The Eric Metaxas Show - Topher Field

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

Topher Field shares his personal struggle for freedom during Australia's draconian lock down under Covid.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy pm.investments.com. That's legacy pm investments.com. Did you overhear the expression, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, when Eric Metaxus was little, he had his own lemonade stand. And he sold so much lemonade, he became rich beyond his wildest dreams. Now he's able to do whatever he wants. he's now the host of a big time radio show.

Welcome the guy who's oh so lemony sweet, Eric Matt, Texas. Hey the folks, welcome to the program. Chris, welcome to the program. Hello, happy Tuesday. I'd like to personally welcome you as producer and sometimes sidekick. I got to tell you, I feel awful today.

I want to share this with my audience. I guess it's the pollen or something. I was coughing all night. I just feel so out of it. It's unbelievable. I don't remember this happening every year. It's only the last few years. Yeah, I think the trees have gotten angrier.

That's my theory. I was going to say, because the election was stolen. No, but it's true. Trees were the original hanging chads. You know, they have those little. Trees respond. Trees respond. And, yeah, I think they're angry.

I think the pollen is their way of expressing that anger. Anyway, if I sound sick, it's only because I think I'm sick. We've got a couple things to mention. First of all, our guest today, Tofer Field, he is, when we do the interview with him, it's going to be 1 a.m. in Australia, 1 a.m. That's the problem with living on the other side of the world, the antipodes, as they've been called in the past. To live on the other side of the world, it's like, well, guess what?

the sun is not going to cooperate. The sun is going to be where it's going to be. It's going to be 1 a.m. So we're going to be talking to him. He is a hero. I want to introduce him to our audience because he's like this Australian rock star. He fought the lockdowns. He was arrested for fighting the lockdowns.

He's a principled Christian conservative. It was our friend Sam Sorbo that introduced us to him. So kind of cool, actually. So we're going to be talking to him. His story is just fascinating. I want to mention that. I also want to mention where we are with the AFP. I'm sorry, with the AFP, with the CSI.

It's all these three letter. Yeah, it's all these three letters. I know. It's speaking of AFP, that's our friends and Americans for prosperity. We will be talking to them about the border crisis. They are involved in that as well. I think it's clear that the politicians aren't going to solve this.

on their own. It's kind of pathetic. We need grassroots activism. So AFP specializes in that, which kind of ties into what I keep talking about. When I wrote my book, If You Can Keep It, we need to get involved. We, the people, need to be more involved in keeping the Republic. And we got this memo, like some years ago, like, we don't have to do anything. We farm it out. Like, we've got a professional military class. The government will take care of that. That's wrong. And I think we're seeing the nightmare of what happens when we, the people, step back and think we don't need to do anything. We need to get very, very involved. So anyway, Americans for Prosperity is trying to encourage that the website is SecureBorder, SecureAmerica.com.

Secureborder, secure America.com. But this larger idea, Chris, of, I mean, everywhere I go, people say, what can I do? What can I do? Like, you know, you've stated the problem. What can I do? And I feel like everything. Like we need to be like everybody needs to have as their hobby keeping the Republic,

whatever that means, whether you're homeschooling your kids or whatever it is that you're doing. But we've got to do more. It's got to be part of who we are. If you live in America and you need to love America. America. Anyway, you know what? I wish I could send a copy of my book if you can keep it to everybody who's listening right now. I can't do that. Listening to people that we have on our show that are highlighting practical things, people that found themselves in tricky situations and sort of stepping up, like, you know, Tofer, like people like Jason Jones who are writing books about,

you know, the plan against the Great Reset. Sorry, I'm blanking on the title name, but the idea being, you know, you sort of have to hold your family closer. You have to get involved locally. Jason Jones wrote the great campaign against the Great Reset. Actually, you know what? I should mention this because I mentioned homeschooling. I don't want to forget. We've had Sam Sorbo on talking about this many times.

We've had others talking about this. And people often say, it's too difficult. I don't think I can do it, whatever. Let me just say, baloney, baloney. Anybody can do it. Almost everyone should do it. which brings me to the Herzog Foundation, right? They basically exist to, their term is to catalyze and accelerate the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 education.

Their website is HerzogFoundation.org, I believe, I don't see it in front of me. But they are a great resource, a great resource. Their website, they have another website, readlion.com. readlion.com. I just think like everybody needs to kind of step up and get excited about it. Anyway, I want to mention our trip to Oxford. Socrates in the city is doing this kind of high-end retreat. And it's, I'm very excited about it.

