Has Fox News Been Gatekeeping the Right into DEFEAT?! | 7/23/26

Summary

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Steve Deace Show | "Has Fox News Been Gatekeeping the Right into DEFEAT?!"

Date: July 23, 2026
Host: Steve Dace (Blaze Podcast Network)
Co-hosts: Todd Erzin, Aaron McIntyre
Featured guest: Chris McGowan (Iowa Congressional Candidate)

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Overview

This episode tackles a provocative thesis: Has Fox News subtly functioned as a gatekeeper, controlling and even hobbling the conservative movement’s effectiveness? The discussion widens into the underlying cultural fault lines on the Right, particularly the divide between political calculation and principled, biblical conservatism. The hosts also delve into the latest cultural events, including same-sex parenting and the consequences of detaching policy from religious law, and conduct a broad, philosophical "Theology Thursday" segment focused on the worldview of dualism. Later in the episode, Iowa congressional candidate Chris McGowan joins to analyze the on-the-ground political climate.

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Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Retrospective on Right-Wing Cultural Drift

• (00:31–06:00) Aaron McIntyre’s Montage:
  McIntyre reviews the evolution of the "rainbow jihad" (left-progressive LGBT activism) leading up to and following the Obergefell Supreme Court decision.
• Stories Cited:
  • Canada surrogacy case: gay couple pressures a single mother to abort a child with a minor defect, later sues her.
  • Guy Benson (Fox News commentator): celebrates the second child via surrogacy, thus “rob[bing]" children of mothers.
• Central Question:
  “Why don’t the babies get a vote?” — Aaron McIntyre (04:55)
• Underlying Argument:
  Children’s needs and rights are subordinate to adult desires; this is the logical outcome of the post-Obergefell trajectory.

2. Debate: Is Fox News Gatekeeping the Right—And at What Cost?

• Fox’s Influence:

  • Fox is acknowledged as a net benefit for conservatives, revolutionizing media.
  • Critique: Fox sets boundaries on conservative discourse, favoring what’s safe for ratings over what’s biblical or courageous.
  • Steve Dace:
    “Where Fox has been an impediment over the years is it has anointed itself as the entity that's going to determine who gets to do the opposing and how far the opposition gets to go.” (22:46)
  • If Fox is the Right’s "gatekeeper," but its true god is “ratings and ad sales,” godly priorities get sacrificed for market priorities.

• Case Study – The Benson/Basham/Kennedy Controversy:

  • Megan Basham (Christian commentator) criticizes prioritizing surrogacy over natural families.
  • Fox’s Kennedy responds to Basham with "lewd, crass" remarks, and, Steve argues, would have been fired had the target been a queer woman, not a “base” Christian.
  • Dace:
    “If Kennedy had said that to a lesbian and the issue was reversed, there's no way she's ever on the air at Fox News ever again... That's what happens when your God is your stomach.” (27:18)

3. The Real Fault Line on the Right

• Not just about Israel/Judaism:
  Disputes over Israel are real, but the deeper, longer-running rift is over whether the movement is led by humble submission to God or by media-political calculation.

• Young vs. Old Right on Abortion Policy:

  • Younger right: more willing to prosecute abortion as murder.
  • Older right: fears political suicide.
  • Both sides accused of idolizing “calculation” over principle or vice versa.
  • Dace:
    “Godlessness from the right has the exact same opportunity for success that godlessness from the left does... Which is to say it has none.” (17:49)

• Quote:
  “Are we going to be the people of humility like our founding fathers, or are we going to be arrogant, pharisaical … and we'll tell you what the rules of engagement are, and how far you're allowed to go...?” (28:00)

4. The Theology Thursday Segment: Dualism and Cultural Meta-Narratives

• Worldview Series:
  • Dualism: The belief that good and evil are fundamentally equal and opposite; no transcendent God is truly sovereign over evil.
  • Dace draws parallels to pop culture shifts (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Avatar) where supernatural forces are democratized or lose their sacredness.
  • Application: Once supernatural authority collapses, cultures are left to create their own ethic; media “gatekeepers” replace the church or God.
• Notable Quote:
  “Media companies make for very bad gods.” (56:20)
• On Pop Culture’s Drift:
  • “In Tolkien's universe, the creator decides what's white and what's dark — not you... In dualism, you get to decide... Now, you are your own God.” (94:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Aaron McIntyre (on surrogacy and missing motherhood):

  "What's it going to be like for the child in Canada who finds out their two dads wanted them murdered. Why don't the babies get a vote?" (04:55)

• Steve Dace (on Fox’s role as cultural gatekeeper):

  “We need to have gatekeepers. Every movement does... But when your authority structure is by and large a media company, their God is going to be ratings and ad sales.” (23:54)

• Steve Dace (on the central question of Right leadership):

  “Are we going to be the people of humility like our founding fathers?... Or are we going to be arrogant, pharisaical? ...And when you're up against a demonic horde who doesn't have any of those rules...” (28:00)

• Todd Erzin (on Fox’s inconsistency):

  “If the subject were reversed, Kennedy would never be on the air again. But since she attacked a Christian conservative, nothing will be done or said.” (27:33)

• Steve Dace (on the futility of godless pragmatism):

  “Godlessness from the right has every bit of an opportunity to succeed as godlessness from the left does. Which is to say it has none.” (18:11)

• Aaron McIntyre (on Fox’s shifting Overton Window):

  “The Fox News of 2026 is not the same Fox News as it was in 2016. The Overton Window is much different, and is that a good thing? Overall, I think so. However... the God is still mammon, the ratings.” (59:46)

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Key Timestamps & Content Guide

• 00:31–06:00 Montage retrospective on cultural change
• 06:00–11:20 Abortion politics generational rift on the Right
• 11:20–25:00 Is Fox News the real gatekeeper? Authority structures and what shapes the Right
• 25:00–28:00 The real "meta" cultural question for the movement: God or media as the decision-maker
• 33:18–46:04 Interview with Chris McGowan (Iowa 4th):
  • Iowa’s electoral dynamics
  • Importance of base turnout
  • Reactions to policy debates on tariffs, Iran, and military action
  • McGowan: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it." (39:31, quoting Thomas Paine)
• 46:33–52:10 Reflection on McGowan’s military/policy seriousness and continuation of Right’s internal debates
• 53:11–65:00 Recap and expansion: who sets the limits of the movement, and why “noticing” Fox’s role is risky
• 65:00–87:00 Theology Thursday: Dualism
  • Definition and critique of dualism as a cultural worldview
  • Pop culture metaphors (Star Wars, Avatar, Harry Potter)
  • Dualism’s denial of a holy, transcendent God leads to cultural confusion
  • Analogy: Guy Benson’s brand of doing “a lot of good” but refusing God’s supremacy (91:11)
• 92:08–95:25 Patterns of worldview deconstruction: from Gnosticism, to legalism, to dualism (the self replaces God)
• 94:31–95:37 Discussion on pop culture tropes and theological implications
• 95:44–End Concluding ruminations: When the sacred is leveled, everyone becomes their own god

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Summing Up: Core Arguments

• Fox News has been, and remains, a powerful shaper of the Right. But its role as a cultural and political gatekeeper risks subordinating biblical conviction to corporate interests — a process that ultimately handicaps real movement success.
• The “real fault line” on the Right is not tactical or even mainly about foreign policy, but over the deepest question: Who is in charge here – God, or our political/media proxies?
• Dualism — equating good and evil and removing the authority of God in favor of each individual’s or institution’s preferences — permeates both popular culture and the current conservative schism. When God is not genuinely sovereign, the movement falls to the same pitfalls as the left.

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Useful for Newcomers

This episode is a wide-ranging and introspective exploration of why the conservative movement, even after landmark victories (e.g. overturning Roe), has repeatedly lost cultural ground. The hosts challenge listeners to consider the cost of letting a ratings-driven network set the boundaries of the movement, and they warn that, when God is replaced—by media, donors, or even cause—the fruit will spoil, no matter the tactical wins. The “Theology Thursday” section unpacks the metaphysical underpinnings at work in both culture and Right-wing in-fighting.

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Memorable Takeaway:

“Media companies make for very bad gods.” — Steve Dace (56:20)

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Transcript

[Steve Dace]

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[Aaron McIntyre]

It's the Steve Day show and here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by taking a step back. Sometimes it's good and necessary to do a bit of a retrospective, how we got here, where we are and where we're going. In case you'd forgotten, here's a sampling of some of the rainbow jihad propaganda in the decade leading up to Obergefell.

[Todd Erzin]

And Our Love's Not a Sin.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, the Bible says it's so. Well, the Bible says a lot of things, you know.

[Steve Dace]

So look, can you imagine the next presidential campaign a Republican candidate saying flat out, I am for gay marriage. Marriage I could. You heard what Karl Rove just said.

[Todd Erzin]

Are you on the wrong side of history? We live in the world, whether you like it or whether you don't like

[Aaron McIntyre]

it, of a post nuclear family.

[Todd Erzin]

People are having children by themselves. They are having children with their gay partners. They are having children with their unmarried heterosexual partners.

[Steve Dace]

They are adopting children.

[Aaron McIntyre]

The marriage component of it to me

[Todd Erzin]

feels like a fairly old fashioned piece of advice.

[Steve Dace]

You want us to step in and render a decision based on an assessment of the effects of this institution, which is newer than cell phones or the Internet. No, no.

