Looking at our world from a theological perspective, this is the Theology Central Podcast. Making theology central. I really did try. I want everyone to know this right from the beginning. I really did try not to talk about this. I really did. When this became a big controversy, I was like, I'm just not getting involved. Let everyone yell. Let everyone just throw a fit. I'm going to move on. I am not going to get involved. And then my daughter starts sending me TikToks and I'm like, Oh, I have to get involved. So here we are. I'm about to get involved in something I don't want to get involved in. I know I'm going to tick off a lot of people. A lot of people are not going to like this. They're going to disagree. It may lead to a lot of people no longer listening to me, but here I am. I tried. I really did try. I tried not to do this. I blame you TikTok. That's why you should be banned. Well, actually I blame my daughter who sent it to me, but it was a TikTok. So I blame TikTok. I blame someone. I know what you're saying. You're saying you should just blame yourself. You're the one who hit the button to go live. Blame yourself. Hey, since when do we start blaming ourselves? Since when do we start taking personal responsibility? This is America. We don't do... Okay, well, maybe I shouldn't say that. All right, are you ready? Are you ready? Here we go. We're going to do this. I'm going to do my very best. I'm hoping this goes better than the last, what, three broadcasts that I have done. I'm hoping this goes a lot better. I'm going to do my very best. But here we go. Let's let's go ahead and get this out of the way. Good afternoon, everyone. It is Monday, January the 27th, 2025. It is currently one twenty 12 p.m. Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So you probably have seen the video. It went everywhere. It went viral. And conservative Christians, oh, they had some very strong opinions. There was President Trump. the National Prayer Service, I think is what it was referred to. Yes, the National Prayer Service. There was President Trump sitting right there in the front pew, right? There's President Trump. He's sitting there. And the person stands up to speak. And when they speak, well, they say some things that, well, ticked off a lot of people, including President Trump. He did not appreciate the comments by the right reverend who spoke. He did not like it at all. He took to social media to talk about how upset he was, and then Christians lost their minds. How dare she does? Why did she do this? Oh, she's a she. She should have been speaking. And I can't believe this. And this is wrong. And this is just not right. And everyone was upset. And I was just like, no, no. Not going to get involved, but here I am. Why am I getting involved? Not because of what she said. Not even getting involved necessarily because President Trump got his feelings hurt and got mad because he went to church and heard a sermon he didn't like. I mean, I'm not involved in any of that. I don't care. Why did I get involved? Because this is crazy. It's the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Because our government, I mean, we don't have any other problems to worry about, do we? I mean, everything is going so smoothly in our country. Everything has go smoothly in the world. I mean, we have so much extra time on our hands to get involved in really meaningless things because there's nothing meaningful to work on. There's nothing meaningful to try to fix, right? So our government leaders took the time to put forth House Resolution 59. House Resolution 59 or H-Res 59 if you want the cool abbreviation. House Resolution 59. It was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives on January the 23rd, 2025. All right. House Resolution 59 was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives on January the 23rd, 2025. It gives you the name of the representatives who it was co-sponsored by different members. The resolution addresses the sermon delivered by the Rt. Rev. Marianne Eger, B-U-D-D-E, it rhymes with Buddy, I think it's Bud-E, all right? So it's, let me give her name again, the Rt. Rev. Marianne Eger, Buddy, at the National Prayer Service on January the 21st, 2025. This is, okay, I'm having a hard time even reading this. This is insane. So the U.S. House of Representatives, you don't have anything else better to do, but you've got to address the sermon that was preached because, oh no, we don't like it. Us conservatives, we don't like it. How dare you say something negative to President Trump? This has got to be addressed. Yes, you can tell that I am not. This is just ridiculous. Okay, so, all right, let me take a deep breath. Remain calm. So the House of Representatives, this resolution was introduced into the House of Representatives. It's House Resolution 59, all right? It addresses the sermon delivered by the Right Reverend Marianne Edgar Budde at the National Prayer Service on January the 21st, 2025 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. That's where the message was delivered, the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. It expresses the sense of the House that