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

Episode Date: August 25, 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 (Encore Presentati...on)

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxos 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. Taxis show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. Albin is still absent. And I think Albin in some languages means absent. But we know he's coming back tomorrow. And I cannot wait to hear. year what happened on his trip. Chris, you and I yesterday went to Astoria. It's true. You used to live in Astoria. I used to live in Astoria. I was born in Astoria. And we went there
Starting point is 00:00:53 yesterday. Astoria is right across the East River, which is not even a river. It's an estuary from Manhattan. We went there. We had some Greek food. Yeah. It sounds very far. I'm just going to say, it sounds very far away from Manhattan. Astoria, but it's literally across a small channel of water. It's right across the estuary, but Albin went across the pond, which sounds small, but it's actually the Atlantic Ocean. And tomorrow, I hope he'll be prepared to give an accounting of how he spent his time, how many scones he ate, how much clotted cream, how much punting he did. He sent me a photograph, I guess he and Anne and his brother and a sister-in-law. They were in Westminster Abbey, and he sent me a photo of him standing, of himself standing in front of the William Wolverford Forest monument that's there. It's a beautiful, if you've ever been to Westminster Abbey, it's just a beautiful thing.
Starting point is 00:01:49 But anyway, he's obviously back in London and flying back today or whatever. So we can't wait to get him back. So a couple of things that we should talk about. First of all, not only is Alvin returning tomorrow, but John Zmirak is returning. tomorrow. We're going to talk to John about a lot of stuff tomorrow, so hold on to your hat. That's number one. That's tomorrow. We're also going to be recording tomorrow. I don't know when we'll air it, but Jerome Corsi, who was on this program a couple of times recently, who is a super genius. He has written a thriller called The Shroud Codex. It's all about the Shroud
Starting point is 00:02:31 of Turin. It is amazing. When I read it, I said, I've got to get him back in the studio. So I hope tomorrow we can record him in the studio. I don't know that we'll air it tomorrow. Maybe we'll just use Merak. Maybe we'll air it tomorrow. But I just want to say very soon, Friday or Monday, we will air my conversation with Jerome Corsi about the shroud of Torin. It is astonishing stuff. I promise you, it is just crazy, amazing. It's kind of like the theme of my book is atheism dead. The evidence that's coming out from science and everywhere pointing to God, pointing to the resurrection, pointing to the way. You can't even believe that in a lifetime,
Starting point is 00:03:09 this evidence is coming out. And it's going to be harder and harder for people to turn away from God. And it's going to be easier and easier for people to turn toward God, which is a wonderful thing. But that's, so that's coming up. So we got Jerome Corsee. We've got John Smirak. And we are going to rerun.
Starting point is 00:03:27 I've got to say this. Andrew Claven, some of you know him. He's in certain circles. He's extremely famous. he's on the Daily Wire. He's got a podcast on the Daily Wire. He wrote a book called The Truth and Beauty. And I couldn't believe that he pulled it off. He basically wrote a book about how the romantic poets, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, how they helped him to understand some of the perplexing words of Jesus. It's amazing. It's an amazing book. I interviewed him on this program. We will rerun that.
Starting point is 00:04:05 I think on this Friday because it is so magnificent, but also because we're going to have him, I will have him as my guest at Socrates in the city here in New York on September 27th. And for those of you who can't come, I want you to experience this if you've missed it. So we're going to air the conversation. Socrates and city conversations are pretty dramatically different than the radio here, but it'll give you a taste of it. And for those of you who want to come to New York on September 27th, we can get you rooms at the Union League Club if you prefer that. Those are gorgeous rooms and a gorgeous club.
Starting point is 00:04:48 But I think the early bird tickets are done. I don't think you can get any more early bird tickets because there's a limited amount of those. But the regular tickets are still reasonably priced for what you get. There's a VIP reception. If you can come to the dinner, I promise you, it's a. amazing experience. And those are also limited. It's a private dinner. So I just want to tell you that. Also, got to tell you, tomorrow Thursday, we have Ask Metaxus on this program. You know that once a week in hour two. So that's tomorrow coming up. Ask Metaxus. And we're going to do some re-airs
Starting point is 00:05:25 next week. I will be away most of next week. And so some of the great stuff that we've done, We had Brandon Tatum on the program. A lot of good folks. Today, today, coming up in just a moment, we have our first guest is Rebecca Hatfield. That's in a couple of seconds. Folks, this is very important. She is the president of second vote. I've talked to Dr. Black.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Some of you know him. He kind of started this thing. And it's about how you spend your money. and how it affects the culture. And are you spending your money with corporations that are, you know, abusing your money or taking your money for bad things? We also have a client on this program called Inspire Investing. That's about how you invest your money and where your money is, 401Ks and all that stuff.