We have almost 30 people paid. I think we have to cut it off at 40 or 45. It's going to be a small thing. But it's in Oxford, England. And if you're interested in going, go to Socrates and the city.com, you can read the details. But honestly, it's going to be an amazing time. So I wanted to mention that. I also want to mention Socrates in the city.com.

I have been editing, I think I mentioned this yesterday, I have been editing a book. It's going to come out in December. And it's conversations. So these are the transcripts of conversations I've been having at Socrates in the city. Over the years, some of them, there's one, I think the one with Dick Cickey. Abbott was 2011. The one with Alice von Hildebrand was 2013. So some of them going way back and some of them are very recent. But I am in awe of some of these conversations. And when you kind of slow it down and it's on the page, it just, the one with Alice von Hildebron, I thought this is

transcendent. Some of the stuff that she says, this woman is so brilliant. She was almost 91 when I did the interview with her. So you can just go, you can watch these at Socrates in the city.com. But we're going to have the book's going to come out and you're going to be able to read these. But I'm just so excited about it. I thought, I've got to talk about this on the air just to say how I'm just so happy that we're putting this book out. So it won't be available for months, I think probably until December. but it's very exciting because we sought out local book printers and you know we're basically creating the means of distribution you're going to you're going to be a book kingpin before it's all over yeah that's right a king's your first book it's your first you know it's a first book it's a

first book we're publishing ourselves yeah it's a big deal it's going to be socrates and city books but i'm honestly just i'm excited about i feel like we have some momentum with socrates in the city things happening. The event we just did with Ron White was spectacular. We've been doing Socrates in the studios. Now, you've got to be signed up for Socrates Plus to watch those. But you can watch some stuff for free on our YouTube channel. But honestly, it is just, it's exciting. It's exciting because it's kind of like it's reached a critical mass. We've got some great stuff. So check out Socrates in the city.com. I should mention today, I'm flying to Dallas. Actually, Chris, you're going to fly with me.

I'm bringing my six-shooter and my boots. It's going to be fantastic. We're going to kill some rattlers. Yeah. And so I'm going to ask, then I'm going to Montana. I'm going to Calispell, Montana. I mean, I just, I travel a lot. I've been spending a lot of time in Connecticut gardening.

I think I mentioned that. Anyway, look, look, before we get to Tofer Field, let me just mention, let me be brutally honest. Christian Solidarity International. A lot of you folks who listen to the program haven't yet gone to MetaxusTalk.com to sign up to help free slaves in the sedan. And I want to say, please, folks, we really want everyone to participate. And you can just do a little bit. You can do $5 a month. You can do $20 a month. But this is a great organization, Christian Solidarity International. They're doing something just astonishing. It's an astonishing thing.

Every time I talk about it, I think, can this be real? But you have to go to metaxis talk.com. We need your help. I want to encourage anybody who's interested, please go to metaxestalk.com. You can do it right now. In fact, I recommend you do it right now. Metaxistalks talk.com.

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You're going to love this free new tool they've added. Legacy pm.investments.com. Legacy pm.investments.com. Check it out. Welcome back. As I hope I warn you, we will now be talking to someone. It's almost like talking to someone on the moon. We're talking to someone in Australia.

Yes, it's a continent. Yes, it's an island. Yes, it's on the other side of planet Earth. Therefore, it is now 1 a.m. as I talk to my new guest, my new friend, Tofer, Field. Welcome to this program. Eric, what a pleasure. And if there was anyone worth getting up in the middle of the night for it,

would be you. I'm very glad to be here. I was going to say it's like a colicky baby or Eric Mattax. Thank you very much. Thank you. You have been described. First of all, you come to us through our dear friend Sam Sorbo. She was talking about you and said, you've got to have him on.

You have been described as Australia's leading and most recognized libertarian political commentator and human rights activists. You're the winner of the Australian Libertarian of the Year Award in 2022. You're the director of a documentary film. I want to talk about it called Battleground Melbourne. And you're the author of a book, Good People Break Bad Laws. good people break bad laws. Tofer, let me ask you the most pedestrian question. Is Tofer short for Christopher? It actually is. I'm sorry to disappoint you. I wish I had a more exciting origin story, but my dad's name is Christopher and my name is Christopher. So he got Chris, I got Tofer. That's how we,

that's how we settled the dispute. Is Tofer a name in Australia or is it unique to you? Oh, look, I'm not the first to use it, but it's very, very rare. Totha Grace, the actor you may be familiar with. He played one of the bad guys in Spider-Man and so forth. So it's not an original idea, but it is very unusual. Okay. So what is your story? In other words, how did you get involved in what you're involved in right now?

