ChristiTutionalist Politics | Christian Perspectives on Constitutional Issues

CTP (S3EJanSpecial8) Seven Kids, One Mission

• Joseph M. Lenard | Christian Activist & Author in Politics • Season 3

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CTP (S3EJanSpecial8) Seven Kids, One Mission
Exploring more of the fascinating intersection of Activism, Community Engagement, Faith / Religion, Human Nature, Politics, Social Issues, and beyond   
We explore what it takes to raise a blended family of seven while staying grounded in faith, setting boundaries without control, and choosing community over me-first living. Steve shares moves, struggles, and practical rhythms that turn chaos into peace.
• why a big blended family rooted in faith
• moving from St. Louis to Corpus Christi
• healing after addiction and divorce
• logistics of seven kids and shared life
• finances, provision, and trust in God
• parenting without tying peace to outcomes
• college, politics, and loving across differences
• church growth after the pandemic and belonging
• compassion, boundaries, and love from afar
• how to connect with WalkRight Ministries
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CTP Videos: https://tinyurl.com/JLDonBITCHUTE 
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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, welcome to another episode of Pristitutionalist Podcast. I am your host, Joseph M. Leonard. That's L-E-N-A-R-D. It looks French. It's not 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, everybody. I just wanted to let you know this brief intro. I'm gonna double up two a week for the rest of January. Uh they get caught up on a few interviews I've recorded lately. They're kind of piling up. They're going a little too far in the future. I don't want to keep people waiting that long. So for the rest of January, I'll do two during the week rather than one midweek drop on Wednesday. So Tuesday and Thursday, the rest of January. Anyway, let's let's get some guests on, as Graham Norton currently says, and I'm borrowing. Joining me today is Steve Rottermond. And as I when I reached out to him, I said to him, Wow, all I needed to see was devoted father of seven. That was enough for me. Gotta have this guy. I have a sister. Uh my mother was an only child. My father was one of three kids. So further back, yeah, in in the wood pile, bigger families at one time on the Sylvania Italian side, there was 12 siblings. So, but that ain't the norm these days. So, but before we get into that, let's do the, you know, let's back this garbage truck up, right?

unknown:

Beep, beep.

SPEAKER_00:

The usual nitty grit. Where were you born and raised? Where are you now? Some significant places you may have been between, that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. And you're always an interesting person. I started listening to the podcast and now I'm actually hooked. So uh thanks for having me on. Uh, just love your charisma and your your personality. But I was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri.

SPEAKER_00:

And oh, the state of misery. I mean Missouri. Yeah, never passed the lame pond. Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02:

No, uh, I was born and raised there most of my life. Uh when I was in um my late 20s, I ended up moving to Columbus, Ohio. Uh, business took me that way, so still stayed in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_00:

And then not far from me up in Detroit. Yeah, been to Columbus a few times.

SPEAKER_02:

Anyway, I interrupted again. No, no. And uh a bunch of life happened uh in Columbus, Ohio. Uh walked through the pits of hell, and then I uh I'm now currently living a peaceful life in Corpus Christi, Texas. So I am a beach nut, always been a beach nut. And uh, you know, I always wanted to be uh in the beach. I thought it would be Florida, but God sent me to Corpus Christi. So here we are today.

SPEAKER_00:

Are you a surfer? Surfs up dude? Are you do I look like a surfer for those viewing behind the scenes video versus audio only or reading in the transcript? Yeah, no, he doesn't look like the atypical like from point break uh movie surfer dude. He like me has got the hairdo or lack thereof up top going on there. Mine came out due to cancer, and you know, I'm saving a ton on shampoo and conditioner. I bet you are too, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I love it. It's so easy to maintain. Didn't know why I didn't shave it sooner, but uh no, I'm uh I just I love the beach, I just love the ocean. It's just uh a place where um I just I'm at peace and I quite honestly, I'm getting older, I can't do cold anymore. I just can't do it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh I'm in born and raised in the Detroit area, and while I hate the cold, especially now I'm on disability with a myriad of health issues. I don't do well in the cold, but you know, born and raised here, family, friends, everything. I uh choose to stay. I prefer living in Vegas, though people don't understand that desert gets really cold at night, too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so yeah, the the the oh what was it? Oh, I'm the lane pond thing, right? Yeah, life's a beach, right? It is it can either be a beach or a bitch, right? I can understand wanting to choose the beach instead, but anyway, yeah, seven kids. Let's just just jump right in on that.