Starting point is 00:06:17 So that's investment, but just how you spend your money. So that's coming up in a couple of seconds. Rebecca Hadfield, she is fantastic. In our two today, Rick Green of Patriot Academy, this is another one. I mean, he's a hero. I promise you you need to hear what he's doing with Patriot County. There are people out there doing fantastic things, and you need to catch this and you need to get part of it because it'll give you hope that there are things that we can all do to take our country back to 1776 or something like that. Or 1787.
Starting point is 00:06:57 I honestly think that it's exciting. Also, if you get my newsletter, yesterday I posted the sermon that I gave on Sunday at Second Baptist Church in Houston. It's the first time I've spoken from a pulpit about my book letter to the American Church. And I want to say, I think it's a very important message. It's kind of heavy, but it's very important. I think if you are signed it from my newsletter, Arapataxis.com, I also posted it on social media. Finally, before we go to Rebecca Hatfield, Chris, I've got to say we are pretty behind in our fundraising for food for the poor. And I'm sorry about that.
Starting point is 00:07:49 So I want to say, if you have not yet participated, please jump in because they turn to us knowing that our audience has a hard. for the poor, a heart for the suffering. And the easiest way is just to go to metaxis talk.com. If you go to metaxis talk.com, you can see the link. But there are people in Ukraine who are suffering, like really suffering. They can't feed their kids. And we want to help. We want to step up. we had a I think we have a clip that I want to play Andy Carr okay one of the
Starting point is 00:08:29 food for the poor typically works in this hemisphere but because of what the suffering in Ukraine they partnered with a number of folks one of those is feed my starving children and the spokesman for that group wants you to know the impact that your donations have been having
Starting point is 00:08:46 let's we'll play the clip here it is in times of desktes Who do people cry out to in their hearts? They cry out to God. What do they do when they're hunkered down in their homes and sirens are going on? I promise you there are prayers being raised up. And those prayers are not falling on deaf ears. God hears those prayers and God is acting through you right now. It's just important, folks, that we understand. First of all, when we give, we give to God. We give to God. We we entrust it to him. But he wants us to be good stewards, not to give sloppily, to be careful. That's why we partner. with food for the poor. We trust them. We've worked with them for many years. Salem has worked with
Starting point is 00:09:23 them for many years. They are very, very scrupulous about stretching your dollars as far as they can possibly go. $100 pays for 400 meals. These are starving families. They didn't ask for this. They're suffering. They're crying out to God. Be a part of the solution. The phone number, 844-863 hope, 844-8-6-3 hope. Please dial it. 844-863 hope. 844-8-63 hope. In case you haven't been paying attention,
Starting point is 00:10:13 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, 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.
Starting point is 00:10:34 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 your retirement. No matter what happens, you own your gold. It is real, it is physical, it's always been valuable since the dawn of time. Legacy precious metals is the company I trust for investing in gold. They can help you roll your retirement account. into a gold-backed IRA where you still own the physical gold. They can also ship gold and precious metal safely and securely to your house.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Call Legacy at 866-528-1903 or visit them online at LegacyPMinvestments.com. Tell me, Eric, why is Relief 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.
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Starting point is 00:12:25 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 Lee Gifford team up again to write a book? Yeah, I mean, people were so impacted by the Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi see. seeing the Bible and the Holy Land through the lens of a Jewish rabbinic perspective.
Starting point is 00:13:10 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 Pastor Greg Denham, who explained to me, Eric, you can barely understand the scriptures. They've been gentilized.
Starting point is 00:13:51 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 deaf? Yeah, absolutely. I think that when you disconnect the Gentile roots
Starting point is 00:14:34 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 was, I've lost most of my family in the Holocaust.
Starting point is 00:15:05 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.
Starting point is 00:15:21 Well, so do I, you know. But what, what, what, uh, What happened in your life? When did you suddenly say, I want to get serious about this? I want 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,
Starting point is 00:15:41 began a spiritual journey, was going to synagogue, studying 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, in 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 the 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
Starting point is 00:16:12 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.
Starting point is 00:16:44 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. My mom's like, you're called to serve who. were 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
Starting point is 00:17:01 any kids by the name of Jesus' mothers by the name Mary. And just like I'm Jason Sobel, I thought this is the Christ family. I had no idea that Christ was the Greek for Messiah. Well, I mean, this just goes to show you, Rabbi Jason, seriously, like, you never know
Starting point is 00:17:17 what God's going to do because I would tell people avoid Eastern religion 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
Starting point is 00:17:39 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 here say, I was dropping acid. It was 1970 and I've dropping acid and I met Jesus and I've been walking with Emerson. You're like, what?
