The Middle East, Military & Eastern Orthodoxy -Clyde & Jay Dyer

Summary

Jay’s Analysis Podcast — Episode Summary

The Middle East, Military & Eastern Orthodoxy - Clyde & Jay Dyer
Aired: August 6, 2026
Host: Jay Dyer
Guest: Clyde (“The Real Clyde”) — Veteran, Recent Convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, Content Creator

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Episode Overview

This episode features a compelling conversation between Jay Dyer and guest Clyde, a Marine Corps veteran, social media creator, and recent Orthodox Christian convert. The main focus is Clyde’s journey from military service in Asia and the Middle East to his discovery of Eastern Orthodoxy, alongside a wide-ranging discussion of geopolitical realities in the Middle East, Orthodox apologetics and aesthetics, and the process of religious deconstruction among American Protestants. Personal stories from Clyde’s travels, military duty, and conversion bring depth and authenticity to the discussion.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Clyde’s Military Background & COVID Experiences Abroad (01:32–12:51)

• Military Service: Clyde outlines his Marine Corps journey, including embassy guard (MSG) duty in Tokyo and Saudi Arabia, and how his overseas perspective shaped his views on COVID, mandates, and American geopolitics.
  • "I was in the Marine Corps at the time... I got selected for MSG duty ... first post [was] Tokyo." (02:03)
• COVID & Mandates: Describes pre-COVID mask culture in Japan, the transition into stricter lockdowns, and the contrasts with less restrictive policies in Saudi Arabia and Iowa.
  • “Being a foreigner, you want to assimilate... they were already wearing masks.” (03:11)
  • "Saudi was more based on it, too. So you didn't see as much, like, people wearing masks." (05:08)
• Vaccine Pressures: The US military’s vaccine mandate put Clyde and many others in a “terrible situation.” He ultimately took the Pfizer vaccine under threat of discharge and loss of benefits.
  • “It's like, you take the shot or you get kicked out.” (07:00)

2. The Orthodox Church During COVID (08:49–12:51)

• Church Responses: Jay recounts the fracturing of Orthodox parishes during COVID, with some remaining open and others strictly enforcing mandates, stunting growth and conversion.
  • “About half the Orthodox churches were, you know, pretty cucked about it. And that, I think, stunted some of the conversions.” (08:49)
• Regional Contrasts: In Tennessee, the Serbian church remained fully open, while Nashville saw culture shift and conflict over restrictions.

3. Clyde’s Religious Upbringing and Leaving Protestantism (12:56–19:58)

• Protestant Roots: Raised Calvinist/Presbyterian (OPC); parents met at Moody Bible Institute.
  • “I was baptized Presbyterian as an infant.” (13:33)
• Disillusionment: Family conflict, church discipline, and parental divorce led to leaving Protestantism and adopting “me, my Bible, and Jesus Christianity."
• Red-Pilling on Christian Zionism: Early exposure to alternative narratives about Israel, 9/11, and the “Christian Zionist” stream within American Protestantism.
  • “I got red pilled on, like, Israel when I was like 15.” (18:25)
• Secular Years: During military service, lived “a secular worldly lifestyle.”

4. Clyde’s Turn to Content Creation & Gaza/Israel Focus (19:58–24:51)

• Transition to Creator: Shifted from fitness and lifestyle content to deeply researched posts about Gaza and Palestine following October 7th and the Rafah events.
• Influence of Political Awakening: Feeling compelled to speak from a veteran’s angle on Middle East issues and document realities.

5. Deep Dive: U.S. Middle Eastern Policy, Military-Industrial Complex & Israel (24:51–32:44)

• American Interests in the Middle East: Jay and Clyde argue America’s military presence serves multiple intersecting interests: oil, arms industry, and Israel, but rarely ordinary Americans.
  • "It's not that we are only involved in the Middle East only for Israel... there's more nuance to the topic." (29:02)
• The 'Controlled Chaos' Paradigm: Both critique how U.S. and Israeli policy depend on “controlled chaos” (e.g., Hamas/NATO-Russia provocations) to justify perpetual interventions.
  • "They create their own scapegoats. They create their own excuses to bomb these countries." (31:25)
  • “Without Hamas, they can't do what they're doing.” (31:20)

6. Conversion to Orthodoxy: The Holy Land & Palestinian Christians (32:44–48:13)

• Initial Contact with Orthodoxy: First encountered Orthodox churches in Georgia (2022); confusion with Catholicism.
• Life-Altering Trip to Jerusalem & West Bank: Motivated by his activism and desire to see realities rather than “regurgitate” from social media. A chance encounter leads to immersion with Palestinian Christian families.
  • "I wanted to go and actually do, like, some sort of independent journalism." (33:42)
• Spiritual Fruits: Witnessed remarkable hospitality amid hardship, contrasting American Christianity; significance of Orthodox continuity in the birthplace of Christianity.
  • “The fruits of the spirit coming off these people is so rich and profound...” (46:10)

7. Orthodox Theology & Practice: Wrestling with Tradition (48:13–56:05)

• Doctrinal Struggles: Clyde discusses wrestling with saints, iconography, prayers for the dead, and infant baptism—particularly challenging due to Calvinist background.
  • “It was the saints. It was the Theotokos prayers to the saints. Infant baptism was another one...” (48:27)
• Understanding the Eucharist: The historical reality of the Eucharist and priesthood in ancient mosaics, contrasted with contemporary Protestant misunderstandings.
  • “The mosaic, it's called the Mogido mosaic... it was a woman who dedicated the Eucharistic table to the God Jesus Christ.” (52:19)
• Historical Proofs: Firsthand encounters with archaeological evidence (e.g., the Mogido mosaic) of early Christian practice.

8. Content Creation & What’s Next (56:48–59:27)

• New Projects: Focusing on long-form YouTube series, including “Tracing the Footsteps of Saint Paul” in Greece/Mount Athos.
  • "I just posted the first episode of a series called Tracing the Footsteps of Saint Paul." (57:21)
• Future: Documentary Filmmaking: Partnering with Logos Cinema for Orthodox-themed documentaries (e.g., tracing Christ’s life in the Holy Land).
  • “They're trying to get some pretty big name actors as well... it's like orthodox Netflix.” (59:16)
• Socials & Links: Clyde shares that his main channel is “The Real Clyde” across platforms.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Military Vaccine Mandate:
  • “You take the shot or you get kicked out and take your benefits. Right?” — Clyde (07:00)
• On COVID Schisms in American Orthodoxy:
  • “Half of the churches that were pretty open or optional ... and then you had about half the Orthodox churches that were, you know, pretty cucked about it. And that, I think, stunted some of the conversions.” — Jay (08:49)
• On American Foreign Policy:
  • “We’re not involved in any of that to help the American people for defense ... It benefits certain like corporations.” — Jay (30:07)
  • “They throw the first punches, and then finally somebody throws one back, and they're like, ‘Whoa! Attack us?’” — Clyde (32:32)
• On Orthodox Continuity:
  • “I go to the Holy Lands where Christianity started, and it's not Protestant... it's all Orthodox and Catholic, but like 90% Orthodox.” — Clyde (44:09)
• On Palestinian Christian Hospitality:
  • “They have nothing, but they're giving me everything they have.” — Clyde (46:10)
• On Early Christian Mosaic:
  • “It was a woman who dedicated the Eucharistic table to the God Jesus Christ. And so there you see the divinity of Christ, pre-councils.” — Clyde (52:19)
• On New Content:
  • "I'm going to be focusing on my YouTube...I love the orthodox content where I get to travel and see stuff and go to those sites." — Clyde (57:21)