[Todd Erzin]

We want you to step in and render a decision based on whether it's right and fair and just under the

[Steve Dace]

Constitution, having nothing to do with its

[Todd Erzin]

newness and what you think might happen. Which, by the way, what do you think might happen?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, let's take a look. In the year 2026, what did happen? Jon Stewart. And let's first go north of the border to Canada, who is about 10 years ahead of the US in legalizing so called same sex marriage. The National Post last week published a story, two homosexual men claiming to be married roped in a single mother to birth them a child. When it was revealed the unborn baby had a minor birth defect, a cleft lip, but was otherwise very healthy, the two men then pressured the mother to murder the baby. Eventually, the mother was able to talk the two men out of their designs on killing her baby. But now the two men are back after the mom gave birth, suing her for $600,000. The men in their lawsuit don't mention their attempt to have the mom murder the unborn child and instead claim the mother violated privacy rights and caused them emotional distress. Among other accusations, the mother told the Post, quote, you know, I'm a single mom. You know, I have a daughter and you're basically suing me for my house. It seems very, it's just awful. I feel used. They didn't get the perfect child they wanted and they threw me away. That's Canada. A little over two decades into so called same sex marriage, two men rope in a vulnerable single mother, pressure her to commit the murder of her unborn child with a minor imperfection, a child she was planning to give them anyway and after she refused, is now attempting to ruin her life. This week, back across the border in the United States, Guy Benson, a homosexual and self described conservative and a contributor of the de facto mouthpiece of the American right, Fox News announced he and his partner's procurement of a baby girl. That's the second child Benson and his so called homosexual partner have procured via surrogacy, making it the second child they've robbed of having a mother. But the photos are cute. The two dads are rich. The child will never want for anything. Well, we now go to this story from Live Action. A Georgia hairstylist who donated her eggs received a text from a teen claiming to be her biological daughter. The teen originally said, I don't mean to be a bother, but I think you may be my biological mother. My mom revealed this info to me and I was wondering if you wanted to do a DNA test and possibly get to know me and build a relationship as your daughter. The woman, possibly the girl's biological mother, told the young lady, I'm not your mother, and called the message a major breach of privacy before telling the young woman never to contact her again. The egg donor, the hairstylist in question, did later admit she reacted to the teenage girl too harshly. Consider that this young woman, a teenager who's growing up with a mother who loves her but was conceived with the egg of another woman, inherently knew there was something different and disconnected between her and the mother who bore her. And she wanted to know the real deal. What's it going to be for the adopted children of the guy Benson's and partners of the world? What's it going to be like for the child in Canada who finds out their two dads wanted them murdered. Why don't the babies get a vote? After saying similar things regarding the Benson story, our friend and sister Megan Basham was accosted by by another Fox News personality, Kennedy, who made a lewd, crass comment in response without engaging with the substance of the fact that all children deserve a mom and a dad. There's a lot of talk this week about Greek mythology thanks to the release of Nolan's Odyssey. Within that pantheon there are stories rife with curses from the gods about those who disrupt the natural order of family and offspring. I prefer a different non mythological creed, the one where Jesus says in Matthew 19 responding to the Pharisees. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and and said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. So once again, for whoever said in previous decades that love is love and what do you care about what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom?

[Todd Erzin]

And by the way, what do you think might happen?

[Aaron McIntyre]

You need to know that the religious fuddy duddy nuts were right about everything and that's even before we get to transgenderism and that's what happened while we were away.

[Steve Dace]

That that'll preach right there and we will have some follow up comments next on the Steve Day show. And greetings. Happy Thursday. Welcome to the Steve Dase show here live and on demand. I'm Steve Dase alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre. We're brought to you by our friends over at Preborn. We want to say thank you for all of the generosity you have shown to them and their ministry and the babies that you've saved and the new families that you've kick started. It's been tens of thousands over the last few years, so thank you guys very much. And we can add even one more today within our audience for as little as 28 bucks. That's all it costs to fund an ultrasound that doubles a baby's chance at life because it's better odds that it's going to convict the conscience of the woman in whose belly that baby resides to become a mom instead of murderer. And then I what I love the most though about preborn is they don't stop there. They want to see this new family now get started off on the right foot, you guys. A lot of you know my story, right? 15 year old mom. But hey, here's the parts you don't know. It was not easy being a teenage mom. Doors didn't just automatically open for you, right? It's not the ideal to be an unmarried teenage mom. So this is where help comes in, right? Don't just say, hey, thanks for choosing Life Godspeed. But now they're there to get this new family started off on the right foot. Practical things like car seats and diapers, more personal things like counseling if it's needed, or all of that is free of charge, too. And, and this now, though, is where we come in because that stuff's not actually free, right? And so we pay for it with a tax deductible donation today to preborn.com Steve and you know what? For America 250, maybe somebody in this audience could donate $250 [e-mail] Steve

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

all right.

[Steve Dace]

Coming up on today's program, Theology Thursday, we're going to look at the next of our seven deadly worldviews. We're going to look at. So there's the pattern here. Remember, these are done in order of deconstruction. Once it begins within the human brain, once it begins within a human culture or community, Right. So we begin with the enemy externally provoking us. Did God really say, right, that's Gnosticism. Is there something God has not revealed? Is there something only special people know? And then we go to the legalism. Now we put our own spin and interpretation on things and we put our own word as tantamount to God's. So once we sin and so we've severed the connection between us and a holy God, and then once we assume position that belongs only to him, actually, maybe I've got an opinion here, God you should consider, the next step we're going to take is we're going to say now that God is not holy, that the supernatural and the natural are not separated by our sin, but they're all one big circle of life. And the next worldview we're going to look at is dualism. And a lot of the pop culture entertainment that you have been fed and we've all enjoyed, yours truly included, is essentially a rehash of dualism. And I'll get into that coming up in the next hour on Theology Thursday. Bottom of this hour, we'll introduce you to one of the new congressional candidates trying to make sure we hold on to our house majority. Chris McGonigal from my home state of Iowa is going to join us at the bottom of the hour. But let's begin, Aaron, with what I think you just beautifully and powerfully and eloquently addressed right there. And there's little fault lines that show themselves sometimes. We're in the midst of one right now over. And it's a massive. And it's, it is one that is very obvious because it is being hotly debated everywhere within the social media sphere on the right. Right. How to treat Jews and what level of alliance should we have with the nation of Israel? And just to reset that for the 10,000th time, I will probably have to do it 10,000 more. There has been a wide range of thoughts on our relationship between Judaism and the Jewish people as Christians. And will there be another nation of Israel? And if so, will it be a prophetic one or just a positioning one? There have been a lot of thoughts and opinions about this for 2000 years of Christendom. And I'm open to fellowshipping with anybody who has any opinion on these things, with a few exceptions. As long as on one hand you're not an anti Semitic butthole, don't be a Nazi, don't be a sim for Islam and then on the other side, don't tell people that don't know Jesus that they don't need to know Jesus to have their sins forgiven. As long as you don't fall into one of those pits, then I can be friends and fellowship and work alongside anybody with literally any other position within those three as a Christian. Is that fair?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah, it's probably not going to cut it, but it's definitely fair.

[Steve Dace]

It never does. It never does on virtually anything. Okay, but that fault line is very prevalent right now. There has been another fault line though, that precedes this and I would argue has been the real fault line on the right all along. Let me, let me take that fault line and put it in a different context because we've discussed it before on our show and it's the current debate that is happening and much of it is a generational debate. The, the younger you go, the more likely you're going to be in favor of criminally prosecuting people who murder their children. And the older you are, the less likely you are going to be in favor of that. And because I'm friends with people on both sides of that at a pretty high level, I've heard everybody's arguments and effectively the number one argument that both sides are having is an argument of political calculation. The older generation doesn't believe and is probably correct as we're currently constructed as A people that just openly saying, you guys were right all along, this is really what we want to do. It's not just been a Democrat talking point for 40 years. You're right. People who murder children ought to go to jail for it. The older generation is predominantly convinced that that is a killer politically, and they may even be correct about that. The question probably isn't their political analysis, at least not in the short term. Maybe over time you could end up winning the argument, but in the short term, I doubt that that necessarily enhances our prospects in 2026 or 2028. Thoughts on that?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Correct?

[Steve Dace]

Probably. Okay, but then the argument becomes from the older generation. Well, after taking 50 years to overturn Roe, you guys now want to lecture us about long term wins. And what kind of win do we have? When I grew up, you know, on social media my entire life and could hop on TikTok right now and, and see scores of young women bragging about, shouting about how proud they are they murdered their kids. I mean, if we're not going to prosecute people who are admitting they're murderers, then what are we even doing here? Furthermore, how can we. And this is an important angle too. Furthermore, maybe the most important angle. Furthermore, how can we expect God to honor our efforts if we don't truly uphold his law? Now, I would argue that there are some within that realm, just as I'm concerned there are some within the older generation realm whose God has small g, has kind of become political calculation. Right. That they look for political calculation for permission basically to determine how much of their Christian faith they feel as if they can obey God on. Fair.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Fair.

[Steve Dace]

But then I think there is an element within the younger generation that thinks we don't have to look at political calculation at all. I mean, God did become a man, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Absolutely.

