Episode 24: Chick-Fil-A, Culture Wars, And Womyn Preachers With Kira Davis
In episode twenty-four of The Babylon Bee podcast, editor-in-chief Kyle Mann and creative director Ethan Nicolle welcome back Kira Davis, political commentator, writer, filmmaker, and activist. In this episode they discuss Chick-Fil-A's donation shift, Kanye and Osteen, Christians and the culture wars, and women in church leadership. Kira Davis is editor-at-large at RedState and can be heard on her podcasts: Smart Girl Politics and Just Listen To Yourself. She recently co-wrote and directed the short film Minty about the heroism of Harriet Tubman. Follow her on Twitter @RealKiraDavis. Show Outline Introduction - Kyle, Ethan and Kira talk about Kira's first appearance on the Babylon Bee podcast, how Ethan's wife who happens to be a nurse sprang into action to save a pregnant woman recently, and how Kira's family was unimpressed by Santa. Story 1 - Joel Osteen Leads Kanye West To Top Of Lakewood Church To Tempt Him With All The Kingdoms Of The Earth In Their Splendor Story 2 - Capitol Building To Be Decorated As Giant Circus Tent For Duration Of Impeachment Hearings Story 3 - Chick-Fil-A Trades Adoring Christian Fans For Outraged Mob That Won't Be Appeased Until Their Every Demand Is Met Topics Of The Week - Kyle, Ethan, and Kira talk about how Christians can be involved in the culture without being compromised, whether art needs to affirm our beliefs and worldview, whether or not Harriet Tubman would carry an AR-15, favorite horror films, representing Jesus by doing excellent work, and why we don't want to be Europe. Hate Mail Subscriber Exclusive Content: Womyn Preachers Kyle, Ethan, and Kira talk about the 'Go Home' Controversy between John MacArthur and Beth Moore, women in ministry, the differences between men and women in general, the "OK Boomer" meme, the tremendous blessing of having kids, and how the government seems to have replaced the home as the primary focus of society. Become a paid subscriber here.
In a world of fake news, this is news you can trust.
Calling upon the two she-bears of satire in a world that cries, hey, Baldi, you're listening to the Babylon Bee with your hosts, Kyle Mann and Ethan Nicole.
Yes, I am Kyle Mann, and with me, as always, is the man, the legend.
His wife's a nurse.
Yes, she is.
She's an amazing nurse.
Ethan Nicole.
Nicole, Nicole.
Also, another legend is with us.
Our first ever recurring, returning guest.
Oh, my gosh.
What?
We've never had somebody back yet.
I've always wanted to be a first.
I can't get to be anywhere.
She's got the first second.
Because we had.
Did we have anybody back on?
Yeah.
Movie guy.
I guess that's true.
I always think of him as like he was already going to be a recurring guest when he came on.
Like we already were like, oh yeah, we're going to do movie episodes.
They are kind of special.
They're actually like our analytical movie calendars.
Also, I'm.
And his name's Brian Gadawa.
Sorry, Brian.
I was like, Brian, something.
I think I'm the first black woman on your podcast.
That's true.
I'll take that.
Yeah.
I'll take it.
I'll take anything.
I'm cheap.
I just want any kind of first.
I feel like they're all taken up.
I'm just joking.
You're before Candace Owens.
I was before Candace Owens.
I just wanted to take away her thunder.
Sorry.
We actually weren't the.
Well, I'm Kira, by the way.
Yeah, welcome, Kira Davis.
For anyone who's wondering what editor at large at Red State.
Yep.
I had to get in that in there.
But yeah, so if you haven't listened to this podcast or the backlog people that are listening, Kira Davis did an episode that has been one of the most commented on favorites.
Like people tell me constantly, like, I really like this.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
That was a great episode.
I love that one.
My mom.
Is that your mom?
That was my impression of that.
My mom said.
She goes, I like Kira.
I want her to be my friend.
Oh, tell your mom I will totally be her friend.
She didn't have that same thing to say about Bridget Fettis, I don't think.
Oh, it's just a little raw.
Poor Bridget.
Bridget and I are the same person, just on kind of like different ends of the spectrum.
But your mom might be disappointed to know that we're not that different.
It's really good to be back with you guys.
I'm really pleased with the response to that podcast.
I think it says a lot about what people are hungry for.
Totally.
Yeah.
I think everybody's sick of being angry all the time.
Not me.
No.
I want more anger.
Yes, there's never enough.
So, yeah, we were at this gala.
We went to this fancy event because Kyle just referred to my wife as a nurse.
We were there and this lady was pregnant, this pregnant lady.
She just suddenly passed out at the feet of my wife.
What?
An amazing nurse.
Like, it was like.
Oh, my God.
Like, if you wrote that into a script, it'd be like, come on, this is stupid.
Like, why would you pass out right at the feet of an amazing nurse?
My wife on it.
And I was just walking around all proud.
Everyone else is back away all nervous, like getting their drinks and like, maybe we should mingle over here.
Yes.
That would be me.
Leave the hurt person.
They're just every man for themselves.
That's amazing.
So shout out to my wife who also loved your episode.
Oh.
This is one of the few things that I do that she listens to it.
Right.
That's nice.
I get it.
None of my family listens to or watches anything that I do.
I mean, I'm on the number one cable news channel in America regularly.
And I don't think my family has seen one second.
They are not impressed with me at all.
Nothing I do impresses them.
Well, we'll be your family.
Thank you.
We're your new family.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Welcome to California.
Really excited.
Well, Christmas at the Babylon B compound is going to be lit.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
Three white guys in a little white room.
One gray wall.
Oh, no, no.
They have an accent wall.
Your listeners don't know what this place is.
This is a sprawling compound with acres and acres of green, clean land.
There's some goats.
There's some baby goats wandering.
Yeah, we do a lot of sacrifices.
Yeah.
They're Old Testament Christians here.
Keep it at OT.
Yep.
Well, this has been quite an intro.
We're already, we've dove in.
All right.
Well, we'll talk to you guys next time on the Babylon B podcast.
We're going to go through some stories here and we're going to create our main topic.
We're going to talk about the culture war.
Culture wars.
Insert crazy sound cue here.
Between, yeah.
It's Kira's idea.
How about I let her say what's going to be?
This is how prepared the Babylon Bee podcast guy.
What do you want to talk about?
It's just I trust Kira so much.
I'm like, whatever you say that you're going to talk about.
Well, I said that, and I know we're probably going to do one of these stories today, but what I said today, waking up, the big news was Chick-fil-A, perhaps bending the knee to LGBTQ activists.
Plus.
Plus.
The A is out.
The A got in trouble.
So there's no more A.
So it's just plus.
One of the A's is out, I think.
Like allies, they say allies are not allowed in the.
Oh, I didn't even know what the A was.
Well, there's also like asexual, I think, but I don't know if that's.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
But one of them is allies.
And they said, no, allies are not allowed in the letters.
Wow.
Right.
Because why would you want to welcome people who are on your side into your movement?
A little spoiled.
Yeah.
Well, anyways, that's the big news.
There's a lot going around.
We're, of course, writing about it at Red State as well.
Yeah.
And I thought, you know, here's a good opportunity to talk about the culture and how Christians should and maybe shouldn't be involved in the culture.
And I'm a conservative as well as a Christian.
And so we have this conversation a lot on my side of the political fence about how influential the culture is.
It really is.
So perhaps that's a great subject for us to address today because I think Babylon B is a big part of that too, kind of just fitting into the culture in a certain way.
Maybe we want to break down.
I know a lot of Christians struggle with it.
And I know even in my own family, we did.
Like when we moved to Southern California, we were pretty, like the black church is pretty conservative.
Like we were very conservative.
We did not celebrate Halloween.
We've never done Santa.
Like when we got here, everyone celebrated Halloween.
I felt like the worst parent in the world because we weren't doing Halloween.
We eventually, though, after much discussion, changed our minds about it.
So, but that's just an example of how Christians have to consider the culture and have to make certain judgment calls that perhaps other people don't.
So maybe we want to just address that and see.
Yeah, just the general idea.
Like, how do we deal with it?
Yeah.
How far into it should we be?
Yeah, what are our lines?
And what are the, also the weirdness of like when Christian stuff becomes really popular.
Yeah.
Kanye West is a popular.
Oh, yeah.
