The Speak Life Podcast, sharing Jesus in everyday life.
SPEAKER_05Hey you! Unsure of what to post on social media? Feeling out of your depth when it comes to global politics? Behind the times on the latest trends? Not completely sure which opinion will get you pilloried by mobs of angry strangers? Then try not posting anything! That's right, not posting anything is the new craze that's not sweeping the internet. Join the movement that literally no one has thought of as you let righteous indignation just sweep on fast. Just take this hapless moron Wayne. Ever since making Facebook posts on US politics, Wayne's IQ has dropped 15 points, and he's developed shingles. Don't be like Wayne. Start doing what no one on the internet has thought of. Try not posting anything. But wait, I'm a Christian. I want to have a distinctive voice online. We're glad to hear it, Bill. Here then is our foolproof three-step plan. Step one, we've already covered it. Don't post stuff you don't understand. Step two, make it clear in your bio that you're a Christian. Some prefer Follower of the Way. Disciple of the Galilean. Part one to the net read. Or if you're not ridiculously obtuse, maybe try Christian. That's step two. State clearly that you're a Christian. And then step three, and this one really is key, people, don't be a jerk. That's right, against all country inclinations and against the entire tide of jerkness engulfing the web. Try not to be a jerk. Both steps again. Resist the urge to post on things you don't understand. Make plain that you're a Christian, and don't be a jerk. Follow these simple rules, and you too might just survive this vitriolic shame storm we call social media. Welcome everybody to the live cast. Hello. I am Glenn Scrivener, and with me is Paul Feasy.
SPEAKER_06Still Paul Feasy.
SPEAKER_05Still Paul Feasy. Same as last week. Yeah, and last year. So uh yeah, today we're looking at a year in review, 2019 a year of speaking life.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I don't know where the year's gone, to be honest. No. It's gone so quick.
SPEAKER_05Well, has it though? Well, it has. It's been taught to be a little bit more than a little bit.
SPEAKER_06I mean people surely people do say that, like, you know, oh, I don't know where the time goes, but this is honestly like the first time I've ever just been like, I'd no idea what has happened this year. Really? Yeah. Because they say a week's a long time in politics.
SPEAKER_05Like 2019 is a very important thing. We're not going to talk about politics this year. We're kind of gonna we're gonna talk about some things that have happened in in the culture out there and some things that have happened at Speak Life. Yeah, stuff we've been looking at over the past year. You're aware that some things have happened in politics, though, Paul? Has anything really happened though? Let's be honest. We're back where we started. The Tories have a majority, and you know, on we go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're still paralyzed by Brexit, no matter how much you know we tell each other that we're gonna get Brexit done.
SPEAKER_06Well, who knows? Yeah. It's probably best to move on from this before I say something I regret about the whole thing.
SPEAKER_05So the year is 2043.
SPEAKER_06Horace has got another extension. We're celebrating non-Brexit Day again. None of us can remember what Brexit even is, but uh we celebrate it every year regardless.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, some meaningless ritual. But uh I don't know what 2019 has been about for you. One of the things it's been about for us has been those top media social media tips. Yeah. So we we gave those top three.
SPEAKER_06Um don't sound advice right there for everybody.
SPEAKER_05Uh tip number one, you don't have to post about everything. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely the case. It's probably best if you don't.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, and how many times have we seen people post things and you think you you've not understood this? Yeah. And I read plenty of things and I think, I think this, but you know what, I probably don't understand it, so best not to say anything. Yeah, yeah. You could think that a little bit more, Paul. Well, it's that is very true. I monitor your feelings.
SPEAKER_05Someone needs to. Um so yes, those are our three top uh social media tips. Don't post on everything. Uh say you're a Christian and don't be a jerk. So I think that's sound advice. Um and I I think social media would be uh less of a dumpster fire if we managed to follow that advice.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_06Maybe so.
SPEAKER_05Maybe so. So that was our number ten, as we're we're we're counting down uh some of the some of the events um that have been large in our world, in our little corner of the of the Twitter sphere, um here at Speak Life. So that was number ten. Uh what was number nine, Paul?
SPEAKER_06Number nine was the Covington Kid. Wow. So which I can't really believe was January this year.
SPEAKER_05See, it's a long year. I told it's a long year.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I mean, yeah, I suppose so.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Uh so if you don't remember Covington Kids, so there we go, we've got a photo, I think, coming up on the screen there of this kid uh who was caught up in this kind of protest, um, where as you see in that picture, he's face-to-face with um uh kind of one of the uh Native American kind of elders. And this guy came up, I think his name was Nathan Phillips, I think. Oh, well remember, I can't remember the kid's name if I'm honest, but uh um who came up and started beating this drum in this kid's face, and the kid had a make America great hat on and uh make it great again, and it basically blew up into this thing as people were saying, Look, here's this kid standing there smirking at this Native American man, you know, has there ever been a clearer picture of white privilege and sneering racism and all that stuff? And yeah, um and that was kind of picked up you know very quickly in the media. It blew up on Twitter and then was reported by lots of different media outlets, but then within a couple of days, the full video emerged, kind of an hour and a half long video which showed how it started off. Really, there was a group of uh I think it's called the Black Israelites. That's right, black Hebrews or Black Hebrews who uh who seem uh hurling abuse at the end of the year. Hurling abuse seems to be quite a racist group. They were racist themselves, yeah, yeah, who were throwing racist abuse at the kids and the kids were kind of um doing some school chants back. Yeah, kind of kids. And then bizarrely, this man, Nathan Phillips, walks into the middle of it out of out of nowhere, banging his drum and goes straight up to these kids, um, you know, completely out of the blue, and uh yeah, comes face to face with his kid, and um yeah, as that emerged it became clear that the story was a little bit different. Right. And actually a number of news outlets actually rescinded their kind of articles and changed their headlines and things. Um I mean, plenty of people doubled down anyway, right? Regardless of, you know, because why why let evidence get in the way? Yeah, you know of a fact, Twitch for mob. You know. So um yeah, so it was a fascinating thing to see, you know, and and people a lot of people said, hey, this probably wouldn't have happened if the kid hadn't been wearing a MAGA hat, you know, people wouldn't have picked up on it, you know, but people were using it really just to say, you know, Donald Trump is a terrible person and look at the kind of people that support him. Yeah. Um but it was kind of fake news, really.
