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0:29
This is Undaunted Life Man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:44
Let's get into it. All right, guys. You might be thinking to yourself, wait a minute, guys.
0:47
Wait a minute. Kyle, Kyle, it's not three o'clock in the morning on a Thursday.
0:51
Why is there a podcast coming out on a random Friday? Well, the thing is,
0:54
is there are certain things that you release on the podcast that can be released anytime,
0:57
because it's a large philosophical topic or something like that.
1:00
But then there's other things that are only going to be in the news for a short second,
1:04
and so I want to talk to you guys about it while I'm hot about it, right? And I'm hot
1:08
coming in on this one, right? I mean, there's a lot of things to be mad about in this world,
1:12
but this is one of the dumbest things. I feel like I'm surrounded by dumb people.
1:15
I feel like I'm the one guy who can read in a room full of idiots. That's what I feel like right
1:19
now. So before I really get into the topic, even what it is, I need to make a public service
1:24
announcement here. I need to make a disclaimer here, because some of you have heard me say this,
1:28
and you've forgotten that I've said it. So I'm going to say it again, and it's not going to be the
1:30
last time I've said it, and it's certainly not the first time. Guys, I did not vote for Donald Trump,
1:36
okay? I had two opportunities to vote for Donald Trump in the election running up to the general
1:43
election here in the state of Oklahoma. I chose not to vote for Donald Trump then in the primaries,
1:48
and then in the general election, I left the top of my ballot blank. I did not think that Donald
1:53
Trump or Hillary Clinton met my basic standards of human decency worthy of my vote, even though I
1:59
know that my vote doesn't count in the state of Oklahoma in the general election, because we're
2:03
going to be read as read as read as read every county. Everything will be read across the state
2:07
of Oklahoma. I knew that, but I just could not bring myself to do it. Okay. I don't consider myself
2:14
a Trump defender, right? I consider myself a person that no matter who is in the White House,
2:19
I'm going to root for them to make the right decisions for the country, whether that's Donald
2:23
Trump, whether that's Barack Obama, whether that's Bush, the older Bush, the younger bill, Clinton,
2:27
Nixon, Washington, whoever is in office at the time that I'm living in this country,
2:32
I want them to do well. I want them to do things that are according to some sort of a positive
2:38
outcome or something like that. That's what I'm going to do. But I swear to goodness,
2:42
you guys are making me defend Trump. And I'm not just saying you guys listening to this because
2:46
I know a lot of you guys are Trump supporters, but I'm just saying you guys in general,
2:50
you're making me defend Trump with some of the nonsense. Again, some people think the fact that
2:55
Trump derangement syndrome is a phrase that has been coined at this point is ridiculous,
3:00
but it's real. It is freaking real. And it's been no more apparent to me than what I just read
3:07
in an article yesterday. And I'm just bringing it to you today. But it was a December 19th article,
3:11
which was yesterday as a recording of this from of all places Christianity today. Yes,
3:18
Christianity today. Okay, that which is a huge Christian news site. They published an article
3:23
entitled Trump should be removed from office. Okay, not really any question as to what this
3:29
article is going to be about. But it was written by their editor in chief, Mark galley, golly,
3:34
whatever G a L L I mark. So Mark G wrote this. So here's the thing. I'm just going to read this
3:39
article to you. And I'm going to do my absolute level best to just read it deadpan to just read
3:44
it like I'm reading out loud in class, no motion, no nothing. But I just want to see if you catch
3:50
some of the things that I'm then going to go back into the article and talk about. Okay,
3:54
because a lot of this is next level ridiculous and hyperbolic. But again, like I said, I'm going to
4:00
do my level best to just read it regular. Since I know most of you guys aren't even going to read
4:04
this article, maybe even didn't even know this article existed. But just follow along with me.
