Meet Some Real MEN: Why We Are in Debt to THESE MLB Players | 6/23/26

Summary

Steve Deace Show — Episode Summary

Episode: Meet Some Real MEN: Why We Are in Debt to THESE MLB Players | 6/23/26
Date: June 23, 2026
Host: Steve Dace, with Todd Erzin & Aaron McIntyre
Network: Blaze Podcast Network

Overview

This episode centers on the qualities and necessity of principled masculinity in public life and society, with a special focus on a group of Major League Baseball (MLB) players who stood firm in their convictions against pressure to comply with Pride-themed uniforms. Their actions are examined as an example of righteous, controlled masculine action — a theme explored further in conversation with Pastor Chase Davis, author of Offensive Christianity: Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age. The discussion weaves through cultural, religious, and political events demonstrating the importance and impact of men taking principled stands.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. News & Political Updates (00:01–02:57)

• US–Iran Negotiations: Ongoing confusion over Iran allowing UN nuclear inspectors, with conflicting statements from Iranian and US officials.
• Trump’s Administration Updates: US allows temporary sanction-free sale of Iranian oil (00:45).
• Voter Roll Rulings: Federal judge blocks use of expanded databases for voter roll purges, citing privacy and possible wrongful removal (00:45).
• Subpoenas in Minnesota: Another federal judge quashes DOJ subpoenas, calling them harassment of officials over immigration enforcement (01:31–01:50).
• MLB Religious Expression Incident: MLB, after player protests over Pride-themed hats (featuring Noah’s covenant verse), reverses decision on punishing players for religious expression after a letter from Senator Josh Hawley (01:50–02:57).

2. Viral Political Moment: Gender in Iowa (02:57–04:54)

• Rob Sand’s Gender Non-Answer: Gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand’s evasive response to "how many genders" is met with mockery (“I think there’s two, if there’s more than two...”) (03:44, 04:41), used by the hosts as an example of political cowardice and lack of clarity.

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3. Main Monologue: When Men Act (05:12–29:30)

The Power of Righteous Male Action

• Steve’s Experience at a Men’s Church Weekend (09:29–17:10):
  • Men in the church are disengaged; women more active in faith and service.
  • Steve recounts speaking on how “God initiates, and then we act.”
  • Uses the Acts of the Apostles as theological basis: Not sits, but acts.
  • Pattern: “God initiates, we act. God initiates, we act. Repeat until dead.” (11:43–13:21)
• Principles of Action:
  • Meekness: Power under control — not tantrums, but righteous force directed by moral purpose. (14:35–15:24)
  • Example of Boaz in the Book of Ruth: “Strength with compassion, initiative, shrewdness.”
• MLB Players as Modern Example:
  • Refusing to wear mandated "Pride" hats/gear; instead writing scriptural verse referencing Noah’s covenant.
  • “All this because a few dudes decided to take 10 seconds before a game and be a headache to all the right people.” (01:50)
• Role of Authority: Senator Josh Hawley steps in — “the Boaz of the story” — to use his institutional power to back up the players, leading to MLB’s public backing-down (22:33–23:20).
• Lesson: “It’s amazing what happens when men act. God initiates, and we act.” (23:20–26:52)
• Practical Application: Even a handful of principled men can effect real cultural change.

Notable Quotes

• “God initiates, and then we act. …It’s called Acts, not Sits.” — Steve Dace (11:56)

• “They exercised power under control. …They leave [the league] with nothing.” — Steve Dace (19:50)

• “Just imagine if even 10% of MLB players did what those four did.” — Todd Erzin (19:50)

• “Act. Can’t guarantee you’re gonna bat a thousand. But you’ll bat zero if you don’t bother to step up to the plate.” — Todd Erzin (26:54)

• Moral: The decline in men acting as real men is the reason for societal dysfunction; the reverse is also true.

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4. Interview: Chase Davis, Author of Offensive Christianity (31:36–44:35)

Book Theme and Cultural Crisis:

• Davis spotlights the “erasure of male vitality and agency” as a root cause of Western social decay. Calls for men to accept being offensive to a hostile culture and act righteously regardless of consequences.
• “Too many Christians are too afraid of man to please God, and ultimately they're going to be found out to be cowards.” — Chase Davis (32:54)
• Discusses the problem of “therapeutic churches” making men passive (“group therapy sessions”), and how a misconstrued “servant leadership” has made husbands into doormats (35:05).
• Applications in Home, Church, Society: Practical steps for men to reclaim agency:
  1. Kill Resentment: “Bitterness and resentment only corrupt and corrode the good that God has given them.” (37:30)
  2. Gratitude and Use of Agency: “Focus on bringing God glory with whatever He has given you down to the last drop of agency you’ve got.” (37:45)
• The Problem in the Church: “Happy wife, happy life” is a platitude that's become idolatrous in many homes.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• “You’re still going to be accountable to God for what you do with the life that he gave you, regardless of the era in which you’re born.” — Todd Erzin (47:43)
• On winning culture back: “There’s so much capital we still have in America to spend, and instead of dispensing it... advancing the lordship of Christ, we settle for a therapeutic faith.” — Chase Davis (35:05)
• “Many men today live in virtual reality, whether through pornography or video games... because they don’t feel like they have agency in life. The temptation is to bitterness, but the answer is gratitude and righteous action.” — Chase Davis (39:11–40:25)

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5. Existential Crisis for Young Men (40:25–44:35)

• Discussion of the dangers for young men turning to nihilism, radicalism, or bitterness when positive male role models are absent.
• The church must address the hard realities young men face, not dismiss them with platitudes.
• Davis: “As we disciple, reach, develop mature, strong men of agency... address their key problems, don’t ignore them.”

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6. Segment: "Idolatry or Not" (57:36–77:56)

Panel evaluates a series of cultural and political clips for signs of idolatry or misplaced priorities.

Notable Clips & Commentary:

• Tucker Carlson’s selective appearances & pontificating: Deemed idolatry — “He’s just saying stuff that won’t hold up. If he really believed it, he’d face serious pushback.” (59:29)
• Tim Keller & Collective White Guilt: Identified as anti-Gospel idolatry and spiritual abuse — “You need special forgiveness because you’re specially sinful… not the heart of the Gospel but its inversion.” (62:42)
• Dem operative OK with abortion as killing: Labeled simply evil, not idolatry — “Idolatry’s worse when a professed Christian won’t resist for ‘reasons.’ This is just evil.” (69:11)
• Senate GOP/legislative idolatry: “Only explanation is idolatry, tightly clutched” — an inability to break out of accepted DC norms to actually move the needle on key issues. (73:22)
• Cultic gaslighting in media (“Charlie Kirk was obviously murdered for his Israel views”): Called “cultic, heterodoxical gaslighting… the assumption your audience are single-celled organisms, easily manipulated.” (82:38)

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7. Pop Culture Tuesday (86:22–end)

Box Office & Hollywood Culture Wars

• Discusses failures of recent superhero films (e.g., Supergirl).
• Stars’ social media comments (“She probably go both ways”) and attacks on traditional Christian values alienate audiences and doom blockbuster releases.
• Underlying theme: Both “dude bro” superhero idolatry and woke cultural production mock the original moral purpose of these stories — so the IPs implode. “God is actually using Millie Alcock,” Aaron muses, “because the crowd mocked God; they rejected being heroes in real life, so the movies shouldn’t succeed.” (92:05)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• MLB Religious Expression Story: 01:50, revisited 17:11–19:50
• Steve's Monologue on Male Agency: 10:03–15:24
• Comparison to Boaz (Book of Ruth): 15:23–17:11
• The Call to Action – “God initiates, we act”: 14:35–17:38; 26:52
• MLB Players’ Example Recap: 18:00–24:00
• Interview with Chase Davis: 31:36–44:35
• "Idolatry or Not" Panel Begins: 57:36
• Commentary on Young Men & Nihilism: 40:25–44:35
• Pop Culture Tuesday: 86:22–95:31

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Tone & Language

• Direct, snarky, humorous, biblical literacy: Steve and co-hosts blend sarcasm with theological references, often using biblical language (“Boaz”, “spirit of the age,” “rainbow Jihad”).
• Supportive camaraderie: Panelists routinely affirm, extend, and riff off each other’s points.
• High engagement: Frequent rhetorical questions to the listener (“What would you have me do? Act. Act.”), calls for practical takeaways, and examples from their personal lives.

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Conclusion: Takeaways for Listeners

• Mass institutional resistance can be overcome by just a few principled men acting righteously as God initiates — and the culture will, sometimes shockingly, back down.
• The decline of active, righteous men, particularly in the church, is a root cause of present cultural and spiritual decay.
• Courage, gratitude, and agency (vs. resentment and passivity) are emphasized as necessary qualities for healthy Christian manhood.
• Left unchecked, both progressive and “dude bro” idolatry—whether in politics or pop culture—lead to ruin.
• Final charge: “If we’re the problem, it also means we can be the solution... what would you have me do? Act. Act.”

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Episode’s Most Notable Quote:
"God initiates, and then we act. ...It's called Acts, not Sits." — Steve Dace (11:56)

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For further insight, check out:

• Offensive Christianity: Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age by Jay Chase Davis
• Relevant show segments (see timestamps above)

Transcript

[Steve Dace]

It's the Steve Day show and here's what happened while we were away. Brought to you by yes, no up and down negotiations with Iran apparently continue in Switzerland, but it's unclear whether Iran is actually taking part. The big news yesterday morning, shared by Vice President J.D. vance, is that Iran agreed to let nuclear inspectors from the UN Back into their country to make sure they're not enriching uranium at weapons grade level. This morning, Iran says that's not true. Over the weekend, Iran said they were closing the Strait of Hormuz once again over the Israel Hezbollah conflicts. Yesterday, Trump said, we took in more

[Todd Erzin]

oil yesterday than we've ever than has ever gone through the strain. You probably see that we have an, we have an oil gusher. The strait is totally open. You know that and we're negotiating. We'll see how that all goes.

[Steve Dace]

Also yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant added that because of the progress made with Iran, the US Is allowing the sanction free sale of Iranian oil for the next 60 days. Clear as mud. Good. Back at home, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from using expanded government databases in its effort to purge voter rolls of foreigners. U.S. district Judge Sparkle Sukhnanan said the government trampled on the privacy rights of Americans and risked wrongfully purging voter rolls of Americans legally allowed to vote. Judge Sparkle, yes, that's her name, is a Biden era appointee who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, and she discussed her ruling during a press conference yesterday. Misa proposed that the Senate give IMMED

[Todd Erzin]

emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor.

