In The Arena With Jason Warman
Welcome to In the Arena, where we talk with people who aren’t
just commenting from the sidelines — they’re in the fight, shaping faith and
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In The Arena With Jason Warman
Global Threats and Christian Civic Duty with Chase Russell | Ep. 009
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In this episode, Jason Warman sits down with Chase Russell for a wide-ranging and unfiltered conversation on global threats, geopolitical power, and the role Christians play in civic engagement today.
From the roots of Iranian terrorism following the 1979 revolution to the expansion of Iran’s global proxy network, we explore how ideology, money, and deception shape modern conflict. The discussion examines Iran’s domestic human-rights abuses, its long-standing hostility toward Israel, and the use of propaganda in global media narratives.
We also zoom out to look at broader geopolitical moves — including recent events in Venezuela and their ripple effects across China, Cuba, and the Western Hemisphere — and what they signal about power, influence, and accountability on the world stage.
And that's what I was gonna say. In a world that's insane, the person that makes sense seems crazy.
SPEAKER_03You don't attack Iran. This ideology is gonna go on for another fifty years. Now you've lost a generational battle.
SPEAKER_00But people need to find their battle moment, because we could be sitting in a moment that 50 years from now, people are gonna look back on.
SPEAKER_03Uh because the person I'm supposed to be getting my world or at least be pastored under getting my worldview from now can't talk. I'm probably one of the most uh one of the most critical things that we should have a biblical view of. In the arena.
SPEAKER_00Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome to In the Arena Podcast. My name is Jason. Thank you so much for stopping by. Thanks for checking out the podcast today. I am so glad that you're here and want to say thank you. Uh have heard from people that are enjoying the podcast, and every person that I've I've run across that has said thank you for the podcast, I want you to know it means the world to me. If you're new to the podcast, this is called In the Arena. I'm a local church pastor located in Venice, Florida. And I just recognize there's spaces and conversations that maybe churches haven't weighed in on, pastors haven't weighed in on. And I I've said this many times, but I feel like when we remove pastoral voices, not just myself, I'm not trying to self-promote myself, but I think sometimes we we we remove some of the most important voices from some of the most important conversations. And the the the point of this in the arena is to get into cultural conversations, real-world things. And if God will help us, I don't always claim to get everything right or be infinite in knowledge, but bring some sort of biblical perspective to hot topics, hot button issues, things that are conversations that are going. I really believe the church needs a seat at the table, whether that's the political table or uh the social climate, the cultural things. And so the whole point of this podcast is sort of to get in the arena of public discourse and mix it up a little bit. So I wanted to say if you're enjoying it, thank you for letting me know. Thank you for every comment. Uh, try to get in there. Uh your comments mean the world. Obviously, if you subscribe and you support, here's the deal, man. If you would share it, if we could, if we could get this conversation out to more and more people, I do it because I want it to be helpful to people. And if it's helpful to you and you think it'd be helpful to somebody else, hey, show us some love. Share the podcast. We would be honored. And today's gonna be fun. We're gonna get into uh just uh the things my mind has been on, and the the news that's on your phone, on your social media, and I'm grateful to have a special guest on. He's actually uh a part of the church that I pastor here in Venice, fam in Venice, Florida, his his family, amazing family, uh, and he's an incredible guy, is uh in the political world. And I just come on, I don't know how you clap on a podcast, but show some big loves. Drop a comment. I've got Chase Russell with me today. Thanks for joining me, man.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me on. It's it's truly an honor. Um and first off, before we dive into everything, I just want to say it's it's an absolute honor to be pastored under somebody who is courageous and bold and comes on and has these conversations. Uh, and I just want to thank you and and the entire team here at CoastLife. You guys are just amazing. I'm so so honored to be a part of this.
SPEAKER_00Well, you're not supposed to melt me down at the first of the podcast. I I'm grateful. Hey, just so people can get to know you. Like what you know, what's you have an incredible business that God's blessed you with. You got an incredible story. Just give us sort of the uh, you know, a a version of of who you are and what you do.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I own Great Eagle Strategies. Uh, we predominantly focus on getting conservative Christians elected into Congress, everything down to school board. Uh the main focus on that was I really kind of what you're doing here with the podcast, I wanted to there's this idea that Christians don't need to be a part of politics, that it's it's taboo to talk about. Right. Um I don't I don't agree. I don't subscribe to that narrative, and I think that we should be as Christians, we should have a voice in politics. I think it's one of the greatest lies that the enemy has ever told is that uh stay out of politics. Because if I'm the enemy, I don't want pastors, I don't want people with courageous voices that are supposed to be speaking into our life. I don't want them talking about politics. So I've now tricked them into thinking I don't don't talk about politics. Right. That's the majority of what we do. We we really uh we work the strategy behind things uh as far as getting you recognized, social media input, website design, the whole nine, uh, and getting you elected and making sure your voice is is heard.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you. I I yeah, I've I've used this line for years, but there's no spiritual Switzerland. No. There's no there's no space, and we're gonna get into this in a in a in a few minutes, of but there's no spiritually neutral space and like the i ideology around that. I'll save it because I know we're gonna get into it. So you you run Gray Eagle, involved in some incredible campaigns, seen incredible success in in your business. You also have a background in military.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Yeah, so I did seven years in the Air Force, I did three in Afghanistan, I did uh quite a long time in Iraq, uh in Kuwait, and um it was the most fun I never want to have again. Uh it was uh it taught me a lot. Um I gotta see a lot of cool things, I gotta do a lot of cool things, but uh I'm I'm glad to be back.
SPEAKER_00I'm excited for people to hear your voice because you're you're a Christian and you're you're a godly man, you've been in the political world, you have military experience, which I do not have, and so many people are weighing in on military things that you know there's not a lot of experience with. So so much of that gets like the narrative of media, social media gets dropped on people and without any real world experience, and like you've been in some of the places that are on the news, like you've you've been there, you've been a part of the military there, you've been a part. Uh thank you, by the way, for your service. I know you know it's courtesy now, but it's like, man, I don't want to lose that in our culture to just remind everybody who served our nation that we're we're grateful for the the service and and grateful you're you're you're here that that you you're you're in front of me right now. And I wanna I want to go immediately like to Iran and talk about what's going on there. Um and do our best to bring uh uh a Christian perspective to military action. Um and help people wrestle through uh you know it's some of these stories are still being written, right? Like that's my thing with Iran is like, you know, I got questions too about how this is gonna turn out. There's there's no way to have a a crystal ball that's gonna, you know, tell you these things are liquid, like they're they're live action. We're we're seeing history play out here. Um one of the things that did, I just wanted to know, like, I had a working knowledge of Iran. I'm gonna I want to take a minute and then we'll get into this. Uh so Iran 1979, the revolution happens. I think it was, let me get my there what it was, I think it was 66 Americans were taken hostage at the at the uh at the at the embassy. Uh that's within a few years, uh Iran had killed 17 Americans. Um Hezbollah bombed a marine barracks in 1983. So four years after the revolution, they'd already killed 241 U.S. service members at a US at a Marines barracks. Um the the single deadliest day for Americans since World War II. Because the one thing that we don't have is good history. And I think it's important. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I think I mean that's just what Iran's directly done. Yeah. If you look at this from a uh an indirect standpoint, Iran for now 50 plus years has uh been hijacked. Uh the people of Iran prior to 79 were a very prosperous country. Uh they were very westernized. Uh, and that's what you see when you have, uh and I'll go out and say it, when you have a um a Muslim ideology, when you have an Islamic ideology come in and hijack your nation, you will see it twist around and it'll become a product of what Iran is now and they're funding terrorism worldwide. Uh, the people, as somebody that's that's been to Afghanistan, I've watched shipments of uh munitions come over the border to fund the Taliban, to fund ISIS K. Happens on a daily basis. We would we would blow up uh shipping lines every single day, and it was you've got 13, 14 years of a war going on that that was happening, killing hundreds of thousands of American lives in Iraq, Afghanistan. Um that's what Americans, I don't think, see the full picture of. They see sure, you know, these are the things that they directly did. Yeah, but for 50 years now they've been indirectly. So the question now becomes uh from an American standpoint, how long do you let that go on? Yeah. You know, and what's your alternative? How you can keep going for another 50 years? Um so to to hit on your points with that, I I think it's not just the direct things that Iran has done, it's the indirect and the psychological sides of it.
