Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Thursday July 30, 2026
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, good morning, everybody. It is Thursday, July 30th. I'm your host, Greg Miller, and this is the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots, and Bulldogs. ⁓ today we're going to start off. We're going talk a little bit about the ⁓ the Georgia defense as we get ready to head into the 2026 season. then I'm going to share some some thoughts on on the ⁓ our our lovely and and infamous Dr. Fauci, who frankly I wish I could turn the Georgia defense loose on that guy. ⁓ and then we're gonna close up. We're gonna talk about the trying trying to find some quiet moments in this in this crazy noisy world we live in. So yeah, we we we start off with talking about the Georgia, Georgia defense as we get ready to roll in this season, and and obviously the the defense has always been what Kirby Smart ha has been known for. And you know, we spent the first couple of days talking about the offense and and talking about Gunner and Bobo and you know, talking about the need for for explosive plays and and look all all that's a hundred percent true. But today we want to talk about you know, what what built the Kirby Smart Empire? We're gonna talk about the defense. And and the the only real question is is, you know, is is this defense ready to become, you know, one of those elite level Georgia defenses again? And y you all know what I mean when I say that. I'm not I'm not asking if we're gonna be a good defense. I mean w we know we will. Is this Georgia? This is Kirby Smart. You know, he he hadn't left Athens yet. This is this is a team that recruits grown men. and we got a bunch of kids walking around that facility who who look like they were built in a lab somewhere. We know we've got talent. We know we've got the dudes. That's that's not the question, and and that never will be the question. The the question is whether or not this year we can we can get back to that version of of a Georgia defense that that doesn't just get stops, but that Georgia defense that that intimidates people and makes people uncomfortable. That that Georgia defense that makes quarterbacks, you know, makes that clock in their head speed up and the the one that makes the running back start looking for for the sidelines by the third or fourth quarter trying to make a business decision. The the version of a Georgia fee defense that that makes an offensive coordinator look look down at his call sheet and just throw his hands up in the air and go, Well, I don't know what to call. None of this is gonna work. That that kind of Georgia defense. We we've seen it. ⁓ we know what it is, we we recognize it, and and that's that's what I think we're looking for this year. And frankly, I think that the talent is there ⁓ bar barring injuries. I th I think we have a shot to pull it off. ⁓ and if we're gonna get back to to that level, it's it's gonna start up front. That's ⁓ everything Kirby builds around defensively starts up front. It's you know, can we control the line of scrimmage? Can we can we get those big men up front to eat up blocks and and keep the linebackers clean? Can we Can we collapse the pocket and put the quarterback under pressure without having to bring the house on on every third down? And, you know, that's that's where guys like you know Jordan Hall have got to step up big and Elijah Griffin, that young kid, is gonna be special if he can stay healthy. And, you know, Joseph Jonah Anjany, Xavier McLeod, Nasir Johnson, Namdia Boko, you know, then on the outside, we we've got to have get Gabe Harris and Q Johnson. Those guys have got to step up and and just make it miserable for for quarterbacks. And like I'm not I'm not saying any of those guys have gotta have gotta become Jordan Davis or Jalen Carter or Trayvon Walker overnight. That that wouldn't be fair. And and Georgia doesn't need any of those guys to to be superhuman. ⁓ we just need that entire room to become what what the Georgia defensive line rooms have have looked like over the last, you know, the better part of the last five, six years or so. Deep, rotational, just physical, nasty, annoying. And then still fresh in the third quarter to just harass the crap out of the quarterback of the offensive line. That's the key. That's that's what makes us who we are. ⁓ when when our defensive front is right, it it changes the whole defense for for Kirby and Schumann and and the guys. The the linebackers look like they play faster because nobody's nobody's getting a box on them. The secondary gets better looks because they're not having to hang on to coverages as long as the quarterback gets nervous and and makes some loose throws. The run game just disappears altogether. And then those third and six, third and sevens just start feeling like third and forever because that defense has been smothering them. You know, at linebacker, you know, I I think we are we are loaded. We we obviously Raylon Wilson is the guy that gets a lot of attention. That's the name people are gonna know. And and look, he should be that that dude could have gone to the NFL last year. He chose to come back. I I expect nothing but greatness from from this year, but You know, he's he's not just a guy on the roster. He's he's gotta be a leader this year. He's played a lot of real football i in Athens. He's had his big moments, and and if Georgia defense is gonna is gonna be what we want it to be, Raylan Wilson is gonna be one of the top tone setters, you know, right there in the middle. But but look at like right right there with him. You got guys like Chris Cole and Justin Williams and Zaydon Walker. That that linebacker room is deep and athletic, man. They they are there is a lot of talent. It's just a question of of whether or not Raylor can take