[Steve Dace]

Another federal judge has quashed a set of grand jury subpoenas targeting Minnesota officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry, Attorney General Keith Ellison and others ruling the Department of Justice was attempting to harass Minnesota leaders into enforcing immigration policy. The subpoenas stem from January, when they were reportedly part of an investigation into alleged conspiracies to coerce or obstruct federal law enforcement during the Department of Homeland Security's Operation Metro surge in Minnesota. The federal judge in question is U.S. district Judge Patrick Schultz, a George W. Bush appointee. Major League Baseball is backing down for the San Francisco Giants. So called Pride Night, you'll recall a handful of Giants pitchers decided to write down the scripture reference to the Noah Covenant on their rainbow themed hats. That pissed off all the right people and even prompted a sternly worded letter from the MLB about other players doing similar things, which in turn prompted a letter to the MLB from Missouri Senator Josh Hawley accusing the Sports League of religious Discrimination. While the MLB backed down yesterday, telling Senator Hawley they will not punish or find any player who writes scripture on their uniforms. All this because a few dudes decided to take 10 seconds before a game and be a headache to all the right people. And finally, we go to our backyard once again of Iowa, where a newly resurfaced clip of Democrat gubernatorial nominee Rob sand is making the rounds. This clip is about 8 months old and comes from the YouTube account Southeast Iowa Today with John Bain, who asked Rob a very simple question. Here's the exchange in its entirety.

[Rob Sand]

I got one more question and people have asked me to ask you this, but I'm asking because I want to know too. How many genders are there? I'm pretty sure that that's something that nobody has asked about, nobody has really thought about for a very long time. This isn't something that I thought about growing up in Decorah. You know what? You know what numbers I'm focused on? We're 49th in economic growth. We are number one for cancer growth in the state of Iowa. I think that those are real issues that most people are focused on. Okay, we have clear answers on. Well, you, you gave me a response, but you didn't answer my question. Yeah, well, I think that there's two. If there's more than two.

[Steve Dace]

All right, I know that's probably something less than crystal clear. So let's break this down beat by beat. Let's start with Rob's initial response.

[Rob Sand]

How many genders are there?

[Steve Dace]

And stop there. The dead eyed laughter. Is that Rob sand or Ralph Wiggum?

[Rob Sand]

How many genders are there?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I'm in danger.

[Steve Dace]

Moving on, sand eventually meanders into his non answer answer.

[Rob Sand]

I'm pretty sure that that's something that nobody has asked about, nobody has really thought about for a very long time.

[Todd Erzin]

We need to know that that is what inspires our hope as much as anything external to ourselves. And when we feel that the pancreatic

[Steve Dace]

philosophy of your book has syphilized the

[Todd Erzin]

shaft and opened up, let that light kind of carry us in particular through moments of darkness.

[Rob Sand]

I think that those are real issues that most people are focused on. Okay, we have clear answers on.

[Steve Dace]

When pressed, Schwab finally provides his official campaign position on gender.

[Rob Sand]

You gave me a response, but you didn't answer my question. Yeah, well, I think that there's two. If there's more than two, sometimes I'll

[Todd Erzin]

start a sentence and I don't even know where it's going. I just hope I find it along

[Steve Dace]

the way in case that still wasn't clear. I made this helpful graphic for the sand campaign on gender. Rob Sands official position is that, quote, I think there's two, if there's more than two, end quote. And that's followed by a nervous swallow. Hopefully that's all cleared up now and that's what happened while we were away.

[Todd Erzin]

We don't get a lot of opportunities to do this so we, we may spend the entire opening monologue on a positive example of what happens when men act. We'll get to that more here in a second on the Steve Day Show. And greetings. Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the Steve Day Show. That would be me alongside Todd erzin and Aaron McIntyre. We're brought to you by our over at Miracle Made. Their sheets are handcrafted with NASA inspired and silver infused fabric that helps you to make sure you are sleeping at the ideal temperature all night long. These are the sheets that we've only. These are the only sheets that we have been using since they first signed on with the show here back in I think it was 2022, 2023. I mean time flies when you're having fun and making a lot of money together. These sheets are spectacular. And Miracle Maids made some money off of me too personally because I've gone back and bought more out of my own pocket. That's how much I absolutely love these sheets. They don't just feel good than the sheets you'll find at very nice hotels, but they also keep you warmer or cooler depending on what kind of sleeper you are and cleaner. That same fabric, by the way, gets rid of a lot of the bacteria that's on your sheets as well. So upgrade your sleep or give maybe somebody else the gift of better rest. Go to try Miracle.comdays and try Miracle Made sheets. Today you're going to save over 40% when you use the promo code DACE and and and you'll get an extra 20% off with a free three piece towel set. They make an amazing gift and they come with a 30 day money back guarantee because there's no risk you're not going to want your money back. You're going to love them. Try miracle.comdace use the code DACE at checkout for the biggest [e-mail] dace code dace and don't forget we've got your America 250 merch available for you right now at the Blaze store. Go to shop.blaze media.com limited edition stuff and you can use my code for your discount there. Steve10 is the 10% off [e-mail] Fourth of July merch available now shop.blazemedia.com code Steve10 for 10% off. All right, coming up on today's show, we have, I think anyway, a rollicking edition of Idolatry or Not. We've not played Idolatry or Not in a while on the show.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right.

[Todd Erzin]

All right, so we're going to play that coming up next hour, Pop Culture Tuesday. We'll get into that as well. It just looks like they're just, they're not, they're just not going to learn. I mean, maybe you just can't. Again, one of our sayings on the show, you no one can rise above their own worldview.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Right.

[Todd Erzin]

And is it Millie Alcott is Acock, is that her name? Yeah, this, that play is playing Supergirl. She's in the game, Game of Thrones spin off show. I've not seen that one, but I think it's Millie Alcock or Acock or something like that.

[Aaron McIntyre]

I think you're right the first time.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, she may have cocked and loaded a gun at her own feet in her own movie, which just keeps happening with these films over and over and over again before anybody even gets a chance to see him and helps more people to not see them. So we'll get into that coming up in Pop Culture Tuesday, bottom of the hour. Chase Davis is going to join us. Had a chance to speak in an event with Chase last year. Enjoyed getting to know him and his team. Author of the new book Offensive Christianity Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age, which has an endorsement and carries an endorsement from yours truly. So he's going to join us at the bottom of the hour. But that is just providential timing because we originally we've had Chase booked on the show here for a couple of weeks. We actually had to reschedule him.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Right.

[Todd Erzin]

And it got scheduled to this day not having any idea the event we were going to talk about because what were the confluence of events that we're going to discuss are a perfect segue to the conversation we're about to have with Chase. Right. Maybe some of you remember the old saying half of life is just showing up. Right. I spent the last three days speaking at or spent a three day weekend speaking at Pastor Lucas Miles, head of TPUSA Faith, speaking at the church that he himself pastors in Granger, Indiana. And Lucas took me aside before I went to speak at the men's cookout at a barn on just, just outside of town there. And he said, hey, I'm. I'm kind of concerned that the men our age and older are just kind of coasting here, and their wives are way more likely to get involved in the church. Way more likely to. You know, he's like, the name of our church is influenced Church.

[Guest or Caller 1]

You know, we're.

[Todd Erzin]

We're trying to have some cultural influence here. Okay. You know, and I'm just. I just see the women way more motivated than the men. So, you know, and he goes, I don't know what you were planning on talking about knowing you. You didn't have any notes. I didn't. He said, you know, could you kind of maybe give them, you know, a kick in the pants, so to speak. So on. On Friday, we talked about how when I spoke to the men on Friday, this ended up just being like a trilogy of messages. I didn't intend this. I had no plan at all because I almost never do. Every now and then, I'll jot some stuff down, some bullet points on my phone. But, you know, and Todd can tell you because he's done a few of these with me now on the road around the country, I typically just go get prayed up and just see what the Holy Spirit kind of has to say. That's kind of the way I roll, you know? So I got up there on Friday and I talked about the fact that as men, we are. We have to act. We have to act. God initiates, right? So men, follow me. All of you listening to us around the country right now, follow me very closely with what I'm about to tell you, okay? God initiates, and then we act. God initiates, and we act. God opens doors of opportunity. God sets divine appointments. God gives you opportunities to. To meet people you otherwise would not get an opportunity on your own to meet. Gives you skills and talents, ambitions and drives you could not give yourself. God initiates, initiates, and then we act. And as I pointed out to the men that I spoke to last Friday night, what is the first book of the Bible? After the gospels conclude with John, what's the next book of the Bible? Acts. It's called Acts. Not sits, not the sits, not the thoughts, not the posts, not the blogs of the apostles, the acts of the apostles. So what happened? God initiates. When the time was right, God sent his son. Not when you figured out the puzzle. You got the secret knowledge. You achieved a certain amount of. Of holiness and righteousness on your own. Is that what the Bible says? No. It says when the time was right, God sent His son, God initiates. God initiates. God initiates. But then we act. So God sends his son. It becomes paradigm shifting news, quite literally. He sets aside for himself a remnant of close followers called apostles or disciples. And after God takes on human flesh, the incarnation, the apostle John is the first one, as far as we know to use the term Antichrist anywhere in the early church. It's towards the end of the New Testament. In one of his letters, who does he refer to as antichrists? Those who deny that God came in the flesh. Those who deny the incarnation are the antichrists. Paul John says that God became a

[Aaron McIntyre]

man,

[Todd Erzin]

so God becomes a man. God initiates, enters into our sphere, our time and space. God initiates. And then what do the apostles do after God initiates, what do they do? They act. Which is why the very first book of the Bible, that's about them after it talks about the first four of the New Testament are about Jesus, God initiating. God initiating. The apostles for the most part are passenger princess for those four gospels, are they not? They're just kind of learning. They're along for the ride. God is initiating. God initiates, then we act, then we act. God initiates, then we act. This pattern I said repeat over and over and over again until you're dead. God initiates, then act. God initiates, then act. So that's what I talked about on Friday, on Saturday I, I talked about the rules of engagement. Of what? Of what righteous action looks like. What's it mean to be meek, to wield power under control? What's that look like? Power, Power. Does it say to wield sedentary under control? Is that what, is that what it is?

[Aaron McIntyre]

It does not.

