Latest / CrossPolitic Show / The Lies Targeting Idaho's Christian Governor Candidate (ft. Mark Fitzpatrick)

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The Lies Targeting Idaho's Christian Governor Candidate (ft. Mark Fitzpatrick) · CrossPolitic Show

• Hey y'all welcome to one on one with the water boy it's good to be with you I got Governor candidate for governor. I can't say governor candidate for governor Mark Fitzpatrick Again in the studio actually this time in the studio and as you guys know last time I had him on he was not in the studio And we kind of talked through a bunch of things but since then You know I've endorsed Mark and then we I had him on the show and then all these emails texts and like Questions about mark start rising up and because there's been some controversies around mark And so we hope to kind of address and ask some questions and address some of the controversies that's around mark and also talk about Maybe some recent comments from Brad little about your campaign and and those who choose to vote for you and all that stuff So thank you for joining the show again mark glad to be here There have been a few interesting comments lately from Brad little yeah, yeah, so we'll we'll get right into that and and I want to remind our listeners one of one of the reasons Why cross-politic was an LLC? From beginning in 2016 is because as a nonprofit there's certain things politically we just can't do and we didn't want our voice restricted in any sort of way You know like endorsing mark and stuff like that would be kind of taboo for a nonprofit to do and And and so From the mission from the jump of what we were trying to do with cross-politic We just wanted to have free free voice and be able to talk through Controversy issues in a way that wouldn't jeopardize our 501c3 be able to endorse Christian guys like mark You know not nox and Toby having endorsed them not not because they don't they just don't know mark that well and We haven't been able to record a show with you together right because of our schedule and everything so it's nothing there but All that to say is Cross-politic was set up so we can kind of have the freedom to be able to talk this way Now the other thing I want to start off here and I've mentioned this on Twitter and Facebook I don't know if I put this in video for me So I'm gonna talk to say some things here before we get to interviewing you is in Idaho in Idaho The primaries are actually what matter the primaries is where especially statewide locally the primaries might not be as big of a deal For like a local election or something like that, but statewide the primaries are the only thing that matter For our elections in Idaho because whoever Republican wins the primary in Idaho We'll be the Republican to win in November. That's just how it goes and that's May 19th and that's so the primaries coming up It's actually you can vote now, right, but the last day to vote May 19th and so and let me just let me just kind of maybe Maybe guilt you into this a little bit get off the get off the couch and vote and here's why so last Governor primary election was 2022 and Janice McGeein was running against Brad little and I had endorsed Janice and helped her with her campaign similar to yours and Brad got 150,000 votes that may And and Janice got 90,000 votes that may and so if you run the numbers and this is actually kind of embarrassing a little bit If you run them on numbers, let's say let's just round the numbers up There's two million people in Idaho and 150,000 votes Determined who became our governor in November correct and that means so what is that? 7.5% is what it is of the population now the voting population is about four 1.4 million And so if you bump into the voting population in here about 10 11 percent Of the voters in Idaho decide in May who's going to be the Republican governor that actually gets elected in November And so the participation is low, but also I'm that just shows you how winnable Right this this primary is you can look at it like each person who goes and votes You're casting a vote for seven or eight more people basically your represent. Yeah, it's almost like you're representing that That's how powerful you're voted right so it's like statistically like percentage wise your vote is way more powerful in the primary Right, then it is even in the November elections and everything so One of the things that we if Idaho is gonna get better Elected officials we got to stop talking like now, you know vote for the alternative Vote for the alternative them Brad little it's like no, it's not we're really working We're like sorting through the alternatives where actually we have the new guy Has actually a real opportunity to win in the primary and it's not like an alternative the problem is is is We haven't looked at primaries in Idaho as important as we should have right and so guarantee You have 200 300,000 Idahoans that would vote for you today if it was in November Correct and so why not why not get off your seat and go vote in the primary All we need is 175,000 votes I think it's a lot less that we need to win but yeah, I think yeah 100 just match what he did 150,000 I go in around Idaho and I'm talking to a thousands of people and I'm hearing from people I voted for Brad in the past but there's no way I'm gonna vote for him in the future now think about he had 148,000 votes that he won with now how what percentage of those people are not gonna be voting for him again based off of four more years of Incoming illegal immigrants incoming refugees Our state budget skyrocketing by 70 percent all of the programs and everything going on It's basically we're heading towards socialism and everybody can start paying attention It's easy and they're not voting for him. So it's gonna be interesting to see how many of those 148,000 votes Not only go away from him, but then come aboard for me. Yeah, right, right? So you can take away votes and gain votes like anything in May so there so basically there's a real opportunity For Mark to become our governor in May and And the rhino My biggest problem with the rhinos and out to me the rhinos are it's a categorical thing where Some of them like Lori McCann she's she's running in our district and she's a Democrat I mean, I just shared her voting record today and All she votes know on everything Brandon Mitchell in our district votes. Yes on and just down the line She votes Democrat bam bam bam bam the Republican party needs to start stripping these people of their Republican title So we we censored her twice and she's still running as a Republican. It's crazy. It's unbelievable and And so there's that category that I think fits in the rhino category like someone who's obviously a Democrat but running for a Republican And then I would also include maybe not so not as big of like a pejorative or whatever, but just just the old guard Republicans Where they're you sit down and talk to them one on one and you'll hear a lot of you know good Republican principles But what what has happened is is they really Care more about the status quo and actually fixing what their votes have caused over the last 40 years Correct. I mean, there's no conservative leadership It's just they're allowing things to continue going down this road Yeah, and they don't want to undo it because they prefer to be I ran it when I run it for kind of commissioner during COVID I'm met with several rhinos in town About the whole COVID stuff and they were frustrated me because I was throwing a stink about about the COVID shutdown in our town And they're like, you know, you know, honey's better than vinegar kept hearing that argument Honey's better than vinegar that kind of thing and I'm like and I remember I remember having lunch with John Kimberling I'm doing 2020 he's a local kind of rhino Guy