Starting point is 00:17:54 Like, that's not the path I would recommend. But God and his sovereignty will do the weirdest. Unbelievable. And so you get a lot of kickback in the Jewish community where people would just say, like, you don't understand? Yeah, yeah. And I've definitely gotten some throughout the years. I mean, I was at one point studying in an Orthodox Yashiva 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.
Starting point is 00:18:29 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' Hebrew name, in his Jewish context. Well, so the God of the Way is the book that you and Kathy Lee Gifford did. She'll be on a couple minutes. But there's also a film affiliated with this? Yeah. So the book is connected to the film.
Starting point is 00:19:02 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 talked. 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
Starting point is 00:19:29 in the pig pen. Well, why the pig pen? Well, pigs are the most uncoacher 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,
Starting point is 00:19:44 but is unclean on the inside. That's the prodigal sign. 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 rabbis say in heaven, pigs are going to be transformed and 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,
Starting point is 00:20:12 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 next level.
Starting point is 00:20:40 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. ain't happening. 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.
Starting point is 00:21:00 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
Starting point is 00:21:16 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,
Starting point is 00:22:02 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.
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Starting point is 00:23:52 MyPillow.com. Click on the radio listener square. Use the promo code Eric. The offer will not last very long because these percal sheets are known to sell very quickly. Order now with promo code Eric at MyPill. Mypillow.com. That's my pillow.com. promo code, Eric. 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,
Starting point is 00:24:27 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.
Starting point is 00:24:57 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.
Starting point is 00:25:08 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.
Starting point is 00:25:37 And it's a 74-minute series of four oratorios, 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. 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 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,
Starting point is 00:26:18 ended up being an 11-and-a-half-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 event, and it was just magic for me and it was magic for her and it turned out millions and 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 it.
Starting point is 00:27:06 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. That's the 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
Starting point is 00:27:35 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 came, 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
Starting point is 00:28:14 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 it.
Starting point is 00:28:39 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.
Starting point is 00:29:07 And it was fall. And 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.
Starting point is 00:29:26 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,
Starting point is 00:29:58 in the books of the prophets. And we just don't believe that. And 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 has 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.
Starting point is 00:30:30 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. Didn't think before deciding what to do. At talk of opportunities.
Starting point is 00:31:21 Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to the Kathy Lee Gifford. Not to be confused with all those people who claim to be Cathay Lee Gifford. This is the original, and she has a book out called The God of the Way we've been talking about it.
Starting point is 00:31:38 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,
Starting point is 00:31:53 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 to work in the way that we demand that he works. Like I was on crack.
Starting point is 00:32:27 And then one day I lay down the crack pipe and then I got saved. 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.
Starting point is 00:32:57 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 isn't. So I just don't want a God that I can limit, you know, because he's limited. And I want to worship that God. I used to tease Regis about, he'd get his, you know, his
Starting point is 00:33:28 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, you know, 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.
Starting point is 00:34:08 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 give him because he inhabits the praises of his people. But he he 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, 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 sinned out the wazoo.
Starting point is 00:34:47 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
Starting point is 00:35:10 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. It hasn't been all success. You've suffered and struggled, but you've walked with Jesus through that
Starting point is 00:35:31 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 on. And we had to make that money to give that money. We weren't over-rich people. 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
Starting point is 00:35:57 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.
Starting point is 00:36:34 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.
Starting point is 00:36:49 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 kinds of drugs, a woman who was pregnant but didn't know. I went to a clinic that they were, the CDC, even then I knew as shady.
Starting point is 00:37:20 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.
Starting point is 00:37:54 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
Starting point is 00:38:26 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 great to. 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.
Starting point is 00:39:24 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, 4th, and 5th, and 8th 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.
Starting point is 00:39:51 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 Eric Mataxis.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. 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,
Starting point is 00:40:17 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,
Starting point is 00:41:02 folks, 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, and we want to show them the love of God.
Starting point is 00:41:44 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.
Starting point is 00:42:10 It's hellish. And we want to show them the love 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 metaxis talk.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.
Starting point is 00:42:29 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. 844-863 hope. Please dial that number. Please give what you can now.
Starting point is 00:42:46 It's August 1st. We don't have a lot of time to do this. It's always a struggle. God bless you as you give. 844-863 hope. 8-4-8-6-3 hope. These are people that are struggling, and we need to do what we can to help them.
Starting point is 00:43:03 8-4-863 hope. 8-4-8-6-3 hope. Metaxus-St3-Rope. talk.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,
Starting point is 00:43:38 4863 hope, 844-8663 hope, or go to metaxis talk.com. God bless you.

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