[Steve Dace]

God did become a man. And so part of becoming a man was that he got. He sweat when he got hot. Right. Had to go to the bathroom and relieve himself, had to drink water when he was thirsty, had to be nursed as a child, had to have his undergarments changed as a baby. Right. Those things are all part of the natural condition, Right.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

He was us.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. He subjected himself to the natural, the natural order of things in a fallen world. And so we, we are, we are material beings. We are not only material beings. We are not even primarily material beings, but we are material beings. We exist in a material universe, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And there are material laws we do have to obey. I mean, yeah, God could save you if you jump out of an airplane Without a parachute, he has the sovereign authority and ability to do so. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

On the other.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

But more.

[Steve Dace]

More often than not, if you choose to do this of your own volition, he's probably going to hold you accountable to his natural law called gravity. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So. So, so we have to have some acknowledgment of the natural order of things. We. We cannot just live in a world you don't just find the woman you want, thus speak at the Lord God of hosts. That's not how this works. Right. You have to. There is a. There is a practicum realm. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

And so this is what's causing the argument. What's practicum and what. How much of it is. Do we have to. Do we. Do we have. Do we just ignore it all together and just do presuppositional apologetics and call it public policy? Or do we. Or do we bow the knee to it? And it now it gives us the limits of how far we can go in obeying our Lord. Right, Right. Okay. And these are all very complicated discussions and cause a lot of disagreement. And, you know, often in these kinds of conversations, the truth is often somewhere in the middle. Right. That has really been the debate on the. That's really been the fault line on the right all this time. And what you saw take place with Guy Benson's announcement is the further confirmation of it. And then the reaction of Kennedy, the sniveling, sneering disdain, the kind. I mean, that is, if you come to a point, you know, persecutus, before the appointed time, Megan Basham levels of just disgust. How dare you call me to repentance? How dare you tell me, yes, Jesus will take me just as I am, but how dare you tell me that he won't leave me just as I am. How dare you tell me this? And just the unmitigated disdain of. For a godly woman who has spent the last two years trying to convince. Trying to combat cancer, who was simply making the point that it's wrong to purposely deny a child a mom. See, this gets into a lot of very meta areas in our movement and in our country. But I want to start with a very. The most meta statement about it I could make. And then we'll work our way down from there. Godlessness from the right has the exact same opportunity for success that godlessness from the left does.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Amen.

[Steve Dace]

God will smash it, and maybe harder even, because you're going to do it while bearing his name, or at least your own shibboleth. Constructed, idolatrized version. Idolized version of who you think he is.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

That's an explicitly biblical concept.

[Steve Dace]

Correct.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

We are supposed to know better. We are, without excuse.

[Steve Dace]

St. Peter says in one of his epistles, is it better? What's better to not know the law of God or to know it and then still not do it? And he makes the case it's the former. You're better off not knowing it. He also points out that judgment begins in the house of God first. Jesus himself, the Lord himself. Why are you concerned about the speck of dust in your brother's eye when you have a beam in your own? Accountability is an inside out mechanism within the kingdom of God, Genesis to Revelation. So let me make sure I repeat that and make it very clear. Godlessness from the right has every bit of an opportunity to succeed as godlessness from the left does. Which is to say it has none. As Paul taunts. Where is this? Where's the great sage and of the age who can dare stand against God? Was it Voltaire who predicted that the Bible would be gone by the end of his lifetime? And then when he died, the French Geneva Bible Society bought his home and they've been printing Bibles out of it ever since. Was it Voltaire?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

I think so.

[Steve Dace]

Voltaire is a pretty smart guy, but you're not going to outsmart God. And doing it in his name might incur even more of a punitive punishment for it. He might just squash pagans. But when you come forth bearing his name and you're pushing the paganism, there's a chance Papa might make an example out of you. The harshest words Christ has throughout the Gospels are for those who have been diligently studying for the Messiah all this time and rejected him nevertheless. So if we start from that premise, and I think it, it's uniquely important to start from that premise for our country, because we just celebrated in America 250. Correct?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And much of that was about America's providential history, was it not?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Okay. Providential history, meaning what? Directed by the hand of God, basically. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

We claim to live in a society founded on God given rights. Which God would that be? That same God. The God of the Bible, of course. So in many respects, what our founders were attempting to emulate in the civic realm was. Was a covenant with the Creator. Just as Moses charges the Israelite people with I have set before you blessing and cursing life and death. Choose life so that you may live in the land. Our founding fathers were attempting to emulate that in the civic realm. Lord, if we create a country based on your revealed laws of nature and nature's God and that we, we agree that ultimately you are the rights giver and so therefore all of us, government and governed are accountable to you. If we begin with that level of humility as a people, will you bless us as a people? And the last 250 years, despite our faults as a people, seems to indicate the answer to that so far has been yes. So now what happens if we turn around to that same God and say,

[Todd Erzin]

nah,

[Steve Dace]

we probably will not like that answer. Fox News has done a lot of good. Steve, you complain about them a lot. I'm about to explain why. But before I do, let me say this. When there's breaking news, where do I turn? Where do any of us turn? We turn to Fox.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Why?

[Steve Dace]

Because we know we're more likely to get some element of truth from them than anyone else in the corporate media world. Fox has platform many of the greatest voices in our movement and has been, I don't think there's any question about this. Has been in a net benefit since it went on the air in 1996. Thirty years ago, helped change the entire media landscape. All of that fair.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah.

[Aaron McIntyre]

But

[Steve Dace]

you come to a juncture where you face an opponent that you can't defeat by political calculation and you can't defeat by what you're comfortable opposing. And you can't defeat with smoke filled rooms where we're picking who various champions and nominees are going to be for various races by who we give coverage to and who we don't, who we give favorable coverage to and who we don't. And you're literally up against Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix's Joker as a tag team duo and they're looking at you like Tommy Lee Jones and the Fugitive. I don't care. You go ahead and do all your political calculations, you do all your polling and all your math. We're going to tear down and destroy every last vestige of everything you hold dear. And I think where Fox has been an impediment over the years is it has anointed itself as the entity that's going to determine who gets to do the opposing and how far the opposition gets to go. We need to have gatekeepers. Every movement does. Jesus appointed apostles and then granted his authority to them and said now go fulfill my mission. They then in turn appointed bishops and elders and deacons. There has to be an authority structure. There has to be. The founders believed in God given rights. They didn't just say all right Every man unto himself. They what did they say after? Because they believed in God given rights, they created one of the most massive bureaucracies the world had ever seen, called the federal government. Three branches, checks and balances on one another, holding each other simultaneously accountable, making move vast radical movements difficult. There has to be an authority structure. But when your authority structure is by and large a media company, their God is going to be ratings and ad sales. Now, ratings and ad sales are very important to the three of us here. That's how we all get paid, right? But if we were asked to do things for those ratings and ad sales, what would our answer be? That went against what we knew God wanted us to do? No. If we were asked to limit things that we would otherwise do, or to not do things and say things that we would otherwise do and say because it would help the ratings and the ad sales and God wants us to do. Those are the very things God wants us to do. Would we do them? No. No. So we practice. We live in the realm of some political calculation, right? We know what our ratings and ad sales are. We are aware of these kinds of things, correct?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

We have these conversations off the air quite frequently.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

We need to know, right? But how often do we change what we're going to do because of that? I'm human. I can't tell you. Never. But I'm pretty. I've been here for every show. Well, almost every show except the one I was sick a couple weeks ago. I've been here for pretty much every show since this show began. And I know it's a really low number. I'm not infallible, so I can't tell you. Zero. But I know it's not a high number. I know it's not a high number. You need to be aware of the calculations of the natural world and the limits that come within it. But. But ultimately you subject those limits to an unlimited God. You don't worship the political calculations. You don't ignore them either, but you don't worship them. And when you have a godless media company and Fox is godless, it's not even secondary purpose is promoting godly things. It's to generate ratings and ad revenue. Now a lot of times it will do so by promoting godly things. But here's my point. If godly things get in the way of those other things, what decision will

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Fox make to go with whatever Kennedy tells them to do?

[Steve Dace]