SPEAKER_05Totally fake news. Uh and it's all about perspective. It's it's all about you know thinking that your tiny frame through which you're viewing the world is the totality. And you know, you know, here we are across an ocean, and you see one little tiny six by sixteen by nine image of this kid frozen in a grin because he doesn't know what else to do. And you could you could conclude all sorts of things from that.
SPEAKER_06You could oh sneering white privilege, and this is you know the amazing thing was that I remember when we watched we we did some clips from it that there's actually clips of uh another guy, another Native American who was with Nathan Phillips, um, you know, talking to the kids there, and he's just effing and Jeffin' at the kids. Totally. And he says to them, Go back to Europe. Yeah, right, yeah. And you're like, hang on a second. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, where's the racism here? You're saying the racism is coming from the kids. You know, it's right, right. But you know, that's how it works in the system.
SPEAKER_05And it just makes you very sceptical of the the lines that you're being fed by, you know, by the media, because everyone is looking at the world through a certain frame, through a certain perspective. And if you can get it so wrong about that poor kid, what else are we getting at?
SPEAKER_06Well, I mean, yeah, and I think I've said before on here, I'm literally at a stage now where I I just don't think I mean I I don't know, I don't think. There we go. No. I don't think I don't think that you can you can we can really know in terms of kind of the day-to-day what's going on in the world, right, what reality is and what isn't really. Because you know, how far are you prepared to dig in terms of checking all their sources and things you post or read?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Um and the reality is that you know many of us are not bothered to do even one bit of digging, but how far do you go? You do a quick Google and go, does any has anyone else said the same thing? Yeah. You know, are people or are they all claiming it from the same source, but even that same source might be a wrong source? And you know, i it's hard to know what is true.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And you you get that when you read uh an article about something where the journalist speaks about an area that you know something about. You know, I mean, journalists they've got to be jacks of all trades and masters of none. And they've you know and and they've got their fingers in thousand different pies, and sure, fine. But it it's when they suddenly like discuss like a finer point of theology, or they they get the difference between evangelical and evangelist wrong, or you like like something like that. Which, you know, some not everybody knows that at all by any means, stretch of the imagination. But because you're a Christian and you know that, and because the journalist then gets that wrong, it's one of those moments where you go, oh hang on, their ignorance about this probably translates to every other thing they ever write about. And they're they're probably just as ignorant about everything, but they they're trying to make it look like they understand about stuff. And actually, you know, they're just journalists, they don't know what they're talking about, and nobody does. So maybe we go back to rule number one of social media, um, try not posting anything. You know, yeah, absolutely. Try and understand your your sphere of competence and and and try not to voyage far beyond it. Uh, would be one thing to learn from that. So that was uh our number nine uh event from 2019, Covington Kid. Uh what's in at number eight with the bullet?
SPEAKER_06Number eight, number eight with a bullet was our Easter video. Oh yeah. Uh well we had two, or I think there may be a couple more than three altogether actually. Um but it was all revolving around the video game That Dragon Cancer. So we had a couple of videos, That Dragon Death and was it Unwinnable, I think was the name of one of those. Um so That Dragon Cancer, a video game created by uh a couple whose uh whose young son had passed away from uh a brain cancer that he'd fought, and this game kind of is a a way of uh i I think for them, in a sense, it was part of the grieving process, wasn't it? But it was a way it kind of chronicled their journey, and uh it's a game you play that takes you through their situation really, but you you in a sense you can't win the game, you know. You know the Joel, I think, was the the name of the the the young boy uh he's always gonna die. Right. You know, in the game. No matter what you do in the game. And there's lots of areas of the game where you know that you you'd assume in a video game, oh I need to do this, I need to do that, but actually you you can't do anything, right? You know, you're powerless almost in these situations. Right. And so we had some great you know videos from that and some great um not only a great video about it, but a kind of extended interview with the parents as well. And that was kind of really good stuff. And I think we've got a clip about it.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, let's let's have a clip and see uh see a minute of this.
SPEAKER_07The computer games industry is worth more than the movies and the music industry combined. Each year, two and a half billion of us spend $150 billion on games. Games that put you in the driver's seat. Games that make you the hero of the story, as you collect each power-up, ascend through each level, and finally defeat the big bad boss. But one game challenges all that. Its creators, Ryan and Amy Green, have made a game that's hard to play. In fact, it's a game that's impossible to win. Because this game mirrors life. And in real life, you're not in the driver's seat. You don't choose your destiny, and you cannot defeat the big bad boss. Death always wins. That dragon cancer is a memorial to Ryan and Amy's young son, Joel, who for four years fought the dragon of brain cancer and lost.
SPEAKER_05So it's it's a deeply moving game. Um, and it's it's you know, it's it's hard to think of other games that you can say that about. You know, games are games, and you go in there for escape escapism and fun. Um but this is immersing you in a situation you you do not want to be in. Um because it's it's a situation of being out of control. And actually, computer games are all about putting you into control and you know, you've got literally you've got control in your hands. Um and as long as you're persistent and clever enough, you will beat the dragon. Yeah. Um but not in this case. And I just thought um what a profound picture of a theology of the cross. You know, a theology of glory says we can ascend to glory by being big enough and smart enough and clever enough, and we can beat the dragon because you know we we have enough strength. Um and this is all about no, you're not big enough, you're not strong enough, you're not clever enough, the dragon wins every time, but you are met by someone who loves you in the midst of it, and you're carried through death, carried through defeat out the other side. And what's fascinating is is you sort of you cry when you play the computer game, um, but you cry the most when you see Joel again at the end. You know, after after he dies, you can't do anything about him dying, and he dies, and then the screen just says loading, loading, loading, and then you find yourself on this boat sailing across the divide to this island where there is Joel again, and he's doing his favorite stuff. He's got his favorite dog, and he's eating his favorite food, pancakes, and you can blow bubbles to him, his favorite thing in all the world. And actually, seeing him again makes you cry more than when he was in pain. It's it's a weird it's a weird kind of thing, but it's it's it's good crying. It's it's the it's this acknowledgement that this is what life is like. We go through the valley of the shadow and we come out to Feasting Joy at the end. Um and it's a profoundly human journey, it's a profoundly Christian journey, and they've managed to pull it off in a in a computer game. It's just extraordinary.
