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0:29
This is Undaunted Life a Man's Podcast.
0:51
I'm your host Kyle Thompson.
0:52
Let's get into it.
0:53
All right, guys, before we get into today's episode, I just got to point out something.
0:57
Hey, I'm not just wearing a plain black v-neck.
0:59
I know some people are like, "Hey, Kyle, you know, we can get you another shirt."
1:02
And I'm just going to tell you they make more than one black v-neck, okay?
1:05
So I own multiples, but today I am sporting one of our very own Undaunted Life t-shirts.
1:11
So some of you have been asking about merch for a very, very long time.
1:14
And then you didn't go out and buy a shirt.
1:16
Well, I can just assure you guys that we do have a shop up on our website now.
1:19
So if you want this shirt, we basically have this shirt right here.
1:22
And I don't know if you can see, I'm just going to turn around here.
1:26
People that aren't on YouTube are like, "What just happened?
1:28
I just turned around.
1:29
I don't even know if you can see my shirt."
1:30
So we'll figure it out and post at it.
1:32
But that is the pushback darkness t-shirt, but we also have rash guards.
1:35
So the rash guards are awesome.
1:36
They're very much so like this t-shirt, but then they kind of have like an American flag thing
1:40
going on on the sleeves.
1:41
Shout out to the guys at Nearfall for putting that together for us.
1:43
So if you want to check those out, just go to www.Undaunted.life/shop.
1:49
And that will be in the show notes.
1:50
But let's go ahead and get into today's episode.
1:53
So as many of you know by now, I was on the Phil Jason, Al Robertson podcast.
1:59
So that is the unashamed podcast is with the Blaze Network.
2:02
And it's usually one of the top two or three Christian podcasts out there,
2:06
depending upon when the episodes are released or whatever.
2:09
And pretty much it was such a cool experience.
2:11
And that's what I'm going to go into today.
2:13
I'm going to go into the experience of what it was like to be on the show,
2:15
what it was like to be around that family, be around those people.
2:18
'Cause I've been asked about it at Nogem.
2:20
And so I'm like, okay, I need to just go ahead and explain my experience
2:23
and kind of what went down.
2:25
So I guess the easiest way to start would be just like,
2:27
how in the world did I get on that show?
2:28
That's the number one question I'm getting is like,
2:30
how did you make this happen?
2:31
Well, without going into it too terribly much of the detail,
2:34
it all started with Taya Kyle.
2:35
So Taya Kyle was a guest on our podcast earlier this year.
2:38
We did a two part series with her.
2:39
And, you know, we're just so indebted to Taya for so many things behind the scenes
2:44
that I'll leave personal because of our friendship.
2:46
But she introduced me to somebody who introduced me to another somebody
2:50
who then thought it would be a very, very good idea to get me on this show.
2:54
So that's kind of the, without all the details,
2:56
and I'm not being cryptic for cryptic sake,
2:58
but it's just, you know, Taya Kyle really saw a lot of potential in the show,
3:02
but she also saw a lot of potential in you guys.
3:04
And she used the term, I can't remember if she said it on the show,
3:06
but just rugged Christians, this rugged Christianity
3:09
and how we need to kind of bring that back.
3:11
And she sees this show as a conduit through which we can do something like that.
3:15
So she's done what she can to kind of elevate the profile of what we're doing.
3:18
And then obviously that crescendoed with my appearance on Phil, Jason, Al's show.
3:22
And so that was kind of how I got on the show.
3:25
But, you know, basically, I don't live that far away from West Monroe, Louisiana.
3:30
And so we decided whenever we were putting this together that,
3:32
Hey, I would actually go down there and be interviewed in person.
3:35
And so my wife and I decided, okay, let's make it a little vacation, a little road trip.
3:39
And so we hadn't taken a road trip yet with sweet baby James.
3:42
So our 14 month old, we just kind of packed up and we kind of broke up the drive on the way down there.
3:47
You know, saw some, some family on the way and then kind of did those things.
3:51
But then we made our way all the way to West Monroe, Louisiana, which is about eight and a half hours
3:55
from my front door, essentially.
3:57
But one of the cool things about getting there when we did is I actually got a text message
4:01
from Al Robertson.
4:02
So one of the hosts of the show and Phil and Kay Robinson's,
4:05
Robertson's oldest son, eldest son, he actually wanted us to come over and do dinner with their family
4:11
the night before the recording of the podcast.
4:13
And so we're like, yeah, yeah, of course, we'll come over and hang out with you guys.
4:17
And it was so, it was so weird because you walked in and you saw a bunch of people that you recognized
4:21
from television.
4:22
So you got Al there and then everybody's favorite, crazy uncle, uncle, sigh.
4:26
My wife actually sat next to sigh whenever we were eating ribs and everything else for dinner.
4:30
John Goodwin was there or Godwin rather.
4:32
And so it was just kind of a cool experience to be around those folks.
4:36
And again, these are salt of the earth people, right?
4:38
These are, you know, we had mentioned it several times when we were doing dinner.
4:41
It's just like, man, y'all are our people.
4:43
And they say the same thing to us.
4:44
And it's just because there's no pretension.
4:46
And there's, there's no like pretending to be something that we're not.
4:50
You're just there having a good time with people that are just good people.
4:53
And the guy that was actually on the podcast just before me, he's a world champion arm wrestler.
4:58
He was there, him and his wife were both there.
5:00
And he's got COVID right now.
5:01
And I guess he's not doing too terribly well.
5:03
So I want to make sure that we, we pray for him.
5:05
Yeah, you know, kind of, kind of a crazy situation, but it was just such a, a neat thing for our
5:10
family to do because we got to see our son interact with the daughters of the family.