the sermon was a display of political activism and condemns its message as distorted. So we have the House of Representatives condemning a sermon. What is happening? The National Prayer Service is a longstanding tradition where the United States publicly affirms dependence upon God and prays for the success of the President and Vice President. In this instance, President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance participated in the service. The resolution criticizes Bishop Budde for allegedly using her position to promote political bias instead of delivering a non-partisan religious message. I hate your religious message. So now I guess we want the government telling pastors what they can and can't preach Oh wait, I thought conservatives would hate this. I thought conservatives would be like, this is religious persecution. How dare you tell a preacher what they can and cannot preach? How dare you? Hey, hey, you're, you're, you're, you're preaching. It can't have a religious bias. No, no, it can't be, as they say, it has to be a non-partisan religious message. Well, what if your religious message happens to be quote unquote, partisan? because it goes against a particular view or particular political ideology. Now, as of now, the AHRES 59, House Resolution 59, It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for further consideration. It is important to note, and I want to make sure I'm being very fair here, that the House resolutions like this one express the sentiments of the House, but it does not have the force of law. So let's just make sure he does not have the force of law. It's just a resolution. But the whole thing is the House of Representatives are taking time to do this because they didn't like a sermon? Get over yourselves! How about focus on something else? Now the sermon, of course, caused a firestorm amongst conservatives. See, following Bishop Marianne Egerbuddy's sermon at the National Prayer Service on January the 21st, 2025, President Donald Trump expressed strong disproval of her remarks. In her sermon, Bishop Budde urged the president to show mercy towards marginalized groups, including immigrants, the LGBTQ community. She stated, in the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. and response. Now, of course, President Trump can't say, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't be fearful. Here's what I'm going to do. Now, if you're here, and he could have tried to bring some sense of calm, some sense of peace, some sense of assurance to those whom he can give assurance and not give any false assurance to those whom he cannot. But of course, President Trump could not just say, listen to someone's possible concern and address it in a meaningful way. Who would do that? Of course, not God's anointed Donald Trump, who's basically a part of the Trinity now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He took to social media where he referred to her, the bishop buddy, as a radical left hardline Trump hater. He criticized her tone as nasty and described the service as very boring and uninspiring. His further demand, he demanded an apology from both the bishop and the Episcopal Church. This exchange highlights the tension between the administration's policies and religious leaders advocating for compassion towards vulnerable communities. Now, of course, there's news segments about all of this. There's the sermon itself. It's on YouTube. Everyone can go and you can do whatever you want. My thing is just, look, President Trump can get all mad. He can get all upset. He is the president for crying out loud. How about you listen and go, okay, hey, I may disagree here, but I don't want anyone to be unnecessarily afraid. I don't want people to be unnecessarily concerned. Here's what I'm going to do. Now, I can't promise you that I'm not going to do this. He could have addressed it in a reasonable, rational way, but no, he didn't like it. He didn't like this. I want an apology from the entire church because I didn't like the sermon. Crying out loud, what kind of foolish—and then the House of Representatives is going to pass a resolution? Give me a break. Now, in her sermon, at the National Prayer Service on January the 25th, 2025, or January the 21st, I apologize, 2025. Bishop Marianne Egger, Bud E, and I'm saying her last name incorrectly, I apologize, but it does rhyme with Bud E, I think it's Bud E, I think is the way you have to say it, emphasized themes, now here's some of the things she emphasized, themes of unity. Oh no! Compassion? How dare you! We don't have any compassion here! We don't do that! We're Republicans! We're conservatives! We don't have compassion! and mercy. How dare her? That is horrifying. She preached a sermon where she emphasized unity, compassion, and mercy. This is outrageous. This must be the end of everything. Stop everything. We must address this. We can't have sermons that preach unity, compassion, and mercy. She urged President Donald Trump to show kindness. How dare you? That's horrifying. to show kindness towards marginalized groups, including immigrants and the LGBTQ plus community. She stated, in