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Essential Timestamps

• Military/COVID/Embassy Life: 01:32–12:51
• Orthodoxy & Church Conflict: 08:49–12:51
• Protestant Roots & Deconstruction: 12:56–19:58
• Content Creation Gaza/Israel: 19:58–24:51
• US/Israel/Military-Industrial Politics: 24:51–32:44
• Discovery of Orthodoxy in Holy Land: 32:44–48:13
• Doctrinal/Apologetics Deep Dive: 48:13–56:05
• Content Plans/Logos Cinema: 56:48–59:27

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Concluding Thoughts

This episode offers a raw, introspective, and well-traveled perspective on the intersection of American military, Middle East politics, and Eastern Christianity. Clyde’s story provides insight into real-world consequences of policy, the authenticity and draw of Eastern Orthodoxy, and the importance of questioning inherited narratives—faith-based and political alike. The hosts’ candor about their own intellectual and spiritual journeys creates an engaging, thought-provoking listen for seekers, skeptics, and students of history and religion.

For full details and context, follow Clyde on “The Real Clyde” (YouTube/Instagram) and look forward to upcoming collaborations with Logos Cinema.

Transcript

[Clyde]

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[Clyde]

Yeah, so I just didn't want to miss anything.

[Interviewer]

Welcome, Clyde. Clyde's with us. You've probably seen Clyde all over Instagram. He's a recent convert to orthodoxy. So we're going to talk about him, his journey, recent content that he's made regarding the aesthetics and iconography orthodoxy that you might find interesting in terms of apologetics. Welcome, Clyde. What's up, man?

[Clyde]

How's it going? Yeah, thanks for having me.

[Interviewer]

Absolutely.

[Clyde]

Random. Random run in. I was here for some other stuff in Nashville and found out you were in the area, so I had to meet up.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Nashville's fun. Hopefully they don't, they don't turn it into the next Austin. It seems like it's getting kind of lib cucked, but we do have a significant based population here in Nashville. So. Yeah, he was, he was just telling me some of his background when he, when he was stationed overseas during the coup during COVID So what was that? Like, you mentioned you were in Saudi Arabia and Japan. Did they have like. Because nobody in America really knew what it was like in other places other than what people would tell us, like what were their mandates.

[Clyde]

I'm asking you these questions about what it was like here because it was the flip side for me. I was overseas for all of it. So I like to ask Americans what it was like in different states. But I was in the Marine Corps at the time. I had joined the Marine Corps in January of 2019. And then my pipeline was I did a five year contract. I had two different jobs that I was assigned. So I signed a contract to be in the infantry. That's kind of the main job that I wanted. But then the other part of my contract, I got selected for MSG duty, which is. Those are the Marines that guard the embassies overseas. Yeah, so I got selected for that. So I went to boot camp then. Then I went to infantry school and then I went to MSG school in Quantico. I was there for about six months, graduated the schoolhouse, and then I got orders to the embassy in Tokyo, Japan for my first post. So I got to Tokyo in November of 2019. And then obviously Covid happened in like started. I started hearing about it in like, what, February? March.

[Interviewer]

March, yeah, 2020.

[Clyde]

It was like March. So I had like a good four months in Japan pre Covid and got to enjoy it for what it was before COVID hit. And the interesting thing was, like, so I had traveled a decent amount for a 19, 20 year old at that time overseas, but I'd never been to Asia. I'd never been to Japan or anything like that. So when you get there, like, people were already wearing masks. That was already a social, cultural thing to. To wear masks if you get sick because they're workaholics and if they get sick, they put a mask on when they go to the train. So I was kind of already used to that. And being a foreigner in that country, like, you just, you want to assimilate to their customs in their environment. So I already had masks and stuff, was kind of used to it. And then Covid hit and I remember thinking, like, you see, I saw the memes and stuff of like the Corona bottles and stuff, and everybody thought it was a joke. Everybody thought it was going to be like, you know, swine flu again or something like that, right? But then they're like, yeah, we got a lockdown. Everybody has to wear masks. Restaurants, bars, businesses started closing down. And then Japan went into like a full lockdown for a while. But they were. Japan was more based than, from what I hear, a lot of states in cities in America probably. But Japan, like Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, like Landmass and population wise is the biggest city in the world. And so they had some pretty strict lockdown mandates for a while, but then after probably six months, they started opening up some restaurants for certain hours and they had a curfew and stuff like that pretty well.

[Interviewer]

I know for a lot of military people that I knew and that were vocal at that time, there was a lot of controversy over making military people take all the experimental gene therapies, aka

[Clyde]

yeah, but that didn't come till 2021, so.

[Interviewer]

So you didn't have to deal with that.

[Clyde]

I did. Oh, but I. I had to deal with that in Saudi. So like 2020. I was in Japan for like basically all of 2020. I left Japan in. In November of 2020. So I had the brunt of it in Japan, Covid, but, like, you have the country's mandates, and then you have the Marine Corps and the government's mandates. So. So, like, at the Embassy, it was 50. 50. 50% of the embassy was teleworking half the week, and the other 50% was, like, going into their offices. And then the Marines, when you're at the embassies, you have. You live with the embassy staff, usually on a compound. It differs depending on what embassy you're at. But like, in Japan, in Tokyo, in Roppongi, which is like a red light district in Japan, that's where the US Personnel compound was. So we had our own neighborhood. We had apartments, we had townhomes. And then the Marines, we had our own house. So we had a basketball court, an indoor gym, a swimming pool, a little rec room with a pool table and a bar. And then we all had our own rooms. But when Covid hit, they split half of us up. So half of the Marines had to go live in the apartments. The other half, half stayed in the house. So that's how it was. And then finished up my time in Tokyo, and then I got orders to Saudi Arabia. Got there, same thing. Like, Covid was still a big thing, and Saudi was more based on it, too. So you didn't see as much, like, people wearing masks. But the embassy had its own rules, so you had to wear a mask if you're at the embassy or if you're anywhere around other Americans. And then I don't remember the month. I think it was, like, the summer when the shots came out. But, yeah, they forced all of us to take the shots. And it was like, you take the shot or you get kicked out. Yeah, yeah. No, but they were like, you have to take the shot or we're gonna kick you out and take your benefits, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah. No, I had a lot of military

