Erick Erickson 3-26-25 Hr 3

I'm flummoxed. Nikki Haley's son just put up the screenshot. Robert E. Lee files to challenge Representative Timmons in GOP primary. And it shows a picture of a young couple. The wife is black. The man who's running, Robert E. Lee is white. That is a picture of America healing. God bless them. Welcome back. It's Eric Erickson here. Across the United States of America. I am delighted to have you with me. The full number is 877-97-973-4425. Should you wish to be on the program. So... This is odd. I'm trending on Twitter. And now, so, you know what? We're headed into Holy Week now. I will, so I've got a great good Friday show lined up for you. I am, it looks like, no 100% guarantee, but the number one complaint that I get. On my Good Friday show every year is that I never have Catholics on. And I've had Father Stephen Gadbury, who is a fantastic guy, the diocese of Little Rock. But yeah, I've had Tim Keller. I've had Al Muller. I've had Lincoln Duncan. Had a lot of the Protestants. I am hoping that Bishop Robert Barron will be with me next Friday. And Doug Wilson, who is always in the news out of Moscow, Idaho. He is going to be joining me next Friday to talk about Good Friday. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar, you knew to do the show. We don't get, well, we get pretty explicitly theological, but here's the thing. It is the single most important event in human history. Even atheist scholars at Harvard and Oxford and elsewhere have acknowledged that the death of a carpenter in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago is a turning point in human history. It's such a turning point in human history. We literally divide the calendar based on his birth. A, D and B.C. And you may say B.C. and C.E. to secularize it. But where does the split come, people?

So I spend an entire show on that. I otherwise don't even Holy Week, although all my writings next week, if you text Eric to 33777 and you subscribe, the very first link to my show notes, next week I don't do, I send out the show notes at noon, but my morning pieces, it doesn't matter, the world may fall apart, but on the week of Holy Week, I always write on theological topics. So let me just describe why I'm a trending topic right now. There is a group called, I think, American reformers. So I'm in the Presbyrian Church in America, and they have, to my knowledge, excluded this group. from being able to be a vendor, have a booth, display at their annual gathering of the PCA. This group, American Reformers, tied to another group. That other group is tied to some publication that is tied to some sort of Nazi pornographer. I don't know all the details, but it's a wild-sorted thing of you've got white nationalists and Christian nationalists. They don't necessarily like each other, but they're trying to advance a politicized church. You know why you can't have a Christian nation. Finland is a Christian nation purportedly. Finland has a state church. They're the good Lutherans, those Finns, the church of Finland. They've got a state church. They are, by definition, a Christian nation. They have a state church. Yesterday, the British, also a purportedly Christian nation, filled with Christian nationalists, they installed the new Archbishop of Canterbury, a woman. There are lots of jokes. I'm not going to make them. I pity the bishops in the driver's seat with her in the back seat. I said, turn right, no, turn left, turn left. She's going to want the whole church to turn left. In Finland, a woman has been convicted of a war crime. This is a Christian nation. This is a Christian nation. Finland, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is a national church in Finland. It is the primary national church. 69% of the population as of 2019 are members. They have a general synod. Now, Finland has full freedom of religion. The national churches are no longer state religions, but they have a special relationship with the state in Finland. There's also the Orthodox Church of Finland as a national church with a legal right to levy taxes. So the Orthodox Church of Finland has a legal right to levy taxes in Finland. It is, definitionally, Finland is a Christian nation. It's what the Christian nationalists say they want in this country. And in Finland, a minister has been found guilty of a war crime. Do you know why the minister in Finland has been convicted of a war crime? It's going to blow your mind. A minister in Finland. Pavi...