4:08
Again, it's not that long. But here we go. Get a little sip of water. Let's do this. All right,
4:13
here we go. In our founding documents, Billy Graham explains that Christianity today will help
4:18
evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith. The impeachment
4:23
of Donald Trump is a significant event in the story of our republic. It requires comment. The
4:28
typical CT that's Christianity today approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians
4:32
with different political convictions to make their arguments in the public square to encourage
4:37
all to pursue justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition as charitably
4:42
as possible. We want CT to be a place that welcomes Christians from across the political spectrum
4:46
and reminds everyone that politics is not the end and purpose of our being. We take pride in
4:51
the fact, for instance, that politics does not dominate our homepage. That said, we do feel
4:56
it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear. Always,
5:00
as Graham encouraged us, doing so with both conviction and love. We love and pray for our
5:05
president as we love and pray for our leaders, as well as ordinary citizens on both sides of the
5:10
political aisle. Let's grant this to the president. The democrats have had it out for him from day
5:16
one and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led
5:21
many to suspect not only motives, but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And no,
5:26
Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the house
5:30
hearings on impeachment. But the facts in this instance are unambiguous. The president of the
5:36
United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass
5:41
and discredit one of the president's political opponents. That is not only a violation of the
5:45
constitution. More importantly, it is profoundly immoral. The reason many are not shocked about
5:51
this is that the president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration.
5:55
He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted
5:59
to immoral actions in business and his relationships with women about which he remains proud. His
6:04
Twitter feed alone with its habitual strings of mischaracterizations lies and slanders is a
6:09
near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused. Trump's evangelical
6:14
supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty and
6:19
his stewardship of the economy among other things as achievements that justify their support of the
6:23
president. We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear in a way that the
6:28
Mueller investigation did not that president Trump has abuses authority for personal gain
6:33
and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated
6:36
the president's moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency,
6:41
damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people.
6:46
None of the president's positives can balance the immoral and political danger we face
6:51
under a leader of such a grossly immoral, immoral character. This concern for the character of our
6:56
nation nation. Sorry, our national leader is not new to CT. In 1998, we wrote this quote,
7:03
the president's failure to tell the truth even when cornered rips at the fabric of the nation.
7:08
This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on the presumption of trust.
7:13
Trust that the milk your grocery or your grocery sells you is wholesome and pure. Trust that the
7:17
money you put in the bank can be taken out of the bank. Trust that your babysitter firefighters
7:21
clergy and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for
7:25
breaking campaign promises, while in office, they have the fundamental obligation to uphold our trust
7:30
in them and to live by the law, unquote, and this quote, unsavory dealings and immoral acts of the
7:36
president. And those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead, unquote.
7:41
Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to
7:46
our current president, whether Mr Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular
7:51
vote next election. That is a matter of prudential judgment that he should be removed, we believe,
7:56
is not a matter of partisan loyalties, but loyalty to the creator of the 10 commandments.
8:01
To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr Trump in spite of his black and moral record,
8:06
we might say this. Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of
8:11
Mr Trump influences your witness to your lord and savior. Consider that an unbelieving world will
8:17
say if you continue to brush off Mr Trump's immoral words and behavior in the cause of political
8:22
expediency. If we don't reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and
8:27
righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that
8:32
abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated? And with the same straight face, say that the
8:37
bent and broken character of a nation's leader doesn't really matter in the end. We have reserved
8:41
judgment on Mr Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes
8:46
to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best
8:52
to give evangelical Trump supporters their due to try to understand their point of view,
8:56
to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr Trump.
9:01
To use an old cliche, it's time to call a spade a spade to say that no matter how many hands we
9:06
win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical
9:11
incompetence. And just when we think it's time to push all of our chips into the center of the
9:15
table, that's when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of
9:21
evangelical religion and on the world's understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on
9:25
a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern. Okay, so hopefully I did a good enough
9:32
job for you guys for any of you guys that are like, wait a minute, wait a minute, but here we go.
9:36
We need to go back into certain sections of this just to talk about it just a little bit. So I'm
9:41
gonna go into order. So if you read that in order, you can find these in order. So let's go back to
9:45
this quote. The typical CT approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians with different
9:51
political convictions to make their arguments in the public square to encourage all to pursue
9:55
justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition with charitable as
10:00
charitably as possible. So I'm just so glad guys, I am so glad that CT finds it in its heart to stay
10:06
above the fray, right? I mean, they're just in such a great position of power being human beings
10:12
that write articles and post them online. I'm so glad that they can stay above the fray.
