CTP (S3E129) Santa’s Beard, Lawsuits, And A Seven-Foot Trump

CTP (S3E129) Santa’s Beard, Lawsuits, And A Seven-Foot Trump
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond
We trace Julian Raven’s journey from atheist entrepreneur to Christian artist, and the legal fight that followed when his seven-foot Trump portrait was rejected by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The story blends art, faith, and free speech with a call to active, principled citizenship.
• childhood in Spain and early loss shaping atheism
• entrepreneurship, addiction, and a mountain epiphany
• turn to faith and purpose as an artist
• creation of a symbolic, Christ-centered Trump portrait
• Smithsonian submission process and rejection
• claims of viewpoint discrimination and legal appeals
• Board of Regents structure and accountability
• recent leadership changes and renewed filings
• Christian civic duty, reform over rage
• website and book details for deeper reading http://SmithsonInstituion.com 
Please like, share, subscribe. https://tinyurl.com/SubscribeToCTP 

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Chapters

• 0:00 Quick Intro And Format Twist
• 1:35 Meet Julian Raven
• 3:40 From Atheism To Faith
• 10:20 Entrepreneurship And Addiction Spiral
• 13:20 Epiphany And Life Rebuild
• 19:38 Morality, Law, And Faith Debate
• 25:28 Santa, Saint Nicholas, And Childhood Wonder
• 29:48 The Trump Painting Vision
• 34:28 Campaign Journey And Smithsonian Pitch
• 38:41 Rejection And Viewpoint Discrimination
• 42:31 Lawsuits, Regents, And DC Power
• 47:01 Firings, Resignations, And New Filings
• 51:21 Christian Civic Duty And Reform

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hello, welcome to another episode of Constitutionalist Podcast. I am your host, Josephine Leonard. That's L-E-N-A-R-D at the French. It's not a little without an O. Thank you for tuning in. As Graham Norton used to say on his show. Let's get on with the show. Hello everyone. This is gonna be a quick cheat intro segment. I'm gonna be lazy. I've got so many guest recordings built up. I'm gonna get lazy and cheat on some Saturdays. I don't have to dream up a monologue topic this way. So, and I'm also not gonna say what guest will be appearing because I'm gonna be lazy and cheat and use this same intro several Saturdays to intro a guest show. So, as Graham Norton used to say, let's get on with the show. Surprise interview. Take care, cop plus. At any rate, welcome to the show, Julian. How are you?

SPEAKER_00: 1:40

Very good, Joseph. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_01: 1:42

Yeah, it's like I always say, could be better, could be worse, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:49

Well, thank God I am alive and able to give witness to that. And obviously, walk out uh in the purposes of God is always a real blessing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:58

As the saying goes, we we were we got up on the right side of the lawn today. So we did. You are here to discuss odious and Cerberus, an American immigrant's odyssey, and your free speech legal war against Smithsonian corruption, a Christian manual to bring faith and the gospel to the marketplace where it always causes a controversy, but the Christian joke, right? The proverbial first question who the heck are you? Where were you where were you born? Where were you raised? Where were where are you now? How much time and for what crime did you spend in prison?

SPEAKER_00: 2:46

That type of thing. Well, I um born in London, England.

SPEAKER_01: 2:51

Oh, well, we won't hold that against you.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

Raised in Marbas, Spain, on the southern coast near Gibraltar. From where I was raised, you could see the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. You could see the Rock of Gibraltar, very beautiful place in southern Spain.

SPEAKER_01: 3:07

Picturesque, yes, very nice. You should you should take a picture and use that as your background.

SPEAKER_00: 3:13

I had I have different I have different ones. I'm an artist, I'm a photographer, I have plenty, plenty of images. Oftentimes it's not knowing which one to use. There's so many beautiful pictures.

SPEAKER_01: 3:25

Yep. So what brought about the odious and sibrious and American immigrants' Odyssey?

SPEAKER_00: 3:35

Well, that's a journey. It's a journey of faith. And uh the story really starts, I would imagine, you know, it goes. Well, listen, when the big when we begin, right? Our journey, when we are born, we live, we go through our experiences, and by the age of 10, and I'll do this as a recap because my story is extensive. It's uh it's a wonderful odyssey. It really is. It's been an adventure. Uh, it's fraught with all sorts of trials and tribulations and giants and romances and failures and heartaches, and you know, mountaintops along with the water.

SPEAKER_01: 4:09

Well, we want to focus on your failure here.