[Todd Erzin]

How about, how about wield comfort under control? Is that what it means?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzin]

Prosperity under control? Convenience under control?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzin]

No. Dopamine hits under control. Is that what it means?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzin]

What's it mean? Wheel power. Power under control. Wield power under control. Make sure you're staying with me because I'm going to tie it all into this story in Aaron's montage. We're to check all three of these boxes. And so that's what I talked about with the men on Saturday, what it means to wield power under control, what that looks like. What are the rules of engagement for that? What are the examples that Christ himself, for example, when he gets angry and he fashions a whip of cords, does he just, just indiscriminately just start waving the whip around? Does he just start doing that? No, no, that would be a tantrum not righteous indignation. Correct.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Right.

[Todd Erzin]

He might strike children, he might strike innocence, he might strike women who had nothing to do with this. So on Saturday, I talked about what it means to wield that power under control when we act. What is it? What are the rules of engagement then that God provides us for what that looks like and how Jesus modeled them all. Jesus told stories. Jesus was compassionate. He was righteously indignant, healed. He confronted, he loved, he cried, he did the whole gamut. Pretty good example of what it means to be a man is to try your best to learn from what God did when he was a man. Fair, yes. Pretty good example to cite. And then on Sunday, we gave a very specific example of someone who fulfilled all these things. And even though the book is not necessarily named after him, in many respects, it's about him. And that's Boaz. In the Book of Ruth, his name literally means strength, or in strength. He has compassion, he has initiative, he works hard, he has honor. Doesn't take advantage of Ruth when he has an open invitation to do so societally. And he's shrewd. He outwits the kinsman redeemer ahead of him in line for the hand of Ruth. And how does God reward all this? Well, they have a son. It's the grandfather of King David, and shows up later in the New Testament in the line of the Messiah. Now, all three of these things that I just talked about last week at Influence Church in Granger, Indiana, all played out in one story in the last week, And that is the Major League baseball players who put the references to the Noah covenant on their hats

[Chase Davis]

or

[Todd Erzin]

refused to wear the pride hats, refused to bow to the chocolate bunny. It started there. First of all, God initiated

[Chase Davis]

for you

[Todd Erzin]

are saved by grace through the free gift of faith. So God initiates. Is there anything to have faith in if God does not initiate and bring Christ to earth? Is there anything that you could salvific to have faith in if God does not do that?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No.

[Todd Erzin]

No. So God initiates. God initiates. Now men must act. Your job comes to you. These are lucrative jobs. Your job comes to you and says, hey, you have to now worship our worship, our God. They say no. They don't back down. They attempt now the league does, to punish them some more. They don't back down. You want to know why Aaron never had a press clipping to put in the montage of these guys backing down just to disappoint us? They never backed down. By the way, what team did several these guys play for Giants? Yeah, the San Francisco Giants. The. The place that gave us Harvey Milk. And as the birthplace of much of the rainbow jihad that is the. The lamentation of our nation at the moment. And then Josh Alley steps in as a US Senator, part of the bot. In the majority party part of the body that would oversee things like the antitrust exemption that Major League Baseball has granted in order to conduct its affairs. And he confronts. He confronts. So the players confronted the spirit of the age. Josh Halley confronts it directly. What ends up happening. Spirit of the age backs down. And it all started because, number one. Number one, the men acted. It wasn't even a lot of men. Guys. How many players was it? Four or five, Right? That's all that it was. Could you imagine if. I mean, what are there. Is it 24 players a team? That's when it was, when you and I were kids. What's on a Major League team now? Do you know, I'm sure that's, let's just say, a nice round number. 30 teams. 20. We'll get the number wrong. But 30 times 20 is roughly 600. All right, so there's at least 600 players active on a Major League Baseball roster. A handful of them. Just imagine if, like only 10% of them. You're talking anywhere from 60 to 80.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Right?

[Todd Erzin]

Instead, it was just a handful. You know, like Daniel's three friends in the fire. Just three guys. Were they the only Hebrews taken slaves by the Babylonians? No, but they were the only three that said, you go and throw us in there and triple the heat if you want, because we're never bowing down. And if. What is their next line? If our Lord. We think our Lord will save us, but if not, well, it's. It's better to alienate you and let you fry us to a crisp than to alienate him and have him have that happen to our souls for all of eternity. So we'll. We'll take the heat. Just three guys. They were hardly the only Hebrew slaves that. That were brought back from the Babylonians. Just those three guys. Just a handful of guys here. Just a handful of guys here. God initiates to give them salvation, to give them gifts that they can exploit, to even get into Major League Baseball, right? And make all these millions of dollars, right? So God initiates. They act. They act, and then look what happens. Then they act righteously, right? No tantrums were thrown. Nobody went out there and said Major League Baseball is. Is a direct outlet of Satan. Because then you start doing stuff like that, and then you Might have another layer of player who probably has the same beliefs you do, but maybe not the same courage. And you'll force them to maybe come out against you. You'll isolate yourselves. They acted under control. No, we're just not going to comply. Nothing personal, man. Nothing personal, but you're just asking us to do things that God says we can't do. So we're not going to do it. They exercise power under control. They don't overact, they don't act out. They don't do anything that leaves, that leaves the spirit of the age, anything to come back and go at them with so they could make it any, anything about the issue at hand, right? They leave them with nothing. Nobody gets busted slapping their wife around last weekend or drunk driving. They leave him with nothing. They've got nothing. They exercise power under control. And then the third stage is Josh Alley steps in here. He's the Boaz of the story. He's the man with authority. He's the man that's wielding real earthly power here. And just like Boaz says, when he sees Ruth, he says to his servants under his authority, don't touch her. I know she's a foreign woman, but don't treat her with dignity and respect. Steps in, puts himself between her and the spirit of the age. This is what Josh Alley just did. He steps in and says, hey, those guys, they're with me. And I'm the one that wields the power here. You guys report to me and my committee. This is not going to go the way that you think, Josh. How Josh Halley loses mind, dropped 75 F bombs.

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, no,

[Todd Erzin]

just said, hey, I'm going to summon you. That's not how we do business around here. At least not with me in charge. So what you doing? All three of those boxes I just preached about last weekend are checked in this story. And what is the end result? This is the first time I can ever recall any kind of construct of popular culture publicly backing down on something like this. I can't remember the last time this happened or if it ever has. Maybe we see them do it kind of passive aggressively, right? Like, like we've all noted the last few years. The grocery store or the department stores and the targets and the Walmarts, right? They've kind of done the Homer Simpson kind of quiet back into the bushes on, on Pride. Right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay.

[Todd Erzin]

The, the, the section was in the front of the store four years ago and everywhere, okay. Then it kind of got moved to the back and then it got smaller and smaller. Now, it may not be there at all. Right, okay. But they're not issuing any proclamations like, hey, man, our bust. We did that wrong. They're just, you know, they're, they're just kind of quietly, you know, going with the flow. So no one admits any defeat. No one looks any weak. The spirit of the age doesn't have to have to give us a scalp to claim or, you know, a pellet to put on the wall. This was a beat down and a very public one. And it all happened because a handful of guys, none of them like even star players, by the way, just a handful of guys, said no, Refused. And one US Senator said, I got you. The one who wields real, real power in terms of changing the destiny of Major League Baseball. That's it. That's all that happened. And baseball's like, you know what, it's already June 23 anyway, right? Pride month's already over. Let's just go ahead and call this one even. Mistakes were made and play ball. Okay. It's amazing what happens when men act. God initiates, and we act. What's also amazing as an amazingly tragic is when you go a generation without men acting, and that's big. And that's why we are where we are right now, because we did that collectively. So the good news is, if we're the problem, it also means we can be the solution. So, Steve, what would you have me do? Act. Act. I still have friends of mine who haven't called, who haven't returned a call or text from me because of what I did on the final three days of the, of the Iowa gubernatorial primary to win. But I did it because I had the ability to influence the process. I was a bit of the boaz here. I had the platform, I had the power to initiate and to act and to influence the outcome in a meta way. So I did. I'm not happy that some people don't want to call me back or don't want to text me back and want to burn me behind my back. I'm not ecstatic about that. I mean, you guys see me over here bragging about it off the air. I'm really happy about some of how those relationships went. Right.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah.

[Todd Erzin]

No, no. But was it worth it given what the alternative was? 10,000%. That's why I did it. I acted all the talents and abilities I have to recall to remember to talk. I have no college degree. I got thrown out of college for trying to major in super tech, mobile and cereal boxes. Okay. So everything I Have. God has given me. It's not mine to hoard or protect or defend. It's his to use and exploit. So in this particular avenue, I'm the Josh Halley in the story. In this particular avenue, God gave me real power and dominion here to exercise to make a difference. I could have hoarded it. I could have said the cost is too high, may not work anyway, so why risk these relationships? But, nope, I did it. And that's what Josh Alley did here. End result is Zach lane wins by 1652 votes. End result is Major League Baseball says, thank you, sir. We will not have another back to the games. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate that. We're gonna back down here.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Act.

[Todd Erzin]

Act. ACT. Can't guarantee you you're gonna bat a thousand when you act. I can guarantee you, though, you're gonna bat zero when you don't. I can guarantee you that. Gentlemen, you have any thoughts?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, I have lots of thoughts. But the next course of action, I mean, I'm. I'm absolutely struck. And having had a chance to meet him. Lucas Miles calling you to his church in the shadow of Charlie's assassination. We're still not even close to being a year out from that. And he has to. Everybody at his church, I think, probably knows, you know, the. The amount of acting Lucas does to live up to his faith, and then the legacy of Charlie Kirk, and yet the mission he has to send you on there in his own backyard is this. And I think one of the reasons that keeps happening is we are not serious about having the conversation after you say this very specifically. Do what your old friend Jonathan Narcissist says. A forensic audit. Why don't men act? Not in a general sense. We're all sinners. It's a fallen world. Why in this age. What are the idols of this age that cause men not to act? And that's really where we don't want to go.

[Steve Dace]

This story with the San Francisco Giants pitchers is my favorite of the year. And I think Steve spending the last 20 minutes laying that out, I couldn't say it any better than myself, but I just add one particular thing. Did these guys contract some sort of survey or polling agency to see. Hey, we need to just. Okay, what will the reaction be? What will be the positives and negatives? What will be my favorability rating if this goes? We'll take a couple of months to do this. Okay? And then after that, we'll have an executive meeting. We'll get together, we'll pray really, really hard. We won't come to a decision. But we will agree to meet again in two more months and then at that point we will make us final decision. No, they took 10 seconds. There it is. No, 10 seconds. How long does it take? What is, what, what is the exact. Is it Genesis, Noah, Covenant? That's Genesis 9. Okay, Genesis 9. Genesis 9. It didn't even take five seconds, five seconds to write it on their hat.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes. This is the difference.