10:17
And it's interesting that they use the phrase above the fray so early in the article so as to
10:22
substantiate the rest of the nonsense that comes after this because not long after this sentence,
10:27
the craziest and most dishonest ridiculous quote of the entire article is this. So here we go.
10:34
But the facts in this instance are unambiguous. The president of the United States attempted to
10:41
use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president's
10:46
political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution, more importantly, it's profoundly
10:52
immoral. So here's a question based on what evidence? What evidence are you getting this from?
11:00
CT, the writer of this article, because by my recollection, there were hundreds of Democrats,
11:08
their entire staffs, political pundits, professors, newscasters, newspapers, all kinds of people
11:15
tried to prove that unambiguously and they failed miserably. That is why all the polling for President
11:24
Trump right now is surging everywhere, including all the battleground states, because we've been
11:29
watching this nonsense in the House of Representatives for weeks now. And it's clear that they don't
11:33
have the goods. They just don't. And here's the main evidence to prove that I'm right. The two
11:39
articles for impeachment that were voted on by the House, right? And they convicted Donald Trump
11:44
in the House of Representatives on these two articles, neither of them are even crimes, right?
11:49
None of them are crimes. The only thing that they ever brought up that could be considered a crime
11:54
is bribery. And yet they didn't even charge him with bribery. And here's a little tidbit
11:58
before I go back into the bribery thing. Remember when we heard quid pro quo all the time? I guarantee
12:04
you there for like 24 hours in a row, you heard quid pro quo more in that 24 hours than you've ever
12:10
heard it in your entire life. And yet the Democrats started to change their vernacular to be bribery,
12:16
bribery, bribery, bribery. That's what they said every time they had a microphone in front of them
12:19
was bribery. Do you know why they did that? Well, lo and behold, in these battleground states,
12:26
these purple states that they need to win to get the White House back in 2020, whenever they said
12:31
the phrase quid pro quo, most people don't know what that means. And that doesn't make them stupid.
12:35
We can't know everything. Most people don't know what that means. And so they did study groups to
12:39
see what words resonated more with people when it came to President Trump. And the one word that
12:44
resonated more with everybody, because it's easy to understand, and we all have some sort of an
12:48
idea of what it is, was bribery. And so they started saying bribery. Isn't that interesting?
12:54
In battleground states, they started using a word that would attach a negative connotation to
12:58
somebody, right? Bribery. But after all of the evidence was presented, after everybody came to
13:04
the microphone in their best suit, and whatever the thing was, they didn't even charge him with
13:08
bribery. And bribery is an actual crime. It's actually on the books, because they didn't have
13:14
the evidence, they didn't have the goods. So I go back to this quote, how in the world does the
13:19
editor in chief at Christianity today somehow surmise from all of that, that the guilt of our
13:25
president was proven unambiguously? How is that even pop? Again, I feel crazy supporting this man,
13:31
who is so clearly a boom in many ways and immoral and others. Like I get it. But what are you talking
13:37
about? The guy that wrote this article, what in the world are you talking about? Did you watch
13:42
the same hearings that I did? Because it's as if a writer from the New York Times wrote this,
13:47
they're so desperate to smash Trump. But to say that unambiguously, this was proven is absolutely
13:54
baseless and absurd. It's crazy. But let's keep going. The next quote I want to give you is this one.
13:59
We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear in a way that the Mueller
14:04
investigation did not that President Trump has abuses authority for personal gain and betrayed
14:09
his constitutional oath. Again, based on what? Based on what? Do you have some evidence that
14:17
we don't all have? Did they send a special report to Christianity today that they haven't quite
14:23
released yet? Based on what? Because here's the thing about Donald Trump, because again,
14:27
like I told you, I'm always rooting for the president, whether they're wearing a red tie or a blue tie,
14:31
blue tie, I'm always rooting for the president. But the thing about it is every time there's one
14:36
of these quote unquote scandals about Donald Trump, and he comes out on the other end on the other
14:41
side of it unscathed. I like him more. We spent two years with him trumpeting on CNN and MSNBC
14:48
and the, you know, the Washington Post and New York Times and LA Times, this Russian conspiracy
14:54
and Mueller was going to get to the bottom of it. They were selling candles with his image on it,
14:57
because he was going to save the Republic and they didn't find anything. They didn't find anything
15:02
that was nefarious and any of the things that they claimed that they were going to be able to find.
