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#FreeMenHere2021
All right, everybody. Well, thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it. This week has been one of those weeks, man. In my business, what I do for a living, you put a lot of work into everything upfront and then you may or may not get the payoff.
It's just a really kind of a frustrating thing in that regard. And then sometimes you'll go on hot streaks and sometimes you go on losing streaks. I am on an epic losing streak for the last few offers that I've had on the table.
Brutal, brutal stuff. And so it's been challenging, but the support I get from the YouTube channel and also the Patreon page makes it a lot easier to swallow some of those losses. So thank you so much for the support.
I really appreciate it. Let's get to your questions for February. First question is a easy one. And the question says this. Is New Hampshire a good place to live in the current cultural climate? Has it been hit hard by lockdowns and masking?
And so I think it is a good place to live. I'm having a great time and stuff like that. But to answer your question more specifically, yeah, I mean, everyone is requiring masks and stuff like that. And there were some lockdowns, not as aggressive as they could have been, but there were definitely some lockdowns.
So you do have to deal with that. I don't typically wear my mask anywhere. I'll bring it with me in case somebody makes a big federal case out of it. Nobody ever does. The post office doesn't make me wear it.
Nobody really says anything. Nobody gives me dirty looks or anything like that. But I wonder sometimes how much of that is because they really don't care or because I look like a psychopath when I'm out there, you know, like a real essay.
Anyway, but yeah, no, it's a great place to live. I'm looking forward to it. And there's definitely a good amount of libertarians here in New Hampshire. So good stuff there. Thank you for the question and thank you for the support.
Next question. It's a two-parter. First one says, are there any biblical categories for someone who sincerely wants to do good, but whose actions end up making things worse? For example, the great society welfare programs were intended to lift people out of poverty, but ended up trapping many in poverty and normalizing single parenthood among the poor.
Yeah, I think so. I think there are people that think they're doing good, but actually end up not doing good. But I don't think that, so I feel like it's almost like a self-deception, right? So like, if you're, you can be self-deceived into your actions.
So you want to help the poor, but you've deceived yourself into thinking that a welfare program will help them more so than God's plan for it. It's actually not true. And we got to take a look at love and hate and charity and evil according to biblical definitions.
So I think that it's possible that you're so self-deceived that you think that something that you intend to help someone actually hurts them. But I don't, it doesn't give you an excuse though. So like, it's not, you can't like go to God and be like, well, I just, I tried to help him.
Even though you're like actively disobeying him, like God's not going to be fooled by that. You don't have an excuse. It's still sin in other words, to sin and not think you're sinning. You know what I mean?
Like, so there is a biblical category, I think, for it. I think it's self-deception, being self-deceived, having your heart darkened to such a degree that you think you're helping when you're actually hurting.
Yeah, there's definitely space for that, but there's no excuse for that. You still need to repent of that and Christ still needs to cover that sin or else you will perish. So good question. Appreciate it.
Second part to it. He says, do you think Dwight McKissick will ever actually leave the SBC or is he just a big tease? Good question. My prediction is that he will never leave the SBC. It's just a big tease.
All right, well, thank you for your question. I appreciate it. All right, next question is, what is your opinion on the best way to read the Bible? In my journey, I've seen Christians with ranging opinions.
Some say they need daily readings to feel closer to God. Others say they set aside whole chunks of time to read large sections so as not to take God's word out of context. Yeah, you know, honestly, I don't know.
I don't know. I think for me, I think that I prefer sort of like the larger chunks of time just for me. But honestly, like, I don't know if that's the best way or if it's just the way that I feel like works best for me.
I think everyone's got to take their own, you know, personality into consideration and stuff like that when they're considering that. So, you know, lots of people go the daily, consistent, set aside time.
Some people do the whole chunks. I don't know. I like the whole chunks of time. I think that works better for just my personality type and all that kind of stuff. And then he also asks, have I been to the Museum of the Bible in D .C.?
I have not. At least I don't think so. I may have when I was younger, but definitely didn't leave an impression on me if I did. So I don't think I have. I don't think I have, but I would be glad to do it.