5:15
And they were all very, very nice and accommodating and caring for, for baby James.
5:19
And, you know, we kept him up, passes bedtime so that we could have a little bit of extra fun.
5:23
But it was just a very, very unique experience getting to hang out with him the night before.
5:27
And part of the thing that that does is it makes you more comfortable with somebody because
5:31
I've walked into interviews or walked into presentations before where I didn't get any
5:34
interaction time with the people that I was talking to beforehand, like none.
5:38
And so I'm not a terribly like nerve wracked person to begin with, but you do want to kind
5:43
of get a feel for people.
5:45
Like, Hey, are these people, do they have a sense of humor?
5:47
Or do they get angry and offended easily?
5:49
Or are they more aloof during conversations?
5:52
Do they kind of move around and not really pay attention?
5:54
You want to kind of figure those things out because it's going to affect how you talk with
5:58
them and how you interact in those situations.
6:00
But all I can say is I just got even more excited after spending that evening with them and spending
6:05
several hours with that family.
6:06
I just got even more excited about doing this interview because it's like, okay, these
6:09
are normal people.
6:10
They're just as they seem.
6:11
So let's kind of get this going.
6:13
So let's roll into the day of the recording of the interview.
6:17
So just kind of give you a little bit of my mindset.
6:20
I was a little worried going into this interview because I didn't know what it was going to
6:25
be like to be around Phil specifically.
6:27
And a lot of the things today that we're going to be talking about are going to kind of center
6:30
on Phil as this, this patriarchal man, man's man, you know, type of a thing.
6:36
But he just has one of those personalities where he's, you're not sure if he's going
6:42
to like you, I guess.
6:43
And that doesn't, I don't mean by any interesting imagination mean to say that, oh, he's mean
6:47
or he's rude or he's, he's unnecessarily biting.
6:49
He's certainly none of those things and none of that came through on the show, but he's
6:52
just a more so of a quiet guy, seemingly an introspective type of guy.
6:57
And I didn't get to hang out with Phil prior to the interview.
7:00
So basically I was just going to walk into the studio, throw on the headphones and go.
7:03
And you know, it was going to essentially not get very much time with him beforehand.
7:07
And so I was, I was a little bit concerned about that because I didn't know how that
7:10
would completely work out.
7:12
But on the day of, you know, we're going out there and a member of his team came out and
7:16
picked me up and he's taking me out to Phil's house because where the podcast studio is in
7:20
his shop, which is on his land.
7:22
And so it was raining cats and dogs on the way down there, but then we finally did get
7:25
to Phil's shop.
7:26
And it's just like you would expect any other shop, like there's nothing special about it.
7:29
Everything inside of there was covered in dirt and had a purpose and all those different
7:33
things.
7:34
And I was able to kind of sneak in there in the previous podcast and got to see them kind
7:37
of wrap up.
7:38
But there was kind of a cool thing that happened at the end of their interview when they were
7:41
talking with this world champion arm wrestler.
7:43
This is when they had already done the ads and, you know, we're coming off air and, you
7:47
know, that this is all off air.
7:49
But Phil just kind of looks at the rest of the room and, you know, size there and hours
7:52
there and, you know, it's just kind of one of those deals and he goes, man, I just wear
7:56
all the men.
7:58
I feel like the men have just disappeared.
8:00
And what's funny is Al Robertson looks over at me in the corner and says, well, that guy's
8:05
about to talk about it with us.
8:06
And, you know, Phil kind of looks over there like, Oh, that guy.
8:09
Okay.
8:10
Yeah, let's make this happen.
8:11
So that kind of made me more comfortable with the situation because I was like, okay,
8:14
like there, there is a thirst for the topic that we're going to be talking about.
8:17
There's certainly an idea as to kind of where we're going to be going with this conversation.
8:21
But with me, I'd rather just kind of walk in and flow.
8:24
Like when I'm being interviewed, I don't want to know the questions.
8:26
I don't really even know what you want to talk about.
8:28
I just want to go with it and kind of see where we end up.
8:30
So I thought that was kind of a cool thing because you could tell that Phil was primed
8:34
for that conversation.
8:35
And for any of you wondering, I haven't mentioned Jase yet, Jase was actually out.
8:39
He was doing some speaking gig for this trucking company, you know, out on the South Carolina
8:43
or something like that.
8:44
So he wasn't there.
8:45
Hopefully we can get back there and have a conversation with Jase, but then we did the
8:48
podcast and it was such a fun time because it was just Phil and Al and me and Al had really
8:56
looked at some of our content and some of our things that we had put out there, especially
8:59
the latest devotional and the live performance of that where I was basically talking about
9:03
what it takes to make a godly and manly foxhole to build those things.
9:07
And so I think he really took a liking to the content and that showed in some of his questions.
9:12
And we really just kind of flowed and we just flowed with scripture that we knew and we
9:16
all had our Bibles out and we're quoting from things here or there, but you could tell that
9:21
they were both very, very interested in this concept, but they were also very taken aback
9:25
by the fact that I was such a young guy talking about these things.
9:29
Because we kind of kicked off starting, you know, talking trash about millennials and
9:32
all that.
9:33
And hey, I'm cool with all that.
9:34
We started that off air and I was like, Hey, let's go ahead and hit record.
9:36
Let's get this conversation going.
9:38
And so feels like, Hey, what is up with these 30 year olds and, you know, what is up with
9:42
these people?
9:43
Why are they doing these things?
9:44
So that's kind of where it started.
9:45
But you could tell that they just, they're not used to these types of opinions and this
9:50
type of thought process from someone that's my age.
