Kevin Sorbo on Hollywood and Culture

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September 27, 2021

Rapp Report episode 191 This week Andrew and Bud are joined by actor Kevin Sorbo. Kevin has been an actor known for the TV series Hercules that ran for over six years. Kevin Sorbo ran into problems in Hollywood as he started to challenge people with their intolerance. Instead of crying and complaining he started...

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00:59: See website for details. One, two, three! Welcome to the Rap Report with your host,
01:04: Andrew Rapoport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the
01:11: Christian podcast community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.
01:18: All right, well welcome to the Rap Report. I'm your host, Andrew Rapoport, with my trusty sidekick,
01:24: Bud the Wiser. How you doing, sir? Greetings. Greetings. I'm doing great. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
01:30: I'm excited about the show that we're going to have. We have a special guest that's going to be on. I'm hoping you guys are going to enjoy a good, lively discussion about Hollywood and all the good things it's not producing.
01:47: But there are some that may be producing good things. Yeah, yeah. So we're glad to be here with you.
01:53: We're part of the Christian podcast community. We want you to really get into this episode.
01:59: We're going to have a lot that we're going to talk about between our culture, Hollywood, things like that. And, you know, this is an interesting thing, but before we get into that, let me just mention that, you know, we're part of the
02:11: Christian podcast community. We don't mention a whole lot about that often enough. But we're going to be kind of getting together,
02:18: Bud. You and I are going to get to see each other once again. We're going to be at the G3 conference and we have a number of podcasters that will be represented down there.
02:27: We have about at least 10 of our podcasters that will be down there. Some of them have different booths that they'll be having.
02:35: So I'm thinking it's about 10 podcasts, about a dozen podcasters that will be represented there.
02:44: So if you're down at G3, come check us out. I know I'll probably be sticking around,
02:51: I'll be hanging out, helping out Justin Peters. He'll have a booth down there. So if you go to the Justin Peters booth in the exhibit hall, you may find
02:58: Justin or I. And so, but you'll see, I know that Stop and Think About It podcast will be having a booth under,
03:07: I'm trying to remember the name of their ministry. It's Street Fishing, I believe is what it's called.
03:13: But Phil Sessile usually has a booth. Nathaniel Jolly will have a booth for his podcast.
03:21: Those are ones I know that are going to be having booths. But Bud will be there. I will be there. Justin will be there.
03:27: Do Theology, Jeremy and Ken will be there. Chris Honholtz from Voice of Reason Radio will be there.
03:34: Anthony Silvestro, who is with me on Apologetics Live, will be there. Nathaniel Jolly and Eki will be there.
03:43: BudZone will be represented. The BudZone podcast by you, Bud. So there's a great way to get to meet some of the people that you have been listening to on your podcast apps.
03:55: So I hope that you'll come down, meet us at G3. That'll be a lot of fun. You could look for Mr.
04:02: Bud. He'll be the guy that looks like Santa Claus. We'll dress him up in a red suit. He's got the beard for it.
04:08: Because I didn't get one the last time. Are you still going to be autographing those pictures of yourself? No, no, no.
04:15: I'm autographing pictures of you. Did you really think you're going to use a joke on me and I'm not going to turn it around quickly?
04:26: Come on. I'm on your team. Hey, listen. Let me tell you how this interview turned about before we bring our guest on.
04:34: So I was in an airport, ran into our guest. And one of the things is,
04:40: I do a lot of travel, Bud, I know you know that, and I get a lot of people that will hand me business cards. And by the time
04:45: I get home, I'll be honest, I completely forgot who that person was, why they gave me a business card, why
04:51: I'm supposed to get in touch with them. Sometimes I try to write it right away. And I got to tell you, this probably wouldn't have happened had our guest not reached out to me.
05:04: And he basically was like, hey, I got your business card. I'm sorry. I do a lot of travel.
05:09: I couldn't remember why we were supposed to get together. And so we started to dialogue back and forth on email, having some good exchanges.
05:20: And I just like, this is going to be a great interview, just a lot of fun,
05:25: I think. And so what I'd like to do is go to bring in our guest for an interview.
05:32: So hope that you guys enjoy this. Let's bring in our guest. Well, folks, as many of you know, those are the regular listeners of my podcast, you know that I'm not one for pop culture.
05:45: You guys have heard me share many times before about how I have been able to meet people in airports or as I travel, share the gospel with people like Ray Liotta, Tony Ramos, Keith Eliason, and had no idea who these people are.
06:01: So this is actually a treat for me because this is one of the few times that I've bumped into someone.
06:07: I've actually sat in an airplane next to, oh, now
06:12: I forgot his name, on Huckabee, Mike Huckabee, and didn't even recognize him until someone mentioned him.
06:19: So this is the first that I actually recognize somebody, and not for what he's most known for probably, but I was in an airport,
06:26: I ran into, I saw someone, I said, yes, really looks very familiar. I pulled my wife aside,
06:33: I said, hi, I pulled up the IMDB, he said, doesn't this look like him? She's like, yeah. And I knew you from God is
06:40: Not Dead, but you're most known for your role as Hercules. Welcome to the show,
06:46: Kevin Sorbo. It's good to be here, yeah, yeah, Hercules, pardon the sin of pride here, but by a seven year rundown in New Zealand, and we were in 176 countries, and by season three, we became the most watched show in the world.
06:58: So I had to throw it out there, because how many people can actually say they've been part of a show that was the most watched show in the world? And then
07:04: I followed it up with Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. I'm a big Star Trek fan, so my character, Captain Dylan Hunt, was the first captain ever created by Gene Roddenberry back in 1969, when the original
07:13: Star Trek series got canceled. But I got to tell you, I travel a lot, and go through hotels, and restaurants, and airports, where I'm flying all the time.
07:27: Eighty percent of the time now, people come up to me, and they say, hey, please make more movies like What If, God's Not Dead, Soul Surfer, Let There Be Light.
07:34: It's not Hercules anymore. People want to see more movies like this that have a positive message, and boy, do we need that in today's world.
07:41: Well, you know, one of the people that was there that, I guess she came up and took a photo with you, and she actually was on my flight, it became a gospel conversation, which
07:50: I tried to turn all of them into that. But the neat thing was, she was like, yeah, she didn't even remember your name, she was like,
07:55: I got a picture with Hercules. You should check out some of the other movies he's done. So I was able to name some of the other movies you've done, to try to get her to see
08:04: God Is Not Dead, or some of the others. And you and I have some mutual friends with Ray Comfort, and another actor,
08:11: Kirk Cameron, who used to live up where you used to live. He was just down the road from me, yeah. His kids and my kids run the same track team together, and all that.
08:19: So I've known Kirk a long time. So let me start with that, because one of the things
08:24: I thought was interesting with your background, you met your wife on set the way Kirk did. At least on set, you both met.
08:31: How did you, because folks that listen to the Christian Podcast Community, your wife has been on one of our other podcasts,
08:40: The Schoolhouse Rocked, and she's been, I think three or four times, she's been a guest on there.