I think that'd be really fun. Okay, but the problem is though, then you have to go to D .C. And I don't know if I want to do that. It seems like D .C. kind of gives me the creeps, especially these days.
It's like a military-occupied city at this point. All right, thank you for the support. I appreciate it. Next question. This is an interesting one. If you had to create a rite of passage for Christian men to be, what would you include?
Time alone in the wilderness, test of endurance, profession of faith, faith, meeting with male elders for counseling? This is a weird question. I mean, it's interesting. If I had to create a rite of passage, obviously I wouldn't because I believe in the regular principle.
And I can't, and I don't think you mean like, I can't say marriage, like get married. There's your rite of passage. I don't know, man. I think, yeah, I don't know. I just don't know what this would be.
Maybe start a business and start making some money without getting a job. You learn a lot through starting a business. Like, you know, just the whole idea of like how to create something that someone would want, how to create value that someone will give you, you know, money for or give you goods for, something like that.
I think starting a business is something that potentially I would do. Like, you know, it would be cool like if your son goes to you and says, hey, dad, like, you know, can I borrow some money to get a PlayStation?
And instead of saying, hey, son, get a job, you were like, hey, start a business and then you can have money to, you know, to get a PlayStation. Or I'll give you money to like invest in your business.
And then, you know, then you can get a PlayStation or something like that. That would be cool if that was like the first reaction instead of get a job. Because that's, when I was younger, it was like, get a job.
And you know, no fault of my father's. Like he just never had that entrepreneurial mindset. But yeah, I don't know. I don't really know, man. That's a good question. What do you guys think? What would be the rite of passage that you would create for Christian men?
Start a business, start a homestead. I don't know, man. That's a good question. I like it. All right, next question. When did you become a Christian? Also, have I read any good parenting books? So Doug Wilson has a couple of good ones, Standing on the Promises and Future Men.
Those are two good books by Doug Wilson on parenting. And then when did you become a Christian? I became a Christian after living in New York for a while as just in a disaster. Like I used to just drink all the time, do drugs, you know, stay out partying, all that stuff.
I was making good money and, but I was always living a few steps ahead. And then the economy tanked, the 2008 financial crisis. I was working on Wall Street at the time and lost a ton of money overnight just about and went into a lot of debt to maintain my lifestyle and stuff like that.
And I just came to the end of myself. It was like the prodigal son. I grew up in the Christian church. My parents brought me up in the church and my brother was a Christian throughout this whole time.
My parents were still Christians, but I was living like a pagan and yeah, just kind of came to the end of myself. It was very prodigal sonny in that regard. So yeah, became a Christian. So what was that then?
Maybe like 10 years ago, something like that. Maybe a little bit more, maybe a little less. Yeah, I don't really know exactly the time, but yeah, it was right around the 2008, 2009 financial crisis. So I guess what's that?
That's just about 10 years, a little over. Good stuff, man. Thanks for the question. Thank you for the support. Next question. We've got a few here. We'll see if I can answer all of them. All right, next question goes like this.
This is an interesting one actually. So although I know these government stimulus checks and handouts are not a good thing, I agree with you that if they're going to happen either way, we should use them to our advantage, especially when we can use them to get out of debt, fund homesteading and other projects to gain self-sufficiency, et cetera.
My question is, would you take the money if you had to apply for it? Thus far, it's been automatic, requiring no action on our part. But say hypothetically, there's a full or partial student loan forgiveness, but you needed to apply to receive it.
I'm hesitant because one, I'm now asking for money, even though I disagree with the morality used to justify the spending, rather than how the previous stimulus checks have been, where you simply exist and money's deposited into your account.
And two, I'd be concerned about the gotchas hidden in fine print. You apply for student loan forgiveness and next thing you know, you actually signed up to be one of their vaccine guinea pigs or agreed to never raise chickens or collect rainwater or whatever.
He says, that's kind of tongue in cheek, but it wouldn't surprise me for there to be some kind of coercion tied to the free money. What are your thoughts? This is a very interesting question, man. And I appreciate it.