9:52
And that's kind of well earned on some of the millennials, you know, some of the bad
9:55
rap that we get is something that we haven't earned, but we've certainly earned that.
9:59
But you know, we do the podcast.
10:00
I think the conversation went incredibly, incredibly well.
10:03
We'll put a link in the show notes so that you can judge for yourself.
10:05
And if you didn't enjoy it, just don't tell me.
10:07
I don't really care, but it's just one of those things I really, really enjoyed the time.
10:10
Yeah.
10:11
I got a little gift for Phil and for Al and, you know, it's a book that I'll kind of
10:14
keep that between us, but it was a book that I thought that each one of them would gain
10:18
some value from, you know, based on some of the things I know about their personalities.
10:21
So it went really, really well.
10:23
But then afterwards I was invited back to Phil and Miss Kay's house for a bit.
10:26
And so it's like, great.
10:27
Yeah, I'd love to meet Miss Kay and that was kind of a cool experience.
10:30
So we drive back through the woods and we pull up on this property and we go inside and
10:35
I think I was telling me on the way in, he's like, hey, this is the same house that they
10:39
moved into in the 70s.
10:41
So even though they've made, you know, millions of dollars and they have this big, you know,
10:45
platform and all these different things, they're living in the same house.
10:49
The same exact house that all the kids grew up in, right?
10:53
Just normal salt to the earth people.
10:54
So I go inside the house and there's Miss Kay and you know, I kind of, I don't know, is
10:58
she a hugger?
10:59
Like I assume she's a hugger and I go for the handshake and she just kind of comes in with
11:02
the bull hug and I was like, yes, I really wanted to hug Miss Kay.
11:04
So that's what we did.
11:05
And you know, she immediately turns into hosts and she goes and gets me this, this biscuit
11:09
and she brings me something called mayha jelly and I hope I'm saying that, right?
11:13
But apparently how it was explained to me is that's like a fruit that is in that area
11:17
of the country, you know, Bayou, you know, Louisiana, Northern Louisiana type area or
11:21
something.
11:22
And it's only, it's only comes out of the trees, like three weeks out of the year or
11:26
something like that.
11:27
I'm still trying to piece together the story.
11:28
But then there's not much you can do with that fruit before it all goes bad and so they
11:32
just make a ton of jelly out of it.
11:33
So she brings me like this biscuit with this mayha jelly and it was so tart and so sweet
11:38
and so delicious.
11:39
And so I was like, okay, now I'm being fed by Miss Kay.
11:42
And then she brings me, you know, this peach and you know, she sends me home with some
11:46
peaches because sweet baby James and my wife Kelsey weren't able to actually be in the
11:49
studio at the time because we thought James might freak out and start crying and pooping
11:53
all over himself.
11:54
And so we were just, it was such a cool thing that they were still thinking about Kelsey
11:58
and thinking about my son and it was just a very, very fun time to spend with them.
12:03
I sat in the living room, we did was just me and Phil and Miss Kay and we just sat there
12:07
and they were just kind of talking and then Miss Kay got up and went and talked to Alice
12:10
and where else in the house.
12:11
And it was just me and Phil sitting there and we were, he was just kind of telling me
12:13
some stories.
12:14
And I was just sitting there like, I just wanted to sponge it all up because I knew it
12:18
would be weird if I pulled my phone out and like started taking notes or something like
12:20
that.
12:21
So it's like, okay, I just want to internalize these stories and kind of remember them because
12:24
I felt like I was learning a lot of lessons from this guy because Phil seems to be one
12:30
of those guys that has tangible direct wisdom, right?
12:33
He's telling you, hey, I'm about to give you some wisdom right here, son.
12:36
And then there's other times where it's like there's kind of that accidental wisdom where
12:39
it's like just by virtue of how you've led your life and how God has formed you, you're
12:43
going to be giving wisdom to people.
12:45
But the thing that was interesting is from the moment I left that situation and we're
12:48
on our road back from West Monroe to Oklahoma City, Edmond, Oklahoma City.
12:53
And I just kept thinking about the lessons I learned from my time being around Phil Robertson.
12:58
Okay, and you could, I guess, extend this out to the lessons I learned just spending time
13:02
with the Robertson family and the extended family, the friends that were over there the
13:06
night before.
13:07
But I really wanted to break this down into a few categories to make this tangible and
13:11
really sticky for you guys.
13:12
So the three categories in terms of the manhood lessons I learned with my time with Phil Robertson
13:16
is the time spent with his books, right?
13:19
Because I read a couple of his books before I went out there and saw them.
13:22
The time spent with him in person, right?
13:24
You know, actually seeing him and interacting with him, just, you know, mono mono or in
13:28
the same small group and in time spent observing.
13:31
So time spent with his books, time spent in person and time spent observing.
13:35
So let's go and start with the time spent with his books because I wanted to make sure
13:38
I read a couple of his books because it's like, okay, I've heard him speak, I've watched
13:41
the show, but I wonder whenever he sits down alone at a computer or whatever is, you know,
13:47
kind of helping maybe type it up or whatever the thing is, when it's just him and his thoughts,
13:51
what are the thoughts?
13:52
So the two books I read where the theft of America's soul and Jesus politics.
13:55
So I want to first talk about the theft of America's soul and the subtitle is blowing
13:59
the lid off the lies that are destroying that are destroying our country.
14:03
And the first lesson I guess I learned is that the lie quote, unquote, the lie is almost
14:09
always more attractive than the truth, right?
14:12
And I think we, we know that.
14:14
But when someone says it and that's one of the things about whenever you read Phil Robertson's
14:18
writings is it sounds like him talking, right?