SPEAKER_00Which yeah, we've been in a proxy war with Iran since 1979, essentially. And I like it shocked me because I didn't know the numbers. But uh there was there's a U.S. Department of Treasury uh study statement, whatever you want to call it. The they fund Hezbollah to the tune of$700 million every year.
SPEAKER_03And that's and let's just be realistic, Hezbollah's accounting is probably not that good. Um so it's probably a lot higher. Uh that's just what we've caught.
SPEAKER_00And so now Hezbollah is the the largest non-state military. They have 130,000 missiles that are stockpiled there that were paid for through the RGC. Um like and that's just Hezbollah, right? That's not Hamas, that's not other terrorist organizations.
SPEAKER_03Like that there's multiple besides just Al-Shabaab, there's uh ISIS, ISIS K, the Taliban. Um, and and if you look at the atrocities that Al-Shabaab just in Africa has done, I mean they're they're mutilating kids' genitals uh out of uh Somalia. That's all funded by Iran. Iran's a pinnacle of that. Um and then you know, you look at the backing from China and Russia, it goes, it goes even it goes so much deeper. There this is a this is a wide topic that could be discussed for for hours and hours on end. But uh they they their goal is to see the destruction of Western civilization and to see every single Christian become a Muslim. That is their goal.
SPEAKER_00That's that's the end of the stated goal.
SPEAKER_03Like it's it's it's not even a he it's not even a secret. That's what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00That's and I I like I don't understand the ideology when people hear them like you can see the videos like the death to America, like the kill the infidels. I I mean it's it's not like it's been cloak and dagger, right? It's not like this is there's some it's not the Illuminati.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00They're not hiding in a basement chanting. Right. Like that this is in their public political gatherings where they're they're chanting this stuff. And then when you start to dig in like for what life is like in Iran, for the people of Iran, who uh I've referenced this, but when you go back and look at the pictures from the 70s, yeah, you you might think that like that was in America.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It that's how uh modern the city looks, it's how modern the people look. Um in and now you see in Iran where you know the the the authorities use rape and sexual assault against women who d don't wear the right hijab. Yeah and then people are like, well, it's a historical part of their culture. I didn't I didn't know this, I just learned this. Like that that's like 30 years old.
SPEAKER_03It's not this is what's crazy about it. So to hit on that point, I flew into uh to tell a quick story, I flew into uh uh Kandahar, Afghanistan. Kandahar, Afghanistan as a whole looks a lot like Colorado. It used to be a ski resort for the Pakistanis and the Iranis. There are still posters up in the in the public airport of come to the ski resort, and it's women, you know, nor they you would not it wouldn't look like a normal 70s poster.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um pre pre 79, the Middle East was uh a beautiful place to be honest with you. Honestly, Afghanistan is still a beautiful place, like naturally, it's a beautiful place. Um I don't think people grab they think it's always been that way. They think no, this is an ideology that has come in and it's again hijacked Iran. So this idea that it's not it can't be a culture that's open and and women have rights. Uh and to hit on your point earlier, you you see these gays for Palestine, you see all of these people, and it's like you have no idea what you're talking. It's the most i it's idiocracy at its finest because they have no idea what they're even saying, and they didn't realize that if they were sitting there in Iran chanting gays for Palestine or No Kings, you're getting beheaded. Yeah. You're there's no question, you're just done.
SPEAKER_00I mean that's that's what happens, right? I mean every day. Yeah. Homosexuals are executed. Like that's that's what happens there. And then you have people here in America like sub supporting. We just had this weekend across America, no kings protest. The irony of uh protesting uh no kings in a nation that doesn't have kings, but many of them support uh an Islamic version of the I saw a sign that said no kings, no war in Iran.
SPEAKER_03And I and I was like, if you just just thought about that for I don't know, 15 seconds, you you would be like, that doesn't that doesn't make any sense. Uh but it's a warped, it's a warped idea, and we've talked about this uh you know a lot. And you you preach on this almost every Sunday, which again is is amazing. I I'm I'm so happy to have a pastor that's that got the courage to say some things that are not you're gonna lose followers, and you know that's always the thing. But there's so many Americans, especially young Americans, that want the truth, and then they see this kind of stuff and they think, well, maybe I can maybe that makes sense to me.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh but they've never actually been there and they've never seen that, and they don't understand the history, they don't understand any of the ideology that comes out of Islamic culture. They just go with whatever the news or whatever TikTok reel they saw that.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03Um so it's insanity. The No King stuff is insanity in itself.
SPEAKER_00And then I mean w within the past two weeks, there was uh I think his last name was Muhammadi, the the 19-year-old wrestler from Iran, who I don't I'm not for uh somehow he protested while he was at a at a at a wrestling tournament or whatever. And th they they executed that young man. He was and and others were executed with him and including a teenage girl was executed just simply for you know just whatever they deem it disrespect or whatever. Uh because that ideology is so frail that it after it has to maintain power through terror, through keeping everyone under their under their thumb, is essentially how that works.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, they uh that's a the sad part about that it happens every day. It happens on a large scale. And I and and they've cut the internet off in Iran right now, so that you can't even tell what's happened. And most of these regimes do that. If they can control the narrative, they can control uh any of the the social media that's getting put out there. But on a daily basis, there are there are Christians being murdered in the streets. Uh and it's a daily life. People that have gotten out of Iran, uh, they say this. It's a daily occurrence that these people are being persecuted. And and that just speaks to the testament of that culture. Is if your culture is so frail that you have to murder every single person that speaks at a wrestling tournament, right? You're gonna have a bad time. That's not that's not uh and and to not have anybody stand up for those people. You know, what are we as Americans supposed to sit back and say, hey, it's just the way it is over there and and let it go? No, I I don't I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00That's yeah, that and that's ultimately where I want to go to. I just wanted to create a little history for people, and I appreciate your perspective because like I said, you've you you've been in that part of the world, you've you've seen firsthand what military l experience looks like, and you've seen the ideology, like you've been in those nations and and seen it. And then you come to America and there's so much appeasement. And like we know, this still irks me, and it was over a decade ago. Like we know Iran funds uh terror. Not just uh I mean it like and it has spread politically throughout the Middle East. Like the Middle East was different before the IRGC took over. And and during the Obama administration, we gave them over one billion dollars, which you can say what you want to say. Like there was all kinds of narrative that it was an old arms deal or whatever, that we were settling an account, and you know, it's because it's appeasement. Thank you. That's the award that I was going for. Like I don't think people realize how bad this how long and how bad this ideology has been. Like we my wife and I were watching a show that was set during the Obama years, and it was like Iran was the good guys. Like it was, you know, America was the bad guys accusing them of pursuing nuclear power, but they weren't really the the sanctions were working, and like that was the narrative that was being spun on a show. And I'm sitting here in 2026 going, bullcrap. Yeah, look where we're at now. Yeah, like that, like they they just shot a missile, they claimed they couldn't shoot, and like yet they shot the missile. Yeah, like they're you know, there's weapons grade or they're building to weapons grade nuclear power while claiming, you know, that they don't have that they're not pursuing that capability. Like time and time again, like there's just a truth that needs to get out there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. There's I mean, appeasement doesn't work. That's that's a fact. And from a biblical standpoint on this, uh you you have to have peace through strength. And what America is doing right now with Iran, what's your alternative? I always do this. What's your alternative as a strategy guy? You know, let's look at this