over as the play call or whether we can we can keep those linebackers under control and really have command of the game. You know, a at linebacker at Georgia, it's not just about ⁓ athleticism and it's not just about running and hitting. ⁓ you know, these guys are asked to communicate. They gotta they gotta be able to fit the run on the run plays, they gotta be able to cover some on pass plays, they gotta be able to make adjustments. And and the the linebackers are the are responsible usually for making sure everybody else is lined up right. And You know, that's what's in in the past. Think about some of those linebackers we've had with with Roquan and N'Kobe Dean and CJ Allen the last couple of years. Just just those dogs in the middle to get everybody lined up, hold everybody accountable, and and just become the the the leader of that defense. And it wasn't just that those guys were were athletic, those guys were they were connected. They they ensured that the entire defense played like just one organism and you know everybody knew where to be and and And what those defenses, those great defenses had was that everybody trusted the guy next to them. And and that's the standard. And that's the standard we gotta get back to. And and then we talk about the secondary. You know, obviously, you know, KJ Bolden is the experienced cone setter back there. He's the one that that feels like a future NFL star. And maybe not even in the future. He he may be he may be ready to be a star now. He's the kind of player who can who can change the game on any play because he he can cover, he can trigger, he can hit, he can erase some mistakes. Then on the corners, you got Ellis Robinson, you got DeMelo Jones. Like I I'm excited. We we brought in some transfers in the secondary. Jonte Gilbert back there, Braylon Conley, Kyron Jones, Gentry Williams. Again, it's it the the dudes are there. We we know the athletic ability is there in that room. And and frankly, at this point, you know, other than probably KJ and Ellis Robinson, it's it's just about competition. It's about seeing, you know, getting the best players on the field and and figuring out who's gonna help us win. We know we have the players. on defense. It's just a question of whether this group can can really come together and and be one of those nasty elite level defenses that a good defense has talent. A a great defense has talent and chemistry, but a nasty fear defense has talent, chemistry, and attitude. And that's what we want to see in Athens this year. I don't want just a defense that looks good on paper and and puts up good numbers. I I want to do f a defense that just ruins the other team's plans before they likely even get started. I I want a quarterback feeling like we got 14 men on the field. I I want third and longs to feel absolutely hopeus. I I want every receiver to hear footsteps over the middle and running backs getting getting stood up by one guy and leveled to the ground by another. I I want offensive players calling plays because they don't trust their quarterback to hold on to the ball and they're just trying to ⁓ eliminate mistakes. That's that's when Georgia is Georgia, when when our defense is setting the tone for the entire game and Look, maybe maybe that's a little bit of an unfair ⁓ you know, expectation, but but you know, as a Georgia fan and and what we've been blessed with, I we're not gonna judge our defense against normal standards anymore. We we used to do that. Kirby has changed the game. He's changed the standards. Those those championship teams did that. And when you watch the the twenty twenty one defense and and then you watch Georgia just keep rolling guys into the NFL, you know, that that changed the standard forever. And we're not going back. So You know, nowadays when when we ask, hey, is it is this defense going to be any good this year? That any good is is not the bar. That's not good enough. Dominant is the bar we're trying to attain. Feared is the bar that we're looking for. And frankly, national championship level defense is the bar that we're we're trying to clear. That's that's what makes this year so interesting because if if the offense is is still trying to figure itself out early, and that may be the case, the the defense may have to once again carry this team and kind of become the personality of this team. And I'm not saying carry carry the whole team necessarily, but but at least set the tone and at least provide that that consistency and that dominance and and be the identity like like they have been for the better part of the last decade. That defense can be the reason that that teams know look, when you roll into Athens, Georgia, and Sanford Stadium, you're in for a long afternoon. Georgia football under Kirby is at its best when when the defense walks into any stadium with the attitude that says, you might score eventually, but you're gonna hate the process of trying to do it. That's that's what I wanna be. That's that's who I wanna be on defense this year. I want I want the front to make make the other teams earn every single inch. I want to see Rayla Wilson flying all over the field and that linebacker group just erasing people right and left like almost like they know what's coming. I I I want to see KJ Bolden just being an absolute nightmare in the secondary and see Ellis Robinson grow up into that lockdown corner that we all know he can be. And I want to see some of the younger guys push the older guys and and and make sure that none of those older guys get too comfortable with those starting positions and that play in time because look, that's that's how Georgia stays Georgia. It's it's depth, it's competition, it's physicality, it's accountability. And it's just a whole bunch of dudes that look understand playing defense in in Athens is not just about putting on