[Steve Dace]

They just all it took though what it really took, it wasn't really the writing on the hat. It wasn't, it was them deciding in a split second. I'm just going to be a headache to all the right people.

[Todd Erzin]

I'm going to push back.

[Steve Dace]

Let's just see. And I'm totally fine.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And that's the fundamental difference between sports and sports, bro. Action versus passive. There it is.

[Todd Erzin]

That'll preach right there. Chase Davis is going to join us. We set it up for his book. If he can't sell any books in this interview after the intro we just gave him, that's Chase. That's going to be a you problem next. Stay tuned.

[Chase Davis]

The steve day show.

[Todd Erzin]

Hey, what if the government schools actually taught truth instead of trying to deconstruct it? Well, sadly for the most part they don't. And that's why you've needed something like Freedom Project Academy, which has delivered for the last 16 years now fully accredited classical online education firmly rooted in Judeo Christian values for kids in pre kindergarten all the way through high school. If you want some structure at fpa, you can go live real teachers in a virtual environment. Maybe you want flexibility. Well, they've got anytime courses 24, 7. Maybe you want control whether homeschool track puts your child in the driver's seat. So lots of flexible options. I can tell you firsthand. My son Noah was in FBA for two years, so I, I got to see just how good they are. Wouldn't be telling you about them now if they ruined them or anything. All right, so there's a reason why they were awarded the 2026 Christian School of the Year by Education Insider. So go to Freedom for school dot com, check out their incredible classes that FBA is offering for the fall. That's Freedom for school dot com again, Freedom for school dot com. And if you decide you want to sign on, use my promo code Steve and get 10 off your discount on your tuition. 10 off on your tuition with the promo code [e-mail]. well, the name of the book could not be better segued after the conversation we just had about what went down with Major League Baseball in the last week. Offensive Christianity, Restoring the strength of men in a feminized age. Jay Chase Davis is the author. He joins us now on the show. Man, it's good to see you again, Chase. How are you?

[Chase Davis]

Great to see you, Steve. Thanks so much for having me on. I'm doing pretty well.

[Todd Erzin]

You bet. And the book does carry, by the way. His book does. An endorsement by yours truly. But please, please don't let that deter you from seeing, from checking the book out. But what's happened in the last week with Major League Baseball? We're just a. A handful of players. None of them really stars. Several of them playing, by the way, for the San Francisco Giants, deciding they will not comply. Like the. Like Daniel's friends in the fiery furnace. They're not going to. They're not going to bow to the chocolate bunny, Chase. They're not going to. They're not. They're not going to say yes. They're not going to comply with the spirit of the age. The spirit of the age comes back with a decree, yes, you shall. And then you've got Josh Halley moving in here like a little Boaz, you know, and saying, no, that one's mine. You don't get to do that. They belong to me. You don't get to do that. I have the power here and I have. My committee has power over things like your antitrust exemption, Major League Baseball. You might want to rethink that position. And Major League Baseball is like, you know what? You're right. Besides, Pride Month is almost over anyway. Let's go ahead and play ball. That entire exercise were, what, at a most, a half a dozen men just acted and didn't back down. And we got to see something. I don't know that we have ever seen something in a major institution of pop culture admit in public that it was wrong and it's backing down. That is literally your book fulfilled. That's your book incarnate right there, Chase, right there.

[Rob Sand]

Yeah.

[Chase Davis]

I wonder if any of the players have actually picked it up and read it, because that's exactly what I'm talking about. You also saw the minor league team forfeit a game in Pennsylvania. And what I try to get into in the book is advocating for this kind of offensive posture, accepting that you're going to receive the ire of the world. We're not greater than Jesus in this regard. If he came before us and he told us that we would be persecuted, then it's probably going to happen. And so we should just embrace it instead of avoiding it. And too many Christians are too afraid of man to please God, and, and ultimately they're going to be found out to be cowards. And so what we need to raise up are godly men. And that's what I get into in my book is what's happened over the last at least half century. I, I pin it back over 300 years that's been going on to where the Thumas, the power, the vitality of man has been erased. And it was a very brave act by these baseball players to simply write a Bible verse. I mean, consider how crazy it is that we're in times where you write a Bible verse on something and that's considered offensive. But such are the times, and we need more men like these. It would be great if we saw this in every sport, kind of a national display. And I'm so thankful that we have an administration that's willing to have the back of these players because, you know, it would be different if, if someone else was in charge.

[Todd Erzin]

No doubt, no doubt. How much of our situation, I mean, listen, you're a pastor, you're into theology, I'm a theo nerd. Okay? But how much of our, the situation we're in right now as a people in the west just comes down to, particularly in this country. You could maybe give some slack to what's left of the remnant of, in Western Europe, where they are a scant minority. The church has, we could argue, either retreated or Jesus has come and taken its lampstand away of much of Western Europe. Right, okay. But they don't have the agency. You know, if you're a male believer in Germany, you don't have the agency that we have in America. You don't have the agency in the UK that we have in America. So how much of our situation here Stateside Chase, is a fulfillment of one of my axioms, which is we're not a nation of laws and we never have been. We're a nation of political will and we always will be. Given especially what you said there at the beginning, they, they were willing to put up with the blowback. How much of this has really just been collectively, the men of the last generation just lacked the will and weren't willing to put up with a blowback. Is it just that practical?

[Chase Davis]

It's pretty practical. And yeah, I would say a lot of it has to do with agency and will. And for so long, Christians and the evangelical church has been unwilling and unable to even muster the Strength to exercise their power and authority. There's so much capital that we still have in America to spend, and instead of dispensing it against God's enemies and defending God's bride, the church, and advancing the lordship of Christ, oftentimes they settle for a therapeutic faith. And this is what I get into in the book. When you go into these low T churches, these therapeutic churches, which really just are like group therapy sessions, the pastor might as well be a counselor, a therapist, kind of helping you uncover your father wounds. Instead, what Christian men need to be taught and encouraged in is righteousness and righteous agency. Advocating for God's ways in all of life. And that doesn't have to look extravagant or anything like that can look very simple. But I go into kind of three key aspects of how men need to exercise their agency, mainly home, church, and society. And so I talk about each one, and particularly in the home. For example, how a lot of Christian men have been sold a bill of goods that ends up being a lie. They've. They've taken and contorted a concept like servant leadership that just turns them into doormat husbands that worship the emotional state of their wife any given day. They've been given platitudes by older men in America, happy wife, happy life, and end up making the wife's happiness kind of the end all be all of their marriage. And you know, every good Christian man I know wants their wife to be happy, but that shouldn't be the God that we worship. And so these are the kind of practical things I get into in the book. But agency is a big one. And really, Christians haven't really conceived of how can we impose our way of life. You know, we've been so hung up on don't tread on me, you know, please don't harm me. And we just kind of ghettoized ourselves and retreat from the public square. And it's time to go on offense and really, really remember the men who came before us. What would they do in the face of these, you know, perversions and corruptions in our society? They would speak truthfully, honestly, from the heart and from God's word.

[Todd Erzin]

So I don't want you to give the whole book away. One, we don't have the time. Two, it's a terrific book, and so I want people to buy it from you. Okay, but give us one thing right now. Every man in our audience within the sound of my voice from 18 to 88, one practical thing they could do right now, regardless of their status, socioeconomically, health wise, etc.

[Chase Davis]

The biggest thing that men need to do is kill resentment. Bitterness and resentment only corrupt and corrode the good that God has given them. And resentment and bitterness are kind of the. The supply that is being fed to a lot of men through media and other narratives. And instead of giving in to kind of this bitterness and this, this ungratefulness, we need to be grateful to the Lord for whatever he's given us, whatever a station in life, whatever power we have, whatever wealth or lack of wealth, wherever we are, we can be grateful and we should be grateful to the Lord. That's going to be hard. You're only going to find that kind of opportunity in Christ Jesus when you trust in him, repent of your sins and trust in him for salvation. But ultimately that resentment is going to ruin your life. Bitterness does not produce good fruit. It produces bitter fruit. And so if men, especially Christian men, could learn how to do battle with bitterness and not just. Not just rest in some ethereal, therapeutic way in Christ, we're not talking about a passivity where it's like we don't see what's wrong in the world. We don't have any energy or righteous anger against that. But instead of giving into bitterness against that and whatever the forces we're facing, think about our European Christian brothers that are facing overwhelming odds. It seems like do not give into bitterness. Give in to gratitude and focus on bringing God glory with whatever he has given you down to the last drop of agency you've got. Dispense it, you utilize it, leverage it for the glory of God and for the good of your neighbor.

[Todd Erzin]

Why is it, given the way we're wired as men, why is that so important? Why is that the fundamental first thing that you said you thought we all had to start at that point?

[Guest or Caller 1]

Why?

[Todd Erzin]

What is it about us that that's the answer?

[Chase Davis]

I think men have a unique disposition for dominion, which means they kind of have insights and perspectives on the world where they want to make it a certain way, they want to leave the world differently than they found it. And so we're hardwired biologically with our testosterone levels, with different spatial reasoning capacities in our brain, that God designed us, he fit us for dominion. And when we see things going haywire, when we see things not going our way, when we don't have the agency that we desire in life, it's easy to give in to bitterness. Many men today live in virtual reality, whether that's through pornography or video games, places where they can easily exercise agency because they don't feel like they have a lot of it in life. And of course, we don't want to steer men towards those at. We want to steer men towards Christ, towards his glory to productivity. And the reason bitterness is so tempting for many men today is because they feel, whether it's market forces or a dating environment, whatever it is, they feel like life's unfair. And when we get in that head space as men, it taps into this deep desire that we want to change things. We want to make our lives better. We want to be competitive and outdo one another. And so there's a great deal of temptation on this side of the fall to give into kind of this bitter spirit instead of having a spirit of joy in the Lord and every.

[Todd Erzin]

Everything we do what you just said, and I don't know if you intended this or not, so don't let me put words in your mouth, but what you just said, I think is the off ramp. I mean, these were conversations Charlie and I had quite frequently before he was murdered.

[Steve Dace]

Right?

