DECEIVER: Tucker Carlson Has Officially Jumped the Shark | Guest: Nick Freitas | 4/14/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show — Episode Summary

Episode Title: DECEIVER: Tucker Carlson Has Officially Jumped the Shark | Guest: Nick Freitas
Date: April 14, 2026
Host: Steve Deace (with Aaron McIntyre & Todd Erzen)
Network: Blaze Podcast Network
Guest: Nick Freitas

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Steve Deace Show takes a hard look at recent global and political developments—including U.S. negotiations with Iran, cultural confusion in the West, chaos within the Catholic Church under Pope Leo XIV, and the controversial direction of media personality Tucker Carlson. The show weaves incisive conservative commentary on geopolitics, religion, and masculinity, featuring an in-depth interview with Nick Freitas on his new book, The Man Book: A Point by Point Guide to Sucking It Up and Getting the Job Done. Throughout, Deace and his co-hosts take on what they see as spiraling cultural and spiritual confusion, with particular criticism reserved for both the Pope and Tucker Carlson for what they see as appeasement and distortion of Christianity’s core truths.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Geopolitical Uncertainty: Iran Negotiations & U.S. Policy

• The Problem: The hosts react to recent moves by the U.S. and Iran, questioning who truly holds power in Iran and whether meaningful negotiation is possible.

  • "It seems as if Vance is just flat out admitting nobody has any clue who's running Iran at the moment." (Steve Deace, 09:01)
  • Timestamps: [02:32–15:01]

• Concerns Over Trust:

  • U.S. negotiators report that even high-ranking Iranian diplomats cannot finalize deals without checking with unverifiable superiors—with speculation that Iran’s actual leadership is unknown for security reasons.
  • The panel worries this opacity makes diplomatic progress impossible and predicts possible “black pill” retaliatory actions by Iran.

• Blockade & Risks:

  • Recent U.S. Navy interdictions and Iranian missile activity are discussed, with skepticism over how far the regime is willing or able to escalate conflict.

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2. Tucker Carlson and the 'Inversion of Christianity'

• Tucker's Content: Deace criticizes the latest communications from Tucker Carlson’s media network, especially attempts to draw theological equivalence between Islam and Christianity as concerns Trump’s deleted AI-generated 'Jesus' post.

  • "The people in charge don't want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus." (quoting Tucker Carlson Network, [17:15])
  • Timestamps: [16:40–27:54]

• Steve’s Rebuke:

  • Deace calls out what he sees as deep theological errors and misleading pandering. He attacks the “special knowledge” or “Gnosticism” approach—selling contrarian truth as secret insight.
  • He warns listeners this is “the oldest heresy of them all…from the Father of Lies himself.”
  • “He is a deceiver every bit as much as Candace Owens was last year. She's not searching for truth, she's a demoniac. So is he.” (Steve Deace, 21:00)
  • The panel argues, using examples from Muslim eschatology, that Islam does not reverence Jesus as understood by Christians, and that to equate the two is theologically dishonest.

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3. Pope Leo XIV and the Collapse of Catholic Conviction

• The Pope’s Statement:

  • Deace and co-hosts react to new statements from Pope Leo XIV, delivered in Algeria, about “communion between Christians and Muslims” and universal aspirations for “dignity, love, justice, and peace.”
  • Timestamps: [52:56–61:30]
  • “If what this Pope just articulated is an apostolic journey, I am your Speedo swimsuit model, male centerfold.” (Steve Deace, 55:03)

• Historical Comparison:

  • They contrast the Pope’s language with historic accounts of martyrdom among the apostles and past Popes who forcefully confronted violent ideologies.
  • Deace describes the current Pope’s approach as “peacenik,” “Mr. Rogers papacy,” and “giving cover to our enemies.”

• Key Quotes:

  • “I'd like to go back to my 2023 self when I lobbied hard for Tucker to get the gig… tell my 2023 self that I'm going to be saying the things I'm saying today.” (Steve Deace, 28:50)
  • “There's nothing masculine about this at all. There's nothing biblical about it at all.” (Steve Deace, 71:30)

• Critique from Within the Faith:

  • Todd Erzen relates historic and current Catholic voices who reject the Pope's “social justice” approach as out of step with both past doctrine and reality.
  • Calls grow from the panel for Catholics to “hold the Pope to his own standard”—questioning if he is “even Catholic” by the historic measures of the church.

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4. Interview: Nick Freitas on Manhood and Duty

• Segment: [32:22–48:13]

• Freitas outlines the challenges modern men—particularly young, conservative men—face in a culture that derides masculinity and undermines traditional roles.

  • “Ever since elementary school, they've been hearing that they are the problem, that they are the source of the world's ills, that masculinity is toxic, that the future is female.” (Nick Freitas, 33:57)
  • He calls for a return to biblical manhood—strength, service, faith, and leadership—with a focus on building multi-generational families and embracing responsibility.

• Guidance for Young Men:

  • Freitas counsels that true manhood means asking God his mission, not merely seizing your own, and offers practical steps: discipline, improvement, faithfulness, finding a godly spouse, and building a life of purpose.
  • “God blesses faithful attempts, even when they're flawed.” (Nick Freitas, 47:50)

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5. Cultural Turmoil, Masculinity, and Passing the Torch

• Passing Wisdom:

  • Deace and Freitas agree that men in their “third act” of life must “finish well,” serve as role models, and actively help launch the next generation—a role that modern boomer generations often neglect.
  • “It is imperative that they see us finish well. We skipped a generation of men finishing well in America.” (Steve Deace, 38:46)

• Multi-generational Family Vision:

  • Freitas emphasizes honor in obligation: “It’s my obligation to God, to my wife, to my children. These are the things that, when I wake up every day, define what it is that I’m doing and why.”

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6. Pastoral & Catholic Leadership: Political vs. Moral Conviction

• Papal Messaging:
  • Panel distinguishes between the Pope’s private language to believers (which does still include calls to repentance and sin, according to Deace’s research) and his public/political actions, which are overwhelmingly “social justice”-dominant.
  • “What you emphasize, how you emphasize to whom you emphasize it with that Microphone in the press, etcetera, matters.” (Todd Erzen, 81:17)
  • The show emphasizes the political complications for U.S. Catholic leaders like J.D. Vance—criticizing both “random hit back” Trump tactics and “opposite trap” responses (stay out of politics) as inadequate.

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7. How Should Conservatives Respond? (Strategy Segment)

• Timestamps: [86:19–96:09]

• Not Counter-signaling Catholicism:

  • Deace warns Protestants not to simply attack Catholicism as a whole but to demand the Pope be genuinely, historically Catholic.
  • “We desperately, instead of stick, stay out of it, we desperately need the voice of Rome. We're still waiting for it because this is the voice of Central American liberation theology and Marxist college professors and buy the world a Coke and imagine songs. This is not the voice.” (Steve Deace, 94:11)

• Final Word:

  • “Go out and meet an actual Catholic and you won't be able to lie that way... Whatever sin you think we're committing right now as Catholics or the Pope, etc., you're doing worse with that nonsense.” (Todd Erzen, 95:05)
  • All agree: The Catholic Church is in a troubled, transitional moment—young Catholics and Protestants alike need real conviction from leaders, not platitudes.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Tucker Carlson’s claims about Islam and Jesus:

  • “These things are not the same. Nowhere near the same, in fact. Walk down the streets of Tehran and say 'God has a son.' You're dead. Other than that, they're totes the same, guys.”
    — Steve Deace [20:03]

• On the Pope’s approach:

  • “He's drunk on being nice.”
    — Todd Erzen [57:11]

• On how young men should decide if a challenge is ‘worth it’:

  • “For a good portion of my life, I thought my job was to find a noble mission and then invite God to join me. It isn’t. It’s to ask God what His mission is for me right now; it’s to be obedient… God blesses faithful attempts, even when they're flawed.”
    — Nick Freitas [45:54]

• Summary of Christian/Muslim dichotomy:

  • “If my choices are a Pope that believes in nothing and a Pope that at least has balls enough to say, hey, you schismed the church... I'm going to take the latter. All day, every day, and especially twice on Sunday.”
    — Steve Deace [71:30]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:32–15:01] — U.S/Iran negotiations & Middle East analysis
• [16:40–27:54] — Tucker Carlson & inversion of Christianity
• [32:22–48:13] — Interview: Nick Freitas on masculinity & his new book
• [52:56–61:30] — Papal confusion, “apostolic journeys,” and martyrdom
• [81:17–86:19] — Papal messaging: public, private, and political
• [86:19–96:09] — Final segment: strategy for confronting “woke” Catholic leadership

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Tone & Language

The show’s tone is fiery, often sarcastic, unapologetically conservative, and deeply committed to principles rooted in Christian orthodoxy. There is biting wit, biblical references, and a consistent call for authentic conviction—both in leadership and laymen. The panel speaks directly and honestly, not shying from intra-faith critique or naming perceived heresy.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode...

This episode is an unflinching overview of cultural and spiritual crises on several fronts: foreign policy, media integrity, Catholic leadership, and generational confusion among men. Steve Deace and his team urge their audience to discern true leadership—to honor conviction above novelty or appeasement—and to hold all, whether Pope or pundit, to the highest possible standard.

• If you want concise, bold conservative analysis of breaking news, theological confusion, and the modern masculine journey, this is an essential listen.
• Notable quotables and memorable tongue-in-cheek analogies pepper the episode.
• The Nick Freitas interview offers keen, actionable advice for young men lost in today’s culture.

No fake news. No sugar-coating. Full servings of snark and steel.

Transcript

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[Aaron McIntyre]

and here's what happened while we were away, brought to you by deadlines. Vice President J.D. vance says there's still time for Iran to make a deal to make the ceasefire permanent.

[Todd Erzen]

The ball really is in their court. We've made clear where we're willing again to be accommodating and we've made clear where we absolutely need to see the nuclear material come out of the country of Iran. Now what's interesting, Brett, about this is that in the process of doing this negotiation, I do think that we acquired some knowledge about how Iranians are negotiating and this is ultimately why we left Pakistan, because what we figured out is that they were unable, I think the team that was there was unable to cut a deal and they had to go back to Tehran either from the Supreme Leader or somebody else and actually get approval to the terms that we had set. So again, whether we have further conversations, whether we ultimately get to a deal, I really think the ball is in the Iranian court because we put a lot on the table.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Meanwhile, the US Navy has begun the process of interdicting vessels attempting to port at or depart from Iran laden with petroleum products. Notably, a medium range sanctioned tanker reportedly bound for China made it through the Strait before making a U turn and heading back towards Iran. This morning, President Trump on if a deal isn't reached before the end of the ceasefire, as your threat from before still stand?