14:20
So he's not going to blow you away with all this blow-veating language and all this, you
14:24
know, flarity words like he gets to the point, right?
14:27
So you're not going to expect, you know, a C.S. Lewis or a Thomas soul or a Jordan Pearson
14:32
level of like, you know, off the wall intellect, but still incredibly smart wisdom, right?
14:38
But the thing that's interesting is about the chapters about this book.
14:42
So in the chapter, in the chapters, each one of them talks about a specific lie in the
14:46
specific truth.
14:47
So I want to go ahead and read the chapter titles here.
14:49
So this is again, the chapters from the theft of America's soul.
14:52
Chapter one, the lie, God is dead.
14:54
The truth, the God of the Bible is not dead and he never will be.
14:58
Chapter two, the lie, there is no devil.
15:01
The truth, the devil of the Bible is real and he is our enemy.
15:05
Chapter three, the lie, the truth is relative.
15:08
The truth, there is absolute truth and it comes from God.
15:12
Chapter four, the lie, God did not create life.
15:15
The truth, God is the author of life and only he can nourish and sustain it.
15:20
Chapter five, the lie, sex is for self gratification, the truth, God created sexuality for his
15:25
purposes and our good.
15:28
Chapter six, the lie, virtue is outdated.
15:31
The truth, God's standard for all time is the standard of virtue.
15:35
Chapter seven, the lie, laws can be ignored or changed if they are inconvenient.
15:40
The truth, law and order come from the word of God.
15:43
Chapter eight, the lie, unity is not possible.
15:46
The truth, unity flows from a God centered culture.
15:50
Chapter nine, the lie, church participation and day to day life should be kept separate.
15:55
The truth, the church is God's presence in the day to day world, keeping the world from
16:00
becoming hell on earth.
16:01
And in the last one, chapter 10, the lie, Christian should shut their traps.
16:05
The truth, God's people are his prophetic voice in the world.
16:10
And so when you're going through that, you're looking at all these huge topics, right?
16:16
Each one of those chapters could have been a book in and of itself, but he kind of brings
16:20
it in there as kind of a summary of these ideas that really are kind of fighting at
16:25
the ties of what's going on in our country, something that I literally talk about in this
16:28
podcast all the time.
16:29
And I usually come at it from more of a cultural perspective, like look, we are coming apart
16:32
at the seams as a country and it's because of all these different crazy ideologies.
16:37
And so hearing it put so poignantly, right, and so simply in this book was very, very
16:42
refreshing.
16:43
And so that was a big lesson that I learned, a big manhood lesson that I felt like I took
16:47
from this.
16:48
And the second one from that book specifically from the theft of American, the American,
16:51
the theft of the American soul, there you go.
16:54
The second one that I thought was good.
16:56
And I think I mess up the title again, it's the theft of America's soul.
16:59
All right, Kyle, get it together.
17:00
Let's move on.
17:01
We're all doing this here together.
17:02
We're doing this live.
17:03
The next one is the gospel message is always appropriate to share.
17:09
The gospel message is always appropriate to share.
17:12
So one thing if you listen to the unashamed podcast or if you listen into any of the talks
17:18
or things like that, he's constantly sharing the gospel with people.
17:22
He's constantly challenging people with the gospel message up to and including the president,
17:27
the former president of the United States, Donald Trump spent several times, you know,
17:31
I think he spent two or three times with Trump basically talking to him about the gospel.
17:35
But in chapter seven of this book, he's talking about where he was asked by the warden of the
17:39
Angola prison in Louisiana to come and be a guest and to interact with the inmates.
17:44
Now, Angola prison, from what I understand used to be one of the most rough prisons of
17:49
the rough prisons in the United States.
17:51
Most of these people are there and they're going to die there, right?
17:54
This is a serious maximum security prison and the warden kind of wanted to bring in more
17:58
scripture and really kind of take care of of these guys in a different way.
18:02
But I loved how Phil described his time there.
18:04
And so I'm going to go and read you a quote here from chapter seven of the theft of America's
18:08
soul there.
18:09
Nailed it.
18:10
Gotcha.
18:11
Here's a quote.
18:12
There in front of the roughest crowd I'd ever seen.
18:13
I told those men I knew why they were there.
18:16
They were murderers, rapists, thieves.
18:19
They were the ones who disobeyed God's laws, had broken the 10 commandments that served
18:23
as the basis of American law.
18:25
And this is great here.
18:26
I love this.
18:27
I love this woman.
18:28
This is the end of the line for most of you.
18:30
I said, most of you are going to die in this prison, but I have some good news for you.
18:35
You can be under lock and key, but you can still be free.
18:40
I went on to share the good news to that group, told them if they renounced their law breaking
18:43
ways and followed Christ, they could be set free from the sin and shame of their heinous
18:47
acts.
18:48
What's more, they could have eternal life.
18:50
I closed my gospel presentation and the men were dismissed.
18:53
The warden brought in another group, then another.
18:56
I shared the good news of Jesus with every man who came through those chapel doors and
18:59
when I was finished, the warden brought me more good news.
19:02
Some of those killers on death row, the ones who weren't permitted out of their cells,
19:06
had heard my little sermon.
19:07
The warden had streamed it through speakers into their cells.
19:10
Some of those men, the vilest of all lawbreakers, heard the news.
19:14
They could have a clean start as far as God was concerned.
19:17
In the days after I visited, I'd come to find out that more than a few men had accepted
19:21
the good news.
19:22
They'd come to a saving knowledge of Jesus and had been baptized in one of the irrigation
19:26
lakes there on it at Angola.
19:28
Their law breaking records had been wiped clean in the eyes of the almighty.