who owns a business in downtown and I'm gonna have a lunch and he was just kind of Using argument with me, you know, honey's better than vinegar And I said your business is shut down and you don't care because you've made your money and it's like all the all my friends here Haven't made their money and And so there's no fight from you because individually you're fine and you want everybody to get in line and just go along to get along and All you're gonna do is sit there while your country burns eventually and so the old guard I think that that's categorically true of the old guard that Kind of in their older age they've gotten comfortable and don't want to fight and want to go along to get along and Which is why you see the Democrats get more done when they're in control than the Republicans get more done But less done when they're in control is because they're compromisers and they're they aren't fighters Ultimately, this is why this white Trump has been all my frustrations with Trump This is the one thing I'm so thankful to God for is that he's shown a backbone that Republicans haven't had for decades and and the backbone can go squirrely on us But he's shown and exposed in so many ways that the rest of the I mean we still haven't passed the save act We still haven't I mean there's all these Republican things anyways So let's let's get into this I've known you like I said on the last show the last interview I've known you probably since 2022 or something like that somehow I figured how we got in contact and then eventually You invited me to come and speak your 2022 not not age 22 we haven't gone back yeah, yeah since 2022. Yeah, yeah And and I've known I've met your family met your wife met your kids some of your kids not all of them and State at your house and so have a personal contact and relationship with you there But what is surrounding you and on on the interwebs is a number of controversies And those controversies some of them like when I had you on you know The the crazyest controversy. It's not even really controversy. It's just Democrats being evil But when I had you on the show people started messaging me this article from California because you are a cop in Newport Beach Yeah, and two counties to the north or something like that a deputy named Mark Fitzpatrick Was basically went to jail for fondling or raping a girl on duty or something like that Whatever the details were same name Mark Fitzpatrick two counties away And everything and of course I soon like it I just flip it to you and like hey, you know what's this about because if you just read the article It's just as Mark Fitzpatrick doesn't give any detail right and and I was on Facebook threads and people were sharing the article on Facebook threads Oh, Mark he's a rapist, you know, he got out of jail and came to Idaho kind of thing and And then I just text you is like yeah, that's that's not me of course and different different date different middle name You know all these distinctions and everything so very easily provable very quickly without even talking to you And I have gone on and and refuted it numerous times and some the same people that I refuted to Our I see them later on still sharing it around because they just have evil intent right that's right they're purposely trying to do that So even even when they're satisfied or they're never gonna be satisfied They just want dirt. They're gonna find anything that will stick to make me look bad To take the attention away or to put negative attention on And so they just they'd pulled up and and just post it and it's like these people operate in a world full of lies and deception And that's just how they operate and Somebody who operates in a world of truth can't imagine like actually doing that in the damage that it is and and you know It's when the 10 command bearing false witness again somebody. Yeah, it's pretty serious But they're just runs rampant all over right now. Yeah, and so I mean, obviously when that article was kicked over to me I was like I I know Mark and I know I met his wife. I was like I there's no category that could fit in my mind that this actually happened But the name was the same and people were sharing it and And so which I flipped it to you because I know you'll straighten me out real quick And give me the facts, but I mean you've been married for what 22 years 23 years Yeah, and so by the way that that guy who was arrested he was a sergeant LA county sheriffs and had a different middle name He's definitely a different age. He's about eight 10 years older than I am. So it's all all of it's there Clearly, you know unfortunate that he has my first and last name And so I think part of it part of the reason why this is happening is you also started Heterosexual heterosexual awesomeness month, right which the LGBT community loved Not so much. Yeah, and then and then of course They you started getting attacked from leftists and liberals talk about that for a second Yeah, and this actually first came up at that at that time a couple years ago when I did in June of 2024 instead of Celebrating homosexual month whatever pride month. Yeah, well I was like what are we gonna do at old states saloon that would be differing god honoring et cetera I thought about The sexuality that god designed and how awesome it is when it's when it's used properly and husband and wife and how great and Procreation and everything else and how so at a row sexual awesomeness month that we did it and it blew up and a lot of people got upset article ran right away pretty much an Idaho statesman calling me a bigot essentially in the title of the article And then people piled on in the negative, but then a huge huge contingency of wonderful people backed me up supported me said enough is enough keep going You know, let's celebrate this you know, they demanded the left demanded that I would not do that I said no, I'm going to celebrate this and then and then they said okay Well, if you're gonna celebrate this in June it's our month, but if you're gonna celebrate heterosexuality in June You also have to celebrate all of the other sexuality, and I said no, no, no, no And then so we doubled down and I did you know beers for breeders on Mondays and it went on from there And every time it was kind of blew their mind and they got you know getting on Fox with this and having some hilarious interviews on it But I was able to this I think a lot of your audience will like this In a lot of those interviews. I was able to give the gospel message Really cool really cool opportunity And so all right, so you do something kind of cheeky Of course the leftist explode And and you got your Facebook account shut down Because leftist would put it in LGBT groups and tell everybody go report this guy kind of thing. Yeah, I actually Um had a friend who lived a homosexual lifestyle Uh, Repented of it came out was married married now with children and he came in to Old States Luna did a presentation And he named it okay in the marketing. He called it homo no mo Okay, so yeah, that was what the no mo So that's what it was called and it really really upset a lot of people A put my my yeah, basically we And so they attacked you and all stuff so so sounds like so the first Time that that Mark Fitzpatrick deputy guy Got tied to you was actually during the almost oh, okay, yeah Yep, so I've been trying to explain this people for a couple of years now. Crazy. Yeah, yeah We got the you know, we we got similar charges In our community that we don't protect women stuff like that and and the charges just the lies just go and go and and and they don't stop um Okay, uh, and then everybody can find out like you you're just pretty transparent guy You put this on your website all the you know all the controversies and you responded to them on your website stuff like that On mark