[Nick Freitas]

Yeah, I don't want to comment on that, but it won't be pleasant for them.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Trump made those comments while picking up a McDonald's order from a door dasher at the White House.

[Nick Freitas]

Do you think that men should play in women's sports?

[Steve Day]

Really don't have an opinion on that.

[Nick Freitas]

You don't? I'll bet you do.

[Todd Erzen]

No, I'm here about attacks on tips.

[Aaron McIntyre]

He also addressed the now deleted Truth Social post with an AI image depicting him as Jesus.

[Nick Freitas]

I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross. As a Red Cross worker there, which we support and only the fake news could come up with that one.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Just when Pope Leo had maybe been given the moral high ground back on a silver platter, he posted yesterday, quote, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership does righteousness. Now that's not the post Here it is communion between Christians and Muslims take shape under the mantle of Our lady of Africa. Here in Algeria, the maternal love of Lala Miriam gathers everyone as children with our rich diversity, our shared aspiration for dignity, love, justice and peace. In a world where division and war so pain and death, living in unity and peace is a compelling sign apostolic journey Two days ago, Eric Swalwell was a congressman pulling in second place in the California gubernatorial race. Today, he's neither a congressman nor a candidate for the Golden State Governor. Swalwell announced yesterday he's resigning from Congress as more members say they would vote to expel him. More women continue to speak up about inappropriate and some saying criminal sexual misconduct of the former member of the House Intel Committee. Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez also announced he's resigning. Gonzalez has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for having a relationship with a former senior aide in his congressional office. I know you've been waiting with bated breath for the WNBA draft, which went down this week. The Dallas WNBA team apparently picked number one overall and chose the lesbo girlfriend of another player on the team for reasons At a post draft press conference, WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert was asked a fairly common question about people in her position.

[Steve Day]

Have you considered resigning at any point throughout this? I have not. I'm.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Whoops, wrong clip.

[Steve Day]

You've made it sound like this term

[Nick Freitas]

is going to be your last term as commissioner. Have you formalized that? Have you told ownership that this is it?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Whoops, wrong clip.

[Steve Day]

So I guess I'm just curious, like,

[Nick Freitas]

what do you how much do you want to stay the commissioner of the wnba? How much longer do you anticipate to

[Steve Day]

be in this role? Well, thank you, Maddie.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I do crack up how everybody's focused on me.

[Steve Day]

Well, I wonder whether you would ask that of a man, by the way.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okie dokie then. And that's what happened while we were away.

[Steve Day]

I just want to say, I mean, I detest the WNBA with the heat of a thousand suns, just to test the whole thing. Detest it. And what you did with that Pope Aaron. Holy cow. And we're going to have more to say on that Pope if that's an apostolic journey. What he just described. I am a swimsuit model. All right. If that is an apostolic journey, and then you will not believe what Tucker Carlson tried to pull this morning to redeem Trump's post that he deleted. We'll tell you about that and more next on the Steve Day Show. All right, back here live and on demand. Greetings. Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the Steve Day show here on Blaze TV, radio and podcast alongside Aaron McIntyre, whom you've already heard from, Todd Erzin, whom you are about to I'm Steve Dase, brought to you by our friends over at Preborn. You guys have been so generous to them. Let's keep it going because for as little as $28, you can save the life of a baby today and maybe save the soul of his or her mama so that she doesn't put it in eternal peril by committing murder against her own children. And that's what they do. They take ultrasounds to women who are considering being becoming murderers and they try to convince them that you're committing murder so that the conscience is convicted and they don't follow through with it. And most of the time, it works. But here's the thing. They also understand, right, that a lot of times women that are thinking about doing this are not, are in not in the most ideal situations. And so they need help. So they don't just say thanks for choosing life and then they move on to the next, the next battle. No, they're, they're there all the way sometimes up until two years after the baby is born, making sure that family, that new family now gets started off on the right foot. And, and they provide all kinds of other practical things, too, to the new mom. All right, maybe it's diapers, car seats, maybe even, you know, counseling. And they do all this for free, even though we all know none of it actually is. That's where you and I come in. Make your tax deductible donation today to preborn.com Steve. That's Preborn Steve. All right. We have another jam packed show for you coming up here today. In the next hour of the show, Pop Culture Tuesday, we're going to look at AI Jesus now using Jonathan Roumie from from the Chosen is now a thing. We'll get into that. And my immediate reaction is no. Also, fake news or not, that that very post you saw from Pope Leo the 14th. We're going to spend a good deal of time talking about that next hour as well. And then bottom of this hour, Nick Freitas is going to join us on his new book, the Man Book, A Point by point Guide to Sucking it up and Getting the Job Done. That in your way, coming your way here on the show. But let's begin with some commentary on Aaron's montage, shall we? And. It seems as if Vance is just flat out admitting nobody has any clue who's running Iran at the moment. Somebody's running it, right? We don't see open sectarian violence in the streets. We don't see chaos, all right? We don't see the Iranian national army fighting the Revolutionary Guard. So somebody is in charge. Somebody is running it. I guess we give them credit that after how many dozens of their high command were killed by us or the Israelis here over the last few weeks, they finally found a hiding spot, I guess where they can still run the country and not be found. Right, but so I guess credit, but we don't really know who's running Iran. And I think that we have to ask ourselves now let's take this forward. How can we ever know that we can trust any deal? Then who are we making a deal with? Whoever is actually running Iran, would they come forward at some kind of a signing ceremony with the vice President or the Secretary of State, you know, some senior US Dignitary to indicate that, yes, this is official or would they not want to do that out of fear that they would get taken out by us or the Israel, particularly the Israelis if they do you see what I'm saying? I mean, I mean I. If the Iranians said they wanted to deal with the vice President because he was supposedly, they thought, the most anti war member, senior member of the President's cabinet, he came back from the meeting and said last night whatever skepticism he had about doing this war completely evaporated when he watched them try to negotiate for 21 hours. Okay, but I mean who would we sign a deal with just to crystallize that real quick?

[Aaron McIntyre]

So they flew Iran, flew a lot of high ranking, we think, or we are told, a lot of high ranking people. I think a foreign minister was there along with the speaker of Parliament. So those are some pretty high ranking Iranian officials. No. So they were flown in, they negotiated for 21 hours and now it was reported by the New York Post that and Vance confirmed it yesterday. At least that's his speculate. He couched it as speculation that they unilaterally, the delegation of high ranking officials that they sent to Islamabad could not actually formally enter into a deal. Which means what? High ranking though they are, they're not actually the ones running the show. And they couldn't call back to the ones running the show for, we're told, security reasons.

[Steve Day]

And that's that get traced. Would they be found?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Correct. So again, who is running? So I just wanted to crystallize why you're saying that.

[Todd Erzen]

And when this is a known terrorist state that as Islam reaches itself out across Europe and Texas may start planting their own Hezbollahs in those regions.

[Steve Day]

Hold on. Hezbollah are the guardians of Christianity, according to Tucker Carlson. So I think we're good on that front, but continue.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

[Steve Day]

Yes.

[Todd Erzen]

But that being said, and Steve, I know you plans soon to have a conversation about just war theory. It begs the question, how many weeks are we into this? Your memory is we're six weeks in now. Six weeks in. If we had asked ourselves in week one if this is the reality six weeks out, how would we evaluate according to just war theory? We'd have some questions.

[Steve Day]

I think our own administration has questions. I mean, who do we even negotiate with? Right. And I think we should consider a scenario on the table. And this is because I believe they're based on 50 years of behavior. They're every bit as crazy.

[Todd Erzen]

Yes.

[Steve Day]

As you know, you're being told.

[Todd Erzen]

Absolutely.

[Steve Day]

I think we should consider that there is on the possibility some kind of end of Star Trek to con from, you know, on his last breath from hell's hard dystopathy hitting the Genesis device button, some kind of, you know, black pill here. All right, raise the black flag. We're done here. There's nothing to do here. What's the, you know, goodbye, cruel world. I think we should consider that if they are, if they're so decimated on one hand that they, they can't really respond in any form of a threatening way, the volume of missiles has greatly decreased that we have seen across the region. They are in no position whatsoever to stop us from blockading the Straits of Hormuz. And here's the thing. They never really were, but they were, they were really in it. They were in a position to make it more difficult than it currently is. We basically just said, hey, starting to. On Sunday, the Trump, the president said 10am on Sunday, we're just gonna start blockading this straight. I mean, we couldn't, if eight, eight weeks ago, we couldn't have just announced that and done it the next day without some kind of level of expected reprisal. Right. They can't coordinate that right now. But at the same time, they are sending delegations to foreign countries to Negotiate that have no authority to do so. And we're not seeing, again, mass uprisings and things in the street of chaos, somebody subduing that country. Right.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah.

[Steve Day]

And I, I don't know what the chances are. I don't know how high they are. But again, we're kind of getting to your point. We're getting to the point of this now, where the reservations I had about it going in are now coming to bear. It's precisely because of how weakened the regime was that I was concerned about doing this, because what would they do if they thought, all right, Hail Mary, pass, this is our last show. What button would they push? What operation would they engage? Right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Could just be that this closing or the attempted closure or blockading of the street, that was their button.

[Steve Day]

Could be. That's the thing. That, that's the thing. We don't know. All right. And to use another Star Trek 2 reference here, we're kind of in the Mutara Nebula here. We, you know, we kind of can't see anything. It's kind of murky, you know, or, you know, it's kind of like we're not even sure what the way out is. Right. You know, that's kind of how I feel about it anyway. I mean, I, I'm, of course, I assume, again, the we is those of us watching from the outside in. I, I, I absolutely assume and hope that Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and JD Vance know way more about this than we do. But it's also pretty obvious that they also don't know who, who they can ultimately negotiate with. Like the pre. This is a president that doesn't mind singling people out. Right. Okay, we see that. We've seen it for 10 years. Don't you think if he could sing, I mean, we've seen him single out Zielinski and Putin. Make a deal, you two, and single him out by name. Right? Okay. If there was somebody in Iran to single out and say, hey, man, clock is ticking, your meter's running, this president would do that. Right?