that G and wearing that red and black. It's about protecting the standard. It's about defending the house. So so tomorrow, you know, if somebody asks me, you know, w what I'm watching and what I'm looking for with this Georgia team, then like, yeah, I I care about Gunner, I care about Bobo and the offensive line and the explosive plays. But I'm gonna tell you right now, if if the Georgia defense becomes the Georgia defense again, the rest of the college football world better look out, it's time to be careful because th this team this team is not just talented, this team could be dangerous. And when Georgia's dangerous on defense, everything else gets easier. It sets up the whole system. The offense gets more possessions, the field gets shorter, the crowd gets louder, the opponent absolutely gets tighter and and the game starts feeling like it belongs to us way before the scoreboard even recognizes it. That's that's what I want to get back. It's it's great to blow teams out, but and like I said, we we we want to put points on the board and we want the offense to click like they should. But I want teams to know that it they ain't getting more than about ten points one way or another. So they they're gonna have to earn it. Not just a good defense, not just talented. I I want that Georgia defense, that the kind of defense that hunts, the kind of defense that will hit ya. And frankly, the kind of defense that makes the offense wish they they just scheduled somebody else. Man, I can't wait for football. All right, let's ⁓ let's pretend like I'm gonna make a smooth transition from from that to to talking about this whole Anthony Fauci thing. But ⁓ really the the the Fauci situation is is is bigger than that. It it's it's much more to me about a an issue of public trust, ⁓ accountability. And frankly what we what we always keep coming back to, it's it's about the truth. You know, we we we want to look at this from the standpoint of what happens to a country when when powerful people are allowed to make massive decisions, you know, lecture everybody else, condemn everybody else, shame everybody else and you know, control the flow of information, ⁓ cause massive amounts of damage to to people's lives, and then somehow they they never have to answer for any of it because frankly, I th you know, that's where a lot of us as Americans feel like we are right now. You know, Fauci Fauci just appeared before a Senate hearing and and and just repeatedly invoked the the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer any questions tied to the whole COVID thing. the the decision making, the the research, the the debate over it, the gain of function. He just he won't answer any questions. He just simply ⁓ seems incapable of telling the truth. Now look but before we go any further Yeah, the the Fifth Amendment is it's a constitutional right and and using the Fifth Amendment does not automatically mean somebody is guilty. We we have to be careful about making that sort of leap and and making that sort of assumption. ⁓ we don't want to be a coun ⁓ we don't wanna be a country where exercising a constitutional right it becomes automatic treating becomes automatically treated like a a conviction or a sense of guilt. But we also don't have to pretend ⁓ like we as the American people are are crazy for for wondering why you know one of the most powerful public health voices in the entire country during what was clearly one of the most disruptive periods in in the history of the world is now refusing to answer just basic questions under under oath. You know, both things can be true. He he has the right not to answer. But as the public, we have every right to to ask the question of what in the world happened. ⁓ that's and that's the tension that we're all feeling right now because this simply can't be dismissed as as a political stunt. And it and it also can't be reduced to just some sort of personal hatred or vitriol towards towards Anthony Fauci. It this is bigger than one man. He is he is the one under the microscope at the moment, but this is this is bigger than this than just him. This is about whether the people in power can can be wrong, can be misleading, intentionally misleading, arrogant, d destructive, and evasive, and and still never have to answer for for consequences. And and frankly that that matters because COVID was it was not some small policy debate. Like COVID changed everything. Our children were were massively impacted. They lost their opportunity to learn that Businesses closed, churches were restricted, families were separated, people died alone because of government decisions. Workers lost their job over vaccine mandates. Parents at at at school boards were told to sit down and shut up trying to make decisions for their own kids. And and any doctor or scientist who who asked questions about the the standard were were mocked, marginalized, and frankly just just you know basically silenced. ordinary Americans were, you know, some of us were shamed for concerns that, you know, in in many cases turned out to be not only reasonable questions, but turned out to be valid and true. ⁓ and during all of that, we were told, we were told one thing over and over again. We were told, trust the experts, trust the science, trust the institutions, trust the people in charge. But but here's the problem. Trust cannot be demanded forever. At some point trust has to be earned. And which trust and once trust is broken, ⁓ accountability can't can't be optional. That's that's the message today. When when public trust is broken, ⁓ accountability can't be optional. It can't be. A lot of Americans are are not angry simply because that there were there were mistakes made. People people can forgive mistakes. A a a crisis like that, one one like we had never seen a Turns out we should have been