15:07
They didn't find it. And so it's like, and then now we've got this thing and the whistleblower
15:12
that everyone's kind of forgotten about. This is a person that is befriended the Bidens who had
15:17
been friends with the Bidens, who is obviously a partisan, maybe even a political hack. And that's
15:22
the source of the whistleblower complaint. And we can't even question this person. What? What are you
15:27
talking about? But, but again, the main point here is, what does the editor in chief of Christianity
15:31
today have that we don't? It makes no sense. Another quote here, the impeachment hearings
15:36
have illuminated the president's moral deficiencies for all to see. I just got to be honest, and you
15:42
Trump people, you're going to hate me for saying this. But was that ever in question? Was it ever
15:46
in question that President Trump is not a moral guy on his third marriage? Probably had a few
15:52
love children may have paid for an abortion or two. Like, I'm not claiming that I have no evidence
15:56
of that. But with a guy that has as many, you know, ramblings and stuff that he's done with women,
16:02
can you? Can you imagine that that didn't happen? It's just kind of one of those things. This is not
16:06
a highly moral person. Like, why, why would you even need to point that out? And again, some of
16:12
you will be like, well, that's the entire point of the article. But that's, you don't, you know,
16:15
take someone out of office because they're an immoral person. If someone were to divorce their
16:19
spouse while in the, in the White House, because they cheated on them, like you're not going to
16:23
impeach them for that. And don't talk to me about Bill Clinton. He wasn't impeached because he took
16:27
advantage of an early 20s intern in the White House and had sex with her. That wasn't in question.
16:33
It was that the fact that he lied to Congress about it, right? Next quote here, this damages
16:38
the institution of the presidency damages the reputation of our country and damages both the
16:43
spirit and the future of our people. What does that even mean? The future of our people? Will
16:51
Americans cease to exist if Donald Trump is not removed from the White House? What in the world
16:58
are you talking about hyperbolic much? Get out of here. Next quote. Unfortunately, the words that
17:03
we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly, almost perfectly to our current
17:09
president, except for the fact that there was actually evidence to convict Clinton in the Senate.
17:14
They had the goods. They had the goods. He lied. A lot of people don't care about the fact,
17:21
even though I do, they don't care about the fact that he used his position of power and influence
17:25
to probably take advantage of an early 20s young lady. Now, she was a grown woman. She can make
17:31
her own decisions, but you can't tell me the fact that it was the president of the White House
17:34
pulling down his pants after he unzipped it and let his wiener fall out that that didn't have
17:39
something to do with it. The fact that it was in the Oval Office, get out of here, but he lied
17:43
about it. He lied to the American people and he lied to Congress. That's perjury. It's freaking
17:48
illegal. He could have been removed from office, but he wasn't, but he could have. But to say that
17:54
this perfectly applies in the same way to our current president based on what standard,
18:00
like again, what evidence do you have that we don't have? Next quote. It doesn't get worse. Like,
18:07
I feel like my voice is going to go before my brain does. But here we go. Next quote,
18:10
whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote. Next election,
18:15
that is a matter of prudential judgment that he should be removed. We believe is not a matter of
18:20
partisan loyalties, but loyalty to the creator of the 10 Commandments. What in the actual F are
18:30
you talking about? What in the world are you talking about? So it is a matter of loyalty to God
18:38
that we remove Donald Trump from the presidency of a singular country in the world that God created.
18:47
We must be loyal to God and in order for us to do that, follow the flow chart. Yes,
18:52
we have to remove Donald Trump from office. You have not made the point and not given the evidence
18:59
that would lead to that outcome. What are you talking about nonsense? This is all nonsense
19:06
and it doesn't get better. They keep going. To many evangelicals who continue to support
19:10
Mr. Trump in spite of his black and moral record, we might say this. That's so cute. We might say
19:15
this as they're saying it. But here we go. Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how
19:22
your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and savior. Consider what an
19:27
unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump's immoral words and behavior
19:32
in the cause of political expediency. If we don't reverse course now, will anyone take
19:38
anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?