SPEAKER_06So very powerful.
SPEAKER_05If people haven't checked out that dragon cancer, uh we've got uh a link in the description box, and you can check out uh all three of those Easter videos that we released. So that's our number eight from 2019. What's uh what's a number seven?
SPEAKER_06Number seven was our video, A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words, which uh was very early on this year, uh beginning of January time, and it kind of came off the back of our visit to the Brefos conference um at the end of 2018. So that was the conference run by Brefos, kind of about um issues around abortion. And so the video um uh again we're I think we've not got a clip from it, we've just got a photo, I think, but um we'll um uh it's worth checking out. So it was really to do with uh at the conference um Ashleen Gooderson, I think her surname is, um, had done a um kind of s uh seminar on the way that images had changed public perception over the years, and she talked about Thomas Clarkson kind of taking around images of slavery and slave ships, and um how the public in a sense knew they knew slavery was going on, but until they kind of saw the reality of what it was like, um it didn't really make a difference, you know, that people didn't feel like they needed to stand up against it. Um and that kind of mustered people, and then you know, say same in terms of things like um Emmett Till, a young boy who was kind of killed, um a young black boy, uh kind of in a racist attack, and that that kind of civil rights era fifteen. Yeah, so it's what it's one of the things that spurred on um uh Rosa Parks. Right. You know, one of the things she um she spoke about in terms of her motivation. Um and just uh again there was the image of the the little lad washed up on the beach in in 2015 or so, I think it was the um refugee um that kind of shook the government and stuff as well as the you know the nation. Um and just how people when people see these images actually it has an effect. So we'd kind of use that and we said, well look, here are these images of abortion, and we all know abortion goes on. Um but actually a lot of people have never really seen abortion and what it actually looks like, or even really thought about what it looks like. And I mean, and we see that time and time again, you know, if we if you follow any groups on Facebook kind of speaking to people on the street, asking often they'll ask people, you know, what are your thoughts on abortion? And many people are you know, well, you know, you make your own decision and you know, maybe they might say, Well, I'm I'm against it, but let people do what they want to do. And they often make people, you know, say, or don't make people, they say, Would you like to watch a one-minute video and stuff? And you know, nine times out of ten people are absolutely appalled at what they see. Um but it's kind of hidden away. And so that video is just kind of an attempt to kind of say, Look, here are these ones, what what do we how do we respond to this? And I think I think it ended with that Wilberforce quote, you know, Wilberforce, didn't you say, like you can um you can choose to turn away, but you can never say you didn't know or something along those lines. Exactly. You know, um and that was part of the aim of it really. So um yeah, do go and check it out if you you've got the time.
SPEAKER_05Powerful, a powerful video. A picture is worth a thousand words. Uh and then in at number six uh from this year, um uh we had the great privilege of interviewing Tom Holland. Um not that one, the other one.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the other one, yeah.
SPEAKER_05The historian Tom Holland, uh, who wrote uh the book Dominion. And uh I got to talk to him for uh best part of an hour uh up in Brixton, and uh just such an interesting guy who's been on a journey as an historian. He realizes that as a classical historian, um, the Julius Caesars of of this world who kill a million ghouls and enslave a million more, that they are nothing like his own sensibilities. Yeah. And he remembers, you know, he he talks about, you know, talking about the the Greeks and the Romans and the Persians and Islam and just seeing how the the the world of classical antiquity is just so alien to him. What changed? Well, Jesus Christ. That's that's that's what happens to to history, and it's it's made him rethink absolutely everything, and it's made him pen uh a fascinating uh history of Christianity called Dominion, and uh I asked him a number of different questions, uh, including um where is it that we've got our sense of human rights from? And we've got a clip of Tom Holland answering that question. It seems like the problems we have with the church are being given to us by the church, the problems we have with Christianity being given to us by the church.
SPEAKER_02Well, what I would say is that by and large, when um Christianity is put in the dock and condemned for being um patriarchal or hegemonic or oppressive or Spanish Inquisition or crusades or whatever. I mean, I'm sure you will be familiar with the Brit Backs that get thrown at it, that um the standards by which they the church is being judged and found wanting are themselves deeply Christian. And and this, of course, is most famously pointed out by Nietzsche, who is uh a very significant presence in this book, because actually I I I read an enormous amount of Christian literature for this book, um, but almost uh nothing I read made me feel more deeply Christian than Nietzsche because Nietzsche actually hates Christianity for um for the reasons that by and large um you know even even uh uh Dawkins is willing to um to admire it. I mean, namely you know it's it's valorization of the weak and the poor, and and that's what Nietzsche hates. Uh and it looking at it through that prism, then Nietzsche was was was a brilliant classicist, enables you to kind of switch gears and and and re-inhabit a world in which Christianity does not exist and in which the image of the cross as an emblem of of redemption does not exist. Instead, the cross remains what it was to the Romans, an implement of torture. Yes. That is quite a binary way of looking at it.
SPEAKER_05And and that would be kind of my um instinct to read Nietzsche in that way. Um we don't want to follow Nietzsche, therefore, it's it's either the abyss or it's Christ and him crucified. But uh what what if someone would say to you, okay, we don't go with Nietzsche? But there's a third option, isn't there? We don't we don't need to go for the pale Galilean either.
SPEAKER_02Well, and that that is the course that that by and large the West has taken. I mean, it has taken the course of saying um you know we'll we'll take over Christian morals and ethics, thank you very much, but we're not actually going to bother with any of the mumbo jumbo that requires us to go to church. Um the question that is posed by that, of course, is whether you can continue to have the bloom if the roots are being pulled up, and we don't know the answer to that.