19:32
They'd been set free even if they couldn't avoid the consequences of their actions, even
19:36
if some of them might be executed for their crimes.
19:38
When they awoke to the afterlife, they would be in heavenly eternity.
19:43
So that is just an incredible lesson that I learned from Phil is that he never shies
19:49
away from sharing the gospel.
19:51
Again, whether he's meeting with the president of United States or at the time he met with
19:55
him, he was going to try to be the president.
19:57
This was during the primaries or if he's in prison with murderers and rapists, he's always
20:01
sharing the gospel that that may have been the biggest impact that that I had in terms
20:06
of reading his stuff before I went out there was this dude is always, always sharing the
20:10
gospel.
20:11
Now let's go to the second book that I mentioned and that's Jesus politics.
20:13
The subtitle of that is how to win back the soul of America.
20:16
So this was the book that was written right before the theft of America's soul.
20:19
And so there's a lot of kind of through points that he kind of takes and carries into that
20:22
book.
20:23
But the first lesson that I really pulled from that is that Christians should legislate
20:26
their morality.
20:28
Let me repeat that.
20:29
Christians should legislate their morality because you hear from people all the time,
20:34
like don't legislate morality like that's ridiculous.
20:36
But as most people point out, a lot of smart people pointed out is like everybody is legislating
20:40
their morality.
20:41
We just have differing opinions as to what the best morality is, what the most appropriate
20:46
morality is.
20:47
So I'm going to go ahead and read you a quote from the introduction of this book.
20:51
Yes, in our delusion, we've decided we're capable of governing ourselves without reference
20:55
to the policies of King Jesus policies established in love and manmade laws based on our finite
21:01
judgments have only ever led us astray.
21:04
There's good news though.
21:05
As followers of Christ, we've been given the antidote to America's soul sickness.
21:09
What's the antidote?
21:11
Jesus politics.
21:12
In this book, we'll explore the problems facing America and the king's policies as to each
21:15
of those problems.
21:16
I'll offer the king's declarations about those problems and the declarations that make up
21:20
his kingdom manifesto.
21:23
Then I'll share how you can use your vote to advance the kingdom manifesto and then a
21:27
little bit later in the intro, it says this.
21:30
So no matter what side of the political aisle you choose, you know this.
21:34
If you are a member of this kingdom, King Jesus makes demands of your life.
21:39
This includes the political candidates you support, the political groups you give your
21:42
money to and the votes you cast.
21:45
So as for me in my house, we donate to pro life and pro religious liberty policy groups.
21:51
Cast our votes for those who side with and advance the politics of the king.
21:55
Share the good news of the king with the people in our lives in the hope that they might become
21:59
members of the kingdom and might use their voices and votes for King Jesus.
22:04
Okay.
22:05
That that is something that is so, so important because so many of us have gotten into this
22:10
idea that we need to keep our Christian heritage.
22:13
We need to keep our Christian morality to ourselves.
22:16
That's for us.
22:17
You know, let's just live and let live.
22:18
You know, we're not going to really bother you.
22:20
You don't really bother us.
22:21
And that's not the mandate.
22:23
And you especially see that when Christians don't want to engage in the political realm.
22:27
And I've talked about people in this podcast before, the people that I respect deeply,
22:30
that don't want to engage in politics.
22:32
They don't want to engage in culture, but that is where the fight is taking place.
22:36
And that is where the gospel is needed, maybe more so than anywhere else on the planet,
22:40
right?
22:41
So that's the first lesson that I learned from that book.
22:43
And the next one was that this, and this really goes into the last part of that intro
22:46
that I read, it's that Christians should vote for kingdom values.
22:50
You should use your vote when Christians are just like, I'm not even going to vote.
22:53
I'm not even going to be in the political process.
22:55
What does it matter?
22:56
Anyway, it's, you know, we're all going to heaven and you know, it's the, it's the gospel
22:59
message.
23:00
That's what we need to be focused on, but your values are bringing glory to God and in our
23:05
modern context, especially in the West, it's our government that perpetuates values and
23:10
spreads them across all kinds of people.
23:13
So there's a quote near the end of the book and it says this, it's Jesus politics, the
23:16
kingdom manifesto in action, says this, and these are great.
23:19
These are all good things to live by vote for leaders who will protect capitalism, the
23:23
system that best allows people to direct their money towards kingdom causes, vote for leaders
23:28
who will promote religious liberty, protect our rights to practice Christianity in every
23:31
public square and who live lives aligned with Jesus politics, vote for leaders who seek to
23:37
preserve gun rights while offering kingdom based solutions to the anger that's tearing
23:40
this country apart.
23:42
Vote for leaders who elevate the creator over creation who don't use environmental hype
23:46
to create fear and procure power.
23:49
Vote for leaders who advance the policies of life, the policies of the king and look
23:52
for opportunities to serve women with unexpected or unwanted pregnancies with the truth from
23:58
the king for their circumstances.
24:00
Vote for leaders who cling to the biblical view of the family who promote policies designed
24:04
to strengthen families instead of destroyed them, then promote organizations that do the
24:08
same.
24:09
Vote for leaders who protect the medical system from godless politicians.
24:12
Get involved in your community to help provide the medical needs of those around you.
24:17
Demand that our leaders reflect the character of Jesus that they extend forgiveness and
24:21
pave the way for meaningful political debate instead of continual partisan bickering.
24:26
Speak out against ungodly laws and serve your fellow man.
24:29
Call people to repent and join the king whose law is always love.
24:33
Live your lives in a manner worthy of the king in a way that invites others into the kingdom
24:37
in the hopes of winning back the soul of America.