[Todd Erzen]

Yes.

[Steve Day]

All right. And so I think clearly that person is unknown or that group of persons is unknown. At the same time, we're watching a nation of 90 million people not go through all kinds of sectarian upheaval while the regime is publicly very wounded. That, I, will be honest with you, has me concerned.

[Todd Erzen]

Agreed.

[Steve Day]

Has me concerned. What are they, what are they drawn up there in their Ku Klab? Right? What's their, what's their exit strategy? What's their, hey, we're Just all going to drink the hemlock here, push this button and drink the hemlock and call it a day for Allah. What does that look like? And I'm, I'm worried about that. I'm not gonna lie. I'm worried about. That should be all right. Something else I'm worried about that I teased at the top I'll tell you about in a second after I remind you because it's a good segue to Michael Youssef's new book, An Unholy Alliance. That's, that's out now that you can get your copy here. And, and Michael, of course, grew up in the Middle east, knows that region very well. He's been involved in commentary, theology and a pastor for many decades now. This book traces the 1400 year history of cultural jihad, explains how it's now merging with the, the modern Western left to ideologies that seem completely opposed. Right. You can't be a queer in Palestine, but how are you a queer for Palestine? Well, he's gonna connect those dots and make it make sense for you. So get your copy of An Unholy Alliance, How Progressivism Brought about an Islamist Invasion. Get your copy available at Amazon.com or wherever books are sold today by Dr. Michael Youssef. All right, I, I tease this at the top and I want to, I want to read to you. This is how the Tucker Carlson Network attempted to redeem Trump's post that, that he took down yesterday after quite a bit of evangelical like, no, don't do that. That's a bad idea pushback. The people in charge don't want you to know this, but Muslims love Jesus. Tucker says Islam reveres him as a major prophet and messenger of the Lord, believes he performed miracles and states that he returned to earth to defeat the Antichrist. That's why Donald Trump's painting depicting himself as the son of God offended the president of Iran. Folks, this is like Babylon B level stuff. And, and this is being posted unironically by Tucker Carlson's network page. It was an attack on his religion as well as Christianity. Today's Morning Note newsletter covers, Mossad, and I won't even attempt to pronounce his last name. Condemnation of Trump's desecration of Jesus. The Iran war's gutting effects on America's housing market. I'm sorry, was the housing market doing great before we launched the war in Iran? No, no, it was, it was pretty terrible. Before the war in Iran got launched. Correct.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah.

[Steve Day]

Yeah. Colombia's plan to murder Pablo Escobar's Hippopotami. I don't even know what that word is. And more.

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right,

[Todd Erzen]

it's hippopotami.

[Steve Day]

Thank you.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Pablo Escobar had a hippopotamus. Multiple hippopotamus. That's hippopotamine.

[Steve Day]

So in other words, Tucker Carlson has commented more on the pets that Pablo Escobar's had than the Save America Act. But we're America first, guys. We're America first. But I've got commentary on a Colombian drug lord's private zoo. More than how to secure your own elections. Total BS. This guy's become just nothing but a BSer. And this is always what happens with deconstructors. I think we can save. You know, I told you in January, the best case scenario is this guy was going to end as, like, the new Ron Paul. Spent a lot of time around Ron Paul and his team. They literally trained me on politics. They lived in my state for years. As I was coming in, so were they laying the groundwork for not one, but two Ron Paul presidential runs. I promise you, Ron Paul has no takes on Pablo Escobar's private petting zoo. I promise you that's true. And he. Last week, I told all you Ron Paulers that are trying to anoint this guy as your new vessel because you need a platform. Ron's 90 rand has made too many political compromises for many of you to be a U.S. senator. So you need a new ideological fountainhead. This is not your guy. This is. This. These. These are not the droids you're looking for. They're not. This is a deconstructing clown. I think we can take the Rand Paul or the Ron Paul option just totally off the table. This is. We're just going to go straight Marcion heretic here. That's how this is all ending. And it's. And we're there. Now. Let me explain. Islam teaches Jesus was never crucified. Allah pulled Christ off the cross, tricking the Jews. Or saved Christ from the cross, tricking the Jews and put somebody else up on it and made them think it was prophet Jesus. One problem with that. If there's no crucifixion, guys, guess what? There also isn't resurrection. There's not a resurrection. And if there's no resurrection, guess what? There also isn't, guys.

[Todd Erzen]

Salvation.

[Steve Day]

Salvation. Because there's no such thing as Christianity. The whole of Christianity hinges on the resurrection, which Islam denies. Which is why when the Muslim invaders took over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and built the Al Aqsa Mask Mosque and Put the dome of the rock over the top of that mosque. They carved underneath it in Arabic the following words, God has no son. Certain Islamic eschatologies, particularly ironically in countries like Iran, teach that prophet Jesus will return not to slay the Antichrist you for believing in Christ. That's what they teach. Slay all the idolaters that taught polytheism, that Allah had conjugal relations with Mary, had a son, and he will instead slay all of you for believing that God has a son. To quote the great prophet Bob Yukre, who's clearly a much better theologian than Tucker Carlson. Just a bit outside, just a bit. These things are not the same. Nowhere near the same in fact. Text test Tucker's own thesis here. Walk down the streets of Iran and scream God has no son. They'll applaud. Walk down the streets of Tehran and say God has a son. You're dead. Other than that, they're totes the same guys. They're really just the same thing. Let me tell you what, let me say to some of you what you don't want to hear. And that's why I get paid the better than average bucks and not the big bucks, because I keep doing that. This is not the contrarian voice you're looking for. He is a deceiver every bit as much as Candace Owens was last year. She's not searching for truth, she's a demoniac. So is he. This is flat out inversion of Christianity. Which means that's precisely what it's not. He's leaving you nothing. Now. There is really no reason to, to, to consume any of his content other than you're just looking for anti Jewish, anti Israel content. He's doing nothing to defend a singular issue we care about here in the United States of America. Where, where, where has he been a serious player on any domestic issue in the last how many moons now?

[Todd Erzen]

No idea.

[Steve Day]

No idea. Now he's an Islamic apologist. At this point the Tucker Carlson network should just post in Arabic and skip to the end and save us all the time. We're all consenting adults here. Let's just skip, skip to the end, get right to posting in Arabic. He engages in nothing of any domestic value at all, is a total sim for Islam. Listen, if you want anti Zionist, anti Jewish content, there's all kinds of it in the 2000 year history of Christianity from that weren't enough to be pro Muslim at the same time find it. This guy's offering nothing constructive, nothing of any use at all. He is a deceiver a smarter Candace Owens. And we're at the point now where there's no more benefit of the doubt for his past laudable work. He's using that as a means by which to practice his deception and get away with it. He's now cashing that credibility in to lie. Just like Marcion, who cashed in the fact he was the son of a bishop and knew just enough religious language to be dangerous to gain a foothold and spread the Gnostic heresy far beyond where it otherwise would have reached. Same thing. Gentlemen, your thoughts?

[Todd Erzen]

Have you ever seen a bigger game of high stakes retarded hold my beer than the last 48 hours with the Pope, the President and Tucker Carlson? It is to Steve's point, and it's so surreal that we're a long way

[Steve Day]

from Reagan, Thatcher and Pope John Paul II there toto so far, which we're pretty far from. We're not in Kansas anymore.

[Todd Erzen]

And the pace is at which it's happening to my point, when Steve says, and it's not a rhetorical flourish, the pace at which this is happening to people like this, it's clearly spiritual, it's clearly dark. And as a church, we have to reconcile with this very quickly, lest we all be destroyed.

[Aaron McIntyre]

The first 10 words of that pope, of that post, I should say the first 10 words is like mental fentanyl. And here's the first 10 words. The people in charge don't want you to know this. Now, fentanyl, dangerous drug, but sometimes necessary in a medical context. Sometimes it's, I believe it's used as a painkiller. But most of the time, at least the way that we hear about it, most of the time it's a very dangerous, addictive, debilitating, decrepit drug. That's what this first 10 word. That's what those first 10 words are. The people in charge don't want you to know this. What is he saying there? Here's some special knowledge.

[Steve Day]

Yes, yes.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Here's some special knowledge for you. Now, sometimes the people in charge really don't want you to know the truth. But is that what we're seeing from Tucker Carlson more often and more often? No, it's some form of Gnosticism, which is what this is parading around as. Even if you are a Muslim and you walk down the streets of Tehran, you walk down the street of Beirut, although what's left of Beirut now, who knows? Even if you are Muslim and you shout at the top of your lungs in Arabic, in Persian, Farsi, whatever, I love Jesus I love Jesus. I love Jesus. I'm a Muslim and I love Jesus.

[Todd Erzen]

You're dead.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You're probably not doing super hot. Yeah, it's a death sentence, so that's some special knowledge. It's also pretty retarded as well. But it feels really good once you take a hit of it and you start to challenge preconceived notions. Hey, this makes sense. I've stumbled onto something that's. That's kind of spitting into the wind here. Although that's not maybe a good example. I've discovered something here that most people don't know.

[Todd Erzen]

This.

[Aaron McIntyre]

This feels good. Let's do this some more. And more and more and more. Every now and then, you might be right. You might stumble upon something that the people in charge don't want you to know about. But if that's your modus operandi, here's something the people in charge don't want you to know. If that's everything, if that's the air that you breathe, more often than not, you've become addicted to a mental drug as dangerous as fentanyl. And that's exactly what this post is. It's just straight up Gnosticism.

[Steve Day]

Yes, the oldest heresy of them all. The oldest one of them all from the Father of Lies himself. Did God really say. It's just another way of saying the people in charge don't want you to know. You were talking yesterday, Aaron. Go back to yourself 20 years ago and say, what was it you said

[Aaron McIntyre]

that tell your 2006 self that in 20 years President Donald Trump would be taking orders from a doordasher in the oval office. A McDonald's order at that, while asking the doordasher if you believe that men should be in women's sports and doing damage control over an AI generated post that he posted of himself as Jesus Christ after beefing with the Pope in the middle of a war with Iran. Tell yourself in 2006, that's reality.