SPEAKER_05So I was I was continually trying to press him on that because he he continually wanted to say, okay, Nietzsche says that it's Christianity alone that is holding back Western civilization from the abyss. And I kept on I kept on sort of pressing him. Are you saying, along with Nietzsche, it's either Jesus or hell? Is it Jesus or the pit? And essentially Tom just kept saying yes, but without coming coming out and saying so. Right. But it's it's just just very, very interesting as as Tom expresses historically what's gone on. What's gone on is um there's been survival of the fittest since long before Darwin named it. Um it's always been survival of the fittest and the sacrifice of the weakest. And the only people who have ever overturned that view have been these Christians who keep on talking about the sacrifice of the fittest called Jesus for the survival of the weakest, us. And it's only been the Jesus story that actually upends what is otherwise a really hellish story about the strong survive and the weak get you know what's coming to them. And then everybody just falls into the pit together. So it's it does seem to me it's it's either Christ or hell, right? Which sounds like an incredibly fundamentalist bigoted thing to say.
SPEAKER_06I was going to say.
SPEAKER_05Doesn't it? But but when seen in historical perspective, you're just like, oh no, that's that's just true. That's just how history has unfolded. It's it's either it's either this way of dog eat dog or it's Jesus. It's one or the other.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And I mean it was an amazing interview. We were talking about it the other day actually um uh with a guy uh uh kind of dad's group I was at and said he'd watched it and he just he said he just loved it thought it was so good and 'cause I mean there's an amazing moment um uh where you know they're about human about the human rights and you know the this idea that hey if we didn't have Jesus we'd have got there eventually surely and Tom Holland's response is literally just to laugh. Yeah like it's just like yeah let's proper scoff at the whole thing and he's just like no no no no no no we wouldn't wouldn't have got to human rights without without Jesus and he had that amazing quote didn't he the idea that human rights are hanging in the ether somewhere waiting to be to be discovered is as theological an idea belief as the idea that Jesus rose from the dead you know which is just an incredible quote you know to have yeah yeah yeah um but yeah I mean it's an amazing interview in in terms of just showing how I mean and it like the phrase you use a number of times um even the problems people have with the Bible come from the Bible and he just shows that every part everything that we hold dear in our lives things that we value and think you know we think it's worthwhile why why are people why are some people at least furious about what happened on Friday it's because they care about the weak and the poor. Right. You know not to say that you don't necessarily if you went the other way. Yeah. But um you know but we have that because we are a Christianised people and we would not have that if we were a Greco-Roman people, you know if we were people of Caesar. Yeah yeah and Tom Holland just does a great job of saying yeah all these things you know basically you're you're steeped in Christian belief and I just thought it was a great interview and he does a brilliant job as well of um you know he as a guy who where he sits exactly at the moment I don't know but let's let's say he's he's an outsider, he's outside the church, let's say amazingly you ask him about where has the church gone wrong and he basically says well you spent too much time trying to be liberal democrat social workers and your bishops are talking about Brexit all the time. No one cares what they think about Brexit why don't you talk about the resurrection and virgin birth and all the witnesses. And it was it was just amazing that you've got a guy who's not really in the kind of circle of Christianity saying you know what it'd be really good if you guys just preach the Bible a bit more. Right. Which seems to be what every liberal church is kind of fighting against you know and saying no we need to be more like the culture and actually he's saying no where you've gone wrong is you've jumped into bed with the culture. No one cares what you think about culture. Right. Preach a distinctive Christian message.
SPEAKER_05Yeah preach the weird stuff and and especially Christ and him crucified. I mean that that's where the book begins and it's where the book ends. He says this is the the unique contribution of Christianity from which all the other contributions flow is that you've got the the the the sacrifice of the fittest for the survival of the weakest. Just yeah preach that preach the cross. Absolutely and and actually you know the day after we we filmed that interview we went and saw him give uh a lecture in Cambridge and he he just he preached the cross basically in this very academic kind of lecture academic setting in which he had his PowerPoint presentation he was like well here's here's how the Persians did crucifixion here's how the Romans did crucifixion here's how Isis have been doing crucifixions and he just builds up and he and he and he he kind of ties the knot in your stomach of what this like horrific slave's death actually entailed. And then and then he's like saying you know and therefore when Christians come along and they say the creator of the universe hanging upon that cross is the most revolutionary message you've ever heard in your life and nothing nothing could ever top it in terms of re of revolutionary message. And the way he preached the cross in that academic lecture is better than most Easter sermons I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_06Sure. You know it's just it's funny when you put it like that, isn't it? He I mean he does talk about this this this this uh event of cataclysmic proportions. Right. You know that's what you believe in. Yeah. And we kind of go, yeah we've got some thoughts on Brexit though so wonderfully putting us in our place which I I thought was great. So yeah yeah yeah. So we're is that halfway that's halfway we're halfway through our um top ten. Big shout out to some people watching Robert Chamberlain Ian McCarthy hello good to see you Tony Swift. Jack Holcomb Jack Holcomb one of my ex-youth group members saying hello his first live cast taking you this long this long shocking shocking money oh youth what's what's Jack up to these days? Well uh he's at university so is he? Yeah he's in derby he's got his own little radio show as well really yeah drive time well played Jack Jack and I think it's Anna might be wrong but we'll see yeah 4 p.m maybe Jack and Ori don't know which day.
SPEAKER_05Okay he's getting ready let us know he's getting ready so that's uh number six Tom Holland uh and then number five uh a craze that we've probably all forgotten about now but um we looked back over our videos it's good for five minutes oh yeah face app yeah remember face app yes how famous yes we do um and we've got some images of our own uh lovely visages that have been aged and now can we see the no for those for those who are just listening in on the podcast uh Paul cruel Paul Feasy put actually my face through FaceApp like three times three times that was three times so that was aged thrice yeah I guess I'm 180 years old in that yeah I mean it's a lot there are you it it it is you have kind of turned into an old woman at that stage. Yeah there's something quite feminine about it. I don't know I I still I still see me in the in the eyes. That's what's really weird about it. You look at yourself and there's still hello old friend there you are.