24:41
So guys, again, I spent a lot of time with his writings before I went in there to that
24:44
interview.
24:45
And that's just kind of an encapsulation of some of the things that I really, really
24:48
took from it.
24:49
And there's a lot more.
24:50
Don't worry.
24:51
I will have those books in the show notes for you.
24:52
But then I want to transition to the time that I spent with him specifically in person.
24:56
And again, I don't want to, you know, diminish the time that I spent with anybody else that
25:00
was there.
25:01
But again, he, he's the main guy, right?
25:03
And they were, that was kind of the main guy they wanted to get me connected with.
25:06
So I want to talk about my time spent in person with Phil Robertson.
25:10
The first thing that I learned is that there is power and using someone's name.
25:13
And I keep saying this is the thing that I've learned a lot of these things I already knew,
25:17
but it was just reinforced in a major way.
25:19
But there is power in using someone's name.
25:22
From the moment I walked into the studio, even before I put my hand in his hand and shook
25:26
his hand and introduced myself, he referred to me by name.
25:29
Hey, Kyle, I got a question for you.
25:31
Kyle, that's a good point.
25:32
And that, that continued even when we went back to his house.
25:35
Now Kyle, let me tell you a story about such and such and so and so he used my name.
25:40
And as you know, when someone uses your name, you, you feel better, right?
25:44
Like it's like, oh, this person's valuing me enough to remember my name.
25:48
And that's another reminder to me.
25:49
I'm really bad with names, right?
25:51
And I have been in the past, I've tried to come up with some different mnemonic devices
25:55
or different things to help me remember names.
25:57
But it's been one of those things that have been a struggle for me.
26:00
And I know that people know to sometimes when I'm struggling to remember their name.
26:03
And I know that that feel makes them feel diminished in a way.
26:06
And so I don't want to do that.
26:07
And this was a good reminder to, you know, make sure that I can figure out a way to be
26:10
better at that.
26:11
Another lesson from the time that I spent in person with Phil is that you don't have
26:14
to speak loudly or often to make an impact.
26:18
Okay.
26:19
Now, this is going to hit a lot of you in the teeth because it does for me as well.
26:24
Most of the time you think in order to make an impact, you have to say the thing in the
26:26
loudest way possible, whether you're talking in person or you're saying it on Twitter or
26:30
you're saying it, whatever, you got to say it loudly, right?
26:32
I need everyone to hear me, everybody pay attention because I'm so smart, right?
26:36
But also you got to talk all the time, right?
26:39
You can't let a single thing go past you without voicing your opinion in the loudest
26:43
way possible.
26:44
And that is the exact opposite of how Phil comports himself because I've never actually
26:50
heard him speak loudly.
26:51
I'm sure he has, right?
26:53
Especially when every details, you know, his past life and some of the sinful things that
26:56
he was a part of.
26:57
I'm sure he has, but he doesn't.
26:59
And even when you listen to the show, he picks his spots, right?
27:03
If you listen to the normal show, you know, Jason Allen seemingly do most of the talking,
27:07
but when Phil breaks in, everybody's paying attention.
27:11
And he has a tremendous impact on people without being bombastic.
27:15
And that was a great lesson that I learned from Phil.
27:18
Another lesson that I learned from spending time with him is that there is power in story.
27:22
And again, I knew these things, but I was constantly on the edge of my seat.
27:26
I was literally on the edge of his seat, you know, in his living room.
27:28
And as he's telling me these stories about people that, you know, would call the duck
27:32
call shop, right?
27:33
This was early on before the television show and they'd, you know, be cussing up a storm
27:36
on the phone, you know, just a normal conversation.
27:38
And then he would challenge him and say, do you know your blaspheming the God that created
27:42
you?
27:43
And these people getting all huffy and puffy and people driving from two states away to
27:45
come meet him at his property to have this conversation about Jesus.
27:49
And, you know, he's telling me the story and it's like, man, and I've read that story
27:53
before that specific story.
27:54
And it's just like there's so much power in a story.
27:57
And especially, and if you're not from the, the South of the United States, it, that's
28:01
seemingly something that is a very southern thing, right?
28:04
So, you know, your grandpa or your great uncle or something like that, perhaps they haven't
28:08
spent as much time, you know, marinating themselves and all these intellectual writings and different
28:13
things like that.
28:14
Maybe they can't quote Shakespeare or anything, but they have so much wisdom to, you know,
28:18
give you just from stories from, from their personal experiences growing up, even if some
28:24
of them kind of border our borderline tall tales, it's one of those interesting things
28:27
is there's such an amazing amount of power and story.
28:30
And the last thing I'll say in terms of what I learned from spending time with Phil in
28:34
person is that truly manly men don't have to flaunt their manliness.
28:42
Truly manly men don't have to flaunt it.
28:45
And that's one thing that I try to remind people, especially when I'm speaking live because
28:48
I never want to come off as the guy that's speaking and saying, okay, if you don't drive
28:51
a four wheel drive truck, if you don't have boots, if you don't have a beard, if you don't
28:55
have muscles, if you don't drink whiskey, if you don't, you know, whatever, you know,
28:58
on and on and on that, you know, you're not a man because I try to always draw that line
29:02
between actual biblical manhood and caricature manhood, Western American caricature manhood,
29:08
right.
29:09
And that's kind of the thing is most of the time you're seen as a manly man, if you've
29:12
got big muscles and you're always wearing a cut off shirt, right, you're flaunt, right?
29:17
Maybe you're really good at a particular sport and you're constantly posting videos of you
29:20
doing that sport.
29:21
And how good you look at it, right?