Rassanen, Raysanen, has been convicted of a war crime and crimes against humanity, along with the bishop, for publishing a pamphlet 20 years ago that describes homosexuality as a sin and marriages between a man and a woman. This is from the Alliance Defending Freedom. In a three to two split decision, the pastor and the bishop were convicted for making and keeping available a 2004 pamphlet within their church. The court acknowledged the content did not incite violence or hatred, but found them guilty. It even went so far as to say that the conduct in question was not particularly serious while finding them criminally liable. The court found them guilty for having made available to the public and kept available to the public opinions that insult homosexuals as a group on the basis of sexual orientation in the 20-year-old pamphlet. The court ruled that the impugned statements must be removed from public access and destroyed. In a 2019 Bible verse tweet, Resenon questioned her church's leadership decision to sponsor a gay pride event. The court unanimously held that it did not meet the threshold for incitement as she justified her concerns by citing a biblical text. But here the pamphlet quotes biblical text and is considered a war crime. A war crime. It is a war crime and a crime against humanity for publishing a pamphlet more than 20 years ago. This is a Christian nation. This is a nation with a church that can collect and levy taxes. This is why the Christian nationalism project always ultimately fails, because Christian nationalism turns into, well, the state co-opting the church. There's never been examples in the entire world of a Christian nation not co-opting the church for politics. The church stands on the outside. and is prophetic inward. The church must be able to hold the state accountable. And when the church becomes a part of the state, it can't hold the state accountable. There's a big movement for Christian nationalism out there. Now, one of these groups, American reformer, has advanced this organization called the Center for Baptist Leadership. and has put a guy in charge of it who he's clearly got some issues. His name is William Wolf, and he spends his time online harassing Christians, bullying Christians, and I finally had enough of it a few weeks ago. He went after John Piper. He has, to my knowledge, William Wolf has said nothing about Casey means the practitioner of witchcraft being Surgeon General, the Center for Baptist Luther said, to my knowledge, maybe they have, and I've missed it, they haven't shown it to me, criticized the government for trying to put a Steve Witkoff in charge of Surgeon General. But it come after John Piper in the past, Tim Keller, I finally had enough of it. So he's become obsessed with me. I don't talk about it very much, but I have a, well, a pretty harmless stalker that I have to deal with.

Their bark is worse than their bite. They're little chihuahuas. They bark and they're yappy. But there's not a lot of substance there. There's not a lot of substance. They don't have support. And there are a lot of Christian pastors who they go on social media and they hear the strum and drain. They hear the wind and the howl and the fury. And then they go, oh my gosh, we should live in fear of these people. They could bully us. We could lose you. No, you're not going to lose your job because of these people. They're just online bullies with no presence of the real world. They need to touch grass. If you are a person who thinks you've won an argument because of a Twitter ratio, you're not a serious person. If you are a person who claims to be for advancing the cause of the church, and Mike Pence is the bad guy, you may disagree with Mike Pence politically, but you can't question his faith. He is an ardent advocate of Christendom. He has defended the church. He lives his life in prayer. He's been ridiculed by secular media for being faithful to his marriage and faithful to his church. Christians don't be afraid of the bullies. And here's my ultimate problem with Christian nationalism, is they have this belief that they must do something to save the church and country. And they tie the church and the country together. You know, this country is not going to last. I've read to the end of the book. This country and this world are not permanent things, but the church is. And your chief duty as a Christian is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. It's not to save the church. You can't save the church. God can and will save the church. He doesn't need you to save the church. And you may be a faithful instrument of his will, but he doesn't need you. And these people are convinced that but for them, the Bill Gates of hell will prevail. And it has led them into all sorts of idol worship and frenzy online. And I finally had enough of it. And I finally stood up to the bullies this morning, and my Lord, are they unhappy with me? But I stand by every word I wrote. The Bill Gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Some of these people out there, I'm not sure they're really in the church. They're worshiping idols. And this guy in particular, he needs a lot of prayer. He's just come unglued. And he needs a lot of prayer. To think that Mike Pence is somehow a pariah? No, you may disagree with him politically, but he's a man who prays sincerely for my wife and for other people. He's a good dude. Follow Eric on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble. Search E.W. Erickson.