[Todd Erzin]

What. How do we stop the next generation of young men from going off into nihilistic groiper abysses? How do we do that? What's. What is the message? Okay, because. And, and I think what you just touched on is that message, Chase, and this is why I endorsed your. Endorsed your book. That we cannot feed another generation of young men and the Sisters of the Perpetually Furrowed Brows, the convent of Mike Pence and that man be pamby evangelicalism, where the most testosterone Mike Pence has demonstrated is in political career has been like in the last year coming after people like us. Okay. When he was in his own state of Indiana, he could have Josh Halley, the Rainbow Jihad in his own state over when that. When the battle was there over religious liberty during the Final Four in his own state, he could have stood up and did to them what Josh Howley did to Major League Baseball this week. Instead, he punted and capitulated and, and, and got out of the way so they could have open season on us on his own people. But he's good at lecturing us, though, whenever we organize any kind of. Or you're not allowed to do it like that. You have to do it like this. And, and if. And when I realized after I addressed the Gripers at Amfest this year and a group of them waited for me after my talk and I, I had this theory, but this was confirmed. A lot of this is Nick Fuentes and these guys just sound tough and they just don't want to be another generation of wimps. Right. And so they don't have that. It's like my own son came to me before we changed churches and said, dad, could I go to a church where I don't think I could beat up the pastor? Right. That kind of a thing.

[Aaron McIntyre]

And.

[Todd Erzin]

And that a lot of it is. And because that that innate desire to be strong has not been fulfilled with the right masculine role model, you don't think critically as a guy where that's concern. Right. And you maybe fall into voices of bitterness and resentment. And you don't critically think and stop and say to yourself, hey, this guy's never been married, never have any, had any kids. Those are the two deepest desires I have as a man. Why does he have anything to offer me about what the future, what my future may look like? But if you're wrapped with the resentment and bitterness that you're talking about, you don't critically think your way through that.

[Chase Davis]

Yeah. And in the book I detail, there is a lot that's going against young men. And so, you know, for. For an older generation that might be hearing this and picking up the book, it's really important that we did, we lend our ear and we understand what young men are up against. I pastor in Boulder, Colorado, at the well church, and I can tell you, because a third of our town is college students, the young men are not entering into a world which is favorable to their success, both in the dating market and economics. And so what we don't want to do is dismiss their concerns and kind of turn a blind eye to the way things are going in society. Instead, we want to invest in them. We want to listen to them, help raise them up in maturity. And so it's going to be really important that as we disciple, reach, develop mature, strong men of agency that can take back our nation and glorify God in doing so, that we're doing so, addressing key problems and not ignoring them, not, not giving them kind of those old platitudes that they're used to hearing. But. But saying, look, I see what you see, and I can tell you that bitterness is not going to help you find a wife. That bitterness is not going to help you find a job. But here, let me make some introductions for you. Let me give you some opportunities myself. And so it's important that we love them in that way instead of doing what we have done in the past, which is kind of ignore them and ignore their concerns.

[Todd Erzin]

All right, looks like Chase is cutting out on us, but that's all right. We're kind of to the end of the segment. Anyway, that's just a. That and that's a great stop off point to kind of get you guys now into the rest of the book. I think it is absolutely something that would bless you if you checked it out. It's called Offensive Christianity Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age from Jay Chase Davis and another buddy of mine wrote the forward of that book, Michael Foster, who's a great dude a bit on our show as well. Chase, man, good to see you again and appreciate this book and I, I hope you sell a ton of copies. America needs this kind of a, this kind of a message right now.

[Chase Davis]

Thanks so much, Steve.

[Todd Erzin]

You better. God bless. All right, what do you guys think?

[Aaron McIntyre]

A great launching point for people to get deep into a discussion that we must have for existential reasons. Listen, he's really. The resentment comes though, because we. The, the world on its terms is forcing men to fast in those two big areas where they don't, they don't want to fast. They want to be made whole with a significant relationship with a woman and economic significance of the kind of like, I'm doing a job, a task that has value. But here's the thing. Fasting is commanded by God himself. It is good for us. But here's the problem. We haven't owned it. We're being forced by the world on its terms to fast. We need to take it back, become much leaner, much tougher. Mind, body and soul. Get used to not having so much or expecting so much at the outset. Be. Get used to not being, have so many passive comfort pursuits. And then that psychology, that theological psychology will change, but not until we can. He's so right to bring up video games. You know, I do it all the time. If men keep going there to get lost with an excuse, they will never, ever rise to the challenges that God has for them.

[Steve Dace]

There were two things that stuck out to me and they kind of went back to back. But this whole concept of a ghetto of our own making in Christian conservative political circles, that's very important. And what's going to keep you in that ghetto forever is the resentment that I spent so much time talking about. Because, yes, you can see out of the ghetto. You can see one of the people in the clips we're about to play here in about 10 minutes or so. You can see people like that saying, no, you deserve to be in this ghetto. That's what you deserve. And if you let resentment take hold, you're never going to escape that thought. That ghetto of your own making. And we're talking about, of course, in the worldview arena here. And there's a lot of reasons for this ghetto existing and I have my own theories, but it's very much true on the right. We have, we have definitely kind of cloistered ourselves into a hole, into a corner, and it need not be that way. And what should happen is that a new generation of young men see the ambition that God has given them, see the talents that God has given them, seeing the opportunities to use that talent and ambition for his kingdom and not be held back, but using them in a restrained way, that is, that's the way forward. And I think the first step is putting down the shovel and letting go of the resentment, as earned as it probably is in most cases, putting that aside for God's glory, because that's what he asks of you.

[Todd Erzin]

Beautifully said. Listen, I was very resentful of the way that I was raised. I ended up being a drunken loser, nearly died in a car accident and had to realize, though, that I could not let Dave Dase determine the rest of my life, that I was going to be responsible for my own life.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Life.

[Todd Erzin]

Right. And so I, I get the resentment and the temptation given what you're inheriting, but you're still going to be accountable to God for what you do with the life that he gave you, regardless of the era in which you're born. Hour two is next. All right, back here with our two live and on demand. I'm Steve Dasy's todders and he's Aaron McIntyre. Let us know what you think about what we think via the stevedace.com inbox. Take advantage of that by emailing the show [e-mail] that's D E A C E. That's D E A C E. By the way, I just got an email from Chris Danielson who was on our show last week. He was our guest on Theology Thursday about his book, the co author, the Bible Sidekick. He told me they had over 200 people contact their ministry to make the donation to get a copy of that book. So you guys again, incredibly generous. So thank you guys so very much. You can email us stevedase.com it doesn't have to be good news, although we like it every now and then. You can also follow us or no like us at Steve Dace on Facebook. Me, we and Gab. Follow us at steveday show on X Instagram and TikTok. Subscribe to our Rumble channel at Steve Dace Evedase on Rumble. And then finally, if you are a podcast listener, if you wouldn't mind, hit the subscribe or if you're on Apple itunes, so hit the follow button to make sure you never miss an episode of the show. Thanks to the many of you who have. And then you can also leave us a five star review as tens of thousands of you have. Those are all very appreciative as well. So thank you for that and thank you to our friends over at Raycon. Someday I might get to enjoy my Raycon earbuds again. But today is not that day. In fact, it hasn't been that day in well over a year because they constantly get confiscated in my home the minute they arrive and I can't say no to my kids. So I'm a victim here. I'm a victim of Raycon's greatness and then my children as my weakness. But they're everyday earbuds. Classic. They are my children's go to for daily listening. They rave about them. Take the take their word for it. I can't tell you much. It's been about a year since I've had one of those in my ear. Maybe longer, right? Maybe you can get these for your dad because you've been ganking his all this time too, right? But the active noise cancellation is so good, it will block out background background noise in a way that makes everything feel more immersive. I do remember that. I do remember when I used to get access to my Raycon earbuds, how incredible the active noise cancellation was. That is absolutely true. And right now they're 15% off. All right, so Raycon delivering the same premium audio quality as the big brands, but at half the price. Add in over 3 million happy customers, a 30 day happiness guarantee. Some of those 3 million happy customers, my adult children. And there's zero reason to overpay. So upgrade right now, your everyday routine. Go to buyraycon.com steve and get 15% off R A Y C O N as in never. As in I never get to use my raycons. Buyraycon.com Steve and get 15% [e-mail] Steve well, speaking of generous, you guys have been just incredibly generous for the release of my new book that started about a month ago leading up to Independence Day, America's 250th birthday called why Independence Day? America is great because God is good. Here's a preview.

[Steve Dace]

Every fourth of July, we light up the sky. We wave our flags, we celebrate. But if your kids asked you why could you tell them the real story. It's a story that starts 3,000 years before 1776. A story most people have never heard told this way. A miracle in the desert, A miracle on Christmas night. Commandments carved in stone, A constitution written on paper. What's the connection? This 4th of July, give your family the story they've never been told. The one that explains everything.

[Todd Erzin]

And a lot of you have done so. And thank you. We only have a few thousand hardcover copies of why Independence Day remaining and there's still time for you to get yours for your family in time for America's 250th birthday. Get yours [e-mail] why Independence Day? America is great because God is good and you won't regret it. It's beautifully illustrated. Why Independence Day? Available right [e-mail] and if you got your copy and enjoyed it, please leave us a five star review on Amazon as well. And as we count down now to the fourth of July, we're looking at the top eight moments that Providence made America possible in the first place. We started this off yesterday, Todd. Today you've got number two.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Well, whether he was a general or a president, George Washington was about in his own life and then doing his duty in leading and teaching others about finding how in the details you cooperate with Providence. Providence is not just some magic out there that is randomly happening. It is relationship and it is our duty to cooperate it. There's an old saying about how you make your own luck. Well the that the guts of that theologically is doing the detailed work daily without a necessary expectation of how it's going to play to cooperating with Providence. Here's how he did that. When George Washington became commander of the amateurs without uniforms who became the Continental army and began immediately to steel them against the adversity to come to stand with swollen chest in a straight line beneath snapping flags to the music of fife and drums is one thing. To hold your place when the British musket balls roar toward you like a wall of blazing lead is another matter altogether. Thus Washington knew his only hope lay any profound conviction in the heart and daily actions of all his men that what they did, they did for God and under God's protection. His only hope lay in fashioning a godly core whose faith lay not in instant signs of encouragement upon the field of battle, but in total confidence that their Creator willed the ultimate vindication of the rights with which he had endowed them. Therefore, Washington gave orders that each day begin with formal prayer to be led by the officers of each unit. He decreed as well that all profanity be banned and all conduct that might offend the citizens upon whose support they utterly depended. He promised dire punishment to any who uttered oaths that would offend God or man. The men of the continental army must secure God's blessing on their efforts every day by every means within their power. Nothing else could guarantee success. There was no other hope. Thus, on July 9, 1776, Washington issued a circular order that the colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure chaplains, persons of good character and exemplary lives to see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. Then, eight years later, in 1783, upon becoming president, a circular address to the states. General Washington later invoked a kind of brotherhood theology, asking God to bind the nation together and to grant its citizens and the social and personal virtues necessary for the country's survival. These words have often been reprinted as the prayer of Washington for this country. I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the state over which you preside in his holy protection. That he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field. And finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love, mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the divine author of our blessed religion. And without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be happy nation once again. The providence that comes just on this show. How much what George Washington just had to say with Steve's conversation with Chase Davis is everything. Take it to heart.