[Clyde]

friends, so, like, they put us in this terrible situation where it's like. And I'm. I'm new. I. I had been in the Marine Corps for, like, not even half my contract. So I'm still, like, experiencing the novelty of it, and I'm enjoying it. And I'm deciding, like, if I want to stay in longer, and I'm there with all my friends in Saudi Arabia, and so I don't want to get kicked out and leave. You know, I'm enjoying my time, and everybody else at the embassy did it. So I was like, whatever, you know, I'll get The shot. And I mean, in the military, you. You already get forced to get vaccines anyways, so it was like just another vaccine, whatever. So I did get it. I didn't do any boosters or anything like that, but I had to get. I got the Pfizer one. I'm gonna get fried in the comments already, dude. I had no choice. You're not in that situation where your livelihood is going to be stripped from you if you don't take the vaccine. But I did take this. I don't remember what the supplement is called, but it's like. It's called the Spike Shock Protein Detox or whatever. Oh, yeah, because people who got Johnson and Johnson, they were having, like, clogged arteries and stuff. Like, I have a friend back home in Iowa whose dad got it and he had an aneurysm, like, two weeks later.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Clyde]

And they did an autopsy and they're, like, scraping stuff out of his veins. So I. I've been taking that supplement for about a year now. Hopefully it works and, like, cleanses whatever was in me. But I think the people who were having more issues, we've got the. The Johnson and Johnson, probably. Yeah, that's where I heard. More issues. Because I got the Pfizer and I didn't have any symptoms. I didn't feel sick. My immune system handled it fine. But people that I know who got the Johnson and Johnson, they were like, flu, like, symptoms for the next week.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I remember we were just talking before we recorded about the way that was in the Orthodox Church. It was tough. There were pros and cons to it, but, I mean, overall, I think it was a net negative, because even in 2017, 18, 19, we had a lot of people converting. And then when the lockdowns and all that happened, you had about half of the churches that were pretty open or optional on how to approach it, and then you had about half the Orthodox churches that were, you know, pretty cucked about it. And that, I think, stunted some of the conversions and some of the. Some of the growth that we would have had. I mean, I think all that's kind of gone away now. It's better.

[Clyde]

But you think just because they couldn't actually get in the building or because they were like, oh, the Orthodox Church

[Interviewer]

is not all the above. I mean, because a lot of people from this audience, like, we were very skeptical about all the, you know, official stories of what was coming out. And so they would come from our audience and they would go to Orthodox churches, and then, you know, so boomers are running this whole thing and they're like, you gotta follow every little rule. So. And I've even seen, like I was telling you, like, I even saw fights break out at actual liturgies. I was at a church in Houston one time and it was like the parishioners got a huge brawl over social distancing and all this kind of stuff because basically because the boomers were being crazy about threatening people and. But I mean, it was a crazy time. But also like, there was positive aspects too, because like in Nashville, the only the Serbian church was open all the time. And it was the only one that was super based. Everybody that was based all went to the same church.

[Clyde]

They were serving the Eucharist as normal.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I mean, nothing changed. So basically. And in Tennessee, because I was in Tennessee for most of it, Florida, some, basically nothing in the day to day life changed unless you went to a big city. So unless you come to Nashville, like, if you low down the country in Tennessee, nothing was really different between, you know, 2020 to 2024.

[Clyde]

So, yeah, I do remember because I grew up in Iowa, so my family's there. And in between my time from when I left Japan, I took leave and came to Iowa for like a week before I went to Saudi. And I do remember they didn't have a mask mandate in Iowa at that time. So Iowa felt like more normal.

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[Clyde]

But I didn't. I don't know what the other states were like.

[Interviewer]

I mean, I remember we did travel, so like, we went to Texas, went to Austin, we went to St. Louis during that time. And I remember only getting fussed at in Austin. We had the police called on us for a public event for having more than 11 people at public event because Austin had an ordinance. And there was a dude that was walking around with his camera and he was reporting people and they were screaming. They were screaming at us that we were killing grannies. I kid you not. They were like, you're killing grannies. There's no grandma here. Dude, what are you talking about?

[Clyde]

People wearing the mask in their car by themselves.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, well, this was a like a teenage dude on a bicycle driving around and filming and then sending it to the Austin police, reporting anybody violating the ordinance of not having more than two.

[Clyde]

It was like the most controversial time ever. Like, people who I thought would be based on it weren't. And they're like, bro, why are you wearing a mask? Like, cover your nose. All that dumb stuff.

[Interviewer]

I got screamed at. We got screamed at in a Whole Foods one time because I didn't have a mask on because I had the policy, like, I'm never wearing a mask. I don't care. I'm not gonna do it. And then we had this dude who was a screen and Boomer screaming in a whole foods in St. Louis that he was gonna take us to court because we didn't have a mascot, like, some Boomer lawyer. And I'm like, okay, whatever, dude.

[Clyde]

I remember. Did you ever fly during COVID The airline? I can't remember sticklers on it.

[Interviewer]

Like, if they were. Yeah, I don't think I did.

[Clyde]

Yeah, I did a few times. Like, I mean, when I left Japan and stuff. But, like, if you fell asleep and your mask got pulled down below your nose, like, before they take off and they do their little announcements or, like, you have to wear a mask and it has to be above your nose. If it fell off, they would, like, wake you up and make you pull two inches up above your nose. And, like, you're. I'm just sleeping on the window. Like, there's nobody next to me because you can't fill the plane. Like, you have to leave the middle seat open. Yeah, it was crazy.

[Interviewer]

That's okay, dude. So let's talk about you. So you. What's.

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You.

[Interviewer]

You were raised Protestant? What type of Protestant?

[Clyde]

Calvinistic. I was in a Reformed church.

[Interviewer]

That's where I come from.

[Clyde]

Yeah. So I was raised on all the Calvinistic doctrine and theology, predestination, all that stuff, and I bought into it.

[Interviewer]

Were you.

[Clyde]

Same with Ben. I mean. Yeah, Ben was not raised. Yeah, he wasn't raised Calvinistic, but he got into it.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's how I was.

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And it's. They.

[Clyde]

I mean, they kind of make it compelling at times.

[Spinquest Promoter]

Did you.

[Interviewer]

Was it like opc, pca, Reformed, Baptist? What type of.

[Clyde]

It was opc?

[Interviewer]

Okay, interesting. Yeah, we had a PCA around here. We didn't have opc, but.

[Clyde]

Yeah, but, like, I was baptized Presbyterian as an infant, and then.

[Interviewer]

So your parents are Presbyterian?

[Clyde]

So my dad was raised. I think my mother was raised Baptist. My dad. I don't remember what he was growing up, but, like, they met at Moody Bible Institute.

[Interviewer]

Gotcha.

[Clyde]

So they came out of that scene growing up, went to Moody, somehow found their way to the Reformed church. And that's where I grew up. That's the church I remember from, like, the age of, like, five to when I left when I was 18, 19. And we did the whole, like, missions trips. We went on a couple to the Dominican Republic. My parents were missionaries when they were in their early 20s to Mexico. So like fully bought in to the Protestant Phronema, Protestant mindset. And I didn't know what Orthodoxy was growing up as like a lot of

[Interviewer]

people in America, I didn't know.

[Clyde]

And so I thought it was just Protestants and Catholics. And then you know, the same brainwashing where they tell you that Protestants are the only Christians and anything else is something else. Like Catholics are not Christians, Catholics are, you know, idol worshipers and all that stuff. So that was my perspective. It's just like, okay. But I never went to like a Catholic mass. I never questioned it. I had one Catholic friend growing up and they were pretty devout Catholic and we always looked at them like they were the black sheep of the friend group. But I had no clue what Orthodoxy was. I remember my first introduction to it was when I went to Georgia and that was 2022. So I went to Georgia and I remember I was in Tbilisi and Kazbeki. Have you ever been to Georgia?