fitside oh dot com. Yeah scroll down to the bottom. There's a lot of FAQs there For the rest some of the things I know you're gonna bring up. I'll set this stage if you can So old state saloon is a brand I created after um yeah starting That we're a restaurant and we're all ages now until 8 p.m We do all kinds of events that are very different in eye-opening and eyebrow raising sometimes and they're the point of them is to foster good conversation and everything Online I developed a brand and a tone of brand that is pretty direct and brash and truthful and just throws it out there, right? And it's it's that it's that kind of uh and it's it's so it's a saloon owned by a Christian man who's speaking these things out right And so it's that kind of thing that causes people to pause and look and then Engage in conversation interact follow etc uh now So the the the me the person who behind this is me of course I create this but is that brand in tone exactly me no I don't walk around speaking in 200 characters or less you know I don't I don't throw out blunt things like that all the time It's a brand online and when you do that and you have you know now we have a hundred and something thousand followers for that one brand Um you get a lot of responses back some people are being upset by these truths like you're saying something like uh, you know Man as a man or woman as a woman just like blunt truth like that you're crazy crazy. I know offensive truth You're gonna get these responses and DMs and people attacking and everything and there's things going on in the news And sometimes I'll post because I've got contentious issue in the news going on Well, what you have today is I'm running for office people go back to or three whatever years and they're clipping stuff That's that's kind of like Nobody knows why it was stated or why the brand i behind the brand Typeed that out on that day necessarily they just pull these different things into A screenshot and then they send it around to everybody. Well, there's no there's you know What's the context and what's the reason? Yeah, right? So that's the first thing I would say is just keep in mind Like when we talk about you know LDS stuff or whatever The accusations about that is that there's a whole context around all that and and so we pulled out years later And makes it doesn't make as much sense the other thing that I would say is this the first time I've ever done such a thing and created such a brand yeah and trying to put truth out there and get good conversations and being bold and a little bit edgy And I am not a perfect person. Yeah, and so sometimes you you know, you make some mistakes Would I have said the same thing today the way I said it back then? Yeah, I would agree I don't think there's many things that I would pull back as far as the ultimate meaning of what I stated But you know you to speak you know in those terms from that brand is such a different thing than me speaking in real life to people If you look at me talking with people whether it's at LGBTQ pride event Or another another political or social warrior type of event I'm like a very patient kind person who's speaking to people were engaging in a adult conversation Yeah, basically right not a not a online social media type of conversation. Yeah, right right no and that the same thing happens to me. I do my show and and Or or Facebook you know Twitter messages Twitter posts and stuff like that and same, you know We they meet you in real person and but they've can construct it and largely I think the can the construct happens Because not just because what you say but because how offended people get about it and so they filled They feel the tension and so That's what they think of you in person is that they're actually allowing the pushback and the tension that comes from the pushback to affect how they think about me Even though they know me or or have followed me for a long time and know a lot. That's not true Okay, so I want to I want to move into the church thing because this is for Christians. This is the um You know the bigger the bigger e on the i chart for us. We care first about our relationship with Christ and stuff and and you you grew up a Christian Or did you become a Christian later? grew up Catholic yeah, long as I can remember um, but we were like a very I guess I don't know if this makes sense to people a very Christian Catholic family. There's a true like lot of Catholic families they just show that they don't really they're not really involved and they're not really dedicated But I guess with any denomination it could be that way but um, you know my mom actually we used to read the Bible And she would tell us Bible stories and we learned and everything and I remember from a young age doing that and from the Early's I can remember I had a pretty strong faith in Christ. Yeah, but definitely sometimes in my life where My sin issue was very much in front of me and I was on my knees, you know thankful for forgiveness and proclaiming Christ as my Lord and Savior for sure But as far as like knowing Jesus and knowing Um, I you know just knowing the basics and believing it as long as I can remember yeah, and then so when was your Transition out of the Catholic church into what evangelical yeah, it was like a big evangelical church Okay, um in the San Fernando Valley north Los Angeles County Okay, that was when I was about 1617 okay, around right around there. Yeah, and then Now would you kind of characterize yourself more as like a kind of macarthurite kind of John MacArthurish kind of Baptist or you know What would be your convictions now? So that would be several years in a church that was more like that um Or reform dish type of thing Uh, and then And then we would have today where I am at a point where I want to kind of relook at everything without um Man in my ear and really just look at scripture I think it's important to not um You know believe everything that you hear from somebody who is an expert or pastor or whatever else and really just kind of like put a lot of faith and trust in the open gods word First and foremost now that's not that doesn't mean that pastors aren't valuable and people aren't valuable It's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying it's like we the traditions of men We have to be careful of getting too caught up in them to the point that we're Getting off course or just subscribing to a belief and not knowing why necessarily. Yeah Well, and if you'll get the condition of the American church right now um uh Going back to scriptures Is is so central to the problem we have to go back We've gotten so off track That our our spiritual leaders our pastors our theologians um have um I think Created all sorts of problems in this world um in America particularly whether whether we're talking about like lack of courage and stuff like that But actual um, I mean, I think I think dispensationalism I don't I don't even know where you stand on the stuff But I think dispensationalism has been not healthy for America. I think in my Presbyterian world. We have this two kingdom Kind of theology more coming from like Escondito, Westminster, West um seminary um but like basically it's like The earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom are like two ships passing in the night by Shudder and no contact You know no contact sport here on earth And and so it's very kind of like a nostic view of the gospel and we're just kind of doing our best here to go to heaven Kind of thing versus like no god Jesus King Lord Lord of lords here and now and his kingship matters now Um for this word earth Um, so you got kind of this in kind of this um In Luther Luther was two kingdoms but very different than kind of the the modern two kingdoms that we have so Which is why I think a lot of the reform reformed