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April 13, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
08:40
Eric Metaxas on the Virus Shutdown
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All right, I got a guest here whom I actually like.
In fact, I really like him.
He doesn't like me, but it doesn't matter.
I'm already laughing.
Come on.
You know, do you live in Manhattan?
Yes, sir.
My view is, if I can at this time make a New Yorker laugh...
Listen, don't forget Dennis.
Don't forget who you're talking to.
Since he didn't introduce me, I'll introduce myself.
My name is Eric Metaxas.
How do you spell it?
Spell it.
Spell it.
But I'm not your normal Manhattanite.
No, you're not.
I have faith.
In the God of the Bible, not exactly, you know, typical of your typical New Yorker, at least the ones you're going to hear from.
All of the people of color and the Latinos, they have faith in the Bible, but they don't, you know, they're not the people that are being interviewed.
The secular New Yorker is going to live in fear.
There's a lot of people here who have faith.
It's just that, you know, you don't hear from them.
So you dialed the right number.
You got me.
I'm one of those kooks that believes in the God of the Bible, and that even out of ugly things, he can bring great things.
So I see a lot of good things happening amidst the ugliness.
Well, you haven't even asked me a question, and I'm already talking too much.
Please, sir.
Eric Metaxas has his own show on the Salem Radio Network.
It's a terrific show.
He is a great author.
He has written one of the seminal works of religious biography, the biography of Bonhoeffer that he wrote.
And now he has a new book, Seven More Men.
Because he wrote an original one about seven men and the secret of their greatness.
And folks, this is really important stuff he writes.
And I've read a lot of your stuff, by the way.
I just want you to know.
I read stuff...
I read your...
the Wilberforce biography.
Well, you make that sound like, you know, like that's difficult.
Why would you not read my Wilberforce biography?
This is...
You know, you're right.
I did make it sound that way.
You made it sound like...
I really blew it.
Wait, what?
I made it sound like what?
I don't want to miss any word.
Like you read my devotional on the New Testament or something like that, you know?
And I didn't write a devotional on the New Testament, but you made it sound like that.
Yes.
Folks, the book is...
Wait, let me plug your book, will you, before you say anything funny?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Seven More Men, Eric Metaxas.
It is up at DennisPrager.com.
You know why these are important?
Let me tell you, folks.
He can't tell you.
Well, it's not true.
He promotes his own stuff well.
But I want to promote his stuff.
I want to...
We need inspiring stories.
This is critical.
It's critical at any time.
This was the diet of young Americans in the past, and now all you read about is they all stink, they were all racist.
That's American.
This is not just about Americans, because it's got Solzhenitsyn, for example.
And he writes extremely interestingly.
Seven more men.
Sit down and read it to your kids or grandchildren.
But just read it for yourself.
Anyway, I just wanted you to know.
It's a terrific thing.
It's not really a book that I wrote just for young people.
No, it isn't.
It's just a regular book for everybody.
But my hope in writing it, well, in writing all these...
I wrote a book called Seven Men, a book called Seven Women.
The new one, which is out today or tomorrow, I forget, it's called Seven More Men, and then a year from now, Seven More Women.
These are the stories of heroes.
And just as you said, Dennis, we need heroes desperately.
Why?
Because the culture, the secular culture, is giving us anti-heroes.
And then it's giving us, you know, what we today could call fake heroes, these people that they lift up.
And in the past, we would have thought, what?
Are you kidding?
Why, you know, why should I admire Colin Kaepernick or, you know, Beyonce or whoever?
That's such a good point.
You know, it's like ridiculous.
So we need real heroes.
But the thing is, you know, a year ago, I would have said now more than ever.
But during this pandemic, when you see, you know, the battle gets thicker and thicker and the good becomes clearer and the evil becomes clearer.
We can see people trying to use this time.
It's like the burning of the Reichstag.
We are going to seize more government power.
We're going to take away freedom.
And it's all in the name of something.
You know, it's always some good reason.
And Americans need to be reminded that through history, and this is not everybody in my book, Seven More Men or Seven Men or Seven Women, but people stood up against this kind of thing.
And now when you read it, you are inspired similarly to stand up.
When you read the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, oh my goodness, oh my goodness.
And the other reason that I wrote these books, it's a chapter.
To each man, okay?
So you don't have to read a whole book.
A lot of people said, oh, I'm not going to read a 300-page book on Wilberforce or a 500-page book on Martin Luther or a 600-page book on Bonhoeffer.
I said, you know what?
You need to know these stories.
So I'm going to boil them down to a fraction of that, and I'm going to give you seven of them.
Because when you read these stories, I say this because Stoltan Eatsen is somebody, you know this and I know this.
There are tons of young people today.
They have no clue who he was.
Oh, of course.
Listen.
What they don't know...
Forget that they don't know Solzhenitsyn.
They don't know the Gulag.
Well, this is why I feel it's important to write this, because these are historical figures.
And there are certain people who rise to the level, I would say, that you can't not...
You can't have an excuse.
You can't say, like, no, I never heard of Abraham Lincoln because, you know, that's so long ago when I was born in 1992. Guess what?
You need to know who that was.
Now, he's not in my book, but I'm saying there are people like Solzhenitsyn.
If you don't know who that is...
He was a prophet.
Oh, absolutely.
A prophet and a hero.
All right, let me ask you, Eric, in a nutshell, what is your take on the lockdown?
It's mixed, Dennis.
It's mixed.
I think on my own radio program I was talking to Jenna Ellis.
You know, she's a constitutional scholar.
Now she's with the Trump campaign.
But I was saying that what's interesting is that all that I have said, you know, like in my book, If You Can Keep It, about religious liberty and liberty, the point is we've taken it for granted.
And only when it's finally threatened do some people recognize what it is.
Learn about it and then stand up for it.
You know, so in a weird way, you know, it's like a mild form of persecution.
When junk comes down and when the state really overreaches, it's the first time that people wake up and they say, wait a minute, I can't have church.
You mean I can't have church in a drive-in?
What are you talking about?
I'm going to be in my car.
And you are arbitrarily telling me, Mr. Mayor or Mrs. Governor, that I can't have church.
Suddenly, as an American, I think about my own rights, my own, you know, it's the kind of stuff we never had to think about before.
What constitutes government overreach?
When are they using something for their political ends or its instinctive sense that they want?
They simply want power.
They think that's a good thing.
It forces us to think about these things.
So I've got a lot of views, but that's right now, that's the big one.
That's right.
That's a big deal.
All right, listen, normally I'd have you on a lot longer, but I've got to talk about the virus more.
So I'm going to have you on on a part two.
But everybody, this is a really great time to read.
And he writes, you just don't put it down.
I love his works.
Eric Metaxas, Seven More Men.
Take care of yourself, my friend.
God bless you, Dennis.
Talk to you soon.
Thank you.
We will, in fact.
Yeah, his example was perfect.
Washington is flawed.
Kaepernick is a hero.
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