The Eric Metaxas Show - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joins Eric from Turning Point USA in Tampa; then, Eric answers lightening-round "Ask Metaxas" questions, and Albin prepares us for "The Pirate Pandemic."

Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Hey there, sports fans. I'm playing the role of Eric Mettaxas. I'll do my best. Albin, you try to do your best to play Albin Seder. Yeah, I will. And we're going to get through this together. I'm going to do this.

Now, this is exciting. It is. In a few minutes, I want to announce what's happening in this hour. In a few minutes, I'm talking to Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State for the United States of America. This is the guy that says. sat toe to toe with Kim Jong-un. Yeah, but who hasn't?

And gave him a wedgy. And Kim Jong-un is so out of touch, he didn't even realize what happened. No. Yeah. So Pompeo is coming up in the next segment. I should announce yesterday and the day before,

which is Monday and Tuesday this week, I was in Tampa, Florida at the Charlie Kirk's T.P. USA, Turning Point USA Student Action Summit. What does that mean? I don't know. But I was there. And I got to interview people that normally I wouldn't get to interview like Mike Pompeo.

And on the beach, you've got a great tan. I don't have a great tan and I didn't get to go to the beach. And that's a bitter thing for me that I was all the way down there in Florida. I didn't get to hang out in the sun at all. Okay. But so seriously, in a couple of minutes, Mike Pompeo, folks. While I was down there, I also interviewed Seth Dillon of the Babylon Bee. He's the guy behind the Babylon Bee, the CEO.

And that's a great conversation, which will air this week. Jack Posabique, Jack Posobique. You probably don't know who he is, but you will, and you should. I've been following him on Twitter. He's, I won't go into it, but we caught up with him. And then Dr. James Lindsay, another guy that, I don't know how to describe him. He is a genius academic who I won't even get into it. Okay, but here's the other thing.

Before we get to Mike Pompeo. Yes. yesterday I interviewed Ben Shapiro. Not for this program. No. C-SPAN book TV. Book notes came to me and said, Eric, we want you, Eric Metaxus, to interview Ben Shapiro about his new book, the authoritarian moment on C-SPAN book TV. Wow.

And I said, you can't afford me. And they said, we actually don't pay money. And I said, C. And then they said, well, we were. desperate and that's right so I interviewed Ben Shapiro and it was really interesting because I don't really know Ben and so you know it's one of these things where he's pretty serious and I figure I'm book I'm on book TV on C-SPAN I've got to be serious so I felt like I had all three hands tied behind my back but it was a good exercise because it without cracking jokes you can get a

lot more done but it was a wonderful conversation and we will let you know I am in touch with his PR person and we will have him on this show. As a result of what I did with him yesterday, I said we got to continue the conversation. So he will be on this program soon. Next week. Probably. Ben Shapiro. I also should announce, well, a couple things.

Coming up, we are going to do these Ask Metaxus segments regularly. We'll probably run it today just because we had some time. but I think typically we're going to do it every Thursday in hour two. The first 10 minutes of hour two, it's going to be Ask Metaxus on Instagram only, just because it's kind of complicated. Well, I shouldn't say Instagram only, but typically on Instagram, people can send in their questions. Every Wednesday on my story, we'll take the questions. So we're going to do this every Wednesday. Ask Metaxus, okay?

but just because we can, we'll do some Ask Metaxuses today. We get some great questions, some baffling questions. Oh, yeah. Okay, before we get to Mike Pompeo, do I have time? I do have time. I was in Maine this weekend. Now, Maine, in my mind, Maine is a place you drive to, and it's far, and that's why you never go there. Because who can drive seven hours to Maine?

It just doesn't, nobody has the time. Well, I discovered a crazy thing. If you're invited to preach in a church in Maine, you can fly there. So I went to JFK Airport, got on a plane, and Shazam, like eight minutes later, I land in the middle of Maine, Bangor, Maine. And you know what I learned? No, what?

It's not pronounced Bangor Maine. Bangor Maine is wrong. Bangor. Bangor. So I was in Bangor, Maine. and as soon as I got there, I said something about Bangor, and they said it's Bangor. So Bangor, or Bangor, Bangor Main is a place where my friend Ken Graves has a church. Now, Ken Graves, he's a living cartoon figure.