[Steve Day]

I'd like to go back to my 2021 self and the two primetime appearances I had on Tucker Carlson's show and say, hey, in five years, this is what you're going to be saying. I'd like to go back to my 2023 self when I lobbied hard for Tucker to get the gig to host the leadership summit here for Blaze TV with all the Republican presidential candidates. Sands Trump, the first public gig he had after Fox fired him. I'd like to go back and tell my 2023 self that I'm going to be saying the things I'm saying today on this show, I'd like to go back and tell my 2024 self when I was texting back with Tucker the night that J.D. vance accepted the VP nomination and gave that fantastic speech and stuff, and his mom came out and thanked him for the role that he, I know that he played in making that happen. So we have like a, we have, we correct a mistake Reagan never made, which is he never left us with an heir. He left us with the Bushes. Right. And that was the great fear that Trump was going to put some establishmentarian like Glenn Youngkin or somebody like that on the ticket and not leave us with a real heir that could take this thing to the next generation. When you let go of the rope, when you deconstruct, it goes fast. It goes fast. And it's time to start looking at things like Tucker talking about he was under demonic attack in the middle of night. It's time to start looking at those things I think now from 180 degree different angle here, because what he's been preaching is, is the ver is the literal doctrines of demons. That's literally what it is. And I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't tell you that.

[Nick Freitas]

The steve day show,

[Steve Day]

Well, guess what? I checked the death rate again and it remains that very robust 100%. Happens every single time. That's why the time will eventually come for all of us. And for some of us, it's maybe a little sooner than others that we need to have those kinds of conversations because Father Time remains undefeated. That's why you want to talk to our friends over at Trust and Will. And it's the site that Amy and I use to keep our estate issues updated, our family issues updated. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it to you. All right? And they're easy to use website. It's, it's, it's easy to and simple to navigate. It's custom. It's very customizable, too. We were shocked how customizable it was. And all of your information and documents are securely stored with bank level encryption. And one thing they've added since, since we last updated our information and we probably need to do this ourselves now, is they've got the new shared document access feature so that you can let your loved ones know in advance their role in your future. All right? Each of your wills or trust state specific, customized to your needs. All right? Whether you're looking for guardian nomination, final arrangements, power of attorney care, wishes, you can do all of that at Trust and Will. So Add some peace of mind to your future with trust and will go to trust and the word and trustandwill.com days for 20 off. That's 20% [e-mail] days. Again, trustandwill.com days for twenty percent off. The name of the book, the Man Book, a point by point guide to Sucking it up and Getting the job done. And it's written by former Virginia state legislator and a man who also served his country. Nick Freitas joins us again on the show. Good to see you, Nick. How are you?

[Nick Freitas]

Great to see you, Steve. How you doing?

[Steve Day]

Now, I want to start with your subtitle, if I could, if you don't mind. All right. Because on one hand, I do think, and I say this, I'm launching my own son into manhood right now, all right, who just graduated from high school a year ago, and we're in the process of launching him off to the rest of his, you know, his life. And so on one hand, I am deeply sympathetic with the absolute crap sandwich we're asking these young men to inherit, particularly the white ones. You're instantly responsible for a whole bunch of social issues and maladies you had nothing to do with. You're instantly typecast. Good luck finding a, you know, a cute girl who hasn't, hasn't or doesn't want to have multiple abortions. All right. And thinks that she can wear the pants better than you kind of a thing. And, and, and you're gonna have a hard time finding a job that'll pay you a real wage because they can get an illegal alien to do that for way less than you. Right. And, and, and I am. Those things are all true. They are absolutely all true. So on one hand, I sort of feel like the suck it up message to the young men of America is, is, is not going to work, while at the same time thinking that that is the message that at any point in their lives, men need to hear multiple times, probably in their lives, all of us, too, at some point, hey, suck it up. There's stuff to get done. You see what. So I'm, I am torn on this very conversation. If you, if you're picking up when I'm laying down at all.

[Nick Freitas]

Yeah. No, I think the first thing that we have to acknowledge, especially men of our generation, is that our sons grew up in a very, very different time, at least most of them. They grew up in a time where ever since elementary school, they've been hearing that they are the problem, that they are the source of the world's ills, that masculinity is toxic, that the future is female. And it wasn't just something they were being told. It was actually reflected in things like college admittance, it was being reflected with respect to legal policy, it was being reflected with respect to corporate policy. So these things were very, very real. And it actually led me. I got into a fight once with my co host, who's 30, 31, and he was telling me, he's like, nick, I'm so sick of this idea of just pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And I said. And I kind of fired back. I'm like, you know, at 25, I was in combat, so I'm a little bit tired of hearing that everything just sucks. And he fired back with, yeah, nick, but at 25, being in combat, you were respected for being all of the things that a man is supposed to be. You for being a soldier, your wife loved you, your kids loved you. You had these things for. He goes, what I'm trying to get you to understand is that a lot of young men today don't have those things. A lot of the institutions that used to support and prop up masculinity, the, the, the women in the culture that wanted strong men, he goes, that is all at a deficit right now, and that's what young men are dealing with. And you know what? He brings up a very, very good point. And so when I say how to suck it up and get the job done, I don't mean ignore the unjust circumstances which currently exist. What I mean is that the thing that are going to overcome those circumstances are young men becoming good godly men. This is the part that the feminists don't want you to understand. The reason why they have spent arguably at least the last two decades trying to convince young. Convince young men that they're worthless, that they're hopeless, that they're not strong, that their masculinity is toxic. They haven't done that because you aren't strong. They haven't done that because you don't play an overwhelming, overwhelmingly important role in society. They've tried to convince you of that because you do. And the way that you actually tear down the very ideologies, the very institutions that have attempted to muzzle and demoralize you the way you do it is by rejecting what they're telling you about reality and actually embracing what God says. You are right. I'm, I'm not interested. I am no more interested in the, the feminist version of masculinity than I am the black pilled manosphere version of masculinity, which essentially tells you to either be strong and capable so you can take advantage of people, or just give up, watch porn, smoke dope, and die fat and lazy. I don't want any of that. I want the biblical version. Because the biblical version tells you that you're supposed to be strong, you're supposed to be capable, because you're supposed to lead. Now, it is difficult to lead in a time and place where the rest of culture is trying to put you down. But the only way to get past that is to ignore what culture tells you, listen to what God tells you, stand up and do it anyways. Because here's what I can tell you. You're right. You may be frustrated. Right now, 70 of young men are identifying as more conservative and going into church and wanting to have a family where even conservative women are not feeling those same things at the same rates. But the impetus, the thing, the, the leading indicator that is going to cause women to come around is men coming around to that reality. And that's the only thing I can say is I'm, I'm not telling you that it doesn't suck. I'm telling you that this is the way through it. And I absolutely believe it with everything in me. Not just because I've experienced it in my own life, but because that's what God says. And, and that's, that's what I rest the authority on. For what I'm talking about here is not. It's not just Nick Freitas. It's not just my experiences. A lot of the lessons that I talk about in here, I learned the hard way. But I do believe that it's rooted in eternal truth that I didn't come up with. I didn't come up with these eternal truths. I discovered them as I looked in my, in my Bible, as I looked in my relationship with God. And then as I tried to faithfully, yet let the yet flawed, I faithfully tried to execute these principles. And the more I did, and the closer I got to them, the better the results were. It didn't make. It was easy. In fact, there was a lot of times you get punished for them, right? But I understood what my identity was. My identity was not in what the world tells me. My identity was in Christ. And then through the process of becoming a husband, becoming a father, I had these daily reminders of what my obligation was to God, to my family, to my country. And that's what yielded the sort of discipline and provided the Sort of motivation to continue to push through the times even when they were difficult.

[Steve Day]

That is extremely well said, by the way. Brother. I am a big believer, and I said this when they had me eulogize Charlie at Amfest, that if we are. If we're gonna fulfill the mission he was trying to reach with the young men. And his, you know, his. The mission statement of his that was so often quoted, which is, you know, get married, have kids, go to church. All right, if we're gonna fulfill that. His mission with the young men, it is the older men. You know, for boomers who are already in Act 3, for Gen Xers like me, who are in the. The opening, you know, stages of our third and final act, right, it is imperative that they see us finish well. We skipped a generation of men finishing well in America, all right? And I. I think one of the things, you know, I have mixed feelings about boomers leaving the stage because on one hand, I think they're the last generation kind of keeping this thing together. On the other hand, there's elements of the boomer generation that set the stage for the entire counterculture, the sexual revolution, and everything else that put us in the position that we are currently in. And they have not done a very good job, frankly, of training the next generation to take their place. They are older and healthy. They're healthier, older than a previous generation of Americans. And so they want to stay active. And I get that. But when you look across a lot of the landscape, as we lost men like John MacArthur and others in the last year, you. You. We could not name, like, the next five or ten Gen X pastors that you just knew we're gonna waiting in the wings to take these guys' place, right? And then there's the story of the guy. There's the classic story of, no, we can't help you with the grandkids and stuff. You know, we're taking our fourth vacation to the Bahamas, and here's. And here's our Facebook pictures. And we're not even gonna leave you an inheritance because we're spending it now, and you need to work for it. Like, we did kind of stuff, right? Okay. And I. And I. And I think it is really imperative if we're going to reach the young men. Those of us in our third act have to finish well. We have to finish well with the wise of our youth. We have to finish well, not making reckless financial decisions. So we cannot leave any kind of a legacy. We have to put being there to help them in the years they need it right as they're raising kids and they're not as wealthy as they're going to be 10 or 20 years later down the road we need to finish. Well Nick, in order for the young men to hear the message I think that you're rightly trying to give them.