them Doesn't touch politics won't get involved in politics is because that two kingdom theology Well, yeah, I think and then you have a lot of people who they don't know much about you know what you just Justice yeah, yeah, yeah, right right nor would they want to even they You know Take take a moment to even consider it and that's kind of where I'm at is like I just think that we need to be constantly learning Going back asking questions and that means being willing to look at a matter from the different angles If it's a new idea that you haven't heard before To not just shun it um and the cognitive dissonance of pushing that away simply because it's because you Because you didn't grow up or you didn't have time in that type of belief and you've Totally subscribed to another belief and would never give anything else Yeah, I'm even an opportunity. I'm against that kind of thinking. I think that we should ask questions and be willing to you I mean you learn more about what somebody else believes, you know And maybe it doesn't change your belief, but you're you can understand at least more where other people are coming from at that point Yeah, and I think well um So one of my problems with the Rhino party the Republican party is similar to kind of the The ecclesiastical issues among church leaders Whereas like Brad little doesn't want to debate with you Doesn't not understand like I understand that play he's the incumbent the third term incumbent Why would I want to debate with anybody? Why would I cause any controversy or give anybody an additional platform that I don't want them to have stuff like that I understand the reasoning behind Um, but even then Um, he hardly does any press conferences. He hardly talks to the people he hardly it's just all filter filter management of personality and agenda and It um in the same and so so there's no real conversations happening in the Republican party You know um, I um Uh A good example of this is um R Usfulcher Jim rash No, no, this is this is the Congress this is the Congress issue not a senator issue They all voted to release the Epstein files And then literally within like a month or something like that. So there's this there's this um Apparently Congress has this you know, whatever you want to call slush fund That goes to paying off Um People who have had some sort of sexual victimization by Congress Crazy it's unbelievable. Yeah, like and and I you know, I mean how honest is that fun if people just did women sleep with the congressman And then you know and then go and apply for the fund or you know like like they you know I mean, are they even verifying you know, whatever it is, but some sort of whatever sexual and propriety happens in Congress There's a slush fund to cover it if there's a lawsuit and Uh, I think it was um Who who proposed it, but it was brought to the floor To expose who had taken from the slush fund who had been um what congressman woman Had violated anybody and and what money yeah So people are just wanting transparency, right? Basically. It's like Epstein files for congressman right And and they all voted not to expose it themselves And so it's like Well, I want to have a conversation about that. I can't I can't talk about that with Russ Or or immediately on the bad guy can't even bring it up. I can't even bring it up our local party without someone crying foul And so um, we need to have if if we're really going to be a party of principle and truth We need to be able to have way better dialogue and stuff and so I would apply the same thing to the church largely Um pastors don't want to debate each other pastors don't want to have public conversations with each other pastors Everybody wants to pat each other's back and get along and everything and so um Uh That's a I think a real problem in the church is that one of the reasons why it's congregation is just um So untought and not discipled is because the pastors not showing them how to have real conversations with other leadership never think so um, I want to bring uh just kind of bring up this um She just lost it like real quick so so you were basically so you moved here from California And you helped planted kind of a John McArthur right kind of church Down in Boise area and So you were one of kind of the helping I guess founder planter guys Uh probably along with some other families and stuff like that and I had been going to the the sending church for about 10 years prior Okay, in California. Yeah, uh, it was eight years ago That we moved to Idaho and so I you know, I was not a part of the ministry team as far as like the actual Yeah, you know professional people. I was just a somebody that was a highly committed participant. Yep and helping Yeah, and so um you were you basically left that church last year so Um roughly was it last year sometime? Last year yes, yeah 2025 um, so you know it's 24. Okay, so you came to Idaho in 2017 18 18 okay help plant the church and then you left that church last year in 2024 and and so And one of the reasons why I wanted to have this shows because I just want to have some good dialogue and conversation I've already had this conversation mostly offline with you already um, but just want to be able to kind of Have a transparent dialogue with mark about some of the controversies um, uh, unfortunately some you know some of the controversies are explicitly not true like you're like the whole California deputy situation right and then some it's it's kind of a tango, you know like um There's there's truth to it in the sense that both parties are involved and things happen Now what happened is is what needs to be discussed so um your pastors um Basically kind of kicked you out in 2024 something like that correct And we'll get into all all the details and everything but I'm gonna read I'm gonna read the statement that the church apparently Um, that's pastors stated when you left or when they asked you to leave kind of thing. This is Far as I know this is what was stated when I was not there and this was stated to everybody On a Sunday before church like as church was beginning. Yeah, okay. All right, so um This next announcement is never enjoyable for a pastor to make But one that sometimes necessary for the purity of in unity of the church There are times where someone has to be asked to leave the church in order to protect these things As at least some of you already know our pastors recently had to do this We uh Have asked that I should have my glasses for this we have asked a Mark Fitzpatrick to leave the our church We asked him to stop publicly promoting events and ideas that were both divisive In quotes uh in in parentheses a threat to the unity of the church. So events promoting events that have been divisive and dangerous In parentheses a threat to the purity of the church These events include They list four things here a public public claims that churches like us who organizes a 501 c3 nonprofits are simply Compromising and need to repent that's divisive and untrue So that's one complaint against you the second one assertions that the Bible teaches the earth is flat That is also untrue and can be divisive The third a speaker implying that Jews so what I wanted the speakers. I guess at your old states saloon night A speaker implying that the Jews are the only Are the ones really in power and are destroying Christianity in the United States and then they say the elders say that's dangerous And then lastly number four a speaker claiming to have died and gone to heaven and spoken Jesus and Vincent back and in the elders notes on that That's also dangerous Mark expressed no intention to stop and defended these events as seeking truth But we believe this is a misguided notion of what the truth is and how to seek it Throughout this through out this process the pastors expressed our love for Mark our