19:42
Guys, so if anyone from Christianity today is listening to this, I'm sure you're not listening
19:48
to it still, but maybe who knows, you could literally say the same thing about any human being ever.
19:58
I would ask you this. What is the difference between supporting a political candidate
20:03
and supporting your favorite movie star or or singer or quarterback or anything like that?
20:11
The only difference is is we don't vote for our favorite movie star or singer's quarterbacks
20:16
and whatever. We don't vote for those people. You might wear a shirt with their face on it. You
20:20
might wear a hat with their name on it. You might do one of those things, but we don't vote for it.
20:25
That's literally the only difference. And so can we say that if anybody that works for
20:30
Christianity today has ever listened to a Michael Jackson song and enjoyed it and danced and snapped
20:36
to the whole thing, that somehow they don't have the ability to stand up for justice and righteousness
20:42
anymore with any seriousness. Really, Trump is that important that if you voted for him back in 2016
20:51
or intend to vote for him in 2020, that somehow you will not be able to stand up as a witness for
20:56
Jesus Christ. Are you serious? And again, I'm not saying Trump's a good dude. He's a boob.
21:04
He says dumb things. I think he might be stupid when it comes to a lot of things. He's good at
21:09
some things and he's bad at some things. He seems to be a moron when he talks. He can't spell right
21:13
sometimes. He capitalizes words on Twitter that don't need to be capitalized. The dude's annoying.
21:17
He's also hilarious, but to say that he's this important that we, if supporting him,
21:23
if we support him that this is going to be the end of the Christian witness in America.
21:28
Why? Based on what? Now, you might think I've been fired up this entire time. This quote about
21:35
to say about made my head explode. And it's making other people's heads explode because they don't
21:39
understand why people are looking at it negatively. So here's the quote. Can we say with a straight
21:44
face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated. And with the same straight face,
21:51
say that the bent and broken character of our nation's leader doesn't really matter in the end.
21:56
Yes. Yes. We most certainly can. Yeah. How in the world do we connect those two things?
22:08
You can say that abortion is a great evil, that it's murder, that it's nonsense, that the people
22:12
need to be prosecuted and buried under the prison. And at the same time, say that if Donald Trump's
22:17
in office for four or eight years, the fact that he lied about most of his relationships and he's
22:22
done some shady things really doesn't matter in the end. You can absolutely say that because
22:27
these aren't equivocable. Is that even a word? I think I just made up a word because I'm so mad.
22:32
They're, they're not able to be equated. They're, they're not able to be equaled out those two
22:36
things. Yes. You can say that at the exact same time with the same straight face. And I can't remember
22:42
who said it because I didn't actually see the quote, but some political pundit on, on Twitter or
22:46
on, on their podcast or something like that said, yes, you can absolutely vote for somebody that is
22:52
against abortion and that they've also cheated on their spouses. Yes, you can absolutely do that.
22:56
Now, where you would be wrong is to say, yes, abortion is a great evil. And you know what,
23:02
if you cheat on your wife, it's no big deal because I like the way you sound at rallies,
23:08
of course, but, but no legitimate thinking person would ever say something ridiculous like that.
23:12
They just wouldn't do it, right? But again, to say that it, I just don't even understand. I don't
23:19
even understand how they get to this point. Like, what do you have to do? How much do you have to
23:23
hate somebody to write this article and to write that because this article wasn't even about abortion.
23:29
March for life isn't going on. There's not some challenge to Roe v Wade that had just come to the
23:34
forefront, but to say that you can't talk about the evils of abortion if you support president Trump,
23:41
based on what again, how many times it played a drinking game? How many times is Kyle say,
23:45
based on what you have to take a shot, but at the same time, what exactly are you trying to prove
23:50
by saying that? Because you're, you know, making equal abortion and the things that are there in
23:57
and the fact that Donald Trump, it has a very dubious relationship with the truth. But again,
24:02
this entire article, because that's the last quote I'm going to do from the article, the entire
24:05
article is about the impeachment of a sitting president, which technically funny enough,
24:11
if Nancy Pelosi, the house majority leader, if she doesn't send the articles of impeachment
24:16
over to the Senate, he's technically not even impeached. That's something you're not going to
24:20
hear about on the news very much. He's not the third president to be impeached so far,
24:24
because the articles have to go over the Senate for trial for it to be an official
24:29
impeachment in the house until that happens. It's not even technically an impeachment.