[Todd Erzin]

And that's. I mean, that's a great summation of everything that the book is about. So get your copy today. Why Independence Day America is great? Because God is good. We only have a few thousand of these left and then they're gone. So get your copy today. Why Independence Day America is great? Because God is good. And please, if you already have yours and you enjoyed it, those five star reviews really do help us there at Amazon. So over 100 of you guys have already submitted those. Thank you. We could certainly use hundreds more and we would appreciate those as well. All right, you guys ready? Great job, Todd. You guys ready for some idolatry or not?

[Aaron McIntyre]

All right.

[Todd Erzin]

I've got five clips prepared is what we're going to lay our eyes upon here over the next 20 minutes or so. Is it idolatry or is it not? Here is clip number one

[Guest or Caller 1]

is I would march into the Oval Office and say to Trump, like, knock it off. Like, this is ridiculous. This is the opposite of what we ran on. What are you doing? And you either stop doing it or I'm going to give a press conference every single day from my house and explain to the world what you're doing and why and I'm going to attack you. I don't want to, but I'm going to.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, that's what, that's pretty much what

[Guest or Caller 1]

you've done for the country.

[Todd Erzin]

That's what you've sort of done.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Well, no, but I'm saying if I were vice president.

[Rob Sand]

Yeah, yeah.

[Guest or Caller 1]

And, and I wouldn't get anything done. I'm not sure. What I'm saying is that I'm not sure that that's the right thing to do.

[Rob Sand]

Right.

[Guest or Caller 1]

J.D. vance, and this is obvious if you watch him, has a different personality where he's always trying to make things better. He doesn't throw up his hands in rage and say, you're too disgusting, I'm not dealing with you. He says, I disagree with this, that and the other thing, but what can we improve? And that's a different way of, of operating in the world. It's a way that I respect, I respect him for that. I always have. You know, and I'm the guy who's like, you know what? You make me sick. I'm out. They're making decisions on the basis of other criteria. What's best for this company, what's best for Israel, what's best for our donors. I mean, you know, that's, I just want to say again, that's unacceptable. That's not just like they're off in the wrong direction. Like, that is unacceptable. That's treasonous.

[Todd Erzin]

So that's Tucker Carlson on another show I had never heard of. He is clearly, by the way, just a little sidebar. He's clearly cherry picking his spots and is doing everything he can to avoid any place that would give him some actual serious pushback. He is, this has got to be the third or fourth show he has been on I had previously absolutely never heard of before. Anyway, what you just watched, do you guys think it's idolatry or not?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, yeah, it's idolatry. And it has everything to do with what you just said. Because if he was really that Guy. I'm different. No, I will tell you to your face. Why is he cherry picking shows then, Steve? Why isn't he going everywhere and just winning this argument really? Why isn't coming on this show, any show, go everywhere? You are so.

[Todd Erzin]

It's not that he hasn't been asked by you. By me.

[Aaron McIntyre]

You are so confident in this, Steve. Tucker. Why aren't you taking it far and wide? Here I stand. I can do no other. It's just, it's just such a boring 15 year old boy. I'll show you. Let's go out to the parking lot. Screw you, Tucker. You wouldn't last two seconds in the parking lot.

[Steve Dace]

This is what's. Yeah, I don't think it's. I think it's idolatry. I almost said fake news or not.

[Chase Davis]

This is what.

[Todd Erzin]

But you repeat yourself.

[Steve Dace]

Weird and mysterious to some degree. Or maybe it's not about Carlson because of what you guys just said. He's not, it's obviously not that he is just completely lacking in self awareness because if he was completely lacking in self awareness, he would do, he would do what every now and then go on shows where he's not sure what the host believes or he would just go on any show and just say the same stuff. So he's obviously got enough self awareness to know that this, what he's spewing is not going to hold up in every single venue. You see what I'm saying? That it's not that he's crazy, it's that he's seems like at least in this one narrow instance, he's not. Because if he were crazy in all things down at the core, he would go and make an embarrassment of himself on different platforms that might challenge him. But he's got enough there there to understand that what he's saying is drivel and will not stand up to any sort of scrutiny. I think that's why you've got people asking more frequently what is his audience? Who is this audience? Who is this for? It's just very, very odd.

[Todd Erzin]

Yep, very, very odd. Also won't be the, the only time I think that we hear from him in this segment, I believe. Let's get to clip number two is one. As I mentioned, if you have that asset of white skin right now, historical asset, then you actually have to say I didn't deserve this. And also I'm to some degree I'm the product of. I'm standing on the shoulders of other people who got that through injustice. So the Bible actually, actually says yes

[Rob Sand]

you do, you do.

[Todd Erzin]

You are involved in injustice and even if you didn't actually do it, therefore you have a responsibility not just to say, well, you know, maybe if I get around to it, maybe we could

[Chase Davis]

do something about the poor people out there.

[Todd Erzin]

No, you're, you're part of the problem. That is the, the, the, the renowned and, and since departed Tim Keller talking about collective white guilt. Aaron, you get first dibs this time. Is that idolatry or not?

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, that's 200 proof straight, no chaser idolatry. And I'm not gonna make, I'm not gonna get into the comparisons game at all. What I will say is that if you are in the church, say a denomination like the Southern Baptist Convention, and you are not as, and you are not just as apoplectic about that as any other spiritual abuse that may or may not be happening in any given church, that's why you're losing the young man, because that is abusive. It's absolutely abusive. You're telling people because of an immutable characteristic that there has to be some sort of special, special extra forgiveness because they're just special and extra sinful. That's just not the heart of the gospel at all. In fact, it is the heart of the gospel. It's the other gospel. It's the upside downs gospel. That is wickedness. Is Tim Keller the only one wearing the, wearing the same costume, uniform, the same jersey, is he's the only one who has said that type of message in evangelical Christendom? Absolutely not. Certainly he has inspired, maybe influenced a lot to start thinking in those terms. Yes, I think that's true. But man, that is a rife problem. That is maybe the most pressing problem. If I could say that that's the most pressing problem. I really don't care what the motivation is for coming to saying the things that you just heard there. Whether it's some sort of spiritual delusion, whether it's just trying to appear acceptable in New York City, I don't care. The end result is the same. That is abusive. If your spiritual mentor, if you're pastor sounds like that, essentially what he's communicating is you need special forgiveness and special grace because you're specially sinful because of an immutable, because, because, because of an immutable characteristic. They're not a pastor, they're something else. But that's why we're losing the young men, because that's the message in most evangelical sweater vested, pleated Catholic churches. That's the message that they've grown up with maybe not as overtly as that clip that you just heard there, but it is implied in much of what you've heard growing up in those churches.

[Todd Erzin]

That was a homily there, brother.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yeah, it's idolatry for a couple reasons. One of them has nothing to do with race. The specifics. It's about affect. Ross Douthat tried to pull this nonsense with JD Vance in an interview recently over his book. And he talked to. I think the quote was, there's an aggressive lack of charity or something like that. And J.D. vance said, Elitist way of talking down to how other men talk. And he's absolutely right about this, this effete way of how we're supposed to communicate. Maybe sometimes, but not all the time. It's just, it's a total shtick. And that, that's idolatry to just say that has to be the default. And secondly, when it comes to this race nonsense, he's. The tragedy is there is, there's, there's enough truth in there that that's how the lie can go so deep. If you are genuinely a person of privilege and means and can help and should help in ways that other people can equal with an equal standard, an equal gospel standard of love your brother as you would hope to be loved yourself, then fine. But listen, it's just a one way street on this thing. If right now, racially, in this moment that Tim Keller would be talking about, how's that going? There's clips all the time of, of a black America that quite frankly has no willingness to play by those same rules. They plan on thieving and stealing and wrecking and burning and looting as much as they want to. While we're supposed to be the. That's not how this goes. So, yeah, it's a problem on two fronts.

[Todd Erzin]

Well said as well. I mean, just want to drive the point home that I don't know what Bible Tim Keller is reading out of, but you are not. The condition of your soul is not based on any kind of a group identity. It's based entirely on the nature you were born with. And then the behavior you engage in with said nature as an individual. No one stands with you when you give an account before Christ for your life. It'll just be you one on one with the king of the universe. So everything he just said is anathema to the gospel. That's a, that's a social justice heresy there, as Todd and Aaron rightly deduced. All right, let's get to number three

[Steve Dace]

here because I think it's a permissible action. I therefore don't see any good reason to infringe on a woman's bodily autonomy in the legal prevention of her access to a abortion.

[Todd Erzin]

Therefore, it's human rights violation.

[Steve Dace]

So you don't understand that it's like killing. You don't think it's killing a human being?

[Aaron McIntyre]

No, I do.

[Steve Dace]

And you're okay with that?

[Guest or Caller 1]

Yes.

[Chase Davis]

Okay.

[Steve Dace]

Because I don't think. You don't think that we should focus more on preventable measures?

[Todd Erzin]

Todd, you go first.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Idolatry or not, do you know anything about this guy?

[Todd Erzin]

His name is Dean Withers. I don't know anything about him.

[Steve Dace]

Does he kind of. If my memory serves correctly, he was one of those people, like, who came out of nowhere in 2024 when the launch of the Kamala Harris campaign. I think somebody looked at his account and he, like, joined X, apparently before he was even like 13 years old. Which either means what he was joining it before the terms of service allows people to join, or he took over somebody's account, which is not permitted. But that's kind of some backstory there.

[Todd Erzin]

But the reality is you could get a clip of a chick on social media, TikTok especially every day bragging about murdering her kid. So, I mean, it's not like his statement there is outside the mainstream of the current left, particularly the younger you

[Aaron McIntyre]

go, is he doing this? And then is he a Christian? Is he claiming to be.