appreciation for his history and involvement in the church In our desire for him to repent That is still our desire we encourage you to pray for this also If you have any questions or concerns for this pastoral team We are available at an absolutely willing to discuss with you. We have nothing to hide want to shepherd you through this In any way possible as we go forward our pastors want to exhort you to avoid dangerous divisive ideas And those who promote them while this may not feel like the most pleasant announcement On a day we're setting aside for Thanksgiving. We are can also be thankful that God has given And has clear instruction on how to avoid these things. I encourage you to read The pastoral epistles first Timothy and second Timothy and Titus and consider the warnings here And you have some Bible verse there. I'll stop reading that that gives good context on there And now one of the things that I remember years ago my pastor said Proverbs 18 17 is my life verse And Proverbs 18 17 says here's here both the side of the story Here you know here here one side and then make sure you're here the other side before you come to any conclusion So I you know I I have this Pastoral announcement them. I haven't talked to the pastors. So I haven't heard their side Um, but I've but I've heard your side and I'm uh, I'll just uh, you know, I guess just kind of um actually let's just go one by one Through this So they're charging you let's just kind of answer these one by one And the first charge against you is they're saying that public churches public Public claims so they're saying you've made public claims That churches like us organize 501c3 nonprofits and are simply compromising any repent Um then they're saying that in parentheses. They're saying that's divisive and untrue Um, I guess you want to maybe talk through that first one When I grow up I want to work for a woke company like super woke when I grow up when I grow up I want to be hired based on what I look like rather than my skills. I want to be judged by my political beliefs I want to get promoted based on my chromosomes when I grow up I want to be offended by my co-workers and walk around the office on egg cells and have my words By HR words like grandfather peanut gallery long time nassie no candem When I grow up I want to be obsessed with emotional safety and do workplace sensitivity training all day long When I grow up I want to climb the corporate ladder just by following the ground I want to be a conformist. I want to weaponize my pronouns What are pronouns It's time to grow up and get back to work introducing the number one woke free job board in America red balloon dot work Sure Um, I guess it might be good just to explain how this came about a little bit. Yeah, give some context. Oh 100% Yeah, so basically this was going in right before Uh, hetero sexual loss in this month in 2024 and I was doing these events. I was really Uh, disenchanted with the direction our church was going as far as being totally uninvolved with politics and culture wars and I think most people probably watching the show realize that politics has become truly good You know, there's good and evil battle going on spiritual battles going on etc And it's because I really feel strongly that the church's absence in this for decades is the reason why we're looking at a situation where we are supposed to be You know, the world wants us to celebrate men half naked dresses women reading books to children and libraries So so this is the reasons because the church has been uninvolved. It's for me for years I've been saying we need to get way more involved we need to get more involved and that's just not That's the church doesn't want to do that because when you get involved in those things There's you know controversy has come up and people ask questions etc Um, but I think that's I think that's an obligation. I do think it's uh some churches are guilty of a sin of omission By it can be in completely uninvolved in things like that So that's my attitude of going in and keep in mind at this point 16-ish years. I've been at this church 10 from the sending church six now With this church and very very very connected with everybody at the church And people like they look and see what I post and they follow me and they will share it and everything else so We had gotten to this point. I Was really disappointed with the life groups that we were doing um You go to a life group, but you can't talk about all these things And I don't think that that's right. I think we should be engaging in meaningful conversations about what is going on in the world today discerning between good and evil as it says In hebrus 5 at the end of hebrus 5 we should be discerning between good and evil that and that's that's their conversation But with other believers we should be having not allowed to do it stay on the topic And the topics at the life groups there's questions and the answer every week to these questions is I need to read the bible more Uh, I need to keep an eternal perspective. Yeah, and it's the same it's just the same thing And so I was getting frustrated so I wanted to take that night of the week and start doing something at Old State saloon Where we would bring in somebody they would teach on a topic and the live audience would be able to engage in conversation asking questions and getting into a discussion about it before The person comes up and speaks every time I go up and I usually tell people the full gospel but or or a short version of it And then I also say we're here to seek truth. Okay, we should be seeking truth and discerning between good and evil And so I am not telling you is what I tell everybody I am not telling you that this person is telling you the truth I'm telling you that we need to ask questions to determine if we think any of it's true Yeah, it could be true interesting information Etc. It's to prompt the conversation. Okay, uh, and I think that's good practice for people to get back into Uh, especially in a place where we're actually sitting in the same room Uh, and looking people in the eye So those are the events that I had scheduled and we had doctors come in early that we're talking on vaccines And we were talking about some COVID things and we're talking you know, we we were talking when did you open this loon? This was uh 23 Okay, yeah, so so for that you know for this period of time that we're going and we we had people come in Like way before Epstein files were popular to talk about Epstein files Like that and this is like oh wow, he's he's going all he's talking about child trafficking They're talking about all these things and it's like it's kind of like we don't talk about that stuff Right, but we should be if we're going to engage and be the light uh in this dark world and so Um, we we're doing these events. I have I've got more events scheduled and it's gaining in popularity Okay, suddenly I get an email out of nowhere because I hadn't talked to the head pastor in a long time Uh, and he says I see that you're doing these events Uh, they're divisive and I'm telling you to stop doing them Uh, and then at the end of the letter he said I'm seeing your wife on this letter So that she knows the ramifications this can have for her and your family. Yeah Uh, and this this is there's been no meetings they had never come to an event They had never watched an event. Yeah, they never asked me to say let's get coffee I'd like to hear about what your goals are here with this nothing like that. Yeah, it was an email that said I need to stop doing them and they're divisive and And and basically threatening my wife's relationships Essentially at the church threatening that we may not be allowed to go there anymore As a way to try to pull me back into into this position where I'm going to be like yes, I'll do whatever