24:32
But let's just assume most people don't know that know that and they don't even care. They're
24:36
going to say he's a third president that's ever been impeached, blah, blah, blah. The entire
24:40
article is about him being removed from office because of what he talked about on the phone with
24:44
President Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine. And they spent months and months and millions of dollars
24:50
investigating it and trying to figure it out and bringing up this person with their point of view
24:54
and that person that was supposed to have knowledge and nothing ever happened. They didn't have the
24:58
goods. Am I saying that it was a perfect phone call that there was no, there was no expectation
25:04
on the phone call? No, but here's the other thing that the editor in chief of Christianity today is
25:08
assuming. They assume that they know the intent of another human being because you can read the
25:13
transcript and read into it whatever you want. You can read into it nefarious things about Trump's
25:19
demeanor and whatever. And you can read into it innocent things because you love Trump.
25:22
But to assume that you know the difference because you're the editor in chief of Christianity today,
25:27
it makes no sense. It's ridiculous. But before I let you guys go, I got a lot of random quick thoughts
25:32
that I'm just going to throw out to you. I promise I'm done ranting here very shortly. The first thing
25:36
I got to throw out there. This was a clickbait article and they knew that CT knew that from the
25:41
beginning. This was clickbait. But the thing about it is is you wait until now to post it.
25:46
You wait until three years into his presidency. And now you want to pile on because your buddy's
25:53
over at the New York Times and your buddies down at the DNC. They they've given you permission somehow
25:58
now. And you put it under the auspices of no, we wanted to give evangelicals a long runway to
26:04
think about, you know, why they're supporting Donald Trump, even with all his foibles. And we
26:09
we don't like taking editorial stances on politics. And we're really proud to give me a break freaking
26:14
losers. Next thing, can they pat themselves on the back any harder? These people are Christianity
26:20
today. They're just, oh, man, we're just we're above the fray, you know, but we had to come down
26:25
out of the clouds and descend onto humanity to basically protect them from themselves. Yeah,
26:30
awesome. Thanks a lot, guys. You really protected us on this one. The next thing, it's clear that
26:35
Christianity today and its employees, they have an axe to grind with Donald Trump. And again,
26:40
I'm not a huge supporter of this guy. But there's a lot of things not to like. But this read like
26:46
a jaded ex girlfriend wrote it, you know, one that, you know, went to journalism school,
26:51
but jaded nonetheless. The next thing is it's really, really important to call balls and strikes
26:57
with guys like Donald Trump. And with everyone, with that matter, if you're going to be intellectually
27:01
honest, you should be able to call balls and strikes. Hey, he said this, this was wrong. I
27:05
don't agree with it. Hey, he said this, this was right. I agree with it. And one of the good
27:10
examples for me, I go back and I've talked about this before, Barack Obama was president of our
27:14
country for two terms for eight years. I did not vote for him each time. I voted for McCain,
27:17
I voted for Romney, right? But he was my president. The moment he was elected, I didn't understand
27:22
when I was in college when people said, Oh, George W. Bush isn't my president. It's like, well,
27:25
are you a US citizen? Well, yeah, well, then yeah, that's an easy flow chart. He is your president,
27:30
right? What exactly are you talking about? He's your president. So Barack Obama was my president.
27:33
And I disagree with almost everything that he did. But there were certain things in certain
27:38
positions that he took that I'm like, yeah, I can get behind that. Call balls and strikes.
27:42
It's not all one way or the other. And that's the other thing is politics just like life
27:47
is very rarely a zero sum game, right? Trump can do some things that you like. And if Trump
27:54
did it and you like it, and when Obama did it, you hated it, you're being inconsistent.
27:57
If when Obama did it, you liked it, when Trump does it, you hate it, that's inconsistent.
28:00
You can't be that way. You have to be down the middle. You have to call balls and strikes.