SPEAKER_00: 4:11

But that's good. And listen, uh that's good. With the failures, is this like you know, with with without those, there the failure is our greatest teacher. And so Amen. There's nothing else, you know. This the the way God's uh process of sanctification, in my experience, in my life, has only happened through failure, through struggle and disappointment. It's not, it doesn't come through the good times. So failure is uh is my bosom body, and as a Christian, you know, we embrace the cross because it's through the cross that we receive the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ. So that's been my experience as a follower of Jesus. Now that happened my journey even to faith. I used to be an atheist. I was born my father Jewish, my mother Gentile. I was raised in this beautiful place, like I said, in southern sunny Spain. Uh, grew up atheist because my dad died when I was 10 years old, and tragically, he vanished from my life. No one could give me answers, no one could explain anything. There was no faith around the people that I knew, which is faithless, really. My mother had very, very shallow faith, it's like non-existent. Um, and so yeah, I struggled as a young man, and it just led me on a very dark path towards, you know, dark and really suicide at the end of it, frustration, just the real, just by the time I was in my teens, from the age of 18 to 22, became the darkest period of my life, spiraling in southern Spain. I became uh uh as an entrepreneur at a very young age. I left art school, had a very traumatic experience at the age of 18, which really galvanized my atheism. And then after that, I went to um into the the world of drugs and alcohol. I owned three and built and ran from the age of 18. I was I just was as an art pioneer, I I just took it upon myself to do it. I didn't know. I left school saying at the age of 16, saying I'd never work for anyone. I didn't know why. I just had the urge just to be my own boss, whatever that meant, and um built these businesses. One of them is still there today, um, now 35 uh years later, 36 years later, and um I lived a uh a very wild, hopeless life. And my my medicine to numb the pain of not knowing the answers to the great questions uh was drugs and alcohol. And it was how I was how I medicated my hopeless condition until I had an epiphany on a beautiful mountain in southern Spain, right near where I lived. I was a seeker, I always was a seeker, always trying to find the answers, always trying to take things apart. Since a young boy, I was always dismantling things, trying to understand and figure out how things worked. And so in my life, the same was the it was how I approached life. And God was obviously seeing that, and as much of an atheist as I was, and I was hardcore, militant, angry, uh, angry at anybody mentioned any sense of having faith, I would take it upon myself to go and mock them and ridicule them and just be this hostile the uh unfortunate, proverbial, anti-faithful, anti-Christian atheist.

SPEAKER_01: 7:21

Not all are that way. I often talk on the show about Penn of Penn and Teller fame, you know, the famous comedian magicians, uh a great person who doesn't hate people of faith or mock Christianity. He often says he has no problem with Moses and uh Ten Commandments and that being on our Supreme Court building in the U.S. Because whether you come at these things from a moral-based point of view or just a humanist, it's just being a good human. I have no right to steal your stuff nor your mine. I have no right to take your life nor you take mine. Whether you come at that from a faith-based or just a humanist standpoint, what's the problem with that?

SPEAKER_00: 8:21

Well, that's one of those big questions that people have, you know. I would I would take the argument further to a source and and uh actually say, well, if there is no problem with it, but people need to either come to an understanding that, you know, it's either true or it's not true. You know, and it's and this is the this is the hard part when you say when you take a real honest examination of history and you see the way the Christian faith spread throughout the world and sanitize the world, the world went from madness, went from the madness that you see in countries today that are non-Christian countries, that are, that are, that have populations that are immoral, or the madness, the uncle, it it the Christian message brings that restraint upon human behavior. And so, as you mentioned, those even the moral laws, you know, people can't find fault with them because, yeah, you know what? It's actually, I don't like it that people want to come and kill me. So I'm quite happy to have a law to protect me in that sense. Well, yeah, well, you know what, that's great. But if you want to take an evolutionistic uh view, and this is where they're such hypocrites, then you say, Well, well, I'm gonna come and kill you because it's survival of the fittest, and I'm gonna be the fittest, and yet you should be happy and celebrate that we are living out our Darwinian uh nirvana, and we're just gonna slaughter no, no, no, they want to have it right there, cake and eat it too. They want to have it both ways, and then they say, Oh, we have evolved, we have evolved evolutionary uh morality, and you're like, so what? Yeah, it never makes it absolute, it means that you can change it tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01: 9:56

It's like it's right, there's no absolute if you have no actual guiding moral code, it can change on a whim, absolutely, and uh my my audience knows I like to joke around and I can never avoid being a smart you know what. So for those viewing on the behind the scenes video looking at you, they're gonna obviously know the the smart you know what question next. How often do you get asked to portray Santa around Christmas time?

