees it or millions, it's successful if we've been faithful to the calling to it. So I'm careful with that word,

but I'm talking about the success in terms of how people reacted to it, how people responded and how they continue to, three and a half years later still, I was ready to kill myself. They'll write me. When you read the responses at the comments at the end of the God who sees on YouTube, they're as fresh as if they were three and a half years ago, because that's a beauty of things living on well past what you used to think was their shelf life.

And people say, I saw this and it broke my heart, the beauty of it and the truth of it, and watching Hagar and watching Ruth and watching David suffer in the wilderness. I'm suffering in my wilderness and to think that God sees me after all these centuries. It changed my life. I'm not going to kill myself. Or I took this into the hospital. My mother was dying.

She was in hospice and I thought she was gone, but I played it for her. And she came, we've had these kinds of reactions. She became lucid and asked Jesus into her heart. And I know she went straight into his arms. I mean, when I see that kind of reaction, I know that's just the work of the Holy Spirit and it encourages me to keep doing what I'm doing.

You must be so encouraged that because, as you know, show business is so strange that many people don't know this side of you, that you write oratorios and that you put on an amazing Broadway musical, which obviously I saw. I mean, people don't know that side of you. They think that, yeah, she used to be with the cruise line and she used to joke around with Rij and drink wine with Hoda. and they have no idea that your whole life you have had this creative musical side and obviously this Jesus thing going on. Oh, yeah. My Yeshua, ever since I was 12 years old, although I really believe I knew him before that.

My very first memory, one of my very first memories was being at my house in Annapolis, Maryland, and dreaming. I had a dream there. I must have been about six. It was fall, and I was. I was outside with my daddy, breaking leaves and jumping into leaf piles as you do in Maryland. And all of a sudden I looked up, and it was a beautiful fall day, and Jesus was sitting on a cloud. I knew he was Yeshua.

I knew he was Jesus, but for whatever reason. And he was sitting cross-legged like an Indian, and he just looked down at me and smiled at me and just smiled at me. And didn't say a word, and I woke up. and I knew it was Jesus. So even then when I became a follower of him when I was 12, I still couldn't believe that there were people. I had Jewish friends who didn't believe in Jesus. I said, how can you not believe in Jesus?

He's the Messiah, the long prophesied Messiah in the Old Testament, in the Torah, in the books of the prophets. And we just don't believe that. It was just a big surprise to me. And it's still a big surprise to me. that people would choose to not believe in him. I think it's a lot harder to not believe in him that it is to believe in him. There's such an extraordinary amount of evidence to prove that he certainly was a historical character.

He certainly had the biggest influence on the world any individual it's ever had. You know so much about this, which is one of the reasons I want to encourage people to get the God of the way. Kathy Lee, just a joy to see your face and to hear from you. Thank you. and God bless you, my sister, to be continued. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. God bless you.

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promo code Eric. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to the Kathy Lee Gifford. Not to be confused with all those people who claim to be Catholic Lee Gifford. this is the original, and she has a book out called The God of the Way. We've been talking about it. Kathy Lee, you were just sharing this beautiful thing, and I think a lot of people, they don't maybe talk about it publicly, but they have these experiences through life

where God is poking at them, winking at them, letting them know he's there. But for some reason, they're not ready. and then maybe later on they look back. And I certainly have had that experience in my life. It wasn't until my 25th birthday that Jesus came into my life, you know, once and for all, big time. But before that, there were many moments, and I write about them in my book, Fish Out of Water.

But the reason I bring it up is because a lot of people have this very crimped view of how God works. And he doesn't work in the way that we demand. that he works. Like I was on crack and then one day I laid down the crack pipe and then I got saved and sometimes. But very often it's way more complicated than that, isn't it?