28:04
But again, this isn't a zero sum game. I mean, most people are kind of good with
28:09
some of the things that Trump's doing, some of the benefits that they're getting from the society,
28:13
that the Trump administration, which goes far beyond the orange man, like the entire administration.
28:18
But at the same time, like, it's not as if we've got to have we've got to get him or we've got to get
28:23
him out this idea that it's a zero sum game that we can either support Trump or we can have a good
28:28
Christian witness is absurd. Either we can be anti-abortion, but we would also at the same
28:33
time have to be anti-Trump. That doesn't make any sense. Like it's not a zero sum game.
28:39
Here's another thing. Supporting Trump as a candidate does not mean that you support all
28:44
of his foibles and all of his immorality and everything that he's ever said because duh.
28:49
You can support a candidate and be like, yeah, that was pretty stupid. When he said that,
28:54
the rally, I don't really agree with that. How many candidates, if you were to go down the line
28:58
and go through thousands and thousands of possible things that you could have a position on,
29:02
how many times are you going to be 100% supportive of a particular candidate?
29:06
Every time there's a general election with a Republican party, I take some of those litmus tests
29:11
that are online that kind of take you through all these different things that are domestic
29:16
issues and international issues and blah, blah, blah, and then they give you a percentage score
29:20
of which candidate you align with. Now, they're all Republicans or they're all Democrats or they're
29:25
all independents or green party or libertarians or whatever, but then they give a person that you
29:29
align with the most in the most basic ways. I either like this or don't like this. No nuance in those
29:35
things, right? This just basic down the middle. It's almost impossible to get a 100% on any of those
29:40
tests. It's almost impossible. So even the people that you support the most, that doesn't mean you
29:47
support everything they've ever said and everything they've ever done. Of course not. Guys, there are
29:52
things that I said, I just got a text from a buddy this week and it's a message that I sent him on
29:56
Facebook like 15 years ago and it was, it was inappropriate. I probably thought it was funny
30:01
because I was 19 years old and I thought things like that were funny, but it's not something I
30:05
would say today. And if you guys were to see that message or hear something that I said when I was
30:10
in ninth grade or hear something that I believed when I was 14 years old or something like that,
30:14
you probably wouldn't be a huge fan of it. And guess what? That's why we evolve as people.
30:17
We get better. We get smarter. We make better decisions. I don't care if people flip flop on
30:21
issues. I care if they flip flop, you know, just for political gang and that doesn't make a lot of
30:26
sense, right? About the same time, this idea that you have to support someone and everything that
30:32
they say is ridiculous. So if you're an always trumper, that doesn't make any sense. If you're
30:36
a never trumper, that equally makes no sense, right? You don't have to support everybody,
30:40
even if you support what they like or what they do, right? Another thing is articles like this
30:45
would have made the founders of our country absolutely sick. And the biggest reason is because
30:51
the president of the United States was never supposed to be this powerful and impactful. Never.
30:56
There's this outsized importance that the president has now. And I don't know that we can take that
31:03
back to a single moment where this is where the whole thing broke down or whatever the situation
31:08
may be. But this is not how it was supposed to be. Because guess what? If you, how it was supposed
31:13
to be is if you hated Donald Trump, it's not going to really bother you that much. If you hated
31:17
Barack Obama, it's not going to really bother you that much. Because there are co equal branches of
31:21
government that can protect the citizenry, right? So if they make a bunch of bad decisions, that's
31:26
like there's people close to me that live near near Fort Silldown and Lawton. And they actually say
31:30
stupid things like all this tweeting and all this whatever Trump's going to get all these boys
31:35
killed out here. What are you talking about? You think Trump can just unilaterally send thousands
31:40
and thousands of men to their death in a useless desolate area? No, you can't do that. That's not
31:47
something that can happen. People are like, do you really want Donald Trump to have the nuclear
31:51
codes? Uh, I don't care if he has a nuclear codes, because guess what? He can't tweet out the
31:55
nuclear codes and shoot off nukes at some random country. That's not how this works. What is wrong
32:01
with you people? How can you be this stupid? How can you possibly be this stupid? But last thing,
32:06
so I can be done ranting and go drink a Gatorade. Guys, if you think that one man can destroy America,
32:12
you're a moron. If you think any person, Democrat, Republican, libertarian, anything can destroy
32:19
America, you're stupid. You're a dumb dumb. It's not possible. Now, will people look at us differently?