from every angle. What is your alternative? We don't bomb Iran, and let's take the nuclear option outside of this. You don't attack Iran. This ideology is gonna go on for another 50 years. Now you've lost the generational battle. And what I mean by the generational battle is you've lost this ability to have a generation that remembers a time before uh the Ayatollah took over and they had this Islamic structure in power. So once you've lost that, now you've lost a complete component to a psychological war that you're you're fighting. So when the Trump administration and the Department of War went and attacked Israel or went and attacked Iran, we can we can claim, oh, Israel this, Israel that, but at the end of the day, somebody had to do it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because even without them getting a nuke, eventually they will. They will get uranium and they will make a nuclear bomb. And they were given what people don't understand about Iran too, is they were given multiple opportunities to have uranium for peaceful purposes that would give them power because that was always their claim is hey, we we want we want it for nuclear power and this, that, and the other. They were given that. Even during the Obama years, they were offered that as a solution during the Iran deal. Um they they chose not to do it. Why would you choose not to do it? So, I mean, my question is what what's your alternative here? We don't bomb them, we go another 50 years. You're still in the same boat. You're still in the same boat now they've got a nuke, now nobody can do it. And now they get closer ties with China, they get closer ties with Russia, not to get too geopolitical about this, but there's not a good scenario. There's not a better time to attack than when we did.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's I I wanted to land on appeasement because I think that's just been the ideology for probably maybe all of our lifetime. I mean, I'm a little older than you, but I don't remember I don't I don't remember even conservative presidents. Like they all sort of ran the same playbook on Iran, which was basically kicking the can down the road. We're gonna ignore the fact that they're sewing terror around not just the Middle East, but around the world. And whether they're directly responsible or indirectly responsible, their hand is in the cookie jar of of so much of this stuff. And what I want people to kind of understand is like there there has to be a change. And it and it's like in in a world that's a definition of insanity to keep these doing the same thing. And that's what I was gonna say. In a world that's insane, the person that makes sense seems crazy. Yeah. And like it it sounds crazy for people to go like, no, we actually have a responsibility to to enact justice. Because I don't want to just make it about like outside of Iran. Like there is a there is a nation that is held in oppression. And like people are held in oppression by a radical uh Islamic ideology that shows if if they get complete control of a nation, what what can happen when there's nothing that's been checked, or people are afraid to have courage to do the right thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I mean i uh uh it's it's to look at this and go, uh you know, let's continue down this appeasement route, let's continue to do the same thing the Bush administration did, the Obama administration did, now the Trump the first Trump administration. The Bidens, let's not even go down that road. You know, at some point you have to call. We can't fight endless wars in the Middle East, because that's everybody's argument is well, I don't want another endless war in the Middle East. You're preventing that right now. Uh you're preventing that by how many more billions of dollars are we gonna spend fighting proxy wars in the Middle East instead of just taking out the hub, which is Iran, their funding, their sources, everything.
SPEAKER_00I want to ask you this question because I like when people talk about the forever wars, because I think there is so much um but this probably isn't the right way to phrase it, but there's so much baggage from Iraq and Afghanistan. And I look back on that, I'm like, the problem isn't that we took action, the problem is that we went halfway with it. Like there was there was never a full commitment to like we we committed, we put boots on the ground, but there was this idea, especially during the Obama years, but even before that, that Islam is a religion of peace, that we're gonna create a democracy. And so when I mean I don't I don't mean that against our military action, like men men and women died and gave their lives, but I'm talking about like it it would there was this we were sort of fighting with one hand behind our back, yeah, because we would never commit to the idea that this ideology is dangerous. And if we just try to go, hey, here's democracy, but by the way, keep this culture and keep this religious identity, keep all this toxicity, then you're gonna be fine. It's like, no, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, I I I agree 100%. And and here's why. Uh when we went into Iraq, we went into Iraq with bad intel, uh, which is step number one, you messed up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um during the Bush years, they tried to finish off something they did in the Gulf War. That's my opinion on it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Uh I think that's yeah.
SPEAKER_03With with Afghanistan, if you look at the cultural makeup of Afghanistan, you've got postune culture, which in itself is a very it's a very going from a postune culture of Islam to Christianity is not that far of a jump because it's it has a lot of the same principles. Uh-huh. Um, obviously very widely different on certain things, but um, at least with that ideology, it the winning the hearts and the minds idea that they did in early 2008 in Afghanistan, that was a logical scenario, but they didn't do that from the get-go. So now we've bombed you for we've killed husbands, we've killed you know uh fathers. Now we're coming in and saying, hey, we're America, here's democracy, it's good, that's not going to work out very well. If you would have done that from the get-go, you probably would have been in a better off situation. Uh, what you see well with uh China, China does this very well, and they do this in Africa, is they invest in charitable programs, they invest. But what comes along with that is not only the money and a higher economic status, but it comes the ideology behind it, uh, which is gonna be our next frontier when it comes to uh you know wars, which is good that we're doing it with Iran right now. We did it with Venezuela, we cut their oil off, China, Russia cut the oil off. Uh, we're doing it with Iran, the third largest oil producer in the world. China and Russia right now are sitting there going, oh, maybe we should pull back on the economic, you know, side of things. Right. But going back to Iraq and Afghanistan, we we went in with the idea that we're gonna fight a Vietnam type war or a Korean type war or even a World War II type war. We're gonna shock and awe. And that's not you can't fight an all ideology with bombs. You can't do it. It's impossible, and it'll never win.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because I think there's two things that like I feel like we have two wars going on. One of them is the like the mis military terror, fighting terror. But right now the propaganda war is just as real as not, I mean, maybe not as overtly dangerous as like bombs dropping, but as far as like persuading public opinion, which is why I want to have conversations like this, because there's a pop, there's a propaganda war going on like crazy right now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so that's honestly in my opinion, I think that's the scarier side of it. And with AI coming into the the component, there is a lot of what I do with Gray Eagle again, is is the PR side of things. It's it's how do I get a message across to people, how do I get it to resonate with people. Now you've got these highly funded organizations, Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, all of these organizations that they use psychological propaganda to sway narrative better than anybody. To be honest, let's be realistic about it. They're very good at it. They will they will go and bomb uh their own hospital and claim Israel did it, yeah. Um and they'll video it. How do you a lot of people I've I've had a lot of people share things to me and they're like, is this real? And I'll and I'll just look at it and I'm like, how did they know that bomb was gonna the hospital at the same time that they were videoing? The video cameras. The video, yeah, it's just video in a hospital. Right. Uh so if you look at it from that angle, and then uh, you know, even with the AI stuff, there's a video that's circulating right now. I think it's uh there's an Israeli girl that's killing a little uh Palestinian boy or something, and all of it's fake, 100% of it's fake. Um and they're sharing it, and they they go and create fake Twitter accounts all the time. That's all they do all day is create fake Twitter accounts and they push this propaganda. And if you get from a viral standpoint of things, if you get a hundred accounts to share it within the first five minutes, the chances of that video going viral increase by like 90%. My goodness. So if you've got a hundred accounts, which is super easy, they can do that in a day.
