Salt and Light preachers, or Coward preachers
Today's session of Get Real is with my friend Joe Dekrion. Joe, you're from Alaska. I'm from Alaska, George, born, bred, water fed, hoorah! I've been to Alaska. In fact, my dad told me to make that my last trip because I wouldn't want to go anywhere else after that because I would not be impressed. Alaska, scenic overkill, the best hunting and fishing imaginable. And yet you left. Why did you come to Lynchburg? I wanted to go to a Christian University. I wanted to go to a Christian University where I could play ice hockey. I wanted to go to a Christian University where I could do Army ROTC because I wanted to be an Army officer, and Liberty checked all those boxes. And so in August of 2005, when I was 18, I packed up a suitcase. I left for the East Coast, never been to the East Coast in the United States, but I just figured no one does anything great with their life by sitting at home and not taking risk.And so I came out here, graduated in 2009, did Army ROTC, commissioned as a second lieutenant in 2009, went to seminary and finished up seminary in 2012 with my master's divinity. And then 2013, I launched and church planted Lynchburg City Church. You're also a chaplain and a lieutenant colonel.I mean, golly, you rose up through the ranks pretty fast. Were you actually a chaplain to the military or are you now? Yes, I have been in the Army 17 years as of last month. So I am an Army Reserve chaplain.I'm not active duty, otherwise I wouldn't be able to pastor, but I am a Reserve chaplain. So just kind of how they advertise two weeks, one week in a month, two weeks a year type of thing, that's what I've been doing for the last 17 years, more or less. Our Secretary of War, Pete Headseth, I love that man.I like him too. He recently listed what are, let's say, qualified faiths that the chaplains will cover. Back not too many years ago, Wiccans, Satanists, you name it, they were voodoo.It was covered. There's a lot of controversy right now over his disqualifying some of them. How do you feel about that? What I've learned being in the Army for 17 years is that every four or eight years you have a new regime that comes into town.And if you don't like the current administration, if you wait four or eight years, there'll be a new administration that maybe you like more. So for the prior four years, I was on the outside looking in. Now with the current administration, I'm on the inside looking out.If you wait long enough, it'll flip itself around and readjust. It seems you haven't readjusted though. I'm a unique person, George. I love that.

I love that. When I lived in Germany, I noticed that the cathedrals were absolutely gorgeous and empty. No congregations.They had pastors, they had priests, but no congregations. And when I filled out my income tax report, I noticed I could check a box where my tax money would go to the Lutheran Church or the Catholic Church. Well, I saw where the seminaries where they teach the errors of the Bible, and I found that out from pastors themselves that went there.They were learning the errors of the Bible so they could teach their congregations. I asked these three young men one time, they were talking to me about that, and I said, what congregations? I said, you can stay at home to be an agnostic. Why go to the problem of trouble going to church? And I said, here's something you are going to have to remember.Teachers, pastors, are going to be held much more accountable than the rest of us. It seems that you feel that you are going to be held accountable, and I feel the same. You see, before World War II, Adolf Hitler went to the pastors of Germany, and he told them, you preach your little sermons in church, stick to the issues in church, I'll take care of everything everywhere else.And two-thirds of them capitulated, went along with Hitler, either out of fear, or maybe they were in agreement with him. I don't know. One-third became the Confessing Church, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was murdered, along with several thousand other pastors.But Christianity died in Europe when people saw that Christianity, it had no teeth, it had no practical, if it could not stop the Holocaust, if it could not stop tens of millions of people being killed, which it could have if it had acted. The Nazis were only about three percent of the population if the pastors had acted. But they didn't.Why must pastors in America be different, and how can they be different from the pastors in Germany? Because I haven't seen a whole lot of difference. Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. I think we all probably know that quote.And what I saw during the prior administration from our Supreme Leader, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was a level of insanity that I've never seen or even read about in recent history. And I think the reality is, George, we have so many weak, woke, pathetic pastors today who've totally abdicated their roles as shepherds. They've not done a good job gatekeeping.They've not done a good job of protecting the sheep from the wolves. And you know what I'm talking about? During the summer of love, the mostly peaceful protests during Black Lives Matter, George Floyd dies and it's full stop. It's from the pulpit.Well, we need to examine our inner racism and repent. White people, I'm talking about you. I heard that coming from well-respected evangelical leaders that I looked up to.And then fast forward, Charlie Kirk dies. And from those same leaders, it's, well, you know, he said some really inflammatory things that we just can't ignore. Like, that's what I mean by so many pastors today are total sellouts.They've abdicated their roles. They've abdicated their responsibilities. They're weak.They're woke. They're pathetic. But you know who isn't? You go to Colossians 4, verse 12, a lesser known Bible character named Epaphras.

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