08:46: So how did you and your wife meet? It was on Hercules. I joke about it with her, she probably doesn't like it, but she lets me say it.
08:56: Every episode they sent down a pretty girl for me to work with, so it was a great dating service for me. And then she came down there at the end of season four, and we just hit it off right away.
09:07: I mean, I'm an incredible flirt, and the very first night of filming was the last scene of the episode, where we have to say this tearful goodbye to each other.
09:20: And there's a kiss, and then I walk away into the hero walking into the sunset. So I walk up to her and I said,
09:26: Sam, what about this kiss? Maybe we should practice it. She looks at me. And then
09:31: I asked her, I said, how are we going to make this work? My gosh. And she started talking about it. I go, well, I'm in New Zealand, you're in LA, we got this water hazard called the
09:39: Pacific Ocean between us. I don't know how we're going to make this work. She laughs. She goes, Kevin, I don't date actors. And I certainly don't date guys with long hair, because my hair was really long back in that series.
09:48: And I said, well, right now I'm making a pretty good living with the long hair. But I wore her down, and I finally got a date with her the following weekend.
09:54: And I picked her up at the hotel we always put the actors in. And she gets in my car, and I had a country music station on.
10:00: She goes, country music? And I said, well, I like all kinds of music, but it's the only country music station in all of New Zealand.
10:06: If you want to change it. She goes, no, no, I love country music. We go out and we're talking, talking. And then I said something.
10:11: And she said, wait a minute. Are you conservative? I go, yeah, I'm pretty conservative. My politics are definitely lean to the right.
10:19: Talk a little bit more. And I said something else. She goes, hold on, hold on. Are you a Christian? I said, yeah, I've been a Christian my whole life. She says, wait a second.
10:25: Christian, conservative, country music, the three Cs, Kevin, I think I'm in love with you. And that's how the relationship started.
10:33: We got engaged within six months and married a year after that. Wow. Yeah. 23 years and three kids.
10:39: Here we are. Yeah. Now, you have if you've talked to Kirk, you know the story of how his first kiss with his wife.
10:45: No, I don't know that. Oh, yeah. OK. I know they were on the show. They were on the show. He was so nervous. He put I forget the name of it.
10:52: The stuff that you put for teething kids for when their teeth are teething and he numbed his lips and he numbed his lips so bad when he gave the kiss, it numbed her lips and they had to redo the scene.
11:04: And I said, Kirk, you were just trying to get another kiss out of the deal. What does the numbing the lips for us to do?
11:10: He was just so nervous about kissing her because this was the first kiss he was going to do. She's actually his, you know, the first girl he was with.
11:19: And so. Yeah. Really. Yeah. He's got a lot of funny stories. Well, we did.
11:26: We did the kissing scene and I looked at the director and I said, could you do that one more time? I think I didn't do it quite right. You told my head the other way.
11:34: I said, I think I need to try one more time. How many takes of the kissing scene did you do?
11:39: I think we just like to, you know, it was the show was and we shot like 10 day episodes and there were, you know, long days.
11:46: There were 12 to 14 hour days and I was lifting weights two hours a day and it was typical for me to be about 16 to 17 hours door to door on that show.
11:54: But I loved it. And New Zealand's beautiful. And I worked with an amazing crew that all of them went on to work on Lord of the Rings and half of them ended up winning
12:01: Academy Awards for Lord of the Rings. But it was it was a great chapter in my life. I'll tell you one thing I liked about what they did, even though it's mythology, you know, mythology, the writers always put in really good moral moral messages in there.
12:13: And I got that through the fan mail coming in, which was great. So I always appreciated that because I thought, you know, it was such a show that if we don't if we take ourselves seriously, number one, people are going to laugh at us.
12:25: We want to make sure people laugh with us. That's why we had goofy fight scenes and, you know, we also had a lot of humor in there, but they also had good messages in there as well.
12:32: And I really appreciated that. And I think that sort of is what I wanted to do anyway, and I think sort of set the groundwork for what
12:38: I did later in life. Yeah. I mean, one of the things I just want to ask is when you're known as being
12:43: Hercules now later in life, do you do you still work out so that you can, you know, still look like you're you got that same body that you had, you know, the show finished 21 years ago.
12:55: I shot that series all through my 30s. So you can figure out my age now, but I still work out every day. I just got done working out here about an hour ago.
13:02: And I still I love to work out, but it's hard. I could not do probably 60, 70 percent of the stunts
13:08: I used to do on Hercules. But I'm still love it. Still love to stay in shape. Well, you're known for being a hard having a good hard work ethic.
13:16: I mean, you have is interesting. When I went on to IMDB to see some of what your work is, you have one hundred and forty seven credits there on different things you've worked on.
13:27: And I was like, that is an amazing list. And I mean, there's several for every year.
13:34: So how do you even keep that kind of schedule? I got to tell you, I shot Hercules and Andromeda 12 straight years from 1993, 2005.
13:42: And then I started doing movies and independent movies for the most part. I started questioning people on the set because I got tired of the hypocrisy and the attacks on conservatives, on the attacks on Christians and all that.
13:53: So I just got tired of saying, OK, I'm not going to sit in the corner. Let's talk about this without being, you know, confrontational.
13:59: I said, well, why do you feel that way? You know, and it got out and it became more and more me posting things on Twitter and Facebook.
14:06: My wife said it's going to hurt you. Sure enough, my agent called me in about 10 years ago and said, we can't work with anymore.
14:11: I went, why? Well, it's because you're conservative and Christian. That's tough in this business. People don't want to work with you. And I went, wow,
14:17: I'm in an industry, as you know, and you've heard this yourself. You don't have to be in it. They're the ones who scream for tolerance all the time.
14:23: Yeah, you've got to be tolerant of this, of that, of everything. Freedom of speech. It's all a one way street with these guys.
14:29: And I and I told him that. And I said, well, it's sad, guys, because I don't harbor that kind of anger and hate that you guys have towards people like me.
14:35: I mean, Christianity and conservatism in Hollywood is like being a double leper. So this is what
14:40: I got to deal with. And I formed my own company and I just started doing my own movies and people started calling me independent movies.
14:47: And it just sort of fed on itself. And so I've been shooting about four movies a year on average.
14:52: The last three or four years, I've really gotten into documentaries, which I love doing as well. Just finished another one.
14:59: I did one called Before the Wrath. It's on the book of Revelation. I highly recommend it to people. It's a wonderful educational look at the rapture.
15:06: And the same guys came to me now and they just finished filming. I'll be narrating very soon. That one as well is called
15:12: Eating with the Enemy. I love that title. It deals with the Last Supper. So that's going to come out around Christmas time.
15:18: So I mean, Easter. So I'm staying busy with that kind of stuff. And I'm prepping right now. Just last night reading the script, making notes on my on the next
15:26: Left Behind movie. We're filming that up in Canada and I'll be directing and acting in that one. So I hope people will be looking for that sometime next year.