SPEAKER_00: 10:28

Well, I do, I do it in in Spain. I I was Santa last Christmas. Yeah, I have a lot of fun doing it.

SPEAKER_01: 10:35

That's a lot for the benefit of the transcript and those on the 25 plus audio platforms. Julian has a very full white beard.

SPEAKER_00: 10:46

So I did and it is it, you know, it's it's a it's an amazing experience to and it's an amazing story. Most people, you know, the the the mixed the the confusion between who Santa Claus was, you know, you have Saint The real Saint Nicholas, Nicholas, yeah, amazing life, amazing story, amazing Christian, or true fell a true follower of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01: 11:10

Yeah, the course between the German Sinterklaus and the real Saint Nicholas gives us our Santa Claus of today, which a lot of Christians get upset around Christmas time about. But if you use Santa in the right way as children get older to explain them the real Saint Nick when they're old enough to understand it, it's a good thing, not just you know, the whole Coca-Cola commercialization kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 11:44

Absolutely. I've I've seen such remarkable things happen. What what I think is is an amazing experience, what I what I have is when you when you wear the suit and you go out among, especially when you see the kids, you you see in the eyes of children, uh you see a a faith.

SPEAKER_01: 12:04

And it's obviously there they have been trained or they're believing and they see it, but they that I've had kids look at me in ways that are just like, my God, look at those eyes that are this big that are just innocent, pure, bright, and they're like staring at you like like they think there are so many people who want to poo-poo and destroy our children, sexualize them, pervert them, try to make them adults far too soon. Let our kids be kids and be innocent for a while, you know. And we as a human race, I talk about this about the Bible is a Dr. Seuss book. People get upset with me when I say that, but we as a human species are but children to God. That's right. So the Bible is a Dr. Seuss, it doesn't tell us everything, and God doesn't know owe us all the answers. Eventually, there'll be another testament when we can handle more and understand more, but for now it's Dr. Seuss, it's not war and peace. Now, this says here, let's get back to the seriousness. Like the Apostle Paul, I have been involved in a nationally important legal battle with the Smithsonian. So let's get into that. What's the background on that?

SPEAKER_00: 14:32

Well, obviously, the great chapter in the book of Acts, though, when Paul is uh he knew how to uh, you know, and as an instrument of God, he knew how to you know provoke the I can say the powers that be in that that wonderful uh clash, I believe it was at Herod, and they're trying to accuse him, and this and he starts throwing out facts about who he was, and oh, you arrested a Roman citizen, and they're like, oops, we didn't know he was a Roman, and then then he's like, Oh, yeah, but they're claiming this, and he was able to pitch the the Sadducees against the Pharisees, and he's like causing, he was a smart master of using the system, and this is the message I think to the church. One of the examples of boy, you picked on the wrong guy, that's exactly it, and and and he was able to do that, and then and then as as the as that whole sort of trial progressed, when he gets to that final great statement, he says, I appeal to Caesar. And Herod says to him, To Caesar, you will go. And that led him on that journey where then he will fulfill his calling, you know, right where he wrote from prison, you know, the book of Romans, and amazing ministry that God that the the upside down kingdom uh you know facilitates, where through the the the punishment he accomplishes the greatest work that he could have done. It's amazing. And while in chains, as he says, I'm able to do the greatest, greatest work that God has called me to do. So I've always been moved by that. Obviously, the scripture, the the stories, and you want to use I want to aspire to walk in the footsteps of our forefathers in the faith, the Christian faith, and then have an impact in the same way. And I'm I've always spent my life as a Christian seeing how God, how can I have the most impact?

SPEAKER_01: 16:26

Yeah, so how does this all involve the Smithsonian somehow?

SPEAKER_00: 16:31

Well, as an artist, it leads to a painting, a prescient, uh well, predictive or prophetic image that I painted in the summer of 2015 of then candidate Donald Trump. Um, as a New Yorker, I was very familiar with the guy, and it's a whole story, it's in the book, whole journey of how I was inspired at that early age. Most people thought I was crazy. All the believers that I knew said I'd have to hold my nose to vote for this guy and this type of thing.