Correct. And this conversation with Guy Benson and Kennedy and Megan Basham is a great example of this. And if they're the vanguard, if they're the gatekeeper, now you know why we've lost a lot of ground for the last few decades. John Piper, Tim Keller, et al kind of stepped in and said, you know, really, really smart guys who could have been great leaders. And they're like, you know what? On second thought, I'm going to go ahead and hang out with the Somali foreigners in my neighborhood. They did that instead. And I'm going to separate my church by VAC status. That was one of the last things Tim Keller did before he died, right? They did that. Those are the things they chose to do instead. Well, something was going to step in, right? If the church wasn't going to do it, what was, you know, nature abhorred a vacuum. Some other entities were going to step in and say, I guess, I guess we're running the show then, and we're going to be the gatekeepers in the vanguard here. And it ended up being a godless media company, frankly, that's where we are. And I'm going to tell you right now that if Kennedy had said that to a lesbian and the issue was reversed, there's no way she's ever on the air at Fox News ever again. Never happens ever again. But since she said it to a Christian conservative woman whose Fox is very base, nothing will be done and nothing will be said. And that's what happens when your God is your stomach. And this is the real fault line. I don't. The Israel and Jew stuff is real. I also don't know how much of it is driven by purchased Arab bots and foreign money. None of us really know. Okay? Especially because it just kind of came out of nowhere. Right? But what's been the real one that has been the battle behind the scenes all of these years? This one has been. Is Fox News our God? Are the ratings our God? Are the ad sales our God? Are our relationships our God? Or is God God? Well, the thing you need to know about God is he is a jealous God and he will not share his glory with another. So beware to you also if your God is your stomach. But this is where the real battle on the right has been all along. Are we going to be the. The people of humility like our founding fathers? We're imperfect. We're doing our best here. Or are we going to be arrogant, pharisaical? We know we're on the right side of history. We know we're the smart people. And we're your North Star. And we'll tell you what the rules of engagement are and how far you're allowed to go and who you're even allowed to go with when you're up against a demonic horde who doesn't have any of those rules and any of those reservations or restraints at all. Can you now see why we've lost so much ground in the last couple of decades? Media companies make for very bad gods. The steve day show. So these days everybody now wants to rush into the red parallel economy space. And that's great, man. We've been trying to build this movement for many years, you know, but here's the thing. One of our values that we're trying to conserve around here is excellence, right? So don't settle for some subpar product somewhere just because the person loves America like you. I mean ultimately if they, if they, if they really loved America, they'd realize we didn't build this thing by being half rear ended. You know, we go to the mattresses here in America. We like proclaim manifest destinies from the Atlantic all the way to the Pacific Oceans. That's how we roll here, right? So that's what I love about Patriot Mobile. I could give you a great pitch that hey, they share your values. They do. I mean, I speak all over the country and there's at least a few times a year that the event I'm at is sponsored by Patriot Mobile and that's part of the pitch, but it's the back end because the front end is a terrific product. I know because it's been our family's mobile phone provider for going on six plus years now. So they make it as convenient for you as possible. They've got several major networks within their centralized hub. So you need to switch networks, even if it's just you're going to be on a couple week vacation or something. You can just do it on a temporary basis and switch back when you need to. Keep your number, switch your number, keep your phone upgraded if you want. Maybe you're in a terrible contract with a communist company. They've got contract buyouts to help you get out. You'll never look back with their US based customer service team because our family has never looked back as well. Make the switch today and use my name Steve as your promo code to get started with a free month of service. With the promo code [e-mail] steve with the promo code steve@patriotmobile dot com steve. Well, of course all eyes right now are on Iran and the impact that it's going to have on the midterms. As we now see, oil prices again jump over $90 a barrel. And our state is here in Iowa, like a lot of where you folks live all over the country is going to be a battle royale. We've got a battle at the top of the ticket for the governor's race and the Senate race. Three of our four congressional races are looking at being very competitive. So why do I want to talk to the guy who's in the race that probably won't be because it's actually his district? That may tell us quite a bit about what's going to happen nationwide. I'll explain here after we introduce Chris McGowan. He is likely one of the next congressmen here from the state of Iowa. Good to see you on our show for the first time. Chris, how are you, man?

[Todd Erzin]

Steve, thank you so much. And I'm doing very well. How are you today?

[Steve Dace]

I am, I could be a little bit better, but I could be a lot worse, if you know what I'm saying. All right, so I understand. So since this is the first time you're on with us, kind of give us a little bit of an introduction to you and, and tell us about your district.

[Todd Erzin]

Happy to do so. And first and foremost, thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it. Thanks to Todd and Aaron and I look forward to being with you in person sometime in the near future. But I represent the Republican Party in this general election. On Tuesday, November 3rd, I secured the nomination in the 4th congressional district of Iowa. Of course, this is a district that is currently served by Congressman Randy Feenstra, previously served by Congressman Steve King and if you go back, Congressman Tom Latham, Congressman Fred Grandy. Interestingly, I was an intern for Congressman Grandy all the way back in 1987. So I guess that makes me a little bit old. But this is largely an agricultural value added ag, manufacturing, business based district. It tends to be pretty conservative and as I have said for the last year, I hope to reflect the values and be the voice of the constituents in Iowa 4.

[Steve Dace]

So if, if you, if you're going to lose your race, then we're, we're in, we're in cataclysmic existential angst post Watergate level, Post Market crash of 29 level angst on our side. Fair. You're, you're not going to lose your race. Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

But no intention of doing so. I will tell you we feel very, very good about where we're at. That said, Steve, we're taking nothing for granted, nor should you crossing this district all the time. And part of our objective is going to be to make sure that we maximize the turnout for the other races.

[Steve Dace]

See that right there? See that right there is why Chris is going to actually be able to tell us quite a lot about this environment. And pretty objectively so, because he's probably going to win his race. It's just a matter of what the number is going to be. But what the number is going to be in Chris's race and in races like his across the country is going to tell us a lot about what the numbers are going to be in the races where all the media attention is going to be on both sides because they're considered more contested right now. This is where, folks, you need to understand how elections work. Why is Minnesota so left wing, a state just a couple of hours north of where I'm broadcasting from right now? Why is it so left wing and Iowa isn't? Why is another border state just a couple of hours east of where I'm broadcasting right now, Illinois? Why is it so left wing and Iowa isn't? Well, we, we have urban centers in Iowa, too. I'm broadcasting from one, but they don't have the critical mass of population that Minneapolis does in Minnesota or Chicago does in Illinois. And so the, the, that critical mass of population is so overwhelming that if you were to look at a county by county or precinct by precinct map of Minnesota and Illinois, you would think you're looking at Alabama or Mississippi. But the problem is Minneapolis is bigger than Birmingham and Chicago is a lot bigger than literally the entire state of Mississippi. And so what comes out of those states overwhelms what everybody else believes in the rest of the state from a sheer population number. And if you look at our race here in Iowa, the, the, the concern about base turnout is that if our base turnout is, is low enough, then yes, urban centers like Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, where Rob sand, the Democrat nominee for governor, and Josh Turek, the Democrat nominee for U.S. senate, are planning on doing very, very well. Is there is a number where we could dip below that kind of base turnout, where the numbers they could roll up in these urban areas that are very blue can now turn the rest of the state blue as well. And, and this is kind of a microcosm of what we're looking at throughout these midterms. All right, base turnout is prevalent. You can't win without your base in any election. But it's even more decisive in, in midterms that are lower turnout elections. So, Chris, you just mentioned how red your district is. You mentioned how how agriculturally driven it is, how manufacturing manufacturing driven it is. That's also not just a very red and traditionally Republican area. But that's all you. Also uniquely tied to Trump's messaging as well, with those kinds of rural and manufacturing messages. All right, so brutal honesty as we're sitting here now, we can be brutal, brutally honest now, Chris, because it's July and not October. Okay. So we don't have to coach anybody up yet. Okay. Right now we're just doing a scouting report. We looked at the film before we call the players in to start camp when we start coaching them up.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

All right.

[Steve Dace]

We're just sitting around. You and I are having an honest conversation about the state of our roster right now. What's the energy level there right now?

[Todd Erzin]

Well, I actually believe it's quite strong. And I think that if you look back to the last cycle, Steve, and nobody knows this better than you, you study this extensively. The president carried this state by 13 and a half points. And let's not forget that our friends at the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Seltzer tried to say that Kamala Harris was up by the weekend before. So whatever they were measuring, they missed in a very, very big way. It's early, so the energy level on both sides is going to be a little bit modest. You and I both know that traditionally, historically, these races kick off just after Labor Day. Right now, people are still focused on wrapping up baseball and softball season, squeezing in a summer vacation, getting ready for volleyball, cross country and football. We're focused on starting a new academic year. People will begin to turn their attention and focus intensively on these election elections right after Labor Day.

[Steve Dace]

When you hear those are also areas, by the way, things like tariffs and other things would have a, a bit of a double edged sword where these, again, these are the people that love the president, but also are kind of being asked to pay some of the freight for some of the battles that he's trying to wage at the exact same time. Right. So what are you hearing on that?

[Todd Erzin]

No, that's 100% true. And I say this about a call to arms and military service, but I think this can apply to what the president is attempting to do with terrorists, which is to level the playing field. Folks like you and I have always been for free and fair trade. What we've had is free trade, but it hasn't always been fair. And I give President Trump credit for trying to level the playing field, but it is taking a toll. And so the quote that I would share with you is one from 250 years ago. Thomas Paine said, quote, those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigues of supporting it. That applies to tariffs. It applies to service in our armed forces. It applies to a lot of things. Freedom is not free. And to protect it, as Ronald Reagan said, it requires investment.

[Steve Dace]

Hmm. Is that a message you think your district is already absorbing or is going to have to be, is going to have to be sold on?

[Todd Erzin]

Well, I think I will. 4 and much of Iowa, if not all of Iowa, already understands that this is a common sense state. You and I both know, appreciate and understand that. Does this message need to be reinforced? Absolutely. In every cycle, it needs to be reinforced. We need to be reminded. We need to raise our children with these same values so that they understand again, as President Reagan said 40 years ago, Freedom is always just one generation away or the loss of freedom. And so we have to be vigilant. We have to protect it. And the McGowan for Iowa campaign is committed to doing so. And it's committed to campaigning in such a way to boost turnout in four, to elevate campaigns that may have to offset some more challenging areas in our state.

[Steve Dace]

What about what's happening in Iran? The president, now there have been reports and we have a general rule on our show, Chris, basically, since the dawn of the first Trump presidency, anything anonymous about or from the White House we just ignore because who knows if it and if it's a leak and it's made up and then maybe the White House is counter leaking and making something up to counter what was made up about them? I have no way of knowing. All right. So we just tend to wait until people who actually go on camera and say and do stuff. Well, the president did say this morning that after there've been a few days of kind of, you know, reports, he did say this morning we may be on the brink of a major attack, an escalation in the war against Iran. We've seen a massive spike in oil prices even today back over well over $90 a barrel on the global markets. Again, the diesel prices have been sky high all throughout this conflict as well. So. So what's the patience level there, Steve?