you say At any point in time the reality is is that I know my heart I know that I am with these events. I am certainly not causing to try division, you know to cause division in the church I'm trying to have people ask good questions and have good conversations I'm also introducing people who are outside the church to Christ because I stood up there and talked about Christ a lot in front of the public When we're doing these things So it that's what we were doing that was the the the part that led up to this we get to the first topic that you mentioned Oh, so so it's a 501c3. Yeah, the 501c3 thing I had a pastor coming in Uh, and he's gonna talk about the how he believes the church should not be under a 501c3 I feel He was a pastor that pastor came in he was a pastor that came in yep, okay Um, and I feel I do feel that way however that doesn't I've I've attended churches that have a 501c3 since then Like I don't feel like it's such an issue that I can't be part of that body or something like that I just feel generally speaking because of the I guess attitudes surrounding the 501c3 501c3 not necessarily in and of itself. Yeah, but the attitude around it is oh, we don't get involved in Such and such yeah, we just do the government tells us we just do what the government tells us and the reality is what a church is doing is they are at the beginning their inception They are willfully submitting themselves to the jurisdiction of an evil government And giving up some of their rights in trade for money, right? I mean that is basically what's happening there And so I do I wish the church would not do that there's actually Other ways to have tax advantages and not and not limit your rights and do that there's different there's a different way of doing it I think most of our churches in our denomination don't do 501c3s when they set up the church I remember so I went to our Our seminary training program here and we had we read a whole book on taxes churches and pastors I forget what the book is but it's just it's all it's just a basically a book on taxes and churches Yeah, I'm really helpful and it talks about all this yeah, but and it's that attitude though you go back to that percentage of voters They're showing up. It's that attitude is the reason why we have such a low percentage of voters showing them Yeah, if I met with a pastor the other day in treasure valley and he's eager to build You know something that would he thinks can ultimately bring 40 to 70,000 voters just in the group of pastors in the treasure valley Because they're gonna get active in getting people to show up for the polls right and that's you know several years down the road But that's a great goal because we would never lose an election at that. Yeah, right right right so This pastor came in and spoke at your saloon and is he the one that said Oh, what was it things that really bothered them? Oh That they at churches should repent from this yeah, so I don't remember calling it a sin I don't I but I said churches should repent meaning turn from it I think church's should turn from the 501c3 and the whole attitude around it of not getting involved yeah in politics They didn't like that Okay, and then so But if you're saying repent you're saying it's in I mean you can't disconnect repentance So go back to my my original statement is that it's it's some churches I'm not saying everyone just because you have a 501c3. It's yeah, I'm saying agree you are guilty of the sin of omission because you are Not wanting to do this you're not wanting to engage in the battle of good versus V evil that's going on in the world and just bringing people into a bubble Uh over here and not talking about the real issues that matter when people go out that's that's a big problem Did the pastors ever ask for your clarification on that? I so we only had one meeting Yeah, as a result of this there was no like why don't we set up 10 you know 10 meetings or you can meet with the different pastors and we can go over different things each time I was there 16 years. Yeah one meeting and they said we want you what should leave Okay, so you didn't have a chance to No, I think we did go over all four of these issues in that meeting quickly with all three pastors. It was one hour I know yeah, we're basically taking one hour to determine that somebody who's been here 16 years in big part of the church Uh needs to leave Okay All right, um, and then number two here assertions that the Bible teaches the earth is flat Are you a flat earther? Uh, no well, so here's the thing is I was having an event with somebody coming who was teaching that yeah Okay, so he has verses that he would argue Show a like you know whether it's firmament and then the the way that The earth was laid out and the different verses that he has that indicate that I think they also if you just read them on their value That they are would also indicate what he's saying, you know what he's saying and suggesting does that mean that that's the case No, it doesn't mean that it could be metaphorical. It could be whatever. There could be a lot of explanations for it Uh, what I do know though and this is where I definitely stand is that I do not trust NASA So it's a two trillion dollar space agency That tells us that there is no creator Uh, there is no god They were started by Nazi they had Nazi beginnings. They have a lot of satanic symbolism throughout a lot of their numerology and everything that they do They are big fans of transgenderism and LGBTQ and they are basically this they are a trust the science You know with trillion's of dollars behind them. Yeah, and just right off the bat when you say there's no creator I'm not I'm not gonna trust you. Yeah, that doesn't mean that Everything they're saying is not true. I'm just saying that at all either I'm just saying like I'm not gonna trust the science anymore. I'm gonna question the science basically You know, especially since covid and they're saying trust the science right with trillions of dollars behind it Same type of thing. No, I'm not gonna just trust the science. I'm not gonna trust Fauci Uh, and trust the experts. No, I'm gonna question the experts And I'm gonna discern you know between a doctor Who is getting a bonus to tell me to get vaccinated or wear a mask and another doctor Giving who's a Christian and giving up their entire career that they worked so hard for to tell me not to get vaccinated I'm gonna probably discern between those and go with the person who's giving up their entire career and risking that you know So that's where I'm at I don't I don't believe in flatter theory there isn't even a flatter theory I think it's super interesting to talk about different ideas and how NASA may be wrong on or not telling the truth on certain things Um, but I don't I do not have there is no there is no complete that I'm aware of flat earth theory So you had a speaker come at old state saloon talk about flat earth theory And I was at that time putting posts out trying to get somebody to come in and debate You know debate them So the vent was gonna be initially a debate or trying to make it a Yeah, and nobody would take the debate nobody would show up to debate this guy Yeah And so he ended up doing a couple a couple different nights maybe two or three I'm not sure Um, but all on that topic and it was right in the middle of and I had him scheduled before I even knew I was doing heterosexual Asanas month, but the bar was packed and there's this guy talking about Which again, and you leave it over for Q and A at the end I enjoy talking about that. There's another theory that we're on a globe And it's it's but it's not moving and everything moves around it The geocentric and I think these are interesting things to talk about and I'm willing I'm willing to look at them and say Hey, let's look at this