15:33: Yeah. And when we met, you also said you were doing a documentary in Israel. You were going to be going to Israel to do some.
15:40: Yeah, I got moved around because the craziness of COVID, you know, it's like fear is such an amazing weapon and they're using it at every level against us to, you know, make sure that people can't have a life anymore.
15:48: But so now we're shooting. I think it's going to be mid or late January because they just discovered an archaeological dig, the oldest temple they've ever found.
15:56: So we're going to be in Jordan for that and a little bit in Israel. And I've got another one that I shot there a couple of years ago called
16:03: Against the Tide with John Lennox. So I highly recommend Against the Tide. Go to Against the Tide dot movie and the other ones before the wrath dot com.
16:10: So check those out. But Against the Tide is with John Lennox. He's an apologist, retired math professor. So you know who he is.
16:16: He's a great guy. And we spent three weeks in Oxford, England, two weeks in Israel. And I play
16:21: I play the guy that questions that a Christian would ask an agnostic and an atheist would ask. So, I mean, he just takes over from there.
16:28: You know, I just throw these questions at him as we're walking, following in the footsteps of Jesus. And it was a really good documentary about proving
16:34: God in the world of science. And once again, it's called Against the Tide. Yeah, he's he's really good as an apologist.
16:40: Great guy. Great guy. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned in Hollywood, I mean, this is the thing I'm assuming talking with Kirk about is, you know, what's it like being someone in Hollywood that's worse than being conservative, having the
16:55: Christian label? You know, it's amazing to me. Hollywood used to be a pretty conservative place.
17:01: And if you remember, they did like up until the 60s and the 50s, they were shooting what Ben -Hur and Ten Commandments and Samson Delilah.
17:08: They were doing all these kinds of things. You know, the Warner Brothers, they were they were conservative guys. The 60s changed everything with the
17:14: Vietnam War, the free love, the rock and roll, the band, the broad. I mean, you know, all kinds of, you know, the racial injustice, all that stuff kind of kicked in.
17:23: And all of a sudden we started doing movies that we made the antihero, the hero. We glorify that.
17:29: Look, I love Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, too. Robert Redford, Paul Newman are probably the reason I want to be an actor. But the real
17:35: Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid didn't look like those guys. And they didn't quip like those guys. And they weren't nice guys.
17:40: They were bad guys. But the movie, they make them charming, fun and just like, you know, great little, you know, bad guy rascals, you know.
17:47: And that's what we've done. And Walt Disney said back in the 1950s that movies and television will influence our youth.
17:53: Well, look where we are right now. Look at the stuff coming out. Cable movies. Everything deals with anger and hate and divisiveness.
18:00: And, you know, I do movies that, you know, I've done 67 movies and counting. There's about a dozen
18:06: I wish I didn't do. OK, they sucked. But I didn't know they were going to suck when I did them. But, you know, I try to do movies that have hope, love, laughter, redemption, faith, things that are positive.
18:15: The reason I want to be an actor was looking at old movies because my mom used to watch all these old black and white movies with Cary Grant and Spencer Tracy and Catherine Hepburn and all that.
18:23: And I love those movies. And they had stories that you kind of go, oh, man, you know, I can relate to that guy or I know somebody like that guy.
18:30: And I want to you know, I like a roller coaster ride like Avengers, too. But it's all visual effects, right? I want to do a movie that make people think a little bit more instead of walking out and going great visual effects.
18:38: I mean, that's what all these movies are now. So this is the road I'm on. I think the toughest thing we have is trying to raise money for.
18:45: You know, we do movies in the three to four million range. That's catering budget on Pirates of the Caribbean. Those are 300 million dollar movies.
18:53: I'm trying to do you know, it's like pulling teeth to raise money on these great little movies that have a positive impact on people.
19:00: And I meet so many people that want these movies, people of wealth, but they'd rather spend millions on politicians that don't get elected.
19:06: I'm going, guys, we have to fight the culture that Hollywood's putting out there. And the only way to do that is keep doing movies like I'm doing.
19:13: Yeah, we have to do use the same means of what they use to try to take the color. And what a lot of people don't know in the 50s and before there actually was a pastoral board that used to review movies.
19:24: And they got rid of that. And that's that was really they got rid of that so that they could do all the filth that that they've wanted to do.
19:30: Well, all the movies back then were G and PG for the most part. And there was always singing and dancing for whatever reason in every movie.
19:36: And but the 60s brought in the rating system. You know, everybody in the PG -13 ran the R and X and all that stuff.
19:43: So 60s changed quite a bit. You know, we took God out of school. We passed the
19:48: Social Welfare Reform Act that that ultimately has just made the black population prisoners in their own house.
19:55: And, you know, they went from they went from the least, the least divorced group of people to the most, most kids, 80 percent of kids in the black community are raised out of father now.
20:05: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the thing that a lot of people don't want to address. They you know, when we talk about social justice and things like this, the one thing people don't want to address is what the real the root causes, you know, the root cause.
20:16: And this is irregardless of how much melanin you have in your skin. It has to do with your upbringing.
20:23: You raise a single single mother home. Most of these single mothers are working two jobs just to try and make ends meet.
20:30: They don't have time for the children. Who's raising the children? The TV, the gangs.
20:35: It's, you know, so, you know, next week on or actually this week on Paul Jack's Live, my other podcast, we're going to have two guys that were in gangs that are now in full time ministry.
20:47: One of which you may know, because I know, you know, of Living Waters is is Emile Zwayne from the from Living Waters, Ray Comfort's son in law.
20:55: And so the but this is they don't have anyone to raise them. So the issue is not the oppression, because everybody everybody's oppressed.
21:03: Everyone can go to their background and look. I mean, I was raised Jewish in a very Catholic neighborhood.
21:09: And yeah, we would be targeted for things. I was always picked picked on because I was Jewish. You stand out in that.
21:16: And so, yeah, I can sit there and say I'm oppressed. But the difference is, you know, I had a good had a good family upbringing.
21:22: And my father said, no, you don't just sit there and whine about it. Use that to improve, be better, you know, prove everyone wrong then.
21:30: And that was always the thing. I don't hear that message. And that's the message I do hear in your in your movies of good, you know, godly principles.
21:39: Yeah, I've been fortunate. Yeah, you really started with what if people haven't seen what if I highly recommend it in my book.
21:45: It's in my top five easily. It's a better movie than God's Not Dead. Same writers came out about two and a half years earlier.
21:52: Pure Flix just didn't do that great a job promoting it. But it's difficult. I said independent movies don't have a hundred million dollar budget to get out there and promote it.
21:59: So you got to rely on word of mouth and God's Not Dead just exploded. That was an anomaly in the independent world.
22:05: But what if Dallas Jenkins directed it? Dallas is now doing The Chosen right now. We've always been friends.
22:12: Our kids, kids are the same age as mine. And when we were still living in L .A., he was there before he moved to Chicago. Now he's down and living in Dallas full time.