[Todd Erzin]

I would say this. First and foremost, the president has been incredibly patient and given months to negotiation. Again, you and I both know that St. Augustine has the just war doctrine, and it requires that diplomacy be exhausted before you take up arms. There are other tenets of that. Obviously, the, the war and the damage inflicted in the war can't be greater than what is attempted to be gained in this process. We're dealing with a theocracy that is chanted death to America, that has chanted death to Israel. We know that they have been striving to gain nuclear weapons. And President Trump, through Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury, has been committed to stopping them from developing access to nuclear grade weapons. That's critical not only for the Middle east, but for the entire world. And I know this having been on the campaign trail for many, many months. Iowans understand that that doesn't mean that they are not sacrificing, that they're not hurting. Gas prices are obviously higher than we would all like them to be, but we recognize what is at stake. And so I do believe that there's a certain amount of patience and latitude to be given to the President, to those negotiating. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But we need to accomplish some objectives. And anytime you're going to put men and women in harm's way, we have to have a clear strategy. We have to have tactics to support that strategy, and we have to have a clear objective. And when that objective is accomplished, we have to have a clear exit strategy. I'm going to give the President the benefit of the doubt and assume that all of those tenets are in place. But it is time to take action in Iran and finish what we have started. And I think that this administration recognizes that.

[Steve Dace]

Last thing. Chris, I was going to, I wanted to ask you if, if you could, based on what you're seeing on the ground right now, James Blair from the White House political office, Susie Wiles, Chief of staff, call you up and say, hey, give us an idea. Your ears on the ground right now and a state that the President helped make very red. You're running in the reddest part of that state. So, you know, ear to the ground, what would you share with them that you would think they need to know?

[Todd Erzin]

I think that it begins with communicating to the American people the significance of the threat. And I understand as, as all of your listeners do, there is certain classified information that we don't have access to. But the decision was made to move forward with this effort. If we're going to move forward, we need to move forward with resolve and we need to do so expeditiously to minimize the loss of life and the other collateral damage. No one should go into war taking this lightly. You know, you look back at the decisions that Eisenhower made During World War II surrounding June 6, 1944, D Day, we knew we were going to suffer heavy casualties what was the end result? To stop the advance of the Nazis, to end Japanese imperialism, to end World War II. If the intel suggests that the threat is this grave, the then we need to move swiftly with tremendous resolve and, and meet our objectives and then bring our men and women home safely and quickly.

[Steve Dace]

Chris, thanks for being with us. Good to see you, brother. Catch you soon. Okay, thank you.

[Todd Erzin]

Thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate being with you.

[Steve Dace]

You got it, brother. God Bless. That's Chris McGowan. He's going to be the next member of Congress from Iowa's 4th district. There's, there's a non zero chance he'll be the only Republican member of Congress in the state of Iowa. Depending on how this goes. I wouldn't predict that today, but I also wouldn't say there's a 0% chance of that given the current trend line of things around the country. So thoughts on that conversation, gentlemen?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Well, I know he was prepared to talk about it, but when he's putting those talking points down there, lest you think that they, those talking points don't go beyond mere words. His daughter is about to be deployed. His, many of his. He's got multiple children who have been to the Naval Academy. His daughter is a helicopter pilot and she's about to be deployed. He's, he would have been happy sharing that. Beyond that, the details aren't ours to know, but it speaks to the fact that if you go into the military, not just to play dress up and right now a lot of us don't understand, including possibly some of those people on the ground. Exactly what are we doing? And Chris is a dad. Is there, hey, if we're, if we're in, we gotta be in because that's the best. It's, I mean this goes back to the Civil War he fights.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah. And I think something that, that stood out to me is I think maybe drilling down on where I am with the conflict with Iran, which is to say we can have all of our opinions about this. I think both Todd and I, to varying degrees, maybe you two, Steve, are kind of edging on the side of let's just get out of there. Let's get out of there, figure this out maybe for another day before the midterms. But until that is the case, it really behooves no one to be inter. Fighting to be not giving the administration or military the benefit of the doubt. It really does not help anything at all to be chucking stones and saying, hey, we're losing. Hey, let's just, let's just cut tail and run. We already lost. It does no one any good. So until the time that maybe any of us get our wish, or maybe at a time where Iran actually falls and we achieve our objectives, I don't think we have much of a choice but to give some sort of a benefit of the doubt theology.

[Steve Dace]

Thursday's next. All right back here with hour two live and on demand here on the Steve Day Show. That would be me alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre. Don't forget to let us know what you think about what we think via the steveday.com inbox by emailing us steve dace.com that's D E A C E like us on Facebook, me, we and Gab. Follow me at Steve Dace show on X Instagram and TikTok. Please subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace on Rumble. That's at Steve Dace on Rumble. Then you can also make sure to subscribe to the podcast version. Hit that subscribe button. Or if you're on Apple iTunes, like me, you click follow instead to make sure you're now subscribed and you never miss an episode. And every single one we do drops in your podcast feed every single time. Thanks to the many of you that have done that. Thanks to the tens of thousands, among that many that have left us five star reviews. We appreciate each and every one of those and we would absolutely appreciate it if you did one for us today as well. I have to tell you, I really have appreciated getting to know our friends over at jevoty here in 2026. I've been using their supplements now for the last few months, feeling absolutely great. And one of the things they want to do now also is to help you be in charge of essentially the, the code to you, your DNA. All right, they just launched Longevity Genomics. All right, It's a cheek, cheek swab right there from your home. About 80 gene variants analyzed across 23 different health categories get you roughly 160 insights about how your body actually works, how you absorb nutrients, how you meta metabolize things like caffeine, how you process inflammation, which of course is important, especially as we get older, whether even the B vitamin that you're taking is the right one for your body. It'll, it'll be the right form that your body will absorb it the way you want it to. So your DNA data is never sold, never shared. It's yours, period. And now you can use it to empower you to know more about your body and how it works and how to get it working to the level that you want it to. All right, so that's just one of the things they offer at Jevity. Code short and code for longevity. Go to gojevity.com if you want to sign up for this or any of the other great stuff they do. Learn about the supplements that I've been taking from Jevity that have me feeling great. Go Jevity. G E V I T I G E V I T I gojevity.com days and use the code DACE and they'll slash 20 off that price for you. All right, 20 off with the code [e-mail] DACE that's gojevity.com DACE with the code DACE for 20% off. All right, gentlemen, before we get into theology Thursday, I ran out of time with how I responded to Aaron's montage at the top of the show that right now we're all focused on this Jewish Israel fault line. And it's a real thing, but we also don't know how real it is, how much of it is driven by foreign ops, foreign investors. Because it did just kind of come out of nowhere. Right. Like you could see what transpired. Was it last year, 2025, on a lot of these Ivy League campuses on the left with all the anti Semitism and all the anti Israeli and Jewish sentiment, you could see that coming a mile away because they've been the party of queers for Palestine for, you know, going on a second or third decade.

[Todd Erzin]

Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

But this has. This kind of came out of absolutely nowhere to go 0 to 60 on our side. So it's a, it's a very real thing. But how real it is and how much of it is just driven by foreign interest in ops, we don't really know. Right. There's been a quieter battle on our side that has. That has largely gone unnoticed because frankly, it's. It doesn't profit you to notice it. You don't get invited to, you know, Let me tell you what happens when you notice it. Or let me rephrase that. Everybody, all of us notice it. All right? There's none of us that doesn't notice this. Let me tell you what happens when you publicly acknowledge it out loud. You tend to be the largest righty show in the country that never gets invited to do anything on Fox News. And you're never allowed to speak at cpac. I don't know anybody like that, but seems like a couple things that could happen to you if you acknowledge publicly that you've noticed These kinds of things.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Is his name on your shirt? Is that just.

[Steve Dace]

I was trying to be subtle, Ersin.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

I. Just guessing. Play along. I'm just guessing.

[Steve Dace]

Play along. All right. I was trying to be very passive aggressive and subtle. Right. But yeah, basically, Basically what you said is. Yeah, yeah. That doesn't. There's, there's no profit in noticing it publicly. We all notice it. It's discussed quite often. But there's not much profit in publicly noticing it, as I just did. But the good thing is, you know, to quote Spock in Star Trek 3, I've been dead once before, or Star Trek 4, I've been dead once before. It's very liberating. Once you're shunned and completely just anathema by all these elements. I'm just, I feel like free now. You know what I'm saying?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Sure.

[Steve Dace]

It's. I know it's just never happening. I know there's nothing, no level of genu flexion I would possibly be even contemplating that I would, that I would attempt. That would be good enough. So now I'm just going to just. What I continue doing what I've done all along. Let's just tell you what I think. So this has been the real fault line, and it is very real. Who will determine for us what our rules of engagement are? Who will determine for us how far we can and cannot go? In other words, who's in charge? In other words, who's God? That's really the debate. That's really the fault line. On the right. Is God our mascot? And our enemies are just so bad that we can do anything we want, live any way we want, have any character and integrity we want, any idols we want. And because our enemies are so bad, God will say, I've got to choose the lesser of two evils here. Is that how God works?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

It is not.