Taking the complicated and making it simple. It's the Eric Erickson show. Hello, welcome. It's Eric Erickson here. Those of you on the phones, please stand by. I will come to you in the very next segment. I ran long in the last segment. Bad clock management on my part, and you must pay the price. 877973. 745, should you wish to be on the program, I would be very happy to have you on the program. Now, we do have other news I want to talk about, but when we come back, I want to take your phone calls. But I just, I got to play this audio for you because, you know, I grew up over there. And to have the Minister of State for the United Arab Emirates be a woman. Kind of gives you a hint into how, well, how they've progressed. This is her with Brett Baer last night. First of all, let's just paint the picture as you see it from the UAE, how things are going, what it looks like from your end of the world. Well, first of all, Brett, what happens in the Gulf clearly doesn't stay in the Gulf. So Iran's attack on Gulf allies of the United States and Jim Jordan is an attack on the entire world and the world economy, including its closure of the Straits of Hormuz. Let's not forget that a fifth of the world's oil and gas goes through the Straits of Hormuz. 30% of its fertilizers for food production and harvest goes through the Straits of Hormuz. And the UAE may commit soldiers now to ground operations in Iran. Amazing how Iran has united everyone. Let me unite you with my affection for the Edenpeer Thunderstorm. You can get three of them and save $200 at Edenpuredeals.com. The discount code is Eric 3. ERICK, the number three, no space at Edenpeer Deals.com. They wipe out odors. Every odor. No odor can stand up to it. If you go to Edenpeer Deals.com, you put in Eric 3, you get three of them, you save 200 bucks. And by the way, they have a money-back guarantee. If they don't wipe out odors, as they claim, you can get your money back. See the site for details on that. They also get rid of pollen and dust floating in the air. They kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses that get pulled through the machine. They are fantastic. And they work. I keep one of my travel bag. They are, you can hold it in your hand. It's small. It packs a wallop. You went for upstairs, downstairs, your basement, your travel bag, your RV, wherever you need them. One for rooms of your house. If I went on my back porch, if my smoker gets a little smoky, it can sometimes leak in there and make it smell smoky. And it wipes out the orders every time. Edenpuredeals.com. The discount code is Eric 3, E-R-I-C-K-3, Edenpeerdeals.com. They really do work.

America. It's Eric Erickson here. 877-97-973-7-425's the number as promised going to Oklahoma to take Ryan's phone call. If I can push the button, there you go. Ryan, welcome to the show. How are you? Hey, how are you doing, Eric? How's going? Good. Good, good. I just wanted to just mention, you know, that story you had from the ministers from Finland, the war crimes charge. I've seen a correlation between that and like James Talarico. And this is where the left will go in and start adding tools to their toolbox by basically commandeering and hijacking. Like they took over gender and they invented transgenderism. And now they're going after Christianity to use that as a tool as a weapon against people. And I'm kind of seeing a pattern. And I don't know, just wanted to. Yeah, you know, so I'm glad you said that. And so hang on a second. Hang on. Now suddenly Conquest laws. Yeah, it was Robert Conquest. Ryan, I'm going to let you go there because I'm getting wind on your phone that I can hear in my ears. And there are Conquest three laws of politics. Everyone is conservative about which he knows best. What does this mean? When you are an expert in something, you tend to understand that the certain deviations to that are not good things. You are an expert. You become conservative about that which you know best. You don't want change to what you know best because you know how the change will affect what you know best. The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. You ever want to know so much you think that the government is evil? It's actually oftentimes it's not actually evil. It's incompetent. To understand the way any organization works, assume it's controlled by a cabal of its enemies. Now, the number two rule, I got him out of order, this is actually the number two rule, and this gets to Ryan's point here, any organization not explicitly right-wing, sooner or later becomes left-wing. The Church of England is an example of conquest law. Amnesty International. The Southern Poverty Law Center. Any organization not explicitly right wing sooner or later becomes left wing. In fact, the ACLU is another example, the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, all these organizations. Over time, the left likes to co-opt these institutions. Now, it's hard to co-opt the Christian Church in America. What you have to do is you have to go to denominations that have left the church behind. People get mad at me sometimes when I make jokes about the Episcopal Church, but the Episcopal Church is a post-Christian church in America. Their former bishop actually believed that in the story of St. Paul and Axe, rescuing a girl from her, rescuing a demon from her, that he was committing some sort of abuse.

