MTM- Dr. Jackson and Hannah discuss (Pig Tales And Bible Truths)

A pair of eaten pants turns into a spiritual gut check. Dr. Robert Jackson sits down with his daughter, Hannah Miller, to introduce his newest book, The Family Doctor Speaks, Pig Tails, and Bible Truths, a collection of short pig farm stories that lead straight into clear Bible teaching. It starts light and funny, then quickly becomes personal: when you’re around something long enough, you can stop noticing the stink.

We dig into the first chapter, “Accustomed to Sin,” and talk about how easily Christians can get used to darkness in our homes, our screens, and our conversations. Dad shares a story about a pastor who refuses to “get accustomed to the dark,” plus a vivid memory from early medical exposure that shows how quickly the human mind adapts. The practical takeaway is simple and searchable for everyday Christian living: ask, “Can I look at this with Jesus? Can I read this with Jesus? Can I talk about this with Jesus?” If not, we should treat it like pig poop and back away before it stains us for years.

The conversation also turns toward legacy. We explain why we write books and record teachings now, so children and grandchildren can know our testimony later. We touch on Dad’s other books on pro-life truth, evangelism, hunting stories with biblical lessons, and a family biography, plus future plans to address modern bioethics issues like organ transplant, medical assistance in dying, and IVF. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a wake-up call, and leave a review so more listeners can find More Than Medicine.

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Welcome To More Than Medicine

SPEAKER_03 0:03

Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician Dr. Robert Jackson and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up because the doctor is dead.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm privileged today to have in the studio with me my lovely daughter, Miss Hannah Miller, who's going to help me with the podcast today. Miss Hannah, welcome to More Than Medicine.

SPEAKER_06 0:44

Dad, it's always a pleasure. I always love coming on and doing the podcast with you, so thanks for inviting me this week.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Well, I am glad to have you, Miss Hannah, and I'm going to ask you to help me with the podcast today because I've got a special thing that I want us to accomplish today. And I'm going to ask you to interview me today.

SPEAKER_06 1:08

That's right, because you, from what I hear, the word on the street, is that you have a new book that you've published, correct?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

That's correct. I've got a brand new book, and I want you to help me

Introducing The New Book

SPEAKER_01 1:20

as we introduce the book today.

SPEAKER_06 1:22

So let's just jump right in. What is the book titled?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Well, the book is The Family Doctor Speaks, Pig Tails, and Bible Truths.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Well, that's a that is a title for sure. What's uh what's this book about?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Well, Miss Hannah, when I was a kid, a teenager, I worked three summers on my uncle's pig farm. I had, let's see, one, two, three of my uncles had pig farms. In fact, one of my uncles had the largest pig farm in the southeast. He had 4,000 pigs on the lot, and every other Friday he sold 200 pigs to the market. And one day my dad woke me up and said, Son, uh, tomorrow you're going to work for your uncle on the pig farm. There was no discussion, there was no debate. And the next day I was up at 7:30, and at 8 o'clock I was standing at my uncle's pig farm ready to go to work. And I did that for the next three summers. And it was a great experience for me. I learned a lot working at the pig farm. And uh so I decided I would write a book about my experiences. I met a lot of interesting people. I had a lot of interesting experiences. And of course, when I write my books, my my forte is Bible teaching. So I immediately segued all of the experiences I had on the pig farm into uh a Bible teaching opportunity. So this book has 18 or 19 chapters.

SPEAKER_06 3:11

But it's not overly long. You say 18 or 19, it's actually the probably one of the smallest books or the smallest book, shortest book that you've published.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, it's only got about 158 uh let's see, 138 pages.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:24

Um but so the stories are short, the Bible teaching is short, but I think

Three Summers On A Pig Farm

SPEAKER_01 3:30

it's impactful. And uh some of the stories are are very humorous, some of them are very uh serious, um, but I think people will enjoy the experiences, the humor. They'll enjoy some of the serious stories. Uh but the Bible teaching is is good Bible teaching.

SPEAKER_05 3:48

Well, can you give us an example? G give your listeners an example of from your book.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Um well let's just go through the through the first first chapter. I think the first chapter is a good story, and it's entitled Accustomed to Sin. And it tells about my very first day on the on the job at the pig farm. And I arrived early, and uh my uncle introduced me to a uh a very big, very strong black man named Duke. And um Duke had worked for my uncle for a lot of years, and um he explained to me my responsibilities, and in fact, my job the first summer that I was there mostly consisted of pushing pig poop with a big three-foot-wide squeegee uh and then spraying the floors down with a uh high pressure hose. And I I was very, very excited about my responsibilities and and I questioned the wisdom of my five dollar a day paycheck. And uh, but anyway, I I um got out of my street clothes and put on my overalls and went to work, and I came back at lunch and I was gonna change out of my my filthy pig poop covered overalls and put on my street clothes, and I was gonna drive home and eat lunch with my mom, who's only five miles away. And I asked Duke, I said, Duke, have you seen my street clothes? And he said, Where'd you put them? And I said, I hung them right over this this fence or in this first stall. And he immediately slapped his thigh and threw his head back and guffawed. And I said, Why are you laughing? He said, Bo, don't you know the pig eat anything? And uh and I immediately realized that those little 40-pound porkers in the first pig pen could easily reach up and grab my pants. And in fact, they had, and they had eaten my pants and my belt and my wallet.