[Steve Dace]

It is not.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

He will not be mocked.

[Steve Dace]

No, he will not. You will always reap what you sow. He is not like us, okay? He doesn't. He doesn't. He is not. And we'll get into this here in a minute because it's right into our theology Thursday. He is. He is not bound by. Can I be transcended at all, let alone eminent and transcendent at the same time as we are. So then, who's going to be our referee? Who's. Who's, who's going to be in charge? Who's going to determine who our champions are going to be and what our talking points are? I cannot tell you how many Times over the years, I've had somebody in Washington, D.C. often elected officials tell me, or somebody I know I'd love to do that. I'd love to bring it up, but it won't play on Fox. That essentially means they're God. That doesn't mean that Fox hasn't done any good. They've done a lot of good and I'm very appreciative for it. It's the only corporate media outlet I pay any attention to whatsoever. But doing good is not the same as playing God. And as I said, gentlemen, at the top of the show, media companies make for very bad gods.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Well, in. In the case of what Aaron has itemized in his montage, if you'll recall, it's been within, I think the last 12 months, but Aaron had it his montage, and I think it was Katie Tur. But. But they were actually talking about the Declaration of Independence. And are we really suggesting really that our rights come from God? And they're looking around like, you know, Hillary or Hillary Clinton looking at the balloon drops. Really? I love that meme.

[Steve Dace]

This is all about it.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

This is preposterous, but too long. That's how preposterous Guy Benson makes us look. Because right now, within the last 48 hours since that happened, Guy Benson is sprinting out and talking about issues that we absolutely care about. But because God will be mocked. It's not that. It's just a little confusing by him advocating for them while he is simultaneously on the side participating in all that which denigrates God. Not only can he possibly be uplifted up, but our entire cause actually suffers because everybody sees this and, and they act like we're okay with it. This doesn't. Am I not summing up the church in general? How many ways seeker sensitive we. How we gotta split the baby in half? It's not that it just knocks our concerns down a couple notches. It's not just that it confuses things. It makes what we're trying to accomplish impossible. Again, because as Steve said, God is a jealous God. He will not be mocked. He knows what we're doing far better than we do. And he knows it can't and won't work. It will not be blessed. We cannot hold Satan's hand as we cross ourselves. Not possible.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Just football analogies. I might as well just lean into them. I think they're accessible to me. Maybe my small brain may be accessible to other people as well. Let's say you've got a player, maybe a wide receiver, serviceable Wide receiver, utility player. And 90% of the time he's out there, you know, making good plays, blocking well, slot receiver, you know, whatever, makes a few catches, connects a few times. Great, you know, kind of serviceable utility player. But 10% of the time this player, when he has the ball in his hands, will just walk up to the opposing defense, put it in their hands willingly, and then allow block for the block his own team and allow the other team to score a touchdown. What would we say about that player? Oh, and by the way, this player's own team, half of them are actually cheering for him while he does this against his own team and the other side's cheering as well. Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't. It's insane. It's just utter insanity. But as you eloquently pointed out, Steve, I've said this as well. I've said this off the air. I don't know if I've said it on the air. The fox news of 2026 is not the same Fox News on air as it was back in 2016. The Overton window is much different on Fox News than it was a decade ago. Is that a good thing? Overall? I think so.

[Steve Dace]

I agree.

[Aaron McIntyre]

However, when you've got players on that team, when the God is still mammon, when the God is still the ratings, I think they only probably shifted because we shifted first. The people watching shifted first. Yes, that's. We were the ones who exp, you know, exploded the Overton Window. Expanded the Overton Window. And I'm not talking about we on the show. I'm talking about the Fox News viewer who expected different in the years after. Well, the guy who came down the elevator or escalator. This is not going to cut it long term. It's not going to cut it long term. And I just want. This is something, a theme that we've kind of been harping on in passing. Haven't really. I haven't really spent a long time talking about this. Do you want to know is one avenue that we can overcome? The Mammon is God. Ratings is God. It's by having donors who pay to create culture. That's one of the ways to overcome this.

[Steve Dace]

Missions, in other words.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Missions.

[Steve Dace]

Missiology.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah.

[Aaron McIntyre]

That's one of the ways to overcome this in our country, in our culture. I saw somebody talking about this, going and trying to find some clips, sifting through clips from over a decade ago, a decade and a half ago. Yeah, People like Steve, before this iteration of the show back on. Who? The early Days of his national show did a fine job of fighting back against the rainbow Jihad. A fine job. Probably one of the best jobs out there. But people forget how much of a route. The issue of gay marriage, which doesn't even exist, but gay marriage, that was a cultural route for the left. Absolutely. It's okay to acknowledge that. So then what can you do in response to that? You need to study what they actually were able to accomplish. A lot of donors, a lot of persistence, a lot of returns. Do you know that that Prop 8 video, Prop 8 the Musical, do you remember that? From 2008, one of the prime examples of just absolute and total blasphemy in support of.

[Steve Dace]

They got killed in that Prop Day vote.

[Aaron McIntyre]

They got killed.

[Steve Dace]

They just kept coming.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Anyway, I watched the original video on YouTube last night. How many views do you think that Prop 8 video that Prop 8 the musical has from Funny or Die? Jack Black's in it. A bunch of these A listers are in this, at least from the comedy world. 1.2 million views. That's it. A lot of people investing a lot of money to create culture and a lot of persistence over about two decades, three decades or so. Do you think there's a lesson there? We're not going to use the same tactics that the left used so long as God says we cannot. Do you think there's a lesson there? I kind of sort of think that there is. So there's going to have to be some major. When Trump ever, when he. Whenever he does exit stage left, stage, I can't remember. I can never remember whether it's stage left or stage right. Once he exits the scene, there's going to have to be a reckoning on the right with what the heck we're actually doing and trying to advance. What are we advancing anyway? There's going to have to be a major conversation about that, because I don't think what we're doing now where we expect to invest something into cultural creation so long. And we're. We're really all in on cultural creation. As long as it returns an ROI at fd. ROI at that. That's just not going to work. It's not going to cut it. And yeah, it sounds really whiny for me because I don't make seven. I don't have seven, eight, nine, ten figures in the bank account. But I'm just telling you, whoever actually does, if you're interested in saving this thing, that's what it's probably going to take.

[Steve Dace]

Every word of that is gospel truth, man. Every Single word of it is gospel truth. Which brings us to Theology Thursday and the seven deadly worldviews. So we begin the deconstruction with Gnosticism. We question the sufficiency of God's Word. We. We question whether he can be trusted, whether he's truly revealed the things of himself that we really need to know, or he is holding back on us out of either. Out of spite so we should rebel, or he's waiting for you to become one of the few special people he'll actually share that information with. Last week, we learned that our initial counter to being provoked by the enemy on this matter is usually to counter now with our own opinion, where Eve counters with essentially a distortion of God's word to battle a distortion of God's word legalism. And we put our takes and our opinions on things on an even playing field, sometimes even above God and His Word. And we shared last week where the most legalism you've seen in America in the modern era is the secret, friendly church. The church that says it's actually love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's the most important commandment, not love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. We can't offend all these other people, but God can be offended. He'll forgive us. It's the people who aren't as forgiving, so we can't offend them. And church now no longer is savior sensitive, it's seeker sensitive. And church is now no longer where we equip the saints for the work of the ministry. We do church now for sinners who may never even come. We do church now for people who may are not there and may never, ever show up. But we call that tolerance. If Guy Benson wanted the freedom to put a gun in the face of every liquor store cashier that he had an urge to hold up, would there be any pressure at all to go along with Guy Benson on this?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

No.

[Steve Dace]

No. Why? Why? So why is there pressure to go along with them on human trafficking? Basically? Well, because there's no political lobby exerting a ton of human capital and pressure and telling you that you can't rise in your career. You can't. Can't speak at a certain conference. You can't be a. You can't appear on a certain network. You can't. You can't be a member of polite society. There's no limiting principle to. To backing up. You know, hey, it's bad to hold up liquor store cashiers.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

There's.