It certainly is. The biggest mistake everybody does is we try to put God in a box. God is the creator of all things since the beginning of time which was he was there before time as we, and he doesn't even live in a sense of time

that we do. So we just try to take our finite minds and try to decide what God is. And it's ludicrous. I don't want a God that small that you can fit in my brain. You know, I want the God who sustains all things by his power to this day. I want a God who's the rock of all things, the foundation of all of creation. And I don't believe this is the only solar system that there is in the world. We know there it isn't. So I just don't want a God that I can, that I can limit, you know, because he's limitless. And I, I want to worship that. God. I used to tease Regis about, he'd get his, you know, his palm red, and he'd go to an astrologer.

And I said, Breach, why do you put your faith in the stars? Why don't you put your faith in the one who made the stars? Go a little higher, go a little deeper, baby. And he just, well, but no, people want fast answers. They're afraid of the future. They don't trust him for the future. They don't trust him for today, much less tomorrow. And they live in a place of fear. I truly, rejoice in living a life of faith as opposed to fear. Fear paralyzes from things happening. Fear clogs up the blessings from heaven. God doesn't want us to live in a place of fear.

There are more admonitions in the Bible to fear not. Fear not, I am with you. He knew we would be afraid, but what pleases God is not only the praises that we give him because he inhabits the praises of his people, But he says, you know, that our faith is the very thing that actually pleases him. So I want to please my creator. I want, I'm a people pleaser to some extent, but I'm really, really a savior pleaser. I want, I want him to say, well, well done, Kathy.

I saw your heart. You know, he said about David, who sent out the wazoo. He said, but he's a man after my own heart. I want to be a woman after his own heart. Well, you know, I've said this to you almost every time I interview you, that you've lived your life and your faith publicly. And that's beautiful because that's very rare in American life. And we need way, way, way more of it. And I remember quite a few years ago when you went through the sweatshop controversy and you and your late husband, Frank, were being, you know, dragged through the mud.

And you lived through that with. your faith and people who knew you knew that about you that you have suffered uh it hasn't been all success you you've you've suffered and struggled but you've walked with jesus through that and it's why you can talk the way you talk today yeah no that was one of the darkest darkest seasons of my entire life frank and i were ready to open up a new facility that we had spent 14 million dollars on and we had to we had to make that money to give that money we weren't over rich people we We both worked hard, but we didn't have that kind of money. It was a home that's still there in New York City called Cassidy's Place.

And it was in the 90s when we were battling the dual pandemic of not only AIDS, children with AIDS and adults, just the AIDS pandemic, but also crack. And so we already had a little house in town called Cody House that took care of the AIDS babies that all died. There's a garden there. There's a garden at Cody House on 91st Street. Yeah. And it's got a darling montage of all the little babies that we just literally rocked to death. We loved them to death, rocking them to their

because there was no hope for AIDS babies. But they had no place to be. And there was such a stigma about AIDS. So we'd go in there, all of us volunteers. Frank and I took over the finances of that place. And so they named it after our son. We didn't ask them to. And anyway, that's another story.

But then I battled the state of New York. Frank and I in the Association of Benefit Children in New York brought a lawsuit against New York because they had blinded HIV testing results. And we knew from our work with AIDS babies that once they got a cocktail of a certain amount of certain kinds of drugs, a woman who was pregnant but didn't know. Went to a clinic that they were, the CDC. Even then I knew as shady. They were so-called testing the results of all the testing.

They wouldn't let the woman know or her physician if she had one that she was HIV positive or she, you know, that the baby in her was problem. So the baby would go from if she got that cocktail, the baby would go down to an 8% chance of being born with full blown AIDS or HIV. And I just, the thought of that was so unfair, unjust. The first time I'd gone to our little house called Cody House, Cody was three months old, and he was a healthy little boy in my right arm. I held my first AIDS baby, and he was like, you know, a pound. It was, you know, and he died. And that changed me.