Did you grow up in a family that valued these things? Is it something that happened more lately in life? Well, the technical skills that I have to be able to write, and direct and produce the videos that I do. I actually learned through my dad. He was in television and radio when I was a kid. He made sure he passed some of those skills down. But I actually fell into it accidentally.

So I'd been in the family business of television until I was about 17, and I walked away from it at that point. Having learned a lot of skills, but really got sick of the television world. I ended up a forklift driver, and I was actually making the best money of my life driving forklifts. And my cousin dared me to make a video as an audition for a TV show that was coming up. that was a journalistic TV show.

And so I made a video audition. I made it deliberately controversial. I was advocating for the building of a new dam, which of course flew in the face of the green religion that we see rising around the wind today. A new water supply dam for my home city of Melbourne at the time. This is back in 2009, by the way. And I didn't get into the TV show.

And so I just simply started up a brand new YouTube channel. YouTube was about five years old at the time. I had zero subscribers. I put the video on there and I sent the link my mum. And my mum must have washed it about 30,000 times because fairly quickly I had that many views on it. And one thing led to another and people began to ask me to do more videos. And over time, that sort of evolved into me becoming this very much blue-collar sort of hard-nosed realist kind of political commentator who was willing to cut across the grain on issues. And then when

COVID came along, I just took a good hard-nosed look at it. And I tried to understand what I was looking at, understand the data out of Israel, out of Italy and out of Sweden, especially, the data that had come out of the various cruise liners that early in COVID had had COVID on board. And I just looked at and said, well, I think we're overreacting here. And I said as much in videos. And that was the beginning of a very new phase of my life. Well, what a wonderful thing that you did that, that you applied actual common sense. Most people are afraid to do that. but I think it's scarier to those who are the enemies of common sense when people apply common sense because it shows them to be what they are.

And you, now, we should probably talk about Battleground Melbourne, which is the documentary. What did that come out? So that was released in early 2022, and things were still very much happening in Melbourne. It wasn't that the story was necessarily finished. And when you watch the documentary, which you can watch for free at Battleground Melbourne. I don't need any money. I don't need your email address. You can just go there and watch it.

You'll see that really the battle is still very much raging when that documentary actually finishes. But the reason I felt that we needed to make this documentary, Melbourne became the most lockdown city in the world. Right up until China started welding people's doors shut, it took something that extreme in an authoritarian region. See that? I didn't know this.

So, and people have to get battleground, Melbourne.com, but you said that Yeah. Melbourne became the most lockdown city in the world at the time. I mean, why? This is interesting because I visited Australia. I think it's about nine years ago. And I felt like apart from America, this was the most American country. There was something, I felt freedom. I felt a spirit of freedom there somehow. And I only visited the three cities on your east coast, the big ones city, Melbourne, and. Brisbane. Correct. And Brisbane. And so how is it then that Melbourne became so locked down? What do you suppose was going on there? Yeah, well, look, Eric, you're not wrong. We are very American.

I've spent a lot of time in the US. I absolutely adore the US. And I can't wait to get back there again, hopefully later this year. So the similarity is real. But Clive James once made the comic observation that the problem with Australia is not that we're all descended from convict. it's that so many of us are also descended from the jailers. So, of course, the first fleet being our origin story,

we brought a whole lot of convicts over here, but along with them came the prison guards, the officers, the jailers. And unfortunately, Eric, I'm sorry to tell you, that the prison guard culture has become the dominant one. I would describe us as a little bit like California in the 1980s. It's before it all really went wrong, when things were still pretty good, and you could still look at it and go,

oh, wow, this is amazing, what a great place to live. It's so free, it's so open. But at some point in California, there was a changing, there was a turning that happened that led them to becoming something of a basket case today. And I would say that that turning has now happened in Australia. And we are unfortunately headed in very much the same direction. But also, we can't ignore the specific personalities involved. In the state of Victoria, which is the southernmost mainland state in Australia,