[Nick Freitas]

Oh, absolutely. I, I look at a lot of the people, some, some within Gen X, some within the, the older millennials and whatnot and I'm starting to see that transition. So first of all, I'm not a big person that believes you kick all your kids out at 18. I believe they got to go make their own way and they got to be able to be capable, being self sufficient. But I want to set up the sort of multi generational family where we help one another where, where my job with, with respect to my wife and I at this stage in life is not to direct our kids. The moment my oldest daughter got married, I looked at my son in law and I said, you are now the spiritual head of, of your household and I will respect your duties and responsibilities within that position. If any one of you ever want to come to me with questions about marriage, understand I will be doing so for the benefit of the marriage. I'm not taking, you know, sides with, with a particular person. It's how do we make the marriage flourish. I also look at this with respect to my own son who's 20 years old now, he's in the army, he wants to get married. I want them to be in a situation where they can get married, they can have kids and grandpa and grandma are still there to help and support and, and to provide assistance when necessary while respecting the authority that they have over their own households. I don't want to be spending my money in my later years going on four or five cruises a year. I want to be setting up opportunities where my kids can flourish and build. I want to be able to take away certain barriers that would exist at the particular stage of life that they're in so that they can build something that they can truly call their own that were able to help them with, not take over a run for them. This is the sort of thing that I want to build. It's the sort of longevity when again when I look at the concept of biblical family, that's what I see. I, I see multi generations. I see the, the young kids being brought up. I see the, the parents of, of young children working hard in order to provide that safe environment where they can grow and flourish on the relationship with Christ and their family. I see the older generation being able to come down and provide wisdom and insight and guidance. And when necessary, this is the sort of thing I want to fight for. Because, again, it's the daily reminders. You know, we talk so much about individual liberty and freedom in America. And you know what?

[Steve Day]

Those are great.

[Nick Freitas]

Those are great. I want political freedom. I believe that rights start with the individual. But if I look at the things that give me meaning and purpose and identity, it's my obligations, it's my obligation to God, it's my obligation to my wife, it's my obligation to my children. These are the things that, when I wake up every day, define what it is that I'm doing and why. And I want to be able to transfer that to my kids. And you're right for. For the older generation to take on this hedonistic approach where it's, well, I got mine. And I don't care how whatever I want or whatever government entitlements I have or anything like that, I don't care how that's impacting the world you grow up in, because I got mine. No, that's. That's not biblical, right?

[Steve Day]

This is.

[Nick Freitas]

This is our time to be able to chart out a different course that future generations can follow. And I promise you, if we give. If we give young men not only the capability and the opportunity, but we give them a noble mission, they will rise to the occasion. And I. I said this. After Charlie died, I was talking to pastors and I said, there are a lot of young men. For the first time in six decades, the trend of lower church attendance has stopped. Why? Because young men are willing to give you another shot. But if they walk into your churches and they find weak, beckless men that are not willing to defend, that want to sit there and adopt feminist narratives, that are not willing to boldly proclaim the gospel and actually be the sort of men who intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, professionally, and physically represent the beliefs that they claim to care about. They're going to walk right out and they're going to look for strength elsewhere, and you will have failed them. But I do look at people like John Lovell. I look at people like Josh McPherson. I look at people like Josh Howerton. I look at people like Wes Huff. I look at people like you where you are saying, no, this is the path, and I stand firm on it, and I'm going to fight for it. And you're giving them something to rally around so they can learn, be discipled, and then one day do the same for their own Families.

[Steve Day]

Very well said. Again. All right, we got two minutes here. Help our young men who. They don't want to waste time. They're worried if I serve in the military, might I die for a sand, you know, lot in the Middle east for nothing? If I pursue a girl and it's the wrong one, did I miss my best years and can't find a wife? How do I find a career? And I'm not just doing widgets at the same time. I know I need to work my way up. There's a lot of concern, I think, about wasting their. Their. Their. Their. Their gifts, their, you know, vitality, their youth. Help them discern when is it a moment that they need to suck it up? Because God needs to teach them a lesson about perseverance, what it means to get to the end. They need to listen to Mr. Miyagi, send the floor, paint the fence. There's a time for that. We all had to do that, right? And when's the time to say, this is a waste, all right? This is not the proper investment of that time. How do they know?

[Nick Freitas]

So the most important thing I could tell people after I'm 46 now. I've been to war. I've served an elected office. I've been a business owner. I've been a husband for almost 27 years, a father for 22 years. For the good portion of my life, I thought my job was to find a noble mission and then invite God to join me. It isn't. It's to ask God what His mission is. For me right now, it's to be obedient. And that sounds very esoteric, but here's what I mean by it. It means when you are actually taking your faith seriously, when you are reading your Bible, when you are diligently praying and you are trying to figure out you're. You're looking for good disciples where you can be a good man. And you are pursuing. You're saying, God, you have given me certain gifts, you have given me certain interests. I want to pursue them diligently, pray. God help me decipher between opportunities and distractions, because he doesn't want you to be confused, but he does want you to be obedient. Because as long as you're actually pursuing his purpose for you, that's where you're going to find joy. That's where you're going to find peace. It's not only gonna. It's not always going to be easy. In fact, he promises you it will be hard at times. The difference is, is that you won't look at difficulty as an indicator of failure. In fact, many times you'll see it as an indication that you're on the right path. And then when it comes to actually, like, selecting a wife, here's the thing I can tell you you need to think about, what sort of godly woman do you want to marry? What are the traits? What are the attributes you want? Then you go take a look in the mirror and you say, would I attract such a woman? If the answer is no, get to work. Get to work spiritually, get to work intellectually, get to work physically, Go to the gym, get a violent hobby, learn how to shoot, learn how to fight. There's all kinds of little things that you can do day to day that make you gradually more capable and honorable. And then what you do is, is you put yourself in proximity of the sort of godly women that you would want to marry. And that's not the club, right? Sometimes it's going to be church, sometimes it's going to be other civic organizations that share your values. But when you find that girl, here's the other thing. Stop worrying about, oh, is it the right. When you find her and you marry her, that's how you know she's the one. And then you build a life with her, man, you burn the bridges. I got married at 19. I've been married almost 27 years. I burned the bridges. Both me and my wife came from families of divorce. And it can be done. Just take God's word seriously and pursue it. You will fail at times. That's fine. God blesses faithful attempts, even when they're flawed. That's what I'd tell them.

[Steve Day]

And that, that was pretty excellent. So I'm glad I asked that question. All right, Nick, good to see you. Good luck with the man book. All right, God bless you, man.

[Nick Freitas]

You too, Steve. Thanks.

[Steve Day]

All right, take care. Hour two coming up next. Stay tuned. All right, back here with hour two live and on demand on Blaze TV, radio and podcast alongside Tod Erzen and Aaron McIntyre, I am Steve Dase. Let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedays.com inbox by emailing the show [e-mail] that's D E A C E like us on Facebook. Me, we and Gab. Follow me at Steve Day show on X Instagram and Tick tock. You can also find me on YouTube at day show on YouTube. That's at day show on YouTube. And then if you don't mind, if you are a podcast Aficionado. Thank you. Please make sure to leave us a five star review as tens of thousands of you have. We would appreciate that that does help. That's a helpful offering to the algorithmic gods that we almost satiate every now and then in this racket of ours. A lot more of you are subscribers to the podcast and you can join that group as well by hitting subscribe or if you're on Apple itunes, follow. And that way you know for sure that you'll never miss an episode because it's for sure right there in your feed every time we do so. And every spring we make sure to to remind you about our friends at Fast Growing Trees as well. They've got the largest and most trusted online nursery in the country. Thousands of trees and plants, over 2 million happy customers. They're alive and thrive guarantee promises that your plants arrive happy and healthy. If you don't have a green thumb, don't worry about it. They've got online, ongoing online support from their trusted and trained plant experts as well. Anything for your landscape outside or your home inside, they've got it for you. And right now they've got great deals that help you get started on spring planting essentials. Up to half off on some of their select plants. And on top of their everyday low prices, if you've never been a customer of Fast Growing trees before, use the promo code DACE. You'll get an additional 20% off welcome Aboard discount as well. All right, so an additional 20% off your first purchase at fast growingtrees.com using the promo code DACE@fast growing trees.com offer valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. All right, let's get to is time for a little fake news or not? And. What's the fake news? We're, we're, we're pontificating for the next 25 minutes. My take on this. All right, because, and I listen to my fellow Pratts here. You need to know when I show up at the TP USA Pastor Summit next week in Dallas, I'm unloading on you. Absolutely emptying the clip. So laugh it up, furball. For the next 25 minutes or so, I take on Todd's tribe. But I'm coming for you next week, so enjoy it while it lasts. Just want to state that for the record.

[Todd Erzen]

And guess who's gonna be there to watch.

[Steve Day]

That's right. You guys are coming with me. That's right. All right. I am unhappy. I think there's a lot of people forgetting my friend took a, A bullet that should have been aimed at them instead. And I think they need a reminder of this. And next Wednesday when I speak, I've nominated myself for that job. So reminder beckons. But this Pope, man. Yeah, I've got it. Bad for your pope. Todd. I'm just going to say this out loud. Bad, right? Like, bad.

[Todd Erzen]

I'm not doing so great either.

[Steve Day]

He is in my crosshairs. Okay. Like Lindsey Graham, Rick Warren, level of crosshairs here. Okay. Well, you know, Tucker to that group now, too. Sadly, that's something else you guys need to know.

[Todd Erzen]

It's a big tent.

[Steve Day]

It's getting sadly bigger. Yeah. Yes. I'm supposed to be mellowing with age. All right, I want you guys to know, as soon as I finished that monologue on Tucker last hour, I just told him, when the mic went off, I said to Todd, I hated, like, every minute of that. That is one of the least enjoyable monologues I've ever done on this show. I mean, I felt just dreadful about. Felt to me like a beloved dog who slept with your kids at night and protected your house, got rabies and started biting the kids, and she had to put it down. That's what that. That's what that monologue felt like. Didn't enjoy. Nothing about that is fun to me, precisely because I believe it was 100 necessary, and if anything, I was restrained. But this Pope. Holy cow. Let's start with this statement. Aaron, you put it in your montage. Can we put it back up there again, please, for the audience? Communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our lady of Africa. Here in Algeria, the maternal love of Lala Mariam gathers everyone as children within our rich diversity in our shared aspiration for dignity, love, justice, and peace. In a world where division and wars sow pain and death, living in unity and peace is a compelling sign. Apostolicjourney. If what this Pope just articulated is an apostolic journey, I am your Speedo swimsuit model male centerfold. You know what Peter should have done. Guys, I know you're about to crucify me for this message I just gave you, but have you considered here receiving it in our shared aspiration of dignity, love, justice, and peace? There's a way and a place for us all to get along here. I give. You give. It's a shared aspiration, after all. In fact, I'll even take my shoes off for you as I'm walking on holy ground, as this Pope did inside the Muslim shrine yesterday. Why didn't he just try that? Todd saved himself A grueling death. Why didn't he just do that? If this was on the table, why not just do this? Is he just. Was Peter just a sadist? Hey, you know, I'm just. I enjoy pain. Crucify me upside down. I mean there was. The option was just here the entire time for a shared aspiration of dignity, love, justice and peace. Why didn't he just try that?