[Spinquest Announcer]

No.

[Clyde]

You gotta go. It's awesome country. I wish I was Orthodox at the time. I've heard that I gotta go back while I'm Orthodox. But I remember I was doing this hike in Kazbegi which is like right on the Russian border. And I remember this was 2022 and I remember seeing like, dude, a line of vehicles with Russian plates on the highway, like going in the opposite direction. And so anyways, we get to our hotel and I did this hike.

[Interviewer]

Is this where Putin converted you? This is Putin, yeah, he was over there. What was this?

[Clyde]

What do you mean what was this?

[Interviewer]

I mean you said a bunch of Russian plates. Are you getting that like hinting that it was like Russian officials or something or.

[Clyde]

I didn't look into it. I, I didn't think much of it. I just remember there was a bunch of traffic going to Kazbegi because Kasbegi is like up in the mountains of Caucus, the Caucus Mountains. And I just remember noticing that hanging

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[Clyde]

But because we were close to the Russian border, but yeah, so I get to the hotel and then I do this hike up this mountain and there's an old church up there. And I go to the church and. And I'm looking around, I'm like, is this, like, what is this? Georgian Catholics? That's what I thought it was.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Clyde]

I didn't know what the Orthodox church was. And then I was told, this is an Orthodox church. I'm like, okay, what is that? I don't know what that is. And I literally thought that it was just like Georgian Catholic, a Georgian version of Catholic, like a Georgian rite of Catholicism. But that was my first introduction. I didn't inquire at that time. I wasn't curious for context. This is when I was in the Marine Corps and I left Protestantism. I left, like, Christianity altogether when I was like 1918, because I grew up in this Protestant church and it was very overbearing. I don't want to call it a cult, but it was.

[Interviewer]

I mean, Calvinism can be cultish.

[Clyde]

Cultish is a good word. So I grew up there and like, I saw my pastor as a. I looked up to him in many ways because he seemed smart. He seemed to know every answer to my questions. But my family had an issue with the church. My dad got put on church discipline. My parents got divorced. It was this whole thing between my family and the church. And so I left Protestantism, left the church when I was like 18, 19, and then joined the Marine Corps.

[Interviewer]

And.

[Clyde]

And then I never went to church in the Marine Corps. I just lived like a secular worldly lifestyle in the Marine Corps.

[Interviewer]

Were you just agnostic or were you like, adamantly atheistic?

[Clyde]

I wasn't either. I was like a me, my Bible and Jesus Christian. So I was like, yeah, I don't agree with the Protestant church. I had a bad experience with the one I grew up in. And then I was privy to like, Christian Zionism, even though it wasn't coined that term at the time. I got red pills on, like, Israel when I was like 15. So I knew I had a basis of understanding of like Christian Zionism's involvement in the Protestant church.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Clyde]

And so I didn't want to go back to a Reformed church. And then I actually.

[Interviewer]

Was it the Reformed theology that red pilled you on that or something else?

[Clyde]

No, it was just. I looked into 911 when I was like, probably 13 or 14. My older brother showed me a documentary on 911 and I got red pilled on that. And then I just started going deeper down the rabbit hole and I was like, I'm gonna figure out who's pulling the strings of everything. And of course, once you Go deep enough down that hole, you find a lot of stuff with Israel. And then I found out about Zionism. I found out about how, like, churches are sending them money and Congress is sending them billions of dollars a year. And so, I mean, this is like, I'm in high school. I can't fully wrap my mind around what's going on, but I have some sort of understanding. So I didn't want to go to, like, a pro Israel church. I didn't want to go to a reformed church, and I just wanted to do my own thing. So I did that for seven years when I was in the Marine Corps. And then when I started posting content about what I do now, because I've been doing content for a couple years, living off of it, but I wasn't always talking about this stuff.

[Interviewer]

Was it like, fitness types?

[Clyde]

Yeah, it was fitness. It was mainly fitness content and mainly on TikTok. And then I started posting on Instagram. It was a fitness account on Instagram, like, the real Clyde. If you go way down, you'll see still, like, just gym videos. But I started talking about political stuff with Gaza. So I had some understanding of, you know, the historical background of Palestine and Israel and all that stuff. I remember when I was getting out of the Marine Corps, I had exactly one month left, and October 7th happened. And I remember sitting at the chow hall and I was eating my lunch. And at this time, to paint the picture, like, I'm. I'm getting out of the military. It's a big transition. I've got a lot of work to do. I'm stressed. I have to do all my paperwork, I've got to turn my gear, and I've got to figure out where I'm going to live, how I'm going to make a living, all that stuff. So I'm just focused on my life. But I remember, like, glancing up at the screen and seeing the news about October 7th, and I remember just thinking for a split second, I'm like, they're like, palestine's screwed. Like, they're gonna get. They're gonna get nuked. And I remember thinking about that and then going back to my lunch, and then I got out, and then I paid attention loosely with what was going on in Gaza after getting out. But again, it's like, very transitional period of my life. I gotta figure out my own life. And then Rafa happened. If you remember that, it was like the summer of 23. And it's interesting because Dan Bilzer and I have talked about this too, and that's when he got red pilled, like, that's, that's when he was like, okay, I gotta do something. I'm gonna say something. And there was the same exact point for me when Rafa happened. I was like, okay, I want to do something. I want to like get involved. I was a new veteran at the time, so I was actually looking for like contracts to go to Gaza where there was nothing available, there was nothing for me to do or any way to get there. So I started paying more attention at that time. And then it was a little bit after that when I started posting about it. And so yeah, when I, when I started like the real Clyde brand of what you guys see now is I started that by talking about Gaza. Oh, I have had no luck lately. Wait, Lady Luck Bretzky.

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[Clyde]

And Palestine and Israel. And then it just evolved into what it is today.

[Interviewer]

Now when you Just one side question. Because I first got into this issue of questioning Christian Zionism when I was getting into Reformed theology because I was raised Southern Baptist and it was always like pro Christian Zionist.

[Spinquest Promoter]

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[Interviewer]

But then when I got into Reformed theology, it was actually the theological angle that made me start to question that when I was like 19, 20, 21. Because the whole idea is that the covenant right is fulfilled and then you have a essentially divorce of God with flesh Israel. And then the covenant is now made with predominantly gentile based church. Not only Gentiles, but covenants opened up to the Gentiles. And for me that was like, well, that's the divorce of Israel. That's what the apocalypse is about. Matthew 24, Luke 21. So did you encounter any of that in the reformed Calvinist theology that you're in? Or was it only like the geopolitical stuff with documentaries that kind of woke you up to that? Because a lot of reformed people are not Christian Zionists.

[Clyde]

A lot aren't, but there.

[Interviewer]

Some are. Some are.

[Clyde]

Like, I was raised not rabidly. No, I was not raised rabidly. But again, my parents went to moody dude.

[Interviewer]

So like say that's.

[Clyde]

That undercurrent was still in my parents and in my household and in people That I knew, like just being in the, in the evangelical Protestant community, like I was homeschooled. So my bubble was very small. It was just Christian, Christian families. So that notion of Christian Zionism was ubiquitous in my upbringing. So your mind just kind of goes there.