that was my home until I left last year, we had a Premier, which is our version of a state governor by the name of Daniel And I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that I am of the view that he's a genuine psychopath, not a Hollywood psychopath, a genuine actual psychopath, someone who simply doesn't feel sympathy for others, cannot empathize with their position. It is all about him. And he simply saw the opportunity to play God with people's lives. And he enjoyed that thoroughly, that fit with his self-image of who he was and what he thought

he was born to do in the world. And so we saw him do that. But most disturbingly, Eric, because we actually saw an enormous number of people go along with it. And my theory on that is related to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. You're familiar with the hierarchy of needs. It's sort of this triangle and down the bottom are your physical survival needs and up the top are your, it's this single self-actualization or transcendence, living your best life. Now, the reality is that most of us are sort of clustered around the middle where our physical survival needs are met, but life could be better, but also could be

worse. We're all somewhere in the middle. Along come lockdowns. And of course, everyone who loses their job, loses their business, these sorts of things, gets shoved down to the bottom of that hierarchy. All of a sudden, there's a lot of people experiencing uncertainty in their survival to a degree they never had before. But it's the other half that are really interesting. The laptop workers, the government workers, the ones on welfare, the ones who could continue to live and survive, not only were they not shoved towards the bottom, but thanks to the psychology of what our Premier Daniel Andrews was doing, they were invited to the very, very top of Maslow's hierarchy because Daniel Andrews would show up on their TV at 11 o'clock every

single morning for hundreds of days in a row with a press conference where he would give these incredibly vacuous lines things like staying apart keeps us together things like we're all in this together did he say R by not fry he might as well have two plus two equals four equals five I love big brother It was, you know, we've always been at war with East Asia. It was exactly, it was exactly that kind of thing. And people lapped it up. And so what happened was this half of the population whose lives were not being destroyed,

were invited into a life with a false sense of meaning and purpose and belonging. You know, we're on the front lines of the war against a once in a lifetime pandemic. These kinds of messages, they bought into that and they believed it. And Eric, you would have seen because New York was terrible for a period of time there as well. You can't talk to some people about this. You can't, you can't convince them. Nothing will ever convince them that what we did was an overreaction that it was wrong. And the reason is because how they feel and what they believe about that period of time is not based on data or evidence. When you challenge that lockdown reaction,

you're actually challenging the best years of their lives, where they had a greater sense of purpose, a greater sense of belonging than they've ever had before and will ever have again, which is why they will defend those years to the death. This is, it's important we talk about this. So I'm very grateful to you, Tofer, for being awake at 1 a.m. Australia time. I just want to be very clear in other parts of the world, it's morning. But I want to say that we'll continue the conversation.

The website, you can go to battleground, melbourne.com. And the book is Good People Break, Bad Laws. We'll get to that. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Eric Metrametics. For years, I've told you about Nutrametics, a professional supplement brand trusted by doctors since 1993. Nutrametics offers a variety of health bundles. Whether you want to support your immune system, improve your sleep, promote joint comfort or detoxification support. Neutrametics has a health bundle right for you. The best part about Neutrametics, every year they donate a minimum of 50% of their profits to Christian charities and missions. That's right, 50% of their profits. Nutrametics has a goal of surpassing 100 million in giving by 2030.

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MyPillow Sandals, $25. There's six-pack towels, just $25. Brand-new, four-pack dish towels. You guessed it, just $25. For the first time ever, the premium MyPillows with all new Giza Fabric, just $25. Orders over $75 will receive free shipping to. The amazing offer will not last long. Go to MyPillow.com. Use promo code Eric or call 800-9783057. That's promo code Eric. 3057 promo code Eric or go to my pillow.com and use promo code Eric. Welcome back. I continue my conversation with Tofer Field, which is short for Christopher

Field, also the name of the father of Tofer Field. Okay, so Tofer, look, you're telling us, I love this because you're getting into the psychology behind what happened. When we talk about the lockdowns, the madness, the authoritarianism, what we're talking about from my perspective, is human evil. In other words, the temptation to power authority. Whenever people say, and I've written several books on this, but when people say, like, how could this happen in Germany? What happened?

And people put it in a box, and they go, well, that's just insane Germans. No, speaking as a Christian, I cannot single out an ethnic group and say, well, they're a slightly more evil. We're all the same, at least according to the Bible that I read. And so we have to look deeper. We have to say, what is it? And the American founders, of course, with a biblical worldview, understood the temptation to power is, it's there in every human being.