He's like Curtis Sliwa. Like, there's certain people that they're really cartoon figures come to life. Mike Lindell is another one. Ken Graves is, he's such a man's man. He's got a voice. I can't even do his voice. You have to gargle with gravel for two decades before you can approximate what his voice sounds like. But he's just, he's the kind of man's man that no matter who you are as a guy, he makes you feel effeminate. Not in a good way. And I preached in his church, but the night before he and his wife took me and some of the family members out to a place called Youngs. I think it's in Belfast, Maine, I forget. And it's a lobster place. You sit outside. And Ken, being a man's man, he said, we're going to get you a two and a half, three-pound lobster. Yeah.

Now, for me, that's the kind of lobster I'm always interested in. But you can't afford that. Like, you know, if you're eating in a restaurant, it's just like this place, I had two, two and a half pound lobsters. Two. Two. And I got gout and really my career ended right there. But it was so incredible. Wow.

And while we're sitting there eating the lobsters, we're joking around. about something and Ken's wife says something about race car drive. I don't know. It was like this crazy conversation. And I said something about drag racing and I brought up Don the Snake Proudon. Do you know that name? No, I do not. Okay.

Well, that's, to me, that's like drag racing royalty. Don the snake Prudam. And Ken's wife, Jeanette, says, that's my brother. It was like one of those freaky moments where. you're thinking, is anybody watching? Like, this just happened. It was so bizarre. Anyway, I had so much fun with them that I think of them as family,

and I can't wait to go back there and talk about my book, Is Atheism Dead? So I just wanted to tell people before Tampa, I was in Maine. And it was a bizarre thing to fly from Maine, like in the middle of Maine, all the way down, from the northernmost part of the East Coast, all the way down to the southernmost part. It was just a bizarre thing. I got stuck in D.C. All right.

So do we have time to talk? talk about the iPatch or should we do that later? No, we should do that later because it's very serious. It's something that's coming down from the, you know, world health organization. So in a couple of seconds, I'm talking to Mike Pompeo. Yeah. And then we're going to do the iPatch thing. Folks, this is real, this is really solid stuff.

You need to pay attention. So right after Pompeo, which we recorded two days ago, we're going to do that. And then we're going to do Ask Mataxis. this. And you know what? Let me say this. Sorry. I was going to say, you didn't even ask me. I took a few days off. People don't know this. Whoa. Yeah. So tell us. Well, it is funny, we were going to go on vacation, but we canceled our vacation to Lake George because it looked like it was going to rain all five days and we're going to try to be away. So Ann and I on Sunday, we went to Rabbi Jonathan Khan's church for vacation. Yeah, I know. You went to Rabbi Jonathan Conn's Church for vacation?

Yes. In the middle of New Jersey. What kind of a vacation is that? Well, after we got out, after he led us out, it was unbelievable. We said, like, why don't we just go to Ocean Grove? So we drove another hour and a half. Oh, yeah. But by the time we got there, I'm not kidding, we stopped somewhere else to eat. It's called a little place called Wendy's. But by the time we had only enough time, and I'm not kidding, to sit on one of the benches,

looking out over the ocean for 45 minutes. Then Ann and I said, okay, that's it. Let's go. Some vacation, Albin. And then we got back in our car, and we drove, and along the palisades, out and we took a picture which I, no, I didn't send it to you, but we have a picture of us overlooking yonkers. So that was our vacation. That's on the palisades. It's a good thing I'm not normally suicidal. Yeah. But because I want to feel what suicidal is. I feel it right now.