SPEAKER_00Um I think it's really helpful to people. Because you just you just see stuff's pop up and and it because it goes viral and so many people are commenting on it, that you just sort of we're so used to taking things at face value. Like it's a it's a new day and it's a new age. Propaganda's been out there for a long time. Yeah, but the level of propaganda instantaneous propaganda to set a narrative and you see it happening like like you said, like if you actually look at what's going on in Iran, like who in the world would ever support that or oppose military action? Like on it when you dig into what's actually going on, which backs up and goes, okay, well, how do people believe this? Well, they're they're they're being fed every day a narrative.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah. If you go, I did this before we came on today. Uh you can go in and uh you can type in, I did it for Christian Christian nationalism because we're gonna talk about that in a minute. Just go to Google, type in Christian nationalism. The first 50, I'm not this is not a joke. I I scrolled down 50. The first 50 of them is why Christian nationalism is bad. But if you look at the definition of Christian nationalism, and I I urge you, go do that, go Google it right now. Um you can do the same thing with Iran. Um, there's a psychological term for it where it's basically it, it's it's Hitler, it's Meinkopf, you know. Yeah. If you tell a lie long enough, people will believe it, it'll become the truth. And it's the same thing that they the the mainstream media does it. Why? Because they see a viral video and it just becomes full circle. Yeah, they see a viral video, now they report on it, now their report goes viral, now they get clicks, and it's just a big circle of lies.
SPEAKER_00It's a mess.
SPEAKER_03It's it'll make you scared, it'll keep you up at night for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it it's it's wild, but I think that we also like we're blessed to be able to do a podcast like this. Like I mean, just to be able to sit in front of a microphone and and just talk like this. I don't think people recognize like the freedom that we have. Yeah, has to be protected. And it has to be there, has to be a heart to help. Like I I I'll be honest, I went down the the road of isolationism because you you know you get tired of war. And I don't, you know, I I think people hear my podcasts and think I'm, you know, like let's go bomb everybody and let's like, no, man, I don't want to put our our our fighting troops in harm's way, you know, that's not my heart. But then when you you also have to weigh the tension, I love your thoughts on this. You also have to weigh the tension that we've been very blessed to have the strength and capability that we have.
SPEAKER_03Thank God.
SPEAKER_00And there's trouble all around the world. So how do you how do you walk out that tension of yes, we never want to put people in harm's way for you know foolish reasons or go in like go in on bad intel, which I think burned the American public. Like I think we're still dealing with that. Like we'll get to Venezuela in a minute. But man, as soon as Venezuela popped up, like alarm bells went off because we've had this bad taste in our mouth from until you talk to one person from Venezuela.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Thank you, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And like that that tension of like, okay, let's let's talk about like let's put both of those Iran and Ven Venezuela. Because I like Venezuela isn't even on the radar anymore because Iran happened.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But whatever the doomsday naysayers said, like again, some of these stories are still being written, but there's no like the it's walking itself out. Like what we took out, which that was one of the most precise, clean things I think we've ever done. And now there's some hope already happening in Venezuela.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I talked to uh I I won't say their name, but I I talked to quite a few people that live in Venezuela. They live in Caracas right now. Uh on a daily basis, I talk to them. I've been talking to them for six years now, uh, before five years or so now. Um if you can talk to people in Venezuela and realize that uh Maduro was wrongfully elected after Chavez, they had an election in 2024. The election was uh completely rigged. He got nine, he got 93% of the vote with a hundred and three voter 103% voter turnout. Now I don't know about you, but you can't have 103% voter turnout. Uh and the and the the the president posted that out. Maduro president posted that out. Oh, I got 103% voter turnout. It doesn't make any sense. Right. Uh which is crazy to begin with. Um but yeah, I uh you know uh the American public is is in a sense uh they're very short-term thinking, you know, gas prices go up, oh gosh, you know, right? Which is okay. That's an understandable thing. The economy's been a big factor since uh, you know, inflation since COVID. Um so it's okay to be, but you also have to understand what is the long-term effects by not doing the things that we need to do. We have to look more long-term on issues. We can't be so focused on the here and the now because that's what's gotten us into 13 years of a global war on terrorism. That's what's gotten us to Russia having the capabilities to China now surpassing us in GDP. All of these things have been short-term thinking. Uh, whereas the Chinese, they're not thinking short term. Yeah, they're thinking long term, and they're gonna sit here and play this game where every four years we have a complete change of power here in the United States.
SPEAKER_00So I mean when you look at Venezuela, like China was getting in there. Yeah, like with the by getting cl and getting close to the US.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that that one decision closed the door that like probably saved us from years and years, decades of damage from an enemy that whether anybody wants to call them that or not, is what they are. I mean, they're not for us, they're completely against us. And then the ramifications of that is it looks like Cuba's in trouble. And I mean that in a good way. Like there's a real there's a real possibility that that communist stronghold could tumble because we cut off their oil.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. If you look at uh the only reason Cuba is still mildly functioning um is because of Venezuela. Now, you know, going back to your point with China, China was already in the process of investing billions of dollars. And we talked about it a minute ago with Africa. What do they do with Africa? They they make an economic impact, they invest in charities, they make life better economically, but what does that come with? It comes with it looks a lot like Uyghur Muslims out in the west of China getting persecuted, and now they've got a social credit score. It's it's all about control at that point. Uh, but initially it comes in as hey, we're here to help you. Now that's exactly what they were doing in Venezuela, and China's not stupid. They say, hey, we're right off your shore. Now not only do we have Venezuela, we have Cuba. And now we've got a China-Russia influence literally 90 miles off the coast of where we live. So uh I don't know about you, but I don't I don't want that.
SPEAKER_00I don't want that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I and I I was blessed to go to Cuba, I think tw 20 a year and a half ago. And when you like, I mean I've heard of communism all my life. First communist nation I've ever been in. And it and you it's it's the shortest flight to get over to Havana.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And you land and you you can't believe it's like a bomb headed, probably. Oh my gosh. And it it's beautiful. Like when you the the the the natural landscape, what what it could be. But you see the way people live. Like the the I I think the monthly income is like seven dollars a month. Yeah. Like you're apportioned, every person gets four eggs a month. Like you get four eggs for the month. Like that's a that's an omelet for a guy my size. Like that's one that's insane. That's one breakfast. Like we we would get up in the morning, we're staying at their version of an Airbnb, and so they would do breakfast for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like and we're we're paying guests, like there might be meat in the breakfast, there might not, because it doesn't matter if you have money, there's no resources there. Yeah, and when you look at the reality of communism, and there's wonder, like wonderful people. Like the the people are incredible. The church, like we were in multiple churches throughout the week. Incredible churches packed up. I was preaching on a Tuesday night, every seat is filled, people are listening. I've always heard about those stories, not not a huge building, but like it's packed out, people are listening in through the windows, they're standing in the doorway, just the glimmer of hope.
SPEAKER_03With and I've been to Haiti too. I I was in Haiti for quite a while, and so I kind of I've never been to Cuba, but just the glimmer of hope that you see in people's faces, and it's like if if the No Kings people could sit in that room for two minutes, they wouldn't have the this No Kings thing would go away real quick. It's sad. Did you guys have when you were in Cuba, did you guys have the uh they had an interpret or not an interpreter, but like basically a host that had to follow you around the entire time, or were you free to go off on your own?
SPEAKER_00We were we were mostly free. The the we were hosted by a a group of pastors there. Okay. So we did not have much, but there were certain places where like we couldn't get out of the van because um obviously like for a danger reason.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00We would endanger the local pastors. So we would like we would put them on the radar of the officials.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00So I was surprised at that time. Uh there's still very much control, and there's uh it's too much for the podcast to go in how they control the church. Yeah, but there has been some hope, like that that has come. And like, man, it's it's time. Like it's time for that that people to get to get free.