So anyway, in retrospect, what happened is we ended up building another one. And right before that opened, I was accused of being basically a child molester and putting children to work in front of, you know, in Honduras or wherever. It was a complete and total lie. It was an attempt to get Walmart to unionize. So I cried out to God, boy, like, where are you, Lord? This thing is ugly beyond belief, yeah. Well, you know, and I know that at the end of it all, we are in a spiritual battle between good and evil.

And if you stick your neck out to do the right thing, we go through it. But the Lord was with you then. He's with you now. I'm just so grateful for you and for your openness about your faith. Kathy Lee Gifford, my friend. God bless you. Thank you. And you, Eric, take care, sweetheart, and all your new endeavors. Folks, the headline is, we need your help. What do I mean by that? I mean at least three things by that. Number one, if it's possible for you to get to be part of our studio audience, August 3rd,

fourth, and fifth, and eighth in New York, this week, it starts about 4 o'clock every day. We're taping the late night, the talk show with Eric Metaxus. It is a mainstream TV talk show. We don't have time to get into it now, but it's nuts. We've got a lot of mainstream guests. It's going to be a blast. We can't share most of it with you yet. But if you can get there, go to Ericmataxis.com. You'll see where it says speaking or schedule, whatever, and you click on it. Every day you can sign up through Eventbrite. We'd love you there all four days or just one day. You can bring as many people as you want to sign them up. But this is going to be a wild, fun thing. We need some fun, folks. We need some fun because there's a lot of tough stuff going on. But we want you to be there. Please do what you can.

That's number one. Number two, if you follow me on social media, let me just ask you, instead of liking what I put there, would you retweet it or would you share it? Would you share it on Facebook? I'm trying to get a lot of information out. And I don't think I've ever said this before, but a lot of times people will like something. We need to get the word out. We are being suppressed. We know that what we're doing, whether we're being shadow banned, I don't mean to sound like, you know, like the, like chicken little.

This is actually, or not chicken little. Who am I looking for? Oh, the boy, you cried wolf. This is actually happening. We need your help, folks, to, to multiply our message. Everything we put out, it's a struggle. So whatever you can do to help us. And speaking of helping us, as you know, Every couple times a year, we try to raise funds for an organization that we think worthy. At the top of the list is Food for the Poor. Food for the Poor is an amazing Christian nonprofit relief organization. They go where there is a need. And I just want to tell you right now, they are helping families who have fled the Ukraine.

Now, we don't need to get into the politics of it. These are people that are suffering. want to show them the love of God. We want to help them. Food for the poor. I can't think of anybody that I would trust more to do that. So food for the poor is partnering with a number of Christian organizations, relief organizations, ministry partners to get food, literal food to these families that have fled their homes. They've left everything behind. If you know anybody who's ever been through anything like this, my parents experienced this kind of thing, it's hellish. And we want to show them the love of.

of God. So I want to ask you simply to call this number to help, or you can just go to the banner. Our banner is metaxistalk.com. That's the radio banner. We want you to give. We want you to give generously. We just want everybody who listens to this program to do what you can. By God's grace, we are able to do something. Let's do what we can. So please go to metaxis talk.com. Or you can call this number. I'll give it to you right now. hope, please dial that number. Please give what you can now. It's August 1st. We don't have a lot of time to do this. It's always the struggle. God bless you as you give. 844-8663 hope. 844-8663 hope. 844-8663 hope. These are people that are struggling and we need to do what we can to help them. 844-863 hope. 844-8663 hope. Metaxistalk.com. You'll see the banner there.

and Albin and I will shortly let you know everybody who gives anything. We will put your names in a in a hat, so to speak, proverbial hat, and we'll have a number of grand prize winners. We want to give you signed books and all kinds of things. And I always say anybody who can give $10,000 as tax deductible, I'd be delighted to have dinner with you, to spend an evening with you. We always manage to make that work. So remember, 844-863-hope, 844-8-4-8-6-3-Hope, 844-863 hope or go to metaxis talk.com. God bless you.