SPEAKER_01: 17:01

I I was one of those people. You know, he he thankfully is a different man than he was. He was a serial adulterer, playboy. Uh, you know, he was all those things. There's no denying it, but he be, and God has a way of using bad vessels.

SPEAKER_00: 17:24

Well, that that that's the truth. Yeah, I'm not I'm not a Trump apologist, but I will I will I acknowledge, and this was my story, the hand of God on on exactly that that he picks and chooses who he wants to, and he uses who he wants to. So that whole story is was life-changing for me on the journey that it led me on as a newborn American citizen. Um, and then seeking how to be a Christian in this country that I could see had drifted so far from its founding values and ideas. It's the way that the Christian faith had impacted um society, had impacted law. And so I have always, as a as somebody who's always sought for reform, as somebody who is uh as a student, you know, obviously church history, especially in the reformation of the great moves of God that have brought reformation to the church itself, that spirit of reformation, if you bear the spirit of Christ, it's in us. We want to see our world reform. We want to see, you know, as a as in business, I've ref uh restored furniture. You want to see things restored and fixed and made right once again. So, in that spirit, my painting carries those that message. I went on the campaign.

SPEAKER_01: 18:31

Uh you you don't have the painting to show. So can you give a description of it kind of you know what what you you said it's of Trump.

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

Well in in what uh aspect or just a just a giant, it's a giant seven by fifteen foot canvas and it's a giant portrait of Trump with like a seven foot portrait. And then to what to the right of it's like uh it's like a an interpretation from a Christian perspective of seeing God working at that time in this sinner's life, which and is a remark, it's layered with symbolic imagery. Um a lot of it is Christ-centered, the composition of the painting is Christ-centered, but it's symbolic. It's all this this whether it's the the the the layer, the the outline of a lot of the image is this light that covers the entire portrait, is a picture then of obviously the providential um you know supervision of God over this whole, you know, the symbols I wove it in. The whole painting is a Christian, it's a it's an allegory in the sense of as a believer interpreting the events that are happening in front of me and seeing how this man could very much much be this instrument that facilitates.

SPEAKER_01: 19:51

Right, the the God working through the imperfect vessel and attempt at uh potential for redemption and to be far better and greater than one what was before you're right, and and and the the the the thing I think with it mostly that I that I shared a lot was that the danger, and this is the danger even we see today, and it's the danger that is that the and I when I I was into I've had a lot of coverage on this journey and this has been going on for 10 years, but the danger to the church is that people would, and I would say it every time, even I'm saying it now, is that people would sit back.

SPEAKER_00: 20:30

The church has always suffered when you know, obviously, they're either not acting when they should because of the the terrible things that are happening around us, or not acting as they should because now somebody else is doing the job. And I used to say the biggest problem that we'll have right now is that people will sit back and they'll get their popcorn out and they'll be like, oh, this guy's gonna fix everything for us.

SPEAKER_01: 20:52

And it's like it's not gonna happen, right?

SPEAKER_00: 20:55

Yeah, don't don't be deceived. There's a lot of a lot of deception. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 20:59

One one person can't, short of Christ Himself, one person can't do it all. And only thing only thing necessary, evil prevail, good peoples do nothing.

SPEAKER_00: 21:13

Nothing, right. And that's and that is that is the sentiment behind it to say to me, I saw it as an opportunity for the church to stand up and say, hey, we have an opportunity because we actually have an unbeliever who's contending, you know, even if it's on a religious level, he's contending for our ideas, you know, as even as superficial as saying, oh, Merry Christmas, and we're gonna put Merry Christmas back into Christmas. And it's like, well, yeah, these are very, very superficial approaches, but they are valid because at that level, we this our Christian faith is being maligned and attacked and undermined. And so now we have this leader that's gonna stand up and say, Well, I'm just gonna say it and I'm gonna say it too.

SPEAKER_01: 21:54

Yeah, and as a personal standpoint, uh, I I like that. The the cultural war. But at the same time, right, being a Christian, I recognize it isn't only and always about me and my stuff. So, yes, we as Christians say Merry Christmas, but I don't demand the people at Target or wherever say merry happy holidays is perfectly fine with me because I want to acknowledge my Jewish brethren and Hanukkah. I want to acknowledge, hey, New Year's Eve, the holiday is around the corner. So I around Christmas time have no problem with the happy holidays, if it's meant in the right way, it's not meant as a cultural attack of trying to eliminate Christianity. So the motivation matters.