[Steve Dace]

There's no limiting principle to that. So everybody feels totally free to do what they know is right. In the case of practicing human. Human trafficking and that essentially babies are a commodity for adults and not that adults are to serve the. The children. There's a huge amount of human capital behind that, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And so there's a cost to pay for that, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes. Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

That's the difference. That's a form of legalism. It's just telling you it's about compassion. No, it's not. The road to hell is wide, paved with good intentions. So once we have decided now that God is not. God is not overall, that God's word is not sufficient, we take the next step. Now we're not separated from God by our sin, and the supernatural and natural world are not now divided, but they're all one. The circle of life. And this is what is called dualism. Dualism is the belief that evil and good are essentially two sides of the same coin, have equal preeminence, and therefore it's up to the human being to choose which one to align with. Dualism views the supernatural and natural world as one, often existing in a circle or sphere called existence. Therefore, there are occult aspects of dualism that believe these co. Equal forces with the right knowledge joining the right group can be manipulated by human beings. Does that sound at all like any popular culture threads of the last. Well, really, the. The. The whole last generation, really. No, except for virtually all of them. Actually, they're virtually all like this. So the biblical origin for this is the pagan pantheons of the Old Testament where you had both good and bad gods that were very lascivious in their natures and they were very capricious, hard to please. You weren't entirely ever sure where you stood. Do you have any gods like this today? Sure you do. We have one of the largest religions in the world that says you're not made in the image of God, so you don't have really any inherent value or worth. But you're also not born into sin either. And so since you're not born into sin and you have no inherent worth when you sin, you really aren't worthy or guaranteed of any form of redemption, no matter what you do. But if you perform these five acts throughout the course of your. They're called the five pillars. If you perform these five pillars throughout the entire course of your life as best as you can, there's more of a chance that the God of this religion will allow you into paradise than he otherwise would have. But you still don't know for sure you could. You could do all five pillars, all, every, all the days of your life as perfectly as possible, and you're still not assured that you will please said God. Well, there is one thing you can do to make sure that you have eternally pleased this God and that is to perish in the cause of violent jihad. I just defined Islam. Islam says you are not made in the likeness and image of God. Islam says you also don't have original sin. Sounds well and good, right? That you have no original sin. That sounds all well and good, but see, why did I start with you're not made in the likeness image of God? Because, see, you have to start there. Because if you're not made in the likeness and image of God, and therefore you're not born into sin when you sin, What would be the point of offering any form of redemption whatsoever? You see what I'm saying? I mean, you, you, you, you played yourself. It's totally up to you. And Allah will tell you what five things you must perform throughout the course of your life in order to please him. But there's no guarantee that if you do perform those five things, it will. And if you want to know why they've never lacked for martyr recruitment in the history of Islam, it's because there is really only one way to know for sure. You have earned the eternal assurance of Allah's grace, and that is to die as a martyr in the cause of spreading the dominion of Allah. You know a tree by its fruit, right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. What you'd often see throughout the ancient world and you see this play out in the Bible, is there would be a male, a male God who was the chief God. And then there would be the female consort, Zeus and Athena, Jupiter and Venus. In the Old Testament, you often see this play out with baal, whose name means Lord, BAAL and Asherah. So the female consort or the goddess

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

of love,

[Steve Dace]

this is where we'll get temple prostitution. You engage in these sorts of fertility rites in order to assure the your wife will become pregnant, your crops will grow. In other words, there's no boundary between the natural and supernatural world. And these pagan gods who are really demons are just flat out myths. They often behave like humans. Now our God says that your ways are not my ways and your thoughts are not my thoughts. One of the first biblical responses to this, that the supernatural and the natural are one, one realm. One of the first responses to this is in the Old Testament. It's an ancient prayer called the Shema Hear O Israel, the Lord your God The Lord your God is one. And essentially Moses is saying, the nature of God is one. He is one set apart from us. Existence is not one. God is one. There's only one God. His nature is oneness. He's a singularity, holiness unto himself. He is separated from us. What were they trying to do at the Tower of Babel? What were they trying to do there? You remember? What were they building there at the Tower of Babel, guys? Why were they building it? What was the purpose of it?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Trying to ascend, ostensibly. Yes. To get closer to God. Yep.

[Steve Dace]

Trying to bridge the gap between the natural and the supernatural world of their own making. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Did God say, I appreciate your efforts. This is a very impressive structure. Let me finish the job for you. Is that what he did?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

No. He said, you don't define the terms. I do.

[Steve Dace]

Correct. In other words, I'm set apart from you. We are not one. I am one, but we are not. I am apart from you. Now, later on. So he destroys it and scatters the nations, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So later on. All right, what happens in a place called Nazareth or Bethlehem at Christmas? What happens there?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

The wise men come.

[Steve Dace]

Well, God comes to us.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

So first we tried to go to him, and God said, that's not. We're not letting you do that. But later, when the time was right, God sent his son. And what happens is he comes to. He comes to us that he has to initiate. He has to enter into our natural world to bridge the gap. We cannot enter into his supernatural world to close it ourselves.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

And the wise men bowed to that. They defined. They did not try to define the terms.

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

They accepted the terms.

[Steve Dace]

Yes.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Which is why they went so far and sacrificed so much.

[Steve Dace]

Yes. One of the subtle biblical responses to this that I don't think we've preached enough about in our modern era is the reactions that the Ephesians had to Paul and his ministry, because, again, they're pagan. So there is no boundary between the natural and supernatural world. And the Greco is, particularly in the Greco Roman world, their gods behaved a lot like us. Horny, untrustworthy, craven, lustful, debauched. They were really made in our image, not us and theirs. Okay. And so what happens when Paul goes to Ephesus? Is the community of Ephesus. It's an. Really the basis of the. The entire culture, right down to the economy of the culture, is Artemis or Diana worship. Meaning they're the very profligate, licentious goddess consort, and the worship of her is the basis of the entire community. It's one of the leading industries in the community. It's woven into everything. And one of the things they realize about Paul, if he is correct and what he is preaching takes hold, that it won't just challenge boy. And this goes to the thing about Fox News. See, this is why I want to discuss it again. It won't just challenge their religious notions. That would be threatening enough.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Right. It won't just change them philosophically. That would also be threatening enough. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

But it would also change their practices and behaviors and that now people aren't going to buy as many of those Artemis and Diana statues and idols as they used to. See, their God was their God was their stomach too. And they realized that if this Paul guy and his word, it starts taken root and it sweeps over us like it has many of these other outer provinces of Rome among the gentile communities. We're all out of jobs here. We're going to get new lines of work here. Does that not just speak to what we were just talking about? Of course. Of course it does. You're being told is it's not much different than the left. Keep your faith in intellectual or personal spiritual exercise. And that will allow Guy Benson to live any way he wants. See, what Megan Basham did is she reminded Fox News gently and as a ladylike. And if there's anything about Megan is that she's very ladylike. There's a reason why her bio says aspiring church lady.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right.

[Steve Dace]

So she did it very deftly, very softly reminded them, you're not your own gods. And how we live and the way we portray what we claim to believe is every bit as important as what we actually believe because they're actually one in the same. There's no bifurcation there. And for that she was summarily put down in the most, in, among, among the most vile and disgusting ways by Kennedy because she's getting in the way. Megan was getting in the way

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

of

[Steve Dace]

how they want to live their. How they want to live their lives as Paul and what he was preaching was doing to the Ephesians. Here's. Let me give you a spoiler alert. We're supposed to get in the way the Steve Day Show. So we took about five or six years off from a real estate market. Market. I think it's the first time in how many years I saw just the other day that existing home sales have surpassed new home sales. So if that's you, and I've seen more for sale signs in my neighborhood this year than I have Pre since pre Covid. If that's you, make sure you've got an agent you can trust at real estate agents itrust.com that's where you can go to find one anywhere in the country. Somebody that knows the market that you're going out of or coming into. Best practices. How things have changed and evolved since maybe the last time you were in there. Listen, this can be one of the most stressful processes you'll undergo in your life, frankly, particularly if you're buying on one end and selling on the other simultaneously. Get the kind of agent that's going to be a tremendous reduction in the amount of stress. Not to mention time and money, which adds to that stress as well. Go to the website where. Go to the website where the name says it all. Real Estate AgentsITrust.com that's where you want to go. Head over there now and get started today at realestate agents itrust.com

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

so

[Steve Dace]

what happens when we remove the holiness and righteousness of God? What happens then? Which we can't do, by the way. We, we. We couldn't do this if we tried. We just think we can. Right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

So.

[Steve Dace]

But in our minds and in our cultures, when we remove the holiness and righteousness of God, what happens? What happens when we say his word is no longer sufficient? It needs me as an editor. It needs me. I have some addendums. I have thoughts, sir. Some great ideas. I believe that's. Is that one of the books that both Catholics and Protestants agree should not be in the Bible. The book of great ideas, Book of opinions. So what happens? Something has to fill this void. And what's going to fill this void is going to be very humanistic. Because when the false gods and the demonic realm come in to tempt us, they're going to tempt us with the things that we desire. And so that's why even the false gods of the pagan and Greco Roman worlds resemble us. Feeds into our flesh. And since the. The natural world is one with the supernatural world now and good and evil are co. Equals that you choose. See, the devil is not an arch enemy of God's.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

He's.