SPEAKER_02And you think about just a trip switch, it's just one thing. That one thing.
SPEAKER_00And that's what I want people to under like we are living, we're possibly living, and again, the story's still being written, but people need to find their backbone because we could be sitting in a moment that 50 years from now, people are gonna look back on and and be amazed at what has happened over what the past year. Like these are historic days that we're living in.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, no, no doubt. And I I and this is you know, we can look at again the short-term strategy here. If Americans would stop thinking so short-term for just a day, just sit there and say, okay, what what what is Venezuela gonna look like in 20 years? What is our energy grid gonna look like in 20 years? What kind of impact can we have uh on the people of Venezuela who are are very they're very westernized culture? If people don't realize that Chavez was 20 something years ago, it was not this is that's in my adult lifetime, not just not just in my lifetime. Like I yeah. It was it was that that takeover there was uh and it goes back to what I was saying about Iran. We've we've we've got to do something now because once that generational gap flips over, and there is a generation that doesn't remember a time before communism and a time before the oppression, your chances of flipping that back. That's what's happened in Iraq, that's uh in Afghanistan, particularly too, is it's been so long. But once that generational gap flips over, you're not winning hearts and minds, you're not flipping, you're not flipping anything back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I want to go to winning hearts and minds, because there's so much narrative, again, the propaganda war, so much narrative against I wouldn't even say America, it's against the Trump administration. Um you know if Donald Trump fed some leprous children, like there would be something wrong with it. Like it's just there's an animosity towards him. One of the things uh that's growing that I that has me concerned is the propaganda against Israel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm not here, you and I have talked, like I'm not here to like defend everything Israel has has ever done. Like I'm I'm critical of our own government, even the I'm like even the administration now, like I'm supportive, but like that's our role as Americans is to hold government accountable. Like we never need to lose that. We don't just blindly support stuff. But there is a there is a narrative around Israel that's growing uh of of propaganda that's being easily ingested. And what concerns me isn't that you know it's there's a progressive liberal mindset, like I said, that's just gonna be anti-anything that isn't in that narrative, that isn't in that worldview. They're gonna it's there's gonna be animosity towards it. Um but there's a growing uh among conservatives, especially conservative young men, and even in the Christian ranks, and some of it gets into doctrinal stuff, eschatol eschatology. I I want to just talk on the political side of the propaganda against Israel that that kind of gets on again, v something gets bombed, something horrible happens, somebody was there to record it. Now these these narratives that are and some of it isn't even that overt. Like it's it's just there's nothing to it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think I think war is nasty. Yes. I think war is nasty. I think that Israel has been fighting a war since 1948, uh, every single day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um I think there are we we've talked about this too. You can as an American, I support America.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It doesn't mean I support everything Donald Trump does. It doesn't mean I support everything Joe Biden does. Now do I want to see Joe Biden succeed? Yeah, I want to see America succeed. I want to see Trump succeed. If you hate the person because they have an R or a D next to their name, based not on their policies, but just because of that, you're that's not that's not a healthy way to think about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because I think there's a difference. Like I want Biden to okay, I may want some of his policies that are no that I know are bad. Yeah. Like, oh, okay, I hope that doesn't happen, but it doesn't mean I'm rooting for Biden to fail. Right.
SPEAKER_03I want to see him win for America. Yeah. So it goes, you can take that same logic and you can apply it to Israel. Uh, you know, there's this uh we'll call it Crusader Bros or whatever you want to call them, uh that that want, hey, anti-Israel. Um, as Christians, we're there to support it. It calls us to support Israel. It does not call us to support Benjamin Netanyahu. It does not call us to support the Israeli government.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03I don't support everything they do either. Yeah. I think some of their things that they do are uh not the smartest thing in the world to do. I'm not in the room for the conversation, so I don't know the full story of it. But at the end of the day, you know, we talked about this a little bit earlier. At the end of the day, people have this idea that war is a warm and fuzzy, um, that there's not people that uh die in war, that there's not young kids that die in war. And for history as a whole, even back to the biblical times, if you read the Bible, that's a nasty thing. If you don't think there were children in Sodom and Gomorrah, you're gonna have a bad time. If you don't think there were children, you know, all throughout the Bible.
SPEAKER_00You have to wrestle with this stuff.
SPEAKER_03You've got to. You've it you've got to come to grips with the fact that that war is a terrible thing. There will be casualties. Is it extremely unfortunate? Absolutely. I don't wish that. I think if you can take every precaution, and if you look at Israel, they take every that is the most fortified nation in the world. Yes. They have my my my brother-in-law is there right now, actually. He's I won't say where, but uh, he's there. He gets bombed every single day. And he says uh he gets bombed multiple times a day from Iran, and they they have shelters for every single human baby uh formula, everything you could possibly need in shelters, and they spend 90% of their day in there. Gaza's not doing that. Right. They're building tunnels under churches.
SPEAKER_00Churches. Um they're putting uh missile launchers next to schools. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03They want and and as as the Israeli defense for the IDF, I've worked with quite a few of the IDF guys. There's they're crazy. No doubt. No doubt. They're they're they're their entire life they've grown up in war. So why would you not be? Yeah. Um, but none of them is sitting there saying, hey, I want to bomb kids.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Uh now Hezbollah and and everybody in the Gaza Strip, they have no problem with it because that's what the Islamic culture calls for.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Uh, I mean, one of the 99 names of Allah is the creator of death. Amahid is the creator of death. I was like, I don't know about you, but I don't want my God to be the creator of death. That's not what I want.
SPEAKER_00No, and in Islam, everybody's expendable in that as long as it fits as long as it fits the jihad. Yeah. And so they basically they're just giving them the gift of martyrdom, whether they wanted it or not. Like offering up children, offering up people, innocent people. They'll send kids in with bomb vests on. I mean, they have no like the the difference of the ideology of we value life. So we we're gonna do everything we can to to protect life. We'll grieve when life is lost, do everything we can. I think what people have to wrestle through is the idea to go back to it, is like if if they're if they're endangering civilians, do you just let terrorism thrive? Oh, we can't do anything about it. Or like, or do you have to have the the the will to actually go do something about it? And I think and it's it's it's a horrific decision that's been forced on us from an ideology that appeasement is only making worse.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. There's a it's a hard fact to wrestle with, but there is a uh a criteria. When I was in the military, there's a criteria for uh what's uh can't remember the exact name for it, but it's basically what's the what's the percentage of there being a civilian casualty.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um and then we have to uh we have to basically wrestle with how high value of a target is this versus what's the risk of it. Um and then the decision is made at that point. So the Israelis do the same thing. They sit there and they go, Okay, I might, you know, this bomb might have a splash radius of 50, 50 meters, and then uh you know there's a school within 30 meters, so you know, let's wait till nine o'clock at night when there's probably nobody at the school. So those kinds of things happen. Uh the other thing is that the city is.