32:27
Sure. People respected us when George W. Bush was in office, but then towards the end of his
32:31
tenure, he was getting crushed by the media as a, as an idiot and as a warmonger and all these
32:36
things. And then we didn't look great to the world stage. Then Barack Obama came out and you know,
32:41
he goes on this tour of the world, basically apologizing for the fact that America's so awesome.
32:46
And people started liking Americans more overseas, which who freaking cares about that. But then
32:51
Americans didn't feel it's good. They cut the military. We didn't feel safe, whatever the situation
32:55
might be. And now Donald Trump's in office and people make fun of us from other countries. At
32:59
which point I say, who freaking cares? We live here. I don't care what somebody in Greece thinks
33:04
about what's going on in America. I don't care. As an American, I don't care. I care about what's
33:08
happening in this country right now in this exact instance. But the idea that electing one
33:13
candidate and getting one candidate wrong can ruin an entire republic is absolutely as tonight.
33:17
And the same thing is true, guys, if you're one of those people that lives and dies with local
33:22
elections, you know, you're, you're electing the, you know, the dog catcher or the, you know,
33:25
the sheriff or even a senator or something like that. And you think that's the be all end all.
33:30
And if we elect the wrong person, it's going to be into this school district, it's going to be into
33:33
this town. It's going to be the end of this day. It's going to be into the world. It's just not,
33:36
it's not. When we have this outsized view of importance, we diminish the size of God and his
33:44
ability to intercede. Now, you might also say that God will give us over to our sin and all those
33:49
things. He's done that before. We see that in the Old Testament. I get it. I'm with you. I understand.
33:52
But articles like this do nothing because this article was immediately shared by everyone on the
33:59
left. Democrats, atheists, those people love this article because they can say, see, see,
34:06
Christians even don't like Donald Trump anymore. But again, it's not going to matter in the end.
34:12
The fact that Donald Trump is a boob and immoral and a lot of areas in his life, it really doesn't
34:17
matter in the end Christianity today. It doesn't matter in the end. And do you know why? Because
34:21
Jesus wins because his blood covers all. And we're not going to even be talking about this
34:27
week in politics 30 years from now. He's going to be a footnote in some sort of a quiz bowl thing
34:35
at some local bar. We're not going to be talking about it. The Republic will not be over. Okay.
34:41
Oh, guys, we made it 35 minutes of ranting. I think that's a new record. But before we let you
34:47
go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost. As you know, by now, we are a men's ministry and
34:50
our mission is cultivating mainly resilience. And specifically, we do that by providing content
34:54
that for spiritual, mental and physical toughness, just like this podcast. And guys,
34:58
we normally just release them every Thursday morning. This was a special instance. And so
35:01
what I'm giving you today is this stupid article. So if you would like to read this stupid article,
35:07
feel free to go ahead and do it. They've already gotten a bunch of clicks, which was their point
35:10
from the beginning. So you might as well give them a few more. Guys, thanks as always for listening
35:13
to the podcast. We really do appreciate it. If you would, please subscribe on iTunes, SoundCloud,
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Spotify, or Google Play and refer your friends to listen and share this on social media. Guys,
35:22
if we deserve a five star review, please leave us one and leave us a few sentences letting us know
35:25
why you like the content. I'm currently booking speaking engagements for the entirety of 2020.
35:29
So if you want me to come speak on your podcast, at your men's event, at your camp, at your company,
35:33
just let me know info at undaunted.life. Again, the email is info at undaunted.life.
35:39
The website is www.undaunted.life. You can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at undaunted.life
35:44
or facebook.com/undauntedlife. Check out our free devotionals on the Uversion Bible app.
35:49
Just search "undaunted life" under plans. And as always, we want to thank the band
35:52
August Burns Red for allowing us to use their music library for our content. The intro
35:56
out to a track on this podcast is our song "King of Sorrow", which is off their latest record
36:00
entitled "Phantom Anthem". The links are in the description. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
36:05
Remember, keep cultivating manly resilience, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical toughness.
36:12
Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.