And a friend of mine said, where did you go on vacation? And I sent him the picture and he said, yonkers? I said, no, no, we're overlooking. Yonkers. I think you're just, I think you're just egging me on to say, Albin, you need to take a real vacation. We've got many weeks coming up where that's possible. And you need to plan ahead. no rain. When we come back, folks, seriously, Mike Pompeo, don't forget to go to my website, Ericmataxis.com, and sign up for the newsletter. I'm begging you, Ericmetaxis.com, please. Hey there, folks. How many years have I been telling you about relief factor? What, like, the truth is, I know there are millions of people. In fact, some say over 100 million people

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pain. Go to relieffactor.com, relief factor.com, or call 800, 500, 8384. Relieffactor.com, 800, 500, 800, 8384. I use it. It works. Check it out. Hey, their friends, Eric Mettaxas here. Joe Biden and the Democrats have laid out the most socialist agenda our country has ever seen. Instead of following President Trump's blueprint that had the economy booming, the Dems are going to raise taxes, increase regulations, and skyrocket an already outrageous national debt. If you're retiring, is in traditional investments, it is in jeopardy. Americans should be diversifying their investments with gold and precious metals. Gold gives you control over your wealth and protects you from

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much for having me on the show today. It's good to be with you again. What's new in your life? Different life. But just as busy. Outworking to protect and promote conservative values all across America. I don't have the title anymore, but the mission set hasn't changed. There are very few people, and this is, I think, the headline for America in the last year or two. There are very few people who can be counted on to be genuine voices of American freedom. It's sad to say that, but it's a clarifying point for Americans to realize that there's almost, I don't know, maybe 10 people you can point to.

You are at least two of those 10 people. I'm sure people ask you whether you'll be running for public office. What do you say to those people since they're asking that question? So I tell them I'm going to stay in the fight. Whether that'll be running for elective office again, only the Lord truly knows. but I am committed this. I've been working on this for too long. I've got a son, hopefully I'll have grandchildren,

the Lord will bless me of grandchildren one of these days. There's no way I'm walking away from this wife. Is your son married? He's engaged. They get married almost a year from now. A year from now. That's way too much time. I have a daughter.

I have my only child. She is still single. I've been bugging her for grandkids since she was eight years old. I know. I've told Rachel, his fiance, who is a lovely Florida girl. I've told her the Lord is watching. You better get ready. Well, so you, did you grow up as a committed Christian?

You know, I didn't. My parents took us to Sunday school, but it wasn't a huge part of my life. I found Jesus when I was a cadet at West Point. Two kids who were a year ahead of me taught me on Sundays. We'd go have cookies, and they would teach me the Bible. And that was where I first truly understood Jesus, who's my Savior. And those people don't even know how much they changed my life. Isn't that amazing?

You should contact them because it ends up being kind of significant that they took that time with you. They did. You know, it's a hard first year at West Point. That first summer is very busy, and they brought us all in. They took us in for an hour and had what, I didn't know it was a Bible study, but I now know this is what it was. And they taught me how to work through the Bible, how to think, and how to understand that it was his word that we should pay attention to.

It's fascinating to me. I keep saying that we're at a real threshing moment in America. dividing. And we're seeing, because of Trump, and I really believe it was God's hand using Trump, a destruction and a creation, we're seeing one of those destruction creation moments in history that we haven't seen in our lifetimes. There's been nothing like it. And so there is this sifting where the people that I would have thought were on our team, I now know, are just playing ball to play ball, to stay in power. They're kind of greeting the tea leaves, finger in the wind.

There are, as I said earlier, very few people who are committed to a make America great again, for lack of a better term, agenda, who understand that we can no longer, you know, play politics as usual. It's just not going to work if we're not willing to fight. Trump was to me the ultimate warrior, willing to take on, you know, whether it's the deep state or whatever. How do you feel about that? Because we really are in a strange moment where, you know, you can't say this, but I can. I think Mitch McConnell's a skunk. I think Kevin McCarthy is no better.

I look at these people. I thought they were on my side, and I realize they're not the kind of warriors that we need. How do you see the party going forward when we have so many people that they simply don't seem committed when the chips are down? So let me say two things. One, the Bible talks about this. It talks about these times where you talked about a sifting. There's a time where there are you talked about a sifting. There's a time where those who are truly prepared to follow Jesus

and not just doing it because it's the cool thing to do will find their way, and the Lord will reveal this. I see that happening all across the country today. I can see some folks, frankly, that I thought were friends who thought I was crazy for joining the Trump administration. And goodness gracious, even after you joined, why did you stay? I stayed because it mattered. Don't you know that he's Hitler 2.0? What is wrong with you?