We got a lot of stuff.
Yeah.
See?
There's stuff.
See?
Just remember that you can't spell Santa without Satan.
I know it.
I know it.
That's why there's no Satan or Santa in the Davis house.
Amen.
Let's do some stories.
Let's do it.
Every week, there are stories.
These are some of them.
Joel Osteen leads Kanye West to top of Lakewood Church to tempt him with all the kingdoms of the earth in their splendor.
Oh, speaking of Satan.
Coming in hot.
Instantly.
Coming in hot.
Wow.
Did Satan reference?
This has been like this whole Kanye thing and the Kanye Osteen thing.
It's like, if you told me about this a year ago, I'd like to, like all these headlines we write at the B or you read a real news headline, you're like, that what?
Like it would make absolutely no sense if you read it to someone 12 months ago.
This is where we're at in like the cold, talk about the culture.
I feel like this is where we're at.
Things are moving at lightning speed.
Like, and everything's flipped on its head.
Like I said today, you know, Obama's in a little bit of trouble from the left wing because he said the cancel culture.
Yeah, he was like, y'all are going too far.
Like, pull it back.
Yeah.
Well, all this woke stuff.
Right.
He said, pull it back.
This is.
Or did he say a new thing?
He said a new thing.
He said the Democrat Party is pulling too far left.
Oh, wow.
And that they need to beware that other, you know, that they're losing some people.
So he's getting canceled for that.
And today I tweeted out, okay, the right's canceling Chick-fil-A.
The left's canceling Obama.
Like, where are we?
What is happening?
Yeah, it's all moving so crazy.
We tried to get Scott Adams to make some more predictions.
We talked to him last episode.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, I don't think he can even tell at this point.
Who can?
Yeah.
I'm loath to make predictions these days.
But the Kanye thing is really, I think as a commentator and a writer, conservative writer, what I find the most kind of insane about it is how quickly conservatives adopted him as like an idol and a hero.
Like overnight.
He takes nothing.
Yeah, he wore a red hat, which did the job half the way.
But as soon as he came out and saying, hey, I'm for Jesus now and this is what I'm about, then it was like all people, white people that I know who have never heard a bar of a rap song got his album.
And they are playing it like this album's really good, you guys.
Is that your white voice?
That's, I mean, my regular voice is white voice.
So that's my extra white voice.
So, yeah, I just find it so, and I guess I should apologize.
I don't mean to be insulting to people who are enjoying this version of Kanye, but I just find it so odd that all of a sudden it's flipped on its head.
Like you guys are saying, four years ago, three years ago, maybe four, before elections, before he read the, wore the red hat, people were insulting Kanye.
He was holding a whole host of concerts where he depicted himself as Jesus, Yeezas.
And Christians were, I wrote plenty of articles about his ego.
And so it's just odd how quickly that flavors.
Yeah, it's crazy.
Has anybody done like the rabbit hole where you're on YouTube and you watch the Sunday, what do they call this Sunday?
Sunday service.
I keep clicking on different videos because like there's something really fascinating about like these massive, huge gatherings and they're singing crazy worship and like it's sounds like it'd be chill like chilling in a good way, like giant choir type singing.
It's like, wow.
I mean, I guess it's not odd to see, I guess maybe what we're seeing is kind of a revival.
I'm not going to say it, but like, it's fascinating to see it, to see what's happening there in those, those gatherings.
And also it does make me wonder if it can have some effect on that.
It feels like the whole culture war thing where we're going down this road, which a big part of that is the stronghold that the left seems to have on blacks.
It makes me wonder if something like this could have any good effect on that.
Like, I don't know.
I don't know.
I mean, I don't, I think when it comes to the black community and faith, that's a whole different ball of wax than politics because black people are.
I mean, I think statistically, I think the government's got us at 87% or 85% declaring like active Christians, although I think the number's higher, to be honest.
But so it's not the kind of stuff Kanye is doing, although he's doing it like on a huge scale, it's not atypical to see that in black Christian culture.
So what you were responding to, like the spectacle of it and the worship point, like that's a lot of what you'll see in a black church.
But I do think the attitude of thinking outside of I do think that's interesting.
Yeah.
I don't know what effect.
I'm more interested in, to be honest with you, I'm more interested in the effect it has on white Christians.
Yeah.
I'm really fascinated to see.
It's opening up a something's opening up.
Something's opening up.
I'm like you.
I'm like standing back.
Yeah, I'm both skeptical and at the same time kind of encouraged.
Like I'm not, I'm, I don't know.
I'm just on the fence.
I don't know what to say.
Kyle?
I was waiting for you guys to finish your comments.
You can't wait for you can't wait for me to stop.
Yeah, you've got to interrupt.
The funny thing is me and him are both total introverts generally in conversational settings.
So it's been a weird transition for both of us to do this.
And I had just done a little bit of podcasting before we started this.
So I always became the guy who tried to, we got to talk.
We got to fill in the space.
We've got to have all the silence.
I just want to say that you guys are my chick-fully.
I don't know if that's good or bad.
You're my number one with the lemonade.
I'll say this.
I will say this.
I don't think he'll listen to this.
So I'll just say my teenage son was raised in a Christian home and he's getting ready to go off to college and he's having a little bit of a crisis of faith.
He's like really exploring if this is something he wants or believes.
And he downloaded the Kanye album and I was asking him what he thought about it.
And he was like, I think it's really good.
And he was like, I don't know about the message, but I think it's really good.
But to me, in my mind, I'm thinking, yeah, but he's getting the message.
He's listening to something that he's engaged with and it's feeding him some gospel truths, to be honest.
I mean, I've listened to the album.
So I guess in that respect, no matter what his motives are, it can't be all bad.
Yeah.
You know, somebody is receiving something positive from this.
Yeah, I think there is, you should have caution.
You know, some celebrities like, I'm a Christian.
We've seen that before.
You know, Bob Dylan released three fully Christian albums and then was like, meh.
So this has happened before, you know, and time will tell, obviously.
Creed.
But it doesn't seem to me like he's doing it just for money or fame or anything.
Like he already had that, you know.
And I disagree.
No, there's no way he's doing it for money or fame.
He might.
Why would you do that when you're when you're already like super rich?
Kanye's not as rich as people think.
He's actually in a lot of debt from that.
He had to borrow some money from his wife, which that was a big controversy in their marriage early on.
Because they, as far as I know, I'm a gossip hound, so I listen to all this stuff, but they had their finances separate for that reason because he's not good with money.
He's lost millions, like tons of millions on that fashion line.
So I don't think he's as well off as people think.
And also there's a certain lifestyle to maintain that is costly.
But the other thing is guys like Kanye are addicted to fame.
So there's never going to be enough of it.
Yeah, but he's absolutely hated by all the music reviewers.
They all slammed his album.
All the secular things were like, oh, Kanye's new album.
Nobody's going to buy it.
Nobody's going to watch it.
And like all the singles are number one.
But guess what else he's doing?
He's going to run for president in 2024.
See, that's what I'm saying, though.
I'm serious.
Yeah, I'm serious.
You guys think I'm joking about it?
It's horrifying.
That's probably going to be a problem.
But he absolutely has plans to run for president in 2024.
It's not going to happen now.
It's not going to happen.
What I'm saying is he's sincere.
I'm not saying that necessarily that means that he's going to end up in a good place with all this stuff because you can be sincere and also be crazy.
I agree with that.
And with some of the stuff he's said in the past, it's like, okay, you've obviously got some psychological issues, right?
Which he admits.
But it doesn't seem to me, like, if you listen to the lyrics on the album, it's clear that he's not like, he didn't just pull random Christian terms in the moment.
I'm not cynical in the sense where I think, oh, he's just doing this to get the Christian market.
But I do think there's obviously a lot of caution.
Like with what this article is about with Osteen.
Yeah.
You know, he obviously is a young Christian that doesn't have the discernment to go, eh, maybe I shouldn't, you know, go on stage with Joel Osteen.
And, you know, I agree with you.
I think I'm there too.
I definitely believe that he's sincere.
Like I've followed Kanye since the beginning of his career, and this isn't a new development either.
He's always struggled with his faith.
He's always written very openly about mostly it's about how he is just he doesn't want to to follow God because he felt like it would cramp his lifestyle.
Like he's always been honest about that.