[Todd Erzen]

He keeps saying and doing things as I said yesterday myself on the show and on X that don't comport with obvious scriptural and or historical and or current realities on the ground.

[Steve Day]

Correct. That's 100% right. Aaron, that video we played of the apostles, do you still have that handy by any chance of what happened to them? Do you remember that? Just. We played that weeks ago.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Let me check real quick, see if

[Steve Day]

we can find that because I want to make sure our audience gets an idea of what apostolic journeys are like.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay, here's the proud he's. Whereas I call Mr. Francis Pope Francis. I said was the Mr. Bean papacy. Now we've got this Mr. Rogers papacy. And as I've told you and Steve, you were fortunate enough, you know the deacon I've told you about on the show that has said my generation just needs to die because it's just drunk on the 60s you. Actually I got the opportunity.

[Steve Day]

I did meet this guy here happenstance.

[Todd Erzen]

The guy is like 3 inches shorter than I am. As you said, he's old now. He doesn't have his fastball anymore. But yeah, that guy's right. He said they're just. He's drunk on being nice.

[Steve Day]

Why didn't Paul say to Nero, listen, I'm. I'm sure when you're done marrying your gay slave in the Roman Senate and staking the Christians at night to light and lighting them on fire so that your various orgies and other degradations have adequate lighting in the moonlight. Why don't we sit down and discuss our shared aspiration for dignity, love, justice and peace. I'm sure Nero was known as a very reasonable fellow. He would have been interested in such a dialogue. Right? Paul doesn't have to just sit there and get beheaded. Should ask for a shared aspiration of dignity, love, justice and peace. You know what? Let's give everybody a reminder of what apostolic journeys really look like.

[Narrator/Voiceover]

Where did the 12 apostles go after Jesus resurrection the 12 apostles spread across the ancient world world to share his message. Peter went to Antioch, then Rome, crucified upside down. Andrew journeyed to Scythia and Greece, crucified in Patras. James the Greater preached in Spain, executed by sword in Jerusalem. John remained in Ephesus, exiled to Patmos, died peacefully. Philip went to Phrygia in Asia Minor, crucified upside down. Bartholomew traveled through Armenia and India, flayed and beheaded. Thomas preached in Persia and India. Struck by spears, Matthew carried the Gospel to Ethiopia, stabbed to death. James the Less stayed in Jerusalem, thrown from the Temple. Thaddeus Jude went through Syria and Mesopotamia, martyred in Beirut. Simon the Zealot preached in North Africa, killed in Persia. Matthias, who succeeded Judas went to the Caspian region, stoned and beheaded. Their mission changed the world.

[Todd Erzen]

And once again the Pope of my youth. All the way up to my the time I was married, Pope John Paul II said we must preach the truth, even if we are reduced to only 12 again. Cardinal Sarah right now, who many people wanted to be Pope of Africa, very much invokes quite the opposite of what our current Pope is saying on Islam. So the truth is out there and of a very recent vintage. But when you are more addicted to being Mr. Rogers than the Vicar of Christ, this is just what you're going to get.

[Steve Day]

So Lala Mariam is the Princess of Morocco. I'm thinking this is who he's referring to with maternal love. And she's kind of known as a Muslim humanitarian. Essentially, that's who Lala Maryam is. Or at least that is the name of the Princess of Morocco, which would also be in Northern Africa, obviously there in Algeria. So I think this is near our. This is who I think he's referring to. Okay, so in other words, this is. We all come together under social justice, we all beat our swords into plowshares, we all give up our principles and. Imagine becomes reality. That's what this is. This is the song Imagine. That's what it is. And no religion too. Basically.

[Todd Erzen]

This dovetails perfectly with what you and Nick were talking about. Whether you're the Pope or formally a holy man of vintage or just an average guy. This is always the conceit. Weak men, they refuse to make the main thing. The main thing. Honestly, whether you're addicted to playing video games instead of earning a good woman or going to Africa and not remembering that others before you have been commanded, you know, go to Nineveh, etc etc and not in the name of Pachamama or whatever, you know it. This is a tale as old as time. You're going there and thinking that kindness will rule the day instead of the cross.

[Steve Day]

So the Pope flew about. It's about 1200 miles from Rome to Where he went yesterday to say these things in Algeria. If he had gone another 1100 miles further south in Africa, he'd have come to another country in Africa called Nigeria.

[Todd Erzen]

This is my point about just not comporting with current events.

[Steve Day]

Yes. Where Christians are being savagely slaughtered. And I asked the Grok AI. So I use Grox AI. Essentially this is a soup. Do a souped up, you know, Google search just to, you know, condense pages upon pages of Google links to me and its summaries. That's typically how I use AI. And I asked Grok the following question. I said, as Pope Leo XIV condemned Islamic radicalism for the persecution of Nigerian Christians. And I want to just. I'm going to read the entirety of this reply from Grok so that nothing is taken out of context. Okay. No, Pope Leo XIV has not specifically condemned Islamic radicalism or equivalent terms like jihadist ideology, Islamic extremism targeting Christians, or radical Islamic as the driver of the persecution of Nigerian Christians. He has repeatedly expressed sorrow over the violence in Nigeria, acknowledged dangers to Christians, while also noting harms to Muslims too, condemned specific massacres like what happened to Christians sheltering in a Catholic mission in Yelawatta, listed Nigeria among places with Christian persecution and quote, religiously motivated violence and called for peace, religious freedom and protection of all citizens. That. Okay. In November of 2025, he responded to questions about Nigeria's Christian safety. He said, there is certainly, certainly a danger to Christians there, but for all people. Christians and Muslims have all been slaughtered. He attributed it to terrorism, economic economics and a battle for control of the lands. This is, this is the language of social justice. People are not sinners. They're oppressed and therefore they be. They are groomed into evil. This is the language of social justice is what this is. This is what Tucker was saying when he, when he did this. Air quotes radical Islam or. Or people that have been colonized. Same language, same language. While adding that, quote, many Muslims who come to Nigeria are victims of this intolerance from extremist groups. Extreme in what? By what standard would they be Extreme? Extreme in which way? What kind of extremism would it be? He's described the persecution of Christians there as, quote, one of the most widespread human rights crises. Again, that's the language of social justice worsening due to, quote, ongoing conflicts, authoritarian regimes and religious extremism. Which religion would it be? Who are the authoritarians? And he named Nigeria, along with Bangladesh, Mozambique, Sudan, in the context of attacks on churches and communities. In addresses and post, he has prayed for victims of violence and terrorism in Nigeria, urged authorities to protect lives and appealed for the release of the kidnapped Christians and school children. Pope Leo XIV's comments often frame violence as multifaceted, like terrorism because of economic and land disputes, people deprived rather than primarily a targeted religious persecution by Islamic radicals, and he stresses that both Christians and muffin Muslims suffer at the hands of extremist groups that do not distinguish. He put he has pushed back against describing it solely as an anti Christian genocide. Some reports in social media highlight his condemnations of attacks on Christians as quote unquote radical Islamic terrorism. But primary Vatican link sources emphasize shared victimhood and broader causes over naming Islamic radicalism as the root in summary, while Pope Leo XIV has addressed the suffering of Nigerian Christians and condemned the killings, he has not framed it as Islamic radicalism driven persecution in the direct, specific way your question asks. His public statements prioritize universal appeals against violence and terrorism affecting all, alongside calls for religious freedom. For the most current or verbatim statements, checking official Vatican sources is advisable as coverage can vary by outlet. That's exactly word for Woodbridge, Grok wrote Didn't take anything out of context, wanted to share it all. I also asked Rock if Pope Leo XIV or when he was Cardinal Robert Prevost, ever condemned Islamic radicalism for the attacks of October 7, or Hezbollah or Hamas or Iran for terrorism at any point by name. Here's that answer. No. Neither Pope Leo xiv, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, nor him nor Prevost as cardinal has condemned Islamic radicalism by name and in connection with the October 7, 2023 attacks, nor as he named Hezbollah or Ron for terrorism ever. He has, however, as pope explicitly condemned Hamas by name for the October 7 attacks, describing them as, quote, an act of terrorism, a terrorist attack that cannot be tolerated. He has also repeatedly called for the release of hostages taken by him taken by Hamas in a ceasefire in Gaza, while expressing horror at the violence and hatred involved. As cardinal, there are no prominent public statements or records of him ever addressing the October 7 attacks Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran or Islamic radicalism, terrorism and any of those specific terms. His pre papacy comments on global conflicts were more general and focused on dialogue, missionary work c rather than naming specific terrorist groups or ideologies. See a pattern here. Overall style like his predecessors, Leo XIV's public statements on the Middle east prioritize appeals for peace, reconciliation and humanitarian concerns. Humanitarian concerns over naming specific Islamist groups or ideologies as the root cause. He has not framed the conflicts in terms of Islamic radicalism or jihadist terrorism in his known remarks. There's a pattern here. God never blesses warfare, except for all the times in the Bible that he actually did. Except for all the times during Church history that he actually did. Which is why he still is granted the luxury of sitting on the, on the throne of St. Peter as we speak. I, I, I pointed out last night on X, this Pope couldn't hold Pope Pius V's jockstrap, who mounted the last great military offensive against the Muslim Ottoman Empire, the last final time that it truly threatened the Christian west in this all the way into the 16th century. That meant a thousand years of this, this went on. A thousand years, this went on. And you'd all be speaking Arabic if it wasn't for the Church in Rome. That's a fact, Jack. And I had one of my fellow Protestants respond me that replies, hey, that same Pope Pius V would have probably had you strung up as a Protestant as well. I'm like, so you actually believe something? Actually believed in some things. I think you guys think that you're looking for male relationships where no one ever fights and disagrees. That's not a male relationship. I don't know what that is. To use a term from Pope Francis. One of the few times that demonstrated he had some top rope Pope Francis, some testosterone, of course, that had to be said in private and then it got leaked after he died. All right. But yeah, all right. That's what that is. I don't know how you guys grew up, but we would often fist fight as men all the time. And then we'd be friends afterwards. There was a clear winner and a clear loser. Right? Matter's been settled. We move on. Give me a Pope who actually, in a strange way, I'm actually looking for a Pope who has serious disagreements with somebody like me and is unafraid to express them because it is that exact same conviction that means, all right, you and I are going to get back to slitting each other's throats in a minute. But first, all right, first, these guys over here in Arabic, they're going to kill us both. We're actually looking for conviction, guys, not less of it. We're not looking for more mealy mouth, economical garbage. We're looking for actually more distinction. Todd has been outnumbered on this show for 10 plus years, 2 to 1. As a Catholic, are you giving your say?