[Interviewer]

Right?

[Clyde]

But it was when I started like going into every conspiracy theory I could find and then seeing a bunch of things traced back to Israel. And then I read Revelation where it talks about the synagogue of Satan and I was like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Did you have, when you're, you know, in the Marine Corps and you're studying, you know, to do security and whatnot, did any of that touch on the geopolitics of like, well, we're Americans, we're going to be naturally just pro Israel? Or did you like encounter other political thought, you know, maybe in Saudi Arabia or whatever that like also played into that? Or was it, Was there really. No. With your military training, was there no connection to the geopolitics? Was that all just accidental?

[Clyde]

No. Yeah. I was not, I was not in the political space when I was in the military. Like when I was in the military, I kind of just unplugged from that.

[Interviewer]

Oh, good.

[Clyde]

I got to like a black pilled phase. In my first phase of like conspiracy theories, I was like, I kind of black pilled myself and I was like, well, this is just going to be how it is. And then I joined the military. But like, joining the military was something I always wanted to do and I kind of like coped with myself and I knew that Israel had like some involvement in nine, eleven and the invasion of Iraq and all that stuff. But I, I kind of lied to myself and I was like, well, I'm still serving my country, there's still bad guys out there that we got to take care of. And so I coped and black pilled myself and just went into it. But it wasn't like my military experience further radicalized me into what I do now or something like that. It gave me more depth of understanding of like our government and how we operate, especially overseas, because I was at embassies, right. So like I got to see

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[Clyde]

bit of the operational procedure of different agencies overseas, Right. Because I was there, I was doing security for them and I would see them out, I would see them out in the streets in disguises, working. Yeah, stuff like that. I would have to guard the front, the door of the interview room when they would bring people, sources would come in. Yeah. So I saw that. I was around it. I Got a bit more of like exposure to that world. Even though I wasn't directly involved in it, I was around it and then also like the diplomatic community and the diplomatic world as well, because I was immersed. I was embedded with the State departments.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I always thought it's weird too. Maybe you could speak to this. I know you're not mainly focused on this right now per se, but it's always been curious, I think, to a lot of American audiences as well. We brought this up when we interviewed John Kiriaki. Like, why are we so attached to Saudi Arabia if Saudi Arabia is like a huge funder of so called terrorism? And, and hasn't Saudi Arabia had a tendency to kind of be pro Israel? Could you speak to that? Or is that, is that not something that you're really into?

[Clyde]

I'm not super informed on it, but I mean, Saudi Arabia is, they're pro Israel and they're fighting the Houthis.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Clyde]

That's another very important thing that people don't realize is, dude, it's Saudi Arabia that's really holding the Houthis at bay. Like the Houthis would shoot at us, the Houthis. We would get IDF indirect fire from the Houthis like multiple times. It would happen sometimes every month or a couple times a month. Like I'd be sleeping in my room at the embassy and all of a sudden like the duck and cover alarm would go off because Houthis were shooting stuff at us or they were just shooting stuff in, into Riyadh and then it would get shot down by the Patriot missile systems that we give Saudi and then debris would fall down. Like there was one time where a big basketball size, basketball sized piece of debris fell in our swimming pool at the embassy. So like Saudi's connection to everything going on is they're, they're, they're attacking and at war with the Houthis and they're funded by us and they're proud. Yeah, yeah. So like they're an ally in the greater scheme of everything going on with the proxies of Iran.

[Interviewer]

And also, I mean, from what I read, like back in the 1970s, it was actually Kissinger that organized this situation where we would be dependent on Saudi oil so that there would be a globalized infrastructure for the, for the petrodollar so that anytime something happened in the Middle east, it would be a justification for all of our intervention because it would threaten our economic survival and oil. Right. Because we have, according to, you know, critics of this idea. Like, well, there's a Lot of oil in the U.S. like, we don't have to be dependent on Middle Eastern oil, but they wanted it that way on purpose as part of like policing the world and globalization. So just, just curious like what you think having seen some of that in these other countries, like is it accurate to say that we're like actually engineered to be kind of a world police for straight up for Israel or is it in your view, is it also like multiple influences like military industrial complex and the big corporations?

[Clyde]

Oh yeah, it's multiple. It's not just like the, the idea that America is only like we have our own interests in the Middle East. Sure, that's obvious. Israel kind of throws fuel on that fire and pulls us into things. It's, it's. People can't understand the nuance of it. Some people who got red pilled like last week think that we're only in the Middle east only for Israel and like there's no benefit to us. There is. And we have been that, that police force in the Middle east for a long time and we have relationships with these other countries, like oil from the Middle east from Saudi and stuff like that. So we do have our own interests there. And some people could make an argument that we, you know, there is legitimate interest to be partnered with Israel because they're our only major partner in that region who's a democracy or whatever. People can make that argument. But it's not that we are only involved in the Middle east only for Israel. Like it is the military industrial complex. It is all of that. There's more nuance to the topic.

[Interviewer]

Well, but I mean, long story, like we're not involved in any of that to help the American people for defense.

[Clyde]

No, no, that's not, that's not really what I'm saying.

[Interviewer]

No, no, no, you're not saying. I'm just saying like that's what people think is like, well, we're there like the boomer minds or their cold slits. We got to defend America against the terrorists. That's all bull. It doesn't benefit the American people that were in the Middle east is what I'm trying to say. It benefits certain like corporations.

[Clyde]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But it's not just for Israel, but not necessarily for the benefit of the commonwealth American people.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Clyde]

Like we could spend our money so much more effectively back home.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like we, we think about defense as if it has to be this sort of like global police process.

[Clyde]

No, it's like it's off, it's Offensive. That creates more problems and creates more terrorists.

[Interviewer]

And the problems are useful to the way the system works. They're not actually trying to solve, globally speaking, the problems. There's a need for a degree of controlled chaos in regions to have the justification excuse to police the world is what I'm trying to get.

[Spinquest Promoter]

Yeah, exactly.

[Clyde]

It's like the same thing they did in Gaza.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Clyde]

Like there's a need for Hamas.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Clyde]

Without Hamas, they can't do what they're doing.

[Interviewer]

So Netanyahu, etc. They funded Hamas all the way back to.

[Clyde]

Yeah. They create their own scapegoats. They create their own excuses to bomb these countries. And, and we bomb, dude. Like, we didn't have an issue with Iran before. Now we do. Now they're pissed off. Now they actually do want to kill Americans because we bombed a school of, of of schoolgirls and killed 168 schoolgirls and killed their leader. So now we have created a problem that they can leverage to do.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Clyde]

To continue this war. Like, we literally started it, and now they have beef with us, and now we can continue it. And now a decade from now, there might be a legitimate Iran concern or attack, and they can say, oh, look, they attacked us. And it's the same thing that Israel did. Like, they play, they play this game that, oh, this war started on October 7th. No, you guys went there and started it in the 1800s with the Urgu, Haganah and Leahy. Like, you started as a long, long, long time ago.