Haven't you read my Bonhofer book? It's all laid out for everybody. He's Hitler 2.0. Run. Yeah, these are my friends. These are people I knew. I knew what we were doing. I knew the mission set that I had been given, and I had this incredible privilege. And it's time. It's time for the fearless. There's no time for the meek. This is America's moment what's taking place in our schools, the crime in our cities, all of these things that we can see unraveling this most exceptional nation. It's time for the real believers and the real conservatives to step forward and be absolutely fearless in doing so. And obviously, you know, this is to me always God's mercy. He lets things get really, really bad to wake his people up. And I see that happening in this country right now, that people are tolerant, people are loving, people are kind.

But eventually, if you push them far enough, and it takes a long time, they finally say, wait a minute, wait a minute, and now they're involved. So you have things happening on local levels that everybody just thought, you know what, Trump's in office, we're moving in a good direction. we realize as a result of his, I believe the election was genuinely stolen, and it sickens me, even to think that that might be true, it sickens me. But I think a lot of Americans have woken up, and so we don't even know what is going on on the grassroots level, because you can't keep track of everything. But I think people are rising up, and they're looking for folks like you and the handful of others in Congress, and they're saying we can no longer do business as usual.

But, I mean, 10 years ago, you were not thinking like this. No, no, you nailed it. You absolutely nailed it. By the way, I can give you two data points from the last 48 hours. I was in Southwest Missouri at the Ashcroft Family Farm. It was a picnic outdoor. Horde rain right about an hour before the picnic. Nobody left.

They left. They gave me a chance. They gave Attorney General. Ashcroft, a chance to talk about the Bible and the America and what we were all going to go do. These people were on fire to take back. And I had people come up and say, I never thought I'd run for city council. And I'm going to do it. And I had a couple law enforcement.

I didn't have any interest in actually being the sheriff, but our sheriff won't enforce the rules. I'm going to go do that. No, this is different. I was in Iowa at an event that was very similar to that. People are engaged in their civic life, in their churches, and their community in ways that I have not seen. I've been at this now 9, 10 years from the time I first lost my mind

and ran for Congress when Obama was the president, and we had to throw Nancy out the last time. Who to believe would have to throw it out of speakership again? But here we are, and this is a moment where our president, people are being tested, they're being challenged, and my observation is people are rising to that challenge. I really think that, you know, when you see what's happening in America today, you realize, and this is kind of a classic pattern, God allows things to go too far, as I said earlier, to wake his people up. And the enemy always plays in his hands and goes just a little

bit too far, and then suddenly people wake up. I never thought it would get this bad, this quickly, but it seems that it has taken the madness. I mean, whether we're talking about Antifa or the transgender madness. I mean, most Americans, if they can finally focus, they just look up and they say, wait a minute, Bruce Jenner is a woman. You're telling me I have to use this pronoun. You're telling me the people burning down buildings aren't doing anything wrong. They're peaceful protesters.

In other words, your average American who doesn't have a voice the way you do or I do looks around and says, this has gone too far. Madness has been unleashed on the land. I need to do something for my kids, for my grandkids. I thought freedom was a free ride. And I realize now, nope, I'm going to pick up my gun and go to the front lines. Maybe not literally, but it's a similar thing. You realize that everything you held near and dear is being threatened directly. And when your kids are being threatened, you don't care. You're just going to do whatever it takes. It's about the kids. You know You know the instinct. You know what the Lord teaches us about parenting.

These parents aren't about to take this. They're not about to allow this to happen in their schools. They may not have seen it because they worked. But, you know, I think the combination of having their kids at home during COVID, I think the left's movement, I think the idea somehow that our country was ill-founded, the 1619 project, this idea that we're racist because we're white, this is something parents are not going to sit back and allow to be propagated. And so it'll take a little time to regain control of these city.