SPEAKER_06Trevor Burrus And it's like Ethel who sits in the same seat in church every week.
SPEAKER_05She has seen she has seen much and uh we should praise her for her wisdom. But that's that's but and then we had this other photograph that we took of of both Paul and myself and see Paul like you don't look too different.
SPEAKER_06I was going to say look having just had the context of your picture I feel a lot better looking at that now.
SPEAKER_05You look you look fine. And it kind of it reminds you that like when when you when you meet people like childhood friends and school schoolmates and you haven't seen them for like 20 years you realize that actually middle aged middle aged people they're just tired saggy teenagers aren't they that's all that's all old old middle aged people. Tired saggy teenagers with this face app we went onto the the the beach at Eastbourne and uh we got into conversation with some of the youngsters including like two girls who were like taking selfies for Instagram. Yep and uh and we asked them would you like to do the the face app with us and and I showed one of them face app and um and she looked at my photograph and she says oh I'm so sorry I said no that's the before shot that's not we we haven't put any aging on that and then like so we showed these two girls face app we showed like was it four people we ended up three or four.
SPEAKER_06I think I think it was three in the end two girls and the guy.
SPEAKER_05And every single one of them wanted to kill themselves.
SPEAKER_06Yeah they were mortified by it weren't they and like they didn't even look that old so fresh faced no they were so fresh faced anyway because I think basically it just picks up on any slight wrinkle on your face and accentuates it so these kids barely had a wrinkle anyway so they literally all expressed I would I would kill myself rather than reach the age of 50.
SPEAKER_05Yeah can you imagine and they're like I don't want to reach that age and I'm like well the alternative is not better. You have chosen death death or looking like a 50 year old isn't it and that that really yeah that's that's really quite well in the Instagram culture you know where what you look like is big currency. Yeah that's and it's very much a youth culture you know like we we want to look like you know 17 year old models that look like 12 year old girls who are you know selling maybe it's Maybelline and you know that's my dream. How to and how to fight the seven signs of aging and it's all a bit Logan's run isn't it like it hit 30 and you'll get killed.
SPEAKER_06That's it.
SPEAKER_05That's what they wanted but um so that's that's youth culture right there. So FaceApp was our face app was our fad and then another fun now Russia owns all of our images somewhere so you know that's true. They can have my face that's fine.
SPEAKER_06Certainly if it looks like it did on there.
SPEAKER_05It's yours. And then Kanye Ah yes you can can you you can so so big news Kanye's coming out as a born again Christian.
SPEAKER_06Yeah so when was this it was a month or two back was it probably now? Yeah yeah and that was fascinating wasn't it just I mean because it didn't quite come out of the blue because he's always been he's always had this kind of pseudo-religious thing going on but I suppose what appeared to be a genuine conversion seemed to come out of the blue more than anything.
SPEAKER_05Yes um is it pseudo-religious to think of yourself as God is that pseudo he has you know walked with Jesus and and and spoken about walking with Jesus in the past and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah and then he just and and and not only did he you know come out and say well you know I'm a Christian now the things he was saying were to at least to my mind had a greater depth than simply just throwing out some Christianese words. You know he seems to be you know talking about a lot of things and I was thinking wow this guy clearly read some Bible to know what he's talking about here and or at least heard some Bible.
SPEAKER_05And some of the guys discipling him were like you know graduates from Master's seminary where John MacArthur was he has since gone and and done a Sunday service at Joel Osteen's church.
SPEAKER_06Yeah so that's interesting it's hard to know what quite what to make of that isn't it but yeah I mean who knows. I mean let let's see where he ends up because I mean it's still early days isn't it I mean right he might be being influenced in the wrong direction.
SPEAKER_05But this is what we expect from Mark chapter four you know different kind of seed falls on different kinds of soils and you don't immediately know what joy looks like. Yeah it's like immediate joy well maybe that's going to get choked by thorns or maybe it's good soil that's gonna produce a crop 30, 60 hundred times absolutely yeah and he could do you know he he he may well do great things. Well the I mean the great paradigm that he seems to um be inhabiting is the Nebuchadnezzar one right and so he's just like released the opera you know Nebuchadnezzar and is he just in an opera as opposed to that's a separate thing to the album he did.
SPEAKER_06Yeah no the album yeah oh the album he hasn't staged it yet.
SPEAKER_05Right I was gonna say like it wouldn't surprise me though if he had you see but it's it's just this idea that yeah so he was this proud person who was humbled for a season um and now at the end of Daniel chapter four you know he writes to the whole world and says you know you need to trust in the most high God the way I do. And that does seem to be kind of what's happening.
SPEAKER_06So I think he's got his Christmas album out next week isn't that true that's the rumour that he's going to drop the Christmas album on that day. But I mean what a strange world we live in. Can you imagine like it it's it's on a par, at least in my mind, with can you imagine the early church going like and um that pool guy has become a Christian. And it's a bit like this Kanye's become a Christian Kanye he's married to a Kardashian right yeah really yeah like you know God does amazing things God loses pawn around the chest set.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely so he knows what he's doing. Whether we know what we're doing is another matter. Well I think which is why we produced this video about an app because we we were noticing how online uh all these Christians who'd never had um a second's thought for Kanye West were suddenly wanting to um contribute to the cultural conversation about Kanye. And yet they they might have needed a little bit of help and that's where the app Kanye you can comes in. Jesus is King excuse me? Oh Kanye's new album? Jesus is King Oh right. It's uh it's it's flipping ace i yeah it's you know it's it it's legit it's it's it's legit lit. You know I mean obviously I can't hear Kanye the way you can hear Kanye but you know I'm listening.
SPEAKER_01You know teach me hey Christian wanna jump on the Kanye bandwagon but don't know how wanna sound knowledgeable about rap when your only exposure has been the Fresh Prince of Bel Air then try Kanye You Can the new app that'll make you down with all the kids our algorithm generates the perfect Kanye appreciation.
SPEAKER_06Download the app today water shook me it's dope.