SPEAKER_06 5:57

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Well, Duke immediately walked around behind the pig parlor and uh and he s did a little squat and a duck walk, and he stuck his hand down into a a little cement sluice way that was behind the the pig parlor where all the pig poop went, and I I immediately got nauseated watching him with his hand down in the pig poop, and he just kind of walked down about forty, fifty yards, and immediately his hand came up with my belt, mostly chewed. A little bit further he came up with my wallet, mostly chewed, but he never did find my pants. The pigs had completely eaten my pants. Well, what what got me though was how easily Duke would put his hands down in the poop in that little sluice way behind the the pig parlor. It didn't bother him at all because he'd worked there for, I don't know, ten years or so that they'd own the pig parlor. And you see, he was accustomed to the porcine excrement. Didn't bother him at all. But it made me queasy just watching him do that on my first day of the job. Well, it it made me think immediately of how easily people become accustomed to sin. He reminded me of a preacher friend of mine. He went into a restaurant here in Spartanburg where we live, and he went and sat down with his wife, and he was about eighty years old. And he asked the uh waiter, he said, Can you turn the lights up? It's mighty dark in here. And the waiter looked at him and said, Sir, you'll get accustomed to it in just a few moments. Well, that pastor immediately stood up, grabbed his wife's arm, and

When The Pigs Eat Your Pants

SPEAKER_01 7:50

they started to leave. And the waiter was distressed, and he said, Sir, sir, is there something wrong? And he looked at him and he said, Sir, I never want to get accustomed to the dark. And they left. Well, you see, we as Christian folks often get accustomed to the darkness around us. We often get accustomed to the sin around us. We become accustomed to a lot of things around us that we should not become accustomed to. And, you know, I'm I hate to say it, but there are a lot of things in our culture that we shouldn't allow ourselves to become accustomed to. Um you know, I think about um the first C-section that I ever saw. I remember when I was in high school that my father used to take me to the emergency room. My dad was a family doctor, and way back in the 1970s, he could get away with taking me to the hospital with him. You know, and he would let me go to the emergency room and watch him sew up uh wounds from the knife and gun club uh in our rural country hospital emergency room. Well, one day the uh surgeon in our hometown uh was preparing to to perform a C-section, and he and the surgeon looked at me and said, Hey, you want to see a C-section? Well, I knew I was gonna go to medical school one day, and I was an aspiring young doctor even as a teenager, and I looked at the surgeon and I said, Man, yeah. So they put a gown on me and a and a head knit and a face mask, and they've had me stand against the wall in the operating room upstairs, and I watched as that surgeon very deftly took a number 10 Bard Parker scalpel, and he sliced that woman's abdomen from her sternum to her pubic bone in one long slice. And I mean blood went everywhere, and then he sliced her again all the way through her uterus, and he grabbed that little baby by his hind leg and pulled him out of that woman's uterus, and amniotic fluid and blood went everywhere. Well, as you can imagine, all I saw was darkness. I mean, I just passed out and I went on my knees and I hit the floor. And as I was going down, I heard the surgeon laughing. He knew what was gonna happen to me. Well, it only took about 30 seconds, and I overcame my nausea, and I stood up and I asked him if I could come stand at the table and watch him sew up her uterus and her abdomen. I mean, I just had to see everything. And I I got accustomed very quickly to the blood and gore because I wanted to go to medical school and I just had to see everything. And I was accustomed in a snap to what just a few moments ago had me on my knees and almost passing out. Well, you see, we as as faux as people, we get accustomed to things that we shouldn't be seeing. Things on the internet, things in the movies, things in books, and next thing you know, we get accustomed to to sin. And here's the test. We should ask ourselves all the time, can I look at this with Jesus? Can I read this with Jesus? Can I talk about this with Jesus? And you see what I mean by becoming accustomed? And I often say to my own self, and I ask my own self, is this something that I can do with Jesus in attendance? And if I can't, then it probably smells to high heavens. Literally. And I should say to myself, Oh my goodness, it's pig poop. Don't touch it. You won't get the stink off for days. And believe me, I know I've been there and I've done that. We should avoid sin just as much as we avoid pig poop. Sin will stain you and make you stink, sometimes for years. And you know what I'm talking about. Here's my advice, don't touch it, because you won't get the stain or the stink off for years. And the last thing you want to do is to get accustomed. So anyway, that's my first chapter, and it's entitled Accustom to Sin. And I've got a whole host of other chapters that are stories from the pig parlor, as we called it. And they're just stories of me working on the pig farm and adventures that we had and people that I met and things that I had to do on the pig farm and the Bible teaching that flows out of all of those experiences.