It's just, it's been bizarre to watch these denominations embrace so much that is antithetical to actual scripture. You know, so here's the thing. Ryan, I'm blaming you for this. I'm going to blame you, but let me just explain this one to you. Am I the king of England? Am I the king of England? Am I the king of England? What do you think? Am I the king of England? No. What if I tell you I'm the king of England? You would say, Erickson, you're not. And if I insisted I was the king of England, would you believe me? No, you would get me help. It's like the trans issue. I can tell you all day long I'm a girl, but I'm not. I don't have... Double X chromosomes. I've got XY. I'm a boy. By the way, there's news. The Olympic Committee has announced no men in women's sports, no women in men's sports, no trans athletes allowed. You will have to compete in the sport of your biology. Now, the left in this country humors people who believe that they are what they are not. If I were to say I'm the king of England, they wouldn't respect me. If I were to tell you that my pronouns are we, And I meant it in a royal way. They wouldn't respect me. If I said I meant them we in a non-gender binary way, they would. That's how insane the rule is. If I tell you I'm a Muslim, you would probably say, no, you're not. Because, well, I'm going to go have ribs tonight with a glass of bourbon. And I'm not going to pray five times towards Mecca. And it doesn't offend me if you draw the prophet Muhammad. You'd say you're not a Muslim. But for some reason of this country, the way the left works, if you call yourself a Christian, who are you to judge? Now, in fairness, scripture says, judge not let she be judged. But at the same time, the very next verse talks about not throwing pearl before swine. In other words, Christianity suggests that there's a level of discernment. If someone just calls themselves a Christian and doesn't live a Christian life, you don't have to presume they're Christian. You don't have to say, well, that's between them and God. Who am I to judge? No, you can say, look, look at the way this person lives their life. Look at the way this person asks. They never go to church. They don't have a relationship with a church. They have no accountability structure. They don't know the Bible. They don't know scripture. They believe all these things that no Christian believes. They're probably not a Christian. You're allowed to say that that's not judging. That's exercising your God-given discernment. And in fact, in Second Corinthians, it says very, or maybe it's First Corinthians, it says very explicitly that if someone is a Christian, they have a higher level of accountability in the church. If someone calls themselves a Christian and they are deviating from the basics, you're to call them and hold them accountable. But that's antithetical to this idea that progressives have wrapped up, and I can call myself a Christian, not believe anything about the Bible, and who are you to judge me? Well, as a Christian, if you call yourself a Christian, the Bible says, I am to judge you. It's the non-Christians you're not supposed to judge. That's very scriptural. And if you don't think that's scriptural, you need to go to a better church. It's actually in the Bible. It's not in Eric Erickson's opinion. It's like the literal text of the Bible. But to the left, they want to be able to co-opt institutions. They have a hard time under Conquest Rules outside of...