SPEAKER_05Oh shit all and anything that's hot is it's stronger it's straight on yeah Kanye is like the new Cliff Richard Cliff Richard but married to Jordan I've been a low-key fan but now I'm a straight up your staple I hate that we enjoyed it's the second video on that list to end with us dancing randomly at the camera.
SPEAKER_06Is that what you call it?
SPEAKER_05Good fun. So that's uh that's number four can you you can you can um and then at number three in our list of uh top events in the Speak Life twenty nineteen calendar uh Jordan Peterson or JP yeah who we uh we mentioned a lot a lot more you know I was gonna say it's been almost a quiet year really because we it was almost a week would not go by in twenty eighteen it was yeah JP this and JP that yeah but I mean I mean he's had health problems in the family his wife's been very ill and um diagnosed I think with terminal cancer but um and then something like that and then had um a good result from some surgery but then um yeah he was in rehab for some um um anxiety pills medication I think that he was on and and uh it's quite common in the States I hear isn't it okay I think there's a big issue with prescription medication yes and addiction. Yes so he's been in rehab I think he's now back out of rehab but uh taking a break I mean he he he spoke about the um I mean the publicity behind him he said it was like riding a hundred foot wave you know and if you're writing a hundred foot wave how does that end well like how do how do you pull out of that um and he's had a bit of a crash I think this year but so uh before he did uh he made uh a a quite popular video called Who Dares Say He Believes in God? Um which is you know whenever he was asked do you believe in God he would be quite cagey in the way that he would respond to that and then one of the ways he would respond would be to say well who's who could dare possibly say that they believe in God can you imagine you'd have to have your entire life in order in order to be properly oriented towards the you know whatever the the highest being towards being itself you know to speak in in in Petersonian and so I I did a little video called Who Dares Say He Believes Jordan Peterson does a lot and actually Peterson in most of his other videos talks about how um you need to have certain beliefs about yourself and certain beliefs about ultimate reality before you actually move out into the world and do anything. And so yeah we we all act on on account of a whole bunch of faith positions that which you can't rationally prove but on the basis of which they enable you to step out into the world and and offer what you've got. And you'll probably get crucified but maybe being will raise you back up again and that's that's sort of Jordan Jordan Peterson's thing. And so we did a video on that who says who dare say they believe? Yeah Jordan Peterson does. And I in in the video I I kind of compare him a little bit to Luther before he was converted because Luther was Mr. Law wasn't he was absolutely uh and he was a professor of Old Testament and what is it that Jordan Peterson spends all his time kind of talking about a lot of Old Testament stories. Yeah um but the burden of actually living properly before being itself absolutely crushed um Luther until um he actually understood the gospel. Yeah grace. And then when he understood grace it was like heaven's gates were opened and he, you know, and he went into to paradise. So you know here's praying that um Jordan Peterson might have that similar kind of breakthrough and in fact laying flat on your black on your back you know and and going to rehab might be a really good way of actually realizing ah it can't be about me climbing towards heaven.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely yeah I thought it was fascinating you know because he dodged that question about God quite a number of times hadn't he or answered it in a very kind of roundabout philosophical way and actually it kind of brought I thought his answer given in that interview um kind of brought things a bit more clearly into focus that he really you're kind of thinking well this guy gets it in a sense I think he I think he's very he's got a a biblical view of human nature, hasn't he? I think in the that human nature is flawed and broken and you know in this terrible state and but his solution is kind of well here's my twelve rules for life. Right. Which you know he's based on scripture, you know, um interestingly but he's very much saying who who can bear this burden? Right. You're going, yeah you're right. You know, don't keep trying to do it yourself, Jordan.
SPEAKER_05Yeah And isn't it interesting you know as soon as almost as soon as that video comes out he collapses in a heap and we don't hear from him again. Yeah yeah you know and we have been wondering for a while you know what's gonna happen with all these buckos um who that that's what Paul Vanderclay calls all the Jordan Peterson fans buckos who, you know want to tidy up their room and be more lobster. What's what's going to happen a year down the track when they recognize they just can't do it. Yeah. Well you know me he is praying that Jordan Peterson himself encounters grace and and shows a different way forwards.
SPEAKER_06Absolutely that'd be great wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_05Very good so that was our number three Jordan Peterson's video Who Dares Say He Believes um what's the what's at number two, Paul?
SPEAKER_06Number two, a recent entry you know uh only from a few weeks ago when we were thinking about inclusivity and uh we were uh we put together a little little sketch to get us thinking about what does it look like to be inclusive and I think we're gonna watch that clip now.
SPEAKER_05Uh cup of tea but you don't believe in tea sure not for myself my body's a temple of the Holy Spirit. I don't personally partake of tannin based stimuli. Tow dare you sorry? You're a tannin phobe I'm not afraid of tannin. I was just wondering if you want some of my best friends work in the drink industry. Some of my best friends work in the drink industry too some of my best friends at tea drinkers defence. Well I think is that the better one but look do you want a tea on the you know what you are someone offering you tea? You're a turd excuse me? A tea exclusion radical drink maker I don't think that's a thing.
SPEAKER_06Uh oh it's a thing and you own that thing you sir are a turd white white supremacy too messy black then oh black or white is it? What about those who like their tea non-binary?
SPEAKER_05I really don't think that's a thing.
SPEAKER_06I'm sorry I'm kind of gonna be around new exclusion hatred anymore. You sir are the worst person I've ever met there we go well what was the point true a word spoken yes yes we had a lot of fun making that one didn't we we did actually yeah yes yes so uh that was off the back of the uh the the Chick-fil-A uh uh incident wasn't it so um the Chick-fil-A American uh chicken brand that's come over to the uh the UK tried to come to the UK had a place in Reading in a shopping centre there uh but people took um offense to that uh because Chick-fil-A um they're a Christian company whose CEO at least at some stage seven years ago has said he believes in traditional marriage.
SPEAKER_05Yes in the same year that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama uh both said that they they also believed in tradition traditional marriage back in twenty twelve.