SPEAKER_02:

Sure, you know, and I'll start off by saying I I'm I am a blended family. Um, but I've always wanted a big family.

SPEAKER_00:

My dream was always to have so not all are biologically yours. By blended, you mean, yes.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, so I've I I had uh two boys, and then I had a third boy when I was 40 years old. And um I went through, like I said, I went through some issues. If you want to talk about those, I got it ended up getting a divorce. Uh my my ex-wife was an addict, and um I had codependencies, so it was just 13 years of just chaos there. But uh, when I got healed and uh started dating again, and I you know I wanted to find somebody that loved kids as well. And Sarah, my my wife now, um, she had two boys and a girl. So uh when our kids all were just getting along wonderfully when we were dating, it was like he was just meant to be, and we just had laughter. Kids were like best friends when we went on vacation.

SPEAKER_00:

That reminds me of the movie with Sandler and Drew Barrymore blended, right? Yeah, exactly. And just the way my OCD brain works. You mentioned your wife's name now is Sarah. So now the rest of the day I'm gonna have hollow notes, Sarah, smile, smile away, Sarah, in my head.

SPEAKER_02:

It's funny, I play that for her all the time. So um, but you know, we couldn't go around having the Brady Bunch, you know, I'm dating myself. Couldn't go around having the Brady Brady Bunch jokes. So we wanted a child together, so we had one child together, seven's a perfect number. Now people can't say, Oh, well, you're the Brady Bunch. No, because now we have seven kids, not six.

SPEAKER_00:

Seven sometimes speaking of Vegas, seven isn't always a good number, right? But yeah, it's a whole other show.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, sometimes with kids it isn't either, but here we are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, oh, I I think back again in the in the family on mom's side, 12 kids, and it used to be then uh, you know, the the houses structurally were fairly big, but the rooms inside were generally small, and two bathrooms at most with 12 kids. It's like, oh my god, talk about trying to herd cats when you're trying to get everybody ready to go somewhere, yes?

SPEAKER_02:

Yes, uh, sometimes two cars to go places.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, you know, you need your own bus, the heck with the minivan. You need literally a bus.

SPEAKER_02:

Building rooms in the basement and then saying the heck with this and just putting up blankets and cornering it off. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Speaking of being dated, right? Partridge family, right? You need a partridge family bus. You need a Rottermund bus.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. When we went on vacation, we'd rent the van. We were one of those people that had the church van on vacation. And uh, but you know what? It's all uh it was a great part of my life. It was it was great. Now, my youngest now is seven, he still lives at home. Uh, and then my 15-year-old uh lives at home, a 17-year-old lives at home, and my 20-year-old daughter's getting ready to uh move out, in fact, this weekend. So, yeah, we're slowly getting rid of them.

SPEAKER_00:

Um but you know You mean that in a loving, compassionate fashion, right?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, but Sundays are our big thing, Sundays are our family day, some days are meal days, and you know, the hope is the kids stay around here and end up wanting to just have grandkids here, and every weekend is just nothing but just family time.

SPEAKER_00:

You want the emptiness in one way, and on the other way, you want to keep them, you you want them to find their own way in life, but not lose touch and and root in the family, right? And and so the obvious question is the dictotomy of the age range you're dealing with. Uh I gotta ask about that.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so my oldest is 28, and then my second oldest is 26, or yeah, 26, and then her oldest is 21, and he's in uh the air force, and then her daughter's uh no, he's 22, and then her daughter's 20. Uh and then her son is 17, my son's 15, and then the son we had together seven.

SPEAKER_00:

So the other thing I gotta ask, yeah, did did you hit the mega millions, or did you tell them all, if you're going to college, you're on your own, you're paying for it yourself.