29:23
You're constantly showing people pictures of your truck or, you know, this, this animal
29:27
you took down.
29:28
And again, there's nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.
29:32
Unless inside your heart, you're trying to flaunt some sort of manliness quality where
29:38
the, it'll make the women's swoon and all the other men be jealous, right?
29:41
So it's kind of one of those things, but Phil Robertson doesn't have to flaunt a thing.
29:47
He's been very open about who he was in his early life until Jesus snatched him up out
29:52
of that life.
29:53
He was a rough dude, right?
29:55
Getting drunk.
29:56
You know, I just messing around on, on Miss K and not being a good father, not being a
30:01
present father.
30:02
He's been very open about those things in his writings and in his speeches, right?
30:06
But you would think after he turned his life around that it would still be something like
30:09
he would feel the need to flaunt his manliness, but he's not flaunting anything.
30:13
He just is a godly and manly man.
30:18
It's just weaved into who he is as a person.
30:21
He just so happens to be into hunting.
30:22
He just so happens to be a business owner.
30:25
He just so happens to have a beard, but none of those things and he wouldn't say any of
30:28
those things define him as a man, right?
30:32
He's a man because this is a guy that cultivates spiritual mental and physical resilience daily.
30:36
He's in his seventies and he looks way better and is moving around way better than people
30:40
maybe 20 years younger than him, right?
30:43
So just an amazing thing to be around.
30:45
A guy like that that's so soft spoken and yet so manly and in this last session here before
30:51
we let you go is I want to kind of tell you about the lessons that I learned in the times
30:55
that I spent just observing Phil Robertson, right?
30:58
So in the times when I wasn't directly in his presence, but I was just kind of watching
31:02
him or watching what was going on around him.
31:03
So the first thing is this.
31:05
He is a true American patriarch and patriot because that was one of the things whenever
31:11
I was kind of getting prepared to go out there and do this whole podcast and everything.
31:14
I'm like, this is one of America's great patriarchs.
31:18
Now it was a television show on A&E that kind of, you know, springboarded his his family
31:22
into prominence, but you got the sense when you're around him that he would be doing and
31:26
saying the exact same things today had the show never happened.
31:30
And if duck commander and all these other things had never blown up, he would be doing
31:34
and saying the same things.
31:35
And as I've heard him say before and I love this quote, he said, the only thing that's
31:38
changed about him and his family is the menu.
31:41
You're like, the menu, he's like, yeah, used to, we ate the bad parts of the cow.
31:46
Now we've made enough money and we're comfortable enough to where we can eat the good parts of
31:50
the cow, right?
31:52
He's just such a patriotic man that he's cemented so much time thinking and praying about what
31:57
was going on inside the United States and what he could do to change it that he wrote
32:00
multiple books on it.
32:01
And he's got another book that I got to hear about, which, you know, I can't really talk
32:04
about on air, but the book that's going to be released next year is going to go even further
32:08
into this because I got the sense that, you know, after Trump lost the election, because
32:12
apparently Joe Biden got 80 million votes, you know, a dead guy got 80 million votes.
32:16
Apparently that's a thing that actually happened.
32:18
But he seemed like he maybe pulled back a little bit from some of the more public things
32:24
he was doing in this area.
32:25
But I think this book is almost his attention grabber back to the American public.
32:30
Like, hey, this is still the direction that we need to be headed.
32:33
And here are some of the issues that I'm seeing.
32:35
But he's spending so much time thinking about these things that even though he's in the latter
32:38
stages of his life, right, he's in his 70s.
32:41
He doesn't have probably, you know, 100 years left in front of him, right?
32:45
He's still spending a lot of time trying to impart his wisdom on other people and to the
32:49
good of America.
32:51
So I think that's amazing.
32:53
And another thing that I learned just from time observing Phil Robertson is that he has
32:58
the authentic respect of those around him.
33:02
Even if they're not around him.
33:03
Okay.
33:04
And so what I mean by that is the night before when we were having dinner over at Al Robertson's
33:08
house and you know, kind of interacting with those people, everybody was still talking
33:12
about Phil and everyone kind of had a Phil story or a philosophy, you know, right?
33:17
You know, forgive the pun.
33:18
But like they were talking about those things and they were talking about it with kind of
33:22
an air of reverence and respect, not like, oh, you know, they, you know, they were scared
33:26
of him or something like that.
33:27
But it's like, they just respect the man so deeply, right?
33:31
And whenever he would talk, when, when other people are talking, you know, you're kind
33:35
of doing this, you know, kind of round table thing, whenever he would start talking, everybody
33:39
just kind of tuned in.
33:41
And I remember, I'm reminded when Jordan Peterson talks about whenever he's giving presentations,
33:45
if he sees people kind of fidgeting in the crowd or looking around or pulling out their
33:48
phones or something like that, he knows that he's not really connecting with him, but he
33:51
knows he's really, really hitting the mark when everybody is just staring at him and
33:56
they're still.
33:57
And I feel like I got to see a little bit of that on a micro sense that whenever Phil
34:00
spoke, people automatically perked up and started paying attention.
34:04
Because I don't get the sense that Phil just talks to hear himself talk.
34:07
He talks when it's necessary.
34:09
So I thought that that was great to see that he has the authentic respect to those people
34:12
around him.
34:13
And as a man, as a Christian man, you should kind of want the same thing for you as well,
34:17
right?
34:18
And then I guess the next thing that I would say is that he is ridiculously humble, like
34:24
ridiculously humble and this man has every reason to not be humble, okay?
34:31
Because just by virtue of the fact that you have money in the United States or anywhere
34:35
in the world, if you have money, you don't have to be humble and a lot of people will
34:38
forgive you.