and chat about it. Yeah Um, and yeah, I brought this up with you offline before my my one concern here would be I don't think everybody does deserve to be platformed um, and I think um That if if we and we do this I do this we do this all time um It's one thing to platform someone at your conference that our fight laugh east conference which we do And there's another thing to have someone on my show And I interview them and you know kind of almost debate them going right challenge back thing Um, it's it's a very different thing to give someone a stage versus coming under show and having a conversation um, and I and so I'm very um thoughtful of Of how that happens I would say this is kind of a mix of those two things because you have the presentation and then you have that discussion After two and a afterwards also yeah, which what I'm asking people to check, you know Put this person in check respectfully, you know, if there's anything that you want to check Um, but I'll get the other thing too is Uh, this is my you know first back then this is my first time doing such a thing Yeah, I'm just getting into this doing this and you know, how about a a Let's go grab coffee and sit down and talk about platforming and what that means and everything else from your pastors Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, how about that conversation first besides, you know, how about you leave our church? Yeah Yeah, uh and number three a speaker implying that the Jews are the only ones in power and are destroying Christianity in the United States And this is the the Jews are the problem with the world kind of So this one was scheduled never happened um, he uh, we never had him come And it was canceled, but he but they use this as a point against you yeah Well, he was scheduled so at this time the youth scheduled this person Oh, okay, and so he is a a former Jew Jew up grew up Jewish and had a lot to say about The Jewish religion and the Talmud is a Christian hour or okay And so he had a lot to say about that and you know, it's kind of like I grew up Catholic I have a lot of critical things to say about the Catholic church because I know it better. Yeah, yeah Most people do uh and you know, I don't mind getting in those adult conversations where we respect each other and talk about those things that are concerning um and But other people they find these things offensive if somebody wants to come and talk about these things and I think we need to be in a world where people are less offended by Topics and ideas and learn how to just Emotionally mature in a mature emotional way have you're asking a lot you're asking a lot Like we don't need to punch each other and get in fights and scream and threaten each other's lives if we disagree. Yeah. Yeah Um Last one a speaker claiming to have died gone to heaven spoken to Jesus and and been sent back So did that actually happen he came was whoever this was. I don't I don't even know who he was But some you had a speaker that kind of um talked about that experience. Yes. Yeah, he came um Uh and he told his story he was booked by um my My booking manager person uh he said he knew of him or knew him great guy And uh really wanted him to come out and tell the story and then I was like sure it sounds good We put on the schedule and they had a big a big problem with that. Yeah so um And so basically Uh Your side of the story is that your elders only met with you really once about this in person Correct and in that same meeting It was basically it sounded like they already came to inclusion that you need to leave the church if you don't change your mind about these things Yeah, it was a very confrontational meeting. Yeah, it was like they came in with the objective of wanting me out um and i just that's just absurd to me it should have been and and by the way there were three pastors two of them I have never really sat and talked to for more than a you know Whatever a handful of minutes and it was just the one that i've only ever really had deeper relationship with yeah And you know there's so many options at that point you could say hey I've tried chat with you whatever how about this other pastor meets with you for a certain amount of time Can you guys meet over these topics of course? I would be like of course i'll meet over that stuff Yeah, yeah, i'm happy to chat about it I'm happy to answer questions about what my goal is and what up we're planning to do with these events and everything and um, you know this was completely away from the church is my own thing at my own place So that god never mentioned the church by name or anything like that um, but yeah, it was one meeting and they the goal of the meeting It seemed like from the mirror moment they walked in the door was to get me to decide to leave Then they said you disagree with us about so much. Why don't you just leave the church? And i said well, I've been here for 16 years I'm here for the body of Christ And also we may disagree on a few things about how we look at how to handle stuff going on in the world uh, but we agree about christ, you know and christ crucified and our sin issues and the Backed that we should go out and and tell everybody about that to be evangelists, you know There's that's a pretty good foundation to start with and Why not work through this type of thing and but they just they wanted me gone You know at that time I was gaining in popularity. There's a lot of people asking questions Yeah, they're Have this mission to bringing all this money to build a mega church building and they just didn't want to deal with me I think that's like my best guess. I don't I don't really know It doesn't make any sense Um, the decision making that they made and in the time that they did it You know, and a lot of people were upset about it 20 something families ended up leaving the church over it Over you leaving? Yes, because they wanted to know what the sin issue is and they couldn't They couldn't really convince them there was a sin issue that that was going on Yeah, other than he won't obey us like you need to obey us essentially and not do these events at your restaurant Essentially your bar. Yeah, so Uh We talked about this offline too my my one concern Then would be our Have you found a new church? Are you submitting to a new church authority? Um, uh, you know, are you placing yourself under church authorities? He boosts talks about um You know what it what's happened since you I mean because I don't even know if this like really extreme occasion is just they asked you to leave it's that I think they never use that word Yeah, um, but I read that No, it's like this is an extreme occasion or just as you leave It just brings up a whole new topic that would be interesting to talk about for two hours, but I'll just say briefly I've noticed in the church, you know the in addition to the problem of not getting involved in culture wars and politics Uh, the church censors people who want to step up and speak truth or look into something or whatever else They tend to put this pressure on them by way of you know the same way that the parents of the blind boy or young man that was healed They didn't want to comment on it because they don't want to get thrown out of the synagogue. You remember that story? Yeah, so basically people feel a social pressure and they're not going to speak truth If it goes against what the pastor might do because they don't want to be thrown out of the synagogue They don't want to be thrown out of their church. Including mom and dad. It's a country club, right? Yeah, so it's the that's the country club part of it where it's like I belong here and I'm the social part of it I don't want to lose my social friends, right? So there's that pressure and a lot of times people step up and they're starting to look into something or ask questions