churches that take the Bible seriously. You have to get a church to convince itself that there's more than the Bible, or the Bible doesn't mean what it says, and that's how you co-opt like the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Sign out to some degree, the Presbyterian Church USA, the dying. It's very interesting what's happening to these denominations that have been co-opted by the left. They're all dying. The last Episcopalian has been born in the United States of America, the way that church is dying. Same with the PC USA. I am doing an event tonight for a Christian school in Atlanta. They have asked me now for three, four years in a row to do a fundraiser where I just show up, hang out, eat some barbecue, have a glass of bourbon, and it's kind of an ask me anything with the men, the father's in this church or in this school. This school met at a Baptist church. And across the street, was a massive Presbyterian Church, a massive facility. It was PCUSA. And they found out that the church might be for sale. The congregation was old and dying off. And they went to the Presbyterian Church, PCUSA Church, and they asked that they could sell the building. And the men in the school, it's a classical Christian school here in Atlanta, say they went to the pastor, a woman. And this is how she started the conversation. They were interested in selling, but they needed to ask, if a trans child went to that school, would that child be allowed to go to the school? And from what I'm told, they said, absolutely. That child and every other child is welcome in the school, but we're not going to affirm something that is outside Scripture when it comes to their identity. We will affirm them as made fearfully in the image and likeness of God, and God made that person male or female. They can't make themselves. And before the conversation even began, it was over, and the church said, nope, sorry, can't do it. We're not going to sell to you bigots, basically. They wound up buying the church when it went out of business for less than they were offering when they went in the first time. God has a sense of humor. The whole facility, the church went under, died out because it was a PCUSA church that stopped believing in the Bible. You've got to believe in something. If you believe in everything, you're really believing in nothing.

The devil doesn't want you to believe in something. The devil wants you to believe in nothing, because if you believe in nothing, he can convince you of anything. In the organization, not explicitly right-wing, sooner or later becomes left-wing, there is a very famous conservative donor. It's Templeton, I think. He was mindful of conquest laws, and he gave a lot of money to an entity. And the rule was that the members of the board had to spend the billions of dollars. before they all died. He was dying. He left it to this fund. Why? Conquest law. He understood that if his money lasted beyond the original board of directors, that over time the organization would explicitly be co-opted into left-wing causes he didn't support. Like the Ford Foundation, like the Hewlett Foundation, like the Tides Foundation, all these foundations that were started for these noble causes over time became left-wing entities because they were not explicitly set out to be right-wing.

And you see that in churches that aren't grounded. So here's the thing, and this is the larger point that you need to understand. As we head to Holy Week, might as well make this point here. There are people who come to faith and they think, I've got to read it and understand this scripture myself. But here's the thing. There are 2,000 years of people before you who did the same thing. And there is a body of work. Now, I'm an evangelical Christian. In fact, I took this online test, and I am rated as down with John Calvin, and I am. I grew up Southern Baptist, but reformed, I think very highly of John Calvin, the extremely smart guy, whether you agree with him or not, brilliant person. The institutes of Christian religion is actually something you should read. It's understandable. It's not written at an academic level. You can understand it. It was written in the 1500s. Because of John Calvin, you have a Bible that has verses in it, not just chapters. Originally, the Bible had no chapters in the 1,200s. The Archbishop of Canterbury put in the chapters of the Bible. And then in the 1500s, the Geneva Bible came out. It was the first Bible that had regularized, standardized verses in the Bible. And even the Catholics embraced the verses that John Calvin got the French Catholic convert to Calvinism to put in the Bible. The Geneva Bible, that's why the Geneva Bible is so significant. You got 2,000 years of people who came before you. You've got St. Augustine. You've got Tertullian. You've got Arnais. You've got Ignatius. You've got Polycarp. You've got the people who were willing to be set on fire and set upon by lions. To think that you can come to a religion with 2,000 years of history and decide that you are right and they are wrong is a level of arrogance heretofore unknown by mankind. You have 2,000 years. And by the way, in the first 100 years was the great sorting. You know, well before the Council of Nicaea, the Bible was put together and circulated. And there's this mythology from people who don't understand that, oh, it's Constantine got the bishops together and steamrolled through the books of the Bible. No, that's not true at all. You had published list of the Bible that are exactly to what you have today that were published well before the Council of Nicaa. You've actually got a history here. You've got to understand history. And this is the ultimate thing. that people who understand history tend to be conservative. It is a symptomatic position of progressivism to not have an appreciation for history. With progressives, history begins again in you every day. You do not have to know what happened yesterday in order to advance your cause today. Conservatism is grounded in history. It is foundational to history. That's why I love history. Double major in college was political science in history, minor in English. You've got to understand history. You've got to understand where you've come from to be able to chart a direction of where you're going. And with progressivism, it's why it keeps failing all the time. It's gone from being progressive to being liberal, back to being progressive because nobody likes liberals. And now people don't like progressives. The Democratic Party is hated more by people in this country than anything other than Iran because they don't like progressives. Because they have no sense of history. They have no respect. They tear down the statues of the founders declaring them racist and slave owners. They tear down the statues of legend of American history because they cancel. Look at how quickly they canceled Jesus Chavez, who never should have been elevated in the first place, but he was convenient until he no longer was and they had his statues torn down overnight. No sense of history. They would have never put his statues up in the first place, and they had a sense of history.