[Todd Erzin]

No, he's a Democrat operative.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Okay. Just wanted. Well, actually, then, no, he's not. This isn't idolatry. This is just evil, Just plain evil. Listen, idolatry is a worst form of. Idolatry is the Christian who won't defeat this for reasons. That's a worse form of idolatry because that's just flat out evil,

[Todd Erzin]

Aaron. So

[Steve Dace]

I understand that. I'm not sure who that young woman or that woman is who is debating Dean Withers. I'm not sure what her name is. And I'm not saying I want to make this clear. I'm not saying this. I'm not saying this as being critical of her. You saw her after he said, no, I do believe it's a human. But the rights are inferior to that of a woman's. Right. You saw her recoil and kind of take a sharp breath in. She did that because she still has a soul. So this is not meant to be critical of that because I think we're going to have to get used to these sorts of just outright evil things. But the more evil and the more mask off they become. The easier it becomes to paint with bold colors and to kind of pigeonhole them. Dean, you sound like. What is the majority opinion in Dred Scott? You kind of sound like that. Kind of sound like that.

[Todd Erzin]

The superior rights of the landowner.

[Rob Sand]

Yeah.

[Steve Dace]

So what's the difference, Dean? Can you explain that, old buddy, old pal? Can you explain that? How is this different? Other than the fact, of course, slavery, which is evil, at least. We're talking about, you know, people who have been born alive for a long time. We're talking about innocent human beings. Other than that, can you tell me how this is different? It becomes easier and easier as the mask slips off and slips off some more to paint with bold colors. So I'm not being critical of her, but you're going to have to get used to these sorts of. I'm not saying to get calloused to it at all, but you're going to have to be ready and willing to paint those colors, those stark contrasts. Be on your toes.

[Todd Erzin]

Amen. All right. Number four,

[Guest or Caller 1]

country.

[Todd Erzin]

What kind of shape is that in? I know you said it was regrettable that the Jay Clayton hearing, the new DNI candidate, was postponed yesterday by the President. You said that was a regrettable thing. Where does all that stand now, Senator?

[Rob Sand]

Well, Jay Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee. It wasn't just the Senate that was working fast to confirm him. The FBI and other parts of the Trump administration worked at lightning speed over the weekend to get his background checks, his financial information in order. Ultimately, when we do confirm him, I think he'll do a great job at the dni. In the meantime, I've spoken with Bill Pulta yesterday. He understands that there are some quick wins and important reforms at the DNI that he can undertake when he arrives there and for as long as he serves there. I do think it's really important, though, that we not connect DNI to FISA section 702. FISA section 702 is one of the President's most important foreign intelligence collection tools. The Democrats were regrettably have blocked its reauthorization for as long as Mr. Pulte is at the DNI. I wish the Democrats will allow that reauthorization to go forward, irrespective of what they think of Jay Clayton or Bill Pulte or DNI reforms or anything else.

[Todd Erzin]

I know we have to go, but just in a word, do you think the SAVE act is going to pass? Because the President really wants to see that, and a lot of people out there want to See that?

[Rob Sand]

Well, I certainly support it, Martha, and I voted for it. I'd like to see a passion pass as well. The reality is we don't have 50 votes for it right now, as it's written, much less 60 votes. And also Mike Lee, who is the sponsor of the SAVE act, he has said he doesn't want to connect the SAVE act to FISA because he opposes fisa. So it creates different voting coalitions in the Senate. Whatever the fate of the SAVE act is in the long term, I think it's urgent that in the short term we reauthorize section 702 so the President has that vital foreign intelligence tool. Keep the nation safe.

[Todd Erzin]

Interesting developments. All right, Aaron, you get this one first, quickly, because we have one more to squeeze in. Idolatry or not.

[Steve Dace]

It is idolatry and it is, it's hard to, it's hard to articulate how, how, how tightly they clutch this idolatry. This idolatry of. Well, you have to do things this way and this way and this way. There's no painting outside the line. Yeah, you get toggle back and forth between the housing bill and the Savings America act, but I don't think we have the, we don't have the votes. It is ridiculous. If somebody had even an ounce of imagination over there in the Senate, in the Senate gop, an ounce of imagination. Let's just say the implication there is that all the Republicans are on board. Right. Am I misreading that? Am I reading too much into this? It's the Democrats. We don't have the votes. We don't have 50 votes to get this. It's. I mean, I guess the implication there is that maybe they don't have all the Republicans, but the, the implication there, it's all the Democrats fault that we get. If somebody had just an ounce of imagination over in the Senate GOP leadership room, it's what, June, the end of June, towards the end of June. What is the Save America Act? Hot button issues where you can paint stark differences with Democrats. So you're not getting anything done right now anyway. We had dhs, elements of DHS defunded for months. Democrats aren't going to play ball with anything constructively, I'll give them that. So if they're not going to be constructive, you might as well try to be destructive to their prospects. I think destruction to their prospects is part of the Save America Act. Keeping girls out of boys out of girls sports and making sure people who aren't citizens of this country don't vote you can't figure out a way to paint that difference with the Democrats. That is only the explanation. The only explanation for that is idolatry tightly clutched.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Why is it vital to have foreign intelligence tools if it's not vital to have domestic election security? There's only one reason and it's idolatry because that makes no sense in any other way.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, I mean Aaron's montage included a story. A foreign born judge gets to decide what America's election law is. I'm not sure we should ever have foreign born judges in America. I mean what would be the reason to ever have any idolatry? Yeah, what? A foreign born judge should have a say on literally anything. You're a foreigner. I mean you're given some grace and compassion by being allowed to be here. But no, I don't really know why a foreign born judge would really have. Should be given. Like I'm not even sure why it should even be permitted. Frankly. There's a good reason why we'd have foreign born judges.

[Aaron McIntyre]

There's not a lot of pressure. Listen, the conservative lifestyle has created a world where quite frankly our best and brightest don't go into a lot of fields that they need to go into a lot more. That's a huge problem.

[Todd Erzin]

True. But I still got to believe in a nation of 360 million people we can.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, there's some.

[Todd Erzin]

We don't need any foreign born judges.

[Steve Dace]

I'm going to guess I volunteer as tribute.

[Todd Erzin]

I mean I'll do it, you know, you know, I'll add it to Marco Rubio, add to his list of jobs. All right, we're up against the break. We'll save the, the last one because it's, it's a doozy. It's. It also was probably inevitable and you know, someone gave me a theory a few months ago. I won't out them, but a name many of you would know gave me a theory a few months ago that Buckley Carlson, the. I think that's Tucker's brother. Right. Okay. That he's not just some whack job half cocked, they're two peas in a pod. And that essentially the brother is just able to kind of say things that Tucker wishes he could say but thought that he couldn't say either at the time or at the risk of his platform. Right. And I didn't really know what to make of that when that was shared with me a few months ago, whether that's true or not. But what we're going to share with you when we come back is Going to pretty much confirm that that is true as you're going to see Tucker end up in a ditch that he was always going to end up in. Because when you deconstruct, you go all the way down. We'll get to that. And then it appears we might be rebooting the DCU again. All right, we'll get into that with Pop Culture Tuesday here in a moment. Stay tuned.

[Chase Davis]

The steve day show.

[Todd Erzin]

So speaking of giving stuff to my kids, in the this case, I, I did give this one up. Don't really have need for a bed right now, but my son does. Moving out on his own. So I gave him the, the opportunity to try out Ghostbed, one of our partners here on the show. He gave it an absolutely rave review. So no more waking up sweaty, tossing and turning, throwing the covers off at 2am and then putting them back on a few hours later. The cooling tech is built into every mattress. It's not just some expensive upgrade you got to pay extra for. It's standard in the Ghostbed. And hot sleepers are some of Ghostbeds happiest customers. Read all the reviews. You get incredible support, less stiffness, deeper sleep, more rested mornings as well. And for their 4th of July sale, get an extra 10 off. And with financing, some Ghostbeds come out to just around a dollar a day. So go to ghostbed.com Steve. Use that promo code Steve for an extra 10 off ghostbed.com Steve. Use the code Steve for an extra 10 [e-mail] Steve. All right, we've got one more clip in idolatry or not. And you know, when we started the segment, on the very first day that we came Back in 2026, we started a new segment, deconstructing Tucker. Deconstructing. This is deconstructed even faster than I feared at the time. And we were probably always going to end up right here.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Charlie Kirk was murdered.

[Rob Sand]

Yeah.

[Guest or Caller 1]

And he was not murdered for his opinions on transgenderism. Obviously. He was, I believe, and most people who knew him well, as I did and was friends with him as I was, believe he was most likely murdered for his evolving views on Israel. So I, I get it. And a lot's at stake. The world is at stake. But from my perspective, I have a duty to say what I think is true. I'm often wrong. And I always say that because it's a fact. I have been wrong a lot, and I may be wrong now, but I am sincere. I'm saying what I believe is true. And I'm going To continue doing that no matter what.

[Todd Erzin]

Todd,

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't know if it's idolatry. It's certainly something he just got done saying within a 30 second window. I've been wrong a lot. I've been wrong before, I might be wrong now. But right before that, he says, Charlie didn't get killed for transgenderism, obviously.

[Todd Erzin]

Like I, I haven't.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Is. Is it insanity?

[Steve Dace]

Is it idols asking answering a question about transgenderism?

[Aaron McIntyre]

I don't know what this is.

[Todd Erzin]

Oh, I know what it is. But Aaron, I'm gonna let you go first.

[Steve Dace]

Yeah, I've invoked this before. Todd just illustrated an example. He wasn't killed because of his views on transgenderism. Obviously to whom? To what? Obviously to whom. Can you flesh that out a little bit?

[Todd Erzin]

He says to those who knew him best, obviously obvious.

[Steve Dace]

What does obvious. Should we look that up real quick? Obviously, can we do that real quick?

[Aaron McIntyre]

It means he might not have any chance of being wrong. And then he says, I might be wrong.

[Steve Dace]

An adverb used to describe something that is so clearly true, visible or easy to understand that there is no doubt about it. That's what obviously means. He was not killed for his views on transgenderism. Obviously. Obviously. So he was answering a question about transgenderism when he was shot in the neck. Correct. That's what I thought was the story. And then the person who. And we can get into that can of worms as well, who the authorities believe shot him was roommates with tranny. So there's that. Jeremy Boreing has his own podcast now and he went into an episode of all of these little rhetorical tricks that both Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens play with their audience. Obviously, obviously just toxic in the. Obviously every now and then. Also, I seem to recall like two months ago, Tucker Carlson getting very critical of Candace Owens on this issue. So there's another thing that has, that has changed there.