SPEAKER_00: 22:57

That's right. And that's that's the I think the heart behind you know all of the issues that we face, because when there's the prohibition, when people are afraid to say it, they kind of lose their job to saying this type of thing or saying, look, you've got to be able to allow people to be themselves. And that and that's the thing. Now, we get into a whole other other subject there, obviously, that we can wade into there. But the point is, is that with him, even though that, like I said, these very superficial um uh uh attachments or allegiances to the Christian faith, they were sufficient to then say, well, this is an opportunity for the church to stand up and rise up and become who we should be. Because, like I said, complacency is is a curse that could that cripples Christianity. And it's happened in the in the story of Israel. You know, it's like you know, people will always get weak, we'll always get comfortable when things are going well. It's part of human nature, and that's right.

SPEAKER_01: 23:53

That's the problem with biblical community, free will. We are to want to be our brother's keeper and take care of widows and orphans. But the Bible also makes the distinction against those who are unwilling to bother to do things for themselves versus those who are unable, right? Worldly communism is a bastardization of biblical community. It's not free will, it's force. It's not choice, it's force, it's not charity of one's own blood and treasure, it's theft, force, redistribution. These things matter. Now back to the Christmas thing again. Even if you don't want to acknowledge the Christianity in Christmas, if you just go to the secular issue of can't we be more charitable to one another as humans from an atheist standpoint. What is the problem with Merry Christmas as a let's be kind to each other sentiment, right?

SPEAKER_00: 25:04

Yeah, but we know it's in the name, it's all wrapped up in the name, it's what's in the name Christ. It's what it's the power that's in that name. And that's why they fear it.

SPEAKER_01: 25:14

Yeah, that's why they fear it. That's why they don't want it uttered it.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

They don't want to utter it, they just want to curse that name. You know, it's that's a weird, very weird human condition. But yeah, that's uh so though those things are all under girding my expression as an artist in this painting. It's a lot of those issues that are woven into symbolically. So the journey is I go on this campaign on my own dime, I cross the country, I have this wonderful experience. Um and then after the election, and this is gets to the Smithsonian question, after the election, when Trump wins, I wasn't surprised because I painted this prescient image um in 2015. So it's like I knew it. Most people laughed at me, they mocked me, they ridiculed me. What are you saying? I said, Well, I'm just doing what I believe, and um here it is. And they would he couldn't process, it was always like ahead of its time because it was. So after the election and Trump wins in 2016, excuse me, then I was like, Well, what am I gonna do with this now? And uh, I was sort of bummed out for a couple of weeks. I was like, Wow, it's like this is like everything went flat, you know, the election he won. Okay, great. And I start wondering, what do I do with it? And and I ended up praying because I didn't know. I thought maybe I might sell the thing, or I just didn't know. And um, I prayed and I get the idea, oh, the Smithsonian Institution, because all across the United States, as I had shown my painting from New York to California, people had come up to me and said, that should be in the Smithsonian. That should be in the Smithsonian. I was like, Well, what's the Smithsonian? I'm I'm a newborn citizen. I didn't even I thought Smithsonian was a place of rockets and spaceships in Washington, D.C.

SPEAKER_01: 26:59

So I then began to read- Yeah, you didn't know the whole greater, broader of the other museums, right?

SPEAKER_00: 27:07

So I discovered the National Portrait Gallery, and then I discovered because my painting had been shown in LA in 2016 alongside the Obama Hope poster painting that was a very famous dope and change poster, yeah. By Shepard Ferry, and that art, but the actual the artwork was commissioned by a guy named Yossi Sergents. He was the brains and the political mind behind that image. The artist was a graffiti artist on the streets of LA who bumped into this guy, Yossi Sergent, at an art show. He paid him a hundred bucks, he said, create me this image.

SPEAKER_01: 27:45

Use communistic fascistic imagery, create dope and change to fool the people.