or speak truth or whatever They get that pressure put on them and now what effectively has been done I call this a silent excommunication because some of these people are gift they had their gift of the spirit is something they're trying You know to do and they're gifted in a certain way by God and they're stepping up to do that and then they get pushed down and say no Don't do that. Yeah, and this this is part of what makes weak men, you know In church, they're not stepping up to be who they're called to be and instead they're censored and set back It's it's a silent Excommunication they then just participate by showing up and not Being somebody who's fighting for for the Lord, you know truly out there fighting And so I made it to the point where I wasn't going to be silently censored or Whatever I basically pushed the issue and and to the point where they had to tell me that I legally was not allowed to come back I'm the one who decided to do that. It wasn't them. They just said we want you to leave I said well, I don't want to leave. I'm part of this church body. I don't want to leave And so they would never say you must leave they wouldn't say that until I until on the phone You know the next weekend I took my family to church. They saw me there They called me three days later on the phone said we want you to leave and I said are you saying? I cannot return to the properties that we were saying because I wanted them to say that because I'm just tired of all of all of the pressure and everything and and Non assertive wording. I guess weak wording that happens. Okay. I'm trying to be very generous here in my come In my in my My comments here, but I'm tired of it all and it's just it's weak is weak and I we need churches that have strong leadership and people aren't afraid to say real words Yeah, that have meaning and so I they did and I'm basically brought them to that point They said yes, you may not return to the property. Okay. Okay. So Are you have you found a new church? Are you looking? You know what's your what's your current status? You know as I as I you know think about you know one of the one of the things that we need to see From a Christian in office is that they understand that yeah, I have an office Yeah, I have a civil office, but I also submit to God in his church too and versus so many politicians or The either two things are just kind of renegades. They don't have any accountability Or they go to a church that doesn't actually hold them accountable like Joe Biden or whatever you know and and particularly conservative circles That happens to so yeah, what's cool? It's been a journey since then It's as you can imagine I know You would have the same problem. It's difficult to find a church for people who are outspoken and have a following of people follow them Especially on these type of issues Reason being is because whatever whatever issue mark disagrees with the pastor on people are gonna go to the pastor and say well Mark says you know this and then the pastor says I know I've talked to Mark about that and we just have a Disagreement on that we know way we're gonna agree on every single thing. Yeah, and it's whatever we you know He still goes here. We can fellowship and he's got the fundamentals and the important things right Uh, and I would say I disagree with the pastor on this, but I think this is a great place. I want to be here I like the teaching etc Yeah But the first few times it's no big deal, but when you get asked when he gets asked a hundred times it starts to get you know things and then there's another issue and another you know, it's so Um, so you've got another church is Kind of run into some right you your presence being there is causing the pastor problems and And keep in mind I have six children too. Yeah, and so we all from believers. Yes We went to a church for almost a year maybe six months to a year I mean, then it just wasn't we just it wasn't right for us. Yeah, no, I don't need to get in the details But it takes a while to find the right church And then we were in the for for a period of time. I was just I'm pretty Determined not to travel more than a half hour to get to church I really wanted to be local because the more local it is the more involved you can be and you see these people and live your life with them every day I just wasn't finding something that fit right For us and so I was trying to lead my family to write things so we were meeting with some families at my house Um, so these men I have meetings with them. They we hold each other accountable but Ultimately wanting someday when we find the right situation to get there So we've been going to another church Um, that we really like and but there's not like a full on commitment yet But we've we did home church for a while now we're going to this other church not full-time commitment I am definitely I'm longing to get to the point where I can submit myself to to pastoral authority When I say yes, this is definitely authority. The right fit for you guys and all of this up. Yeah, they trust him um super helpful Uh now Putting all this together. How's your family doing through all this um running for governor church controversy stuff? Well the church things over today if you interviewed uh, I know all of the everyone in my family Now sees we are very thankful that we don't go to that church anymore Because it's very evident to us all the reasons why yeah um and So we're glad that happened even though it was painful at the time yeah, you get into running for office here The last few years of doing everything it'll stay saloon and all the enemies I've created uh that are on the far left that threatened to kill me and kill my family and burn our buildings down etc That has essentially prepared me for uh this run for governor so my family's used to it So what's happening now is a bunch of lies and Embellishing and everything else about me and drug dragging my name through the mud But it's nothing abnormal for us. Yeah, and so That's why when I looked in November nobody's running against him. It's clicked to me That's that's why god had me go through all this the last couple years was to prepare me to run for governor So we've got pretty thick skin as far as that goes and so my wife you know when I first thought about it She was against the idea she said wait till the kids are done. Yeah, yeah To their older oh yeah, oh yeah But after praying about it for a month on the same day we came to the same conclusion that we not you know Not only was she she was just like full speed ahead you need to run like we need you need to do it We need to get you there. Well, I don't have any more time because we actually have to go on our next event But I wanted to talk to about the Brad little calling all your voters racist stuff you can look online for the videos Brad littles Uh very disappointing, but um, thank you so much for coming on cross-politic Thank you for having this transparent conversation on the controversies and everything and um You know I pray gods blessing on you and your family and be able to get things Figured out the church and pray guys blessing on your run for governor and mate what happens May 19th? Pray it pray it uh pray we we see a good victory May 19th. So thank you so much. Praise God. Thank you Yeah, well, thank you guys make sure you guys share the show especially these next couple weeks here in Idaho Let your friends know about mark and in Share the show so they can kind of hear in his his response to some of the challenges and controversies that sub surrounding them and everything Like I said, I've known mark personally and his family and so we'd really get appreciate you guys do your best to support him Because it really is a feasible victory May 19th. So again, thank you for joining cross-politic and we'll see you um next week