the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. Now, from a biblical perspective, does her comments appeal to, do they align with scriptural teachings? Do they? Now, I know for many Christians, you're like, oh, it's this really weird concept. Oh, if you're LGBTQ or if you're an immigrant, a legal immigrant, then there's no mercy and no compassion. You're going to go to hell and you need to go to jail. Look, you can be against actions. You can be against sin. Is there still no place for a call for mercy and compassion? Is there not a way to handle this and lay aside the political rhetoric and look at it from a more biblical perspective? For instance, Leviticus 19.34 instructs, the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. Oh no, you can't do that! Now, some people say, well, that's the Old Testament. But many of you will quote the Old Testament to call for the death of homosexuals. So you want to use the Old Testament commands to want certain people killed, but then you want to ignore the Old Testament commands to love people or show some kind of mercy and compassion. You can't have it both ways. And guess what? You're supposed to love your enemy. You're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. I mean, that's New Testament commands. But I mean, that probably sounds liberal to some of you. That probably sounds like, you know, that I'm a leftist. Jesus taught multiple times about love and compassion for all. We see this in Matthew 25, 40. Truly, I tell you, whatsoever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. So there's a balance there. Now, if you want to take the sermon apart and rip it apart and criticize it, then by all means, go ahead and do so. But does it need, does it need the House of Representatives to pass a resolution? Did Trump have to get his little feelings hurt and go yell and complain and demand an apology? I mean, come on, that's just ridiculous. Can you imagine? I'll just throw this out now. I'm going to definitely get here. Can you imagine if a conservative speaker, a conservative pastor, someone that, you know, Christians are like, yeah, that's a man of God. He preaches the word of God. And he got up there and said something and then Democrats passed a resolution condemning it and saying that it was wrong. Christians would be screaming, it's religious persecution. They're persecuting Christians. What are we going to do? It'd be all over Fox News. Give me a break. I think the sermon even with, I think her comments probably, I think it was about 10 minutes, if even that, and the House of Representatives is going to pass a resolution for a 10 minute message. Get over yourself. Trump's going to get all mad because he didn't like it. Whole thing is ridiculous. Now, her message carried implications for current political policies. It definitely did. It was kind of rooted in longstanding biblical principles rather than partisan politics. Whether you like it or not, it was rooted in longstanding biblical principles. Love for the stranger, love for your enemy, love for your neighbor, mercy, compassion. Those are longstanding biblical principles. Her focus on mercy and compassion kind of reflects core Christian values, suggesting that her sermon was consistent with biblical teaching and it was not merely a political speech promoting a specific ideology. I think you could even argue, just from a factual basis, forget whether you agree with her words or not, from a factual basis, it was pretty basic, kind of foundational Christian principles. She wasn't there to preach a sermon whether LGBTQ was morally right or morally wrong. She was saying compassion upon them. Well, you can have compassion upon people you believe are morally wrong. I need people to have compassion on me because I've been morally wrong about a million times in my Christian life. Now, again, you can find the sermon. It may be helpful for you to watch it. I was going to play it, but it's been everywhere. I mean, at this point, if you haven't seen it, either you don't have internet, your phone is broken, or you've been away from planet Earth. It's been everywhere. But. When I started seeing the TikToks about the House of Representatives, this resolution was introduced, I was like, this has got to be the most ridiculous thing possible. So I'm like, is this not kind of like, there's hypocrisy here. See, if Democrats criticized a conservative pastor for political activism in a similar context, many on the right, come on, let's just be honest, would frame it as Christian persecution or an attack upon religious freedom. The discrepancy reflects a broader political and cultural tensions where one side may defend religious leaders aligned with their views, but will condemn others who do similar things or carry out similar actions. You can disagree with the sermon all day. That's okay. But come on, we're going to pass a resolution? We're going to get all upset about it? You just don't like it? You move on, right? How can we assess this? Well, how about let's look at the concept of double standards, right? If one political group tolerates or even celebrates political messages from pastors aligned with their