He's got a song called Jesus Walks, which is a hit in the clubs.
Like he's not, this isn't new.
And after his mom died, I think she was a tether for him.
And he lost that tether for a while.
And as crazy as it sounds, I think the Kardashian family has given him a little bit of stability that he never had.
They might be crazy, but they're united and they're a solid family, you know, like they're family first.
And I don't think he's had that.
So I definitely believe his faith is sincere.
I just also believe that sincere faith and good marketing can go hand in hand.
So I'm going to, like you, I'm going to, I'm going to step back and just see where it goes.
But he has made his intentions to run for office in 2024 very clear.
And the way that I see people kind of latching on to him as some kind of idol, it's very Trump-esque.
Yeah.
It feels very Trump-esque right now.
I come out in favor of President Kanye right now.
Okay.
You heard it first.
This is an endorsement, Kyle Mann.
Babylon B endorses President West.
And then our first lady is Kim Kardashian.
Well, you know, before 2016, you wouldn't have believed it.
Yeah.
I know, yeah.
All bets are off.
I remember that was a Frank Fleming tweet one time.
He said, it was some DJ.
I think it was DJ Khaled or something.
He's like, someone was in the news.
He's like, don't know who this DJ guy is.
Don't want to hear about it.
Don't care.
And then he says, like, cut to four years later, like, walks outside.
Who's this president?
DJ who?
That is shark politics.
All right.
I guess we can get into more Kanye stuff in the main topic.
Let's jump forward to story two.
Capitol Building to be decorated as giant circus tent for duration of impeachment hearings.
I was going to do that.
I actually got detention in junior high for making that, for singing that song in class.
I don't know why.
That always reminds me of it because I never got in trouble.
Wait, you just randomly spontaneously like, oh my gosh.
And then the teacher's like, there's no context.
You just started doing it.
I can't remember.
Actually, it was high school, but I can't remember why.
I think my teacher was just really touchy that day.
Other kids had already got her going, and we were all kind of wired up.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Your school had a no tolerance policy topic at all.
No tolerance policy.
Well, kind of sounds like a circus.
High school is a bit of a circus.
Maybe her parents were killed by the circus.
Oh, no.
And all the images started flashing before her eyes, as you see.
The elephants.
No.
Not the elephants.
Not the elephants.
Is anybody paying attention to all this impeachment stuff?
I'm not paying attention.
I have not watched.
Oh, Kira's always the one who actually watches this.
He actually knows stuff.
Okay.
You guys want to know something funny?
Sure.
I am not paying attention to this impeachment stuff.
I am the editor at large for one of the largest conservative blogs in the nation.
And my writers, I mean, my Slack's going off as we're talking.
My writers are watching the impeachment.
My writers are writing about it and covering it.
But I've always considered myself an average American, despite what I do in politics.
My life is pretty low-key, like you guys, this middle-class, like just kind of head down, minding my own business.
And I feel like I'm pretty representative of that section of America.
And I do not have the bandwidth for it.
I really don't.
And I'll see names like Schiff and Vindahl and this person and that person.
I'm like, I don't know how all these puzzle pieces fit together.
And I am in politics.
My job is political.
So if I can't make heads or tails out of it, what's the average American thinking?
I'm thinking most people are just kind of going about their business.
Like, let me know if he gets impeached.
Yeah.
That's it.
And by the way, we're not even, these aren't impeachment hearings.
These are just, this is just the inquiry.
It's not even an impeachment hearing.
The media is pitching it like it's an impeachment hearing.
It's like to decide if they're even going to have hearings.
That's right.
It's the hearing before the hearing.
It's like the pitch.
Yes.
It's like in Hollywood.
It's the pitch.
Yeah.
We're not even there.
I don't even, I'm not sure we're going to get there.
I just think it's, as the headline so appropriately pointed out, it's just a circus.
It's just a distraction.
It's just kind of a Hail Mary moving into 2020 because Trump's looking good.
Because at first, they didn't even have like an official inquiry, right?
So they were having like the hearings about the hearings about the hearings.
So Washington.
So now we're in stage two where it's like the hearings possibly to have the hearings.
We want to hear the witnesses to hear to see.
It's like a grand jury to see if we've got enough to move forward, to see if we want to move forward.
And as far as I know, from monitoring my what my the chatter and my writers, um, nothing too should we have them on?
We should.
No, they're slaving away in the writer's room.
It's a small box with no air and no windows.
Wow.
And that's where they stay until they finish their work for the day.
Wow.
Good for them.
Sweatshop.
No bathroom breaks.
Goodness.
Brutal.
Yeah.
Wow.
Well, we're committed to the news.
It's like one of those call centers.
You know, they just lock 300 people in a room.
Basically.
More articles.
Basically.
I don't think anybody, I don't think most people care about this.
The impeachments?
Impeachment.
Nobody cares about the writers, but also the impeachment.
No, I don't think what I see is like on social media, it's just everybody pulls a clip of someone and it's like, this guy totally crushed this guy.
Check this out.
And you watch, you're like, okay.
Like, I don't.
It's like a Rorschach test.
Yeah.
And it's just, and then someone does it the other side.
This guy owned the other guy and everybody's getting owned.
And people are like ingesting this in detail.
They just have like an endless pit inside them for this stuff because it's, it's like stuff like this has been going on since Trump was running.
That's the other problem.
Exhausting.
It's fatigue.
That's the other problem.
I was on the radio the other day with Dr. Drew.
Name drop.
I don't want to brag.
I might have a little crush on Dr. Drew, too, because he's the smartest man I've ever met in my life.
But we were having a discussion about the impeachment stuff.
And I was saying, I think people are getting, I think never Trumpers or Trump haters are getting really disappointed by all the promises of taking him down.
So, who was that first guy?
This is me asking Dr. Drew.
I'm like, who's the first?
Remember the first guy?
He was going to come up.
He's going to do some testimony in front of the Senate.
And then it was going to be the thing that finally dropped Trump right after the elections.
And he was like, see how bad this is?
I can't remember.
You can't even remember his name.
There have been a dozen this guys up to this point.
Later on, I remembered that the person I was talking about was James Comey.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And you remember when the bars opened up at 6 a.m. in New York City so all the hipsters could take off work or take off their delivery jobs.
Oh, yeah.
In the bar.
The bars were like selling drinks, like, you know, the Comey hearing.
The Comey Mule or whatever, you know, you could have.
Yeah.
And it was just the first in a long line.
And that was going to be.
And I remember I was monitoring social media and everyone was so excited that this was finally going to be it.
And then the next day, it was just like kaput because he didn't have anything.
And everyone was so sad and disappointed.
And I think that Trump haters or Democrat supporters are getting sick of the roller coaster.
They just, they want the smoking gun or they just want to move on to elections and boot them out that way, which is how we should be doing it.
Just let the American people decide.
Yeah.
They've thrown everything they have at him at this point.
You assume there's no big surprise thing they have.
Like, oh, now we got this.
We've been holding on to it.
I really don't think there is.
No, I really don't think there is.
There was the talk on the bus with the, you know, whatever.
But we got this now.
We've been holding on to it.
Yeah.
What do we got?
I don't know.
The biggest thing they had was before the elections was the infamous tape, you know, Entertainment Tonight tape.
Yeah.
I don't want to get flowerbedded, so I won't mention him.
But that was the biggest thing they had.
And for any other candidate, that would have been the death knell.
But that's all they had.
And that was the smoking gun.
And that's it.
I really don't think there's anything else.
I could be wrong.
We got one more story here.
We'll see.
And this would be a nice segue too into our main topic.
Chick-fil-A trades adoring Christian fans for outraged mob that won't be appeased until their every demand is met.
That's just the truth.
That's not even what's actually happening right now.
Well, so Chick-fil-A did this weird, really sanitary.
Are they prompted by anything?
Or they're just like, man, let's do this.
There was a really sanitized statement they released where they're like, we are shifting our funding.
And they didn't specifically say like, we are going to not fund Christian organizations that do anti-LGBTQ policies.
But it was kind of clear that all the organizations that the LGBTQ lobby has an issue with are all the ones that they defunded and they moved their donations elsewhere.
So some people were saying, oh, it's just, it's just money shifting around.
They're just choosing different charities for no reason.
But the statement that Chick-fil-A released was pretty, I don't know, I think it was pretty darning, pretty dang.