By the way, it's man stir. I appreciate this, man. And here's my thinking on this. First of all, you're number two about the fine print. I'm with you on that. I would be totally concerned with that. And I know you're being tongue in cheek about the I'll never raise chickens or whatever, but I don't think that's that far fetched.
These people are weasels. You got to understand that. I heard that they're gonna like tie it to some kind of like community service or something like that. I'm not interested in getting involved in any of their nonsense.
So from that perspective, I would be very hesitant to sign something that said, we're gonna forgive your student loan. But as far as, let's just say that we knew for a fact there weren't any hitting gotchas or anything like that.
Cause I think that's your real question. Is it morally okay to apply for student loan forgiveness even though you disagree with the morality used? And this is a tough one for me because I want to say that I wouldn't sign those documents or wouldn't say that I wanted my student loan forgiven.
But then again, I've had a lot of money taken from me by the government over the years. Like I sign my, I pay my taxes quarterly cause I'm a business. And every time I pay my taxes, like it's takes a little bit more of my soul.
You know what I mean? Like it's just brutal handing these guys money thousands and thousands of dollars that you earned just giving it to them again and again. You have no choice but to do it. You have to give them the thousands of dollars that they demand.
They're just sitting there like this, give it to me and you have to give it to them. That, every time I signed that check, every quarter I signed that check, Manster, it is heartbreaking, right? Heartbreaking.
So the opportunity to get some of that back is very tempting. I don't know. I'm not really sure where I stand here. I think it depends. It depends on where I was at, right? Like if I was in a situation where, you know, I owed $30 ,000 to the student loan company and they were gonna give me an opportunity to cancel that, they would pay for it.
And I was like, you know, on the margins, you know, maybe I made 30K a year and I had this 30K loan or maybe I was making minimum wage and I had this $100 ,000 loan, you know, like, and everything was kind of imbalanced.
I think I might do it. I think I might do it. You know what I mean? But if I didn't have to do it, like I would just probably pay my debts. You know what I mean? I'd probably just pay my debts if it required some kind of, you know, statement that I would make or something like that.
I don't know, man. I kind of go back and forth about this because I'm like, on the one hand, like you guys screwed me over so many times and now you're gonna give me some of the money back, I'll take it.
But I see your point, man. I'm conflicted. I'm conflicted. So in the world where I knew for a fact there would be no gotchas, I might be tempted to do it. But the gotchas, I've already heard them talking about some of this stuff, you know, community service, something or other, you know, voting classes, who knows what it would be?
And I'm just not interested in getting involved in their nonsense. So good question, man. Sorry I'm so weasley about that. I don't know. I mean, I don't think that there's anything morally wrong with it, if that's what you're really asking.
But you're asking kind of like what I would do. And so it's like, would I do it? I don't know. I guess I have to put myself in that situation. In the situation I'm in right now, I probably, I don't think I would.
I don't think I would. But I don't think it's wrong if you do. How's that for a weasel answer? Anyway, thank you for your question. I appreciate it. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section because I'm interested.
That's a very good question. Duran asks, how are the hens? Any plans to add to your flock? I've been watching your videos about growing quail and they seem like a good meat bird. I've been watching videos about growing quail and they seem like a good meat bird.
Whenever I get property, quail will be one of my first projects. I've had chickens since I was about 10, so I want a new challenge. Yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about quail too. I've heard things about quail, especially if you don't have like a lot of space.
Like I don't have a ton of land, you know what I mean? So like, and I live in a neighborhood-ish. So, you know, chickens are like the top end of what I could probably do reasonably. Quail will probably make more sense.
And I do wanna do meat birds at some point. So I would definitely consider quail in the future. That's actually sounds like a really good idea. I should probably consider doing that. But the hens are great.
Yeah, they're doing really well and they survived the winter. They're freezing out there, but they look really healthy. They're laying eggs like crazy. So they're obviously doing well. And there was one that had lost some of its feathers.
They're all back now. And so everything's good, man. So thanks. Much appreciated. Next question. Why do women who oftentimes call themselves conservatives or Calvinists oftentimes get so upset once we point out biblical rules for men and women, specifically that women can't teach or preach in the Church of Jesus Christ?