SPEAKER_06But anyway bigots um and so people uh were obviously responded to that and they said well look the Chick fil A gives money to the Salvation Army um and Salvation Army uh also Affirms traditional marriage and therefore not you know not kind of same-sex partnerships and same-sex marriage. Therefore, we must get rid of Chick-fil-A. Um and so Chick-fil-A were told by the shopping centre that you know once your six months kind of probation repair is up, that's it, you're out. Um and it we just said it was a fascinating thing because you know supposedly we're here th this these are people on the left generally thinking about how being inclusive, um, but what we see is that not only it's not a case of including people with different views, it's we must entirely wipe out even the existence of a differing view. And the irony being that you know, I mean Chick-fil-A themselves you know, if you were a member of the LGBTQ community, you could walk into Chick-fil-A and order some chicken, they would give you some chicken. Right. You could get a job at Chick-fil-A and go and work for them. Um and the Salvation Army themselves kind of turn around and said, look, well, we do loads of work with the LGBTQ community. We they I think they said they may even be one of the biggest providers of services to people in the LGBTQ community. So I mean you kind of wonder, like, in the name of inclusion, quite what on earth this boycott of Chick-fil-A has really achieved, because I mean it's there are probably people in the LGBTQ community who will uh suffer from not having as many res you know, as much help from the Salvation Army off the back of it. Yeah. Um and you know, where are you gonna get your chicken?
SPEAKER_05It's madness. It is it is madness. But no, no, you say my point though. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06But I mean you just think like i it we and I think we said when we talked about it, uh it's not just uh, you know, well you have a view that's more conservative and you have a view that's more liberal, um, and hey, that's okay. It was just well, we can't the the lit those who are a bit more liberal on this, these things were saying, we can't even countenance the idea of a conservative belief existing and be giving any validity in our universe. Yeah. And uh but then we talked as well, how far do you take this? I mean, whenever you go anywhere, can you be sure that you won't hear views that are not right. Yeah, or that someone's in the organization might not hold the view. Yeah. I mean I mean, and it sounds cra well, I was gonna say people would say, well, that's ridiculous, go into that. Go, you're right, it is ridiculous. That is the point.
SPEAKER_05Like this is the world in which we live. Welcome to 2019. Yeah. Yeah. Teds. And the only thing to do uh against it is to make a silly little sketch. Absolutely drinking.
SPEAKER_06You've got to you've got to go go in with the humour on it. So yeah, that's what we try to do.
SPEAKER_05And in it number one in 2019, uh, we've uh made four different Christmas films this year, and uh one of them has been about a dragon in our nativity. Should we have a look at the dragon in our nativity?
SPEAKER_00There's a dragon in my nativity. Dreadful and immense. The shepherds quake, the wise men shake, and spill the frankincense. The castle are alone, and the baby is awake, while Joe and Mary tremble. Oh, this must be some mistake. There's a dragon over Bethem. I don't know how he came. I didn't think a donkey could have borne the dragon's frame. I don't believe the senses have been called for such as him. And I'm certain that when dragon knocked, no room was at the inn. There's a dragon by the stable. I don't know why he's there. He hasn't bought a present, and he only seems to glare. He hovers over David's town.
SPEAKER_05And you can watch uh more of that. The link is in the description box, and do continue to share that video and all four of our Christmas videos around the place.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So uh we whittled it down to those ten, but uh Paul, there were some honourable mentions as well.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, absolutely. So there I mean, uh look going through this makes you realise just how much we've actually put out this year. Um so there are a number of interviews which have been well worth checking out, apart from the um the Tom Holland ones and things like that. Um so we had a great interview with Rebecca McLaughlin about her book confronting there she is on the top left there, um about her book Confronting uh Christianity, um, which has almost become, I think, like the new the new textbook for you know, these are kind of issues there.
SPEAKER_05Sam Albury, who is bottom right of that image, he he called it the uh reason for God for our our decades. Right, there you go. Reason for God was about ten years uh the Keller one, yeah. That's the Keller one. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_06There was a great one with Andrew Wilson as well, he's there on your bottom left there, so he's an Eastbourne uh local, isn't he? Um from King's Church, and he'd written the book Um uh Spirit and Sacraments, an invitation to Eukarismatic Worship. Is that right? It is, and it's a great book. Yeah, excellent stuff. So well worth the look if you've not read it. Well look check the interview out, you can find it on our YouTube channel, but also grab the book because it's great. Um you interviewed Peter Lightheart as well, didn't you? There he is in the middle at the bottom. Um remind me which that one was. On evangelism, basically.
SPEAKER_05But uh yeah, yeah, he had some great stuff to say about outreach in the church, and then Sharon Dirick's top right, uh, Am I Just My Brain? Um was her book all about neuroscience. And it was actually a book that really helped me to pray more. Uh, because she's actually talking about um there is far more to this world than just matter in motion, and and the the mystery that is around minds and consciousness and sentience, um, actually you you start to press into that and you start to realise what a weird universe we live in. Yeah, yeah. And it's not just billiard balls smashing into each other.
SPEAKER_06It's one of those interviews I watched, and you kind of look at it the title and you kind of go, this is a bit like what's this gonna be about? And you start watching it, you're like, oh, this is actually really fascinating.
SPEAKER_05Like what are our minds? But yeah, and it it it actually literally reading the book made me made me want to pray more, made me pray more. It was amazing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And then um, did you mention I know you mentioned Sam Albre had spoken about Rebecca Brooklyn, but we also spoke to Sam Albury as well. I think he was there on the bottom right. Have we got that picture of seven? There he is on the right. There he is. There he is, unusually in the middle of the frame on that picture there. If you watch the interview, you'll notice that Sam dives out of the corner of the screen most of the time.
SPEAKER_05So he was refreshingly non-image conscious.
SPEAKER_06No, absolutely, no, no. On the seven myths of singleness, and yeah, and then you have uh Alistair Roberts as well, I think. That's true. Alistair Roberts great interview. Does he do a daily YouTube video?