Danging.
And because it, because it was pretty much like, well, we want to move into new markets and we want to respect the local values and customs of these local, you know, and it was just this weird like corporate speak.
You know, you can always tell when a corporate guy is.
When was that statement released?
That was when I couldn't figure out what they were doing.
Like, did they change their funding?
Then they made it.
Changed their funding.
Someone did like a gotcha article on it.
CNBC did.
This is why I'm skeptical of the outrage surrounding this story right now.
And I'm not sure.
I read that statement, but I didn't find out the date of its release.
Because if it predates the story, then it's probably by a like if it's just yesterday or a few days ago, then maybe your suspicions are correct because that would tell me that their PR people got in touch with a station that would want to know that.
But the thing is, is that they had contracts for these charities, which ran out last year.
So they've been still supporting the charities beyond the contracts.
And the other thing that a lot of people don't know is that the Salvation Army actually is an LGBT-friendly organization.
They do have LGBTQ services and they have a whole tab on their page that is dedicated to LGBT youth and LGBT services and programs.
And you can donate to that specific program.
Yeah, but I think it's about the hiring.
Like they won't hire LGBTQ.
Oh, so they're like, don't ask, don't tell.
In certain positions, probably.
Sorry, that was my joke.
No gay soldiers, no trans soldiers in the Salvation Army.
You know, the Salvation Army actually does that?
Like the positions in the Salvation Army are actually like lieutenant.
What?
Oh, that's like colonel and stuff.
It feels like very Scientologist.
I mean, more power.
Love the Salvation Army.
They've done a lot of good work in our nation.
They're one of our oldest charities.
And yeah, so I don't know.
I will say that I, like many people, felt disappointed, but I'm reserving my outrage until I really understand what's going on.
And I still love delicious chicken and waffle fries.
Yeah, I guess I wasn't incredibly shocked by it.
That's why I guess I don't have a huge opinion on it.
So I almost want you guys to help me figure out why I need to get an opinion on this.
Well, it is sad.
That headline, the Babylon B headline, as you pointed out.
That's just true.
It is sad.
I can understand why people feel betrayed.
And Kyle made a good case for why that's actually what is happening.
Because, yeah, like, look how hard we rallied for them when they were getting the crappy end of the stick.
And you don't have to bleep crack.
Yeah, we're okay.
We're okay with crap.
But when they were pastor cusswords, when they were getting pummeled unfairly, it was Christians and conservatives and common sense people who stood up and propelled them to their greatest success ever and their highest numbers ever.
So yeah, it does feel, and then on top of that, despite however the story is being spun, despite them doing this, you know, Glad came out today and said, well, that's not enough.
I know.
You need to do, you need to be pro-LGBT.
And whatever super.
So it's never going to be enough.
Well, that's what cracked me up.
And that's why we did the headline this way is because it was like, you have these Christian fans that will stick with you through thick and thin, you know, and who probably still are going to go to Chick-fil-A all the time, even now.
And you instead want to appease the mob that will hate you and cancel you and destroy you no matter what.
It's just such a weird thing to me.
Yeah, it is weird.
Yeah, Glad was like, you know, well, that's good, but it's not enough.
It's never enough.
You know that's coming.
You can't ever capitulate to the mobs because it'll just, it doesn't matter.
Yeah, it always corrects me up when someone gets canceled and then you see them release like a statement like, I'm sorry for this.
And you're like, don't.
No, don't do it.
That's what's comedian.
Did you see that guy that was the scab for Dead Spin when Deadspin went under?
No.
There was a guy that was.
Oh, yeah.
He was like this.
He was the guy that they hired to replace all the writers that quit.
And they didn't even, they weren't even on strike.
They just quit.
Yeah.
And they hired him.
And he's like, I'm so happy to work for Dead Spin.
And he just had, he got ratioed hard, like 4,000 replies saying, you're a scab, you're a scab.
So he's like, I have listened to you guys and I feel compassion for you.
And I'm going to quit my job.
And that tweet got ratioed, like, you're still a scab.
You know, I was like, what?
Why do you apologize when they're going to hate you anyway?
No, I know.
It's ridiculous.
I think part of that comes from people who spend too much time on social media because then you do feel like the mobs are real, but the mobs aren't really real.
They're not real.
Yeah.
People have their online persona then in real life.
Just you don't act like that in real life.
Oh, yeah.
There's a lot of stuff we say to each other on Twitter that we would never say face to face.
I'm largely complimentary to you and Kyle on Twitter, but I would never be so complimentary face to face.
Yeah, you're harsh.
You're brutal.
Like sweating bullets throwing us into tables and stuff.
Yeah.
I just, I don't put up with your niceties.
Yeah.
Don't put up with our white supremacy.
Your white delight.
All right.
Well, let's move on to our topic of the week.
Topic of the week.
And yeah, I think it'll be a good talk about what, cultural stuff, I guess.
Actually, do you have a sound cue?
We had one.
I think that I forgot to.
Can I do it?
Sam's new at this, so don't blame him.
He's doing good.
And now, the Babylon Bees topic of the week.
I wanted to do it.
Here we are.
We're talking about culture.
Culture.
Cultural Christianity.
Kanye West.
Yes.
Chick-fil-A.
Everything that starts with C. War on Christmas.
Except for Kanye.
It starts with K.
So, like, what are we talking about?
Like, giving out chick tracks on Halloween and burning people's Christmas trees because they're pig and yeah, I think, well, I'll start off.
I'll say this.
Okay.
Because everyone in this room is involved in the entertainment culture in one way or another.
So I think a lot of Christians have in the past decided to pull back from entertainment culture because it's been just so offensive and egregious.
I mean, for good reason, you know, for good reason.
But what happened was that it left a vacuum in entertainment and a vacuum always gets filled.
And it got filled with all these voices that don't necessarily represent us.
And so then we felt we had to pull back even further.
But in a way, I feel like we've abandoned the culture and we're responsible for some of the direction that it's taken because we've decided, well, we're going to, you know, we're going to raise pastors and nurses, which they're the best.
But like nobody, I don't feel like a lot of Christians raise artists anymore.
And art is such a valuable and influential medium, especially in American society, modern society.
I don't know.
Like, how do Christians get involved in the culture without succumbing to the culture and also without maybe consuming some of the distasteful things?
Because I'll say this a lot.
I say this a lot.
And people will come back at me and say, well, there's nothing on TV that I want to watch.
You know, I don't want to go to the movies.
It's all trash.
I don't want to spend my money for that stuff.
I'm not interested in rap.
I'm not going to buy a Kanye album.
So how do Christians stay involved and engaged in the culture when they find it so distasteful?
Because I don't think distaste is enough of a reason to abandon it.
But I also respect the idea that there's nothing there for me.
I don't want to, I don't have a lot to enjoy.
I don't know how you guys approach that.
As soon as there's a gay character on a Netflix show, I just turn it off.
So you don't watch anything.
Hallmark movies.
I admit, like, I like, I like art where I see people who are different than me.
You know, whether that's someone who's gay or, you know, someone who's not a white supremacist like I am or something like that.
Right.
It's hard to find those things these days out there.
No, but if I, you know, I enjoy seeing the world through other people's eyes because it's an experience I can't have.
At the same time, though, I do feel when it's just a corporate, like we're putting in the gay character analysis.
You know, it feels disrespectful to gay people.
You know, it feels disrespectful to me, the viewer.
You know, it feels, it doesn't feel like art.
It feels like a cold corporate decision, you know?
So I don't know.
I guess I do like seeing culture that like I don't think art needs to affirm my worldview all the time.
And I think art is bad if it does that.
That's a good point.
Mike dropped.
It's like the difference between I always bring up when I just love the movie Get Out by Jordan Peale.
Yep.
And great film.
Like the difference between that and then the movie where they clearly inserted black characters into check boxes.
Right.
Yeah.
Like this is a work of art that puts you into the mind of like of Jordan Peele, you know, of this idea.
And he's selling it through this great art.
Like to me, that's like, I may not, I may not at the end of the day agree with him on almost anything, but like to respectfully give me that art.
Yeah.
Without preaching at me, without yelling at me, preaching at me, tweeting at me.
He's making this amazing piece of art.
And you can infer from it what you want or don't want.