SPEAKER_02:

They're all on their own. And uh, you know, they're doing okay. Uh but you know, we're well, like, you know, the phone bill was like a mortgage payment. You know, they all have to have iPhones, they all have iPads, you know, and thank God the school hands out laptops these days, or we'd be we where you I'd have a tent behind me living in in a tent. But um, you know, it's still God provides. God provides. I mean, you know, going through the ups and downs of the economy and and transitioning through presidencies, you know, we were able to just always provide and be provided for. Yeah. I'm not rich by any means, but I'm rich with just the love of a family.

SPEAKER_00:

So on the inside, yeah. Yeah, you're not rich in bank account, but your life is very rich. And full disclosure, I was married, still wear my ring, divorce. My ex-wife and I never did get around to having kids. I always thought to have kids, uh, but it just never happened. But as a Christian show, I do say, you know, back 2,000 years ago when there weren't as many people on the planet, the self-perpetuation of the species meant a little more. Today, if that's the only thought of a meaning to life is hopping out kids, then I'm sorry, I I I think uh then there's no real meaning to life. With or without kids, there's gotta be more. Uh right.

SPEAKER_02:

There there's way more. I mean, uh you know, I I'm a full believer we're meant to be love and light. And what better way to create disciples than with your own kids? That's where you start, right? It starts at home, and then you work your way outward from there.

SPEAKER_00:

Back to college and hope the university professors don't totally destroy what you've raised.

SPEAKER_02:

Hopefully. Um, you know, I've I the one son uh, you know, kind of teetered the line with uh a little bit more left than I'd like to go, but uh, you know, you gotta love him in his mess, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, what's the saying? If you're not a liberal when you're young, you've got no heart, and if you're not conservative when you're older, you've got no brain, right?

SPEAKER_02:

But you know, I you can't fix them or change them. You could just only influence and be love. That's all.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. And then and back to the right, you've got no heart. It's always kind of said tongue in cheek and a bit of a joke, but uh, I mean, the Bible uh itself says uh a wise man at his right hand, a fool at his left. Yep, that that foretold two thousand years ahead our political paradigm today.

SPEAKER_02:

It's yeah, it's that wisdom meant a lot more than what we thought.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, right, you may not have meant a whole lot at the time, but today you look at that and you say thinkers versus emoters.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, I didn't necessarily plan on getting into politics in this episode again. I just seven kids, I gotta talk to this guy. What you what were you thinking?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I wasn't thinking pro-re pro-recreate, but I was uh I just had hot wives.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I'm just uh but um no, it was yeah, you are you are a male, you you do like women, and you really like women based on yes, having kids.

SPEAKER_02:

But it's community. I don't think people understand today. Everybody's so self-centered, and everybody's so it's about me, me, me, and becoming the top of the ladder and independent, and and the Bible was never about that, it was always about community, it was always about being together, not necessarily just a big family. I just like community as far as family, but community is what makes things happen, and community is where people grow together and and go out, and then when you're out for yourself and you only think of yourself, then that's really yeah, you're stepping on everybody to get where you want to be. There's no love and light there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

CTP3, I have now four books in the series that correlate with the show Christitutionalist politics three here, hubris, the sin of hubris, and me, me, me. I'm entitled, you owe me the victim mentality. What do I get and why didn't I get it yesterday? And then CTP4, I discussed Jesus Revolution 2. Hippies of the 60s and 70s, those that weren't the Bill Ayers and Bernadine Doran going on to become domestic terrorists. Most of them eventually grew up and grew out of the me, me, me. There's gotta be more than just me. And this show's all about biblical community, and indeed, we're going through a Jesus revolution too, as I call it now. A lot of people, especially our young generation now, are filling the churches more than the older people, discovering hey, gotta be more to this than just me, me, me.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. You see that a lot. I mean, uh, especially after, you know, unfortunately, after Charlie Kirk, you're seeing a lot more people um enter into the church, and even after the pandemic, you know, always after a pandemic, you see church increase. And especially after this one, you see a lot of church increase because people have that same thought you just said, there's got to be more to this. I was just secluded and alone there, and and I hated it. And I need community, I need people. There has to be more out there than this, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's why people are searching, human nature, and we as humans are a sociable or meant to be sociable creature, and you either find faith in a legitimate religion or climate terrorism, as I call it, the cult of planet, right? Uh if you don't believe in something substantive, you'll fall for anything. Uh, the human need to belong to something. And you mentioned Kirk, right? Kirk in German, church. Uh coincidence? I don't think so. That's God in working bad things can happen to good people, and he turns them for good.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

It's funny because I I wrote a book called God's Imperfect Plan is perfect. And it's exactly that. It's you know, we in we make bad choices to receive bad consequences all the time. And I understand that, but when you're in a situation to where my mother abandoned me at the age of four, my father, off and on alcoholic, that loved me the way you.