councils, or these school boards, or these state boards of regions that have allowed our university system to become, right? These are American universities. Today, they're largely not American and frankly not the kind of university anybody would be proud of. I think people are going to take this all back. And what they need is good leaders who are fearless, helping them figure out what to apply their shoulder to the grindstone. We know choices matter. And the reason, of course, that things are so crazy right now is because Trump was that extraordinarily rare, if not unique figure, willing to call a space. to spade. Say that's crazy, that's bad. And I think the Americans who have longed for someone to give voice to their feelings, they couldn't believe that finally that happened. I read in my book on Martin Luther, Luther was a similar figure in the sense that people were astonished

that finally some elite, somebody with some kind of power, was giving voice to what they knew was right and true, and they were talking about it amongst themselves, but they never dreamt anyone could rise up who would do that. And Trump has been that for a lot of people. And, of course, he's inspired a lot of people that he sees it's crazy. I see it's crazy. He sees that energy independence is a good idea for anybody. Everybody knows this.

Why don't the politicians get this? So to see someone leading in that way, it's why so many people have been so fiercely devoted to him because he was extremely rare. But to me, the good news, and that's why we're sitting here and we're out of time. but is that as a result of him, many others, at least a few others, like you, have risen up. And there is a movement happening here. So I'm just encouraged. I'm encouraged by you.

Well, we're out of time. I know you have to go. I just want to say we're so grateful for you. I'm grateful for you to know your heart and your mind. And we'll be following you very closely. God bless you. Bless you, sir. Thank you.

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Don't wait until your memory slips. The pathology starts 20 years before your first memory loss symptom. That's Vivalore.vol.com. Check it out. Remember, Vivalor is a premium quality, all-natural supplement with five to 20 times more nutrients than any other memory supplement. Vivalor is V-I-V-O-L-R at V-V-V-L-O-R at V-V-LOR.com. Enter promo code 20 for 20% off. V-V-V-L-L-O-O-O-O-R. How about that Mike Pompeo? Was that amazing? That's right. Mike Pompeo. All right. Let me remind you, folks, Neutrametics. I don't know. Do we still have the 30% offers at the 20% off? No, I think there's 30%. 30%. Oh, if that's true, folks, go to Neutermetics.com. We've only got like a day left. I'm not joking. It's normally 20% off. They said we want to do the special thing for you. 30% off. Nutrametics.com. I'm not kidding, folks. This is like it's over tomorrow.

Nutrametics.com, 30% off, use the code. Eric, and before I continue, Albin, I just thought I would mention, I don't know if you're sensitive about this, but I'm just sitting here talking, trying to do the program, and I noticed you're suddenly wearing an eye patch. Yes. Did something happen that I should know about? I think it's breaking news, and obviously you did not read it because I am ready, but there is a new strain of virus, okay, in a World Health Organization and Founding

And Fountie, they're on top of this thing. Now, they were able to get us to wear the masks, right, for the last virus. Well, this one, it's from the Caribbean, okay? It's called the pirate pandemic. Oh, so the one from China, the China, the Kung flu pandedemic from China, that's kind of like old news. You're talking about a new virus from the Caribbean. This is the new one. So it seems to enter through the right eye.

So you're supposed to now wear an eye patch. So I'm doing it. I'm trying to lead the way. I'm ahead of the curve on this one. You're telling me we should all be wearing eye patches on our right side. Exactly. Exactly. So it came from, apparently it came from a-

It makes it hard to ride a bicycle. It does. Because you're- Depth perception. Anyway, so you're already on this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. They said it came from a feather market.

Apparently rare. In the Caribbean? Yes, a sick parrot. They think. Okay, but some people think it came from an unsanitized beer tap at the PNC Park in Pittsburgh where the pirates play. But since I'm from Pittsburgh, I don't want to take that. But one way or another, it's tied into pirates because you've got the parrot in the Caribbean

or the PNC. I got it. Now, they said that if it saves just one life, just one life out of the eight billion on the planet, we should all wear the eye patch. And they said that in a couple weeks it might actually infect the left eye as well. That's a new variant, a new strain. Yeah, so I'm getting ready. I'm ahead of the game.

Oh, look at this. So you got two eyepatches on. You know what? Instead of two masks. That is how you show love. I do. If you're a Christian, you want to show people that you care about them. I do.

You don't want to get them sick. So you're going to wear two eye patches. And you know what? It's the patriotic thing, people. It's the patriotic thing. Either you wear the two eye patches. Alba, I'm going to do this from now on. You wear the two eye patches.