[Todd Erzin]

If we were alive and they had this kind of technology, to hear Pelagius Arius, Muhammad. Marcione, who Tucker is basically the reiteration of it would. These conversations would have sounded like this. This is, this is cultic gaslighting is what it is. This is the assumption that your audience are basically retards and easily persuadable, easily dominated, easily manipulated. It's highly cynical. There's a clip going around of Candace making the same claim about a period of time, four different times, and they've all been true all times, or I'm sorry, they've all not been true each time. And she just keeps doing it again and resetting the date. You do this stuff when you just assume your audience are single celled organisms and easily manipulated. Because what you heard Todd say a few, just a few minutes ago, he refutes his own point. If you have ears to hear, if you're not bought into a narrative, if you're just listening to what he says and not waiting to have some kind of myopic narrative affirmed before we even look at the evidence, his own statements can't be simultaneously true. It's obvious and it's the truth. But I'm wrong all the time. Those things just aren't simultaneously true. So this is cultic, heterodoxical gaslighting is what this is. It's just being applied in a modern, modern technique over modern media, that's all.

[Steve Dace]

On the evening of September 10th, when we still didn't know a subject or suspect, I was willing to entertain about any possibility because the way that I understood about Charlie Kirk's worldview, I mean, he could make himself a target for a lot of people because as we saw and found out in his legacy now, he really was going up against the gates of hell. It's June 23, 2026. There's an act of trial going on right now.

[Todd Erzin]

I know, I know. With all kinds of mounting insurmountable evidence. So, so Israel's master plan. You know what, let me just, let me deconstruct the deconstructor here. Israel's master plan was to assassinate arguably the biggest platformed evangelical on planet earth, but then let Tucker Carlson just ramble on for two years, exposing everything they've done. And they're just, they haven't eliminated him. Israel's got this level of power and authority. They control Donald Trump, they control the world, they silence Charlie Kirk, but by golly, they just can't get to Tucker Carlson. They're just letting him spout off. And they're just sitting over there right now in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and they just can't believe that they haven't figured out a way to eliminate Tucker yet. He slips through their fingers. That's, that's essentially what we're being asked to believe, right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, yes.

[Todd Erzin]

That's the narrative, right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Yes.

[Todd Erzin]

How retarded does it sound when you say it out loud? Very, very obviously and. Ah, yes, we'll leave it there. That's good, that's good. All right, let's get to Pop Culture Tuesday. And this will be a very good bookend. The segment we started the show where some men stepped forward to make Major League Baseball Learn a lesson, right?

[Chase Davis]

It's.

[Todd Erzin]

It's very clear, particularly the female ones. It is very clear that today's young stars are just not going to learn any lessons. I present to you the. The spiritual sister of Rachel Ziegler here.

[Steve Dace]

Discussion online about Kara's queerness in the

[Todd Erzin]

comments, was that something that you explored

[Steve Dace]

when you were preparing for the role?

[Chase Davis]

It wasn't, but in honor of Pride Month, as I'm getting all these questions, I don't know. I think that what makes this film so beautiful is that it's not centered around a man. It's not centered around love, if anything, but we'll see. I don't really. I don't really know, but I don't know. I don't know. She probably go both ways.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, let me tell you what doesn't go both ways between this and, you know, the comment she said about Christian fathers was a little out of context. She said. I mean, essentially what she said was, you know, I'll look at all these guys that are old men are criticizing me all the time and then can't believe what they're saying about me as a young woman. And I'll see their bios online. And it often says Christian and father. So it's a little out of context, but still, if you're trying to sell a movie, it's a context you don't even attempt to touch. And especially now when you dovetail it with this. Well, let me tell you, it doesn't go both ways. The ticket sales for Supergirl, the estimates keep dropping and dropping and dropping. It's very clear that these stars, especially the young female ones, cannot help themselves. They are so used to ruling from a long house of their own making via social media that they just can't be challenged. They can't be questioned that they are the matriarchy and they just clearly are not used to another. Another America where that's just simply not the case. And this is another IP that is probably dead on arrival before it opens in theaters nationwide Thursday night. And this. This is good to bring in because now you have. The Ellisons have just bought Warner Brothers and they run Paramount. And while I understand there's a lot of reticence about the Warner, about the Ellisons in an audience like this because of how much they're embedded via Oracle into AI, they're also very close with the Trumps and from. From mainstream. From a mainstream Hollywood perspective, and that may sound like faint price, and it may be, but from a mainstream Hollywood perspective, they are Pretty based right wingers. Okay, this is the. Paramount is the studio that gave us the Maverick reboot that gave us all the. Is it Ty Sheridan? Is that the guy that does all those shows? Aaron, Am I right?

[Aaron McIntyre]

Oh, Taylor.

[Todd Erzin]

Taylor Sheridan. Thank you. Okay. They're the studio that has produced all those, you know, very unwoke shows mocking transgenderism and stuff with Billy Bob Thornton and Kevin Costner. Well, they just bought Warner Brothers and you know, notice around the time. Notice how quickly the new Superman movie went into production. Almost as if James Gunn realized, I've got to get a real hit here. The first Superman that. His Superman movie last summer. It was okay. It wasn't bad, wasn't great. It was okay. Made a modest profit. But Superman, that Superman shield is one of the most well known emblems on planet Earth. It can't just be okay. It's got to be a billion dollar film. And that film was barely 700 million. So now your next one's going to be Supergirl and she's gonna essentially try to be the. The white British accented Rachel Ziegler. You saw what she did to Snow White last year in the year before as an ip. So this one looks dead on arrival. Your next movie is Clayface, which of course I know who that is. But for most people that's an obscure Batman reference. They don't know. So you're gonna make a Batman film that has no Batman in it or reference to him. That sounds really. And then you've got man of Tomorrow. This is. That better be Wrath of Khan level. Good.

[Aaron McIntyre]

It won't come on.

[Todd Erzin]

I know it won't, but it's gonna have to be. And if it's not, you're gonna see the elements are gonna kick gun to the curb and they're gonna reboot all this again probably in about five years. Because this thing, this. You can't continue on managing this this way. And it's very clear that no one at Warner Brothers took. She's a young actress. She's never been at the face of an IP before. It's very clear no one took her aside. Although even if they did, I doubt she would have listened anyway. She's the online longhouse, you know, she rules the world. The rest of us bow down to her. And so it's like they're just never going to learn, guys. No matter how much money they lose,

[Aaron McIntyre]

most of the guys. Go ahead, Aaron.

[Steve Dace]

Did you notice that she accidentally tattled on Pride Month? She was asked this question about queerness, and she said in Honor of Pride Month. I think there's something very beautiful about not having a man at the center of the story. In fact, it's not even about love at all.

[Todd Erzin]

Yeah, that's good. That's a good catch right there.

[Steve Dace]

We know.

[Todd Erzin]

That is a good catch right there.

[Guest or Caller 1]

Yeah.

[Aaron McIntyre]

Most of the guys in superhero land, though, agree with her. She can't control herself, but they can't either. The toei lightsaber crowd and the he man crowd rejected the purple purpose of these movies a long time ago. And you've instructed your audience about these movies, Steve. They were made with a very explicit Judeo Christian worldview in mind to elevate the mosaic and christological themes. Correct. You said that before, right? The superhero crowd turned this into an idol. They rejected all that. They just want the cool uniforms. God is actually using Millie Adcock because the dude bro idolatry of these things mocked God. Ultimately, they weren't willing to be heroes in real life, which is the point of making these things. And if we aren't willing to be heroes of me in life, we don't get to watch these movies. That's why they should die. We can't expect them to be anything but mediocre. And God is actually using her because he will not be mocked. And so he's giving the crowd exactly what they deserve.

[Todd Erzin]

Well, then maybe what we're going to learn is there's just not as many of these men as you fear because these. The box office is showing. This thing's going to do less than 50 million opening weekend, which is abysmal. A film of this magnitude, this level of budget, that's an abysmal opening. That's absolutely no chance of making its money back. Maybe not even on its production budget, let alone the. The PNA or the publicity. And remember, whenever they try to tell you, you know, they try to tell you, well, here's what it costs to make the film and here's the. All the, the what the neurotic guys call the access based media out there, meaning people that will just, you know, say what the studios wants. They can keep, keep going on the junkets for free. That's not the total budget of a film. And typically you spend about dollar for dollar on your production budget for publicity. So if it cost $180 million to make this film, which is the estimates that I saw, then you really would have. You're really looking at probably well over 300 million for the total cost of the film on top of publicity. And if the opening box office numbers Are this is going to come in less than 50 million an opening weekend. The competition's only getting stiffer as we go into July. You have Spider man in July. You have the Odyssey in July. Yeah, I mean, this thing's. You have another Minions movie in July too. That's. Minions is the most successful IP that Universal Studios has in the 21st century, other than dinosaurs. So you're up against Minions, you're up against Spider man, and you're up against the Christopher Nolan and his, you know, every other year, you know, late January slot, this thing's dead and it won't make its money back.

[Aaron McIntyre]

So,

[Todd Erzin]

I mean, I don't.

[Chase Davis]

I.

[Todd Erzin]

The thing with Gun I find fascinating is we were sold that he's the fanboy, so he knows what we think. So we're going to do a Superman movie. That was right. That was the right call. Just should have made a better one. And then we're going to do Supergirl and Clayface. Okay. That's the plan. I. I think they're pretty close to a new plan. Man of Tomorrow better next summer. If man of Tomorrow is not Wrath of Khan, Ellison's are going to reboot it.

[Aaron McIntyre]

How can it be?

[Todd Erzin]

I don't know. I've never been. I've never been in charge of a 200 million dollar movie.

[Steve Dace]

I don't know.

[Todd Erzin]

I just. I just know that's what it's going to have to be. I'm not sure how they're going to pull it off, but I just know that's what they're going to have to do. It's going to have to be a Wrath of Khan, meaning that Wrath of Khan rebooted what a lot of people thought was a dead IP in Star Trek Wreck. The first film was a failure and it completely reimagined it and then off we went. That's why I'm using that analogy.

[Rob Sand]

Go hard.

[Todd Erzin]

Romans 8, 20, 18.