[Interviewer]

It's the same with the provocations of NATO to Russia too. It's like, NATO will provoke, provoke, provoke. Russia responds. I say, look, Russia's attack, and then

[Clyde]

it started on this day. It didn't start way back.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Clyde]

So they, they start the problems, and then when it's like, it's like they throw the first punch, and then they throw the first 10 punches, and then they finally throw one back, like, whoa, what?

[Interviewer]

Attack us?

[Clyde]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

So to get back to the theology of this all. That's all great. We're totally on the same page with all that. But, like, to go back to the theology, so you're. You're exposed to Georgian Orthodox Church, and you're like, okay, is this a rite of Catholicism? What is this? What is it that first starts getting you interested in, like, inquiring into and looking into the actual Orthodox Church?

[Clyde]

It's when I went to Palestine, when I went to Jerusalem, that's when I became an Inquirer.

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[Clyde]

So I went there in March of 25 and then I, I went there because I was making content on, on Gaza and Palestine and Israel and all that stuff. But I didn't want to just be another talking head regurgitating the same talking points. I wanted to go and actually do like some sort of independent journalism. So like I said, I used to work at embassies and one of my former mentors at the embassy in Saudi Arabia, he got reassigned to the embassy in Jerusalem. So he works there. And then I also have connections at the consulate in Tel Aviv. So I was like, okay, I've got connections there, I'm a Christian so it'd be cool to go to the Holy Land and I want to see what's going on. So I went like during the, one of the high periods of the genocide. I get to Jerusalem, I flew, I flew in from Abu Dhabi because I was in Dubai for a wedding the week prior and then I get to Jerusalem. And my initial plan because I wanted to like, I wanted to donate money or I wanted to like work at a food drive or something like that, I wanted to actually like put my hands to use to help Palestinians. Like not so sound self aggrandizing but I wanted to do something. So I get there and I'm trying to leverage my connections and see if there's like a non profit I can go work with for like a couple days or something. And long story short, there was nothing for me to do. This was when they kind of started increasing the blockade in Gaza. So there was not much aid getting in and it was mainly coming from Egypt at that time. So I was like, okay, next best thing I can do is I've got a platform, I can go and kind of document what's going on in the west bank because I couldn't get to Gaza, I couldn't even get close. So I was like, I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I flew into Tel Aviv obviously and I'm going to go to Jerusalem, I'm going to see that document that and then I'm going to Go to the west bank and see that and document that. So I get to Jerusalem, I meet up with my friend at the embassy, and. And they show me around Jerusalem. And it's like, you know, have you ever been there? No, dude, you gotta go. I would say, have you been to Mount Athos? Those are the two places I tell people, like, go before you die, especially if you're Orthodox. It's really cool. And I was there, and it was the novelty of it, and it was very cool. And I'm like, dude, this is crazy. I'm in Jerusalem. The amount of olives is right over there, and Golgotha is right over there. So I was kind of enjoying the novelty of it the first day. And I just walked around, got shown around. And then the second day, I had like my tourist day where I just went off on my own and I went to the Holy Sepulcher. I went and I walked the Via de la Rosa, which is the path that Christ walked with the cross, and then did a bunch of other stuff. And then my third day was the day I was planning to go to the west bank, and I had a taxi ride lined up, and the guy was. I was going to pay him for the day. He was going to take me to the west bank, take me to a bunch of different sites. And then that fell through the night of my second night there. So now I have no ride, nothing planned, nothing lined up. I'm totally winging this whole trip now. And so it's the night, it's like nine or ten o', clock, and I want to go get some food. I just finished working out at some gym in Jerusalem, and I wanted to go get some food, but I wasn't eating. It was like, boycotting, you know, all the Israeli places. So I go to the old city of Jerusalem and I'm looking for a Palestinian place to eat, and everything's kind of closed down, but I find this Lebanese place. So I go in this Lebanese restaurant, I get my food, and there's like five elderly Palestinian guys hanging out there, and they finish their food and they're out in the street smoking some cigs. And then I finish and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna go to my hotel, go to sleep, and I'll try to figure something out in the morning. So I walk out in the street and I pull my phone out to look up the directions to go back to my hotel. And one of the. One of the older guys who was out there having a cigarette, he pokes me on the back of my shoulder, I turn around and he just wants to talk. He's just asking me like, oh, who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here? I'm like, I'm a, I'm an American tourist. And mind you, I'm treading lightly with everybody that I talk to because I kind of, I have, I had a top secret clearance in the military. I had some training on counter intelligence and counter surveillance and stuff. So I have that mindset.

[Interviewer]

They might be suspicious of you.

[Clyde]

Oh yeah, I'm very like suspicious of everybody. Especially like random acts of hospitality and so, and I'm well traveled, so I know this. Maybe he's trying to like show me something and then ask for a tip after whatever, you know. So I'm very skeptical at first. But he's a Palestinian. He tells me, I'm a Palestinian Christian, I've lived here my whole life. And he tells me he used to work for the UN for like 30 years. And then he just, he starts sounding more and more based during the conversation. So I start to like let my guard down and let him a little, let him know a bit more of like what my plans are. And I'm like, well, tomorrow actually I was supposed to go to the west bank. And I, you know, I'm, I'm an American, I'm Christian, and to be honest, I just want to see what's going on for myself. Like, I don't want to hear things from Fox or from CNN or from Instagram. I want to see it for myself. And so he's like, okay, I know a guy who can take you there. And so he calls this guy and they start blabbering in Arabic for a couple minutes and then he hangs up and he's like, okay, follow me. And so I walk down the street and we turn and go down this alleyway.

[Interviewer]

Were you getting a little nervous or you thought it was all good?

[Clyde]

50, 50. I mean we had a good conversation and he's like telling me how he doesn't like the Zionist and the Israelis and telling me like his nephew got put in prison and all that stuff. So I'm starting to think because like it is a real concern because they do co op some Palestinians, like by force or they pay them. So like there are some plants, there's some Palestinian like co opted people in Jerusalem that kind of worker feed them intel. So I'm aware of that. But we had a good, pretty base conversation. I felt better about it. So he takes me down the street, we turn down this alleyway. And his son in law is who he was taking me to. And he's in the, he's in the street and I go and shake his hand. And then the son in law invites me up into his home and he gives me tea, he introduces me to his kids, he takes me up on his rooftop. He's got this cool panoramic view of Jerusalem. And so we go down to his living room and we sit and we visit and talk. And again, have to restart this like this approach of being skeptical and suspicious of who this character is and how much can I trust him. And again, we have a normal conversation. It gets more based. So I started telling more stuff of what I want to do. I'm like, again, I'm an American tourist, I'm a Christian, I want to go to the west bank and I want to see it for myself. And I told him I want to see like the more rough parts of the west bank because I really want to see what's going on. And then he kind of leans forward and he's like, okay, I can show you, I can show you what you want. And so that next morning or that night, he plans a full three day trip in the west bank. And he reached out to nine different families because I told him I wanted to talk to Palestinian families. Like, I don't just want to drive around and see things, I want to go talk and like kind of interview people. And so he set it up to go meet with nine different families. And there was a mix of Christian and Muslim families. And so the next day he picked me up from my hotel at like 7 in the morning. We drive out to the west bank, we go to the first stop was. What's it called? It's where the Tabernacle was. It's where. I don't know what it's. What's it called? Anyways, I can't remember what they call it now, but it's the, it's the spot where the Tabernacle was and it's a total Jewish historical site now. So we went and saw that. That was cool. And then he took me to Jenin and Nablus and we stopped at a church. And this was like, other than seeing the churches in Jerusalem, which were cool and like when I went to the Holy Sepulcher, it's run by five different churches. The Coptics, the Armenians, Catholics, Orthodox, and I can't remember the fifth, but it's very. Or it's an Orthodox church. So I got exposed to like another Orthodox church there. And it was like, kind of like weird and new and different. But the first, the next Orthodox church that I went to was in. I think it's in Nablus.