[Todd Erzen]

Always.

[Steve Day]

All right. Do you, do you, do we feel like you win a lot of arguments with us. You may feel like you do, but you think Aaron and I feel like, boy, you really made us rethink that

[Todd Erzen]

win from a conversion standpoint. No.

[Steve Day]

No. Okay. Probably the feeling is mutual, I would imagine.

[Todd Erzen]

Yeah.

[Steve Day]

It goes in the other direction. Right. So we have serious disagreements. We've had serious disagreements about those serious disagreements, have we not Yet.

[Todd Erzen]

For two years there was that Romans discussion.

[Steve Day]

Yes. And yet here we are. It's okay if the men fight. It really is. It's kind of okay. It's kind of expected, in fact, kind of needed, even. So if my choices are a Pope that believes in nothing and a Pope that at least has some balls enough to say, hey, you schism the church and are outside of grace, I'm going to take the latter all day, every day and especially twice on Sunday

[Todd Erzen]

because

[Steve Day]

somebody with some balls and conviction is somebody I could probably eventually figure out a way to work with. This shared at shared aspirations of faith and dignity is total. That's what it is. That's exactly what it is. Lindsay Graham is Pope. Congratulations. We found the Senator with no sexual allegations against any women, even though he's been in Washington for 30 plus years. There's nothing masculine about this at all. There's nothing biblical about it at all. Which is just kind of a variation on the theme. This guy won't defend you and he doesn't want to. That's the thing you need to know. Doesn't want to. He has way sharper criticisms for Trump than he does Islam. Instead, he goes to Morocco and talks about the shared maternal love of the Moroccan princess and the shared aspirations. Apparently all those disciples we just told you about, they, they. I don't know why they didn't. I don't know. Choice of finding shared aspirations or getting flayed alive. Thoughts? Most people are going to probably try to see if there's some shared aspirations, I would imagine.

[Todd Erzen]

Right.

[Steve Day]

Why didn't they try that? Thrown off a building or a shared aspiration. Todd, what do you think? Just on any given day that ends in y, what are you probably down for? We find some shared aspirations. This is.

[Todd Erzen]

There's a picture, a video. Excuse me. Go you YouTube it. It is Pope John Paul II. It went the younger viral Pope John Paul the second. He was a man's man and he. He flies into Central America where liberation theology was running rampant at the time. And there's a long.

[Steve Day]

If you're wondering what that is, it's all the language you just heard from Pope Leo, essentially.

[Todd Erzen]

And this is. This is my point. And there's a long line at the tarmac and Pope. The Pope gets off the plane and going down the line and he gets to one of the guys who, he's a priest, who's one of the, the prime instigators of all this stuff in the Pope right there on the tarmac. He's not a private room, just finger in his face, lecturing him. And the guy is on his knees. Well, here's what's happened. That guy on his knees there. Not, not specifically, but that guy is now Pope. But, and there's an argument about the numbers, but there is a, a new, there is a new swell of, of Catholic Catholics entering the church, young people, and they think things have gotten reversed. They know who Pope John Paul II is. They are going there for that. And so we are in a cycle here. The church made up of sinful people is not immune to the secular ups and downs of human emotion, psychology, and most of all, sin. So while Steve is absolutely right about that application of these men, and he's been backed up, as I've said, by a deacon who is now roughly an 80 year old man that I introduced him to, the tide is turning. And thank God for that.

[Steve Day]

Indeed. I'm worried about right now. I mean, I think we just saw an op. Cardinals lining up to condemn Trump. Which Cardinals were on 60 Minutes to condemn the Biden administration for shipping an abortion drug to every mailbox in America. How many of them did that?

[Todd Erzen]

Very fair to think of this along the lines of an app, particularly. And people are pointing at David Axelrod showing up. I have no qualms with people wondering what exactly is going on.

[Steve Day]

Now, here's the thing that I think is the key for us to respond to this. Actually, I'm looking at the clock. We're going to run out of time. All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to get into AI Jesus for pop culture Tuesday in the overtime today for subscribers. All right. Because I don't think we can leave this here. I think we have got to address how to confront this, because I do think this is an op. I think it will be ongoing. I think that this Pope was specifically chosen in order to counter, at least for this moment. I can't. You know, he's, he could be Pope for the next 30 years. That may not be true 20 years from now, I don't know. But for this moment, the moment we're in right now, I think that either he was chosen or views it as his personal mission to counter our president. I think that's pretty obvious. And the nationalistic fervor that is sweeping. Well, based on the 2024 election, at least some level of significant swath of the country. Is it a majority? Is it a plurality? Is it that I don't. How many people just voted for Trump because Kamala Harris was retarded and Joe Biden, you know, was an Alzheimer's patient? Right. Like, who knows? Right. We will probably never know. But there. But, but Trump didn't hide any of his nationalistic messaging in 2024 and he was running on mass deportations and everything else. Right? Okay. So on some degree, some significant swath of the American people voted for that. All right? And then maybe a whole other significant swath just voted for it because it seemed more rational than what they were just living through or being offered by Kamala Fair. So I think it requires a very shrewd level up, frankly, in response to this op, I think random as we saw from the president yesterday and over the weekend, we talked about it, random kind of, you know, you hit me, I hit you back kind of stuff. We're not. You're dealing with an eternal institution. You're not dealing with the CNN desk. All right. It's going to take, I think, something a little more nuanced and mature and thought out than just Trump with a phone at 3am Just poo posting.

[Todd Erzen]

Okay.

[Steve Day]

Firing stuff off. All right. So let's discuss that when we come back.

[Nick Freitas]

The steve day show.

[Steve Day]

All right. Back here on the Steve Day show, brought to you by our friends over at Jace Medical. Since they came on board here during the the scamdemic, they have greatly expanded what they offer to you to make sure that you're ready for the next scam because we're getting epidemics of those now. All right. Went from a scam demic to an epidemic of scams. So make sure you're ready. You're prepared as much as you can be. Take control of your health. They've got so many different options. Very customizable as well. And you'll get a discount when you go to check [e-mail] use the code DACE for that discount. That's J A S E is where you can go. You can get to the, the OG Jace case to make sure you've got backups of the most trusted antibiotics in human history. You can get the new stuff and the new, new stuff, the customizable stuff, all the stuff. I get it for a discount when you go to jace.com all right. And use the discount code DACE for a, for a discount when you check out all right. And that's jace.com j a s e code dace for the [e-mail]. all right, so far, any fake news out of me, I'm. I wanted it. And let me also add this out of curiosity. I was, I was, I was wondering how much this Pope has preached about salvation since he took over. So I, I did some AI searches on that as well. All right. And what I found is actually this Pope has actually spoken quite a bit about salvation, the need for sinners to repent. That has actually been very replete in his language. All right, now, as to why there's way more media coverage of this imagine Marxist goblety gook as there is any of those other comments. Some of that I'm, I'm sure can be attributed to media bias, for sure. Right. Are Western media certainly is more. It's going to want to hear more about our shared aspirations of justice and tolerance than they are that sinners need to repent. Okay, right. So I'm sure that's a factor too. It also doesn't seem though, as that, that, that the. The Vatican information department. Okay. Or the PR wing of the. Of Pope Leo's papacy is not necessarily all that anxious to be pumping out that information either. Okay. So you don't find a lot of that language in what he tweets, for example, but you do find a lot of it in the messages that he gives at St. Peter's Cathedral. You find a lot of it there, but you don't find a lot of it in what he tweets or what the Vatican highlights as well. So I wanted to make a note of that.

[Todd Erzen]

This is. Okay, fantastic that you bring it up within that context. People made the same mistake with Pope Francis as well. I mean, my gosh, he had. He did some preaching on the devil man that would make an evangelical preacher say amen. So. But Megan Basham actually reached out to all Catholics she knew and did so in goodwill and asked if is it fair to characterize Trump's, Trump's popes as political? And I said, well, of course it is, because at the end of the day, when it's about issues and how they're talked about and the way you talked about it there is perfect, both in terms of quality and quantity. That's what you're saying. If that message is out there and it's. The faithful need to be hearing it at church first and foremost. But you have the biggest Christian microphone in the world. What you emphasize, how you emphasize to whom you emphasize it with that Microphone in the press, etcetera, Matters. And at the end of the day, the math is the math on that. So, yes, they can and should be viewed politically within that context. Now, in terms of relationships, their job is to go to Nineveh. Their. Their job is ultimately to talk to everybody in some way. So just because they are in Africa talking to Muslims now, that's not sketch all by itself, but how they're doing it, the language they're choosing to do it, where they're doing it, that absolutely is on board to be viewed as political. So to go back where you started with this, Steve, is this fake news or not? It is not a fake news. The only added context I would give is that, and I've made it abundantly clear on the show and online that I think the Pope's messaging is sloppy at best, vis a vis what he's talking about with war. But in this, it is talking about war. That whether you are on the right or the left. We just started off the show with this. A lot of us have questions about the just war theory application of this specific war. And so when we are talk, we really.

[Steve Day]

Which is why it'll be our very next theology Thursday. Not this Thursday, because we're off, but the following Thursday when we're in Dallas.

[Todd Erzen]

That's what we're going to do. So our recent conversations about the Pope vis a vis the President of the United States all have to do with that, the genesis of that issue.