able to plan for it because it was kind of organized and instituted. But ⁓ crisis is hard by by literal definition. You know, you you're dealing sometimes with early and incomplete information. The people in charge are human, doctors are human, scientists are human, policymakers are human. Back when this all started in the early 2020, nobody had perfect knowledge of what we were dealing with. Most reasonable people understand that. Most of us can admit that and acknowledge that. But what what we have a hard time accepting is is the arrogance. What we have a hard time accepting was was the censorship. What people can't accept is is leaders flip-flopping and changing to positions all the time while pretending like they were never wrong at all. What we can't accept is is people being lectured by people who never seem to apologize when they're proven wrong. You what we refuse to accept is is watching the same voices. who who demanded total compliance by us and now act like you know nobody has any right to question them when when they broke the rules. That's that's what destroyed the trust. It's it's not just the mistakes. It was it was the arrogance and lack of accountability after the mistakes. It was it was not just the the uncertainty of the situation. It was the false certainty which with with which the leaders tried to speak down to us. It it wasn't the It wasn't the instances of bad judgment. It was the refusal to admit bad judgment when when that bad judgment became apparent. And that's that's where ⁓ frankly, that's where the anger comes from. And and honestly, it's it's a hundred percent justified in my opinion. If if if you were like me and your child lost years of of normal education, then you deserve answers to that. If if your small business was dis destroyed because of the the way this was handled, you deserve answers. If you had a loved one that died alone because of hospital rules and shutdown rules, you deserve answers for why you had to go through that. If you lost a job over the vaccine mandate, you deserve answers. And frankly, I think you deserve more than answers. If you were mocked for you know asking whether the virus could have come from a lab or called a racist or a bigot, you deserve answers for that. If you were told that that questioning the official story in any way made you dangerous or ignorant or immoral, You deserve answers for that. And answers are not revenge. Accountability is not revenge. And truth is not revenge. That's that's the game powerful people play. They they make accountability sound hateful. They make the hard questions sound dangerous. They they like to make the investigation sound overly extreme. They they make ordinary citizens feel guilty for just wanting to know what happened. But asking hard questions is is in no way a form of hatred. It's it's responsibility. Scripture says chapter 12, verse 2, nothing is covered up that will not be revealed or hidden that will but will not be known. That's a that's a sobering verse. You know, it's telling us that hidden things don't stay hidden forever. Eventually the the truth has a way of coming into the light. Eventually those emails are gonna come out, documents are gonna come out, testimony's gonna change from somebody, the story's gonna shift. It eventually the the things that people dismissed as conspiracy theories become legitimate questions. Eventually the people who were told they were crazy to to ask, they go, hey, wait a minute, why why were we silenced for asking that? You know, and and that's where America is right now with COVID. We still don't have every answer. We still don't know everything. There there are still some questions about the the virus and the origins and and and some of the science behind it. There are still disputes about who knew what and who knew what when. There are still some debates over over the lab leak and whether it was intentional and how how it all happened. There's still some de debates about the gain of function research and and the funding and where it all really came from. And you know, ⁓ there are still people who are willing to debate the masks and the mandates and the vaccines and and the how it was all handled, the censorship and the lockdowns and school closures. You know, people people may still have questions about some of that. You know, some of us don't question very much anymore. Some of us think we've got it figured out. But but here's what we do know. Too many people that that were in power spoke with a level of certainty that they clearly didn't deserve. Too many people used the word science as as a shield against scrutiny. Too many people treated the dissent from those of us who asked questions like we were dangerous. Too many people treated disagreement like it was disinformation. And you know, too many people treated questions like they were crimes. That's not how truth works, that's not how science works. ⁓ real science would never be afraid of questions. Real science will welcome testing, welcome debate. Real science welcomes correction because real science is trying to get to the truth. Real science will be humble enough to say, hey, here's what we know and here's what we don't know, and here's where we may have been wrong. But during COVID, trust the science too often just became ⁓ demonic for stop asking questions and just do what we say. And that's not science. That's that's authority, that's politics, that's control. And as Christians, we have to care about that. As Christians, we are supposed to be people of the truth. We should not be anti-science. We should not be reckless. We should not pretend that that being an expert is irrelevant. Expertise means something. But we should also never bow down to credentials if credentials make a person incapable of deception, pride, error, or corruption. Just because somebody