Many have said it, Lord Acton and others. So we have to have checks and balances. We have to understand, as we create a government, we have to understand what we're dealing with. We're dealing with human beings who often will want to have more people. power than they should have to lure their power over others. And most of us didn't deal with this or didn't think about it very deeply because we didn't have to. And then suddenly the COVID lunacy hit. And for the first time in our lives, you saw it in Melbourne, I saw it in New York. We never really

thought about our mayors very much. We never thought about our governors in America very much because what did it really matter? What? did they do? Suddenly, they were given the ability if they had that temptation to power, if they were suffering from that, as you mentioned, that the head of, in Melbourne did. And we saw them act like authoritarian. We'd never seen anything like it before. We simply never seen anything like it before. And so for the first time, we thought, what is this? Do I go along with this? This is unprecedented. I mean, I don't know what a pandemic is or what can I do. I'm going to, you know, I'm a good soldier. I want to help my country. I want to help my community. What can I do during this

pandemic? This pandemic affects everybody. This is not, but as time passed, we began to see no, no, no, that they overreacted. Most of us bought it a little bit, but many people who bought it a little bit eventually woke up and said, excuse me, something is wrong here. We're buying a narrative. This has happened before in history. It's never happened to us, not in Australia and not in New York and not in America. We're we're having to reckon with something that we've never reckoned with before. And so some people woke up almost immediately. Some people that took some time. Some people are still waking up today. Literally today, 2024, there are people waking up and saying, you know what, I was fooled. I shut down my church for a year and a half.

half. In retrospect, I feel pretty stupid about that. So if this happens again, I won't do that. But that's what I find so interesting is that how some people pick up on this immediately, as you did. Others take a little longer. I took a little bit longer. Some people take a little bit longer. Some people never wake up. Some people today, as you say, are doubling down. They're saying this was right, this gave me meaning in my life. It's, I mean, it's at least fascinating. Well, I'm sure you'd be aware of the work of Milton Mayer. He was the American German, actually with Jewish extraction as well,

who was sent by the, I believe, the University of Chicago, to live in Germany for a year shortly after the end of World War II. And he essentially studied Nazis. Now, these were not the high-level, you know, Herman Gorings and Goebbels and so forth. He was talking to the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. And he published a book called They Thought They Were Free, Germany, from 1933 to 1945. And he essentially profiles 10 different average ordinary run-of-the-mill Nazis. And the conclusion that he, and the point that he makes is precisely the one that you made there.

These were not uniquely evil people. The brutal reality is, and this is something that we understand from scripture, I'm a Christian as well. But a lot of people like to deny it. the brutal reality is that each and every one of us is capable of the worst kinds of evil. Every single one of us is capable of that. And the most dangerous people in the world are the ones who deny that that's true. The ones who say, oh, I could never do that. Those are the people that are not self-aware enough to understand the danger of who they could

become under the wrong circumstances. And so what we saw was a lot of people becoming essentially petty tyrants. I had a horrible experience where someone that I know and love very dearly was actively defending the worst of the atrocities. We had protesters, and I was a part of the protest movement for 18 months, being hospitalized. We had pregnant mothers being arrested in their homes. We had the flagrant violation of human rights and up to and including the use of rubber bullets by police against unarmed, completely nonviolent protesters, who were actually standing on the shrine of remembrance, which is a war memorial where we remember the people that fought for our,

freedoms. They died. They risked their lives and died for our freedoms. And us as protesters were simply trying to get back our freedom to go to the shocks when we needed to, to go to our jobs for our children to go to school. Now, I was home schooled myself. I had no particular the love of school. But nevertheless, people wanted to be able to have their kids go back to school. These were things that were taken from us. And the act of protesting and saying, hey, government, you've gone too far. You don't have the authority to do these things. Was met with literal physical violence up to very nearly lethal violence. And I was talking with someone about this. And they defended it in a way I won't reiterate because they may end up watching this video.

They defended what was going on. And as I watched them, as I looked at them, I saw in my mind's eye. It was almost the shattering of glass. And the version of them that was standing in front of me fell to the floor. And I was left looking at them in a German military uniform. And I just... Hold it right there because this is... We've got lots more folks.

This is so important. We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back. We're talking to our new friend, Tofer Field, who has created a documentary called Battleground Melbourne, and he's written a book called Good People Break Bad Laws.