[Steve Day]

In the evangelical church, we have a major issue with pastors who avoid subjects. I know one pastor friend of mine finally just left his church in Denver, got tired of fighting his own elder board, and took over as the TPUSA rep for his state and territory. All right? Because they didn't want to hear the whole counsel of God. And he wasn't going to water down the word of God in order to appease factions within his church. They, they wanted the. They wanted to, you know, sweater vest, this thing, okay. And Hawaiian shirt it. And, and he's a former soldier, former cop. And he's like, I'm not doing that. Okay. You know, that's just not who I am. And it just came to a head. He's like, listen, you guys clearly don't want me here. I'm not watering it down to appease you. So he's went to work for tpusa, where they wanted somebody who would help recruit churches. They don't want to water it down. So there, there, there's factioning within even, you know, individual evangelical churches. That don't fashion themselves or as part of a major network or a unified denomination like the Catholic Church does. So I'm curious how much of, of this is the belief that you have to navigate factions of your own constituents, like the, the, the social justice,

[Todd Erzen]

you

[Steve Day]

know, crowd in Latin America that we're talking about, where there's a huge Catholic population. And that's kind of the message that, that they're used to hearing a fusion of pseudo Marxism with, with Catholicism in the pulpit. Okay, how much of this is

[Todd Erzen]

from the Pope's perspective?

[Steve Day]

From the Pope's perspective?

[Todd Erzen]

Oh, not at all.

[Steve Day]

That he has to, he has to represent these various factions your way.

[Todd Erzen]

You're being generous in applying that to. I. Listen, that can be a sin, an error at the least, if not a flat out in its own direction if you're just trying to juggle too much. But that would, in this particular case, I wish, I wish that was going

[Steve Day]

on because, again, that's preferable to your belief. This is just, These are statements of conviction.

[Todd Erzen]

Well, like on this show, we're actually doing that kind of triangulation on the show all the time vis a vis the Iran issue. We're trying to weigh and measure that. If we were doing, if he was doing something like that, that would be a lot more good faith. No, this is just, this is an actual conviction. His. He. The. The nicer, nicer than Jesus complaint that you have about Protestants is also clear about, is clearly an application for many Catholics, including this Pope.

[Steve Day]

All right, then let's get into. In the final segment of this show, then, in light of what you just said, because I wanted that question answered first before we started talking about counters and strategies, because I think that question should be answered. All right, so. Because I also, I also think, and you guys know the high regard I have for J.D. vance, the messenger. I think that he stepped in the opposite trap that Trump did with what he said last night about the Pope should just stick to, you know, the Vatican and not political issues or. And just comment on moral issues. I think he fell for the opposite trap than the one that Trump stepped in.

[Todd Erzen]

I agree. And he's just in an almost impossible.

[Steve Day]

And that. Which is why I didn't, like, bring it up until the end of the show and highlight it, because I understand this puts him particularly. He's a new convert. He's very serious about it, in a uniquely difficult position. I get that. All right, before we get to that, though, let's talk about our friends over at Relief Factor. If you're struggling with too much chronic pain. That's because you probably have too much inflammation in your joints. That's why it's manifesting in those places like your knee, your knees, your back, your hips, you know, your neck. That's where those joints and that get those deposits of inflammation and that's where relief factor comes in. We're not giving you any guarantees, but what we can tell you is over the last Several years over 1 million people have tried the three week quick start from Relief Factor. Around a 70% of them saw such great results in three weeks or less, they stuck with the product long term. So why don't you see if you don't see a difference in your pain in three weeks or less when you go to relieffactor.com again, that's relieffactor.com it's just twenty dollars. That's it. That's all the three week quick start will cost you. That's a 70 value bet for a twenty dollar wager for a better quality of life. I think it's even in this economy. I think it's worth that relieffactor.com head there now get the three week quick start@ relieffactor.com all right. And the strategy that I'm about to suggest is exact. This is why I went and looked and I wanted to see what is, what's he saying about sin and repentance? I, I, I, because you need to truly know what you're up against if you're going to successfully strategize against it. And if you just use, particularly just speaking for me now as a, as an evangelical, if I just use stereotypes of Catholicism to try to, and use those and my goal is to, to, to advance. It's similar to what I say about the abolitionist movement. Do you guys really want to end abortion or do you want to prove Calvin's ideas of presuppositional, you know, apologetics is correct, choose one. Right. Because the way you're often pontificating and the correct right position is, is encounter to actually advancing it. Right. And, and so I'm, I'm convinced there's just a lot of them that are way more interested in proving Calvin correct than they are ending abortion. Right. If you, if, if we want to stop what it is, what it, what, what it is that this Pope is spreading and, and I think successfully confronted using this as a moment to take some kind of Protestant high ground is exactly how it won't work. I don't think first of all, we don't really have much of A Protestant high ground to be pointing people to at the moment we were starting to build one. And that's why the devil shot him in the throat. All right, so not a lot of, not a lot of Protestant high grounds to instantly be referring people to at the moment, at this very moment. And I'm gonna talk about that next week at the leader at the, at the pastor summit for tpusa. But if you do that, this Pope has spoken very frequent, frequently on things that evangelicals care greatly about. Sin, repentance, redemption in Christ. That's different language than we use. He often uses the name unique Savior. And I looked up, I, I spent a good deal of time researching this this morning. Okay. Because I'm trying to figure out what. Well, you know, I don't know. I'm not Catholic. So how much of that is language that is custom that you guys would pick up on. Like, we all have our vernaculars and our own little church subcultures. And a lot of his language does line up with a lot of what the Pope's. You like John Paul ii, Pope Benedict said a lot about these exact same things during periods like Lenten and Easter. Right. And so he has been very, very vocal and speaking on those subjects at the same time. That means trying to counter him with just your typical Protestant messaging won't work. You need to isolate this one particular strain of thought where frankly, he is behaving as a threat to Western civilization, survival. He is giving cover to our enemies. He's providing it. And I think what's going to, what that's going to require require in order to confront it is, is instead of trying to use this as a moment to counter signal Catholicism as a whole, I'm going to suggest the opposite strategy is what is needed. We actually need to hold them accountable to the standard of Catholicism. There's a clip going around from the, the last ask me anything that I did for TPUSA at Middle Tennessee. And we're going to have that clip on the show next week for fake news or not. We're going to play it. And a young lady gets up and wants to make the case to me that science should be the standard by which we decide what is right and wrong. So I did not even argue my, my position on the Bible, on Christianity. I argued her standard and I just asked her questions like, well, okay, do you know if Pluto is a planet or not? Because in my lifetime it's been a planet, not been a planet, been a planet, it's currently not one. They're talking about making it one again. Do you know if Pluto is a planet? I mean, science is what we should, you know, run our nation on it. Can't even tell me how many planets are in the solar system. I asked her, I said, hey, we did transgendered surgeries on children because the science academies told us to do them. And then people saw the consequences for it, and now the providers are getting all sued and the science academies are like, yeah, don't do those anymore. So I would assume you want to ban, you would agree with me then, that we should ban the transgendered surgeries. Maybe for different reasons, but by your standard of science, the science academy say to stop doing them, so we should ban them. Right. Well, I think we need more information first. Okay. She was cornered by her own standard. I think the way to confront this Pope is with actual Catholicism, with the history of his own church, with the history of the office that he holds. If you look at this as a means of just trying to counter signal Catholicism, you'll make the same mistake the abolitionists do where they, they drive people who would otherwise be in their camp that it's time to end abortion once and for all. They'll just, you'll. You'll force people to just dig in their heels. All the more. To me, I would ask him, is this Pope even Catholic? That's what I would do. I would, I would actually use the standard by which he is anointed to cosmically represent with what Catholics believe is an eternal institution. I, I would hold them accountable to that standard. How is this even remotely Catholic? How does this line up with the history of your own church, with your own church's teaching, with the people, with your predecessors that sit on the very, you know, on the very seat that you currently do? I also think it's a terrible idea. As much as I love jd, I think it's a bad idea to say, hey, don't stick to. We actually want a Pope speaking to a lot of these issues. We just want him to do as a Catholic, okay? Not as a peacenik, but as a Catholic. Remember how I used to joke with you when you first came to work here? We went from Protestants not wanting to vote for John F. Kennedy because he might listen to the Pope, to wanting to vote for Rick Santorum because he was going to listen to Pope Benedict.

[Todd Erzen]

There's all kinds of Protestants out there with their avatars are like knights fighting the Crusades. And Pope, they're asking, do you even Catholic bro to the Pope?

[Steve Day]

Yes, I think you hold him to that. Standard.

[Todd Erzen]

Yes.

[Steve Day]

We want him actually speaking as a Catholic into our issues. We do. Because what he's speaking now is not the language of, of, of, of the chair by which he was given. And I think holding him accountable to his own standard, the one he claims, the one that a billion people have put their hopes in that he will uphold. I think that is the right way to approach this. We desperately, instead of stick, stay out of it. We desperately need the voice of Rome. We're still waiting for it because this is the voice of Central American liberation theology and Marxist college professors and buy the world a Coke and imagine songs. This is not the voice. JD Vance should instead say what he articulated is the exact opposite of why I converted to Catholicism and why so many young men are doing it right now as we speak. Make him own his own standard thoughts.

[Todd Erzen]

Amen. Amen. I say to you and that, listen, guys, go out if you're a Protestant and hang out with some Catholics and vice versa. The reason why, it's not his just intellectual acumen there, but it this the back and forth that we have. We know real men of real faith of a different tribe. And therefore the lies are a lot harder to tell and it's a lot harder to delve into caricature that was righteous and solid food. And you don't sin as Protestants because we are dropping the ball as Catholics right now because it's right. Pastors, you know, with the following right now today on X. Oh, Catholics aren't Christians. Whatever sin you think we're committing right now as Catholics or the Pope, etc. You're doing worse with that nonsense. It's garbage. Go out and meet an actual Catholic and you won't be able to lie that way. Thank you, Steve, for what you just said because it. I cherish it and I hope Catholics are listening.

[Steve Day]

All right, we're gonna stick around. Thank you, brother. Appreciate that. We're gonna stick around for overtime and get into pop culture Tuesday. AI. Jesus has arrived. We'll get into that for [e-mail] days. For the rest of you, see you tomorrow. Until then, go hard. Romans 8, 28,

[Todd Erzen]

SA.