[Interviewer]

But are these still there? They're like bombed out now.

[Clyde]

Some of them are there, some of them are destroyed.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Clyde]

But like a, a lot of them were built by Queen Helena when she did her first pilgrimage there. And she was hunting for holy sites. So this church we went to in Nablus, it was built around the cave where Christ healed the lepers. So she went there and she was just looking for all of the Christian holy sites that she could, based on tradition. So she would go talk to the local Palestinians and the Christians and she would say, okay, where did he die? Where was he buried? Where did this happen? Where did that happen? And they all knew because it was, it was held within Orthodox tradition for so long. So this was just known as the cave where Christ healed the lepers. So she built a church there. And so we met up with a guy there.

[Interviewer]

And so your convert, it seems like your conversion was like, this is really unique because most people don't convert, like from seeing actual. Yeah, you know, Holy Land.

[Clyde]

They convert from like edits on Instagram.

[Interviewer]

But I mean, which is fine. But I would say this is really interesting just to hear like a first hand account, like actually seeing the location.

[Clyde]

Yeah. But I mean, so long story short, the reason I started converting is because, you know, I was Protestant, raised Protestant, and then I go to the Holy

[Interviewer]

Lands where Christianity started, and it's not Protestant.

[Clyde]

And it's not. Nothing, nothing is Protestant. It's all Orthodox and Catholic, but like 90 Orthodox. Because all these sites, you know, they're in the Levant, this is in the East. So most everything is, is still Orthodox.

[Interviewer]

Historically, that would have been patriarchate of Jerusalem.

[Clyde]

Yeah. So I'm seeing that. And then, you see, I'm a naturally inquisitive person. So I'm seeing things and I start asking questions like, whatever this Christianity is looks nothing like what I was given in America. Like, there's nothing that resembles American Christianity here. And this is where it started 2,000 years ago. So there's got to be something to it. And so I was a bit skeptical. And my, my guide for those three days, he's Orthodox, but he wasn't like, wasn't like pushing it on me. He wasn't trying to convert me. He was just showing me and letting me ask questions. And then I would ask him questions and he would just answer. So I remember asking him, like, do you guys have saints? Do you guys, like, pray to the saints? He's like, of course, yeah, we've got plenty of saints. And I remember thinking like, oh, that's, that's kind of weird. And I was a bit averse to things, of course, as many Protestants are, but it, it just, I couldn't shake that feeling of there's got to be something more to whatever Eastern Orthodoxy is. There's got to be something more to.

[Interviewer]

It was. Yeah, go ahead.

[Clyde]

But also it wasn't just like the historical element and the fact that all those churches were still Orthodox. It was the fruits of the spirit that I saw in the Orthodox people in those places who were living terrible lives, right? And they were way, I mean, you, you feel the fruits of the spirit. Like, we would go and we went to nine different houses and like, again, it was a mix of Christian and Muslim, but most of them were Christian. And like, I'm going into their, their homes in the west bank and it's like, dude, slums, like complete slums. These people are living in squalor. They have these.

[Interviewer]

They're still hospitable, very hospitable.

[Clyde]

That's the thing. It was like, they have nothing, but they're giving me everything they have. So every single home, without fail, go in, they have a coffee table full of snacks and coffee and tea and water. And they're giving me, like, the nicest seat in the home. And they're giving me gifts. Like, one lady gave me an icon when I left. One lady gave me a little statue of an angel when I left. And they're like just the nicest, kindest people ever. And you would never think that they're living in an occupied prison. Pretty much, yeah. Like, they are living in an open air prison and the Israelis are coming by and messing with them all the time. Like, every home was like, the fridges were empty. They got water one day a week. Because after October 7, the occupation in the west bank increased. There was more military presence. They cordoned and sectioned more areas off because there's like three different sections. There's area A, B and C. C was the worst always. Then B was a bit better than A was a bit better. And then it was like all of them were just slummy and terrible and heavily occupied by the Israeli Defense Force.

[Interviewer]

And so also, do they have the poop cannons? Did you see? Yeah, yeah.

[Clyde]

So we're driving through and you can see clear as day, you can see a nice new Israeli settlement. And then up on the other hill, Looks like Iraq or something. Looks like Baghdad. I mean just like brick destroyed buildings. You could still see buildings that were destroyed by the cranes and the stuff. I saw the bulldozers and the cranes driving through different towns. So they're living in squalor and have like nothing yet. The fruits of the spirit coming off these people is so rich and profound that it made me want to look deeper into what they had. So those, all of those things that I experienced in the west bank and in Palestine made me like, what is this? And so I came back to the States and was just like deep down the rabbit hole. And then yeah, I started inquiring and it was pretty quick. I was like, yeah, I want to,

[Interviewer]

I want whatever this is was there. Did you have a couple major hang ups? Like a lot of people, especially from Calvinistic background, it's like, oh, icons are idols. Like did you have any like significant sort of like struggles? Like I just have a hard time with saints or icons.

[Clyde]

Icons. I warmed up to those probably pretty quick, quicker than most. But it was the saints. It was the Theotokos prayers to the saints. Infant baptism was another one for some reason because I was Calvinist.

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[Clyde]

And well, I was Calvinist, but I actually disagreed with infant baptism.

[Interviewer]

Oh really?

[Clyde]

Yeah. My dad and I, we were kind of a bit different in that church. We did not agree with infant baptism. I don't know if that was my dad who convinced me of that because he, they baptized me as an infant but then he switched later in life.

[Interviewer]

That's funny.

[Clyde]

Yeah. Which, and then, and then they didn't get me re baptized.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Clyde]

So I was like, okay, well but

[Interviewer]

I mean if you're protestant, it's sort of like, you know, optional anyway.

[Clyde]

Yeah, what was I gonna say? But I, I adopted that belief that it was like, oh, every, every example in the New Testament of baptism happens after a confession of faith. So repent and then be baptized. So how can an infant do that? You know? And so that was like a hang up for me. So, yeah, there was a lot of hang ups. And I was inquiring while still wrestling through those hang ups and things that I was averse to.

[Interviewer]

But did the real presence ever cause an issue with you? The Eucharist?

[Clyde]

Not really. I didn't understand it at first. Like, I didn't, I didn't know if it was like, like transubstantiation, like Catholics. So I had to really, like, try to understand the differences between transubstantiation and it being a holy mystery. But it didn't take me long for real presence to. To click with me.