Again, that's the other great thing we have about movies and things like that is it's it's not supposed to be preaching and telling you exactly what to believe.
It's supposed to be raising questions and a topic for you to go talk to whoever you want to about and just kick up ideas in your head.
You know yeah, and Christians have a tough time with that like we shouldn't be questioning.
We should be telling, yeah, we don't, we don't like questions.
Yeah, the answer has to be the character to fall on their knees and accept Christ at the pinnacle of the movie.
Otherwise it's Unchristian, isn't that?
The problem, I think, with how we separate Christian entertainment from just entertainment, is Christian entertainment seems to be like there, there it's the same problem that we're identifying with.
I'll just say, like progressive entertainment, culture or left-wing it's, that it's got to be imbued with this message instead of just telling a lovely story or an interesting story that also happens to include these elements.
I I, I think there's space for Christians to find entertainment that they like if they, if they could be a little bit open-minded about what they're going to get, and they're probably not going to find, like a lot of mainstream movies where there's no cussing, like, if you can't stand cussing uh, you know, maybe you're you're I feel like you might be missing out on some really great entertainment, like Get Out.
I love Get Out because it's a great kind of thriller movie it's.
It's done by a young, up-and-coming director, which is you know, and it's not a it's not like a rehash or a reboot yeah, to see something new and creative.
But but what I really love about Get Out is that it's a whole movie about white liberals.
Yeah, that's what the movie is about.
The progressive elite it is.
And, and my liberal black friends and conservative ones, like we laugh about that movie because we're.
We've all had that experience where you're just kind of the token in the room and then people feel really compelled to share their political views with you.
It's almost like a form of virtue, Virtue signaling or something like, hey, I'm okay.
Like, look at me.
I like the guy, like, I'd vote for Obama twice if I could, you know?
Yeah, I forget what the, what the question they ask him is when he first comes into the room, the black guy comes into the room and they're just asking all these awkward questions.
Yeah.
And they're like calling out, oh, we know you're black.
And they're like saying all these.
And it's just like, what?
That's what it's like.
And it puts me in those shoes.
Yeah.
It was an experience that I would never have, you know, myself, because I'm never mistaken for a black person.
Yeah.
I mean, what was I?
I watched it.
I was watching a show recently.
I can't even, I can't even remember.
It was a like a documentary, like a Neil deGrasse Tyson on space or something.
And it wasn't, it didn't have any kind of political agenda.
Although, of course, at the end, we were made to know that humans are responsible for the destruction of the earth and possibly the universe because of our plastic straws.
But I was watching and thinking to myself the whole time, Jesus is all over this show.
Like it was all a show about the miracles of space and the cosmos.
And it was, that's not how it was framed.
But when I was looking at it, that's what I was seeing.
And I think a lot of Christians are missing out on that experience.
Like you can see Jesus in places where you wouldn't expect him to be just by appreciating the art and the loveliness of a certain presentation.
You know, God is everywhere.
He's not just in the church.
He's not just in your prayer corner at home or he's not just in your Bible.
You know, he's this, all of this is what he made.
And all of our creativity, for better or for worse, is what he imbued in us.
So there is joy to be found, I think, even in the most unexpected places when it comes to the arts.
Yeah, I had a roommate in college who had the Carl Sigan version of that.
He had the VHS tape.
It was like 12 VHS tapes in this big case.
And so I was a Christian college and I show up and he's got this atheist documentary on the universe.
He's like, oh, you got to watch this.
We have to burn this.
No, Opposite.
He's like, we have to watch this.
It might have gotten you saying it might have gotten burned if they had discovered, if John MacArthur had discovered it.
But, you know, and it's like, he's got an opposite worldview, but it's like he's accidentally pointing out the glory of God and the universe.
It's like, look at all this amazing stuff.
Oh, by the way, you're an accident.
This is all an accident.
What a crazy coincidence, all this is.
Yeah, I think we missed out on a lot of opportunities for those moments.
And I don't know.
What do you feel about Christians making, like, should we be investing more heavily in like the Christian arts?
I know like Kevin Sorbo, Kevin and Sam Sorbo have a production company.
They do a lot of films, actually.
And some that have done quite well in the theaters, largely thanks to the church audience or the Christian going audience.
But they've got like a decent production quality.
And I still never, I watched them to support them, but I still haven't seen anything that's like, wow, this is really good.
I can remember when I was, when I, years ago, when Kirk Cameron was making all the Kirk Cameron movies, Fireproof came out.
And everyone in my family was like, oh my gosh, you have to see Fireproof.
This is the best movie.
It is so good.
And so I was like, well, I'm skeptical, but everyone's telling me to watch this movie because that's how everyone described it.
So good.
And I sat down and it was so bad.
It was awful.
The message was great.
The message is about pulling through and like staying committed to your marriage and learning how to love each other again when the love is gone.
Great message.
Now I understand that's what they meant when they said it's good.
But I was sitting down looking to be entertained.
Like, I know that marriage is important.
You know, I know that marriage gets tough.
And I don't necessarily need to learn the moral lesson.
I can go to church for that, but I would like to see it framed in a way that was nice to watch, but it was stilted.
The editing was horrible.
The writing was atrocious.
The acting was atrocious.
Everything about it was awful.
It was a horrible movie.
But I feel like Christians excuse so much because they're like, well, as long as we said Jesus, then that's good.
So why do you hate Jesus?
I didn't say I hate Jesus.
I say just like Kirk Cameron.
I know it's kind of the same thing.
No, I and I like Kirk Cameron.
I like that he's done his own thing.
You know, he hasn't.
So I have nothing but the utmost respect for him.
But that's not going to stop me from saying that his movies are not good.
They're not well made.
They're a very specific audience and they're made for a very specific purpose, right?
They're made for your grandma or whatever who's like, I want to watch a Christian movie.
And they know what they're getting.
They're sitting down for a lesson.
They're sitting down to have their beliefs confirmed.
It's like they're gluten intolerant and this has the label gluten-free.
Like they know that they can eat it.
Like they know they're not going to be surprised by any cuss words or anything like or any thoughts they don't want to have to encounter.
And I don't think it's a bad thing.
Yeah, it's fun.
But it's not going to affect culture.
And that's kind of what we're talking about.
Yeah, that's what we're talking about.
Are we trying to impact culture?
Because if we are, that's not going to do it.
I think we actually.
That's what culture wants us to just compartmentalize off and go, yeah, make your little movies over here and leave us alone.
Yeah, and I feel that, by the way, that's why I watch Hallmark Christmas movies because it's in a box and I know what I'm getting.
You know what you're getting?
I know that wasn't a jokey, but I love Hallmark Christmas movies.
You're going to see me tweeting about them a lot this season.
Why are you laughing at me?
I thought you meant you like them being.
They're going to impact culture.
But oddly enough, they have in a way.
Can Hallmark Christmas movies save they have impacted culture and I'll tell you why.
It's become such a this is their 10th anniversary of the Hallmark Christmas movie season.
They used to do one or two here and there, but now it's a season.
But what you're starting to see is other mainstream outlets creating their own Hallmark type movies.
It's been that influential.
So Netflix is doing their own Hallmark type.
Lifetime is doing their thing.
Oprah's channel own has a couple of Hallmark style movies on there this season.
I see you judging me.
Look at him.
How do you know all this?
Why are you rattling off the names of all those?
I know that.
I love, you know, my favorite thing about those is the names that they come up with.
Like it's always a Christmas pun or Christmas presents with a CE or something.
And then there always has to be a character who has a Christmassy name.
So typically the protagonist is the male protagonist is like Nick.
Yeah.
And the female is like, I don't know, it's Noelle.
Yeah.
Mary.
There's a formula, but that, but that's, I guess that's what my point ultimately is that there's a formula there, like what Kyle was saying.
That's what I know what I'm sitting down to get.
I'm not getting any surprises.
I'm not even getting any pop culture references in a Hallmark movie.
It is straight up like one man, one woman.
Everybody gets what they want at the end of the day.
That's the same.
Like if I see a movie that's like, this guy's kids get kidnapped and he kills everybody that messed with his kids.
I'm like, all right.
Yeah, you see the poster, the description, you know what you're going to get.
I like that.
Michael Bay, I'm down for Michael Bay.
Yeah.
I know what I'm getting when I go sit to a Michael Bay.