22:19: But he he sent me a script. He said, what do you think after I read it? And I said, dude, who's playing Pastor Ben? He starts listing actors.
22:26: It's no, no, no. I'm playing. He goes, man, I can't afford you. This is such a low budget movie. I said, no, no, no. I'm playing this role.
22:32: This movie made me laugh, made me cry. I'm on an airplane reading this guy next to me is going, you OK? So they're reading.
22:37: I'm getting emotional, but I'm laughing at the same time. And I said, I've got to play this part. And it's just a wonderful, wonderful movie.
22:44: And that really that was back in 2010. That really is what kicked me off. I want to do more movies. I hate calm, faith based movies.
22:51: I want to do family friendly movies. Yeah, I mean, what the Kendrick brothers do is great.
22:56: But I find it just preaches to the choir, which is fine. They do great movies. I want to do movies like Blindside, you know, movies like Green Book, you know, the message is there.
23:06: But it's not like you better believe in Jesus. You're going to hell because that turns off the people that we're trying to reach.
23:11: Right. They sit there to me all the time and sit there. And, you know, I meet agnostics, atheists. I got friends in those categories, too.
23:17: And they go, trouble is the Christians have a rep that, you know, they're so perfect and we're not perfect. None of us are perfect in any way.
23:24: So I sit there and go, OK, let's do movies that have a positive message out there with all the hate and anger.
23:29: But reach out to people and sort of sneak up on them. My latest movie, Miracle in East Texas, is coming in theaters in February next year.
23:36: And it's a wonderful, true story set in 1930 about two con men played by myself and John Ratzenberger.
23:41: They would go through Oklahoma and Texas, wooing widows out of their money on fake oil wells. True story right in the heart of the
23:47: Depression, 1930. They get to Kilgore, Texas. They strike oil, largest oil fund in the history of the world.
23:53: I'm not giving anything away. The title is Miracle in East Texas. It's a wonderful. We had 10 film festivals and won everything.
24:01: Best romantic comedy. The judges favorite, the best faith based film. I love it that they couldn't pigeonhole it.
24:07: Because it's the messages in there. But it's not like it's not like in your face. It sort of sneaks up on you as the movie goes along.
24:13: But it's a wonderful movie. So people support that movie when it comes out in February. Maybe we should talk in February when it comes out.
24:19: Yeah, I'd love that. So now out of all the projects you've done. Right. Which which we've established our number.
24:26: What would you say would be your favorite? I love
24:31: Let There Be Light. I think because I because I also got really close to it because I directed it as well. My wife wrote the original draft and Dan Gordon in the rewrite.
24:39: Dan Gordon's amazing writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award original screenplay. He wrote the
24:44: Hurricane, Denzel Washington's movie. He was also the showrunner on the Highway to Heaven. He wrote 60 episodes of Michael Landon series.
24:53: He's Jewish, but he he actually is the oldest active member in the Israeli army. He goes over and spends about two months a year on the front line.
24:59: Wow. Unbelievable. But he he said Jesus is such a huge element to bring the world together.
25:06: And we need that, which I thought was pretty amazing because he practices in his faith, you know.
25:11: So it's a wonderful script. Let There Be Light was in theaters for about four months. Streaming on Amazon right now.
25:19: And I play the world's greatest atheist. And God's not dead. I just played the typical college professor where I when
25:25: I say atheist college professor, I go, that's redundant. I should just say college professor. This one's this one's like a
25:32: Hitchens or a Dawkins or a singer. You know, he's a big well -known. He's his latest book is called
25:37: Aborting God. He has a life changing event that challenges his worldview. And it's his growth from coming from somebody that was just like a
25:47: Bill Maher type of guy. Maybe there's something going on here that I got to I got to look into because it's the things that I'm looking at don't add up and make sense for me.
25:56: And it's a very funny, very touching movie. So I hope people check it out. And I got to tell you, I get people all the time coming to the fan site.
26:04: By the way, it's Sorbo Studios dot com. Go to Sorbo Studios dot com. But I get people coming to me all the time, whether it's in airports and stuff like that.
26:11: And the first time it happened was when God's not dead came out. I was at the Salt Lake City Airport. And this woman walks up to me. She had a little beautiful seven year old daughter.
26:17: And she says, Are you Kevin Sorbo? I can tell by her, you know, her look and her accent. She's somewhere in the Middle East. I said,
26:24: I am. She goes, I'm from Iraq. I live in Arizona now, but I saw your movie. God's not dead because you're a movie.
26:29: I became a Christian. And my daughter and I just recently got baptized. Wow. I start crying. My wife starts crying.
26:35: We're standing up in the middle, crying in the middle of the airport. My wife prays for her. And, you know, it's but this stuff,
26:41: I get stuff like this all the time, which is really cool. You seem to play the atheist in a lot of these movies.
26:47: Why is that? Only two. How many times did Clint Eastwood play the same cowboy in all his westerns?
26:55: As I tell people, you have to first place to say that. I go, there are more than two atheists in the world. No, I saw
27:03: What If when it came out. I'll agree with you. I actually thought that was very, very well done. And I think that was a great.
27:10: John is great. That was the first thing I saw you in outside of her. I mean, I remember watching Hercules when it was on TV. And I can actually tell you when
27:17: I used to watch you is so. So my wife is is Cantonese. So when I go visit her family once a month, we go in New York and her family and they would all be talking in Cantonese.
27:26: And my Cantonese is not good enough that I'm getting in the conversation. So my mother in law had a TV and only had a couple of channels.
27:34: And when we would go visit, Hercules was on. So I would watch Hercules. And what's the other was
27:40: Zena where you were on? I think it was a third year spinoff show. Yeah. And so those two were back to back.
27:46: And that's that's what I would sit and watch while everyone's because it was either that I'd be doing that and reading.
27:52: That's all I did. But I know that I've got I've got a tape from about ten different countries with that language.
27:58: So I I have a Hercules episode in Cantonese where they dubbed my voice. Oh, really?
28:03: I'm really fluent in it. I was shocked. And I got French and German and Italian.
28:09: And I mean, I've got all these Norwegian. I'm from I'm a second generation Norwegian myself.
28:14: See, so now when you travel, people expect you to know those languages because they saw you. I know they walk up to you and start speaking.
28:21: Wait, don't you know this? You know, you know, Capisco and Politaliano. That's about it. Is there what out of all the films you've done, all the projects you've worked on, you know, are there ones that you wish got more highlighted?
28:34: Yeah. What if? Definitely. I wish got more highlighted. Abel's Field. I think Abel's Field is an amazing movie.
28:39: It's just once again, it really comes down to how do you get enough money to promote it? Abel's Field is a modern day
28:44: Cain and Abel meets Friday Night Lights. It's a wonderful movie. We shot it north of Austin, Texas. And it's just a it's a touching movie.
28:52: I play a guy that's pretty much just a wanderer. I mean, the credit said in a stranger, you never find out my name. And he becomes he becomes a tender of a field.
29:03: He says his name is Abel, but it's really not Abel. That was his brother's name. And he's been just go all these decades later.