Does their oftentimes overly emotional reactions have to do with feminism influencing the way that they think or are women just in general more venerable to experience negative emotions? Sounds like a trap.
It sounds like a trap. But I think that the real answer to your question can be found in the book of Genesis. Why do women act? Well, the book of Genesis tells us exactly why. So this is the situation.
This is a curse. God says to the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.
I think this is just part of the curse, man. I really do. So that's my answer to that question. That seemed like a trap. But yeah, man, it is an issue. There's no question about that. So thanks for the question.
All right. Next question. Andrew, do you believe that scripture alone is sufficient to address the social anxiety and depression through biblical counseling? Or does the Bible allow us to use psychology or medication to address this?
Thanks. So I don't know a ton about this, but I have thought about it a little bit. And my brother has thought about it a lot more than I have because he is currently a pastor and went to seminary and they talked about this a lot.
I believe that the Bible... So you asked two questions here. Is the Bible alone sufficient? Yes, definitely. The Bible is sufficient to address everything that we need. It's sufficient to teach us everything we need to know to have a successful life.
But I don't think that the Bible disallows medication to handle certain issues. So I know this is gonna sound weaselly. I'm not against medication for clinical issues, depression, social anxiety. I think these things can be clinical and there's no question about that.
What I will say though, is that they are clearly over-prescribed. And so I would suggest that if you've got a person telling you that your kid has ADHD or something like that, that you would get second opinions and third opinions and you would do a lot more research into it than just believing the first doctor that tells you something.
I would suggest getting lots of opinions on that because I don't think there's any question. I don't think hardly anyone would disagree that medications for anxiety, depression, stuff like that is over-prescribed.
So I'm not of the opinion that those things are completely illegitimate, but I do think you should be super, super careful, especially with your children when it comes to that kind of stuff. So talk to doctors, multiple doctors, find a doctor that you can trust.
You know what I mean? Don't just go in the phone book and find the first doctor that you see. Find a doctor that you can trust. It's invaluable to find a doctor that's not gonna instantly go to the meds kind of thing.
Invaluable. Yeah, you should definitely do that. But I think you could even look in the Bible, right? Someone might disagree with me here, but even if you look at the Bible, it doesn't talk about psychiatric drugs, but it does talk about medicating sadness.
You know what I mean? This is from the Proverbs, Proverbs 31. It says, I'm sorry, let me read the authorized version here. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
So he's not talking about Zoloft necessarily, but he's talking about something that has a similar effect or an effect to treat heavy hearts. And I think that's analogous to depression. It's not a clinical thing, but when you're dealing with depression, what I'm saying is it's along the same lines.
And the Bible talks about how that's what drink is for. For someone, if you're having a great time, you can have a drink to celebrate and stuff like that. But it says there is a place for giving someone a stiff drink who's about to be dead, who's about to die, something like that.
I always think about, whenever I read that verse, I always think about the guy in war, before medicine was really advanced, where they were gonna get surgery. And they take a stiff drink right before they get that, they just start digging the bullets out and stuff.
Oh man, brutal, brutal. Can you imagine that's what your painkiller was? You take a stiff drink and you bite down on something and let's do this kind of thing, that's brutal. But the Bible says that that's a legitimate use of wine.
That's a legitimate use of wine. Now you don't go overboard, you don't get addicted to it. That's the problem with a lot of these drugs too, in my opinion. I'm not a doctor, but you get to be dependent on them.
And if you find a doctor who's not at least a little bit concerned that you'll grow a dependency on the drugs, I would find another doctor. You know what I mean? So Andrew, the answer to your question is, I do believe the Bible alone is sufficient, but that does not mean that we can't use other things.
And I think that medication, it's an analogy, so it's not a direct. If you've got problems with what I've said, that's totally fine, we can still be friends. But the analogy I would say is Proverbs 31, six, where it says, if you have a heavy heart, let's have some wine to gladden that heart.
You know what I mean? There's a place for that, not advocating dependency, not advocating any of that, but there's a place for that kind of thing. Anyway, the last question, thank you, by the way. These are some great questions.