That's the same thing with a lot of the Marvel movies.
You know, like some of them are just painted by number.
It's like you see the poster, like, oh, he's going to punch bad guys and something bad will happen, but he'll overcome it and win.
You know, you know what you're getting.
And I don't even know that those movies necessarily affect worldviews as much as maybe we think they do because it's just theme park rides.
It's just a comic book movie.
Yeah, but I really want to be involved in shaping the culture.
That's always been a passion of mine.
I was telling Ethan on the way in here, like, I'm actually an actress.
That's how I started out.
I have a degree in theater.
I stumbled into the politics thing while I was being a stay-at-home mom for over a decade.
So that's how I got started here.
But I still have a passion for affecting the culture because I see as a mother and as a political pundit and just a regular citizen, I see that the culture has way more influence on my children than what's happening in Washington, D.C. does.
And policy is important, but it's downstream of culture.
And like one of the things I had the opportunity to do this year was to make a movie.
I mean, my first short film.
It's on Harriet Tubman.
And I chose Harriet Tubman because I felt that she was a great way into the culture because everyone loves Harriet Tubman.
But what a lot of people don't talk about with Harriet Tubman is some of the values that might be considered more conservative values that she had.
Like she was a dedicated Christian.
She also was very attached to her pistol, you know, and she didn't suffer fools very much.
She was quite raw.
There's only one, there's only one document of Harriet Tubman speaking in her own voice.
It's a book.
It's this woman decided to go hunt her down at the end of her life.
And she was in her 90s, just living out her final years in an old age home for abandoned slaves that she had started because a lot of these slaves were freed and then they didn't have family, they have places to go.
There's nowhere to live out their lives.
So she ended up there and she had this whole, she stayed there for weeks and interviewed her.
And this is the only tone that we have in Harriet's voice.
It's where we get most of our information about her.
But she was quite raw.
You know, she was quite, and I chose her because to me, that was a great way into the, into the culture.
She was an American hero.
She was also a black hero.
She was also, you know, an abolitionist hero.
But also, she's a great reminder about why I love the Second Amendment.
And she's a great reminder about why I love freedom and why I don't think the government should be making decisions, all that many decisions every day for Americans.
Because when we give the government that kind of power, we get ourselves into a situation where we need the Harriet Tubmans.
So to me, that was like, but I filmed it as an, I filmed it as an action film.
So I made her into an action star.
So instead of making her an escaped slave, she was like a ninja kind of like, yeah, like I'll punch you out and shoot you if I got a problem with you.
And it had like a modern flair.
So we went for kind of like a black exploitation kind of look with the film and with our with our scoring and everything.
And we stylized it a lot.
So I thought this is, to me, that's a great representation of taking messages that are, you know, pro-Christian values, pro-conservative values, which is important to me, and packaging it in a way that I could show it to anyone, that anyone would enjoy it.
And they might not come away thinking, yeah, I love the Second Amendment now, but that, but it was some food, it's some food for thought.
Like maybe there's some value in this amendment because it was used to great value by one of our greatest heroes.
What kind of AR-15 did wield in your assault rifle?
Yeah.
That's what it stands for, assault rifle 15.
Right.
Assault rifle.
Because the first 14 failed.
So 15 was like the one that we've got it.
By Jove.
We'll never change it now.
But I would like to see more.
I want to see more Christians doing that.
I want to see, I don't want you to necessarily get stuck in the Christian ghetto.
I want you to get out there and make films that win Oscars and people have no choice but to enjoy.
And I think the way you do that is to lay off the messaging.
The messaging comes from your point of view.
You know, that's all it is.
Lay off the messaging.
Don't teach a message.
Write a good story.
You know, all of these things that we love are encompassed in Christ, a romance, you know, comedy, horror, all of these.
I'm a big horror fan.
A lot of Christians turn up their nose at that, but it's the last place where you can clearly talk about evil and good.
Yeah, we did a recent episode where we talked about all our favorite horror movies with our movie guru buddy.
Yeah.
Oh, cool.
What's some of your favorites?
Foot Loose.
The Baptist horror film.
I'm a big exorcism of Emily Rose by Scott Derrickson, who I also interviewed recently.
Oh, yeah.
That's my daughter and I just, my daughter's 12 and she's turned into a huge horror aficionado.
And that was one we recently watched.
That's a great, because my daughter's 13.
She wanted to do a PG-13 horror movie night.
So she actually didn't get to that one.
She was on her list of five.
She was very ambitious to watch five movies one night and she didn't make it to me.
That is three.
Wow.
Well, three is.
She did the ring and rings all right.
That's what I, the other thing I love about horror is it's, it's way easier to find a PG-13 horror movie than it is PG-13.
That's still good, yeah.
That's still good.
And I also, for those people who are like panicking that I'm letting my 12-year-old watch horror movies, I have a, one of my closest friends is a, is a horror movie fanatic.
She goes to see the movies first and then she'll, I'll, because there's some things that I'm just, I draw the line at if there's open like sexuality in it, no, which you can get a lot in some horror genres of horror.
But my, my daughter's favorite horror series is the conjuring universe.
She loves the conjuring universe.
She's, she's been out at Halloween as Annabelle and she went out as the nun last year.
Is that nun and then Annabelle?
Those are both part of the conjuring multiple.
It's all because I saw this like Annabelle and I'm like, wasn't that a character in another movie?
And then there's like Annabelle IV.
So there's the nun, that's part of it too?
Yep.
Really?
Yep.
It's crazy.
It's the whole universe.
It's like the Marvel universe.
La Yarona was the one that was just out.
That's part of the Conjuring Universe.
I think I saw the Conjuring and I thought it was kind of, you know, it wasn't that good.
That's kind of lame.
What?
I love the conjuring.
It got great reviews and I saw it was like just the horror.
I remember being kind of, is that the one with the couple?
Yeah, it's a couple and it's like a haunted house.
I impressed that they were clearly had faith, right?
Yeah.
Sure.
So some people who hate the conjuring movies call them Christian superhero movies because it's based on Ed and Ed and what's the wife's name?
I can't remember her now.
Cindy.
No, they were very popular paranormal experts and they were the only people that the Catholic Church ever endorsed to perform exorcisms who weren't, who weren't part of the church, who weren't ordained priests.
I think they were Catholics, but not priests.
And there's a lot of back and forth as to whether or not what they did was for real.
You can find plenty of skeptics on there, but whatever, the conjuring universe has been a great addition to the horror canon.
And it sparks a lot of conversation between me and my daughter.
Like we talk a lot about what does it mean when there's an exorcism?
Like what is it?
We talk a lot about the spiritual realm and what that means.
And, you know, she's asked me some questions that maybe had some answers that were a little deeper than I thought, but like talking about what is evil?
What's the nature of evil?
What's the nature of a spiritual haunting?
And where does God's power come into all of it?
I think there's a lot of great opportunity for discussion.
And I think that's where Christians leave a lot on the table when they abandon mainstream culture.
They leave those important conversations that can be sparked by watching something you don't really love on TV or film.
Yeah, that's one thing I love that you said last time we were on that stuck with me.
And this whole race thing, I'm not trying to change the topic, but you forget that, like, because you just said that we have to just remember this is just the sin condition.
Like all this back and forth about this.
This is at the at the end of the day, this is, you know, it's not a surprise to us as Christians that sin distracts us with all these things, reasons to attack each other and hate each other, and also to feel victimized and to, or to feel above others.
And I don't know where I was going with that, but I like that.
So it was that it was just that like bringing it back to the faith.
There's so many rabbit trail distractions in our culture.
Yeah.
You almost forget that it's, they all, they all come back to the truth, right?
And that's a good point.
And we don't, we don't necessarily always connect it.
Yeah.
Like a lot of these, our film offerings and the TV offerings that we see are about the sinful condition, our sinful condition.
They really are.
They don't, they might not have the resolution that we'd like to see, which is, you know, the ultimate resolution that came at the cross.
But there's always room for discussion, discussion about what things look like.
And I just think Hollywood is really missing.
There should be a lot more open and proud Christians in Hollywood than there are.
And part of that is because the culture, I mean, Ethan, of course, I'm sure you're familiar with it, but the culture drives out people like us, or at least, you know, deters us from pursuing it.
But part of it is also we've deemed it too distasteful to wade in.