SPEAKER_00: 27:51

Well, that's yeah, well, no, that's their creed, and that's what they they they again, that's what they believed, and they did it. And anyway, this guy calls me up. He says, I want your painting in my show, and I showed it out in LA, it was a huge gig for me. So when I went to the Smithsonian, well, blow me down, there the Smithsonian Institution, the National Portrait Gallery, had uh shown in 2009 and 2013 the same Obama Hope poster as a tribute to in the arts to the incoming President Barack Obama. This is starting to be. So there's your argument. There it is. So I then I was very happy. I then got letters of support from New York politicians, um, you know, representatives from about 200,000 people in upstate New York. I then had letters from my mayor and the congressman and senator and all these other uh Republican folks, and then also um art collectors and a radio host. And I it was a publicly supported application. I go through the process and I get to this point where I get this call one day from the director of the National Portrait Gallery herself. Turns out to be an Australian woman and an Australian, not even an American, and that set off this 11-minute argument where this woman with a very snooty, condescending tone, began to arbitrarily object to my painting, denying it, denying it, denying it in any which way she could, even so much as saying at one point, she's like, Well, it's not from life, meaning that the painting portrait a portrait painted from life would be I sit in front of you and I paint you directly or to the canvas. Yeah, how was the dopamine change? Oh, there you go. I knew I knew that story so well that I said to her, What the the Obama Hope and Change painted, that was not painted, that was a photo, there was an uh edited photograph from the internet that was used in a 24-hour process. I knew the whole story at that point. She raises her voice, she starts yelling and screaming, and she's like, Clearly, someone who had early onset TDS. She absolutely and it went to this, it ended after all of these objections, and then it's too political, it's too this, and it's like you show a political campaign portrait of a Barack Obama two years, two elections in a row, and now you're telling me my painting is too political. It's like these are the the viewpoint discrimination. So the at the end of the call, after raising her voice and disparaging my artwork, she's like, I'm the director of the National Portrait Gallery. Your application will go no further. You can appeal it all you want. Click, and she hangs up the phone. And that was like stunning. It was like a I was I could not believe what had happened to me. And it led me on a journey of appealing through the Smithsonian Institution all the way. Well, even there. See, most people, Joseph, and and most Americans and myself before included, I knew nothing. But even today, most people, and that's why I'm doing these podcasts, wrote my book, etc., is because nobody knows what the Smithsonian Institution is.

SPEAKER_01: 30:55

They just Yeah, but before we go any further, let's mention. The book again is Odious and Cerberus, an American Immigrants Odyssey. Do you have it? There we go. For those looking at behind the scenes video, you'll be able to see he's holding up the book there. And it's actually in focus. Nine times out of ten, because you're not using the green screen. Nine times out of ten, people hold up a book. Oh, I can't get it to focus because the green screen.

SPEAKER_00: 31:25

I got a good camera. It does a good job. But the even with the green screen, so it does a good job there. But the point with the with the the story and and me sharing it is that you know what the Smithsonian Institution is, it has an amazing history. I did all the study, all the research. Excuse me. I ended up then litigating myself, self-representing against the Smithsonian Institution. And what people don't know, and I'll just give you an idea of how most people are so unaware of what the Smithsonian Institution is, is when I when she said you can appeal it all you want, after recovering, it took me like a week. I could hear in my head this taunt, you can appeal it. Because I'm like, what can I do? You can appeal it, you can appeal it now. Because she's like, you can appeal it all you want. And I then say, well, who's her boss? Who's runs the Smithsonian institution? Well, there's a board of regents, and guess who sits on the board of regents? The Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution is Chief Justice John Roberts. The vice president. Well, I'm not a fan of his, but the vice president of the United States, three members of Congress, three members of the House, I mean of the Senate, and three, and nine members of the public. So you have 17 very important people sitting on this board of regents. So I appeal to them. They kick me to the curb. I then file a federal lawsuit and I go through eight years of federal litigation against them. And to bring it, the story is in the book up until what's happened in the last six weeks. And for those who don't know may not have followed it in Washington DC, major, major things took place that affect me and have affected my story. This is now eight years. I am at my third Smithsonian lawsuit that was just filed last week. Um, this is all because of what's happened in the last month, and that is at the beginning of the second presidency, President Trump pointed his finger already at the Smithsonians, saying they need to be uh basically brought to heel because of their improper ideology. And then then on May 30th, that's May 30th, that's only a few weeks ago, he fired Kim Sayot, who was the director of the National Portrait Gallery, who's the antagonist in my book. And he says, a lot of people told me that she's highly partisan. My lawsuits had already brought that up. She was already charged as being highly partisan in my lawsuits. It's all, it's it's amazing how this has taken this long. But finally he points my my story and my painting was number four on the president's list of 17 reasons to fire Kim Say it. And so he fires her. He didn't have the legal authority to do it. The journal, the the Washington Post calls me up, you know, what do you think of this? Can he fire? I said, no, he can't fire her. But in in spirit, he could because he's the representative of the people. He's the president, but he had no legal authority to fire her. The Smithsonian goes all quiet, they pretend and try to ignore him. And then they have their private Board of Regents meeting. A week later, she resigns. So my my story is remarkable now that this one woman who is from the first chapter of the book, she's right then, page one. The chapter's called Power and Abuse, where she calls me up with this. I was abused, I was victimized by this.