SPEAKER_00:

You could have had the victimhood mentality. Oh, what was me? I'm I'm entitled, I'm old, old, look at all this bad. I'm entitled to good now, and you overcame that self-absorption uh the to use your words, and in indeed, right back to the Bible. We are all given free will. It's not all necessarily God's plan, but because we have free will, people could choose evil, yep, but often God will then do things to try to work that then for his good. But yes, free will, we're given that, and we choose. We don't choose how people act towards us, and I go into that in the book of Kennedy Project Carpe Diem, but we have the free will and the choice how we react to others, right? And everyone's entitled to a bad day. I'm not always nice, but Martin Luther King Jr. content of character, we're all entitled to bad days. Maybe that first interaction didn't go so well. That's where grace and second chances come in, right? But we choose to be good or bad most times, and putting out good, sewing good to get karma, getting good back, or putting out bad. And why would you be surprised when so much negative comes your way then?

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. What I've learned with the kids, especially having seven kids, is once I realized that to be light in love, I can't base my life off of circumstances because you're only as good as those circumstances are. So with the kids, it was like, you know, if I'm putting expectations on them to be this certain person and they don't meet that, then I'm a wreck. You know, so you can't base that love and light on somebody else to be something. So now it's like I'm, you know, in this ministry I'm in now, it's like I just wake up to be love and light, and I'll put expectations on people. I didn't have a great father. Uh, you know, he loved me the way he could, and he did a lot of great things, don't get me wrong. But I don't sit on the phone every day waiting for him to go, you know what I'm proud of you. I'm proud of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00:

We're all all human, frail, flawed, and imperfect. No one on this planet but Jesus has walked this planet, is perfect. We're all right, it's uh like I go into the Book of Kennedy Project Carpe Diem again. Uh the song Meatloaf, Life is a Lemon and I want my money back. Either that attitude or there's lemons make lemonade with it, right? It's attitude.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, and I have a great relationship with my father now because I don't put any expectation on him. And if you could do that with everybody and just wake up to love everybody, then life's so much easier than being wrecked for four days because somebody did something wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I literally were recording today, third Wednesday, November the 19th. Not sure when this will air, but we're recording Wednesday, November the 19th. Dick Cheney's funeral, of course, all over the news. So literally at theforexnews.com wrote a piece entitled, Can We Please, for at least a few minutes, show some caring and compassion for fellow humans. Like him, love him indifferent. I don't care. It's not about Cheney. Can we be compassionate? A family lost a family member, friends lost a friend. Can we at least say thoughts and prayers to them? Nothing, yeah, and I would say this about someone from the left also. Can we put aside the hate and rancor and division for one damn minute and be human?

SPEAKER_02:

Don't think you're gonna see that too often.

SPEAKER_00:

No, oh, I can't wait for the hate meal to start pouring in in my social media today.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it's it's just it's sad. It's you know, I it's so easy to fix, but so hard to fix.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that other also uh the book of Kennedy Project Carpadium, I'm actually hate, I'm not trying to turn it into this uh all about me and my books, but I also have a short story, a lasting legacy, two of books in my life and living series. Indeed, are we at least trying to put out good and niceness? Or in the book of Kennedy, I've used the term and I put it in there mass holes, the masses of asses, always miserable, always negative, always they want to share nothing but misery. They're miserable, they want you or are we at least trying to share smiles and niceties? Yeah. How difficult is that? This fallen world is so bad. Can't we? I hate to quote Rodney King because he was a major masthole and a criminal, and you know, he brought upon, I'm sorry, he brought upon the beating if he wouldn't have tried to resist arrest, but can't we all just get along? I mean, that statement in itself stands alone aside from the moron it came from.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. And you just it always brings me the story when Jesus cast out the demons, sent them into the pigs, and they jumped off into the lake. And everybody was instead of joyous for the miracle he just provided for freeing this man, they were like freaked out and were like, hey, you need to leave here. You need you need to get out of here. So what did he do? He left. And that's what you have to do with people that are just full of hatred sometimes. You just yeah, they just don't want it, and you can fight as much as you want. Only God can change them, you can't. And sometimes you just have to leave.