[Interviewer]

I know you recently, you. You were talking about going and seeing an ancient mosaic that shows a pretty significant, you know, attestation to the deity of Christ very early. And I remember as well, like I was telling you 10 years ago here in Nashville, they did a. Maybe 15 years ago. It was a long time ago, but the Frist Museum had a Byzantine exhibit which was all kinds of stuff, everything from like ancient icons to mosaics. And I was already like, no, I wasn't Protestant anymore, so I wasn't struggling with it. But I remember touring and seeing like pre 4th century iconography and imagery and mosaics. And then when my priest, Father Vladimir took us to Italy for a pre schism tour, we went to the catacombs and we saw like imagery and iconography and, you know, altars and relics in the catacombs, which is like, you know, pre Nicaea too. So. But you were talking about some recent content that you made that dealt with this really important proof that icons aren't a late invention. Like a lot of people think it's already existing in the early church, even in the catacombs.

[Clyde]

Yeah. So it proves Christ's divinity. All of this is pre Council of Nicaea. This church dates back to 230 A.D. so this is like 100 years before the first council. So it proves Christ's divinity. It proves that the, the liturgies revolved around the Eucharist.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Clyde]

So the mosaic, it's called the Mogido mosaic. And today I think it's just on exhibit till like the end of the year. But it's at the Museum of the Bible in D.C. and I live in D.C. so like, okay, I'm gonna go see it, make a video. But it was found in 2004 in Upper Israel at a prison system. So anytime they. That whole. The Holy Land is a historical site. So like anytime they build or destroy things or want to renovate, they have to do excavations and see if they're building on, like, some ancient site, similar with many places in. In Europe or whatever where there's ancient, ancient sites. So they found this mosaic, and it says it was a woman who dedicated the Eucharistic table to the God Jesus Christ. And so there you see the divinity of Christ, pre councils, and also the entire, you know, the Eucharistic table was in the middle of the mosaic in the floor. And so in my video, I explained basically, like, one of my main points is, you know, you gotta remember this is happening during one of the high points of the Christian persecution in what was Syria Palestina at that time under Roman occupation. And you also had. There was a Roman centurion who was a part of the church, so he's mentioned in the mosaic as well. And also prayers for the departed are mentioned in the mosaic as well.

[Interviewer]

Oh, wow.

[Clyde]

Yeah. So they remember in prayer three women, and they're not sure if they were martyrs or if they were infants that died or what the case was. But, like, there were three specific women mentioned by name that they remembered in prayer. And then the divinity of Christ and then the Eucharistic table, all pre councils during the Christian persecution. And so one of the main points that I made, tying it into Orthodoxy and the Eucharist and the nature of the Eucharist having some sort of profound element to it, it's not. It can't be symbolic, because at this time, Christians were risking their life to go to liturgy, to liturgy. And if you read the verse where it says, where two or three gather in my name, I am there in their midst. And I make the point where, like, okay, these people were dedicated to come back to this one building, knowing that this building would be a barrel full of fish for the Romans to come and seize. And they're compromising themselves by going back to that building. So what's drawing them back risking their life when they could just, you know, have a couple in this house and couple in that house. Right, right. But they're risking their life to come back here.

[Spinquest Promoter]

Why?

[Clyde]

And it's because of that table that was put in the center, because that's the Eucharistic table. And so I make the point that Christians at that time had a very close connection to the Apostolic Fathers. And then you can reference their writings and you can read what they say about the Eucharist and what they say about, you know, the concept of theosis. Like, those Christians had a very basic understanding of what the Christian pursuit was, which was theosis and union with God. And one of the main ways you attain union with God is through the Eucharist.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Clyde]

And so that's what was drawing them back to that building where they could die by being compromised, being in one place. And also they couldn't. I made the point that, like, they couldn't have the Eucharist with two or three at a house here and a house here because they had to have the priesthood.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Clyde]

So I make all those points in my video. And it's kind of funny because the Bible Museum is like a Protestant establishment. So, like, when I was there, like, I'm seeing it for what it is. And there's always like, boomer Protestants.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Evangelicals.

[Clyde]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

I mean, it's the same thing. I remember at the museum when I went to see the Byzantine exhibition, it was like, it's a secular exhibit and it's like it's all orthodox. You know what I mean? Accidentally. Right. They didn't know that. But yeah. So that's awesome, man. I mean. And so lately your content like to kind of come to a close here. It's been a great interview. Like, your content is moved towards doing a lot more like on the scene investigative journalism, even type stuff, but also theological, which I think is really unique. And what do you. What are you looking to do next? Like, what are some of your highlights, beyond the Megiddo example that you want to highlight and tell people to tell, Take a look at that you think is really important. And then what are you going to be doing?

[Clyde]

Yeah, so I'm focusing more on YouTube right now because the past couple years I've just been doing Instagram mainly, and my Instagram does well. I'm at like close to 520k on there. But I'm just at the point where I want to move out of short form. And there's a lot of projects that I've wanted to work on that I have the time and connections and I guess, knowledge to do now. So I'm going to be focusing on my YouTube. I just posted the first episode of a series called Tracing the Footsteps of Saint Paul. So I went to Greece, I went to Mount Athos for Pascha.

[Interviewer]

Awesome.

[Clyde]

And then at that same time, I shot a series where I go to every location where St. Paul was in chronological order in Greece during his first ministry. So the next episode coming out next week is going to be of Philippi.

[Interviewer]

And that's on YouTube.

[Clyde]

That's on YouTube.

[Interviewer]

I'll link that.

[Clyde]

Yeah. So you can check me out on YouTube. It's the same. The real Clyde. So on YouTube. I'm doing a bit more of like, I love the orthodox content where I get to travel and see stuff and go to those sites. But I'll be doing my regular content on YouTube. So you'll see some politics, you'll see some travel, some orthodox. You'll see a bit of everything that you get from me on YouTube, just in a more long form style. But I'm also starting to get into more of actual filmmaking. So if you know Logos. Do you know Logos?

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Logo Cinema. Yeah.

[Clyde]

So I should be partnering with Logos Cinema here soon. There's a number of projects I've talked about working on with them. One of them is I want to go back to the Holy Lands and I want to do a series where I trace the steps of, of Christ's life from Bethlehem to Golgotha and go everywhere.

[Interviewer]

That'd be cool.

[Clyde]

And Logos is talking about partnering with me on that and sending a whole crew.

[Interviewer]

I'll have them all linked below and all this for you guys to follow.

[Clyde]

Yeah, but Logos is cooking up some good stuff. They're very small right now and just starting out, so they need like funding. If you want to donate, go sign up for Logos because they're going to be dropping a lot of really good stuff. But they need more funding to fund these projects. They want to do documentaries, they want to do original series, they want to do films where they have like legitimate actors, where they're, I think they're working on, I can't, I don't want to say, I can't say actually, but it's going to be a really cool film.

[Interviewer]

They're making a movie, the Maccabees and I'll be Judas. Maccabees.

[Clyde]

Yeah, I might be acting. I don't know, we'll see. But they're, they're trying to get some pretty big name actors as well. So go check them out. Sign up. It's pretty cheap and you get a lot of. It's like orthodox Netflix.

[Interviewer]

Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. Great interview. And everybody check out Clyde link down below.

[Clyde]

Yeah, thanks man.

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