views, yet condemns similar actions from pastors with opposing views, I think that can be reasonably seen as hypocritical. Forget reasonably seen—it's hypocritical! if a political group tolerates or even celebrates political messages from pastors aligned with their views, but then condemns similar actions from pastors with opposing views, that is reasonably seen as hypocritical. Now some might argue that what constitutes appropriate religious expression depends on whether it adheres to the tradition or intent of the event. But this can be very subjective. Some would say, well, these comments were not all, they shouldn't have been a part of the National Prayer Service. They shouldn't have been there. They should never have said that. But in this context, it would be. But that's subjective, right? Who gets to determine what it is? Now, I could argue, how about we just stop all of this mixing the religion with the government and just stop having a national prayer service and just stop it. If churches want to pray, let them pray. Just stop the whole mixing it up together. Yeah, yeah, you can tell that this whole thing just frustrates me to no end. Now framing criticism of religious leaders hitting the microphone, as persecution, when it suits one side, while condemning others as biased, can indeed weaken the credibility of claims about religious freedom and neutrality. It just destroys any meaningful, oh, this is persecution. It's persecution because they go after your side. Just stop it. Everyone's biased. No one's neutral. The whole thing is just ridiculous. Just leave it alone. Find something else to worry about. The sermon is over. It's done. Move on. She will continue to preach the message she wants to preach and she has every right to do so. And conservative pastors can get up there and rant and rave and Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, and preach Trump and be Christian nationalists and do whatever they want to do. I believe, and you can disagree, I believe that my critique here, I think it's fair. So I'm trying to argue for consistency. I'm trying to argue for holding both sides to the same standard. Now, I do believe this could raise broader questions about the role of religion in politics. I don't believe it belongs in politics. Get out of it. Remove yourself. Flee from it. Politics is ridiculous. It's everything about it. Just get away from it. And when people begin to critique, are they critiquing it on the base? Now, here's the thing. Christians will try to critique it on the basis of theology and religion, but it's more motivated by their own political ideology. They don't want anyone to criticize their precious Trump, who can't do anything wrong. He's basically God. Are they really concerned about religion and theology, or they just don't want little Trump to be criticized? I mean, come on now. And her words weren't even that harsh. The words were just like, hey, have mercy, have compassion. There's people scared. I mean, is that like, you may think, well, this is ridiculous. You may think, is this the time? Is this the place? You could argue all of those things. And I'm willing to hear all of that. But come on, a house resolution for crying out loud? That's just ridiculous. Now, you could argue, well, have conservative pastors ever done anything similar? Well, yeah, conservative pastors have often used their platforms to promote political messages, including during high-profile events like prayer services. during their sermons, or even public endorsements of political figures. You want some examples? Let me give you some examples. Jerry Falwell Sr. and the moral majority in the 1980s. Remember the moral majority in the 1980s? Oh yeah, I remember. Falwell often preached sermons blending conservative theology with strong political activism. He used this platform to support Republican candidates, advocate for conservative policies, essentially merging religion and political agendas together. That was going on in the 80s. How about Franklin Graham? I mean, come on. I mean, everyone knows who Franklin Graham is, right? He's the son of Billy Graham. He frequently used prayer services and public speeches to promote conservative political ideals. For example, during events like the National Day of Prayer, he has prayed for leaders and policies that align with his political view, often receiving criticism for perceived partisanship. It's happened on the other side as well. Look, if you're gonna bring religious leaders to a political moment and say, speak, do you want them to speak their religious convictions, or do you want them just to speak whatever you want them to say? If you just want them to say what you want them to say, just hand them a script and say, dance, dance, dance, little puppy. Come on, come on, do a trick. stand up, turn around, sit, beg, or do you want a religious leader to speak their convictions, whether you agree or disagree with them? Now the thing is, should we have these religious leaders speaking at some of these political events? if you're going to bring in the religious leader, if you're bringing in a female Episcopalian bishop, what in the name of bubblegum did you think you were going to get? Robert Jeffress. Oh, I definitely know him, right? He's the pastor of First Baptist Church, located about two hours from me, about two and a half hours, maybe two, has been outspoken supporter of conservative politicians, especially Donald Trump. He has used sermons, public appearances to advocate for specific policies and praise political leaders who align with ideology, even in religious context. But wait, some of you are going to say, but these were all men. They were men. What makes this a problem is she was a woman. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait. Paula White. Oh yeah, Paula White. She's been a part of Donald Trump's spiritual advisory team. She has merged political advocacy with her religious platform. For instance, she has prayed for Trump's reelection during church services and events. Paula White's been right there in some of the events speaking. She's his spiritual, part of the spiritual advisory team. Don't know if you realize this, she's female. National Prayer Breakfast. At these and similar events, conservative pastors have delivered speeches that lean heavily into political rhetoric, praising conservative policies or politicians while framing their positions as divinely ordained. Yeah, many conservative pastors believe that their political ideology is basically divinely ordained, or their religious candidate is divinely anointed. Now, in these cases, guess what? Critics and those on the left have accused conservatives, pastors, of politicizing religion. Hey, hey, everyone does this. And their supporters defend these actions as standing for biblical values or exercising free speech. See, if the conservatives get attacked, they're like, we're supporting biblical values. This is freedom of speech. How dare you criticize us? But hey, hey, hey, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We got this female bishop. She said some things that hurt Donald Trump's feelings. Let's pass a house resolution and we've got to condemn this. And Trump's like, you've got to give me an apology. Just stop it. So if conservative leaders or groups criticize a progressive pastor for political activism in a prayer setting, it could be viewed as inconsistent if they've supported or defended similar behavior by conservative pastors. Both sides struggle with maintaining a consistent stance when the political or theological alignment of the speaker changes. See, if we like the speaker and they speak favorably to our political viewpoint, then we love them. If they speak critical, then no, this is wrong. It's such a game. See, this is the challenge of balancing the separation of church and state while allowing space for faith leaders to engage with public issues. Whether it's seen as appropriate or hypocritical often depends on the observer's perspective. Well, here's the thing. How about we separate church and state? How about we just go ahead and separate? Just stop it. Stop merging this stuff together. If you merge it, you get what you get. And you don't throw a fit, as I used to tell my kids. You want a religious leader, you're going to get religious speech. And I don't know if you understand this, religious speech is going to offend the conservative politicians and the liberal politicians because none of them want religion. They want their political ideology because politics is their God. Party is their God. They only use the God of the Bible as a way for them to get their political power and their political position and you Christians keep falling for it. So how do we look at all of this from a theological perspective? Well, theologically, the church's primary role is to proclaim the gospel of Christ, disciple believers. Political activism should never overshadow this mission. The church is not there for political party, to advocate for political party, to support political party, to promote political party, because we're not of this world. Christians are called to prioritize not the Republican kingdom, not the Democratic kingdom, but we are to prioritize God's kingdom over earthly kingdoms. The church should never be defined by political party. The church should never be defined by political allegiance. Whether I agree or disagree with the Episcopalian Bishop, whether I agree with what she said or disagree with what she said, you know what I can admire? She stuck by her religious convictions, with or without offense to friend or foe. Just as a conservative getting up there saying something, whether I agree or disagree, they stood by their religious principles. When the church or its leaders align too closely with political ideology or party, it risks creating an idol out of politics. This can distort the gospel and alienate those who hold two different political views. You can't alienate people on the basis of politics. The church keeps doing this. You either, you have to be a Republican and a Trump supporter, or you're alienated from your church. That's ridiculous. You can't do that. Looking at a passage of scripture really quick. I don't want to quote it until I looked at it. Yes, Colossians 3, verse 5, "...mortify therefore