You are saying so many things, Tofer, that I want to comment on, because we're talking about the very heart of what it is to be human. And as American, when I think of the founders in the United States of America, or creating a government on a biblical worldview,

understanding that we are by the grace of God able, perhaps, to govern ourselves to be free, but we have to be realistic about the fallen nature of man. You don't have to use religious language, but the point is the temptation to power. We have to have checks and balances because authoritarian or simply bad people would love to be tyrants and to tell us how to live, to take away our freedom.

But we've never seen this in our lifetimes until recently. And we saw it. I mean, I have plenty anecdotes. You just described what you saw. But to see a side of people that we'd never seen in our lives because we've been blessed to live in a time in history where this is all something from the past. Maybe our parents or grandparents experienced things along these lines. But I saw similar things to what you were describing. And it really forces us, I think the good news here is that it has forced us to see what will happen if we don't take measures against it.

And you have made the documentary, you've written a book, you talk about it, I do the same to let people know how bad things will get if we don't take action against these things, if we're not realistic about it. And I think that if you don't have, I don't know how to describe it from an Australian perspective, but I say, you know, if an American doesn't have a genuinely clear view of the American founding, of their ideas behind liberty, what it means to govern oneself, what is necessary to keep the republic, to keep it from falling into tyranny, into deep state bureaucracy, hands of unelected bureaucrats. It seems to me that the horrors that we experienced around the world, you did in Melbourne and I did in New York,

have awakened people to say, hang on, we need to really revisit the basics. We need to understand where things go if we do nothing. And for many decades, we did nothing and we drifted and drifted. You talked about Australia, like California, you're sort of drifting into suddenly being a place where they don't get what they used to get. And so we have to have a correction.

And you and I are just two people trying to be a part of that. I guess I want to talk about your book, Good People Break Bad Laws. When did that come out? So I released that just before Christmas in 2023. And it's essentially, there's really three threads brought together in that book. One is historical. Looking back well before COVID, I quote from a. few ancient philosophers and then look at the civil rights movement and look at apartheid and look at

the it is essentially the modernised philosophy of civil disobedience. That's what the book is actually all about. But I also then bring into that anecdotes from the COVID era specifically, and that's obviously specific to my own experiences, what I saw, what I experienced some of my own near misses. In the end, I was arrested and I spent two and a half years fighting against criminal charges. My government tried to turn me into a criminal. My crime was that I encouraged people to engage in peaceful, non-violent, non-destructive protest against the lockdowns during COVID, and that was enough for them to try and brand me as a criminal for the rest of my life. And then, of course, the third thread really is a, it's a libertarian political, philosophical

thread, because I don't think you can really talk about freedom without trying to understand where does that come from. Now, as a Christian, I believe that that comes from our creator. However, this particular book, I have an upcoming book at the end of this year that will be titled Good, Christians Break Bad Laws, where I'll actually deal with theology of civil disobedience. But this particular book, Good People Break Bad Laws, was really focused on more of a secular philosophy. So I look at a libertarian, sort of a Lockean philosophy of human rights and so forth. I want to touch on something that you kind of touched on a moment ago, Eric, just to do with

what we've learned about ourselves and what we learned about our neighbors during all of this. And one of the things that really concerns me, what I believe is happening in our culture today, Eric is that our government is trying to play God. And we've actually allowed and encouraged that to happen. The government has taken over a lot of functions that have historically been associated with God and things that we would rightly say belong to God. And things like the government telling churches to shut down. You're telling us when we can worship and how we can worship. And these sorts of things are deeply concerning to me. And the fact so many churches then went along with that is very deeply concerning to me. And one of the problems with this idea of government trying to take the place of God, government is trying to perfect us.

It's trying to give us a perfect society. We've seen that since Marx or actually even before, and we certainly see that today. The government is trying to perfect mankind. The problem is sin is the problem with mankind, and only God can fix that problem. So what happens is when government tries to fix sin, instead of the government taking control of sin, it's actually sin that takes control of government. And that's where we end up with people like the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. as a psychopath, I believe, taking the reins of power and using it to become a tyrant

and with the approval of his conscience to borrow from C.S. Lewis, of all tyrannies, the worst is the tyrant who oppresses with the approval of his own conscience. I'm butchering that horribly. But that's what we saw during COVID. These people believe that they are God. They believe that they ought to have the authority of God and they have the approval of their conscience as they seek to perfect us, as they seek to protect us from any and all harm, as they seek to play God. But actually what they've done is essentially become the devil incarnate here on earth. And unfortunately, too many churches went along with that. Too many churches approved of that. And I think what's needed is a definite return to our roots.