SPEAKER_00But there's that deliberation that's there's at least some part of it that says, hey, I'm I'm a human. We're not carelessly, not carelessly endangering people. Yeah. And then uh again, we're we're so short-lived on history that we forget that we drop two nukes on Japan. And as horrific as that is, the alternative was more horrific. And somebody had to make a decision. And today, I mean, I'm sure there's some more on that would argue, but it's in to me, it's inarguable that it was the right decision to make, or many, many, many more people would have lost their lives. Uh, and who knows how that would have turned out or what world we would be living in if somebody didn't confront evil and and fight the fight to promote good and justice.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. I mean, you drop, you know, we're at the end of World War II here. You you have to you would have went, the Japanese weren't gonna end it. And it's the same thing with with you almost have to fight this war of ideology. Uh if you look at Islam as a whole, you have to fight it with their tools. You have to fight, you have to say, hey, listen, we we've got to do this. It's it's it's unfortunate, it is sad, it is deeply uh it's deeply evil, yeah, but you're fighting an enemy that's deeply evil. When I was in Afghanistan, uh they would send kids out nonstop. That's what they did because as Americans, we're trained to be, oh, it's a kid, you know, that's off limits to them and their ideology. They're a hero.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_03That's what you have to wrestle with. That that's a hero right there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And I wanna just like that's a hard conversation for people to have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I'm not trying to come up with every answer for every I I just want to put it on people's radar. The dis the decisions that are being made and um the the complication of this. I wish it was clean. I wish it was easy. But we've lived in this world for s for so long. People would rather bury our heads in the sand and then uh not realizing that that that ideology is not staying in the Middle East. It's it's uh taking over Europe. It's it's taking over parts of the US. Like the the ideology is it's it's here, it's not it's not there. Like there is a there is an ideology that is bent on uh destroying the West. Like it's it's a stated goal, whether it's Hamas, like you know, Palestine has been offered a two-state solution. Uh you you were talking about Iran has been offered all of this stuff. Like Palestine's been offered a two-state solution. Like it Bill Clinton walked away from was it Airfatt? Yeah, yeah, Airfat. It was like we gave him everything he wants, like he wanted and he wouldn't take it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's because what they say they want isn't like it's the it's the annihilation of Israel. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03They're well, it's the annihilation of Israel, it's the annihilation of Christian culture, it's yeah, it's the uh which if if if people I I wish Americans would do this. I've I've spent a lot of time studying the Quran, I've read the Quran, I've read the Ta'heed. You know, if Americans really went and studied Islam, a lot of what's happening in the world would make a lot more sense to them. Um if they understood the culture behind it, and and what's crazy about it is Muslims don't even understand what they believe. Most of them don't. Yeah, they just believe it because it's a cultural narrative that they've grown up with. But if they understood where Islam is headed, what the goal, the end stated goal of Islam as a whole is, the Middle East is making a lot more sense, what's happening in Europe makes a lot more sense, all of it makes a lot more sense, and then they probably wouldn't be so opposed to bombing at rate.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Because I mean the the Islamic ideology is you have to earn your way into paradise. Yep. And the way that you, you know, if you had a scale and your good works have to outweigh your bad works, the problem is how they define good works, right? Which is, you know, taking territory by any means possible, whether conversion or death or manipulation, taking over like territory for Allah, like there's no there's no say by grace through faith in the Islamic world. It is you have like I I've done this before, but like Muhammad himself didn't know if he had done enough to earn paradise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because inshallah means if God wills, which it sounds like a good statement, but the problem is that God, you don't know what he wills. Like you could get to paradise, and he's like, no. And and it's like the more the more you do, like like martyrdom is one of the highest ways that you gain access to paradise is by blowing people up and and blowing yourself up. It's like, oh, that's you know, it make it gets sense why somebody would go out and blow themselves up because they're promised paradise.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and if you uh, you know, yeah, Islam's a we'll have to do a whole podcast on Islam. I love this, it's a fascinating topic. But uh with Islam, again, you go back to the 99 names. If you look at a comparison between with our uh, you know, the Christian God, the real God, the clarification, and and Allah, one God is a relational God, the other God is a you will do what I say. It is not, it is, it's uh it's a commanding God, and that's how they live their life is do it, do it, do it. And yeah, so when you take out that relational aspect and you go back to the 99 names of it, not one of those names, I think the only name in there that's loving is um Al Tamahi, which is basically like all loving or something along the lines. But every single one of the names is like all commanding, all commandeering, all and it's like wait a minute, hold on, that's not the kind of God. And then you know, you I think you preached on this a while back. At no point did Muhammad ever see the face of God. Yeah, they talked behind a cloak. Now I'm not one to go down conspiracy theories, but if I'm if I'm the enemy, I'm gonna be hiding behind a cloak. And I'm gonna I'm gonna make it a lot of people say, Well, Islam and Christianity are kind of the same thing, and if you really research it, that's another really good lie from the enemy is I want to make it seem like we are the same thing, but at the end of the day, I'm here to destroy everything, and that's what Islam's there for.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh it's a it was a faceless figure that never showed his face. So it's not there's no personal relationship to God. There's just the fear of not appeasing a God that has proxies that tell you what God said. Yeah, and we're sitting here on Palm Sunday when we're recording right now. It's Palm Sunday for the listeners of the podcast, selling the b celebrating the fact that God came and walked among us. We've we've we've seen his face, the the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Like the difference between what we have and the and the hope that it brings. And I don't think people I did a whole sermon, I'm not going to re-preach the sermon. I did a whole pretty much a sermon on a meta-narrative, like a a big picture. I don't like people just do not appreciate the the the culture and the civilization that Christianity has brought to the world and and why it's so imperative that that we vote, that we get involved, that we support our our presidents, our our military, that that we support because we are a beacon of hope to the world.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and people people want to again, they don't understand the history of geopolitics as a whole. They don't understand the history of Islam, and now we now we dive into they don't understand even American history. And if we go into you know, like I said, you go to Google, you type in the first 50 things are Christian nationalism are bad. Christian nationalism built America. Yeah, Christian nationalism built America in the sense of your hospitals.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03It's a Christian ideality, universities, Christianized. All of these things are built by Christians and built by Empowerment of Women. Empowerment of Yeah, the the women's the abolition of slavery. Absolutely. It's a Christian narrative.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one after another, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it and it's you know, we want to tear down, you know, it goes to deconstructionalism at that point. And going back to the original thing we were talking about a minute ago, is it is you don't there's no gray area here. No. You you are either you are either a secularist and you believe in uh you know all of that, or you are a Christian and you believe in America succeeding with Christian principles. And again, I don't know about you. I don't want to go down that secular road because what secular road goes down is Venezuela. It goes down to Ibrahim, it goes down to uh uh what's happening in Europe right now. It's not a healthy way to go. I would much rather live in a Christian nation.