29:12: He's he's just been traveling and he knows God has forgiven him, but he hasn't forgiven himself for the things he's done in his past and what he did to his parents, his family and how he left.
29:22: And it's a very touching movie. So I hope people get a chance to check that out. I got another one that was in theaters recently called
29:28: The Girl Who Believes in Miracles. Wonderful little movie with Mira Sorvino and Peter Coyote. And it's about a little girl, nine year old girl that at church, her pastor says, if you have a faith of mustard seed, you can move a mountain.
29:40: She takes it to heart and the faith of a child. Right. So the things things she prays for, it's not walking on water, but little things that happen around her little hometown.
29:49: People are going, what's going on? And it's just a wonderful, touching movie about about faith and about finding that redemption, because I think right now
29:56: I look at Antifa. I look at BLM. If you think those people out there riding, going on streets and destroying buildings and attacking people to own those, build businesses, if they had any biblical principles in their lives, would they be doing what they're doing?
30:09: Of course, they wouldn't be. But, you know, we're becoming more and more secular in this country. Went to Europe a couple of years ago before the whole shutdown.
30:16: And I had three speaking events. I had one in Zurich, one in Munich, one up in Brussels. And I looked at my wife.
30:21: I said, look, these are three different weekends. I got five days off each week. Let's take a month off with the kids.
30:26: So I lived in Europe for three and a half years. My wife was over there around the same time I was also at the same time. We never ran into each other, even though running the same circles.
30:34: And all the churches now in Europe, they're just museums or they're discotheques. Nobody's going to church anymore.
30:40: And we're well on that road in this country. But over there, it's like, forget about it. It's it's just sad.
30:45: And it's it's disappearing very quickly. And we are you can see what's playing out in the world right now and what's happening.
30:52: And here we here we are with all these shutdowns and the fear of being a weapon that's controlling everybody's lives.
30:58: Yeah, I mean, we look at Romans one and people always ask, you know, are we going to bring on God's judgment?
31:04: No, we're not bringing it on right now. We're in God's judgment. And I think that's what is so phenomenal about some of the work you're doing is saying,
31:12: OK, let's not I always appreciate people that don't sit there and go, oh, what was us? We're we're you know, we're being oppressed.
31:19: We're being, you know, made fun of. But you're you're producing films to say, let's give a different message.
31:25: It's a needed message. I mean, it's it's such in contrast to what we're seeing in our culture.
31:31: I mean, the last 18 months, if that hasn't convinced people that we're under God's judgment, that the whole thing didn't wake up.
31:38: Yeah, people need to wake up. People need to speak up. I find everybody, you know, I wear a serious tipping point right now.
31:44: And I really believe America still, for the most part, is more conservative than they are liberal. Oh, yeah. But because of the press, because of movies, because of our politicians beating down over and over and over again, people are afraid.
31:58: Open up your bloody mouth. If you're going to worry about being being oppressed, if you're worried about being, you know, taken off of Facebook and Twitter, they're going to take you down eventually anyway.
32:07: So you might as well start speaking up now and waking up to the fact that this this country is becoming a totally different place than what the founding fathers made it up to be.
32:15: We were founded on Judeo -Christian values. And now we're sitting at Ivy League schools that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.
32:21: There are students saying, we got to take this God stuff down on all the buildings now. I mean, it's just what erasing history does nothing.
32:28: Every country has good and bad history, every country. And to sit there and rip down statues and rip down.
32:33: I mean, this is why we're going to be repeating history, because we're trying to get rid of it. Yeah.
32:38: I mean, it's we they're living, you know, I mean, we're saying people, we need to wake up. They talk about being woke.
32:45: They're asleep. I mean, they're they're totally not realizing what's going on. I grew up a generation after the
32:51: Holocaust. I grew up going to Hebrew school three times a week. And then on Sunday, it was something where we were taught what the
32:59: Holocaust was. We're taught so we could recognize the signs because, you know, we're always being told by the rabbis and teachers, it's going to happen again.
33:07: You got to know how to see the signs. And I've been saying this for for two decades. The signs are here.
33:12: It's just not going to be the Jewish people anymore. It's going to be the Christians. And we're seeing it. And the fact is, we're seeing the same behavior that happened countless times before, shutting down any speech.
33:25: You don't let me. They can take the president of the United States and remove him from Twitter, the president, and say, well, he shouldn't be allowed to speak on on the official
33:35: White House channel. Right. Because they don't like his politics.
33:42: That's you know, then people are saying the people that sit there and say, well, this is good. You're going to say it's good until they silence you.
33:48: They're just silencing the conservatives now. But the people who really suffer under it is those that the what what
33:57: Stalin would refer to as the useful idiots, the mass that don't think about where it goes. And they're just being used for someone else's agenda.
34:07: Yeah, well, Lenin even said back, you know, during the Bolshevik Revolution years, back in 1915 to 25 and stuff, he called them useful idiots, right, as you call them.
34:16: And he said the main thing, the best way to control people is through education.
34:21: Well, hello. What are we doing on our public education system right now? It's been going on for decades, but it's just accelerated the last 10 years.
34:28: And COVID really opened up to families, which I wish they'd wake up to see what are they doing? Why can't we put cameras in all the school rooms?
34:36: What is it that they're hiding? It's ridiculous that they can't have cameras in there. We got cameras in the White House.
34:41: We have cameras, cameras, cameras required for all the police. I don't know. Cameras are everywhere. But don't don't have it in here.
34:47: We don't want people. We want to, you know, indoctrinate your kids and teach them about giving, you know, having sex at nine years old.
34:53: I mean, it's crazy what we're doing in this country. And we're allowing it to happen. People, please wake up because it's just it's it's stupid.
35:00: I mean, I'm talking about the cancel culture. I don't know who these punks are, but I mean, I've already been losing jobs left and right speaking events and appearances because maybe five people call and know if you have that jerk that we're going to do this and they listen to them and they and they cave in.
35:13: Yeah. And these guys now have control of my life. Why can't they know who I am? Why can't I meet these people face to face?
35:19: Not looking for a fight. I would like to have a conversation. Yeah, I like to have a conversation. So why do you hate me? Why do you want to take me down?
35:25: Why can't I have a voice? But you can have a voice. Honestly, God, I think if you profiling these people, you're going to find them they don't like themselves.
35:32: They're unhappy with their lives. They probably came from broken homes, broken relationships. They just they look in the mirror and there's nothing but disdain for themselves.
35:40: So, you know, misery loves company. That's why I want to drag all this down that hole with them. That's the only way that makes them feel better.
35:45: It's just feeling that anger and that fire, which is just sad to me. I mean, we should pray for these guys. And at the same time,
35:50: I'm like, what a bunch of bozos. And it's just it's crazy. It's unfortunate. Well, that's that's something
35:55: I wanted to ask you, Kevin, because you alluded to earlier the hypocrisy of Hollywood that should be tolerant and embrace all things.