is credentialed doesn't mean they're always right. A white Coat does not erase the sin nature of a human being. A government title does not guarantee that that person's gonna tell the truth. A medical degree doesn't make someone above accountability. And a microphone or a TV show or a podcast certainly doesn't make someone untouchable. Every human institution needs accountability because every human being is a fallen soul. That includes politicians, pastors, scientists, doctors, media figures, bureaucrats. It includes the president and and it includes Dr. Anthony Fauci. And look I I know some people are just gonna say you you just hate Fauci. And look, I don't I don't like to say I hate anybody and that's that's not the point of this anyway. The point's not hatred. The the point's accountability. The point is that no public official, especially not one that that had the sort of power and authority he had, ⁓ should be treated like a like a secular pope. ⁓ no expert can be allowed to become untouchable like he was, ⁓ like some sort of priest of public policy. And and no person that had the kind of influence he had should be able to do so and influence hundreds of millions of people and then hide behind the credentials when when the bill comes due. And let's be real, the bill came due. The bill came due in the classroom, the bill came due for small businesses, the bill came due for a bunch of people when it comes to mental health. The bill came due in churches and and families and and the bill has come to you in the fact that we have lost public trust. The bill came due in the way that Americans now look at our government, our agencies, the media outlets, medical institutions and and experts all over the place. And we can't hide from that. That that damage, that lack of trust is real and and it's bad. A lot of people who who used to lean towards trusting the institutions simply don't now. ⁓ and the people who broke that trust Can't rebuild it by just standing there and demanding that we respect them. They can't rebuild it by scolding us and talking down to us. They they can't rebuild it by refusing to answer questions. They can only rebuild it by telling the truth. And that's it. We come back to it on this show, and everything I talk about in life right now revolves around that one thing. It's the truth, transparency, humility, accountability. Those are not radical demands. Those are basic requirements for us to have any element of public trust. Proverbs chapter 28, 13 says, Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. That verse gives us a very powerful principle. Concealment destroys and confession opens the door to mercy. And that's true personally, that's true spiritually, and it's true institutionally. If public guidance was wrong, say so. If school closures were wrong or went too far, Say so, admit it. If if mandates ignored natural immunity, say so. If dissenting scientists and doctors were unfairly scienced, tell us that. Admit it. Tell the truth if the lab leak possibility was was dismissed early for political reasons instead of science. Say so, tell us. If agencies failed to do their job, say so. If officials or media misled the public, tell the truth, say so. If there was no wrongdoing, then Then show the evidence, like prove it. But stop hiding, stop spinning, and stop lecturing us. Stop pretending like the people asking the questions are the problem. It's not the questions that destroy the trust. It's it's the lies, it's the evasion, it's the censorship, it's the arrogance that we were spoken to. It's the double standards that have destroyed the trust. And that's where I think a lot of us are just fed up. We watched for years the the people in power continue to do things and say things that just didn't hold up. We watched people get banned from platforms for saying things that that later turned out to be absolutely true. We watched schools stay closed far longer than than they had to, even after we knew that the disease wasn't really dangerous for kids. We watched the the elites make decisions for us and hold us to standards that they didn't follow themselves. And then we watch the leaders tell ordinary people what we had to sacrifice and what we had to give up while it never seemed to affect them. And then after all that, we w we watch some of them move on and try to just sweep it under the rug and pretend like nothing ever happened. They're they're writing books about it, doing interviews. Dr. Fauci, how many interviews and awards and stuff did he get? Security details, university platforms for jobs, they get speaking fees all over the place. These guys are making a fortune talking about that from From the powerful positions where all they were doing was lying to us and making mistakes. The the legacy media has has praised them. And meanwhile, ordinary American families were just left with the damage. And that's why I don't think this issue is going away. That's why I think this this issue and the the whole COVID thing and Dr. Fauci, this this still has some heat to it. And it's not because people won't revenge. Now, look, ⁓ I'm sure some do. There are people out there who who absolutely won't revenge, but It it's because so many of us out there still just want to see some element of accountability. We want somebody in a position of power to say, Hey, we got this wrong. We want somebody to to admit to us, hey, we should not have done that. We want somebody to tell us, hey, look, we overstepped. We want people to tell us, yes, we we silenced people unfairly. We treated citizens like subjects. We forgot that freedom still matters even during a crisis. And and frankly, un until the leaders can can say those things and say them honestly, I don't know that the trust is gonna come back. And that's that's the real danger here because look, w as Americans