34:39
Right?
34:40
I mean, the thing is, is like, if the, if the guy with the nicest car that lives in the
34:44
nicest house and has the biggest, most expensive watch, if he's a little bit of a [inaudible], most
34:48
some of us are like, ah, you know, I get it.
34:50
You act that way, but I, dude, you're worth tens of millions of dollars.
34:54
So I understand I get it.
34:55
We all kind of give those people a little bit of a pass, but Phil Robertson doesn't need
34:59
that pass.
35:01
He's just a humble guy.
35:03
As I mentioned, they're living in the same house, him and Miss K are living in the same
35:07
exact house they moved back into back in the 70s, like 50 years ago.
35:11
And with how good duck commander is done and duck dynasty, the show and the books and all
35:16
the speaking engagements and all the, and all the licensing deals and all those things,
35:20
right?
35:21
That family has so much money.
35:23
We didn't talk about it, but I can just read the tea leaves, right?
35:26
They've made a lot of money, but he's choosing to live a humble life.
35:31
Now, I'm sure he's got his, you know, redneck toys and his backwoods toys and all those
35:34
different things that that money takes, but they're doing something different with their
35:38
money.
35:39
And I hope to learn more about what they're doing someday, but even just listening to some
35:42
of his writings, you get the sense that they're giving money to these, these charities and
35:46
they're giving money to individual people to kind of help them, you know, really taking
35:50
that, you know, first century church thing seriously, that ecclesia type thing seriously,
35:56
that the ax church seriously, that that's the sense that I get.
36:00
And you only get that from being a ridiculously humble person, which Phil Robertson is.
36:04
And the last thing I'll say on this for today is Phil Robertson is marinated in the gospel
36:10
and the Holy scriptures, marinated in it.
36:15
If you listen to the unashamed podcast for any length of time, or you listen to him talk
36:19
in an interview for any length of time, the scriptures are just there.
36:24
They're in his head, they're in his heart, and they come out of his mouth.
36:29
And the interesting thing that I was talking about with Al is, you know, A&E knew that this
36:33
was a Christian family that they were showing on Duck Dynasty, that they, that they prayed
36:37
during the show, but they didn't want to have like, you know, basically a sermon given
36:40
every episode, but Phil would basically be quoting scripture while just talking in the
36:47
show and the, the producers didn't know his scripture and those things would make it into
36:52
the show.
36:53
He wasn't quoting it as, as scripture, like, well, according to John two versus seven,
36:57
like he didn't say anything like that, but he was just speaking truth.
37:02
And he was speaking the gospel news, the good news, right, and speaking the scriptures and
37:08
they made their way into that show, but it was because he was marinated in it, because
37:12
that's who he is.
37:14
And you can't just quote scripture like Phil did off air on air around people like, you
37:20
know, just with me, just being able to quote scripture without spending time in the scriptures.
37:26
And that, that is also I've said, you know, I've tried to narrow it down to like one big
37:29
thing, but that was another huge thing for me is you can't get that way by not studying
37:35
the Bible, right?
37:37
And I try to give you guys as many resources as possible, you know, the hundred books every
37:41
modern Christian man should read and these devotionals and that, you know, I'll link
37:44
to books and I'll share them on social media and stuff like that.
37:47
But we don't want to lose sight of the gospel.
37:50
We don't want to lose sight of where the gospel is housed, which is in our holy scriptures,
37:53
right?
37:54
And to know where the scriptures came from, how they got to us from 2000 years ago in some
38:00
cases and maybe even further back or definitely further back in a lot of cases, right?
38:05
But it was a great encouragement to me that when I studied the Bible, I shouldn't be studying
38:09
it to read the chapter and just get done so I can check the box for the day.
38:13
But so I can be marinated in it so that I can understand how this is applicable so that
38:18
I can pull it out when it's necessary not to win some debate, not not to prove to somebody
38:22
how smart we are because we memorize something just because it's literally written on our
38:26
hearts.
38:27
All right, guys, we're going to do a quick resilience boost before we let you out of here.
38:30
As you know by now at Undaunted Life, our mission is equipping men to push back darkness with
38:35
content that for just spiritual, mental and physical resilience.
38:38
So here are the links I've got for you today.
38:40
I've got the link to the Undaunted Life shop so you can go get your t-shirt or your rash
38:43
card.
38:44
Also, I've got a link to my appearance on the Phil Robertson podcast and then also it has
38:48
links to my appearance on the Mike Ritlin podcast, the Mike Drop podcast, and also Cooper stuff
38:52
with John Cooper.
38:53
Then I've got the unashamed podcast.
38:54
So it's going to take you to the blaze website.
38:56
So wherever you like to listen to your podcast, you'll be able to get the link there.
38:58
I highly encourage you to listen to that show.
39:01
And then also I've got links to the two books I talked about, the theft of America's soul
39:04
and Jesus politics.
39:05
All right, guys.
39:06
Thanks so much for listening to this podcast.
39:08
Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and review.
39:11
That is how this show is going to continue to get out to more guys just like you.
39:14
If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just email me at info@undaunted.life.
39:20
That's I-N-F-O at Undaunted Life.
39:22
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39:25
Check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content
39:28
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39:29
Go to www.undaunted.life.
39:32
We also want to thank the band, August Burns Red, for allowing us to use their music for
39:35
our content.
39:36
The Inter-Aucho track on this podcast is a song cutting the ties, which is off their
39:39
10th anniversary re-recording of their album Leveler.
39:42
The links are in the description.
39:44
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson.
39:46
Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience.
39:54
Keep seeking the Lion of Judah.
40:24
(dramatic music)