36:02: But yet they don't. When it comes to the hostility against Christians, do you think that it is primarily driven by an atheistic worldview?
36:09: They just hate God and therefore they hate you. Or is it because you represent a certain sense of morality that they don't want to have to be faced with because they want to embrace their debauchery?
36:20: Or is it maybe a mix of both? They hate God. They hate the morality. I think it's I think it's a combination of both those things easily, easily.
36:29: When Let There Be Light came out, which I told you guys about, we opened up number two per screen average up against a 300 million dollar
36:36: Thor Ragnarok movie, OK? Here's a little two point three million dollar movie. And we're number two per screen average.
36:41: I got a call the Monday after opening weekend from Netflix. They call me and I had three meetings with them at their offices in Hollywood.
36:47: OK. And they said, we want to work with you. We want to open inspirational division. I said, great. I got the product.
36:53: I got the scripts. I got TV. I got everything. Sent them the stuff. I don't know that. And then my last meeting with one person,
37:00: I said, guys, get past your ideology. Why do you want you? There's 80 million households out there.
37:05: There's 80 million households out there that want the kind of product that I put out. Why don't you just laugh all the way to the bank to a stupid
37:12: Christians, OK? But why don't we? It's weird. It's like they're funny. They I mean, it's called show business, not show show.
37:19: It is a business. They can scream socialism all they want, but it's capitalism that made made Zuckerberg a wealthy guy.
37:25: Right. And Bezos, a wealthy guy. But I love these billionaire socialists because they they can live like socialists, but they don't.
37:32: They live like capitalists. So the pragmatism of profit only stops when it becomes Christian.
37:38: You know, their goal right now is to destroy the middle class. And they're doing it. They recommend they said that 65 percent of the businesses, small businesses will never come back now because of the covid shutdowns.
37:50: Because Costco was was something that we needed to have out there. But like the mom and pop grocery store for 60 years and three generations of families, they had to close that down.
38:00: That wasn't essential. But Target was essential. Come on, guys. It's so blatantly obvious what they're doing here. And once again, people need to wake up.
38:06: They created many new billionaires with covid. And you look at a guy like Bezos, who he gets divorced, loses half of his his wealth and within one year of covid doubles.
38:19: And by 18 months, he's he's tripled what he was worth. OK, because everybody's going to Amazon ordering online because they don't want to go in the store because they say, stay home, stay home.
38:29: I think it is read that he bought 600 acres on the island of Kauai. I wouldn't be surprised. One of the one of those two guys,
38:35: I'm going, OK, well, you know, you have Black Lives Matter, who they say they're trained Marxists. And what are they? They now have millions of dollars in homes, not home homes, because they had to have many.
38:46: I printed out their manifesto and they took it down. Yes, they agreed to be Marxist. They said they want to get rid of God.
38:52: They want to break up a nuclear family. I mean, everything is there. And people sit there, Coca -Cola and all these
38:57: Delta people from millions of dollars at these guys. They don't want to be called a racist. So here's the thing. And we did several shows dealing with their principles and whatnot.
39:06: But here's the thing. They've raised two over two billion dollars. And yet their organization has supported two billion dollars of insurable damage in the cities.
39:18: And, you know, they're being sued. The National Group is being sued on the question of where's all the money going?
39:24: Because the individual states are not getting it. They're amazing to me that something that evil is able to raise kind of the money they're raising.
39:32: That's all it does is spread more evil and hate. And here I am begging to get two million dollars to make a movie that has a positive thing.
39:39: I'm not whining here, but it just blows my mind how the culture has changed into such a satanic, evil, yeah, arena of hatred.
39:48: But anyway, guys, I got to wrap this up. No, we appreciate it. So how how can folks find out more about you?
39:54: You mentioned the fan page. How can folks, you know, check out some of the stuff that you're doing, get more involved in some of the movies you're producing?
40:01: Sure. Well, there's Kevin Sorbo dot net, but we've incorporated that into Sorbo Studios dot com. So we go to Sorbo Studios dot com.
40:08: You'll see all of my stuff. So my wife's stuff, as you mentioned, she's a homeschool advocate. She has a lot of speaking on it. She's got books on it.
40:14: Her latest book is called Words for Warriors, which is a really wonderful book as well. I did a follow up to my book,
40:19: True Strength, that we wrote together called True Faith. So people check those things out if we want to get an autographed copy.
40:24: But more to come. I just finished the Reagan movie with Dennis Quaid. He plays the president. I play as pastor. And I mentioned the next
40:30: Left Behind movie. So I'm staying busy and knock on wood, guys. But God bless you guys.
40:35: Thanks for coming on. Maybe we'll have you back. Maybe we'll have you back in February for your next movie. Love it.
40:41: All right, guys. Thanks. All right. Well, I hope that you guys enjoyed that interview.
40:46: Was that good, bud? You enjoyed that? That was good. You didn't have to ask a question. You asked. You were asking something.
40:52: Yeah. Hey, you didn't. You guys were animated. That was that was fun, though. Yeah. I mean, he's he really is involved in a lot of stuff.
41:00: Yeah. You know, I really didn't know how active he was. And, you know, a lot of it,
41:05: I think, because like he said, so much of the stuff he's doing is kind of it's not being promoted in the in the you know, with with the censorship that we see going on.
41:16: We don't get to see all this stuff that that he's been involved in because it's just they they're kind of keeping that out.
41:23: You know, this is no different than what you and I've talked about, that, you know, Google is restricting our website from being seen because they just don't like the
41:31: Christian message. Yeah. You know, you know, so one of the things before we get I want to just talk through some of the stuff that you and I thought of and had with that before we do, we should we should bring in our sponsor, which is my pillow.
41:43: Folks, if you want to get a good American made product, we're talking about how
41:48: Kevin Sorbo is such a hard worker. You know, another hard working person is Mike Liddell. He he he worked hard to create my pillow, but he didn't stop there.
41:58: It's not like he got a one good product and said, that's it. No, he wanted to create something made here in America to support
42:04: Americans. And and he realizes that, you know, his products were really good.
42:10: And they are. I thoroughly enjoy my pillow. You guys have heard me brag about it. I don't
42:15: I would never come on here and promote something I don't support. And I love my pillow.
42:20: I love my my pillow pillow. I love their blankets or their towels. I mean, I use their mattress topper.
42:28: Love all of that. And he continues to produce more. I mean, you can get slippers. You can get bath mats.
42:34: You can get pajamas. Now, you know, you may not even notice, but I went to the website.
42:40: They even have at my pillow. They have they've I got hand sanitizer that they make, which is really good.
42:48: I did order this. The neat thing with their hand sanitizer is it's it's not made from alcohol. And so it doesn't dry up your hands.
42:56: So if you're if you're one of the germaphobe types or if you travel a lot where you're touching a lot of things in public, you know, like New York City subway system.
43:05: That's where I really like hand sanitizer. And but they also have something like if you're bleeding, they have something to to basically clot your blood right away.