or or as human beings, we're we're gonna face another crisis one day. And it may be another pandemic, it may be a cyber attack, it may be a world war. It may be some sort of economic collapse, or it may be something with you know AI related or something that that we haven't even begun to to conceive of yet. Something's gonna happen. And and when that crisis comes, people are going to need to trust the the public institutions enough for there to be some control and not total chaos. But what happens if what happens if we don't? What happens if the next time the public officials say, trust us, half the country says, No, I don't think so. What happens if if the next emergency comes and and people assume every public health message is is political and they don't listen? What happens if if people refuse good guidance because bad leaders poisoned the well last time? It's a dangerous situation and it's something we really need to be aware of. That's that's why I think, you know, starting with this this Fauci and the COVID thing and from now on a accountability has to matter. This is not just about continuing to relive COVID forever. God knows I want to move on from it as much as anybody, but it's about making sure we learn from it and making sure that that that changes come from from how bad that was handled. If there's no accountability, there's there's no correction. And if there's no correction, there will never be any trust. If there's no trust, then trust me when I say the next crisis is going to be even worse because it will turn into even more chaos than the last one. So Yeah, I I think Dr. Fauci should have to answer the hard questions. I I think all of the public health health officials should have to answer the hard questions. I I think the politicians should have to answer the hard questions. I think the media executives and the media personality should have to answer hard questions. I think the tech companies that that censored people should have to answer hard questions. I think the school officials and the school board and and they should all have to answer hard questions. Any powerful person or institution that that had to had the influence to shape the the COVID response, should be in a position now to have to answer the the questions. And again, it's not because we're hateful. It's because the truth matters. And it's because ordinary people paid the price for decisions made by those people with extraordinary power. And look, here here's where I think we we need to be careful. In our anger, we we can't become careless with with truth ourselves. We can't just say anything. We can't convict people of things we can't prove. We can't become what we are criticizing. If if we're going to demand truth from others, we have to be truthful ourselves. If we're gonna demand evidence, then then we have to care about evidence. If we're gonna demand accountability, then then we have to we have to resist the the urge to turn accountability into revenge. All that matters. Righteous anger can become sinful anger if if we don't guard our hearts carefully. The Bible doesn't always say it doesn't say anger is always wrong, but it does warn us about what anger can become. So, yes, you you can be angry about what happened. You can be angry about children l losing their time in school and losing time with friends. You can be angry about the the businesses that were destroyed. You can be angry about you know, churches being shut down while liquor stores and strip clubs were were still open. You can be angry about the censorship. You can absolutely be angry about the arrogance with which we were spoken to. You can be you can be angry about the fact that those of us who were who were on the other side and just trying to ask questions were were often mocked and ridiculed. But don't let don't let that anger make you dishonest. Don't let anger make you cruel and and don't let anger make you sloppy. Don't let anger make you worship that that seeking of revenge. Justice and revenge are not the same thing. Justice wants truth restored. Revenge wants pain in return for what happened. Justice wants accountability. Revenge wants humiliation for the other party. Justice wants correction. Revenge wants an element of destruction. Christians should seek justice w without being consumed by vengeance. And and that's very, very important. So the the message today isn't let's let's make sure we destroy Fauci. The message today is tell the truth. The message is not hate the experts. The message is hold the experts accountable. And the message is certainly not reject or refuse the science. The message is stop using science as a shield against scrutiny and questions. We're not telling you never trust anyone in authority, but we are saying that no authority is beyond question other than the authority of God. That's a crucial difference. As a conservative, I I believe governmental power across the board should be limited. But as a Christian, I believe that the reason governmental power should be limited is because we ha God gave us freedom, so the government should as well. ⁓ but we have to have government power because human beings are sinful. And that's not cynicism, it's it's realism. We don't want the government to have too much power because we want to exercise our God given right of free will, but we need to have the government to have enough power to control the fact that we're all a sinful, sinful people. ⁓ it's biblical realism. It's people people are capable of pride. People are capable of deception. People will do anything in most cases for self-protection. ⁓ people are capable clearly of abusing authority. People are capable of hiding their mistakes to protect their reputation. And and when those types of people sit in powerful position, the the damage can be enormous. And that's that's what