And let's remember where Christ went, you know, and who he went with.
The most distasteful people in society.
People that even you and I, even having seen the biblical stories, people that you and I would be like, oh, if I would want to sit down to dinner with that guy, he hasn't showered in two months and he's been living on Skid Row for I noticed you looked at Ethan when you said that.
Subconscious.
Sorry, that's my subconscious.
So like, let's think about, because culture isn't just movies, you know, like, let's think about something like Chick-fil-A, whether or not this anti-LGBT donation thing turns out to be, you know, how impactful that turns out to be.
But, you know, you look at the fast food restaurant market and you say, well, what would a Christian chicken sandwich restaurant look like?
You know, like, that's such a weird question.
Yeah.
But really, it would look like what Chick-fil-A is doing, which is basically making really good chicken sandwiches.
Yeah.
Right.
I mean, good service.
And so why do we feel like it's different in Hollywood, like a guy who just works on John Wick 3 or something, and he's a Christian and he does, you know, what do people do on movies, Ethan?
I've never been in a movie.
Like carry special effects.
You know, a guy, like, we shouldn't a Christian that just do excellent work.
Do excellent work.
So why do we feel like what I'm trying to say is what's the difference between like music, movies, books that we feel like it has to be explicitly Christian versus a chicken sandwich restaurant?
You know, Chick-fil-A doesn't serve you chicken patties in the shape of a cross.
Right.
Like, maybe that's a good idea.
That's a good idea.
But well, like In and Out Burger, they put little tiny Bible verses underneath.
Right.
But I think it, I think it would be just as, you know, Christian of a company if they didn't, right?
Because it's just, here's good food.
Yeah.
It's way better than Whataburger.
You know, here you go.
Oh, whoa.
Shots fired right across the bow here.
Send all angry Ethan.
This is already going to be the most controversial episode of the Mombe podcast.
I don't think I ever had.
When I went to Texas, everybody was like, I try to want a burger.
They're no in and out.
We know how to do it right.
You got to go.
And then I went and I did what they do when they come in and out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they were like, you're just a California elitist.
Well, I, I, we're allowed to be elitist because our burgers are better.
So it's, it's not, it's not, uh, it's not arrogance if it's true.
Yeah.
Well, I like that perspective that I, I, I, I feel very strongly that Christians really, at this point in time, more than ever, Christians should be wading into the culture and to be unafraid.
And this cancel culture is, is concerning.
Um, I do feel like it has an expiration date, but I could be wrong about that.
But I also think that there's strength in numbers.
And when more of us stand up to say we're not, we're not going to be bullied.
We're not going to feel ashamed for doing something that is perfectly normal in American society and has been since its founding, which is to worship the creator and to recognize him in our daily lives.
And I wish more Christians would step forward and get engaged in making things that affect the culture.
And so, yeah, if you run a chicken sandwich restaurant, then you run that restaurant in a way that is an example to everyone around you.
You treat your employees well.
You give great incentives.
You make great food.
You know, if you're a filmmaker, you put your heart and soul into your art.
When I was making my film, my film's called Minty, by the way.
Okay.
Which was Harriet Tubman's real name.
Her real name is Aramento Ross.
And her family referred to her as Minty.
And so you can go to TubmanMovie.com to find that.
And the whole film is only 11 minutes and it's online if you want to see it.
But one of the things I did, I got to set every day.
It wasn't a Christian movie.
It wasn't a Christian set.
But every day I got to set, I prayed.
I was first person there in the morning and I would just walk and I would just like lay hands in certain places and just be like asking God to bless the production to keep everyone safe.
And I really felt like that kind of embedded an atmosphere of hope and a positivity.
And a lot of people commented too on not knowing that I was walking around praying.
I mean, I wasn't making a spectacle.
They might have just thought I was just checking certain things.
But a lot of people were like, this is the most positive set I've ever worked on.
You know, and I just think that there are things like that that we can be doing.
We don't have to be, you know, walking with the Bible in our hand and telling people about Jesus every five seconds.
We represent Jesus with our excellence in whatever we're doing.
So you're anti-Bible.
Kyle.
She's reaching across the table to hit me right now.
Yeah, I think that's kind of what I was trying to say was as Christians, we should do excellent work.
Yeah.
And, you know, work that's in line with God's will and the gospel.
And maybe that looks like sharing Jesus with your coworkers.
Maybe it doesn't, depending on the time.
Yeah.
There's no one.
Yeah.
Wade in there.
Wade into the culture.
Like I encourage people all the time, raise artists.
They're going to go away and they're going to get some crazy ideas and they're probably going to annoy you for a while.
And then like most people, they'll mature and they'll come back to what they know.
I mean, I believe the word on this one, when God says raise up a child in the ways of the Lord, and when he's older, he won't depart from them.
I truly, truly believe that.
But I don't think Christians should be scared of the culture.
I think it's time now more than ever to jump back in.
And if you have an idea for something, something creative or something not so creative, there's no better time than to do this.
Your voice is needed.
We're on a precipice here where we're getting ready to turn into a post-Christian nation the way that Europe is post-Christian right now.
And we don't want to go that way.
Christianity is the foundation of what is a stable society.
Say what you want about that.
That is just a fact.
And when we decide we're a post-Christian nation, we're in for a lot more trouble.
So I have some European friends who always make fun of us for our political contention here, specifically between religious folks and non-religious folks.
And they feel like that's base.
They feel like that's so primitive.
And to me, I'm almost like, no, that is what you're witnessing isn't stupidity.
It's passion.
We haven't given up yet.
So every time you hear Christians, you know, whining and complaining in the media or talking about politics or whatever, it's not because they're just like little whiny babies that can't deal with how things are going.
We have not given up the culture yet.
We have not given up.
You guys gave up.
We don't want to be you.
So yeah, it does require that we get in there and battle every now and then.
But the culture is lost if we decide we're too good for it.
We don't want to be Europe.
Kira is.
That's the title.
Kira has spoken.
Amen.
Europe is a lovely place.
And let Hank Hill, all the Hank Hills listening say.
Amen.
And what's your opinion on soccer?
I mean, it's a communist sport.
Yes.
Sport of communists.
Kira remains our favorite guest.
I tried recently.
I live in soccer nation.
Orange County is, I think when we first moved here, my husband was looking at statistics and he said, I think something like 75% of the players on the women's Olympic soccer team come from Orange County.
Really?
Like it is a huge soccer place.
And so I tried to get into it.
I went to one game, like one semi-pro game.
And I was like, what am I doing here?
I was like on my phone the whole time.
I'm like, oh, there goes the ball.
It got kicked and it's getting kicked again.
And the score was like one, zero at the end of a four-hour game.
This is not my score.
Well, I feel it.
Every sport.
When a culture abandons God, God gives them over to soccer.
Yeah.
To the empty field.
Wow.
So you're getting dangerously close to being a woman who's preaching at us now.
Well, I'm woman explaining the testosterone at the bee.
Woman preachers, so go home.
Why isn't your hair cut?
That was going to be that that's the topic I wanted to talk about originally was this whole Beth Moore thing.
Are we doing this in the subscriber?
I guess we'll do it in the subscriber.
Let's do it in the subscriber section.
You see hot colors.
Okay, I have some thoughts.
So if you want to listen to the subscriber portion of this podcast, if you're really curious about Kira Davis's thoughts on this issue, and I have many, then you should head on over to the subscriber portion.
And if you're not already paying for that great content, do it now.
I'm sliding a fresh George Washington over to Kira right now.
Harriet Tubman.
Weren't they going to put Harriet on the 20 or something?
Yeah, we were.
I very much support her.
Obama just made that announcement.
It was a publicity announcement.
It's too expensive to put her on the bill.
It'd be awesome.
I saw some of the art renders where she's got the pistol.
Yeah.
Like, how cool is that?
That'd be sweet.
Way cool.
I mean, I'm all for it, but it's too expensive to put on.
Replace one of the war criminals, put her on there.
I'm on board.
Witch war criminal.
Well, they're going to replace Jackson, I think.
He killed a bunch of Indians.
Well, okay, so Kyle always goes down these libertarian.
Alex Jones, I'm pounding on the table.
Okay, so do we have hate mail today?
Yeah, do we have hate mail?
We got some, right?
Oh, we did.
Hold on, let me pull it up.
You have our hate mail noise there?