And you're basically saying to people, I love you. I don't want to infect you. I don't want to infect you. infect me. I'm anti-infection. That's why I'm walking around like Mr. Magoo. This is a blessed thing. Albin, I just want to say for your patriotism and for your agape love. There it is. For all those in your sphere, I just want to say kudos to you, my friend. Kudos to you. And I appreciate you too. It's a beautiful thing when somebody says, you know what, it's not about me. No, it's about you. And to show my love, I'm going to wear these two eyepatches.

That is so awesome. The only problem, though, is when you drive a vehicle, it's going to be tough. You may kill other people that you wouldn't kill, you know, through the infection. You may crash into them and stuff. But you know what? Yeah. That will be regarded as a pirate pandemic death anyway. It would be, yeah.

So whoever's keeping score, the only way you could die is from these flus. So I would just say, go for it, drive blind. And you know what? we're supposed to drive by faith and not by sight. There you go. So even the idea of not wearing the eye patch, in a way, that's faithless, okay? That's trusting in the arm of the flesh. And Albin, I just want to commend you again.

You drive by faith, not by sight. Thank you. That is awesome. High five. Where are you? Yeah, forget it. Who said that? All right, forget it.

All right. Well, anyway, I'm so glad we, but when that happens. I'm going to take a chance and take these off right now. Just real quick. That's so selfish. of you. I can't believe it. Okay, Alvin, in our next segment, yes, sir, we're going to do a, I'm winded from that comedy segment. I am too. My goodness. In our next segment, I keep talking about this over the weeks. Ask Metaxus. People write in with

questions, usually thorpe fishy questions. I meant short, pithy questions. You want to wear this over your mouth? I said, thornt pishy questions. And I meant, short, pithy questions. And I meant, I meant, short, short pithy questions not thornt and you went to yale i can't i never i went to clarion i never that never happened to me um all right so anyway questions uh every we're going to do this every thursday yes so but today is wednesday and we had an opening somebody died from the pirate pandemic and we said you know what if they're dead we don't want them as a guest let's just do our own thing so we're going to do in the next segment, Ask Mettaxas. We've got some amazing questions, and I want to warn people that I'm going to post on my

Instagram story every Wednesday we're going to be posting these things. So get ready. Have I mentioned Neutrametics? Yes. 30%. So go to our website. People need to be very clear on this. It's always 20%.

And I'm not exaggerating. Because I was canceled on YouTube, our friends at Neutrametics said, how can we help you? And then they said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to give your listeners 30% off. They're losing money on this, is my guess. So this is a gift from them to you to get you to try Neutrametics. So if you use the code Eric, 30% off. When does this end?

Like today? I think it's at the end of the week. They extended it. Yeah. Go to our website. If it's fair. I'm not joking. Neutrametics.com put in the code Eric should be 30% off.

But it goes back to 20. so now's your chance to check it out. As you know, MyPillow and MyStore.com, use the code. Eric, I'm afraid right of time. When we come back, a solid Ask Metaxus segment, get ready. It's a lightning round version. Hey, folks, it's Ask Metaxus time. That's right.

I'm playing the role of Metaxis, and you ask the questions or ask, depending on where you're from. Ask Metaxus. This is going to be kind of a lightning round. Normally we have 10 minutes. We've only got like six minutes. and 30 seconds for this round and go. Oh, oh, okay, here we go. How tall is Tim Keller?

Question number one is how tall is Tim Keller? That's question number one. I said people could ask me anything. Okay. But I was not expecting that question. I'll answer it. Okay. He's about six, three and a half.

I'm not kidding. But the weird thing about Tim Keller is because, look, he's a friend. He's been a friend for the years. Tim Keller is like kind of a big guy. It's like Sebastian Gorka. So from a distance, he looks, you know, normal. He doesn't look tall. Then when you get up to him, you realize he's really tall. So when I say next to him, I feel tiny, like Sebastian Gorka, because they're just, their normal, their proportions

are normal, but they're huge. But can I add real quickly, you look normal, you know, until you see you in person. And then you see me in person. And you realize I'm a freak. You're like a freak, I tell you. Okay. Here we go. Here we go. When will you have Jordan Peterson or finagle an invite to his podcast. Okay, I'm really sick of this question. Everybody says this. When are you going to have Jordan Peterson? I don't know. Are you friends with Jordan Peterson?