43:14: So if you have a bleed and I was like, let me just try that. I got this stuff and and I cut myself shaving and it literally wouldn't stop bleeding.
43:23: And I sat there, stuck a Band -Aid on it. And like three days later, it's still bleeding. And I remember I was like, you know,
43:28: I got that stuff from my pillow and I opened that up, put it on and it clotted up right away. It was I didn't know that.
43:34: Yeah, it was like they have products. I'm like, I wouldn't even think it is like you look at the pillows and you go,
43:40: OK, they're using some of the same fill that they use in the pillows in the mattress topper.
43:45: Makes sense. But then they got all these other products. Why? Well, it's sort of like what
43:50: Kevin was just saying in the interview. I mean, they're they didn't just sit there and rest on their laurels.
43:55: You know, when all these things happened with with the covid and all that, he started making hand sanitizer.
44:02: He started I think they were even making masks and PPE and things like that during covid.
44:08: You know, it's pretty cool. So I did not know about, you know, my pillow and my coagulant.
44:13: I didn't even realize that was. Check it out, folks, if you want to get great products and at the same time support striving for eternity, go to my pillow dot com.
44:25: Use promo code SFE. That stands for striving for eternity. And they they are supporting us.
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44:42: That's 800 -873 -0176. And use promo code SFE so that they know that we sent you because that keeps them supporting us and keeps us doing shows like this.
44:56: So let's talk about that. That interview we just had, Bud, that that was really enjoyable to sit down.
45:02: I'll be honest with you. I did not know he was involved in that many movies. I know
45:07: I've heard that he has a good work ethic. And I guess when like he said, when he was doing
45:13: Hercules, had to work out two hours a day. You're going to have to work out some serious hours to keep that physique he had.
45:20: But at least he didn't fail in the physique as much as Arnold did. You know, he I haven't you know, now we have seen him in person and he still looks like he's working out a lot more than Arnold does.
45:33: It's it's very impressive. I tell you, though, really what impresses me and we didn't get to discuss a whole lot that we'd like to.
45:41: But we we appreciate the time that he gave to us. But from a theological standpoint, we didn't get into a whole lot of that because there's just so many other obvious things that that he wanted to speak to.
45:52: What really impressed me, though, is the tenacity that he showed facing the hostility that he did in Hollywood and even having an opportunity from a major studio that that appealed to him that we want to make more movies like this.
46:04: But then they sort of, you know, they got cold feet because this, you know, this faith narrative, this wholesome narrative, this doesn't fit what
46:13: Hollywood's doing. Well, that didn't stop him. They obviously didn't take him. He's gone off and started his own.
46:19: And so he's got all these projects in the works. Now, I understand a lot of them are small budget, but he's committed to it.
46:27: He wants to get these out there because he's he's aware, just like we would be, that this is what the majority of of Americans want for their children, for themselves.
46:37: We don't want the the filth and debauchery that's coming out of Hollywood. Well, I think, folks,
46:43: I hope you were as encouraged as I am when I when we were talking with him, because the thing that I picked up is here's a guy that's, you know, so many people that are saying, well,
46:54: I got to get the vaccine because work is requiring it or I got to do something against my conscience because I just don't want to don't want to upset the feathers.
47:03: And, you know, people get ruffling feathers with with a culture that's anti -Christian. So I'll be quiet about my faith.
47:09: I'll be I'm not going to do things that might get me noticed. You know, what did he do?
47:15: He's going to say, no, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to do dialogue. And he's going to ask me to start dialoguing with him, because here, as he said,
47:21: Hollywood's supposed to be, you know, intolerant or tolerant. And he's finding all the the intolerance there.
47:28: And what is he doing? He's not trying to shove it down their throats. He's saying, let's dialogue, let's talk about this.
47:34: And they're the ones saying, no, you accept our way or it's the highway. And he didn't just go,
47:40: OK, let me let me just do this to get along. I mean, he you know, in Hollywood, he could have had a much bigger career if he didn't promote his
47:51: Christian values. So here he ends up coming in. And what do you have happen?
47:57: You end up having him say, you know what? I'm not going to just sit on my laurels. I'm not going to just go along.
48:03: I'm going to stand up for what I believe is right. And when they try to silence him, what does he do? He says, OK, we're just going to create a parallel system.
48:11: It's it may not get as much attention, folks. He can do this. And so can we.
48:17: OK, whatever work you're doing, we can sit there and say if they want to shut us down, create that parallel system.
48:24: Do whatever you're doing. Try to find a way to do it, to promote the values you have. Find a Christian company to work for that does the same thing.
48:32: Or, you know, you know, start your own business. We have a guy in my church.
48:38: You know, he's like he didn't want to be part of the system. So he just said, you know what? I'm going to start my own business and do my own thing.
48:44: And he works for himself now. Yeah, there's ways to do that. I appreciate Kevin saying, like, no, we're we want to.
48:52: We need to get rid of all the smut that's out there in Hollywood. We need to produce inspiring films.
48:58: And I do agree with him that one of the issues I have with with Christian films is they make it all about it has to be the gospel.
49:07: And, you know, years ago, I was writing a fictional book on fatherhood. And the critique that it had from people who read it was, well, you know, you got to get the gospel in there.
49:16: It's got to be all about the gospel. And I'm like, can we just write a book that's about being a good father? Right. I mean, isn't that enough?
49:23: Like and it was actually something I remember presenting to Kirk Cameron, say, hey, you know, would you be interested in trying to make this into a film?
49:30: That was before he was doing his own film studio. Maybe I should talk to Kevin Sorbo about it because he might be more interested.
49:36: But but the idea is that it doesn't have to be everything directed to the gospel to be family friendly.
49:44: Like it'd be good to to be able to produce things that our culture would say, you know, this is good to watch.
49:50: And we don't it doesn't have to always be geared toward gospel. You know, it's one of the things Museum of the
49:55: Bible gets a lot of critique because they want to promote the Bible and its influence on on the world.
50:01: And people are like, yeah, but you're not just Christian. You're not just preaching the gospel. No, they're preaching the Bible, you know. And so they they don't evangelize there.
50:09: That's their policy. And Christians have many Christians were very much against it for that reason. Sometimes we get so petty.
50:16: I think that, you know, we miss opportunities to to kind of take the culture back.
50:22: We've given the culture over to the world. Then we complain that the world is running the culture. Well, get involved in it.
50:29: Yeah. You know, take it back. Do your own thing to to provide an opposite to what the culture is.
50:35: Something that is wholesome and good. You know, tagging on to that really at the conclusion of his remarks.
50:42: I really appreciate this. Speak up. Don't don't don't be fearful of hiding your faith, your values.
50:52: I'm out of concern for being canceled, because ultimately, if you're watching what's going on, you're going to get canceled anyway.
51:00: They are going to shut you down. So take advantage of this particular moment that we have to speak the truth and love and to get the to get the truth out there.
51:11: You know, you don't have to be offensive. You do have to speak the truth and love, but don't be afraid to speak it.
51:17: So so be active and be vocal. Defend what is defensible from Scripture.