You cannot come into Christendom and say, I have all these new ideas. Let me rethink 2,000 years of history. That is an arrogance that is putting you before the church. But that is what James Talarico and progressives do. James Talarico went to Austin Theological Seminary, anything it was, a liberal seminary. where they can begin again in you every day with no grounding history, and if they have to confront history, they can twist it into their own meaning so that they don't actually have to confront it. When you are confronted and anchored by history, you are internationally a conservative person. So it's real hard for the Bill Gates of hell to prevail against a church that stays true to itself. but it consumes those that have moved beyond Christendom. And there are a lot of churches that still claim to be Christian and they're not. You can use your discernment on which ones they are. But if you're grounded in not just scripture, but 2,000 years of common understanding of it, you're probably not going to be led astray by the world. You're at the intersection of politics, news, culture, and current events. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, do you know why today is a great day? Do you have any idea? Today is opening day for baseball. Major League Baseball is back today. Now I know there's preseason. But Major League Baseball is back, and that is fantastic. I don't spend my time watching massive amounts of games. I love going to games. This is from Major League Baseball. Opening day sounds just like home. The tarp is off, and the grill is fired up. From the bullpen to the bleachers, you realize this is the place we run to every spring. Where the love of the game calls us back. So button up your jersey. Put on your game face and make yourself at home. Baseball is back.

it goes on from there with spectacular montage of great plays baseball is back you know i got to tell you i'm a fan of the pitching clock too you know i wasn't sure i liked the pitch clock But I kind of think, you know, if you watch, what is it, the TGL, the Tiger Woods Golf League down in Florida that they do, they've got so long to be able to hit. I think they need to bring that concept, the pitch clock to golf tournaments to speed up the play of the golf tournaments. But, man, baseball is back. I'm looking forward to going to Braves games and Cubs games, my two favorite teams. I grew up a Cubby, and I root for the Braves. I love the Braves. But I grew up a Cubs fan and there is no park like Wrigley. I love Wrigley. Looking forward to going at some point this year. Let me tell you about incogny. Incogny can keep you protected online. A couple of years ago, I got doxed. We had police show up in our yard. Someone had found my information online. I was able to use the internet to call the police claim I had murdered my wife and my house was surrounded by the SWAT team. and they were able to get my information through a data broker website. And until now, I didn't know who to use to be able to protect me from those sites without doing it myself. But Incogny has come around. I-N-C-O-G-N-I, Incogny.com, slash Eric. You like me, can get 60% off by going to incogny.com slash Eric. I use my own code. And they will get you online, and they'll protect you online. They send takedown notices to these websites that sell your data. If you get your driver's license in 35 states, your state will sell your information to these sites, and you can be found online. Your address, credit agencies can layer over marketing information. Life insurance companies can buy it to jack up your rates. Lawyers can find it. Everybody can find you online. Become more private online with Egogni. They protect your privacy so people cannot find your information online. Thanks to Incogni, I am more and more protected. And when I find new sites, sell to my information, I flag them for Incogni, and they send the takedown notices.cogni.com slash Eric.