[Steve Dace]

He's called our enemy, not his. God doesn't have any enemies in a certain respect he couldn't. There's no one to challenge him. God is God and we are not. Satan is the enemy of our souls. The best analogy I could give is that the enemy might be God's nemesis, like Lex Luthor is Superman's nemesis. At any point Superman could squash Lex Luthor and drop kick him into the sun. He's not his equal and the enemy is not his either. But yet he's often portrayed this way. Where? Well, virtually everywhere. Star wars, the light and dark side of the Force. See, this is one of the reasons why you lost your bowels in the last Jedi when they threw all the sacred scriptures into the fire. I almost walked away when Yoda had Luke light him on fire. Why? Because I don't want to put words in your mouth, but those sacred scriptures are essentially the only thing that indicates there's a transcendent force at work within the Star wars universe. Take those things away and the entire exercise is humanistic. Right. There's nothing now. And not only is there nothing, but the Force now is. Feeds our desires and what we want as opposed to us trying to raise our game in order to be worthy of wielding it. If you democratize it now, it's not passed on. Right. This is why you were so angry about all that stuff, correct?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah. Because it removed all the sacredness of it. Now it's just a. Now it's. Now it's a non sacred supernatural entity. What do we typically call non sacred supernatural entities? There are non sacred supernatural entities. They're usually called things like devils, demons and. Yes, okay. That's essentially what they did. Avatar is a great example of this. It's Avatars. Way more blatant, by the way. Avatar is just a pagan apologetic. You see this even. Listen, I love Harry Potter. I know Aaron's a fanboy, but good magic, bad magic. Well, who decides what's good magic and bad magic? The wielder does. The wielder decides. No higher force than the wielder. Or maybe the peer group of the wielder. Right. Maybe a magic council. You have to obey a sorting hat. A sorting hat. Yeah, but there's nothing you're higher accountable to other than human beings. Whether it's just you yourself or other humans, you're not accountable to anything greater than that. You see this in religious practices like Wiccanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Most contemporary television shows or movies based on the supernatural. Do you remember the horror movie? I went and saw that I. Well, you guys didn't work here, but I. At the time. But I brought it. I've brought it up on the show since you've been here. When I knew we were in deep, deep caca as a culture is when I went and saw the first Paranormal Activity movie when it came out in 2008, because that's the first time I had Seen a massive mainstream movie about demonic possession that included no reference at

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

all

[Steve Dace]

to God the church. And when you, if you go back and watch that film, you're going to see that the couple being haunted by this entity they call academia. They bring a demonologist in, they call her dad. They search the Internet like they, they go for everything they can find to get information on what to do about this, this, this demon that is haunting them. Except one place they don't go to. Which places did they never seek out?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Church.

[Steve Dace]

The church. But here's the thing, the church isn't even mentioned. It's like the church doesn't exist. So now the only super. See, because this is where you're going to end up. Where you're going to end up. You see this in Back Rooms and Obsession, the two independent horror films that are dominating the box office this year, that are very nihilistic in their endings, where the bad guys win at the end. See, where you're going to end up is if God is not separated from us. But we still have to account for the supernatural. But once we've kicked God out of the supernatural space, then the only people still occupying are. The only forces still occupying are of darkness, right? And now the darkness is all powerful. So you might as well just succumb to it in back rooms. You might as well just become, you know, one of the. The mongoloid beings that are living in that realm. There's no hope for redemption, no hope of saving the evil's just too powerful. So resistance is futile obsession. I mean there no God to cry out to, no priest to exercise this, no minister to deliver you from this. There's. There's no power beyond the dark, supernatural power.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

So

[Steve Dace]

just kill yourself then. That's essentially what happens. You'll.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

You.

[Steve Dace]

You'll find out how somebody is. They'll talk about we are one dualist will do this a lot. They'll think it's possible to unite humanity and common purpose through reason, knowledge, scientific or technological advancement, evolution, meditation, prayer, communing with nature, becoming spiritual, or all of the above. Since I first wrote this curriculum 15 years ago, another phenomenon of dualism has emerged. UFOs. This has gone mainstream. We can ascend to we when we're going to summon the ufo. That's what they say now. We're going to summon, right? Those of us who had achieved a higher form of consciousness. We're going to summon the ufo. Well Steve, this actually sounds like Gnostic. Is there guys. Yeah, this is the flowchart I'm giving You the flowchart of how this works. Gnosticism is the. It is. Is the theology. What I'm giving you now with dualism is this is it in practicum. This is how it plays itself out. Let me stop there. Let me bring Todd and Aaron in here so we have plenty of time for conversation because we could go on and on, but on this. But a lot of it is variations of the exact same themes. So, gentlemen, what do you think? Questions, comments or insults?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Well, you mentioned the word early on, and to me, this is crucial. What. What does dualism do vis a vis Christianity? It.

[Steve Dace]

Join interfaith alliances.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

It. Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So yes, it.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

It gets rid of the curse. Our understanding of the curse that we are fallen. And when. When that happens, then as Steve has said in multiple different ways, then we start defining all of the terms in the way that we find the most comfortable. Even if we have clearly identified there's a devil, there's darkness. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. But ultimately, we decide within this framework that instead of we are also part of that fallen world, we say, no, we are just against the fallen world now. And you make yourself the Luke Skywalker in this story. It's all in here. And when you do that, you start protecting I'm. I've. Since I'm against the dark. You start protecting your own idols and you start convincing yourself over time, the Batman thing, you either die a hero or live long in this. You live long enough to see yourself become the villain because you forgot the curse that you for your entire life are no different than them. So this is why Steve has mentioned many times on the show over the years. So once were you. And this is why Jesus is so stern when he talks about no one is good but God, make sure that he understands it. That's where Steve. He's set apart. He is one. If we start thinking that we are part of the one and we are just the thing. I'm Luke. Look at my lightsaber. I'm fighting the darkness. Where then we're all those guys going to all those Marvel movies. Yeah, go get Thanos. Kill him. And then when the real world comes, you don't do anything because you have made yourself in your own way that you clearly don't understand. I realized there was just. There's a devil over there. I'm fighting him. But you start thinking unconsciously that you're the God.

[Steve Dace]

Bingo. If no one is good but God, if Jesus says this and then dualism comes along and says, you can be good without God, then ultimately, if you become good, according to dualism, that makes you then, yeah, your own God.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Fighting evil, even though you're doing it really well, even. Even if you mean never makes you God. That's a problem. This is why it's almost providentially insane that we're talking about Guy Benson on this show.

[Steve Dace]

Right. He's decided to don't God. Guy Benson does a lot of good.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

I bet you if we looked at 90% of what Guy Benson posts, we'd probably agree with 80% of it, if not more. But in the end, Guy Benson wants to be his own God. Megan Basham is here to remind him, you don't get to be your own God. And for that, somebody else who wants to be their own God named Kennedy says, hey, go, go make sure you've updated the batteries on your vibrator.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Steve Dace]

And because ultimately. And the reason why Kennedy won't be published, won't be punished for that, but she would if she flipped it around on a lesbian, is because the people running Fox News also want to be their own God. They want to do what is right on their own terms. And dualism says, by all means, you get to do that, because there is no righteous. There is no holy and righteous God set apart from us that you're ultimately accountable to and you're not. There is no original sin. The curse is gone. So, yeah, you get to do that. You are your own referee. That's what you are. Aaron, your thoughts.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You'll notice a pattern as we progress through these seven deadly worldviews. This is the third one that we've reviewed, but they're in this order for a reason. You'll notice it is like building up a tolerance to a drug. Because in the first one, which is off the top of my head, Gnosticism, yes, there is a God, but he's given me special knowledge. Not special revelation, special knowledge. Okay, so there's something distinct about me. Okay, so you're starting to build up the me a little bit. A lot of it. But you're still admitting there is a God. Then in legalism, the knowledge that I have, the customs that I have, the way of doing things that I have, yes, there is a God, but some of the things that I have to say are on par with what God has to say. Creeping once more a little bit now, this one is close to crossing the Rubicon with dualism. Yes, God is real, but he is an equal and opposing force to the enemy. You'll see how each one of these dragging God down just a little bit. Dragging yourself up just a little bit. The next one is definitely crossing the Rubicon. The next one after that, even more so where you're replacing God again, not giving anything away. But you'll notice how each one of these is just a little bit higher dose of me.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And that is a drug. Why did I say Gnosticism is a drug more powerful than cocaine or crack or methamphetamine is. It's tough to get off of once you get on that drug. That's kind of the gateway to all these other worldviews. So beware of it, be wary of it. Yes. In things like Star wars and Harry Potter, very much borrow. In popular culture, very much borrow some themes and tropes that belong to us, that belong to God and his story history. But at the same time, very much things that are antithetical, like dualistic thinking, the forces just good versus evil, and they're duking it out. Dark magic versus normal magic or what have you. The examples are all around, but as you pointed out, Steve, they're very practical as well, if you have the eyes to see.

[Todd Erzin]

Yep.

[Steve Dace]

So then let's. You guys know I love my John Calvin's preaching example of try to answer objections before people leave church. So, hey, what about Lord of the Rings? There's white wizards and dark wizards. Here's the thing. Here's the difference. And Tolkien's universe, there is a creator, and the creator decides what's white and what's dark, not you. You don't decide that. There is a force beyond us that decides this In Tolkien's universe, in J.K. rowling's universe, there isn't. In George Lucas's universe, well, we thought there was. We were told there was. And then in the last Jedi, they took out all the sacred tomes that pointed to those things and they burned all the books.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Right.

[Steve Dace]

And then the movie ends with, hey, anybody can have the Force. Now. There's really nothing special being bestowed. See, Todd sees, you just got rid of apostolic succession. You just got rid of sacred scripture. That's what you saw as a Catholic, right?

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

And that's probably because that's exactly what they were doing. That's exactly what they were doing. And that's why you about got up and walked out.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

Yeah. These were all.

[Steve Dace]

So now it's just a democratic force.

[Guest/Co-host (possibly a theologian or commentator)]

These were I saw as a kid. These were priests with special charisms and things like that. Now, everybody was a Jedi at the

[Steve Dace]

end of this priesthood are denying themselves relationships. And even in their own love and desires in order to serve a greater a cause greater than them. Of course you saw your own image in those things. Of course you did, because a lot of it is based on your image. And then they throw the books into the fire in the Last Jedi. So, yeah, that's the difference. In Tolkien's universe, the. The created force decides what's who's white and who's dark. And in dualism, you get to decide you're your own God. Now back at it again tomorrow, noon to 2 Eastern, right after Glenn Beck, right here on Blaze TV. Until then, go hard. Romans 8, 28.