your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanliness, inordinate affection, evil concupence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." We need to get rid of idolatry and anything that's close to idolatry, and politics is idolatry for many Christians, left and right. Those are some things to remember from a theological perspective. How about a biblical perspective? Preach the whole counsel of God. The Bible warns against using the gospel for personal or political gain. Leaders are to faithfully teach the scriptures, not use them as a tool for partisan purposes. Same time, we're called to submit to authorities. Romans 13 calls Christians to submit to governing authorities as they are instituted by God. The church can speak truth to power as the prophets did, Elijah, Nathan, John the Baptist. However, the prophetic voice should be based on biblical truth rather than partisan politics. How about logic? Christians must hold themselves and their leaders to the same standard they expect for others. If they condemn political activism from one side but justifies it from another, they risk undermining their credibility and their witness. How about we try to be consistent? The church must remember that our allegiance is to Christ. It is not to a political party. It's not to an earthly system. Political allegiances can harm the church's ability to reach people on both sides of the aisle. When people see the church, they should not see Trump. They should not see Republican. They should not see conservative. They should not see Democrat. They should not see Obama, Biden, Harris. Clinton. They should not see anything other than the church. They shouldn't see an American flag. They should see the cross. They should not see political party. They should see the cross. They should see Christ, not politics. But when people hear Christian and immediately assume Christian means conservative or Republican, stop it. We have to fight that. Christians must examine whether their actions and attitudes are driven by scripture or partisan loyalties. Does the church's engagement in politics reflect the gospel or political agenda? It reflects political agenda over and over. Those are just some, I got skipping about half of my notes. Now, yeah, you've heard my frustration here. You heard my irritation here because it's just ridiculous. House resolution passed or introduced because of this. It's just ridiculous because people got upset. And this would go, when the left does this kind of thing, it's ridiculous. When the right does this, it's kind of ridiculous. But it's funny, the right wants to talk about, we need to bring back God. We need to bring back Christianity. But it must be, everything must be in line with their way of, they don't really want God or Christianity if it's going to go against their political ideology. If someone's like, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute here. What about mercy? What about love? What about compassion? forget those things! We don't care!" Well then, okay, now that's just... But both sides do it. They use God when it is advantageous for them and then want to throw away any pesky scripture or religious concepts that goes against it. The left does it, the right does it. left will call with mercy and compassion when it suits them and then throw out mercy and compassion when it doesn't suit them. The right does it. The left does it. That's why I'm sick of both sides. I'm sick of politics. I'm fed up with it. I'm sick and tired of a politically hijacked Christianity. I'm sick of it. I want no part of it. And what the church doesn't understand, keep being politically hijacked. You're going to wake up one day and there's not going to be anybody sitting in the pews other than politically hijacked people who are more politically minded than Christ minded. And they're going to be like, what happened to the church? You destroyed it with your stinking politics. And those who would go to a church who's politically hijacked, leave the stinking thing. The church can be the meeting place for Republicans or the meeting place for Democrats. And Christians can go find somewhere else to meet. Whole thing drives me crazy. Yeah, can you hear my frustration? I'm gonna have a stroke. The whole thing drives me crazy. Man, it does, it gets my blood pressure just way up. because it drives me crazy. And then you got people on both sides who just, whenever you try to speak to these, they just get mad at you because you've got to just speak in agreement with their political leader. And especially in conservative Christianity, how dare you speak against Trump? I mean, my goodness, you're just basically committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because he's basically God. And they say ridiculous things about him. And it's like, either you've got to fact check everything they say, but sometimes you're just like, you know what, I'm not even going to bother. And I've tried to stay out of this. I didn't want to talk about it. I did not talk about the sermon, because I was like, hmm, well, she said that. Okay, well. seems kind of consistent for an Episcopalian bishop. Not really that