And I said the same thing in a podcast during the madness in late 2021. I was on a podcast, actually mid-2020. I was on a podcast with some Americans, and they said, Tofa, what do we do here in America to avoid ending up in the situation that you're in Australia? And my reply to then was exactly what you just said, Eric, get back to your roots. I said, read your constitution, read the Federalist papers, read the anti-federalist papers, understand the arguments on both sides, the risks, the warnings that were given about where a federalist system could lead,

and then just get back to those roots. And I would go deeper than that now, and I would say, you've got to get to the roots of the roots, and that is the Christian fact. Well, it's fascinating that we are at a moment, and again, this is where I have great hope, is that things have gotten so bad that it's woken people up. Praise God, because if things hadn't gotten so bad, most people would just continue to sleepwalk, as some still are, obviously. But it's a Romans 828 moment where I think all things work together for

good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. These horrors have redounded to good things and are continuing so to do. We'll be right back to continue our conversation, folks. Don't go away talking to Tofor Field, who is in Australia. Hey, folks, our friends at Americans for Prosperity are at it again. Actually, they're now on the front lines fighting the border crisis. The politicians aren't going to solve this problem. on their own. It's kind of going to take some good old fashioned grassroots activism. And that's what

APF specializes in, which is to say good old fashioned grassroots activism. So Americans for Prosperity Foundation has taken hundreds of concerned citizens to see the border for themselves, turning them into informed activists. Americans for Prosperity knows what we need. For example, more border agents, more walls, more technology. That's what makes Americans. for prosperity unique. They do the tough work of organizing, mobilizing everyday Americans to make a difference. That's you and me. In fact, they've just announced a major campaign to hold Biden and his allies accountable for the crisis at the border. Learn more at secure border, secure america.com. That's secure border secure America.com. Speaking of friends of the Eric Metaxa show, the Herzog

Foundation exists to catalyze and accelerate the development of quality Christ-centered K-12 of education. Their vision is for families and culture to flourish through quality Christian education, making the ecosystems of Christian education more accessible and sustainable for families across the nation. I think that's you. Their mission will be lived out by providing programs such as online content, up-to-date news, training and events, grants, hands-on organizational improvement initiatives. We've talked to them many times. We'll continue to talk to them, but you can check them out at Herzog Foundation.com. Hertzog Foundation. Foundation. dot com. Yeah, we had Chris Stigal on from them. He was terrific. They,

they, I tell you, it's just great to partner with folks like them, with Americans for prosperity. There's so many different people involved in, you know, saving the world, basically. Genevieve on recently, too. She was tremendous. Genovine Collins. Yeah. No, it's, it's honestly, uh, I get, you know, we, we need hope. And I guess that these folks, the ones I just mentioned, uh, who are sponsors on the program. They give me hope. Also, they're helping others, you know, they're helping Americans figure out how do I get it done? How do I get involved?

And, you know, because we all need to be involved. I keep talking about that. I talked about it in my book, if you can keep it because it is, it's our job to keep the republic. This is not something that, again, how did we get to where we are? We kind of drifted into thinking, like, well, I don't need to do that. It'll just take care of itself. The Constitution is the Constitution.

And part of what we do on the show is highlighting stories of people that are getting involved that are doing things and also giving people like me, I'm a little guy, the opportunity to help out with people that are doing things in other places like CSI rolling up their sleeves and we can partner with them and actually make a difference. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Speaking of making a difference, two things before I go. I want you to mention our involvement with CSI, Christian Solidarity International. If you've not yet jumped at the chance, folks, please go to metaxis talk.com. Please do this today. We want everyone to be involved. We've only had something like 130 people actually do this. But I know that more than 130 people listen to the program. And if you're feeling guilty, good, because this is an awesome thing.

You really want to do this. Just go to metaxis talk.com, click on the banner. We've all got to give something to something. And people often ask, well, I don't know what's reputable, what's good, you know, what this is, it doesn't get better. Go to metaxisotachistalk.com. You'll see the banner for CSI. I'll give you the phone number. Hey, here's the phone number.

888-253, 3522. 888-253-3522. And while I'm at it, let me mention Socrates Plus, sign up for Socrates Plus. I mean, we'll talk about it another time, but I'm so excited that we have created this streaming digital platform. Socrates Plus, feed your mind, folks. Feed your mind, feed your soul. Go to Socratesandcity.com. You can check it out and you can see Socrates Plus is there. Thank you very much.