SPEAKER_00Right. And you were talking about talking to people in Venezuela who are celebrating what's happening. I was just reading uh uh reports when reports can get out of uh Iranians when they see the missiles go overhead are cheering. Imagine cheering getting bombed. But yeah, and they would rather have the danger of missiles falling than living under the oppression that they've been living under. And then we have this privilege to sit in this nation that was built overtly by Christianity, yeah, by Christian Christian ideas. And then I like I want to go down the road for Christian nationalism just just for a little bit, because I don't like I don't know how people reconcile. Like, how do you one is if if anybody's a Christian, how do you divorce your faith from your ideology? That's that's a that's an impossibility, that or you're a total hypocrite. Yeah, you either have to deny everything that you are, and then the other ideology or the other thought on that is if you remove a Christian ideology, you don't remove ideology, you just replace it with another ideology. So which do people want? Do they want a worldly ideology or do they want a Christian ideology?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, and then and this goes uh, you know, we talked about it a minute ago as well. You can if you split the you have you two options here. If you split from uh if you're a pastor and you're let's go to Matthew 10 for a minute, right? Matthew 10 is is probably the best verse you can have. You're gonna be hated for this. You're gonna absolutely be hated. And again, I I I honor you in the sense that you have the you stand up there on Sunday and you preach unapologetically, and and that's such an amazing thing to be the pastor owner. But at the same time, too, we have you probably grew up a lot the same as I did, whereas, oh, it's really taboo to talk about politics. Absolutely. Oh, don't don't pre- why? That's the best lie the enemy could have possibly told pastors is to not talk politics from from the platform. Uh, because the person I'm supposed to be getting my world, or at least be uh pastored under getting my worldview from now can't talk. I'm probably one of the most uh one of the most critical things that we should have a biblical view of is how to vote, how to uh whether it's pro-abortion, not abortion. Right. All of these things I should know. I should know from a biblical standpoint where I'm at, and I should be pastored around that. Um people want to look at Christian nationalism and and and think, oh, they're the guys hiding out in the woods shooting guns, and they want everybody to, you know, be Mormon or whatever they are. But you know, that's not what Christian nationalism is. It's we want a biblical faith that that resonates in our school boards, that resonates in our city council, that resonates all the way up to the state representatives, uh, state senate. We don't want, I don't know about you, I don't want my mayor sitting down in the Capitol building praying to Allah. Right. I just don't want that because I've seen what's happened around the rest of the world. I've been there while it was happening, you know. Um Christian nationalism in itself is is gotten such a bad rep that I don't think people understand what it really means.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I mean I think I think when people hear Christian nationalism, they think of a theocracy. Right. That, you know, we're gonna we're gonna regulate everybody's lives, and you have to go to church and you have to be Christian, and not not realizing that's not Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is is people with a Christian worldview running, being fairly elected. Like I Iran is an actual theocracy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like that that is an Islamic theocracy where a religious, I don't even want to call it a religion. It's really not, I mean, it's such a fake religion. But I mean it's a in fairness, it's you know, a a a false let me say false religion.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like hijacked a government. Now they hold everybody under oppression under that ideology. But that's not Christian nationalism. Like no, no one's promoting that we're gonna start killing people if they, you know, don't show up to church on Sunday. Yeah, this isn't the crusades. Right. This is like like this and and the the fairest, most free society you'll ever live in is the one we live in, which was built by Christian ideas.
SPEAKER_03I think uh, you know, again, going kind of on your points here, I I think we want to see I wish we'd move almost away from the Christian nationalist word. Yes. But let's just rebrand it.
SPEAKER_00Because there's so much confusion around it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because when people say Christian nationalism, they think a theocracy. Uh but at the end of the day, no, we're we're people saying, hey, we live in a community, that community is based on Christian principles. Yes. Uh we have a local church that is the foundation for our community. It should be the foundation. And uh we can talk about Venice, Florida, we can talk about Sarasota County, we could talk about the state.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, we want those principles. I'm not sitting here saying, hey, uh, you know, we should make the entire everybody, hey, Sunday at nine o'clock. You better be in your car. Police are coming by like this. Yeah, yeah. Someone's gonna have this ain't COVID. You know, but we're okay with that theology.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was gonna say, like, yeah, everybody accuses it of being totalitarian, and it's like, you're the like that ideology is so tyrannical, it's ridiculous. The hypo the hypocrisy around it is hilarious.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, I I think uh there I think there should be at least Christians should come out. And the more pastors there are that come out and speak on this subject, and that come out and are unapologetically cure uh courageous and say, hey, this is what we believe, this is what we stand for. If you believe this, welcome to the team. If you don't believe this, how can I pastor you to have that to have that belief and how can I show you scripturally where this is at, why we believe what we believe. Those conversations need to be had. Uh and I feel like if people can be less polarized and just have that conversation, it'd be a lot better off.
SPEAKER_00Well, then the more we talk about it, the more it normalizes, right? We have to have conversation. Yeah, there has to be dialogue. We we've got to have Christian voices, we've got to have pastoral voices, we gotta we gotta get in the conversation because it was the lie of the enemy. Like, don't talk about politics. Which actually it was the wrong play, but it was also there was a different ideology where we had a more Christian worldview. Yeah, like things like boys were boys and girls were I'm talking about not that long ago, yeah, you know, like Clinton and Obama ran on protecting marriage between a man and a woman. Like people are so s so short-sighted, we don't remember like that. Was how you got elected was you aligned at least overtly with a Christian worldview. You know, it was during the Obama years that he began to work progressivism and but like critical theory began to to take root. But like all people have to look back and go, when that lie took over, another ideology came in and took its place. Like this didn't cook in 2020. Yeah, this has been cooking for far longer than that. And through the political sector, when Christians disengaged, uh this ideology that so many people are against is now taking over. And now we have a fight on our hands. Like we've got an ideological battle. Always try to make sure people realize this wouldn't. I'm not advocating a real fight. Like an idea we'll see, an ideological battle that's taking place that it's not going away. I'm like, I'm not trying to be a prophet of doom, but it's not. I think a lot of pastors when Trump got elected, what they may not have been vocal, but they were like silently like, you know, maybe things will go back to normal now. No, this this this is this is gonna be uh a a tension that we're gonna sit in until more people find their voice and begin to speak on these these issues because when when the church went s when the church said don't when or not the church, but when people said don't talk about politics, all the enemy did was make everything political.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Like why like the things that are that are in the political realm, it's like these things aren't it's not the role of the government.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00It's it's it I mean I I would make the case that like government should get out of marriage. But when people are gay marriage, I'm like, I thought you were separation of church and state.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because I thought marriage was an institution of the church.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And now you're you so you say you're okay with separation of church and state until the state takes over something from the church that you're for.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's amazing to me how many Christians will um in churches, and I won't name who they are, but it rhymes with Methodist, you know, they'll bring this well, and we can edit that out. You know, they'll bring in, they'll bring in this, uh, you know, the rainbows and stuff like that. And it's like, why? Where are we at? You know, in this society, like what Bible are you reading? But you know, it then we talk about the separation of church and state again, it boils down to people don't understand the history, they don't understand how the Federalist papers work, they've probably never even heard of them, to be honest with you. Um and it the church needs to have a voice, and and pastors and and and and churchgoers, Christian men, women, uh, they've got to step up. Or you will see this ideology that is a cancer that is secular, it'll it'll boil into isolationism, it'll boil down into uh depressive states for kids. Uh uh we were talking about it uh at the Faith and Culture night last, uh, which is amazing. Um where they basically they're just they're they're done. They're like, hey, I don't even want to be a part of any of this. I'm gonna isolate myself. Um that's a sad reality. That is. And I think, and I've talked with a lot of uh you know, I've talked with a lot of young kids at the youth, I've I've led youth freedom and everything along the lines of that. It's very sad to see how just craving the youth in that next generation is for truth. Yes. They sit on TikTok every single day, yeah. They get fed what we were just talking about, the 50 Twitter accounts, the hundred Twitter accounts that are feeding them propaganda. Then they hear a Pastor Trevor, or they hear you, or they hear somebody that gives them just this is what it is. Yeah. And it's this shouldn't be controversial. This is a this is what the Bible says. This is what we believe. It's not controversial. Um, so I think it's I think it's amazing that we have churches now that are stepping up and saying, hey, listen, I don't care if I lose followers. I don't care if I get a viral clip about me on the internet, but we've got to say what's what's the truth. Because if you don't, somebody will. Yeah, it won't be the truth.
SPEAKER_00You've got to learn, and nobody likes to be criticized. I don't like being criticized, but you've got to learn to wear this stuff like a badge of honor.
SPEAKER_03Oh, I love it. Like, I track my f I track my follower account and I screenshot it and I make sure that like I every time I lose a follower, I'm like, there's another one.
SPEAKER_00And that's why you fought in the military in that book. That's why you have I don't I just have I mean I think something about you know, you gotta be careful about being people pleasers. And I think you know, for many of us, there might be a little bit of an element of like, I want to make everybody happy, especially as a pastor. Like, you know, you want to be pastoral, and I think that's a big tension with people is like, no, man, like you said it, uh they hated Jesus. Yeah. Like Jesus, like they persecuted me. Like these are the people that killed the these are the people that killed prophets. Matthew 10, 22 says right there, they will hate you.