we've dealt with. But that's why accountability matters. That's why transparency matters and free speech matters and open debate matters. That's why the the the right to dissent matters, because when when only one approved narrative is allowed, the truth gets smothered. ⁓ and when the truth suffers and can't come out, then people suffer. COVID taught us that, if nothing else. It it should have humbled our leaders. It should have humbled the media. It should have humbled the institutions. It should have humbled all of us. But instead, i i in too many placers w we were talked down to and criticized and lectured ⁓ instead of the the people in charge ⁓ expressing humility. We got spin ⁓ in every case instead of confessions, we we got censorship instead of debate, we got slogans instead of transparency and And now people look around and wonder why trust is gone. Well, this is why. Public trust is not going to be rebuilt by demanding that people forget what happened. Public trust will only be rebuilt by telling the truth about what happened. So you know, if we talk about Fauci, I I don't want to talk about him like he's the only issue. But he is the symbol and a real good symbol in this case of a much larger issue. It's it's a failure of humility, it's a failure of transparency. It's a failure within the institutions, a failure of the media, a failure from our political leaders, a failure to admit that public officials are servants, not rulers. They work for us. They work for the people and they are accountable to us. They are accountable to the people. And when they're and when their decisions shape the lives of all of us, they owe us answers. That should not be controversial. So so here's the question we we want to leave this topic with. It's what kind of country are we building if the powerful people never have to answer for the damage that they've done to the powerless? What kind of trust can exist if if the people who made the rules never have to explain themselves to the people who have to live under their rules? What kind of science is afraid of of questions? What kind of leadership refuses humility? What kind of justice lets the influential individual walk away while ordinary people have to carry the consequences? Those are not conspiracy questions. Those are accountability questions and they deserve answers. So yes, Anthony Fauci should answer questions. Not because he is hated, but because he was powerful. Not because every allegation is already proven or even true, but because as the public we deserve to know what is true. Not because we as Americans won't revenge, but because public trust can't be healed without accountability. And if there was some wrongdoing, then we need to expose it. If there were lies, we need them revealed. If there were cover ups, we need to uncover them. If there were failures, we need to name them and recognize them. If there was abuse of power, we need to correct it and call it out. And if certain allegations are not true, then then we need to show that as well. But don't tell the American people to move on while refusing to tell us what really happened. We can't move forward honestly if we're still hiding from the truth. Luke twelve told us that nothing hidden will stay hidden. And proverbs says concealment doesn't prosper. And common sense says trust will never be rebuilt by the same arrogance that destroyed it. So let's be clear. It's not about revenge. It's about truth. It's about trust. It's about accountability. It's about making sure that the next time America faces a crisis, leaders are going to know that they can't just use fear to silence questions and then hide behind credentials when the bill comes due. Public trust is not rebuilt by demanding respect. It's rebuilt by telling the truth. And frankly, if the truth makes the powerful people uncomfortable, then maybe the powerful people need to be uncomfortable for a little while. All right, guys. We're rolling into as we as we get ready to wrap up today, that we want to talk a little bit about ⁓ the theme of the day, which is is is the noise keeping you from hearing God? And you know, is is this world we live in we're just constantly bombarded with with sensory overload, is that keeping us from from hearing God? When's the last time any of us just sat in complete silence for anything more than a few minutes? No TV, no podcast, no music, no scrolling on your phone, no notifications going off, no background noise, just silence. For most of us, it it's almost uncomfortable to even think about. The the moment things get Quiet, we we instinctively we reach for our phones or we turn on the TV or we start another podcast, we check our emails, scroll through social media. We we live in a world where we fill every empty moment with something. And and maybe that's why so many people today, you know, kind of walk around or are are thinking to themselves, I I just wish I knew what God wanted me to do. I I wonder, you know. What what if God is speaking to to a lot of us, but we've become so accustomed to all the noise around us that we've forgotten how to tune in and listen for him? Think about, I mean, your your average morning, but before your feet even hit the floor, your your phone lights up, you've got news alerts, text messages, emails, you gotta check your social media, check the sports scores, the latest political news, the weather, work, advertisements. Before you've even had a cup of coffee. You've had dozens of voices already competing for your attention. Everybody wants something from you. Everybody has an opinion. And everybody around you is saying, Hey, listen to me. Our our attention has become one of the most valuable commodities in the world. Companies out there are spending billions of dollars trying to capture your attention. News organizations compete every day for your