SPEAKER_05Oh he does, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_06So he puts a lot of content out. He is prolific, absolutely. Yeah, so it was good stuff. And so there's many things, uh you know, those some kind of honourable mentions, and then obviously we had a lot of other big things going on this year. What were the whole refurb of the building? So this very room we're sitting in, you know, was this time last year didn't exist. Yeah. Um and you know, all our interns who are working behind the scenes or sometimes in front of the cameras as well. That's right. That's all kind of happened since September time.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, I mean it's been a huge year really for us. Yeah, really big, really big. And missions as well, going on the road, um, speaking at universities and schools and churches. Uh I think of you know, like Banstad uh in South London, just going there and and having events every night from Monday night all the way through to the Sunday night uh after that. And people coming to Christ at every single event and uh just 24-7 prayer happening throughout to support it, and just yeah, some some amazing outreach happening. Uh also released a couple of different books, uh Reading Between the Lines, Volume 2, and then The Gift, which I was just told by my publisher yesterday they've sold 60,000 copies. So that's quite good, isn't it? 60,000 out there, and uh we're praying that they'll be used and read by a whole bunch of people.
SPEAKER_06I'm sure there'll be plenty of churches handing them out over the Christmas period. Yes.
SPEAKER_05Pretty sure we're handing them out. So there you go. There you go. That'll be that. Uh and we've got the 60,000. Give them away, don't give them away. Um and then uh another exciting video, and um we'll sort of finish on this, is that uh our interns have been working on a terrific uh little short film uh called 2020 Vision. Uh and uh in a second we're gonna see a little bit of a behind the scenes. It's gonna release on Wednesday evening at uh 5 p.m., I believe. And uh we'd love you to get sharing it because I think it'll really uh make people think about what is important as we face another new year. But let's have a look at the behind the scenes video.
SPEAKER_09Uh scene to be, take one.
SPEAKER_08So my name is Jamal Franklin and I'm playing Finnegan. Finnegan basically goes through the story as the same as everyone else, pretty much, and then something forces him to be more of an outsider, and through becoming an outsider, he discovers new friends and a new way of life, I guess.
SPEAKER_03I play the optometrist, and uh he is a sort of a mysterious figure who what's interesting about him, he expects Finnegan to come in. And uh he removes his glasses and Finnegan sees better than he did before. It's confusing. And it was it was about my life being different with with new lenses. Standing in line waiting to get my new lenses. I've got my new lenses now. I'll let you know afterwards hope I can see that way.
SPEAKER_09Come right up, get your lenses there, here we go.
SPEAKER_07Amazing, we're all amazing. Alright, let's let's run through that.
SPEAKER_05Let's let's go very good. For those who uh couldn't see because they're uh listening on the podcast, uh 2020 Vision is about uh it's a visual parable about uh people wearing glasses that they can't they can't get the glasses off their heads and they're constantly scrabbling around trying to get the right lenses. The lenses for the next year is what's all important that oh you don't have beige lenses, that's so last year. Oh no. Um and then it's all about this optometrist who could potentially liberate you and help you to see things properly. So yeah, yeah. Great, looking forward to that then. Fun little short film released on Wednesday at 5 pm. So be ready uh to share the life out of that. But this is our last live cast of 2019.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Sad times, sad times. Little violin. Yeah, next week we will uh release on the podcast uh a little Christmas sermon. Um but that'll that'll do us for 2019. And uh I guess the next time we might be back, it might not be till the 13th of January, actually.
SPEAKER_06Um yeah.
SPEAKER_05So I don't know what you guys are gonna do without us, but um Do you have any podcast recommendations? Like who who would you recommend people listen to in the meantime?
SPEAKER_06Uh well, you can always listen to the Unbelievable podcast. The unbelievable podcast. And be worth keeping your eyes open. That's true. Because you've got a unbelievable podcast coming out. That's true. On the tenth, it would come out as a video, I presume, as well.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah. It's gonna be released on the 10th of January. Have we talked about that at all? We haven't at all.
SPEAKER_06Do you want to quickly tell people what on earth that's all about?
SPEAKER_05On Friday, I went up to London and I debated Matt Dillahunty of the Atheist Experience. And uh people have probably seen Matt Dillahunty kind of um probably if you've ever Googled Matt Dillahunty um or searched within YouTube, probably the next word that kind of appears in the or in the auto um suggestion box is Matt Dillahunty destroys. And soon to appear in that box will be Matt Dillahunty destroys Glenn Scribbler. Glen Scrivener. Um so yeah, we had a we had a little tete. Yeah exciting stuff. Up in London on Friday, and uh I don't think I did very well, but I I think he did even worse. So praise God's hearting to know. So it's funny, I did I did a talk that morning, just before I went up to London, to a room full of older Eastbournian women. Right. And like very it was very grey haired, it was very twin set and pearl. Um, but as I was speaking to these like 100 Eastbourne women, and they they all said, Oh, we'll pray for you. And as soon as I said that, I thought, Matt Dillahunty does not stand a chance, does he? Like who's praying for him? He's got no one backing him. I've got a hundred Eastbournian women like praying for me. So uh yeah, you can tune in on the 10th of January uh to the Unbelievable uh podcast and see how I do. Yeah. Great.
SPEAKER_06It was a bit of fun. Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to seeing it, you know. I think you probably did better than you think.
SPEAKER_05So Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, no, uh definitely he he dug a pit and fell into it a number of times. So that's that's always fun to sit back and watch, isn't it? Just my mind you go, Matt. Mind there you go. And then down he goes. So yes, be be on the lookout for that. But um, yes, you'll have nothing more from us except another uh uh Christmas sermon this time next week.
SPEAKER_06Sure. But do keep, you know, uh do keep showing Christmas bits and bobs, Christmas videos out there. Yeah. Feel free to use them in your church if you've got things coming up and you've not got anything set for that yet. Do share them out on social media because you know there's good messages in there for people to see and hear. So we'd love people to terrific.
SPEAKER_05And we've still got the Christmas Crowdfunder. You can give to us at give.net slash Christmas videos, and uh we'd love uh to get your support there. Yep. Thank you so much, Paul. Thank you, Glenn. It's been good. It's been a good year. It's been a lovely year.
SPEAKER_06Here's to another one.
SPEAKER_05Here's to another one. See you next year. Take care. Bye.