SPEAKER_03And he's talking to the he's talking to them and saying, hey, I'm sending you guys out, they're gonna hate you. And so I I read that's a lot of the reason when I started Great Eagle. I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get some flack for this. Yeah. Um, and then that's when I was like, I'm gonna celebrate it the more. Let's let's celebrate this.
SPEAKER_00If you hate what I'm saying, I'm doing the right thing. If the world hates you, it's gotta become a badge of honor. Yeah, I mean that it that has to be. Hey, uh just before we land the plane, you're you are in the the your your business, and all of that is in the political world. You're you're trying to help Christians engage. Like for people that are listening to this podcast, like it's it's it's my heart. Like I okay, I I need to take responsibility. I wasn't as vocal in my, you know, I was raised up under that ideology, pastors don't get political. You you know, you're not gonna reach people, and and all of that. I had to have a hard shift in my life, literally repent to God and like, okay, I'm gonna say what's I mean, that was my promise to God when I answered the call to ministry. I'll go where you want me to go, I'll say what you want me to say, I'll do what you want me to do. Do. And it's like then you you get cultured into this appeasement idea, and it's like this radical shift. I'm like, man, I'm gonna s I I'm gonna say what I believe. I'm not gonna get up there and play the hypocritical game of like trying to talk in code and all that stuff. Um and and so I recognize pastors need to like myself, uh speaking on behalf of I'm very protective of pastors, I celebrate pastors, honor pastors, while recognizing like we need to do some work of uh getting voices, finding courage, all of that. I want you to talk to the people because one of my passions is I want to see Christians get back engaged in the because when pastors stepped out, it seems like Christians stepped out. And now like like you know, everybody, well, I would never be president. Okay, yeah, not many of us are gonna be president of the United States, but there's school boards.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00There's there's local community, like there's city councils. They that's to me, that's the more important for like our local community is like, I mean, even hospital boards, like we saw in 2020, who was on the hospital board said a lot of what happened in the you know, and how people got help that they needed. I mean, people were dying in isolation away from their family because their family wasn't able to be with them because of who controlled the board of the hospitals. And like that's kind of your your your heart, your passion is and so just like how how do people what's your what's your best advice? Like, encourage some people to kind of get in the game, get in the get in the freaking arena. Yeah, get in the arena.
SPEAKER_03No, I uh I I think we saw during COVID that nobody probably knew who half the governors in the country were. Yeah. During COVID, that was the most important job you could possibly have. That's whether your state that's whether your freaking state was uh Florida or you know, California, where they're probably still locked down right now. Yeah. Um so uh my encouragement to them would be find your voice. Be be biblically sound, okay? Whether in and let you don't have to be a pastor, I'm not a pastor, yeah. Uh but go in there with the correct principles and say, hey, listen, I don't know anything about politics. I have people contact me on a daily basis. I don't know anything about politics, I see something wrong in my community, I want to step up. Um, and it's not the easiest thing to do. It's not easy to put yourself out there as a politician. Uh, your background's gonna come up, everything's gonna come up. But if you've got a strong will and you've got a conviction from the Lord to say, hey, I need to do this, I need to run for school board county commission, because people don't understand there is such a need for those people, the Christian background on the school board, especially because I can go, we could talk for an hour on just that. Um, to get Christians in there and actually bring a biblical view to those seats, go for it. That's my just go for it. If you don't know where to even start, call me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh, if you don't even think uh honestly, call call gray eagle, man. Call me.
SPEAKER_03Um I will I will promote you all day long, man. I will walk you through every step of it. Um just get involved, even if it's uh get on the PTA because the PTA is a huge effect. Yes. Uh get involved with local community. Get it uh uh if you're not in a church, get in a church uh because you'll make more networking connections through that. And if you decide to run later, that'll be a huge networking opportunity for you. Uh just get involved. And if you if you are looking and you watch the news every single day and you're like, hey, this world's going crazy. Yeah, the only thing you can control is you. So do something about it. Wow. So that that would be my that's my my ending on that one.
SPEAKER_00I love it, man. I've I've said for years, what's ticking you off is probably what God's calling you to do something about. And I and I pray the people that are like, you know, God touches their heart, it makes them angry. It's like good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like that's get angry. Get angry. That's that's probably God going, hey, I I put that passion in you so you'd go fight for that school and you'd go fight for those kids, or you'd go fight for that community. Yeah. And I I think, you know, we're we're so accustomed just to being fed information on our phones, and you know, we we talk about it with friends, or we might post a snarky meme to kind of get back at the establishment or whatever. And it's like, no, we need we need Christians to realize we have a we have a response, like we've been to whom much is given, much is required. Yeah, we've been given so much grace, we've been given so much truth, we've been given so much ability by God, we've been given the Holy Spirit. Like God's spirit isn't just for a pastor behind a pulpit. Like God's using you, like like He's using Christians to get involved, like He can call people into the arena of politics. I mean, you could go down the list, art and entertainment, sports. We just we need Christians to rise up and and and take places uh in society. And literally, that's how we become the the city on a hill. It's how we become the salt of the earth. But man, thank you so much for for being on with me. I appreciate I value your voice, value your friendship, your family. Just grateful to have you on today.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it so much. And again, it's an honor to be pastored under you. I'm really appreciative for everything you're doing for this community and for the next generation.
SPEAKER_00Man, I'm I'm I'm honored. Thank you so much. Hey guys, thank you so much for being on with us today. I hope this conversation is valuable. I'm already kind of anticipating how this will get sliced up when we talk about uh war. And uh like I don't mind. It's the arena for a reason. And I I want to go there and I uh I don't pretend to have all of the answers. I just want to have conversations that hopefully pertain a biblical worldview that help resource you and man, I want to encourage you with everything in me. Yes, get involved in your local church, pursue a relationship with God, but also pray about how God might want to use you. Like we I just talked about the story of David and Goliath, and I know like the world seems like Goliath right now, but we we serve a God that can anoint a David and can take down giants. Like those those aren't just stories to inspire our favorite sports teams. That's great. It's stories to make us know that with God nothing is impossible. And like even take the politics aside, there is so much appeasement in the Christian community where we're like comfortable enough to sit back, let the world burn, have an escapist mentality. We'll get out of here soon, we'll go to heaven. Like there, like the promise of Jesus is that we will inherit the earth, that that we have an inheritance here, that God is gonna redeem this world. Yes, there, you know, everything that's not good, there's there's gonna be a destruction, but not everything is destroyed. Like the Bible talks about in the book of Revelation. Oh, I'm gonna preach now. I'm sorry, I'm just closing a podcast and we'll preach. The Bible talks about the treasures of the world being brought into the kingdom of God, like literally the good things on the earth that we do, God is going to redeem. And I don't want you to have this mentality that we're supposed to let it all burn. No, you and I are supposed to be the literal hands and feet of Jesus Christ to bring his kingdom on the earth today. And let's bring Christianity to the national scene, to the local scene. I want to encourage you, get involved in your community. Get involved, go get freaking on your HOA. Whatever you gotta do, let's let's let's realize who we are, the importance of what we have, the freedom, the hope that we bring. Because it's not just about a religious ideology. This is what's best for people. This is this is how we help people. This is how we help people prosper. And I want to, again, thank you for being on with us. It's in the arena. Love to hear your thoughts, your comments. I'm sure some of this is going to be controversial. We'll see. I'm excited to see the conversation, but share it with a friend. And until next time, this has been In the Arena with Jason Warman. I'll see you next time.