SPEAKER_01: 35:26

Wait, you it's fascistic? The left, as usual, fascistic, dictatorial. They call us fascists, but they are all about absolute power. And no, me, I decide you don't get any say, right? Yeah, my way, the highway, and and all at the same time trying to peddle mobocracy. Uh they're not about democracy, they're all about whatever gets them power and control, the Lord over everyone else.

SPEAKER_00: 36:02

Well, I see I've seen that on both sides. I mean, I see it on both sides.

SPEAKER_01: 36:06

Oh, there's rhinos and xinos too. I got I don't wear the Republican hat all the time, although I consider myself a Republican.

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

I'm in a political wilderness. I left the I left it all behind as like, you know, I got very because again, my goal is Christ. My goal is at the heart of what I'm doing is constitutionalism here, yes. My goal is and to use the liberties and the law. This is again going back to the apostle Paul. Paul, the model that he gave us in that whole experience is that he used the legal citizenship he had as a Roman. He used all of these legal uh tools that he had to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ. He used it in the system, he didn't shy away from the system, he didn't try to tear the system down, he didn't try to do this or that. He said, I'm a citizen, I'm a Roman citizen, I can appeal this all the way up to Caesar. I'm gonna appeal this to Caesar, I'm gonna make my case before Caesar because I'm gonna use it as an opportunity to present the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. And at the heart of what I'm doing, it's in my book. The gospel is woven in through my book. It's a book for the unbeliever as much as it is an inspirational book for the believer. But it's written in such a way that it brings people to a faith understanding, my faith as I express it, my journey, my experience, understanding the voice of God. How do we listen to the voice of God? Does God speak to us? Whether it is, whether I mean I it's a whole story, a multiple levels that instructs people about the ideas that we as Christians hold dear. That's what's at the heart of what I do, because my primary calling is as a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is who I am. So that at the end of it, you know, with now with politics and this whole thing, this to me, my story where I am right now on this third lawsuit. See, even a lot of Christians, there was another, believe it or not, there's another Christian, a missionary, 1970s. He sued the Smithsonian himself. He's one of the few lawsuits against the Smithsonian. One of the other ones was by this Christian. He didn't get anywhere with it because his argument was basically he was you stand on the shoulders of who came before you. And everybody is pitching their little bit in there. And so at the end of the day, the point is that as God is using this story and he's using this journey and this testimony right now, I get to share my faith. I get to share that this is God at work. God is using us. And for the Christian, many times, and as you'll know this, Christians, even your position, however it is involving the Christian faith in the political, is like America is a place where our Christianity can be expressed freely, can be expressed. Supposed to be. Yeah. It can be expressed legislatively in the sense of its principles, not as religion, but as ideas. You know, thou shalt not murder is a good idea, right? Well, it's a law too in this country. Well, you know what? They didn't just make it up out of thin air, they got it from somewhere, as we discussed at the beginning. So our our mission as believers in this country, see, the American decay, when we look at the and I and I come from Europe, so I know about decay. I've seen England decay, I've seen England completely lose its Christian heritage, virtually, other than having buildings there that still witness and a very small church, a powerless church. Spain is the same. But when you look at the American decay and you say, well, what responsibility does the Church of Jesus Christ bear in America? And I I, as someone who has been a revivalist, I lay the responsibility at the feet mainly of the pulpit, because the pulpit is where the truth either comes from or is perverted. Where preachers have, because of the prosperity and the good life that America has offered people, human beings, as we said at the beginning, the weakness of humans is just to get accustomed to the comfort and the ease in Zion, basically, and who were asleep in Zion. And we got all this stuff and all of our toys and all of the dinky things and all of the stuff, and then all of this and all the garbage that's coming off from the pulpit, and as they they've used the freedoms and the abundance and the wealth of this country to build up their kingdoms and themselves, and then they don't want the gospel so much. So we well, two things.

SPEAKER_01: 40:29

Time flies, like with all guests, we could talk hours, and then no one would watch because it'd be too long. But you mentioned the the thou shalt not kill. It's really thou shalt not murder innocence, and Exodus 22, 2 alone, as well as other scriptures, are the basis for self-defense and other laws. Sometimes a killing is justifiable, not a murder. So do you have a website people can go to?