I cannot read my hate mail on this podcast.
I get flowerbedded.
It's fun.
You had the flowerbed.
I like how this is becoming a verb.
I know.
sure i really miss adam ford what are you I still laugh at it.
They still have the sound.
I like that you guys entertain yourselves.
Yeah.
It's the best.
One of my favorite things.
It's the cheapest form of entertainment.
He's still looking.
Should I see if I can find it first?
The one you told me this is great.
Oh, did I tag you in it?
Yeah.
Oh, no.
I just found it.
I just found it.
Oh, no.
Welcome to the Kyle and Ethan look through their email portion of the Babylon B podcast.
It's loading.
It's loading.
I find it, I'll say this while you guys are looking.
I do find it quite interesting that people take the time to write a hate mail.
Like, I feel like I'm so busy, you know, to actually sit down and write somebody hateful words seems like such a luxury.
Okay.
You need to have flowerbed ready, Dan.
Uh-oh, okay.
Okay.
You guys are like if Breitbart took over the onion.
Please, for the love of all that's good and decent, hire at least one person who is funny.
Your sad pawpaw jokes are not only lame, but make anyone who reads them dumber.
Wow.
Sincerely, someone who is funnier when I'm flowerbeding your collective moms than you are.
Each and every day.
And ironically, you are an instrument of Babylon.
Just start cranking out the right-wing propaganda and leave the attempt at being funny to the professionals.
Slam.
Absolutely devastating.
Well, here's what's very interesting about that email: that person listened to your whole podcast.
So thanks for the clicks.
Or maybe read the bunch of articles.
Maybe.
There are people that, like, that's what they do.
They hate listen, you know?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
The one that we I was thinking of was the one who's replying to the podcast.
Oh, we got a podcast?
I thought that was a podcast one.
The hate clicks pay just as much as the love clicks, folks.
So hate away.
Remember that one?
They were like, why would I listen to a podcast or watch?
And then they're like, do you listen to podcasts?
Where are they?
They didn't even know what a podcast was or something.
It was weird.
Anyway, we could say.
Oh, I know what you're talking about.
I don't know if I tagged it with hate.
It was the guy.
The thing is, I don't know how to use this program with emails on it.
Yeah, the kind of thing.
Ethan is such a boomer.
I know.
Okay, boomer.
Well, Seth, our CEO, loves all these different weird apps that organize everything, but they organize it so much I don't know how to find anything.
This one says you did it inboxes at zero.
I don't know what I did, but I have no emails now.
Are you talking about the guy who was asking what a podcast was?
Yeah.
I can find it here.
And we sent back the Wikipedia page for podcasts.
Wait, here it is.
I think I found it.
Oh, here it is.
Do we need flower bedding?
No flower bedding.
Darn.
Dan's all disappointed.
What is a podcast?
And why would anyone waste valuable time watching or listening to what?
Is this something you watch or listen to?
Oh my gosh.
Shalom.
Shalom.
Oh, that's a good ending.
I'm trying to picture who that person would be.
Is it somebody from a foreign country where they don't know?
No, rabbi.
But then they have a rabbi guy.
But they have email.
It's true.
Well, we sent out, this was in reply.
We sent out like a newsletter.
It's like, check out our new podcast.
Make a new episode.
Emsky replies.
And he's like, what is a podcast?
Why would I listen to it?
That's fascinating.
I go meet again an old Jewish guy.
He's like a shepherd out in this podcast.
What is it?
And why would I listen to it?
He's like, shalom.
Well, it's not hate email.
He's just being very respectful.
He's just asking some questions.
Especially some people who don't know what a podcast is.
I find that crazy, but okay.
I guess you're right.
It's a big country.
Yeah.
We're not even sure if this person's in this country.
Yeah.
It could be somewhere else.
It is the world.
Somewhere strange, like Canada, somewhere like that.
They don't have electronics or California, something like that.
Or we don't have electricity.
Electricity.
Have you been affected at all by that?
Not yet.
Fingers crossed.
I got another email about it.
Oh, boy.
We're SDGE.
You are.
And they haven't created any shenanigans yet.
But I definitely feel for everybody.
Thoughts and prayers.
Yes.
It seems ridiculous that we're dealing with this in the most advanced nation and the most advanced state in the world.
Specialism.
Okay.
So we're going to go into our subscriber portion.
And if you want to hear Kira Davis tell all the women to go home, you can go to BabylonB.com.
No spoilers.
Babylonbee.com slash plan to subscribe at any level and you get ad-free, full-length podcasts.
So do that.
And other than that, we're throwing you off the plane without a parachute right now.
Don't throw them off without letting me.
Oh, you get a couple of pluggers.
Let me plug my stuff.
All right.
I didn't come all the way out here to this gorgeous compound just to talk to you, handsome men.
My film is Minty, and you can find that at tubmanmovie.com or you can just look that up on YouTube.
It's 11 minutes long.
Let us know how you enjoy it and share, share, share.
We're actually pitching it as a TV series.
I would watch.
I feel like I will watch too.
So we're really excited about the directions that things are going.
Has anyone done a Harriet Tubman action movie?
Don't you know that men won't watch female action movies?
Oh boy.
That's what because Charlie's Angels.
Elizabeth Banks said that.
Yeah, Charlie's Angels flop.
Even though I don't know how you would expect to carry an action film with Kristen Stewart as your lead and then two unknowns.
Or an action property from the 70s that stars women that was hugely successful.
Yeah.
Say that.
It was absurd.
It doesn't even look like it was a good movie.
But anyway.
I remember I saw the trailer look.
Just watch Sucker Punch instead.
Wow.
It was fantastic.
Well, I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised with Minty.
I mean, keep in mind, we only have 11 minutes to tell the story, so it's condensed.
But I had to pare it down from, we had written it as a series, so I had to pare it down because I got a grant to do the film.
So anyways, you can go see that.
I really appreciate your support on that.
And of course, you can find me on Twitter at RealKira Davis.
I've got two podcasts, Smart Girl Politics podcasts, which you guys are going to appear on briefly on this week's episode.
And then I have Just Listen to Yourself, which is a new podcast I've launched.
And that's where I take a hot topic each week and I take every, I take all the talking points around that topic and I draw them out to their logical conclusion.
So it's kind of a thought exercise because I think when people, people say things, but they don't really think about what they mean.
So I draw them all the way out to their logical conclusion.
An example might be socialism, where I talk about how socialism says that it's fair for everyone to have a piece of the same pie.
But then what you're really saying is we want people to have as many tools as possible to reach the greatest success as possible.
But when you get successful, we're going to tear you down as a sellout and a billionaire.
So I don't think people think all the way through of what they're saying.
So I do lots of different topics, abortion, education, race, everything.
So you can find that anywhere where you find podcasts.
Again, that's just listen to yourself with Kira David.
Are you going to cover Fartgate?
Listen.
We'll link this.
I got home.
I was doing radio all day yesterday.
I got home, opened Twitter, and I was like, what?
It was all about farts.
And I was like, I'm closing this.
I'm done.
I am off the internet tonight.
I have no idea what's going on.
But suddenly, everyone in my timeline's talking about farts.
Do you buy the mug excuse?
I don't think it was a fart.
It sounded like a zipper.
Someone said the mug was sliding across the table.
But I don't know.
He like picked up.
It was weird how he popped up.
He stands up on his tiptoes.
He does.
And he stops talking and goes, Eric Swalwell was talking on Eric Swalwell farted on TV.
I don't know.
I did not watch the clip.
I did not engage in any of the don't take this away from me.
I need something to believe in.
The people need fart gate.
But also the way things are miced on any like that.
There's no mic that close to the fart that they would pick it up.
Well, they knew he was coming on, so they mic'd his button.
Wow, this is a really great intelligent level of intelligent discussion.
More talk about fartgate.
Oh, Charlie's angels.
I'm not talking about Charlie's Angels.
Okay.
The math where they go to get a math degree.
Charlie's Angles and Go Home, Beth Moore.
Go home, Beth Moore.
Go home, Beth Moore.
Everybody else, we're throwing you out of the plane right now.
No parachute.
See you later.
Kyle and Ethan would like to thank Seth Dillon for paying the bills, Adam Ford for creating their job, the other writers for tirelessly pitching headlines, the subscribers, and you, the listener.