51:24: And don't don't don't just roll over because of a threat that they're going to silence you.
51:31: We've got a lot of friends that have been put in Facebook prison and been, you know, silenced on Twitter.
51:39: It's going to happen. I've been silenced on Twitter. I was silenced on Twitter. You know, that's why
51:44: I'm off. But, you know, that reminds me, son, I wanted to say, you know, when he was on and talk about was, you know, when you look at what the
51:53: Nazis did and in with the Jewish people in World War Two, before World War Two, you end up seeing that there were a bunch of Jewish people that thought, well, if we just work with them, work with the
52:03: Nazis, then they won't be so mean with us. And, you know, it's if they want to silence us, fine.
52:09: We'll just do our own thing. And they didn't speak out. And yet there were a bunch that were put in the concentration camps.
52:15: But those that kind of were working with the Nazis, they didn't go into concentration camp right away, but they eventually went.
52:22: But by the time they went, there was no one left to argue for them. And that's the thing. If we don't stand up now, you know, it may be already too late in a sense.
52:31: But if we don't stand up now to this anti -God culture that we have, if we're not willing to stand up now, how in the world are we going to stand up when it's illegal?
52:40: Yeah. If we don't stand up now and make our voices heard that Christ is king, how in the world are we going to do it when, you know, we're in a position that that someone is, you know, is saying, well, you can't speak this way?
52:54: Yeah, no, I agree. I think part of the problem that we've we've tacitly adopted in the church is that there is sort of this sphere that is sacred.
53:06: And we live over here and we go to church and we're faithful and we do what we need to do at home to be faithful to the
53:11: Lord. But then there's this other sphere out here that is secular and and it is dominant when we enter that arena.
53:19: Then we have to be quiet. We have to be respectful because you're going to get canceled. And the rules over there are different.
53:25: No, no, no. You have to understand something. The sphere of the church, the sphere of the sacred.
53:30: Oh, it is overarching above all things. And why is that? Because the church is one of the things that we know is the pillar and buttress of the truth.
53:39: We're the only ones that have the truth. And we have to be out there in in society. We all have one creator.
53:47: We all have one Lord. Some of us know him. Others don't. And the only way they they may is by our faithful proclamation of this truth.
53:55: So don't be silenced because of that sphere that you think is separate and distinct and discreet from the church.
54:02: You can't do that. Be a faithful Christian in all all the context in which the Lord has placed you.
54:09: Yeah. And we appreciate the fact that so many here are like minded with us.
54:15: But we we need to make our voices heard. And we we're we've said this before. And you guys have heard me say this countless times.
54:23: But the gospel is the solution. That's that's the message we proclaim. We don't just whine and cry about the culture, but look to the gospel as the solution.
54:33: We need to be spreading the gospel. And when more people get converted, when more people realize
54:38: Jesus Christ is Lord, they will bow the knee to Christ. And guess what? The politicians will pretend they'll follow suit.
54:46: They'll you know, because that's all they do. They're just a bunch of hypocrites, you know. And so, you know,
54:52: I think it was a really good show. I hope this encouraged you guys. But, you know, some lighthearted.
54:58: But there was some real important things that need to be said there, too. So as we wrap up, I just want to let you guys know,
55:04: I mean, we could use your support if you are want to have Striving Fraternity come out to your church, speak to your church.
55:11: Remember, we target smaller churches, folks. We target the churches most people want to avoid. Why? Because 10 ,000 churches closed in 2020.
55:20: Small churches. And that's the churches that are closing. Why? Because they can't afford to get the help to come in and disciple their people and train their people.
55:29: That's what we do. We come into smaller churches to hopefully turn the tide of them shutting down, give them the excitement in God's Word, learning how to interpret
55:40: God's Word or evangelism or apologetics or deal with social justice or one of the many other things that we have seminars on.
55:48: If you'd like to check out our seminars, just go to strivingfraternity .org, go to booking a speaker. And you could see all the different talks that we do, the seminars that we have.
55:56: We'll come into your church for a weekend, train your people, do a Bible interpretation made easy seminar.
56:02: We can have Justin Peters come out with us and we do our snatch them from the flames. We could do social justice with a whole lot of topics that we cover to get your people excited to get into the
56:12: Word of God and hopefully spark that church into starting to reach out into their community.
56:18: That's how this is done. Folks, the world isn't going to be changed by big churches. It's by the little churches.
56:24: And unfortunately, most of the parachurch ministries want to avoid them. We don't. We want to target them to help them to get them because that's where this change will occur is a grassroots movement in small churches sharing the gospel, discipling people.
56:38: So if we could be a help to your church, please contact us at strivingfraternity .org. Another way you could support us is financially so that we can go into the small churches because they can't afford to have us come out.
56:47: It's our monthly donors that do that. If you go to strivingfraternity .org support, there you'd be able to find out the information how you can support us.
56:54: I know that, folks, we have a big impact on the Internet. I understand a lot of stuff we do there.
57:01: We train people through the Internet. A couple weeks ago, I talked about just some of the rankings we have.
57:07: When you're giving to support to Striving Fraternity, you're giving to—right now, as of today, we rank 165 ,000 in the world of all the websites.
57:18: That's really, really high considering 8 billion websites out there. We're 30 ,000 in the
57:23: U .S. Just to give you a comparison, we compare against John MacArthur's Grace to You, very well -known ministry.
57:31: So where we are 165 ,000 in the world, they're 146 ,000 in the world.
57:37: We're not far behind them, but they're 46 ,000 in the U .S. We're 30 ,000 in the
57:42: U .S. The material we're putting out is getting out and people are sharing that, and that's a way that you can help us.
57:50: If you get value out of these things, please share it. Share it with others. Let others know the content you're getting, that you're enjoying, because that helps others to know about it.
58:01: From there, they get our Striving Fraternity Academy, free courses you can get to train yourself in how to interpret the
58:07: Bible, systematic theology, things like that. So all these things that we'll have, you can help us in getting people to know about it.
58:17: So those are some ways you can help support us. Now, I don't know when we get back from G3, but I don't know if we'll have some interviews that we take from there.
58:25: I'm sure we'll have a couple interviews that I'll get as I'm walking around. Maybe I'll interview you at...
58:32: No, no, okay. I was going to say, your global ratings might go up if you'd get me off of the podcast.
58:42: You'd shoot up there ahead of Phil and John out there. Hey, your podcast, The Bud Zone, is doing pretty good, my friend.
58:49: You're actually in the top 50 % of all podcasts. So... Yeah, yeah.
58:56: No. Oh yeah, I've looked at your numbers, my friend. You're up there. Even though you just started, you just shot right to the top.
59:06: I'm just recording conversations. I don't want to have the pressure of performance. Yeah, well, you got some good conversations there.
59:13: So I think with that, Bud, you know what? What? That's a wrap.
59:19: This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.
59:54: Okay, round two.
59:59: Name something that's not boring. A laundry? Ooh, a book club. Computer solitaire, huh?
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