Why don't you get him to invite me on his podcast or tell him he needs to reach out to us? Because he's Jordan Peterson. He's kind of a big deal. And it's kind of like saying, when are you going to have Paul McCartney on? When are you going to put? I'm like ready to have him on now,

but he's kind of hard to get to. So if you have any connections to Elton John, Paul McCartney, Jordan Peterson, please folks go to their website badger them tell them to contact us that would be a nice gesture okay this is the ask metaxis lightning round question three book recommendations what are you reading what am i reading yeah you're assuming i read mm-hmm actually i'll tell you the truth what i'm reading i'm reading don quixote or the quicksit as it was referred to in the 19th century by pretentious british people don quixote written by cervantes

Don Quixote is one of those classic, classic, classic books that everybody raves about, but I've never read. And people just assume, since I'm Eric Patax, it's like I've read everything, folks, very far from it, very far from it. I'm deeply ashamed of the ellipsies in my reading. So I was in Kansas City with Mike Bickle and company, and in the book line, someone came up to me. I'm forgetting his name. I just read it this morning because he signed my book. And he starts talking about Clarissa and about Don Quixote, these classic books from previous centuries. I mean, Clarissa, Don Quixote, are like 17th century books. And I thought, I've never read them. And he was going on and on. And the next time I came to Kansas City, because I came back for a

Sean Foyd event, and then I went back to Kansas City, he hands me a copy of Don Quixote that he bought for me. And so I said, I get to read it. Bonhofer raved about Don Quixote. And in my book on Bonhofer, which I recommend, he raves about Don Quixote, which he read in the original Spanish because he's a brilliant, you know, hot shot Bonhofer. And when he was in Spain as a very young man, he spent as a youth pastor in a German congregation in Barcelona, or Barcelona, as the Barcelonaians say. And so Don Quixote is what I'm reading.

right now. Thank you for that question. Any other questions? Yeah. How do you pronounce Bangor? Is it Bangor? Bagor main. Is it Bangor? Bangor. And by the way, that is a Shibboleth. A Shibboleth in the in the in the in the Old Testament, there's a moment where the people who are from the place called Shibboleth, they pronounce it Sibboleth. And everybody else pronounces it Shibboleth. And so as they're crossing the stream, it's like they're asking them, where are you from? If they mispronounce it, they know they're lying and they kill them. So a Shibboleth is a word that divides the locals from the non-locals.

Quincy, Massachusetts, the same kind of thing. Everybody reads and says Quincy, Quincy, Quincy. But the locals say Quincy. So Bangor is a Shiboleth. If you say Bangor, people know you're not from Bangor. Exactly. Next question. If you're from Pittsburgh, if you call it the Berg, then everybody knows you're from Pittsburgh.

And now, any plans to come to Chicago this year? That's the question. You know, of all the Ask Mataxis questions that I've done in this segment, this one is by far the most recent. And it's challenging. Any plans to come to Chicago this year? Now, here's another thing. It's like the Jordan Peterson question. When people say to me, Eric, do you have any plans?

Why don't you come here? I need to be invited. I don't just, like, show up at a church or school in Chicago and start lecturing. I need to be invited. So if you are affiliated with, oh, I don't know, the Moody Church or some mega church, is Willow Creek still open? If you're affiliated with a big church, ask them to invite me if we can work it out. I will come. I would love to come.

I would love to come to Chicago. I would love to come to Chicago. But I have to get invited. That's a little rule that I have. If you invite me, then I can say yes. And Eric would like you to invite him to Hawaii as well. And now, if you're from a church there, of course, how do you respond to the claim that God is different in the Old Testament versus the New Testament? That's a tough question.