SPEAKER_06 13:15

So who actually would you recommend this book for? Like what ages? And I'm kind of thinking of uh specifically ages, because would you say high schoolers would be could read this? Could middle schoolers how young um would you say it's I think high schoolers and above would be would profit from because I just think some of the stories that you've we've I've heard you tell over the years and the principles that you've kind of pulled from them over the years and

Getting Accustomed To Sin

SPEAKER_06 13:40

and knowing what you've written in the book, it just seems like that could I could really see that capturing a a high school boy's attention.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Any high schooler and above, I think, would enjoy this book. And there's a lot of principles in there that would stick with them. Yeah, they're gonna be able to do that. And the stories would fascinate a high school kid.

SPEAKER_06 13:59

Yeah, yeah, that's that's exactly why I was I wanted to ask that because I thought the same thing. Um so why do you write these books? Because you've written a number of books. Um, which which number is this? You've got your This is number five. Number five? Okay, that's what I thought of. Number five. You mean even hard at work.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

And I got a lot more books left in me.

SPEAKER_06 14:18

Yeah. We were talking about another one already over dinner.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yep, yep, yep. I want to revise my first book. My first book was my pro-life book, The Family Doctor Speaks, The Truth About Life, and I want to revise that and I want to add chapters to it.

SPEAKER_06 14:33

Okay. So are you going to revise it or are you just going to do a part two?

SPEAKER_01 14:37

I think I'm going to do a part two.

SPEAKER_06 14:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Because I want to write about other pro-life issues that are current today, like organ transplant and like medical assistance in dying and in vitro fertilization. There are a lot of pro-life issues that people need to know the truth about those issues. And I didn't touch on those in the first book, uh, but I've been studying about those issues, and I want to write about those issues for my listeners and my friends and family.

SPEAKER_06 15:10

Yeah. Okay, so well, back to my I got I sidetracked you um with asking you how many or uh books you've written, but why do you why do you write these books?

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Well, there's there's a couple of reasons. Number one, I want to expand my teaching audience. You know, I I have a third grade Sunday school class, which I love, um, and then I have this podcast, and these are ways that I reach a larger audience for teaching the Bible. And as my audience has heard me say many times, Bible teaching is my forte. That's what I love to do. I love family medicine and I love Bible teaching, and those are the two things that I reveil in the most. And writing books is another way that I expand my Bible teaching uh audience. And so I write I write these books to reach a larger audience, but I also write it because I want to be able to reach my posterity. You know, I don't know anything about my great-grandfather, and most people don't. And I realize that my great-grandchildren probably won't know anything about me. And so I'm writing these books for my great-grandchildren, and I I I remember very clearly that my wife and I took a weekend retreat, and I was sitting by Lake Hartwell with my wife, and I was reading in Psalms chapter 91, and twice that chapter the psalmist says, Lord, establish the work of my hands. So I was just meditating on that scripture, and I was asking the Lord, I said, Lord, how how do I establish the work of my hands? How do you establish the work of my hands? And in a flash it came to me that God establishes the work of my hands, number one, through the people that I lead to the Lord. Number two, through the men that I disciple, number three, through the children that I bear. Number four, through the money that I invest in the kingdom of God, and number five, through the things that I write. Well, at that time I had not written a book, never written a book at all. But I had a friend in my life who kept saying to me, Dr. Jackson, you need to write a book. And that very day I made a commitment to write a pro-life book, because that was what that person was saying to me. You need to write a pro-life book. And I came home from that weekend, I sat down and I wrote the first five chapters of my pro-life book in a single weekend. I did. And then over the next three months, I finished that book. And so that pro-life book was written pretty much in my mind that weekend, as God spoke to me and said, You establish the work of your hands by the things that you write. And I'm saying that to my listeners. Many of you will have children and grandchildren who will not know you well. And you need to sit down and write your testimony, your Christian life story, and the major events of your life. Either speak it into an audio tape, like my wife's daddy did, or into a videotape, or you need to sit down and write it so that your children will know something about you and your Christian testimony. It's important. They want to know who you are. And so, anyway, that's why I write my books to expand my audience, like the prayer of Jabez. You remember Jabez prayed and said, Lord, expand my borders. Well, I'm expanding my borders when I write my books. And I also do it to for my grandchildren.