You guys always get me great questions. You guys always stump me, I like it. And I weasel a lot during these questions, I don't know. Sometimes I really honestly don't know how I feel, so I'm not trying to be a weasel, I just honestly don't know.
Anyway, next question. Any estimated dates for the book? Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. In fact, this past week, or a week and a half ago, I had a call with the publisher about this. And so here's the first thing.
The manuscript is completely finished and edited, so it's done, my work is done for the most part. I will have the book in hand probably by May or June. So people who pre-ordered it will get that, I'll send it to them, and I'll have some copies when I go to different conferences, you'll be able to buy it.
The official release date, the hard copy, is gonna be towards the end of the year. I know it's a long time, but it will come out in e-form sooner than that. So that's as much as I can tell you right now, but it will be out before the holidays for sure, in paperback form.
And the e-book will be out sooner than that. And I'll have some copies as well to sell, so, and much sooner than that. So that's the estimates, so thank you so much for your prayers, that was a hard process.
It has felt so good to get this behind me, and we'll see how it does, and see if I ever do another one. All right. What are your thoughts on staying in a city or state that is more likely to try to have your children removed from your home in the future because of your beliefs versus proactively moving somewhere where the odds seem better, and you may be able to avoid the trauma for your family?
Yeah, everyone's gonna have to make their own decision there. If your concern is that your kids might be taken away from you, like I live in a pretty liberal state, I'm not concerned with that. But if you live in like maybe California, I don't know if that's what you're saying, but some of these other states where it could legitimately be a concern, I would move.
I can't tell you what to think. I don't know if that's a realistic fear or not, so I'm not gonna tell you that you have to move, but if you yourself have seen things, and heard things, and are legitimately concerned that your kids could be taken away from you because you're a Christian, I would move, definitely.
Plan ahead for that, it's okay to flee. It is okay to flee. That is a completely legitimate option for a Christian. I would, put it this way, Zach, I would, if I thought my kids were at risk, I would flee.
No question about it. How does someone with Reformed Presbyterian theology get along in a Baptist church long-term? By biting your tongue a lot. By biting your tongue an awful lot. No, man, listen, you get to know your pastor really well, have a sense of humor about things, and you know, you gotta find a Baptist church that respects the Bible.
I fully believe that my pastor is completely convinced, according to scripture, about baptism. It's not just tradition for him. He reads the Bible in a certain way, and he is totally convinced, it's not just because his daddy was a Baptist, it's not just because Johnny Mac's a Baptist, he really believes that the Bible teaches that you baptize believers only.
We can respect each other, because we have the same foundation, we have the same standard. We're going to the Bible, we can have a conversation about the Bible. So, if I thought it was just tradition and stuff like that, it'd be a lot harder.
It's hard though, man, it's hard, because I always think, if I have another kid, what am I gonna do? Like, I gotta get that kid baptized somehow, and my pastor's not gonna be able to do it. So it's like, it's not ideal, man.
If you have options, go with the Presby church. But you just have to bite your tongue and get to know your pastor really well. That's my advice. And then the biggest hurdles in starting my own business.
Yeah, man, like, they make it way more difficult than it needs to be. For me, there wasn't really that much, because it's a service-based business, I didn't have to buy inventory or anything like that.
So for me, getting the documents in order was pretty easy. No licenses or anything like that that I needed. To me, the taxes are a little bit more challenging, especially in New Hampshire. Business taxes in New Hampshire are a little bit weird.
So I would suggest, if I could do it over again, I would get an accountant from the beginning. I don't have one even now, but I think I've figured it out for the most part. My taxes are pretty accurate every year.
But if I could do it again, that first year was not worth the stress of not knowing what I was doing. That would be my suggestion to you. If you're gonna start a business, get an accountant upfront. It's a little bit of money upfront to pay, but it's gonna be worth it, I think.
Anyway, that's it, man. That's all the questions. Men and women, I guess I should say. God bless you. Thank you so much for your support. I appreciate it. See you next month, and I hope you enjoy the content coming up.
God bless.