SPEAKER_00: 41:03

It's called Smithson Institution. James Smithson was the Englishman who founded the Smithsonian Institution. And my website is Smithson, like Smith Smithson. Yes. It's Smithson Institution. The the official name for the Smithsonian Institution is Smithsonian or SI.edu. Mine is Smithson Institution.com. And there you can find out the story. There you can see the history and a lot of the documents, the litigation, the image, the ongoing story. It's a fascinating journey. And it's to inspire believers to say if we do not stand up and speak when we can.

SPEAKER_01: 41:47

You can't just sit idly by on the sidelines. The Bible would right, you must sow to reap, or you're complicit in the rotten fruit we're all trying to choke down. You shall be known by your fruits. Not you get on your knees, but yes, you must then also get off your knees, get off your hindsight, but just go out and do things. Yeah, put on your shoes, your coat, get out and do things. No, you can't rest. No, you can't sit idly by. Only thing necessary, evil prevails. Good people do nothing. No, you can't rest. No, oh, let him do it. No, him or her needs our help.

SPEAKER_00: 42:35

That's exactly it. And that's why, as an individual, self-representing, I have no means other than my faith really in God, my family, have a wonderful wife and children, very supportive of what I do. But as an individual, as a citizen, it shows the power that God has given to American citizens to do what I'm doing, what I've been doing. My appeal has gone all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States. I've walked those steps myself as a newborn American citizen, remarkable on my journey. And so the encouragement to the church, you know, whether it's potholes in your street, whether it's potholes, whether it's drug addicts on the corner, there are so many needs that the gospel is the remedy to. And if it's not the gospel, it's the principles of scripture that just applied in the right context, in the spirit of Christ, in the spirit of Christian love, but without compromise in the spirit of Christian courage, without compromise, we show love, but we show commitment and integrity. Those things in this world today are the brightest light because it's so dark because of the corruption in which we find ourselves today. So the exhortation to the Christian is that.

SPEAKER_01: 43:48

We humans screwed that up, right? It's like a hundred different Bibles, a hundred different denominations of supposed Christianity as supposed followers of Christ. That's why I say this Christitutional show is not Catholic or Protestant or Baptist or Lutheran or whatever, right? Jesus never said, go forth and create a hundred churches in my name. We screwed that up. Thank you, Julian Raven, for coming by. I can't promise when this will air, but when it does, of course, I will reach out, let you know, so you can share on social media and all that stuff. Thank you, Julian Raven.

SPEAKER_00: 44:32

God bless you, Joseph. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 44:35

In discussion with someone during books authors weeks, I mentioned I had not been out of the state of Michigan since 2006. Well, I remember now that's not completely accurate. And it's not about me, it's about the show's credibility, about dealing in facts and being honest. So, yes, during the Wuhan hysteria, and while Wretched Whittler still had the state of Michigan locked down, Governor DeWine of Ohio unlocked his state. Should have never locked it down, but unlocked his state early, and I on a nice day, chance to get out of the house, chance to get out of the stage, even though I don't like putting the extra miles on the car. I need it to last. It's got a lot of miles on it. But again, it's not about me. This is about the credibility of the show, facts, and honesty. Right? So I drove down to Toledo, ate, even though I couldn't afford to burn the gas, bought, you know, just got Burger King there rather than Burger King here or whatever, McDonald's, whatever it was. I don't remember, not important, and went to a movie to support the theater. Not in Toledo, actually, outside of Toledo. Uh, I forget the chain name. I forget the movie, not important. It was something I wanted to see, so it wasn't like I drove there to then pick a random movie they had going, uh hence the need for the correction to maintain the credibility here, not you know, I know you know what I mean, right? So anyway, end segment one recorded early, head into segment two that will be recorded later on a topic PBD, right? To be determined yet. Thank you all. Take care, God bless, love you all, and don't go away. Here we go into the actual substance of what this episode is supposed to be about. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist politics podcast and care episodes. We need your help. Thank you for having tuned into another Christitutionalist podcast show. I really appreciate that you stop by. Again, please like, share, subscribe. We need you to help spread the constitutionalist movement. Thank you again. Take care. God bless. Love you all.

SPEAKER_02: 47:54

God shares his message every day and night. Please be freedom and make it a toys. Share this message over all the earth. Sound strong and God bless you.