Who The Book Is For

SPEAKER_06 18:55

Yeah. Well, what are your other books about? You said you've written five. You for your first one was your pro-life book. This latest one was uh Pigtails and Bible Truths. What are your books?

SPEAKER_01 19:04

My second book was The Family Doctor Speaks, the truth about seed planning. And it's about evangelism. And it's lots of stories of me sharing the gospel with my patients when I was learning how to share the gospel in college and on the mission field. And it's equipping believers for evangelism, is what the subtitle is. My third book was The Family Doctor Speaks, Turkey Tales, and Bible Truths. And that's a book about deer hunting and turkey hunting, but all of those stories are just a way for me to tell teach Bible truths. And then the uh fourth book was my dad's biography. My dad was a family doctor like myself, and uh, or I'm a family doctor like he was, and uh he was a Vietnam veteran and uh a social activist, and uh so I like telling the story of his life and his adventures, and he was a God-fearing Christian man, and so there's a lot of very interesting stories about his life, and uh so those were the first four books, and then the the Pig Tales and Bible Truths book that I just published is my fifth book, and I'm already working on the next book.

SPEAKER_06 20:21

I remember um when I I you know I used to do the radio, and we started doing the podcast as a part of the radio we were recording, and and they were running shows on the weekend, and and they had this slot on the weekend that was a 30-minute slot, and I said, Dad, you really need to do this, take this slot on the weekends. They got it available and and we kind of went back and forth about it, and I said, You could record it as a podcast

Why We Write For Legacy

SPEAKER_06 20:45

at the same time as you do the live radio, and and I remember just telling you if for no other reason than your children and your grandchildren would have it um after you're gone because we don't live forever. And the things that we, you know, we're in the digital age now, so we can record things digitally, but the things that we put down in words um and and store that that's what our children and our grandchildren will have. You just had your 22nd grandchild literally last week, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Last Friday.

SPEAKER_06 21:17

And and I don't, you know, I don't I don't mean to be offensive, but you're and you're older now. And how how long is how much of life is your 20 second grandchild that was just born gonna be able to have with you and experience with you and hopefully another 20 years. But who knows? And so and even if they're able to, their children are certainly not going to have much experience with you. And so being able to have these things to pass down, and I'll and I'll tell you the the the pro life book, the book about your dad, um stories and things that people I never met but are special to me because I mean I've never met your dad. He died before I was born, before you and mom were married. Um, but having his story written down has been, I can't tell you how valuable that is to me. And so if you're if you're sitting out there and you're listening and you're thinking about your children and your grandchildren, you're thinking about your life experiences and what God has taught you in your life, write those things down. Maybe you don't publish them through a publisher, but you put them somewhere for your children to be able to share with their children and their children's children. Um and because the things that God teaches us and our personal stories, they they do have an impact on, I think especially our children because of just how God has created us as human beings. Um so I'm very thankful that you've done that, that you've done this podcast because you do, you do by, you know, what is it? Uh what is your Wednesday?

SPEAKER_01 22:52

You call it um devotion to the devotion to the Dr. Papa.

SPEAKER_06 22:54

Yeah, and and I I think about my kids every time I hear one of those and how amazing it is that they get to hear Papa's lessons and his Bible lessons and him teaching, even God forbid, you know, you after you're gone that we'll have

Other Books And Where To Buy

SPEAKER_06 23:10

those things. So where can your listeners get your books?

SPEAKER_01 23:14

All right. My first book was published with Salem or Zulon Publishing, which is Division of Salem, um, and they can get those from Amazon or directly from Salem, uh Zulon Publishing. The last four books are available uh from Amazon, or they can go to Courier Publishing, that's published by the Baptist Courier here in South Carolina. Uh they can always go to our website, uh Jackson Family Ministry, let us know you want a copy of the book, and we can always mail you one from our little stash that we keep here at the house, and we'll sign it for you and send it to you in the mail. Uh the quickest way is from Amazon and uh or for the last four books, uh courier publishing. And we'd love for you to get a copy and uh maybe get some for Christmas for some of your friends and and uh and I think your friends and family would uh like some of these books that that we've published over time. All right, I think our time is running out, Miss Hannah. And um anyway, I I appreciate our listeners listening in as we talk about pigtails and bible truths. And if y'all pray for us, we'll have another book for you probably within the year. And uh, Dad.

SPEAKER_06 24:35

Well, it's always a pleasure coming on. Thanks so much. I enjoyed having a conversation with you and hearing even more about your latest book.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

All right, thank you, ma'am. Thank you all for listening. We'll be back again next week. Until then, remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you. And until next week, may the Lord bless you real good.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine.

Closing Blessing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 25:00

For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at Jackson Family Ministry dot com.