SPEAKER_00:

I have a show on that. Yeah, you so memes and memes too, right? Plant seeds, the smile, the facts here and there for those who won't deal in them, and let God water and fertilize them. Only God can really change hearts and minds. Our job to try to help, but it's God's place to really show them the light if they're able to be shown it or not. Right? Don't for don't lose our God, our place, and God's place in in this world. And in indeed, uh oh, I forgot what I was gonna say where I was going, but yeah, uh oh, the four kinds of love from the Bible I go into in the book of Kennedy, right? Agape, feelia, uh, arrows, and uh, and story, right? Some people make it hard to want to love them, and it's like the ex-wife. Love her to death still, couldn't be under the same roof with her anymore, right? Right. It's some people make it hard to love them. It's best to just say, I'll love you from afar. Go over there. Not let hate come in. Love's still there, but go over there, please. Anyway, thank you, Steve Rutterman, for coming on. I enjoyed our chat. If people want to reach out, do you have a website? I do. It's walkrightministries.com. I remember that uh from the emails, WalkRight Ministries.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm writing it down so I don't forget. We'll add it in on the scroll and post video for those things behind the screens. And another joke, I can never pass the link. Ministries. I don't have a ministry, I have a largest tree.

SPEAKER_02:

I like it. I like it. You can borrow, yeah. Yeah, that joke 101.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, you can borrow that. Just remember where you heard it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, I appreciate you plugging in. Thank you for having me on. And uh, those that are interested, uh, I hope people get unstuck.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, all right. Take care. God bless. Love you.

SPEAKER_02:

God bless you. Love the conversation.

SPEAKER_00:

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Here's another of those tack on add-on segments, right? Uh I want to apologize in a way when I invite guests on. It is not a pretense, or I don't sit around plotting, oh, I can have this guest on, and I know that then I will have 12 opportunities to sneak in references regarding my books. That's not how this goes. That's not my intention. I apologize for all the mentions about my books. But they came up because Steve and I were on the same page. Yeah, writing books unintended. In that case, right? And Steve said things that triggered me in a good way. Not the leftist emotional hysterical snowflake kind of stuff. Oh, I'm so offended and upset. Oh, I'm gonna throw a tantrum. No, right. Triggered as in thought, as in, ooh, ooh, what you just said. I agree with so much. And indeed, in this book or that book or whatever book, I'm mentioning what's in there by way of not just, ooh, great, another chance to throw in one of my book titles again. No, no, the point being is yes, agree. I keep trying to talk about it all the time, not just on this show, but indeed in my books, and indeed, write loving someone from the four types of love, as I mentioned. And indeed, some people make it hard to want to love them. And as Christians, we sure don't want to hate, we want to love even our enemies, right? But loving someone doesn't necessarily mean being able to put up with them all the time, right? Uh I love you to death, but from afar, you know, I love you from afar, so I just wanted to tack this on. I don't plot and plan every episode. Ooh, how can I sneak more references to my books in these episodes? No, not the point, not the intention, and I apologize that sometimes some of these episodes kind of go that way. But the point being is, yes, me, the guest, you a lot of times have these similar thoughts, and I'm just trying to express them either on this show and or via yes, my writings, and I'm eager to share them, not from a sense of humor. Oh, yeah, ooh, whatever, you said it, I said it better, and blah blah blah blah blah. No, no, no, no, no, not the point, not what I'm trying to do there, but it's a way of complimenting the guest in a way, and yeah, oh, I'm so glad you've gone there. I've gone there in this book or that book and this quote from it or that quote. Absolutely, we are on again, pun intended, the same page. All right, anyway, uh apologies. Uh, just you know, my intent, I don't want to be misread. Ooh, there's another writing pun, huh? Oh, I felt it necessary to tack this on. Thank you all. Take care, cop loss. Love you all. Like and subscribe to Christitutionalist Politics Podcast and share 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.

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Joseph M Lenard

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