surprised, right? Paula White was speaking, I would expect a lot of ridiculousness coming out of her mouth because of her charismatic nonsense. If Robert Jeffress was speaking from First Baptist Dallas, I would expect his typical political fox-loving nonsense to come out of his mouth way back in the 80s when it was Jerry Falwell and all his moral majority. I expected his ridiculousness because it's all the same political, tired speech that we've heard a million times, whether it's conservative or liberals. So I was like, I'm not going to address it, just move on. And then people just kept getting more and more upset and more and more upset about it. I'm like, this is so stupid. And I saw people, I wouldn't, if she said something like that to me, I'd get up and walk out. No woman's going to talk to me that way. I don't go to church to hear people preach that way to me. And people were all mad and furious. Typically it was men all mad. How dare, how dare this happen? Then Trump got upset about it. Okay. Then I'm like, okay, it's over. And now the House of Representatives passing a resolution? What is happening? Can we just get back? Let the world have all of their little fights and all of their disagreements, yell and scream, get mad. Can we just realize the entire political system is of this world? We may be in this world, but we're not supposed to be of it. We're strangers here, we're pilgrims here. Could we just forego and ignore all of that and just say, let's get back to what the church is supposed to be? I know you're all happy that you won a political victory and you can all pat yourself on the back. You're like, now we can get rid of these liberals and we can make America great again. Well, you go around making America great again. What value if you make America great again, but you destroy Christianity in your efforts to do so? because you've so politicized Christianity that nobody sees the cross anymore. They just see a big red hat, or they just see a Democrat, or they just see socialism, capitalism, or whatever other political, social, economic ideology you want to attach to Christianity. What value is it if you preserve that which is of this world, which is all going to burn up, and you destroy that which is supposed to be pointing to that which is eternal, which is what Christianity is supposed to be doing? But hey, you know, I'll be accused of being a leftist. I'll be accused of being a liberal. How about just accuse me of trying to be biblically minded and being a Christian? A sinner, but a Christian. All right. Well, that was an adventure, wasn't it? I told you this year is the year of the blank notebook and each day is gonna kind of determine what happens. Well, this is what happened. Because there's a lot of TikToks people going, what is happening right now? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm looking at the Sword of the Lord newspaper. Does that make me feel any better right now? I don't know. I don't know. I think I need a serious drink. That's what I think I need. Politics and Christianity, man, can it stop, ladies and gentlemen, can it just stop? In every way possible, can it just, every way possible. Look, I know one of the foundations of being a Baptist historically has been the separation of church and state. I have always been a supporter of the separation of church and state, as much as it can possibly occur. I'm even more so now, more than ever, man alive. Me and that bishop, we would not get along. We would not agree theologically. We would not. We would not agree theologically. No way, no how. Just like I wouldn't agree with any other political leader speaking at probably any political event. I'm not gonna agree with any of them. Republican, liberal, conservative, it doesn't matter. Because anyone speaking at those events already got problems already because of the whole mixing of politics and Christianity. But I will always, If someone is staying true to their Christian or their religious conviction, they're not looking at it from a political perspective, but a religious perspective, then, okay, you can look at her comments and say, well, that was liberalism. I guess it also sounds very much like the words of Jesus, sounds like Leviticus, sounds like Matthew. But at the same time, you may disagree. I understand. And others may say that conservative politicians or conservative speakers sound biblical. That's the thing. Everyone can go to the Bible and find the verses that supports their political ideology and sound biblical. therefore giving biblical justification for the political ideology. But you have to look at the political ideology from a total philological framework, which requires more than one or two verses. But that happens on both sides. All right. I apologize. Oh, no. Do I apologize for getting frustrated? I don't. I don't really. I don't. I was going to apologize. I mean, if it unnecessarily offended people, I apologize for that. But hey, I'm just going to be real. I get frustrated. I get angry about this. I do. So that's the way it is. So thank you for listening. Everyone have a great day. Yeah. Politics. Man. Everyone have a good day. God bless.