attention. Social media platforms have designed Algorithms that are so complex and dialed in, and all they're doing is designed to gather and hold your attention. But here's the question: if if everybody else is shaping what you think, where does God fit in? When does God get a chance to speak? If if you never have a moment of silence, where does God come to you? One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament comes from 1 Kings chapter 19. And it's it's a story we're all very familiar with. But you have to know to understand what's happening here, you have to know what happened just before these verses. Elijah had stood on Mount Carmel to and watched God do something miraculous. Fire fell from heaven. The prophets of Baal were defeated. It was it was one of the greatest victories in all of scripture. It it's a beautiful story. And you would think, having having just lived through those moments, you would think that Elijah would be fearless. We all think that. If I, you know, if I could have witnessed one of Jesus' miracles, if I could have seen God do something like that, I would have no fear in the world. But instead, in this case, one threat from from Queen Jezebel just sent him running back to the mountains. He he becomes exhausted, discouraged, afraid. He isolates himself in a cave and and even tells God, he goes, I I've had enough. How many of us have have ever been there? And you know, maybe maybe you weren't hiding in a in a literal cave, but you know, emotionally, spiritually, just mentally exhausted and wondering if anything you're doing a actually even matters. Elijah wasn't weak in this moment. He was just worn out. And sometimes being tired and being weak can look remarkably similar. So God tells Elijah to to go stand on the mountain. And then something incredible happens. And listen carefully here. A great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. Think about that. God had the power to speak through the wind. He created the wind. He could have spoken through the earthquake, he could have spoken through the fire, but on that day he chose a whisper. Now why? Why does why would God choose that? He has so much power. Why would he choose to Communicate in such a ⁓ whisper way. Because before Elijah needed new instructions, he needed a renewed intimacy with God that can only come from quiet time. I I hear people say all the time, I I I just wish God would show me what to do. Maybe you've prayed that exact thing. I I I know I have. God, just show me the way. Open doors, close doors, help me, help me know my path. But what if the problem for for most of us isn't so much that God has become silent? W what if we've just become so distracted that we can't hear him? We we live in a culture where where it seems like the loudest voice wins, the the hottest take gets the most attention and the most clicks. The biggest controversy is the hottest story, the angriest opinion is what gets shared the fastest and spreads like wildfire. God never promised us that he would compete with the world's attention or the with the world's volume for our attention. He asks us to seek him. Sometimes the the problem isn't God's volume, it's it's our lack of availability. The loudest voice is not always the most important. Think about Jesus. Crowds followed him everywhere. People, people wanted miracles, people wanted healing. They they were seeking his teaching and and answers that he provided. If if anyone had a legitimate excuse to to stay busy every waking moment, it was Jesus. And yet over and over again, we're told in the gospel that that he withdrew to lonely places for quiet time and prayer. You know, he stepped away from the noise. He spent time and made time for the Father before returning to the crowds. If if Jesus needed intentional time away from constant demands, then how much worse do we need it? So here's the question, and and I ask myself this all the time: you know, who who has the greatest influence on on my thinking this week? Is it is it the news media, is it sports media, is it is it a a radio host? Is it a podcast commentator? Is it one of my coworkers? Is it friends, family, or is it God's word? Every voice we we repeatedly listen to eventually starts to shape the way we see the world. If I spend three hours listening to everyone else's opinion and only three minutes listening to God, Then I shouldn't be surprised when my perspective begins to look a lot more like the world and this culture that we live in than Christ. The invitation of Jesus has never simply been come hear me. It's been come follow me. And you can't closely follow someone whose voices whose voice you never stop to hear. You've got to you've got to stop to get the instruction. Jesus didn't come just to rescue us from sin, He came to restore a relationship with the Father. Relationships aren't built through occasional interruptions. They're built through consistent time together. God isn't looking for you to be perfect. He's inviting you into fellowship, and that's that's still true for all of us today. So here's my challenge for for tomorrow morning, before you check your phone, before you turn on the TV or scroll social media, give God ten uninterrupted minutes. Open your Bible, just sit and pray, or just sit quietly. Quietly and and ask one simple question. Lord, what do you want me to see today? You might be surprised. Not because God suddenly started speaking, but because you finally made the room and took the time to listen. Look, the world will still be noisy tomorrow. It will always be a noisy place. But somewhere beneath all of that noise, the the voice of the shepherd is still calling his sheep. Let's make sure we don't miss it. All right, guys, that'll do it for today, as always. Get your Bible, say your prayers, love one another, and tell the truth. God bless.