Well, there's a one word answer for that. Can you guess what it is? Pass. That's not the word. How do you respond to the claim that God is different in the Old Testament versus the New Testament? Well, the one word answer that I would respond with is Jesus. There you go. Jesus, who is God incarnate, whom I worship as the second person of the Trinity,

clearly saw the New Testament and himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. So there can be no disparity, unless you read them sloppily. In other words, unless you don't know how to read it or understand the context. But if you understand the context, you understand in the Old Testament, God is preparing a people for himself. The Israelites are his people. And part of the reason he prepares them and chooses them is to bring the Messiah into the world. That's the New Testament. And the whole point of preparing a people for himself was so the Messiah would come out of those people. And then the whole world through the Messiah could worship the God of the Israelites. And so that's my short

answer. The long answer, we may do another time. We're just about out of time. Alvin, this has been a lightning round of Ask Mattaxas. It has. Now, folks, every week we're going to do this. Every single week, be prepared. All right. We're going to come back final segment. And then, of course, we've got Our 2 today, which is another story. But we'll be right back with some exciting stuff. You know what, Albin? I decided we should do another fun segment right now. We did Ask Mataxis. Okay. We should now do a Mr. Postman. What's that song, Mr. Mr. President?

Let's just call it, let's just call it a listener writes. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, and now a segment of a listener writes. A listener rights. You know what, Albin? I just got a letter from a listener. Really? Could I give his name?

No. Well, it rhymes with Jack Conley. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I wouldn't say it. Okay. It's, I'll just say the initials are J.C. Okay. Which is not even true. But it says, this is incredible.

You know, I get stuff in sometimes that's very funny. The next letter is very funny. This letter is really serious, and it really moved me to tears. It says, dear Eric, I just completed your biography of Bonhofer. Thank you for such a provocative, inspiring, challenging read. I'm a Catholic priest and so deeply appreciative of your work. I assure you writing and preaching will be different now. You have opened my eyes.

Thanks. John, I'm not going to say the last name, but it's a C. I want to tell you, folks, when I get something like this, you know, you write books. I prayed so hard when I was writing the Bonhofer book that God would use the book for his purposes. But 11 years later to get a letter like this, that this is a priest. saying that his writing and his preaching will be different as a result of reading this book. Now, I know it's not my book. It's the life of Bonhofer, but the idea that I had the privilege of writing the book.

So if you're looking for a good book, let me recommend my biography of Bonhofer, not because I wrote it, but because it's kind of the best summation book. If you're going to read a book, you want his whole life. And just to be clear, you don't have to be a priest or a minister to read it. It helps, but, okay, here's a letter. Now, this letter is serious. but I found it so funny I said I got to read this on the air. I'm not going to mention the guy's name, but let's just say it's Joe L.

This is a real letter. The title in the email was your selection of only men is short-sighted. And then it says, Dear Eric, after enjoying your seven men book, Graduates Edition, I had misgivings about approving, recommending, or gifting it, and wondered why your picks lacked diversity. as the number of women is zero. It's unlikely seven men will inspire female graduates. Your selection of only men is short-sighted.

Man, that hurts. Yeah, it does. So I had to respond to Joe L. And I wrote this. I'm not joking. That's the letter I got, and this is my response. Dear sir, perhaps you will find my seven women book more diverse. Here is a link for you to purchase that book. But I must warn you

up front that seven women does not include any men. I'm not sure what can be done at this point, but I thought you should know. Thanks for your email, sincerely, Eric Mataxis, author. That's a real letter. somebody was upset that my book seven men graduates edition didn't include women and i don't really know how to respond to that because it hurts it stings because seven men it's a fact folks i'm not going to deny it you know when you're when you're when you're when you're wrong you're wrong seven men has no women in it i'm guilty you are and seven women to to double down on my non-diversity seven women has no men in it oh what are you going to do the books are They're printed, they're published.

People are buying and reading them and being blessed by them. I'm sorry. But you're a big man to admit all this. I must say. You're welcome. Thank you. My next book's coming out, seven drag icons. Joan Collins.

We got share. It's unbelievable. All right. Let me be clear. Nutrametics.com, 30% off if you use the code Eric. That's this week only. They extended it this week. Not joking.

Jump on it. Nutrametics.com. 30%. Use the code, Eric. And we're done.